The Gnostics -- Where Are They Now? by James Bean
At the Gnostic
Gospels Discord forum someone asked this question: "In this very day and age,
are there new Gnostic gospels/scriptures/writing active produced? I
think that gnosticism, like all religions, should evolve and there
should be constantly new texts to express the gnostic experience."
My
Replies: Yes, this is correct. An exciting and hopeful topic really.
Gnosticism never went away, it traveled east, beyond the oppressive
reach of the Roman Empire. New texts kept on being produced by living
schools of spirituality, and this remains true right up to the living
present.
Note. And by this I don't mean the gnostic hijackers out
there abusing the term gnosticism, repurposing the term to mean new
things unrelated to classic gnosticism but that are related to magic,
other forms of spiritual materialism, incompatible systems of esoterica,
manipulation, cults, conspirituality and so on. The Matrix metaphors
are another example of an unfortunate reappropriation, where "taking the
red pill" nowadays means being sold some new con-spiracy theory or new
agey thing falsely rebranded as gnostic, so I've mostly given up on
Matrix references in connection with gnosticism due to this hijacking.
The
repurposing of the word gnostic is a modern-day plague of the
blogosphere and Youtube world. But I agree with M. David Litwa that we
should not give up on the word "gnostic" but reclaim it from the
abusers, and reclaim it from church father propaganda as well.
But...back
to your important question. The key is recognizing gnostic mystical
systems that came later under other names such as Manichaeanism,
Cathars, Kabbalah, certain Sufi Orders, and other living schools
associated with Mystics of the East (Sant Mat, Radhasoami). There are indeed cousin
schools of mysticism embodying the same basic "operating system", if you
will, as those Gnostics of Alexandria. Some of these great
grandchildren of Gnosticism even have published books quoting early
Gnostic texts happy to acknowledge the universality of their teachings
and spiritual practices... initiation into meditation and inner
experience (gnosis).
Gnosticism, including a rich spiritual
heritage of gnostic compatible literature did continue -- never ceased.
As I've sometimes joked with people, the last gnostic text was published
last Tuesday.
“Theologians may quarrel, but the mystics of the world speak the same language.” ― Meister Eckhart
"The
lamps are different, but the Light is the same: it comes from Beyond.
If thou keep looking at the lamp, thou art lost: for thence arises the
appearance of numbers and plurality. Fix thy gaze upon the Light, and
thou art delivered from the dualism inherent in the finite body." (Rumi,
Masnavi, Book III)
"I am neither Christian, nor Jew, nor Muslim,
nor Hindu, Buddhist, sufi, or zen. I belong to no religion or cultural
system. I am not from the East or the West, not out of the ocean or up
from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not composed of elements at
all... I belong to The Beloved, have seen the two worlds as one and that
one call to and know, first, last, outer, inner, only that breath
breathing human being." (Rumi, Only Breath)
"He received the gnosis of the mysteries... that had been entrusted to the righteous before him." (on Mani, Cologne Mani Codex)
"Previously
the religion was announced in many places and in many languages through
Buddhas, through Jesus, and through other messengers." (Mani,
Shabuhragan, a Middle Persian Manichaean scripture)
"Wisdom and
the deeds of the Buddha, and the righteousness of Jesus the Splendour,
and the mysteries and the images of the Light, and the true knowledge
(gnosis) were revealed through the Apostle." (Kephalaia, Manichaean
scripture)
"From age to age the apostles of God have brought the
truth. At one time they came through the Buddha in India; at another
through Zarathustra in Persia; at another through Jesus in the West.
Finally this revelation came through me, Mani, the Apostle of the True
God." (Kephalaia)
"That I may redeem you from death and
annihilation, I will give you what you have not seen with the eye nor
heard with the ears nor grasped with the hand." (Turfan fragments,
translated in Gnosis on the Silk Road)
They raved in the passion of anger;
they lacked sense or coherent thought
and you assembled their thoughts,
and so they understood their origin
in the Realm of Light.
Those living beings in the five states of existence
you freed from ignorance
and gave them wisdom,
leading them to pari-nirvana....
Unendingly submerged in the dust
of forgetting rebirths
and in a state of poisonous savage animals,
they were always mad.
When the passion of greed poisoned them
and they were dying,
you prepared a medicine for them
from the herb of meditation.
-- The Great Song to Mani, Gnosis on the Silk Road
"By
considering the Self one becomes a Gnostic; realising the self (to be)
God (SOHAM), he comes to be satisfied in the Mystery through the Word...
When a disciple realises the Self, what else is he to do or have done
(for him)? He who has obtained the Treasure through love fixes (his)
mind on God's feet. Night and day become pleasant (once) egoism is
dispelled; I got rid of the heart's infatuation when I pleased Him;
(now, Lord), graciously come into (my) house!
"Happiness is
not for those who make many friends in the world; it is those who keep
the mind on the One who ever enjoy happiness." (Sikh scriptures, Gospel
of the Guru-Granth Sahib:
https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.1918/page/146/mode/2up?q=gnostic
)
