Most people are familiar with Jesus’ statement: “Unless you be born again you cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3). But what exactly did he mean by this? Was he just talking about personally receiving him as a sacrifice of atonement and becoming a Christian? No, what he was talking about was something more than that—something over and above what is normally thought of as the “Christian experience.” It was the need for all of us human beings to undergo the consciousness evolution from the Adam man to the Christ man—to have a major transformational experience, one that completely alters our orientation to life.
This was the essence of Jesus’ teaching. He taught it through words, parables, and actions. He set an example for us in the way that he lived. And his death and resurrection left us with such powerful imagery that it has seared the consciences of men for more than two thousand years.
By the time he began his public ministry Jesus had already undergone the consciousness evolution from the Adam man to the Christ. He had already had the transformational experience that brings this evolutionary impetus to pass. And as part of that new consciousness he also had ceased to live for himself and had instead become a servant of both God and man. As the first Christ man, he lived for others, so that everything he said and did was for our benefit, including dying on the cross and rising from the dead. Thus the profound imagery that those acts brought to light was actually meant to be a teaching in its own right—a teaching that powerfully testifies to every human being’s need to undergo the transformational experience and evolve in consciousness, just as he had already done. And it is through having this experience that we are set free from most of the difficult aspects of life on the earthly plane. It does this by completely changing the chemistry of our experience. In other words, being born onto this plane as the Adam man produces a certain kind of life experience or chemistry—one that we are all familiar with. And this experience is most often punctuated with hardship and suffering. But when we undergo the transformational experience and become the Christ man the chemistry of our interaction with this plane is totally altered. Instead of resulting in suffering it brings about a life experience that is punctuated with grace, goodness, and rest.
What we see then is that there is a connection between the transformational experience and the evolution of consciousness that gives birth to the Christ man—that the transformational experience must precede the evolution of consciousness. This is the teaching of Jesus. It is tantamount to needing to be born again so that we can see the kingdom of God. Now the question that arises is: How? How do we pave the way for the transformational experience to take place in our lives so that we can then evolve in consciousness and become the Christ man?
The first step is becoming aware that if we are serious about our spiritual journey this is ultimately where it will take us. Eventually, all human beings are going to be transformed. We are going to stop being the kind of human beings we have been up until now. We are going to stop being the descendants of the first man Adam and along with Jesus we will be born again and become the Son of Man—that is, the Christ. In other words, consciousness evolution is at work in us in order to produce a new human race.
And this new race will have little resemblance to the race of Adam, which has clearly been flawed in its bestiality, torment of mind, and enslavement to disease and death. That was what Jesus demonstrated when he was among us—a new humanity, elevated and free. But just like him, in order for us to come into this evolutionary inheritance there must be a cross in our experience—not just an adherence to a religious doctrine, but an actual experience. We must die to that which up until now has been a major part of our identity—our Adamic, egoic nature. And when the death of this part of us finally takes place we will come to understand that it was never meant to be permanent (that is why it is mortal). Rather it was a temporal seed version of humankind—created only to be planted into death in the cross, so that the full evolutionary planting of man, the Christ man, can be born. And as Jesus also showed in his resurrection, this new man will not be mortal. It will not be subject to disease, decay, and death. It will not be a seed nature; it will be the final and full creation that we were intended to be.
The next step toward the transformational experience is to grow in our commitment to the spiritual life to the point of being willing to die to this part of ourselves—a willingness that cannot be faked but must be the result of a true karmic readiness. This readiness comes only as we cease to be drawn to the things of this world—that is, the world that the Adam man built. Again, we have Jesus as our Way-Shower, praying, “Father, not my will but your will be done,” (Matthew 26:39) and living his life accordingly. Thus we see that the willingness to submit to God’s will is the same as the willingness to submit to and undergo the transformational experience—that is, to go the Way of the Cross of Christ. For, that is how we were created, not as an already fully evolved conscious being but first as a seed nature (the Adam man)—a seed nature that must be sown into death in the ground so that it can sprout to new life as the fully evolved planting of man.
Of course, it goes without saying that none of this comes easily for us. Even for Jesus, dying on the cross was not easy. The Adam man has become deeply entrenched in the human psyche, so that our natural instinct is to preserve its existence at all cost. What we fail to realize, however, is that this instinct of self-preservation is not a created impulse; it is cultural. In other words, it is the product of cultural conditioning from the world of Adam. If we could but see it, our true inbred instinct is for consciousness evolution. And in order to come into our fully evolved state it just happens to involve picking up our cross and dying to our Adamic seed nature. But alas, the world has blinded our eyes, and its voice screams that the cross of Christ is evil.
