#wisdom of the gospel of thomas

[santmat]

The Dangers of Spiritual Complacency -- Spiritual Awakening Radio Podcast

"What shall I do? The world sees yet is blind --

It has forsaken bliss and runs after earthly pursuits.

It idolizes stones and slaughters divine beings,

Adores and worships that which has no life!

The living are sacrificed at the altar of the lifeless --

The world sees yet continues to waste precious life." 

(Sant Namdev)

"I wandered through the cosmos in search of the treasure but found it within me." 

(Sant Namdev)

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I remember so well looking at my collection of mystic books and Nag Hammadi codices realizing I had reached a kind of dead-end, a sense that no further progress can be made without contact with a living version of those paths with us now in the Twenty-First Century, a living gnosis now, a living school of spirituality now. The actual spiritual practices, East and West, are typically never written down in old scriptures and mystical texts anyway, but remain private communications only between master and disciple. With past saints we can’t sit at their feet, ask questions, take notes, or learn from them the secrets of contemplative meditation practice. As wonderful as world scriptures and the writings of past mystics might be, they are no substitute for a living spiritual path with us now in the world today, or being mentored by living spiritual teachers in-the-here-and-now. Rather than a vain attempt to figure out the methods of meditation by randomly perusing through old writings and scriptures of those who have left-the-body decades or centuries ago speculating on what their meditation techniques might have been, in Sant Mat (The Path of the Masters) the methods of sadhana (spiritual practice) are directly communicated from one generation to the next via the Living Masters of the time.

"The musk is in the deer, but it seeks it not within itself: it wanders in quest of grass." (Kabir)

"During deep sleep we are unable to have any knowledge of this physical body; however, after waking up we recall this body, our relations and possessions. In the same manner, when we are in the three states -- awake, sleep, dreamless sleep -- we are unable to directly perceive our inner self and God. The Saints tell us that there is yet a fourth state, called the Turiya, which is above the others. In this state we can directly perceive our own nature and know the Divine." (Swami Santsevi Ji Maharaj)

"So, the path to do that is contained within this human life-form where, with the Teachings of the Masters, we leave the nine doors [of the sense organs] and come to the Tenth Door [Third Eye]. And with the Grace of the Master, we are able to see for ourselves our soul and Jyoti [the Light] within." (Baba Ram Singh)

In Divine Love (Bhakti), Light, and Sound, At the Feet of the Masters,

James Bean

Sant Mat Satsang Podcasts

Spiritual Awakening Radio

https://www.SpiritualAwakeningRadio.com

#SpiritualAwakeningRadio #SantMatSatsangPodcasts #JamesBean #Satsang #SantMatRadhasoami #Meditation #Mystics #Spirituality #Religion #Mysticism #Podcasts #SpiritualPodcasts #Santmat #Sant_Mat #Radha_Soami #Radhaswami #Radhasoamiji #Radhasoami #ScienceofSpirituality #ScienceoftheSoul #PathoftheMasters #SuratShabdYoga #Bhakti #MysticsoftheEast #Sants #Namdev #GospelofThomas #Gnosticism #Gnosis #Gnostic #NagHammadiLibrary #Vegan #Vegetarian #Ahimsa #Peace #SpiritualPaths #SwamiSantSeviJiMaharaj #MaharshiMehiAshram #BabaRamSingh #Sadhana

[brother-hermes]

THE BEGINNING IS THE END?

“The disciples said to Jesus, “Tell us how our end will come to pass.” Jesus said, “Have you found the Beginning so that you now seek the end? For the end will be where the beginning is. Blessed is the person who stands at rest in the beginning. And that person will be acquainted with the end and will not taste death.”

-Thomas 18

I literally love this logia.

[wisu]

The Hidden Message: The Gospel of Thomas

The 114 Sayings of the Gospel of Thomas The Gospel of Thomas is a fascinating text that offers a unique perspective on the teachings of Jesus, distinct from the narratives found in the canonical Gospels. Discovered in 1945 among the Nag Hammadi library in Egypt, this collection of 114 sayings attributed to Jesus invites readers to delve into a world of spiritual exploration and self-discovery.…

[thesiltverses]

I don’t know who types up the ask answers on this blog but to whoever’s reading this: how do you all feel about being alive and sentient? What keeps you going, what purpose propels you through this chaotic void? What do you think (or hope) waits for you after your inevitable end? What do you think constitutes a life well lived?

I'm going to answer this in the most wayward and stupidly overlong manner possible, because the previous ask had me thinking about puppets, and I was already mid-way through writing up a book recommendation that's semi-relevant to your questions.

Everyone (but especially people who've enjoyed The Silt Verses and all the folks on Tumblr who loved Piranesi by Susanna Clarke) ought to seek out Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban.

Riddley Walker is a wild and woolly story set in post-apocalyptic Kent, where human society has (d)evolved into a Bronze Age collective of hunter-gatherer settlements. Dogs, apparently blaming us for our crimes against the world, have become our predators, hunting us through the trees. Labourers kill themselves unearthing ancient machinery that they cannot possibly understand.

A travelling crowd of thugs led by a Pry Mincer collect taxes and attempt to impose themselves upon those around them with a puppet-show - the closest possible approximation of a TV show - that tells a mangled story of the world's destruction, featuring a Prometheus-esque hero called Eusa who is tempted by the Clevver One into creating the atomic bomb.

Riddley himself, a twelve-year-old folk hero in-the-making surrounded by strange portents, ends up sowing the seeds of rebellion and change by becoming a conduit for the anti-tutelary anarchic madness (one apparently buried in our collective unconscious) of Punch 'n' Judy.

It's a book in love with twisted reinterpretation, the subjectivity of interpretation, buried or forbidden truths coming back to light (the opening quote is a curious allegory about reinvention and cyclical change from the extra-canonical Gospel of Thomas, which is a good joke and mission statement on a couple levels at once) and human beings somehow stumbling into forms of wisdom or insight through clumsy and nonsensical attempts to make sense of a world that is simply beyond them.

It rocks.

The book starts like this:

On my naming day when I come 12 I gone front spear and kilt a wyld boar he parbly the las wyld pig on the Bundel Downs any how there hadnt ben none for a long time befor him nor I aint looking to see none agen. He dint make the groun shake nor nothing like that when he come on to my spear he wernt all that big plus he lookit poorly. He done the reqwyrt he ternt and stood and clattert his teef and made his rush and there we wer then. Him on 1 end of the spear kicking his life out and me on the other end watching him dy. I said, 'Your tern now my tern later.'

Riddley's devolved language - a trick which has been nicked/homaged by many other works, most notably Cloud Atlas and Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome - is a masterwork choice which may seem offputting or overwhelming at first, but which has its own brutal poetry and cadence to it, and ultimately which makes us slow down as readers and unpick the wit, puns, double-meanings and playful themes buried in line after line.

(Even those first five sentences get us thinking about cyclical change, ritual and myth in opposition to the dissatisfactions of reality, and 'tern' to paradoxically indicate a rebellious change in direction but also an obedient acceptance of inevitable death.)

In one of my favourite passages in literature and a statement of thought that means a lot to me, Riddley has been smoking post-coital weed with Lorna, a 'tel-woman', who unexpectedly declares her belief in a kind of irrational, monstrous Logos that lives in us, wears us like clothes, and drives us onwards for its own purpose:

'You know Riddley theres some thing in us it dont have no name.' I said, 'What thing is that?' She said, 'Its some kynd of thing it aint us but yet its in us. Its lookin out thru our eye hoals...it aint you nor it dont even know your name. Its in us lorn and loan and shelterin how it can.' 'Tremmering it is and feart. It puts us on like we put on our cloes. Some times we dont fit. Some times it cant fynd the arm hoals and it tears us a part. I dont think I took all that much noatis of it when I ben yung. Now Im old I noatise it mor. It dont realy like to put me on no mor. Every morning I can feal how its tiret of me and readying to throw me a way. Iwl tel you some thing Riddley and keap this in memberment. What ever it is we dont come naturel to it.' I said, 'Lorna I dont know what you mean.' She said, 'We aint a naturel part of it. We dint begin when it begun we dint begin where it begun. It ben here befor us nor I dont know what we are to it. May be weare jus only sickness and a feaver to it or boyls on the arse of it I dont know. Now lissen what Im going to tel you Riddley. It thinks us but it dont think like us. It dont think the way we think. Plus like I said befor its afeart.' I said, 'Whats it afeart of?' She said, 'Its afeart of being beartht.'

While Hoban is, I think, deeply humanistic to his bones and even something of a wayward optimist, the notion of human beings as helpless and ignorant vessels, individual carriers - puppets, if you like - for an unknowable and awful inhuman power-in-potentia and life-drive that lacks a true shape or intent beyond its own continued survival (even when that means destroying us or visiting us with agonising atrophy in the process) conjures up the pessimism of Thomas Ligotti, another big influence on our work and a dude who was really into his marionettes-as-metaphor.

Let's go to him now for his opinion on the thing that lives beneath our skin. Thomas?

Through the prophylactic of self-deception, we keep hidden what we do not want to let into our heads, as if we will betray to ourselves a secret too terrible to know… …(that the universe is) a play with no plot and no players that were anything more than portions of a master drive of purposeless self-mutilation. Everything tears away at everything else forever. Nothing knows of its embroilment in a festival of massacres… Nothing can know what is going on.

Curiously, both Ligotti and Riddley Walker have appeared in the music of dark folk band Current 93, whose track In The Heart Of The Wood And What I Found There directly homages the novel and ends with the repeated words,

"All shall be well," she said But not for me

These words, in turn, hearken back to Kafka's* famous reported conversation with Max Brod:

'We are,' he said, 'nihilistic thoughts, suicidal thoughts that rise in God's head.' This reminded me of the worldview of the gnostic: God as an evil demiurge, the world as his original sin. 'Oh no', he said, 'our world is only a bad, fretful whim of God, a bad day.' 'So was there - outside of this world that we know - hope?' He smiled: 'Oh, hope - there is plenty. Infinite hope, just not for us."

So, we walk on.

We carry this thing that's riding on our backs, endlessly bonded to it, feeling its weight more and more with every passing day, unable to turn to look at it. Buried truths come briefly to life, and are hidden from us again. Perhaps they weren't truths at all. We couldn't stand to look the truth directly in the eyes in any case.

If there is hope, it's for the thing that looks out from our eyeholes, which thinks us but cannot think like us. We'll never get to where we're going, and the thing will never be born. There's no hope for it. Perhaps we don't want it to win anyway. It's nothing, and the key to everything.

The Jesus from the Gospel of Thomas says:

'When you see your own likeness, you rejoice. But when you see the visions that formed you and existed before you, which do not perish and which do not become visible - how much then will you be able to bear?'

Kafka, writing to his father, begins by expressing the inexpressibility of his own divine terror:

You asked me why I am afraid of you. I did not know how to answer - partly because of my fear, partly because an explanation would require more than I could make coherent in speech…even in writing, the magnitude of the causes exceeds my memory and my understanding.

Kafka concludes that while he cannot ever truly explain himself, and that the accusations in his letter are neat subjectivities that fail to account for the messiness of reality, perhaps 'something that in my opinion so closely resembles the truth…might comfort us both a little and make it easier for us to live and die.'**

It doesn't bring comfort to Kafka, whose diarised remarks both before and after the 1919 letter make it clear that he views his relationship with the things (people) that birthed him as an endless entrapment that prevents him from attaining any kind of self-actualisation or even comfort, since he cannot escape their influence or remember a time before them:

I was defeated by Father as a small boy and have been prevented since by pride from leaving the battleground, despite enduring defeat over and over again.

It's as if I wasn't fully born yet...as if I was dissolubly bound to these repulsive things (my parents).*** The bond is still attached to my feet, preventing them from walking, from escaping the original formless mush. That's how it is sometimes.

Samuel Beckett returns again and again (aptly) to this pursuit of a state of true humanity and final understanding that is at once fled and unrecoverable, yet to be born, never to be born, never-existed, endlessly to be pursued, pointless to pursue. From the astonishing end sequence of The Unnameable:

alone alone, the others are gone, they have been stilled, their voices stilled, their listening stilled, one by one, at each new-com- ing, another will come, I won’t be the last. I’ll be with the others. I’ll be as gone, in the silence, it won’t be I, it’s not I, I’m not there yet. I’ll go there now. I’ll try and go there now, no use trying, I wait for my turn, my turn to go there, my turn to talk there, my turn to listen there, my turn to wait there for my turn to go, to be as gone, it’s unending, it will be unending, gone where,where do you go from there, you must go somewhere else, wait somewhere else, for your turn to go again

I’m not the first, I won’t be the first, it will best me in the end, it has bested better than me, it will tell me what to do, in order to rise, move, act like a body endowed with despair, that’s how I reason, that’s how I hear myself reasoning, all lies, it’s not me they’re calling, not me they’re talking about, it’s not yet my turn, it’s someone else’s turn, that’s why I can’t stir, that’s why I don’t feel a body on me, I’m not suffering enough yet, it’s not yet my turn, not suffering enough to be able to stir, to have a body, complete with head, to be able to understand, to have eyes to light the way

From Thomas' Jesus:

When you make the two one, and you make the inside as the outside and the outside as the inside and the above as the below, and if male and female become a single unity which lacks 'masculine' and 'feminine' action, when you grow eyes where eyes should be and hands where hands should be and feet where feet should stand and the true image in its proper place, then shall you enter heaven.

Tom's Jesus makes a particularly Gnostic habit of both insisting that the hidden will be revealed and demonstrating the impossibility of attaining a state where the hidden ever can be revealed. Contrary to C.S. Lewis, we will never have faces with which to gaze upon the lost divine and the mysteries that shaped us, and crucially, as Christ puts it, we would not be able to bear the sight of ourselves if we did.

We will never become the thing that's riding on our backs.

Jesus again:

The disciples ask Jesus, 'Tell us how our end shall be.' Jesus says, 'Have you found the beginning yet, you who ask after the end? For at the place where the beginning is, there shall be the end.'

The Unnameable:

I’ll recognise it, in the end I’ll recognise it, the story of the silence that he never left, that I should never have left, that I may never find again, that I may find again, then it will be he, it will be I, it will be the place, the silence, the end, the beginning, the beginning again, how can I say it, that’s all words, they’re all I have, and not many of them, the words fail, the voice fails, so be it

The final passage of The Unnameable, which often is hilariously shorn and misinterpreted as an inspirational quote about how if you don't succeed, try again:

all words, there’s nothing else, you must go on, that’s all I know, they’re going to stop, I know that well, I can feel it, they’re going to abandon me, it will be the silence, for a moment, a good few moments, or it will be mine, the lasting one, that didn’t last, that still lasts, it will be I, you must go on, I can't go on, you must go on. I’ll go on, you must say words, as long as there are any, until they find me, until they say me, strange pain, strange sin, you must go on, perhaps it’s done already, perhaps they have said me already, perhaps they have carried me to the threshold of my story, before the door that opens on my story, that would surprise me, if it opens, it will be I, it will be the silence, where I am, I don’t know. I’ll never know, in the silence you don’t know, you must go on, I can’t go on. I’ll go on. †

We bear this thing that's riding on our backs. We'll never get to where we're going, and the thing will never be born. If it was born, it'd be too terrible for us to bear. There's nothing riding on our backs.

It will never speak us into being.

We keep on calling out into the silence, we keep trying to explain or understand the thing that's riding on our backs, searching for a way to birth it before we die. Our words about the thing are crucial, and they're meaningless, and they're all we have, and they're nothing at all. We cannot name it and we cannot express it, but we cannot stop trying, and we will keep turning back to our words about the thing, obsessing over them, tearing them to pieces, putting them back together.

I'm fumbling at something I can't think or say, but fumbling is all we're capable of. There could be beauty and meaning and comfort in the fumbling, but it's also vain, and foolish, and pointless, and we're lying to ourselves about the beauty and the meaning and the comfort, and we're indulging ourselves pointlessly by going on and on about the pointlessness of it. Nothing can know what's going on. We will never get close enough to understand without being destroyed.

Thomas' Jesus again, warning those who seek to reveal what's hidden:

He who is near me is near the fire.

Riddley Walker, reflecting on the Punch puppet's inexplicable desire to cook and eat his own child:

Whyis Punch crookit? Why wil he al ways kill the baby if he can? Parbly I wont ever know its jus on me to think on it.

If you got to the end of this, congratulations: but the above is honestly the most appropriate patchwork of what I believe, what propels me, what I feel.

As for what comes after life, I think it's fairly straightforwardly a nothingness we are tragically incapable of fully knowing or accepting - it's Beckett's unimaginable and unattainable silence, a silence that his characters' voices keep on shattering even as they cry out for it.

-Jon‡

*I can't remember if Kafka makes prominent reference to Czech puppets in his work, which is interesting in its own right given the thematic relevance (the protagonist in The Hunger Artist is perhaps a kind of self-directing puppet show?).

