The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind--A New Perspective on Christ and His Message

I am not religious. I am not academic and this is certainly not a book I would have searched out or read on my own were it not brought directly to me by unexplained events. My husband and I were actually attending a meditation retreat when I randomly picked this book up in their library while waiting for dinner one evening. It was hidden among my more familiar authors of Marianne WIlliamson and Eckart Tolle. I am not sure WHY I picked it up other than it being Divinely led TO me. I am confident ANY other time that I'd scan the back of the book to have read Cynthia Bourgeault was a Episcopal priest I would have immediately placed it back on the shelf. (organized religion is not my cup of tea) I know for sure any other time I'd have flipped through the book to see the highly intelligent "academic" type writing style, I also would have put it down...but something made me carry this book over to the nearest chair to start reading...and I couldn't put it down. Clear, deep and profound insights into new ways of inviting thought provoking new ways of looking at Jesus and the messages he's left for us. It's been a new "wow" for me and opened up a whole new world of thought. This book, and the wisdom of Cynthia's teachings, have been like hiring my own personal coach & spiritual leader, urging me on to walk the walk of Godliness as Jesus really taught. I have since been into several of her books and have loved them all.

My friend finally said if I wouldn't order it he would get it for me. We follow each other's advice on books that profoundly influence us. This is one, I believe, everyone should read. Bourgeault is a profound, articulate and serious scholar of the wisdom tradition that, she convinces me, informed Jesus's life and teaching and purpose -- the unconditional giving of himself in love. Unlike many "spiritual" books that seek to place Jesus or the Christ in the context of some mystical or new age sect by, it seems, cherry picking details from scripture and tradition, Bourgeault is fully grounded in all the received materials, is herself profoundly Christian, and nevertheless shows the reader a wholly, I'm tempted to say holy, new way of understanding what was so unique, extraordinary, profound, and pertinent about Jesus Christ in his time and for all time.

With modern historical research, much of the Bible is found to be altered or written specifically to make certain items work the way canon is desired. (See historical research of Bible elsewhere.) Here, the author is proposing that Jesus did NOT want a separate religion from Judaism, but rather wanted others to enter the "Kingdom of Heaven" while in this world. Reading His statements in this light does put His words into a different context. The author uses her interpretation to give new meaning to the "Kingdom of Heaven" and how to access it in this world. This book would be heretical to those who believe that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, yet it makes sense of much of Jesus' words related to the "Kingdom." If you hold to the Pauline interpretation of Gospel [that the only way to heaven is through the cross, and risen Christ], then you will NOT be happy with this book. HOWEVER, if you are looking for a way to make your life more meaningful, then this book may be what you are looking for. Her thesis is that Jesus was calling for a direct experience of union with GOD, and not a belief system. She uses the later chapters to assist one in achieving this union. I found it to be very insightful and useful for me.

Bourgeault has written pearl of a book here. I highly recommend this book for those who are seeking to explore and live the Gospel's deep and eternal wisdom. Indeed, for those who wish to embrace and walk the path of Kenosis - this book is for you. There are points within the work of absolute and stunning revelation. One of the highlights was on the topic of the Passion and here below you can get a really good sense of her style and approach. ".......he sat there with the ugliness and the pain, the fear, the egos Jesus was surrounded by, the darkness, the deepest most alienated and most constricted states of pained consciousness.....Jesus was sitting there with the faces of the collective false self.....The anguish of Judas, the indecision of Pilate, the cowardice of Peter, the sanctimony of the Pharisees....Jesus was sitting there in the midst of all the blackness, in all the shallow manipulative egocentrism the world could throw at him, not judging, not fixing, just sitting there, letting it be in love........and in so doing - he Jesus, was allowing love to go deeper, pressing all the way to the innermost ground out of which the opposites arise and holding that to the light (p 123)." I found her book provided positive hope and a practical path of living and embracing the Gospel truth - it's a bingo for me!

First of all: this is a must-read for anyone who calls him/herself a Christian, or has some interest about what Christianity and Jezus might be about. Second: critique is always possible on minor points. I have some as well, but these do not diminish in any way the great vista this book opens. Third: when I had gone through the published reviews, it hit me that many reviewers seem to have read through their familiar lenses, armored with what the churches have made of Jezus in the course of 2000 years. But what Bourgeault essentially is saying, like all teachers of perennial wisdom, is that it is luggage, hearsay evidence. What is said, you have only heard, but it is not your own experience. Fourth: once Jezus was a living teacher, maybe one of the greatest, but we have others, even in our lifetimes. Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (and others) are not saying anything much different from what Jezus has said, be it that the "Eastern flavor" is much more present with Maharaj. The essential difference, as far as I can see, between Jezus and others is explained on page 55, where Bourgeault argues that Jezus shows that non-dual consciousness is an integral part of reality, where Eastern masters leave us with descriptions of reality as a mirage or a dream. It is my experience that Jezus is right. The book shows that direct experience - not reading Jezus with all your luggage on your back - shows a "way out of duality", which, after travelling this road, cannot be said anymore, because duality never was. Fifth: the first part of the book is about this teaching. This is the must-read part. The next two sections tell about (Christian) ways out of duality. I suspect that there is no (Christian or any other) universal way, -that's the trouble with orthodox Christianity and any other religion- except the direct experience itself. You have to be found by your own way. But how you embark on that journey and what will befall you is pure chance, that is, only in hindsight it will make sense. Maybe there is one suggestion here: read the book, leave your luggage behind and become an expert in light travelling, or, as Jezus himself says in the Beatitudes and elswhere, become "poor in spirit" or "as a child".

Cynthia's new book is a means to letting go of the dogma and encountering the presence of the risen Christ now, and now, and now again. She also helps explain why this is so, at least as best as a human intellect can explain it. She invites you to move beyond what you know. Would you have followed him if you met him before he had risen? Would you have understood him even? Do you even understand what he is saying now? She takes what he said and reveals the non-dual core to his insight and teachings. That insight that forms the spine to all his moral imperatives to love. She reveals how in fact he was and is One with the Father, and what does that mean? And how are we one with the father? It has to do with what you realize, or make real, and recognize, as she says, about yourself, God and the world. Other than the book, Putting on the Mind of Christ, I have seen no work that actually allows a Christian entry into the deep process of awakening the mind and heart to the spirit within. Good luck and enjoy it.

This is Cynthia Bourgeault's proclamation attempting to synthesize her life, her experiences, her eclectic personal library, and, ultimately, what she believes about God, Jesus and Christianity. It's also her gift to those many millions of disaffected Western Christians, young and old, who have found traditional interpretations of Jesus and his gospel to be dry, crumby, stale and spiritually unedifying. To this end, her audience will find her endearing as she's a true postmodernist, having grown bored with tradition yet unable to completely dispose with all of the particulars involved with such tradition. Even her revised Christology accepts that Paul and the other architects of early Christian theology managed to get some things right! She's among the ranks of many contemporary writers and retreat leaders who are attempting to refashion Christianity through a new Christology, finding clarity and vision through the world's various religions and belief systems. As such, she is an exemplar filter through which is synthesized the various, acceptable streams of contemporary Christological thought, presenting a Jesus that is slightly more palatable for our globalized, pluralistic society in which it is becoming more and more untenable to seriously regard, much less assert, myopic dogmatism and religious superiority. This book assists in the transition between supplanting the rigid Christ Pantacrator of tradition with a more organic hybrid of Qoholeth and Dogen. Throughout, she treats her subject of the Wisdom Jesus with great reverence and perpetual awe, but she seems uncertain at times as to what characterizes this Jesus as unique when compared to other spiritually realized masters throughout the ages. What she offers, in the end, is not so much a catechism of how we the can re-learn our archetypal understanding of Jesus, but she grants us a sliver of insight to assist in our own journey, our own spiritual transformation, our own re-evaluation. This is invaluable for those who don't have the time, money or background to read and ingest the same material as her - which may lead to alternate conclusions. She is, in many respects, the Pema Chodron for Christians, offering profound insight on a life better lived through love, acceptance and wisdom rather than sin, rejection/renunciation and guilt. This is where she shines and this is what will continue to draw people to her particular charism and brand of learning/teaching. Her vision of the Wisdom Jesus may or may not be 100% exact, but this isn't so great a concern since that vision, coupled with practices such as Centering Prayer, Lectio Divina, the Welcoming Prayer, etc., helps people to lead fuller, richer lives in a world that seems hopeless.

An excellent book,, really presents Jesus in a new way that I loved!