Simplify It

It is interesting to note that there were no Christians when Jesus was teaching. After some reading, I get the impression that various teachers from then till now assert that wisdom is not found in complexity. Material attachment, resisting transience, filtered versions of reality - all these are human perspectives that deserve a clear view. That learning process is not improved by material wealth or religious complexity.

Meditation (sometimes labeled prayer as well) seems to be a common element across many spiritual traditions. Some moral behaviors, such as the Golden Rule, also seem commonly represented. It is my contention that the original message of Jesus, Buddha and many other teachers can be deduced from our personal experience of our own natures and by looking at the elements that are common across enduring traditions.

Complex dogma was not present when they were teaching and, in fact, is universally rejected by the teachers themselves. They all extended their teachings to cover even humans considered socially worthless in their time, they all taught wherever they landed with a crowd, they all died before their words were codified into ponderous rule sets that were somehow intended to replace the vitality of living self-examination.

Spirituality - the relationship to life that these people taught others to explore - is not a set of behaviors. It is an introspective process.