give me money and you can have salvation and an in with God

Labels pick your own: Is YHWH or God or the Source or the Absolute ONE inclusive or exclusive?

NO comment.

Since I was 5 or 6 years old, the idea of paving the way to Heaven with money has bothered me. We had a neighbor that lived about a block away whose father was a preacher, church was next door to their house. I played with the preacher’s son sometimes, he had a bike that he would let me ride and plenty of other toys. I was invited to attend church one Sunday, so I did. Was a shocking experience for me, never heard so many bad words in all of my life and heard them repeatedly. HELL, DAMN, DAMNATION, and that was abrasive to my senses. Half time came to the cuss word show, the preacher stated that the streets of Heaven were paved with gold and so was the way to get there, so put some money in the offering bowl and then get ready for act two or words to that effect. My immediate thought was; we were poor and there was no way we could afford to get to Heaven, damned we were! So I made my exit, ran home and never played with the preacher’s son again.

I was intending to write about the commonalities of various religions, the spirituality that is contained therein, this to include the indigenous natives of South America and North America and other far flung places. But decided, after a few days of prayer, to write about something else, the dollars of institutional religion.

What prompted this was a Buddhist website about Maitreya, he is a past and future Buddha, lots in common with Jesus. What struck me was they were asking for members, and to become a fully participatory member you had to tithe for 6 months. This was followed by a long essay about tithes and their justification, and a total debunking of Paul of New Testament fame. Paul would not ask for tithes, shunned them, said he could support himself through his tent making and he worked in the various towns he went to and worked for the local tent makers to pay his way. The Buddhist web site said because of this you should discard all of Paul’s teachings as bunk and give money to them. Ouch on Paul.

Buddha never asked for coin, only food, as far as I could determine from reading the early documents about Buddha and his life. His followers were called bhikkhu, which means beggars, nice handle! They had begging bowls and they would go into the villages and beg for food and in return provide teachings to the general population. It was a pay as you go/receive system, no stock piling. Now the system is to accept a master teacher and then donate coin to him in return for his teachings. This is the now prescribed way and highly recommended, the money flows. It is not as Buddha set it up. It is now institutionalized to the max; the Dalai Lama’s net worth, last time I checked is estimated at over $150 million US dollars.

Additionally there was no dogma attached to Buddha’s teachings, he was against dogma. He had a teaching called the raft teaching, you take certain methods or concepts to get you to a place and then shed those so you can move on. He said it is like trying to cross a river, you build a raft (the various teachings or concepts) to cross the river, but when you are on the other side, get rid of the raft as you walk/move on, as the raft will only encumber you, slowing you down, discard it, you do not need it. If I point to the moon and you only look at my finger, you will never see the moon, this was Buddha’s theory about dogma.

Jesus had no home, what donations they accepted they in turn gave it to widows and orphans, the poor and needy. This was the sacrifice that God calls for, not animals that the priests get to eat or resell. Judas, who wanted Jesus to be a military style leader/king was upset when a prostitute came and washed his feet, pouring expensive perfumed oil on them and then drying his feet with her hair (a little recycling going on there). Judas wanted the oil so it could be sold and then the funds used to help the poor. Jesus was tired of stinky feet and said that the poor will always be with you and I will not. They were at some rich person’s home eating.

The early Christian church was called the WAY, no churches, just locals meeting at some person’s house and taking turns to explain what they understood of the way from the documents of Jesus’s recorded teachings and that of Mary Magdalene and her private teaching with Jesus. This is the way it was intended to be, not some grand institution that you forked over money to and they told you what to think while they got rich, built huge buildings and walked around in their false piety. All show and no compassion. Dogma became the strict tenets of the church along with send coin.

This gets us to how accurate were those recorded teachings? Some people have minds that can remember things that they hear exactly and then copy them down later. One of the main disciples of Buddha had a mind like that and he did just that, recorded the teachings of Buddha. The disciples of Jesus were memory trained from early on and at age 7 had to recite from memory scriptures. They also had a diet that was conducive to brain cognition; figs, have been clinically proven to be great brain food to enhance memory and figs were a big part of their diet. There were other parts of their diet that contributed to this memory enhancement that coupled with their training worked well. I wrote a term paper on it while I was in seminary that was published by my professor, under his name; what???

All of that said, I would be leery of any institution or person that asks you to donate or tithe for spiritual teachings, also those that promise instant connections. The cosmos, YHWH, God or what ever label you want to affix is free for all. That entity is all inclusive, not exclusive, no dogmas that exclude you or include you. To think otherwise is to not understand the very nature of a loving consciousness that feels all of your pain, knows all of your thoughts, emotions and needs. One that loves what has been created and wants you to enjoy it, to be sustained by it. ONE who wants to have a relationship with you, directly and intimately. LOVE.

I like it that Paul wanted to pay his own way while explaining the WAY, this made him obligated to no person, only to the cosmos, the Absolute ONE.

God is my Boss, and the cosmos approves this message.