Christ and Selflessness

[wizanda]

The word psyche defines the self, not life (Zoe) or spirit (Pneuma). It’s so inaccurate to have translated it as life, its created a whole misplaced ideology. So let’s take a look at some of the real contexts of what was being stated:

Luk 17:33 Whoever shall seek to save his self (psyche) shall lose it, and whoever shall lose his self (psyche) shall preserve it.

Implying if you remove all forms of self, then you aim to be Godly; which gives to all without questioning self. The way it was originally put using the word life, implies if you are a martyr you’ll be saved, which is completely wrong.

Luk 14:26 If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and his own self (psyche) also, he cannot be My disciple.

This verse is commonly misunderstood, due to not perceiving the overall context interlinking with this statement:

Luk 16:13 No servant can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (idol worship).

In other words, when you love God with your entire mind, heart, strength and self (psyche); then all things are open to you and the energy of the universe flows through you. The moment you love self, more than God, that is a form of idolatry.

Luk 12:22-23 And He said to His disciples, Therefore I say to you, Be not anxious as to yourself (psyche), what you shall eat; nor for the body, what you shall put on. (23) self (psyche) is more than food, and the body is more than clothing.

Again being mistranslated has created the idea that, it’s only in the context of life and not in the overall context; that the self is here to spiritually evolve, so what does the out garments mean or food in comparison, if you win the world and lose yourself (psyche).

This article is from here.

 

[wizanda]

Thus Yeshua, Buddha, Lao Tzu, etc, all taught selflessness, as the way to be one with God.

 

[Sunstone]

Thus Yeshua, Buddha, Lao Tzu, etc, all taught selflessness, as the way to be one with God.

It is exceedingly problematic to call the Buddha's nirvana or Lao Tzu's Dao, "God".

 

[wizanda]

It is exceedingly problematic to call the Buddha's nirvana or Lao Tzu's Dao, "God".

It would also be terribly in error, like someone hadn't even studied.

Dao is easier to equate, as being the wisdom intrinsically interwoven into the fabric of reality; showing the brush strokes of the creator.
Nirvana is easier to equate, as the essence of heaven; being a place of none being.

The point we were making, is that the road to the way, is the same essence in all the true messengers of 0neness.... Selflessness!

What is also interesting, is their names are definitions of their teachings:

• Lao Tzu = Old Teacher,
• Buddha = Enlightened awareness,
• Yeshua = Salvation.
• 

 

[lovemuffin]

I think you have to be a little careful about relying too much on hard conceptual distinctions between "life", "soul", and "self" with the word psyche. All the evidence I'm aware of is that the words have a somewhat fluid meaning and usage, and there is not a single anthropological conception with which the authors of the texts you are reading are adhering to.

So for example in Matthew 2, when the angel of the Lord appears to Joseph and says "rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child's life are dead", it is the word psyche that's used, and it should be clear from the context that the translation "life" is the most accurate in english.

On the other hand, I've always been fascinated with the apparent distinction between Bios and Zoe, so I can't cast any stones, and I think your interpretations match up closely with mine. It's not that psyche never means "life" in the most direct sense that the word has in modern english, it's that all the connotations and nuances of psyche are not expressed by just one english word.

 

[Sunstone]

So far as I understand, the Dao is primeval and precedes even the gods.

 

[Baladas]

I honor Tao, but I am not in any position to say what it is exactly. If there are any anthropomorphic gods, then (in my understanding) It would surely predate them.

 

[wizanda]

Sorry for posting the Dao comment, thought it was so simple; yet clearly the Dao isn't simple ... So instead lets take that debate to here.

Fixed:
Thus Yeshua, Buddha, Lao Tzu, etc, all taught selflessness, as the way to be one with 0nenesss.