ON LOVE; PART CDLXXVIII
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.
(102) Jesus says: “Woe to them, the Pharisees, for they are like a dog sleeping in a cattle trough, for it neither eats nor [lets] the cattle eat.“
(103) Jesus says: “Blessed is the person who knows at which point (of the house) the robbers are going to enter, so that [he] may arise to gather together his [domain] and gird his loins before they enter.“
(104) They said to [Jesus]: “Come, let us pray and fast today!” Jesus said: “What sin is it that I have committed, or wherein have I been overcome? But when the bridegroom comes out of the wedding chamber, then let (us) fast and pray.“
(105) Jesus says: “Whoever will come to know father and mother, he will be called son of a whore.“
(106) Jesus says: “When you make the two into one, you will become sons of man. And when you say ‘Mountain, move away,’ it will move away.“
(107) Jesus says: “The kingdom is like a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. One of them went astray, the largest. He left the ninety-nine, (and) he sought the one until he found it. After he had toiled, he said to the sheep: ‘I love you more than the ninety-nine.’“
(108) Jesus says: “Whoever will drink from my mouth will become like me. I myself will become he, and what is hidden will be revealed to him.“
In the last essay we came across a saying from Thomas’ Gospel that we can not understand as we do most ALL of the Master’s other words from ALL the gospels. In most that are not readily understood we find that there is a deeper meaning that we just don’t yet see and this IS perhaps True here as well. If the translations of this one hundred fifth saying are sure, we can not even glimpse at a spiritual Truth and perhaps there are hidden ideas behind the idea of knowing “father and mother” and why a mother would be seen as a harlot if one does come to know them. As we cited in the last essay; if we should look at this in a carnal fashion and see this knowing as an incestuous relationship, there is a part of one of the Apostle Paul’s Epistles that shows that there is in the area of Corinth a similar situation where the apostle speaks of one who ‘had’ “his father’s wife” (1 Corinthians 5:1). Here there is not enough information to know however if this IS the mother of this man and in the words from Thomas Gospel there is no reality to having the idea of father included with the mother in this carnal idea of knowing. The ideas presented by the commentary do not help us here as they only cite other ideas from yet more mysterious sayings found in ancient writings and in the most always condemning words of the Church Fathers when the subject is anything but what they approve of.
If we can see the father and the mother representative in some way of Aspects of God, and that the idea IS to KNOW them, then there is no resolution for the idea of the harlot as to KNOW God as the Father and another aspect of God as the Mother, such as the Holy Spirit, CAN NOT be a mean thing. We did note in the last essay that this word rendered as harlot is used only in this saying from Thomas but we should also KNOW that this is purported to be a Greek word by the Interlinear and in that view the structure in the Interlinear and the structure in our Greek Lexicon are similar. The Greek word in Greek letters is πόρνη according to Vincent and this relates to the English letters povrnh while the Greek/Coptic word used in the Interlinear relates to pornh in English letters; again we are fluent in neither the Coptic nor the Greek and we do not see reason to doubt the translators here. This said, if this word is harlot and we construct the idea of knowing to be of God or Aspects of God, then we have no better idea for this saying than that which we cite from Paul where there is no sense in the idea of the father. The combination of these words and ideas leaves us without a clue to the right understanding of this saying and, even if we attribute the idea of harlot to a metaphorical meaning of idolatress as suggested by the lexicon, we find no better understanding. We must leave this saying as a one that we do not understand and add this to that short list that already contains the forty fourth saying which is: “Jesus said: He who blasphemes against the Father will be forgiven, and he who blasphemes against the Son will be forgiven; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either on earth or in heaven” (Thomas 44; Blatz). In this regard we also DO NOT understand the meaning of the similar ideas found in the synoptic gospels. We discuss this at length in In the Words of Jesus parts 813-815 and we are still of the same mind regarding all of the versions of this saying.
Our next saying, the one hundred and sixth, is similar to other previous sayings from Thomas Gospel and can be directly related to the Truth of the similar ideas regarding the moving of the mountain in the synoptic gospels. There is little commentary on this which we read:
- Bentley Layton writes of the phrase “sons of man”: “Perhaps extending to all Christians of either sex. ‘Son of man’ or ‘child of the human being’ was a traditional eschatological title applied to Jesus in some early Christian circles; the arrival of the heavenly ‘son of man’ would signal the arival of god’s kingdom.” (The Gnostic Scriptures, p. 398).
