Jesus on Spiritual Practices (Gospel of Thomas)

In this episode I look at the sixth saying in the Gospel of Thomas. It reads: “His disciples asked him and said to him, "Do you want us to fast? How should we pray? Should we give to charity? What diet should we observe?" Jesus said, "Don't lie, and don't do what you hate, because all things are disclosed before heaven. After all, there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and there is nothing covered up that will remain undisclosed."

The topic is spiritual practice. I briefly mention the four spiritual disciplines that the disciples ask Jesus about in the gospel of Thomas. Then I look at the parallels in the New Testament gospels. Then we look at what Jesus says in the Gospel of Thomas about these and how that is alike and different from the other gospels.

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Transcript

Today we are looking at the sixth saying in the Gospel of Thomas. It reads: “His disciples asked him and said to him, "Do you want us to fast? How should we pray? Should we give to charity? What diet should we observe?" Jesus said, "Don't lie, and don't do what you hate, because all things are disclosed before heaven. After all, there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and there is nothing covered up that will remain undisclosed."

The topic is spiritual practice. I am going to briefly mention the four spiritual disciplines that the disciples ask Jesus about in the gospel of Thomas. We will look at the parallels in the New Testament gospels. Then we will look at what Jesus says in the Gospel of Thomas about these and how that is alike and different from the other gospels.

The first topic is fasting. The disciples ask, “Do you want us to fast?” In the New Testament we see the disciples of John the Baptist raising this subject with Jesus. They asked him, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?”  Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.”

Jesus’ disciples had a reputation for not fasting, or at least not fasting regularly. Yet Jesus fasted for forty days in the wilderness at the beginning of his ministry. On the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught, “When you fast... (notice it is not if you fast but when you fast) do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting....” We will get to Jesus’ reply in the Gospel of Thomas in a moment.

The second topic is prayer. This could be applied to contemplative prayer or meditation as well. They ask Jesus, “How should we pray?” In the New Testament Jesus responds in much the same manner as he did with fasting.  He tells them not to pray hypocritically in order to appear spiritual. He says to do this spiritual practice privately. He tells them to not to go on and on, thinking the longer the better. Then Jesus gave them the model prayer, also known as the Lord’s Prayer.  

The third spiritual discipline mentioned in the Gospel of Thomas is almsgiving.  They ask, “Should we give to charity?” In our modern setting it is called charitable giving. That is also a topic covered in the canonical gospels. 

Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret.” 

So we can detect a common theme here. It is not so important what you do, but how you do it. The intention behind the practice is what is important. Jesus is talking about what the Buddha called right intention.

The fourth practice mentioned by the disciples is diet. “What diet should we observe?" In the canonical gospels Jesus got a reputation for eating whatever was before him, much like the apostle Paul. Jesus did not care about ritual handwashing before he ate or whether or not he was eating wheat directly from the fields on the Sabbath. Jesus was a rule-breaker when it came to religious practices. 

Those are the four spiritual practices and what Jesus says in the New Testament gospels about them. Now what does Jesus say about them in the Gospel of Thomas? He does not address them one by one. Instead he gave an overarching teaching. He said, “Don't lie, and don't do what you hate, because all things are disclosed before heaven.” At first glance that seems like a strange answer. It is not like what we find in the other gospels. But when we look closer, we see it is not really so different.

“Don’t lie” is a variation on Jesus’ teaching about not being hypocrites, which is a form of deceit, pretending you are something you are not. Remember that the context is spiritual practices. So he is saying, “Do not lie to yourself or others when you do spiritual practices.” 

Why do we engage in spiritual practices? It is either to become or appear spiritual. Some people do them to appear spiritual in the eyes of others. That is all ego. Even if people do not see us doing them, we might let it drop in conversation what practices we engage in, how long we have been doing them, and how long we meditate. It is a way of establishing our spiritual credentials in the minds of others. It is a way of letting others know how spiritual we are. That is no different than what the Pharisees were doing.

Others engage in spiritual practices to become spiritual. They are a means to an end. Our spiritual practices become a form of works righteousness, which the apostle Paul talked a lot about. We develop a very spiritual persona, perhaps even become a teacher of others, a religious or spiritual leader. We are looked up to. We have our own disciples, and are respected. This can easily become just another ego trip. It is the downfall of many spiritual and religious teachers and leaders. 

What good is exchanging a worldly ego for a spiritual one? As Jesus said, “What does it profit you if you gain the world and lose your soul?” Jesus’ teaching about spiritual practices is simple: “Don’t lie.” “Don’t be a hypocrite.” Don’t deceive yourself or others. Be honest, authentic and transparent. Do not pretend to be more than you are.

It is alright to do spiritual practices if you want. Engage in prayer and meditation all you want. Follow your vegan or vegetarian or kosher diet, if you want. I read that there is now a “Jesus diet.” People eat only what Jesus would have eaten. What would Jesus eat? Go ahead and eat what Jesus ate, if you want. But don’t think that will make you like Jesus.

Jesus says it is just going to change your bowel movements. He says, “Nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him unclean, for it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach and then out of his body.” Diet is just about what goes into one end and out the other.  It has nothing to do with spiritual awakening. 

Go ahead and do a regime of spiritual disciplines if you feel drawn to them. Just be honest with yourself and others about what it is really about. And don’t think that spiritual practices – what you eat or how you pray and meditate or how generous you are - are going to bring about liberation, enlightenment or awakening.

Then Jesus says in the Gospel of Thomas, “Don’t do what you hate.” “Don't lie, and don't do what you hate.” This sums up Jesus’ approach to spiritual practices: Don’t do what you hate. So much spiritual practice involves forcing ourselves do what we don’t want to do in order to arrive at a spiritual place we want to be. We feel like we need to put in our time, even if we do not like it.

So we sit in meditation or kneel in contemplative prayer for hours looking at nothing and trying to think about nothing. We do it because we think that is what we have to do. We think that if we put in our time and flagellate ourselves, then we will be rewarded spiritually. No. If that is your intent then you have already received your reward.  

Don’t do what you hate. If you hate something it is a good sign that it is not good for you. That is your heart telling you it is the wrong path.  You are not going to follow it long term anyway, so you might as well not waste your time. 

The positive version of this maxim is Joseph Campbell’s advice: Follow your bliss. Your spirit – the Spirit – knows what to do. It is trying to lead us in the path that is designed specifically for our body-mind. There is no one size fits all. There are no Ten steps to Spiritual Enlightenment. The Spirit leads us by making us love it. Do what you love. Follow your bliss.

That can be misinterpreted and used to follow the ego or the flesh. This isn’t hedonism or self-indulgence. It does not mean we indulge the desires of the flesh and the ego. It means that the Way of the Kingdom is discerned by the Spirit, intuition and conscience. Not by rules. It is the narrow way. The Way of the Kingdom is not doing what you hate. It is doing what you love. It is the Way of Love.

It means to follow your heart of hearts. We already know where we want to go. We are already there. We are this nondual awareness. We all have a sense of our true nature, no matter how faint or fleeting. Follow that. It is our true love. We want to realize this more than anything. That is our bliss. Follow your bliss. Follow the Spirit.

Jesus ends his teaching on spiritual practice with words that sound similar to what he said in the previous saying, “because all things are disclosed before heaven. After all, there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and there is nothing covered up that will remain undisclosed." 

In the context of spiritual disciplines, Jesus is saying that doing spiritual practices is about uncovering what is hidden. It is not about obeying a set of external rules. It is about discovering what is already within us that needs to be uncovered. It is not about learning. It is about unlearning. It is not about spiritual or philosophical knowledge; it is about unknowing. 

It is about uncovering the layers of the mind and the ego, like peeling an onion until you get to the core. It is not about arriving someplace called Liberation or Nirvana or the Kingdom of Heaven. It is about discovering the Kingdom of Heaven that is already within us and all around us. 

If your spiritual practices help do that, go ahead and do them. If they don’t, then discard them. In all that we do, do it with joy and peace. Do not do what you hate. Doing what you hate is the somber religion of the Pharisees. Instead Jesus calls us to joyful spirituality, which in his parables he likens to a party.