Mysticism & Gospel of Thomas – No. 98 – Gate of Life

Verse - Gate of Life

Jesus said, "The kingdom of the Father is like a man who wanted to kill a powerful man. He drew his sword and pierced the wall in his house to see if his hand was strong enough. Then he killed the powerful man."

Comment

The "man who wants to kill a powerful man" is the person who takes the path inward. The sword that he draws at home, in the silence of his little room, and "thrusts into the wall" against the resistance of the dull world, is the light weapon of meditation, the handling of which is a matter of mastery.

The hand is the symbol of right action, which must be practiced again and again, both inwardly - as the sinking of the inner man into the innermost - and outwardly - in the acquisition of increasing world superiority - until the person connected with the inner world and the inner power has become so strong that he is able to kill "the powerful man" - the self and world-bound and earthly sleep-bound. This killing represents the peak of self-realization, the mystical death, the dissolution of the self in surrender to the self, the overcoming of attachment to the world.

He who has recognized the world, has found a corpse - because knowledge means both killing and overcoming - which points to the saving power, the source of inner strength: Christ in us. At the same time, this saying is linked to two other esoteric words of the Lord, one of which is quoted in the Pseudo-Clementines and the second of which is reproduced by Pseudo-Cyprian: I am the gate of life. Whoever enters through me enters into life. You see me in you, as you see yourselves in the mirror. Basically, this is a saying, and what it means is this.

Anyone who wants guidance in the confusion of the world that will lead him to a new life from the power and fullness of the Eternal will find it in this word, with which Christ refers the seeker to himself, his divine self, of which he becomes aware when he turns inward, just as he sees himself in the mirror when he looks outward. What the many call life is merely being there.

Their personality swells up mightily - it is the "powerful" of this saying. It is awake and always ready to protect its rights, while its spirit, which should resound and work through the mask of personality, is half asleep. The few, on the other hand, who awakened to themselves step by step in persistent self-answering of the cardinal question: "Who am I?" are not just there, they are alive. They have found the I am, Christ has risen in them, and in becoming one with him the gate of life has opened to them.