Unsorted Thoughts on Gnosis, Love, Desire, and Other Topics

This is an entry that requires some knowledge of Gnostic religious teachings to fully understand. After having a few realizations, I wrote this for myself about Gnosis, godly love, and some other things. I feel it is important enough to share, but it's largely incohesive and sort of a stream-of-consciousness, since it wasn't originally written with the intention for anybody else to read it. I just wrote it to record my thoughts. It's not in its perfect form, in two senses: it's not a clear read all the way through; and, even though it feels true to me, I obviously can't guarantee that it's the objective truth. It speaks a lot on Gnosis, but I don't know what Gnosis is really like because I haven't found it myself.

I had an epiphany about love. The Monad is a being of pure love. It begot the Pleroma. The Pleroma is infinitely loving. The Pleroma is a construct of love. Each Aeon holds infinite love for every other Aeon. The pleroma gazes at infinite reflections of itself in love. The Pleroma gazes at us in love and pours that love unto us, allowing us to share the gift of love with each other, just like the Pleroma shares the gift of love with us.

We have the Pleroma in our hearts so we have love in our hearts. This is what enables us to love. Human desire to love may be an instinct to imitate that which is divine. Our love is only a fraction of the Pleroma's love. We are incomplete and need external love from other humans so that we may feel fulfilled. But because we have flawed bodies and minds, godly love doesn't translate effectively in ways that humans can express and understand. That's why humans quarrel. It's how ignorance and evil is begotten. Christ instructed us to love everyone. Perhaps if the whole humanity loved each other simulataneously and without flaw, we would be like the Pleroma, at least in our benevolence and kindness. Love gives. Love makes room. Love understands and shows empathy. If every human showed full love towards one another, the population of Earth would almost act like one self-sufficient being, because every single human would act to serve the rest of humanity. A social structure like this would resemble the Pleroma. The Pleroma is one, a single divine mind. However, it is made up of constituent aspects that act in love for one another. No Aeon acts in self-service. Christ instructed us to love everyone because he wishes for us to be like the Pleroma. The more people know to love everyone, and the more people who practice love, the closer humanity gets collectively to God.

Gnosis is our godly love in full practice and effect. It is full understanding, since love is understanding. It is the fullness of our empathy and understanding extended to the world. It is the knowledge that we are not the most important being. Until we find Gnosis, we all subconsciously disregard this knowledge and treat ourselves as if we are the most important being, even if we think we are selfless. There are fruits of necessity. Some people don't taste them. When we already have enough fruits of necessity, any further fruit we consume becomes fruit of pleasure. When we eat fruit of pleasure, we hoard fruit of necessity from those who need it, from those who do not taste them. We mustn't tithe a little bit of our fruit. We mustn't tithe half of our fruit. We mustn't tithe most of our fruit. We mustn't tithe all fruit except for that which we would like to keep. We must eat only the fruit of necessity. After our needs are met; after we are fed, sheltered, and clothed, we must tithe all excess. We must tithe all fruit of pleasure so that they will become fruits of necessity for those who need it.

We must give up what we don't need. We must give up the notion that eating the fruit of pleasure is a victimless act, for when we eat the fruit of pleasure, we deny it to those who need it, who consume it in the form of the fruit of necessity. We must give up all self-serving beliefs we hold. This means all hate. This means all disdain for humanity. We must see each act of evil as an act of ignorance, for ignorance is the mother of all evil (Philip 109:1). There is no sin, only ignorance (Mary 1:5). We must extend our empathy and understanding to the ignorant. We must correct them gently. We must extend our empathy and supply of fruit to the needy. We must feed them, and with our fruit, we must bring our message. To serve ourself is an act of ignorance to the needs of others. Whenever we can extend our love, our knowledge, our understanding; to others, we must. We mustn't display arrogance for knowing the right path. To know the right path is not to follow it. When we display arrogance of our knowledge of the right path, we do not follow the right path. We display a lack of understanding and love.

Simply knowing this truth is not Gnosis. Gnosis is full practice of this. Gnosis is not merely cognitive knowledge. Gnosis is love, because love is knowledge, and knowledge is understanding, and understanding is love. It will take great growth to find Gnosis. It will take great growth to find the capacity for godly love, for knowledge, for understanding. The more we attempt to practice these attributes, the more we will grow. It will not be easy, it will not be fast, and it will be met with resistance. It will be met with resistance both from our desires and the world. We will encounter people who will hate our pursuit of growth. We will encounter temptations of pleasure that threaten to regress our growth. We will encounter distractions of every form. We will ask ourselves if it is worth it to feed people. We will ask ourselves if it is worth it to share our fruit. We will look upon those who are ungrateful and ask ourselves if it is worth it to share with them. We will ask ourselves if we should just conform to society and feast at the table of pleasure. We will see others experience pleasure and perhaps envy it. We will struggle to explain to others why we deny ourselves. Others will look upon us and find us disdainful or strange. They will ask why we choose not to have what they have. All of this is ignorant of the truth, which we must pursue. Gnosis isn't a single event. It will not end. It is not like eating at a table, getting up, and returning to what we did before we ate, satisfied. After we have found Gnosis, we must live in it for the rest of our life. Gnosis is continuous growth. It is easier to fall from Gnosis than to gain it. It is easier for a wise person to fall into ignorance than for a learning person to become wise (Secret James 7:3).

When we follow Christ's instructions to the fullest, we will achieve his wish for us. We will imitate the Pleroma, the Spirit inside us. Our perfect Spirit will become us and live through us. For as long as we act as our Spirit, we will know Gnosis. If we abandon it to act as our flesh, we will forget Gnosis.

Love is Knowledge and Understanding. It is generosity, it is hospitality, it is kindness, it is grace.
Knowledge is Love and Understanding. It is reason, it is truth, it is perception.
Understanding is Love and Knowledge. It is empathy, it is wisdom, it is insight, it is faith, it is pursuit of right living for the sake of living rightly.
Gnosis is the Active Knowledge that arises from these three virtues. Gnosis is our Spirit acting through us continuously by these three virtues.

13 january 2025