Today we look at the fifth saying in the Gospel of Thomas. Jesus said, "Recognize what is in your sight, and that which is hidden from you will become plain to you. For there is nothing hidden which will not become manifest." That is a translation of the Coptic text.

The Greek version, which dated earlier, adds another line. Jesus said, “Know what is in front of your face and that which has been hidden from you will be revealed to you. For there is nothing hidden that will not become clear and nothing buried that will not be raised.” Greek Oxyrhynchus Papyri (200 AD)

This talking about the revelation of the gospel of nonduality. It is saying it is both hidden and obvious at the same time.

This episode looks at the fourth saying in the Gospel of Thomas. Jesus says, “A person old in days will not hesitate to ask a little child seven days old about the place of life, and the person will live. For many of the first will be last and become a single one.” Anyone who is familiar with the New Testament gospels will hear similarities to the biblical sayings of Jesus that center on children.

It is well-established that Jesus used children as examples of what it means to be in the Kingdom of Heaven – the Spiritual Realm, the Presence of God. The saying in the Gospel of Thomas adds a couple of details that bring us further into this teaching. Here he clearly teaches nonduality.

This saying in the Gospel of Thomas is Jesus’ equivalent to the famous Zen koan about your original face. “What is your original face before you were born?” Jesus is directing our attention to what Buddhists call the Buddha Nature. What we might call our divine nature or the image of God. He is saying that we all know this original nature. Every child knows this. The spiritual search is rediscovering what we used to know.

I have taken several trips to the Eastern Mediterranean countries to visit Biblical sites – Israel, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt. One year I took a trip to Greece that followed the journeys of the apostle Paul. One of my favorite sites was not a biblical one. It was Delphi on Mt. Parnassus. It was said that the maxim "Know thyself" was inscribed upon the Temple of Apollo there. Today it is called self-inquiry.

These words are the teaching of Jesus, according to the third saying in the Gospel of Thomas. Jesus said, "If those who lead you say to you, 'See, the kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living father. But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty."