Subtitles
some years ago I had just given a talk 00:00:00
some years ago I had just given a talk on television in Canada when one of the 00:00:04
announcers came up to me and said you 00:00:10
know if one can believe that this 00:00:14
universe is in charge of an intelligent 00:00:18
and beneficent God don't you think he 00:00:22
would naturally have provided us with an 00:00:26
infallible guide to behavior and to the 00:00:29
truth about the universe and of course I 00:00:32
knew he meant the Bible I said no I 00:00:35
think nothing of the kind because I 00:00:38
think a loving God would not do 00:00:39
something to his children that would rot 00:00:41
their brains because if we had an 00:00:45
infallible guide we would never think 00:00:47
for ourselves and therefore our minds 00:00:50
would become atrophied it is as if my 00:00:52
grandfather had left me a million 00:00:53
dollars I'm glad he didn't and we have 00:00:59
therefore to begin any discussion of the 00:01:02
meaning of the life and teaching of 00:01:04
Jesus with a look at this thorny 00:01:07
question of authority and especially the 00:01:10
authority of Holy Scripture because in 00:01:13
this country in particular there are an 00:01:16
enormous number of people who seem to 00:01:18
believe that the Bible descended from 00:01:21
heaven with an angel in the year 1611 00:01:24
which was when the so called King James 00:01:27
or more correctly authorized version of 00:01:30
the Bible was translated into English I 00:01:32
had a crazy uncle who believed that 00:01:35
every word of the Bible was literally 00:01:37
true including the marginal notes 00:01:41
and so whatever date it said it said in 00:01:44
the marginal notes that the world was 00:01:45
created in 4004 BC and he believed it is 00:01:49
the Word of God until one day he was 00:01:51
reading I think a passage in the book of 00:01:53
Proverbs and found a naughty word in the 00:01:55
Bible and from that time on he was 00:01:58
through with it 00:01:59
you know how Protestant can you get now 00:02:07
the question of authority needs to be 00:02:10
understood because I am NOT going to 00:02:12
claim any authority and what I say to 00:02:14
you except the authority such as it is 00:02:18
if history and that's a pretty uncertain 00:02:22
authority but from my point of view the 00:02:27
four Gospels I think to be regarded on 00:02:31
the whole as historical documents 00:02:31
I'll even grant the miracles because speaking is one heavily influenced by 00:02:41
Buddhism we're not very impressed by 00:02:45
miracles the traditions of Asia Hindu 00:02:51
Buddhist Taoist and so forth are full of 00:02:54
miraculous stories and we take them in 00:02:58
our stride we don't think that there are 00:03:02
any sign of anything in particular 00:03:04
except psychic power and we in the West 00:03:08
have by scientific technology 00:03:12
accomplished things of a very startling 00:03:14
nature we could blow up the whole planet 00:03:18
and Tibetan magicians have never 00:03:21
promised to do anything like that 00:03:23
and I'm really a little scared of the 00:03:26
growing interest in psychic power 00:03:28
because that's what I call psycho 00:03:30
technics and so we've made such a mess 00:03:34
of things with ordinary technics that 00:03:36
heaven only knows what we might do if we 00:03:38
got hold of psycho technics and started 00:03:41
raising people from the dead and 00:03:43
prolonging life insufferably and doing 00:03:47
everything we wished in the whole answer 00:03:50
to the story of miracles is simply 00:03:52
imagine that your God 00:03:53
and that you can have anything you want 00:03:56
well you'd have it for quite a long time 00:03:59
and then after a while let me say this 00:04:03
is getting pretty dull because I know in 00:04:04
advance everything that's going to 00:04:05
happen and so you would wish for a 00:04:08
surprise and you would find yourself 00:04:10
this evening in this church as a human 00:04:12
being so I mean that that is the the 00:04:17
miracle thing I think miracles are 00:04:19
probably possible that doesn't bother me 00:04:21
and as a matter of fact when you read 00:04:24
the writings of the early Fathers of the 00:04:26
Church 00:04:27
the great theologians like sin Clement 00:04:29
Gregory of Nyssa 00:04:31
st. John of Damascus even Thomas Aquinas 00:04:34
they're not interested in the 00:04:36
historicity of the Bible they take that 00:04:40
sort of for granted but forget it 00:04:41
