to all the christian pls read this part3?
sun rays asked:
13) They believed in astrology, cast horoscopes, and made “magical” amulets of plants and gems according to astrological aspects. They also believed that angels had taught Moses the practice of herbalism.
14) They believed that miraculous cures were natural extensions of authentic spiritual life.
15) They would wear only white clothes13 as a sign that they worshipped God Who is Light and were clothed by Him in light. This so provoked the other Israelites that praying in white clothing was prohibited by the Pharisees and Sadducees, and laws were drafted accordingly. (The Mishnah begins with such a prohibition.)
16) They observed the identical rules of purity (shuddhi) as the Brahmins in India at that time, especially in the matter of bathing frequently.
17) They practiced the strictest adherence to truthfulness.14
It should also be noted that most of these Brahminical practices were observed by Buddhists as well, so it is not out of place to consider that the Essenes-and Jesus and His disciples-possessed the qualities of both Hindu and Buddhist religion.
From all this we can see why Edersheim states that “In respect of doctrine, life, and worship, it [the Essene community] really stood outside Judaism.” As a result of these differences from ordinary Judaism, the Essenes lived totally apart from their fellow Hebrews, usually in separate communities or in communal houses in the towns and cities. (The supposed “communal experiment” in the book of Acts15 was really a continuation of the Essene way of life. The Last Supper took place in just such an Essene “house.”)
The History of Isha Messiah-Jesus the Christ16
Among the Essenes of Israel at the threshold of the Christian Era, none were better known or respected than Joachim and Anna of Nazareth. Joachim was noted for his great piety, wealth, and charity. The richest man in Israel, his practice was to divide his increase into thirds, giving one third to the temples of Carmel and Jerusalem and one third to the poor, keeping only one third for himself. Anna was renowned as a prophetess and teacher among the Essenes. Their daughter Mary [Miryam], Who had been conceived miraculously beneath the Holy of Holies of the Temple, had passed thirteen years of Her life as a Temple Virgin until her espousal to Joseph of Nazareth. Before their marriage was performed, She was discovered to have conceived supernaturally, and in time She gave birth to a Son in a cave of Bethlehem. His given name was Jesus (Yeshua in Aramaic and Yahoshua in Hebrew).
This Son of Miryam was as miraculous as His Mother, and astounding wonders were worked and manifested daily in His life-for the preservation of which His parents took Him into Egypt for some years where they lived with the various Essene communities there. But before that flight, when the Child had been about three years old, sages from India17 had come to pay Him homage and to establish a link of communication with Him, for His destiny was to live most of His life with them in the land of Eternal Dharma before returning to Israel as a messenger of the very illumination that had originally been at the heart of the Essene order. Through the intermediary of merchants and travellers both to and from India, contact was maintained with their destined Disciple.
At the age of twelve, during the passover observances on Mount Carmel (not in Jerusalem), Jesus petitioned the elders of the Essenes for initiation-something bestowed only on adults after careful instruction and scrutiny. Because of His well-known supernatural character, the elders examined Him before all those present. Not only could He answer all their questions perfectly, when the examination was ended He began to examine them, putting to them questions and statements that were utterly beyond their comprehension. In this way He demonstrated that the Essene order had nothing whatever to teach Him, and that there was no need for Him to undergo any initiation or instruction from them.
Upon His return to Nazareth preparations were begun for His journeying into India to formally become a disciple of those Masters who had come to Him nine years before. The necessary preliminaries took something more than a year, but sometime between the age of thirteen or fourteen,18 Jesus of Nazareth set forth on a spiritual pilgrimage that would transform Jesus the Nazarene into Isha the Lord, the Teacher of Dharma and Messiah of Israel.
The spiritual training of Jesus
In the Himalayan fastnesses Jesus was instructed in yoga and the highest spiritual life, receiving the spiritual name “Isha,” which means Lord, Master, or Ruler, a descriptive title often applied to God, as in the Isha Upanishad. Isha is also a particular title of Shiva.19
The worship of Shiva centered in the form of the natural elliptical stone known as the Shiva Linga (Symbol of Shiva) was a part of the spiritual heritage of Jesus, for His ancestor Abraham, the father of the Hebrew nation, was a worshipper of that form. The Linga which he worshipped is today enshrined in Mecca within the Kaaba. The stone, which is black in color, is said to have been given to Abraham by the Archangel Gabriel, who instructed him in its worship.
