Pursah’s Gospel of Thomas by Gary R. Renard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
You can download the text here: http://files.meetup.com/272503/PGoThBooklet_CC%20BY.pdf - and soon it will be available also on Gary's site. It is also available in the files section of the DU Group on Yahoo.
Gary Renard’s upcoming workshops in NY, are:
The text was originally published in Gary Renard‘s 2nd book, Your Immortal Reality, and by releasing it under a creative commons license, Gary has enabled the wider use of the text, which for many students of his work has become the “go-to” version of the Thomas Gospel.
This text of the Thomas Gospel reflects the notion that there must have been a “kernel” from ca 50 AD, when the Thomas Gospel would have been recorded. There has always been speculation that the initial version would have been shorter. Pursah, who appeared to Gary as an ascended master, and a reincarnation of the apostle Thomas, provided this text, which is remarkable because it removes many inner contradictions, and the end result also appears very consistent with the modern teaching we know as A Course In Miracles. Gary’s books explore that connection in-depth, and I myself wrote another book on the same topic, in which I delve a little deeper into the historical context (Closing the Circle: Pursah’s Gospel of Thomas and A Course in MIracles.)
Gary Renard’s upcoming workshops in NY, are:
Your Immortal Reality and Pursah’s Gospel of Thomas (PGoTh)
In Gary’s first book, The Disappearance of the Universe: Straight Talk about Illusions, Past Lives, Religion, Sex, Politics, and the Miracles of Forgiveness, the connection between the Gospel of Thomas and A Course in Miracles was introduced, but then in his second book Your Immortal Reality, the full text of Pursah’s Gospel of Thomas was provided for the first time. His third book in what has clearly become a trilogy, Love Has Forgotten No One, completes the picture, including fleshing out more of the early times with Jesus, when Thomas and Thaddeus were apostles and friends, as well as the context of how all this past life experience integrates into his own life, which includes studying A Course in Miracles in this present life time.The fundamental argument is that the version of the Thomas Gospel which was found at Nag Hammadi, is of a rather late date, and that some of the sayings were added later, and others had been corrupted in the tradition, which is similar to what many scholars already thought. The difference in Gary’s book is that Pursah has past life recollection of being Thomas, and in that capacity renders the kernel of the Thomas Gospel, and that is the text provided in chapter 7 of Your Immortal Reality.
Pursah’s Gospel of Thomas provides a historical linkage to who Jesus was before he was bombarded into a Christian by posterity. In the context of A Course in Miracles this is also relevant, because in the Course there are numerous comments by Jesus that he was historically misunderstood, based on what was included in the Bible. Since the Thomas gospel is older than the New Testament gospels, the connection makes it very clear that historically, Jesus did speak and teach very differently, before he began being filtered through the Christian theology of St. Paul, who heavily influenced the later gospel writings.
Gary Renard’s upcoming workshops in NY, are:
Gary Renard and A Course in Miracles
If the backdrop of this trilogy is both Gary’s current lifetime, and his growing recollection of his past lifetime as the apostle Thomas, the real content of these books is Gary Renard’s own learning of A Course in Miracles, as a student of that book in this current lifetime. This personal story is what is so helpful to the reader, for it makes A Course in Miracles accessible “in the vernacular,” of the day-to-day challenges of one student, who is easy to identify with.Gary Renard’s upcoming workshops in NY, are:
Closing the Circle – Pursah’s Gospel of Thomas and ACIM revisited
Closing the Circle, Pursah’s Gospel of Thomas and A Course in Miracles, published shortly after Gary Renard’s Your Immortal Reality, was my contribution to the renewed interest in the Thomas Gospel which followed Gary’s second book. In this book, I provided both running commentaries to the sayings of Thomas in Pursah’s rendering, as well as introductions to the material so that it is more accessible both for students from a Christian background, who know nothing about A Course in Miracles, as well as for students of A Course in Miracles, who may not always know much about early Christian history. Besides providing this historical framework, the book also includes a sidelight on the connection between the Jefferson Bible, and the gospel of Thomas.Gary Renard’s upcoming workshops in NY, are:
Conclusion
Pursah’s Gospel of Thomas, by Gary Renard, was just released for general distribution under a CC BY 3.0 License, making it available for widespread use; this version of the Thomas Gospel is the most consistent collection of sayings, leaving out some inconsistent texts, and in the process revealing the connection to A Course in Miracles.