Tuesday, May 20, 2014

MOST ANCIENT GOSPEL, FOUND ANEW: "AND HE SHALL BE AS I AM, AND I SHALL BE HE, AND THE HIDDEN THINGS WILL BE REVEALED TO HIM."



MOST ANCIENT GOSPEL FOUND ANEW


                  These are the words of Jesus, the Christ, the
holy or Anointed One.
          The  words in the title of this article comes from the Gospel of Thomas, which many scholars  have concluded is the Source gospel of the gospels that appear in the Bible.
          The fact that Thomas is older is apparent
as soon as you  first read the gospel for yourself.
There is no finely honed narrative line about the
life of Jesus.
          Not much of a story at all, compared to
the Bible gospels. As Northrop Frye kept
repeating to our seminar group - "The narrative
form is a later literary form."

          In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus speaks
most of the parables we come to know later in the 
Biblical gospels. But there is almost no
 story-telling narrative
          The narrative line that fills the later gospels,
Matthew, Mark. Luke and John,
 scarcely exists in the Gospel of Thomas.
         What you have in Thomas is a series of
question and answer sessions, rather like the
sessions we read about in early zen books.
The monk, the seeker asks a question. The 
master makes an answer - but it is never
an intellectual answer.
           The teacher might give you a slap,
 hit you with a stick, or say something that sounds like nonsense at the time...But he's not about
to explain anything to you. He understands
very well that the "truth" can never be
explained: it must be Known ( not thought
about). It must be experienced.
          It is the same situation with Jesus Christ
and his disciples in the Gospel of Thomas.
For example, a disciple asks: "Master, 
where is the kingdom of heaven?"
          And the teacher answers, "If you go to the sky,
the birds will precede you. If you search for heaven 
in the sea, the fish will precede you... ...  
But the kingdom of heaven is within you.
 And the Kingdom  is spread out upon the earth, and men see it not."

          Quick and to the point. It is difficult to
misinterpret many of the statements made in the 
Gospel of Thomas.

           Of course, those  who insist on
pushing forward their own point of view can
misinterpret anything.
          

           The emphasis that the Empire Church
has put on the message of Christ is that Jesus
Christ is SO SPECIAL  none of us can be
like him.
           Well, it is said he was the son of God
and he came from a virgin birth, and he performed miracles, and there was a star in the East. The
same thing was said of Mithra and too many
other god-kings to mention...

             But why is it stressed that the Christ is
so 'special?' For this goes exactly against His
teaching.
              Why? Why did they re-create the attributes
of the Christ so as to make him unattainable in our minds,
unreachable as the basic goal of meditation.
               You can't REALIZE THE CHRIST within you...  If he is made to be  a water-walking, storm-calming,
from -the- dead- raising, demon-expelling heroic
action figure. Like GI Joe. 
               We all know these TV action figures do
impossible feats, which are fun to watch but which
we never try to do ourselves.
                But G.I. Joe is a plastic doll.... a toy that
kids can play with at the kitchen table as mother is
making breakfast...I'm surprised they didn't make
their version of the Christ into a plastic hero doll...
... Oh, no! I forgot... they did!


              What happens if the Christ is made out
to be such a hero? Well... then he can beMONOPOLIZED
and  sold as you  sell a product. Christ, as he
has come down to us,  He has been packaged,
shelved, and given a brand name -
he has been patented. And you'd better not infringe
the patent!
              
              You see the point?

               Now a certain smallish group of
people have been restricting access to this unique
big time hero doll that no one else can hope to emulate.

Because he is so unique, and also He is the Source of Truth, which the whole world wishes
to partake of....and if he is so special, so
unique...  ...   ... well, people will pay anything
to get a piece of the action. 
          It becomes a mercenary situation.
          You wish to attain forgiveness. You
must pay for forgiveness... and I could go on
for a long time about the different ramifications
of all the wrongs that have been done.
            OK! OK!  But this kind of belly-aching doesn't help much. What helps is if someone lays
down how it really works... what is the essence
of what this great healer emerging out of the Essene community, the Teacher of Righteousness,
what is the essence of what he is saying?

             The essence is this: "When you
realize 'what it is', what I am.  this truth that I embody,   when you come to Know me, you
will know yourself.  For what I am you shall be,
and the hidden things will be revealed
to you..."
             In other words, there will be nothing
hidden to you.
              
               Another way of putting it is: 

    "I AM AS CLOSE TO YOU AS YOUR VERY BREATH"

      This is the important point. This is the truth that is told in the earliest gospels... Christ: "I am as close to you as your very breath."

     'CLEAVE A PIECE OF WOOD, I AM THERE."

     "LIFT UP A STONE AND YOU WILL FIND ME THERE."

These are  some of the earliest recorded
(copied down) words of Christ.
       The saviour who says these words is not an
action figure.  And He doesn't exist in the past.
 He exists right here and now. And this very moment he sits right beside you, "As close to you as your very breath."

        It is important that in this country we get
these basic facts right... that we get the straight
goods.  We have been told a fairy tale for too
long.
          This is serious business!  This is life or
death... of our people and of our culture. 
           We rise or fall as a people in so far
as we attain this basic realization.

