Last time I did an episode on the Beatitudes, not knowing if I would continue talking about the Sermon on the Mount or not. I am going to do at least this additional one. Jesus follows up his eight blessings by giving two metaphors that point us to our true identity. He calls us salt and light. In using these words he is employing images with a long history in various spiritual traditions, which explain our nondual nature.
Last time I did an episode on the Beatitudes, not knowing if I would continue talking about the Sermon on the Mount or not. I am going to do at least this additional one. Jesus follows up his eight blessings by giving two metaphors that point us to our true identity. He calls us salt and light. In using these words he is employing images with a long history in various spiritual traditions, which explain our nondual nature.
Last time I did an episode on the Beatitudes, not knowing if I would continue talking about the Sermon on the Mount or not. I am going to do at least this additional one. Jesus follows up his eight blessings by giving two metaphors that point us to our true identity. He calls us salt and light. In using these words he is employing images with a long history in various spiritual traditions, which explain our nondual nature.
First he says, “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” He calls us salt. Jesus could have said any number of things. He could have called us immortal souls or mortal creatures, but he did not. He did not say that we were lost sinners bound for hell who needed to be saved from the wrath of God through the human sacrifice of himself on the Cross. Such a thought never would have entered his mind! Jesus called us salt. He says we are the salt of the earth and emphasizes the saltiness.
The Upanishad make the same point. In the Chandogya Upanishad there is a dialogue between a father and son. The son is inquiring about the true Self. “Please, Father, tell me more about this Self.” “Yes, dear one, I will,” the father said. “Place this salt in water and bring it here tomorrow morning.” The boy did. ”Where is that salt?” his father asked. “I do not see it.” “Sip here. How does it taste?” “Salty, Father.” “And here? And there?” “I taste salt everywhere.” “It is everywhere, though we see it not. Just so, dear one, the Self is everywhere, Within all things, although we see him not. There is nothing that does not come from him. Of everything he is the inmost Self. He is the truth; he is the Self supreme. You are that, my son; you are that.”
It sounds similar to something Jesus says in the Gospel of Thomas. Jesus said, "I am the All. Cleave a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up a stone, and You will find Me there." In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus calls us salt and makes the point that we are to be salty.
I ask: If we are salt how can we not taste salty? That is his point. In one sense we cannot be otherwise than our True Self. How can the chemical compound NaCl, Sodium chloride, not be salty. It is impossible! It is its nature. We are what we are - the One - by nature and cannot be other than that. He is saying that we are to be our True Self. And if we are consciously our True nature, then it will show.
Yet many people are not aware of that and are not consciously living what they are. Some people – like Jesus for example – are clearly aware of who they are and are living and speaking a life that is transparent to their Ture Nature. They live lives that clearly point beyond themselves to the Eternal. Jesus said, “If you have seen me you have seen the Father.” He knew who he was and it showed.
Jesus is pointing us to self-realization of who we are. Jesus is saying that if our true nature is Eternal, then we will look and sound and act like the Eternal. If we are children of God, then we will look and act and sound like God. Just like salt tastes like salt. If it doesn’t, something is wrong.
He is saying that we are to be what we are. It is as easy as that. I have quoted the old country preacher before. “Be who you is and not who you aint. Cause if you ain’t who you is, you is who you aint.” You are the salt of the earth. That is who you is. Be that now. No need to wait until for some type of spiritual experience or awakening or enlightenment. An experience is not going to change what you are. You are what you are now. You are Being Itself. So Be. Live as Being.
Jesus make the same point with another metaphor. He calls us light. “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
Jesus says in the Gospel of John, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” When you are what you are, people will see. In the Gospel of Thomas Jesus says, “I am the light that is over all things. I am all. From me all came forth, and to me all attained. Split a piece of wood; I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there."
In the Upanishads the king Janaka asks, “When the sun sets and the moon sets, and the fire goes out and no one speaks, what is the light of man?” The sage responds, “The Self indeed is the light of man, your majesty, for by that we sit, work, go out, and come back.” “Who is that Self?” the king asks. “The Self, pure awareness, shines as the light within the heart.”
We are light, according to Jesus. Light illuminates everything else yet does not shine on itself. Light cannot illuminate who we are because we are not an object. We are that by which all objects are seen. We are not the body. We are not the brain. Both of those are objects. We are not the persona, which is a construction of the brain. We are that by which everything is seen but which cannot see itself.
Therefore to see what we are is a tricky matter. Just like an eye cannot see itself, so we cannot see our True Self. People seem to assume that we should be able to identify who or what we are. But we can’t. That is why self-knowledge is so elusive. We are not objects to be aware of. Anything that we can be aware of is not us. We are that which is aware.
We cannot see what or who we are, yet we know we are. We know the statement “I am” is true, even if we cannot we certain about anything else. Everything else might be a dream or a hallucination or a deception, like Neo stuck in the Matrix before he wakes up. But we know that the dream or hallucination must be appearing to someone. That awareness is who we are.
The things we know about this world are seen with distorted sight; we see as through a glass darkly the apostle Paul said. We can only be aware of things through our senses, which are very imperfect instruments, and through a brain which is also very imperfect. The world is not what we think it is; we cannot be exactly sure what it is.
But we are absolutely sure that we are. I am. I am that I am. We are Being. We are Light by which everything is seen. We cannot see what we are, but we see because we are Light. That is what Jesus meant when he said, “You are the Light of the World.” That is what Jesus meant when he said, “I am the Light of the world.” There is one Light and we are that Light. John said of Christ, “In him was Life and the Life was the Light of men. And the Light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot extinguish it.”
“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
Jesus instructs us to shine. Light cannot do otherwise. Light that does not shine is not light any more than salt that is not salty. What good is a light placed under a basket, says Jesus. Be who you is. Let your light shine. Jesus is telling us to be what we are. The irony is that we really cannot not be. Try to not be! You can’t do it. You just are. Knowing that is enlightenment.
The word enlightenment comes from the world light. Does light have to do anything to be enlightened? No, of course not. You do not have to do anything or have any special spiritual experience or believe any special ideas or go through any religious rituals or join any organizations. All you have to do is be what you already are. You are light. That means you are enlightened. You are the salt of the earth. Call it saved or redeemed or forgiven or whole or one or awake or whatever term resonates with you. That is what you are. Be what you is.