Thoughts on Christianity (no pushing)

[Kalamos]

..........

[Bill Ryan]

--------

Once the dogma, authoritarian control structure, misuse of the religion for political ends, and spinning of Christ's original, real, message are all stripped away -- there's a great deal of value there.

But Christianity as most people understand it, and what Christ actually taught 2000 years ago, may be two very different things indeed.

[S-L]

"It is the state that Jesus acquired that you must earnestly desire.... Regarding the religion that has been established around him, it has little to do with him." -- Secrets of Heaven (http://secrets-of-heaven.com/)

[Anchor]

May I offer this passage. It is channeled (http://www.llresearch.org/transcripts/issues/2011/2011_0402.aspx)and this, strictly speaking is not the correct place, but it seems to me relevant to your thread - and perfectly complements what Bill says above - once you strip most religions down to the essence, they become excellent resources for seeking.

In a few short words, the entity being channeled does a neat job with Christianity and Buddhism. What is discussed is the essence and not the surrounding layers of dogma and "interpretation".


The query this evening has to do with the one known as Siddhartha, or the Buddha, and what he has to teach about spiritual enlightenment. We find in order to approach this in a way which may be more helpful, we would take some time to speak about the two strains of religious thought that are encapsulated in the teachings of the one known as Jesus the Christ and the one known as the Buddha.

Both entities, Jesus and Siddhartha, offer tremendous resources to those who are seeking the truth. They have different areas of appeal but that which they hold in common is powerful. To them both the seeking of the Creator, service to the Creator, time spent in the company of the Creator are all in all. To both, there is no priority greater than spiritual seeking. Both of them lived lives that indicated this preference, this concern, and this devotion.

There are two different styles of seeking when gazing at these two powerful and poignant beings. To one, knowing that his kingdom was not of this world, he nevertheless entered into the world with all of his heart and soul and nothing in his heart but love for all he saw. As he entered in, so his physical body was destroyed by that which he took upon himself: the suffering of the world. All suffering was taken into the self and accepted. That it destroyed his physical body was not that which was important to the one known as Jesus the Christ, but rather that he do his father’s bidding. “Not my will, but thine,” were his words.

The Buddha saw the same world and knew that he was not of it or part of it. Consequently, his path did not move into the open heart and take all of the suffering of the world into the self. Rather, he allowed the things of the world to fall away as they seemed to want to fall away in his view. Over the period of a lifetime he was able to investigate each path in the world and conclude that that was not his path. The principle of “neti-neti, not this and not that” [1] comes into play here. Thusly, as the Buddha allowed all to fall away except the seeking for the one Creator, the entity no longer was concerned with the suffering of the world except to pray that all suffering might cease. There was not the attempt to take on the suffering of the world; rather, the attempt was to allow the suffering of the one known as the Buddha to fall away and as suffering fell away from the Buddha, so it would fall away from the world.

[soleil]

err..since ive read enough esoteric/occult literature to know that Christianity is based on (a skewed version of) everything that was already in place prior; and then (people) just gave it a different name.

personally, my religion is nature. and in addition to that....by taking everything else that ive read (so far) about the universe, theories of creations, us being souls, law of one, higherselves, and not to mention my own connection to higherself and OBE...that is to me, a profound basis for being, to me; that i feel why do i need any religion? including Christianity.




But Christianity as most people understand it, and what Christ actually taught 2000 years ago, may be two very different things indeed.

exactly. i agree on this.

[soleil]

ya but so can buddhism?

[greybeard]

A lot of people need the support, sharing and fellowship to be fond in a religious establishment.
Christianity serves many well and some not so well.
The path of Enlightenment is a some what solitary pursuit.
Its rare, apart from online here, that I can discuss the teachings of Ramna Mharshi or even Eckhart Tolle.

Chris

[Sebastion]

Sorry Calamus, but your statement saying that the Christ Consciousness is the highest that man can reach is in error and untrue. There are three levels or frequencies of Christ Consciousness and the same holds true for Buddha Consciousness.

Man can achieve full god consciousness which is beyond Christ Consciousness as well. That is what full Cosmic Consciousness is about. Christ isn't going to save you from you, only you can do that hence looking to Jesus Christ for salvation is a fallacy of religious dogma.

I cannot capitalize the term "god consciousness" for it is a lesser term as far as I am concerned. It is more properly and rightfully termed the One Consciousness.




making Christianity your own can be a great path for anyone seeking such a thing. God as creator god imminent, his spirit as the energy of this world all of it, and Christ as the highest consciousness potential that we can reach as man. this is the Trinity and easily accepted one at that.

sin and grace are equal to karma. through the emotional transformation that Christians experience as salvation a transformation can be had that can propel the soul toward a goodness in this life that will mitigate much of the karma, that is eliminating sins from one's life and increasing blessings through His grace..

worship increases one's grace and blessings if done from the right attitude in the emotional world.

prayer is transferring that energy and also drawing it to oneself in one's life through the law of attraction in the law of radiation? (I forget the proper term)

you simply choose to believe in these things I said above, take what you want from the Bible as it is mostly meant to be read figuratively and personally in my opinion ( esoterically ).

you don't have to go to church but you'd be surprised at how nice and sweet people are at certain modern churches. non-denominational in multi denominational churches. you will hear testimony from peoples whose lives have changed, and that is that their karma has turned around.

taken to an extreme, austerity and goodness in any life and under any path can lead one to a liberation from reincarnation which is hell in this life.

at the same time there is a middle way once that level is reached the person is in communion with the spirit and can do as he will in certain ways and regarding certain laws of life.

all of what I said can be correlated to other religions.

these are just my thoughts this early morning today on Christianity. no pushing

[S-L]

"Christianity and all the other major religions have fostered a bridge between cultures and between races. These are not simply religions of one tribe or one group. They are religions for all of humanity. This is not to say that everyone can adhere to them, follow them or receive them, but they bridge the normal boundaries that seem to separate people and cast them apart. The religion of forgiveness, the religion of reunion with the Divine, the religion of human development, the religion of compassion—all of these tremendous movements in the evolution of religion in the world were fostered by the establishment of the world’s religions, which have brought the world to its present state."

[Sebastion]

Pure spiritual man is already part and parcel of the All In All and that is as super as it gets. The problem on earth with mankind is that mankind is busy being "material" man and is hampered greatly by "their mind", "wetico". Prior to learning those terms and what that's about, I would have called it "social consciousness" which is all about not knowing and being too busy with the material world and man made religion.

The "way" is always within you and always was. I prefer using my own words rather than posting what a half dozen gurus have said.

If I were to refer to anyone, I would refer you to the writings of Walter Russell. My experiences in consciousness very closely resembles his.




Ok Sebastian. which of these consciousnesses liberates man from the cycle of reincarnation do both of them?

¤=[Post Update]=¤

one could say when a man reaches Christ consciousness is no longer a man but a Superman and from there he may reach God consciousness not as a man but a Superman

[Camilo]

Christ is a state of consciousness, not a being.

[soleil]

it seems that there are many paths to learning consciousness, and i believe that religion is a distraction from the truth or maybe just a crutch. perhaps there can be a point here on earth where we can clarify and point to the path most straightforward, to/for those who get lost/seem lost; without essentially inviting them to a religion to lighten the way - as though it is the only way.
perhaps it is a way for some people (Im not saying that it isnt), but if you can critically go as far back as you can in religious texts, to the source of what was really being relayed.. maybe we can enlighten those to a bigger picture, than just one printed in a book that we like to believe more than the others....

maybe religion is also just poetry and allegory.

[Sebastion]

We are all the "sons and daughters" of the One, The All In the All. It can be no other way, yet "their mind", "wetico" would prevent you from realizing that. Therefore it is your task to see beyond it and thus, save yourself from the delusions and illusions. If your attention is always outside of you, you will never find the way within you.



also Sebastian. within Christianity God and His Son Christ are as 1 and we're talking about Christianity here at least I am.

¤=[Post Update]=¤

of course we can correlate things as you please as we please

[ginnyk]

Interesting thread. For me, the one thing I could never reconcile is the doctrine of original sin. It is the belief that because of the sins of Adam, we are born in sin, are sinners and will remain in sin and darkness until we are redeemed or saved by the grace of Christ. We are lost until another being or savior chooses to offer his grace provided we have confessed to enough sins to be accepted. In my understanding, this is very different from a spiritual being choosing to experience physical life.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_sin

Gin

[Robin]

Christianity and organized religion, to me, have so perverted and twisted the very essence of what it means to be spiritual to the point where I shudder to hear anything that has to do with Christianity.

Because of its corrupted messages, doctrines, and rituals, I literally cannot even use the word "God." I prefer to use the words "Creator, Providence, Source, or All That Is."

I was a staunch atheist for eight years of my life because of the corruption of organized religion. I didn't even know that there was another option and one can be spiritual without being religious.

I think that this is why there are still so many atheists who are on the other extreme of the spectrum. They long for something more, and know in the back of my mind that there is more to life, but the corruption of spiritual teachings have done their job by separating, confusing, and upsetting people to the point where we now live in a convoluted world. They don't know that spirituality is a beautiful and logical concept once dogma has been removed.

Sure, Christianity does provide some good teachings, but atheists can just as much be moral and have a service-to-others outlook than those who consider themselves spiritual. I think that it is quite offending to suggest otherwise.

Labels--whether they be religion, diet (vegan, vegetarian), race, etc.--are all hazardous ad continue to create disunity among the Human Race.

The sooner we get down on our knees and worship somebody, then sooner we place ourselves into servitude.

I like the work that Bill Ryan does, and am thankful for his work and the fact that it help me wake up, but it doesn't mean that I'm going to think of him as being superior and call myself a "Bill Ryanist"!. I don't understand why people even look at celebrities in a higher light and beg for autographs. They are people too but have taken their skills and wisdom and accomplished a large task. That's all. Anyone can do great things if they dedicate their time.

I'm done ranting now. ;)

[Tesla_WTC_Solution]

Vs.19 “ Yet in the church I would rather speak five words with my understanding that I might teach others also than 10,000 words in a tongue.”

Hey there, Calamus!

I really respect that you are willing to post this -- short and sweet, too, which suggests that you welcome discussion.

My parents were "sort of" Christian; i.e. my mom prayed with us, lived a good life, took us to church a LOT, kids' programs;
but at the same time, my supposedly Christian dad was skipping on his duties, not working, being mean, etc, drinking every day, cussing/molesting people...
he didn't seem to believe that he was saved.

My father was more worried about Hell, actually, than living a good life, it seemed.
He had his good moments, even gave what you might refer to as the "Plan of Salvation" to some of his friends.
But he didn't live like a Christian most days.
He eventually died of a drug overdose (unless it was foul play).
_____________________________________

1996

I went to Mongolia before the big mining boom brought all the recent Chinese influence there.
I was a homeschooled teenager and my relatives were teaching English at the time.
Of course, we had the spiritual aspect in mind, and were successful in that aspect thanks to some circumstances which might have been set up by the Old Man Upstairs...
We had a lot of people turning over a new leaf that year compared to many other years.

Our secret was, we treated money like a tool and not a master. We were less concerned about computers for the school and stuff like that than "do these people even have a Bible yet". Although we were probably among the poorest families in the effort, I felt that our efforts paid off well.
It's not a situation where people should take credit, though. I don't even want to say more about it here, because A.) I agreed not to talk about it and B.) they are leading better lives than I am with better teachers now.
____________________________________

1997

I had a terrible dream about insanity right before I left Mongolia.
It was the dream about the tower, the holy of holies inside the tower, and no light coming from the lighthouse.
I saw the smoke inside the tower where the holy of holies would have been.
I woke up with a terrible feeling, that a terrible evil had made a victory somewhere.
For the next 10 years I had little to no interest in the Faith at all.

When I came home from Mongolia, the family fell apart because of some things done by my dad.
He had molested me and a cousin and we told the family about it right before I went overseas.
He became a great source of stress in my life, even to the point where I was considering murder.
I couldn't think of a way for us to escape the world he made.
The irony is that I hated his mom so much over all of this, that I let this hatred destroy my desire to work in Mongolia ever again.

_____________________________________

2008

I had a weird experience in 2008. I felt like my Kundalini awoke.
I was seeing the future and it was very frightening.
Something inside kept directing me back to the book of Revelations.
It was like some manic force was driving me to study that book.
But in my capacity to understand, I didn't know why that was.
Everyone thought I was completely crazy -- yes, maybe I was...
but truth is truth.

-------------------------------------------
2011

After seeing a Jungian analyst for a little while, who happens to be a Christian minister also, I realized that Jesus wanted us to be thinkers and not just feelers.
The truly balanced minister has accepted both of his or her sexual aspects and speaks from both seats of knowledge. We are more than the sum of our parts.

My great struggle in life is the establishment of a work schedule and a gentle demeanor. And I have no great desire to serve someone who enabled a system that hurt me sexually. However, I am sure Jesus himself would have helped me whip my dad out of the house, now that I think of it, or told me where to go at least, had he been there.
But he wasn't there physically, and I wasn't strong enough to stand up to my father in a meaningful way. By the time I started talking back, I was in the military and said some horrifically hurtful things to him. I said he had no purpose, that when our grandmother died, he would have no job.
I feel partly responsible for his suicide, even if it was an accident. He drugging hard and feeling bad about himself.

WELL...

I feel that I don't fit in anywhere suitable in society and have no work to do that won't probably be stolen by someone else, which is not a very Christian attitude.
The grandparents who got me into going places for Him are too old and senile now to really care or be bothered.

If you want to pray for me and my family, I guess a good prayer would be to pray that we get help in regards to my son's autism.
None of my good Christian family wants to help us with him. They send me to places like Mongolia to "minister to strangers" and when i get home and have my only child,
and he happens to suffer mild retardation, they don't want any part of it.

I wonder why Christians are afraid sometimes to help with disabled people. Another reason to be bitter I guess, and should stop thinking about it.
Our American society expects people to get up and go to work. It's not exactly what Christ taught, because people skipped work just to be able to listen to him for a few minutes. So our gov't is able to take advantage of this confusion, i.e. some people willing to work and some not, and the societal labels seem to be what stick to people.

Like, outside of church, I am not a Lamb of God with a Sweet Little Autistic Boy.
I am just a bi-polar bitch with a soon-to-be criminal record and a disabled kid that I probably deserved to have,
etc etc etc.

__________________________________________________________________________


Something lately has been bugging me to go back to church; it was 5 years ago and it's back... LOL.
I tried to explain to my shrink, the churches where I live are big and scary. It's not like Seattle where there are a few little white shacks still lying about.
These churches are all HUGE, made of stone, stained glass, etc. whole nine yards of BS.
I somehow doubt that a voice like mine can pierce that heart of stone, if you get my meaning.

But I could try. There could be people there who agree about some of the autism things and could help my family.
As you read above, though, I don't have a lot of trust for pastors and fathers.

______________________________________________________________________________________

That's why this place is so cool -- the moderators aren't sexual predators, they don't wave their secret society memberships in our faces,
and they seem to value men AND women (and kids I hope! don't buy into population control).

______________________________________________________________________________________

WHAT IS IT?

Christianity was supposed to be about getting rid of notions of material self entitlement and re-assuming spiritual self-worth and effectiveness via living a humble yet exemplary life down here. Once everyone is on the same page and sharing with each other, almost any decent system can succeed.

Christianity as it was practiced back in the founding days (post-Christ) was very much like Communism, actually, except that there was religion, too!
That could be one reason that modern Christians have a hard time reconciling their beliefs with the gov't...

Christians are supposed to live together and share -- not hoard and hide and make fun of the less fortunate like so many Americans do.

No wonder so many Christians take the Moses option and leave the camp, put their tent outside, lOL

[skippy]

Christ is a state of consciousness, not a being.

Body of Christ-- a collective being ... Manafest right here even on Avalon as Christ consciousness

The Christ that was, is, and shall be. So be it.

[skippy]

The body of Christ embodies all and everything. It's the universal man, the all-inclusive Consciousness. It's impossible to escape Christ, while you are part of his body. You are (part of) 'it'. Luke 22:19: "And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me." Reconcile with Christ; Reconcile with All.


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/Anatomical_Man.jpg/461px-Anatomical_Man.jpg

The zodiacal man - 15th century painting - Les Très Riches Heures (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tr%C3%A8s_Riches_Heures_du_Duc_de_Berry)

[markpierre]

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Once the dogma, authoritarian control structure, misuse of the religion for political ends, and spinning of Christ's original, real, message are all stripped away -- there's a great deal of value there.

But Christianity as most people understand it, and what Christ actually taught 2000 years ago, may be two very different things indeed.

That's exactly right. Any even superficial examination of the great Christian mystics reveals an entirely different and personal experience than is revealed in dogma and rhetoric. Like any discipline, you have individuals who practice it and let it's mysteries unfold internally in them, and those who protect their material human agenda by parroting principles and enforcing them on others. The difference is night and day. Alive and dead in Jesus' terms.
Is God within you, and an energy to be revealed and understood and released through practice and experience? Or without you, that has to be agreed with and appeased through enforcement of rules and laws.
That's not to say that the latter can't lead one to the former. 'This doesn't work' is the usual route we take toward what will.

[ghostrider]

The message is more important than the messenger ... Live rightly , be honest , be kind to your neighbor, have forgiveness , patience , longsuffering , be at peace , strive every day to be a better person , most can agree with that , it's when they say my way or the highway or burn in hell that gives me problems ... where is love in join me or Die ??? According to the plejaren the same message has been sent seven times to earth , each time it is corrupted by power hungry men , changing names and making themselves rulers by the order of god ... Man made the person more important than the message ... according to the plejaren , Immanuel was falsely named Jesus , and a religion was set up in his name, when all along he was trying to teach following the spirit and not the traditions of men ...

[Tesla_WTC_Solution]

I read somewhere that JRR Tolkien converted CS Lewis

aka the greatest imagination in our modern culture inspired someone to be a Christian

Hmm I don't hear much from Hollywood except from Mel Gibson on this subject

[thunder24]

have you read the appocalypse of peter?




the thing is that there are so many so called Christians in this world they need to have a bridge to come to a true understanding of the nature of reality in the nature of their very souls that they believe are saved by only declaring one thing when they are not living the life ... living the life needs to be a 24/7 thing. no submarine Christians or believers allowed into heaven ... this goes for any path in my opinion

me either, but was pointed this way...
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/apocalypsepeter-mrjames.html

And my Lord answered me and said to me: 'Hast thou understood that which I said unto thee before? It is permitted unto thee to know that concerning which thou askest: but thou must not tell that which thou hearest unto the sinners lest they transgress the more, and sin.' Peter weeps many hours, and is at last consoled by an answer which, though exceedingly diffuse and vague does seem to promise ultimate pardon for all: 'My Father will give unto them all the life, the glory, and the kingdom that passeth not away,' . . . 'It is because of them that have believed in me that I am come. It is also because of them that have believed in me, that, at their word, I shall have pity on men.' The doctrine that sinners will be saved at last by the prayers of the righteous is, rather obscurely, enunciated in the Second Book of the Sibylline Oracles (a paraphrase, in this part, of the Apocalypse), and in the (Coptic) Apocalypse of Elias

so whats the true reality?

peace

[xidaijena]

Quite agree with you, dear Calamus.:o And here I like to share more about Christianity and Buddhism:

"Buddhists believe in reincarnation, the possibility for human beings to live several lives. In Buddhist circles, we do not use the word incarnation very much: we use the word rebirth. After you die, you can be reborn and can have another life. In Christianity, your life is unique, your only chance for salvation. If you spoil it, then you will never get salvation. You have only one life.

Buddhism teaches that there is non-self, anatta. Christianity clearly teaches that a Christian is a personalist. Not only are you a person, self, but God is a person, and He has a self. The Buddhist teaching of emptiness and no substance sounds like the teaching of no being. Christianity speaks of being, of existence. The teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas speaks of the philosophy of being, la philisophie de l'etre, the confirmation that the world is.

There is compassion and loving-kindness in Buddhism, which many Christians believe to be different from the charity and love in Christianity. Charity has two aspects: your love directed to God, and your love directed to humankind. You have to learn how to love your enemy. Our Christian friends have a tendency to remind us that the motivation of love is different for Christians and Buddhists. There are theologians who say that Buddhists practice compassion just because they want liberation; that Buddhists don't really care about the suffering of people and other living beings; that they are only motivated by the desire to be liberated. In Christianity, your love is grounded in God. You love God, and because God said that you must love your neighbor, so you love your neighbor. Your love of your neighbor springs from the ground of your love of God.

Many people, especially in Christian circles, say that there are things in common between Christianity and Buddhism. But many find that the philosophical foundations of Christianity and Buddhism are quite different. Buddhism teaches rebirth, many lives. Christianity teaches that only this one life is available to you. Buddhism teaches that there is no self, but in Christianity there is a real self. Buddhism teaches emptiness, no substance, while Christianity confirms the fact of existence.

If the philosophical ground is so different, the practice of compassion and loving kindness in Buddhism and of charity and love in Christianity is different. All that seems to be a very superficial way of seeing. If we have time and if we practice our own tradition well enough and deeply enough, we will see that these issues are not real.

First of all, there are many forms of Buddhism, many ways of understanding Buddhism. If you have one hundred people practicing Buddhism, you may have one hundred forms of Buddhism. The same is true in Christianity. If there are one hundred thousand people practicing Christianity, there may be one hundred thousand ways of understanding Christianity.


In Plum Village, where many people from different religious backgrounds come to practice, it is not difficult to see that sometimes a Buddhist recognizes a Christian as being more Buddhist than another Buddhist. I see a Buddhist, but the way he understands Buddhism is quite different from the way I do. However, when I look at a Christian, I see that the way he understands Christianity and practices love and charity is closer to the way I practice them than this man who is called a Buddhist. The same thing is true in Christianity. From time to time, you feel that you are very far away from your Christian brother. You feel that the brother who practices in the Buddhist tradition is much closer to you as a Christian. So Buddhism is not Buddhism and Christianity is not Christianity. There are many forms of Buddhism and many ways of understanding Buddhism. There are many ways of understanding Christianity. Therefore, let us forget the idea that Christianity must be like this, and that Buddhism can only be like that.

We don't want to say that Buddhism is a kind of Christianity and Christianity is a kind of Buddhism. A mango can not be an orange. I cannot accept the fact that a mango is an orange. They are two different things. Vive la difference. But when you look deeply into the mango and into the orange, you see that although they are different they are both fruits. If you analyze the mango and the orange deeply enough, you will see small elements are in both, like the sunshine, the clouds, the sugar, and the acid. If you spend time looking deeply enough, you will discover that the only difference between them lies in the degree, in the emphasis. At first you see the difference between the orange and the mango. But if you look a little deeper, you discover many things in common. In the orange you find acid and sugar which is in the mango too. Even two oranges taste different; one can be very sour and one can be very sweet.

From "Going Home: Jesus and Buddha as Brothers" by Thich Nhat Hanh, Riverhead Books, an imprint of Penguin Putnam, Inc., 1999. Thich Nhat Hanh, a rare combination of mystic, scholar, and activist, is a Vietnamese monk and one of the most beloved Buddhist teachers alive today. Poet, Zen master and chairman of the Vietnamese Buddhist Peace Delegation during the Vietnam War, he was nominated by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., for the Nobel Peace Prize. He is the author of many books, and lives in France. "

Read more: http://lifechanyuan.org/bbs/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=6138&extra=page%3D1

[Johnnycomelately]

I think this comparison of Buddha/Sidhayarta to Christ is faulty. In my understanding, Christ is a brother, like Siddman, but with enormously greater responsibilities. What I heard is that his “It is done/finished” signalled a profound shift in all timelines. An imperative, of the earlier call, “come home”.

Since then, as I understand it, we are all going to end up back in the/our original ‘land’. So-called Heaven, where creation by any and everybody is unencumbered by selfishness.

Word is, that before that, things were going down the tubes so to speak. The intent of the darkness has always been to destroy the whole. So even if Buddhy worked the old system well, the way things were going he would have met the same dissolution as the one we call our original creator.

Kind of wild that a Child, like us, would have that measure of consequence in the progression of the whole. Now I’m thinking of the other kingdoms, as far as I know. Minerals, plants, critters. I guess it’s a cue to our power, in the scheme of things. We all have great responsibility.


May I offer this passage. It is channeled (http://www.llresearch.org/transcripts/issues/2011/2011_0402.aspx)and this, strictly speaking is not the correct place, but it seems to me relevant to your thread - and perfectly complements what Bill says above - once you strip most religions down to the essence, they become excellent resources for seeking.

In a few short words, the entity being channeled does a neat job with Christianity and Buddhism. What is discussed is the essence and not the surrounding layers of dogma and "interpretation".


The query this evening has to do with the one known as Siddhartha, or the Buddha, and what he has to teach about spiritual enlightenment. We find in order to approach this in a way which may be more helpful, we would take some time to speak about the two strains of religious thought that are encapsulated in the teachings of the one known as Jesus the Christ and the one known as the Buddha.

Both entities, Jesus and Siddhartha, offer tremendous resources to those who are seeking the truth. They have different areas of appeal but that which they hold in common is powerful. To them both the seeking of the Creator, service to the Creator, time spent in the company of the Creator are all in all. To both, there is no priority greater than spiritual seeking. Both of them lived lives that indicated this preference, this concern, and this devotion.

There are two different styles of seeking when gazing at these two powerful and poignant beings. To one, knowing that his kingdom was not of this world, he nevertheless entered into the world with all of his heart and soul and nothing in his heart but love for all he saw. As he entered in, so his physical body was destroyed by that which he took upon himself: the suffering of the world. All suffering was taken into the self and accepted. That it destroyed his physical body was not that which was important to the one known as Jesus the Christ, but rather that he do his father’s bidding. “Not my will, but thine,” were his words.

The Buddha saw the same world and knew that he was not of it or part of it. Consequently, his path did not move into the open heart and take all of the suffering of the world into the self. Rather, he allowed the things of the world to fall away as they seemed to want to fall away in his view. Over the period of a lifetime he was able to investigate each path in the world and conclude that that was not his path. The principle of “neti-neti, not this and not that” [1] comes into play here. Thusly, as the Buddha allowed all to fall away except the seeking for the one Creator, the entity no longer was concerned with the suffering of the world except to pray that all suffering might cease. There was not the attempt to take on the suffering of the world; rather, the attempt was to allow the suffering of the one known as the Buddha to fall away and as suffering fell away from the Buddha, so it would fall away from the world.

Rupert Sheldrake with 3 other guys. I am 10:00/1:16:42 in here, and it’s starting to sound interesting. Sorry for the no title+description, could not lift/copy text.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLCVqGOmOE0

[Anchor]

Rupert Sheldrake with 3 other guys. I am 10:00/1:16:42 in here, and it’s starting to sound interesting. Sorry for the no title+description, could not lift/copy text.

The video is on Rupert Sheldrake's channel and the title is "Religion Without Belief, with Dr Philip Goff and Paul Kingsnorth"

Thanks for posting this, it was a very interesting listen.

[Gomba]

The old testament is a historybook written or manipulated by the cabal. The vengeful god there who ought to be feared, along with the sacrifices makes this obvious in my opinion. The purpose of a sacrifice ( of a living being) is to generate an immense amount of horror and pain energy that then can be consumed by a dark entity that is compatible with those low frequencies. Therefore by definition, an entity that asks for sacrifices can not be a positive entity.
The old testament is all but metaphors, and a person there usually means a race/people/tribe often times of ET origins.

The new testament has been created by the Flavian dinasty of Rome, with the help of the jewish historian Josephus.
https://postflaviana.org/introduction-flavian-origins-theory-christianity/
They most likely took the teachings of a Judean spiritual master (dead sea scrolls?) wheather called Jesus or not, and twisted it to their needs.
Back when the new testaments plot was unfolding, there was a huge struggle between Rome and Judea but they erased this from the bible. As well as they made the teachings promote obiedience among other things.
I believe reincarnation was in the bible for a while but they took it out eventually.

Now there are some obvious signs that display the backwards nature of todays Christianity but we are all so used to them they dont really stick out. Or do they?
Jesus is most often depicted on the cross, tormented. Now imagine if you had a beloved, holy master and he got tragically hanged by bad people. Would you start to depict him everywhere being hanged? And if was killed by guillotine, would you depict him everywhere being executed like that? Would you start using a guillotine as you beloved masters symbol, and wear it in your neck?
Also, the ceremony when they symbolicly eat Jesuses flesh, and drink his blood .... I mean its self explanatory.

[pueblo]

I feel bad for the Gnostics.

[pueblo]

There is a quote at the very start of the book The Immortality Key by Brian Murareskuis;

"If you die before you die, you will not die when you die".

This quote is taken from the Greek Sanctuary of Eleusis and it triggered in me a sudden flash of realisation; in Christianity we are told that we must be 'born again' (be born after we are born) when in fact the complete inverse is true; that we must die before we die.

Almost everything is inverted!

[pueblo]

There is a quote at the very start of the book The Immortality Key by Brian Murareskuis;

"If you die before you die, you will not die when you die".

This quote is taken from the Greek Sanctuary of Eleusis and it triggered in me a sudden flash of realisation; in Christianity we are told that we must be 'born again' (be born after we are born) when in fact the complete inverse is true; that we must die before we die.

Almost everything is inverted!

Reading the Gospel of Philip today I came across this passage...

"Some people mistakenly say that we must die before being resurrected. If they are not resurrected while they are still alive, they will not gain anything by dying.

Hence the saying, “Great is baptism.” Those who receive baptism will live."

- Gospel of Philip

[XelNaga]

Organised religion is the same as convid "vaccine".

If "they" say it is good for you, you can be sure it's bad for you.

No one needs religion. Just be kind, be good, always work for the greater good and always aim to advance yourself. Take some time every day to sit in silence. Spend time in your true home on this planet, the nature. That is all the "religion" one needs.

I often find it ridiculous to discuss religion, for just one reason: we all know how big of an influence it has on people. We all also know that "they" have full control of our society: the media, the healthcare, the education, the entertainment industry, etc. How can someone truly believe that "they" have no control over official, organised religions?

I'm dumbfounded when certain people know that "they" control every aspect or our society, yet they still go to church and pray to yahweh/jesus/allah to save them?

[Ernie Nemeth]

People want to belong. To understand they belong they must know to what they belong.

Questions about origins fester in the human mind if they are not satisfactorily answered.

The answers can be ignored for a while but everyone faces their own mortality at some point. It is there that the questions become far more pertinent.


Like so much in our world there are degrees or levels or thresholds of understanding. In the more superficial levels the question of religion seems rather ludicrous. The obviousness of the ruse is blatant.

On deeper levels however, the answers to those pesky questions overrides their superficiality.

Something happened on this world long ago that changed the narrative of the history of Earth. The obvious obfuscation of the nature of that happening involved gods. These gods interacted with early humanoids and altered their evolution.


The stories these gods told and the recounting of those tales through the ages has obscured the actual history. We can only guess at the details. Religions are the institutionalization of the various versions of that ancient story.


God is as close as the next thought, unhindered.

God does not save what God created. God frees creation to experience the next greatest adventure, and the next.

God does not make mistakes. God does not choose sides. Reality is God's creation.


There are none equal to God.


If it is dwelt on just a little bit it should become obvious that God is not at war. There are none who could challenge God's reality.

God is not at war.
We are.

When there is talk of the battle of good versus evil, it is not God versus the devil that is referred to, it is humanity versus evil.
The good is in humanity.
The evil is in humanity.


The battle of good versus evil is the battle for the hearts and minds of mankind.
Christianity is one of the tools employed, both for offense and defense, in that battle.
It is not the only one.