The Gospel of

Thomas
A Blueprint for Spiritual Growth
By David F. Capps
The Gospel of Thomas,
A Blueprint for Spiritual Growth

2005 First Printing

2008 Second Printing
© 2005 by David F. Capps

All rights reserved. This electronic form of the book may be distributed
freely at no cost as long as no changes are made to the book or text.
Please respect the rights of the author. If there is any question about
proper use, please contact the publisher.

For information regarding permission to reprint material from this

book, please mail or FAX your request in writing to The Gnostic
Wisdom Foundation at the address below, or go to our website
at www.gnosticwisdom.org and leave an e-mail at
cs@gnosticwisdom.org.

ISBN 0-9774198-0-0

Published by:
The Gnostic Wisdom Foundation
104 Jefferson Drive
Kamiah, ID 83536
866-389-5233
FAX 208-926-4169

www.gnosticwisdom.org

Cover design by Connection Graphics Inc.

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 Acknowledgements

This book would not have been possible without the loving
support and faith of my dear wife and life partner, Miriam G.
Carroll. This book is also the result of teaching presented in the
spiritual growth class in Kooskia, Idaho, the students of which
are an inspiration to me in their faithful attention to spiritual
principles, their curiosity and their openness to learn new facts
and details of our religious and spiritual past. I would also like to
acknowledge Carol Asher, Miriam G. Carroll and Rhonda Carroll
for their help in reading and refining the information in this book.

Thank you and God bless you.

David F. Capps

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iv
Table of Contents

About the Author . . . . vii

Forward . . . . xi
Introduction . . . . xv
The Sayings . . . . 1
The Exercises . . . . 115
The Process of Self-Discovery . . 115
Observation . . . . 117
Traumas . . . . 119
Issues . . . . 120
Programming . . . . 121
Imprinting . . . . 122
Recognizing the Different Voices Within . 122
The Process of Inner Unification . 124
Forgiveness and Non-judgment . 125
The Forgiveness Exercise . . 130
The Transformation of Emotions . 132
Resolving Inner Traumas . . 134
Resolving Inner Issues . . 135
Becoming Your True Self . . 136
Functioning From Love . . 137
Recognizing the Christ . . 138
References . . . . . 139

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vi
 About the Author
David began his spiritual quest in 1970 at the age of 23.
He had become disenchanted with the Christian approach to
religion and embarked on a study of Eastern religions. David’s
quest, like that of so many other people, was really a search for
truth. The vast array of information available quickly leaves the
searcher dazed and confused, hoping to find something which
“feels right” and “makes sense”. David spent several months
considering what the truth might look like so it could be
recognized when it was seen. He decided the truth was
something which remained largely unchanged by the passage of
time, the effect of different cultures, and the great distances
separating the people and religious systems around the globe.
By comparing spiritual principles from different religious systems
and sorting out the differences, a core set of basic “truths”
emerged. This allowed a focusing of effort on a simple set of
spiritual principles and practices.
This focused practice resulted in his having a classical
mystical experience in February of 1985, where David found

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himself standing in the presence of God. Everything physical had
disappeared. Only he and God remained. During this time David
experienced the overwhelming unconditional love which comes
from God. The revelations regarding life, death and the true
nature of spirit quickly followed. The intensity of this experience
slowly faded over a three month period. By early summer he was
asking, “Is this it? You bring me into Your presence and Your
light and in three months it fades and goes away?” He was
shown that if he continued with the spiritual practices he had
learned he would permanently re-enter this state of grace he
experienced during his mystical experience. That took place
seven years later, in 1992. David now lives completely within the
presence of God and has been sharing his insights with all those
who take the time to listen.
David has been teaching spiritual growth to a weekly
class since 1987 and is demonstrating the depth of
understanding present in a true spiritual master. This book is a
result of that level of insight and understanding.
David lives in North Central Idaho and can be contacted
through the publisher, The Gnostic Wisdom Foundation.

Hello :-)
My name is Kevin Elliott. In searching for answers to
spiritual questions I had a few years ago, I chanced upon a book
entitled The Gospel of Thomas: A Blueprint for Spiritual Growth,
by David F. Capps. Little did I realize at the time how much this
book would change my life.
The main section of the book covers teachings taken
from the 114 sayings of Jesus that make up the Gospel of
Thomas. Afterwards, David gives us a simple set of exercises
that gradually help us to confront and resolve our inner negativity
in order for us to grow spiritually and progress towards
spiritual enlightenment. Although it's based upon a Gnostic text,
the teachings are universal in scope. I have come to understand
over the years that many religious and spiritual traditions share
the same spiritual truths and principles, such as recognizing the
need to deal with our inner negativity as well as practicing
kindness and respect for others.
The thing I love about this book is how
refreshingly simple and straightforward it is in its approach. A lot

viii
of times I came across religious and spiritual teachings that were
filled with rules and rituals that didn't make any sense to me,
much less help me on my spiritual path. What I was looking for
were simple, practical methods that I could use to help resolve
my inner pain and suffering so I could experience Love and True
Happiness in my heart. Occasionally, I unwittingly stumbled upon
such a spiritual encounter in my search for Truth, but I didn't
understand how the process worked in order to repeat and
even deepen the experience. David showed me how to do just
that - and he did it without piling on all that needless religious
dogma, rules, rituals, etc. I have nothing against those things in
and of themselves; I'm just a simple kind of guy who doesn’t
want to feel like I’m wasting my time as I search for the answers
to my problems. Perhaps you can relate to that?
The teachings address the spirit (our higher self) and
ego (our lower self) and how our fear-based emotions and other
negativity feed the ego, making it stronger and more controlling
over our lives. This results in our experience of pain and
suffering and is often spread to other people through our actions
in the world. An example of this would be an angry person
yelling at someone who had nothing to do with his or her foul
temper. The solution is to stop feeding the ego negative
emotions and to begin feeding our spirit love-based emotions so
that it can awaken from its deep sleep, grow and in time become
empowered. Inner healing also needs to take place in order for
us to gradually transform the negative thoughts and emotions
already stored within us into positive affirmations and love-based
emotions. In time, with persistence, spiritual growth is achieved
and the individual progresses towards the conscious realization
of spiritual enlightenment.
With sufficient spiritual growth comes the expansion of
our hearts and minds, allowing us to consciously realize our True
Selves (the part of us that is of the same essence as God), as
well as the realization of Divine Love and Oneness with All. The
exercises also help us to gradually dispel falsehoods and
illusions from our consciousness, allowing us to sharpen our
perceptions in order to "see" and experience Reality as it is.
The exercises at the end of this simple, easy-to-read
book basically help the individual to gradually remove all the
mental and emotional blocks from their consciousness that
prevent them from experiencing the Presence of God (Nirvana,
spiritual enlightenment, Heaven on Earth, the blissful states of
Peace, Love and Joy, etc.).

ix
 David F. Capps can be reached through The Gnostic
Wisdom Foundation (www.gnosticwisdom.org).
David was kind enough to allow me to share his book
freely with people online. If you wish, you may download a PDF
version of The Gospel of Thomas in its entirety on
www.memoware.com.
To find David's e-book on this website, all you have to
do is search for "Capps" and follow the instructions on the
download page. If, for any reason, you are unable to download
your copy, please contact me at Audiosane@aol.com with an
e-mail address where I can send the e-book.
This book is also available for free in its entirety on
MySpace. Here's the URL address:
www.myspace.com/thegospelofthomas
For those who prefer more copies of the paperback
version, David's book is also available on www.amazon.com
and www.gnosticwisdom.org. If you're using
www.amazon.com, simply do a search for "David Capps".
Thank you so much for your time. I hope I have been of
help to you.

Take care.
Kevin :-)

x
 Forward

More than half a million ancient texts have been

recovered from the Middle East. Approximately 20% of those
deal with religious issues, providing over 100,000 new religious
texts from the ancient world. As these texts are being translated
a radically new understanding of our religious past is emerging.
Among those discoveries are The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag
Hammadi Scrolls which are providing exciting new insights into
the New Testament and the beginning years of the Christian
faith. Other ancient texts are providing insights into the Old
Testament and filling in many of the gaps in our own history and
the development of the human race.
Because of the difficulty in reading the cuneiform text
and recovering the writing on ancient scrolls, the task facing the
scholars in translating the ancient knowledge is daunting, to say
the least. While many of the scholars have religious training and

xi
backgrounds, this training sometimes makes it more difficult to
perceive the exact meaning of these ancient texts because the
tendency is to try to translate, or create an expression in our
modern language that is not at odds with the religious beliefs of
the scholar. As a result, some translations fail to make much
sense and seem at odds with everything else. Most scholars
agree that the ancient texts are enigmatic at best, and border on
“unexplainable”, based on our modern understanding of the
world. As more and more of the ancient texts are translated and
the information in them becomes more accepted, some, if not
many, of the translations will need to be revised to reflect the
newly emerging wealth of details and depth of understanding
which is just now beginning to unfold.
We are indebted to the scholars for their dedication,
knowledge and expertise in a difficult and demanding field. Their
personal integrity and the integrity of their work is constantly
being challenged by those who would have their own political of
religious agenda supported and strengthened by ancient
sources. The reality is, many of our modern beliefs and religious
foundations are not being borne out by the recovered texts.
While a number of attempts have been, and are being, made to
explain away the glaring differences between the ancient texts
and our modern beliefs, we must, in the near future, come to
terms with the veracity and integrity of the information being
recovered.
The ancient world being revealed is surprisingly different
from what we imagined it to be. A stunningly clear record of life
in the ancient cities is emerging which portrays a civilization
rivaling today’s standards, encompassing an impressive
educational system, legal tradition, and governmental
organization not seen until the last two centuries of our modern
history. And yet, the evidence, as disturbing as it is to the
traditional view of history, documents in minute detail the
workings of a thoroughly modern and refined civilization and
social structure in existence for thousands of years before the
Greek and Roman empires.
As disturbing as the discovery of a “modern” civilization
in the time frame of 6,000 to 12,000 years ago may be, the
impact of the ancient religious documents and texts upon the
accepted doctrine of the modern church, mosque, or synagogue
is no less than devastating. A new spiritual paradigm is emerging
which encompasses both the ancient and modern texts in what
is actually a very old spiritual perspective. Far from being

xii
ignorant pagans, our distant ancestors had a very impressive
grasp and understanding of spiritual principles. This tradition has
been passed down through the ages in the esoteric sayings and
teachings of spiritual masters like Krishna, Buddha and Jesus.
The truth held in common among these diverse spiritual
leaders is brought to life by a living spiritual master. Once we
begin to grasp the hidden wisdom embedded in every religious
system, we begin to understand they were all talking about the
same thing. This universal spiritual truth forms the foundation of
every religion and has been with us from the very beginning.
Through the new spiritual paradigm the unification, not only of
the self, but of mankind is possible. We stand now on the
threshold of a new age of understanding and enlightenment. The
secret knowledge of the past is not only revealed, but explained
in modern terms and simple language so everyone can learn and
experience the truth for themselves.
There is no mystery we cannot understand. We are
dedicated to bringing the inner wisdom to all who will open their
mind and heart and take their first real step into a larger world of
awareness, perception, and consciousness. We hold to the
principle that everyone is a divine child of God, created and
constantly held in perfect equality, perfect love and perfect
wholeness (holiness) in the mind of God. As such we are very
pleased to bring you an example of this new spiritual paradigm in
the form of an explanation of the sayings of Jesus in The Gospel
of Thomas.
We hope you enjoy the work and insights of this author.

The Gnostic Wisdom Foundation

xiii
xiv
 INTRODUCTION

The struggle for power and authority is basic to our

human nature. Indeed, the history of the world is the story of that
very quest: the conquering hero, the vanquished foe, and the
resulting legends that feed the imagination of young and old
alike. Especially in religion is the conflict glorified, the classic
epic of good versus evil on a cosmic scale - eternal God and the
rebellious Satan contending for the souls of mankind. How easily
we get swept up in the rhetoric, pledging ourselves, believing,
professing our faith, and drawing the battle lines here on Earth
for the conflict that must surely come.
Only the bystander, the passer-by, dares to ask, “Are we
the pawns, the prize, or the players in this contest?” Many are
convinced that we are the prize of this cosmic conflict, always
trying to do right and maintain our faith while constantly being
seduced by Satan. Only those who truly believe and hold to their
faith will be saved from eternal punishment. Others believe that
we are pawns in this same conflict, the foot soldiers of God in an
xv
evil world, ever fighting for the souls of our fellow men. Still
others believe that we are the players in the conflict, and while
both good and evil things take place in the world, it is individual
people that create the effect of good or evil by their own choices
and actions.
Whatever our position, there is another issue that divides
us even more. It slices through all other positions like Alexander
the Great cleaving the Gordian knot with his sword. It cuts to the
very heart of faith and religion. Framed as a question, it is this: Is
the power of God something that is forever outside of us, or is it,
as some claim, to be manifested within us? The question is not
new; it has been with us from the beginning of time. Is power and
authority ultimately to be vested within each individual, or must it
always be placed in the hands of others? While this question is
more readily answered in society based on levels of skills and
resources, it becomes above all else a haunting and compelling
spiritual question.
We have been well trained by modern religion to see
God as an outside force - something to be worshipped, feared,
and appealed to in times of trouble and distress. But it hasn’t
always been that way. Two millennia ago the landscape of
religion was significantly different. Following the assassination of
Julius Caesar in 44 BC, 1 two cities contended for domination of
the known civilized world: Rome, the seat of political power
represented by Octavian, and Alexandria in Egypt, the center of
culture and religion, represented by Mark Antony. The military
aspect of the conflict was brought to a close in 31 BC at the port
of Actium on the western shore of Greece with Octavian’s defeat
of Mark Antony. Rome became the supreme center of political
and military power.
While political power flowed from Rome, the cultural
center of the known world was Alexandria in Egypt. Here the
philosophers, religious, scientists, and artists of the world came
to share their knowledge and wisdom with all who would listen
and learn. The epicenter of this quest for spiritual and cultural
enlightenment was the library, attached to the temple of Serapis,
in the southern section of the city. Here, tens of thousands of
documents recorded the accumulated knowledge and wisdom of
mankind since the time of the Biblical flood. And it was here that
the Gnostics reigned supreme. The ancient wisdom and tradition
of the Egyptian mystery schools enjoyed prominent scholarly
support, and the inner expression of Divinity was the standard of
the day.

xvi
 One hundred fifty to 200 years would pass before the
rise of Christianity challenged the Gnostic system of religion.
Early leaders of the Christian Church recognized that Rome was
the center of political power and chose to align themselves with
that power and authority. The marriage between the Christian
Church and political power was formalized at the council of
Nicea in 325 AD. Under the direction of the Emperor
Constantine, bishops in the Christian Church ascended to the
position of judges, with the military power of Rome at their
disposal. Anything that differed from the approved Christian
doctrine was deemed a heresy, and was to be destroyed.
Gnosticism (direct knowledge of God) was deemed a
heresy by the Church and an aggressive program followed to rid
the world of heretical documents. The final conflict between
Rome and Alexandria came to a head in 391 AD 2 , when Bishop
Theophilus of Alexandria, under the Roman Emperor
Theodosius I, led an angry mob of Christians across the city to
the Temple of Serapis, destroying the statues, tapestries,
artwork and icons in the temple and then focusing their rage on
the library in the main wing of the temple, and in a day’s time,
destroyed the collected knowledge and wisdom of thousands of
years. They burned all writings that did not agree with the
doctrine of the Roman Christian Church. So it was that the
center of religion was changed from Alexandria and its Gnostics
to the Christians in Rome. God and divinity was relegated to
outer, rather than inner expression.
The persecution of the Gnostics continued while
foresighted individuals secreted copies of their sacred scriptures
away, sealed in earthen jars, buried in eastern central Egypt,
praying for the day when the ancient wisdom would once again
be shared openly. Through this persecution and the deliberate
destruction of sacred documents the Gospel of Thomas was
“lost”.
During the excavation of ruins in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, in
1897 and 1903, over 5,000 fragments of ancient Greek texts
were recovered from another ancient library. Among them were
partial sections of what was believed to be the Gospel of
Thomas. Due to a lack of other comparable documents, the
discovery languished in the halls of academia through two world
wars, remaining a curiosity and source of varied speculation.
In 1945, with the discovery of the buried earthen jars
some 30 miles north of the Valley of the Kings near the town of
Nag Hammadi, the world of the Gnostics sprang back to life as

xvii
dozens of ancient Gnostic sacred scriptures were recovered.
What became known as the “Nag Hammadi Scrolls” opened the
door, releasing the “lost” ancient knowledge and wisdom again
into the world. The two primary tasks were first to translate the
ancient texts, and secondly to interpret the writings in modern
terms so the people of our world could have access to the
knowledge and wisdom that led to the presence of God - that
which Jesus called “the Kingdom of Heaven” or “the Kingdom of
God”.
Once again the inner practice of divinity and spiritual
growth is taking hold in the world, and once again the conflict
between the inner expression of God and the belief in an outer
being, separate from us, is being thrust upon the world of
religion. In reading this explanation of the sayings of Jesus in the
Gospel of Thomas, you will get an essentially Gnostic perception
of Jesus, one contemporary with his life and experience in the
first century. With this knowledge and understanding, you can
determine which path, inner or outer, is right for you.
Unless otherwise indicated, we will be using the
translation by Thomas O. Lambdin. Scholars generally agree the
Gospel of Thomas is an esoteric text. In the traditional sense this
means the understanding of the text is restricted to a very few.
But the word “esoteric” also refers to inner, that which takes
place within the mind and heart. This also makes esoteric
teaching a system of inner transformation, which is how we will
view the text. Following the sayings is a section explaining the
exercises which will allow you to begin the process of
transformation described in the sayings. Let us now take the gift
of the scholars, the translation, and see what the inner path
means to us today.

xviii
 THE SAYINGS

These are the secret sayings which the living Jesus spoke
and which Didymos Judas Thomas wrote down.

(1) And he said, “Whoever finds the interpretation of

these sayings will not experience death.”

Jesus said a number of unusual things. In Matthew 8:21, 22

(RSV) “Another of the disciples said to him, ‘Lord, let me first go
and bury my father.’ But Jesus said to him, ‘Follow me, and
leave the dead to bury their own dead.’” Obviously, Jesus is
referring to something other than corpses burying other corpses.
So the concept of death he is using is dealing with something
other than physical death.
In the ancient Gnostic and mystery school tradition, this kind
of death had to do with the spirit within and with its
consciousness. We are really dealing with two separate and
distinct things: the spirit within us, and the ego or outer
personality. One of the most important conversations in the New

1
Testament is in John, Chapter 3 (RSV), between two top leaders
of the prime religious movements of the time, the Pharisees and
the Gnostics. Here traditional Judaism meets and questions
mystical Gnosticism. Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, comes to
Jesus by night (the darkness represents ignorance), saying,
“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no
one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him.”
Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is
born anew (or from above), he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is
old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be
born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is
born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of
God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is
born of the Spirit is spirit.”
Here Jesus clearly defines two separate and distinct things.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh. Our ego, or outer
personality, is born of the flesh. It is called the false self or
corrupted nature in the Gnostic system. That which is born of the
Spirit is spirit. This is the true self, incorruptible and eternal.
Notice that the first use of Spirit is capitalized, while the second
spirit is not. The capitalized Spirit refers to God, the Creator,
while the other spirit refers to that which is in each of us, our
personal spirit. We are created in the image of God. On a
practical level, this means that God created us out of God
substance (spirit); just as a woman brings forth a child from her
own substance, so too has God brought forth each of us from
His own substance. The source of all life is Spirit (God), and
everything that lives has some of that substance of God in it. The
spirit within each of us is an individualized expression of the
Spirit that is God.
In the Gnostic system a person was considered spiritually
dead until their spirit was awakened. The awakening and
empowerment of the spirit was referred to as resurrection, or
being raised up from the dead, and applied only to the spirit
within, not the physical body. This is why Jesus says “leave the
dead to bury their own dead.” As long as the consciousness is
attached to the ego, or outer personality, it is temporary; it has
no real life of its own. It is only when consciousness is attached
to the spirit that it gains permanent status, for only the spirit
remains alive after physical death. When people die do we not
say “they are gone”? Clearly the body is still there. We can see

2
it, we can touch it. So what is gone? The spirit, the God
substance, our personal source of life is gone, not the body.
So, “whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings will not
experience death” describes the result of the process of moving
the attachment of consciousness from the ego over to the spirit.
In this process the spirit becomes awakened from its deep sleep,
grows, matures, and takes its place as a mature spiritual being
operating fully and completely in the presence of God (which
Jesus often calls “the Kingdom”).

(2) Jesus said, “Let him who seeks continue seeking

until he finds. When he finds, he will become
troubled. When he becomes troubled, he will be
astonished, and he will rule over the all.”

Here the Greek version differs somewhat from the Coptic, so

we will consider it as well.

[Jesus said,] “Let the one seek[ing] not stop

[seeking until] he finds. And when he find[s he will
marvel, and mar]veling he will reign, an[d reigning]
he will [rest.]”

This is the essence of the Gnostic experience. It is a

quest, a journey without distance. The point is that it is not about
believing; it is about an ongoing process, a search for truth, a
search for answers about our true nature, our true origins, and
our Creator. The ultimate goal of the search is to find God. As is
the case in all true spiritual journeys, the answers we find are not
what we expect, or desire. The truth is rarely wanted, or really
desired, and yet, as Jesus has told us, the truth will set us free.
Most of us do not really want to know the truth, what we
want is to have what we already believe to become the truth, or
to be confirmed as truth. Either way, as we seek, and continue to
seek, we will discover things about God, ourselves, and the
world in which we live that are contrary to what we have been
taught and have come to believe. A true spiritual path will take us
to the depths of our inner being, our belief system, our
assumptions and conclusions, and will shine the light of truth on
every facet of who we think we are. The answers we receive as
a result of our continuing search will shake the foundations of

3
every belief we have. This is at first very disturbing, but through
our willingness to change, a greater truth and a resulting
blessing will become manifest in our lives.
The Gnostic process is one of creating direct
experiences with the presence of God. Those experiences bring
an in-depth understanding, step by step, about the nature of
God, our creation, our true nature, and the exotic process we
have begun. What we learn from this direct experience is often
counter to the traditional teachings of religion. For example,
religion teaches that God is jealous and vengeful and that God
will judge us (usually harshly) for any and all transgressions
during our lives. And yet one of the experiences we have along
the way in our spiritual growth is of the unconditional love that
comes directly from God. In this experience we discover that this
is not an intellectual revelation, as we might expect, but rather a
profound, deeply moving, emotional experience. I have yet to
meet someone who has experienced this love that comes
directly from God that has not been moved completely to tears. It
is one of the most intense experiences in life. What we realize
after this experience is that there was no judgment from God at
all. Of all the condemnations we have received from others, and
of particular importance, from our own ego, none of them
materialize in this intense experience of God’s love for us.
Have we not done things that are improper, demanding
judgment in some form, if not from the world then certainly from
God? How can it be that we receive unconditional love in place
of punishment? This contradicts what we have been taught
about God. This experience of unconditional love, especially an
experience this intense, shakes our belief in judgment and
punishment from God to the very core of our being. Once this
realization sinks into our consciousness, our very concept of God
is challenged. We find ourselves asking the same question that
Nicodemus asked, “How can this be?”
Were this experience of unconditional love an isolated
incidence, we could dismiss it as an aberration. But it is not the
only experience we encounter; other experiences bring us a
deep abiding sense of peace, an inner joy, serenity, and a
connectedness with God on a very personal level. These other
experiences are consistent with the unconditional love that we
receive from God. Totally absent is any form of judgment,
criticism or punishment. The disturbing shock to our belief in a
God of judgment gradually gives way to the reality of a loving,
gentle God of Spirit, hope, and eternal life. In time we find

4
ourselves becoming an integral part of the oneness that is God
and creation together, a vibrant individual in an interactive
universe - one conscious element in an ocean of consciousness,
a mature spiritual being functioning fully and completely in the
presence of God. We find ourselves not only living in the
presence of God, but functioning as an active, directive force
with the complete resources of God at our disposal.
This direct experience of the presence of God is the
central core of the Gnostic experience and the transformational
power of the teachings of Jesus. It is not a factor of belief or
faith. It is the result of an intimate, repeated inner experience that
leaves no room for doubt. We do not have to believe, for we
have experienced the presence of God for ourselves. We do not
have to have faith, for we are living the experience day after day.
It is not what we think; it is what we know as a result of our direct
experience with God.
The Coptic version adds; “an[d reigning] he will [rest.]”
Our own ego perceives “reigning” and “ruling” as the ultimate
power and authority over others. Yet as we become one with
God and creation, we find that it is not others that need to be
ruled over, it is our own lower nature, the domain of the ego
itself. In oneness we see that others are not in need of being
ruled as much as they are in need of being educated and
enlightened. We as a species need help, not judgment or
punishment. The “rest” spoken of here is the deep abiding peace
of God, the serenity that comes with the presence of God in our
lives. It is not a withdrawal from life and society, but an
understanding of the basic human need for God that fills us with
compassion, gentleness, kindness and respect for each and
every creature in creation. We become more connected, more
integrated into the fabric of humanity, and more determined to
teach and help. Our desire and commitment rests in the certainty
of God’s presence and unconditional love. There is no greater
peace. There is no greater power.

5
 (3) Jesus said, “If those who lead you say to you,
‘See, the kingdom is in the sky,’ then the birds of the
sky will precede you. If they say to you, ‘It is in the
sea,’ then the fish will precede you. Rather, the
kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you.
When you come to know yourselves, then you will
become known, and you will realize that it is you
who are the sons of the living father. But if you will
not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is
you who are that poverty.”

Many of us have been taught that God’s Kingdom is a

place we go when we die. A quick survey of conditions here on
earth certainly tends to support the notion that heaven must be
somewhere else. This can’t be it. So if it isn’t here, where is it?
Heaven is traditionally placed high in the sky, but Jesus is telling
us that is not correct. First of all Jesus is telling us it is not a
place. So if the Kingdom is not a place, then what is it?
As we will see as we continue through the Gospel of
Thomas, the Kingdom is actually a state of consciousness. As
such, it will not come of its own accord. It is not a collective
experience that will happen to everyone at some point in time; it
is an individual experience that must be entered into. Jesus told
us in the traditional gospels that the Kingdom of Heaven was at
hand, meaning close by, within reach, something that can be
grasped. If the Kingdom really was a place or a time, it should
have been found or have arrived long ago. But if the Kingdom is
a state of consciousness, we can begin to understand how it can
be so close, and yet so far away. A state of consciousness can
be close by, within reach, and can be grasped, but only through
the effort of the individual. A person can be placed in a room
where everyone else in the room shares a specific
consciousness, and yet that individual may not have a clue.
Jesus is telling us that the specific effort required to
enter into this Kingdom is in learning to know ourselves. If we are
unwilling, or unable, to know ourselves, then we can progress no
further; the Kingdom will be denied to us. There is also another
element being expressed, that of being found, which we will
explore more in the parable of the lost sheep (saying #107). It is
our search, and more importantly, our dedication to the search,
that brings us to the attention of God. We do not enter into the
Kingdom solely on our own efforts, for it is a co-operative
process with God. We embark on a specific path of learning,

6
experiencing, and realizing that gradually transforms us, raising
our level of knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, until our
mind, heart and spirit have been raised up, entering into higher
and higher levels of consciousness, until we find ourselves in a
state of oneness with God and all of creation. This is the
Kingdom, this state of oneness, this condition of 100% full
conscious contact with God, a condition we now call the ‘Christ
Consciousness’. In this consciousness we take our rightful place
as mature children of God – “sons” of the living father, spirit
created out of Spirit, true spiritual beings, forever living in the
presence of God.
Consciousness is not something that is simply in our
head or mind. It is more than just “inside” us. In some spiritual
systems, once a person has progressed to a certain level, there
is no longer an oral or written form of instruction. The student
simply spends a number of hours each day sitting and meditating
in the presence of the master. There develops a shared
consciousness and in that process the student enters into, and
experiences, higher states of consciousness accessible only by
the spiritual master. The resulting shared experience educates
the student in a way unattainable by any other means.
The other interesting facet is that when people have the
experience of this higher state of consciousness they share so
many common elements with others that have experienced the
same state, that it is usually expressed as the one or highest
truth. It doesn’t seem to matter which spiritual system is used;
the end result is remarkably similar. The experience provides us
with a deep and unshakable knowledge that life goes on. After
this experience, it is common for people to lose their fear of
death. Calmness takes the place of fear. It is not a matter of
believing; it is a knowing, a certainty, a fact already proven. It
becomes the cornerstone of their life, transforming the mundane
into the sublime.
But if we will not put forth the effort and learn these inner
things about ourselves and for ourselves, we remain in
ignorance. We become prey to fantasies, lies and superstition.
Our only hope is to believe and blindly follow someone else,
trusting that they know something we do not, having faith that
they will not betray us. In the end we are always disappointed,
for it really is a case of the blind leading the blind. Only through
our own personal experiences in the presence of God can we
truly come to know the truth, and it is only through knowing the
truth that we can set ourselves free.

7
 (4) Jesus said, “The man old in days will not hesitate to
ask a small child seven days old about the place in
life, and he will live. For many who are first will
become last, and they will become one and the
same.”

We must remember that this is an inner (esoteric) teaching

and process. The inner experience of the presence of God is not
very common, so the primary way we have of explaining these
inner things is to use outer examples which people have in
common. Anyone that has been around a seven day old infant
knows this saying cannot be taken literally. So what is Jesus
saying?
If we look at the experience of being “born again” as a true
inner awakening of the spirit, we find a number of things taking
place. Our perception of the world changes radically. Everything
seems “new”, as if we were seeing it clearly for the first time.
Colors are much more intense, the senses of touch and hearing
are enhanced, as are taste and smell. It is like waking from a
deep sleep, and seeing the world for the first time. As you
experience this spiritual awakening you really get “a feel” for why
it is called “being born again”. It is an exciting, exhilarating
experience. You feel truly alive for the first time in your life.
There is a clarity of perception that comes with being born
again. The purpose and nature of life are clear; everything has
fallen into place. The man old in days is the ego, and the small
child, seven days old is the newly awakened spirit within. The
revelations of this experience come rapidly. Some comments this
author has received from people going through this awakening
experience are: “This is the only game in town. I don’t see why
everybody isn’t doing it” and “This is wonderful. We have to tell
everyone about this.”
This is the time that the ego gets caught up in the excitement
and wants to be part of what is happening. The ego wants to
know its place in the process. This is also a challenging time for
the ego, for it soon discovers that it will not be the star, receiving
the glory and power of spiritual empowerment. This is where
John, chapter 3 continues (3:28 RSV), “You yourselves bear me
witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent
before him. He who has the bride is the bridegroom; the friend of
the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at
the bridegroom’s voice; therefore this joy of mine is now full. He
must increase, but I must decrease.”

8
 Here is the final realization of the ego: it is not the spirit. It is
what has come before, and it must decrease so that the spirit
may grow, mature, and become empowered. The ego now hears
the voice of the spirit within and begins to see its role clearly.
The ego now recognizes its purpose and the ultimate sacrifice it
must perform. John 3:31, “He who comes from above is above
all; he who is of the earth belongs to the earth, and of the earth
he speaks; he who comes from heaven is above all.” The ego
now recognizes that it is temporal, part of the physical body (of
the earth), and really knows only about physical life. But the spirit
is of God (comes from above) and is eternal. John 3:35, “The
Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand.” It is
the spirit within us that is the Son, and receives the things of
God.
The ego comes first and must become last. In the end the
ego surrenders completely and is merged into the spirit. The two
become one and the same. The separation of the spirit and the
ego is experienced as the separation of us from God. It is why
God initially appears as an entity outside of us. It is only when
the separation within is healed, and the ego and spirit become
one that we also become one with God. Separation is separation
from everything: each other, God, nature, eternal life. Oneness is
the result of inner healing, and it is oneness with everything. We
cannot be “one with God” and still perceive other people as
being separate. Nor can we be “one with God” and still perceive
anything in nature as being separate. Oneness is oneness, it is
total and complete or it is not real oneness.

