ON LOVE; PART CCCLXXXII
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.
(26) Jesus says: “You see the splinter that is in your brother’s eye, but you do not see the beam that is in your (own) eye. When you remove the beam from your (own) eye, then you will see clearly (enough) to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.”
(27) “If you do not abstain from the world, you will not find the kingdom. If you do not make the Sabbath into a Sabbath, you will not see the Father.”
(28) Jesus says: “I stood in the middle of the world, and in flesh I appeared to them. I found all of them drunk. None of them did I find thirsty. And my soul ached for the children of humanity, because they are blind in their heart, and they cannot see; for they came into the world empty, (and) they also seek to depart from the world empty. But now they are drunk. (But) when they shake off their wine, then they will change their mind.”
(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”14
In the last essay we discussed the twenty sixth saying from the Gospel of Thomas, a saying that is typical of the similar sayings from the synoptic gospels of Matthew and Luke although it is framed as a direct statement and is a bit shorter. The point however IS the same which is, from the most personal level; do not look askance at what others are doing when you yourself are doing similar things. We should not think that this is in the matter of correction only although this is the way that this IS apparently worded. By the manner of removing the speck from one’s brother’s eye whilst one has a beam, a much larger charge, in his own eye should leave the idea here that this is the hypocritical way of men in the world who are focused upon themselves as the center of their own little worlds. We should remember that this IS, as ARE most of the words of the Master, a parabolic saying as the meaning is not the speck nor the beam but the principals that they represent or conceal one’s own Life and not in the Life of the other party. We left the modern day example of the smoking parents who admonish their children not to smoke and today we can add an even more ‘everyday’ example of the man driving at seventy in a fifty-five mile per hour zone commenting, even if to himself, negatively about the one who is passing him going at a speed of eighty. Surely the Master did not have things such as these in mind when He said this most profound saying to these people 2000 years ago and, while these may seem like minor examples, they ARE examples and offenses nonetheless.
There is a reality in this saying that we put together with the Golden Rule and here we should try to see that, were the shoe on the other foot as the saying goes, we would not like others picking on our frailties when they have their own perhaps greater ones. This whole idea extends also to the church and their doctrines where there are many who set out to correct the minor problems that men may have when at the same time their own closets are filled with skeletons and in ALL of this we should ever look to the example that the Master portrays for us as in His instruction there is naught contrary in His own Life. So much is covered in these words that is tied to Love and to GoodWill and to respect and an understanding of the lives of others and there is depth here that only one’s pondering of his own thoughts, attitudes and actions will reveal. The Truth here is likely in the small everyday things that we do in our own lives, it is in the way we look at others and our thoughts, it is in the gossip and the backbiting that goes on routinely and which are among those things that the Apostle Paul speaks out against in a part of his Epistle to the Romans that is thought by many to apply to homosexuality but this is not our subject here; we seek only to show that these small ideas of gossip, which Paul calls whispering, and backbiting are equal with so many of the more commonly understood ‘sins’. Paul says: “Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful” (Romans 1:29-31).
For us then there IS a depth to this saying that is not seen nor appreciated by many especially as it IS so intimately tied to the law of Love that Golden Rule which, if we were ALL to follow, can lead us to a more perfect world and lead many to the Kingdom of God. Moving on to our next saying we have this same theme, the Kingdom of God; here the Apostle Thomas lays out some of the ‘rules’ to follow that lead a man to the Kingdom. These are not unlike the Master’s sayings in the accepted gospels; they are worded differently, they are more obscure, and perhaps more parabolic, but the ideas behind these words are found throughout the Master’s teachings. The comments on this are more pointed than are most that we have seen thus far:
- Marvin Meyer writes: “Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies (‘Stromateis’) 3.15.99.4, incorporates a beatitude with similar content: ‘Those who have castrated themselves from all sin for the sake of heaven’s kingdom are fortunate: They are the ones who fast from the world.’ Fasting from the world means abstaining from the material things that the world has to offer; keeping the sabbath a sabbath seems to imply that one should rest in a truly significant way and separate oneself from worldly concerns. Thus ‘Macarius’ of Syria is cited by Aelred Baker (‘Pseudo-Macarius and the Gospel of Thomas,’ p. 220) as making the same sort of statement: ‘For the soul that is considered worthy from the shameful and foul reflections keeps the sabbath a true sabbath and rests a true rest. . . . To all the souls that obey and come he gives rest from these . . . impure reflections . . ., (the souls) keeping the sabbath a true sabbath.’ The words ‘observe the sabbath as a sabbath’ in saying 27 could also be taken to derive from the idiom ‘keep the sabbath (in reference to) the sabbath,’ as in the Septuagint. Further, since the Coptic employs two different spellings for the word translated ‘sabbath’ in saying 27 (sambaton and sabbaton), it is conceivable – but probably too subtle – that the text could be translated ‘observe the (whole) week as the sabbath’; compare Tertullian, Against the Jewish People 4: ‘We ought to keep a sabbath from all servile work always, and not only every seventh day, but all the time.'” (The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus, pp. 81-82).
