KEY TO IMMORTALITY

A TREATISE by STANISLAW KAPUSCINSKI

When I read the words quoted above I had two choices: I could ignore them, or I could try and find out if indeed some enigmatic truth is hidden behind them. There followed a prolonged period of study. Years later I became convinced that nothing is hidden behind these portentous words. Nothing at all. The words mean exactly what they say. They are not a parable; they are a statement of fact coming from One who had, according to ensuing scriptures, proven their veracity.

From a scholarly point of view, I do not, nor did I at the time of writing, consider myself qualified to make doctrinaire pronouncements on the secrets contained in the Gospel According to Thomas. But even if I had such qualifications, I would have been reluctant to impose my conclusions on my neighbor. I might adversely affect the reader's peace of mind. I was stuck. I wanted to share my discovery, yet, in a way, I was afraid. After all, there are countless thousands of fully accredited professors, doctors of theology, divinity, theosophy, philosophy and hosts of other equally qualified people who busy themselves telling people how to interpret the Scriptures. But then I remembered Benjamin Hoff quoting the teaching of Lao-tse and the ancient principles of Taoism. According to Mr. Hoff, Lao-tse affirms that: "Heaven... communicates its deepest secrets to little children, animals, and "fools". I took a deep breath ­ I might qualify after all! I found Lao-tse's statement particularly reassuring, since what I really had to offer to my readers was a considered opinion that everyone must interpret the Scriptures all by himself or herself.

That's right.

At the risk of sounding pompous, I confess that this is the sum-total, the absolute summation, the deep conclusion that I have reached after years of study. Could I be wrong? Of course. But since practically all other methods aimed at the comprehension of the Scriptures had been already tried, and the world appears to be hardly better for it, I had relatively little to lose. If I am wrong, little will change. If, by any chance, I've stumbled across something ­ then this book offers the Key to Immortality.

As I was saying, I have relatively little to lose.

continue reading in the book...

Jesus said: If those who lead you say to you: "See, the Kingdom is in heaven", then the birds of the heaven will precede you. If they say to you: "It is in the sea", then the fish will precede you. But the Kingdom is within you and it is without you. If you (will) know yourselves, then you will be known and will know that you are the sons of the Living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you are in poverty and you are poverty.

The Kingdom was, is and always will be a STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS. As such, it cannot be but: "within you". One wonders why, after so many years, various religions choose to ignore these particular assertions of Jesus. Assertions repeated almost ad nauseam in so many statements attributed to Him. Heaven is WITHIN you. Neither after death, nor above nor below. It is neither before nor after. It is neither reward nor punishment. It is a state of consciousness that comes ­ in time ­ to all that seek. We have this assurance in the previous logion. We have it repeated in the four gospels regardless of the degree of enlightenment of the translator. It shines as brightly in the King James Version of the Bible as in the Vulgate.6 It is stated repeatedly in all the Scriptures yet, apparently, accepted by few of the so-called "believers". Many religious leaders will tell us that if we are good we shall be saved. That we shall "go" to heaven. Quite the contrary! Once we are saved we might begin to understand what it is to be good. You or I might be good because we are saved ­ we are certainly not saved because we are good. Jesus assures us that only God is good.7

The second paragraph carries some of the marvel referred to in previous logion. If you will know yourselves, then you will be known and will know that you are the sons of the Living Father. Jesus is saying that you must know YOURSELF. That you must know who YOU really are, your OWN true nature. Not that you or I are sinners, nor that from the moment of birth, a tiny baby, we must strain under the millstone of the "original sin".8 He assures us that when we finally know ourselves, we shall know that we are sons of the Living Father. And when we do, most incredible things begin to happen within our consciousness. We begin to wonder, again with that marvel mentioned above, just who is this mysterious Father. This Living Father. In time we find out. And then our realization of truth deepens. And finally, when we are ready, we shall rein over the All.

But wait! We are told that "the Kingdom of heaven is within you and without you." Isn't it obvious? Everything, absolutely EVERYTHING that our senses, our imagination, our emotions or our minds can touch is a State of Consciousness. The true reality. The TRUTH. It cannot be otherwise. The trick is to identify oneself with the Cause and not with the result. The cause is always the Spirit. The Higher Self. The Father in Heaven. It is that which precedes our minds or our mental perception. The physical is the ultimate result. The end product of a creative process.

6.Vulgate is the Latin version of the Bible prepared by St. Jerome (c.347 - 419?) which is recognized by the Roman Catholic Church as the Authorized Version.
7. In Matthew 19:16-17 Jesus remonstrates with a follower saying: "Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God..."
8. In my essay entitled "Pleasure" [BEYOND RELIGION I, Inhousepress 1997, 2001, 2002] I make the following comment: "The original sin had been invented by St. Augustine in the 4th century AD. The concept does not exist in the Christian Bible, nor in the Jewish Torah. And so says Mathew Fox, a Catholic priest".

Jesus said: Blessed are the solitary and elect, for you shall find the Kingdom; because you came from it, (and) you shall go there again.

The word "solitary" applies to our spiritual nature, it defines our center of interest. The "elect "symbolize the state of consciousness in which we have elected to be single-minded. Only those, according to Jesus, will find the Kingdom.

Because you came from it...

Here Jesus talks about the state of consciousness we enjoyed before our original embodiment, a state to which we shall return. Let us never forget that Jesus thinks of us as souls, as Princes aspiring to the Kingdom: not as mortal, transient beings. If we forget this single aspect we shall never understand His teaching.

there are 112 more sayings attributed to Jesus in the book...