(5) Jesus said, “Recognize what is in your sight, and

that which is hidden from you will become plain to
you. For there is nothing hidden which will not
become manifest.”

The inner teaching begins with the recognition that there is

more to us than we have perceived. A spiritual path is often
referred to as a journey without distance because it is the
journey of self discovery. As we grow from childhood into
adulthood, the ego grows along with us. We come to assume
that the ego is us, and we are it. The ego presents itself as
whole, complete; there is nothing else. And yet a simple exercise
opens an inner door and reveals the existence of something
more than the ego and its thoughts.

9
 Pause for a few moments and close your eyes. Observe the
thoughts that pass through your mind. Many times we will begin
to recognize how thoughts are connected, one to the next. Some
element of one thought acts as a string to the next thought, and
on and on it goes. You may even have a thought about how all
this works, even as the thoughts being observed continue on
uninterrupted. The question is this. If the thoughts being
observed are the activities of my mind, what is doing the
observing? Is the mind observing itself or is something else
going on? The classic question in this example is, “Who is the
observer?”
While some people see this as utter nonsense, others see
an opening into another level of perception, a new area of
exploration and experience. Those which follow this new lead
sometimes feel like they have followed Alice through the rabbit
hole into a strange new world where nothing really is as it seems
to be. Everything we have come to know and trust is now called
into question. In this journey of self discovery we come to see
ourselves as fractured pieces, held together by invisible buffers.
Programming and imprinting from parents, relatives, friends,
teachers, authority figures and mentors are all there, each in its
own little world, like pieces of a jig-saw puzzle. The task of self
discovery is to explore each of these pieces, determine the value
each presents, and discard the valueless. In this way the
individual pieces can be joined and the inner separation can be
healed. This leads to wholeness, holiness, and oneness.
With a little education about the mind and consciousness,
we gradually begin to recognize what has been in front of us all
along. We see the fractured nature of the ego’s world and how it
pulls and pushes us through the everyday experiences of life.
We discover why we are stressed by a situation where someone
else doesn’t seem to even notice that it exists. We come to see
that we really are individuals, that no two of us are exactly alike.
Our thoughts, feelings and perceptions are all different, even
given the same external circumstances.
As we come to recognize the various parts of our
personality, we gradually uncover the inner nature of the spirit
within. This is the part that was hidden, and through the process
of self discovery, becomes revealed. As we learn more about the
spirit within, we see in it the answer to life’s question, “Is this all
there is?” The body and the ego that results are limited and
temporal. The spirit within is unlimited and eternal. But until we
actually begin the process of self discovery, the inner world

10
remains hidden. The ego tells us, “Go out into the world and find
the answer – seek and you will find!” But the answer is not “out
there”, it is within.

(6) His disciples questioned Him and said to Him, “Do

you want us to fast? How shall we pray? Shall we
give alms? What diet shall we observe?” Jesus said,
“Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate, for all
things are plain in the sight of Heaven. For nothing
hidden will not become manifest, and nothing
covered will remain without being uncovered.”

The questions on fasting, prayer, alms and diet are partially

answered in saying #14 below, so we will split the explanation,
addressing different facets in each case.
Fasting, the form and time of prayer, the giving of alms, and
specific dietary restrictions are all part of the religious system in
which the disciples were raised and well trained. Jesus is
constantly being questioned about these things. If we look at a
little history, we can begin to grasp why the questions were being
asked, and what impact the answers might have had.
Alexander the Great conquered the Middle East area around
327 BC and left a number of local “kings” in charge to keep the
peace and to collect taxes (tribute). These were the Seleucid
kings. By the late third century BC, the Maccabee rebellion was
taking place. The Maccabees were a fundamentalist Judeo
faction dedicated to the use of military force to restore freedom in
Judea. A splinter group, disenchanted with the use of military
force, left the Maccabees around 200 BC, going off into the
desert to seek God. This group floundered for about 20 years
until the arrival of an individual from the mystery school system.
This individual became known as “the teacher of righteousness”
and the group is now known as the Essenes.
The Essene community was located on the northwest shore
of the Dead Sea, and the Essenes are the authors of the ‘Dead
Sea Scrolls’. The Dead Sea Scrolls are an eclectic mixture of
fundamentalist Judaism and concepts from the mystery school
tradition. It is this mixture, blended with some Gnostic features
that form the early foundation for Christianity.

11
 Also emanating from Egypt were the Gnostics, a direct
outreach program of the mystery school system. So there were
three main religious factions working the area of Judea at the
time of Jesus (the Pharisees and Sadducees being branches of
Judaism). The questions being asked were designed to clarify
which of these religious factions were being represented. The
differences may not be as clear as we might think, for the three
systems are inter-related. The Torah, for example, was used by
all three systems. Strict rules for fasting, prayer, alms and diet
are part of the Judaic religion, being slightly relaxed with the
Essenes, and significantly different with the Gnostics. The
answers given by Jesus in saying #14 clearly identify his
teachings with the Gnostics.
Jesus said, “Do not tell lies, and do not do what you
hate, for all things are plain in the sight of heaven.” The ego
seeks all the advantages it can find in the world. It learns early
on in childhood that there are some advantages to lying and
doing things that you really don’t want to do. Women especially
are encouraged by the images and expectations of modern
society to do things that they would rather not do, and present
themselves in ways they are really not comfortable with for the
sake of appearances and relationships. These things have a
costly internal toll on our self image and self respect. The cost is
already too high if we consider only the ego or personality, but as
we factor in the emerging spirit, the inner conflict can become
severe.
The process of spiritual growth not only requires, but
also demands honesty and truthfulness within. Indeed, no true
spiritual growth can take place when it is based on any kind of
falsehood. A true spiritual path is, above all else, a quest for
truth. In continuing lies for the advancement in financial or social
and political conditions, we are undermining and destroying the
spirit within. We are sacrificing the eternal for the temporal.
We think that how we feel on the inside, or what we
privately believe about ourselves or others, does not, and will
not, show on the outside. Watch the eyes and facial features of
people around you. With a little practice you will see what is
going on in their lives. It has been said that people live lives of
quiet desperation. You will discover that this is true; you can see
it in their faces. Once you recognize the quiet desperation in
others, the day will come when you see it in your own face in the
mirror. This is our legacy in the world of the ego; none will

12
escape. All of the hidden feelings, beliefs, guilt and pain are
painted on our faces for all to see.
The only workable answer is to abandon the ego and its
ways in favor of the spirit. Methodically replacing each falsehood
with truth, each condemnation with forgiveness, each injury with
kindness, each hate with compassion, and each fear with love
transforms the inner experience from desperation to joy. This too
becomes painted on our face. Peace, love and joy are the
hallmarks of real spiritual growth and there is no way to hide
them from others.
Spiritual truths will also begin coming to us. There is no
spiritual mystery which we cannot know. The closer we come to
God, the more of the spiritual mysteries and principles we will
encounter. All the Father has is given to the Son. There is no
spiritual truth which will not be revealed to us. Piece by piece,
step by step, the whole will be revealed. Once we reach this
100% full conscious contact with God we will have access to
every spiritual truth and principle. Nothing will remain hidden.

(7) Jesus said, “Blessed is the lion which becomes

man when consumed by man, and cursed is the man
whom the lion consumes, and the lion becomes
man.”

Life is a process of transformation. Nothing really

remains the same. The seed sprouts, becomes a seedling, a
small tree, a large tree, and in time succumbs to disease, fire or
cutting and becomes something else. People change. Time
changes us, and if nothing else, life itself will change us; but into
what? Are we grist for the mill, unable to alter the end result, or
are we active selectors of the outcome? In terms of religion, are
we poor helpless sinners, dependant on God’s grace for
salvation, or are we free and independent spiritual children here
to work out our own growth and ultimate salvation?
In spiritual terms, generally we have two options: to be
spirit guided or ego guided. In being guided by the ego, as we all
are as we grow up in the world, the body and the ego are
dominant factors in our life. This is the essentially carnal life, the
dark side of which is unrestrained lust, greed and violence. The
lighter side appears more civilized on the surface, with the finer
trappings of wealth, high society and social graces. Yet under
the surface the same basic driving forces of the ego are at work,

13
the hidden animal nature that establishes territory and pecking
orders, domination, submission and control. This is the lion, the
beast, the hidden controller of our lives.
As we examine the actual performance of our society we
can come to the conclusion that we are still a barbaric people
with a thin veneer of civility. The crimes we commit against each
other, the injustices we allow, the adoration of the predators
among us, and the disgust for the poor and downtrodden are all
primary indicators of the ego at work. Competition, the survival of
the fittest - these are the rally cries of the ego. War is the
ultimate competition, where we really do bury the opposition.
We need to ask. Is there another way, a better way? And
if there is, what needs to be done to accomplish it? This is what
the spiritual path ostensibly offers: the higher path of cooperation
in place of competition, respect in place of control, and
compassion in place of condemnation and conflict. So how do
we change the world into that kinder, gentler place? The answer
is that we must begin by changing ourself first. We can change
nothing else until we have become transformed, and then, by
teaching the same process of transformation to others, we can
extend our experience out into the world, changing it at the most
fundamental level, one person at a time.
Transformation will happen to us, either through the ego
by default, or through the spirit by choice and dedication.
Knowing that choices need to be made, and knowing what the
outcomes of those choices are, become the essential factors for
making informed decisions. Many times we cannot know these
factors, but, here, we are more fortunate; these choices have
been made before by many people, and the results are available
for us to examine.
If we allow the ego and its animal nature to rule our lives
we will be consumed by its desires and obsessions, ultimately
left empty because the fires of the ego consume the soul as fire
consumes its fuel. Being consumed by this lion is the curse of
mankind.
Yet there are those, like Jesus, who have taken a
different path, and in doing so, have experienced something
extraordinary, and they have tried to share that experience with
others. They have told us that they have found eternal life, and
have come into the full and complete presence of God. We
marvel at the things they tell us and wonder if it could really be
true. We have been deceived before and are now wary of such
claims. Do we believe them or not?

14
 In the outer form of religion the person having this
extraordinary experience is transformed into a savior, and
believing in this savior brings salvation. But in the inner form we
become transformed, and that transformation becomes our
salvation. Belief is not required, just hard work and dedication.
The real question becomes, do we believe the teacher and
understand the teaching enough to actually begin the process of
transformation? Do we dare follow Jesus and become like him,
or do we take the path of little or no risk and just believe?
The problem in simply believing is that the ego is still in
control of our lives. We are still consumed by the lion. Only by
going through the transformational process is the animal nature
within removed from empowerment, taken apart, and consumed.
This transformation that Jesus teaches dissolves the ego and
empowers the spirit, bringing us into the same extraordinary
experience He is having. Do we dare live in the presence of
God? Do we really want to be blessed, or are we more
comfortable being cursed? These are difficult questions, but it is
necessary to answer them before the transformational process
can begin.

(8) And He said, “The man is like a wise fisherman who

cast his net into the sea and drew it up from the sea
full of small fish. Among them the wise fisherman
found a fine large fish. He threw all the small fish
back into the sea and chose the large fish without
difficulty. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Fish represent ideas or concepts. The world, like the sea

full of fish, is full of ideas, the vast majority of which are small.
The trick is to find the fine large fish or idea, and discard the
small ones. With fish, this is easy; we can see the difference. But
with ideas it is difficult to “see” the difference. The problem is, the
ego has perception only in the world; it is of the world, and in the
world it must remain. Therefore, spiritual ideals appear as small
ideas of questionable value. Money, power, position, appear as
big ideas to the ego, and as we are beginning to understand,
these ideas will ultimately consume us.

15
 But this is a wise fisherman, and it is his wisdom which
allows him to perceive the really great idea among the rest. With
wisdom we can select the great idea without difficulty. So how do
we get wisdom? There was a comment about this making its way
around the internet. It said, “Wisdom comes on the arm of age,
but sometimes age comes alone.” In many cultures the elders
are considered wise. So does this mean that we have to wait
until we are old? As we can discern for ourselves, age alone is
not a grantor of wisdom. So what is?
Wisdom is a function of understanding tempered by
experience. In life we have come to see the value of education,
and the knowledge that can be gained through learning. Once
we “complete” our education we begin our career and put our
knowledge to work for us. It is through the application of
knowledge that we gain understanding, and the re-evaluation of
our understandings based on new insights brings experience.
Wisdom, like spiritual growth, is the result of a process. But
processes are like ideas; the world is full of them. Again, how do
we know?
The subject of wisdom and how to acquire it is a
repetitive theme in the Gospel of Thomas. We will explore it in
more depth in sayings 21, 28, 34, 43, and 45.

(9) Jesus said, “Now the sower went out, took a handful
(of seeds), and scattered them. Some fell on the
road; the birds came and gathered them up. Others
fell on rock, did not take root in the soil, and did not
produce ears. And others fell on thorns; they
choked the seed(s) and worms ate them. And others
fell on good soil and produced good fruit; it bore
sixty per measure and a hundred and twenty per
measure.”

Seeds also represent ideas. In spiritual work a person

must have an open mind and be willing to learn and examine
new ideas. Spiritual growth is a step-by-step process where
information, concepts and understanding are built one piece at a
time. We test to see if a person is ready for this process by
providing a small piece of information, or a small concept and
observing how the person handles it. We call this process
“planting a seed”.

16
 People process this new information or concept in
several ways, depending on “where they are coming from” in
their attitude, belief system or general consciousness. Most
people are committed to the mainstream consensus of thought.
This is represented by the “road”, which is well traveled. In some
versions of the sower parable this is a path instead of a road.
The connotation is essentially the same; it is where most of the
people travel: mainstream thought. If the seeds, the information
or concept presented, are not “mainstream” then there is no
place for the idea to take root, to be accepted. The defense
mechanisms of the mind are represented by the birds. Anything
not conforming to the mainstream point of view is attacked and
removed from the mind and consciousness. The established
order must be maintained.
Some of the seeds fell on rocks. Rocks are firmly held
beliefs. This is common in strictly religious people. The new idea
is in conflict with the established doctrine, and because of the
firmly held beliefs, there is no room for the new idea or
information to take root - to be accepted.
Some seeds fell on thorns. Thorns are competing ideas.
The ego, being of the earth cannot tell the difference between a
false idea and a true one. They all appear to have at least equal
value, or in many cases, the false ideas are structured to be
more attractive to the ego than is the truth. The true path
requires work and dedication and persistent effort to produce
results. False paths generally require only acceptance of the
ideas, or professed belief in the doctrine presented.
Each of us has had at least some experience with this.
Who among us, when faced with something which is perceived
as a lot of work, has not asked “isn’t there an easier way; a
shortcut?” Each false path is presented as a “shortcut”, a quick
easy way of accomplishing the same thing. In our experience of
the way things work in the world, “if it sounds too good to be
true”, then there is cause to be more than a little suspicious.
Many people spend their lives looking for the “shortcut” in
everything. In the end they have nothing. The wise among us
realize that real success comes from hard work and dedication to
our goals, not shortcuts. The “easy” way is to do it right the first
time, so you don’t have to do it over and over again. The
competing ideas, the shortcuts, consume all of the time and
energy, leaving nothing for working the true path. The seeds are
thus choked out, and the “worms”, disparaging thoughts and
comments, consume the new idea.

17
 Some people have an open mind and are willing to
consider new information and new concepts. Here the seeds fall
on good soil and take root. The ideas are accepted and become
the foundation of a new action plan to produce results. In the
path of spiritual growth this is the beginning of the work of self
discovery and the transformation that will follow. The mature
spiritual individual and the effect that individual has on others
around them is represented by the good fruit. The transformed
individual becomes love-based, treating everyone with respect,
gentleness, and kindness. The loving nature of this individual
touches the minds and hearts of others, and in their quest to be
of service to others, the overall quality of life in the community is
improved. This individual enters into the extraordinary
experience of living in the presence of God and everything
around them responds in kind.

(10) Jesus said, “I have cast fire upon the world, and
see, I am guarding it until it blazes.”

In the 1960’s, Zen was becoming popular. Many people

didn’t understand how an eastern religion could become so
attractive to people and how it could generate so much interest.
The answer resided not in the religion, but in the monks and
priests who came here and shared their experiences.
Mainstream Christianity is an outer form of religion based on
believing. The focus is on the dogma of the church and the
conformity to doctrine as presented by the clergy. Zen is more of
an inner form of religion, and those who have progressed well
into the transformational process were the representatives of
Zen with whom the people of America came into contact.
For the first time in many people’s lives, they came into
direct contact with someone transformed through this
extraordinary inner experience. The peace, love and joy of the
presence of God within was so obvious that people very quickly
recognized Zen as a living religion - not just something to be
believed, but a living, breathing experience of the presence of
God. Many eastern religions talk about the divine spark or flame
within. This appears in both inner and outer forms of religion.
The difference with the inner form is that one not only believes in
this inner flame, but actually experiences it and is involved in the
process of making it grow.

18
 We have become familiar, at least to a degree, with the
“fire in the belly” from some motivational speakers. It is a phrase
descriptive of a burning desire to accomplish a specific goal. This
burning desire is a function of the ego and is instrumental in
creating success in business, politics and other endeavors in the
world. There is a spiritual counterpart: the awakened spirit within.
It, too, burns within, but its attention is not on accomplishing the
things of the world; rather it is focused on becoming one with
God and everything else. As the transformational experience
progresses, the spirit within becomes stronger and the light of
the divine flame expands. This inner light of living in the
presence of God is exceptionally moving to people when they
come into contact with it and it was the attraction of Zen.
Christianity also has an inner teaching and tradition, and
the effect is identical. The teachings of Jesus, when understood
from the inner perspective, lead us on that inner journey of self-
discovery and spiritual growth. Awakening the spirit, feeding it
from the love-based emotions that we can all generate, and
raising it up to a position of power and authority in our lives
expands the inner light, embeds us in the Kingdom of Heaven,
and places us firmly in the presence of God. The light of spirit
and the love which comes from God, flowing through us out into
the world, is the fire Jesus has cast upon the world.
This fire of spiritual light and love does not come
overnight. It is the result of the inner journey of self-discovery
and spiritual growth. It is the outer sign of the transformational
process within, a process that takes time, effort and dedication.
This is why the fire must by guarded until it blazes. It does not
happen on its own; it is the result of a great deal of inner work,
guided by a true spiritual teacher who can nurture and guide the
mind and heart as they come together with the spirit to form an
inner trinity. Once a person has progressed to a higher level of
understanding in the transformational process, the world can no
longer trample the inner flame. Then, it is safe to let the light
shine. That person becomes a guiding light for others, spreading
the fire which Jesus cast upon the world so many years ago.

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 (11) Jesus said, “This heaven will pass away, and
the one above it will pass away. The dead are not
alive, and the living will not die. In the days when
you consumed what is dead, you made it what is
alive. When you come to dwell in the light, what will
you do? On the day when you were one you became
two. But when you become two, what will you do?”

Something special happens during the process of

physical conception. Just before the sperm fertilizes the egg the
light of spirit appears. Without the light and presence of spirit,
fertilization does not take place. Spirit is the source of life and
without it nothing lives. In this example it is easier for us to see
that we begin as one thing - spirit, and through the process of
placing the living light of spirit around the sperm and egg,
enabling fertilization, we become two things – a spirit and a
physical body. The two are inexorably linked until the moment of
death.
During pregnancy the fetus develops and is imprinted by
sounds, movement and emotions. Here in the womb, the
developing person begins its relationship with the world. As birth
takes place, the attention is focused on making the body move
as desired and exploring the outer world. In the child’s quest to
discover and experience the outer world, the ego develops and
the inner spirit gradually goes to sleep. During this time we
identify ourselves with the ego, our consciousness becomes
attached to the ego and from that point, we perceive ourselves
as a single identity, the ego and its physical reality, the body,
being as one.
Through our introduction to the inner path of spiritual
growth, we discover that we are really two things, not just the
one which we have previously perceived. When we discover this
dual reality the question really does become “What do I do now?”
It is uncomfortable for us to remain in duality like this. We have
an inner need to function as a complete unit. Duality implies part
of us is not under control. It is disturbing. Something needs to be
done, but what? What will we do? The ego tries to ignore the
situation, but it is always there in the back of our mind. What will
we do?
Only the inner spiritual path holds a lasting resolution to
the question, “what will you do?” For only through inner
transformation can the two become one. Through this inner
transformation we come to live in the presence of God, in the

20
light of Spirit, but once we have come to dwell in the light, then
what do we do? Everything has changed. The goals and desires
we had in the world are no more. We are now connected with
God and all of God’s creation, lovingly attached to other people
as we see the spirit within each of them. Most shocking about
this new connectedness is how other people can exist in this
vast ocean of God, like fish in the sea, and be unaware of its
existence.
Again the question, “What will you do?” needs to be
answered. In the letter of James (RSV) 2:14-17 James says,
“What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but
has no works? Can his faith save him? If a brother or sister is ill-
clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go
in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things
needed for the body, what does it profit? So faith by itself, if it
has no works, is dead.”
The ego sees others as separate, and competing with us
for limited goods and services. It is justified in paying lip service
to others but not in giving of ourselves to improve the conditions
of someone else without receiving something in return. The spirit
sees others as brothers and sisters, as part of the connected
whole, where when one is diminished the whole is diminished.
“What will you do” calls us into action, not just because it is the
right thing to do, but because the emerging state of love and
compassion within us compels us to improve the quality of life of
others in whatever way we can.
Jesus, in Matthew 25:35-40 (RSV) is trying to teach the
disciples about how our changed state changes our level of
action and responsibility. He states, “for I was hungry and you
gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a
stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed
me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came
to me.” Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when did we
see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink?
And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or
naked and clothe thee? And when did we see thee sick or in
prison and visit thee?” And the king will answer them, “Truly, I
say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren,
you did it to me.”
The ego, in its separation, will not extend itself to truly
care for others. Only the spirit, functioning from oneness is
compelled to act, to make a difference in the lives of others. For
many people, what they really want out of their lives is to make a

21
difference. The ego sees that difference as something great and
profound, something that changes the course of human history.
Because the perceived task is monumental, very few even try.
But the spirit sees the small ways to make a difference in the
world, by making a small difference in an individual life. If each of
us would do only one thing to improve the quality of life for one
person, even if only for a short period of time, the world as we
know it would be transformed overnight.
Once we understand that it is the small, personal things
that really make a difference in life, we have opened the door to
the means of changing the world. It is the deeper understanding
of our selves (self-discovery) that opens us up to understanding
others. While we can share what we have with others, we soon
learn that the most important thing we have is our connection
with God. And this is something that can be taught, in essence
given away without diminishing anyone. In fact, the more we
share our experiences and insights, the greater the blessings
become.
We feel compelled to talk to other people about our
experience and convince them to go through this process and
enter the oneness for themselves. After alienating a number of
friends and relatives through our enthusiasm, we realize that
something different must be done to bring this experience to
others. With a deeper understanding of human nature we learn
to adopt the method of planting “seeds” and evaluating which
people are open-minded enough to receive more information and
ideas. As we go through this learning curve we gradually make
the transition from student to teacher, sharing the information,
concepts and experiences with others on a regular basis.
Through our education and transformation, our past
perceptions of heaven give way and are replaced by personal
experiences and individual spiritual insights. Over time these
initial experiences and insights are again replaced with deeper
understanding and wisdom. We clearly see it is spirit that is the
source of all life. The body is not alive separate from the spirit,
and the living spirit will not die.

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 (12) The disciples said to Jesus, “We know that you
will depart from us. Who is to be our leader? Jesus
said to them, “Wherever you are, you are to go to
James the righteous, for whose sake heaven and
earth came into being.”

James the Righteous, or James the Just, is presented as

the brother of Jesus. It is this James who becomes the head of
the Essene community, and after a popular rebellion in
Jerusalem, ascends to the position of high priest in the temple in
Jerusalem. It also appears this James is responsible for at least
the content of the letter of James in the New Testament. The
comments about the necessity for “works” as opposed to “faith”
are revealing of the inner path as opposed to the outer form of
believing.
James, as high priest, takes on the form of the elevated
spiritual man, in Gnostic terms “the Son of man”. The upper case
“Son” denotes the awakened, elevated spiritual being within,
while the lower case version denotes the sleeping, dormant spirit
within the ego-based individual. In essence, all of creation has
been constructed for the purpose of providing an environment
where the individual spirit can grow and mature. Through the
interaction with the world the living spirit within eventually
determines what it is and what it is not, refining its perception of
reality, separating truth from falsehood, and gaining strength,
understanding and wisdom. James, the high priest, represents,
in a single person, the spiritual essence of all of us. The high
priest, representing all of us, prayed for forgiveness on the Day
of Atonement in the “holy of holies”, the inner chamber of the
temple in Jerusalem. For all of us, represented by James,
heaven and earth have come into existence.
This outer practice is symbolically repeated by each of
us when we go within to pray or meditate. Here, in this still, quiet
place within the center of our being, we enter into the light of the
spirit within. This is our inner connection with God and the true
source of all life. We need to come here daily, renewing our
direct contact with God, so we can keep our focus on the spirit
within and not on the ego. The prayer for forgiveness on the Day
of Atonement in the inner chamber of the temple simply
represents what we each need to be doing every day in the inner
chamber of our personal temple, where the living spirit resides.

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 (13) Jesus said to His disciples, “Compare me to
someone and tell Me whom I am like.” Simon Peter
said to Him, “You are like a righteous angel.”
Matthew said to Him, “You are like a wise
philosopher.” Thomas said to Him, “Master, my
mouth is wholly incapable of saying whom You are
like.” Jesus said, “I am not your master. Because
you have drunk, you have become intoxicated from
the bubbling spring which I have measured out.”
And He took him and withdrew and told him three
things. When Thomas returned to his companions,
they asked him, “What did Jesus say to you?”
Thomas said to them, “If I tell you one of the things
which He told me, you will pick up stones and throw
them at me; a fire will come out of the stones and
burn you up.”

Teachers will monitor the progress of their students as

they work their way through the material being presented. This
usually comes in the form of a test, a quiz or a formal
examination. Passing the test means the student has learned the
material and is ready to progress to new material. For a spiritual
teacher the general principle is the same but the nature of the
material often does not lend itself to formal examinations.
Spiritual growth is not like book learning: there generally are no
facts, no mathematical formulas or stories to relate. What a true
spiritual teacher is looking for is a change in perception and
consciousness; more specifically, to what degree has this
person’s consciousness changed in relationship to the end goal
of the Christ Consciousness?
“Compare me to someone and tell Me whom I am like” is
a test of perception and consciousness. Simon Peter responds,
“You are like a righteous angel.” Matthew says, “You are like a
wise philosopher.” From these answers Jesus quickly sees that
they are still functioning from the ego; the internal shift from ego
to spirit has not yet taken place. Thomas answers, “Master, my
mouth is wholly incapable of saying whom you are like.” From
this answer Jesus knows Thomas is no longer functioning from
the ego; he no longer thinks in terms of the world. Thomas has
recognized that there is something far beyond the usual things of
the world at work within Jesus, but he has not progressed
enough to clearly identify exactly what it is.

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 In the 1960’s there was a popular song containing the
phrase “First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then
there is.” This is a description of the general stages in this
process of inner transformation. “First there is a mountain”
recognizes the external structure of power and authority. As
children, we are subject to the authority of our parents, teachers
and others. As we become adults, we are still subject to others:
our boss at work, law enforcement and other facets of the social
structure. For most people this pattern of external power and
authority does not change significantly. But for a person going
through the inner transformation of spiritual growth the
experience is quite different. The outer power structure is
actually ego-based and ego-oriented. As the ego is dismantled
through the process of self-discovery and self-examination, the
external mountain of power and authority is dismantled along
with it. We come to a place in our growth where “there is no
mountain.”
Having no mountain is a disorienting time. The usual
guidelines of our worldly experience have lost their relevance;
we are in essentially uncharted territory. This is where a true
spiritual teacher makes all the difference. The teacher has been
through the entire process before and can act as an effective
guide along the journey to oneness with God and creation. This
is where Thomas is; he has no mountain. The spirit within him
has awakened and can now perceive the spiritual power and
nature of Jesus, but he still lacks enough experience to put these
perceptions in perspective. Thomas feels disoriented - lost. He
sees, but he can’t relate.
In the process of spiritual growth we gradually build a
very personal relationship with God that is profoundly different
from our worldly relationship. In the world, God is the ultimate
power and authority figure - someone to be worshiped, feared
and obeyed. It is similar in some respects to the relationship
between parent and child. As we grow in the world and become
parents ourselves, the relationship with our own parents
changes. The love remains as does the respect, but the power
and authority of the parent has dissolved. We relate more as two
adults rather than parent and child. The same pattern is present
in spiritual growth; we relate to God more as mature spiritual
beings rather than parent and child. The basic structure is still
there but the form of the relationship has changed.

25
 The spiritual power and authority is rebuilt within instead
of being outside of us. Now there is a mountain again; our
perceptions have been placed within a new set of values and
perspectives. Instead of the world as reference, the inner
experience of the presence of God has become the reference for
everything in our life. We have become spirit centered rather
than ego centered. Our consciousness has been shifted from the
temporary existence of the ego to the permanent existence of
our spirit. We have crossed the bridge from death into eternal
life. Separation has been left behind and we have entered into
oneness.
Jesus tells Thomas, “I am not your master.” The
relationship has changed; Thomas is growing and in time he will
mature and become like Jesus. Thomas has drunk from the
bubbling spring of spirit and has become “intoxicated” –
disoriented, the result of having no mountain. Thomas is now
ready for more information, a deeper meaning, and a greater
insight. Now Jesus can build on the level of understanding
present in Thomas. The foundation of spiritual understanding
has been laid and now the full structure of spiritual knowledge
can be built. What Jesus tells Thomas is considered blasphemy
by the outer form of religion, the penalty for which is being
stoned to death.
Here is how it works between the outer form and the
inner experience of religion. In the outer form you can believe,
you can worship, but you can’t become. In the inner experience
there is only becoming. Jesus didn’t ask us to worship him, he
asked us to follow him - to become as he has become.
Thomas has learned that God is present in all things,
even rocks and stones, and that God is not to be feared. But he
has not yet learned that God is only love. There is still some ego
left in Thomas for he still believes that God will harm others. He
knows that he is safe, but he has not expanded that concept
enough to include everyone.

26
 (14) Jesus said to them, “If you fast, you will give
rise to sin for yourselves; and if you pray, you will
be condemned; and if you give alms, you will do
harm to your spirits. When you go into any land and
walk about in the districts, if they receive you, eat
what they will set before you, and heal the sick
among them. For what goes into your mouth will not
defile you, but that which issues from your mouth –
it is that which will defile you.”

