Jesus

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Jesus the Teacher Within Laurence Freeman
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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
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Prayer
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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
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The Attraction of Jesus
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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
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Sin or Karma
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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
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Repentance
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Repentance has nothing to do with guilt. It has
all to do with seeing ourselves unclouded by
self-deceptionWith 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
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Redemptive Questions
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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
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The Key Question
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And you, who do you say I am? Who is he? This
simple, timeless question rolls down the
centuries. Jesus the Teacher Within, 22
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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
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Growth in Self-knowledge
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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
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The Gospels
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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
storys effect on us, not an interpretation we
are told to believe, constitutes its deepest
meaning. Jesus the Teacher Within, 118
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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
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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
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Encountering Jesus
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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
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Steps in Relationship
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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 cant 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,
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Christ in the Dark
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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
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Christ in the Other
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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
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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

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. . . 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 churchs forms may be Jesus cannot
finally be equated with Christianity. That is the
Christians 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 churchs
humility. Jesus the Teacher Within, 152

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