Table Of ContentCopyright © 2022 by Neil Douglas-Klotz
Foreword copyright © 2022 by Matthew Fox
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ISBN: 978-1-64297-041-8
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IBI
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
“And the Word is becoming flesh,
dwelling within and among us. . . .”
CONTENTS
Foreword: Beyond Religion as Rote
Introduction
PART ONE: HEART TALKS
PROLOGUE: Heaven, Earth, and Humanity
CHAPTER ONE: Frequently Asked Questions
CHAPTER TWO: The Core of Yeshua's Way
CHAPTER THREE: Ripening Inner Presence
CHAPTER FOUR: Warnings about Willful Unripeness
CHAPTER FIVE: Telling the Untellable
PART II: HEART TRANSMISSION
CHAPTER SIX: Healing Those Divided and Ruined in Breath
CHAPTER SEVEN: Holy Wisdom in Action
CHAPTER EIGHT: Reborn from the Beginning with Breath
CHAPTER NINE: A Serpent in the Wilderness and Living Waters
CHAPTER TEN: The Bread of Life
CHAPTER ELEVEN: Light Revealing All Worlds
CHAPTER TWELVE: All About Sheep, Shepherds, and Gates
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: “One Together” and a Story of Resurrection
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Straightening Out the Self with Love
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: “Many Mansions” and How to Get There
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: “Greater Works” and the Breath of Guidance
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: Releasing Peace, Vines and Branches
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: Last Dedication, Final Releasing
CHAPTER NINETEEN: What Happened Next
EPILOGUE: Beyond the Aramaic Jesus
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
APPENDIX A: An Extended Aramaic Body Prayer
APPENDIX B: A Personal Guide to Sources
Notes
Bibliography
Scripture Index
Subject Index
FOREWORD
Beyond Religion as Rote
It was my privilege years ago to write a foreword to Neil Douglas-Klotz's first book, Prayers of
the Cosmos: Meditations on the Aramaic Words of Jesus. Today, thirty-two years and fifteen
books by Douglas-Klotz later, I am honored to be asked to write a foreword to this book.
My original foreword began with these words: “Reader beware: though this book is brief, it
contains the seeds of a revolution.” I do not think history has proven me mistaken.
To challenge language is revolutionary, for language is the basis of so much communication
and worldview. We not only use language to converse with one another but to dream in and
even to talk to ourselves. Language about religion and spirituality is especially fraught. This is
why most authentic spiritual teachers choose to teach by way of art, poetry, music, and example
rather than by words alone. The memory of Jesus's words and actions are especially
compromised because he died so young and so suddenly, having walked his dangerous talk
about justice and compassion.
Neil Douglas-Klotz has devoted his life to challenging the familiar patterns of thinking and
languaging by which the Christian scriptures have come down to us. It is an act of valor to have
done so. He is not saying that we need to reject all our previous translations of sacred texts but
that we can easily miss the point when we leave out the language that Jesus spoke. As if we
could ever receive the full nuance and expression from Jesus's heart to our own hearts by way of
Greek (which Jesus did not speak but the Gospel editors wrote in) or Latin or German or
English.
Douglas-Klotz therefore has gone back to the primary text. We can easily miss the meaning
of a poetic or mystical text if we translate outside the context and culture of the person
speaking. This is why Neil's method and purpose is so valuable.
To give just one example of the impact of his efforts, for years I have been trying to reinvent
forms of worship in the West by working with young people to invigorate liturgy by
incorporating dimensions of post-modern art forms including DJ, VJ, rap, rave, dance, and
more. The results have been significant and exciting. Part of every mass has been our using
Klotz's translation of the “Our Father” prayer in the service wherein the leader reads a line and
the people echo it back. Invariably, after our Cosmic Mass is ended, people come up and ask:
“Where did you get that translation of the Lord's Prayer? I want a copy.” The translation is from
Neil's first book.
This has taught me a very valuable lesson: Much too much of religious language has become
rote. Religion easily dies when it succumbs to rote. Neil's Aramaic translations cut through the
rote and bring us to the deeper meanings of Jesus's teaching that can still touch our hearts, move
our souls, and ignite our action. This book displaces rote with profound discourse and insight. It
can open our hearts anew.
Neil Douglas-Klotz is a slayer of religious stories and prayers by rote. What does “rote”
mean? What is Klotz slaying and replacing with his new translations and fresh spiritual
languaging? Webster's Dictionary defines “learning by rote” this way:
“Learn by rote” means the use of memory usually with little intelligence; Routine or
repetition carried out mechanically or unthinkingly;
A joyless sense of order;
A commercial hustle.
Do any of these observations speak to your experience of religion today—memory with little
intelligence? Repetition carried out mechanically or unthinkingly? A joyless sense of order? A
commercial hustle? If so, then you, like me, will rejoice and thank Neil Douglas-Klotz for his
life's work, which comes to so wonderful and full a crescendo in these pages, and also for the
wonderful body practices and mantra practices he shares as well.
Many wise translators have translated the Gospels through the ages in numerous languages.
In the pages of this book, Neil Douglas-Klotz links us directly to the language Jesus spoke and
the culture he lived in as a Galilean peasant. He gifts us thereby with an indispensable
contribution to knowing who Jesus was, how he thought, what he taught, how he lived and saw
the world around him, and why he died so young.
—MATTHEW FOX
January 17, 2022, Feast Day of Martin Luther King, Jr.
INTRODUCTION
“You shall know the truth and the truth will make you free.” (John 8:32)
When or if Jesus said these words, he said them in Aramaic, one of several ancient Semitic
languages rooted in thousands of years of Southwest Asian nomadic experience. In Jesus's
Aramaic the word for “truth” (shrara) means a light or clarity coming from the heart that leads
one in the right direction for the moment. People who travelled seasonally, without any
permanent dwelling, concerned themselves with finding such a light, an inner GPS. The word
“know,” yida in Aramaic, means to grasp or hold something in one's hand so that one can use it.
The word for “free” (ncharr) points to burning or leaving things behind that one no longer
needs.
Through Aramaic we can hear this saying tell us: “If you find a light emanating from the
heart, it will lead you in the right direction. You'll know what to hold on to and what to release.”
Jesus is not talking about knowing or believing particular ideas, but about a way of living freely
from within a sense of divine guidance.
Over the past forty years of talking and writing about the Aramaic language and Yeshua
(Jesus's name in Aramaic, which I use interchangeably with the English one), I have found
people most frequently ask questions about universal themes and problems we all face today
rather than about theology and belief. Among those I've heard are:
What did Yeshua see as the ideal relationship between human beings and nature, as well as
between people in a community?
How do evil and injustice fit into Jesus's view of life? What was his remedy, and is it at all
applicable now?
Does life have a meaning and purpose in Yeshua's teaching?
An approach to Yeshua's recorded words and teaching through his native language answers
these questions clearly and consistently—even if unexpectedly—no matter which Gospel you
have in your hands.
Regarding only the first point above, I would say now that all of the major words and sayings
Jesus uses in Aramaic point to natural processes, using nature herself as a witness to what he is
saying. In this book, you will see images from nature run throughout his sayings.
In my experience, most people who in their hearts “find a friend in Jesus” want to know how
he prayed and how he acted; that is, what his own spiritual practice was and how he confronted
life's challenges. They are less interested in spending time learning or justifying a catalog of
beliefs about Jesus. This book, therefore, is for anyone who wants to follow in Yeshua's
footsteps, no matter how a society or a church describes them.
We still find many places in the world where people do follow in Jesus's footsteps and are
oppressed for being Christians; for instance, in the ancient homeland of the Aramaic Christians
