A Zen Jesus for Christmas
by William Edelen
In 1945 an Arab peasant in the upper Egyptian desert near Nag Hammadi made a
spectacular discovery. Buried in earthenware were 52 papyrus texts, some
dating from the beginning of the Christian era and presenting a Jesus who
said things that could have come out of the mouth of a Zen Master, or even
the Buddha himself.
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Professor Helmut Koester of Harvard University has observed that one of these
gospels in particular -- 'The Gospel of Thomas" -- includes traditions even
older than the Gospels of the New Testament, earlier than Matthew, Mark, Luke
or John, and also closer to the actual life of Jesus.
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These are known as the "Gnostic Gospels," from the Greek word "gnosis,"
meaning "to know" -- to know oneself, to have an insight into oneself in an
intuitive sense. "To know oneself is to know God," says Jesus in these
gospels. The self and the divine are identical and one. The living Jesus in
these gospels speaks of an enlightenment, the same type that is taught by Zen
Masters and Taoists. Jesus is never presented as Lord, but rather as a
spiritual guide.
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These texts, with Jesus talking in this manner, were seen as a danger to the
developing ecclesiastical structure because they encouraged insubordination
to the authority of bishops, priests and deacons. Church father Ignatius
warns the laity to "Honor and obey the Bishop as you would God. The Bishop
presides in the place of God." It is quite easy to see why the church
councils did not choose these gospels for their bible.
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Jesus says in the Gospel of Thomas: "If you bring forth what is within you,
what you bring forth will save you....for the lamp of the body is the mind."
And again: "The mind is the guide, but reason is the teacher. Enlighten your
mind....light the lamp within you."
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Jesus ridicules those who think of the Kingdom of God in literal terms, as if
it were a specific, actual place. Jesus says: "The Kingdom is inside of you
and outside of you. When you come to know yourself, you will know that YOU
are the Son of God, but if you do not learn this, you will live in poverty."
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Jesus insists in these gospels, again and again, on the primacy of immediate
experience as a guide to truth, even as in Zen or Taoism No one else can
tell another which way to go...or what to do...how to act...or what path to
follow. "When you become mature," said Jesus, "you will no longer rely on
outside human testimony." This thought expressed by Jesus in these gospels,
is at the heart of Buddhism and Taoism.
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There are many scholars today that are synthesizing the great themes found in
the Eastern religions of Buddhism and Taoism with the sayings of a Gnostic
Jesus who was, quite obviously, far more oriented toward their view of life
and reality than we have been led to believe.
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To pursue this subject further, I suggest: THE GNOSTIC GOSPELS by Dr. Elaine
Pagels; OTHER BIBLES, ANCIENT SCRIPTURES, GNOSTIC GOSPELS, edited by Willis
Barnstone; SILENT MUSIC, written by the Roman Catholic Jesuit William Johnson
who studied with Zen masters. All of the Gnostic Gospels can be found in the
NAG HAMMADI LIBRARY.
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