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I have celebrated Christmas all my
life. Even though it’s largely a commercial orgy of buying and giving stuff,
it does have its good points. It brings out the best in a lot of people.
Also, it’s always a big boost to the national economy.
Christmas is (or was originally)
a celebration of the birth of Jesus. That’s okay too. Even though Jesus is
not a deity, we recognize him as one of the greatest teachers and spiritual
masters of humankind. And, even though most of our InnerSource adherents
aren't Christians, we like to celebrate his birthday. But what we won’t
celebrate is the religious belief and dogma embodied in modern day
Christianity. If Jesus were alive today, we think he would raise hell with
all the so-called Christians for their lack of Christ-like behavior.
Here’s the chief problem. Religion is
divisive. It sets people against each other because of their differing
beliefs. Just look at the world today. You can see a hundred examples where
people of one belief are pitted against people of another belief. At
numerous places around the world, religious believers punish, persecute,
torture, and murder other people simply because of their different beliefs. That’s
why we are against religion.
Instead, we are pro-spirituality.
Where religion is all about belief (which is bad), spirituality is all about
knowledge (which is good). Spirituality is about seeking knowledge of one’s
own human spirit and then, by exploring that little-known part of ourselves,
perhaps discovering true knowledge of God.
Religion comes from outer sources:
preachers, scriptures, and participation in rituals. Another word for outer
sources
is worldly.
Spirituality comes from
inner sources: knowledge of our own human spirit and, via that
knowledge, a genuine real-world discovery of God. Those who have made
that discovery understand that the "God" taught by most religions is
nothing like the nature of God that one discovers on his own personal
spiritual quest.
So, we’re basically against
Christmas as it is practiced. Sorry. Go ahead, call us grinches. Instead, we have
started a new holiday called Xmas that occurs during the last week of the
year. (Besides, historians and some biblical scholars tell us that December
25th wasn’t the true birthday of Jesus anyway.) But back to Xmas. As any algebra
student can tell you, X stands for the unknown. Or, it's a symbol that will be
replaced with a desired value, when it becomes known.
If you’re a Christian, your X will
stand for Christ. If you’re a Muslim, your X can stand for Allah (but
hopefully not Mohammed). If you’re a Jew, your X can be God. If you’re Zen Buddhist, your X can
stand for the Buddha or perhaps Enlightenment. Or whatever you want. So we’ll all have
a holiday together, each of us celebrating our own values and what we stand
for. In general, the X will stand for good will and love of our fellow human
beings.
The primary theme of Xmas is
tolerance. That means training ourselves to be tolerant, and weaning
ourselves from narrow-mindedness, racism, and bigotry of all kinds. And, rather
than a holiday primarily for giving stuff to people we love,
Xmas is for giving of ourselves.
The appropriate gift for Xmas is
giving your time and your love.
So, won't you help us put the X
back into Xmas?
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