We are happy to announce the publication of Abbot George’s latest book, The Gospel of Thomas for Awakening: A Commentary on Jesus’ Sayings as Recorded by the Apostle Thomas in printed and ebook formats.
The following is from the back cover of the book:
“From the very beginning there were two Christianities.”
While the rest of the Apostles dispersed to various areas of the Mediterranean world, the apostle Thomas travelled to India, where growing evidence shows that Jesus spent his “Lost Years,” and which had been the source of the wisdom which he had brought to the “West.”
In The Gospel of Thomas for Awakening, Abbot George shines the “Light of the East” on the sometimes enigmatic sayings of Jesus recorded by his apostle Saint Thomas, revealing their unique and rich practical nature for modern day seekers for spiritual life.
The Gospel of Thomas for Awakening is available at Amazon.com in print and Kindle versions, and at Smashwords.com in a number of ebook formats.
Here is a sample chapter of the book:
Ending Duality
Jesus said, When you make the two one, you will become the sons of man, and when you say, ‘Mountain, move away,’ it will move away. (Gospel of Thomas 106)
Making the two one
Unity is always the state of everything: duality is only part of the dream aspect of relative existence, of creation. So what Jesus is saying is that we must dispel the illusion of duality–banish it from our mind–not by intellectual affirmation or any thought process but by entering into the state of Oneness though meditational experience, through prolonged practice of yoga. This is possible because unity lies at the very heart of our existence; it is our eternal nature.
Becoming the Sons of Man
Jesus often referred to himself as Son of Man, and the expression occurs over eighty times in the four Gospels. It appears even more times than that in the Old Testament where it is used by God and angels to address prophets and others that are being taught by direct revelation. So just as Jesus is not the Christ, but rather a Christ, in the way he was a Son of Man in the sense that all human beings are destined to be just the same as he.
Sons of Man and Sons of God are really the same thing, which is reasonable considering that man and God are one. That being so, these words of Saint Paul are very significant for us: “The earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.… Because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now” (Romans 8:19, 21, 22). Creation itself is the great womb of God in which all sentient being are gestating (evolving) unto the point of delivery (birth) into the Infinite Consciousness as liberated Sons of God.
Moving the mountain
The mountain will move when the Sons of God tell it to, because they are one with the mountain. In this verse, as well as in similar ones in the Bible, a mountain is any obstacle to spiritual life and progress. It is literal, too, because I have seen Dur Mountain in Cairo which moved several miles at the command of a Coptic Orthodox saint, a simple shoemaker. (After it had moved some miles he called out: “Dur!” which means “Stop!” So it is called Dur Mountain.) Anyone can see from the strata of the mountain that it is sitting in a place not native to it. If you go to its point of origin you see that the strata fit perfectly like pieces of a puzzle. No geologist can honestly deny the fact that the mountain is now sitting miles from its original location.
The vistas opened to us by Jesus have no boundaries except those we set ourselves.
Get The Gospel of Thomas for Awakening from Amazon.com.