Post by Rogier van Vlissingen on Oct 12, 2006 5:28:46 GMT -5
PGoTh:
quote
J said to the disciples, "Compare me to something and tell me what I'm like." Simon Peter said to him, "You are like a just angel." Matthew said to him, "You are like a wisdom teacher." Thomas said to him, "Master, my mouth is utterly unable to say what you are like."
And he took him, and withdrew, and spoke thre sayings to him. When Thomas came back to his friends, they asked him, "What did J say to you?"
Thomas said to them, "If I tell you once of the sayings he spoke to me, you will pick up rocks and stone me, and fire will come from the rocks and consume you."
unquote
Form:
Besides some minor word choices that sharpen the language a bit, there is the elimination of one puzzling line which appears contradictory, and the result is a much more coherent and relevant statement.
Content:
This saying would be a big question mark, were it not for the material that has already been provided in The Disappearance of the Universe on p. 81, where Pursah reports the three things Jesus said to her that day, i.e. in her previous incarnation as Thomas:
"
You dream of a desert, where mirages are your rulers and tormentors, yet these images come from you.
Father did not make the desert, and your home is still with Him.
To return, forgive your brother, for only then do you forgive yourself.
"
And Pursah's comment adds that this was said privately not because of Jesus' concern for his own health and well-being, but out of concern for the well-being of the then apostle Thomas (now Pursah).
These lines make one hundred percent sense in the context of A Course In Miracles, as the modern elaboration of Jesus' teachings. In fact in DU this statement is used to setup Gary's introduction by Pursah to A Course In Miracles.
With the Course we would also note that the title of Master is not one of awe, but one of respect. And the most common sense reason for calling Jesus Teacher or Master is that he speaks with an authority which is alien to the ego, and which therefore as students we lack unless and until we ourselves become fully identified with the thought system of the Holy Spirit.
The reference to the stoning and the fire that consumes, are of course allusions to the ego's fear of the wrath of God, which is the archetypical protection of the ego's thought system which serves to defend it against our looking at it with Jesus's vision, for it cannot stand the light. As long as we are suitably afraid of looking, the ego thought system is assured of our allegiance. It is when we start to look at it in the light of Jesus' vision that it shifts "from suspiciousness to viciousness," as the Course says at one point.
quote
J said to the disciples, "Compare me to something and tell me what I'm like." Simon Peter said to him, "You are like a just angel." Matthew said to him, "You are like a wisdom teacher." Thomas said to him, "Master, my mouth is utterly unable to say what you are like."
And he took him, and withdrew, and spoke thre sayings to him. When Thomas came back to his friends, they asked him, "What did J say to you?"
Thomas said to them, "If I tell you once of the sayings he spoke to me, you will pick up rocks and stone me, and fire will come from the rocks and consume you."
unquote
Form:
Besides some minor word choices that sharpen the language a bit, there is the elimination of one puzzling line which appears contradictory, and the result is a much more coherent and relevant statement.
Content:
This saying would be a big question mark, were it not for the material that has already been provided in The Disappearance of the Universe on p. 81, where Pursah reports the three things Jesus said to her that day, i.e. in her previous incarnation as Thomas:
"
You dream of a desert, where mirages are your rulers and tormentors, yet these images come from you.
Father did not make the desert, and your home is still with Him.
To return, forgive your brother, for only then do you forgive yourself.
"
And Pursah's comment adds that this was said privately not because of Jesus' concern for his own health and well-being, but out of concern for the well-being of the then apostle Thomas (now Pursah).
These lines make one hundred percent sense in the context of A Course In Miracles, as the modern elaboration of Jesus' teachings. In fact in DU this statement is used to setup Gary's introduction by Pursah to A Course In Miracles.
With the Course we would also note that the title of Master is not one of awe, but one of respect. And the most common sense reason for calling Jesus Teacher or Master is that he speaks with an authority which is alien to the ego, and which therefore as students we lack unless and until we ourselves become fully identified with the thought system of the Holy Spirit.
The reference to the stoning and the fire that consumes, are of course allusions to the ego's fear of the wrath of God, which is the archetypical protection of the ego's thought system which serves to defend it against our looking at it with Jesus's vision, for it cannot stand the light. As long as we are suitably afraid of looking, the ego thought system is assured of our allegiance. It is when we start to look at it in the light of Jesus' vision that it shifts "from suspiciousness to viciousness," as the Course says at one point.