Neither do men put new wine into old bottles; else the
bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the
bottles perish; but they put new wine into new bottles
and both are preserved.
Matthew 9:17
As current event’s stories cascade across our screens, we might take note of how many are related to self-destructive behavior associated with the world’s religions. It doesn’t seem to make sense because religion is supposed to civilize people, not be a common cause of conflict and human suffering. Perhaps many people in religious communities misunderstand the fundamental truths, the principles of their faith, which have been distorted over time. In any case, it wouldn’t hurt to take a look at religion and see if we can discover the source of some of the violence so prevalent around the Global Village.
The tenets on which the major religions existing today were founded offered humanity a great deal of wholesome guidance. Those people associated with the founding of the major religions and myths tended to be extraordinarily insightful individuals. “When, then a lone spirit succeeds in breaking through to major conquests here, he becomes more than a king—he becomes a world redeemer. His impact stretches for millennia blessing the tangled course of human history. ‘Who are the greatest benefactors of the living generation of mankind?’ asks Toynbee [Arnold Toynbee, noted British historian]. ‘I should say: Confucius and Lao Tzu, the Buddha, the prophets of Israel and Judah, Zoroaster, Jesus and Mohammed and Socrates.’” Let’s choose Jesus as our “redeemer” and see if we can discover what went wrong.
In the context of the worldview that we advocate in Simple Reality we could create a sustainable human community. In the prevailing worldview, paradigm B (P-B), the majority of the people on our planet today, this will not be possible. “Because P-B is not a profound context, it has the effect of crippling the ability of religion to respond to the real needs of its believers. The Simple Reality narrative will allow Christians to begin to understand ‘universally’ applicable spiritual truths, such as those taught by Jesus and to distinguish those universal truths from those illusions held in merely sectarian and cultural ‘wineskins.’”
Click on the link below to revisit how the foundation of Christianity would look in the context of a new paradigm.
Insight # 143: “These are parables not about the end of the world but about the end of psychological time. They point to the transcendence of the egoic mind and the possibility of living in an entirely new state of consciousness.”
Link:
- “Christ,” in this blog and also in the print version, The ABC’s of Simple Reality Vol I (2018), by Roy Charles Henry, pages 74-78.
References:
- Smith, Huston. The Religions of Man. New York: Harper, 1958, pages 11-12.
- Henry, Roy Charles. Why Am I Here? The Third Great Question Concerning the Nature of Reality, Simple Reality, October 2014, page 146.
- Tolle, Eckhart. The Power of Now. Novato, California: New World Library, 1999, page 79.
