The Yoga of the Christ

The Yoga of the Christ is especially for those left feeling cold and incompletely informed by traditional and fundamentalist churches of the Piscean era. As we struggle more and more with contemporary issues, the yoga of the Christ will take its place in the Christian community. This yoga of the New Testament and other historical documents is not always understood. The path of excellence and enlightenment has always been open to all people, and it is truly naïve to think otherwise.

Let us focus upon the yoga of the Christ:
"Come to me, all you who labour and carry burdens, and I will give rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and meek in my heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is pleasant and my burden is light." Matt. 11.28-30

This distinctive and extraordinary message of the scriptures is sometimes understood, sometimes misinterpreted. Take my yoke upon you. The word yoke comes from the Sanskrit yug, meaning “yoga.” This scripture ends with my burden is light, reminding us not of weightlessness, but, Ye are indeed the light of the world: Our “burden” is to become enlightened—to see, perceive, and know. I am the light of the world, speaks the Christ, Ye are the light of the world. Connect yourself to the light of the world, become aware, become enlightened, live out my yoga. A principal message of the Aquarian era is that all paths lead to high consciousness.

What is a yoga? Such a threatening word to many Westerners, yet our scriptures would have us yoke ourselves with the Master. We often think of “yoga” as something strange and different. If we could place ourselves in the context of that time, we would find the populace highly regarded the sacred training of many systems of spiritual thought.

We might try to perceive more clearly what it meant to work with the Master—to travel with, be trained by, be spoken to, to be receptive to the words of one spiritually wise. Think about any system you have ever heard called a “yoga.” A yoga is a discipline. We read in the New Testament about “disciples,” those who apply the regimen and the consciousness of their Master or their tradition. They love the rules, those links that bind them to the guiding principle. We know today that to build special skills, we need a mentor—someone who knows how to play the piano would teach us to play, or one skilled as an artist would guide our methods. We recognize the importance of their training, their discipline. “Do this. Try a little more of this, a little less of that.” They help us develop that coveted skill.

A yoga is a study, a contemplation. We can read words and ponder them; but to grasp the meaning that abides behind the words, we have to contemplate this thought in light of the accumulation of things we know, our experiences. “How does this fit? From what perspective?” “If the Christ said this and the Christ said that, how does it integrate?” We struggle to comprehend the correlations.

A yoga has a price! This is one of the hardest pieces for modern disciples—to pay the price. Consider the magnificent Olympics athletes and the price they pay. That’s a yoga—a discipline! They yoke themselves to their training for years. They study, contemplate, practice, and view video tapes of themselves to determine where they are in harmony and where they are out of sync. They struggle to align more perfectly with that which they wish to do and be. Excellence has a price.

To “become” involves fervor. You perfect something because of the passion within you to be that, to be one with it—whether figure skating or a spiritualized consciousness. Passion. The great Master Jesus talked about “lukewarm people” and spitting them out of the mouth. Without passion, there is no spiritual life.

A yoga carries us toward the goal. If we would be disciples of the Christ, there is a direction. Throughout the New Testament, we read about a direction called “salvation.” It conveys a message that in living this yoga, walking this way, fulfilling these practices, something splendid should happen to us that will protect us from our own ignorance and apathy.

As we lift our consciousness toward higher consciousness—that realization, that knowing of right relationship to the Christ, to wholeness—we will be saved from both ignorance and naiveté, as well as the folly of our lower nature. We will move all that we are to that higher state, and personality will become the crystal vessel, the chalice through which the light of the Christ in us will bestow its glow and fragrance, it grandeur and warmth. That is salvation! That is enlightenment! And that is the goal! We are becoming-transforming, transmuting, transfiguring—in the light of the Christ. I have come into the world as the light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in the darkness.

A yoga offers a ball of knowledge that comes to us in various ways, certainly through the scriptures—this wonder-book full of wisdom. We have to be mindful as we study it because the level of our understanding limits its magnificence. We have a penchant for using what we like and discarding the rest: we divide it up and fight over those parts that we cannot reconcile. Alas, we tend to see what separates more than what unites. But we do have a ball of knowledge!

Additional wisdom comes to us from the church fathers. (And, I believe, from the church mother—even if they had to write it down and pass it to someone else for signature approval.) So, we have this ball of inherited knowledge from those who lived the tradition.

We know the organized church collected, preserved, and translated that knowledge many times and many ways. We must recognize that nay idea, thought, or principle can only be comprehended, any concept translated and stated for us at the level of the highest consciousness of that group. If we are lacking, we still translate the best we can, and that becomes our highest point.

As we expand in consciousness, most of us gradually have the facility to see more clearly and in time to perceive the next level of understanding of the same scripture. It expands as we expand—containing so much more than we earlier perceived! This body of knowledge remains a resource for us to return to time and again, reaping a grain of truth we had overlooked.

As saints and sages write and share what they have learned, as they have experienced spiritual life and concretized it for us, the ball of knowledge increases. Through our own experiences—prayer, meditation, living our life, seeing a concept at work, contemplation—our ball of knowledge expands. First, we increase our “personal data base”; second, we grow in wisdom and in truth, gradually perceiving how the spiritual law reveals itself.

