ON LOVE; PART XDXXIII

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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The Gospel of Thomas

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

(58) Jesus says: “Blessed is the person who has struggled. He has found life.”

(59) Jesus says: “Look for the Living One while you are alive, so that you will not die (and) then seek to see him. And you will not be able to see (him).”

(60) <He saw> a Samaritan who was trying to steal a lamb while he was on his way to Judea. He said to his disciples: “That (person) is stalking the lamb.” They said to him: “So that he may kill it (and) eat it.” He said to them: “As long as it is alive he will not eat it, but (only) when he has killed it (and) it has become a corpse.” They said to him: “Otherwise he cannot do it.” He said to them: “You, too, look for a place for your repose so that you may not become a corpse (and) get eaten.”

(61) Jesus said: “Two will rest on a bed. The one will die, the other will live.” Salome said: “(So) who are you, man? You have gotten a place on my couch as a <stranger> and you have eaten from my table.” Jesus said to her: “I am he who comes from the one who is (always) the same. I was given some of that which is my Father’s.  I am your disciple! Therefore I say: If someone becomes <like> (God), he will become full of light. But if he becomes one, separated (from God), he will become full of darkness.”

(62) Jesus says: “I tell my mysteries to those who [are worthy] of [my] mysteries. Whatever you right hand does, your left hand should not know what it is doing.”

The final point in the Values to Live By that have served as our Quote of the Day for many days now is Serving the Common Good— through the sacrifice of selfishness. Only what is good for all is good for each one. In this saying there IS much Truth, Truth that IS missed by most as individuals and groups in private Life, politics, religion and in business. Many may view this as a ‘nice’ ideal to follow but few there are that can look past their own interests and see the greater good or the Common Good as our Values to Live by frames this. ALL of these values work together and in the Christian world these ideas should be seen in the Love that the Master teaches us and, in ALL other world religions, these values should be seen in the True instructions of the Great Ones whose teachings are followed and not in the doctrines which are created by men to serve their individual and group desires. This IS the reality of most ALL doctrines, of most ALL religions, as they are but a pale reflection of the Truths expressed by these Great Ones who have come among us to show us the better way; be it the Buddha, Krishna, Jehovah, Muhammad or Christ, the essentials of the True teaching are the same and the primary objective of ALL is to show the way to God through one’s own relationship with the God Within which is accomplished by one’s relationships with others.

In this Light Serving the Common Good can be seen as the natural way of ALL religion and this is the best reason why this ideal, this value, can be presented in a worldwide view. The very religious, the semi-religious and the irreligious can ALL understand the Truth in this saying and so it IS NOT merely a religious virtue; it is an innate part in the lives of ALL men who are not so self-centered that they CAN NOT see reality and who only themselves and their own. In a way this ideal is the basis, the foundation if you will, for ALL world religions and we should see here in the Common Good that there is no separation of people, there are just people. And this IS our point here, the idea of the sacrifice of selfishness is not to be found only in NOT looking first to the self and those who one deems close as this is a most difficult undertaking, it is rather to be found in understanding and accepting ALL men as men who are entitled to the same rights and privileges as we ARE. Here we can eliminate the prejudices and the hatreds that have separated humanity into camps, sometimes armed, which then affiliate with others and find common ground to be against yet others. This is from our perspective the beginning of Serving the Common Good, it starts with seeing the Common Good from the perspective that we ARE ALL essentially the same, the children of ONE GOD regardless of what we may call HIM. We are ONE Humanity living on this ONE Earth and in this we should clearly see the Golden Rule as the general rule of Serving the Common Good.

In this Golden Rule there is the Power of ALL these Values to Live By:

• A Love of Truth based in the understanding that we do not want to be lied to or be told things that are the fabrications of men and here, if we expect to hear Truth, we must tell Truth…..we must Love Truth.
• A Sense of Justice as based in our own desire to be treated fairly and to NOT be judged based upon some common misunderstanding of our nationality or our religion. Here, if we expect to be treated justly, we must in turn treat others in the same way; we must drop our prejudices and preconceived ideas about others.
• A Spirit of Cooperation must prevail in our dealings with others and this spirit should be understood as based in the Truth and the Justice that we offer others and that we desire for others to offer to us. The idea here is simple and straightforward, it is acting at ALL times in a spirit of GoodWill as expressed in Right Human Relations which IS the essence of the Golden Rule.
• A Sense of Personal Responsibility which brings ALL of these ideas to a personal level where we see that these ideas of Truth and Justice and Cooperation are not to be left to others, to groups large and small, to political, religious or business bodies nor even world bodies like the United Nations; we are to accept our own share of the burden by acting in such a way that we become the Golden Rule, that its precept becomes our outward expression.

