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5 " Jesus in the Temple of God in Jerusalem

Matthew 21

12: AND JESUS WENT INTO THE TEMPLE OF GOD, AND CAST OUT ALL THEM THAT SOLD AND BOUGHT IN THE TEMPLE, AND OVERTHROW THE TABLES OF THE MONEY-CHANGERS, AND THE SEATS OF THEM THAT SOLD DOVES

Rebellion is individual. It comes out of the truth of one being.

Revolutions are organized, but you can not organize a rebellion.

Revolutions becomes establishment, and then they fail.

Rebellion comes out of the truth and authenticity of one being's heart.

Revolution is organized and political, rebellion is spiritual.

A revolution is of the future, rebellion is here and now.

In revolution, you try to change others, in rebellion you change yourself.

Jesus is a rebel.

Christianity is the organized religion, which appeared after Jesus was murdered.

Christianity is established by the same establishment that Jesus rebelled against.

Jesus is a rebel, who lived out of his own love, truth and understanding.

AND HE SAID TO THEM, IT IS WRITTEN, MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED THE HOUSE OF PRAYER

Jesus entered the temple of God in Jerusalem, and saw that the temple had been destryed. It was not a house of prayer.

People were not meditating, people were not praying. The temple was no longer the abode of God.

Priests have always been against God. The talk about God, but they are basically against God. They do not teach truth.

The temple of God in Jerusalem had been destroyed by the priests.

Christianity is based on one simple word: love. But the result of Christianity is wars, murder and crusades.

The priests go on talking about love, but he does not live in love.

AND HE SAID UNTO THEM, IT IS WRITTEN, MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED THE HOUSE OF PRAYER; BUT YE HAVE MADE IT A DEN OF THIEVES

Jesus says that the temple of God, is not longer a house of prayer. It is a house of thieves.

AND WHEN HE WAS COME INTO THE TEMPLE, THE CHIEF PRIESTS AND THE ELDERS OF THE PEOPLE CAME UNTO HIM AS HE WAS TEACHING AND SAID, BY WHAT AUTHORITY DOES THOU THESE THINGS? AND WHO GAVE THEE THIS AUTHORITY?

Organized religion always asks about authority, status, as if truth needs some authority, some licensing from the outside.

The priests talks the language of the establishment, even while meeting a mystic like Jesus.

Truth arises from your own being, this is the inner authority.

Truth is born out of your own being.

The priests asks Jesus who has given him the authority to overthrow the tables of the money-changers? Who has given him the authority to change the rules of the temple?

But Jesus did not answer the priests. He remained silent.

Jesus is his own authority.

Jesus whole message is to be your own authority. You are not here to follow anybody.

You are here to be yourself.

Your life is yours. Your love is your inner being.

The priests wanted to arrest Jesus and throw him into prison, but they were afraid of the masses of people who listened to Jesus.

They had to wait for the right moment to arrest him.

The authentic mystic is always a danger to the priests and the organized religion.

When you can allow the yes to be born in you, there is no need to go to a temple.

Then God desends in you.

Whenever a man is ready, God finds him. "

Swami Dhyan Giten

8 " The light changed slightly. Mari looked up and over at one wall. There was now a narrow, roughly door-shaped hole in it. Standing in the hole was Mage Alain. Mari stood up, realizing that her mouth was hanging open. That wall was solid. I felt it. There wasn't any opening. She watched as the Mage took two shaky steps into the cell, then paused, some of the strain leaving his face. She blinked, wondering what she had just seen, as the hole in the wall vanished as if it had never been. One moment it was there, the next it was gone. ...Mari took a long slow breath. 'They use smoke and mirrors and other 'magic' to make commons think they can create temporary holes in walls and things like that. It's all nonsense.' " Mages actually can make real holes in walls." " No." Her head hurting with increased intensity, Mari glowered at the Mage. " You didn't make a hole in the wall?" " I made the illusion of a hole in the illusion of the wall." Mari looked at Mage Alain for what felt like a long time, trying to detect any sign of mockery or lying. But he seemed perfectly sincere. And unless she had completely lost her mind, he had just walked through that solid wall. ..." We can get out the same way that you got in?" Mari asked. " Through imaginary holes in the imaginary wall?" She wondered how her guild would feel about seeing that in her report. Actually, she didn't have to wonder, but she wasn't about to turn down a chance at escape. The Mage took a deep breath and swayed on his feet. " No." " No?" " Unfortunately—" Alain collapsed into a seated position on the cot next to her—" the effort of finding you has exhausted me. There were several walls to get through. I can do no more for some time. I am probably incapable of any major effort until morning." He shook his head. " I did not plan this well. Maybe the elders are right and seventeen is simply too young to be a Mage." Mari stared at him. " Are you telling me that you came to rescue me, following a metaphorical thread through imaginary holes, but now that you're in the same cell with me you can't get us out?" " Yes, that is correct. This one erred." " That one sure did. Now instead of one of us being stuck in here, we're both stuck in here." The Mage gave her a look which actually betrayed a trace of irritation. He must have really been exhausted for such a feeling to show. " I do not have much experience with rescues. Are you always so difficult? "

