Remembering Easter: The Non-Dual Path of the Resurection to Etenal Life

[Guest guest]

The Non-Dual Christ

 

 

Could the Teachings of Christ really centered in Non-Dualism? Is Christ in

reality the all pervasive timeless unconditioned Self, abiding as the Heart of

everyone, as Consciousness Itself? If Christ IS the Truth, shouldn't His

Teachings be examined to discover Who and What That Truth is and abide as That,

rather than to seek out for remedies in this world? - as in

 

"Go first to God ("I AM") and all things will be added unto you." Luke 12:31

 

 

There are many passages in the New (and Old) Testament, where, when the notion

we are all separate beings, centered in our identities as thinking bodies, is

put aside, one is surprised to find that most passages are apparently referring

to Christ as being the Self, and likewise He speaks from the non-dual

perspective.

 

While in the Old Testament God states the Truth as "I AM THAT I AM", the West

has diverted Christianity around Descartes' dictum: "I think therefore I am."

From, the non-dual point of view, the first two of the Ten Commandments (Ex 20:

1-7) are extremely powerful non-dual statements, i.e., neither permitting images

before the "I" sense, nor allowing the use of the subject "I" together with an

identity to images. So, it is no wonder that in reading the words of Christ as

non-dual, the statements come out as being also very powerful.

 

The following are several quotes about Christ as the Self (the subject "I"

Consciousness) of all

 

 

"All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was

made." John I: 3

 

'In him was life, and the life was the light of men." John I: 4

 

"And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness comprehendeth it not."

John I: 5

 

"That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that is born into this

world." John I: 9

 

 

Here the creation is not only created by Christ, but also all creation

throughout all time is a projection of the Conscious Principle "I", as "without

him was not anything made that was made". Who Christ is said to be is Life, and

that Life was the Light (Consciousness) of "every man that is born into this

world." The darkness described is the mind, which cannot know the True and

imageless Self, the All Knower, and cannot see the seer, which lights it.

>From these quotes and the quotes to follow, we will see that Christ is defined

clearly as the Self of all, and that His Teachings are to redirect each listener

that can "hear" Him, to purify the mind, or directly to enquire into and abide

as the Self, or to admonish them to take their stand in the Truth and "abide in

me", the Self. Quoting a few passages, it will become clear that these are

statements from someone, who, having realized their Self, no longer has a sense

of "I" in relation to the body or mind, but abides as and is "Consciousness

Itself".

 

 

"No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the

Son of man which is in heaven."John 3: 13

 

 

Here Christ states that this Self is always realized. In John 3: 14-21 Christ

elaborates on this theme of the "Light" further, as do many other of his

passages. When seen from the non-dual perspective, His passages are intensely

strong, giving no ground for alternate ideas that there may be some reality to

the world or some basis to the world or some alternate "Ways" or approaches. For

example:

 

 

"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

 

 

By comparison with the ancient sages and magi from the East, one might think

from reading these passages that Christ always speaks as the Atman and of the

Father as Brahman, or as the Self realized being One in relation to the All

pervasive and timeless Self (the "I AM THAT I AM"). Christ states:

 

 

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I AM." John 8: 58

 

 

One can see from the way Christ always refers to the Father, as the doer of the

miracles and all that He says, that regardless of His apparent actions, that He

has no sense of being a doer, that all He says and does just happens, because He

abides in the Father. Consider the following passage, where Jesus is speaking to

the Apostles in John Ch 14:

 

 

"I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: No man cometh to the Father but by Me.

(verse 6)

 

If you had known me, you should have known my Father also: and from hence forth

you know him and have seen him. (verse 7)

 

"Philip said to Jesus, 'Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.'

(verse 8)

 

"To which Jesus replied:

 

"Have I been so long with you, yet you have still not known me, Philip? He that

has seen me has seen the Father; therefore, how do you say, 'Show us the

Father'? (verse 9)

 

"Believe you not that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words I speak

unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwells in me he does the

works. (verse 11)

 

"Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me, or else believe me

for the very works' sake." (verse 12)

 

 

Again:

 

"I and my Father are one." John 10: 30

 

 

Explaining how his Truth is in fact the Truth of all, Christ states in John Ch

15:

 

 

"Abide in me, and I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it

abide in the vine; no more can you, except you abide in me. (verse 4)

 

"I am the vine, you are the branches...apart from me you can do nothing." (verse

5)

 

 

In John Chapter 17, Christ prays to the Father on behalf of the Apostles, that

He sanctify them by His Truth, and that they might be one with the Father ("I AM

THAT I AM"). Here, one can see that His state is always one with the Father. One

is quite clear that Christ’s permanent abiding state, when He says "where I am",

is unrelated to the world. He asks:

 

 

"Father, I will that they also, whom thou has given me, be with me where I am,

that they may behold my glory, which you have given me: For you have loved me

from before the foundation of the world." (verse 24)

 

 

The notion of Spirit, that He (Christ) and God (the Father) are one in Spirit

also conveys the sense of the formlessness of Brahman (the Father), as well as

our own Truth as spirit versus body:

 

 

"God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in

truth."

