THE ARCANE ARCHIVE
	a cache of usenet and other text files pertaining to occult, mystical, and spiritual subjects.

Subject: THUNDER: PERFECT MIND
                                     
   Translated by George W. MacRae
   Commentary by (Anonymous)
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   word
          Manuscript damaged, word(s) is possible, but not definite,
          attempt to reconstruct it.
   (word)
          Material added by the translator to clarify the passage or
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THUNDER: PERFECT MIND

   I was sent forth from the power,
   [INLINE] and I have come to those who reflect upon me,
   [INLINE] and I have been found among those who seek after me.
   Look upon me, you (pl.) who reflect upon me,
   [INLINE] and you hearers, hear me.
   [INLINE] You who are waiting for me, take me to yourselves.
   And do not banish me from your sight.
   [INLINE] And do not make your voice hate me, nor your hearing.
   [INLINE] Do not be ignorant of me anywhere or any time. Be on
   your guard!
   [INLINE] Do not be ignorant of me.
   For I am the first and the last.
   I am the honored one and the scorned one.
   I am the whore and the holy one.
   I am the wife and the virgin.
   I am the mother and the daughter.
   I am the members of my mother.
   I am the barren one
   [INLINE] and many are her sons.
   I am she whose wedding is great,
   [INLINE] and I have not taken a husband.
   I am the midwife and she who does not bear.
   I am the solace of my labor pains.
   I am the bride and the bridegroom,
   [INLINE] and it is my husband who begot me.
   I am the mother of my father
   [INLINE] and the sister of my husband,
   [INLINE] and he is my offspring.
   I am the slave of him who prepared me.
   I am the ruler of my offspring.
   [INLINE] But he is the one who [begot me] before the time
   [INLINE] on a birthday.
   [INLINE] And he is my offspring [in] (due) time,
   [INLINE] and my power is from him.
   I am the staff of his power in his youth,
   [INLINE] [and] he is the rod of my old age.
   [INLINE] And whatever he wills happens to me.
   I am the silence that is incomprehensible
   [INLINE] and the idea whose remembrance is frequent.
   I am the voice whose sound is manifold
   [INLINE] and the word whose appearance is multiple.
   I am the utterance of my name.
   
   Why, you who hate me, do you love me,
   [INLINE] and you hate those who love me?
   You who deny me, confess me,
   [INLINE] and you who confess me, deny me.
   You who tell the truth about me, lie about me,
   [INLINE] and you who have lied about me, tell the truth about me.
   You who know me, be ignorant of me,
   [INLINE] and those who have not known me, let them know me.
   
   For I am knowledge and ignorance.
   I am shame and boldness.
   I am shameless; I am ashamed.
   I am strength and I am fear.
   I am war and peace.
   Give heed to me.
   I am the one who is disgraced and the great one.
   
   Give heed to my poverty and my wealth.
   Do not be arrogant to me when I am cast out upon the earth,
   [INLINE] [and] you will find me in [those that] are to come.
   And do not look [upon] me on the dung-heap
   [INLINE] nor go and leave me cast out,
   [INLINE] and you will find me in the kingdoms.
   And do not look upon me when I am cast out among those who
   [INLINE] are disgraced and in the least places,
   [INLINE] nor laugh at me.
   And do not cast me out among those who are slain in violence.
   But I, I am compassionate and I am cruel.
   Be on your guard!
   Do not hate my obedience
   [INLINE] and do not love my self-control.
   In my weakness, do not forsake me,
   [INLINE] and do not be afraid of my power.
   For why do you despise my fear
   [INLINE] and curse my pride?
   But I am she who exists in all fears
   [INLINE] and strength in trembling.
   I am she who is weak,
   [INLINE] and I am well in a pleasant place.
   I am senseless and I am wise.
   
   Why have you hated me in your counsels?
   For I shall be silent among those who are silent,
   [INLINE] and I shall appear and speak.
   Why then have you hated me, you Greeks?
   [INLINE] Because I am a barbarian among [the] barbarians?
   For I am the wisdom [of the] Greeks
   [INLINE] and the knowledge of [the] barbarians.
   I am the judgment of [the] Greeks and the barbarians.
   [I] am the one whose image is great in Egypt
   [INLINE] and the one who has no image among the barbarians.
   I am the one who is hated everywhere
   [INLINE] and who has been loved everywhere.
   I am the one whom they call Life,
   [INLINE] and you have called Death.
   I am the one whom they call Law,
   [INLINE] and you have called Lawlessness.
   I am the one whom you have pursued,
   [INLINE] and I am the one whom you have seized.
   I am the one you have scattered,
   [INLINE] and you have gathered me together.
   I am the one before whom you have been ashamed,
   [INLINE] and you have been shameless to me.
   I am she who does not keep festival,
   [INLINE] and I am she whose festivals are many.
   I, I am godless,
   [INLINE] and I am one whose God is great.
   I am the one whom you have reflected upon,
   [INLINE] and you have scorned me.
   I am unlearned,
   [INLINE] and they learn from me.
   I am the one whom you have despised,
   [INLINE] and you reflect upon me.
   I am the one whom you have hidden from,
   [INLINE] and you appear to me.
   [INLINE] But whenever you hide yourselves,
   [INLINE] I myself will appear.
   [INLINE] For [whenever] you [appear],
   [INLINE] I myself [will hide] from you.
   Those who have [...] to it [...] senselessly [...].
   Take me [... understanding] from grief,
   [INLINE] and take me to yourselves from understanding [and]
   grief.
   And take me to yourselves from places that are ugly and in ruin,
   [INLINE] and rob from those which are good even though in
   ugliness.
   Out of shame, take me to yourselves shamelessly;
   [INLINE] and out of shamelessness and shame, upbraid my members
   [INLINE] in yourselves.
   And come foreward to me, you who know me
   [INLINE] and you who know my members,
   [INLINE] and establish the great ones among the small first
   creatures.
   Come foreward to childhood,
   [INLINE] and do not despise it because it is small and it is
   little.
   And do not turn away greatness in some parts from the
   [INLINE] smallnesses,
   [INLINE] for the smallnesses are known from the greatnesses.
   Why do you curse me and honor me?
   You have wounded and you have had mercy.
   Do not separate me from the first ones whom you have [known].
   [And] do not cast anyone [out nor] turn anyone away
   [INLINE] [...] turn away and [... know] him not.
   [INLINE] [... him].
   [INLINE] What is mine [...].
   I know the [first ones] and those after them [know] me.
   But I am the mind of [...] and the rest of [...].
   I am the knowledge of my inquiry,
   [INLINE] and the finding of those who seek after me,
   [INLINE] and the command of those who ask of me,
   [INLINE] and the power of the powers in my knowledge
   [INLINE] of the angels, who have been sent at my word,
   [INLINE] and of the gods in their seasons by my counsel,
   [INLINE] and of the spirits of every man who exists with me,
   [INLINE] and of the women who dwell within me.
   I am the one who is honored, and who is praised,
   [INLINE] and who is despised scornfully.
   I am peace,
   [INLINE] and war has come because of me.
   I am an alien and a citizen.
   I am the substance and the one who has no substance.
   Those who are without association with me are ignorant of me,
   [INLINE] and those who are in my substance are the ones who know
   me.
   Those who are close to me have been ignorant of me,
   [INLINE] and those who are far away from me are the ones who have
   [INLINE] known me.
   On the day when I am close to [you],
   [INLINE] [you] are far away [from me],
   [INLINE] [and] on the day when I [am far away] from you,
   [INLINE] [I am close] to you.
   [I am ...] within.
   [I am ...] of the natures.
   I am [...] of the creation of the spirits.
   [...] request of souls.
   [I am] control and the uncontrollable.
   I am the union and the dissolution.
   I am the abiding and the dissolving.
   I am the one below,
   [INLINE] and they come up to me.
   I am the judgment and the acquittal.
   I, I am sinless,
   [INLINE] and the root of sin derives from me.
   I am lust in (outward) appearance,
   [INLINE] and interior self-control exists within me.
   I am the hearing that is attainable to everyone
   [INLINE] and the speech that cannot be grasped.
   I am a mute who does not speak,
   [INLINE] and great is the multitude of my words.
   Hear me in gentleness, and learn of me in roughness.
   I am she who cries out,
   [INLINE] and I am cast out on the face of the earth.
   I prepare the bread and my mind within.
   I am the knowledge of my name.
   I am one who cries out,
   [INLINE] and I listen.
   I appear and [...] walk in [...] seal of my [...].
   I am [...] the defense [...].
   I am the one who is called Truth,
   [INLINE] and iniquity [...].
   You honor me [...] and you whisper against [me].
   [...] victorious over them.
   Judge then before they give judgment against you,
   [INLINE] because the judge and the partiality exist in you.
   If you are condemned by this one, who will acquit you?
   [INLINE] Or if you are acquitted by him who will be able to
   detain you?
   For what is inside of you is what is outside of you,
   [INLINE] and the one who fashions you on the outside
   [INLINE] is the one who shaped the inside of you.
   [INLINE] And what you see outside of you,
   [INLINE] you see outside of you;
   [INLINE] it is visible and it is your garment.
   Hear me, you hearers,
   [INLINE] and learn of my words, you who know me.
   I am the hearing that is attainable to everything;
   [INLINE] I am the speech that can not be grasped.
   I am the name of the sound
   [INLINE] and the sound of the name.
   I am the sign of the letter
   [INLINE] and the designation of the division.
   And I [...].
   [...] light [...].
   [...] hearers [...] to you
   [...] the great power.
   And [...] will not move the name.
   [...] to the one who created me.
   [INLINE] And I will speak his name.
   Look then at his words
   [INLINE] and all the writings which have been completed.
   Give heed then, you hearers
   [INLINE] and you also, the angels and those who have been sent,
   [INLINE] and you spirits who have arisen from the dead.
   For I am the one who alone exists,
   [INLINE] and I have no one who will judge me.
   For many are the pleasant forms which exist in
   [INLINE] numerous sins,
   [INLINE] and incontinencies,
   [INLINE] and disgraceful passions,
   [INLINE] and fleeting pleasures,
   [INLINE] which (men) embrace until they become sober
   [INLINE] and go up to their resting-place.
   And they will find me there,
   [INLINE] and they will live,
   [INLINE] and they will not die again.
     ____________________________________________________________
   
COMMENTARY

   'Thunder, Perfect Mind' is a poem from the Nag Hammadi texts.
   Stylistically, three separate styles are used in the poem: that
   of Hebrew wisdom-texts, of Isis aretalogies, and Platonic dialog.
   These three styles are used in alternation. Religiously, it is
   hard to identify the tradition this text comes from. It presents
   no distinctively Jewish, orthodox Christian, or gnostic Christian
   themes, not does it seem to presuppose any known gnostic 'myths.'
   
   If the document is to be considered a gnostic document, a
   definition of gnostic must be tendered first. For now, the
   definition of Theodotus will be used, that 'what liberates us is
   the knowledge of who we were, what we became; where we were,
   whereunto we have been thrown; whereunto we speed, wherefrom we
   are redeemed; what birth is, and what rebirth.' 'Thunder: Perfect
   Mind' answers some of these questions, but not others.
   
   The questions dealing with self-knowledge are dealt with very
   fully in the text. The tradition of Isis aretalogies is one of
   self-definition, aretalogies being strings of 'I am' statements.
   The part of the text like an Isis aretalogy describes the speaker
   in paradoxical but full detail. The very first section of the
   aretalogy text answers the questions of where the speaker comes
   from, where she has come to, and where she might be found. There
   is a slight deviation, in that she has actively come to 'those
   who reflect' upon her, rather than 'being thrown' to them, the
   idea of being removed from one's original habitation is there. In
   the sixth section of this part she says that she is an alien, as
   well as a citizen.
   
   This brings up the question of what the point of the dichotomies
   in the aretalogy section is. They range from philosophical,
   political and social opposites to sexual and familial polarities.
   In each opposition of polarity, the speaker maintains that she
   encompasses both poles, or roles. She is 'the whore and the holy
   one.' She is 'the barren one, and she whose sons are many.' She
   is 'Knowledge and ignorance.' And she is 'the one whom they call
   Law, and you have called Lawlessness.'
   
   In the last dichotomy, the difference may be ascribed to the
   people who call her either Law or Lawlessness, either 'they' or
   'you.' Similar distinctions are made in other seemingly
   paradoxical statements in terms of temporal placement. The tenses
   change, for instance, in the fifth section in many statements,
   such as 'I am the one who is hated everywhere, and who has been
   loved everywhere.', 'I am the one whom you have despised, and you
   reflect upon me.' and 'I am the one whom you have hidden from,
   and you appear to me.' These distinctions, either temporal or
   nominal, are subservient to the larger message that the speaker
   is a very diverse personality. They are also only possible to
   discern in a small percentage of the proffered paradoxes. The
   main attempt is to define herself, not to set up distinctions in
   time or peoples. There is almost no cosmology or anthropology in
   this text, and this is a clue to the nature of the message of the
   text. The emphasis is on the person, not the cosmos; on the self,
   and not the environment.
   
   In this aretalogy third of the text, there an attempt to
   transcend the intellect through intellectual paradox. By setting
   up identities between polar opposites the mind is set in circles,
   as it is by the Zen koans, until it is driven into the brick wall
   of impossibility. In the introduction to his translation of this
   text, MacRae states that '...the particular significance of the
   self-proclamations of 'Thunder: Perfect Mind' may be found in
   their antithetical character.' One might rather say that the
   significance must be found in their antithetical character. There
   is no other common denominator.
   
   The second type of writing seen in this text is comparable to
   Hebrew wisdom literature. The excerpted and reconnected text is a
   series of hortatory instructions for those who would be
   gnostikoi, in the form of very short injunctions to 'Look upon
   me', 'Hear me', 'Do not be arrogant to me', etc. The speaker
   exhorts the reader to be on his guard twice, and not to be
   ignorant of her twice. This emphasis on care and awareness
   augments the intellectual exercises of the aretalogy section. One
   could easily skim over the polarities and not stop to reflect on
   them or their import, in which case their efficacy of liberation
   would be severely diminished. All three parts of this text work
   together.
   
   The exhortations go on to impress upon the reader that he must be
   aware that the speaker encompasses all things, great and small,
   as well as left and right, male and female, royal and base, rich
   and poor. There is an element of the union of opposites here as
   well, the speaker saying she is compassionate and cruel, and
   obedient and self-controlled
   
   In the third section of this part of the text, the instructions
   are to 'come forward to me, you who know me ... and establish the
   great ones among the small first creatures.' Here is some
   evidence of an organised attempt to proselytise, or establish a
   group of those who know the speaker. The fourth section also
   calls to 'you, who know me.' They are told to learn the speaker's
   words, while those 'hearers' are told simply to hear. This
   suggests some form of hierarchy among the 'hearers' and the
   'knowers'. The first step would seem to be that one must hear the
   voice, and then come to know it.
   
   This could be a sign of the initiatory path, along which one must
   pass to come to gnosis. As noted above, the simple act of hearing
   the message intellectually would not be enough. One must pay
   special care to the paradoxes presented, and reflect upon them
   until illumination comes. The process can again be compared to
   the effect of koans, where one perceives them first as outright
   nonsense, 'the sound of one hand clapping,' etc., until one comes
   to the crux of where they attempt to fix the mind.
   
   Where the 'Thunder: Perfect Mind' would fix the mind is on a
   realisation of the transcendence of the speaker, and eventually
   on the identification of the speaker with the hearer when that
   hearer becomes a knower. As it says in the sixth section of the
   aretalogy part, 'I am the knowledge of my inquiry, and the
   finding of those who seek after me, ... and of the spirits of
   every who exists with me, and of the women who dwell within me.'
   The path to gnosis and the traveler on that path are both played
   here by the character of the speaker.
   
   Another point made by this part of the text like wisdom
   literature is that manifestation implies duality, and that to
   perceive in the world implies discrimination. The nature of the
   speaker comprehends all things, but to appear in the world she
   must choose one of the two halves of all those things through
   which to appear. As a complete being she would be both invisible
   and insensible in any way, since to contain both poles of being,
   such as 1 and -1, would be to equal 0. This has a parallel in the
   way of the Tao, in which one of the aims is to do everything by
   doing nothing. One might hear the speaker saying 'I am she who
   does everything, and nothing.' The idea is to incorporate in
   oneself a balance between action and non-action, yin and yang,
   and by doing such one gets beyond having to struggle with the
   world. There will be no antagonism between the person and then
   environment, once that person becomes one with the environment.
   (Or a reflection of it, by incorporating or epitomising all its
   elements.)
   
   This shows the less ascetic nature of the text 'Thunder: Perfect
   Mind'. The world is not actively evil, but rather simply
   distracting due to its incomplete nature. When one gets beyond
   this, then one has improved, but there is no shame in being
   merely a 'hearer,' and not a 'knower.' The only desiderata are to
   hear and then to know, to balance oneself according to what one
   comes to know, and despise nothing along the way, for every thing
   is part of the transcendent whole. Here one could draw Deist
   parallels, intensifying the impression that the writers of this
   text did not see the world as inherently evil.
   
   It is our perception of the world that causes the apparent evil
   of the world. To perceive something is to discriminate between it
   and its context. It is this separation or making of differences
   that allows us to operate in the world, but also that enslaves us
   to it by monopolising our attention. 'Thunder: Perfect Mind'
   insists that only by seeing the larger picture of unions of all
   opposites can we escape this servitude to the world. In other
   words, what liberates us is the knowledge of into what we have
   been thrown, or have come.
   
   The last section, the fifth of this part of the text, is a final
   exhortation to the reader to 'look,' 'give heed' and be aware of
   who speaks and what that means, that by encompassing all things
   she is 'the one who alone exists,' comprising all, 'and ... no
   one who will judge' her exists outside her. This extreme
   recognition of the unity of oneself with the cosmos, of subject
   with object, and of positive and negative, leads to an extension
   of the self to the limits of perception. Sometimes this continues
   to the point that manifestation requires a relimitation by
   definition of person. As the speaker has done this, the extension
   and then the relimitation in order to communicate, she also
   implies that it is an achievement attainable by all, if one will
   just 'hear' and 'know.'
   
   The third part of the text represents Greece, as the first two
   reflect the Egyptian and Judaic strands of the Hellenistic world.
   It consists of questions and answers, not always on philosophical
   subjects, but always leading to philosophical points. It is
   similar in many ways to the prototypical Platonic dialogue in
   which the interlocutor is led to the truth of the matter by way
   of dialectic. Another parallel would be the dialogue between
   Arjuna and Krishna in that chariot.
   
   There are six sections to this part of the text, as it has been
   cut up and fitted to the other two parts, and the first five
   display an elegant ring composition. Section one is a question
   and amplification of the question, while section five is the
   answer to it. Section two is another question and amplification,
   answered by section four. Section three is the center point,
   pointing out the union of the two questions and their respective
   answers. Section six is a conclusion of sorts, resuming that
   which the dialogue has attempted to draw.
   
   The first question is why the reader, and people in general,
   display contradictory behavior. This is not a psychological type
   of inquiry, into the roots of irrationality, but rather another
   attempt to unveil the nature of the speaker. The contradictory
   behavior referred to deals with the reader's reaction to the
   speaker, and the nature of complete being in general. If complete
   being entails all things, then it elicits all responses, each of
   which will have an opposite reaction that will be elicited
   simultaneously (or thereabouts). Love and hate, truth and lie,
   knowledge and ignorance are all part of man's reactions to the
   world.
   
   The answer to this problem is contained in section five. The
   incompleteness of things, inside and outside, judge and judged,
   condemning and acquitting; these distinctions elicit opposite
   responses to each of their halves, yet both halves are only that:
   halves of a whole, which elicits both love and hate, fear and
   confidence, and obedience and self-control. The way out of the
   world of appearances is again to realise the unity of opposites,
   that what is seen inside is what is outside also.
   
   The second question is directed toward the question of the
   ignorance of these unions of opposites. 'Why have you hated me,'
   asks the unity, 'Because I am a barbarian among barbarians?
   Because I don't speak the language of any specific nation, not
   even those who don't speak your language? Because I speak of
   universals?' The answer is that 'those who are without
   association with me are ignorant of me, and those who are in my
   substance are the ones who know me.' Those who know, know; those
   who don't don't. One cannot understand the nature of the speaker
   or the world until one becomes a part of it, and all the parts of
   it. The antithetical and polarised nature continues to be shown,
   'On the day when I am close to you, you are far away from me, and
   on the day when I am far away from you, I am close to you.'
   
