ON LOVE; PART CDLII
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.
(82) Jesus says: “The person who is near me is near the fire. And the person who is far from me is far from the kingdom.”
(83) Jesus says: “The images are visible to humanity, but the light within them is hidden in the image. {} The light of the Father will reveal itself, but his image is hidden by his light.”
(84) Jesus says: “When you see your likeness you are full of joy. But when you see your likenesses that came into existence before you – they neither die nor become manifest – how much will you bear?”
(85) Jesus says: “Adam came from a great power and a great wealth. But he did not become worthy of you. For if he had been worthy, (then) [he would] not [have tasted] death.”
(86) Jesus says: “[Foxes have] their holes and birds have their nest. But the son of man has no place to lay his head down (and) to rest.”
(87) Jesus says: “Wretched is the body that depends on a body. And wretched is the soul that depends on these two.”
(88) Jesus says: “The messengers and the prophets are coming to you, and they will give you what belongs to you. And you, in turn, give to them what you have in your hands (and) say to yourselves: ‘When will they come (and) take what belongs to them?’”
We have been carrying the Great Invocation as it is known as our Quote of the Day for many days now and, as has become rather usual, we will offer some insight on this prayer as we remove it from its duty as our daily message. The Great Invocation is relatively unknown in the Christian world as a prayer or as an invocation (these are both really the same) as IS the claim that IS made that this was given to humanity by the Christ near the close of the last World War. We have said in our presentation of this prayer: This invocation is also attributed to the Christ who, as He promised, has never left us; He, through channels that we do not readily understand, has Himself instructed His disciples to distribute this prayer and to encourage its use as a world prayer and as an aid in preparing the world for His return; these ideas ARE from our perspective True and two things are of importance in these words.
- First that this prayer is given us by that same Christ, the ONLY Christ from our perspective, who has NEVER left us and this He told us clearly saying: “I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:10).
- And second that the way that this works out, while not readily understood, can be somewhat understood in the context of our message on discipleship, that it IS the disciple who becomes ONE with the Master and thereby becomes privy, if we can use that word here, to the mysteries and the secrets of Life. That we become ONE is the destiny of the disciple and this the Master tells us saying: “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him” (John 14:20-21). And there are many more words from the Master that point to this reality for us of which many are hijacked by some doctrinal ‘authorities’ who do not understand the universality of His words as He says: “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us” (John 17:20-21).
The real Truths are far beyond the wranglings of the doctrinal views of the churches which CAN NOT even agree among themselves. The reality IS, as we have so often said, in keeping His word and DOING the Will of the Father; this IS the way to discipleship and this IS the way to the Kingdom and this reality is complete in the ideas set forth in this Great Invocation. When we can believe in these Truths, that IS to accept and adopt them as binding upon the life 4 as Vincent paints this for us regrading the Master Himself, we can then begin to see the realities that they encompass. There is naught here but the free flowing of the Light, the Love and the Power of God into this world of men to awaken them to the Truth of God as Love and the expression of that Love by each and every part of His creation.
From the point of Light within the Mind of God
Let light stream forth into the minds of men.
Let Light descend on Earth.
From the point of Love within the Heart of God
Let love stream forth into the hearts of men.
May Christ return to Earth.
From the centre where the Will of God is known
Let purpose guide the little wills of men–
The purpose which the Masters know and serve.
From the centre which we call the race of men
Let the Plan of Love and Light work out
And may it seal the door where evil dwells.
Let Light and Love and Power restore the Plan on Earth.
Unfortunately this IS NOT the way that this is seen by the Christian world which, in their sense of protectionism, decries these words and their presentation as heretical, as blasphemy and even as Satanic. The reality here is that even if the idea that these are offered by the Christ is unfounded, these words should be able to stand on their own as being of divine origin, as being in tune with the overall teaching of the Master and His apostles and as being a progressive and inclusive World Prayer that can do no harm. It is unfortunate that in the fundamentalist Christian world that there ARE those that pollute Truth with separatist verbiage that ignores the basic tenets of the Teachings of the Master and who use isolated and out of context words and phrases to disparage the Truth of the Christ’s teaching on Love….Love for ALL. Much of what they use from scripture can easily be turned upon themselves; they should see their own reflection in these ideas taken randomly from ‘christian’ pronouncements against the very idea of the Great Invocation:
- “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” –Isaiah 5:20. Spoken by the Prophet to the Jews in Judah these words are used as a sub headline on one website to say that the Great Invocation, as well as the other writings of Alice Bailey, the United Nations and what they call the NWO, ARE that evil spoken about by Isaiah. The reality of these words is to the Jews in that day who were doing as they would as men and calling it good and should not in any way be attributed to things that one merely disagrees with. If they were to look at themselves in this saying from the Truth of the Master’s words on Love, on brotherhood, an on Truth could they see that their separatist words are the evil and the darkness and the bitterness?
- “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” –2 Corinthians 4:4. Here again these are words out of context and which the author uses to allude to the idea that those who take this message of the Great Invocation to heart are the blinded and are the one’s that do not believe. Here again a mirror could suffice to show that it is the promulgators of such ideas that are the blinded, that they are blinded by doctrine and have not the Light of “the glorious gospel of Christ” in their lives; they have the prejudice and the fear of what they do not KNOW nor understand and which the selfishly see as threats to the very fabric of their archaic and erroneous beliefs and ways. The god of this world IS NOT Satan as a personality as many of these may believe, the god of this world IS the illusion and the glamour in which men believe that their own ways, ways that are contrary to His message of Love, and Truth. These CAN NOT see the reality of True spirituality because it DOES NOT fit into their doctrinal mold.
There is no shortage of writings that call this Great Invocation and the writings of the Tibetan who presented this to us as Satanic and evil and that they encourage a New World Order (NWO) and a One World Religion. We should realize here that most of this is based in the minds of men without any vision beyond their own sense of doctrine. It has been our work to show the reality of the Master’s words and that the many doctrines of the churches do not offer His Truths except as they are covered by their own carnal sense that changes the reality of God’s word into the doctrines that are convenient for men. We end this part of today’s essay saying that we did not intend to approach this as we did but perhaps these things must be said and we add here those words from the Apostle James that should be the guiding Light for ALL who claim to be Christians; James tells us clearly that we must: “be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22).
We return now to our discussion on the Gospel of Thomas where we were looking at the eighty first saying which, according to the Interlinear tells us: “whoever-has-become-rich, let-him-become-king, > and he-who-has-he (a) power, let-him-abdicate“. We should try to see here the reality of the Master’s words in the accepted gospels regarding riches and power and forsaking and, as we ofttimes cite, his words that tell us that we should “take no thought” (Luke 12:22). In this Light this saying from Thomas becomes rather clear when one looks past the purely carnal view. Here the statement of fact is that the rich man should become king and in this we should understand the idea of king as ruler and since there is no designation of ruler over what, we should see this as ruler over one’s own riches and his own house. This makes no sense in any other context and the following part serves both to help explain the first part and to show, from the perspective of the one who is seeking and striving, the Truth of the Way. Here we should understand that if the Master is saying this thing that there MUST be some spiritual import and in this saying this import is that if one should become rich and become the ruler of his riches and his house that he should at the same time abdicate that power that the riches have brought him. It IS in this way that the man accedes to the Master’s injunction of “take no thought” and, in that grand choice that one must make, chooses the Way of God over the way of mammon. There IS NO shortage of sayings from the Master that tell us this same thing as we read in Thomas.
Our next saying, the eighty second, is another short saying that has no equal in the accepted gospels. It IS at the same time a saying of profound importance to the understanding of the Truths of His teaching. Most all of the varying translations of this saying are the same including the Interlinear where we do learn that this is the only place where the words rendered as close and as fire are found. The English word fire is found three times in Thomas Gospel and each time it is rendered from a different Coptic word than we find here in the eighty second saying; in the tenth, the thirteenth and the sixteenth the Coptic word IS kwxt while here the word used is sate. These are of course English letters that come as a match to the Coptic in our program and it is evident that these ARE NOT the same. The word rendered as close is not found elsewhere in any form; this is rendered by most as near but this Coptic word is not the same as is rendered as near elsewhere where the idea is to come near or, as the Interlinear gives this, approach. Again we stress that we ARE NOT Coptic scholars and we should remember that this form of Coptic is no longer in use; having said this we must defer to the ideas presented by our translators who ALL render this as close or near and as fire. The comments on this saying include:
- Robert M. Grant and David Noel Freedman write: “The fire is that which Jesus came to cast on the earth (Sayings 9 and 16); it is a symbol of the kingdom and therefore of the Father. We find something rather like this saying in the letter of Ignatius of Antioch to the Smyrnaeans (4, 2). ‘Why have I given myself up to death, to fire, to sword, to wild beasts? But near sword is near god, with wild beasts is with God.’ Perhaps Ignatius alludes to this saying; on the other hand, this saying may be based on the words of Ignatius.” (The Secret Sayings of Jesus, p. 180).
- F. F. Bruce writes: “The fire is a symbol of the ‘kingdom of the Father’ (cf. Sayings 10, 16). We may recall that, according to Justin Martyr and others, a fire was kindled on Jordan when Jesus was baptized. [Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 88.3: ‘When Jesus went down into the water a fire was kindled in the Jordan.’ Cf. the ‘light’ which shone on the same occasion according to the Gospel of the Ebionites (p. 107).” (Jesus and Christian Origins Outside the New Testament, p. 144) Joachim Jeremias writes: “To be near Jesus is dangerous. It offers no prospect of earthly happiness, but involves the fire of tribulation and the test of suffering. But it must indeed be borne in upon every one who, yielding to fear, turns away from the call of Jesus, that he excludes himself from the Kingdom of God. Only through fire may the Kingdom be attained.” (The Parables of Jesus, p. 196).
