ON LOVE; PART XDVI

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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.

(46) Jesus says: “From Adam to John the Baptist, among those born of women there is no one who surpasses John the Baptist so that his (i.e., John’s) eyes need not be downcast.  But I have also said: ‘Whoever among you becomes little will know the kingdom, and will surpass John.’”

(47) Jesus says: “It is impossible for a person to mount two horses and to stretch two bows. And it is impossible for a servant to serve two masters. Else he will honor the one and insult the other. No person drinks old wine and immediately desires to drink new wine. And new wine is not put into old wineskins, so that they do not burst; nor is old wine put into (a) new wineskin, so that it does not spoil it. An old patch is not sewn onto a new garment, because a tear will result.“

(48) Jesus says: “If two make peace with one another in one and the same house, (then) they will say to the mountain: ‘Move away,’ and it will move away.“

(49) Jesus says: “Blessed are the solitary ones, the elect. For you will find the kingdom.  For you come from it (and) will return to it.“

(50) Jesus says: “If they say to you: ‘Where do you come from?’ (then) say to them: ‘We have come from the light, the place where the light has come into being by itself, has established [itself] and has appeared in their image.’If they say to you: ‘Is it you?’ (then) say: ‘We are his children, and we are the elect of the living Father.’If they ask you: ‘What is the sign of your Father among you?’ (then) say to them: ‘It is movement and repose.’” ¹⁴

We are currently on the forty sixth saying from the Gospel of Thomas and in the course of our discussions we have seen many rather obscure sayings for which we were able to offer some semblance of reality from the perspective of the Master’s teaching and, in doing so, we were given opportunity to delve deeper into the similar ideas from the accepted gospels which has helped to make this a worthwhile endeavor. However, in doing this we may sometimes appear to have left off of our main goal in writing which, aside from expounding the Master’s words as He offered them and away from doctrine, is to offer the Truth of His teachings as we perceive it for the disciple and the aspirant and for any who have a sincere desire to follow a more spiritual Path to enlightenment. It is through the words of the Master that we endeavor to accomplish the initial and continuing ideas to which this blog was dedicated and which we repeat here:

New Age Developments is a site and a blog dedicated to the Truth, to World Goodwill and to the establishment of Right Human Relations. It is an attempt to put forth in a cogent manner the FACT of the One Humanity living in this One World and thereby the necessity of a belief in the ONE GOD in who, as the Apostle tells us. “we Live and Move and Have our Being“

While we do try to find these ideas in our study of the words of Thomas’ Gospel, there are times where the words and ideas become rather mundane and we will take a bit of time here to recenter ourselves in the Love which is the primary Truth of the Master’s work. We will do this through the words of this affirmation which is originally offered to disciples and aspirants by our Tibetan brother and which we have carried now for many days as our Quote of the Day. This affirmation sets forth our True purpose as disciples of the Lord.

My Soul has purpose, power and will; these three are needed on the Way of Liberation.

My Soul must foster love among the sons of men; this is its major purpose.

I, therefore, will to love and tread the Way of Love.

All that hinders and obstructs the showing of the Light must disappear before the purposes of the Soul.

My will is one with the great Will of God; that Holy Will requires that all men serve.

And unto the purposes of the Plan I lend my little will.

In these words we find the reality of the Soul as the True man and while this is spoken from the perspective of the man in the world, it is at the same time to be understood as from that perspective, the Truth of man who seeks liberation from the ways of the world. Understanding that it IS the Soul that works through the phenomenal form in the world, we affirm that this IS the way, through the Love and the Power of the Soul expressed through form, to fulfill one’s purpose as a disciple as we strive to foster Love among the sons of men. We should understand this idea of foster away from its more common understanding as in the fostering of a child and for this we look at Webster’s entry in the 1828 version where we read: FOS”TER, v.t. 1. To feed; to nourish; to support; to bring up. Some say that ravens foster forlorn children. 2. To cherish; to forward; to promote growth. The genial warmth of spring fosters the plants. 3. To cherish; to encourage; to sustain and promote; as, to foster passion or genius. FOS”TER, v.i. To be nourished or trained up together ¹. While we do not generally include the usage examples from for our dictionary references, we leave them here so that we can Truly understand our role according to this affirmation which is away from any emotional ideas of fostering and into the equanimity of the raven and of Spring. Can we see the point here? that the disciple and the aspirant should foster Love, feed and nourish it, support it in its growth and to promote such growth in ALL that one can do. Of course in order to accomplish this one MUST personally will to love and tread the Way of Love which is to force the expression of this Love through Life and ALL that one may do in the world. This is of course the more difficult part of our duty in this world as the form Life resists and it is in this that we affirm the elimination of ALL that hinders and obstructs the showing of the Light and we should try to understand that in this idea of affirming there in not found in the repeating of words but should be seen in what the Master calls for us taking the Kingdom by force as He tells:

• “The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached , and every man presseth into it” (Luke 16:16).
• “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence , and the violent take it by force” (Matthew 11:12).

While we have not seen these words in this particular Light before, we present them now as that affirmation that is necessary to fulfill the role of fostering Love, that we must be living in that Love and to do so we MUST push the lower forces aside and take the Kingdom of God as our expression to the world of men. This is the contrary view to allowing the Life of the self, the carnal self, to continue at some level of domination over the overall Life of the man in the world; and it IS the lower self, the carnal man in the world, that is what hinders and obstructs the Light of the Soul which carries with it the fullness of the Love and the Power of the Divine Self, the Soul. Finally we should see in the culmination of this affirmation that we KNOW and we understand that from the perspective of the Soul that our Will is in sync with the Will of God and that the expression of this through Life in the world IS to accede to the Masters words that tell us clearly that “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). In this we should see that reality that the disciple IS in the Kingdom of God and that the Kingdom becomes his expression. ALL is within, ALL is of the Soul and ALL IS the spiritual man; it is here that a man KNOWS and understands the Will of God which IS primarily the expression of His Love and, for the disciple and the aspirant, the fostering of this among the sons of men. And this is also our service as we foster Love in the world and as we accede the fullness of our lives to the Will of God.

This is our reality as aspirants and as disciples, these are the things that we must do and the principals of Life toward which we strive and there is much to be learned here by viewing this in the Light of taking the Kingdom by force as from the perspective of the Soul this is our reality; that at every turn we see our own Life in the words of the Apostle Paul who tells us that:

“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).

Our new Quote of the Day is our segment on the Values to Live By which we seem to present each year around the time of the Festival of the Christ but which we post here now as we approach United Nations Day 2013. The continuing role of the United Nations should be seen in the context of our affirmation above and perhaps in this we can see some avenues upon which we can serve, to foster Love among the Sons of Men, as this world body is still the single best chance for the realization of World Peace through the realized sense of the Truth of Love in brotherhood and harmony around the world. We will speak some on our United Nations ideas as we proceed to United Nations day and today we present the posted words of the Secretary General:

“We are living through a period of profound turmoil, transition and transformation. Insecurity, inequality and intolerance are spreading. Global and national institutions are being put to the test. With so much at stake, the United Nations must keep pace across the spectrum of its activities — peace, development, human rights, the rule of law, the empowerment of the world’s women and youth.”

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

Returning to our work on the Gospel of Thomas and the forty sixth saying we should try to see the greater reality that is missed in these words in the accepted gospels and the words from Thomas as well as evidenced by the commentaries that we presented in the last post. In Thomas words we find the first part of this phrased as “From Adam to John the Baptist, among those born of women there is no one who surpasses John the Baptist” which compared to the ideas form the Matthew and Luke says to us basically the same thing as we read: “Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist” and “Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist” respectively. We should see the idea of born of a women as reflecting the normal way of birth in the world as contrasted with the Virgin Birth of the Master but this IS NOT so stated. And we should probably see the idea of prophet in ALL of these as this IS what John essentially IS in his time but this aside, these all say the same. What is the reality here in the Master’s words? This is not to say that the Baptist is any better than the others as can be commonly thought here; it is rather to say as it does say, that there have been none greater. When we look rightly at the Truth of Life, we should see the reality that as Souls, ALL ARE the same and our differences ARE found in the ability of a Soul to express his own fullness through form, to express his Love and Power in the world of men. It is from this perspective that we should read this, that there has been no greater expression of the Divine Self by any in the history of the world and in this we should try to see that in its fullness, the expression of ALL is equal and the same. Can we see John the Baptist in this Light?

