Christ Follower vs Christian 4

Christ Follwer vs Christian 3

Christian vs Christ follower 2

Christian vs Christianity

First be reconciled

[LENTEN THOUGHTS 1]

The period of Lent is regarded by ordinary Catholics
As a time for prayer and penance.
It’s a time for mortification, for ‘giving up’ pleasures
Like sweets, or meat, or cinema, or even sex.
Lent is forty days of prayer and abstinence.

The real meaning of Lent is metanoia
The Greek word for renewal.
To become new.

Most Catholics view Lent as something to be enforced.
A stern law to be enforced within the family and in the community.
Some Christians are so scandalized, so shocked
If a priest or a nun is seen to be eating Meat on a Friday
Or having a glass of beer during Lent.

But Metanoia means to make things new.
Not to enforce the law of Moses.
But to bring forth the love of that Jesus preached.
Osho once said “Law is enforced love; Love is a spontaneous law.”

Moses gave commandments.
Jesus gave insight into these commandments.
One can follow the commandments, can ‘observe the Lenten practice’
On a formal, superficial level.

One can become a righteous person, a puritan, a moralist for 40 days
And deep down nothing changes.
The old darkness is still there.
The old unconsciousness is still there.
Nothing has really changed, I’m just wearing this beautiful mask.
Now there’s nothing wrong in wearing a beautiful mask – if you
Have an ugly face, wear a mask, it will at least save others from seeing you.
But the mask cannot change the ugly face.
You have to transform the face too.
Why be so hard on others, who perhaps do not choose to wear masks during Lent?

Moses gave a very crude discipline to society. Primitive.
He couldn’t have done better, there was no way.
Human consciousness in his time existed in a primitive way.
But Moses prepared the way, and Jesus was the fulfilment.
What Moses started, Jesus completes.
Moses laid the foundation. Jesus raised the whole temple.

Lent is not a law of discipline and punishment.
Lent is a time for love.

Who is the Buddha?

Once a certain Brahmin named Dona, noticing the characteristic marks of the footprint of the Buddha, approached Him and questioned Him.

"Your Reverence will be a Deva ?"

"No, indeed, brahmin, a Deva am I not," replied the Buddha.

"Then Your Reverence will be a Gandhabba?"

"No indeed, branmin, a Gandhabba am I not."

"A Yakkha then?"

"No, indeed, brahmin, not a Yakkha."

"Then Your Reverence will be a human being?" "

No indeed, brahmin, a human being am I not."

"Who, then, pray, will Your Reverence be?"

The Buddha replied that He had destroyed Defilements which condition rebirth as a Deva, Gandhabba, Yakkha, or a human being and added:
"As a lotus, fair and lovely, By the water is not soiled, By the world am I not soiled; Therefore, brahmin, am I Buddha."

The Buddha does not claim to be an incarnation (Avatara) of Hindu God Vishnu, who, as the Bhagavadgita charmingly sings, is born again and again in different periods to protect the righteous, to destroy the wicked, and to establish the Dharma (right).

According to the Buddha countless are the gods (Devas) who are also a class of beings subject to birth and death; but there is no one Supreme God, who controls the destinies of human beings and who possesses a divine power to appear on earth at different intervals, employing a human form as a vehicle.

Nor does the Buddha call Himself a "Saviour" who freely saves others by his personal salvation.

The Buddha exhorts His followers to depend on themselves for their deliverance, since both defilement and purity depend on oneself.

One cannot directly purify or defile another.

Clarifying His relationship with His followers and emphasizing the importance of self- reliance and individual striving, the Buddha plainly states:

"You yourselves should make an exertion. The Tathagatas are only teachers."

The Buddha only indicates the path and method whereby He delivered Himself from suffering and death and achieved His ultimate goal. It is left for His faithful adherents who wish their release from the ills of life to follow the path.

"To depend on others for salvation is negative, but to depend on oneself is positive." Dependence on others means a surrender of one's effort."

"Be an island unto yourselves; be a refuge unto yourselves; seek no refuge in others."

