Thomas Daniel Nehrer

But what you are looking for is not __ruth,_ not a collection of fine and polished answers emanating from grand buildings, expert acknowledgement and advanced academic degrees. What you are looking for is your Self, and what I provide here are some tools and perspectives to aid a Journey through the jungle of explanations and definitions and up a mountain of perspective to where you can see that Self clearly.

Vocal cords are not rental units. No Hebrew prophet, nor Mohammed, nor any founder of any cult or religion ever spoke the words of anybody but themselves.

One vital aspect in the Path toward Clear Awareness is the beginning of differentiation between belief-induced appearance and Reality. In many ways I can illustrate illusions and point out artificial concepts that are commonly accepted as real, but the onus of recognition is for you to come to see these things as what they are.

Reality, in its essence, consists not of particles interacting pointlessly in anindependent physical plane, but rather of values, psychological elements ofmind, made real.

There is no __ther self_ to the unconscious, no independent entity with its own agenda; it is only information and stored value relationships _ a broad array of raw information that undergirds the more superficial __nowledge_ learned through rational processes and impacts in all ways the emerging Reality that each conscious Self encounters.

Without understanding your place as a conscious entity manifesting and engaging an experiential Reality, you will only be able to perceive Jesus within the confines of your belief structure. And that would present that hall-of-mirrors Jesus caricature comprising a divine myth or a deduced, amenable stick figure _ either of which may perhaps satisfy your own needs, but have nothing to do with the real man.

Of the hundreds of religions and philosophies ever entertained by the mind of man, each considered by the convinced holder to be the only valid one, only at the very most one can be accurate. . . Just as obvious should be the possibility, if not likelihood, if not certainty, that none of those hundreds of religions accurately depicts How Life Works.

Regardless of type, however, the mechanism of a religion works like this: children, from the time they can communicate, are taught to see reality in a certain way. They are indoctrinated with a pre-defined belief structure and value set. Naive, open to such teaching, given only the religious viewpoint and perhaps punished or ostracized if they don__ accept it, most ultimately absorb and mimic the religion outright.

While scholarly research provides extensive information, the real Jesus, the man who voiced various timeless insights on life, can only be revealed when life is understood better than the common mindset of our time allows.

When, and only when, you clearly see the inner roots to an outer condition, can you change them and thus it.

New Testament gospels are traditionally accorded a cultural sanctity and lofty regard completely out of line with their literary worth.

Beliefs and definitions never clarify how Reality works -- they only distort perception of it.

But for centuries, since the capitulation of Judah, the Jewish peoples had been almost continuously under foreign control. So, where was Yahweh all this time while his people suffered...? Far from ever questioning the very being of such an inept deity, the conclusion was invariably reached _ likely promoted by religious authorities living privileged lifestyles _ that the people had sinned, had worshipped other gods, had somehow failed their side of the bargain.

Whatever beliefs and definitions you hold will seem to be true.

Indeed, of the major religions, Islam offers no discernible sliver of valid notion for How Life Works.

However, in regards to the theological aspects of each religion, tradition or philosophy, the same exacting standard must be set as measurement: does it clearly and accurately depict the functionality of Reality? That is, does the cosmology precisely describe how Reality works? If not, then the religion is invalid.

In terms of idols which represented various gods: worshipping an idol or star cluster is no different than worshipping a concept.

Clearly, when western cultures absorbed Christianity, they got an all-inclusive package: ancient Hebrew rituals and myths steeped in lost purpose, scantily recorded and broadly misinterpreted teachings of Jesus, revisions and distortions by Paul, twisted cosmology and superstitions supplied by priesthoods and bureaucratic/political distortions innate to man__ traditionalendeavors.