Intro to Gnosis as Knowledge Notes - (4591)

Gnosis is knowledge through experience. 

Gnosis is practical. Gnosis comes from direct experience. Knowledge from direct first hand experience.

Gnosis is inner knowledge. Not knowledge of the external. As the internal knowledge is what matters most, as it is the only one that can transform us.

Knowing is better than believing. Gnosis is not to believe. It is to know.

A knowledge that is infinite and alive, always renewing and renovating itself. 

A knowledge that is beyond time and space. 

A knowledge that we know through the consciousness. It is Self-knowledge of the deepest parts of ourselves known through our consciousness. 

A knowledge of our Inner Being, beyond our human personality.

The two columns of the knowledge are tradition and revelation. Tradition verifies revelation and revelation renews and keeps the knowledge alive adapting it to current times.

Gnosis is not a belief nor a dogma. What is taught in Gnostic study can be directly verified by all.

Gnosis is self-knowledge. Self-knowledge encompasses knowledge of the human and of the spirit living in the intimate depths of the human.

Each human being is a universe in miniature. Knowing ourselves allows us "to know the universe and its Gods", says the Oracle of Delphi in Greece.

Through knowledge comes liberation. Liberation brings happiness and peace. Gnosis as knowledge when applied liberates and develops the human and spiritual potential of the human being. 

Gnosis is a word of many others used to refer to that universal knowledge that each religion, mythology, culture and spiritual doctrine has expressed in their own particular way.

There is one way to go to God yet there are many ways to traverse the one way. 

Gnosis is the revelation of the secrets behind life. The so called: initiatic mysteries. 

Gnosis is a revolutionary knowledge that when it acts within a person it transforms them. It is also a synthesis meaning that it brings all the forms of knowledge together into one. 

Gnosis then is knowledge stripped bare of cultural and historical symbols and presented in plain modern language understandable to the uninitiated and the initiated alike. 

The knowledge itself only empowers. In the way human beings use it, it can be the most precious gift or either something that can harm.

The great saying: "with knowledge comes responsibility" is very true. The one who knows is responsible. 

Gnosis does not want us to be good or bad. Gnosis is about being aware of both good and evil. 

Gnosis teaches that in good there is evil and in evil there is good. Gnosis wants the soul to awaken and  being awaken both good and evil are transcended and one is neither good or evil.

The study of Gnosis leads one within to encounter oneself. It is not to find another's truth but one's own truth.

When a person seeks the truth inside themselves they can be known as a "Gnostic".

The study of Gnosis is to not follow anyone but to be led to delve within and find the truth within one's own Being.

Gnosis leads to awakening the consciousness that sleeps within the human essence. All religions and doctrines of the past have said that soul's slumber is the one responsible for our suffering and error.

As Socrates said: "An unexamined life is not worth living."

Knowing and Being must advance together in balance. This wise balance is Gnosis. To neglect one is wrong and leads to degeneration, failure or error.

The solution to the problems of society is in the transformation of the individual. Society is the sum of the individual. If the individual changes so then also will society.

Each individual is a mystery that must be decoded for oneself. 

If we know ourselves we can then understand others. It is not possible to know or understand others without us knowing ourselves.

The most important knowledge is of ourselves. It is better to know ourselves than be a specialist in any area of life. Self-knowledge leads to mastery of ourselves. 

If we know ourselves very well we can do well in any area of life.

Knowledge dispels fear. We are always afraid of what we do not know.

Gnosis is a knowledge that we lost and now it is our turn to regain it. We can only regain it via direct experience. It is a knowledge that dwells already within us, but we have lost contact with it.

We have lost that knowledge to now regain it with much effort so as to not lose it again.

Knowledge is best expressed through the four pillars. For knowledge to be complete there must be the four pillars. The four pillars are: art, science, philosophy and religion/mysticism.

The knowledge of Gnosis unites the four pillars within a person. In this day and age the four pillars are in conflict. For example religion and science are currently at odds.

The way to unite the four pillars is via psychology. Psychology is the intermediary between the outer and the inner. It is also the study of the soul where the values of the spirit are reflected into the external world.

Furthermore, full knowing is via the three brains only. If one brain is missed we do not know fully.

Knowing and Being must advance together. Otherwise we become the intellectual rascal  - too much knowing or the stupid saint - too much being.

To know the universe, Gnosis advises that the way is to first know ourselves profoundly. Because we are all a universe in miniature.

End (4591).