Words of Fire
Commentaries to the Gospel of Thomas
The Gospel of Thomas is regarded by many scholars as one of the most important texts in understanding early Christianity outside the New Testament. It is one of the earliest accounts of the teaching of Jesus outside of the canonical gospels, and so is considered a valuable text.
The gospel was often mentioned in early Christian literature, but no copy was thought to have survived until the discovery of an extant Coptic manuscript at Nag Hammadi, Egypt in 1945.
In his commentary on the Gospel of Thomas, Nukunu discusses the text from the perspective of Advaita Vedanta. In this interpretation Nukunu points at the Non-Dual aspects of the teaching presented in the gospel.
Truth cannot be known because it is prior to the arising of experience. Experiences are made of the truth. An experience is the truth- awareness or pure consciousness - that has already taken form- has become manifest in time and space. The truth itself is beyond time and space.
How to know it then? By being still for an instance- just for a blinking of the eye it is enough. Then you become the truth. You realize truth as your own innermost being.
When Pontius Pilate asked Jesus the famous question, "What is truth?" Jesus remained silent. Silence is the only answer. If Pontius Pilate had been a little present he may have been able to understand it and pick it up. If he could be open to the profound silence of Jesus in this moment he would have been able to use the silence of Jesus as a "door" to the same silence inside him- self.
So when we say it cannot be known we mean that it cannot be an object we can see and discus. Truth is so intimate and overwhelming and in the moment of its pure presence there is no one to know it! Still it is "known" and that is why it is called a mystic experience by those who know...
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