The spiritual teachings of the Christ, like other serious teachings, calls for a radical transformation of our whole being, amounting to a new birth, born of the Spirit, requiring freedom not for myself but from myself. For the sake of this spiritual awakening what is needed is an impartial and deep self-inquiry and a baptism of fire and spirit, leading to sacrifice of me-me-me.
The gnostic Gospel of Phillip says, Christ came not to make us Christians but to make us Christ, one with the Mysterious Ultimate. Only those who are able to practice the discipline taught by the Christ can be regarded as his disciples. The teaching of the Christ, like all other transformational teachings, is not easy to practice. As Christ himself said, “He who is near me is near the fire; he who is far from me is far from the Kingdom” (Gospel of Thomas).
Sadly, the church authorities have emphasised belief much more than search, thus diluting the transformational teachings of the Christ. But all those who take Christ’s teachings seriously need to do their part. This set of four webinars by Ravi Ravindra is meant to be in the service of the transformational teachings of the Christ. Although he published a book titled The Yoga of the Christ (published in North America under the title The Gospel of John in the Light of Indian Mysticism), these webinars will not be based exclusively on that book. The presentations will be based on the spiritual teachings of the Christ as expressed in the gospels, both canonical and gnostic, writings of St. Paul, John of the Cross, Meister Eckhart, Angelus Silesius and others found in the classical mystical books in the Christian heritage such as The Philokalia, Theologia Germania and The Cloud of Unknowing. The focus will be on the understanding of Christ’s teachings brought by the Christian sages who tried to live according to his teachings, and not on the usual mass-level teachings of the Christian organizations.