Making the Two One (Gospel of Thomas)

The twenty-second saying of Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas is the clearest example of Christian nonduality that we have in any gospel. Some of these metaphors in this passage are familiar to us from other sayings in the Gospel of Thomas, as well as similar sayings in the canonical gospels. Others we have not come across before. 

Jesus saw some babies nursing. He said to his disciples, "These nursing babies are like those who enter the kingdom." They said to him, "Then shall we enter the kingdom as babies?" Jesus said to them, "When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter the kingdom."

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Transcript

The twenty-second saying of Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas is the clearest example of Christian nonduality that we have in any gospel. Some of these metaphors in this passage are familiar to us from other sayings in the Gospel of Thomas, as well as similar sayings in the canonical gospels. Others we have not come across before. 

Jesus begins my pointing out some nursing infants to his disciples. It says, “Jesus saw some babies nursing. He said to his disciples, "These nursing babies are like those who enter the kingdom." He is referring of course to the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven, or as it is usually called in this gospel, the Kingdom of the Father. Jesus often uses small children as examples of those who are of the Kingdom of God. This is another example.

The disciples’ response is: “Does that mean we enter the Kingdom of God as babies?” This is reminiscent of Nicodemus in the Gospel of John, when he says, “Can a person enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” This is particularly significant because in John, “born again” or “born from above” or “born of the Spirit” are Jesus’ terms for enlightenment or liberation. The Kingdom of God is nirvana. But in Christianity the phrase “born again” has been badly misunderstood, especially by evangelicals.

Anyway here in the Gospel of Thomas, the disciples are asking whether they must literally become babies to enter the Kingdom. They take it literally, which is the biggest problem in Christianity. Of course we don’t physically become babies, but we are given a second naiveté when it comes to how we perceive the universe. We see as a child sees, touch as a child touches, live as a child lives.

Then Jesus speaks the greatest verse in Thomas. It is Thomas’ equivalent to John 3:16. Jesus says, “When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the above like the below, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you enter the kingdom."

That is one long sentence, so I will take it in segments. First he says, “When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the above like the below....” The first pair is most important, making the two into one. That is a summation of nonduality. Actually it is not making two into one, but seeing that they are already one - making it true in our life.

Then he gives a series of dualistic pairs that are to be made into one. "when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the above like the below....” The inner and outer are the most important pair. We know that because it is repeated: “the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner.” He is talking about inside and outside us. He is saying that when it is seen that there is no inner and outer, then we see that all is one. We it is seen that there is no inside or outside of us, then it is seen that we are one with all.

Inner and outer are artificial distinctions. The only thing that distinguishes the inside of a dish from the outside is dish itself. The space is the same. That is demonstrated when the bowl breaks. Then the inside and outside become one again. It was always one. There never really was except in our thinking. Inside and outside are the same. When we see that the inside of us is the same as the outside of us, then we see that there really is no us.  When we break. When the ego breaks, then we see that. I gave a talk on this using the nursery rhyme of Humpty Dumpty as the focus. When this is seen, then all the king’s horse and all the king’s men cannot put Humpty back together again. 

Jesus says elsewhere, “The Kingdom of God is within you and outside you.” That means God is inside and outside us. That is what omnipresence means. There is no inside or outside of us. That is clear when the body dies, and especially when it is cremated. Inside is outside. 

The same with making the upper like the lower, or making the above like the below. Those terms are often used in reference to heaven and earth. Heaven is thought to be up there somewhere – where we go when we die. It is where Jesus is said to go at his ascension in the Gospel of Luke. Earth is thought to be below and heaven above. But there is no above and below. Those are relative terms. When we see there is no above and below, then we see that Heaven is not up there. The Kingdom of Heaven is here now. That is what Jesus prayed in the Lord’s pray. “Thy kingdom come, they will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

The next pair of dualities Jesus mentions is male and female. Jesus says, “when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female....” Here we see something that we do not see in the New Testament gospels. Jesus erases the difference between male and female. They are of no consequence to him. That is why he had both female and male disciples. But the canonical gospels try to erase that by calling only the male followers disciples. 

The Apostle Paul had a glimpse of this transcendence of genders in a famous passage in Galatians, where he writes: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” The apostle saw the truth of nonduality that transcends genders and race and socio-economic class. Paul correctly saw that Jesus taught that, although he did not implement it in his ministry as well as he could have. But which of us does?

Now we come to the last part of the saying, which is the most difficult to interpret. Jesus says, “when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter the kingdom.” 

Interpreters struggle with his section. To carry on with the pattern of making the two one, we expect it to say “when you make an eye in place of eyes” but it says the opposite. It says “when you make eyes in place of an eye.” Then it has three more examples: “when you make ... a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter the kingdom.”

This can be confusing. What is Jesus saying here? I hear him saying that awakening to nondual Reality – the Kingdom of Heaven - changes our understanding of the body – our hands and feet and our whole image of the body. 

I think of Douglas Harding’s “The Headless Way.” His whole approach to self-realization is to see the body in a radically new way, a way that opens us up to Reality beyond the body. It opens us up to the Kingdom of God. Harding’s approach does not work for everyone, but it works for some people.

That is what Jesus is talking about here! He is saying that when we replace our typical image of the body with the reality about the body, then we see that there is no body. We are made in the image and likeness of God, who is Spirit. Then we enter the Kingdom of God. We might call this “the bodiless way.” Some people have a hard time with this part of the saying, like they have a hard time with Harding’s headless way, but for some people it is an effective pointer to Nondual Reality.

When we make the two one, when see that all the twos – all the dualities of life - are one, then we enter the Kingdom of God, where we have always been anyway. We just didn’t see it.