Logion 40 is one of the “prequels” (to use the expression of Pursah, in Gary Renard’s books) of a saying that we find in the New Testament literature. In this case, a variation on the statement comes back in Matthew 15:13, where it is bundled with some other sayings material, and made into a story in the style that is familiar from the synoptic gospels. They always tell a story around the saying.

The basic image is clear enough, the vine planted “outside the father” is not strong, it cannot be, and it “will be pulled up by its roots and die.”

God is our source, and the ego’s basic premise of an independent existence, outside of God, is not a viable proposition, it cannot be, or as the Course puts it:

This is one of the clearest statements in the Thomas Gospel on the notion that the ego’s thought system simply does not work, and just so as the history of the Course makes it clear, which is also validated by people who have the experience in their own lives, we do not start looking for “another way,” until we are quite at our wits’ end with our way, and the ways of the world, and we become truly motivated and open for the alternative.

There is a fun little book I’ve been reading lately which demonstrates this issue very humorously, which is listed above. It is a hilarious and psychologically very astute look at why we strive for unhappiness, even though we pretend otherwise, because denial is the best cover over the ego’s defense mechanisms. Of course there area many books, movies and statements which document in various ways how the ego system does not work, take your pick, some are ponderous, but many are quite funny, starting with Groucho Marx’s notion that he would not belong to any club that would have him as a member (which is quoted in this little book as well). It’s good to stop taking it so seriously, and focus on the real work which is the practice of forgiveness.

In the Thomas Gospel, inter alia Logion 56 offers an interesting corollary to the present statement. The notion that the world is merely a corpse, and that once you get that, you’ve transcended it, lines up perfectly with the tenor of Logion 40. Basically it helps to fully understand that the ego system is insane, there’s no point to making it work, since the outcome is death anyway. The only thing that trips us up is that we just automatically slip into identifying with our roles in the world again, and this is why Jesus advocates a change of mine, and that we join with him in seeking only his Kingdom which is not of this world. The ego is always afraid that we will die if we let go of our attachment to this world, which is not true, and it’s logic is completely unsound, for death is the certain outcome of the ego’s proposition, yet it tries to scare us with the fear of death. The greatest risk of letting go of our attachments to the things of the world is of course peace, and happiness, which therefore the ego wants to avoid at all costs. Watzlawick’s book ends as follows:

Or, as A Course in Miracles would have it:

Hopelessly simple indeed.

That is the Biblical version most of us will be familiar with. Here is the same passage in full in the KJV:

As per usual, the sayings are more “dressed up” and put in a context of a story in the canonical gospels. Logion 36 is the oldest known version of the statement. It is very basic:

This is one of those statements which has immediate appeal, and which kind of stays with you. It obviously does not mean to just live it up and not worry about tomorrow. What it does mean is that on the spiritual path we need not worry about the outside appearances, giving us for inspiration the image of the lilies of the field in their natural beauty. Worrying, which we are inclined to do constantly, is the ego’s favorite tool to counter the “Development of Trust” as the Course calls it, which is perhaps the central process in our learning to change our life in the direction of total reliance on our Internal Teacher. Here is a key section:

When we learn to live from spirit we are aligning ourselves with the cause, for the world is just the stage, the projection screen where the play plays itself out, but the mind is the cause. Choosing the separation, we made ourselves into the center of a universe, and everything else became a sort of a remote threat over which we no longer have any control. When we reawaken to spirit, we are aligning ourselves with cause in the mind. So no longer would we waste our time rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic, we would naturally also have the total trust, for we know that the things of the phenomenal world are only the out-picturing of a state of mind, and we can learn to change our state of mind. Hence, there is nothing left to worry about. Only in our separated state is there anything out there that could threaten us.

There are several other Logia which strike related themes. Logion 89 comes to mind – it deals with our focus on the outside (form) before the content. Also, Logion 97 pictures in a humorous way, how we will end up empty handed whenever we focus on the outside (form), and focus on preserving it, while losing the content, the meaning, the essence, the spirit. This is forever a fundamental signal of the ego, and the development of trust is about trusting the spirit first and knowing that the right forms will emerge.

