Gospel of Thomas - coda 11

Gospel of Thomas coda 11

11. Jesus said, "This heaven will pass away, and the one above it will pass away. The dead are not alive, and the living will not die. During the days when you ate what is dead, you made it come alive. When you are in the light, what will you do? On the day when you were one, you became two. But when you become two, what will you do?"

Tau Malachi discusses the nature of God, reality and change.  Change is inherent to reality.  In fact it is in the nature of reality to change.  The nature of God is to create.  The activity of creation is change or transformation.  The nature of God is ceaseless change.  Certainly, God is that which was, is, and always be.  From the perspective of eternity there is no such thing as past, present, and future.  There is only now, always.  From this perspective nothing changes; everything is the same.  Everything in one with the One of Being.  Yet this timeless eternity generates time eternity.  Being generates becoming.  God is infinite and eternal Being, and at the same time God is becoming of what always was, is and is becoming.  So, God is constantly changing.  God is always coming into being, without beginning or end.  The heavens shall pass away.  Indeed the heaven above heaven will pass away.  Everything else in creation will pass away.  Everything is in flux, in the process of change, even heaven and even higher states of awareness and consciousness.  This is how the universe evolves; how consciousness and reality evolves.  The former heaven and earth and levels of consciousness and awareness transform into new heavens, new earth, and new levels of awareness and consciousness.  Change is happening, passing out of form and into new form, and this change is a matter of growth or development.  Even after the realization of Messianic Consciousness or Gnostic Being, there are higher, more refined states of consciousness and reality.  This growth never ends.  Although God is, and human perfection, and the perfection of creation, always was, is, and will be!  We’ll discuss one becoming two, and two becoming one later, but this is an instance where while there is Being there is also Becoming and multiple manifestations which ultimately become one again with the One Being.

Jesus says, in Thomas, “the dead are not alive, and the living will not die.”  Tau Malachi explains that in the innermost part of our being, it is possible to realize the bornless nature of our Spirit.   The essence of our being is the One True Being.  What we call death, whether it is death of the body or ego death is a shift of consciousness to another state of existence.  When aware of our bornless eternal nature we realize that death is an illusion.  Yet, if we aren’t awake or aware and have not developed a conscious continuity of self-awareness throughout all states of existence, waking, dream, sleep, death, and afterlife we aren’t alive.  We are alive when we awaken in the Spirit of the Messiah.  Until then it is like we are dead in life.  Once awakened and aware we are alive.  This bornless one within us, who we really are, is Christ.

Stevan Davies explains that when Jesus speaks of making alive the dead that you consumed that you are transforming what is dead into you who are alive.  He goes on to explain that when you are in the light you will only eat living things.  He suggests that this means that you will become vegetarian.  Eating only living thing, taken to its logical conclusion means eating raw foods and fruit and nuts as processing even vegetables kills them. 

Tau Malachi is less literal than Davies in his interpretation.  He states that when you are alive in the Spirit of the Messiah, you uplift and bring into life whatever you consume.  You do this as your prepare to eat the foot by way of pre-meal blessings and thanksgivings.  Blessed, purified and consumed the holy sparks contained in the food are restored to the body of Adam Kadmon and redeemed in the body of the Messiah and attached to you through Christ.

The task of the disciple of Jesus (Yeshua) is to uplift the sparks in all we do.

When we participate in the Eucharist we are eating what is alive (Christ), the dead (us) are brought to life.  In the supper, we rehearse Christ’s death (and ours) and receive the realization of the resurrection (Christ’s and ours), and receiving and realizing it, we are empowered in the Spirit of the Messiah to share and give this same eternal life, so others may realize it as well (until all the world does).  This is our very life mission as Christians!

Tau Malachi says of the question, “What will you do when you dwell in the Light?” that it is a trick question.  You will do nothing.  Once you come to abide in the Light, it is the Lord and the Holy Spirit that will through or as your Self will do and accomplish everything.  You will have the propensity to extend and share what you have received and realized but it will be the Spirit of Christ within you which is your True Self which will drive you to do this.  There will be no ego motivation or gratification in doing this.

Tau Malachi doesn’t answer Jesus’ question about what you will do when you are one you will become two, saying that answer must come from within.  There is quite a mystery here.  It is the ego that creates separation.  There is no such separation in the Self.  But as soon as I think about the Self I am separate from the Self.  Yet, I can live from that Self.  Living from that Self, that Spirit of the Messiah within, I enter a state that J. Krishnamurti called “choiceless awareness.”  I simply respond to life or do in life without responding or doing.  I know what to say and what to do.  I am responsive.  This kind of life is effortless although it appears to involve effort.  That essential unity with God or the One is never lost even as you live your life in the world.