The Tao of Christ

For many people the news is stressful. I read a TIME magazine article the other day entitled “Where to Seek Help if the Israel-Hamas War is Impacting Your Mental Health.” There are regular senseless mass shootings.  A big issue is political discord in American politics. Political opinions affect churches and divide churches. They divide families. It is only going to get worse in the coming year until the 2024 general election. Then we will see what happens between Election Day and inauguration day. How does nondual spirituality address this? How does Christian nonduality deal with this? In this episode I address the “us versus them” mentality of the world from a nondual perspective. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

In this episode I ponder the inability of me - or anyone for that matter - to communicate the nature and the experience of this unitive reality that Jesus called the Kingdom of God, and which most of us simply call God, the Divine, the One, or Reality.View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

When I look at Christianity I see lots of fear. It seems to have become a religion based on fear. Preachers tell us to be afraid, be very afraid. Fear God and fear punishment for sin and fear Judgment Day and most of all fear going to hell. Fire and brimstone preachers have learned that fear keeps people in the pews and in their particular form of Christianity. At least it used to. People are wising up to the scare tactics. They do not work the way they used to. But still many preachers try to keep people under control by making them afraid to step outside of the parameters of their particular type of Christianity. Remnants of this fear continue in people’s hearts and minds long after they have left fear-based religion behind. This is especially true if we were trained to fear when we were young. It is difficult to let it go. I run up against this all the time in people I talk to about Christian nonduality. People who have left fundamentalism are still afraid that they might be wrong, that they have fallen away from the true faith, that they have backslidden, that they have committed apostasy, that they are going to hell for leaving their church. They can feel the fires of hell licking at their heels long after they have left the idea of hell behind.  Christians are hesitant to think outside the box of Christianity. It feels dangerous to them. They are hesitant to read the scriptures of other faiths. They are hesitant to explore beyond the Bible. That voice in their head makes them afraid that if they start to question some doctrines of Christianity, then they are falling away from the faith, and Satan is deceiving them to believe in doctrines of demons. They are afraid that if they start to explore other philosophies, then they are starting on a slippery slope to hell. The worst part of this fear is that it robs us of the spiritual joy that is our birthright. In response to all that fear, I say, “Fear not.” That is the message of God in the Bible, and it can be our experience in the spiritual life. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

I have been receiving quite a few questions recently asking me how I would interpret certain passages in the Christian scriptures. People quote verses that seem to contradict what I am saying, and they want me to explain them. For example I recently said in an episode that heaven is not a place. It is the spiritual reality not in the hereafter but here and now. Someone asked me how I would explain Jesus saying, “My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.  You know the way to the place where I am going.”Jesus uses the word “place” three times in three verses, and that seems to contradict my assertion that heaven is not a place. This is just one example. I have received several other comments that quote a verse and say, “What about this verse?” So I thought I would do an episode on how to interpret scripture from a nondual perspective. You could call this a nondual hermeneutic.View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

I read Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha back in the 60’s when I was in college. It was a rite of passage back then. But I did not really know experientially what it was all about until I was in my sixties. Later in this episode I am going to take a look the closing vision in Hermann Hesse’s book Siddhartha and show how it informs Christian nonduality, and in particular how it informs the nondual understanding of what happens after the death of the body. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

During the summer when the weather is good, we attend an outdoor worship service held by a Congregational church in a neighboring town. In her sermon last Sunday the pastor talked about her ordination exam five years ago. In preparation for the ordination council she invited some clergy friends to send her the most challenging questions that might be asked during the oral examination. One asked, “Is Gandhi in heaven?” He followed up with the question, “Is Hitler in Heaven?” Finally he asked a third one: “How about child abusers? How about a person who abused your child?” The questions were designed to test the limits of salvation, grace and justice. The scripture text for her message was John 3:17 “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” The pastor did a very good job addressing the questions, coming down strongly on the grace of God and coming close to universalism. Throughout the sermon I kept thinking about how I would preach that sermon and approach those questions. This episode is how I would answer those questions.View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

This episode explores the idea that Jesus was not a Christian and why that matters today. It discusses the central teachings of Jesus, Buddha, and Muhammad, highlighting their differences. It also examines different interpretations of Christianity and the role of doctrine. The episode challenges traditional beliefs and explores the message of Jesus as one that transcends doctrines and church hierarchy.

This episode explores the final section of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus ends his longest and most famous teaching by warning us to be careful of those who would misinterpret his teachings to promote their own agenda. In other words he advises us to use discernment when it comes to spiritual teachers.  View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

In the last part of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus focuses on how to enter the Kingdom of God. From a Buddhist perspective this question would be expressed as how to enter Nirvana or how to be enlightened. The Hindu might ask how to be liberated. Different spiritual traditions have different terms for this, but it is the same spiritual reality. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

The section of the Sermon on the Mount that I am looking at today has to be one of the best, as well as the most neglected and misused portions of the teachings of Jesus. It is about not judging. “Judge not, that you be not judged.” I will show how it has its roots in Jesus’ teaching of nonduality.  View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU