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Confusion in the Teachings
Jesus devoted many teachings to the subject of the self, meaning the bundle of aspects we call “me.” In this bundle are wrapped the ego, the personality, and the soul. They aren’t neatly arranged into separate compartments but bleed confusingly into one another. Sometimes we feel close to the soul, sometimes very far away. More often we feel confused, unable to understand what the soul really is and what it wants.
Jesus spent a great deal of time clarifying this confusion. He said, “You don’t understand me,” in support of a deeper truth: “You do not know who you really are.” By telling people who they really are, he delineates a new kind of human being, one who accepts that being one with God is our natural, higher state.
All great spiritual teachers want us to change, and the self is the vehicle for that change. Becoming new is an illusion unless the self you inhabit every day and recognize in the mirror starts to lose its old habits and conditioning.
Too often we are tempted to compare ourselves to an ideal, only to fall short. That wasn’t Jesus’ intention. He was praising the virtuous while not condemning anyone else.
The need to be selfless was paramount in Jesus’ mind when he told people how to behave in the world. In modern times, he was talking about breaking down the ego and its incessant self-importance. His doctrine of “the last shall be first” was aimed at revealing a deeper truth, that spirit has been put last in the world and deserves to be first.
Adapted from The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore, by Deepak Chopra (Harmony Books, 2008).
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12 comments
add your comment »“What we must realize is that spiritual leaders do not just pop up randomly in the history of humanity, but at times where the cosmic plan alters the consciousness of people in such a way that people become receptive to their message. And fighting about Him! How can you fight? I can't understand. To Me it's stupid, gone to another extreme. By this thing what you do actually is to use all these incarnations to kill each other. Can you imagine? The things that came to elevate you, to make you into higher living are now used, the same things, the names are used to kill, to kill each other, to bring down each other. These matters can be verified by anyone after Self Realisation in Sahaja Yoga. The reason I am telling you all this is to impress upon you that it is absurd to quarrel among yourselves after grouping as Hindus or Muslims or Christians. If you could see the principle behind all this, you would realise that all these saints are like many flowers on the same tree of religion and are connected with each other because of the one and the same power... A number of things need unfoldment. This is because you are under the influence of an illusion. You have yet to come out of that illusion. Your illusion has to be blown up. Otherwise it would grow from strength to strength. For the spiritual development of man, it is necessary to demolish his illusion.” Holy Spirit born - Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi - www.sahajayoga.org - Acts 24:18, Jude 20. (Buddha was Arch Angel Ga
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"What we must realize is that spiritual leaders do not just pop up randomly in the history of
humanity, but at times where the cosmic plan alters the consciousness of people in such a way that
people become receptive to their message."
"And fighting about Him! How can you fight? I can't understand. To Me it's stupid, gone to another
extreme. By this thing what you do actually is to use all these incarnations to kill each other. Can
you imagine? The things that came to elevate you, to make you into higher living are now used, the
same things, the names are used to kill, to kill each other, to bring down each other."
Lecture called - The Creation Of Lord Jesus, Pune, India - April 11, 1982
"These matters can be verified by anyone after Self Realisation in Sahaja Yoga. The reason I am
telling you all this is to impress upon you that it is absurd to quarrel among yourselves after grouping
as Hindus or Muslims or Christians. If you could see the principle behind all this, you would realise
that all these saints are like many flowers on the same tree of religion and are connected with each
other because of the one and the same power... A number of things need unfoldment. This is
because you are under the influence of an illusion. You have yet to come out of that illusion. Your
illusion has to be blown up. Otherwise it would grow from strength to strength. For the spiritual
evolution of man, it is necessary to demolish his ill
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I always have a look at what Deepak Chopra says. That's because I'm not a Christian, but a Buddhist. If I were a Christian I wouldn't read it. So why are you Christians reading it? His target audience is lapsed and disgruntled Christians, New Agers, Hindus and Buddhists. His understanding encapsulates the three major philosophies, of which New Age is an offshoot, made palatable for Westerners. Dyed in the wool Christians are better off only reading their bibles.
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Hello! Jesus created a pathway at the point of forgiveness in the Tree of Life. The crucifxion led to His resurrection, which was a powerful event that allowed the Matthew 7:14 'gate to Heaven' to become opened for all Humans. This is the forehead point that is so heavily attacked these days - this is the 'Eye of the Spirit'. The 'Kingdom of Heaven' is to be made to exist on Earth through the part above the Tree of Life within a Human that is the typical 'Moses fire' and the 'bush' that doesn't burn, and Divine is in the fire. This is the present tense and Reality.
Is your 'Moses fire' active?
To know Christ, and God, you need to know yourself first, not mentally, but with Spirit aware in the Human attention. This is what Isaiah 41:1, Zechariah 2:13 and Psalm 1:2 are all talking about...
There is the perception of Truth and Reality, and then there is the mind in confusion... Matthew 7:22,23...
Thank you!
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Jesus was a rabbi, nothing more, nothing less. He taught what he,himself was taught and that is the Judaism of his day. It was his disciple Paul many years later that took what Jesus taught and made it into something it never was in the first place. And never was meant to be. The concept of 'messiah' was NEVER a personal 'savior' but a political figure. It was all skewed into something it was never meant to be.
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LOL thank you Linda.
I am glad I am not the only one who finds Mr. Chopra's teachings a little confused on certain subjects.
An example would be the strong support he gives to Barack Obama and yet Barack is one who wants to invade afghanistan and promote more war once he comes into office under the fals epretenses of "safety" which is the very same term George Bush used to invade Iraq.
Mr Chopra also charges an outrageous amount of money to see him regurgitate philosophies that anyone including myself teach on a regular basis and many times for free to anyone who wants to learn them.
So inlight I have a very hard time supporting every new book that comes out that says the same thing as the last one, and every other book is a fiction novel of his theories and contemplations nothing more and he has become very wealthy preaching to people that need to not be charged huge amounts of money to see him but genuinely need help where is Mr. Chopra then?
Anybody can philosophize about any of the ascendant masters and there teachings Deepak has just happened to make a small fortune in doing so because he is a business man as well. Not a crime and definitely he has the freedom to do so but for those who lean on his every word as a Master should take a closer look into things before swearing their allegiance to anybody but themselves.
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The irony here is that Mr. Chopra is using Jesus' teachings to say how ultimately it's still up to us to create the change in ourselves. That, however, is the antithesis of Jesus' message. He came to say that we can't do it on our own--hence our need for Him. He said that He is the only way to salvation. So I agree with Susan and Linda.
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Jesus is for ALL ages, and yes, I think that Deepak has a great grasp of the 'man who could still the water'. The title of this thread is an attention getter, the confusion in the teachings resulted from the fact that it was others who recorded 'His' words and many of them could not grasp the true message. Christ Consciousness is all about quieting the mind through prayer and connecting to the source...this is how you become 'one with the father' and can do the will of the father.
The biggest fallacy of the religion that attempts to follow the teachings of Jesus is fire and brimstone, hell and damnation. The true message is one of eternal life and forgiveness! His appearance in His ethereal form was to prove the spirit. The wholly spirit is our saving grace.
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Thank you, Linda, for speaking up.
It is beyond me why anyone would not take time to check out statements made by others. In doing so, they become prey to wolves in sheeps' clothing. Just because what someone is saying sounds good and/or makes you feel good, doesn't mean it is good or it's true. That's how cults begin.
The statements Mr. Chopra made, with regard to scripture, were obviously done so without knowledge of scripture. "The last shall be first," is one of the first verses explained to small children in Sunday School. In order to be great in God's eyes, we need to be a servant to others. It's that simple.
Taking a sentence, or in Mr. Chopra's case, part of a sentence, out of context, twisting it and using it for your own purpose is warned against in the scriptures. There will be a price to pay.
So I most definitely agree with Linda. Read, people.
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The phrase "the last shall be first" from Mark 35:31, has Nothing to do with spirit being put last in the world. Please read the entire chapter for yourself, people, to get the context of the story. It is a warning to Peter to avoid manifesting pride in sacrificial accomplishments.
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