05 Apr 2009, 8:19 pm
05 Apr 2009, 8:59 pm
10 Apr 2009, 6:10 am
alba wrote:
In this thread, ouinon brings up the idea that Jesus [prior to crucifixion] represents our belief in the illusion of freewill ... maybe Christianity is saying the same thing as the Eastern religions, but it got mucked up along the historical way...Maybe ouinon's theory is mending the rift between East and West---in their spiritual traditions ... Belief in freewill [and the separate self] is the father/mother of all suffering and illusion, or sin. Christians believe they are giving their life and will to Jesus, in order to have God's will take control in their life. This is another way of saying they have given up belief in freewill ... The problem is that they haven't.
Pretty ironic isn't it.
It was Augustine who really messed things up by writing about the gospels as if they were about real people, each of them with free will. He, along with most of the romans of the day, took the story too literally.
I agree with you that Christianity, ( the first couple of centuries of it anyway, and the gospel(s) itself ), was probably profoundly influenced by/linked with Eastern spiritual perspectives, especially buddhism.
But unfortunately the myth was taken literally, and, together with Islam, western religion took a step backwards/sideways, to more "efficient" empire-building-beliefs.
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