An Interpretation of 114 Sayings of Jesus As Recorded In The Gospel of Thomas
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1 - And he said, "Whoever discovers the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death."
What Jesus had to contend with in making himself understood, was in how to translate an inherently non-rational Truth so that it could be contextualised into a rational reality. Not easy. In fact not readily possible at all, outside of a little Holy Spirit stimulation. But that is not to say impossible, because one can come to a rational awareness of the nature of their oneness, through diligent deference to its source, that being God. I’m not going to expound on what that involves right now, but for anyone who cares to look into it, there are essays dealing with it elsewhere, and an assortment of allusions to it throughout this Gospel of Thomas.
I’ll just add one thing though, if you want to understand how something works, you have to go to the source. Think electricity. You won’t learn how it works from turning on a light, but only from watching the turbines at work. Of course, with electricity someone can explain it to you because it’s rational, but no one can rationally explain how God works. We can only learn from the source.[avatar user="[email protected]" size="thumbnail" align="right" link="http://imagineapple.org/avatar"]
Mercifully though, Jesus left enough narrative in his wake relating to his relationship with God, albeit inherently abstract, to incite a curious enough seeker into learning about the true nature of Jesus, one step at a time. And these one hundred and fourteen sayings, represent a consolidation of the core bread crumbs leading to the source of Christ awareness. Moreover, a realisation of one or another of them, furthers a dawning of awareness to others.
2 - Jesus said, "Those who seek should not stop seeking until they find. When they find, they will be disturbed. When they are disturbed, they will marvel, and will reign over all. [And after they have reigned they will rest.]"
3 - Jesus said, "If your leaders say to you, 'Look, the (Father's) kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is within you and it is outside you. When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you live in poverty, and you are the poverty."
Consider this process in the context of a snake. So how does a snake shed its skin and then grow into another? Well to hazard a guess, I’d say a new skin grows underneath the current skin, while commensurately undermining the viability of it in the process, until it is completely gone, and the new skin in its place. Okay, so how can we parlay that into a Kingdom of Heaven perspective? Well for one thing, it suggests we need to begin growing our new skin first, as in growing in Divine awareness first, and as we do, our current human awareness will give way to the degree that our Divine awareness expands underneath it. Okay, so if we metaphorically transpose the snake’s new skin as growing from underneath the snake’s current skin, into Divine awareness as growing from underneath or from within human awareness, while inducing a deterioration of its effectiveness, in equal measure as it goes, then eventually Divine awareness will transposition human awareness completely “out of the way”, as in poof!
So how do we begin to grow in Divine awareness? Well the answer is simple but the involvement not quite so. It’s just a simple matter of turning away from human awareness to Divine awareness, and looking to God to gratify your jollies, rather than the human illusion. And the more diligently you can muster the will for this, the sooner you will experience results. You will find to some small surprise, that your focus on God brings results quite unexpectedly, with the impact of helping you maintain your interest until you see the “light”. In other words, until you begin to understand what it is all about and why it is so imperative to do it. It is this first ray of “light” which will give you your first sense of the supreme Light, affirming your resolution to embark on this journey. Many other lights or insights, will increasingly further that resolution as you carry on along your pathway.
"When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you live in poverty, and you are the poverty."
Getting to know ourselves does not mean in terms of our humanity, but in terms of our Divinity. We only exist as humans in our belief system. There is nothing real about us other than that we believe there is. So there’s no point in going there. We have to know who we really are relative to God. In other words, who does God think we are? Go on ask Him? No you daren’t do you, because He might tell you something you don’t want to hear, like what a naughty entity you are, or “you’ll get nowhere carrying on like that”. Well that’s not how He works. If He thinks you’re really interested, He’ll tell you how wonderful you are, if only you’d live up to your potential. Which should give you your cue to pressure Him into spitting it out.
To come to know ourselves in the eyes of God is a two-way street, where the more we come to understand Him, the more we would understand ourselves. I mean, there is no other way to know ourselves other than from God’s perspective so we have to know Him so that we can understand ourselves relative to Him. And for us to know Him He would have to know us, wouldn’t He? Therefore, “When you know yourselves, then you will be known”. We can’t escape it. To come to know ourselves we have to also come to know God because there is nothing worth knowing about ourselves that is not related to God. If you think there is, then you are stuck in your own poverty-stricken carnality. So once your eyes are opened to who you are relative to God, there is nothing else worth thinking about. [avatar user="[email protected]" size="thumbnail" align="right" link="http://imagineapple.org/got all 114"]Coming to know you are an inherent component in the infinity of the supreme whole, involves an awareness of your “old” self as an illusion. I mean shit, no one in their right “mind” is going to go back to that and return to living in a cardboard box, when you can live in the grandest mansion in all existence and beyond. Well unless you’ve got pretty low self-esteem.
4 - Jesus said, "The person old in days won't hesitate to ask a little child seven days old about the place of life, and that person will live. For many of the first will be last, and will become a single one."
Jesus’s reference is to the place of “Life”, as in the Kingdom of God, not to the illusion of life, as in human reality.
5 - Jesus said, "Know what is in front of your face, and what is hidden from you will be disclosed to you. For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed. [And there is nothing buried that will not be raised."]
The purpose of any lie is to conceal the truth, and when a lie is exposed everything behind it is exposed, as in the truth, the whole whole truth and nothing but the truth. So when we awaken to understand human existence for the lie that it is, all we are left with is Truth, as in God’s radiant glory. And again like any exposed lie, there is no way we can not know the truth, unless we deceive ourselves, where we aren’t ready to face the truth, so instead of exposing the lie, we just modify it and convince ourselves we have found the truth and are now living it. This is what most self-avowed Christians do. They aren’t prepared to completely give up their lifestyle so they just interpret and adapt Jesus’s Truth to fit in with their existing lie.
Extended notes
It’s pretty useless to try and get to the truth first, because for one thing, everyone believes the lie to be the truth, where even Jesus couldn’t convince anyone otherwise, and for another, anyone who does know the truth is not going to tell you because they’d obviously have a vested interest in keeping it hidden. Someone say, like a murderer. However, if the murderer could not handle living a lie anymore and wanted to come clean, the truth could be arrived at by his spilling the beans. Jesus tried to reveal Truth but hardly anyone was listening, or if they were they couldn’t make out what he was on about because he spoke in riddles.[avatar user="[email protected]" size="thumbnail" align="right" link="http://imagineapple.org/GOT all 114"]
So we are left with the upshot that Truth has to be got at by first uncovering the lie, and fortunately, Jesus left just enough clues to enable truth-seekers throughout the ages, to come to the truth through diligent detective work, in a similar way to which someone might smell a rat in the case of an exonerated murderer, and work doggedly to find out what really happened. Sometimes this uncovers the truth and sometimes not, as is the situation for truth-seekers.
6 - His disciples asked him and said to him, "Do you want us to fast? How should we pray? Should we give to charity? What diet should we observe?" Jesus said, "Don't lie, and don't do what you hate, because all things are disclosed before heaven. After all, there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and there is nothing covered up that will remain undisclosed."
For example, many people pray because they want to appear upstanding and righteous, but they are doing so to look righteous before humanity, not God. This is lying, in that, they like to think that appearing righteous in the eyes of society will give them credibility with God, when they really have no concept or impassioned desire for God at all. At the same time they probably hate doing it, but are prepared to pay that price for the prestige.
The question here posed by the disciples only serves to evidence their ignorance, because “there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed”. In other words, as we journey everything will unfold knowingly and opportunely. The journey itself provokes all the essential questions, and far more appropriately than our covetous curiosity could ever do, and spontaneously reveals the prefect answers.
The bottom line here, is to not do anything because you want to, but because it has been revealed to you to do so. Anything driven by want is predicated on covetousness, which also applies to desire, although there are some instances where desire comes from the heart. But desire is not part-and-parcel of our journey, it’s only relevant to its inception by getting us fired up. [avatar user="[email protected]" size="thumbnail" align="right" link="http://imagineapple.org/avatar"]Once we’re underway, we are guided by revelation. Doubtlessly, the most important thing is to follow what inspires us, because this mostly emanates from a recognised revelation that has grown within us, relative to whichever journey we happen to be on, be it vocational, spiritual, whatever.
7 - Jesus said, "Lucky is the lion that the human will eat, so that the lion becomes human. And foul is the human that the lion will eat, and the lion still will become human."
By becoming integrated into the human body, it necessarily contributes to the human’s viability to maintain its awareness, and consequently becomes inherent with it. Metaphorically, the lion now has the same awareness as the human. Conversely, a human consumed by a lion, contributes to the lion’s viability and imbues the lion’s awareness by way of it being integral with it.
In other words, what Jesus is inferring, is that when two things enter into each other they become one. This is not a rational commentary, but one that allegorically contextualise the nature our relationship to the Kingdom of God.
“Lucky for us to be consumed by the Kingdom of God, but how foul for the Kingdom of God to be consumed by a human being”.
In other words, to think of the Kingdom of God in terms of human existence is to discredit it. Any “Kingdom of God” which abides in the belief system of a human being is foul and an anathema to God. And more especially because of the duplicitous nature of that human being in contrast to everyone else.
