Gospel of Thomas

An Adult Education Class

Tuesdays
7:00-9:00 pm

Hosted by
Rev. Tom Thresher
and Kim Beyer-Nelson

We sure understand that evening classes can be hard on some folks, so we'd like to share some of the materials and interesting questions that our Tuesday class generates.

You can use the resources below for further study, or take the time to journal your own reflections to our study questions.

We hope your personal inquiry into this rich document from the past will breathe new life into your own spiritual journey and further connect you to the evolving church that is Suquamish UCC.

If you have thoughts you would like to share with the class, or questions you would like posed or addressed, please pass them on to the church office. Aiya will pop them on to Kim and Tom.

We hope you enjoy your electronic journey with us. Check in each week for new installments from the class.

Blessings,
Kim Beyer-Nelson

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Resources & Sources
October 11		Logion 1 & 2
October 18		Logion 3
October 25		Logion 4 & 5
November 1		Logion 6 & 7
November 15		Logion 10 & 11
November 22		Logion 12 & 13
November 29		Logion 14 & 15
January 3		Logion 16
January 10		Logion 17 & 18
January 24		Logion 19 & 20
January 31		Logion 21

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January 31

Back to the Top

On this drizzly and cool evening, we worked with just one very juicy Logion — number 21.

After a period of Lectio Divina, we divided the saying into four major movements, roughly highlighted by the spaces between the passages below.

Here is the entire Logion for your personal practice, then we’ll follow the course the class plotted last night.

Logion 21:   Miriam said, Then tell us, Master, What your students are like? How would you describe them? He answered, “They are like small children living in a field not their own. When the landlords return and demand, ‘Give us back our field!’ the children return it by simply stripping themselves and standing naked before them. “So then, I must also tell you this: If a householder knows for sure that thieves are coming to steal his goods, he will keep careful watch before they get there to prevent them from tunneling in and taking his possessions. You, too, from your beginnings, must keep a watchful eye on the cosmos, binding great power to yourselves so that thieves cannot find a way to get to you. Pay attention then. Any outside help you look for they will try to seize first. may there be someone among you who truly understands this. “So listen carefully, if you have an ear for this! When the fruit was ripe, ready to burst, the harvester came quickly sickle in hand and took it."

First movement:

Miriam said, Then tell us, Master, What your students are like? How would you describe them?

Questions:

1.	How does this logion begin differently from many others we’ve encountered?
2.	Do you feel — like many “experts” engaged in the study of the Gospel of Thomas — that this Miriam may actually be Mary Magdelene? And even if this is not “the” Mary, what implications does this have for what most would consider to be a male-oriented discipleship?
3.	What answer is she really seeking with these two questions?

Insights from class:

1.	At first, the class was reading the entire Logion with the eye that Yeshua’s students don’t often “get” his teachings. But we eventually turned this first passage on its ear a bit, and recognized that Mary wasn’t asking Yeshua to describe the rag-tag bunch of disciples gathered around the Master as they were, but rather, the nature of a true student of Yeshua. In other words, if someone were an accomplished student, what would they be like? The logion goes on to answer this profound question.
2.	By using the term Master, the reader assumes that this woman, whoever she may be, certainly considers herself a disciple of Yeshua, and her question is answered with great seriousness and depth.

Second movement:

He answered, “They are like small children living in a field not their own. When the landlords return and demand, ‘Give us back our field!’ the children return it by simply stripping themselves and standing naked before them.

Questions:

1.	What is the field, symbolically? How would you describe it?
2.	Who are the landlords? Notice the plural here.
3.	Does the act of stripping naked show weakness or a kind of strength? Explain.
4.	Why use the image of children here? What attributes does the symbol of the child bring to a true student of Yeshua?
5.	Notice that the children “stand.” Look back and notice other Logion where the word “stand” is used. How does this word illuminate the nature of the true disciple?

Insights:

1.	At first, we tended to see the naiveté of the child, but very rapidly the class moved to an understanding of the child as the symbol for the simple, open, naked awareness that is demanded of discipleship.
2.	The field was thought variously as samsara (the illusion of this world), the world of duality, the place of Wall Street and Wal-Mart, etc. Then, the discussion moved to the field being rooted in “the ground of being,” the firmament beneath and behind the world of illusion.
3.	Folks noticed that the children stripped and made themselves meek, but not fearful. They didn’t run — they stood.
4.	We noticed how easily, how gracefully the children opened themselves to the landlords, how the clothes slipped away without any grasping after something that was not “theirs.” We talked about the profound act of St. Francis, when he stripped himself of all his father’s clothing before his father and the Bishop and the pillars of his community — how he walked regally from the field of duality and power and out into the natural world, the greater field of his Father.

Third movement:

“So then, I must also tell you this: If a householder knows for sure that thieves are coming to steal his goods, he will keep careful watch before they get there to prevent them from tunneling in and taking his possessions. You, too, from your beginnings, must keep a watchful eye on the cosmos, binding great power to yourselves so that thieves cannot find a way to get to you. Pay attention then. Any outside help you look for they will try to seize first. may there be someone among you who truly understands this.

Activity:

Here, we switched gears a bit, and used word and art to get to the heart of this passage. You may wish to try this.

First, get a couple of colored pens or other writing materials and a blank sheet of paper.

Now, imagine you are about to be sent to a desert island and can “take” only one thing with you — it may be physical, it may be a trait, a skill, a memory, a state of mind. What one treasure would you place in the middle of this blank sheet of paper?

Once you have drawn or written your choice, draw a circle around it.

Go ahead and make four or five more circles, like a target or dart board. Leave enough space between the physical lines to write or draw. Working from the center out, begin to add those objects, traits, skills, etc in order of importance to you.

Take a moment and consider this treasure of yourself. If you used physical objects — say, a pocket-knife — what mental state and trait might this signify about you? For instance, perhaps it says that you are aware that many demands might be made upon you as you struggle to survive, and having the right “tool for the job,” one that is flexible and multifaceted, is critical.

Were you surprised at the way you ordered this mandala? Does anything really stand out for you?

