Christmas Message

What a journey my friends, going many times from the depths and valleys of hell to the mountains’ heights of Heaven, we have travelled a unknown road and when we approach the end, mainly at the time of Christmas, there is nothing else more important to talk or to think about but God because you realize there is nothing else worthwhile your time and energy. God is Truth and Truth is God. God is not an entity but an immeasurable ocean of peace and light. Call God Truth, Christ’s nature or Buddha’s nature or any other name, a variety of names but which in the end when all your senses are wide open foster a quite similar experience.

This really has been an unbelievable journey and after almost three years it is difficult to believe that we are in the vertex of a new beginning. Many have given their contributions for the success of this journey and without this support I believe that the directions of this journey would have been a very different one. The support, love, care, gentleness, determination and perseverance of the ones who helped me directly and indirectly were without value. I cannot put in words how important was the participation of everyone in this life project and in the summit of this phase of the journey I am sure that our lives will continue together more than ever illuminating the path of many people around us. My determination is stronger than ever to continue this line of work in the next phase of our journey because we have a lot to contribute to this world which is very much in need due to the enormous changes that it is going through and it will continue go through in decades to come. The speed of deep transformations is very fast at the moment and we have to adjust our internal clock having one hand of the clock in God’s direction and the other pointing to the earth to follow these changes for the benefit of all living beings.

God is the first name that comes to mind when we think of Christmas being you religious, spiritual not. It is this conspicuous word that has given solace to millions of people around the world in times of necessity in this global village. Even if we believe that millions of people around the globed are deluded by believing in God, as some people ascertain, this word and the experience that it fosters has helped and continues to help many in the most strenuous circumstances as demonstrated by psychological research and observations.

The experience connected with God is becoming more and more familiar as one of peace, harmony, happiness, joy, silence, light, love, compassion and wisdom. The names are many but in the end the experience is one or very, very similar, and if you are emanating one of these attributes truly, you are emanating them all. It does not matter if you are Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu or have any other religions or spiritual orientation or even if you don’t believe in God, you cannot but bough to this experience as the most important single thing in life whatever tag you place in this experience be it Love, Light, Compassion, Silence, Wisdom and so on. A name is an empty word without the experience that it fosters because the name is just a tag for an experience. To know the name God, to preach about God and to say the name God only as an intellectual exercise is not the same as to have full knowledge of God and to experience the name God in the form of one of these attributes mentioned emanating their perfume to others.

The importance of Jesus Christ in relationship to God came out through his words, through his actions, through his simplicity, through his respect for life, through his goodness, gentleness and loveliness. It came through his detachment for things of the world being free of them instead of accumulating things that he did not need although he did not despise them. In a way Jesus combined perfectly the theory and practice of Plato and Aristotle because he had his mind in God but his feet on the ground enjoying good food and wine without indulging on them. And also his importance came through his willingness to help anyone (poor, rich, religious or non religious, gentiles and so on) in spite of any difference, and through his detachment from worldly power, status and the rest facing them without any sign of fear even in the imminence of his own death. Jesus’ aura of peace and lack of fear was so strong that even the animals was said to become calm in his presence. Even if you don’t believe that Jesus was the Son of God, as it is ascertain in Christianity, or a prophet as it is ascertain in Islamism, you cannot but have reference for him as someone with great wisdom, love and compassion beyond the ordinary world who practiced what he preached and live it to the fullest of his word up to the end of his life in this planet. Like Socrates and others, Jesus did not corrupt his ideas and his beliefs even when exposed to the destruction of his own body. People with such a strength and power are most needed in this modern global village so that we all can share in the best life possible where everyone’s need for shelter, clothes, food and a good life are met.

When the world is confronted with someone like Jesus Christ who does not want anything from it, who is not pursuing any worldly goals, who is not after his own personal interests, who does not react but acts, who is gentle and peaceful beyond belief, and who is there just to help the ones who are in need and suffering, the world does not know what to do with such human being like Cesar did not know what to do with Jesus although feeling threatened by his Presence without being in his Presence because in his Presence even the high priests felled silent in awe of his wisdom e peaceful nature as Cesar, I believe, would have to.

Why is the world or why anyone involved deeply in the world affairs are threatened by peace, goodness, gentleness, loveliness simplicity, love, harmony, wisdom and so on, names that can be resumed in one name: love? This is a question with manifold answers and one of them was provided by Jesus in A Course in Miracles when he said: The world must therefore despise and reject me, because the world is the belief that love is impossible. (T-8.IV.3:7) War and violence are everywhere in the world because they are an ego game to prove that not only love but all attributes mentioned above are impossible. This is the source of all our troubles with the word Jesus Christ because Jesus is the symbol of the dissolution of the ego and we live most of our times in our egos. Jesus demonstrates that love is not only possible but also love is our protection even in the most conspicuous hour of our lives, the hour of our own death.

Another more specific answer based on this one that my mind could come up for the above question so far has been that all the experience fostered by these names does not support the world affairs objectives and most of them seem even contrary to them because all worldly’ objectives have in their nature personal interests which Jesus had none. Psychologically we then can say that all worldly’ objectives and goals when ego directed are an instrument for our egos to become bigger and bigger. In this way our egos were threatened by Jesus because Jesus and whoever followed his word not only intellectually but in mind and deed such as Thomas More, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and many others, spent their lives promoting and demonstrating goodness, non violence, loveliness, peace, simplicity, honesty, love, harmony and so on as way to resolve the problems of this world. When this happens as it happened in the actions of these people, the world cannot but react unable to halt the inevitable changes brought by their actions because their actions has intrinsic in them endurance, strength and power that comes from beyond this world which Jesus said was coming from God.

Every Christmas has become in many ways for many people around this global village a time of celebrating the Light and renewing their resolve, their vows, their commitment to goodness, peace, love, happiness, joy, non violence, gentleness and the cultivation of silence and wisdom even if they are not Christians or religious. This renewing started not now but thousands of years ago perhaps even before the Buddha, Confucius, Socrates and other great minds that made their journey through this planet. It had a high mark in that cold and freezing Christmas’ dawn when German and allied soldiers placed aside their guns and shook hands and celebrated in what was called Christmas truce of 1914. This is a high mark in human history because it showed the world that even in the middle of the worst world’s catastrophes peace, gentleness, goodness, non violence, happiness and joy could break in and manifest their ways unexpectedly into the mind and hearts of man at any instant bringing healing and shining away their ignorance and brutality. Let’s emanate the real spirit of Christmas to all, the spirit of union instead of separateness, placing aside our misconceptions about and our animosities with our family members, neighbors, friends and even our enemies embracing the Truth in them without naiveté but sincerely knowing that by embracing the Truth in them, we are in the end embracing the Truth in our selves. Why to embrace instead of attacking the other? There is simple psychological answer and that is: every time we attack someone we feel guilty because we are really attacking ourselves as in the moment of attacking the other we inevitably lose our peace of mind. To lose our peace of mind is the most common and unrecognized form of self attack.

My hope is that we all in this global village can stop being sophists and become more Socratics, being less fearful of meaningless predictions and superstitions about the future and renewing our commitment and our resolve to diligently pursue all actions leading to freedom, equality and fraternity for all in this exact moment of our lives. Such actions are necessary and essential to recreate a humanity that reflects in action what Jesus Christ stood and stands for even if you do not have any belief at all in God or Jesus. In reality Jesus Christ is our Self, our true self, as says Ramana Maharshi one of the great sages and saints of our times. This is the meaning of Jesus’ teaching in A Course in Miracles saying: Teach not that I died in vain. Teach rather that I did not die by demonstrating that I live in you. (T-11.VI.7:3-4).

Our global village is much in need of such demonstration of love in action but let’s start small, let’s start in our own homes with our family members, our parents, our children, our brothers and sisters, our spouses, our neighbors and so on emanating to them our peace, joy, happiness, love, compassion and wisdom. Let’s celebrate this conspicuous time of the year being really happy, joyful, loving, peaceful and compassionate and this is the best gift we can give to ourselves and others because this gift cannot stolen, will never rotten, will never be taxed and it will never rust. It will shine forever in our hearts and in our minds of those who give them and of those who receive them for how long we shall be alive.
God Bless us all

Antonio