The Tao of Christ
264 episodes - English - Latest episode: 15 days ago - ★★★★★ - 84 ratingsThe Tao of Christ is a podcast which explores the mystical roots of Christianity, which Jesus called the Kingdom of God, which church historian Evelyn Underhill called the Unitive Life, which Richard Rohr calls the Universal Christ, and which I refer to as Christian nonduality, unitive awareness, or union with God. This is the Tao of Christ.
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Episodes
Nondual Shalom
July 24, 2021 10:00 - 12 minutes - 8.84 MBIn 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 ...
Knowing Who You Are
July 17, 2021 10:00 - 14 minutes - 10.2 MBIn this episode I start with Alan Watts, “The Book on the Taboo against Knowing Who You Are,” and go from there exploring how we can see and know who we truly are.
Nondual Nonresistance
July 10, 2021 10:00 - 14 minutes - 10.3 MBIn this episode I share my personal journey to pacifism and from pacifism. I explore the teaching of nonviolent resistance and how it differs from nonresistance. I look specifically at Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount and how it is an expression of nondual nonresistance to evil.
Nondual Nonresistance
July 10, 2021 10:00 - 14 minutes - 10.3 MBIn this episode I share my personal journey to pacifism and from pacifism. I explore the teaching of nonviolent resistance and how it differs from nonresistance. I look specifically at Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount and how it is an expression of nondual nonresistance to evil.
What Happens after Death – A Nondual Explanation
July 07, 2021 10:00 - 17 minutes - 11.9 MBToday’s topic comes from a listener in Alabama. He happens to be a retired United Methodist minister with a doctoral degree, so you know these questions are well thought out. He emailed me a response to my talk entitled "Living in the Mind of God." He has five basic questions. Here are the questions he asks: -- What happens to "me" after physical death? -- What about the resurrection of the physical body, or even a spiritual body? -- Is there no afterlife, no spiritual "me" to re-un...
Spiritual Transparency
July 03, 2021 10:00 - 14 minutes - 10.2 MBNonduality is transparency. The physical world is seen as transparent to the Unitive Reality that lays beneath, like looking through a clear lake’s water to the lake’s bottom. Furthermore we see ourselves as part of the world as transparent to Reality. Apparent differences are seen as expressions of an underlying Unity. Using theistic terms we could say that the creation is a reflection and expression of its Creator. Transparency also applies to ethics. One of the most frequent downfalls o...
Expressing Nonduality Directly
June 26, 2021 10:00 - 14 minutes - 10 MBI woke up early recently and lay in bed for a while resting in, knowing and enjoying this Reality that we call nondual awareness or unitive awareness. I was wishing there was some way to communicate this reality. At the time I seemed to know the exact words to express this. But when I tried to write down the words later that morning, it was impossible to do. Words seemed empty, flat and trite and could not express the richness of this reality. Yet in this episode I will try to express the im...
Making the Inner like the Outer: Living a Nondual Life
June 19, 2021 10:00 - 13 minutes - 9.12 MBThe Sermon on the Mount is about how to live the nondual life. In this episode I explore Jesus' teaching found in the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Matthew about spiritual transparency - making the two one, the outer like the inner, the upper like the lower, and male and female into a single one. Jesus taught nonduality and how to live the nondual life.
Living in the Mind of God
June 12, 2021 10:00 - 12 minutes - 8.94 MBWe are living in the Mind of God. We are ideas in the Divine Mind. You might say that the universe is a dream or a day dream that God is having, or a brainstorm that God is having. Indian philosophy says this world is a dream being dreamt by the god Vishnu. The Bible sees creation as more intentional. It says that the act of creation is consciously deliberate. God intentionally spoke this world into existence. But it is still all originating from the Mind of God. Its source is the Mind of Go...
Is Nonduality Unchristian?
June 05, 2021 10:00 - 13 minutes - 9.55 MBListeners who come from Christian backgrounds sometimes have a difficult time with nonduality because it feels like it is an abandonment of Christianity. One man on a Zoom meeting I was having with a church labeled it as occult. Occult is from the Latin word occultus, which means hidden or secret. There is nothing hidden or secret about nondual awareness. This is not secret knowledge. This is as open and obvious as it can possibly be. It is hidden in plain sight. Others note that I often qu...