Now, go back to your center circle and ask yourself, “what thief takes this treasure from me in my ordinary life?” For instance, if you placed “presence” in your center, can you recognize when “presence” is stolen from you by the rush of life, by your own internal voices? Can you name them and thereby prepare for the thief or thieves?

Do this exercise for each of the levels of your mandala, adding the name of the thief within each circle. These are the parts of yourself that you are conscious of… might there be many more that are unconsciously “tunneling in”?
Questions:

1.	Does this exercise help identify the goods and the thieves of your household? What have you learned about yourself?
2.	What great power do you bind to yourself here (and notice the difference between standing naked and binding yourself with power)? Can you name it or only feel it? Can you draw the power or give it a color?
3.	Why would the thieves take any “outside help” first? What is the nature of this “outside help” and why is it so vulnerable?

Insights:

1.	It was delightful to see how concretely some folks in our circle chose to illustrate themselves, and how abstractly others chose to think. In the end, the magic was that the abstract word or the concrete object both pointed to states of mind and emotional qualities. Fascinating.
2.	We played with the idea that many thieves may not even be clearly visible to us… that “tunneling in” is a poetic way to point to this fact.
3.	We were struck by the juxtaposition of the naked standing children and the householder binding power to him or herself — it seemed a great paradox. But when we drew the ideas down to the idea of “power” as an ACT of standing in full and brilliant awareness, then the two images resonated at last. Acting in awareness can manifest as open and soft as a child, or powerful and crystalline as a warrior. Both stand powerfully and openly.
4.	We wrestled with the idea that any outside help would be taken first by the thieves, but again moved to the idea that Yeshua might be speaking of the “idols” in our lives, as well as the voices, pressures, and artificial supports we cling to so we do not have to stand in awareness, filled with both meekness and power.

Fourth movement:

“So listen carefully, if you have an ear for this! When the fruit was ripe, ready to burst, the harvester came quickly sickle in hand and took it."

Questions:

1.	What state of mind must a harvester be in so that he or she reaps when the time is absolutely right? What does this say about the student of Yeshua?
2.	What is symbolically being harvested here?
3.	Helen Lukes once said, “Knowledge without action is not knowledge at all.” How might this apply to this entire logion?

Insights:

1.	This entire Logion welds together standing and acting, observing and moving, ripening in prepared ground and harvesting. Awareness is wed to action which loops back to awareness, endlessly. Timelessly.
2.	It is one thing to hear Truth, another to act out of that Truth, to be nourished and blessed by it and in turn to nourish and bless others. Both must happen, to be students of Yeshua.
3.	The attributes of a true disciple of Yeshua resonate throughout this logion — the open standing of children at play on a field that is not their own, the watchfulness of the householder who knows not only his goods but also the thieves who come to steal them away. That the resources to stand and be aware are within, not without, and not based in the worship of any idol (money, a savior, a government, a religion). And that the student will harvest this awareness and feed not only him or herself but also the inhabitants of those in play in the field.

Ameyn.

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January 24

Back to the Top

After a one-week break due to our glorious and short-lived winter snow, we gathered to consider Logions 19 and 20.

First, we entered into our time of Lectio Divina, listening deeply to these words:

Logion 19:   Yeshua says, Blessed are all who come to live At the point of arising, Their “genesis,” before they came into temporality. If you become my students, Listening deeply to my words, Even these stones will serve you. And in paradise Five evergreen trees await you. They do not change in summer nor shed Their leaves in winter. If you come to know them, you will not Know the taste of death.

Questions to ponder:

1.	What does the phrase “before they came into temporality” mean to you? What does it suggest about being a student of Yeshua? What does it suggest about paradise?
2.	What other clues point to the idea that Yeshua may not be talking about “this” reality?
3.	What do you think the five evergreen trees waiting in paradise signify? (There has been lots of speculation on this… go ahead! Add your own to the conversation! That’s where studying scripture gets sooo juicy.)
4.	As you have worked through the sayings to this point, how has your understanding of “not knowing the taste of death” evolved? Can you put it into words now?
5.	Lynn Bauman asks a great question: “How is it possible to live at the “point of arising” when one is also moving through space-time?

Insights from the class:

1.	The class was very sensitive to the idea of a level of awareness or being that underlies what we think of as reality. It has been interesting to watch this sensitivity develop and grow over the weeks we have been together.
2.	We were struck by the “if you become my students” phrase — the invitation, the hook to listen more deeply to the words of Yeshua.
3.	We then each took a stone, and spent some time looking, listening, smelling, touching and even tasting our rock. We listened for its message to us which helped to set us up for one possible explanation of the “five evergreen trees” of paradise.
4.	One possible way to interpret the five evergreens is that they stand for the five senses, each always waiting evergreen and infused with beginner’s mind when we choose to attend without the clutter and overlay of expectation, memories and ego… in other words, our sense are fresh and clear when we are in the state of paradise, the NOW.
5.	Other ways of looking at the Five Trees include the five central nodes on the Kabbalah’s Tree of Life (Gevurah or Strength, Hesed or Compassion, Tef’erat or Beauty, Hod or Splendor, and Netzakh or Victory). (Lynn Bauman explains this possible model in some detail in his work In Trouble and In Wonder.)

One classmate suggested that, for her, the trees pointed to the Buddhist Paramitas, usually grouped in 6 or 10. For comparative sake, consider the six paramitas and the central nodes of the Tree of Life, noticing how they are similar and different:

Dana Paramita: Generosity
Sila Paramita: Ethics
Kshanti Paramita: Patience
Virya Paramita: Joyful effort and perseverance
Dhyana Paramita: Concentration
Prajna Paramita: Wisdom

One other participant said the five trees called to mind the open hand… five fingers radiating out from the palm, each finger separate and yet dependent.

Dan Brown, in his novel The Lost Symbol made a lovely observation through one of his characters:

“Time is a river… and books are boats. Many volumes start down that stream, only to be wrecked and lost beyond recall in its sands. Only a few, a very few, endure the testing of time and live to bless the ages following.

