Jesus and the Essenes -- The Essene Way of Life -- Olivier Manitara

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Jesus and the Essenes

The Master Jesus was a very simple man who walked in the street in the middle of the people, who spoke directly with them and who lived in the company of his few disciples. Of course, there was a goodness, a purity, a royalty which emanated from him; but he was nothing like the "inaccessible high Master" which all of the churches have completely fabricated.
The Master Jesus was completely accessible, simple, yet imposing, and that is what pleased the crowd. When he was in town, people knew his habits and waited for him in the places where he often gave a teaching through parables, stories and discussions with those who asked him questions or who tried to trip him up. Everybody could come and participate in his talks, and anyone could speak. The Master gave a veiled teaching; he did not reveal all of his thoughts. Those who were interested by this first approach could follow him and become one of his disciples. One could be such a disciple without abandoning one's family or one's work.

Then the Master gave other teachings--deeper, more practical, more direct. He explained the meaning of the parables.
One of the higher steps for the circle of disciples was to repent and to receive John's baptism. It was the close disciples of the Master, the 12 apostles, who were to baptize the students who were entering a deeper level on the path.
Once a candidate had received the baptism, he entered an inner circle of a more restricted and secret School. Inside this circle, the Master transmitted a profound initiatic teaching, as well as certain precise methods. He said that he was working on the future of humanity through the intermediary of his students who had been thus prepared. The students of this secret School included women as well as men, although men were in the majority because of that time period. The discipline was strict, as in the Essene communities, but the presence of the Master meant that joy, laughter, and love circulated abundantly from soul to soul. The students had to do a lot of exercises, and work on themselves, on their own matter, according to the directives which were taught.

The Master said that, when a group of people gather together freely around a divine idea and begin to work on themselves in the direction of this idea, then, if there are enough of them, they carry within themselves all of humanity and they can make it evolve. From their work emanates a communal spiritual strength, which is like a sun in the soul of the earth and of humanity. This sun, in turn, works throughout time to attract the divine idea and to bring it to life within the reality of the earth.

The Master had given very precise directives for this work, and during some very beautiful communal ceremonies--notably the washing of the feet--he had made it understood that each one of them was becoming one with him in the Christ, that each one of them was becoming a part of the Christ on the earth, and that the final incarnation of the Christ inside all humans depended on the work of each one of them.
He had also transmitted songs, sounds, words, dances and movements which had to be done in a particular state of mind and with a great inner purity in order to produce certain effects within oneself and within the soul of the earth.
He taught that, in this way, certain very pure spiritual beings who live inside the soul of man and of the earth could be awakened, nourished, and strengthened in the will of the Heavenly Father.

The students had also to take the Nazarite vow not to eat meat or drink fermented drinks anymore. The Master said that, if a human being ate meat, he could not receive his word. This discipline was, at the same time, for both the external side and the internal side of life. The Master taught that physical vegetarianism had to be coupled with psychic vegetarianism, an attitude of inner life filled with a living morality, an active pacifism, a tenacious and serene will, a clarity and openness of mind. Like the Essenes, the Master attached great importance to cleanliness and purity. The purity which the Master taught was a lot less rigid than the one preached by the Essenes. It was alive, in movement, dynamic. The Master Jesus was very tolerant and very open. These rules applied only in the inner circle of his School. His teaching had several degrees, according to the state of consciousness and the level of evolution of the being who was in front of him. The Master loved all beings and wanted each one to be able to receive and participate in God's word at his own level. For some people, this word took on a tone of reprimand, of severity, even of condemnation. For others, one of consolation and hope. And finally, for the prepared students, it opened up the doors to the sacred path of the initiation of the soul into the eternal mysteries.

Master Jesus liked the atmosphere to be pure, and that is why, before he came, the students prepared and purified themselves in their thoughts, feelings, and desires through rhythmical exercises, movements, and dances. They used certain kinds of human-shaped waves which had the power to vivify, purify and improve the quality of the atmosphere of a place.

Master Jesus himself was always careful about the place in which he taught or practiced the works of his Father-Mother with his disciples. Thus, when he was in Jerusalem, he went and taught the crowd in the square of the Gentiles or in certain places in the streets of the city. People knew where they could find him. With his disciples, he liked to go outside of the city. Thus, he often arranged to meet the members of the inner circle in the garden of the 12 palm trees, which was located close to Bethany. There was a spring there, and the Master had explained at great length that this place was tied to the work which his faithful disciples would have to accomplish in the world in the centuries to come. He had revealed to all of them the purpose of his mission, the future history of humanity, the different incarnations of his disciples, and the role they would have to play in this history to serve Christ. Once again, he had alluded to the mysterious role of the Apostle John, and he had placed him in parallel with John the Baptist, the prophet Eli and the Essene Brotherhood-Sisterhood.

At the time when the Master Jesus was present among his disciples, he had already named the Master St. John as the leader of and the person responsible for this inner and secret School. It is the Master St. John who was put in charge of teaching in this School and of ensuring that the exercises were done correctly.
Thereafter, the Master St. John continued his task, even after Jesus' departure. He remained faithful and opened inner Schools in most European countries. These Schools continued to exist in secret and have propagated themselves right up to our own time, keeping Christ's teaching pure, exactly as the Essenes had kept pure Moses' secret and authentic teaching. Today, parts of this Teaching and of its techniques are being extended to the outside world because a new time of harvesting and sowing has arrived.