gospel of Thomas 22

Jesus saw infants being suckled. He said to his disciples, "These infants being suckled are like those who enter the kingdom."

They said to him, "Shall we then, as children, enter the kingdom?"

Jesus said to them, "When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one and the same, so that the male not be male nor the female female; and when you fashion eyes in the place of an eye, and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of foot, and a likeness in place of a likeness; then will you enter the kingdom."

Here Jesus is once more, giving a very paradoxical teaching. And if we can really feel our way into these paradoxical teachings, they will benefit us greatly. Our whole understanding of the world and of ourself can change.

Let's start at the beginning of the parable. Jesus noticed some children being suckled – babies at the breast. These infants are like those who enter the kingdom of heaven, like those who become enlightened. Of course the disciples, that's what they want. So they say to Jesus, shall we then be like children in order to enter the kingdom of heaven?

And this is where Jesus replied paradoxically, when you make the two one... Wow. You see, a baby is one. There is no two for a baby. When we are born, we are all in an enlightened state. We lose that somewhere along the way, when we begin to feel separate, when twoness comes into being. Before that there was just one. The whole. No separation. So Jesus says when we make the two one – when we return to that state of oneness with all that is – then we can enter the kingdom of heaven.

And he goes on to give some examples of where this separation, this duality needs to disappear. When we make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside. Yes, this inside and outside, that's the me and the not me. That's the fundamental separation. And when that disappears, when the inside and outside are felt as one, and these words no longer have any meaning even, there is no inside and outside, there is merely all that is, then, we are enlightened.

Another example, when we make the above like the below. Here Jesus is talking about, when we make heaven like earth. When this great division between spirituality and the secular world dissolves. When enlightenment and the unenlightened state are seen to be one and the same. When heaven and earth are no longer separate. When this above and below disappears, when there is no higher and lower, when there is no comparison even, then shall we enter the kingdom of heaven.

When we make the male and the female one and the same, so the male not be male and the female, not female. Yes, this is also my experience. When the masculine and feminine within us become balanced and merge together, integrate, so we no longer feel ourself to be a man or a woman, when we no longer identify with our sex, then this male and female duality also disappears for ourself, as a felt reality. And then, when we are no longer man nor woman, then we are ready to enter the kingdom of heaven.

And Jesus goes on, when you fashion eyes in the place of an eye and a hand in place of a hand. Yes, everything we see and feel in the world is being ordinarily filtered through our ego, through our mind, and we have an idea of it. And that idea gets in the way of the reality. But when we come back to a more direct connection with reality, when we are no longer concerned with those ideas, then we are ready. Then we will enter the kingdom of heaven. Our enlightenment will come. And we will feel like children once more – as innocent as a newborn baby.