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Resurrecting Jesus: Embodying the Spirit of a Revolutionary Mystic
The story of Jesus has not waned in its power to change lives. Yet today, even though the majority of us grew up in a culture suffused by the mythos of Jesus, many of us feel disconnected from the essence and vitality of his teachings. With Resurrecting Jesus , Adyashanti invites us to rediscover the life and teachings of Jesus as a direct path to what may be the most radical of spiritual awakening.
Jesus crossed all of the boundary lines that separated the people of his time because he viewed the world from the perspective of what unites us, not what divides us. In Resurrecting Jesus , Adya asks us to consider the man known as Jesus as a model of enlightened engagement with the world. He examines the story of Jesus from his birth to the Resurrection to reveal how the central events in Jesus' life parallel the stages of awakening that we may be called to experience ourselves. Adya then illuminates five central archetypes of the Jesus story―Peter, John, Mary Magdalene, Judas, and Pontius Pilate―and the key insights they hold about the way we might relate to the spiritual impulse within. Our journey concludes with an inspiring call to "live the Christ" in a way that is unique to each one of us.
"When the eternal and the human meet," writes Adya, " that's where love is born―not through escaping our humanity or trying to disappear into transcendence, but through finding that place where they come into union." Resurrecting Jesus is a book for realizing this union in your own life, from one moment to the next, with heart and mind wide open to the mystery that lives inside us all.
Jesus crossed all of the boundary lines that separated the people of his time because he viewed the world from the perspective of what unites us, not what divides us. In Resurrecting Jesus , Adya asks us to consider the man known as Jesus as a model of enlightened engagement with the world. He examines the story of Jesus from his birth to the Resurrection to reveal how the central events in Jesus' life parallel the stages of awakening that we may be called to experience ourselves. Adya then illuminates five central archetypes of the Jesus story―Peter, John, Mary Magdalene, Judas, and Pontius Pilate―and the key insights they hold about the way we might relate to the spiritual impulse within. Our journey concludes with an inspiring call to "live the Christ" in a way that is unique to each one of us.
"When the eternal and the human meet," writes Adya, " that's where love is born―not through escaping our humanity or trying to disappear into transcendence, but through finding that place where they come into union." Resurrecting Jesus is a book for realizing this union in your own life, from one moment to the next, with heart and mind wide open to the mystery that lives inside us all.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 2014
About the author
Adyashanti
129 books592 followersAdyashanti is an American spiritual teacher from the San Francisco Bay Area who gives regular satsangs in the United States and also teaches abroad. He is the author of several books, CDs and DVDs and is the founder of Open Gate Sangha, Inc. a nonprofit organization that supports, and makes available, his teachings.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 77 reviews
January 4, 2015
Adyashanti is a Zen Buddhist born in Cupertino CA in 1962. This book is based on a series of talks/classes he gave in 2013. It outlines his interpretations of Jesus's teachings, along with various episodes in his life as related in the Gospels, all from a Buddhist perspective. He regards Jesus as one of the most enlightened (in the Buddhist sense) men who ever lived, at least on a par with the Buddha himself, but expressing his experience of the spiritual in an entirely different way. The interpretations are sensitive and nuanced, and in most cases I found them very instructive. This is definitely not an orthodox Christian reading, and it doesn't always work with equal felicity; but then neither does any other interpretation I've read. The author tells a number of disarming stories about his own youthful naivety and his struggles with organized religion as he was growing up. He freely admits that in a particularly dry, unrewarding place in his meditation practice, he found the love of Jesus as introduced to him by the writings of St. Therese of Lisieux to be the one thing that enabled him to progress. This book, in conjunction with Paul Knitter's much broader Without Buddha I Could Not Be a Christian, has been a real education for me.
August 20, 2014
I really dig Adyashanti as a meditation teacher and all-around guru, but I feel like some of his character insights in this book were a little tone deaf. Mary Magdalene may have "loved too much" but it seems profoundly naive to say that someone becomes a prostitute because of their "lustful" nature. It's my understanding that women become prostitutes out of desperation, a need for protection, and lack of resources and/or education, not because they have deep feelings for the men who pay to use their bodies. I think Adyashanti is a tremendously insightful teacher, but some of his insights here seemed to miss the mark.
September 20, 2023
Adyashani, a Zen monk, an American, a prolific writer on non-duality, presents his perspective on the mystery of Christ.
'Resurrecting Jesus'.
The author talks about the spirit that underlies all mystical traditions. He mentions that Christ, Yogananda, and Buddha had the biggest influence on his development.
The main theme is that the narrative of the life of Christ represents the spiritual process within the great saints across all traditions, and within us. (Birth, life, death, resurrections, ascension.)
Adyashanti draws heavily upon the New Testament, and touches on the Gospel of Thomas, Meister Eckhart, and St. Theresa of Avila.
Towards the end of the book the author describes how five main characters - John, Peter, Mary Magdalene, Pontius Pilate, and Judas - represent archetypes that are ever-present; within us, and within the people we encounter. It is a very beautiful end to the book.
This is the second book I've read from the author. It is easy-reading, relatively short, and at times, poetic.
Recommend.
'Resurrecting Jesus'.
The author talks about the spirit that underlies all mystical traditions. He mentions that Christ, Yogananda, and Buddha had the biggest influence on his development.
The main theme is that the narrative of the life of Christ represents the spiritual process within the great saints across all traditions, and within us. (Birth, life, death, resurrections, ascension.)