However, Gustav Meyrink - who some unsourced Google quotes suggest was pals with Czech puppeteer Richard Teschner - did write a strange little story, The Man On The Bottle, about an audience watching a 'marionette show' who are too wrapped up in performances and masks to interpret the reality that they're actually watching a human being suffocate to death.

**Thomas Ligotti: "Something had happened. They did not know what it was, but they did know it as that which should not be.

Something would have to be done if they were to live with that which should not be.

This would not (be enough); it would only be the best they could do."

***Beckett's Malone Dies actually kicks off with a related sentiment:" I am in my mother’s room. It’s I who live there now. I don’t know how I got there...In any case I have her room. I sleep in her bed. I piss and shit in her pot. I have taken her place. I must resemble her more and more."

† I don't necessarily align myself in humour with Ligotti on a lot of this stuff but I imagine he would recognise both Beckett's writing and Kafka's frustrations re explaining the causes of his hatred for his father as sublimation: finding artistic and philosophical ways of sketching the inexpressible horror and uncertainty of our existence in order to reckon with it at a remove without destroying ourselves. A higher form of self-deception, but self-deception nevertheless.

‡Muna's more of an anarcho-nihilist, I think.

[synderesis08]

Wisdom of the Carpenter: 365 Prayers and Meditations of Jesus

Wisdom of the Carpenter presents those teachings with 365 prayers designed for the contemporary seeker. Incorporating his own new translations of the earliest available texts, comparative religion scholar Ron Miller brings Jesus’ voice to life, while added commentary relates Jesus’ teachings to those of the world’s other great religious traditions. Little-known teachings of Jesus from the Gospel of Thomas and other sources are included. via Amazon

Ron Miller received his PhD in Comparative Religions from Northwestern University. 

[eyeoftheheart]

"The lamps are different, but the Light is the same: it comes from Beyond. If you keep looking at the lamp, you are lost; for thence arises the appearance of number and plurality. Fix your gaze upon the Light." — Rumi, The Masnavi, Book I, Line 781-784

Gnosis and Diwali

Gnosis, as a direct, experiential knowledge of the Divine, harmonizes with Diwali’s core teaching of dispelling darkness. In the Gnostic tradition, darkness represents ignorance of our divine nature, while light symbolizes awakening and union with the Divine. Diwali’s symbolism, through this lens, can be viewed as an opportunity for seekers to engage in self-inquiry, moving beyond intellectual knowledge to direct, spiritual knowing.

By meditating on the symbolism of Diwali—the victory of light—we invite Gnosis by striving to awaken the divine spark within. This inner light, or "nous," reveals our connection to the higher realms, bringing us closer to spiritual unity with God. Diwali, then, becomes not only a reminder to light physical lamps but also to ignite the “lamp” of inner wisdom and self-realization.

Christ Consciousness and Diwali

Christ Consciousness aligns beautifully with the themes of Diwali, as it embodies love, unity, and the divine light within every person. In the Christian mystical tradition, Christ represents divine love and the light of God made manifest in humanity. Just as Diwali celebrates the inner light and overcoming darkness, Christ Consciousness calls for each person to awaken to their divine potential, transcending ego and material illusion to embody compassion, forgiveness, and universal love.

Celebrating Diwali from the perspective of Christ Consciousness encourages individuals to practice forgiveness, compassion, and selfless love. The lighting of lamps symbolizes the inner journey of “Christing,” where we realize our unity with the Divine and with each other. It is about the realization that we are all children of the light and that divine wisdom and love are inherently within us.

"I am a hole in a flute that the Christ’s breath moves through—listen to this music."— Hafez, The Gift, translated by Daniel Ladinsky

Bridging the Teachings in a Personal Practice

Diwali, approached through the lenses of Indo-Tibetan teachings, Gnosis, and Christ Consciousness, offers a powerful opportunity for introspection and transformation. Here are some ways to integrate these teachings in your Diwali celebration:

1. Inner Reflection: Spend time in meditation or contemplation, focusing on areas of inner darkness—fears, doubts, and judgments—that you wish to illuminate with love and wisdom.

2. Lighting Lamps with Intention: As you light each lamp, visualize dispelling inner ignorance and affirm your connection to divine wisdom and compassion, invoking the presence of Christ Consciousness or Buddha nature within.

3. Selfless Service: Diwali is also a time to practice generosity and kindness. Acts of service, particularly those that uplift the marginalized, embody the compassion of both Christ Consciousness and the Indo-Tibetan path of compassionate action.

4. Chanting and Prayer: Engaging in mantra chanting or prayer is a way to tune into the vibrational aspect of divine light, inviting it to dissolve blockages within and around you.

Diwali, as a spiritual celebration, is ultimately about the journey of illumination, a path that is not bound by any single tradition but resonates through various streams of wisdom. Whether approached through the lens of Hindu philosophy, Tibetan Buddhism, Gnostic insight, or Christ Consciousness, Diwali reminds us of our potential to embody and share divine light.

"Do not cease seeking day or night and do not let yourselves relax until you find the mysteries of the Kingdom of Light, which will purify you and make you into pure Light and lead you into the Kingdom of Light."— Pistis Sophia, Chapter 7

"If they say to you, ‘Where did you come from?’ say to them, ‘We came from the Light...’"— Gospel of Thomas, Saying 50

[roman-catholic-mass-readings]

15th April >> Mass Readings (Except USA)

Monday Third Week of Eastertide 

(Liturgical Colour: White. Year: B(II))

First Reading Acts of the Apostles 6:8-15 They could not get the better of Stephen because the Spirit prompted what he said.

Stephen was filled with grace and power and began to work miracles and great signs among the people. But then certain people came forward to debate with Stephen, some from Cyrene and Alexandria who were members of the synagogue called the Synagogue of Freedmen, and others from Cilicia and Asia. They found they could not get the better of him because of his wisdom, and because it was the Spirit that prompted what he said. So they procured some men to say, ‘We heard him using blasphemous language against Moses and against God.’ Having in this way turned the people against him as well as the elders and scribes, they took Stephen by surprise, and arrested him and brought him before the Sanhedrin. There they put up false witnesses to say, ‘This man is always making speeches against this Holy Place and the Law. We have heard him say that Jesus the Nazarene is going to destroy this Place and alter the traditions that Moses handed down to us.’ The members of the Sanhedrin all looked intently at Stephen, and his face appeared to them like the face of an angel.

The Word of the Lord

R/ Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm Psalm 118(119):23-24,26-27,29-30

R/ They are happy whose life is blameless. or R/ Alleluia!

Though princes sit plotting against me I ponder on your statutes. Your will is my delight; your statutes are my counsellors.

R/ They are happy whose life is blameless. or R/ Alleluia!

I declared my ways and you answered; teach me your statutes. Make me grasp the way of your precepts and I will muse on your wonders.

R/ They are happy whose life is blameless. or R/ Alleluia!

Keep me from the way of error

and teach me your law. I have chosen the way of truth with your decrees before me.

R/ They are happy whose life is blameless. or R/ Alleluia!

Gospel Acclamation John 20:29

Alleluia, alleluia!

‘You believe, Thomas, because you can see me. Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.

Alleluia!

Or:

Matthew 4:4

Alleluia, alleluia!

Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Alleluia!

Gospel John 6:22-29 Do not work for food that cannot last, but for food that endures to eternal life.

After Jesus had fed the five thousand, his disciples saw him walking on the water. Next day, the crowd that had stayed on the other side saw that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not got into the boat with his disciples, but that the disciples had set off by themselves. Other boats, however, had put in from Tiberias, near the place where the bread had been eaten. When the people saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into those boats and crossed to Capernaum to look for Jesus. When they found him on the other side, they said to him, ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’

Jesus answered:

‘I tell you most solemnly, you are not looking for me because you have seen the signs but because you had all the bread you wanted to eat. Do not work for food that cannot last, but work for food that endures to eternal life, the kind of food the Son of Man is offering you, for on him the Father, God himself, has set his seal.’

Then they said to him, ‘What must we do if we are to do the works that God wants?’ Jesus gave them this answer, ‘This is working for God: you must believe in the one he has sent.’

The Gospel of the Lord

R/ Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

[locustheologicus]

I was finally given the opportunity to obtain and read Thomas Merton's autobiography, "The Seven Storey Mountain." This is an amazing story of one man's search for truth and wisdom in the mid-20th century. It's a great read for anyone who is a seeker of philosophical/theological truths and who is non-judgementally open to the experiences of the world.

Merton eventually becomes an ascetic monk, but this lifestyle does not remove him from the experience and beauty of the world. He passionately absorbs the world and the relationships he develops. Initially, he is a philosophical atheist who struggles to find meaning in this world; what Catholicism and monasticism eventually offer is not a departure or deprivation from this world. Instead, he is able to center himself on God, the ultimate source of Truth and Love. This allows him to balance the experience and relationships he encounters. This book is an amazing journey of one man's reflective pursuit towards truth, beauty, happiness, and meaning.

One passage I want to share in this post is in chapter three, when he undertook his personal journey as an adolescent who just lost his father. He finally encounters the world of prayer and has a mystical experience that will eventually (although not immediately) change him. At that moment, he encounters sacred scripture. Until then, he enjoyed the poetic and philosophical musings of D.H. Lawrence whose religious exposition was tainted by a right-wing political affiliation. Evidently, this author was in favor of dictatorship and social order. This ideological orientation would color his religious lens. Merton recognizes this after he finally reads the Bible for the first time and sees this poet's fallacy. As Merton describes it:

One evening, when I was reading these poems, I became so disgusted with their falseness and futility that I threw down the book and began to ask myself why I was wasting my time with a man of such unimportance as this. For it was evident that he had more or less completely failed to grasp the true meaning of the New Testament, which he had perverted in the interest of a personal and home-made religion of his own which was not only fanciful, but full of unearthly seeds, all ready to break forth into hideous plants like those that were germinating in Germany's unweeded garden, in the dank weather of Nazism.

This passage highlights for me the concern I have for the emerging Christian nationalism that Merton saw developing in Europe of the mid 1930's. His journey towards the truth is to be free of the ideological perversions that filter religious interpretation and to read the joy of the Gospel himself in order to authentically find God in the story of Jesus, the story of service, healing, forgiveness, and reconciliation. This is not the Gospel narrative of Christian nationalism.

The purpose of Christianity is to find the deepest meaning of who you are by connecting oneself with the source of both our entire being and the whole of creation. Scripture and the beauty of our tradition imparts this wisdom on us. Do not let the perversion of Christian nationalism and its hatred for our diverse world defile the beauty of our Christian faith and the movement that Jesus and the early church started. Take time to go to the source and rediscover what it means to truly be a disciple of Christ.

May the wisdom of Merton's experience be a spiritual guide for us in these troubled times.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

“If your spiritual guides say to you, ‘Look, the divine Realm is in the sky,’ well then the birds will get there ahead of you. If they say, ‘It is in the sea,’ then the fish will precede you.

