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Jesus
Category: Mystic
Jesus of Nazareth was born around 4 BC/BCE and died around 30 AD/CE. He thus lived to only 34 years old. Also known as Jesus Christ, he is the central figure of the religion of Christianity.
Jesus is included as a source, not because he is the central figure of a religion, but because he was a mystic and healer. The Institutionalised Christian Church’s somewhat obsessive concentration on the ‘virgin birth’, the ‘resurrection’, the ‘Trinity [as they see it] and the ‘cross’ has obscured the fact that he was an extremely effective mystic and perhaps one that embodied all the aspects that one would search for in a mystic, for example:
- He was a teacher of spiritual and moral wisdom and generally taught by analogy and parable. All his teaching was based on simple guidelines such as ‘love your neighbour’, ‘love your enemies’, ‘turn the other cheek’ and so on which actually help in gaining spiritual experience I suppose you can think of them as moral guidelines, but they were possibly the first codified use of suppression techniques – a real achievement.
- He was an extremely effective faith healer and could heal by touch.
- There is some evidence he had some very extensive ‘shamanic type’ powers – weather control, levitation etc.
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- He was reincarnated – that is died and was reincarnated but in his own body [this again is in opposition to the teachings of the Christian Church which attempts to tell its adherents that when you die you go to ‘heaven’ and are not reincarnated].
- He taught ‘unity’ – that we as humans and living creatures are all one, there is no difference – one soul in the spiritual world is like any other soul – of equal value [again this seems to be in direct opposition to the Christian Church which seems to preach differences – Catholicism, Anglican, Lutheran, not to mention Islam etc etc].
- He urged each person to take their own spiritual journey not relying on buildings, temples, images, chants, rituals, institutionalised observances and so on. He taught from hilltops, preached in the open air, did not promote himself, needed no politically organised hierarchy to support him and was uninterested in wealth and possessions [again unlike the Christian church which has formed a huge empire of wealth, possessions, buildings, and hierarchical organisation].
- He taught that every person is capable of finding the spiritual realm in his lifetime – that is it is neither an exclusive club, nor do you have to wait until you die to experience it [again the Christian Church does not teach this, it only teaches that the good ‘see’ heaven and that this only happens after they die – a sort of jam tomorrow approach].
- He deplored senseless rite and ritual and saw no reason why any food should be prohibited, for example, or anybody’s body should be senselessly mutilated, nor that any pointless actions should be undertaken [again the Christian Church appears to have taken rite and ritual to extremes with its flagellation, mortification, circumcision, communion rites and so on].
As you can therefore see, it was thus most important that the teachings and sayings of Jesus were used and not the Institutionalised Christian Church, as the two appear to be different. In fact it is somewhat difficult to see what relation the Christian Church as an institution has with Jesus the mystic.
The principal sources recognised by the Institutionalised Christian Church regarding Jesus' life and teachings, are the three Gospels in the New Testament - the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Mark, and the Gospel of Luke. These display a high degree of similarity in content, narrative arrangement, language, and sentence and paragraph structures. This uniformity has led to speculation that the Christian Instutionalised Church edited these gospels heavily later, in order to achieve a consistent picture, and that ideas and opinions with which the Church leaders did not agree, have been edited out.
The letters of Clement of Alexandria to Theodore somewhat back this belief up. He explains that there was a ‘secret’ Gospel of Mark.
During Peter’s stay in Rome, he wrote an account of the Lord’s doings, not however, declaring all of them nor yet hinting at the secret ones, but selecting what he thought most useful for increasing the faith of those who were being instructed. But when Peter died a martyr, Mark came over to Alexandria bringing both his own notes and those of Peter from which he transferred to his former book the things suitable to whatever makes for progress toward knowledge.Thus he composed a more spiritual Gospel for use of those who were being perfected. Nevertheless, he yet did not divulge the things not to be uttered nor did he write down the hierophantic teaching of the Lord, but to the stories already written he added yet others and moreover brought in certain sayings of which he knew the interpretation would, as a mystic, lead the hearers into the innermost sanctuary of the truth hidden by seven veils. Thus, in sum, he prepared matters neither grudgingly nor incautiously in my opinion and dying, he left his composition to the church in Alexandria, where it even yet is most carefully guarded, being read only to those who are being initiated into the great mysteries.
Other sources on Jesus’s life include the Gospel of John, which differs from the three ‘official expurgated’ gospels; as well as the Gnostic Gospels, which include:
- Gospel of Mary (recovered in 1896)
- Gospel of Thomas (versions found in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt in 1898, and again in the Nag Hammadi Library and held by most to be the earliest of the Gnostic gospels
- Gospel of Truth (Nag Hammadi Library)
- Gospel of Philip (Nag Hammadi Library)
- Gospel of Judas (recovered via the antiquities black market in 1983, and then reconstructed in 2006) - this is not Judas Iscariot but Judas the brother of one of the disciples - James
Luke 6:16 King James Version (KJV)
16 And Judas the brother of James
Other possible sources include the Odes of Solomon, and the teachings of the Pistis Sophia. I have tried to draw on all these source where it is feasible to do so.
Observations
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- Jesus - John 14 - In my Father's house are many mansions
- Jesus - John 14 - Spirit helpers
- Jesus - John 3 - Jesus Teaches Nicodemus
- Jesus - John 5 & 6 - On God
- Jesus - John 6 - Walking on water
- Jesus - Luke 10 - Love your neighbour as you would yourself
- Jesus - Luke 12 - Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed
- Jesus - Luke 13 - A Crippled Woman Healed on the Sabbath
- Jesus - Luke 17 - Where is heaven?
- Jesus - Luke 18 - Healing the blind beggar of Jericho
- Jesus - Luke 18 - Rich men and camels
- Jesus - Luke 4 - And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost
- Jesus - Luke 4 - In Simon's house
- Jesus - Luke 5 - Heals leprosy
- Jesus - Luke 5 - Summoning fishes
- Jesus - Luke 6 - Heals a withered hand
- Jesus - Luke 6 - Heals the multitude
- Jesus - Luke 6 - Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you
- Jesus - Luke 7 - Healing and giving sight to the blind
- Jesus - Luke 7 - Healing the Centurion's servant
- Jesus - Luke 7 - Raises the dead
- Jesus - Luke 8 - Calming the storm
- Jesus - Luke 8 - Healing an 'issue of blood'
- Jesus - Luke 8 - The transfiguration
- Jesus - Mark 5 - And Jairus' daughter
- Jesus - Mark 8 - For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul
- Jesus - Matthew 13 - Grain of mustard seed
- Jesus - Matthew 13 - On parables
- Jesus - Matthew 18 - Except ye be converted, and become as little children
- Jesus - Matthew 24 - The End of the World and Judgement day
- Jesus - Matthew 5 : 01 - Blessed are the poor in spirit
- Jesus - Matthew 5 : 38 - Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you
- Jesus - Matthew 7 - The Narrow and Wide Gates
- Jesus - Matthew 7:21 - Why are we here
- Jesus - Matthew 9 - And the power of forgiveness
- Jesus - The Gospel of Judas - Archons
- Jesus - The Gospel of Judas - Visits a noble, sacred people beyond this world
- Jesus - The Gospel of Mary Magdalene - And the aeons
- Jesus - The Gospels - Love your enemies
- Jesus - The Sophia of Jesus Christ - Aeons and angels
- Jesus - The Sophia of Jesus Christ - And the aeons
- Jesus - The Sophia of Jesus Christ - He meditated with his bride Sophia
- Jesus - Wikipedia - Examples of expunging demons
- Jesus - Wikipedia - Examples of healing
- Mathew 24
- Matthew 12 : 37
- The Sophia of Jesus Christ - Do ye seek after these Mysteries?