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Good morning. I had a great deal of fun working on this topic for today. Every time I come up with a topic, it’s because a thought flitted across my mind and I glanced at it long enough for a bud to develop. Getting scheduled to speak on the thought is necessary for me because then I can channel my energy into researching that one idea and making the bud blossom. However, In doing so, I always run across other things that tickle my mind that I can look at later. This was no exception and I think it is a wonderful reservoir of fascinating topics.
This idea came up when I gave my talk on non-duality and A Course in Miracles. I found a surprising amount of non-duality in the teachings of Jesus and started reading more. When I gave my talk about becoming more spiritual, I found that the thread on non-duality spread throughout the Bible. How could this be, I thought. Christianity is a dualistic religion. How could the Bible, the foundation of the Christian Church seem to me to be non-dualistic?
This then led me to question how deep the non-dualistic principles were and, for confirmation, was anything else written on, what appeared to me, to be a major disconnect?
For this talk, I strolled through Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism and others. I have some favorite Bible Web Sites where I can research passages in about two dozen versions of the Bible. I started getting the feeling one gets when, after looking all over the house for his car keys, he stops and opens his hand and finds them there. What I was finding had been there all the time. I just hadn’t seen it.
From a book, The Science of Breath, written in 1905, to Paramahansa Yogananda writings in the 1940’s, Swami Rama’s writings from the 1980’s, scores of variations and interpretations of the Koran, the Torah, and the Bible a common thread emerged..
It led me to study a gentleman by the name of Nicholas Notovitch. Born in the Crimea in 1858, he was a writer and journalist who on 14 October 1887 left Rawlpindi, worked his way to Kashmir and then to Ladakh, Tibet, planning a return journey through Khartoum and Chinese Turkistan.
While there, he heard a fascinating legend about a man known as St Issa or Prophet Issa or as Issa . Issa shows up in Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism but suprisingly made his mark from the time he was 14 through the age of 28 and then nothing much is heard except for a nasty death a few years later I’ll cover in a little while.
One of the Lamas visited reportedly said that Buddhists greatly respected Issa, ‘Among the many scrolls at Himis are to be found the descriptions and acts of the Buddha Issa who preached holy doctrine in India and among the children of Israel.’
Islam is loaded with references to the Prophet Issa. Prophet Mohammed preaches in his Scripture the unity of Deity, and renders honor to the Christian prophet "Issa Ben Yussuf" (Jesus, son of Joseph).
But lets back up and get the basics of where yoga fits in to all of this.
In the beginning, God created heaven and earth. He said, Let there be light.”
Before there was light, there was the sound of his “words”. Before there was sound there was the intention to say the words. Before the intention, there was pure thought. We, all of us, are a part of the thought, an idea in the mind of God experiencing our versions of reality. Each one of us has our own version based on our own personal perceptions based on our own personal histories.
Our histories start an instant ago and extend to where we were born and before that.
When we emerged from the ocean and became our own wave, we brought with us the history and perceptions of our past lives and a part of the universal consciousness. We travel this existence “working off Karma” and carrying with us the samskaras of the past so we can realize and possibly return to the universal thought, God, all that is; the I am. The samskaras, imprints left on the subconscious mind by experience (from this or previous lives), color all of life, one's nature, responses, states of mind, etc. So, like I’ve talked about before, everything we see is colored by our past; recent, distant, and prior to this existence.
Once in a while, someone comes into existence in this reality an Avatar; an incarnation of a fragment of God on Earth, like us but without samskaras. This person comes into being without past karma, without “original sins”. Avatars that are known of in the West include Christ, Buddha, Rama and Krishna. There are many others, however, as enumerated in the Bhagavata, the story of all the major Avatars.
Now, in the book of Genesis Chapter 2, verse 21, it says “So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept.” I have yet to find out where we woke up and isn’t that what we’re all really trying to do?
From what I understand, Jesus however wasn’t asleep when he arrived in this existence and knew who he really was. He came into being knowing exactly who he was and his relationship with God, the all that, the I am.
There is quite a bit written about Jesus from birth until the age of twelve. Shortly after his 12th birthday, he went to Jerusalem with his mom and dad to celebrate Passover like they did every year. This year they left thinking he was with other folks in the caravan and thinking he was just hanging with his buds, didn’t notice him missing until the next day. After an extensive search, they decided they must have left him behind when they left so they turned around and went back to Jerusalem to find him. He was fine when they found him. He was in one of the temples talking to the religious and spiritual leaders.
