To understand anything, we need to approach it from more than one viewpoint, and later, to go far beyond the concept of what the thing is to its reality. "Gnosis" has become a popular word these days, and an attractive concept for many, but very few people have in fact experienced the reality of Gnosis itself.
So, let's begin with a look at the concepts. The word Gnosis is ancient Greek, and means knowledge. But the Greeks had two words for knowledge; one describes the everyday knowledge of things, facts, ideas, etc. - the knowledge of the physical world and the human personality. But, to convey the idea of a higher knowledge related to objective Truth and Direct Internal Experience, they spoke of "Gnosis".
Today, religions and sects usually ask us to believe in something outside of ourselves - a purely external God or Divinity. In this approach, two things are decisive; one is a requirement to believe, and the other is the concept of an external God. If we think about it, where there is belief there is doubt - there is no direct knowing - and more and more people are finding this unfulfilling. The original purpose of every religion is to show us how to know ourselves and the Divinity in us. To have this relationship with oneself is to be religious in the true and original sense. So, to really live Gnosis a person has to begin by knowing themselves.
Our quest and our problem begins here. We human beings as we are, though we feel we are individuals in control of our own affairs, in reality are neither individual (a psychological unity) nor in control of ourselves or our life. In reality, we do not know ourselves at all.
The Three Guiding Principles
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