The Tao of Christ
The Tao of Christ is a podcast which explores the mystical roots of Christianity, which Jesus called the Kingdom of God, which church historian Evelyn Underhill called the Unitive Life, which Richard Rohr calls the Universal Christ, and which I refer to as Christian nonduality, unitive awareness, or union with God. This is the Tao of Christ.
The Tao of Christ
Right in Front of Your Face (Gospel of Thomas)
Today we look at the fifth saying in the Gospel of Thomas. Jesus said, "Recognize what is in your sight, and that which is hidden from you will become plain to you. For there is nothing hidden which will not become manifest." That is a translation of the Coptic text.
The Greek version, which dated earlier, adds another line. Jesus said, “Know what is in front of your face and that which has been hidden from you will be revealed to you. For there is nothing hidden that will not become clear and nothing buried that will not be raised.” Greek Oxyrhynchus Papyri (200 AD)
This talking about the revelation of the gospel of nonduality. It is saying it is both hidden and obvious at the same time.
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Today we look at the fifth saying in the Gospel of Thomas. Jesus said, "Recognize what is in your sight, and that which is hidden from you will become plain to you. For there is nothing hidden which will not become manifest." That is a translation of the Coptic text.
The Greek version, which dated earlier, adds another line. Jesus said, “Know what is in front of your face and that which has been hidden from you will be revealed to you. For there is nothing hidden that will not become clear and nothing buried that will not be raised.” Greek Oxyrhynchus Papyri (200 AD)
This talking about the revelation of the gospel of nonduality. It is saying it is both hidden and obvious at the same time. It is the same sort of thing that the apostle Paul says in his letter to the Romans. He speaks of “people, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.”
Paul is saying that Divine Reality is in plain sight but people do not see it. More than that, they will not see it; they suppress the truth from themselves and others. Jesus is saying that the One Ultimate Reality is right in front of our face, but we do not recognize it. People do not see the forest for the trees. It is so obvious that they miss it. That is because they do not want to see. For when we see it, then the little self that we mistake ourselves for is exposed as an illusion, and that feels dangerous. So we suppress what we have seen. I have shared before how I suppressed what I saw for twenty years.
“Know what is in front of your face and that which has been hidden from you will be revealed to you.” People search for years for what is right in front of their face. What is in front of our face is the Ten Thousand Things, as the Tao te Ching, phrases it. That dualistic universe declares the glory of God, if we have ears to hear and eyes to see.
On the surface the universe appears to be a material world. We function from the assumption that it is solid matter and as real as can be. But science has been peeling off the facade from this seeming reality. What appears to be solid is mostly empty space. The deeper we go to into the microscopic and subatomic level we see that there is no solid matter there. It is turtles all the way down, as the myth says.
Physicists have known for some time that this universe is just vibrations. Hindus call it maya. It is a mirage that appears as a play of matter and energy, time and space. When we know that what is in front of our face is a mystery that we cannot understand, then what has been hidden is revealed. That which was hidden is the Essence of the universe. Maya is Nirvana.
Scientists may or may not someday discover a "unified theory of everything" that explains the universe in one set of mathematical equations by unifying the fundamental forces of nature. But we non-scientists can know the one Reality that unites everything now. That Reality is as clear as a bell. It is right in front of our face. When the multiplicity of the universe is seen through, then the Oneness of the universe is revealed. “Know what is in front of your face and that which has been hidden from you will be revealed to you.”
Then Jesus continues, “For there is nothing hidden that will not become clear and nothing buried that will not be raised.” We are familiar with the first part from the canonical Gospel of Mark, where Jesus says, “For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open.” In Luke he says, “For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.” So this is not a new or strange saying.
But in the Gospel of Thomas Jesus adds, “and nothing buried that will not be raised.” This could be a reference to anything that is buried. Jesus told the parable of the hidden treasure. One day a sharecropper was plowing his field and his plow unearthed a ceramic jar in which the treasure had been hidden many years earlier. That is the way the Kingdom of God, the Spiritual Realm, is discovered.
Jesus told parables about seeds hidden in the ground. Jesus used this imagery in various ways in different parables. The seed that was hidden sprouted out of the ground and into the sunlight. The most interesting interpretation of this saying is that it is a reference to resurrection, which is a big deal in Christianity. “and nothing buried that will not be raised.”
In speaking about his resurrection Jesus says that a seed has to fall to the earth and die in order to be raised. The apostle Paul uses the same metaphor in talking about resurrection. Seed is buried and is raised. Jesus was buried, and was raised. His true nature was revealed, just like a seed’s true nature is revealed.
Nothing that is buried can remain hidden. When our eyes are opened and we see the Oneness of everything, it is a spiritual resurrection. We become a new creature, a new creation. We see ourselves and the world as it is. Resurrection is not just about a man rising from a tomb on Easter morning. It is about spiritual resurrection, which is a metaphor for awakening or enlightenment or liberation. Resurrections are parables of spiritual rebirth.
It is about seeing the true nature of Jesus, the true nature of everyone, the true nature of the universe. In the Gospel of Thomas Jesus is saying that the truth buried in all of us and in the heart of the universe will be raised. It will be seen. Colossians speaks of “the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints.” Jesus says, “Know what is in front of your face and that which has been hidden from you will be revealed to you. For there is nothing hidden that will not become clear and nothing buried that will not be raised.”
The gospel of nonduality is revealed. It is already known deep within us. We all know the truth in our hearts of hearts. It may be buried deep, but it will come to light. It may be buried under centuries of church tradition, but it is even now becoming known as gospels like the Gospel of Thomas are unearthed in archeological digs.
The state church of Constantine in the fourth century did its best to ban books and burn books. It tried to suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Some manuscripts were buried in jars at the base of a cliff in Nag Hammadi, Egypt, but they were uncovered and brought to light. Others were thrown into an ancient garbage dump in Oxyrhynchus, (oxy-rinkus) Egypt, where they were discovered centuries later. That is how we got the Gospel of Thomas.
There is nothing buried that will not be raised. Truth will come to light. Truth cannot be buried or hidden forever, because truth is not buried in the earth but in the human heart. And there will always be people who will search their hearts until they find.