This precept would be clearer if read like this:[avatar user="[email protected]" size="thumbnail" align="right" link="http://imagineapple.org/avatar"]
"Lucky is the human that the Kingdom of God will eat, so that the human enters the Kingdom of God. And foul is the Kingdom of God that the human will eat, and the Kingdom of Heaven still will become one with the human”. (Meaning the human will imbue a Kingdom of God oneness in it's belief system).
8 - And he said, The person is like a wise fisherman who cast his net into the sea and drew it up from the sea full of little fish. Among them the wise fisherman discovered a fine large fish. He threw all the little fish back into the sea, and easily chose the large fish. Anyone here with two good ears had better listen!
The one large fish represents the Kingdom of God and the myriad of small fish represents humanity. Seeing as the majority of human beings are not wise, demonstrated by reason of them preferring human existence to the Kingdom of God, they would be more inclined to let the big fish go, due to it being much too challenging to deal with, and keep all the small ones, which are far more manageable.[avatar user="[email protected]" size="thumbnail" align="right" link="http://imagineapple.org/avatar"]
So the point here is, if everyone is confronted with the Kingdom of God and human existence, only the wise would choose the Kingdom of God. Mores the pitiful rest.
9 - Jesus said, Look, the sower went out, took a handful (of seeds), and scattered (them). Some fell on the road, and the birds came and gathered them. Others fell on rock, and they didn't take root in the soil and didn't produce heads of grain. Others fell on thorns, and they choked the seeds and worms ate them. And others fell on good soil, and it produced a good crop: it yielded sixty per measure and one hundred twenty per measure.
NKJV - Mark 4:3-20 "Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. (4) And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it. (5) Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. (6) But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away. (7) And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. (8) But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred." (9) And He said to them, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!" (10) But when He was alone, those around Him with the twelve asked Him about the parable. (11) And He said to them, "To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables, (12) so that 'SEEING THEY MAY SEE AND NOT PERCEIVE, AND HEARING THEY MAY HEAR AND NOT UNDERSTAND; LEST THEY SHOULD TURN, AND THEIR SINS BE FORGIVEN THEM.' " (13) And He said to them, "Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?
(14) to (20)
(14) The sower sows the word. (15) And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts. (16) These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; (17) and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they stumble.[avatar user="[email protected]" size="thumbnail" align="right" link="http://imagineapple.org/avatar"](18) Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, (19) and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. (20) But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred."
10 - Jesus said, "I have cast fire upon the world, and look, I'm guarding it until it blazes."
11 - Jesus said, "This heaven will pass away, and the one above it will pass away. The dead are not alive, and the living will not die. During the days when you ate what is dead, you made it come alive. When you are in the light, what will you do? On the day when you were one, you became two. But when you become two, what will you do?"
“The dead are not alive, and the living will not die”
When this happens, he is saying or inferring, that it won’t make much difference to a normal human being because they are were never alive. So they’ll just remain dead. But to the few elect who understand the nature of human existence, and have awoken to a oneness with the Father through Holy Spirit imbuement, they are alive, and will likewise stay alive, except their human awareness will transpose into Divine awareness.
“During the days when you ate what is dead, you made it come alive”
Jesus is obviously speaking for the “living” here, whereby, those who are imbued with a oneness with God, have such an effect the “dead” people around them, that they become similarly consumed with the Holy Spirit. In plain rhetoric, the enlightened consume or absorb the unenlightened into that same oneness with the Father. You see, the great thing about oneness, as opposed to separateness, is in its infiniteness, where anyone and everyone can be drawn indefinitely and eternally into it. In this way, one enlightened person can “share” an interminable “infusion” of oneness. Enough oneness for the whole of humankind in perpetuity.
“When you are in the light, what will you do? On the day when you were one, you became two. But when you become two, what will you do?"
Here he is speaking to the enlightened, or those coming to enlightenment, and being still part of the world. What will they do when the heaven’s pass away? What do they think will happen? In the beginning, we came from oneness to separation, which Jesus seems to just mention in passing, as if it’s a given that just happened involuntarily. And anyway, been there and done that. But now we have to deal with going back to one. I mean, it’s all very well to have a Holy Spirit induced oneness while still in the world, but how will that transpire as we leave the world. I don’t think he’s expecting a definitive answer, but more as a provocation towards reflection.[avatar user="[email protected]" size="thumbnail" align="right" link="http://imagineapple.org/avatar"]
Essential these three sentences are evoking the same thing. What will transpire with the Light and the two becoming one, in the wake of the heavens passing away?
12 - The disciples said to Jesus, "We know that you are going to leave us. Who will be our leader?" Jesus said to them, "No matter where you are you are to go to James the Just, for whose sake heaven and earth came into being."