Here Jesus answers the questions asked by the

disciples in saying (6). His answers highlight the difference
between the inner and outer practices of religion. It is essentially
a difference between form and substance. The outer practice of
religion is one of form. For the disciples, the form is the Law of
Moses, the 613 rules they learned in their Judaic faith. To sin is
to fall short of the goal of keeping all of the rules. For one that
has fallen short (sinned), there is a remedy that is used to atone
for the short-coming. For minor sins, there was the sin offering, a
sum of money paid to the temple or synagogue. For more
serious sins, a more involved system of service to the temple or
synagogue was performed. Everything was laid out in a concise
system, a structure or framework which is recognized as the
religion. The better people become at following the rules, the
more religious they are.
The inner form taught by Jesus deals with substance
rather than form. The rules are not only unimportant, but serve to
stand in the way of actual inner transformation. The rules, the
outer form of the religion, are primarily ego-based and keep the
person centered in the ego and the experience of the outer
world. This is why it works against inner transformation which
must be spirit-centered. The practices of fasting, prayer and
giving alms are not really the problem. Being ego-centered is the
problem. By practicing the ego centered rules of the outer form
of the religion the disciple moves away from the spirit, and this is
why Jesus condemns the practice.
Jesus instructs his disciples, “When you go into any land
and walk about in the districts, if they receive you, eat what they
will set before you, and heal the sick among them.” Doing so will
result in breaking the rules of the outer form of religion, defiling
the person by violating the dietary restrictions. But what the
disciples are doing is being of real service to other people, the
true children of God. This is the extension of the love that comes

27
from God, flowing through us as it makes its way into the world.
This is the activity of spirit: to help, to heal and to improve the
general quality of life without adding a burden in the process.
The ultimate action of the spirit is to liberate, not to oppress.
Jesus reminds his disciples that it is what comes out of
their mouths that defiles them. What we say is a direct function
of the things that are going on inside of us. Our thoughts,
feelings, prejudices and attitudes are all reflected in the words
we choose, the inflection of our voice, our body language and
our actions. Just as some people will lie, some will seek to
deceive using these modes of communication. But the truth will
always come to the surface. People will eventually reveal their
true inner selves. Then the substance of the inner-self will
become clear. The ego will show itself with its ugly desires, or
the spirit will shine with the light of God’s pure love.

(15) Jesus said, “When you see one who was not
born of woman, prostrate yourselves on your faces
and worship him. That one is your Father.”

All human bodies are born of woman. What is born of

flesh is flesh, what is born of Spirit is spirit. It is the spirit within,
the living light, the substance of God that gives us life. We are
two things: a physical body, the gift of our earthly Mother, and a
spirit, the gift of our heavenly Father. As we begin to “see” or
perceive the spiritual being in each other, we begin to see the
presence and substance of God. The term “worship” means “pay
attention to”. To prostrate ourselves on our faces is an act of
total submission. So what Jesus is saying is that once we
recognize the spirit within as the substance of God, we must pay
attention to it; we must follow its lead and the ego must submit to
its authority. This is the short version of spiritual growth.
One very important spiritual practice is to “see” or behold
the Christ in each and every person. Once we have an
intellectual understanding of the presence of spirit in everyone,
we need to work on “getting a feel for it”. This is how we “realize”
or make something real. By repeating an act or perception we
make it part of our consciousness. The goal is to shift our
consciousness from the ego to the spirit, and recognizing the
spiritual aspect of each and every person we encounter is an
effective way of inducing this internal shift. As we practice
“seeing” the spiritual person as well as the outer person, we

28
eventually come to the point where one day we look in the mirror
and we see the spirit within ourself. In essence, this is the point
of the entire exercise: getting us to come face-to-face with the
fact that we are spiritual beings – not just in theory, but in reality.
This is actually one of the disturbing realizations
discussed in saying (2). Once the reality of our spiritual self
begins to sink into our conscious mind, we are compelled to face
the fact that almost everything we have been taught in the world
may be wrong. A detailed, extensive self-inventory is required,
and through this inner process of examining each of our
assumptions and conclusions about ourself, each other, the
world in which we live and our relationship with each other and
God, we come to a new and unified perception of who and what
we really are. We are then transformed from a human having a
spiritual experience to a spiritual being having a human
experience. The shift is profound. We have become spirit based
rather than ego-based. We were lost, and now are found; blind,
and now we see.

(16) Jesus said, “Men think, perhaps, that it is peace

which I have come to cast upon the world. They do
not know that it is dissension which I have come to
cast upon the earth: fire, sword, and war. For there
will be five in a house: three will be against two, and
two against three, the father against the son, and the
son against the father. And they will stand solitary.”

Family dynamics play an immense part in our

development. We are subject to traumas, programming and
imprinting within the family unit. These are the primary forces
which shape our ego or personality. The results of these three
forces determine the nature of our relationships and to a large
degree help to determine our level of success in the world. Our
self image and self worth are each forged by these three forces.
One of the primary goals in the process of spiritual
growth is to overcome and replace the detrimental effects of the
traumas, programming and imprinting which we have received
as children. As this process begins, the family dynamics are
examined and the conclusions we arrived at are re-evaluated.
The basic problem is one of experience. We are thrust into an
existing set of family dynamics even before we are born, being
subject to the sounds and emotional state of the mother. Our

29
birth also changes the family dynamics. We grow up in an
environment over which we have little control, and due to our
lack of experience, little understanding. Our mind seeks to make
sense out of what is happening around us, and because we have
no real base of experience and understanding, our conclusions
are for the most part defective, incomplete, or just plain wrong.
The classic example of this is the child deciding that the divorce
of the parents is the child’s fault.
The underlying principle is that the majority of our life
decisions are based on assumptions and conclusions about life,
relationships and ourselves which were made when we were
children. If you want to see the impact this can have in your life,
imagine a six-year-old making all of your decisions for you. As
ridiculous as this may sound, it is not far from the truth. Our
decisions as adults are formed around, and by, the perceptions
we made as children. We come to conclusions and points of
view at various times in our childhood, most of which never get
reviewed in later adulthood. Our lack of experience and
understanding in childhood becomes the formative factor in our
perspectives and perceptions as adults. If we never re-examine
the basis of our beliefs and actions, we never really mature.
Home is supposed to be a place of safety, refuge and
peace, and yet it is the scene of private torment, conflict, and
struggle for power and control. Family dynamics are generally
anything but peaceful. When there are five in a house we
generally think of two adults and three children. So the theme of
two against three is generational: parents against the children.
This premise is supported with the father against the son, and
the son against the father. We must remember that this is an
inner teaching; so while there are outer counterparts, the focus
must remain on the inner experience. It is not the conflict in the
family that we must resolve; it is the resulting inner conflict within
each of us which is disrupting our lives that needs resolution.
Indeed, once the inner conflict is resolved within the parents, the
conflict within the family ceases.
This inner conflict is the direct result of the traumas,
programming and imprinting which we received as children. It is
necessary for us, as adults, to re-evaluate all of our assumptions
and conclusions in life, bringing them into our full conscious
awareness so we may see them for what they really are. Since
traumas are the most destructive, we can reap the greatest
benefits by working on them first. The fundamental factor is two-
fold: first, some things just happen; accidents happen, people

30
die, parents get divorced, careers are lost, and people become
disabled. None of these things are directly attributable to us as a
child. Life is not fair; it was never supposed to be fair. It is as it is.
Second, many people will act out of their own pain, inflicting that
pain on others. It is not necessary for you to have done
something wrong; all you need to be is an available target. The
classic statement of the persecutor is, “I wouldn’t have to hurt
you if you didn’t make it necessary.” It is the victim’s fault that the
persecutor is out of control.
People really are doing the best they can do, and yes,
their best is sometimes extremely poor. The reality is that many
people live their lives in turmoil and emotional pain, and their
outer actions are but a reflection of that inner state. While we
cannot change other people, we can change ourselves and we
can establish a state of inner peace and serenity for ourselves.
The process of spiritual growth involves the correction of past
perceptions, conclusions, and emotional reactions. The
correction is two-fold; the intellectual understanding must be
changed, and the attached emotional state must also be
changed. The key is to change both of them at the same time.
We can use affirmations to change our thoughts, but if the
emotional counterpart remains, the thought will be regenerated.
We can change the emotional state, but if the intellectual
counterpart (the conclusion) remains, the emotion will be
regenerated. If we deal with both the intellectual and emotional
sides at the same time then the resolution becomes permanent.
Nothing remains to regenerate the other half.
The end result of this inner process is a unification of
self, which is the “solitary” of which Jesus is speaking. The result
is the complete surrender of the ego and its absorption into the
authority of the spirit. As long as the ego remains, we are
divided, living in a world of duality. Becoming spirit centered and
dismantling the ego renders us solitary and able to enter into the
oneness. It’s all part of the same process of becoming one with
God and all of creation. We will discuss this concept more in
sayings 22, 23, 49, 55, 75, and 101.

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 (17) Jesus said, “I shall give you what no eye has
seen and what no ear has heard and what no hand
has touched and what has never occurred to the
human mind.”

The experience of the presence of God is so unlike

anything else that people find they are unable to describe it. Our
system of communication depends on common experiences. For
example when I use the word “door”, you know what a door is
because you have experienced what a door does and what it
does not do. It is this shared experience which allows us to
communicate. Without that shared experience we lose our ability
to communicate clearly. This is one of the reasons Jesus uses
so many parables to describe the Kingdom of Heaven, or the
Kingdom of God. Jesus is not trying to hide this experience or
provide some cryptic explanation; he is trying to find some
shared experience that can form a parallel with this experience
of the presence of God. In this way, someone who has not
experienced the presence of God may get an intellectual
understanding of what the experience might be like.
No one has “seen”, “heard” or “touched” the presence of
God. It simply is not a thing of this world. As such, the human
mind (ego or personality) has no idea what it is. This is not
something that occurs to the human mind. If we really were “just
human”, then this experience could not happen to us. The fact
that we can and do have this experience means that we are
more than our bodies, more than our minds and thoughts. It is
the presence of spirit within that not only allows, but also
provides the mechanism through which this experience happens.
In this way, experiencing the presence of God demonstrates the
existence of spirit within each of us.

(18) The disciples said to Jesus, “Tell us how our

end will be.” Jesus said, “Have you discovered,
then, the beginning, that you look for the end? For
where the beginning is, there will the end be.
Blessed is he who will take his place in the
beginning; he will know the end and will not
experience death.”

32
 People want to know what is going to happen to them.
We want to know if there is a life after death, or if this is all there
is. Jesus not only understands how life works, but also
understands how the spirit works. The spirit exists first; it is the
beginning. In the beginning was God, and from the substance of
God we were produced. Nothing else in the universe needed to
exist, just God, and then us. This is the beginning, the alpha.
Physical life is a vehicle, a means of having the experiences we
call life, a school where we can learn and grow into maturity.
Once the need for the school has been met, we set the physical
body aside; it is no longer needed. We take the lessons learned,
the understanding and the wisdom with us. The mature spirit
then has everything it needs; it is the omega, the end.
Once we make the shift from being ego-centered to
being spirit-centered, we can shift our perceptions from the
temporary nature of the body to the eternal nature of the spirit.
By attaching our consciousness to the spirit, rather than the ego,
we will not experience the death of consciousness. When the
work of the body is done, we will set it aside; it will die, but our
consciousness will not. We will continue on in full consciousness
and awareness. In the Book of Revelation, where Jesus states
he is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, he is
demonstrating that his consciousness is fully attached and
associated with the spirit within. He is experiencing eternity here
and now, and he is showing us how we can, too, by becoming
spirit-centered and attaching our consciousness to our spirit
instead of our ego.

(19) Jesus said, “Blessed is he who came into being

before he came into being. If you become My
disciples and listen to My words, these stones will
minister to you. For there are five trees for you in
Paradise which remain undisturbed summer and
winter and whose leaves do not fall. Whoever
becomes acquainted with them will not experience
death.”

In the traditional mystery school, the five trees are the

Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament, the Torah being
the original form written in Hebrew). By learning the spiritual
system hidden within the Torah, we can make the shift from ego-

33
centered to spirit-centered life and not experience death. While
“Blessed is he who came into being before he came into being”
may seem confusing, it refers to the spirit as described above.
The comment of stones ministering to us will be addressed in
saying #77.
The mystery school system was originally designed to
impart the knowledge of spiritual existence, the raising up of the
spirit to a position of power and authority in our life, bringing us
fully and completely into that experience. It didn’t take long for
the remains of the ego to creep into the mystery school
teachings and corrupt the pure spiritual essence of its message.
The teaching soon was reserved for the elite, the socially and
politically connected. The rest of humanity was considered
“unclean” or “unwashed”. The second meaning of “esoteric” then
comes into play – meant for the few. The focus of the mystery
school then moved from the practice of spiritual growth to the
keeping of the knowledge or “secret”.
In keeping this spiritual knowledge secret mankind has
been relegated to a life of suffering without knowing why. Without
the spiritual knowledge, the suffering of mankind cannot be
overcome, so the suffering continues without end. Jesus
recognized the inherent injustice in keeping the spiritual
information secret and violated the order of secrecy. Jesus
began teaching all who showed an interest and guided anyone,
male or female, through the spiritual process and into the
presence of God. This violation of secrecy led to his execution.
Jesus was not only teaching the secret knowledge, but
also was teaching the practice of spiritual exercises designed to
bring the presence of God into fruition. Knowledge without
practical application is useless. The goal of this book is to share
not only knowledge, but also practical methods so the
information can be applied and the end result achieved. While
the knowledge resides in the Torah, the practical method can be
expressed in five other practices. Fulfilling our own inner needs
opens the door to our spirituality. Those inner needs are:
protecting our self, caring for our self, valuing our self, respecting
our self and loving our self.
We have been trained to seek the fulfillment of those
inner needs by manipulating the behavior of others, getting them
to do these things for us. After all, how can you feel loved if there
is no one there to love you? The reality is no one can make you
feel loved, valued, cared for, respected or protected if you
choose not to feel that way. Consider the man which falls madly

34
in love with a woman. She has no attraction to, or desire to be
with him. Is she loved? Yes! Does she feel loved? No! The man
is a pest; she just wants him to go away. What we can learn from
this is that even though we have learned to manipulate others,
their action, and inevitable lack of action, is not going to fulfill our
inner needs no matter what we do.
Let’s look at another example. If we line up 100 people,
and each person except one in the line tells us that we are a
good person, who are we going to believe; the 99, or the one?
Most of us are going to believe the one because they confirm the
thoughts and feelings we have about ourselves. It is not about
the views of other people, it is about the validation of what we
think and feel about ourselves, and this internal reference
controls how we feel, not the actions of another person. This is
also what keeps us separated from God and all of creation.
Only by changing the internal reference, what we think
and how we feel about ourselves, can we change our experience
in life. It is up to us to develop respect for ourself, care about
ourself, value ourself, protect ourself, and ultimately love ourself.
Nothing else will work. Does this mean that we must become
selfish? No, of course not. It means that we must stop
manipulating other people and do for ourselves what needs to be
done. We are responsible, not for the events in our lives, but for
the effect those events have on us. We, not random or even
intentional external events, determine what we think and how we
feel. In taking responsibility for our thoughts and feelings, we
remove a large part of the “mountain” that exists outside of us
and move it within. We become the power and authority in our
lives, not someone or something “out there”.
At the same time, this moving of the power and authority
from the outside to the inside does not mean we need to use that
power to control another person; that’s what got us into this
problem in the first place. Power and authority are meant for
each of us to control ourselves, not others. This is the power of
autonomy – the power to control ourself. It is the ego which
desires to control everything, but not itself. The spirit is into
autonomy.

35
 (20) The disciples said to Jesus, “Tell us what the
Kingdom of Heaven is like.” He said to them, “It is
like a mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds. But
when it falls on tilled soil, it produces a great plant
and becomes a shelter for birds of the sky.”

If we follow the interpretation of seeds as ideas, then

creating the Kingdom of Heaven within is not looked on as one of
the world’s great ideas. Most people want something which does
not require much work, yet provides substantial rewards. The
work involved in spiritual growth is not difficult, but it requires
persistence, a quality that involves continued activity with modest
rewards along the way. The substantial reward attained through
spiritual growth is cumulative; one experience or insight builds on
another, moving us more and more into the ultimate experience
of this 100% conscious contact with God.
The Kingdom of Heaven begins with a small idea, a
simple concept. Oneness with God and all of creation is
possible. The path begins with recognizing that we are separated
from God not in reality, but in our mind and heart because we
have held other things and ideas in greater esteem than the
presence of God. The inner journey into the presence of God is
the result of un-learning the past and re-learning the future. It
involves a complete change in direction and purpose in life. This
makes spiritual growth a daunting task, one which most people
will not easily adopt. Just as the great plant that springs from the
mustard seed does not appear overnight, so too does the
Kingdom of Heaven grow slowly within.
Once the idea of the Kingdom of Heaven takes root in us
and we start the process of un-learning and re-learning, the rest
of our concepts begin to be altered. Soon the whole of our being
is involved in the process. As we begin having spiritual
experiences we get a taste of what the presence of God is really
about. From that time on, we begin to hunger and thirst for these
experiences and this intimate contact with God which comes to
us. This is the hunger and thirst for righteousness of which Jesus
speaks. Gradually, the spirit gains control of our lives and we are
transformed into something much greater than we could have
imagined. We express this greater self, not by ascending to a
position of power and authority in the world, commanding
millions of people, but in recognizing the spirit, the substance of
God, in each and every individual we encounter. Our desire
becomes one of service, in deep reverence and respect, clothed

36
in kindness and gentleness. As such our compassion and
humility become a welcome shelter for those around us. The
greater our love, compassion and humility become, the greater
the shelter we provide.

(21) Mary said to Jesus, “Whom are your disciples

like?” He said, “They are like children who have
settled in a field which is not theirs. When the
owners of the field come they will say ‘Let us have
back our field.’ They will strip themselves naked in
their presence, in order to let them have their field
and give it to them. Therefore I say unto you, if the
master of the house knows that the thief is coming,
he will begin his vigil before he comes and will not
let him dig through into his house of his domain to
carry away his goods. You then be on your guard
against the world. Arm yourselves with great
strength, lest the robbers find a way to come to you,
for the difficulty which you expect will surely
materialize. Let there be amongst you a man of
understanding! When the grain ripened, he came
quickly with his sickle in hand and he reaped. He
who hath ears to hear let him hear.”

While on the surface it may appear this saying is about

four different things, when properly understood Jesus is talking
about the same thing. The example Jesus uses of children who
have settled in a field which is not theirs is representative of each
of us in the early part of our spiritual journey. We have settled
into a consciousness or belief system which is not secure. We
don’t “own” the experience yet. In the time of Jesus, children
could not own land until they became adults. Even though the
land may be theirs at some time in the future, someone else
owns it until they are adults. Likewise, as we enter into a new
belief system, we don’t own the experience until we have
matured enough to claim it and fully experience it for ourselves.
Until then, when we are challenged by conditions in life, we
revert to the old system of reactions that keep us limited and
imprisoned. We quickly strip ourselves of the new ideas and
concepts and return to our old trusted ways

37
 Family and friends are usually the first to challenge us
about our new beliefs. They have an interest in keeping us the
same as we have always been. If we remain the same, or revert
back to the same position, we validate what they believe about
us and themselves. But if we change, then we are in effect
challenging what others believe about themselves; questioning
the status quo. This is why we are challenged in return: others
feel threatened when we change, and the greater the change,
the greater the challenge. Some people, when challenged in this
way, abandon the new ideas and practices never to return. For
those who persist, a change in beliefs also results in a change in
friends and family relationships. Some will become closer, many
will become more distant. It is all part of the process of growth.
Knowing that these challenges will come, we can
prepare ourselves. “If the master of the house knows that the
thief is coming, he will begin his vigil before he comes and will
not let him dig through into his house of his domain to carry away
his goods.” So knowing that others will challenge our new ideas
and concepts, we must begin preparing ourselves well in
advance so we will not revert back into the old destructive
patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviors. We must not let the
opinions of others add strength to the limiting and debilitating
thoughts and feelings which we are trying to eliminate. We
cannot allow others to continue validating the destructive
patterns in our lives. We can do this by first limiting our time and
associations with people who are not of like mind. Secondly, we
can discount the comments these people make by
understanding that they are acting out of their own pain, and not
in consideration of us or our needs. We do not want them taking
away our progress, “carrying away our goods.”
“You then be on guard against the world. Arm
yourselves with great strength, lest the robbers find a way to
come to you, for the difficulty which you expect will surely
materialize.” This is the way the world works: when we challenge
the status quo we are attacked to bring us back into line, back
into submission. The old patterns of thought and belief are not
easily replaced with the new. It is up to each of us to strengthen
our resolve and protect the new ideas and practices until they
take firm root in us, until we actually own the experience and
become secure in our new consciousness.
“Let there be amongst you a man of understanding!
When the grain ripened, he came quickly with his sickle in hand
and he reaped.” Inherent in this process is a matter of timing.

38
Like the parables of the fisherman and the pearl merchant, once
we recognize that we have a workable path into the presence of
God, we need to act. It does not take long for the world or our
own ego to talk us out of doing what we need to do. Our interest
strays and moves on to other things. In doing so, the opportunity
to enter the Kingdom of Heaven passes and we remain in the
world. If we clearly understand that the opportunity must be
taken when it appears to us, just as grain must be harvested
when it is ripe, then we will act and we will enter into the new
consciousness.

(22) Jesus saw babes being suckled. He said to His

disciples, “These babes being suckled are like those
who will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” They said to
Him, “Shall we then, as children, enter the
Kingdom?” Jesus said to them, “When you make the
two one, and when you make the inside as the
outside and the outside as the inside and the above
like the below and when you make the male and the
female one and the same; so that the male shall not
be male nor the female female; and when you
fashion eyes in place of an eye, and a hand in place
of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, and an image
in place of a likeness, then shall you enter the
Kingdom of Heaven. He who hath a mind to
understand, let him understand.”

The process of spiritual growth is one of transformation.

This transformation involves the restructuring of everything within
us. The primary work of restructuring is to unify our thoughts,
feelings, actions and perspectives. The effect of the traumas,
programming and imprinting creates a fractured nature within us.
The mind attempts to coordinate and integrate the disparate
experiences in our life, but finds it is unable to do so. What the
mind does when it can’t integrate is to compartmentalize. In
order to maintain the illusion of integration, a device known as a
buffer is created. The buffer is a momentary disorientation of the
mind and thought pattern while our consciousness is switched
from one compartment to another. Occasionally you will notice
someone stating, “I never do anything like that” only to observe
them doing just that 10 minutes later. This is the result of
compartmentalization: one part does not know what the other
part is doing.

39
 When we become angry, we play out the actions and
attitudes we have observed in others. We often use the same
words, intonation and body language one of our parents used in
the past. The power of imprinting is very strong. We are mostly
unaware of its existence; let alone how deeply it has affected our
life. All of the reactions we have to the many situations in life are
the actions of one or more compartments, acquired through
trauma, programming or imprinting. So very little of us is actually
original, that once the personality is understood, our behavior
can be predicted in advance to a very high degree of certainty.
This is what profiling does and why it is used to help track down
criminals. We really have become creatures of habit.
The transformative nature of spiritual growth identifies
the individual compartments, breaks down the buffer, allowing us
to “see” the true nature and source of this piece of our
personality, and provides the means of integrating it into a new
“whole”. This is the underlying practice for what Jesus is
describing. The end result of this process is a unified
consciousness. We sometimes refer to such an individual as
being “genuine”, meaning they are the same in private as they
are in public – there is no act which is put on to impress other
people. This unification of self is necessary before we can enter
into the Kingdom of Heaven.

(23) Jesus said, “I shall choose you, one out of a

thousand, and two out of ten thousand, and they
shall stand as a single one.”

The process of inner unification begins when we select a

central piece or perspective, into which all of the other pieces will
be integrated. Since the goal and purpose is to awaken and
empower the spirit within, and since the spirit is the only real or
eternal part, the spirit is selected as the center of unification.
When the spirit cannot be clearly identified, the spiritual part of
the personality is selected to be replaced in the future as the true
nature of the spirit within is revealed during the process of
transformation.

40
 (24) His disciples said to Him, “Show us the place
where You are, since it is necessary for us to seek
it.” He said to them, “Whoever has ears, let him hear.
There is light within a man of light, and he lights up
the whole world. If he does not shine, he is
darkness.”

“Show us the place where you are” is a parallel to asking

what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. We want to know what it will
be like to consciously exist in the presence of God. The problem
all spiritual teachers encounter is the lack of suitable words to
describe an experience which is not shared by the vast majority
of the population. This results in a wide variety of examples and
explanations, most of which leave their students with more
questions than when they started. Confusion is common. If it
were a simple experience, it would be easier to explain. But the
experience of the presence of God is a deeply moving one with
many layers of subtlety, containing different aspects at the same
time.
We have spoken of spirit as living light. This is more than
a concept or an intellectual abstract. There is a physical reality to
it. In the Book of Revelation 2:10 (RSV) Jesus says, “Be faithful
unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.” Many scholars
have debated what this “crown” of life is. The most confusing
aspect in the debate is the root word used for “crown”. It is not a
physical crown in the traditional sense. The Hebrew root word
means “corona” as in the ring of light around the sun seen during
a total solar eclipse. What relationship does this ring of light have
to the crown, or highest expression, of life?
Spiritual growth is not just a change or elevation in
consciousness; the spirit within us grows in size and power. We
have more of the living light, more of the substance of God, and
more of the life force. The divine spark becomes larger, much
larger. As true spiritual mastery takes place, the living light of
spirit becomes so strong that it is clearly visible, particularly
around the head. This is exemplified by Moses in Exodus 34:30
(RSV), “And when Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses,
behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come
near him.” Many people now call this light a halo. A halo is an
intensified form of the aura which appears around the head.
Halos are represented in artwork of Jesus, some of the disciples,
Mary Magdalene, and Mary, the mother of Jesus. These halos
are not an invention of the imagination; they are the outward sign

41
of true spiritual mastery. There is much more going on in the
history of these religious figures than we have been led to
believe.
The living light of spirit is real and a true spiritual master
does shine. The living light of spirit shines in a halo around the
head, like the corona around the sun. This is the highest
expression of spiritual power on earth; it is the highest level of
the life force, the crown of life.

(25) Jesus said, “Love your brother like your soul,

guard him like the pupil of your eye.”

There is a profound connection between love and the

spirit. Jesus gave us a new commandment: that we love one
another. The reason for this new commandment is not just
something which would be nice to do; it is the essence of the
spiritual growth processes. It is love which awakens the spirit
and soul. It is love which empowers the living light within. It is
love which is the mechanism of inner transformation. Without
feeling this love that comes from God we cannot experience the
presence of God, for the two are one and the same.
As we enter more deeply into the presence of God, the
love which comes from God becomes stronger, flowing through
us, radiating from us out into the world. We are changed at depth
through the experience of love. It is extending to others the love
we feel and experience, which creates the flow through us. It is
like the flow of water in a stream or river; if it is not flowing there
is no power to it. Love is the same way – no flow, no power. If
this love is not flowing through us, we cannot experience it,
either. We cannot hang on to it; either it flows, blessing us and
making us grow in the process, or we don’t experience it at all.
To love our brother like our soul is to assist the flow of love
through us. To guard him like the pupil of our eye is to prevent
anything from interfering with that flow of love.

(26) Jesus said, “You see the mote in your brother’s

eye, but you do not see the beam in your own eye.
When you cast the beam out of your own eye, then
you will see clearly to pull the mote from your
brother’s eye.”

42
 The ego looks out into the world and judges it good or
bad. It has no incentive to examine itself, for the one who judges
must always be superior to what is being judged. In the process
of judging others it is easy to find fault, diminishing the value of
anyone who would compete against us in the world.
The spiritual path is the journey of self discovery. This
entails the exploration of all of our inner qualities, faults included,
with the intent of resolving all of our inner conflicts. This process
leads to the unification of the self and removes the blocks to our
awareness and clears our perceptions. It is only when we see
others through the eyes of the love which comes from God that
we see them clearly, the way God sees them. Only then are we
truly in a position to help them. How can we give something
which we do not have? How can we guide someone on a path
we are not walking? The simple reality is that we cannot. Our
growth must be well along in its progress before we can guide
others. We must be well established in love before we see others
as true children of God. Before we can show others what we
really are, we must become our real self.

(27) Jesus said, “If you do not fast as regards the

world, you will not find the Kingdom. If you do not
regard the Sabbath as Sabbath, you will not see the
Father.”

There is a story about a Cherokee elder who was

teaching his grandchildren about life. He said to them, “A fight is
going on inside me. It is a terrible fight between two wolves. One
wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed,
arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, pride and
superiority. The other wolf stands for joy, peace, love, hope,
sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship,
empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith. This same
fight is going on inside of you and every other person too.” The
grandchildren thought about it for a minute and then one child
asked; “Grandfather, which wolf will win?” The old man simply
replied, “The one I feed.”
Within us are two competing entities: the ego and the
spirit. In our early development, we associate with the ego, and it
is the ego which gets fed. As a result the ego grows in strength
and power. As long as it gets fed, the ego is in control of our life.
So what are we actually doing that feeds our ego?

43
 We have come to know that we eat food, drink water,
and breathe air, and our bodies use these basic components to
create the energy we need to move our muscles and do the
physical and mental activities which fill our days. What we don’t
know is that the body is a biological energy transformation
machine. It is capable of creating a number of different specific
forms of energy, not just the form needed by the muscles,
organs and brain. The body produces a form of emotional energy
which matches the energy requirements of the ego. This form of
emotion is fear or pride-based and is something we normally
associate with negative emotions. Fear, hate, anger, guilt, envy,
bitterness, resentment, lust and shame are emotions in this
class. These are the emotions which feed the ego. Every time
we express or experience these emotions the ego is being fed,
becoming stronger and more in control of our lives.
The spirit needs a different form of energy than the ego.
The spirit feeds on the positive emotions of love, compassion,
caring, gentleness, kindness, respect and support. The crux of
the issue is that the body will produce only one of these forms at
a time. As we have spent most of our life experiencing the
emotions which feed the ego, the ego has grown very strong.
The spirit, which has not been fed, has lapsed into a deep sleep,
like a state of hibernation. This is where the concept of
awakening applies to the spirit. We must awaken the spirit from
its deep sleep before it can be raised up and empowered. So
how do we awaken our spirit? We start feeding it. We make a
conscious decision and effort to experience only positive, loving
emotions.
Is this a practical approach? Well, yes and no. Will
experiencing positive emotions awaken the spirit? Yes. Can we
just switch from negative to positive emotions by choosing to do
so? No. Our ego has a very strong interest in keeping us focused
on the emotions which feed it. Without that food, the ego will
weaken and eventually fall into a deep sleep, just as our spirit
has. This is the fight between the “two wolves” within us, the ego
and the spirit. We decide which will win, by deciding which we
will feed. And we feed one or the other by the emotions we
express and experience. Do not be discouraged when the ego
raises its ugly head and you are thrown back into a negative
emotion. The answer is in being persistent. Return to the loving
emotions as soon as you can. The more love-based emotions
you can experience, the more the spirit within you will grow; and

44
the stronger the spirit becomes, the more loving thoughts and
emotions you will experience.
The world runs on negative emotions. A simple review of
the day’s news makes that clear. As long as we indulge in the
emotions which feed the ego, the spirit within cannot grow. We
must stop our indulgence in the negative emotions; we must fast
as regards the world and stop feeding the ego. If we do not stop
feeding the ego, the spirit will not grow and we cannot find the
Kingdom. It’s that simple.
The Sabbath is the traditional day of rest. Here the rest
Jesus is referring to is the same as in saying #2 (Coptic version).
Rest represents the peace of God, that deep abiding peace
which is the hallmark of living in the presence of God. Rest is
also associated with the practice of meditation, the traditional
means of entering into the presence of God for many Eastern
religions. Here the practice focuses on quieting the mind and
bringing it into a state of peace. The key to successful spiritual
growth through meditation is the same as any other spiritual
system: confronting and resolving the disturbances within the
personality or ego. If there is no inner confrontation followed by
resolution, there is no growth.

(28) Jesus said, “I take my place in the midst of the

world, and I appeared to them in the flesh. I found
them all intoxicated; I found none of them thirsty.
And My soul became afflicted for the sons of men,
because they are blind in their hearts and do not
have sight. For empty they came into the world, and
empty too they seek to leave the world. But for the
moment they are intoxicated. When they shake off
their wine, then they will repent.”

