Strength from Within - Gospel of Thomas

Verse - Strength from Within

Jesus said, "Praise those who know where the rebels will attack. They can come, invade, and take their royal possessions, and be prepared before the rebels come."

Comment

The path inward begins with taking control of the external senses and the thoughts and desires directed outward. The inner eye and perception only open when the outer eyes are closed. Likewise, the inner ear only develops its ability to hear the inner voice when the outer voices are silent.

In order to breathe in, to absorb the intuitions of the inner person, one must first breathe out what belongs to external reality and hold one's breath, keep quiet inside, be calm, empty and receptive. From the point of view of inner Christianity, those who only know how to use their external senses are still sleeping or dead because they do not yet participate in real life and being.

Only when they awaken to themselves and their inner senses open up do they realize that the true light and life is within. Looking outward, we learn to see without eyes. Listening inward, we learn to hear without ears. By moving inwards, we learn to walk without feet. By working inwards, we learn to act without hands. It is not the ego and its physical tools that are active here, but the self and its spiritual body and - behind it - the all-self of the deity. It is a call to be vigilant and strong from within:

The robbers who can penetrate the soul's castle, rob us and lead us into captivity are the lower, worldly, mundane, godless thoughts and desires that penetrate through the outer senses into the consciousness and from there into the soul, misleading and weakening it so that it succumbs to the influences of the outside world and falls victim to them.