Introduction: The Hidden Words
“These are the secret sayings which the living Jesus spoke and which Didymos Judas Thomas wrote down. And he said, ‘Whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings will not experience death.’”
The Gospel of Thomas contains 114 sayings (logia) with no narrative framework—pure teaching distilled to essence. What follows are key sayings organized thematically, with contemplative commentary integrating Gnostic, Hermetic, Qabbalistic, and Yogic wisdom.
I. THE KINGDOM WITHIN & WITHOUT
Saying 3: Present Reality
“Jesus said, ‘If those who lead you say to you, “See, the Kingdom is in the sky,” then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, “It is in the sea,” then the fish will precede you. Rather, the Kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living Father. But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty.’”
Contemplation: The Kingdom isn’t a location but a recognition. Inside and outside collapse into non-dual awareness. Self-knowledge (gnosis) reveals divine sonship—not metaphor but reality. Ignorance of your true nature is poverty, regardless of material wealth.
Practice: In meditation, notice the boundary between “inner” awareness and “outer” world. Where exactly does consciousness end and environment begin? The breath moves in and out—which is you?
Saying 113: Already Spread Before You
“His disciples said to him, ‘When will the Kingdom come?’ Jesus said, ‘It will not come by waiting for it. It will not be a matter of saying “Here it is” or “There it is.” Rather, the Kingdom of the Father is spread out upon the earth, and men do not see it.’”
Contemplation: Apocalypse (apokalypsis—unveiling) happens not as future catastrophe but as present recognition. The sacred isn’t coming; it’s here, unnoticed. This teaching transforms waiting into seeing, postponement into presence.
Practice: Choose any ordinary object—a cup, a leaf, your hand. Look until you see it fresh, prior to naming. Notice the miracle of existence itself, the Kingdom spread out in plain sight.
Saying 51: Now, Not Then
“His disciples said to him, ‘When will the repose of the dead come about, and when will the new world come?’ He said to them, ‘What you look forward to has already come, but you do not recognize it.’”
Contemplation: Eternal life isn’t posthumous reward but present reality obscured by conceptual thinking. “New world” arrives when perception shifts, not when circumstances change. What you seek has already arrived—in consciousness itself, prior to time.
Practice: Notice the mind’s habit of living in future projection. “When I finish this… when I achieve that… then I’ll be…” Return to now. What’s already here that you’ve been overlooking?
II. THE LIGHT OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Saying 24: The Inner Lamp
“His disciples said to him, ‘Show us the place where you are, since it is necessary for us to seek it.’ He said to them, ‘Whoever has ears, let him hear. There is light within a person of light, and it lights up the whole world. If it does not shine, there is darkness.’”
Contemplation: Jesus’s “place” isn’t spatial but conscious—the state of embodied light. This isn’t metaphor: consciousness is luminosity, the light by which everything else appears. When this light dims through distraction or contraction, even bright circumstances feel dark.
Practice: In meditation, watch for the subtle luminosity of awareness itself—not an object seen but the seeing itself. Yogananda called this the “spiritual eye.” Let attention rest in the light of knowing rather than on things known.
Saying 77: The Immanent Christ
“Jesus said, ‘It is I who am the light which is above them all. It is I who am the All. From me did the All come forth, and unto me did the All extend. Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there.’”
Contemplation: Christ-consciousness pervades all creation—not a distant deity but intimate presence in every atom. The Hermetic “All in All,” the Qabbalistic Ein Sof manifesting through creation, Brahman appearing as the world. Divinity isn’t elsewhere; it’s the is-ness in everything that is.
Practice: Touch wood, stone, water, earth. Feel beyond the conceptual label to the raw presence. The consciousness touching is the same consciousness present in what’s touched—one awareness meeting itself.
Saying 50: Children of the Light
“Jesus said, ‘If they say to you, “Where did you come from?” say to them, “We came from the light, the place where the light came into being on its own accord and established itself and became manifest through their image.” If they say to you, “Is it you?” say, “We are its children, we are the elect of the Living Father.” If they ask you, “What is the sign of your father in you?” say to them, “It is movement and repose.”‘”
Contemplation: Your origin is light-consciousness, self-arising, self-manifesting. “Movement and repose” describes the breath, the heartbeat, the dance of consciousness between activity and stillness, pravritti and nivritti. You are not in consciousness—you are consciousness temporarily appearing as individual form.
