The Gospel of Thomas
a commentary By: Raghavendra Giri
aka: Ricardo Dacosta
Unlike the four canonical gospels, which combine narrative accounts of the life of Jesus with sayings, Thomas is a "sayings gospel". It takes the less structured form of a collection of sayings attributed to Jesus (including brief dialogues), the writing down of which is attributed to Didymus Judas Thomas.
The gospel does not have a narrative framework, nor is it worked into any overt philosophical or rhetorical context.
All the texts have been available to the general public since 1975. The Gospel of
Thomas has been translated, published and annotated in several languages.
I am working on writing a commentary on The Gospel Of Thomas and would like to share with you what I have done so far... These are the secret sayings that the living Jesus spoke and Didymos Judas Thomas recorded.
1. And he said, "Whoever discovers the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death."
Jesus knew that death was a characteristic of the body, but HE also knew, as a self-realized being, that his true identity was The Soul, which is eternal, and not a mind-identified body. What HE refers to in this verse is that those who realized themselves as Son of God will not feel the death of the body as his/her own death. He/She does not identified him/her self with the body.
Just like you must be in the vehicle in order for you to experience the effects of a car accident, the same way you must be fully identify with your body in order for you to feel the death of such.
Among all saints and realized beings that have walked on earth, Jesus did something major that teaches us how far can man go if he is not to identify himself as a mind-identified body
HE allowed himself to be beaten up and crucified in front of everybody and yet he was able to say "Forgive them, Father," "They don't realize what they're doing." Jesus was so identified with his Soul that although the body was treated in horribles ways HE never felt pain, therefore HE never tasted the death of his body 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.]"
People all over the world are in search of happiness and peace. Most people are under the illusion that happiness and peace comes through material possessions. The more material possessions people acquire the more material possessions people will want to acquire and so the search never ends. One may find temporary peace and happiness through material possessions, but such will last for as long as the mind feels satisfied with such object.
What Jesus is talking about in this saying is that for those who have realize that permanent happiness and peace is not to found anywhere but within, for those, the search within must not come to an end until one reaches a state of self-realization, in which one is to remain in a permanent state of inner peace and happiness.
Once such state is realized, at first once is bound to suffer for the simplicity of such revelation, but once it is accepted as such, then one will have control of all things.
3. Jesus said, "If your leaders say to you, 'Look, the (Father's) kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the (Father's) kingdom is within you and it is outside you.
When you know yourselves, 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."
In the first paragraph, Jesus makes it clear that if the Kingdom of Heaven was to exist in the sky, then the birds will have an advantage over us and the same would apply to the ocean. HE makes it clear that there is no need to go any where to find the Kingdom of Heaven for it exist within us and outside of us.
In the second paragraph, Jesus also makes it clear that when one reaches a state of self-realization; when one realizes him/her self as Soul instead of a mind-identified body, then one is bound to identify him/her self as one with God's consciousness or children of God. However, if you are not to realize yourself as Soul, then one is bound to suffer the boundaries of the body, even if you have all the money of the world.
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.
For many of the first will be last, and will become a single one."
Jesus always talked and gave credits to young kids for that HE knew that children of young age where still not too identified with their body-mind identity and therefore they were still leaving in the Kingdom of Heaven or in God's consciousness.
An old man, after spending all his/her life in search for happiness, which is the essence of life, without finding such will not hesitate to ask those who were living in it.
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.]"
Jesus was talking to HIS disciples who had received God's grace through Jesus himself and so Jesus knew that sooner or later HIS disciple were going to reach a state of self-realization and they were going to able to see the truth, in all forms and in all directions for which truth is everything and everywhere.
6. His disciples asked him and said to him, "Do you want us to fast? How should we pray? Should we give to charity? What diet should we observe?"
Jesus said, "Don't lie, and don't do what you hate, because all things are disclosed before heaven. After all, there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and there is nothing covered up that will remain undisclosed."
Jesus gives HIS disciples a simple answer, which is commonly known as the Law of Karma and can be found in many other religions of the world. As an example we have:
• Confucianism "Do not do to others what you would not like yourself. Then there will be no resentment against you, either in the family or in the state." Analects 12:2
• Buddhism "Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful. Udana-Varga 5,1"
• Hinduism "This is the sum of duty; do naught onto others what you would not have them do unto you."
