Giten on Jesus Christ:
Not the Master
in Your Own Home Town
An excerpt from the book “Jesus Christ: The Way, The Truth and the Life”, which Giten is currently writing.
The book is a compilation of lectures during Satsang with Giten on Jesus Christ
Matthew 13
AND WHEN HE WAS COME INTO HIS OWN COUNTRY, HE TAUGHT THEM IN THEIR SYNAGOGUE, INSOMUCH THAT THEY WERE ASTONISHED AND SAID, WHENCE HATH THIS MAN THIS WISDOM AND THESE MIGHTY WORKS?
IS NOT THIS THE CARPENTER’S SON? IS NOT HIS MOTHER CALLED MARY? AND HIS BRETHREN, AND HIS SISTERS, ARE THEY NOT ALL WITH US? WHENCE THEN HATH THIS MAN ALL THESE THINGS? AND THEY WERE OFFENDED IN HIM.
People were not so offended with Buddha or Lao Tzu as people were offended with Jesus.
With Buddha, he is so far away that you either do not understand him, or people could understand that he was the essence of the Upanishads.
With Jesus, people were offended, because he was just like them. They could not understand him. The said: “We know him! Isn’t he the carpenter’s son!”.
Buddha was also the son of a king, while Jesus was a carpenter’s son.
People could not understand. From where comes his wisdom?
They were offended, their ego was offended.
BUT JESUS SAID TO THEM, A PROPHET IS NOT WITHOUT HONOUR,
SAVE IN HIS OWN COUNTRY, AND IN HIS OWN HOUSE.
It has happened so many times that the people who are closest will always misunderstand.
We could expect the contrary, that the people of Jesus village would understand him first. The people of Jesu’s house, his family, his relatives, would understand him first.
But that does not happen.
A deep insight into the human ego is needed to understand it.
With those that are closest to you, it is very difficult to believe that they had gone beyond and above you.
If somebody else, who is not close to you, goes beyond you, the competetive ego does not arise.
But if your brother goes, and you are left behind, your ego is hurt.
You feel defeated, a failure. Then the easiest way is to deny that he has gone beyond.
Jesus offended his own village, family and relatives.
They knew Jesus’ birth date, they knew his father, his mother, his brothers and sisters.
So Jesus can not be forgive.
Jesus is a quality of love, but to be able to see this quality, you have to drop your ego.
The presence, the quality of Jesus offends, because you will feel that you have failed.
His very being, his presence, offends you.
With Jesus there are two qualities: either you follow him or you deny him, you become an enemy.
When Jesus was crucified, many felt a great relief.
Very rare people could follow Jesus, because they were ready to drop their egos.
And even those that followed Jesus, hesitated and had doubts, before they could say yes, before they can trust.
Jesus is a total yes to life, a total trust in life.
From the foreword of Giten’s book
“Presence – Working from Within: The Psychology of Being”
“Some time ago, I felt that I experienced more limitations, than possibilities in a spiritual organization, which I had belonged to for a long time. It became clear for me that I was prepared to expand, and take a new step in my spiritual growth.
To be spiritual does not mean to belong to a spiritual group. I felt that I had grown out of the kindergarten, and my inner tree was bearing fruit. Too many large trees can not grow in a narrow area.
This was a lesson to stand on my own feet; it was a lesson for me to live to my own life, to live my own truth, without following anybody else. I do not belong to any spiritual group or tradition, I am only interested to explore what it means to live with open eyes.
A friend came with a good advice during this period: “Go ahead without looking back, let others do their thing, that is their choice and freedom – you do need their limitation.”
– Swami Dhyan Giten
“It is not many things that modern psychology agrees upon, but all the different approaches of psychology agrees on one thing: that people in groups become more stupid. Individually people are more intelligent, because they have to take their own responsibility, but in a group they do not have to take the same responsibility.
The two basic power strategies to try to manipulate and gain control over another person are: silencing and attacking. Silencing means to not listen to, to exclude or ignore and not respect a person. Attack can both mean to attack a person directly or to try to discredit a person through lies, to ridicule a person or by spreading malicious rumours.
All organizations are more or less dysfunctional. In a dysfunctional group, the members of the group play three different roles: agressor, denier and victim. The agressor is the role that attack and ridicule people, the denier never knows what is going on, there is “no body at home”, and the victim is the resultat of these two roles.
It is always easier to follow a group without awareness, than to follow your own heart, to trust your own intelligence, love, truth, silence and creativity.”
– Swami Dhyan Giten
The Art of Living:
The Art of Being Happy
From Satsang with Giten,
June 18, 2015
The Art of Being Happy is the art of saying say to life. The whole message of Jesus is a total “yes” to life.
Whatsoever you do, do it happily.
Whatsoever you do, wherever you are, do not do anything unhappily.
Whatsoever happens, see out how you can find happiness in it.
If you know how to be happy, then even small things become great things.
Make being happy the art of living.
When you learn the art of being happy, it also begins to spread around you like the waves of the ocean.
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