Let us have a look at some religious context, and see how this split-personality fits in.
The Gospel of Thomas – Translated by Stephen Patterson and Marvin Meyer
Jesus said, “Where there are three gods, they are gods. Where there are two or one, I am with him.”
The Gospel of Thomas has Jesus using metaphors to highlight what it means to live by the word of God through him. Because I had read Freud and his Ego, Super-ego, and Id theory, I recognized the simile in the essence of what was being suggested regarding the ‘3’.
From this, if applied to the part of a human being that is capable of being corrupted as the bible suggests, we end up with a psychological metaphor. The ‘gods’ referred to are in yours and my mind. The one that takes charge of the real self seems to be no. 3. Those who live with a 3 in charge of their minds are generally incapable of contacting 2 or 1. That makes their minds as gods over their actions, decisions, and lives.
3’s aren’t only limited to atheists. 3’s can gather in churches to be seen worshipping, as opposed to actually behaving as though some intellect had arisen from consuming the bible or their own particular brand of cannon over and over again. They are proud. It seems to be all about being seen as a group, and the cozy-blanket sensation we derive from the likeness we imagine to have with the people we worship with. 3's generally looks at others and see something different from themselves. 3’s don’t like that and are filled with bias. They don’t read books or blogs like this and are purely self-pleasing self-haters.
Zoroastrian Ethics – Maganlal A. Buch
A survey of the actual course of history suggests that the advance of ethics as of other knowledge is chiefly due to the accumulation of a large number of small contributions made by a large number of individual workers. Nevertheless, in every sphere, and certainly not least in morality, there are individuals with a remarkable degree of ‘insight’ or special capacity.
Every now and then, unique individuals break from the normality of assuming that through education and thought alone, can the human experience be examined. It in fact can only be examined without those learned structures. It implies that as long as I identify If this unique perspective is achieved, one feels alienated from the crowd. Søren Kierkegaard knew this when he wrote “The Crowd is Untruth”. Jesus would also not be saved by the crowd. Modern methods of propaganda are transmitted through the crowd. Common sense is removed by the crowd. Self-hate is spread through the crowd. Religious advancement is generally linked to meeting up, and therefore relies on the crowd. But at this point, each individual needs to ask him/herself a question.
If the problem with humanity is at an individual level, how can the experience with a crowd move me beyond that in any way if the problem persists within that crowd? That is simple. It can’t! We not only assume that we must have the group, and therefore wait for the group to take a step before we do; we also fail to recognize what improvement needs to be made to the self because now the problem is sub-divided by the association with the group. “If we’re all ignorant in the group, I have no reason to attempt to be like the Christ.”, so the Christian faith seems to contradict what is required by suggesting the group can assist somehow. If you need to test your faith, go to your church leader or representative and ask them “If I need to keep coming to church, does that not imply that I can’t reach that frame of mind Jesus speaks of, and just change to be like him?”
Jesus knew that a group couldn't save him, and wherever he preached, and the group got too big, he had to move on. It would attract the wrong attention, and with its lower moral barrier would lead to violence, which can be sparked by a single individual, a group is de facto potentially a mob in progress.
