The Narrow Way That Leads To Life - what is it?

reply to post by NewAgeMan


I'll tell you what it means, but if you are a Christian, you probably won't believe it. The straight and narrow path is Walking Between Good and Evil, Light and Dark, and using power from both to meet your ends. One cannot exist without the other to defile it, so evil will always be there, why not use it for the good fight? That is my take on that.

To go a little deeper on this subject, it can also mean Walking Between the Worlds. I will explain. We, humanity, live in the 3rd dimensional physical world, right? But there is also a Spiritual World too. It is accessed from the right brain, and is very peaceful, no worries of strife, no anger or depression. A very nice place to be, but one cannot live there all the time, we mush come down the the physical world to work, do business, shop, things like that. So you walk between the Worlds.

I've got it!

From a Christian frame of reference, it trascends the duality of good and evil, where love conquors all.

Therefore (holding the frame), to find the narrow way, that leads to life, is to, first "grok" (eat/drink) the person and the work and the word of Jesus Christ, you know "get that", and start integrating it and even feeding on it spiritually as a form of sustenance, as a spiritual water and food (grok of it), and then,

Love, and do as you will.

(Augustine, no doubt a friend of JC's)

Free to love, set free, for the sake of freedom, to have the capacity, to share in a love capable of carrying the WHOLE of suffering and sorrow, that even humor itself might be resurrected from the ashes of a dead and dying civilization, the old world, fast passing away, to make way for the new, which we my brother and sister, must have the courage to enter into, ourselves, receiving Christ ever more fully, and allowing, and permitting his love to inform and fill and stir our hearts, living water, which wells up into eternity.

There, I said it.

But who and what could crush that pearl, eh?

Oh my God what a friend we have in Jesus Christ aka Jesus of Nazareth, man of sorrows, joy, and treMENDOUS courage, to walk that walk, and chart that course, and prepare a way, while at the same time bracketing or binding the strong man, so as to leave nothing else BUT heaven on earth! What a marvel! I get this, and so do you.

And to the atheists all to a one, since you are also my friends, I can tell you that if I am the doorman, you shall NOT be turned away!

Love, it conquors all, and leads all people into God, through me through Jesus Christ.

I will stand by the door well presented, with tickets extended, but I cannot be knocked down, since my very presence at the door, is due to the existence of such a door in the first place, and it's the Great Work of all Ages, it is the death, and resurrection and spiritual ascension of Jesus Christ, occuring through us who are willing to die to self and be transformed by His love, as intended, by he who was, who is and who is to come, now and forever.

There is nothing else, nothing else, which makes any rational sense in the final analysis, no, in the space of a radical transformative liberation, and in the very gate of eternity, there is only one thing that motivates, only one thing that is fun and amuzing, everything else is just details, mere distractions from the only thing that matters which is the love of God expressed through this almost unfathonable display of art and creativity in the face of all curruption, sin, death and entropy - what a marvel, what strength and power that is.

I feel like I am only now just becoming the Christian, in kononia with you dear reader, that I was meant to be, the kind of who takes Jesus at his word, while testing it against everything I know and have learned, and it always comes up reasonable, even unreasonably reasonable I guess you could say. Wow!

And since I am the pearl in formation, I already know that my spirit cannot be crushed, expecially not by any response on a Conspiracy Discussion Forum!

Originally posted by NewAgeMan

Oh my God what a friend we have in Jesus Christ aka Jesus of Nazareth, man of sorrows, joy, and treMENDOUS courage, to walk that walk, and chart that course, and prepare a way, while at the same time bracketing or binding the strong man, so as to leave nothing else BUT heaven on earth! What a marvel! I get this, and so do you.

And to the atheists all to a one, since you are also my friends, I can tell you that if I am the doorman, you shall NOT be turned away!

Love, it conquors all, and leads all people into God, through me through Jesus Christ.

I will stand by the door well presented, with tickets extended, but I cannot be knocked down, since my very presence at the door, is due to the existence of such a door in the first place, and it's the Great Work of all Ages, it is the death, and resurrection and spiritual ascension of Jesus Christ, occuring through us who are willing to die to self and be transformed by His love, as intended, by he who was, who is and who is to come, now and forever.

There is nothing else, nothing else, which makes any rational sense in the final analysis, no, in the space of a radical transformative liberation, and in the very gate of eternity, there is only one thing that motivates, only one thing that is fun and amuzing, everything else is just details, mere distractions from the only thing that matters which is the love of God expressed through this almost unfathonable display of art and creativity in the face of all curruption, sin, death and entropy - what a marvel, what strength and power that is.

I feel like I am only now just becoming the Christian, in kononia with you dear reader, that I was meant to be, the kind of who takes Jesus at his word, while testing it against everything I know and have learned, and it always comes up reasonable, even unreasonably reasonable I guess you could say. Wow!