Heaven and earth were created to facilitate the soul’s journey from separation back to oneness. According to the Garden of Eden story, the soul(s), allegorically known as Adam and Eve, turned away from God and disengaged from oneness with the Father. God created heaven and earth, aka, the manifest world of human existence, as a “place” to enable the soul to exist separate from God, and to be a suitable facilitator for the soul’s return to its “senses” and reunification with God. However, human existence is not a “concrete” milieu as we perceive it to be, it is an illusory image imbued into the soul’s awareness by God, which the soul is only able to experience through the aid of an avatar, or human ego.
So the soul has a rational, three-dimensional awareness, but no material form of its own, so it projects an alter expression of itself into this image, in the form of an illusory physical body called the ego. This is somewhat similar to a gamer projecting their alter-self as an avatar, into a three-dimensional visualisation in cyberspace, which the gamer is aware of, but not physically embodied in.
Referring to James the Just as our leader, Jesus is implying that we should try to see world through the eyes of the soul. In the same way Jesus could see the world for what it is, and as a gamer sees the avatar’s world from a big picture aspect, as in objectively, so can the soul. So in a sense, for us to see the world through the eyes of the soul, is akin to an avatar seeing cyberspace through the eyes of the gamer.
James the Just Soul
The soul is not fickle like we egos are. It’s not biased, narcissistic, covetous, evil, nor anything else that is ego centrically degenerate. It sees things as they are, has one objective, and knows how to achieve it, but only with the cooperation of “its” human avatar, which tragically, it rarely gets.
So if you want to understand yourself in the context of God’s plan, communicate with your soul to the fullest extent you can muster. [avatar user="[email protected]" size="thumbnail" align="right" link="http://imagineapple.org/avatar"]Jesus took the form of a human ego, but he managed to objectify himself from its psyche. In other words, he experienced the world AS his soul incarnate, wearing the mask of an ego knowingly, in contrast to a normal person’s perception of the ego, as the unqualified embodiment of all they are.
13 - Jesus said to his disciples, "Compare me to something and tell me what I am like." Simon Peter said to him, "You are like a just messenger." Matthew said to him, "You are like a wise philosopher." Thomas said to him, "Teacher, my mouth is utterly unable to say what you are like." Jesus said, "I am not your teacher. Because you have drunk, you have become intoxicated from the bubbling spring that I have tended." And he took him, and withdrew, and spoke three sayings to him. When Thomas came back to his friends they asked him, "What did Jesus say to you?" Thomas said to them, "If I tell you one of the sayings he spoke to me, you will pick up rocks and stone me, and fire will come from the rocks and devour you."
"I am not your teacher. Because you have drunk, you have become intoxicated from the bubbling spring that I have tended."
Although Thomas was not able to answer Jesus cognitively, he respectfully at least, addressed him in cognitive terms as teacher, followed by his response of not being able to quantify him relative to humanity. When Jesus heard this, he realised Thomas had come to imbue the same Christ intoxication that Jesus had, and that he could say things to him about the nature of the Father, which only Thomas among all of humanity, would be able to understand. In other words, he could communicate with him on a celestial level.
Thomas said to them, "If I tell you one of the sayings he spoke to me, you will pick up rocks and stone me, and fire will come from the rocks and devour you."
However, whatever he came to understand through this communication, would be cognitively unintelligible in human terms, and for him to try to make it intelligible, would come across to the other disciples with no context, as largely inappropriate and derogatory. Jesus had the same problem when attempting to explain his divine awareness to our human awareness. This is one reason he would use parables, because to say it as he “saw” it would inevitably make everyone look ignorant and delusional, which of course we all are, but pointing it out starkly would only cause an uproar and a stoning, because it would have no contextual relevance. Parables served more as a means of baby steps, where they didn’t hurt anyone’s feelings (well they weren’t meant to), mainly because they were allegorical and presented in the third person, and left up to the individual to figure them out for themselves. [avatar user="[email protected]" size="thumbnail" align="right" link="http://imagineapple.org/avatar"]In other words, people could come to their own conclusions about the nature of their ignorance, thereby inclining a belief in themselves to that degree or not.
14 - Jesus said to them, "If you fast, you will bring sin upon yourselves, and if you pray, you will be condemned, and if you give to charity, you will harm your spirits. When you go into any region and walk about in the countryside, when people take you in, eat what they serve you and heal the sick among them. After all, what goes into your mouth will not defile you; rather, it's what comes out of your mouth that will defile you."
