Jesus: The Missing Years 1

In the New Testament, the curtain of silence comes down again on the life of Jesus after his twelfth year, not to rise once more until eighteen years later, at which time he receives baptism from John and begins preaching to the multitude. We are told only:

      And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man (Luke 2:52).

For the contemporaries of such an extraordinary figure to find nothing noteworthy to record from his childhood to his thirtieth year is in and of itself extraordinary.

Remarkable accounts, however, do exist, not in the land of Jesus' birth but farther east where he spent most of the unaccounted-for years. Hidden away in a Tibetan monastery lie priceless records.

They speak of a Saint Issa from Israel "in whom was manifest the soul of the universe"; who from the age of fourteen to twenty-eight was in India and regions of the Himalayas among the saints, monks, and pundits;* who preached his message throughout that area and then returned to teach in his native land, where he was treated vilely, condemned, and put to death.

Except as chronicled in these ancient manuscripts, no other history of the unknown years of jesus' life has ever been published.

Providentially, these ancient records were discovered and copied by a Russian traveler, Nicholas Notovitch. During his travels in India in 18987, Notovitch basked in the wonders of the soul-stirring stark contrasts of her ancient civilization. It was amidst the natural grandeur of Kashmir that he heard stories about a Saint Issa, the details of which left no doubt in him that Issa and Jesus Christ were one and the same person.

He learned that copies of ancient manuscripts preserved in some Tibetan monasteries contained a record of Issa's years of sojourn in India, Nepal, and Tibet. Undeterred by hazards and obstacles, he journeyed northward, finally arriving at the Himis monastery outside of Leh, the capital city of Ladakh, which he was told possessed a copy of the sacred books about Issa.

Though he was received graciously, he did not gain access to the manuscripts. A disappointed Notovitch turned back toward India; but in a near-fatal mishap on the treacherous mountain pass, his leg was broken in a fall. Seizing this as an opportunity for a second attempt to see the sacred books, he asked to be carried back to Himis to receive the necessary care.

This time, after repeated requests, the books were brought to him. Perhaps the lamas now felt obliged to treat as hospitably as possible their stricken guest--a time-honored tradition in the East. With the help of an interpreter, he meticulously copied the contents of the pages pertinent to Jesus as they were read to him by the head lama.

Returning to Europe, Notovitch found that his enthusiasm for the discovery was not shared by the Western Christian orthodoxy, which was loath to support such a radical revelation. So he published his notes himself in 1894 under the title The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ.

In his publication, he urged that a qualified research team be dispatched to view and judge for itself the value of these previously secreted documents. Though Notovitch's claims were challenged by critics in America and Europe, the accuracy of his account was attested to by at least two other reputable persons who journeyed to Tibet to seek out and ascertain the authenticity of these manuscripts.

MORE ON CONFIRMING JESUS WENT TO INDIA...

TO BE CONTINUED...

(The Second Coming of Christ: The Resurrection of the Christ Within You: A revelatory commentary on the original teachings of Jesus, Paramahansa Yogananda, Volume I)

*The term originates from the Sanskrit term pandit (paṇḍitá), meaning "knowledge owner ". It refers to someone who is erudite in various subjects and who conducts religious ceremonies and offers counsel to the king and usually referred to a person from the Hindu Brahmin caste but may also refer to the Siddhas, Siddhars, Naths, Ascetics, Sadhus, orYogis.

Genesis (Bonus Features)

While the Genesis story in the Bible focuses on the fall of original man,
the Hindu scriptures extol the first beings on earth as divine individuals
who could assume corporeal forms and similarly create offspring
by divine command of their will.

In one such account, in the hoary Purana, Srimad Bhagavata,
the first man and woman in physical form,
the Hindu 'Adam and Eve,'
were called Svayambhuva Manu
('man born of the Creator')
and his wife Shatarupa
('having a hundred images or forms')
whose children intermarried with Prajapatis,
perfect celestial beings who took physical forms to become
the progenitors of mankind.

Thus, entering the original unique human forms created by God
were souls that had either passed through the upward
evolutionary stages of creation as Prakriti prepared the earth
for the advent of man,
or were pristine souls that had descended to earth specifically
to begin the world's human population.

In either case, original man was uniquely endowed to express
soul perfection.

Those 'Adams and Eves' and their offspring
who maintained their divine consciousness in
the 'Eden' of the spiritual eye
returned to Spirit or the heavenly realms
after a blissful sojourn on earth.

The 'fallen' human beings
and their 'fallen' offspring
were caught in the reincarnational cycles
that are the fate of desire-filled,
sense-identified mortals.

(God Talks With Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita, commentary on XV:I)

Breath, Heart, Circulation (The Second Coming 2)

Patanjali, "India's greatest exponent of yoga,"
describes PREFRONTAL as Ishvara, the Cosmic Lord or Ruler.

Prefrontal's symbol is Pranava,
the "holy word or sound",
Aum, or Amen.

By prayerful, repeated chanting of "Aum"
and meditation on its meaning,
obstacles are said to disappear,
as the consciousness turns inward,
away from external sensory identification.*

***
The common condition of human beings
is that their consciousness is hidebound by the body.

Yoga teaches that the aspirant must retrace
the various states of "higher vibrations"
in order to lift the consciousness
from the captive vibrations of breath, heart,
and circulation -- to the more subtly vibrating sound
emanating from the bodily atoms and "life force."

By the specific technique of meditation on "Aum,"
the devotee becomes aware of consciousness
as limited by the constrictions of the flesh,
evidenced by the sounds of breath, heart, and circulation.

And then...

...by a deepening of meditation,
she hears the voice of the great Aum, or Amen,
the cosmic sound emanating from all atoms
and sparks of cosmic energy.

By listening to his sound,
merging in its stream,
the body-caged consciousness
gradually spreads itself
from the limitations of the body
into omnipresence.

The mental faculties renounce their boundaries.
Prefrontal reunites with intuition.

The gurus call it Cosmic mind,
the intelligence immanent in the
"all-pervasive Cosmic Vibration."

You can call it w/e you want.
It's just a feeling you have.
A great feeling,
but just a feeling the same.

The distant goal of Prefrontal Consciousness
inhabiting your consciousness at all times.

*Pantanjali is most known for his Yoga Sutras.

The Second Coming 1

If you imagine a book release of "the Good Parts of the Bible," as I do, you should clearly see, at the end perhaps, after Revelation, a new book of the bible or several.

This is the first new chapter from that new book, but it's a work in progress, so it's title is a working title: The Second Coming of Christ.

For the sake of simplicity, we could say this book of the bible will be written by Paramahansa Yogananda, as our version will be the Good Parts of his version to a large extent.

***

The Second Coming

Chapter 1

Before the advent of Jesus, Sage Vyasa (writer of the Bhagavad Gita), was a son of the Prefrontal, one with the only begotten reflection of Prefrontal, the Kutastha Chaitanya or Christ Consciousness.

So also, others having Christ Consciousness became thereby sons of Prefrontal.

India's priceless contribution to the world, discovered anciently by her rishis, is the science of religion -- yoga, "divine union" -- by which Prefrontal can be known, not as a theological concept but as an actual personal experience.

Of all scientific knowledge, the yoga science of Prefrontal-Realization is the highest value to man, for it strikes at the root-cause of all human maladies: ignorance, the beclouding envelopment of delusion.

When one becomes firmly established in God-realization, delusion is transcended & the subordinate mortal consciousness is elevated to Christlike status.

***

Exodus 1

Stranger in a Strange Land***

   From what I remember, Exodus is mostly about Moses. 

                       "...the angel of the LORD appeared unto Moses in a flame 

                       of fire out of the midst of a bush: & he looked, &, behold, 

                       the bush burned with fire, & the bush was not consumed."

   For a while now, I've suspected & have half-been-holding my breath for organized religion to come up with the notion that they can increase attendance (& hence revenue) by putting a special FX burning bush behind the altar, or something similar.  I don't see what's keeping them from duping the mouth-breathers*** with updated, more believable versions of their old crying pictures of Saints or a rod that turns into a snake or water that separates into opposing waterfalls or whatnot. 

    It'd be so easy. & so profitable.

                    "& Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, 

                & shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; 

                & they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?

                & God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: & he said, Thus shalt thou say 

                unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you."

***Message to Christians: The author of this blog is not anti-Christian, nor is he anti-Christianity. In fact, he is quite a fan of Jesus Christ & what he was about. In fact, he tries to live his life like Jesus said to live. However, the author of this blog has a most serious objection to the way in which organized followers of Jesus Christ have behaved over the centuries. 

For one example of a book better than the Bible at explaining how to live like Jesus, see Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. 

Genesis, Circumcised

No One Should Have 

To Read The Bible... 

...But...***

Ronald Hendel writes:

   If we think about the book of Genesis (which I enjoy doing), it is worth remembering that many aspects of our laws & culture are rooted, directly or indirectly, in debates about the meaning of Genesis. 

The Civil War, for instance, has been described as the result of a crisis in biblical interpretation, in which the biblical position on slavery -- for or against -- was settled at the cost of massive bloodshed & trauma. 

Slave owners used a (mis)interpretation of the story of Noah's curse of Ham to justify slavery.

But the last & best word was spoken by Abraham Lincoln, who referred to the Garden of Eden story in his Second Inaugural Address: "It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces." 

In Genesis 3, God says to Adam: "You shall eat bread by the sweat of your face." 

Lincoln relied on Genesis to say that slavery violates this rule of the human condition. 

Lincoln was thinking with & through Genesis, consulting it as a register of cultural & religious values. 

& by invoking Genesis, Lincoln sounded the mystic chords of religious memory, which bring a larger vista onto daily reality.

This is why we should still read the Bible. 

It's not a newspaper or a history book or a science book. 

But it is a book that lies at the heart of western culture, & it still has a claim on us, whether we believe in it or not. 

We still define ourselves & our world in relation to it. 

Even if we reject it, we are taking a stand & acknowledging its presence. 

It's like the 800 pound gorilla in the middle of the room. 

You can try to ignore it, but you still have to walk around it.

In recent times, religious conservatives have claimed that their interpretation of the Bible is the only valid one. 

This is incorrect. 

The idea of biblical inerrancy is a relatively recent idea, an anti-modern reaction against the rise of science & biblical scholarship. 

It's time to reclaim this book as a cultural icon that belongs to all of us. 

It is still our root & branch, a book of magical realism in whose shadow we still dwell.

In this blog, we'll be summarizing Genesis, so if you've read thru all the blogs so far, your work here is basically done. 

I just like to see how far we've boiled down this longass 1st book of the Bible from its verbiose verbosity to something, maybe(?) readable. At the end of this blog, I hope to have made it all the way thru Revelation (although I have already considered simply including it in its entirety, what with it being so weird & possibly worth reading in its entirety) & then we'll maybe have a (normal-sized) book that someone outside the church might voluntarily decide to read some day. 

This is sounding more & more far-fetched the more I think about it. 

W/o further ado, I give you Genesis, circumcised. 

                   In the beginning, God created the heaven & the earth. 
                   & God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. 
                   A talking snake, who's very existence calls into question God's 
                   omnipotence, pisses God off so God is all, "Hey Talking Snake, 
                   you jerk! Because thou hast done this, thou art curst above all 
                   cattle, & above ev'ry beast of the field. Upon thy belly shalt thou go."

                   & God chortled, smugly. But there was something caught in his teeth, 
                   so he looked ridiculous. "Why did I even create a talking snake?"
                   God wonder'd.

                   Cain rose up against Abel his brother, & slew him, asking God, 
                   "Am I my brother's keeper?" 

                   Cain knew his wife, who logically could only have been his own mother,
                   & she conceived. His dad, Adam, lived 930 years. All the days of 
                   Methusaleh, however, were 969.

