At the Center of the Cross Is No One

"Forgive them Father; they know not what they do." When Jesus was on the cross, did he carry the sins of the world, or drop them?

The center of the cross is a place that is light and free, without sin or blame. At the center of the cross, Jesus carries nothing. When you load your cruelty upon his shoulders, he doesn't take it personally.

What others say and do to us belongs to them. If we take it personally, it belongs to us.

Centered on the cross, Christ Consciousness radiates without judgment from a vanishing point beyond sin. At this center, no "I" exists to react or be offended, for "I" am crucified. "I" have surrendered to the divine "Am."

The center of the cross is my own heart. That is why the heart is at the center of my cruciform body.

The center of the cross is the crossroad of opposites, where antipodes collide, annihilating one another in an explosion of pure awareness. For when opposites merge, concepts disappear. Then awareness becomes available as free energy, no longer bound up in opposing viewpoints.

At the center, past and future dissolve: time becomes Presence. Joy and sorrow dissolve into Compassion. Matter and spirit dissolve into Grace. Centered in the place where I don't take it personally, forgiveness happens. Witnessing events from here, through the gaze of the crucified, I see the world as it is: a mirage of shimmering opposites, ever appearing and disappearing in the clear sky of my awareness. What possible good does it do me to pass judgment, or take sides?

Savagely directed at one who is centered, arrows of hate and calumny cannot pierce this stillness or penetrate this silence. They fall back upon their source. Those who shoot them are destroyed by their own negativity. Observing this self-destruction, we might assume that Christ-Consciousness has judged and damned "the evil one." But divine silence has no need to judge. Negative energy simply rebounds upon its source, finding no target in the emptiness at the cross's center.

Christ never judges: Christ simply forgives. There is no judgment day at the end of time, for the end of time is now, and we have already judged ourselves. "Judge not, lest ye be judged. And you will be judged by the judgment you pronounce on others" (Mat. 7:1). This is both the law of karma and the Gospel of Jesus.

If the Christ neither judges nor carries a burden, how then may we understand Christ's sacrifice?

Rest weightless and free at the center of the cross of opposites. There, Christ-Consciousness carries no burden. The heaviness of human conflict cannot overcome the lightness of divine compassion. Momentary acts of violence will not penetrate eternal emptiness. Let ignorance spend its fury against itself until no-thing remains. This is how the lamb of God, who is simply the innocence of your own pure awareness, takes away the sins of the world.

In Philippians 2:6, St. Paul uses the Greek word, kinosis, to describe the power of self-emptying. "Though he existed as the very form of God, he did not cling to God-like status, but emptied himself." The kinosis of Christ is the anatta of Buddha, the hollow fortress of no-self.

Jesus invites us to dwell in the center of his cross when he says: "Come unto me, ye who are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest; for my yoke is easy, my burden is light" (Mat. 11:28). Jesus does not carry the weight of the world on his shoulders. His burden is light. He carries no-thing on the shoulders of no-self.

Be spacious and hollow. Rest without resistance. No power in heaven or earth can overcome the impeccable dignity of your emptiness.

The golden light of emptiness shines from the center of the cross, which is your heart. Bitterness and sorrow dissolve in that radiance. Surrender your anger, your resentment, your anxiety, your fear, to the Christ who dwells there. Give it all away. Give it all to him. Christ doesn't take it personally. He just lets it go.

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