According to Wikipedia Christianity is the largest (has the most adherents) in the world followed by Islam and the Hinduism.
Until the recent advent of terrorist attacks it was probably also the most hated, the history of the Christian church is filled with greed, murder, lust, domination. It is also filled with unparalleled acts of compassion, love and personal sacrifice for others.
So in the darkness there is light and in the light there is darkness. The Chinese recognizes this with their yin/yang symbol, as on the dark side this is a touch of light and vice versa.
My husband and I always talk about "fallen" heroes those men and women who seemed on this path of greatness and then were sidelined by their humanness, perhaps they had an affair or embezzled some money. Now we no longer revere them and question their integrity from the beginning. I personally find this childish, I like to call it the Clark Kent syndrome, only those who live a squeaky clean life can be our heroes it is part of the brain washing of our culture.
The Christian church gets this really bad rap, yes it has a shady history, yes maybe the bible was destroyed and rewritten...yes I know, you have read this book that proves Jesus married Mary Magdalene. Yes I know you read this other book that proved the Catholic Church amended the original bible in order to control the people.
But in the end we just don't know, nothing can be proven 100%, most of the books we read are just well researched and yet unproven theories.
You could call this my rant, I love Christmas. Christian or not it is a great holiday. We can celebrate the birth of Jesus if we are religious, or we can celebrate what his birth represented. It represented Hope for a people who were suppressed by the High Priests, high taxes and more. People who were dominated and controlled. The birth of Jesus brought Hope to these people. Hope is one of the most important things we need. People without hope do desperate things including committing suicide..
Recently I read a quote which said " you can live about 3 days without water, 2 or 3 weeks without food and not a second without hope". I loved this quote, because I remember in my life the times I had almost given up on Hope, and those dark thoughts that came up.
Christmas ends the year and begins the new year, and each new year brings fresh hope. We set resolutions, hoping to quit smoking, lose weight, be happier. We hope that our kids lives will get straightened out, our husbands will find a job, our financial difficulties will be over. We hope to marry and have children, we hope for our children to find partners and be happy. We hope our husband will quit drinking, we hope our wife will be finally happy with us.
Hope is a beautiful thing, it makes new starts in life and can bring about huge changes. Yoga gives many people hope that they can live a life not quite so stressed and tired, that maybe there is a way out of this chaos we live in.
I would not particularity call myself Christian, I am more of a spiritual person, I do however love Christianity and all it represents. I love Christmas and enjoy spending time with my family, buying gifts within my means and just celebrating the season of Hope with all those around me.
I hope that you do not attach yourself to what you believe the perfect Christmas should be like and that you live in the moment. It is only in the present moment that we can truly feel blessed.
So with this, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, enjoy the season and I hope for you all that you continue to find more peace of mind, wisdom and compassion for yourself and others.
Merry Christmas,
Love and Namaste,
Sheree
Beautiful!
ReplyDelete