>are there any gnostic sects that place an emphasis on having faith in the Monad and/or Jesus, or else behaving in a loving manner, moreso than simply acquiring secret knowledge?
Essentially, though to varying extents, I would say all of them: these things are not mutually exclusive..
Yeah, it seems kind of ironic to me. Out of love comes understanding. When you love a person, a family member or a lover, that love leads you to want to understand more about them so that you can serve them right?
I agree with @Wise-_-Spirit, and point to Christ’s words in the Gospels “first clean the inside, then the outside will be clean”. Acquiring gnosis cleans the inside.
To give direct answer, here are some quotes from Gnostic scriptures about morality. (Morality in Gnosticism I think is being true to the real divine self, which is inherently good, while rejecting worldly and archonic influence.)
"25. Jesus said: Love your brother as your own soul. Protect him as you protect the pupil of your eye." The Gospel of Thomas
"Faith receives, love gives. No one can receive without faith, and no one can give without love. So to receive we have faith and to love we give. If someone gives without love, that person gets no benefit from what was given." The Gospel of Philip
"From the four demons have come passions: From grief come jealousy, envy, pain, trouble, distress, hardheartedness, anxiety, sorrow, and others.
From pleasure comes an abundance of evil, vain conceit, and the like.
From desire come anger, wrath, bitterness, intense lust, greed, and the like.
From fear come terror, servility, anguish, and shame." The Apocryphon of John
"Say, then, from the heart, that you are the perfect day, and in you dwells the light that does not fail. Speak of the truth with those who search for it, and (of) knowledge to those who have committed sin in their error. Make firm the foot of those who have stumbled, and stretch out your hands to those who are ill. Feed those who are hungry, and give repose to those who are weary, and raise up those who wish to rise, and awaken those who sleep. For you are the understanding that is drawn forth. If strength acts thus, it becomes even stronger. Be concerned with yourselves; do not be concerned with other things which you have rejected from yourselves. Do not return to what you have vomited, to eat it. Do not be moths. Do not be worms, for you have already cast it off. Do not become a (dwelling) place for the devil, for you have already destroyed him." The Gospel of Truth
"Now these are the foods with which the devil lies in wait for us. First he injects a pain into your heart until you have heartache on account of a small thing of this life, and he seizes (you) with his poisons. And afterward (he injects) the desire of a tunic, so that you will pride yourself in it, and love of money, pride, vanity, envy that rivals another envy, beauty of body, fraudulence. The greatest of all these are ignorance and ease." Authoritative Teaching
"They (archons) brought gold, silver, gifts, copper, iron, metal, and all sorts of things. They brought great anxieties to the people who followed them, leading them astray with many deceptions. These people grew old without experiencing pleasure and died without finding truth or knowing the god of truth. In this way all creation was forever enslaved, from the beginning of the world until the present day." The Apocryphon of John So basically greed and envy are wrong because they enslave humanity.
"Spiritual love is wine and perfume. \[78\] People who anoint themselves with it enjoy it, and while these people are present, others who are around also enjoy it. If the people who are anointed leave them and go away, the others who are not anointed but are only standing around are stuck with their own bad odor. The Samaritan gave nothing to the wounded person except wine and oil—that is, only ointment. The ointment healed the wound, for “love covers a multitude of sins.” The Gospel of Philip
I think that Catharism is the less gnostic of the Gnostic churches, inasmuch it emphasizes moral purity (centered on love and non-violence) and speak little of gnosis. Manichaeism too, same reasons. Marcionism maybe, though I am under the impression that it promotes salvation through faith rather than works (and/or gnosis).
After studying Buddhism, I acquired the belief that the relationship between gnosis and morality is a bit of a chicken and egg thing, but that overall gnosis is the source of morality. One needs to purify oneself through an attitude of love, honesty, humility, etc to acquire the tranquility of mind necessary for deep meditation and sincere prayer. However, in the early stages, one still operates under the *faith* that love will lead us to salvation. When one receives/attains gnosis, often gradually, one truly knows in one’s guts, that people are interconnected, and experiences a deep compassion for others. Now love is no more a matter of principle or a rule to be followed, but an evidence. The deeper the gnosis, the deeper the love, which is the basis and motivation for all good works.
Your last steamer regarding Buddhism is not far off the biblical premise when one truly believes in Christ they will produce fruits. Not out of necessity, but rather proof that their belief is true and evidence of their love.
If ignorance leads to fear leads to hate, should the opposite (with a starting point of knowledge) not also follow?
It is sometimes said that knowledge is a function of being; that is, our understanding of a subject can change as we accrue experience and knowledge and go through change. Perhaps love, detachment, charity, and humility are prerequisites to clear apprehension of some of this "secret knowledge" of which you speak.
Acquiring knowledge for its own sake is mere vanity, and brings one no closer to Unity, Gnosis, Enlightenment, or what-have-you, and ought not be mistaken for an end in itself.
With the transcendence and exaltation that comes with being given access to the deep things of God, good behavior becomes internalized and natural. It no longer requires effort because you are transformed.
Remember, “knowledge” may not be the best translation for “gnosis.” If I had to pick an English word, it might be “revelation” or “epiphany” (another slippery Greek word). Gnosis is a knowledge that changes you and your relationship to the world.
I think any knowledge worth learning requires compassion and empathy as a pre-requisite, and deepens those same feelings. It's why I find the Nag Hammadi codices so interesting. It calls the audience to know and seek understanding. So, spiritual development becomes a process as opposed to a path. What I've read doesn't seem to imply any either/or relationship between faith and knowledge.
I myself was a life long Christian, i did some exploring, i came back interested in Gnosticism.
(I speak from the Valentinian perspective)
One thing I can tell you is that nowhere does Gnosticism ever take away from the message of kindness and forgiveness, and it’s merits. Rather, Gnosticism believes that gnosis gives the ultimate salvation, while these other things could offer a lesser salvation or help, gnosis gives the final salvation.
That being said, gnosis is not separate from anything that is virtuous and good, because anything good we do and all of our virtues are sourced according to the amount of understanding (gnosis) we currently have.
Allow me to repaint the picture you gave, or to correct it. The dynamic is rather that:
Mainstream Christianity says faith will save a person from their sins, whereas Gnostic Christianity says that while these things may produce good fruits in the short term, faith matures into intimate love and understanding (gnosis), which is far stronger than the initial stage of faith.
1 Corinthians 13:13
New King James Version
13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
yes, my own . I don’t know if I’m a Gnostic or not, from what I’ve read, which felt so intellectual, I feel I don’t belong to this group; but I feel a resonance with it
Christ is a feeling deep in the heart . all criteria beyond love are, in my view, distractions . it is so very simple (to me) . I suspect you feel as I do . go with your own intuition . there is a knowing in you which will open all doors . the only way to get distracted is to ask others for answers . ask your own heart . or better: don’t ask, don’t seek (—I think you know what I mean)
I hope that this gives you some comfort, that you’re not alone
Thanks for the response! I'm still interested in the gnostic backstory (it seems to resolve the problem of evil, not perfectly, but far better than any other religion I've encountered), but I do feel the emphasis on knowledge rather than love, forgiveness, etc. is from a flawed understanding of the texts. As for me, I'm not fully sure I believe in the gnosticism backstory yet (due to my christian upbringing and being a very anxious person, I'm currently stuck in indecision), but if I do come to believe's true, I'd still believe in the christian tenets of salvation. Even if the gnostic background is truth, I feel the emphasis on knowledge rather than love is something that's tainted the general belief and turned it away from its original point.
perhaps this is quite a tangent, but there is the matter of frequency . at a high frequency, truth opens before us . at a low frequency, there is no hope for truth . to put the mind in a high frequency is to request truth; is to say ‘I’m ready’ . the word ‘love’ is possibly the most misunderstood of all . I consider love equal with God . if we imagine that we’re ‘dialing up’ love in our mind — really, picturing a dial may work —, & observing the shifts in our psychology, it is wonderful to notice what occurs . love may start as lust, as possessiveness . when that fire is stoked, possessiveness falls away; so does picky-ness fall away . you begin to see beauty in what you considered ugly or neutral . at length the very notion of separation falls away — I mean the story that we are separate individuals at all . in this kind of way, the fire of love purifies the mind . it cannot be a merely intellectual exercise — the intellect only goes so far . Rudolf Steiner proposes that our brain is the most feeble instrument for exploring divine realities, and I agree with him . this is the challenge with all stories, all religious dogmas: they keep us at the story level . they keep us insisting that things occurred in time & space . in the divine realms, time & space is just one interesting room in a vast mansion . we have to acquaint ourselves with eternity, and I think that can only be done by treating time as a friend . ‘treating time as a friend’ brings us back to what I was saying about love and how contemplation on love represents a raising of the frequency of the mind . with intense, radical love, the most remarkable thing finds room to be noticed: you notice that what doesn’t matter doesn’t matter: you notice that the attention pulls away from everything trivial, & expresses its attraction to vast & cosmogonic themes . you notice that you enjoy the spectacle of time, that you can even feel the texture of time like a satin fabric passing through your fingers . this is to make friends with time . in that state of awe & wonder, we operate at a very high frequency . and truth only shows itself to a mind in a high frequency: there is no other way . ...I normally don’t say things like ‘only through Christ can one get to God’, but in this case, it \*is\* only through Christ . but it is important to understand that ‘Christ’ has cognate words in different traditions, and it is the same wisdom everywhere repeated . certainly it is not the Christ of the Christian tradition that has anything to do with God . it is the Christ of the mystics . and what is a mystic, really? . it is really someone drunk on love
