The Tao of Christ

This episode is an interview that I did with Colin Chapman for his podcast called Red Church Door. The interview was recorded on May 10, 2021 and was scheduled to be broadcast about three weeks later. Colin is an Episcopal priest who is the rector of a church in Southern New Hampshire. On his website he says that his podcast “is first and foremost an open invitation to partake in a journey of spiritual discovery. It’s an exploration about how people understand, evolve, and deepen their relationship with God, how their stories relate to our own experiences, and how we can inform and nurture the spiritual growth of ourselves, our faith communities, and our society.”He came across my podcast “The Tao of Christ” while doing a google search for Christianity and nondualism. He emailed me and asked to interview me for his podcast. In this interview we talk about my spiritual background and how my interest in the Tao Te Ching began. We also discuss the definition of nonduality and how it fits with Christianity.Here is a link to Colin’s podcast website: https://redchurchdoor.org/ View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

I was reminded by a listener recently that Thich Nhat Hanh called Jesus the Buddha of the West. Buddha famously preached his first sermon in Deer Park which included his Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. Jesus has an equally famous first teaching that is called the Sermon on the Mount. It begins with the Beatitudes, which are eight blessings, followed by what appears to be a ninth but is a really a continuation of the eighth. Jesus had an eight-fold path. Like the Buddha’s, the Christ’s eightfold path is an expression of what is often called nonduality today. Jesus called it the Kingdom of God. Like the Buddha’s the Christ’s eightfold path is about suffering, but Jesus comes at it a bit differently.  The Buddha’s approach is very logical. He sets forth a step-by-step analysis of the problem of suffering and presents a solution. Jesus just pronounces blessings -  eight blessings. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

In this episode I explore the Biblical understanding of humans as composed of three parts: body, soul and spirit. I explain the function of each part and show how the three faculties of the spirit (intuition, conscience and communion) can lead to unitive awareness. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

In this episode I describe unitive awareness by using analogies from everyday experience and awareness. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

I have been asked if I preach about Christian Nonduality from the pulpit in church as part of a traditional worship service. The short answer is “yes” but it is somewhat different than I speak on my podcast and videos. I expound a scripture passage, as is typical in a sermon. This episode today is an example. It is a sermon that I recorded at the end of March 2021 in NH and was shown during live in person worship at a church in NH on April 11, 2021. In this message I relate unitive awareness to the earliest and only first person account of the resurrection of Jesus in the Bible, as told by the apostle Paul. It is entitled “The First Easter.”View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

In this episode I am going to talk about unitive awareness in the sense of seeing that we are all and in all. When the separate self is seen as illusory, when the ego pops like a soap bubble and the flimsy boundary between us and the world falls away, then we see our true nature is all and in all.There is one World Soul – or better yet World Spirit – who is the spirit in every human being. People think they are separate selves, separate beings but we aren’t. We are one Self, one Being incarnated in 8 billion separate bodies who are alive today. The reason for the anxiety, fear, angst and suffering that so many people have is because we think we are separate and different. We think that when these individual bodies die then we die. But we don’t.  Only one small expression of us dies. We are Life Itself.That is the truth behind the Scripture verses that talk about God being “all and in all.” The Letter to the Ephesians says, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” There is another passage from the Letter to the Colossians, written by the same hand at about the same time. It lists all different types of people “Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free” and then declares “but Christ is all and in all!”View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

The initial awakening to the Kingdom of God – also called Unitive Awareness or Nondual Reality - can happen suddenly, but it can take years to reveal all its dimensions. It feels like layers of a veil are being gradually taken away. It is like a flower bud gradually opening up to the sun. It is like eyes are slowly adjusting to the light, after coming out of a dark room. It is an ongoing process of waking up to the new reality and integrating it into human life. We wake up from more and more of the illusions that have occupied the mind. In recent months this change has happened in the area of politics.In this episode I explore how we can see the drama of human history as a dream, yet it is also be involved in a relative sense. We can engage with life on the social and political level while knowing it as ultimately unreal. We do not get lost in a political ideology or a political party. Nor do we partake of the suffering that comes from that. But we live in compassion and decide by spiritual sight.  View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

Recently I have received emails from people asking me about hell. So I thought I would speak about it in an episode. Hell is a problem for Christians. It scares Christians, and it scares other people away from Christianity. It gives former Christians nightmares long after they have left fundamentalism behind. There is a part of them that continues to think: what if they are right? What if I go hell because I no longer belong to that church or do what they say and believe what they believe? The fear of eternal damnation can haunt people for years after they have left hellfire-preaching behind.Hell is a problem for those of us who claim Jesus to be our spiritual teacher. When we read the gospels Jesus seems to teach hell. In fact Jesus talks about hell more than anyone else in the Bible. As a lifelong student of the Bible I have to honestly admit that the historical Jesus spoke about hell. Some people try to exonerate Jesus and say that all the references to hell were added later by editors, and that Jesus really didn’t say that. I don’t think so. There are too many references to hell to explain them all away as something later Christians put into Jesus’ mouth. So how do I reconcile Jesus’ words about hell with Jesus as a teacher of nonduality – that all is one with the Divine? How do I reconcile hell with the reality that everyone is one with God now and forever? View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

Last week I had three Zoom meetings during which I spoke about Christian nonduality. Two were with individuals and one with a church group. As I was speaking one insight kept appearing. It was that all of us on these Zoom meetings were one. It was seen clearly that the one speaking and the ones hearing are the same one. As I spoke the feeling that accompanied this insight was palpable. We were one. There is only one.In this episode I explore this nondual reality by looking at the Hebrew name for God Elohim, which is an expression of nonduality. It is both plural and singular, one and many. I explore the Creation stories of Genesis and see how these also are expressions of nondual awareness, which is our True Nature. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

This episode is a Zoom Talk that I had with a men's group at Asbury First United Methodist Church in Rochester, NY, on March 10, 2021. It was joined by some members of the church who had been studying Cynthia Bourgeault's book The Wisdom Jesus. I was asked to speak on the topic of Christian Nonduality followed by a time of discussion. I speak quite a bit about the events in my life that led up to nondual awareness. Permission was given by the men's group leader and participants to post this online. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU