Gnostic Tips For the Spiritual Seeker, the Explorer of Inner Space, by James Bean -- Light and Sound on The Path
"And there shall be others of those who are outside our number who name themselves bishop and also deacons, as if they have received their authority from God. They bend themselves under the judgment of the leaders. Those people are dry canals." (from the aptly named book, The Apocalypse of Peter, from Codex Seven of the Nag Hammadi Library of Egypt)
"Nag Hammadi is Where They Found the Gnostic Gospels". Oddly enough, that's also the title of an episode of the television series, Gilmore Girls (Season 4, Episode 13). And absolutely nothing gnostic was said. I kid you not!
It's important to know what Gnosticism IS as well as what it IS NOT. On the web is much, what I call, 'gnostic nonsense' (gnonsense?). People call all sorts of paranormal subjects "gnostic", lower astral something-or-another's that go bump (or beep) in the night as somehow being "gnostic". There are those who re-label countless unrelated offtopic paths as "gnostic", generic new agey this or that, or maybe crashed UAP's with "biologics". Some even desperately seek gnosticism in certain American fundamentalist denominations. Maybe gnostic wisdom can even be discovered in a bargain bin at the dollar store.
Apparently everything's gnostic except actual Gnosticism. THAT, most don't have time for. THAT, remains the forbidden topic, the mystery always concealed as souls prefer the shiny things of distraction. The spiritual seeker soon gets weary of slog after slog searching in vain in all the wrong places, but is this not the whole point of this psyops cosmic conspiracy game of telephone in the first place, to wear you down before you can even begin? To run out the clock of... time? I believe YES. Bishop Irenaeus the gnostic heresy hunter zealously agrees. Gnosticism remains tragically, woefully unexplored, unknown, existing in the far country, a mythic realm, Gnosticland, revealed by sages who remain unnamed, discussed in expensive unattainable books published by E.J. Brill!
"The watchmaker works all day, and long into the night
He pieces things together despite his failing sight
Though all the cogs connect with such poetic grace
Time has left its curse upon this place
Each hour becomes another empty space to fill
Wasted with the care and virtues of his skill"
(lyrics from, The Watchmaker, by Steven Wilson)
Divination tools, the roll of the dice designed to only provide a limited number of predictable outcomes, minerals, the elements, astrology, the planets -- rocks in space made of matter with varying degrees of gravity -- or at least those planets that the Babylonians knew about during the Bronze Age, also are not gnostic. The soul is beyond their influence, is above the stars. Classic Gnosticism -- people who actually were gnostics part of real gnostic schools of spirituality in antiquity -- did believe there were powers behind some of those random fate powered or providence generating divination portals, but demiurgical powers, archons (negative rulers), Yaldabaoth's Bag of Tricks, the Cruel Hand of Fate dualistically doling out ups and downs, fair weather and foul, good days and bad upon one's lower subtle-body coverings, but in the end it's all just Mercury Retrograde my friend!
There are a few Euro-colonialist esotericists who, long ago, appropriated, exploited and exported gnostic resources from Egypt setting up their edited spiritual paths in the West. And who knows, maybe their redacted esoterica combined with whatever else for cultic brewhaha craziness could represent a step forward for the seeker. There's a handful of neo-gnostic paths out there that, like spiders, build their nests near the Light!
No doubt one can find somebody willing to invite you to go down the stairs into their dark cobweby basement where they will eagerly baptize you into their version of gnosis. If there really is a baptismal tank down there and you get to live to tell of the experience, you perhaps might believe you've made some progress. After all, religions of all strains and variants provide, at least as perceived by the seeker, some benefit. But the question remains, Is this a true manifestation of Gnosticism according to actual Gnostics of the classic gnostic variety as is represented by collections of surviving gnostic scriptures such as the Nag Hammadi Library, Pistis Sophia or the Ginza Rabba? Or, in the words of Shri Frank Zappa: "Is that a real poncho . . . I mean Is that a Mexican poncho or is that a Sears poncho? Hmmm . . . no foolin' . . ." (song lyrics from Camarillo Brillo, Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention)
“Gnostic” is Such an Abused Word — Let the Gnostics Define Their Own Beliefs and Practices
My take is simply to let the gnostics be gnostic, treating them equally like any other world religion and understand just what exactly the original spiritual movements labeled “Gnostic” actually taught based on what they themselves have to say about that, and not what other esoteric groups coming into being many centuries or millennia later assume they taught cooking in their own particular theological and cultural cauldron of biases in Europe or the US.
So, as I view the saga of the gnostics, the treatment of the true classic gnostics of antiquity, the only solution is to let the gnostics be gnostic, truly hear their voice embedded in the surviving texts that come directly from them, and allow them to speak for themselves, define their own beliefs, diet, and spiritual practices. Then others may truly benefit from their wisdom, and in that sense Gnosticism as a spiritual path can potentially reincarnate into the world again, or far more likely and best of all, help some to recognize those who already seem to be following something equivalent to a Living Gnosis Now in the modern age.
The Soul Passes By Many Spiritual Paths and Passes Through Many Semi-Heavenly Regions on It's Journey Towards Truth
"The servants of the first guardian came to meet me.
They said, 'Let us take this man with us as our captive.
He might serve as a companion to us.'
"They asked me, 'Hail, companion;
Where did you come from? Where do you go?'
"I came from the earth, I am going to Hayyi [Mandaean name for the Supreme Being in the Eighth Heaven],
and my path is to the Place of Life.
"They said, 'This is the Place of Life;
here it is, so where are you going now?'
"I said to myself, 'I am not one of them.
If I stayed with them, I would endure every torment.
This is not what my soul desires and wants.
The soul within me yearns for Hayyi.
The soul within me demands Hayyi.
My goal is to reach the Place of Life.'" (Mandaean Ginza Rabba, The Gnostic Book of the Great Treasure)
Meanwhile, The Hidden Realm of Gnosticland, "the Seed of True Humanity", is Only to be Found Within You Via the Third Eye In Another Kind of Sky
Though even with some wrye humor the above-picture does sound truly bleak for our beleaguered gnostic spiritual seeker shopping for books at the dollar store. But after all, this is just another bad dream that we can awaken from!
"Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens." (Carl Jung)
"Happy is the one who comes to himself and awakens." (Valentinus, Gospel of Truth, Nag Hammadi Library)
"Awakened Souls always draw our attention to the fact that we are being deceived. If at all there is anything true or eternal, it is the soul or the Oversoul." (Kirpal Singh)
"If your eye becomes single, your whole body shall be full of Light." (YesHUa)
The Seat of the Soul in This Temple of the Human Body is the Third Eye Center: "The soul is currently situated at the back of the Eye Center. And, therefore, Saints say that you start from there. You start focusing there and focus your attention where the soul and the Master stay. That is at the back of the Eye Center." (Baba Ram Singh)
“Thus as a result of recollecting all these things the impulses of the mind are extended from the sphere of material things towards those impulses which are without limit, that is to say, wonder at the New World, and the faculty of vision which belongs to contemplation [of God]. For when the vision of the mind is mingled with the Light..., all its impulses become infinite. For none of the Visionaries or ‘Gnostics’ is able to distinguish the identity of the mind as a result of the vision of that glorious Light that is seen .... for all the innermost chambers of the heart are filled by that blessed Light...”. (Joseph the Visionary, Syriac Mystic on singleness of vision quoted in, The Syriac Fathers on Prayer and the Spiritual Life, translated from the Aramaic by Sebastian Brock)
"Do not cease seeking day or night and do not let yourselves relax until you find the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Light, which will purify you and make you into pure Light and lead you into the Kingdom of Light." (Book of Pistis Sophia/Faith Wisdom)
"Meditate on the True Name, and rise within just like ascending a staircase. Listen to the Music of the Heavens... Ascend on the lifeline of the Sound Current as a spider climbs up the thread." (Baba Somanath)
"Become passers-by." (Saying 42, Coptic Gospel of Thomas)
Some have wondered what this saying really means. Another translation renders it: "Come into being as you pass away." (The Gospel of Thomas, Wisdom of the Twin, by Lynn Bowman) In other words, by meditation practice get established in the heavenly realms during this life, finding a permanent home there instead of remaining attached to samsara, the world of changes. And there’s another version this saying found in India: "The world is a bridge. Pass over it, but do not build your dwelling there." (Arabic inscription at the site of a mosque at Fatehpur Sikri, India attributed to Isa or YesHUa)
Yes, Yes, Nag Hammadi is where they found the Gnostic Gospels but within you is where you will find the gnosis.