Logion 32 naturally is about the same notions as the story we find in the canonical gospels where Jesus tells Simon to become the rock on which he can build his church. While the world has mostly blithely assumed he was talking about real estate, or at least a physical institution, this is obviously not the case, for that is never what he is talking about. Jesus was making a pun on the ambivalence of Simon, in listening to him, Jesus, and the need for Simon to once and for all choose spirit as the foundation of his “church,” because only in spirit can we truly join with our brothers, in the realization of the oneness of the sonship. Bringing bodies together is a poor substitute for the true communion of the spirit. The “city built on a high hill” in that sense is the equivalent to the community (church) built on the rock of spirit. The only thing that cannot “fall” is spirit – in this world everything decays and dies. Here is the famed passage:

Another element that is implied in this saying is the notion that the choice between spirit or the ego is blatantly obvious, “nor can it be hidden.” The community of spirit will be easy to recognize as such, it cannot be mistaken for anything else. Again and again, when we get back to these original sayings in Thomas it becomes easier to “hear” that Jesus was just playing with words and symbols, and is always speaking in parables, as indeed he frequently tells us, even in the texts which made it into the New Testament. So he never was telling us to go into urban planning and develop fortified cities on hills. Just like he was never speaking of “bread” either. Here is the passage  from Matthew, where you can almost hear Jesus pull his hair out that people keep taking him literally, when he is clearly speaking to them in parables.

The notion of being chosen is one of the most baffling concepts, particularly because of the obnoxious way it has traditionally been treated by Christian theology, implying that God plays favorites. That is not the meaning of the phrase however, and perceptive readers could have guessed that, for it is so evidently contradictory to everything Jesus teaches, as in e.g. the parable of the prodigal son. Here is a critical passage from A Course in Miracles, which may shed some light. Notice that the “I” person is Jesus.

It comes up in Thomas as Logion 23, It is very interesting to see how Pursah’s comments to Gary, which I discussed in my book, are a close parallel to what the Course says about this issue. The logic is that there is a reciprocity here, which really means we have to opt in. Jesus makes this clear in the Course in a variety of ways that it is all about our choice to want to find another way. Until we do that, we stick to the counsel of our ego, and we throw Jesus out as far as we can throw him. Only when we find out our way may not be working as advertised, are we able to give ourselves the option to find “another way.” This is very logical. As long as we think that what we’re doing works, there is no incentive to try something else. So Jesus, or the Holy Spirit do not force themselves on us. They are available to us by our invitation only. Conversely our invitation means a willingness to listen. So we choose ourselves whenever we take the earphones off and stop listening to the pre-recorded music of the ego, so we can start listening to the Voice for God.
Accordingly what this saying means is that Jesus “chooses” the ones who listen, and by choosing to do so they will literally unite, for joining with Jesus is to choose for the oneness of the sonship, instead of for the multiplicity of our separate identities. So we will indeed stand with him as a single one. Logion 13 emphasizes the same idea in a different way,  by indicating that even among the apostles not all are ready to hear the whole story. So again, it is our preparedness to hear, in which we choose ourselves to be available for the message which is always there, and never changes.

While the purpose of this site is to be an extension of my book Closing the Circle, and provide more material that was simply too detailed, or just too voluminous to be included in the book, I do feel compelled to maintain a certain sense of balance. I have noticed over time that some of the Logia have not come up in other contexts, and I realized that it might be fun at this point to expand on some of them beyond what was in the book. The whole thing is becoming a sort of a tapestry in which these sayings are becoming the repeating patterns. I’m beginning to sense that while the collection per se is not an organic whole, or in any way a complete representation of the teachings of Jesus, but rather an unfinished collection of pearls of wisdom, the way this site has grown, it is beginning to demonstrate more of an inner consistency among the collection, which tends to demonstrate how it does form a certain pattern we can recognize.

So, in that spirit, I just took an inventory of the Logia which have not yet come up in conversation, and they are respectively, 23, 32, 36, 40, 49, 51, 54, 58, 59, 70, 75, 76, 79, 80, 85, 86, 88, 92, 94, 95, 97, 103, 106, 107, 109. It’ll be interesting at this point to see if I recognize any pattern among this collection. Pursah does point out in her comments in Gary’s books that some of these sayings are not as easy for the modern western reader as some others.

