gospel of Thomas 44

Jesus said, "Whoever blasphemes against the father will be forgiven, and whoever blasphemes against the son will be forgiven, but whoever blasphemes against the holy spirit will not be forgiven either on earth or in heaven."

Here Jesus is trying to show us what is really important in spirituality – which also means what is really important in the way we live our life, here on earth.

Jesus says, whoever blasphemes against the father will be forgiven. The father is God. Whoever blasphemes against the father, in the end, it won't be a problem. It won't hold back your spiritual growth. You can say what you like about God: God exists; God does not exist; God is good; God is bad; God has this name or that name; We're not supposed to say the name of God. All of this in the end is inconsequential. We're still playing around with words, with ideas in the head with concepts. And in the end, we drop all concepts. So what we think about God, before our liberation – what we think and say is not important. We will be forgiven.

It's not that God is forgiving us, what Jesus means when he says we will be forgiven, is that sooner or later, we will go beyond those words, those ideas, that we ourselves are speaking. We will drop it all as a concept. It won't be a hinderance to our spiritual growth. It's just a stage we're passing through, a phase. It's no problem.

And Jesus also says whoever blasphemes against the son will be forgiven. In Christian terms, the son is usually taken to mean Jesus himself. But Jesus is not using the word so narrowly. For Jesus, you also are the son of God. I am the son of God. Everyone is. Every living being is a part of God, is the offspring of existence.

So you can say what you like about Jesus, which is also to say that you can have whatever image you like of yourself. Think what you like about yourself. You can think you are great. You can think you're a complete idiot. It doesn't matter. These words about human beings – either others, Jesus, an ordinary person in the street, or yourself – in the end, these will be seen to be images in our mind, just as we have an image of God. In the end, these images will be laughed at. They're not significant. But also in the end, they will not be a fundamental barrier to our spiritual enlightenment. We can grow beyond them. And then we will look back and laugh at how much energy we poured into concepts and ideas.

So say what you like about Jesus, say what you like about other prophets, other sages, other enlightened masters. It doesn't matter. Everything you are saying is reflecting something about your own self image. You're saying something about yourself. And in the end, even that will not be a hinderance. You will be able to drop your own self image, and in that will come your liberation. So blaspheme as you will. It doesn't matter.

But Jesus goes on, whoever blasphemes against the holy spirit will not be forgiven either on earth or in heaven. Well, suddenly a change, here you won't be forgiven. And what is it you won't be forgiven for? – blaspheming against the holy spirit. The holy spirit is that which is the bridge between God and you, between the whole and the part. The holy spirit is the energy of creation, existence coming into being in every moment – in you, in me, in everybody, in everything. This manifest world comes into being through the holy spirit. The spirit is the transition, energy carrying the unmanifest – godliness – into the manifest, the physical world, the world of emotions and thoughts, everything we know is life in this world of duality. It is all coming into being in the moment, through the holy spirit.

And the holy spirit is energetic. It's not a physical thing that you can point to. No, it's energy, pure energy – moving, flowing. And how can you blaspheme against energy? Here, blaspheme is not to be understood as saying things, or even thinking things. It's how we live our life in the world. When you feel driven to do something, and you know that impulse is coming from your innermost being, do you do it? Or does your petty little mind step in and say no, it's too risky, it's too unusual? What will people think of me? What will people say?

If we are living our life from our rational mind, with its mundane little view of existence, and its fears everywhere it looks – if we are living our life from that space, we are blaspheming. In our very actions, in our very life – our whole life is one big blaspheme against the holy spirit.

The holy spirit is trying to move us. But for that movement to happen, we have to trust it. We have to trust those intuitive urges, the spontaneity that comes to us when we allow it. Anything else is blaspheming. And if you are living your life, blaspheming in this way against the spirit, then there is no hope. You cannot grow spiritually. You are encaging yourself with your mind, your thoughts, your beliefs. All of this is a prison of your own making.

In this sense, you will not be forgiven. That is, you cannot grow, whilst you are living your life that way. It will be enough to stop you realising heaven, that is, your enlightenment. But also even your mundane physical life – the way you live your life from day to day – will not in the end be rewarding. It won't feel nourishing. You will just feel trapped, undeveloped, unfulfilled, even in the most secular terms.

So drop it. Start to live your life truthfully, authentically. Listen to the spirit as it whispers to you from your innermost being, telling you what to do, where to go, how to be in the world. Listen to it. Follow it. You can trust it. Without you needing to do anything else, it will transform your life into a heavenly one.

So blaspheme as much as you like against God, against yourself. But when it comes to the spirit that whispers to you, never blaspheme. Never go against it. Trust it, and jump.