|
Jesus Was a Heretic
Jesus was a rebel, a daring unique person, a pioneer,
an innovator, and in many ways a heretic in the eyes of the authorities and his peers. He broke all of the molds and expectations
about what a hero should be.
Some of my brothers are afraid that Spiritual Psychotherapy
is not the Good News of Jesus Christ, but some heretical anomalie. There isn’t but one timeless Good News that stretches
from beyond time through creation into the Eternal Now. This Good News has left its timelss imprint stamped into everyone,
everything, everywhere. The Christ is the hidden factor in everyone’s psyche. The Christ is what everyone is unconsciously
seeking outwardly in each moment of each day. The failure to see and acknowledge the Hidden Christ is the direct cause of
all of our suffering and symptoms, as a race and as individuals. Jesus is your best friend although he may appear to be the
worst enemy to your identity story. The only way to deny this friendship is to continue to cling to your fear-driven story
in such a way that you overlook and reject your True Self. Christ is your true self pattern. Jesus reveals that fact clearly
to all who have suffered enough to let go of their false identity story. The Good News awareness awaits you, but it is not
your usual social/psychological identity story.
The Good News is that your story is your frustrated symptomatic
search for the Hidden Self within. Jesus is the outer historical person who announces the Good News by asking you to open
your mind to the meaning of your symptoms and to your true inner self, just as he did. The ego wants to kill the messenger,
which he allowed. He became the victim that victimization may end and Self-Realization may dawn upon us. Some of my brothers
insist that only Jesus was both divine and human. In Thirty Pieces of Silver, I investigated this question in depth
and concluded that it was his mission to reveal human divinity to everyone. I make no claim to have exhausted this subject
which Berdyaev called the Christology of Man. I am sure that this issue will be explored and debated for the rest of this
century as the chief issue for mankind in general and for Spiritual Psychotherapy in particular. My contention is that the
discovery of the true meaning of the Christ in each person is the central issue in symptomatology and in Spiritual Psychotherapy.
I look at my suffering client and say to myself "You, too, are the Christ, the son of the living God!"
Jesus, why do you come to disturb us?
The Grand Inquisitor
Jesus said "I am the light that shines over everything.
I am the All. From me the All came forth, and to me the All has returned. Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Pick up a
stone, and you will find me there." Gospel of St. Thomas
But for some deep reason, hidden in the secret
of times and seasons, Christianity never revealed in its fullest what one might venture to call a Christology of man, that
is the secret of man’s divine nature, a dogma of man, analogous to the dogma of Christ. Christianity has revealed the
nature of the Holy Trinity, and the nature of Christ, but very little of the nature of man.
Berdyaev
In Christian revelation the truth about man’s
divine nature is really only the reverse of the coin about Christ’s human nature. The Christology of man is inseparable
from that of the Son of God. Christ’s self-consciousness is inseparable from that of man. The Christological revelation
is also an anthropological revelation
Nicholas Berdyaev
Man has terribly distorted the image of God,
and has attributed to Him his own perverse and sinful psychology
Nicholas Berdyaev
If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything
would appear to man as it is, infinite.
William Blake
Each successive epoch of theology found its own
thoughts in Jesus…But it was not only each epoch that found its reflection in Jesus; each individual created Him in
accordance with his own character.
Albert Schweitzer
More has been written about Jesus in the last twenty
years than in the previous two thousand.
David Tracy
He is everywhere. He is the entire universe. The
eternal body of man is the imagination, that is, God himself, the divine body, Jesus: we are his members.
William Blake
Through Him and Him only, you accomplish everything.
Abandon the pride of doership. Don’t carry that weight on your head.
Muktananda
Do not be turned off by the word Christ. It is
pre-Christian and came from Plato’s Christos, meaning the True Self of Everyone.
John Randolph Price
The authentic, historical Jesus never claimed divinity
or unique status; on the contrary, it is clear that he wanted to empower all human beings, whatever their sex, race, or social
status, with what he knew to be their essential divine identity so that, liberated from all the structures, shibboleths, and
fantasies of the past, they could together create a new world, the world of the Kingdom. No other spiritual teacher had so
comprehensive and radical a vision of the limitations of all forms of religious and political power; it is this vision that
Jesus dedicated his life to promulgating, and it is for this vision, which threatened (and threatens) all elites, dogmas,
and hierarchies of any kind, that he was killed.
Andrew Harvey
The sight of Christ is all there is to see.
The song of Christ is all there is to hear. The hand of Christ is all there is to hold. There is no journey but to walk with
Him.
A Course in Miracles
It is up to each one of us to take up the terrifying and glorious
challenge of Jesus to ‘Christ’ ourselves so as to be part of this great birth; it is the responsibility of each
one of us to imagine, risk, and give everything to participate as fully and fecundly as possible in the evolutionary leap
that this birth makes possible.
Andrew Harvey
There is nothing more necessary, or more potentially
transformative, than to serve the Christ that is everywhere and in every being, struggling against terrible odds to be born
at last.
Matthew Fox
What do you say of the I AM within you? Who do
you believe yourself to be? Can you answer "I am Christ’?
Neville
The disciple is not above his master…and
will have to take on the burden of realizing the truth of his divine identity, a far harder task than merely ‘adoring’
the master or following superficially some of his injunctions…he wanted to inspire everyone to become like him, their
complete human divine self, and live consciously and actively in the holy fire and charity of the Kingdom
Andrew Harvey
Jesus sang
I am a lamp to you who see me
I am a mirror to you who know me
I am a door to you who knock on me
I am a Way to you who travel with me. Amen.
Acts of John
Jesus was the most dangerous kind of rebel—a
rebel who had seen the Kingdom and knew it was the only reality. He was the most dangerous kind of rebel because he could
not be swerved from his purpose by anything, and he could not be bought by any lure, not even that of being a ‘master’
or a ‘god’; his integrity was terrible and final. Jesus was the most dangerous kind of rebel, too, because the
vision that guided and inspired him through everything flamed from a direct mystical knowledge of God and would give him the
courage to die, if necessary…
Until we have begun to live directly and taste
and inwardly experience our divine identity, the resurrected Cosmic Christ cannot be known; only by daring to try and ‘Christ’
ourselves can the Universal Christ be discovered inside and around us.
To follow the new vision of Christ…means
to abandon all safeties and securities except those rooted in God, to subject not merely the self but also the world to ruthless
analysis, to become clear about the deforming and betraying nature of power in all its forms, and to dedicate one’s
life to standing for justice and compassion in an uncompassionate and unjust world.
Andrew Harvey
What Is Divinity? Socrates almost had his finger
on it when he posed the question, "Can man be made self-determined and responsible for his own actions?"… Cause is not
bound by any pre-determination or logic…Cause is totally free. And that would be divinity indeed. God is divine, and
so is man. Man manifests that divinity to the degree that he exhibits self-determinism with full responsibility.
Vinaire
It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods
and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting
person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship,
C.S.Lewis
What has been passing for Christianity during these
last nineteen centuries is merely a beginning, full of weakness and mistakes and not a full-grown Christianity springing from
the spirit of Jesus.
Albert Schweitzer
But the question (who am I?) Jesus asked on the road
to Caesarea Philippi has proved durable. Over the centuries
various answers have provoked a considerable amount of violence;
people have lost their lives. In modern times the answers
have provoked a considerable amount of scholarly debate;
people have lost their jobs.
Cullen Bryant
The reason the doctrine of the Trinity was formulated was to
guarantee the total divinization of every single human being. If Jesus is not the Second Person of the Trinity, then you and
I are not sharers in the divine nature.
Thomas Matus
For the One who has become many remains the One
undivided, but each part is all of Christ
Joseph Campbell
There is an important difference between Jesus,
the historical figure from Nazareth, and the archetypal Christ, the Redeemer. This distinction between the historical and
the symbolical is essential if the Christian symbols are to retain their power to touch the inner depths of the modern person.
As we know, Jung’s diagnosis of modern men and women was a spiritual malnutrition bought on by a starvation of symbols.
