Think for a moment of the Name of Christ. His name was "Joshua", or more correctly "Yehoshua". His title was "Messiah", or the Greek "Christós".

Yehoshua means "to deliver/rescue/save".

Messiah comes from a root meaning "to smear" or "to paint". The shepherd in Israel carried olive oil for its antiseptic properties and salved the wounds of their sheep or themselves with this oil. It also means "annointed", as in the revelation given to Moses to annoint the head of Aaron with oil.

The word "Christós" chosen in Greek similarly can mean "covered in oil".

Yehoshua means "Yah is salvation".

Yah is an abbreviated or poetic form of the Tetragrammaton YHVH.

YHVH means "I breathe and have breath" or the way it is translated in the KJV "I Am".

"Spirit" is a translation for "Breath".

The I Am is salvation.

"The spirit is salvation [the flesh profiteth nothing]"

"The spirit is salvation, annointed with light." 

"Whatsoever is light is spirit." (D&C 84)

"The spirit is salvation, annointed with spirit."1

I don't end on this last on because I think it is the best. I think all of these are saying the same thing in different ways. What I am trying to determine is what these names mean. What are they trying to communicate to us? What does it mean, to take upon us The Name of Christ? Perhaps something more that I previously thought.

Our goal spiritually speaking is to be saved. Being saved means many things. It means being full of faith, knowledge, power, judgement, wisdom, love.2 This is what we are to become, this is the meaning of the name we are to take: "The I Am is salvation when I am annointed with light." The question becomes, what are we annointed with, and what is its nature.

So the Holy Ghost's purpose is to testify of Christ. My question was if Buddhists contact something authentic within their practice, then why do so many of them come away denying Christ? If you view "Christ" as the Holy Spirit, or Mind of God that Christ had, as well as the Holy Spirit that inhabits all of us, then when Buddhists get in contact with the Holy Ghost, it is testifying of Christ, because that is the spirit that the being Jesus Christ manifested perfectly in his life, which spirit, we only manifest imperfectly or crudely. That is the Spirit which manifests the Father in us all, the wicked and righteous, the rocks and trees.

"I can of mine own self do nothing, but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." (John 5:30, 14:10)

"The mind or intelligence which man possesses is co-equal with God himself." (Joseph Smith, TPJS p. 353)

Christ suffered all, that he might gain knowledge so that he could be a teacher, the only teacher with all wisdom, to succor us back to the light within. To bring us to Christ, which Light is renamed in every round because he was such a great exemplar of the spirit of the Father, or "Christ." Or it's called "Christ" because it is always named in honor of the being that has attained to the ressurection.

This Light is our Savior, and coming into contact with it cleanses automatically because it is not interested in a balance scale, it is only interested in us reuniting. Christ is our Savior because he is the perfect manifestation of that light, for all purposes one-in-the same.

"Behold, Jesus Christ is the name which is given of the Father, and there is none other name given whereby man can be saved; Wherefore, all men must take upon them the name which is given of the Father, for in that name shall they be called at the last day." (D&C 18:23-24)

God is powerful. "I shall be powerful when I am annointed with light."

"And for this cause ye shall have fulness of joy; and ye shall sit down in the kingdom of my Father; yea, your joy shall be full, even as the Father hath given me fulness of joy; and ye shall be even as I am, and I am even as the Father; and the Father and I are one." (3 Nephi 28:10)

They who reject their light, or birthright within are under condemnation of the accuser, because it is themselves, or their concious mind which condemns them. They condemn themselves. Others assuage this lack of light and subsequent condemnation with honors and praise of men. It feeds their ego, or their little self, leaving dormant the chief cornerstone, and in this way, when some choose to set themselves up for a light, they deny the Holy Ghost to not only themselves, but others. Yet these offenses are necessary.

D&C 19 demonstrates the necessity of the language or misinterpretation of the language of condemnation. For those who will not hear, but insist on being driven by the accuser, they inherit an interpretation that causes them to fear and tremble to sin. But as we grow from milk to meat, we no longer fear to sin, but we strive to bless and be blessed.3 For a people who will not search, having the scriptures be plain thus seems to be a disservice to themselves and mankind in general.

The scriptures which describe God cannot be plain, because once they are plain, God's nature becomes a common vocabulary, and is thus defiled by being opened to view, and once profaned or common, it no longer describes God anyway. God masculine, desires to protect and keep sacred God feminine, and thus keep it chaste and pure and holy, shrouded or veiled in mystery and thrilling to discover.

