What is Gnosis? Occupying a Spiritual Rebellion, at Gaia.com

Did you ever wonder, what is "Gnosis?" Then you may have been on your way to it already... Read about the uneasiness, rebellion, searching, and realization of this way to "Occupy" spirituality, and find real happiness…Part 1 of 2, 

at Gaia this month.

Jesus Was a Buddhist: Resurrecting the Bodhisattva

When this was first posted on Evolver.net it raised a few hackles...but what is a hackle anyways? As long as it inspires some thought, I'm happy.

Easter is always a good time to consider what "resurrection" actually entails – what it is we might have really found, or lost. Institutional Christian mythology began as a function of veiled political intentions, created to control people at the level of their deepest needs and potential. Understanding that Christianity may actually derive it's moral center from Yoga and Buddhism, and that – very possibly –Jesus was a Buddhist, sets us free to celebrate a different way...to resurrect the bodhisattva. After all, he'll always come back to help us.

Denial is accepting ignorance as truth through force of will.

Where you find truth, Love, and compassion you'll find spiritual healing and evolution – that's how contemporary Christianity (all religion, really) can, and does work. Faith, honesty, compassionate kindness, and devotional intention is far more powerful than any single scripture, dogma, or mythological narrative; it simply is much of the message metaphorically concealed in nearly every myth, of every age and origin. The adherence to Christian myth as literal truth (as history), while inaccurate, works for many because as the Vedas, the Bhadavad Gita, then Proverbs, then The Buddha have all said (to paraphrase) "As a man thinks, so he is."

Where conflict arises in any entity, as it always has through the extraordinarily violent history of Christianity, we have to look to the origin, the psychic source of the trouble. In the case of canonical Christianity, problems may be found in the motives of its beginnings. A false motive at it's heart may continue to manifest itself in duplicitous ways – counter to what it's enlightened inspiration would suggest – namely as the fear, judgment, false entitlement, and self-righteous-ness that comes from living in denial.

"No matter what a man does, whether his deeds serve virtue or vice, nothing lacks importance. All actions bear a kind of fruit."

The Buddha, Udanavarga 8: 9

"...every good tree bringeth forth good fruit..." "Wherefore, by their fruits ye shall know them."

Jesus, Matthew 7: 17, 20

Institutional Christianity (and a lot of "Historical Jesus" academic and popular writing) would have us believe that the Christ story arose in a vacuum – that nothing significant existed before or after it. Of course that's not at all true. The Mediterranean Mideast into Asia was an incubator of spiritual beliefs for thousands of years prior to the Christian Era, and the mythologies of the Virgin Birth, divine personifications, the Passion Play, et al, were repeated over and over, over the centuries. Krishna, Mitra, Zoroaster, Horus – examples of the divine force personified go on and on. Trade and commerce, and the Roman Empire united a tangle of fabricated mythologies, all pointing to our mysterious union, and all made subject to political exploitation.

The authors of the Christian canons weren't indigenous "fishers of men," they were journeyman writers – specialists at a time when literacy was rare – surrounded by references and research which they were engaged to craft and edit into a religiously (and politically) viable mythology. After their work supported the authorization of a Christian hierarchy (by God himself, no less), the real roots of Christian principle were [violently] suppressed – right up until the discoveries at Nag Hammadi, in 1945, cracked open the centuries-long conspiracy.

We see the same mechanism at work in our present day in the examples of Mormonism and Scientology, both of which were likely the fabrications of deeply flawed people (God bless 'em), edited, amended, and augmented to make sense – and both of which now can legitimately claim millions of devoted adherents, many of whom have greatly benefitted by their beliefs. The truths at the heart of our shared mystery arise from our own conversion experiences. From our own personal spiritual rebirths.

The real origins of many Christian principles arrived with the transmittal of spiritual teachings out of the Gandhara region of India along trade routes to points west; Yogic (Vedic) knowledge probably very early on (4 to 5 thousand years ago), but in particular and most definitively after the age of Buddha. Almost three hundred years before the Christian Era, an Indian king named Asoka experienced a powerful conversion to Buddhism, and was struck with a determined and well-financed missionary zeal. He sent Theravedic Buddhist monks to every corner of the known world of trade, including to the Lake Mareotis area near Alexandria.

Did you know that The Buddha was born of a virgin, attained "christhood" sitting alone after being tempted by "the devil," walked on water, fed the multitudes from a single basket, and otherwise [was] copied [by] Jesus in dozens of ways? The following question and answer partly illustrates the spirit that moved from the Buddha into Jesus (keeping in mind that the answer came about five hundred years before the question); but there are easily dozens of such direct attributions that can be made when borrowing The Buddha (the "enlightened one") to build The Christ (the "anointed one"):

Q: "How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans."

John 4:9

A: "My sister, I am not asking about your caste or your family; I am asking whether you can give me some water to drink."

The Buddha, Divyavadana 217

Through Buddhist monks in and near Alexandria, the teachings of the Buddha were widely disseminated throughout the pre-Christian world, and as the historical person behind Jesus – Yeshua – was most likely an Essene Hebrew, it's very possible that he had been influenced, or taught directly by that Egyptian branch of Essenes known as Theraputae (from Theravada – "Teachings of the Old Ones," to Theraputta – "Sons of the Old Ones"). The Theraputae were Buddhist "Hebrews," categorized as Essenes, whose principles are more or less exactly those proscribed by Christianity hundreds of years before Christianity was formalized. (Note: there seems to be a continuing effort to pidgeonhole all Essene practice as that which was common to the branch found in Qumran – a curiously strict redefinition).

In no way do I mean to impugn the intentions at the heart of Christian principles, or the boundless eternal spirit of Yeshua – to the contrary, only to point out that the way towards buddhahood for the bodhisattva (the enlightened being who compassionately renounces Nirvana to return on behalf of the suffering) lies in the practice of generosity, morality, patience, energy, meditation, and wisdom.... Liberally mix that with Love; and with Right Understanding, Right Purpose, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Occupation, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Meditation, and you will be on that path of spiritual evolution yourself.

"Whoever drinks from my mouth will become like me and I will become them, and what was hidden from them will be revealed."

Yeshua, The Gospel of Thomas, 108

The new book: How to Get to Heaven (Without Really Dying), Wisdom From a Near-Death Survivor, 2018, from Llewellyn Worldwide can be ordered online. The first book: How to Survive Life (and Death), A Guide To Happiness In This World and Beyond is available everywhere – but ask for them both at your local bookstore!

Tales: Why We Should Never Eat the Easter Bunny

Each Easter, we have the opportunity to observe the intricate mythology of the Jesus of Nazareth story in it's full flower, but the nature of the myth will never be the same in the wake of the Nag Hammadi and Qumran discoveries, whose effect these many years later, is still just beginning to percolate through Christian consciousness. Through layers of dense imagination and irrevocable deception.

One of the great beauties of memory is it's editing and art direction. Important memories are seldom pale, seldom lacking in romantic significance. The tremendous power of the Jesus myth comes from a powerful fleshing-out of such romantic, spiritual ideas, on an incredibly personal level. The idea that one pure, com-passionate soul can serve as a stand-in for every human experience - innate understanding and forgiveness; utter humiliation and defeat; glorious transcendence, and victory beyond imagination - is a brilliant, though most probably, accidental construction on the part of the early church fathers, who were led to their form of the myth by popular opinion, and unscrupulous intentions.

As consciousness, and information accrues in our world of ever-more detailed discovery, a number of different mythologies can emerge from the same set of limited facts. So, as long as we're allowing our imaginations to take over, which we are always doing when it comes to "The Greatest Story Ever Told," I'd like to try one on you myself. It's why we should never eat the Easter Bunny.

There were three branches of the Hebrew faith during the period of the second Temple of Herod in Jerusalem: The Pharisees and the Saduccees occupied the center of political power. The Essenes occupied the political fringe, being too sincerely spiritual to take part in the power struggles, misinterpretation of basic scripture, or schedule of incessant brutal sacrifices. The Essenes were the Christians before Christianity, believing in "Thou Shalt Not Kill" without exception, as well as social equality, compassionate sharing, and most all the other characteristics ascribed as principles of Christianity.

Yeshua Ben Yosef, the Essene teacher most likely at the heart of the Jesus myth, was not from Nazareth, there was no Nazareth – it was formed later, when members of the Nazarene branch of Essenes settled in that area. Yeshua himself was most likely from the area near Galillee, spent some childhood between Jerusalem and northern Judea, possibly coming under the influence of the Theraputae branch of Essenes at Mt. Carmel. As a youth, he was very likely relocated from the regional control of the "corrupt" Temple in Jerusalem by his parents to the Essene settlements in the Nile Delta of Egypt, near the temple there, where he would have been influenced by the cultural crossroads of Alexandria, and possibly learned about Theravedic Buddhism from the nearby mission. It was there, near Lake Mareotis, where the practice of baptism originated, that the young Yeshua may have developed his unique synthesis of pragmatic, mystical spirituality, grounded in the Tanakh, and that regions particular branch of Essene Hebraism, which was steeped in Theravedic Buddhism. 

The extent of his travels are unknown, but it is known that in middle life, the Rabbi returned to Galillee to teach, setting off the possible course of events roughly described in the narrative gospels. If we consider this possible origin of Yeshua, and believe the narratives to be fundamentally true, then a further re-interpretation might make sense too:

His awareness of East Asian philosophy would contribute a great deal to his unique teachings, particularly as described in the non-narrative "Gospel of St, Thomas," unearthed at Nag Hammadi in the 1940's, after nearly 2,000 years of suppression. The principles of the Essenes also mesh perfectly with the thoroughly pacifistic notions of basic Buddhism, including complete temperance in the ingesting of intoxicants, the rejection of pagan rituals of sacrifice, and the strong tendency to vegetarianism, which was a strict Essene practice; though to Yeshua, same as the Buddha, it was somewhat dependent on what a mendicant could find to eat, as long as the killing wasn't intended solely for their consumption.

What would have been certain though, would be the utter disgust an Essene teacher would experience returning to the Jerusalem Temple to find it's outer yards filled with animals being traded for sacrificial slaughter. As the temple devotee would find upon arrival, their sacrificial animals did not meet rigid temple requirements and would have to be traded, at a fee, for ready-to-sacrifice animals. Hence the "money changers," changing animals for money. The sacrificial firepits were huge barbeques, where cooked meat was used as payola to buy allegiances, and reward the elite. Animals were treated ruthlessly, as many "devout" people continue to treat them today. The whole place was run by a conspiracy of Hebrews and Romans. An Essene activist could get pretty upset by such a scene, as did many observant Hebrews.

An alternative explanation for the true meaning of The Eucharist comes about from this re-telling also. While it was a strict Essene practice to ritually share meals communally, it is extremely unlikely that a humble, Eastern-influenced mystic Rabbi would resort to pagan quasi-cannibalistic ritual to commemorate himself as being "God on Earth," while it is quite likely that in the context I suggest, he would hold up a piece of bread and say: "This is my flesh," meaning not that bread was to serve as a stand-in for the body of a man who clearly did not wish to be deified, but was meant as a vegetarian's replacement for [corrupt] meat like that from the barbaric temple rituals. (Essenes didn't drink wine, so the "blood drinking" is highly unlikely as well). This may just be conjecture, but in reality, every other retelling is too.

It would also explain why the closest followers and companions of Yeshua in the wake of his departure, the Ebionites, were absolute vegetarians: Yeshua was very likely a vegetarian Buddhist Hebrew. That's why we should never eat the Easter Bunny, or any other animal. Thou shalt not kill is as hard and fast a rule to a Buddhist, as it was to an Essene.

I'll save the alternative story of resurrection for next Easter, as long as we'll be  making things up then too.

"The Kingdom is inside you, and it is outside you."

Logion 3, The Gospel of Thomas

Pt.2: The Maya of Religion (Essene but seldom heard...)

"Yeshua said: If you bring forth that which is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you."

Logion 70, The Gospel of Thomas

There are lots of obstacles to Enlightened Consciousness inherent in this human form, most of which are created by a level of unconsciousness that will never allow that goal to be reached. We struggle with these obstacles, usually not recognizing them for what they actually are, often denying their very existence – so it's necessary to show great care when pointing them out, lest we ruffle some feathers. Of course, some feathers probably need to be ruffled.

Presenting abstract or hard-to-grasp concepts of self-realization to people has often led to the invention of elaborate mythologies that end up permanently concealing the simplest, most effective truths. The beauty of the core teaching can be obscured and subverted by human ego, and it's pathological need for control. This leads to The Maya of Religion (of many religions really) illustrated in this "passion play" example of the early Church of Rome.

Prior to the inception of the Church, it's fathers saw the influence and potential of "Gnostic" post-Hebraic Eastern–influenced mysticism, like that taught and practiced by the (possibly mythological) Essene Master, Yeshua (Jesus), throughout Egypt (where he may have studied), into Asia Minor, and then upon his storied return to Judaea. 

The Essenes were a wide-ranging sect (or sects) of Hebraism, whose communal inns where all were welcome were the inspiration for modern hospitals. They fed and healed anyone who needed their help. They celebrated meals. They practiced advanced hygiene, and herbal medicine. They were strictly vegetarian, and disapproved of the taking, or disrespecting of any life. They wore white. They were into foot washing and massaging (feet were especially important back then). Love and service was their rule. In short, they were the christians before Christianity. It is from this school that Yeshua came. The Gospel of Thomas, quoted above, is one of their texts.

Hebrews, and Pagans, weary of the politics, corruption, and barbarity of Jerusalem and Rome, were very likely hungry for the Alexandrian synthesis of Eastern mystic "religion," like Buddhism, The Bhagavad Gita, and The Tao te Ch'ing that traveled the road from Egypt to India; mixed with the simple wisdom of the Ten Commandments, and consciousness expanding practices as taught by Yeshua. This wisdom from the east taught that The Kingdom of God was to be found within each person. That "heaven" was here and now – accessible to anyone, based on personal realizations of transcendent unity, or gnosis. It became the heart of the Gnostic (Essene, Ebionite), or Nazorean teachings, and it became quite popular.

Over the next several hundred years, the shifting power base of the Roman Empire systematically usurped and subverted the potential of this Gnostic message by cobbling together a synthesis of their own: They consigned the Feminine Divine to a subservient role; they fashioned a mythology from existing mythologies, replete with a ritual life that only they could administer – the Eucharist; and they synthesized the appealing aspects of numerous competing religions by styling messianic narratives for each group of potential followers whose ultimate message established the deadly authority of Rome. They even aligned popular holidays of pre-existing religions to their version of "Christianity." They began a ceaseless campaign of genocide against "heretics," and of scriptural suppression, effectively removing The Essenes and their texts from Western history.

This inexorable reconstruction project guided it's mostly illiterate followers along a "Path to God's Kingdom" controlled by an organized elite. Spiritual seekers were directed to take part in a tailored mythology – a kind of occult hall of mirrors that continues today – The Maya of Religion – full of constructions that conceal and subvert true spiritual discovery, limiting it to a fraction of it's potential. The Church parcels out the benefits of the underlying spiritual wisdom with corrupt or unconscious authority, forcing their adherents to accept the most egregious offenses of material humanity; politics, war, slavery, money-worship, sexual predation and pedophilia. Ironically, from it's own central text the truth comes, to paraphrase: "You shall know the tree by the fruit it bears."

This post-Christmas Tale is the story of the wealthy, corrupt—yet for some, spiritually irreplaceable—Church of Rome; but the recipe for The Maya of Religion described here has been applied many times through the ages, and can be clearly seen in more contemporary examples, in fabricated religious myths and dogma like those found in Scientology, or the anti-Essene versions of Christianity that replace humility with a prideful lust for material "superiority."

It's a testament to the illuminative power of the true light that shines through all that dogma and artifice – that even though it's potential is seriously stifled, the little bit that escapes this vacuum of delusion can still be enough to inspire profound spiritual transformation to take place. Direct inner, "mystical" experience has always provided this solution to the conundrum posed by institutionalized religion.  

The compassion and unconditional Love that gives us a connection to the Divine. Faith without works is dead. Showing up for one another. Releasing the false attachments of material desire. Entering into transcendent union though the means of self-examination and meditation. The silent surrender to the loving Universe, and the power that grows out of it – out of what Mahatma Gandhi called ahimsa – absolute non-violence. The powerhouse of Love to heal the rift between the two – Ego and Spirit, as taught by the Essene Master, Yeshua (...whose true story can only be found in your own heart).

"Yeshua said: If two make peace with each other in this one house, they will say to the mountain, 'Move Away,' and it will move away."

Logion 48, The Gospel of Thomas



Read about concepts like these and much more in: How to Get to Heaven (Without Really Dying), Wisdom From a Near-Death Survivor  from Llewellyn Worldwide available direct on this page, or online. The first book: How to Survive Life (and Death), A Guide To Happiness In This World and Beyond is available the same ways – but ask for it at your local bookstore!