The Tao of Christ

In this episode I am going to talk about unitive awareness in the sense of seeing that we are all and in all. When the separate self is seen as illusory, when the ego pops like a soap bubble and the flimsy boundary between us and the world falls away, then we see our true nature is all and in all. There is one World Soul – or better yet World Spirit – who is the spirit in every human being. People...

The initial awakening to the Kingdom of God – also called Unitive Awareness or Nondual Reality - can happen suddenly, but it can take years to reveal all its dimensions. It feels like layers of a veil are being gradually taken away. It is like a flower bud gradually opening up to the sun. It is like eyes are slowly adjusting to the light, after coming out of a dark room.  It is an ongoing process...

Recently I have received emails from people asking me about hell. So I thought I would speak about it in an episode. Hell is a problem for Christians. It scares Christians, and it scares other people away from Christianity. It gives former Christians nightmares long after they have left fundamentalism behind. There is a part of them that continues to think: what if they are right? What if I go hel...

Last week I had three Zoom meetings during which I spoke about Christian nonduality. Two were with individuals and one with a church group. As I was speaking one insight kept appearing. It was that all of us on these Zoom meetings were one. It was seen clearly that the one speaking and the ones hearing are the same one. As I spoke the feeling that accompanied this insight was palpable. We were one...

This episode is a Zoom Talk that I had with a men's group at Asbury First United Methodist Church in Rochester, NY, on March 10, 2021. It was joined by some members of the church who had been studying Cynthia Bourgeault's book The Wisdom Jesus . I was asked to speak on the topic of Christian Nonduality followed by a time of discussion. I speak quite a bit about the events in my life that...

A few weeks ago I was conversing with someone on Zoom, and he asked me whether I felt like I had grown spiritually. I responded that things certainly change, but I hesitated to use the term growth. I have been thinking about that question ever since. I thought it would be good to explore it in an episode. In this episode I explore spiritual growth from within nonduality. Do we grow and mature spir...

Today’s topic is a response to an email that I received from a listener in Indiana. He writes in part: “So here is the reason I am writing to you… I would like you to talk about what non-dualism IS, as opposed to what it is NOT. It seems, from my dualistic roots, that non-dualism blurs into nothing-ness. In reality, I know this to be wrong. God is Light, which is the presence of all colors, as opp...

The topic for today was suggested by a seminary professor who emailed me. He wrote: “Here’s a question I wonder if you tackle in your works or are interested in addressing: what does seeing through the illusion of the self entail for the concept of free will? In his book Everything is God: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism , Jay Michaelson calls free will the last gasp of unenlightened thinking....

In this episode today I reflect on Lent as an expression of Nonduality. I explore how the symbol of the Cross expresses the same reality as the Yin Yang symbol.  View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

A listener emailed me and said that he was reading my newest book The Gospel of Nonduality, and he had a question. He wrote: “The question that keeps popping up as I read is how does one die to self (or forget self or get out of the way, etc.)  How does one completely surrender?” I responded back to him saying that this is the most important question one could ask. It showed me that he was serious...

This episode began as a suggestion from a listener in North Carolina. He asked me to explain the use of the term Christ. I look at various religious and theological uses of the title “Christ.” Then I distinguish between the dualistic use of the term Christ in theology and the experiential awareness of Christ, which is nondual unitive awareness. View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.c...

The political climate in America is getting crazy. A survey released this week by LifeWay Research reported that half of all pastors report having heard people in their congregations repeat conspiracy theories.  I recently read an article in which a woman said that she believes that Trump won the 2020 election with the same certainty that she believes in God. I am sure she is said that to bolster...

Life is suffering. That is the first noble truth of the Buddha and the first sentence of psychiatrist Scott Peck’s classic book The Road Less Traveled . He phrased it as “Life is difficult.” Much of the suffering and difficulty in life comes from interpersonal relationships. They disturb our peace of mind and keep us awake at night. What hurts the most is when personal relationships with people we...

In this episode I point to our true nature and the nature of Reality. This cannot be done directly so I will use a metaphor. One of the best is the traditional Zen koan about seeing our original face before we were born. I am going to do a variation on this by asking you to look at both what you were before birth and what you will be after death.  View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazo...

In this episode we come to the final chapter of the Gospel of John, which I have been interpreting as a proclamation of the gospel of nonduality. In this chapter we explore how the gospel of nonduality had to struggle with dualistic gospel in the early centuries of the church. This involved a struggle for leadership in the church after the death of the apostle John. We look at the role of Mary Mag...

Easter is a proclamation of Christian nonduality. This is seen in two of the most famous Easter stories, which are found in the 20th chapter of the Gospel of John. One is the familiar story of Mary Magdalene coming to the tomb of Jesus on Easter morning. The other is the equally famous story of Doubting Thomas. John’s presentation of the giving of the Holy Spirit – John’s Pentecost – is also exami...

The symbol of the Christianity is the cross. It is also a powerful symbol of nonduality.  View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

The arrest and trial of Jesus in the Gospel of John is interpreted as the proclamation of the nondual identity of Jesus and his message.   View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

In the 17th chapter of the Gospel of John we have one of the best descriptions of nonduality in the Bible. It comes in a prayer Jesus offered on the night he was arrested.  View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

This episode is an interview that former evangelical pastor and current church planter Luke Bricker did with me for his podcast entitled The Spiritual Nomad. His podcast can be found at TheSpiritualNomad.org.  I share quite a bit of autobiographical information in this interview, including accounts of three times in forty years that nondual awareness enveloped me. These were primarily a loss of a...

The further we get into the Gospel of John, the closer we come to the core of the John’s gospel of nonduality. The structure of the gospel up to this point has been seven I AM sayings of Jesus, accompanied by seven teachings that Jesus gave. In the 15th chapter we have the last of these sayings. He says here, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.” Then a couple of verses later he...

In this episode I deal with one of the biggest issues that Christians face when it comes to other faith traditions in the world. Especially when they start to get to know people of other faiths and read their scriptures and other writings of non-Christian religions with an open mind. The question is this: Is Jesus Christ the only way to salvation? Framed another way, “Do you have to believe in Jes...

Silent Night is one of the most beloved carols of the Christmas season.  Silent night, holy night  All is calm, all is bright  Round yon virgin Mother and Child  Holy infant so tender and mild  Sleep in heavenly peace  Sleep in heavenly peace It seems to epitomize the essence of Christmas. This hymn conveys the silence, beauty and peace at the heart of Christmas. Christmas celebrates our intuitive...

In this episode I explore the symbolic proclamation of nonduality presented in the powerful story of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples at the Last Supper, found in the thirteenth chapter of the Gospel of John.  View Marshall's books here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marshall-Davis/author/B001K8Y0RU

In this episode I share the many spiritual influences on my life – Christian and non-Christian - and why I see Jesus as my spiritual teacher. All true spiritual teachers throughout the ages in all the different spiritual traditions are in essence the same Spiritual Teacher. Jesus calls this inner Teacher “the Father.” I call this inner Teacher Christ. I explore how Jesus’s death was intentional, s...