Heavenly father

[Tad]

Did Jesus actually teach about heavenly father? If yes, what did he mean by heavenly father?

[Jhanananda]

Did Jesus actually teach about heavenly father? If yes, what did he mean by heavenly father?

I think this is a good question.  While I have scrutinized key areas of the Bible and Pali canon and found that no published translation of either book even comes close to a reasonable translation. Also, gender is strictly biological, and god is spirit, therefore no gender, so I am willing to consider that associating god as a father is probably strictly cultural.

[Tad]

The big question is whether he was referring to Nirvana or the god of the material world.

[Jhanananda]

A Christian contemplative should keep in mind that the literature of Christianity has been cleansed and engineered to reduce as many mystical references as possible.  And, do keep in mind that ALL published translations of the Old and New Testaments are not even close to what is stated in the original Hebrew and Greek documents.

So, we cannot know what Jesus was speaking about. He may not have been a genuine mystic, but I believe he was, and the quote, "We know a tree by its fruit," is a clear reference to fruit as it is used in the Pali Canon and Yoga sutras.

So, we are left with studying the writing of the major mystics, and learning to meditate deeply to find out for ourselves the truth from direct experience in deep meditation.