JESUS: The True Light

It is very important to look at what the enlightened beings of humanity have revealed to us both about themselves and us.
For the ground reality of love they awakened to is our truth also.
I have chosen to focus on the person of Jesus because it is the tradition I am most familiar with, having been a Christian monk
for many years. I do not mean this to be in anyway exclusive.
A Buddhist could focus on Buddha and adapt the insights and meditations I have developed here. There are enlightened beings of every time and place that mirror to us our deepest heart, the highest potential we are capable of, that we can awaken to. They are always in communion with us and we with them.  We can awaken to this and experience how powerfully their love touches us, awakens us and empowers us to live from our deep center.

 

In any consideration of Jesus today, the most important question
is — “What truly did it mean for those who first encountered Jesus both in his earthly life and after his death and resurrection?” And equally important is: “What does it mean for us to encounter the living presence of Jesus today?” Living as a Christian monk from 1968–2001, I had much time to read and reflect, to meditate on this, and to consider the views of many persons who came to the monastery and spoke to us on this subject. I offer what I found to be most worthwhile in my own personal life.

 

So what was it that touched those who first encountered the person of Jesus? It was, above all, that Jesus was able to radiate, to communicate to them a sense of The Divine Loving Presence to which he was totally transparent. It was encountering this man who was totally free of egoism and could see into the depths of the many different persons he met and who could affirm them and love them for who they really were. In doing this he gave each of them a sense of their divine identity as a child of God. He could do this because he had awakened to who he really was as a child of God.

 

When people encountered Jesus, they experienced the

Divine Presence as total unconditional love through him. They encountered a person who could see deeper than their wounded hurt self and who could touch them in their deepest core, giving them the experience of being their deepest essence as a center

of divine radiant love. It was this experience of being so touched

by transforming love that created the community that became the church — people gathered and remembered and re-experienced together the presence of Jesus with them. This brings to mind

a beautiful chant from my monastic days on The Feast of The Transfiguration of Jesus on Mt. Tabor: “He is the Refulgence

of Eternal Light, The Spotless Mirror and The Image of

Divine Goodness.”

 

And the point of it all is that this is also true of us. What Jesus does is see deeper than the hurt and wounded self with which we often identify. He sees down to our deepest core and actually awakens within us the experience of being this deepest divine core. It is in this way we know the child of God that we really are.  It is in this sense that Jesus is True Light, for he reveals to us, mirrors to us, the inmost truth of ourself.  

 

I want to urge that we consider Jesus as The Free Radiant Loving One, who can see into the depths of our being and who loves us, understands us and respects us for the divine self that we really are.  In this spirit I would like to offer a meditation on our encountering this living person of Jesus, encountering him in our present moment, in the “now.” When we encounter him, we experience him as someone who yearns to touch us, to awaken

us to the truth of who we are. As we experience this we can live the truth of who we are, and in so doing, be truly blessed and

be a blessing to others. Because of the heaviness we often feel from our conditioning we may think awakening is not possible for us, but it is. In this moment as you read these words there can

be the awakening of faith, trusting the power of love that flows in
your communion with the Risen Jesus, with all who abide in love.
Be willing to trust this in this moment and it will lead to hearing these words deep inside of you: “Go in peace, your faith has
made you well.”

 

Many beings of love, both within time and space and beyond time and space have great faith in us. Though we may not be able to see our deepest truth at this moment, others can.