Jesus is not God but a teacher who seeks to uncover the divine light in all humans

[Guest guest]

>

> Then a most important realization came before the inaugural

> celebration of Divine Feminine Day 13 November 2008. It was as if

> the Adi Shakti has given me this realization as a blessing to our

> pending celebrations of the Divine Feminine - after nearly 15 years

> it finally dawned on me that Kash was first shown the Light, the

> presence of God Almighty within us ......... before being shown His

> Power, the Adi Shakti, the next day!

>

> Kash, Arwinder and Lalita have all claimed that this extremely

> bright Light is always above Shri Mataji's abode. But it was Lalita

> who revealed that this Light is God Almighty:

>

> Tue Mar 15, 2005 2:59 pm

>

> A few months ago i asked my ten-year-old daughter Lalita what that

> immensely brilliant Light above the Adi Shakti in her Sahasrara is.

> She replied " God! "

>

> i remained silent for a long time to absorb the immensity of that

> single word answer.

>

> /message/10206

>

 

Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

 

Shortly after Elaine Pagels' two-and-half-year-old son was diagnosed

with a rare lung disease, the religion professor found herself drawn

to a Christian church again for the first time in many years. In

Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas Pagels, best know for her

National Book Award-winning The Gnostic Gospels, wrestles with her

own faith as she struggles to understand when--and why--Christianity

became associated almost exclusively with the ideas codified in the

fourth-century Nicene Creed and in the canonical texts of the New

Testament. In her exploration, she uncovers the richness and

diversity of Christian philosophy that has only become available

since the discovery of the Nag Hammadi texts.

 

At the center of Beyond Belief is what Pagels identifies as a textual

battle between The Gospel of Thomas (rediscovered in Egypt in 1945)

and The Gospel of John. While these gospels have many superficial

similarities, Pagels demonstrates that John, unlike Thomas, declares

that Jesus is equivalent to " God the Father " as identified in the Old

Testament. Thomas, in contrast, shares with other supposed secret

teachings a belief that Jesus is not God but, rather, is a teacher

who seeks to uncover the divine light in all human beings. Pagels

then shows how the Gospel of John was used by Bishop Irenaeus of Lyon

and others to define orthodoxy during the second and third centuries.

The secret teachings were literally driven underground, disappearing

until the Twentieth Century. As Pagels argues this process " not only

impoverished the churches that remained but also impoverished those

[irenaeus] expelled. "

 

Beyond Belief offers a profound framework with which to examine

Christian history and contemporary Christian faith, and Pagels

renders her scholarship in a highly readable narrative. The one

deficiency in Pagels' examination of Thomas, if there is one, is that

she never fully returns in the end to her own struggles with religion

that so poignantly open the book. How has the mysticism of the

Gnostic Gospels affected her? While she hints that she and others

have found new pathways to faith through Thomas, the impact of

Pagels' work on contemporary Christianity may not be understood for

years to come. --Patrick O'Kelley

 

From Publishers Weekly

In this majestic new book, Pagels (The Gnostic Gospels) ranges

panoramically over the history of early Christianity, demonstrating

the religion's initial tremendous diversity and its narrowing to

include only certain texts supporting certain beliefs. At the center

of her book is the conflict between the gospels of John and Thomas.

Reading these gospels closely, she shows that Thomas offered readers

a message of spiritual enlightenment. Rather than promoting Jesus as

the only light of the world, Thomas taught individuals that " there is

a light within each person, and it lights up the whole universe. If

it does not shine, there is darkness. " As she eloquently and

provocatively argues, the author of John wrote his gospel as a

refutation of Thomas, portraying the disciple Thomas as a fool when

he doubts Jesus, and Jesus as the only true light of the world.

Pagels goes on to demonstrate that the early Christian writer

Irenaeus promoted John as the true gospel while he excluded Thomas,

and a host of other early gospels, from the list of those texts that

he considered authoritative. His list became the basis for the New

Testament canon when it was fixed in 357. Pagels suggests that we

recover Thomas as a way of embracing the glorious diversity of

religious tradition. As she elegantly contends, religion is not

merely an assent to a set of beliefs, but a rich, multifaceted fabric

of teachings and experiences that connect us with the divine.

Exhilarating reading, Pagels's book offers a model of careful and

thoughtful scholarship in the lively and exciting prose of a good

mystery writer.

 

Amazon.com Review

 

 

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antar jot pargat paasaaraa.

Deep within the self is the Light of God; It radiates throughout the

expanse of His creation.

 

gur saakhee miti-aa anDhi-aaraa.

Through the Guru's Teachings, the darkness of spiritual ignorance is

dispelled.

 

kamal bigaas sadaa sukh paa-i-aa jotee jot milaavani-aa.

The heart-lotus blossoms forth, and eternal peace is obtained, as

one's light merges into the Light.

 

Guru Granth Sahib, p.126

 

 

--------------------------

 

 

" The most magnetic of all religious symbols is the light, the light

that radiates everywhere within and without — the light that never

was on land or sea. Great mystics have realised the Peerless One in

the form of Light. Moses saw the burning bush and received the word

of God. The Upanishad seers saw It as Jothi Aham — the Splendour in

the self.

 

In many a Devaram and Tiruvacagam, and the lyrics of Tayumanavar and

Ramalinga Swamigal, we have allusions to light as the symbol of the

formless God; and Light also indicates goals and the radiance of

Wisdom, as well as the illumination of Supreme Awareness.

 

Gleaming as the earth and all the spheres

Oh Thou expanse of matchless Effulgence!

In radiant forms of Light art Thou beheld

Oh Formless One!

 

Tiruvacagam 22.8.9.

 

Hinduism Today

 

 

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“As Jesus talks with his three chosen disciples, Matthew asks him to

show him the “place of life,” which is, he says, the “pure light.”

Jesus answers, “Every one [of you] who has known himself has seen

it.”53 Here again, he deflects the question, pointing the disciple

instead toward his own self-discovery.”

 

Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels

Random House, New York, 1989, p. 131.

(53. Dialogue of the Savior 132.15 — 16, in NHL 233.)

 

 

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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the

Word was God.

The same was in the beginning with God.

All things were made by Him;

And without Him was not anything made that was made.

In Him was life; and the life was the Light of men.

And the Light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehend it not.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

The same came for a witness,

To bear witness to the Light that all men through him might believe.

He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness to that Light.

That was the true Light,

Which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

 

John 1:1-10

 

 

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" The Bible is seen to be full of terms about light. Lossky tells us

that " for the mystical theology of the eastern Church these are not

metaphors, rhetorical figures but words expressing a real aspect of

godliness. " " The godly light does not have an abstract and

allegorical meaning. It is a data of the mystical experience. " The

author then referred to " Gnostics " , the highest level of godly

knowledge [that] is an experience (a living) of the noncreated light,

where the experience itself is the light: in lumine tuo videbimus

lumen (in Your Light we shall see light.) "

 

Eternal, endless, existing beyond time and space, it appeared in the

theophanies of the Old Testament as the Glory of God. The Glory

is " the Uncreated Light, His Eternal Kingdom. " Being bestowed to the

Christians by the Holy Spirit, the energies appear no longer as

external causes but as grace, as inner light. " Makarius the Egyptian

wrote: " It is . . . the enlightenment of the holy souls, the

steadiness of the heavenly powers " (Spiritual Homilies V.8.)

 

" The godly light appears here, in this world, in time. It is

disclosed in the history but it is not of this world; it is eternal,

it means going out from the historical existence: ‘the secret of the

eight day’, the secret of the true knowledge, the fulfillment of the

Gnosis . . . It is exactly the beginning of parousia in the holy

souls, the beginning of the revealing at the end of times, when God

will be disclosed to everyone in this distant Light. "

 

Dan Costian, Bible Enlightened

Computex Graphics, 1995, p.415

 

 

-----------------------------

 

" This universal symbol of Light is surely one of the best symbols Man

has found to express the delicate balance that almost all cultures

have tried to maintain, with varying success, between a merely this-

worldly or atheistic attitude and a totally otherworldly or

transcendent attitude. There must be some link between the world of

Men and the world of the Gods, between the material and the

spiritual, the immanent and the transcendent. If this link is of a

substantial nature, pantheism is unavoidable. If the link is

exclusively epistemic, as Indian and many other scholasticisms tend

to affirm, the reality of this world will ultimately vanish. The

symbol of Light avoids these two pitfalls by allowing for a specific

sharing in its nature by both worlds or even by the " three worlds. "

 

This is the supreme light spoken of in the Rig Veda and in the

Brahmanas; it is mentioned also in the Chandogya Upanishad and in the

well-known prayer of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: " Lead me from

darkness to light! " It is also the refulgent light of the golden

vessel stationed in the dwelling place of the Divine: " The

impregnable stronghold of the Gods has eight circles and nine gates.

It contains a golden vessel, turned toward heaven and suffused with

light. " This light is neither exclusively divine nor exclusively

human, neither merely material nor merely spiritual, neither from

this side only nor from the other. It is precisely this fact

that " links the two shores. " This light is cosmic as well as

transcosmic.”

