Gospel of Thomas Saying 22
gnostic ken
22 Jesus saw some babies nursing.
He said to his disciples,
"These nursing babies are like those who enter the kingdom."
They said to him,
"Then shall we enter the kingdom as babies?"
Jesus said to them,
"When you make the two into one, and when you make the
inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper
like the lower, and when you make male and female into a
single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female
be female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand
in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in
place of an image, then you will enter [the kingdom]."
............................
22 Jesus saw infants being suckled.
He said to His disciples, "These infants being suckled are
like those who enter the Kingdom."
They said to Him,
"Shall we then, as children, enter the Kingdom?"
Jesus said to them,
"When you make the two one, and when you make the
inside like the outside and the outside like the inside,
and the above like the below, and when you make the male
and the female one and the same, so that the male not be
male nor the female, female; and when you fashion eyes in
the place of an eye, and a hand in place of a hand, and a
foot in place of a foot, and a likeness in place of a likeness;
then will you enter [the Kingdom]."
........................
22 Jesus saw little ones being fed.
He addressed his disciples:
These babies being nursed
are like those entering the kingdom.
They asked: Shall we enter the kingdom?
We are small.
Jesus said:
When you make two into one
and what is within like what is without,
and what is without like what was within.
And what is above like what is below,
and when you unite male and female in one
So that the male is no longer male,
and the female is no longer female,
When you make eyes in place of an eye
and a hand in place of a hand,
and a foot in place of a foot
and an image in place of an image,
Then you shall enter the Kingdom.
...........................
22. Y'shua sees little children who are being suckled.
He says to his Disciples:
These little children who are being suckled are like those
who enter the Sovereignty.
They say to him:
Shall we thus by becoming little children enter the Sovereignty?
Y'shua says to them:
When you make the two one, and you make the inside as
the outside and the outside as the inside and the above as
the below, and if you establish the male with the female as
a single unity so that the man will not be masculine and the
woman not be feminine, when you establish [an eye] in the
place of an eye and a hand in the place of a hand and
a foot in the place of a foot and an imageº in the place of
an image--then shall you enter [the Sovereignty].
(Mt 18:3; cp. Odes of [St.] Solomon 34:5--
'The likeness of what is below, is that which is above--for
everything is above; what is below is nothing but
the delusion of those who are without knowledge.')
...........................
(22)
(1) Jesus saw infants being suckled.
(2) He said to his disciples:
"These little ones being suckled are like those who enter
the kingdom."
(3) They said to him:
"Then will we enter the kingdom as little ones?"
(4) Jesus said to them:
"When you make the two into one,
and when you make the inside like the outside and the
outside like the inside
and the above like the below –
(5) that is, to make the male and the female into a single
one, so that the male will not be male and the female will
not be female –
(6) and when you make eyes instead of an eye
and a hand instead of a hand and a foot instead of a foot,
an image instead of an image,
(7) then you will enter [the kingdom]."
gnostic ken
Wed Dec 10, 2003 4:20 am, gwh00 said:
Infants are new and innocent, (unconditioned
consciousness).
When you have dissolved all dualistic thought and
ideation that arises in
the light of your single inner vision into its
elemental structure (pure
spirit, the essence of God).
when you have resurrected the spirit body of the
Perfect Man from within
your own being,
>then will you enter [the Kingdom]."
gary
Wed Dec 10, 2003 1:08 pm, I said:
To me this is saying we must become aware of our
spiritual nature and
unite it with our physical nature in a balanced
whole.
Wed Dec 10, 2003 1:11 pm, Steve said:
The babes who suckle are those of us who feed
from the breast of
Mother Wisdom. As above, so below. Realize
interconnectedness. Male
and female becoming one and the same is the fusion
of material and
spiritual. Reality is a projection of
Consciousness: replace a
lower, material image with a higher, spiritual
image. Rebuild the
shattered Body of Primal Man. -Steve W.
Wed Dec 10, 2003 1:14 pm,
"roadhousejack"
wrote:
Here we have the uniting of the opposites which
is so often
expressed in mandala symbolism when what Jung,
borrowing a word from
the Upanishads, calls the Self.
when you make eyes in place of an eye,
The eye symbolizes understanding ("I
see.") So the experience of
the Self or gnosis brings a new understanding.
a hand in place of a hand,
Aristotle called the hand the organ of organs
cuz it can do so
many things. The old way of doing things is
replaced by a new way.
a foot in place of a foot,
Our feet connect us to the earth. It cannot be
overemphasized
how important it is to have "one's feet one
the ground" VERY FIRMLY
if one is to experience gnosis.
ou can also see the feet as your standpoint.
With gnosis one
would get a new "standpoint". The
stance you take toward life will
change.
an image in
> > place of an image,
Now tnere's a mystery.....!
Jack
Wed Dec 10, 2003 11:25 pm, P3nn said:
These babes don't yet differentiate between
things, i.e. they don't make 2
things out of 1 so to speak. They haven't yet
developed the concepts that
seperate and their minds are still plyable as it
were. I see it as a ref to
these qualities.
MP
Penn
Sep
13, 2006 15:02 PDT, slvan- said:
This is a description of being whole (complete, mature, perfect, etc.), -- or
of enjoying The Fulness.
Scott V.
PS Our inner spark of divinity exalts our outer body, and, yet, at the same
time, our outer body makes real what our inner self only yearns for.
Wed
Jan 23, 2008 8:37 pm, bhuzes said:
It says, find your balance and be to me.
Brenda
Wed Jan 23, 2008 10:10 pm, Gnostic Tom said:
from the White Album:
Your inside is out and your outside is in.
Your outside is in and your inside is out.
So come on come on
Come on is such a joy
Come on is such a joy
Come on take it easy
Come on take it easy.
Take it easy take it easy.
Everybody's got something to hide except for me and my
monkey.
sexual symbolism touches metaphysical speculation,
and the symbolism of physical formation and birth
touches spiritual formation and rebirth
to be "born again"
results in becomes a newly formed baby
on some plane of being.
G n o s t i c . T o m
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Dharma_Gnosis
Thu Jan 24, 2008 4:38 am, edmondwhlr said:
For me this tells me when there is no division within or without in concern
then
a foot is just a foot.
ed
Thu Jan 24, 2008 5:07 pm, Steve said:
Suckling at the breast of Lady Wisdom, the babe does not
perceive itself yet, in a self-representational way, as
being separate from the All. "Male" and "female" are used
here in the same way that Tantric Hindus speak of Shiva
and Shakti. (See Mircea Eliade for the historical connection.)
I believe I mentioned once before that I believe that some
of these sayings refer to specific meditative techniques.
IMO, the part about eyes, hands, feet, and the replacement
of an image with an image, refers to what a Tantric Hindu
or a Tantric Buddhist would call Deity Yoga. I sometimes
converse with my Tibetan Buddhist friends who share their
practice with me. In Deity Yoga, one mentally constructs
an elaborate vision of a spiritual being and then merges
with it. IMO, the spiritual being referred to in the saying
is the vision of Anthropos, or Primal Man, in his state of
Wholeness before shattering into shards of Light lost in
the darkness of spiritual ignorance. This touches on what
I said earlier about the Kosmos in the "form" of an
immense Archetypal Human.
-Steve
Thu Jan 24, 2008 9:45 pm, lab1lyrinth61 said:
Loved this post! What does it mean to me? If God is One, then we,
even in our uniqueness are also one. One in the very essence of our
collective being. One is our self. One in vision. One in Light.
Realizing and embracing this oneness is the path to finding one's
true and perfect self, the pathway to heaven.
"In the image of God created he him, male and female created he
them." I always found this quote from the first chapter of Genesis
to be interesting b/c the man that emanates from the Infinite is
imbued with an obvious non-physical, gender-equal, substance-filled
infinite moment of PERFECT self-awareness. The vision I have of this
passage is one of depth, strength, purpose, permanency. AND I say
this knowing that many may consider this biblical account fictional
or the work of the Demiurge. But I know that TRUTH is there telling
us who we really are.
Fri Jan 25, 2008 4:18 am, itsallrozee said:
saying 22, has always reminded me of 'the sleeper must awaken', it's
describing a state of wholeness to me, where all of ones being has
integrated and no part is percieved seperate or other, to the One.
Wed Jan 30, 2008 1:30 pm, vang19th said:
As I see it the wisdom of gnosis is condensed in this saying of the hidden
Christ. The first part of it, the babes entering the Kingdom of Heaven, are
known from both the synoptic gospels and the gospel of John, notably in regard
to the gospel of John the scene where Jesus preach to the phariseen, Nicodemus,
and says to him, that if he is to enter the Kingdom of Heaven he must be born
again. This Nicodemus doesn´t understand and then Jesus add that he has to be
born again in the spirit.
The second part of it, the exegesis of the words of the first part, is not
known from the New Testament and has to do with the secrete teaching of Christ,
which is only delivered to the elect ones. The keyissue in the preaching of the
gospel of the New Testament is faith. In the christian gnostic scriptures of
the
Nag Hammadi Library faith are rarely mentioned, and when it is it is to point
that faith is something that the spiritual advanced has passed through.
