gospel of Thomas 102

Jesus said, "Woe to the Pharisees, for they are like a dog sleeping in the manger of oxen, for neither does he eat nor does he let the oxen eat."

Jesus was a Jew; we have to remember this. He was not a Christian. Christianity had not been dreamt up at his time; he was a Jew. And during his time there was something of a split in Judaism: between the Pharisees, with their interpretation of the scriptures, and their emphasis on the common man; between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, who were more of an elite, and with a different emphasis, a different interpretation of scripture. But to an outsider there was probably very little difference between the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

But Judaism was a long established religion. And whenever a religion is around for long enough, a split occurs. Different factions begin to fight against each other. And so it was between the Pharisees and the Sadducees. It is not just religion that this happens to. Wherever people group together, they take a look at their nearest neighbours and become antagonistic towards them.

It is part of the psychology of the human mind. The ego mind needs to identify itself, needs to create an identity for itself. And one of the ways it does this is by identifying with a group of people. That group has to stand in opposition to other groups. That is the tragedy of the ego mind, of the urge to feel separate – it creates artificial boundaries. And for any boundary, we put some people on the same side as ourself, and some people on the opposite side. There's no real difference between these people. It's all in our mind. We create a division. And that division needs hostile energy, antagonism, to maintain it.

That's the real fear between different sects of a religion, or between different religions: is that if we do not maintain this distinction with anger and aggression, if we do not keep that boundary clear, then we will merge together into one whole, and we will have lost our sense of identity.

And this is what Jesus was commenting on. I guess he was in the camp of the Sadducees, because he says, woe to the Pharisees, for they are like a dog sleeping in the manger of oxen. Well, to a Pharisee, the Sadducee would seem like a dog. So it depends which side of the line one has made one's camp. But anyway, Jesus is pointing out here, the tragedy is that neither does the dog eat, nor does he let the oxen eat.

All of a sudden, with these divisions, the energy is consumed in maintaining the division. Instead of resting at peace, at the heart of their religion, all the energy of the Pharisees is now going into anger and resentment at the Sadducees. And vice versa.

It's a great distraction from the spiritual path. There is nothing spiritual at all about making enemies out of people who have different beliefs to you. So this is one of the huge tragedies of humanity – this endless urge to make enemies, for no reason, really, other than to maintain the ego.

It was so in Jesus' time; it is true today as well. Just look at the energy between the Palestinian people and the Jewish people of Israel. They are at each other's throats. They are killing each other. And yet the Arabs and the Jews come from the same stock. There's but a hair's breadth between them. They are close neighbours, with many similar traditions and culture. And a few tiny differences means that their entire lives are ruined by hatred and animosity.

I long for the day when we humans mature, grow up a bit, and stop behaving like five year old boys in a playground. But in the last two thousand years, since Jesus was around, we have not moved one inch in the direction of maturity.

So it falls on you and I. whatever our beliefs, to break this pattern, and to see that all of humanity is one, and indeed, humanity is one with the rest of existence.

We do not need little subgroups to identify with. When we become one with God, one with all that is, how can there be a boundary? How can there be a division? Where then is the basis of hostility? This is the way for us humans to grow, to mature, to become whole; and to live a peaceful life, a life lived in love, with tenderness and compassion for each other, whatever our traditions, whatever our beliefs.