The Meaning of Life, Nondual Style
May 29, 2021 10:00 - 14 minutes - 10 MBA while back I received an email from a listener asking about the meaning of life according to nonduality. He reasoned that if we are not individual selves – if personal existence is an illusion and not real – then what is the meaning and purpose of our human lives. It all seems rather pointless, he reasoned. Those are not his exact words. In fact I cannot find the email, so I am not sure he asked the question in those exact words but that is the gist of it. I want to address the sense of m...
Jesus on our True Identity
May 22, 2021 10:00 - 14 minutes - 9.77 MBLast time I did an episode on the Beatitudes, not knowing if I would continue talking about the Sermon on the Mount or not. I am going to do at least this additional one. Jesus follows up his eight blessings by giving two metaphors that point us to our true identity. He calls us salt and light. In using these words he is employing images with a long history in various spiritual traditions, which explain our nondual nature.
Colin Chapman Interviews Marshall Davis on the Red Church Door Podcast
May 15, 2021 10:00 - 33 minutes - 23 MBThis episode is an interview that I did with Colin Chapman for his podcast called Red Church Door. The interview was recorded on May 10, 2021 and was scheduled to be broadcast about three weeks later. Colin is an Episcopal priest who is the rector of a church in Southern New Hampshire. On his website he says that his podcast “is first and foremost an open invitation to partake in a journey of spiritual discovery. It’s an exploration about how people understand, evolve, and deepen their relat...
The Eightfold Path of Jesus
May 08, 2021 10:00 - 15 minutes - 11 MBI was reminded by a listener recently that Thich Nhat Hanh called Jesus the Buddha of the West. Buddha famously preached his first sermon in Deer Park which included his Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. Jesus has an equally famous first teaching that is called the Sermon on the Mount. It begins with the Beatitudes, which are eight blessings, followed by what appears to be a ninth but is a really a continuation of the eighth. Jesus had an eight-fold path. Like the Buddha’s, the Chr...
Body, Soul & Spirit
April 24, 2021 10:00 - 13 minutes - 9.12 MBIn this episode I explore the Biblical understanding of humans as composed of three parts: body, soul and spirit. I explain the function of each part and show how the three faculties of the spirit (intuition, conscience and communion) can lead to unitive awareness.
Describing Unitive Awareness
April 17, 2021 10:00 - 19 minutes - 13.2 MBIn this episode I describe unitive awareness by using analogies from everyday experience and awareness.
The First Easter
April 11, 2021 17:00 - 18 minutes - 12.6 MBI have been asked if I preach about Christian Nonduality from the pulpit in church as part of a traditional worship service. The short answer is “yes” but it is somewhat different than I speak on my podcast and videos. I expound a scripture passage, as is typical in a sermon. This episode today is an example. It is a sermon that I recorded at the end of March 2021 in NH and was shown during live in person worship at a church in NH on April 11, 2021. In this message I relate unitive awareness...
All and in All
April 07, 2021 10:00 - 17 minutes - 11.8 MBIn this episode I am going to talk about unitive awareness in the sense of seeing that we are all and in all. When the separate self is seen as illusory, when the ego pops like a soap bubble and the flimsy boundary between us and the world falls away, then we see our true nature is all and in all. There is one World Soul – or better yet World Spirit – who is the spirit in every human being. People think they are separate selves, separate beings but we aren’t. We are one Self, one Being inca...
All and in All
April 07, 2021 10:00 - 17 minutes - 11.8 MBIn this episode I am going to talk about unitive awareness in the sense of seeing that we are all and in all. When the separate self is seen as illusory, when the ego pops like a soap bubble and the flimsy boundary between us and the world falls away, then we see our true nature is all and in all. There is one World Soul – or better yet World Spirit – who is the spirit in every human being. People think they are separate selves, separate beings but we aren’t. We are one Self, one Being inca...
Waking Up From the Political Dream
April 03, 2021 10:00 - 18 minutes - 12.9 MBThe initial awakening to the Kingdom of God – also called Unitive Awareness or Nondual Reality - can happen suddenly, but it can take years to reveal all its dimensions. It feels like layers of a veil are being gradually taken away. It is like a flower bud gradually opening up to the sun. It is like eyes are slowly adjusting to the light, after coming out of a dark room. It is an ongoing process of waking up to the new reality and integrating it into human life. We wake up from more and mo...
Waking Up From the Political Dream
April 03, 2021 10:00 - 18 minutes - 12.9 MBThe initial awakening to the Kingdom of God – also called Unitive Awareness or Nondual Reality - can happen suddenly, but it can take years to reveal all its dimensions. It feels like layers of a veil are being gradually taken away. It is like a flower bud gradually opening up to the sun. It is like eyes are slowly adjusting to the light, after coming out of a dark room. It is an ongoing process of waking up to the new reality and integrating it into human life. We wake up from more and mo...
Hell as Theological Terrorism
March 27, 2021 10:00 - 15 minutes - 11 MBRecently I have received emails from people asking me about hell. So I thought I would speak about it in an episode. Hell is a problem for Christians. It scares Christians, and it scares other people away from Christianity. It gives former Christians nightmares long after they have left fundamentalism behind. There is a part of them that continues to think: what if they are right? What if I go hell because I no longer belong to that church or do what they say and believe what they believe? T...
We Are One
March 20, 2021 10:00 - 14 minutes - 10.3 MBLast week I had three Zoom meetings during which I spoke about Christian nonduality. Two were with individuals and one with a church group. As I was speaking one insight kept appearing. It was that all of us on these Zoom meetings were one. It was seen clearly that the one speaking and the ones hearing are the same one. As I spoke the feeling that accompanied this insight was palpable. We were one. There is only one. In this episode I explore this nondual reality by looking at the Hebrew na...
Marshall Davis at Asbury First United Methodist Church, Rochester, NY
March 16, 2021 10:00 - 1 hour - 46.5 MBThis episode is a Zoom Talk that I had with a men's group at Asbury First United Methodist Church in Rochester, NY, on March 10, 2021. It was joined by some members of the church who had been studying Cynthia Bourgeault's book The Wisdom Jesus. I was asked to speak on the topic of Christian Nonduality followed by a time of discussion. I speak quite a bit about the events in my life that led up to nondual awareness. Permission was given by the men's group leader and participants to post this ...
The Myth of Spiritual Growth
March 13, 2021 11:00 - 13 minutes - 9.35 MBA few weeks ago I was conversing with someone on Zoom, and he asked me whether I felt like I had grown spiritually. I responded that things certainly change, but I hesitated to use the term growth. I have been thinking about that question ever since. I thought it would be good to explore it in an episode. In this episode I explore spiritual growth from within nonduality. Do we grow and mature spiritually? What exactly would be growing? Are we spiritually evolving as a species?
Via Positiva, Via Negativa
March 06, 2021 11:00 - 15 minutes - 10.7 MBToday’s topic is a response to an email that I received from a listener in Indiana. He writes in part: “So here is the reason I am writing to you… I would like you to talk about what non-dualism IS, as opposed to what it is NOT. It seems, from my dualistic roots, that non-dualism blurs into nothing-ness. In reality, I know this to be wrong. God is Light, which is the presence of all colors, as opposed to darkness, which is the absence of any color. The lie still plaguing my soul is non-dual...
Free Will and Nonduality
February 27, 2021 11:00 - 17 minutes - 12 MBThe topic for today was suggested by a seminary professor who emailed me. He wrote: “Here’s a question I wonder if you tackle in your works or are interested in addressing: what does seeing through the illusion of the self entail for the concept of free will? In his book Everything is God: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism, Jay Michaelson calls free will the last gasp of unenlightened thinking. The logic seems pretty clear: if there is no agent, how can there be agency? In the end, one mi...
Nondual Lent
February 21, 2021 23:00 - 12 minutes - 8.69 MBIn this episode today I reflect on Lent as an expression of Nonduality. I explore how the symbol of the Cross expresses the same reality as the Yin Yang symbol.
The Courage to Be
February 14, 2021 11:00 - 14 minutes - 10.3 MBA listener emailed me and said that he was reading my newest book The Gospel of Nonduality, and he had a question. He wrote: “The question that keeps popping up as I read is how does one die to self (or forget self or get out of the way, etc.) How does one completely surrender?” I responded back to him saying that this is the most important question one could ask. It showed me that he was serious about this. I get a lot of questions that miss the point. This man went directly to the main p...
The Nondual Christ
February 06, 2021 11:00 - 14 minutes - 10.1 MBThis episode began as a suggestion from a listener in North Carolina. He asked me to explain the use of the term Christ. I look at various religious and theological uses of the title “Christ.” Then I distinguish between the dualistic use of the term Christ in theology and the experiential awareness of Christ, which is nondual unitive awareness.
Conspiracy Theories, Religion, and Nonduality
January 30, 2021 11:00 - 14 minutes - 10.3 MBThe political climate in America is getting crazy. A survey released this week by LifeWay Research reported that half of all pastors report having heard people in their congregations repeat conspiracy theories. I recently read an article in which a woman said that she believes that Trump won the 2020 election with the same certainty that she believes in God. I am sure she is said that to bolster the credibility of her conspiracy theory. But when people hear it, all it does is put faith in G...
Emotional Suffering and Nonduality
January 24, 2021 11:00 - 17 minutes - 12.2 MBLife is suffering. That is the first noble truth of the Buddha and the first sentence of psychiatrist Scott Peck’s classic book The Road Less Traveled. He phrased it as “Life is difficult.” Much of the suffering and difficulty in life comes from interpersonal relationships. They disturb our peace of mind and keep us awake at night. What hurts the most is when personal relationships with people we care about - friends and family - are damaged. At such times we look to spirituality for how to ...
Trump, Insurrection and Nonduality
January 18, 2021 08:00 - 16 minutes - 11.5 MBLike everyone else in our nation, I have been captivated by the news since January sixth when an angry mob waving Trump banners and Confederate flags stormed the Capitol building, resulting in the impeachment of President Trump week later. Since then the nation has been on edge waiting for violent attacks to occur again, either in Washington or at state capitols. It has been an opportunity for some people to vent their righteous anger against Trump and this cohorts, an anger that has been ...
Who You Were Before You Were Born
January 14, 2021 11:00 - 16 minutes - 11.1 MBIn this episode I point to our true nature and the nature of Reality. This cannot be done directly so I will use a metaphor. One of the best is the traditional Zen koan about seeing our original face before we were born. I am going to do a variation on this by asking you to look at both what you were before birth and what you will be after death.
Love, Death and Nonduality
January 08, 2021 11:00 - 16 minutes - 11.6 MBIn this episode we come to the final chapter of the Gospel of John, which I have been interpreting as a proclamation of the gospel of nonduality. In this chapter we explore how the gospel of nonduality had to struggle with dualistic gospel in the early centuries of the church. This involved a struggle for leadership in the church after the death of the apostle John. We look at the role of Mary Magdalene and women leaders in early nondual Christianity, as well as the nondual Gnostic texts of ...
Easter Nonduality
January 05, 2021 11:00 - 16 minutes - 11.1 MBEaster is a proclamation of Christian nonduality. This is seen in two of the most famous Easter stories, which are found in the 20th chapter of the Gospel of John. One is the familiar story of Mary Magdalene coming to the tomb of Jesus on Easter morning. The other is the equally famous story of Doubting Thomas. John’s presentation of the giving of the Holy Spirit – John’s Pentecost – is also examined as part of the Easter Sunday. It is placed on Easter to communicate the truth that the risen...
The Cross and Nonduality
January 02, 2021 11:00 - 14 minutes - 10 MBThe symbol of the Christianity is the cross. It is also a powerful symbol of nonduality.
Nonduality on Trial
December 30, 2020 11:00 - 14 minutes - 10.1 MBThe arrest and trial of Jesus in the Gospel of John is interpreted as the proclamation of the nondual identity of Jesus and his message.
A Prayer of Nonduality
December 27, 2020 11:00 - 13 minutes - 9.44 MBIn the 17th chapter of the Gospel of John we have one of the best descriptions of nonduality in the Bible. It comes in a prayer Jesus offered on the night he was arrested.
The Spiritual Nomad Interview
December 24, 2020 11:00 - 1 hour - 47.2 MBThis episode is an interview that former evangelical pastor and current church planter Luke Bricker did with me for his podcast entitled The Spiritual Nomad. His podcast can be found at TheSpiritualNomad.org. I share quite a bit of autobiographical information in this interview, including accounts of three times in forty years that nondual awareness enveloped me. These were primarily a loss of a sense of individual existence, but also oneness with all that is. The third time in 2012 was an...
