Gospel of Thomas: Fasting

On the Gospel of Thomas

My original plan was to open this blog in order to record my experiences during my 2 week study of meditation and body/mind energy work spent in the lovely (yet strangely completely under construction) city of Tulsa, Oklahoma. However, this best laid plan was overwhelmed by my own overwhelmedness (yes, I know, my spell check is barfing up over that one, but it fits, and this is not for English class).

So, as I will continue to reflect upon the incredible amount of rich material I went through in Tulsa, this trip will be explored off and on in this blog at it's own pace. In the meantime, I thought that some reflections on contemplation might be fun to explore.

"If you  do not fast from the world, you will not find the Kingdom. If you do not keep the Sabbath as a Sabbath, you will never see the Father."  This is a translation by Stevan Davies in his book, The Gospel of Thomas. His comment on this passage begins with seeing the Sabbath as also keeping a fast (creating a parallel with the first part of the passage), a fast from working. How then does one fast from the world, how does one keep Sabbath which transforms the world? Davies gave me an inkling when he touched back in his comment about the original Sabbath, the "Sabbath of the Beginning."  Again, "In accordance with the mythological thinking Thomas employs, after the Fall the first creation did not cease to exist, but it did become difficult to recognize. It must be sought and found."

It must be sought and found. How? By fasting. Well, what can that mean? I wonder if it doesn't really stretch back to the myth of the tree of knowledge, whose fruit  brings awareness of good and evil. Eating it brings awareness. Judgment. This is good, this is bad. Here I am and there you are. We are two distinct persons. One of the final steps in one's spiritual journey is arrive at a place of no distinctions. The other is not other. In loving myself, I am indeed loving my neighbor, because we are the same, not different.

It may be that Thomas is calling us back to a time, to a place, to a condition where we simply "are" and we allow things to "be", not classified into likes/dislikes, good/bad, myself/other. Perhaps this is the kind of Sabbath we need to keep.