In this episode I begin a study of the Gospel of John, interpreting it as a proclamation of the message of nonduality. Last time I gave you some background information on the gospel, and today we are going to get into the text itself.
The Gospel of John begins with the beginning. It repeats the famous words of Genesis 1 “In the beginning ….” But instead of telling a dualistic story of creation, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…” it says “In the beginning was the Word….” Instead of a story it has a poem that describes how this present dualistic world came to be, and how it is in reality nondual. Let me read the first few verses for you.
In this episode we will be looking at the opening words of the Gospel in John 1:1-5
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
In this episode I begin a study of the Gospel of John, interpreting it as a proclamation of the message of nonduality. Last time I gave you some background information on the gospel, and today we are going to get into the text itself.
The Gospel of John begins with the beginning. It repeats the famous words of Genesis 1 “In the beginning ….” But instead of telling a dualistic story of creation, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…” it says “In the beginning was the Word….” Instead of a story it has a poem that describes how this present dualistic world came to be, and how it is in reality nondual. Let me read the first few verses for you.
In this episode we will be looking at the opening words of the Gospel in John 1:1-5
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
Nonduality and the Gospel of John
Today I am going to begin a study of the Gospel of John, interpreting it as a proclamation of the message of nonduality. Last time I gave you some background information on the gospel, and today we are going to get into the text itself.
The Gospel of John begins with the beginning. It repeats the famous words of Genesis 1 “In the beginning ….” But instead of telling a dualistic story of creation, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…” it says “In the beginning was the Word….” Instead of a story it has a poem that describes how this present dualistic world came to be, and how it is in reality nondual. Let me read the first few verses for you.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. John 1:1-5
“In the beginning was the Word.” What did the author mean by “the Word?” As the chapter continues it becomes clear that he is talking about Christ. Not just the human named Jesus, but the Universal Christ who was at the beginning of the universe. Later in this gospel Jesus affirms this interpretation of his true nature, saying, “Before Abraham was, I am.”
The Word that was in the beginning was “I am.” The nondual truth at the heart of the Gospel of John is articulated in the words “I am.” This is the gospel. This “I am” is what is meant in the gospel of John when it uses the word God. It says this clearly here, when it says, “the Word was God.” This statement is not just affirming the divinity of Christ, as traditional Christianity asserts. This is affirming the identity of God. God is the Word “I am,” which in the Greek language is literally one word which is pronounced εἰμί, and sometimes two words in order to emphasize the I ἐγὼ εἰμί.
The Word from which the universe was formed, “through which all things were made,” is the “I am.” If you had to sum up the message of Jesus in the Gospel of John it is “I am.” In Chinese spiritual tradition this original divine Word is Tao. The oldest and still most popular Chinese translation of the New Testament translates the opening words of John’s Gospel: “In the beginning was the Tao. And the Tao was with God and the Tao was God.”
In Indian spiritual tradition this word is AUM, which is said to originate as the sound of a breath. Similarly the word for breath in Hebrew and Greek is the same as the word for Spirit. AUM is the Word chanted before a spiritual recitation in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. This syllable is often found at the beginning and the end of chapters in the Vedas, the Upanishads, and other Hindu texts.
In the Torah the word is Yahweh, which is also said to be the sound of a breath. This word Yahweh is said to be unpronounceable. Jews will not pronounce it to this day when reading the Torah. This unpronounceable and unknowable word means: “I am” or “I am that I am.” This is the eternal Word referred to at the beginning of the Gospel of John.
It is the primordial essential unity out of which the diversity of the universe emerged. It is nonduality out of which duality came without changing the essential unity. We find the emergence of the duality of temporal existence in these opening words. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.” So we have the Word as identical to God. It also says that the Word is with God. To be with God implies duality. It means there is two.
Here we have the emergence of two from One. Then there is the progression of everything else from the two. It says, “All things were made through Him (meaning the Word), and without Him nothing was made that was made.” Most translations use the personal pronoun “Him” here, but in Greek the pronoun is simply referring to the masculine word logos, word.
In English it is best translated, “All things were made through the Word, and without the Word, nothing was made that was made.” The whole universe came forth from the One and the Two. This creation account reminds me of the Tao Te Ching, which says, “The Tao begot one. One begot two. Two begot three. And three begot the ten thousand things.” The “ten thousand things” refers to the universe.
The Tao Te Ching says that the universe comes from the Three, which sounds amazingly like the Christian concept of the Trinity. In Christian theology all three persons of the Trinity have a role in creating the universe. This shows how amazingly connected these spiritual traditions are. They are talking about the emergence of multiplicity from unity, duality from nonduality.
John then says, “In this Word was life, and the life was the light of humans. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” I read this and I think of scientific documentaries about the Big Bang that began the universe. Science says that there was originally one undifferentiated unity called the Singularity (which sounds a lot like nonduality), out of which came light and eventually life.
This word Life is used throughout the Gospel of John as shorthand for Eternal Life. The Gospel is not just talking about biological life coming about as a product of creation. There is a Greek word for that type of life if that is what he meant – bios. The word used here is zoe, which is spiritual life, eternal life, divine life. To know divine life is what is called salvation in Christianity. In other spiritual traditions it is known as nirvana or moksha or enlightenment or awakening or liberation.
This is what the Gospel of John calls Life. It says that the Word is life. In other word “I am” is eternal life. To know this is life and his life is the light of humans, it says. It is no accident that we get the word enlightenment from this word light. To see all things by the light of “I am” is enlightenment. It is eternal life.
“And the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it.” This light of I AM shines in the darkness of the human condition. This creation poem is so much more than a rehash of how the physical universe came into being. It is so much more than the unscientific creationism that is espoused by so many Christians today. This is talking about the spiritual condition of humanity. Humans are living in darkness. They do not see the light. It says they did not comprehend it. “And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” Another word for this is ignorance. Not being able to see this light is to live in spiritual darkness and ignorance.
The solution to this darkness is the light of I AM. To see the Light and walk by the light of the Word is life. That phrasing sounds very Christian, and it should … because it is Christian. But it is not talking about the Bible. So many Christians call the Bible the Word, and treat the Bible as a substitute for God. That is idolatry. The Bible itself never calls itself the Word of God! That is later human term. When the Bible talk about the Word it is talking about direct inspiration from God, not secondhand repetition of something someone else received.
God is the Word. Christ is the Word. The most the Bible says about sacred writings is that certain books were inspired by God and useful. That is it. The concept of a book as the Word of God is just a subtle way humans have of pushing God away, distancing themselves from God by placing a book between them and God, and thereby avoiding direct experience of God. That is bibliolatry and is a formula for remaining stuck in duality, which is exactly where most of Christianity is.
This prologue of John says the Word is God. The Word is I AM. This is the Word from which the universe was born. This Word is Life and this life is the light of humans. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not comprehend it. To hear and recognize this Word is to wake up to Eternal life.