Not just less reliant, but they also begin to become a threat to the powers that be if that institutional authority is currupt and clashijg with ‘God’s Laws’.
Buddha was lucky he had blood ties to the powers that be, Christ not so lucky.
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Yes there definitely was some of that. Whether intentional or just the climate of operating in a religious model where people’s access to God was controlled by a priestly cast created doubt about the “within” translation… the priestly model may have contributed to the popularity of the “among/ in the midst of” translation. It is interesting that for most of the history of Christianity the vast majority of people were illiterate and so the scripture was interpreted to them by their local priests (who also were sometimes illeterate too). So they had enormous powers in picking and choosing what to share with their parishioners in order to support the current ecclesiastical order and their own position as a priest.
An interesting counter though… for most of the history of the Catholic Church until the modern age, the translation the Church used was the Latin Vulgate, which does have the “within” translation. Not sure how medieval translators glossed “intra” if maybe it too was glossed as “among”. That would be a faschinating subject for a paper, tracing how and in what context the "among/ in the midst of " translation arose.
I feel India in general has traditionally been a lot more respectful towards spiritual aspirants and the spiritual path. The West not so much. That’s a broad generalization though and there are plenty of exceptions. Jesus finally did take over the Roman Empire… but it took several centuries while Buddha was friends and advisors to several kings like Bimbisara during his life.
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That is an interesting point. I wonder if it has something to do with the belief in reincarnation and the fact that many of the Hindu Gods had multiple Avatars. It is my understanding that when new monumental threats hit humanity, Vishnu arose in a noval Avatar that had the skills needed to destroy the evil. I have alsomread this is why so many of the gods and goddesses are depicted with multiple pairs of arms, becuase while taking on a new avatar, they still retained the ‘skills’ and strenghts of their old incarnations/avatars.
It is also my understanding that in some Hindu religions Buddha is regarded as the 9th avatar of Vishnu.
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Interesting you mentioned reincarnation. It’s true of course that most Christians don’t believe in the reincarnation. But the Jews of Jesus’ time apparently did. Just take a look at some of these verses:
“When Jesus came into coasts of Cesarea Philippi, he asked disciples, saying, ‘Whom do men say I, the Son of man, am?’ And they said, ‘Some say that thou art John the Baptist, some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.’” (Matthew 16:13–4)
This question assumes that the Jews of this time thought that people reincarnated. They thought Jesus was a reincarnated prophet.
Mark 6: 14-16 is also illustrative:
King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’[a] name had become known. Some[b] said, “John the Baptist[c] has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.” 15 But others said, “He is Elijah.” And others said, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.” 16 But when Herod heard of it, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.”
Then Matthew 17:9–13… The context is the discples’s confusion after Jesus tells them he is the Messiah. There was an expectation that Elijah would come back before the Messiah came, so the disciples asked Jesus about this.
“Why then say the scribes that Elijah must come first. And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elijah truly shall first come, and restore all things. But I say unto you, That Elijah is come already, and they knew him not. . . . Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist."
Jesus in fact unequivocally confirms that John the Baptist was the reincarnation of Elijah in Matthew 11:11–15:
Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist…For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John, 14 and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come.
It’s funny- in his book The Second Coming of Christ, Paramahamsa Yogananda says that in a mystical vision he received knowledge that John the Baptist was indeed Elijah, and that Jesus was Elisha’s disciple, Elisha.
And in John 9:34 the disciples asks Jesus about a man blind form birth:
“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
If the man was born blind, then it couldn’t have been a sin in his current life that caused the blindness. It must have been a sin in a past life. (Note also the belief here that a parent’s sins could be inherited by their children.)
That’s the Biblical evidence. There is also evidence that many early Christians believed in reincarnation, including some of the Church Fathers.
Origen famously believed in reincarnation Jerome quotes Origen as saying:
And again: “but perhaps this coarse and earthly body ought to be described as mist and darkness; for at the end of this world and when it becomes necessary to pass into another, the like darkness will lead to the like physical birth.” In speaking thus he clearly pleads for the transmigration of souls as taught by Pythagoras and Plato.
