Thomas Web-Zine
Past Issues for 2007
Are You Coming to Dinner?
(November 2007)
Jesus said:
A man had guests
and when he had prepared the dinner,
he sent his servant to invite the guests. (#64)
This is a well-known saying of Jesus. so well known that it is very easy to skip over it, to ignore it, or to believe we understand it. Whatever our views we need to look at this more closely in the context of Jesus' teachings in Thomas: the inner world of the spirit, and the outer world of objects and attachments.
To the listeners of the saying, Jesus' language had a special meaning. Dinners and feasting were big events in an area that suffered regular famines. To be invited to dinner was a great honour. Buyers and merchants were important people in the community—they traded goods, owned property, collected money—that was mainly agricultural workers. But buyers and merchants are criticized; an unusual thing by Jesus who always seeks unity rather than division. More generally, this criticism is really aimed at anyone preoccupied with material concerns.
When we use the 'hidden' language of Thomas, then a deeper meaning of the three themes in the logia become clear.
Passers-by
(September 2007)
Become your Real Self, as ahamkara passes away
Passing away is about overcoming the dominance of our ahamkara. Many get confused about this concept, thinking it means 'killing' our ego-fuelled feelings, thoughts, and behaviours. When we focus on such feelings or thoughts then we actually increase their power. There is nothing that our ahamkara loves more than undivided attention.
. and abominated is the man whom the lion will eat,
and the lion will become man [#7 4-5]
The 'lion' will raise its head from time to time so our approach must be to simply give it recognition and acknowledgment: "hello there lion, I see what you're trying to do/make me feel, but I'm not going to do it/feel it - so goodbye!" Or in a more well-known modern catchphrase, "I'm not bothered!"
Now, these feelings, thoughts, or behaviours may be perfectly acceptable, but we need to be clear on their source. When we discern that the source of these feelings or thoughts is our ahamkara, then we start to overcome its dominance.
You are Becoming
(July 2007)
Logion 42 is the shortest and most powerful saying in 'Thomas':
Become yourselves, while passing away
The Coptic original comprises of just three words, literally translated as 'Become yourselves, passing by'. Other translations attempt to overcome the enigmatic nature of these few words with additions and subtractions
Hearing Jesus
(May 2007)
We learn from the other Gospels of the Bible that went around amongst the people of his land as a Teacher. At the start of his ministry he called out to Simon and his brother Andrew "Follow me". Likewise to the brothers James and John. They heard him, and they did follow him, forsaking their families' tradition of being fishermen.
The disciple nick-named Didymos Thomas also heard Jesus. He treasured some of what he heard, and before setting out to India he recorded some of those sayings. Almost certainly he spoke them again to a scribe, and what the scribe heard and recorded has come down to us.
Father
(March 2007)
"Our Father who art in heaven . " is probably the most well known saying of Jesus in the Bible. This saying or prayer is not recorded in 'Thomas', yet the word Father appears more than 20 times. So Jesus obviously considered Father to be an important word that held a strong meaning to his listeners.
Jesus uses Father to describe aspects of the Kingdom (another common word in 'Thomas')
Hearing and Seeing
(January 2007)
Eyes and ears, hands and feet, heart and mouth are referred to throughout 'Thomas'. If fact one of the most common phrases used by Jesus is:
He who has ears to hear let him hear (logia 8, 24, 21, 63, 65)
We can take this to mean "listen to what I'm saying and try to understand it" or perhaps "m é tano ï a, change your knowing" This is certainly a valid interpretation, but we know by now that Jesus always wants us to go deeper. He encourages us to overcome the duality of the physical and the spiritual:
