Category Archives: Jesus

Hold Your Own: Jesus with Zoe

Hold Your Own, https://conversationswithjesusandbuddha.com/hold-your-own-jesus-with-zoe/ ‎
Hold your own

Conversation with Jesus and Zoe: Hold Your Own

Jesus: Learn to hold your own.  Always listen to the voice of others and reflect on what is said.  However do so from a place of strength and have courage to trust what you feel and know inside you.  Hold your own.  It is a brave and good man who can reflect on the opinions of others and hold his own course.

© Zoe 2015

Love is All You Need: Jesus and Zoe

Background to Conversations with Jesus and Zoe

Love Is All You Need, https://conversationswithjesusandbuddha.com/love-is-all-you-need/ ‎
Love is all you need

When I first began to record these conversations I was having with Jesus it felt as though he was giving me instructions for spiritual exercises. I took these instructions seriously and have practiced what he has suggested. I post this series of conversations with Jesus so perhaps you can try them too. As I began to open in order to hear, I could hear A Beatles song in my mind.  The message came through, short and sweet and full of love and humor.

Conversation with Jesus and Zoe: Love is All you Need

Jesus: Love is All You Need.

© Zoe 2015

 

Love Thy Neighbour: Jesus with Zoe

Background to Conversations with Jesus and Zoe: Love Thy Neighbour

Love Thy Neighbour, https://conversationswithjesusandbuddha.com/love-thy-neigh…jesus-with-zoe/ ‎
Love thy neighbour

When I first began to record these conversations I was having with Jesus it felt as though he was giving me instructions for spiritual exercises. I took these instructions seriously and have practiced what he has suggested. I post this series of conversations with Jesus so perhaps you can try them too.

Conversations with Jesus and Zoe: Love thy Neighbour

Jesus: Love thy neighbour as you love thyself, for I am as much in them as you.  Look for me in their eyes and extend the arm of friendship, love and compassion.  There is little need for anything else – ever.

Amen.

© Zoe 2015

Differences between Religions: Buddha and Jesus with TMichael

Differences Between Religions, https://conversationswithjesusandbuddha.com/differences-between-religions/ ‎
Differences between religions

Background to Conversation with Buddha, Jesus and TMichael: The Differences between Religions

TMichael: I read this blog post (the differences between Jesus and Buddha on happiness) and asked Masters Jesus and Buddha to comment.  What follows is their response…

Master Buddha:  It is always amazing to me how the adherents of one religion can so easily dismiss the legitimacy of another religion with the slimmest of knowledge.  I’m speaking here of how Buddhists the world over dismiss Christians as being fanatical and emotional.  And in this one blog post we learn that isn’t true at all.  Christians are just not very smart.

Master Jesus:  I couldn’t agree more with you.  Buddhists dismiss Christians.  And on the scantiest of knowledge.  I think it’s clear who is the smarter religionist.  And it doesn’t begin with a ‘B’.

Master Buddha:  While I fully respect your opinion and right to make such a statement, I think you should take it back.

Master Jesus:  Who’s going to make me?

Master Buddha: I can recruit the Hindus you know.

Master Jesus:  Well, you’ll need them because we all know what a push over Buddhists are when it comes to defending themselves.

Master Buddha:  Your mother wears army boots.

Master Jesus:  Okay, that’s going too far.

Master Buddha:  Does that answer your question about how we view such topics?  It’s petty competition between non-existent differences that make the adherents appear small and weak for engaging in such a waste of time and energy.  Why do men and women of such fervent religious beliefs think that they must attack other religions in the way one toothpaste manufacturer attacks the market share of another?  Can they not see that the aim of all religions ought to be the elevation of human spirit, which includes all humans?

Master Jesus:  We love mankind.  Every day we strive to bring humanity closer to the spiritual kingdom.  Buddha and I work in tandem.  There is no contradiction in our work or in our goals for humanity.  I ask Christians everywhere to embrace the love of all religions and reject the pettiness of competition.  It isn’t necessary to belittle another religion in order to promote one’s own.  There is nothing better that comes from one religion that proves supremacy.  It only displays self-righteousness when one attempts to demonstrate superiority of one’s religion.

Master Buddha:  We represent love, kindness, compassion and unity for all humanity.  That is our mission.  Anything else that you imagine coming from us is pure mental illusion.  It’s time to forget the differences you perceive.  Or least explore the differences from a perspective of positive curiosity, not derision and ridicule.

Master Jesus:  Our love is larger than any dispute that could arise over ideas planted in religion or politics.  Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb.  Do you really want to spend your last days on Earth fighting over whose religious teachings are the best?  We are unified.  It is time for Christians and Buddhists and Muslims, and all religionists to lay down their arms and embrace one another as friends.

Master Buddha:  We aren’t naïve.  We understand why people fight over religious points of view and affiliation.  It’s time to stop.  We aren’t going to present eloquent arguments filled with platitudes to persuade people to stop.  We just ask.  Please stop it now.  If you find any love and compassion in any religious teaching, then that is your starting point.  Apply it now.

© TM 2015

Love and Loneliness (Part 3): Jesus with TMichael

Love and Loneliness Part 3, https://conversationswithjesusandbuddha.com/love-and-loneliness-part-3/
Love and loneliness part 3

Conversation with Jesus and TMichael: Love and Loneliness (Part 3)

TM: I recently had an experience that put to test what we discussed in parts one and two on loneliness.  Someone very close to me wanted to die because of severe loneliness, alienation, etc.  The ideas that we discussed seemed so intellectual and abstract that she couldn’t bear to listen or discuss them.  She wanted to die because she didn’t care about anything.  What would you do for someone is this shape?

Master Jesus: Love her first.  Love her with all your heart.  Let the power of love pierce her fog of confusion.  Each person will respond differently to mental concepts, but all will respond to the purity of love in the same way.

TM: I don’t know what that means or how to do that.

Master Jesus: It means that your heart informs you and moves you to action, not the mind.  When the mind argues and rationalizes a point to her, the heart just embraces her for who and what she is.  The mind suggests changes immediately, the heart accepts first.  The mind demands discipline and compliance, the heart offers comfort.

TM: Yes, but if she has reached this point, it’s because of behavioral patterns that need augmenting.  Isn’t what you’re suggesting just a form of enabling the behavior that is so destructive?

Master Jesus: I’m speaking about first responses.  The changes will come only when she feels love, first from you then from herself.  Any changes prior to experiencing love are subject to disruption with the slightest provocation.  No matter how sound your mental concepts are, they will wither and fall away if the emotional turmoil is present.  The problem is that the emotional powers are tethered to older thought forms that are made even more powerful when denied or left unaddressed through unconsciousness.  Love begins the dissipation process and provides the strength required to weather the battle.  It must be experienced first; that’s why I say to you to lead with love.

© TM 2015

For Love and Loneliness Part 1 click here.

For Love and Loneliness Part 2 click here.

Jesus Answers A Reader’s Questions: Jesus with TMichael

A Readers Question, https://conversationswithjesusandbuddha.com/a-readers-question/
A reader’s question

Conversation with Jesus and TMichael: Jesus Answers a Reader’s Question

TMichael: Christine C. submitted the following questions.  Your sincere questions are welcome and I’ll do my best to include them in a conversation for publication from time to time.

Q: Christine C. asks:
“It is written that our DNA is many strands short of what was originally intended for “human beings”, and that unseen powers (to us earthlings) altered DNA.  I agree that humans have spiritually existed primarily from faith as our awareness is veiled for reasons possibly connected to the same powers (or for the continued exercise of faith?). At what point does the planet deserve divine assistance, possibly in reconnecting the DNA, thus greater awareness and resulting better health?  When does the veil lift for humanity? What purpose does the veil serve?”

A: Master Jesus: There are many perspectives on what has happened on Earth to interfere with humanity’s progress.  This is a major one and the ones making the claim do so without complete disclosure of the facts.  While they are well-intentioned in their aim, they are withholding information about their own role in this ordeal.  I will not go into to the detail, but I will summarize by saying that there was a heated dispute around the DNA issue, and the prevailing side took advantage of a technicality to rush their point of view into place.  The group who caused publication of this claim created the technical default through their actions.  So, while the outcome is as you have stated, the motives behind it were not sinister as has been portrayed.

It does not matter what could have been, we must take responsibility for what it is now.  Divine assistance, meaning assistance from the spiritual realm, has been and continues to be an integral part of the evolution of Earth.  There are at present over 3 billion spirit beings attached to Earth service.  Some reside within the sphere and others work from distant posts.  The dedication and loyalty to humanity is unsurpassed.

Some humans are ready for higher levels of awareness, but most are not.  It is our role to lift those who are unprepared to a point that they can receive greater awareness.  We do so by offering love and light to all who live upon Earth.  We work diligently with individuals and groups to open their senses and their understanding to higher ideals.

The veil, as you call it, represents the darkness of ignorance.  Humanity must take responsibility for its part.  So long as humanity’s focus is steeped predominately in materiality, ignorance of your true essence will be concealed.  The deeper your daily lives become intertwined in material survival and accumulation of material security, the less energy you have for discovering the truth about yourselves.  Humanity has the power to turn this around.  Those of us in the spiritual realm are here to assist and stand ready to offer all that is needed.

Q: Christine C. asks:
“From another perspective, it is written that this marvelous Earth is the place for emotional healing, divine healing, from the original cause.  It is easy to see that if we each heal individually, if we are fortunate enough to have the tools for understanding, that the resulting connection with each other is another path to awareness. Again we are pulling in other “times” of our existence for which we are now responsible.  Is this also deserving of divine help on a world wide or even universal scale to assist in blowing away the mists of misperception, thus clearing the way for more wonderful loving vistas?”

A: Master Jesus: This is true.  A key to understanding the potential is to discover the minimum of your own.  That serves as inspiration to continue and to connect with others along the lines of love and light.  Those terms, love and light, are used often and yet what do we mean by them?  In these conversations we have talked much about love and what it is, but never can we do justice to the complete experience of love through these words.  Light understanding is in a similar predicament.  The two go together in a way that makes a description feeble in capturing the true experience.  And yet the faithful, those who have glimpsed even a moment of the experience witness to others the splendor achieved.  Who is insane?  Who is misinformed?  Is it the one who clings to material possessions and property rights as supreme to human rights?  Or is it the one who claims spiritual sovereignty in the face of doubt and contradiction?

Your better human nature is pitted against your false concepts of reality and it is a battle that shall conclude in victory for the better nature.  How you get there is your choice as well as how long it takes.  Each generation is challenged with living with, through and transforming to some small degree, the actions of previous generations.  Be gentle with yourselves as you evaluate your progress within each turn.  Love and light shall be yours.  It only requires your openness to receive.  Once you receive it you will share it, and once you share it you will rejoice in its endless bounty.

© TM 2015

The Role of Religious Organizations: Jesus with TMichael

Religions and Religious Organisations, https://conversationswithjesusandbuddha.com/religions-and-…-organisations/ ‎
Religions and religious organisations

Conversation with Jesus and TMichael: Religions and Religious Organizations

Master Jesus: The role of religion is to share this common knowledge by way of a social support and educational network.  Through the human epoch of living as savage beasts to dining in a restaurant there is much suffering and challenge along the way.  Religious organizations are educational first and foremost in intent.  That they have been corrupted in that aim is not sufficient reason to abandon the concept. The first thing that humans do when they reject religious organizations is form another one in contrast to the one they rejected.  There is nothing inherently wrong with religious organizations as an educational facility.  There is something wrong in the clergy inserting themselves as the gatekeepers for all that is holy and righteous.  Let them stand down and reclaim their roles as leaders and custodians of an institution of learning and comfort.

TM: It seems that there has been a gradual decline in organized religion.  Is that true and if so, what’s happening and why?

Master Jesus: It is true and there are several reasons.  First of all, it is time for the religious institutions to dissemble and reassemble.  What is in decline is the foundation and structure that organized religion has been established upon.  This is not the disaster many believe it to be or the mark of justice that others believe.  It is the evolution of education.

Religious leaders could have transformed religions without the destructive blow they are receiving, but their historical resistance to change prevented them from doing so.

Religions by their nature tend to naturally erode because they are thought-forms and thought-forms tend to weaken as they age because the environment that would keep them strengthened changes.

So you have that which is intended by those of us who monitor and instigate change in the evolution and advancement of education; you have the failure of the human custodians to be in-sync with that process and resist it, which causes a more severe change; and then you see the natural dispersion of thought-forms over time.

TM: It seems though that many of the religious leaders and a good many in the congregations are doing everything to revive and rebuild based upon the traditions.

Master Jesus: Many are and just as many are rebuilding with new ideas.  This has been the way with religions throughout human history.  There are always those who disagree then break off and form a new branch or create something completely different.  Every generation thinks that the times and events are unique to their generation, which is true on some things, but for the most part the patterns repeat.

What is happening now more than in the past, although not without exception, is that more and more people are claiming spirituality for themselves without a hierarchical intermediary.  This has a lot to do with the weakening of the churches.  It is also a major part of our work at this time as I have mentioned.  Eventually though, religious thought and experience must be shared.  It is not just an individual event to be kept in secret.  You’re right in that you are witnessing a revival and it’s shaking the roots of religion.  The leaders will no longer hold an authoritative advantage over their congregations.  All will unite in order to share the blessings and experience of a spiritual life fulfilled.

TM: I feel inspired by this but I’m not sure everyone does.

Master Jesus: In the end everyone will embrace the truth of spirituality as a form of education and then they can understand how much power they have within themselves to do all the things they wish God or their priest, Rabbi or their Lama would do for them.  Imagine how their hearts will sing when they realize how precious they are.  That will be a day to rejoice.

TM: I’ll rejoice with you.  That will be a glorious day for sure.  It does seem a long way off sometimes though, and that can be disheartening.  I know, I know, patience.  Damn, that’s hard though.

A point of clarification for me, if you will.  I’m addressing you as ‘Master Jesus’ in these conversations, and that was your name during incarnation.  Why do you keep the same name while in spirit form?

Master Jesus: Master Buddha and I are using these names because they are familiar.  We are known by many names and it doesn’t matter for these purposes of communication.  It is simply easier and requires less acceptance of spiritual complexity for us to present ourselves by these names.

TM: So, others may address you by other names?

Master Jesus: Yes.

TM: Back to the topic at hand.  I think it would help a great deal if you will explain how you and the other Masters work with humanity, especially within religion.  So many of the folks who write to me after reading these conversations wonder how this is possible since you were to them the Son of God, were crucified, were resurrected, tarried on Earth for awhile with your disciples, then what?  And I present these conversations with many things contrary to what they interpret from the bible and I can understand why it’s a bit confusing and confounding.

Master Jesus: It need not be confusing or difficult to embrace if you grasp the essential message behind all my teachings.  I am the son of God and you are the son of God and each and every one of you is the son of God.  You are born into the flesh and given life on Earth and you die of the flesh and experience death on Earth.  You have eternal life in a form unique to the sphere you inhabit as you progress through stages in your universe ascension.  Love is the guiding force of this area of the universe; it is the glue so to speak of all that is.  As you love yourselves and love others you connect to all that is in this universe.  That is at the core and the very basic of what you must comprehend.  Everything else is guidance on how to deal with the illusion that you create as an obstacle to getting to this understanding.

TM: And the role of religion is what then?

Master Jesus: As I’ve said, the role of religion is to share this common knowledge by way of a social support and educational network.  Through the human epoch of living as savage beasts to dining in a restaurant there is much suffering and challenge along the way.  Religious organizations are educational first and foremost in intent.  That they have been corrupted in that aim is not sufficient reason to abandon the concept.  The first thing that humans do when they reject religious organizations is form another one in contrast to the one they rejected.  There is nothing inherently wrong with religious organizations as an educational facility.  There is something wrong in the clergy inserting themselves as the gatekeepers for all that is holy and righteous.  Let them stand down and reclaim their roles as leaders and custodians of an institution of learning and comfort.

© TM 2015

Sexuality In Western Society (Part 2): Jesus and TMichael

Sexuality Part 2,  https://conversationswithjesusandbuddha.com/sexuality-in-w…society-part-2/
Sexuality part 2

Conversation with Jesus and TMichael on Sexuality in Western Society (Part 2)

TM: We left off in the first conversation talking about infidelity, divorce, and the role of guilt, shame and judgment within a heterosexual marriage (also monogamous relationship).  What would you like to add to that part before we move on?

Master Jesus: What do you wish to know?

TM: Is there anything that husbands and wives, lovers, mates can do to better understand the contemporary shifts occurring around sexuality within their relationships that would help them provide more joy for themselves and their families?

Master Jesus: First of all, they can stop and recognize that there are many changes going on in Western culture and that as much as each one is a part of the shift each one is also affected by the shift.  This requires compassion for all, even when one feels more affected and less the one producing the effects.  This wouldn’t be so difficult if there weren’t so many changes occurring simultaneously in your society.  The compounding of so much cultural shift is devastating to sensitive ones and challenging to everyone.  There was a time when most people knew their place in society and knew the code of behavior that went with it.  This has been disintegrating for some time now and it is blurry for most people.

This is why you see a severe clinging to groups and organizations that emphasize the ways of the past.  It’s an effort to put the brakes on rapid changes.  So, for those of you who feel changes are not happening quickly enough to satisfy your desires, have compassion for those who feel it is happening too quickly and they want relief from the compression of fear.

I can tell you the number of prayers that are uttered each day to slow down society’s speed of change and to return to better days.  Also, I can tell you the number of ones that wish for it to speed up to get to the point of new awakening and joy.  The goals are the same; both types want peace and joy in their lives.  They have different tolerances and notions of how to get there.  Have compassion for each other.

TM: So, what is the most significant change with sexuality between marriage/life mate partners?

Master Jesus: The most significant change will be equality between the genders.  The imbalance of male dominance as the authority will give way to equality.  This is not easy, as has been evidenced over the past one hundred years and more specifically in the past fifty years.  Some men are reluctant to give up this power and some women are all too anxious to take it from them abruptly.  It will work out steadily over time.  There are a great number of people of both genders who embrace this and make it work in their daily lives even though they don’t see it routinely supported in society at large.  That will change as more and more people shift into this mode and more examples and reinforcement are evident.

TM: What kind of time frame are you suggesting?

Master Jesus: I’m not suggesting a time frame, but pointing out the process.  Time is shifting according to the acts and acceptance of all those beings in the process.  Understand the process and where it is going and do what you can to support and encourage it with love and compassion for how difficult it is for everyone.

TM: To continue with heterosexual relations, is sexuality between men and women more about social adjustment right now rather than sex acts (physically speaking)?

Master Jesus: It always has been, it’s just more exaggerated now given the major shift we just discussed.  There are the basic physical acts between partners and those are important in conveying intimacy, tenderness, comfort, passion, intensity, joy and an array of emotions that spring from each person and from togetherness.  But sexuality is not confined to those acts and represents attraction on all levels.  Whether or not this is registered, depends on the conscious awareness of the partners.  In other words, there are energetic exchanges occurring on many levels and some people are aware and others are not.

