The Gospel of Thomas & Our Innocent Judgments

This post is a continuation of my previous post on the innocence of our judgments and how we don’t have to judge them. We judge so much, and then we judge ourselves for judging. And if you look, you’ll see that the secondary one is where the real pain is. And it is optional! The first one really isn’t that big a deal; it’s usually just old, conditioned thinking that nobody even hears. And you have a better source of thinking built in. This really is huge, so let’s look at it a bit more…

Now, I’m not into any particular religion, but I do like to study the religions. At least the more mystical versions of each religion. I like the stuff that’s not so tainted by man, the stuff that’s closer to the source. And you find this in any religion if you take a look. So when old, buried writings are found in the desert in Egypt in 1945, called the Nag Hammadi library, I say hells yeah! I think that’s very cool and potentially very valuable information. The Dead Sea Scrolls are the same. And I can’t believe most churches do not embrace this stuff… THAT IS FREAKING CRAZY. Wow, rant narrowly averted. No promises, though, as this post rolls on. Back to the story…

The Gospel of Thomas is one such text, part of the Nag Hammadi library. My understanding is that the disciple Thomas was a very devoted student of Jesus/Jeshua (what’s in a name?), and not a doubter at all. I mean, wouldn’t you want to touch a dead person that was suddenly alive again three days later?? I sure would; that’s called “normal!” And for some bonus info, Mary Magdalene wasn’t a hooker, either… Lots of BS stories have been painted over the years. And by whom? By men. Unenlightened men. Okay, that was a small rant that almost became a big one. Whew…

The Gospel of Thomas was a “sayings gospel.” In other words, Thomas simply wrote down what his guru (Jesus) said. And “guru” means “dispeller of darkness.” So it’s a teacher or way shower, one that helps us turn the light on so we can see. And Thomas wrote down what his teacher said. The other gospels are more like novels, and you can even see how they shift over time. So they’re not really the best source of truth. If truth is what you’re interested in, that is… And I’m sorry for these subtle digs, I really am! It’s so hard for me, though. Seeing what man has done to the teachings of a master is really tough. I am doing my best.

So Thomas simply wrote down what the master said. The first thing he wrote was, “Whoever discovers the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death.” So that sort of sets it up, saying you’re about to hear some amazingly powerful stuff, and I invite you to pay attention. By the way, what is meant by “will not taste death?” This sounds to me like you realize that what you really are is a soul and not a body. That’s what “awakening” refers to, by the way. And you know what? There have been scores of near death experiences in hospitals. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but there’s even been a blind person that had this experience (see the Afterlife documentary on Netflix). They revived her, and she was still blind, and she described the whole hospital room and the scene as they revived her in striking detail. Visual detail. So bam, you are not a body! Right here, right now, without having to lift a finger. It is a fact. This means that death is not real. The body dies, but that is not what we really are. And by the way, they all say it’s awesome on the other side. For everyone. So take a breath of relief! And I will as well, for trust me, I forget all the time. Anyway, there’s just a quick bonus taste of “you shall not taste death.”

But that’s not really what this post is about. It’s about the next thing that Thomas wrote down, which was really the first of the sayings (since the one above sort of sets everything up). So this one is probably pretty important. And it is as follows: “Those who seek should not stop seeking until they find. When they find, they will be disturbed. When they are disturbed, they will marvel, and will reign over all. [And after they have reigned they will rest.]” So what does this mean and how does it relate to not judging our judgments? Let’s take a look…

First of all, we can probably agree that for the most part, the mind runs the show. At some point in our journey (often when we’re miserable enough), we start to take a look at what’s going on in our heads. We have to see it first. And what we see is a bunch of conditioned trash, including a tremendous amount of judgments. About everything. And about ourselves. So we are quite disturbed at what we see! But there’s good news. We can simply marvel at it all, saying, “Wow, look at that. Wow, look at that.” That’s what is meant by not judging all of this trash. Just look at it, knowing that it’s just conditioning. Bless it and let it pass. And it will! As I said in that previous post, there’s no parking lot for our thoughts. They pop right in, including the nastiest of thoughts, but then they pop right out. Doing a bunch of thinking about them is what keeps them around and gives them power, and it is optional. When we start to watch them with innocent curiosity, then they start to flow. And like the example of the old spigot in that last post, there’s clean water pushing the rust and sediment through. The clean water is our built in wisdom/common sense that’s always there. It’s the source of intelligence that we’re all connected to. We start to see that the ego voice is actually nothing more than a little gnat that we’ve given a tremendous amount of power to. Nobody else hears it, and it’s really not a big deal. Unless we choose to make it a big deal, of course. The thing is, nobody told us this as we grew up, so it seemed like this was not a choice. But it is. Hallelujah!

So now we’re watching all the trash in our heads with wonder and curiosity rather than judgment, and the result is that the weight and power that this thinking has had starts to diminish. And one by one this trash is released from us and we start to notice there’s less and less of it. In other words, it’s all very innocent; our judgment of it is what gives it power. So the power is diminishing, and you know what? We feel better overall. This is huge. So as we simply marvel at the trash we see in our heads, it flows. And we feel better. For now, let’s just assume that “reigns supreme” refers to being at peace.

So there we go, another take on not judging our judgments. This really is foundational, transformational stuff on the journey to peace. So I invite you to spend some time with it, always in a relaxed way, of course. No rush. Be curious and take a look. And marvel at what you see! Our judgments are so ingrained that they seem to be released in layers. That’s what I’ve noticed in myself, anyway. They can get quite subtle, too. All good, though – just keep marveling. And loving yourself as you do it. And as always, let me know if I can help!