Monday, October 4, 2010

Cynthia Bourgeault: wisdom gospels


The gospels of Mary Magdalene, Thomas, and Philip all clearly belong to the wider tradition of universal wisdom, or sophia perennis, with its core notion of conscious and integral transformation. Unlike the canonical gospels, which emphasize “right belief” as the basis for salvation, these wisdom gospels emphasize “right practice.” They are transformation-minded.




Cynthia Bourgeault




Sunday, October 3, 2010

Some Richard Rohr Quotes


Faith does not need to push the river because faith is able to trust that there is a river. The river is flowing. We are in it.

The most courageous thing we will ever do is to bear humbly the mystery of our own reality.

The great discovery is always that what we are searching for has already been given! I did not find it; it found me.

If it’s authentically experienced, Christianity is the overcoming of the split from God’s side once and for all!

The people who know God well—the mystics, the hermits, those who risk everything to find God—always meet a lover, not a dictator.

Forgiveness has nothing to do with logic. It is the final breakdown of logic.

God has quietly broken through and stands perfectly revealed in the now of things.





Richard Rohr




Thomas Merton: logic of God


There is a vast difference between the logic of men and the logic of God...

There is indeed no human logic in the ways of interior prayer, only Divine paradox.




Thomas Merton




Saturday, October 2, 2010

Abhishiktananda: Jesus is the guru


Jesus is not the founder-head of a religion; that came later. Jesus is the guru who announces the mystery.




Abhishiktananda [Fr Henri le Saux]




Abhishiktananda: essential mystery


Christ is less real in his temporal history than in the essential mystery of my being.




Abhishiktananda [Fr Henri le Saux]




Abhishiktananda: a mere idol


As long as man attempts to seize and hold God in his words and concepts, he is embracing a mere idol.




Abhishiktananda [Fr Henri le Saux]




Friday, October 1, 2010

Thomas Merton: about ourselves


Our idea of God tells us more about ourselves than about Him.




Thomas Merton




Thomas Merton: our idea of God


So much depends on our idea of God! Yet no idea of Him, however pure and perfect, is adequate to express Him as He really is.




Thomas Merton




Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Cloud of Unknowing: sharp dart


You are to strike that thick cloud of unknowing with a sharp dart of longing love. —




Cloud of Unknowing (trans. Ira Progoff)




Cloud of Unknowing: I cannot think


I would therefore leave all those things of which I can think and choose for my love that thing of which I cannot think.




Cloud of Unknowing




Jean-Yves Leloup: absolutizing


The dramatic "sin" of the contemporary world is its relativizing of the absolute and its absolutizing of the relative.




Jean-Yves Leloup




Meister Eckhart: truly nothing


If you do nothing, truly nothing, God cannot help but come into you.




Meister Eckhart




Monday, September 27, 2010

Hildegard of Bingen: until we sing


There is the Music of Heaven in all things and we have forgotten how to hear it until we sing.




Hildegard of Bingen





Hildegard of Bingen: relatedness


Everything that is in the heavens, on the earth, & under the earth is penetrated with connectedness, penetrated with relatedness.




Hildegard of Bingen




Hildegard of Bingen: I am the rain

I am the rain coming from the dew / that causes the grasses to laugh with the joy of life.

I call forth tears, the aroma of holy work. / I am the yearning for good.




Hildegard of Bingen




Hildegard of Bingen: The Word

Without the Word of God no creature has meaning. / God's Word is in all creation, visible and invisible.

The Word is living, being, spirit, all verdant greening, all creativity. / This Word manifests in every creature.

Now this is how the spirit is in the flesh - the Word is indivisible from God.




Hildegard of Bingen





Friday, September 24, 2010

Gospel of Mary Magdalene: my soul sang


And my soul sang: "What has bound me has been slain. What encompassed me has been vanquished. Desire has reached its end, and...

...I am freed from Ignorance. I left one world behind with the aid of another, and now as Image I have been freed from the analog. ...

...I am liberated from the chains of forgetfulness which have existed in time. From this moment onward I go forward...

...into the fullness beyond time, & there, where time rests in the stillness of Eternity, I will repose in silence.




Gospel of Mary Magdalene; translation Bauman, Bauman, Bourgeault




Thursday, September 23, 2010

Thomas Merton: what God is


In the end the contemplative suffers the anguish of realizing that he no longer knows what God is.




Thomas Merton




Thomas Merton: only SUM


For the contemplative there is no cogito ("I think") and no ergo ("therefore") but only SUM, I AM.




Thomas Merton




Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Cynthis Bourgeault: Jesus as Tantric Master


If I were to describe the kenotic path [Jesus] laid out in its broadest generic terms, using metaphysical rather than theological language, the category that most closely fits is “tantric.” Now I know “tantra” is an immediate scare word to a lot of Christians, who think it means making a religion out of having good sex. But “tantra” in its real sense is an ancient and authentic spiritual path, based on a comprehensive metaphysical system. The symmetrical opposite of the way of the ascetic (or brahmacharya, to use the comparable generic name), it seeks the unitive state— that is the transcendence of separation and duality—through a complete self-emptying or self-outpouring.

... In the kenotic or tantric path, anything can come toward you, and you can embrace it fully; you preserve your chastity simply by not clinging. In the free flow of this coming and going (which as we saw in the last chapter belongs to the perichoresis, or “dance around,” of divine love) you dwell in safety.




Cynthis Bourgeault in ‘Wisdom Jesus’




Cynthis Bourgeault: The Trinity


The Trinity understood in a wisdom sense:

The Cappadocian fathers, however, were not looking at individual persons, but at the flow of energy between the persons. In fact, the word we translate as “person” (hypostasis in Greek) does not mean an individual at all, but more a state of being—just as water can manifest as ice, liquid, or vapor, but remains the same chemical compound throughout. The Cappadocians were interested in how this movement, or change of state, takes place. They saw it as an outpouring of love, from Father to Son, from Son to Spirit, from Spirit back to father...

The Trinity, understood in a wisdom sense, is really an icon of self-emptying love. The three persons go round and round like buckets on a watermill, constantly overspilling into one another. And as they do so, the mill turns and the energy of love becomes manifest and accessible. The Cappadocians called this complete intercirculation of love perichoresis, which literally means “the dance around.” … God reveals his own innermost nature through a continuous round dance of self-emptying. On the great watermill of the Trinity, the statement ‘God is love’ brings itself into reality





Cynthis Bourgeault in ‘Wisdom Jesus’




Cynthia Bourgeault: with a dual mind


The catch-22 for most Christians is that we're trying to do a nondual teaching with a dual mind.




Cynthia Bourgeault




Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Cynthis Bourgeault: koans


[Jesus's] parables are much closer to what in the Zen tradition would be koans... that are intended to turn the egoic mind upside down.




Cynthis Bourgeault




Cynthia Bourgeault: nondual consciousness


The Kingdom of Heaven is Jesus's own favorite way of describing a state we would nowadays call a “nondual consciousness”




Cynthia Bourgeault




Cynthis Bourgeault: Kingdom of Heaven


The Kingdom of Heaven is really a metaphor for a state of consciousness; it is not a place you go to, but a place you come from.




Cynthis Bourgeault




Monday, September 20, 2010

Jean-Yves Leloup : Miriam


Yeshua loved John or Miriam not more than he loved Peter or Judas, but differently. He loved them all with a universal and unconditional love, but he also loved each of them in a unique and particular fashion. Human love can still function while being subsumed in a divine love that includes all beings, even our enemies. It was this love that he proposed to all who would walk with him. Human love consists of preferences, affinities, particular resonances, and intimacies that are not possible with all.

When Miriam realized this divine Love, she was no longer a woman who could be possessed, either by man or by demon. She became the faithful, blessedly happy friend of the one who had delivered her. Henceforth she could not be “had,” not even by death itself, for her lover remained faithful to the great life that spoke through him. This new desire of hers was one that he would never betray.

This is how it is with those who give themselves to love. How can they think of anything better, how can they have any concern other than loving even more, giving themselves with no expectation of return?

"When you make the two into One,
when you make the inner like the outer and
the high like the low; when you
make male and female into single One,
so that the male is not male and the female is not female;
when you have eyes in your eyes, a hand in your hand,
a foot in your foot, and an icon in your icon,
then you will enter into the Kingdom."




from 'The Sacred Embrace of Jesus and Mary: The Sexual Mystery at the Heart of the Christian Tradition'

By Jean-Yves Leloup




J-Y LeLoup: the Annunciator


[Yeshua] was the Annunciator, Witness, & some... say the Incarnation of the possible reign of the Spirit in the heart of this space-time

the manifestation of the Infinite in the very heart of our finitude, the voice of the Other within the speech of human-ness.




J-Y LeLoup




Gospel Mary: rules


Do not lay down any rules beyond what I appointed for you, & do not give a law like the lawgiver lest you be constrained by it.




Gospel Mary




G.K. Chesterton: Christianity


Christianity isn't a failure; it just hasn't been tried yet.



G.K. Chesterton




Abhishiktananda: no matter

There is no matter which doesn't shout aloud the presence of the spirit.


Abhishiktananda [Fr Henri le Saux]




Sunday, September 19, 2010

Thomas Merton: one awareness


The life of contemplation implies two levels of awareness: first, awareness of the question, and second, awareness of the answer.

Though these are two distinct and enormously different levels, yet they are in fact an awareness of the same thing.

The question is, itself, the answer. & we ourselves are both. But we cannot know this until we have moved into the 2nd kind of awareness.

We awaken, not to find an answer absolutely distinct from the question, but to realize that the question is its own answer.

And all is summed up in one awareness—not a proposition, but an experience: "I AM."




Thomas Merton




Thursday, September 16, 2010

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Abhishiktananda: God


God is everywhere, God alone is both hidden and unveiled in his manifestation.




Abhishiktananda [Fr Henri le Saux]




Abhishiktananda: face


Jesus is God's face turned towards man and man's face turned towards God.




Abhishiktananda [Fr Henri le Saux]




Abhishiktananda: form

God has no form. God is beyond every form. Precisely for that reason God can reveal and manifest himself under any form.



Abhishiktananda




Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Thomas Merton: an impostor


We must become conscious of the fact that the person who we think we are, here and now, is at best an impostor and a stranger.




Thomas Merton





Nicholas of Cusa: beyond nothing


God is beyond nothing and beyond something, for nothing obeys God in order that something may come into being.




Nicholas of Cusa




Abhishiktananda: no other to name it


In this annihilating experience one is no longer able to project in front of oneself anything whatsoever, to recognize any other “pole” to which to refer oneself and to give the name of God. Once one has reached that innermost center, one is so forcibly seized by the mystery that one can no longer utter a “Thou” or an “I.” Engulfed in the abyss, we disappear to our own eyes, to our own consciousness. The proximity of that mystery which the prophetic traditions name “God” burns us so completely that there is no longer any question of discovering it in the depths of oneself or oneself in the depths of it. In the very engulfing, the gulf has vanished. If a cry was still possible— at the moment perhaps of disappearing into the abyss—it would be paradoxically: “but there is no abyss, no gulf, no distance!” There is no face-to-face, for there is only That-Which-Is, and no other to name it.




Abhishiktananda [Fr Henri le Saux]




Bede Griffiths: God in everything


God had brought me to my knees and made me acknowledge my own nothingness, and out of that knowledge I had been reborn.

I was no longer the centre of my life and therefore I could see God in everything. -




Bede Griffiths




Gospel of Thomas: divider


I'm not a divider, am I?




Gospel of Thomas




Monday, September 13, 2010

Abhishiktananda: I and a Thou


Whoever still utters an I and a Thou which set him apart from his brothers has not yet left this world nor himself,

nor has he passed to the level of the Real.




-Swami Abhishiktananda [Fr Henri le Saux]




Abhishiktananda: OM


OM the mystery of the Spirit. But ultimately there is no name for the Father, for the Father can never be known in himself.

He is known only through his self-manifestation in the Son and in the Holy Spirit.

The Father is that last or fourth part of the OM, which is pure Silence.




Abhishiktananda




Meister Eckhart: and evil praise God


Everything praises God. Darkness, privations, defects, and evil praise God and bless God.




Meister Eckhart




Sunday, September 12, 2010

Meister Eckhart: God be God


God expects but 1 thing of you, & that is that you should come out of yourself in so far as you are a created being & let God be God in you.




Meister Eckhart

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Gospel of Thomas: person of light


There is light within a person of light, and it shines on the whole world.