You’ll witness the current interest in tantric sexual practices, which is an effort to connect to the many levels of consciousness available.  The emotional level most people experience, but many still are blocked in this way.  Others are primarily attracted to the mental level.  These are represented by fantasy exploration and imaginative experimentation.  The spiritual level is rarely if ever experienced by humans.  Those who do experience it have a difficult time describing it to others because it is beyond your normal sensual range.

TM: Is the spiritual level more related to the emotional level?

Master Jesus: Yes, in that it is a hyper-feeling sensation.  Yet it is beyond the one-to-one experience of the physical sex act; meaning that what many mystics reported in their experience of rapture, a feeling oneness with all, is closer to the reference.

© TM 2015

For Sexuality and Western Society Part 1 click here.

Sexuality in Western Society (Part 1): Jesus with TMichael

Sexuality Part 1, https://conversationswithjesusandbuddha.com/sexuality-in-w…society-part-1/
Sexuality part 1

Conversation with Jesus and TMichael: Sexuality in Western Society (Part 1)

TM: I realize that we may not be able to cover this topic in one conversation, but at least we can start.  Please talk about the role of sex in Western society.  Specifically, what do you observe as the general state of sexual health among our population?

Master Jesus: This is sure to provoke more than a few people who stand in judgment of sexuality when it deviates from their spectrum of acceptable behavior.  Likewise, those who feel that anything goes will likely rise in defense of their personal honor if Master Buddha or I speak disapprovingly of their behavior.  You’re right in that it will require several conversations in order to present a full picture of the state of sexuality in Western society.  It is not our intent to approve or disapprove of human sexual behavior, but we can speak to what we observe from a perspective of what is serving humankind positively and what isn’t.

TM: Okay, that’s fair enough.  I didn’t expect either of you speak from a judgmental perspective, but certainly some folks hope that you will.  So, back to my question, do you want to begin with an overview?

Master Jesus: Ask a more specific question and let it lead us into what you really want to know.

TM: It seems that over the past century we’ve come through some dynamic changes from a moralistic and conservative view of sexuality to a liberal, more open view.  Even though I know that doesn’t represent everyone, I’m referring to the norm.  Has that shift been beneficial to our society?

Master Jesus: Yes, Western society has made a dramatic turn, more so than you are implying in your question.  Observing from our perspective it is quite astounding.  Most people will agree that there have been some benefits as a result of the shift, while others believe it has planted the seeds of ruination for your society.  As with most subjects, there is a little bit of truth found in all points of view.  But let’s see if we can shed some light on the various parts to indicate what has been beneficial and what needs to be adjusted to provide future benefits.

First of all, it’s difficult to speak about human sexuality without carefully painting a context for each part.  For this part, let us talk about heterosexual conditions within the institution of marriage and romantic relationships in which there isn’t a marriage.

It’s clear from our perspective that many benefits have accrued to married and unmarried men and women from the shift in attitudes about sex over the past fifty years.  However, with the relaxing of judgment and guilt around sexual behavior there has sprung up a great deal of confusion.  This confusion has contributed to a lot of stress and tension between men and women over their respective roles.  Over time this will work out and the major benefit will be a sense of equality.  This was missing before the shift and has been slowly coming after a sudden lunge forward.  The natural reaction has been two-fold.  One is an opening of the floodgates to celebrate the release of age-old restrictions and the second is a recoiling of restriction to maintain the old ways.  There is a growing middle that represents the balance between the two extremes.

TM: I agree with your observation.  But there still seems to be a guilt-shame axis running through sexuality.

Master Jesus: Yes, this is true.  But keep in mind that it is less than it was only fifty years ago.  And fifty years from now you will observe even greater erosion in the role shame, judgment and guilt play in the enforcement of restrictions in sexual relations.

TM:  But there are some folks who will argue that shame, judgment and guilt are sturdy enforcers and that we shouldn’t allow them to erode.  If anything, we should reinforce their power to keep good people in line and get bad ones back in line.

