In the Sermon on the Mount we have the most complete biblical exposition of Christian nonduality. It is not the type of description of nonduality that one would hear today. It does not talk about consciousness. It does not present a monistic or panentheistic understanding of reality. Jesus speaks of how oneness with God and all things is expressed in behavior. Among other things he says it is expressed by loving our enemies.
Nonduality is most clearly represented in the Old Testament with the biblical word shalom. The word is normally translated “peace” but shalom is not the absence of conflict. It is present no matter the circumstances.
In the Sermon on the Mount we have the most complete biblical exposition of Christian nonduality. It is not the type of description of nonduality that one would hear today. It does not talk about consciousness. It does not present a monistic or panentheistic understanding of reality. Jesus speaks of how oneness with God and all things is expressed in behavior. Among other things he says it is expressed by loving our enemies.
Nonduality is most clearly represented in the Old Testament with the biblical word shalom. The word is normally translated “peace” but shalom is not the absence of conflict. It is present no matter the circumstances.
Nondual Shalom
In the Sermon on the Mount we have the most complete biblical exposition of Christian nonduality. It is not the type of description of nonduality that one would hear today. It does not talk about consciousness. It does not present a monistic or panentheistic understanding of reality. Jesus speaks of how oneness with God and all things is expressed in behavior. Among other things he says it is expressed by loving our enemies.
This is not the first mention of loving our enemies in the Bible. I recently read an article in The Christian Century by Matthew Schlimm, assistant professor of Old Testament at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary. He is a pacifist who says he learned his pacifism from the Old Testament. He says, “The Old Testament says every bit as much about loving enemies as the New Testament does.” He gives examples. He writes:
“One of the Bible’s oldest laws says that if your enemy’s ox or donkey wanders away, you should return it (Exod. 23:4). The next verse says that if there’s someone who hates you, and that person has a donkey that’s suffering under a heavy load, unable to move, your job is to set the donkey free—especially if you don’t want to! When Leviticus 19:18 talks about loving your neighbor as yourself, it’s talking about a neighbor who has wronged you and whom you think deserves mistreatment in return. Proverbs 25:21 tells people to feed and give water to their enemies. It’s the Old Testament that dreams of a world free of violence when weapons will be turned into gardening tools (Isa. 2:4; Mic. 4:3).”
Then he writes: “Jesus didn’t invent a new ethic of nonviolence. He was simply a really good interpreter of the Old Testament. As he says when kicking off his Sermon on the Mount, he didn’t come to abolish the law but to show its fullest sense.”
Nonduality is most clearly represented in the Old Testament with the biblical word shalom. The word is normally translated “peace” but shalom is not the absence of conflict. It is present no matter the circumstances.
Years ago, when I was just beginning seminary in 1974 I submitted an essay on Shalom to a contest sponsored by the Baptist Peace Fellowship, of which I was a part. They would print the winning essay in their newsletter. They asked for essays on the meaning of the biblical concept of Shalom. I had studied the concept extensively for my undergraduate degree in Religion. My understanding came mostly from Johannes Pederson’s great four volume work entitled “Israel: Its Life and Culture.”
Shalom does not mean peace as we normally understand it. It is not the absence of war or conflict. It is the holistic divine presence that is present at all times, even in war. In that way it is very much like the teaching of the Bhagavad Gita that I talked about in the last episode, where Arjuna found peace of soul even in battle. It is not by accident that Shalom sounds a lot like the Sanskrit word Aum. They both come from the sound of the breath. They both express the divine presence at all times and in all circumstances.
That is what I wrote in the essay. Not surprisingly my essay was not chosen for publication for exactly that reason. What they really wanted was an essay that supported an ethic of nonviolence and pacifism. Shalom does not do that. I presented an understanding of shalom that was present in war as well as peace. It is expressed by the apostle Paul when he writes: “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."
That is shalom. It is the peace that transcends all human understanding, as Paul describes it elsewhere. Shalom is nondual awareness manifested as a peace of the soul that surpasses understanding and is present in all conditions and circumstances of life.
According to Jesus it is expressed in love for enemies. It does not mean that we do not have enemies. That is important to notice. Peace is not the absence of enemies. It means that we love our enemies. Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
According to Jesus love of enemies is taught by the sun when it shines on the evil and good, and by the rain when it falls on the just and unjust. It is the way of Creation. The Tao Te Ching calls it the Tao. Jesus’ instruction to love our enemies comes out of a understanding of Reality expressed in nature, including human nature.
The key to understanding Jesus’ concept of nondual love and peace is the last sentence of this passage. Jesus says: “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” That is usually badly misunderstood. Perfect does not mean never making a mistake. That is impossible, as the apostle Paul makes abundantly clear. As we saw in an earlier episode that was impossible even for Jesus! Jesus never claimed that sort of perfection for himself.
The word translated “perfect” here is “telios” means the end to which all things point, namely the Kingdom of God. The word perfect means wholeness and completeness, which is exactly that nondual reality is! Jesus is pointing us to wholeness, which is the meaning of holiness. The word perfect means ripe or mature. When a peach is perfect it does not mean it has no flaws. It means it has reached it fulfillment and completion is ready to eat.
The world in that sense is perfect. It does not mean that there are not problems and suffering and evil in the world. It means that it all works together as parts of a greater completeness. That is what the creation story of Genesis means when it declares that the earth is good and very good. It does not mean there were not bad things that happen, like animal and human suffering from the very beginning of life on earth. It means that it is all part of a bigger perfect unity.
In spirituality we are perfect or complete or mature when we are aware that we partake of the completeness of the whole. We could also use the word righteous All is right; that is what righteous means. That is liberation from a narrow dualistic view of the world. That is salvation from sin, which is war between right and wrong, good and evil. That is forgiveness, which sees sin as part of a better, greater whole.
Jesus says we are to be perfect as God is perfect. He is not calling us to be sinless, which is an impossible task for any human being. That just sets us up for failure and guilt. He means that the world is seen from a Divine perspective. God shines the sun on the just and unjust and sends the rain on the good and evil. We love our neighbor as ourselves, even when our neighbor is our enemy.
The only way we can possibly do that is when we see the world in perfect union with God. As the psalmist says, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you.” It is to see wholeness where others see division. That is what it means to be perfect, whole, complete, one. “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One.” It is to be one as God is one. That is unitive awareness. That is shalom.