Adyashanti draws heavily upon the New Testament, and touches on the Gospel of Thomas, Meister Eckhart, and St. Theresa of Avila.
Towards the end of the book the author describes how five main characters - John, Peter, Mary Magdalene, Pontius Pilate, and Judas - represent archetypes that are ever-present; within us, and within the people we encounter. It is a very beautiful end to the book.
This is the second book I've read from the author. It is easy-reading, relatively short, and at times, poetic.
Recommend.
September 21, 2014
I felt like this book described the steps of spiritual awakening and then illustrated HUMAN Jesus's journey to enlightenment throughout the Gospels, but not HOW to achieve this personally. I want to too! Only gave this book a 3rd star because of the final Part Three of the book. I'm glad I read this, and it definitely did have some sections worth thinking about, even discussing with my kids maybe as a subject for the dinner table, but just never got really excited about this book.
I kept thinking about a few people who I feel are living spiritually awakened. You can almost feel the spirit radiating out of them. But how can I find that within me? I keep thinking of the person who said we are not supposed to be human beings having divine experiences. We are divine beings having a human experience. As Adyashanti says, that is hard to experience in this Western culture where everything seems so egocentric. It was interesting to study the Gospel with his approach.
I kept thinking about a few people who I feel are living spiritually awakened. You can almost feel the spirit radiating out of them. But how can I find that within me? I keep thinking of the person who said we are not supposed to be human beings having divine experiences. We are divine beings having a human experience. As Adyashanti says, that is hard to experience in this Western culture where everything seems so egocentric. It was interesting to study the Gospel with his approach.
February 12, 2016
One of the most personal, beautiful and fascinating books I've read about Jesus, written by a Buddhist who sees with open eyes and heart.
September 10, 2021
I loved this sounds true program and Adyshanti's wisdom around the Jesus story. I struggle with large organized religions sometimes because they seem more interested in regulating, judging and being rules based than they are with someone's spiritual journey at the Jesus story. I learned so much and really got clear on key points for my spirituality.
“As Jesus says in the Gospel of Thomas, “If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.” [Gospel of Thomas 70]”
“Of course, there are those churches today that are inspired by the real living presence of Christ, but as a whole, Christianity needs new life breathed into it. It needs to be challenged to awaken from the old structures that confine spirit, so that the perennial spirit of awakening can flourish once again.”
“In the original Greek, one of the meanings of sin [hamartia] is simply “to miss the mark.”
“we’ve come to understand sin as a kind of moral failing, but that interpretation actually comes from the power structures of the church and religious authorities. If you can convince somebody that they are inherently impure and that there is a mistake at the center of their being, then sin becomes a wrongdoing that deserves blame.”
“In the Gospels, Jesus repeatedly challenges the religious authorities of the day, but ultimately what he’s saying is relevant to all forms of religion. It wouldn’t matter if he grew up a Jew, or a Christian, or a Buddhist, or a Hindu, because he’s speaking about the structure of religion itself—its hierarchy, its tendency to become corrupted by human beings’ desires for power, for influence, for money. Jesus, I think, had a profound understanding that the religion itself, instead of connecting us to the radiance of being, connecting us to that spiritual mystery, could easily become a barrier to divinity. As soon as we get too caught up with the rites and the rituals and the Thou shalts and Thou shalt nots of conventional religion, we begin to lose sight of the primary task of religion, which is to orient us toward the mystery of being and awaken us to what we really are. Of course,”
“Myth isn’t about factual or historical truth, but about a deeper truth. In ancient times, people saw myth in a very different light—as a vehicle that can transmit and carry a subtlety and richness of experience that simply cannot be conveyed by linear, conceptual forms of language.”
― Adyashanti, Resurrecting Jesus: Embodying the Spirit of a Revolutionary Mystic
“As Jesus says in the Gospel of Thomas, “If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.” [Gospel of Thomas 70]”
“Of course, there are those churches today that are inspired by the real living presence of Christ, but as a whole, Christianity needs new life breathed into it. It needs to be challenged to awaken from the old structures that confine spirit, so that the perennial spirit of awakening can flourish once again.”
“In the original Greek, one of the meanings of sin [hamartia] is simply “to miss the mark.”
“we’ve come to understand sin as a kind of moral failing, but that interpretation actually comes from the power structures of the church and religious authorities. If you can convince somebody that they are inherently impure and that there is a mistake at the center of their being, then sin becomes a wrongdoing that deserves blame.”
“In the Gospels, Jesus repeatedly challenges the religious authorities of the day, but ultimately what he’s saying is relevant to all forms of religion. It wouldn’t matter if he grew up a Jew, or a Christian, or a Buddhist, or a Hindu, because he’s speaking about the structure of religion itself—its hierarchy, its tendency to become corrupted by human beings’ desires for power, for influence, for money. Jesus, I think, had a profound understanding that the religion itself, instead of connecting us to the radiance of being, connecting us to that spiritual mystery, could easily become a barrier to divinity. As soon as we get too caught up with the rites and the rituals and the Thou shalts and Thou shalt nots of conventional religion, we begin to lose sight of the primary task of religion, which is to orient us toward the mystery of being and awaken us to what we really are. Of course,”
“Myth isn’t about factual or historical truth, but about a deeper truth. In ancient times, people saw myth in a very different light—as a vehicle that can transmit and carry a subtlety and richness of experience that simply cannot be conveyed by linear, conceptual forms of language.”
