Gospel of Thomas 26
gnostic ken
26 Jesus said, "You see the sliver in your friend's eye, but you
don't see
the timber in your
own eye. When you take the timber out of your own eye, then you will
see
well enough to
remove the sliver from your friend's eye."
.................................
26) Jesus said, "You see the mote in your brothers eye, but you
do not see the beam in your own eye. When you cast the beam out
of your own eye, then you will see clearly to cast the mote from
your brother's eye."
..................................
26 You see the mote
within your brothers eye
but you do not see the beam
within your own.
Once you have extracted the beam
from your own eye,
you can remove the mote from your brothers.
...............................
26. Y'shua says: The mote which is in thy Brother's eye thou see--
but the
plank that is in
thine own eye thou see not. When thou cast the plank out of thine
own
eye,
then shall
thou see clearly to cast the mote out of thy Brother's eye. (=Mt 7:3-
5)
..........................
(26) Jesus says:
(1) "You see the splinter that is in your brother's eye,
but you do not see the beam that is in your (own) eye.
(2) When you remove the beam from your (own) eye,
then you will see clearly (enough) to remove the splinter from your
brother's eye."
..........................
26 The speck and the beam
JESUS said, "You (sing.) see the speck in your sibling's eye, but
you
do
not see the beam in your own eye. When you expel the beam from your
own
eye then you will be able to see to expel the speck from the eye of
your
sibling."
gnostic ken
If we love someone we don't look for thier faults, we look at thier goodpoints and try to equal and to return the goodness in atleast equal measure.
How often do we pick faults with our neighbours kids and compare it with the goodness in our own children, our neighbour is doing exactly the same seeing the fault in our kids and the goodness in his own. It all comes down to love.
If we are seeing flaws in our friends, it means that the flaw is in us, in our love for that friend.
Instead of wanting to correct the friends faults we should correct the flaw in our love of friends then we will be looking at the goodness in our friend not his faults.
So I read this verse as saying if we look at at the specks,flaws, in our friends, then we have a beam, lack of love of friends in us.
Ken
If I'd thought of writing what Tom wrote, it would have come out slightly different, I would like to say it this way - What matters is that folks become clear in a desire to experience love for each other and see beyond the religious distractions in the way.
Peace on Earth and goodwill to all men.
Ken
No, you havn't mentioned in my time here that Tom has written books. I wish him all the best in his efforts to enlighten people.
If you are here Tom, best wish's to you.
I tend not to read books anymore, other than authentic works( or as authentic as we can get) such as the Bible or the Nag Hammadi library.
"The Noble Eightfold Path of Christ: Jesus Teaches the Dharma of Buddhism" - Paperback (July 6, 2006) by Thomas Ragland
"Buddha Turns the Kabbalah Wheel: Jewish Buddhist Resonance from a Christian Gnostic Perspective" - Paperback (July 6, 2006) by Thomas Ragland
"Jesus Gnosis Story of Simon by Philip" - Paperback (Aug. 17, 2009) by Thomas Ragland
I had noticed that, I just didn't get around to mentioning it yet as it seems a subjective point.
Many people believe that they see clearly, but I'm with Paul on this one.--
1 Corinthians 13:12/13
12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Paul admitted that he couldn't see clearly, he said it was like looking through a dark glass yet he went about spreading the gospel, trying to remove splinters from peoples eyes.
So, perhaps by removing the beam from our own eyes, doesn't mean that we see clearly, but that we come to realise like Paul did that the greatest thing we need is love.
Ken
It kind of echoes saying 26.
I think your right when you said - "I think not being able to see clearly is the reason for so many religions/belief systems."
I wonder,perhaps things are meant to be this way, is it better to have some belief in spirituality, even if it misses the target by a mile, than it is not to believe. I suppose it is, perhaps different religions are like stepping stones that help seekers to move away from selfishness to the discovery of unity and connectiveness. Maybe its better for those dipping thier toes into the water for the first time to start at the shallow end.
gnostic ken
ere finding-fault... with other folk's truth.
itso,
philo
gnostic ken
Sun Dec 14, 2003 1:40 pm, Steve
said:
Fix your own head first. -Steve W.
Sun Dec 14, 2003 1:41 pm, I said:
If you are tempted to instruct someone else you
might want to look at
yourself first.
Sun Dec 14, 2003 1:43 pm, I added:
And to me there is a slightly deeper meaning.
Since my own head will
never be totally fixed in the material world, I
should never attempt
to fix someone else's head.
Sep 26, 2006 06:49 PDT, Gnostic
Tom said:
blocking the view,
antiquated ideas, prejudices, bigotries, habits,
ambitions, social conformings, adaptations,
creeds, dogmatic assertions, narrow
mindedness...
it is easier to look at others
who have such things blocking their spiritual
vision
and to point out that they are missing the big
picture because of these religious
"blocks"
than it is to admit that "I" have
things blocking my own spiritual vision.
there is this attitude among fundamentalists of
all brands that if "they" only stopped
following
their religion and started to follow the
religion
of the fundamentalist that "they"
would be all
better. There are Christians trying to save
folks
from being Buddhist, wanting them to renounce it
all.
There are Wiccans trying to save folks from
being
Christian, any god but the Christian god.
there is this state at which we get beyond it
all,
that we take that final log out of our vision
and
it becomes clear that it doesn't matter who
converts
to or from what. what matters is that folks
become
clear in experiencing What Is and see beyond all
of
the religious distractions in the way.
--Gnostic Tom
Sep 26, 2006 08:39 PDT, slvan- said:
Don't see your friend's sliver as a
timber.
Therefore, don't over react if/when you THINK
you see fault (in your friend).*
Scott V.
Wed Feb 20, 2008 9:05 pm
"letterpi" said:
It is saying that we should examine and
improve ourselves
before we look for faults in others.
Warmly, Bob
Thu Feb 21, 2008 12:37 am said:
It says to me, i can't help anyone to see
clearly, unless i have
perfect vision myself,
and it says, don't go pointing out the
issues of others until i've
dealt with my own 'humongous' issue.
a great companion for 'the blind leading
the blind'!
Thu Feb 21, 2008 7:37 am Gnostic Tom said:
the inability to see clearly,
being blocked by preconceptions,
by prejudices, by brainwashings,
when we take the time to unlearn,
to remove a timber out of our vision,
and we can see clearer,
we may consider how much more is blocking
our own vision, so we can symphathize
with others who haven't unlearned something
that we have already unlearned
G n o s t i c . T o m
http://www.geocities.com/gnostictom/
Thu Feb 21, 2008 11:00 am
eugnostos2000@... said:
IMO, our judgements on others are usually
just a reflection of our
own conditioning. Our first task must
always be to clearly see our
own conditioning for what it is. This, of
course, is very difficult.
-Steve
Thu Feb 21, 2008 3:34 pm itsallrozee@...
said:
hi steve, ken and everyone.
yes this was always a favorite one of
mine, non-judgement and
acceptance of others and our own
imperfections, and it also contains
instruction for tolerance as well! as well
as the blind leading the
blind, its also echoing 'judge not lest ye
be judged.
Thu Mar 12, 2009 10:19 pm, I
said:
Notice that this doesn't say you shouldn't help
with the sliver in your friend's eye.
It says to take the timber out of your own eye
first so you can see better.
So the trick would be to know when you are
finally seeing clearly?
Ken