Gospel of Thomas




Friday, September 10, 2010

Matthew Fox: Divine womb


I see the universe as a Divine womb and we're all swimming around in this soup.




Matthew Fox




Hildegard of Bingen: all reality


I, the highest and fiery power, have kindled every spark of life, and I emit nothing that is deadly. I decide on all reality.




Hildegard of Bingen




Cloud of Unknowing: in this nothing


And therefore work in this nothing, and this nowhere,

Leave your outward thoughts and all that they work in for I tell you truly, that this work may not be conceived by them.




Cloud of Unknowing




Thursday, September 9, 2010

Meister Eckhart: gums


Be silent and quit flapping your gums about God.




Meister Eckhart




Sayings from the Desert Fathers: what else


Abba Lot went to see Abba Joseph & sd: "Abba, as much as I am able I practice a small rule, a little fasting, some prayer & meditation (...)

(...) and remain quiet, and as much as possible I keep my thought clean. What else should I do?" (...)

(...) Then the old man stood up and stretched out his hands toward heaven, and his fingers became like ten torches of flame. (...)

(...) And he said: "If you wish, you can become all flame.”




–Desert Wisdom: Sayings from the Desert Fathers




Gospel of Thomas: upon the earth


The Father's kingdom is spread out upon the earth, and people don't see it.




Gospel of Thomas




Julian of Norwich: Immediately


Immediately is the soul made at one with God when it is truly set at peace in itself.




Julian of Norwich




Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Meister Eckhart: everything that is


Relation is the essence of everthing that is.




Meister Eckhart




Mechthild of Magdeburg: my lover


Lord, you are my lover, / My longing, / My flowing stream, / My sun, / And I am your reflection.




Mechthild of Magdeburg




The Cloud of Unknowing: of God


but of God Himself can no man think.




The Cloud of Unknowing




Hildegard of Bingen: divine wisdom


I, the fiery life of divine wisdom, I ignite the beauty of the plains, I sparkle the waters, I burn in the sun, and the moon, and the stars.




Hildegard of Bingen




The Gospel of Truth: unity


In time unity will make the spaces complete. By means of unity each one will understand itself.




The Gospel of Truth




Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Meister Eckhart: mothers of God


We are all meant to be mothers of God, for God is always needing to be born.




Meister Eckhart




Julian of Norwich: no doer


As well as the best and highest deed that is done, so well is the least deed done,... for there is no doer but He.




Julian of Norwich




Meister Eckhart: Isness


Isness is God.




Meister Eckhart




The Gospel of Truth: completeness


For where there is envy and strife, there is an incompleteness; but where there is unity, there is completeness.




The Gospel of Truth




Monday, September 6, 2010

Thomas Merton on Julian of Norwich


The theology of Lady Julian [of Norwich] is a theology of the all- embracing totality and fullness of the divine love. This is, for her, the ultimate Reality, in the light of which all created being and all the vicissitudes of life and of history fade into unimportance. Not that the world and time, the cosmos and history are unreal: but their reality is only a revelation of love.




Thomas Merton




Julian of Norwich: no between


Between God and the soul there is no between.




Julian of Norwich




Hildegard of Bingen: who you are


O, human, you do not even know who you are.




Hildegard of Bingen




Gospel of Thomas: personal deficiency


If one who knows the all still feels a personal deficiency, he is completely deficient.




Gospel of Thomas




Sunday, September 5, 2010

Julian of Norwich: mid-point


God is in the mid-point of everything.




Julian of Norwich




Book of Thomas the Contender: the truth


Blessed is the wise man who sought after the truth, and when he found it, he rested upon it forever




Book of Thomas the Contender




Meister Eckhart: dare to re-enter


Only those that have dared to let go can dare to re-enter




Meister Eckhart




Gospel of Thomas: the keystone


Show me the stone that the builders rejected: that is the keystone.




Gospel of Thomas




Saturday, September 4, 2010

Nicholas of Cusa: Divine Mind


The absolute, Divine Mind, is all that is in everything that is




Nicholas of Cusa




Meister Eckhart: express God


All creatures are gladly doing the best they can to express God




Meister Eckhart




Julian of Norwich: amiss?


I lead everything toward the purpose for which I ordained it, without beginning... How could anything be amiss?





