But if you do not know yourselves, then you dwell in poverty, and you are poverty.

May 14, 2008

" Resurrection can be judged as one of the sharpest Valentinian

differences from dogmatic Christianity, a difference that appears in

Sufism and other esoteric traditions, and in many varieties of what I

have called the American Religion, the denominations and sects

indigenous to the United States. As in earlier Gnostic religion,

resurrection for Valentinus is distinctly not something that takes

place after death. Henry Corbin, in support of his Sufi Gnostics,

quotes from Balzac's novella Louis Lambert, itself a Hermetic tale:

Resurrection is accomplished by the wind of heaven that sweeps the

worlds. The Angel carried by the wind does not say: Arise ye dead! He

says: Let the living arise!

This is the kernel of the Valentinian resurrection: to know releases

the spark, and one rises up from the body of this death. Ignorance

falls away, one ceases to forget, one is again part of the Fullness.

The Valentinian Gospel According to Philip, a sort of anthology, has

nine crucial passages on resurrection, of which the bluntest

insists, " Those who say the lord first died and then arose are

mistaken, for he first arose and then died. " Another adds, " While we

exist in this world we must acquire resurrection. " Baptism, for the

Valentinians as for many Americans, itself was the resurrection,

again according to The Gospel of Philip:

People who say they will first die and then arise are mistaken. If

they do not first receive resurrection while they are alive, once

they have died they will receive nothing. Just so it is said of

baptism: " Great is baptism! " For is one receives it, one will live…

The crucial text for understanding Valentinus is the subtlest and

fullest we have by him, the beautiful sermon named The Gospel of

Truth, and I turn to it now seeking what is most central to

Valentinus's sense of resurrection.

Layton shrewdly remarks upon the " Gnostic rhetoric " of The Gospel of

Truth, and notes its spiritual similarity, in atmosphere and in the

concept of salvation-resurrection to the proto-Gnostic Gospel of

Thomas, which I suspect deeply influenced Valentinus. Both works, the

sermon and the collection of Jesus' " hidden " sayings, are allied by a

wonderful freedom from dogma and from myth, both Christian and

Gnostic. In each, there is a directness and a passion that breaks

down the barriers of reservations put up by historicizing scholars.

We are addressed directly, whether by Valentinus or Jesus, and

challenged to see what it is that is all around us, what it is that

we already know, even if we do not know that we know….

What makes us free, according to Christian dogma, is knowing the

truth, which is Christ's Incarnation, Crucifixion, and Resurrection,

and this truth is to be known by faith, the faith that at a moment,

both in and out of time, these events once took place. When however

we say that what makes us free is Gnosis, or " knowing, " then we are

Gnostics, and instead of believing that something was and is so

(something that would be still different for Jews, and again for

Muslims), we rely upon an inward knowledge rather than upon an

outward belief. Gnosis is the opposite of ignorance, and not of

disbelief. As an ancient Greek word widely used by Jews and

Christians, Gnosis did not mean knowing that something was so, but

rather just knowing someone or something, including knowing

God. " Knowing God " has a special twist that makes it the Gnosis: it

is a reciprocal process in which God also knows what is best and

oldest in you, a spark in you that always has been God's. This means

that knowing God is primarily a process of being reminded of what you

already know, which is that God never has been wholly external to

you, however alienated or estranged he is from society or even the

cosmos in which you dwell….

Here is Valentinus upon our present state in his one complete

surviving work, the beautiful meditation The Gospel of Truth:

Thus they did not know God, since it was he whom they did not see.

Inasmuch as he was the object of fear and disturbance and instability

and indecisiveness and division, there was much futility at work

among them on his account, and much empty ignorance—as when one falls

sound asleep and finds oneself in the midst of nightmares: running

toward somewhere—powerless to get away while being pursued—in hand-to-

hand combat—being beaten—falling from a height—being blown upward by

the air, but without any wings; sometimes, too, it seems that one is

being murdered, though nobody is giving chase—or killing one's

neighbors, with whose blood one is smeared; until, having gone

through all these dreams, one awakens.

This nightmare of death-in-life, composed eighteen centuries ago,

need but little modification. The Gnostic Jesus of The Gospel of

Thomas, a wayfaring Jesus, closer to Walt Whitman than to the Jesus

of the Churches, speaks to us as if each of us is a passerby, and

with an ultimate eloquence tells us precisely into what we have been

thrown:

But if you do not know yourselves, then you dwell in poverty, and you

are poverty.

Fortunate is one who came into being, before coming into being. "

Harold Bloom, Omens of the Millennium: The Gnosis of Angels, Dreams,

and Resurrection, pages 188-243

Paperback: 255 pages

Publisher: Riverhead Books (October 1, 1997)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1573226297

ISBN-13: 978-1573226295

Dear All,

Jesus makes it clear that " if you do not know yourselves, then you

dwell in poverty, and you are poverty. " The Comforter's core

teachings of Self-realization have guided us to follow the path that

Jesus expounded more than two milennia ago. Both want us to realize

our Selves:

" But do you have your self-esteem? If you have then where should be

your attention? It should be on your Self. Where is your Self now? It

is God Almighty; it's part of that Great Primordial Being. Your

attention should be on that.

