Jesus, Pt. 2

"Calm and Stars" by Yongsung Kim

שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָד

בָּרוּךְ שֵׁם כְּבוֹד מַלְכוּתוֹ לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד

Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One!

Blessed be the name of the glory of His kingdom forever and ever.

For me, growing up Jewish meant that the words "Jesus Christ" occupied a space in my vernacular that was really only reserved for those times when I was startled or when I stubbed an unfortunate toe. Yet, if you read my last post, Jesus Pt. 1, you may recall my story of how speaking those same words, in a moment of need and with a heart full of reverence, have since transformed my life.

Yet being raised Jewish has been an incredible gift in my life. I grew up in a reform congregation that taught me deep and beautiful Hebrew prayers, like the Shema that's written at the top of this post. It preached a doctrine of tolerance and open-mindedness that spared me from having yet another weight added to the already-cumbersome burden of accepting myself as a gay person. Hebrew school educated me on the unspeakable brutality of the Nazis, and inspired me to speak up for those who are unjustly persecuted and living on the margins. Judaism offered me an ancient and profoundly resilient root system of culture, tradition, and faith extending over 5,000 years deep into the past.

But after my first major spiritual realization, which radically expanded my psyche, I was voraciously seeking answers. Instinctively, I turned Eastward—to yoga, meditation, and Eastern philosophy—and discovered a new way of understanding consciousness through the teachings of Dr. David Hawkins.

I needed to experience God. To me at this time, mere belief was wildly insufficient and not up to the task of delivering another satori. Belief was like a Hollywood set–– compelling to the eyes, but ultimately just a hollow film prop. I needed the real thing.

I became committed to the path of self-realization outlined by Yogananda, Kundalini Yoga, the Buddha, Sufism, the Vigyan Bhairava Tantra, the Bhagavad Gita, the Vedas, and the Upanishads.

In my exploration of Eastern traditions, I learned that to truly know God, we must go within, to the very source of our own being. This teaching, echoed in the practices of self-realization, encourages us to look within and connect with Divinity/God/Ultimate Reality not just as some being who lives in Heaven and is separate from us, but as the very source of our own existence which resides within us. I found great power in embracing the attitude that the Kingdom of Heaven is not a distant, unreachable place, but an ever-present state of love and consciousness—one that we must choose to align with again and again if it is to become our reality.

And as I delved deeper, I quickly encountered the concept of Enlightenment: the pure, ultimate state of human consciousness where the limited ego-self that brings duality, separation, and suffering is transcended. In this state, the ego "self" has dissolved, and only the Self of being remains—where the particle becomes the wave; the drop becomes the Ocean. It is said to be experienced as bliss beyond words (satchitananda), the "peace that passeth all understanding", and nondual Oneness.

According to Dr. Hawkins—whom I lovingly refer to as Doc—even among the enlightened, some beings have attained the highest level of consciousness possible for a human being. He identifies Buddha, Jesus Christ, and Krishna as being at the pinnacle. I felt a sense of relief reading this, as it neatly leveled the superiority complex often found in religious traditions, not in a reductive way, but with a sense of mutually inclusive reverence.

Doc explains that while Buddha attained the highest level through the pursuit of Enlightenment, Jesus and Krishna were different. Unlike Buddha, neither Jesus nor Krishna had prior lifetimes; each was born as a fully-Enlightened being, a pure incarnation of Divinity—Christ and Vishnu, respectively––who descended directly from Heavenly planes. More wonderfully, I then learned that the words "Christ" and "Vishnu" describe the infinite, universal, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient aspect of God, which brings salvation through love, mercy, peace, and forgiveness.

"Huh," I thought to myself. "So Jesus was fully enlightened, just like the Eastern texts describe masters at that level to be. And he wasn't the only one thought to have been a Divine incarnation... And Jesus was the full embodiment of the Christ, which is the infinite, manifested aspect of God—love, healing, and freedom from suffering and duality.... And by aligning with the essence of Jesus, the spiritual aspirant aligns with the infinite power of God called 'the Christ,' which is simultaneously the potentiality, process, and manifestation of all Creation.... Ah, so that's the Trinity...."

The dots started connecting. East was meeting West. The once insurmountable barriers of religious, scientific, and cultural discrepancies were crumbling at a breakneck pace before my very eyes. I was beginning to see with ecstatic clarity the unity of consciousness underlying all ideas, religions, and living beings.

Doc's teachings helped me understand consciousness in ways that resolved key spiritual paradoxes within myself. These insights have led to the healing and transcendence of deep inner suffering, which, by Grace, no longer afflicts me. With much gratitude, I credit his teachings with leading me to Christ, and through Christ, to a deeper love and appreciation for Judaism than I had ever known before.

Knowing that Jesus was Jewish, that he was the proverbial Rabbi of rabbis, was significant, but it felt more poetic than that. The profound and ancient root system of my Jewish heritage had been infused with an incredible, newfound vitality. Now, in Jesus, there was more than just roots; there was a solid trunk extending ever upward, whose branches and leaves could receive the love and beauty of God's Endless Light. In this totality, Jesus unified my spiritual past with my spiritual future. Jesus, the embodiment of the universal Christ, has become my Tree of Life, my etz chaim.

Today, I embody paradoxes: A Jew who goes to church on Sunday mornings; an aspiring disciple of Christ who celebrates Shabbat on Friday evenings; a white American who wears a turban teaching yoga; a monotheist who embraces the holographic panoply of Hinduism; a spiritual student who can freely acknowledge the Divinity of Krishna and Buddha without feeling conflicted about my allegiance to Jesus. What joy! What security! What freedom!

Just as I’ve embraced the paradoxes in my spiritual life, I’ve learned to embrace new directions, even when they seem unconventional to others. A conversation with an old mentor from my days as an LGBT activist, who was curious about my shift to acupuncture, brought this to light. When I shared my journey, with its varied perspectives, twists, and turns, he said pointedly, "It sounds like you're very confused!"

With a smile, I replied, "On the contrary, I’ve never felt more clear, grounded, and at peace in my life."

As I continue to walk the spiritual path, and dedicate myself to the practice of acupuncture, I feel more attuned than ever to the power of healing. My journey has taught me that true spiritual clarity doesn’t come from rigid beliefs or divisions, but from the unity of consciousness that exists within all paths.

And truly, it is the greatest gift of all that this unity has been affirmed and validated by the Presence of Unconditional Love and Gentleness, which I have been blessed to find in Jesus the Christ–– my Guru, healer, savior, and friend.