|
ACCORDING TO THE THOMAS GOSPEL
25. Jesus said, "Love your friends like your own soul, protect them like the pupil of your eye."
Interpretation :
Everyone is to be loved as the one common soul (your own soul), a brotherly/sisterly love indeed, which recognizes that we all arise from the same source, that we all are connected, all family, all the same, all one. Thus we should care for others as much as we care for ourselves, as the pupil of our eyes is probably that part of our body which we will guard the most.
36. Jesus said, "Do not fret, from morning to evening and from evening to morning, about your food, what you are going to wear.
Interpretation :
Do not be concerned about your public image (what you are going to wear), nor about your survival and enjoyment (what you are going to eat), whether you are having a difficult time, moving in darkness (from eve to morning) or whether you are having an easy time, moving in light (from morning to evening).
42. Jesus said, "Be passersby."
Interpretation :
Be detached, an observer.
45. Jesus said, "Grapes are not harvested from thorn trees, nor are figs gathered from thistles, for they yield no fruit. Good persons produce good from what they've stored up; bad persons produce evil from the wickedness they've stored up in their hearts, and say evil things. For from the overflow of the heart they produce evil."
Interpretation :
To feel bad or think negative thoughts never produces good (no grapes from thorn trees, no figs from thistles). To feel good and to think positive thoughts never produces bad. That is the essence of the law of Karma, produced by the creative power of though and emotion. The karmic impressions (stored in our heart) see to the execution of that power. From the same richness of our feeling nature, which is the true witnessing quality of the self, the feeling centre (the overflow of the heart), one person produces the negative, the other the positive.
57. Jesus said, "The Father's kingdom is like a person who has [good] seed. His enemy came during the night and sowed weeds among the good seed. The person did not let the workers pull up the weeds, but said to them, 'No, otherwise you might go to pull up the weeds and pull up the wheat along with them.' For on the day of the harvest the weeds will be conspicuous, and will be pulled up and burned."
Interpretation :
The self, the Supreme, enlightenment (the kingdom) produces many divine tendencies (good seeds). The ego (his enemy) produces demonic, selfish tendencies (weeds). There is no need for the Supreme to remove all demonic tendencies (pull up the weeds) from creation. Neither should the teacher (the person) focus his students (the workers) on removing those selfish tendencies (pull up the weeds). That might at the same time damage the divine tendencies (pull up the wheat along with them). Both are just tendencies. How can one chose to be good if one is left with no choice to be bad ? Demonic and divine tendencies are two sides of the same coin. In the end, when enlightenment dawns (on the day of harvest), the demonic tendencies (the weeds) will be easy to recognize (conspicuous), remove and destroy (pulled up and burned).
58. Jesus said, "Congratulations to the person who has suffered and has found life."
Interpretation :
Through suffering (who has suffered) we become detached from the attachments that make us suffer. Through detachment we may find the true self, the true life (has found life). Of course, to suffer does not necessarily mean to learn. Blessed is the one (congratulations) who can turn suffering into learning (has suffered and has found life).
66. Jesus said, "Show me the stone that the builders rejected: that is the keystone."
Interpretation :
The key message as well as the key path (the keystone) is rejected by those that believe enlightenment is something to be constructed, conceptualized, contained, used (the builders). The key message is the self, the path is silence. Nothing needs to be done, which is both easy and difficult.
70. Jesus said, "If you bring forth what is within you, what you have will save you. If you do not have that within you, what you do not have within you [will] kill you."
Interpretation :
If you focus your attention (bring forth) on the self (what is within you), then you will have the self and will be saved (what you have will save you). If you cannot find the self (do not have that within you), then the absence of the self or the identification with the ego (what you do not have) will make you suffer (will kill you).
|
