Know Yourself, Know God

How important is it to know yourself? According to a teaching attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas it is the way to know God.

“When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you will dwell in poverty, and will be impoverished” (Logion 3:de).

“When you know yourselves, then you will be known.” Who is the knower? Is it God? Yes. Is it you? Yes. How can it be both? Because the knower is the YOU in you, the Divine in you, the Spirit within. The true Self is the self living in Presence. It’s who we truly are and meant to be. 

What is it that the true Self knows? It knows you in your total embodied self in your innermost depths. It knows your egoic thoughts, feelings, and reactions. It knows your shadow that tries to stay hidden in unconsciousness. It knows your egoic ambitions, aspirations, intentions, motivations, and all the negativity in your soul . . .

Your true Self also knows that none of these things actually separates you from the One Source; that you are now and always will be a child of the living Father and Mother of all that is. However, when ego dominates your life, you cannot consciously live in the realm of Presence. You live as if you were separated from God. You will probably feel estranged and alienated from God, which also means you will feel alienated from your truest and deepest Self, your Divine or Christ Self. These thoughts and feelings of estrangement and separation may manifest as anxiety, fear, frustration, emptiness, boredom, loneliness, and in other ways. You are likely to feel this in your body as well as your soul. 

Another saying attributed to Jesus in Thomas reads:

Jesus said, “Show me the stone that the builders rejected. That stone is the cornerstone.”

The “cornerstone” that is foundational to our spiritual evolution is our awareness of our true Nature. We must know who and whose we are. We are the handiwork of the Divine and born into the world in original goodness.

An ardent disciple said to his teacher, “I am ready to go anywhere in search of the truth.”

The teacher, amused, replied, “When are you going to set out?”

“The moment you tell me where to go,” he replied.

The teacher responded, “I suggest you travel in the direction your nose is pointing.”

“But where do I stop?”

“Anywhere you wish, for the truth will be found right there, right in front of your nose, staring your unseeing eyes in the face.”

In order to know what is true and experience Presence, we must look within. The only way we can know that we are known by God is by knowing our true Self. 

(Adapted from my book, The Living Way of Jesus: The Path to Spiritual Transformation in the Gospel of Thomas, pp. 111-12.)