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ACCORDING TO THE THOMAS GOSPEL
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."
Interpretation :
The seven day old child is yet without name, without ego, without separation. It knows reality (the place of life), because duality has not yet set in. The answer to life (the place of life) lies in the living, in the pure being (will live). So, many of those who believe that they are ahead of others, older, wiser (the first), will find themselves behind (the last), because they have lost the innocent, carefree, trusting attitude of the newborn. Yet first and last are temporary illusions, just characters in a play where all is well that ends well, as all are one and the same and all originate from the One and will return to the One (will become a single one).
22. Jesus saw some babies nursing. He said to his disciples, "These nursing babies are like those who enter the (Father's) kingdom." They said to him, "Then shall we enter the (Father's) 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]."
Interpretation :
Like nr. 4 referring to the egoless nature of a baby. Also, the image comes forward of the ones that achieve enlightenment being those that drink the knowledge that is offered (Jesus saw some babies nursing). The nipple is there, the milk is there, the mouth is there, the only thing that ever gives trouble is that baby not wanting to drink. Enlightenment (the Father's Kingdom) means to stop discriminating, embracing absolute union (two/one, inner/outer, male/female,.). It also means to fully understand that all that we perceive is created by us, fashioned by us, that a hand is no hand except through us, a foot no foot, a likeness no likeness. For the baby, there is no difference between the experiencing, the one who experiences and that which is experienced. There is no image without the perceiver, which as such is the imaginator or creator. All creation is imagination. When that is perfectly clear, then everything will be seen as entirely dependent on the self, the Supreme - rather than the opposite - and the deepest peace will manifest (you will enter the Kingdom).
46. Jesus said, "From Adam to John the Baptist, among those born of women, no one is so much greater than John the Baptist that his eyes should not be averted. But I have said that whoever among you becomes like a child will recognize the (Father's) kingdom and will become greater than John."
Interpretation :
Same message as nr. 4. While it praises John the Baptist (no one is so much greater), it also implies that John the Baptist is just a form, born of a woman. When we lose the ego (become like a child), we will become enlightened (recognize the father's kingdom) and merge with the unborn self and thus become greater than any man (even John).
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