they're interested in its deeper meaning 00:04:44
and therefore they always interpret all 00:04:47
the tales like Jonah and the Whale day 00:04:50
they don't bother even to doubt whether 00:04:52
Jonah was or was not swallowed by a 00:04:54
whale or other big fish but they see in 00:04:58
the story of Jonah and the Whale a 00:05:00
prefiguration of the resurrection of 00:05:02
Christ and then even when it comes to 00:05:05
the resurrection of Christ they're not 00:05:07
worrying about the chemistry or the 00:05:10
physics of a risen body what they're 00:05:14
interested in is that the idea of the 00:05:16
resurrection of the body has something 00:05:19
to say about the meaning of the physical 00:05:23
body in the eyes of God that the 00:05:26
physical body in other words is not 00:05:27
something worthless and unspiritual but 00:05:30
something which is an object of the 00:05:32
divine love and so therefore I'm not 00:05:39
going to be concerned with whether or 00:05:41
not miraculous events happened it seems 00:05:44
to me entirely beside the point 00:05:44
so I regard the four Gospels as on the whole as good a historical document as 00:05:56
anything else we have from that period 00:05:58
including the Gospel of st. John and that's important 00:06:05
it used to be fashionable to regard the 00:06:10
gospel of sanjana's late in other words 00:06:13
at the turn of the century of the higher 00:06:14
critics of the New Testament assigned 00:06:16
the Gospel of st. John to about 125 ad 00:06:19
and the reason was just simple those 00:06:23
higher critics at that time just assumed 00:06:26
that the simple teachings of Jesus could 00:06:28
not possibly have included any such 00:06:30
complicated mystical theology and 00:06:34
therefore they said well it must be 00:06:35
later now as a matter of fact in the 00:06:39
text of the Gospel of st. John the local 00:06:41
color 00:06:42
his knowledge of the topography of 00:06:45
Jerusalem and his knowledge of the 00:06:47
Jewish calendar is more accurate than 00:06:49
that of the other three writers Matthew 00:06:52
Mark and Luke and it seems to me 00:06:56
perfectly simple to assume that John 00:06:58
recorded the inner teaching which he 00:07:01
gave to his disciples and that Matthew 00:07:05
Mark and Luke record the more exoteric 00:07:08
teaching which he gave to people at 00:07:10
large 00:07:10
now what about them the authority of these scriptures we could take this 00:07:17
problem in two steps a lot of people 00:07:26
don't know how we got the Bible at all 00:07:26
we Westerners got the Bible thanks to the Catholic Church the Catholic Church 00:07:35
and members of the church wrote the 00:07:41
books of the New Testament and they took 00:07:44
over the books of the Old Testament 00:07:46
which even by the time of Christ had not 00:07:48
been finally decided upon by the Jews 00:07:50
the Jews did not close the Canon of the 00:07:53
Old Testament until the Year 100 AD or 00:07:56
there abouts at the Synod of Jamia and 00:07:59
then they finally decided which were the 00:08:01
canonical books of the Hebrew Scriptures 00:08:03
and embodied them in the Masoretic text 00:08:06
the earliest copy of which dates from 00:08:08
the 10th century early in the 10th 00:08:10
century AD the books to be included in 00:08:17
the New Testament were not finally 00:08:18
decided upon 00:08:20
until the Year 382 AD again at the Synod 00:08:27
of Rome under Pope Damasus so it was the 00:08:31
church the Catholic Church that 00:08:33
promulgated the Bible and said we are 00:08:37
giving you these scriptures on our 00:08:39
authority and by the authority of the 00:08:43
informal tradition that has existed 00:08:45
among us from the beginning inspired by 00:08:47
the Holy Spirit so you receive 00:08:51
historically the Bible on the church's 00:08:53
say-so and the Catholic Church insists 00:08:57
therefore that the church collectively 00:09:00
speaking under the presumed guidance of 00:09:04
the Holy Spirit has the authority to 00:09:07
interpret the Bible and you can take 00:09:10
that or leave it because obviously the 00:09:15
authority of the Bible is not first of 00:09:17
all based on the Bible itself I can 00:09:21
write a Bible and state within that book 00:09:24
that it is indeed the Word of God which 00:09:26
I have received and you're at liberty to 00:09:29
believe me or not Hindus believe that 00:09:34
the Vedas are divinely revealed and 00:09:36
inspired was just as much further as any 00:09:38
Christian or any Jew Muslims believe 00:09:42
that the Koran is divinely inspired and 00:09:44
some Buddhists believe that their sutras 00:09:47
are also of divine or rather a buddhic 00:09:52
origin the Japanese believe that the 00:09:56
ancient texts of Shinto are likewise of 00:10:00
divine origin and who is to be judge if 00:10:04
we're going to argue about this as to 00:10:07
which version of the truth is the 00:10:09
correct one we will always end up in an 00:10:13
argument in which the judge and the 00:10:15
Advocate are the same person and you 00:10:18
wouldn't want that if you were brought 00:10:19
into a court of law would you because if 00:10:23
I say that well thinking it all over I 00:10:25
find that Jesus Christ is the greatest 00:10:28
being who ever came onto this this earth 00:10:30
by what standards to our judge 00:10:33
why obviously I judged by the sort of 00:10:36
moral standards that have been given to 00:10:38
me as somebody brought up in a Christian 00:10:41
culture there is no body impartial who 00:10:46
can decide between all the religions 00:10:48
because more or less everybody has been 00:10:50
in one way or another influenced by one 00:10:52
of them so if the church says the Bible 00:10:58
is true it finally comes down to you are 00:11:04
you going to believe the church or 00:11:05
aren't you if nobody believes the church 00:11:09
it will be perfectly plain won't it that 00:11:11
the church has no authority because the 00:11:16
people is always the source of authority 00:11:18
that's why the Tocqueville said that the 00:11:20
people gets what government it deserves 00:11:20
and so you may say well God Himself is the authority well how are we to show 00:11:30
that that's your opinion well you say 00:11:40
will you wait to see the day of judgment 00:11:42
is coming and then you'll find out who's 00:11:44
the authority yes but at the moment 00:11:47
there is no evidence for the day of 00:11:49
judgment and it remains until there is 00:11:53
evidence simply your opinion that the 00:11:55
day of judgment is coming and there is 00:11:57
nothing else to go on except the opinion 00:11:59
of other people who hold the same view 00:12:01
and whose opinions you bought so really 00:12:06
I won't deny anybody's right to hold 00:12:10
these opinions you may indeed believe 00:12:12
that the Bible is literally true and 00:12:15
that it was actually dictated by God to 00:12:18
Moses and the prophets and the Apostles 00:12:20
that may be your opinion and you are at 00:12:25
liberty to hold it I don't agree with 00:12:27
you I do believe on the other hand that 00:12:31
there is a sense in which the Bible is 00:12:33
divinely inspired but I mean by 00:12:38
inspiration something utterly different 00:12:40
from dictation receiving a dictated 00:12:44
message from an omniscient authority 00:12:46
I think inspiration comes very seldom in 00:12:55
words in fact almost all the words 00:12:59
written down by automatic writing from a 00:13:02
psychic input that I've ever read strike 00:13:05
me as a bits in where a psychic begins 00:13:13
to try and write of deep mysteries 00:13:15
instead of telling you what your 00:13:17
sicknesses or who your grandmother was 00:13:20
he begins to get superficial and 00:13:23
psychically communicated philosophy is 00:13:26
never as interesting as philosophy 00:13:29
carefully thought out but divine 00:13:32
inspiration isn't that kind of 00:13:34
communication divine inspiration is for 00:13:37
example to feel for reasons that you 00:13:40
can't really understand that you love 00:13:42
people divine inspiration is a wisdom 00:13:49
which it's very difficult to put into 00:13:51
words like mystical experience that's 00:13:56
divine inspiration and a person who 00:13:58
writes out of that experience could be 00:14:00
said to be divinely inspired or it might 00:14:04
come through dreams through archetypal 00:14:08
messages from the collective unconscious 00:14:10
through which the Holy Spirit could be 00:14:13
said to work but since inspiration 00:14:20
always comes through a human vehicle it 00:14:23
is liable to be distorted by that 00:14:26
vehicle in other words I'm talking to 00:14:29
you through a sound system and it's the 00:14:32
only one now available now if there's 00:14:35
something wrong with this sound system 00:14:37
whatever Truths I might offer to you 00:14:40
will be distorted my voice will be 00:14:42
distorted and you might mistake the 00:14:45
meaning of what I said now so therefore 00:14:50
everybody who receives divine 00:14:52
inspiration and I'm using that in a very 00:14:54
loose way you could mean anything you 00:14:57
like by divine that's your option 00:15:00
but anybody who receives it will express 00:15:03
it within the limits of what language he 00:15:06
knows and by language here I don't only 00:15:11
mean English Latin Greek Hebrew or 00:15:14
Sanskrit 00:15:14
I mean language in the sense of what 00:15:17
sort of terms are available to you what 00:15:20
is what kind of religion were you 00:15:22
brought up with now you see if you were 00:15:26
brought up in the bible belt you came 00:15:29
out of Arkansas somewhere and that's all 00:15:33
the religion you knew and you had a 00:15:36
mystical experience of the type where 00:15:40
you suddenly discover that you are one 00:15:42
with God then you're liable to get up 00:15:45
and say I'm Jesus Christ and lots of 00:15:48
people do 00:15:48
well the culture that we live in just can't allow that there were only one 00:15:53
Jesus Christ and sort of you don't look 00:15:58
like you were Jesus Christ coming back 00:16:00
again because it said in the scriptures 00:16:01
that when he comes back we'll be no 00:16:02
doubt about it he'll appear in the 00:16:04
heavens with legions of angels and 00:16:06
you're not doing that you're just old 00:16:07
Joe doak's that we knew years ago and 00:16:10
now you say you're Jesus Christ well he 00:16:12
says that when Jesus Christ said he was 00:16:14
God nobody believed him and you don't 00:16:15
believe again you know you can't answer 00:16:18
that argument but you see he says it 00:16:25
that way because he is trying to express 00:16:29
what happened to him in terms of a 00:16:33
religious language which is 00:16:34
circumscribed by the Holy Bible he's 00:16:39
never read the Upanishads he's never 00:16:41
read the Diamond Sutra he's never read 00:16:45
the Tibetan Book of the Dead or the e 00:16:46
Jing of the loud sir and therefore there 00:16:50
is no other way in which he can say this 00:16:53
but if he had read the open assad's he 00:16:57
would have had no difficulty and nor 00:16:59
would the culture the society in which 00:17:02
he was talking have any difficulty 00:17:04
because it says in the Upanishads we are 00:17:08
all incarnations of God only they don't 00:17:12
mean by the word 00:17:13
God in fact they don't use that word 00:17:15
they use Brahman they don't mean the 00:17:18
same thing that a Hebrew meant by God 00:17:18
because the Brahman is not personal Brahman is we would say Supra personal 00:17:32
not impersonal because that is a 00:17:38
negation that I would say super personal 00:17:42
Brahman is not he or she has no sex 00:17:48
Brahman is not the creator of the world 00:17:52
as something underneath and subject to 00:17:57
Brahman but the actor of the world the 00:18:01
player of all the parts so that everyone 00:18:04
is a mask which is the meaning of the 00:18:07
word person in which the Brahman plays a 00:18:12
role and like an absorbed actor the 00:18:18
Divine Spirit gets so absorbed in 00:18:20
playing the role has to become it and to 00:18:27
be bewitched and this is all part of the 00:18:29
game you know to believing I am that 00:18:33
role when you were babies you knew who 00:18:39
you were 00:18:39
psychoanalysts refer to that as the oceanic feeling they don't really like 00:18:44
it but they admit that it exists where 00:18:52
the baby cannot distinguish between the 00:18:55
world and the way it acts upon the world 00:18:57
it's all one process which is of course 00:18:59
the way things are but we learn very 00:19:02
quickly because we are taught very 00:19:04
quickly what is you and what is not you 00:19:06
what is voluntary what is involuntary 00:19:09
because you can be punished for the 00:19:10
voluntary but not for the involuntary 00:19:10
and so we unlearn what we knew in the beginning and in the course of life if 00:19:19
we're fortunate we discover again what 00:19:26
we really are that each one of us is 00:19:34
what would be called in Arabic or Hebrew 00:19:36
the son of God and the word son of means 00:19:42
of the nature of as when you call 00:19:45
someone a son-of-a-bitch or in Arabic 00:19:48
you say every dekalb which means son of 00:19:50
a dog evany el hamas son of a donkey so 00:19:53
a son of Belial means an evil person son 00:19:58
of God means a divine person human being 00:20:03
