CHRISTMAS. WHAT DID JESUS ACTUALLY SAY?

What did Jesus say? Not his followers. Not the Cardinals. Not the popes. Not the Archbishops and bishops. Not the Patriarchs. Not Moses or David or Solomon. Not Paul. Not the priests. Not the biblical scholars. Not the historians. Not Augustine or Thomas a Kempis or Origen or Aquinas. Not your grandmother.

Christianity grew out of what Jesus said and did. What he did was to heal all manner of diseases (including death) and cast out devils. What he said could be reduced to just three things (if you really had to choose only three things).

Love the Lord your God.

Love your neighbour as yourself.

Do unto others as you would be done to. 

Out of these seeds has grown the enormous jungle which is Christianity today. Full of the fighting of wars against Moslems, the killing of Christians by Christians. The burning of "heretics" and "witches" by the "Holy" Inquisition. The mental and physical enslavement of South American Indians. The sexual abuse of children by priests. The accumulation of wealth.

The accumulation of unprecedented wealth and "treasures upon earth" in the Vatican.

What did Jesus say? Jesus said unto him, If you will be perfect, go and sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.

Matthew 19: 21

Every year, the Pope urges the rich to give to the poor. 

If he followed Jesus' advice and put it all up for auction with Christies, he could go a long way towards wiping out the Third World Debt!

He would no longer need a bullet-proof pope-mobile.

NEW PROJECT: A CHAIN IS ONLY AS STRONG AS ITS WEAKEST LINK

RUNAWAY TRAIN

Your country is a runaway train, steaming along without a driver, while the passengers struggle with each other for the better seats or fight the staff for entry into the driver's cabin or argue about where it is going or should be going.

No-one is in control. No-one can stop it with the brakes. No-one can operate the run-off points and re-route it to somewhere safe. It takes courage to get off!

Your world is an even bigger runaway train.

But the most significant runaway trains are in the brains of the passengers and the staff: thought trains. Associative, compulsive, remembering, regretting, fearful, hungry, dissatisfied, uncontrollable thought trains.

Can you decide "Stop!" and it stops?

Can you re-route it onto happy, creative, positive, contributive, affectionate thought trains?

Can you "get off" altogether?

The Runaway Train, which is your country, has no driver. The last driver sold himself. To a Group of men in First Class. There he now sits. With his back to the engine.

The Group stripped the driver's cabin of all  instruments, dead man's handle, electronic equipment etc. including a  SIGN, which reads KEEP OUT! DRIVER AND AUTHORISED PERSONNEL ONLY. They also sold the door linking  the cabin to the  rest of the train. They replaced it with a steel plate which has a small window. Through this can be seen the back of a life-sized puppet. In driver's uniform. Strapped to the driver's seat.

The Group sold the assets to another group in Third Class. This group has reassembled the assets in the guards van, which now resembles a driver's cabin put together by a gang of  ergo-gnomists called  lunatics. It also has the SIGN.

The group is now systematically working its way through Third Class, telling passengers that the value of their tickets has fallen below the cost of the journey. They are worth nothing and therefore invalid. They actually have a minus value. But this can be set as a discount on new tickets. These they must now buy or risk being thrown off the train.

When this reorganisation of Third Class has been effected, the group will move on to First Class. They will explain to the Group that their tickets too are invalid and that their minus value is greater than that of the Third Class tickets because the initial purchase price was higher.

Trapped between the steel door and the group, the Group will use up all the money they got from the sale of assets to bribe the group to go away. When all the money has gone, there will be a battle between the Group and the group which the group will win. The last surviving Leader of the Group will be dragged out from under his seat, dismembered and thrown out on both side of the tracks. He will then be formally tried and convicted.

The group will then start fighting the rest of the passengers who will by then have formed groups of their own. When the survivors are too weak to fight any more, they will then slouch in their seats, moaning and complaining, until the train hits the wherever it is going.

This, they will discover, is not, after all, HEAVEN.

In the Brain Train, the driver - You - sold out to Desire longer ago than you can remember. You continue to sit in the front seat looking backwards at whatever it is that Desire wants you to see. This, you have discovered, is not, after all, Heaven.

The runaway train which is your country (and your world) can be stopped or re-routed if a man with 100% Ethics were to take the wheel.

100% Ethics is: Don't do Evil. Cultivate Good. Purify the Mind.

Where Evil is anything which harms another being (including oneself).

          Good is anything which is for the benefit of other beings (including oneself).

          Purifying the Mind is getting rid of every kind of unwholesome, dishonest and mischievous mental impulse, thought and feeling.

           Harming another being is doing something to another which another does not want and one would not want done to oneself.

Is there a single Head of Government anywhere on this planet who has 100% Ethics? Answers, please.

            

The runaway trains in the brain need 100% Ethics, too. But the thoughts and impulses have to be brought under control. It is beneficial if the driver of your car is a good man. But that's not enough if he can't control the car.

NEW PROJECT: CHRISTMAS. 

WHAT DID JESUS ACTUALLY SAY ?

Not followers, priests, academics, enthusiasts.

The man himself.

The most reliable historical record is in the Four Gospels. In the King James' version Jesus' words are in red. Taken together they provide a historical link with the man. There are also words in red in the Book of Revelation but these are not Jesus' words. This book is the work of a visionary, John, full of poetry and prophesies which might or might not happen. The man himself is historical. The contents of his book are not.