Gnotic words for April 25, 2007: Didache, Didascalia, Didrachmae, Docetism, Dositheos

Didache: Means literaly “The Teaching.” The Didache, which originated about 110 CE, documents the emerging authority of the one great Gospel. the Didache gives instruction on how a Christian community should treat itinerant Christian prophets. (See; Early Christian Writings, Stanforth translation, Penquin, 1987.)

Didascalia: “Catholic Teaching of the Twelve Apostles and Holy Disciples of Our Savior,” is a Church Order, composed, according to recent investigations, in the first part, perhaps even the first decades, of the third century, for a community of Christian converts from Paganism in the northern part of Syria.
Similar to the “Didache.”

Didrachmae: In reference to money or the process of using money. (See; ”Apochryphon of James.”)

Docetism: Meaning “image.” Docetic refers to being non-corporeal, or not being composed of matter. (See; Julius Cassianus.)

Dositheos: Believed to be the founder of Samaritan Gnosticism in the first century, and associate of Simon Magus. Dositheans were a Gnostic sect which called “God” only ‘Elohim’ not ‘Yehouah or Lord.’ He is stated as the author of the “Three Steles of Seth.” See; (NHL p. 396.) http://essenes.net/Dosithean.html

Reflection for April 25, 2007

For the Father is sweet, and in his will is what is good. He has taken cognizance of the things that are yours, that you might find rest in them. For by the fruits does one take cognizance of the things that are yours, because the children of the Father are his fragrance, for they are from the grace of his countenance. For this reason, the Father loves his fragrance, and manifests it in every place. And if it mixes with matter, he gives his fragrance to the light, and in his repose, he causes it to surpass every form (and) every sound. For it is not the ears that smell the fragrance, but (it is) the breath that has the sense of smell and attracts the fragrance to itself, and is submerged in the fragrance of the Father, so that he thus shelters it, and takes it to the place where it came from, from the first fragrance, which is grown cold. It is something in a psychic form, being like cold water which has frozen (?), which is on earth that is not solid, of which those who see it think it is earth; afterwards, it dissolves again. If a breath draws it, it gets hot. The fragrances, therefore, that are cold are from the division. For this reason, faith came; it dissolved the division, and it brought the warm pleroma of love, in order that the cold should not come again, but (that) there should be the unity of perfect thought.

–Gospel of truth

Deeper than this is the problem of a wrong attitude toward God and

toward prayer which is purely rationalistic. Somebody has said that
the God of the prayer-manuals can love no one but himself. It is this
God who is nothing but a mathematical first cause, running a big
machine of which He presses the button to get glory for Himself out
of it. This is terrible theology, but it is really not too wild a
caricature of the manuals. If you try to fit prayer into that kind of
structure you get something inhuman, and it is part of our problem
because it is too hard to get away from a structure that you studied
devotedly. What did we all do when we were taking our theology? It
went in one ear and out the other and we used it for examinations,
but it was still there and some priests remain dominated by this
purely mechanical formula. God  is a great big machine, an
impersonal, loveless kind of thing. This view of God makes, for
instance, the problem of evil insoluble because you can’t get away
from the fact that if He operates in this way He is causing evil, or
if He is not actually causing it He is permitting it, and you get
into this vicious circle—”How does God allow people to sin?” These
are not real problems; they becomes problems only when you have a
rationalistic concept of God. Our prayer tends to fall into this
pattern and it becomes falsified.

Any theology in which we pretend to justify God by reason is bound
to be bad theology. You cannot do it. It is the theology of Job’s
friends. The Book of Job tells us a great deal about prayer. It says
that here is a man who undergoes great evil and here are four people
who come along and explain the evil logically and they tell Job why
he is wrong and why he has to suffer. We talk about the patience of
Job, but Job is not patient at all. In fact, he is mad at God and he
is arguing with God and he is protesting against God and saying you
are not right, you are wrong, you shouldn’t be doing this to me. And
what happens at the end of it is that God comes along and says Job is
right.

This is real theology, because it is not logical. And the real
theological message of this is not that God hits people over the head
to show that He is there but that our relations with God are person-
to-person relationships, and that we don’t deal with God according to
some system. You don’t look up in a book, asking yourself, “How do I
talk to God about this?” Something evil has happened in your life. So
you look in the book, and the book says, “God permits evil for your
good,” and you say, “Oh well, all right.” There is nothing wrong with
this, but the Bible says that if you really talk with God and say
what is in your heart you are doing right. You speak to God as a
child to a father and you go to Him and tell Him what you want Him to
know and then He tells you what He wants you to know, and this puts
it on a completely person-to-person basis. You don’t get to God
through a system. You speak from your heart. That is the basic idea,
and that is what the Book of Job is saying. That is what prayer is
and that is what we have to do. God is jealous of us precisely and
not for his glory but for our freedom. He wants us to have this
freedom and spontaneity and the reality of this personal love for Him.

Thomas Merton
THOMAS MERTON IN ALASKA
New Directions, 1989

“Kabbalah teaches us you never know the narrative you are in while you are in it. But you must have confidence in the goodness of the universe while you actively pursue the path that is right for you.”

- David Ariel (author of “The Mystic Quest”)

Reflections for April 24, 2007

“Non-violence is perhaps the most exacting of all forms of struggle, not
only because it demands first of all that one be ready to suffer evil
and even face the threat of death without violent retaliation, but
because it excludes mere transient self-interest, even political, from
its considerations.” 

                        –Thomas Merton 

The time for healing of wounds has come.The time to build is upon us…We pledge ourselves to liberate all peoplefrom the continuing bondage of poverty, deprivation,suffering, gender and other discrimination…There is no easy road to freedom…None of us acting alone can achieve success.We must therefore act together as a united people,for reconciliation, for nation building,for the birth of a new world. 

                           –Nelson Mandela 

There are domestic animals, like the bull and the ass and others of this kind. Others are wild and live apart in the deserts. Man ploughs the field by means of the domestic animals, and from this he is nourished, he and the animals, whether tame or wild. Compare the perfect man. It is through powers which are submissive that he ploughs, preparing for everything to come into being. For it is because of this that the whole place stands, whether the good or the evil, the right and the left. The Holy Spirit shepherds everyone and rules all the powers, the “tame” ones and the “wild” ones, as well as those which are unique. For indeed he [...] shuts them in, in order that [...] wish, they will not be able to escape.                                    –The Gospel of Philip

How to be a Buddhist

To be a Buddhist, you must not be a Buddhist…

Prayer for April 23, 2007:Remember we are one

There lies before us, if we choose, continued
progress in happiness, knowledge and wisdom.
Shall we, instead, choose death, because we cannot
forget our quarrels? We appeal, as human beings,
to human beings: Remember your humanity
and forget the rest.

—Albert Einstein

You, the one
From whom on different paths
All of us have come.

To whom on different paths
All of us are going,
Make strong in our hearts what unites us;

Build bridges across all that divides us;
United make us rejoice in our diversity,

At one in our witness to your peace,
A rainbow of your glory.
Amen.
–Br. David Steindl-Rast, O.S.B.

We all drink from one water
We all breathe from one air
We rise from one ocean
And we live under one sky

Remember
We are one

The newborn  baby cries the same
The laughter of children is universal
Everyone’s blood is red
And our hearts beat the same song

Remember
We are one

We are all brothers and sisters
Only one family, only one earth
Together we live
And together we die

Remember
We are one

Peace be on you
Brothers and sisters
Peace be on you
–Anwar Fazal (Malaysia)

Gospel of Thomas part 10

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(10)

Jesus said,
"I have cast fire upon the world,

and see,

I am guarding it until it blazes."

The following quotes are from:
Your Word Is Fire,

The Hasidic Masters

On Contemplative Prayer
Edited and translated by Arthur Green

and Barry W. Holtz, 1977, Schocken Books

"When God is seated upon His throne,
a fire of silence falls upon
the heavenly beings."

When a person says the words of prayer
so that they become a throne for God
an awesome silent fire takes hold of him.
Then he knows not where he is;
he cannot see, he cannot hear.
All this happens in the flash of an instant-
as he ascends beyond the world of time.

Or Ha-Emet 2b.
(Merkavah mysticism)

A person at prayer is like a bed of coals,
As long as a single spark remains,
a great fire can again be kindled.
But without that spark there can be no fire.

Always remain attached to God,
even in those times
when you feel unable to ascend to Him.
You must preserve that single spark-
lest the fire of your soul be extinguished.

Liqqutim Yeqarim 15b; Keter Shem Tov 37b-38a.

Reflection for April 22, 2007: The song of Pistis Sophia

“It came to pass then, when Pistis Sophia saw her fellows, the invisibles, that she rejoiced in great joy and exulted exceedingly and desired to proclaim the wonders which I had wrought on her below in the earth of mankind, until I saved her. She came into the midst of the invisibles, and in their midst sang praises unto me, saying:

‘I will give thanks unto thee, O Light, for thou art a saviour; thou art a deliverer for all time.

I will utter this song to the Light, for it hath saved me and saved me out of the hand of the rulers, my foes.

And thou hast preserved me in all the regions, thou hast saved me out of the height and the depth of the chaos and out of the æons of the rulers of the sphere.

And when I was come out of the Height, I wandered round in regions in which is no light, and I could not return to the thirteenth æon, my dwelling-place.

For there was no light in me nor power. My power was utterly weakened (?).

And the Light saved me in all my afflictions. I sang praises unto the Light, and it hearkened unto me, when I was constrained.

It guided me in the creation of the æons to lead me up into the thirteenth æon, my dwelling-place.

I will give thanks unto thee, O Light, that thou hast saved me, and for thy wondrous works unto the race of men.

When I failed of my power, thou hast given me power; and when I failed of my light, thou didst fill me with purified light.

I was in the darkness and in the shadow of the chaos, bound with the mighty fetters of the chaos, and no light was in me.

For I have provoked the commandment of the Light and have transgressed, and I have made wroth the commandment of the Light, because I had gone out of my region.

And when I had gone down, I failed of my light and became without light, and no one had helped me.

And in my affliction I sang praises unto the Light, and it saved me out of my afflictions.

And it hath also broken asunder all my bonds and led me up out of the darkness and the affliction of the chaos.

I will give thanks unto thee, O Light, that thou hast saved me and that thy wondrous works have been wrought in the race of men.

And thou hast shattered the upper gates of the darkness and the mighty bolts of the chaos.

And thou didst let me depart out of the region in which I had transgressed, and my light was taken, because I have transgressed.

And I ceased from my mysteries and went down to the gates of the chaos.

And when I was constrained, I sang praises to the Light. It saved me out of all my afflictions.

Thou sentest thy stream; it gave me power and saved me out of all my afflictions.

I will give thanks unto thee, O Light, that thou hast saved me, and for thy wondrous works in the race of men.’

This then is the song which Pistis Sophia hath uttered in the midst of the four-and-twenty invisibles, desiring that they should know all the wondrous works which I had done for her, and desiring that they should know that I have gone to the world of men and have given them the mysteries of the Height. Now, therefore, who is exalted in his thought, let him come forward and say the solution of the song which Pistis Sophia hath uttered.”