― Adyashanti, Resurrecting Jesus: Embodying the Spirit of a Revolutionary Mystic
August 11, 2026
THE SPIRITUAL TEACHER’S INTERPRETATION OF ‘THE JESUS STORY’
Adyashanti (born ‘Stephen Gray’ in 1962) is a former spiritual teacher, who, in his twenties, began studying Zen with several different teachers; he claims to have had spiritual awakenings starting at age 25, and began teaching on his own at age 34, giving talks and writing books. (He retired from teaching in 2023 after experiencing a long period of physical pain.)
Mitchell Clure (of Sounds True) wrote in his Preface to this 2014 book [2nd edition, 2016], “The Jesus you’re about to encounter in [this book] is a spiritual revolutionary, an example of awakened humanity in action, beyond the confines of any religion or theology. This Jesus is not rooted in time and history; he points us toward the timeless realm of spirit. But neither is he distant and transcendent; his story is an invitation to embody spirit in the present, in ourselves.
“When I first encountered Adyashanti’s teachings on Jesus, I was captivated by his unexpected insights on Jesus as enlightened BEING… I discovered that Adya’s explorations of the gospel story were an annual Christmas tradition, one he clearly enjoyed. When it came time to brainstorm a new project with Adya, I suggested that we ask him to teach on Jesus… So in the spring of 2013, I traveled with Tami Simon, Sounds True’s publisher, to California to record the material that became [this book]…
“Listening to Adya in the studio and, later, editing … this book, I began to see the ways in which these teachings close the gap between us and Jesus, between us and the divine… The Jesus story as Adya shares it is a blueprint for the awakening process, a reaching that shows us how WE might embody divine being in human form---just as Jesus did. Yes, Adya teaches Jesus is the son of God---and in the same way, each of us is the son or daughter of God. Each of us is the word made flesh… What does it mean for the Jesus story to come alive in YOU? Find out! That’s the invitation of [this book].”
Adya explains in the first chapter, “So how does a spiritual teacher with a Zen Buddhist background get interested in the Jesus story? Well, from the time I can remember, I was fascinated with the Jesus story. As a kid I watched the Ten Commandments and all the other spiritual epics that were on TV and in the movies at that time… Now, I didn’t grow up in a particularly religious family, and I wasn’t really interested in organized religion… While my family wasn’t particularly religious in the conventional sense, there was a lot of religious and spiritual conversation that went on … among my parents and [two sets of] grandparents… These conversations had a deep influence on me… these talks about God and spirit and Jesus… it engendered in me a deep feeling of the mystery of life, of a transcendent presence that I could sense…” (Pg. 3-4)
“From the time I was very young, I would have various types of what I’d now call spiritual experiences… I was also a lover of Christmas, with all the presents, the tree, the lights, and those holiday TV specials made for kids… for me Christmas was also a sacred time… This feeling of the sacred would overcome me for several months before Christmas… And so Christmas and the Christian message have always resonated with me on a deep level; the Jesus story has always been significant to me… sometime in my teens, I partook in communion at a Catholic mass. I didn’t know that you weren’t supposed to take communion if you weren’t confirmed into the church… I’m glad that I didn’t know… because I did it innocently… I found this silent ritual to be extraordinarily profound… It also served to connect me, again, with the Jesus story.” (Pg. 5-6)
He continues, “As I got into my late teens… I’d started to read some spiritual books, and in a book about Zen Buddhism, I came across the word ‘enlightenment.’ … I had a huge response to it, one that really changed my life’s orientation… I found a Zen teacher in a directory… who actually happened to be only fifteen minutes from where I grew up… Her name was Arvis Justi… I was about 20 years old when I found her, and I studied and meditated with her for more than a decade. Eventually, when I was 33, she asked me to teach.” (Pg. 6)
He goes on, “But as the years went on, there was something in the practice of Zen that I couldn’t find a connection with; it started to feel a bit dry… I found the autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux… As I read her life story, I was so taken by her; there was an innocence and a dedication to God that really touched something in me… There was something in the way she conveyed her real LOVE of God that was deeply heart-centered… This was the beginning of discovering within myself what I think of as the transmission of Christianity and of the Jesus story… I continued my Zen Buddhist practice… but with my heart blown wide open it was such a different experience than before. That love was the missing element… Zen for me was about engaging in spiritual practice as a serious in-depth investigation. But through the Jesus story and through St. Therese, I started to experience the heart of sacred love. She was the doorway through which I walked deeper into the truth at the core of Christianity.” (Pg. 6-8)
He recounts, “I began to read an immense amount on Christian mysticism---as many as two hundred books of the Christian mystics. I’ve told people since that I came to understand Zen through Christian mysticism… Conversely, my Zen Buddhist practice and all my time in meditation helped me realize what the Christian mystics were saying…” (Pg. 11) “I had never actually … read the four Gospels… And when I did, I was … stunned by what I found… What I found in the story was an incredibly revolutionary figure, someone who broke down barriers and lines of separation… Our contemporary culture and religion needs an influx of new life. I think the churches in this country need to be revitalized; they need that challenging presence of Jesus that says, ‘It’s important that you realize the truth of your BEING… As Jesus says in the Gospel of Thomas, ‘If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.’” [Gospel of Thomas, 70]
