Thomas, Saying 12

5:15 a.m. Saying 12

His disciples said to Jesus: We know you will leave us. Who will be our leader then? Jesus responded, Wherever you are, turn to Jacob (James) the Just, for whose sake the sky and the earth came into being.

You can see why people would be tempted sometimes to dismiss this gospel as inscrutable. What can it mean? It is surely not as simple as it appears. Guys?

No, not as simple as appears. List the aspects that puzzle you.

Beyond the question of why what seems a simple question asked at the time should be carefully preserved in this bit of esoterica, “wherever you are,” and “for whose sake the sky and the earth came into being,” not to mention who was James the Just. But mostly, why this at all?

What was the burden of the previous saying?

Oh yes, forgot. Let’s see. If I can summarize Saying 11, it is that we move in and out of 3D in successive stages, that we can attain a certain awareness that is permanent and changes the nature of our life from that point. That’s a pretty horseback summary, though.

Enough to serve. So, 12 in the context of 11, and, again, in context of Jesus’ ongoing mission to clarify?

All I get is that James must be one who has awakened and can be counted on, and –perhaps – as such, as an enlightened aware person, is a product of the 3D compressed-learning experience. But that feels like stretching it.

That’s what you said before. Perhaps it is stretching you.

Meaning, that’s as much as we can glean from that saying?

Meaning, anyway, that in reaching for the explanation, the possible but not certain explanation, you came to a conclusion you never would have come to, previously.

There remains the question of why “wherever you are,” but I suppose it might mean they could establish an interior connection.

Your reasoning?

“Wherever you are” would surely be unnecessary if it referred to the group being together. If that were the simple meaning, it could as well be phrased, “whenever you need guidance,” or the equivalent. That is, “wherever you are” would be taken for granted if it meant “in whatever place or even in whatever circumstance you find yourselves.” I can’t see it being placed there unless it referred to their being separated in the future and yet still following the guidance of a group leader. Is this too far-fetched? It implies telepathy.

It implies telepathy if you take telepathy to mean connection regardless of 3D distance, not if you mean sending and receiving thought or feeling across distance.

Again, this is preserved out of an orally transmitted teaching. Again, it is meant as a spark, a reminder, a topic chapter-head, not as a self-evident bit of exposition for one and all.

Yes. Important to remember that context. It has changed how I am approaching this one. I suppose it is less so for the narrative gospels.

You must remember, there are gradations in everything. Every circle has a more innermost circle, which itself has a more innermost circle, till you come to the one, in this case Jesus, or, after he leaves, James the Just. This is the esoteric reality from which came the idea of primacy, but the difference between Jesus naming James the Just, and medieval Cardinals choosing a Pope, is the difference between a tribal proceeding in which the qualities of one another are universally known, and the election of one from among a multitude who live separately and at a distance, and so may not know one another’s qualities or quality at all well. Once you have passed beyond tribal numbers, you truly need divine inspiration to choose right, and once you have passed beyond tribal numbers, other political factors are likely to enter in, unless you take great care to eliminate them.

But presumably the Gospel of Thomas wasn’t recorded with an eye on commentary on the guidance of a church that would not even come into existence for decades, if not centuries.

It wasn’t recorded with an eye on guidance of an organization at all. The gospels record the sayings of Jesus as he attempted to orient people to their true value and potential. This one specifically remembers and records for the purpose of being used, not merely as reminiscence, for the purpose of orienting the individuals who would have it read to them (or, in later times after the invention of the printing press, would be able to read for themselves) for the purpose of guiding their own transformation by opening their eyes. Any other use is supplementary, almost incidental, and even sometimes misleading.

So, the burden of the saying is what, that a leader is always among us, that we can have direct connection to that leader? Is that what was implied?

Don’t, in reading and thinking about these things, allow your thoughts to get lost in the clouds. Remember to consider them in light of your own lives. Is that your experience?

My experience is that I rarely think to listen to guidance in moments of action, and often wish I had, only the passions of the moment get in the way.

Yes, you lose sight of yourself, in a way.

Yet we don’t want to be asking guidance, “Should I have eggs or pancakes for breakfast?” Though, come to think of it, I know at least one person who in effect does.

The nearer your connection between conscious 3D presence and your non-3D components, the easier your life, regardless of “external” difficulties. That is, your life may be difficult or dangerous or disrupted or any of a number of things you might wish it were not, but this is no indicator of the strength or constancy or absence of your connection to your non-3D. With greater ability come greater challenges, as we have reminded you more than once. An easy life is not a sign of inner grace, any more than is a fat bank account or perfect health or shiny white teeth. The Calvinists were quite mistaken in thinking external prosperity a sign of anything but external prosperity.

Have we wandered from the saying we were to address?

That question could be read two ways. No, we haven’t wandered, but it is quite possible that you, or any of your fellow adventurers, may have. That is, the gist is here, but it requires recognition, else it might as well not be here. Who has ears, let him hear. That’s why Jesus was always saying that.

“Stop, look, and listen,” as the railroad crossing signs used to say.

Precisely.

It occurs to me, does this saying not imply an inner touchstone for us?

It does. Find your pole star and you are not lost. The hard part is finding the pole star.

I’d have said the hard part is following the pole star (that is, using it to stay to a given course without getting confused) rather than it being finding it in the first place. Our lives have so many inner cross-currents.

Yes they do, and they are subject to the effects of the vast impersonal forces that blow through your lives, and the vast personal forces, too. Nobody is claiming that 3D life is simple, any more than that it is easy. But it is worthwhile, for the individual and for the greater individual of which any given individual is a part.

And that is enough for the moment.

Our thanks as always. Strange session, this.

Your participation changes in nature as you go along. nothing to be concerned over; part of the process.

If you say so. Okay, till next time.