The Enlightenment of Jesus
Practical Steps to Life Awake
David W. Jones
Encounter One:
Awareness, Awareness, Awareness
I had a dream that I was awake,
and I woke up to find myself asleep.
Stan Laurel
I don’t think Jesus is familiar with the proverb, When the student is ready, the teacher will appear, because in my life, he just shows up, whether I am ready or not, whether I want him to or not, without invitation or request, fully prayer free, he just shows up.
The first time Jesus appeared to me, I was asleep. Officially Saturday by about three hours, my wife and I, our three children, and both dogs, were all snug in our beds. I was in a deeper than normal sleep when Jesus touched me on the shoulder and whispered, “Wake up.”
I stirred. I thought the intrusive hand on my shoulder belonged to my son, Nathan, then four years old. I said, “Nate, go to the bathroom, and then go back to bed. It’s still night time. Daddy wants to sleep.” Nathan had this habit of coming into our room saying, “Hi,” and informing us, “I need to go potty” on his way to the bathroom. He never needed any help, just always thought we’d like to know.
Jesus squeezed my shoulder. He whispered again, “Wake up. I want to talk to you.”
I realized this time the voice I was hearing wasn’t young like my son’s but much older. I opened my eyes to see a shadow standing over me in the dark. Surprisingly, I didn’t have a burglar-in-the-house reaction. I wasn’t startled. Yet, at the same time, I was startled. I wasn’t alarmed, but, at the same time, I was alarmed. Part of me wanted to get up quickly and go with him, and part of me wanted to roll over and see if he would just go so I could sleep on.
Gravity seemed slightly tilted toward following, so I slid out of bed and trailed the shadow. I navigated over a fallen pillow, around the body of our snoring Labrador Retriever, Pooh, through the doorway and into the hall. The figure moved ahead of me without hesitation while I cautiously moved through the house hoping for my toes, knees, and abdomen’s sake that there was no discrepancy between my expectations of counter tops, corners and cupboards and where they actually were.
“Who is this?” my mind wondered, “and where are we going?” The shadow led me on with a quiet shepherd-like authority. He walked into the shades of gray of my living room. He sat on the couch shaped blob and, as best as I could tell, motioned for me to sit on the chair next to it. I complied. He said nothing, but looked at me. ‘What’s he waiting for?’ I wondered.
Uncomfortable with the silence, I spoke, “Jesus?”
He said nothing. Just waited. Since the shadow seemed like Jesus, I concluded I should do what dream Jesus said. He told me to wake up, so I tried. If it was a dream, then the shadow would disappear, if not, well, I didn’t know. “Okay, dream Jesus,” I said, “I’m waking up. What do you have to say to me?” almost begging him to speak and at the same time terrified that he would. Before he could answer, I named my fear, “You’re not going to send me off to some foreign land are you? If so, I’d like to request Hawaii over Haiti.” I wondered if Jesus found my sarcasm amusing since my family never seemed to.
“No,” Jesus laughed. He didn’t seem to be laughing at my joke but at me.
“I’m not sending you anywhere,” he said. “Before I can send you somewhere you’ve got to be somewhere.”
“Got to be somewhere?” I asked. I heard myself and then wished I could return the words to my mouth. I didn’t want Jesus to think I was stupid, but I was confused. I had wanted him to speak, but I had hoped he would make more sense. ‘This must be Jesus,’ I thought. ‘He’s speaking in riddles.’
“Right now,” he said, “you are only barely here. Only barely present. Only slightly in touch and in tune with the current moment. You move a lot. Your mouth makes sounds as if you are awake, but to those of us who can truly see you, we are not fooled.” He laughed again. “Your eyes are still more closed than open. I’m here to help you open your eyes.”
With all the energy I could muster, I pried my eyes open. “Okay, Jesus, I’m awake.”
“No, you’re not,” Jesus said. “That’s why I’m here.”
“I’m awake,” I said. “A cup of coffee and I would be more awake, but Jesus, I am awake.”
“Awake,” Jesus said, “means more than you know. Trust me, you are not awake, but you can be. The first step toward waking up is realizing just how asleep you are. Sleeping people are never aware they are asleep. Only after someone awakens does he or she realize just how asleep they had been. And you, my child, you are sleeping and don’t know it.”
“More asleep than awake?” I was trying not to disagree with him. After all, even if he was only my dream Jesus, he was still Jesus. I sat up straight. “Look at me, Jesus. Good posture. Open eyes. I’m looking at you. I’m listening. I’m awake.”
“Just because your eyes are open doesn’t mean you are awake. Just because you look doesn’t mean you see. Just because you listen doesn’t mean you hear. You are programmed and patterned, living not a human life but instead the life of a machine, a robot, moving constantly but without thought, moving mechanically with little vision, perception, or understanding.”
I felt frustrated. “What do you mean, Jesus? A robot? A machine? I’m not a robot! I’m not a machine!” ‘Is this some sort of parable?’ I wondered. ‘Why doesn’t Jesus make more sense?’ I couldn’t recall Jesus ever saying that the kingdom of God was like a robot. I wanted to understand, but my head hurt. I resisted. “Jesus, I’m flesh and blood. I’m not asleep. I’m awake.” I couldn’t believe I was arguing with Jesus! I realized my mother had always been right. She frequently said I would even argue with God if I got the chance.
“Awake?” Jesus said laughing again.
‘If this really is Jesus,’ I wondered, ‘would he laugh at me? He certainly is not laughing with me.’
“Awake? Not you, my sleeping child,” he said. “Pay attention. Consider your life. Your life has come to you as a gift, something to be treasured, experienced, and lived. Yet, you are missing it. You are sleep walking through it.”
I liked the image of my life as a gift much more than the accusation of living like a robot. I realized that the shadow before me was talking about more than me rising out of bed to meet with him, that he was talking about me waking to my life, that his judgment of me sleep walking through life wasn’t an accusation but an invitation.
“Please,” I said, “give me an example of how I sleep walk through life.”
“I’ll show you in two words,” Jesus said.
“Two words?” I asked.
“Two words,” he replied. “Strawberry cereal.”
“Strawberry cereal?” I asked. “What are you talking about?” I wondered if this was another parable. I was sure I would need some help to understand.
“Strawberry cereal,” he responded as if saying the words one more time would trigger my memory.
‘Strawberry cereal?’ I asked myself finding no help from Jesus. Then I remembered the morning prior. Cayla, my eldest, came into the kitchen. As I had for the previous four months of school mornings, I asked, “What do you want for breakfast?” Each morning prior she had answered, “Strawberry cereal” meaning a Special K cereal with freeze dried strawberries. But on this particular morning, she didn’t say the usual, “Strawberry cereal,” instead she said, “Honey Nut Cheerios.” I even remarked to her, “That’s different.” “I just wanted something different,” she replied. I heard her, but even though part of my brain marked the request for something different, I still went to the cupboard and followed the normal pattern. I grabbed the same strawberry cereal I had each morning before. Not until I placed the bowl in front of her did my mind trigger, ‘That’s not what she asked for…’
I looked at Jesus. “Strawberry cereal,” I admitted. “I guess my mind just shut off.”
“Or was asleep,” Jesus added. “Do you remember a phone call that morning?”
“I don’t remember getting a phone call,” I said.
“Not you, Carrie.”
“Oh, yes…” My wife, Carrie, had gotten a phone call. Carrie works at our church’s preschool. A neighbor had asked if Carrie would drive her daughter to the preschool. The woman’s other child was sick. Carrie said that she would. About a half an hour later I got a call from Carrie in her car, “I forgot to go by and get Gracie!” Even though she made a mental note to pick the girl up, she drove off in her normal pattern and forgot her.
“I guess she was asleep, too?” I asked Jesus.
“Now you’re getting it. Sleeping people are patterned and don’t know it. Sleeping people are like machines with preprogrammed routines. Much of your life you spend asleep, unaware, unawake, just going through the motions, more animated than alive.”
Jesus must have sensed my skepticism. “Think about your own driving habits,” he challenged me.
“You’re suggesting I’m sleep driving? That could be dangerous,” but then I answered my own question. I thought about how many times I had left the house, headed for the church where I am pastor, then realized I wasn’t going to work but the grocery store. My mind seemed be on auto-pilot. If I didn’t focus on the destination, I would consistently turn toward the church.
As if he knew my thoughts, he prodded me further, “Think about the car pool.” I immediately knew. Frequently, I fill in for our neighborhood carpool of five girls. The girls like it when I drive because of the game they play. When we get close to our neighborhood, the often ruckus girls go quiet. They say nothing and wait. They have discovered that if they are quiet enough, I fall into the normal routine and turn down our street toward our house forgetting to take the other girls home. Usually, before I get the garage door open, I realize my mistake. I say, “Oh…” and they laugh, more at me than with me. Apparently, to middle school girls, this is extremely funny.
“Do you see your patterns?” Jesus asked.
“I’m starting to,” I said.
“Excellent,” Jesus said. “This week, just keep looking for your patterns and the patterns of others, in church, in marriage, in family. If you look, you will see patterns that have been shaping and controlling your life and the lives of others, dictating your choices and the choices of others, guiding your actions and the actions of others, all the while unseen.”
“Once I see them, do I try and change them?” I asked.
“No,” Jesus said. “At first, it is enough for you to simply see the patterns. Don’t fight them. Don’t resist them. Just see them. The road to your awakening begins with awareness, but not just any awareness. The road to your awakening begins with self awareness. Before you can see the world, you must see yourself. Before you can look into the lives of others, you must take a clear unfettered look into your own life. Self awareness is the doorway to waking up. The first step for your rising out of bed a little while ago was becoming aware that you were being touched. You didn’t know who or what was touching you, but you were aware you were being touched.” He stood up, “This week, live aware. Specifically, pay attention to your patterns.”
“I’ll try,” I promised.
Jesus was gone. He walked into the shadows of my house and simply dissipated and disappeared.
I sat for a while considering what I had heard. My hands were shaking. My mind was racing but against whom or what I couldn’t tell. ‘Was the visit a dream? Was I mentally ill? Did I encounter the divine?’ I didn’t know. Hoping for some comfort, I turned on the lamp by my chair and picked up a Bible from the stack of books next to me. I attempted to open the Bible to the middle in hopes of finding a comforting Psalm, but my hands were shaking so badly, instead of Psalms, I opened to the book of Proverbs. I looked down and read Proverbs 6:9,
How long will you lie there, O lazybones?
When will you rise from your sleep?
A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest,
and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
and want, like an armed warrior.
I closed the Bible and opened it once more, this time to Ephesians 5:14,
Sleeper, awake!
Rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.
In disbelief, I quickly closed my Bible, turned off the light and headed back toward my bed. I stubbed my toe on the coffee table and then bruised my shoulder on our door frame. I stumbled over our dog and then fell into the bed.
“What’s wrong?” Carrie asked a third concerned and two thirds disturbed.
“Jesus is bothering me,” I said.
“Jesus is bothering you?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said, “he won’t let me sleep.”
Movement:
From life asleep to life awake.
Stepping Stone:
Wake to unconscious patterns.
Unconscious patterns are a clear sign of going through life asleep. I know about patterns. I’m a pastor.
My church’s members are like most others, finding comfort in familiar practices, arriving at same time, parking in the same spots, seating themselves in the same pews. Most pray patterned prayers offering, “Our Father who art…” when we gather and praying “God is great…” and “Now I lay me…” at home. Those patterns are difficult to leave behind.
I encourage you to listen to what Jesus said to me, “At first, it is enough for you to simply see the patterns. Don’t fight them. Don’t resist them. Just see them.” When I first started to notice my patterns, I tried to break out of one on a Sunday morning. It did not go well for me, or my congregation.
