Unknown Sayings of Jesus, PT 2

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THE UNKNOWN SAYINGS OF JESUS

PART TWO: SELECTIONS AND COMMENTS

 

By James Bean

 

Copyright September 1998

 

Ancient spiritual communities in the middle east once lived by these

axioms of wisdom.

 

SEEKING WISDOM AND ETERNAL REST

 

SAYING 200: This world is a bridge. Pass over it, but do not build your

dwelling there.

 

SAYING 26: One who seeks will not stop until one finds. Having found,

one will be astonished, and having been astonished, one will reign, and

having reigned, one will rest.

 

SAYING 50: The savior answered and said: Fortunate is the wise person

who sought truth, and when it has been found, has rested upon it forever,

and has not been afraid of those who wish to trouble him.

 

SAYING 60: For truth seeks the wise and the righteous.

 

Truth seeks the wise, and the wise seek Truth!

 

CONTEMPLATING THE LIGHT OF THE KINGDOM THAT IS WITHIN YOU

 

There are sayings of Jesus that seem to have been used by contemplative

movements in early Christianity. The following sayings suggest visionary

or mystical experience of Inner Light, proclaiming ethical conduct,

peacefulness,

and humility make it much easier for souls to gain a vision of the Light,

and thus intimacy with God in the " bridal chamber. "

 

SAYING 69: When you remove ill will from yourselves, then you will clothe

yourselves with Light and enter the wedding chamber.

 

SAYING 111: Do not let heaven's Kingdom become a desert within you. Do

not be proud of the Light that enlightens. Rather, act toward yourselves

as I myself have toward you.

 

SAYING 79: Watch out that no one mislead you by saying, 'Look, here,'

or, 'Look there,' for the Son of Man [Child of Humanity] is within you.

Follow after him. Those who seek him will find him.

 

SAYING 9: There is a Light within a person of Light, and it shines on

the whole world.

 

SAYING 101: Therefore, trust in me, O my brothers. Understand what the

Great Light is.

 

Gnostic Christians practiced " the work of perfection, " the Way of solitude

and self-analysis. They found the mystical Kingdom in the silence of

contemplation and discovered the Light that appears to the soul on the

other side of darkness. For them Christ wasn't just an icon or a theological

idea; they experienced Christ as the Living Light of their souls.

 

SAYING 67: Whoever does not know the work of perfection does not know

anything. If one does not stand in the darkness, one will not be able

to see the Light.

 

These sayings of Jesus were meant to be pondered upon, meditated upon

till the heavenly wisdom they contained lead them into a vision of the

New World.

 

I want to conclude by sharing with you some sayings about death and life.

 

Coptic Gospel of Thomas: If you bring forth what is within you, what

you have will save you. If you do not have that within you, what you

do not have within you will kill you.

 

He who lives from the living one will not taste death. The one who has

found himself, of him the world is not worthy. Back to Marvin Meyer's

book of Unknown Sayings of Jesus.

 

SAYING 197: Whoever seeks the world is like one who drinks seawater.

The more he drinks, the more his thirst increases, until it kills him.

 

SAYING 2: Whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings will not

taste death.

 

The God of these early gospels isn't up there in the sky 15 billion light-years

away. Rather, the Living One is perceived to be in the soul that inhabits

and enlivens this human body: " treasure in an earthen vessel. " By contemplating

the Light of the soul, the Gnostic truly knows himself to be a Child

of the Light.

 

THE UNKNOWN SAYINGS OF JESUS, PART TWO

Selections of sayings attributed to Jesus in early Christian writings,

a collection of 200 sayings found in the book, " The Unknown Sayings of

Jesus, " Marvin Meyer, Harper San Francisco. ///

 

 

 

 

 

 

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