Also later he adds:
The following passage is a convincing proof that he holds the transmigration of souls and annihilation of bodies. “If it can be shown that an incorporeal and reasonable being has life in itself independently of the body and that it is worse off in the body than out of it; then beyond a doubt bodies are only of secondary importance and arise from time to time to meet the varying conditions of reasonable creatures. Those who require bodies are clothed with them, and contrariwise, when fallen souls have lifted themselves up to better things, their bodies are once more annihilated. They are thus ever vanishing and ever reappearing.”
Unfortunately most of Origen’s works have been lost. But of the fragments that remain we have this:
Or is it not more in conformity with reason, that every soul, for certain mysterious reasons (I speak now according to the opinion of Pythagoras, and Plato, and Empedocles, whom Celsus frequently names), is introduced into a body, and introduced according to its deserts and former actions?
And again, this is from Origen himself:
“The soul, which is immaterial and invisible in its nature, exists in no material place without having a body suited to the nature of that place; accordingly, it at one time puts off one body, which is necessary before, but which is no longer adequate in its changed state, and it exchanges it for a second.”
So he appears to support the pre-existence of souls before birth and the transmigration of souls. The evidence is contradictory however because, though Jerome clearly believes Origen taught reincarnation, we also have this from Origen:
“[Scripture says] ‘And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” and he said, “I am not”’ [John 1:21]. No one can fail to remember in this connection what Jesus says of John: ‘If you will receive it, this is Elijah, who is to come’ [Matt. 11:14]. How then does John come to say to those who ask him, ‘Are you Elijah?’—‘I am not’? . . . One might say that John did not know that he was Elijah. This will be the explanation of those who find in our passage a support for their doctrine of reincarnation, as if the soul clothed itself in a fresh body and did not quite remember its former lives. . . . [H]owever, a churchman, who repudiates the doctrine of reincarnation as a false one and does not admit that the soul of John was ever Elijah, may appeal to the above-quoted words of the angel, and point out that it is not the soul of Elijah that is spoken of at John’s birth, but the spirit and power of Elijah” (Commentary on John 6:7 [A.D. 229]).
St. Gregory, bishop of Nyssa, is quoted as having said:
“It is absolutely necessary that the soul should be healed and purified, and if this does not take place during its life on earth it must be accomplished in future lives. . . . The soul . . . is immaterial and invisible in nature, it at one time puts off one body . . . and exchanges it for a second.”
And
“Every soul comes into this world strengthened by the victories or weakened by the defeats of its previous life.”
St. Augustine may have thought Plotinus was a reincarnation of Plato:
“The message of Plato . . . now shines forth mainly in Plotinus, a Platonist so like his master that one would think . . . that Plato is born again in Plotinus.”
This could also just be rhetoric.
I find it interesting that there is so much support for a belief in reincarnation in early Christianity. At the council of Nicaea Origen’s teachings, and therefore believe in reincarnation, was condemned and 15 anathemas were published against him. Interesting though the vote to condemn him succeeded by only one vote. This seems to be the death of a belief in reincarnation in Christianity though.
Yes, and some people regard Gandhi as an avatar too. Interesting that there isn’t a similar history of avatars with Shiva, in Shaivism. I do wonder why that is. I know some people considered Trailanga Swami, who was supposed to be four hundred years old and was a fat man who like to go around naked, Shiva. There are really funny stories about him, like how the British tried to lock him up for indecent exposure but he escaped the prison and was found napping on the prison roof.
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Sorry my Hebrew is very limited so not sure I’m gonna be much help here. I did what I could by looking at concordances and looking at the context. In Hebrew the verse runs as follows:
צַדִּיקִ֥ים יִֽירְשׁוּ־אָ֑רֶץ וְיִשְׁכְּנ֖וּ לָעַ֣ד עָלֶֽיהָ׃
tsaddiqim yiruhshu erets wuhyishkuhnu la’ad aleha
Literally:
“The righteous inherits (imperfect) the land and-dwells forever in-it.”
The history of the word צַדִּיק tsaddiq meaning “righteous” is very fascinating in later rabbinical and especially in the Jewish mystical traditions like Kabbalah and Hasdicism where the termed is reserved for realized spiritual masters like the Baal Shem Tov. I think the terms is being used more generally here: it is plural and it is contrasted with רָ֭שָׁע - “the wicked”.
אֶרֶץ is another important term here. From the context of the Psalm I get the feeling that the “land” being talked about here is not a physical land. It may be a spiritual land. I feel this because of the following:
The psalm exhorts the righteous to rely on God in times when the wicked are powerful and persecute the righteous: “Trust in the Lord… take delight in the Lord” vs 3 and 4, “Commit your way to the Lord” vs 5, “Be still before the Lord” vs. 7, “Hope in the Lord” vs 34. Verse three is especially interesting: “Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.” How can God provide “safe pasture” in the land if the wicked are physically attacking the righteous? This indicates to me that the “safe pasture” promised in a spiritual one, not a physical one. Vs. 39-40 says “The salvation of the righteous comes from the Lord; he is their stronghold in time of trouble. The Lord helps them and delivers them; he delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in him.” So this psalm is about finding spiritual refuge in God in times of trouble.
Sorry that’s all I got. Again I’m not a Hebrew scholar. I tried to look up when this poem was composed- before, during or after the exile in Babylon- but I couldn’t find anything on that. I think like always we should be suspcious about the attribution to David.
Interested that verse 11 of this Psalm was riffed on by Jesus:
But the meek will inherit the land
and enjoy peace and prosperity. Psalm 37:11
Blessed are the meek:
for they shall inherit the earth. Matthew 5:5
So obviously Jesus knew this Psalm well. Maybe he got his use of “kingdom” to mean a spiritual reality from the way “land” is used in this psalm? Just speculation.
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Yes, this is a good verse, one of my favorites! Not least because it’s quoted in the beginning of this gospel hip hop song:
The Greek is:
καὶ ἐξαλείψει πᾶν δάκρυον ἐκ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν αὐτῶν, καὶ ὁ θάνατος οὐκ ἔσται ἔτι, οὔτε πένθος οὔτε κραυγὴ οὔτε πόνος οὐκ ἔσται ἔτι· ὅτι τὰ πρῶτα ἀπῆλθαν.”
Literally:
“And he-shall-wipe-away every tear from the eyes of-them, and the death not will-be longer, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain; not will-they-be long, because the former-things have-gone-away.”
Some immediate take aways:
ἐξαλείψω used here for “wipe away” is the same word used in Revelation 3:5 when God “blots out” people names from the Book of Life. I find this interesting because it’s essentially the same action but it has different effects on people depending on their spiritual advancement. ὁ νικῶν “the one overcoming” who will inherit “all things (really ‘these things’)” (verse 7)- ie the spiritually advanced- will be comforted. The wicked will have their names “blotted out” from the Book of Life.
πένθος- “sorrow” doesn’t just mean sorrow over obvious things like the death of a love one but also sorrow over being disappointed, being sick, not getting what we want, etc. So in a sense it is equivalent to dukkha. Because the causes of suffering will no longer be present, neither will sorrow.
κραυγὴ means just not the crying that involves tears, but also the kind of “outcries” of horror and pain you will hear when some act of violence is being done against another person. So since this “crying” will be absent in the new heaven and the new earth, it means that not only will there be no cause for emotional suffering, there will be no violence or physical suffering either.
πόνος means not only physical pain and suffering, but also hard labor. So I think this verse is saying that there will be an absence of struggling and striving that many people experience during their daily lives to make a living and make ends meet.
ἀπῆλθαν is also used earlier in verse 1: “Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.” So this is what this verse means by “former things.” God instead is “making all things new” as is said in verse 5.
