Some time off

[leyh]

Recent events have prompted me to do some soul searching and re-examination of my current spiritual life and I have discovered a renewed interest in strengthening my connection with Jesus Christ whose teachings and personality has been a main feature in my life for many years. I will take some time off from this forum for a period of prayer and meditation to see how my spiritual direction in life should proceed. My well wishes go out to many of the Forum Members that I have had the pleasure to communicate with like Theist, Stonehearted, Mahaksa, Bill, and many others. May everything be well for all of you.

[Gauracandra]

Leyh,

 

It was good having you here, and I hope you pop in every so often. I know I've received a lot of benefit from your posts.

 

Gauracandra

[theist]

Yes we all took inspiration from your contributions and hope to be the recipients of more in the future. Lord Jesus Christ will no doubt richly bless you. Hopefully you will share those blessing further with us when the time is right.

 

The best to you leyh,

 

Jaya Yoshua Jaya Krsna

[Guest guest]

 

 

hmmm....interesting

 

Jesus, that is Vaikuntha conception, God as comfort,

God as savior, God as a concept that gives relief

from fear and anxiety over death.

 

When Jesus supposedley said if you believe in Him

then you will be rewarded with heaven, that is true to an extent.

 

If you have absolute faith, unquestionable belief in Jesus, then you will see life as an eternal reality for you,

you will see God as master of the universe and feel safe

under his power.

 

That is the Vaikuntha conception of God, so in effect

Jesus does indeed save, if you actually have unquestionable faith, your consciousness will be unlike the

atheist or agnostic, they see life as having an end,

and live with a deep seated anxiety in their conscious

and subconscious mind .

 

the true believer sees their life as an eternal thing,

sheltered by the power and goodness of God.

 

it is not really the highest consciousness, it lacks

needed education on how to relate to God on God's

level, it gives the believer the idea of God as savior,

and ruler, and shelter, the higher concept is for those

who seek more.

 

Christianity ends where Krishna begins.

 

Krishna gives the aspirant the concept of God not as

authority and savior, or shelter and ruler, but of

constant companion, and soul mate, not as

ruler or King, or Father, but as an equal

and lover, this concept is not aquired out of the

desire for comfort and liberation from anxiety

for ourselves, but it is the ideal of religion

in that it is For God, for Gods enjoyment.

 

As JFK said, Ask not what your country can do for you,

but what you can do for your country.

 

so that is Krishna's contribution to religion, liberation

from anxiety is for our enjoyment, God as savior

is of a lower quality of application of your ability,

God as companion,friend and lover, God as God

desires, that is the acme of religion.

[Guest guest]

christian god is a jealous god,

so, that is not supreme.

 

chritians think theirs is the only way to god or haven.

they are up to converting the whole world.

so, first they must convert the musilms

who also want to convert the whoel world.

 

some one said that the bible also supports slavery.

 

jai sri prabhupada!

 

[Guest guest]

Dear Leyh Prabhu,

 

Best wishes in your spiritual journey. Thanks for sharing so much with us all. Please remember that you have many friends and admirers in the Vaisnava community. Stay in touch. (I lost your e-mail address in a computer meltdown months ago, so if you care to write anytime, please feel free to do so.)

 

Meanwhile, all the best to you in every respect.

 

Your servant,

Padmapani das

 

 

[leyh]

Dear Friends:

 

For some time I felt burdened by the fact that I was unable to practice much of the complex ritualism and stringent regulations of Krsna Consciousness, the spiritual tradition which I have made many posts on in this Forum. I also had problems with some of aspects of the philosophy. But I have learned tremendously from Krsna Consciousness and many other spiritual traditions that I have encountered.

 

Most importantly, it was the realization of a seemingly irresistible attraction to the person of Jesus Christ.

 

It seems that I have come full cycle in regards with my spiritual path. Beginning with Christianity when I was a child many years ago, I have travelled through various spiritual traditions like Buddhism, Hinduism, Krsna Consciousness, etc. and must finally acknowledge that throught all these time, Jesus had always been a sometimes subtle and sometimes overt presence in my life and my heart had always had an affinity with Him. The person of Rabbi Yeshua ben Yosef (aka Jesus the Christ) who walked, wept, laughed, raged, consoled, died and resurrected more then 2,000 years ago. The Yeshua ben Yosef who became seen by his followers as the living word of God transposed onto humanity to be revealed as fully God and fully Man. It is the enigma of this historical/transhistorical person that has never ceased to captivate me, even when I was deeply attached to the study of other spiritual traditions.

Ultimately one must follow one's heart.

 

I have not undergone any radical conversion. The essence of my world view remains very much the same --- that God is a Person whose is intimately interested in His creation, and that life is essentially meaningless if centered around materialistic and speculative pursuits.I believe there are truths in religions outside of the Christian faith, and I will try to relate those truths to Christ.

 

The Jesus that I will follow to is not the Jesus of the Fundamentalists. It is the Jesus of the Christian Mystics like Saint Francis of Asisisi, George Fox, Thomas Merton, Thomas a Kempis, the anonymous author of The Way of the Pilgrim, Brother Lawrence and many others like them who tried to know the presence of the living Christ in each and every moment of their lives. This will be my spiritual direction for the indefinite future.