How hard would you work to become Jesus

I have a question for the Sklansky crowd, and by this, I mean the very rational minded. And it is a real question, sort of a Bayes theorem type question.

IF you personally knew a person who described himself as enlightened--that is, someone who had discovered within himself the nature of reality--a living Buddah...and you found this person to be extremely convincing in every respect...

Now say this person gives you some basic techniques that would allow you to experience what he has experienced.

The catch here is that this person spent year after year working extremely dilligently with these practices in order to come across what he has supposedly come across and there is no gaurantee you will achieve that. The techniques need to be practiced moment after moment for years with a concentration and dedication that is almost unparalleled.

So the question (finally) is basicaly risk vs reward. How hard would you work with such a practice on the off chance that it actually works and allows you to personally experience what a Buddha, Jesus, or Mohammed experienced for yourself? Versus, the more likely chance that you are just wasting a heck of a lot of time?

This reminds me of something very apropos from Ralph Waldo Emerson's journal. (And keep in mind that Emerson was a Christian minister.)

July 30, 1835: You affirm that the moral development contains all the intellectual and that Jesus was the perfect man. I bow in reverence unfeigned before the benign man. I know more, hope more, am more because he has lived. But if you tell me that in your opinion he has fulfilled all the conditions of man's existence, carried out to the utmost at least by implication, all man's powers, I suspend my assent. I do not see in him cheerfulness; I do not see in him the love of Natural Science; I see in him no kindness for Art; I see in him nothing of Socrates, of Laplace, of Shakespeare. The perfect man should remind us of all great men. Do you ask me if I would rather resemble Jesus than any other man? If I should say Yes, I should suspect myself of superstition.

Nice post. Gotta' love the Tanscendentalists!

As to my answer to the question posed above. It is no. In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Paraphrased.) "Perfection itself is not the goal, it is the lifelong striving for perfection that is the goal."

So I guess my answer is yes and no, LOL!

[RJT]

Just to clarify things. Jesus was either man and God or he was only man. Christians believe He was both, God and man - God incarnate. So, if true, one cannot become like Jesus. Once can certainly follow His teachings and if believe in Him and what He proclaims, then the Kingdom of God is at hand.

If he was only man, then whatever.

Regarding your post:

“…and you found this person to be extremely convincing in every respect…” and “Versus, the more likely chance that you are just wasting a heck of a lot of time?” seem somewhat contradictory to me.

Well, first off, the whole "Jesus" thing is somewhat misleading in that the guy I know never claimed to actually be the son of god or supernatural. He merely claimed that through a certain simple discipline which requires a great deal of time and effort he was able to basicaly become more aware, awake and conscious. However, in my meager attempts thus far I have glimpsed very little of what he seems to have. So the question i'm constantly confronted with is how hard do i work to achieve something that may be either out of my reach or just simply an impossibility?
Sort of like if you knew that by practicing really hard and playing tons of poker you might become the next Sklansky, on the other hand you might become dead broke and waste half your life. And also there is a possibility that Sklansky himself is a fraud (metaphorically speaking.)

[RJT]

Although you might be technically correct that Jesus never directly said, "I am the Son of God" your other image of him is far from how I understand Him. He never talked about the things you mentioned - not really sure where you got that (perhaps, I am misunderstanding what you are saying).

Regardless, I know that isn’t your point anyway. The thing I am unclear of is when you say - you meet someone like Buddha or Jesus and he seems real - “... you found this person to be extremely convincing in every respect…”; but then you go on to say “Versus, the more likely chance that you are just wasting a heck of a lot of time?”

I take this to mean that the person you met is bogus rather than - that the person you met is the real deal and just that you can never achieve what they have. If they are bogus how can they be so convincing to you? If they are the real deal, then I don't see it as a waste of time, even if you fall short.

Or are you asking how can I know the real deal?

If so, I suggest you start with Bob Dylan's line: "Don't follow leaders". Besides that advice, I think Jesus is the real deal is all I can tell you ( I say, obviously contradicting myself.)

[benkahuna]

[ QUOTE ]
Well, first off, the whole "Jesus" thing is somewhat misleading in that the guy I know never claimed to actually be the son of god or supernatural. He merely claimed that through a certain simple discipline which requires a great deal of time and effort he was able to basicaly become more aware, awake and conscious. However, in my meager attempts thus far I have glimpsed very little of what he seems to have. So the question i'm constantly confronted with is how hard do i work to achieve something that may be either out of my reach or just simply an impossibility?
Sort of like if you knew that by practicing really hard and playing tons of poker you might become the next Sklansky, on the other hand you might become dead broke and waste half your life. And also there is a possibility that Sklansky himself is a fraud (metaphorically speaking.)

[/ QUOTE ]

You have to make your best guess at the chance for success and what is necessary to achieve it. Try to keep in mind the experiences of others, the differences between you and others, and the any adjustments you'd likely need to make to achieve what the other person had a achieved.

It's really up to you what you risk your willing to take for what probability of what reward.

If your talking about the monk-up-a-mountain type of enlightenment involving special teas and lots of meditation you can save yourself a lot of time.

NLP self-hypnosis and magic mushrooms.

Well, just to clarify things yet again, the Jesus part of this is not meant to be taken so literally (I should have known better). This statement was meant to imply a self-realized individual. What makes this situation more complicated is that I cannot with any certainty KNOW if this person is truly "self-realized", enlightened, or merely just a person who has found a technique that happens to work for him and makes him feel pretty good about life.

The amount of time and practice it would (or will) take for me to determine this for myself is daunting. Let's imagine you had to play thousands and thousands of hands of poker before you'd know if you were any good and then you still might not know...oh, i forgot, that's exactly how it is.

-g