This timely book explores the wisdom of the Gnostic Jesus, who challenges our preconceptions about the world and ourselves. Based on the Gospel of Thomas, the book recounts the missing years in Jesus’ life and his time in Egypt and India, learning from Egyptian secret societies, then Buddhist schools, then Hindu Vedanta. Each of Jesus’ original sayings is the "seed" for a chapter

Excerpt from The Mustard Seed
IF YOU WILL KNOW YOURSELVES, THEN YOU WILL BE KNOWN.

This is the synthesis. If you know yourself, Jainas will say, you have known all. Finished! There is nowhere further to move. Mohammedans cannot say you can know yourself; they can say you can know God and be filled with his grace. There is no possibility of self-knowledge, because self-knowledge will make you a god. Only God knows himself, not a creature. A man can know God, that's all. He can exist in his glory, he can be filled with his grace, his light; he can allow himself to move and float with the divine force, but no self-knowledge is possible. Jainas say only self-knowledge is possible; if you know yourself, you have known all that is to be known, nothing remains. But Jesus says: IF YOU WILL KNOW YOURSELVES, THEN YOU WILL BE KNOWN.
This is very subtle. What does he mean when he says: ... THEN YOU WILL BE KNOWN? If you know yourself, the whole existence will know you; in your knowledge, the whole existence will look at you. Not only will you be looking at existence, the whole existence will also respond, because God is within and without.
When somebody comes to know himself, it is not only self-knowledge -- the whole existence knows you. In your self-knowledge, you are known. God looks at you from every flower, every leaf, every rock -- you don't feel you are alone in your self-knowledge. Really, until you know yourself you are alone. When you know yourself, the whole existence knows you. Your knowledge is not a solitary act, it is not a solo thing, it is a symphony. When you know, everything knows you; when you recognize yourself, everything recognizes you -- even this tree will be different, even this rock will be different, even a bird will react differently. Why? -- because the same one consciousness exists within and without.
When you know yourself the whole existence recognizes you, celebrates. And it should be so, because you are part of existence. The whole existence must celebrate your ultimate knowledge, because a part has become a knower, a part has become a Buddha, a part has become a Christ; through that part, the whole existence has reached a peak, a crescendo. The whole existence will be happy, the whole existence will flower and bloom in a different way. You will be recognized, you will be known.
You will not be alone in your self-knowledge -- it is going to be a celebration of the whole. This is the most beautiful thing Jesus asserted: a celebration of existence with your self-knowledge; the whole blissful because one part has bloomed, reached its fulfillment.

IF YOU WILL KNOW YOURSELVES, THEN YOU WILL BE KNOWN.

There is a deep tendency to be known, deeper than that for self-knowledge. You want to be known, a deep desire is there that everybody should know you. It may be moving in a wrong direction, you may be trying to get the attention of people through wrong ways, but deep down the desire has a seed, a very meaningful seed. It says that you will not be fulfilled unless the whole existence recognizes you, is happy with you.
You have a need to love, and you have a need to be loved. You have a need to know yourself, and you have a need to be known. A response is needed, otherwise the whole existence is dead; otherwise you alone have come to know, and the whole existence remains silent as if nothing has happened. A man has become a Christ and the whole existence remains unaware, inattentive, not bothering at all, not happy in any way, as if nothing has happened? How can this be so? The whole existence must recognize, because we are not strangers to this existence. This existence is a family, this existence exists as an interrelated phenomenon. One is enlightened and his light fills all hearts, knowingly, unknowingly; everywhere there will be rejoicing, celebration.
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