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THUNDER.TXT
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Thunder, Perfect Mind
or
_How did all these people get into my room?_
The text called _Thunder, Perfect Mind_ is a composite document,
composed of three distinct types of writing. These types of writing can
be compared to the Isis aretalogies, Hebrew wisdom literature, and
Platonic dialogue.{FN:1} The composite nature of the text is clearer
when the three strands are separated and reconstructed, each by
themselves. The three resultant texts can be found below.{FN:2}
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."{FN:3} The 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, but 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."{FN:4} She is "the barren
one, and she whose sons are many."{FN:5} She is "Knowledge and
ignorance."{FN:6} And she is "the one whom they call Law, and you have
called Lawlessness."{FN:7}
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{FN:8} 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."{FN:9} 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"{FN:10} , "Hear me"{FN:11} ,
"Do not be arrogant to me"{FN:12} , 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.{FN:13}
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.{FN:14}
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 bala