gospel of Thomas 6

His disciples questioned him and said to him, "Do you want us to fast? How shall we pray? Shall we give alms? What diet shall we observe?"

Jesus said, "Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate, for all things are plain in the sight of heaven. For nothing hidden will not become manifest, and nothing covered will remain without being uncovered."

Ah, Jesus was such a master! His disciples were real disciples. Like all disciples, they were asking for advice. What do we need to do? What discipline do we need? What method? How do we get to enlightenment? How do we reach heaven? What do we need to do to get there?

They asked about fasting, praying, giving, special diet. Ah yes, all seekers look at these things, wondering about their significance, their necessity, on the spiritual journey. And the disciples of Jesus asked him, plainly, what do we need to do?

He ignored all their suggestions about fasting and praying, giving arms, taking up special diets. He didn't refer to those at all. In his answer, he was so simple: do not tell lies. It seems quite a simple thing, does it not? And yet, when we are honest with ourself, it turns out that we are telling little lies all the time. Small deceptions maybe, but deceptions nonetheless. The ego mind has to tell lies, it feels too vulnerable. So it is always wanting recognition and acceptance. And that very wanting creates lies. Lies aimed at other people. But also a lot of self-deception.

And Jesus is saying, stop all this. Just stop lying. It's very simple advice. But you will see, it's remarkably difficult, to cut out all those little white lies – the ones that make life a little easier, a little more comfortable, acceptable. It's difficult. It's difficult to stop lying.

You may hate your wife or your husband. That may be the truth. But if you are not ready to leave them, you're going to tell lies. You're going to tell them that you love them. Or at least, hide the fact that you hate them. That's one example. If you look at your own life, I'm sure you will find many examples of lies. And Jesus says, do not tell lies.

And he goes on, do not do what you hate. Do what we hate? Surely we do not do what we hate? But that's the great tragedy of the state we have got ourselves into, the unenlightened way of being. We end up doing things that we hate doing. We end up being in a relationship that we hate. We end up doing a job that we hate to do. There are all sorts of things that we end up doing which we actually hate. It's terrible.

And Jesus says, quite simply, do not do what you hate. And he's right to say this. But again, it's much more difficult than we might imagine, to not do anything that we hate to do. We will feel that we are betraying those around us who have expectations of us. We will feel that we are outcast from society. All of this is essential on the spiritual journey.

And here Jesus has identified the two key tests of your authenticity. Are you telling lies? And are you doing things that you hate to do? Until both of those have stopped, the spiritual growth is greatly limited. So we need to follow Jesus' advice and stop telling lies, even to ourself, especially to ourself. And stop doing those things that we hate to do.

And Jesus goes on to explain why it is important that we stop these things. He says, all things are plain in the sight of heaven. For nothing hidden will not become manifest, and nothing covered will remain without being uncovered.

Everything is visible. This is the feeling for the enlightened ones. In traditional religious words, we might say that God sees all. Allah sees all. God is all knowing. But with these religious terms we tend to be externalising God, as if he is sitting over us in judgement, as somebody separate from us. It is not so.

Jesus gets more close to the truth. All things are plain in the sight of heaven. Heaven is our natural state here on earth. Heaven is our natural way of being. Heaven is our enlightenment. And enlightenment is simply living in the truth of what is, in the moment. Without hiding anything. Without suppressing anything. Without pushing things into the unconscious mind. Everything in the unconscious comes to light along the spiritual path. That is the work: bringing that which is covered into the light of awareness. 

And so it is. Whilst we feel we are the person doing the work, we will feel we are uncovering things. But somewhere along the way,  we cease to be the doer. Everything turns inside out. Everything is happening to us. And eventually everything is just happening. And that's why Jesus uses this passive phraseology. Everything that is covered will become uncovered. Everything that is hidden will become manifest, will become visible. This is the feeling of enlightenment.

And afterwards, we will feel foolish for having tried to hide things. That tendency to hide things will be seen as a sort of insanity. And indeed it is. But it is a mass insanity of humankind, this need to hide things, the need to have secrets, to tell lies, and to do things that we hate to do. We need to drop all this, as Jesus has indicated.

And if we can drop all this, then our other spiritual disciplines are of secondary importance. This is the real work. And it's a lot harder than it might seem.