He explains, “Often, the Gospel of Thomas is thought of as a Gnostic gospel, but it’s only Gnostic in the sense that all the teaching is meant to awaken us from our identification with body and mind… to divinity within… The Gospel of Thomas presents the Kingdom of Heaven as something that exists right here and right now… in the Gospel of Thomas, the whole point of Jesus’ teaching is to discover your true identity… So I feel that the Gospel of Thomas … widens our picture of what Jesus was and what he had to reveal to us.” (Pg. 21-22)
He summarizes, “The kingdom of heaven is spread upon earth and men do not see it. When you see this, you shift from being a victim of your life and assigning blame for the tragedy your encounter…. When seen from that perspective, all of a sudden life looks very different. You stop holding back from life… because the kingdom of heaven is within and all around you. THAT’S the message of the Jesus story.” (Pg. 50-51)
He observes, “The Gospels show Jesus as a man who is very much alone… Because throughout his entire life almost no one really and truly … understood the significance of who he was and what he was doing. Yet the people who did have an intuition about who and what he was were those who sought healing… The sick and the needy have a way of intuiting who Jesus really is. In a number of examples, they receive not only a physical healing but a deep spiritual healing as well.” (Pg. 99)
He states, “In esoteric spirituality---meaning those inner forms of spirituality concerned with awakening, transformation, and enlightenment---transmission plays a significant role… Ultimately, Jesus’ mere presence is his greatest teaching tool… Between a spiritual teacher and his or her student, transmission is the teacher’s state of consciousness interacting with the consciousness of the student or disciple. So in this story [Mk 4:30-34], Jesus is utilizing both forms of transmission.” (Pg. 113)
He asserts, “[Jesus’] life is a physical manifestation of the journey of spiritual awakening… He is LIVING it. The events of his life are metaphors for spiritual transformation itself… If we believe that it only has to do with Jesus and not with us, if we believe that he’s the one and only God-man, then we misread the entire story. For two thousand years, this story has in large part been misread… the church itself cut humanity off from entry into its own transcendent BEING. It’s amazing that … through the saints and sages and mystics of the church, that the radiance kept bursting through. People continued to discover that what Jesus realized was something they could realize too---and that Jesus was urging exactly this, in spite of church dogma saying it wasn’t possible and even more that it was taboo.” (Pg. 134-135)
He says of Communion, “The physical body is really made out of spirit… of suchness, as they say in Buddhism. We are all one in the mystical body of Christ, and this is what Jesus is trying to transmit. He’s saying, ‘… Take my mystical body into you. Become me as I become you.’ This is what it means to give of the mystical body.” (Pg. 145)
He concludes, “There is no single correct interpretation of the Jesus story. It really doesn’t matter whether we believe that every single scene is historically accurate or read the entire story as a myth or view it as something in between, a mixture of history and mythos. The important thing is not what we believe about the story, but whether we have the capacity to allow it to live within us, so that the story starts to speak to us in a way that’s unique to us alone.” (Pg. 226)
Some fans of Adyashanti may not care for this book (as being ‘too Christian’)---but others may consider it his best.
Adyashanti (born ‘Stephen Gray’ in 1962) is a former spiritual teacher, who, in his twenties, began studying Zen with several different teachers; he claims to have had spiritual awakenings starting at age 25, and began teaching on his own at age 34, giving talks and writing books. (He retired from teaching in 2023 after experiencing a long period of physical pain.)
Mitchell Clure (of Sounds True) wrote in his Preface to this 2014 book [2nd edition, 2016], “The Jesus you’re about to encounter in [this book] is a spiritual revolutionary, an example of awakened humanity in action, beyond the confines of any religion or theology. This Jesus is not rooted in time and history; he points us toward the timeless realm of spirit. But neither is he distant and transcendent; his story is an invitation to embody spirit in the present, in ourselves.
“When I first encountered Adyashanti’s teachings on Jesus, I was captivated by his unexpected insights on Jesus as enlightened BEING… I discovered that Adya’s explorations of the gospel story were an annual Christmas tradition, one he clearly enjoyed. When it came time to brainstorm a new project with Adya, I suggested that we ask him to teach on Jesus… So in the spring of 2013, I traveled with Tami Simon, Sounds True’s publisher, to California to record the material that became [this book]…
“Listening to Adya in the studio and, later, editing … this book, I began to see the ways in which these teachings close the gap between us and Jesus, between us and the divine… The Jesus story as Adya shares it is a blueprint for the awakening process, a reaching that shows us how WE might embody divine being in human form---just as Jesus did. Yes, Adya teaches Jesus is the son of God---and in the same way, each of us is the son or daughter of God. Each of us is the word made flesh… What does it mean for the Jesus story to come alive in YOU? Find out! That’s the invitation of [this book].”