–Pistis Sophia Chapter 81

Aeon: These are characterized as emanations from the ‘first cause,’ the Father in some Gnostic schema. The word not only refers to the “worlds” of emanation, but to the personalities as well. Sophia, Logos, and the other high principles are aeons. ”A link or level of the great chain of being, the sum total which is
the ‘All’ or Pleroma…Can also mean a world age.” (See; Gaffney) ”According to other Gnostics, for example Valentinus, the first principle is also called Aeon or the unfathomable, the primeval depth, the absolute abyss, bythos, in which everything is sublimated…” translated by Scott J. Thompson from G.W.F.
Hegel’s ”Vorlesungen über die Geschichte der Philosophie ii ,” (Theorie Werkausgabe, Bd. 19), Frankfurt a.M., Suhrkamp Verlag, 1977, 426-430] ( See also; Pleroma.)

Archon: “Ruler.” Refers to the creators and governing forces in the material world. The Demiurge and his angels (aeons). From a form of governing known in Alexandria. Like the term ‘Allogenes,’ archons are used to explain pleromic entities in versions of the Gnostic explanations for creation, however they may
be seen as evil forces. ”A Gnostic ruler, sometimes equivalent with the Demiurge. Archons are synonymous with ”princes of the world,” in the ”Gospel of John.” ”Basilides calls Archons, the heads of the spirit realms.”(”Gnostics,” CWF Hegal) (See also; Gaffney, p. 240.) Archons are the prototype for Jung’s allegory to ”archetypes.” (See; Hoeller. See also; ”Hidden Wisdom,” Smoley, Kinney, Penguin, 1999, Ch. 2.)+

Gospel of Thomas part 9

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(9)

Jesus said,
"Now the sower went out,
took a handful (of seeds),
and scattered them.

Some fell on the road;
the birds came

and gathered them up.

Others fell on the rock,
did not take root in the soil,
and did not produce ears.

And others fell on thorns;
they choked the seed(s)

and worms ate them.

And others fell on the good soil

and it produced good fruit:
it bore sixty per measure and

a hundred and twenty per measure."

Compare

Mark 4:2-9

He used stories to teach them many things, and this is part of what he taught:

Now listen! A farmer went out to scatter seed in a field. While the farmer was scattering the seed, some of it fell along the road and was eaten by birds. Other seeds fell on thin, rocky ground and quickly started growing because the soil wasn’t very deep. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched and dried up, because they did not have enough roots. Some other seeds fell where thornbushes grew up and choked out the plants. So they did not produce any grain. But a few seeds did fall on good ground where the plants grew and produced thirty or sixty or even a hundred times as much as was scattered.

Then Jesus said, “If you have ears, pay attention.”

Matthew 13:3-8

Then he taught them many things by using stories. He said: A farmer went out to scatter seed in a field. While the farmer was scattering the seed, some of it fell along the road and was eaten by birds. Other seeds fell on thin, rocky ground and quickly started growing because the soil wasn’t very deep. 6But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched and dried up, because they did not have enough roots. Some other seeds fell where thornbushes grew up and choked the plants. But a few seeds did fall on good ground where the plants produced a hundred or sixty or thirty times as much as was scattered.

Luke 8:5-8

A farmer went out to scatter seed in a field. While the farmer was doing it, some of the seeds fell along the road and were stepped on or eaten by birds. Other seeds fell on rocky ground and started growing. But the plants did not have enough water and soon dried up. 7\Some other seeds fell where thornbushes grew up and choked the plants. The rest of the seeds fell on good ground where they grew and produced a hundred times as many seeds.

When Jesus had finished speaking, he said, “If you have ears, pay attention!”

In this parable, it seems that the "seeds" are not really intended for those already on the wide path. Falling in the road, they are trampled underfoot or eaten by "birds". To the “birds”, the seeds are just a snack, an interesting tidbit, perhaps, but they derive nothing substantial from them. These seeds do not take root. Furthermore, this crazy farmer does not try to seek out only good soil for planting. He scatters his seeds everywhere, notably "off-road” among rocks and weeds! I believe Jesus perceived his mission as being not for those on "the path" of organized religion, but to those by the wayside, those ignored and overlooked by the scribes and priests, as in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37).

