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Special Report ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Part One • Part Two • Part Three ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo THREE QUESTIONS:
CONTENTS:
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo INTRODUCTION This is the second part of a three-part special report on Jesus and Mel Gibson's movie "The Passion of the Christ". In Part One I shared my thoughts about this important topic. In Part Two and Three, 34 NHNE readers share theirs. Because of the length and repetitive nature of many of the letters we received, I have decided to break with tradition: instead of sending them all out via email, I will only be sending out those that I felt were the most succinct and/or compelling. The rest have been posted on NHNE's website. Part Two, then, is this report, while Part Three has been posted online at this address: http://www.nhne.com/specialreports/srjesus_poc3.html In addition to reading the letters that were received in response to the Jesus/POC Report, I encourage you to visit two special sections on the "In Search of Jesus" website. One section contains the personal stories of three prominent Jesus scholars (Marcus J. Borg, John Shelby Spong, and Walter Wink): http://www.insearchofjesus.org/personalstories.html The other section contains three stories detailing personal encounters with Jesus <http://www.insearchofjesus.org/encounters.html>. Two of these Jesus stories were written by long-time NHNE readers, Linda Decloedt and Helena Rocca. While not written in response to the Jesus/POC Report, I have decided, for reasons which will become apparent when you read them, to include them here. If you pay close attention, you will discover that Jesus is a living, breathing, often exceedingly important topic for many of our readers. You will also discover that there are almost as many visions of Jesus as there are writers -- AND that there are LOTS of sources that claim to have a direct pipeline to him. There is the Jesus of A Course in Miracles, the Jesus of the Pathwork Guide Lectures of Eva Pierrakos, the Jesus of the Book of Urantia, the Jesus of Barbara Brodsky and Aaron, the Jesus of The Masters of the Far East, the Jesus of the Shroud of Turin, and, of course, the Jesus of the New Testament, which comes complete with a myriad of conflicting translations and interpretations. There is the Jesus of Mel Gibson, Edgar Cayce, Rudolf Steiner, John Shelby Spong. There is a Jewish Jesus, a Catholic Jesus, and a Jesus who sojourned in India. And, of course, there is the Jesus of visions, voices, dreams, near-death experiences, and other inner revelations and personal encounters. While I don't think it is possible for all these visions of Jesus to be correct, especially since many of them flagrantly contradict one another, it's clear that they are providing sustenance to those who have embraced them -- which might be something the real Jesus, whomever he is, would applaud. And while my core questions about Jesus remain unanswered, these letters bear witness that some kind of presence -- a presence that is tenaciously linked to the first century Jewish teacher/healer/rabble-rouser we've all heard so much about -- is still very much alive, well, and walking among us... ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo 1. (This letter removed at the request of the author.) ------------- 2.
JESUS IS A UNIQUE BRIDGE CONNECTING EACH PERSON TO GOD Your thoughts on Jesus were very interesting, and I am very interested to hear what your other readers have to say. As for me, I come at it from a different angle -- brought up in an atheist household, I have never read the Bible and have only a very general idea of what Jesus is "supposed" to be about -- turn the other cheek, the meek shall inherit the Earth, that sort of thing. But did he really say that? I'm pretty skeptical about the Bible, seeing how political the compilation of it all was, and I know that the early Christians used to believe in reincarnation, until some committee made it heresy. The Holy Blood/Holy Grail angle (he ended up raising a family with Mary Magdalene in the south of France, founded some European royal bloodlines) makes more sense to me than that he died on the cross. Anyway. The point is, despite much spiritual searching and many interesting experiences (astrology, past life regression, channeling, numerous initiations, Reiki, circle working, meditation, etc., etc.), Jesus was not much more than a name, along with Buddha, Lao Tze, etc., etc. -- until October last year, when I was in a hotel, far from home, sleepless and stressed out, and I had the very clear feeling that he was there with me. I don't have much intellectual baggage around the idea of Jesus Christ, but I had a very strong personal feeling of his presence, his love, divinity and compassion. And I got the very clear message that he is a unique bridge connecting each person to God. The sense I had was like a kind of transformer, stepping down the energy to the human level. The point is that, of course you can go on a spiritual quest, look deeply into yourself, try and heal your wounds, attain enlightenment, but at the end of the day he is still there, and he is endlessly patient, because he understands the human condition so well, and he can touch your heart and connect you directly to God -- if you let him, if you surrender to him. I guess that is why the Christians say you have to surrender to Jesus and accept him as your lord and master. I can understand that now. I've met a few masters in my