WHAT I DID ON "GOOD FRIDAY"

 

WHAT I DID ON “GOOD FRIDAY”

Christopher Nyerges

[Nyerges is the author of many books, such as “Searching for the Meaning of Life,” “Watermelon Dreams,” “Urban Survival Guide,” “Extreme Simplicity,” and others.  More information can be found at www.SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com.

 

One year, during the Easter weekend, I saw a picture of the Pope dragging a wooden cross along the path that Jesus is said to have taken after the trials, on his way to Golgotha.  The Pope was commemorating what Catholics call the Stations of the Cross, significant events along the way while the beaten Jesus was dragging the very cross that he would be nailed to.

In the case of the Pope, the article indicated that the Pope’s cross was made of balsa wood, weighing about 5 pounds, and it was fitted with little wheels so that it could be rolled, and didn’t really require any physical strength to carry.

This caught my attention because of the unique exercises I have done with the Survival Training School of Highland Park, beginning in the late 1970s.  The School’s focus involved physical exercises, running, jumping, and other activities that bring the student to their physical and mental limits, with the goal of extending one’s perceived limits.  Needless to say, it was a strenuous regimen, and the number of students was never large.

This was not a religious school, though the headmaster, who also taught Yoga when it was not popular, often attempted to incorporate spiritual or religious principles into some of the curriculum.  For example, we all did an activity called “Cross Bearing” during Good Friday, sometimes on the following Saturday since the classes were always on Saturdays. The instructor told us to look at what happened to Jesus after he was brought to trial and beaten.  We were told to attempt to grasp the intense physical pain that Jesus had to have undergone, and then, after being beaten and bloody, was forced to carry a heavy wooden cross.  Our exercise was then to select logs at our class site, and to carry one over our shoulders, up and down the unpaved driveway to the hilltop school.  We were told to do this physically taxing activity in silence, and to breathe deeply during the slow walking.  In fact, we were given a whole series of instructions on how to breathe, how to deal with the pain, and how to ask our “higher Self” for assistance in continuing just a little bit beyond where we felt we’d reached a limit.  It all fit right in with our general school curriculum, which was intended to be real, and uncompromising.  As I said, the number of students was never large, and many of the student were mysteriously “out of town” during the Good Friday event.

Once a reporter called us to ask if they could come and photograph the event.  “Sure,” I responded.  “This is a religious activity, right?” asked the reporter.  “Well,” I began.  “Not exactly.”  I then tried to explain that this was not some sort of Good Friday replication where we wear robes and whip ourselves, but rather that it was part of a very secular martial-arts-type school where there is focus on physical and mental expansion.  “Oh,” she replied, “we were expecting something else,” and they did not come.   Clearly, what they wanted was to see someone – preferably dressed in a robe -- pulling a small cross on wheels like the Pope, while parishioners stand along and pray along the path. 

Nevertheless, this has been a highpoint for me nearly every Good Friday for the past approximately 40 years.  In the very beginning, I was able to do the Cross Bearing with a section of a telephone pole!  These days, my “crosses” have gotten smaller, though I still focus upon the same breathing techniques, and the same mental focus of  quietly looking at my own “crosses” in life as I slowly walk up and down the driveway.

I am well aware that in many parts of the world people have tried to literally re-create the crucifixion as a way to intensely remember the pain of Jesus.  In my files, I have photos of Catholic groups in such diverse places as Mexico, Guatemala, and the Philipines, where some participants actually get nailed to a cross for a few minutes. They have doctors on hand, and they use sterilized nails.  In other places, the “celebrants” actually get bloody-whipped and the observers take it all very seriously.

Though I have no interest in having someone drive a nail in my wrist, or whip me, I still derive great benefit from my personal focus upon taking on a bit more of a challenge than I think I can.  Though I have respect for the people who choose to replicate Jesus’s ordeal, it still strikes me too much as trying to take on the appearance of something, rather  than actually deeply feeling what it’s all about, regardless if anyone is watching.

This year, just a small group of students from the Survival Training School showed up for the Cross Bearing event.  Everyone carried segments of tree branches from some recent tree-pruning. It was quiet, intense, and deeply moving to everyone present. 

When I was a child, I sat in church on Good Friday from noon to three, not understanding the priest’s Latin, and finding the crowded church quite stuffy.   I sometimes fell asleep.  Somehow, the Cross Bearing, with no religious underpinning, put me more intensely in touch with the presumed theme of Easter weekend.