Jesus replied:

As a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, robbers attacked him and grabbed everything he had. They beat him up and ran off, leaving him half dead.

A priest happened to be going down the same road. But when he saw the man, he walked by on the other side. Later a temple helper came to the same place. But when he saw the man who had been beaten up, he also went by on the other side. A man from Samaria then came traveling along that road. When he saw the man, he felt sorry for him and went over to him. He treated his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put him on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next morning he gave the innkeeper two silver coins and said, “Please take care of the man. If you spend more than this on him, I will pay you when I return.” Then Jesus asked, “Which one of these three people was a real neighbor to the man who was beaten up by robbers?”

The teacher answered, “The one who showed pity.”

Although it is possible for seeds to sprout and grow within any given path, it seems to me that most the well-known "paths" have way too many "birds" and

not enough Good Earth.

The phrase: ”bore sixty per measure and a hundred and twenty per measure." may refer to each of the twelve disciples receiving FIVE measures, as in the five Gnostic sacraments. 12 x 5 = 60

If they each doubled what they were given, as in the parable of the “talents” in Matthew 25:14-29,

For — as a man going abroad did call his own servants, and did deliver to them his substance,

and to one he gave five talents, and to another two, and to another one, to each according to his several ability, went abroad immediately.

And he who did receive the five talents, having gone, wrought with them, and made other five talents;

in like manner also he who [received] the two, he gained, also he, other two;

and he who did receive the one, having gone away, digged in the earth, and hid his lord’s money.

And after a long time cometh the lord of those servants, and taketh reckoning with them;

and he who did receive the five talents having come, brought other five talents, saying, `Sir, five talents thou didst deliver to me; lo, other five talents did I gain besides them.

And his lord said to him, Well done, servant, good and faithful, over a few things thou wast faithful, over many things I will set thee; enter into the joy of thy lord.

And he who also did receive the two talents having come, said, Sir, two talents thou didst deliver to me; lo, other two talents I did gain besides them.

His lord said to him, Well done, servant, good and faithful, over a few things thou wast faithful, over many things I will set thee; enter into the joy of thy lord.

And he also who hath received the one talent having come, said, Sir, I knew thee, that thou art a hard man, reaping where thou didst not sow, and gathering from whence thou didst not scatter;

and having been afraid, having gone away, I hid thy talent in the earth; lo, thou hast thine own!

And his lord answering said to him, Evil servant, and slothful, thou hadst known that I reap where I did not sow, and I gather whence I did not scatter!

it behoved thee then to put my money to the money-lenders, and having come I had received mine own with increase.

Take therefore from him the talent, and give to him having the ten talents,

for to every one having shall be given, and he shall have overabundance, and from him who is not having, even that which he hath shall be taken from him;

that would be TEN measures each. 12 x 10 = 120

Reflections for April 21, 2007

End the sleep which weighs heavily upon you!

Depart from the forgetfulness which fills you with darkness!

But before all other words, know your birth.  Know yourself,

from what substance you are, and from what race you are from and what species!

O soul, you stubborn soul, be sober and shake you persist and live in the body,

you exist in roughness.  When you entered into bodily birth, you were brought forth.

Now you have come inside the Bridal chamber and you are illuminated in mind.

—Teachings of Silvanus

Where are you going, people, drunkards who have drunk yourself stupid with the unmixed words of ignorance? (…) Stop and become sober, look up with the eyes of the heart! (…)Seek a guide on the way who will guide you to the doors of  knowledge, where is the radiant light which is free of darkness, where no one is drunk but all are sober and look with the heart on the one who wills to be seen!

—Corpus Hermeticum

You still sleep and dream dreams.  Wake up and return, taste and eat the true food! Distribute the word and water of life! Cease from the evil lusts and desires and the teachings of the Anomoeans – evil heresies that do not endure.

–the Concept of Our Great Power