A Christmas message: was Jesus ever Born?

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The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was [already] in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
John 1:9-10

Christmas is meant to be about celebrating the birth of Jesus, and the above bible verse tells of his coming. But was Jesus ever born? I’m not asking whether or not he existed, I’m asking was Jesus an entity that was born into this world, or was Jesus something else?

In John’s gospel the opening chapter proclaims the coming birth of Jesus Christ. But in verse 10 (above) it clearly states that Jesus already existed prior to his birth, and prior to the existence of the world: he was already in the world, the world was made through him, but the world knew him not.

This is not referring to the human Jesus made of flesh and blood, but something else, something deeper, more subtle, more universal and more potent. This Christ is the True Light, as per verse 9 above, the deeper essence of Christ. A few chapters later in John’s Gospel Jesus himself testifies that he was never born:

Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”
John 8:58

Note, Jesus doesn’t say ‘I was’, he says ‘I AM‘, again indicating he is and always has been beyond the notion of time. Anyone who has studied vedanta and other spiritual traditions would be familiar with similar sayings espoused by countless sages in ages gone past.

Jesus is not identifying himself as the body-mind entity, but as the Absolute, the Father, the unborn, that which always IS, that which is never not.

So here’s to wishing you all a very Merry Christmas, and when we come together to celebrate Jesus’s birth, let us remember the deeper import of Jesus’s teachings: to be with the Father, the Absolute, that to which we are all slaves whether we know it or not.

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he [Jesus] said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.This is the greatest and first commandment.”
Matthew 22:36-38

And it is in discovering this slavery that we actually ‘become’ free.

So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.”
John 5:19

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

❤ ❤ ❤

Direct ‘perception’

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The mind cannot get this,
Just as it cannot deduce the existence of a tree.

The tree is perceived directly,
This is perceived directly.
Whatever is perceived is this.

Perception is just an idea,
That implies the existence of a perceiver,
A perceiver with some physiological apparatus.

There is no experience of perception,
Only an inference,
An inference based on the idea of a perceiver,
For which there is no direct evidence.

So,
There is only this,
Just this.

Perception is just another name
For our experience of life,
ie. this

Life,
Naked,
Is without conceptual overlay.

Unadorned,
It adorns itself,
creating its own beauty.

Life,
Unadorned by concepts,
But including concepts as they rise and fall:
– No thinker can be found.

Forget words, definitions, theories and beliefs:
– They are all useless here;
Just more conceptual overlay:
– It could all be entirely mistaken.

Dzogchen: Self-liberation in the fundamental nature

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Here are some more verses from the Kunjed Gyalpo (The Supreme Source), one of the most important texts in Tibetan Buddhism and Dzogchen. These words point the reader directly towards Enlightenment. See my earlier posts on the Kunjed Gyalpo here and here.

In the except below the first section initially directs us to listen to these teachings and realise the inherent liberation that is already present ‘without needing to alter anything’.

The second section indicates there is no need for special practices, or to speak or act in a particular way in order to get this.

In fact, as per the third section below, in trying to find your ‘authentic condition’ (which is self-liberation), you deny it and prevent liberation manifesting itself.

Listen!
As I am in the authentic condition,
all phenomena self-liberate in the fundamental nature.
Without needing to alter anything,
the teacher self-liberates in the fundamental nature.
Without needing to alter anything,
the teacher self-liberates in the fundamental nature.
Without needing to alter anything,
the retinue of disciples, too, self-liberates in the fundamental nature.

Listen!
As all self-liberates,
there is no need to correct the body posture or visualise a deity.
There is no need to correct the voice or speech.
There is no need to correct the mind through meditation.

By correcting oneself,
it is not possible to find the authentic condition,
and without finding the authentic condition,
one cannot self-liberate.
In this way one does not achieve the state of equality of the fundamental nature.

Excerpt from The Supreme Source (Kunjed Gyalpo), Chapter 29

So, what are we to do? We are essentially told that ‘you are already realised’ or ‘you are already whole’, but perhaps we don’t feel realised or whole.

We are told that no practice can take us to where we already are, but then what do we do?