                   & it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth,
                   & daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the 
                   daughters of men that they were fair; & they took them wives of all 
                   which they chose. There were giants in the earth in those days; & also
                   after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, 
                   & they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were
                   of old, men of renown.

                   Talking to humans, God or the Gods are all: "Every moving thing 
                   that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given
                   you all things." 

                   & the whole earth was of one language, & of one speech,
                   & the LORD said, "Behold, the people is one, & they have all one 
                   language & now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have
                   imagined to do. Go to, let us go down to confound their language, 
                   that they may not understand one another's speech.
         
                   So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the
                   earth. Therefore is the name of it Babel; because the LORD did there
                   confound the language of all the earth: & from thence did the LORD
                   scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

                   P.S. - "The uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not
                   circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken
                   my covenant."

                   Yada, yada, yada, Lot's daughters rape him & bear his children. & it came
                   to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, & said unto him,
                   "Abraham: Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest,
                   & get thee into the land of Moriah; & offer him there for a burnt offering
                   upon one of the mountains which I tell thee of. 

                   & Abraham rose up early in the morning, & saddled his ass, & took two of 
                   his young men with him, & Isaac his son, & clave the wood for the burnt
                   offering, & rose up, & went unto the place of which God had told him.

                   Isaac is all like, "What's up with the fire & wood, Dad? Where's the lamb
                   for the burnt offering?"

                   Abraham stretched forth his hand & took the knife to slay his son--

                   God intervenes at the last second: "Lay not thine hand upon the lad,
                   neither do thou anything unto him: for now I know that thou fearest
                   God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.

                   Onan jerks off instead of fucking his dead brother's wife & God's so 
                   pissed he not only kills him but makes masturbation a sin & the last 
                   fifty or so chapters of Genesis are all about how you'll go blind if you 
                   touch yourself.
                   

***Message to Christians: The author of this blog is not anti-Christian, nor is he anti-Christianity. In fact, he is quite a fan of Jesus Christ & what he was about. In fact, he tries to live his life like Jesus said to live. However, the author of this blog has a most serious objection to the way in which organized followers of Jesus Christ have behaved over the centuries. 

For one example of a book better than the Bible at explaining how to live like Jesus, see Ronald Hendel's The Book of Genesis: A Biography.

Genesis 4

God Turns Out to be an A-hole

                           & it came to pass after these things, 

                      that God did tempt Abraham, & said unto him, 

                      Abraham: & he said, Behold, here I am.

                      & he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, 

                      whom thou lovest, & get thee into the land of Moriah; 

                      & offer him there for a burnt offering upon one 

                      of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

                      & Abraham rose up early in the morning, & saddled his ass, 

                      & took two of his young men with him, & Isaac his son, 

                      & clave the wood for the burnt offering, & rose up, 

                      & went unto the place of which God had told him.

                         [Isaac is all like] "Behold the fire & the wood: 

                      but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?

          

                      ...Abraham stretched forth his hand, 

                      & took the knife to slay his son...

                      [& then God is all like] "Lay not thine hand upon the lad, 

                      neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know 

                      that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, 

                      thine only son from me.

  

Three bands that get there name from the book of Genesis, (among others?).
   Tons of movies; at least one that is excellent: 

At least one that is not so excellent: 

& so on:

Judah, brother to Joseph of technicolor coat fame, also a son of Jacob (who is renamed "Israel" by God) -- Judah's first son dies, after he's married. Judah's upset, feels responsible, so he tells his son Onan: 


                           "Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife, & marry her, 
                          & raise up seed to thy brother."

                          & Onan knew that the seed should not be his; 
                          & it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, 
                          that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should 
                          give seed to his brother. & the thing which he did 
                          displeased the LORD: wherefore he slew him.

Recap: God kills Israel's grandson because he exercised the rhythm method. & this means masturbation is a sin(?).

Which reminds me: R. Crumb illustrated the entire Book of Genesis(!).

