The Tao of Christ

One of the most famous stories that Jesus told was the parable of the prodigal son. It is also the most misinterpreted. In this episode today I show how through this story Jesus was talking about what he called the kingdom of God, and which I call unitive awareness or Christian nonduality. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

Jesus was a teacher of the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven.  I call it the Presence of God, Unitive Awareness or Christian nonduality. The primary way he communicated this reality was in stories called parables. In this episode I am look at two of his stories commonly known as the parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin. They are about people who lost something, searched for it, and found it. From most pulpits these are interpreted in a simplistic manner – that they are about us being lost and consequently saved by God. That is a misinterpretation of the story, which began very early in the history of the church. As Jesus intended them these stories are about men and women looking for the Kingdom of God, Enlightenment, or Nondual Awareness. This is what Jesus calls the secret of the Kingdom.  View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

The greatest obstacle to experiencing God is the idea of God. There is a difference between God and an idea about God. That ought to be obvious, but we rarely pay attention to the difference. Consequently many Christians mistake the theological idea in their heads for God. That idea in your head is not God. It is just an idea, just a word with some feelings connected to it.In this episode I go beyond “God talk” and point the listener to a direct experience of “God beyond God.” A lot of times nonduality talks about self-inquiry. I am coming at this from the other direction, which is usually easier for those of us coming from a Christian heritage. This is God inquiry. Be aware of God and we become aware of our true self, made in the image of God. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

Did Jesus preach salvation or spiritual awakening? Was his message about how to be forgiven by a Divine Judge for one’s sins through a human sacrifice offered to a holy God? Or did he speak of awakening to the awareness of the Kingdom of God which is present here now? What is it that we need? Redemption or Enlightenment? Or both, or some combination of them? In this episode I compare these two understandings at the core of these two approaches to the spiritual life.  View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

Jesus of Nazareth was enlightened, in the same sense that the word is used in spiritual circles today. Jesus was awake to the truth of his own nature and the nature of the universe, and he lived out of that awareness. His awakening experience is told in all three canonical gospels in the story known as his baptism. It is much more than the story of Jesus going through a religious rite. It describes his spiritual awakening in symbolic language, analogous to Siddhartha Gautama’s (the Buddha’s) awakening under the Bodhi Tree. In this episode I explore the biblical story, draw parallels to nondual awareness and explore the implications for Christians today. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

One of the most difficult things for a Christian to overcome when experiencing and communicating the reality of nondual awareness is the vocabulary. It is a stumbling block to use the biblical term. Christians are used to the religious vocabulary of the gospels and the apostle Paul and the other biblical writers. But Nonduality is usually expressed in words and concepts drawn from Eastern religious traditions – from Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism and similar faiths. When Christians first get a glimpse of the One Reality that is our True Nature, we don’t know how to talk about it using the language of Christianity. Often when we try to express it, we are greeted with puzzled expressions or criticized by fellow Christians, especially in the more conservative churches. . Our Christian sisters and brothers think we have strayed from the faith and drifted into heresy and possibly even losing our salvation. For those reasons many Christians who have experienced this Reality of who and what we are often jettison their religious heritage. This is not necessary. Unitive Awareness is an integral part of historic Christianity. We can use traditional biblical and Christian terminology to express Unitive Awareness. It is not distorting biblical language or Christianity to do so. In this episode I look at several examples from the gospels but focus mostly on one of the teaching of the apostle Paul about the two selves. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

In this episode I explore the topics of reincarnation, resurrection and heaven from the perspective of unitive awareness. I thought about calling this “A Nondual Guide to the Afterlife.”  View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

There is a lot of fear in religion. There is unhealthy fear – like fear of hell and punishment. There is also healthy fear, which the proverb says, “is the beginning of wisdom.” This episode is the most personal of any I have made. I share autobiographical stories of three occasions in my life when fear gripped me. Eventually this was seen as fear of the death of the self. This revealed the reality of the no-self. This death of the self and birth of Spirit in awareness is the real meaning of Jesus’ words about being born again, born anew, born of the Spirit. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

The term Enlightenment, when used in a spiritual or religious context, normally refers to the awakening experience of the Buddha and other religious sages of India and the East. It is a common term in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Nondualism. But for most Christians, the word “enlightenment” feels foreign, having nothing to do with the Christian faith and Western religion. But actually both the word and the concept of enlightenment are found in Christianity and even in the Christian scriptures.In this teaching the term enlightenment is explored, using a verse from Ecclesiastes as a basis: “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” I look at the use of the term in the New Testament and the corresponding experience in Jesus and the earliest disciples. I also share my own experience of being aware of the eternity that is at the heart of every human being.View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

In my Pandemic Devotion for today I explore the resurrection of Christ. It is not intended to be a doctrine to be believed but an awareness to be realized. The resurrection appearances of Jesus to his apostles were actually awakening experiences, waking them up to Christ’s true nature and our true nature.View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU