Dharma for Awakening
The Aquarian Gospel for Awakening
A Practical Commentary on Levi Dowling’s Classic Life of Jesus Christ
In 1908 a book appeared on the shelves of American bookstores that was destined to garner interest throughout the world, so much so that today it has gone through more than seventy editions in America alone. This book was The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ by Levi H. Dowling.
Immediately it evoked a response in those who intuited and sought for a deeper meaning of the person and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. Many at that time, as well as today, could not honestly accept the limited interpretation of Jesus and his words that was offered by Churchianity, an acceptance that would have obligated them to reject him as but one of many misperceiving religionists of the past. For them the Aquarian Gospel was truly Light in Darkness, a fount of life-giving knowledge.
With penetrating insight, Abbot George Burke illumines the practical value of the Aquarian Gospel for spiritual seekers, and the timelessness of this classic writing. With a unique perspective born of a lifetime of study and practice of both Eastern and Western spirituality, Abbot George mines the treasures of the Aquarian Gospel and presents them in an easily intelligible fashion for those wishing to put these priceless teachings into practice.
One work in two volumes
Why Read This Work?
Encounter the life and teachings of Jesus through Levi Dowling’s expansive spiritual narrative and Swami Nirmalananda’s practical commentary.
Explore the meeting of Original Christianity, Christian mysticism, Sanatana Dharma, and the universal search for direct realization.
Move from historical or doctrinal interest toward teachings intended to be understood, practiced, and lived.
Follow one sustained commentary across two companion volumes, each with its own cover, edition details, and reading path.
From both volumes
From the Work
Featured excerpt
Meditation Is Spiritual Experience
By saying: “The Silence is the kingdom of the soul,” Jesus indicates that meditation is not really a practice in the sense of a mechanical methodology that is intended to produce a result, such as turning a key in a lock. Rather, meditation is spiritual experience itself. Meditation is experiencing Spirit, not a means or a process that hopefully will produce in time the result we want. Rather, right from the beginning we should be experiencing God. That experience may be so faint or so subtle that we do not even realize it. We may consider that we are only feeling peaceful, happier or more clear in our mind, but it is not our mind we are experiencing but our pure spirit which, as it is rooted in God, is also the experiencing of God.
Certainly our perception is limited, like looking at the vast ocean through a tiny porthole, but we are nonetheless “meeting” God, and by continually entering into meditation we enlarge the scope of our perception and “see” more and more of that which, as Jesus says, is beyond the scope of human perception.
Excerpt 2Look to the Christ Within+
Jesus is a Christ, but his mission was “to manifest the Christ,” both the divine Christ-aspect of God and the inner Christ that is the true Self of all sentient beings. Jesus himself will explain this more fully in chapter sixty-eight. Here is the essence of what he will say: “Men call me Christ, and God has recognized the name; but Christ is not a man. The Christ is universal love, and Love is king. This Jesus is but man who has been fitted by temptations overcome, by trials multiform, to be the temple through which Christ can manifest to men. Then hear, you men of Israel, hear! Look not upon the flesh; it is not king. Look to the Christ within, who shall be formed in every one of you, as he is formed in me. (Aquarian Gospel 68:11-13).
Excerpt 3Prayer Is the Path to God+
Prayer in its highest form is not ceremony or words, but direct communication with God, finite being with Infinite Being. This is a transcendental state and not to be equated with anything in ordinary experience. Nor is it experienced through our normal faculties. Prayer, then, is the path to God. In other words, it is yoga: meditation.
The lesser forms of prayer are not to be disdained, but should be understood as only helps to the attainment of real prayer.
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