There is a reason these volumes (world scripture) survived while others vanished. As a scholar of faith, Dean Galloway had always found it astonishing that the ancient spiritual texts — the most studied books on earth — were, in fact, the least understood.

Concealed within those pages, there hides a wondrous secret.

One day soon the light would dawn and mankind would finally begin to grasp the simple, transformative truth of the ancient teachings… and take a quantum leap forward in understanding his own magnificent nature.”

After a break, we reconvened and again practiced Lectio Divina:

Logion 20:   His students said to him, tell us about this Kingdom of yours in the heavens. What is it like? Yeshua answered them, “Let me compare it to a mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds. When if falls into prepared ground it grows into a great tree capable of sheltering the birds of the sky.”

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January 10

Back to the Top

We began work with a deep guided meditation led by Rev. Tom. In that work, we experienced the sense of the “watcher,” the part of us that is able to observe the thinking and feeling process of mind. It is a felt presence, a steady presence, and no matter how hard you try, impossible to turn and face head on.

Taking the whisper of that experience with us, we then shifted into Lectio Divina and worked first with Logion 17.

Logion 17:   Yeshua says, What your own eyes cannot see, Your human ears do not hear, Your physical hands cannot touch, And what is inconceivable to the human mind — That I will give to you.

Insights from the class:

How do you feel about the last line of this logion? What comes up when Yeshua says he will give all of this to us? One lovely student asked, “How do I know I want what is being gifted to me?” And another countered “Yeah, and how do I know I actually got it?” Work with these thoughts a bit in open-hearted inquiry.

What does this Logion say about relationship with Mystery?

In what ways might you transcend the perceiving parts of embodiment enough to see beyond stimulus-response?

Interesting ideas from the class:

The “I” in the final sentence might be read as the cosmic “I AM.” Yeshua is speaking not out of the horizontal self of time and causality, but the vertical self of timelessness and spaciousness.

This logion resonates with the energy of a Zen Koan — it flies in the face of rationality to touch directly on the state of being.

The final line intimates that we have a choice here — to explore this gift or turn away from it. This is the root of free will.

Several folks shared the idea that enlightenment is not bells and whistles and parties but rather a deep awakening into what IS. This logion points to THAT.


We then turned to the second half of our class, and began with this poem from Jalaluddin Rumi, a fourteenth-century Sufi poet:

I am not this. Your beauty closes my eyes, and I am falling into that. You cut the umbilical cord with this love that’s been with me since my birth My mother saw your mountain reflected in my face, You that lifts coverings, You that brings death. We agreed on this before creation. I have been so hidden. Ask my body who I am. It says, solid ground. Ask my soul¸ dizzy as the wind. Neither, I stand here facing your Sun.

Holding these words, we entered into Lectio Divina with logion 18.

Logion 18:   His students said to him, “So, tell us, then, What our end and destiny will be?” Yeshua answered, “Have you already discovered your origin so that now you are free to seek after your end? It is only at your source that you will find your destiny. Blessed are those who come to stand in Their place of origination, for it is there that they will know their end — never tasting death.

Questions to ponder:

Before you switch on your thinking aspect of mind, what do you feel right now, having read this passage? It might not come out in words or might be expressible through image, color, sound. What comes up for you?

What other places in the Gospel of Thomas have you found the idea of “standing” and “never tasting death?” Are there other sayings that resonate strongly with this one?

What does never tasting death mean to you?

Where in your own life have you experienced asking questions and then finding implicitly or explicitly that you needed to ask a different kind of question? How do you react to Yeshua’s technique of taking questions to whole other levels of inquiry?


Interesting ideas from class:

The images and honest reactions to this logion were breathtaking last night. I think we were all a bit in awe of each other, and how our gut-level and emotive reaction to this Logion was largely one of relief, joy, inclusion and peace. It was suggested that this sort of reaction points to the Source, the lived experience of the mystery rather than simply the idea of it.

We noted that this is the work of a spiritual guide, to suggest the right questions more than provide answers.

It was pointed out that this is one of the “beatitudes” that run through the Gospel of Thomas, parallel to the Synoptic treatment of them. It’s helpful to go back and read the "blessed are…" statements of the Bible and compare them to this Logion.

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January 3

Back to the Top

Our class started up again on yet another lovely "soft" evening. (Which means it was, of course, raining). Our focus? Logion 16.

Logion 16:   Yeshua says, Some of you are thinking perhaps That I have come into the cosmos to Bring peace. NO! You do not yet realize that I have come to Throw it into utter chaos Through burning, blade and battle. Five will be living in one household. Three will face off against two, And two against three. Parents will rise up against children, And children against their parents, Until at last they shall stand united On their own feet.

As has become our class custom, we began with Lectio Divina, listening deeply to how the words resonated within us, not just intellectually but viscerally.

Here are some interesting questions you might wish to consider after you have spent some time with this logion.

1.	What clues can you find that the violence Yeshua speaks about here might be part of a larger picture, a transformative path?
2.	How do you find yourself reacting to the pain that Yeshua so plainly lays out? Where in your own life have your felt burning, blade and battle?
3.	What does it mean to “stand”?
4.	Is there a difference between “burning, blade and battle” and suffering? Talk about that a bit.
5.	Why do you think he highlighted family relationships so strongly in this passage?

Insights from the class:

We found it interesting that the word cosmos is related to cosmetic (that which covers a truth, in a sense). If the burning, blade and battle fall in a cosmetic world, then Yeshua is pointing to an interesting possibility: that the real pain of the world can be a gateway to deeper unity and understanding and that pain is a very real part of the “horizontal” world of day to day life.

The vertical world (timeless, spirit-filled, free of boundaries, unifying) is that which allows us to find the meaning of events or, perhaps, frame it in a new way in our minds and hearts.

We were careful to distinguish between pain and suffering. Suffering is the storyline that our egos create after an experience of pain. Pain is almost self-cauterizing and intense, but then done. Suffering is the reliving or hardening that can come psychologically with pain. Yeshua does not deny the pain of life. It is real. But what we do with that pain — how we choose to react to it — is perhaps one of the greatest gifts of free will.

We looked at pictures from other religious traditions, including representations of Manjushri Bodhisattva (Tibetan Buddhism) and Arjuna (Hinduism), both of whom are armed. We explored the role of the sword that cuts through illusion and ignorance, and the bow that is part of one-pointed concentration. The Bhagavad Gita is a narrative totally based on a battlefield, the battlefield of the mind we all face.

We also took some time in the Warrior II pose of Hatha Yoga to show why it is called “warrior” … because it embodies groundedness, an unprotected heart center, focus arising from the heart, etc.

Although I didn’t share it in class, I practiced Iaido, the way of the Japanese Sword for some time in college. It was a meditative, not combative, art form that focused the mind. At that time in my life, the blade was as effective as any prayer or meditation for me. This is how mind works; the instrument of killing can also be the instrument of awakening and peace. The plowshare and spear are both present at the same time. Or as they might say in the East, Samsara is Nirvana, Nirvana is Samsara.

One very fruitful discussion arose from the question, “What does it mean to stand? How do you do that?” The answers that came from the session were breathtaking in their uniqueness and power: be creative, be brave, embrace your divinity, be present, be in the gap between thoughts, be aware of the witness within. Then you stand up from the horizontal world with clarity … and humor.

To stand means we must be able to accurately see the way the agendas of our beloved others (children, parents, social norms, etc) lay veils over our faces and keep us from simply opening our hearts to the present. This logion says pain will be there, yes, but as we turn to the next logion, we shall see there is also a great and powerful wealth to be discovered.

Peace, gentle people. Ameyn.

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November 29, 2011

Back to the Top

After a period of chant and silence, we began with Logion 14.

Logion 14:   Yeshua says, If you fast, you will only be giving birth to sin in yourself. If you pray, your prayers will come back to haunt you. If you give to charity, you will create evil within your own spirit. If, however, you travel through a region and they welcome you, Eat whatever is put in front of you, and heal their sick. For it is not what goes into your mouth which contaminates you, but what comes out of it.

Questions to consider:

1.	What previous “questioning” logions does this one seem to speak to? (Look in particular at Logion 6.)
2.	How did you feel as you read how Yeshua’s view of the supposedly central religious acts of prayer, fasting and charity? How might a person’s intent rather than adherence to tradition and expectation change the tenor of the teaching here?
3.	What does “heal their sick” mean to you? Is there a message beyond the literal words here?
4.	What is the difference between the first movement of this logion (ending with “your own spirit”) and the final four lines? In other words, in what way does the behavioral emphasis of each passage change?
5.	Have you experienced times in your own religious journey when the suddenly the form of the faith shifted and you began to placed more emphasis than the relational or “internal experience” of the divine? How do you return again to the energy behind the actions and symbols of faith?

Insights from the class to ponder:

Yeshua is warning here against a kind of religion where tradition, law, and outer actions become antithetical to the lived experience of relationship, of caring, and gratitude.

If we pray, fast and give charity for the building up of our own egos, we fail to reap the real and tangible grace of each of these practices. Prayer, fasting, and charity should draw us out of the little self and back into relationship, caring, listening, and empathy.

To eat what is put in front of you is a form of gratitude. It is the practice of the highest form of exchange — the energy of eating and then the return energy of healing must dance together, so healer and healed, eater and eaten, guest and host all participate in becoming One. Nobody can live simply taking or simply giving away; even the nature of our very breath is to send out and take in.

The incredible transmutation of energy into thought into language here is held up in both its shadow side (words can hurt and kill) and its healing side (words can bring joy, understanding and create a bridge to unite one being with another.)


After a nice break and another chant, we began to work with Logion 15.

Logion 15:   Yeshua says, When the time comes and you are able to look upon the Unborn One, fall prostrate in worship, for you have found your own True Father (your Source and Origin at last).

Questions to consider:

1.	What other world scriptures speak of an Unborn One? One that comes quickly to mind is the Tao te Ching: The Tao that can be named is not the Tao. Play with the relationship between being named and being born or recognized…do the two rise together, even as we look out on most of the world?
2.	At this point in your study, how do you feel about the basic unity of yourself and God? How do you feel about the relational experience of yourself and God? Can the two be held in the consciousness at the same time? How?
3.	Do you have another word you might be more comfortable with, other than Father? What words might you use to describe the source of YOU?
4.	Take a moment and, if you are able, come to your knees and then press your forehead to the ground. How does this make you feel? Where in the Bible are people shown to prostrate? What is the tenor of those passages? To whom or what do we really surrender?

Insights from the class to ponder:

The Buddhist notion of no birth, thus no death resonates strongly with this saying. Time, physicality, causality — all are nullified and the miracle is that we are THAT. If the Unborn is our source, our origin, then we share in that state of being unborn and thus outside of linear historical time as we understand it.

The saying doesn’t say “if the time comes,” but rather “when.” Awakening, enlightenment, whatever name you choose to call it, will happen when we are ripe. (By the way, the Aramaic word we have traditionally heard translated as “sin” actually means “unripe.”)

Father here is still a baggage-laden word. Yeshua traditionally used the word Abba (Daddy) to designated the relationship he experienced with God. He also used the word Allaha (Aramaic for God), which captures the less personal and more mystery laden energy of the Divine Source. Neil Douglass-Klotz writes

“The final H (in the Arabic Allah) affirms that there is yet a divine secret, something not heard or pronounced, the life behind all life, without name and form and beyond all our ideas of the divine. As one Sufi writer commented, “Allah is not really “God”; that is Allah points to a being that is beyond humanly constructed images, ideals and names. It (not the name) is the ground of Reality, the Only Being.” (Sufi Book of Life, page 5)

The practice of meditation, prostration, yoga, qigong all have the quality of egolessness at their root. By moving beyond the smaller self, we more easily participate in the larger sense of the divine. Worship, then, lights up with the action of the Spirit — and prayer, charity, even fasting becomes the prostration of the born to the unborn, linear time to timelessness, and the self to the Self.

Ameyn.

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November 22

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We drove through the early PNW darkness and prodigious rain this past Tuesday, to meet up in our little warm chapel.