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My interpretation:
Obviously this is one of the most beautiful passages in the Bible. John, the writer, is discussing here a vision he had of a the New Jerusalem descending from the clouds and a voice saying that there will be an end to death and sickness because “all former things have passed away” and within the city is a river by which grows “trees of life” 22:2 who leaves are “for the healing of all nations” 22:3.
Who will inherit this “new heaven and new earth”? The νικῶν- the “conqueror.” The author of 1 John, who may have also been the author of Revelation (they at least came from the same community), gives a definition of who a νικῶν is in 1 John 5:5- “The one believing that Jesus is the Son of God.” Earlier the author uses a variation of the same word when talking about “conquering the evil one” 1 John 2:14. The people this author is writing to is able to conquer because “the word of God abides in you” 1 John 2:14 and “the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” 1 John 4:4.
In the gospel of John (which was also written by someone from Johanine school), Jesus uses the word “conquer” as well: “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but take courage, I have conquered the world.”
So the word “conquer” I believe refers a degree of spiritual attainment. In this sense it is used similarly to the word jina in Sanskrit, which is the word Jains used to describe people like Mahvira who have attained liberation. These are the people who will inherit the new heaven and new earth.
The new heaven and new earth is a paradise, a pure land. A place where all the cares of sorrows of mortal life are no longer concerns for anyone. Unlike the Buddhist Pure Land tradition, I don’t think what John is talking about is another place altogether- someplace you can go to when you die. The new heaven and new earth replace the old heaven and old earth. That means John is talking about a transformation of how we currently experience life into something else. Maybe the “hidden land” tradition comes closer to what John is talking about here. That is a land only those with the right amount of spiritual attainment can see. And when you can see it you are a citizen of it, and you experience all the rights of your citizenship- no death, no sorrow, no pain.
In general I think Revelation is an allegory for the spiritual path. All the tribulations described in the book are roadblocks spiritual seekers encounter on the journey. 666, the Beast and the antichrist are literally that which prevents you from seeing your own nature as Christ consciousness. And the new heaven and new earth is how the world will appear when you can become a νικῶν, a conqueror.
Anyways, that’s enough for now. 
I hope this is what you wanted. Thanks for letting me share my thoughts on this verse, it is one of my favorites.
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This is interesting to me because the more things from the Bible appear in my presence the more ethereal it seems.
Read all of your posts and found them to be informing. Listened to the song too while reading the second one. Thought it was pretty good. Thank you for your insight on this information.
Take everything below here with a grain of heavy salt because it is a very rough idea, it was one of those passing thoughts I’ve had awhile ago and this paragraph reminded me of it.
Wonder if this part applies to the physical beings we encounter on Earth in waking life. The Earth seems to be the only place where I encounter beings that would be considered these archetypes.
So this thought has popped into my head, which may partially go against the second half of the post where it says the old kingdom will be replaced by the new one, meaning that the actual Earth will become heaven too (or maybe the Bible is saying that will happen in the future).
To me, the more I delve into dreams and let go of the waking world and any judgments, the more I can’t help but see hell as the waking world, or separation from one’s spirit. Following that idea, those who make the same mistakes over and over in waking reality are doomed to spend eternity in hell, or reincarnate on Earth until they connect with their spirit.
It is also interesting because a lot of books I have been reading say that when you completely wake up the final step they allude to is not death but a gentle dissolving into yourself and separating completely from the ego (body and the waking world).
It is a crazy idea I’m still putting thought into, but I usually try not to keep anything private that pops into my head when exploring things like this. I know that it allows for analysis from other perspectives with different backgrounds, which in turn helps me flesh out the idea more quickly.
Again, thanks for the in-depth information on the subject.
Also, last line maybe the conqueroring spoken at the end is being able to finally conquer the ego.
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Very cool, I did not know that about the Jews of Jesus time believieing in that. Interesting you mention those verses and that that belief was so widespread, Im no expert, but I think the Roman and Greek polytheistic religions may have had a similar belief in the souls ability to be reincarnated:
From Book 6 of Virgils masterpiece:
"
BkVI:703-723 The Souls Due for Re-birth
And now Aeneas saw a secluded grove
in a receding valley, with rustling woodland thickets,
and the river of Lethe gliding past those peaceful places.
Innumerable tribes and peoples hovered round it:
just as, in the meadows, on a cloudless summer’s day,
the bees settle on the multifarious flowers, and stream
round the bright lilies, and all the fields hum with their buzzing.
Aeneas was thrilled by the sudden sight, and, in ignorance,
asked the cause: what the river is in the distance,
who the men are crowding the banks in such numbers.
Then his father Anchises answered: ‘They are spirits,
owed a second body by destiny, and they drink
the happy waters, and a last forgetting, at Lethe’s stream.
Indeed, for a long time I’ve wished to tell you of them,
and show you them face to face, to enumerate my children’s
descendants, so you might joy with me more at finding Italy.’
‘O father, is it to be thought that any spirits go from here
to the sky above, returning again to dull matter?’
‘Indeed I’ll tell you, son, not keep you in doubt,’
Anchises answered, and revealed each thing in order.
BkVI:724-751 The Transmigration of Souls
‘Firstly, a spirit within them nourishes the sky and earth,
the watery plains, the shining orb of the moon,
and Titan’s star, and Mind, flowing through matter,
vivifies the whole mass, and mingles with its vast frame.
From it come the species of man and beast, and winged lives,
and the monsters the sea contains beneath its marbled waves.
The power of those seeds is fiery, and their origin divine,
so long as harmful matter doesn’t impede them
and terrestrial bodies and mortal limbs don’t dull them.
Through those they fear and desire, and grieve and joy,
and enclosed in night and a dark dungeon, can’t see the light.
Why, when life leaves them at the final hour,
still all of the evil, all the plagues of the flesh, alas,
have not completely vanished, and many things, long hardened
deep within, must of necessity be ingrained, in strange ways.
So they are scourged by torments, and pay the price
for former sins: some are hung, stretched out,
to the hollow winds, the taint of wickedness is cleansed
for others in vast gulfs, or burned away with fire:
each spirit suffers its own: then we are sent
through wide Elysium, and we few stay in the joyous fields,
for a length of days, till the cycle of time,
complete, removes the hardened stain, and leaves
pure ethereal thought, and the brightness of natural air.
All these others the god calls in a great crowd to the river Lethe,
after they have turned the wheel for a thousand years,
so that, truly forgetting, they can revisit the vault above,
and begin with a desire to return to the flesh"
With that verse and the verses you provided I think one might theorize that reincarnation was a widely held belief in Jesus’s time, not just among the Jews, but also the most popular religion in the Roman Empire at that time.
While Virgirl may have been writing political propaganda for his patron, its worth noting how influencial his voice was:
“Aeneas’s journey to the underworld in Book VI is another of the Aeneid’s most famous passages. In fact, this passage helped raise Virgil to the status of a Christian prophet in the Middle Ages. In the fourteenth century, the Italian poet Dante used it as the foundation for his journey through hell in the Inferno, even though Virgil’s version of the afterlife was obviously not a Christian one. Like Virgil, for example, Dante designed a hell with many sections and in which more severe punishments are handed down to those with greater sins. Also like Virgil, Dante exercised his formidable imagination in inventing penalties for sinners. While Virgil’s Dis is pre-Christian, it represents an advanced version of classical theology, which was not codified in the way that modern religions are. In a world of temperamental gods who demand sacrifice and seem to dispense punishments and rewards almost arbitrarily, Virgil portrays an afterlife in which people are judged according to the virtue of their lives on Earth. This scheme of the afterlife is an idea that Christianity fused with the Judaic tradition into the Western consciousness centuries later, but that has its sources in the Orphic mysteries of classical antiquity. The presence of Orpheus, “priest of Thrace,” in the Blessed Groves confirms the influence of Orphism, which was also a source for Plato’s views of the afterlife, on Virgil’s vision of the land of shades.”
