TGU and Thomas, Sayings 111 through 113

Saying 111

Saying 111 a. Jesus said: The earth and sky will roll up right in front of you. Anyone living from the living will not die.

Saying 111 b. Doesn’t Jesus say that the world is not worthy of one who finds himself?

“Living from the living.” What can that mean?

As opposed, surely, to living from the dead, or let’s say living rooted in life as opposed to living rooted in what is dead. And here words are in danger of misleading us, in that words maintain a division between living and dead which is really a division between one form of living and another. Matter – the 3D world in its entirety – is alive. There is nothing dead anywhere, ever. But for the purposes of observation and comparison, you see the distinction between animate and inanimate.

Jesus is saying, I take it, “If you are based in the 3D, you are based in the ephemeral and transient, and are built upon shifting sands,” so to speak.

That’s right. Know the world; live in the world; become rich – but don’t identify with the world, for it will “roll up” – that is, will show its insufficiency, its impermanence – and there you will be, believing in it or not.

And I take it “become rich” as you use it cannot refer to amassing the things of the 3D.

Of course not. It refers to your becoming rich in the sense of knowing and employing the richness of what you are and can grow into.

111 b is odd in that it refers to what Jesus said, rather than relates what Jesus said.

Again, remember that these sayings were talking-points. It isn’t a slip.

Okay, I see that.

 

Saying 112

Jesus said: Woe to the flesh dependent on the soul; woe to the soul dependent on the flesh.

Doesn’t this refer to the lop-sidedness of anyone trying to live in 3D only or non-3D only?

That’s a valid interpretation. It isn’t described as a moral failing; more like a fault in construction. Someone in such a fix may not be to blame, but will nonetheless suffer. So – in short – don’t let yourself be caught in that condition.

 

Saying 113

They asked him: When is the Kingdom coming? He replied: It is not coming in an easily observable manner. People will not be saying, “Look, it’s over here” or “Look, it’s over there.” Rather, the Kingdom of the Father is already spread out on the earth, and people aren’t aware of it.

This one is well understood, you would think. More of a recapitulation than a new idea, or even reminder.

“It is not coming in an easily observable manner.” That is the key here. That is what has been going on all along. Jesus is showing them – showing anyone able and willing to see – that they have within themselves the ability to connect, immediately, intimately, integrally, of right. But no one can coerce anyone into it, nor can carry them either. It is up to each.

It doesn’t have to be earned, but does have to be desired and paid for.

Yes, only “paid for” not by being earned, but by being willing to make whatever sacrifices are required. Sacrifices of contrary desires, attachments, even ideas.

And so we come to the final saying.

[After I finished the session, I read the translator’s notes, which assert that saying 114 was added at a later date. Maybe so. Certainly 113 nicely rounds off what was said to that point, and 114 does have a sort of tacked-on feel to it. But just because it may have been tacked on doesn’t justify us in disregarding it, problematic though it may be. At any rate, the guys took it seriously enough to discuss.]

 

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