life, in both physical and non-physical form, and I have to say that Jesus is one of most potent, and most easily accessible. No need to meditate, no need to do anything much, just set aside the ego for a moment, acknowledge your feelings (especially the painful ones) and admit that you need his love, and the love of God. It's a very heady feeling, like I said, very potent. I can really see why the Christians talk about salvation. And on the other side, I can see what sort of an effect this feeling might have on someone who doesn't have much other spiritual/personal growth type of experience. It would be very easy to get swept away and think that this energy, as wonderful as it is, is the only path, the true path. It is very difficult to be discerning and step back and say, "This energy, this being, Jesus, did not create Christianity, he wasn't trying to start a religion, and who are these people who are using his name anyway?" I can imagine he'd be a bit slow to come back to Earth again, seeing what people have done in his name. Another thing I don't really understand is the whole crucifixion thing. I really don't see why it was necessary for him to sacrifice himself for us. When I felt his presence, it was a very positive message -- he can save us by his love, his compassion, and his energy -- the power of his love is so enormous that he can melt your heart, he can change your entire perspective on life. I think that the suffering he endured deepened his compassion, just like the suffering each of us has endured makes us deeper (unless it is too much, and we just shut down, but even then, hidden depths are formed), but part of that suffering was just his way of convincing us that he really does understand what it is to be human. My theory (just forming now, really) is that the Christian religion uses the crucifixion as a sort of way to express the enormity of what he is and what he has done for us, just by his energy Being and the fact of his coming to Earth. But because the church does not want to say that each of us can experience Jesus directly, and feel the miracle in our hearts, they have to externalize it in some event two thousand years ago, and say that is the important thing -- but it isn't; the important thing is that he is still here now, he still hears our prayers, intervenes in our lives. It's pretty crude, I think, to say that he died for our sins, it forces us to "admit" that we are imperfect and that we need Jesus. The truth is that we are imperfect and that we do need Jesus, but there is nothing to force us to this conclusion -- only our own need for love, and our own need to forgive ourselves for everything we have done on this Earth. So, to sum it up, I think that Christianity adds an unnecessary element of spiritual coercion, if you like, to what could otherwise be a wonderful awakening to something -- and someone -- much larger than ourselves. Sorry this is all a bit rambling. Does that make any sense to you? If you want to republish this, please do, but I'd like to remain anonymous. This is all very personal! ........... [Editor's Note: The very last lecture that Eva Pierrakos did presented a view of Jesus very similar to the one outlined above. For more information, see the links below. --DS] Pathwork
Lecture #258: Pathwork: NHNE
Special Report on The Pathwork Guide
Lectures of
Eva Pierrakos: ------------ 3.
I BELIEVE YOU WERE CYNICAL FROM
THE BEGINNING I, too, saw "The Passion of The Christ", but unlike you, I wasn't bombarded by Christians with New Testaments. I walked into the theatre with an open mind. The difference between you and me is that I believe you were cynical from the beginning. Your report sounds desperate to prove Him wrong as The Savior which He is and perhaps you don't want to face His sufferings as being so violent because it's difficult to believe He suffered so much for our sins. Which is of course the whole point of His suffering. It wouldn't be pretty; it might have been worse than what you saw in The Passion. It seems from your article that the one thing you DIDN'T do to seek Him out was to STOP seeking and to just pray for Him to show you all you need to know about Him. I, too, was cynical and searching until my own conversion when I called out to Him. Some of those people you quote as being experts on the life of Jesus, the Bible, etc., are really not great writers or thinkers. I have read some of their writings and have come to the conclusion that no human is fully capable of understanding the mysteries of His life and death, so why not go to The Master Himself for guidance? I am at peace now because I reached out to Jesus in the way He taught -- by amending my life, seeking holiness through holy living and prayer in a world that's so noisy and loose -- it's difficult, but do-able. Fasting is another way to get closer to Him. If you pray and fast He will reveal Himself to your heart. I am proud to be a Roman Catholic despite the sins of some members, but if we truly look at ourselves we will realize that we are all sinners on Earth. Our goal should be to know Him personally while we are here and sometimes that means being quiet enough to let Him in. The Sacraments of the Church, conversion and prayer are what will lead anyone to Him. I suggest you spend some quiet time in front of The Blessed Sacrament in adoration. It will clear your mind as His presence in that sacrament is an unbelievable healer of any skepticism. After many years wandering around with theories, info from various sources, etc., I found the true path. Ask Him. He's waiting for you. ------------ 4.
