Jesus' Non-canonical Teachings of Nonduality (Part 2)
Previously, we explored how the canonical teachings of Jesus suggest a nondual reality. Now, we turn to the non-canonical Gospels, texts outside the biblical mainstream, which, in many instances, offer a more direct and explicit articulation of nondual themes.
Among the most significant of these texts is the Gospel of Thomas, considered by some as one of the earliest accounts of the teachings of Jesus. Thomas presents Jesus primarily as a wisdom teacher whose words point towards an inner realization. The canonical Gospels contain sayings about the Kingdom of God, which are often understood as a future external realm. In Thomas, the Kingdom is consistently portrayed as a present, internal reality. Saying 3 famously states, “If those who lead you say to you, ‘See, the kingdom is in the sky,’ then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, ‘It is in the sea,’ then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you.” This is a direct nondual assertion, dissolving the boundary between inner and outer. The divine reality, the Kingdom, is not a distant place to be reached after death or in a future era. It is an ever-present reality that encompasses both our inner being and the external experiences of the world. As such it is indivisible.
What is it, then, that is indivisible, ever-present, and knows our innermost thoughts? Is it the very thing in, of and by which everything and anything can ever be known?
Jesus says in Thomas 77: “I am the light that is over all things. It is I who am the All. From me did the All come forth, and unto me did the All extend. Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there.” This is a radical “I Am” statement that transcends the personal. It is not the voice of a human ego claiming identification with a separate, transcendent God. It is the voice of realized Oneness, the nondual reality speaking through a human form. It declares the ultimate reality, the pure immanence of awareness, even in the most mundane activities of the physical world. Awareness creates no fundamental distinction between rich and poor, happy and sad, subject and object. The sense of differentiation is created by the mind, and the sense of separation is created by the belief in separation.
The non-canonical Gospels also echo and elaborate on the canonical hints regarding the necessity of transcending the obstacle posed by the perception of a separate self. Thomas, Saying 22 says: “When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the upper like the lower, and when you make the male and the female one and the same... then will you enter the kingdom [of the Father].” This is a clear call to investigate the dualistic perception that prevents the realization of oneness. Making the two one involves reconciling the perceived opposites that structure our experience—inner and outer, spirit and matter, male and female. It is the activity of honoring the necessary distinctions while seeing the underlying unity from which these distinctions arise.
The Gospel of Mary Magdalene further supports this emphasis on inner knowledge and the dissolution of illusory forms. In this text, the risen Savior teaches the disciples about the nature of matter, passion, and ignorance that obscure the spirit. Later chapters describe the soul's journey upwards, shedding layers of “powers” or forms of identification that hold it back.
These non-canonical texts often amplify the message found in the canonical Gospels. They consistently point inward, affirming that the divine reality, the Kingdom, the Truth, is not a distant entity or place, but an inherent, ever-present oneness. They provide explicit instructions on the path of understanding the dualities and structures of the separate self.
And they present the figure of the risen Christ speaking from a perspective of realized identity with the One, the “I Am,” the indivisible source and substance of existence.