Jesus and Me
A regular reader and commentator on this blog sent the following questions and asked that I post my answers for all to read. I am only too happy to do so.
Do you believe that Jesus is your inner Teacher or do you think Jesus is only the Teacher of (some) Christians?
I think the teachings of Jesus when read through the lenses of Perennial Wisdom and 1st century Judaism are of immense value to all seekers. My Inner Teacher, a term I don’t usually use, however, is Chochmah, Wisdom, the Divine Mother. I don’t believe that she is a person separate from myself, but rather an archetypal expression or personification of my own intuitive knowing.
Do you experience Jesus in your personal life?
No. While his teachings speak to me, Jesus himself does not. When I do experience the Divine (which is rare) She comes to me as Mother. I am not saying that God is Mother–God is Reality, only that when I am in what Judaism calls Fourth State of Consciousness (Chayyah) the state that reveals the interconnectedness of all selves without erasing the consciousness of any particular self (something that happens in Fifth State Consciousness or Yechidah), the image that represents God for me is that of the Divine Feminine, Shekhinah, Chochmah, etc.
Jesus is a Jew / was a Jew: Does that influence you somehow?
Not really. I am more interested in his teaching than his lineage. But because Jesus was a Jew to really understand his message it is vital to read his teaching in the context of Judaism (the religion of Jesus) rather than in the context of Christianity (the religion about Jesus). You can get a sense of what I mean by reading the second volume of my Mount and Mountain trilogy which deals with the Sermon on the Mount (http://www.amazon.com/Mount-Mountain-Reverend-Rabbi-Sermon/dp/1573126543/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1441200754&sr=8-1&keywords=Mount+and+Mountain+Shapiro).
Did some Christians spoil your love to Jesus? Or can you love Jesus or his teachings despite the narrow-mindedness of some Christians?
I don’t love Jesus, I learn from him. I find the teachings of Jesus valuable irrespective of the teachings about Jesus or the actions of those who claim to follow him. Nearly two thousand years of Christian Jew-hatred make me wary of certain kinds of Christianity, but they do not influence my understanding of Jesus or his teaching.
Do you experience Jesus as a teaching or as a person or as your innermost True Self?
I am drawn to the teachings of Jesus that arise from his realization of nonduality: “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). I believe Jesus is paradigmatic of what each of us can achieve. Each of us can, as Paul says, put on the mind of Christ (I Corinthians 2:16) and realize that we too are one with God, the Source and Substance of all Reality, that “in Whom we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). Where I think Christianity misses the mark is in imagining that Jesus alone is the Second Person of the Trinity when in fact Life itself is that Person, and each of us is a part of it. For me a good way to understand the Trinity is as ocean, wave, and the wetness of both.
Do you feel that Jesus loves you or that Jesus is the Love of God in you?
No. These are Christian categories that are irrelevant to me. Jesus is dead. He has no feelings for me or anyone else. God is not love alone, but all reality including the dark side of reality (Isaiah 45:7). For me Jesus is a great wisdom sage whose teachings are universally and eternally applicable. Teachings about Jesus are particularistic and applicable only in the context of Christianity, which, while never static, is, like all religions, exclusivist.