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Father and Mother

Chapter 101 of the Gospel of Thomas for Awakening

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[Jesus said,] Whoever does not hate his father and his mother as I do cannot become a disciple to me. And whoever does not love his father and his mother as I do cannot become a disciple to me. For my mother […], but my true mother gave me life. (101)

Nancy Johnson: He who does not hate his father and his mother as I do cannot be my disciple, and who does not love his mother and father as I do, cannot be my disciple. For my mother killed me, but my true mother has given me life.

Brown: Whoever does not hate his father and his mother in my way, shall not be able to become a Disciple to me. And whoever does [not] love his [Father] and his Mother in my way, shall not be able to become a Disciple to me. For my mother [bore me], yet [my] true [Mother] gave me life.

This verse clearly implies that each of us has two sets of “parents”–one false and one true. One is to be despised or disregarded, and the other is to be loved and clung to. We, too, are dual, having a false nature and a true nature–one of which we should disregard and one of which we should hold to. Our two natures are material and spiritual. In the Bible there are statements about the sins of the fathers being visited on the children unto the third and fourth generations. This is really about the karma created in our previous bodies that are in a sense the “fathers” of our present body. Actually the incarnate human is subject to two forces: those of the body and those of the mind. These correspond to Adam and Eve in the private history of each of us. So our previous bodies are our fathers and our previous minds are our mothers. Both have produced the karma we are reaping.

Those who have attained a spiritual, intuitive perspective realize that we have two spiritual parents: God the Father and God the Mother. Our Father is eternal Spirit and our Mother is eternal Power that embodies itself in creation and moves us along the evolutionary path from life to life. The Father sends us forth into the evolutionary womb of the Mother who fosters us and unerringly brings us to the perfect status of Sons of God, thus completing the triune nature of eternal existence.

Therefore we should disregard and turn from the material temporal parents–our body and mind–for this is what the word translated “hate” really means. And we should love our eternal Father and Mother. Our false mother gave us material birth which ended always in death, but our Divine Mother has given us ever-expanding life in the form of evolving spiritual consciousness. Therefore Nancy Johnson’s translation says that one mother killed us and the other gave us life.

There is a saying in India: “The parents give birth; but God gives life. There is an end to birth; there is no end to life.” So everyone turns from one set of parents and holds fast to the other. Some choose death and some choose life. The choice is ours.

Read the next article in the Gospel of Thomas for Yogis: Exoteric Religion

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Chapters in The Gospel of Thomas for Awakening

  1. The Open Secrets
  2. Seeking Is More Than Just Finding
  3. Seeking the Kingdom Realistically
  4. The One Goal
  5. From the Seen to the Unseen
  6. What Jesus Wants Us To Do
  7. Eat Or Be Eaten
  8. Fishing Wisely
  9. The Inner Field
  10. Guarding the Flame
  11. What Will You Do?
  12. Who Shall Lead?
  13. The Unspeakable
  14. When Virtue is Vice
  15. Father in Heaven; Father on Earth
  16. Divine Discord
  17. The Divine Gift
  18. The Origin is the End
  19. Original Being
  20. A Mustard Seed
  21. Disciples of Jesus
  22. How to Enter the Kingdom
  23. Unity of Vision
  24. Where is Christ?
  25. Love and Protect
  26. Seeing
  27. The Fasting and Sabbath of the Spirit
  28. How Jesus Saw the World
  29. Hidden Treasure
  30. One
  31. The Power of Unbelief
  32. Spiritual Strength
  33. Speak It Out
  34. The Blind
  35. The Secret of Spiritual Security
  36. Live Carefree
  37. Unashamed Before God
  38. At the Source
  39. The Religion of Ignorance
  40. Within God
  41. Spiritual Gain and Loss
  42. Move On
  43. Challenging the Master
  44. The Source of Good and Evil
  45. Great in the Kingdom
  46. Impossible Duality
  47. Peace That Moves Mountains
  48. Back to the Source
  49. Children of the Light
  50. Here and Now
  51. Seeing Yet Blind
  52. Outer Ritual or Inner Growth?
  53. Infinite Transcendence
  54. “Hate”
  55. True Understanding
  56. Wheat and Weeds
  57. Finding Life
  58. Live and Die Not
  59. “Lest Thou Also…”
  60. Who Will Die; Who Will Live
  61. The Path of Unknowing
  62. Awakened by Death
  63. Turning Ourselves Away
  64. Gullibility
  65. The Rejected is Truly Accepted
  66. All–and Nothing
  67. The Blessings of Persecution
  68. Life or Death Lie Within
  69. Admission
  70. Not a Divider
  71. Seeking the Harvest
  72. Thirsting in Vain
  73. Who Shall Enter?
  74. Unfailing Treasure
  75. The All Speaks
  76. Well-dressed Ignoramuses
  77. True Blessedness
  78. A Duplication
  79. Balancing the Inner and the Outer
  80. Near and Far
  81. Seeing the Unseeable
  82. Seeing Your Unknown Side
  83. Our Forefather Adam
  84. Blessed Homelessness
  85. Doubly Wretched
  86. Onward and Upward
  87. Twofold Life
  88. The Yoke of Christ
  89. Knowing the Unknown
  90. Asking and Hearing
  91. Give Not…
  92. Seeking and Knocking
  93. Right Generosity
  94. The Expanding Kingdom
  95. The Fulfilled Universe
  96. Taking Stock
  97. The Spiritual Family
  98. Three Debts
  99. Father and Mother
  100. Exoteric Religion
  101. Ready for Invasion
  102. Penitential Discipline, Anyone?
  103. Daring to Know
  104. Ending Duality
  105. “I Love You More…”
  106. At the Source
  107. Finding the Hidden Treasure
  108. Having Come to the End
  109. Immortal and Above the World
  110. Body and Soul
  111. Where is the Kingdom?
  112. Male and Female?
  113. In Conclusion
  114. Glossary
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