True Gnostics Should Not Vote For ...

I happened across a comment online the other day where some person was saying that no true Gnostic should vote for McCain. I had to laugh.

This is the same rhetoric I could hear back in the Southern Baptist Church. "Thou shalt not vote for Obama." For most exoteric religions, I can see how members of their assemblies like being told what to think, who to vote for, how to live, what products to buy, what products "true believers" shouldn't buy, etc.

But to hear a self-proclaimed Gnostic start saying that "true Gnostics" can only vote one way or another truly bugs me. It seems that any religious movement is capable of developing these "fundamentalists," who are essentially people who think the world should revolve around what they believe, think, and feel. In short, this is obviously a person who hasn't learned that the true self is not the ego, not the consciousness, and not the physical body. The true self transcends all of this.

To wrap your spirituality around anything else is a practice in futility. Is that to say that I don't believe true Gnostics should vote? ... Well, that's the wrong question. I don't force my journey towards gnosis on anyone else. I would never say a "true Gnostic" does anything but follow the urging of their spirit. Your journey is not my journey, even if our destination is the same.

If you want to focus your energies on making the Black Iron Prison of this reality more comfortable for you or for others, go for it. Political beliefs, social efforts, environmental causes -- none of these accelerates your spiritual journey. As I've said before, good and proper actions in this life are offspring of your spiritual awakening, but they are not the ends to your means.

Whether your support is for the Democrats or the Republicans, the two parties with which most people align themselves, you're feeding a Black Iron Prison of some sort. Democrats want a big centralized government. Republicans want smaller, more local governments. Democrats want to put the government in charge of as much of your life as possible, because you can't be left to make decisions like charity, health care, and how you spend your money on your own. Republicans claim to want to leave that power in your hands, but then they build a large military and intelligence complex to restrict your rights just as much. Even the Libertarians would leave many of the decisions in the hands of big corporations.

So, who's right? you may be wondering. None of them are right, and all of them are right. But in the end, none of it matters. We are transients in this life. None of this will matter in 500 years or 1000 years. In 2000 years, almost everything of our society and the societies around the world will be gone. Will you spend your short while on this Earth focused on transient matters, or will you focus on returning to the Fullness? Will you force your beliefs on other people, or will you discover and elevate your true Self?

The choice is yours, by all means. I, for one, choose something more permanent.

New Rules for the Untransformed Masses

This morning, Reuters released a story about the Vatican considering the need for the Church to provide guidance in the area of "bioethics," in the wake of modern-day theories about Global Warming. Top on their list is the potential for penance to be given to someone who has blighted the Earth and its environment in one way or another.

While the Church has generally focused its attention in this area on genetic manipulation and stem cell research, they are now focusing on protecting the environment, considering it a modern sin to commit ecological offenses.

As a Gnostic, I see this as another example of how orthodox and mainstream religions have gotten it wrong. A church doesn't fulfill its purpose by outlining and updating sins as the times change. Rules and commandments are imposed to try to modify outward behavior. The purpose of any spiritual pursuit shouldn't be to modify behavior; it should be to transform the spirit of the practitioner.

It is against the very nature of a transformed and enlightened spirit to commit murder, to envy your neighbor, to steal from another person, or to destroy its own environment. Gnostics are often called antinomian (anti = against, nomos= law) for this very reason. They see that it is not the rules of behavior that transform a person, but it is the essence of the spirit that guides a person's actions.

The perfect Biblical examples of this truth are the Pharisees. These were men who were very concerned with following every letter of Mosaic law, and they were deeply offended by the actions of the Christos, who spoke against them and performed miracles on the Sabbath (God forbid!). These men were pure according to the ruling authorities, and yet they held malice and contempt in their heart for people who weren't like them. Following the rules did not transform their hearts.

In the Gospel of Thomas, when his disciples asked him to prescribe a system of fasting and prayer, Jesus said, "If you fast, you will bring sin upon yourselves, and if you pray, you will be condemned, and if you give to charity, you will harm your spirits." (14) In other words, if you do these things in the wrong spirit, you're doing more damage than good. In the empty practice of religious rites, pride rears its ugly head, and mechanical observance of custom takes the place of transformative processes.

Metaphorically, it's putting the cart before the horse to think that new laws and commandments will improve our condition. Jesus says, "Anyone here with two ears had better listen! There is light within a person of light, and it shines on the whole world. If it does not shine, it is dark." (24)

This arrogance is not exclusive to the practitioners of mainstream religion. How self-important are the rigid and dogmatic environmentalists? I have quite often seen environmentalists without a hint of compassion for their fellow human beings. The more rabid of that group even feel that the world would be better off without humans at all. In Phillip K. Dick style, I would counter, "What good is a prison without prisoners?"

