Imagine, understand, and Gurdjieff.

 

Imagine, understand, and Gurdjieff.

An adult told me that Jesus probably walked on the path I was walking on back in Israel. We found a Roman coin, but it was after someone dug a hole in the ground. Jesus may have walked under the path. When my mom wanted to show the kids what a Christmas tree looked like, we couldn’t find a tree like the one in the pictures anywhere. They don’t grow in Israel. People in Israel didn’t celebrate Christmas and the word “Betula” didn’t necessarily say virgin, but a young woman. The total story sounded a bit far-fetched to me.

We emigrated to Canada and Christmas became alive. Downtown Calgary had lights with tinsels over the streets and I saw a real shopping mall decorated for the holiday. People were shopping as if a disaster was coming. Carts and bags full of stuff disappeared into vehicles and shoppers went back for more. The first midnight mass I saw in a church was something out of this world. People all dressed up filled the cathedral, live choir music, and tons of decorations. The birth of a saviour (Yeshua) was celebrated and we wish you a merry Christmas, Peace on Earth and other slogans appeared everywhere especially in the black-and-white TV commercials.

I knew the figure of the saviour from the tortured figures I saw on crosses in churches in Israel, but now we were celebrating the virgin birth and the pretty little baby under a German tree (Weihnachtsbaum) with lights. Father Christmas changed from a forest hunter to a hefty guy in a red suit, drinking cola and smoking a pipe. Later on, a priest tried to explain it all to me, but the explanation was insufficient. Beautiful music, shiny decorations, lots of stuff, and dressed-up people couldn’t explain the Joy to the World that came from the young Semitic Israeli Rabbi who taught simplicity, selfless giving, forgiveness, sharing, and taking care of the less fortunate. This guy told his uneducated followers to go on a journey without spare clothes or extra provisions.

How did the message get mixed up? I knew Christians did the worst atrocities in the Second World War, some of who even went to church on Sunday and sang beautiful hymns to the sound of a pipe organ. My generation knew Nazi hunters and families who lost all their relatives and were seeking justice.

I remember mom talking to a friend who said. If Jesus came back, the Christians would crucify him again. They would call him a socialist, progressive, or whatever is the lingo of the day and send him back (by crucifixion) upstairs while selling shavings of the cross as souvenirs.

In my early days, people talked about the most popular philosopher from Europe at the beginning of the century, Gurdjieff. An Armenian name. Like most serious philosophers, his work was pretty intricate, but I will simplify. Gurdjieff believed people exist in some kind of sleep or perhaps dream state. Something similar to the modern idea of the Matrix where we are existing in a supercomputer. Both ideas assume that reality is inside our brains. Gurdjieff talked about three brains controlling mind, body, and emotions, yet having a hard time connecting the three. He emphasized our natural short attention span as proof. We jump from one thought to another and act as if we are different persons each time. In his opinion, we all have some level of split personality.

When we read the Bible, we get a story about a young Jewish teacher who told people that being rich and powerful, possessing material things, and winning fights are not the most important things in life. Life in another dimension, he called the “Kingdom of the father” is eternal and valuable. Although there are details about his origins and birth, he seems not to talk or brag about it.

I try to think what the Messiah would teach if He was to return today. First, he would want to know why we are destroying the world we live in. To live life without physical work wouldn’t be an acceptable answer. The number of people employed to kill each other he would not welcome. That so many children don’t have reliable homes because of poverty and/or genuine commitment from the adults wouldn’t sit well with him. Seeing that a small percentage of humans own such a huge amount of humanity’s wealth would bother him. Realizing that banks and large institutions create money, lend it at interest, and don’t practice the Jewish law of Jubilee would bother him. Realizing that millions of people have no safe, sustaining piece of the world to live on wouldn’t be welcome. The wealth hoarded and squandered by some religious institutions, now more than ever with TV evangelicals would hurt him more than the nails in his hands did. We can go on.

Christmas or a celebration of the turning of the season existed for much longer than any known religion. It is a time to celebrate hope. A new beginning.

I decided to make a list of what I would ask Jesus for Christmas. Surprisingly, all can be obtained without miracles.

Solve the energy problem. Reduce wasting it., like walking instead of using a golf cart. (if we can) Develop clean energy and discourage the dirty kinds.

Do away with military built-up and divert the money and talents to peaceful means.

Block the efforts of those who compete to rule humanity by setting limits.

Give all humans a way to stay alive, but let them improve their condition by working with the most rewards for the most beneficial work.

Eliminate COVID by sharing the vaccine formula with the world.

Maintain good honest information for all. Begin by supporting little local media outlets available to all. We could start by giving subscriptions to local papers as gifts for Christmas.

A Christian Christmas is available to all if we only want it to be.

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