Jesus was the great example not the great exception.
The Gospel of Thomas contains 114 sayings. These are attributed to things that Jesus said. The canonical gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, etc., are stories about Jesus’s life.
“Thomas” means “twin” in Aramaic and Syriac. The text portrays Thomas as the “twin” of Jesus – someone who has become spiritually identical to Jesus. How does Thomas do that? By achieving gnosis – salvation that consists of mystical, experiential knowledge of the true, spiritual nature of reality, including the ultimate nature of the self. Gnosis is something that, in principle, anyone can achieve, and the purpose of the Gospel of Thomas is to help readers reach that point where they become Mystically Identical to Christ. As Jesus says in Saying 108, “Whoever drinks from my mouth will become as I am. I, too, will become them, and the hidden things will be shown to them.”
“The Kingdom of God is within you and all around you. Those who come to know themselves will find it.” The Kingdom of God is a spiritual state of being, not a set of future events on earth, and those who achieve gnosis here and now, can enter it.
Saying 113. Jesus’s disciples asked him, “When will the Kingdom come?” Jesus said to them, “It will not come to those who wait for it. No one can say, ‘It is here’ or ‘It is there.’ Instead, the Kingdom is spread out across the earth, but people do not see it.”
Jesus was the great example not the great exception.
What might stop or block your experience of gnosis, you’re energy of being Mystically Identical to Christ, or your Internal Spirit Manifestation and the truth of who you are? Quite often it is the self talk where we disses ourself, make ourselves wrong, the internal voices that convince us to stay small, that life is dangerous!
Tonglen is about healing ourselves and others. It is Taking and Sending.
Internal Tonglen is where we literally pull in personal challenges that we’re dealing with (The Taking), we invite the angst, self make wrong or judgement into our infinite Inner Goddness Expression. And then we create presence, or grace or healing, and gift that into the center of that challenge area. (The Sending)
The in breath is about noticing the interior challenge, the out breath is gifting presence or peace or growth into the internal challenge area. Envision a cycle or a process inside of you. With the in breath notice and be with all of what the challenges is-how it impacts your life. On the out breath use your Mystical Identity or your Christ Consciousness and bathe, cherish and nurture the challenge area.
I invite you to incorporate this internal Tonglen into your daily spiritual practice. As you become more and more facile at noticing the internal challenges and gifting your presence in around and as the challenge area, your quality of life increases exponentially!