Who is the Christ?
In the East if someone says “God and I are one” , people respond “Good, its about time you finally realized that”. But in the West, we are shocked and clamor for the idiot to be put to death.
The story of Jesus and his mystery teaching about our divine identity and unity was complicated by the messianic expectation. For centuries people had looked for a world savior, for a messiah, for one who would end suppression and slavery. In the 6th century BC, many illumined ones had appeared: Zoroaster, Buddha, Mahavira. Lao Tsu, Confucius and Pythagoras.
By the first century, both Jews and Gentiles, including Virgil, were predicting the emergence of a world savior. Jesus struggled with this concept in his desert temptations, and emerged victorious after 40 days of sensory deprivation, when he said “Get thee behind me, Satan, my kingdom if not of this world!”
His kingdom would be the knowing that God dwells within each person. Other voices had joined him, as when Socrates came to fulfill the philosophical school of the Sophists and instead destroyed it with dialectical inquiry. Nietzsche came to fulfill a certain strain of classicism and reconstructed it beyond all recognition. Marx came to extend Hegel and instead turned him upside down. Jesus, the rabbi, came to fulfill the law and the prophets and proceeded to cause a schism that the world may never hear the end of.
Jesus taught that the indwelling God - as God-Son, Son of Man, Christ or Logos-- is the unique expression within us of the universal parent-being. Christos, or the anointed one, is the one who realizes who he or she really is. Like the Buddha, the Christ is the awakened one. Jesus concern with the indwelling of God is especially made clear in John and in the Gospel of Thomas where he said “ There is a light within a man of light and it lights the whole world. If he does not shine, he is in darkness. If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.” The genius of every child must be brought forth. Children do not blossom not because of misbehavior but because they are not allowed to become who and what they are. Jesus goes on to say that he found people to be asleep and drunk. “I found them all drunk; I found none of them thirsty. They came empty and blind into this world, and would leave the same. But for the moment they are drunk. Let him who seeks continue seeking until he finds. When you come to know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will realize you are sons of the living father. Until then, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty.”
Jean Houston, Godseed.
The story of Jesus and his mystery teaching about our divine identity and unity was complicated by the messianic expectation. For centuries people had looked for a world savior, for a messiah, for one who would end suppression and slavery. In the 6th century BC, many illumined ones had appeared: Zoroaster, Buddha, Mahavira. Lao Tsu, Confucius and Pythagoras.
By the first century, both Jews and Gentiles, including Virgil, were predicting the emergence of a world savior. Jesus struggled with this concept in his desert temptations, and emerged victorious after 40 days of sensory deprivation, when he said “Get thee behind me, Satan, my kingdom if not of this world!”
His kingdom would be the knowing that God dwells within each person. Other voices had joined him, as when Socrates came to fulfill the philosophical school of the Sophists and instead destroyed it with dialectical inquiry. Nietzsche came to fulfill a certain strain of classicism and reconstructed it beyond all recognition. Marx came to extend Hegel and instead turned him upside down. Jesus, the rabbi, came to fulfill the law and the prophets and proceeded to cause a schism that the world may never hear the end of.
Jesus taught that the indwelling God - as God-Son, Son of Man, Christ or Logos-- is the unique expression within us of the universal parent-being. Christos, or the anointed one, is the one who realizes who he or she really is. Like the Buddha, the Christ is the awakened one. Jesus concern with the indwelling of God is especially made clear in John and in the Gospel of Thomas where he said “ There is a light within a man of light and it lights the whole world. If he does not shine, he is in darkness. If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.” The genius of every child must be brought forth. Children do not blossom not because of misbehavior but because they are not allowed to become who and what they are. Jesus goes on to say that he found people to be asleep and drunk. “I found them all drunk; I found none of them thirsty. They came empty and blind into this world, and would leave the same. But for the moment they are drunk. Let him who seeks continue seeking until he finds. When you come to know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will realize you are sons of the living father. Until then, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty.”
Jean Houston, Godseed.
posted by Dr. Joe at 6:21 AM
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