FABULOUS WRITING,
INSIGHTS,
AND
READING Gee, David, you really outdid yourself this time. Fabulous writing, insights, and reading. Thank you. I did a commentary on all this too, though it's not even close to being as thoughtful as yours. If you'd like to check it out, it's at: http://chetday.com/passionofchrist.htm EXCERPT:
------------ 5. "MOM,
JESUS JUST CAME TO MY ROOM" I too have had experiences with Jesus. Or, at least with someone who, on the surface, is Jesus. My first experience was when I was about ten or eleven. I was going through a particularly rough time in my life and I had seemed to hit bottom. I prayed and prayed, while lying in bed, and after a fairly long time a Being appeared to me. He was entirely of light and was in the form of what I considered Jesus to be. He held his arms out and I knew I was okay, and I would be looked after. That experience probably started me on my spiritual path. Although maybe I was already on one, since I had been praying fervently for a while. After, I went upstairs to where my Mom was watching TV and I told her, "Mom, Jesus just came to my room." "That's wonderful", she said, "Now please, go to bed." Like any good parent she had her priorities straight. I have meditated and prayed pretty intently all my life and have had many experiences. At some point I decided most were just experiences and not to pay much attention to them. Lights, beautiful sounds, angels, and all the rest seem neat, but for me they weren't life changing. The Jesus experiences seem to go beyond that and ground me in a way the other experiences don't. Over the past few years I have had a series of dreams in which Jesus comes to me and answers questions, usually. I have an alternative health practice and I often struggle trying to help certain clients, or understand some conditions. Jesus has answered some very important questions for me. In the dreams he always appears standing right beside me, to my right. Usually my clients are in front of me, as though we are standing watching them as you would at a party. They aren't paying attention to us. In the dreams Jesus speaks almost curtly to me. He often points something out that I should have noticed, but sometimes he tells me something that would be hard for me to know. If this is Jesus he is a nice guy, but a little abrupt. For some reason I never look at him in the dream. We just stand side by side talking to each other looking at other people. I always wish when I wake up that I had just turned my head and had a look at his face. I have developed my own system of pulse-taking and in order to treat a disease I first have to identify all the little blips and squiggles on the pulse that is unique to that disease. Then, I match the disease with medicines that have the same pulse characteristics. So, for example, the disease of heart-ache has the same pulse pattern as does chocolate. So, chocolate, in small enough doses is medicine for heartache. Black tea and daydreaming, a huge factor in many heart conditions, are compatible. Black tea is medicine for chronic daydreamers, and also for many people with heart problems. Too much black tea actually exacerbates those conditions, by the way, in the same way that a half a chocolate bar helps with heart-ache but eating a whole box of chocolates makes the pain of break-up worse. The more benign the substance, the more you can take and have it be medicine. The less benign the less you take. Some have to be taken homeopathically because of their toxicity. A number of my clients have HIV. I found the pulse pattern of the disease easy to discern. It is very clear and nearly the same in every person I have tested. However, I didn't have any herbs in my arsenal that would help. Testing herbs is laborious and not too pleasant. I smoke them because that gives an immediate effect I can feel in my own pulse. But it is hit or miss testing herbs as to what the pulses will show. And it really throws my own pulses out for awhile after testing three or four herbs. Jesus came to me in a dream, my HIV clients were also in the dream and we were watching them walk around and talk. He said, "It is Black Seed you're looking for." And I said, "Oh, Black Cumin Seed, you mean." And he said, "yes". Then I said, "I guess other black seeds help, too. Black mustard seed, and poppy seeds." He said, "Yes, they will help, but it is Black Seed that will cure them." And that was that. The dream ended. I resolved to get some black cumin seed and test it, but put it off for a bit. One of my HIV clients, and the one who taught me about the disease came to see me and I told him about my dream. He got really excited and searched through his brief case. He pulled out a sheet on Black Cumin Seed. The essay on this herb identified it as a very important herb from the Middle East, used extensively in biblical times. The essay said in biblical times it was known simply as 'black seed'. Which is how Jesus referred to it |
