Did Jesus Teach
Eastern Philosophy
In the past ten years it has become clear to me that the preponderance
of scientific evidence, plus the universal belief by eastern philosophers,
says - our minds, or our consciousness, is one with God and all of life.
Therefore our happiness lay not in the external world but within us. This
picture is quite different than the Western Christian view. Their interpretation
of New Testament and Jesus words says that "sin" is the reason
for all the unhappiness in the world. Sin in this case meaning wrong doing
against other people and God, or transgressing against God and other people.
In this view God is an entity, like a person, who took his hands and made
the universe separate from him. Like a person molds a clay pot and sets
it up on a shelf. This means that our soul is in our body, breathed into
it by God like pouring water into the pot. We are the clay pots setting
on the shelf called earth.
Where this picture of God matches everyday experience, and is easy to
conceptualize, this is not at all the picture painted by quantum physics,
Bell's Theorem, the majority of the eastern philosophers, or by early
western philosophers. So who is right? Jesus or all this scientific evidence
and philosophers? How can Jesus be wrong and thus million of Christians?
This surprised and bothered me. Then it came to me that maybe Jesus wasn't
wrong but somehow he was misquoted. Sure enough, if one goes back to the
Aramaic text and looks at the root meaning of the words Jesus is quoted
as saying, one finds a number of big surprises. For example, the word
"amartano" is the root word translated into English as "sin",
but the root meaning comes from archery and means to have missed the mark.
So sin is not something we have done but something we haven't done. Likewise
the word "metanoia" is translated into English as "repent",
but a more literal translation is "a transformation of mind."
In other words a breakthrough in ones thinking. Again, not something we
should do but something that will happen to us.
So when Jesus says, "Sinners repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is
at hand," he is not telling us to stop our "bad-doing ways"
because the Day of Judgment is coming, he is saying you who have missed
your target, or have an error in your thinking. Transform your mind (change
your thinking) and you will see that happiness is not in the world around
us but, "at hand", or with-in you.
What a difference! This translation matches eastern philosophy, matches
Bells theorem, and matches quantum theory. It all fits. Jesus is not telling
us to stop transgressing against other people or God, he is saying that
if you look into your heart you will find happiness and the kingdom of
Heaven. Then, just by default, you will no longer long need to transgress
against others or God. The reason that we treat other people so badly
is because we are looking to others for our happiness. This leads to competition
and hurt feelings, which feeds on itself and creates many problems in
the world.
Then if you reread the bible with this different perspective you see this
all through Jesus words. In Luke 17:20-21 Jesus says, "… the
kingdom of God is within you." Clearly if the kingdom of God is within
us all and happiness is what we seek, all we have to do is look within
our own hearts, for true love has no need to transgress against other
people or God. Eastern philosophy in a nut shell.