Reportedly, they were quite impressed with his questions and wisdom. Mom and Dad thanked everyone for taking such good care of him, they packed him up and they left for home. Jesus, at this time is approaching the ripe old age of thirteen and by tradition, is the right age to get married. From what I found, there was quite a flow of families and prospective wives brought to the family home but, young Jesus wasn’t really interested.
This is where the Bible stops and then the Bible picks up again when He is at age thirty at the river Jordan where his cousin John baptizes him. In the book of Luke Chapter 2, verse 52, John reportedly noticed the difference in Jesus. The verse says: “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. Jesus said he was off doing his Father’s business.”
That leaves eighteen years unaccounted for.
Nicholas Roerich, a Russian painter and spiritual teacher writes:
The divine child, to whom was given the name of Issa, began from his earliest years to speak of the one and indivisible God, exhorting the souls of those gone astray to repentance and the purification of the sins of which they were culpable.
People came from all parts to hear him, and they marveled at the discourses proceeding from his childish mouth. All the Israelites were of one accord in saying that the Eternal Spirit dwelt in this child.
When Issa had attained the age of thirteen years, the epoch when an Israelite should take a wife,
The house where his parents earned their living by carrying on a modest trade began to be a place of meeting for rich and noble people, desirous of having for son-in-law the young Issa, already famous for his edifying discourses in the name of the Almighty.
Then it was that Issa left the parental house in secret, departed from Jerusalem, and with the merchants set out towards Sind with the object of perfecting himself in the Divine Word and of studying the laws of the great Buddhas.
Nicolas Notovitch, a Russian aristocrat, Cossack officer, spy and journalist wrote a book in 1894 called “The Lost Years of Jesus: The Life of Saint Issa” after his extensive travels in the Orient. Obviously, the book wasn’t very well received.
The "Life of Issa" begins with an account of Israel in Egypt, its deliverance by Moses, its neglect of religion, and its conquest by the Romans. Then there follows an account of the Incarnation. At the age of thirteen the divine youth, rather than take a wife, leaves his home to wander with a caravan of merchants to India (Sindh), to study the laws of the great Buddhas.
Issa is welcomed by the Jains, but leaves them to spend six years among the Brahmins, at Juggernaut, Benares, and other places, studying the Vedas and teaching all castes alike. The Brahmins oppose him in this, and he denounces them and their sacred books, especially condemning caste and idolatry. When they plan to put him to death, he flees to the Buddhists, and spends six years among them, learning Pali and mastering their religious texts. He goes among the pagans, warning them against idolatry and teaching a high morality. Then he visits Persia and preaches to the Zoroastrians.
According to legend, Issa was 14 years of age when he crossed the Sind, a region we know today as South East Pakistan in the lower Indus Valley. Here he established himself with the Aryas who migrated to that region in the second millennium BC. Issa’s fame spread and he acquired many devoted followers. The Jains, a strict religious sect requested him to remain with them but he continued instead on his journey, visiting Juggernaut where the Brahmin Priests initially welcomed him.
Issa spent six years studying the Vedas with the Brahmin priesthood, perfecting the healing arts and the rites of the exorcism, becoming versed in the mastery of the body through the yogic practices of subduing the heartbeat and bodily functions to attain altered states of higher consciousness.
At that time the caste system controlled the lives of those of the Hindu religion from the cradle to the grave, and not surprisingly the Brahmin priesthood had elevated itself to the highest caste or rank stating their authority came from the Vedas, their sacred scripture. This Brahmin priesthood and the Kristiyas, or Warrior caste, dictated all aspects of life for the masses. The priesthood were the only ones allowed to read from the Vedas. The farmers and the merchant’s caste were allowed to hear the Holy Scriptures read by priests but only on feast days. The lower castes of the peasants and laborers were not allowed to hear them at all nor even to look at them.
This social system of segregation allocated people to a specific caste from birth to death; the lower served the higher. It was in effect slavery since there was no possibility of rising from the imposed caste system. The only escape was death. Issa spoke out against the caste system
Issa denounced the priests’ interpretation from the Vedic scriptures as false, enraging the Brahmins by challenging their right to relegate human beings to subservience and accusing them of being ‘a false priesthood.’ As a result they plotted to kill him but Issa was warned by the peasant caste, and leaving by night he began the next stage of his journey through Asia.
