Jesus

[daniel]

tut tut here u all are listing spiritual teachers and none of you put jesus down!

[lobo]

He is not exotic enough LOL

[karen]

He didn't write much. Didn't have much of a chance unfortunately.

[lobo]

Right, there is no record of anything he wrote. It was an oral tradition back then.

[waddicalwabbit]

There is some purported record of things he said though in the Gospel of Thomas. Most of you probably know this stuff. Pretty good writing too. Google it. It's fun.

Here are a few:

Jesus said, "Those who seek should not stop seeking until they find. When they find, they will be disturbed. When they are disturbed, they will marvel, and will reign over all. [And after they have reigned they will rest.]"

Jesus said, "If your leaders say to you, 'Look, the (Father's) kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the (Father's) kingdom is within you and it is outside you.

When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you live in poverty, and you are the poverty."

[zendancer]

Jun 29, 2010 8:56:13 GMT -5 waddicalwabbit said:

There is some purported record of things he said though in the Gospel of Thomas. Most of you probably know this stuff. Pretty good writing too. Google it. It's fun.

Here are a few:

Jesus said, "Those who seek should not stop seeking until they find. When they find, they will be disturbed. When they are disturbed, they will marvel, and will reign over all. [And after they have reigned they will rest.]"

Jesus said, "If your leaders say to you, 'Look, the (Father's) kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the (Father's) kingdom is within you and it is outside you.

When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you live in poverty, and you are the poverty."

Yes, yes. So many good quotes and teachings.

1. Lift up a rock; I am there. Split a piece of wood; I am there.

2. The kingdom of the Father is spread out upon the earth, but men do not see it.

One teaching that I think is slightly mis-translated concerns the kingdom of God. Translating it correctly it would read:

We lose the kingdom of God like a woman who was carrying a jar of meal on her shoulder. The jar sprung a leak, and the meal spilled out on the ground behind her so slowly that she didn't notice anything. When she got home, she set the jar down and found that it was empty.

This is exactly what happens to humans as they grow from childhood to adulthood. Their habits of mind change so slowly that they don't realize what is happening. Unlike the woman who found that her jar was empty, most adults never discover what has happened and how they lost the magical and mysterious world that they inhabited as children.

[lobo]

zendancer,
I especially like that last one
I haven't heard that particular one before

it is like ....you must become as a little child to enter the kingdom...
thanks

[ravenscroft]

Jesus and Buddha just seem like two guys that got serious about this stuff

I guess the most important lesson being, that you can to

[thistoo]

I picked up a copy of Thich Nhat Hanh's Living Buddha, Living Christ at the bookstore one day awhile back (worthwhile reading for anyone interested in comparative religion).

Anyway, when I went to pay for the book, some guy (clean-cut young fella who I for some reason suspected might be a devout fundamentalist) ran up to me out of nowhere and said, "Hey, I couldn't help but notice the title of that book! May I ask what it's about?"

Anticipating a theological discussion that I didn't want to get into, my first urge was to offer my favorite smart-alec response to such questions and say, 'Oh, it's about 200 pages.' But then I thought better of it.

Instead I said, "I don't know. I haven't read it yet." ;D

[revdella]

I agree that Jesus was the Master Teacher. In our spiritual discipline, he is the great example, not the great exception. His consciousness of Oneness with God is a great inspiration as to what is possible for all of us.

[thistoo]

Nicely said!

I've often thought it perhaps unfortunate that the teachings of Jesus somehow became a religion about Jesus.

[Deleted]

"There must be one man to hear these things,
for I need one who is ready to hear.

This Cross of Light is sometimes called Logos.
Sometimes Mind, sometimes Jesus, sometimes Christ.
Sometimes a door, sometimes a way, sometimes bread.

Sometimes seed, sometimes resurrection, sometimes Son.
Sometimes Father, sometimes Spirit, sometimes Life.
Sometimes Truth, sometimes Faith, sometimes Grace.
And so it is called for men's sake. But what it truly is,
as known in itself and spoken to us, is this:

It is the distinction of all things, and the strong uplifting
of what is firmly fixed out of what is unstable,
and the harmony of wisdom, being wisdom in harmony.

But there are places on the right and on the left,
powers, authorities, principalities, demons, activities,
threatenings, passions, devils, Satan and the inferior root
from which the nature of transient things proceeds.

This Cross is that which has united all things by the Word,
and which has separated off that which is transitory
and inferior, and which compacted all things into One.

But this is not that wooden cross you shall see when you go down from here.
Nor am I the man who is on that cross,
I whom now you do not see but only hear my voice.

I was taken to be what I am not, I who am not
what for others I was. What they will say of me
is mean and unworthy of me.

Since the place of my rest is neither to be seen nor told,
much more shall I, the Lord of this place,
be neither seen nor told.

The multitude around the cross that is not of one form,
is the inferior nature, as are those whom you saw in the Cross {body}
if they have not yet one form. Not every member of him
who has come down has yet been gathered together.

But when human nature is taken up, and the nation that comes
to me and obeys my voice, then he who now hears me shall be
united with this nation, and shall no longer be what he now is,
but shall be above them, as I am. For so long as you do not
call yourself mine, I am not what I am.

But if you hear me, you also as hearer shall be as I am,
and I shall be what I was, when you are as I am with myself.
For from me, you are what I am.

Therefore ignore the many and despise those
who are outside the mystery. For you must know 
that I am wholly with the Father, and the Father with me."

[adriansmith1]

Jesus is pure love

[desertrat]

I believe in a God , we have a soul , an after life , but Jesus and satain were made up by the church a carrot and stick kind of thing .