A Christians Perspective of Lao Tzu

You're looking at it from a Christi-Judaic point of view, I believe. Where, if you hear the Truth in secret, you must shout it from the house tops.

But this is eastern philosophy, where talking about enlightenment seems to hinder others from reaching it. It appears to be something you can only find by yourself. Others can help but only by talking around it, kind of like being able to tell you what it's not but if you talk directly about what it is, you hinder the person from finding it, maybe even making it so they never find it. So if you've found enlightenment, it's so great you want others to find it, but at the same time you know if you tell others directly about they will never find it.

Thus; those who know do not tell and those who tell do not know.

 

so let's apply this to Jesus.

he taught and spoke. did he not know?

 

That quote is probably the most misinterpreted Tao Te Ching passage, interestingly as a result of a common Judeo-Christian perceptual distortion -- concrete interpretation. Lao Tsu wasn't advocating taking a vow of silence or asserting that all enlightened people remain silent. He was referring to a particular ego distortion wherein speech is employed to create a kind of "buffer zone" between one's immediate experience and the undercurrent of discontent that compels their behavior.

This passage is also Lao Tsu's way of embodying the paradox that is enlightenment.

Travis

 

Probably not, because to Jesus "enlightenment" would have been a "false religious" concept that he would have had nothing to do with. He would of course known about it but would not have wanted to be "enlightened".

 

The Tao is unspeakable, beyond this conceptual framework we call language. Similarly, yvhv said - "I am that i am." - a tautology because words cannot encompass the way or the be-ing. Even one who knows (which I certainly do NOT claim to) cannot transmit this knowledge by talking about it.

I am not certain that J would have thought enlightenment a false religious concept. Gnostic christians were quite the rage until the autocratic church felt that direct perception of the godhood threatened their Authority and basically wiped them out., also brutally repressing quite a few books of the bible which challenged their own viewpoints. I see both as striving toward direct knowledge and contact with the divine, the different points of philosophy like the clothes one wears - are you your clothes?

 

I disagree.

Jesus' message fits in quite well with eastern philosophy.

 

Some say a better translation is; "I shall prove to be what I shall prove to be" giving a sense of action rather passivity. Meaning that God can be whatever he needs to be to accomplish his purposes.

As for Jesus and "enlightenment", Jesus was a man of the Bible and was the son of the God of the Bible, so one would assume he would believe what the Bible would say and the Bible has much to say about true and false worship. Mostly the Bible points out that there is only one true religion and that would be the religion of the Bible. Seeing as "enlightenment" is not a bible concept, Jesus would consider it a false religious teaching.

 

You maybe right but the trouble is the eastern philosophy does not fit with Jesus' message.

 

Well if Jesus was alive today (if there was an historical Jesus???) he would probably be a Buddist and certainly not a Christian. In any case the modern cultural world we live in has inherited allot more of the cultural & institutional values of the Romans then of the above mentioned Nazararian. Even the Christian church saw the value of harnessing the institutional power of the Roman empire. Alas real power matters,a real power that was then used to covert the newly arrived barbarians. Which it did.

What ever, drinking and posting don't mix.

HAHA

 

Then may I ask how you interpret this quote from the bible?

"The light of the body is the eye; therefore when thine eye is single, they whole body is also full of light, but when thine eye is evil, they body is also full of darkness."

...and how about this one from psalms

"I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go, I will guide thee with mine eye"

..one could easily interpret those as being related to the opening to the third eye/enlightenment.

 

ppffff why bother interpreting? It's right there in plain language, couldnt be any easier to see what the old Je was talking about

 

I think so too.

but OWB is tryin to doubt me man!

 

Well he has to realize that the Je man was down with Eastern philosophies and he harmonized and buzzed with the flow of life blood in the Earth, aint so hard to recognize but, sometimes, we dont understand because we try too hard

 

Well ... I doubt you ... man!

Doesn't OWB have a right to doubt you? ... man!

Doesn't anyone have a right to doubt you? ... man!

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man alive, that was a lot of mans!

 

What a bore

 

now the fun has been sucked out of the conversation and I am sad man.

*sigh*

 

Good night and Good luck

 

that movie was lame.

 

Its 3 am in Aust, so I am off. and good luck with your bible studies Mr.