Julian of Norwich




Julian of Norwich: See!


See! I am God. See! I am in everything. See! I never lift my hands from my works, nor will I ever. See!




Julian of Norwich




Gospel of Thomas: if one is divided


If one is whole, one will be filled with light, but if one is divided, one will be filled with darkness.





-Gospel of Thomas




Friday, September 3, 2010

Meister Eckhart: in this present now


I have often said God is creating this entire world full and entire in this present now.




Meister Eckhart




The Gospel of Truth: you are this understanding

Raise up and awaken those who sleep. For you are this understanding which encourages.



The Gospel of Truth




The Gospel of Truth: without knowing him

It was a great wonder that they were in the Father without knowing him.



The Gospel of Truth




Julian of Norwich: This I am. This I am.


This I am. This I am. I am what you love. I am what you enjoy. I am what you serve.

I am what you long for. I am what you desire. I am what you intend.
I am all that is.




-Julian of Norwich




Thursday, September 2, 2010

Gospel of Thomas: I am all

I am all: from me all came forth, and to me all attained. Split a piece of wood; I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there.




Gospel of Thomas trans. Patterson and Meyer




The Book of Thomas: the wheel that turns

Woe to you because of the wheel that turns in your minds!



The Book of Thomas




Mechtild of Magdeburg: my spiritual awakening

The day of my spiritual awakening was the day I saw and knew I saw all things in God and God in all things.



Mechtild of Magdeburg




the fire, the fire inside!


There in the lucky dark, / none to observe me, darkness far and wide; / no sign for me to mark, / (...)

(...) no other light, no guide / except for my heart – the fire, the fire inside!




John of the Cross




John of the Cross: although it is night


1. That eternal spring is hidden, / for I know well where it has its rise, / although it is night.

2. I do not know its origin, nor has it one, / but I know that every origin has come from it, / although it is night.

3. I know that nothing else is so beautiful, / and that the heavens and the earth drink there, / although it is night.

4. I know well that it is bottomless / and no one is able to cross it, / although it is night.

5. Its clarity is never darkened, / and I know that every light has come from it, / although it is night.

6. I know that its streams are so brimming / they water the lands of hell, the heavens, and earth, / although it is night.

7. I know well the stream that flows from this spring / is mighty in compass and power, / although it is night.

8. I know the stream proceeding from these two, / that neither of them in fact precedes it, / although it is night.

9. This eternal spring is hidden / in this living bread for our life's sake, / although it is night.

10. It is here calling out to creatures; / and they satisfy their thirst, although in darkness, / because it is night.

11. This living spring that I long for, / I see in this bread of life, / although it is night.




-John of the Cross : "Song of the soul that rejoices in knowing God by faith"




Wednesday, September 1, 2010

precisely there - Meister Eckhart


Everything is full and pure at its source and precisely there, not outside.




-Meister Eckhart




from The Gospel of the Egyptians


This great name of yours is upon me, O self-begotten Perfect one, who is not outside me. I see you, O you who are visible to everyone.

Now that I have known you, I have mixed myself with the immutable. I have armed myself with an armor of light; I have become light!




The Gospel of the Egyptians trans. Bohlig and Wisse




am truly in you

I who am Divine am truly in you. / I can never be sundered from you: /

However far we be parted, never can we be separated. / I am in you and you are in Me.



-Mechtild of Magdeburg



Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Ancient of Days

I who am the Ancient of Days, do declare that I am the day by myself alone.

I am the day that does not shine by the sun; rather by me the sun is ignited...

I have created mirrors in which I consider all the wonders of my originality which will never cease.

I have prepared for myself these mirror forms so that they may resonate in a song of praise.

For I have a voice like the thunderbolt by which I keep in motion the entire universe in the living sounds of all creation.

This I have done, I who am the Ancient of Days.



Hildegard of Bingen



Purity

Be not afraid. / I am with you (plural) always. / I am the Father / The Mother / The Son / I am the incorruptible / Purity.



The Apocryphon of John trans. Wisse



indissoluble, eternal

Light and Darkness, life and death, right and left, are brothers of one another. They are inseparable.

Because of this neither are the good good, nor evil evil, nor is life life, nor death death.

For this reason each one will dissolve into its earliest origin. But those who are exalted above the world are indissoluble, eternal.



The Gospel of Philip trans. Isenberg



bear fruit

I, God, press through your branches into the sap and bear fruit on your boughs.


Jacob Boehme



Monday, August 30, 2010

in silent love

Heaven is nothing other than a revelation of the Eternal One, where everything works and wills in silent love.

-Jacob Boehme


error

do not take error too seriously.



The Gospel of Truth trans. Grant




into being

All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing that exists came into being.


John 1:3 WEY


Friday, August 27, 2010

The Two Teachings of Paul

In their [the Valentinian] view, the apparent contradictions in Paul's writings arise from his awareness of the differences of spiritual insight (gnosis) among different members of the Christian community. To the psychics who "cannot understand the things of the spirit," Paul preaches the kerygma of Christ crucified, of repentance and forgiveness of sins, urging them to persevere in faith and good works. Recognizing that psychics can read his letters only "literally," he offers on the literal level moral counsel that is valid and beneficial for their needs. Yet to the pneumatics, the "wise," he addresses his deeper meaning ,a meaning hidden in his writings in allegory, to be discerned only by "the initiated." Paul reveals to them in veiled language the "hidden mystery of wisdom," of Sophia, which signifies their own election through grace. Yet even while he praises their authority, freedom, and gnosis, Paul simultaneously urges them to forego all of these, as he has, for the sake of bringing salvation to the psychics. The elect and the called are bound together in this age so that the latter too may participate in the resurrection that will restore "all" to the Father.



from "The Mystery of the Resurrection": A Gnostic Reading of 1 Corinthians 15 by Elaine Pagels in Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 93, No. 2 (Jun., 1974) p.287


Fruit borne from the deep

Harvest

All things hanging in spirit I see,

All things carried in spirit I know;

flesh from soul hanging,

soul from air proceeding,

air from ether hanging.

Fruit borne from the deep,

Child borne from the womb.



Valentinus from Hippolytus of Rome, Against Heresies 6.37.7-8; translated by Andrew McGowan in 'Valentinus Poeta' Vigiliae Christianae, 51:2, p.159.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

among the greatest tragedies

Valentinus, the Gnostic who almost became pope, was..the only man who could have succeeded in gaining..permanent positive recognition (...)

(..)for the Gnostic approach to the message of Christ. [That] circumstances & the increasing floodtide of a regressive pseudo-orthodoxy(..)

(...) caused his efforts to fail must be reckoned among the greatest tragedies of the history of Christianity.



Stephan A. Hoeller


exist in and with

All nature, all formations, all creatures exist in and with one another, and they will be resolved again into their own roots.

The Gospel According to Mary Magdalene 4:22


read this moment

You read the face of the sky & ...earth, but you have not recognized the one who is before you, and you do not know how to read this moment.


The Gospel of Thomas 91 trans. Lambdin


earnest about the word

Become earnest about the word! For as to the word, its first part is faith; the second, love; the third, works; for from these comes life.

The Apocryphon of James translated by Francis E. Williams


one eye

The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me

my eye and God's eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.


Meister Eckhart; trans. Stephen Mitchell


Wednesday, August 25, 2010

dissolved in Gnosis

Perfect redemption is the cognition itself of the ineffable greatness: for since through ignorance came about the defect

the whole system springing from ignorance is dissolved in Gnosis.




Valentinus




in light that light

It is in light that light exists.



The Book of Thomas the Contender trans. Turner



is he who is

Blessed is he who is before he came into being. For he who is, has been and shall be.



Gospel of Phillip translated by Isenberg



Be ye whole

Be ye whole, even as your Father in Heaven is whole.



Matthew 5:48 trans. Eckhart Tolle


transform your mind

Acquire a new kind of consciousness, transform your mind and the kingdom of heaven is within your grasp. Right here and right now.



Matthew 4:17 trans. Bishop Thomas


this matter of Christianity

Is it not time, to present this matter of Christianity exactly as it is,

to take away all false reverence for Jesus, and not mistake the stream for the source.




Ralph Waldo Emerson


Tuesday, August 24, 2010

a poor man is

But taking poverty in a higher sense, we say better still, a poor man is one who wills nothing, knows nothing, has nothing.



Meister Eckhart


a house divided

Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall.



