To deeply understand Gnosticism one must understand one of its central tenets: Gnosis.<\/p>\n
Sure, ultimately Gnosis is an experience, sublime and ineffable. Nonetheless, the Sethians contended that God\u2019s mind suffered a breakdown and lost its wisdom, also known as the Aeon Sophia. Due to this trauma, Sophia fell into a void of chaotic, speculative emotions that eventually became the material world. As a coping mechanism against this insanity, she fooled herself into thinking she was a human. Ralph Waldo Emerson put it best when he wrote: \u201cA man is a god in ruins\u201d.<\/p>\n
By perfecting our own minds, according to the Sethians, humans could not only connect with but restore to soundness the mind of God (a concept Kabbalists would later refer to us the Tikkun Olam, borrowing from the Talmud that states God needs us as much as we need him to heal a fractured cosmos).<\/p>\n
The human mind is a kind of miniature representation of the aeons that emanate from the ultimate God\u2026 For this reason, the Gnostic could also contemplate God by contemplating his or her own intellect.<\/p>\n
Thus, understanding Gnosis intellectually and how Gnosis is an intellectual pursuit is essential to seeking Gnosis itself. The ancient Gnostics were philosophers and individuals of reason\u2014with even the Valentinian Theodotus explaining that \u201cscientific knowledge is necessary both for the training of the soul and for gravity of conduct; making the faithful more active and keen observers of things\u201d.<\/p>\n
So let me \u00a0present ten definitions\/viewpoints of Gnosis . This somewhat eclectic, intersecting list will hopefully stimulate your mind, deepen your understanding, and move you closer to that sublime and ineffable experience that gets us closer to rectifying both the sanity of God and humanity.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Ten Definitions of Gnosis:<\/strong><\/p>\n Gnosis in action, and its perils and opportunities\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n I hope this list calibrates your mind for a better comprehension of the radical message of the Gnostics: complete liberation through a fierce awakening, resulting in the hopeful restoration of the universe. The awakening i.e., the salvation of any individual is a cosmic event.<\/p>\n Listen: gnosis tells you that the world sucks, they really are out to get you, and you don\u2019t know jack about anything. Anyone who tells you anything different is trying to get something of you. Sure, there are benefits to gnosis too, but if what you\u2019re hearing about gnosis sounds like the work of some enlightened being, or it makes your b.s.-detector start to twitch, or it makes the author look good, you should probably take a step back.<\/p>\n In the end, what makes Gnosis\u00a0 more unique is Mystics desire to become unified with the Divine, while the Gnostic-minded desire to both\u00a0understand and become unified with the Divine<\/em>. The Gnostic wants to comprehend what they seek (which is paradoxically what is lost\u2014the wayward shards of divinity that are the essence Sophia); the mind has to be present to, again, repair the mind of God.<\/p>\n The Gnostic way might be the hardest way, though, due to the total demands on both mind and heart (and dealing with that profoundly sick society , as well as the Archons reinforcing the bars of the Black Iron Prison once they realize you\u2019re waking up). Achieving Gnosis is only the beginning of the arduous Hero\u2019s Journey of a Thousand Facebook posts. Again Gnosis is not the results, it brings results.<\/p>\n The truth doesn\u2019t always set you free.\u00a0Sometimes it saddles you with a burden you can never escape. So choose very carefully where you decide to start digging and what dragons you choose to slay. Prepare to be taken places you never wanted to go.\u00a0Gnosis isn\u2019t always a flower\u2013 sometimes it\u2019s a sword.\u00a0Maybe more often than not.<\/p>\n Is Gnosis even worth it? Only you can answer that question. While you decide whether to slay that dragon on Facebook and eventually in the material world, here is a central takeaway and responsibility of this entire article on Gnosis:<\/p>\n You are not your mind, but you are the mind of God.<\/strong><\/p>\n Anything else would be crazy. Technically this subtle thought or intuitive insight or spontaneous understanding\u2014call it what you will\u2014is referred to as \u201cthe limitless thought\u201d or \u201cthe thought of limitlessness\u201d. It takes the form of some variation of the understanding \u201cI am whole, complete, limitless awareness; all that exists is nothing other than me, and yet of everything that exists I am free\u201d.