Perhaps taking on us the Name of Christ, is not so much about committing ourselves to that perfect being, as it is taking upon us the meaning of the name, such that what is said about Jesus Christ in fullness, can be said about each of us in part. Perhaps doing things "in the Name of Christ" also is not about invoking verbally his name, so much as it is doing things in the pattern, or meaning of his name.

 

Notes

1. Hebrew4Christians.com: Names of God (Yah)

Wikipedia: Tetragrammaton

Ancient-Hebrew.org: Issue 71, Nov 2015 (Jeshua, Yeshua, Yehoshua)

Ancient-Hebrew.org: Issue 6, Aug 2004 (Elijah, YHWH)

Ancient-Hebrew.org: Messiah

"For the word of the Lord is truth, and whatsoever is truth is light, and whatsoever is light is Spirit, even the Spirit of Jesus Christ." (D&C 84:45)

2. "Therefore it is given to abide in you; the record of heaven; the Comforter; the peaceable things of immortal glory; the truth of all things; that which quickeneth all things, which maketh alive all things; that which knoweth all things, and hath all power according to wisdom, mercy, truth, justice, and judgment." (Moses 6:61)

3. From The Four Agreements:

"Imagine that the human mind is the same as your skin. You can touch healthy skin and it feels wonderful. Your skin is ma de for perception and the sensation of touch is wonderful. Now imagine you have an injury and the skin gets cut and infected. If you touch the infected skin, it is going to hurt, so you try to cover and protect the skin. You will not enjoy being touched because it hurts.

"Now imagine that all humans have this skin disease. Nobody can touch each other because it is going to hurt. Everyone has wounds on their skin, so the infection is seen as normal, the pain is also considered normal; we believe we are supposed to be that way.

"Can you imagine how we would behave with each other if all the humans in the world had this skin disease? Of course we would hardly ever hug each other because it would be too painful. So we would need to create a lot of distance between us.

"The human mind is exactly like this description of infected skin. Every human has an emotional body completely covered with infected wounds. Each wound is infected with emotional poison — the poison of all the emotions that makes us suffer, such as hate, anger, envy, and sadness. An action of injustice opens a wound in the mind and we react with emotional poison because of the concepts and beliefs we have about injustice and what is fair. The mind is so wounded and full of poison by the process of domestication, that everyone describes the wounded mind as normal. This is considered normal, but I can tell you it is not normal.

"We have a dysfunctional dream of the planet, and humans are mentally sick with a disease called fear. The symptoms of the disease are all the emotions that make humans suffer: anger, h ate, sadness, envy, and betrayal. When the fear is too great, the reasoning mind begins to fail, and we call this mental illness. Psychotic behavior occurs when the mind is so frightened and the wounds so painful, that it seems better to break contact with the outside world.

"If we can see our state of mind as a disease, we fin d there is a cure. We don't have to suffer any longer. First we need the truth to open the emotional wounds, take the poison out, and heal the wounds completely. How do we do this? We must forgive those we feel have wronged us, not because they deserve to be forgiven , but because we love our-self so much we don't want to keep paying for the injustice.

"Forgiveness is the only way to heal. We can choose to forgive because we feel compassion for ourselves. We can let go of the resentment and declare, "That's enough! I will no longer be the big Judge that goes against myself. I will no longer beat myself up and abuse myself. I will no longer be the Victim." First, we need to forgive our parents, our brothers, our sisters, our friends, and God. Once you forgive God, you can finally forgive yourself. Once you forgive yourself, the self-rejection in your mind is over. S elf-acceptance begins, and the self-love will grow so strong that you will finally accept yourself just the way you are. That's the beginning of the free human. Forgiveness is the key.

"You will know you have forgiven someone when you see them and you no longer have an emotional reaction. You will h ear the name of the person and you will have no emotional reaction. When someone can touch what used to be a wound and it no longer hurts you, then you know you have truly forgiven.

"The truth is like a scalpel. The truth is painful, because it opens all of the wounds which are covered by lies so that we can be healed. These lies are what we call the denial system. It's a good thing we have the denial system, because it allows us to cover our wounds and still function. But once we no longer have any wounds or any poison, we don't need to lie anymore. We don't need the denial system, because a healthy mind, like healthy skin, can be touched without hurting. It's pleasurable for the mind to be touched when it is clean."

 

See Also

Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? (John 14:9)

"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." (John 1:14)

"Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?" (John 14:10)