- Funk and Hoover write: “This saying is also known from later writers such as Origen . . . However, the aphorism is thought by many scholars to approximate the proverb of Aesop: ‘Whoever is near to Zeus is near the thunderbolt.’ To approach the divine is to risk danger. Some of the Fellows were attracted by teh short, aphoristic nature of the saying and its reference to the Father’s domain. On the other hand, assigning popular sayings to Jesusis a common practice of the early Christian community. Further, Jesus speaks here of himself in rather exalted terms, as though he were equal to God. This aspect suggested to the Fellows an early Christian origin.” (The Five Gospels, pp. 517-518).
The first two commentaries here suggest the link to the tenth and the sixteenth sayings from Thomas’ Gospel but, as we say above, the word rendered as fire there IS NOT the same as that rendered as fire here. With this we would tend to discount this idea of the affiliation of these sayings. Much else that is offered here is in relation to other commentaries and apocryphal texts which we have not read and here we discount these ideas because they are not ‘gospels’ and include the writings of some Church Fathers. Here we must evaluate this saying based upon its content and the idea that the Master speaks these words, and likely to His disciples. From our perspective, the closest idea that we can find that relates the Master and fire IS this saying from John the Baptist which relates the Holy Ghost with fire as we read:
- “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear : he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire” (Matthew 3:11).
- “John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire” (Luke 3:16).
Here in these words we find the only positive use of the word fire in the gospels save for that most obscure saying from the Master who tells us: “I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I , if it be already kindled” (Luke 12:49). And we should note that here in this saying from the Baptist we are also subjected to the ideas of the translators who tell us that the words are “the Holy Ghost and with fire” when they could have just as well as have rendered this as “the Holy Ghost, even fire“. In these sayings from Luke and from Matthew the word rendered as with the second time IS a translators insertion, it IS NOT in the Greek text plus, the word rendered as and could just as easily be rendered as even as we see in this other use of this same Greek word kai: “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets” (Matthew 7:12). This view is based in the lexicon’s description of is word as well as the definitions allotted it which we read as:
- Description: Word Origin; kai: apparently, a primary particle, having a copulative and sometimes also a cumulative force 2.
- Definition: and, also, even, indeed, but 2.
While this may seem unimportant there can be great implication for our saying from Thomas’ Gospel when we can see the words Holy Ghost and fire as this relationship would show. We must add here that we are no more fluent in this Greek than we are in the Coptic and for the most part we must rely upon the translators. However, this being said, we would be remiss if we did not equally look at the words of the Master and His apostles in the Light of our own common sense and our own degree of spiritual discernment.
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.
Today we reprise the Mantram of Unification as our Quote of the Day and we do so in Light of the ideas we present above regarding the Great Invocation and the way that this prayer is held by the fundamentalist doctrines of the church today. This mantram is from the same sources, likely written by ancient unknowns and given to us by our Tibetan brother. Any who can find anything but the words and the intent of the Master in the words of this prayer is Truly not seeing clearly; he is buried in the illusion and the glamour of Life in this world which IS NOT of God but of the carnal mind.
This is an affirmation of the Oneness of the human family from the perspective of the disciple and the aspirant and any who hold these ideals as important. In this we find the essence of the two ideas that we have discussed from Values to Live By and that these are firmly grounded in the desire to Love not hate; to serve and not exact due service and to heal and not to hurt. It is Love shown as Truth and justice that is at the heart of this mantram.
Mantram of Unification
The sons of men are one and I am one with them.
I seek to love, not hate;
I seek to serve and not exact due service;
I seek to heal, not hurt.
Let pain bring due reward of light and love.
Let the Soul control the outer form, and life and all events,
And bring to light the love that underlies the happenings of the time.
Let vision come and insight.
Let the future stand revealed.
Let inner union demonstrate and outer cleavages be gone.
Let love prevail.
Let all men love.
The Mantram of Unification is a meditation and a prayer that at first affirms the unity of all men and the Brotherhood of Man based on the Fatherhood of God. The first stanza sets forth several truly Christian ideals in Unity, Love, Service and Healing. The second stanza is a invocation to the Lord and to our own Souls asking that from the pain (if there can truly be any) incurred in focusing on the Spirit and not the world will come Light and Love into our lives and that we begin to function as Souls through our conscious personalities. We ask that the spiritual control of our lives will bring to light for us the Love that underlies world events; a Love that the world oriented man will not see working out behind the scenes and also that the Love that we bring forth, individually and as a world group, can be seen by all and ultimately in all. Finally, in the last stanza we ask for those things that are needed for Love to abound. Vision and insight so that we can direct our attention properly; revelation of the future in the sense that all can see the Power of Love in the world; inner union so that we do not fall back into the world’s ways, that we faint not; and that a sense of separation, the antithesis of brotherhood, ends as we know it today. Let Love Prevail, Let All Men Love. Spiritual control of our lives will bring to light for us the Love that underlies world events; a Love that the world oriented man will not see working out behind the scenes.
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!
- 2 New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
- 14 The Gospel of Thomas; Translated by Stephen J. Patterson and James M. Robinson; http://gnosis.org/
