Analogue 61

Analogue 61 

The Knowledge of Love

Those who gain wisdom from truth are liberated beings, and a liberated being is one who does not habitually transgress—transgressors being slaves of their own offenses. Truth is our Mother and knowledge of her comes through joining with her. Those to whom Truth is given no longer offend, so the world calls them “free!” They cease their transgressions because they have gained wisdom from truth, which raises the level of their hearts, and having transcended their state in the world, they are free indeed. Love, however, is what uplifts and frees them, and yet in their freedom, true knowledge also makes them slaves of love on behalf of those who are not yet ready to live in the freedom of truth. Still it is this knowledge which prepares them so that they too may become free beings.

Love possesses nothing, for how could it when everything already belongs to it. It never says, “This is mine,” or “That belongs to me.” It says instead, “All of this is yours.”

Spiritual love is truly a fragrance-filled-wine meant to be enjoyed by all who receive it, and those anointed with it share it with anyone who stands together with them. As long as they stand together, all are anointed by its healing ointment. Should they cease to stand together, however, then those not yet anointed will find themselves still deep in their own stagnation. Did not the Good Samaritan give the wounded man wine mixed with oil, and with that anointing was he not healed from his wounds? For “Love shall cover a multitude of sins.”

SYNOPSIS

• This analogue ties many Gospel themes together, teaching mysteries about the spiritual realities held secret in the vision of the Gospel of Philip
• Wisdom comes from truth, liberating a human being.
• A liberated being is free(er) from transgressions — transgressions are described as any thing or any activity that enslave us. 
• Offenses offend us primarily: our own true nature, our inner being by taking it captive.  
• Truth as our Mother (understood as Mother or Lady Wisdom) is described as the source of all true understanding. 
• We know her through through direct relationship with her, not knowledge about her, but directly through personal knowledge of her (direct knowledge). 
• Gaining wisdom from truth does something that is extra-ordinary, it raises the level of consciousness within the heart. 
• The direct result of raising the conscious-level of the heart is the ability to transcend the kosmos (the worlds systems) further defining true freedom. 
• It is said to be love, however, that raises the level of consciousness within the heart, liberating us, but at the same time making us a “slave of love” on behalf of those who are not yet free.
• This could understood as a Bodhisattva form of Christianity (to use a term from the Hindu tradition)—which is the reconciliation of all things and working until all are free.
• Truth leads to Wisdom. Wisdom raises the conscious level of the heart by means of love, liberating us to become slaves of love in order to serve those not yet free or touched by love, so that in the end that same freedom can be experienced by all, covering a multitude of sins. This in full is the Philippian description of Love
• Love paradoxically has everything and yet possesses nothing. 
• Love is non-possessive and non-possession is a critically important definition of love. Non-possessive loving, which is entirely opposite of this world’s standard definition. Here we intend to possess what we love. 
• “All of this is yours” is the definition of self-donation and the self-giving. Giving everything away is a full form of loving
• Love is central to the sacramental elements of the giving of wine and pouring out the oil of anointing. Love is in the wine, the essence of the spirit contained within the wine and the healing oil.
• Wine and oil mixed together is seen as healing medicine, Philippian medicine—using the story of the Samaritan which also ties it to the canonical tradition. 
• The Samaritan story is a universally shared story which Philip uses as an analogy for the spiritual work of healing. 
• The unity of the community is the house where this healing is done. Without this unity and companionship, healing is not ultimately effective. Healing is a shared activity between healers and those being healed. 
• Stagnation is another description for those enslaved [check this out in the original on stagnation]
• Love covering (seen perhaps as anointing) sins, it a novel principle. The principle of love covering a multitude of sins (where is this quoted?). I Peter 4:8

Video recording on YouTube

COMMENTARY

Liberation by Truth

In this extraordinary analogue we learn how knowledge (perhaps most importantly, personal-knowledge), wisdom, and love interact with each other for the good of the creation. From the perspective of this Gospel, the life-giving breath of the Sacred Spirit directs her energies to librate the human soul so it may come to know and serve. This visionary understanding points us toward the transcendent-immanent reality in which we are each embedded as the necessary element that is needed. The words and metaphors in this analogue (and the experiences toward which they point), are all part of a much larger tapestry of many dimensions into which we are woven which is the field of our knowing and our true vocation. Those who follow the sacred path of Yeshua are put in service to the entire cosmos, especially the part of it which has fallen prey to enslavement. Everything is to be put in service for the growth and liberation of all sentient beings. If one were to make a comparison, this could be analogous to Buddhism’s Bodhisattva tradition expressed here in Jewish and Christian terms, which describes the vision of creation moving inexorably towards the freedom of its own perfection. In the divine Reality, and through scales of cosmic time (the aions). this is its destiny.

