Yeshua said, Blessings on you when you are hated and persecuted, and no place will be found, wherever you are persecuted.

Yeshua said, Blessings on you who have been persecuted in your hearts. Only you truly know the father. Blessings on you who are hungry that the stomach of someone else in want may be filled.

“He said,Master, there are many around the drinking trough but nothing in the well. Yeshua said, There are many standing at the door but those who are alone will enter the wedding chamber. Yeshua said, The father’s kingdom is like a merchant who owned a supply of merchandise and found a pearl. The merchant was prudent. He sold his goods and bought the single pearl for himself.”

“They said to him, Tell us who you are so that we may believe in you. He said to them, You examine the face of heaven and earth but you have not come to know the one who is in your presence, and you do not know how to examine this moment. Yeshua said, Seek and you will find. In the past I did not tell you the things about which you asked me. Now I am willing to tell you, but you do not seek them.”

“The students said to him, Your brothers and your mother are standing outside. He said to them, Those here who do the will of my father are my brothers and my mother. They will enter my father’s kingdom. They showed Yeshua a gold coin and said to him, Caesar’s people demand taxes from us. He said to them, Give Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, give god the things that are god’s, and give me what is mine. “ ~The Gospel of Thomas

The Cornerstone

According to Thomas, Jesus (Yeshua) said that the stone the builder rejects will be the cornerstone. This is not about stones or building, it is allegory. The stone the builder rejects represents the spiritual type of people who are often rejects in an overly materialistic world. The cornerstone, being the most important part of the building, represents the one from many are are chosen by God to do His work here on earth. Of course, God is not going to choose only one person to do a job. He chooses several so that at least one will seek the true spiritual path and develop the necessary spiritual faculties to do the job. Tyhe know-it-all, who thinks he knows everything, but actually only knows material things, and even those only in a limited way, is not one who will be chosen. The one who iss chosen admits that he doesn’t know everything and seeks to learn more.

Hated and Persecuted

Jesus is not blessing all who are pursecuted, only those who are persecuted for being spiritual in a materialistic world and those who are unjustly persecuted when they have done no wrong. Jesus blesses such people because they are following the path of righteousness, regardless of what society things of such behavior.

You Who are Hungry

It is a simple fact that people who have little are often the ones most likely to share what they have with others. Greedy people rarely share unless they can see some way to profit from it, such as getting publicity. So jesus is not blessing them simply because they are hungry, but because they are hungry due to sharing what little they have. And hunger here can represent more then hunger for food. The person may need new clothes, new shoes, etc., but is nevertheless sharing what they have. That is a true person of God, and so blessed by God and Jesus.

The Single Pearl

The wise merchant who sells all he has to buy the single pearl is not buying a pearl in the physical sense. This is another allegory. The pearl of great price is the Truth and Wisdom found in Heaven, the Truth and Wisdom that we can gain only by developing our spiritual faculties. Like the Fountian of Youth, some seek this pearl as if it were a physical object, but it isn’t. It is purely spiritual.

My Brothers and Mother

This is one of the sayings of Jesus that are disliked by many. Some refuse to believe he said it. But Jesus is not dishonoring his blood relatives, he is saying that those who are our brothers and sisters in the spiritual quest for enlightenment are more important than those we are related to by blood, especially when those blood relatives choose not to develop their spiritual Self.

The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) released a new video of Hubble images this week (October 25, 2022). The video is titled Cosmic Wonders. It is, in essence, a tour through some bewitching phenomena in our universe. And with this in mind, it includes 18 visualizations of everything from nearby nebulae to deep and distant galaxies.

Learn more about the gorgeous objects that the video focuses on. For example, in the first half of the video you’ll see the following:

The Bubble Nebula. See winds and radiation from a massive star.

Ultra Deep Survey Field. This dense cluster of galaxies 6 billion light-years away has satellite galaxies at more than twice that distance.

Arp 273. The two galaxies interact to form a shape like a long-stemmed rose.

The Lagoon Nebula. This star-forming region in the constellation Sagittarius lies toward the center of our Milky Way.

