Gospel of Thomas

[manitou]

On 2/4/2021 at 1:34 PM, mlinssen said:

Perhaps it is informative to know that the protagonist of Thomas is called "IS", not Jesus. There is a whole scheme on so-called nomina sacra of which this allegedly would be one, but no one can explain how they came into being, and while most claim that they are abbreviations, the oldest texts that we have all say IS or IHS (the Greek eta), so if what is that an abbreviation?

That, on a side note

 

 

there is a place in Kashmir, I think, where there is a St. Issa buried.  It is guarded by the family who lives there.  It is maintained by many that St. Issa was none other than the body of Jesus.  I wonder if there is a connection to "IS"

[mlinssen]

1 hour ago, manitou said:

 

 

there is a place in Kashmir, I think, where there is a St. Issa buried.  It is guarded by the family who lives there.  It is maintained by many that St. Issa was none other than the body of Jesus.  I wonder if there is a connection to "IS"

 

In the 114 + 1 logia, IS appears in logia

 

0, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 61, 62, 63, 64, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 73, 75, 76, 77, 78, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 92, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 100, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 114

 

IHS only appears in logion 13, 22 and 90

 

The H is the Coptic / Greek Eta, a short E so to say, as in "wet".

Take the writing, and IS dominates. Like the Spanish can't pronounce a starting S without producing a vowel in front of it, perhaps Indians suffix a vowel to it?

 

IS is in all the texts, it took many centuries before they turned that into IhsouS

 

If interested you can Google for nomina sacra, but that is all fiction. No one knows how and when those came into existence and there certainly is no early text whatsoever that says Ihsous or anything the like, so IS clearly isn't an abbreviation

[Mark Foote]

On 1/24/2019 at 9:34 PM, Mark Foote said:

 

112.  Jesus said:  Woe to the flesh which depends upon the soul; woe to the soul which depends upon the flesh.

 

(The Gospel According to Thomas, coptic text established and translated by A. Guillaumont, H.-CH. Puech, G. Quispel, W. Till and Yassah ‘Abd Al Masih, pg 55, ©1959 E. J. Brill)

 

Occurs to me today, reading this, that a lot of spiritually-minded people go in for an ascetic path.  Gautama starved himself until he was almost dead.  A part of him must have felt satisfied that he was on the right path, denying the flesh in favor of the spirit.   Woe to the flesh that depends on the soul?

"Woe to the soul which depends on the flesh"--clearly, attachments, aversions, and ignorance of feelings in the body can be a spiritual hindrance.

 

Quote

 

... when you make
eyes in the place of an eye, and a hand
in the place of a hand, and a foot in the place
of a foot, (and) an image in the place of an image,
then shall you enter [the Kingdom].

 

(The Gospel According to Thomas, coptic text established and translated by A. Guillaumont, H.-CH. Puech, G. Quispel, W. Till and Yassah ‘Abd Al Masih, pg 18-19 log. 22, ©1959 E. J. Brill)

 

 

Like to add this thought, about that:
 

Gautama the Buddha described a “purity by the pureness of (one’s) mind”, in the fourth of the initial concentrations:

 

… (one) suffuses (one’s) body with purity by the pureness of (one’s) mind so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded with purity by the pureness of (one’s) mind.

 

(AN Book of Fives 25-28, Pali Text Society Vol. III pg 18-19, parentheticals universalize pronoun)

 

“The pureness of (one’s) mind” I believe refers to the lack of any intent in the mind.  If the activity of the body follows solely from the location of attention, a presence of mind is possible such that no matter where the breath shifts the location of attention, the activity of the body follows solely from that singular location. Presence of mind as the location of attention shifts “suffuses (one’s) body with purity by the pureness of (one’s) mind so that there is not one particle of the body that is not pervaded with purity by the pureness of (one’s) mind”.

 

(More of What Shunryu Suzuki Actually Said)

 

The activity of the body follows solely from the location of attention:   one makes "an image in the place of an image".

Edited February 20, 2023 by Mark Foote

[manitou]

On 2/20/2023 at 1:40 PM, Mark Foote said:

in the place of an eye, and a hand
in the place of a hand, and a foot in the place
of a foot, (and) an image in the place of an image,
then shall you enter [the Kingdom].

 

 

 

As I see this, it can be understood that we are all the 'I Am', all connected and each a part of the collective I Am.  We essentially are 'god', and therefore it appears that the passage refers to replacing 'your' eye with the eye of god, your hand as the hand of god, etc.  When this is internalized to the point where it is in our consciousness and held in our attention, we have entered the kingdom.  We finally Realize who we really are.

[stirling]

1 hour ago, manitou said:

As I see this, it can be understood that we are all the 'I Am', all connected and each a part of the collective I Am.  We essentially are 'god', and therefore it appears that the passage refers to replacing 'your' eye with the eye of god, your hand as the hand of god, etc.  When this is internalized to the point where it is in our consciousness and held in our attention, we have entered the kingdom.  We finally Realize who we really are.

 

Very much like:

 

Quote

 

“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God's eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.” - Meister Eckhart, Sermons of Meister Eckhart