To Yuyutsu.

There is a flaw in your reasoning of Jesus being a Yogi, and his disciples being unable to understand what a yogi is. That flaw is in recognizing the miracles of Jesus as an extension of Jesus being a yogi.

But if Jesus was a yogi, and could only perform miracles because of this, then what kind of explanation is there for Jesus's disciples being able to perform miracles as well? Consider the book of Acts within the bible for different examples of miracles done by the apostles, by Paul, and even by some believers that just believed.

The other example of miracles being done by common people instead of yogis is in Luke 10. Jesus sends out 72 disciples to preach to other towns that the Kingdom of heaven is near, and to heal the sick like Jesus was. It was by Jesus's authority as God's Son that He could let them go and perform these deeds, not because they were yogis.

If you would like we can discuss the different examples of miracles in the book of Acts as well. I would be happy to go over these written examples with you. These miracles seem to me to be because God grated them these gifts, and nothing more then that like a yogi understanding.

.

Dear OzSpen,

.

You wrote :

« You read 200 of 817 pages of Prof N T Wright's research on the resurrection … If I read 25% of your posts in any thread and then claimed you failed to achieve what you stated, you'd have every right to call me irresponsible - even an ignoramus … Do you want me to take you seriously? »
.

You raise an interesting point there, Ozpan. My reply in a nutshell is yes – if the text is extremely long (which is the case here) and one peruses it intelligently to extract the pith and marrow of his findings and their substantiation.

Tom Wright is a prolific writer and rather long-winded. He has written over 70 books. The paperback version of his latest book, for example, “Paul and the Faithfulness of God”, is 1,700 pages long.

Wright has a good analytical mind but, apparently, an aversion to or incapacity for synthetic thought and expression. Thirty pages would be largely sufficient for a Readers Digest version of his book including not only a brief description of his research, but, more importantly, a well-structured and clear presentation of his results and conclusions.

I read 200 of the 817 pages of his book just to identify, extract, collate, analyse and evaluate the results of his research in order to be able to assess what he had actually achieved.

Wright’s book is the result of historical research. It is an academic treatise. Religious devotees such as yourself draw important conclusions from it. It's not read in the same manner as one reads a novel of fiction such as Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone with the Wind” (1,472 pages) or Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” (1,440 pages).

Novels of fiction are read in a leisurely fashion for pleasure or for their literary value. The reader is not in search of any special message or revelation as with Wright’s treatise. The profusion of detail his book contains is there principally for reference. It's not indispensable core material.

Interestingly, Einstein’s groundbreaking paper on General Relativity contains only 29 pages :

http://www.academia.edu/375613/Einsteins_Original_Paper_on_General_Relativity?auto=download

.

Yuyutsu,

I asked you, Posted by OzSpen, Thursday, 24 January 2019 8:10:01 PM: "Would you please supply New Testament evidence where Jesus stated he was a Yogi or used the thinking of a Yogi?"

You avoided that question and gave the miracles of Jesus as examples of the work of a yogi. Similar 'miracles' could be performed by a witch in the occult. Would you call that witch a yogi?

<<First I don't understand what you mean by "the thinking of a Yogi". Being a Yogi does not imply any particular pattern of thought, but rather the freedom from thoughts. A Yogi controls his thoughts rather than having wandering thoughts control him/her.>>

You were the one who stated:

<<There is no contradiction between being a Yogi and the Son of God: a Yogi is someone who controls their (sic) mind, whose thoughts do not waver, thus is able to concentrate and affect energy, thus matter, like the wonders that Jesus performed.
Posted by Yuyutsu, Tuesday, 22 January 2019 6:49:32 PM>>

That is the content to which I referred with ‘the thinking of a Yogi’.

I do not find a word in the New Testament that confirms your understanding of the attributes of a yogi in Jesus. Jesus was not a yogi but God Himself.

"Jesus did many other miraculous signs that his followers saw, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you can believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. Then, by believing, you can have life through his name" (John 20:31).

Thus, Jesus performed miracles, not to demonstrate he was a yogi but that people would believe he was the Christ, the Son of God - affirming his divinity - and to grant (eternal) life to those who put their trust in him.

.

Dear OzSpen,

.

Oops, my PDF page counter indicated 29 pages for Einstein’s paper on General Relativity, but I overlooked the fact that they are double pages.

The correct number of pages is therefore twice 29 = 58.

Sorry about that …

.

Dear OzSpen,

We are just discussing the same, only from two different perspectives, using different terminologies.

Is the sun rising in the east, or is it the earth that turns around its axis while revolving around the sun? Both statements are true, they just come from two different perspectives. Fighting over which view is correct, is plain silly. Saying that Jesus performed miracles ONLY as a Son of God is like insisting that the sun gives us light and warmth only because it rises in the east.

Yogis do not perform miracles because they want to demonstrate that they are yogis: attempting to do so would be a perversion and would anyway fail because instead of concentrating on their object, or ideally on God, their mind would wander thinking "Oh, I want to prove that I am a Yogi...".

As for witches, they have an unusual degree of concentration, which is in common with Yogis and allows them to concentrate long enough to affect energy and matter to some significant degree, but their concentration is imperfect and is eventually broken by their dark desires, bringing about their downfall.

Earnest disciples too can be blessed to have a span of concentration on God, including in the form of Jesus, thus bring about minor miracles. However, their concentration is temporary and fragile. We hear of their success stories, but not as much of their [human] failures. I don't know about the Christian view, but Judaism forbids and considers it a sin to rely on miracles (http://www.aish.com/atr/Relying_on_Miracles.html, http://theruminativerabbi.blogspot.com/2014/02/relying-on-miracles.html). Yes, miracles MAY happen, but one should never jump off the roof thinking "God will send me a parachute".

//Similar 'miracles' could be performed by a witch//

Wizards and witches, eh?

XD

This is just getting silly now. In a minute he'll be telling us that werewolves and vampires and fire-breathing dragons are real too.