After a brief meditation to dispel anxiety (breathing deeply with one hand on the belly and one hand on the heart), we chanted one of the Beatitudes in Aramaic, drawn from the work of Neil Douglas-Klotz. It was really lovely!

We then moved into Lectio Divina with the follow logion:

Logion 12:   His students said, “We know we cannot hold on to you, so who will lead us then?” Yeshua said, “Wherever it is that you find yourselves, turn to James, one of the Just for whom heaven and earth have come into being.”

Some questions for you to ponder:

1.	Have you ever had an experience when you begin to “think ahead” to a time when a beloved friend, parent, or even pet will no longer be present in your life? What emotions arise in you? What insight does this give you into the minds of the students of Yeshua?
2.	Take time to do a bit of research about James, the brother or twin of Yeshua. Does knowing more about James make this second passage of the logion come alive for you in any way? How has the concept of the twin been used throughout the Gospel of Thomas? What ramifications does the meaning of twin-ness have when this passage is understood in the context of what has come before in this gospel?
3.	What does it mean for heaven and earth to come into being? How do they come into being within you?
4.	Play with the word "Just"…  What does it mean to you? What does it mean that James is “one of” the Just?

Interesting insights from the class:

We delighted in the very human-ness of the disciples’ questions, even as we understood that Yeshua’s answer, which seemed so very straightforward for once, is ripe with other meanings.

The character of James, being only one of possibly many Just people, invites us to examine our own “twin” or “twoness.”

By using another concrete human example, Yeshua has implicitly reminded his students that James, too, will pass away. And what then?

We are all called to bring heaven and earth into being in a complete unity. And that unity will always include everything — even teachers who have passed from the physical. No, like Mary in the garden after the resurrection, we cannot cling to Yeshua, but neither can anyone be taken away from us when we rest in unity.

We were struck by the fact that there was no sense of the “un-naturalness” of Yeshua eventually leaving his students — the human-ness of this passage really resonated with us, even as we were called to the basic unity Yeshua points toward.

We took a short break and then returned to work with Loka Samasta Sukino Bhavantu ("May all beings enjoy peace, joy, love and light"), a chant we sent out as a Thanksgiving blessing.


Then we entered into Lectio Divina with the following logion:

Logion 13:   Yeshua asked his students, “Tell me, then, who am I like? To whom will you compare me?” Simon Peter said, “You are like a just angel.” Matthew said, “You are a philosopher of wisdom.” Thomas said, “Master I cannot find words to express who you really are.” Yeshua said, “Thomas, it is no longer necessary for me to be your Master for you are drinking from the gushing spring I have opened for you, and you have become intoxicated.” Then Yeshua took Thomas aside and spoke three saying to him in private. When Thomas returned to the company of his companions, they of course asked him, “What did Yeshua say to you?” “If I were to tell you even one of the things he spoke to me,” Thomas replied, “you would pick up these rocks and stone me, and then fire would blaze out of them and burn you.”

Questions to ponder:

1.	Where else in our Bible-based Gospels have the students of Yeshua wrestled with his nature, the “who do you say I am?” How do those passages compare with this one?
2.	Compare and contrast the two answers from Simon Peter and Matthew — what do these answers say about the nature of Yeshua’s students? Historically and culturally, what influences each answer? Are you aware of these two threads of Christology running through your own congregation or among your own friends?
3.	When Thomas says “I cannot find words to express who you really are,” does this mean he doesn’t know or simply cannot put it into words? Explore both sides of this coin.
4.	Where else in the Bible is water equated with/turned into wine? In what way is this new relationship between Thomas and Yeshua like a wedding?
5.	How do you respond to the last passage in this logion — how would you feel if Thomas wouldn’t share his experience of Yeshua with you? How might you reread this passage, if you remember that Yeshua has sown fire throughout the cosmos — and maybe especially in rocks that are thrown at living or dead idols?

Interesting insights from the class

We played a great deal with the diversity of any gathering of humans — that even here Persian-Jewish worldviews danced with Greco-Roman humanism and both had to be seen as the idols that are. Views, beliefs and dogmas are not Reality, merely ways to articulate a part of the mystery.

We also spent a long time discussing Thomas’s interesting response to Yeshua’s question of identity. We were particularly interested in how his inability to find words doesn’t negate the experience he has of his teacher. Indeed, it pointed to his deeper understanding.

We played a bit with the idea of sacred inebriation, and its use in Sufi literature. (Sufism is the mystical branch if you will of Islam, and includes authors such as Rumi, Hafiz, Attar, etc.)

We laughed a bit when we considered perhaps the stories of Doubting Thomas were put out as a smear campaign by other Biblical writers to ward folks off this particular Gospel. Tee-hee! And yet, this idea may have a deep element of truth.

The return of Thomas to his fellow students was very interesting. On one hand, we considered the idea that nobody can “give” or “share” a spiritual awakening with anyone. Even Buddha was reticent to teach because his experience was not about words and systems.

But an interesting idea was hinted at by Lynn Bauman’s study guide: If Yeshua has sown fire through the cosmos, then stoning Thomas (the idea, the idol, the object) would get him out of the way so that the students, too, could burn with spirit. This is a fascinating second reading of the final passage of this Logion, and resonates with much of the Gospel of Thomas. It is like the saying, “If you see the Buddha on the road, kill him.” The finger pointing at the moon is not the moon — don’t get hung up on the finger. Thomas’s response is then one of complete compassion.


Many of the students would like to continue the study of the Gospel of Thomas after the New Year (we will break after November 29th). If you would like to see this class continue, please do contact the office or Rev. Tom Thresher.

We hope you are enjoying the journey from the warm comfort of your own home, and please know you can join us in person anytime you wish! Simply contact the church office for details about dates and times.

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November 15

Back to the Top

To begin this class session, we chanted and read out loud Logion 10 and 11.

Then, after reading Logion 10 again, we moved into a time of silence. Out of that quiet, we then uttered words and phrases inspired by fire — light, conflagration, warmth, smell of home, smoke, etc. — on and on for about ten minutes. We became very aware of the paradoxes as well as the transformative nature of fire.

You might want to try this exercise alone or with a few friends.

Logion 10:   Yeshua says, See, I have sown fire into the cosmos, And I shall guard it carefully Until it blazes.

Questions to consider:

How do you experience Jesus as fire? Think of places in his ministry where his behavior or words evoke some of the same metaphors for fire.

How do you experience a sense of burning in your own life—for instance, I am alight with writing right now. Some days, I sort of sizzle and simmer, other days the words leap and blaze. But it’s all fire.

Do you ever try to damp down your fire? Why? How?

How do you tend the fire within?

The prior Logion spoke of sowing seeds with wild abandon in the various soils of the world. As we read this Logion, we see that Yeshua is sowing not just organic wheat seeds but fire. How does this fly in the face of Jesus as merely “nice” or “gentle”? What does it mean to have fire sown throughout the cosmos?

Interesting ideas from class:

Fire has many faces, many moods…from multi-hued blazing to embers, from neatly contained and domestic to raging wildfires, from smokey to simmering and brilliant, on and on.

Fire is captivating as well as potentially deadly (moth to flame). To find the fire within, “we” must burn. Indeed it was the Sufi poet Rumi who declared, “I want burning.”

Fire is integral to ingesting, an important spiritual concept that the next Logion explores. It is the energy of transforming what is dead to what is living, as when your fish dinner literally comes back to life within you and as you.

If fire is sown in the universe, then it is always there, sometimes latent and ash-covered, sometimes blazing, but never dead. It is our birthright, much as the Hindu tradition says that for all humans, joy is inevitable.

Of the sixteen signs that help a scientist classify if something is alive, fire lacks only two.


After a short break, we tackled the next Logion with Lectio Divina:

Logion 11:   Yeshua says, The sky and all that lies in the dimensions above it will cease to exist. The dead know nothing of life and the living will never die. When you consume that which is dead, you are turning it back into life. So, then, when you too re-emerge into the Light, what will you do? For on the day when you were created one, you also became two, but when you come to realize your two-ness again, what will you do?

One interesting thing we did with Lectio Divina was to the read this Logion from the bottom phrase up, reversing the order of the imagery presented in this amazing saying. For many present this helped to clarify the rather rationality-blowing juxtaposition of images and ideas. Give it a try!

Questions to consider:

At this point of your study of the Gospel of Thomas, how might you re-construct your personal cosmology? Is it different from how you might have thought of Life, the Universe and Everything before you began this study or does it feel like a homecoming, a resounding DUH!?

In what ways are all the above phrases connected to the idea of fire sown in the universe?

In what ways does the idea of the twin — of two-ness — come to be equated with the One? In the Bhakti (lover and beloved) tradition of Hinduism there is a saying: “I would rather taste the sugar than be the sugar.” How does this resonate with the idea of twin or two-ness? The Hindu tradition also has two favored mantras: Aham Brahma Asmi (God and I are one) and Tat Tvam Asi (I am THAT). How do these mantras illustrate the sense of two-ness and also Oneness?

There is a strong imperative here to act: What will you do? is asked twice in this Logion. What does this phrase mean to you and what are the ramifications for beings sown with fire?

Interesting ideas from the class:

Some found a great deal of internal coherence in the lines of this Logion, mostly based on the idea of dancing with boundaries. Others believed it is a Logion more in line with a Zen Koan, a word-puzzle meant to short-circuit the thinking mind and awake into gnosis.

We were all aware of periods of being dead, and being spectacularly alive in our lives.

One wonderful insight was that perhaps the evangelical movement sprang out of this call, this impulse to awaken the dead, to create fire and light in others, but then missed the mark and oversimplified what it means to save, to share the light, to bring “our neighbor” back to life wholly. For the act of sharing life with those who are walking dead (or those parts of ourselves that feel dead) is at its core intimate, and as delightful-dangerous as playing with fire.

The important idea that “dead” and “alive” are not states of matter but states of consciousness was something we enjoyed playing with at great length.

We also considered the critical idea that Christianity is a relational religion as well as a religion of consuming/being consumed (think about the central ritual of the Eucharist). And as such, it is a religion of transformation at its core.

That “what will you do?” may not be a question you can answer rationally right now, but only live into it when the time presents itself. In a sense, we are always “awake” and ready to “do” when we are on fire with spirit.


We closed our class with a chant in Aramaic — Abwoon debashemaya — generally translated as “Our Father who art in heaven,” but more appropriately understood as the vibration that fills the cosmos and our own hearts, the very felt-state of fire and aliveness.

Ameyn
Kim Beyer-Nelson

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November 1

Back to the Top

This has been an interesting class so far!

But I must admit that comments have been made that it doesn’t feel like a “course” in that, as facilitators, we (Rev. Tom and Kim) don’t do all kinds of “teaching” around the Gospel, but rather allow the gathered folks to gently tease apart meaning for themselves.

In fact, this is the great gift of this piece of work! When you come to answers from within yourself, you own them in a way a teacher could never give to you. You begin to embody the wisdom, rather than take it out, play with it for a time, and put it away like another acquisition.

It does take a kind of warrior spirit — a kind of bravery — to allow ourselves to play with a text like this, to trust that the meaning will become not just clear for us, but within us. This is the nature of true scripture.

Thanks for continuing this journey with Tom and me, and thanks for being brave souls.

Logion 6:   His students asked him, Do you want us to fast? How shall we pray? Should we give offerings? From what foods must we abstain? Yeshua answered. “Stop lying. Do not do what you hate, Because everything here lies open Before heaven. Nothing hidden will remain secret, For the veils will be stripped away from All that lies concealed behind it.”

Once again, practice Lectio Divina with this text. What is the text saying? What is the text saying to you? What word or phrase tingles your spine today?

Questions to consider:

Did Jesus answer his disciple’s questions? Explain.

How do you feel about the words “lying” or “hate”? Sometimes the line “Do not do what you hate” is translated as “Do not do what causes you to hinder love.” Does that change the meaning for you in any way?

What does living a truth-filled life mean to you? How do you accomplish this?