And this is the key to Jesus’s missive. If you fast and pray and give to charity without this spontaneity, you will be doing so willfully, and all self-will is predicated on covetousness. In other words, you will be doing it out of an egocentric motivation, rather than an involuntary God-inspired one. And whether your motivation is noble or directed towards God, it doesn’t matter. Invariably, anything willfully directed towards God can only be intended to bring God into our world, rather than the other way round. Having said that, to wilfully direct one’s whole life towards God, is another matter, because then we are not “picking and choosing” what we can get to make our life better. Instead, we are selflessly-willed to make God’s “life” better by handing Him our whole beingness.
“When you go into any region and walk about in the countryside, when people take you in, eat what they serve you and heal the sick among them. After all, what goes into your mouth will not defile you; rather, it's what comes out of your mouth that will defile you."
The upshot of this paragraph also relates to spontaneity. Jesus has imbued the disciples with the healing spirit, and they need to faithfully stay in rapport with the spirit, without willfully interceding about not liking this, or not wanting to do this or that, or that some people don’t deserve to be healed or whatever. [avatar user="[email protected]" size="thumbnail" align="right" link="http://imagineapple.org/avatar"]Anything willfully said or willfully implied, can only emanate from partiality and denigrate the integrity of their mission.
15 - Jesus said, "When you see one who was not born of woman, fall on your faces and worship. That one is your Father."
“When you see one who was not conceived of woman, fall on your faces and worship. That one is your Father."
However the main thrust of this saying, is that only God could manage to pull off a feat like this. It’s not really clear why Jesus would consider this a need to know truism, because it’s not as if God would pull a feat like this and keep it a secret.[avatar user="[email protected]" size="thumbnail" align="right" link="http://imagineapple.org/avatar"] It might possibly be to try and convince the hardcore sceptics, that although others have performed miracles, there’s no disputing Jesus as the only person ever to be conceived, independent of any ovarious intervention. I mean, that should have the sceptics sitting up.
16 - Jesus said, "Perhaps people think that I have come to cast peace upon the world. They do not know that I have come to cast conflicts upon the earth: fire, sword, war. For there will be five in a house: there'll be three against two and two against three, father against son and son against father, and they will stand alone.
"Perhaps people think that I have come to cast peace upon the world”
This speaks firstly to the Jews who were expecting a messiah around the time of Jesus appearing, but did not expect him to be anything like Jesus was. Their concept of a messiah was more in the mould of a benevolent one, who would tell them how wonderful they were, make their crops grow faster, get their dissenting relatives off their back, order the authorities to ease up on them, and to put an end to all conflict.
“They do not know that I have come to cast conflicts upon the earth: fire, sword, war.”
Well we know from the history of the past two thousand years that there is nothing truer than this saying, although things didn’t turn out quite as he had envisioned, because very few ever took him seriously, other than in the context of him being mentally deranged and celestially up himself. But he certainly wasn’t lying in the sense of him not coming to appease the Jews or anyone else. Essentially he came to proclaim a message of hope, rather than to solve all their problems. To Jew’s chagrin however, the only hope he had on offer was more in the guise of hopelessness, whereby, they turn away from their old ways and take up with God, whereupon, all they could ever ask for would be at their disposal. Unsurprisingly, that hope was dashed before it had a chance. And so if that was all he came to proclaim, they didn’t see why he should be treated credibly.
“For there will be five in a house: there'll be three against two and two against three, father against son and son against father, and they will stand alone.”
Whether Jesus was expressing this as relevant to his times or not doesn’t really matter. In the context of today though, it is the most foreboding statement of all, because it is being revealed to us right now in real time, just as he foretold. Never before has there been so much overt disparity of personal convictions. Where in the past we held our convictions close to our chest, mainly because no one else cared to know about them or for fear of being shot down. But cyberspace has completely turned that on its head. And not in the sense that people care to know about other’s beliefs, but because we force them to, by unashamedly hanging them out there for all to see and avoid. So now, because everyone can see what everyone else believes, people are coming to see their friends and loved ones in their true, and horrors-of horrors, disparate light, resulting in friends and family revising their concept of who they trust and who they suspect. People are moving from camp to camp based on how they perceive others with similarly orientated belief systems. And the most scary thing of all, is that they begin to consummate the ideology of the camp they have newly aligned with, and develop a contempt for the ideology of their old their camp, which they had previously only nodded to. In other words, because everyone is now able to perceive much more plainly how other’s think, they are realising the truth about how different other’s are to how they thought they were, resulting in them moving away from some and closer to others.
The thing is, because the “eyes” of the world are so readily accessible and responsive, and because everyone has their own barrow to push, they will comment in no uncertain terms if they believe differently, and in positive terms if they agree. Moreover, others can comment on other’s comments, which facilitates such a slanging-match as was previously unimaginable.
