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I have exploring Biblical stories of spiritual awakening for a couple of months now. I am going to finish this series today by talking about spiritual experiences that fall short of full awakening but have some of the same qualities as awakening. I am not sure what to call these glimpses of Nondual Reality. You could call them partial awakenings, mini-awakenings, temporary awakenings, preludes to awakening or glimpses of spiritual awakening. You probably know what I am talking about. You may have experienced what I am talking about.
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I continue my series exploring biblical stories of spiritual awakening. There are so many wonderful ones! Today I examine another of my favorites, the story of the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah is considered one of the greatest prophets of the Hebrew scriptures. In the sixth chapter of his book he describes his opening to spiritual reality firsthand in detail. Often this passage is called the call of the prophet, but it is also the spiritual awakening of the prophet.
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Today I am exploring another famous story in the Bible that describes spiritual awakening. It is commonly known as the story of the prophet Elijah being taken off to heaven in a fiery chariot. But it is as much about Elisha as it is Elijah. It is also story of the enlightenment of the prophet Elisha.
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I am continuing to tell these biblical stories of Awakening. I do this because I think it is helpful to show how, when, where and to whom spiritual awakening happens. This is important because there are so many misconceptions about spiritual awakening. There is no better story that illustrates the circumstances surrounding awakening than the story of the prophet Elijah.
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I am continuing the Biblical Stories of Spiritual Awakening. Today I am going to talk about one of my favorite characters and books in the Bible: Job. I resonate with Job because his path was like mine in some ways. He struggled with the same philosophical problems that I struggled with and that many Christians struggle with: the problems of evil and suffering. And in my life it led to a spiritual awakening, just like with Job.
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I am continuing to look at stories of spiritual awakening in the Bible. This episode explores one of the most famous accounts - the story of Moses and the Burning Bush.
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Today I continue to explore biblical stories of spiritual awakening. We have looked at Adam, Enoch, Abraham and Jacob. One would expect to find more stories of awakening in the rest of Genesis. But we look in vain for any hint that Joseph or any of his brothers or sister experienced spiritual awakening. That tells us something about spiritual awakening. There can be long periods of time without spiritual awakening. This episode explores how that was true in biblical times, throughout history and in modern times.
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In the last episode I looked at the figure of Jacob in the Book of Genesis. I said that I would be taking two episodes to explore Jacob’s spiritual awakening because there are two stories of awakening associated with him.
Jacob’s first experience was a vision/dream known as Jacob’s ladder, which we looked at last time. That happened when he was running from his brother Esau, who wanted to kill him for tricking him out of his birthright and blessing. Today I am looking at when Jacob is returning to Canaan and he wrestles with an angel. At that time his name was changed to Israel.
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Today I am back to the series on Biblical Stories of Awakening. I am talking about one of my favorite characters in the Bible, the patriarch Jacob. There are two stories of awakening in the Biblical account of his life. They are both important so I am going to take two episodes to deal with them. The first occurred when he was a young man known as Jacob, and the second when his name was changed to Israel.
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I am going to take a brief break from the biblical stories of spiritual awakening to address a question that I am asked regularly by listeners. They may ask the question in different ways but it always comes down to the same thing. They want to know what spiritual practice would help them to spiritually awaken.
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Last episode I began a series entitled “Biblical Stories of Awakening,” exploring accounts in the Bible that are examples of spiritual awakening to unitive awareness. I talked about Adam and Enoch. I also mentioned that I would be talking about Jacob next. Well I am changing that. I need to explore another important biblical character before Jacob. I want to talk about Jacob’s grandfather Abraham.
Abraham is a very important figure in the history of religion. Three monotheistic faiths – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – trace themselves back to Abraham. So you would think that if anyone was an example of spiritual awakening, it would be Abraham. But we do not see this happening in Abraham’s life. I must address the reason why.
I was just going to skip over Abraham and go onto Jacob, but that would be ignoring the issue. Abraham is typically exalted as a champion of faith, but I consider him an example of what can go wrong in the spiritual life. This explains why these three Abrahamic faiths do not - generally speaking - exhibit nondual awareness but have become entrenched in dualistic thinking.
Abraham experienced a call to spiritual awakening, but he did not take it. He misunderstood it, and therefore missed it.
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Today I am beginning a series of episodes entitled Biblical Stories of Awakening. People tell me that they appreciate it when I tie the Christian heritage and particularly Christian scriptures to nonduality. So I am going to focus on Biblical examples of spiritual awakening for a while.