Luke 11:17 NIV


the kingdom is

If those who lead you say to you: ‘Look, the kingdom is in the sky!’ then the birds of the sky will precede you.

If they say to you: ‘It is in the sea,’ then the fishes will precede you.

Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and outside of you.




The Gospel of Thomas: 3 trans. Lambdin



utter helplessness

Blessed is the one who has realized his or her own utter helplessness and who has put their whole trust in God.



Matthew 5:3 trans. William Barclay


in front of your face

Know what is in front of your face, and what is hidden from you will be disclosed to you.



The Gospel of Thomas: 5 trans. Patterson and Meyer

Monday, August 23, 2010

out for a walk

God is at home, it's we who have gone out for a walk.



Meister Eckhart


I am

Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.



The Gospel of John 8:58 KJV


that path

He enlightened them and gave them a path. And that path is the truth which he taught them.



The Gospel of Truth trans. by Grant


he enlightened those

Through him he enlightened those who were in darkness because of forgetfulness.

The Gospel of Truth trans. by Grant

the light shineth

And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

The Gospel of John 1:5 KJV

Saturday, August 21, 2010

a single one

The Father is a single one, like a number, for he is the first one and the one who is only himself.

The Tripartite Tractate: 2 translated by Attridge and Mueller

before anything

He existed before anything other than himself came into being.

The Tripartite Tractate: 2 translated by Attridge and Mueller

Friday, August 20, 2010

passersby

Be passersby



Gospel of Thomas: 42 trans. by Patterson and Meyer


forgetfulness existed

Since forgetfulness existed b/c.. dont know the Father, if.. then come 2 know the Father, from that moment on forgetfulness.. cease 2 exist.



Valentinus in The Gospel of Truth translated by Robert M. Grant


completely beautiful

For they were as nothing, this terror and this forgetfulness and this figure of falsehood...


...whereas this established truth is unchanging, unperturbed and completely beautiful.




Valentinus in The Gospel of Truth translated by Robert M. Grant


terror and fear

This ignorance of the Father brought about terror and fear. And terror became dense like a fog, that no one was able to see.



Valentinus in The Gospel of Truth translated by Robert M. Grant


inconceivable one

You see, the All had been inside of him, that illimitable, inconceivable one, who is better than every thought.



Valentinus in The Gospel of Truth translated by Robert M. Grant


Do not judge

Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.




The Gospel of John 7:24 ESV



a true teacher

But the man who wants to bring glory to the one who sent him is a true teacher and doesn't have dishonest motives.




The Gospel of John 7:18 GWT



their own glory

Those who speak their own thoughts are looking for their own glory.




The Gospel of John 7:18 GWT



what I teach

Those who want to follow the will of God will know if what I teach is from God or if I teach my own thoughts.




The Gospel of John 7:17 GWT



the one who sent me

My teaching is not mine but comes from the one who sent me.




The Gospel of John 7:16 ISV



the door will be opened

Ask, and you will receive. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened for you.



The Gospel of Matthew 7:7 GWT


Thursday, August 19, 2010

that depends

Woe to the flesh that depends on the soul; woe to the soul that depends on the flesh.



The Gospel of Thomas: 112 translated by Thomas O. Lambdin


your eye is single

The light of the body is the eye: therefore when your eye is single, your whole body also is full of light.



The Gospel of Luke 11:34 AKJ


Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Alpha and Omega

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending,... which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.



Revelations 1:8 KJV


Tuesday, August 17, 2010

does His works

The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father abiding in me does His works.



The Gospel of John 14:10 NAS


in the Father

Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?



The Gospel of John 14:10 NAS


into being

Congratulations to the one who came into being before coming into being.



The Gospel of Thomas: 19 translated by Stephen Patterson and Marvin Meyer


Monday, August 16, 2010

the seed sprouts and grows

A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.



The Gospel of Mark: 4:26-27 NIV


make the two into one

When you make the two into one, you will become children of Adam, and when you say, 'Mountain, move from here!' it will move.



The Gospel of Thomas: 106 translated by Stephen Patterson and Marvin Meyer


what no ear has heard

I will give you what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, what no hand has touched, what has not arisen in the human heart.



The Gospel of Thomas: 17 translated by Stephen Patterson and Marvin Meyer