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Creating Bridges: Spirituality & Philosophy: The Awakening Generation
A Selfish Jesus
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by Ann Marie Judge |
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Empower Thyself!
I think this time, I’ll just skip the pretense and get right to the point: Selflessness is overrated.
And not only is it overrated, it is deadly.
If you go around being selfless, giving and giving until you are only an empty shell of a human, what was it all for? Was it for someone else? Imagine you have given of yourself your whole life, and all of the sudden, everyone is filled, no one ever dies again, and all the children grow up in loving homes…
But what’s left of you?
Instead of being selfless and thinking of anything but yourself, you are to be the change, to embody it! Do nothing at your own expense; that is deadly. You are to be a role model for the world, and your very way of life should say, “Look at how beautiful it is to be an empowered human being. Look at how beautiful it is to know who you are and respect your own body and spirit!”
In this age, there is absolutely no good that can come of dis-empowering anyone, including yourself.
How the Teachings of Jesus Were Lost
As cliché as the message of Jesus has become, just look at it for a moment. His true teachings were not of losing yourself for the sake of others! The moment he was made into a god and martyred, his true cause was lost. When selfish and confused people crucified his memory and deified his life, he became the “cosmic redeemer” and his message was twisted, if not entirely lost for centuries.
They managed to displace their own anger and guilt onto a beautiful man with a beautiful life and message and turn it into something so grotesque, so ugly.
St. Augustine, one of the most prolific and influential creators of Christian doctrine—the first to actually propose the idea of “Original Sin”—wrote in his work once about how guilty and sinful he was, because if he were to be lying with a beautiful, naked woman, he did not believe he could control himself; his body would “betray” him and he would wish to be with her.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but who in this world would not be aroused to be beside a beautiful, unclothed member of the opposite sex?
Depak Chopra writes in his translation of the Kama Sutra, “Sex isn’t the original sin. Guilt is.” And just to drive that point in a little further, the story of St. Augustine’s youth tells that as a young man, he once stole from another’s garden, and for the rest of his life, was ridden with that guilt.
So, instead of dealing with it and coming to be an empowered human being, St. Augustine created an entire paradigm, centuries of displaced guilt and dis-empowerment of the individual, all because it disguisted him that he had within him the desires of the physical and the desire for that which he did not possess himself.
Simply because he was a charismatic man with enough guilt to drown the state of Texas, and because he had enough stature to have the power to affect generations of human beings, he managed to twist and mangle the amazing teachings of one of the history’s greatest beings.
Jesus’ Message Re-Discovered
Jesus’ true teachings were of the empowerment of the self; he was the one who gave sight to the blind just because of his presence. He lifted up the crippled and told them to walk! He did not lift them up and carry them himself, he gave them back their own divine spark, their own innate desire to live, their own intrinsic power. As the saying goes, instead of giving the men fish, he taught them how to catch the fish themselves and they never again went hungry.
He had such a strong presence that it made people wonder, “What does he have that we don’t?” And when he said “I have nothing you don’t, what’s in me is in all of you just as powerfully,” the people who truly understood that took it and became it, and became powerful men and women, men and women of love and beauty and truth.
The Failure of “Charity”
My mother told me about what one of her close friends once did for the homeless of the city near where I grew up. He was a fairly well-off man, and as such, he desired to do something for those in the area who were struggling. So, he went straight to the source. He went to the homeless and made a plan with them: he would purchase all the materials and machinery necessary for them to start up their own lawn care business, so that they could actually have a chance to make a living and a better life. So, he bought all the equipment, helped them set up their business plan, and gave it over to them.
He came back after a small time, and they had done nothing. They had not changed at all.
Do you now know why welfare doesn’t work?
Are you starting to see why socialist policy and a bleeding heart truly does nothing for the world in and of itself?
“Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand!”
The true meaning of the word “repent,” as Jesus spoke in this now-famous Biblical passage, means to “change direction.” He was challenging his followers to shift the direction of their lives to a new path; a path of love and spirit.
Just as last month’s column was about change starting in one tiny thought in one individual, learn and know within yourself what it means for you to “repent,” to shift your thoughts in order to “be the change you wish to see in the world.”
Instead of trying to change others, think of how your own life can be an example of beauty and passion to all those around you, to inspire others to shift and to live their dreams and their visions of new energy and change.
“The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should we not have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs?”
Emerson challenges us to step outside our beloved religion, our comfortable tradition, and to create something for ourselves, to be empowered as ourselves, in our own age and our own living room and on our own time. This is, after all, our time. Our watches are ticking, moments are flying by whether or not you’re even paying attention.
By all means, be compassionate, be kind, be giving. But don’t forget where the change always starts. If you desire to see a shift in the world, who better to do it than you, and what better time is there than right now?
If you don’t do it, who will?
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Ann Marie Judge
Crystal Child, Student of Life, Spirituality, & Writer
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Ann Marie graduated from high school in 2005. She attended Beloit College in Wisconsin for her freshman year of college and will be attending the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the spring of 2007 for photography.
Not yet old enough for acronyms at the end of her name, she considers herself a student of life, and has been deeply involved in the spiritual community since her first awakening at the age of twelve. Since then, she has had much education in the metaphysical and spiritual arts by a wide variety of teachers and healers. She was very quickly recognized as a Crystal and Indigo child, as well as a clairvoyant and intuitive.
Because she was able to begin living for the spiritual at a young age, her dream is to reach out through her writing to other young people that are experiencing similar awakenings while still being within the educational system and a society that often does not recognize or nurture young, spiritually-gifted ones. Her vision is to form a community of spiritually-minded young people so that the younger generations will be prepared to be guides and teachers as the spiritual consciousness of the world continues to rise.
Though much of her life is still largely potential, she feels this time in her life is the first step in fulfilling her dream of becoming a published writer so as to serve the children and young people of the world that feel the spiritual stirring within. As well, she hopes to educate parents on how to nurture and understand what is going on in their children's minds from a young person's perspective.
Visit her website at
www.RandomActsof
Literacy.com
to read her works, view
her art, and gain insight into the spiritual experiences of an Awakened young person."
Find the forums at
www.RandomActsof
Literacy.com/forums, as well as a link to it on the navigation of the RAOL homepage.
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