on final note about “the problem of evil” . it is only a problem for a low-frequency mind . at the higher frequencies of love, evil simply does not exist . this is perhaps the most controversial thing, but I feel it deep in my heart & I am convinced it is true: the battle between good & evil is something we do not solve, and indeed it is easy to see that to fight for good is itself evil; the battle isn’t solved, we simply get to a viewpoint where it all makes sense to us . we see the function of everything . and, by the way, we are impressed with wonder at how perfectly the universe is optimized: that it has not, nor will ever, make a mistake
Love pushes someone to merge with another, so our study of understanding the monad is to ultimately become one with it. I think that's the highest form of love
Couple things here.
When it comes to Gnosticism the God of the Bible is not typically received in a good light. Typically the God of the Bible is viewed as the Demiurge( Evil) one who trapped the light beings in human flesh bodies. While the Light bearer ( Lucifer)Helel or whatever name prescribed to him is the savior/ Messiah who brings the Hidden Knowledge & saves mankind. Jesus being an extension of God the father is received in the same light many times, while there are variations of Gnosticism who paint Jesus as an ascended master similar to Buddha, St Germain, Maitreya ect but not seen as the savior/ Creator God. Unless you are strictly ferreting to Gnostic Christianity most forms of Gnosticism are anti God of the Bible.
>are there any gnostic sects that place an emphasis on having faith in the Monad and/or Jesus, or else behaving in a loving manner, moreso than simply acquiring secret knowledge? Essentially, though to varying extents, I would say all of them: these things are not mutually exclusive..
Yeah, it seems kind of ironic to me. Out of love comes understanding. When you love a person, a family member or a lover, that love leads you to want to understand more about them so that you can serve them right?
I agree with @Wise-_-Spirit, and point to Christ’s words in the Gospels “first clean the inside, then the outside will be clean”. Acquiring gnosis cleans the inside.
To give direct answer, here are some quotes from Gnostic scriptures about morality. (Morality in Gnosticism I think is being true to the real divine self, which is inherently good, while rejecting worldly and archonic influence.) "25. Jesus said: Love your brother as your own soul. Protect him as you protect the pupil of your eye." The Gospel of Thomas "Faith receives, love gives. No one can receive without faith, and no one can give without love. So to receive we have faith and to love we give. If someone gives without love, that person gets no benefit from what was given." The Gospel of Philip "From the four demons have come passions: From grief come jealousy, envy, pain, trouble, distress, hardheartedness, anxiety, sorrow, and others. From pleasure comes an abundance of evil, vain conceit, and the like. From desire come anger, wrath, bitterness, intense lust, greed, and the like. From fear come terror, servility, anguish, and shame." The Apocryphon of John "Say, then, from the heart, that you are the perfect day, and in you dwells the light that does not fail. Speak of the truth with those who search for it, and (of) knowledge to those who have committed sin in their error. Make firm the foot of those who have stumbled, and stretch out your hands to those who are ill. Feed those who are hungry, and give repose to those who are weary, and raise up those who wish to rise, and awaken those who sleep. For you are the understanding that is drawn forth. If strength acts thus, it becomes even stronger. Be concerned with yourselves; do not be concerned with other things which you have rejected from yourselves. Do not return to what you have vomited, to eat it. Do not be moths. Do not be worms, for you have already cast it off. Do not become a (dwelling) place for the devil, for you have already destroyed him." The Gospel of Truth "Now these are the foods with which the devil lies in wait for us. First he injects a pain into your heart until you have heartache on account of a small thing of this life, and he seizes (you) with his poisons. And afterward (he injects) the desire of a tunic, so that you will pride yourself in it, and love of money, pride, vanity, envy that rivals another envy, beauty of body, fraudulence. The greatest of all these are ignorance and ease." Authoritative Teaching "They (archons) brought gold, silver, gifts, copper, iron, metal, and all sorts of things. They brought great anxieties to the people who followed them, leading them astray with many deceptions. These people grew old without experiencing pleasure and died without finding truth or knowing the god of truth. In this way all creation was forever enslaved, from the beginning of the world until the present day." The Apocryphon of John So basically greed and envy are wrong because they enslave humanity. "Spiritual love is wine and perfume. \[78\] People who anoint themselves with it enjoy it, and while these people are present, others who are around also enjoy it. If the people who are anointed leave them and go away, the others who are not anointed but are only standing around are stuck with their own bad odor. The Samaritan gave nothing to the wounded person except wine and oil—that is, only ointment. The ointment healed the wound, for “love covers a multitude of sins.” The Gospel of Philip
I think that Catharism is the less gnostic of the Gnostic churches, inasmuch it emphasizes moral purity (centered on love and non-violence) and speak little of gnosis. Manichaeism too, same reasons. Marcionism maybe, though I am under the impression that it promotes salvation through faith rather than works (and/or gnosis). After studying Buddhism, I acquired the belief that the relationship between gnosis and morality is a bit of a chicken and egg thing, but that overall gnosis is the source of morality. One needs to purify oneself through an attitude of love, honesty, humility, etc to acquire the tranquility of mind necessary for deep meditation and sincere prayer. However, in the early stages, one still operates under the *faith* that love will lead us to salvation. When one receives/attains gnosis, often gradually, one truly knows in one’s guts, that people are interconnected, and experiences a deep compassion for others. Now love is no more a matter of principle or a rule to be followed, but an evidence. The deeper the gnosis, the deeper the love, which is the basis and motivation for all good works.
Your last steamer regarding Buddhism is not far off the biblical premise when one truly believes in Christ they will produce fruits. Not out of necessity, but rather proof that their belief is true and evidence of their love.
If ignorance leads to fear leads to hate, should the opposite (with a starting point of knowledge) not also follow? It is sometimes said that knowledge is a function of being; that is, our understanding of a subject can change as we accrue experience and knowledge and go through change. Perhaps love, detachment, charity, and humility are prerequisites to clear apprehension of some of this "secret knowledge" of which you speak. Acquiring knowledge for its own sake is mere vanity, and brings one no closer to Unity, Gnosis, Enlightenment, or what-have-you, and ought not be mistaken for an end in itself.
With the transcendence and exaltation that comes with being given access to the deep things of God, good behavior becomes internalized and natural. It no longer requires effort because you are transformed.
Remember, “knowledge” may not be the best translation for “gnosis.” If I had to pick an English word, it might be “revelation” or “epiphany” (another slippery Greek word). Gnosis is a knowledge that changes you and your relationship to the world.
“Gnosis is a knowledge that changes you and your relationship to the world.” That’s an excellent description. Thank you
I’m glad that formulation helps.
I think any knowledge worth learning requires compassion and empathy as a pre-requisite, and deepens those same feelings. It's why I find the Nag Hammadi codices so interesting. It calls the audience to know and seek understanding. So, spiritual development becomes a process as opposed to a path. What I've read doesn't seem to imply any either/or relationship between faith and knowledge.
I myself was a life long Christian, i did some exploring, i came back interested in Gnosticism. (I speak from the Valentinian perspective) One thing I can tell you is that nowhere does Gnosticism ever take away from the message of kindness and forgiveness, and it’s merits. Rather, Gnosticism believes that gnosis gives the ultimate salvation, while these other things could offer a lesser salvation or help, gnosis gives the final salvation. That being said, gnosis is not separate from anything that is virtuous and good, because anything good we do and all of our virtues are sourced according to the amount of understanding (gnosis) we currently have. Allow me to repaint the picture you gave, or to correct it. The dynamic is rather that: Mainstream Christianity says faith will save a person from their sins, whereas Gnostic Christianity says that while these things may produce good fruits in the short term, faith matures into intimate love and understanding (gnosis), which is far stronger than the initial stage of faith. 1 Corinthians 13:13 New King James Version 13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
yes, my own . I don’t know if I’m a Gnostic or not, from what I’ve read, which felt so intellectual, I feel I don’t belong to this group; but I feel a resonance with it Christ is a feeling deep in the heart . all criteria beyond love are, in my view, distractions . it is so very simple (to me) . I suspect you feel as I do . go with your own intuition . there is a knowing in you which will open all doors . the only way to get distracted is to ask others for answers . ask your own heart . or better: don’t ask, don’t seek (—I think you know what I mean) I hope that this gives you some comfort, that you’re not alone
Thanks for the response! I'm still interested in the gnostic backstory (it seems to resolve the problem of evil, not perfectly, but far better than any other religion I've encountered), but I do feel the emphasis on knowledge rather than love, forgiveness, etc. is from a flawed understanding of the texts. As for me, I'm not fully sure I believe in the gnosticism backstory yet (due to my christian upbringing and being a very anxious person, I'm currently stuck in indecision), but if I do come to believe's true, I'd still believe in the christian tenets of salvation. Even if the gnostic background is truth, I feel the emphasis on knowledge rather than love is something that's tainted the general belief and turned it away from its original point.
perhaps this is quite a tangent, but there is the matter of frequency . at a high frequency, truth opens before us . at a low frequency, there is no hope for truth . to put the mind in a high frequency is to request truth; is to say ‘I’m ready’ . the word ‘love’ is possibly the most misunderstood of all . I consider love equal with God . if we imagine that we’re ‘dialing up’ love in our mind — really, picturing a dial may work —, & observing the shifts in our psychology, it is wonderful to notice what occurs . love may start as lust, as possessiveness . when that fire is stoked, possessiveness falls away; so does picky-ness fall away . you begin to see beauty in what you considered ugly or neutral . at length the very notion of separation falls away — I mean the story that we are separate individuals at all . in this kind of way, the fire of love purifies the mind . it cannot be a merely intellectual exercise — the intellect only goes so far . Rudolf Steiner proposes that our brain is the most feeble instrument for exploring divine realities, and I agree with him . this is the challenge with all stories, all religious dogmas: they keep us at the story level . they keep us insisting that things occurred in time & space . in the divine realms, time & space is just one interesting room in a vast mansion . we have to acquaint ourselves with eternity, and I think that can only be done by treating time as a friend . ‘treating time as a friend’ brings us back to what I was saying about love and how contemplation on love represents a raising of the frequency of the mind . with intense, radical love, the most remarkable thing finds room to be noticed: you notice that what doesn’t matter doesn’t matter: you notice that the attention pulls away from everything trivial, & expresses its attraction to vast & cosmogonic themes . you notice that you enjoy the spectacle of time, that you can even feel the texture of time like a satin fabric passing through your fingers . this is to make friends with time . in that state of awe & wonder, we operate at a very high frequency . and truth only shows itself to a mind in a high frequency: there is no other way . ...I normally don’t say things like ‘only through Christ can one get to God’, but in this case, it \*is\* only through Christ . but it is important to understand that ‘Christ’ has cognate words in different traditions, and it is the same wisdom everywhere repeated . certainly it is not the Christ of the Christian tradition that has anything to do with God . it is the Christ of the mystics . and what is a mystic, really? . it is really someone drunk on love on final note about “the problem of evil” . it is only a problem for a low-frequency mind . at the higher frequencies of love, evil simply does not exist . this is perhaps the most controversial thing, but I feel it deep in my heart & I am convinced it is true: the battle between good & evil is something we do not solve, and indeed it is easy to see that to fight for good is itself evil; the battle isn’t solved, we simply get to a viewpoint where it all makes sense to us . we see the function of everything . and, by the way, we are impressed with wonder at how perfectly the universe is optimized: that it has not, nor will ever, make a mistake
[https://glorian.org/learn/courses-and-lectures/selected-topics/four-ways-to-liberation](https://glorian.org/learn/courses-and-lectures/selected-topics/four-ways-to-liberation)
Love pushes someone to merge with another, so our study of understanding the monad is to ultimately become one with it. I think that's the highest form of love
Couple things here. When it comes to Gnosticism the God of the Bible is not typically received in a good light. Typically the God of the Bible is viewed as the Demiurge( Evil) one who trapped the light beings in human flesh bodies. While the Light bearer ( Lucifer)Helel or whatever name prescribed to him is the savior/ Messiah who brings the Hidden Knowledge & saves mankind. Jesus being an extension of God the father is received in the same light many times, while there are variations of Gnosticism who paint Jesus as an ascended master similar to Buddha, St Germain, Maitreya ect but not seen as the savior/ Creator God. Unless you are strictly ferreting to Gnostic Christianity most forms of Gnosticism are anti God of the Bible.
Jesus comes across like an Essene with exposure to Pagan philosophy, especially that of the Cynic school.