 

(John 4: 24)

 

 

Apart from all Christ's teachings of practices and parables about non-judgment

(Mat Ch 7: 1-2; Luke 6: 37-42; John 8: 6-11), non-attachment (Mat 6: 40),

non-anxiety (Mat 6: 25-34; Luke 12: 22-32), perpetual forgiveness (Luke 17: 4;

Mat 19: 21-22; Mark 11:25), compassion (Mat 25: 34-40), humility (Mat 18: 4),

and so on, which all relate to a discarding of attention to the world ("Take no

thought for your life." Mat 6: 25), probably the most profoundly direct

instruction Christ gave concerning the teaching of is non-dual Truth is from

Luke 11:

 

 

"The light of the body is the eye: Therefore, when thine eye is single, your

whole body will be filled with light...." (verse 34)

 

>From the non-dual perspective, this is easily paraphrased as follows: The part

of you that sees (the seer, one's Self) is your true light. Therefore, if you

hold the seer (subject-"I") singly or exclusively (versus giving attention to

thoughts and images) you will have illumination - or what some call the

"enlightenment of the whole body". (This is similar to God’s First and Second

Commandments weren’t clear enough in terms of having no images before the "I

AM.")

 

And as to the Heart, which is the seat of the all-pervasive Self ("I AM"): "The

wise man's heart is at his right hand, but the fool's heart at his left."

Ecclesiastes 10: 2. And: "The pure in heart shall see God ("I AM")." Matt 3: 8.

 

Anyone in the east, coming to a similar conclusion about Christ, might call the

approach of Christ the path of "sudden realization", because his teachings are

often in the form of commandments or statements giving no ground (room to

maneuver). His approach permits no delays, no second chance, no outs, no remedy,

no alternatives to the tribulations of the world. His way to God (the "I AM" of

the Old Testament) is full of beatitudes and purity (Mat 5: 2-11), blessedness

and love (Mat 6: 38-48). But those that oppose the Spirit "will never be

forgiven" (Luke 12: 10, Mat 12: 32; Mark 3: 29) and "will be thrown into the

outer darkness, where there is great suffering and gnashing of teeth." (Mat 8:

12;14: 50; 22: 13; 24: 51)

 

The reading of the New Testament requires a constant coming to terms with

Christ's life: His all knowingness of each person close or far away, now and in

the future, how they will act, what will happen, when, and why; the constant

ceaseless flow of power, where miracles fall from him, undirected. In the

non-dualist texts, these are the powers described as God's, to be all knowing,

all powerful, and so forth. In Revelations, Ch I: 8, Christ tells John:

 

 

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the ending" sayeth the Lord,

"which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty."

 

 

But what was special about Christ was the sense of awe-inspiring fierceness, the

intensity of rock hard Reality that packed each moment, demanding ... commanding

perfection of everyone, now. For example:

 

 

"Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect."

 

 

"I give you a commandment: Love one another." John 15: 12, 17

 

 

"For I have not spoken of myself, but the Father which sent me, he gave me a

commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know his

commandment is life everlasting." John 12: 49

 

 

As Christ repeatedly stated "If any man have ears to hear, let him hear." Mark

Ch 4: 23, again Mark 7: 16, etc.. This "hearing" is central to the entire

non-dual teaching process, until the mind becomes still*, free of its focus on

identity with images and the Conscious principal, the subject "I", one's True

imageless and timeless Self flashes forth. *"Stillness of mind" means "Be still

and know that I am God (‘I AM’ Ex 3: 14)." (David, Ps).

 

 

Probably the best summation of the possibility, potential, or promise that

Christ represents to the Western world is in his following statement from John

16: 33.

 

 

"These things I have spoken to you that in me you might have peace. In the world

you shall have tribulations: But be of good cheer; I have overcome (conquered)

the world."

 

 

Actually, not to see Christ as the personification of the non-dual Truth is to

turn all He says into demagoguery, to make him into another "zealot" of the

time, the founder of a bizarre cult, of strange rituals based in fanatical

superstition and myth, a revamping of paganism in monistic form. It seems quite

obvious though that if we can "hear" Him, Christ, ever abiding in and as the

Father, may be one of the most profound Teachers of the non-dual nature of

Reality and proof of its philosophy in terms of realizing the Truth of our own

Reality as all pervasive Self!

 

 

Blessed am I

 

In freedom am I

 

I am the infinite

 

in my soul

 

I can find no beginning

 

no end

 

All is my Self

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Thank you so much for this post. It says all that I have thought and been

drawn to in Christianity despite its history and conventional

interpretations. Love, Kristi