CHRIST: THE REALITY OF YOUR DIVINE PRESENCE

 

Don’t get attached to any one word. You can substitute “Christ” for

presence, if that is more meaningful to you. Christ is your God-

essence or the Self, as it is sometimes called in the East. The only

difference between Christ and presence is that Christ refers to your

indwelling divinity regardless of whether you are conscious of it or

not, whereas presence means your awakened divinity or God-essence.

Many misunderstandings and false beliefs about Christ will clear if you

realize that there is no past or future in Christ. To say that Christ was

or will be is a contradiction in terms. Jesus was. He was a man who

lived two thousand years ago and realized divine presence, his true

nature. And so he said: “Before Abraham was, I am.” He did not say:

“I already existed before Abraham was born.” That would have meant

that he was still within the dimension of time and form identity. The

words I am used in a sentence that starts in the past tense indicate a

radical shift, a discontinuity in the temporal dimension. It is a Zen-like

statement of great profundity. Jesus attempted to convey directly, not

through discursive thought, the meaning of presence, of self-

realization. He had gone beyond the consciousness dimension

governed by time, into the realm of the timeless. The dimension of

eternity had come into this world. Eternity, of course, does not mean

endless time, but no time. Thus, the man Jesus became Christ, a

vehicle for pure consciousness. And what is God’s self-definition in the

Bible? Did God say, “I have always been, and I always will be?” Of

course not. That would have given reality to past and future. God

said: “I AM THAT I AM.” No time here, just presence.

The “second coming” of Christ is a transformation of human

consciousness, a shift from time to presence, from thinking to pure

consciousness, not the arrival of some man or woman. If “Christ” were

to return tomorrow in some externalized form, what could he or she

possibly say to you other than this: “I am the Truth. I am divine

presence. I am eternal life. I am within you. I am here. I am Now.”

Never personalize Christ. Don’t make Christ into a form identity.

Avatars, divine mothers, enlightened masters, the very few that are

real, are not special as persons. Without a false self to uphold,

defend, and feed, they are more simple, more ordinary than the

ordinary man or woman. Anyone with a strong ego would regard them

as insignificant or, more likely, not see them at all.

If you are drawn to an enlightened teacher, it is because there is

already enough presence in you to recognize presence in another.

There were many people who did not recognize Jesus or the Buddha,

as there are and always have been many people who are drawn to

false teachers. Egos are drawn to bigger egos. Darkness cannot

recognize light. Only light can recognize light. So don’t believe that

the light is outside you or that it can only come through one particular

form. If only your master is an incarnation of God, then who are you?

Any kind of exclusivity is identification with form, and identification

with form means ego, no matter how well disguised.

Use the master’s presence to reflect your own identity beyond name

and form back to you and to become more intensely present yourself.

You will soon realize that there is no “mine” or “yours” in presence.

Presence is one.

Group work can also be helpful for intensifying the light of your

presence. A group of people coming together in a state of presence

generates a collective energy field of great intensity. It not only raises

the degree of presence of each member of the group but also helps to

free the collective human consciousness from its current state of mind

dominance. This will make the state of presence increasingly more

accessible to individuals. However, unless at least one member of the

group is already firmly established in it and thus can hold the energy

frequency of that state, the egoic mind can easily reassert itself and

sabotage the group’s endeavors. Although group work is invaluable, it

is not enough, and you must not come to depend on it. Nor must you

come to depend on a teacher or a master, except during the

transitional period, when you are learning the meaning and practice of

presence.

CHAPTER SIX

 

THE INNER BODY