The world has seen a great procession of spiritual

teachers. These teachers come into the world, taking their place,
appearing in the flesh so they are like everyone else. Then they
demonstrate their spiritual knowledge and understanding,
showing others the way back into the presence of God. But life in
the world has its own way. By having life in the world structured
to focus on and feed the ego, we become entranced with the
ego’s desires, thoughts and goals. We are led to believe the ego
is all there is, and either you get with the program and become

45
the biggest ego around, or you’re nobody. The ego blinds us by
making its focus the outside rather than the inside. The ego is
calling us to go out into the world and find our answers
“somewhere out there”.
The spiritual teacher calls us back to the inner world of
spirit where the presence of God can be found. The problem all
spiritual teachers encounter is the entranced state of people
living under control of the ego. Jesus describes this entranced
state as being intoxicated. He states he found none of them
thirsty. In other words, none of them is seeking true knowledge
and understanding of spiritual things. There is no hunger and
thirst for righteousness, living a spirit-based life in the presence
of God. All true spiritual teachers grieve for the suffering people
experience. The most frustrating part is seeing how the thoughts,
feelings and actions of people create that suffering. People do
not see how the ego manipulates them into emotional pain and
suffering, just so it can get fed. The stronger the ego becomes
the more suffering it creates, either within the self, or in other
people.
Each person is a spiritual being, but without the fullness
and depth of that experience, we are empty and desolate.
Without the spiritual teacher there would be no effective way of
ending the separation from God and the suffering that ensues
from that separation. There is an old story about a wolf and a
flock of sheep. The wolf is having trouble catching the sheep
because the entire flock is very much aware of the wolf and what
the wolf wants. So the flock avoids the wolf, keeping its distance.
The wolf thinks and thinks and finally comes up with a plan. The
wolf hypnotizes the flock and tells them they are no longer
sheep. He tells each sheep, “You are a doctor, you are a
teacher, you are an engineer and you are a lawyer.” As the
sheep go about believing they are these other things, they forget
their real nature and the threat the wolf is to them. The wolf can
now approach the sheep and kill whichever one it wants without
the sheep becoming alarmed.
In this story the wolf represents our ego. The ego keeps
its victims entranced, hypnotized or intoxicated, so they do not
clearly see what it is doing to them. The spiritual teacher shakes
the belief system and attempts to awaken or bring the student
out of the trance or hypnotized state induced by the ego.
Generally only the few will shake off this intoxication of the ego
and repent. The meaning of the word “repent” is not only an act
of contrition, but the changing of one’s mind, and just as

46
importantly, to change ones life. To repent is to change the
direction of one’s life: from outer to inner, from ego to spirit, from
separation to oneness.
This is the call which every true spiritual teacher makes:
repent. Change your thoughts, your feelings and your actions.
Turn away from the ego and its incessant focus on suffering,
manipulation and control. Change your life by changing your
consciousness. The presence of God is everywhere, in and of
everything, at all times. It is only our state of consciousness
which limits our awareness, and we can change that. We can
grow in awareness, knowledge, understanding and wisdom. We
can awaken the spirit within, grow and mature into the pure
spiritual being God created us to be. We are limited only by our
lack of understanding who and what we really are. You are a
child of God, created out of God substance. Everything God is
and has is yours.

(29) Jesus said, “If the flesh came into being

because of spirit, it is a wonder. But if the spirit
came into being because of the body, it is a wonder
of wonders. Indeed, I am amazed at how this great
wealth has made its home in this poverty.”

The Spirit which we recognize as God is the source of all

life. The individualized substance of God which we recognize as
our own personal spirit is the source of our individual life. The
spirit is present and forms a living light field around the sperm
and egg just before conception takes place. The genetic DNA of
the new body is formed during conception, becoming the
blueprint for the body. So how does a cell know what it is to
become? In the beginning individual cells are undifferentiated;
they are not bone cells, muscle cells, skin cells or nerve cells.
How does a cell know it has to become a bone cell for example?
We might say the DNA within the cell makes that determination
based on where the cell is in the developing body. But the
question still remains: how does it know? How does the cell
“know” where it is in the newly forming body?
DNA does not “think”, therefore it cannot “know”; DNA is
a repository for information, much like a library full of books. Just
as a library requires someone to read the books and understand
them before the information can be used and become
meaningful, so too must the DNA be read and understood before

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it can be used in a meaningful way. So who or what “reads” the
DNA? It is this author’s belief that the spirit within us “reads” the
DNA and supervises the construction of the physical body,
following the blueprint created during conception.
On a more philosophical level, the individual spirit needs
the physical body for its development and maturing process. The
body is a biological energy transformation system capable of
producing the specific form of energy needed by the spirit for its
growth. So the flesh (the body) comes into being because of the
spirit. The spirit, being the substance of God, has eternal life. It
has come into existence from pure Spirit, not physical matter.
God has existed from before the creation of the physical
universe. The creator must exist before the creation as a matter
of definition of terms. Just as God is the creator of the physical
universe, so too are we as spiritual beings the creator of our
physical bodies. The creator gives rise to the creation, not the
other way around. This is why Jesus says, “But if the spirit came
into being because of the body, it is a wonder of wonders.” It just
doesn’t work that way.
What is amazing is that the spirit, with its great wealth of
possibilities, ultimately inheriting the full Kingdom of God, has
chosen the limited nature of the physical body for its temporary
home. The key to understanding this choice is the capability of
the physical body to generate the specific form of energy
required for the spirit to grow. Without this energy, the spirit
cannot develop beyond where it currently exists. The
undeveloped spirit is also without full consciousness and
awareness. These, too, are developed during this partnership
with the physical body. So the body is an instrumental tool in the
development of the spirit.

(30) Jesus said, “Where there are three gods, they

are gods. Where there are two or one, I am with
him.”

Here is the Greek version.

(30) [Jesus sa]id, ["Wh]ere there are [th]r[ee] t[hey

ar]e [without] God. And [w]here there is only o[ne], I
say, I am with hi[m]. Li[f]t the stone and there you
will find me. Split the wood and I am there."

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 The Greek version combines part of saying #77 which
we will save for that explanation. It is obvious the first line is at
odds in these two translations, so we will begin with the Greek
version. Always remember esoteric teachings or sayings deal
with inner things, even though they are expressed in outer terms.
“Where there are three they are without God” would be more
clear if it said “where there are three or more they are without
God.”
There is an old story about a man who desires to lead a
spiritual life. His wife has died and his children are grown so he
comes to the temple and asks to enter the spiritual life of a
monk. A teacher at the temple tells him first he must attend
classes which are held once a week outside the entrance to the
temple. So the man starts to attend the classes. After about a
year he comes into the temple and begins explaining to the
master of the temple how he wants to lead a spiritual life and live
with them in the temple. The master interrupts saying, “Stop,
stop, there are too many voices. Go back to class.”
After returning to class the man begins to pay close
attention to anything having to do with voices. He discovers he
says some of the same things his father said when he was a
boy, and he asks the teacher if this is what is meant by voices.
The teacher explains that this is exactly what the master of the
temple was talking about. Within us are many voices which we
have incorporated over the years, and it is necessary for us to
separate these voices and eliminate all voices except the one
true voice which is our real self. After another year of work on
voices the man approaches the master of the temple again and
tries to explain what he wants. The master again interrupts
saying, “Stop, stop, there are still too many voices. Go back to
class.”
Now the man knows he is on the right track. He
discovers he says things his mother used to say, his childhood
friends, his uncle, his aunt, his grandfather, his teachers at
school, his boss where he worked; all of them have had an
impact on him and all have taken a place within his mind. He
began to ask himself, “Who am I, really?” One by one he began
to identify and discard the patterns of speech, the mannerisms,
the attitudes and prejudices of the people in his life. Finally the
day came when he felt he was ready to approach the master
again. This time when he entered the temple he simply went and
stood in front of the master and said nothing. The master looked

49
deeply into his eyes and studied him for several minutes. Finally
the master said, “Not perfect, but better. Now we can begin.”
Within each of us reside the voices, the attitudes and
beliefs of others. We are not just ourselves, we are a mixture of
ourself and many others, each part separate from the others. We
are not unified. God will not enter the crowded room. Only where
we have reduced the voices within to one or two will the spirit
and oneness of God enter. As long as there are three or more
voices, they rule our consciousness and control our lives. The
voices have become our Gods. Where there are three or more
voices, they are (false) Gods. Where there are two or one, the
true spirit and oneness of God can enter.

(31) Jesus said, “No prophet is accepted in his own

village; no physician heals those who know him.”

Our belief about people is one of the strongest factors in

the construction of relationships. When we grow up knowing
someone we tend to think this is the way they will always be. But
people change. The maturing process changes people more
than anything else in our society. As we mature in the world we
cease to be the children we have been; we in essence become a
new person.
Part of the problem is that physical maturity is automatic
but the rest of our maturity requires effort on our part.
Intellectual, emotional and spiritual maturity is not automatic.
Intellectual maturity requires us to learn and put what we learn to
use. Emotional maturity is more involved. This involves
sometimes painful changes and the releasing of immature
emotional states and actions. A lack of emotional maturity
severely limits many people in their careers and relationships.
The vast majority of relationship difficulties are the result of
emotional immaturity. Whether it takes place at home or at work,
the pain and suffering and loss of productive time and effort
represent tremendous losses for us all. It’s not just the economic
loss but the loss of loving, caring relationships resulting in
damaged and dysfunctional families. This creates very deep
seated painful emotional traumas that warp and twist our
personalities, perpetuating the emotional harm for generations.
Ignorance is addressed through education, but how do
we address the lack of emotional maturity in our society?
Generally, we don’t. Our society is struggling to meet simple

50
goals of basic education. Learning about emotional maturity is
far beyond what we currently can conceive as a society. Some
individuals have seen the need and are trying to raise awareness
about our emotional states, but at this time it exceeds the grasp
of our society. If emotional maturity is beyond our grasp, spiritual
maturity is beyond our comprehension.
For this reason, the rare individual who manages to
mature spiritually is considered a prophet. People who have
known this person before the maturing process has taken place
still think they know them, and they certainly can’t be anything
other than what they were. People always assume that the most
spiritual people have to be from somewhere else; there can’t be
any prophet here, because I know everybody from here. What is
not understood is that everyone is a spiritual being living the life
of a regular person. Anyone who has the desire and knowledge
can grow emotionally and spiritually.
We tend to think that these rare spiritually matured
people are going to be so different from us that we would
instantly recognize them. So what would we look for? Walking on
water or performing miracles? That would certainly make the
recognition easy, but real life is not so simple. You may already
know a spiritually mature person. The most obvious outer signs
are treating everyone with respect, gentleness and kindness.
Spiritually mature people are peaceful, generally happy and non-
confrontational. There is an inner joy and truly loving nature
about them. People find that they like the spiritually mature
person, often without knowing why. Spiritually mature people
stand out, but in ways which we don’t normally expect. When we
meet them for the first time we clearly recognize that something
is very different about them, but if we have known them for
years, our past perceptions about them blind us to their current
level of maturity.

(32) Jesus said, “A city being built on a high

mountain and fortified cannot fall, nor can it be
hidden.”

Spiritually mature people are different, and the greater

the maturity the greater the difference. A city being built on a
high mountain is the consciousness being built on the base of
spirit rather than ego. As in saying #21, it takes time and effort to
build this new consciousness. At some point the new

51
consciousness becomes strong enough to withstand the criticism
from others in the world which results from becoming spiritually
mature and thus different. The desire to conform is strong in
most people and it takes a certain degree of spiritual maturity to
overcome the need to conform. Once the new consciousness
has been strengthened and fortified, it becomes secure; it will not
fall. But it is also at this point that it cannot be hidden, either. The
change from being ego-based to being spirit-based becomes
obvious.

(33) Jesus said, “Preach from your housetops that

which you will hear in your ear and in your other ear.
For no one lights a lamp and sets it under a bushel,
nor does he put it in a hidden place, but rather he
sets it on a lampstand so that everyone who enters
and leaves will see its light.”

The new consciousness brings with it more insights into

the nature of God. These insights, or revelations, can be
exciting. We want to tell others about what is happening to us
and what we are learning. We are sometimes dismayed that
other people are not receptive to our new-found experiences. We
forget about the disillusionment we experienced in the earlier
part of our spiritual journey (saying #2). By remembering, we can
see how the new ideas can be disruptive to the belief systems of
other people.
As we grow and mature spiritually the lamp of
enlightenment becomes lit within us. Although some people
enter temples or monasteries to get out of the world and into
their own spiritual environment, it is not appropriate to go into
seclusion and hide from the world. We must live our lives, letting
the light of spirit shine through our kindness, gentleness, and
loving respect for others. Through our actions more than words
we express the loving nature of the Kingdom of Heaven,
touching the minds and hearts of those around us. The light
within will shine, and we must allow it to do so.

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 (34) Jesus said, “If a blind man leads a blind man,
they will both fall into a pit.”

As we have discovered in the Gospel of John, chapter 3,

the ego cannot see the Kingdom of Heaven. It is only the spirit
within which has the capability to perceive the Kingdom. In this
respect, anyone who is ego based is blind to the Kingdom. This
is the underlying difference between the outer form of religion
and the inner experience. The outer form must rely on the ego
which can only believe and have faith. The inner form sees and
experiences the Kingdom, and thus “knows” (gnosis). The ego
can go on a spiritual path, but it is blind to the Kingdom and must
lose its way. Those following an ego on a spiritual path must also
lose their way.
It doesn’t matter what the ego learns, for if our
consciousness is attached to the ego it will all disappear once
the body can no longer produce the energy needed to sustain
the ego. The result is the second death spoken of in the Book of
Revelation (20:14 & 21:8): the death of consciousness. The
Book of Revelation presents this as a lake of fire which destroys
everything thrown into it. The pit Jesus uses in this example is
another metaphor with the same meaning and function. The pit is
the darkness which results from the loss of consciousness.

(35) Jesus said, “`It is not possible for anyone to

enter the house of a strong man and take it by force
unless he binds his hands; then he will be able to
plunder his house.”

The ego does not surrender easily. When we begin our

true spiritual path the ego is strong. It is necessary to bind the
hands of the ego so we can empty ourselves of the traumas,
programming and imprinting. These are the things the ego uses
as tools or weapons in maintaining control over our lives.
In many ways the ego is like a small child; it likes to
misbehave, but it doesn’t like to get caught. So we “bind its
hands” by observing the ego. We then “catch” the ego doing
what it does to control us. In order to accomplish this, we need to
learn something about how the ego works. The ego is subject to
triggers, both external and internal. An external trigger is an
event which happens outside of us. It can be something
someone says or does. It can be the tone of someone’s voice or

53
someone’s body language. It can be a sound, smell, texture,
color, taste; anything which triggers a memory within us. An
internal trigger is a memory, usually of an external trigger. It
doesn’t matter whether the trigger is internal or external because
once the process has been triggered, the rest of it is all internal.
Many triggers are pleasant to most of us: the smell of
coffee or of freshly baked bread, fresh cut flowers, a thank you
note. These generally invoke pleasant memories from our past.
But some triggers invoke feelings of guilt, anger, frustration,
hatred, envy and a host of other negative feelings and their
associated thoughts. There is a sequence which follows the
trigger. The first is a feeling. Feelings are faster than thoughts. In
a sequence, feelings and thoughts are connected. The first
feeling is not usually very strong, but it is connected to a thought,
generally a conclusion we have come to about ourself, someone
else, life, or our perception of the relationships involved. The
thought acts as an internal trigger, activating a second emotion
which is related to the first feeling and acts as support for the
developing emotional experience.
A type of ping-pong ball exchange follows where the
feeling is attached to a thought, which acts as an internal trigger
for the next related feeling. The end effect is the building of an
emotional state within, generally negative in nature, where the
ego can gorge itself on the emotional energy produced. The
disruptive consequences to the rest of our life and the lives of
others around us are ignored, at least for the moment. If the
action of the ego has injured someone physically or emotionally,
guilt can always be served as desert; any negative or pride
based emotion will feed the ego. What we are looking for is the
ping-pong ball game, the sequence of feelings and thoughts
which are used to build the negative emotional state.
Keep a small pad or notebook handy for writing down
your observations. In the beginning it is common to go through
the entire emotional sequence before we realize we should have
been observing. Persistence is the key. Don’t beat yourself up
for missing what happened; that can be used to feed the ego, as
well. Just continue to observe how emotional states are
generated. Make a list of emotions which are triggered within you
and their associated thoughts. Many times the ego will indulge in
these emotional feasts when you can’t write them down, for
example, while you are driving a car or are in the middle of doing
something which cannot be interrupted. As soon afterwards as

54
you can, write down as much of the feeling / thought pattern as
you can remember.
After about a month of observation you should begin to
recognize a pattern developing in the feeling / thought ping-pong
game. There will be three or four emotional states which the ego
uses to feed itself. As you become more adept at observing, you
will begin to see the triggers which initiate the emotional states.
Once you recognize the triggers you can begin to watch for
them. The negative emotional state can be avoided by breaking
the ping-pong ball sequence, and the earlier in the sequence we
can break the pattern the less the ego gets fed. Not feeding the
ego makes it weak. This is how we bind the hands of the strong
man (the ego), so we can plunder his house (take away the tools
or weapons the ego has been using against us).

(36) Jesus said, “Do not be concerned from early

until late and from evening until morning about food,
what you shall eat, nor about clothing what you shall
put on. Much better are you than the lilies, which
card not neither do they spin, and your Heavenly
Father clothes them also. For who can defile you?
Who can add to your age? He Himself will give you
your garment.”

Historically the Essenes and many other related religious

groups were communal in nature. This means that they shared
resources; there was no private property. In exchange for their
labor, individuals were supplied with food, clothing and shelter in
addition to spiritual instruction. We live in a different way now, so
the outer experience is different. But the inner experience is still
the same. It has to do with the focus in our life. Remember,
worship means “pay attention to”. The things we pay attention to
in our life are the subject of our worship. So what are we paying
attention to? What are we worshiping?
Are we focused on food, clothing, appearance or
possessions? If we have no food, clothing or shelter, it is
necessary to focus on them, for the physical body we inhabit
requires those things for survival. But beyond the basics, what
do we really need? Conveniences like washing machines,
dryers, refrigerators, freezers, cars for transportation, TV’s and
radios for communication and entertainment and furniture to sit
and lie on are all good things to have. But somewhere there is a

55
line between what is needed and useful and what is possessed
for the impression it makes on other people. This is why focus is
so important. Are we focusing on our survival and basic comfort,
or are we focusing on elevating our ego and creating separation
between ourselves and others, if only in our mind?
If we are to mature emotionally and spiritually, we must
focus our attention on the things which will heal the separation
and bring us into oneness. Who can defile us? The ego defiles
us. Remember it is not that which goes into the mouth, but that
which proceeds from the mouth which defiles us. For what we
say reflects what is in our heart. The ego acts in its own interest,
out of our lower (negative) emotional base. This defiles us. The
spirit acts in the interest of oneness and healing, out of our
higher, love-based, emotional center. This blesses us and also
blesses all others with whom we come in contact. The ego acts
to increase the separation, thus increasing the pain and suffering
it inflicts on the world. The spirit acts to heal the separation and
bring us into oneness, thus reducing the pain and suffering in the
world. This is the power of focus. This is why our focus is so
important. Reducing the suffering in the world is an altruistic goal
which may have little real meaning to us in our everyday life. But
reducing the suffering we experience individually is much more
rewarding and beneficial to us on a personal level. Suffering is
suffering, and if you stop suffering there is less suffering in the
world, is there not?
He himself will give you your garment. We are also
clothed in our attitude and consciousness. What difference does
it make if people are dressed in expensive clothes when they are
rude and abusive? Clothing does not change who they are. As
we enter into the presence of God and begin functioning from
gentleness, kindness and respect, we become clothed in love. It
is by our loving nature that people recognize us, not by our
clothing. Are we to be people of inner substance or remain
shallow, without character and depth to our being? Living in the
presence of God is the single most powerful and transforming
experience in life. You cannot go through that experience and
not become a beautiful person within.

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 (37) His disciples said to him, “When shall you be
revealed to us and when shall we see You?” Jesus
said, “When you strip yourselves without being
ashamed, and take up your garments and place
them under your feet like little children and tread on
them, then will you see the Son of the Living One,
and you will not be afraid.”

“When shall you be revealed to us and when shall we

see You?” Notice the use of upper case and lower case in the
two uses of the word “you”. Just as in spirit and Spirit, we are
talking about two different levels of experience, the individual
and the divine. It is difficult for the ego to determine who is a true
spiritual teacher and who is just another ego on a spiritual path.
So the disciple’s question is what the ego part of us really wants
to know. The ego wants proof of a person’s spiritual
development. If this developed spirit is inside of you, show it to
me.
Unless a person is adept at seeing auras and
understands what they are seeing, the ego remains without eyes
to see. The ego cannot see the Kingdom of Heaven; only the
spirit within can perceive these spiritual things. Jesus
understands their desire for proof of spiritual attainment; the
disciples want to see the raised-up spiritual being – the “You” in
question. The disciples cannot see the spiritual being within in
their present state of consciousness. So Jesus tells them what
they must do in order to enter into the consciousness which will
allow them to see. “When you strip yourselves without being
ashamed, and take up your garments and place them under your
feet like little children and tread on them” refers not to actual
clothing, but to the ego-based consciousness and the attitudes
and acts we put on for the impression it will make on others. We
feel ashamed of the person we really are, so we put on this act,
this persona, when we are out in public. It is only at home where
we let down the appearances and start to be ourself.
In the process of spiritual growth the acts, the public
persona, the need to make favorable impressions gradually fall
by the wayside. They lose their importance as the spirit begins to
be awakened and raised-up to a position of power and authority
in our lives. Treading on something is a show of disrespect.
When we come to the point where we disrespect the ego and
everything it has to offer, we are well into the process of
transferring our consciousness from the ego to the spirit within. It

57
is at this point we begin to see the raised-up spirit clearly. “Then
you will see the Son of the Living One, and you will not be
afraid.” Again, notice the use of upper case letters on “Son” and
“Living One”. “Son” refers to the awakened and raised-up spirit
within. “Living One” is another way of saying the spiritual aspect
of God. Spirit is the source of all life and the “Living One” is
another way of recognizing that source.
We have been well trained to view God in fear. But our
direct experiences with the presence of God gradually teach us
there is nothing to fear. By the time we grow sufficiently to see
the spiritual being within we will have lost our fear of God.

(38) Jesus said, “Many times have you desired to

hear these words which I speak to you and have had
no one else to hear them from. There will be days
when you shall seek Me, and will not find Me.”

The opportunity to learn from a fully awakened teacher is

rare. Many times we may imagine what it would be like to listen
to such a teacher. But our ability to understand is limited by our
consciousness, so we may not perceive what is really being said
to us. The true spiritual teacher makes every effort to
communicate clearly, knowing concepts and explanations will
have to be repeated a number of times before they really begin
to sink in. There is a window of opportunity for learning spiritual
principles and inner truths before the ego loses interest and
returns to the concerns of the world. Life moves on and so do
spiritual teachers. When the opportunity for spiritual growth
comes to you, take it; do not delay.

(39) Jesus said, “The Pharisees and the scribes have

taken the keys of Knowledge and hidden them. They
themselves have not entered, nor have they allowed
to enter those who wish to. You, however, be as
wise as serpents and as innocent as doves.”

The mystery school system was originally founded to

bring spiritual truths to mankind. People were screened for their
readiness and ability to understand the information being
presented. As happens with all religious systems, eventually
people with active egos find their way into positions of authority
and the original purpose becomes corrupted. By the time of

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Jesus, the mystery school system had evolved into a private club
for the elite and politically and socially connected. The actual
teaching of practice and spiritual growth and development of the
spirit within had given way to the protection of “secret”
knowledge. It simply became one more way for people to
separate themselves from one another. The screening for
suitable students had shifted from ability to position in society.
The Pharisees and the scribes became the keepers of
the “secret” knowledge. Because the system was now ego-
based, there was no real interest in practice and becoming; just
in keeping the “secret”. Jesus was of royal birth, and as such,
was granted entry into the mystery school system. Upon
completing the highest initiation and learning the most secret
information, Jesus realized that the secret information was
simply a key to understanding how to awaken, raise, and
empower the spirit within. The real secret wasn’t the information
itself, but the system of practices, or the process, which leads to
spiritual maturity. So in addition to the secret information, Jesus
began teaching the practices needed for spiritual growth. His
teaching of forgiveness was a key element of the process for
spiritual awakening and growth.
The mystery school system taught a well-rounded
system of knowledge in addition to spiritual information.
Mathematics, the sciences, arts and philosophy were all part of
the knowledge base offered by the schools. As in many of the
past centuries, there was little education outside of religious
establishments. To become educated meant becoming part of
the religious system. To be wise as serpents involved entering
and learning the knowledge taught in the mystery school system,
which used the serpent as its symbol, and a sign of its
graduates. To be innocent as doves was to shed the ego and the
false pretenses of societal position and power - something the
usual graduates of the mystery school system did not do. The
gateway to power and influence in the time of Jesus was through
the mystery school system and its club of influential patrons.
Jesus had a different agenda for his students. Learn the
information the system has to offer, but do not get caught up in
the politics and intrigue. Use the knowledge for real spiritual
growth so you can set yourself free from the world and its
entrapments. The knowledge provides the key; the practice
provides the means of inner transformation. Here is the single
most important key to understanding spiritual sayings, principles
and parables. It is always about consciousness.

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 (40) Jesus said, “A grapevine has been planted
outside of the Father, but being unsound, it will be
pulled up by the roots and destroyed.”

The grapevine is the ego. It has been created outside of

the Father, outside of the realm of spirit. It is unsound because it
is temporary; once the body is gone the energy system which
supports the ego is also gone. The ego will gradually weaken
and fade from existence. When it does, whatever consciousness
has been attached to the ego dies with it.
If we are to move our consciousness from the ego over
to the spirit, the ego must be dismantled - pulled up by the roots
and destroyed. This is exactly what the practice and process of
spiritual growth accomplishes. The ego is not actually totally
destroyed. For in the end it recognizes its proper place and
surrenders completely to the will of spirit: thy will be done, not
mine. But for all practical purposes, the process carries on with
the goal of destroying the ego.
Some have identified this practice with a form of nihilism,
a doctrine advocating that all things are worthless and
unknowable. This is not correct for things in the world do have
some value. The Gnostic teachings of Jesus also insist that all
things are knowable; nothing will remain hidden. If you see the
ego as the only thing which exists within, then the spiritual
growth practice could appear threatening. Even those who follow
a path of eliminating all attachments to things of the world find
that they end up with everything, not nothing.

(41) Jesus said, “Whoever has something in his

hand will receive more, and whoever has nothing
will be deprived even of the little that he has.”

This is the parallel to the parable of the talents. In

Matthew 25:14-30 (RSV) talents are given the servants; five to
one, two to another and one to a third. A talent is a measurement
of weight, about 75 pounds. In money, this would be something
very valuable. The master returns and demands an accounting
of what has been done with the talents given to the servants.
The ones with five and two talents have each doubled what they
were given. These are rewarded and told “Well done, good and

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faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you
over much; enter into the joy of your master.” The one servant,
however, buried the talent, returning it in its original condition.
This servant is punished, and what little he has is taken from him
and given to those who have more.
The inner spiritual meaning is that we are each given
something of great value: the living spirit within. At some point
we will have to demonstrate what we have done with this gift.
Our responsibility is to increase the gift of Spirit, not bury it. The
entire purpose of giving us the gift of the living spirit within, the
substance of God, is so we can multiply that substance. Just as
in the parable of the seeds, the point is to increase the
substance of God, the living spirit, and not let it go to waste. We
are here in this world, with this body, for the purpose of making
the spirit within us grow.

(42) Jesus said, “Become passers-by.”

It is only the bystander, the passer-by, that dares ask,

Are we the pawns, the prize, or the players? Becoming strongly
involved in the ways of the world blinds us to other possibilities.
Only when we step back and observe from an unattached
perspective does our vision clear and we see what is happening.
This is the first step in the process of spiritual growth:
observation. By observing the back-and-forth exchanges
between the emotions and intellectual conclusions we can see
how the ego is manipulating and controlling us. We will then be
in a position to recognize the traumas, programming and
imprinting which have formed our personality. The recognition of
the elements of the personality (ego) gives us a basic map, from
which we can begin the process of inner unification and
transformation.

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 (43) His disciples said to him, “Who are You, that
You should say these things to us.” Jesus said to
them, “You do not realize who I am from what I say
to you, but you have become like the Jews, for they
either love the tree and hate its fruit, or love the fruit
and hate the tree.”

Truth is not something people really want. Truth defies

conventional wisdom; it bruises egos, tells people that what they
have learned from the world doesn’t work, and brings them face-
to-face with the necessity of change. We may think being in the
presence of a true spiritual teacher would be a wonderful
experience, but the function of the teacher is to get you to
confront the issues within that keep you out of the Kingdom of
Heaven. This is why the disciples respond by asking, “Who are
You, that You should say these things to us?” Who does this
Jesus think he is, anyway?
The true spiritual teacher may appear very superior at
one moment and very vulnerable the next. When we look at
spiritual teachers through the eyes of the world, we become very
confused about who they really are. They are not what we
expect. It helps if we remember these teachers are in the world,
but not of the world. It is only when the spirit within each of us
awakens that we begin to clearly see who and what these
spiritual teachers really are.
Sometimes we love the tree and hate its fruit, or we love
the fruit and hate the tree. What this means is that we sometimes
love to feel superior to others, but hate how we have no close
friends. We want our ego but don’t like what we end up doing in
our relationships. We often don’t understand why we hurt the
ones we love the most. We may rationalize it with “that’s just how
families are,” or “this is for your own good,” but dysfunctional
families are the result of out-of-control egos. Substance abuse is
also an ego which is out of control, saying, “I am going to do this
no matter what the consequences are.” The ego wants what it
wants; it doesn’t really care about anything else.
The spirit within us cares. This is the only real base for
love we that have. But giving up the ego seems like giving up
who we are, and we hate to do that. We can love the spirit within
but hate to give up the ego and what it wants. We can’t have it
both ways. We have to choose.

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 (44) Jesus said, “Whoever blasphemes against the
Father will be forgiven, and whoever blasphemes
against the Son will be forgiven, but whoever
blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be
forgiven either on earth or in heaven.”

To blaspheme is to speak of something sacred in a

disrespectful way. We can speak about God or the spirit within
(the Son) in a disrespectful way and it can be overcome in our
spiritual growth process. The Holy Spirit can be equated with the
personal experience of the presence of God. This personal
experience performs all of the functions usually associated with
the Holy Spirit. Through this experience come insights,
revelations, guidance and even specific words that need to be
said.
The presence of God is a very sensitive thing; it will not
intrude where it is not welcome. Someone this author personally
knows started having one of these intense experiences of the
presence of God. He felt like he was losing control - that the
experience was too intense. All he did was think the word “stop”,
and the experience instantly ended. He later expressed great
regret that he had not allowed the experience to continue. Lesser
versions of the experience did return to him over time and with a
great amount of spiritual work, but the full intense experience of
the presence of God did not return.
Our thoughts and attitudes are the things which steer our
consciousness in specific directions. The effect can be profound
and long-lasting. It is important to take our spiritual growth
seriously. There are many side trips which the ego offers to us
on our spiritual journey. Most seem harmless and can be very
entertaining. But we must realize that the ego has a hidden
agenda; by sidetracking our spiritual growth it remains in control
of our life. We have the story of Jesus being tempted by Satan
during his 40 days in the wilderness. Satan is not a person nor
an evil spirit. The word is translated from Hebrew and simply
means someone or something which opposes. The ego fits this
description in every detail. It opposes the awakening and raising-
up of the spirit within us.
The cosmic drama of God the Creator fighting against
the rebellious Satan is the internal struggle between the spirit
within and the ego. We are not the prize which goes to the victor
of this contest; we decide the outcome. We are in control. We

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are not poor helpless sinners who need to be saved; we are the
creators of our life experience. We create our own salvation
through the process of spiritual growth. By taking control of our
thoughts, feelings and actions, we take control of our life. By
steering our consciousness into the presence of God and raising
the level of our consciousness so the experience of that
presence can be maintained, we enter the Kingdom of Heaven. If
we are disrespectful to that presence, it will not come and we will
not experience our salvation.