And since I am the pearl in formation, I already know that my spirit cannot be crushed, expecially not by any response on a Conspiracy Discussion Forum!

Lol I feel like Woody Harrelson in 2012 "I got goosebumps!"

One of the greatest attributes God gives us is compassion for our fellow man. People will sit on thrones and judge and they will be able to extend compassion because it was extended to them.

reply to post by Myrtales Instinct


It's a sending out, or a calling out (of a faulty paradigm into freedom), more organic I think, than hieararchical, or IF hieararchical then of a totally different order and dimension, but HERE is where the rubber meets the road! In a non-local, holographic universe, local matters!

But if that man Jesus died on that cross, then he did so meaningfully, purposefully, relative to the sins of the world, to clean everything up, karmically you could say, to make everything new again, to make everything function as it ought to, that's him, a universal principal, in the form of a human being! Loving, kind, probably charming and charismatic, able to be strong where we are weak, and take the whole load, what a thing! What love is this?

Try not to get lost and tangled in the dogma of this. The message Jesus came to bring is very simple. His mission was to tell us and then prove to us that we can all do what he has done, that is, to attain life everlasting, or immortality.

But the gateway is narrow (not many find the truth among the tangled dogma) and the path is straight (once you are on 'The Way' it is all too easy to step off the path) thus losing your way.

It is quite easy to find the gateway and path. It is very easy to determine to set out on 'The Way', but not at all easy to stay the course. Jesus also said, 'Many are called, but few are chosen'.

The only way to immortality is to get off the wheel of death and rebirth, also known as the wheel of karma. This can only be done by working out all of your accumulated destiny here on earth, and most importantly, not creating more destiny, which keeps you chained to the wheel.

Destiny is created when we think of an object or event and attach ourselves to the outcome. e.g. we think of a person or situation we desire in our life and then ardently desire that senario to come into our life. Thus, we have created a 'thought' which must be balanced, sometime, somewhere in our earthly life, this one or a future one.

When Jesus said to his disciples to give up their possessions and follow him, this is what he meant. Give up your desire for the temporary things of this temporary world, and concentrate on obtaining the permanant things of the everlasting state of immortality.

reply to post by triune

And then he washed our feet before heading to the cross, to swallow up the whole wheel of samsara on our behalf, to the degree that we recieve this grace, this unmerited gift, and that`s not dogma OR karma and it places us in eternity now, since all the work was done by him. I am beginning to understand this ever more clearly, and while it appears to be dogmatic or formulaic, it`s not it`s only true, and of nearly unfathonable love and mercy, but not without also serving the cause of justice without any compromise with sin and karma. It makes all things new. Since then, of course many people are still on the karmic wheel, BUT, he is still available at the end to resolve it and clean it all up, going the distance for that one lost sheep. Jesus chases us around the wheel until we`re ready to surrender to his love, and recieve his free gift of eternal life.

There is something about that karmic wheel which makes it nearly impossible if not impossible to otherwise escape, which is probably why they all choose to keep coming back as Bodhisatvas!

Man is unable to engineer his or her own salvation, we cannot ACHIEVE eternity on our own steam or by our own merit.

I`ll take eternity now thank you very much Lord Jesus Christ!

Phoenix rises from the ashes, leave the past behind.
Those who took my lust for life are buried in my mind.
Smell the air feel the breeze, a new wind is blowing.
Hear the sound of victory, the repressed are awaking.
Lifting the ban - that made me change for the worse.
I finaly escaped - from this curse.
A new breed of hope - is what they have to cope.
Feel the strenght - 'till the better end.
Dogs are barking in my face so they're not able to bite.
Pointing at mistakes of my past, I'm focused on what's yet to come.
Anger and distortion, my fuel for life, my engine is turning like never before.
(repeat chorus)
As the last silence is broken.
Lifting the ban...

I find there is this hanging on together which keeps us from the way. Those that like the evil way meaning we also do. Convincing themselves we are the same. They will never prevail. They change your words because they fear. They keep themselves up on our energy. Fight. They will never prevail. Time learns. Rid them twisted. Them take the punishment.

Why don't you get a life and grow up
Why don't you realize that you're #ed up
Why criticize what you don't understand
Why change my words, you're so afraid

You think you have the right to
put me down
Propaganda hides your scum
Face to face you don't have a word to say
You got in my way, now you'll have to pay

Don't, don't believe what you
see
Don't, don't believe what you read
No!!!

I know my ways, I'm here to stay
I didn't start all this yesterday
I'll prove you wrong all the way
Life teaches me you're always alone

Don't, don't believe what you
see
Don't, don't believe what read
No!!!

The Narrow path is your path. You cannot walk my path and I cannot walk your path. It is connecting with the kingdom or light within as spoken of in Luke 17. It is the path to the soul. When he says few find it he did not mean most will never find it. He was speaking in context the times and even to our time that back then and even now not many are evolved enough to reliably and solidly connect to that soul light within. Many can connect sporadically but are not able to stay centered in the light. Although more are today then in his time. Eventually all but a handful will make the connection.

reply to post by NewAgeMan


I think your still getting caught in the dogma. Jesus did not come to start a religion, nor did he come to save us by an act of self sacrifice. He came to tell and show by example how we can save ourselves.

Does it really make sense to you that, according to organised religion, Jesus died for our sins, thus giving us salvation. This would mean we now have no further need for restraint or self control in any way. We can be totally reckless and irresponsible, even criminal in our dealing with ourselves and others, because we have already been forgiven. There is absolutly no need to do any work on ourselves to eliminate our faults.

Think about it. If this was the case, why is the bible full of commandments and rules and advice on living life and the rewards for doing this and the punishments for not doing it. Why is all this necessary if salvation has already been acheived.

No, my friend. Jesus showed the way, but we, each and every one of us, must get there by our own efforts.

Consider this. The church (meaning the religion of Christianity) lasted in its pure form (true teachings) for a mere few hundred years. It was then usurped by kings and popes alike for their own selfish ends. The dogma was created to place the Pope between the people and God, teaching that only the Church had the true teachings.
It must be remembered that in those early days the only bibles were held by the church authorities and very few people could read anyway. The population was told what to beleive and had little choice in the matter.

The power this gave the Church is still in evidence today.

Also in evidence today is the result of a world that refuses to take responsibility for its actions. This is a direct result of the false teachings of a false religion foisted upon the world in order to keep itself in power.

The truth is there for those who search diligently. If you expect to find it in organised religion, expect to shovel a lot of dirt before you find gold.

reply to post by hawkiye




It is to become of the kingdom of heaven, together as a church, together as a whole. Puzzle that fits together so we need eachother. Everything goes more fluently then. We will know things about eachother without talking. There will be love for oneanother. Everything will happen as things should.

The evildoers wil vanish from the earth.

Let us pray for it to be done. I presume them had time enough, they don't even consider the righteous road. Howcome they don't feel? They find the gifts being useless. It goes that far they don't adore anything of God anymore. I spit on them. They are worth nothing anymore.

reply to post by triune


He said that he was sent, not to condemn the world, but so that, through him, the world might be saved.

There's something you're missing, and that is the idea of liberation, of being set free for the sake of freedom, to freely love.

Nothing else motivates, and that's the model and the pattern, selfless love.

So who, in appropriating or "grokking" that, will be driven to sin, evil and destruction? That's absurd, and a misinterpretation of the meaning and significance of his "Great Work", which I think of as a radical transformative forgiveness.

Bear in mind you're talking here to a very liberal Christian, but I am not about to bypass or do away with the meaning and significance and yes, the willing sacrifice of his Cross, and his death and resurrection, his triumph.

reply to post by etherical waterwave

The KOH is spread out upon the earth, but men to not see it. It remains bured in contemptous bias, and a spirit of prideful self determination, which would rather have things my way, and that's the highway, the wide road everyone is stumbling upon, and circling, for all the wrong reasons! it's absurd.

There is no need to spit on anyone for missing it, however, and after all, we are all working SOMETHING out, some aspect of the Great Work, which, if I'm reading Jesus correctly, amounts to a participative eschatology, a participative liberation, and freedom, so that true love, and true life might arise from the ashes of death, destruction, misery, and the dead and dying bones of a lost civilization, seen passing away from this new perspective, this frame of reference, this point of view in eternity, the gift accepted, after its re-cognition, only to discover lo and behold that it was love and freedom, true life and true love all along, where Jesus is the true vine of which we, those who believe and recieve, are the branches.

There is only one reason why such a gift would be rejected, and that very thing is what it was sent to treat, to the core, and this is just good pratical sense, and nothing but an invitation, for consideration, and hey it DOES need to be said, to be talked about, and shared together, within the framework of one fellowship, one brotherhood of man, one heavenly household, yes even in the sky! But it was from Earth, of all places, where the highest truly served the very lowest, in perfect love and perfect loving conscious awareness. It's breathtaking in its true implications, for the individual as a lone, suffering, sorrowful survivor, having no real food and no water, of the kind which we require in eternity as spiritual beings, and so it's a banquet, a celebration, and yes someone's bound to get thrown out for being nothing but an imposter, but never spit upon!

But you see, if the tickets to the Wedding Feast are going out, even now, then they just keep on going out for a while, while the door remains open, and since I man that door, I also have been given the right, through Jesus, to reopen it again, and again, as needed, so as to make disciples of all nations, and to feed his sheep.

"Do you love me Peter?"

"Of COURSE I love you, you know THAT (wtf?)!"


"Feed my sheep"

John 21:17
The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep."