Often spiritual teachers describe souls who reach a breakthrough in consciousness. After the soul reaches a point in it’s mystic travels where it becomes free of all it’s coverings of mind and matter, it reaches the realization of it’s true nature as spirit and exclaims, “I am that! I am that! I am that! I am that!” The medieval mystic Kabir once said, “The Light of one soul is equal to that of sixteen suns!” But to sleeping humanity this reality remains completely hidden from view. We are gods clothed in rags.
Meditation is a kind of temporary “death” to the outer world of the five senses as well as outer images and thoughts. When one fasts from the world and enters into this kind of sabbath-rest, it becomes possible for the soul to begin to perceive something of the Other World that it inhabits. The soul’s spiritual senses begin to perceive in the heavenly realms. One becomes progressively more and more receptive to the heavenly Sound and Light with the eyes and ears of the soul.
The gnostic system of heavens maps out the journey of meditation through the inner regions. Who are the Living Ones who are explorers of Inner Space, the Kingdom of the Heavens within, those who practice this form of meditation and make this journey? You know, most of the living spiritual teachers who embody this kind of spirituality don't even call themselves "gnostics", even though they are the most authentic examples of living gnostic teachers on the planet. They just happen to have been part of the unbroken chain of spiritual masters that have been around for countless generations, millennia. The names of their spiritual movements keep changing as the centuries quickly go flying past but they continue to preserve and practice this kind of Living Mystic Path, The Path of the Masters.
Everyone has their own third eye whether they realize it or not. Through the Divine Path of Initiation one will learn of the spiritual practices that make it possible to access the third eye center, the seat of the soul, within the temple of the human body. We will discover for ourselves the Mysteries of the Spirit. The Kingdom of the Heavens will open up before us on this inward journey of the soul as we travel through vast realms of Light, Sound and Love on our way back to God.
The goal of this Path is not simply going TO the various inner planes or heavens of creation but to pass THROUGH them on our way back to the Most High Supreme Being, The Nameless One given many names.
"Whoever joins the Immortal becomes Immortal.
Whoever delights in the Living One is living."
(Ode 3, Book of The Odes)
"Look upon the Living One so long as you live, that you may not die and seek to see him, and be unable to see him." (Saying 59, Coptic Gospel of Saint Thomas)
"Saints come into this world and They enlighten us. They remind us of our True Home of God Almighty -- our True Father. They encourage us to go back. And They motivate us to go back. So, we are indeed fortunate to get this human body and get this life. And it is with the Grace of God Almighty that we have the company of the Masters. Now, we should make the most of that and follow the Teachings of the Masters and make the efforts to go back to our True Home." (Baba Ram Singh)
The Third Eye in Meditation: “Close your eyes as in sleep, and look sweetly, lovingly, intently into the middle of the darkness lying in front of you. You will see a dark veil. That which sees the dark veil within, without the help of your physical eyes, IS the inner eye.” (Kirpal Singh)
"It is in the darkness that one finds the Light." (Meister Eckhart)
"The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God's eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love." -- Meister Eckhart
“I wander about
searching after my soul,
which is worth ages and worlds to me.
I went and found my soul —
what are
all the worlds
to me?”
-- The Qolasta — Gnostic Canonical Prayer Book of the Mandaeans
"Within this earthen vessel are bowers and groves, and within it is the Creator:
Within this vessel are the seven oceans and the unnumbered stars.
The touchstone and the jewel-appraiser are within;
And within this vessel the Eternal soundeth, and the spring wells up.
Kabir says: 'Listen to me, my Friend! My Beloved Lord is within.'" (Kabir)
