Gnostica

Thanks to JayGnosis on YouTube: Matrix Industrial Truman Show Electro Goth Trippy Gnostic

The Lost Gospel “Q” (Part 2)

(see September Archives for Part 1)

Like all Gospels, The Lost Gospel Q can be read on two different levels. That is, it can be read with two different questions in mind:

(1) What does it tell us about the people in the community that produced it? And: (2) What does it suggest about Jesus, as an historical figure?

Let’s begin with the most striking thing that Q tells up about the community that produced it. On the assumption that Q contains what was most central to the Q Community, it provides evidence for an early Christian community that did not make the death and resurrection of Jesus central to its message.

Q contains no passion narrative, no death and resurrection stories. It is an important point. For this community, what mattered most about Jesus was not his death and resurrection; the community did not stress “believing” that “Jesus died for our sins and rose again.”

What did matter to the Q Community was the teaching of Jesus. To a large extent, Q is a classic “Two Ways” teaching, a form known in the Jewish tradition and in most religions. There is the wise way and the foolish way, the narrow way and the broad way. One way leads to life, the other to death. The sayings in Q often speak of the way or path that Jesus taught, a way deeply subversive of the dominant cultural consciousness of his day, and perhaps of every day.

Here was a form of early Christianity (probably Galilean) that centrally emphasized “The Way”, to use the phrase cited in the Book of Acts as the earliest name for the Christian movement. It is quite different from most traditional and modern forms of Christianity. Although this indicates that the theology of the Q Christians was quite different from the theology of Paul, the two points-of-view are not necessarily irreconcilable.

The Lost Gospel tells us much more about the Q Community, but I leave that for another time, or to your own investigation. I turn now to the second question: What glimpses does Q have of Jesus? But first a note of caution: just because the Lost Gospel Q is relatively early (probably originating somewhere between A.D. 50 and A.D. 60), we should not think of it as a transcript of events and teachings going back to Jesus himself.        Q is the product of a “developing tradition”, and some of the material in it is unlikely to go back to Jesus. With that caution in mind, what picture of Jesus emerges?

Taking Q as a whole, six elements are noteworthy.

First, Jesus was a wisdom teacher with a metaphoric mind- a teacher of uncommon wisdom, commonly expressed in memorable aphorisms.

Second, he was a radical cultural critic. Though subversion of cultural consciousness is characteristic of most teachers of unconventional wisdom, there is also sharp and passionate social criticism in Q. It is directed against wealth, and against the ruling elites (religious, political and economic); indeed, the Jesus of Q threatens Jerusalem (the home of elites) with divine judgment.

Third, from Q we would discern that Jesus was a religious ecstatic. He had visions, undertook a wilderness ordeal or vision quest, spent long hours in prayer, was said by his critics to be spirit-possessed, and spoke of God in intimate metaphors.

Fourth, we would surmise that he was a healer and an exorcist. Though Q has only one healing story, it contains sayings about both healing and exorcisms.

Fifth, the Q community spoke of Jesus as the Wisdom of God (that is, as the Sophia of God), ans as the Son of God (though not yet in an ontological sense). Whether either christological image “goes back to Jesus”is much debated and uncertain.

Sixth, the Jesus of Q spoke of both apocalyptic eschatology and sapiential eschatology. The former speaks of a supernatural intervention by God coming in the imminent future; it stresses “waiting for God to act” (as the contemporary Jesus scholar John Dominic Crossan puts it).The later speaks of the ending of the world of cultural consciousness and domination brought about through response to an enlightened teacher. To echo Crossan again, the second form stresses that “God is waiting for us to act”. Both are in Q; whether or not both can be traced back to Jesus (and if so, how they are qualified be each other) is another question.

This concludes my introduction to the subject of The Lost Gospel Q . I may return to this topic at a later time. But for now, I wanted to merely present an overview of this topic; to make sure that readers are aware that once there was a gospel that predated the synoptic gospels of the New Testament, and upon which the writers of the synoptics relied, and from which they derived source material…A gospel that once was, but is now known only by inference and deduction. It is my intention to juxtapose the Lost Gospel Q against “another Gospel” that does not receive much press these days, the Gospel of Peter, which I will address in my next posting.