After the worship service, I took my position at the front of the church by the door as usual. As I shook the hands of exiting parishioners, I greeted and was greeted with, “Have a nice week,” and, “See you next Sunday.”
One of our members, Kathy, shook my hand and said softly, “Hi, how are you?” without breaking her stride through the door.
I replied, “Fine,” but determined to have more than the patterned response, I resisted Kathy’s quick exit. The normal duration for a handshake was over, but I wasn’t finished. She pulled away, but I held on pulling her back into the doorway. I twisted my head to make contact with her already-past-me face. She returned to me. “Kathy,” I said pausing for emphasis, “how are you?”
“Fine,” she said giving a slight tug of return to her hand.
“Fine,” she said giving a slight tug of return to her hand.
“No, really Kathy, how ARE you? I want to know.” By this time I just had her fingers, “Are you okay? How was your week? Really, I want to know.”
“It was fine,” she said emphatically pulling her hand liberating her fingers. “Fine,” she said again. “Really.” At this point she was out the door.
I gave her the pastoral I understand nod of my head. ‘I think we connected,’ I lied to myself. I looked up to see the parishioners now backed up from the exit like a line of women at the bathroom of a college football game, restless and anxious, trying to will the front of the line to move ahead and make way. The path cleared; one by one they all came through. I let them all go, no questions asked.
More and more in my church life, I find that patterns often become traditions. Over time, the founding reasons for the pattern are often forgotten, like the church in this story…
A cat would get in a church sanctuary on Sunday morning, meow loudly, and rub against the legs of parishioners under the pews startling many and disturbing more. So, to keep the cat from disrupting the Sunday Service, each Sunday morning, an elder in the church would catch the cat and tie it up outside. That happened every Sunday for ten years. After ten years, the cat died. The following Sunday, with no cat to tie up, the elder on duty roamed the streets of the town, found another cat, took it to the church, and tied it up outside.
In your life, look at your patterns. Do you see any that have become sacred traditions for reasons since forgotten?
Stepping Stone:
Wake to your family patterns.
“Do you, Roger, take this woman to be your wife?”
“I do.”
“And do you, Rebecca, take this man to be your husband?”
“I do.”
“By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you man and wife. Let the games begin.”
I try and prepare them, those innocent young who come to the church to be married. I try to give them some picture that they have not only chosen each other, they have been chosen by their families, chosen as missionaries, as agents, as representatives. I try to show them how, in their lives up to this point, their families have been preparing them, educating them, training them in the ‘right’ way to live their family way, their long traditioned, heavily patterned, family way, sending them forth into marriage, to procreate a new family, one with the same values, behaviors, traditions, patterns of the family from whence they came.
I try to prepare individuals who come to me for premarital counseling for the upcoming mêlée. I ask them, “What do you think your marriage will be like?”
I listen to their responses, then I add, “I like to think of marriage as one really long…football game.”
Comparing marriage to football is no insult. I come from the South where football is sacred. I would never belittle marriage by saying it is like soccer, bowling, or playing bridge, never. Those images would never work, only football is passionate enough to be compared to marriage. In other sports, players walk onto the field, in football they run onto the field, in high school ripping through some paper, in college (for those who are fortunate enough) they touch the rock and run down the hill onto the field in the middle of the band. In other sports, fans cheer, in football they scream. In other sports, players ‘high five’, in football they chest, smash shoulder pads, and pat your rear. Football is a passionate sport, and marriage is about passion.
In football, two teams send players onto the field to determine which athletes will win and which will lose, in marriage two families send their representatives forward to see which family will survive and which family will be lost into oblivion with their traditions, patterns, and values lost and forgotten.
