I am reading a book called 'Your Immortal Reality' by Gary R. Renard. I came across this page in the book which I felt is relevant to my previous entry 'What Motivates You the Most?' which I would like to pen down here. They were discussing about the movie, "The Passion of Christ" produced by Mel Gibson.
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"GARY: (part of the conversation) Throughout the film, J's body is made out to be very special. The presupposition is that he has to be sacrificed to atone for other people's sins. But the quote you gave me from Isaiah demonstrates that that idea was already as old as the hills, and the religion that came along later just superimposed it on to J (Jesus). No thought is ever given to the fact that the whole premise gives us a God who is like humanity--in other words, insane. The movie, like the religion it's about, glorifies suffering and sacrifice. And people were bringing their nine- and ten-year-old kids to see this thing, and when they were coming out of the theater, you could just see the look on their faces, as if they were saying to the kids, "There, you see? You see what Jesus did for you? You see how he suffered and sacrificed himself for you? You guilty little bastards. Now what are you gonna do for him? You're gonna be a Christian, right?"
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ARTEN: Yes, and there you have the makings of a very successful religion. Because if you want to get people to do something in this world, including impressionable children, make them feel guilty. You could make them believe in Santa Claus until they're 30 if you found a way to use guilt and nobody told them any better. And in this case, nobody's telling them any better. The whole thing also makes the body very real and the destruction of it important.
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GARY: But if the guiltless mind cannot suffer, as the Course says, then it wouldn't have mattered what they did to J. He wouldn't have reacted to what was done to him and felt all the pain the movie shows him suffering through.
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PURSAH: Yes, and that's very important. That's another definitive idea in the Course. The guiltless mind cannot suffer. It blows the whole idea of glorifying sacrifice right out of the water. Because, as we've told you before, pain is not a physical process, it's a mental process, and if you healed all the unconscious guilt in the mind, then you couldn't feel any pain. That changes the message of the Crucifixion from the idea of worshipping suffering and sacrifice to a demonstration that if you were healed, then it would be impossible for you to feel any pain or to suffer. But suffering, like people now believe J did, is a hallmark of the religion that he had nothing to do with, but that was founded in his name.
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GARY: They have a cruci-fixation."
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*Excerpts from Your Immortal Reality by Gary R. Renard*
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Now, isn't that mind-blowing... I am still half way through this book. But just to share, each time I read a book with contents of the Truth, it takes me a while (as in, I wouldn't be able to finish it within 24 or 48 hours). But the book has an answer - that it does take a while to break the ego, which is why most people sometimes experience certain discomfort in reading such books. The ego, will always feel uncomfortable in any process of being 'undone'.
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Also, just to share a little bit more about the book, part of its contents shares that forgiveness is one of the fastest process to undo the ego and get Home. And this kind of forgiveness is somewhat different from the kind of forgiveness that we had been taught or conditioned. This kind of forgiveness is a kind of forgiveness to free ourselves, with the aid of the Holy Spirit and is taught in A Course in Miracles. Of course, the book also says that while A Course of Miracles can be one of the fastest way, it is not the only way. It is important to actually apply what is taught in the Course in our daily lives - same as everything else. What we learn in those self-improvement or self-help courses, no use we have the knowledge, talk or brag about it intellectually but not practice it or apply it in our daily lives - because knowing and talking about it doesn't get us Home. It just makes us look more intelligent in the level of form.
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I had an experience today while driving around to do my stuffs this morning. What I thought was the shortest or quickest route to my destination resulted in me delaying my arrival at the desired destination, or getting lost. It made me realised that while there are short cuts available, not knowing the right direction of the short cuts also delays my journey to the destination.
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There are already many tools out there for purpose of our own awakening. Many of us attend so many kinds of different courses, get motivated for a week or two, and then simmer down to the mundane routine of what we call 'Life'. No wonder some people say that motivational or self-help courses only works for a while. In truth, it can lasts for however long you want it to PROVIDED you practise and apply it onto your daily life. If you are not responsibility for your own experiences, or 'life' as you would call it for now, then who is?
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Coming back to the movie, I never watched the movie because I don't fancy gory scenes. But I did receive an email once, with a picture of Jesus' suffering face and blood and all those, you know, gory details about how he was pinned to the cross. The message - He Died for You, What have You done for Him? Because I didn't know any better then, I felt extreme guilt; but, it was also because I knew a little better, I deleted the message right there and then, instead of forwarding it to others (there was a request to forward the email to friends and family to spread the so-called message of God). Guilt is mine, so let me be responsible for it - what is the use of spreading guilt onto others?
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Seriously, if God is Love, and is Perfect Love as what the bible says, then would God create guilt in what we call ourselves, "the Sons of God"? So if it was not God who created it, then who did? Are you ready to find out the answer? *winks*
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