resurrection

And he said, "Whoever finds the interpretations of these sayings will not taste death." Saying 1, The Gospel of Thomas.

Why is that so? To understand these sayings, one's consciousness must shift. The place from which they can be understood is the place of Spirit, of the eternal Lifeforce, that which breathes us, out of which we are.

To understand these sayings we must shift awareness to a non-death place. We drop all social roles, all social fictions, all of our favored illusions and preoccupations. We stand naked and empty and open.

Though our body is still here, we have already died, already "passed over." We continue surrendering, letting go. We are in the world, but not of the world. These sayings are spoken from Deep Reality.

To understand them, we move into those depths. Our consciousness becomes the same Consciousness from which they are spoken. We are resurrected before we die.

"On the banks of the Jordan, Yeshua manifested the Presence of a realm that existed before all things." -- The Gospel of Philip

embodying the light

If they ask you, "Are you it?" reply to them, "We are his Sons. We are chosen ones of the living Father." Saying 50b, The Gospel of Thomas.

 "It" refers, as is pointed out in the previous saying (50a), to the "light (that) is produced from itself." Jesus says here that if you are asked, "Are you that light?" to reply that we are its chosen offspring. We come from the light that is produced from itself.

This is our Origin. This is not something that happened way long ago and we are an extenuated result. This light, our Father, our Source, is happening now and we are its embodying.

We are the light of the world. We dis-remember and plunge ourselves into our melodramas. And yet, even these melodramas are the eternal light shining into and out of darkness. At this moment now, we are the chosen ones; we are embodyings of the living light that is produced from itself.

energy vampires

Therefore I say: If a householder knows a thief is coming, he will keep watch and not let him break into his house (of his kingdom) and steal his goods. You must keep watch against the world, preparing yourselves with power so that thieves will not find any way to come upon you. Sayings 21 b, c. The Gospel of Thomas.

Energy vampires exist. They exist in both human and in non-visible form. Spiritual energy can and will be sucked from you, your goods stolen. Keep watch and know when this is about to happen or is happening.

An energy vampire will often come in benign form in order to get close. What seems a natural progression will end in your depletion, your being sucked dry, left with a wounded feeling of discomfort and shock.

You must rouse your awareness of the situation and "prepare yourself with power," settling into your spiritual core and not allowing it to happen again.

This takes firm resolution.

his father and his mother

Jesus said: One who knows his father and his mother will be called the son of a whore. Saying 105, The Gospel of Thomas.

Jesus knew from whence he came. The consciousness he embodies is born of the penetrating and the receptive. He is very much aware of his Origin and speaks of it with familiarity (family-arity).

His father and his mother are within him. He is at times more one than the other in his reactions and responses to those around him. He can be like a keen sword or a warm and comforting heart.

Those religious leaders caught in ordinary consciousness thought him a heretic, a teacher and follower of false doctrine, one who had gone whoring away from "the true religion." Ordinary consciousness cannot comprehend spiritual consciousness. The world cannot understand that in which it is embedded.

the wanderer

Jesus said: The Kingdom is like a shepherd with one hundred sheep. One of those sheep, the largest, wandered off. He left the ninety-nine others behind and went looking for the other one until he found it. Having exhausted himself, he said to the sheep, "I love you more than the other ninety-nine." Saying 107, The Gospel of Thomas.

Awareness does not want to lose any of its awarenessing. Especially a large awarenessing that has wandered off, lost contact. All the other awarenesses will be left behind, snug in their fold, never venturing out. The Awareness that encompasses all will seek the venturer, the one who wandered off, will seek to the point of exhaustion. In doing so, Awareness Itself is changed. He says: I love you more than the ones who stay within the fold.

the sign within you

If they ask you "What is the sign within you of your Father?" reply to them, "It is movement. It is rest." Saying 50c, The Gospel of Thomas. 

We move as the spirit moves. We rest as the spirit rests. We are of our Father whose spirit is a wind that moves and rests. We follow that spirit, that Tao flow. It is the sign within us of our Father, of our Source.

This sign within us is a binary code, movement (1) and rest (0). Through the 1 of movement and the 0 of rest, all systems are built. All other numbers come into play, to infinity and beyond. All creation emerges through this movement and this rest.

Movement and rest are the Breath of the Father. The two movements of inhalation and exhalation are conjoined by a pause, a rest. All reality, all truth is created through, subsists upon this movement and this rest.

the living one

Jesus said: Look at the living one while you live, for if you die and then try to see him you will not be able to do so. Saying 59, The Gospel of Thomas.

This human existence is a place of transition, an opportunity for transformation. To be born a human is a precious occurrence. The odds are small. Mister Buddha said it was about the same odds as a sea turtle in a boundless ocean surfacing once every gazillion years and its head popping into the hole of a single floating log on the entirety of the sea's surface. We have to look at the living one while we are in the flesh. This moment now is our opportunity. Who is the living one? Look and you will see.

moving past asceticism

Jesus said to them: If you fast you will bring sin to yourselves, and if you pray you will be condemned, and if you give to charity you will damage your spirits. Saying 14a, The Gospel of Thomas.

Jesus's sayings are often in direct contradiction to orthodox christianity. This is because he is speaking in the realm of spirit and not the flesh. He speaks in other places of resurrecting before you die, of being born not just of water (amniotic fluid) but of spirit: the second birth. The rules of the amnion do not apply to one born in the aeon. Jesus often broke the amnion world's rules.

When one is already born into the kingdom, is a kingdom resident, is spirit in the realm of Spirit, is an energy being amidst Energy, to fast, pray, and give to charity are steps backward. Those three, in the sense used here, are the flesh-denying steps one takes in order to, in order to achieve the realm of spirit. As the Buddha said, once you reach the other shore, you don't carry your boat around on your head.

alone

Jesus said: I will choose one of you out of a thousand and two of you out of ten thousand. You will stand up and you will be alone. Saying 23, The Gospel of Thomas.

A teacher can only teach those whose attention is focused on learning. Those whose attention is caught in ordinary consciousness, firmly embedded in societal reality, in the mass hypnosis of their culture, cannot hear or see anything other than the hologram they project around themselves. The sun they are blots out the stars, makes nonexistent the vastness of the spiritual cosmos. At this time and in this way, they have self-selected themselves out of being chosen. Awakeness chooses the awake, the attentive, the searching.

The ones chosen do not have it easy. In some sense, it is easier to rest in the muffled world of societal complacency. Those chosen stand up out of that world, walk the eternal path of wide and deep consciousness. Alone, yet aware of the great interflow of which they are a manifestation, the shoreless ocean of which they are a wave. Alone, empty of all the world has to offer, dwelling in internal solitude, sometimes bereft of even the felt presence of God. Alone. Yet standing.

sky

Jesus said: This sky will cease to be, and the sky above it will cease to be. Saying 11a. The Gospel of Thomas 

"The sky is the limit." We see no further than the sky in our ordinary consciousness, even though there is a sky beyond that. This first sky, this limitation of ordinary consciousness can cease to be even now. This is part of what is meant by "dying before you die." Have we considered that ordinary consciousness is death? And that dying to ordinary consciousness is life? When we see beyond this first sky, we are no longer entrapped by it.

The sky above it, which will also cease to be, is the limitation of our spiritual insight. All bounds are removed and our spiritual insight is unlimited, ever increasing. We know no bounds, are boundless. We are a circle with no circumference, a sphere with no surface.

Can you handle it or will you cling to your tight little virginal consciousness?

handiwork

Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Saying 62b, The Gospel of Thomas.

The left hand is known as the sinister hand. Sinister has the dual meaning of both "left" and "suggesting or threatening evil." This understanding of the left hand is, of course, a spiritual or essential (essence-ial) understanding and has nothing to do with whether or not one is left-handed.

We do not share our spiritual understandings with our realm of darkness. This is fruitless. We do not try to convert our darkness to light by focusing on the darkness. We sit, stand, walk, and breathe in the light and doing so allows more light.

Attention directs energy. When we attend to the left hand, we energize the left hand. Each of us is an individual world. If we wish our world to be light, we live in the light, become the light. This is the light "that shines in darkness and the darkness comprehends it not." And the darkness never will. So give it up. Up! Where light is.

We are light beings and we are to nurture our light.

In this way, the world is transformed.

good soil

Jesus said: Look, there was a man who came out to sow seed. He filled his hand with seed and threw it about. Some fell onto the road, and birds ate it. Some fell onto rocks and could not root and produced no grain. Some fell into patches of thorny weeds that kept it from growing, and grubs ate it. Some seed fell upon good soil and grew and produced good grain. It was 60 units per measure and 120 units per measure.Saying 9, The Gospel of Thomas.

We hear and see according to our capacity. The seed is the wisdom of the universe, of the cosmos, of God; the knowing and understanding that surpasses all worldly education. We do not receive this wisdom if we are a well trodden road of surface routine. It is dismissed as soon as it lands.

Nor can these seeds of understanding who and what we are, of opening to the energies that birth this world, find any place to root if our heart-minds are rock and our thoughts are prickly and thorny. Self-reflective thought is hard ground. A mirror has no place for seed or for anything but what it reflects. When focusing on me, me, me, my soil is hard and slick. Nothing worthy can get in.

In the material world, humus is good soil. In the spiritual realm, "humus" translates into humble, into humility. To receive increased understanding, we must become the dirt we are. Surrender is a word we all detest, yet surrender is exactly what is needed.

multiple personality disorder

When you were one, you became two. When you become two, what will you do? Saying 11d, The Gospel of Thomas.

We suffer from multiple personality disorder -- every one of us. We were born as one, as a oneness. We had been floating in amniotic fluid with every wish fulfilled instantly. Then we entered the world of differentiation, of discrimination. We became two.

Though it may seem as if the entire galloping horde of our many selves descend upon us at once, we really deal with only two at a time: this and that, here and there, me and you, us and them. We have even divided the world into the spiritual and the physical. No separation exists, but we have made it so.

What will we do now that we have become two? When two, we are quite insane. This splitness is evident in the civilization we have built, one that is unsustainable.

The answer to Jesus' question is simple. We can "let the light of our eye be single," opening to the awareness that we are inseparable from the Interflow, from the vast interconnecting and everchanging Sphere of Being (a sphere with no bounds). In that case, we are always already home, safe, sound, secure, everchanging, and adventuring. Or we can continue birthing our insanity.

What will we do?

intake and outflow

For what goes into your mouth will not defile you, but what comes out of your mouth can defile you. Saying 14c, The Gospel of Thomas.

With the right spirit, you can take in anything that appears and it will not defile you, will not poison your inner being, your spirit. Jesus took in all the rottenness of humankind and devilish forces. Buddha took in all that Mara had to throw at him. It didn't hurt either one of them a bit. They stayed right where they were, unmoved: Jesus on the cross tree, Buddha beneath the bodhi tree.

It is what comes out of the mouth of our being that can defile us, not what goes in. And it does not even have to be spoken aloud. The smallest thought can dislodge us. "A hair's breadth and we are a mile off course."

Take it all in and let it all go. This is a breathing in and a breathing out. No clinging. No impediments. In-hale. Hale means heal-thy. Ex-hale. Breathe in healthiness. Breathe out healthiness.

If you are strong enough, breathe in the hell around you, slurping it up like a cosmic vacuum cleaner. In-hell (like Jesus and Buddha). But for goodness sake, do not ex-hell. Breathe out clear positive loving spirit to all around.

the bridal suite

They said to Jesus: Come, let's pray today; let's fast. Jesus responded: What sin have I committed? How have I been overcome? Rather, when the groom leaves the bridal suite, then they should fast and pray. Saying 104, The Gospel of Thomas.

The bridal suite is the heart, the heartmind, the core of our being.

