1/31/16 from a writing of 1/18/16 in response to TNH/Christ and Buddhism

Always I have been struck, like whacked in the forehead, hard, by the gospel of Thomas.  It is so direct, so simply confounding enigmatic, full of lines of beauty and no-nonsense.  We are called on to be  WHO WE ARE.  We become not be listening to the words spoken from a pulpit, not by listening to someone else's interpretations, but by coming to be in ourselves.

But it does NOT sound sweet - it sounds daunting: 'when he seeks, he finds, and when he finds he shall be amazed and will come to transcend all things.'

I have been curious as to what it would be like to know 'my original face'.  It would be both troubling and amazing and I can only imagine that it could be found through meditation, stillness and being present.  And it would lead to transcendence - because I believe from my small experience in finding myself, I could find others also.  I would see how we are all one, all creation being one from the stars to the smallest amoeba, composed of the same elements.  Now I only know that with my head -  if I knew my 'original face' I would know it conclusively and with my whole being.

If you skip the synoptic gospels and go to the gnostic gospels, the feel is entirely different.  And who picked one over the other and why?  The gnostic gospels seem more related to Buddhism (to my understanding of Buddhism at any rate) the ideas found in both concerning knowing yourself and finding yourself within.  The kingdom of heaven is within you, not in the myriad rules and regulations of Catholicism or Judism.  Christ came to do away with the old law and instead 'they' took his 'unlaws' and made mountains of books upon books of new laws which have nothing to do with what I see as true Christianity which is compassion and care for others.  How did we get from the Sermon on the Mount to the Inquisition, to the Roman Curia?

My atheist friend would say - greed and power.  The fine hairs split finer and finer, a ritual performed in a language no one understood, the matter of mortal sin and hell.  I understand that Gurdjieff said that with our level of consciousness, we aren't even candidates for hell!We are not that conscious enough for that capacity of evil.

But then, (ah ha!!) might I make the wrong decision?  throw the baby out with the bathwater?  But I don't believe so.  My education leaves me too guilt-ridden for that to occur!