The Beginning and the End (The Gospel of Thomas)

In this episode we look at the 18th saying of Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas. “The disciples said to Jesus, ‘Tell us how our end will be.’ Jesus said, ‘Have you discovered the beginning, that you look for the end? For where the beginning is, there will the end be. Blessed is he who will take his place in the beginning; he will know the end and will not experience death.’" 

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Transcript

Today we look at the 18th saying of Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas. “The disciples said to Jesus, ‘Tell us how our end will be.’ Jesus said, ‘Have you discovered the beginning, that you look for the end? For where the beginning is, there will the end be. Blessed is he who will take his place in the beginning; he will know the end and will not experience death.’" 

The disciples ask Jesus, “Tell us about our end.” What are they asking? It is most likely that they are talking about their individual end rather than the end of the nation or the end of the world. Perhaps they want to know how they are going to die, but it is more likely that they are asking what happens after they die. It is a common question among those on a spiritual path. 

I was sitting on the porch of our rental condo the other day with one of my nieces. I only get to see our Florida nieces once a year, so we were catching up. I asked her what she had been reading and thinking about recently. She said she has been thinking about the soul, and what happens at death. She was considering the possibility of reincarnation. It led to an interesting discussion, although it was cut short too soon. 

Many people wonder about their end. The end of their earthly life. Jesus’ disciples were wondering about it. They said to Jesus, “Tell us about our end.” Jesus responded, “Have you discovered the beginning, that you look for the end? For where the beginning is, there will the end be. Blessed is he who will take his place in the beginning; he will know the end and will not experience death.’"   

There is a lot here. First he says, “Have you discovered the beginning, that you look for the end?” Jesus is redirecting their inquiry. They are wondering about their end, but Jesus redirects their attention to their beginning. It is an ingenious approach. We don’t know when or where we are going to die. I don’t know. I am pretty sure I won’t be around in 20 years, but I don’t know if I will be around in 10 years, or one year or even one day. Our oldest son called us the other morning because he had a disturbing dream that he thought was a premonition. He wanted to make sure we were alright.  

What happens after the death of the body? We can declare by faith the tenets of our religion about whether or not we have eternal life and what that eternal life will look like. Christians love to talk about heaven and hell. Their favorite question is “Where will you spend eternity?” They pass out evangelistic gospel tracts with that question on it.  

Christians think they know the answer to Jesus’ question. But it is borrowed answer. Their answer is based on ecclesiastical authority – what the church says, what the church says the Bible says. Jesus did not appeal to religious tradition when answering this question. He did not quote scripture. He pointed them to look at their beginning. “For where the beginning is, there will the end be.” He pointed them to what they once knew  – if only they could remember.  

This is the approach of Jesus. He did not appeal to religious authority the way Christians do today. Christians – at least the conservative variety that I am most familiar with - are all about quoting the Bible, and they think that takes care of it. They do not realize that people do not share their belief in the authority of the Bible. Yes, Jesus quoted scripture, as I do. But he did so to illustrate his point, not as an authoritative end to discussion.  

Here in the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus did not answer their question by quoting the Bible. He did not say, “The Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it!” No, he told his disciples to look to at the beginning. In seeing their beginning, they will see their end. This is what Zen masters did, when they said to their disciples, “Show me your Original Face, the face you had before your parents were born.”  

This is exactly where Jesus was directing his disciples. “Have you discovered the beginning, that you look for the end?” In other words, he was saying: Instead of looking for what you don’t know, look at what you do know. When you remember what you were before you were born, you will know what you are after you die. “For where the beginning is, there will the end be.” It is full circle. 

T.S. Elliot famously said, “We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring. Will be to arrive where we started. And know the place for the first time.” That is the lesson of Jesus’ Parable of the Prodigal Son, as I said before. The Prodigal Son traveled to the Far Country in search of himself. It was a spiritual search. The story says that eventually, “he came to himself.” Only when he returned home did he realize that what he had been searching for was already present all the time. That was something that his older brother in the parable never realized. The prodigal woke up; his brother did not. 

We want know about the end, thinking that then we will know all the answers to the meaning of life and who we are. The truth is we already know the answers. We have known them from the beginning. We knew them before we were born. We have simply forgotten them. To remember, we must go the beginning, and when we do, then we know the end. 

To make this very practical, go the beginning now. See your original face before you were born, before your parents were born. See what you were before you were a body and a mind. What were you before you were a human being? It is not difficult. You know this. No one has to tell you.  We all know this intuitively. We cannot put it into words, so do not even try. Just know what you know, what you have always been.  

This is what Jesus was talking about in the last episode. He said, “I will give you what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, what no hand has touched, what has not arisen in the human heart." This is what Jesus is talking about here. It is not a mental conception, it cannot be articulated. “The Tao that can be spoken of is not the eternal Tao.” If you try to grasp this with the mind, you will miss it. It you try to experience it with emotions, you will miss it. This is before and beyond the body-mind. 

This Reality is what you really are. It is what you were at the beginning. It is what you are at the end. In reality there is no such thing as beginning and end. Those are concepts the mind creates to make distinctions where there are no distinctions. When you return to the beginning, you return to the One Reality. I am slowly reading through and pondering the ancient Zen poem Hsin Hsin Meng now. It says, “Go back to the Source and you are One with it. Go the way of the world and you lose the Way.” 

This is the meaning of the ouroboros, which is a symbol of a snake or dragon eating its own tail. The circle of the ouroboros is like the symbol of the Tao, a circle. It is often thought to represent the cyclical nature of time, but it is really pointing beyond time to the timeless. It is a portal to the beginning, which is one with the end.  

The one who knows the beginning knows what they are, and knows they will never die. As Jesus says at the end of this saying, “Blessed is he who will take his place in the beginning; he will know the end and will not experience death."  Another translation says, “Blessed is anyone who will stand up in the beginning and thereby know the end and never die.” We saw last time that “stand up” is another way of saying “wake up.” Because when you wake up from sleep in the morning, the first thing you do is stand up.  

When you wake up to your beginning, then you wake up to your end. You know what you are and have always been and will always be. When someone asks me about life after death, I tell them to look and see that it is here now. You do not have to wait for death. You can die before you die. I am not saying that the afterlife is a continuation of this individualistic, relative world, only better - like the common misconception of heaven. What I really am now, and what reality really is now, is what always has been and always will be.  

When we identify with that which is here now and cannot die, and cannot be born and cannot end, then we know that we cannot die. Then we will not experience death. These body-minds will die, but what we really are will not die. That is eternal life. That is resurrection. That is enlightenment. That realization is spiritual awakening.