 

 

EASTER AND THE MAN BEHIND IT

 

EASTER AND THE MAN BEHIND IT

Christopher Nyerges

[Nyerges is an educator, and author of such books as “Extreme Simplicity,” and “Self-Sufficient Home.”  His book “Squatter in Los Angeles” is available on Kindle.  You can learn more about his classes and activities at www.SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com.]

Jesus!  You say just that name and everyone knows who you mean.  What a man he was!  What a life he must have lived!  He is known and literally worshipped by at least a third of all humanity, and around whom our current world system of reckoning time revolves.  Amazing! And perhaps the even more amazing is that there is still so much debate about who he was, what he did, how he lived, and what he believed.  Hundreds of differing Christian sects are stark testament to the fact that though Jesus might have had “one message,” that message has been widely interpreted and debated over the centuries.

Let’s work through some of the most basic facts. As an historical person, he can be placed in a specific time and location.    All historians concede that they do not know the birthday of Jesus, but it is widely acknowledged that the birth date is not  December 25.  Most scholars suggest that Jesus was born in either April or September, in 4 B.C. or 6 B.C. of our current reckoning. Herod died in 4 B.C., so that was the most recent date he could have been born.  Some place his birth as early as 10 B.C. in our current reckoning of time.

“Jesus” was not his name!  Really? Then why do we call him that? “Jesus” is the English rendering of Yeshu, or Iesu.  Did he have a full name? Yes, of course, and it was not “Jesus Christ,” either, which is a title, meaning Jesus the Christ, or Jesus the Annointed.  Historians say that the actual name was Yeshua ben Josephus, that is, Jesus son of Joseph.  Another version says it is Yeshua ben Pandirah, Jesus son of the Panther.   In Indian literature, he is referred to as Yuz Asaf.  When mentioned in the Koran, he is Isa (or Issa).   Dilletante “historians”  have suggested that “Jesus” didn’t actually exist because they were unable to find “Jesus Christ” in other contemporary historical records.

WAS JESUS BLACK?

Ethnically, culturally, and religiously, he was Jewish.  But occasionally, a writer will suggest that Jesus was actually black, with such evidence as the preponderance of the “Black Madonnas” found throughout Europe.  The only Biblical evidence on this are the two lineages of Jesus provided, which, unlike any other person whose lineage is recorded in the Bible, include women. Look them up yourself.

The key genealogies of Jesus listed are Luke 3: 23-31, and Matthew 1:1-17.  In these lineages, we are told of at least four of the women in Jesus’ genealogical line.  These are Rehab, Ruth, Tamar, and Bathsheba.  Rehab (also spelled Rahab) was a Canaanite.  Tamar was probably a Canaanite.  Bethsheba, often referred to as a Hittite, was more likely Japhethic, that is, not a descendant of Ham. (However, this is not clear).   Ruth was in the line of Ham. Now, who was Ham?  Who were the Canaanites and Hittites? 

 

According to Genesis 9:19, all mankind descended from  Noah’s three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.  Ham’s descendants became the black people who settled in Africa, and parts of the Arabian peninsula.  His sons were Cush, whose descendants settled in Ethiopia, Mizraim, whose descendants settled in Egypt, Put, whose descendants settled in Libya, and Canaan, whose descendants settled in Palestine. The descendants of Cush were the main populace of the Cushite Empire, which extended from western Libya to Ethiopia and Nubia, all of present day Egypt, and the Arabian peninsula into the mountains of Turkey.  They spoke several languages and had skin pigmentation ranging from dark black to medium brown. 

 

It takes a bit of study to ascertain who these people were – and there were other possible African women in Jesus’ lineage as well – but, in general, when we are speaking of Cushites, Canaanites, descendants of Ham, etc., we are speaking of Africans.  It is entirely possible that this wasn’t a big deal when the scriptures were written since Jesus’ racial background was common knowledge.

 

So, although Jesus had some African ancestry, his physical appearance was such that he fit right in with the Jews of that era, based on  several passages that indicate that Jesus not only looked like every one else in a crowd, but was also a very average and normal looking Middle-Easterner, not sticking out at all.  Remember how the Roman guards had to ask for others to identify Jesus.  He was of an average appearance for that day and location, and blended into the crowd.

 

Though politely referred to as “rabbi,” his ideas about life, family, death, and relationships did not always mesh well with the religious elite, who viewed Jesus as well-intended, but nevertheless a trouble-maker to the establishment.

THE EARLY YEARS

It is worth noting that the Persian Kings (the so-called 3 kings) who sought out the infant Jesus were engaged in very much the same search that the Tibetan priests employed when seeking the embodiment of the next Dali Lama.  The Bible speak of the young Jesus talking to the Rabbis in the Temple, sharing his youthful wisdom with the elders to the surprise of his parents.  Then there is no Biblical record of what he did as a teenager, and during his 20s.  We don’t hear from his again in the Bible until his appearance on the scene at about age 30 or so, where he reportedly transformed water into wine at a wedding feast, and was depicted as a healer, prophet, and fisher of men. 

His religious observations would have been the regular observations for Jews of the day, and entirely different from the observations of most Christian sects today.  (The reasons for this are well-known and found in any encyclopedia on the history of the Church.)

Growing up as a Catholic, I studied Jesus, and often wondered, what did it really mean to “be like Jesus”?  There was so much about this person that was beyond my ability to research.  For example, what Holy Days would Jesus have observed? Was he an Essene?  Was he a Nazarene? What did these groups believe and practice? Did he really have any Buddhist influence?  Who were his closest followers, the apostles?  What did he actually teach his close followers, beyond what is known from his various public talks?  Were his miracles and public healings actual events, or were they symbolic stories?  These and other questions have always swirled around this man called Jesus.

 

As a student of the real and historical Jesus, here are just a few of the many books I have found to be useful.

Garner Ted Armstrong of the Worldwide Church of God in Pasadena, wrote a book about the “Real Jesus,” and Jesus was described as a hard-working, athletic, health-food eating powerful man, a sort of health advocate Gypsy Boots of the past who also spoke about the Kingdom within.

 

Holger Kersten in his “Jesus Lived in India” book presents a very different Jesus, the very one who is depicted on the Shroud of Turin, and one who was actually recorded as traveling to India,  and who studied from the Buddhists.

 

According to Harold Percival in his “Thinking and Destiny” book, Jesus succeeded in re-uniting his Doer and Thinker and Knower, his internal trinity, which put him in touch with his divinity, which made him, effectively, a God.  Though Percival’s terminology is unfamiliar to most Christians, he is less concerned about the historical details of Jesus and more concerned about what Jesus did, and became, that made him a focal point of most societies on earth over the last 2000 years.

 

Regardless of your religious background or belief, you are likely to be richly rewarded by delving deeply into the nuances of the details of who this Jesus was.  When everyone’s mind is upon Jesus and the Mysteries during the Easter season, I have found great value in viewing the “Jesus of Nazareth” series, and even such depictions as “Jesus Christ Superstar.”  Unlike so many who purport to follow in his path, I find a real Jesus emerging who was not dogmatic, but one who knew that only when we recognize each other’s humanity do we rise up into our own divinities.

 

 According to Holger Kersten, “Jesus did not supply theories to be ground in the mills of academia, about his path and message – he just lived his teachings!  Tolerance, unprejudiced acceptance of others, giving and sharing, the capacity to take upon oneself the burdens of others, in other words, unlimited love in action and service for one’s fellow human beings – this is the path which Jesus showed to salvation.”

 

 

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TEACHING FORAGING SINCE 1974!

 

TEACHING FOR 50 YEARS

NYERGES REFLECTS ON HIS TEACHING CAREER, BEGINNING IN JANUARY 1974

By Christopher Nyerges

[www.SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com]

 

At the end of one of my recent classes, wild food chef, Pascal Baudar, who is the author of 4 books on how to make delicious meals from wild foods, presented me with a gift in recognition of my 50 years of teaching wild foods.  Baudar, who is a true pioneer is his work, gave me a ceramic bowl that he made from clay that he personally dug and fired.  I was quite happy at this limited edition clay pot, and promptly used it to eat  a wild salad.

The gift of a hand-made clay bowl from Pascal Baudar.

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

My interest in wild foods arose from my childhood interest in hiking and exploring the Angeles National Forest.  At first, I was a backpacker who disliked carrying canned foods, but who loved the outdoors.  Wherever I went, I wanted to know about the plants and wildlife that resided there. And I wanted to know the history of the early peoples who resided there.

By middle school, I had an encounter with another hiker in the mountains who explained to me and my hiking partner how he learned about wild foods from Northern California native peoples. Really? I exclaimed.  What people? What plants? Are the plants still here?  The man pointed out mustard and miners lettuce and pine needles before he hiked away. And I could not get this idea out of my mind.

