'The Gospel of Judas', Surfaces after 1,700 Years - commentary
[I have renamed this blog Integral Yoga Studies and in late 2016 and early 2017 I will be moving many past articles from my Integral Yoga Studies website here and letting that site go. Patrizia's articles will be moved to Aeon Center of Cosmology's website]
A Response to the New York Times article:
'The Gospel of Judas', Surfaces after 1,700 Years
by Lori Tompkins
6 April 2006
The emergence of the 'Gospel of Judas' is fascinating, especially amidst the current frenzy over 'The DaVinci Code,' and issues regarding the Knights Templar and the continuing blood line of Jesus. One wonders why it is just surfacing though it was, according to your April 6th article, discovered in Egypt thirty-some years ago and bought by Frieda Nussberger-Tchacos six years ago. I found it difficult to follow the history of the codex. No date was given for when it was turned over to the Maecenas Foundation for conservation and translation and how and when that was taken up by the National Geographic Society. Any clarity on these details would be appreciated.
The article is quite the advertisement for James Robinson's book, "The Secrets of Judas: The Story of the Misunderstood Disciple and his Lost Gospel" (Harper San Francisco, April 2006). I have not yet had the time to run to the bookstore to get my copy, along with the other millions of people who will be very interested in this important story of Judas redeemed.
My own interest in the story has less to do with Jesus and Judas per se, but rather more with the subjects of which they spoke and how these subjects can be understood in a new light that might help put our 'aeon' long fixation with Jesus and currently, with his bloodline, in its place and help us get on with the demands of our current 'aeon' or age. Jesus spoke to his disciples about a superior 'generation' yet to come. He is credited as saying, 'no one born [of] this aeon will see that [generation]'. 'That generation' was described as 'Self-Generating' from an Immortal or eternal realm. He often speaks in terms of the Cosmos. One equipped with a bare minimum of cosmological knowledge can decipher that the 12 luminaries Jesus is describing represent the twelve months of the year or the twelve 2160- year aeons or astrological ages of the 25,920 year precession of the equinoxes as well as larger cycles of time (larger multiples of the Precession). Can we bring ourselves to admit that Jesus was well aware that 360 degrees of celestial longitude of the celestial equator, when divided in 12 segments ('portions of heaven') formed the Zodiac. Incredulous? Please note that the name of the wife of Adam in this 'gospel', is 'Zoe' - the root of 'zodiac'.
In Vedic scriptures, the Year, whether it be the 360 degree year or the 360 degree Great Year of the Precession, is known as 'the sacrifice.' So all of this talk of sacrifice in the codex, can be much better understood if one considers that Jesus was talking about a process in Time, to which every thing is sacrificed, involving multiple aeons, and cycles of time. Is it so very outrageous to imagine that the material Cosmos might wish to gestate or evolve a being superior to man, as it once succeeded in evolving man from the animal? We might consider that Jesus was speaking of the natural course of evolution, that he was telling his disciples that, like it or not, they were born of the mental evolution, an evolution which succeeded the lower (physical and animal) realms. He taught that the superior generation would come in another age.
This teaching, recorded in the 'Gospel of Judas', regarding the inevitable evolution of a superior generation is demystified and fully expounded upon in the work of the sage, Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) and in the work of his yogic counterpart, the Mother of Pondicherry, India (1878-1973). What Jesus called, 'That generation', Sri Aurobindo termed, the 'Supramental Race.' He and the Mother wrote tens of thousands of pages on the subject. The Mother made several declarations, one in 1956 and others in 1969 regarding the arrival and establishment of the Supramental 'seed' - the seed of the new race (recorded in The Mother's Agenda) spoken of (apparently) by Jesus. In 1970, the Mother ordered the construction of a Temple in Auroville, India - a great room with 12 pillars surrounding a central luminous core - which was to be the symbol of the future realization of the Supramental being. (See www.matacom.com for details surrounding the faulty execution of that vision.)
Subsequently, in 1971, Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet (1938) arrived in Pondicherry and began contributing to the process of unveiling and demystifying the "Supramental" evolution. Over the next 35 years, her work was mostly ill-received by remaining students at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, the Temple community in Auroville and by various religious and secular interests, largely because of its cosmological nature. Ms. Norelli-Bachelet's body of work is an unprecidented presentation (at least in our lifetime) of cosmological knowledge by which some may perceive, follow and participate in the unfolding of the new order of being, spoken of by Jesus as 'That generation'. In her book, The Hidden Manna, she interprets the entirety of St. John's Revelation ('The Apocalypse') in cosmological/zodiacal terms.
