The Tao of Christ

Sin is duality. Nonduality is salvation. Forgiveness is nondual awareness. That in ten words is what I talk about in this episode. The only sin is not looking at who we really are – and who God really is - and not believing what we see. It is being too blind to see, as Jesus told the Pharisees. That is the original sin. The only solution to this sin is to open our eyes. It is so easy. Even a child...

Nonduality is Reality. That was the insight of Jesus and the earliest Christian message of the Kingdom of God. Nonduality is the truth at the core of all great spiritual traditions of the world. But if nonduality is reality, then where did duality come from? If all is One, how did two come about. How did we find ourselves in this seemingly dualistic world?  Every religious tradition has its own or...

The oldest Christian message is Christ Consciousness. One of the oldest sayings in the New Testament is found in Paul’s letter to the Philippians, but Paul did not write it. It is much older. It is from an early Christian hymns which Paul was quoting in Philippians 2. It reads:  Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equ...

The original gospel was the one that Jesus proclaimed, which was the Kingdom of God. Today it is alternatively called Christ Consciousness, Kingdom Consciousness, Unitive Awareness, or Nondual Awareness. Then there was the gospel about Jesus created by the apostle Paul and other Christians of the early decades and centuries after Christ. In this episode I explore how the Church came to abandon Jes...

In this episode I explore the historical development, mythology and meaning of Satan from a nondual perspective. For traditional Christians the devil is real – a fallen angel. He is epitome of evil, who oversees a vast hoard of demons or evil spirits who are just waiting to possess the hapless person who is careless with his soul. When viewed from a nondual perspective the figure of Satan points t...

In this episode I explore the symbol of the river as a description of nondual awareness as seen from a human perspective. Jesus used this metaphor to point to what he called the Kingdom of God or Eternal Life.  View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

About a month ago I got an email from a listener in British Columbia, Canada. He gave me permission to quote it, so I will and then address the issue he raises. He writes in part: I have a question about the nondual conception of God. I find this view compelling, but wonder if a nondual conception of God leaves us with this sort of ineffable God about which we can say nothing. Concepts like loving...

In this episode I explore one of the most famous sayings of Jesus, and one of his clearest teachings on the self and nonduality. It is found in all four gospels, which is an extremely rare occurrence. Here it is in four slightly different forms:  Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. Whoever finds his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life...

The Kingdom of God, also called unitive awareness or nondual awareness, is like a treasure that is discovered. That is the way that Jesus described it in two stories, known as the parable of the Treasure in the Field and the parable of the Pearl of Great Price. Some people search for the treasure. For them life is a treasure hunt. Others simply stumble across it.  Some spiritual teachers downplay...

According to the earliest account of Jesus’ ministry, he engaged in two major activities. One was the preaching of the Kingdom of God. The other activity that dominates Jesus’ ministry in the Gospel of Mark is casting out evil spirits.  That also is a communication of nondual awareness, although a much more dramatic communication of it than simple teaching. It is analogous to the physical and some...

One of the most famous stories that Jesus told was the parable of the prodigal son. It is also the most misinterpreted. In this episode today I show how through this story Jesus was talking about what he called the kingdom of God, and which I call unitive awareness or Christian nonduality.  View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

Jesus was a teacher of the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven.  I call it the Presence of God, Unitive Awareness or Christian nonduality. The primary way he communicated this reality was in stories called parables. In this episode I am look at two of his stories commonly known as the parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin. They are about people who lost something, searched for it, and f...

The greatest obstacle to experiencing God is the idea of God. There is a difference between God and an idea about God. That ought to be obvious, but we rarely pay attention to the difference. Consequently many Christians mistake the theological idea in their heads for God. That idea in your head is not God. It is just an idea, just a word with some feelings connected to it. In this episode I go be...

Did Jesus preach salvation or spiritual awakening? Was his message about how to be forgiven by a Divine Judge for one’s sins through a human sacrifice offered to a holy God? Or did he speak of awakening to the awareness of the Kingdom of God which is present here now? What is it that we need? Redemption or Enlightenment? Or both, or some combination of them? In this episode I compare these two und...

Jesus of Nazareth was enlightened, in the same sense that the word is used in spiritual circles today. Jesus was awake to the truth of his own nature and the nature of the universe, and he lived out of that awareness. His awakening experience is told in all three canonical gospels in the story known as his baptism. It is much more than the story of Jesus going through a religious rite. It describe...

One of the most difficult things for a Christian to overcome when experiencing and communicating the reality of nondual awareness is the vocabulary. It is a stumbling block to use the biblical term. Christians are used to the religious vocabulary of the gospels and the apostle Paul and the other biblical writers. But Nonduality is usually expressed in words and concepts drawn from Eastern religiou...

In this episode I explore the topics of reincarnation, resurrection and heaven from the perspective of unitive awareness. I thought about calling this “A Nondual Guide to the Afterlife.”    View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

There is a lot of fear in religion. There is unhealthy fear – like fear of hell and punishment. There is also healthy fear, which the proverb says, “is the beginning of wisdom.” This episode is the most personal of any I have made. I share autobiographical stories of three occasions in my life when fear gripped me. Eventually this was seen as fear of the death of the self. This revealed the realit...

The term Enlightenment, when used in a spiritual or religious context, normally refers to the awakening experience of the Buddha and other religious sages of India and the East. It is a common term in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Nondualism. But for most Christians, the word “enlightenment” feels foreign, having nothing to do with the Christian faith and Western religion. But actually both the word and...

In my Pandemic Devotion for today I explore the resurrection of Christ. It is not intended to be a doctrine to be believed but an awareness to be realized. The resurrection appearances of Jesus to his apostles were actually awakening experiences, waking them up to Christ’s true nature and our true nature. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0...

In this Pandemic Devotion I present a different perspective on the Cross of Jesus Christ. Jesus intended this death in Jerusalem to be a dramatic event designed to snap his disciples out of their illusions about who they thought he was and what his Kingdom was. It was meant to reveal his true nature and our true nature. It is analogous to the function of the koan in Zen Buddhism. Perhaps it is eas...

The Surgeon General has said, “This is going to be the hardest and the saddest week of most Americans' lives.” President Trump said, “We’re going to go through a very rough two weeks.” This coronavirus pandemic has got Americans thinking and talking about death like never before. Coincidentally – or providentially – this is also Holy Week, the hardest and saddest week of the gospel narrative...

In this episode of Devotions for a Pandemic, I look at the fear that is gripping our country in anticipation of a surge of cases in the coming weeks. I compare this to the apocalyptic spirit that was present in the first century during the time of Jesus. Today we are in a better place to comprehend the feelings of the earliest disciples of Jesus as they hid behind closed doors in fear for their li...

In this episode of Devotions for a Pandemic, I explore one of the most popular passages of scripture being used by preachers at this time: Psalm 91. It includes verses like: Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler And from the perilous pestilence. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, Nor of the arrow that flies by day, Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, Nor o...

In this episode of my series “Devotions for a Pandemic” I look at a biblical story from the Old Testament found in Numbers 16. In this story God causes a plague to sweep through the Hebrew people. Moses and Aaron come up with a plan to stop the pandemic. I believe it has some things to say to us in the midst of our coronavirus pandemic. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/store...