These significant words uttered by the Buddha in His last days are very striking and inspiring. They reveal how vital is self-exertion to accomplish one's ends, and how superficial and futile it is to seek redemption through benignant saviours, and crave for illusory happiness in an afterlife through the propitiation of imaginary gods by fruitless prayers and meaningless sacrifices.

The Buddha was a human being. As a man He was born, as a Buddha He lived, and as a Buddha His life came to an end.

Though human, He became an extraordinary man owing to His unique characteristics.

The Buddha laid stress on this important point, and left no room for any one to fall into the error of thinking that He was an immortal being. It has been said of Him that there was no religious teacher who was "ever so godless as the Buddha, yet none was so god-like."

In His own time the Buddha was no doubt highly venerated by His followers, but He never arrogated to Himself any divinity.

Somebody came up to me once during a conference and asked, "What about 'Our Lady of Fatima'? What do you think of her?”

When I am asked questions like that, I am reminded of the story of the time they were taking the statue of Our Lady of Fatima on an airplane to a pilgrimage for worship, and as they were flying over the South of France the plane began to wobble and to shake and it looked like it was going to come apart.
And the miraculous statue cried out, "Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us!"
And all was well.
Wasn't it wonderful, one "Our Lady" helping another "Our Lady"?

[THE FIRST PICTURE IS OUR LADY OF FATIMA, THE SECOND IS OUR LADY OF LOURDES, ABD THE THIRD OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE]

There was also a group of a thousand people who went on a pilgrimage to Mexico City to venerate the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe and sat down before the statue in protest because the Bishop of the Diocese had declared "Our Lady of Lourdes" patroness of the diocese! They were sure that Our Lady of Guadalupe felt this very much, so they were doing the protest in REPARATION for the offence.

That's the trouble with religion, if you don't watch out.

[NOTE for non-Catholics: The three representations are the three different times in Church history where Our lady, that is Mary, the Mother of Christ appeared to devout children, urging them to pray for the well being of the world.... Now if all three are representations of the same person ....]

DANGER OF RELIGION

The danger of what religion can do is very nicely brought out in a story told by Cardinal Martini, the Archbishop of Milan.

The story has to do with an Italian couple that's getting married.
They have an arrangement with the parish priest to have a little reception in the parish courtyard outside the church.

But it rained, and they couldn't have the reception, so they said to the priest, "Would it be all right if we had the celebration in the church?"

Now Father wasn't one bit happy about having a reception in the church, but they said, "We will eat a little cake, sing a little song, drink a little wine, and then go home."

So Father was persuaded.

But being good life-loving Italians they drank a little wine, sang a little song, then drank a little more wine, and sang some more songs, and within a half hour there was a great celebration going on in the church.

And everybody was having a great time, lots of fun and frolic.

But Father was all tense, pacing up and down in the sacristy, all upset about the noise they were making. The assistant pastor comes in and says, "I see you are quite tense."

Of course, I'm tense. Listen to all the noise they are making, and in the House of God!, for heaven's sake!"

"Well, Father, they really had no place to go."
I know that! But do they have to make all that racket?"





Well, we mustn't forget, must we, Father, that Jesus himself was once present at a wedding!"

Father says, "I know Jesus Christ was present at a wedding banquet, YOU don't have to tell me Jesus Christ was present at a wedding banquet! But they didn't have the Blessed Sacrament there!!!"


You know there are times like that when the Blessed Sacrament becomes more important than Jesus Christ.

When worship becomes more important than love, when the Church becomes more important than life.
When God becomes more important than the neighbour. And so it goes on. That's the danger.

To my mind this is what Jesus was evidently calling us to -- first things first! The human being is much more important than the Sabbath.. Doing what I tell you, namely, becoming what I am indicating to you, is much more important than Lord, Lord.

But your mullah is not going to be happy to hear that, I assure you.
Your priests are not going to be happy to hear that. Not generally. So that's what we have been talking about.


Spirituality. Waking up. And as I told you, it is extremely important if you want to wake up to go in for what I call "self observation." Be aware of what you're saying, be aware of what you're doing, be aware of what you're thinking, be aware of how you're acting. Be aware of where you're coming from, what your motives are. The unaware life is not worth living.

