The Tao of Christ

Easter is a proclamation of Christian nonduality. This is seen in two of the most famous Easter stories, which are found in the 20th chapter of the Gospel of John. One is the familiar story of Mary Magdalene coming to the tomb of Jesus on Easter morning. The other is the equally famous story of Doubting Thomas. John’s presentation of the giving of the Holy Spirit – John’s Pentecost – is also examined as part of the Easter Sunday. It is placed on Easter to communicate the truth that the risen Christ shares his spirit, his essential nature with us. This empowerment is called Holy Spirit. It can also be called Self-Realization or Christ Consciousness. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

The symbol of the Christianity is the cross. It is also a powerful symbol of nonduality. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

The arrest and trial of Jesus in the Gospel of John is interpreted as the proclamation of the nondual identity of Jesus and his message. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

In the 17th chapter of the Gospel of John we have one of the best descriptions of nonduality in the Bible. It comes in a prayer Jesus offered on the night he was arrested. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

This episode is an interview that former evangelical pastor and current church planter Luke Bricker did with me for his podcast entitled The Spiritual Nomad. His podcast can be found at TheSpiritualNomad.org. I share quite a bit of autobiographical information in this interview, including accounts of three times in forty years that nondual awareness enveloped me. These were primarily a loss of a sense of individual existence, but also oneness with all that is. The third time in 2012 was an abiding Presence that has not left, but has deepened and unfolded in the last eight years. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

The further we get into the Gospel of John, the closer we come to the core of the John’s gospel of nonduality. The structure of the gospel up to this point has been seven I AM sayings of Jesus, accompanied by seven teachings that Jesus gave. In the 15th chapter we have the last of these sayings. He says here, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.” Then a couple of verses later he says, “I am the vine, you are the branches.” In fleshing out this metaphor Jesus talks a lot about “abiding.” Some translations use the word remain or dwell, but I like the word “abide” because it means to make one’s home in, as in the word abode. It means to live in. Jesus says, “Abide in Me, and I in you.” This is my awareness of Christ. I abide I Christ and Christ in me. There is an oft- repeated evangelical mantra: “It is not about religion. It is about relationship – a relationship with Jesus Christ.” When I hear that I respond, “It is not about religion or relationship. It is about reality.” There is more to spirituality than relationship with God understood as a divine person. There is the Reality of the universe that is nondual. It is not about religion or relationship; it is about identity – identity with God where there is no longer two. As Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.” This is a quantum leap beyond relational Christianity. I know because I have experienced both. What I am talking about here is union with God or “abiding in Christ.”A dualistic relationship with Christ is nothing compared to being one with Jesus Christ. In Christ we are one with God and with all of creation. In this union there is no distinction between us and not us. In unitive awareness the individual self that appears to be in relationship with God ceases to exist. The self dissolves. It is seen through as a psychological fiction, which means that its relationships are fiction.Instead there is only one, which can be called Reality but there is really no good name for this. I use the word God, but it is not the theistic concept of God. Meister Eckhart calls this the God beyond God or the Godhead. It includes the personal God, but is beyond God to the same degree that an idol made of stone is beyond the theistic God. Paul Tillich calls this Being Itself or the Ground of Being. This is what we really yearn for when we desire a closer relationship with God. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

In this episode I deal with one of the biggest issues that Christians face when it comes to other faith traditions in the world. Especially when they start to get to know people of other faiths and read their scriptures and other writings of non-Christian religions with an open mind. The question is this: Is Jesus Christ the only way to salvation? Framed another way, “Do you have to believe in Jesus to be saved?” The traditional Christian answer is “Yes.” I say, “Not so fast. Let’s look at what Jesus really says.”View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

Silent Night is one of the most beloved carols of the Christmas season. Silent night, holy night All is calm, all is bright Round yon virgin Mother and Child Holy infant so tender and mild Sleep in heavenly peace Sleep in heavenly peaceIt seems to epitomize the essence of Christmas. This hymn conveys the silence, beauty and peace at the heart of Christmas. Christmas celebrates our intuitive awareness of our innate union with God, which I call unitive awareness or nondual awareness. This is represented in the Christ child. The harsh patriarchal judge that is the usual symbol for God gives way to God as an infant, so fender and mild. The Tao te Ching uses this image for the Tao, comparing the Tao to a newborn child. God as an infant holy, infant lowly as another Christmas carol says. In the Silent Night, holy night of Christmas, we know that we are one with God in heavenly peace. For a moment we remember that this is our natural state, the Reality that we were born into and born from. This is true of every one of us, not just the Babe of Bethlehem.View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

In this episode I explore the symbolic proclamation of nonduality presented in the powerful story of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples at the Last Supper, found in the thirteenth chapter of the Gospel of John. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

In this episode I share the many spiritual influences on my life – Christian and non-Christian - and why I see Jesus as my spiritual teacher. All true spiritual teachers throughout the ages in all the different spiritual traditions are in essence the same Spiritual Teacher. Jesus calls this inner Teacher “the Father.” I call this inner Teacher Christ. I explore how Jesus’s death was intentional, so as to expand his ministry and message beyond the lifespan of a first century carpenter.  The meaning of the Resurrection is that the True Teacher does not die, even though his body dies. I also talk about the importance of having a human spiritual teacher to guide us to the One Inner Teacher.  View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU