ON LOVE; PART CCCLIII
ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α
GoodWill IS Love in Action
ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α
In the last post we recapped our understanding of the first three sayings of the Master according to the disputed Gospel of Thomas where we find several similarities to the words of Jesus from the four accepted gospels. Earlier in our study we also found some agreement with a Bhagavad-gita saying on the Soul that we had been carrying about as our Quote of the Day for several days which is not unlike our current Quote at the bottom of our essay; both of these refer to the sense of the God Within. Now we must remember that these ideas have been the a large part of our message which we see as based upon the Truth of the words of the Master and His apostles from the accepted gospels and epistles of the New Testament and in this view, the words that Thomas is attributing to Jesus are but added understanding of the deep mysteries that doctrine has long sought to ignore and this mostly because they are alien to the understanding of the men in the world who have assumed the authority to speak for the Lord through their doctrines. While this may seem to be an indictment of religion, it is more so a statement of fact and, as we have ofttimes said, this dilution of the Truth into doctrine is likely a necessary part of the whole of the religious experience of many many millions of people down the ages. And here then IS our indictment, that more than 2000 years later the doctrines have not changed but a bit and never in the view or the True mysteries of Life and of the Kingdom and, yet today, alternate and expanded views of what the Master and His apostles have told us are routinely condemned because they are contrary to doctrines which themselves are broken up by the many denominational and sectional differences and disagreements. There is ever a relationship between the foresight of the Master’s teachings, how they span time from His view of what the Pharisee’s and other religious rulers of the Jews said and did to the present where there is in some places little difference between the current attitudes and ideas of religion and the ways of those past who the Master railed against. Unfortunately like many of the faults of men in the world, these similarities are not seen by those involved who see themselves, as did the Pharisee, as doing what IS right. And this IS little understood: the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the scribes and the priests, were not inherently evil as they are painted at times by doctrine, these men were doing what they believed as right; they are blinded by the greater Truths that the Master teaches because they DO NOT agree specifically and totally with what they had learned of their religion. Their greater fault is in believing their own doctrines and then seeing ALL else as heresy while never realizing that they were yet trying to practice a religious tradition cemented into doctrines that where but a shadow of the True teachings which had been diluted and changed over the nearly 1500 years since the law was given and the more than 2000 years since Abraham began their holy traditions.
In the foresight of the Master’s teachings and from the perspective from which John writes: “But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man” (John 2:24-25), we should be able to see the timelessness of this understanding; we do not read here that he knew those men but that “he knew all men“. We can see here that while there are stark differences in the ways of man in regard to his mind and emotions, how the entire race is moving steadily toward greater use of the mental faculty and is relying less upon the emotional response, his fundamental way of living is not much changed from the perspective of the carnal self in the world and it is for this reason that the ideas that the Apostle Paul gives us in what IS the fruit of the Spirit and what IS NOT such fruit are as valid today as they have ever been and this with little exception as we look upon the whole of the current civilizations. Paul tells us that:
“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law” (Galatians 5:19-23).
We recently spent much time on these words that reflect the “works of the flesh” and in our discussions we found the True meanings of Paul’s words as they reflect the thoughts, attitudes and actions of men in that day that the apostle wrote them and up to today. It IS in the right understanding of the message of the apostle that a man can Truly see how the fundamental way of living is not much changed and thereby see as well the timelessness of the teachings of the Master and His apostles. Hence our point, that these same words with which the Master railed against the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the scribes and the priests, can apply today to the restrictive attitudes of their modern day counterparts and this NOT ONLY in the Jewish tradition. Our review of the words used in this saying on the “works of the flesh” can be found in In the Words of Jesus parts 750-751 and a review of this can show that most ALL men are acting yet in these ways and this includes many of those that assume themselves to be ‘saved’ and who at the same time are deluded by doctrine and CAN NOT see “that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” as affecting themselves. And this IS of course our point regarding the modern day counterparts of the Pharissee and the Sadducce, of the scribe and the priest, that they hold to their doctrines and this despite the warnings and the signs of the Master’s words like: “But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted” (Matthew 23:8-12). And they refuse to allow for the alternate and the expanded view of His words and His sayings, especially those that are contrary to the established doctrines. As we close this part of today’s essay, we can repeat a few of the woes that the Master pronounces upon the Pharisees and other teacher of old:
- “But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted” (Matthew 23:8-12).
