What Jesus Meant

The host introduces “Truth and Beauty” as a podcast about discerning truth and being fully honest about “New Age” ideas, then shares a revelation from 12 years ago: Christianity should focus on living like Jesus rather than believing in him, because Jesus lived without fear. The argument is that God is pure love and did not create a world of suffering; instead, humans as children of God created a temporary illusion of separation through the mind, agreeing to be here but experiencing a “great forgetting.” Jesus is described as enlightened, teaching that all people are divine and one, and that seeing through the illusion changes experience. The host says perceived negativity in others is a projection of disliked parts of ourselves, making forgiveness the path to freedom, and claims all negative emotions stem from fear, which is unnecessary though feelings should be allowed. “Christ consciousness” within everyone is activated by awakening, not waiting for a literal second coming, citing A Course in Miracles.

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Transcript

0:10

It's been said that the greatest challenge of our time is discerning fact from fiction, reality from fantasy, truth from illusion. I couldn't agree more. Times are changing, the world is changing, and I know that you have felt it too. Now more than ever, we need a new way of seeing ourselves and each other. This can absolutely happen when we understand the truth of who we are. When truth is recognized, questions get answered, direction gets clarified, and all of that negative emotion evaporates into peace. Welcome to Truth and Beauty. Because where truth is understood, beauty is revealed.

New Age?

1:05

Hello, and welcome to Truth and Beauty A couple weeks ago, I shared that part of my motivation for resuming this podcast was the desire to be fully honest, to not edit out ideas that could be interpreted as too out there or even crazy. The last time I was at a bookstore, I noticed that my favorite spiritual authors are still found under the, quote-unquote, "New Age" section. So I'm not going to mislead you or myself. Today's topic is definitely New Age in the best sense of the word. Although I definitely think it's time for the New Age label to be reevaluated. Maybe what I share will be surprising, but at the same time will deeply resonate. Or perhaps it won't be surprising at all, and is something that you have already recognized. And for some, there might be defensiveness or resistance or even anger because what I share today may seem to invalidate or defy ideas or lessons you were taught as a child that have become part of your foundational belief system. So if that is you, dear listener, I encourage you to hear me out and merely consider. Remember, there is nothing wrong with asking questions or reevaluating what we believe. Having an open mind is a positive and healthy state no matter the topic. Because when we hold too tightly to what we think we know, that's when we lose our power. But if this message is not for you, that's okay too. What I want to share today is an integral part of what I've come to understand and is connected to pretty much everything else this podcast is about. So let's jump in. A number of years ago, just about 12 years to be exact, I had an unexpected revelation.

An Unexpected Revelation

3:06

I wasn't meditating or in church. I was at Jersey's, a local pizza place we often took our two boys on Friday or Saturday night. Sitting in that booth as my husband and kids were watching some baseball or basketball game on one of the endless TVs, I had an unexpected but very clear thought, which I know verbatim because I immediately wrote it in the notes section of my phone. Which, by the way, due to the date stamp, is also why I know it was almost exactly 12 years ago. Anyway, this is what I wrote in my phone: "Christianity is missing the point. Focus should be living like Jesus, not believing in Him. Jesus knew that there was no need to fear, even if in the worst of life's trauma and atrocity. Pain is temporary. He lived without fear." When I look at those words today, I'm kind of floored not only by their accuracy, but how pithy they are. Twelve years later, I fully understand that thought and on a much deeper level than I did that day at the restaurant. The words in my phone are no longer an idea, but an awareness I have internalized that has dramatically shifted my entire perspective of myself, of other people, of the world, of what matters and what doesn't. So today, I want to share what I believe that Jesus stood for and what he was trying to teach. And spoiler alert, it's probably not what you learned in church. Also, to be transparent, this is a gigantic topic that could and does encompass entire books. So for this short little discussion, I will only be hitting the highlights. But if these ideas resonate with you, I encourage you to do further exploring and research So the first idea we need to tackle is the world as a whole. Many of us were taught that God created the world and then created us to live here.

Who Created the World?

