The spiritual leader's book The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore is challenging established beliefs about the teachings of Jesus. With a mission of bringing the message of God-consciousness to a wide audience, Unity has produced a series of interviews with the author available on DVD and online. Here we go behind the scenes of the taping and find out what Chopra thinks of Unity.
When Deepak Chopra was a young boy growing up in India during the 1950s, his parents sent him to Catholic school to get a good education. The Christian missionaries who ran the school taught him about Jesus.
Since then, Chopra has bridged Eastern and Western traditions to establish a reputation as one of the foremost spiritual leaders in the world. He's published more than 50 books. Time magazine heralded him as one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the twentieth century.
This year, he published The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore, a book that he dedicated to the Christian missionaries who influenced him during his formative years. That book has caught the attention of the theological world, and in particular, the New Thought movement.
So closely does the book parallel the principles of Unity that it has partnered with Chopra to create a Web series and DVD/CD set featuring Chopra and Rev. Wendy Craig-Purcell, minister of The Unity Center in San Diego, talking about these themes. The series, patterned after Oprah Winfrey's Web series with Eckhart Tolle, features six halfhour segments of taped interviews between Craig-Purcell and Chopra.
The collaboration is a great opportunity for Unity, says Paula Coppel, vice president for communications, who conceived the plan.
"This is a great way to get our message out to the world," said Coppel, who attended the filming of the interviews in late July. "This series is a thoughtful, eloquent, and at times provocative discussion of who Jesus really was and what he really taught, in the context of contemporary and inclusive spirituality rather than traditional Christianity."
Wendy Craig-Purcell "was a fantastic host. She really put her heart and soul—and a lot of time and study—into preparing for and carrying out this project," said Coppel.
While the book offers Chopra's interpretation of many of Jesus' teachings, Chopra's interviews with Rev. Craig-Purcell delve more deeply into contemporary spiritual issues and also include some discussion about Unity and its teachings.
Chapter and Verse
Chopra introduces his book with a provocative question: "Why are Jesus' teachings impossible to live by?"
The basic tenet of Christianity, the Golden Rule, was radical for its time, he writes. It still presents a challenge: Can we really do unto others?
Indeed, this is a question that Western civilization has grappled with throughout time, Chopra notes. Taken literally, the Golden Rule requires that we treat our enemies as equals, "which means in essence that you can have no enemies," he writes.
Chopra's opening chapter, "Redeeming the Redeemer," begins with the statement "Jesus is in trouble."
In the name of Jesus, wars have been fought, Crusades have divided people, and witch hunts have persecuted "heretics." Fundamentalist Christians, with little to support their positions in Scripture, have cited Jesus in their condemnation of abortion, homosexuality and birth control. "His teachings have been hijacked by people who hate in the name of love," writes Chopra.
Such topics led to a spirited discussion between minister and mystic, which ensued over two days of taping before live audiences. The setting—in the small upstairs chapel at The Unity Center in San Diego—was intimate and the tone informal. Indeed, at times, witnessing the interviews felt more like eavesdropping on a friendly, intellectual conversation rather than observing a structured interview. About 50 people watched the interviews while others viewed by video feed in the church's main sanctuary.
Most of the audience members had read the book and had a positive reaction to it. They were drawn to the filming by the prospect of hearing an in-depth discussion of the concepts.
"It turned my perception of Jesus completely around," said John McNeil of San Diego. "I once had questioned whether he had actually lived. In reading The Third Jesus, I had a knowingness within my soul that this wasn't just mythology, but the principles that lived in Jesus live with us today."
Another participant said the book answered questions she had about similarities among various theologies.
"It's the only book I've read to explain why the world's religions are intertwined, and it helps us to focus on those similarities," aid Gretchen Seitz of San Diego. "We can all feel links to our oneness. They're all saying the same things, but with different words. Those similarities can draw us together."
East Meets West
When describing his own religious background, Chopra tells of being raised by parents of Hindu and Sikh heritage, and of attending a Jesuit-run Christian school in India—an upbringing that led him to have a rich understanding of many religious traditions.
Craig-Purcell noted that Chopra's book had received accolades from a wide range of reviewers, from New Thought luminaries to religious scholars to retired Catholic priests.
In praising the book, reviewer Matthew Fox, author of One River, Many Wells, credited Chopra's "outsider" status for bringing to light new angles and perspectives on Jesus' teachings. "In this way, wisdom flows in two directions: East to West and West to East, and we all wake up—which is, after all, the purpose of a man and life like Jesus."
Chopra was moved to write The Third Jesus out of concern over the consequences of religious fundamentalism. During the Webcast, he underscored the difference between religion and spirituality: "Religion is based on belief, spirituality is based on experience. Belief is a cover-up for insecurity."
Therein lies the point of Chopra's treatise on Jesus: "Religion has become buying someone else's religious experience instead of having your own," he said. One should rely not on belief in God as much as "the experience of God."
People attached to dogma are clinging to the "second Jesus" while ignoring the "third Jesus" and the potential we all have to attain a higher level of consciousness, he said.
For many people, reading the book will be a call to action, said Craig-Purcell.