Now one isn’t inherently inclined to go against friends or family, no matter how disparate their beliefs are, firstly out of an innate sense of kinship, and secondly, owing to feeling a need to maintain some link with other family members, a desire for keeping the peace.
The bottom line of this precept (which is why it’s at the bottom), is that when the shit hits the fan and everyone has to take sides, there will be no degrees of grey, no degrees of right nor wrong, no degrees of left nor right, where conflictive people can hide, just sheer overt polarisation. [avatar user="[email protected]" size="thumbnail" align="right" link="http://imagineapple.org/avatar"]Where one might have previously compromised or acknowledged the right of others to their point-of-view, those who continue to come at this will be liable to ostracism or worse, until even they have to nail their flag. It’s not hard to imagine the strained atmosphere that will prevail in every domestic household, not to mention between them all.
17 - Jesus said, "I will give you what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, what no hand has touched, what has not arisen in the human heart."
The Holy Spirit is our direct connection to God. It is how we sense our oneness with Him. The spirit, on the other hand, is our connection to every other human being. It is how we sense our oneness with humanity in separateness. The spirit facilitates human life, in that, it is the source of our animation, just as single-phase electricity animates our appliances. The Holy Spirit facilitates Divine life, by way of directly connecting us to our Father source, just as three-phase electricity connects a machine directly its hydroelectric or coal power source. [avatar user="[email protected]" size="thumbnail" align="right" link="http://imagineapple.org/avatar"]And in like manner, three-phase electricity cannot be seen, nor heard, nor touched (and live), nor I suspect, be heart felt (and live).
18 - The disciples said to Jesus, "Tell us, how will our end come?" Jesus said, "Have you found the beginning, then, that you are looking for the end? You see, the end will be where the beginning is. Congratulations to the one who stands at the beginning: that one will know the end and will not taste death.
So this may seem a bit of a stretch to our cerebral mindset, but that’s just because we happen to be in our own disparate awareness, and no two awareness’s are viable at the same time. So the concept of an awareness devoid of time-and-space as viable, is completely illogical and ridiculous from our time-and-space-aware perspective. It’s holistically harebrained. Nonetheless, if we accept Jesus we have to accept this, and then we can contemplate how we come to it.[avatar user="[email protected]" size="thumbnail" align="right" link="http://imagineapple.org/avatar"]
How we come to it is the thing we should be contemplating, but first we have to wholly accept it.
“Congratulations to the one who stands at the beginning: that one will know the end and will not taste death."
Obviously, if one we have this now awareness, we are in eternity and will live forever.
19 - Jesus said, "Congratulations to the one who came into being before coming into being. If you become my disciples and pay attention to my sayings, these stones will serve you. For there are five trees in Paradise for you; they do not change, summer or winter, and their leaves do not fall. Whoever knows them will not taste death."
"Congratulations to the one who came into being before coming into being”
This is someone who has evolved through many incarnations into virtual Kingdom of God awareness while still human, and when their human expression dies, their soul enters fully into the Divine. In other words, their soul “incarnates” into Divine “being” rather reincarnating as a human being.
“If you become my disciples and pay attention to my sayings, these stones will serve you”
Jesus is using stones to symbolise insights
“For there are five trees in Paradise for you; they do not change, summer or winter, and their leaves do not fall. Whoever knows them will not taste death"
Scripturally, trees are used metaphorically to symbolise the connection between heaven and earth, so in this passage he telling us about five truths applicable to the Kingdom of God, which are able to be realised from our human awareness. No one can come to the full realisation of this and continue to imbue human awareness. [avatar user="[email protected]" size="thumbnail" align="right" link="http://imagineapple.org/avatar"]In other words, as someone comes to realise what these are, they are correspondingly growing in Kingdom of God awareness, to where the fifth is ultimately realised, synchronous to their consummation of Kingdom of God oneness.
20 - The disciples said to Jesus, "Tell us what Heaven's kingdom is like." He said to them, It's like a mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds, but when it falls on prepared soil, it produces a large plant and becomes a shelter for birds of the sky."
The seed of Kingdom of Heaven awareness is within everyone of us, and it is such a small seed it is virtually incomprehensible, to where very few are even aware that there is such a thing at all, let alone what it is or where it might be. But rest assured it is there and its efficacy is staggering.
“but when it falls on the earth which is tilled”
Those who have heard about the potentiality of this little seed, and through diligent curiosity have come to discover it, by way of it “falling into their awareness”, begin on a journey of inner growth, by first moistening the seed’s “testa”, by way of submitting the ego to initiation through baptism, and then watching diligently for the initial sign of growth activity, as in a shoot, where one arrives at a knowingness that their journey has been sanctioned and they are now optimistically on their way. Moreover, now that the growth is “out in the open”, they can assess their progress more assuredly.
