Jesus was the man who showed those who lived then and since, what it means to be human born in the image of “God”, or with the gift of insight to grow in the ability and will to live compassionately, non-violently. Particularly, when we’re lovingly, compassionately raised in such a community of parents and others who nurture us thusly, does this gift grow. Others lose the knowing they’re loved and born into goodness, depending on their contexts/environments. Jesus doesn’t have to be “Son of God” for me. He simply reminds me how I was born to live, to forgive myself and others, to know myself and others as originally blessed/loved! He reveals the goodness/Godness by which is what it means to be human.
Stimulating thoughts. Thanks, Bodhi. Like you, I have both enjoyed, in fact loved, reading Lewis's Christian writings, and I daresay have profited from them, while also recognizing the shortcomings of his famous "trilemma" ultimatum of "liar, lunatic, or Lord."
For what it's worth, it seems clear to me -- obvious, patent, crystal -- that Jesus was a wisdom teacher whose deeply, formatively Jewish upbringing and thought world had been exploded or illuminated by a spiritual awakening that has clear resonances with the tradition of nonduality as it has manifested in various other cultural, societal, and religious environments throughout history and around the globe. Even if we don't factor in the Thomas gospel, which we have every reason to think comes from as early a stratum of the Christian tradition as Mark, the evidence is plainly visible from reading just the four canonicals. Jesus said things that blew the roof off the traditional religious worldview of his culture, using the only terms that were available to him, which were the terms of that very culture. Then those fellow members of his culture who first heard him and first passed on the teaching, and later those who wrote it down and infused still further layers of partial understanding or misunderstanding into their interpretive literary portraits, essentially and involuntarily "encoded" it in ways that make it simultaneously obvious to those who see it and obscure to those who look, read, and hear through layers of doctrinal presupposition.
Of course, if we *do* factor in the Thomas tradition, then what happened is just flat-out obvious to all. The Jesus of Thomas openly and exclusively says all the things, and more, that the canonical Jesus of Lewis's thought world says in more veiled form, with occasional instances of pure nonduality slipping through the interpretive net -- e.g., "I and my father are one," "The kingdom of heaven is within you." It's simply fascinating to work one's way through all of this.
I’ve known so appreciate this, Bodhi...yet after saying what you’ve said, HOW ever can you say: “Did he also see himself as an earthly Messianic figure who might usher in freedom for his people? Likely.”!!! I definitely think VERY unlikely for all Jesus’ wisdom, he ever said that about himself!
I am really into looking at Jesus from all possible angles. I can suspend my own cultural biases and question everything which I find quite enjoyable and sometimes enlightening. I only found trouble with seeing Jesus as calculating an earthly reordering for himself to have a following, or he would have worked harder and been smart enough to stay alive to accomplish it for himself. So I don’t think that was his logic or his lunacy. The point was never power. Just love as far as I can see.
Jesus was the man who showed those who lived then and since, what it means to be human born in the image of “God”, or with the gift of insight to grow in the ability and will to live compassionately, non-violently. Particularly, when we’re lovingly, compassionately raised in such a community of parents and others who nurture us thusly, does this gift grow. Others lose the knowing they’re loved and born into goodness, depending on their contexts/environments. Jesus doesn’t have to be “Son of God” for me. He simply reminds me how I was born to live, to forgive myself and others, to know myself and others as originally blessed/loved! He reveals the goodness/Godness by which is what it means to be human.
Stimulating thoughts. Thanks, Bodhi. Like you, I have both enjoyed, in fact loved, reading Lewis's Christian writings, and I daresay have profited from them, while also recognizing the shortcomings of his famous "trilemma" ultimatum of "liar, lunatic, or Lord."
For what it's worth, it seems clear to me -- obvious, patent, crystal -- that Jesus was a wisdom teacher whose deeply, formatively Jewish upbringing and thought world had been exploded or illuminated by a spiritual awakening that has clear resonances with the tradition of nonduality as it has manifested in various other cultural, societal, and religious environments throughout history and around the globe. Even if we don't factor in the Thomas gospel, which we have every reason to think comes from as early a stratum of the Christian tradition as Mark, the evidence is plainly visible from reading just the four canonicals. Jesus said things that blew the roof off the traditional religious worldview of his culture, using the only terms that were available to him, which were the terms of that very culture. Then those fellow members of his culture who first heard him and first passed on the teaching, and later those who wrote it down and infused still further layers of partial understanding or misunderstanding into their interpretive literary portraits, essentially and involuntarily "encoded" it in ways that make it simultaneously obvious to those who see it and obscure to those who look, read, and hear through layers of doctrinal presupposition.
Of course, if we *do* factor in the Thomas tradition, then what happened is just flat-out obvious to all. The Jesus of Thomas openly and exclusively says all the things, and more, that the canonical Jesus of Lewis's thought world says in more veiled form, with occasional instances of pure nonduality slipping through the interpretive net -- e.g., "I and my father are one," "The kingdom of heaven is within you." It's simply fascinating to work one's way through all of this.
yes.
I’ve known so appreciate this, Bodhi...yet after saying what you’ve said, HOW ever can you say: “Did he also see himself as an earthly Messianic figure who might usher in freedom for his people? Likely.”!!! I definitely think VERY unlikely for all Jesus’ wisdom, he ever said that about himself!
I am really into looking at Jesus from all possible angles. I can suspend my own cultural biases and question everything which I find quite enjoyable and sometimes enlightening. I only found trouble with seeing Jesus as calculating an earthly reordering for himself to have a following, or he would have worked harder and been smart enough to stay alive to accomplish it for himself. So I don’t think that was his logic or his lunacy. The point was never power. Just love as far as I can see.