TGU and Thomas, Sayings 79. 80, 81

Saying 79

79 a. A woman in the crowd said to him: Blessed are the womb that bore you and the breasts that nourished you. He replied: Blessed are those who have listened to the word of the Father and really done it.

79 b. For the days are coming when you will say “Blessed are the womb that has never conceived and the breasts that have never given milk.

And what do you make of this paired saying, in light of 78 that preceded it?

Well – without putting it into the context of 78, I should have said it was Jesus saying, “It isn’t what people have done externally that counts, but what they do internally.” Or, that’s not quite the way to put it. It’s more like Jesus saying, external circumstances may change your idea about the world you live in, so that now you feel blessed and now you feel cursed, but that following the will of your non-3D component, as best you can discern it, is the better course. Or is that too strained?

Not strained at all. What is Jesus always aiming at, but to give people the word that will help them live more surely, more abundantly?

Well, it does seem to me that this makes sense of the sayings. But I am wary of forcing a meaning, forcing them to “make sense” when I am really only forcing an interpretation that will cohere with where I am already.

That is always a potential pitfall. Well to be wary of it. We have time to look at saying 80, and well to look at it in context of 78 and 79.

 

Saying 80

Jesus said: Whoever has come to know the world has found the body. Whoever has found that body, the world is not worthy of him.

“The body.” So what body is it that we find when we know the world?

Taking “the world” to be –?

I would assume the 3D world.

Assume again.

The entirety of creation, manifest and otherwise? The 3D as it shades into the non-3D?

Is that all?

All right, all of that, specifically and consciously including our part in it.

You are of the world and in the world. The world is part of you and you are part of it. This is not a matter of relative size, nor of appearances. You cannot know the world if you do not take into account your place in it. You cannot know yourself in the absence of the world in context.

And if we come to know the world?

Then you are complete, and, as is said, the world is not worthy of you.

But what sense does that make? How can the entirety of things be unworthy of anyone?

Only if that one has transcended the level at which he understood the world. Or, not “understood,” but “came to know,” which is not the same thing.

Again, “the body,” though. What does it mean to find “the body”?

Now that is a question that will repay thought and, mostly, indwelling. Enough for the moment.

Really? You’re going to leave us there?

Yes. Ponder the question, it will be good for you.

 

Saying 81

Jesus said: Whoever has become rich should rule. Whoever has power should renounce it.

We move continually nearer to “Don’t have a clue” as we get into the higher-numbered sayings. This is making some distinction between ruling and having power. At least, that’s what it looks like a first blush.

For that matter, what does the initial phrase refer to? Rich in what? Rule whom, or what? Examine that first, then proceed to the question of power.

I notice that it says whoever has become rich, not merely is rich. I took it to refer to some process of self-development. This follows the saying that referred to finding “the body,” which you were going to discuss further.

Only, you were going to think about it and ponder it. Have you done so?

No, not really.

We can resume after you do so. Even though it is worthwhile to build your understanding by cumulating bits one at a time, you can give yourself permission to continue without understanding everything, as you did in reading In Search of the Miraculous [by P. D. Ouspensky]. You will miss some connections you might otherwise make, but in compensation, you will move on to other things that you wouldn’t otherwise get to, if you remained stalled until you figured out what you can’t figure out.

I sort of thought it was you saying “Figure that out before we continue.”

Yes, but if you can’t, or don’t, we can continue. Of course you could cease this exploration – or any exploration, or all exploration – any time you wished. It can’t be forced.

Well, let me just take a horseback guess at 80 and we can move on. I suppose “knowing the world” may mean experiencing the “external world,” the 3D/non-3D that we are a part of, and that is a part of us, but that seems to us “external,” that is, not under our control and not part of our particular essence. And if we take the exterior to be “the body,” perhaps that is meant to be opposed to “the mind” or “the spirit,” which is what we experience as internal, as the “us” of us. If so, then anybody who comes to know the external world has moved to another plane of being, and is no longer subject to the same level of constraints that apply to those who think external reality is external rather than experienced as external.

Was that so hard?

No guarantees, I understand, that this is right, just a way to see it.

No guarantees for anything, any time. But you do what you can, and the very act of pondering produces changes.

 

3 thoughts on “TGU and Thomas, Sayings 79. 80, 81

  1. Hello Mr. DeMarco,

    First off, thank you for your books and blog, I have been reading them for several years now and they are great – your ILC work has given me much food for thought.

    I feel moved to comment on Saying 80 – perhaps knowing the body is understanding how to give material form to the abstract – how consciousness precipitates tangible reality. How the source field of energy creates patterns, and stabilizes the energy into temporary physical forms.

    It also reminds me of Matthew 18:20 – it seems easier to “make things happen” when it is done by a group. I appreciate your Catholic background, I have a similar Lutheran/Catholic background. I have experienced, well, miracles performed by a small group of sincere believers. I know it is hokum for non-believers and I know the challenges of what is not good with religion as well as what may be good.

    Anyways, please keep up the good work and know that it reaches more people than you might think. Thank you.

  2. I agree with James Harken. I think #80 is so profoundly revealing, I’m blown away. I think they’re talking about mastering context, thereby shifting consciousness, and the freedom of being that comes from that kind of transcendence.
    Consciousness becomes consciousness through the anchoring in a body in a context. “You cannot know yourself in the absence of the world in context.”
    So, without that anchoring, I’m thinking we’re back to being part of the vast impersonal forces that are not amalgamated (magnetically?) into form.
    And I’m still thinking emotions are at the root of it all.
    Call me crazy.

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