ASIDE: The human ego represents the mustard seed, wherein, they both have a hard outer shell which has to “soften” sufficiently to allow the respective Christ and mustard tree embryos to force out a shoot, which in both cases is achieved by introducing them to moisture. Tangibly in the case of the mustard seed, and symbolically in the case of the ego. Although not wholly symbolic, because baptising the ego looks the same on the surface as wetting the mustard seed, it’s just that one is natural and the other less so.
The next part of the journey involves vigilance, because the welfare of the new sprout will always be prone to attacks from natural enemies, and if one turns away from their journey to look back to the world for even a moment, that could be the moment the sprout is attacked by satan’s “birds”, and the journey compromised. When the shoot evolves into a plant seedling however, there is much less danger of it being compromised, firstly because the plant has begun to develop a stronger root system, and secondly, because the (Christ) plant is much more obvious and easier to remain focused on, providing less incentive to divert back to the world. So from here on in, as the plant increases in size, it becomes exponentially easier to maintain one’s focus on God. And what’s more, even if you did turn away for a moment or two, the plant would be just about able to defend for itself. BUT most significantly by this stage, that won’t be an issue, because one will have such a profusion of Divine splendour growing up within their awareness, they will be incapable of turning away. And more especially back to a vainglorious ugly wasteland.[avatar user="[email protected]" size="thumbnail" align="right" link="http://imagineapple.org/avatar"]
“it puts forth a great branch and becomes a shelter for birds of heaven”
When one has fully transpositioned out of human awareness into full imbuement of Kingdom of God awareness, their perception of limitation gives way to an imperception of infinity where everything that ever was and ever will be, can be accommodated times infinitude. It’s all consummate as one.
21 - Mary said to Jesus, "What are your disciples like?" He said, They are like little children living in a field that is not theirs. when the owners of the field come, they will say, "Give us back our field." They take off their clothes in front of them in order to give it back to them, and they return their field to them. For this reason I say, if the owners of a house know that a thief is coming, they will be on guard before the thief arrives and will not let the thief break into their house (their domain) and steal their possessions. As for you, then, be on guard against the world. Prepare yourselves with great strength, so the robbers can't find a way to get to you, for the trouble you expect will come. Let there be among you a person who understands. When the crop ripened, he came quickly carrying a sickle and harvested it. Anyone here with two good ears had better listen!
Children is symbolic here also, because when a child is born it comes in imbued with the Holy Spirit by way of its connection to the Father, and gradually sheds this awareness through its first seven years, when it comes into full rational awareness.[avatar user="[email protected]" size="thumbnail" align="right" link="http://imagineapple.org/avatar"]
But when the Jewish hierarchy came to reclaim their duplicitous ground on which Jesus was trespassing, by effecting his crucifixion, the Holy Spirit left with him, restoring the disciples to normal human “carcasses”. The “children” being forced to leave the field is symbolic of the Holy Spirit leaving the world, wherein, it sheds it’s human clothing.
22 - Jesus saw some babies nursing. He said to his disciples, "These nursing babies are like those who enter the kingdom." They said to him, "Then shall we enter the kingdom as babies?" Jesus said to them, "When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter [the kingdom]."
(Mat 18:10 "Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven.)
Young children are not being fully imbued with rationale, and therefore, not yet fully embodied into the world, hence, their awareness is predominantly instinctual, which evolves into full rational self-awareness through to around age seven. So not being self-aware nor self-determining, they are instinctively God-aware and God-reverential, to the given degree of their inception to age seven evolvement. They are still in God’s orbit and sanctification, which is monitored by His angels, in contrast to fully rational human beings who are on their own. In other words, God monitors the wellbeing of a human being via His angels, from inception until they are fully able to take care of themselves. There is no other way, because there are only two states of awareness, and we have to be in one or the other. There’s nothing in between, except a transitional period in the case of a child.
So when Jesus is talking about nursing children and the symbolism of their “nowness” with the object of their source of human survival, his inference to “entering the kingdom as babies” has the added connotation of their being one with the Father, considering they are very much “in tune” with Him anyway.
In summary, a nursing child having an instinctual awareness, is to a great extent, still in the Kingdom of God, but because they are physically part of the world, they are normally, sensorily distracted from God’s reverence. However, when they are “locked onto” the mother’s breasts and fully consummated in the source of nourishment, they are totally impervious to worldly distractions, invoking an innate assimilation with the glory of God.
"When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter [the kingdom]."