Lynn Bauman asks: “Where do we put our spiritual priorities—on external religious demands or inner realities? Reflect on the relationship between these aspects of religious practice in your own life.

Interesting thoughts from our Tuesday group:

The strong words like Lying and Hate point to a visceral, emotive interaction with life, rather than a prescriptive, duty-driven relationship.

Veils conceal what is always there: Truth, light, etc. It, the divine, is a constant that we purposefully cover and turn from. For Buddhist, this is called ignorance. In Hinduism, Avidya — not seeing, or untruthful.

The greatest lies we tell ourselves are about the nature of our own Selves.

If we are not lying to ourselves, it is almost impossible to do what we hate or to do that which limits love.

Logion 7:   Yeshua says, A lion eaten by a man is blessed as it changes to human form But A human devoured by a lion is cursed as the lion becomes human.

Our class worked with Lectio Divina and with the Tibetan Buddhist practice of Tonglen as an example of a transformative prayer practice. If you wish to read about this technique, I would suggest this website: http://www.shambhala.org/teachers/pema/tonglen1.php


Questions to consider:

What is the nature of the lion? Of the human? Can you list good and bad properties of each?

What does the lion or the human signify? In other words, do you have a lion in your life like rage, selfishness, rule of the higher Self by the ego?

How do you work with the “lion” within you, so that it does not consume you? How do you consume the energy of the lion, to create transformation? In other words, if you are angry, how might that energy be worked with in a positive and loving way to effect change in your life? What spiritual practices might be helpful for you?

Interesting thoughts from the class:

The lion might be thought of as the ego, dominating the True Self.

Eating is symbolic of consuming not just material nature but the energy, the life-force, the nature if you will, of what you consume. Food becomes the building blocks for both form and action.

A human is that which is able to be awake and aware of the lion and transform the energies of the ego into higher states and clarity. But if the lion has eaten the human, then the ego, the lower nature, rules both physically and mentally.


As always, send on your questions or insights! Tom and I will do our best to answer them promptly.

Ameyn,
Kim Beyer-Nelson

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October 25

Back to the Top

We worked with Logion 4 and 5 and introduced a few meditative practices as well.

Logion 4:   Yeshua says: A person of advanced age must go immediately and ask an infant born just seven days about life’s source. Such asking leads to life when what is first becomes last. United, they become a single whole.

First, we used the technique of Lectio Divina to sit with the words of this text. Then, we shared what understandings arose from this intersection of practice and thought. After a bit of conversation about what words or phrases seemed to have the most resonance for each of us, we did the following exercise:

Try this:

We imagined that we were each sitting with a 7-day-old child. We asked this imaginary child what he or she had to teach us. Take a moment and try this, then write down your insights in your journal. Then, we reversed the process and, as baby, we looked up into the face of the elder or felt ourselves held. What did the 7-day-old self experience in the exchange?

How do you now “understand” or “know” this Logion? How is such gnosis different from intellectual understanding or knowing?

Interesting insights:

1.	The word “immediately” is a paradox, because the immediacy or the Ah-ha comes after a lifetime of discrimination and experiences for the elder.
2.	The second paradox is the child being asked and held up as teacher — a child that probably hasn’t even begun to focus on facial features and who is not yet, by Jewish law, circumcised.
3.	The understanding of the cyclical nature of time, and how the child and elder together make a whole being, each dancing with the other.
4.	Pointed out other places in the Synoptic Gospels where Jesus uses children as an example of Christian practice and presence and how the Gospel of Thomas is different because of the wholeness and NOWness of the child as presented in its pages is quite different when compared to the Biblical treatment. Examine Matthew 18: 1-4.
5.	Relationship as transcending language, and moving into pure experience.

Logion 5:   Yeshua says… Come to know the One in the presence before you, and everything hidden from you will be revealed. For there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, and nothing buried that will not be raised.

Try this:

For this Logion, we did two interesting exercises. You might want to try the following exercise first, journal a bit, then read some of the interesting insights folks had.

The practice:  We sat face-to-face with another person and simply gazed into their eyes for about five minutes without talking, without looking away.

Several interesting insights arose:

1.	An awareness of the armoring we often carry into relationship with another.
2.	The sense of the person as a window into Deity, a transcendent feeling that tended to go beyond names, gender, age, even form. A sense of the transpersonal and numinous as well as compassion and empathy arose for some.
3.	That the words “hidden” and “buried” point to an original act of will, of turning away from what is immediate and now and that revelation could be equated with waking up, being present to the “whole mess.” The paradox of “revealed” is that nothing was really hidden.

The next practice: We took an object that was familiar to us — a pen, a jacket, a comb — and spent three minutes just gazing at it, trying to notice at least three things we had never noticed before. Then, we closed our eyes and opened out our consciousness beyond the room. Finally we brought ourselves gently back to our circle.

Questions: What did you notice about yourself as you tried this practice? What arose in your mind or at the level of feelings and body sensations? Were you aware of a witness, a judge, or another “chatty” part of yourself as you did this practice? From where does that arise? What happens to the mind, body, breath, emotions and even the sense of joy when you are just open to the object or just sitting with expansive awareness? So what does presence mean? What does One mean now?

From this experience, we noted:

1.	Both focused and diffused awareness brought their own specific gifts and sense of presence. One was not better, simply different.
2.	A sense of how many veils we put between ourselves and reality, and inklings about why that happens. Again, that revelation is an event of the NOW.
3.	A renewed sense that the Gospel of Thomas is a Practice Text, not a document about belief. I was reminded of the saying, “Knowledge without action is not knowledge at all” (Jungian Helen Luke). Or gnosis without action is not gnosis at all. This implies responsibility about how we apply our knowledge to our lifepath.
4.	A strong sense of resonance with this Logion and the previous Logions was really experienced. Indeed, Lynn Bauman calls this a symphonic document — all the parts playing together and off of each other to create a whole.

We closed the evening by offering our learnings and our sense of community out to someone or some place that could use such gifts, and said Namaste to each other with a new sense of awareness. Namaste means, “The Divine in me bows to the Divine in you.”

Ameyn.

