gospel of Thomas 106

Jesus said, "When you make the two one, you will become the sons of man, and when you say, 'Mountain, move away,' it will move away."

For me, this is Jesus at his best. When you make the two one: this is Advaita; this is Zen. This is going beyond duality, into the realm of non duality. The mind can't handle it.

The mind is not created – the thinking mind, this is – the thinking mind is not created to handle non duality. Every word is a symbol, symbolising something, and that something stands in contrast to everything else, separate from it, in a dualistic relationship. That is the two. And you know all the opposites: the light and the dark; the good and the bad; the man and the woman; the day and the night. But there are more profound dualities than that: the me and you; the me and God; the me and not me.

Everywhere the thinking mind looks, it sees the two, it sees duality. This is the world of concepts, of ideas in the mind. And this is the world that many people live in, for their whole life, from being a small child to the day they die: a private little world of concepts, barely touching reality.

And what do I mean by reality? I mean, the one, the oneness – when that symbolic thinking mind steps aside, when we touch what is, without thoughts, directly. Smelling a flower without a thought in the mind, there is just the smell of the flower, and all of existence is in that smell. Everything that ever has been, everything that ever will be, it is all there in that moment. But there's no me in it. There's no you in it. There's no experiencer separate from the experience of the smell. I am not separate from the flower. In the smell of the flower, I have disappeared into the smell, and so has the flower. This is one. This is God. This is reality.

When you make the two one, you will become the sons of man. The sons of man – sometimes Jesus says, the son of God, it's the same thing. The sons of man; with this phrase, it evokes a mere feeling of the next generation, the way forward. We humans have been searching for this for millennia, ever since we lost touch with God; ever since we started wandering in the desert, lost, searching for the promised land, wanting to return to our home. This is the state humanity has been in: lost. It's been this way for thousands of years, and nothing has changed. We are still, as a species, lost.

But the future, the hope, the promised land, is when we humans, as one, as one humanity, return to the home, return to God. That is what humanity will become, if we undertake this spiritual journey, if we make the two one, if we surrender to God, and become part of the one.

And when this happens, Jesus says, when you say, mountain move away, it will move away. It's evocative language. It gives a feeling of something rather paradoxical about this godliness. On the one hand there is nothing that needs to be changed. The moment is always perfect, exactly as it is. Not one atom needs to be moved. In this moment, there is pure perfection. We can call it beauty; we can call it love; we can call it truth; but nothing needs to be moved. So, on the one hand, there is no urge to change things. And on the other hand, there is a great power.

When I say power, I need to be careful, because it will be misinterpreted, just like Jesus' teaching. When you become the christ, if you look at a mountain and say, move away mountain, the physical mountain won't suddenly get up and move. What Jesus means is that when we perceive things in the dualistic way, it is always a relative perspective. This is why in the Indian tradition, it is said that we create the world, that it's maya, it's illusion. It's not that the mountain isn't there; it's just we see it in a dualistic way. The mere fact that we label it a mountain: where does the mountain stop and the rest of Earth begin? It's part of the planet. And that planet supports you. If the planet weren't here, nor would I be. You are in the mountain, and the mountain is in you.

But when we use language, when we use thoughts, we divide things up. And there's no harm in it as long as we remember it's merely a linguistic tool. It's not the nature of reality. And that's why we could say there is no mountain. But if I say that, you will take it literally. You will think that the mountain is being dreamt up, and that's not what I mean. The mountain is there. It's just not thinking of itself as a mountain. It's you that think of it as a mountain. It's your mind that makes it a mountain.

And with that thought, you have lots of associations: it's a high place; it's a difficult, inaccessible place. But these are associations being created by your mind. And I think that's why Jesus came up with the word mountain in this example. He could have picked anything. He could have talked about a tree or a rock or a stick or leaf, anything. But he says mountain, because, in spirituality, the mountain is a great symbol. The journey is the journey up the mountain, to climb the mountain, to reach the top, and there you are God.

This is for beginners, of course. It's an analogy. And the point about that is the mountain is difficult to climb – don't expect this journey to be easy. And I think that's why Jesus has picked on this here. He says move away mountain, it will move. Yes. Once you have made the two one, there is no obstacle. There is no effort required. There's no struggle. There is no mountain to climb. There's nowhere to go. Sitting exactly where you are, right now, you are on top of the mountain. You are God.