My interest in writing this letter is the sincere wish that your readers might not only be directed like cows towards the next anti-Christian-establishment best seller (which I will probably soon purchase), but perhaps some could benefit from the suggestion that all this Christ-lore be seen and appreciated in terms of a higher knowledge, which involves an un-thought of resolution of matter and spirit (science and religion) and a unification of the multitude of individual wills towards a truer vision of our collective history, our current growing pains, and our destiny as a race. We certainly appear to be highly motivated to ferret out the meaning of the ancients and the prophets and the secrets of Knights of the Templars and various sacred texts at our disposal. Perhaps we can all be spared some grief and spared more stabbing around in the dark by becoming aware of the spiritual, cosmological and practical teachings of a line of sages born into our own aeon * who knew themselves to be the seed of the superior 'generation' spoken of by prophets of various civilizations.
In the popular new age magazine, What is Enlightenment?, renowned spiritual teachers Ken Wilber and Andrew Cohen discuss their understanding of 'Evolutionary Enlightenment'. This idea, they would both hopefully admit, came from Sri Aurobindo's evolutionary perspective that man's goal is not a static or other-worldly enlightenment, such as the Buddhist's 'Nirvana' or the Judeo-Christian or Muslim 'Heaven', but rather a progressive realization of a Unity Consciousness on Earth. Cohen and Wilber agree in their 'Guru and Pandit' discussions (published in WIE magazine) that 'Evolutionary Enlightenment' is very possibly man's next religion. Well, my wish is that perhaps our world can be spared any new 'religion' and that we can actually engage in a radical receptivity to a superior truth (and demonstrate a radical will to nurture that truth) which exceeds and rectifies our current disharmonious and ill-coordinated mental civilization.
One must wonder at this point in our collective journey as a race, what could possibly unite, on our planet, all that has been divided so convincingly? What could possibly harmonize the disharmony? What could possibly usher in the enlightened Gnostic Society that is spoken of as an inevitable evolution in ancient texts and prophecies such as the Codex Tchacos, St. John's Apocalypse, the Mayan Codices, and the Rig Veda?
When I think of the massive teaching regarding the Supramental Being which has spanned our past century with amazing continuity of focus and force - the volumes and volumes of knowledge of a higher order of being written by of Sri Aurobindo, the Mother, and Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet - I think of Jesus's comment to Judas:
'Look, you have been told everything.
Lift up your eyes and look at the cloud and the light within it
and the stars surrounding it.
The star that leads the way is your star.'
© Lori Tompkins 2006
Related Articles:
'The Gospel of Judas' from the Perspective of Integral Yoga & the Supramental Cosmology
Judas, Scorpio and the Last Supper
Zodiacal & Cosmological References in the Gospel of Judas
The Ordeals of Scorpio
The article is quite the advertisement for James Robinson's book, "The Secrets of Judas: The Story of the Misunderstood Disciple and his Lost Gospel" (Harper San Francisco, April 2006). I have not yet had the time to run to the bookstore to get my copy, along with the other millions of people who will be very interested in this important story of Judas redeemed.
My own interest in the story has less to do with Jesus and Judas per se, but rather more with the subjects of which they spoke and how these subjects can be understood in a new light that might help put our 'aeon' long fixation with Jesus and currently, with his bloodline, in its place and help us get on with the demands of our current 'aeon' or age. Jesus spoke to his disciples about a superior 'generation' yet to come. He is credited as saying, 'no one born [of] this aeon will see that [generation]'. 'That generation' was described as 'Self-Generating' from an Immortal or eternal realm. He often speaks in terms of the Cosmos. One equipped with a bare minimum of cosmological knowledge can decipher that the 12 luminaries Jesus is describing represent the twelve months of the year or the twelve 2160- year aeons or astrological ages of the 25,920 year precession of the equinoxes as well as larger cycles of time (larger multiples of the Precession). Can we bring ourselves to admit that Jesus was well aware that 360 degrees of celestial longitude of the celestial equator, when divided in 12 segments ('portions of heaven') formed the Zodiac. Incredulous? Please note that the name of the wife of Adam in this 'gospel', is 'Zoe' - the root of 'zodiac'.
In Vedic scriptures, the Year, whether it be the 360 degree year or the 360 degree Great Year of the Precession, is known as 'the sacrifice.' So all of this talk of sacrifice in the codex, can be much better understood if one considers that Jesus was talking about a process in Time, to which every thing is sacrificed, involving multiple aeons, and cycles of time. Is it so very outrageous to imagine that the material Cosmos might wish to gestate or evolve a being superior to man, as it once succeeded in evolving man from the animal? We might consider that Jesus was speaking of the natural course of evolution, that he was telling his disciples that, like it or not, they were born of the mental evolution, an evolution which succeeded the lower (physical and animal) realms. He taught that the superior generation would come in another age.
