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. 

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.   

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 Mount. So I do not want to repeat myself. I will talk about worry, since that is the subject...

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 it is difficult to find. One only spots glimpses of it sticking up like flowers growing between...

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. 

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 Prayer.

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.”

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 was building upon it and completing it. He was fulfilling it.  I am going to take each of these...

In this episode I expound Jesus’ nondual approach to Scripture found in the Sermon on the Mount.

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 asked about my nondual interpretation of Jesus’ apocalyptic teachings, and I started to expound them...

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 from the third person to the second person. He says, “Blessed are you when people insult you,...

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. 

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 reading just before I shut off the light to go to sleep last night.  It says: “The liberated soul...

This episode explores the fifth of the eight nondual beatitudes of Jesus. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” 

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. 

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.”

In this episode I explore the second beatitude of the Sermon on the Mount from a nondual perspective: Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Jesus was a teacher of Nonduality. He called it the Kingdom of God. The Sermon on the Mount is the best known and longest sermon by Jesus. So it makes sense that the Sermon on the Mount would be filled with teachings about nonduality. And it is! But this is missed by most Christians because preachers interpret it from the perspective of their dualistic theologies rather than nondual awareness. So today - and for a few episodes at least, I will interpret the Sermon on the Mount as teachings on...

In this episode I talk about anxiety and fear. According to recent articles there is an epidemic of anxiety not only in the United States, but in much of the Western world. Addressing fear and anxiety can help us be happier and healthier emotionally, as well as decrease violence in society. Awakening to our true nature and the true nature of reality can eliminate, or at least reduce dramatically, fear and anxiety.     

Christianity tends to focus on love. At least at its best it does. Historically Christianity has too often focused on secondary matters like doctrine, tradition, rituals, rules, or church structure – or at its worst money and power. But the New Testament says God is love, and Jesus said that the spiritual life can be summed up in the two commands to love God and love one’s neighbor. So love is at the heart of Christianity. Nonduality tends to focus on consciousness. It is sometimes summed up...

In Christianity there is a lot of talk about who Jesus is. The Gospel of John is famous for its seven “I am” statements in which Jesus identifies himself using symbols and metaphors. “I am the Bread of Life. I am the Light of the world. I am the Way, the Truth and the Life” and so forth. They are all based on the famous “I am” statement in the story of the burning bush in Exodus, where God says “I am what I am.”  These “I Am” statements got me wondering if there were also “You are” statements...

Many people have outgrown the religion that they used to be a part of. I explore how and why people outgrow religion, especially conservative forms of Christian religion. I also look at the idea of spiritual growth. Is growth real, or is it better seen as a sudden awakening to the Nondual Reality that is always present? Or are they both metaphors? Jesus talked a lot about the growth of the Kingdom of God. I explore several of those stories, especially the Parable of the Sower. 

The inspiration for this episode comes from an email I received from a spiritual friend in Melbourne, Australia. He sent me an interpretation of Jesus’ parable of the two foundations. Jesus used the illustration or two men who built a house on the sand and the rock. I tie this into Jesus’ response to Peter’s profession of faith that Jesus is the Christ. Jesus replied, “On this Rock I will build my church.” They both refer to Nonduality as the bedrock of reality.

In this episode I ponder our true identity in Christ. Then I explain how this can be experienced by means of meditation on scripture.  

A while ago I read about the early life of Ramana Maharshi - how when he was a teenager he was overwhelmed by a sudden, extreme fear of death. Then he lay down on his back and imagined he was dead. I think I read this in the preface to a book of his teachings, but I couldn’t find it. So I did an internet search and found the details of the account on his official website.  It happened in July of 1896, and it was actually the event that precipitated his spiritual awakening. His account is...