‘I AM’ is ‘the Way and the Truth and the Life’

Jesus made the statement in John 14:6 ‘I am the way and the truth and the life.’

As Rupert Spira says here – and as I have said before here

Could it be that Jesus meant ‘I AM’ IS ‘the way and the truth and the life’?

In other words he did not mean the ‘person’ (body/mind) of Jesus. This is a misunderstanding. Jesus always gave glory to God, the Father. Jesus message was perhaps not really grasped by a humanity who seems to have remained primarily believing in the dualistic understanding. Jesus meant, perhaps, the indivisible, non dual ‘I AM’, the God Self, IS ‘the way and the truth and the life’. Only through this Universal Truth and spirit of God we find the True Way. He knew his own true nature and he knew he was not separated from God in essence and neither are we as spirit. In other words consciousness, the divine presence, the formless spirit of God that Jesus embodied and that is also our own True nature is Life, is Truth. Discovering this and being this is the only way to union with God and is the realisation of the light of Life!

This misunderstanding in my view is so misleading though because it appears to exclude all the rest of humanity who do not adhere to the Christian religion, from God’s family. Therefore if you do not ‘believe’ that Jesus is the only human being who is God then it seems to be understood that you are not included in the bliss, in heaven, in God’s loving embrace. Really? Can that be true? This belief that the person or the physical man of Jesus is the only way to God and therefore Christianity the only true religion is surely to deny the truth of God resonating in the heart of other sacred scriptures like the Vedas, or the Ashtavakra Gita of Ancient India, the Yoga Sutras or the Holy Qur’an. The Tao Te Ching or the Heart Sutra from the Buddhist scripture, to name just a few deeply sacred books.

Yet – if we really take the time to look – we find resonance in all these scriptures with the universal truth of Christ. We find inspiration, wisdom, love, freedom and peace. We find this light of awareness. This formless indivisible unity. The Christ light. The Buddha nature. The Dao.

Let me illustrate this (All these teachings you can find in The Perennial Way – Expanded Version Bart Marshall)….

Ashtavakra Gita: ‘Abide in Awareness with no illusion of person. You will be instantly free and at peace’ 1.4

Holy Qur’an: “And hold fast all together by the rope which Allah (stretches out for you) and be not divided among yourselves, and remember with gratitude Allah’s favor on you; for ye were enemies and He joined your hearts in love so that by His grace ye became brethren; and ye were on the brink of the pit of fire and He saved you from it. ” (Quran, 3:103)

Tao Te Ching: ‘That which can be perceived is not the timeless That. That which can be named is not the nameless One.’

‘The source of heaven and earth is without form or substance. Naming creates the ten thousand things.’

‘When desire is absent, Mystery is obvious. When desire occurs, Creation unfolds.’

‘Mystery and Creation arise from the same source. The source is emptiness. Void within Void. The realm of Tao.’

Heart Sutra (Buddhist) ‘The Bodhisattva abides in the Absolute, unfettered by mind. No mind, no fear. The imagined world is seen through. Nirvana.’ ‘All Buddhas, past, present, and future, teach one Way.’

Yoga Sutras – Patanjali (written around the time of Jesus give or take 200 years)

‘Unity obtains when the activities of mind have ceased. The witness then abides in its true nature. Otherwise, the witness is identified with the activities of mind and is just another thought-form itself.’

‘in the presence of one that is grounded in non-violence, enmity is not possible. When one is obedient to Truth, what he says and does becomes what is true.’ (2.35-36)

“The other way to attain the natural state is through surrender to God. God is the Supreme Being, formless, unbounded, limitless, untouched by action of desire’ ‘(1.23-24)

‘When the mind us as clear and empty as Self, liberation occurs and Unity obtains’ (3.56)

Book of Yeshua (Jesus): ‘He who is undivided is filled with light. He who is divided is filled with darkness. When you come to know yourself, you will become what is known, and you will realise that you are the son of the living Father.’ (42.109-110)

My teaching is not mine, but of the One who sends me’ ‘There is a light within a man of light, and he lights up the world. If he does not shine, he is in darkness. It is in Light that light exists.’ (42.20)

‘Which falls away, flesh or spirit? Flesh falls away. That which you have within you will save you if you bring it forth from yourself’ (42.13- 14)

So back to this statement from John 14:6 ‘I am the way and the truth and the life.’

This statement, interpreted from a dualistic perspective seems to go unquestioned. However the pattern of the Cosmic Christ is death and resurrection and it seems the Christian religion is undergoing its own death and resurrection. There are many progressive Christian groups and liberal Christians it seems who genuinely are interested in exploring what this Christ really is beyond the well worn (and sacred) paths of the traditional religious doctrinal understanding. There do seem to be increasing numbers who deeply love the living light of Christ and are perhaps not so comfortable with some of the traditional interpretations of the story of Jesus or perhaps feel called to a deeper experiential union with the Universal Christ consciousness, in the heart. To also genuinely explore into who we are in relation to His light. True Self enquiry.

In a sense we could say immature religion sees things through the eyes of duality and separation (eg good and evil, ‘me’ and God) but as our sight matures and the veils of delusion are removed by grace and the presence of God within us, our hearts are deeply transformed and the words of scripture ‘combust into spirit’ (Mooji). Then the sayings of Jesus that we become ‘filled with light’ really come true as we are set on fire! ‘The fire of True Self Discovery’. Mooji speaks about this fire here.

May the light of truth burn what is false Lord, destroy all hidden arrogance and pride in it’s wake and leave only no- thing. Zero. Truth, peace, silence and the vastness and infinity of the presence of God. Amen

The Second Coming

Could it be that this message of Death to Self (ie the end of ego’s rule) and the discovery of Universal Truth, and the power of Self Realisation IS the actual ‘Second Coming’ of Christ that is referred to in the Bible? Moving from illusory dualistic thought to non dual reality. Not as intellectual understanding but as direct mystical experience?

Ego cannot bear the thought of annihilation, but it does not actually exist!

The ego cannot bear the thought of annihilation. Ego IS duality and only exists in the realms of duality. Ego is illusory. Christianity as a religion seems to have mostly retained a dualistic way of seeing the world, ie God, Jesus and the Holy spirit and ‘us’. Although of course the Trinity is also understood to be One. Is this dualism really in resonance with Jesus and the way he perceives ‘the world’ that he has ‘overcome’ though? Or is the overcoming of the world actually referring to the transcendence of dualistic thought and the realisation of the unreality of ‘ego’ and separation?

The story goes, if my understanding is correct, that people are loved by a benevolent God. People, in the biblical sense as written in Genesis, in the Garden of Eden, fell from grace, disobeyed God, rebelled and can be described in parts of the Bible as innately sinful it seems. Humanity keeps on seeming to prove that it’s nature is to rebel against God, or at least continue to fall from grace. Jesus eventually intercedes and absorbs our sin and redeems and forgives and takes us up into his redeeming light and to the Father’s Kingdom, by faith and belief in Christ as Lord and Saviour of the world.

Who and What IS this ‘Christ’ though?

That is where there appears to be an apparent split. Is Jesus actually Christ? OR is Christ a metaphor for our own awakening, a symbol of the love that is naturally born from a heart that surrenders it’s own selfish small self to the Lord, to truth, to grace. Is Christ actually the consciousness that we have always been in essence? The anointed and beloved creation. The body of God. The cross being the ‘surrender of the surrender’ itself!

I ask – has the church perhaps missed the non duality of Jesus’s teachings? Has the true message of Christ survived the chinese whispers over time? Did the church actually hide or overlook some crucial elements of the words of Christ and his direct transmission because it had its own agenda for religious supremacy? Was the Bible all ‘God breathed’ and accurately interpreted and collated in accordance with the will of God? May be so?

Jesus teachings seem to have been translated to retain the triumph of the separate self being in relationship with a God that is ‘other’. Transcendent and immanent but definitely ‘other’. Christians generally do still speak it seems from the position of being an individual person essentially, ie someone who can get something and get somewhere (ie to the kingdom of heaven as a literal place) because perhaps we have over looked or missed the aspect of the Christ light that is within us, as Jesus says, as non dual mystical truth. In other words Christ points to the universal truth that there is only God. All else is perishable and not essentially real. Or we could say only real in the illusory, phenomenal, every changeful shifting sands of time bound phenomenal existence.

Has the religious guidance, in general, lost sight of the true sacred heart of the Saviour who shows the way to remove the illusion of any separation whatsoever? Is it fair and right to ask this question in the name of Truth?

As a dualistic individual can we really ‘get’ to heaven? As non-dual truth, we ARE heaven!

What is – IS heaven all along and this is what Jesus is pointing out and this is what the cross represents. Death of the belief in the illusion of individuality and the birth of unity peace and love. Separation only exists in the illusory realm of Maya – the dynamic play. It can be enjoyed within that ever changing realm but ultimately – only God exists.

As Jesus himself says ‘The Kingdom fo God is not found by looking out. No one can tell you, “Look here” or “Look there” The Kingdom of God is within you…..The Kingdom of God is everywhere but you do not see it!’ (Book of Yeshua, 42:88- 89, The Perennial Way Expanded Edition, Bart Marshall)

YET there is something very comforting in knowing GOD LOVES YOU

Oh – yes there absolutely is! And God does of course love life so powerfully and is with us much more than perhaps we dare to imagine. Closer than our own blood and breath. Even close indicates there are two. In truth God is ONE. Many people are genuinely comforted by the love of God and of course the love of Jesus and this is absolutely beautiful. Whatever brings more love into this world – let it be so!

