...It's blogg, it's blogg, it's big, it's heavy, it's (ed) wood.
It's blogg, it's blogg, it's better than bad, it's good!
Yes, boys and girls, at the request of few folks who thought some of my ravings might be of benefit to others, I've got my rant on.
And to start off, I thought I'd drop in a bit of my current fave religious text: The Gospel of Thomas.
You are probably thinking, "Wait, I don't remember Thomas in Matthew Mark Luke John?"
Well, actually, some argue it is there - in part. Matthew, Mark and Luke all share a lot of the same content, leading some Bible scholars to conclude that Mark was a source for the other two (since Mark came first).
Where did the other parts come from? Before you say "God wrote them through the Disciples, of course!" I quote from Luke 1:
"Since many have undertaken to set in order a narrative concerning those matters which have been fulfilled among us even as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word delivered them to us,.."
In the first 2 lines of Luke, it says "I wasn't there". So, why is it people keep swearing Luke wrote it, when the author himself (who ever it was) says he wasn't?
The probable answer is, another book - now lost- that was a source for the remaining stories and parables. In other words, the teachings themselves, instead of the plot which became the focus of Christianity as it was transmitted via Paul/Saul of Tarsus.
The name for this lost book is "Q" - German for "source". (I have to wonder if this is the source for the name of the Star Trek: TNG character that kept popping up to cause mayhem from time to time. :)
Personally, I think that the Gospel of Thomas (or at least an early version of it) IS the lost Gospel Q. I will go into my reasoning in a later post.
But, you may ask, why is a Buddha-dharma practioner going on about a Christian scripture instead of, say, Shantideva's "Way of the Boddhisattva" or the "Blue Cliff Record"?
Because, I find that it is very likely that Q/Thomas may have led directly to the Zen/Chan Buddhist koan!
I'll go into thin more later, but here's a little reading to get you started:
http://buddhistfaith.tripod.com/gospel/
As Joel and the 'bots from MST3K would say, "Well sirs, what do you think?"
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In non-spritual matters, I've had a cold for a week that has changed my voice to sound like one of the sinister-sounded big bugs from David Cronenberg's movie "Naked Lunch", so I need to get some sleep.
Peace and Noise!
-Luther aka JT Randrol