Adya explains in the first chapter, “So how does a spiritual teacher with a Zen Buddhist background get interested in the Jesus story? Well, from the time I can remember, I was fascinated with the Jesus story. As a kid I watched the Ten Commandments and all the other spiritual epics that were on TV and in the movies at that time… Now, I didn’t grow up in a particularly religious family, and I wasn’t really interested in organized religion… While my family wasn’t particularly religious in the conventional sense, there was a lot of religious and spiritual conversation that went on … among my parents and [two sets of] grandparents… These conversations had a deep influence on me… these talks about God and spirit and Jesus… it engendered in me a deep feeling of the mystery of life, of a transcendent presence that I could sense…” (Pg. 3-4)
“From the time I was very young, I would have various types of what I’d now call spiritual experiences… I was also a lover of Christmas, with all the presents, the tree, the lights, and those holiday TV specials made for kids… for me Christmas was also a sacred time… This feeling of the sacred would overcome me for several months before Christmas… And so Christmas and the Christian message have always resonated with me on a deep level; the Jesus story has always been significant to me… sometime in my teens, I partook in communion at a Catholic mass. I didn’t know that you weren’t supposed to take communion if you weren’t confirmed into the church… I’m glad that I didn’t know… because I did it innocently… I found this silent ritual to be extraordinarily profound… It also served to connect me, again, with the Jesus story.” (Pg. 5-6)
He continues, “As I got into my late teens… I’d started to read some spiritual books, and in a book about Zen Buddhism, I came across the word ‘enlightenment.’ … I had a huge response to it, one that really changed my life’s orientation… I found a Zen teacher in a directory… who actually happened to be only fifteen minutes from where I grew up… Her name was Arvis Justi… I was about 20 years old when I found her, and I studied and meditated with her for more than a decade. Eventually, when I was 33, she asked me to teach.” (Pg. 6)
He goes on, “But as the years went on, there was something in the practice of Zen that I couldn’t find a connection with; it started to feel a bit dry… I found the autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux… As I read her life story, I was so taken by her; there was an innocence and a dedication to God that really touched something in me… There was something in the way she conveyed her real LOVE of God that was deeply heart-centered… This was the beginning of discovering within myself what I think of as the transmission of Christianity and of the Jesus story… I continued my Zen Buddhist practice… but with my heart blown wide open it was such a different experience than before. That love was the missing element… Zen for me was about engaging in spiritual practice as a serious in-depth investigation. But through the Jesus story and through St. Therese, I started to experience the heart of sacred love. She was the doorway through which I walked deeper into the truth at the core of Christianity.” (Pg. 6-8)
He recounts, “I began to read an immense amount on Christian mysticism---as many as two hundred books of the Christian mystics. I’ve told people since that I came to understand Zen through Christian mysticism… Conversely, my Zen Buddhist practice and all my time in meditation helped me realize what the Christian mystics were saying…” (Pg. 11) “I had never actually … read the four Gospels… And when I did, I was … stunned by what I found… What I found in the story was an incredibly revolutionary figure, someone who broke down barriers and lines of separation… Our contemporary culture and religion needs an influx of new life. I think the churches in this country need to be revitalized; they need that challenging presence of Jesus that says, ‘It’s important that you realize the truth of your BEING… As Jesus says in the Gospel of Thomas, ‘If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.’” [Gospel of Thomas, 70]
He explains, “Often, the Gospel of Thomas is thought of as a Gnostic gospel, but it’s only Gnostic in the sense that all the teaching is meant to awaken us from our identification with body and mind… to divinity within… The Gospel of Thomas presents the Kingdom of Heaven as something that exists right here and right now… in the Gospel of Thomas, the whole point of Jesus’ teaching is to discover your true identity… So I feel that the Gospel of Thomas … widens our picture of what Jesus was and what he had to reveal to us.” (Pg. 21-22)
He summarizes, “The kingdom of heaven is spread upon earth and men do not see it. When you see this, you shift from being a victim of your life and assigning blame for the tragedy your encounter…. When seen from that perspective, all of a sudden life looks very different. You stop holding back from life… because the kingdom of heaven is within and all around you. THAT’S the message of the Jesus story.” (Pg. 50-51)
He observes, “The Gospels show Jesus as a man who is very much alone… Because throughout his entire life almost no one really and truly … understood the significance of who he was and what he was doing. Yet the people who did have an intuition about who and what he was were those who sought healing… The sick and the needy have a way of intuiting who Jesus really is. In a number of examples, they receive not only a physical healing but a deep spiritual healing as well.” (Pg. 99)
He states, “In esoteric spirituality---meaning those inner forms of spirituality concerned with awakening, transformation, and enlightenment---transmission plays a significant role… Ultimately, Jesus’ mere presence is his greatest teaching tool… Between a spiritual teacher and his or her student, transmission is the teacher’s state of consciousness interacting with the consciousness of the student or disciple. So in this story [Mk 4:30-34], Jesus is utilizing both forms of transmission.” (Pg. 113)
He asserts, “[Jesus’] life is a physical manifestation of the journey of spiritual awakening… He is LIVING it. The events of his life are metaphors for spiritual transformation itself… If we believe that it only has to do with Jesus and not with us, if we believe that he’s the one and only God-man, then we misread the entire story. For two thousand years, this story has in large part been misread… the church itself cut humanity off from entry into its own transcendent BEING. It’s amazing that … through the saints and sages and mystics of the church, that the radiance kept bursting through. People continued to discover that what Jesus realized was something they could realize too---and that Jesus was urging exactly this, in spite of church dogma saying it wasn’t possible and even more that it was taboo.” (Pg. 134-135)
He says of Communion, “The physical body is really made out of spirit… of suchness, as they say in Buddhism. We are all one in the mystical body of Christ, and this is what Jesus is trying to transmit. He’s saying, ‘… Take my mystical body into you. Become me as I become you.’ This is what it means to give of the mystical body.” (Pg. 145)
He concludes, “There is no single correct interpretation of the Jesus story. It really doesn’t matter whether we believe that every single scene is historically accurate or read the entire story as a myth or view it as something in between, a mixture of history and mythos. The important thing is not what we believe about the story, but whether we have the capacity to allow it to live within us, so that the story starts to speak to us in a way that’s unique to us alone.” (Pg. 226)
Some fans of Adyashanti may not care for this book (as being ‘too Christian’)---but others may consider it his best.