            "CLEAVE A PIECE OF WOOD, I AM THERE."

             When you go into the woods with your
close friends and you light a fire and you drink
some wine and you eat whatever mind-rocking
indigenous plants are available, and you look
into the fire....and you clear your mind... this
is the voice that is speaking out of the fire.
             The voice is here and now. God
is within you. Christ is your ultimate nature.
Come to this voice inside yourself... and you
will have found the Key to life eternal.

         
              


           The I AM existing in  

            I AM THAT I AM 

This is the voice that speaks within you.          

The  I AM in: 

            BEFORE ABRAHAM WAS, I AM.

This is the voice that speaks within you.
And if you listen very carefully, and if you
discard all your preconceptions, you will
Realize this voice... And the world will change
for you.

              When we touch the sacred nature
of the holy path of the real God, when we hear
His voice, when we taste him in the smoke
of the peace pipe of your circle, when
the sanctity of the One who is 
creating all things caresses you... you will not
need any other caress, for you realize
that all affection comes from the same Source...

             And I praise thee, O holy One, you
are the source of all our strength.You are
 all our love...I praise thee...
the God of Jacob, the God of Abraham, 
the One who rides the clouds, the One who speaks from
on high, the Lord of the Meeting Rivers, the
Lord of all the countries of the earth, like sands
of the seas, this is the ancient holiness that you
partake of. This is the holiness that is immaculate
and new.
          This is the gift I bring to you.

          "He was nailed to a tree and he became
the fruit of the Knowledge of the Father. The
fruit did not, however, cause destruction
because it was eaten, but to those who ate it,
it gave cause to become glad in the discovery.
and he discovered them in himself, and they
discovered him in themselves."
                                           The Gospel of Truth 
           
          There really was a Teacher of Righteousness
emerging out of the Essene community. The
Essene people were great healers, and this man in particular was a great teacher and healer. This
man was crucified  in 65 B.C.

           This is a true, historical figure.

           

           
             Taste the vision of the ancients,
the vision that is holiness, the vision
that manna gives to  wanderers in the desert.
              We are walking in the desert,
even know. For life without the Knowledge
of God is a desert, make no mistake.
               Without this Knowledge
We walk in the valley of death, alone.
We walk in the wilderness, far from our
home.
             Until Vision is awakened
within us... and when vision awakes
within us, we see we are in the holy city
and we have always been in the holy city.

                 
         When things become wrong,
evil, lost... this is when we are living in
ignorance. We have forgotten that the holy
altar  exists. And there are meanings to
be achieved within it, within the circle
of the holy tabernacle of God... 
          Meanings that have been with us
from the beginning.

            This is the Second Coming of Christ,


            "And he shall be as I am, and I shall be he."

       The  NEW  Christ Consciousness arising from the miraculous find  at Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in 1945... 2000 years after the crucifixion: He has come again.              


            "Whoever finds the explanation of these
words will not taste death"
                                       The Gospel of Thomas. 




This is the promise our Christ gives us.
                                          



(C)2000-2016 by William G. Milne

Thursday, May 15, 2014


CHANTING WITH DRUMS AND RAVENS


CHANTING WITH DRUMS AND RAVENS.

*********************************






A friend asked me - 'what is my target audience?'


Truth is, I don't think of a target audience. I know I'm communicating


with you. I don't know exactly who you are... but I write a lot of wild


stuff... So you must be a little wild yourself and have a broad range of


interests, if your're reading my stories.


The last article was about the sexuality of older people, ie: Elmer, when I


drove him into town to get supplies. Elmer lives in the Great Beyond. He has no neighbours.


         I like going to his place because he has 12 big plastic barrels you can beat on as


drums.


         I did this the other day.


On a calm morning the drums resound over the lake and echo in the hills


on the other side of the lake. Once I get into it, I start chanting as well


and I can feel every blockage in my body being blown clear.... all veins and arteries being blown clean,any tension,


any anger, any hatred - you can howl it out, you can chant these feeling out and away into the hills...


chanting until you are singing at the very Eye of the world.


        This is how it feels.



         There's nothing but bush in all directions, forest, trees, scrub oak, poplar,


birches, racoons and bees. They all hear me. The otters and the red squirrels, and


the muskrats, the bears and the smaller weasels.


I guess the fish hear the drums, also. I have to assume they


like the drumming also... but, who knows?


        "There's a Natural Mystic flowing through the air." *  And in the drums also,


 and in the silence that reigns afterwards.


          The drums get the ravens flying around a bit, as if I'm disturbing them.


But when I sat down against a big white pine, when I had finished one time,


I looked up to the top of the tree I was leaning against. And a bunch of ravens


were sitting quietly in the top branches, right behind me.


So I guess I didn't annoy them too much.











( Maybe the ravens are my target audience. No, that's nonsense.


Ravens don't read. But each bird, I'm told, can remember about 200 hiding


places... They don't read now.... But anything's possible in the future. )



* line in a Bob Marley song





Respectfully submitted,

                                                                                                                                  W.G.Milne