gospel of Thomas 71

Jesus said, "I shall destroy this house, and no one will be able to build it [...]."

There is some text missing at the end of this verse, so we don't know quite how Jesus finished his sentence. But that doesn't matter. In fact, it gives us more space to interpret the saying as we need to. And this is true of any teaching. Each of us is at a certain point on our own journey. And we need to hear different things from each other in order to take the next step. And so in a way, when something is missing from the record of a teaching, it can give us even more space to interpret things as we need to, individually.

So what is Jesus talking about here – I shall destroy this house – what house? The house that Jesus is referring to, is the cosy home that each of us has made within our mind. We construct a story about the world, and then we live in our little story. We no longer live in reality. We find it more comfortable to live in this house within our mind – the house which we have constructed from everything we like in the world, and have become attached to. We identify with these things. And our ego constructs itself thus.

And also the things that we dislike: those we mentally position on the outside of the house walls. But actually, they reinforce the walls from the outside, like great flying buttresses. It is difficult to construct the ego from positive things alone. It is at least as happy, if not more happy, With negative things – the things that we consider ourselves not to be, that we don't identify with; in fact that we reject and push away, and claim to have nothing to do with. They are within us as well, just as much as the so called positive things. But we are denying them. And that gives them great strength, like the most massive buttresses on ancient cathedrals.

So this is the house that Jesus is going to destroy. And every master is in this business. We are all here doing demolition work. That is the only way that someone can help us on our spiritual journey: to help us to destroy that house that we have created for ourself in our mind. It's a completely negative process, a destructive process. Each of us needs to let go of, throw away, this rubbish that we have collected, and which has somehow become stuck to us.

And it is the work of Jesus and the other masters to help us let go of these things. And that is why Jesus says he will destroy this house and no one will build it. I guess he means no one will rebuild it. The destruction needs to be total and final. And then we can once more dwell in reality, without that house – there's no need of a house. And dwelling in reality, we will find that we are no more – at least not as we thought of ourself before. There is just a beingness, a presence. But that presence can only shine forth when there are no house walls around it; when there are no buttresses propping up the decrepit old house walls of the ego.