Preparing for this struggle for survival, the bride and groom are each set up. Each has been led to believe that their family’s patterns are all ‘normal,’ and anyone who differs is dense, naïve, or stupid because, no matter what the issue, the way their family has always done it is the ‘right’ way. For the premarital bride and groom in their twenties, as soon as they say, “I do,” these ‘right’ ways of doing things are about to collide like two three hundred and fifty pound linemen at the hiking of the ball. From “I do” forward, if not before, every decision, every action, every goal will be like the line of scrimmage.
Where will the family patterns collide?
In the kitchen. Here the new couple will be faced with the difficult decision of “Where do the cereal bowls go?” Likely, one family’s is high, and the others is low. Where will they go now?
In the bathroom. The bathroom is a battleground unmatched in the potential conflicts. Will the toilet paper roll over the top or underneath? Will the acceptable residing position for the lid be up or down? And, of course, what about the toothpaste? Squeeze it from the middle or the end?
But the skirmishes don’t stop in the rooms of the house, they are not only locational they are seasonal. The classic battles come home for the holidays.
Thanksgiving. Which family will they spend the noon meal with and which family, if close enough, will have to wait until the nighttime meal, or just dessert if at all?
Christmas. Whose home will they visit first, if at all? How much money will they spend on gifts for his family? for hers?
Then comes for many couples an even bigger challenge – children of their own!
At the wedding, many couples take two candles and light just one often extinguishing their candle as a sign of devotion. The image is Biblical. The Bible is quoted a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one. What few prepare them for is the upcoming struggle, the conflict over the unanswered question: the two shall become one, but which one? Two families, two patterns, two ways of doing things, which family’s patterns will survive to play another day, in another generation, and which will be lost forever? Let the games begin.
Stepping Stone:
Wake to your family patterns that cross generations.
“Because I said so!” I can still hear my father.
As a determined eight year old, I swore to my father, “I will never say, ‘Because I said so’ to MY child.” Fast forward thirty-five years later, we have three children, Cayla, Abbie, and Nathan. Each, at one time or another, has heard me say, “Because I said so.” Each has also heard me lecture them on the evils of not eating their supper while there are so many starving children in India, another thing I swore I would never say to my child. The patterns we learn as children resurface when we become parents, no matter how dormant we thought them to be.
What I have found even more amazing is just how unquestioned our family patterns can become. Sensible or not, we assume our way of doing things is the ‘right’ way, like in this story…
Every time Mary cooked a roast, she cut off a small slice on each end. A neighbor, over sharing a cup of coffee, watched her semi-consciously cut off the ends. “Why do you do that?” asked the neighbor.
Mary thought about it. She didn’t know. “I guess it’s because that’s the way my mother always cooked a roast.” She was a little embarrassed that she had no other reason, so she called her mother. Her mother told her that she, like her daughter, simply cut the ends off the roast because she had seen her mother do the same. Mary called grandma. Her grandmother explained that she had always cut the ends off the roast because the pot she used was a small pot, too small for a normal roast. She cut the ends off to make the roast fit in the pot. Mary realized that two generations later she kept the same pattern of her grandmother even though they no longer owned the small pot nor needed to cut the ends off the roast.
We observe and imitate. The patterned way is assumed the preferable way, the right way, the best way, and why wouldn’t we pass on the best way to the next generation?
What family patterns do you have which have crossed generations? Do you know why you do the things you do? Are there any patterns in your family or in your life which have been held with football-like religious fervor?
Stepping Stone:
Commit to changing patterns that keep you asleep.
Are you ever like the Bear in the following story?
Borshka, the dancing circus bear, lived in a cage. The cage was so small that all he could do was take three steps in one direction, turn around, and take three steps back. When it was time for him to perform, his trainer would put a large chain around his neck and lead him out to the circus crowd. When his performance was over, his trainer would lead him back to his cage. In his cage, he could take three steps forward, turn around, and three steps back.
