The story is a thriller, one
of murder, mystery, secret societies, and centuries of persecution
of “heretics” by the established Catholic Church. It is very well
written, with the factual information being revealed in the form of
a present day search through well known museums and churches of
Europe. What fun!
For me, the fascination was
that 40 million people had read the book and since I am a disciple
of Jesus Christ and a teacher of
A Course in Miracles, I
wondered what all the fuss was about. I have been following the
teachings of Jesus most of my adult life. The idea of Jesus having
an intimate relationship with Mary Magdalene was not a new idea
having been explored in the movie, The Last Temptation of Christ.
The idea seems to me quite beside the point.
Ultimately, my question is:
what is the point of his life if his message is still denied even
after 2000 years of Christianity? Didn’t he come to save my
soul? Does he have an intimate relationship with me? This
doesn’t have anything to do with history or blood lines, pagan
rituals or even the Catholic Church. It has only to do with me,
with my quest for the grail, my search for salvation. I am
interested in the experience of enlightenment that Jesus came to
bring about on this earth.
What is the point of finding
the Holy Grail? Wouldn’t it be of interest to the world to know
that indeed there is another Christianity not of the establishment
that teaches spiritual transformation and enlightenment? That this
teaching is available, and although the church tries to suppress it,
the true teaching of Jesus could not be suppressed. This is a fact.
I have experienced it. The secret society is no longer secret. I
am privileged to be part of it and continue to teach and extend the
message of love, forgiveness and spiritual awakening.
I was brought up in a strict
Catholic family with very devout parents who attended mass every
day…we lived next door to the Catholic church. Yet I left the
church when I left home, and found that my spiritual life was of a
deeply intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ that had
nothing whatsoever to do with established Christianity.
The DaVinci Code
brings out the idea that the Holy Grail has something to do with the
blood line of Jesus. That he apparently conceived a child with Mary
Magdalene and that his offspring is somehow special and therefore,
this idea, along with the idea of the sacred feminine ideal, is what
the secret of the Holy Grail is supposed to be. Again, I ask: who
cares? How is it possible that the Holy Grail could turn out to be
the bones of Mary Magdalene? That is too depressing.
What about the actual
teachings of Jesus Christ, resurrected? What is his message? How
does this message affect me? How can I use it to achieve salvation?
Then it dawned on me—I have been studying the true Holy Grail for 17
years!
A Course in Miracles,
for anyone who cares to look at it, is a masterpiece authored by
Jesus of Nazareth that corrects centuries of misinterpretation of
his teachings and yet has gone virtually unnoticed by the world. It
is a masterful mind training with 365 lessons that prepare you for
your spiritual awakening and take you beyond this world entirely.
It is really quite amusing
that scholars make such a fuss over the newly discovered gospels of
Judas, Mary Magdalene, etc. and continue to ignore the Course
entirely. The university theology departments have yet to offer
courses in the
Course in Miracles. I wonder at this and hear
Jesus saying “How long? How long will you wait to hear my message?”
I am surprised that there
hasn’t been a surge in interest in the Course yet. So, what has
changed in 2000 years? Nothing! Just as the novel
The DaVinci
Code states, this idea of the Holy Grail can’t possibly compete
with 2000 years of established history. Yet, perhaps it is time.
There are modern day heretics. It is anyone who knows that the
churches do not teach the true message of
Jesus Christ and truly
dedicates his life to doing just that.
I suppose I am a heretic if
it means that I do not adhere to the established church’s views of
Jesus’ message, so I guess I am because I believe he actually meant
what he said: that God is love, that I am the light of the world,
and I am perfect as God created me. How about: I am not a body, I
am free. It is astounding to me that the actual Keys of the Kingdom
are revealed in black and white print! The
Workbook of the Course
is masterfully designed to bring about the awakening of the Sons of
God. It is the most practical and enlightened text that has ever
been brought into space and time. And, it works…it actually
provides the means necessary for the conversion of your mind from
total bondage, to total freedom.
Is this at all interesting
to the world? Apparently not, it has been here more than 30 years.
Perhaps no one really wants to know, but I did. But because it
tells me that I am the cause of the world I see, just as in the
Sermon on the Mount, it means I have to take the beam out of my own
eye in order to see truly. I have to love my enemy, forgive my
brother and give everything away and follow Jesus. I have to resist
not evil and judge not, lest I be judged. And this is not easy to
do. I have learned through experience that to say these things is
one thing, to actually do them is quite another entirely.
Having given all to this
awakening, I have received all. I have been given the Keys to the
Kingdom: I am whole and perfect as God created me and forgiveness
is the key to happiness…this is my experience, first-hand. This
world has nothing to offer and is, in fact, my hallucination of
separation from God. Yet, I have been taught directly from Jesus
that I am not of this world. I know this to be true and cannot
convince you of it…you have to want to know it for yourself; and be
willing to do whatever it takes to free yourself of bondage to your
human ego-identity.
The movie, The Passion of
the Christ, shows that the world is still enamored with
crucifixion and ignores the resurrection, and now,
The DaVinci
Code gives us a thriller that supposedly reveals the Holy Grail
as secret knowledge of the divine feminine. How little has changed
in 2000 years. You see what you want to see. You are being duped
and yet you remain asleep! Just as DaVinci wrote in his notebook…
“Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your
eyes!”
So
the mystery, at the end of the novel is revealed: “for some, the
Grail is a chalice that will bring them
everlasting life. For others, it is the quest for lost documents
and secret history. And for most, I suspect the Holy Grail is
simply a grand idea…a glorious unattainable treasure that somehow,
even in today’s world of chaos, inspires us.”
Yet, my life’s experience is
a living demonstration that God’s plan for salvation will and did
work. Glorious, yes, unattainable, no way!
The experience of awakening
is what is truly happening on an individual basis. One by one,
spiritual transformation is occurring throughout the world in
individuals like myself who could not take the suffering any longer
or the lie that I have to sacrifice in order to be saved.
Perhaps it is becoming
obvious that to live a spiritual life is more rewarding than being
consumed by greed and enamored with illness and death. Yet, your
awakening takes you beyond all your ideas of spirituality, religion,
and science and catapults you into an experience of divine love that
is not of this world! It is a quantum leap from death to eternal
life.
In this world, the idea of
death and destruction is being played out more intensely in our wars
and our fixation with technology, our need to be entertained and
distracted from the truth. We are addicted to antidepressants, to
drugs and TV. We believe what we see on the evening news. The young
people are wondering what the purpose of life is if it only means
perpetuating a meaningless existence in time and space that
ultimately leads to death? I knew when I turned 30 that there had
to be something else going on…because life on earth is totally
chaotic and simply makes no sense.
The Course offers total
freedom from this dilemma in which your decision to awaken is all
that is asked of you.
This from Jesus:
