Analogue 56

Analogue 56 

Enlightened Emergence from the Kosmos

The oil of anointing is superior to the waters of immersion, for because of the anointing we too are also called “the Christ” just as Yeshua was called the Anointed One because of the anointing oil. For the Father anoints the Son, and the Son anoints the Apostles, and the Apostles have anointed us. The One who was first anointed, however, received it completely: its resurrection, its light, its cross, and its Sacred Spirit. All of this the Father bestowed upon him in the Bridal Chamber, for he received it there. The Father lives in the Son and the Son lives in the Father. This, then, is the Realm of the Heavens.

From a place of profound understanding the Master said: “Some have attained the Realm of Heaven laughing.” These came forth from out of this world rejoicing, for they went down into the water as anointed ones and rose out of it again as masters over all. They did not consider what they had done as some mere diversion. Instead they cast off this world of impermanence in favor of the Heavenly Realm. Recognizing the world’s order for what it is, a game being played, they rejected it, and emerged out of it laughing.

The world’s system as we know it fell away from those who made it. Their ambition was that it be imperishable and deathless. Those who created it, however, never realized their ambitions, for they themselves fell away. There is, therefore, nothing deathless or immortal about the system of this world, nor about those who created it. Things certainly exist, but they are impermanent. Only true sons and daughters, then, can attain immortality, and no one can gain eternity without first becoming a true son or a daughter. Those who have not received this gift, how can they possibly give it away?

SYNOPSIS

Paragraph One

• The teaching moves from the foundations and fundamentals of baptism to the alchemy of anointing and oil’s superiority to water. 
• Water in baptism remains on the outside while oil penetrates into one’s being. Water is ubiquitous, while oil is perhaps more rare. 
• Oil in anointing bestows a new condition, for the completion of baptism is in the anointing of oil. 
• Transformation begins with baptism-resurrection, and then becomes anointing-enlightenment, which the text says is the ultimate meaning and purpose of the Cross. This rite also bestows the Sacred Spirit and her intense and intimate relationship upon a human being. 
• The chain of transmission is made clear here. The new voice added is “us.” Father to son, son to Apostle-Students, and the Apostle Philip to “us” who must become the caretakers of this transmission. 
• The fundamental initiation was completed not in the waters of baptism, but in the anointing that takes place within the Bridal Chamber. 
• This experience for Yeshua seems to have taken place in the wilderness after the baptism, for the Spirit “drove him into the wilderness” and it appears that it was there that he had his intimate Bridal Chamber experience. This was the prelude that led him into the intensity of his ultimate Work. 
• The 40 days may not have been a prolonged temptation as such for him, but, instead, an intimate, mystical experience of the Realm of Heaven. He received all of it there, which would of course at the end of the days be tested.  

Paragraph Two

• The second paragraph is a entirely new thought. The tie between them seems to be heaven or the heavens. 
• It begins with a profound understanding from the Master, Yeshua. A new saying is introduced that had not been known before: “Some have attained the realm of Heaven laughing,” which is followed by further teaching either from Yeshua, Philip or both. 
• It appears they exulted in a joyous laughter because of what has been accomplished and for what they have been able to see from their new perspective. 
• Again the imagery of water is used, but now it does not appear to be baptismal waters, but the watery chaos of the human kosmos—the Water-World.
• These who have mastered life, and who reign over it with mastery, do so because they have been immersed in it, and then anointed with oil and light. They are “Christed” beings, and are (in that light) able to see the world for what it is. 
• These were not playing some game, but were able to see the world according to two important descriptions: a game being played, and a world of impermanence. 
• These might be thought of as the game theory of truth as well as the games people play. 
• The text calls into question the ultimate substantiality of the world.
• Realizing the world for what it is, and being both free from its games as well as from the illusion of its permanence and substantiality is joyous.
• Rejection here appears to be a form of “detachment.”

Paragraph Three

• Meanwhile, the thought processes of the world as a kosmos are: the quest for permanence, the immorality project—deathlessness and imperishability. 
• These goals are impossible to reach in a perishing world.
• The world system keeps falling apart and eluding its builders. 
• Its engineers are themselves impermanent, so how can they then construct a system of permanence based upon an impermanent world-system? This is an impossibility. 
• Existence does not imply permanence. 
• True sons or daughters of the divine Realm can attain immortality (permanence)—but it requires that they become another kind of being, ones who are birthed from the realm of the Heavens. 
• This birth is a transcendent gift which can be given away as an endowment.