Practice: Watch movement and stillness in meditation. The breath moves, then rests. Thoughts arise, then dissolve. Notice the awareness that holds both—neither moving nor still, yet enabling both.
III. INTEGRATION OF OPPOSITES
Saying 22: Making the Two One
“Jesus saw infants being suckled. He said to his disciples, ‘These infants being suckled are like those who enter the Kingdom.’ They said to him, ‘Shall we then, as children, enter the Kingdom?’ Jesus said to them, ‘When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one and the same, so that the male not be male nor the female female; and when you fashion eyes in place of an eye, and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, and a likeness in place of a likeness; then will you enter the Kingdom.’”
Contemplation: Kingdom-consciousness requires integration of all dualities:
- Inside/Outside: Subject and object unified in non-dual awareness
- Above/Below: Hermetic principle—heaven and earth reflect each other
- Male/Female: Integration of ida (lunar, receptive) and pingala (solar, active) energies; anima and animus; Chokmah and Binah
- New perception: “Eyes in place of an eye”—seeing wholeness rather than fragments
Practice: Notice any experience of duality—pleasure/pain, good/bad, self/other. What awareness holds both sides? Rest as that unified field in which opposites appear but don’t conflict.
Saying 106: The Single Eye
“Jesus said, ‘When you make the two one, you will become the sons of man, and when you say, “Mountain, move away,” it will move away.’”
Contemplation: “Sons of man” (bar nasha in Aramaic) suggests fully human, integrated consciousness—the realized person who moves mountains not through supernatural power but through unified will. When inner division ceases, tremendous energy becomes available.
Practice: Notice inner conflict—part of you wants one thing, another part something else. Bring compassionate awareness to both. Integration isn’t choosing one side but embracing the wholeness that holds both.
IV. THE SOLITARY & UNIFIED
Saying 49: The Blessed Monachos
“Jesus said, ‘Blessed are the solitary and elect, for you will find the Kingdom. For you are from it, and to it you will return.’”
Contemplation: Monachos (solitary, single, monk) doesn’t mean lonely but unified—consciousness no longer fragmented into competing desires. You came from unified awareness and return to it, not after death but through recognizing you never left.
Practice: In meditation, watch the mind proliferate thoughts, each claiming to be “I.” Who is the “I” that watches all these thoughts? Rest as that singular awareness.
Saying 75: The Bridal Chamber
“Jesus said, ‘Many are standing at the door, but it is the solitary who will enter the bridal chamber.’”
Contemplation: The bridal chamber symbolizes mystical union—soul merging with Spirit, Shiva-Shakti union, hieros gamos, the Qabbalistic integration. Only the unified consciousness can enter this sacred marriage; the fragmented self remains outside, knocking.
Practice: Bring awareness to breath and heartbeat simultaneously. Let them merge into one rhythmic flow. This is the marriage chamber—two becoming one in your own body.
Saying 16: Division as Destiny
“Jesus said, ‘Men think, perhaps, that it is peace which I have come to cast upon the world. They do not know that it is dissension which I have come to cast upon the earth: fire, sword, and war. For there will be five in a house: three will be against two, and two against three, the father against the son, and the son against the father. And they will stand solitary.’”
Contemplation: The path of awakening creates division between old conditioned patterns and emerging consciousness. Family systems resist change. Comfortable beliefs resist truth. The spiritual journey requires standing solitary—choosing authentic realization over comfortable conformity.
Practice: Notice where you compromise truth for belonging, clarity for approval. Can you stand in integrity even when it creates discomfort in relationships?
V. RECOGNITION & REALIZATION
Saying 70: Bringing Forth What’s Within
“Jesus said, ‘That which you have will save you if you bring it forth from yourselves. That which you do not have within you will kill you if you do not have it within you.’”
Contemplation: Your divine nature already exists within, waiting to be expressed. Unexpressed potential becomes poison—gifts unshared, love withheld, truth unspoken corrode from within. Salvation comes through manifestation, bringing the inner light outward.
Practice: What gift, truth, or capacity lies dormant within you? What would it mean to “bring it forth”? Notice the fear that keeps the treasure buried.
Saying 5: Hidden Becoming Manifest
“Jesus said, ‘Recognize what is in your sight, and that which is hidden from you will become plain to you. For there is nothing hidden which will not become manifest.’”
Contemplation: The hidden isn’t concealed but overlooked. Recognize what’s directly before you—your hand, your breath, consciousness itself—and deeper mysteries reveal themselves. Layer upon layer of reality waits to be noticed, not sought elsewhere.
Practice: Look at anything deeply enough that it becomes strange again. A hand isn’t “just a hand”—it’s starlight condensed, evolution’s genius, consciousness appearing as form. What else are you not seeing?
Saying 108: Becoming Like Jesus
“Jesus said, ‘He who will drink from my mouth will become like me. I myself shall become he, and the things that are hidden will be revealed to him.’”
Contemplation: The guru-disciple relationship reveals non-duality. “Drinking from my mouth” suggests direct transmission—not intellectual teaching but consciousness awakening consciousness. Master and student discover they share one Self.
Practice: In meditation, who is the meditator? When you say “I am meditating,” what is this “I”? Follow awareness back to its source. The one who seeks and the one sought are not two.
VI. TRANSFORMATION & BECOMING
Saying 2: Seek Until You Find
“Jesus said, ‘Let him who seeks continue seeking until he finds. When he finds, he will become troubled. When he becomes troubled, he will be astonished, and he will rule over the All.’”
Contemplation: The spiritual path moves through stages:
- Seeking: Recognizing incompleteness, beginning the search
- Trouble: Encountering truths that destabilize comfortable beliefs
- Astonishment: Direct recognition of reality’s nature
- Sovereignty: Mastery through understanding, “ruling over the All”
Practice: Where are you in this sequence? Notice resistance to being troubled—the mind wants answers that comfort, not truths that transform.
Saying 111: The Heavens Will Roll Up
“Jesus said, ‘The heavens and the earth will be rolled up in your presence. And the one who lives from the Living One will not see death.’ Does not Jesus say, ‘Whoever finds himself is superior to the world’?”
Contemplation: Time and space themselves (“heavens and earth”) collapse in mystical realization. Living “from the Living One” means consciousness rooted in eternal awareness, not temporal identity. Finding your true self transcends the world without leaving it.
Practice: In deep meditation, notice how time becomes fluid, space opens, the boundaries of self soften. You don’t disappear—you recognize what you’ve always been beneath the appearance of a separate person in time.
VII. ORGANIC WISDOM & NATURAL GROWTH
Saying 20: The Mustard Seed
“The disciples said to Jesus, ‘Tell us what the Kingdom of Heaven is like.’ He said to them, ‘It is like a mustard seed. It is the smallest of all seeds. But when it falls on tilled soil, it produces a great plant and becomes a shelter for birds of the sky.’”
Contemplation: The Kingdom grows like weeds, not monuments—small, humble, unstoppable. Consciousness shifts begin tiny and organic, but given proper conditions (tilled soil, practices that soften conditioning), they transform everything. What seems insignificant—a moment of presence, a breath of awareness—contains infinite potential.
Practice: Plant one small seed today. A moment of kindness. A breath of presence. Trust the organic intelligence that grows oaks from acorns and enlightenment from attention.
Saying 21: The Field
“Mary said to Jesus, ‘Whom are your disciples like?’ He said, ‘They are like children who have settled in a field which is not theirs. When the owners of the field come, they will say, “Let us have back our field.” They (will) undress in their presence in order to let them have back their field and give it back to them.’”
Contemplation: You’re temporarily inhabiting this body, this life, this identity—like children playing in a field they don’t own. When death comes, you undress (release the body) naturally, without clinging. Awakening involves practicing this release while alive—not identifying with what’s temporary.
Practice: Notice everything you call “mine”—my body, my thoughts, my story. Can you experience them as borrowed, passing through, not ultimately yours? What remains when all possessions, including self-concept, are released?
Saying 113: Spread Upon the Earth
(Already covered above but worth repeating)
“His disciples said to him, ‘When will the Kingdom come?’ Jesus said, ‘It will not come by waiting for it. It will not be a matter of saying “Here it is” or “There it is.” Rather, the Kingdom of the Father is spread out upon the earth, and men do not see it.’”
Contemplation for Farmers: The Kingdom isn’t in transcendent realms but immanent in soil, seed, growth, harvest. Every farm embodies this teaching—divinity expressing through matter, consciousness appearing as food, the sacred cycle of death composting into life.
Practice: Walk your land as sacred ground. Notice the Kingdom in the compost, the seedlings, the harvest. Practice seeing the ordinary as miraculous until the distinction dissolves.
VIII. TRANSCENDING RELIGION
Saying 43: The Fundamental Question
“His disciples said to him, ‘Who are you, that you should say these things to us?’ Jesus said to them, ‘You do not realize who I am from what I say to you, but you have become like the Jews, for they (either) love the tree and hate its fruit (or) love the fruit and hate the tree.’”
Contemplation: Missing the whole by clinging to parts. Loving teaching but hating the teacher, or vice versa. Claiming spiritual identity (“like the Jews,” or we might say “like Christians” or “like yogis”) while missing direct realization. The question “Who are you?” applies to both Jesus and the questioner—do you know your true nature?
Practice: Notice where you identify with spiritual labels while avoiding actual transformation. Do you love the idea of enlightenment but resist the practices that bring it? Love the benefits but hate the work?
Saying 52: The Living Prophets
“His disciples said to him, ‘Twenty-four prophets spoke in Israel, and all of them spoke in you.’ He said to them, ‘You have omitted the one living in your presence and have spoken (only) of the dead.’”
Contemplation: Honoring past teachers while ignoring present truth. The scriptures are dead; living consciousness is here now. Thomas confronts religious tendency to worship the past while missing the eternal present.
Practice: What past authorities do you defer to instead of investigating directly? Can you honor wisdom traditions while trusting your own immediate experience?
IX. WEALTH & POVERTY
Saying 29: The Great Wealth in Great Poverty
“Jesus said, ‘If the flesh came into being because of spirit, it is a wonder. But if spirit came into being because of the body, it is a wonder of wonders. Indeed, I am amazed at how this great wealth has made its home in this poverty.’”
Contemplation: The incarnational mystery—infinite consciousness inhabiting finite form, “great wealth” (spirit) dwelling in “poverty” (flesh). Matter isn’t evil or obstacle; it’s the miracle of divinity taking form. Your body is the temple, not a prison.
Practice: Feel the wonder of embodiment. Spirit moving fingers to turn pages, awareness looking through eyes, consciousness appearing as breath. The great wealth is here, now, in this “poverty.”
Saying 110: The World-Finder
“Jesus said, ‘Whoever finds the world and becomes rich, let him renounce the world.’”
Contemplation: Material success can obscure spiritual reality. Wealth becomes obstacle when it substitutes for wholeness. The invitation isn’t to poverty but to non-attachment—using resources without being used by them.
Practice: Notice attachment to comfort, security, accumulation. Can you engage the material world fully while holding it lightly? Work, earn, build—but don’t mistake these for the Kingdom.
X. THE FEMININE & SACRED INTEGRATION
Saying 114: Making Mary Male
“Simon Peter said to them, ‘Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of life.’ Jesus said, ‘I myself shall lead her in order to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who will make herself male will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.’”
Contemplation: Despite its troubling surface, this saying points to transcendence of all categories. In Gnostic symbolism:
- Male = Spirit, unity, stability
- Female = Matter, multiplicity, flux
All seekers—regardless of biological sex—must integrate these principles, transcending duality itself. Mary Magdalene represents the feminine wisdom (Sophia) that completes masculine knowing (Logos). Peter represents institutional resistance to feminine authority.
Practice: Notice masculine and feminine energies within yourself—active/receptive, solar/lunar, doing/being. Integration doesn’t mean becoming one or the other but transcending the opposition.
CLOSING MEDITATION
Saying 1: The Promise
“Whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings will not experience death.”
Final Contemplation: “Not experience death” doesn’t mean immortality of the body but recognition of the deathless awareness you already are. Consciousness doesn’t die; forms change. Find the interpreter—the one reading these words, the awareness prior to thought—and death is revealed as dream from which you’ve already awakened.
Practice: Who is reading this? Who interprets these sayings? Follow that question to its source. The one who truly finds the answer never dies because they discover they were never born.
For Contemplative Practice
Read one saying daily. Sit with it through the day. Let it work below surface thought. These aren’t intellectual puzzles but seeds planted in consciousness, watered by attention, growing in silence.
The Gospel of Thomas offers no belief system, no theology, no institution. Just direct pointers to immediate reality:
Look. See. Recognize. Become.
The Kingdom is here. The light is within. You are the twin.
Now find the interpretation that saves you from death—not by believing these words but by realizing what they point toward.
The living Jesus speaks to living consciousness. Listen with ears that hear. See with eyes that truly see.
🕊️
“Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there.”
Light Being ॐ 
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