This posting is going off the zen grid a bit, but I myself had no problems with
the forbidden books as well as those things to do with any sexual connection
between Mary Magdalene and Jesus during my try-out period of a few months with
the Christian faith back then. The way I see it to this day, nothing really
changes what Yahweh/Jesus says in his holy book...author Dale Brown, or not
They(some scholars) say that Jesus and Mary Magdalene shacked up(set up
house/love nest) together and had children afterwards, whose descendants are
alive today. It has also been said in the past that Mary Magdalene was present
somewhere in the picture of Jesus's PassOver with the disciples. As a Christian
of the Quaker variety(or at least, I tried to be as so) from back then, I had
no problem with such, because I could see that it was such an insignificant
matter, and didn't really affect all things scriptural
It's the same with the old man himself. Somebody can turn around and tell me
today that the old fella wasn't really as holy as he claimed to be from under
that special tree. Do I care? Must I even care? Of course not. The book Zen
Mind Begginer's Mind is one I keep coming back to. Reading and absorbing it is
not exactly getting it straight from the horse's mouth, but it's beneficial to
me in my own private way. For all I know, this son of Queen Maha Maya could
have been one of the most corrupt characters in humankind's history.
Good...bad...which one was he? By now, do we really care as zen
practitioners? Unlike some corrupt and self-proclaimed,
ceremony-obssessed south-east Asian and Ceylonese Buddhists I've dealt with in
the past I don't hold holiness to anyone in this world of ours. Zen is my
chosen path, although I do not tag myself as Buddhist in any way, unless I'm
pressed to declare some faith or another and I can see that explaining zen
to the enquirer is going to cause not clarity in mind but added confusion to
the enquirer
Thanks for your time
in Buddha's grace
Mel