5:30

I mean, it feels true, right? But at the same time, has there ever been a part of you, even a small part, that wondered why? The one thing that I know to be true over everything else, the only thing about God that at the end of the day truly matters, is that God is love, pure love. So why would a loving God create a world full of hate, pain, and struggle? If he loved us so much, why would he throw us, ill-equipped, into a world that despite some arguably good things, we would basically suffer throughout our short life and then die? Because, well, he didn't Okay, so then how did the world get created? Here's where it gets a little crazy. Stay with me. We are part of God, correct? Even in Sunday school, we learn that we are the children of God. Children implies being part of, coming from the source, having the same genetic material, the same DNA. So if you can appreciate that at least in some small way we are part of God, Then it isn't too much of a stretch to accept that the world we see and participate in was created not by God, but by us as His children. We chose to separate and try things our own way, to exist on our own, to forge our own path, to stand on our own two feet, if you will. But, and this is a key piece, we chose to separate in our mind, because the truth is there is no separation from God. We never left Him and never could, even if we wanted to. So in our very powerful minds, we are part of God, remember. We created an existence that, despite what feels like a lot of evidence to the contrary, is in reality only a temporary illusion. This concept, and yes, I know it is a big one, is absolutely fundamental. The world seems real because our perception feeds our belief system, which then circles back to feed our perception. We conclude the world to be real, to be finite based on our experience. Our experience is understood through the data we have accumulated from our five senses: what we see, hear, taste, smell, and touch. Using all of this information or data, we develop a belief system about where we are and who we are. And of course, our parents and their parents and grandparents, generation before generation, followed the same pattern, using their senses to understand the world while passing down the same belief system, which paves the way for us as the newest kids on the block to easily accept what seems to be true Remember the movie The Matrix, where Earth is a simulation controlled by other beings for their own amusement? An amazing example of art imitating life. Except that instead of someone else controlling us, we have free will. We create our experience. And to go even further, anybody walking around on this planet has 100% agreed to be here. No one was forced. But the zinger is, the detail that changes everything, is the great forgetting. We absolutely agreed to be here. But once we actually got here, after being born into our human body, we forgot our decision, forgot where we came from, and often forget our purpose entirely. So now we have a seemingly world full of people who are really all part of God, all divine, and all one, who have completely forgotten that fact. And everyone is walking around in separate bodies, experiencing very challenging circumstances. Yeah, you know where this is going. And instead of working together, although that of course does happen, they judge and blame each other for the insanity that is life. So let's talk about Jesus.

Jesus & His Mission

10:00

Jesus was enlightened. In other words, he knew that he was not just a body or a personality walking around. He remembered where he came from. Because he remembered, he was able to see through the illusion of the physical world. I mean, there is no doubt Jesus was here for a purpose. Well, actually, we all are, but clearly Jesus had a big mission, and he fulfilled it. But unfortunately, although not a huge surprise, much of what he taught to the people who followed him or heard him speak when he was alive ended up being distorted and rewritten in a way that made him appear to be a savior, next in line to God, and most definitely way better than the rest of us But when Jesus referred to himself as the Son of God, he didn't just mean himself. He meant all of us. He was trying to wake us up, to get us to remember who we were. His teachings and the way he lived were an amazing attempt to share what he knew. Jesus knew that all human beings are part of God. All human beings, yes, even the bad ones, are part of God. That we are all divine, holy, and one, and that we are not just bodies walking around doing our best to figure out this crazy world The reason Jesus worked so hard to try to get us to understand is because knowing the truth of who we are transforms what we experience. Our relationship with everything that appears to be outside of us, problems, challenges, other people, even our own bodies, is based on an illusion and a distorted one at that. But when we are able to see through the illusion, we can experience what human life has to offer without all of the unnecessary drama. Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? So here's the harder part. Once we begin to understand and accept who we actually are, we must honor that truth by living it. Living in a body makes us believe that everything bad is outside of us. It appears that there are other people walking around doing a million things to annoy, frustrate, upset, and hurt us. But, and this is another big idea, everything we experience as outside of us, and specifically all the bad things, is only a projection of the parts of ourselves that we don't like. What does this mean? It means that because the truth is we are one, an aspect of the whole, when we see a quality or behavior in a family member or friend or person on TV that brings up negative thoughts and feelings, this other person symbolizes a part of ourselves that we don't like. It's just part of the illusion we have created. We project the bad outward onto the movie screen that is the world we experience. The person that drives you crazy is actually within you, but it is a part of you that feels much more comfortable to experience on the outside as separate. I get that this is a hard idea to accept, and trust me, from my own ego perspective, I had a hard time with this one, and honestly, sometimes still do. Because this truth reminds me that the people I judge as misguided, misinformed, naive, and let's be real, stupid, ignorant, foolish, hateful, that's me? Yuck. Yuck, but true, unfortunately. All right. So once you digest this weird and unsavory idea, stop for a minute and think. If this is true, as uncomfortable as it is to accept, doesn't it completely change your perspective of everything? Instead of seeing the world as horrible and yourself as powerless, it would mean that the world at large may seem to be bad, but really it is only an external representation of feelings within yourself that, guess what? You have the power to change. We each have the power to change our experience of life. It starts with recognizing who we actually are, that the world is a temporary, albeit purposeful illusion created in our very powerful mind, and that everything we experience outside of us is being determined in part by us. Therefore, if we begin to tap into the power we have to create and choose differently, what we experience will also begin to be very different. Of course, there is a catch, or what seems to be a catch. In order to begin to utilize our power, we must change the way we think. Jesus saw through the illusion of badness in other people. He didn't get stuck on it. Instead, he approached other people with love and forgiveness constantly. He embodied this, which is why I'm sure people were so drawn to him and actively listened to what he had to say. I've talked about forgiveness before. Forgiveness really is the path to freedom. Jesus knew that the only way to escape the illusion of earthly pain and struggle was through truth. The truth is that we are not separate people out for ourselves, but that we are one. Not all one, but quite literally only one. But that is a topic for another day. Our human thoughts and feelings, while natural and necessary in the illusion, can easily lead us down a path that takes us away from our power. Freedom lies in recognizing that negative thoughts and feelings, while part of the human experience, are ultimately unnecessary and misaligned with our truest self. If we can understand where the negative comes from, see it for what it is, and then choose to move through our lives without attaching ourselves to it, we are on the path to freedom, which in our crazy world means pretty much constant forgiveness and seeing past what appears to be our own mistakes and the bad behavior of those around us When we forgive others, we strengthen the idea, the muscle, if you will, of truth. Each act of forgiveness is a miracle because it reminds us and quietly brings us closer to who we really are. The other important piece of this is that when we forgive others, we are really just forgiving ourselves, which baby step by baby step transforms our self-perception, reminding us of our divinity and the love that is who we are. All right, one more quick idea. I know, none of these ideas are quick, obviously, but let's touch on fear.

Why We Should Look for Fear

17:47

All negative thoughts and feelings are generated by fear, no exceptions. In fact, I challenge you to peel back the layers of the emotional onion the next time you notice anger with someone or something. If you go far enough, and if you are fully honest with yourself, you will find some form of fear. I guarantee it. Why should we bother to look for fear? Because fear is the great negative motivator. Yet fear, in reality, is absolutely unnecessary. We are of God. We are divine, holy. The world is a temporary experience. Fear itself is an illusion. There is nothing to fear. We are and will always be. There is no death However, this is important, please hear me. There is no shame in feeling fear or feeling pain or experiencing hurt or anger or any negative yucky emotion. The point of all of this is not to use negative thoughts and feelings to feel worse about yourself. Our humanness comes with feelings, negative feelings. It's how we process what we experience and is actually part of the entire point of being here. So it is never about denying what we feel or running from it. Unfortunately, in fact, that doesn't work and ends up giving negative feelings even more power. Feel your feelings. Allow. Give them space. But then at some moment in time, recognize that they are being generated by an essentially unreal, temporary earthly existence. Consider holding less tightly to them to breathe, to remember who you are. Choose to release and forgive The more we tap into the truth that Jesus was trying to get us to see, the more we begin to experience it, not just in our spirit selves at some other point in time and space, but now in real time here on Earth as we are walking around doing all the things. When we recognize and then forgive our fear, as imperfect as this process might be, our lives change for the better. Christ consciousness is quietly waiting within all

Christ Consciousness

20:21

of us. Christ consciousness is activated when we wake up and recognize that it is who we are. If you are waiting for the second coming, the moment when Jesus returns to Earth to save us, stop waiting. You don't need to wait. I will leave you with a quote from A Course in Miracles. "The second coming is merely the return of sense. It is the awareness of reality, not its return." Don't forget your power, dear listener. Remember who you are. You are light, you are love, you are holy