First of all, this is pretty shocking. Secret sayings? Yet in the standard Gospels Jesus tells his disciples not to tell the outside world who he is. And at other times he talks about how the truth is hidden from the masses. So this is not inconsistent with the usual accounts. Now is Jesus promising eternal life in the first verse? It's just not clear. "Not tasting death" could mean a lot of things. It could mean achieving a state where death no longer troubles you. It could mean that you plug in to a higher spiritual entity, and that even though you die as an individual, the entity lives on. Myself, I tend to disbelieve in life after death. And I think, even if it exists, it's a red herring. The most spiritual thing we can do is to concentrate on what's happening right now. The future is the future. Let it be. In Buddhism, and other places, we learn that all concepts are inherently deficient. I must perceive the world through concepts, but those concepts never are completely accurate. This is what is called "emptiness" in Buddhist lingo. In particular, the concept of "self" is seen to break down on close inspection. I am not the same person I was when I was 10 years old, nor am I the same person as I was yesterday. My thoughts are different. My body is different. In fact, what is the same? So what does it mean for me to be resurrected in an afterlife, or to be reincarnated as a different person? In the end, these are meaningless concepts since there is no separately-existing self to be resurrected.
I would take the "secret sayings" to be indicative of mysticism. i.e., Jesus speak in parables, just as the prophets did. If you can decode his message, you will live forever.
2 comments:
First of all, this is pretty shocking. Secret sayings? Yet in the standard Gospels Jesus tells his disciples not to tell the outside world who he is. And at other times he talks about how the truth is hidden from the masses. So this is not inconsistent with the usual accounts. Now is Jesus promising eternal life in the first verse? It's just not clear. "Not tasting death" could mean a lot of things. It could mean achieving a state where death no longer troubles you. It could mean that you plug in to a higher spiritual entity, and that even though you die as an individual, the entity lives on. Myself, I tend to disbelieve in life after death. And I think, even if it exists, it's a red herring. The most spiritual thing we can do is to concentrate on what's happening right now. The future is the future. Let it be. In Buddhism, and other places, we learn that all concepts are inherently deficient. I must perceive the world through concepts, but those concepts never are completely accurate. This is what is called "emptiness" in Buddhist lingo. In particular, the concept of "self" is seen to break down on close inspection. I am not the same person I was when I was 10 years old, nor am I the same person as I was yesterday. My thoughts are different. My body is different. In fact, what is the same? So what does it mean for me to be resurrected in an afterlife, or to be reincarnated as a different person? In the end, these are meaningless concepts since there is no separately-existing self to be resurrected.
I would take the "secret sayings" to be indicative of mysticism. i.e., Jesus speak in parables, just as the prophets did. If you can decode his message, you will live forever.
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