Home » Original Christianity » Introduction to the Gospel of Thomas » True Understanding

True Understanding

Chapter 56 of the Gospel of Thomas for Awakening

The Gospel of Thomas for Awakeing cover
Also available as a free PDF download from our E-Library, or as a paperback or ebook from Amazon internationally.

Jesus said, Whoever has come to understand the world has found (only) a corpse, and whoever has found a corpse is superior to the world. (56)

This is extremely clear. The only question is whether the reader will believe it or not and to what degree.

The principle is also clear: Spirit is life, is all; and that which is not spirit is dead, is nothing. The world, being an expression of Spirit must in actuality be alive, but if the individual person is unaware of Spirit as the source and essence of the world, then for him the world is dead–worse, it is deadly. In the motion picture Little Big Man, the old chief says to his adopted grandson played by Dustin Hoffman: “The white man believes that the world is dead, and after a while he believes that he is dead.” A materialistic view of the world breeds a materialistic, soulless view of oneself and of others. This is the horror of Marxist Dialectical Materialism as we saw lived out in the Soviet Union for so long.

But there is a practical aspect to this. We have to “ensoul” the world by awakening our own spirit consciousness. When we do that we will see that it is overflowing with life–divine life–that for the awakened person experience of the world is experience, even a revelation, of the spirit. But for the unawake it remains dead and purposeless.

When we understand that the world of itself is nothing, that it is an expression of divinity, and therefore at the same time everything, then we have risen above corpse consciousness into God consciousness. Infinity is ours.

Read the next article in the Gospel of Thomas for Yogis: Wheat and Weeds

(Visited 562 time, 1 visit today)

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
(Visited 562 time, 1 visit today)