The importance of following Jesus

Do beliefs matter? Could we be condemned? Is there a literal devil? Or is the devil just a symbol for something within ourselves? Our ego?

I often find myself getting lost in speculations about this and that.

I believe that we get away from what’s important when we put too much emphasis on factual claims in the bible. Not that the factual claims are unimportant. If you take away certain beliefs, other things fall apart. And some things maybe need to fall apart, while others need to be preserved. I’m not going to go into detail about this here, but it could be worth considering.

The more I think of who Jesus was and what he taught, the more it strikes me how complete and timeless his teachings were. I’m not saying that the miraculous events in the Bible didn’t occur. As a matter of fact, I believe that some of them most likely did. I can even say this with some ease, as I know that the world is much more than what we can perceive with our five senses. But I don’t think that you need miracles or to believe in the whole narrative literally, to see Jesus as miraculous. We have become so accustomed to the many of the things that Jesus stood for, that we don’t even stop to reflect on how counter-intuitive they are to our animal natures. And they work. Not only do they work. They make our lives infinitely better. Because when we live according to our animal natures our lives will most likely suck. And the lives of those around us will suck too, if we have a significant impact on them. 

What I believe is that Jesus gave us an example of the ultimate potential that lies dormant within each and everyone of us. And I’m not alone in this belief. Thinkers such as C.S Lewis, Dallas Willard, Jordan Peterson and John Ortberg have said basically the same thing, with small variations. 

According to the Bible, we were all made in the image of God. But we are somehow fallen. I don’t believe that the fall from the Garden of Eden should be taken literally. I’m not ruling it out. But I don’t think that it’s what’s important. If you look at it a little closer it’s full of symbolism. What does, for example, nakedness symbolize? And no, I’m not talking about sex or shame around sexuality. I’m talking about vulnerability. When we’re naked, we’re exposed and vulnerable. 

Or take the idea that Adam walked with God before the fall. This means that we have the potential of living in- and feeling God’s presence. But as the Bible progresses, God becomes more and more distant. Less corporeal. 

And what does it mean that the knowledge of good and evil is what causes the fall to begin with? You can ponder that for a yourself, because I could go on like this forever and this is not really what this post is about. 

Coming back to the person Jesus, I believe that, together with everything else that he is, he is the perfect ideal. I would even go so far as to say that he is a perfect ideal that would be very difficult, if not impossible, for the human imagination to conjure up on its own. And as I said a few paragraphs ago, we have the potential within us to live like Jesus. There are no real physical or even psychological limitations. I even believe that what Jesus said about humans being able to perform miracles is accurate, because I know that lots of strange things happen inside us, that are not recognized by mainstream science.

But even if nothing limits us for real, each and everyone of us fall short of the ideal that Jesus represented. And yet, paradoxically, I believe that when all of the nonsense that we have turned into an identity over the years is removed, living like Jesus is really our natural state. When we completely stop functioning from the ego.

What does "spiritual" mean to me? PART 2

Continuing what I talked about in the last post: When it comes to practice and experience, I have a daily meditation, prayer and yoga routine. To me, this is also an essential part of spirituality. Spirituality follows me throughout the day, but it is also something I consistently practice while I’m alone. And just like with God, I think that even if some sort of daily routine is not a necessary component of spirituality, something is missing if one does not have such a routine. The same goes for trying to be a decent person by the way.

Spirituality to me also means awareness of the fact that I have an ego. The ego, the way I see it, is basically a lower self that is ruled by instincts, seeks instant gratification and cares only about its own little wants and needs. The ego is the unconscious beliefs that one is one’s thoughts and living from it means to live in a reactive mindset. Something happens and we react to it. Over and over again. The ego is absence of free will and the illusion thereof. Among other things. Spirituality for me entails a wish to transcend the ego so that it does not run my life anymore. 

Spirituality is finally a source of meaning. A belief, or in my case a knowing, that life serves a higher purpose than to just live in an ultimately pointless universe, die and then be gone forever. That there is a meaning to all of this and that we go on living in some way after we die. What this afterlife is I don’t know exactly. I don’t think anyone does. It’s hinted at in religious scriptures, but all of them, at least in a literal sense, cannot be right. And what is actual descriptions and what is mere symbolism is unclear. 

A higher meaning can be an antidote to the mindless hedonism and ego-gratification just mentioned. Because when life has a higher meaning, it becomes essential to try and be one’s best, so that one is capable of seeking and living this higher meaning.

What does "spiritual" mean to me? PART 1

Our language is full of words that we sort of, but not really know the meaning of or what they mean to us personally. That in itself is quite interesting.

“Spiritual” is a word that means many different things to many different people. To me, at the core, it means to have a belief in, relation to, knowing of and connection with something transcendent. To me, this transcendent is ultimately God. And forgive me if I step on some toes here, but I believe that any spirituality that does not include an intelligent, personal God that cares for us misses the, by far, most important component. But while I believe that this is an essential component in spirituality, it is not an absolute part of the definition of spirituality.

