The Gospel of Thomas

The Gospel of Thomas is part of  the Nag Hammadi find of 1945, not seen for around 1600 years! Some scholars think was contemporary with the ones that made it into the New Testament. Some think it might be earlier. It is made-up of sayings, about half of which are in the Gospels we know and half are new to us. Let's look at some of them together.

 Jesus said, “If your teachers tell you, ‘The kingdom is up in heaven,’ then the birds will get there before you. If they say, ‘It’s in the ocean,’ then the fish will beat you there. Actually, the kingdom is both inside you and all around you. When you truly understand who you are, then others will recognize you too, and you’ll realize you’re children of the living Father. But if you don’t know yourself, you’re living in spiritual poverty—and you are that poverty.”

I love that we see Jesus's humor here. Heaven's not where God is, for the bird would get there 1st, is very humorous, as well as the fish in the ocean would get there 1st. 

To me this is somewhat reminiscent of Luke where he says the kingdom of heaven is within, but here he says the kingdom is within you and all around you, everywhere. It also makes me think of the Psalmist who said from the mountaintop to the depths, God is there.

When we think partially about God as infinite intelligence that created and recreates everything constantly, it only makes sense that intelligence is present everywhere, otherwise things would start falling apart. For hundreds of thousands of people, probably millions, including me, the presence of God is felt wherever we are, whenever we turn to it.

Knowing who we are is like the old adage on the Greek temples "Know thyself." So here he says if you know yourself, apparently there is some radiation from you that you will be seen by others as someone spiritually awake. And then you'll have inside of you spiritual riches, otherwise you have spiritual poverty, and are poverty itself.  It is squarely on us, it's up to us to determine our lives, of what living as a Godly being is. Nobody can do it for us.

 As I listen to people's stories, watch the news, and see life unfolding around me, it seems to me many are living in spiritual poverty right now. What a blessing to life on earth it would be if there was a swing towards the spiritual. Everything on earth would change for the better. I don't know if it's possible since it hasn't ever happened in history, but maybe just maybe, if we see it and move toward it, it could actually happen. Let's just try.

Although I rarely mention anything political on this blog, I feel the need to mention the vitriol that I'm hearing on the television between various points of view and people. 

It seems to me it would serve our airways our democracy and our peace of mind, if people simply just told the truth,plain old-fashioned truth, if candidates would speak about themselves, their positions and positives, and stop saying awful things about their opponents. We would learn something about them that would be useful in our decision making.

My two cents worth for today 

Self Control

 Early on in my life I learned self-control, partially for necessity and partially taught by my family. Take a deep breath , count to 10, think before you act, etc. Consider what somebody is saying, and just make sure there's not a grain of truth in it before you get upset. Or better yet know that everybody has a right to their own opinion, and they don't all have to agree with you. Maybe we can learn from each other.

Right we see a lack of self control  in many places. Politicians are saying a lot of bizarre things,  pro-communism -  crazy ideas - and slinging mud at each other. It makes me wonder if there is a same person with integrity out there to vote for?

It's no doubt western civilization is under attack all over the world. Western civilization brought the idea of democracy and freedom and the ability for a person who works hard to succeed. Western civilization brought hospitals and libraries and orphanages and museums and philosophy and science and rights for women and a thousand great things.

In Europe My heart breaks for the rampage that's going on against western civilization there right at this very minute. I saw people trying to break into the Louve. I saw the Roman Colosseum under attack, and I had tears in my eyes.

Immigrants came on purpose to these countries,but oppose everything about those countries, and are now trying to destroy them.

Unthinking mobs , out of control, frenzied people, are creating mayhem and a huge amount of destruction. When a mob gets going, hysteria takes over, and people are not  using the frontal lobe of their brains and are out of control in emotional hinges.

I think it rests on many years of propaganda against the West from many places,  - from communist countries, from Islamic countries, from pure ignorance, from so many far left people of influence. 

Anyone who has traveled knows that although we are not perfect, we have better lives here in the West than people do in communist regimes or in dictatorships. Students of history know we are better off than any time in the past. 

I think we need to be aware of those who want to destroy the West, and subject us to their crazy ideas. I think it will be good for us to stand up for freedom and not for the horrors of anarchy or communism.

Can We Escape Our Past?

 We are all, in a way, immigrants from the past. --- God, A Biography

I just started reading this book this morning , and this quote stuck out to my mind. That's an interesting thought that he explains well. He uses the example of someone raised in extreme wealth, and as adult gives away his. his wealth. He still has his history of being raised in luxury and cannot erase it, for.it affects everything he does.

He also asserts that even though the West has turned considerably away from Christianity and Judaism, it still affects our points of view and our values. You can see it when you visit another country that is different and somehow also has strains of a different history showing up currently.

I was thinking of my life my particular life. It has been a mixed bag of positive and negatives, growing up and along the way. All of it was my teacher. If you read my recent book, "The Book of my Life, I Wouldn't Believe It Either If I Hadn't Lived It," you know all the gory details.

But I can see how I'm an immigrant from that past. I have carried on some of the positive traits that were ingrained to me in my childhood, and I have endeavored to not incorporate the negative things in my life, in my relationships, or or in my child rearing. 