Tomorrow is United Nations Day 2013 and if we could understand the dynamic presented here, we could possibly hasten the recognition of those ideas and ideals upon which the United Nations was founded and in this recognition we could change the world; in this is the Truth of the closing saying from our Values to Live By which tells us that The world of the future depends on what each one of us chooses to do today. This IS again the Golden Rule as we find in it the reality that this IS NOT a reciprocal rule as thought by many, it is a progressive rule that starts with each man himself as he does to and for others as he would want done to him and for himself, and this regardless of what it IS that may be done to any. The objectives of the United Nations is clearly for the Common Good as we can see in the Preamble to the United Nations Charter which says:

WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED

• to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and
• to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and
• to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and
• to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

AND FOR THESE ENDS

• to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, and
• to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and
• to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and
• to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples,

HAVE RESOLVED TO COMBINE OUR EFFORTS TO ACCOMPLISH THESE AIMS

This Preamble is the Goal for the United Nations and should not be seen as statements of fact upon which the United Nations has fallen short; this IS what the member nations commit to do and the failures here must be put at their feet. The 193 countries that make up this world body must accept these ideas as nations and teach these ideas to their children as the Right way of Living and they must uphold the ideas of GoodWill and Right Human Relations instead of teaching their own revisionist histories and their own view of the world around them. And, we must ever remember that these changes begin with us ourselves and our expression of Love in our thoughts, our attitudes and our actions.

Returning to our discussion on the Gospel of Thomas and the fifty eighth saying, we should recall that the world rendered as labor or labored is also seen by others as suffered, labored, toiled and struggled and by the Interlinear as troubled and, while we do not KNOW the right rendering here, we should note that the word chosen has a dynamic effect upon one’s interpretation of this saying when these words are viewed in a carnal context. Spiritually, these can ALL be seen to say much the same thing but since this IS NOT how this is generally viewed we should not go here without explanation. This Coptic word, xise in English letters, is used four times in the Gospel of Thomas and perhaps looking at these we can determine the Master’s intent:

• Saying 58: Rendered in the Interlinear as troubled and by the other translators as suffered, labored, toiled and struggled in the context of  “Blessed is the man who” followed by either has or is and then our word.
• Saying 107: Rendered in the Interlinear as troubled and by the other translators as labored, toiled, troubled and trouble using different tenses in the context of “after he had” followed by our word in an expression said in regard to looking for and then finding the lost sheep. While the saying is similar to that in Matthew and Luke the phrasing of it is very different. Here then is it labor to find the sheep or is it toil or, can this be said as the Interlinear where we read “having been troubled“. Only in troubled do we find the concern for finding the sheep and this is the understanding of this that we get in the synoptic gospels.
• Saying 8: Rendered in the Interlinear as without trouble and by the other translators as without difficulty, effortlessly, without any effort, without hesitating and easily. The context here is that the fisherman chose the large fish using one of these ideas of this being accomplished without …. . Here ALL of these ideas do give us the same meaning regarding the ability of the man to choose the large fish.
• Saying 97: Rendered in the Interlinear as a trouble, this is seen by the other translators in a variety of ways that we can only view in their context. The saying is about a woman who loses the meal in her jar as she walks along the road.
  • “She was unaware, she had not noticed the misfortune“
  • “She was not aware of the fact; she had not understood how to toil“
  • “without her knowing it and stopping it“
  • “She did not realize it; she had noticed no accident“
  • “she did not know (it); she had not noticed a problem“
  • “she-knew not (it) to be; did-not-she-realize a-trouble(?)“

Looking at these it is easy to see that the idea of trouble works across this variety of sayings while the other translators are forced to use several different rather unrelated renderings for this single Coptic word. We could have just chosen a word to use for our understanding here but this seemed a good opportunity to show how the translation of a single word can change the reality of a saying. As we noted above, from a spiritual perspective all of the renderings for our fifty eighth saying can be see as much the same. We are speaking here about a beatitude, a blessing for an accomplishment which we should see in the context of spiritual happiness; that the man who DOES will be spiritually happy which can only mean fulfilled from our perspective. Here this fulfillment comes from one who DOES labor for the Kingdom, one who works and toils in the world of men as did the Christ and His disciples. Here, looking at this from a more worldly perspective on a spiritual endeavor, we can also see the idea of suffering as the blessed man forsakes ALL for this spiritual fulfillment and here we do understand that from the perspective of the Soul there IS NO suffering. The same can be said here about the idea of struggle as the man in the world Truly does struggle to find and maintain his right focus; again the struggle is from the carnal view as the man stands against the attractions and the attachments to thoughts, attitudes and actions of and for the world.