Such worship did not end with Abraham, but was practiced by his grandson Jacob, as is shown in the twenty-eighth chapter of Genesis. Unwittingly, because of the dark, Jacob used a Shiva Linga for a pillow and consequently had a vision of Shiva standing above the Linga which was symbolically seen as a ladder to heaven by means of which devas (shining ones) were coming and going. Recalling the devotion of Abraham and Isaac, Shiva spoke to Jacob and blessed him to be an ancestor of the Messiah. Upon awakening, Jacob declared that God was in that place though he had not realized it. The light of dawn revealed to him that his pillow had been a Shiva Linga, so he set it upright and worshipped it with an oil bath, as is traditional in the worship of Shiva, naming it (not the place) Bethel: the Dwelling of God. (In another account in the thirty-fifth chapter, it is said that Jacob “poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon.” This, too, is traditional, both milk and honey-which Shiva promised Moses would flow abundantly in Israel-being poured over the Linga as offerings.) From thenceforth that place became a place of pilgrimage and worship of Shiva in the form of the Linga stone. Later Jacob had another vision of Shiva, Who told him: “I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me.”20 A perusal of the Old Testament will reveal that Bethel was the spiritual center for the descendants of Jacob, even above Jerusalem.
Filed Under Religion & Spirituality | 3 Comments
Can you help me with a Yoga project?
angel444 asked:
I am completing a project for Yoga Teacher Training, and I’d like to survey people about a concept called Sthirasukha. Sthirasukha is a concept in yoga that is used to describe a sensible and well structured yoga practice. In every posture, one should experience sthira (steadiness/awareness) and sukha (ease/comfort). Without both, there is no intelligent practice. As always, the concepts we experience on the mat can translate into life. When in your life have you experienced Sthirasukha? When have you been aware and alert, but with comfort and ease. I look forward to your answers and thanks!!
Filed Under Psychology | 4 Comments
yoga salary?
nmorinello asked:
i am planning to start my 200 hour power yoga teacher training in september, and im wondering typically how much an instructor makes per class, i live in wilmington delaware area if that helps
Filed Under Diet & Fitness | 1 Comment
How many times i week should i excersice and what do you think about my weight loss?
Neptune24 asked:
I been working out seriously, for the past seven weeks, i lost about nine pounds. i execersice about 6 or 7 tiems a week, i do kickboxing and yoga i was expectiong to lose more by now, however my kickboxking instructor said that i should excersice lesss and give my body time to recover… more like tops 5 days week… what is the best way of training to lose weight? and is possible that i also gaing some musle?,
Filed Under Diet & Fitness | 6 Comments
Whats the point of Yoga? Is it for me?
Ray F asked:
So yesterday i went to my gym wanting to attend my usual palates class. everyones looking at me.. im like wtttfff. ive been here before. finally when we got started the instructor says, ok legs begin with our Yoga. YOGA!! wtf wrong class! i told the intructor i thought it was a palates class but ill give it a shot anyways. lol. keep in mind im 6ft, about 200 lbs, big arms, and a sleeve less shirt. i look pretty damn funny in a yoga class.
ok so i proceed with the class. i have to admit, it was pretty cool. cool, as in relaxing, stretching and chilling, etc. but this thing went on for a hr. during this hr. im thinking ooook.. lets go over with it, i need to get my bi’s and tri’s work out in. so pretty much i wasted my valuable work out time for yoga. but at the same time i did enjoy it a little.
so am i missing the point of yoga? cuz i didnt see the big hype about it. and do chicks in there think im a fag or do they dig seeing a guy attempting yoga?
thanks
Filed Under Diet & Fitness | 2 Comments
Training up to become an instructer.but?
BladeRunner asked:
Hey,
Well im training up to become a karate instructer, training 3 times a week in the dojo, but its been about a year or so since i last done karate, and i must say im quite rusty.
so i was thinking about taking up yoga aswell maybe on the weekend, but would that be too much pressure on my body to train 3 times a week then yoga?
also is their a name for trainee instructers?? I know in my style theirs ; Kancho = founding master instructor
Shihan= master instructor
Sensei = Teacher
and then Sempai = assistant instructor??
do i fall under Sempai? just curious really, they probably told me but i do i tend to zone out alot when spoken to for long periods of time, so yeah lol!