So, the next few posts will be devoted to these stragglers. Meanwhile, I want to report here that I have begun to get reader feedback, complementing my own experience, strengthening my belief that for me the Pursah version of the Thomas gospel is the definitive edition. I was really very delighted recently to get a strong confirmation of that from a reader who evidently had a strong inner experience that this is the case. As I reported in the book, my original inclination had been to include a translation based on the Nag Hammadi texts, but when I encountered all kinds of difficulties with that, in particular in terms of getting the necessary permissions, I sensed that this might not be practical, in particular since the exercise would have to be repeated for every translation of the book. It seemed too much work and effort for something that was absolutely not material to the book, but more a matter of courtesy. Funnily enough, I naively assumed that in a field where there are 10+ Thomas translations circulating in most languages, I thought that the publishers of whatever text I chose would be happy if their edition got a boost from being thusly included in my book, and so I figured I was helping them. Hilariously, some of these folks thought I should pay them for the privilege. Some others did not even respond at all to the inquiry. So I gave it up. Initially I thought it was a sacrifice of convenience for the eventual reader, but then I realized it was a highly beneficial streamlining. No use carrying that ballast. This is how the comments about the comparison with the historical text have ended up being made in very general terms, so that everyone can do their own individual comparison with their own favorite translations. The bottom line is you’ll do it only once, if that, and then you know. There is just no comparison.

The corollary to this information is our own reading experience, which also finds expression in this blog, in the sense that the more you commune with the text (in Pursah’s version), the more you get the feeling I described above, which is that while the Thomas Gospel is not a complete text of Jesus’ teachings even in the historical sense, as Pursah also addresses with Gary in his books, the more you work with it, the more consistent and coherent they seem to be, as if they were indeed repeat patterns in the embroidery of this particular tapestry. They very clearly belong together and come from the same place, and this becomes even more clear when you have the context of A Course in Miracles, and Gary’s two books, now soon to be three, or even four.

This is an always mysterious quote, which has intrigued people, and most of the time it is being horribly misinterpreted, because in our western traditions in particular, there is little tradition of introspection to give us a clue. The overly literal interpretation came about for the same reason as the Pauline tradition in Christianity, which is the dominant one, has consistently maintained (although Paul did hesitate, and at times pondered the other possibility), their interpretation of the resurrection as an event on a bodily level, which clearly was not the point. And so his “church” became a building, not to mention a real estate empire (tax exempt, no less).
It also isn’t about a table at Starbucks where we meet with friends, and somehow symbolically keep a seat free for Jesus, like the seat kep for Elijah at a Passover Seder. And going to church isn’t the answer either. Sometimes you may have a lovely experience, but you realize in the end that it’s not guaranteed by being there, regardless how many people are there, for who knows what mental state they (or you yourself) are in, and Jesus may not at all be front of mind.

Essentially the Course, and the teachings of Jesus as a whole, are about mind training, about learning to “follow him,” namely as opposed to following our own counsel. To make room for Jesus or the Holy Spirit means in essence to suspend our own judgment. It is the advice of Logion 42, “Be passersby.” And, of course, following him in that sense also means to follow him out of this world, to his Kingdom not of this world. Non-judgment is the first step on that road. So human adulthood here is not seen in the usual sense of “knowing how to judge for yourself.” The practical meaning of that is merely — to cite Jed McKenna — to be frozen in the mentality of a twelve year old. It all revolves about judgments of what is or is not good for me. Growing up in the spiritual sense only begins when we realize that our judgments are at the cause of all the troubles we have, because they set up the experiences which we call our life. To have a different experience begins then with taking different advice. This is also why Jesus in the Course often addresses us like little children, who are just doing the first feeble steps on our spiritual journey.

So again, he can give us his vision only if we defer our judgment, which is tough, because we are very addicted to it, and this again is why the Course calls itself a course in mind training. It definitely takes a lot of practice to learn new habits, but this is the essence of the “miracle,” the change of mind (NT Greek: metanoia), of which Jesus speaks. The Course says it as follows:

Our non-judgment clears the way for the miracle, for it is our judgments which are the obstacles to love’s presence.

