The Tao of Christ

There is a common misunderstanding about nondual awareness, spiritual awakening, liberation, self-realization, enlightenment or whatever you want to call it.  The misunderstanding is that it is cure-all for everything that ails us. That the culmination of the spiritual search is a cessation of all psychological pain.  It is not. This episode explores the brokenness of the human condition, even aft...

For many people the news is stressful. I read a TIME magazine article the other day entitled “Where to Seek Help if the Israel-Hamas War is Impacting Your Mental Health.” There are regular senseless mass shootings.  A big issue is political discord in American politics.  Political opinions affect churches and divide churches. They divide families. It is only going to get worse in the coming year u...

In this episode I ponder the inability of me - or anyone for that matter - to communicate the nature and the experience of this unitive reality that Jesus called the Kingdom of God, and which most of us simply call God, the Divine, the One, or Reality. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

When I look at Christianity I see lots of fear. It seems to have become a religion based on fear. Preachers tell us to be afraid, be very afraid. Fear God and fear punishment for sin and fear Judgment Day and most of all fear going to hell. Fire and brimstone preachers have learned that fear keeps people in the pews and in their particular form of Christianity. At least it used to. People are wisi...

I have been receiving quite a few questions recently asking me how I would interpret certain passages in the Christian scriptures. People quote verses that seem to contradict what I am saying, and they want me to explain them.  For example I recently said in an episode that heaven is not a place. It is the spiritual reality not in the hereafter but here and now. Someone asked me how I would explai...

I read Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha back in the 60’s when I was in college. It was a rite of passage back then. But I did not really know experientially what it was all about until I was in my sixties. Later in this episode I am going to take a look the closing vision in Hermann Hesse’s book Siddhartha and show how it informs Christian nonduality, and in particular how it informs the nondual underst...

During the summer when the weather is good, we attend an outdoor worship service held by a Congregational church in a neighboring town. In her sermon last Sunday the pastor talked about her ordination exam five years ago. In preparation for the ordination council she invited some clergy friends to send her the most challenging questions that might be asked during the oral examination. One asked, “...

Recently I have been thinking about Jesus and his relationship to Christianity. I came across a quote that stated that Jesus was not a Christian. Here is the whole statement: “Buddha was not a Buddhist. Jesus was not a Christian. Muhammad was not a Muslim. They were teachers who taught love. Love was their religion.” Is that true? In this episode I explore that statement, focusing on the idea that...

This episode explores the final section of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus ends his longest and most famous teaching by warning us to be careful of those who would misinterpret his teachings to promote their own agenda. In other words he advises us to use discernment when it comes to spiritual teachers.    View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0...

In the last part of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus focuses on how to enter the Kingdom of God. From a Buddhist perspective this question would be expressed as how to enter Nirvana or how to be enlightened. The Hindu might ask how to be liberated. Different spiritual traditions have different terms for this, but it is the same spiritual reality.  View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.c...

The section of the Sermon on the Mount that I am looking at today has to be one of the best, as well as the most neglected and misused portions of the teachings of Jesus. It is about not judging. “Judge not, that you be not judged.” I will show how it has its roots in Jesus’ teaching of nonduality.    View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

I am continuing my journey through the Sermon on the Mount, interpreting it from a nondual perspective. Today I look at one of the most beautiful passages in the Bible in my opinion, sometimes known as the “lilies of the field” passage.  The topic of the section is worry or anxiety. I did an episode entitled “Beyond Anxiety and Fear” immediately before I started this series about the Sermon on the...

Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom of God, which is his term for the awareness of the Presence of the Divine. His message was the omnipresence of God, not as a doctrine to be believed but a reality to be experienced. That was the gospel of Jesus. But that is not the gospel that has been historically proclaimed by the Christian church. When one looks for evidence of this message throughout church history...

Today I will finish the section of the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus dedicates to nondual spiritual practices. Here he deals with fasting and possessions.  View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

Last time I started the section of the Sermon on the Mount that deals with Spiritual Practices, but I only got as far as almsgiving and prayer. I did not even get all the way through what Jesus says about prayer. I wanted to devote a whole episode to the Lord’s Prayer, because it holds such an important place in Christian tradition. So today I am giving a nondual interpretation of the Lord’s Praye...

Today I continue the interpretation of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount from a nondual perspective. Last time it was the nondual ethics of Jesus. From there Jesus goes on to talk about spiritual practices. So I am calling this episode “the nondual spiritual practices of Jesus.” View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

In this episode I will show how nonduality underlies Jesus’ ethics. His ethical teachings in the Sermon on the Mount have a pattern. First Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said…” and then he quotes a passage from the Torah. Then he adds, “but I say to you.” Then he give his teaching. In other words he says, “The Bible says this, but I say this.” He was not negating what the Bible said. He w...

In this episode I expound Jesus’ nondual approach to Scripture found in the Sermon on the Mount. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

I finished the beatitudes of Jesus in the last episode. I may continue a nondual interpretation of the rest of the Sermon on the Mount in the future, but today I am going to take a break and address another issue, which is related. The issue is: Did Jesus really teach nonduality? I have been asked that on occasion. A few weeks ago I was on a Zoom call with a psychologist who is a listener. He aske...

In this episode I am looking at the eighth and final beatitude in what I am calling the Eightfold Path of Jesus. It says, “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” It is immediately followed by what some consider a ninth beatitude, but is actually an expansion of the eighth because it deals with the same topic.  Jesus simply shifts it fro...

Today I look at the seventh of the nondual beatitudes of Jesus. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.” Nondual awareness – unitive awareness – is characterized by peace. Inner peace that promotes outer peace. This is the peace that passes human understanding. It is the peace of God, the peace of Christ, the prince of peace.  View Marshall's books here: https:...

Today I look at the sixth of the eight blessings of Jesus in which he describes nondual awareness. In this one he describes it as pureheartedness. He says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” It so happens that at the present time I am rereading the Ashtavakra Gita, which is one of the classics of Indian nondualism. He talks about “pure of heart” in chapter 17, which I was rea...

This episode explores the fifth of the eight nondual beatitudes of Jesus. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”  View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

Today I am looking at the fourth of Jesus’ nondual beatitudes. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.” This may be the most important of the eight beatitudes. At least it has been in my life. It is the one consistent characteristic in my search for truth, and it eventually resulted in the shift that is often called spiritual awakening.  View Marshal...

Today I am looking at the third beatitude in Jesus’ eightfold path of nondual awareness. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU