Wednesday, July 24, 2019
2 a.m. Let’s see what we can make of Saying 106.
- Jesus said: When you make the two into one, you will be called sons of men. When you say, “Move, mountain!” it will move.
When I read this a few years ago, I took it to mean, when you bring 3D and non-3D into perfect congruence, you will be “sons of men” – descendants perhaps of humans as they are now? In other words, the next step in human development? And when you have reached that point you will have power that we would call superhuman. However, perhaps this isn’t right. Guys?
The basic idea is right. Jesus, in leading his disciples in a certain direction, has an aim, and of course the aim is not to leave them merely as he found them. He himself repeatedly said he was there that they might learn how to have life more abundantly. The saying doesn’t necessarily retain the “learn to” but how else were they to change? Learning however is not accomplished solely by study or even imitation. Learning may be by osmosis, one might say. Being in his presence, seeing how he lived, learning how he thought and reacted and acted, they changed and, in time, helped others to change by their own presence and example and teaching.
Bear this saying in mind, the turning two into one, for it will lead to other connections.
Making mountains move must be either poetic license, or a description of abilities to change reality-streams, so that the mountain really does appear to move, because you have relocated to another reality in which the mountain is where you want it.
No, it is possible – is easy, in fact – to mislead yourself by being too clever. There is no need to convince yourself that a saying may be understood literally if it is in fact meant metaphorically. Enough to realize that, as stated, it implies control over “inanimate” matter.
Okay. I know that miraculous things do happen, and I try to guess the hidden laws they demonstrate.
Nothing wrong with that effort. But it isn’t always possible and isn’t always necessary. A generalized “control over inanimate matter” suffices.
- Jesus said: The Kingdom is like a shepherd with one hundred sheep. One of those sheep, the largest, wandered off. He left the ninety-nine others behind and went looking for the other one until he found it. Having exhausted himself, he said to the sheep, “I love you more than the other ninety-nine.”
This is phrased a bit differently than the version Christians are familiar with from the synoptic gospels. This version has the straying sheep be the largest, and has the shepherd say he loved it more than the others, and mentions that the shepherd exhausted himself in the search. I have no doubt that these are significant differences, and I wonder why the changes. Did Jesus tell it both ways? If not, did the commonly known version strip these details from the story, and if so, why?
All valid questions.
The sheep being largest reminds me of the pearl of great price, for which someone would sell everything else.
Yes, good. And of course the shepherd would love it more than the others. Does the “straying” factor occur to you?
With the help of my friends, no doubt, yes. The straying sheep is as close to being an outlier as a sheep can be, and as an outlier it was both trouble and valuable, in and of itself, because of its self-directed separation from the rest.
Also notice that the shepherd exhausted himself: What costs us effort endears itself to us, like helpless infants to their parents.
- Jesus said: He who drinks from my mouth will become like I am, and I will become he. And the hidden things will be revealed to him.
A little more difficult. A difficult image, for one thing.
Jesus was on record as saying that what came out of a man’s mouth characterized him. It isn’t thought of in that way, because the emphasis seemed to be that it is not ritual but essence that defined one, but that was the point: Not what one ate but what one said defiled – or didn’t. Here is the converse: What comes out of his mouth is life, not defilement, and anyone capable of absorbing it would absorb life.
It’s still a very difficult image.
Well, get over it as best you can. You understand the sense of it; deal with the awkward image and ask why that image.
I suppose because it implies an automatic process, in a way. If one drinks from his mouth one doesn’t merely listen, doesn’t merely imbibe concepts or ideas, doesn’t merely get inspired by example. It’s closer to “eat my flesh and drink my blood.”
Yes. Keep going, even though it seems tenuous, almost distasteful.
Nice pun. Well, it’s so intimate an image. Lovers might share mouthfuls. Who else would?
A clue, perhaps?
I can see it that way, I suppose. One needs to identify with Jesus that closely – as closely as a lover – to absorb his essence?
Could there be a physical component to identifying with Jesus while you are still living in the 3D world?
I take it that is a rhetorical question.
It is, but try to answer it.
I suppose you mean, it isn’t enough to assent intellectually, we must be changed entirely.
Isn’t that what it says? “Will become like I am, and I will become he”? That doesn’t sound much like, “Learn to think like me,” or “Learn to approve what I say and do.”
No, I agree. It means, if you are thoroughly changed, other things will follow.
And “thoroughly changed” does not mean “thinking about it,” or “half-heartedly agreeing.”
So that is what Jesus meant about spewing us out of his mouth if we are neither hot nor cold but lukewarm!
Nothing is to be gained by thinking about changing. You lose what you had and you acquire nothing new. If you reread the gospels remembering only one thing, remember that it is about life more abundant.
- Jesus said: The Kingdom is like a man with a treasure of which he is unaware hidden in his field. He died and left the field to his son. His son knew nothing about it and, having received the field, sold it. The new owner came and, while plowing, found the treasure. He began to lend money at interest to anybody he wished.
And so you see, this saying follows immediately the one saying how to gain the kingdom. If you find the kingdom – no matter how you find it, no matter who might be thought to have had better claim to it, which in context means, who might seem to have had a better chance to find it were it not for a lack of consciousness of the opportunity – if you find the kingdom you will have plenty, and, as you noted in reading it originally, you will have the means for it to increase on its own, without further effort of yours.
And there’s our hour. Very interesting as always. Our thanks, also as always. As you know, I’m starting to think about putting our sessions into book form, but I don’t know if the text translation is copyright.
One step at a time. You have freely received; freely give.
I thought that’s what I have been doing.
Then worry not, but proceed as you are so moved. It may be that what we have done is enough in itself and in this form.
Well, I guess we’ll see. Again, our thanks.
Th owner who plowed the field – cultivated it, with his own effort, found the treasure.
What costs us: interesting to chew on. Materialism was not a problem when there was very little stuff. Now we’re being imprisoned by it. We do not love it enough to take care of it. So it becomes a millstone around the neck.
Interesting, chewy things to mull on, as always. Thank you!
Kristiina, well said!👍🏻
As we get closer to the end of the sayings, I can’t help but begin a countdown in my head and look back on my notes for these 109 sayings. It’s been quite a ride–at times feeling slow or fast, seeming more or less profound, more or less elusive, more or less life or essence changing. I think I went into it a bit reluctantly when you started on May 11, but the first one got to me: “Whoever finds the correct interpretation of these sayings will never die.” And I felt the truth of the second one: “The seeker should not stop until he finds. When he does find, he will be disturbed. After having been disturbed, he will be astonished. Then he will reign over everything.” My notes say, “astonishment signals getting it and liking it.” Reigning over everything means having open and aware sovereignty over ourselves–long a goal of mine.
Frank called the sayings “both spark and scaffolding,” and that’s how I’ve come to see them, too. His guidance said the process of examining the sayings “will produce a new you, with expanded capabilities…and new responsibilities. That’s also description, also promise.”