The circus shut down. There were no shows, only the cage for Borshka. After some time, a man came to see the circus and felt sorry for the poor bear who once was a star but now lived in a cage where he could only take three steps forward and three steps back. The man bought Borshka from the circus, took him cage and all on a long train ride to the edge of the mountains. He had the conductor stop the train. They took Borshka, cage and all off the train. The man opened up the cage door, Borshka stepped out. He saw the beautiful mountains with all the trees. In the distance he could see a water fall with crisp clear water and probably a stream with lots of fish. Then Borshka, in the middle of the wilderness, did what he always did - took three steps forward, and three steps back. Three steps forward, and three steps back.
This week, in some way, try four steps forward, and four steps back… and pay attention to your commitment to your patterns.
The Enlightenment of Jesus:
Jesus wasn’t fond of patterned religion or patterned relationships. He showed his distaste for unquestioned patterns and his love for awakening minds in his lifting up the lifestyle of Mary over Martha.
Luke 10: Now as they went on their way, (Jesus) entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.’ But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.’
Two women, Mary and Martha, one busy, one sitting at the feet of Jesus, Martha locked in her dutiful pattern, Mary doing her best to see and to hear. Jesus affirmed Mary’s attempts to see and hear and discouraged Martha’s patterned duty. Jesus encouraged the wakening choice of Mary to the going through the motions of Martha.
In similar fashion, Buddha encouraged mindful attention over mindless duty. In an ancient story…
The Buddha was asked, “Sir, what do you and your monks practice?”
He replied, “We sit, we walk, and we eat.”
“But sir, everyone sits, walks and eats.”
“Ahh,” the Buddha replied, “but when we sit, we know that we are sitting. When we walk, we know that we are walking and when we eat, we know that we are eating.”
Jesus wants similar awareness from his disciples. He says to his followers in Matthew 13: 16blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Seeing, hearing, understanding… so simple, yet often so difficult, at least for the habitually asleep.
How can you be more like Mary than Martha this week? How can you sit when you are sitting, walk when you are walking, and eat when you are eating?
Reflection:
Read the following quotes. How does each relate to the steps toward enlightenment described in this chapter?
Instead of asking “Why are we here?”
We should ask, “Are we here?”
Leonard Nimoy
or in thin air a miracle.
But I think the real miracle is not
to walk either on water or in thin air,
but to walk on earth.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Open my eyes that I may see
Glimpses of truth Thou hast for me;
Place in my hands the wonderful key
That shall unclasp and set me free.
Glimpses of truth Thou hast for me;
Place in my hands the wonderful key
That shall unclasp and set me free.
Clara H. Scott
The man who is aware of himself is henceforward independent;
and he is never bored, and life is only too short,
and he is steeped through and through
with a profound yet temperate happiness.
Virginia Woolf
The third gate of dreaming is reached
when you find yourself in a dream,
staring at someone else who is asleep.
And that someone else turns out to be you
Carlos Castaneda
If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly,
our whole life would change.
Buddha
Now what?
To help people find enlightenment, Buddha spent little time teaching people how to think. He showed little concern over what people thought. Instead, his teachings were programs for action. Jesus was similar. In the gospels, the word do shows up 487 times but the word believe is used only 88. Buddha and Jesus both emphasized action.
Accordingly, at the end of each chapter is a section entitled, Now what? In this section will be exercises giving some practical ways for you to walk across the stepping stones and take action toward your own enlightenment.
To awaken to your patterns, try the following: Use the chart on the next page to journal your patterns this week. Fill in the columns. Under Patterns write things you do each specific day. For example, if every Sunday night you call your mother, child, or another relative, write it by Sunday. For things you do everyday, or most days, write them beside Daily. For example, if every morning you have a cup of coffee and watch the morning news, include this in your Daily list.
At the end of the week go back and reflect. Circle every pattern which if you cut out of your routine would create tension for you. Put a line through every pattern you think is keeping you from waking to your life. Look closely at the patterns you put a line through.
Next, write what you’ll do differently this week to awaken from those patterns which might be keeping you asleep.
Day | Patterns |
Daily | |
Sunday | |
Monday | |
Tuesday | |
Wednesday | |
Thursday | |
Friday | |
Saturday |
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