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[sophiaserpentia]

This confirms beyond any doubt my theory that the Gnostics considered the mind of the individual to share its essence with the cosmos-as-mind. This links Gnosticism strongly to the Vedic philosophy equating Brahman with the Atman.

[the Savior said,] "Those who have not known themselves do not have Gnosis of anything. But those who have only known themselves have also received Gnosis with the depth of the Pleroma. So for this reason, Thomas my brother, you have personally seen what is obscure to humankind and what people are impeded by when they lack Gnosis."

from The Book of Thomas the Contender, Writing to the Perfect, adapted from the translation by Bentley Layton

Comments

Re: response

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

LOL, Seraphim, I do not require agreement or praise to be thankful for a reply. In fact I prefer having people around who are willing to keep me honest, who force me to "put up or shut up" as they say on the street.

Anyway I don't disagree that Thomas the Contender "coulda been a contender" or more of one anyway, it's not the brightest star in the Gnostic library.

Also the excerpt above was not helped when it was translated by Bentley Layton, who though an excellent scholar has no poetic instinct whatsoever. His translations are the driest imaginable, though they are indispensable because they are so literal.

What interested me about this passage was the directness with which it connects the Gnostic experience with that notion central to Vedic mysticism -- while at the same time connecting both (perhaps more tenuously in the case of the Vedas) to Neoplatonism.

The concept of cosmos-as-mind strikes me as one of the most important mystic assertions, because it demonstrates the cosmic importance of each persons' putting their mind in order -- of "repentance" in what was perhaps the original sence of the word: inner rectification.

Inner rectification was also a theme that appears in the alchemical literature of course, but that's a whole other journal entry...