Thank You: The last post

This will be the last posting for this blog. For those of you who have read what I have written, I hope my words might have genuinely helped you in anyway.

Thank you blogger for the means to post.

Thank you, God for your help, inspiration, and most of all, for being there when I needed you most.

Peace and Love to all of you.

Logion 103

Jesus said, "Fortunate is the man who knows where the brigands will enter, so that he may get up, muster his domain, and arm himself before they invade."

For me, this means that I should know my weaknesses which can be my strongest desires, or character traits that hinder my spritual path. If I am trying to become more spiritually-oriented, the Lord can test me, and these tests can be the brigands, or they can be the normal circumstances of living a worldly existence.
I can be passive in remedying these weaknesses, or I can proactively seek to correct them. These tests will come again and again until I can conquer the assailants. For some people these brigands can be from internal sources such as procrastination, depression, anxiety, etc.

To muster, then, is to have an organized plan to deal with the brigands, something not improvised at the last moment. To arm, then, is to implement the plan with immediacy, rapidness, confidence, and authority. The plan may be as simple as listening to my favorite music album to help me to realign with spirit.

From Buddha's Way of Virtue:

Is there in all the world a man so modest that he provokes no blame, as a noble steed never deserves the whip? As a noble steed stung by the whip, be ye spirited and swift.

and:

Not nakedness, nor matted hair, not dirt, nor fastings, not sleeping in sanctuaries, nor ashes, nor ascetic posture—none of these things purifies a man who is not free from doubt.

Logion 79

A woman from the crowd said to Him, "Blessed are the womb which bore You and the breasts which nourished You." He said to her, "Blessed are those who have heard the word of the Father and have truly kept it. For there will be days when you will say, 'Blessed are the womb which has not conceived and the breasts which have not given milk.'"

As I free myself from some of the things that are holding me back in reaching higher levels of enlightenment, the more I become realized in escaping the karmic sufferings of this worldly existence. And in bringing this knowledge to action in my life, the more I escape the karma of those I live near, the karma of my demographic groups, the karma of my culture, etc.

The insinuated woman referenced at the end of the passage is the incarnation of unity consciousness which is, in essence, "thou art that." There can be "days" when horrible circumstances effect many people, but this conferred immunity imparted by being true to the principles contained in the Gospel of Thomas will be in force.

There is the idea of escaping rebirth in Buddhism, of being rid of bad karma once and for all. From the Buddha's Way of Virtue:

"No more will he be born whose patience is as the earth's, who is firm as a pillar and pious, pure as some unruffled lake."

Logion 4

Jesus said, "The man old in days will not hesitate to ask a small child seven days old about the place of life, and he will live. For many who are first will become last, and they will become one and the same."

Babies are born in a state of unity consciousness, not knowing how to distinguish themselves from the external. As the baby grows, it learns more and more that it is a separate consciousness from the All. In some manner of speaking, part of this is societal teaching that might not be at the highest understanding.
There is great humility in speaking to the baby, and humility is a prerequisite to learning and experiencing higher spiritual knowledge. It may come apparent to an aspirant that one knows that one has much to learn, and it can be much less of a "shock to one's system" if one is in self-admission to one's ignorance.
The man in years represents an individual relying on experience to conduct his life. There is the reversal that the baby has very little wisdom. If one's external reality is representative of one's internal reality, then in one's absorbing the baby into one's consciousness, the baby's emotions can be reflective of one's emotions. The more one can do this, the more this can be in evidence.

In genuinely asking the baby, the man advanced in years becomes receptive to learning, and he becomes more as the baby who is not clouded by self and societally imposed mores.

From Logion 22:

Jesus saw infants being suckled. He said to His disciples, "These infants being suckled are like those who enter the Kingdom."

Logion 27

Jesus said, "If you do not fast as regards the world, you will not find the Kingdom. If you do not observe the Sabbath as a Sabbath, you will not see the Father."

For me, this means that I need to set aside time regularly to try to connect to the Divine. This fasting is meant to give a clarity to the connection.
I have to balance this connecting with the need to function in the material world. There is the juggling of my priorities to become optimal in both, and I have to maintain both proper protocol in both. Specifically, one of the Ten Commandments is to observe the Sabbath.
For me, observing the Sabbath means to rest and not to create. It is the chance to relate what has happened to myself during the week, and to relate the whirl of circumstances and causalities to the Divine. And in doing so, I naturally ask the Divine for answers. And, if I am truly fasting from the world, I am optimizing the possibility of clarity in the answers.

Logion 42

Jesus said, "Become passers-by."

This is the statement of non-attachment. Also, it means not to hold rigidly to one's worldview, because in spiritual advancement it can be, and is often shattered. So to not move from one's old way of viewing the world, is to be stagnant, and that even in its satisfactorily explaining "everything," it falls short.
One has to adventure from one's secure place of understanding, armed with life experience, to experience the unknown and to test whether one's wisdom has a validity in more supernal realms. This is not to say, this is to recklessly escape one's chaos necessarily, but it is to venture forth with some security in one's understanding. In other words, it is not an entirely unplanned adventure, and it is a prerequisite to have had some degree of success in the material plane. That failing, one's capacity to understand new principles of higher understanding will leave one mired in chaos heaped upon chaos. Significant learning and understanding will serve the passer-by well.
Very likely to advance to an understanding of this Gospel of Thomas, one's worldview will be shattered. This Gospel is written largely from the vein of unity consciousness, and its understanding is trying for even one who has attained this state. In fact, the attainment of the higher plane of Messianic Consciousness is necessary for many of the pieces to be understood. That is, one must operate having a higher consciousness aware of one's being in unity consciousness, yet still being functional in terrestrial realms. And in having achieved this state the individual willfully and consciously brings to bear the Messianic channeling of powerful spiritual forces. And there must be yet higher states of consciousness than Messianic Consciousness. It is important to note that even though one might be cognizant of Messianic capability in this higher state, one can choose not to use it in the capacity of the Messiah. That some would say that one would necessarily want to become the Messiah in having achieved this state cannot be true.

And in these new revelations, one must answer new questions where the answers are one's reality. One can fall back, but one never loses the memory, and there is the pain in knowing one is living in a lesser plane. And this fallen state may be still enlightened yet populated by very few people. This falling is to hold on.
And, yes, you can talk to very enlightened people, who have never experienced these states, who think because they are enlightened they must have experienced these elevated states. Personal experience is your only option. When these Logia begin to make sense to you, you'll know. People will be sure you're wrong. You're not.

From Bhuddha's Way of Virtue:

As a bee taking honey from flowers, without hurt to bloom or scent, so let the sage seek his food from house to house.

Logion 107

Jesus said, "The Kingdom is like a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. One of them, the largest, went astray. He left the ninety-nine sheep and looked for that one until he found it. When he had gone to such trouble, he said to the sheep, 'I love for you more than the ninety-nine.'"

For me, the one hundred represents the shepherd locked into Logion-100 consciousness where one has not yet become Christ-like as is represented in Logion 108. The shepherd, one of the sheep, has the world nicely under control as is represented by the divisions in Logion 100, but there is more yet to learn.
The sheep represent the dynamism of the Logia in describing past situations. The sheep one has represent the Logia that one understands, but the lost sheep represents the Father who shows that there is always more to learn.

The Kingdom represents the attainment of consciousness that what is inside oneself is represented symbolically outside of us. The persistence in finding the lost sheep proves that one is worthy of meeting the Father.

The lost sheep is the Father.