I have been reflecting…. In the worst way….
As a minister I reflect on Christianity often, more so after this last election. Christianity is nothing to mess with, and Christians, if there was any doubt before November of 2004, are a force to be reckoned with.
My wife rented “Jesus Christ, Superstar” from Netflicks. Not the original one that I really love but the newer one. It was actually quite excellent. It is the 2001 redo, the “inner city, Broadway” version.
It would have been interesting to meet Jesus, or at least have been an observer of the events that lead to his death, if he in fact actually died and wasn’t rescued from horrible crucifixion. It would have been enlightening to have been able to learn if he in fact had traveled to India or Tibet to study Buddhism during his thirty lost years. Even more interesting would have been to learn of Jesus' actual physical appearance and whether or not he really looked like a white long-haired Peter Fonda.
For my thinking though, as a minister and as a Buddhist, the only true comparative religious study would have to come from being able to study the cultural history of another inhabited world system and in it a completely different alien species.
What I suspect is that Christianity is a function of life, and a manifestation of the emerging intelligence of any self-aware species and not the unique appearance of a human prophet or the son of an omnipresent cosmic being.
I also suspect that the function (emphasis on the word function, if you haven’t already noticed I use it often) of Christianity is a naturally occurring phenomena when any species achieves, or arrives at the point of self-awareness, i.e. Eve eating and feeding the apple of intelligence to Adam leading to expulsion from Eden.
Self awareness leads to the path of self discovery which, if avoided, leads simply and naturally to self-loathing which is, in my opinion, the very basis of Christian faith. Christianity, the fundamentalist or evangelical kind, simply doesn’t tolerate the possibility that there can be other religions or faiths, and this kind of intolerance is based on self-loathing and the need to make everyone the same in order to achieve validation. When this doesn’t happen everyone else simply becomes wrong, or even evil. Yet again I digress….
My real point is that if we were able to study alien civilizations I suspect that we would find similar appearances of murdered prophets and their coorsponding self-loathing religious traditions. I mean, think about how many religious leaders and prophets have come and gone without leaving any lasting impression, all because they failed to get themselves horribly murdered.
Sure, there’s Nichiren, but the Buddhist tradition doesn’t seem to seek it’s validation through the hanging of its pioneers up on planks of wood.
It’s all just food for thought really, and that’s my job so there it is.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Rev. Greg, Shidoshi
I don't know if I'd have wanted to meet the teacher Jesu. He lived in times cursed with the Chinese curse of being "interesting times." A land being gradually dominated by the Romans. Where his religion was fractuous and felt oppressed by Roman idolatry. Where the Romans couldn't see the difference between Jupiter/Zeus and the "invisible God" of the Jews and kept trying to force the Jews to worship Jupiter.
And finally the "real" man, if there was one, was probably different from all the written accounts. He may even have been a fictional character. "Jesu" -- salvation, of whom stories were told of what he said and did. In any case I now believe the fellow probably did actually live. That itself might be interesting to be able to verify. But which would you prefer, an itinerate self educated carpenter, or a god-man?
Posted by: chris_holte at November 19, 2004 06:45 PMHi, Greg - I thought this was an interesting post, and I agree with Michael (above) that the whole Jesus concept is probably an eminationof Bodhissattva somebody-or-another (Sorry I don't have the scholarly chops to name any names!) I do have alot of trouble with any religious belief system which believes that violence has an inherent cleansing quality, though. The Gibson picture was a real religious barf, to me. Almost made me give up my Bodhissatva vows. Bleh! Best to everyone, Byrd in LA
Posted by: Byrd in LA at November 8, 2004 09:28 PMI also suspect that the whole thing is a universal function. A couple of weeks ago I reread the Flower Garland Sutra and there are many passages where the bodhisattvas vow to take on all sorts of horrendous suffering in order to liberate others. They even vow to become food and drink for those who are thirsty or starving (this is my body, this is my blood). Either the early Mahayanists were getting reports from Palestine or they were tapping into the same archetype of self-sacrificing love that the early Christians tapped into when making sense of the death of Jesus. It is one of the main reasons why I identify Jesus as an emanation of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva (the other reason has to do with the idea of the Cosmic Man whose body contains and is immanent in all things - a motif that appears in the Flower Garland Sutra and the New Testament).
Also, your essay reminded me of these lines from the song "Jesus Christ Superstar" that I have always found thought provoking:
"Tell me what you think about your friends at the top
Who d'you think besides yourself's the pick of the crop?
Buddha was he where it's at? Is he where you are?
Could Mahomet move a mountain or was that just PR?
Did you mean to die like that? Was that a mistake or
Did you know your messy death would be a record-breaker?
Don't you get me wrong - I only want to know
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
Hey Greg....
I do enjoy your blogs. Always food for thought.
Danna