“No, divine Reality exists inside and all around you. Only when you have come to know your true Self will you be fully known — realizing at last that you are a child of the Living One. If, however, you never come to know who you truly are, you are a poverty-stricken being, and it is your ‘self’ which lies impoverished.” (Yeshua, Saying Three, The Gospel of Thomas — Wisdom of the Twin, Lynn Bauman translation)

[eldritchboop]

37 Ancient Lost Texts on Buddhism

The Lost Book Project charges $7 for this collection. If you found this roundup useful, please consider donating to the Internet Archive instead. Other roundups here

The Manual Of Zen Buddhism by D. T. Suzuki (1921)

The Light of Asia by E. Arnold (1894)

A Buddhist Bible by D. Goddard (1921)

Dhammapada And The Sutta Nipata by F. M. Muller (1881)

31 Planes Of Existence by Jinavamsa (1891)

Esoteric Buddhism by A. P. Sinnett (1889) The Dhammapada, a Collection of Verses; Being One Of The Canonical Books Of The Buddhists by Max Muller (1881)

Buddha and Buddhism by Arthur Lillie (1900)

The Gospel Of Buddha by P. Carus (1917)

The Questions Of King Milinda Pts. 1 & 2 by T. W. Rhys Davids (1890)

The Tree Of Wisdom by Nagarjuna (1919) A Buddhist Catechism by H. S. Olcott (1908) A Record Of Buddhistic Kingdoms by J. Legge (1886)

Buddha His Life, His Teachings by M. N. Shastri (1901) Buddhist Mahayana Texts Pts. 1 & 2 by E. Cowell (1894) Buddhist Suttas by T. W. Rhys Davids (1881) Early Buddhism by T. W. Rhys Davids (1908) Eastern Stories and Legends by M. L. Shedlock (1920) Nirvâna - A Story of Buddhist Psychology by P. Carus (1902) Sermons Of A Buddhist Abbot Zen For Americans by S. Shaku (1906) Buddhist Scriptures by E. J. Thomas (1913) The Buddhist praying-wheel - a collection of material bearing upon the symbolism of the wheel and circular movements in custom and religious ritual by W. Simpson (1896) The Dhammapada by Suriyagoda Sumangala Thera (1914) The Essence of Buddhism by P. Lakshmi Narasu (1907) The Gateless Gate by Ekai, called Mu-Mon (1921) The Gods of Northern Buddhism by A. Getty (1914) The Jataka or stories of the Buddha's former births Vols. 1, 2, 3 & 6 by E. B. Cowell (1895) The legends and theories of the Buddhists, compared with history and science, with introductory notices of the life and system of Gotama Buddha by R. S. Hardy (1866) The Life Of Buddha by A. F. Herold (1922) The life of the Buddha and the early history of his order by W. W. Rockhill (1907) The life, or legend, of Gaudama, the Buddha of the Burmese Vol. 2 by P. Bigandet (1911) Ed note: Both volumes because I love you <3 The Saddharma Pundarika by H. Kern (1884) The Soul Of a People by H. Fielding (1902) The Way Of The Buddha by H. Baynes (1913) The Way to Nirvana by L. de la Vallée Poussin (1917) The wheel of the law. Buddhism, illustrated from Siamese sources by the Modern Buddhist, a Life of Buddha, and an account of the Phrabat by H. Alabaster (1871) The word of the Buddha; an outline of the ethico-philosophical system of the Buddha in the words of the Pali canon, together with explanatory notes by B. Nyanatiloka (1907)

[permease23]

@involuntaryataraxia

Pietro Lorenzetti (Sienese, c. 1280-1348)

Detail: Descent from the Cross (c. 1320)

Fresco detail

Lower Church, San Francesco, Assisi

Essay on The Cult of the Virgin Mary in the Middle Ages

The Virgin Mary and the Church

A mother figure is a central object of worship in several religions (for example, images of the Virgin and Child call to mind Egyptian representations of Isis nursing her son Horus). The history of the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus Christ, depends on the texts of the Gospels. Embellishments to her legend seem to have taken form in the fifth century in Syria. The life of the mother of Christ was exceptional: she was born free of original sin, through the Immaculate Conception; she was taken to heaven after her death; and, just as Saint Thomas doubted Christ's Resurrection, so he doubted Mary's Assumption. Theologians established a parallel between Christ's Passion and the Virgin's compassion: while he suffered physically on the cross, she was crucified in spirit. The Council of Ephesus in 431 sanctioned the cult of the Virgin as Mother of God; the dissemination of images of the Virgin and Child, which came to embody church doctrine, soon followed.

The Virgin Mary in Byzantine Representations

The Virgin Mary, known as the Theotokos in Greek terminology, was central to Byzantine spirituality as one of its most important religious figures. As the mediator between suffering mankind and Christ and the protectress of Constantinople, she was widely venerated. The Virgin is the subject of important liturgical hymns, such as the Akathistos Hymn, sung at the Feast of the Annunciation (March 25) and during Lent. Narrative artistic representations of Christ's mother focus on her conception and childhood or her Koimesis (her Dormition, or eternal sleep). Most images of the Virgin stress her role as Christ's Mother, showing her standing and holding her son. The manner in which the Virgin holds Christ is very particular. Certain poses developed into "types" that became names of sanctuaries or poetic epithets. Hence, an icon of the Virgin was meant to represent her image and, at the same time, the replica of a famous icon original. For example, the Virgin Hodegetria is a popular representation of the Virgin in which she holds Christ on her left arm and gestures toward him with her right hand, showing that he is the way to salvation. The name Hodegetria comes from the Hodegon Monastery in Constantinople, in which the icon showing the Virgin in this particular stance resided from at least the twelfth century onward, acting to protect the city. A later type is that of the Virgin Eleousa, imagined to have derived from the Virgin Hodegetria. This type represents the compassionate side of the Virgin. She is shown bending to touch her cheek to the cheek of her child, who reciprocates this affection by placing his arm around her neck. Byzantine images of the Virgin were adopted in the West. For example, Early Netherlandish paintings such as the Virgin and Child by the Master of the Saint Ursula Legend and the Virgin and Child by Dieric Bouts reveal an interest in Byzantine representations of the Theotokos.

The Virgin Mary in Western Representations

Most Western types of the Virgin's image, such as the twelfth-century "Throne of Wisdom" from central France, in which the Christ Child is presented frontally as the sum of divine wisdom, seem to have originated in Byzantium. Byzantine models became widely distributed in western Europe by the seventh century. The twelfth and thirteenth centuries saw an extraordinary growth of the cult of the Virgin in western Europe, in part inspired by the writings of theologians such as Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153), who identified her as the bride of the Song of Songs in the Old Testament. The Virgin was worshipped as the Bride of Christ, Personification of the Church, Queen of Heaven, and Intercessor for the salvation of humankind. This movement found its grandest expression in the French cathedrals, which are often dedicated to "Our Lady," and many cities, such as Siena, placed themselves under her protection.

The Virgin Mary in the Later Middle Ages

The hieratic images of the Romanesque period, which emphasize Mary's regal aspect, gave way in the Gothic age to more tender representations emphasizing the relationship between mother and child. The early fourteenth-century Vierge Ouvrante from Cologne articulates her role in Christian salvation. When closed, the hinged sculpture represents the Virgin nursing the Christ Child, who holds the dove of the Holy Spirit. Her garment opens up, like the wings of a triptych, to reveal in her body the figure of God the Father. He holds the cross, made of two tree trunks, from which the now-missing figure of Christ hung. The flanking wings are painted with scenes from Christ's infancy or Incarnation, that is to say, the embodiment of God the Son in human flesh.

(from the Heilbrunn Timeline website)

[santmat]

Gospel of Thomas Studies - Message and Key Verses: Need For A Living One, Not Just Old Scriptures

52. His Disciples said to him: Twenty-four prophets preached in Israel, and they all spoke of you. He said to them: "You have ignored the Living One who is in your presence and you have spoken only of the dead."

59. Jesus said: "Look to the Living-One while you are alive, otherwise, you might die and seek to see him and will be unable to find him."

5. Know what is in front of your face and what is hidden from you will be revealed to you. For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed.

(108) Yeshua said, Whoever drinks from my mouth will become like me. I myself shall become that person, and the hidden things will be revealed to that one.

What the Living Master Reveals to the Student

17. The Master says: I will give to you what eye has not seen, what ear has not heard, what hand has not touched, and what has not occurred to the mind of man."

Or as Kabir Has Said

“It is the mercy of my true Guru that has made me to know the Unknown;

I have learned from Him how to

walk without feet,

to see without eyes,

to hear without ears,

to drink without mouth,

to fly without wings." 

After the Teacher Dies, All We Have Are Old Scriptures From Now On? Rather, There is Succession and a New Living One Appointed For the Next Generation in the Gospel of Thomas   

12) The students said to Yeshua, We know you will leave us. Who will be our leader?

Yeshua said to them, Wherever you are, seek out Yaakov the Just. For his sake heaven and earth came into being.

12. The Disciples said to Jesus: We know that you will go away from us. Who is it that will be our teacher?

Jesus said to them: Wherever you are, you will go to James the Righteous, for whose sake Heaven and Earth were made (came into being.)

For Whose Sake Heaven and Earth Came Into Being, an Old Hebrew Axiom of Wisdom Explained  

"Whenever feeling downcast, each person should vitally remember, 'For my sake, the entire world was created.'" (Baal Shem Tov)

The Baal Shem Tov is sort of the "Rumi" or "Kabir" of Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism), an example of a towering figure and great mystic of one of the great schools of spirituality. The ending part, "For my sake, the entire world was created", is a variation of an ancient axiom of wisdom. A version of it even turns up in saying twelve of the Gospel of THOMAS: "The students said to Yeshua, 'We know you will leave us. Who will be our leader?' Yeshua said to them, 'Wherever you are, seek out Yaakov the Just [James the Just]. For his sake heaven and earth came into being.'"

Martin Buber elaborates and expands on this axiom in a way that includes us all: “Every person should know and consider the fact that you, in the particular way that you are made, are unique in the world, and no one like you has ever been. For if someone like you had already been, there would be no reason for you to be in this world.” (Ten Rings: Hasidic Sayings, Martin Buber)

Here's a big picture view from the Sikh scriptures of India, the Adi Granth, Peace Lagoon translation: "It was for the sake of the God-conscious beings that our True Lord created this earth, and began this play of death and birth".

[brother-hermes]

AWAKENING: DRUNKARDS & EMPTINESS

Before we approach the esoteric meaning behind the Wedding At Cana we need to look at the concept of drunkenness. To be full is to be content. Without thirst there would be no need for living water right. Let’s dive into why one must be empty of all understanding to receive. Rock with me as we take the journey within.

[chocolatesapphire]

Soft Voices....

The following is a tribute to the Sacred Women,

The Woman is the only portal between the spiritual and the physical realm. It is as if ages ago this was appreciated for the phenomena that it is- a fact that has gone undervalued as women have been convinced that the yoni is not valuable nor powerful. She is the only way that an entity can transform from a heavenly being, to an Earthly one. She- being human, tiger, dog, cat, a bear- every creature on Earth is born of a woman.

She is vital, as she is the only entrance into this world by manifestation with the male. With him, she can give birth to an idea, creation or Life. Together, they can bring something from the spiritual into the natural world. She must be protected or she could give birth to the wrong thing. As we drift further away from gender roles, we lose sight of the moral reasons behind such practices. This woman is who God uses when he needs a prophet, like Moses.

This power within is buried behind veils of insecurities, blocking sight from the truth, which is the possession of wisdom and power strong enough to navigate unborn spirits into this planet.

The woman who has found alignment with her feminine essence has the role of leading a man back to his soul, she will find to be her highest calling in life. She has innate wisdom and is a channel for truth. The man who has found alignment with his masculine essence will not be intimidated by the mirror she faces at his ego- as she only resides in the house of healing and transformation. When she has found comfort and familiarity in this home, all whom enter her aura are healed by her presence. The woman’s body is not only beautiful but a divine portal for creation with the magical ability to transmute consciousness and eternal stardust.