<\/p>\n If you take a moment to analyse the thought, it is obvious that this understanding negates one\u2019s identity as the ego. It\u00a0is simply the self recognizing itself in the mirror of the intellect. The ego likes to think that it thought the thought, but the ego is actually nothing more than a thought itself, so it can\u2019t think. And the intellect in which the ego or I-notion arises is nothing more than an inert object made of subtle matter, a component within the mechanism of the mind-body-sense complex, which despite appearances is not an independently sentient entity that acts\u2014or thinks\u2014at its own behest, and so it didn\u2019t actually think the thought either in the sense of it being an independent entity who can claim the ideas, imaginings, and memories that occur within it as its own. The mind-body-sense complex is nothing more than a machine, and it only functions when it is illumined and, thus, enlivened by awareness. It is designed, so to speak, to produce and process experience. When set into motion by the presence of awareness shining within it, it generates perceptions, sensations, thoughts, and emotions. But it doesn\u2019t create these phenomena according to its own will or even technically experience them as a discrete entity. To credit it with doing so would be like believing a computer experiences all the images and ideas and whatnot that are processed and produced through it. Just as the experiencer of the information displayed by the computer is not the computer but the person using the computer, so the \u201cexperiencer\u201d (i.e., knower) of the entire array of phenomena arising in the subtle body is not the ego but awareness. Awareness doesn\u2019t actually experience these phenomena, for awareness itself has no attributes with which to experience (not to mention the fact that from its point of view there is nothing other than itself to experience), but for our present purposes the point of significance is that both the intellect, which is inert matter, and the ego, which is only a thought \u201cmanufactured by\u201d or arising within the intellect, are capable of doing or experiencing anything as discrete, independent entities. Thus, the ego (i.e., the apparent individual person) does not get \u201cenlightened\u201d. What happens is that by means of the limitless thought or the vedic\u00a0akhandakara vritti<\/em>, the apparent person, who, to reiterate, is simply an experience-making machine illumined and set into motion by awareness, registers the recognition of its true nature, and thus awareness in the guise of the person \u201crealizes\u201d itself. The bottom line is that the person doesn\u2019t get \u201cenlightened\u201d, \u00a0he simply realizes that he was never the person he thought he was in the first place and that his actual identity is limitless awareness. Thus, self-realization really doesn\u2019t have a damn thing to do with the person you take yourself to be. You are not the person. You are the \u201clight\u201d in which the person is known.<\/p>\n This is a subtle understanding, but I hope you are able to grasp it.<\/p>\n This conditioning is deeply ingrained, \u00a0it won\u2019t just disappear overnight. The money is already in the jukebox and the records are set to play, so to speak. The task now is simply to recognize them as recordings that no longer ring true. Witness them for what they are, and dismiss them. And always keep in mind the understanding that you, awareness, are ever free of your thoughts. No matter what their content, no thoughts actually touch you. This is actually something you don\u2019t have to take my word for, simply contemplate your own experience of life. Has any thought\u2014or, for that matter, any experience of any kind\u2014ever changed you, awareness? Certainly, most have been blown about all over the place. But has the awareness in which you appear ever changed, even one iota? If you are subtle enough, you will see\u2014clearly and directly\u2014that you, awareness has never been affected in the least and, thus, has always been\u2013and IS NOW\u2014free.<\/p>\n Then suddenly the most pure, clean, unattached thought \u2018I am awareness, I am aware, it\u2019s as simple as that. I am simply awareness!\u2019 And then the realization that even though I understood this, I had been guilty of waiting, looking, for the ground breaking, earth shattering, reality twisting, bright white light to happen!<\/p>\n Perfect. This is the knowledge working. And don\u2019t beat yourself up about wanting \u201cthe big cosmic orgasm\u201d. That\u2019s just another remnant of the old conditioning. Just observe it for what it is, as you did, and know you are free of it. Even if you did experience \u201cthe big cosmic orgasm\u201d, it wouldn\u2019t last, and, moreover, the one observing your \u201cbig cosmic orgasm\u201d would be the same ordinary awareness that observes you taking a sandwich and remains totally unaffected by all experience, whether \u201cspiritual\u201d or \u201cmundane\u201d, whether \u201csacred\u201d or \u201cprofane\u201d.<\/p>\n But by now you should see that there is no need for any of that, to realize I am, it\u2019s basically been there all the time, but obscured by ignorance. So then the question is, is it that simple?<\/p>\n YES!<\/p>\n This is why i say that \u201cenlightenment\u201d is the biggest disappointment you\u2019ll ever experience. Of course, the consequent understanding that you are free is pretty \u00a0awesome, so it\u2019s not actually disappointing at all in the end. But, yeah, sorry to say, the ego\u2019s in for a big pout.