All our meetings with our brothers will be “the same” because we meet them as spirit and in spirit, so Jesus will be in our midst. We leave our judgment home for the occasion, and the more we do so, the happier we’ll be, until we truly accept the atonement for ourselves, and our years will be “all the same,” namely happy, because we are in the real world. It is often through chance meetings, where we are not burdened by our judgments that we learn in practice how much freer we feel meeting in an “open field” without any burdens of the past, which is really our judgments. That contrast can teach us that some day we could always live that way.

For me at least Hitler has been one of my favorite ways of looking at the ego thought system, and somehow I just managed to finish the major biography in about six months. It took me about six years to read the first quarter of it, and then I suddenly read the remaining three quarters in six months. For good measure I then plunged into Richard J. Evans’ history of the Third Reich. Having grown up just after WWII, and in Rotterdam where the results were still very visible all around from the original bombardment during the German Blitzkrieg-invasion in 1940, and the town was being rebuilt still when I went to high school. I had to bicycle for about 40 minutes through the center city, where you could still always see the charred outer walls of the remaining old buildings, while the inner city was all new construction. And there were endless stories at the dinner table of how my parents and their parents survived under the occupation.

I note here that this is one thing the Thomas Gospel does not give us, the full view of the insanity of the ego thought system, although it will touch on the fact that the (ego-) world resists what Jesus has to teach. So this is also why  Pursah in Gary Renard’s The Disappearance of the Universe, makes it very clear that the Thomas sayings are just little vignettes, not the full thought system, but that A Course in Miracles clarifies the whole thought system. And the Course in turn spends a lot of time teaching us how the ego system works, and teaching us how to look at it with forgiveness, which in the end means not taking it seriously at all. So The Mouse that Roared is in the end a better analogy for the ego than anything else, it turns out to be just totally ridiculous, which we do not see as long as our denial protects it. Hence the Course consistently advocates that it is looking at the ego with Jesus (forgiveness), not with judgment, which ultimately deflates the “power” of the ego, and thus enables us to choose once again, for the thought system of the Holy Spirit, which Jesus advocates. What the Course calls the little willingness, is that willingness to consider that Jesus was right and we were wrong. Until we are willing to see that, we continue to be impressed by the ego’s antics. And we all have that little Hitler inside, for that is all the ego is, it is the one true slave driver, who keeps us in bondage, and the external oppressors we experience in the world are only the reflection of that inner choice, for if we were free inside, we would not be impressed. Jesus was the example of that, for he knew there was nothing to be defensive about, since he was no longer buying into the illusion that there is anything at all of value here.

To come back to WWII for a moment, which is full of interesting lessons of how the ego works, the German magazine, Der Spiegel, just published an excellent series of articles under the title Why Wasn’t Hitler Stopped, at this time which is the commemoration that the Polish Invasion is now 70 years ago, paying special attention to how appeasement enabled Hitler to do what he did, and how at many times in the run-up he was all bluff. The French could have easily wiped him out in the annexation of the Alsace-Lorraine, etc. It is interesting to see how with the growing distance there is more and more willingness to see the mistakes that were made on all levels. That also tells you that it will take several generations before people will get honest about the wars being fought today. What often gets too little attention are experiences of grace such as the stories of Corrie ten Boom and her sister, and also Victor Frankl‘s experiences. In the end the story is always a form of resurrection story, in which spiritual renewal is born out of the destruction. The way out lies through the fear, for the fear is maintained in power by running from it. That seems counter intuitive, but it’s always through. The answer is not bravery, or bravura, but forgiveness, that is the only thing which takes the air out of the balloon, and we have nothing to forgive but fear itself (pun intended – it was just a silly mistake).

When writing recently about my reading experiences with Ian Kershaw’s Hitler biography, I commented to someone that what stood out most to me was the complete and absurd banality of the whole thing, and the fact that quite clearly Hitler had absolutely nothing to offer, but always managed to manipulate people into all or nothing choices, in which he bamboozled them into thinking there was actually something in his empty hand, not to mention the fact that really both his hands were empty. All of this came into real focus for me in how he managed to completely manipulate the army, which had been quite an independent institution, with a certain pride and professionalism, but he managed again and again to get them on his side to an almost incredible degree, or at least not object, even while his choices at times were bereft of common sense from the professional military standpoint.

Today friend sent me this picture, which kind of says it all.