Extract from "The Gnostic Gospel of St. Thomas – Meditations on the Mystical Teachings" From Tau Malachi
Say 6:
His disciples questioned him and said to him, " Do you want us to fast? How shall we pray? Shall we give alms? What diet shall we observe?"
Jesus said, "Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate, for all things are plain in the sight of heaven. For nothing hidden will not become manifest, and nothing covered will remain without being uncovered."
Religious doctrine and observance is a human invention. It does not necessarily have anything to do with spirituality and the Divine Life. Spiritual practice, devoid of spiritual living, will not bring about the necessary change in consciousness for enlightenment. The foundation of a true spirituality is the cultivation of your humanity and of the Divine potential with your humanity. Only when you cultivate your humanity and practice truth in your daily living is there fertile ground for spiritual practice to take root and bear fruit.
Receiving oral transmission of teachings and initiation but do not practice spiritual living and the cultivation of your humanity, there will be no change in you and higher awareness will not dawn. What do receiving teachings and initiation or engaging in prayer, meditation, and ritual mean if one does not live the Spirit and Truth of these practices daily? To learn about love and compassion, but not actively practice love and compassion in one's life, has no relevance. To study spiritual and esoteric teachings, yet not cultivate such qualities as patience, tolerance, understanding, generosity, kindness, compassion, forgiveness, and so on, has no relevance. The real meaning of whatever we might do spirituality, the teachings and initiations we might receive, the spiritual practice we might perform, lies in our ability to integrate the Truth and Light revealed in our experience and live according to it.
Here, the Master speaks of a spiritual life that anyone can practice. Fundamentally, he says, " Practice speaking the Truth and treat others as you yourself would want to be treated." He tells you to live in an open and honest way and to practice the Golden Rule. Who can say that they do not understand what this means or that they are incapable of practicing it? Indeed, it is a way that everyone who is willing can follow.
Now here is a secret. Your ultimate health and happiness is completely interconnected and interdependent with the health and happiness of everyone else. Your own well-being and the well-being of others is connected. You are not separated and isolated from anyone or anything else in existence. All of Creation is intimately interconnected and interdependent. What you do to your environment and the world, you do to yourself. When dealing with others and your environment, you are dealing with yourself, so, in reality, acting toward others as you could want to be treated is giving to yourself what you most desire. Indeed, it is a practice of a true or enlightened selfishness, as opposed to the ignorant selfishness we practice that brings harms to ourselves, others, and our environment. The Master is speaking from a awareness of Sacred Unity and encouraging the truth seeker to live in such a way as to cultivate that same awareness.
Suppose what you are doing is writing a book as you live your life---a book of your life? It is a book that is finished and made complete only at the moment of your death. Now reflect upon this book and consider the possibility of studying and rereading this book in the afterlife. Is it an interesting book? Do you like the central character and what he or she is accomplishing? Is the book uplifting? What sort of book is it? Is it a book akin to the Holy Scriptures that you could reread and study forever, or is it a book you would never be inclined to read again?
What sort of book is being authored with your life and the way you live it? It is good to inquire what you would change of this book and to set about making that changed. All is said and done and that is it---and it goes with you.
Truly, it is a dangerous thing to live as though there is no consequence for one's actions or as though there is no accounting for how one has lived. The masters of all Wisdoms Traditions tell us that our future is born of our present actions, that the nature of our existence beyond the threshold of death is determined by how we are living now. Living without this awareness, one may, indeed, bring greet harm and suffering upon oneself.
Gnostic Christianity does not believe in eternal damnation but rather in reincarnation, which is to say a journey of consciousness through diverse states of existence that tend toward a progressive development and evolution of the soul or of consciousness itself. In the midst of this journey, there are heavens and hells and realms of admixture, as in the life of our present experience. Whether heaven or hell or something of admixture, each individual generates the causes and conditions of their own experience. One's own state of consciousness, one's own self-grasping, desire, and fear, brings one's experience. The creative power in oneself generates one's experience and manifests it. It is all a question of how one uses the Life-Power. The Soul enters into the experience and becomes the sentient being, corresponding with what one most desires. The soul travels the path one's desire follows.
Here, the Master speaks the plain and simple truth. It is a truth in your present experience, if you have eyes to look and see it. Anyone with any degree of understanding will surely see to live with this awareness. This awareness might be spoken of as living as though you were going to die tomorrow. How could you live today if you knew you were going to die tomorrow?c
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