The Gospel of Thomas

"Jesus said, 'If your teachers say to you, 'Look, the kingdom is in heaven,' then the birds will get there before you. But the kingdom is inside you, and it is ourside you. If you know yourselves, then you will be known; and you will know that you are the sons of the living Father." I didn't really understand this until class today. What Jesus is saying is that if you look to the sky and think of heaven the idea is harder to grasp. The kingdom is inside you and outside you. You can't say the kingdom of god or the kingdom of heaven is there because it is everywhere.

Jesus of Nazareth

In the passage from Jesus of Nazareth i loved the part where he talks about, "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you , so that you may be children of your father in heaven: for he makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and to the unjust." I think i like this part because i believe that God puts these obstacles infront of us like people mistreating us or doing harm to us because it makes us stronger. Forgiveness and love, especially to those who do us harm is one of the hardest lessons to learn. If you can do these things "you may be children of your father in heaven.
I also love the part where Jesus says "Ask, and it will bwe given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, recieves; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."

Pai-Chang

I love this because it is really short and sweet. Alot of these blogs have alot of extra stuff packed in them that confuses the heck out of me and is really hard to understand. Not this one. This talks about how enlightenment doesnt change the person that you are it just makes you life simpler. Enlightenment lets go of unreality and delusion and when you have it hold on to it because your life will be much better and simpler when you have reached enlightenment. But basically i think the point of this passage is that enlightenment doesnt change you it just betters you.

Hui-Hai

I think this was my favorite reading of this section. I think my favorite part is when he quoted Ma-tzu, "Your own tresure house already contains everything you need. Why don't you use it freely, instead of chasing after something outside yourself?" I love this because he talks to the monks about just being men unattached to all things. He ask the monks instead of trying so hard to have an empty mind and reaching enlightenment, just live life. To me he is saying that you dont have to spend your life trying to reach these impossable things you can just live your life and have your faith without devoting all aspects of your life to finding enlightenment.
Also i like the part where he says, "All you have to do is look into your own mind; then the marvelous reality will manifest itself at all times...Don't search at all. In otherwords, is that stop looking for what you already have, what is already inside your own mind.

Shunryu Suzuki

"Our 'original mind' includes everything within itself. It is always rich and sufficient within itself. You should not lose your self-sufficient state of mind. This does not mean a closed mind, but actually and empty mind and a ready mind. If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything. In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind there are few." Wow... i love this. I love how it talks about how to have a clear and ready mind not a closed mind. Its true if your mind is empty or not filled with worries or bad thoughts or any thoughts for that matter it is ready and open to everything. Thats how you really learn and experience things. I also really like how it talks about how there are many possibilities for a beginner's mind.

The Buddha

I might just have to say that this was my passage was my favorite of all so far. "As a mother at the risk of her life watches over her only child, so let everyone cultivate a boundlessly compassionate mind toward all beings. I love this. This i believe sends the message of loving everyone the same even strangers. To me this sends kind of the same message as in last weeks blogs of Schmelke of Nicholsburg. The part about "Love your neighbor like something which you yourself are. For all souls are one." These two parts where very similar to me and i love the message that they put out.

Also i love the part about when you realize that something is bad for you give it up and when something is good for you do it. It just makes sense. Why do we continue to do things that dont make us happy. If we just stuck with the stuff that were good for us life would be alot better and simpler wouldnt it?

Philo

I dont really know what to say about this. I really enjoyed it because it was very positive and uplifting. I really agreed witht the message that was projected in this passage. What i got from it is God takes something ordinary or lifeless and turns it into something beautiful and perfect. To me this just talks about how God sees beauty in all things. My favorite part of this was definatly that "God loves to give, and freely bestows good things on all people, even the imperfect, inviting them to participate in virture and to love it..." This was just a very positive and optamistic way to look at the world and all Gods gifts that we take for granted and i really left this reading with a smile on my face.

Shmelke of Nikolsburg

The Shmelke of Nikolsburg i thought what a really great passage. It goes over one of the first lessons that you learn as a child. When we are kids we are always told to treat others how you would want them to treat you and i believe that that goes hand in hand with the message in this passage. "Love your neighbor like something which you yourself are. For all souls are one. To me this means that the mistakes people make or hurt that people may cause you, you yourself may have done the same in the past. I really like the part where it talkes about if your hand makes a mistake do you punish it but then you just cause yourself more pain. Which i think means instead of just moving on from the pain people just make it worse by trying to make it better. I really enjoyed this passage alot.