Why it doesn’t matter

It’s time to put on your your big boy spiritual pants. What is about to come at you will never be preached from the pulpit. The reason is simple: it requires you to acknowledge how life is not what you perceive it to be but rather how it actually is.

The first noble truth of Buddhism is that life is suffering. This is an English translation which seriously does not capture the fullness of the meaning around the word “suffering.” This word for suffering actually is “dukkha” and its contemporary meaning is better described as:

Disturbance, irritation, dejection, worry, despair, fear, dread, anguish, anxiety; vulnerability, injury, inability, inferiority; sickness, aging, decay of body and faculties, senility; pain/pleasure; excitement/boredom; deprivation/excess; desire/frustration, suppression; longing/aimlessness; hope/hopelessness; effort, activity, striving/repression; loss, want, insufficiency/satiety; love/lovelessness, friendlessness; dislike, aversion/attraction; parenthood/childlessness; submission/rebellion; decision/indecisiveness, vacillation, uncertainty.

Take a moment at look at your own life. How many of these occurrences have been the primary drivers in the events of your life? I don’t need you to be the brave little “faith cherubim” here. If you are going to put on the armor of God to walk in this life you better expect your blood to flow onto the ground daily.

Let us get something straight here. Buddha was over 500 years before Christ. Why should this matter to you if you claim to be Christian?

Pro 4:7 Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.

Joh 1:16 And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.

With the crucifixion of Christ, did the suffering of life end with it? No! In many ways, the crucifixion was the ultimate picture of how to enter and endure the lucid embrace of suffering. Many preach today how Christ took all your suffering for you. Yet, we still suffer. If they aren’t lying, then what in the world does it mean that Christ took our suffering?

Let me step back a moment and ask a different question. Have you ever considered how suffering is merely a self-defense mechanism for a wounded ego? In other words, we suffer because our pride has been attacked. Before you pass this off as rubbish consider the following.

Right this moment, there is a dialogue in your head which has been on-going for…since your birth! I don’t know what it is, but I can bet dollars to doughnuts at least once during the day you are justifying your bruised ego from some encounter which went sideways. Often, this event was days, weeks, even years, if not decades ago, and since then, a multitude of other events have transpired with similar results creating further dialogues of justification. You have been suffering the slings and arrows which attack who you really think you are trying to embody.

Chances are you may have even catapulted the “other” onto a pedestal of hate where you view them daily and seethe with anger over the injustice your ego has had to endure. Vindication, you believe, is your key to freedom. Freedom from suffering. Suffering of your own choosing…

Let’s see if there is some understanding here. Did Christ die for you? Watch out how you answer this! The knee-jerk Christian response is yes, however, Jesus is who died, not Christ. This isn’t splitting hairs but real theology. Christ is the anointing power of God. Since God is eternal, His power is too. It cannot die. Mortals die. Jesus was mortal and died. He arose because the Christ, the power of God, came upon him and dwells within him. This is what God did for all of humanity. This is what grace accomplished – for all.

Jesus died so Christ could dwell in you. Jesus died so Christ could dwell in your “other”. Jesus died so Christ could dwell in all throughout the ages.

Your bruised ego, or battered lowly self-esteem, suffers as a result of ignorance. You ignore Who dwells within you so you can appear to be someone you’re not. Until you can accept this, not one thing you do or think freaking matters! You read that correctly. Grace proclaims that “it” doesn’t freaking matter for anyone but you.

There is suffering in this world because people prefer to be human rather than divine. They prefer to worship their ego rather than the Christ within them.

I recognize how some, if not most, will claim that I am denying the need to address issues which all humanity faces. There could be the claim that I am living a delusional life. Guess what? It doesn’t freaking matter!

Christ tells us to love our enemies. How is that working for you? Every enemy you have is simply the result of a bruised ego. Christ loves them the same amount in which He loves you. There is no difference. You’re being asked to live life in the same manner. However, your bruises won’t permit you to consider how the “other” is equal to you in every way. You can’t even bring yourself to think how your “other” is just as bruised as you are. You are both so alike that this truth frightens you. You need to be…better?

In Christian parlance this is translated as needing to have more faith. It doesn’t freaking matter! It never has throughout your entire life. Grace assures this even without faith for it. No amount of effort on your part is going to change it, period. Conversely, no lack of effort will change it either. It has already been declared “done” before the foundations of the world.

The Buddha says that life is suffering. Christ says it is if you want it to be (which is entirely your choice) but it is not how you were conceived to live life. You are as divine as Jesus right this moment, with all your warts, scrapes and bruises. Grace established it. When are you going to live like it?