(THE AVOIDANCE OF SUPERSTITIOUS ERROR*)[11th April 1987]

[Redbook3:167][19870411:1909](THE AVOIDANCE OF SUPERSTITIOUS ERROR*)[11th April 1987]

19870411.1909

I have just finished a book about 'The Lost Years of Jesus', by Elizabeth Clare Prophet, which is concerned with the question of whether Jesus spent some years between the ages of 13 and about 29 studying in the East – Brahma(n)ism/Hinduism and (particularly) Buddhism. It is an interesting book, although carrying its own warning signals.

So far as the story is concerned, it is perhaps not of tremendous significance whether and in what way Jesus was influenced by the thought of earlier religious thinkers. What matters is what he said, or is said to have said: Does it sound right? Straightforwardly, does it make (inner) sense to us?

But secondarily, do the words attributed to him have the feel or quality of Christ? I do not know exactly how this quality arises in the reported Gospel sayings of Jesus (and in parts of the Apocryphal Gospels, e.g. **of John), but it does, and gives rise to that inner vision of Christ as incarnated in the human figure of Jesus. I do not know why not (and I hope that translation has nothing to do with it), but the words reported in 'The Lost Years of Jesus' do not have (to my mind) that quality of Christ.

It is also odd that there is so little direct overlap between the Tibetan sayings and the Gospel sayings, in terms of meaning: just similarities and extensions. That does not mean that the sayings are invalid, or that the story is untrue. In fact, what is possibly of most significance is the acceptance of Jesus' holiness not just in Islam, but in other religious areas as well.***

*(cf.164[[Redbook3:163-164][19870409:1345s](TAROT NUMBERING, AGES AND OCCUPATIONS [continued(6)])[9th April 1987]])

**[Acts of, presumably: see [Redbook3:40-41][19870326:1543u]{Gospel Circles [continued]}[26^th March 1987] ]

***{But see VI....}

[continues]

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