Master Jesus: Shame, judgment and guilt have been the faithful servants of a philosophy that people are inherently bad and need the threat of punishment in order to deter them from wrongdoing. The problem in that philosophy arises in that it forces a belief contrary to the true nature of humankind, which then conditions you to perceive yourselves in constant need of redemption.  The fatigue that comes from such an exercise is understandable.  But the greatest harm is that it stunts your growth because you are constantly vigilant for wrongdoing and judging one another in an effort to correct or prevent wrongdoing.  Add to that you have identified things as wrong that are social conventions created out of ignorance in some cases, and then perpetuated through superstition.

TM: But some things that have become social conventions regarding marriage have served to build families and then community, haven’t they?

Master Jesus: Shall we keep the context to sexuality so that what I am saying does not get confused with statements about marriage in and of itself?

TM:Yes, that’s what I meant.

Master Jesus: Let’s take the social convention of sexual monogamy, or partner exclusivity within a relationship.  This is for the purpose of forming a family unit comprised of a husband and wife with one or more offspring.  It provides a tight unity and strength to weather challenges on many fronts, economic, health, etc.  It does that while at the same time connecting to families once removed from the immediate family.  This forms a larger family unit that again provides reinforcement to the core family unit.  Containment of sexual partners to the husband and wife ensure this family unity by restricting the likelihood of offspring from various sexual relations.

What protects this arrangement is fidelity to one sexual partner during the lifetime of the family.  What has disrupted this pattern is a loosening of the shame grip on divorce and the subsequent remarriage and combining of families from more than a single pair of parents.  In some cases this new family unit shares the connection with as much grace as a family unit from single parentage.  In other cases, this is not true.  Infidelity is the chief cause of hostility between marriage partners and can last a lifetime.  Fidelity is considered a sacred trust and when one partner betrays that trust, the sense of betrayal is felt by the extended family and in some instances by the community at large.

TM: I think wounded pride, loss of self-esteem, shame, embarrassment and ego also play a part in this.

Master Jesus: Without question this is true.  However, those personal components are activated because of the larger context of social convention that defines what causes shame for an individual or disgrace upon the family.

TM: So, you’re saying what some folks argue is that shame of getting a divorce kept the family together through tough times and in turn preserved the family values of unity and strength.

Master Jesus: You keep leaping over the sexual issues and grasp for the marriage issues beyond sexuality.  We can have that conversation if you like.

TM: Thanks for keeping me on topic. Let’s stay focused on sexuality because it’s expansive enough as it is.  So, you were saying that infidelity, that is, marriage or romantic partners who don’t honor sexually monogamous agreements, create discord within their relationship and the family and is likely the eventual cause for divorce.  Most people would agree.  What’s the point?

Master Jesus: The point is that if you take the social convention of sexual monogamy as a sacred trust and then violate it, you begin the breakdown of that institution.  If it becomes widespread, then more rapidly does it breakdown.  Once shame is removed as a barrier to divorce the offending mate, then you compound the acceleration of breakdown.  Shame and guilt once prevented the infidelity, but in most societies males were often excused from this public humiliation.  Although, this isn’t entirely the case.  Witness the standard that your politicians must withstand in this regard.  The general public still holds the sacred trust of fidelity as an accepted standard for your leaders, while lessening its application to your peers.  And divorce is still considered a shameful failure in some circles.

To summarize, you began with the question of what is the health of your general population in regards to sexuality.  We have taken a part of that in order to avoid generalizing across all relationships.  Now we are only talking about heterosexual relations; specifically long-term monogamous relations.  We are discussing the role of fidelity to a monogamous agreement and the results of infidelity.  Are you ready to continue?

TM: As usual I want to know where this is going.

Master Jesus: I ask for your patience.  In order to have some understanding you must go through the exercise of discovering what your beliefs are around sexuality in marriage.  There must be some context in order to gain that understanding and to draw out your beliefs.

TM: Okay.  Let’s continue.

© TM 2015

For Sexuality and Western Society Part 2 click here.