(45) Jesus said, “Grapes are not harvested from

thorns, nor are figs gathered from thistles, for they
do not produce fruit. A good man brings forth good
from his treasure; an evil man brings forth evil
things from his storehouse, which is his heart, and
says evil things. For out of the abundance of the
heart he brings forth evil things.”

The evil things in this world stem directly from people’s

egos. War, starvation, poverty and the vast majority of the
suffering we see is the direct result of someone’s ego. The ego
believes in lack. It believes that if it is to prosper it must be done
at someone else’s expense. In order for me to win, you have to
lose. The ego rationalizes its actions as competition, telling us
that competition is good for everyone. Competition means lower
prices and better service; everyone wins. But competition is the
base for all of the evils in the world. Let us keep in mind that war
is the ultimate competition. Some of the terms for war have
found their way into business. “We’re going to make a killing”
and “we’re going to bury our competitor” are simple examples.
The Art of War by Sun Su is required reading in a number of
large corporations. Competition means someone always has to
lose.
What would the world be like if we changed from
competition to cooperation? My guess is that war would end first,
with hunger close behind. We currently grow enough food to
easily feed the world. Most disease and illness could be
conquered. Poverty can be eliminated. Almost every form of
suffering can be alleviated through cooperation. Cooperation
could turn this world into heaven on earth. It should come as no
surprise, then, that the desire for cooperation is spirit-based
rather than ego-based.

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 (46) Jesus said, “Among those born of woman, from
Adam until John the Baptist, there is no one
superior to John the Baptist that his eyes should not
be lowered before him. Yet I have said, whichever of
you will become a child will know the Kingdom and
will become superior to John.”

Born of woman is born of the flesh and the inner or

esoteric meaning is the ego. Of all the egos, none is superior to
John the Baptist. Does this mean John had the biggest ego
ever? Here superior does not mean bigger; superior means most
highly developed and refined. To help understand this we must
take a look at what John was saying and doing. John’s focus is
on religion and following the laws of God. He is going after the
leaders telling them they are violating God’s laws and that they
must repent: change their ways and return to God. It is clear to
John that adherence to the scriptural rules, the law of God, is the
highest calling a person can answer. Today’s ministers answer
that same call.
John represents the ego. The highest level the ego can
attain is to teach and follow the laws of God, the scriptural rules.
As we learned in saying #4, the ego realizes that it is not the
spirit. “Whichever of you will become a child will know the
Kingdom” is referring to spiritual awakening and entering into the
presence of God. The reference to becoming a child is referring
to a state of innocence or purity of intention. This is the state
attained through the work of forgiveness and results from the
removal of the ego from our consciousness. Through the
process of forgiveness (inner purification) the presence of God
enters our lives and we come to know the Kingdom.

(47) Jesus said, “It is impossible for a man to mount

two horses or to stretch two bows. And it is
impossible for a servant to serve two masters;
otherwise he will honor the one and insult the other.
No man drinks old wine and immediately desires to
drink new wine. And new wine is not put into old
wineskins, lest they burst; nor is old wine put into a
new wineskin, lest it spoil. An old patch is not sewn
onto a new garment, because a rent would result.”

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 Remember, this is all about consciousness. We cannot
hold on to two different levels of consciousness at the same
time. We cannot be spirit-based and ego-based at the same
time. We have to choose. Which are we going to serve, the spirit
or the ego?
The wine represents our belief system, one new and the
other old. The old belief system is ego-based and the new is
spirit-based. The new beliefs and consciousness cannot be put
into the old belief system without bursting the old system. New
wine is active and expanding; old wine is not. The new spirit-
based consciousness is in the process of expanding and will tear
the old system apart in the process. Nor can the ideas and
practices of the ego be placed within the realm of the spirit, lest it
spoil. The two systems are not compatible. The old patch and
the new garment are the same analogy.

(48) Jesus said, “If two make peace with each other
in this one house, they will say to the mountain,
Move away and it will move away.”

Once the ego and spirit come to a common goal the

process of inner unification is well underway. When the ego and
spirit act together, great changes can be made in the belief
system. One of the exercises in Sun-do (part of the Korean
system of spirituality) is, embrace tiger; release mountain. The
tiger represents our fears. By embracing, or facing, our fears we
come to realize that they are not real. The vast majority of our
fear-based (ego-based) emotions are learned responses. And
just as we learned these responses in the past, we can unlearn
them now. By conquering our inner fears we release the great
burden they have imposed on us for years. We feel lighter and
freer. We have released the mountain which has held us down.
The mountain is the restrictive emotional base and belief
system we have built up over the years. All the negative, fear-
based emotions the ego uses to manipulate and control us can,
and must be dismantled and removed. It is through the process
of inner unification, the surrender of the ego to the spirit, making
them one, which allows us to dismantle and remove the
mountain.

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 (49) Jesus said, “Blessed are the solitary and elect,
for you will find the Kingdom. For you are from it,
and to it you will return.”

We can view the ego-based personality as if it were a

large mirror which has been dropped on a tile floor. It has
shattered into many different pieces. Each piece represents a
separate state of consciousness, a learned behavior which we
have adopted as the result of physical or emotional trauma,
programming or imprinting. Each piece has its own voice, which
we received from a parent, role model, authority figure - anyone
who has had an influence over us.
When a specific condition is present, we instinctively
reach back into our base of experience to see how this situation
was handled in the past. If we have had a parent deal with the
same or very similar condition in the past, chances are we will
act in the same way and do the same thing our parent has done.
This is the result of imprinting. The same body language, words
and tone of voice are used which have been imprinted from our
childhood. Many times we think this is just the way we are, but
that is not really true; it is the posture, words and tone of voice of
someone else. This is a piece of the broken mirror. And this
piece is activated only under certain conditions. This is because
each piece has an imbedded issue, and whenever this issue
comes up, this piece gets activated.
These separate issues are usually not compatible with
one another. The only way for more than one conflicting issue to
exist within us is to isolate each issue from the others, allowing
each piece to believe it is a whole thing. In order to make this
happen, a mechanism called a buffer is created. The buffer
allows each conflicting piece to be experienced as the “only”
piece, leaving us with the illusion of one whole being, not a
fractured personality. Once we are in that personality piece,
none of the other pieces seem to exist. We are consciously
aware of only one piece at a time.
The ego likes to maintain the illusion that there is only
one being, so it uses the buffer to isolate the consciousness of
each piece from all the other pieces. The buffer is experienced
as a momentary disorientation. This disorientation allows the ego
to shift from one personality piece to another without it being too
obvious to us. Once the situation is over, we again experience
the momentary disorientation as we shift back into one of the

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main pieces of our personality. The disorientation occurs quickly
and generally goes un-noticed. Once you know what to look for,
with some practice, you will discover the buffers.
It is this fractured nature of our personality which
prevents the presence of God from entering into our life
experience. There is no room, no suitable place for it to be at
home within us. It is up to us to make room. It is like the story of
Joseph and Mary arriving in Bethlehem. There was no room at
the inn, so the Christ could not be born there. When there is no
room within us, the Christ Consciousness cannot be born there,
either. It is up to us to unify the fractured self within, making it
love-based, not fear-based, so the presence of God will have a
suitable home; so the Christ child will be welcome in the inn.
Through the forgiveness process, each fractured
personality piece is identified; the issue within the piece is
addressed and resolved, thus dissolving the piece. The
knowledge gained from resolving the issue is retained; all the
rest of it can be discarded. The inner words, the attitude, the
emotions and posturing involved in this issue are all stage props
for the ego. They have no real value, once the issue is resolved,
and thus need to be discarded.
In this way we gradually integrate the personality pieces
into a real whole which is spirit-based. The separate voices are
gradually eliminated, leaving only one voice: the voice of the
spirit within. This one voice is referred to as being solitary. The
voice of the spirit within has been raised to the level of highest
importance, and thus has become the elect. It is the unified self,
based on the spirit within, which finds the Kingdom. The spirit
within is from God and it is the only aspect of us which can return
to the presence of God.

(50) Jesus said, “If they say to you, ‘Where did you
come from?,’ say to them, ‘We came from the Light,
the place where the Light came into being on its own
accord and established itself and became manifest
through their image.’ If they say to you ‘Is it you?’
say ‘We are its children, and we are the elect of the
Living Father.’ If they ask you, ‘What is the sign of
your Father in you?’ say to them, ‘It is movement
and it is rest.’”

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 Our individual spirit comes from God. The nature of that
spirit is living light. We have come from the Light (God) where
the Light (note the use of upper case – referring to God) came
into being of its own accord and established itself and became
manifest through their image. The presence of God becomes
manifest when we complete the process of inner unification. The
light of spirit grows and intensifies as we imbed ourselves deeper
into the Kingdom. Eventually, the presence of God is the only
activating force in our lives; our actions and words become the
actions and words of the Spirit working through us. Some may
confuse this with thinking we are God. This is not true; we are
the children of God, and as unified inner beings, the spirit within
has become the solitary, and the elect of the Living Father
(Spirit).
The sign of the spirit within us is first of all movement.
Our spirit is the source of our individual life; without it the body
does not live. Rest is the deep abiding peace which results from
the process of inner unification and living in the presence of God.
The combination of movement and rest is the sign of the Father
in us.

(51) His disciples said to Him, “When will the repose

of the dead come about, and when will the new
world come?” He said to them, “What you look
forward to has already come, but you do not
recognize it.”

This saying is one of the reasons The Gospel of Thomas

was not selected for inclusion in the New Testament by the early
Christian Church. This question is about the End Times. It
assumes an outer interpretation where the coming of the new
world will be a collective experience, one which happens to
everybody at the same time. Jesus is explaining that it has
already happened, but they do not recognize it, which renders
the coming of the new world an individual experience, which
must individually be entered into. “The new world” is not a
physical one, but one of a new consciousness. This is the same
Kingdom of Heaven Jesus has been talking about all along.
While the outer interpretation of the End Times has
changed over time with the inclusion of various things which are
supposed to happen, the inner experience of the Kingdom of
Heaven has remained consistent. Everyone who has entered

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that state of consciousness has experienced the same thing; the
deep abiding peace, the unconditional love which comes from
God, the joy and the presence of God in their lives. Each person
has become transformed by the experience and has entered into
a new world, living in the presence of God.

(52) His disciples said to Him,”Twenty-four prophets

spoke in Israel, and all of them spoke in You.” He
said to them, “You have omitted the one living in
your presence and have spoken (only) of the dead.”

Most of what Jesus was teaching is not new. It is the

continuation of a teaching which has been around since about
1500 BCE. The prophets spoke of essentially the same thing
Jesus was saying and the disciples recognize that. The sad part
is that people generally will recognize the wisdom of a teacher
who has been dead for several hundred years, but cannot
believe the same wisdom can be found in a living person.
God is not relegated to history. God is a living
experience, always in the present moment. God exists in the
eternal now and each person who enters into the Kingdom of
Heaven also comes into the eternal now. This is why the
disciples are confused about the new world and the End Times.
They think it has to be something which happens in the physical
world, but it is not. This is why Jesus tells us the Kingdom of
Heaven is at hand; it is a state of consciousness which exists
only in the present moment. There is no past in God, there is
only here and now. The same is true of prophets; they are in the
here and now.

(53) His disciples said to Him, “Is circumcision

beneficial or not?” He said to them, “If it were
beneficial, their father would beget them
circumcised from their mother. Rather the true
circumcision in spirit has become completely
profitable!”

The true circumcision in spirit is the cutting away of the

ego, the false self. Stevan Davies 3 uses “entirely beneficial” in
place of “completely profitable” above. John Dart and Ray
Riegert 4 use “completely useful” in place of “completely

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profitable”. The point is that cutting away the unnecessary part
from around the spirit within is a very useful and beneficial
practice. The ego, the false self, stands between us and the
presence of God in our lives. If we are to enter into that
consciousness the ego must be cut away and discarded.

(54) Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor, for yours is

the Kingdom of Heaven.”

This saying has an historical reference to it. The “poor”

or the “poor in spirit” are references to the communal groups of
the Essenes and similar organizations which have renounced
personal property. The community provides all needed food,
shelter and tools. The focus of these groups is the inner
transformation and unification of the true self which leads to the
experience of the Kingdom of Heaven. These groups are
branches of the mystery school system and all teach the basics
of spiritual-based consciousness.

(55) Jesus said, “Whoever does not hate his father

and mother cannot become a disciple to Me. And
whoever does not hate his brothers and sisters and
take up his cross in My way will not be worthy of
Me.”

This concept will be visited again in saying #101. Family

dynamics play a huge role in forming our ego and its personality.
Sometimes we are programmed into believing the family is all
important, and sometimes an abusive or neglectful family
environment is replaced with a fantasy version where everything
is wonderful in the mind of the person abused or neglected.
Many people live in denial of what their family life actually was.
Living in this kind of denial makes it much more difficult to
address and resolve the inner issues necessary for spiritual
growth. The person who is openly resentful toward other family
members is usually much more in touch with their inner feelings.
Not having to overcome the denial of what happened in the
family makes the process of inner transformation easier and
faster.

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 Each family produces some amount of trauma in the
process of children growing up. Even if the parents are doing a
really good job of raising their children, a trauma does not have
to be real or serious, only perceived on the part of the child. The
key here is not the actual trauma, but the impact it has had on
the ego. It is the effect of the trauma, or perceived trauma, which
must be resolved. Remember, it is not the outer conditions which
separate us from God, it is the inner ones. The negative
conclusions and feelings we have made and harbor regarding
ourselves are the things that separate us from the presence of
God. By resolving the inner issues with the intention of making
room for the presence of God, the experience will come to us.

(56) Jesus said, “Whoever has come to understand

the world has found a corpse, and whoever has
found a corpse is superior to the world.”

When you understand how the ego works and how it

interacts with other egos, you will understand the world. All ego
based consciousness will perish, and can be considered a
corpse. Once you realize that everything associated with the ego
will die, you have taken the first real step toward spiritual growth
and enlightenment. You now understand there is an alternative
which leads to eternal life and permanent consciousness in the
presence of God. This realization places you far ahead of the
vast majority of people in this world.

(57) Jesus said, “The Kingdom of the Father is like a

man who has good seed. His enemy came by night
and sowed weeds among the good seed. The man
did not allow them to pull up the weeds; he said to
them, I am afraid that you will go intending to pull up
the weeds and pull up the wheat along with them.
For on the day of the harvest the weeds will be
plainly visible, and they will be pulled up and
burned.”

This is the description of inner spiritual growth. We begin

with good seed, good ideas. But in our ignorance (came by
night) we have adopted ideas which are not good, false ideas
(weeds). When we are young we lack the experience and basic
human wisdom to effectively separate the good ideas from the
false ones. It is only when we mature as adult people (the day of

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the harvest) that we can begin to see clearly what is valuable
and what is not. Just as grain is not harvested in a single day, so
too does the separation of truth from falsehood take time.
The harvesting process begins with the separation of the
weeds from the wheat. The weeds are thrown in a pile and
burned. This, effectively, is what we do when we separate the
main ideas of truth from the obvious ideas of falsehood. The
false is discarded and destroyed. Next comes the separation of
the chaff from the grain. This is where we take the grain of truth
in each situation in our life and separate it from the outer
circumstances in which it appears. We are separating what we
learned from the conditions of the event.
Life is like birthdays or Christmas. We get packages with
gifts hidden within. We don’t know what the gift is until we open
the package. Once the gift is revealed, we can discard the
packaging and keep the gift. In life, we tend to hang on to the
package (what happened to us) without opening it and revealing
the gift inside (the lesson learned). Once we learn the lesson life
has brought to us, we can discard what happened to us.

(58) Jesus said, “Blessed is the man who has

suffered and found Life.”

Stevan Davies 5 and John Dart with Ray Riegert 6 use the
word labored in place of suffered. This is an excellent choice of
words, for the inner spiritual growth process takes work, and this
is not something which happens by itself. It is a consciousness
which we enter into intentionally and sometimes with great effort.
In the beginning the goal is awakening, but this simply marks the
end of one journey and the beginning of another.
The Sufis have told us there are two journeys; the
journey to God, and the journey in God. Spiritual awakening
(enlightenment) is the common ground between the two
journeys. As a result, spiritual growth should be considered a
life-long practice. The more time and effort that is put into
spiritual growth, the deeper you can move into the Kingdom of
Heaven. The experiences become deeper and more profound
and the understanding becomes clearer as you get deeper into
the Kingdom. It’s a progressive process.

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 The beginning goal is to find and experience the spirit
within. This takes persistent effort and some dedication. But
once we find the spirit within, we have found our personal source
of life and begin to see how it is connected to all life and the
source of all which is. This is the main turning point; finding the
spirit within, the source of our life.

(59) Jesus said, “Take heed of the Living One while

you are alive, lest you die and seek Him and be
unable to see Him.”

Here the translation by Stevan Davies 7 can help clarify the

saying for us.

(59) Jesus said: Look at the living one while you live,
for if you die and then try to see him you will not be
able to do so.

The spirit within is the living one, our personal source of

life, which separates from the body at the time of death. Once
the body is gone, we no longer have the mechanism for
producing the type of energy required to feed, awaken and
empower the spirit. It is only when we have developed this 100%
full conscious contact with God that we can afford to separate
ourselves from the body. Until we reach that point we are wholly
dependant upon the physical body for the energy necessary for
our spiritual growth. This is why we choose to embed ourselves
in the physical body in the first place; it provides us with the
equipment and tools necessary for our spiritual growth.
We are given a specific time frame to complete our
spiritual growth: a life time. The physical body wears out. It is
subject to accidental damage and death; it is here for a relatively
short period of time. It is critical that we focus and persist in our
spiritual work once we have discovered a suitable path for our
return to the presence of God. Life is very distracting and its
essence slips away before we are aware of its passing. We must
keep our attention on the spirit within and persist in the practice
of eliminating everything which stands between us and the
presence of God.

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 (60) They saw a Samaritan carrying a lamb on his
way to Judea. He said to His disciples, “Why does
that man carry the lamb around?” They said to Him,
“So that he may kill and eat it.” He said to them,
“While it is alive, he will not eat it, but only when he
has killed it and it has become a corpse.” They said
to Him “He cannot do otherwise.” He said to them,
“You too, look for a place for yourselves within the
Rest, lest you become a corpse and be eaten.”

The Rest is the deep abiding peace which comes from

living in the presence of God. Nothing short of that will save us.
In Matthew 7:13-14 (RSV) Jesus tells us, “Enter by the narrow
gate, for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to
destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is
narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find
it are few.”
It is easy to believe, and many do. It is difficult to actually
do the inner spiritual work, and few are willing to do it. Jesus tells
us it is what is in our heart that is important, not what is in our
mind. Our level of spiritual development is determined by our
base emotional state, not by what we believe. It is only by
removing the lower negative emotional states that we can
elevate our base emotional state and move ourselves closer,
and eventually into the Kingdom of Heaven.

(61) Jesus said, “Two will rest on a bed: the one will
die, and the other will live.” Salome said, “Who are
you, man, that You, as though from the One, have
come up on my couch and eaten from my table?”
Jesus said to her, “I am He who exists from the
Undivided. I was given some of the things of My
Father.” Salome said, “I am your disciple.” Jesus
said to her, “Therefore I say, if he is undivided, he
will be filled with light, but if he is divided, he will be
filled with darkness.”

Two will rest on a bed: the one will die, and the other will
live. This is the physical body and the spirit within. The physical
body will die but the spirit within will live, for the spirit has eternal
life as one of its qualities. The spirit is living light, the substance
of God from which it was created.

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 Many spiritual sayings have several levels of meaning. “I
am He who exists from the undivided” can refer to the spirit
which exists from the substance of God. It can also refer to the
consciousness which is developed from the spiritual growth
process. Sayings which have several different levels of meaning
are often used as a subtle test to see where the students are in
their spiritual understanding. In this example, seeing that spirit is
living light from the substance of God is a perception
experienced earlier on in the spiritual growth process.
Recognizing the nature of the emerging consciousness into an
undivided state is a more advanced perception.
Jesus said, “I was given some of the things of My
Father.” This tells us more about how the spiritual growth
process works. We begin with only an intellectual concept of God
and the spirit. Through learning and practice we begin having
spiritual experiences, and by this process gain more knowledge
and understanding. As we become more unified we gradually
gain more spiritual attributes, such as a greater depth of insight
into people or, later on, the ability to heal other people. The
deeper we progress into oneness and the Kingdom of Heaven,
the more of these spiritual attributes we acquire.
This is the same process we use in this world as good
parents. Our primary function as a parent is to prepare our
children to function effectively in the world. As part of the
training, we gradually give more responsibility to our children as
they mature. In this process the emerging adults gradually build
a base of skills which will serve them effectively in dealing with
other people, building a career and raising their own family.
Spiritual growth follows the same pattern. God allows more of
the Spirit to flow through us and demonstrate itself in more ways
as we mature spiritually.
Jesus said, “Therefore I say, if he is undivided, he will be
filled with light, but if he is divided, he will be filled with
darkness.” This is the fractured nature of the ego-based
personality which is transformed into the undivided spirit-based
individuals we are meant to be. Darkness represents ignorance,
and light represents knowledge and understanding. Light also
represents the presence of spirit. The stronger the spirit
becomes, the stronger the light within becomes. Again there are
multiple levels of meaning, based on multiple levels of spiritual
development. Spiritual teaching and advanced spiritual states
are always about consciousness. The unification of the true self

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is the unification of consciousness, centered around the spirit
within.

(62) Jesus said, “It is to those who are worthy of My

mysteries that I give My mysteries: Do not let your
left hand know what your right hand is doing.”

As we have come to recognize, spiritual growth is a

compounding process of learning, practice, experiences and the
evolving understanding of our true spiritual nature. The spiritual
mysteries are difficult for the general public to understand. It
takes time and effort to learn the intellectual concepts involved in
the spiritual growth process. It takes at least some dedication to
do the exercises which will bring about the spiritual experiences
and deeper understanding. We become worthy by persisting in
trying to learn, practice and understand.
The left hand represents our ego and the right hand
represents the spirit within. In the beginning of the spiritual
growth process, the ego may be excited about all the new
information. But once the actual work begins, the ego quickly
understands that the end result of the spiritual growth process is
the destruction of the ego. The ego opposes and tries to derail
the process in an effort to maintain control over us. By
confronting this opposition directly, we simply create more
internal conflict and resistance to the spiritual growth process.
The recommended process is therefore to continue doing the
simple spiritual growth exercises without directly involving or
confronting the ego. In the end, the tools of the ego are quietly
removed and the ego must finally surrender to the spirit within.

(63) Jesus said, “There was a rich man who had

much money. He said, I shall put my money to use
so that I shall lack nothing. Such were his intentions,
but that same night he died. Let him who has ears
hear.”

We are given a limited amount of time in this world to

accomplish our spiritual growth. We do not know if today is our
last day on earth or not. The temptation is to do our spiritual
growth work when we can fit it into our schedule. There is the
story of the university professor who puts on a demonstration for

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each freshman class. He takes several large rocks and puts
them into a large glass container. He then asks the class if the
container is full. It is obvious that no more rocks can be added so
the class answers “Yes, the container is full.” The professor then
takes small rocks and adds them to the container, filling up the
spaces between the large rocks. Again he asks the question “Is
the container full?” And again the class answers “Yes.” The
professor now pours sand into the container, filling up the
smaller spaces, and again asks if the container is full. Again the
class answers “Yes.” The professor then adds water to the
container and again asks if the container is full. Now the class is
sure of its answer: “Yes, now it is full.” The professor then slowly
adds some salt to the container which dissolves into the water.
The professor now asks, “What have we learned from the
experiment?” The class offers many explanations but misses the
point, so the professor explains, “If you don’t put the large rocks
in first, you’ll never get them in at all. If you don’t do the things
which are the most important first, you’ll never get them done.”
The point of the story is that spiritual growth is the one
thing which will move us out of the suffering and death the world
offers and into the peace, love, joy and eternal life which God
offers. If we don’t do our spiritual growth first, it won’t get done.

(64) Jesus said, “A man received visitors. And when

he had prepared dinner, he sent his servant to invite
the guests. He went to the first one and said to him,
‘My master invites you.’ He said ‘I have claims
against some merchants. They are coming to me
this evening. I must go and give them my orders. I
ask to be excused from the dinner.’ He went to
another and said to him, ‘My master has invited you.’
He said to him, ‘I have just bought a house and am
required for the day. I shall not have any spare time.’
He went to another and said, ‘My master invites you.’
He said to him, ‘My friend is going to get married,
and I am to prepare the banquet. I shall not be able
to come. I ask to be excused from the dinner.’ He
went to another and said to him, ‘My master invites
you.’ He said to him, ‘I have just bought a farm, and
am on my way to collect the rent. I shall not be able
to come. I ask to be excused.’ The servant returned
and said to his master, ‘Those whom you have

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 invited to the dinner have asked to be excused.’ The
master said to his servant, ‘Go outside to the streets
and bring back those whom you happen to meet, so
that they may dine. Traders and merchants will not
enter the places of My Father.’”

In the time of Jesus the mystery school system had

become an organization which catered to the wealthy and
powerful. The system was designed to protect and conceal the
spiritual truth from lower class people. The problem Jesus
encountered was that the wealthy and powerful were not
interested in actually doing the work of spiritual growth – in this
example, attending the dinner. The wealthy and powerful are
convinced their lives are working well for them and are not in
need of change. The excuses offered above demonstrate the
dedication to the things of the world, rather than the things of
God represented by the dinner or banquet.
This is Jesus’ explanation of why he began teaching
ordinary people about the Kingdom of Heaven. The tax
collectors, prostitutes and other lower class people to whom
Jesus is accused of revealing the forbidden spiritual knowledge
to already know their lives are not working, and they are open to
change. These are the people who are willing to dedicate
themselves to a true spiritual path and do whatever is required to
change their lives. These people are represented by those
“whom you happen to meet” in the streets. The Kingdom of
Heaven is open to anyone who will do the work required to enter
into that level of consciousness.

(65) He said, “There was a good man who owned a

vineyard. He leased it to tenant farmers so that they
might work it and he might collect the produce from
them. He sent his servant so that the tenants might
give him the produce of the vineyard. They seized
his servant and beat him, all but killing him. The
servant went back and told his master. The master
said, ‘Perhaps they did not recognize him.’ He sent
another servant. They beat him as well. Then the
owner sent his son and said, ‘Perhaps they will
show respect to my son.’ Because the tenants knew
that it was he who was the heir to the vineyard, they
seized him and killed him. Let him who has ears
hear.”

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 The concept of a Son of God being seized and killed
was not a new idea in the time of Jesus. Even ordinary people
were familiar with several Sons of God from the past who were
seized and killed. In the Middle East, people were familiar with
Osiris from Egypt, Mithra from Persia, and Adad from Assyria.
From a little farther away we have Chrishna of Hindustan and
Buddha of India. These were the legends with which they grew
up. So Jesus is using their familiarity with these teachings to
demonstrate the inner nature of the ego against the spirit within.
The ego is essentially given the job of being a servant, of
ordering and coordinating our life. The spirit is intended to be the
recipient, or beneficiary, of the ego’s work. But the ego has
aspirations of its own. From our early years we begin to identify
with the ego as us. What the ego wants, we want. It all becomes
very simple and straightforward. The arrival of the spirit into our
awareness is disturbing. Initial ideas about the presence of the
spirit within and the Kingdom of Heaven are usually beaten down
by the ego and dismissed. This is represented by the servants of
the master being beaten by the tenants. When the spirit within
(the son) makes its appearance, the ego tries to kill it. The ego
generally wants nothing to do with the emerging spirit within and
wants it to disappear by any means necessary.
This is why many people will insist that God is someone
or something which is “out there” but cannot appear within. “Out
there” is safe. “Within” is dangerous; it challenges the power and
authority of the ego and its fractured personality. The presence
of the spirit within and its ability to bring about the Kingdom of
Heaven, true salvation and eternal life is the single most
devastating challenge the ego ever faces. Everything is at risk:
our belief in God, salvation, family, career, money, power,
control, social position and everything else attached to life as we
know it. Everything we thought we were or could be is
challenged by the presence of the spirit within. If the spirit within
is real, the mountain which has become our life is about to be
obliterated.
Just as the tenants falsely perceive the produce from the
vineyard as theirs, the ego falsely perceives the benefits of life
as its own. Life is the birthright of the spirit, not the ego. The
body is meant to serve the spirit within, not the ego. Our lives are
constructed so that we may ultimately learn that what we see,
touch and feel in life is illusion, and what we can’t see and touch
is real. A complete reversal in perceptions is required before we

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discover who and what we really are. We must unlearn the ways
of the world and learn the ways of God. In doing so, we
transform not only our own life, but also parts of the lives of
those we encounter on our journey back to, and into, God.
Indeed, this transformation is the sole purpose for life as we
know it.

(66) Jesus said, “Show me the stone that the

builders have rejected. That one is the
cornerstone.”

Cornerstones are important; they mark changes in

direction, they are anchor points, places of strength firmly set on
the foundation. The ego, in its desire to build its own empire,
sees itself as the foundation. This is why the body is manipulated
into producing the lower, negative emotions which create the
energy needed to feed the ego. When the personality is fractured
into separate issues and the illusion of wholeness is sustained
through the use of buffers, the reality of the spirit within must be
rejected. The ego ends up building a house of cards, a
cardboard castle, rather than something which endures.
As we begin the process of inner unification, we select
the spirit within as the cornerstone. Only the spirit within is firmly
set in the foundation of God, for it is of God and not of this world.
By using the spirit within as the anchor point and the means of
changing direction in our life, we can set in motion the inner
transformation of consciousness which leads us into the
Kingdom of Heaven and eternal life. The ego will reject the spirit
within, but that spirit is the cornerstone of living in the presence
of God.

(67) Jesus said, “Whoever knows the All, but fails to

know himself, misses everything.”

Once in a while people who are not following a spiritual

path will have a deep spiritual experience. What is meant to be a
life changing experience becomes a strange thing that happened
to them. They have experienced the presence of God, but it is so
out of context with the rest of their lives that they miss the
connection with the spiritual part of themselves. God and this
presence and love they experienced are still outside, separate
from who and what they consider themselves to be. They have

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come to know the “All” by having this intense spiritual
experience, but having missed the connection to their own inner
spiritual self, they are clueless about the ramifications of spiritual
growth, true salvation and eternal life.
This is one of the reasons Jesus taught as many people
as would listen to him. People have spiritual experiences. If they
don’t know how these experiences relate to the spirit within, they
miss the greatest opportunity of their entire lives. This is another
level of understanding for saying #64 above. By living with their
focus in the world, they spend their time with small, relatively
unimportant things while they miss the Kingdom of Heaven. This
is why an understanding of our inner spiritual nature is so
important. When a deep spiritual experience comes (the
invitation to dine with the Master) we need to understand the
implications of what is happening to us. We are being invited into
the presence of God and are being given the opportunity to enter
into eternal life. If we don’t understand that connection, we miss
everything.

(68) Jesus said, “Blessed are you when you are

hated and persecuted. Wherever you have been
persecuted they will find no place.”

