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Jesus the Teacher Within Laurence Freeman

Jesus the Teacher Within Laurence Freeman.

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Jesus the Teacher Within Laurence Freeman

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  1. Jesus the Teacher Within Laurence Freeman

  2. Deep within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice, to which we may continually return . . . It is a dynamic centre, a creative Life that presses to birth within us. It is a Light Within that illumines the face of God … It is the Shekinah of the soul, the Presence in the midst. Here is the Slumbering Christ, stirring to be awakened, to become the soul we clothe in earthly form and action. And He is within us all. Thomas Kelly

  3. Prayer

  4. Prayer is attention to Christ dynamically with us, in us and between us. John Main Meditation is a journey of awakening. . . To meditate as a Christian is to see that by descending into the centre of our being we discover, in relationship and in the communion of the Spirit, who Jesus is. Jesus the Teacher Within, 213

  5. The Attraction of Jesus

  6. Jesus is the self-communication of God to the universe, and the self-transcendence of the universe to God. Karl Rahner Jesus is an indispensable force in the achievement of any authentic spirituality. Even though most people have problems with the church – as do most church-goers themselves – the person of Jesus is one of the constant beacons guiding humanity beyond egotism and the violence of despair towards the higher goals it continuously sets for itself of kindness and serenity. Jesus the Teacher Within, 15

  7. Sin or Karma

  8. It is only from our own need, often concealed in shame, and not from our pretended self-sufficiency, that we connect with what Jesus communicates, and who he is. • Jesus the Teacher Within, 106 • The Judaeo-Christian theology of sin and the Asian doctrine of karma are comparable ways of explaining the mystery of suffering and evil... a cosmic law of moral compensation. • Jesus the Teacher Within, 108 • Life is more than an intricate system of cause and effect… The full meaning is found in the encounter between human suffering and divine compassion… God is love. Jesus speaks of a power greater than karma. He then claims even more radically that the power of karma can be reversed and dissolved at its root by forgiveness. • Jesus the Teacher Within, 110

  9. Repentance

  10. Repentance has nothing to do with guilt. It has all to do with seeing ourselves unclouded by self-deception…With repentance there ensues a process of detachment, one by one, from all the interwoven false identities to which we cling with such passion and fearful desperation. Jesus the Teacher Within, 44 Seeing how repentance, the Kingdom of Heaven and the true Self are related is an integral insight for Christian faith…. Jesus the Teacher Within, 44

  11. Redemptive Questions

  12. Redemption is knowing with our whole being who we are and where we have come from. Jesus the Teacher Within, 136 Rather than giving answers and making rules, Jesus called people to experiential knowledge. By asking questions and telling stories he invited his hearers to a personal discovery of truth, a redemptive recognition of reality… It is by questions that he leads his disciples into a deeper understanding of who we are and who he is. Jesus the Teacher Within, 226-7

  13. The Key Question

  14. “And you, who do you say I am?” Who is he? This simple, timeless question rolls down the centuries. Jesus the Teacher Within, 22

  15. Discovering Jesus’ identity for us is not achieved through intellectual or historical enquiry. It happens in the process of opening to our intuitive depths, to deeper and more subtle ways of knowing and seeing than we are accustomed to… It is the indefinable silence at the heart of the mystery of Jesus that ultimately communicates his true identity to those who encounter it. . . The silence of prayer that is deeper than thought and image enhances our knowledge of Jesus because it leads into the reality of pure presence. Jesus the Teacher Within, 30-2

  16. Growth in Self-knowledge

  17. …we cannot know anything, let alone God, without knowing ourselves. Jesus the Teacher Within, 16 Prayer means growing in self-knowledge rather than merely performing or mouthing a set ritual. Jesus the Teacher Within, 34

  18. The Gospels

  19. The gospels show that ordinary people of good will who met him, heard him, touched and spoke with him were moved to their depths by his affirmation of the original innocence of human nature. Jesus the Teacher Within, 118 The story’s effect on us, not an interpretation we are told to believe, constitutes its deepest meaning. Jesus the Teacher Within, 118

  20. Reading the gospels therefore requires selfless attention. . . We are not passive before the Word. Listening to it energizes us to hear it from an even greater stillness and so prepares us for selfless action and contemplation. Jesus the Teacher Within, 82

  21. We may also find nourishment in the scriptures of the Eastern traditions, the Upanishads, Buddhist Sutras, Sikh writings, in which the same Word of God – there can only be one – also resonates. Tasting the Word in other traditions returns us to the gospels with a finer palate for truth. Jesus the Teacher Within, 135

  22. Encountering Jesus

  23. Relationship with Jesus begins as soon as we hear his ‘you’ as a life-giving word addressed to me. His question is his knock on the door of our life. Jesus the Teacher Within, 133 The response to the question of Jesus bestows itself in the very relationship which it opens. As with all human interaction, relationship with Jesus begins tentatively and deepens and matures with time. . . . Jesus the Teacher Within, 133

  24. Steps in Relationship

  25. We begin in relationship. We make progress by staying open. Jesus the Teacher Within, 133 We must be prepared for the ebb and flow of the relationship, the coming closer and withdrawing, the appearances and disappearances. We can’t see Jesus without being prepared to lose him from sight because he draws us deeper into the mystery of the Father who is pure light. Jesus the Teacher Within,

  26. Christ in the Dark

  27. He healed not to impress his authority but to reveal its source in the power of compassion. Jesus the Teacher Within, 93 His attention was drawn not the rich and powerful in the Temple but to the sick and the lame who dragged themselves there to find healing. Jesus the Teacher Within, 95

  28. Christ in the Other

  29. The intolerant Christian isolates himself or herself from the Christ of universal tolerance… One of the ironies of Christian identity involves finding Christ in what is non-Christian. Learning to revere the truth in other religions will help Christians to love one another. And in that tough work they will recognize and enter the embrace of the risen Christ. Jesus the Teacher Within, 150

  30. Jesus said he would recognize those who were his own and who lived his teaching even if they had not recognized him. Behavior counts for more than belief. Actions are truer than words. Jesus the Teacher Within, 151

  31. . . . In the end, we cannot be united to Jesus and at the same time belong to a church that lovelessly excludes or condemns anyone… however important the church’s forms may be Jesus cannot finally be equated with Christianity. That is the Christian’s puzzling yet liberating realization… Its sharing in the transcendence of Jesus as the Logos that is found everywhere. The church is, in the end, not the Kingdom. That is the church’s humility. Jesus the Teacher Within, 152

  32. The Kingdom

  33. The Kingdom is the way God intends us to live . . . Jesus embodies the Kingdom as a personal reality experienced through relationship. To know him as he really is, is to find oneself in the Kingdom. It is a fundamental experience of reality as it truly is. The Kingdom is to live in harmony with heaven and earth, with friend and foe, with body and mind. Jesus the Teacher Within, 118.

  34. In relation to Jesus we see that the Kingdom, like God simply is love, is everywhere, within and amongst us simultaneously . . . In the Kingdom each individual being is inseparable from every other in the divine web of Being. Jesus the Teacher Within, 119

  35. Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depth of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in the eyes of the Divine. If only they could see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed. Thomas Merton

  36. Reflection

  37. Looking is what saves us. Simone Weil Jesus comes to us hidden and salvation consists in our recognizing him. Simone Weil

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