Do planets have intelligence? That seems to be the main idea behind a new hypothesis put forth by astrobiologists: that planets are also intelligent beings. This thought experiment is based on the idea that planets like Earth have undergone changes due to the collective activity of life, such as that of microorganisms or plants, which has given them the ability to develop a life of their own.

The research, which was published in the International Journal of Astrobiology, establishes a framework for evaluating a planet’s intelligence. To think of intelligence in terms of an intergalactic body rather than sentient creatures like humans is a startling prospect. But in a way, a planet can have a “green mind“; this paradigm offers fresh perspectives on how to deal with crises like climate change and technological upheaval.

“In our study of the Mystic Life, its purification and illumination, we have been analyzing and considering a process of organic development, an evolution of personality. We may treat this either as a movement of consciousness toward higher levels, or as a remaking of consciousness consequent on the emergence and growth of a factor which is dormant in ordinary people, but destined to be supreme in the full-grown mystic type. We have seen the awakening of this factor—this spark of the soul—with its innate capacity for apprehending the absolute. We have seen it attack and conquer the old sense-fed and self-centered life of the normal self, and introduce it into a new universe, lit up by the Uncreated Light. These were the events which, taken together constitute the ‘First Mystic Life’; a complete round upon the spiral road which leads from Man to God.

“What we have been looking at, then, is a life process, the establishment of a certain harmony between the created self and the Reality whose invitation it has heard: and we have discussed this life process as if it contained no elements which were not referable to natural and spontaneous growth. … But side by side with this organic growth there always goes a specific kind of activity which is characteristic of the mystic: that his consciousness of the Infinite may be stabilized, enriched, and defined.” ~Evelyn Underhill

Mystic Life

The book from which the above quote is taken is all about the life of the mystics, so Underhill uses that name a lot, but we could just as easily say spiritual student or spiritual adept, so the Mystic life is also the Spiritual life, at least if you are talking about actual spiritual development and not the pretense of it that is so common today.

Purification and Illumination

Purification and illumination are what spiritual (or mystical) development is all about. Foolish people claim they are perfect just as they are and have no need for development. Mystery schools and spiritual schools have not existed for many centuries in many parts of the world for nothing. Just as the doctor, carpenter, or lawyer needs training and development, so does the spiritual adept. In this world, there is no free ride. You don’t climb out of the deep hole of matter by simply wishing for it, or pretending you have already gotten out.

Organic Development

What Ms. Underhill means when she says “organic development,” is the natural growth of the body and mind that happens to everyone, or at least everyone who doesn’t have some disease that prevents it. It is the development that largely happens on its own, with little conscious effort, as opposed to spiritual development which requires a conscious effort applied regularly and consistently. But as Underhill adds to this, the Mystic follows a different kind of organic process by seeking to awaken and develop his spiritual faculties and develop higher levels of consciousness. The highest level of consciousness is that found in the highest dimension that most call Heaven.

Levels of Consciousness

Underhill tells us that the mystic undergoes a process of either remaking their consciousness or developing higher levels of consciousness. There are those who have made both spiritual and scientific studies of this, and most agree that there are multiple levels of consciousness. Obviously, a potato doesn’t have the same level of consciousness as a fish, and generally, a human has a higher level of consciousness than that fish. But are their levels of consciousness beyond humans? Spiritual people and mystics believe so, and some of the more advanced have achieved very high levels, levels where they gain the Truth and Wisdom known as Gnosis, which cannot be gained by reading books.

Conquer the Self-Centered Life

Yes, spiritual development does require us to conquer the self-centered life. To put it another way, the Soul must be awakened and developed to the point where it can control the ego which is all about the world of matter. The ego does not need to be destroyed, as some claim, it needs to be controlled. We need ego to function in the material world, but we can’t let it dominate and prevent us from making spiritual progress.

The Spiral Road

The Spiral Road (or staircase) is the path of illumination that leads to Heaven. It is spiral because it is the nature of man that most of us don’t move forward on a straight and continuous path. We take a few steps forward, we fall back, we move forward again, etc. That is why the path is best depicted as a spiral. And it is, as Underhill says, a “life process,” the gradual establishment of harmony between our material and spiritual natures so that we can continue forward on that spiritual path and also continue to function in the world. And when we finally face physical death, the spirit and soul will continue on that spiral road until the highest level is reached.