December 12, 2024
Although I have not read many books on Jesus or Christianity, this is one I keep re-listening to. I did not read it, I listened. The audio was the best I've ever heard, it felt like the author was having a dinner conversation with the listener. Great insights on his journey through Buddhism to Christianity. I'll keep re listening!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 14, 2018
Although he didn’t have a particularly religious upbringing, Adyashanti’s connection to the Jesus story began during his childhood, when he was still Steven Gray, living in Cupertino, California. He grew up in a family that frequently discussed spirituality and religion and had a grandfather he describes as having “embodied the Christian spirit of generosity and love.” As a teenager Steven was passionate about bike racing and meditation, but meditation ultimately triumphed and he went on to study Zen Buddhism. At 31 Steven had a profound awakening experience and changed his name to Adyshanti (which means primordial peace) and became a spiritual teacher. It was during this period that he began to read about the Christian mystics, especially St. Therese of Lisieux, which shone a different light on the Jesus story, illuminating Adyashanti’s understanding of Zen. He was rewired. As he put it, “That’s a very powerful dynamic, when the mystery of our own being meets a really extraordinary story. That meeting can elicit something quite transformative.”
All of Adyashanti’s spiritual exploration, practice, and growth inform his method of teaching, which encompasses many traditions including Zen Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta (Hindu philosophy), and the Jesus story. “The Truth I point to is not confined within any religious point of view, belief system, or doctrine,” he has said, “but is open to all and found within all.”
Resurrecting Jesus reflects this. The Jesus Adyashanti shows us is a revolutionary mystic, “breaking through all the false boundaries and imaginary dividing lines that separate us as human beings and separate us from the world.” Adyashanti recognizes that “the Western mind has been dominated by Christianity for more than two thousand years, so whether you’re Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, or even atheist, you can’t help but be impacted by the story. This fact alone makes the story worth examining, and in doing so, we might find that the Jesus we’ve been told about is very different from the Jesus in the Gospels. That’s what I hope to investigate.”
And he does.
All of Adyashanti’s spiritual exploration, practice, and growth inform his method of teaching, which encompasses many traditions including Zen Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta (Hindu philosophy), and the Jesus story. “The Truth I point to is not confined within any religious point of view, belief system, or doctrine,” he has said, “but is open to all and found within all.”
Resurrecting Jesus reflects this. The Jesus Adyashanti shows us is a revolutionary mystic, “breaking through all the false boundaries and imaginary dividing lines that separate us as human beings and separate us from the world.” Adyashanti recognizes that “the Western mind has been dominated by Christianity for more than two thousand years, so whether you’re Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, or even atheist, you can’t help but be impacted by the story. This fact alone makes the story worth examining, and in doing so, we might find that the Jesus we’ve been told about is very different from the Jesus in the Gospels. That’s what I hope to investigate.”
And he does.
April 16, 2023
I'll be perfectly honestly, I didn't read this book all the way.. and that's for good reason.
Adyashanti starts off by describing his love for the Christian mystic St. Theresa and Jesus. He has a genuine encounter with Jesus of the bible which I believe was real and genuine, this marked him and helped him. BUT the rest of the book that I read is someone building Jesus in their own image, a MYSTIC Jesus... Not Jesus The Son of God who died for sin to give us Right standing with God. Books like this are dangerous, I don't think Adyashanti had much to any humility around the biblical text. He put his own meaning around the text, rather than look at what Jesus was actually saying. This is is called isogesis. The book doesn't give credit or Glory to who Jesus truly is but builds him into a Jesus who Adyashanti wants him to be to fit his spiritual narrative.( A trap that we all can easily fall into) if you're looking for the Real Jesus, this book won't help. False Mystic Jesus doesn't save.
"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse." C.S Lewis
Adyashanti starts off by describing his love for the Christian mystic St. Theresa and Jesus. He has a genuine encounter with Jesus of the bible which I believe was real and genuine, this marked him and helped him. BUT the rest of the book that I read is someone building Jesus in their own image, a MYSTIC Jesus... Not Jesus The Son of God who died for sin to give us Right standing with God. Books like this are dangerous, I don't think Adyashanti had much to any humility around the biblical text. He put his own meaning around the text, rather than look at what Jesus was actually saying. This is is called isogesis. The book doesn't give credit or Glory to who Jesus truly is but builds him into a Jesus who Adyashanti wants him to be to fit his spiritual narrative.( A trap that we all can easily fall into) if you're looking for the Real Jesus, this book won't help. False Mystic Jesus doesn't save.
"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse." C.S Lewis
March 4, 2018
Everyone and their grandma needs to read this book. If only our western culture could adhere to the story of Jesus in a way that relates to our divine being without dogma and religion. It is funny that Jesus, someone who would get enraged by hierarchical religious structures, is being praised in these very places today. He has been misunderstood because the structures built around his message have totally corrupted it. His message could only be heard by people in a certain state of consciousness. Instead of relating the story of Jesus back to us, the western religious structures have convinced the masses that they were born as sinners. However, this was not the message of Jesus. The message of Jesus message is simple: the kingdom of god is within you. How that has been so misinterpreted, I do not know. But Adyashanti does a fantastic job at bringing the story of Jesus back to to life. Perhaps the most outstanding theme of the story is that Jesus’ life is a reflection of our inner life. For example, Some of his disciples represent parts of ourselves that deny the truth of divine being when encountered in some way or another.
July 26, 2019
As someone who has been turned off from Christian mythology.
I have not yet read the bible and would classify myself as an atheist. The book gave me a positive impression of the story of Jesus and I enjoyed Adyashanti's framing of the different stories and tellings.
I have a clearer idea of the central characters Pontus, Judas, Mary and the disciples.
