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Scripture
24Martha answered [Jesus], "I know that he [her brother Lazarus] will be raised to life on the last day [i.e., I believe in a physical resurrection at the end of time], when all the dead are raised." 25Jesus then said, "I am [or, I AM] the one [or, the One] who raises the dead to life [now]! Everyone who has [“continues to,” AB] faith in me will live, even if they die. 26And everyone who lives because of faith in me will never really die. Do you believe [i.e. trusts] this?" (John 11, CEV)
Commentary
In meditation we experience more, as we attune mind and heart, alternating senses of two dimensions. Thich Nhat Hanh calls these “the historical dimension” and “the ultimate dimension” (No Death, No Fear: Comforting Wisdom for Life). We experience these as polarities, for conventional thinking is thinking in opposites. This makes most religion conventional, for the general teaching and ritual is dualistic, not wholistic, or holyistic. Yet, imbedded in the teachings and rite, as well as in Scripture, are hints that provide means to enter wherein the historical and ultimate are One, not two.
Many in spirituality assume that the ultimate is our goal. No, the ultimate apart from the historical, the then apart from the now, the there apart from the here is dualism, a partial truth.
This lack of wholeness appears in teaching on Jesus. Theologians debate Christology (i.e., study of Christ; by extension, doctrine of Christ). Generally, lower Christology is that Jesus was wholly human. Higher Christology is that Jesus was fully human and fully God. However, higher Christology often fails to honor the human aspect, running off into a spiritualized God-only teaching. This Christology struggle is natural, for it reflects our not having been situated in nondual consciousness, and neither side of the debate need offer the other up as heretical; each offers balance to the discussion.
I prefer to call my Christology a nondual Christology. I do not want to idenfity with the extremes of both lower and higher Christology. I seek to integrate the strengths of each position.
Hinduism has struggled in this same area of wholistic theology. Different branches of Hinduism come to different conclusions. Generally, God, or Brahman, is seen to consist of an attributeless aspect, called nirguna, and a personal aspect, of personal attributes, called saguna.
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Buddhism has wrestled over this issue in a different way. They have not claimed the historical Buddha is God. They, however, have come to different conclusions on the relationship between what can be called the historical Buddha and the living Buddha.
Thich Nhat Hanh presents that the historical and ultimate dimensions in Jesus Christ are indicated by two ways New Testament writers refer to Jesus. Son of Man, or Human One, speaks of the historical; Son of God, which derives from language applied to kings in Hebrew history, refers to the ultimate dimension. In a nondual Christology, then, Jesus Christ is a differentiated One of historical and ultimate. In Christ we touch the unity of everything, the beauty of pluralism, and the wonder of diversity. The uni-verse, or, better, the uniting-verse, is a single Song of infinite variety, in the marriage of historical and ultimate as One Reality, or I AM.
So, in meditation, we can know that in touching the historical, we touch the ultimate, and vice versa. In meditation, in experiencing saguna, we experience nirguna, and vice versa. In touching the historical Buddha, we touch the living Buddha, and vice versa. In touching the Son of Man, we touch the Son of God, and vice versa. We do not have to choose, we can touch all by touching one and One.
However, the above paragraph is not all true. For, in touching one, we touch both. We cannot touch the historical as independent, for it is, essentially, only a relative description. Likewise, we cannot touch the ultimate, as though the ultimate is an independent reality.
The Scripture for today gives a teaching of Jesus on this mystical insight. His dear friend Lazarus has been dead for three days. Lazarus is in a tomb. Even the bystanders admit the corpse would be stinking. Jesus, however, is the voice of the nondual, for he enters the context with a unitive wisdom. Jesus offers Martha insight into the nondual consciousness inherent in Him. John A. T. Robertson, clarifies, using the Greek New Testament:
I am the resurrection and the life.... This reply is startling enough. They are not mere doctrines about future events, but present realities in Jesus himself. "The Resurrection is one manifestation of the Life: it is involved in the Life" (Westcott). … Jesus had taught the future resurrection often …, but here he means more, even that Lazarus is now alive. (A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures of the New Testament).
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