Life Examined Part Two

Examining self requires that we take some time in our busy world of doing, to just be for a moment. That requires a strategy for quieting the analytical, judgmental mind and become the observer of the mind. In the Gospel of Thomas, we read, “Jesus said, ‘If you bring forth what is within you, what you have will save you. If you do not have that within you, what you do not have within you [will] kill you.’” vs 70 (1). When we bring forth that intelligence that is within us, which is put there by our very nature, we will realize that we are part of a larger intelligence that must be recognized and acknowledged. We are all in relationships in which we must acknowledge our dependence on one another. We also must acknowledge that our thoughts and actions have tremendous consequences on all things around us. Everything matters, there is nothing on this planet that does not have purpose, therefore matters. Failing to recognize this will in fact “kill us”.

From ego, this perspective is extremely difficult to recognize or experience. When one has a transcendent peace, or waking experience one can only conclude that it is true.
           
Working with many people who have come face to face with their mortality has taught me that higher consciousness often accompanies the failure of our temporal knowledge. As one detaches from ego function, that is the things that can be taken from us, one is left with that which is “within us”. We see examples of this when people lose everything materialistic and yet somehow find a quiet peace and gratitude. I have experienced people losing parts and function of their bodies, have lost loved ones, have lost property and yet have transcendent peace. This peace is not a product of ego function (attachment) but it is a knowing, which knowing comes from inner awareness or stillness. This can only come from the journey inward. 

 (1) The ‘scholars’ translation of the Gospel of Thomas by Stephen Patterson and Marvin