Video link to the You Tube recording

COMMENTARY

The Cure to “En-darkment”

In this analogue a shift takes place in the text turning from diagnosis toward cure. The Gospel is no longer focusing on the human condition stemming from the original events in the proverbial Garden. Now the cure and the various remedies that Yeshua brings are put forward, beginning with the waters of baptism, but culminating in the oil of enlightenment. These are the sacramental wellsprings which address the “en-darkenment” of humanity with the continuing effects in states of blindness and ignorance. Each of the remedies for the human condition (known in this text as the mysteries or sacraments) are agents of change and transformation. 

The opening paragraph of this analogue clarifies the exact nature of anointing and its purpose. It also outlines the way in which Yeshua (the one who had been powerfully anointed by Spirit), becomes both the path and paradigmatic figure for all who follow after him. From his baptism in the river Jordan, compelled by the Sacred Spirit, Yeshua was led into the wilderness. There, it seems, in that lonely and solitary place of contemplation, he fully entered the Bridal Chamber, where he was filled with light which, from the fire of anointing, spread throughout his being. Darkness no longer prevailed for him. His being became saturated, light-filled, and was fully enlightened. 

It is said that he also received a full a transmission of wisdom and understanding directly from the Source, making him the child (or son) of the divine Majesty. This same transmission is also given to all who will follow after him—to all who become care-takers of these same mysteries. From the Source, the son and his students, become keepers of the mysteries. As it flows from the heavens, they each receive this same anointing, and from them it is transmitted further into time and history. 

Interbeing

The Realm of Heaven could rightly be defined here not in terms of place, but by what is called today inter-being. This contemporary term describes a state of oneness where the fullness of unity includes all beings as well as their exchanges and reciprocities taking place within the fabric of creation. This is the implicit meaning of the word heaven (or the heavens), for it describes both the manifest and hidden, their interior relationships, and the conditions that create the possibility of the entire Web of Being. 

The second paragraph of this analogue is profound and appears unexpectedly contemporary to us. It contains a saying of Yeshua never heard before in the Gospel tradition which is of universal significance. It is followed by a further reflection that could have come from the lips of Yeshua, or which may be the author’s commentary on that first saying. The maxim attributed to Yeshua is: “Some have attained the Realm of Heaven laughing.”  Who would have imagined that joy and laughter would be a means of (or the condition for) entry into heaven’s realm? It is the joy experienced when one arises up out of the waters (perhaps the chaotic waters of the kosmos) and stands up into an entirely new condition of sovereignty or self-mastery. This appears to be the source of the joy being expressed.  

These who have achieved mastery in life (who reign over it as masters), do so because they have been immersed into and then arisen out of the watery chaos of the world as anointed (Christed) beings. Through the anointing oil which is set aflame (and as a result of the light flooding them), they are able to see the world for what it is; an impermanence and a game being played. These two discoveries and descriptions are congruent with contemporary philosophical thought, as well as with traditional philosophies East and West, expressing a perennial understanding of the world.  

The Play of Leila

In the East, particularly in Hinduism and Buddhism, the world is perceived to be insubstantial—subject to continuous flux. The description is that it is “maya,” meaning deeply illusory in fundamental ways. Dangerously, we place our trust in it only to have our hopes dashed over and over again. The world shifts and changes, and, though we want to believe in its permanence, it never is, nor can it ever be. Those who are able to attain the viewpoint of heaven (looking at the world from a perspective outside of time), see the truth of things and laugh at the absurdity or it all. Or alternatively, perhaps, they see it as a form of “playfulness.”  Sufism often describes our world as “divine play,” or even a dance, called “Leila” which Ultimate Reality has set in motion precisely so that we might participate in both dance and play.  

Those who are able to attain the viewpoint of heaven … see the truth of things and laugh at the absurdity or it all, or alternatively, perhaps, they see it as a form of “playfulness.”

Understanding the world in this way frees an individual from the notion that it can or should be anything other than an impermanent theater in which a story is being told and a drama enacted. Rejecting (or detaching from) the illusion of its permanence in favor of a greater Reality of deeper substantiality (known as Heaven’s Realm), allows the soul to rise up out of the cosmos laughing. The truth is, we take the world far too seriously which is part of its illusory nature. Yes, in one sense the world we live in (and the life we live), is serious and of great importance, but it is game nonetheless. We weight it with more substantiality than it actually has. According to the “game theory of truth,” we are at play in this world against many odds and we play by the commonly accepted rules that tradition and culture provide us. This “game,” win or lose, is meant to be played, therefore, with a kind of detachment from the outcome, and yet paradoxically, we must be committed to the play itself. In the end, this way of seeing and being in the world allows us to both understand the multiple levels of reality in which we are embedded, the rules that govern each level of game, and yet see it all as a relative reality that has been socially and temporarily constructed. This gives us opportunity to enter in, play the game, and yet also find a measure of objectivity. 