But if we cling to the belief and the false identity that we are so separate from God and perhaps even innately ‘evil’ and flawed as people. This can create a deep sense of shame and guilt that is identified with, as who we think we are. AS an individual separate sinful self there appears to be such a division between us and God. Come home. Wake up.

The Spirit of God Lives in you

In Romans 8 it says that:

‘Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Forin Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death.’ It goes on to say:

‘Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh; but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. The mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace,because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God: It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the flesh cannot please God…..You, however, are controlled not by the flesh, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you.’

The ‘mind of the flesh’ means the egoic mind that thinks it is the flesh and bones of the body and therefore is finite and under threat! This false identity is not who we are – unless we believe in it and are therefore apparently bound by it and believe it apparently into existence. We are however in submission to God’s spirit of love and freedom and peace.

But it seems that because we identify with moving towards holiness but not actually being Holy, as the pure of heart. Because we have been taught that only Jesus is pure and sinless – ‘we’ cannot possibly come anywhere near that perfection! Because we can think we are actually inherently evil and dark – and in need of forgiveness, cleansing, purification and improvement. We can be caught in a never ending cycle of trying to look good, trying to prove our worth and trying to be like Jesus, striving to be good and successful in the world in order to prove that we are worthy. Is this false identity and this striving for perfection as an individual self ‘the kingdom of heaven’? Is this the peace and rest that Christ promises? No – it is a huge amount of suffering and unrest and delusion and mistaken identity! But there is another way!

May be it really is possible that we can discern between our mind and our True Self. May be we can discover the naturally enlightened true position now. May be we can truly ‘follow’ Christ and die to what is false now and live as one with God, regardless of circumstance. May be it really is possible that we can WAKE UP to this beautiful and peaceful Kingdom right now.

To discover True Peace the ego has to fall – but it never existed anyway!

The FALSE self (ego) is the most crippling pain preserving illusion and yet that it is the one thing that is in the way of true peace it seems. We seem to have huge investment in our egoic projections and dreams and we will fight to preserve and protect above all else these enticing desires. Why? Because we want something for ourselves. We are determined to be something special and have success by our own effort. Sometimes we are also determined to have failure also. Either way we want to fulfil their own personal mission, don’t we?

It’s all a dream.

It’s all illusory – this play. Once the being sees the falseness and illusory quality of the psychological self the myth is removed there is true rest and the opportunity to stabilise in and as this peace.

The biggest false idol we worship is the ego, the separate self.

Has Jesus become an idol?

Has Jesus become an idol? I LOVE Jesus and totally bow down to the fact that he came to save the world and was sent by God and is God. BUT it seems clear now that His light shines and radiates brightly through the heart of every faith and from the heart of every human being actually. Christ was deeply inclusive but I don’t always find that Christianity is.

All tribal religions by nature are fundamentalist aren’t they? Because each religion seems to believe in fundamental truths at the core, don’t they? Is that fair to say? Each group it seems tends to defend its position and cling to its tribal identity as a group. This is understandable – our group becomes like our family and we belong. Surely however, even though our group is comforting on the level of family and group tribal identity and familiarity, we can not ever really meet and commune as one human family whilst we cling to our religious identity and superiority and claim to have the only truth, or the only way to God? Do you see what I mean? I say this in the spirit of respect for all beliefs and faiths. I say this In the spirit of love for all expressions of surrender to God. I say this In the spirit of love for the peace that prevails when west and east merge in the name of truth and oneness. Peace through unity and truth.

Has Jesus become an idol? Did he really request that he is worshipped? – or ‘followed’? He leads the way for us to follow. If you look in the Bible he doesn’t ask to be worshipped – he asks to be followed and he asks that we wake up and discover this light within, the light of the spirit of God. This light, I would say, lies at the heart of every spiritual tradition and is known by many wonderful and diverse names. But it is the one holy and sacred indivisible spirit.

All paths lead to the same one Divine reality

By grace, God has provided these many diverse paths for so many different cultures, including the scientists who enquire deeply into the nature of reality, to follow and eventually find or discover the ever present Truth. There is nothing ‘wrong’ with religion as such, BUT eventually all paths lead to the same one transcendent divine reality, to the universal truth that sets us free.

We hold the key to unlock the door to our own divine and imperishable unconquerable True Self.

The world it seems has not been able to hear this message but by the grace of God now there are many beings, sent by the divine power of grace, pointing to this truth and taking away the veil so that once again humanity can see clearly reality and discover true peace. Humanity can discover we truly are one, we hold the key to unlock the door to our own divine and imperishable unconquerable True Self. Om Shanti, Alleluia, Amen.