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The Gospel of Thomas and "Know Thyself"
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The Gospel of Thomas and "Know Thyself"
(I created for this place - 17. /04.10.1999, 02:19)
I first wrote this letter for the chat forum of the Gospel of Thomas. Then I thought that it would be a good addition for my section of "Know Thyself". For Finnish speaking people I have been giving the possibility to read my interpretation of certain Bible sections (Math. Mark and Luke and Genesis).
My most valuable finding was for me, was that the main point of the teachings of Jesus is "Know Thyself". It is hidden in the second command of Love - "as you Love thyself." You cannot love yourself if you don't know thyself. And because the origin of the word love is 'Agabe' meaning Absolute Love, then the core of Christianity goes like this:
"When you Absolutely Know Thyself, then you automatically Absolutely Love Thyself and that means that you Absolutely Love thy neighbor and that you Absolutely Love Wholeness, Good."
TR: I don't ask questions. I only give you the Right interpretation of the Gospel of Thomas. The gospel says it directly "Know Thyself" and you are There, in the Kingdom.
TR: The numbers in the following text come from this translation: The "Scholars' Translation" of the Gospel of Thomas. by Stephen Patterson and Marvin Meyer
1 And he said, "Whoever discovers the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death."
TR: The only person that is capable to interpret these sayings and the Bible, the Gospels is this kind of person.
TR: He has found the kingdom from inside himself.
3.... Rather, the kingdom is within you and it is outside you.
TR: So a person has to know himself and the result is that he Sees it All. The method is "Know Thyself" (within you) and the result is that you Know Everything (outside you). (Everything is not in the usual meaning, but it mean that you know the core of human behavior, the most important thing in human beings. If you want to know more, go to my homepage - http://personal.inet.fi/koti/reunanen - and the link "Know Thyself".)
When you know yourself, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you live in poverty, and you are the poverty."
TR: But he is not a child of the living Father as we usually know it. Far from it, he is childlike person for himself and especially for the fellow human beings. Or what you say about this sentences.
4 Jesus said, "The person old in days won't hesitate to ask a little child seven days old about the place of life, and that person will live.
TR: The most meaningful word is 'hesitate'. Wold you hesitate to ask a litlle child seven days old for the meaning of life?
TR: Or this...
37 ...Jesus said, "When you strip without being ashamed, and you take your clothes and put them under your feet like little children and trample then, then [you] will see the son of the living one and you will not be afraid."
TR: What do you think about this kind of person. I am very interested in your interpretation of this saying. I am certain, that you have to discover some kind of metaphor to get through.
TR: To assure that we understand the meaning of childlike person. Jesus tells. That we have to be like a nursing baby. What is important about this kind of baby. The me or self has not yet born to this person. So adult's me of self has to dye. If there is Wholeness and a parted part, me, then were is this kind of child. The child is in Wholeness and an abult has to find back to Wholeness. That is the goal of religion. And only man from all animals and from the nature was parted when man fell into the order of 'good and bad thinking' not into sin.
TR: Where did you see first time in Bible the word 'ashame'. Was it in Genesis after the falling into sin?
22 Jesus saw some babies nursing. He said to his disciples, "These nursing babies are like those who enter the kingdom."
They said to him, "Then shall we enter the kingdom as babies?"
Jesus said to them, "When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter [the kingdom]."
TR: I give the interpretation for this section even if I am speaking about childlike person. This is painting the same person. Childlike person is Real Creative person. Look for Abraham Maslow (Toward a Psychology of Being. Princeton 1962). He is both-and-person. With that man is Whole. Jin and Jang are together. Outer and inner are together. Because he is in every sense, in his attitudes, both-and-person he is Whole. The question is about mental thing. People are not changing physically.
TR: This is the evidence about the meaning of Wholeness. And it goes on.
61...Jesus said to her, "I am the one who comes from what is whole. I was granted from the things of my Father."
"I am your disciple."
"For this reason I say, if one is whole, one will be filled with light, but if one is divided, one will be filled with darkness."
TR: As I have described the childlike person, people are not thinking very highly about him and so he is considered as the last one in the present world. How do you see youself as a science man, who are the first ones in this word. So only few of you, the firs ones discover the interpretation.
(4) For many of the first will be last, and will become a single one."
TR: The first ones are not thinking highly about the childlike persons, because instead of knowing more and better they know it all, Absolutely All. It has to be a childlike thought.
5 Jesus said, "Know what is in front of your face, and what is hidden from you will be disclosed to you.
For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed. [And there is nothing buried that will not be raised."]
TR: This is the result, when a person Knows Himself. The person who knows it all, knows also what this means. What is the only beginning and end that a human being can meet. It is 'the time' between future and tomorrow or NOW. NOW isn't time at all, because it cannot include no time from the future or tomorrow, if you go to a shorter and shorter time clearing from the time you are lookin the parts from future and tomorrow you end up to Timelessness or Forever - there the beginning and the end are together.
TR: The reason because so few from the first ones find the Kingdom is in the next sentence.
67 Jesus said, "Those who know all, but are lacking in themselves, are utterly lacking."
TR: You are lacking the knowledge about yourself. It is not enough to know some and develop in knowing yourself. You have to Know Absolutely All and that means that you Absolutely Love yourself (do you know this Greek word 'Agabe') and so you automatically Absolutely Love thy neighbor and also Absolutely Love the Wholeness or God.
18 The disciples said to Jesus, "Tell us, how will our end come?"
Jesus said, "Have you found the beginning, then, that you are looking for the end? You see, the end will be where the beginning is.
Congratulations to the one who stands at the beginning: that one will know the end and will not taste death."
TR: You can stand at the beginning, when you are living in NOW, meaning 'in the time' between future and tomorrow.
2 Jesus said, "Those who seek should not stop seeking until they find. When they find, they will be disturbed. When they are disturbed, they will marvel, and will reign over all. [And after they have reigned they will rest.]"
TR: What is the destiny of this childlike person. He has seen the light and he cannot do nothing about it. And when you see, you are disturbed, because the solution is so simple. So the feeling is mixed up you are disturbed and marveled.
24 ... He said to them, "Anyone here with two ears had better listen! There is light within a person of light, and it shines on the whole world. If it does not shine, it is dark."
33 ...After all, no one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, nor does one put it in a hidden place. Rather, one puts it on a lampstand so that all who come and go will see its light."
TR: So I am doing this shining thing in this article.
111...Does not Jesus say, "Those who have found themselves, of them the world is not worthy"?
TR: How do you think a seven days old child sees the world. How he sees values. This is the answer. I see the world the same way. Perhaps for this reason I am one of the last ones - I hope, I don't know. I don't have ask the infant child about the meaning of life, because I know what he/she/it would answer.
TR: This doesn't meant that the world is worthy, it means that I look the world without me, self. So the world has no value, because I have no values, because I have no me or self or ego anymore.
TR: I have wonder for a long time, why didn't Jesus use an other word when he was talking about 'going and selling everything'. Why didn't He use the knowledge word. If you have two gods, go and get rid of you knowledge by selling it all. How does it sound? It is mad. You cannot sell and get rid of knowledge, but you can get rid of its influence by loosing the connection of me and the knowledge. The same is with the worthy-thing. I am driving a Mercedes Benz - suddenly I Know Myself - I am driving a Mercedes Benz. What is changed? Me is dead so the doing totally is different.
Look the Bible for for the dummies first