Travelling to Southern Nepal at the foothills of the Himalayas he reached the birthplace of Guatama Buddha who had taught the people five centuries before. Here after a further six years of study Issa had become ‘a perfect expositor of the sacred writings’. Leaving the Himalayas, he journeyed West through Persia where he preached against idolatry to the Zoroastrians. The worship of the ‘Sacred Flame’ as a focus of ‘the light of God’ as taught by the prophet Zoroaster had become corrupted to a worship of the fire element itself as once again humanity had fallen into the error of worshipping the physical expression of the Creator, failing to see the truth in the sacred teaching of a Master.
Issa restored the true understanding to the people who followed and revered him but once again he became the target of revenge from an alienated priesthood. The Zoroastrian priests wished to be rid of him but recognizing his spiritual authority were not prepared to kill him, so instead banished him outside the city gates at night in the belief that wild animals would put an end to his life. Issa had divine protection and survived the night, the next day he began his return journey to Palestine; he was twenty nine.
At twenty-nine Issa returns to his own country and begins to preach. He visits Jerusalem, where Pilate is apprehensive about him. The Jewish leaders, however, are also apprehensive about his teachings yet he continues his work for three years. He is finally arrested and put to death for blasphemy, for claiming to be the son of God. His followers are persecuted, but his disciples carry his message out over the world.
His followers and disciples spread his message and The Bible continues to speak the message of Jesus. The message of course was yoga and non-duality.
But, first, how does Issa become Jesus? Due to the complexity of multiple languages and alphabets, letters are swapped around and replaced. For example:
Y and J (ex: Yahoda/Jehoda); S and SH (ex: Ismail/Ishmail); B and V (ex: Elisheva/Elsheba); J and H (ex: Jesus/Hasus)
This is how Jesus got his name:
The ancient name: Issa, pronounced as Esaa;
Issa> I becomes Y; S becomes SH,
so we got:
Issa> YeSha>Yeshua
Now people of Hebrew language changed Y with J; and Sh became S again.
So it became Jesa and then Jesas and then Jesus.
But le’s get back to Yoga and how Jesus in the Bible teaches us to practice Yoga.
For starters, from the book of Luke Chapter 10, verse 25 “On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 26 "What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?" 27 He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind' and 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' " 28"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."
From the book Dueteronomy Chapter 6 verse 5 “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”
And from the book of Mark chapter 12 verse 28, “One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, "What commandment is the foremost of all?" 29 "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
Let’s break that down into yogic principles and see how they relate.
Love God with all your heart: Sounds like Bhakti Yoga:
Swami Vivekananda: Bhakti-Yoga is a real, genuine search after the Lord, a search beginning, continuing, and ending in love. One single moment of the madness of extreme love of God brings us eternal freedom.
"Bhakti", says Narada in his explanation of the Bhakti-aphorisms, "is intense love of God"; "When a man gets it, he loves all, hates none; he becomes satisfied for ever." "This love cannot be reduced to any earthly benefit", because so long as worldly desires last that kind of love does not come; "Bhakti is greater than Karma, greater than Yoga, because these are intended for an object in view, while Bhakti is its own fruition, its own means and its own end."
With all your mind: We can do that with Raja Yoga; intense, constant meditation, one pointedness. The Bhagavad Gita stresses the importance of meditation as follows "Make a habit of practicing meditation and do not let your mind be distracted. In this way you will come finally to the Lord who is the light-giver, the highest of the high." Raja Yoga aims at controlling all thought-waves or mental modifications. While a Hatha Yogi starts his Sadhana with Asanas (postures) and Pranayama, a Raja Yogi starts his Sadhana with the mind, although a certain minimum of asanas and pranayamas are usually included as a preparation for the meditation and concentration.
