ON LOVE; PART CDLXXXIV
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.
(109) Jesus says: “The kingdom is like a person who has a hidden treasure in his field, (of which) he knows nothing. And [after] he had died, he left it to his [son]. (But) the son did not know (about it either). He took over that field (and) sold [it]. And the one who had bought it came, and while he was ploughing [he found] the treasure. He began to lend money at interest to whom he wished.“
(110) Jesus says: “The one who has found the world (and) has become wealthy should renounce the world.“
(111) Jesus says: “The heavens will roll up before you, and the earth. And whoever is living from the living one will not see death.” Does not Jesus say: “Whoever has found himself, of him the world is not worthy“?
(112) Jesus says: “Woe to the flesh that depends on the soul. Woe to the soul that depends on the flesh.“
(113) His disciples said to him: “The kingdom – on what day will it come?” “It will not come by watching (and waiting for) it. They will not say: ‘Look, here!’ or ‘Look, there!’ Rather, the kingdom of the Father is spread out upon the earth, and people do not see it.“
(114) Simon Peter said to them: “Let Mary go away from us, for women are not worthy of life.” Jesus said: “Look, I will draw her in so as to make her male, so that she too may become a living male spirit, similar to you.” (But I say to you): “Every woman who makes herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven.” 14
As we approach Christmas 2013, a date that was arbitrarily selected to represent the Birth of Jesus the Christ more than 2000 years ago, we find ourselves in the midst of the most commercialized and likely least Truly Christian times of the year. While it is True that Charity giving ticks up at Christmastime, it is also True that many more charities are soliciting and this can be easily seen in the red bucket of the Salvation Army, the annual Toys for Tots campaign and the many appeals via mail and advertising and, we should not forget that in America there is the year end to consider from a tax perspective. This giving IS of course good as there ARE many who are less fortunate and in need and it is in the spirit of the holiday; what is bad is that this IS what this celebration of the Birth of the Christ Child has become….a holiday. There IS much ado about religious freedoms this time of year and this from the perspective of one who views these things in the daily news in America; being for or against these freedoms has become almost a hobby for some who find their opportunity to make a statement when they see some Truly Christian thing on public display or vice versa. Too much however is made of this by those who seem to want to keep the controversies alive as we see competing religious ideas arguing about place in a presumably ‘free’ society as well as those who claim that they are offended by the sight of some religious symbol and demand its removal. Here again we have a very NOT Christian display of emotion and anger.
And there is much in the news about the ‘war’ on Christmas as it is reflected in the ways taken by some to NOT offend others and those who try to create an air of equality in the symbolism; and there is as well much on the theme of ‘put Christ back in Christmas’ as an opposing view of the secular theme of Happy Holidays. There is much oddity here in these actions and reactions and perhaps the most odd is likely the reality that it IS the Christian himself who has taken the Christ out of Christmas and who has helped to promulgate and continue the excessive commercialism that has made this celebration of the Birth of the Christ into a annual event of giving gifts to family, friends and loved ones as the masses succumb to the onslaught of advertising that induces them to buy more and bigger and the intended receiver expecting the same. Here today people spend money that they do not have in order to be seen as the good giver in their own minds and to those who receive, except perhaps in the eye of the child who still believes in Santa Claus and who likely wonders why he has received so much….have I been that good? We are reminded here of the words from a Kinky Friedman song from several years ago; words that ring True from his song called ‘They Ain’t Makin’ Jews Like Jesus Anymore’; where Kinky says: “it was santa claus that killed jesus christ“. And while his intent is not as we use this here, we can we see how the Spirit that should be in this celebration, the Spirit of Christ, is gone in the commercialism and in the self serving interests of those who portend that there is this ‘war’.
Christ does need to be at the center of Christmas but this will not happen until there is a sea change in the hearts and minds of the people who see Christmas as it is seen today. When men can approach this day with the Love that the Master came among us to bring and to teach us to have for our brother, our neighbor and the stranger; when the churches that operate under the banner of His Name can teach the Truth and speak against the rampant commercialism and when those who keep alive this ‘war’ on Christmas begin to see the fruitlessness this controversial approach in the words of Jesus, then can we have a chance to ‘put Christ back in Christmas’. Until then this a personal theme for the aspirant and the one who strives toward spiritual reality, a time for each to decide his involvement in this nearly totally secular time of year.