He called for a recovery of the symbolic life which had been abandoned to a one-sided literal, rational approach to religious
matters.
The Jewish rabbi and reformer, Jesus, lived a personal,
concrete, historical life. However, it was the archetypal image of a Redeemer slumbering, so to speak, in the collective unconscious,
which became attached to that unique life. This powerful collective image made itself visible, so to speak, in the man Jesus,
so that seeing him people glimpsed the greater personality which seeks conscious realization in each person. Jung notes that
it was not the man Jesus who created the myth of the "god-man." Other Redeemer myths existed many centuries before his birth.
Jesus himself was seized by this symbolic idea, which, as St. Mark tells us, lifted him out of the narrow life of the Nazarene
carpenter. (See Jung, Man And His Symbols, p.89)
Briefly stated, at an early stage Jesus became
the collective figure whom the unconscious of his contemporaries expected to appear and Jesus took on those projections. In
this way, Jesus’ life exemplifies the archetype of the Christ, or in Jung’s psychological language, the Self,
which is a more inclusive word for the inner image of god, the imago Dei, which resides in every person
Jerry Wright
The experience of the Self is always a defeat
for the ego
Carl Jung
A Course in Miracles is a course in how to know
yourself.
A Course in Miracles
I enclose here an exercpt from Thirty Pieces of Silver, in
which I summarize the teachings of A Course in Miracles about the relationship of Jesus, the Christ, and us:
What does A Course in Miracles Teach About the Relationship
of Jesus to the Christ?
First of all, A Course in Miracles was authored by Jesus
himself over a period of seven years from 1969 to 1976. It is my understanding that Jesus "dictated" this information to Helen
Schucman, a Jewish clinical psychologist in New York, because she was "willing to do the work."
In this material Jesus states his purpose in giving us the Course
was to finish and correct his previous teaching, in order to help us to undo the ego system.
A Course in Miracles is a course in how to know
yourself. A Course in Miracles
Jesus goes on to say that A Course in Miracles
will teach you how to remember what you are, restoring to you your identity, but that it requires you to question every
value that you hold. By not learning this course,, you are protecting your present concept of yourself. This course is a course
on love, because it is a course about you. He says that you do not need to be afraid of the Course because it teaches
that only reality is true.
Jesus says that his name, the name of Jesus, is the name of
one who was a man but saw the face of Christ in all his brothers and remembered God. He says that he became identified with
Christ, a man no longer, but at one with God. The man, Jesus, was an illusion, for he seemed to be a separate being, walking
by himself, within a body that appeared to separate his self from the Self, as all illusions do. Yet how can anyone be a part
of the plan of salvation unless he sees illusions and then identifies them as what they are? Jesus said that he remains a
Savior because he saw the false without accepting it as true. And Christ needed the form of Jesus so that He might appear
to men and save them from their own illusions.
In his complete identification with the Christ—the perfect
Son of God, His one creation and His happiness, forever like Himself and one with Him—Jesus said that he became what
all of you must be….He made a distinction, still obscure to you, between the false and true. He offered you a final
demonstration that it is impossible to kill God’s Son; nor can his life in any way be changed by sin and evil, malice,
fear or death.
He asks: Is Jesus the Christ? He answers himself: Oh yes, along
with you. My little life on earth was not enough to teach the mighty lesson that I learned for all of you. I will remain with
you to lead you from the hell you made to God. And when you join your will with mine, your sight will be my vision, for the
eyes of Christ are shared. Again, Jesus asks us: Is Jesus God’s only Helper? Then he answers again: No, indeed, for
Christ takes many forms with different names until their oneness can be recognized. But I, Jesus, am for you the bearer of
Christ’s single message of the Love of God. You need no other. Jesus says in the Course that he is the manifestation
of the Holy Spirit. He explains that the Holy Spirit established him (Jesus) as the leader in carrying out His plan since
I was the first to complete my own part perfectly. The Holy Spirit is retaining communication between God and His separated
Sons. He never forgets the Creator or His Creation. He never forgets the Son of God. He never forgets you. And He brings the
love of your Father to you in an eternal shining that will never be obliterated because God has put it there.. The Holy Spirit
abides in the part of your mind that is part of the Christ Mind. He represents your Self and your Creator, who are One. He
constantly speaks to you for God and also for you to God, being joined with both.
