We will look at a teaching that is attributed to Jesus and yet is not found in any version of the Christian Bible. This teaching was unknown until 1945 with the discovery of Egypt's Nag Hammadi library. This library is a collection of rare early Christian and Gnostic[i] texts, including the Gospel of Thomas, from which today’s teaching is taken. Here it is:
"If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you." #70
This is a very poignant statement. Here Jesus speaks to the importance of exploring and expressing our inner world--a point that would be echoed by many psychotherapists today.
Most of us are familiar with the concept of the shadow and the importance of working with it. The term shadow was originally defined by Carl Jung; he used this term in a fairly specific way. Today it’s typically used in a more general way to reference any psychological content that has been suppressed into the unconscious.
This suppression can occur for a number of reasons. Most often it’s because an experience is too painful or too threatening to be fully acknowledged at the time it occurs. These suppressed memories can lie within us like festering wounds and interfere with our health, relationships and ability to function in life. For healing to occur these memories must be “brought forth” into conscious awareness.
Many of us have also suppressed positive character traits and potential talents that lie within us. Why would we do this? Most often it’s because our family, peers and culture discouraged and didn’t support our nascent talents and abilities.
In my personal history creativity was not encouraged--but conformity certainly was. Most any expression of personal empowerment was strongly discouraged as well. And, being a “good Catholic family,” sexuality was certainly never openly discussed!
Growing up in the 1940’s and 50’s, many qualities and talents were recognized as strictly gender specific. For example, I was a high school math and science teacher for a few years. I noticed that in the freshman-sophomore grades I had as many girls as boys in my classes—and usually the girls were the better students. Yet, in the junior-senior grades I had very few girls in my math or science classes. In my university graduate studies I majored in Engineering…definitely not a good way to meet girls!
Poverty and prejudice also contribute to the discouragement of certain talents as well. (I refer you to that great movie, Hidden Figures.) And very often it is simply low self-esteem that prohibits an individual from acknowledging and developing his or her innate abilities.
I believe that much of the dysfunction and depression that exists in our nation today is the result not of what is wrong with us, but rather what is right with us but has never been recognized and developed. Instead of automatically medicating these symptoms, what if we helped these individuals discover and express their buried talents? (The cure for de-pression may be ex-pression!)
Dr. Jung advocated that the purpose of human life is not to worship Christ or seek to imitate Him. He believed that our purpose is for each of us to find the pattern of Christ (The Self) within oneself and bring it forth in our own unique and individual way. He referred to this as the process of individuation.
Individuation proceeds by reconciling opposing forces within the psyche. This is accomplished primarily through making the unconscious conscious and thus surrendering the ego into service of the Self. This is exemplified by these words of Jesus, “…the words that I speak I speak not of myself (ego): but the Father (The Self) abiding in me does the work.” (John 14:10)
“If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you." These words apply not only to us as individuals but to our collective culture as well. This could be a warning telling us that if we don’t wake up (individuate) soon then we may likely destroy ourselves.
Jung predicted the rise of Hitler a decade before he rose to political power in 1933. His prophecy was based not upon political speculation but upon his awareness of the German psyche gleaned from his work as a psychoanalyst. He referenced the grave danger of this suppression while speaking to a BBC journalist when he cryptically stated, “We are the origin of all coming evil.”
May we wake up in time…this time.
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[i] Gnosticism is a collection of ancient religious ideas which originated in the first century AD among early Christian and Jewish sects. These various groups emphasized personal spiritual knowledge (gnosis) over orthodox teachings, traditions, and the authority of the church. Gnostics considered the principal element of salvation to be direct knowledge of the supreme divinity in the form of mystical or esoteric insight.
Gnostic writings flourished among certain Christian groups in the Mediterranean world until about the second century, when the Fathers of the Church denounced them as heresy. Efforts to destroy these texts proved successful, resulting in the survival of very little writing by Gnostic theologians.