The right kind of protection is all we need, and we all need that. The right kind of protection restores us to ourselves, and enables us to be who we are, just as we are, as one thus come, like a baby from the womb. Jesus was born in a manger and died on a cross, and he was true to himself all the way. His confrontation with Peter and his "No, Lord! This shall not happen to you!" was grounded on, "Get thee behind me, Satan!" And this occurred immediately, at least in its presentation in the gospel, following Peter's answer to Jesus' question, "Who do you say that I am?" with, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!" And Jesus' response to Peter, "You are the Rock and I give you the keys to the kingdom." From that to "Get thee behind me Satan!" in the space of one line of text. And, from there, we immediately get, "Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life in service to me (which has to be understood as being in service to their own best interest, their life that is who they are, just as they are as ones thus come), will find it. Where does Jesus stop and we start? When we live in service to Jesus, we are living in service to ourselves, as one thus come, as we are straight from the womb. Jesus of Nazareth is only good for connecting us with ourselves. He tells his disciples, on his way to Jerusalem and death, "I must decrease and you must increase." Jesus' mission was to connect us with ourselves as one thus come and get out of the way. And the church used Jesus as a way to squeeze money from the poor and the wealthy, the weak and the powerful, and here we are today. As those whom the church tells us to be. We have to throw all of that off, and all theology, doctrine and dogma as well, and return to the simple basics of being who we are as those thus come. Picking up the path from there and "following Jesus" by listening to ourselves in the emptiness, stillness and silence, and doing what needs to be done as only we can do it in each situation as it arises, knowing what that is as Peter knew who Jesus was, and becoming who Jesus was ourselves, by being who we are as one thus come. Get it? Do it!
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Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 
I am so grateful for your reductio ad absurdum of conventional religious thought—the source of so many of the world’s ills.
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It is all “right there” for anyone to see–as the Gnostic’s did see, and were executed by the church because of it. The people are lazy and the church is powerful and that is the dynamic that has us where we are. Getting the people to be true to themselves as “those thus come” is a one-person-at-a-time “movement.” As it has always been, and always will be. Mass appeal to emptiness, stillness and silence is out of the question. The 12-Step programs could undertake it as a mission that would be true to their stated mission, but whether that could be organized and directed in stead of “just happening” is doubtful. We are waiting to see what “just happens” as those who are “just doing what needs to be done” one situation at a time.
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