Speaking of the crucifixion, Jesus explains that you have nailed
yourself to a cross, and placed a crown of thorns upon your own head. Yet you cannot crucify God’s Son, for the will
of God cannot die. While you perceive the Son of God as crucified, you are asleep. If I live in you, you are awake. God’s
son is saved. Bring only this awareness to the Sonship, and you will have a part in the redemption as valuable as mine.
Jesus challenges us to behold our Friend, the Christ, who stands
beside you. (Jesus means that "your Friend, the Christ" is any and every person you meet). How holy and beautiful He is! You
thought he sinned because you cast the veil of sin upon Him to hide His loveliness. Yet He still holds forgiveness out to
you, to share His holiness. This "enemy", this "stranger" still offers you salvation as His Friend.
He defines Christ as God’s Son as God created him. Christ
is the Self we share, uniting us with one another, and with God as well. Christ is the link that keeps you one with God, and
guarantees that separation is no more than an illusion of despair, for hope forever will abide in Him. Together you are the
home of the Holy Spirit, and you cannot be at home except in God alone, for there does Christ remain at peace within the heaven
of your holy mind. This is the only part of you that has reality in truth. The rest is dreams.
Jesus confesses: I have no self except the Christ in me. I have
no purpose but His Own. And He is like His Father. Thus must I be one with You as well as Him. For who is Christ except God’s
Son as God created Him? And what am I except the Christ in me?
And then Jesus says to the Father about each and every person
: "Your Son is welcome, Father. He has come to save me from the evil self I made. He is the Self you have given me. He is
but what I am in truth. He is the Son You love above all things. He is but what I really am in truth. He is my Self as You
created me."
Jesus explains his ego psychology: "You are not two selves in
conflict….Sooner or later must everyone bridge the gap he imagines exists between his selves. God has given you everything.
This one fact means the ego does not exist, and this makes it profoundly afraid….The Holy Spirit knows that you both
have and are everything. Fear is a stranger to the ways of love. Identify with fear and you will be a stranger to yourself…What
is your Self remains an alien to the part of you which thinks that it is real, but different from yourself.
What the Christ mind is revealing to us through Jesus in A
Course In Miracles is that we only appear to have two selves in conflict. The ego self is an illusion driven by fear which
we assume to be ourselves, and the Christ Self is the truth, inspired by love which we assume to be a stranger. When you get
in touch with love, you are in touch with the Self. The Self which you are is and has everything. The Holy Spirit connects
this Self to God and to the Sonship. If you see the Christ in your neighbor, you have awakened and re-joined this oneness
with God.
Thus there appear to be two selves: the ego and the Self.. The
ego is illusory and fear-driven; the Self is real and love-filled. Through the ego you see yourself as tiny, vulnerable and
afraid. But there is another vision, another voice and another self in you, a self which recognizes miracles, a self in which
true reason exists. Miracles and true reason exist only in the Self, and not in the illusory fearful ego.
Jesus explains so carefully in the Course that the power
to heal the Son of God is given you because he must be one with you. He even goes so far as to say that you are responsible
for how each person sees himself. You are your brother’s savior. He is yours. That you are joined is your salvation;
you are joined in the gift of heaven, not in the divisiveness of fear. Your Father is as close to you as your brother. . Jesus
wants us to understand that this power you have over the Son of God is not a threat to his reality.
Jesus clarifies that the separation of you and your ego must
be made complete, that you must choose between yourself and an illusion of yourself. This means that we must forsake not your
brother, for you who are the same will not decide alone nor differently. Either you will give each other life or death; either
you are each other’s savior or each other’s judge; you offer each other sanctuary or condemnation. A savior cannot
be a judge. And vision cannot damn, but only bless. The ego damns, and true reason saves. . The ego or the body’s eyes
are unable to go beyond the form to meaning. All you have to say is "God is not fear but love" in any situation and you correct
the original error of the ego.
|
