The Second Coming of Eve, Abraham, Buddha, and Jesus-Their Lost Way to Personal and Global Peace

Robert W. North

• Éditeur: 7771
• Année: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781649213815
• Édition: 1
• Sujet: Theology & Religion
• Sous-sujet: Philosophy of Religion

INTRODUCTION: The name "Eve" designates the unknown author of the Adam and Eve story in the Bible.

OVERVIEW: Everyone wants a way to end religious and secular conflicts. Also, everyone wants a well-defined way to become a Buddha and a Jesus. And most urgently, everyone wants a clear way to emotional health.

In The Second Coming of Eve, Abraham, Buddha, and Jesus we learn that that Way exists! It has been hidden behind our misunderstanding of the Bible, The Gospel of Thomas, and Buddha's wisdom poems.

BACKGROUND: Scripture scholar Dr. Robert North discovered what he calls, "Semitic Parallelism, " a method that Semitic and other ancient authors used to explain the meaning of metaphors and other sections of text. In other words, he found that many ancient writers embedded within their works their own dictionary and commentary.

Through the lens of Semitic Parallelism, we see for the first time the real Eve, Abraham, Buddha, and Jesus. As a result, we realize:

• That their ancient texts should be read as personal development allegories and poems, and not as historical or religious texts,

• That they taught the same alternative Way to religion, and

• That this Way is how one can be peaceful and fulfilled in any situation.

In short, Dr. North shows us that Eve, Abraham, Buddha, and Jesus were not abstract theologians. Instead, they were therapists. They articulated the same practical way that anyone can be peaceful and fulfilled in the most difficult situations. This is the Way that we all need yesterday.

REVIEWS: "Dr. North's expose of Eve, Abraham, Buddha, and Jesus' Way comes together in a clear and lucid fashion in this engaging book. Why have their authentic teachings been overlooked by those who'd prefer to harden religious stances into fixed dogmas?" Dr. Barrie Wilson, former Chair and Senior Scholar in the Department of Religious Studies at York University and author of How Jesus Became Christian noted:

"In this book, Dr. North argues that the Bible is more than history or a set of religious instructions. Once we understand its psychological dimension, we begin to unlock its spiritual depth and so are enabled to make therapeutic applications to our own lives." John R. Greene, Ph.D. in Counseling, Georgia State University

"Dr. North reveals that our commonly-held beliefs about the Biblical figures Eve, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus of Nazareth are false. When we set aside religious doctrines and see their works as poems and allegories, they become deeply meaningful and spiritually enlightening...Join Dr. North as he guides us anew on the journey that the Wise Ones of antique times always intended us to walk-"The Soul Way." Dr. Michael Ireland, Ma. Religious Studies, University of British Columbia; Ministerial Ph.D., University of Sedona.

CHAPTER ONE

OUR TWO WAYS TO LIVE

INTRODUCTION

As you read in the Preface,¹ Eve, Abraham, Buddha, and Jesus taught that beyond what appears to be many ways that people can live, there are, according to them, two and only two ways. You will see from their writings that one Way results in what they call the experience of “darkness,” and the other, the experience of “light.”

For example, in the Dhammapada (Ch. 6), Buddha said:

The Master

abandons the Dark Way

for the Light Way.

In this book, you will read that Eve, Abraham, and Jesus used similar, but varied expressions to describe the two ways to live. To integrate their terms, I will call the two ways: The Mind Way and the Soul Way. As you read further in this book, you will understand the justification for my terminology.

CONTEMPORARY DESCRIPTIONS OF THE TWO WAYS

You, the reader, may not have stopped and reflected on the differences between the Mind (Dark) Way and the Soul (Light) Way, but two contemporary men did. One was the psychologist, Abraham Maslow, and the other, a Jewish theologian/philosopher, Martin Buber.

ABRAHAM MASLOW AND THE TWO WAYS

Abraham Maslow focused his research on two opposing ways to live, which he called “The Normal Way” and “Experience,” and “The Peak Way” and “Experience.” His writings about them were among the forces that led to the creation of Transpersonal Psychology.

Transpersonal therapists seek to teach people how to live in the Peak Way all day, every day. He described people who do that as being “self-actualized” because the more that people live on the Peak Way, the more they become fulfilled and independent.

Maslow interviewed many self-actualized people. Most said that they experienced a Peak Experience when they went aside from their normal activities and environment to one that was peacefully and beautifully different. They all described the differences between the Normal Way and the Peak Way in terms such as the following:

THE NORMAL WAY AND EXPERIENCE	THE PEAK WAY AND EXPERIENCE
I am on a roller-coaster emotional life.	I am still, full of love and joy.
I feel dead.	I feel alive.
I am in my mind and don’t feel one with my soul.	I am one with my soul primarily, and my mind secondarily.
I am divided from myself, others, and from nature.	I am one with myself, others, and nature.
I live from my mind in the past and future.	I live from my soul in the “now moment.”
I conditionally love me and others.	I unconditionally love me and others.
I feel disempowered.	I feel empowered.
I worry because I do not know what the future will bring.	I don’t worry because by living in the moment, I know what steps will lead me to fulfillment.
I act with effort.	I act effortlessly.
I manufacture ideas in my mind.	Ideas flow through me naturally from my soul.
I love with difficulty.	Love comes easily.
I am afraid of intimacy.	I can easily be intimate.
I lack self-confidence	I am self-confident
I worry about meeting the expectation of others.	I am peacefully independent of others.
I am unconscious of my feelings, thoughts, and actions and their impact on myself and others	I am conscious of my feelings, thoughts, and actions, and their impact on myself and others.

In the above chart, you will notice that when we are on the Normal Way, we live in and from our minds, not in and from our souls. Our minds impose ideas on reality. Our souls experience reality. Our minds divide us from ourselves and others. Our souls unite us with ourselves and others. Consequently, in this book we call the two Ways the Mind Way and the Soul Way. That distinction seems to best describe the two Ways of Eve, Abraham, Buddha, and Jesus.

GRAPHIC SUMMARY OF THE TWO WAYS

The Mind Way (The Normal Way) A person primarily lives from his mental ideas and beliefs.	Results in	The Dark (Normal) Experience (An unfulfilled life)
The Soul Way (The Peak Way) A person primarily lives from his soul-known inspiration.	Results in	The Light (Peak) Experience (A fulfilled life)

MARTIN BUBER AND THE TWO WAYS

Just as Abraham Maslow discovered the two Ways to live, Martin Buber also did. He noticed that a person might choose to have an “I-It relationship” with someone or something or an “I-Thou relationship” with the same person, object, or event. Let me explain Buber’s fascinating insights with two personal examples.

In the past, I went to some gatherings of people that included drinks and hors d’oeuvres. When there, I manipulated my words and actions to fit what others expected. As a result, I felt distant from myself and them. I was not me. Buber would say that I had established a dysfunctional “I-It Relationship” with myself and others.

He calls it an “I-It Relationship” because I experienced myself and others as objects, not as human beings. I did not soul-connect with each person. Instead, I pretended to be intimate with them. However, my soul knew that I was not real and told me that by filling my body with anxiety and stress. That showed itself when I forced my words and my laughter.

More recently, I have changed and am usually my real self with others. Buber would say that I am learning to establish “I-Thou Relationships” with them. I honestly say wh...