In order to explore a spiritual tradition, it sometimes helps not to have grown up in that tradition. Having not grown up in the tradition in question prevents you from taking anything about it for granted. It stops you from reciting the list of truisms by rote with your eyes half-closed, because you don't have the list memorized. Whatever isn't memorized has to be learned. Whatever has to be learned also has to be thought about. This is so for me in the case of Easter. Since I was not raised as a Christian nor do I consider myself one now, I cannot simply recite the words "He rose from the dead after three days," as if it were a normal, common idea that everyone in my circle of acquaintances knows about and accepts. None of the people in my cultural circle accept this idea, and when I hear the statement "He rose from the dead," I find it thoroughly shocking. It is an amazing and outrageous statement. I do not perceive anything at all about this assertion to be mundane.

How is it possible that anyone could transcend death? When I look around, it seems to me that everyone dies. No warrior, no matter how brave, is victorious over the grave. However, thinking about it logically, there might be one way it could be possible. The way would be to see life and death as one interwoven process. Then, if victory over life could be gained, victory over death might be gained as well.

What do I mean by victory over life? Jesus answered this with many of his spoken teachings. When your life is filled with people who batter you on one cheek, turn around and let them batter you on the other cheek too. Love your enemies instead of giving in to hate. Do not let the world turn you into an angry, bitter person. Do not let your life, no matter how painful it may sometimes be, cause you to become jaded and inflexible and mean.

Jesus also answered this question with the non-verbal teachings he provided by example. Know who and what you are and do not allow anyone to convince you that you are other than who you are, that you are less. The world is full of very depressed naysayers. They hate themselves, and they think they are not worth much, that there is nothing special about themselves. If you come along with a heart of magic, with a heart full of devotion and faith, you may make many of those naysayers very angry, and they will do their best to tear you down. If you say you are God, if you say you are Buddha, they will interpret it to mean that you are saying they are not those things because you are. Then they become incensed because of your so-called arrogance, even though you really may be the humblest person in the world, and even though, in declaring your own unconditional goodness, your own transcendence and holiness, your own spark of God or Buddha-nature, you are declaring theirs as well. They may stone you or crucify you or throw you out alone into the desert as punishment, rather than double their own efforts to find the unconditional goodness, the spark of God, the Buddha-nature within themselves. Jesus' teaching was not to give into them, no matter what, to not pretend to be less than you are because you have become intimidated. As Nelson Mandela, another great guru, taught "You do not do the world any favors by playing it small." In the Buddhist tradition, we would say that those naysayers are mirrors of our minds. They appear in our world because they exist in our minds, and they show us the work we still have to do. They are actually excellent teachers, who challenge us in just the ways we need to be challenged, so we should be thankful instead of becoming angry at them.

Jesus rose from the dead, showing us that he did have the heart of magic which he claimed to have and demonstrating for everyone that this world need not necessarily be a solid, sad, ugly prison at all. We can regard our lives in a positive way. Life as a human in this world need not be tantamount to serving a sentence on death row.

Cheer up, everyone (including this writer, who must constantly practice following her own advice!) I hope that all of my Christian readers have had a wonderful Easter holiday.