The third step is to grow in our faith in the power of the resurrection. Actually, it is not so much faith that we need; it is revelatory knowledge. This is what Jesus had and most of us lack. Having already evolved into the Christ, Jesus knew that his life was no longer temporal and mortal. So he knew that no man could take it from him. This revelatory knowledge enabled him to submit to the terrible cruelty of the cross. But as we grow in our faith and increase our revelatory knowledge, we too can become willing. What we must see is that God is the God of life, not death. In God’s sight the transformational experience that leads to consciousness evolution does not involve death at all. It involves only evolutionary transformation—a transformation that could theoretically be achieved without the pain and suffering that we associate with death. We see it as death because we have bound up our identity with the Adam mind (ego). So for us it is like ripping off a layer of skin. Plus our conditioned fearful picture of death is one of darkness and the final cessation of being. But what Jesus showed us in his cross and resurrection is that death is nothing more than a cultural belief. It is not ordained by God. Only evolutionary transformation is ordained by God. And if we are willing to die to our Adamic self on the cross of Christ, that death will most certainly be followed by a resurrection experience, just as Jesus’ death on the cross was.
Because Jesus was a man born of the human lineage of Adam, he too needed to die to his ego-self. For all human beings, this is the only way to evolve in consciousness and become the Christ. But we must not forget that we are also karmic beings who have lived previously and been given the opportunity to evolve in consciousness in many past lives. This was how Jesus accomplished his transformational experience. And so when he dwelt among us in his incarnation as Jesus of Nazareth his cross and resurrection experience was not for his own sake; it was for us—to show us the way that we needed to go. He did not need to evolve in consciousness at that point, but we still did and do. He had already accomplished the great transformation of consciousness, but we had yet to do so. This is plainly revealed by the fact that we are now here on the earthly plane, living out yet another lifetime and trying to take advantage of the opportunity it presents. And our karma will continue to constrain us to return to this plane until such time that we accomplish the transformational experience. Then like Jesus, we will no longer need to come back here for karmic purposes. We may, however, volunteer to return for the purpose of helping others. That was what Jesus did. Through his own evolutionary impetus he had become the ultimate servant of God and man. He had gone out ahead of us. Then he came back to show us how to come to where he was. And his love was so great that he was willing to endure the shame of the cross for our sakes.
This is also true of many great spiritual masters who have appeared in other parts of our world, especially in the East. These too have returned to this plane, not as mandated by their own karma but rather in order to help others navigate their karma. These too have already accomplished the transformational experience and evolved in consciousness into the Christ. These too have become servants of the Most High and volunteers of the noblest sort. Sometimes referred to as avatars, these great ones have also taught that the Way of transformation involves death and resurrection. They may not have demonstrated it with the kind of profound imagery that Jesus did, but the teaching has always been the same: the Adamic ego-self nature must first die.
One thing we can be sure of, however, is that all of these great avatars that have lived among us and willingly served the goal of human consciousness evolution throughout this age possessed the insight that dictated how they served. That is part of the mandate of full enlightenment. In other words, they did not make things up as they went along because they were not doing their own will. They were doing the will of the greater good as prescribed by their own state of enlightenment. So they knew just what they were doing and just what was needed at that particular juncture in human history. That was why Jesus’ demonstration included a cross and resurrection. He did not choose this demonstration; nor was he constrained by men. Rather his carrying out of this particular demonstration was mandated by his own state of enlightenment—a state that was perfectly attuned to the will of God. In other words, what evolving mankind needed most at that time in history was a demonstration that would jar them out of their Adamic complacency and cause them to stir in their consciousness. And so Jesus’ willingness to carry out and establish this much needed demonstration for human consciousness was no small feat. It revealed that he was truly one of the great ones from among the avatars. And not only was he willing; he succeeded!
It is no small thing for an avatar to return here. It takes great patience and long suffering for them to even dwell among us. For not only has our ignorance and reticence to evolve been trying for them to be around and endure, but in almost every case we have repaid them with cruelty and hatred. Instead of receiving and basking in their light with glad and grateful hearts, we felt tormented by it and expressed that torment by treating them shamefully—mocking them, slandering them, torturing them, and even putting them to death. But in spite of this their love has endured and, in truth, it has won the day. How? Because for every true avatar the cross of suffering they have had to bear cannot be compared to the glory of the goal of helping humankind reach its ultimate evolutionary potential. Truly it can be said of them that they sowed with tears and reaped with songs of joy, carrying their sheaves with them.