Being a Transient! - Gospel of Thomas

Verse - Being a Transient!

Jesus said: “Be passers-by!”

Comment

All things and events in the world teach us two things: firstly, the fleetingness and transience of all material manifestations and states, and secondly, their systematic ordering and alignment with goals that lie outside themselves, pointing to something higher and permanent, and with controlling forces and spiritual powers that affect them. We know that matter, which seems so permanent and indestructible, is not eternal, and that the visible universe began several billion years ago. Whether it previously existed in another, energetic form or as an idea - in any case, it is based on a causal will that was before all becoming and will be after all passing away.

In order to become aware of this, to experience ourselves as part of this eternal will, we must recognize everything that is transient in and around us as non-self, as merely given to us, as not belonging to our innermost being. Awaken from the dream and deception of the world of the senses to yourself and to the unchanging reality of the inner world to which you essentially belong!

Rise up into the realm of light that is within!

Do not cling to what passes away, but rest in what lasts! Recognize yourselves as guests in this temporal inn and as pilgrims on the way to your eternal home! Anyone who has recognized that he, as the inner person, is a stranger to this world of passing away because he alone has permanence, will not attach his heart to fleeting things, but will enjoy everything gratefully without clinging.

He will become a passer-by who enjoys the flowers along the way without picking them because they will wither and die in his hands if he wants to keep them. To be a passer-by means to know that he is superior to and exempt from temporal things and to be certain of the eternity of his own self. This world is a bridge. Go over there, but do not build your dwelling place on it!