1) thats the list of the titles that i have been given by my instructor.
2) I didnt say that i was expecting to become an instructer straight away. I merely said that its been a year since i done karate and im just coming back into it.
Filed Under Martial Arts | 2 Comments
What’s your opinion on Ben Stein’s last column?
writer_girl20 asked:
For many years Ben Stein has written a biweekly column called “Monday Night At Morton’s.” (Morton’s is a famous chain of Steakhouses known to be frequented by movie stars and famous people from around the globe.) Now, Ben is terminating the column to move on to other things in his life. Reading his final column is worth a few minutes of your time.
============================================
How Can Someone Who Lives in Insane Luxury Be a Star in Today’s World?
As I begin to write this, I “slug” it, as we writers say, which means I put a heading on top of the document to identify it. This heading is “eonlineFINAL,” and it gives me a shiver to write it. I have been doing this column for so long that I cannot even recall when I started. I loved writing this column so much for so long I came to believe it would never end.
It worked well for a long time, but gradually, my changing as a person and the world’s change have overtaken it. On a small scale, Morton’s, while better than ever, no longer attracts as many stars as it used to. It still brings in the rich people in droves and definitely some stars. I saw Samuel L. Jackson there a few days ago, and we had a nice visit, and right before that, I saw and had a splendid talk with Warren Beatty in an elevator, in which we agreed that “Splendor in the Grass” was a super movie But Morton’s is not the star galaxy it once was, though it probably will be again.
Beyond that, a bigger change has happened. I no longer think Hollywood stars are terribly important . They are uniformly pleasant, friendly people, and they treat me better than I deserve to be treated. But a man or woman who makes a huge wage for memorizing lines and reciting them in front of a camera is no longer my idea of a shining star we should all look up to.
How can a man or woman who makes an eight-figure wage and lives in insane luxury really be a star in today’s world, if by a “star” we mean someone bright and powerful and attractive as a role model? Real stars are not riding around in the backs of limousines or in Porsches or getting trained in yoga or Pilates and eating only raw fruit while they have Vietnamese girls do their nails.
They can be interesting, nice people, but they are not heroes to me any longer. A real star is the soldier of the 4th Infantry Division who poked his head into a hole on a farm near Tikrit, Iraq. He could have been met by a bomb or a hail of AK-47 bullets. Instead, he faced an abject Saddam Hussein and the gratitude of all of the decent people of the world.
A real star is the U.S. soldier who was sent to disarm a bomb next to a road north of Baghdad. He approached it, and the bomb went off and killed him. A real star, the kind who haunts my memory night and day, is the U.S. soldier in Baghdad who saw a little girl playing with a piece of unexploded ordnance on a street near where he was guarding a station. He pushed her aside and threw himself on it just as it exploded. He left a family desolate in California and a little girl alive in Baghdad.
The stars who deserve media attention are not the ones who have lavish weddings on TV but the ones who patrol the streets of Mosul even after two of their buddies were murdered and their bodies battered and stripped for the sin of trying to protect Iraqis from terrorists.
We put couples with incomes of $100 million a year on the covers of our magazines. The noncoms and officers who barely scrape by on military pay but stand on guard in Afghanistan and Iraq and on ships and in submarines and near the Arctic Circle are anonymous as they live and die.
I am no longer comfortable being a part of the system that has such poor values, and I do not want to perpetuate those values by pretending that who is eating at Morton’s is a big subject.
There are plenty of other stars in the American firmament…the policemen and women who go off on patrol in South Central and have no idea if they will return alive; the orderlies and paramedics who bring in people who have been in terrible accidents and prepare them for surgery; the teachers and nurses who throw their whole spirits into caring for autistic children; the kind men and women who work in hospices and in cancer wards.
Think of each and every fireman who was running up the stairs at the World Trade Center as the towers began to collapse. Now you have my idea of a real hero.