The Kunjed Gyalpo exhorts us to listen to these teachings, absorb them, and see their truth directly!

But how to do this, the spiritual seeker asks.

There is no how, for in asking how you have already posited and given reality to the separate self that is looking for answer, that is looking to get somewhere. By asking how, there is already the implication that this is not it. But this is it!

The Supreme Truth and the way to it cannot be described. Only wrong ways can be described, hence the language is of negation – ‘no need to correct’….’By correcting oneself…one does not achieve’. The scripture tells us what not to do, not what to do.

The ancient method is to first listen (sravana) to the teachings repeatedly, then secondly to contemplate them and think them over (manana). This helps to develop an intellectual understanding of the teachings first, following which meditation and integration of the teachings (nididhyasana) can occur. This can occur gradually, or perhaps suddenly, without warning, a moment of clear seeing arises and the teachings that were once theoretical suddenly spring to life.

Bhagavad Gita: Krishna teaches that nature does everything

Arjuna Krishna

Under the influence of false ego one thinks himself to be the doer of activities, while in reality all the activities are carried out by nature as natural process

Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 3 verse 27

Here, in the Bhagavad Gita (The Lord’s Song), Krishna tells his friend Arjuna a great truth: that the notion of there being any separate entity that takes itself to be the doer is false. There is no doer, the ego is a false entity; there is only nature acting according to its own inherent principles.

 

Join us! Regular Non-Duality & Spirituality Meetings Online and In Person

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Why not join us? We meet online twice a week to discuss non-duality and spirituality. All are welcome, no prior knowledge is required.
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Nisargadatta Maharaj: In reality there is no person

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The person is merely the result of a misunderstanding. In reality, there is no such thing.

Feelings, thoughts and actions race before the watcher in endless succession, leaving traces in the brain and creating an illusion of continuity.

A reflection of the watcher in the mind creates the sense of “I” and the person acquires an apparently independent existence.

In reality there is no person, only the watcher identifying himself with the ‘I’ and the ‘mine’.

Taken from I Am That by Nisargadatta Maharaj

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It’s too ordinary to notice

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It’s too ordinary for you to notice.

Whenever you’re seeking,
Whatever you’re seeking,
You’re seeking something else,
A mental projection,
A fantasy.

The self that causes all the mischief,
All the suffering,
Is an imagined entity.
It is seeking its own end
– how absurd!

No-self is already here.
To notice this,
There is nothing that you need to notice,
(Nothing you need to do)
As it is always being noticed.
It is simply the totality of whatever is already being perceived,
And in that totality there has never actually ever been a perceiver,
The perceiver being an imagined entity.

Ask yourself “Who am I?”,
“What is the I”,
And you will find no “I” there,
“I” being just an empty thought.

Reality is simply that which remains
When no actual “I” is seen,
When things are seen as they are,
Which is always the case.

There is nothing you need to do,
Nothing to realise,
Only cease adding the notion of “I”,
Only cease to believe in that “I” for which there is no evidence.

Then the notion of “I” can still appear,
The “I” can still come and go as it pleases,
(for this “I” is just a thought,
and like all phenomena,
its appearance cannot be controlled,
spontaneously appearing and disappearing by itself)
But it is no longer believed in.

The “I” being seen through,
Reality shines by itself,
As it has always done.

This is nothing new,
I hesitate to say nothing special,
As it is also truly wonderful.

Reality being everywhere and ever-present
– what is more ordinary and commonplace than that?

Being fearless

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Being fearless,
The body becomes wide open,
The heart sensitive and vast:
All thoughts, feelings and sensations are welcome here,
Even fear.

Completely open
We truly feel.

Willing to feel,
We are truly alive.

Not resisting,
We feel whole, connected.

Not knowing what will happen next,
Isn’t this true freedom?

We don’t have to define reality

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We don’t have to define reality
We don’t even need to see things as they are.
We don’t need to do anything.
Just this.
That’s it.

Naturally,
We already see things as they are,
Effortlessly,
It’s our natural intelligence,
(It’s not ‘ours’)
And wrong concepts are naturally dropped,
(Or maybe they are not).

Reality shines through all of this.
How could it not?