The groom is the radiant presence of our Source.

When the radiant presence of our Source leaves our heart, we should by all means fast and pray, direct full attention to our longing for the groom,for the return of this loving grace in our heart.

Jesus did not need to fast and pray. The radiance was shining steadily at his core.

log arhythm

Jesus said: You see the splinter in your brother's eye, but you do not see the log that is in your own eye. Remove the log from your own eye, and then you can clearly see to remove the splinter from your brother's eye. Saying 26, The Gospel of Thomas.

The splinter in my own eye of consciousness is like a log to me, affecting my entire vision. But I think it is just a splinter. No big deal. Or I may not even know I have a splinter at all. I have been living with this consciousness handicap for so long that I think it is normal.

I can certainly see where others have gone wrong though. I can see what hinders their vision. If not careful, I will sashay all around concerned about their splinter while doing nothing about my log.

When I remove this log of judgment from my eye, not only can I see a clear way for the removal of a splinter from another's eye, but the other will trust me to do so and may perhaps do the same for me.

standing outside

His disciples told him: Your brothers and your mother are standing outside. He responded: These here who do the will of my Father are my brothers and my mother. These are the ones who will enter the Kingdom of my Father. Saying 99, The Gospel of Thomas.

"Your brothers and your mother are standing outside." Already we see a distinction, a barrier. Jesus' earthly kin would not come in to where he was. After all the fanfare of his birth, his mother may have thought he would be a great Rabbi within the Temple, but here he was, on a different course, wandering the streets and visiting in the homes of the riff-raff, the scum, the societal outcasts.

They stood outside. When told they were standing out there, Jesus did not rush out to greet them. Instead, he strengthened the understanding of the distinction. "These here who do the will of my Father are my brothers and my mother."

Earthly bonds of kinship give way to spiritual linking of souls. All who live in accord with the Father, the Source, The-One-Who-Breathes-Us are spiritual kin. These are the ones who will enter the kingdom and, indeed, are already in the kingdom which is present even now.

richness

Jesus said: Whoever has become rich should rule. Whoever has power should renounce it. Saying 81, The Gospel of Thomas.

This does NOT mean whoever has a lot of money should rule. Having a lot of money is not rich. Richness is of the heart, the soul. Nothing that stays here when you die is of any richness. Your richness is the warm and brilliant radiance of connection with your angel, your higher being already on the other shore. With this merge you now rule. Nor is it a rule of laws and force and power (power is a trap that drains the soul), but a radiance of spirit which can never be overcome.

the telling of the mysteries

Jesus said: I tell my mysteries to people worthy of my mysteries. Saying 62a, The Gospel of Thomas.

What are the mysteries? Who is worthy to be told them? Even if they are told, as Jesus frequently did and continues to do so, only "those who have ears" can hear. When we are full of ourselves, we cannot hear -- full of emotion, full of intellectual chitter-chatter. One has to be silent to listen, to open in contemplation. Con-templum-ation: to sit quietly in the templum, the clear and open space for divining, for opening to the divine. Clear, open, capacious, expectant, attentive: one is worthy.

Worthiness comes too from tiring of abiding by social constructions of reality. One would rather listen to what the blood is singing, the heart is radiating, the Tao is Taoing. One is ready to listen to the great pulsations of the planet, the galaxies, the universe, the cosmos than the daily news. Whatever one attends to, one becomes. One makes oneself worthy, prepares an open space for the telling of the mysteries. They will be told.

god energy

Jesus said: Where there are three Gods they are Gods. Where there are two or one, I am with him. Saying 30, The Gospel of Thomas.

Numbers are important. They show relationship. "Two is company and three is a crowd." Jesus, quoting a psalm (Psalm 82), said, "You are gods." When we are two gods conversing or one god standing, all the energy that Jesus represents is with us. When we triplicate, that energy shoots off into the heavens somewhere, complex and theological.

the place for rest

They saw a Samaritan going into Judea carrying a lamb. He asked his disciples: What do you think he will do with that lamb? They replied: He'll kill it and eat it. He said to them: As long as it remains alive he will not eat it, only if he kills it and it becomes a corpse. They said: Otherwise he won't be able to do so. He said to them: You too must seek a place for rest, or you may become a corpse and be eaten. Saying 60, The Gospel of Thomas.