I recommend this book wholeheartedly.
I have not yet read the bible and would classify myself as an atheist. The book gave me a positive impression of the story of Jesus and I enjoyed Adyashanti's framing of the different stories and tellings.
I have a clearer idea of the central characters Pontus, Judas, Mary and the disciples.
I recommend this book wholeheartedly.
August 11, 2014
My minister once told me that I was a mystic. Intrigued, I wanted to hear what Adyashanti had to say about Jesus. The words hit all my buttons.
September 4, 2024
In this book, recently-retired spiritual teacher Adyashanti gives his perspective on the story of Jesus. His perspective draws substantially on his background in Zen Buddhism. He also treats events in the bible as mythic and allegorical rather than as actual events. So, for example, he treats the crucifixion of Christ as being about the death of the ego.
I guess it will most likely appeal to those who enjoy Adyashanti's teachings, as well as those wanting to bring together different religious perspectives, in this case Christianity and Buddhism. It is less likely to appeal to those who regard Jesus as a historical figure and want to know more about that.
I should also mention that, if you don't enjoy a lot of repetition of points, this is not the book for you!
I guess it will most likely appeal to those who enjoy Adyashanti's teachings, as well as those wanting to bring together different religious perspectives, in this case Christianity and Buddhism. It is less likely to appeal to those who regard Jesus as a historical figure and want to know more about that.
I should also mention that, if you don't enjoy a lot of repetition of points, this is not the book for you!
April 4, 2026
Okay so chapter 13 was it for me.. here’s an AI generated review of why I loved it.
What stands out most in this chapter is the way Adyashanti dissolves the boundary between devotion and awakening. He suggests that the essence of Christ is not something to worship externally, but something to embody. This challenges both traditional Christianity (which often externalizes Christ) and some nondual teachings (which can dismiss devotional language altogether). He walks a middle path—one that honors both heart and awareness.
A central theme is that awakening is not just about transcending the ego, but also about allowing love to fully incarnate in human form. The “Living Christ” represents this integration: clarity without coldness, love without attachment, presence without identity.
What stands out most in this chapter is the way Adyashanti dissolves the boundary between devotion and awakening. He suggests that the essence of Christ is not something to worship externally, but something to embody. This challenges both traditional Christianity (which often externalizes Christ) and some nondual teachings (which can dismiss devotional language altogether). He walks a middle path—one that honors both heart and awareness.
A central theme is that awakening is not just about transcending the ego, but also about allowing love to fully incarnate in human form. The “Living Christ” represents this integration: clarity without coldness, love without attachment, presence without identity.
June 12, 2020
Wow wow wow.
In all honesty, I adore stories about Jesus. That being said, I abore the ‘Christian’ Depiction of the man and his teachings.
This book should be something which all followers of Christ have on their bookshelf. It will shine a new light on what you think you know about Jesus and his teachings. Whilst i wouldn’t say it necessarily negates the Christian depiction of the stories behind Jesus, it certainly challenges some of the concepts behind how they’ve been translated over the years. You can belong to any religion to enjoy this book, including Christianity. I would urge anyone to read it.
In all honesty, I adore stories about Jesus. That being said, I abore the ‘Christian’ Depiction of the man and his teachings.
This book should be something which all followers of Christ have on their bookshelf. It will shine a new light on what you think you know about Jesus and his teachings. Whilst i wouldn’t say it necessarily negates the Christian depiction of the stories behind Jesus, it certainly challenges some of the concepts behind how they’ve been translated over the years. You can belong to any religion to enjoy this book, including Christianity. I would urge anyone to read it.
March 8, 2018
Highly recommend. A new lens with which to look through the story of Jesus and apply to your own life; that of spiritual awakening. As opposed to being presented as some untouchable that no one could ever hope to embody or aspire to, Adyashanti has distilled the kernels of his teachings and life story and presented them in such a way so as to illuminate to the reader that this was not merely the premise but the entire purpose of the teachings of Jesus. Highly illustrative and interesting and as always Adya's voice is both deep and incisive.
April 15, 2023
My first book about Jesus! Got a glimpse of his life story. The author brings interesting perspectives about Jesus's life and spirituality. I found it good and intresting in some parts. However can't say that it was mind blowing. Could be because I have been reading too much on the same theme (spirituality) and I found nothing revealing from this book!
I listened to the Audible version and found it to be repetitive in a lot of places. Overall worth listening to it once. Compelled me to read more about Jesus's life and different versions of the stories.
I listened to the Audible version and found it to be repetitive in a lot of places. Overall worth listening to it once. Compelled me to read more about Jesus's life and different versions of the stories.
August 11, 2024
Recommended by a close friend who lived on an intentional interfaith community in Taos, NM.
This book is fascinating and extremely different from anything I’ve read about Jesus, but it’s definitely repetitive and a little too universalist. Adyashanti basically places Jesus and humans on the same playing field, saying that Jesus has discovered an enlightened state and brought forth his divine being. He challenges readers to look at Jesus’ life as a metaphor for a spiritual journey. There are some interesting points about the historical impact of Jesus’ life and why people are continuously intrigued by Jesus.
As I said, it’s very different from what I have read or think, but it’s always good to understand other perspectives.
This book is fascinating and extremely different from anything I’ve read about Jesus, but it’s definitely repetitive and a little too universalist. Adyashanti basically places Jesus and humans on the same playing field, saying that Jesus has discovered an enlightened state and brought forth his divine being. He challenges readers to look at Jesus’ life as a metaphor for a spiritual journey. There are some interesting points about the historical impact of Jesus’ life and why people are continuously intrigued by Jesus.