The saying is about spiritual perfection and what is needed to reach it. In
its use of symbolism it refers to the wellknown gnostic perception of the
devided soul, which symbolically is displayed in the Sophia-myth, or spiritual
motif. Unification is the goal of the spirit. Figurative this is needed to
deliver the trapped soul and prepare it for a new eternal life in the Kingdom
of
the Spirit.
Soren
Thu Jan 31, 2008 4:16 am, edmondwhlr said:
Hello Friend, Yes the double edged sword, faith and gnosis. why would someone
have faith when they already have what they have hoped for! All I know is I
don't know what I aught to know. Usually gnostics don't use the word faith much
but it is integrated within all of us that Trust. Faith, Hope, Trust. For me
faith and trust are one in the same. Hope is the journey! If I pre-concieve
anything I close the door on faith, But if I live spontaneously like the child
we all were, Faith, hope and trust are all one in expression of the wisdom
having received it by awareness of what already is.
Double edged sword, but one sword.
ed
Wed
Feb 25, 2009 2:12 pm, I said:
To me this is saying we must become aware of our spiritual nature and
unite it with our physical nature in a balanced whole.
IMO.
Ken
Wed May 19, 2010 1:25 pm, Jerry said:
To me, this saying gets down to the core of what
life as presented in
the GoT is about, not just in general or vague
terms but what is
required to see and live in the Kingdom. Not
only see it but move in it,
not only as omnipresence but also omniscience
(all knowing) and
omnipotence (all powerful). The fulfillment of
this results in a being
and person far different that most.
For certain this process is not a religion but
the way things truly are,
and the result is a new being that is anything
but hallucinating or
fantasizing. It is just altogether too easy to
caricature anyone that
sees beyond the surface of things as most do, as
being religious or
fantasizing. Decrying 'religion' and any reality
beyond that is commonly
seen with eyes or heard with the ears, or
performed with the hand, or
traveled with the feet as fantasy does not cut
it. One must experience
what (*) is as well as what it is not. So what
if priest and ministers
and their followers are blind? What is it we
ourselves see and hear and
do is what counts. Talking about and judging
others gets one nowhere and
kills even what is striving to grow within one
who is making such judgments.
With the attitude of the suckling child, drawing
on the truth, the two
is made one, established as one, the upper and
the lower become one and
the same, and another eye and ear and image is
made and established, of
which most persons know nothing about. It can
only be expected that such
a person is misunderstood since it is not with
the senses or with the
mind that these things are S/seen and H/heard
and P/performed, both
occurring and playing a part in the
manifestation on earth of the
Kingdom. Even these are not in reality separate
in such an awareness,
but one. jerry
Wed May 19, 2010 8:47 pm, Sam said:
Gist of GoT 22
When omnipresence* is all folk see
'tis end of mental-dichotomy.
Repose returns, mind is again free.
* = whatever icon preferred.
itso,
philo
13 Mar 11, Clive said:
In
a corporeal sense we can look at it this way.How many times as someone offered
you something and for one reason or another your first reaction was to say no
thanks and then after a moments thought you realise that by recieving it you
are giving the giver pleasure, or by not recieving it your offending the giver,
so you change your mind and say go on then, I'll have it, thanks.
This is recieving in order to bestow, your only accepting the gift because you
see it as giving pleasure to the giver. Your actions of recieving have become
the same as as the actions of the giver, you have both become givers, even
though you were a reciever.
In a spiritual sense its a bit more difficult to explain and understand, but
working with the pretext that the corperal nature can only recieve and the spiritual
nature can only bestow. We need to change our nature so that we will not be
recieving the light of the creator for our own sakes but we will only recieve
it for his sake, to give pleasure to him. This is to change our nature to some
sort of equivolence with the creator, we become a bestower of pleasure to the
creator as he bestows pleasure to us. This to me is making the upper like the
lower, the inner like the outer and the male like the female.
14 Mar 11, I replied:
Receiving
as giving. Giving by receiving. I never thought about it like that, but you are
right, that does happen.
Ken
3-17-11: Today this says to me when we enter the altered state where reality
becomes clearer (enlightened, Gnostic terms: waking up, entering the bridal
chamber), we should do so as babes with no preconditions, no expectations and
no faith as to what the experience is going to be about. As with babes, we
should simply accept and learn what is from the ground up. IMO this is what the
Buddhist clearing the mind of all thoughts is all about.
IMO if we enter enlightenment with expectations our experience of What Is will
be shaped by the expectations. We won't experience What Is with an open mind.
We will experience What Is as shaped by our expectations.
Ken