Returning now to the Gospel of Thomas where we are discussing the one hundred eleventh saying, we repeat here again those sayings that we ended with in the last essay, sayings that are in our view in the same tone as is this one that we are discussing; these, along with our current saying, are:
- (111) Said-JS99 this: “The-heavens will-be-rolled-up, and the-earth, in-your(pl)-presence ( ); > and he-who-lives out of-he-who-lives, he-will-look not on-death; > because JS100 -speaks of-it this- whoever-falls upon-it himself, the-world be-worthy of-him not” (Interlinear Version, original).
- (56) Jesus says: “Whoever has come to know the world has found a corpse. And whoever has found (this) corpse, of him the world is not worthy.“
- (58) Jesus says: “Blessed is the person who has struggled. He has found life.“
- (80) Jesus says: “Whoever has come to know the world has found the (dead) body. But whoever has found the (dead) body, of him the world is not worthy.“
- (110) Jesus says: “The one who has found the world (and) has become wealthy should renounce the world.“
Our view here is of course on the second part of this saying which is posed differently by some of the translators but which comes to us clearly in the Interlinear as well as Patterson and Robinson above. Here, as we discussed yesterday, we must understand the difference between the self and himself as this is used in these ideas; in the word himself we should see the reality of the True man and in this word self we should see the lower man, the form and the personality in the world. Here again we are captive to the availability of words as they relate to ideas and while ALL may not agree with our separation here, this IS how we are using these words to express our view of these scriptural ideas. While this comparison of self to himself is not apparent here in the versions that we have above, we do see this in word presented in another translation as Layton says: “the world is not worthy of a person who has found the self?“. That he may mean in self the same as we see in the word himself we do not know but this IS an important separation to understand from a spiritual perspective; it IS important to KNOW to what we are referring.
We have above several different ideas and here we can lump together the idea finding the world, its wealth, the corpse and the dead body as ALL being the same thing but we must remember that in the way that some of this is written is parabolic and at times confusing. It is the secondary idea that is of moment, the idea of finding the corpse or the dead body is to realize that this IS the nature of the world; this is the nature of the struggle of the fifty eighth saying. We should also see here the reality that to come to this realization IS akin to finding oneself, to finding himself, and it is uniformly stated above that it is of this man that the world IS NOT worthy or, as others have rendered,that this man IS superior to the world. Here in these words we find that great separation between the carnal and the spiritual; the carnal are the things of the world and in finding these we can see the idea of finding death, spiritual death of course, and this IS as we presented in the words of the Apostles Paul and James in relation to the previous saying. Repeating just this one here again: “to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Romans 8:6) should allow us to better understand the whole of this reality from the spiritual perspective and to understand why so many do not recognize this as they believe that these ideas somehow disparage Life. The difficulty here IS of course our inability to see the very illusion in which we live and with which we are ourselves encumbered.
Here we are reminded of the Buddha’s words that show us this Truth in poetic form; we read:
“Do not live in the world, in distraction and false dreams. Outside the dharma. Arise and watch. Follow the way joyfully through this world and beyond. Follow the way of virtue. Follow the way joyfully through this world and on beyond! For consider the world -a bubble, a mirage. See the world as it is, and death shall overlook you. Come, consider the world, a painted chariot for kings, a trap for fools. But he who sees goes free. As the moon slips from behind a cloud And shines, so the master comes out from behind his ignorance And shines. The world is in darkness. How few have eyes to see! How few the birds who escape the net and fly to heaven! Swans rise and fly toward the sun. What magic! So do the pure conquer the armies of illusion and rise and fly” (Dhammapada; on The World).
This IS our reality, that we live in this illusion and that we must break free from it in order to see clearly, and a great part of this breaking free is found in our own realization that this illusion IS real or, better, that there really IS an illusion. From the perspective of the Master’s words here in Thomas we should see that finding the Truth that the world IS a corpse, that it IS a dead body, is this same breaking free; and finding also the Truth that having the world and its pleasures is sin and death from a spiritual perspective as testified to by the apostles IS the same….it IS breaking free.