This saying and the one which follows are very similar
and revolve around the same issue, so we will address them
together.

(69) Jesus said, “`Blessed are they who have been

persecuted within themselves, it is they who have
come to know the Father in Truth. Blessed are the
hungry, for the belly of him who desires will be
filled.”

There is no doubt practitioners of religion have been

persecuted. Anything outside of the mainstream of society is
subject to various types of persecution, even if it is for the
improvement and benefit of that society. The esoteric teaching of
Jesus deals specifically with inner issues and processes. So the
reference to persecution, which saying #69 makes clear, has to
do with a form of inner attack or inner persecution. The active or
proactive form of self unification based on the spirit within does

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in fact persecute the ego. It is this inner attack and persecution,
which in time dismantles the ego, that is responsible for the
awakening, raising up and empowerment of the spirit which
places us in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Once we realize it is the ego which stands between us
and the presence of God, we are faced with the choice of
remaining with the ego and living our life separated from God or
persecuting and dismantling the ego and entering into life within
the presence of God. This is the simple essence of the choice
we have before us. We serve the ego or we serve God.

(70) Jesus said, “That which you have within you will
save you if you bring it forth from yourselves. That
which you do not have within you will kill you, if you
do not have it inside you.”

Here the translation by Stevan Davies will help us clarify the

saying.

(70) Jesus said, “When you give rise to that which is

within you, what you have will save you. If you do
not give rise to it, what you do not have will destroy
you.”

Awakening, raising and empowering the spirit within is

the only way to break the cycle of life and death. By giving rise to
the spirit within, we can change our center of consciousness
from the ego to the spirit. The spirit-centered consciousness is
what saves us. Salvation is spirit centered consciousness. If we
do not raise the spirit within, we have no choice but to have our
consciousness fade into nothingness when the ego no longer
has the body to feed and support it. Everything we have built
upon the foundation of the ego will pass away; nothing will
remain.

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 (71) Jesus said, “I shall destroy this house, and no
one will be able to rebuild it.”

This is a primary goal of spiritual growth: to destroy the

house of the ego so that it cannot be rebuilt. As long as the ego
remains it stands as a barrier to the Kingdom of Heaven. We
cannot pass through into that 100% full conscious contact with
God until the ego has been destroyed.

(72) A man said to Him, “Tell my brother to divide my

father’s possessions with me.” He said to him, “Oh
man, who has made Me a divider?” He turned to His
disciples and said to them, “I am not a divider, am
I?”

Here Jesus is having a little fun. Everything Jesus taught

was for the unification of the self. In his role as a Rabbi, Jesus
would be approached to help settle family disputes. Yet Jesus
does not really see himself as a Rabbi but as a true spiritual
teacher, one focused on inner unification of the self. For only
through inner unification can we become solitary and worthy of
entering into the full presence of God.

(73) Jesus said, “The harvest is great but the

laborers are few. Beseech the Lord, therefore, to
send out laborers to the harvest.”

There are so many good people in the world who would

really like to have the spiritual experiences and enter into the
Kingdom of Heaven. But because of the outer expression of
religion telling people all they have to do is believe, very few are
willing to do the work required to actually have the experiences
they seek. This is not a new condition; it has always been this
way. There has always been the outer expression and the inner
expression of religion. This conflict has been there from the
beginning. It really doesn’t matter what the religion is, for each
exists in both forms. We as individuals must choose between
believing and experiencing. Jesus is asking for more people who
will work on their spiritual growth and not just believe.

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 (74) He said, “Oh Lord there are many around the
well, but there is nothing in the cistern.”

A large majority of the people involved in religion find it

easier to believe. They flock around the various religious centers
but find only other believers. They do not enter into the
experience of the presence of God on a continuous basis. Many
go to their churches, mosques, synagogues and temples to find
God and enter into His presence. Yet all they are taught in these
houses of God is to believe. God is not experienced there. Our
passage to God and the Kingdom of Heaven is through the spirit
within, not through an external structure or system of belief.

(75) Jesus said, “Many are standing at the door, but

it is the solitary that will enter the bridal chamber.”

It doesn’t matter how much you believe or how much

you want to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. It is only those who
have gone through the process of inner unification of the self
who will enter into this union of consciousness with God. Nothing
of the ego may remain, no fractured pieces, no issues, no
regrets or guilty feelings, anger, resentment or bitterness. Only
the solitary - the unified self, centered on the spirit within, can
enter completely into the full presence of God.

(76) Jesus said, “The Kingdom of the Father is like a

merchant who had a consignment of goods and who
discovered a pearl. That merchant was shrewd. He
sold the goods and bought the pearl alone for
himself. You too, seek His unfailing and enduring
treasure where no moth comes near to devour and
no worm destroys.”

The parable of the pearl is like the parable of the

fisherman. The goods of the merchant are the ideas and
concepts which comprise the belief system. The merchant
discovers a pearl, an idea which is much more important and
valuable than the other ideas and concepts. So the merchant
sells all the goods and buys the pearl. This means all the other
ideas and beliefs are disposed of and the one idea is kept for
himself.

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 Jesus tells us to seek His unfailing and enduring
treasure which cannot be destroyed. That treasure is the
awakened and empowered spirit within, and the eternal life
which is gained by attaching our consciousness to the spirit
rather than to the ego, which will fade away into nothingness.
This practice of awakening the spirit within, raising and
empowering that spirit and attaching our consciousness to the
spirit within is the single most important idea Jesus offers. Every
treasure the world has to offer can and will be taken away from
you. Death will separate you from it all. Only the eternal life
Jesus offers will remain.

(77) Jesus said, “It is I who am the Light which is

above them all. It is I who am the All. From me did
the All come forth, and unto Me did the All attain.
Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up a stone
and you will find Me there.”

There are two ways ideas come forth from a true

spiritual teacher like Jesus. One is the explanations which often
take the form of stories and parables. The other is the direct
expression of the Spirit of God as it speaks through the teacher.
This is one of those times when the Spirit of God speaks directly
through Jesus. God is the Light which is above all other lights.
God is both the creator and the creation. Everything which exists
does so through the thought, energy and substance of God.
Nothing exists that is not of God substance. The universe came
forth from God, and as God substance (spirit) all is capable of
returning to and attaining union with God.
In saying #19 Jesus said, “If you become My disciples
and listen to My words, these stones will minister to you.” This is
because everything is constructed with the substance of God. It
is in and of everything. “Split a piece of wood, and I am there.”
The substance of God is there in the wood. “Lift up a stone and
you will find Me there.” God is there within the stone, around the
stone, and in the space where the stone was. God is
everywhere, in and of everything. There is no place in the entire
universe where God is not. But it is like radio waves or television
signals. We can’t see or hear them unless we can “tune in” to
them. Without our awareness of them they simply appear not to
exist, and yet the world is full of them.

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 God functions in a similar manner. God appears not to
be there until we learn to “tune in” to the level of consciousness
where we can experience the presence of God. Our failure to
tune in is not proof God does not exist. If you have a television
set and never turn it on, it does not mean there are no television
programs. Turning the television set on will prove these
programs exist. You can experience a wide variety of programs
once the set is turned on. The same holds true with God. Once
we awaken and turn on the spirit within, we will experience the
presence of God. That experience is the proof of God’s
existence. Just as we might find an interesting channel on the
television and tell a friend about the program and its content and
how to get the station, so too do spiritual teachers tell others
about God, the content of the experience, and the means of
tuning in to that level of consciousness. The entire teaching of
Jesus centers on the concepts and practices of tuning in to God.
It’s all there, once we learn what the teaching really means.

(78) Jesus said, “Why have you come out into the
desert? To see a reed shaken by the wind? And to
see a man clothed in soft raiment like your kings and
your great men? Upon them are the fine garments,
and they are unable to discern the truth.”

The ego perceives things within the context of the world.

If spiritual power exceeds earthly power, the ego expects to see
greater earthly success in spiritual people. What the ego misses
is the subject of focus. Earthly success comes from focusing on
earthly things. Spiritual success comes from focusing on spiritual
things. The focus on earthly things precludes the change in
consciousness which is required to enter into the presence of
God and God’s truth. This is why Jesus said, “Upon them are the
fine garments, and they are unable to discern the truth.” By
focusing on spiritual things in our search for the truth, we
preclude great success in the world. It is rare for a spirit-based
person to become even moderately wealthy, and even then they
generally don’t care about the money.
The search for truth is the search for something
extraordinary. This is why Jesus asks, “Why have you come out
into the desert? To see a reed shaken by the wind?” They have
come to see something extraordinary, but the ego expects this to
be something within the context of the world, and the ego is

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usually disappointed by what it sees. What it misses is the
extraordinary experience which is taking place within the person.
We are curious and intrigued by the person living within the
presence of God. We want to know what it is like and what
changes has this experience made in their lives. In essence, we
want to know what it would be like for us to have this experience:
to live in the presence of God. We imagine it to be a life-
changing experience, and it is. But the change is not what we
expect. The change is all internal, which means our outer life
conditions often change very little. This expression sums it up
well: “Before enlightenment you chop wood and carry water.
After enlightenment you chop wood and carry water.”
The change we are looking for is the inner
transformation of consciousness, rather than worldly success.
This is why Jesus commented that the wealthy and powerful of
this world “have their reward.” They have focused on the things
of the world, and their success is their reward. By focusing on
the inner spiritual being and the inner practice of self-unification,
we enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and begin living our life in
the presence of God. The reward for doing so is not worldly
success but eternal life.

(79) A woman from the crowd said to him, “Blessed

is 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 come days when you will
say, ‘Blessed are the wombs which have not
conceived and the breasts which have not given
milk.”

The world is an uncertain place and fate is fickle. What

the world favors and builds at one time it attacks and destroys at
another. Only the unconditional love which comes from God is
stable and secure. Only the consciousness firmly centered on
the spirit within and the unified inner self survives the world and
enters into eternal life. “Blessed are those who have heard the
Word of the Father and have truly kept it” refers to those who
have ears to hear: those who have developed the understanding
that every spiritual principle and saying deals with our inner
thoughts and feelings. It is always about consciousness and the

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inner processes which lead to oneness with God and all of
creation.
We become blessed not by beseeching God for favor or
by proclaiming the Kingdom, but by entering into the
consciousness of oneness. Seeking favor and invoking
proclamations are ways of the world and as such are the tools
and workings of the ego. None of these things will produce the
Kingdom of Heaven. Only changing our inner state of
consciousness and unifying the fractured inner self will get us
into the Kingdom. Only by “hearing” and understanding the inner
spiritual process, the Word of the Father, can we become
blessed, and then only with a great deal of work. Spiritual growth
is not luck or fate; it is the result of unlearning the ways of the
world, learning the ways of God and the Spirit, and keeping
those ways.

(80) Jesus said, “He who has recognized the world

has found the body, but he who has found the body
is superior to the world.”

He who has found the body has found the ego.

Recognizing that the ego is separate from the spirit is the
beginning. Learning that the ego is temporary and the spirit is
eternal makes you superior to the world. But this knowledge is
essentially useless unless it is followed up by the inner work of
spiritual growth. What we do makes the difference, not what we
believe.

(81) Jesus said, “Let him who has grown rich be

king, and let him who possesses power renounce
it.”

The ego uses wealth to acquire power, and power to

acquire control. The ego sees everything and everyone as
needing to be controlled, except itself. And yet, as we are
learning, the #1 thing over which we can gain control is our own
ego, for it stands between us and the presence of God. If we
have power over others, the best application of that power is to
encourage each individual to grow and become the best he can
be. This means that we will ultimately lose control over others,
which is why this application is practiced so rarely.

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 The real issue is not power itself, but the control over
others it comes to represent. The desire to control others is what
must be renounced. Power, like wealth, is a tool. The problem
lies not in the tool, but in its application. Power and wealth can
be used to implement a great deal of good in the world, but its
most common use is to increase the pain and suffering of
humanity. This is accomplished through the aggrandizement of
one or more human egos at the expense of other people’s lives.
What we do with power is strictly dependant on what is
in our hearts. A good person brings forth good from his
warehouse, and an evil person brings forth evil (“warehouse”
signifying the heart). The feelings within us are the source of our
actions. Rarely does logic dictate our actions. As long as we
function from a fractured inner nature we find the unresolved
issues within us dictating our actions and our lives. This is the
source of evil in the actions of people in this world: the
unresolved inner issues within each person. By going through a
process of inner unification based on the spirit within, we resolve
all of these inner issues. When we do this, the need to control
others is resolved as well. We can then view wealth and power
as means of implementing the growth and individuality of others,
rather than as a means of control.
In his book, The Gospel of Thomas, Stevan Davies 8
highlights another level of understanding for this saying by
relating it to saying #3. If self-knowledge leads to the realization
of the spirit within, this can be expressed as a type of wealth, for
its opposite, lack of self-knowledge is expressed as poverty.
Ideally, those who have spiritual understanding should be the
ones to rule. True spiritual understanding draws one to service,
and should be the guiding quality of those who rule over others.
Unfortunately, the most spiritual people do not seek public office
or positions of power over others.

(82) Jesus said, “Whoever is near Me is near the fire,

and he who is far from Me is far from the Kingdom.”

Jesus has found the means of awakening, raising and

empowering the spirit within. This is the fire, the living light of
spirit, and the brighter it shines the stronger the spirit within has
become. Whoever is closely following in the footsteps of Jesus,
doing what he did to awaken the spirit within, is near the fire of
the living light of spirit. This leads to a change of consciousness

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which brings us into the presence of God: into the Kingdom.
Whoever is not following this inner process of unification and
transformation is far from the experience of the presence of God
and the Kingdom of Heaven.

(83) Jesus said, “The images are revealed to man,

but the light in them remains concealed in the image
of the Light of the Father. He will become manifest,
but His image will remain concealed by His Light.”

Our physical eyes are constructed to see the things in

the world. We see the physical bodies of other people and we
see our own body. What we do not see so clearly is the living
light within each and every living thing. A few people can see
these living lights easily, and most people can train themselves
to see at least something of the light which is there. The outer
manifestation of the living light within is the aura which is three
dimensional, extending all around the physical body. The central
driving force behind the aura is the living light of spirit within. The
color of the aura is dependant on the state of the emotions and
the consciousness of the individual.
As we become unified within, the variations in the light
emanating from us tends to unify as well. When we move our
consciousness from being ego-based to being spirit-based and
enter into the presence of God, our aura turns golden in color.
The stronger the spirit within becomes, the stronger the aura
becomes. As God is revealed to us through the spiritual
experiences we encounter, the image of the living light becomes
clearer to us. Spiritual encounters with God also tend to reveal
the image of God as a living light. This light is experienced as
being extremely bright, but does not hurt the eyes such as bright
sunlight would. Some people believe there is some kind of a
being at the center of the light we perceive as God. Whatever the
case may be, the true image of God is concealed within the light.

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 (84) Jesus said, “When you see your likeness, you
rejoice. But when you see your images which came
into being before you, and which neither die nor
become manifest, how much will you have to bear!”

Our encounters with God change how we perceive

ourself, others, and the world in which we live. We begin with the
recognition of physical bodies, seeing everyone as separate
beings competing for the things we need and want. On our
spiritual journey within, we begin first to understand intellectually
that we are actually living light, not just the physical body we see.
This understanding expands to actual experiences of seeing the
living light, first in others, and then in ourselves. Our encounters
with God also teach us to see the living light in all things. We
come to see and understand that we live in a fully connected and
integrated universe.
Once the image of separation has been broken and the
oneness of God and the universe has become manifest to us,
the contrast shatters the old belief system. We find that the world
in which we live has somehow radically changed; nothing is as it
was before. Some people, when faced with this new perception,
reject it and return to the perception of the world. The main
reason for this refusal to accept the new perception is a lack of
knowledge about inner spiritual principles and the process of
inner transformation. This is one of the reasons The Gospel of
Thomas is such an important document and why it is so
important to explain the inner meanings of these sayings to as
many people as possible. The more people understand about
the inner workings of spirit, the more likely they are to accept the
new perceptions and proceed with the process of inner
unification and transformation which leads to the Kingdom of
Heaven (living in the presence of God).

(85) Jesus said, “Adam came into being from a great

power and a great wealth, but he did not become
worthy of you. For had he been worthy, he would not
have experienced death.”

The mystery school system was originally created to

bring the true spiritual knowledge to people. Those who were
serious about their spiritual growth and disciplined enough
(disciples) to practice the process of inner transformation were

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deemed “worthy.” Over the years “worthy” changed from
meaning serious students of spiritual growth to the wealthy and
socially elite, all others being considered “unclean.” Jesus is
returning the use of the term “worthy” to its original meaning: one
who is serious and dedicated to the inner spiritual practice.

(86) Jesus said, “Foxes have their holes and the

birds have their nests. But the Son of Man has no
place to lay his head and rest.”

Foxes and birds are creatures of the world, and as such

have a place in the world to rest. The Son of Man is a term
referring to the spirit within each individual person. Most
translations use the lower case, which as discussed before,
refers to the un-awakened spirit within each individual person.
The spirit within is in this world but it is not of this world, so there
is no place in the world for it to rest or to be at peace. The only
place for the spirit to truly rest is in the Kingdom of Heaven.
The un-awakened spirit is often referred to as sleeping,
or asleep. Just as we dream, and stir occasionally when we
sleep, so too does the spirit within have a certain level of activity
associated with it. The restless spirit is the source of many
people’s drive for “finding themselves” in the world. The ego
drives us to accomplish things in the world, but it is the restless
spirit that seeks meaning in the things of the world, and not
finding what it seeks, wanders from one thing to another. The
restless spirit is seeking God and the presence of God in its life.
It is no wonder it cannot find God in the world, for we must find
God within ourselves before we will recognize God’s presence in
the world. The restless spirit is trying to awaken and is the
driving force in saying #2 (Let the one seek[ing] not stop [seeking
until] he finds.)

(87) Jesus said, “Wretched is the body that is

dependant upon a body, and wretched is a soul that
is dependant on these two.”

The ego is the inner expression of the body. The world

teaches our ego to manipulate others into fulfilling our inner
needs. Those inner needs are: protecting our self, caring for our
self, valuing our self, respecting our self and loving our self. This
makes our emotional state dependant on others. Another person

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has neither the time nor the inclination to devote himself to
making us happy. Even if he tries, he cannot succeed.
Happiness is the result of entering into the love and joy which
emanates from God and flows through us into the world. Another
person cannot make us happy, nor can he fulfill the inner needs
we each experience.
When we depend on another to fulfill our inner needs,
we open ourselves to the many disappointments and emotional
injuries we all suffer in life. The other day I saw a young girl
walking down the street wearing a shirt with “I HAVE ISSUES”
printed on it. My thought was “no kidding, welcome to planet
earth.” We all have issues. The part which makes us wretched is
that our issues and emotional injuries take the place of the
presence of God in our lives. When our life is filled with issues
and we are dependant on another person to fulfill our inner
needs, there is no room left for the presence of God. Unless we
fulfill our own inner needs, our soul or spirit is barred from
experiencing the full and complete presence of God.
We are responsible for fulfilling our own inner needs,
resolving our emotional issues, and creating a suitable home
within for the presence of God to enter. Each issue which is
resolved provides space for some of the presence of God. As
our work on unification of the self continues, we experience more
and more of the presence of God in our lives. As the process of
transformation becomes complete we find ourselves living
completely within the presence of God, filled with peace, love
and joy. We will have become one with God and one with all of
creation.

(88) Jesus said, “The angels and the prophets will

come to you and give you those things that you
already have. And you too, give them what is in your
hand, and say to yourselves, ‘When will they come
and take what is theirs?’”

Here, the Stevan Davies translation can help us.

(88) Jesus said: The messengers are coming to you

with the prophets, and they will give you what is
properly yours. You then should give them what you
have. Say to yourselves: “When will they come and
take what is theirs?”

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 The Father loves the Son, and everything the Father has
is given to the Son. This is our inheritance. Spirit (God) creates
the spirit within and as the spirit within matures, power and
authority are gradually given to it. We do the same thing in the
world. As our children mature we give them more power and
authority over their own activities. This is part of the maturing
process. We learn that authority and responsibility are two sides
of the same coin; they must work together. We only create
problems when we try to separate authority and responsibility.
Just as we don’t toss the keys to the family car to a five
year old and tell him to have fun, so too is spiritual power not
given to those who are not spiritually mature. The consequences
are too serious. As we grow spiritually we receive knowledge
and insights as a result of our spiritual experiences. These are
things which are ours as part of our inheritance, but we have not
taken possession of them due to our lack of spiritual maturity. As
knowledge matures into wisdom, we gradually gain the power
and authority associated with the knowledge we have come to
understand. These are the things we may perceive as coming
from the angels and prophets.
In exchange we must give them (release) the limitations
we have adopted over the years. It is like the story of Jonathan
Livingston Seagull 9 where he finally comes to the realization,
“Why, that’s true! I am a perfect, unlimited gull!” We come to the
realization of who and what we really are only as we give up the
limitations we have imposed on our own consciousness.
When will they come and take what is theirs? When we
have been given so much we wonder what we will have to give
in return. What will God require of us in exchange for what we
have gained? A true spiritual path will cost you everything and
nothing. It will require that you give up all of your fear, anger,
hatred, jealousy, envy, resentment, bitterness and pride. You will
have to give up all of your limiting concepts, ideas, beliefs,
feelings and thoughts of worthlessness and shame. Everything
which stands between you and your full and complete conscious
contact with God must go. You will give up the person you
thought you were, only to have it replaced with the divine being
you really are. You will find that everything you give up has no
value anyway, and you are simply releasing that which has held
you down for so long.
The secret is, what the angels and prophets receive, and
what is theirs, is your friendship, your brotherhood or sisterhood.
The bond of shared consciousness is part of the Love which

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emanates from God; it is unconditional and unlimited. What God
requires of us is our loving service to the children of God in this
world. In providing that service, we are blessed, not by receiving
God’s love, but by its flow as it passes through us. There is no
greater love; there is no greater experience.

(89) Jesus said, “Why do you wash the outside of

the cup? Do you not understand that he who made
the inside is the same one who made the outside?”

While the Jewish people were unusual in their practice of

washing themselves and their pots, pans and dishes, we have to
keep in mind that outer examples are used to illuminate inner
processes. Spiritual growth highlights the conflict between the
ego and the spirit within. The ego is a manifestation of the body
and the spirit is a manifestation of God. But we cannot forget that
the body is also a creation of God. He who made the inside (the
spirit within) is the same one who made the outside (the physical
body). The main difference is in their duration. The spirit within is
designed to last forever, while the physical body is temporary.
The physical body, then, is a means to an end, not an end in
itself.
The physical body is a temporary source of energy for us
to use for our spiritual growth. Once we have established our
100% full conscious contact with God, we can tap directly into
God, which is the highest source of energy for our spirit. Until
then, we are limited in accessing the energy of God by our
consciousness. We live in the presence of God like a fish lives in
the water. Our spirit is sustained by this presence at whatever
level it functions. We can gain energy and spiritual strength
slowly by the changing of our consciousness alone, but God has
provided a way for us to accelerate our growth process by using
the physical body to produce the specific type of energy the spirit
within needs to grow rapidly. As such, we can experience the
evolution of our spirit into a fully awakened and empowered
being within one lifetime, rather than over many lifetimes.
This is the underlying secret of the mystery school
system: God has given us a way to accelerate our spiritual
growth and complete the entire process in one lifetime, if we will
learn to use the physical body properly. The body is an energy
transformation machine, and we tell the body what form of
energy to produce by the emotions we experience. The lower

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(negative) emotions tell the body to produce the energy needed
by the ego, and the higher emotions of love and compassion tell
the body to produce the energy needed by the spirit within. The
results we experience are determined not by the emotions of a
passing moment, but by which emotions dominate our lives the
vast majority of the time.
Just as the washing of the cup illustrates, there is a
cleansing process for both the mind and the emotions. Both our
thoughts and feelings must be transformed, if we are to be
transformed spiritually. This is what the spiritual exercises are
designed to accomplish. This is why Jesus repeatedly talked
about forgiveness. When we forgive both mentally and
emotionally, we free ourselves from the past. We are then free to
choose our own emotions in the present rather than being
trapped into experiencing the emotions of the past. Our past sins
(the negative thoughts and feelings in the past) can be washed
away (transformed into love and compassion) through salvation
(the awakening and empowerment of the spirit within).

(90) Jesus said, “Come unto Me, for My yoke is easy

and My Lordship is mild, and you will find rest for
yourselves.”

Sometimes religious practices can be taken to extremes.

Some organizations require people to prove themselves by
enduring a number of physical and emotional hardships. None of
these things are actually required for spiritual growth. The only
thing they do is establish dominance over the person going
through the process. A true spiritual path is about inner
transformation. There are specific exercises which help us
release ourself from the control of the ego, but these are far from
harsh. Specific meditation-type practices done for 15 to 20
minutes, two to three times a day are quite sufficient. Effort is
also required in becoming more aware and observant of our
thoughts and feelings during the day. This is easy and mild,
compared with many religious practices.
Spiritual growth is the result of focused techniques
designed to dismantle the ego and the emotional tools it uses to
control us. The work is not hard but it does require persistence.
The process can be likened to emptying a swimming pool one
cup at a time. We are removing only a small amount at any given
time, but the accumulated effect produces the end result we

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need. Step by step we enter into the presence of God and we
gradually come into the deep abiding peace which is the rest of
which Jesus speaks. Spiritual growth is not about obedience or
sacrifice, but rather inner transformation and unification of the
self.

(91) They said to Him, “Tell us who You are that we

may believe in You.” He said to them, “You read the
face of the sky and of the earth, but you have not
recognized the One who is before you, and you do
not know how to read this moment.”

Religion is about believing; spirituality is about

becoming. These are two entirely different processes and they
produce two entirely different results and experiences. Believing
results in placing your trust and faith in something, or someone,
outside of yourself. Becoming results in an inner transformation
and brings you into direct conscious contact with God.
Many people want to understand the spiritual sayings
and principles. They perceive this in the same way they were
taught in school: When you learn to repeat back specific facts,
you have learned what is being taught. But spiritual growth is
more like real life: We learn through our experiences, by doing
the things which need to be done first, and then deriving the
understanding from our experiences. This book is designed to
help you get an intellectual understanding of what spiritual
growth is about. But your growth will not take place without doing
the specific exercises. The exercises are designed to create an
inner transformation which brings about specific spiritual
experiences. These spiritual experiences will bring you the actual
and real understanding of God and your true spiritual nature.
Believing is not required. When we do the exercises, have the
spiritual experiences, and enter into the presence of God, we
gain direct knowledge of God (gnosis). This is the whole point of
the teachings of Jesus.
The problem the disciples are having is that the ego
cannot see the spirit within someone else. They don’t know
whether to believe Jesus or not. This is the problem everyone
faces with a true spiritual teacher: that of not knowing if he is for
real or not. This is why Jesus uses parables about trees bearing

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fruit; you come to know people by what they actually do in real
life. Is this teacher really trying to teach, or is it about money or
domination? A true spiritual teacher teaches out of a desire to be
of service to others, not to have others serve him.

(92) Jesus said, “Seek and you shall find. Yet, what
you asked Me about in former times and which I did
not tell you then, now I wish to tell, but you do not
inquire after it.”

Spiritual growth is a process, and the truth we arrive at

early in our journey may be suitable for us then, but we may
have outgrown that meaning later on. The spiritual journey is an
ongoing process of re-evaluating past information and beliefs.
Spiritual growth is a constant process of refining our knowledge
and understanding of God. Many of the conclusions we come to
make sense at the time, but with an expanding consciousness
will need to be revised. New information takes the place of the
old just as our new consciousness takes the place of the older,
lower level of consciousness. The key is not to get stuck. When
we read a book and something really speaks to us, we don’t stop
reading the rest of the book. A spiritual journey is the same way.
Just because you find something really meaningful to you, don’t
get stuck on it; keep growing and moving forward.

(93) Jesus said, “Do not give what is holy to the

dogs, lest they throw them on the dung heap. Do not
cast pearls to swine, lest they grind it to bits.”

Many people will not accept the inner teaching. This is

OK. The word esoteric also means “meant for the few”. What it
really comes down to is that only a few will accept the inner
teaching and follow it. So the different meanings of esoteric
(inner and meant for the few) are inter-related by function. This is
not a debate. Either a person will see the value of the inner path
(eyes to see) or they won’t. Either the explanations make sense
(ears to hear) or they don’t. It’s really that simple.
This teaching is not spread by force of belief or logical
argument. It spreads by the gentle stirring and awakening of the
spirit within. We determine whether a person is open to the
process by introducing a small amount of new information to him.

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If the reaction is positive and he seems open to more, we share
a little more. Learning is a prolonged step-by-step process. You
didn’t go from kindergarten to a senior in high school in a week.
Learning and the growth associated with it take time. If a person
is not open to the inner path, don’t continue to share the inner
information with him. Share only where the information is valued
and accepted.

(94) Jesus said, “He who seeks will find, and (he
who knocks) will be let in.”

The most important aspect of spiritual growth is

persistence. The exercises are not complicated; anyone can do
them. Sometimes the emotional issues we have to work through
are painful, and it takes a certain amount of courage to face the
pain inside of us. Like saying #2, we need to continue to seek
until we find. We need to continue on with the exercises until we
establish our 100% full conscious contact with God. The bottom
line is this: If you persist, you will succeed.

(95) Jesus said, “If you have money do not lend it at

interest, but give to one from whom you will not get
it back.”

The spiritual-based person sees the importance of being

of service to others rather than having others of service to him.
Money is a tool which helps us survive in the world. It buys food,
clothing and shelter. Money makes life easier and more
comfortable. These are all important things. But a large amount
of money, rather than allowing us to be of greater service to
others, often tends to isolate us from other people. Wealth often
engenders a sense of superiority in people, which isolates them
even more. Truly being of service to others reconnects us with
others and brings us closer to God in the process. It is not
necessary, nor is it advisable, to give all of our money away. But
what you can comfortably do without, use in service to others.
The results and benefit that come back to you may be surprising.

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 (96) Jesus said, “The Kingdom of the Father is like a
certain woman. She took a little leaven and
concealed it in some dough, and made it into large
loaves. Let him who has ears hear.”

This parable is a variation of the mustard seed parable in

saying #20. In the parables of Jesus we can usually identify what
element we are dealing with by the gender of the person. A man
generally represents our thinking side and a woman generally
represents our emotional side. The Kingdom of the Father is a
state of consciousness. This is the same state represented by
the Kingdom of Heaven, the Christ Consciousness or the
presence of God. Just as the ego is made larger by indulging in
negative emotional states, so too does the spirit within grow as a
result of love-based emotions. The leaven represents the love-
based emotions, which in the beginning seem to be concealed
within our normal emotions (concealed in some dough). But
there is a quiet transformation which takes place. The more the
spirit within grows, the more we tend to focus on the love-based
emotions and the more peaceful we become. The process
continues as the spirit grows large in comparison to the ego
(large loaves).

(97) Jesus said, “The Kingdom of the Father is like a

certain woman who was carrying a jar full of meal.
While she was walking on a road, still some distance
from home, the handle of the jar broke and the meal
emptied out behind her on the road. She did not
realize it; she had noticed no accident. When she
reached her house, she set the jar down and found it
empty. He who hath a mind to understand, let him
understand.”

