March 15th, 2010 by jgrimes

What does it mean to be Gnostic?

It is written in the Christian doctrine, “Miscellanies,” by TITUS FLAVIUS CLEMENS (better known as St. Clement of Alexandra) that,

• God’s truth is to be found in revelation, another portion of it in philosophy. It is the duty of the Christian to neglect neither. Religious science, drawn from this twofold source, is even an element of perfection; the instructed Christian—“the true Gnostic”—is the perfect Christian. He who has risen to this height is far from the disturbance of passion; he is united to God, and in a mysterious sense is one with Him. Such is the line of thought indicated in the work, which is full of digressions. “

Clement of Alexandra was a self-proclaimed, and formally converted, Palestine Jew.  He is one of the founding fathers of Christianity, and was the foremost instructor of the Catechetical school of Alexandria.

A Catechetical school, was one such school that taught higher education, through oral dictations.  They arose to popularity in 190 ad.   The most commonly addressed subject-matters, taught in this fashion, was the  elements of religion.  As they peaked in popularity, their specialty provided the extra preparation needed, for initiation into Christianity.

In the bible, there are many references to people being furthered instructed in knowledge, in many given subjects.  Take (1 Corinthians 14:19); “Let him that is instructed in the word, communicate to him that instructed him, in all good things.”  Those instructions would have come from a Catechetical school.  Simply put- Clement of Alexandria, was an earlier Christian Theology professor.  His philosophy and written ideology, would have been accepted as the truth, and given great weight over other theories.  Therefore how is it then, that the average modern-day Christian, has no idea what it means to be Gnostic?  It is without a doubt that the spirituality of Gnosticism, was clearly being dictated orally to those leading early Christian followers.

It is said that when John the Baptist first laid eyes on Jesus, at the shore of the Jordon River, he knelt before Christ and said, “I’m not worthy to baptist the son of God.”  In fact, it was John the Baptist who first publicly recognize Christ, as the son of God.  Up until that hour, Jesus was referred to as a gifted spiritual prophet, and biblical nomad.  The Gospels teach us that Christ was both human and divine.  He was made of flesh and bone, yet his hands could work great miracles.  Miracles, that could have only come from God himself.  Be that as it may, his blood spilled red, for Christ was just a man.   However, he was a man clearly gifted with divine foresight, with divine healing properties.  He was gifted in religious wisdom, and could create miracles out of tangible objects such as food, water and wine.   He was born to be a powerful, biblical legend; like that of Abraham, Noah, Moses, David, Jacob, and Daniel.  Jesus Christ was a Gnostic.  Which means, “One touched by God.”  Nowadays, to be Gnostic means virtually the same as it did in Jesus time.  John the Baptist could have been said to be “Gnostic.”  Many faithful followers of John the Baptist, do indeed believe he was.  So who were these early Gnostics, and what did they stand for?

“We seek to follow the injunction from the Gospel of Thomas:  ‘If you see what is before your face, there is nothing that will not be revealed to you.’ We seek to know what is real, and to follow that beyond our current notions, ideas, and understandings. We stand apart in that we do not prejudge the real to exclude what is called the spiritual.  We do not exclude what has always been a part of human experience, nor what has always been a part of human culture.”—Gnostic Institute website.

However, does accepting this way of life, make you a Gnostic? No, it does not.  For being a true Gnostic, means you must be divinely embraced by God.  Essentially, you must have been blessed with special senses.  Someone who is Gnostic, is said to have a clearer image in their mind, of how God operates his master plans.  They are said to be more knowledgeable in religious study, and any odd religious perplexities makes sense to them, and not to everyone else.  A Gnostic is divinely gifted by God.  As one blogger writes, “Many of us would not take issue with the bumper sticker that says, I am a spiritual being having a physical experience.”

The word Gnostic is of Greek origin.  It literally means, “a certain type of knowledge.” The type of knowledge the word is referring to, comes from a divine insight into understanding the supernatural.  However, as with all religious or spiritual belief systems, their is a core principle in which to live by.  Gnostics believe that an evil God created the earth.  Its very representation is evil, and our fleshy bodies are personal prisons, for our captive souls to dwell in.  The Gnostics believe, there is another God.  One even more powerful than the earth’s creator, and the one whom Jesus Christ answers too.  It is through Jesus, to whom our messages and needs are correlated to this other God.  Heaven is based off the belief, that there are different levels to Paradise.   Our spiritual worth on earth, plays a vital role to our future position in heaven.  Much like that of the Buddhist or Hindu belief systems.  The Gnostics also believe that everything on earth, is of evil decent.  That our true nature and our souls were sent here to suffer materialist wants, needs and desires.  Needless to say, Gnosticism has it odd perplexities just the same as the Catholics or the Baptists do.  However, Gnosticism is a much wiser religion, and has played a key role in the early developmental periods of Christianity.  Our very core and basic fundamentals, has been from Gnostic philosophies.

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March 11th, 2010 by jgrimes

Sacred Connections

In the Gospel Of Mary Magdalene, an enlightening story is slowly revealed.  It is the story of what  Christ and Mary Magdalene spoke privately about when together, and how Christ essentially begins to treat Mary as his equal.  It is written in the Gospel that Mary was his  most beloved disciple.  Which in the end, only led to many of the other disciples, being engagingly aggressive towards Mary, especially the disciple Peter.

I can only imagine, the way they looked at her, while they all silently questioned Christ’s motive.  “Who was she (a woman), to be singled out by Jesus himself?”  How she must have felt, while the overwhelming group consensus seethed their doubt.  Doubt, that was especially expressed by Peter, her nemesis.  It is no secret that he felt Mary, was not worthy of Jesus Christ’s exuberant  grace.

However, the Lord thought differently.