Some Gnostic Christian sayings of Jesus
The Kingdom is inside of you and it is outside of you. ~Gospel of Thomas
The disciples said, “What is the place to which we are going? The Lord said, “Stand in the place you can reach.” ~The Dialogue of the Saviour
His disciples said, “When will the Kingdom come?” It will not come by waiting for it. It will not be a matter of saying here it is or where it is. Rather, the kingdom of the father is spread out upon the earth, and men do not see it. ~Gospel of Thomas
What you seek after (is) within you. ~The Dialogue of the Saviour
Beware that no one leads you astray, saying ‘Lo here!’ or ‘Lo there!’ (duality metaphor) For the Son of Man is within you. Follow after him! Those who seek him will find him. ~The Gospel of Mary
Matthew: “Lord, when I speak…who listens? The Lord said: “It is the one who speaks who also listens, and it is the one who can see who also reveals.” ~The Dialogue of the Savior
He who has known himself has…already achieved knowledge about the depth of all. ~The Book of Thomas The Contender
That which you have will save you if you bring it forth from yourselves. ~Gospel of Thomas
Those who have come to know themselves will enjoy their possessions. ~Gospel of Phillip
“Now, since it has been said that you are my twin and true companion, examine yourself, and learn who you are, in what way you exist, and how you will come to be. Since you will be called my brother, it is not fitting that you be ignorant of yourself. And I know that you have understood because you had already understood that I am the knowledge of the truth. So while you accompany me, although you are uncomprehending, you have (in fact) already come to know, and you will be called ‘the one who knows himself’. For he who has not known himself has known nothing, but he who has known himself has at the same time already achieved knowledge about the depth of the all. So then, you, my brother Thomas, have beheld what is obscure to men, that is, what they ignorantly stumble against.” ~The Book of Thomas The Contender
It should go without saying, that if I know what I suffer from, and also observe what is suffering in me I can have empathy for others.
The Bible
20 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
The Quran
Man’s idea regarding the spirit or the soul is vague and unclear. The pharaohs were the first to deal with these issues, yet their concepts in this respect are of no help. They were the first people to believe in the immortality of the soul, with the human body acting as its container. Thus, the immortality of the soul depends on its remaining inside the casket or coffin. To them, the soul is part of three sections that form the human character. They are the physical body, the soul that hovers in the cemetery to visit its body, and the Alka. The Alka is an independent spiritual mate that lives inside the human body and provides it with protection, life, security, luck, health, and happiness. This mate is loyal, constantly living with man, and also grows with him knowing everything about him.
The idea of the intimate companion is known in Islam and it refers to the jinni that accompanies man, knowing his secrets and his hidden things. If he is a good jinni, he will keep man’s secrets but if he is a bad one, he will reveal them. These jinns can be summoned to reveal these secrets and tell hidden things that might mislead the naïve and simple-minded people. This is mentioned in Allah’s saying: ”If anyone withdraws himself from the remembrance of (God) Most Gracious, We appointed for him an evil one, to be an intimate companion to him”.
So from an Islamic perspective, we are helped or hindered by our Jinn, depending on our own motives. If we do bad, we can expect to have bad happen to us because of the pervasive ‘Jinn’ in us.
My View
Initially, my knowledge of religion was located squarely within the realms of the superficial Christian interpretation of the Bible. I was always told that everything else was wrong, and in particular, when I questioned a church leader about whether I should meditate or not, I received the answer “No”. It was clear that praying was already this type of meditation, where I would regularly inspect my actions, and with the prayer being spoken by the individual leading the sermon, I would explore myself and feelings about myself in relation to those words. I usually felt quite good after prayer. Refreshed, as though the challenging of my own actions was relieving me of their burden.
In Buddhism, one is asked to examine the self in meditation without using words or thoughts to describe it to myself in the mind. If I fall into the trap of using words to describe my experience, I automatically involve some sort of judgment. How do I know this? When things are recalled from memory, they are compared to the current situation, and fragments of expectations from the initial experience are transferred to this experience. My expectation of the outcome also. If this situation generally follows my previous experience, I am happy. The recorded response should be found to be valid, mostly, and so the expected result should also mostly be fulfilled. If the end result is contradictory to my experience, conflict arises.
Because we do this habitually, for which we have been conditioned, all of our experiences are tarnished with the memory of the past, and the uniqueness of the moment is destroyed by the memory of the past, and the fear of the result not being the same in the future. This is the problem with the human condition.
In context with the Christian faith, “know thyself” means, know the structures which you have automatically assumed are what ‘life’ is. We are taught, but our questioning of the morality or validity of that information is never posed. Shall we assume the morality of the crowd or those who want us to believe a certain dogma or ethos? I would question that group-morality first before I ever act.
