Gnosis is the Same for Everyone

Repeated here without change or alteration from:
This Way; The Dharma of Gnosis
( http://dharmagnosis.wordpress.com/ )




Gnosis is the Same for Everyone

May 27, 2010 in A Thing

There’s a massive misunderstanding about gnosis going around– a conception exists which says that “gnosis is different for everyone,” that everyone’s experience of gnosis is different and that gnosis is a malleable state, devoid of ontological substance. This is Relativist Gnosis, and it’s incorrect.

The experience of gnosis is the same for everyone who has it. Gnosis is Objective Truth. It is a cultivated experience derived from the inbreaking of the Pleroma, or True Reality, into the World of Forms, or Illusion. As an experience of Truth, it is the exact same experience for everyone. If the experience were relative, it wouldn’t be Truth, and if it wasn’t Truth, it couldn’t be gnosis.

Now, here’s the rub: objectivity appears as subjectivity when filtered through the lens of existence in the World of Forms. Our experiences of gnosis must be identical. However, as we are trapped in this World of Limitations, our ability to describe this experience must also be limited. These descriptions are what makes gnosis seem subjective, or different from person to person. “Everyone has his or her own gnosis” is false. The correct statement should be, “everyone has his or her own description of gnosis.” It’s a subtle distinction, but very important.

There is the Experiencer (the Spiritual Seed– Humanity) which is trapped within the World of Forms. Then, there is the Experienced– Truth, or The Father, or The Limitless Light or what have you. Gnosis is the intersection of the two, a combination of the Logos, or Word, and Sophia, or Wisdom, and Epiphany, or Awakening (see “The Way“). Now, the Gospel of Philip says that, “Truth did not come into the world naked, but it came in types and images.” The only possible way Truth can be expressed in the World, by itself or by others, is in “types and images”– imperfect copies of itself. However, it also says (emph. mine) that “….Truth brought names into existence in the world for our sakes, because it is not possible to learn it (truth) without these names. Truth is one single thing; it is many things and for our sakes to teach about this one thing in love through many things.” As gnosis is the perception of this “one single thing,” I believe that gnosis requires the “many things” described above — Logos, Sophia, Awakening– to truly be Gnosis. And, these “many things” may take different external forms, but internally, the connection between the Experiencer and the Experienced *must* be identical for anyone who has the experience.

So, the worldly information that contains and expresses gnosis may have some variation, but the experience underneath this containment and expression is the same. The textual evidence may be different– On the Origin of the World versus The Gospel of Truth, say — but the experiences of gnosis underlying these texts is identical. A drop of wine is different than a chalice full, but both are still 80% water, 13% ethanol and 7% other stuff.

We might describe what happened to us during an epiphanic event. We may create myths or participate in rituals designed as an attempt to communicate this indescribable Knowledge. The Knowledge itself, however, exists behind the epiphany, the rituals and the myths, and if it is not the same for each of us, we have nothing that binds us to the Truth.

A dog, a cat, a mouse, a cow and a donkey, all starving, comiserated together in a stable during a time of famine. The dog said, “Our problem is that we have no meat to eat.” The cat shook his head, and answered, “foolish dog. Obviously we suffer due to a lack of fish.” “You are both incorrect,” said the mouse, “as cheese is the solution to our misery.” “Not cheese, but grass, would make us happiest,” mooed the cow. “Stupid animals,” thought the donkey. “None of them realize that we would all be better off with piles and piles of delicious oats.”