Self-realization: Jesus' approach is outright revolutionary, one that will be cursed by ecclesiastical authority today


Dear disciples of the Paraclete Shri Mataji,

i have come across a most amazing book by Richard Valantasis and ordered it after coming across the sayings of Jesus that left me silenced .......... for loss of words to describe their immense depth and grandeur:

The Gospel of Thomas (Richard Valantasis)
Order Placed: April 27 2011
Amazon.ca order number: 701-1624392-6645XXX
Order Total: CDN$ 21.49 (Second-hand)

The book has the author's articles concerning Jesus' explanation of Self-realization. There is no incarnation who has the depth and vastness of enlightenment as that of Jesus. His precise, priceless knowledge and technique required for attaining life eternal are beyond reproach. It is unassailable! It is unsurpassable! It is a way of daily life like no other, one that is beyond the ignorant masses and their religious leaders to attain.

i totally agree with this customer review:

"I know that Routledge has put out some amazing books and it quite suprized me that they would be interesting in publishing a book concerning the gospel of thomas. But nevertheless, this is a very scholarly book. The author does not delve himself into mindless speculation, but rather the hard facts. Those that have read Elaine Pagels' 'Beyond Belief' should rather focus their attention on this book if they wish to read a scholarly book at its finest. Definitely worth the price."

Yes, it is far better than Elaine Pagels 'Beyond Belief'. No question about that! Valantasis covers the entire Gospel of Thomas in rich detail and esoteric depth, which was what Jesus was trying to convey. Each saying is worth pondering. Many are priceless. Collectively, they all lead to _true_ Self-realization. i must emphasize "true" because Self-realization is far more than kundalini awakening and chakras.

i have never come across any Self-realization that conveys more meaning and awe. One can almost feel the presence of Jesus guiding from within. His teachings and warnings come to life today (and again you are assured that the edited and corrupted SYSSR is sure 'death').

The Self-realization that Jesus teaches is what the Paraclete and Spirit-Paraclete have revealed. With this book we can finally approach Christians and non-Christians alike concerning what is believed to be an overwhelmingly Hindu concept. It is not. Thus seeking God in the churches (and synagogues, mosques, temples and gurdwara) will cease. Jesus' assures us that we can and must worship God in Spirit and truth _within_ ourselves. A reader admits that the "addition of this book to the Bible would make this world a better place. We Christians would be more like Buddhists."

To be honest, i now understand Self-realization better. It makes much more sense. Jesus' instructions are down to earth, contemporary and brutally honest. Jesus' approach is outright revolutionary, one that will be cursed by ecclesiastical authority today exactly as it was anathema to them two millennia ago. Surely one must agree:

Richard Valantasis, The Gospel of Thomas
"Readers experience for the first time the irony and sarcasm possible in these collections of sayings. The narrative strategy has already invested the reader with a kind of full authority to find the community's interpretation of the sayings, a process that has guaranteed immortality. When we first hear about "leaders," they are giving bad information, directing the seekers' attention to the sky or under the earth. To follow such leaders results in getting lost. In contrast to such misguided leadership, Jesus directs the readers to understand their own empowerment: the imperial rule of God is found both within and without the seeker. True leadership directs the seeker inward to a new understanding of the self, and outward to a new understanding of the world in which God's imperial rule is manifested. The seeker guides the self into knowledge, requiring no external guidance other than the saying of Jesus that directs the seekers to themselves.

The important point is not only that there is a new understanding of an empowered self, but also that God's imperial rule must be understood anew. The location of God's imperial rule is not in the heavens, nor is it under the earth (other creatures would experience the rule of God first, if this were the case), but God's imperial rule is within and without the person. The interior location of the imperial rule, as Patterson (1993:71-72) argues, finds specific thematic parallels with Luke 17.20-21 ("for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you") and perhaps with Matthew's "warning against those who would locate the kingdom in a specific place" (Matthew 24.26). The Kingdom of God in this saying, however, remains interior in that it emerges from self-knowledge and exterior in that it depends upon a self-awareness that leads to a new understanding of the mundane world.

This relocation of the imperial rule of God probably represents one side of an ongoing conversation among early Christian people about authority and power: some probably expected an apocalyptic rule of God inaugurated from the heavens (as Paul did in 1 Thessalonians), others may have experienced the church community itself as the inauguration of the reign of God (as Matthew did in his gospel), still others at once interiorized the rule of God and, therefore, reinterpreted its external significance (as in this saying).

This new awareness and understanding of the self develops from the kind of seeking mentioned in the previous saying. The readers, and the seekers, will find this understanding of the rule of God as they come to know themselves. Self-knowledge reveals the connection to the Father, not as an external adoption by a distant heavenly Father, but as "children of the living Father," a Father who is present and vital. The opposite of this self-knowledge is poverty: true wealth does not consist in anything but knowing self, poverty both as a state of being and as a condition of life follows from the refusal to seek.

All of these issues are intimately connected. The true self, the empowering strategy both of the narrator and of Jesus' sayings, the alternative understanding of the world, the redefinition of poverty both as ontological and social, the rejection of hierarchical leadership—all these conspire to create alternative understandings of self, relationships, and world. These alternatives work ascetically; they are a part of a systematic means of redefining and reorienting the seeker to the world (see Valantasis 1995b). They open the possibility of transformation and renewal through the interpretative practices outlined in the sayings."

Richard Valantasis, The Gospel of Thomas
Routledge; 1 edition (June 27, 1997) p. 44

So we will wait for the book to arrive. i believe Jesus Christ is to spirituality and eternal life what Che Guevera was to socialism and armed class struggle. Both were revolutionaries who urged radical means to confront and overcome the oppressors. Both paid the ultimate price and pain for their beliefs and struggle, Jesus far more.

But i said that "Jesus _is_ to spirituality and eternal life". The arrival of the Paraclete Shri Mataji concluded His teachings, and has now set His radical spiritual revolution in motion. Upon the death of Shri Mataji the Spirit-Paraclete within took over, for all times.

The Self-realization that Jesus speaks about is as revolutionary as it is foreboding. It grants eternity to those who believe, death to those who taunt. The same fate awaits the world's ecclesiastical authorities poised to oppose it!

In the "Gospel of Thomas" Jesus promises to protect and nurture the tiny community of believers bearing that spiritual revolution till they are strong enough to set the world ablaze with the declaration that the Resurrection and Last Judgment has begun: "I have cast fire upon the world, and look, I'm guarding it until it blazes."

There is still a lot of work required to present the divine eschatological fire of the Paraclete in a manner that can be understood and accepted by the world. Above all, we need to persevere against the tens of thousands of SYSSR fools who tried to extinguish this fire. They almost succeeded but that danger is now gone. Without question, Shri Mataji has taken care of this negativity that nearly destroyed Her advent and message.

The eschatological fire will blaze one day. We have the Savior's word on that! And the Paraclete's too! In the meantime, the Spirit- Paraclete comforts as we wait for the eschatological fire to spread and set the world ablaze. It is only a matter of time.

regards to all,


jagbir


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