If you do not know your place for rest, how can I tell you? Reflection will not do it. Caught in reflections, you are a corpse. Reflections are not the mirror. When you know your mirror is a mirror, you will know your place for rest. Your place for rest is not a place. Your place for rest is no place.

The mirror knows it is a mirror but does not make itself into a mirror. This is the place for rest. This is the kingdom of heaven spread out over the earth that people are not aware of. It is pure awareness. Awareness of awareness is already dead. One has become a corpse and is eaten.

circumcision in the spirit

His disciples asked him: Is circumcision useful or not? He replied: If it were useful, then they would be born already circumcised. On the other hand, true circumcision in the spirit is entirely beneficial. Saying 53, The Gospel of Thomas.

Jesus was never one to waste a metaphor. Circum means all the way around (circle). Cision means cut. An incision is a cutting into. An excision is a cutting out. Circumcision is cutting all the way around. He says that physical circumcision is not useful. It is true circumcision in the spirit that is more than useful, is "entirely beneficial," is "profitable in every respect" (Pagels).

We are to be in the world but not of the world. We are to be "passersby." This is cutting all the way around. As long as we have one piece of spiritual foreskin attached to the world of desire, the realm of samsara, we are in danger of infection. In fact, the attachment is the infection. We are to make the cut all the way around. No attachment.

Letting go of our attachments is painful but essential. If we wish to launch into the consciousness that Jesus knew and represented, we must cast off all lines that hold our spiritual vehicle to the earth. This is entirely beneficial. As Seung Sahn said, you don't want to be centering in your body when you die.

basket cases

For nobody lights a lamp and puts it underneath a bushel basket or in a hidden place. Rather, it is placed on a lamp stand so that all who go in and out may see the light. Saying 33b, The Gospel of Thomas.

We are bushel baskets. Light beings, we weave ourselves clothing and insist we are that clothing. We hide our light. We cluster our thoughts around this chosen shroud. We dare not be naked light shining unadorned.  In trying to make our selves some body, as Jesus says, we become "nobody."

Our consciousness is light, the light of awareness. Awareness courses through the heart brain and the head brain. The light of awareness is seen as the nimbus (whole being aura) and the halo (head aura). The bushel basket of petulance, of self absorption, of singing the song of me, me, me is left behind, vanquished, toodle-ooed. We shine.

the finding of life

Jesus said: Blessed is one who has labored and found life. Saying 58, The Gospel of Thomas.

Born out of the amniotic sac of the first birth, we take on the clothing or life of the human societal world, a world of customs and laws and imagery. Now we need a birthing labor of our own. We have not yet found life. It is all around us and I do not speak of just the "natural" world.

We must emerge from the human amniotic sac in which we are enfolded, this cultural conditioning and limitation of vision, this ignore-ance. This emerging is called labor because like an unborn chick we have to peck at our shell. When we persevere, we find life outside the egg of consciousness we solidified around ourselves so long ago.

The world rocks on but it is no longer rocking us. We are, as Jesus says, blessed.

one master

Jesus said: Nor can a servant serve two masters, as he will respect one and despise the other. Saying 47b, The Gospel of Thomas.

Many spiritual paths exist, leading to the same Opening. Each path has a master of that path, one who has proven the validity of the path through his/her very being, through action, word, and presence. One can be aware of all paths and learn from them, but to follow more than one master of a path diffuses the one-pointedness that is essential for merging with the master. One sets one's whole heart on one master, becomes attuned to and identical with that master's wisdom and compassion.

ditching our lives

Jesus said: If a blind person leads another blind person, both of them will fall into a ditch. Saying 34, The Gospel of Thomas.

Thought and imagery are fine. They naturally arise. They also naturally disappear. When we do not let them disappear, we are blind, stuck in obscuration. We cannot see the vast openness that we are and in which we dwell. We lead ourselves into a ditch. It may be a most comfortable ditch, an old familiar ditch, but it is a ditch nonetheless.

Trapped in images of the past, old thoughts suck our energy. Caught in movies of the immediate and distant future, we ditch ourselves and are not here. Sitting in the present moment(um) entranced, we sit snug within our ditch.  The part of me that leads and the part of me that follows are sunk, caught in a time-space warp of our own making.

PHAT! We break clear. Awake. Aware.

the born and the Unborn

Jesus said: When you see someone not born from a woman, prostrate yourselves and worship him; he is your Father. Saying 15, The Gospel of Thomas.

The surface part of ourselves, the part that makes contact with the world and in some sense IS the world, is the aspect of ourselves "born from a woman." This is the character, the personality we are, the persona that builds, that accretes, since physical birth. This is the froth on the wave of the ocean.

We can look inside and see "someone not born of a woman," the energetic and energizing flow of the Wellspring Itself. This is our Source, our Father. The woman-born flat-lines (prostrates itself) at such sight. The woman-born (born of water, the amniotic fluid) gives way to the spirit-born, the life force born.

One is born again. Both births are essential, of the Essence. One is the Unborn borning.

a teaching moment

A man said to him: Talk to my brothers so that they will divide my father's property with me. Jesus replied: Man, who made me a divider? He turned to his disciples and asked them: Really, am I a divider? Saying 72, The Gospel of Thomas

This saying has been interpreted as Jesus being somewhat sarcastic, not so much from his reply to the man wanting Jesus's persuasive power to work in his behalf, but from his remark to his disciples, as if this is an inside joke and Jesus and his disciples can laugh together, leaving the questioner shut out and embarrassed. I do not see this as consistent with Jesus's way of being.

My intuition is that one or more of the disciples had been approached by the man seeking resolution of this domestic dispute, did not know what to say to him, and told him to ask Jesus for help. Jesus's reply (Man, who made me a divider?) shows that Jesus was immediately aware of the inadequacy of understanding of his disciples, his students.

This dialogue is not between Jesus and the man who felt wronged, but between Jesus and his disciples. First he wonders aloud who made him a divider, which may have set off some nervousness amongst those who did. Jesus taught unification, not division ("If one is unified one will be filled with light, but if one is divided one will be filled with darkness.").

Then Jesus focuses full attention on his disciples (those who accepted his discipline)with a strong and true teaching question, the best kind of question, one they have to answer themselves. "Really, am I a divider?"

The very question itself shows that Jesus was not trying to make fun of the man by dividing him from the disciples as an ignorant man not in the know with the "in" crowd. The question was designed to get the disciples to think and to understand.

the chicken or the egg

Jesus said: If the flesh came into being because of spirit, that is a marvel, but if spirit came into being because of the body, that is a marvel of marvels. Yet I marvel at how this great wealth has come to dwell in this poverty. Saying 29, The Gospel of Thomas.

Which came first, the mind or the body? Which produces the other? We continue to make that a controversy today. The biomechanics say there is no mind without the body. When the body goes, the mind goes. The more sane biomechanics say they don't know, that this "no body = no mind" position is a point of view within the bounds and limitations of the biomechanical thought system.

Jesus directly addressed this issue. He regards each of these two understandings (and a third one, which he initiates) as marvelous, as causing one to gasp in wonder. If the body came into being because of mind, that is astonishing (a marvel). If the mind came into being because of body, that is even more astonishing (a marvel of marvels). So far, Jesus has not taken a position (unless one substitutes "incredulous" for "astonishing").

With the word "Yet" comes a third viewpoint or understanding. Jesus says that one can marvel from the adoption of the first two positions, but what he marvels at is outside these two divisive statements which war against each other. He is more interested in HOW it happens -- "how this great wealth has come to dwell in this poverty."