"We must transcend doctrine, theology and conflict-oriented posturing and move into a deepening practice of the core teaching of Jesus," she said. "Namely, we must allow our own innate natural God-consciousness to well up into our surface minds through meditation, contemplation and compassionate action."
| Who Are the Three Jesuses? In his book, Deepak Chopra describes three personas:
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Mark Your Calendars, Head to the Web
- The DVD series Jesus and the Awakening to God-Consciousness is available for purchase by going to shop.unityonline.org or calling 866-236-3571.
- Unity.FM (www.unity.fm) began Webcasting the series with the first segment on October 15. Topics for the six half-hour segments are:
- Oct. 15: "Who Is Jesus and Why Does It Matter?"
- Oct. 22: "Opening to the Path"
- Oct. 29: "A New Way of Being"
- Nov. 5: "When the Rubber Hits the Road"
- Nov. 12: "What to Expect When You're Expecting Enlightenment"
- Nov. 19: "Jesus Without Dogma" All segments will be offered after their initial airing until Nov. 26.
- The DVD set will also be included as a thank-you gift to premium-level donors when Chopra appears on PBS pledge programs in December. The DVDs will include a segment, "What Is Unity?" that will further raise the visibility of Unity among a wider audience.
- Chopra will visit Unity Village November 17 and will give a talk and be available to sign his books The Third Jesus and his new book, Jesus: A Story of Enlightenment. For more information, go to unityonline.org/retreats.
Great Minds Think Alike
The premise of Deepak Chopra's groundbreaking book will sound familiar to those who are versed in Unity thought, said Rev. Wendy Craig-Purcell, who interviewed Chopra in front of a live audience. "For a New Thought or Unity audience, The Third Jesus is particularly appealing," she said. "In it, they'll find validation of their beliefs and confirmation of what we already know about Jesus."
There are many parallels between Unity cofounder Charles Fillmore's and Deepak Chopra's philosophies. Here's a comparison of their thoughts on various topics:
On God-consciousness
Chopra says: Jesus intended to save the world by showing others the path to God-consciousness.
Charles Fillmore says: It is evident to even a cursory reader of His life and teachings that He was the representative of a thoroughly organized plan to help men into a higher realization of God.
On salvation
Chopra says: When you can step outside your own suffering, you are saved.
Fillmore says: Salvation is based solely on an inner overcoming, a change in consciousness.
"Resist not evil"
Chopra says: To fight evil is like trying to fight darkness with darkness.
Fillmore says: When we establish an enduring consciousness of good, evil disappears as darkness before light.
On love
Chopra: The lesson about divine love that Jesus taught is that love is so full of grace, it leads to transformation: it changes a
person's whole being.
Fillmore: Love is the power that joins and binds in divine harmony the universe and everything in it; it is the great harmonizing principle known to man.
In Depth with Deepak
During the taping of the DVD series Jesus and the Awakening to God-Consciousness, Chopra met with Unity Magazine editor Toni Lapp to talk about the book that he hopes changes the way people think about Jesus.
Lapp: You have now written two books about Jesus. What inspired you?
Chopra: I grew up knowing all about Christianity. I went to an Irish Catholic missionary school; I must have read the New Testament a few thousand times, I must have gone to a few thousand catechism classes. I was totally taken up by the message of Jesus, and I was also confused about why we didn't practice what Jesus taught. And much later realized that you have to be in a special state of consciousness to even understand what he taught …. This became the inspiration (for my book).
Lapp: It is hard for some people to achieve the state of consciousness that you describe; particularly people who might be in poverty. What is your advice for people who want a higher level of consciousness?
Chopra: We read in Scripture "Seek first the kingdom of heaven, and everything else will come to you." So if you're in poverty the best way to get out of poverty is to get to the state of consciousness that will alleviate your poverty. So in the end, the highest knowledge is the most important thing no matter where you are in your life, whether you are in a poor relationship, whether you are suffering from economic deprivation, whether you're in a situation where you feel there is lots of injustice; no matter what the situation is, understanding the state of consciousness and experiencing the state of consciousness using a map to navigate that state of consciousness will really get you out of trouble.
Lapp: You come from a tradition of Eastern thought. How is Jesus viewed outside of Christianity?
Chopra: In India, Jesus is frequently referred to as an Avatar, which means incarnation of God, and very frequently in Indian wisdom traditions … people speak of cosmic consciousness and … will use the expression Christ consciousness.
Lapp: Do you believe that Jesus performed the miracles described in the Bible?
Chopra: I understand that there is a way to explain all those miracles and to actually see them as an expression of God-consciousness. Whether they actually occurred or not or whether some of them occurred, or whether all of them occurred, you would have to be an eye witness to know that.
Lapp: In the Webcast, you referred to Unity cofounder Charles Fillmore as a "visionary." What do you think of the Unity movement?
Chopra: I think it is creating an authentic spiritual community worldwide. It's not based on rigid dogma or ideology, it's not exclusive but inclusive, and I think it's the best example of emerging secular spirituality that needs to be in place in order to transform this world.
To comment on this article, send e-mail to lapptm@unityonline.org.
