Dear cbasich American idol is playing in tha background and they are singing of all things a song about Jesus.

My goosebumps are crying tears of Love.

Is is okay to tell you that I feel you have a been a True good Christian today.

So cool it is like they are singing it right into my cells.

"Nothing compares to the promise I had in you" is the name of the song or something like that.

zulubear

Hi zulubear,

You asked whether you have to study religion in order to be a Christian.

No, you don't have to study religion to call yourself a Christian, zulubear. You have full permission to call yourself a Christian, or any other label that you choose. To me, it means choosing to be obedient to Jesus' teaching, but the label means different things to different people. And depending on who you ask, you will get different lists of what other people will require you to do, before that person will give you their "permission" to use that label.

Some people feel like they have exclusive ownership of that particular label. That is why many people accuse others of not being "real" Christians. What we really mean when we accuse someone of not being a "real" Christian" is that someone else's definition of the label is different than mine, (and being certain that "my" definition is right).

So, the history of Christianity is awash in blood that has been spilled over who has the "right" definition of being a Christian. "My definition of the label Christian is right, so that is why I need to hurt you, to prove that I am right. My bible has books in it that your bible doesn't."

"Furthermore, you are not complying with the parts in my bible that aren't in your bible. So, obviously, by divine right, by divine permission that the bible (which I think God Himself wrote) gives me, I will kill you, for not agreeing with me." What happened to the blue light? It has been covered up by a "me" that the mind inserted into a label.

The primordial act of violence

And that is the problem with labels. Replacing a human being with a label is the primordial act of violence. They are no longer human beings, they are "unbelievers." So we no longer see the human being, we only see the label that we have superimposed over that human being. The 9/11 terrorists did not think that they were killing people, they were just killing "unbelievers."

So, the mind in us loves to invent a label, and then insert a "me" into that label. And as soon as we do that the blue light in us, that is the essence of who we are, is cut off by our own mind replacing our real identity with a mind-made identity. We declare to ourselves, and to the world, that, rather than being the blue light that in our essence we are, we are our own creator.

Your Sunday School teacher was partially right.

The essence of who we are, the blue light that we are, is not bad. But, there is a serious dysfunction in us, in humanity. So, the dysfunction is not who we are, but is in us. We are the awareness within which this dysfunction exists. As Jesus said, we are the light of the world. We are that blue light, within which all of the temporary forms of this world can be seen and exist.

What is the dysfunction? The mind in us inserts a "me" into form. In biblical terms this is called idolatry. We mistakenly think that who we are is in this body, or in this possession, or in this opinion, or yes, in this label.

And this is dysfunctional, because it causes us to suffer. As soon as the temporary form that we have identified with starts to crumble, we feel like "we" are crumbling. And the mind goes into fear, into deep emotional pain, into compulsive mode, trying to make the impermanent permanent, to keep that false "me" from dying with the temporary form.

How did the earliest followers of Jesus practice their faith?

So, using the right "label" is not what transforms our lives. The earliest followers of Jesus didn't call themselves "Christians," they called themselves followers of "the way."

Scholars think that their version of the New Testament "bible," for the first 35 to 40 years after Jesus' death was probably a collection of the sayings of Jesus rather than a biography of Jesus. So those first Gospels were not about Jesus, but about what Jesus taught. These earliest followers read his instructions of how to live and followed them.

Scholars believe that all the books in the New Testament were written after Paul replaced Jesus as the real emperor in the Roman religion of the day. That Roman religion taught that the Emperor was divine. That is where many of the titles for Jesus came from. The Son of God, the Prince of Peace, born of a virgin impregnated by a god, were titles and genealogies claimed by the Roman Emperors.

I think this is still OK, and we can still use the New Testament as a pointer to God, because the blue light is the real emperor of the world. But many Christians today don't realize that part of what they are practicing in Christianity came from that old Roman religion, rather than anything that Jesus taught.

The crucial thing in using the bible as a pointer to God, is not to treat the bible as if it is pointing at itself. The bible is not God. No form is divine, as form. So, the words in the bible point to the living word of God, which is beyond all name and form.

The living word of God, would fill more books than the whole earth could ever hold, and would still not be contained in those books, for all books are just limited temporary forms. So I strongly recommend against worshiping the Bible as if is were God, as if it were Divine.

The bible points to the divine, and nothing more. Some view the bible as an infallible divine product, which I consider to be idolatry, and produces a lot of the "bad" religious behavior - the very thing that Jesus taught us not to do. I view the bible as a fallible human product, written after an experience of the divine.

So, what can we do about this dysfunction in us?

As I mentioned before, using the right "label" or creating an imperfect opinion about Jesus in the mind that is in us, is not what will bring about the death of the "me" in form.

The basic message that Jesus taught was to repent (turn away) from this sin, this dysfunction. How? By believing Jesus' teaching and dying to the self that the mind invented and placed into form, into flesh.

And the external practice of being baptized is a symbolic representation of that internal death of the false self. When someone slaps down our self invented me, instead of going into an ego repair job, and slapping back, Jesus taught us to, turn the other cheek.

This turning the other cheek was not a rule for external behavior, but an internal death of the false "me." Let the false self in us be diminished. Why, because that false self is what blocks the blue light that is the essence of who we are from shining out. And this death of the false "me" is the same principle that Eckhart is teaching in his books.

Love our neighbor as ourself

So, once we have died to the false me in our religious opinion (the most important commandment), then we can also obey Jesus' second most important commandment, and love our neighbor as ourself. When the false me is still inhabiting our opinion, we will not be able to love our neighbor with a different religious opinion. Why not, because rather than loving our neighbor we will feel the compulsion to defend our opinion by demanding that our neighbor agree with us.

Once we fully surrender into this moment, and allow the false me to die, then meeting a neighbor with a different religious opinion won't cause us to feel like "we" are being attacked, so we can love our neighbor. So, we can only truly love our neighbor as ourselves, when we can see that the essence of our neighbor is ourselves. We are the blue light, and so is our neighbor. God is not loving, God is love itself. God is the Blue Light. And even a five year old child with no religious education can recognize God, when she sees Him.

I encourage you wholeheartedly to follow Jesus, and to use the label Christian for yourself, if you want to. But infinitely more important than giving yourself the label of being a Christian, is understanding and obeying the core of what Jesus taught.

Repent from inserting a "me" into form, believe and obey Jesus, when he says that we must surrender and die to that false ‘me" and thereby undergo the symbolic baptism, that represents the death of the false me, and the resurrection of our awareness of who we really are.

This is the resurrection of awareness of the Christ consciousness, the blue light that, in our essence we are. And when we deeply, deeply surrender, we live in the peace that passes understanding, then the blue light runs our lives, and we can say, as Paul said, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives through me."

Resources

If I were to point you to one single book to read to have a better understanding of Christianity it would be "The Heart of Christianity," by Marcus Borg. The second book would be "the last week, (or the first Christmas) which are both co-authored by Marcus Borg and John Dominique Crossan. The last week is an excellent study of the Gospel of Mark, which was the earliest biographical Gospel written. I would not recommend reading the gospel of John first, since it was written long after Jesus' death, and is way out of sync with the other three gospels.

Bless you zulubear, as you walk into the blue light that you are. Student99

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