The Journey of Awakening

This past Sunday, I began my Lenten lesson series entitled “Awaken with Jesus” based on the book, Resurrecting Jesus – Embodying the Spirit of a Revolutionary Mystic by Adyashanti. He explores in the book, from a Buddhist perspective, Jesus of the Gospels as a metaphor for each of us and his life as a process of awakening which can be a model for our own journey. When I speak of “awakening” I am referring to moving beyond our habitual state of consciousness, which is most often identification with the body or life situations, and embracing and living from a higher level of conscious connection with the transcendent nature of being, which in Unity we call ‘Christ.’ I will continue with that series of lessons and related blog posts throughout Lent.

It is my intention to be clear that awakening is our path to freedom from the limited concept of self that we have imposed on ourselves or taken on from our families, peers, schools, and yes, our churches. We are taught from birth to believe things about ourselves that are not in alignment with our true nature. We are conditioned by the world around us, and we primarily live our lives from this conditioned state of consciousness. Living from identification with the conditioned mind colors our experience of ourselves, others and, most importantly the God of our understanding. Identification with the conditioned mind keeps us asleep and in bondage to its limitations. As we awaken to the Christ of our being, we free ourselves to live empowered and fulfilling lives. The master teacher Jesus taught, “You shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). I emphasize that he said we must know the Truth in order to be free. To know the Truth is to awaken to it

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In the Metaphysical Bible Dictionary, Charles Fillmore, the cofounder of Unity, said,

“Jesus Christ was the [prototype] man, which includes all the mental phases through which man passes in demonstrating life's problems. So we find Jesus Christ passing through all the trials, temptations, and mental variations of each of us…The experiences of each individual are in miniature the experiences of all.

We may "put on the new man," that is, bring forth Jesus Christ in ourselves. First we must put away the "old man" of error and limitation through denial of his reality. The second step is to accept the truth of our being, in faith; then through understanding to begin diligently to live Truth in thought, word, and deed. The Christ is the man that God created, the perfect-idea man, and is the real self of all men; Jesus Christ is this Christ-self brought forth into perfect expression and manifestation

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Jesus, the man of Nazareth, demonstrated that this attainment is possible to man... We are exhorted to "have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus," which implies that all may demonstrate as He did…”

While I unequivocally believe that it is possible for each of us to attain the level of awakening and embodiment that Jesus did, it is vitally important to me, as we move through this series, that we do not get lost in the weeds of self-judgment, comparing ourselves to the ideal that we believe Jesus exampled. Yes, it is essential for us to hold the vision of our potential to know ourselves as the expression of Christ in the world and to free ourselves from identification with the conditioned mind. And, it is also crucial that we accept and love ourselves right where we are on the path so that we do not impede our progress. It is important for us not to have unrealistic expectations of ourselves. It is equally important for us not to denigrate ourselves when we find that we fall short of living our highest intention to embody and live from Christ consciousness. It is a journey of self-mastery that Jesus exampled for us. I offer the following as encouragement along the way

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For most of us, awakening from the conditioned mind is not a one-time experience that happens suddenly and is permanent. It is usually a process that happens in phases. Although there are some who have reportedly experienced instantaneous awakening and who appear to have been able to maintain it for extended periods of time, it is not the norm. Whether it is not the norm because collective consciousness maintains the belief that it has to be a process, I cannot emphatically state; however, the evidence is that, for most people, it progresses over time. The same is true for Jesus. As Mr. Fillmore stated, he passed through all the stages while on his earthly journey that we do on our respective paths.

Further, because it is tempting for us to fall into the trap of assessing where we are and thinking that we should be at a particular stage in our process at any given time, it is important to know that we are not engaged in a linear process. As we explore the life of Jesus as the metaphor, it would seem that embodying the Christ is a process that we can follow step-by-step. We may experience the various stages of awakening as identified by Adyashanti in the life of Jesus, such as “the calling,” “baptism,” “trials and tribulations,” “crucifixion” and the like; however, it is most often not as clearly defined and linear as depicted in the story. Instead, it is often a circuitous spiraling path. We may have a “baptismal” experience and think we are on the road to “trials and tribulations,” only to find ourselves experiencing “crucifixion” in the next moment, or “the calling” the following day. While it sometimes seems that we experience the same things over and over, in actuality we are having familiar experiences from a higher state of consciousness.

When we are intentionally engaged in our journey, we are continually spiraling toward realization of our Christ nature, even though at times it may not seem so. It is vital to acknowledge and honor that for ourselves. It is essential that we give ourselves permission to be exactly where we are and give ourselves compassion for what we are experiencing in the moment.

Finally, it is not a process of abdication, but integration. We are not called to renounce our humanity or to abandon our lives, but to integrate our new-found awareness of Truth and live it. It is not about leaving the world behind, but about shining the light of Truth on our conditioned mind, realizing that we cannot be defined by our past conditioning, and choosing to bring that consciousness to bear in our daily lives. We are here to bring the Kingdom of Heaven into conscious manifestation. We do that by fully engaging in our humanity while knowing that our True Nature transcends time and space. We are to be fully in the world, while maintaining consciousness awareness that we are not of the world.

I invite you to join me during Lent for this journey of awakening. We are all on the path of awakening together. Let us join in love and compassion for each other and ourselves as we invite Jesus, our master teacher, to lead the way.

Join us on Sundays at 10:00 for our service, and on Wednesdays 7:00 – 8:30 for the book study.