Samadhi Practice in the Gospel of Thomas, the Apostle of India

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

Vasyl Vernyhora graduated with honors from the Vinnytsia Polytechnic Institute (since 1994 it is the Vinnytsia State Technical University), Ukraine, in 1993 with a degree in computer science. Having a strong aspiration to study the methods of self-development of yoga and Buddhism. he quit his job as a bank programmer and visited India since 1997, living there for a total of more than 7 years, including being in India continuously from 2001 to 2006. In 2004 the author, perhaps the first among residents of the CIS, from Somnath Giriji, received individual sannyasa diksha mahamandaleshwar (one of the chairmen) of the Hindu monastic lineage of Sri Panch Dashnam Juna Akhara, in his head Himalayan ashram, and has been given the name Bhole Baba Giri. He also studied Buddhism by living in Buddhist monasteries in Dharamsala, Bylakuppe and Ladakh and interacting with Tibetan Rinpoches and Geshes. You can find a comprehensive guide to meditation practice in his book" "Meditation in Raja Yoga, Buddhism and According to Neurophysiology: A Practical Guide". The author, continuing to live in Ukraine, shares in the book his experience.

This is perhaps the first commentary on the Gospel of Thomas presented in the context of the practice of samadhi/shamatha meditation. It explores the idea that Jesus spent his "lost years" from the age of 14 to 28 in India, where he studied the Yoga of Patanjali and the Noble Eightfold Path of Buddhism, both of which culminate in samadhi meditation. In both Yoga and Buddhism, the ability to perform miracles is said to arise only as a result of attaining superconsciousness or Buddhahood through the practice of samadhi/shamatha. Jesus demonstrated miraculous powers, yet references to meditation practice were later removed from his teachings. The analysis suggests that Jesus, speaking through parables. explained to his disciples the methodology of samadhi/shamatha practice, including ekagrata (one-pointedness) and its guardian efforts smriti and samprajnata, as well as distractions and weakening of collectedness of the mind, and the concept of reincarnation. Stone cross carved by St. Thomas, found in 1547 and installed in 1551 in St. Thomas Church, St. Thomas Mount, Chennai, India. The inscription around the cross, made in Nagari Palidu language, means "Through cross-suffering the Messiah-Jesus Chris brought salvation to the world".

Vasyl Vernyhora graduated with honors from the Vinnytsia Polytechnic Institute (since 1994 it is the Vinnytsia State Technical University), Ukraine, in 1993 with a degree in computer science. Having a strong aspiration to study the methods of self-development of yoga and Buddhism, he quit his job as a bank programmer and visited India since 1997, living there for a total of more than 7 years, including being in India continuously from 2001 to 2006. In 2004 the author, perhaps the first among residents of the CIS, received individual sannyasa diksha from Somnath Giriji, mahamandaleshwar (one of the chairmen) of the Hindu monastic lineage of Sri Panch Dashnam Juna Akhara, in his head Himalayan ashram. He also studied Buddhism by living in Buddhist monasteries in Dharamsala, Bylakuppe and Ladakh and interacting with Tibetan Rinpoches and Geshes. You can find a comprehensive guide to meditation practice in his book "Meditation in Raja Yoga, Buddhism and According to Neurophysiology: A Practical Guide". In 2004, he became interested in the stories of Jesus' visit to India during the "lost years" from the age of 14 to 28-and after the crucifixion, and translated Fida Hassnain's book "A Search for the Historical Jesus". In 2005 he also came to visit Fida Hassnain at his home in the Indian city of Srinagar, where he also visited the tomb of Jesus, Rozabal, then Jammu & Kashmir state. He also visited the Church of St. Thomas on St. Thomas Mount in Chennai, as well as Little Mount of St. Thomas in Chennai (Madras). The author, continuing to live in Ukraine, shares in the book his experience.

IN Many meditators wonder why there are currently no teachings of Jesus on samadhi/shamatha meditation in Christian texts. This meditation practice is the essence of the teachings of Patanjali and Buddha and allows one to achieve superconsciousness as a result of its many hours of daily, many-year practice. This seems especially strange given that in the texts that have come down to us with the words of Jesus both in the canonical and in the apocrypha-the superconsciousness itself is mentioned, albeit allegorically (like the kingdom of heaven in Thomas or the kingdom of God in other apostles), but the description of the practice of samadhi/shamatha is almost completely absent. A detailed study of the description of the properties of the kingdom of heaven, the primary importance of achieving which Jesus spoke about again and again, allows us to come to the conclusion that it is the very superconsciousness that was designated in words understandable to Jesus' disciples. Buddha also spoke again and again about the primary importance of achieving superconsciousness, which in modern Buddhism in different contexts and for different levels of its achievement can be designated by the terms "consciousness of buddha (enlightened one)", "awakened consciousness", "having reached the levels of jhana/dhyana and especially arupa-ayatana", "nirvana", "sambhogakaya" and even "pure lands" of heavenly worlds. A side effect of achieving superconsciousness is the emergence of superpowers-siddhis, allowing one to do what people call miracles. Both Jesus and Buddha performed many miracles. Both Christianity and Buddhism have preserved numerous references to these miracles. According to the Tipitaka, in 45 years after achieving superconsciousness ("consciousness of buddha"), Buddha performed 3,500 miracles. But if Buddhism has preserved a detailed description of the path to achieving superconsciousness, the key method of which is many-year daily many-hour practice of correct shamatha, then for some reason such a description is absent in Christianity. Just as the New Testament texts completely lack a description of the period of Jesus' life from 14 to 28 years. According to apocryphal sources, which the official church never recognized as authoritative, during these "lost years" Jesus traveled to India, where he studied yoga and Buddhism, after which he returned to Judea capable of performing all sorts of miracles. But all information about this journey, as well as the quite possible words of Jesus in sermons about the direct method of achieving the kingdom of heaven, were either thrown out or distorted by church hierarchs. If we turn to the history of Christianity, then all the original texts with the words of Jesus, recorded by his disciples and followers, remained in the shadow of the then dominant religions and cults for the first three centuries. Both the early Christians and their texts were persecuted and destroyed. And over the next three centuries, when Christianity gradually became the state religion and spread to new territories, all the texts of Jesus' teachings that were available at that time, preserved with varying degrees of reliability after multiple centuries of rewriting, were subjected to strict selection, censorship and editing by the bishops. As a result of all these events, some texts disappeared forever, such as the hypothetical source Q, which will be discussed later. There is no point in looking for references to the samadhi/shamatha psychotechnique in Christian texts recognized as canonical by the bishops. The last remnants of such references, if they were originally in the records made by Jesus' disciples, were removed no later than the 6th century. The bishops had other interests, connected, as the history of the papacy showed, with the unrestrained accumulation of wealth and the unlimited strengthening of their secular power, when, for example, the papacy became a supranational entity with its powerful influence not only on ordinary people, but even on kings. In the conditions of such a struggle, the bishops, of course, had no time for spiritual practices, the results of which, moreover, did not compare with the opportunities for enrichment that religious power provided.