A guide to Christ consciousness
The kingdom of God
is within you.
Jesus showed a way of being: fasting, praying, going out before dawn to be still, until the life of God moved through him without obstruction. This is a place to learn that way, and to walk it.
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What this is
Let this mind be in you
Paul put it in a single line: let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.Christ consciousness is a name for that mind, the awareness Jesus lived from. That God is nearer than breath. That you are already loved, before you have done anything. That your neighbor is not other than yourself. That the seed must fall into the ground and die before it becomes the wheat.
This is not a new religion, and not a claim to be God. It is the invitation Jesus made plainly and repeatedly: follow me. Walk where I walk, do what I do, and in time you will see what I see. Whoever does the will of my Father, he said, is my brother, and sister, and mother.
If you are a Christian, this is the contemplative heart of your own tradition: the desert fathers and mothers, the Jesus Prayer, The Cloud of Unknowing, Meister Eckhart, the long quiet of the monasteries. If you hold no religion, you can still walk it. The door is not locked. He said the kingdom of God is within you, and he said it to people who were not expecting to hear it.
Three practices
“When you fast.” “When you pray.”
Jesus said when, not if. He assumed the people who followed him would do these things, and he told them how. Everything here rests on three practices he lived.
Fast
The body is the first doorway. An empty stomach makes a quiet mind, and a quiet mind can hear. From a gentle daily fast to the wilderness forty, with the guardrails you need.
IIPray
Not many words. A room, a shut door, a Father who sees in secret. The Lord's Prayer as a structure for a life, the Jesus Prayer as a breath, and the ancient art of reading slowly.
IIIBe still
Before dawn, alone, in a solitary place, where Jesus went before every great thing. Centering prayer and contemplation: how to sit, what to do with the thoughts, and what happens next.
Why the body
You cannot still a mind you keep stirring
What you eat sets the weather of your attention. Sugar and constant grazing make the mind restless and the afternoon heavy; whole food, eaten lightly and not late, makes it clear. Our eating guide is not a diet. Its only job is to make fasting, prayer, and stillness possible in an ordinary week.
Eating for stillness →- Eat earlier. A finished supper by early evening means a light body at dawn.
- Eat simply. Bread, oil, fish, lentils, greens, fruit: the table of Galilee is still a good table.
- Eat less often. Two or three meals with nothing between them is the quietest thing you can do for your mind.
- Drink water. Most of what feels like hunger in a fast is thirst.
The Journey
Forty days
Forty is the wilderness number, the days Jesus spent alone before he began. One saying, one reflection, one practice, and one word about the fast, each day, in six movements.
- 01WakingDays 1–7The kingdom is near. Begin to notice.
- 02EmptyingDays 8–14Make room. Let the body and the mind grow light.
- 03StillnessDays 15–21Go into your room and shut the door.
- 04LoveDays 22–28The neighbor is yourself.
- 05SurrenderDays 29–35Not my will, but yours.
- 06RisingDays 36–40I in them, and you in me.
Teachings
His own words, slowly
A library of the sayings of Jesus arranged by theme, each with a short commentary and a single practice to carry into the day.
God's Kingdom doesn't come with observation; neither will they say, "Look, here!" or, "Look, there!" — for behold, God's Kingdom is within you.Prayer & Solitude
Early in the morning, while it was still dark, he rose up and went out, and departed into a deserted place, and prayed there.Fasting & Simplicity
Moreover, when you fast, don't be like the hypocrites, with sad faces. For they disfigure their faces so that they may be seen by men to be fasting. Most certainly I tell you, they have received their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you are not seen by men to be fasting, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.
Start tomorrow morning
Wake before the light. Do not eat. Sit somewhere quiet for ten minutes and say nothing. That is the whole first day. Everything else grows from there.
Day 1 →