what is the mindset of christ

The moment one asks the question, “What is the mindset of Christ?” a serious difficulty immediately appears. The question itself attempts to grasp something that cannot easily be contained within the limitations of words. Language can point, suggest, and gesture, but it cannot fully capture a reality that belongs to a deeper dimension of Being. Yet words are what we have, and so the attempt must still be made.

This difficulty is not new. In the fourteenth century the Christian mystic Meister Eckhart faced a similar problem when he was brought before the Church on charges of heresy. His teachings often seemed troubling to those who tried to interpret them through the categories of ordinary thought. One of his students reportedly explained the misunderstanding by saying, “He is speaking from the dimension of the Timeless, and you are trying to understand him from the dimension of time.” Whenever we attempt to speak about the consciousness of Christ we encounter the same tension. Words belong to the realm of time, definition, and explanation, while the reality they attempt to describe belongs to the living depth of Spirit. With this limitation acknowledged, we can still explore the question: What is the mindset of Christ?

Before this question can be approached, something must first be clarified about the word Christ. If one were to ask a hundred Christians what they mean by the term “Christ,” most would likely reply that it is simply another name for the historical figure of the Master Jesus of Nazareth. In a certain sense this answer is both correct and incomplete. To understand the mindset of Christ it is important to recognize the distinction between the historical person Jesus and the Divine reality that he embodied.

The historical Jesus is the one who could say, “I can of mine own self do nothing” (John 5:30 KJV). In another place he declares, “If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true” (John 5:31 KJV). In these statements he is referring to the personal sense of self—the human identity that lives within the limitations of time, individuality, and circumstance. Yet the same Jesus could also say, “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30 KJV). In that statement he is clearly speaking from another dimension of awareness. This deeper dimension is what is being pointed to by the word Christ. The personal Jesus lived within time and space just as we do, but the Christ he embodied belongs to the Timeless reality of Divine union that lies beyond opposites.

The Mind of Christ and the Illusion of Separation

The mindset of Christ is therefore the state of awareness in which one lives in the Father and the Father lives in them. It is a consciousness of unity rather than separation. From this awareness Jesus spoke, acted, and lived. Yet the remarkable thing is that the scriptures do not present this awareness as something exclusive to him alone. Instead, it is offered as something that can awaken within every human being. This is why the apostle writes, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5 KJV). Such a statement would make little sense if the mind of Christ were not accessible to humanity.

The difficulty—and it is a significant one—is that the Church has often focused more on the doctrine of original sin than on the deeper revelation of original blessing. The original blessing is that you have never been separate from the Divine, nor can you ever truly be separate from the Divine. Separation is not a condition of reality but a condition of perception. When one begins to live from the mind that was in Christ Jesus, unity with the Father is no longer something that must be achieved. It is recognized as something that has always been true.

This recognition is not available while one remains identified with what scripture calls the carnal mind. The carnal mind assumes separation. It believes humanity is divided from God and that some great distance must be crossed in order to reach the Divine. Yet in reality there is no such divide. The only separation that exists is the one created within the human mind itself. From the Mind of Christ you begin to KNOW that this sense of separation is not real, even though it may feel completely real.

When the Mind of Christ awakens within you, you still live in the world of time and space, but your identity is no longer rooted in what is temporary. Your mind becomes established in that which is eternal. Eternal does not refer to a very long time. Eternal refers to a state of timeless Presence. This cannot be grasped by the ordinary human mind because the human mind is built upon opposites—self and other, sacred and secular, humanity and God. Unity cannot be experienced within a mind structured around division.

Practicing the Mindset of Christ

To put on the mindset of Christ is therefore a process of dis-identifying with the carnal mind that continually thinks in opposites. This is the deeper meaning behind the invitation of the Master Jesus when he says, “He that will save his life shall lose it” (Matthew 16:25 KJV). He is not asking you to give up your life. Rather, he is inviting you to release your identification with the separate personal self that believes life is “mine.” It is this identification with the personal self that creates the veil that appears to stand between you and God. Yet the truth is that God has never separated from you. Such a separation has never actually occurred. The sense of distance arises only because consciousness becomes absorbed in the drama of what we call “my life.”

For this reason Jesus also teaches, “Take no thought” (Matthew 6:25 KJV). This instruction points toward the narrow gate that leads to LIFE. The gate is narrow because very few people are willing to loosen their attachment to the constant stream of thinking that dominates the human mind. When one begins to practice taking no thought, awareness gradually opens to that which lies beyond the restless activity of the personal mind. The thinking mind continuously produces the narrative of past and future, worry and anticipation, and much of the unnecessary suffering experienced both personally and collectively arises from this constant identification with thought.

Yet when one learns to become inwardly still and no longer follows every thought that arises, something deeper begins to appear. Awareness opens to a dimension that does not depend upon thinking. This deeper state may be described as KNOWING. KNOWING does not arise from reasoning or analysis but from direct participation in the Presence of the Divine. When a person begins to live from this KNOWING, their communion with God becomes immediate and direct rather than dependent upon external mediation.

So what is the mindset of Christ? It is the awareness of unity with the Father rather than the experience of separation created by the carnal mind. It is the shift from identifying with the personal self that believes life is “mine” to the realization that LIFE itself flows from the Divine source. To live with the mindset of Christ is not to become another historical Jesus but to awaken to the same awareness from which he lived. As identification with the carnal mind loosens, a deeper awareness emerges that is not built upon belief or doctrine but upon direct KNOWING. From this awareness you still live in the world of time and space, yet your identity is rooted in the eternal Presence of the Divine. This is the meaning of the invitation: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”