Overall however, for the man who is looking at this saying from the perspective of the novice and the more advanced aspirant the idea of trouble best suits this saying as in this arena of duality there is ofttimes trouble in maintaining one’s focus and in seeing clearly past the illusion and the glamour of Life in the world; here, the second choice would be struggle. Suffered, toiled and labored, while perhaps pertinent to some, do not reflect the idea of the saying from our perspective as do troubled and the one who struggles to achieve. It IS the man who fights through the trouble that his personality causes him and it IS the man who struggles through the onslaught of thoughts and ideas of the self in the world; it IS this man that IS blessed and in that blessing this man finds True Life in the realization that he IS the spiritual man living through form in this world. The Apostle Paul offers these ideas to the disciples and aspirants at Corinth which we may find helpful here: “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body” (2 Corinthians 4:8-10). And here then is the blessing, the realization of the Christ Within.

Our next saying, the fifty ninth, is a snapshot of our view of Life and the Kingdom and the reality of our idea that the Kingdom IS here and now and that the Kingdom IS within. Here the Master says:  “Look for the Living One while you are alive, so that you will not die (and) then seek to see him. And you will not be able to see (him)“. Here again we have various renderings of this saying that can change the context of the Master’s message which IS from our perspective that it IS only in this Life that we can find the Truth of God and our own spiritual reality….this IS NOT possible after death. Here again we should see our view of the objective of Life itself as men in form; that we are able to express the fullness of the Love and the Power of the Soul, of the Living One if you will, through our Life here in this world. In this we can see that once this Life IS over, there is no longer the opportunity to do so and then the man must await his next incarnation. In this saying, we must understand just who IS this Living One; we should KNOW that the Master is no longer with us in this Earth and that of God we are part and parcel; we ARE within Him and He IS within us. In this understanding we are not looking for the God Transcendent which IS the way that God is viewed by many, we are looking for the God Immanent, the God Within, the God that we can express to the world of men.

There are scant comments on this saying:

• Funk and Hoover write: “The ‘living one’ in this saying can refer only to Jesus himself (compare Thom 52:2 and the prologue). Here Jesus speaks of himself as the revealer who has the power to save from death those who seek him (Thomas 49-50 reflect this same notion). This language is that of Thomean Christianity, not Jesus.” (The Five Gospels, p. 506).
• Gerd Ludemann writes: “The key word ‘living’ links the present logion with the previous one (‘found life’). Jesus is speaking of himself as the living one (cf. Prologue; 52.2) and emphasizing the either-or between (spiritual) life and (spiritual) death.” (Jesus After 2000 Years, p. 619).

In these comments we have the interpretation that this IS Jesus speaking of Himself and we should understand here that this is but an assumption of what these words refer to and likely from a doctrinal perspective. Remembering that doctrine DOES NOT believe our reality of the Kingdom Within as the Master teaches us and in this view doctrine does not see our reality of the God Within and the Christ Within either, that these idea are based in the reality that the True man, the Living Soul, IS who animates this body nature and IS who has that goal set before him….that he must express this True self through this form in the world. This IS our reality.

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.

Values to Live By

A Love of Truth—essential
for a just, inclusive and progressive society;

A Sense of Justice—recognition
of the rights and needs, of all.

Spirit of Cooperation—based
on active goodwill and the principle of right human
relationships;

A Sense of Personal Responsibility—for
group, community and national affairs;

Serving the Common Good— through
the sacrifice of selfishness. Only what is good for all
is good for each one.

The world of the future depends on what each one of us chooses to do today.

From a previous essay and Quote of the Day we reprise these words:  It is interesting to note that the ideas of the Quote of the Day embody much of the Master’s teachings and can set the stage for the beginning of each man’s revelation and realization of the Light of the Soul; that is, that by the intentional practice of these ‘rules’ of conduct one can put himself in the position of a follower of the Master and an keeper of His word and this regardless if he has ever heard of the Christ or wants to be affiliated with any ideas Christian. By keeping these sound principals of Life in mind and practicing them a man can lift himself up above and beyond the world of men and into the world of the Good, the Beautiful and the True as it exists for those in whom the Christ Within, the God Within, is awakened. Ponder on this.

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/