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I think you are spot on with this speculation.
Two really powerful quotes, I still struggle to understand them fully, but you bringing them up inspired this insight:
In both verses the verb inherit is used with Land and earth. So it begs the question from whom will they inherit the land? Who is dying, and who is recieving?
My take is the death of the physical body and its virtuous actions (meekness), results in the soul’s inheretence of (or union with) the Kingdom of God, and becuase this Kingdom is omnipresent, and permeates all things, it is the vessel that holds all lands and the earth.
I prefer the literal translantion of the latin in Psalm 37:11:
“mites autem hereditabunt terram et delectabuntur in multitudine pacis”
However the meek will inherit the land and they will be delighted in the abundance of peace.
If you back two verses to Mathew 5:3, you get this gem:
“beati pauperes spiritu quoniam ipsorum est regnum caelorum”
Blessed are the poor in spirit for the kingdom of the skies is of themselves.
(Or I think a better translation would be):
Blessed are the poor with spirit, for the kingdom of Heaven is theirs.
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I think you may be on to something with this thought. That separation I think is what creates a perception and then reifies a hell. I think that ‘recconnecting’ to the spirit (you never left it) is what helps reify a heaven on earth.
Very cool, and very glad you shared that. I have not read much of this book, but knowing this perspective, now I want to check it out again.
Andrew has often mentioned the spiritual spath as being that of the warrior, I think conqueror is fitting as well, and that begs the question “who or what is being conquered?” 
I really like this quote from Gandhi:
“The only devils in the world are those running around in our own hearts – that is where the battle should be fought.”
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good video
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Had a cool synchronicity of this on Sunday. I am reading a book by Patricia Garfield call the Dream messenger, and it talks about the dead visiting people in their dreams.
On page 176 It mentions this council, and how prior to it, Reincarnation was a widely held belief amongst Christians. The footnote says:
“the Fifth Eucumenial Council was convened in A.D. 553 by the Emperor Jutinian, several earlier accepted teachings were ruled to be “anathema”, including all teachings that suggested the preexistence of a soul in any form.”
Thats really interesting that one vote fixed that fate. In modern law, I think that would be called a Hung Jury 
Based of the date of A.D. 553, that means it was more than 200 years after Constantine. Did you know about his premonition dream?:
“IN HOC SIGNO VINCES”
So that means that for over 200 years Chrisitanity was freely practiced in the empire, with the widely held belief in reincarnation. Pretty cool.
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So consider if people DID believe in reincarnation in the west. They kept the belief in India and most of Asia. How did that turn out? Caste systems, class systems based on pre-destination. Society as an organic whole where everyone has their place. Even in mystical Christianity the idea of predestination of rebirth seems to have been part of the system. I took a course in Metaphysics at the Catholic University I attended and it was interesting how your fate was already determined if you believed in karma was still at the forefront of existence, reincarnation or not. Maybe not such a world-changing concept for most—is all. Just exploring the idea. 
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I like how he explains how to differentiate intuition from egoic reactivity around the 9min mark:
ET:
“It is usually not tainted by negativity such as anger or fear. So there is something certain about it, there is a quite strength behind your feeling, theres not a nervous energy behind your feeling. You just know this is right. You may not be able to explain to yourself or others why, it has a different quality theres a more peaceful quality to it.”
Tough thing to put into words, but I think Eckhart does a good job explaining the experience.
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How to Maintain Presence among Unconscious People
Read about the ARTS technique in Andrews Power and Pain last week, pretty brilliant.
Abandon it
Remedy it
Transmute it
Self Liberate it
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thank you SO much for this video.
I had no idea of the Bon Tradition…
Brilliant.
Infinite blessings to you.
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Lots of wisdom, really good video:
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Beautiful find. He knows his stuff, like you said lots of wisdom packed in that video!
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