who has realized union with God now my 00:20:09
assumption my opinion is the jesus of 00:20:15
nazareth was a human being like Buddha 00:20:22
like Sri Ramakrishna like Ramana 00:20:26
Maharshi etc who early in life had a 00:20:33
colossal experience of what we call 00:20:35
cosmic consciousness now you don't have 00:20:39
to be any particular kind of religion to 00:20:41
get this experience it can hit anyone 00:20:43
anytime like falling in love there are 00:20:48
obviously a number of you in this 00:20:50
building who've had it in greater or 00:20:52
lesser degree but it's found all over 00:20:55
the world and when it hits you you know 00:20:58
it sometimes it comes after long 00:21:01
practice of meditations and spiritual 00:21:03
discipline sometimes it comes for no 00:21:05
reason that anybody can determine we say 00:21:08
it's the grace of God that there comes 00:21:10
this overwhelming conviction that you 00:21:15
have mistaken your identity that what 00:21:18
you thought what I thought was just old 00:21:21
Allen Watts who I know very well is just 00:21:24
a big act on a show but what I thought 00:21:27
was in 00:21:28
that you know me was only completely 00:21:32
superficial that I am an expression of 00:21:40
an eternal something or other ex a name 00:21:47
that can't be named as the name of God 00:21:49
was taboo among the Hebrews I am and 00:21:57
that I suddenly understand why exactly 00:22:01
why everything is the way it is it's 00:22:04
perfectly clear furthermore I feel no 00:22:07
longer any boundary between what I do 00:22:10
and what happens to me I feel that 00:22:14
everything that's going on is my doing 00:22:19
just as my breathing is is your 00:22:21
breathing voluntary or involuntary do 00:22:24
you do it or does it happen to you so 00:22:26
you can feel it both ways but you feel 00:22:31
everything like breathing and it isn't 00:22:36
as if you have become a puppet there is 00:22:41
no longer any separate you there is just 00:22:43
this great happening going on and if you 00:22:48
have that the name in your background 00:22:50
you will say this happening is God or 00:22:53
the will of God or the doing of God or 00:22:57
if you don't have that word in your 00:22:59
background you will say with the Chinese 00:23:01
it is the flowing of the dow or if 00:23:05
you're a Hindu you will say it is the 00:23:07
Maya of Brahman the Maya means the 00:23:11
magical power the creative illusion the 00:23:15
play so you can very well understand how 00:23:22
people to whom this happens feel 00:23:25
genuinely inspired because very often 00:23:29
there goes along with it an extremely 00:23:31
warm feeling because you see the divine 00:23:37
and everybody else's eyes when Kabir 00:23:42
great hindu muslim mystic was a very old 00:23:46
man he used to look around at people and 00:23:49
say to whom shall i preach because he 00:23:54
saw the beloved in all eyes and could 00:23:58
see sometimes i look into people's eyes 00:24:01
and i can look right down and I can see 00:24:03
that beloved on in the depths of those 00:24:05
pools and yet the expression on the face 00:24:08
is saying what me that's the funniest 00:24:12
thing but there is everybody in his own 00:24:17
peculiar way playing out an essential 00:24:21
part in this colossal cosmic drama and 00:24:21
it's so strange that one can even feel it in people you thoroughly dislike so 00:24:32
let's suppose them that Jesus had such 00:24:45
an experience and there of all ranges as 00:24:51
I said this could be a very very strong 00:24:53
one indeed and from the sayings of Jesus 00:24:59
especially in the gospel of some John 00:25:01
anybody who studied the psychology of 00:25:03
religion can easily detect that that 00:25:07
experience must have taken place or 00:25:09
something very like it but you see Jesus 00:25:17
has a limitation that he doesn't know of 00:25:22
any religion other than those of the 00:25:27
immediate Near East he might know 00:25:30
something about Egyptian religion a 00:25:33
little bit maybe about Greek religion 00:25:35
but mostly about Hebrew there is no 00:25:40
evidence whatsoever that he knew 00:25:41
anything about India or China and we 00:25:48
people who think you know Jesus was God 00:25:51
assume that he must have known because 00:25:54
he would have been omniscient 00:25:56
Oh some Paul makes it perfectly clear in 00:26:01
the Epistle to the Philippians that 00:26:04
Jesus renounced his divine powers so as 00:26:09
to be man 00:26:09