ON LOVE; PART CDLXVI
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
The Gospel of Thomas
These are the hidden words that the living Jesus spoke. And Didymos Judas Thomas wrote them down.
(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).” 14
Today we will replace our Quote of the Day removing the Mantram of Unification after many days serving in that role. As we remove this we would like to reflect upon the realities that are incorporated into these words. First there IS the ONENESS of ALL men and in this we should see mankind in the world as ONE; we ARE ONE humanity expressing Life through a diversity of appearances and cultures but we ARE ONE humanity and in this idea alone we must see our Unity. Next comes a series of very Christian ideals; Love, service and healing; ALL of these were a part of the example set for us by the Christ 2000 years ago and then taken up by His apostles when He left our presence. And this IS easy to see in His own words that tell us: “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you” (John 15:12); “For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth” (Luke 22:27) and “And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people” (Matthew 8:14). In these isolated instances we should be able to catch the whole of the idea of Jesus example that He freely offers to us as yet another indication of His service and here we should see the Truth of Love, the True meaning of service and the idea of healing which we should not limit to the physical healing that we read about but rather to the healing of the whole person and the bringing together of the Soul and his expression to the world. The healing of the body IS an important part here in Jesus Life and in the examples of the Apostles as well and perhaps we can see this healing in these times as a means to and end; today we have modern medicine and the perils of to the human body are significantly less yet there IS much healing still to be done for the emotional and the mental faculties of the man in the world as it is here that we can likely find the breeding ground for the prejudices and hatreds and that overwhelming sense of self that tends to keep men apart and which keeps many from the reality of the Love and the service.
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 rest of this mantram is its own expansion on these thoughts of Love, service and healing and in the idea of pain we should try to see a reference to the pain that one encounters in changing his Life through Repentance if you will. Here we can see that in the human psychological pain of Repentance, there is a part of the reality of the Master’s injunction that we should bear our cross as we seek discipleship which IS detailed in the next lines; it is the disciple who can, and it is the aspirant that strives to, let the Soul control and it is in this striving and doing that we do our True service which IS that we bring to Light the Love in our own Life and show the reality of Love in the world.
It is again the aspirant and the disciple that can see the visions and gain the insights and this through the revelation and realizations of Truth and that Wisdom from above. It is the aspirant and the disciple who can express this inner union and tear down ALL barriers and separations that exist between ourselves and others. And it IS by the example of the Christ that we come to this and it IS by our own example that we can bring others as we realize that the innate sense of ALL men, of ALL Souls, is to make these things True in the world of men….to see past the carnal and the mundane.
And we should add here that it IS in the recitation of this mantram that one can make these ideas his own ideas and begin to think in the broader sense of the One World, One Humanity and One God. And to Let love prevail. Let all men love.
In the last essay we discussed our thoughts on the ninety fourth saying from the Gospel of Thomas and we did so in combination with the like sayings from the synoptic gospels of Matthew and Luke. We should ever try to see that these words are intended to be in regard to spiritual things and while seeking and asking and knocking may bear fruits on a worldly level as well, these fruits are at best temporal and will fade to nothingness in the end. Here we can relate these ideas to the treasure that the Master admonishes us to gather, that this is also spiritual in nature as we read in His words:
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).
Can we see here the ideas that the Master puts forth as we combine these sayings on seeking, asking and knocking with His showing us what should be our treasure, what it is that we should be concerned with and spend our attention on…what should be our focus? In Luke’s Gospel we find these same ideas but in an ever more spiritual way as the Master tells us that as disciples we should eschew the worldly, give it away, and, if discipleship IS our objective, we should be able to see the ideas of seeking, asking and knocking in these words as well:
“Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Luke 12:33-34).
We should note here that both of these teachings by the Master is offered somewhat in conjunction with another thought on worldly affairs and that is that we “take no thought“. In Luke’s Gospel Jesus dissertation on this matter immediately precedes these words on treasure and in Matthew His words on “take no thought” follow upon His words on treasure. Our point here is only to show this relationship of ideas between one’s focus and his thoughts and to allow us to see that when a man’s treasure is in the things of God that his thoughts will NOT be on the things of the world. The greater point here however is to link these ideas to what it is that we seek after, ask for and where it is that we desire to enter by this knocking; that these ARE ALL spiritual ideas as they are spoken by the Master. We should be able to see in the combinations of sayings by the Master His True intent; here, when we can understand what it IS that we should seek, ask and knock for, that this IS the “treasure in the heavens” and NOT the things of the world, we can also then understand the reality behind “take no thought“, that this IS NOT only about the ideas presented by the Master in eating and wearing. The important part of this saying is clear to those who can accept it as Jesus tells us that we should “Take no thought for your life” (Matthew 6:25, Luke 12:22) and it IS this idea that IS all encompassing…the eating and the wearing are but examples.