We have then two parts to this saying from Thomas’ Gospel; the one is the statement of fact; that for the True disciple the “The heavens will roll up before you, and the earth” and in this metaphor we should try to see how the disciple becomes the master, standing above ALL. And it IS in this same state of discipleship that we can see that the “he who lives“, the Soul expressing through form in the world, came from the “living one” the Soul in the Kingdom God and has brought with him the realization of the Truth of eternal Life. This IS what we as aspirants work toward, this IS our goal and our objective in Life. Finally we have what we assume are Thomas’ own words that tell us the reason for these realizations….that the man in the world has found himself, his True self in the Soul, the Christ Within.
Our next saying, the one hundred twelfth, is one of the more obscure sayings in the entirety of Thomas’ Gospel. It can be seen as somewhat related to other sayings that may help us to better understand this one. Again we have some differences in translation that may alter one’s view of this saying and we report our normal group as:
- Jesus said: “Woe to the flesh that depends on the soul; woe to the soul that depends on the flesh” (Blatz).
- Jesus said, “Woe to the flesh that depends upon a soul. Woe to the soul that depends upon flesh” (Layton).
- Jesus says: “Cursed is the flesh that depends on the soul, and cursed is the soul that depends on the flesh!” (Doresse).
- Jesus said, “Woe to the flesh that depends on the soul; woe to the soul that depends on the flesh” (Lambdin).
- Jesus says: “Woe to the flesh that depends on the soul. Woe to the soul that depends on the flesh” (Patterson and Robinson).
- Jesus said, “Damn the flesh that depends on the soul. Damn the soul that depends on the flesh” (Patterson and Meyer).
- Said-JS101 this: “Woe on-the-flesh, the-one which-depends on-the-soul; (_) > Woe on-the-soul, t he-one which-depends on-the-flesh” (Interlinear Version).T
This word that is rendered as woe appears here and in one other saying and the various translations are the same; Doresse renders as cursed and Patterson and Meyer render as damn in both places while ALL others render as woe. From our perspective, if we are to consider that these are the words of the Master, then we must see this as woe which is a word we find used by Jesus in the accepted gospels. Damned and cursed are declarations that one would make and here the Master would have to be declaring that those to whom this applies ARE bad, unfit or even worthless in the idea of damned and similarly, in cursed but with the added projection of ill will onto another; these things we would not get from the Master under even the harshest of conditions. Woe on the other hand IS NOT a declaration nor a pronouncement but is rather a caution and a predictive word of distress, affliction or trouble; there is a large difference here in the choice of words. There is little commentary on this saying which we read as:
Helmut Koester writes: “Flesh and spirit, body and soul, are two different components in a human being, joined in an unholy mix which spells doom for both” (Ancient Christian Gospels, p. 126).
We have no clue as to what Mr. Koester means here; we can not see what could be an unholy mix in this intentional creation of man as a Soul in form and this regardless of a man’s focus in Life. There are two related sayings in Thomas Gospel and no apparent link here to the accepted gospels; the two from Thomas are:
- (29) Jesus says: “If the flesh came into being because of the spirit, it is a wonder. But if the spirit (came into being) because of the body, it is a wonder of wonders. Yet I marvel at how this great wealth has taken up residence in this poverty“
- (87) Jesus says: “Wretched is the body that depends on a body. And wretched is the soul that depends on these two.“
In the similarity of these sayings we can see the same point from a multiple of perspectives. In the twenty ninth we have the picture of reality in the first part, the wonder of the Truth of the man in the world. Remembering the parabolic value and the words that we take from Paul’s Epistle to the Corinthians, that “we have this treasure in earthen vessels” (2 Corinthians 4:7), we should be able to see the idea that it IS Spirit that IS the treasure that IS in the carnal form and that IS the True nature of man. And this is a wonder from the perspective of man; we do not and likely can not understand this. The Master then offers the converse, that it is the Spirit that comes into being because of the body as is the more common understanding of man, that he is born a body and given a Spirit or Soul. Here we have the idea that this is “a wonder of wonders” as to tell us that this IS NOT the way things are and here the Master parabolically affirms this in His next words that are about His own marveling, or His being amazed as the Interlinear renders this, at how this great wealth, this treasure if you will, is in this body. Patterson and Robinson above say this as “has taken up residence” while the Interlinear offers the clearer idea of why it “was placed in this-poverty” In this saying we should be able to see past doctrine and the common belief and understand that it is the Soul, the True man, that is using this body in performance of his role in the Great and Awesome Plan of God.