The Games People Play

In addition to game theory, there is another, similar analogy that is helpful in interpreting this analogue. If we observe society and its conditions carefully, we know each person (including ourselves), are experienced game-player. Not only are there cultural games in which we are participate, we can see the “games people play” with each other. These games are often ones of hide and seek—revealing certain aspects of ourselves while hiding or denying others in order to control the world around us. Often, also, we use strategies that tilt the field of play in our favor. We act or live in such a way that we are able to manipulate others so that the outcomes of our playing accrue to our benefit. 

Those who can catch sight of this from the perspective of heaven, know many of these to be false moves, human machinations, often designed to cheat others in the games we play. When we see these in ourselves (or how others are playing them), we can be released from game-playing as our main option, or learn to play differently. More importantly perhaps we can learn to play by other sets of rules that have been formed from transcendence or heaven itself. For example, a life lived by modes of unconditional love is so different from the games of conditional love where we give and/or receive love based only on certain limited conditions that we or society has set. These new rules challenge us to call into question the reality of the world of duality. They help us detach from it in such a way that while we are still willing to stay and play the game of life in the kosmos, we treat it differently. We reject the old rules in favor of the principles of a new realm, throwing a different light on what is considered to be so permanent in this world. From this new vantage point we understand its impermanence and can learn to laugh at both it and ourselves. 

What follows in the text is a colloquy on the nature of the world of impermanence, the kosmos of human creation. The world of our present habitation is a construct that is built upon the predilections of humans trying to build or create permanent world-structures based on human ambition and desire. The goal of the societies and civilizations in our world is to get, keep and maintain power according to arbitrary rules established by a particular cultural and society. These social and physical constructs have been built out of the notions, histories, and determinations of cultures one after the other through the ages. What is true however is that these constructs keep falling apart and into oblivion. We seem to be un able to hold on to our cultural creations for long. They keep slipping from our grasp, weakening and then decaying away. Neither the creations of humankind nor its creators are deathless and immortal, nor do we ever see with full clarity, so how could our creations be a feature that outlasts us? It is a foolish enterprise, but we keep attempting it nonetheless. These are of the games people play.

Reorientation

Permanence is determined by a totally different origination. For something to be permanent it has to have originated from a different realm—the realm of the Infinite and the Absolute rather than duality. To be born from the Source (as its child—its son or daughter) offers humankind the possibility of permanence. In sacred tradition, this new state is called aionian (or eternal life). 

Creations that are birthed from that Source and are its offspring can, it seems, be given and even bestow on others the same gift of immortality; “Giving it away,” it is said. This is of great significance in the self-donation of the Anointed One as the child or manifestation of Immortality. Becoming an  offspring of heaven, he gave a permanent gift, bestowed from Above. His gift to humankind was permanent, never to be rescinded. Though he himself was not the birther, yet he makes birth from the realm Above both possible and permanent.  

 

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

1. If you understand the sacramental mysteries to express an inner alchemical processes and not just ritual events based in religious institutions, how might that change the way you experience the process of baptism and anointing currently going on inside you?
2. In Philip, the experience of enlightenment (being filled with wisdom’s light and understanding) is related to anointing with oil, which ignites in order to burn and give light. Using that analogy how might you understand becoming an enlightened being?
3. Have you ever seen through some falsehood (a charade or a mask of some sort), and it made you want to laugh? Why were you laughing? Is the laughter in this analogue similar to your experience or different from what is being described in this Gospel? Describe what you understand laughter to be about?
4. How have you experienced the “games people play” (people playing games with each other)? Suppose someone is playing a game with you and you do not know it (or you do not know the rules of the game they are playing), what happens to you in that experience? If the game is malicious in nature it is often called a “con,” or it could positive and humorous like a joke to lighten things up. The intention, of course, is the difference. What games does our culture play with us? Describe one or several and journal your description. 
5. If this world presents itself to your senses as permanent and real (and yet it is impermanent and full of change and only relatively real), what adjustments do you need to make inwardly, psycho-socially and spiritually in light of this fact? Make a list of the changes you might need to make and note how difficult they may be to enact. 
6. How have you experienced detachment? Clearly there are time when we are forced to detach from something, like a lost job or a break in a relationship. But then there are other more natural forms of detachment as, for example, when a child begins to lose interest in some form of play that had been the center of attention at a certain age. What does detachment mean and require in each case? How do we detach? As you reflect, journal your answers. 

 

NOTES FOR FURTHER STUDY 

AND REFERENCE

1. It is important to think more deeply about the anointing of oil, its symbolism, and the nature and power of spiritual Enlightenment. In the Christian tradition, the condition for the possibility of Enlightenment (becoming a light filled being) is said to begin with the experience of anointing with oil. In later centuries this rite was reserved mainly for unction at death or for ordinations. In this analogue, however, anointing is seen differently. Although it appears that Yeshua was anointed with oil at his baptism, the symbolism appears to be far deeper than referring to one historic event at the Jordan River at the hands of his cousin, John. Note these things: First, it is related to the presence and action of the Sacred Spirit, which in this text is bestowed by a feminine energy coming from divine Source. Second, oil has a deep symbolic value in Hebrew tradition where, in its very nature, it saturates and penetrates even the skin of an individual into the body. Third, oil is the fuel used and needed for burning and light. In order for there to be light, oil must be ignited by fire to be set aflame. From this, it has been rightly said that, “whatever is to give light, must first endure the burning.” It is through burning that light is released. In the Abrahamic faiths, all of these define enlightenment. Notice all that precedes the experience of enlightenment itself. Each of these actions are spiritually significant in order that human beings become radiant sources of light. Such light concerns an inner state of consciousness in order to see. How Yeshua experienced becoming light (notice his statement, I am the light of the world) points to a profound change of consciousness. Beginning, perhaps, with a burst of insight and understanding, this inner light would need to grow so that the changes would not only be transformative, but permanent. We might imagine, then, that this form of anointing (that profoundly changes human consciousness and being) is not just a single event, but a process, taking place over a lifetime. 
2. Though we see change all around us, a common viewpoint is that the world is somehow fixed. A perennial perception about the world shared by multiple traditions, however, concerns its impermanence. Matter, time, space (and being itself—manifest reality), remain in a constant state of flux. Change is in the very nature of existence, and therefore there is nothing in our world that remains permanently in a fixed state except, perhaps, for change itself—which appears to be its constant condition. As a sapiential insight, the impermanence of reality is highlighted in such sacred traditions as Buddhism and Taoism. The Gospel of Philip strongly agrees with this point of view. 
3. There appear to be certain rules, however, that determine how changes occur. Particularly is this true for human behavior, which is in a constant state of flux. In the modern era the rules that apply to change in human behavior are known as “game theory,” which sees that there are certain parameters set around the way we interact with the world and each other as we change. This is also called “system’s theory” which sees the systemic nature of reality as interrelated ways of acting, each having an effect upon all the actors and agents in a system. In philosophy, economics and sociology, in particular, these interrelations are often summarized by the term “the game theory of truth.” In this Gospel, inner enlightenment is what makes it possible for some to see what these games being played are and by what rules. These may come as a sudden burst of  insight bringing about both a certain sense of humor and liberation. This often occurs when we suddenly wake up and see the reality or the humor in something that was heretofore hidden from our understanding. 
4. There are at least three kinds of water in Philip: natural water (maybe this includes birth-water), Living Water that flows out of Eternity and into time, and finally, the watery chaos of the kosmos itself. These are each in their own way life-giving or supportive of systems related to the image and symbol of water. In this analogue it appears that the third is how water is being described—a watery chaos out of which the enlightened ones are arising perhaps as one of the necessary conditions for enlightenment itself. 

Notes on the Translation

• The word “superior” could also be translated as “master.”
• When it says the Father lives in the Son, the phrase could equally be translated as the Father “exists” or “is” in the Son.
• The opening word in the second paragraph speaks of a state or place of excellence (kalos) from which the Master spoke, which has been translated here as from a place of profound (excellent) understanding.
• The term “diversion” is the same word in the original Coptic as the later word “game.” 
• The terms “cast off” and “rejected” are the same in the original and could be translated also by the word “disdained.”
• In the final paragraph, the phrase “the world system” translates the Greek term kosmos which is used in earlier teachings to describe our “constructed world” of human impermanence and also describing the world-order. 
• The phrase “son or a daughter” translates the original word “son” which could also be understood as a child without gender. 
• The word “true” is used to designate those who have emerged out of the world of humanity into the Realm of Heaven as opposed to those who are still in the world and unable to see its impermanence and illusory nature.
• The word “gift” is added to indicate its gratuity, since humans or even higher beings are not the source.