Gospel of Thomas · 81 of 114 · tr. Thomas O. Lambdin
Logion 81
Jesus said, "Let him who has grown rich be king, and let him who possesses power renounce it."
§ Ask Guru about this passage →Themes
Kingdom Withinanthropology
The claim that the divine realm is present inside the individual, accessible without external mediation.
The command to 'be king' implies an internal sovereignty or spiritual authority consistent with the Gospel of Thomas's emphasis on the inner realm.
All passages →Paradox As Teachingethics
Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight.
[auto] The logion employs a counter-intuitive reversal of worldly expectations regarding wealth and power to destabilize ordinary understanding and induce insight.
All passages →Renunciation Of Wealthethics
The spiritual danger of attachment to material possessions; wealth as a spiritual obstacle.
[auto] The passage explicitly instructs those possessing power to renounce it, highlighting the spiritual danger of attachment to worldly status.
All passages →Related passages · 9 parallels
neoplatonism|Select Works of Plotinus|Select Works, Section 489
“Section 11 11. Similarly any one, unable to see himself, but possessed by that God, has but to bring that divine- within before his consciousness and at once he sees an image of himself, himself lifted to a better beauty: now let him ignore…”
Shared concept: Kingdom Within — The claim that the divine realm is present inside the individual, accessible without external mediation. (derived)
christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 1 (part 6)
“The human selfhood will then follow in its perceptions the Spirit of God, tremblingly and in the joy of humility, and become able to see what is contained in time and in eternity.
Everything is near to a soul in that state, for the soul is…”
Shared concept: Kingdom Within — The claim that the divine realm is present inside the individual, accessible without external mediation. (derived)
christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 1 (part 2)
“"Natural man knows nothing about the mystery of the kingdom of God, because he is outside and not within the state of divinity, as is daily proved by the action of the philosophisers who are disputing about the attributes and the will of Go…”
Shared concept: Kingdom Within — The claim that the divine realm is present inside the individual, accessible without external mediation. (derived)
neoplatonism|Select Works of Plotinus|Select Works, Section 422 (part 2)
“But in soul the utterance is obscured, for soul is an image and must look to its own original: that Principle, on the contrary, looks to the First without mediation- thus becoming what it is- and has that vision not as from a distance but a…”
Shared concept: Kingdom Within — The claim that the divine realm is present inside the individual, accessible without external mediation. (derived)
native_american|The Soul of the Indian|Chapter I-b
“Sometimes an old man, standing upon the brink of eternity, might reveal to a chosen few the oracle of his long-past youth.
The native American has been generally despised by his white conquerors for his poverty and simplicity.
They forget…”
Shared concept: Renunciation Of Wealth — The spiritual danger of attachment to material possessions; wealth as a spiritual obstacle. (derived)
christian_mysticism|Pseudo-Dionysius: The Mystical Theology|Chapter V-a
“That He Who is the Pre-eminent Cause of everything intelligibly perceived is not Himself any one of the things intelligibly perceived.
Once more, ascending yet higher we maintain 537 537 It is not (1) a Thinking Subject; nor (2) an Act or…”
Shared concept: Paradox As Teaching — Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight. (derived)
christian_mysticism|Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names|Chapter 11, Section 1f
“472 Contemplation, Act of Contemplation, and Object Contemplated are all united together, and so imply a fundamental Unity which exists ultimately in God.
473 Cf.
p.
174, n.
3.
474 D.‘s paradox is the paradox of sanity.
We must hold a…”
Shared concept: Paradox As Teaching — Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight. (derived)
western_esoteric|The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall)|The Ancient Mysteries and Secret Societies Which Have Influenced Modern Masonic Symbolism-x
“Pluto, the lord of the underworld, represents the body intelligence of man; and the rape of Persephone is symbolic of the divine nature assaulted and defiled by the animal soul and dragged downward into the somber darkness of Hades, which i…”
Shared concept: Renunciation Of Wealth — The spiritual danger of attachment to material possessions; wealth as a spiritual obstacle. (derived)
native_american|The Soul of the Indian|Chapter IV-c
“It was considered a high honor among us to have won some distinction in war and the chase, and above all to have been invited to a seat in the council, before one had spoken to any girl save his own sister.
It was our belief that the love…”
Shared concept: Renunciation Of Wealth — The spiritual danger of attachment to material possessions; wealth as a spiritual obstacle. (derived)