Quenching the Ego
People call Jesus 'Saviour'
But he said: "When you bring forth that in yourselves,
this which is yours will save you." (logion 70)
What did he mean
Logion 48 If two make peace with each other
The house is the dwelling within, the dwelling which the Kingdom elects when the mind makes room for the wish of the Father (log. 99). The usurper returns incessantly to the charge in various disguises. He plays the master and persists even if he is not taken seriously. The father asks only to be recognized in his own house and to occupy the whole space. However his action is constantly impeded. The heart-rending which results is the worst of griefs. The situation becomes suicidal. Then, seeing that it is a matter of life and death, the mind, war-weary, gives up crossing the wish of the Father. Intruder as it was, it consents to become the humble and docile servant of the Master. It has yielded the place which it improperly occupied. Light floods the dwelling: When the disciple is emptied, he will be filled with Light (log. 61.15-16) and he illumines the whole world (log. 24.8).
The power of the Father is on a par with his other properties. It can now take free rein. And his wish will encounter no obstacle. What mountains we made of the ambushes on the highway - and now everything has become smooth.
Logion 103 Happy is the man who knows
We find here the invitation to vigilance which we encountered in logion 21. We learn little by little to identify the robbers and plunderers. The Ego, in order to assert itself as a separate entity, needs to appear different, to build itself up with what it appropriates to itself. It persists in the idea that it is distinct and dedicates all its resources to cultivate that in which it differs from others. Becoming aware of what is, brings about the destruction of illusion. And as the Ego is built upon illusion, it must disappear. This is work which demands patience, attention and prudence, because in order to construct itself it has usurped all the mind’s resources. Happy the man who can spot the usurper, can distance himself from it and be sufficiently vigilant to outwit the adversary before it gets into his dwelling. Little by little, he will succeed in putting aside the apparition which made him think that he was not the Self.
Logion 97 The Kingdom of the Father is like a woman
who was carrying a jar full of flour
The adventure which happens to the woman in this logion is somewhat baffling at first sight. How could she not have noticed, having travelled a long road, that the handle of her jar had broken, that the flour had all spilled out behind her on the road? The handle could not have broken without being knocked - perhaps by a branch in passing - and the difference in weight between a full jar and an empty jar ought to have caught her attention even if the flour spilled out very gradually. The circumstances are obviously perplexing. And what is even more surprising, for the outside observer, is that Jesus is comparing the Kingdom of the Father to this woman. The situation is the opposite of the preceding logion, where the woman was investing with importance a food indispensable to life. Nevertheless, in investing things with importance, we run a strong risk of investing ourselves with importance, of expecting, of desiring, even of courting compliments for those large loaves which will bring happiness to man … Here, it is quite the opposite: reproaches to be expected, explanations to be given, suspicions to be appeased, loss to be remedied…
And yet, if the Kingdom is to be likened to this woman, it is because, as she responded to an inner call, nothing else existed for her. Contemplation having become fullness had driven out all mental images. ........... This woman made the two One. In the image of her jar which became gradually emptied, she took leave of her Ego. And, like the air which filled the void, she let herself be invested by Him with whom she had become one. She lost something without noticing it, hence without even suffering from it, in order to gain the All. The return to the house is, for her, the entry into the Kingdom. She is empty of everything which is not the object of her contemplation: When the disciple is emptied, he will be filled with light (log. 61.15-16).
