The True Gospel

“From now on, then, my son, return to your divine nature. Cast from you these evil, deceiving friends! Accept the Word, this true friend, as a good teacher. Cast from you death, which has become a father to you. For death did not exist, nor will it exist at the end.” -From The Teachings of Sylas

I believe that if you are interested in knowledge and wisdom (which in my opinion is the ONLY true gospel) then you must consider the panacea of life and YOUR relationship to it, and not constrain yourself to the agreements of others. In other words, you must believe in yourself, and think for yourself, or else all else has no frame of reference and will become but lies that trap you in a life of illusion and purposelessness.

It seems that wise men (or gods) throughout history have tried to tell us these things, but most of us didn’t understand. We instead just resorted to worshipping them and creating cults around them by twisting their words.

There are two main reasons I think we did not follow their advice:

1) Doing so requires us to take personal responsibility for our own existence, as well as everything and everyone else in our realms of influence. This is a very difficult and uncomfortable task. It’s much easier to assign this kind of responsibility to someone else, especially an all-powerful G¹od.

2) Those that would like to wield great power and influence over people and maintain it, realize that if you know the truth–that the only real power lies within each of us–then you are dangerous to their order. To keep us subjugated, they MUST disallow us from exercising such Will by feeding us lies and keeping us addicted to the security of their control. This applies to almost ALL groups whether they be governments, churches, businesses or social groups.

I have realized that it is my responsibility (as it is all of ours) to spread this message, and ACT upon it in my own life. Because, the reality is that it is the only way that anyone can actually effect a change and potentially divert us from the continual cycle of life and death that plagues us, and which will ultimately lead us to a very painful end of our existence (a.k.a Hell.)

Just “believing” in someone or something can never be the answer. So, even if I cannot “save the world” (which I do not fool myself into believing) I can at least hopefully pass on this wisdom to those I love, or anyone else who might listen and understand. And maybe as a result they can live a better life and forge a better future for themselves and the ones they love.

The Teachings of Sylas

“My son, listen to my teaching, which is good and useful, and end the sleep which weighs heavily upon you. Depart from the forgetfulness which fills you with darkness, since if you were unable to do anything, I would not have said these things to you. But the Word has come in order to give you this gift. Why do you pursue the darkness when the light is at your disposal? Why do you drink stale water, though sweet wine is available for you? Wisdom summons you, yet you desire folly. Not by your own desire do you do these things, but it is the animal nature within you that does them.

“Wisdom summons you in her goodness, saying, “Come to Me, all of you, O foolish ones, that you may receive a gift, the understanding which is good and excellent. I am giving to you a priestly garment which is woven from every kind of wisdom.” What else is death except ignorance? What else is darkness except familiarity with forgetfulness? Cast your anxiety upon God alone. Do not become desirous of gold and silver, which are profitless, but clothe yourself with wisdom like a robe; put knowledge on yourself like a crown, and be seated upon a throne of perception. For these are yours, and you will receive them again on high another time.

“For a foolish man usually puts on folly like a robe, and like a garment of sorrow, he puts on shame. And he crowns himself with ignorance, and takes his seat upon a throne without knowledge. For while he is without reason, he leads only himself astray, for he is guided by ignorance. And he goes the ways of the desire of every passion. He swims in the desires of life and has sunk. To be sure, he thinks that he finds profit when he does all the things which are without profit.

“The wretched man who goes through all these things will die, because he does not have the mind, the helmsman. But he is like a ship which the wind tosses to and fro, and like a loose horse which has no rider. For one needs a rider, which is reason. For the wretched one went astray because he did not want advice. He was thrown to and fro by these three misfortunes: death as a father, ignorance as a mother, and evil as counsel. He acquired them as friends and brothers. Therefore, foolish one, he should mourn for himself.

“From now on, then, my son, return to your divine nature. Cast from you these evil, deceiving friends! Accept the Word, this true friend, as a good teacher. Cast from you death, which has become a father to you. For death did not exist, nor will it exist at the end.“

[From one of the books found in the Nag Hammadi library, generally dated around 150 AD.]

Note: “Word” (logos) has been substituted for “Christ” as the incarnate Word of God (ref: John 1:1).

Employee vs. Business

“The only difference between a rich person and a poor person is how they use their time.” – Robert Kiyosaki

I think we all need to get out of the “employee” way of thinking: “time is money.” Because, in my opinion, that is a falsehood perpetrated to exploit the workers of the world. It is not how you actually make money in business.

An employee gets conditioned to believe that time spent at the workplace itself is valuable, that his mere presence entitles him to be paid. That’s due of course to the fact that his paycheck is tied to a time clock. However, in my opinion that’s self-imposed slavery! Because, that way of thinking then requires a “master” to force you, whether by encouragement or threats, to actually do something.

I know that I may be “preaching to the choir” as all of this probably seems obvious. However, bear with me because I will try to explain how it may not be as obvious as it seems.

What most people don’t see is that it is the EFFORT exerted that’s valuable, NOT the employee’s time. It is the effort that is put into getting work done, that can then be exchanged outside of the company, that is what actually makes the profit. The reason that people don’t really see this is because they’ve been conditioned to believe that effort is something that is painful – something that you suffer – rather than something that is rewarding in itself. Because, they don’t really enjoy what it is that they are doing, i.e. “their heart isn’t in it.”

The problem is that real effort requires purpose and responsibility, which can’t be given by a whip or another’s direction. That is why you typically have the problem of cross purposes between “labor” and “management” in most businesses. They are never on the same page due to the different ideas about exchange (how money is made). Management is always trying to exploit the labor to get more effort for less pay, and workers are all trying to do as little as possible while asking to get paid more for their time.

I understand how tough it is to break out of the conditioning of this time-based way of thinking. Especially, in a business like I’m involved in (construction) where everything is billed by the hour! It’s also something that has been drilled into us since our school days where we had to sit in classes from bell to bell regardless of whether we got our assignemts done or not. I think we all struggle to some degree to free ourselves from this trap, which is why we see spending time doing nothing or taking a vacation as so rewarding. Yet, none of us could truly take a vacation forever without feeling worthless and going stir crazy eventually. Because, that’s a backwards way if thinking!

As a business owner you must change that thought process for yourself and others if you really want to be successful. You have to truly believe in the value of EFFORT EXERTED IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION, and be willing to spend as much time as it takes to see profit without any exchange ($) at all. It’s often not comfortable, especially in the begining of a business venture. But, you must maintain this belief system to become successful. Because, if you fall back into the idea that your time spent is what entitles you to exchange, then you are guaranteed to fail!

So, how do you force yourself to enjoy working? Most people try to solve this by looking for some magical profession that is their “calling” or try to turn some hobby into a business. While that’s not a bad idea, rarely do such things actually work out in today’s economy, since “value” or the exchangeable quality of your product is driven by another’s demand or desires. So, unless you are extremely good at manipulating somone else’s desires, then you have to adjust what you offer to fit the market. And this might not always be whatever your own choice of work may be.

Instead, I think the answer lies in learning how to enjoy the “game of life.” The truth is that effort (often translated in our minds as suffering) is the real commodity that we have as human beings to offer. And the true reward is WHATEVER we can willfully direct that effort to accomplish, as long as it achieves ANY purpose that we can agree to. Because, if you really think about it, does it not feel the best when you decide to do something, and then you actually get it done, whatever it takes. Is that not winning the game?

The trick is that YOU have to be the one who decides. It doesn’t matter if whatever “it” is that you are trying to accomplish started out as another’s idea. YOU have to take ownership of it as your own and then overcome whatever barriers present themselves in order to accomplish it. And if you do, you will find reward in the effort itself, because you will be fulfilling your own goals and you will be learning all kinds of new things along the way. And that effort will most likely be valuable, as long as it is exerted in a direction that is able to be exchanged with others.

It is my belief that the more people you can get to work together in a business with this point of view, the easier it will be to profit, and the less problems you will have. In this way, you can truly foster a sense of ownership in everyone involved, instead of a single owner (or group of investors) who just try to exploit the efforts of the majority of “workers” beneath him.

This in my opinion is how we all as a team will win!