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October 18

Back to the Top

We spent some time with chant and silence, with slow readings of Logions 2-5. The space created by contemplative practice really did seem to help “hold” the gathered participants and create a dynamic link between heart and mind. We broke into small groups to chew on the words and the emotional-intuitive reactions we were also aware of.

Some of the most interesting observations of Logion 2 (see last week’s readings) included the idea that what we are seeking is not material or tangible at all (a state rather than a place or belief), and that there is tremendous energy under the seeking (fear, needing to find the “right” answer, a search for love). It is useful to dig beneath the surface level of your own spiritual searching, and see what drives you at the intuitive or emotional level.

This week, spend some time with the following Logion. You may choose to use Lectio Divina as described in the first week’s lesson or simply sit with the words for a time before you engage the questions. As always, feel free to email your thoughts on to share with the larger group.  
 

Logion 3:   Yeshua says… If your spiritual guides say to you, “Look, the divine Realm is in the sky,” well, then the birds will get there ahead of you. If they say, “it is in the sea,” then the fish will precede you. No divine Reality exists inside and all around you. Only when you have come to know your true Self will you Be fully known — realizing at last that you are a child of the Living One. If, however, you never come to know who you truly are, You are a poverty stricken being, and It is your “self” which lies impoverished.

Questions to ponder:

Think about experiences you have had around religious authority. How do you respond to church hierarchies or the idea of someone mediating between you and Spirit? Has your relationship with spiritual authority changed over the course of your life? What fueled those changes? What is the positive side of religious authority?

The Dalai Lama was shocked when he tried to understand low self-esteem — the concept was incredibly new to him and his culture. I also had a minister who pointed out that the self-help section of the bookstores was the saddest place on earth … all those words pointing out you aren’t smart enough, skinny enough, etc. How has your religious journey either fed your low self-esteem or helped you recognize a sense of Self? Has it sometimes done both?

How do you know when you have entered into relationship with the divine? How do you know when you experience even brief moments of one-ness with God and all things? How do you define the differences/similarities between “belief” and “practice” in your spiritual life?

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October 11

Back to the Top

After brief introductions, the twenty-plus class attendees watched the BBC program The Lost Gospels. We followed with some more speculative historical/scholastic conversation about the gospel. Here is a sampling of some the questions we wrestled with:

1.	Why didn’t the Gospel of Thomas make it into Bible as we know it?
2.	How do we date this piece of writing accurately?
3.	Is the Gospel related to “Q” or Quelle (literally, The Source), a missing text postulated by Biblical scholars to predate the Synoptic Gospels?
4.	Why would the church suppress writings that were not deemed canonical?

It is fascinating that the Gospel of Thomas seems to be a kind of text more closely related to the kind produced by guru-disciple interactions or Socratic teaching methodologies. The text is simply a series of parables and sayings of Jesus, stripped away from the later narrative devices of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. This form has led some scholars to believe it is indeed older than the Biblical gospels.

We also took some time to think about why we were taking this class—what is it within us that wants us to draw closer to this text? This might be something fun for you to journal about and share with the class via email.

The second hour of our program focused on the beginning Logion themselves.

One way to approach this very experiential text is in the form of an abbreviated Lectio Divina or Divine Reading technique.

First, speak the text out loud to yourself, allowing the literal meaning of the words as well as the first hint of their poetry to resonate in you.
Sit with the words for about a minute in silence. Then read the passage again, asking yourself what these words mean specifically to you—what is their message for you today? Again, sit with them in silence for at least a minute. Finally, read the passage through one more time, a listen for that one word that stands out beyond all others. Hold this word for a longer stretch of silence. Then approach the suggested study questions. In most cases, scripture from all our world religious traditions was designed to be sung or read out loud, and you may find you react to the words very differently than if you simply read them quickly to yourself.  
 

Logion 1   I who write this am Judas Thomas-the Double, the Twin. Yeshua, the Living Master spoke, and his secret sayings I have written down. I assure you, whoever grasps their meaning will not know the taste of death.

 
 
Questions for your consideration:

1.	What is the meaning of emphasizing the concept of Thomas as a “double” or “twin”?
2.	Yeshua (Jesus) is identified as “the living master”, even though this document has been dated between 100 CE and 300CE. How does this appellation resonate with your own experience of Jesus? What does it tell you about this text and its author? What does it tell you about this text and its author?
3.	What clues you into the idea that you will have to delve below the literal surface of this text to find meaning? How do you feel about approaching a document on both a literal and a metaphorical level?
4.	How do you interpret the idea that a person who understands this text will not taste death?

 
 

Logion 2   Yeshua says… If you are searching, you must not stop until you find. When you find, however, you will become troubled. Your confusion will give way to wonder. In wonder you will reign over all things. Your sovereignty will be your rest.

 
 
Questions to wrestle with:

1.	In what ways do you search in your own spiritual life?
2.	Can you think of times when such searching led you to feel troubled? What was the outcome of working with this “new material” of your life?
3.	What is the relationship between wonder and sovereignty?
4.	What does it mean to be a sovereign?
5.	Think about the liturgical year—how does it compare with the trajectory of seeking-finding suggested by this Logion? Read a bit about the classical Hero’s Cycle—does it fit as well?

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Resources & Sources

Historical background about the Gospel of Thomas:

A BBC4 presentation, hosted by an Anglican priest (who is way cool, by the way), gives a very nice overview of the Nag Hammadi find and explores the academic, historical and theological questions posed by the Gospel of Thomas.

References:

The class is using the text The Luminous Gospels by Lynn Bauman, published by Praxis of Prayer. (It can also be ordered through Amazon.com)
The first volume of his study guide In Trouble and in Wonder is really rewarding and rich, and is a good addition for home study and contemplation.
Illuminating the Mystery: Photographic Reflections on the Gospel of Thomas is another lovely work, combining both pictorial and poetic commentary, written by Diane Walker, a Bainbridge Island native. (Available through Blurb.com)
Beyond Belief by Elaine Pagels is yet another academic sourcebook I can highly recommend. Her work blends both keen scholarship and her personal story of loss and re-found hope. It is a rich and stimulating read. (Available through Amazon.com)