The reason for choosing this topic is that in the
first place it is not well understood and therefore in my experience sparsely practiced.
At the first glance the topic appears theoretical
and cold, but on further examination we will see it as practical, mind
expanding and spiritual.
Promoting Jesus as the example for us to follow
gives it life and meaning. We do not need a new religion, but we need to go
deeper into it.
Western Judeo-Christians are often uncomfortable
with the word non-duality. They often associate it negatively with Eastern
religions. Through my studies over the years, I became convinced that Jesus was
perhaps the first non-dual religious teacher of the West, and one reason we
have failed to understand so much of his teaching, much less follow it, is
because we tried to understand it with a dualistic mind."
In the mystical tradition the Christians and the
Vedantists alike come to the same realization. They realize the oneness of
their own soul and God, the Soul of the universe.
It is this very experience, which prompted Jesus, to
explain at various times to his disciples that he had known the great Unity in
which he and the Father of the universe were one:
“If you knew who I am,” he said, "you would
also know the Father. Knowing me, you know Him; seeing me, you see Him. Do you
not understand that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? It is the
Father who dwells in me doing His own work. Understand me when I say that I am
in the Father and the Father is in me."
John 14:7
This is the same truth that Vedanta speaks of as
Non-Dualism, Oneness.
Non-Dualism, the philosophy of absolute Unity, is the
central teaching, not only of Vedanta, but of all genuine seers of Truth.
Vedanta expresses it as, tat twam asi, “That thou art.”
Once we begin to look at the teachings of Jesus in
the light of his “mystical” experience of Unity, we begin to have a much clearer
perspective on all the aspects of his life and teachings, which are like those
of the various Vedantic sages who’ve taught throughout the ages, that the soul
of man is none other than the one with Divinity, none other than God; and that
this Divine Identity can be experienced and known through the revelation that
occurs inwardly to those who prepare and purify their minds and hearts and
contemplate and meditate.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see
God.
Matthew 5, 1-48.
The words of Jesus are well known to many of us from
our childhood and perhaps have lost their impressions on our consciousness as a
result of familiarity.
Jesus attempted to explain to us, with the words, “I
and the Father are one,” that the “I,” our own inner awareness of Self, is none
other than the one Self, the one Awareness, the Lord and Father of us all.
Why, then, are we so unable to see it? Why should it
be so hard for us to attain to that purity of heart, which Jesus declared to be
so essential to see God? It is probably because we have not really tried to
purify our hearts, or we don’t know how to go about doing it.
Jesus went into the wilderness, jeopardizing
everything else in his life for this one aim, completely and entire attainment
of unity with God.
This does not imply that we need to go into
seclusion; all we need to do is to.
“Be still and know that I am God.”
Psalm 46:10
Jesus message to his disciples was by way of
explaining to them that his real nature and that of all men is Divine and that
the reality of this could be realized directly. Furthermore, he taught them the
path, or method, to follow in order to attain this direct realization. Let us
look to his words:
In the Gospel book of John, he prayed to God, “O
righteous Father, the world has not known Thee, but I have known Thee.”
John 17:25
And, as he sat among the orthodox religious in the
Jewish temple, he said, “You say that He is your God, yet you have not known
Him. But I have known Him
A vision of God or samadhi is so difficult to convey
to those who had not experienced it, Jesus spoke often by way of analogy or
metaphor in order to make his meaning clear. He spoke of the experience of
seeing God as entering into a realm beyond this world, a realm where only God
is. He called this real the kingdom of God.
The Pharisees asked Jesus, “When will the kingdom of
God come?” He said, “You cannot tell by signs or by observations when the
kingdom of God will come. There will be no saying, 'Look, here it is!' or
'There it is!' For, in fact, the kingdom of God is (experienced) within you.”
Jesus said, “If those who lead you say to you, 'See,
the kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will have preceded you.
If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather
the kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you [as well]. When you come
to know your Self, then you i.e., your true nature will be known, and you will
realize that it is you who are the sons of the living Father. But if you will
not know your Self, you live in poverty i.e., you live in the illusion that you
are a creature far from God.”
Another of Jesus’ metaphors utilized the terms,
Light and darkness to represent the Divinity and the inherent delusion of
humankind, respectively:
Jesus said, “The world’s images are manifest to man,
but the Light in them remains concealed; within the image is the Light of the
Father. He becomes manifest as the images, but, as the Light, He is concealed.”
Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the
light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall
have the light of life.
John 8:12
He said to them, “There is a Light within a man of
Light, and It lights up the whole world. If it does not shine, he is in
darkness.”
These are terms, which have been used since time
immemorial to represent the Divine Consciousness in humankind and the hazy
ignorance, which obscures It. In the very first paragraph of the Gospel of
John, we find an excellent explanation of these two principles, and their Greek
synonyms, Theos and Logos;
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word,
Logos was with God, and the Word was God. He or It was with God in the
beginning. All things were made by Him; without Him nothing was made. Within
Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of man. And the Light shone in the
darkness, but the darkness comprehended It not."
A word of explanation is necessary: These two terms,
"Light" and "darkness," are also indicative of the cosmic
aspects of Reality; in other words, they are not only the Divine Consciousness
in humankind and the darkness of unknowing, but they are, at a higher level,
the very Godhead and Its Power of manifestation.
They are those same two principles we have talked
about called Brahman and Maya, Purusha and Prakriti, Shiva and Shakti. It is
the Godhead, which the light that is within us; it is the manifesting
principle, which, in the process of creating evolves into individual
soul-mind-body beings, provides us with all the disguise necessary to keep us
in the dark as to our infinite and eternal Identity.
Jesus said, If they ask you, ‘Where did you come
from?’ say to them, ‘we came from the Light, the place where the Light came
into being of Its own accord and established Itself and became manifest through
our image.’ If they ask you, ‘Are you It?’ say, ‘We are Its children, and we
are the elect of the living Father.’ If they ask you, ‘What is the sign of your
Father in you?’ say to them, ‘It is movement and repose (inaction).’
Jesus said, “I am the Light; I am above all that is
manifest. Everything came forth from me, and everything returns to me.
Here, Jesus identifies with the Eternal Light; but
he seems never to have intended to imply that he was uniquely and exclusively
identical with It; it should be clear that his intention was always to convey
the truth that all men are, in essence, the transcendent Consciousness,
manifest in form:
"Ye are the Light of the world. Let your Light
so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father
which is in heaven."
Matthew 5:16
Frequently he declared to his followers that they
too would come to the same realization that he had experienced:
“That which
you have (is within you) will save you if you bring it forth from yourselves.
That which you do not have within you will destroy you.”
“That which you have” is, of course, the Truth, the
Light, and the Divinity who manifests as us. “That which you do not have”
refers to the false identity of separate individuality, which is simply a lie.
It is the wrong understanding of who we are that limits us, and which prevents
us from experiencing the Eternal.
The teaching of the mystics, who have realized the
Highest, is “We are the Light of the world!" Thou art That! Identify with
the Light, the Truth, for That is who we really are!” We must assume that
Jesus’ teachings to his disciples should not be grounded on a mere matter of
faith; he wished them to realize this truth for themselves.
And he taught them the method by which he had come
to know God. Like all great seers, he knew the means and the end, the One and
the many.
Jesus taught also the value and need of devotion, in
the connecting principle between the soul and God.
In the words of Jesus to his disciples, we see this
same complementarily expression. At one moment, he speaks of dualistic devotion
in the form of prayer “Our Father, who art in heaven”; and at another moment he
asserts, I am the vine, you are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing, John
15. Then again he proclaims, I and my Father are one. John 10:30. He proclaims his Oneness, his
identity, with God. We can see the shift from duality, to qualified non
duality, to non duality.
At times, identifying with the One, he asserts that
he has the power to grant the experience of Unity “I shall give you what no eye
has seen and what no ear has heard and what no hand has touched and what has
never occurred to the human mind”(Gospel of Thomas). And at other times,
identifying with the human soul, he gives all credit to God, the Father “Why do
you call me good? There is no one good but the ONE that is God.”
Jesus also made it clear, that whatever efforts one
makes toward God must bear their fruits in this life, and in the lives to come.
And so, throughout his teachings one finds these
two, apparently contradictory, attitudes intermingled: the attitude of the Jnani
“I am the Light; I am above all that is manifest”); and the attitude of the
bhakta, Father, father, why hast Thou forsaken me? These are two voices of the
illumined being, describing both, the transcendent Unity and the soul made in
the image; he has seen this unity in the mystical experience.
Jesus had experienced the ultimate Truth; and he
knew that the consciousness that was as him was the one Consciousness of all.
He knew that he was the living Christ Consciousness from which this entire
universe is born. This was the certain, truth and yet Jesus found but few who
could even comprehend it. Even today church members can’t comprehend it. For
the most part, those to whom he spoke were well-meaning religious people who
were incapable of accepting the profound meaning of his words. They were too
set in their own minds to accept higher truths.
The religious orthodoxy of his time, like all such
orthodoxies, fostered a self-serving lip-service to spiritual ideals, and
observed all sorts of symbolic rituals, but was entirely ignorant of the fact
that the Ultimate Reality could be directly known by a pure and devout soul,
and that this was the real purpose of all religious practice.
Jesus realized, of course, that despite the
overwhelming influence of the orthodox religionists, still, in his own Judaic
tradition, there had been other seers of God, who had known and taught this
truth. “I come,” said Jesus, “not to destroy the law (of the Prophets), but to
fulfill it.”
Today too, when we look at the world we see many
people intoxicated with pride and ignorance; and few in thirsty for Truth. We
need to realize the light of the Infinite in us all and let it shine for all to
see. We can make a difference, but first we must believe it.
