Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but throug

[John Martin]

Read it like a riddle.

I am... what? way, truth, life
through me... is? through the way, truth, and life (that 'I am').

Nothing to say that anyone couldn't be- or embody- that 'way, truth and life'.

Whatever that (way, truth and life) might be.

ie... "You are the way, the truth and the life", if you embody 'the' (that) way, truth and life.

Thank you NIX,
You have put it in a wonderful way.God bless you.

 

[Windwalker]

"a flaming sword that turned in all directions" (Gen.3:24) yup, sounds like the garden variety ego-driven mind to me.

Maybe it isn't barred to so much as barred by the ego mind (?)

Of course its a metaphoric way to speak of the effect of separation from bliss. You can view it from either direction symbolically if you wish, God preventing us, or us preventing us. In either case it is the same effect. In our ego mind, we create a lived sense of separation from others, from ourselves, and from God. The Fall, is the separate self.

I see the fall from Eden as actually a conscious choice to awaken from a blissful slumber in order to know unity with God consciously. As an infant is fused with his mother in his first year following his birth, he begins to identify himself slowly as separate. He begins to see the world out there, as 'not me', and 'me'. But "me" is still not well defined. It is more a body-self. Over the course of years the self is identified in the personality and other non-material boundaries, "I am Bobby. This is my firetruck." At a certain point children become aware of death and face the existential trip. "I, will be no more one day! I, will die". We sense aloneness, isolation in our sacks of skin, ever trying to unite again with this 'paradise lost'. We expand our interactions with others in ever-widening circles from family to friends to communities, and so on. We consume from the world, seeking pleasures to experience 'oneness' with it again; that 'oneness' we had when we lived in that blissful slumber before we awakened to death.

This is the story of the Garden of Eden. It is the story lived by every human born each day. They are born one with the world, only to live and separate from it, to then desire to seek return. We are drawn to it in all we do. But, the caveat is this. We cannot return as the way of return is death. We cannot unbirth, the way is barred. The way is barred by a flaming sword in all directions, behind and ahead. The only way is to move outward in our reach for return, and to die to our self; to die to the separate self, to die to all that defines us as separate - the ego-mind. The ego in the awakening mind must meet that flaming sword and perish by it.

But what happens in that death is not a dissolution into oblivion, into a unconscious bliss of slumber fused with our Mother once again, but a marriage of minds. It is the awakened mind beyond the ego. It is the true Identity. It is to fulfill the path begun in choosing to fall from paradise in order to know that truer gift of knowing God, "face to face". "For then, I shall know, even as I am known". The way is barred, but we too must pass beyond the veil of the flesh, the separate self in the ego mind, into the Holy of Holies, into the presence of God, into awakening and eating from the tree of life, realizing our Eternal Self. We return to Eden, Awake.

Mankind was pushed out of Eden as a mother births her child. And man walked away in order to discover who he was. The return is to find who we truly are, who have have truly been all along. That flaming sword evokes fear of death, but its flames are those of purification, cutting aside the false self to expose the true Self.

 

[John Martin]

Of course its a metaphoric way to speak of the effect of separation from bliss. You can view it from either direction symbolically if you wish, God preventing us, or us preventing us. In either case it is the same effect. In our ego mind, we create a lived sense of separation from others, from ourselves, and from God. The Fall, is the separate self.

I see the fall from Eden as actually a conscious choice to awaken from a blissful slumber in order to know unity with God consciously. As an infant is fused with his mother in his first year following his birth, he begins to identify himself slowly as separate. He begins to see the world out there, as 'not me', and 'me'. But "me" is still not well defined. It is more a body-self. Over the course of years the self is identified in the personality and other non-material boundaries, "I am Bobby. This is my firetruck." At a certain point children become aware of death and face the existential trip. "I, will be no more one day! I, will die". We sense aloneness, isolation in our sacks of skin, ever trying to unite again with this 'paradise lost'. We expand our interactions with others in ever-widening circles from family to friends to communities, and so on. We consume from the world, seeking pleasures to experience 'oneness' with it again; that 'oneness' we had when we lived in that blissful slumber before we awakened to death.

This is the story of the Garden of Eden. It is the story lived by every human born each day. They are born one with the world, only to live and separate from it, to then desire to seek return. We are drawn to it in all we do. But, the caveat is this. We cannot return as the way of return is death. We cannot unbirth, the way is barred. The way is barred by a flaming sword in all directions, behind and ahead. The only way is to move outward in our reach for return, and to die to our self; to die to the separate self, to die to all that defines us as separate - the ego-mind. The ego in the awakening mind must meet that flaming sword and perish by it.

But what happens in that death is not a dissolution into oblivion, into a unconscious bliss of slumber fused with our Mother once again, but a marriage of minds. It is the awakened mind beyond the ego. It is the true Identity. It is to fulfill the path begun in choosing to fall from paradise in order to know that truer gift of knowing God, "face to face". "For then, I shall know, even as I am known". The way is barred, but we too must pass beyond the veil of the flesh, the separate self in the ego mind, into the Holy of Holies, into the presence of God, into awakening and eating from the tree of life, realizing our Eternal Self. We return to Eden, Awake.

Mankind was pushed out of Eden as a mother births her child. And man walked away in order to discover who he was. The return is to find who we truly are, who have have truly been all along. That flaming sword evokes fear of death, but its flames are those of purification, cutting aside the false self to expose the true Self.[/quot

Thank you Windwaker, it is beautiful and marvelous insight and description.God bless you.

 

[John Martin]

I meant to post this and I do not see it. It goes well with the description of Windwaker.





He banished the man, and in front of the garden of Eden he posted the great winged creatures and the fiery flashing sword, to guard the way to the Tree of life.

God does not banish anyone. The garden of Eden is an unconscious bliss. What it unconscious has to become conscious. The so called fall of humanity is nothing but the desire to be conscious of unconscious bliss. In this process human consciousness gets fragmented. It develops will and intellect, creates ways and means. All philosophies are product of this movement. All religions as belief systems are products of this process. All spiritual paths are product of this process in order to help human consciousness to return to its original state.

Why did God put post winged creatures and fiery flashing sword?
This human consciousness which has come out of it unconscious state has to go through maturity in the process of time. It has to grow in the womb of time. The growth in the womb of time is a hard one. It involves questioning, it involves practice and struggle. The danger can be that this consciousness which has come out the Garden may try to escape the hardship and enter the Garden without maturity. Can a child who came out of the womb go back to the womb without growing?
God wants human consciousness to grow sufficiently in order to enter the garden again. Probably God put the winged creatures not to allow human beings to escape into spiritual infantilism to help them to become spiritual adults and return as adults, like the Prodigal Son.
Of course it also means that ego cannot enter into the Garden of Eden. It is not created by God and nothing that is not created by God can return to God. To identify oneself with the ego is to become rich. 'It may be easy for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than the rich man (ego) to enter into the kingdom God.

 

[Muffled]

What do you mean this isn't Christianity in it's 'purest sense' ?
I'm interested to hear you impressions.

If I might comment about the rest of what you've said?

I could be mistaken, but perhaps you've misread what the point of Theosis is.
To say it doesn't incorporate The Way, to me, seems like a gross misunderstanding.

I think that this practice mostly if not entirely is based on incorporating The Way.

This is by no means just following the letter of this 'law', but rather bringing The Way as entirely as one can into one's being.


As a side bar:

Do you have an understanding of what 'sin' is in Eastern Orthodoxy?
If not, if might be something worth reading about.

:namaste
SageTree

I agree having read more about it on Wikipedia. That is how I learn. Perhaps it wasn't explained well enough for me but it is equally possible that I just missed it.

Not coming from that backgrouund and not encountering views here very often, I wouldn't have a clue.

 

[Muffled]

I have.

We see "Son of God" as a title--an honorific, if you like--, not as a literal description, as "God neither begets nor is begotten."

Peace,

Bruce

I believe that is due to the fact that you aren't a Christian. What is your justification for not listening to Jesus, since I believe He is God in the flesh?

 

[John Martin]

We see "Son of God" as a title--an honorific, if you like--, not as a literal description, as "God neither begets nor is begotten."

Dear Bruce,
The expression 'the Son of God' is metaphorical not metaphysical but it is not just an honorific title. It represents a level of consciousness.
We need to distinguish three levels in understanding the word 'son of God'
a son God
a collective son of God
the son of God

a son of God is an individual who represents himself or herself before God.In this sense every individual is a son of God.
a collective son of God a group of people. In the Bible we read, God called his son out of Egypt. Here his son is the entire people of Israel.
"When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son''(Hosea11.1). Moses represents this people before God. He speaks to God in the name of this people and he speaks to people in the name of God. But he does not represent other people.

the Son of God is one who represents the whole of humanity and creation before God. He speaks to God in the name of the whole of humanity and of creation and he also speaks to the whole of humanity and of creation in the name of God.

a son of God is like a leaf of a tree, a collective son of God is like a branch of a tree, the Son of God is like a trunk of tree.

Jesus consciousness went even beyond that and experienced oneness with God,with the roots and said, 'the Father and I are one'. it does not means Jesus became another God. There is only one God. Now Jesus is the whole tree tree.
As an in individual he is a leaf. As a collective son he belonged to the Jewish Branch. As the Son of God he embraces all the branches within him. As one with God he is the roots,the foundation and the source of life. He invited everyone to enter into the same experience.
Hence the expression 'the Son of God' is not just a honorific title. It is a level of consciousness open to everyone but the word 'son of God is metaphorical and not to be taken metaphysically.

 

[John Martin]

Acceptance of Christ, in other words, is essential; we just see the time-line as being considerably longer.

Dear Katzpur,
here I send you my observations to your second portion. I felt great appreciation to your vision which is very loving and compassionate but I felt it needs to be stretched little further. Sorry for the delay.It has taken little time.
There is one other way in which our understanding differs from the traditional Christian perspective, but does not contradict anything the Bible tells us.
Jesus claimed to be "the resurrection" and "the life." We believe that, through Him, everyone who has ever lived will ultimately be resurrected, and that almost without exception will be allowed to enter into Heaven and receive at least "a portion of God's glory."
Jesus is ‘the resurrection and life’. For me it means Jesus is fullness of life. He is the embodiment of eternal life. He was, he is and he will be. He is the alpha and the Omega.
‘That everyone will receive at least’ portion of God’s glory’.
This is a marvelous vision of compassion and universal love. My question is why only a portion? Why not the fullness of glory? Has not Christ opened the fullness of glory to everyone? Jesus said, ‘just as the father has life in himself, he has granted the son to have life in himself. I have come to give life and give it abundantly’. Is not creating degrees in the possibilities of God’s experience is creating a kind of spiritual apartheid?. Did not Jesus tell the parable of the land Lord who invited the labourers to work in his vineyard and he paid all the same wages? The first will be equal with the last the last will be equal to the first? Do we grudge the generosity of God?
Without Christ's sacrifice, they would be forever lost; through it, they will be rewarded commensurate with their obedience and faithfulness (once they have confessed Him as their Savior).
Did Christ really save any one? My proposition that Christ did not save any one but in his experience of God, realized that everyone is already saved by God. For God creating and saving are not actions but only one action. When god creates he also saves. God has created in us his own image and likeness. This nature is the free gift from God and nobody can give us and nobody can take it away from us. This image and likeness is already in the presence of God and sharing the fullness of God’s presence and glory. Our salvation is nothing but discovering it.
Accepting of Christ , in other word is essential;
If we mean Christ, the Christ consciousness, and then accepting Christ consciousness, the image and likeness of God within us, becomes essential. Without accepting it we cannot look for it and we cannot find it.
We just see the time-line as being considerably longer:
This is also very loving and compassionate belief. Why do we extend the time-line only considerably longer, why not make it infinite? Why not say that everyone is already in God but we need only to purify and realize it?

 

[Quagmire]

Of course its a metaphoric way to speak of the effect of separation from bliss.

More to the point, I think it's symbolic of the way we literally talk ourselves out of bliss.

You can view it from either direction symbolically if you wish, God preventing us, or us preventing us.

Personally I think it's more useful to view it from the latter perspective. The former implies way too many complications IMO: it implies that we're required to have some grasp of who/what God actually is, that we're required to figure out specifically what he wants from us, and that failure to do so = some form of damnation.

It gives us way too much to figure out. And IMO trying to figure things out is one of the main things that keep us from entering the garden.

(On top of that aesthetically, to my mind anyway, the idea of God barring us from anything rather than us barring us puts God in the role of a snooty doorman at an exclusive club, checking to make sure everyone has the right kind of tie and knows the secret handshake. )

In either case it is the same effect. In our ego mind, we create a lived sense of separation from others, from ourselves, and from God. The Fall, is the separate self.

I see the fall from Eden as actually a conscious choice to awaken from a blissful slumber in order to know unity with God consciously. As an infant is fused with his mother in his first year following his birth, he begins to identify himself slowly as separate. He begins to see the world out there, as 'not me', and 'me'. But "me" is still not well defined. It is more a body-self. Over the course of years the self is identified in the personality and other non-material boundaries, "I am Bobby. This is my firetruck." At a certain point children become aware of death and face the existential trip. "I, will be no more one day! I, will die". We sense aloneness, isolation in our sacks of skin, ever trying to unite again with this 'paradise lost'. We expand our interactions with others in ever-widening circles from family to friends to communities, and so on. We consume from the world, seeking pleasures to experience 'oneness' with it again; that 'oneness' we had when we lived in that blissful slumber before we awakened to death.

This is the story of the Garden of Eden. It is the story lived by every human born each day. They are born one with the world, only to live and separate from it, to then desire to seek return. We are drawn to it in all we do. But, the caveat is this. We cannot return as the way of return is death. We cannot unbirth, the way is barred. The way is barred by a flaming sword in all directions, behind and ahead. The only way is to move outward in our reach for return, and to die to our self; to die to the separate self, to die to all that defines us as separate - the ego-mind. The ego in the awakening mind must meet that flaming sword and perish by it.

But what happens in that death is not a dissolution into oblivion, into a unconscious bliss of slumber fused with our Mother once again, but a marriage of minds. It is the awakened mind beyond the ego. It is the true Identity. It is to fulfill the path begun in choosing to fall from paradise in order to know that truer gift of knowing God, "face to face". "For then, I shall know, even as I am known". The way is barred, but we too must pass beyond the veil of the flesh, the separate self in the ego mind, into the Holy of Holies, into the presence of God, into awakening and eating from the tree of life, realizing our Eternal Self. We return to Eden, Awake.

Mankind was pushed out of Eden as a mother births her child. And man walked away in order to discover who he was. The return is to find who we truly are, who have have truly been all along. That flaming sword evokes fear of death, but its flames are those of purification, cutting aside the false self to expose the true Self.

Like I said: way too complicated.

When I want my ego to get out of the way so I can go swimming in the multiverse, all I have to do is sing it to sleep.

I think Job 41:1-34 is a pretty good description of the ego (not sure if it was intended to be but it works for me). You can't kill leviathan. You can't tame him either.

But (little known fact) he's pretty susceptible to certain lullabys.

 

[Windwalker]

Personally I think it's more useful to view it from the latter perspective. The former implies way too many complications IMO: it implies that we're required to have some grasp of who/what God actually is, that we're required to figure out specifically what he wants from us, and that failure to do so = some form of damnation.

I agree with you personally. I've never been able to wrap my mind, let alone my heart, around God as some form of demanding, punishing deity. But I'm coming to understand the need for some to see God this way. To see it like you or me, is to be able to internalize this whole thing. For others, it needs to be externalized. God is "out there", like a parent laying down the rules we must obey. It's the same thing as children who have not learned to internalize the principles of such "rules". For them, the law is written on tablets of stone, and to be accepted you'd better obey them!

For those who have internalized it, it's written on the heart and the "rules", are created through a heart of love. They are not outside ourselves. But to those who can't relate, we are in error. God bars us from Eden. We are "sinners", and cannot know God. God needs to do everything for us, magically, invisibly, just as some 'fact' in heaven. It isn't "the kingdom of God is within you", yet.

It gives us way too much to figure out. And IMO trying to figure things out is one of the main things that keep us from entering the garden.

I do agree with this.

(On top of that aesthetically, to my mind anyway, the idea of God barring us from anything rather than us barring us puts God in the role of a snooty doorman at an exclusive club, checking to make sure everyone has the right kind of tie and knows the secret handshake. )

It's more than just aesthetically to me. It's always been on a spiritual level.

Like I said: way too complicated.

Actually, my 'explanation' of it, is only complicated because it takes the traditional view and gives it a new perspective. To me, it's pretty simple and makes a whole lot more sense. But to your point, and mine as well, one does not 'understand' their way into God. You don't reason your way to God. If you see my signature line below, I came up with the second one recently in a prolonged discussion with a friend of mine who has a Ph.D in theology. It really raised his hackles, to say the least. "Theology is the minds last ditch attempt to understand God before we fail, and do".

It's in the fail part, that we understand.

When I want my ego to get out of the way so I can go swimming in the multiverse, all I have to do is sing it to sleep.

I don't find the ego goes to sleep, rather through a concerted, directed effort of will to "allow", this is when it comes. The ego is not put to sleep, but rather is brought to cooperation of the divine will, the higher mind we open to and align ourselves with through our intention.

The thing about ego, is people see it as "bad". It is not bad. Any more than your body is "bad". It is part of you. The negative of either the body or the ego, is when they dominate your will in their desires. The body in lusts, the ego in self-protection. The ego is what defines us in our personality as an individual. But to remain embedded in it and spend our lives defending and protecting it, is to feed it unduly, like soaking our body in booze and sex. But a healthy ego, as well as the healthy body, can be made to serve the higher mind, to serve spirit. Ego is good. Self-serving egotism in an adult is not.

We I say we move beyond the ego, it is to say we move beyond exclusive identity with it. We identify with soul, with spirit.

 

[natasha levchenko]

Dear Natasha,
I am a Christian( not in a limited sense). I prefer to say that I follow the path of Christ. I am also a benedictine monk. Many persons from Ukraine visited our ashram.You are most welcome.

I see, it is wonderful to follow Christ. i guess you are well acquainted with Bible. Jesus taught about marvelous future on earth and God's kingdom.

 

[natasha levchenko]

does God punish people with calamities?

 

[BruceDLimber]

I believe that is due to the fact that you aren't a Christian. What is your justification for not listening to Jesus, since I believe He is God in the flesh?

Little as YOU appreciate the fact, EVERY Baha'i is Christian in the sense of accepting and believing in both Christ and the Bible! Indeed, NO ONE can become Baha'i without this!

And while we reject the idea of incarnation, this in no way diminishes the stataion of Jesus, as you'd well know if you read the Baha'i scriptures.

So I find your presumption that I'm "not listening to Jesus" nothing if not absurd!

And we directly--and roundly--oppose and condemn prejudice--aka "pre-judging!"

Peace,

Bruce

 

[chinu]

Dear Chinu,
I have difficulty to go along with your interpretation of Jesus' most important statement. For me this statement refers to a level of consciousness.
1. It refers to the experience of New Covenant that God promised: Jer.31.31-34.
31The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 32It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. 33But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.
'I am the way,the truth and the life' is the statement of someone who had the experience of the New Covenant. Jesus had this at the moment of his baptism.
2. It is the statement of someone who is free from the past and the future and lives in the eternal present.
3. It is the statement of someone who lives in the realm of originality and creativity.
4. it is the statement of someone who discovered his image and likeness of God and finally has become one with God.

Jesus invited everyone to enter into this level of consciousness and live like him.
He also said that people can come to that consciousness by doing what he did: to come out of the collective consciousnesses of his religion. Religions are connected to the ego. Where there is religion there will be ego. it is the ego which says' religion is the way, the truth and the life'. A person who transcends religion says 'I am the way, the truth and life'.
Jesus had opened this possibility to everyone and everyone can discover it at any time and any age.

Martin, have you reached to that level of consciousness ?

 

[BruceDLimber]

"Son of God" is metaphorical and not to be taken metaphysically.

Metaphor or not, IOV the main point is that it's not incarnation. I quote:

"[The] invisible yet rational God ... can in no wise incarnate His infinite, His unknowable, His incorruptible and all-embracing Reality in the concrete and limited frame of a mortal being. Indeed, the God Who could so incarnate His own reality would, in the light of the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh, cease immediately to be God. So crude and fantastic a theory of Divine incarnation is as removed from, and incompatible with, the essentials of Bahá'í belief as are the no less inadmissible pantheistic and anthropomorphic conceptions of God."

—(The World Order of Baha'u'llah, p. 113)


Peace,

Bruce

 

[John Martin]

does God punish people with calamities?

I have not come to that type of conclusion. When natural disasters happen and people die unnatural death, I do not ask the question why God did that. I only ask what I need to learn from all these. One thing is that I am still alive because of their death. When a strong wind comes some of the leaves fall away from the tree. Did God punish those leaves? I do not know but I know that because of their fall I am still on the tree. It is because of their death I am still alive. May be I would also fallen from the tree. So I am very grateful to all the leaves that have fallen because by dying they have given life to me.
The question is:does these natural calamities help me to ask the fundamental question, why I am here ? what is the purpose of my life? Am I living as I should live? or Am I physically living but dead spiritually like the barren pig tree?
somewhere Jesus told: Do1 There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
2 And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things?
3I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
4 Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?
5 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
6 He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none.
7 Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?
8 And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it:
9 And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.
.
People may be dead physically and are in the hands of God. The worst thing is people are alive physically and dead spiritually like the barren fig tree.
Hence the natural calamities that happen should help us to reflect seriously and find the meaning or our life. Other wise we are alive but dead.

 

[John Martin]

Martin, have you reached to that level of consciousness ?

Chinu,
I can say by the grace of God I have tasted what it means otherwise I would not expressed the way I express it. Thanks

 

[John Martin]

Metaphor or not, IOV the main point is that it's not incarnation. I quote:

"[The] invisible yet rational God ... can in no wise incarnate His infinite, His unknowable, His incorruptible and all-embracing Reality in the concrete and limited frame of a mortal being. Indeed, the God Who could so incarnate His own reality would, in the light of the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh, cease immediately to be God. So crude and fantastic a theory of Divine incarnation is as removed from, and incompatible with, the essentials of Bahá'í belief as are the no less inadmissible pantheistic and anthropomorphic conceptions of God."

—(The World Order of Baha'u'llah, p. 113)


Peace,

Bruce

Dear Bruce,
I can one hundred percent say 'yes' to what you have said above. I think we need to explain the concept of incarnation properly. The words are invention of human mind, which is very limited. So also, is the word, incarnation. One needs to understand it. No one will say that transcend God leaves his heavenly abode and enters into the world. Then certainly he ceases to be God. In order to understand Jesus experience of God we need to understand two monotheisms: Prophetic monotheism and Vedic monotheism.
In the prophetic monotheism there is only one God. This God is the creator and creation and human beings are creatures of God. There is a gulf between God, creation and human beings. Philosophically it is said God creates this universe out of nothing, to show the transcendence of God.
In the Vedic monotheism also there is only one God. There is a famous statement which says that Ekam sat vipra bahuthi vadanti, God is one but sages call is by many names. But the Vedic tradition does not believe in a creator God, God who creates from nothing. It says 'nothing comes out of nothing'. If the creation is not created by God then how the creation does comes? It is the manifestation of God; it is like the piece of ice that comes from the water. It is like energy that takes different types and forms of matter. The matter and the energy are one and the same. So according to the Vedic Tradition creation is the manifestation of God, we can even say creation is the incarnation of God, the infinite manifesting as finite. By manifesting the creation God does not cease to be God. God remains God. A Sanskrit chant says 'purnamdah,purnmidam, purnat purnam udtchyate, purnashya purnamadaya,purnam eva avasishyate, om shantih, shantih,shantih. That (God) is FULLNEES; this (creation) is fullness. The created fullness comes from the divine FULLNEES. Even though the created fullness comes from the divine FULLNESS always remains.
This is the most beautiful description of the relationship between God and creation in the Vedic Tradition. So according to it creation which includes human beings are the manifestations of God or incarnations of God. It says sarvam eitad brahma; all this is the manifestation of Brahman. But the manifestation has the beginning and the end, since every form has the beginning and the end. Only God is eternal, infinite. Human beings have to grow beyond the identification of the finite to the infinite and realize that they are one with the infinite. They do not become another infinite, since there is only one infinite. We have the famous prayer in the Vedas; Lead me from the unreal to the Real, from darkness to light and from death to eternal life. To identify oneself completely with the finite manifestation is to live in the unreal or finite, to live in ignorance and it is a kind of spiritual death. Since the manifestation or incarnation is not created but coming from the infinite, it has the possibility to return to the infinite, to the eternity and say God and I are one, Atman is Brahman and Brahman is Atman.
The experience Jesus had corresponds very close to the experience of Vedic monotheism. For Jesus, God was not his creator but his Father (again metaphorical), the source, like the ocean from which comes the ice berg. He evolved in his spiritual journey and realized that he was one with the Father, like an iceberg melts and realizes oneness with the ocean. He declared 'the Father and I are one'. In this experience he realized that he was with God from all eternity. He saw the same possibility for everyone. This experience is not possible in the prophetic monotheism. It is for this reason his statements were considered blasphemous and had to undergo Crucifixion and death. His experience should have been perfectly valid in the Vedic monotheism. This experience happened in the Vedic tradition five hundred years before Jesus.
What Christianity did was that it accepted this experience as a possibility only to Jesus and closed to other human beings whereas in the Vedic monotheism this experience is possible to everyone.
In this sense we say: the whole of creation is the manifestation of God or incarnation of God.
Human beings are manifestations of God or incarnations of God, but they are not aware of it.
Incarnation does not happen once in a while, every birth is the incarnation of God or manifestations of God. But people are not aware of it. They have to make conscious of this truth.
Jesus Christ said: I am the light of the world and you are the light of the world. These two statements constitute the good news of Christ.

 

[BornAgain]

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.( New American Standard Bible). This statement of Jesus has been interpreted to mean that Jesus Christ is the only way to God or true way to God
Interestingly here Jesus equates 'the way' with truth and the life.

This interpretation makes Christianity an exclusive religion and presents Jesus as a kind of spiritual colonizer.

Oh, I know what you are insinuating here, you want to subtlety insert Mary here as another way to God. Maybe to your god, but not to the GOD of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. True Christianity is not to be confuse with idols, paganism and some other religions who worshiped other gods or goddesses. True Christianity worship only the true, living and unseen with the naked eyes, or invisible God. If you can your god with your naked eyes, then that is not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

It is a very difficult statement for the inter-religious dialogue.

You meant "Ecumenism"? Put all religions into one roof and compromise doctrines for the sake of getting along with each other? One World Church? Not gonna happen, although some of the evangelical leaders were leaning/apostate on that idea a very long time ago.

2Co6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
2Co6:15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
2Co6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Are there any different ways of interpreting this statement of Jesus?

For one to see "LIFE" one must see the "TRUTH" first, and to see the "TRUTH" one must find the "WAY" and the Lord Jesus Christ is the only "WAY" to see the "TRUTH" and the "LIFE".

To human logic, or unassisted natural apprehension, we can only apply simple logic or deductive reasoning, but to the spiritually discerned, the Way, the Truth and the Life is good enough.

 

[BornAgain]

Scholars may not be certain if these words spoken by Jesus or put by his disciples in the mouth of Jesus. What I want to try is whether these statement has any relevance for our spiritual life today and also if it has any universal value.

2Pe1:20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
2Pe1:21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
2Ti3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

The teaching of Christ was not exactly the teaching of Moses. He accepted Moses teachings and told people to follow them.

“was not exactly” but, “He accepted Moses’s teaching”?

What exactly was the teaching of Christ if it was not the same teaching as was Moses‘?

During Christ’s earthly ministry, everyone including the Lord Jesus Christ were still under the law of Moses. Christ came to save the nation of Israel, and not the Gentiles.
Matthew 15:24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

If you read carefully Matthew chapter 5 you will understand what Christ was teaching the Jews. He was teaching the Jews the right way to follow the law of Moses in comparison to the ways of how the scribes and Pharisees follow the law. They were still under the Old Testament or the law of Moses.

Mat5:17 _ Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.
Mat5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
Mat5:19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Mat5:20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness [See Rom3:22, Rom4:3-5, Rom4:22-25] shall exceed the righteousness [Self-righteousness. See Mat7:22-23. See Isa64:6 ”all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags“]. of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

He accepted Moses teachings and told people to follow them.

Christ did not accept anything from Moses at all. He is before Abraham was.

Joh8:56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.
Joh8:57 Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?
Joh8:58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.

But he also invited people to grow deeper in relationship with God. it seems that he made statements which invited the anger of the spiritual leaders of his time.

They were envious of Christ.
Mar15:9 But Pilate answered them, saying, Will ye that I release unto you the King of the Jews?
Mar15:10 For he knew that the chief priests had delivered him for envy.

He claimed he was the son of God and even said 'the Father( God) and I are one'.( I consider the expressions 'the Son of God' and 'Father', more metaphorical than metaphysical)

This is Literal.

Luk1:35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
Joh17:5 And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.

Our finite mind cannot be compared to the infinite mind of God. One can only comprehend the physical environment, therefore, one can only physically understand, with the unassisted natural apprehension, the surface of what one is reading in the bible. Now, if one is spiritually discerned, one can comprehend spiritually the layers beyond the surface of the bible. The Lord Jesus Christ illustrated this to Nicodemus.

Joh3:8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

The analogy here is spiritual. When you lookout on the window on a windy day, what do you see? Trees moving, but do you see what is moving those trees? No! However, you knew it was the wind, but you cannot see the wind. It is the same as one who is born again; you cannot see the Holy Spirit in him that is guiding him. That is how the prophets and the apostles wrote the scriptures, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, every time a spiritually inspired person reads the bible, that person understood what was that person is reading. Why and how? It is the Holy Spirit explaining on what that person was reading, though you cannot see it, the Holy Spirit.

Notice Nicodemus reaction.

Joh3:9 Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?

He cannot understand spiritually. Why? Because Nicodemus is still in the flesh or still has the mind of the flesh.

Joh3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Joh3:7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

You must be born again! There’s the difference between the spirually discerned and the physically discerned.

These statements are blasphemous to his spiritual tradition. He seems to have said that he has come to fulfil the Law of Moses?

Read carefuly Matthew chapter 5 for greater understanding on why the Lord Jesus Christ said in Mat5:17 _ “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.”

Only Christ fulfilled the law of Moses and no one else. If one can fulfill the Law of Moses, one "shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." But no one can fulfill the law of Moses. Read Romans chapter 3.

The questions is whether Jesus just repeated the teaching of Moses or was he inviting people to grow into deeper relationship with God?
He told Nicodemus,'unless you are born again you cannot enter into the kingdom of God'.
Nicodemus was following the Law of Moses. But it seems that he was in crisis.
It seems that there were some spiritual questions in him so he came to meet to Jesus in the night:

Then Jesus told him that he had come out of his present stage and move into an higher or deeper relationship with God.

You quote, “Scholars may not be certain if these words spoken by Jesus or put by his disciples in the mouth of Jesus.”

All words that were written by the prophets and the apostles in the bible were the truth word of God inspired by the Holy Spirit, but some certain scholars were doubting if it were really the true words spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ, but here you are quoting words supposedly have been said by the Lord Jesus Christ. “Then Jesus told him that he had come out of his present stage and move into an higher or deeper relationship with God.”
I was searching the bible but could not find these words of Christ.

How could your words stand up against the Holy Spirit inspired words of the apostles?

Pro30:5 Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.
Pro30:6 Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.

Jesus said, the wind blows where it wills but you do not know from where it comes and you do not know to where it goes. It is like this who is born of the spirit'.

My suggestion is when Jesus said' I am the way, the truth and the life. He was referring to a state of consciousness which is freed from the past and lives in inner freedom, where God's indwelling presence is experienced.

No one can come to this state of inner freedom unless people grow into this state as Jesus did. It does not mean that one has to believe in Jesus as the Son of God or one with God, or the only way, truth and life, but to enter into the state that Jesus entered. I am very pleased that Sage Tree suggested the same. The question is:is Jesus the only one who had this experience? I do not hold this view and it is not necessary. The importance is to grow into God and not to hold views on someone,except if they help for our spiritual growth.

What happen is, people pick-up words from the bible without even understanding it and put it in a blender with their own concocted philosophies, and theories, and thesis, and antithesis, and synthesis, and so on. Mix it really good and just blurts it out in the open for everyone to read. You quote, “my suggestion”. I almost fell off my chair when I read this statement of yours. “My suggestion” Wow, I mean wow! It is just un-be-lie-va-ble.

Since when human suggestions became valid or efficacious in God’s mind?

If human could input their suggestions to God’s sovereign power, then there is no God at all, but only human imaginations.