Jesus - The Yogi

 Happy Thursday everyone.

Welcome back to Thursdays Child.

       As I mentioned last week earlier this year, after quite a few years of soul and spiritual searching, the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda starting showing up on Youtube when I was looking for something to listen to while I worked. I was immediately hooked. They're in many countries so they have many channels. Even now, after months and months of listening a few days a week, I can always find something I haven't heard. This week I listened to Ananda Sangha India. Since I knew I'd be talking about Jesus in India I decided to go back and refresh my memory on that. This time it was from a different teacher than I listened to before.

       When we think about Jesus as a baby we're taught that He wasn't conceived in the typical human way. That the Holy Spirit placed the seed in Mary, He was born perfect, and lived a sinless life. We tend to read all that superficially though, like a history book. Like it's a nice marvelous story that doesn't affect us, and all that really doesn't affect us. But, if we think about that in a different perspective, let's think about that baby relying on his mother for milk, and food in general as he grew older, his parents for protection because there were death threats on his life. He had a brothers and at least 2 sisters that aren't mentioned in the Bible. What kind of things did they do? Were there sibling rivalries? Did He wonder why he was able to learn the Jewish laws and scripture so easily? We have to think, as a child, he didn't just realize at 5 years old "Hey I'm God!!" As a human with the Christ Consciousness, I would imagine that ego wouldn't have been an issue, so He probably wasn't a jerk to his family. 

       In the biblical account of His birth it wasn't the elite that got the word that he was born. It was the shepherds, the lower class of people. It was the Wise Men IN THE EAST that found out He was born. They said they followed the star in the east. That's important because according to Yogananda, when you think about it it makes sense, they were in the East. How did they go east when they were in the East? The fact that the wise men came to see him is important because it was a reminder that Jesus was born in the Orient and His teachings bore the influence of the Eastern Culture and customs. In fact the Wise Men were great sages. Like I mentioned in the post to lead up to this one, there are manuscripts that say Jesus went to India when He was 13 to stay with and learn from these sages til He was in His late 20's. This is where His own God-Realization reawakened and was reinforced in the company of these masters. During these years He traveled around India teaching what He was learning to ultimately fulfill His mission to return home and teach these things to the Jewish people. One of, if not the main focus of His teaching was "The Kingdom Of Heaven Is Within." When His people didn't see an earthly kingdom to deliver them from Roman rule most of them rejected Him, even to the point of accusing Him of blasphemy and handing Him over to be killed. 

      In the next few weeks we'll be discussing The Kingdom Of heaven Within, Reincarnation and the fact that Jesus actually taught Yoga.

       The underlined parts in this post are taken from the book The Second Coming Of Christ, The Resurrection Of Christ Within You by Paramahansa Yogananda. I've included images of the paragraphs from the book where I took those quotes.

        I hope you find this as interesting as I do and you continue to pursue it even more. You can count on finding more here and there are so many videos out there if you're also an audio learner.

Keep Searching,

Paul

        

The Not So Lost Years

 Happy Saturday Everyone,

I thought I'd reflect for a few minutes before I share with you what really intrigued and excited me about the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda. For me "Thursday's Child" was an important segment of Nite Reflections. A rhyme by A.E.Bray back in 1836 went like this

Monday's child is fair of face             

Tuesday's child is full of grace

Wednesday's child is full of woe         

Thursday's child has far to go

Friday's child is loving and giving

Saturday's child works hard for a living

But the child that was born on the Sabbath day

Is bonny and blithe, good and gay.

I'm sure I must have mentioned it in the early days but I felt it was worth repeating to refresh our memories and for all new visitors. I feel we all have far to go in our spiritual walk. We can always learn more, so Thursdays are for diving deeper into spiritual studies.

        In my absence over the years I've been trying to find something that I connect with besides the standard teaching of evangelical Christianity. I've learned the stories and believe them but there seemed to be something in me saying "there's got to be more." Especially when I hear people claim "I'm saved, I can do what I want now."

       In these years I've searched Buddhism, Hinduism. I wasn't able to comprehend what I was reading when trying to read their scriptures and also couldn't find anywhere that explained them past the 4 noble truths and the 8 fold path. Because in my interest in martial arts, I identified a lot with Taoism. My life and love partner Andrea and I check into the Baha'i faith. That didn't resonate with us either. Then one day looking on YouTube for something to listen to I saw a video about the Lost Years Of Jesus explained.  I was intrigued.

      On the website ocoy.org and also on The Missing Years Of Jesus Ananda.org there are articles about a man named Nicholas Notovich who went to India in 1887 to study Hinduism. When he arrived in Ladakh an Abbot at a Buddhist monastery told him about a manuscript that talks about an the life of Jesus in Tibet. Over the years he couldn't convince any christian organizations to publish his findings, so eventually he published them himself with the title Unknown Life of Jesus Christ I was really excited about this because, as one who isn't usually satisfied with vague answers, I always felt why aren't there definite answers to explain where Jesus was between the years of 12 and 30? What we're usually told is, "Oh He probably helped Joseph in the carpenters shop." Oh, ok thanks. The story is told that, Jesus went to stay and learn from the wise men that followed the star in the Nativity Story. Not only did He tell Mary and Joseph in the temple at 12 years old, "Why are you so upset, didn't you know I'd be about my Father's business?" He also knew he could be made to become engaged in a pre-arranged marriage at 13. He knew that didn't fit into the plan of His ministry, so he told His parents to let Him go to India to study the ancient teachings with the wisemen that had visited him years earlier.

       As I listened to, and read more about this, I realized this is where my focus needs to be right now. Yoganada teaches how Jesus talks to His disciples about reincarnation. "The Kingdom Of Heaven" is about finding God meditation. We'll go through all these things as we continue. I'm excited about this, so I'm excited to being them to you.

     Til next time, Keep searching

      Paul

            

A Very Good Friday

 Hi everyone,

     After 13 years and thinking my blog had been eliminated for lack of use I have been getting notifications about Nite Reflections. I figured "SOMEBODY" has been trying to get my attention. In this hiatus there has been a lot of family stuff going on, a major move because of family dynamics, driving Uber while building a business, working built business, and decreasing workload in the business to cruise into semi-retirement, I have too much stuff going on in my head to neglect this blog anymore. 

      With everything going on in the world and what looks like a resurgence in faith and spirituality, I have some thoughts I want to share about some new things I've learned just in 2025. I was raised in the Southern Baptist denomination. I don't hold to that dogmatic way of thinking anymore, but I did raise my kids in Evangelical Christianity. They are all grown now and The Divine/God/The Universe or whatever term your comfortable with must have thought it was time to show me the truth about what I've spent my life learning and teaching. This new truth is from  the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda and the organization he created Self Realization Fellowship. The website is Ananda.org. 

      I've also been playing around with AI images, which definitely weren't around when I was posting regularly at a time that seems so long ago now. I'll be making some and adding them to future posts. I hope those of you who followed me back then are still around and get notified about my return. It is a celebration for me. Not only to keep a steady flow of info entering and exiting my head, but to also fill you in on the new, exciting things I've been learning. If you're familiar with Yogananda please comment and let's share his teachings. If you aren't, I'm excited to share them with you. 

       To begin with the teachings of Yogananda coincide with the teachings of Jesus and the yogic meaning behind His teachings. That will come tomorrow. I just wanted to let you know what his teachings are about, if you aren't familiar with him. We'll dive in tomorrow.

      As I've always said, Keep Questioning. That's what I've always done and I guess that's how Yoganada appeared to me and my algorithm.

     Til Tomorrow.

I'm glad to be back and celebrating this Very Good Friday ,

          Paul 

 

Thursdays Child: John 6:61-71 Weeding, and Pruning

Well, it looks like we're going to finish John 6 today. In this section, the term disciple is used twice. The first time in verse 61, it refers to the twelve Jesus had chosen that we usually think of as His disciples. The second time is in verse 66, when Jesus refers to the crowd. They were also considered disciples because the word "disciple" means "to follow the teachings of another." Jesus specifically chose the twelve because He knew they would be the ones who would become His Apostles. "Apostle" means "one who is sent out." Jesus chose them to teach them, then send them out to become the ones who would start the early Christian church. The large group of people were Jesus' disciples, because they were His students, and followers. That doesn't mean they didn't tell others about Jesus, that just means they were always known only as disciples.
Jesus had just taught the crowd that He was the true bread from heaven. If they eat of His flesh and drink of His blood, they will have eternal life. He knew that some of them were complaining. He turned to them and asked "Does this offend you? Then what will you think if you see me, The Son of Man, return to heaven again?It is the Spirit who gives eternal life. But some of you don't believe me. This is what I meant when I said that people can't come to me unless the Father brings them to me." That was a bunch of the crowd left. In my last post, "Drawn To God" we talked about how it is our responsibility to have an open mind so the Holy Spirit can work in us. Even though the Holy Spirit didn't come on the scene until after Jesus' death and resurrection He gave us a hint here that, that is who touches our spirit.
When the crowd started leaving, Jesus turned to the twelve and asked "Are you going to leave too?" Peter said "Lord to whom would we go? You alone have the words that give eternal life. We believe them, and we know you are the Holy One of God."
Here again we are challenged to have an open mind. I believe we are still suppose to question, and seek answers. Let the Holy Spirit touch your spirit, and let Him give you the answers your are looking for.
Next we are going to start Chapter 7. That is going to be a little while. I have a story brewing in my head for my other blog "Damsels Ghosts and Heroes."  So I'll be back as soon as I clear my head. Until then keep searching and asking those questions.
Paul