The sacred woman is naturally connected to the Earth and Water elements.

When she bonds with water, so her skill of sharp intuition and high emotional health are revealed. With this, she is also purified and has psychic abilities. They both also share the characteristics of loving the dark, the winter, autumn and the night. Both are refreshing, mysterious, private, sensitive, emotional, receptive with much wisdom. Along with this, they practice non-attachment and struggle with fear.

When she bonds with Earth, she is nourishing, life, grounded and motherly. They are both healing, connected with animals, fertile, dirt and deeply empathetic. As she grows closer to this element, she will be drawn to salt, herbs, wood, plants and flowers as these are Earth’s closest associations. Combined with patience, truth, groundedness and reliability.

The sun to masculinity is as the moon is feminine power. Representing half of life. The two dimensions of God- Each wonderfully and fearfully created, join back together as one. Because in the end and beginning they were always One. According to the Gospel of Thomas, ‘every female that will make herself male will enter into the kingdom of Heaven.’ Revealing this truth.

The sacred woman has been long forgotten and undervalued in society as we lose the ability to hear that inner voice of truth and guidance from her loving lips. She should be allowed to share her gifts, her innate supernatural wisdom handed down from above to help all the creatures below in need.

The sacred inner connection women have with their wombs and intuition have gone- our creative center, the space of life and growth. Black women, specifically, have always been connected deeply to the unseen realm, which is really just being completely in accordance with their natural womanly ability to intuit, feel, hear and see the softer things in life, that like her, go unnoticed sometimes. These women are harshly labeled as occultists or witches. A sacred woman practicing is for God’s purpose, which is caring for all the creatures on earth that don’t have a voice, sharing and spreading her supernatural abilities always for good. Never for the deterioration of any form of life. From a human to a dandelion. These are the women needed when the world has gone awry, the ones able to hear and see what the male mind is completely blind to. Oshun, Sehkmet, Isis and Athena and other powerful female energies to the like had the ability to cultivate this.

She whom is fully immersed into her calling, is naturally compassionate, sensitive, intuitive, creative, magnetic, vulnerable, trusting, surrendered, open and receptive. When she must be, she is powerful, an alchemist, she is magnetic, fierce, transformational, deeply passionate, seductive and always authentic. And when it is dark, when all the light has gone, she still thrives, transforming this energy to chaos, the unconscious, exploring the void, embracing the unknown and the mystery. Here she finds release of her raw expression, magic and in the end, when the light comes back as he always does, she transmutes it all into healing.

The sacred feminine woman honors herself first, no matter the factors working against her. To all in the past and future whom have gone without recognition, their energy still lives in those who seek to find.

[eternal-echoes]

I ask the pope if and how this is also true in the case of another important cultural frontier, the anthropological challenge. The understanding of human existence to which the church has traditionally referred, as well as the language in which the church has expressed it, remain solid points of reference and are the result of centuries-long experience and wisdom. However, the human beings to whom the church is speaking no longer seem to understand these notions, nor do they consider them sufficient. I begin to advance the idea that we now interpret ourselves in a different way than in the past, using different categories. This is also due to the great changes in society, as well as a broader conception of what it means to be human. At this point the pope stands up and takes the breviary from his desk. It is in Latin, and is worn down by continued use. He opens it to the Office of the Readings of the Feria Sexta, that is Friday, of the 27th week. He reads a passage to me taken from the Commonitórium Primum of St. Vincent of Lerins: "ita étiam christiánae religiónis dogma sequátur has decet proféctuum leges, ut annis scílect consolidétur, dilatétur témpore, sublimétur aetáte" (“Thus even the dogma of the Christian religion must proceed from these laws. It progresses, solidifying with years, growing over time, deepening with age.”)

The pope comments: “St. Vincent of Lerins makes a comparison between the biological development of man and the transmission from one era to another of the deposit of faith, which grows and is strengthened with time. Here, human self-understanding changes with time and so also human consciousness deepens. Let us think of when slavery was accepted or the death penalty was allowed without any problem. So we grow in the understanding of the truth. Exegetes and theologians help the church to mature in her own judgment. Even the other sciences and their development help the church in its growth in understanding. There are ecclesiastical rules and precepts that were once effective, but now they have lost value or meaning. The view of the church’s teaching as a monolith to defend without nuance or different understandings is wrong. “After all, in every age of history, humans try to understand and express themselves better. So human beings in time change the way they perceive themselves. It’s one thing for a man who expresses himself by carving the ‘Winged Victory of Samothrace,’ yet another for Caravaggio, Chagall and yet another still for Dalí. Even the forms for expressing truth can be multiform, and this is indeed necessary for the transmission of the Gospel in its timeless meaning. “Humans are in search of themselves, and, of course, in this search they can also make mistakes. The church has experienced times of brilliance, like that of Thomas Aquinas. But the church has lived also times of decline in its ability to think. For example, we must not confuse the genius of Thomas Aquinas with the age of decadent Thomist commentaries. Unfortunately, I studied philosophy from textbooks that came from decadent or largely bankrupt Thomism. In thinking of the human being, therefore, the church should strive for genius and not for decadence. “When does a formulation of thought cease to be valid? When it loses sight of the human or even when it is afraid of the human or deluded about itself. The deceived thought can be depicted as Ulysses encountering the song of the Siren, or as Tannhäuser in an orgy surrounded by satyrs and bacchantes, or as Parsifal, in the second act of Wagner’s opera, in the palace of Klingsor. The thinking of the church must recover genius and better understand how human beings understand themselves today, in order to develop and deepen the church’s teaching.”

-INTERVIEW WITH POPE FRANCIS by Fr Antonio Spadaro, August 19, 2013