Know Your Self

The Kingdom of Heaven is within you and whosoever knows himself shall find it.  Know your Self

Jesus. Oxyrhynchus Manuscript

All My Life

It is clear beyond doubt that many of the Gnostics were nothing other than psychologists.  All my life I have been working and studying to find these things and these people knew already.

 Carl Jung

God Created the Delights of Love

God created the delights of love equally for all humankind.  But men have repudiated the very thing which is the source of their existence.

 Epiphanes

The Father of All

The Father of All gave us eyes to see with and his only law is justice without distinction between man and woman

Epiphanes

I Don’t Think of Myself as a Super Star

I don’t think of myself as a super star.  I always think of myself as a recipient of much warmth and kindness for which I am most grateful.

Aung San Suu Kyi

The People of the Mediterranean

The people of the Mediterranean are like frogs around a small pond

Plato

Literalists and Gnostics

Literalists believe that their particular spiritual tradition is different from all others and has a unique claim on the truth.  They obsessively formulate dogmas which define membership of their particular cult.  They are prepared to enforce their opinions and silence those who dissent, justifying their actions by claiming that they are fulfilling God’s will.  Gnostics, on the other hand, are free spirits who question the presuppositions of their culture.  They follow their hearts, not the herd.  They are consumed by their private quest for enlightenment, not by the goal of recruiting more adherents to a religion.

          Gnostics wish to free themselves from the limitations of their personal and cultural identities and experience the oneness of all things.  They themselves have no reluctance in adopting the wisdom of other traditions if it adds something to their own.  Literalists use religion to sustain their personal and cultural identity by defining themselves in opposition to others.  This inevitably leads to disputes with those outside their particular cult.  It is Literalists who fight wars of religion with Literalists from other traditions, each claiming that God is on their side.  Literalists’ enmity also extends to Gnostics within their own tradition who question their bigotry.  Most spiritual traditions have a tragic history of brutal suppression of Gnostics by intolerant Literalists.  Interestingly it is never the other way around.

Timothy Freke & Peter Gandy

Jesus and the Lost Goddess

The Secret Teachings of the Original Christians