- J. D. Crossan writes: “Turner has suggested that the ‘spirituality implied in the Gospel of Thomas is a type of unitive mysticism. The theme of unity runs through the document as a whole. In two sayings it replaces the synoptic “faith” as the force which removes mountains (Sayings 48 and 106). The second saying has a more distinctively gnostic ring than the first’ (Turner and Montefiore: 105). Quispel has even said that 106 has ‘targumized’ 48 by ‘hinting at the reunion of opposites, male and female, above and below, inner and outer’ (1958-1959:288). But it is probably also true that Thomas now reads 48 in light of 106 (Menard, 1976: 150), since there is already a thematic complex in 46-49 on this subject (see Turner and Montefiore: 80).” (In Fragments, p. 207).
Mr. Layton’s ideas on sex are sure; there is not doubt that the Master uses this idea of son of man to refer to Himself and to those who would be like Him and this idea is rather clear in this saying from Thomas Gospel. The relationship of the sexes in Jesus’ day was a sign of the times and the attitudes of men in the world and this division is not apparent in any of the ideas that the Master presents. Mr Crossan, while he attributes the ideas to mysticism, has the reality of these ideas in his thoughts with the Truth of the synoptic idea of faith, which we see as KNOWING, and which IS the result of the Union of the Soul, the Inner man, and the expression of that Soul through Life in form; in our view this is not so much a union of the Inner and the outer but rather the use of the outer by the Inner man.
And this IS the reality of this saying which we repeat here along with the twenty second and the forty eighth, as well as the similar ideas from the synoptic gospels:
- (22) Jesus saw infants being suckled. He said to his disciples: “These little ones being suckled are like those who enter the kingdom.” They said to him: “Then will we enter the kingdom as little ones?” Jesus said to them: “When you make the two into one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside and the above like the below – that is, to make the male and the female into a single one, so that the male will not be male and the female will not be female – and when you make eyes instead of an eye and a hand instead of a hand and a foot instead of a foot, an image instead of an image, then you will enter [the kingdom]“”.
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(48) Jesus says: “If two make peace with one another in one and the same house, (then) they will say to the mountain: ‘Move away,’ and it will move away.'”
- (106) Jesus says: “When you make the two into one, you will become sons of man. And when you say ‘Mountain, move away,’ it will move away.“
- “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you‘” (Matthew 17:20).
- “If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you” (Luke 17:6).
- “And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed , and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith” (Mark 11:22-23).
- “Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed , and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done“(Matthew 21:21).
- “And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out , and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell”(Matthew 5:29-30).
- “Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire” (Matthew 18:8-9)
In the totality of these sayings above we have the single message and the reality of the divinity of the man in the world, the son of man as we read in our current saying; this reality is the unified expression of the Love and the Power of the Soul through one’s form Life in the world. The body is ever the body and that IS NOT the idea here; the idea is the expression which for the carnally focused man is the expression of the thoughts, attitudes and actions of the self and not of the Soul. For the man focused upon the things of God there comes the unity of the divinity of the Soul and the expression of this divinity to the world; this IS the two being made into one, this IS the making of peace in the same house which is the body and the personality. And this IS the combination of the ideas from the twenty second saying; the two into one, the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, the above like the below, the male and the female so as to reflect the sexless nature of the Soul. This IS the Unity of expression that is the reality of the Soul infused personality; the reality of a True Son of God in the world which the Master refers as the son of man. This is nothing but the realization of the goal and the objective of Life in this world as a Soul living through form.
As we see in the forty eighth saying and our current one, this unity of the Soul and his expression in the world are the same effect as the idea from the synoptics that allows for the man to move the mountain. We should repeat here that one DOES NOT really move the mountain and that this IS an example of the virtual power of the True disciple over the forces of the Earth; that this man that has Truly achieved such Unity of Soul and expression can stand with the Master and say “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Here we liken this idea of Unity to the idea of the faith as the mustard seed and in this saying we understand that KNOWING that flows through in the Unity of Soul and expression; here this Unity IS so firm that the man in the world KNOWS who and what he Truly IS and he understands the virtual Power that he has at his command. This idea is alternately described by Mark as that the disciple “shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass” and it IS in this idea that we find the Truth of KNOWING. The mustard seed can only become the mustard tree, this is a certainty and in the Master’s words the mustard seed KNOWS this; it is a part of its very being and this is the strength that this KNOWING must project as well in the Life of the True disciple of the Lord.
