gospel of Thomas 72

A man said to him, "Tell my brothers to divide my father's possessions with me."

He said to him, "Oh man, who has made me a divider?"

He turned to his disciples and said to them, "I am not a divider, am I?"

This is a humorous little episode from the Gospel of Thomas. I guess someone's father had died, and there was some squabbling about how to divide up the father's possessions between the father's sons. So here one of those brothers has come looking to Jesus as a sort of authority that people might listen to. And he's asking Jesus, please tell my brothers to divide up my father's possessions with me. He wants his share.

And Jesus laughs at this request. He can see how funny it is, that someone has come to him, of all people, talking about dividing things up.

Unenlightened people divide things up. That's all the unenlightened mind can do: divide, and keep dividing. And if there is one way we can come close to defining the enlightened mind, it is that mind that no longer divides, that no longer separates. This is really the core of enlightenment.

To become enlightened, not much is needed. But one does need to disassociate oneself from this dividing mind. And the thinking mind cannot do anything except divide the world. It uses words, symbols, concepts – and these are discrete. They don't form a continuity. Already, the symbols themselves are separate things, and what they refer to must also be seen and felt as separate. And thus it is, the thinking mind divides the world.

But the world itself is not divided. Being divided is not an intrinsic characteristic of existence. It is only the human thinking mind that sees it that way. And so Jesus, being enlightened, does not regard the universe as divided. And yet he knows full well that most men spend their days dividing – dividing the continuity of existence into separate parts. And so here, when a man comes asking about dividing up possessions, Jesus can but laugh.

For the enlightened mind is feeling existence as undivided, without separation: without separation between things; most of all without separation between oneself and the rest of existence. That is the primary division. And once the mind has made that primary division, once it has separated itself off from everything else, all the mayhem of human existence follows from that division.

And so the teachings of the masters is always in the direction of integration, of becoming whole once more. This holistic approach to life is what spirituality is all about. So never ask a master to divide things up, or he – like Jesus – will laugh.