I love you. Jesus Christ

The True Meaning of Easter

The scourging of Jesus who was tortured prior to his crucifixion.
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Pilate washing his hands off Jesus' death.
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"In order to live a good life you have to place truth above everything else, so that you don’t fear speaking the truth even if the truth harms you as you speak." ~ Tolstoy

Jesus also said;

“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” ~ John 8.31-32

They dragged him before Pilate* to be tried for blasphemy—for claiming, they said, to be King of the Jews. And they pressured Pilate, the only one with power to impose a death sentence, to call for his crucifixion.

According to the Gospel of Mark, Pilate came to the defence of Jesus before yielding to the desire of the crowd.

*Pontius Pilate was the Roman prefect (governor) of Judea, a subprovince of Syria, who ordered the crucifixion of Jesus. As prefect, Pilate commanded Roman military units, authorized construction projects, arranged for the collection of imperial taxes, and decided civil and criminal cases.

So what was it exactly that got Jesus nailed to the cross? 

Apparently they say it is the words that he uttered or someone uttered that alluded to him being the King of the Jews. 

The crowd including the Jews who gathered at his hearing before Pilate, instigated that he be crucified. Something the equivalent of a lynching mob that harassed Pilate into condemning the man to death. 

Research reveals the real reason Jesus was crucified was because he committed an offence in Jewish law. The high priest regards Jesus' claim as blasphemous. For this reason Pilates wanted to release Jesus realising there is no substance to the chief priest's accusations. 

He offers the crowd the choice between Jesus and Barabbas hoping to be able to set Jesus free. But his plan fails when the chief priests malevolently incites the crowd to ask for Barabbas to be freed and for Jesus to be crucified. 

Pilate vainly continues his desperate struggle to save Jesus from an unjust fate by appealing to them; " Why? What evil has he done?"

But he is eventually forced to submit to the fanatical Jewish mob baying for Jesus' blood and reluctantly condemns Jesus to death by crucifixion. 

The rest then is history.

Happy Easter all. 

I love you. Liberation

Suffering.

Whether you care to admit it or not. There is suffering.

https://unsplash.com/photos/PT-gOmCUlCY

The Universal symbol of Christianity is a torture instrument upon which Jesus suffered. 

The Cross is a reminder that there is suffering in this world.

All of us have our crosses to bear in this life. 

Gautama the Buddha became the awakened one by uncovering the first of his four noble truth- There is suffering. A simple and irrefutable truth that took him a lot of suffering to arrive at.

These two gentlemen went through great pain and suffering to both arrive to deliver this truth.

For each of us living this life, it is evident that it comes with pain and suffering and no one escapes this;

 “We are born astride the grave.” ~Samuel Beckett. 

"We are all dying the minute we are born. Goes fast. Don't waste it". (This dialogue quoting Beckett came from an episode of Ozarks I was watching one night.)

The way out of suffering is to let go grasping of desires. 

Desire

Desires are what make this life. 

We all have desires.

We can have desires. 

We can enjoy desires if we get them. 

We can live with desires. 

Desires arise and subside. 

Desires are impermanent but endless.

So do not be attached to desires. 

Because attachment to desire is the cause of suffering. 

"All that is subject to arising is subject to ceasing". This is wise (perfect) understanding, *according to Buddha's eightfold path.

That is all we need to know to have perfect understanding. 

When we know this we transcend suffering and achieve true liberation. 

This is what Easter, Buddhism and this post is all about. 

Transcendence to liberation. The end of suffering. 

HAPPY EASTER Everyone.