The Tao of Christ

In this episode I explore the two selves – the True Self and the false self. I talk about a strategy to draw attention away from the little self and thereby live out of the Big Self, using the idea of unfriending on Facebook.  In the background you will also hear a guest appearance by my cat Percy, as he meows for attention and plays with a squeaking toy, thereby impersonating the false self.  Vie...

In this episode I explore how the Christian doctrine of the Trinity points to nondual Reality and can usher us into unitive awareness.  View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

The doctrine of salvation by grace through faith is well known in Christian circles. But the principle’s real power is found when it is applied, not to doctrines but to Unitive awareness or Nondual Awareness. The Protestant principle is true after all, but applied to Reality and not to ideas.  You can call it salvation or eternal life. Other spiritual traditions call it enlightenment or awakening....

You are not who you think you are. You are not WHAT you think you are. French Christian philosopher and paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin famously said, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” Even that does not quite communicate it. It makes it sounds like there are a lot of little spiritual beings having human experience...

Many Christians do not investigate – or even know about - the possibility of spiritual awakening because they do not hear about it from the pulpit or see examples of it in the Christian Bible. So they settle for a second-hand faith of believing in things. But the truth is that there are biblical examples hiding in plain sight. One of them is the Old Testament character of Job.  Job is an Old Testa...

In this episode I interpret Lewis Carroll’s enigmatic 1876 poem “The Hunting of the Snark” as an allegory of the spiritual life. In particular I see it as portraying the spiritual practice known as self-inquiry. If you are interested in reading the poem, here is an online version of it from the Poetry Foundation: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43909/the-hunting-of-the-snark View Marshall&a...

This is an experiential episode where I take the listener through the process of seeing God – experiencing the true nondual of ourselves and the universe – as seen in our own backyards. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

This episode explores how aging is related to the spiritual life. In fact aging helps us in spirituality. It is an aid to what we call spiritual awakening or enlightenment, what Christians call salvation, the Kingdom of God or eternal life. We can see the value of aging in the four classical Indian stages of life known as ashramas. The aging process is about shedding the small self with all its at...

Today I am going to talk about Revelation and its relation to Nonduality. By the word Revelation, I mean the Book of Revelation, the last book of the Christian bible. But it is also related to the theological concept of Revelation, meaning that God reveals God’s self to us. The Greek word for revelation, found in the first sentence of the Book of Revelation literally unveiling or uncovering, which...

Recently I received two comments from listeners about my episode on Nondual Meditation. One was from a listener from Canada by email. The other was in an online interview with Corey Farr who has a podcast entitled, “A Christian Reads the Tao te Ching,” which is an excellent podcast by the way. I will post a link to it. In addition to talking about my Christian version of the Tao Te Ching, Corey wa...

Many Christians are attracted to the truth of nonduality. It resonates as true at a deep spiritual level. Deep speaks to deep, as the psalmist says. But they are wary because it does not seem to fit with what the Bible says. Scripture has a powerful hold on Christians, and we hesitate to stray too far from its authority for fear of drifting away from the “faith once for all delivered to the saints...

In this episode podcaster Corey Farr interviews Marshall Davis on his podcast “A Christian Reads the Tao Te Ching.” Corey interviews me about my book The Tao of Christ: A Christian Version of the Tao Te Ching. He also asks questions about nonduality and specifically my podcast episode on Nondual Meditation. So we get into nonduality quite a bit.  So here it is. I hope you enjoy it. You can find th...

In this episode I explore an alternative to the typical self-inquiry that is standard fare in nondualism. Meditation upon Nature - the natural envoronment and our connection to it - can be a more direct path to spiritual awakening. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

When it comes to Christian nonduality, one of the issues that is often raised by both inquirers and critics is its approach to the Bible. The nondual attitude toward Scripture is different than the traditional reverence that Christians have for the Bible.  In traditional Christianity, Scripture serves as the foundation for everything that a Christian believes and does. When Christians want to know...

It would be tempting to answer this question using concepts, but of course nonduality is not about concepts or ideas. It is about direct experience. So I will refer the question back to you my listeners and ask you to see for yourself. One of the standard tecniques in nonduality is direct inquiry into who or what we are. We look for a separate personal self with a name and a history, and discover...

In this episode I explore how we can engage in political and social activism as an expression of nonduality. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

In this episode I explore the awareness of our unity – in fact our identity – with all life and all existence. This is manifested in most people as an affinity or love for Nature. Many people feel more in touch with God in Nature than they do in church. This is because we intuitively sense our primal connection to the creation. This consciousness is attested to in the Christian Scriptures and more...

In this episode I explore the teaching of Jesus and the psalms, also found in the Upanishads, that the spiritual essence of humans is identical to the spiritual essence of the Universe. There is one essence of everything in the universe and that is divine. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

There are examples of nondual spiritual awakening throughout the Bible. It is just that they are not usually identified as such or taught as such. One such example is the story commonly referred to as Jacob’s Ladder. Today I will look at that story in combination with another story from Jacob’s life that happens a number of years later - the story of Jacob wrestling with God. We might call that Pa...

In ths episode I explore the difference between traditional meditation, Christian meditation, and nondual meditation. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

In this episode I explain how the nondual message of Jesus became the institutional religion that we know today as Christianity, and how the original message of Jesus can be recovered in our lives.  I also explain why I describe myself as as a nondual Christian or a Christian nondualist.    View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

One reason why Christians do not pursue the spiritual goal of what is called enlightenment, spiritual awakening or liberation is the lack of role models in the Bible. Buddhists pursue Enlightenment because that was the Buddha’s experience, and he is an example for others. That is the main focus of the early Buddhist scriptures. The same is true of Hindus, with the example of sannyasi, sadhus and y...

This episode is going to be very practical. I am going to point directly to what you really are. There are three steps I am going to take you through. In reality there is only one step – just seeing. The first two are preliminary steps to the third step, which is the only one that counts. Kind of like when a long jumper runs up to the approach. Only the final takeoff counts. The first step is to l...

Christ is within you. Christ is not sitting on a golden throne next to his Heavenly Father in some distant heaven where he rules over the world. This traditional language of Christian theology is true in a spiritual sense but not literally. Heaven is not in the sky or outer space. The ancient geography of the heavens describes the inner landscape of the soul. Christ is within. That idea is regular...

Jesus could not stomach religious people who self-righteously judged others. He called them hypocrites. The word used in the Gospels is the Greek word hypokrites, which is transliterated directly into the English language as hypocrite. The word refers to “an actor” or “a stage player” in Greek theatre. The Greek word is a compound noun made up of two smaller Greek words, which literally translate...