[THIS POST IS AN EXTRACT FROM 'THE UNDISCOVERED SELF' BY ANTHONY DE'MELLO SJ]

NOTE: THE 'BLESED SACRAMENT' is the sacred bread kept in the Catholic Church that represents the Divine presence of Jesus . A lamp burns beside it or in front of it. For Catholics, this is the most sacred presence of the Lord, and it is venerated.

Surprises

Life cannot be static.
Life cannot be stagnant.
Life must flow.

The other day, I heard somebody say,
"There is no life if there are no surprises."

And this set me thinking.
Every minute is a surprise, because you don't know what's it going to bring.

This past week, I have been travelling.

And oh my goodness, didn't it bring surprises!

A lot of surprises.. that one couldn't really call pleasant at that time.

Like finding out that for some strange reason my bank hasn't credited
an important cheque, that I was banking on to do some shopping!

surprise... you've got to change that programme.

Like being caught in the middle of a freak thunderstorm
that turned into pouring rain and hail
that caused a whole lot of traffic jams
on the way to Delhi Airport... that was a surprise
and the greaterone was that I didn't miss the flight
the storm caused congestion at the airport

and that resulted in the most breathtaking surprise of all
watching beautiful Bangalore at night from the air
like Diwali and Christmas rolled in to one
the entire cabin fell silent as we slowly cruised above
the soft lights of the garden city...

and a thought crossed my mind
The pilots who bomb cities must be having this beautiful view.
How beautiful and peaceful, Baghdad must have looked
or any other town on planet earth...

And yet, how could they push a button....

To destroy...????

Imagine all the people, living for today .....

Prostration: an important Vajrayana Practice

Prostration must be done in a special way
watch this video to get an insight
into the Buddhist method of prostratioon

My Jesus Journey

I was ‘born’ into Christianity.

When I was a few days old, somebody carried me to church.

Another somebody mumbled some incantation or the other.

Then he asked me: Do you reject Satan?
I probably answered ‘Goooo’
Somebody answered for me ‘I do’.

And he asked me, a seven day-old baby, a lot of other strange questions as well.
To which Somebody answered ‘I do’

And then he sprinkled holy water over me.
And I probably howled in protest.
And he welcomed me into the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church
The communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
and to life everlasting.

I peed all over him.

The ‘sin of Adam’ was washed away,
And the ‘indelible mark’ of Christ was imprinted on my tiny,
wrinkled brow.

And through the years I came to know that Christianity meant

Sacrifice and pain.

Giving up sweets and nice things for the sake of sinners.
Feeling guilty about having too much of anything, including fun.

No meat of Fridays.

That the Devil was always peeking over your shoulder.
That there were venial sins [in thousands]
and mortal sins [in hundreds]
and unforgivable sins [seven of them]

and Ten Commandments from God
And ten times that by Holy Mother the Church.

And that God was just waiting to watch you slip up
And that the Devil couldn’t wait to see you in hell.

And the only way out
Was

Our fathers
Hail Mary’s
Rosaries
Holy Mass and Novenas

At fourteen, dozens , and then hundreds of questions
Began simmering in my brain…

Then began my Jesus Journey.

First, I discovered the Bible.

Then, I discovered Jesus Christ Superstar.

The latter was much more believable.

[to be continued under ‘My Jesus Journey]

Conversion? What's the point?

Suppose... you try to convert someone from another religion to the Buddhist religion, and you argue with them trying to convince them of the inferiority of their position.

And suppose you do not succeed, suppose they do not become Buddhist.

On the one hand, you have failed in your task, and on the other hand, you may have weakened the trust they have in their own religion, so that they may come to doubt their own faith.

What have you accomplished by all this?

It is of no use.

When we come into contact with the followers of different religions, we should not argue.

Instead, we should advise them to follow their own beliefs as sincerely and as truthfully as possible.

For if they do so, they will no doubt reap certain benefits. Of this there is no doubt.

Even in the immediate future, they will be able to achieve more happiness and more satisfaction.

....When I meet the followers of different religions, I always praise them, for it is enough, it is sufficient, that they are following the moral teachings that are emphasized in every religion.

It is enough, as I mentioned earlier, that they are trying to become better human beings.

