What Marianne Williamson Believes About Jesus
A conversation between an itinerant writer and a spirituality guru. Subject? Jesus.
Spiritual pilgrim and psychotherapist Bill Elliott travelled the country in a motor home, interviewing believers about what Jesus means to them. The result is "A Place at the Table," a new book of 24 interviews with scholars, evangelists, and mystics. One of his most arresting conversations was with New Age guru Marianne Williamson, author of "A Return to Love," which is based on the teachings of A Course in Miracles.
Who was/is Jesus?
Jesus was a human being who while on earth completely self-actualized and fulfilled in all ways the potential glory that lies within us all. He became one with the Essence and Christ Spirit that is in all of us. In that sense, he is our evolutionary elder brother. He demonstrated our destiny. He displayed for all to see the destination of this journey that we are on. The only thing lacking in any situation is our own awareness of love, and Jesus realized and taught that.
Jesus is a personal symbol of the Holy Spirit. Having been totally healed by the Holy Spirit, Jesus became one with him. Every thought, action, and deed of Jesus was guided by the Holy Spirit instead of ego. He's not the only face the Holy Spirit takes on - he is a face. To think about Jesus is to think about and bring forth the perfect love inside us. Jesus actualized the Christ mind, and was then given the power to help the rest of us reach that place within ourselves.
He was sent down by God - as we all are. We are all extensions of the mind of God. We all contain nuggets of glory. Recently, I was interviewed on a television program about miracles and they talked about what constituted a miracle. They said the birth of a child was not a miracle. A miracle they asserted was this or that, and was an extraordinary occurrence, but the birth of a child was not. My nine-year-old daughter was very bothered by that statement, and for the right reasons. The issue here is not that a miracle is something more extraordinary that the birth of a child. The issue here is that the birth of a child is a miracle - and that we are surrounded by the miraculous, but we don't have miracle-minded perception.