Christ took Mary by his side, and in private  introduced her to a spiritual lifestyle and communicational resource.  Apparently so personal was the message,  that the other disciples were not privy too it.  His special teachings, I found interestingly enough, are not the  foundational undertones,  for his new religion a.k.a Christianity.  However, if you read the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, you will soon discover that Christ’s new ideas, are closely related to the ways of ancient Taoism and Buddhism.   This Gospel,  truly shows Christ in a new light.  Especially, when compared to the biblical gospels.

It is my opinion, that these Gospels always show Jesus, in the center of religious strife.  Whereas, the Book of Mary is quite the opposite.  It probably should have been the one gospel, in which to base Christianities spiritual belief system from.  However, the message in the gospel is so radically different, that I wonder if the underlying reason this gospel was thrown out, was because it  suggested that we should not fear God or Christ.  In all actuality the message received by Mary Magdalene, was a message suggesting direct communicational rites to the Lord, Jesus Christ.  Which in turn, would do away with the powerful confessional and the religious powerful hold Priests, Bishops, Cardinals and Popes, held in their respective communities.  A power still clearly visible today.

Christ’s Message to Mary

When Christ spoke to Mary, he was actually teaching her how to use her mind.  He spoke frank about how she was to directly communicate with God the father, and Christ the son in the future.  He referred her to using her mind, and only the mind in which to channel her prayers through.   This was her message, that he had set before her to teach and spread.

Christ clearly mentions in this particular gospel,  that the “place between life and death, already exists within our minds.”  Which he tells us, is “separated only by our minds alone.”  Christ starts to communicate a message to Mary, about being conscientious and mindfully aware of our inner-self.  To do this he explains- “people are to maintain an enlightened mindset.”  He then proceeds to tell her, that this is accomplished through “the power of prayer and meditation.”  In this particular part of the gospel, Christ also tells Mary of God’s feelings, in respect to life and death.  He first explains to her, that when people die, “their souls are released to there original source.”  He goes onto say, that each and every time “a life source ends, the soul begins anew.”  Moreover, how the “human spirit was not given life, just to have it judged and destroyed.”  Was Christ speaking of reincarnation?  In truth I feel he was ….., which sounds very Buddhist like to me.

Furthermore, his “new age” message did not stop there.  Amazingly enough, Christ openly recognized that women were equal to men.  Thereby, explaining the pivotal role women were to play in his new religion.  Christ informed Mary, that women were to be the sacred heart and soul of his cause.  The gospel also strongly suggests that women, should be  considered “more righteous, in the eyes of God” anyways.  Which would forever dismissed the idea, that women were unholy creatures, plagued by sin in God’s eyes, for Eve’s mishap.  More importantly, was Christ suggesting that women were to play the role of  spiritual leader, for his sacred reformation?  Whatever the answer, the gospel clearly suggests that women were to play a larger role, than preciously allowed by the Church then and now.

Perhaps the most radical rule,  Christ seems to have insisted that for his new religion, the Hebrew bible (the Torah) was not to be dismissed.  The Torah was to remain the Book of God, and that, we were to follow the rites and religious aspects of the Jewish religion.  Therefore, he strongly speaks to Mary about how “men were not to, make new laws over his father’s laws already in place.”  A radical idea indeed.  Especially since many of his other disciples, already had their own ideas on the have and have-not’s to Christianity,  after Jesus departed this world.  Mary’s message basically strips of their rights, to teach or preach their point of view to Christ’s new world order.

Our Lord, Jesus Christ tells Mary that the true path to salvation is within ourselves.  I believe this is a correct statement.  Why else would he tell Mary,

“When the soul had overcome the third power, it went upwards and saw the fourth power, (which) took seven forms. The first form is darkness, the second desire, the third ignorance, the fourth is the excitement of death, the fifth is the kingdom of the flesh, the sixth is the foolish wisdom of flesh, the seventh is the wrathful wisdom. These are the seven {powers} of wrath.“

When I started to study the Gospel of Mary, I was lost in what I was reading.  Lost because the written word, seems to be the very opposite of what I was taught to believe.  That is when I discovered the wonderful book, “Awaken the Buddha Within,” by Lama Surya Das.

It is a definite must read, and a good source of soul food and mindful energy.  Besides that, the book really helped me put into perspective all the challenges, the Gospel of Mary, threw at me.

• As a personal side note, since discovering the Gnostic Gospel, my life has forever changed.  Moreover,  I want you to know that I do understand how strenuous, changing ones beliefs can be.  However, to continue to overlook the hidden secrets of this gospel, is a greater sin.  Christ clearly left no questions unanswered, as we all are clearly led to believe.  When we die, we are renewed again, and again, and again in the loving blessing of God. The power to stay alive- is inside all of us all. There is no death or judgment.

A Buddhist Aspect for Comparison

“I am not the first Buddha who came upon this earth nor shall I be the last. In due time another Buddha will arise in the world, a Holy One, a supremely enlightened One, endowed with wisdom in conduct, auspicious knowing the universe, an incomparable leader of men, a Master of Angels and  mortals.  He will reveal to you the same eternal truths which I have taught you.  He will preach to you His religion, glorious in its origin, glorious at the climax and glorious at the goal, in spirit and in the letter.   He will proclaim a religious life, wholly perfect and pure, such as I now proclaim.  ‘ His disciples will number many thousands, while Mine number many hundreds.’ “ —Gautama Buddha

The Four Noble Truths

1.) Life means suffering.

2.) The origin of suffering is attachment.

3.) The cessation of suffering is attainable.

4.) The path to the cessation of suffering.

Could these Buddhist prophecies, be another piece to the puzzle, for Christian followers?

“When the iron bird flies, and horses run on wheels, the Tibetan people will be scattered like ants across the World, and the Dharma will come to the land of red-faced people.”

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