Why did Jesus say, "My God, my God why hast Thou forsaken me?" Whether one believes the story of Jesus on the cross is true, fabricated, or archetypal, this is a vital moment in the overall story of humanity. It is also, from my perspective, an underlying truth to understanding how we can experience enlightenment.
I think that moment on the cross was actually the first time Jesus experienced himself as human. No matter how difficult life might have been for him as he traveled around teaching, healing, learning, and being persecuted, he was still the "Son of God". Knowing this as he did must have made any hardship seem ridiculously insignificant.
After hours nailed to the cross Jesus says those historic words, "...why hast Thou forsaken me?" In that instant he became embodied fully, fully knowing how incredibly painful this human experience can be, and he experienced separation from the Divine.
Many religious teachers have written that God did turn his back on Jesus while he was on the cross because Jesus had taken on all of humanity's sins and that God is 'too pure to look upon evil'. Can the purity of divinity actually see evil? When we are in a true state of non-judgment and true love there is no evil, only unhealthy actions that reap unhealthy consequences. So Jesus' separation was a thought, an idea of separation.
As humans we tend to take on one of two ways of being... or perhaps both ways of being, but at different times ...that of experiencing ourselves in horrible pain and completely separate from everything that is not pain, or that of being caught up in the dream of this life, thinking it's all that exists and not really wanting to know anything else. Metaphorically speaking, we are either Christ on the cross feeling forsaken or we are the town's people who refuse to see the crucified.
Our separation from the Divine goes way beyond any ideas we have of God. It is the mind's idea of separation that truly disconnects us from All That Is -- the Earth, our fellow human beings, every living thing, and our own essential self. Oh my God, why have I forsaken the truth of who and what I am?
Just like Jesus we need to embody here in this human life in order to transcend its illusion. Embodying means fully experiencing every moment of pain-joy; a constant, conscious awareness of all light and shadow around us and within us.
If that doesn't sound easy it's because it is not. Just like going to a movie theater where we can get lost in a story portrayed in flashing lights on a screen, so is our experience of falling asleep in the dream of being human. Even when we do have a moment of 'awakening', of seeing through the thin veil of illusion that is wrapped around all of us every day, all it can take is getting cut off in traffic to pop us right back into the dream.
We can, however, begin by being open to the possibility that we are more than our physical bodies, while being present in our physical bodies. The more I embody the more I see the beauty of this amazing planet and all its astounding creatures and beings. I no longer desire to leave here as quickly as I can, hating life and its apparent meaninglessness. Now, I want to breathe in the whole experience.
More on this subject to come, as we explore embodying and waking up together.
Edward
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