The goal, the reason for reaching our nature, or rather letting it shine, is not an after life of bliss.
In the Gospels there is no trace of Heaven or hell and it is no surprise that christians for hundreds of years believed in reincarnation (until the council of Constantinopolis in the year 553 A.D, when it was established that believing in reincarnation was heretical).
The greek word with which the “Kingdom of God” is called, in the original version of the Gospels, is “Aion”.
Aion in the greek mythology is the personification of Time, it is the “big time”, the cosmological time.
It comes from an ancient greek word, which meant “always”. Aion means “always present”.
The Greeks had three terms to say “time”. Chronos is the chronological time (“chronological” comes from Chronos).
Cairos is the present moment.
Aion is a bigger dimension of time, which includes Kairos (the moment) and Kronos (the chronological time).
We can now better understand what Jesus meant when He said: “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8, 58). That dimension, the “I Am”, is always present, in any time, in any moment.
Aion was also imagined as the life force that pervades the entire universe. Heraclitus compared Aion to a child playing and moving his toys.
From Aion, also the word “eternity” comes. In latin is “aeveternus”. “Aevo” is the latin version of “Aion” and “ternus” is a suffix that indicates the position (“ex – ternus” – external, to be outside, “in – ternus” – internal, to be inside). So “aeveternus”, means “to be in the Aion”. For simplicity reasons it later became “aeternus”. So eternity is not a “very long time”, is a bigger dimension of time that includes both the chronological time and the present moment. In eternity, all time dimensions happen simultaneously.
This dimension, the “Kingdom of God” is present here and now, but we don’t see it because we are separate from it.
Gospel of Thomas 3):
“The kingdom is within you, and it is outside of you. When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will know that you are the sons of the living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you are in poverty, and you are poverty”
Or Luke 17,20:
“The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
The same passage we find also in Thomas 113:
“His disciples said to him, “When will the kingdom come?”
“It will not come by watching for it. It will not be said, ‘Look, here!’ or ‘Look, there!’ Rather, the Father’s kingdom is spread out upon the earth, and people don’t see it.”
In the christian tradition we are separated from the Eon by sin.
But in the jewish tradition, the word “sin” used to mean “trauma”. The trauma of the separation is what keeps us away from the ultimate dimension.
How can we overcome sin and access the Aion?
In modern gospels it is said: through repentance. Repentance is the way to forgiveness.
The word repentance comes from latin “penitere” after which also italian pentimento comes as well. It means to punish oneself, even violently.
But the original word, in the first greek version of the Gospels, is “metanoia” and it has nothing to do with these meanings.
In fact, it means “beyond” (meta) “thinking” (noia). The gospels preach and teach a new way of seeing the world by which we can go beyond the mind, into the Heart.
Sin is a way we see the world, a way we look at it, through the lens of separation.
To overcome it, we must access a new dimension, a new perception, by going beyond thinking, into the Heart.
How to do that?
In order to overcome sin and access to Aion, Jesus gives us a revolutionary instruction.
Love. Love is the first and only “rule” in the Christian message.
Jesus says, “the prophets gave you the laws I only give you one instruction: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another”. Dwell in love.
This new way of living spirituality is more evident in the original texts because Jesus uses a new term.
The ones of the fathers are “nomos” commandments, laws. His “law” of love is “entule”, procedure, instruction.
The meaning of the Greek term tells us that this is more an instruction then a commandment, an instruction to live beyond the mind, in the Heart. Open to Life, dwelling in Love and in Unity.
If we don’t follow this instruction, there is not a divine punishment, but, as Jesus says, we have our own punishment by living far from Oneness, away from Aion.
A confirm of this interpretation is given by Luke 7,36.
Jesus is invited to a have dinner in the house of a very religious man, a pharisee.
When He enters in the house a sinner, a prostitute, falls on her knees in front of Jesus and starts crying. Her tears fall on Jesus feet and she starts washing them with her hair.
The owner of the house, the pharisee, is shocked: Jesus is letting a sinner touch him.
In the ancient jewish tradition, it was forbidden to touch sinners as sin was seen as contagious.
He is so upset he goes to Jesus, and he asks him why He is letting her touch Him.
Jesus gives him a great teaching.
He replies to the pharisee that from the moment He entered the house he, the religious man, didn’t hug him, didn’t kiss him: he didn’t show Him his love.
Instead, she immediatly started crying and kissing his feet, showing all her love.
Then Jesus claims:
“Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”
Love is the First and only Instruction Jesus gives. The first pillar of his doctrine.
“Love your neighbor as yourself”.
To do that, we have to see ourself in the other. The same Self.
How? We will explore it in the next post.
*The photo was shot by Umberto Del Noce. All rights reserved.
Christ and Non Duality 