After realization your attention should be in your heart, on your

spirit which is the part of God Almighty. If your attention is on

your spirit you will be amazed how your attention will act. " (Shri

Mataji, 23 June 1980)

But where do we find details of this pricleless knowledge that is

clearly anathema to Judaism, Christianity and Islam?

Main Entry: anath·e·ma

1 a: one that is cursed by ecclesiastical authority b: someone or

something intensely disliked or loathed —usually used as a predicate

nominative;

2 a: a ban or curse solemnly pronounced by ecclesiastical authority

and accompanied by excommunication b: the denunciation of something

as accursed c: a vigorous denunciation;

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

To answer that i quote Dr. David Frawley:

" The Hindu religion is an ocean of spiritual teachings about all

aspects of life and consciousness. It's the world's oldest religion,

going back to the very dawn of history. It sees its origin in the

cosmic mind itself. Yet Hinduism is also perhaps the world's

youngest religion because it emphasizes the authority of living

teachers and allows for correction and evolution over time.

Hinduism is the most diverse religious tradition in the world. It

could be said that there are probably more religions inside of

Hinduism than outside of it. It has numerous saints, sages, and

yogis, both male and female, from ancient to modern times, and today

still has what is probably the largest number of monks and

renunciates (including a number of Westerners). The recent Hindu

religious gathering, the Kumbha Mela of January 2001, had tens of

millions of people in attendance. It was the largest gathering of

any type and the largest religious gathering in the history of the

world.

Hinduism is the world's largest non-biblical tradition, with nearly a

billion followers worldwide. It could be called the world's largest

non-organized religion as it emphasizes individual spiritual

experience, the realization of the higher Self over any religious

institution, book, dogma, or savior. It's also the world's largest

native or pagan tradition, reflecting the ancient spiritual

traditions that once existed all over the world. Like native

traditions everywhere, it honors God or the sacred throughout all

nature. It has many insights in harmony with the ecological age, as

it affords reverence to the Earth as a conscious and loving presence

and asks us to respect our environment.

Hinduism contains the world's oldest and largest tradition of Goddess

worship- worshipping the Divine not only as father but also as

mother. It recognizes all the diverse forms of the Goddess and her

powers of wisdom, beauty, strength, love, and compassion.

Perhaps most notably, Hinduism is the world's largest pluralistic

tradition, recognizing One Truth- an eternal reality of Being-

Consciousness Bliss in all beings- but also many paths to realize

it. Hinduism recognizes theism (the belief in One Creator) but only

as one portion of the human religious experience that includes

polytheism, pantheism, monism, and even atheism. As the most

inclusive of the world's great religions, Hinduism has room for all

these views and yet guides us through these to Self-realization that

transcends them all. "

-Dr. David Frawley (Pandit Vamadeva Shastri)

Author, Yoga and Ayurveda, Hinduism, the Eternal Tradition,, American Institute of Vedic Studies

Without question, Hinduism has room for all types of views and yet

guides us through them to Self-realization that transcends (and

unites) all religions. That is why only through Hinduism does the

Resurrection quote below--again anathema to Judaism, Christianity and

Islam--make so much sense:

" Resurrection is accomplished by the wind of heaven that sweeps the

worlds. The Angel carried by the wind does not say: Arise ye dead! He

says: Let the living arise! "

Jai Shri Mataji,

jagbir

May 16, 2008

>

> Without question, Hinduism has room for all types of views and yet

> guides us through them to Self-realization that transcends (and

> unites) all religions. That is why only through Hinduism does the

> Resurrection quote below--again anathema to Judaism, Christianity

> and Islam--make so much sense:

>

> " Resurrection is accomplished by the wind of heaven that sweeps the

> worlds. The Angel carried by the wind does not say: Arise ye dead!

> He says: Let the living arise! "

>

" Inner Religion

One of the great ironies of religious history is that, although the

religions that came out of the Near East--Judaism, Islam,

Christianity--adamantly reject most of Hinduism's fundamental

teachings, their mystical traditions--the Kaballah, Sufism, and

Christian Gnosticism--reflect Hindu insights in almost every detail.

Numerous students of comparative religion, from Muslim scholar Al

Buruni in 1000 C.E. to the world famous writer Aldous Huxley nearer

our own time, have expressed their amazement at the parallels between

the major mystical traditions of the world and Hinduism...

Hinduism is by far the most complex religion in the world, shading

under its enormous umbrella an incredibly diverse array of

contrasting beliefs, practices, and denominations. Hinduism is by far

the oldest major religion. It has had more than enough time to

develop a diversity of opinions and approaches to spirituality

unmatched in any other tradition. "

Linda Johnsen, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Hinduism, pages 76-77

Paperback: 432 pages

Publisher: Alpha; 1st edition (October 11, 2001)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0028642279

ISBN-13: 978-0028642277

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