And this is the message of the one hundred sixth saying; that when one can have this Unity of expression which IS the hallmark of the disciple, when one can KNOW without a doubt that he IS in this world as a Soul and is living his Life as such in the world; then and only then can he have and exhibit this Power because it IS the Power of the Soul, the Power of the Christ Within. In the end of the twenty second saying above we read about the eye and the hand and the foot and in the obscurity of these ideas is the Master’s instruction to the man who would attain this Unity, this ability to move the mountain. The crux of this is found in the idea of selflessness as a man in the world and this too is the hallmark of the Souls expression; in these ideas we find the overlaying of the very nature of the Soul over the nature of the man in the world so that the eye and the hand and the food no longer act for the self in the world and we get this same idea from the words of the Master in the synoptic gospels of Matthew and Mark where we read the ideas above. In this is further instruction on the overcoming of the carnal nature and it IS this same idea that is presented in Thomas; that the effects of the carnal nature can not be allowed to be a part of one’s expression of the Love and the Power of the Soul through form; in fact, the depth of the idea is that this expression IS NOT possible so long as the hand or the foot or the eye has any sway in the expression of the man to the world.
There are several other sayings in Thomas Gospel that bring out the importance of this Unity, this singularity of Soul and his expression to the world and in the final analysis we should be able to see that this IS the very nature of the Christ as Jesus; that through the body and the personality of the man Jesus in the world, there IS the expression of the fullness of the Power and the Love of the Soul, the Divine Christ, as Paul tells us saying: “in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9). And here, from the perspective of Life in this world, it IS this same expression that IS required by the disciple who would move the mountain. These are not fanciful ideas as they are the very nature of the one who has Truly attained the Kingdom of God and if we believe the Master’s words we must believe as well in our essential divinity and the Truth of His words “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do” (John 14:12).
Our next saying, the one hundred seventh, is another where there is a parallel in the synoptic gospels and again, there are some differences in the presentation here by Thomas. In Thomas the idea IS that the Kingdom of God is likened to the shepherd who has the sheep and loses one and in the synoptics we get the picture of the joy in the Kingdom when the lost sheep IS found. In the synoptics we read this from Matthew and Luke and we add here Thomas for clarity:
- “What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance” (Luke 15:4-7)
- “For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost. How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray ? And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish” (Matthew 18:11-14).
- “Jesus says: “The kingdom is like a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. One of them went astray, the largest. He left the ninety-nine, (and) he sought the one until he found it. After he had toiled, he said to the sheep: ‘I love you more than the ninety-nine.“” (Thomas 107).
In each of these presentations the ending idea that is to be conveyed IS much the same but the context and the formula are distinctly different. In Luke we find the generality of Repentance and the comparison of the man who finds his lost sheep with the Joy in heaven in having one man who Truly Repents and while we may not understand this joyous response to finding the sheep we can certainly imagine it based upon the comparison made. In Matthew the dynamics of the scene are quite different; here we do not have the generality of Repentance but a continuation of the Master’s thoughts regarding the little ones. The Master’s thoughts about the nature of the disciple, that he must “humble himself as this little child“, are at the center of this saying as He instructs His disciples on the idea of greatness in the Kingdom and in this He tells us that “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3:4). Here we should understand that the disciples as such have already accomplished these things to some degree and that this instruction IS offered more for the benefit of others as He reflects upon the nature of little child, how in this innocent and trusting and selfless nature is found the disciple of the Lord. Our sayings from above then enter into this dialogue as Jesus teaches about the idea of forsaking the ways of the flesh for the ways of God and this by His example of cutting off the foot or the hand or plucking out the offending eye. In our current idea of the lost sheep the Master carries forward this idea of the child as He relates the lost child to the lost sheep and here we should try to take the picture that the little one IS NOT the one that IS lost but it IS what the little one becomes in Life that can become lost and, in Jesus words, perish. Here again we have the likening of this little one being saved, found again in his going astray, with the finding of the lost sheep and the Joy of finding him.
These are distinctly different approaches to the same end; that the disciple or the aspirant is found; in the one by Repentance and in the other by Power of the Christ Within who is the nature of the little child but which nature IS lost in the illusion and the glamor of Life in the world. In the end these ARE the same thing but the approach of the story allows for different visions of how this would happen. From Thomas version we do have much the same ideas at work and perhaps we can see in this idea of the largest, rendered in the Interlinear as the greatest, the reality of the one that should have been the strongest and the least likely to get lost.
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!
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
- 14 The Gospel of Thomas; Translated by Stephen J. Patterson and James M. Robinson; http://gnosis.org/
