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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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."

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.

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.

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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