"Get the feast prepared,all the love we shared from so long ago,that we never showed".Lyrics from, The World Will Never End, by Mike Selley.
As stated earlier,the great teachers of mankind told us how to live happy lives.
Strip away the institutional religion that has sprung up surrounding these teachers,and you, if you have ears to hear,can, by following what they said,be free
"Be not led by the authority of religious texts,nor by mere logic or inference,nor by considering appearances,nor by speculative opinion-when you know for yourselves that certain things are wholesome and good,then accept these and follow them." This is from What The Buddha Taught,by Walpole Rahula(Gordon Fraser published 1959, page two)
This is in total contradiction to what our organized religions teach us!
And..."The root of all evil is ignorance and false views" This is also from the aforementioned book.
Some might say that Christ is the only way,or Mohamed, or Krishna, or The Buddha.
All these teachers were, if you ignore the culture where they were established, all saying the same, or very similar things in different ways.
For the Buddhist,the truth is presented in the way it is,because of the cultural ways of thinking of the people.
It is the same for Jesus;he taught according to the peoples understanding and culture at that time.And it is the same for the other great teachers.
If it were possible to teach a cat about truth,you would use expressions that it could relate to;words like food, mice,and warm spots in front of the fire.
To a dog though,you would use other expressions,such as,talking about chasing wild rabbits.lamp posts,finding bones in the garden,and warm spots in front of the fire.
Please have an open mind.
Christ said,"Love your enemies".An attitude we find hard to adopt,but this shows us that we have to view the World in a completely different way.
The great teachers said two things in particular.
The first is that there is only love,and the second is,the little you, you think is you, can have access to Christ, God, Buddha,Supreme being, The All Knowing, or whatever label is stuck on Truth.You are though ,already joined up to That,but are unaware of this .
If you understand this,and experience it at a real level,you will be free and happy forever.
So they are telling us that the self,is the main obstacle to happiness.
But we believe that if we satisfy ourselves,we will be happy.
Yet, when we do satisfy ourselves,the feeling of happiness is only very short-lived,and we find that we keep having to satisfy ourselves over and over.
In fact, the feeling we get is not even happiness,but a brief flash of pleasure,which is not the same at all as true happiness.
We have the great clue here-it is our very selves that are the hindrance and main barrier that stops us living how we should live.
Read the following slowly,then sit back and reflect on what you have understood.
That which makes the Sun shine,
That which makes the World turn,
That which makes the Trees grow,
That which makes the Birds sing,
That which makes your Heartbeat,
That which makes you See,Hear,
Touch, Feel,and have your sense of Taste and Smell
Is You- The Real You-The Hidden You.
If you realize,really do know,that you are That,the ego will be no more;you shall know the Truth:you shall be free.
The way to truth is awareness.
The self(your ego) and love appear to be the two vital ingredients that have to be worked on.
Why do you think Christ said,"Love your enemies?"
Because your enemy,behind his mask, his costume,his persona,that you think of as him or her,is-wait for it-you!
Yes, he and you are really identical essence.
Everybody under the mask is you.
It would be very stupid to attack yourself wouldn't it?
Yet, that is what we have being doing to each other for Centuries.
We will shortly move on to practical exercises and tips to enable you to understand and feel that you, and everyone else are really living in Paradise,as hard as that is to believe.
That is the end of this chapter;the next chapter will follow shortly.
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