The next part about the eyes is unique to Thomas’ Gospel and we looked at the various ways that this is presented in the last post and, from this variation, we noted that none Truly express the reality of these words. We find this rendered as eyes that are destroyed, eyes that are broken and eyes that are lost in one group of translations and we find that these eyes should not be averted, not be downcast and not be lowered in another group of translations and there is surely no relationship between these groups. We should note as well the different approaches to the construction of the whole saying with some attaching these words on eyes to the former saying about none greater and others attaching this to the next saying about the Kingdom.  The Interlinear frames this as “From \-Adam, upto Johann the Baptist, among the begotten of women, no one is raised up above Johann the Baptist, so that to break(lower) (viz!) his eyes; I spoke, however, this he who will come to be among you he being a little one, he will know the Kingdom and will be raised up above Johann” and it is in this rendering that we will try to make some sense. While we should not put undo significance on this part, it can be seen to say simply that the Baptist KNOWS and understands this, his own position among Sons of God, and that he need not look up on any. Can we see here that a Son of God IS a Son of God and that the Master is telling us that among men in this state there ARE NONE greater and that there ARE NONE lesser either? In this can we also see that this is assumed in the previous words but that Thomas felt it necessary to repeat this here?

In the last part of this saying from Thomas there are again differences in presentation among the translations and perhaps we can see here that Thomas himself sees this differently than do Matthew and Luke. The words used to convey either thought, the synoptic or Thomas’, are similar enough that the Master could have intended either or even both and that these apostles understood this according to his own Light. Thomas carries forth the theme of children or little one’s and this is rendered as such by some but as becoming small by others and we would think the translations of being or becoming small or little without reference or allusion to a child are influenced by the synoptic idea of least. Again, this seems to be the way that Thomas understood this, that by doing those things that make a man accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God, becoming as a little child among these ideas which ALL work together, puts one into the Kingdom and, in this sense raises this man above the carnal presentation of John as viewed as a man in the world. This is not altogether unlike the synoptic version where to be “least in the Kingdom” is greater than John and in this Light we should see that there IS no greatness in the Kingdom. The Master ever speaks against seeking greatness both here and there in His discourse with His disciples. In the Kingdom of God ALL are Souls, ALL are the SAME; ALL are equal in the eyes of the Lord with whom there is no respect of persons on any plane of existence. When presented with the idea of “Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3-4), we should see that ALL who can do this, “humble himself as this little child” are equally the greatest and in this we should be able to see that there IS NO greatest.

From the perspective of viewing this as the sense of the Kingdom as compared with the man in the world, these ideas work well and we have previously said this about these words from Matthew: As we often discuss, the Master speaks in parable and parabolic terms and here He IS speaking to the multitudes and therefore we can be rather sure that this is parabolic. Here then the Master is comparing the physical presence of the Baptist, born of women, to the spiritual sense of those in the Kingdom as it IS the Soul that IS in the Kingdom not the body and the only relation to the body IS in the realization of the Kingdom in Life on this Earth. We can see in sayings like this some inkling of the Truths as we understand them if we take the time to look and here to remember that the body and the name of the man in the Earth IS for this Life in form and the afterlife only; it IS NOT the name for the True man, the Soul. (In the Words of Jesus part 703).

These same ideas can be taken from Thomas’ understanding of the Master’s words, that if one in this Earth can accomplish what is necessary to be accounted worthy of the Kingdom he will be lifted higher than the man John in the world. Unsaid however is the idea from above about the equality of ALL in the Kingdom where there is and there CAN NOT be any who are greater.

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!

• ¹ Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1828 and 1913
• ¹⁴ The Gospel of Thomas; Translated by Stephen J. Patterson and James M. Robinson; http://gnosis.org/