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For those who are familiar with the teachings of Jesus (also as repeated by his followers), there was a certain over-arching paradox to what he referred to as ‘the kingdom of heaven.’ While it’s fairly common to hear Christians today still speak in terms of a ‘kingdom,’ I think if Jesus were among us teaching in more contemporary terms he’d probably use a phrase like ‘the nature of oneness’ or ‘the ecology of God’ or some such metaphor. Not many of us, especially in the West, live in a priestly setting within occupied territories we hope to gain back – it made more sense in Jesus’ day than in ours.
At any rate, his focus was often on helping others see how he and the one he called ‘father’ were one. His famous prayer in John 17 was that all of his followers and even all who would come after his time here on earth would know that they were also one with the father. This was his revelatory message. Oneness was the revelation of Jesus the Christ.
But to see it – to live it – a certain ethic was required. Not so much an ethic as a certain way of ‘acting’ (as in some puritanical view of ethics) but a course of action(s) that sprung forth from a way of ‘being.’ And this way of being was perhaps one of the strongest parts of what Jesus taught, for it was a way immersed in paradox.
Jesus said that if you wanted to sit at the head of the table, then always sit at the end and wait to be called forward. In other words, don’t allow the false-self to convince you of your importance over others – it’s a mirage, an illusion. Instead, allow others to determine where you should be seated and be fully content with that. Jesus believed that true strength was found in weakness, not in some outward display of discipline or professed righteousness before (or even worse, over) others.
And maybe most of all, Jesus believed in the paradox of instructing others by filling them up, not tearing them down. Actually, the words he used were closer to ‘don’t judge, because by the harshness of your judging others, you will be judged.’ The entire act of judgment is an illusory manifestation of an internal belief that the one judging is separate from the one being judged. For Jesus, this was not the way of the kingdom. It was not the way of humility.
Sufi teacher Hazrat Inayat Khan taught that, ‘As life unfolds itself to man, the first lesson he learns is humility.’ Khan, elaborating further, says ‘Every moment of our life, if we can see wisely, contains some fault or error, and asking pardon is just like purifying the heart and washing it white. Only think of the joy of humbling yourself before God… of humbling yourself before that Spirit, that Ideal, who is the true Father and Mother, on Whose love you can always depend. To humble your limited self before His Perfection, that is to deny yourself. Self denial is not renouncing things, it is denying the self, and it is the first lesson of humility.’
In both instances the teaching builds on the great paradox of our common humanity – humility, weakness, mercy and denial of the judgmental voices of the false-self. Love is that one, singular energy of the Universe. It is the singular energy from which we come and to which we will return. And it is the singular energy in which we live, and breathe, and have our being during our short duration on this earth. And don’t ever sacrifice that Love, that Oneness in the name of any thought or action that seeks to separate you from another – it is an illusion.
The present moment is filled with eternal life when we chose to vest it with the paradox of the kingdom. Now is not the time to be strong. It is not the time to seek righteousness through the false-self. Now is the time for humility. It is the time to bask in the oneness of all humankind.
For, as Jesus said, “May they, Father, be one as you and I are one.”
8 comments to “The Paradox of One”
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One of the ways he would display one-ness was by identifying with those who were shamed by society.
He consistently and purposefully walked through barriers others had erected, in order to touch and be touched by the shameful. Lepers, prostitutes, tax collectors.
His most famous action was to go “outside the camp”, facing the full shame and exclusion that the Jews and Romans could deliver, as if to say:
“I am here too”.
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Micah, I like very much what you said. I think more than what Jesus said is what Jesus did.
~Katherine
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It’s good to know that lolling in the tropics didn’t diminish your cognitive abilities, Tim…! Thank you for suffering there, on behalf of us all…!
Ahh, the power of paradox! How much we miss, insisting on common sense. Gimme that uncommon sense any ol’ day!
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From the context of the passage we can see that the warning to not judge because we too will be judged is only about hypocritically judging others when we are not addressing the planks in our own eyes.
To judge in the sense of speaking up about someone being right or wrong by God’s law is actually commanded by God. And a blessing to a humble believer. (“Wounds from a friend can be trusted. Enemies multiply kisses.”) -
Welcome back Tim. I wish I could copy this and put it in our break room as a reminder to all of us.
Alicia
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Cassandra,
My heart was moved by your reply to Tim. To me, the choice to yield to another person is made out of consideration for them. It is a gift. I am not sure how we can give that gift to anyone else, until we are first familiar with how to give it to ourselves. I hope that you will consider yielding to yourself at times, and allowing you to take the wheel. Whether or not you are perfect, I bet that you are a lovely person and worth a shot for that reason alone.
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Thanks Tim. Yet another excellent post. All good. All true. I would add only one thing. As RR would say, the false self is neither bad nor wrong. It’s just not the true self. “Everything belongs.” Even judgment. Even the false self. You wouldn’t want your surgeon to not discriminate, differentiate and judge. And thank an engineer for all the manufactured and fabricated things we use; planes, trains and automobiles.
That was more than one thing. But who’s counting? Who’s judging?
thanks for this post, it is excellent. my biggest struggle comes from finding peace in humility. don’t misunderstand me; I am not someone who can’t be happy existing as a humble person. rather, I find my humility is warped or twisted in a self-absorbed way in which I am constantly second-guessing myself and feeling worthless. I cannot stand up for myself in a situation or know I excel at or am even capable of certain tasks. I worry too much about what others might think of me. as soon as I think to myself, “hey, I am really good at _____,” a voice pops up in my mind saying “well, not really. someone else could probably do it better.” or “hey, I truly believe _____, ” in regards to an opinion or judgment call, and then I begin to argue my own stance in my mind. like, maybe I really don’t know what I am talking about.