- Joseph A. Fitzmyer writes: “‘Fasting to the world’ must mean withdrawal from a worldly or secular outlook; it is an abstention from the world that involves becoming a ‘solitary’ (monarchos).” (Essays on the Semitic Background of the New Testament, p. 391). “Being a construction with a cognate accusative (lit., ‘to sabbatize the sabbath’), it explains the peculiar Coptic construction, where the repeated word is really superfluous, etetntmeire mpsambaton ensabbaton. (The dissimilation of bb to mb in the first occurence of the word in Coptic, but not the second, should be noted.) The Greek expression occurs in the LXX at Lv 23:32; 2 Chr 36:21. C. Taylor (op. cit., pp. 14-15) showed that it does not simply mean ‘to observe the (weekly) sabbath’. In Lv 23:32 it refers to the Day of Atonement, which is to be kept as a real sabbath. Hence, it is likely that we should understand the expression in this saying in a metaphorical or a spiritual sense. Cf. Heb 4:9 and Justin (Dial. w. Trypho 12, 3; PG 6, 500), who uses sabbatizein in the sense of a spiritual sabbath opposed to the formal Jewish observance; for him it consisted in abstention from sin.” (Essays on the Semitic Background of the New Testament, p. 392).
- Gerd Ludemann writes: “A literal understanding, namely sabbath observance, is to be excluded. Rather, ‘sabbath’ here may be synonymous with ‘world’. In that case v. 2 symbolizes abstinence from worldly values. For ‘seeing the Father’ cf. Matt. 5.8 (‘see God’).” (Jesus After 2000 Years, p. 604).
- M. A. Williams writes: “In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus says, ‘If you do not fast with respect to the world, you will not find the Kingdom’ (saying 27). But another saying in that gospel (14) seems to reject external acts of piety, including fasting, as things that can lead to sin, possibly because of pride or hypocrisy. The fasting ‘with respect to the world’ in saying 27 could therefore be intended as a metaphor for general withdrawal from involvement in the world (which itself implies other forms of ascetic denial). It is possible that it is not fasting per se which is rejected in saying 14 of Gos. Thom. but only hypocritical or empty fasting, which does not reflect a genuine indifference to the world.” (Rethinking “Gnosticism”, p. 142).
- F. F. Bruce writes: “This saying (whose Greek text is preserved in P. Oxy. 1. 2) seems to have been widely known in the church of the second and third centuries; its substance appears in Justin, Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian. [Justin, Dialogue with Trypho 12.3; Clement, Miscellanies iii. 99.4; Tertullian, Against the Jews 4.] While literal fasting and sabbath-keeping are deprecated (cf. Sayings 14, 104), the spiritual counterpart to these religious exercises is recommended (cf. Saying 6).” (Jesus and Christian Origins Outside the New Testament, p. 125).
Here again we have a short saying and provide here the various translations:
- “If you do not fast as regards the world, you will not find the kingdom. If you do not observe the Sabbath as a Sabbath, you will not see the Father” (Lambdin).
- “If you do not fast to the world, you will not find the kingdom; if you do not keep the Sabbath as Sabbath, you will not see the Father” (Blatz).
- “If you do not abstain from the world, you will not find the kingdom. If you do not make the Sabbath into a Sabbath, you will not see the Father” (Patterson and Robinson).
- “If you (plur.) do not abstain from the world, you will not find the kingdom. If you do not make the sabbath a sabbath you will not behold the father” (Layton).
- “If you do not fast from the world, you will not find the Kingdom. If you do not make the Sabbath the <true> Sabbath, you will not see the Father“(Doresse).
- “If you do not fast from the world, you will not find the (Father’s) kingdom. If you do not observe the sabbath as a sabbath you will not see the Father” (Patterson and Meyer).
- Jesus said, “If you do not fast from the world, you will not find the kingdom of God. And if you do not keep the sabbath a sabbath, you will not see the father” (Greek Fragment from Oxyrhynchus)
- “If you don’t fast from the world, your will fall not to the Kingdom; if your don’t make (keep) the sabbath (as) sabbath, you will look not upon the Father“(Interlinear Version).
For this saying there is a complete Greek fragment which does agree with the Coptic and we should note that only the Greek has the beginning phrase ‘Jesus said’ and states the wholeness of Kingdom of God where the Coptic just says Kingdom. These are minor differences of course but we can hold out here that this saying may be an extension of the previous one.
We should try to see here in this first part of fasting from the world that the idea is not as straightforward as it appears nor as it is rendered by Patterson and Robinson and Layton where read this as abstain. From our perspective the ideas here is that we should not focus upon the world nor the things of the world, that these should not be one’s treasure; here we should recall the Master’s simple words saying “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:21, Luke 12:34). And there are many such sayings in the Masters words which give us this idea that we should not be focused upon these things and to fast from them is much the same as following this teaching that tells us clearly: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal” (Matthew 6:19-20). Here are the same pair of opposites framed in different words; seeking the treasures of this Earth Life is to seek the temporal things and, so long as one is doing this, he is not doing the other which is seeking the treasures of the Kingdom of God, the permanent things which ARE the Kingdom. Here and in the ideas from Thomas’ Gospel we should see that it is a matter of where one’s heart IS, where is his consciousness, where is his focus. While the literal understanding may be fasting or abstaining, the Truth is that a man lives in the world, he cannot leave it but he does not have to focus upon it and here perhaps we can see this fasting is in consciousness and goes along with the Master’s much misunderstood teaching on take no thought:
“And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls? And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest? Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Luke 22:34).
These are the Master’s thoughts regarding the things of the world and we should note here that He is speaking to His disciples, to His “little flock” and in this we should sense the importance of keeping these words in thought, attitude and in action as it is in these that the fullness of discipleship is found. We DO KNOW the way to the Kingdom of God and we DO KNOW that it IS NOT in the things of the world and there are many who DO KNOW these things and who continually put off the difficulty of keeping His words, and we should add here that IS especially so in our modern world where there is so much that impacts our senses making it ever more difficult. However, saying this we should also understand that we have the greater evolutionary understanding for the most part and we should also see that this idea of ‘fasting’ starts in our thoughts and in attitudes and if we can accomplish this fasting in our consciousness, in our hearts, it will become the reality of our lives. Can we see here that this begins with take no thought, with not thinking about our own well being and the things that we may want but do not need; here is that leap of faith that we likely all need to come to eventually and this is the Truth of faith and of trusting in the Lord. This does not mean that we become as beggars but it does mean that we do not focus ourselves on the things of the world, that the desires for worldly things and worldly relationships fade as our focus turns to the things of God, to service and to right living according to the Master’s words.
There is a saying by Paul that would work for us here in our trying to understand this idea of fasting from the world, of taking no thought, and of KNOWING that the treasures of our hearts must be in the things of God.:
“He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth , eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks. For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s” (Romans 14:6-9).
The context here may be specific to the concept of judging of another insofar as what one does in the world, but we see and expansion of the ideas from the last saying in yet another light. Our point is however more specific and that is if we can find the wherewithal to DO ALL things unto the Lord, with our spiritual reality in mind, then we will perforce be fasting from the world as this world WILL NOT be our focus any longer. And, if our objective IS discipleship, we must ever keep in mind Jesus words that tell us clearly:
“So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33).
We must remember here that this forsaking and this fasting and this taking no thought ALL begin in the heart, in the consciousness, in one’s thoughts and attitudes, which ALL is accomplished in the changing one’s focus to the things of God and this changing IS, as we have said before, the reality of Repentance.
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.
O Thou Who givest sustenance to the universe,
From Whom all things proceed,
To Whom all things return,
Unveil to us the face of the true Spiritual Sun
Hidden by a disc of golden Light
That we may know the Truth And do our whole duty
As we journey to Thy sacred feet.
As with any ancient manuscript from a foreign land, there are many interpretations and translations of The Gayatri available. The version that appears here comes to us in every day English and without the need to have a Sanskrit reference as a key; it is constructed so that all can understand it and use it.
The Gayatri is really quite simple and straightforward in the form that we have here. It begins, as does the Lord’s Prayer, with an acknowledgement of the Majesty of God as the Giver of all Life and as our Source of all things. We ask only one thing in this prayer; that the true spiritual light of God be unveiled to us so that we may see it clearly. The Sun is the giver of light and life to our planet and all that is on it and, just as each of our forms veils the Spirit within, we ask to see and to know the Light that is behind the Sun that which we see.
In saying this we believe that by seeing the true Spiritual Light that we will be able to see and to know the Truth that is in that light. This is the Light that the Buddha and then the Christ brought to us through their lives on Earth. This is the Light that shines in our hearts from our own spiritual selves, the Christ Within.
We close by acknowledging that we have a duty to God, to our brothers and to His Plan and it is this duty that we will perform when we realize the truth as we journey back to God.
Others have said about this prayer that “The Gayatri is one of the oldest invocations, or mantrams, know to man. It carries the power of purpose, the plan of love and the light of truth. It reveals human relationships as vertical alignment with the source of all Energy and horizontal service in the right use of energy. It is a potent tool for use with the inflow of new age energies” (from The Gayatri prayer card of World Goodwill; NY, NY).
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/