- “But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in” (Matthew 23:13).
- “Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel” (Matthew 23:24).
- “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity” (Matthew 23:27-28).
Without comment we leave these ideas as the words of the Master against those who CAN NOT or WILL NOT see the alternative and the expanding views of Truth and find ways to keep others in their care away from them as well. And we should not see any condemnation in our thoughts here just the simple statement of fact that affects the many millions of men who would desire to KNOW more and to understand a greater part of the reality and the Truths of Life from which they are locked out of by the doctrines that they believe to be the True.
Returning to the Gospel of Thomas which brought us to these thoughts, that it is the doctrines that keep these ideas as heretical and not the words themselves as these words are the same as the accepted gospels to the man who can see past the doctrinal impact and into the Truth and the intent of the sayings of the Master and His apostles.
The Gospel of Thomas
These are the hidden words that the living Jesus spoke. And Didymos Judas Thomas wrote them down.
(4) Jesus says: “The person old in his days will not hesitate to ask a child seven days old about the place of life, and he will live. For many who are first will become last, and they will become a single one.“
(5) Jesus says: “Come to know what is in front of you, and that which is hidden from you will become clear to you. For there is nothing hidden that will not become manifest.“
(6) His disciples questioned him, (and) they said to him: “Do you want us to fast? And how should we pray and give alms? And what diet should we observe?“
Jesus says: “Do not lie. And do not do what you hate. For everything is disclosed in view of <the truth. For there is nothing hidden that will not become revealed. And there is nothing covered that will remain undisclosed.“
(7) Jesus says: “Blessed is the lion that a person will eat and the lion will become human. And anathema is the person whom a lion will eat and the lion will become human.” 14
While looking at the fourth verse above we took note of the idea of the “child seven days” and we noted that none of the commentary that we found did the words of this saying any justice whatsoever and, in fact, they appeared to be trying to find space for these words in doctrinal Christianity and the doctrinal interpretation of the New Testament. We of course understand that this approach is unlikely to yield any the type of results and this we would expect as we see much of the doctrinal interpretations of the deeper meanings of the Master’s words lacking. We went to the Master’s words on the idea of the little child and then to the combination of His thoughts on them with His few words on angels, which is a very misunderstood concept, and for which there is a strong controversy in some parts of the church regarding angels and their relation to men from the saying that “For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour” (Psalm 8:5) where angels is rendered from the Hebrew ‘elohiym which in most other places in the Old Testament is rendered as God or gods. However, this same saying is repeated in the Book of Hebrews of the New Testament where the writer uses the Greek word aggelos which IS rendered mostly as angel but is said to mean messenger. Based on our summation of the Master’s words from the last essay, we can see that both of these ideas ARE right and that the word angel can be seen as simply another form of God….the self aware and self conscious Spirit and Soul of man.
In the simple thoughts about the little child, and perhaps the idea of seven days IS a symbolic rendering of just how little a child is meant, we see this as a child that has not yet been molested by the ways of the world but who is yet pure from the perspective of innocence and trusting and maintains that humble attitude of which the Master speaks saying: “Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:4) and the alternate saying from Mark’s Gospel that helps to clarify this saying: “Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God” and “Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein” (Mark 10:14-15). In the clarity of these thoughts we have the humble attitude of the little child and in this word rendered as humble we find the innocence and the trusting of which we speak and we must ever see this word away from the derogatory definitions of our modern language; we must see it in the spirit in which this is offered by the Master. We should remember here that humble IS a quality of the Master and thereby of God and the God within and this He tells us saying: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls” (Matthew 11:28-29). Here, as we discuss in In the Words of Jesus part 728, this idea of lowly in heart is rendered as humble by many translations and that in our understanding this means humble and even more and, from this last saying by the Master we devised this idea as a part of the Way of the disciple: humble in thought, lowly of heart in attitude and meek in action. In ALL of this we should have a perspective of what we might see in the little child or, as is rendered from Thomas here, “a child seven days old“, an idea of what may be his view on Life as a Soul in form that has not been effected by the illusion and glamour of Life in the world or, as Paul tells us the vanity.
“The person old in his days” then is one who has lived a life in this world of vanity, and who may have succumbed somewhat to the effects of the illusion and the glamour, and who would, upon this realization, inquire of the child or of the Truth of the Child, his Soul. This is not to mean that one would ask a child of such young age but merely realize that in this youth, ALL of the ideas of the little child that we propose are Truth. In the greater understanding of the older person he looks retrospectively at his Life and understands the innocence of the child, the Soul coming into this world, realizing then his own innocence and humility that was long ago forgotten as this person conducted his own Life among men and in the ways of men. Can we see that the Master is telling us here that it IS NEVER too late to come to the realization of our divinity and that Life is as He shows us in the many parables that tell us of finding the Kingdom and giving ALL for the Kingdom or, as in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, how the realization of the futility of Life in the world can bring one back again to the Father’s house. This IS that same subject that we spent many days on regarding the effect of realizing our delusion and our dissatisfaction with Life in the world and how this leads to our Repentance (In the Words of Jesus parts 754-757). Can we see that this is the reality of the Master’s saying in Thomas Gospel as well? that in the idea of the older person we find that it IS NEVER too late, in the idea of the little child we find the realization of the Truth of our innocence and our trusting and our True humility? Can we see that in this discovery of what we are as the older person versus what we were at the beginning of our journey in this Life that we see our “place of life” and that in True understanding of these things we have Repentance that allows us to then Truly live.
Finally we have the last part of this saying, “For many who are first will become last, and they will become a single one” which is one that is repeated by the Master in the synoptic gospels with similar intent and one in which our understanding is hazy; this is a saying for which a Truer understanding IS NOT clear to us yet. Yes we do have some understanding of these ideas such as that which we get from the Master’s parable and its use in trying to convey this thought to the Pharisee, to the priests and the elders saying: “But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said , Son, go work to day in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went. And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not. Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you” (Matthew 21:28-31). While this IS a valid assessment of the idea encapsulated in the “many who are first will become last“, we DO NOT see this as the ultimate reality of these words here nor in some of its other uses by the Master. Perhaps a clue can be found in another use of this idea in the Master’s saying that: “If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all“; perhaps in this we can see the idea that there are those who will come to this realization as we read in Thomas Gospel, to this Repentance, and who then realize their True place, that they must stop and serve as the ready help for others to accomplish this same; here is one who IS first willingly becoming last and there is much depth in this reality that we can but glimpse here and now. Similarly with the final words which can be seen to say that it IS these who willingly become last that “will become a single one” and this in their realization of the Love and the brotherhood with which they work
We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.
| Aspect of God |
Potency |
Aspect of Man |
In Relation to the Great Invocation |
In relation to the Christ |
|
GOD, The Father |
Will or Power |
Spirit or Life |
Center where the Will of God IS KNOWN |
Life |
|
Son, The Christ |
Love and Wisdom |
Soul or Christ Within |
Heart of God |
Truth |
|
Holy Spirit |
Light or Activity |
Life Within |
Mind of God |
Way
|
Note on the Quote of the Day
This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily and will not store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment.
Repeating a Quote of the Day from the past that has some significance in relation to what we are discussing here, that the Kingdom of God and therefore God is within us ALL. Here Lord Tennyson poetically tells us just how close God Truly IS and how it is that we touch Him
Speak to Him, thou, for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit can meet
Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.
(Alfred, Lord Tennyson 1809–1892)
From the poem The Higher Pantheism which puts forth the authors spiritual belief. Whether we agree with him or not, the quote if spiritually perfect for all of Christianity as well as any other world religion.
For us today this saying shows us the closeness of the spiritual self to the Father and then too the closeness of the spiritual self with the personality of man. We may like to think of God as something outside and above but the reality, as we have seen in so many of the sayings of the Master, is that God is with us and in us and we need only to let ourselves be drawn. And, if we can use these words from the Gospel of Thomas here we can perhaps see much: “When you come to know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will realize that you are the children of the living Father.“
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!
- 14 The Gospel of Thomas; Translated by Stephen J. Patterson and James M. Robinson; http://gnosis.org/
