11th April 2004
The Cross and The Lotus Publishing
Seattle, WashingtonDear Friends,
In Christendom there is no more holy time than Easter. On Good Friday we watched a portion of the movie Jesus of Nazareth. As the story unfolded: Peter
stating that Jesus is the Anointed One (the Christ), Lazarus raised from the dead, Jesus
teaching in the temple prior to Passover, the last supper, the trial of Jesus, his
crucifixion and resurrection, my heart opened in painful ecstasy for this one who followed
the way of the Cross and the Christ.
At one point in the depiction Jesus is talking to Barabbas, telling him that
all who would follow him must be willing to take on the sins of the world. What a shift
comes into the heart, mind and soul when one feels the desire to die in the service to
their fellow man. This wish for death is not the death of the body, it is the death to
being a slave to the body. This death spoken of is not morbidity, rather it leads to real
living. When the ego loses itself in loving service then fear is a thing of the past,
selfish preoccupations are in the past, separation from God and His creation is in the
past!
Death of the body is nothing special, do not all bodies die? This death
spoken of in the scriptures is ultimately dying to the idea that you exist separately from
God and His creation. This death is to give your life in service to the Light, Goodness
and Beauty; your Soul qualities. Through this giving and dying the little you melts into
the sea of Omnipresence.
How can you then act against another person when you see yourself in that
one? How can you wantonly destroy outer beauty, when that destruction wounds the beautiful
within you? So you surrender, you die, in service to the one all-pervading One. In that
constant attunement and service to that inner Presence you purify your body, mind and
soul.
In the practice of surrendering to the Presence (God the Father) you follow
the way of the Cross and the Christ. The Cross is the body with its upward, vertical spine
met by the crossing, horizontal desires of the body and its attachments to the world. The
Christ is realized when the upward urge for spiritual growth meets and overcomes the
horizontal attachments to the body and the world. Finally the individual bubble of the
self (the son of man) overcomes its attachment to its limiting identification with the
body and resurrects into the vast, blissful, eternal nature of the (Christ) Self.
The way of the Cross and Christ is Universal to mankind and its message of
liberation should be spread all over this world. This is not the spread of one religion
over another. Rather it is the truth of every religion: our freedom is not gained in
living for the body and the material world, real freedom results from surrendering heart,
mind and soul to the ever-radiant Presence within.
By following the path of the Cross and the Christ to its conclusion one can
say, as Jesus truthfully said, “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30). For
anyone who attunes himself with the uplifting Grace of the Word (Aum or Amen), shall
become a Son of God (John 1:12).
This is the GOOD NEWS, the Gospel: You are not a fearful sheep afraid of
every little noise and disturbance, but a fearless lion of Self-Realization, one with God.
It is time for this message to be spread throughout the world (your entire
consciousness). Every darkened corridor of your heart, mind and soul will be illumined
with the light of the good news. You then feel Bliss flowing within you, your little
bubble of consciousness expands into a universal feeling of love and light, and you know
that you are eternally one with your Father God.
May marking this day of overcoming and resurrection awaken in you the
tremendous desire to realize God, above all else. May you know forever the peace, freedom
and joy through Christ Consciousness.
David
Yogacharya David R. Hickenbottom
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