gospel of Thomas 30

Jesus said, "Where there are three gods, they are gods. Where there are two or one, I am with him."

Here, Jesus is giving a teaching about duality and non-duality. And when teaching enters this area of non-duality, it is always paradoxical. The rational mind will struggle with it. It will probably reject the teaching altogether. Because the rational mind is used to words and symbols. And these divide up the world. These symbols create the sense of separation within the field of existence. And when things are thus divided up, the thinking mind is happy. That is duality. It is a perspective of the symbolic mind.

And Jesus says, where there are three gods, they are gods. These three gods have been created by the thinking mind – seeing different aspects of life, different mysterious aspects of existence, and creating a god for each. Remember, in the time of Jesus, monotheism – the belief in one God – was not so clearly established. The ancient Greeks and Romans had whole pantheons of gods, many gods: one god for the sun, another for the moon, one for the ocean, one for the mountains, one for love, one for death. Every aspect of life has its god.

Hinduism is perhaps the greatest religion alive today that still celebrates many gods. It can be a beautiful way to bring a focus of one's consciousness onto one aspect of life. We create a god for that aspect. We can worship it. We can have rituals. These can be helpful. But they are gods, with a small g. They have been created by the rational mind, by the mind of concepts, by the mind that divides up the world. This is the world of duality. The world where things are seen as separate.

But Jesus goes on, where there are two or one, I am with him. It doesn't make sense, does it, as a sentence. That's because we're using our rational mind to try and understand it. Where there are two or one, I am with him. Yes, ah yes. Twoness is also to do with duality. But the beautiful aspect of unity, of the enlightened state, is that everything is felt as whole. And yet one can also feel everything in the manifest way, separated. It's just a perspective. It has no fundamental reality to it.

So where there are two gods or one, I am with him. Yes, the two gods are the perspective of the enlightened state and the perspective of the unenlightened state, which is contained within enlightenment. This is where words begin to trip us up. We will not really be able to fathom this teaching with the rational mind.

One – where there is one – I am with him. Of course, if everything has become one, then I, the little I, am included within that. I am with him. You are part of existence. Everything that you think you are, is just part of a great field of energy. You are part of creation.

And where there are two, that is also true. Whilst we're using this perspective, still one is a part of that existence. So you might feel yourself to be just a part. And even that, even those words, are creating a separation. But as a part, you are also with the whole. You are also a part of existence, a part of God.

Well, trying to put words around paradoxical teachings is always a folly. And this little episode has just proved that point. Nevertheless, I hope it's of some use to somebody, somewhere. Perhaps you.