christ, buddha and the saviors of mankind

There are many comparative studies of the lives of the masters Gautama Buddhaand Jesus, as there are many revisions about the lives of Krishna and others historically relevant spiritual masters. There are in many of them thematic parallels among the lives of these Saviors of Humanity. In cautiously observing this, it is almost awkward to declare that these facts are more than just coincidences, or just the result of random curse of events.

H.P Blavatsky, in her book “Isis Unveiled”, points out that Gautama was the son of a king; Jesus was also a rightful descendent of King David. Buddha was known to be one of the incarnations of Vishnu, and Jesus known to be an incarnation of the Holy Spirit. Both were pure expressions of the Divine. Both their mothers conceived their sons in a very special way; both of them, Mary (Jesus’ Mother) and Maya (Buddha’s mother) were known to have had immaculate conceptions. Even their names, Mary and Maya were proven to have come from the same root, from a distant registry that the human mind can no longer reach.

Both of these initiates were able to perform miracles, exceptional healings and transformational teachings. In the dark ages of mankind those parallels were dismissed to be only the work of the Devil, the great liar that wanted to confuse the rightful and the faithful.

Some other scholars, investigating the different religious backgrounds of the ancient world, could prove the existence of at least sixteen different traditions where the savior dies to save Humanity. This comes to prove that characteristics that are common to their stories are more than mere coincidences.

More than what it is publicized by the religious traditions of today, where the stories of the masters are nothing more than the sterilized version of their teachings, the spiritual path should be seen as a trail to the followed by advanced disciples, that inevitably one day will also save humanity. The difference now is the element of Sacrifice; not necessarily seen as it was a couple of thousand years ago.

The Tearing of the Veils

“Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.”
~ Mathew Matthew 27:51

Gautama abolishes idolatry and creates huge conflict with the Brahmas’ that had the monopoly of the traditional teachings of the Hindu society. He promotes and teaches the mysteries of the unity, oneness and nirvana, and offers safe practices accessible to all castes in methods to reach liberation from the wheels of suffering and pain.

Jesus the Christ shows himself against the religious tyranny of the Pharisees and scribes of the Temple, and openly teaches the mysteries of the Kingdom of God. As we can observe, the convergence of facts and similarities are overwhelming. Esoterically, it is nonetheless said that Chris Jesus was a being originated from the Seventh Ray of Creation, while Buddha is said to be the master of the Fifth Ray. The fact is that these enlighten beings are rays and frequencies of the Christ-consciousness vibration, emissaries of the Light to bring about the opening of consciousness in their lifetimes.

From another angle, both of their traditional teachings speak about three different levels of realization, or there are three grades of human spirits. The upper level are called the elected, even though there is no elitism implied under the term that would derive any sense of exclusion. Among the Gnostics of ancient times, the elected were called Pneumatics, which in their language meant “guided by spirit”, among the Buddhist they were known as “Arias”, or advanced beings, the sacred ones.

The Second group, an intermediary one, were known among the Gnostics as the Psychics ,or religious ones. These, among the Buddhists, were known as Aniata.

The last group, for both doctrines, was comprised by the common men. The Gnostics called them the Somatics or Hylics, the “worldly” people: pure emotion and “living in the now” for pleasure. The Buddhist called them silly people, because of their permanent desire to dedicate their lives only for the immediate pleasures of life and are still immerse in Maya (illusion).

All the structural body of their teachings was designed to attend to the needs of these three grades of Human spirits. To the common men, or Somatics, the instructions were directed to practices of daily life and ethics.

For the second level of Souls, the psychics for the Gnostics and Aniatas for the Buddhists, the teachings were directed to a more ample vision in dealing with challenges of the daily life and spiritual practices. Most of these lessons can be found in the sutras and also in the Christian scriptures. Their perspective of this particular group was directed to the close care of these Souls, because both doctrines believed that this group of Souls could fall back into the broader group, if they did not have the proper instructions and spiritual practice. Also, their specialty resides in that they at the same time could be the group of Souls that could transcend and enter the realms of the “elected”, or the saved ones.

