Mysticism & Gospel of Thomas – No. 11 – Living from the Spirit

Verse - Living from the Spirit

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. The day you receive the living, then you will decide what is alive. When you dwell in the light, what will you do? The day you become one, you will be two. But when you become two, what will you do?"

Comment

These paradoxical-sounding words reveal their inner truth to those meditating on them. Heaven, the visible cosmos, passes away just like all things on earth and like the earth itself. For it is subject to the same law of change. The world of embodied beings, like the world of disembodied beings, is a realm of becoming, growing and dissolving, knowing no beginning and no end. In this respect, the same applies to the world beyond as to the world here and now: the dead do not live as long as they know nothing of true life, while the truly living, those who have awakened to themselves and to the inner light, do not die on either side.

The Gate of Death

For they pass through the gate of death beyond, which is called 'birth' on this side, as they pass through the gate of birth beyond, which is called 'death' on this side. As untouched, because they live neither from the senses nor from the soul, but from the spirit. When man emerged from the divine all-unity in which he originally lived and is still rooted today and awoke to self-awareness, two became one. I and self, man and God, the kingdom of the world and the kingdom of God.

This duality is the source of all ignorance and all suffering. When man becomes aware of it and turns inward, towards unity, then it happens that two live in one and the same house in peace. Because the I, the outer man, allows itself to be guided by the inner man, the self.