In the eighty seventh saying we find the idea of wretched and this is a word that is related to the miserableness and the distress of woe as we find in our current saying. Here we have a body that is depending on a body and we can read this in two ways; as the man relying upon his own carnal self for his salvation or we can see this as the man in the world relying upon other men in the world. From the second part however we can see this as perhaps both and the message here is that the Soul CAN NOT rely upon the carnal nature; in our discussion on this saying we said of this second part that it is: a non sequitur and the statement itself is likely offered to show this absurdity.
From the basis then that it IS the body that IS for the use of the Spirit and that the body that tries to find its own salvation without the Soul is wretched from a spiritual perspective, we come to our current saying. Here in these words we can see the reality of our idea of expression; that the reality of our salvation, the Truth of our spiritual Life is bound to the idea that we MUST express the qualities of the Soul through the form in this world; there MUST be formed that unity of Life and expression. In these words from the one hundred twelfth saying we can see this reality, that the Soul CAN NOT work alone through the body and the personality, the flesh according to our saying, but the Soul requires the cooperation of the form Life in order to express the Good, the Beautiful and the True through his carnal existence in the world. to try to accomplish this will only bring distress, affliction and trouble. Conversely we find as well the opposite idea of the Soul which depends upon the carnal nature to realize his salvation and his Truth and here we can see this in the ideas of Paul who tells us: “that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption” (1 Corinthians 15:50). It IS the Soul that must overcome the wiles of the flesh and come to that place of discipleship, that place where the expression of the man in the world IS the Love and the Power of the Soul.
We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.
We make note here that the prayer below as the Quote of the Day, the prayer that is attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi, IS Truly a Christmas Prayer and a Christmas invocation addressed to the Inner man, to the Christ Within, that we can ALL practice and affirm in our lives and which can bring out our Love as our expression to others in this Season of Christ-mas.
| 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.
This is the Prayer of Saint Francis which we repeat again from a previous post as our Quote of the Day. If we were all to accept these ideas as guiding Lights in our lives, we would be expressing the Love and the Faith that the Master teaches. It is attributed to the 13th-century saint Francis of Assisi, although the prayer in its present form cannot be traced back further than 1912*. Regardless of the True authorship, the sentiments revealed in this prayer are genuine and are in keeping the intent of the teachings of the Master and His apostles. We should note here that the dying is not necessarily the death of the body but the death of the carnal man in the world when one is born again. In this context we read this about Saint Francis: Francis was the son of a wealthy foreign cloth merchant in Assisi, and he lived the high-spirited life typical of a wealthy young man, even fighting as a soldier for Assisi. While going off to war in 1204, Francis had a vision that directed him back to Assisi, where he lost his taste for his worldly life**. Here is the antithesis of the rich young man of the gospels. While he may not have authored this prayer, many do attribute it to him and in reading about his Life one can easily see these ideas in his heart.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen
This is a prayer that is Truly in line with the teachings of the Master and the ideals encapsulated in this should be those that govern our lives and our prayer should be that ALL can see Life in this same way. We should try to see the reality of these words in the verses above regarding feeding and visiting the least of His and our brethren; in these words is a deeper meaning, as clearer expression of Love and, we should look at the Master’s words above as an expression of Love and not merely in the terms that He presents as this is the intent of the entirety of His teachings.
Additional background information on Saint Francis of Assisi can be found in a rather lengthy article in the Catholic Encyclopedia; a link to this is provided below.†
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/
- † Link to New Advent http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06221a.htm*
- Wikipedia contributors. “Prayer of Saint Francis.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 24 Jan. 2013.
- **Wikipedia contributors. “Francis of Assisi.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 24 Jan. 2013.
