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Reaching Heaven
If you were able to meet Jesus today as he was in real life, there would be a gap between your level of awareness and his–we know that this is true when we encounter spiritually inspired people who are far less enlightened than Jesus, the saintly among us whose compassion reflects back our own spiritual shortcomings.
If you were to follow Jesus after meeting him, you would have to try to close this gap, setting you on the path that unfolds over time. The same holds true without a flesh-and-blood Jesus; the same gap needs to be closed between your present state of awareness and God-consciousness.
Devotion, service, and contemplation remain viable ways to transform yourself, yet even the most devout Christians fall into the trap of believing that they don’t have to transform themselves inwardly, that performing enough acts of devotion (attending church, praying, giving to the poor, and the like) will suffice or that doing charitable work among the poor and sick, or thinking about God as often as possible, will be sufficient.
Jesus warns us against this trap when he speaks in parable form, about seed that falls on waste ground and doesn’t sprout. The seed is his teaching; the waste ground is a mind unprepared to receive the truth.
What Jesus doesn’t elaborate upon is how waste ground can be made fertile. He says only that some people receive a bit of the truth, some a great deal, and some none at all.
Let’s assume that you and I can absorb some of the truth, rather than all, or none. In this regard, we fit into the category of Jesus’ disciples. We are neither hopeless nor fully realized in God. We turn to Jesus because he understands the territory of the unknown, the source not only of a messiah but of the soul itself.
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 »"...tis so sweet to trust in Jesus...Just to take Him for His Word..." Oh, I love it, I love it. Label it as you please, but it satisfies every need I will ever have....
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Mel lisa,
I came here upset with the moment and leave smiling. We have a choice. We are not forced to believe. ultimately, the rhetoric has to be defined as the times do change and Deepak does that is such a wonderful way. ultimately, the love of the world brings us closer to God.
thank you all especially Deepak for his invitation to bring us here. We are the love of the world.
Peace, Nameste, Yo!
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This is a thought provoking article...thanks Deepak! I think Jesus was promising us continuous improvement if we made the effort to transform our lives..in fact didn't he promised that we, like his disciples, could do some works like him...healing for example? So he was promising us progress...and to me the Resurrection was evidence that he continued to make progress,showing that we too will continue to progress,even after what we call death. Jesus showed us how we can bridge the gap between the human and the divine...and that's some promise! And I agree that this is understandable by anyone who wants and strives to understand it. Thanks everyone!
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3And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, "Behold, the sower went out to sow;
4and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up. 5"Others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. 6"But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.
7"Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out.
8"And others fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.
9"He who has ears, let him hear."
14"In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says,
YOU WILL KEEP ON HEARING, BUT WILL NOT UNDERSTAND; YOU WILL KEEP ON SEEING, BUT WILL NOT PERCEIVE; FOR THE HEART OF THIS PEOPLE HAS BECOME DULL, WITH THEIR EARS THEY SCARCELY HEAR, AND THEY HAVE CLOSED THEIR EYES, OTHERWISE THEY WOULD SEE WITH THEIR EYES, HEAR WITH THEIR EARS, AND UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEART AND RETURN, AND I WOULD HEAL THEM.'
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Religion is a system of beliefs or cause, and Care2 is a place where diverse groups of people dedicated to their various causes congregate. If discussing spirituality is disturbing your mental health, why not go to a movie or go watch the telly? No one is seeking you out.
I don't believe that this discussion on Deepak's topic is meant to offend or to put anyone on the defensive...or to even cause mental anguish.
:[ The Wholly Spirit within us guides us all in different ways to the truth.
But Deepak, you certainly did give me a new perspective about the seed that falls on waste land being the Word. It's true, too...but I always understood it like this scripture from Matthew 13.
Yeshua actually had to explain his parables to his own disciples when they asked, why do you speak in parables?
38The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;
39The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.
40As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.
41The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; 42And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 43Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
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Care2 should get out of the religion game if they really care about people's mental health.
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MR. CHOPRA PART ONE
I have your first paragraph below and will put MY TAKE on your words.
If you were able to meet Jesus today as he was in real life, there would be a gap between your level of awareness and his ------------ MR. CHOPRA my fear is that you lead good and loving people into delusional thinking because of your own lack of knowledge. JESUS is a JEW born from the ancestor line of JUDA one of the sons of JACOB name changed to ISRAEL. Your rhetoric is that of the far eastern mindset and unto your genealogy the book of JOHN was written to and for those of your lineage to learn from. Your mystical thinking about spiritual matters departs from the real [eastern mindsets from Mesopotamia] into a surreal that makes no common sense and brings nothing at all to the many reading except figments of the imagination from many other far eastern mystics. Thus for you to make any case of reason toward your knowledge of JESUS CHIRST in HIS WORDS, WILL, AND WAYS, you must do like many more and be born again in JESUS Baptism of fire. For trying to be intellectual is a far cry from knowing our LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST our KING NOW.
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MR CHORPA PART TWO
I have your first paragraph below and will put MY TAKE on your words.
We know that this is true ----------MR CHOPRA who is we?
When we encounter spiritually inspired people who are far less enlightened than Jesus, the saintly among us -------------------MR CHOPRA who is your referring to as the saintly among us? You tend to paint JESUS CHIRST as one of your own mystics but HE was not and did not the many things that you allude to HIM being and doing. For in stark contrast to your own words HE declared HE did not come to bring peace but the SWORD.
Whose compassion reflects back our own spiritual shortcomings? --------MR CHOPRA the many millions and billions of mankind alive today that have been baptized in JESUS BAPTISM have not spiritual shortcomings as you stated. For they are in-tune with the only GOD of the UNIVERSE HIS NAME IS JESUS CHIRST OUR KING NOW.
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Your statements set me into comtemplating ... Thanks Deepak.
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Righteous acts of kindness and love where his prayers.....
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