The Tao of Christ

I am continuing my journey through the Sermon on the Mount, interpreting it from a nondual perspective. Today I look at one of the most beautiful passages in the Bible in my opinion, sometimes known as the “lilies of the field” passage. The topic of the section is worry or anxiety. I did an episode entitled “Beyond Anxiety and Fear” immediately before I started this series about the Sermon on the Mount. So I do not want to repeat myself. I will talk about worry, since that is the subject Jesus is addressing. But I am more interested in what Jesus points to in order to help us overcome worry and anxiety. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom of God, which is his term for the awareness of the Presence of the Divine. His message was the omnipresence of God, not as a doctrine to be believed but a reality to be experienced. That was the gospel of Jesus. But that is not the gospel that has been historically proclaimed by the Christian church. When one looks for evidence of this message throughout church history it is difficult to find. One only spots glimpses of it sticking up like flowers growing between the cracks in a sidewalk, but it is rare.Christianity could have been a movement that preached and lived the firsthand direct awareness of the presence of God. Instead it became a religion of doctrines, a legalistic and hierarchical institution that replaced experience with dogma and replaced direct awareness of God with faith in the authority of the Church. The gospel of the historical Jesus very quickly became a gospel about the Christ of faith, invented by men who did not know Jesus, did not hear him preach and did not experience or understand what Jesus was talking about. Christianity lost its way. How did this happen? View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

Today I will finish the section of the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus dedicates to nondual spiritual practices. Here he deals with fasting and possessions. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

Last time I started the section of the Sermon on the Mount that deals with Spiritual Practices, but I only got as far as almsgiving and prayer. I did not even get all the way through what Jesus says about prayer. I wanted to devote a whole episode to the Lord’s Prayer, because it holds such an important place in Christian tradition. So today I am giving a nondual interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer.View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

Today I continue the interpretation of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount from a nondual perspective. Last time it was the nondual ethics of Jesus. From there Jesus goes on to talk about spiritual practices. So I am calling this episode “the nondual spiritual practices of Jesus.”View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

In this episode I will show how nonduality underlies Jesus’ ethics. His ethical teachings in the Sermon on the Mount have a pattern. First Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said…” and then he quotes a passage from the Torah. Then he adds, “but I say to you.” Then he give his teaching. In other words he says, “The Bible says this, but I say this.” He was not negating what the Bible said. He was building upon it and completing it. He was fulfilling it. I am going to take each of these sayings in his section of the Sermon on the Mount and see how his teachings reflect a nondual ethic that goes beyond dualistic understandings of right and wrong, us and them. Living in nonduality is entirely different than living by moral rules and laws. When one is aware of the nondual Reality that unites everything, we live naturally out of this nondual nature rather than trying to figure out with our heads what we should do. Paul calls this walking in the Spirit as opposed to obeying the Law. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

In this episode I expound Jesus’ nondual approach to Scripture found in the Sermon on the Mount.View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

I finished the beatitudes of Jesus in the last episode. I may continue a nondual interpretation of the rest of the Sermon on the Mount in the future, but today I am going to take a break and address another issue, which is related. The issue is: Did Jesus really teach nonduality? I have been asked that on occasion.A few weeks ago I was on a Zoom call with a psychologist who is a listener. He asked about my nondual interpretation of Jesus’ apocalyptic teachings, and I started to expound them the way I normally do. He interrupted and said, “I understand that this is how you interpret it, but is that what Jesus really meant?” That was an important question, and it began a very interesting conversation about the historical Jesus.This was not the first time I have been asked something like that. I was interviewed on a podcast, and the interviewer asked me, “Do you REALLY think Jesus taught nonduality?” I could hear the incredulity in his voice. People have a difficult time believing that Jesus really taught nonduality. And it is right to be skeptical. So I want to address this today.View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

In this episode I am looking at the eighth and final beatitude in what I am calling the Eightfold Path of Jesus. It says, “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” It is immediately followed by what some consider a ninth beatitude, but is actually an expansion of the eighth because it deals with the same topic. Jesus simply shifts it from the third person to the second person. He says, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” This is Jesus’ way of making it clear that he is bringing this set of nondual beatitudes to a conclusion and applying them directly to the reader. The topic of this beatitude is persecution. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

Today I look at the seventh of the nondual beatitudes of Jesus. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.” Nondual awareness – unitive awareness – is characterized by peace. Inner peace that promotes outer peace. This is the peace that passes human understanding. It is the peace of God, the peace of Christ, the prince of peace. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU