Student: "How did Jesus meditate?"
"He lost himself in love."
--- Neem Karoli Baba
Today, more than 2000 years after his purported demise, there is much controversy about Jesus and his teachings. It is becoming clear to many people that distortions stemming from the early church continue to this day. In this piece, I hope to raise relevant questions, which might shed some light on the above. Key sources will include the Nag Hammadi texts and Dead Sea Scrolls, which are not included in the four Gospels and contain the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Mary Magdalene.
It is now clear that the secret tradition of Christianity was brutally suppressed by the Church of Rome and that rebel monks buried these scrolls in the fervent hope they would be found in the future. An edict had been sent out in the 4th century to have all copies of them destroyed. In December 1945 the Nag Hammadi texts were found buried deep in the Egyptian desert. The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered tin 1947 - found in caves overlooking the Dead Sea at the peak of our despair and loss at the end of W.W. II.
At times in the Nag Hammadi gospels the voice of Jesus is at odds the New Testament gospels.
Marvin Meyers, a scholar of Gnosticism and the Nag Hammadi texts, argues that Jesus emerges not as a person who performs miracles or dies for our sins. This Jesus, instead teaches a return of the ancient mystical traditions.
This Jesus speaks of how our confusion and lack of knowledge have caused us to forget who we are and why we are here"and that we are one with Divinity: that in essence, we Are Light and that first and foremost, we have the capacity and responsibility to go within. Also, the notion that knowledge (or gnosis) is more important than belief: that we are not only to follow Christ, but to become Christ.
In the Gospel of Thomas, found in Nag Hammadi texts, Jesus teaches us to develop what is within us. If we do not allow what is within us to develop, he states, it will destroy us.
The bottom line is that for Millenia Christians and Jews have been denied access to their full spiritual heritage.
It would seem that millions who are wedded to the belief system known as "Christianity" have been misled, in word - bamboozled.
This is a very old and commonplace story regarding spiritual paths. First, there is the appearance of an authentic mystic whose individual identity has merged into the infinite, eternal Self, free of ego, pride, hatred, craving and delusion.
After they leave their body, institutions spring up, ostensibly to preserve the original teaching. However, these very institutions are composed of people nowhere near the level of consciousness of the teacher. Most often, the key issue becomes maintaining worldly power. Thus, the institution coalesces around egoistic needs: status, reputation, dogma, group-think, the elimination of serious dissent - and most common of all, preserving the institution as it is.
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