In preparation for (and perhaps as a prelude for this vocation), the state of an individual human being is to become one of freedom (liberation by Truth). The Gospel says, this is accomplished through the Mother. It is interesting that Truth presented here is not an abstraction, a proposition, or even a  set of beliefs. It is a relationship learned directly and personally from the Mother who herself is in direct relationship with us. She is the Wisdom figure and from her the Truth which liberates a human being is made available. One who receives truth from her is no longer subject to the demands of desire which has enslaved us. What changes in a human being, however, is not a more determined obedience to law (civil or religious), or even learning particular doctrines of truths, but a relationship that changes as it raises levels of conscious functioning within the heart. The text is clear that growth into new forms of transcendence through consciousness makes freedom from offense possible. More importantly, it gives an individual the ability to love in whole new ways.  

Learning to Love

Humankind must learn how to love unconditionally beyond the narrow limits of social, cultural, and egoic conditioning. That is perhaps the primary purpose of our sojourn on earth. Although it is easy to bring offense across this planet, learning to love raises the heart’s own cognitive abilities to new levels giving us behavioral freedom. Because the Mother is teaching us, it is possible to learn to love in unimagined ways. Having direct access to the knowledge of her connects us to her wisdom concerning love which is her domain. This is an active form of knowing that seeks not for its own advantage, but which works unconditionally for the good of all (on behalf of the whole). This is the highest form of love is her greatest wisdom. 

This is also the primary act of liberation—freedom from the self in order to serve others—that gives us true and direct kardial knowledge. Only by giving ourselves away, on behalf of and in service to All (whether they are ready for it or not), is the only passageway to the truth of it. Perhaps there is no higher purpose for existence, no higher good. It is quite clear that enslavement to self-service (as if that is the truth of things) has been the root cause of a deep blinding in human nature. Wisdom learned from the knowledge and the practice of love is the only thing that can free us from blindness. Such freedom will occur when it is the “right time.” If it is not the right time and they are not ready, the work goes on nonetheless, waiting for the proper moment that will bring release.

Non-possession

Notice how such loving service on behalf of humanity is not something that we own or possess. It is only expressed or known through release—by giving it away. In order to realize itself, it is always releasing itself. In the end, nothing belongs to it or to us. Masters of wisdom are free beings because they have given everything that could bind them away. This is the liberation of egolessness, which is their wisdom and ultimate advantage—because they take advantage of no one. There is, therefore, no trespass, no offense. In light of these definitions, binding others possessively may be the ultimate definition of trespass and offense. 

Finally, this form of love is a flowing. Love cannot remain static or stagnate, confined to itself. It must be given away. It is in that giving that it becomes strong and fresh, free-flowing and fragrant. It is also described here in terms of intoxicating wine that heals and restores. The Eucharist (either symbolic or actual), is an elemental act that serves both as medicine and intoxicant. It is, therefore, an apothecary and a perfume. Such a scent cannot be captured, it can only be experienced and enjoyed as it defuses its fragrance into the wider whole. 

… this form of love is a flowing. Love cannot remain static or stagnate, confined to itself. It must be given away. It is in that giving that it becomes strong and fresh, free-flowing and fragrant. 

Covering Sin

The dark stains of trespass (sins) are said to be covered by the activity and fragrance of this compassionate agency. Wounds will be healed when love is generously and liberally given away. In this light, then (and in contrast to the Pauline tradition), it is not the blood of the Christ that cleanses everything from sin, it is his self-giving which turns the tables on evil and washes away, destroying the dams that have blocked the flow, and healing the damage which has been done. 

Fundamentally the world is fundamentally quite different from way it appears to us now. We see its outer appearance, but then there is the dynamics of its hidden reality. An ability to step beyond it, transcending the human kosmos (its values and constraints) is the definition of real human freedom. It is also the condition for the possibility of our healing. Anything else or less than this simply perpetuates the systemic distortions of the world, which are based in the egoic self with its many aberrations. It is our servitude to that world and its perceptions which keeps us captive and bound. In the story of the Good Samaritan told in the canonical Gospels, it was precisely those who knew truth only as religious beliefs (understood as propositions, doctrines, dogmas, or rules), who turned away from the man caught and beaten by the thieves. The test of their knowledge and the condition of their hearts was manifest by what they were not able to do. The Good Samaritan, acting differently from the heart (released from these distortions), acted freely from outside the social and conventional religious norms, not only covered the transgressions perpetuated by religious orthodoxy of his day, it also brought healing and liberation to another suffering and wounded soul. 

Liberating the Kosmos

The practitioners of religious piety were not able to transcend their dogmatic formulations and so were slaves to these transgressions. In Yeshua’s story, they had not yet been liberated into freedom. In the end, however, they too will become capable of following the path of the Samaritan whom they hated, learning the same love that he knew. Ultimately they too will become free beings. 

