Gospel of Thomas Saying 112
gnostic ken
gnostic ken
Don't let your physical or your spiritual self be in complete
control. Perfect balance between the two is the goal.
Tue Apr 6, 2004 2:01 pm, Scott said:
Blessed is the flesh that is interdependent with the soul.
Blessed is the soul that is interdependent with the flesh.
Then Tue Apr 6, 2004 2:05 pm, Scott said:
One way:
If either the Flesh OR the Soul dominates the other, one is damned -- stopped
from progressing.
Another way:
When Flesh and Soul are Unified, that person progresses
Eternally.
Aug 28, 2007 11:18 PDT, Gnostic Tom said:
your body is powerless,
however strong,
without the will of your mind
propelling it to move
your mind is powerless,
however wise,
without the interface of the body
to allow it to speak and act
Thomas Ragland (No stick Thom)
http://www.geocities.com/gnostictom/
Aug 28, 2007 16:18 PD, Scott said:
Adam & Eve were made two, then commanded to become "One" (again).
One "flesh."
One "soul."
Scott V.
Aug 31, 2007 00:26 PDT, Gnostic Tom said to Scott:
the two were made one
in a perfect sense
in Seth
this is why the early Gnostics
venerated Seth as the Christ
he was said to have left behind
three steles that would last for eternity
one that could survive floods
one that could survive fire
and one that could survive ...
Thomas Ragland (No stick Thom)
http://www.geocities.com/gnostictom/
Thu Jan 28, 2010 2:56 pm, Gnostic Tom said:
normal people (flesh)
are at a loss in getting anything from gnostics (soul)
gnostics, likewise
are at a loss in getting anything from normal people.
Tom
If we are dominated by our corporeal desires, our desire for the spiritual is damned.
I still think balance is best. Feed both.
IMO.
Ken
gnostic ken
Tue Feb 26, 2013 1:18 pm, Oregon George said:
112) Jesus said, "Woe to the flesh which
clings to the soul; woe to the soul
which clings to the flesh." (Based on
Michael Grondin's literal translation)
I prefer the literal translation of
"clings" for the word which is more often
translated as "depends" or "hangs
on." It seems to work best in the context of
this saying, as it does in GTh 87. It suggests a
sense of embracing or
accommodating, more than does the word,
"depends." Moreover, one may cling in a
constructive way or in a destructive way,
depending on what one clings to.
As an experiment, let us substitute the word,
"darkness," for "flesh" and
"light" for "soul." This is
what it would look like:
"Woe to the darkness that clings to the
light; woe to the light that clings to
the darkness."
Here the darkness is shined away because it
clings to the light. It ceases to
dominate, and so we say "woe" to it;
it has lost its contest with light. And
should spiritual light cling to darkness, it
loses to darkness in the same way.
What clings to the other loses its power. That
is the important point here.
The same can be said of limitation and
wholeness, fear and love, illusion and
truth, flesh and soul. Cling to one and the
other loses its hold on the mind.
All of these dichotomies are essentially the
same dichotomy. In the nondualist
way of understanding reality, they are not true
polarities either. One pole is
true and the other is false. In other words,
each of these dichotomies are
equivalent numerically to zero and one. Darkness
is simply the absence of
light.
Consider a man who is obsessed with his body. I
compare him here to the soul
which clings to the flesh, which clings to
limitations. He is not his body, but
he believes he is. As he ages and appears to
become ill, his obsession with his
body becomes extreme. He tells himself that this
flesh is all he is, and as it
fails, he also fails. If it dies, he also will
die. And so he clings to it,
observing every ache and pain with the utmost
concern. As this focus on his
body grows, his identity as a soul slowly grows
dim in his sight. The soul,
however, is who he really is, a child of God
created perfect in God's perfect
image. Could he but fully align his mind with
this perfection, his body, being
the outward manifestation of his thoughts, would
be free to heal. By not
clinging to his soul, by clinging instead to his
flesh, his soul is neglected.
Woe indeed that such wealth (the soul) should be
lost to such poverty (the
body). (see GTh 3b and 29)
If however, this man in distress should cling
resolutely to what is whole in
him, his quiet inner core, his soul, then the
idea of a body with its aches and
pains would fade from his mind, replaced by the
light of truth. It is a matter
of focus. In Thomas, what is essential to man's
salvation is his nakedness, his
soul stripped of the body's defenses of which it
has no need (see GTh 21 and
37). Man, as God created him, is free. There is
nothing to hold him back. He
is free of the body when he clings to his
treasure, his soul, which is his true
identity. It must be kept in mind also that this
soul is not a separate soul,
limited to an individual self. It is the whole
Self, God's one Son, the
entirety of creation. The underlying message of
this saying is that soul must
cling only to soul, without exceptions. Woe
indeed is illusion which clings to
this truth.
Thank you.
George Duffy
Corvallis, OR