ON LOVE; PART CDLIX

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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The Gospel of Thomas

These are the hidden words that the living Jesus spoke. And Didymos Judas Thomas wrote them down.

(88) Jesus says: “The messengers and the prophets are coming to you, and they will give you what belongs to you.  And you, in turn, give to them what you have in your hands (and) say to yourselves: ‘When will they come (and) take what belongs to them?’” ¹⁴

Today IS Thanksgiving Day 2013 and we reprise here our comments from last year’s Thanksgiving post with some minor updates:

We leave our brief words on Thanksgiving and the poem by Emerson and we encourage ALL not to only give thanks for what blessings we do have in Life but to recognize that our brothers are in their essence the same as us albeit at differing points upon the long, long road to ”glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21) and that it is in Love that we should reach out and help them in whatever way we can. Of the best ways are of course our own expression of universal GoodWill and understanding.

Today IS Thanksgiving Day 2013 and we are reminded of the True purpose of this day by its very name…..THANKS—GIVING and this should be a day in which we Truly give thanks for all that we do have regardless of how little or how much it may be. And, we should ever realize that as aspirants and disciples of the Lord that we Truly have much in a Life that is filled with spiritual endeavor and the peace and harmony that comes in our realization of some of the more hidden meanings in Life. This realization is for us a large part of our understanding of forsaking ALL as we come to realize that those things of the Earth that we tend to strive towards and for are of no value and carry no True meaning to our True self as the Soul.

From the more Earthly side we should note that while the origins of the Thanksgiving holiday are rather obscure, it is nonetheless an American tradition that dates back to colonial times with declarations of days of thanksgiving to mark the nation’s successes. In the mid-19^th century a movement began to create a Thanksgiving Day in November which was declared as such by Abraham Lincoln in 1863. During this time Ralph Waldo Emerson penned these simple words below which, based upon his own beliefs, are not intended to embrace any particular religion.

Thanksgiving

By Ralph Waldo Emerson

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

Wishing you all a very

HAPPY

THANKSGIVING

There is a meaning to this idea of Thanksgiving which should not be lost in our view of Life, our view that man IS part and parcel of God and that in the end he will be able to do much as our Great Brother the Christ; as He was able to overcome the world. Here today we find ourselves giving thanks in a ritual and an American rite that is in itself a convention of man and of rather Puritan Christian beliefs in a God above who gives to man. As we KNOW however there is no equality in this worldly giving; as we look around at our brothers who struggle in poverty here and around the we world we should be able to come to understand that it IS NOT God who gives from the perspective material pleasures which per force includes enough to eat and a place to live. Perhaps this idea of thanksgiving should be seen in its Truer Light; we ARE NOT thanking God for what He gives us as we understand and we realize “that God is no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34) and as such He gives naught to any one over another; we ARE giving thanks for our own good fortune in having some share of the pleasures of Life in the world. That there “is no respect of persons with God” (Romans 2:11) is a difficult concept for the average man in the world to understand especially as we look at Life from the religious perspective where we are taught to give thanks to God for whatsoever we have. And this religious texture spills over into the secular world in times like this though we really can not tell what is Truly in the hearts of the those who are giving thanks nor the nature of such thanks.

The Master tells us of the liberality of God but we should note what it IS that He is liberal with; He gives the rain and the sun to ALL as we read Jesus saying that: “he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45) and in this light we can see the air and any other thing that can be seen as Truly Universal. We should note here as well that the Master tells us of seeking and knocking and asking but in humanity’s convoluted logic these ideas have been turned to things of personal material gain. There IS NONE of this logic in His words that:

“Ask , and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:  For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets” (Matthew 7:7-12).

There IS NO thought here as to plenty or to the pleasures of the world which today are seen by many as the luxuries of Life; this IS the Master speaking and in His words we find ONLY those things of True spiritual importance….we see the idea of “good things” and these “good things” should be seen as the things of God and NOT the things of the world or of man. And we should note this also in the words of the apostles who tell us what it IS that we should ask for and what it IS that we should be thankful for:

• “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:5-8).
• “That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us” (Ephesians 3:16-20).

Can we see this reality of asking; that we ask for things of spiritual import? There is no place where we are taught by the Master or His apostles that we should ask for or pray for material things or for better than we have; we are taught however the opposite as we are shown to “take no thought” (Matthew 6:25). And when we read of thanks given in our New Testament we find these things:

• “Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;   That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him….” (Ephesians 1:15-17).
• “We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints, For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel; Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth” (Colossians 1:3-6).

Now there are likely many places in the New Testament that one can point to that speaks of thanks in other ways but if we look deeply at these ideas, even the thanks offered by the Master at the supper or in the feeding of the many thousands, we will find the spiritual import. And when we read Paul’s words that we should give “thanks always for all things unto God and the Father” (Ephesian 5:20), we should read them in the light of discipleship and our own understanding of what that means from the perspective of the Master.