Finally, for the last level of human souls, the so-called Pneumatics[1] for the Gnostics or Arias for the Buddhists, both Masters offer what we call the “Accelerated Path”, or inner teachings. They are comprised by a more elaborated set of teaching since the accelerated path has its own privileged requirements and requires constant purifications and tenacious dedication. This is not a path for many. Among the Buddhists, the monks have a period of study to develop the foundation of the future teachings. Just a few of these monks are invited to continue their studies, as they will be involving more than sutras and Tantra to reach their goals. For the Gnostics, the advanced techniques involved the practices of the Sacraments; for them the sacraments were five, as they were taught by Christ and later, his disciples. They were originally only five instead of the seven actually practiced by the Church today. Originally, the Sacraments were transformational rites of passage: our equivalent of modern initiations.

[1] From “pneuma” meaning “air” or coming from Spirit. These souls preserve a living connection with pleroma therefore considering the human spirit as a spark of God’s light and in effect a part of Body of God himself. They can be sometimes minimalists and ascetics individuals.

thanks em.

we are star dust….

By virtue of my “nerdness”, I’m often asked, where do I think we come from.

My answer:

I find the explanation that we were made in stars to be deep, elegant, and beautiful. This explanation says that every atom in each of our bodies was built up out of smaller particles produced in the furnaces of long-gone stars. We are the byproducts of nuclear fusion. The intense pressures and temperatures of these giant stoves thickened collapsing clouds of tiny elemental bits into heavier bits, which once fused, were blown out into space as the furnace died. The heaviest atoms in our bones may have required more than one cycle in the star furnaces to fatten up. Uncountable numbers of built-up atoms congealed into a planet, and a strange disequilibrium called life swept up a subset of those atoms into our mortal shells. We are all collected stardust. And by a most elegant and remarkable transformation, our starstuff is capable of looking into the night sky to perceive other stars shining. They seem remote and distant, but we are really very close to them no matter how many lightyears away. All that we see of each other was born in a star. How beautiful is that?

Now, keep the aforementioned in mind while now thinking about how we have proven in quantum mechanics that two particles will respond to the same stimuli though they are physically no where near each other.  This in fact means means our interconnectedness is much deeper than the Adams Family or the Brady Bunch – we REALLY are connected.  But we if are so connected, we do we hate each other so much?

If our interconnectedness is universal and infinitely big, why do we get hung up on trivialities that are inconsequentially bound to this 24,000 mile sphere?

Hmmm…

welcome to the anthropocene

A 3-minute journey through the last 250 years of our history, from the start of the Industrial Revolution to the Rio+20 Summit. The film charts the growth of humanity into a global force on an equivalent scale to major geological processes.

According to scientists, we’re currently in the geological epoch known as the Holocene, which has lasted for the last 12,000 years. The Holocene encompasses the rise of humanity since the last ice age. But some scientists think we have actually entered a new era, called the Anthropocene–an era in which the world no longer shapes humanity, but in which humanity shapes the world to its own purpose and does so to such an extent that it will have permanent effects of the geological record of our planet.

As scientists debate the merits of declaring we are in a new epoch (these things take time and lots of arguing), humanity plods on, continuing to make a massive impact on the planet. Globaia, an organization devoted to promoting an understanding of “big history,” has been working on mapping these impacts.

As the animated globe turns, you can see what man has wrought upon the planet. The glowing maps show transportation routes and power grids that span the globe. It’s certainly an impressive accomplishment. You can’t but be in awe of the sheer will and determination and skill it’s taken to create this globalized world. At the same time, it’s hard not to gasp at the scale of what we’ve done.

Check out the rapid rise of our influence on the planet since 1950. In the course of one lifetime, the lives of the vast majority of people have improved dramatically. That’s the good part of the Anthropocene. The bad is that to get there, we’ve had to fundamentally change the planet–its air, water, and land may never be the same.

Either that’s a devilish paradox or perhaps we never need to “change the earth to fit humans” anyway.  I’ll bet my next pay check on the latter…

Personally, I think we’ve made a flippin mess!!

no gays according to leviticus 18:22

For all of you that use the bible to selectively denounce homosexuality, I do need some advice from you, regarding some other elements of God’s Laws and how to follow them.  According to Leviticus18:22, homosexuality cannot be condoned under any circumstance – fine. I get that and end of the debate on what the bible says.

But what about these other things in Leviticus that seem to be looked over…

1. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can’t I own Canadians?

2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

3. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of Menstrual uncleanliness – Lev15: 19-24. The problem is how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.

4. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord – Lev.1:9. The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

5. I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or should I ask the police to do it?

6. A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination, Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don’t agree. Can you settle this? Are there ‘degrees’ of abomination?

7. Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle-room here?

8. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die?

9. I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

10. My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev.19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? Lev.24:10-16. Couldn’t we just burn them to death at a private family affair, like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)

I know you have studied these things extensively and thus enjoy considerable expertise in such matters, so I’m confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God’s word is eternal and unchanging.

The issue of having slaves, selling your daughter, eating shellfish, etc. etc. is that these are considered ridiculous rules by 99% of people and no one follows them today (Christian or non-Christian). Prohibition of homosexuality is just one more ridiculous looking rule. You need to explain why we should care about homosexuality being an abomination in God’s eyes but not care about the fact that the same book says eating shellfish is an abomination in God’s eyes.

Explaining that some laws might have been good for hygiene in 4,000 B.C. (but irrelevant today) or an intrusion of a coming kingdom (that isn’t here yet, so these laws still look irrelevant to the unbeliever) or that these laws are irrelevant because of some other reason doesn’t explain why we should think homosexuality is relevant. And why all these laws (including the ones about homosexuality) aren’t stupid, as they appear to be.

I’m not Christian but whole heartedly bee live in God.  So for you Christians that are overtly concerned with what a group of people decide to do with the sexual and anal pores, I say flippin relax and let God sort it out.  Like any book, the bible can be taken seriously, just not literally.

Your adoring “bible following” fan
(It would be a damn shame if we couldn’t own a Canadian *** snaps fingers ***)

uninstalling your programs

When you turn on your computer, do you have specific programs that automatically start along with the operating system? Both the Windows and Mac Operating Systems let you select programs that will turn on immediately each time you boot up. In daily life, most of us have specific mental programs that automatically start as we get up and move into our day. Its unlikely we made a conscious decision to activate these programs and we may not even be aware of them, but they regularly influence our thoughts, emotions and our perceptions of who we are.

Even during meditation, these programs are often running stealthily in the background, affecting the quality of meditation. At times the programs may induce anxiety and restlessness, making it difficult to concentrate or cultivate presence on the cushion. One of the basic benefits of meditation is the enhanced awareness that allows us to see our hidden programs. Even for experienced meditators, however, the hardest mind programs to see clearly are related to self identity and the need to affirm that identity.

To work with these programs in meditation you first have to recognize they are running. If you regularly feel anxiety or restlessness on the cushion, for example, you may discover familiar themes playing out in your mind as you look more closely. Perhaps you are anxious about how you will perform on an upcoming project, maybe you’re criticizing yourself for not living up to your or someone else’s expectations or worrying about how effectively you’re navigating an important relationship in your life. These programs are related to our perceptions of who we are, yet they are not our “dharma operating system.“ They are only a limited element of our consciousness, just as our favorite computer programs have no functionality without the operating system. Our mental programs are a byproduct of something larger, our great nature that sustains life and allows life to pass away.

Your identity needn’t be caught in repetitive, often invisible programs. With consistent practice, you can gradually cultivate your awareness to recognize when the programs are running. When you truly realize they aren’t who you are, the programs might still run but not run your life nearly as much.

Your true nature includes the totality of what you experience in this moment, nothing excluded. All of the sounds, sensations, thoughts and feelings; the barking dog and the wind in the trees, the pain in your knees, tightness in your chest, and the joy of realizing all of this is continually arising and passing away. So let the programs run if they must, but expand the scope of your consciousness so you can see them for what they are: only a small part of the greater whole of awareness. Soon the programs will lose some of their power over your mind and you’ll discover you can operate quite effectively without them.

something big is about to happen – gregg braden

According to Gregg Braden, [best-selling author bridging science and spirituality,] people around the world are sensing that we have entered a time that is unlike any other time in history. More often than not, people say that they feel like something has begun and has yet to complete, or they are waiting for the other shoe to drop. It will be bigger than 9/11 and the war in Iraq.

People sense a low level tension indicating that something big is about to happen, and although we may not realize it consciously, we are in some way preparing for whatever that is.

We are living in a time of great change. We are seeing measurable parameters that are changing and appear to be converging. For example, the magnetic fields of the earth are in rapid decline right now.

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