***Message to Christians: The author of this blog is not anti-Christian, nor is he anti-Christianity. In fact, he is quite a fan of Jesus Christ & what he was about. In fact, he tries to live his life like Jesus said to live. However, the author of this blog has a most serious objection to the way in which organized followers of Jesus Christ have behaved over the centuries. 

For one example of a book better than the Bible at explaining how to live like Jesus, see The Cloud of Unknowing, by Anonymous, available for free online.

Genesis 3

Skipping Over Noah...
(To Lot Getting Raped by His Daughters)***

                                 "Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; 
                              even as the green herb have I given you all things."

Sorry, vegans & vegetarians, but hooray stoners!
   Woody Harrelson is all confused.

                           "& the whole earth was of one language, & of one speech...
                                & the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, & they have all one 
                                language & now nothing will be restrained from them, which 
                                they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down...to confound 
                                their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

                               
                                So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face 

                                of all the earth...

                               
                                ...Therefore is the name of it Babel; because the LORD did 

                                there confound the language of all the earth: 
                                & from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad 
                                upon the face of all the earth."

                           "& the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not 
                           circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; 
                           he hath broken my covenant."

Lot (of Sodom & Gomorrah fame), gets "raped" by his daughters after his wife is turned into a pillar of salt.
   Their motivation: The girls have not been getting (m)any male callers; they wish to preserve Lot's lineage.

   God approves & the girls are successful in their efforts. 



***Message to Christians: The author of this blog is not anti-Christian, nor is he anti-Christianity. In fact, he is quite a fan of Jesus Christ & what he was about. In fact, he tries to live his life like Jesus said to live. However, the author of this blog has a most serious objection to the way in which organized followers of Jesus Christ have behaved over the centuries. 

For one example of a book better than the Bible at explaining how to live like Jesus, see The Phenomenon of Man, by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.


                           

Genesis 2

Cain Kills Abel
(Or, Why So Much Incest?)***

   "It's a hard life and no one's to blame
   When God's not on the morning train
   If Cain don't kill Abel, Abel kills Cain
   And tears now shed are shed in vain
   For Kennedy and Jesse James
   And Joan of Arc and Kurt Cobain"
         - Dan Bern.

                           "Cain rose up against Abel his brother, & slew him."

So yeah, but I read it over & it's really not worth reading. 
   Just, like, if you're ever on Jeopardy! remember: Cain killed Abel, not the other way around.
I've always had trouble remembering.
   Also if you're on Jeopardy! I guess you have to remember that Cain says afterward:

                           "Am I my brother's keeper?"

So that's where we got that phrase from.
   Skip, skip, skip...Until we get to another Scooby Doo moment: 

                           "Cain knew his wife; & she conceived..."

Although we shouldn't get too shocked by the implication of incest just yet. 
   From what I remember, later on in this book, the incest will be more explicit.

                            "Adam lived nine hundred & thirty years."

Sure, sure.
   Cool, cool, cool.
But that's nothing:

                           "All the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty 
                            & nine years."

Skip, skip, skip, to chapter six.
   Which might be a good place to end today's lesson. 
I'm beginning to think the book of Genesis should be renamed simply: "WTF?!"

                           "& it came to pass, when men began to multiply 
                            on the face of the earth, & daughters were born unto them,
                            that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair;
                            & they took them wives of all which they chose."

Also: 

                           "There were giants in the earth in those days;
                            & also after that, when the sons of God came in unto
                            the daughters of men, & they bare children to them,
                            the same became mighty men which were of old, 
                            men of renown."



***Message to Christians: The author of this blog is not anti-Christian, nor is he anti-Christianity. In fact, he is quite a fan of Jesus Christ & what he was about. In fact, he tries to live his life like Jesus said to live. However, the author of this blog has a most serious objection to the way in which organized followers of Jesus Christ have behaved over the centuries. 

For one example of a book better than the Bible at explaining how to live like Jesus, see Be Here Now, by Ram Dass.