Contrary to many other people, I don’t make a clear distinction between “spirituality” and “religion”. The way I see it, both are relating to the same transcendent reality. Religion seems more oriented towards rituals, morals and tradition, while spirituality seems more oriented towards practice and experience. But personally, I think one needs both and that they overlap a great deal. There is something to be said in the defense of some tradition morals, as long as they don’t become stale. Namely that that which has been transmitted over generations for a long time generally has been transmitted because it has served some sort of function, even if it isn’t always clear what that function actually is. But if this is all that one’s religious/spiritual life becomes, I think that it loses its vitality. 

Back to spiritual. For me it also has to do with how I conduct myself in my day to day life. What I choose to fill my days with and what I choose not to fill my days with. Even if I’m far from perfect and do lots of things that I know that I shouldn’t do when my emotions get the best of me, the spiritual side is something that I always relate to in one way or another. It’s always in the back of my mind. 

Learn focused, systematic thinking!

As with so many other things, this ultimately comes down to awareness. And I’ve thought a lot about the importance of what is going on inside our heads. What I’ve thought less about, is how we consciously direct these processes. How we can do so to focus and sharpen our thinking. 

Now, this happens spontaneously as I take the time to sit down and write down my thoughts on a daily basis, as I do with this blog. But I can definitely be more careful and stringent in my approach. I can be more deliberate in how I practice this skill. 

I believe that focused, systematic thinking is something that also fosters more present moment awareness. The question: “What do I really mean with what I say?” is not a trivial one. Because this is in no way obvious. To be clear, I’m here talking about both what we say in our day to day speech, and what we write. Which is two separate things, but also two things that overlap to a large degree. If you, for example, become more clear and focused in your writing, it will have an effect on your speech, and vice versa. But there will not be a perfect causal relationship, mainly because speech is direct, is generally a dialogue and entails a completely different kind of connection. This while writing is generally a one way communication that gives room for more afterthought and separates the sender and receiver in both time and space. 

What I’ve realized is that it does not really matter how smart we are. If we acquire the habit of being sloppy with our thoughts, the thoughts that we produce will be sloppy. And even thought our thoughts is not the only tool that we have at our disposal when we try to understand ourselves and the world (there is also emotions, intuition and direct sensory experience), they are an important one. One that is indispensable if we want to orient ourselves in the world properly. And it all starts with being aware of what we are actually saying and thinking and what it implies. If you think that this is obvious, you probably engage in sloppy thinking.

What do I truly believe in? What do I truly believe about Jesus?

I think that the broad question about what we truly believe, is quite an important one to ask oneself. Because otherwise, as with many other things that we don’t bring consciousness into, our beliefs risk running on auto-pilot. The idea here is that when it comes to lots of issues, there is simply no objective truth available. It doesn’t mean that there is no objective truth. But whether there is or not, we don’t have access to it. And when we don’t take time to make clear where we stand on different issues, it’s much easier to get swept away by what others believe. Or what we for one reason or another deem appropriate for the moment. Reasons that have nothing to do with our authentic selves, such as fears, cultural values or unconscious desires. 

Let’s get into one of the heaviest questions right away: What do I believe about religious truth? Well, I believe that the truth is to be found in the Bible. But probably not among the most common interpretations of the Bible. And I believe that some, perhaps many, important books were excluded from the Bible. Among those, I believe the Gospel of Thomas to probably be the most important one. 

I also believe that religion and spirituality is the most important, most fundamental aspect of human existence. And I believe that any religious faith that does not make someone hurt others is better than no religious faith at all. And I don’t believe that, just because I believe that one religious faith is the truest one, it makes all of the other faiths wrong and sinful. 

In some sense, I believe that the life and death of Jesus Christ constituted a shift for the whole of humanity. I’m not exactly sure what. I think that it’s pretty clear that his life gave us a perfect ideal to follow. But I also think that this ideal life, lived out fully, represented something more. I think that it may have something to do with that we are all connected on a deep level. There are serious theories about this within the realm of physics and I’ve had some personal experiences that seem to indicate that this might be true. 

This means that what one person does, has an effect on everyone. At the same time, I want to be clear that for me, this does not exclude Jesus as the only son of God. And somehow I feel that this is an important question. 

If the whole idea of Jesus being the son of God, who died on the cross to save us from our sins, is true, then blind faith, if this is something that we are truly capable of, would probably be the best response. In other words, if we don’t just delude ourselves into blind faith because we are afraid of the consequences of not having such a faith. Or worse, if we secretly gloat over the punishment that we believe awaits those that are not capable of such a faith. 

I know that I am not capable of such a faith. But since I believe that the question of the person of Jesus, and not just the example he sat, is important, this is something that I need to think about. But for now, this is as far as I come. I hope that it can offer some food for thought.

How we label things and people PART 2

Another thing that we label is behavior. This can also include speech. It goes something like this: “This is what you’re doing is called.” And we often add: “And that means this.” And perhaps: “And that makes you such and such a person.” We can even discuss the label that we’ve slapped on someone with our friends, what it means and get them to agree that the person is bad because of it. 

A funny thing is that we can even do it in the following manner: “What you are doing right now is called labelling. That makes you a labeler. And labelers are bad people.”

