Resurrecting Jesus: Embodying the Spirit of a Revolutionary Mystic by Adyashanti

Author:Adyashanti
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: religion, Christianity
ISBN: 9781622037636
Publisher: Sounds True
Published: 2016-11-02T04:00:00+00:00

THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER

So Jesus has gathered his disciples, the insiders to whom he’s going to transmit the teaching. This is his hope, but it doesn’t quite work out as he imagined. In this next passage, Jesus has just spoken to a large crowd gathered at the shore and shared with them the parable of the sower, which concerns the sowing of seed on different kinds of ground. Now he’s alone with his disciples, and he finds that he has to explain the parable to them.

Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? The farmer sows the word. Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown. [Mark 4:13–20, NIV]

Now, in one sense this is an obvious teaching. If you give the gift of spirit, it’s akin to casting seeds; if the seed lands on rocky ground, there’s nothing for it to take root in. You might be happy to receive the teaching, or the transmission of reality, from heart to heart, but if you are rocky ground, you can’t sustain it. As soon as tribulation comes, as soon as difficulty comes, you will lose whatever has been given because it’s not deeply rooted and embodied in your being. Next is the image of the seed being sown on thorny ground. This refers to those who can hear the teaching, but are so attached to themselves—to their egos, desires, fears, and outer things of the world—that their lust for outer things chokes out spirit. When you believe that ultimate satisfaction can be found by acquiring more riches or success in the world, then even if you’re given the truth, even if you have a realization of divine being, sooner or later you will forsake it for something that you value more than the gift that was given. Finally, if the seed is thrown on good soil, then it grows and multiplies. When the seed of truth is transmitted to you and you receive it inside, if you’re really ready for it, if it is your highest value, if it is what you want the most, it will bloom in you. The teaching, the transmission of unity will bloom in you thirty-fold, sixty-fold, a hundred-fold.

As a teacher, I’ve seen this to be true.

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