Hexalpa

In one of those weird flashes of insight that occasionally comes along at about 3 am, I recently came to the realization that my own spiritual journey is leading me to establish a formal syncretization between Buddhism and Gnosticism. I’d like to share my preliminary notes on the subject, and invite conversation. These are some very basic ideas, with which I will eventually be moving forward. Long time readers will undoubtedly recognize some of the ideas herein from some of my other writings– this is because it’s time to establish a vehicle in which I can begin to coalesce some of the concepts that have been floating around for some time. Thoughts and ideas are welcome. Some may be incredibly repulsed or put-off by this little summation, which is fine. I do want to emphasize, however, that I am not trying to interpret Gnostic or Buddhist thought as they stand– this is no commentary on modern Gnosticism or Buddhism– but instead to comingle them, distill their essences, and take them in a different direction.

• Way Gnosticism is a contemporary spiritual path combining essential (in the sense of “the essence of a thing”) tenets of Buddhism and Gnostic Christianity and the teachings of Gautama Buddha and Jesus Christ. One might also refer to this path as “Zen Gnosticism.”
• The Way is moving from the Kenomic Worldview– the worldview of Emptiness– to the Pleromic Worldview– the worldview of Fullness. Another way to say this is that the primary goal of a Way Gnostic is to reduce suffering, both for one’s self and for others, through self-knowledge and mindfulness. This can be achieved through the cultivation of gnosis.
• Gnosis is a state of insight brought about by the application of living information and wisdom to an awakening experience. Or, to put it another way, Gnosis = Awakening (Word + Wisdom).
• Gnosis is cultivated through contemplative practice and meditation, which delivers the experience of awakening. This awakening is then contextualized by Gnostic cosmotheology and through one’s interactions with the World of Forms.
• Jesus Christ, Son of God and Gautama Buddha, the Enlightened One were two avatars of the Christos– both Bodhisattvas.
• The Logos as Word is Living Information, and Sophia as Wisdom is the application of that Information. Both exist both macro- and microcosmically, and may be discussed in terms of either. We refer to both as “Logosophia,” as one should always be present with the other.
• There are four essential virtues to be cultivated by the Way Gnostic, which are the manifestation of the Logosophia: Inquiry, Compassion, Humility and Service. These virtues are present in the teachings of both Jesus and Gautama.
• There is an essential Self. The universal Nous is the Mind behind the essential Self.
• The Archons are the illusions that tie us to the World of Forms via “fate.” Becoming detached from the Archons through the practice of meditation helps free us from the cycle of birth and rebirth. From the Book of Thomas the Contender: “Woe to you because of the wheel that turns in your minds!”
• Some individuals who have achieved gnosis may vow to return to the World of Forms as bodhisattvas or Messengers of Light until all conscious beings have achieved gnosis.
• Way Gnostics take refuge in the Nous, the Logosophia and the Pleroma.
• Way Gnostics may participate in and perform the Christian Sacrament of the Eucharist, and perform and recognize the validity of the other Christian Sacraments. The primary practice, however, is contemplative.
• A number of contemplative practices are available to the Way Gnostic, including, but not limited to zazen, vipassana, Gnostic ascent prayer, etc.
• Way Gnostics also agree with the idea of the Middle Path. From the Gospel of Philip: ” Fear not the flesh nor love it. If you fear it, it will gain mastery over you. If you love it, it will swallow and paralyze you.”
• Way Gnostics may fully participate in “mainstream” Buddhist Sanghas or Christian Congregations. They also may establish zendos in their areas, or practice as individuals. The core of Way Gnosticism occurs within the individual.
• As the goal is to escape the World of Forms and the circle of Fate, Way Gnostics disdain horoscopes and fortune-telling. As the goal is to eliminate our participation in illusion and strip away everything but the essential, Way Gnostics do not participate in entheogenic spiritual technologies.

Or, G = AL + AS

Gnosis must be a deeply personal experience, but not every deeply personal experience is gnosis.

According to this contemporary approach, true Gnosis (G) requires three variables:

A: An Awakening Event– This might be an epiphany, a theophany, a revelation, etc., but it must be personal and must be experienced.

L: The Word, or Logos– An informational context into which one can place the awakening event. Remember that one of the meanings of Logos is “word,” but it also means “faculty of reason,” “discourse,” “law,” “pronouncement.” Jesus Christ, as the Logos, represents the deliverer of discourse– in Buddhist terms, we may find similarities to the Buddha as the Living Dharma. In the Sethian tradition, Jesus carries forth the Discourse as an extended faculty of reason initiated in the Pleroma by the Divine Seth. The preexistent Logos within the Pleroma is the Christos, which manifests within the World of Forms as living information. He is the instructor who institutes the sacraments– information. He teaches the Way to his disciples– information. He facilitates the presence of the Nous within each of us– information.

S: Wisdom, or Sophia– The wisdom to apply the awakening event through praxis within one’s holistic life. This is our Blessed Mother Sophia, tempered by faith, who carries us forward in our day-to-day existence. She delivers the essential Wisdom necessary to apply the teachings of the Logos to day-to-day life. With her infinite compassion, she descends through the spheres of the Archons to engage the spirit in each of us and allow us to develop compassion for all beings. She allows us to perform the sacraments presented by the Logos wisely, and fills our actions with content, keeping us moving forward and upward as we climb the ladder of emanations towards the realms of the Pleroma.

It is certainly possible to have any combination of these variables, but without all three, we cannot say with any amount of certainty that gnosis has been acheived. The equation allows us to investigate gnosis as an internal collaboration between these three elements. These scenarios are presented for self-analysis, not for application to other people. Also, keep in mind that these scenarios are appropriate for those who are pursuing or attempting to understand contemporary Gnosticism, not Buddhism or Islam or Sivaism, etc.

x (L + S): Without the awakening event, one has a context devoid of content. A person may have the information taught within the tradition, and the wisdom to apply it, but sans the awakening event, gnosis has not yet emerged. This is likely the most common state of the contemporary Gnostic who has not yet acheived gnosis, but this is positive, as through the medium of the Logos and Sophia, one can certainly pursue the flash of awakening which then establishes gnosis in one’s being.

A (x + S): One may be wise and awakened, but without the information provided by the Logos, one is aimless and wandering. This person may not have encountered the teaching of the Logos, but as soon as he or she has been touched by the Christos, he or she can apply their wisdom within a framework.

A (L + x): A situation necesitating great caution; the person who has experienced an awakening but has not yet been embraced by Sophia is in great danger of ego-inflation. This is a scenario in which we often find ourselves pseudo-messiahs or judges.

A (x + y): Awakening with no context. Another situation in which we often find seekers new to the Gnostic path. It is imperative that our awakening is tempered with the proper context presented by Wise application of the Word.

x (L + y): This scenario represents someone who may have book learning or base information, but no other kind of contextual support. It is doubtful that someone in this situation would be interested in pursuing the Gnostic path.

x (y + S): It is of course perfectly possible to be a wise person without any formal information or any desire for an experience of awakening.

Viewed in this fashion, gnosis must be Gnostic. A Buddhist who experiences satori has not experieced gnosis. If that Buddhist places that satori event into the context provided by the Logos and Sophia, he has experienced gnosis.

The cultivation of gnosis is gnosis. The Path and the Goal are identical. Every step on the Way is the first and last step. Once one has achieved gnosis, that person is charged with the awesome responsibility to continue walking this Way, supporting those fellow travellers who stumble and helping awaken those who sleep.

Movie Crunch has conveniently listed all of the films that have been made with screenplays based on the stories of Philip K. Dick.  Most people know about Blade Runner and Total Recall.  How many have heard of Paycheck (one of the more faithful adaptations; great cast but uninspired acting) or Next with Nicholas Cage as Dick’s “Golden Man”?  My own favorite is A Scanner Darkly; here’s the trailer for this roto-scoped rendered film.

A Scanner Darkly