Each yoga has an essence. When we consider the essence of Buddha, we think, “wisdom.” Whereas, the essence of Christianity is love—the characteristic that permeates its messages. While love characterizes the entire life of the Christ, probably nowhere do we see a greater demonstration then, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Here is the most compassionate and tender revelation of the essence of love.

The yoga has an outer form by which you can observe its practitioners and recognize what they stand for. Christianity’s outer expression is to serve. Service is part of the yoga of the Christ: to serve one another and the world around us. Most of us may shy away from the harshness and vulnerability of visiting the sick, the poor, the imprisoned, the dying. While I have not served in jail ministry, I have spoken to prison and write letters to imprisoned. I know the harshness of such restricted lives and my heart is touched. It is a work requiring unique fortitude and strength, a profound commitment to comfort people in pain, confusion, and agony. But it is a part of the Christian yoga.

The yoga of any path strengthens us. We often think of this as physical, but yoga (union) helps us become strong in the spirit of our chosen path. Indeed, it fortifies the body, for the paths of all yogas address purity of body. The temple of the living God must be held in high regard. So every holy teaching respects the body. However, as we align ourselves with this chosen yoga, it does more than that. It tells us the reason we so respect and nurture our body is because a living spirit expresses through it, and we must be sound enough to do what is asked of us. If the body is out of balance, ailing or unprepared, it cannot tolerate the burden that might be placed upon it.

But do not limit this to the body. When the psyche is not prepared and stable, it is easily unbalanced and cannot bear what spiritual life will generate.

Similarly, a major part of the discipline of the Christian path is enhancing the emotional nature. As love is the great goal—the essence—raising the consciousness from lower charka centers to higher is a principal work. We want to ascend to a high state of consciousness. As we live through our personality, we continue to express the propensities of lower charkas while bathing them in the light of high consciousness. Then all of our actins are blessed. Our body, our sexual life, our power, our food, our work bless and enrich the world around us. We no longer live from a greedy self-centeredness that would pull us into a distorted egotism.

Right-relationship is a profound part of the Christian message or yoga—so often forgotten. The Christ is the principle! The Christ is the power! The Christ is a consciousness! Think about it. Each assertion is valid. Some in the Christian religion will relate to Christ only as a person. As the historical Christ, the Master Jesus served the Christ in a wonderful, unique way—certainly different from the opportunity most of us will be offered to serve the Christ. But as a guiding principle, we are asked to create our response, and as a power, the Christ is omnipotent. I want to mention a way we can more readily grasp this Oneness.

The Hebrew-Judaic tradition contains a history of petitioning “in the Name.” The Old Testament reveals the importance of naming when Adam is told to name the animals. Naming invokes the spiritual essence of its object. This significant idea of name accesses the inner world and aids the flow of grace. When we invoke “in the name of Jesus,” we seek to open a valve between the worlds and let the grace collected in his name shower us. Thus, we also access the power of the Christ. Mantras—“in the name of _______”—have always been tools. Naming is a way to invoke benefits, both secular and spiritual, to our lives. We learn right relationship to the principle and the power, and we come to share the consciousness.

The yoga of the Christ demands a response from us. We connect with the Christ, and in return we render the resources of our life to the Christ. Our resources may be money, talent, mind/intelligence, allegiance, honor, character, integrity. Like the servants with the talent, what do we do with our resources in response to the inner invitation? It is an intimate affiliation—like the relationship with a lover. When we are absorbed in a relationship, we think about how she or he will react, feel, think. How might I express my love more clearly and bring our lives into harmony? How does this appear to the one I love?

Mary Magdalene is often used as an example of how “foolish” we can be when we love another so much it appears nonsensical to others. Why did this woman, possessing so little of material value, use her precious oil to freshen the Lord’s feet, spreading the oil with her hair? Because she loved him more than any tangible possession. The shocked disciples—trying to figure out how to pay the bills—thought she was foolish. Lovers are foolish. Everybody knows that.

A devotee of the yoga of Christ attunes him-or herself to the mind of Christ. The early followers considered this connection a conceivable potential—the great goal of their prayer, meditation, and discipline. This was not unusual to people who understood inspiration, spirit communication, inspired moments. Those who had come to know didn’t need an explanation. When “God said,” they knew that God said. For them to say, “Oh, if you do thus and so, your mind will be opened; your mind is to be like that of Christ Jesus,” was believable, not considered conjecture. This was a rational goal, not just a concept. The Christ presented a great hope when he said, You will do greater things than I do.

He instructed his devotees that they were to open lives to love—serving, forgiving, healing—and re-form the beliefs they had prior to these new teachings of the Master. Then they would attain a new level of comprehension. They were to perceive and create a new way of being, and when they had done these “greater things,” he would reappear. We are to remember he told them: Lo, I am with you always. The Christ will reappear to our consciousness for he has never left us, but we have lost our awareness of his presence. Today, we live in the time of disciples attempting to realign themselves in order to experience the Christ Consciousness to which they strive.