Again, the point is missed when new rules for "reducing the carbon footprint" are put in place. It is not the rules that save us. It is the transformed spirit that begins making the right choices in life. As much as Gnostics are seen as "world hating," we're intelligent and self-aware enough to know that we should do what we can to keep the world from sucking more than it already does. Running out of fossil fuel would suck. Starving because the environment can no longer produce food would suck. Not being able to breathe clean air would suck.

As my favorite Gnostic, Dr. Stephan Hoeller, is wont to say, "No sane beast befouls its own nest," maybe what we need isn't more rules and laws. Maybe what we need is more sanity. I'd like to think that comes through gnosis, but then again, that's my opinion.

Why Christians Still Hate Gnostics

A while back, I set up a Google alert that sends me an e-mail when someone posts something online about "gnosticism," "gnostics," or "gnosis." These can be anything from blog posts to forum entries. I've read through each of the items that comes into my Inbox. The reason I set this up was primarily to see the discourse regarding Gnosticism unfold online, both from the Gnostics point of view and from the modern-day Christian heresiologists. It's really a fascinating conversation to see.

On the one hand, you have the Gnostics (amateur students, practitioners, and ordained ministers) discussing the path to gnosis amongst themselves on sites like Palm Tree Garden and some of the gnostic blogs. In general, I've not seen any anti-Christian rhetoric, calls for the destruction of the Church, or anything like that. In fact, I think I'm more confrontational in my posts than anyone on the Gnostic side of the spectrum.

Then, on the other hand, you have anti-Gnostic posts from fundamentalist Christians and Catholics alike; heresiological apologists so to speak. Obviously, questions are being asked within the flock. People are looking at the Nag Hammadi texts or reading about the Gnostics in modern literature or watching shows on the History Channel, and they're asking how this fits in with their faith. These inconvenient little forays into non-canonical territory are a little like Toto pulling at the curtain and showing the man behind the Wizard.

The Wizard: "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!"

The Christian response to the resurgence of interest in Gnosticism is the same as it was roughly 1800 years ago, when the frail body of the Church was just beginning to form and questions were raised that threatened (in their eyes) to destroy the Church before it was even built. Old, effectively intimidating words like "blasphemy" and "heresy" are employed, and the great disdain that Ireneaus felt for the Gnostics of his age is reborn in the rhetoric of the modern apologist blogger.

So, where does this disdain come from? What is it about the Gnostics that the Christians hate so much? I've compiled a list of things that I (neophyte that I am) feel have been consistently disputed across the millennia:

• First and foremost, in my opinion, is that the Gnostics call into question the validity of the Holy Bible. The additional scriptures the Gnostics wrote (including the ones in the Nag Hammadi Library, Pistis Sophia, and others) coupled with the Gnostic tendency to discount the importance of the Old Testament (except for the Wisdom books) is really too much to bear for most fundamentalists. Their basic belief is in the inerrancy of the Scripture in the Bible. According to the Basic Beliefs of the Southern Baptist Convention: "The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God's revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trusthworthy (sic)."
• Secondly, the Gnostics believe that the Jehovah God of the Old Testament is a fallible, imperfect Demiurge, known by many names, including Yaldabaoth, Saklas, and Samael, none of which are favorable names to have. Christians believe that the Creator of the world and the Father of Christ are one in the same. Gnostics see the imperfection of this world, the harsh realities of life, and the sheer madness and cruelty of the Old Testament Jehovah and they can't rationalize how that relates to the Loving Father that Jesus the Christos spoke of.
  
• Thirdly, the Gnostics dispute the purpose and form of Jesus. Christians believe that Christ's blood sacrifice and our willingness to believe in Him is what grants us salvation. Gnostics again, can't cope with the idea that salvation has to come from a blood-thirsty god who demands an animal or human sacrifice, much less the slaughter of his own son. This is not a god that we care to worship or praise. The Logos (the Word) came to us in order to awaken us to our true selves and lead us into a direct experiential knowledge (gnosis) of the True God, who is Father to us all. Whether or not the Christos appeared to be human or actually took human form is something that is still debated in Gnostic circles. That fact also distresses the Christians.

I'll end on three bullet points in order that I can be a little symbolic. But suffice it to that the Gnostics basically counter the very basic principles of mainstream Christianity. They ask questions where the Church authorities demand unwavering belief. They have the audacity to question the actions of "God" in the Old Testament. But seriously, can you blame us? How barbaric does this sound?

If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me. I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy. [Deuteronomy 32:42 (King James Version)]

This is "God" speaking to his faithful servant Moses, right before he tells him, "Oh, by the way, for all your hard work in keeping my children together, you'll get to see Israel, but you won't set foot there. Yay Me."

The point is that Christians have hated Gnostics since the beginning of the Christian Era, and they're not likely to start liking them any time soon. The differences between the two are fundamental and unresolvable. Unfortunately for them, however, Toto has already pulled aside the curtain. What is seen cannot be unseen. What is said cannot be unsaid. Nearly 1800 years have passed since the Christians tried to purge society of Gnosticism, but these thousands of years passed with the Gnostic thread of thought always under the surface, occasionally resurfacing in movements like Manichaeism, Catharism, Alchemy, Theosophy, etc. and finally culminating in Mohammed Ali Samman's discovery at Nag Hammadi, Egypt.

As for the Gnostics, there is no hatred for Christians -- just the occasional (or not-so-occasional) chuckle when they contradict themselves. We focus on what we can focus on, which is our own practice and our own striving for gnosis. When you know the truth, you don't need to justify yourself.

Gnostics and Ninjas: The Mysterious Connection Between the Cult of God and the Cult of Death

How can a person connect the Gnostics and the Ninjas, you might ask. On the surface, the two groups are not only separated by hundreds (if not thousands) of years and thousands of miles, but they are also greatly divided in their purpose ... or are they? Modern mainstream media has given us a pretty warped view of both groups.

The infamous Ninjamania movies of the 1980's told us that the ninjas were nothing more than assassins. Their sole purpose was to wreak havoc, dishearten enemy warriors, and brutally murder whoever got in their way. At best, we got to see the spiritual side of ninjutsu as Sho Kosugi angrily and tearfully performed kuji-kiri (hand gestures) and recite sutras in front of a Buddha in "Revenge of the Ninja" and "Pray for Death."

Modern literature/cinema has given us a glimpse of Gnostics as well, though the Gnostics of "The DaVinci Code" were just good at hiding secrets in artwork and having group sex in basements. At best most people think that the Gnostics were a group of people who were pretty smart and connected to some great power. At worst, they were a bunch of libertines who defied God and "His Church."

The truth is that both groups were just different from the accepted norm, and that got them both into trouble with the authorities of their time.

Ninjas were small, local clans of kinsmen who trained in the martial arts to survive the harsh times of a country embroiled in battle after battle. They accepted the teaches of outcast Chinese generals, Shinto priests, yamabushi Buddhist ascetic monks, and samurai who refused to slit open their own bellies just because their master lost a battle. They treated both sexes as important, and many women became valuable fighters as well, known as kunoichi. Because they didn't adhere to the codes of conduct prevalent at the time, they came to be seen as practitioners of dark arts, or even tengu (mountain goblins). They understood the value of melding the spiritual with the physical, of coexisting and working with Nature to achieve their goals, and to use their strengths to make a difference in the world. The stronger, more prevalent aspect of society, however, saw them as a threat and attempted to destroy them. Over time, they moved deeper underground, passing their traditions on to a select few or to other masters, if a master died without an heir. Only in recent years have they enjoyed the freedom to come out of the shadows back into society.

Gnostics were small groups of men and women who, at least in Christian times, existed within the structure of orthodox Christian society. However, living as many of them did at the crossroads of thought, Alexandria, they were exposed to the beliefs of many other people. They began to see that God was a lot more than what they had been told by the orthodox teachers. Melding the philosophies of Christianity, Neo-Platonism, the Mystery traditions, Zoroastrianism, and possibly Eastern philosophies, they began to get a fuller picture of the Divine and the Cosmos. They began to see the true purpose and mission of Christ the Logos. As they moved beyond the beliefs of society, so too did they change their views of women. Women were allowed to be ordained and to teach. In fact, the great aeon of Gnosticism became Sophia, the feminine aspect of God. Their beliefs threatened the power of the Church, however, and soon a campaign was launched against them to wipe out their books and their beliefs. They too survived into the modern age by going underground ... literally placing their sacred texts in an earthen jar in a cave at Nag Hammadi.

What both groups represent is a desire by a select few to see beyond what society tells everyone else to see. They sought to reach their full potential, and that was something their societies couldn't tolerate. Power cannot be placed in the hands of the individual if repressive societies are to endure. Freedom can only be allowed in the small doses meted out by those in authority. To do otherwise is blasphemy.