tiistai 29. toukokuuta 2012

WHOEVER FINDS THE WORLD AND BECOMES RICH, LET HIM RENOUNCE THE WORLD



The Gospel of Thomas, found in 1945 in Nag Hammadi, Egypt, contains 114 sayings inscribed to Jesus. Below we have two examples related closely to Luke 17:33 (33. Whoever seeks to save his life loses it, but whoever loses his life preserves it).

• Become passers-by (the Gospel of Thomas, 42)
• Whoever finds the world and becomes rich, let him renounce the world (the Gospel of Thomas, 110)

Many of us get tired with the struggle of daily life and think that we are quite ready to renounce the world. But what do we then mean by the world? And do we have a clear understanding of the basic meaning and function of this world? 
For most schoolchildren summer recess is certainly the best period of the year, but leisure cannot serve much in their actual process of learning. At school we learn some basic things that are needed in civilized life. But the school is over for us as soon as the required measurable standards are reached. 
Then schoolchildren are “passers-by” in relation to the school that they have passed. The school is not anymore important to them, just the abilities that they have achieved are now vital for their future possibilities to realize themselves.
We can relate school to this world – our life in the world to be precise. All that happens here in or outside of us is just learning material for our mind or consciousness. Very often we are concerned with what is happening to us, not caring as much as what is happening within us. It is easy to see if our wealth is in some respect increasing, or that we have learned to use a new program on our computer. But can we notice the changes in our understanding of human existence, in our real qualities? Do we know why we are here?
For many people this kind of thinking is fruitless. They might admit the gospel that life is for passing-by, for living as easily as possible. But what does this gospel actually mean by passing? It is telling about passers – people that are no longer internally tied by the outer world even if they are still living in it. This world has given them all that it has to offer. First they have become rich in all things that life can give: money, wealth, status etc. It must be understood that renouncing a state like this usually takes a lot of time. There are no shortcuts in life, and if there were they would probably appear to be too steep and hard for most of us. 
Some people might force themselves to renounce all the benefits that they have got, but that kind of concrete action would not cause any permanent changes in their minds. We often take Mathew’s words, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven”, too literally – as if doing so would right away open up the gates of Heaven. We do not see that a mere outer action does not cause a change in us as long as we want to gain some benefits or reward for ourselves. 
By so doing we were no better than the men who sold doves in the Gospel of John, to whom Jesus said, “don't make my Father's house a marketplace!” This verse is not meant just for a temple, but for the soul of a human being. Temples are just hand-made buildings for human usage which stand only a limited time. A soul is not made by hand or even a result of the evolution (the innermost part of it). Our mind with its senses and abilities to feel and think might be called a result of the evolution, but the mind is just a means for producing more permanent results into our “father’s house”, our soul, the changeable principle in our spirit. Unfortunately there is some confusion in the usage of terms: mind, soul and spirit. 
Some schools say that soul is more fundamental than spirit, or that spirits are people who have lost their body (dead people). Of course these are just definitions, but to avoid misunderstandings it would (at least to my mind) be convenient to use the word spirit in the meaning of something eternal and unchangeable in nature – as in John’s gospel, “God is spirit”, not a ghost or a phantom. Ghosts are often bodiless persons that some people can sense (right or wrong). The souls of people in their present state of development cannot express their entire individual contents because a personal human consciousness is not normally ready to interpret all that is hidden in its innermost layers (Matt. “Treasures laid up in heaven”).
A personal human being is just a limited reflection of his soul – of his inner self. It might be difficult to think that there could be much more in us than we know of. But if we for example think how different abilities our children bring forth in spite of quite similar environments we might see that children bear from the beginning of their lives different kind of potentialities all of which are by no means connected with their genetic inheritance. Of course skeptical people find these kinds of ideas impossible to accept. For many scientists all conscious life is just chemical phenomenon in brains caused by myriads of random events in the universe. 
The intention here is not to deny evolution, but to propose that consciousness acts before and behind all phenomenal things giving patterns and directions to all that happens in both macro and micro cosmoses. Of course there is much space for coincidence, especially in the short term, in this enormous play of life, but something keeps the vast system moving towards some reasonable targets. We can talk about the powers and laws of nature, but how could a law that guides all phenomenon, come out of nothing? The laws must exist before all movement, and the laws of nature are but consciousness in action as a primary principle – even primary to the so called “big bang”.
In this writing we are not going to the area of spirit, the ultimate and unchangeable source of all. Too many confusing scriptures have been written of this unchangeable and eternal factor which must be behind all temporal forms of life. Some wise people have said that words cannot describe eternal and unlimited principles for words are just limited symbols for expressing human thoughts, which in turn are but highly limited reflections of human perception and consciousness. Defining the ultimate source or God will easily lead us to empty and groundless forms of imagination – to beliefs that are not based on any kind of real experience. 
Some of us need a strong figure to lean on and worship – and there is nothing wrong in that. But for all of us it would be good to know the purpose of our existence and life in general. It is an old request that people should ‘know themselves’, but it is not enough to know one’s personal self, the mind and character. Of that sort of knowing one very wise man, master Eckhart has said that if you find yourself so let it go! Here we are coming back to the beginning idea of renouncing the world – to renounce all that bears but temporal value – and that includes the personal aspect which is based on nothing but conditional ways of earthly life. This personal mind must be passed so that it gives way to something more permanent and fundamental being which can be found in the depths of one’s own being - not in the outside world.
But while thinking the idea of renouncing we must check very carefully are we ready for that kind of inner action, or has the world still something valuable to offer to our inner self? The world is neither bad nor good – it is a wonderful academy for all conscious life – and until now very few individuals have passed the whole course. So be patient and merciful to yourselves and all others.

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