It may seem that we have gone far away from our original saying from Thomas Gospel but the Master’s words there of “The one who seeks will find. [The one who knocks], to that one will it be opened” IS our promise that ALL these ideas are True and here we should ever see that this seeking and this knocking IS that striving that the Master tells us of as He says “Strive to enter in at the strait gate” (Luke 13:24). If we can see that He IS speaking to us as aspirants and as disciples we can rightly understand most ALL these things which are missed by the man whose focus is the self in the world.
Our next saying, the ninety fifth, is one that is found in the synoptic gospels albeit not framed in this same direct way. The whole of this idea has been lost for centuries as it is the converse of this that in many ways makes the carnal world of money and possessions work. Again we have missing words and in our view the ideas here more closely resemble the synoptic versions that these translations let on:
- [Jesus said:] “If you have money, (p. 49) do not lend at interest, but give [ . . . ] to him from whom you will not receive it back” (Blatz).
- [Jesus said], “If you (plur.) have money, do not lend it out at interest. Rather, give [it] to one from whom you will not get it back” (Layton).
- [Jesus says: “If (?)] you have money, do not lend it at interest, but [. . .] who (?) will not take them from him” (Doresse).
- [Jesus said], “If you have money, do not lend it at interest, but give [it] to one from whom you will not get it back” (Lambdin).
- [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)” (Patterson and Robinson).
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[Jesus said], “If you have money, don’t lend it at interest. Rather, give [it] to someone from whom you won’t get it back” (Patterson and Meyer).
- [Said-JS84 this:] “If have-you(pl)-money, do-not-give (at-interest). >Rather, give [it/him to-he]-who-[you(pl)-will-take() not from-his-hand” (Interlinear Version).
We should note the following. The word that is rendered as if is questioned here by Doresse although is does not appear to be in question in the original according to the Interlinear; we do not understand the purpose of the parenthetical p.49 from Blatz, it is found in both of our copies of his translation without explanation. Last, although this is used in two places the Interlinear questions the translation of “at interest” from the Coptic in the manuscript and they question it is both places. Here, while it is accepted as such by all of our translators we can see some issue with this in the next saying in which this phrase appears where we read two distinct ideas:
- “He began to lend money at interest to whom he wished” (Thomas 109:3; Patterson and Robinson and typical of the others)
- “Did-he-begin to-give-money (at-interest) to-those-he-loves()” or alternately “He began to give” (Thomas 109:3 Interlinear Version).
These are significant differences and we should note that the alternate Interlinear rendering is of a later date but presumably the same author. For us this calls into question the very validity of the idea of “at interest” as it appears that the text is translated to fit the assumption of this word by the regular translators and as a nonsensical idea from the alternative rendering of the Interlinear; we can see this idea in the original rendering of the Interlinear, as a question posed to which the answer would be NO. The context here is that one finds a treasure while plowing the field. We will address this when we get to it in our discussions of Thomas and here we should resolve to accept the idea of “at interest” as we see that it can make sense in the next instance using the original Interlinear rendering. It is likely that our translators have relied upon the ideas of the synoptic gospels to render our current saying from Thomas’ Gospel and here we will use the relative clarity of the Interlinear Version as we proceed. The commentary on this saying includes:
- Gerd Ludemann writes: “the logion has a parallel in content in Matt. 5.42b/Luke 6.30. But the theme of interest recalls the antipathy of Thomas to merchants (cf. 64.12). However, this does not exclude the possibility that it was already contained in the tradition that Thomas is using.” (Jesus After 2000 Years, p. 636).
- Comparing Thomas to Matthew and Luke, Koester finds that the Thomas form is more original: “The ending of Luke 6:34 (‘Even sinners lend to sinners . . .’) is a secondary addition in analogy to the ending of the preceding saying Luke 6:33 (‘Even sinners do that’). Matt 5:42 reads, ‘Give to the one who asks you, and do not refuse one who wants to borrow from you.’ This may have preserved the wording of the original saying better than Luke 6:34, and Thomas’s version can be best explained as a development of this form.” (Ancient Christian Gospels, p. 90).
- Funk and Hoover write: “Thomas records a saying that is parallel to Matt 5:42b: ‘Don’t turn away the one who triest to borrow from you.’ Thomas’ version may well be the earlier version since it is absolute: lend to those from whom you can’t expect to get your capital back.” (The Five Gospels, p. 522).
Again here we repeat our own refrain regarding the source of Thomas’ ideas in his writing of the Master’s words: this IS how he recalls the ideas of the Master, this IS the meaning that he derived from the sayings that Matthew and Luke render in a different and less direct form….this IS what these words mean to Thomas which ARE inclusive of the less direct thoughts from the synoptics and DO give one the same reality and this especially from the view of the disciple or the aspirant. The synoptic sayings go thus:
- “Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again. And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil” (Luke 6:30-34).
- “And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?” (Matthew 5:40-47).
We should see here two distinctively different approaches to the same ideas and perhaps we DO NOT see the idea of lending and interest as strongly from Matthew because his own background was in finances, in greed and in the collection of taxes. Luke however leaves no doubt as to the intent and, while not so blunt as Thomas, he does get the same point across. Matthew frames this simply as giving to those who ask and in this we should see that naught is to be expected in return; he competes his thought specifically using the idea of to borrow and, with no mention of payback, he shows us that the Master’s intent is simply that we give. Luke has the same idea of “Give to every man that asketh of thee” and like in Matthew the Lord makes provision to the man that will take instead of asking and in this we should see the same effect, that one should not ask for those things back. Luke offers clarification of this in telling us that the Master says by implication that we should not lend ONLY to those who can return; in fact, the Master goes on in Luke’s version to tell us plainly that one should “lend, hoping for nothing again” and here we should understand this hope as expecting. In all these words from Luke and Matthew we get the same thought that we get from Thomas….that we should just give. We should not lend at interest nor even expect the return of principal and we should not lend only to those of means but to ALL. This is a clear indictment of the ways of the man in the world.
Our next group of sayings from Thomas Gospel are:
(96) Jesus [says]: “The kingdom of the Father is like [a] woman. She took a little bit of yeast. [She] hid it in dough (and) made it into huge loaves of bread. Whoever has ears should hear.“
(97) Jesus says: “The kingdom of the [Father] is like a woman who is carrying a [jar] filled with flour. While she was walking on [the] way, very distant (from home), the handle of the jar broke (and) the flour leaked out [on] the path. (But) she did not know (it); she had not noticed a problem. When she reached her house, she put the jar down on the floor (and) found it empty.“
(98) Jesus says: “The kingdom of the Father is like a person who wanted to kill a powerful person. He drew the sword in his house (and) stabbed it into the wall to test whether his hand would be strong (enough). Then he killed the powerful one.“
(99) The disciples said to him: “Your brothers and your mother are standing outside.” He said to them: “Those here, who do the will of my Father, they are my brothers and my mother. They are the ones who will enter the kingdom of my Father.“
(100) They showed Jesus a gold coin and said to him: “Caesar’s people demand taxes from us.” He said to them: “Give Caesar (the things) that are Caesar’s. Give God (the things) that are God’s. And what is mine give me.“
(101) “Whoever does not hate his [father] and his mother as I do will not be able to be a [disciple] of mine. And whoever does [not] love [his father] and his mother as I do will not be able to be a [disciple] of mine. For my mother […], but my true [mother] gave me life.“
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.
We are using yet another mantram as our new Quote of the Day and this is again one that we have posted many times. Here in the form of an affirmation we should be able to understand the intent which IS to make these realities as part of our everyday thinking and our everyday understanding of our nature. Here again, as we see in our words above on the Mantram of Unification, we have the same dynamics: Love, service and healing. Here however the motivation IS more upon the idea of service and when we can see that this service is offered in Love and that this service IS one of healing we can Truly understand this affirmation.
Affirmation of the Disciple
I am a point of light within a greater Light.
I am a strand of loving energy within the stream of Love divine.
I am a point of sacrificial Fire, focussed within the fiery Will of God.
And thus I stand
I am a way by which men may achieve.
I am a source of strength, enabling them to stand.
I am a beam of light, shining upon their way.
And thus I stand.
And standing thus, revolve
And tread this way the ways of men,
And know the ways of God.
And thus I stand.
From previous posts we repeat that today’s Quote of the Day is called the Affirmation of the Disciple and is spoken from the perspective of the Soul and not from that of the man in form. It is the Soul that we are in this life on Earth, housed in this ‘temple’ of flesh and it is the Light of the Soul that must flow through this ‘temple’ in order that we may say with the Christ “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33) which is our goal and our destiny. Speaking then as the Soul we affirm our reality and true existence in God and in His Three Aspects of Light and Love and His Will. As this Light and Love and Will flow through our conscious personalities and forms we, as disciples, take on the nature of the second stanza being able to offer to the world a better way through our service and our Love for all, encouragement to righteousness through our strength of purpose, and the Light which shines in accordance with the Master’s instructions to “Let your light so shine before men” (Matthew 5:16) and illuminates the Path. Finally we realize that we are standing in this world and walking as men but, as conscious Souls in form, we know the way and the ways of God and are able to say with the Christ that “I am not of this world” (John 8:23).
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/
