Re: the Third Jesus

Respectful greetings, Abaase,

I use that salutation advisedly, because I know from my own experience that sincerity of inquiry takes great courage in an enviroment that does not necessarily welcome it, especially in certain forms. I started on my own journey of inquiry while attending a Catholic high school. In retrospect, a triad of events sent me looking for answers that were not forthcoming from the source that I had considered infalible and inexhaustabel to that point. It seemed I had, despite its good service and good intentions, broke the camel's back. After some time I could no longer even bear to attend the mass I had loved so much, as it only reminded me that I had hit a wall of impenatrable opacity within the Church. This was mitigated later, but in an unexpected manner.

I was not so fortunate as you as to have such a book as "The Third Jesus" to use as one of my mile markers, though I did have other exceptional resources. I also framed my question in somewhat wider terms than you did. Having made a similar observation to yours about the complexity involved not only in Catholicism, but in other faiths as well, my inquiry centered on the matter of "How do I know God directly?" I was, as you might suspect, aware of the injunction that "No man enters Heaven except through me." Well, that statement became a bombshell of exceedingly great proportions, and the portal through which I entered a profound rebirth of understanding.

I must say here, that though I only heard it much later, it was when it was already impossible to turn back that I heard the following injunction: "The search for Reality is the most dangerous of all undertakings, for it destroys the world in which you live." Also this one: "Spirituality is not a child's play. My words will tear apart anyone who listens to them." Though they were spoken by Nisargadatta, and not the words of my own Mentor, I understood from my own experience what this meant.

We are primarily mental creatures, as far as our perceptions of the world go. This means that in order to survive, as children we internalize by unconscious imitation the ideas and dynamics that form our environment. These are somewhat mitigated by our inborn propensities, wherever those may come from. The meaning of the above statements bear direct consequense on one's perception of the world. I had the imense good fortune to be with a Mentor who knew that as the false perception of Reality is disassembled as a scaffold for experience, the structure of Truth must already be there to enliven the experience of the seeker.

All that is to say that not only did I find a more profound Way of understanding the significance of Jesus, salvation, and all the galaxy of ideas that go with that, but I saw clearly and incontrovertably that the whole of religion as I formerly knew it was an innocently or deliberatly degraded husk of something that is fundamentally profound and miraculous, yet knowable. Indeed, the conjoining of the [I]feeling [/I]of knowing and the ability to see a clear cognative line of understanding precipitated for me a completely different world view than is common among our friends and loved ones. It resloved many seeming contradictions and gave a profound depth to both science and religion that both had previously lacked for me. This also brings with it a profound sense of the void between the fundamentalist practitioner of any form of christianism or strict scientism, even on one who has no more than an intellectual, but clear and certain understanding of the Third Jesus of whom Chopra speaks.

His line of reasoning has no doubt led you to some ideas that are different and disturbing in terms of the Catholic faith. They are mild compared to what is actually the difinitive experience behind them. I urge you to be careful in your desire to discover, because if you continue on this path you will change profoundly. You will become a pink monkey in the pack of furry brown ones. You will not feel seperate from them as you will see that we are all God's creatures, but they will not return that affection. Au contrair. We are a race that tends to crucify its saviors and innovators, or disdain and ignore them at best. It is not for nothing that what you might be embarking on is sometimes called "The Path of Ultimate Responsibility" or "the Way of the Lonely Ones."

You will have to come to the realization that your sole/soul friend is your own eternal Essence. There will be others like you, but they are few and far between with few exceptions. But like my Mentor said, "If you want a friend, be one/One!"

Yet this is the most glorious, if not also the most frustrating in terms of everyday life, aspect of it. One gains an experiential understanding of the root of the Golden Rule in both its forms, and one is found on an unshakable base for a real morality free of dogma. I think it is what has been refered to as "The Peace that passeth understanding" and "being above the Law." It is not that one is without rules, it is that "Thy Will is written in my heart, oh God" and one is rendered incapable of doing harm.

It is this aspect of the Law and Will being in one's own heart that has a transformative value. It is the knowledge and experience of what that means that may distinguish you from the majority of others.

I do not know your age, disposition, or support system as to any profound questioning you might undertake. I simply urge you to be careful, because you are talking here about taking the red pill, in case you have seen a movie called "[I]The Matrix[/I]." Though the merit of the sequels is dubious, the first part has some very significant analogies to the discovery of the true state of Man in the spiritual sense.

So, there you have it in brief. I can be a resource for you if you wish, but it may not be easy for you. I can refere you to others, if that is more helpful. In any case, you have my profound good wishes, as you seek to be a.....what? Something words cannot describe, other than as a transparency to the Divine