Feedback "Happy Easter 2016"

some food for thought on the subject of easter from various sources:

Quote:

The current understanding is that the Easter bunny lays multi-colored eggs in or around every house for children to hunt for and collect in Easter baskets. But since when do rabbits lay eggs? Why are they colorful/spotted eggs? And why are they hidden for us to hunt and collect in baskets? Of course rabbits don’t lay eggs, but in ancient myth, the spring/fertility goddess Eostre and the Germanic Ostara are both said to have saved a bird whose wings had frozen during the winter by turning it into a rabbit. Since the rabbit had once been a bird, it could still lay eggs, and that egg-laying hare became our Easter bunny.

think of the rabbit as a personification (the distributor of eggs), think of the eggs as thoughts or inspiration (various colors, different themes/subjects), think of the children as humans hunting for insight, collecting pieces of the puzzle in their own basket of understanding, think of this holy day (holiday) as a reminder of this human activity while living a life, think of the nature as fertile grounds for achieving this goal, think of your own lack of deep spiritual understanding as a personal wintertime, frozen and awaiting for the spring thaw (birth of new ideas), think of that bird as a storyteller, one who lived through the winter to tell her story, story of birds who forgot how to fly (materialistic bondage), who are learning how to fly again (spiritual freedom), while distributing thoughts and ideas among themselves, aiding each other in their own personal (spiritual) evolution

Quote:

In the ancient Egyptian mythos, Isis is fleeing from an enemy while in the form of a phoenix when she changes into a hare to escape down a rabbit hole.

isis represents the invisible, the unknown, the hidden (knowledge), the covert - the enemy here is a person of lacking understanding who wants to destroy such knowledge, thinking of it as superstition or dangerous fantasies - its similar to the 'conscious' being fearful of the 'subconscious', trying to destroy/avoid/forget it, yet the knowledge seems to resurface in another shape or place, resurrecting like the phoenix

the enemy thinks in superficial terms, thus cannot follow deeper (through the rabbit hole) towards the heart of the matter
to find your own isis (personal revelation), one must dig deeper, beneath the surface of things

Quote:

During the A.D. times, there has been a Germanic/Christian Easter tradition of feasting on colored eggs after a long fast at lent, but the B.C. origins of Easter celebration again come from Egypt, where the “eggs” were well-known to be not eggs, but budding baby mushrooms.

these customs are of a symbolic nature, not to be taken literally
after a fast comes the feast (on the fruits or results of the fast, both physical/mental and spiritual)
the effect of certain mushrooms is a reminder of the existence of altered states of consciousness, not a path towards realizing them
the proper way to achieve higher levels of awareness is with your own consciousness (not by being dependent on external tools/items/drugs)

Code:

http://www.atlanteanconspiracy.com/2008/09/easter-bunny-and-phoenix.html

Quote:

Easter, marking the death and resurrection of Jesus, coincides with the pagan, cyclically based celebrations of life’s renewal. The name Easter comes from the Germanic goddess Eostre, whose festival was held at the spring equinox. Easter bunnies and Easter eggs figure nowhere in the biblical narrative of Christ’s passion but are universal symbols of fertility and renewal tied to springtime.

why celebrate renewal? because it speaks of a continued existence (it didn't end) and it gives another chance to reach answers of higher quality than those from an earlier era (the year before, the life before)

Quote:

in Christian thinking, God’s own son, Jesus, became the ultimate sacrifice, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. One only needs to believe this, and through faith comes salvation. The reward is eternal life in heaven—a restoration to the state of original grace in the divine presence. Thus Easter, which commemorates the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, signals the final triumph over death.

this is the divine assistance (just like that bird saved from freezing, from remaining stuck in a seemingly inescapable condition)
faith here means to be patient as proof is on its way
sacrifice here means to temporarily give up one's true position for a series of roles leading towards a return to one's truthful position/state (a journey of rediscovery, rediscovering one's own true self, a restoration of truth)
eternal life here means simply rediscovering that which already is
original grace is proper understanding of the order of things, a complete awareness thereof, bliss (blessing), perception of divine presence
what died at the crucifixion? the body, a symbol of the materialistic reality which will also end/die - what lives on? the soul/consciousness, an eternal part of the spiritual reality

Quote:

Once there was a peasant who eked out a living for his family by going into the forest to gather firewood, which he would sell to the villagers. As time went on, the supply dwindled, and the peasant found it harder and harder to find sufficient wood. He had to work longer and venture ever farther into the forest. One day, after going deeper and deeper into the forest without finding much wood at all, he noticed, to his dismay, that the sun was far past its zenith. It was too late to start back. There was not sufficient time to see him safely home. Darkness would soon descend, and the forest at night was filled with peril. What could he do? Sick at heart, he climbed to the lower branch of a tree and settled there. At least this position off the ground might afford a modicum of safety. After a while he began to feel the pangs of hunger, for he had not eaten since early morning. With darkness descending, he began to feel cold, and as he shivered, some of the leaves shook loose from the tree and fell earthward. The cries of wild animals and other strange sounds echoed through the darkness, increasing his distress, and in fright he wept, his tears falling earthward. All night long he kept awake, crying out to Siva to relieve his misery. And then, in the morning, with the first rays of the sun, he was blessed with the vision of the Lord.

What does this story mean? The poor peasant represents the human soul, wandering in the forest of the world. Notice the role that time plays here. He has a certain amount of time to accomplish his day’s work and head back home. On this particular day time does not work in his favor and in fact traps him in the forest overnight, where the darkness impresses on him the dangers lurking all about. In the same way, the darkness of maya, of our fundamental misunderstanding of the world, causes us the fear and anguish that are an inevitable part of human experience. The peasant fears for his life as he sits awake all night through a painfully slow journey through time. We sometimes recall our own mortality and fear for our lives as we witness the changes around us. The peasant’s predicament represents the human condition when things get rough.

During the night, his shivering causes some leaves to fall from the tree, and his tears likewise fall earthward. Unbeknown to the poor peasant, the tree in which he sought refuge was a vilva tree, sacred to Lord Siva. He sought refuge in a holy place. Not having eaten and not being able to sleep, he fasted and kept vigil and turned his mind toward Siva. Unbeknown to him there was a stone linga at the base of the tree, and when the vilva leaves fell on it and his tears bathed it, he unknowingly was fulfilling the conditions and performing the actions of Siva’s worship. And in the morning he was blessed with the vision of Siva, which means the knowledge of his own true being as the imperishable, ever blissful Self. As a realized soul, he experienced eternity, and that state of spiritual liberation came to him through the Lord’s grace.

Easter and Sivaratri each represent a way of dealing with the suffering and imperfection of human life and with the fact of human mortality. Each presents a solution which involves divine grace.

Code:

http://vedanta.org/2008/monthly-readings/time-and-eternity/

compare this story with the aforementioned wintertime (darkness, night, lurking dangers, ignorance, lack of understanding) or journey of rediscovery (finding the appropriate personal path, or the appropriate personal tree as in the story) or the divine grace (the morning blessing, the thaw, spiritual liberation)

note: the example mentions shiva, but the same may apply to any other divine personality - the choice of the appropriate personality is related to that personal path and may differ from the one mentioned in the story (in a similar manner someone else may choose jesus or some other personality from other religions that they can relate to, that they feel close to)

moral of the stories? they all speak of the same in different ways, there is a common thread to all of them, but it takes some digging beneath the surface of things (or existentialist difficulties in life that change/challenge one's perception) to get there