The whole context of this paragraph symbolises the Kingdom of Heaven as embodiment of oneness. There is no separation nor physical dimensions. Just bliss, whatever that amounts to beyond rationale.[avatar user="[email protected]" size="thumbnail" align="right" link="http://imagineapple.org/avatar"]
(Luke 18:16 But Jesus called them to Him and said, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.")
In this passage from Luke, he reiterates the symbolism of requiring a “singular” childlike mindset to imbue a Kingdom of God awareness.
23 - Jesus said, "I shall choose you, one from a thousand and two from ten thousand, and they will stand as a single one."
In other words, a Kingdom of Heaven awareness demonstrates how a number of people with disparately aware belief systems, are coalesced into one consummate awareness, which means that beliefs are not inherent in Kingdom of Heaven awareness.
A belief system is only relevant when there is more than one, because it functions to delineate one from another. In a rational world this is obligatory, because rationale is conditional on separation, which can only be realised through delineation. But in the Kingdom of Heaven where all is as one, a belief system serves no purpose, because the one is all-knowing leaving nothing to believe. So it’s not a question of believing, it’s an acceptance of knowingness. [avatar user="[email protected]" size="thumbnail" align="right" link="http://imagineapple.org/avatar"]
A belief system evolves through experiential conditioning, and delineates each person accordingly. In a “world” of oneness, experience is replaced by knowingness, where knowingness was the culmination and ultimate destination of all experience. And because knowingness is the consummation of all there is to know, there is nothing one person can know that another doesn’t, and that is why there is only one. Put it this way, if everyone’s the same, we’re all ONE (and the same).
24 - His disciples said, "Show us the place where you are, for we must seek it." He said to them, "Anyone here with two ears had better listen! There is light within a person of light, and it shines on the whole world. If it does not shine, it is dark."
“There is light within a person of light, and it shines on the whole world. If it does not shine, it is dark."
Wherever Jesus goes in the world his light is available to everyone, but if no one can perceive it shining, they’ll have to remain in the dark. I mean, they are looking straight at the light, so how can you tell them where it is if it’s right in front of them and they can’t see it. Do you tell them, “It’s right in front of you”. [avatar user="[email protected]" size="thumbnail" align="right" link="http://imagineapple.org/avatar"]
It’s not a matter of them knowing where it is, it’s a matter of them needing an eye operation. Sure, Jesus could open the eyes of the blind to enable them to see the world, but he couldn’t open the awareness of people to enable them to “see” the Kingdom of God. Only God could do that, and he often asked the Father to help him with the disciples in this regard.
25 - Jesus said, "Love your friends like your own soul, protect them like the pupil of your eye."
By “like your own soul”, means by all that you can conceive and believe yourself to be. In other words, not just by resisting violence or not being revengeful, but also by not badmouthing them, etc. It hurts us to hear gossip about ourselves so think about others as if it was yourself before engaging in some conversational rumour-mill. Sticks and stones may break my bones but recover pretty quickly. Words and lies go on and on wound my very soul.
Now this is a very hard saying, but we needn’t look at it as do or die, but rather, we should keep this in the front of our minds as much as we can. This will assist us in second-thinking any actions we might be impulsively inclined to make when we think someone has wronged us in any way. [avatar user="[email protected]" size="thumbnail" align="right" link="http://imagineapple.org/avatar"]After all, it’s quite natural for a covetously rational mindset, living in an emotional and sensual milieu, to react vindictively when we think our lives and feelings have been compromised, but it’s also incredibly detrimental to our wellbeing if we respond vengefully. In any event, just bring this precept to mind and take a deep breath. It may not negate your intent, but it should definitely cushion it, which is the essence of Jesus’s message. I mean, even the most upstanding human being would be hard-pushed to avoid some sort of negative response. There is also the implication in this precept, of a facilitation towards an easier and less conflicted life.
Note: Many of these Gospel Of Thomas sayings of Jesus, are not meant to be taken literally, but like this one, as a guideline. The intent is to imbue people’s minds with a concept of right and wrong in the eyes of the Father. And just as in life, no human child is able to maintain a degree of full adherence to their parents dictates, and neither do the parents assume them to. The main thrust of the parents intent, is to instil enough right and wrong in the child’s head, to steer them away from too much trouble.
The Father’s intent is the same, in that, the more upstanding we are, the less trouble we’ll run into, and the more likely we are to look up to our Father in deference to the world. That’s all.
No Father, whether human of celestial is going to disown us for not being perfect, in fact, for not even being close. But if either one of them can instil in us enough common sense to have us maintain our respect for them, we’ll make sure we do our best to live up to their expectations. In return, I’m sure they will be more than grateful to help us in whatever we ask, if ever we call on them to.