I would like to add, for further context and framing, this comment I made in another thread.

Originally posted by NewAgeMan
reply to post by annabanana

 

Thank YOU, what an awesome contribution to this intriguing thread. I occasionally get that "ah ha" moment, even had it a bit re-reading the posts here, yours included.

I believe firmly that we simply MUST undergo "the shift" and experience in the process a re-enchantment of our world and cosmos, because the current worldview and paradigm is killing us, and the reason its killing us, is because we know in our heart of hearts that it's both a type of prison and that it's not the least bit congruent with reality as it really and truly is, according to the way it was created. I've come to think that a big part of the problem, of the incongruity, which is making us suffer dearly is the Newtonian Materialist Monist (matter is primary, and separated) worldview, which was helpful in the sense that it kicked off a scientific revolution, but unhelpful to the degree that we adopted it's fundamental tenets as "self evident" and came to view the world around as as separate from ourselves. Everything became divided, splintered, just things, dead, inanimate, without soul or substance, meaningless, pointless, without purpose.

I've recently finished reading a book called "The Self Aware Universe" by a physicist by the name of Amit Goswami, PhD. In it, he postulated a new way of doing science and of looking at ourselves and the world around us which he calls "Monistic Idealism" whereby consciousness and not matter is primary. It's principal advantage, scientifically, is that it does away with all the quantum paradoxes, but best of all, it presents a viewpoint, a worldview or a paradigm capable of re-linking science to the various religious, mystical traditions in such a way that they share a common ground. As a result it points a sturdy finger towards the possibility of a re-enchantment of the cosmos and our place within it, as a type of co-creative cosmic dance with we ourselves positioned as a rather unique product or culmination of a long (if not eternal) cosmic evolutionary process, such that we are put back into a relationship WITH God and WITH the creation in a very integral way, a way which resonates both with the discoveries of modern science AND which resonates with what we intuit deep down, to be true, that we have a unique and special place as self aware conscious observers and participants enveloped in a wholistic interdependant universal framework. It states that we MATTER by virtue of our stature as created beings, that we are not just THINGS, and that our presence here is unique, special, and INTENDED, where the motive force or the catalyst to creativity, is Love.

It gives new meaning to the statement (and please don't let any religious bias prevent you from "grokking" its significance) "All creation was made by the father for the son" or put another way, "all creation was made by the first/last cause who is a self aware being, for the sake of love, and it pleases God to SHARE his kinddom with all his children (created beings made in the image of God ie: self aware and embued with free will).

I can see some hard assed atheist stepping in here now to throw a cold bucket of water on me, and say that this is just feel good fluff because I am too scared to accept the cold hard facts of an impersonal universe and the degree of my own insignificance, or I'm just trying to make the facts fit my preconcieved religious bias, but to him I would have to say, no, that just doesn't cut it, and then, if I was as smart and knowledgable as Goswami, I could then start putting forth the quantum paradoxes and show how this viewpoint of a Monistic Idealism alone resolves them satisfactorily.

What saddens me, about the atheist arguments, is that they seemingly would rather deny their own existence, than to accept the notion that they are children (byproducts) of a God of love who created them and all creation for the sake of making the experience possible (sharing the kingdom), so that there could be love, and love as we know always takes two to tango, so to speak.

Can we reciprocate love back to something (God) that we cannot understand? Sure we can, with something called gratitude, appreciation and the joy of having been included in the creation, to be here for a reason, while at the same time gifted with absolute freedom. We can do it by LIVING and EXPERIENCING our lives more fully, by getting re-enchanted with the world around us, and especially the other people around us, since mutality is a powerful word when it comes to the matter of love.

It's an extraordinary thing to behold, even the way it's been done, at the classical level (there's another deep quantum one we can't see of course), with the stars, planets, OUR planet, the trees and plants and everything, I mean like if it's some sort of holographic projection of sorts following classical rules, then it's an absolutely incredible work of art!

I think we can bypass "the church" or "Churchianity" and re-capture this newly re-enchanted viewpoint, and oh what it says about ourselves and our true nature..?!

It makes we almost weep, to think that this may be the way it REALLY is, while my room mates sit upstairs glued to the boobtube watching two and a half men, and thinking that the reality we were sold the one we all just you know ASSUME and take for granted, the BS social matrix we've been placed in so as to serve our role as "eaters" and as good consumers is the REAL WORLD. It is NOT the real world, by any stretch of the imagination. And that world, that dead and dying world, is killing us, and taking away our soul. I say just turn it OFF and ignore it altogether and choose reality and choose life.

/rant over.

God Bless.

With Love,

reply to post by etherical waterwave


The gateway to the narrow path is learning to practice harmlessness and seeing the divine in your fellow man despite their faults.

reply to post by hawkiye


Yeah, but try to talk to them out of the nothing, it needs to be brought up in them. I'm sneeky!