As I said, it’s very different from what I have read or think, but it’s always good to understand other perspectives.
January 31, 2026
I’ve attended many of Adyashanti’s satsangs and have long appreciated his quiet, grounded approach to spirituality. In this book, he explores the life and teachings of Jesus through the lens of the Gospel of Mark, focusing less on doctrine and more on direct spiritual awakening.
This is a meaningful read for anyone actively engaged in their own spiritual practice and interested in encountering Jesus beyond religious conditioning — as a teacher of inner transformation rather than a figure of belief.
This is a meaningful read for anyone actively engaged in their own spiritual practice and interested in encountering Jesus beyond religious conditioning — as a teacher of inner transformation rather than a figure of belief.
January 28, 2020
This book breathes new life into a two thousand year old story. I felt deeply touched , saddened and inspired by the age old story of Christ. Whether you believe it as historical fact or an old myth, this story has shaped the world for good (and bad). Adyashanti has with his beautiful interpretation of the gospels of John, Mark and Thomas renewed my faith in a revolutionary figure who dared challenge the status quo of his day. A figure that ultimately sacrificed himself to awaken others.
March 9, 2020
Enjoyed this book thoroughly!
To provide some context, I am drawn to Buddhist philosophy but don’t identify as a Buddhist (yet); I am still exploring the world of religion and spirituality.
And I am certainly not Christian but I had attended Christian schools for most of my life.
This book was a fascinating way to interpret the Bible. I will never read the stories and think of the figures like John, Mary, Judas, Peter...the same ever way again!
To provide some context, I am drawn to Buddhist philosophy but don’t identify as a Buddhist (yet); I am still exploring the world of religion and spirituality.
And I am certainly not Christian but I had attended Christian schools for most of my life.
This book was a fascinating way to interpret the Bible. I will never read the stories and think of the figures like John, Mary, Judas, Peter...the same ever way again!
December 31, 2020
A beautiful analysis of Jesus' life
I grew up catholic but I was never taught the story of Jesus the way Adyashanti did. This book offered me a chance to look at Christianity with a different lens and even to consider giving it another chance. The author compares the moments in Jesus' life as an example of our own spiritual journey, the characters in the story as parts that live within ourselves, and invites us to connect with the divine while we are alive. Very powerful.
I grew up catholic but I was never taught the story of Jesus the way Adyashanti did. This book offered me a chance to look at Christianity with a different lens and even to consider giving it another chance. The author compares the moments in Jesus' life as an example of our own spiritual journey, the characters in the story as parts that live within ourselves, and invites us to connect with the divine while we are alive. Very powerful.
February 25, 2024
A new understanding of the Jesus story
This book revealed the life of Jesus in a way that brought his story alive like my Catholic education never did. After rejecting the Christianity of my youth and finding solace and aliveness in Zen practice, it has been remarkably satisfying and reve!atory to rediscover Jesus in a whole new light. This book was crucial for this new understanding and for the deep healing it has brought me.
This book revealed the life of Jesus in a way that brought his story alive like my Catholic education never did. After rejecting the Christianity of my youth and finding solace and aliveness in Zen practice, it has been remarkably satisfying and reve!atory to rediscover Jesus in a whole new light. This book was crucial for this new understanding and for the deep healing it has brought me.
July 25, 2025
One of the best books I have ever read; a truly revolutionary outlook on Christ that could shift the paradigm of this world as it falls into merely doctrine and dogma. Adyshanti’s words relay deep truths spoken from a living relationship with the living Christ as the Christ consciousness/ Holy Spirit in us. His way of simplifying complicated years old theology and making it an experimental, living love and truth is brilliant. I can’t wait to read more of his books
January 2, 2018
An interesting non-dual, Zen oriented take on the life and teachings of Jesus. Would recommend to those who are familiar with Zen or Dhyana Yoga and are interested in Jesus Christ. I would further recommend the first volume of the Philokalia for an early Christian version of Zen by the Desert Fathers.
June 29, 2020
Transformational
I wish I had read this book years ago. I followed mainstream religion for so long but just couldn't connect. I kept feeling guilty because there was something I clearly wasn't getting until I read this. Merchant's words spoke directly to my soul. This is a book for life that has truly resonated with me. It just makes so much sense. Thank you 💓
I wish I had read this book years ago. I followed mainstream religion for so long but just couldn't connect. I kept feeling guilty because there was something I clearly wasn't getting until I read this. Merchant's words spoke directly to my soul. This is a book for life that has truly resonated with me. It just makes so much sense. Thank you 💓
October 12, 2022
I found this book to be very inspiring. The author emphasized the fact that the Kingdom of God is here and now, and we have the Spirit of Christ living within us now. It was very enlightening reading about how God's Spirit can lead us, inspire us and live a life of love as we make our way through this current life.
November 28, 2022
I really enjoyed hearing Adyashanti's insights on the story of Jesus. I listened to the audiobook, not sure if it's exactly the same as the print version. Adyashanti took a mythical approach to the story of Jesus, explaining how Jesus' life arc also highlights the path of enlightment that faith seekers often find. I found the insights in the story to be hopeful and comforting.
May 15, 2017
The author asks us to look at the life of Jesus through Buddhist eyes. I think we always learn something new when we view our Christianity through other eyes. For the most part I agreed with him although there are theologians who wouldn't. He did have some excellent points however.
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