 

Professor Raimundo Panikkar, The Vedic Experience

 

 

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" Cultivating the Awareness of the Light Within

 

The heart and mind can find peace and harmony by contemplating the

transcendental nature of the true self as supreme effulgent light

 

From the Yoga Sutra of PATANJALI, second century B.C.

 

Patanjali is often called the father of yoga because he was the first

person to codify and write down yoga practices. In this meditation

instruction, he is telling us to let go of all distracting sights,

smells, and sounds and meditate on our spiritual nature, our luminous

true self. He is telling us to look inside and experience the

radiance within.

 

All cultures, peoples, and religious groups through all times have

talked about the phenomena of light in the context of the religious

or mystical experience. Those who have seen visions of holy beings

typically see them surrounded by white light. People have always

described going to the light, finding the light, being called by the

light, dissolving in the light. We read about light in The Egyptian

Book of the Dead as well as The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Men, women,

and children who have had classic near-death experiences vividly

describe arriving in a place of white light; they speak of themselves

and others as being bathed in white light.

 

Prior to being described as the light of any religion, light was just

light. Light is a part of the primary source material. Later, as the

history of mankind developed, the concept of light became

institutionalized; it was then interpreted according to cultural and

religious beliefs. Pure light thus became light of God, light of

truth, light of Buddha, light of Jesus, cosmic light, and ocean of

light depending upon where you were born and what you were taught.

Light, however, is constant. It is fundamental energy.

 

The New Testament, referring to John the Baptist, reads: " He came for

testimony, to bear witness to the light that all might believe

through him. " Later Jesus says, " Put your trust in the light while

you have it so that you may become sons of light. " ...

 

British mystic George Fox, who founded the Quaker religion, used the

term " inner light " to describe our ability to personally experience

God within ourselves. He himself had such an experience, which left

him with the lifelong conviction that everyone can hear God's voice

directly without mediation by priests or church ritual. This is the

central tenet of the Society of Friends.

 

According to Buddhism, all beings are imbued with a spark of inner

divine light. In describing our original Buddha-nature, we use such

phrases as innate luminosity, primordial radiance, the unobscured

clear natural mind, and the clear light of reality.... The Jewish

mystics use similar words when they speak of the inner spark or the

spark of God. The Koran, referring to man, talks about the little

candle flame burning in a niche in the wall of God's temple.

 

Almost inevitably a spiritual search becomes a search for divine or

sacred light. By cultivating our inner core, we search for this light

in ourselves as well as the divine. "

 

Lama Surya Das, Awakening to the Sacred

 

 

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“ “Lead me from darkness to light, from death to immortality.” This

famed Vedic prayer proclaims the human urge to survive, to conquer

death and to know the joys of illuminated consciousness. People often

pilgrimage to an isolated place in expectation of a vision, be it a

jungle of fauna and foliage or cement and glass. Every person is on a

vision quest. But for all souls, at the time of the great departure,

mahaprasthana, a vision comes as a tunnel of light at the end of

which are beings of divine nature. Many having had the near-death

experience have sworn their testimony of such transforming

encounters. An American woman who “died” during childbirth, but was

brought back to life by quick medical action, recounted: “It was an

incredible energy — a light you wouldn't believe. I almost floated in

it. It was feeding my consciousness feelings of unconditional love,

complete safety and complete, total perfection. And then, and then, a

piece of knowledge came in — it was that I was immortal,

indestructible. I cannot be hurt, cannot be lost, and that the world

is perfect.” Hundreds of people report similar experiences, affirming

what Hinduism has always taught — that death is a blissful, light-

filled transition from one state to another, as simple and natural as

changing clothes, far from the morbid, even hellish alternatives some

dread. A Vedic funeral hymn intones: “Where eternal luster glows, the

realm in which the light divine is set, place me, Purifier, in that

deathless, imperishable world. Make me immortal in that realm where

movement is accordant to wish, in the third region, the third heaven

of heavens, where the worlds are resplendent” (Rig Veda, Aitareya

Aranyaka 6-11).”

 

Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, January 1997

 

 

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“One has to know on this point that you have got the Light... It is

such a powerful Light. You can verify it whether it is eternal or

not. You have to see for yourself you have such a unique Light within

you. In the history of spirituality of this world so many have got

Realization — such a Light in them. How could these stupid, flimsy,

useless conditionings dominate you now, when you are the carrier of

Eternal Light.”

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

Being The Light Of Pure Compassion,

Istanbul, Turkey — November 6, 1994