Yet all of it is carried within me because it's my history, my experience. I can't really escape it, but I don't have to reenact it. 

Some people are like immigrants who come here from a violent and repressive country, but try to make this country into the country they escaped from. 

Some people who had difficult childhoods keep re-enacting it in the here and now, keep imposing their dramas on their children and grandchildren, rather than breaking the chain, beginning a new story.

It is challenging to be an immigrant, whether to choose to leave a country and begin again in a new country, or to choose to leave the family story behind the begin a new story. Either way it takes courage I encourage us all to break the chains of anything negative holding us back, tying us to the past that was dysfunctional, and began a new functional life so that we can be all that we are meant to be. Each of us have gifts within us that we need to give. I know that to be true. Have courage to be an immigrant who lets go of the past and moves into this present day fresh and new and glorious and listening to the highest spirit to guide you into magnificence!

Has the World Gone Crazy?

 In so many ways as we look around, It seems like the world has gone crazy.   But is it any more crazy than it has ever been?

My minor was in history, and I frequently read historical things because it is one of my interests. It seems like humanity has always been struggling to find sanity.  Many many bizarre things Have happened throughout the whole course of history. 

And yet it seems to me that the vast majority of people have just been trying to live a life the best they can. It is the minority on the fringes that create the craziness and the many many problems.

 However, people seem to get caught up in other people's craziness. In almost every part of the world, some person has called out for killing some other people and got an otherwise normal group of people all riled up, and who then went out and killed people with rocks, clubs, machetes, catapults, swords, bullets, bombs, and words, mostly shouted in slogans - in other words with whatever weapon they happen to have at that moment of human development.

A group frenzy is hard to quell. Perhaps we humans have a fatal flaw We allow, or cannot resist, someone else's shouting to engage our emotions We then do things we would not normally do, and are later ashamed of.

Standing at perhaps another tipping point of history , it might serve us well to ask how can we protect ourselves from being part of someone else's frenzy and doing things that are not good for other humans including ourselves actually? How can we refuse getting swamped by our emotional brain and somehow stay in our critical thinking part of our brain? How can we  refuse to get caught up in someone else's battle  cry and slogans and craziness?  

 Is it possible for us to stand strong, clear, and sane in the midst of other people's emotional haranguing? I think it's important for us to take charge of ourselves and do all we can not to get cut up.  If we can somehow remain sane, history will look back on this time and salute and celebrate those who had the courage to hold  the line and not let things fall apart.

Words Silenced for 1600 Years

 The resurrection is different. It is real, it stands firm. It is revelation of what is, a transformation of things, a transition into newness. --- The Treatise on Resurrection

This is quote is from another one of the writings in the Nag Hammadi Library.

This reminds me of writings I've shared here  at Easter time. Things are made new in the spring time. Seeds sprout and become beautiful flowers. Caterpillars in cocoons dissolve and reform as a butterfly and come out in their glory. Dead looking trees suddenly have green leaves sprouting all over.   So I agree, yes, resurrection is real. I can see it in our world.

I also see it in our own lives at all levels. Our bodies are making new cells everyday. Scrapes and cuts and bruises are healing and disappear as if they were never there. The foods we eat somehow magically transform themselves into muscle and bone and hair and skin and everything that our body is. Newness is everywhere. 

 I also see newness in my emotions, and my understanding, in my intellectual abilities et cetera. I'm certainly not the same person that I was when I was a child, for I am so much more. I have learned and done and been in so many places, so many things have happened Newness is around every corner.

I have had spiritual experiences that have proven to me that my spirit or soul is here, but is not locked into my body.  it is rhe eternal part. I also know, with a near death and life after life experiences, that we all continue after death of our bodies. We all are accountable for what we do in this life, with the gift of life on earth.

I one way, I could say this whole thing is a resurrection experience There are clues everywhere. Just start looking for them And you will find them

PS—I am continually excited about reading words that Christians read and honored and discussed and argued over in the 1st - 4th centuries and have not been available until recently for us. It is exciting to hear the voices that have been shuttered by people afraid of hearing them so very long ago. It appears that the shuttering was very profound beginning in the 4th century although some of it happened earlier. So just imagine we can now read words that have not been read for 1600 years.

The Gospel of Truth

 Steady the feet of those who stumble and extend your hands to the sick. Feed the hungry and give rest to the weary. Awaken those who wish to arise and rouse those who sleep, for you embody vigorous understanding. If what is strong acts like this, it becomes even stronger. --- The Gospel of Truth

The Gospel of Truth is another one of the Gosoels in the Nag Hammadi library. I find it quite fascinating The above quote is one of many that touch my soul. It calls us to do the things Jesus taught, and at the same time it says doing these things makes us stronger.

The side effect of becoming stronger by caring for others is something of a new idea to me. I've thought of it as making my faith stronger, making me want to do more good in the world, but the author of the Gospel of Truth says it makes us stronger. Seems like that's a wonderful benefit of being a good person. I can see the converse. Being a bad person and not doing good makes us weaker in spirit and in body.

I suggest that we do those wonderful things and allow ourselves to become stronger and make this world a better place at the same time.