There is no harm in celebrating this day with family and friends if one can do so and our objective here IS NOT to detract from the ritual and the rite; our objective IS ONLY to show this as it IS in Truth, that it IS a ritual and a rite; it is a convention of men. And in our own thanksgiving for whatsoever we may be fortunate enough to have, we should ever be mindful of those who have little or nothing and to reach out and help them is the ultimate Truth of the Love of God, of the Love that IS God. We should pay special attention to the ending part of the Master’s words above on asking and seeking and knocking, that if we do we will receive those “good things“, those spiritual things that come from our own relationship with the Lord, our own God and Christ Within, our own Souls. This IS the True nature of Life in this world and, in the end of these sayings, the Master DOES put upon us the responsibility for ALL else as He tells us “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets“.

In closing our ideas for this Thanksgiving Day we should ever understand that we should be thankful for ALL that we have, not the carnal and the material things but the things of God, the things that come to us in the Light of our own Souls; our ability to Love as the Master teaches us, or desire to attain His Kingdom and to continually strive toward that strait gate that opens into our own deliverance “from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). If this IS Truly our objective and our goal, then ALL else is but a diversion that is fed by that illusion and glamour of Life in this world.

Returning to our discussions in the Gospel of Thomas, we come back to this most obscure eighty eighth saying which we read in the Interlinear Version as: “the-angels-come upto-you(pl) with-the-prophets, and they-will-give to-you(pl) those-which-have-you(pl)-them,>and you(pl) also-\-yourselves, those-who-are-of-\-you(pl), give-them to-them &-you(pl)-speak to-you(rselves) this- “Which-day is-it(m)-they-come &()take-he-who-is-theirs?“” (Interlinear Version). In our premise and our view, it IS the Soul of the man that IS the angel who IS ever in the Kingdom of God which IS itself within; in this we see the Soul as in the Kingdom which IS within the man in the world and this is True of every man regardless of any criteria that the doctrinally oriented put upon this. To this we should add the idea of the prophet, the teacher of the things of God, as the anointing that each man has as we read in the writings of the Apostle John at the end of our last essay. For us this idea of anointing can be seen as the Holy Spirit or the activity of God, of the Soul or of the Christ Within, in the Life of a man. This anointing, this teacher IS always there but IS ONLY realized in the Truth of the Light of the Soul as it flows through the Life of the man in the world.

Here then from Thomas words we should try to see that the Soul and the Holy Spirit, which is the activity of the Soul in the Life of the man in the world, come to the man in the world to give him that realization of those things which he already has which IS rendered by Lambdin as they “come to you and give to you those things you (already) have“. There is much of Truth in this view of Life and much realization can be gained in properly understanding these things; that ALL men in form have these things and ARE these things, angels and teachers, who can guide his Life if he would only look to them for such guidance instead of looking to the self in the world who IS in reality that one that needs this guidance. The rendering of this next part by the translators does not account for all the words nor the ideas offered by the Coptic text according to the Interlinear and this IS likely because the words are so obscure and strange to the normal thinking of men. However, based in the ideas that we present here we can take this phrase by phrase to a conclusion. We read this as ‘and you also yourselves, those who are of you‘, and we can see no explanation for this other than to tell us it IS ‘you yourself‘, your Soul and Holy Spirit, who are ‘those who are of you‘ who DO ‘give these things‘, spiritual things to be sure, to ‘you and to themselves‘. Here we should try to see that the you in this last phrase is the man in the world who IS receiving these spiritual things from the angel and the prophet, from the Soul and the Holy Spirit; this you Truly receives these things for use in the Life of the man in the world and this IS at the same time giving to themselves as it IS to the benefit of the Soul, and the activity of the Soul as the Holy Spirit, to express this divinity to the world.

Can we see these points of Truth as what is being expressed in this saying? The end part here is the more difficult as there is no visible transition from ‘giving these things to you and to themselves‘ as we render this and the next part of speaking to oneself. We can separate the you from the prior part and start a new sentence with ‘and you speak‘; this would leave the last part as saying basically the same thing as we can perhaps see the idea of you included in the them, and perhaps this would make better English sense. From our perspective however we should likely leave this as we have it above, as ‘those who are of you‘ who DO ‘give these things‘, spiritual things to be sure, to ‘you and to themselves‘, and let this next sentence begin with the word speak making this a new statement that says ‘speak to you, remember that the (rselves) is added to the text by ALL translators and is parenthetical in the Interlinear to indicate such, ‘this, which day with they come and take he who is theirs‘ or, in more modern language, ‘ask yourself this, when will the angel and the teacher come and take full control of himself in this world‘. In this question is the the idea of wonderment of when will come that same deliverance that we speak of in our Thanksgiving thoughts above.

