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."

This is the third episode on the Gospel of Thomas, and I am looking at the second saying in the gospel. But as I mentioned in the last episode, this may actually be the first one spoken by Jesus. The previous saying may have been written by Thomas or the editor of the Gospel of Thomas.

If this is the first saying spoken by Jesus, then it has greater significance. It sets the stage for all the other teachings. In this saying Jesus is teaching about six stages of spiritual awakening. I say stages, but I could just as easily use the words dimensions or aspects. But I have opted for the word stages because Jesus seems to be saying that one follows the other naturally.

Jesus said, "Those who seek should not stop seeking until they find. When they find, they will be disturbed. When they are disturbed, they will marvel, and will reign over all. And after they have reigned they will rest."

Today I look at the first saying in the Gospel of Thomas. It says, “And he said, ‘Whoever finds the correct interpretation of these sayings will never die.’” Another translation says, "Whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings will not experience death." Another puts it, “Whoever discovers what these sayings mean will not taste death.”

The theme is Life. Eternal life. It is about conquering death. This is the theme of the Gospel of Thomas. It is the Gospel of Life. The purpose of this gospel is knowing eternal life.

In exploring this theme I look at the four ways of salvation in classic Indian thought: the devotional path called bhakti, the path of works called karma, and the path of knowledge called jnana, and the path of meditation called raja. I show how they are present in Christianity.

In this episode I begin exploring the Gospel of Thomas, focusing on the prologue of the gospel, which reads: “These are the hidden sayings that the living Jesus spoke and that Didymos Judas Thomas wrote down.” I give a little background, and then explain what it means to say that the gospel is hidden, using biblical examples of hiddenness from the parables of Jesus and the epistles of apostle Paul. It is not an esoteric gospel, but a gospel hidden in plain sight. It is an open secret, to use the phrase of nondual teacher Tony Parsons.

Christmas is a very dualistic time in Christian churches. In stories and sermons God is pictured as a theistic deity up there in heaven who sends his Son down here into this world of sin in order to redeem the world and humankind. Those of us who see the universe in terms of nonduality wonder how to make sense of Christmas. The good news is that the heart of the Christmas message is nonduality.

The theological heart of the Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus is the Incarnation. When interpreted correctly Incarnation is one of the most nondual teachings of the Church. It says that God became human. That is what sets Christianity apart from other monotheistic faiths. But the question is: Why did God become human? According to the early church father Athanasius, it was so that humans could become God.

In the fifty-fourth chapter of his most well-known work, On the Incarnation, which he wrote when he was only as 23, he wrote this famous sentence, “God became man so that man might become God.” This teaching is known as theosis. It is the heart of the doctrine of the incarnation and therefore the heart of Christmas.

The Bible is filled with fantastic and miraculous tales surrounding the birth of Jesus. There are stories such as the Virgin Birth, the Roman census and the trip to Bethlehem, being turned away from the inn, necessitating Mary giving birth in a stable. There are the shepherds in the field keeping watch over their flocks by night, and the angels appearing to them and announcing the birth of the Savior. Later the magi or wise men appear, following a star until it leads them to the Christ child, after a quick side trip to Jerusalem to get directions.

Those who show up in church after Christmas Day hear the subsequent stories of the presentation of Jesus in the temple and meeting Simeon and Anna. Then there is the Slaughter of the Innocents by King Herod as he tries to murder the infant Jesus, followed by the holy family’s flight to Egypt to escape the murderous king, and their subsequent return to Nazareth. There are so many stories of Christmas. I call them the myths of Christmas.

All the Christmas myths communicate spiritual truth. These truths often get lost when we get stuck on the issue of historicity. This is the problem with literalism. People’s minds are trained to be so closed that they cannot be open to the glory of the eternal Christ in us and through us and in and through all creation. The stories of Christmas are much more profound than literalists imagine. They contain truths for all people and all religions, not just a certain class of conservative Christian who holds the right creed.

The key to enjoying the Christmas season in churches at Christmastime is to listen to the stories with an ear to the deeper meaning. As you listen to the stories, interpret them as being about spiritual Reality here and now. Not events that happened 2000 years ago. These wonderful Christmas myths communicate timeless Reality available always. That is the Truth behind the Christmas myths.