"Sri Aurobindo emphasized the future evolution of man, and said the human mind is not the final step in that evolution."
Dr. Venkataswamy, disciple of Sri Aurobindo
Why would the early church ban or demand the destruction of various Gospels, causing them to be hidden by courageous monks? Aside from petty turf wars, the answer may be that the original teachings and stories offered by Jesus and certain disciples contradicted how He was portrayed in parts of the Bible.
Jesus was a true radical and, as can be seen from his exchanges with the Pharisees, he had little patience for teachings and institutions that led people away from Truth. One could describe his words to them as passionately and compassionately fierce.
What Jesus revealed was "psychedelic" in the 1960's sense of the word. Since then, psychedelic substances (today known as "entheons": 'god manifesting') have been banned by law in America other than a very few instances. Why? One reason is that the perceptions one can have while under the influence of these substances, allow a person to see the utter relativity of the official power structure and all conventions, including time and space.
Under the right circumstances they allow a person to see the Infinite and Eternal essence of Life - and the reality of love, which is the glue that binds all beings together as facets of the One. Without a doubt, this would undermine the military-industrial-intelligence complex that currently directs the world.
In 1945 and 1947 humanity received two gifts: the discoveries of The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi texts, buried soon after Jesus's reported demise. They were found at the very peak of our despair, following the most brutal and violent period in the known history of our species after WW 2, and the invention of weapons of unthinkable destruction.
One remarkable aspect of Jesus' teachings is how quickly the early church sought to demolish and bury them. It is not really surprising that his teachings would be altered over the centuries and in the present. Nor do I find it surprising that the four Gospels have been added to and subtracted from by well-meaning (or not so well-meaning) monks and clergy over the course of time. (See the Jesus Seminars.)
What is of supreme importance is the way certain dimensions of his teachings found in the Bible have been radically twisted - as is revealed by the 20th-century discoveries. It is clear that the church feared experience and demanded belief. And any belief, thought or experience contrary to the church doctrine was to be destroyed.
Jesus offers the radical teaching that we have forgotten why we are here. In the Gospel of Thomas, this is the Jesus who tells us to bring forth what is within us, and that if we do not allow what is within us to develop, our creative potential will destroy us and our world; and that we have forgotten that we are, in reality, Divine.
In this situation there is very little need for clergy as intermediaries. What we do need are teachers, who can guide us because they have attained higher states of consciousness and can show the way. But because the priests of old, instead wielded worldly power, it is not really surprising that the church, which was focused on power, attempted to destroy and obliterate all evidence of this material shared by the original Jesus.
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Before returning to this subject, it is important to note that, while mainstream Christians might well have a problem with the following designation - from an Eastern point of view -Christianity precisely fits the definition of "Guru-yoga."
Guru-yoga is both an ancient and contemporary method of Self-realization. The idea is that through devotion to a being who themselves have achieved self-realization/Union with the infinite/eternal... the student can, as by osmosis, attain this state. With work and constant encouragement the student can, as by osmosis, attain the state that the teacher has reached. A good example is the famous Tibetan disciple Milarepa and his Guru, Marpa.
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