Gnosticism
Blessed Are the Poor
The Teaching
Jesus said: "Blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven."
Commentary
In the Gospel of Thomas stripped to its essence, no qualification, no 'in spirit.' The poverty that opens the Kingdom is kenosis: the emptying of the constructed self, the ego's accumulated claims and defenses.
This kenosis is Sunyata in Buddhism, the recognition of the self's emptiness. It is Fana in Sufism, annihilation in the Beloved. It is the Taoist 'subtract daily' of chapter 48.
The Kabbalistic concept of Tzimtzum, divine self-contraction to make space for creation, is the same movement: the infinite empties itself to make room for the finite, and the finite empties itself to discover the infinite.
Themes
Connections 6
Buddhism
Form Is Emptiness
Heart Sutra (Prajnaparamita)
Sufism
Ana al-Haqq — I Am the Truth
Al-Hallaj & Ibn Arabi (9th–13th century)
Taoism
Subtracting Daily
Tao Te Ching, Chapter 48 (Mitchell trans.)
Judaism
Ein Sof — The Infinite Without End
Zohar / Lurianic Kabbalah
Hinduism
Abandon All and Surrender
Bhagavad Gita 18:66
Christianity
The Beatitudes
Matthew 5:1–12
Primary source https://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/thomas.htm