For children, easter is chocolate time. For the religious, it is remembrance of the sacrifice and resurrection of the Christ. But it does far beyond that, as does true religion, which is far more than we are taught it is. True religion is both a binding of the human being to God and a way to personal transformation. Though the original inspiration, the original revelation told to us by great masters or great teachers becomes inevitably corrupted, if one looks deep enough, one can still find that original pure revelation, experience it and learn its profound lessons.
You won't find Truth in language. Words are not, as the Buddha said of his teachings, the message: they point to the Truth-which-can-only-be-experienced, which each person must find for himself. For the true purpose of religion or spiritual practice is always the same: to prepare us to receive the Truth that will bring us home.
Every mythology, every religion is born for this purpose: our awakening!
So though every religion has its own orientation, rituals and teachings, it should not surprise us to find common elements among them. In some ways, the Christian story of Easter is not entirely unique. Similar sacred stories were told long before the life of Jesus, and similar rituals were enacted.
.... the Egyptian god Horus, whose birth was also signalled by a star, was baptised at age thirty, healed, cast out demons, was crucified and resurrected
..... the Vedic god, Krishna, said, "I am the resurrection" was crucified and resurrected
..... the Persian Master, Zoroaster, also called "the word made flesh", baptized with water, fire and holy spirit
..... Dionysus, also called the Redeemer, the Alpha and Omega, was crucified.
The emergence of this particular cluster of religious elements - the immaculately born 'saviour' who begins preaching and healing at age 30, is crucified and resurrected, and whose rituals include eucharist and baptism - the recurrence of this mythic pattern in different cultures at different periods of human history testifies to a fundamental truth in the story that arises whenever it is sorely needed. It is essentially the same story of divine intervention to help a spiritually lost humanity find its way.
For me, however, the Christian Easter is the most powerful versions because it is the most direct. It is meaningful even on the exoteric level of church dogma, but go deeper, and it becomes a truly mystical experience of God within, of Christ, Buddha, Krishna consciousness or whatever you name the transcendent.
Much more than fasting and feasting in the name of the Numinous, Easter is a mystical enactment of our spiritual origins, our fall into materiality, and the way back to Oneness.
Painting by Giotto. I saw the original in Italy. Magnificent!
Jesus the man came to exemplify the truth of ONENESS. Knowing what was before him, he chose to be born into that life in order to remind us of what we are, what we have forgotten and what we ignore in our materialistic sleep.
Through his life as a man, his death and resurrection, he showed us in the most powerful way possible that we are truly spiritual beings, and when we are true to our spiritual nature, the things of the body lose their hold over us. Death is not death but just another transition, one of many.
Like the Buddha, Krishna and other great beings, Jesus showed us that the way to wholeness is the way of love and surrender. Surrender of the ego-mind and our small self to the Greater Self or God, and allowing God to express itself into the world through us as Love.
Let go of the little reality of the material mind, and recognise that greater reality of your being as part of God.
Let go of your fanatical hold on the material self with its endless needs, wants and addictions, and recognise that ALL IS ONE.
Let go of fear and doubt, and let the love imprisoned in your soul arise like a bird and sing.
Yes, it's difficult. The pull of flesh is very strong, and until the body is spiritualized, it anchors us firmly in the material. Even Jesus' illumined mind was sometimes weighed down by body; for a moment on the cross, even he lost faith and despaired.... then remembered and died in peace. Even the Buddha said that everyday he had to be enlightned. It is not easy to resist the inevitable pull of matter.
But we can learn to...more every day. We can become once again spiritual beings temporarily experiencing ourselves in physical bodies. Body becomes the servant of the spirit, not the other way around.
The door is open to us, here and now, here on earth in these bodies!
All these things that I have done, you can do, he said.
And you can. Not all at once, not completely, but enough to transform your life and be radiant.
I wish you a thoughtful, love-filled, joyful Easter.
Tosca Z
Comments