<\/p>\n Often I am asked the same questions, but each time you\u2019ll \u00a0to gain a \u2018deeper\u2019 understanding\/realization so do not feel you can\u2019t. Repetition is how you learn. Keep applying the teachings. They eventually break the back of ignorance and you run free as you already are.<\/p>\n The question could emerge in many of you, whether the spiritual Ego is a supporter or an obstructer of the spiritual development. Can it meddle in the process of spiritual development, and if yes, then how does it do it? The spiritual Ego can interfere with innumerable tricks in the life of the spiritual seeker. These spiritual tricks are manifested in various spiritual mind games. Some of the most important ones I will mention below.<\/p>\n 1.The Spiritual Ego says:\u00a0\u201cLook for truth! Develop your personality to make it the most sophisticated possible! Be spiritual!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n The ego-dominated mind\u00a0keeps coming up with new and new programmes: \u201cDo this! Do that! Then all your problems will be solved\u201d.\u00a0You try to obey, but in the meanwhile you are wasting your entire life.<\/em><\/p>\n Personality development is one of the most dangerous traps on your spiritual journey \u00a0along the road. The more energy you invest into, for instance, the decoration of your spiritual mask, the more powerfully you will identify with it, and insist on it so desperately that you will be eventually unable to abandon it!<\/p>\n In this way, self-development only polishes the spiritual Ego shinier and more impressive. In reality, it is the spiritual Ego that instigates the individual\u2019s start of a spiritual Journey on the road. It is a\u00a0defensive mechanism of the mind! It diverts our attention from the possibility of a real internal change by adding an attractive new mask to our collection!<\/p>\n Be aware that Truth is already there in you, here and now in the present moment! Search will only take truth farther away from you, as it either keeps seeking in the future, or presents old obsolete truths of the past to you.<\/p>\n 2.\u00a0Be Calm and Peaceful!<\/strong><\/p>\n It is the Ego-dominated mind that longs for peace and tranquillity. It wants to be peaceful and powerful so that its inner quiet can open a gate for the Formless.<\/em> The mind nurtures the unconscious hope that in the Formless it will be able to continue to exist somehow. That is why so many spiritual seekers seek spiritual experience during their spiritual Journey.<\/p>\n In reality, however, inner quiet and spiritual Ego or unity and spiritual Ego are incompatible with each other. Where one is present, the other cannot exist.<\/p>\n The Ego-dominated mind is capable of creating some inner quiet and tranquillity, a dead emptiness and, with the effort of the willpower, it is possible to sustain it for a while. But it is not the quiet of the pulsatingly alive internal silence, peace and tranquillity saturated with the joy of Existence. Only a mere image of that kind of peace, created and attempted to be implemented by the mind.<\/p>\n You are only able to recognize the quiet of the union, already present in human beings (as this is their real self ), if you are able to give up the expectations, desires, hopes etc. of our Ego-dominated mind.<\/p>\n 3.\u00a0Get Rid of the Ego!<\/strong><\/p>\n On your spiritual Journey you may ask yourselves the question,\u00a0\u201cHow can we get rid of the\u00a0spiritual\u00a0Ego?\u201d <\/em>Who asks this question?<\/em>\u00a0The mind itself, the spiritual Ego. When the mind asks that question, you assume that it cannot be the mind, as the Ego-dominated mind surely does not want its own destruction!<\/p>\n Many of you want to shed spiritual Ego, so you are deeply involved in various spiritual studies, in search of the method that is applicable in your own current situation and circumstances for weakening the spiritual Ego, which will eventually disappear.\u00a0That is how the mind misleads us again.<\/em><\/p>\n For studying spiritual methods and choosing the appropriate one takes time, and time is in short supply. Your real Self does not ask questions, as it does not require answers. It is there, it is present Now. You are only able to find it if you forget about questions and submit to the Self, radiating its light in the Present!\u00a0Your real Self is light itself, shining bright!!<\/em><\/p>\n Eliminating\u00a0Mind Games<\/strong><\/p>\n Consciousness is an indispensable condition for you to recognize the spiritual Ego and reach\u00a0Awakening\u00a0on your spiritual Journey. Otherwise it is not possible to observe yourselves. The witnessing, observing Presence should always be there.<\/p>\n The mind will never understand anything that reaches beyond it. But it tries. In this way, though, it will explain everything from the separate aspect that it currently occupies in the time-space continuum.<\/p>\n When one is able to reach beyond that separate focus point and identification with the mind, that the person will also recognize this conditioned state and will also be able to reach beyond that, too. In that case, the individual will not identify with the mind, but increasingly with the Consciousness Witnessing presence. The Presence will gain dominance over the mind to an increasing extent, and will be expressed through the mind.<\/p>\n Self-Realization Is Simply a Shift in Identity.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cDear Moshiya, \u201cHello, and It is a pleasure to make your \u00a0acquaintance.<\/p>\n Your understanding is correct. Though other sentences in your email suggest that you already know this, the only clarification I offer is that \u201cI as awareness am not the apparent person\u201d means that while the apparent person is essentially nothing other than awareness\u2014for, from the apparent perspective, limitless conscious existence is the ultimate cosmic trinity: 1) the \u201cfield\u201d in which all objects appear, 2) the material out of which all objects are made, and 3) the \u201cpool of pure potentiality\u201d that contains all the knowledge for the design of the manifestation as well as the physical, psychological, and ethical laws that govern its operation\u2014awareness cannot be comprehensively defined as any particular object or even the entire host of all objects (i.e., the entire manifestation in both its subtle and gross aspects).<\/p>\n Provided you understand that, your intellectual knowledge is complete. Now the only task is to ruminate over this understanding until such time as you are as convinced that your true identity is limitless conscious existence as it once was that you are the body-mind-sense complex (i.e., the apparent individual person) with which you are associated. Once your identification with the body-mind-sense complex is broken, the association with it will continue and the mind and body will continue to experience all the pleasures and pains that are the province of bodies and minds, but the mind will know that the person of whom it is a part is not the fundamental reality\u2014that is, by virtue of the mechanism of the mind, the experience of understanding that your true identity is limitless conscious existence is had. This experience of understanding your true identity is not the same as the fundamental reality \u201citself\u201d, which is the reason why I say that the self is not an object, but this understanding, which occurs in the mind, does constitute self-knowledge.<\/p>\n And what is the virtue of this knowledge? The alleviation of suffering. Buddha defines suffering as the deep-rooted existential angst that accompanies ignorance of one\u2019s true nature. Though we may experience pain and pleasure, we only suffer as a result when we believe that the pain or the lack of pleasure is actually affecting us. For instance, if we think that we will be damned to eternal Hell when we die, or that when we die our existence will cease entirely, we experience a level of fear that can have various deleterious effects on our experience of life. Once we know that no matter what happens to the person or even the manifestation in general has any ultimate impact on limitless conscious existence, then even though pain and pleasure persist, suffering ceases.<\/p>\n Mind you, this understanding is not a ticket to apathy or unethical behaviour. The manifestation holds many wonders to behold and opportunities for expression and experience. Life should be savoured. Also, the manifestation is governed by the law of cause and effect, which is essentially due to the fact that given the non-dual nature of reality whatever you do you are doing to yourself, and thus the apparent person will inevitably (though it may take lifetimes) experience the results of its actions. Basically, when you know who you are, you will \u201cplay by the rules\u201d, so to speak, for two reasons: 1) you want to contribute to the smooth functioning of the apparent reality appearing within you, and 2) you know your sense of wellbeing is not dependent on objects, so there is no reason to \u201cbreak the rules\u201d to get something that you don\u2019t need.<\/p>\n When you have fully assimilated the knowledge that your true identity is limitless conscious existence, you get to play the role of the apparent person to the hilt, yet know that you remain totally okay no matter what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n I will leave it at this for now.<\/p>\n Although I have not often integrated correspondence, I will do it more frequently as another tool to clarify and or answer questions.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 29-04-2018<\/p>\n Moshiya van den Broek<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" To deeply understand Gnosticism one must understand one of its central tenets: Gnosis. Sure, ultimately Gnosis is an experience, sublime and ineffable. Nonetheless, the Sethians contended that God\u2019s mind suffered a breakdown and lost its wisdom, also known as the Aeon Sophia. Due to this trauma, Sophia fell into a void of chaotic, speculative emotions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":5,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2126","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truth-revelations.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truth-revelations.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truth-revelations.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truth-revelations.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truth-revelations.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2126"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.truth-revelations.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2127,"href":"https:\/\/www.truth-revelations.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2126\/revisions\/2127"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.truth-revelations.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.truth-revelations.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\nSo that brings us back again regarding the ego, and it\u2019s subtle little tricks! A trap one can fall into regarding understanding and assimilation of knowledge, is when the ego can \u2018play\u2019 at becoming self-realized, \u00a0The ego will almost invariably try to co-opt one\u2019s initial \u201cglimpse\u201d of the self, which is the experience of the reflection of awareness in a sufficiently pure mind, and claim it as its own. In other words, the ego (i.e., the apparent individual person you take yourself to be) will declare that it got \u201cenlightened\u201d.<\/p>\n
\nI\u2019m currently reading this or that book and your website material. I have an intellectual interest in a buddhistic path (or any other), with a view to finding some level of contentment with life. I know you\u2019ll say only self-realisation will provide complete freedom, but perhaps you\u2019ll agree that even an intellectual understanding still provides some measure of contentment, simply due to having a satisfactory explanation of reality. At this stage, however, I\u2019m still looking into this tradition alongside other traditions, \u00a0I suppose I\u2019m looking for the system which seems to resonate with me the most, and see where it may lead me.
\nWhat I\u2019m definitely NOT interested in is the current wave of \u2018new age\u2019 which I\u2019ve found to be half-baked, contradictory and confusing, the only benefit of it being that it highlights how important it is to find an established tradition and stick to it. The new age movement seems to mix together terminology from all eastern (and sometimes western) traditions resulting in a recipe for confusion.
\nCan I just say, reading Buddhist material, and yours, has been a pleasure. It\u2019s very clear, concise and to the point, with a clear terminology and all the nonsense removed.
\nWith that said, I would just like to query something on the Enlightened Person, where they talk about the subtle shift of identity away from the apparent person to Awareness.
\nIt said that after the subtle shift of identity away from the apparent person to Awareness, \u2018the mind\/body mechanisms continue to function as they did before the shift, only now you are no longer identified as them, they seem to belong to someone else. It is like watching yourself in a dream\u2019.
\nIt\u2019s the phrase \u2018they seem to belong to someone else\u2019 that I\u2019m looking for clarification on. Obviously, from Awareness\u2019s point of view (not that Awareness technically has a point of view), the mind\/body can\u2019t actually \u2018belong to somebody else\u2019, as I am all there is. What I think he\u2019s saying is that the \u2018somebody else\u2019 is the apparent identity\/person I previously identified as, and after the shift there is the firm understanding that while the apparent identity is me, I am not it.
\ni.e. the correct formulation being conveyed is that the apparent person is me, but I am not the apparent person.
\nI know that this understanding can be difficult to describe which is why they are using analogies here. Obviously, the mind\/body doesn\u2019t really belong to someone else, and the experience is not really the same as watching myself in a dream, but there are all good analogies for conveying the sense that although the apparent person I appear to be is, and will always continue to be an expression of me, I as Awareness am not the apparent expression.
\nOne related pitfall I think I\u2019ve managed to avoid from reading your material, is the fallacy of \u2018getting behind yourself\u2019, an erroneous idea that many people on this path come to hold, where they imagine themselves as some ghostly presence \u2018behind\u2019 all experience, somehow separate from it and watching, but not being affected by it, with the idea of a cinema projector often being imagined as analogy of this. I can see how this idea may arise, particularly if the teachings about the relationship between Awareness and apparent identity are not properly understood. I think it\u2019s more accurate to say that I am the screen, out of which the images are made.
\nThank you for any comments\/clarifications you may wish to make concerning the above.
\nRegards, \u201d<\/p>\n