This is a rare example of an “emptying out” parable. In

order for us to grow spiritually and enter into the presence of
God we must empty out the issues and emotional states which
are taking the place of the presence of God within us. This is a
gradual process. The unification of the inner self and the
transformation of emotions accomplish their work in very small
increments, to the point where the process continues on without
the realization of exactly what is taking place. The peace, love
and joy gradually build within us as we approach the point of

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awakening. When the awakening (enlightenment) takes place we
are surprised by what has happened.
The ego fights back through the entire process until it
has nothing more with which to fight. At that point the ego has no
other choice than to recognize the awakened spirit within. This is
the point described in the Gospel of John, Chapter 3, where
John the Baptist admits he is not the Christ. The ego admits it is
not the spirit within, and that it has to decrease in order for the
spirit within to increase. The parable is about a woman, which
indicates we are dealing with emotional issues. The jar
represents the ego and the meal represents the issues and
emotional states of the ego. The meal emptying out behind her
on the road represents the gradual process of emptying out the
issues and emotional states and leaving them behind (doing the
spiritual exercises). When the woman reaches her house (the
Kingdom of Heaven) she sets the jar down (the ego is set aside)
and finds it empty (the ego has no remaining issues or negative
emotional states with which to manipulate and control us).
The Kingdom of heaven is a state of consciousness
which takes the place of our lower worldly thinking and feeling.
The Kingdom is not added onto the things of the world but must
replace them entirely. We must choose the Kingdom or the
world; we cannot have both. This is why this parable is so
important. It clearly demonstrates that what we have within us
must be emptied out before we can enter into the Kingdom of
Heaven.
(98) Jesus said, “The Kingdom of the Father is like a
certain man who wanted to kill a powerful man. In
his house he drew his sword and stuck it into the
wall in order to find out whether his hand could
carry through. Then he slew the powerful man.”

The parable is about a man, indicating that we are most

interested in the mental or intellectual side. Spiritual growth
requires a certain amount of courage, strength of character and
persistence. A certain mind set is needed to do the exercises
and see the process through to completion.
The powerful man represents the ego, which is the most
powerful aspect of our mind before the spirit within is awakened.
We must come to the realization, almost from the beginning of
our spiritual journey, that the ego is the enemy. The ego and its
issues and emotional states are the very things which stand

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between us and the presence of God in our lives. If we are to
enter into the Kingdom, the ego must die.
What we really want to know is, “Can I actually do this?
Can I really enter into the presence of God?” The answer can be
demonstrated by beginning the exercises. The process starts
with the observation of our thoughts and emotional reactions to
things which happen in the world. Once we observe the ping-
pong ball action between our thoughts and feelings as an
emotional state is being built, we realize that the ego really is
manipulating and controlling our life. We have caught the ego in
the act. This is the first realization that the inner path is real.
As we continue on with the exercises we will have a
spiritual experience where we get a small sample of the
presence of God. This experience is confirmation that the
process actually works. Once you have your first experience with
the presence of God you will know that all of the Kingdom can be
yours. This is what the man sticking his sword into the wall
represents. When you have your first spiritual experience, you
will know you have what it takes; you will know you can follow
through. The process is the same. Persist and you will succeed.
All the Father has will be given to you as you grow and mature in
the presence of God.

(99) The disciples said to Him, “Your brothers and

Your mother are standing outside.” He said to them,
“Those who do the will of My Father are My brothers
and My mother. It is they who will enter the Kingdom
of My Father.”

We are all born with physical families. Once we seriously

begin a spiritual journey, we also discover that we have a
spiritual family. Unrelated by birth, we find that we are related
and connected by consciousness and our relationship with God.
Some people come to realize their entire life was in preparation
for meeting a particular spiritual teacher and learning what he or
she has to offer. On your spiritual journey you will find
connections with others you couldn’t have imagined before.
Some call this a spiritual family which they believe re-incarnates
as a group time after time.
Whatever your personal experience, you will find a
connectedness not only with God but with others who share your
spiritual journey. Many times you may remark about the strange

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coincidence which brought you and certain individuals together
in your life. We live in an interactive universe where everything is
connected through God. A coincidence is an incidence which is
connected to another incidence, becoming co-incidences, related
beyond our normal perception. You can think of the term
coincidence as a condensed form of connected incidence. We
are all connected through God; we just don’t usually see the
connection until we start perceiving the presence of God in
everything. Then it all starts to become clear; there is only
oneness.

(100) They showed Jesus a gold coin and said to

Him, “Caesar’s men demand taxes from us.” He said
to them, “Give Caesar what belongs to Caesar, give
God what belongs to God, and give Me what is
Mine.”

The things of the world belong in the world. We all have

physical needs relating to survival, health and comfort. These
are things we require from the world. The ego has things it wants
from the world as well. Empires require tribute and taxes to
maintain armies and trade. When a country coins money, it
institutes a system for its use. If we wish to make use of that
system we need to comply with its conditions. Give Caesar what
belongs to Caesar. This is why in similar sayings Jesus asked
whose image was on the coin.
We also need to give God what belongs to God. We
were given the spirit within, our personal source of life by God,
out of the substance of God. We have an obligation to make that
gift grow and prosper (the parable of the talents – saying #41).
We also need to give a true spiritual teacher the attention and
respect appropriate to his or her understanding of God and
ability to guide others into the presence of God. This is what we
need to give Jesus, the respect of an older brother on his
spiritual path. We do that, not by worshiping him, but by listening
closely to what he said and doing our best to understand what he
is teaching us. We honor Jesus by doing the exercises, having
the spiritual experiences, entering into the Kingdom, and
becoming like him.

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 (101) Jesus said, “Whoever does not hate his father
and 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 gave me falsehood, but My true Mother
gave me life.”

This is a more complete statement of saying #55. Family

dynamics form, to a large degree, the issues and emotional
traumas which determine the actions of the ego. Going through
the process of self discovery uncovers those issues and
demonstrates how the ego is manipulating and controlling us.
With this understanding we can dismantle the ego by resolving
the inner issues and traumas and unifying the inner self. One by
one we are removing the tools the ego uses against us until
there is nothing left. At this point the ego surrenders and
releases its power and authority to the awakened spirit within.
Our physical mothers do the best they can under the
circumstances, but they are not prepared to give us the insights
into the truth of God. This is something we must create within
ourselves through the experience of living in the presence of
God. It is the loving nature of God which the true mother
represents. Truth comes to us as a result of changing our
consciousness and entering into the presence of God.

(102) Jesus said, “Woe to the Pharisees, for they are

like a dog sleeping in the manger of oxen, for neither
does he eat nor does he let the oxen eat.”

This is a parallel to saying #39. The outer forms of the

mystery school system were controlled by the scribes and
Pharisees, who had access to at least some, if not all, of the
secret knowledge. The manger of oxen is the feeding trough
where hay and grain were placed. A dog sleeping there does not
eat hay or grain; neither will it allow the oxen to eat. So the
Pharisees, having access to the secret knowledge, do not
actually follow the practices or do any exercises, so they are not
feeding their spirit within. Neither will they allow anyone who is
interested in the knowledge to learn unless they are among the
elite and are invited into the system. Everyone else is excluded
from this crucial information. This has caused untold suffering
among the common people who have a right to know the truth. It

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is the birthright of every human on the planet to know about the
ego and the spirit, and how to awaken, raise and empower the
spirit within. Each person will decide for himself what he wants to
do, but we all deserve and need to have the information.

(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.”

This is a parallel to part of saying #21. As we grow

through the process of self discovery, we find that other people
are not the only ones who will challenge us and try to get us to
conform to the way we were. Our own ego will oppose our
progress. It is necessary again for us to be on guard against the
attacks which we know will come. Once we understand the ego
and the tools and methods it uses against the growth of the spirit
within, we can recognize where in our thoughts and feelings the
ego will enter. We can then prepare ourselves and stop the
damage which would result from the challenges to our new-
found spirituality.
The spiritual experience of living in the presence of God
is so important and transformational in our lives that we must do
everything we can to keep the process alive and growing within
us. Other people and our own ego will take this experience away
from us if we allow them to do so. We must have the foresight,
the courage and the inner strength to persist in the exercises and
defend the awakening spirit within against all attacks until the
spirit within has fully awakened and become empowered. This is
the same principle as in saying #10 where Jesus is guarding the
fire until it blazes. Once there, the power of the spirit within and
the presence of God will stand on its own, like the city on a hill in
saying #32, for all to see. The Kingdom of Heaven will be yours
forever and nothing can take it away from you.

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 (104) They said to Jesus, “Come, let us pray today
and let us fast.” Jesus said “What is the sin I have
committed, or wherein have I been defeated? But
when the bridegroom leaves the bridal chamber,
then let them fast and pray.”

The bride, the bridegroom and the bridal chamber are

symbols used to represent a specific aspect of the spiritual
growth process. This process is referred to as the mystical
marriage and represents the final entry into the Kingdom of
Heaven and the presence of God. In the traditional mystery
school system a student first learns the theology and basic
intellectual principles of spirituality; then begins the actual
practice of self discovery, inner transformation and unification of
the inner self. This is the time requiring self discipline to keep
with the practices and exercises so the inner process of
transformation can become complete. This is the stage of the
disciple, the disciplined one.
The end result of discipleship is the unification of the
inner self, becoming one within: solitary, speaking with one
voice. In the traditional mystery school system this is also known
as becoming a “virgin” or attaining a state of purification of mind
and heart. The “virgin” or purified state is required before the
mystical marriage can take place. A man becomes the
bridegroom with the bride representing God. A woman becomes
the bride with God being the bridegroom. The mystical marriage
is the unification with God, becoming one with God and all of
creation. In John, Chapter 3 verse 2, Nicodemus recognizes the
presence of God within Jesus, saying, “Rabbi, we know that you
are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that
you do, unless God is with him.” In John 3:29, “He who has the
bride is the bridegroom”. This is the mystical marriage, the
unification of the individual with God, that 100% full conscious
contact with God that is the Kingdom of Heaven, the Christ
Consciousness.
If for some reason, after attaining the Christ
Consciousness we should fall short (sin) or lose the experience
of the Kingdom (be defeated) then we can fast (in regards to the
world) and pray (return our attention back to God) to re-establish
ourselves back into the Kingdom.

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 (105) Jesus said, “He who knows the father and the
mother will be called the son of a harlot.”

When we come to know the true nature of God, we can

expect to receive a certain amount of disrespect from people
who follow the outer form of religion. What we experience is a
heresy to them. Keep in mind a heresy is simply a belief that is
not within the doctrine of the church - outside the box.
We experience God in two basic forms represented by
male and female: Father and Mother. The masculine form of the
experience is revelation, a revealing of the inner knowledge,
understanding and wisdom which is of God. The feminine form is
the nurturing, supportive aspect of God which manifests as the
unconditional love which comes from God. This is why some
people refer to God as Mother / Father God. They are giving
recognition to the two very different aspects of our experience of
God.

(106) 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.”

When we attain inner unification, having become one,

we go through the mystical marriage and become one with God.
Then we are a fully awakened and empowered spiritual being, a
Son of Man. Then when we say, “Mountain, move away”, it will
move away. The mountain is an inner belief, usually having to do
with authority figures. The spiritual process is the transfer of
authority from the outside of us to the inside, from the world to
God and the spirit within. It is also the unification of authority and
responsibility within. When we combine authority and
responsibility within, we gain control over our lives.

(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 and looked for
that one until he found it. When he had gone to such
trouble, he said, I care for you more than the ninety-
nine.”

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 The parable of the lost sheep is an important example of
the difference between the inner and outer interpretations of the
sayings of Jesus. The outer interpretation perceives the lost
sheep as someone who has left the flock and has lost his way.
Security comes from being part of the flock or congregation. As
long as a person remains within the established doctrine he is
safe. Leaving the established doctrine is not safe. One goes
astray by not believing correctly. Many congregations perceive
the role of the minister as being the shepherd: finding those who
have gone astray and bringing them back to the flock.
The inner interpretation perceives the flock as a
confined, limited belief system, thinking and believing inside of
the box. The person who begins to think on his own begins to
move out of the box, thus leaving the belief system of the
congregation, or leaving the flock. In this example the sheep is
the largest, which represents the strongest of the flock or
congregation. This strength refers to strength of character and
independence. It is this strength which not only enables the
person to leave the congregation, but ultimately drives him to
leave. This is the person seeking more than the established
doctrine can provide. This is the person seeking true direct
contact and connection with God. This is the beginning of a
serious spiritual journey.
A strange and wonderful thing happens on this journey.
In our search for God we not only find ourselves, but also we are
found. The Kingdom is like the shepherd. Once we are seriously
involved in our spiritual journey, the Kingdom comes and “finds”
us. It is a cooperative process. In essence, it is our serious
seeking which brings us to the attention of God in the first place.
Once we are “found” we experience the unconditional love which
comes from God. We feel loved more than the ninety-nine. God
loves each of us equally, but as long as we remain inside the
established doctrine, we are limited in our experience of God’s
love by our limited belief system. The Kingdom cannot be added
onto the existing belief system with all of our issues and
emotional traumas. We must resolve the issues and traumas to
make room for the Kingdom. Resolving those issues and
traumas brings us out of the flock, out of the ordinary
consciousness of the world and into a condition where we can be
identified as seriously seeking God. We are making room inside
of us for the presence of God, creating a suitable home for the
peace, love and joy which is of God. We were lost, and now are
found.

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 (108) Jesus said, “He who will drink from My mouth
will become like Me; I Myself shall become he, and
the things that are hidden will be revealed to him.”

“He who will drink from my mouth” is a person who

understands what Jesus is saying. If we understand the
principles and do the practices which Jesus is teaching, we will
become like him. We will become a Christed being (I myself shall
become he). It is not possible, nor is it necessary, to understand
all of the things of God before we do the practices (exercises).
We do not start out with an in-depth understanding, but a general
intellectual concept of the teachings and where they are intended
to lead us. That is what this author hopes to accomplish: to
provide you with a general intellectual concept. The exercises
themselves create the inner transformation required. As this
inner transformation progresses, the presence of God and the
associated spiritual experiences will bring the deeper
understanding of the principles which we seek. The
understanding comes from our direct experience with God
(gnosis). The things which are hidden will all be revealed through
the persistent practice of the exercises. Do the exercises, have
the spiritual experiences, and then you will understand.

(109) Jesus said, “The kingdom is like a man who

had a (hidden) treasure in his field without knowing
it. And (after) he died, he left it to his son. The son
did not know (about the treasure). He inherited the
field and sold (it). And the one who bought it went
plowing and found the treasure. He began to lend
money at interest to whomever he wished.”

The hidden treasure in the field is the sleeping spirit

within (hidden within the field of consciousness). This is the
normal state of people in the world: They have within them the
living spirit, the substance of God, and they are unaware of it.
We teach our children the things of the world and pass that
legacy on to them, but because we didn’t know about the nature
and reality of the spirit within, our children receive only what we

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could leave them: the field of consciousness without knowing
about the treasure of spirit and eternal life. Our children, too, will
live their lives not knowing about the treasure within.
The one who goes plowing is the one who embarks on
the journey of self-discovery and goes through the process of
inner unification, plowing up the emotions and programming of
the past. It is through this process that we discover the treasure
of the spirit within. In the world, the one who is wealthy can lend
money at interest to anyone. In spiritual terms, we have enough
knowledge and understanding to teach others and share the
wealth of wisdom which is of God. How much better would life be
if we could learn about the spirit within and the contest between
the spirit and the ego in our childhood? How would our lives and
the lives of our children be transformed? If we only knew.

(110) Jesus said, “Whoever finds the world and

becomes rich, let him renounce the world.”

The world represents the ego. The ego is formed in

response to the world and our need to interact with the world in
which we find ourselves. The ego is a function of the body and
the body is part of the world, so these terms are inter-related
from the spiritual perspective. The ego sees the world as a place
where it can gain wealth and power, and a number of people do
just that. The problem is, they gain their wealth and power at the
expense of the other people around them. The whole goal here
is to give up or remove the ego: renounce the world (ego).
Wealth and power are not the problem. The problem is the out-
of-control egos which will do anything and hurt anyone to get
what they want.
We have a responsibility to God and to each other. We
do not live in this world alone. We are connected to one another,
whether we like it or not. We cannot take from another or gain at
another’s expense without harming our spirit within. Once we
begin to realize there are no separate actions, that everything is
interconnected, and when we harm someone else we also harm
ourselves, then we can begin to see how important it is to take
control of our own ego and put a stop to its destructive behavior.
In essence, to renounce the world is to put a stop to the insane
and destructive behavior of our own ego.

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 (111) Jesus said, “The heavens and the earth will be
rolled up in your presence; and the one who lives
from the Living One will not see death.” Does not
Jesus say, “Whoever finds himself is superior to the
world?”

When we go through the process of self-discovery and

inner-unification, we can center our consciousness on the spirit
within, thus connecting our consciousness with the part of us
which has eternal life. From that point on, it does not matter what
happens physically because who we are (our individuality) is
maintained; we will not see death. The Living One is the living
light of Spirit, God, who created us out of the substance of God
which gives us our personal life, the spirit within. Finding our true
self is the process of self-discovery and inner-unification which
reveals and awakens the spirit within. The spirit within is superior
to the ego (the world).

(112) Jesus said, “Woe to the flesh that depends on

the soul; woe to the soul that depends on the flesh.”

The body is dependant on the spirit, or soul, for its life.

The spirit within is the source of our personal life, just as Spirit
(God) is the source of all life everywhere. When we center our
consciousness on the ego, we are making ourselves dependant
on the body, which is a temporary creation. This is the equivalent
of building our house on the sand; it will not last. The first death
is the loss of our physical body. The second death is the loss of
the consciousness attached to that body. The answer is to attach
our consciousness to the spirit, which has eternal life. That way
even when the temporary body is set aside, we retain our
individuality and consciousness.

(113) His disciples said to Him, “When will the

Kingdom come?” (Jesus said,) “It will not come by
waiting for it. It will not be a matter of saying ‘Here it
is’ or ‘There it is.’ Rather the Kingdom of the Father
is spread out upon the earth, and men do not see it.”

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 This is what people want to know; “When will the
Kingdom come?” Some people believe it will come with the
Second Coming of Christ. If they wait, it will come. Others
believe they can enter the Kingdom by affirmation or decreeing
themselves to be in the Kingdom. Jesus is saying none of these
things will work. Rather, the Kingdom of the Father is spread out
upon the earth, and men do not see it. If the Kingdom of the
Father, or the Kingdom of Heaven, were a collective experience
(happening to everyone at the same time) then Jesus is telling
us it has already come (saying #51). The Kingdom is an
individual experience, not a collective one. We enter into the
Kingdom by our own efforts and dedication through the process
of self-discovery and inner-unification. The Kingdom has been
here all along, spread out upon the earth. The presence of God
is in and of everything. It always has been; we just haven’t
perceived it. The Kingdom of the Father is a state of
consciousness, not a place or a time. We enter into the Kingdom
by changing our consciousness to coincide with the
consciousness of God. It really is that simple.

(114) Simon Peter said to them, “Let Mary leave us,

for women are not worthy of Life.” Jesus said, “I
Myself shall lead her in order to make her male, so
that she too may become a living Spirit resembling
you males. For every woman who will make herself
Man will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”

In life we encounter many prejudices. People are

prejudiced by gender, race, religion, ethnic origins, social
position and many other conditions. The disciples were no
exception. Women were considered more property than equals.
Some branches of the mystery school system gave equal
standing to women; some created relatively equal, but separate
standing for women. Jesus did not see women as being inferior
to men, but of equal value and importance to God.
The important thing Jesus is trying to get across is that it
doesn’t matter if a person is male or female; the balance
between the masculine and feminine qualities within us is what is
important. Balancing the masculine and the feminine also means
balancing the intellectual and the emotional natures within us.
We cannot sustain ourselves in the Kingdom if we are continually
out of balance within ourselves. Part of what the journey of self

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discovery and inner unification produces is a balancing of all the
qualities within. Everything joins in a seamless unity of balance
and harmony. We come to peace with everything in our life and
join in the oneness of God and all of creation. We become
centered in Love and the presence of God, and act as a force for
good and redemption in the world. As we fully and completely
enter the Kingdom of Heaven, we become the mechanism
through which God sends His Peace, Love and Joy into the
world. Our thoughts, feelings and actions work together to bless
all who come into our presence, and we are blessed in the
process. Through us, the Kingdom of Heaven becomes a reality
in the world.

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THE EXERCISES

The Process of Self-Discovery

We live in a world of duality. The inner explanation of

this is that there are two “selves” within us which we need to
“discover”. The first self is the ego. This is the personality which
develops during childhood and acts as our interface with the
outer world. We gradually adopt the belief that we are the ego,
and that is all there is within us. During the passage of life’s
experiences, we come across hints and suggestions indicating
that there is more to us than we have previously believed. This
leads us to the discovery of the second “self” within, which is the
spirit. This spirit is generally in a sleeping state, which makes it
difficult to recognize.
We begin the process of self-discovery with the
recognition of our dual nature: ego and spirit. Since the ego is
well developed and is standing in the way of the spirit, we must
come to recognize what the ego is doing and how it operates.
With that understanding we can dismantle the ego and free
ourselves from its tyranny. The ego operates just under the

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conscious level of the mind. When we identify ourselves with the
ego and think that it is who we really are, the ego can operate
without being noticed by the conscious mind. By expanding our
awareness even slightly the actions and activity of the ego
become apparent.
The ego follows the principle of divide and conquer. In
keeping with that, the ego maintains a collection of issues and
emotional traumas and perceived injuries. It is a type of laundry
list from which the ego can pick and choose depending on the
particular situation it faces. The purpose of the list of issues is
not the event itself, but the emotional energy which can be
generated by the issue. The ego derives its strength and energy
from the emotions we experience. The types of energy the ego
can use essentially as food come from the negative emotions
which are fear- and pride-based. These include: fear, anger,
hatred, guilt, envy, shame, lust, resentment, bitterness,
superiority, prejudice, inferiority, disgust, revulsion and false
pride. False pride is feeling that we are better than others. True
pride is satisfaction in an accomplishment of a job well done.
True pride remains internal; false pride is advertised to the rest
of the world.
The spirit within also derives its energy from our
emotions, but the nature of the energy itself is different. This
difference can be expressed as a higher frequency, or a finer
grain or consistency. This emotional energy is generated by the
positive emotions of peace, love, joy, compassion, caring,
happiness, gentleness, respect and true pride. The physical
body is designed to produce the specific type of energy we
request, based on the emotions we choose to experience, on a
moment-by-moment basis. The ego manipulates us into
experiencing almost exclusively negative-based emotions from
which it derives its energy. The spirit cannot use the lower-based
energy produced by the negative emotions, so it enters a type of
hibernation, waiting for the proper type of emotional energy to
become available. By manipulating us into the negative
emotions, the ego has all the food it wants and at the same time
is denying food to the spirit, which the ego sees as its primary
competition. (The ego sees other egos as secondary
competition.)
The ego uses a sequence of an initial trigger (internal or
external), followed by an emotion related to the trigger, followed
by a thought - usually a restatement of a conclusion we have
come to about ourselves in the past. The thought acts as an

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internal trigger and the process continues to build one emotion
on top of another until a strong emotional state is attained. This
creates an energy banquet for the ego. The trigger can be
external (an event: something someone says or does) or it can
be internal (a thought). The emotions generated in this sequence
are all related and based on the same issue so the end effect is
a building of strength as one is added on to another, each
reinforcing the others.
The first task in the discovery process is to look for the
sequence: trigger, emotion, thought, emotion, thought, emotion,
thought, as an emotional state is being built. It is not necessary
to catch the sequence from the very beginning. Discovering the
ego at any part of the sequence will work. In the early stages the
emotional states come and go and we recognize that we have
missed the entire thing hours or even days after the fact. Do not
be discouraged; simply persist in looking for the sequence.

Observation

Observation is the practice of looking for patterns of

thoughts, feelings or behaviors. Looking for the trigger, emotion,
thought, emotion, thought sequence is the first skill in
observation that we will work on. You will need some type of
small notebook, something you can carry around with you
wherever you go. In this notebook write three headings: trigger,
emotion and thought. The trigger is usually an event, so you
can also write trigger (event) to make the heading clearer. The
goal is to write down what you observe in the trigger, emotion,
thought, emotion, thought sequence. Don’t be overly concerned
about getting everything right in the beginning. If you can get one
or two of the elements of the sequence, write them down. This
will help you recognize more of the sequence as it happens
again. It is not necessary to write down a long explanation of
your thoughts. Write down just enough so you will have a clear
idea of what the thought actually was.
A trigger (event) may be getting cut off in traffic, catching
every red light, something someone says or does, the washing
machine breaking down, being late for work - anything which
triggers an emotional state or reaction. The event is usually
remembered longer than the emotion, and the emotion is
remembered longer than the thoughts. If all you remember is the
event, write it down and leave the other categories blank. It’s a

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start, and starting is very important. Remember, it doesn’t have
to be perfect; it just has to be done.
As you become more practiced at observation, you will
catch the developing emotional state before it becomes full
blown. One of the things you may experience is that the minute
you recognize the developing emotional state, it stops. What has
happened is the ego has been caught doing what it does, and
like a child, does not like to be caught in the act. When this
happens to you, you will know that what we are discussing about
the ego really is true. The ego really does work to manipulate
you and control your thoughts and emotions. At this point you
have taken your first real step into a larger world of awareness.
With more practice, you will identify all three elements of
a building emotional state: the trigger, the emotion involved, and
a pattern of related thoughts. As you recognize what is going on,
the building of the emotional state will stop. This initial success
will also result in a complete failure at some point and you will
experience a major emotional upset. What is happening is the
ego, interrupted so many times, has become desperate for its
emotional feeding. This failure to stop the emotional state is just
part of the process and should not be taken seriously. It will
show you that the process is going to take time and effort. You
will come to know that you have a real fight on your hands. The
ego is not just going to disappear. This is an inner war, and you
are going to have to persist all the way through to the end. The
process is simple; it’s just not easy. Remember: every
worthwhile project requires a great deal of work, and the greater
the value, the greater the work. Continue observing until you
have identified ten to twelve thoughts for each emotion identified.
What you will notice after a month or so of observation is
that there are repetitive patterns in emotional states and related
thoughts. Rewrite your list from the notebook so that all of the
same or closely related emotions are grouped together. Create
new headings based on the emotion (anger, guilt, frustration,
etc.) and then list the associated thoughts under the related
emotion. For most people the observations that were written
down in the notebook will fall into three or four general
categories based on emotions. These are the emotional states
selected by the ego to generate its food. These are also the
emotional states which are taking the place of the presence of
God in your life. What you really need to realize at this point is
this is exactly what the ego has to offer you for the rest of your
life. Your list of emotions is your past. It will also be your future if

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you do not change your thoughts, emotions and actions today.
So the question now becomes: Do you want these emotional
states, or do you want the presence of God instead? This is
where you have to make a choice. You can have these
emotions, or you can have the deep abiding peace, the
unconditional love which comes from God, and the joy of God in
your life. You can’t have both; you have to choose. If you choose
the presence of God all of these negative emotions must go;
nothing can remain. This may be the single most important
decision of your life. Don’t wait or put it off; decide now, once and
for all.
The thoughts which are now organized by their related
emotion represent the conclusions you have come to about
yourself, or that have been programmed into your mind by
others. This is a listing of the “self image” which is actually
running your life. Now you can see what the ego is actually doing
to you and why it has to go. The list of thoughts will act as a type
of road map which you can use to identify where these thoughts
and emotions came from in your past. There are three major
sources for emotions and their related thoughts: traumas,
programming and imprinting.

Traumas

Traumas are highly emotional events which happen to

us in our life. Many of them happen during childhood, and our
mind tries to make some sense of what has happened. Lacking
the maturity of an adult, we, as children, cannot make proper
associations of events in our lives. An example would be the
divorce of our parents. The child often comes to the conclusion
that he is somehow at fault for the break-up of the family.
Sometimes a “bad” act of the child is selected by the child as the
reason for the parents’ actions. As adults, we clearly see that the
actions of the child do not figure in to the actions of the parent.
But the child does not have this level of perception, nor do they
have the experience of the adult to guide them.
Dysfunctional families create multiple traumas in the
child’s life. Physical, emotional and mental abuses are taken
very seriously by children. Denial is a common coping
mechanism used to suppress the severity of the abuse, but the
denial is just one more layer which has to be overcome during

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the self-discovery process. Denial has the effect of slowing down
the process, forcing the individual to dig out hidden factors and
events before effectively resolving them. The person who has
developed a “laundry list” of what has been done to him (actual
or perceived) has a head start in this regard. They know exactly
what needs to be resolved.
These traumas have a specific internal structure to them.
The structure is dual in nature, composed of an intellectual
component and an emotional one. Each of the conclusions
(thoughts) recorded on your list is strongly linked to the
associated emotion. Each component (thought or emotion) has a
memory of the other. We can use affirmations to alter the
thought patterns, but if the emotions are left they will regenerate
the thought patterns. We can also use emotional release
techniques, but if the thoughts remain, they will regenerate the
emotions. It may take six months to a year for the regeneration
to take place, but it will happen. The answer is to resolve both
the thoughts and the associated emotions together so nothing
remains.

Issues

Each of the emotional states we experience fractures out

into a group of issues. Each issue becomes a tool which the ego
uses to manipulate us into the emotional state required to feed
the ego. The ego hides these separate issues from our
conscious view by constructing buffers around the issue. The
buffer works to create a momentary disorientation as we move
from our normal state of consciousness into the state associated
with each particular issue and back again. The whole system
flows together to the point where we rarely perceive anything has
taken place. We become upset because that is how we handle
the situation. It doesn’t occur to us that anything else is
happening. We just have issues with what is happening, how
things are being done, or what is being said. We see ourselves
as being in control of our lives, yet it is the ego which is
controlling and manipulating us. We are the slave, not the
master. The ego seeks to control everything except itself.
Each of these issues functions as a fractured piece of
who we think we are, each born out of what happened to us, or
what we perceive happened to us. The events don’t have to be
real; they only have to be perceived as real. Either way, the end

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result is the same. As you go through the process of self-
discovery you will begin to see more clearly what the ego is
doing and how it manipulates and controls your life. You will
understand why the mystery school system portrays the ego as
the one who opposes: Satan, or as the antichrist. The ego
opposes the spirit within, corrupting our mind and heart and
bringing unnecessary pain and suffering into our lives. Each
issue is a launching pad for some form of suffering, experienced
either by ourself, or by someone else. The hurtful things we do
are born out of our own pain, and become the weapons of the
ego.
Each issue can and must be resolved. By resolving an
issue, we remove it from the arsenal the ego uses against us. In
time, with enough work, we can resolve all of the issues the ego
is using against us. With each issue resolved, we come one step
closer to that 100% full conscious contact with God, one step
closer to the Kingdom of Heaven and the Christ Consciousness.
Once we are free of issues, we will see the world and all the
creatures in it clearly. The world and our experience in it will
have been completely transformed.

Programming

Much of the programming we impart to our children has a good

and beneficial purpose. Don’t talk to strangers, red means stop,
green means go, look both ways before crossing the street,
these are all examples of beneficial programming. Comments
about the child repeated either to the child or within hearing
distance become programmed into the child’s mind. Sometimes
the programming is not intentional, as illustrated in an old joke.
Company was coming over and Mom took Johnny aside and told
him he needed to be good for the evening. Johnny replied that
he would be good for a quarter and mom said, “why can’t you be
good for nothing like your father?”
Programming also results in issues, but of a much less
intense nature. The link between the emotional part and the
thought part is weaker and easier to resolve. Programming can
be harder to recognize because much of our belief system is
based on things we consider to be “right” and most of that is the
result of programming. The removal of the negative or limiting
aspects of programming requires a re-examination of our entire
belief system, keeping things which prove to be true and

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discarding those things which do not. This is a difficult process,
for it requires us to question many cherished beliefs and
attitudes. This is especially true when it comes to our beliefs
about God. This is why the Gnostic approach is so important:
There is no dogma or official doctrine to believe. When you do
the exercises you will have the spiritual experiences. Those
experiences will reveal the true nature of God to you, and will
result in direct knowledge of God (gnosis).

