JESUS IS ALWAYS A STRANGER..3

Never become a Christian. If you want to become something, become a Christ. Never become a Buddhist. If you want to become something, become a Buddha. Otherwise you will remain unaware of the reality of Jesus. And because people feel uneasy -- uneasy because they cannot comprehend Jesus -- they create theories. Rather than transforming themselves, they load Jesus with theories, theories which can help them make him comprehensible. No theory can make him comprehensible. All theology is false.

But there are only two ways: either you wrap theories around Jesus which you can understand... In that way you feel that you have understood Jesus, but you have understood only the theories that you have wrapped around him. He remains there, absolutely far away, distant. He is not even touched by your theories. You can weave and spin beautiful philosophies around him. That philosophy you will be able to understand -- it is woven by you -- it is your creation, it is your invention rather. But Jesus, who is just standing there hidden behind your philosophies, is still an outsider. In fact your philosophies, your theories have made him more of an outsider than he was. With those theories, there has come a China Wall between you and him.

If you are a Christian you will never understand Jesus. Your very Christianity will be an obstruction, a hindrance. How can you understand Jesus when you are a Christian? Impossible! What does it mean to be a Christian? It means that you have certain ideas about Christ. You are clinging to certain theories: those theories become more important than Christ himself! Naturally, because you can understand those theories and you cannot understand Christ. So those theories become more and more important. You can discard Jesus, but you cannot discard your theories. That's why there are so many Christianities -- the Christianity of the Catholic, and the Christianity of the Protestant, and the Christianity of many many other sects. They all go on fighting, they are always at each other's necks, and they are all followers of Jesus! So where is the conflict?

The conflict is not between their Jesuses, because Jesus is one. The conflict is between their theories, and they cling to the theory. They can discard Jesus very easily -- Jesus is discarded, but they cannot discard their theory. Their theory is more important: it is their invention. Jesus has become secondary.

No, you cannot understand Christ if you are a Christian or a Catholic. You can understand Christ only if you are nobody. I am not saying that you can understand Christ if you are a Hindu. When you are nobody, when you drop all the curtains and you start moving in that reality called Christ without any preoccupied mind -- empty, clean, clear, no smoke around you, just a clarity and the freshness that clarity brings, and the vitality that clarity brings -- and you start approaching Jesus, with no idea of who he is, then there will be a meeting. Only if you are a nobody can you meet with Christ or Buddha or Krishna. And these are different names for the same state of consciousness. It is the fourth state of consciousness. Theories belong to the third state of consciousness; and Jesus, Buddha, belong to the fourth state of consciousness. You will have to drop many things before you can feel Jesus.