What is "this great wealth?" It is certainly not the ratio-nal syllogistic mind based upon duality, wonderful as it is. "This great wealth" is the Life Force itself, that great stream of being which produces all. It expresses Itself in this poverty, this "clay," this earth matter that walks around, that flies, that creeps, that crawls.

What is more astonishing than the chicken-egg, mind-body controversy and viewpoints is that we and all that exist are embodyings of the Life Force Itself. When we truly grasp that, we are transformed. Our consciousness shifts into a more marvelous realm.

hidden and revealed

Jesus said: The images are revealed to people. The light within them is hidden in the image of the Father's light. He will be revealed. His image is hidden in his light. Saying 83, The Gospel of Thomas.

Four words stand out here. Revealed. Hidden. Revealed. Hidden. Think of a light blinking on and off. This is the nature of the images, the powerful symbols that show us the essence of life, of being.

Revelation comes. We think we've got it. Like Peter at the Transfiguration, we want to build an altar there, a church, a society, a form. We want to stop. No. Something is hidden within the revelation. Something more. Something deeper. We press on with no clinging.

Ah! Revealed! We understand more. We see the image of the Father's light, our Source's light within the first revelation. He is in there somewhere. Hidden.

We catch a glimpse! Revealed! Our soul is thrilled. The glimpse gives way abruptly to the darkness of greater light. We begin to understand. We stop looking out there. He is in here looking out. He is the light within. We have him cornered now.

Blink! He is inside. He is outside. He is neither inside nor outside. He is both inside and outside. Inside and outside are one and the same.

Only light remains.

worthy

Jesus said: Adam came into being from enormous power and wealth, but he was never worthy of you, for had he been worthy of you he would not have died. Saying 85, The Gospel of Thomas.

Jesus is telling us of our worth. Worthy to whom?

Worthy to ourselves in realizing who we are, not just suckling babes crawling on a planet seeking what we may devour, not just unique creations arising from the Ground of Existence and then, after a few short years, dissolving, but manifestations of our Father, our Source, who through our mutual love are immortal.

Worthy to God, our Father and our Mother, the Wellspring of which we are the offspring. We are loved and when we love in return a circuit is completed that is never broken.

nowhere for the tiger to land its claws

Jesus said: Blessed is one who knows where (or when) bandits are going to attack, so that he can prepare, assemble his forces, and arm himself before the bandits enter. Saying 103, The Gospel of Thomas

Spiritual intelligence is essential for spiritual transformation and is a radiant and deep awareness that creates a coherent interflow amongst our other realms of intelligence (kinesthetic, musical, logico-mathematical, linguistic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, visual-spatial). "Blessed is one who knows," who has spiritual intelligence.

The Buddha has identified the bandits as three forces we use against ourselves: greed (wanting what we do not have), hostility (not wanting what we do have), and stupor (a self-induced state of ignore-ance). Jesus says we are blessed when we know where and when these bandits are going to attack. They will attack (we will attack ourselves with them) when and where we are most vulnerable: when we are fatigued, when we are down-hearted, when we are out of step with our spiritual path.

These are the times when we must counter our spiritual inertia and prepare for battle. The bandits are already at our door. It doesn't take much spiritual energy to defeat them. They can be blown away with a single breath.

As the Old Dude says in the Tao Te Ching, when we are in tune with our spiritual awareness, when we are spiritually intelligent: "There is nowhere for the rhinoceros to pitch its horn; there is nowhere for the tiger to land its claws; there is nowhere for the weapon to lodge its blade. Why is this so? Because there are no fatal spots on us."

one of those

Jesus said: Be one of those who pass by. Saying 42, The Gospel of Thomas.

Do not become entangled. Block no orifices with residue. Move on. Go straight ahead. No tumbling around in the dryer of your mind. No lint collection. Step in and meet and greet whatever comes and send it on its way. Stop trying to fix the world. Simply be you. Keep moving. No velcro mind. All images are chimera. Keep breathing. Ex-hell. Be one of those who pass by.