In our ideas here we can introduce meaning to this parabolic saying where there IS NONE before; none of the translations that we have here make any real sense. By introducing to these words our own vision of Life we can and we do make some sense of them and are able to add to our overall understanding of the relationship between the True man, the Soul, and his phenomenal appearance in the world of men and this in full view of the objective and the goal which ever IS our own deliverance “from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God“

Our next group of sayings from the Gospel of Thomas are:

• (89) Jesus says: “Why do you wash the outside of the cup? Do you not understand that the one who created the inside is also the one who created the outside?“
• (90) Jesus says: “Come to me, for my yoke is gentle and my lordship is mild. And you will find repose for yourselves.“
• (91) They said to him: “Tell us who you are so that we may believe in you.” He said to them: “You examine the face of sky and earth, but the one who is before you, you have not recognized, and you do not know how to test this opportunity.“
• (92) Jesus says: “Seek and you will find. But the things you asked me about in past times, and what I did not tell you in that day, now I am willing to tell you, but you do not seek them.“
• (93) “Do not give what is holy to the dogs, lest they throw it upon the dunghill. Do not throw pearls to swine, lest they turn <them> into [mud].“
• (94) Jesus [says]: “The one who seeks will find. [The one who knocks], to that one will it be opened.“
• (95) [Jesus says:] “If you have money, do not lend (it) out at interest.  Rather, give [it] to the one from whom you will not get it (back).“

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.

Today we repeat the Mantram of Unification as our Quote of the Day and we should note the very Christian ideals that are embraced by these words; not the doctrinal Christian ideals but rather the ideals annunciated in the words of the Master and of His apostles. This idea of ONENESS IS a component part of the Love that the Master teaches as He tells us that we should Love ALL and this ideal is repeated by His apostles who clarify it and expand upon it in their pronouncement that we should NOT show respect to persons that we should not prefer one above another, and this of course includes groups of persons who may differ from us in color, in nationality, in religion….in any way. We are told this by the apostles who tells us that God DOES NOT show such favor to individuals nor to groups as we read that “there is no respect of persons with God” (Romans 2:11) which IS here offered in the context that ALL are treated equally. There are several instances of this saying interweaved with the idea that we should Love our brother, our neighbor and one another as these ideas are framed and, with this stated concept of this respect, we should be able to glimpse what we have been preaching here in this blog and which is the Truer nature of this Love. We should understand that in our zeal to be among His disciples that we must pay keen attention to the totality of the Master’s words which tell us that we should “seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33) and it is in this reality that we should understand this idea of respect, that if this is the Way of God that it should be the way of man as well. And, if this were not clear enough, the straightforward words of the Apostle James helps us saying “if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors” (James 2:9).

This IS the greater Truth of this Mantram of Unification; that we understand the reality of our ONENESS, our essential Unity, that we Love as the Master teaches, that we allow the Inner man, the Soul, to be the controlling force in our lives; that we come to see the Truth, that we break down the walls of illusion and glamour and eliminate ALL things that separate us from the Truth and from each other. And that we Love and encourage that Universal Love which is our essential destiny by our own example and in ALL that we say and do.

Mantram of Unification

The sons of men are one and I am one with them.
I seek to love, not hate;
I seek to serve and not exact due service;
I seek to heal, not hurt.

Let pain bring due reward of light and love.
Let the Soul control the outer form, and life and all events,
And bring to light the love that underlies the happenings of the time.

Let vision come and insight.
Let the future stand revealed.
Let inner union demonstrate and outer cleavages be gone.
Let love prevail.
Let all men love.

The Mantram of Unification is a meditation and a prayer that at first affirms the unity of all men and the Brotherhood of Man based on the Fatherhood of God. The first stanza sets forth several truly Christian ideals in Unity, Love, Service and Healing. The second stanza is a invocation to the Lord and to our own Souls asking that from the pain (if there can truly be any) incurred in focusing on the Spirit and not the world will come Light and Love into our lives and that we begin to function as Souls through our conscious personalities. We ask that the spiritual control of our lives will bring to light for us the Love that underlies world events; a Love that the world oriented man will not see working out behind the scenes and also that the Love that we bring forth, individually and as a world group, can be seen by all and ultimately in all. Finally, in the last stanza we ask for those things that are needed for Love to abound. Vision and insight so that we can direct our attention properly; revelation of the future in the sense that all can see the Power of Love in the world; inner union so that we do not fall back into the world’s ways, that we faint not; and that a sense of separation, the antithesis of brotherhood, ends as we know it today. Let Love Prevail, Let All Men Love. Spiritual control of our lives will bring to light for us the Love that underlies world events; a Love that the world oriented man will not see working out behind the scenes.

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!

• ¹ Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1828 and 1913
• ¹⁴ The Gospel of Thomas; Translated by Stephen J. Patterson and James M. Robinson; http://gnosis.org/