• Islam "No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself. Sunnah"
• Judaism "What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellowman. This is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary." Talmud, Shabbat 3id
• Taoism "Regard your neighbor's gain as your gain, and your neighbor's loss as your own loss" Tai Shang Kan Yin P'ien
• Zoroastrianism "That nature alone is good which refrains from doing another whatsoever is not good for itself "Dadisten-I-dinik, 94,5
7. Jesus said, "Lucky is the lion that the human will eat, so that the lion becomes human. And foul is the human that the lion will eat, and the lion still will become human."
8. And he said, "The person is like a wise fisherman who cast his net into the sea and drew it up from the sea full of little fish. Among them the wise fisherman discovered a fine large fish. He threw all the little fish back into the sea, and easily chose the large fish. Anyone here with two good ears had better listen!"
Here is a great example of the way in which Jesus tried to explain his teachings to HIS disciples. Jesus uses the example of a fisherman who cast his net into the sea, just the same way as man goes on their life searching for happiness. The fisherman discovered a fine large fish and instead of carrying the small fishes, the wise fisherman chooses to carry the large fish only. In the same way Jesus discovered a place inside of HIM in which he was able to find a much larger amount of inner peace and happiness and so instead of collecting small objects that delivered happiness, Jesus decides to drop out from the materialistic world and chooses to connect with his inner self instead and therefore remain in state of God's consciousness.
9. Jesus said, "Look, the sower went out, took a handful (of seeds), and scattered (them). Some fell on the road, and the birds came and gathered them. Others fell on rock, and they didn't take root in the soil and didn't produce heads of grain. Others fell on thorns, and they choked the seeds and worms ate them. And others fell on good soil, and it produced a good crop: it yielded sixty per measure and one hundred twenty per measure."
In this verse, Jesus uses the analogy of a sower to explain the way in which HIS teachings will be spread out throughout the world. In a way HE is saying " All I can do is share with others what I have found, to some it will have no effect, to some it will have some and they will share it with others and to those who are ready to receive the teachings, those will not only benefit from it, but the grace of God will flow through them and all others around them will be affected by their presence.
10. Jesus said, "I have cast fire upon the world, and look, I'm guarding it until it blazes."
Jesus wanted to make sure that what HE had found was going to have an impact in the world in which HE was living in and so HE waited and did what HE thought was necessary for it to happened before HE left his body.
11. Jesus said, "This heaven will pass away, and the one above it will pass away.
The dead are not alive, and the living will not die. During the days when you ate what is dead, you made it come alive. When you are in the light, what will you do? On the day when you were one, you became two. But when you become two, what will you do?"
12. The disciples said to Jesus, "We know that you are going to leave us. Who will be our leader?"
Jesus said to them, "No matter where you are you are to go to James the Just, for whose sake heaven and earth came into being."
Jesus knew that James had also achieved a state of self-realization and so knew that James was going to able to share God's message just like Jesus did, since they were both one with God's consciousness.
13. Jesus said to his disciples, "Compare me to something and tell me what I am like."
Simon Peter said to him, "You are like a just messenger."
Matthew said to him, "You are like a wise philosopher."
Thomas said to him, "Teacher, my mouth is utterly unable to say what you are like."
Jesus said, "I am not your teacher. Because you have drunk, you have become intoxicated from the bubbling spring that I have tended."
And he took him, and withdrew, and spoke three sayings to him. When Thomas came back to his friends they asked him, "What did Jesus say to you?"
Thomas said to them, "If I tell you one of the sayings he spoke to me, you will pick up rocks and stone me, and fire will come from the rocks and devour you."
This is a great example of mind-identified bodies seen through the mind. One of mind's qualities is to compare, but for that which is beyond the mind, a no mind state of being is necessary to realize that no comparisons exist. If the mind is there you are bound to compare, judge, choose, feel, etc.
14. Jesus said to them, "If you fast, you will bring sin upon yourselves, and if you pray, you will be condemned, and if you give to charity, you will harm your spirits.
When you go into any region and walk about in the countryside, when people take you in, eat what they serve you and heal the sick among them.
After all, what goes into your mouth will not defile you; rather, it's what comes out of your mouth that will defile you."
In this verse, Jesus really makes a point to "be" and "non-doing" He knew that to wanting to fast, wanting to pray, wanting to give are all qualities of the mind, since it is the mind who always wants to do something. To realize the true-self nothing is needed to do, only being with full awareness is enough.
More coming soon...
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