Jesus' dharma (teaching) was filled with wisdom on how to walk this earth without doing harm. He lived and taught creative nonviolence and nonjudging. His message was not simply to love our friends, but to love and show kindness to ALL of creation. Needless to say, that does not involve judging or killing each other. It's easy to see why Jesus inspired our greatest transformational leaders to bring about non-violent change, most recently in the non-violent overthrow of the Philippine Marcos dictatorship. Martin Luther King, Jr., springs to mind, of course, but did you know that the only picture which was in Gandhi's quarters at the time of his death was of Jesus and Mary? Gandhi, a Hindu, carried Jesus' Sermon on the Mount (where Jesus preached his Eight Happinesses with him all his life.

NonJudgement

Jesus said to his disciples: "Stop judging, that you may not be judged. For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you. Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove that splinter from your eye,' while the wooden beam is in your eye? You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother's eye." Matt 7:1-5

What a funny parable. Imagine having a log sticking out of the side of our head! It would be comical, something from a comic book scene... or it would be very dangerous, we would have been in an industrial strength accident, and we'd be in mortal danger of death if we don't get to an emergency room immediately. That's what Jesus is trying to make clear to us. We're in really bad shape here. Too bad shape to worry about the shape anyone else is in, unless we want to try to lift others up, which is something Jesus loves for us to do, in other teachings. Again and again, Jesus exhorts us and cautions us that our path should not include judging others. "Let the one who is entirely without any sin cast the first stone," he cautions us, because far from being in any shape to judge anyone, we're in desperate need of a doctor.

NonViolence

Put down your sword!

In Jesus' day, the oppressed Jewish people had been expecting a warrior Messiah like Daniel, one who would lead an uprising army against the tyrannical rulers who oppressed them, but what they got was something entirely different. They got Jesus' message of lovingkindness, peace, non-harming, non-judging, uplifting, and good news to the poor. So serious, so clear, was Jesus about his message of nonviolence that he was willing to die rather than to raise his hand or have his disciples raise their weapons in violent opposition to the unjust system that tried, accused, sentenced and executed him. Now, just because Jesus' message has been misunderstood and misused since the time of Constantinople [that's when Christianity stopped being persecuted and became the official religion of Empire] doesn't change the underlying truth of Jesus' message of radical and creative nonviolence. Jesus was very clear even until his last word to his disciples before his arrest: 'Put down your sword.' Peace activist John Dear used those words as the title of one of his books, which could be interesting to your sangha, if you decide to take an interest in gospel nonviolence activism. Two other favorites are The God of Peace, Toward a Theology of Nonviolence and Mary of Nazareth, Prophet of Peace. Is your sangha involved in creative nonviolence activism? We'd love to hear how you are being the change you want to see in the world!