Here is the hypothesis of all yogas: How do we link ourselves with the Master, the teacher, the guru, the mentor? How do we submit ourselves to this mentor and deal with the process required to transform our lives? Our challenge is that most of us want to see what we can become before we make a great effort—to study the guarantee before we pay the price. Because we do this in the material world, we think we can do it in the spiritual world.

Now comes the real challenge of the Christian religion. It mandates new realities. It proclaims a spiritual world and a physical world, and we must become a part of both; we are to integrate spirit and matter!

Christianity teaches that loves is a great power—a love that is not sexuality. We can experience a love—Lots of Vital Energies—of which we were previously unaware. When we open the heart center, we are lifted into an expanded love nature. We become lovers of life, lovers of the world, ones who care passionately, who empathize. We discover new forces and energies—if we live in the light as he is in the light.

This principal work of the disciple—love—is what discipleship is about. This love doesn’t imply we always have to be nice. It means we must be involved and yet non-judgmental; we must seek to comprehend. It means we must see the spiritual effects of our actions; we must understand the law of karma, perceive a larger picture, and align ourselves with the Master to move humanity toward high consciousness. “Tough love” is as important as sweet love, probably even more. Masters are known for their disciplines, for their moments of shaping those they impact.

Healing is affirmed repeatedly in the New Testament, manifesting over and over in the ministry of Jesus, the Christ. But he never forced it on others; he allowed them to struggle. He waited to be invited into another’s life; he did not meddle, and he did not stride into town and announce, “Let all people in this town be healed.” He waited until their consciousness was ready. They had to come forward and reach out for healing, demonstrating the importance of the need to be ready, to ask; then he responded. This waiting has an effect upon us. We can look back in our lives and recall those times when someone tried to tell us just what we needed at the moment, but we couldn’t grasp it—until our hearing improved.

An effective yoga inspires us to see the Self—the divinity, the soul, that spark of God—in others. And while we often can see the Self in others, we fail to recognize it within ourselves. This, too, is a part of the training of a yoga.

The gift is to present that Self—with all its wonders and resources, strengths and weaknesses—to the Master of our Way. No spiritual path can be true if it is created primarily of human reasoning. Spiritual paths do not originate with humanity but from the divine. They are valid because truths descend from a higher level of understanding. The divine calls us upward to it; all world religions acknowledge a spark of divinity, a presence, a holy Self—called by whatever name—inside every human being. This information, like the affirmation that the teachings come from a higher reality, beckons us higher.

The Christian yoga is a great and holy way. It has been and is lived by imperfect people. We hear its call and perceive its message in part. We seek to comprehend. We struggle, as less-the-prefect beings, moved by the spirit within us. A stirring empowers us to create a response, to become more than we have been. It doesn’t happen just once; opportunities appear repeatedly in our lives.

Because of our limited human consciousness, we believe it is easier to get a divorce than transform an old relationship—sad but true. It is easier to make new friends than to repair difficult relationships. It is simpler to quit and walk away, rather than acknowledge our lessons occur in the midst of daily life. It is often easier to give up than to change. If we are to become wise, we must seek the grace that is vital to transform human life—individually and collectively.

The secret to an enlightened world—salvation—is to restructure life on our planet. As the great guardian, the solar angel of planet Earth, the Christ casts light and love upon our path, the awareness needed to raise human consciousness. We must dare to be more than we are. Day by day, discipline by discipline, step by step, challenge by challenge, tear by tear, we are made new. The disciples of Christ were and are commissioned to prepare a new way.

Today, many are called in an inner way to designate themselves “world servers.” From every world religion and every walk of life, beckoned by something mysterious and secret, something quietly charges them in their prayer and meditation. Summoned to go beyond standards of a secular world, we either hear or refuse to hear this call. If we are Sunday Christians, we may be wonderful secular people and still not embodied by the Christ spirit. It is when that consciousness blooms and becomes part of every day, every challenge, of every love and every pain that we truly begin to assume this yoke of enlightenment and to practice the yoga of the Christ.

“My yoke is pleasant and my burden is light.” I believe this means it is a rewarding and gracious (pleasant) experience for our consciousness to be aligned with the Holy; the burden, the effort does not weight much. It is light; its task enlightenment. “If we walk in the light as he is in the light,” we can share a level of enlightenment with the Master. To become the light, to acknowledge the light, to witness concerning the light—how often we encounter these references in the New Testament. We are truly challenged to put on the yoke and take up the quest for enlightenment in the name of Christ. Yes, an understanding of the Yoga of Christ is now emerging, having waiting for those who have “eyes with which to see and ears with which to hear.” May we prepare ourselves that the mind that is in Christ Jesus might also be in us. Shanti.

Copyright ©1995 Carol E. Parrish

The Holy Bible, George M. Lamsa’s translation from the Aramaic of the Peshitta (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1957).
Matt. 5.14, Peshitta
John 8.12
Rev. 3.16
John 12.46
Luke 23.34
Matt. 25.14-30
He who believes in me shall do the works which I do; and even greater than these things he shall do. John 14.12
Matt. 28.20
1 John 1.7

back to top | Articles Page