Each Person Is an Encounter of the Universal Christ

Article by Doug Esse

The following is a continued email exchange by an artist friend who is learning and excited about the Universal Christ.

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Artist Friend:

Hey Doug,

Thank you for your insight and guidance on this topic. I’m beginning to see why when so many spiritual teachers like Eckhart Tolle are confronted with multitudes of various topics and questions, they always seem to have these one-liners or short sayings like “ One eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love” [a quote by Meister Eckhart].

Maybe because it points to the singular but infinite truth that God is everything and everything is God or we are all one. Even browsing your website and seeing the insane amount of complex and highly articulated material, it became clear that there could be an infinite number of books written on any one sub-topic referencing Christ but at the same time could be summed up with one simple phrase. This is just me thinking out loud to you in hopes of beginning to cultivate my current minimal comprehension of Christ however, I feel I am making progress. 

Now for the flower. The metaphor you used describing the flower being my Jesus really stuck with me. Though I am still assembling thoughts on deeper levels, it brought about a sense of understanding and I’m glad you put it this way. Must be the 4 (on the Enneagram) in me? Anyways, it sent me down the rabbit hole almost immediately. I was contemplating why the flower is so beautiful and how it became so. Also, why am I so attracted to this flower? What’s wired in me that tells me that this flower is beautiful? And on a broader spectrum, why is everything in nature so damn gorgeous and how did the Possum make the cut? Lol

Then I began to think about Art and my compulsion to create beautiful art. And when I say beautiful, I mean aesthetic in its highest form. Though it almost never turns out to be so, that’s what I shoot for. That’s what I see in my head and heart. What’s this NEED for it to be at this level? What is that? That thing. Where does it come from? 

In the beginning, I thought I was an artist because I enjoyed making art and had a knack for developing originality in my work. Then later on, post notoriety and monetization, I realized two things. 1. I loved making money from something that came so effortlessly. And 2. I love seeing viewers reactions more than making money. I mean, it’s fucking priceless to see the viewers incomprehension of what the hell they are looking at. So many questions and curiosities. I’ve even had someone start weeping while looking at my work. It’s truly amazing.

After witnessing this, I think I may have discovered my golden link in the never ending interwoven chain of Christ (In retrospect of course). I was the flower. Or at least the flower was inside of me. In my thoughts and internal vision that manifested into this art piece, the freaking flower!! Then this flower I created provides the viewers the same experience I had In the beginning and it all repeats and expands in ways I could never wrap my head around. 

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Doug's Response:

Again, you are making connections at very deep levels.  You are, indeed, the flower... that is, you are "Jesus," the particular portal, through which the divine is accessed.  Everything is a holon of the Great Holograph. 

In the Law of One material, the Ra groups says in several places, that everything and in everything there resides the One Infinite Creator in Its plenum, or fullness, or totality.  It couldn't not be otherwise than this, if all is one. You, the artist, and your creation, the art, are both "Jesus"--or singular doorways--into the universal Christ. 

I have been a counselor for almost 20 years now.  I can tell you that I have only had one client this whole time.  Who? That client is the broken and risen Christ who comes clothed as the particular person (another Jesus) in front of me.  Each person is an encounter with the Universal Christ and it is the Christ in me, as me, that interfaces with Christ in them, as them! It's all of one piece, one Majestic Self.  

The word, "person," gets at this mystery. You may be interested to know that "person" comes from Greek theater to mean the mask that actors wore. For an amazing article on this, please read Richard Rohr's, "Mirror and Mask." The idea is that the actor would "sound through" a mask. The mask was what the audience saw but it was not the thing that made the sound. The mask was the interface with the world, “Jesus,” if you will. But who spoke through the mask was the source hidden behind. In a similar fashion, a person is a "mask" or "Jesus" for the Universal Christ to sound through, to flow through, to incarnate as.

Do you see how beautiful this all is?  We are all Jesus Christ putting together the particular and universal.  The historical figure, Jesus Christ, lived out this oneing of the particular and universal so that we humans could have an embodied model to imitate and follow.  How else do humans grow if not at the level of the personal, the relational?  What the Christian spiritual lens offers the world is a personal and human archetype of what the manifested universe is through the person of Jesus Christ. 

Through the ihidaya--the Aramaic word for the "Single One," as Jesus was called, the Universal Christ was given a face to reveal how reality is. Some of the main points may include:

1) All things are God, even though God transcends all things, thus....

2) ...All things are included in God, and God indwells in all things.

3) Everything is a particular incarnation of God. Everything is Jesus Christ--the particular+universal, together.

4) Transformation is evolution. Evolution unfolds as the eternal dance of life and death.  Life leads to death and death leads to rebirth. Rebirth is transformation.

5) Separation from each other and from God is an illusion.

6) The illusion has meaning because it offers the ability for us to develop trust in God and grow in love.

7) The key to living well is learning how to die before you die. Dying to our separate self's needs for power, prestige, and possessions brings it into integration with the Whole Self.

8) The illusion of separation creates a powerful byproduct in the human mind: the phenomenon of the scapegoat mechanism.

9) The "Othering" of other people is scapegoating and scapegoating keeps us entrapped within the illusion of separation because we point fingers and blame and shame others while not realizing that what we hate over there is also in here.

10) Jesus became "sin," is another way of saying that he embodied the archetype of the scapegoat mechanism since it was scapegoating that put him on the cross. He was blamed by the authorities for their problems. The authorities are stand-ins for you and me when we scapegoat.

11) Instead of seeking revenge or projecting his shadow onto his scapegoaters, he assumed their projections and transformed it into forgiveness.  "Forgive them Father for they know not what they do." 

12) Jesus saves us from our sins refers to how imitating him and trusting his spiritual path of descent is freedom...or “salvation.” His path of descent is enlightenment through moving into the broken and messy and offering acceptance and healing). We are freed from repeating what humans have done since the beginning: scapegoat others.

 
May the love and peace of the Universal Christ warm your heart and inspire you to keep searching the cosmic reality: that the moment before you contains love. And love is all there is.

Doug