gospel of Thomas 14

Jesus said to them, "If you fast, you will give rise to sin for yourselves; and if you pray, you will be condemned; and if you give alms, you will do harm to your spirits. When you go into any land and walk about in the districts, if they receive you, eat what they will set before you, and heal the sick among them. For what goes into your mouth will not defile you, but that which issues from your mouth – it is that which will defile you."

In this saying, Jesus is talking to some unenlightened seekers, people have not yet arrived at their true nature. And before enlightenment, almost everything we do causes trouble. Jesus is pointing this out. If you fast – that is, if you don't eat – you will give rise to sin for yourselves. Strange advice. In religious circles, it is often thought to be a good thing to fast; to half starve the body. But Jesus is saying no. If you do that, you're doing it for the wrong reasons. You're trying to prove something about yourself. You're trying to be holy. It's completely the wrong approach. And actually, in that very trying to be holy, we become unholy. We give rise to sin, for ourself. That's what Jesus is saying. There's no point in fasting. You're doing it all for completely the wrong reason. For reasons of the ego. And if you fast, your ego will get stronger – wow, now I'm a really religious person, I've been fasting – it’s making matters worse. So Jesus says, don't fast.

And if you pray, you will be condemned. Wow. Can you imagine a Christian saying something like that now? It's a completely non-Christian thing to say, and yet here is Jesus himself saying it. Don't pray. If you pray, you'll be condemned. It's the same thing. If we're praying from this sense of wanting, trying to get something for ourself, trying to prove that we're a good religious person because we are praying, this is all activity of the ego. And the very praying will just bolster the ego, and move us further from our enlightenment, move us further from God. And that's why Jesus says, you will be condemned. Just the very act of praying from that mindset is enough to push back our chances of transformation, of rediscovering the kingdom of heaven here on Earth.

So Jesus is pointing all this out. And he gives a third example: and if you give alms, you will do harm to your spirits. Giving alms – that is, giving food or other basic necessities to poor people – again, a very Christian thing to do, to help the needy. But that help needs to be coming from a genuine compassion, untainted with any desires for the self. If I am giving something in the hope that it makes me more religious, more favoured by God, then it will have quite the opposite effect. We will do harm to our spirits. We will push our very essence away. We will be moving away from our spirit. We will again be propping up the ego, making it stronger.

So best not to do any of these things. If the motivation is in any way to feel good about oneself, better not to do them. And you may have noticed that these three examples that Jesus talks about – fasting, praying, giving alms – these were amongst those suggestions that some disciples had made earlier. Jesus didn't refer to them at that point, but in a way here he is answering that question. No, don't do any of those things. You're not in a space to do them in a healthy way. So don't do them.

Jesus could have left it at that. But out of some compassion, he gives some positive advice for the poor disciples, who must be very confused by now. When you go into any land and walk about in the districts, if they receive you, eat what they will set before you, and heal the sick among them. Here you will not find so much as a hair's breadth between Jesus and the Buddha. The way of the Buddha and his disciples was to walk with almost no possessions, just walk about. And in the villages, they would hold out a begging bowl, and if the villagers gave them some food, they would eat whatever they were given, with gratitude. It's a way of inviting existence to provide what we need, without being picky, without being choosey – I accept this, I reject that – no. The way of the enlightened ones is merely to be receptive, and enjoy whatever comes from existence.

So Jesus says, eat what they will set before you. And as for contributing something, heal the sick, heal the sick among those people you are visiting. Healing is always a positive thing. In this way, the disciples can give something back to those people who are feeding them. It's the safest thing to do. Although even that healing may be coming from the ego. But at least if the person is healed, they will feel grateful, whatever the motivation was.

And Jesus finishes off with, what goes into your mouth will not defile you, but that which issues from your mouth – it is that which will defile you. Yes, here Jesus is saying, just be silent. Don't talk. Eating things is not going to make you a bad person. Fasting is irrelevant. So Jesus is saying, what we eat isn't the problem. It's what we say, that's the problem. All these words – people talking, talking from ignorance. And even if their motivation is good, those words will just cause more trouble in the world. Better to fall completely silent, until enlightenment comes at least. And after enlightenment, you will probably be happy to be silent anyway. So Jesus is right, when he says, it is that which issues from your mouth. It is that which will defile you.