All your strength: We do this with Hatha Yoga and Karma Yoga
The mastery of life energy that enables one to love God with all their strength begins with posture or asana. In the Yoga Sutra, Patanjali describes asana as the third of the eight limbs of classical, or Raja Yoga. Asanas are the physical movements of yoga practice and, in combination with pranayama or breathing techniques constitute the style of yoga referred to as Hatha Yoga. The word Hatha comes from combining the two Sanskrit terms "ha" meaning sun and "tha" meaning moon. The word "ha" refers to the solar nadi (pingala) in the subtle body and "tha" the lunar channel (ida). However, when the two components of the word are placed together, "hatha" means "forceful", implying that powerful work must be done to purify the body. Yoga means to yoke, or to join 2 things together, hence hatha yoga is meant to join together our sun (masculine, active) energy with our moon (feminine, receptive) energy, thus producing balance and greater power in an individual.
In the Yoga Sutra, Patanjali describes asana as a "firm, comfortable posture", referring specifically to the seated posture, most basic of all the asanas. He further suggests that meditation is the path to samadhi; transpersonal self-realization. In the Yoga sutras, Patanjali suggests that asana is "to be seated in a position that is firm, but relaxed".
Karma yoga (also known as Buddhi Yoga) or the "discipline of action" is based on the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita, a sacred Sanskrit scripture of Hinduism. One of the four pillars of yoga, Karma yoga focuses on the adherence to duty (dharma) while remaining detached from the reward. It states that one can attain Moksha (salvation) or love of God (bhakti) by performing their duties in an unselfish manner for the pleasure of the Supreme, which is the welfare of the world. Karma Yoga is an intrinsic part of many derivative types of yoga, such as Natya Yoga.
As far as a sitting posture goes, it may serve us well to follow Mark, Chapter 1 Verse 3 “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his path straight.”
With all your soul: Aristotle defined the soul as the core essence of a being, but argued against its having a separate existence. For instance, he said, if a knife had a soul, the act of cutting would be that soul, because 'cutting' is the essence of what it is to be a knife. However, this way of thinking doesn’t go well with the thought of an immortal soul since once the knife is destroyed, so is the act of cutting.
I prefer to think of the book of Genesis, Chapter 2 Verse 7 “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Sounds like Prana is the soul.
Prana was first expounded in the Upanishads, where it is part of the worldly, physical realm, sustaining the body and the mother of thought and thus also of the mind. Prana suffuses all living form but is not itself the Atman or individual soul.
In the book, The Science of Breath by Yogi Ramacharaka:
To breathe is to live and without breath, there is no life.
The infant draws in a long, deep breath, retains it for a moment to extract from it its life-giving properties, and then exhales it in a long wail and lo its life upon earth has begun. The old man gives a faint gasp, ceases to breath, and life is over. From the first faint breath of the infant to the last gasp of the dying man, it is one long story of continued breathing. Life is but a series of breaths.
Just for some extra stuff to throw in here. The four levels of consciousness are described beautifully in the book of Genesis when the river of life is split into four rivers in the Garden of Eden: Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, Euphrates. Our rivers of life are gross, subtle, causal, and tourea; waking, dreaming, sleeping, and beyond; conscious, subconscious, unconscious, and the fourth.
In the book of Revelation, Chapter 5 verse 4 “I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside.” 5 “Then one of the elders said to me, ‘Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.’”
The following seven primary seals are commonly described as:
1. Muladhara Base or Root Chakra (lower part of the body)
2. Swadhisthana Sacral Chakra (reproductive area)
3. Manipura Solar Plexus Chakra (navel area)
4. Anahata Heart Chakra (heart area)
5. Vishuddha Throat Chakra (throat and neck area)
6. Ajna Brow or Third Eye Chakra (eyebrow/forehead area)
7. Sahasrara Crown Chakra (crown of head/ area above the head)
Karma is also discussed regularly in the Bible. For example:
Matthew 7:2 (King James Version) 2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
Matthew 7:2 (Amplified Bible) 2 For just as you judge and criticize and condemn others, you will be judged and criticized and condemned, and in accordance with the measure you [use to] deal out to others, it will be dealt out again to you.
Luke 6:38 Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure--pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return."
Proverbs 14:32 The wicked is thrust down by his wrongdoing, But the righteous has a refuge when he dies.
In closing, I think it’s easy to see that not only are there non-dualistic teachings in the Bible, there are also very strong yogic principles. All I had time to talk about today was one commandment. My research opened a door to a room full of fascinating ideas that I hope to explore further and possibly share with you in another talk. The eight beatitudes from a yogic perspective are fascinating. Thank you for letting me share this with you today.
Namaste
wow thats amazing i give it a 10!
seerforhire6:30 PM