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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).
Find
many more sayings and illuminating text on this theme
in 'Quenching Ahamkara' in this book:
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