This teaching, recorded in the 'Gospel of Judas', regarding the inevitable evolution of a superior generation is demystified and fully expounded upon in the work of the sage, Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) and in the work of his yogic counterpart, the Mother of Pondicherry, India (1878-1973). What Jesus called, 'That generation', Sri Aurobindo termed, the 'Supramental Race.' He and the Mother wrote tens of thousands of pages on the subject. The Mother made several declarations, one in 1956 and others in 1969 regarding the arrival and establishment of the Supramental 'seed' - the seed of the new race (recorded in The Mother's Agenda) spoken of (apparently) by Jesus. In 1970, the Mother ordered the construction of a Temple in Auroville, India - a great room with 12 pillars surrounding a central luminous core - which was to be the symbol of the future realization of the Supramental being. (See www.matacom.com for details surrounding the faulty execution of that vision.)
Subsequently, in 1971, Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet (1938) arrived in Pondicherry and began contributing to the process of unveiling and demystifying the "Supramental" evolution. Over the next 35 years, her work was mostly ill-received by remaining students at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, the Temple community in Auroville and by various religious and secular interests, largely because of its cosmological nature. Ms. Norelli-Bachelet's body of work is an unprecidented presentation (at least in our lifetime) of cosmological knowledge by which some may perceive, follow and participate in the unfolding of the new order of being, spoken of by Jesus as 'That generation'. In her book, The Hidden Manna, she interprets the entirety of St. John's Revelation ('The Apocalypse') in cosmological/zodiacal terms.
My interest in writing this letter is the sincere wish that your readers might not only be directed like cows towards the next anti-Christian-establishment best seller (which I will probably soon purchase), but perhaps some could benefit from the suggestion that all this Christ-lore be seen and appreciated in terms of a higher knowledge, which involves an un-thought of resolution of matter and spirit (science and religion) and a unification of the multitude of individual wills towards a truer vision of our collective history, our current growing pains, and our destiny as a race. We certainly appear to be highly motivated to ferret out the meaning of the ancients and the prophets and the secrets of Knights of the Templars and various sacred texts at our disposal. Perhaps we can all be spared some grief and spared more stabbing around in the dark by becoming aware of the spiritual, cosmological and practical teachings of a line of sages born into our own aeon * who knew themselves to be the seed of the superior 'generation' spoken of by prophets of various civilizations.
In the popular new age magazine, What is Enlightenment?, renowned spiritual teachers Ken Wilber and Andrew Cohen discuss their understanding of 'Evolutionary Enlightenment'. This idea, they would both hopefully admit, came from Sri Aurobindo's evolutionary perspective that man's goal is not a static or other-worldly enlightenment, such as the Buddhist's 'Nirvana' or the Judeo-Christian or Muslim 'Heaven', but rather a progressive realization of a Unity Consciousness on Earth. Cohen and Wilber agree in their 'Guru and Pandit' discussions (published in WIE magazine) that 'Evolutionary Enlightenment' is very possibly man's next religion. Well, my wish is that perhaps our world can be spared any new 'religion' and that we can actually engage in a radical receptivity to a superior truth (and demonstrate a radical will to nurture that truth) which exceeds and rectifies our current disharmonious and ill-coordinated mental civilization.
One must wonder at this point in our collective journey as a race, what could possibly unite, on our planet, all that has been divided so convincingly? What could possibly harmonize the disharmony? What could possibly usher in the enlightened Gnostic Society that is spoken of as an inevitable evolution in ancient texts and prophecies such as the Codex Tchacos, St. John's Apocalypse, the Mayan Codices, and the Rig Veda?
When I think of the massive teaching regarding the Supramental Being which has spanned our past century with amazing continuity of focus and force - the volumes and volumes of knowledge of a higher order of being written by of Sri Aurobindo, the Mother, and Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet - I think of Jesus's comment to Judas:
'Look, you have been told everything.
Lift up your eyes and look at the cloud and the light within it
and the stars surrounding it.
The star that leads the way is your star.'
© Lori Tompkins 2006
Related Articles:
'The Gospel of Judas' from the Perspective of Integral Yoga & the Supramental Cosmology
Judas, Scorpio and the Last Supper
Zodiacal & Cosmological References in the Gospel of Judas
The Ordeals of Scorpio
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