11 " Long story short, I got lured into a trap. A Mage using that concealment spell tried to knife me. Then someone else tried to blow my brains out with a bullet." " A Mage attacked you?" Alain asked, feeling a sick sensation inside. " She tried. I knew they'd been watching me. I didn't give them any reason to try to kill me." Mari looked at him. " Did I?" " It is my fault," Alain admitted. " Even though I have tried to keep them from finding out who you are, they still believe that you are dangerous." She gave him another look, then shook her head. " From the looks of things, I'm mainly dangerous to my friends and myself. Just how much trouble did you actually get in because of spending time with me in Dorcastle?" Alain looked into the fire. " My Guild did not believe that I had been with you in Dorcastle. The elders thought that the woman I had been seen with in that city was a common I had sought out because she researched the Mechanic I had met in Ringhmon." " Why would you want to find a common who looked like me?" Mari asked. " For physical satisfaction." The simple statement would have created no reaction in a Mage, but he saw the outraged look in Mari's face and hurriedly added more. " I would not have done that. But the elders assumed that I did. I told you that they believed I was attracted to you." " Alain, 'attracted to' doesn't bring to mind the idea of finding another woman who resembles me so that you can pretend that you're—" she choked off the words, glaring into the night. " The elders assumed that. I never wanted it. I would never do it. There is no other woman like you." Somehow he must have said the right thing, because she relaxed. " But because of that belief of theirs," Mari said, " your elders thought you might look for me again." " They actually thought that you would seek me," Alain explained. " They were very concerned that you would..." His " social skills" might need work, but Alain realized that he probably should not say the rest. Too late. Mari bent a sour look his way. " What did they think I would do?" " It is not important." " Alain..." He exhaled slowly, realizing that Mari would not give up on this question. " The elders thought that you would seek to ensnare me, using your physical charms, and through me work to strike at the Mage Guild." She stared back in disbelief. " Ensnare? They actually used the word ensnare?" " Yes. Many times." " Using my physical charms?" Mari seemed unable to decide whether to laugh or get angry. She looked down at herself. " I'm a little low on ammunition when it comes to physical charms, or hadn't these elders of yours noticed?" " You are beautiful beyond all other women," Alain objected. Mari rolled her eyes. " And you ate seriously deluded. I hadn't realized how badly until this moment. "

19 " It is the postscript to the war that offers the most revelatory and startling commentary on Dutugemunu's life. Despite his newfound wealth and his peactime luxuries, Dutugemunu wanders gloomily about his palace, too often remembering the carnage he wrought on the battlefield and worried over the deep karmic deficits he has incurred. The elders of the Sangha, the Buddhist clergy, notice this and send a delegation of eight monks to minister to his anguish.

'In truth, venerable sirs,' Dutugemunu tells the monks when they arrive, 'how can there be comfort to me in that I caused the destruction of a great army of myriads of men?'

'There is no hindrance on the way to heaven because of your acts,' one of the monks assures his king. Slaughtering Tamils is no moral mistake. Only the equivalent of one and a half men died at Dutugemunu's hands, according to the Sangha's official arithmetic, because the Tamils 'were heretical and evil and dies as though they were animals. You will make the Buddha's faith shine in many ways. Therefore, Lord of Men, cast away your mental confusion.'

Being thus exhorted, the great king was comforted; his kill rate would never disturb him again. He does, however, recall that, once upon a breakfast, he ate a red-pepper pod without consciously setting aside a portion of it for the Sangha, as was the royal practice. 'For this,' he decides, 'penance must be done by me.' A hierarchy of sin springs into being, in which dishonouring the Sangha by denying it a due share of a red-pepper pod counts as a graver transgression, worthier of penance, than massacring thousands of Tamils on the battlefield. "

Samanth Subramanian , This Divided Island: Stories from the Sri Lankan War