From: RFaussette@aol.com
Date: Mon Sep 29 2003 - 13:20:03 EDT
In a message dated 9/29/03 8:18:59 AM Eastern Daylight Time, gmurphy@raex.com
writes:
> I have said nothing about Buddhism, about which my knowledge is limited. I
> do
> know something about gnosticism, in the sense in which the word is used to
> describe
> religious movements in the Mediterranean world in the early centuries of the
> Christian
> era. Characteristic beliefs of these movements were that the physical world
> was some
> sort of inferior production of a lesser deity, and that salvation came
> through knowledge
> (hence the name) which would enable our true selves to be freed from the
> world. Of
> course I state this in very general terms: There was a wide variety of
> gnostic ideas.
>
> Shalom,
> George
>
>
Yes, there was a wide variety of gnostic ideas, but the gnosis far predates
Christianity, is in fact well developed in the rg veda and features in genesis.
and I don't think we are talking about the same thing - the gnosis is an
ontology - gnosticism is a philosophy - you are talking about gnosticism - I am
talking about a state of being. The gnosis faces reality squarely - the
suggestion that it is a denial of the world is incorrect, for the eastern or western
varieties. There may be a wide variety of gnostic ideas and philosphizing
about the nature of gnosis, but there is only one gnosis.
"I am not using the term gnosis as merely to the tenets of certain gnostic
sects which were more or less in evidence in the early centuries of the
christian era, but I am using it in connection with a definite super knowledge which
can be traced back to the remotest ages and the oldest scriptures of which
we have any literary records. That is the sense in which the term was
originally understood." William Kingsland - The gnosis or ancient wisdom in the
christian scriptures. Quest 1970
italics are the author's
rich faussette
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