Abiding in Unitive Awareness
December 21, 2020 11:00 - 16 minutes - 11.5 MBThe further we get into the Gospel of John, the closer we come to the core of the John’s gospel of nonduality. The structure of the gospel up to this point has been seven I AM sayings of Jesus, accompanied by seven teachings that Jesus gave. In the 15th chapter we have the last of these sayings. He says here, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.” Then a couple of verses later he says, “I am the vine, you are the branches.” In fleshing out this metaphor Jesus talks a lot a...
Is Jesus the Only Way?
December 18, 2020 11:00 - 15 minutes - 10.4 MBIn this episode I deal with one of the biggest issues that Christians face when it comes to other faith traditions in the world. Especially when they start to get to know people of other faiths and read their scriptures and other writings of non-Christian religions with an open mind. The question is this: Is Jesus Christ the only way to salvation? Framed another way, “Do you have to believe in Jesus to be saved?” The traditional Christian answer is “Yes.” I say, “Not so fast. Let’s look at w...
Holy Infant So Tender and Mild
December 15, 2020 11:00 - 16 minutes - 11.4 MBSilent Night is one of the most beloved carols of the Christmas season. Silent night, holy night All is calm, all is bright Round yon virgin Mother and Child Holy infant so tender and mild Sleep in heavenly peace Sleep in heavenly peace It seems to epitomize the essence of Christmas. This hymn conveys the silence, beauty and peace at the heart of Christmas. Christmas celebrates our intuitive awareness of our innate union with God, which I call unitive awareness or nondual awareness. ...
The Sacrament of Nonduality
December 12, 2020 11:00 - 14 minutes - 9.8 MBIn this episode I explore the symbolic proclamation of nonduality presented in the powerful story of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples at the Last Supper, found in the thirteenth chapter of the Gospel of John.
Jesus is My Guru
December 09, 2020 11:00 - 13 minutes - 9.46 MBIn this episode I share the many spiritual influences on my life – Christian and non-Christian - and why I see Jesus as my spiritual teacher. All true spiritual teachers throughout the ages in all the different spiritual traditions are in essence the same Spiritual Teacher. Jesus calls this inner Teacher “the Father.” I call this inner Teacher Christ. I explore how Jesus’s death was intentional, so as to expand his ministry and message beyond the lifespan of a first century carpenter. The m...
How to Not Die
December 06, 2020 11:00 - 13 minutes - 9.12 MBIn this episode I explore death in the context of the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. This is a symbolic story that looks at how three people – Mary, Martha, and Jesus respond to death. It culminates in Jesus statement: I am the resurrection and the life. This statement points to the reality that death is conquered now in the realization that one’s true nature does not die. Resurrection is another term for spiritual awakening.
Life Abundant and Eternal
December 03, 2020 11:00 - 14 minutes - 9.77 MBIn the Gospel of John we have a parable spoken by Jesus about Nondual Reality. He tells us how to enter into union with God, which he calls Life Abundant and Eternal Life. It is the Parable of the Sheepfold. It is undoubtedly drawn from his own experience watching shepherds in Galilee. The sheepfold represents the Kingdom of God, which union with God. He is talking about how to enter into this nondual awareness.
A Nondual Christmas
November 30, 2020 11:00 - 14 minutes - 10.2 MBIn this episode I interpret Christmas as a proclamation of nonduality. There is a lot in the Christmas story that speaks of nonduality. I deal briefly with three aspects of the story: the Virgin Birth, the Visit of the Wise Men, and the doctrine of Incarnation.
Spiritual Sight
November 27, 2020 11:00 - 14 minutes - 10.2 MBBefore they were called prophets or Christ (anointed one) or buddha (awakened one) or jnani (knowing one), or arhat (worthy one) they were called seers. The Hebrew Scriptures say that was the term used in the time of the prophet Samuel. It reads, “the prophet of today was formerly called the seer.” Such people were able to see with spiritual eyes what could not be seen with physical eyes. Jesus called this being “born again.” He said, “unless one is born again he cannot see the Kingdom of ...
I AM
November 24, 2020 12:00 - 18 minutes - 12.4 MBIn this episode I deal with the most important verse spoken by Jesus in the Gospel of John. Everything so far has led up to this verse, and everything after it is based upon it. It is the pinnacle of the gospel found in the eighth chapter. They are words that Jesus spoken in response to repeated inquiries by people as to who he was, whether he was the Messiah or the Prophet or someone else. Jesus responded, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” To explore that saying pro...