This in itself is very good and worthy of praise.

- from "Answers: Discussions with Western Buddhists" by the Dalai Lama, edited by Jose Ignacio Cabezon, published by Snow Lion Publications

DO NOT

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.


Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many.


Do not believe in anything because it is found written in your religious books.












Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.


Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.



But after observation and analysis, when you find anything that agrees with reason and is conductive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.


- Buddha

Man made God in his Image

The fundamentalist has very definite ideas about God.

He knows what God likes.
What God dislikes.
Whom God will punish.
And who is God’s enemy.

The Moslem fundamentalist will wield the Koran.
The ‘Born Again’ Bible freak will shake the Bible at you.
The Militant Hindu will thump you over the head with scriptures written and unwritten.

And they all have so much in common.

The religious bigot will tell you:

That there is only one God and that it’s his one.


That there’s only one book [or compendium of books] that’s true, and of course it’s the one he has.
That only those who listen to his God are the chosen, the elite, the saved.


That all others are barbarians, idolaters, kafirs, outcastes.
That his God doesn’t like variety, free thought, or independent reasoning


That everybody who has a different God is attacking his God and his Religion
That his God is all-powerful.

Strange, these all powerful Gods

are imprisoned within the confines of their little books
These Gods have no other thoughts or will or freedom

than those attributed to them by their own prophets.

Christ as elephant, or mouse

The other day I was visited by an ‘upright’ Christian couple. They sat uncomfortably in my living room, pursing their lips. After a while they asked me, “Do you believe in Jesus Christ?” “Sure,” I said, “Jesus Christ is an historical fact.”

“Then why is it that you have all these non-Christian symbols around your house?” they persisted.

They were obviously perturbed by the Ganesha figure outside my door. And the very many Ganesha statues and symbols that are sprinkled around my house. By the Ganesha symbol on my computer.

Why not? This is India, and why can’t one have Indian images in his house?

Ganesha is a wonderful representation of the power of God. The power of the almighty. The power of mind over matter. The power of Nirvana.

The Ganesha icon is also known as Vighna-mochan. The remover of obstacles. The Ganesha symbol is an elephant headed man astride a mouse. The elephant is the biggest animal in the jungle. Nothing can withstand the charge of the elephant. He can tear a path through the densest and most tangled of forests.

The tiny mouse can cut a passage through the highest mountain. He can tunnel under the hardest rock.

Put the elephant and the mouse together and you have it! A wonderful representation of the remover of obstacles.

I love my Vighna –mochan. The remover of obstacles. That's God. Allah. Christ.

At times of perplexity, Christ comes to me as an elephant. And as a mouse.

Strange, you Christians talk of your God being everywhere. Pity you can’t recognise him.

Aggressive Born Again Christians

I think 'Born Again' Christians
are fine if they limit themselves
to the fact of their so-called rebirth.

The problem with all converts
[and the 'born again' kind are converts]
is that they have to prove themselves
to their adopted communities.
They also have to show their former
Co-religionists that they have made the 'correct' choice

Look at what a nice way of life
Jesus Christ lived
Non-conformist, priest-baiting,
Commune-loving, wine-making,
No other commandment but love
And then came along Paul of Tarsus
A 'Roman-Jew' – that was quite an oxymoron
So the chap has to prove that he's more roman than the Romans
And more Jewish than his other Jews
So he's this great persecutor.

And suddenly, on the Road to Damascus
He'd converted.

That was the end of the teachings of Jesus
And the beginning of Christianity.
The fellow took a simple, everyday, workingman's
view of life
and shoved Peter the Fisherman in the shadows.

The Born again 'Christian' view really means the views of Paul of Tarsus

End of story

The Time is Now

My friends and others I know
have asked me so very often
to put my 'maverick monk outlook'
in a book, so others can 'benefit'
or 'be challenged'

Well,
here's a space....

What'll I talk about?
What should we discuss?

You set the agenda.

Leave a comment or email me
sikkimkrishna@gmail.com

For starters
the famous maverick monk non-negotiable

Everyone has the right to speak.
The right to be taken seriously, however,
Depends entirely upon what one has to say