Imprinting

Unintentional programming is imprinting. We are all subject to

imprinting from parents, relatives, teachers, authority figures,
friends, heroes and heroines, movie stars, and characters in
movies, on television and in cartoons. We adopt patterns of
speech, mannerisms, a look, a walk, an attitude through the
process of imprinting.
Imprinting also produces issues which are generally
weak and not easily recognized. Issues produced by imprinting
are usually the last ones we find. The issues from traumas are
big and generally more obvious. Our re-examination of our
beliefs will reveal most, if not all, of the programming. Once
those are resolved what remains is the result of imprinting. We
must remain aware and continue to observe in order to uncover
the imprinting. As we learn what our own voice is, it will be easier
to recognize imprinting because the imprinting will appear in a
different voice.

Recognizing the Different Voices Within

Each issue, whether from trauma, programming or

imprinting, came from some exchange with someone. When that
someone spoke to us, what they said becomes connected with
the feelings we were experiencing at the time and a “voice” is
created within us. When we go over the event in our mind a
number of times, even if we are just asking ourselves “why did
they do that”, we are reinforcing what was said. We are, in effect,
programming a new voice into our belief system. When there is
nothing said and we are subjected only to an action or an
attitude, we draw some sort of a conclusion about ourself or the
other person (often both) and our conclusion becomes the new
voice. Repeating the experience over and over in our mind
reinforces the new voice and programs it into our belief system.

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 As we become more adept at observing our own
thoughts and feelings, we will begin to recognize that some of
the things we say are what our mother or father used to say. This
is our first discovery of a different voice within us. This also
marks our entry into a higher level of awareness. At this point we
really don’t know what our own voice is, but we can certainly
recognize the obvious voices of relatives and authority figures in
our lives. This gives us a place to start. With time and practice
we will begin to discover voices from our own past, who we were
at five or six years of age, who we were at fourteen or eighteen.
Each stage of life produces a different voice which sounds like
us but belongs in a different time and place. Each of these
voices is not who we are now, and who we are now is not who
we will become in the future.
There is one voice, which we do not recognize until
much later in the process of self-discovery, which is our real
voice: the voice of our own spirit. That voice sleeps, waiting to be
awakened and empowered through the process of self-discovery
and spiritual growth. That is the voice we will become as we
stand in the presence of God and establish that 100% full
conscious contact with God. Until then, our practice of
observation continues, looking for the different voices within.
Examine each thought and feeling and ask yourself, “Where did
this come from? Is this the real me whom God created, or did
this come from someone else?” Keep in mind that this is a
constant process of refining, and in some circles it is referred to
as the refiner’s fire. All of the things which are not of God
eventually will be burned away. Once you accept something as
true does not mean it is true forever. It will be necessary to re-
examine what we have accepted as true a number of times.
Gurdjieff 10 explained the process by stating that we were
under 4,096 different laws, half of which were mandatory and
half were voluntary. When we stop doing the voluntary ones,
2,048 laws remain. At that point half would be mandatory and
half would be voluntary. When we stop following the voluntary
ones, 1,024 remain. The process continues down through 512,
256, 128, 64, 32, 16, 8, 4, and 2, one of which is mandatory and
one is voluntary. When we stop doing the last voluntary law only
one law will remain. The final mandatory law is that we love one
another. In the end, only the voice of God’s love, which flows
through us, will remain. That is our true voice.

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The Process of Inner Unification

The fact that we are seriously interested in beginning a

spiritual path means that the spirit within is stirring and becoming
active. The spirit will become the guiding force in our process of
inner unification. The ego is not interested in inner unification
because that is where its control resides. As long as we remain
divided, we remain conquered. The active spirit, by guiding us
through the inner unification process, will free us from the ego’s
tyranny.
The process begins with the recognition of an issue.
Each issue is connected to an emotion and a series of thoughts
or conclusions we have adopted along the way. Some detective
work is required on our part to connect the thoughts back to
something in our past, real or perceived. Some time spent asking
ourself “Where did this come from?” will usually produce some
insights into the origin of the issue. Once the root cause of the
issue is recognized, forgiveness and the transformation of the
emotions are used to resolve the issue.
In resolving the issue we have taken that issue away
from the ego. It is no longer available for energy generation,
manipulation or control. By clearly recognizing an issue, we have
broken down the buffer which the ego was using to protect its
investment. This issue can never again be hidden from us. As
we recognize more and more issues within, we become more
and more aware of the ego and its activities. This increased level
of awareness helps to awaken the spirit within, making it more
active in our lives. The whole process becomes self-generating
as the spirit within awakens.
One by one, issues are recognized, selected for
resolution, resolved and removed from the consciousness. The
issues which were standing in the place of the presence of God
are gradually removed, and we begin to experience God’s
presence in our lives. With each resolved issue, a little more
peace enters our life. We become less involved in the ego
games people play. We gradually become passers-by,
observing, learning, growing and increasing in knowledge and
wisdom. We move out of the flock mentality and into individuality,
making ourselves recognizable by the Spirit of God. It is only a
matter of time before the shepherd finds us and we have a major
spiritual experience. We will experience the intense love God
has for us. From that point on, we will know for a certain fact

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what the true nature of God is. We will have acquired gnosis:
direct knowledge of God. Believing will have become irrelevant.

Forgiveness and non-judgment

Forgiveness is the means of resolving the thoughts and

conclusions associated with each issue. Each of these thoughts
and conclusions were formed by a judgment about ourself,
someone else or the world in which we live. The vast majority of
these are negative in nature. Judgment can be defined as a
condemning or negative conclusion about ourself, someone else
or a condition in the world. When properly understood,
forgiveness can be defined as the inner correction of a judgment.
Forgiveness and non-judgment are designed to work hand-in-
hand. It takes a great deal longer to correct a judgment through
the process of forgiveness than it does to create a judgment and
reinforce it in our consciousness. If we work on forgiveness and
do not practice non-judgment, we will never come to a point of
completion. We will continue to create more and more judgments
which are in need of our forgiveness. Non-judgment, then,
becomes an essential part of the process. If we can stop the
formation of judgments, we will have a finite number of
judgments to correct, and the forgiveness process will, at some
point, become complete.
The key to non-judgment is to observe only. Become a
passer-by. Observe without condemning. People do some very
strange things. Sometimes it’s a good trick to just observe and
not condemn, but that is precisely what is required. You can
observe that a person lies or steals or does a number of other
things. It is appropriate to take protective action with such
people, such as not trusting a person you know lies or steals.
There is a profound difference between who and what a person
is (a spiritual being, a child of God) and how he is behaving. We
can still treat all people with respect, gentleness, and kindness
without believing the lies they are trying to pass off on us. We
still keep our doors locked and our property protected. We still
see that people are held accountable for their actions against us
and society. What we do not do is condemn them personally.
People are held accountable for their behavior, nothing more,
and nothing less.
We can forgive someone for what they have done to us
and still hold them responsible for their actions. If this seems

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strange, we need to understand what forgiveness really does
and why we need to practice forgiveness on a regular basis.
Let’s take a simple example of someone who is a neighbor and
makes insulting or demeaning comments to you. When you
object you are told it was meant to be funny; can’t you take a
joke? You feel hurt and are resentful about the way you are
being treated. You try to make the person see that they are
hurting you, but this only increases the abusive treatment you
are receiving from them. You think, okay, I’ll forgive them for
what they have done to me; we will wipe the slate clean and start
over with a fresh start. But nothing changes; the abusive
behavior continues. You have to conclude that forgiveness
doesn’t work.
The key to understanding forgiveness is to realize that
the intent is to stop the pain and suffering you are experiencing,
not change the behavior of other people. You can limit your
exposure to the abuse by not associating with the person
involved. Do not attend functions where this behavior may be
experienced. Avoid contact with the person. If confronted, tell
him (or her) you do not care for his comments and behavior and
do not want anything to do with him as long as this attitude and
behavior continues. Don’t argue; just walk away. In this way you
are providing consequences to the other person (removing
yourself as a target for his behavior). This is a form of holding
him accountable for his actions.
Forgiveness does not make a person’s behavior
acceptable. So what exactly does forgiveness do? One of the
reasons we are hurt by other people’s words or behaviors is
because it resonates with something inside of us, something
which already hurts. People can “push our buttons” only because
we have emotional issues which elicit specific responses. We
may ask “Don’t they know this hurts or bothers me?” Of course
they do; that’s why they are doing it. They are acting out of their
own pain and causing pain in someone else is gratifying to them.
Forgiveness is part of the process of resolving our inner issues
so there is no emotional issue within us to resonate with the
words or behaviors of other people. Once free of the inner
emotional issues, the words of other people are just empty
words, they have no meaning to us personally and we have no
emotional stake in what is being said. In effect, we are unwiring
the buttons other people are pushing. It’s like a doorbell. When it
rings, we answer the door. If we take the wire off of the button,
the doorbell doesn’t ring. The issues within us work the same

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way. When someone pushes one of our buttons, we answer. It’s
a conditioned response.
Forgiveness unwires the thought and conclusion part of
the issue within, and when the emotional part is also unwired,
someone pushing the button no longer elicits a reaction. That’s
how we know we have done our inner work. When someone
does something or says something which has always caused a
reaction, and we feel no reaction and the thoughts don’t come,
the issue is resolved. Each thought connected to an issue is
either a type of conclusion we have come to, or it is something
which has been programmed or imprinted into our
consciousness.
We are dealing with things which have been repeated
over and over again. What happens is, there is an internal
reference system at work. When we hear or see something over
and over again, each time we are exposed to it strengthens and
reinforces the original. The subconscious mind recognizes the
things for which there is an internal reference quickly. In effect
the mind looks at everything which comes in and performs an
instant analysis. The first question is, “Does this represent
something dangerous?” The internal references are consulted,
and if this internal reference says it is dangerous, then a
protective reaction is generated. If the internal reference is
deemed not dangerous, then the mind searches for what past
actions were associated with this internal reference, and the
same reaction is re-enacted. The logic is simple: I am still here,
so whatever I did in the past must have worked, so do it again.
Sometimes our behavior is inappropriate to the circumstances.
For example we visit our parents and we find ourselves reacting
like we were still children. We may be grown adults with our own
children, but some of those old reactions are still there. Our
subconscious mind and our ego don’t care; this is the way the
internal behavior reference is programmed and this is the way
we are going to react now. A key in this comes from the word
“reaction”. We are re-acting, or acting again the way we did in
the past. The same people, situation, words or actions elicit the
same programmed reaction.
If we are going to change our reactions, we have to
change the internal references. The difficulty we encounter is
that the mind depends on these internal references to make
sense of the world in which we live. In this process our mind
tends to filter out anything which does not agree with an internal
reference. So the changing of an internal reference does not

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happen by accident; it must be done intentionally. This is what
an affirmation is designed to do: change the internal reference by
repeating the new desired thought or conclusion over and over
until it becomes the new internal reference. The way this works
in the inner mind is that a new place is created for the new
internal reference being programmed, and it exists right along
side of the old reference. The old reference has been repeated
thousands of times from repetitive actions of other people and
the repetitive times we have gone over the same thing in our
own mind. When the new reference builds up enough repetitive
support to equal the old reference, the inner mind will bring the
issue to the surface of our consciousness, in effect saying,
“These two things are in conflict and they have the same number
of inner references. Which one do you want to be the real
reference?” This gives us the opportunity to select the new real
inner reference. From that point on the new reference becomes
the action of choice and the old pattern is no longer followed.
Forgiveness follows the same pattern, but if we can see
where the old inner reference came from and realize it is a false
conclusion, it greatly shortens the repetitive process of re-
programming in the new reference. Realizing that our conclusion
about something is wrong attaches a strong negative association
with the old internal reference, lending strength and support to
the new reference. We will still have some of the same old
reactions, but we will usually quickly realize we are doing
something which is now “wrong” and will move to correct it as
soon as we can. The observation work of identifying the series of
thoughts and conclusions associated with a particular emotion,
and seeking where these thoughts and conclusions came from,
leads us to the time, place and conditions of the early formation
of the internal reference. Many times we can see that the thought
or conclusion was the judgment we held as a child, without the
maturity and experience we now have as an adult. It quickly
becomes clear to us that the old thought or conclusion was
wrong and needs to be corrected. This insight accelerates the re-
programming process by identifying the old internal reference as
“wrong”, replacing it with a new “correct” reference.
So how does this work exactly? If one of your parents
was an alcoholic and you were beaten as a child, how do you
change that? You can’t pretend it didn’t happen. It’s not the
event itself that is important; it’s our perception of ourself and our
role in what happened that is staying with us. We may believe
we were, or still are, bad, and that what happened was our fault.

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(“If I had been better, if I had done more, this wouldn’t have
happened.”)
In some instances we were so young that we may need
to ask some older family members about what went on in the
past. Getting an adult understanding of our past family dynamics
can shed a great deal of light on our perceptions. There may
have been a serious injury which prevented the father from
working, resulting in alcohol abuse and out-of-control anger. It
may have been abuse by a family member in another generation
which set the stage for what we experienced. The primary thing
we must remember is that the child is generally not the problem.
The adult is. The child is usually the available target for someone
else’s pain and anger. Realizing that we were not the cause of
what happened, just an available target, helps remove us as a
guilty party. We didn’t deserve what happened. We were not bad
or defective, we couldn’t perform as an adult because we were a
child; we were not responsible for what happened.
Once we realize an adult was responsible and not we as
children, it is important to come to the realization that people
perform very poorly in life. The hardest thing to grasp, however,
is that people are doing the best they can under the
circumstances. And yes, sometimes people’s best is really bad.
But the reality is if the individual in mind could actually have done
better, they would have done so. Life is not risk free; bad things
happen. The point is, what are we going to do about it now? The
reality is, the person who did these things to us may no longer be
alive, may not remember what he did, and more importantly may
not care. The other person is not important; what we are
experiencing (the pain and suffering) - that is what is important.
The point of forgiveness is not to change the other person, but to
stop the pain and suffering we are experiencing.
Realizing that we are not at fault is the first real step
toward resolution. The next step is seeing that a bad thing
happening to us is just another unfortunate aspect of life on
planet earth. We can forgive the person involved for acting out of
their own pain. Inside he may have been hurting more than we
were. We cannot change him or his pain, but we sure can
change the pain and suffering we experience. Forgiving the other
person starts the process. Forgiving ourself for our condemning
thoughts and conclusions breaks the connection to the past.
Using affirmations after forgiveness can help re-establish a new
perspective and a better self image.

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 Every thought and conclusion needs to be examined and
re-evaluated based on our mature adult understanding and
wisdom. As we go through our belief system one item at a time,
we can gradually correct the thoughts and conclusions we made
as a child which are still running our life. You will find forgiving
someone else is easier than forgiving yourself. Start with
forgiving others first so you get used to the process. Then focus
your work on forgiving yourself. You will discover that 90% of the
work of forgiveness is forgiving yourself. You must forgive
yourself for all of the things you have done, and all of the things
you believe you should have done but failed to do. Remember in
the end, the judgment you give will be the judgment you receive.
When you have forgiven everything, you are truly forgiven. When
you are free of judging anything, you are free of being judged.

The Forgiveness Exercise

A forgiveness exercise should be done in a place where

it is quiet and where you will not be disturbed for about 20
minutes. Close your eyes and take several deep breaths and
slowly let them out to help you relax. Select an event from your
past. As you remember the event, imagine yourself as an
observer of the event, not a participant. You can stop the event
at any point. Observe yourself as the child you were when the
event happened. When you stop the event, go and talk to the
child and explain what happened from an adult perspective. Tell
the child he is not at fault; he (or she) did nothing wrong. If some
behavior of the child was wrong, tell the child this is a learning
experience and he will not do this again in the future. Explain to
the child that adults often over-react to situations and this does
not mean the child is bad, defective or anything else which may
have been said to the child during the event. Hug the child and
reassure him he is safe and he is loved.
If you find interacting with the child too difficult, imagine
an angel appearing and doing these things for you. The purpose
is to re-program the event in your own mind so you have a new
set of thoughts and conclusions about yourself. The event has
not changed, but your inner experience of the event has. If you
can manage it, become the child and tell the adult that you
forgive him. As the child, hug the adult and tell him that you love
him. If you cannot, have the angel do it for you.
If the emotions are too painful for you to do the exercise,
try moving the event further away, reducing its intensity by

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distance or try seeing it in black and white rather than color. You
can also imagine it on a screen, as if it were a movie or on
television. Anything that reduces the intensity to the point where
you can do the exercise will help.
What if you can’t remember the actual event? The actual
event and the actual details are not as important as how you
perceived the event. Your reconstruction of the event only needs
to represent what you perceived. You can make up an event that
represents the actual event as you perceived it. The inner mind
does not know the difference between what we think is reality
and what actually occurred. We are really dealing with our
memories and perceptions, anyway.
Sometimes when forgiving an adult in these exercises
the adult will stiffen up and resist the forgiveness or being
hugged. It’s okay, just let it play out in your mind. This is
something which will need to be repeated a number of times.
The exercise may change as it is repeated. You may get
different insights into the workings of your own mind or
something totally unexpected may happen. Let the exercise play
out and observe what is happening.
After a number of repeated exercises on the same
event, you may feel it is time to move on to another event. The
nature of the inner mind is that it takes time to make the needed
changes. You can think of these changes taking place in layers,
like the layers of an onion. Each series of forgiveness exercises
resolves a layer, and when you go on to another event keep in
mind that you will return to this issue again in the future to
resolve another layer. Eventually you will discover that one or
more of your issues simply do not come up any more, even
when someone is pushing your buttons to get you going again.
When there is no internal reaction and you can remain peaceful
and focused on the present rather than being dragged into the
past, the issue is resolved. The number of layers depends on
how many times and how many different ways this issue has
been reinforced. The greater the repetition and the greater the
variety of ways this issue has been experienced, the more layers
there will be.
The time it takes to resolve an issue varies greatly from
one individual to the next. It takes as long as it takes. There is no
fixed time. The one thing you can be certain of is that if you
persist, you will succeed. The second half of the forgiveness
exercise deals with the emotions.

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The Transformation of Emotions

In order to work with emotions we need to look at them

differently. Emotions are not like the thoughts we have. Emotions
are a form of energy which is why they can act as food for either
the ego or the spirit. We can think of an emotion like water and
ice. Water flows, ice does not; ice remains where it is. What
happens when we stop feeling an emotion? If it is energy, it can’t
disappear; it has to change form. This is exactly what happens.
When we stop experiencing an emotion it changes form, like
water turning into ice. The emotion solidifies and resides within
our body. Anger resides in the liver, bitterness in the pancreas,
resentment in the spleen. When we activate an emotion it
changes state again becoming fluid, flowing through us like
water in a river. When we stop experiencing the emotion, it
solidifies.
We can use this quality to our advantage. The solid form
cannot be changed, but the fluid form can. While we are feeling
an emotion, we can change the nature of the emotion into
anything we choose. We do this all the time in the outer world.
We turn on a switch and electricity flows through a light bulb. The
electricity changes to heat, and the heat changes to light. The
emotional form of energy our body produces is no different. We
can change the nature or form of the emotional energy while it is
flowing. We may think our emotions are not under our control,
but they are. We can use our thoughts to guide our emotions.
Here is how the second half of a forgiveness exercise
works. Once you have corrected the thoughts involved with an
event, relax again with several deep breaths. Start feeling the
emotion involved in the event you are working with. Start small.
The idea here is that we are dealing with something very large
and strong. It is like emptying a swimming pool, but rather than
trying to do it all at the same time, we are going to empty the
pool one cup of water at a time. Yes, it’s going to take a long
time, but anyone can move a cup of water. We are going to
employ the same tactic with emotions. Large amounts of
emotional energy are overwhelming; small amounts can be
handled, and most importantly, easily transformed into another
emotion.
If anger is the emotion you are working with, feel a small
amount of anger. Just enough so you know it is anger and not
enough where it is taking over. It will help if you will visualize
holding the small amount of anger in your hands, as if you had

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captured a butterfly. Begin on one side of your body and
physically move your hands slowly over to the other side. While
you are doing this, change the emotion you are experiencing
over to love. In the beginning, and especially with strong
emotions, it will be very difficult to get to love. Don’t be overly
concerned. Just move the emotion as far as you can. There is a
point in the middle, the point of neutrality, where the emotion
seems to lose its character. During each exercise we want to
move the emotion more and more into love, past the point of
neutrality. Negative emotions used by the ego are all on the
same side of the point of neutrality. The love-based emotions
used by the spirit are on the other side of the point of neutrality.
Piece-by-piece we want to move all of the negative emotions
across the point of neutrality and into the love-based emotions.
As you conclude the exercise and stop feeling the
emotion, it solidifies in the form in which it was last experienced.
The anger experienced has been transformed into love and
stored as love in the body. The anger transformed no longer
exists as anger, only as love. The emotional energy is still there,
but its form has changed. As you do the forgiveness exercises
the thoughts and attitudes to the people in your life will start to
change. You will see them in a different light and your feelings
toward them will also change. As your thoughts and feelings
toward them change, your relationship with them will also
change. Some will move closer to you, and others will move
further away. Your life will change and so will your relationships.
Your real spiritual journey of transformation has begun.
The forgiveness exercise will have to be repeated a
number of times. With practice a complete forgiveness exercise
will take only 2 to 3 minutes. You can repeat the exercise or do a
series of exercises during your 20-minute exercise period. Do
not do the transformation of emotion exercises back-to-back. Do
the thought re-programming exercise in between. Work the
exercises in pairs: thought re-programming, and then emotional
transformation. Don’t be too surprised if you begin feeling tired
after the exercises. The inner work of transformation can be very
draining. Because of this you should not do this work for long
periods of time. Three sessions of 20 minutes each, spread out
over a day’s time, is a serious spiritual path.

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Resolving Inner Traumas

The events which have traumatized us are the strongest

emotionally, and will take the most time and effort to resolve. The
two-part forgiveness exercise described above can resolve most
traumatic events but is not a substitute for professional
psychiatric or psychological treatment or counseling. Beginning a
spiritual path requires a relatively normally functioning person.
The conditions described are considered to be within the range
of normal behavior and common experiences.
Traumatic events can be a physically, emotionally or
verbally abusive parent or close relative, the divorce or death of
one or more parents or siblings, neglect or abandonment, or a
number of similar occurrences. The resulting emotional states
can be anger, guilt, fear, shame, resentment, bitterness or envy.
Depression is often an element in the emotional mix, and like the
other emotions, may come and go. We have a tendency to
excuse our emotional states and experiences because they
really are a somewhat normal part of the life experience. As
“normal” as these experiences may be, the resulting thought
patterns and emotional states are taking the place of the
Kingdom of God within us. From a spiritual perspective, that
really is the bottom line. All of the things we have been through
are the normal experiences of the world. We can have our life
filled with those experiences or we can choose to remove those
thoughts and emotions from our life and replace them with the
presence of God.
Sometimes we will have a really bad dream, and the
memory of that dream stays with us for a very long time.
Compare that to an ordinary dream. With the ordinary dream we
can’t remember what the dream was once we have gone on to
other thoughts in the course of our day. The difference is the
emotional content. The stronger the emotional content of the
dream the longer we remember the dream. Traumatic events are
the same way: the stronger the emotional content of the event,
the longer it stays with us and the more disturbing it becomes in
our life. The forgiveness exercise with the transformation of the
emotions gradually reduces and eventually eliminates the
emotional content of the traumatic event. As that happens, the
intensity of the experience fades and eventually becomes a
distant memory. Yes, if the subject comes up in discussion, we
can remember what happened to us, but lacking the emotional

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content, it no longer is a factor in our life. We have become free
of the past.

Resolving Inner Issues

The remaining inner issues from programming and

imprinting have significantly lower levels of emotional content,
and as a result more often play a minor role in our lives. The
process for resolving them is the same: re-program the thought
patterns based on our mature adult perspective and transform
the emotional content into love-based emotions. The main
difference is that we must be more observant because the
programming and imprinting is much more subtle than the
traumas in our life. Observation must be a constant practice in
our life if we are going to complete our spiritual journey.
When I was a child, my mother liked birds and chased
cats away to protect the birds. If a cat showed up we were told
not to feed it or give it a name. By ignoring the cat it would go
away. Several years ago a cat came to our back door and began
to meow. We had seen this cat before in the area and assumed
it to be a wild cat. It was the 4th of December, 2000, with snow
and cold weather. We opened the door to see if the cat would
come into the house, which it did. I said what had been imprinted
in my mind as a child, “We are not feeding it or giving it a name.”
My wife recognized the cat was starving and cold, and said, “I’m
naming it ‘Shadow’. Here Shadow, would you like some food?”
All we had was some canned dog food. When I saw the cat
eating dog food as fast as it could gobble it down, it broke my
heart. I realized that what I said was not me, but my mother
speaking through the process of imprinting.
The cat not only gained a home, but I was able to
remove one of the few remaining blocks to the full presence of
God in my life. The amount of love flowing from God into my life
increased dramatically. It became a transformational moment in
my life and I give thanks to God for sending me a cat. We tend to
think the major events and decisions in our lives are the most
defining. Once we go through the process of self-discovery and
inner-unification, we begin to see the small everyday decisions
and experiences form the backbone and structure of our life. The
things we do and feel everyday determine how we handle the
major events in our lives, not the other way around. This is why
the everyday practice of forgiveness is so transformational in our

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lives. Piece-by-piece we transform our thoughts and feelings,
each step almost insignificant on its own, but the end result is
profound and completely life-changing. Step-by-step we enter
the Kingdom of God, changing our consciousness, our
awareness, and our life experience from the ordinary into the
extraordinary.
The inner experience of gnosis demonstrates to us that
Jesus was an ordinary person having an extraordinary
experience. That perspective becomes very clear to us as we,
too, begin having the insights and experiences that come with
the presence of God in our lives. As our life is transformed by the
flowing of God’s love through us, we begin to see the teachings
of Jesus in a more personal and intimate way. It’s not a matter of
just understanding the teachings of Jesus. In the end we
experience his teachings personally. We understand them
because we are living them. Jesus said, “follow me” and we
have. The Kingdom of Heaven is within, and we have entered,
becoming one with God and all of creation.

Becoming Your True Self

When we have grown up functioning from the ego we

really do not understand or perceive what we would be like if the
ego were gone. We may think we might just disappear, but that
is the ego leading us into not doing our spiritual growth. For a
moment, imagine what it would be like to be totally at peace,
totally connected to God and all of creation. Imagine what it
would be like to have an unlimited amount of pure love flowing
through you out into the world, touching the lives of people
around you. While that is sinking in, imagine what it would be like
to have direct knowledge of God, knowing God as you know your
best friend, being able to converse directly with God in your
mind, as you would with someone very close to you. Imagine
how you would feel. Can you imagine yourself going through
your day not feeling hassled or angry or guilty about anything?
Can you imagine taking on life’s challenges peacefully and
lovingly, being gently guided by God in everything that you do?
If you can imagine these things you have just seen in
your mind’s eye what your true self can be. This is not an
overnight process. It will take a number of years to accomplish
this vision you have of your true self. The years are going to
pass one way or another. The question is, when these years
have passed, do you want to be like you are now, or like you

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have just imagined? Nothing is cast in concrete. The future is
yours to choose. The path of spiritual growth described in the
teachings of Jesus can bring you into the Kingdom of Heaven -
into the full presence of God and into His peace, love and joy. It’s
a system that has been working for 2,000 years, and it will work
for you.

Functioning From Love

The forgiveness exercises are designed to gradually

remove the things that are blocking your awareness of the
presence of God in your life. As the spirit awakens it will need to
be fed with the love-based emotions to help it grow and mature.
Positive thinking has done a lot to help change people’s lives. It’s
time to take the next step into positive feeling. By focusing our
thoughts on peaceful, loving things, we are telling our body to
produce the loving feelings the spirit within needs to grow and
develop. Through love the spirit within becomes empowered. By
concentrating on radiating love from ourselves out to others in
this world, we are helping to create the flow of love which comes
from God. The love which then comes from God and flows
through us out into the world blesses us, brings us closer to God,
and unfolds the true self within. Through focusing on love-based
emotions that we align ourselves with the consciousness of God,
raising our awareness, increasing our connectedness, and finally
become one with God.
The more we practice loving thoughts and loving
feelings, the easier and more automatic the whole process
becomes. As we practice gentleness and kindness with others
we soften the hardness we have learned from the world. We
become more caring and involved in life. We begin the process
of making a difference, not only in our own life, but in the lives of
other people around us. As we bless the lives of others, God
blesses our life in return. Functioning from love takes lots of
practice. The good news is we have hundreds, if not thousands,
of chances to practice functioning from love every day. Every
interaction with another person, an animal or a plant is an
opportunity for us to function from love. The more we function
from love the closer we become to God, and the more connected
we become to God and all of creation. It is a gradual process;
don’t wait for the perfect time to start. The perfect time is now,
the perfect place is here.

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Recognizing the Christ

One practice which can help the growing spirit within is

to imagine each person you encounter as Christ. Sometimes it is
hard to do because of another’s behavior or attitude, but try to
imagine that Christ is there, asleep inside of them. Treat each
and every person with the deep respect you would have for
Christ if He were standing there instead. Make it a practice to
imagine that you see Christ in everyone. Imagine Christ in the
people you see walking down the street, or in the grocery store.
Imagine each child you see as a young Christ with his whole life
ahead of him. Imagine the possibilities these young people have
as they grow up with the spirit of Christ within them.
As you practice seeing the Christ in each and every
person, the whole concept of the spirit within will become more
and more real to you. You will come to the point where you really
do see the Christ in other people. Then the day will come when
you look in the mirror and see the Christ in you. This is the whole
point of the exercise: to get you to actually see the Christ in you.
You are God’s beloved child, and you were created to become a
Christed being. God is waiting for you to see who and what you
really are. The time has come for Christ to be born - in you!

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1
Out of Egypt, Ahmed Osman, Century – London, 1998, Pg 245.
2
Out of Egypt, Ahmed Osman, Century – London, 1998, Pg 244.
3
The Gospel of Thomas Annotated & Explained, Stevan Davies,
Skylight Paths Publishing, 2002. Pg 71.
4
The Gospel of Thomas – Unearthing the Lost Words of Jesus,
Dart & Riegert, Ulysses Press, 1998. Pg 44.
5
The Gospel of Thomas Annotated & Explained, Stevan Davies,
Skylight Paths Publishing, 2002. Pg 77.
6
The Gospel of Thomas – Unearthing the Lost Words of Jesus,
Dart & Riegert, Ulysses Press, 1998. Pg 46.
7
Gospel of Thomas Annotated & Explained, Stevan Davies,
Skylight Paths Publishing, 2002. Pg 79.
8
Gospel of Thomas Annotated & Explained, Stevan Davies,
Skylight Paths Publishing, 2002. Pg 104.
9
Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Richard Bach, Avon, 1973, Pg.
81.
10
Gurdjieff & Ouspensky, Maurice Nicoll, Shambhala, 1984.

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Available 2008

The Gnostic Jesus

Christianity has focused on the teachings of
Paul because his words are straight forward and
clear, not couched in parables and confusing allegory
as are the teachings of Jesus. Paul states that he is
giving Christians the “milk” of Christianity because
they are not ready for solid food. There are some
indications that Paul has at least some knowledge of
the higher spiritual teachings which he refers to as
solid spiritual food, but these higher teachings are not
explained by Paul.
Now a modern spiritual master reveals the
meat, the solid food, of Christianity directly from the
words of Jesus. When the parables and allegory are
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What remains is a complete and powerful system of
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The Gnostic Jesus is one of the most
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said, “You are the light of the world.”

The Gnostic Jesus – by David F. Capps

5 ½ x 8 ½ - paperback - $14.95
The Gnostic Wisdom Foundation