How to Experience the Universal Christ – Part One

Whole-Body Awakening in Six Practices

Theologian Ramone Panikkar, says that Christ is “the Christian symbol for the whole of reality.” Panikkar further points out that the “whole of reality” consists of three seamlessly connected dimensions: (1) the divine (2) the human, and (3) the material. Here is a basic set of six Whole-Body Awakening practices leading to the immediate experience of all three dimensions of the Universal Christ. This week and next we present six practices to awaken the divinity, humanity, and materiality of the Universal Christ in us. The first three this week will focus on each center of our personal, individual movements, while next week will integrate these into our outward, communal movements.

Practice One: The direct experience of
the human dimension of the Universal Christ

START WITH YOUR HEART

Start with the heart because the heart leads. It holds the power to heal our self-centeredness—to open us to all people, our sisters and brothers in humanity. The heart is our body’s most powerful source of divine/human love, and the easiest to access. Here are the steps:

1. Drop down from your head space to your heart space. Most of us begin by thinking, just like you are doing in reading this. Therefore we must consciously move our awareness from head to heart. You can place your hand on your heart to help you aim for the target. If you need more help, you can tap on your head on down to your jaw, and then to your heart. Tap there until you sense you have moved to knowing from your heart felt-sense rather than your conceptual head thinking. This is not thinking about your heart, but dropping the awareness that was previously in your head down to your heart.

We Need Both the Living Jesus and the Universal Christ

Richard Rohr, in his wonderful new book, The Universal Christ, beautifully unites the realities named Jesus and Christ. I devour all of Richard Rohr’s writings. They expand my mind and bless my soul. Richard graciously wrote the Forward to my most recent book and endorsed the one before that. He included both books in his Bibliography of The Universal Christ.

The Apostle Paul also brings together both the resurrected Jesus and Christ, though sometimes it’s not quite apparent in his letters. One might get the impression that he always refers to the resurrected Jesus as Christ and never as just “Jesus” —and therefore we should also. One may get the same mistaken impression from Richard Rohr’s writing in The Universal Christ.

I want to offer a missing piece of this seeming puzzle. Everything falls into place when we realize that in addition to the historical Jesus and the Universal Christ, there is also the personal, Living Jesus after the resurrection.

Whole-Body Awakening in Six Practices

Practice One: The direct experience of the human dimension of the Universal Christ

We Need Both the Living Jesus and the Universal Christ

Practice One: The direct experience of
the human dimension of the Universal Christ