Monday, August 6, 2012

WHAT PISSED JESUS OFF?

"Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time?"

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People have been trained to think that Jesus was a totally mild mannered being that never showed human emotions. In fact, this is not true. He did not dwell in an ivory tower or have his head stuck in the sand. He was in the world, okay, not of it, but he saw things that really pissed him off. Through his indignation he taught. He pointed out when people were blinded to truth; he disliked hypocrisy; was not fond of those who took from the poor to fatten their own pockets; really couldn't tolerate dogma; slammed those who called for violence; and definitely did not like those who thought they were superior to others. By pointing out the ill of humanity and society (darkness), he was able to create a brighter light.


Positive thinking is wonderful but also woefully inadequate as the only tool to create your reality. Yes, it would be nice to see the positive in all things, but it can be necessary to see the negative in order to understand the positive. La-la land is not a good teacher. It is often through harsh lessons that we learn the most. Remember the Prodigal son? It was by going out and experiencing ALL that life was about that earned him a higher level of awareness. Those who dwell in ivory towers may understand the theories, but is only through experience that the theory becomes kinetic.


"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith; these you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel! ... Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.

But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter, and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are not on the side of God, but of men."

And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons; and he would not allow any one to carry anything through the temple. And he taught, and said to them, "Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations'? But you have made it a den of robbers."

Jesus got very frustrated with His disciples. Matthew 17:17 reads, “Faithless and perverse generation! How much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you?” Jesus had righteous indignation at the sellers in the temple. John 2:15, 16: “Making a whip out of cord, he drove them all out of the Temple, sheep and cattle as well, scattered the money changers’ coins, knocked their tables over and said to the dove sellers, ‘Take all this out of here and stop using my Father’s house as a market.” 
 
 He rebuked Peter, calling him Satan. Matthew 16:23. He rebuked James and John for wanting to call down fire from heaven to burn up the Samaritan village. Luke 9:55. And He rebuked the eleven male disciples for not believing the women’s testimony. Mark 16:14.
 
 But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

FROM THE EARLY ROOTS!


Bodhidharma (c. 440 AD - 528 AD)
Source: The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma,
The essence of the Way is detachment. And the goal of those who practice is freedom from appearances.
 When we're deluded there's a world to escape. When we're aware, there's nothing to escape.
If you use your mind to study reality, you won't understand either your mind or reality. If you study reality without using your mind, you'll understand both. . . . The mind and the world are opposites, and vision arises where they meet. When your mind doesn't stir inside, the world doesn't arise outside. When the world and the mind are both transparent, this is true vision. And such understanding is true understanding.
Everything good and bad comes from your own mind. To find something beyond the mind is impossible.
If you know that everything comes from the mind, don't become attached. Once attached, you're unaware. But once you see your own nature, the entire Canon becomes so much prose. It's thousands of sutras and shastras only amount to a clear mind. Understanding comes in midsentence. What good are doctrines? The ultimate Truth is beyond words. Doctrines are words. They're not the Way. The Way is wordless. Words are illusions. . . . Don't cling to appearances, and you'll break through all barriers. . . .
We do not see things as they are.  We see them as we are.