Alex
Administrator
well said!Jesus represents a certain kind of spiritual awareness, whether or not he personally did or said everything reported in the NT: an awareness that manifests itself in love and compassion, something most of us find very hard outside our immediate circle of family and friends. It's a picture of someone of great knowledge--and the courage arising from that--in the face of ignorance.
It's useful to meditate on that, and to try to emulate it. In the beginning, it's an effort, but with practice, we can begin to experience a little of how and where it originates. We can have little victories where we manage to refrain from making the usual thoughtless response, thereby noticing that most of the way we behave is automatic. Practice like this makes us realise that we are beings of free will who can control our reactions, which in time, can come to arise from a different centre, where we can see others as they have the potential to be.
IMO, the story of Jesus is one of overcoming the ego; he's portrayed as being permanently centred in this place of freedom. For some, being subjected to compassion in the face of their automatism effected change; for others, they weren't ready, and, so the story goes, they crucified him.
Literally true or not, the story is instructive: every day, we indulge in little crucifixions of others, and they, of us. But if we can accept their crucifixions and resist the temptation to reply in like kind, as well as avoiding the temptation to congratulate ourselves for our forbearance (just another ego-based response), we can nurture increased freedom of action.
This is a living teaching: it isn't about "studying ancient texts in microscopic detail". You and I can apply it right now, in this very moment. Maybe your intuition has led you to this discovery independently of Christianity: but somehow I doubt that. I think it likely that the story, which you're aware of, has had some part to play in shaping your responses to others.
I think we should strive to make this distinction explicit. As Marks says in the interview, "trying to save Christianity for its own sake is the surest way to kill it."