What I’ve come to realize, is that the less you label, the more open you become to the world. It does of course not mean to indiscriminately say yes to everything. There are lots of things in the world that I’ve chosen to reject after careful consideration. And some after not so careful consideration. There are certain beliefs that don’t need much deliberation to be dismissed, such as racism or the belief in authoritarianism. But what we should be careful about, is slapping the label “racist” on someone that doesn’t consider him- or herself as such. 

We can even develop whole thought systems around why we are allowed the luxury of labelling someone while someone else is not allowed to do so. Why not, instead, just meet people with an open mind and assume that they mean what they say about themselves. In an existence that is so governed by unconscious forces anyway, it’s better to turn one’s eyes towards oneself to see if what one says or does means something else that what we think, than to try and extract the hidden meaning behind someone else’s actions or words and slap a label on them. And you can ask yourself how many times confronting someone’s behavior with a label. 

But by not labeling, you try to look at things simply as they are and not through a filter of pre-conceived notions about them. This is difficult and I’m certainly no expert at it. It is rather a habit that we need to keep reminding ourselves of over and over again. But with time, just with any change of perspective, we become conscious of it more and more often. The first step is of course to understand that there is such a thing as labelling, that we engage in it and that it affects how we treat other people and life in general.

How we label things and people PART 1

We use labels to judge things or people as good or bad. When we label something it invoke images in our heads with different degrees of clarity. 

This is a part of our inner life that I find interesting. Because when we attach a label to something we can dismiss it without looking into it any further. I like to use examples that have relevance beyond just serving as an example. Therefore I would like to use the label “New Age”. “New Age” is a label that has been attached to a variety of works within spirituality, of which many have very little in common. If we stick to books, they can be anything from books about interdimensional aliens, lost civilizations or spirit guides, to very practical books about mindfulness or how to release emotions. 

I’m very skeptical towards the whole “smorgasbord” approach to spirituality that we often find within the New Age. Because if we can just discard anything we don’t like, we risk missing learning hard but valuable lessons about how things work. And we also may end up with a lot of width without depth in our spiritual lives and hence end up going nowhere.

But this is just my experience. It might work well for someone else. In the end, all we can really talk about is our own experience. And even that is subject to loads of potential for error.

But I’ve also found much of the more practical stuff in the New Age very helpful. Because there are a lot of teachings that have just brought out the essential of much older teachings. And these can quite easily be tested. I will not get into too much detail about how very different teachings get labelled New Age, since this is not the topic of this post. So I will just mention briefly that this in itself is another problem with labels. That they easily become very broad, so that very different things get dismissed under the same label.

The thing is that for a long time, I tended to dismiss anything labelled New Age as a bunch of mumbo jumbo, practiced by people that have very little understanding of what they are playing around with. I equated it with more or less living in a fantasy world. And so I missed out on a lot of things and judged people before hearing them out.

My point is simple. What I said above can be applied to anything in life where labels are involved. Especially if we attach a label to someone that does not define him/herself as such. Labels close us off. They make us stop listening. They make us right and others wrong. They make us think that we know what others stand for and what they are going to say. They affect how we interact with other people in a very negative manner. I know. Because I’ve done a lot of labelling throughout my life. 

Debating...

What I’m saying here, is not to say that an open debate is not important. In fact, I believe the opposite. In a world in crisis with loads of differing opinions and views about what is going on, it is crucial that all voices can be heard in an open, uncensored debate. That is not exactly what is happening today, but that is not the topic of today’s post. What I am saying, is that debating is very far from a reliable way of getting to the truth.

In debating, in the best case scenarios, the one that has the best arguments and the best rhetoric wins. But it also depends on the audience. Does the audience favor one debater over the other, for irrelevant reasons, such as that one view is simply more popular and cool than the other? Can the topic be objectively proven by logic and rational arguments? What of issues that fundamentally are about subjective experience, such as God or spirituality? What about the fact that everything ultimately is subjective experience?

When we form beliefs and opinions

I’m going to go ahead and sound really dumb here. But maybe it becomes one of those the-emperor-is-naked moments to some people. What I’m going to say is that when I analyze how I’ve formed a belief or opinion, it has often not been because of some rational deliberation. 

I don’t have a concrete example, so I’m going to make one up that is representative of this: I hear someone whose judgment I trust express a belief or opinion about something. I find what the person says fairly reasonable and a few of my own experiences actually support what he/she is saying. Maybe it’s one possible conclusion that can be drawn from what I already know. Here I want to pause for a second, because this is important. Here, I believe, is where many people go wrong. We know A and that from A B might follow. But not necessarily. Then someone might offer some ideas that contradict B. But since I’ve already made an emotional investment in B, I find reasons to discard those ideas. And instead I find other ideas, that I don’t at all put under the same scrutiny, that support B. And so I hold on to B for reasons that are in no way reasonable. 

Seeing it written out like this, this looks pretty absurd. But in reality this is, at least in my case, how my beliefs often are formed, when I don’t pay attention to what is going on inside my head. Which is something that happens quite regularly, even if I’m becoming better and better at it. And if you say: "This would never happen to me", chances are that you haven't really payed attention to your thought processes.