Already Spread Upon the Earth
The Teaching
His disciples said to him, “When will the kingdom come?” He said, “It will not come by watching for it. It will not be said, ‘Look, here!’ or ‘Look, there!’ Rather, the Father’s kingdom is spread out upon the earth, and people don’t see it.”
Commentary
The final saying of the Gospel of Thomas, and perhaps its culminating point. The Kingdom is already here, spread out upon the earth, and the only obstacle is perception.
This is what Zen calls ‘ordinary mind is the Tao.’ This is what the Shinto tradition calls the Kami in all things, not a supernatural presence added to nature but the sacred depth of what nature already is.
The spiritual path, on this reading, is not going somewhere. It is learning to see where you already are. Ram Dass called this ‘Be Here Now.’ Thomas knew it two thousand years ago.
Themes
Connections 13
Travelled
Christianity reached Gnosticism by 100 CE. The same milieu. Irenaeus wrote against the Gnostics (c. 180); the Gospel of Thomas, whose Gnostic character is itself disputed, shares sayings with the Gospels.
Arose apart
No known transmission between Gnosticism and Taoism while these teachings took shape.
Arose apart
No known transmission between Gnosticism and Shinto while these teachings took shape.
Arose apart
No known transmission between Gnosticism and Indigenous tradition while these teachings took shape.
Travelled
Christianity reached Gnosticism by 100 CE. The same milieu. Irenaeus wrote against the Gnostics (c. 180); the Gospel of Thomas, whose Gnostic character is itself disputed, shares sayings with the Gospels.
Arose apart
No known line from Gnosticism to this scientific work.
Travelled
Christianity reached Gnosticism by 100 CE. The same milieu. Irenaeus wrote against the Gnostics (c. 180); the Gospel of Thomas, whose Gnostic character is itself disputed, shares sayings with the Gospels.
Arose apart
No known transmission between Gnosticism and Indigenous tradition while these teachings took shape.
Arose apart
No known transmission between Gnosticism and Taoism while these teachings took shape.
Unsure
No documented reading of Gnosticism by Alan Watts.
Unsure
No documented reading of Gnosticism by Ram Dass.
Unsure
No documented reading of Gnosticism behind this teaching, or against it.