the bursting of the bubble

Jesus said: Once there was a rich man who had lots of money, and he said, "I will invest my money so that I can sow, reap, plant, and fill up my silos with crops so that I won't lack anything." So he thought, but that night he died. He who has ears, let him hear. Saying 63, The Gospel of Thomas.

We can invest in material matter and in spiritual currency in order to feel secure. It is the "in order to" that does us in. No wrongness exists in either monetary or spiritual success.

Buddhist lore speaks of the spiritual quester who floats off into an isolated pocket of self satisfaction and remains there believing s/he is snug and secure, that this state is nirvana. Once the self-blown bubble bursts, s/he has to come back to the point of bubble entry and start all over.

Jesus is pointing to the same phenomenon. For both types of security-seeking investor, death comes. Unexpectedly. This is a blessing, for the way they were pursuing was false. Death is an ally, removes all falsity. As Carlos Castaneda reminds us, death sits on our left shoulder and is to be consulted in our plans and moves. Death is part of who we are and does not lie.

a treasure

Jesus said: The Kingdom is like a man with a treasure of which he is unaware hidden in his field. He died and left the field to his son. His son knew nothing about it and, having received the field, sold it. The new owner came and, while plowing, found the treasure. He began to lend money at interest to anybody he wished. Saying 109, The Gospel of Thomas.

The Kingdom (which is spread out on the earth and no one sees) is like the "man with a treasure of which he is unaware hidden in his field."

The Kingdom is NOT like the son in the parable nor is it like the new owner, both of whom made money from it (the son selling his life away ignore-ant of the treasure he contained, the new owner very much aware of the spiritual domain, controlling who had access to it, and requiring the paying of interest).

The Kingdom is like the man who died and never knew it was there. We have a treasure hidden in the field of energy we are. The kingdom is within us. We are the temple of God. If not careful, we may die and not know of, not act upon, not live by this deep core treasure.

split and lift

Split wood, I am there. Lift up a rock, you will find me there. Saying 77b, The Gospel of Thomas.

Jesus, as we all are, is an embodying of the life force, of the sacrificial outbreathing that births all that is. Not all of us are aware that we are personifications of the life force, but Jesus was. Thus, he could make this statement.

The cosmos is a vibrational flow of energy assuming many forms. The forms you see depend primarily on your perception: what you have been taught to see and what you allow yourself to see. The universe you are "in" is you looking back at you.

The great I Am is everywhere.

investment

Jesus said: Once there was a rich man who had lots of money, and he said, "I will invest my money so that I can sow, reap, plant, and fill up my silos with crops so that I won't lack anything." So he thought, but that night he died. He who has ears, let him hear. Saying 63, The Gospel of Thomas.

Not only is this a reminder that "life is what happens when we are making other plans" and that materialistic pursuits are like clothing a corpse with riches and that no security exists but in the ephemeral, it is also a warning to those of us who amass spiritual wealth so as to ensure our place in the heavens, our resting place of comfort in the hereafter. It doesn't work that way. Our trust is put in the development of our own holosphere, a cosmic tomb. Give it all away all the time and you will receive. And we can't do it for that reason either.

the vintage and the fresh

No one drinks vintage wine and immediately wants to drink fresh wine. Saying 47c, The Gospel of Thomas.

Fresh wine is the raw experiencing that makes up physically-based consciousness. Vintage wine is the rarefied and entrancing atmosphere of the invisible.

We tend to call the first, the realm of brute consciousness, real and to call the realm of vintage wine, the realm of spirit, imaginary.

What we call imaginary is the fruition of what we call real: the vintage is a refinement of the fresh. Paradoxically, the vintage also births the fresh. Since they birth each other, the distinctions we make between the two are arbitrary, show our inability and unwillingness to allow the dissolution of their boundary.

When we cast our lot with the realm of the invisible, of spirit, we may not wish to return to the realm of the visible. We wish to keep sipping that heavenly wine. But at this time, we are embodying. We are fresh wine. We ask to let this cup pass from us, but we must drink it.

disclosure of the holy

Jesus said: Do not give holy things to dogs, for they might carry them off to the dung heap. Do not give pearls to pigs, for they might... Saying 93, The Gospel of Thomas.

One cannot share the depths of one's being with those who cannot hear and understand. Nor should one attempt to do so. The sacred becomes cheapened. Disclose yourself to those with an affinity of soul. Your treasure, your "holy things," will be amplified and strengthened.

Do not blaspheme and let the dog and pig part of you invade and loot your inner sanctuary. You will find yourself on the dung heap and torn apart.

the situation

The situation you are expecting will come. Let a person who understands be with you. Saying 21d, The Gospel of Thomas.

No matter how optimistic we are, we expect that everything we have will be taken from us. This expectation is reality. All that we cling to will be removed, revealing all that we are, our essence. At this time of no escape and no hiding place, let a person who has already been through this be with you. Such company is available on the invisible spiritual plane, the site where this nakedness occurs. Expect it.

letting go

Jesus said: Whoever has found the world and become rich should renounce the world. Saying 110, The Gospel of Thomas.

We spend the first part of our lives trying to find the world. We want to know our place in it. We want to belong. We want to contribute. We amass stuff.

We spend the second part of our lives letting go. We let go of stuff. We let go of social roles. We let go of others' definitions of us and of our concretized definitions of ourselves. We understand the value of not clinging. Our richness is now in our simplicity, in our nothingness.

tenant farmers

A good man had a vineyard that he arranged for tenant farmers to take care of for him in return for a portion of the produce. He sent a servant to collect the grapes. Tenants seized the servant and beat him nearly to death. That servant reported back to his master, but his master responded, "Perhaps they did not recognize him." And so he sent another servant; the tenants beat him too. Then the owner sent his own son, saying, "Perhaps they will show some respect for my son." Sine the tenants were aware that he would inherit the vineyard, they seized him and then killed him. He who has ears, let him hear. Saying 65, The Gospel of Thomas.

We live on the plane of the horizontal and ignore the vertical. We are dirt and water walking round, forgetting that we did not make ourselves, wishing to claim it all. The vertical descends from above and ascends from below to claim its portion. We kill that part of our soul. We keep killing it every time it makes its appearance. This is spiritual suicide. We are tenant farmers and the rent will come due. Though we kill the urges of the spirit within us, the owner of the vineyard will have the last say.

the transformation of the base

Jesus said: The Kingdom of the Father is like a woman who took a little leaven and concealed it in dough. She made large loaves of bread. He who has ears let him hear. Saying 96, The Gospel of Thomas.

What is this Kingdom of the Father to which Jesus often refers? Here it is an action, a purposeful action that takes something small, yet containing great possibility, and placing it within an element that will not only accept it but will allow itself to  be transformed into a substance of great nutritional value. Is this not an alchemical process, a procedure transforming lead (inert matter) into gold (radiant vibrancy)?

The Kingdom of the Father is the ongoing transformation of what seems base and useless into that which "feeds the multitudes," whose reverberations expand, providing life beyond itself in positive and radiant fashion.

The yeast or leaven is available. So is the bread. What is needed is action: the combination of the two. If one has spiritual ears, one can hear this. And by taking action, allow the action to take place within oneself.

embodying

Jesus said: Woe to the flesh dependent on the soul; woe to the soul dependent on the flesh. Saying 112, The Gospel of Thomas.

Some no longer believe in soul, which is sadly humorous because the soul (essence of who we are) is that which is disbelieving.

The soul and body are independent of each other. The body is like a nest from which the soul must take flight. The body is a base of operation for soul. As an extension of soul, the body will not get everything it wants.

The body is a manifestation of soul. Woe to the soul that allows its manifestation to rule. We embody willingly to make a difference in this universe. The energy of the soul radiates through the body and makes itself known, makes a felt difference.

Want to see someone's soul? Look in their eyes. The eyes are the windows to the soul.

the kingdom

They asked him: When is the Kingdom coming? He replied: It is not coming in an easily observable manner. People will not be saying, "Look, it's over here" or "Look, it's over there." Rather, the Kingdom of the Father is already spread out on the earth, and people aren't aware of it. Saying 113, The Gospel of Thomas.

What we are looking for (the Kingdom of the Father, Home) is already here. It is our awareness that falls short. We become so engrossed in our meatness and its desires and irritabilities, so pumped up in our social roles, that we become blind, insensitive. We think we are going somewhere and we have already arrived.

Those who point to a future arrival of the Kingdom are magicians of misdirection. Now is the future and contains all time, all space. "The Kingdom of the Father is already spread out on the earth, and people aren't aware of it."

We are concentric spheres of awareness. We sit in the seat at the center of our soul. We open to the cosmos, the playground and the Kingdom of our source. We are always already in and of the Kingdom.

my mother

My mother has...but true she gave me life. Saying 101b, The Gospel of Thomas.

The incompleteness of this saying leads us to focus on its last six words. "But" is a word used to negate or deflate all that came before and place attention on the primary thought of the sentence.

Whatever my mother has done or not done, has become or is becoming, whatever properties or qualities she has, she has been "true in giving me life."

Jesus is honoring his mother here. Without her willingness to bear him in her womb, he would have no life. So may we all cherish our mother despite our disputations.

consciousness discipline

Jesus said: Anyone who doesn't hate his father and his mother as I do cannot be a disciple of mine. And anyone who doesn't love his father and mother as I do cannot be a disciple of mine. Saying 101a, The Gospel of Thomas.

We are on a perpetual journey, moving out of that which births us. We must "hate" (turn away from) our past. "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God." If we are forever looking back, we are continuing to cast ourselves in the same old mold. Yet, at the same time, we must "love" (turn toward) our Source and Origin. Turning away from and gazing out into the Void of Becoming while turning toward our Source and receiving encouragement and sustenance, such is the paradox of the spiritual path. This makes us a true disciple (one following a consciousness discipline) of Jesus.

james the just

His disciples said to Jesus: We know you will leave us. Who will be our leader then? Jesus responded: Wherever you are, turn to Jacob (James) the Just, for whose sake the sky and the earth came into being. Saying 12, The Gospel of Thomas.

Humans need a physical leader, one embodied in the flesh, one who shares their worldly situation. When Jesus was physically gone, what were his followers, his students, to do? Who could ever take the place of Jesus?

Jesus had a ready answer. He did not speak of the forthcoming Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, as their inner guide. He did not foretell the leadership of Paul, a latecomer to the movement. He named his brother James, whose spirit was evidently in tune with Jesus' spirit ("for whose sake the sky and the earth came into being").

Evidently, James led very well. His ongoing capability as a leader was acknowledged and certified in his becoming the first bishop of Jerusalem.

no clinging

Jesus said: If you have some money, don't lend it out at interest but give it to someone who will not return it to you. Saying 95, The Gospel of Thomas.

Security does not exist in this world. The piling up of money and the strenuous efforts to use money to make money remind one of the hungry ghosts with long narrow skinny throats connecting a gaping cavernous mouth with a bloated perpetually dissatisfied belly. No matter how much is shoveled in the mouth, the belly cannot be appeased.

Paradoxically, security does not come from grasping and clinging. Security comes from giving everything away. Continuously. No clinging! We are not talking about just the electronic blips in our accounts nor the tough pieces of paper with no nutritional value. We are talking about an attitude of our heart.

We are talking about our gifts, the talents we have been given (no charge) and which we give to others in turn. Like free-flowing rivers of pure energy, we give our gifts expecting nothing in return. Otherwise, we become inturned ponds of stagnation. Freely we receive and freely give.

the second birth

Jesus said: Two will lie down on one bed; one will die and the other will live. Saying 61a, The Gospel of Thomas.

We know we are creatures of duality, of twoness. Our very bodies demonstrate this. We have "on the one hand" and "on the other hand." We look to "put our best foot forward." Our bodies are opposing halves with a center line running down our middle.

We are also split in our thinking, which is composed of the continuous resolution of the ricochet between opposing forces: good - bad, right - wrong, us - them, etc. We feel blessed relief when such cognitive dissonance is resolved.

A prime split in ourselves seems to be between our physical body (soma) and our energetic soul (psyche). At some point, the two will lie down on one bed. Only one will get up. The physical body will give way to the spiritual body. One does not have to wait for physical death for this to occur.

finding and opening

Jesus said: Whoever seeks will find. Whoever knocks, it will be opened. Saying 94, The Gospel of Thomas.

This is the kept promise of the cosmos. Awareness continues to open as attention keeps knocking on the door. What door? The thin permeable membrane that separates our consciousness from the larger consciousness, our awareness from great awareness.

How do we knock? By opening to the highest, widest, deepest awareness we can muster. We push the bounds of our consciousness. We do this through contemplation (con-templum-ation), by going to the templum, the clear and open space inside where knowledge and understanding, grace and love, are received.

We knock, not through agitated fervor, but through a silent and open expectancy. Our quiet openness allows room for what we seek to reveal itself. We are informed and infused with love and light: informed as knowledge and wisdom forms itself within us, infused as a gentle and energetic radiance permeates our being.

the old man and the baby

Jesus said: The old man will not hesitate to ask a seven-day-old baby about the place of life, and he will live. Saying 4a, The Gospel of Thomas.

We continue to shed the skin of an enclosed consciousness before it becomes a thick rind. We do so by continuing to allow, to urge our established settled static self to open to the newness of existing. We see things through the eyes of the newly arrived still arriving. Our frozen rigidness falls away. Soft, supple, and with eyes of wonder, we are alive.

the disturbance of the seeker

Jesus said: The seeker shall not stop until he finds. When he does find, he will be disturbed. After having been disturbed, he will be astonished. Then he will reign over everything. Saying 2, The Gospel of Thomas.

A seeker is one not satisfied with her consciousness state. Nor with the accepted explanations of Reality. A seeker courses beyond the surface chit-chat of the humanimal society, beyond the dogma and doctrine of nationalism, of corporatism,  and other forms of religion.

A seeker finds that the outer infinity and the inner infinity are the same infinity. A seeker finds that the Imaginal is real. The seeker is disturbed, then astonished in finding who is seeking.

All cognitive frames fall away and the seeker is silent, is the silence out of which all arises.