Empty Desert ?
The word empty is used several times in the Gospel of Thomas:
#28.9 that empty they came into the world .
.10 and that empty they seek to go out of the world again.
#61.15 When he is emptied
#97.6 and the flour streamed out behind her on the road.
.11 she found it empty.
These are translations of two related Coptic words. In #28 it
is CHOWEIT which Crum gives as a verb to pour, to empty, to discharge;
and Metanoia translate as the verb se deverser = to empty and
as etre vide = to be empty or as a noun = void, emptiness. In
#61 it is the second of the related words CHEW which Crum gives
as to be desert, to be laid waste, to be destroyed; and Metanoia
translate as etre desert = an adjective uninhabited or noun a
desert. In #97.6 it is CHOWO which Crum gives as equivalent to
CHOWEIT, and in #97.11 it is CHOWEIT.
So what we are dealing with here is a concept that is associated
with the adjective empty, and the active verb to empty and the
passive verb to be emptied (and hence the nouns emptiness or
void), and also the adjective uninhabited and noun a desert.
In
our little island in a temperate climate we can have no real
awareness of an empty, uninhabited
desert. Wherever you are a
person or house is likely to be seen. Whichever way you look
there will be trees and beyond them some hills will arise. But
even though the climate of Palestine was more temperate in Jesus'
time, he and all his listeners must have been fully aware of
the desert around them and deeply aware of its emptiness. For
us to fly over it gives the same impression—something entirely
different from anything in Europe.
In
the language of parables that Jesus used and his listeners
understood and which we have to
rediscover if Thomas is truly
to speak to us—those Coptic words are likely to carry more
than their literal meanings that Crum gives.
In
that language of parables the desert is not empty—it
becomes filled.
With what can it be filled? As one goes into it, devoid of all
encumbrances and distractions, it can only be filled by oneself.
There can be nothing else.
And what happens when one enters into a desert? Such vast spaces
create through their immensity an awe, a wonder, an expansion
of the inner Being.
So what is Jesus trying to say to us? There is the removal of
something, an emptying, and yet something else is to be found
to engender that awe and wonder.
There
is nothing to help us in the Hebrew or Christian scriptures
nor in the thinking of the great
Churchmen. We have to look elsewhere—as
the Metanoia scholars did. It can be found in Vedanta, especially
advaita Vedanta (the adjective is literally non-dual). The emptying
is the quenching of ahamkara, and the fulfilment is the finding
of the Real Self.
Frequently in Thomas Jesus prompts us in this way. For the fulfilment
he uses the words the One and the All. There cannot be anything
greater than this, it fills us with the ultimate wonderment.
It is only our ahamkara that obscures in our daily life the
immensity of the indwelling Real Self.
H.McG.R.
Essays
- Hidden & Clues
The Gospel of Thomas starts with 'These are the hidden logia'.
Admittedly this not said by Jesus, nevertheless the key-word is one used
frequently by him, therefore it behoves us to recognize
the intended meaning and its implications. It turns out that
it may be one of the words of the lost language of parables that
carries a distinctive meaning.
- Coherence
In 'Jesus untouched by the Church' the description of an experiment of sorting cards to make groups
of sayings with like-for-like meanings, it is written "it was discovered
that a coherent set of spiritual Teachings were revealed"
- Searching
Gospel of Thomas is for people who are searching—searching
for inner peace, tranquillity, timeless certainties, happiness and
joyousness in this life, in the here and now. It is for those who
at some time in their lives even if not now search for answers to
mankind's most fundamental questions "From whence did I come? To
where will I go?" It may even go some way to give solace to those
who search for release from suffering—the greatest scourge
of mankind.
- Stone
Maurice Nicoll, one of the great spiritual teachers of the West
during our times, writes in his book 'The New Man' (1950) "All sacred
writings contain an outer and an inner meaning. Behind the literal
words lies another range of meaning, another form of knowledge.
According to an old-age tradition, Man was once in touch with this
inner knowledge and inner meaning"
- Monakhos
There are three significant words in Thomas that have come down
to us in untranslated Greek. We cannot tell whether they were originally
spoken in Aramaic, but by their very nature that seems unlikely.
Therefore they were spoken by Jesus in Greek, and it means that
when he used them he was speaking to the Hellenists. Thomas did
not have to translate them, they were not translated into Coptic,
and they cannot be translated into English. All we can do is to
try to grasp the meanings that Jesus intended.
- Metanoia
This is another Greek word used by Jesus that has come down
to us without ever having been translated is Métanoïa. Nor, like
the other two, can it be adequately translated into English.
We just have to try to seek out the meaning Jesus intended.
- Makarios
Another of our untranslated and untranslatable Greek words
in Thomas is makarios. It is used in the beatitudes of the N.T. Gospels, where
it is almost always rendered as 'blessed'. This rendering of the
word can be very misleading, for it can be confused with 'blest',
an entirely different word. The difference lies in the person concerned.
A state of blessedness exists within a person; being blest involves
another person outside oneself.
- Empty Desert
In our little island in a temperate climate we can have no real
awareness of an empty, uninhabited desert. Wherever you are a
person or house is likely to be seen. Whichever way you look
there will be trees and beyond them some hills will arise. But
even though the climate of Palestine was more temperate in Jesus'
time, he and all his listeners must have been fully aware of
the desert around them and deeply aware of its emptiness.
- Knowing not Belief
Here is a typical Teaching that was discovered in the Gospel. In 'Jesus untouched by the Church' the sayings
that are relevant to this particular Teaching are grouped together,
without being in any way altered. These are typeset to show they are our words, not those of Jesus.
They are merely to prompt the reader's understanding, but it is for the
reader to discern the real significance of the Teaching.
- Happiness and Joyousness
Happiness is one of the themes Jesus speaks of most often in the Gospel
of Thomas. Only knowing and finding occur more often. The theme of happiness
comes in ten of the sayings, which are scattered
throughout the Gospel. What it must imply is that as Jesus and
his disciples travelled around during his ministry, this must
have been a frequently recurring theme. It may be unexpected
that Jesus spoke of it so often—but there are many aspects
of the Gospel of Thomas that come as a surprise to us.