I came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters. This is my highest and best use as a human. I can put it another way. Years ago, I realized I could never be as great an actor as Olivier or as good a comic as Steve Martin…or Martin Mull or Fred Willard–or as good an economist as Samuelson or Friedman or as good a writer as Fitzgerald. Or even remotely close to any of them.
But I could be a devoted father to my son, husband to my wife and, above all, a good son to the parents who had done so much for me. This came to be my main task in life. I did it moderately well with my son, pretty well with my wife and well indeed with my parents (with my sister’s help). I cared for and paid attention to them in their declining years. I stayed with my father as he got sick, went into extremis and then into a coma and then entered immortality with my sister and me reading him the Psalms.
This was the only point at which my life touched the lives of the soldiers in Iraq or the firefighters in New York. I came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters and that it is my duty, in return for the lavish life God has devolved upon me, to help others He has placed in my path. This is my highest and best use as a human.
Faith is not believing that God can. It is knowing that God will.
By Ben Stein
“The courage to be is the courage to accept oneself, in spite of being unacceptable.” - Paul Tillich
I like it very much, and I agree with him. I have a lot of respect for a man with good moral values, which is apparent with Ben Stein.
Filed Under Other - Society & Culture | 2 Comments
I have a question about Yoga?
Jedi asked:
Is yoga right for me?
I’m 300 pounds overweight, and can barely touch my toes. I can’t even do one push up or one chip up. Trying to get on the floor to do even one push up is impossible for me.
I’ve heard good things about yoga in recent years. I am trying to loose weight, and am very interested in yoga. But I’m not flexible enough to join a class. I’ve tried to do some videos on my own but I can’t even get close to some of the positions the instructor can do then I get frustrated and give up.
Is there any videos out there for fat people or very inflexible people?
I really want to take up yoga because I have a lot of back and joint pain and have been told it would help my joint and back pain tremendously.
I really can’t afford to take a class at a yoga stuido-plus I’d feel out of place being around a bunch of skinny, way more flexible people than me right now. Maybe after a couple months of doing yoga at home and I can at least keep up with the class (and money providing) I’ll take a few.
What are some good yoga videos for me to do? Is yoga even right for me? Do I need to lose 100 pounds first and/or would yoga help me in my weight loss goals?
I already know that weight loss is more than just eating right-it’s about working out, eating well and a well balanced workout and diet plan. I know that already, and I’m already doing it. I just want to know:
Is yoga right for me? Will yoga help round out my weight loss plan? If I keep doing yoga long enough will I become just as flexibale as at least half the people I see in the yoga classes? Are there videos out there I can watch and work out too that will help me become better at yoga and-
Will doing yoga the best I can help ease my back and joint pain?
Filed Under Other - Health | 3 Comments
Yoga question?
light-bleach asked:
I’ve just started practicing yoga. I really like it and like the way it feels. The thing is that I’m not that flexible, the instructor is like 50 and she’s WAY more flexible that me, and this make it hard for me to do all the move as good as she is.
I wonder I will ever be flexible that flexible? How can I do it? How long will it take? How many times should I practice a day?
Filed Under Diet & Fitness | 2 Comments
Divorce very messy to move or not to move?
Samantha B asked:
I am 26 yrs old almost 27 and my hubby is 28 yrs old we are getting a divorce after 4 yrs of marriage. I was 22 and a single mom of a daughter(now 6 yrs old) via an ex.bf which was a very messy and I wanted to be wild party girl and thats how my hubby met me we got married after 7 months of dating.Its been an on/off tirbulent marriage for 4 yrs he never stopped being the party guy and cheated on me more than once.It was bad i wondered what i was doing wrong and i was depressed.During our last seperation i slept with my daughters father who was also seperated from his new wife and got pregnant with twins who are now little over 18 months old.I did graduate from college with a liberal arts major and a business minor all my parents choices.I never used any of it though because i stopped working when i got married so my last job was at age 21 was as a yoga instructor.I live in NV but am considering moving back to my home state(NJ) to be near family but its expensive?
My home is sold and i have to move out in 2 weeks.I dont want to uproot my eldest daughter and make things hard on her by pulling her out of school?But her dad lives in same area as my family so no daycare?
Filed Under Parenting | 7 Comments
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