My studies then opened a new world to me.  In an overcrowded world of over-development, I learned that native peoples once exclusively resided where I lived, and they got everything from the land:  Food, medicine, shelter, tools, clothing. 

My studies rapidly took me down the path of botany and biology and ethnobotany.  There was no looking back.  I realized that all our man-made problems are mostly due to our disrespect for the environment, and our greedy desire to extract more from nature than what is ecologically possible. 

I pursued botany in the urban areas, in the mountains, deserts, beaches, in Mexico, and in Ohio when I lived on my grandfather’s farm.  In botany, I found a positive solution to most of our problems.  By my mid-teens, I was no longer pursuing this from a fear perspective, but rather from the perspective of the excitement of re-discovering the living legacy of native America. 

I read every book on the subject I could get my hands on.  I made friends with native Americans near me.  And I started writing my first book.  I would hitchhike up and down the west coast, supplementing my diet with wild foods. I would go into the local mountains to test myself, living off wild foods for a week or a weekend at  a time

By 1974, I was asked to lead a wild food walk for a local non profit, WTI, based in the Highland Park section of Los Angeles.  I wasn’t sure I could do it.  I had just turned 19, and thought that there had to be far more qualified people out there.  But I said yes.  The founder of the non-profit, Richard White, tutored me in how to be a good teacher.

 The very first formal wild food outing conducted by Nyerges in January 1974.

The outing was advertised in the local papers, and 100 people showed up one January morning in 1974 at the entrance to the Angeles National Forest in Altadena.  We walked along the stream, and I identified native and non-native plants. We collected greens along the way. We walked two miles up the canyon to a campground, with perhaps 70 of the hikers still with us, and there we made a salad and soup, and there were a few side lessons on such things as dowsing and fire-making.

It was a wonderful class, and I learned some important lessons about teaching and learning to respond to students’ questions.

It was a long day, and there were only 12 of us left in the end.  And it started my lifelong professional interest in teaching ethnobotany, and all the other related skills.

Nyerges, right, leading a wilderness field trip.

 

With a few exceptions, I led field trips just about every weekend since then, many of which were overnights.  I taught hundreds of classes through the local colleges, and gave more lectures than I remember.  There was no internet back then, but every local newspaper and nearly every local radio and tv station eventually interviewed me about the wild food foraging walks I conducted.  Interestingly, there was a lot of ridicule in the beginning, though that is now a thing of the past.  

I had the good fortune to meet and study with botanist Dr. Leonid Enari, who taught at the L.A. County Arboretum. Among other things, Dr. Enari worked closely with me on my first book. 

 Dr. Leonid Enari, Nyerges’ primary botanical mentor.  Nyerges refers to Dr. Enari as the “greatest botanist that no one knows.”

Big among my influencers was Euell Gibbons, author of “Stalking the Wild Asparagus” and promoter of Post Grape Nuts.  I only met him once.  

Christopher Nyerges (right) met famous forager Euell Gibbons once in 1975.

Over the years, I have travelled throughout the United States teaching these skills.  I appeared on many local news stations over the years, once appearing with Ron Hood, who was one of the top survival instructors in the country.   I was very busy during Y2K.  I appeared on Huell Howser’s popular show, and I consulted for dozens of TV shows, including Naked and Afraid, and Doomsday Preppers.   I’ve written thousands of newspaper and magazine articles over the years, from such publications as the Los Angeles Times, Mother Earth News, Pasadena Star News, Prepper Guide, Countryside, American Survival Guide (of which I was editor for a bit), and Wilderness Way (I was editor for 7 years).  And as of today, I have written 27 books, mostly on wild foods and self-reliance topics.

Nyerges, center, conducting a survival skills class.

One of the greatest benefits has been meeting so many outstanding people in the course of teaching perhaps upwards of 50,000 students.  This is how I met “chaparral granny” Dorothy Poole, and Tongva elder Barbara Drake, who involved me in teaching Indian Education classes for a number of years.  This is also how I met wild food chef Pascal Baudar. 

Along the way, I met some of the finest instructors around today, most of whom became a part of my ad hoc, peripatetic staff, people like Gary Gonzales, Rick Adams, Paul Campbell, Dude Mclean, Alan Halcon, Rob Remedi, Keith Farrar, Jim Robertson, Angelo Cervera, and many others.

Fifty years of teaching foraging and self-reliance has been quite a roller coaster.   I look forward to the next 50 years!~