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Easter joy!
Simonthepilgrim
Veteran
Both the Buddha and Jesus are perceived by believers to have 'conquered' death, showing us that it is not a final dissolution nor an ultimate tragedy.
May the joy of renewal and the rebirth of hope in the depth of despair be with all of us, today and every day, however we choose to celebrate this time of the year.
May the joy of renewal and the rebirth of hope in the depth of despair be with all of us, today and every day, however we choose to celebrate this time of the year.
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Comments
But my good wishes go out to you just the same.
Palzang
I could never understand why his death was a sacrifice for all of us. While he was a noble teacher convicted of an imaginary crime, his death was pointless and achieved nothing.
If you can 'never' understand it, maybe you haven't looked into the whole story deeply enough.
I don't believe in God, but I can totally equate with this guy and his intention, whatever your opinion of it all might be.....
Despite this, we are to see him as deliberately "handing himself over" and, thereby, achieving completion (whatever we deem that to be). It is because of his determination to stick to his message not because of some airy-fairy "innocence" that the events around the first Easter have resonance.
We live in a society that appears to value only those who are active, whilst those who are condemned to be acted upon are discounted (the invalid, the priosner in the dock, the old, etc.) If you look at the actual syntax of Mark's account of Jesus' life, you can see that the first part of the story has Jesus as the subject of most of the verbs: he is active and acting. After the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus becomes the object of the verbs: he is acted upon, by his own decision.
For me (and I accept that this is heterodox), Jesus is showing us that, in the words of the Gita, we live in a "field of action". His message and the Way of Compassion that he taught is as relevant to the victim, the guilty and the passive as to the activist. This is a part of the message to "become as little children": children are powerless, oppressed and deemed important only because of their potential. He says, paradoxically as always, that we must become powerless and give up our own "I want" if we are to find the way of liberation.
A guilty Jesus who remains "Chosen and Anointed by God" is a far more mysterious and challenging figure - and one who inspires me much more than some pre-Raphaelite, bloodless "innocent".
Jesus was guilty as charged of the idiotic crimes of his day. Blasphemy, heresy, and other such crimes are victimless and imaginary. They are only wrong in light of a theocratic or authoritarian government (which Jerusalem represented quite well).
To save his life, all he would have had to do was renounce the claim that he was indeed God incarnate. I don't see the nobility in his stubborness. Had he continued his ministry, he could have achieved a lot more than simply dying for a silly delusion in being God.
I would not underestimate the power of martyrdom, or the allure of someone who was willing to sacrifice themselves for their beliefs and convictions to people seeking a greater meaning and purpose in life. It is quite conceivable that the teachings of Jesus would never have made it to the heart of the Roman Empire, and consequentially to the present day, if he had not been willing to lay down his life for what he stood for. He would not be much a spiritual teacher if he were to renounce everything that he taught to his disciples.
Jason
I do not underestimate its power either. There have been plenty of martyrs in history and to this day. There are only 2 that I respect. Gandhi and MLK. Almost all the rest, and more specifically the Muslim extremists of Iraq, I find to be detestable.
Jesus died because he was deluded into thinking he was God. I am sure he truly believed that he was too. He didn't deserve to die for something as trivial as a delusion like that, but unfortunately he died none the less.
Perhaps the idea of a guilty Jesus is too revolutionary in a world which (whether pro- or anti-Christian) has turned him from a tough-minded innovator into a milksop: he was guilty under the law of Moses and under the laws of Rome. Paul makes the point that the Law kills. It still does. For me, Jesus lies strapped to a gurney with every executed criminal and in the gutter with every social reject.
I am sorry that you can only find two people who have laid down their loves for others, KoB. The Mahatma and MLK Jr. are only two more recent examples. Health workers die regularly of the very diseases they tend (see Peter Damian as an example, although there are many whose names are not recorded). Non-swimmers throw themseves into rivers to save people drowning. Parents walk miles, starving and waterless, to carry their children to the nearest hospital. All sorts of heroic 'martyrdoms' go unnoticed everywhere and, probably, every day. This is what is 'held up' and 'sanctified' by the example of Jesus. It is a statement that one person dying in love can save the whole world.
At least that is my view, and the reason that I continue to find the Jesus example so inspiring.
I have always thought of a martyr as someone willing to sacrifice their life for some type of ideal. Political, social, religious, or what have you. I named those two because I can't think of any good martyrs through history whose cause was actually decent in nature.
I understand EMS, police, and many others sacrifice themselves all the time. But I don't consider them martyrs.
:-/
Palzang
This is precisely how I understand the Christian statement about "dying for us". The world has been blessed by thousands of generous and loving people who give their lives for others. Most have no memorial except in the individual memory. I am daily thankful for their selflessness.
–noun:
1. a person who willingly suffers death rather than renounce his or her religion.
2. a person who is put to death or endures great suffering on behalf of any belief, principle, or cause: a martyr to the cause of social justice.
3. a person who undergoes severe or constant suffering: a martyr to severe headaches.
4. a person who seeks to alleviate the torment or suffering of others through self-sacrifice or personal deprivation of comfort.
–verb (used with object) 5. to make a martyr of, esp. by putting to death.
6. to torment or torture. "
I trust the definitions help to clarify the exactitude of what a Martyr is, KoB.
One's perception or ideal is one thing. But compare it to the verifiable definition, and perhaps this might help to brioaden your outlook.
Not so, dear friend, as Fede's quotation from the dictionary makes clear. The origin of the word, in Greek, means a "witness" and the Christian churches used the word to describe those who had died in the Roman persecutions. Whilst it is still used in that context, it is precisely context that counts.
Palzang
KoB,
Certainly the romanticized, mythologized version of Christian superstition that we call Christianity has little appeal to me as well beyond its ability to inspire kindness, compassion & charity. As Ghandi said, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” I abandoned the faith for a reason.
However, if you dig a little deeper you may find a much more universal & less magical message being put forward in the stories of Jesus. As the facts of his life beyond what we have in the Canon & Coptic texts are difficult to really pin down, what we have left is the message that these stories tell us. If you can really get to the point of all of them, you will see that Christ's message really isn't about miraculous events or blind faith in an unverifiable belief systems.
It IS about living with an open heart & experiencing the beauty & profundity of living such a life. It's about putting down our delusional storylines that constitute 'our lives' and acting with pure intentions & innocence. 'Laying down one's' life for their brothers & sisters doesn't just mean dying for them. In fact, I would say the focus on Jesus' death as a singular act of laying down his life demonstrates an incredible lack of understanding on the part of Christians. It could be said that everything he did & taught was a constant laying down of his own life. And that is what we are to emulate. IMO, when Jesus said those who followed him would do far greater things (than his miracles) this is what I believe he meant.
Now, when we get to the theological aspect of the path, I run into some problems, but this part I can understand & consider to be a valid spiritual path.
metta
_/\_