We do not find a lot of examples of nondual awakening in the Christian Bible. But they are sprinkled here and there throughout the Bible. The Bible begins with the Book of Genesis. The clearest example of spiritual awakening in the Book of Genesis is Jacob, and I will get to him next time. But today I am going to talk about the first two examples in Genesis: Adam and Enoch.
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This episode comes in response to several comments I have received over the last few months from people struggling with the difference between the traditional idea of eternal life as endless individual existence in fellowship with God and nondual union with God which is often imagined as absorption into God and the loss of any sense of personal identity.
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Nondual awareness is the peace that surpasses human understanding. To quote the apostle Paul, “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
In this episode I use the story of Jesus stilling the storm as an illustration of the peace that is always present in the eye of the storm. -
The title of this episode “I am You and You are Me” sounds like I am quoting the lyrics to John Lennon’s song “I am the Walrus”: "I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together." There is also the rap by Zico with that title “I am you, You are Me.” But I am not quoting song lyrics here. I am expressing the unitive awareness that we are all one.
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In this episode today I will explore how the use of psychedelic drugs relate to nondual awareness.
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This episode was prompted by an email that I received from a listener He wrote:
My question is this: If there is no puppeteer, why do I see circumstances that line up in ways that there is no possibility that they are random? I see this on a regular basis and can give you instance after instance. I used to use this awareness to maintain my dualistic thinking. I believe flow happens in a different way now, but I wondered how you approached perceived providence.
He goes on in this and a follow-up email. He is talking about the sense that at times we sense the pattern that is at work being the scenes. If human history is a cosmic drama, then once in a while we glimpse the script.
I deal with that a bit in the episode where I talk about the closing vision in Herman Hesse's book Siddhartha. We try to make sense of our visions at such times. We use words like Providence, synchronicity, déjà vu, predestination, kismet, divine coincidence, which the pastor at our church calls God-incidence.
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Recently I have been talking about how nonduality is integrated into and expressed in everyday life. In the past couple of episodes I have been addressing moral and political decisions, such as politics and war. Specifically I have talked about the Gaza war and dualistic American politics of right versus left, conservatives versus liberals, Republicans versus Democrats.
The responses I have received indicate to me that I am not communicating very well that nonduality is not political position or a worldview or a philosophy or a religion or an idea or a principle or something like that. That means that I need to get back to basics once again. So that is what I am doing today.
I have said before that I see two approaches to awakening to Ultimate Reality. Self-inquiry and God-inquiry. We look inward in search of a self and we look outward in search of a God. Both inquiries end up in the same place: the realization that there is no self and no God.What I mean by that is that there is no separate self and separate God as traditionally understood. When it is seen that there is no separate self and separate god, it is seen there is no problem. All problems, including the problem of suffering and the problem or evil drop away when Reality is seen.
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We live in an age of outrage. Everyone is outraged about something or other. The most recent outrage is over the war in Gaza. Students on college campuses across our country and around the world are calling attention the unending killing going on in Gaza. That is causing outrage by counter protesters who support Israel and see the protesters as terrorist sympathizers and antisemites.
Politics these days are no longer civil statesmanship. It is the politics of outrage with each side casting the other side as a danger to our nation and our rights. Culture warriors on the right and Social Justice warriors on the left, both outraged at the other. We live in an age of outrage. If you are not outraged about something, then people think you do not care.
It is so easy to get caught up in this outrage. To be outraged by the threats to constitutional rights and freedoms. To be outraged at the destruction of our environment. To be outraged at callous disregard to human life and human suffering and human rights. I am not immune to these feelings and thoughts. No one is immune. It is part of our American culture and even our world culture. Yet when one views all this from nondual awareness something shifts.This episode explores how nondual awareness changes our perspective on what is happening in the world and in our society.
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Christian Nonduality and the Biblical God
Addressing Religious Compatibility and Violence
Marshall addressed concerns about the compatibility of non-duality with the Old Testament God's violent nature, specifically in light of the ongoing conflict in Gaza. Marshall clarified that true Judaism, Islam, and Christianity are religions of peace, and the violence perpetuated in the name of these religions does not represent their true teachings.
Divine Reality and Scripture Interpretation
He also claimed that every scripture, when taken literally, distorts this divine reality, but at its best, it serves as a window to this nondual reality that is the heart of all spiritual traditions.
Non-Dual Perspective on Gaza Conflict
Marshall discussed the ongoing conflict in Gaza from a non-dual perspective, emphasizing the importance of understanding the suffering and complexities on both sides. He urged compassion and love towards all parties involved, rather than aligning with one side or labeling them as 'good' or 'evil'. He spoke of the importance of non-dual awareness in achieving lasting peace and encouraged spiritual people of all faiths to embody peace and speak out for it.
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