   The third section unites these two questions of the manifestation
   of opposites, and the difficulty of perception of perfection.
   (not to mention perfection of perception!) Both problems stem
   from human nature in the world of manifestation. The separation
   of opposites, needed for perception of manifested things, is
   necessary to operate in the world as humans with human
   limitations, as these limitations are usually counted. But the
   speaker here says the real need ideally is not to separate, and
   thus to come to a realisation of the unity. This is similar to
   the idea of samadhi, where the subject and object of
   contemplation are united in a flash of illumination.
   
   Section six concludes, saying that the worldly forms are
   pleasant, but numerous, disgraceful, and fleeting. When men
   'become sober and go up to their resting place.... they will find
   me there, and they will live, and they will not die again.' This
   implies the possibility of a permanent state of comprehension of
   the unity of opposites.
   
   Now we can see where Theodotus' definition of gnosticism is and
   is not exemplified by 'Thunder: Perfect Mind'. The writers of
   this text were concerned with most of Theodotus' questions, but
   not all. They provide answers for where we have come from, and
   whereunto we have been thrown. They address the question of who
   we were, what we have become, but not really what birth is, and
   what rebirth. Nor do they proffer answers to whereunto we speed,
   or wherefrom we are redeemed, beyond the answers to the first
   questions of where we were and where we are. The answers that are
   offered deal with personal rather than cosmological questions (if
   there is a difference). The issue is primarily one of
   self-liberation, rather than redemption, unless the reception of
   the 'good news' of unity is to be considered redemption.
   
   This difference of degree of activity and passivity between
   Theodotus and the speaker of 'Thunder: Perfect Mind' is revealed
   in the answers to whereunto we have been thrown, and wherefrom we
   are redeemed. In 'Thunder: Perfect Mind''s view we came ourselves
   to this world, and liberate ourselves through Hearing and
   Knowing. What liberates us is still the knowledge, but the
   knowledge of slightly different things. The lack of cosmology or
   theology in the text, compared to other texts in the Nag Hammadi
   library, suggests the comparison rather to the more psychological
   sect of Buddhism [Craig Schenk's Note: Theravada] in contrast to
   the majority of Mahayana that has absorbed local religious or
   theological superstructure.
   
   The path suggested by the text towards illumination is a strictly
   intellectual path to the transcendence of intellect. Through the
   mortification of the mind rather than of the flesh one may
   achieve gnosis. There is therefore no need for a theology on
   which to hang precepts of asceticism. The authors of the text say
   simply that when one understands the facts, one gives up the
   preoccupation of the world as incomplete.
   
   The gnosticism exemplified by this text then, is transcendental,
   syncretic, and hortatory. It is transcendent in that it looks at
   the world and insists that there is a larger reality beyond what
   we see as separate, discrete things. It is syncretic in that it
   uses three distinct literary styles to get across its point.
   These three texts may have been actual texts on their own before
   incorporation into this text, or they may not. They fit so
   smoothly into each other in terms of subject continuity that were
   they originally distinct texts, they must have been revised for
   the purpose. The authors are hortatory as opposed to imperative
   in that they say that if you come to their idea of unity, then
   you will be less confused by the complexity of the world. If you
   do not, then you will stick to all those pleasant forms of
   passions and fleeting pleasures, and simply not achieve peace.
   They do not threaten any punishment for ignorance, only a
   perpetuation of a potentially temporary confusion.
   
   The comparisons of the three styles of writings is profitable
   only in so far as it serves to conveniently categorise the
   material. Too strict an analogy to the three styles would be
   blinding as well. The content is radically different in message
   from the usual content of any of the borrowed forms. Again, what
   must be looked at to explain the meaning of the text is the
   antithetical nature of the 'I am' statements, and their
   commentary in the other two styles of text. The medium (in this
   case) is not the message. The function of the text must be
   considered to be not philosophical speculation, theological or
   moral exhortation or religious definition, as the borrowed types
   were, but rather psychological revelation, buttressed by
   practical exhortation and logical proof.
   
   What really qualifies the author or authors of this text for
   consideration as excellent and true gnostics is their
   appropriation of existing forms, whether myths, ritual speeches,
   or philosophical methods, and turning them to their own ends.
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