Those who learn to love in this manner are asked to act in solidarity with one another. In community, the service of love is a special kind (or act) of anointing. It is in and through the beloved community itself that the energy of love flows and anoints all. Although it may not be outwardly perceived, it becomes the invisible work of divine Reality in the world. Solidarity with one another (loving in this manner is the powerful key that unlocks the energy of love). But it is shared in secret and in service to the world. It will co ontinue texist in the cosmos until it and all sentient beings are fully liberated. This is the hope and vision of this Gospel expressed in this beautiful analogue. 

 

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

                   

1. As a form of personal practice, many relational exchanges are expressed in this text. Diagram what is possible or illustrate these exchanges in some way? You might try showing how nothing stands alone on its own, but works together as an expression of the whole community of beings, connecting everything to its inner conditions. 
2. How have you known truth as a set of propositions thought are understood to be true or false? How is truth experienced and personally different from this? Tacit or personal knowledge and propositional truth (also called rational knowledge) are very different from each other. Explain this. 
3. Notice the paradox of love: a being liberated by love also means one who is bound by it. How is this true in your experience?
4. How is self-centeredness described in this analogue? What is the attitude of the heart a “theory of everything?” How is truth about love made explicit in this text? If these are broad, comprehensive teachings and their practices are lifelong, how do you experience this?  
5. In practical terms, how do you live out these truths in a world that has stagnated in self-centeredness? In daily life, is there a way to break free and become liberated? Explain the practice of this in your own terms. What happens to you when you do it. Keep a journal of what you learn. This is your wisdom. 
6. The poet, Robert Pynn, wrote the following about: How do you connect his words to the teachings of this analogue?

Each act of love 

is the heart remembering 

the sacred fire 

in which we were forged, 

the burning mercy 

in whom we are bonded, 

the radiant wisdom 

through whom our destiny is fulfilled. 

1. Read through the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37). How does it illustrate the teaching of this analogue? Thieves, wounded man, two Jewish practitioners, the Samaritan, and the Inn Keeper were the actors in this vignette. In the story, who were liberated and free? Who transgressed and who were free from transgression? Who lived by love and who lived by law? What guided each of their actions?

 

NOTES FOR FURTHER STUDY 

AND REFERENCE

1. The Gospel of Philip appears to be quoting a passage found in the Petrine letters (1 Peter 4:8: Above all, love one another deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins). An alternative possibility is that both Peter and Philip are quoting Yeshua. There is the distinct chance that they have incorporated into their texts one of the sayings of Yeshua from his own teachings to which they were privy. These sentiments are also found in the Gospel of John and in the Epistles where love is extolled as the highest of the gifts and virtues that a human can bring into the world (John 13:34-35, I Corinthians 13:1-13, John 4).  
2. This analogue presents the sacraments as a form of healing medicine and those who bring this medicine to others out of love act as priests in the sacred art of healing. The symbolism of oil and wine visually illustrate how, in ancient medicinal practices, they both were used to cleanse wounds and ease pain. It is important, perhaps, to rethink the practice of these rites was not simply or strictly understood as institutions of the church, but as medicines that can touch an individual on the levels of body, soul, and spirit. Illustrations of this approach are found in many other traditions, for example in Ayurvedic and other aboriginal medicines employing certain elements not only for physical but for soul-healing administered by healers and shamans. These may be understood, of course, to have physical effects, but energetically and in the spiritual world they have great power to heal on many different levels. Shamanic practices use medicines and rites in just these ways. 
3. Readiness (kairos—the right moment not by chronological time but by “kairotic” time) when they are ripe for it, is highlighted in view in this analogue. This theme framed the Gospel in the opening analogue where the ability to act (and perhaps assist in ripening and readiness) using these principles becomes essential for all wisdom practitioners. The question is, are we prepared to act when things reach the moment of readiness? In that instant, there is an alignment between persons, events in time, a ripening, one who sees and knows not only what is occurring, but takes action to perform essential duty. This is spiritual synchronicity which is the practice of this Gospel because it was exactly the way that Yeshua, the peripatetic practitioner of wisdom, acted as he made his way across first century Palestine. Only wisdom’s eye can see this, which is the truth that this analogue outlines concerning the level of consciousness which is raised in the heart so that such a synchronicity practiced. 

Notes ON the Translation

• The phrase “gain wisdom from truth” translates an original phrase that says truth is known by “gnosis.” This implies that truth does not simply mean the accumulation of knowledge per se, but through knowing by experience which is how wisdom becomes known. Wisdom is, therefore, translated in that way in this analogue.
• “Transgressions” and “offenses” can also be translated by the word “sin” or “sins.” 
• The term “level” could easily be “plane” or even “dimension.”
• The word “stagnation” translates a word that could mean “murk” or “stench.”