David Lorimer (First printed in Paradigm Explorer 145)
el 26 de agosto de 2024 a las 14:13
A SPIRITUAL MASTERWORK MAN, TEMPLE OF THE LIVING GOD Roberto Pla – https://robertopla.com Spanish Edition: El hombre templo de Dios vivo. Editorial Sirio, 1990, 2018 Sd. Ed.
English edition: Private edition, 2021, 859 pp. Peter Burnett, translator. Available through, http://www.gospelofthomas-interpretation.com
When Bede Griffiths came to Winchester in 1992 to speak at the Mystics and Scientists conference, he strongly recommended a book he was reading on Christian hermeticism by Valentin Tomberg entitled Meditations on the 22 Major Arcana of the Tarot. When next in Paris, I bought the original in French and read it contemplatively over a period of months. I came across Roberto Pla’s extraordinary book on a visit to Madrid last autumn, when I met Javier Lantero, who had arranged for the book to be translated into English and who himself had been deeply touched by the text. I read and reflected on it slowly over a period of months, and I recommend this to others—it is a book to which you will often want to return as a source of the living waters of truth. Many readers will be familiar with the Gospel of Thomas, perhaps the most famous of the texts discovered in Nag Hammadi in 1945 and which presents Jesus quintessentially as a wisdom teacher.
The book is subtitled, “A hidden exegesis of Christ’s religion based on the Gospel of Thomas.” The very first words of the Gospel explain that “these are the hidden words which the Living Jesus spoke,” indicating important distinctions between hidden and manifest, inner and outer, esoteric and exoteric, symbolic and literal, eternal and transient, Spirit and flesh, Heaven and Earth. Other gospels also refer to hidden meanings that can only be apprehended by those with eyes to see and ears to hear; this especially applies to the parables. On a personal note, I have been deeply influenced by Swedenborg since my early 20s, and he also sought to reveal the spiritual rather than the literal meaning of Scripture, especially Revelation.
Roberto Pla Sales (1915-2004) was a musician and writer who specialised in translations and commentaries of sacred texts, including The Bhagavad Gita, The Tao te Ching and works by Shankara and Ibn Arabi. In a correspondence with Prof. Lahiry of Benares, he explains that Westerners have been deprived of “the beautiful realisation of Pure Consciousness that Jesus Christ set forth,” and he writes that he himself now lives “in adoration of That, of the Being that I am and IS.” This corresponds with the non-dual realisation (gnosis) that I am That (Tat tvam asi). This transformative gnosis is the kernel of the message of the indwelling Christ that we all essentially are that Jesus, the fully incarnated Christ, preached and approached, the pearl of great price, the treasure, the Kingdom of Heaven within. The translator expresses his own understanding in the concluding sentence of his foreword (bold in the original): “Christ is no mere exemplar; he shows us, not what we should be or aspire to be, but the perfection we intrinsically are.” It is our path and task to realise, unfold and manifest the indwelling Christ, the heart of Christian mysticism, the true goal of metanoia—the mind turning in upon itself (p. 34).
In his own Foreword, Roberto explains the methodology behind his hidden exegesis, already present in the other Gospels—especially John—in the dual aspect of Christ. In the gnomic expressions of Thomas, we can discover “knowledge of such density as to endow them with transformative power.” This is revealed in a baptism of the spirit from above and within; “the Word is sown in every man who comes into this world, and dwells hidden within us.” The eternal Christ, the I Am, is always the one and the same (p. 29). This eternal Christ is our true Being (p. 31) that can be revealed and experienced directly as Divine Presence. One of the unique aspects of this book is Roberto’s extraordinary knowledge of the New Testament and the way in which he is able to draw threads together into an indivisible unity, enabling us to realise or be “resurrected consciousness of the Light and Life that we in essence are” (p. 45).
All 114 logions are translated with commentaries of incredible richness and depth, also explaining the fundamental components of the human being and their relationship to each other. As an example, here is some commentary from Logion 113 talking about the coming of the Kingdom, about which Roberto writes: “The Kingdom is infinite, it is eternal, it cannot come but must be discovered; for it is already present, it cannot arrive, since there is no place that it has not occupied since the beginning of time… the spirit of man is the Kingdom of God, and what we call the Coming of the Kingdom to us, the Coming which Christianity is awaiting, is in truth the opening up of consciousness to the light of the Son of Man, the light which is knowledge and life and which in essence we are and always have been, without knowing it” (p. 705). The Coming also represents salvation through the manifestation of God in the soul, which is a decisive event of every human life. This transformation brings true freedom.
Here is another example from Logion 64, which is a version of the parable of the invited guests who excuse themselves from the feast, and is related to the most fundamental of parables, the parable of the sower whereby the Word is sown inside every person. Those who make excuses have failed to recognise the seed sown in them, and prefer to remain wedded to the things of the world (“buyers and merchants will not enter the places of my father”). The call goes out to everyone, but “it is his dense awareness that prevents man from turning his attention inward (metanoia) to discover the Spirit—the one that dwells in him and speaks in tongues of fire—the seed of light sown by the Father.” The newly invited guests are those in whom the seed sown within bears fruit. Finally, there are the chosen, who have undergone “the mystic union of the bridegroom (the spirit) and the spouse (the soul),” and are qualified to put on a wedding garment, having made the two one in recognising the Self as knower of the known (the soul). Roberto further observes that “this transformation is referred to in the passage from the marriage at Cana when water (psyche) is turned into wine (pneuma)” (p. 380).
This spiritual masterpiece—surely one of the great books of the 20th century—gives readers true nourishment represented by the bread and waters of life, taking us into our own essential depths on an initiatic journey of renewal, rebirth and resurrection. The book conveys the treasures of the hidden inner teaching of Christ for our time and indeed for all time. It will continue to speak to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear down the centuries—hundreds of years from today—as the human quest to the Centre is a perennial one.
Javier Alvarado
el 30 de junio de 2024 a las 11:58
Roberto Pla, «El hombre Templo de Dios vivo».
El evangelio de Tomás es una recopilación de dichos de Jesús que, en buena parte, también se encuentran en los evangelios canónicos. Como es sabido, los evangelios (incluidos los denominados apócrifos) pueden ser interpretados desde diversos aspectos, los más corrientes de los cuales son los puntos de vista histórico, moral y religioso. Pero todas las interpretaciones penden y se “unifican” en la clave espiritual o metafísica, que es superior a todas ellas. Esa es precisamente la clave que ha utilizado Roberto Pla (1915-2004) con excepcional maestría para explicar la esencia del cristianismo primitivo (e igualmente de la tradición judía). Si bien este libro comenta y desentraña el Evangelio de Tomás, son de destacar los «paralelos» e interpretación «oculta» de los evangelios canónicos que efectúa el maestro Roberto. En este sentido, la obra de Roberto Pla es una de las más certeras y luminosas interpretaciones de la doctrina original de Jesucristo, por lo que su lectura constituye un verdadero descubrimiento y deleite. En muchos párrafos se percibe claramente que la obra ha sido escrita por quien fue un comprehensor de su naturaleza real. Igualmente, dada la vinculación advaita del maestro Roberto, también se adivina que, al escribir algunas páginas, hubo de resistir la tentación de dejar constancia de ciertas similitudes del cristianismo primitivo con las doctrinas hindúes, especialmente el vedanta. En suma, la «música» que rezuma de los poros del libro de Roberto resulta «angelical».
This commentary on Thomas’s Gospel by Roberto Pla is an extraordinary work. Not only does the commentary open up an understanding of Thomas’s Gospel , a text which challenges every reader I have ever spoken to but it , at the same time , opens up the New Testament to depths that are both challenging and incredibly profound.
I discovered this book while on retreat at Bonnevaux , the Christian Meditation Centre in central France. It began to percolate inside me immediately. Not just when I was reading it but throughout the whole day. It took me about 5 months to read it in its entirety and this sense of something percolating deep inside me has never left me. It has been one of the great reads of my life. I have started reading again and I expect it will be something I will do as long as I live.
Why it has affected me so deeply is a mystery in one way but in another it stems from the way it re presents the gift of what Jesus is offering each and everyone of us in a way that is truly beyond our wildest expectations.
This book is a spiritual masterpiece and I can not recommend it highly enough to all who really wonder what is the point of this gift of life which we have all been lucky enough to receive.
Fernando Beltrán
el 15 de junio de 2024 a las 17:38
Aunque en rigor, asimilar el contenido de la obra de Roberto Pla requeriría un trabajo de atención no menor al suyo, tras una primera inmersión en sus páginas, no puedo sino mostrar mi mayor gratitud y asombro ante un autor de cualidad única por su trabajo que, si bien desborda mi propia capacidad para comprender y discernir el alcance del mismo plenamente, acerca las enseñanzas del cristianismo al corazón de cuantas personas se sientan llamadas a ese estudio “en el que -en sus propias palabras- el investigador se identifica con la cosa investigada de forma tan entrañada … que el conocimiento y la cosa conocida pierden su significación separada…”, invitando de ese modo a hacer del mismo una práctica de vida, una disposición de apertura interior y un trabajo de amor y de conciencia. Por otro lado, como él mismo afirmaba, “un proyecto como este no puede, ni podrá, darse jamás por concluido…” Me he sentido profundamente conmovido por el propósito que le animó a emprender tan noble proyecto, desde su condición de ser humano y “templo de Dios vivo”: “despertar el amor hacia el Cristo completo”, el que murió por nosotros y el Cristo eterno.
Peter Burnett
el 10 de junio de 2024 a las 11:15
Reading this book is in itself a spiritual exercise. The activity calls for patience and concentration. And it is all too easy to get lulled into somnolence by the density of the language. Yes, but regardless of ups and downs in the writing, the text has content. It needs to be taken mouthful by mouthful and chewed over attentively until it yields its true taste. It could hardly be further from the superficial self-help presentation of so many books that claim to throw new light on spiritual questions. I can’t help seeing the book as a manual for masters, men and women in whom passion accompanies erudition, able to read it critically and single out its flaws while finding those passages that work on the diligent reader bringing flashes of insight that illumine heart and mind. Men and women able so to assimilate its deeper message that they can share that message with those who have neither the time nor the inclination to read Pla yet can be enriched by what he is telling us.
Carmen Pallarés
el 29 de noviembre de 2021 a las 17:33
La obra de Roberto Pla -convertida en obra de cabecera desde que un buen amigo la puso en mis manos- ha logrado traer un prodigio a mis días: unir el movimiento de mi inteligencia, el movimiento de mis emociones y el movimiento de mi voluntad, provocando en mí la experiencia sin fin de estas tres realidades: alegría, libertad y serenidad. La alegría de entender, la vivencia profundísima de la libertad interior y el preciado paladeo de la serenidad. ¡Gracias por siempre!
Eduardo Martín
el 29 de noviembre de 2021 a las 17:32
El libro de Roberto Pla no es de sencilla lectura pero cautiva y engancha desde el primer momento. Es un libro para leer y releer a lo largo de los años. Imprescindible para descubrir, en la manera de lo posible, el sentido profundo de las enseñanzas de Jesús.
Teresa
el 29 de noviembre de 2021 a las 17:27
Personalmente ha sido una auténtica revelación el libro de Roberto Pla “El hombre, Templo de Dios Vivo”.
Ha cobrado todo un sentido profundo, y han encajado las piezas.
Maravillosa también Esperanza Borus.
Me alegra esta sincronicidad en este momento en el que para mí está siendo tan reveladora la interpretación que nos ofrecen. Gracias!!!! Sería interesante la reflexión en torno a la interpretación indicada… ahí lo dejo….Realmente llena!
Javier Lantero
el 29 de noviembre de 2021 a las 17:23
Es frecuente tener interpretaciones interesantes de algunos relatos del Nuevo o del Antiguo Testamento, pero no conocía una lectura armonizada desde su esencia de todo el mensaje cristiano. Esto es lo que se hace en El hombre Templo de Dios Vivo, construido siguiendo los dichos del evangelio de Tomás.
Es un libro maravilloso en el fondo y en la forma, pero no exento de cierta dificultad en su lectura, no tanto por ser intelectualmente difícil, como por la expresión a veces compleja y/o reiterativa que en él se emplea. Lo disfrutarán especialmente quienes sientan una llamada de realización y estén dispuestos a dedicarle la calma que requiere.
A SPIRITUAL MASTERWORK
MAN, TEMPLE OF THE LIVING GOD
Roberto Pla – https://robertopla.com
Spanish Edition: El hombre templo de Dios vivo. Editorial Sirio, 1990, 2018 Sd. Ed.
English edition: Private edition, 2021, 859 pp. Peter Burnett, translator. Available through, http://www.gospelofthomas-interpretation.com
When Bede Griffiths came to Winchester in 1992 to speak at the Mystics and Scientists conference, he strongly recommended a book he was reading on Christian hermeticism by Valentin Tomberg entitled Meditations on the 22 Major Arcana of the Tarot. When next in Paris, I bought the original in French and read it contemplatively over a period of months. I came across Roberto Pla’s extraordinary book on a visit to Madrid last autumn, when I met Javier Lantero, who had arranged for the book to be translated into English and who himself had been deeply touched by the text. I read and reflected on it slowly over a period of months, and I recommend this to others—it is a book to which you will often want to return as a source of the living waters of truth. Many readers will be familiar with the Gospel of Thomas, perhaps the most famous of the texts discovered in Nag Hammadi in 1945 and which presents Jesus quintessentially as a wisdom teacher.
The book is subtitled, “A hidden exegesis of Christ’s religion based on the Gospel of Thomas.” The very first words of the Gospel explain that “these are the hidden words which the Living Jesus spoke,” indicating important distinctions between hidden and manifest, inner and outer, esoteric and exoteric, symbolic and literal, eternal and transient, Spirit and flesh, Heaven and Earth. Other gospels also refer to hidden meanings that can only be apprehended by those with eyes to see and ears to hear; this especially applies to the parables. On a personal note, I have been deeply influenced by Swedenborg since my early 20s, and he also sought to reveal the spiritual rather than the literal meaning of Scripture, especially Revelation.
Roberto Pla Sales (1915-2004) was a musician and writer who specialised in translations and commentaries of sacred texts, including The Bhagavad Gita, The Tao te Ching and works by Shankara and Ibn Arabi. In a correspondence with Prof. Lahiry of Benares, he explains that Westerners have been deprived of “the beautiful realisation of Pure Consciousness that Jesus Christ set forth,” and he writes that he himself now lives “in adoration of That, of the Being that I am and IS.” This corresponds with the non-dual realisation (gnosis) that I am That (Tat tvam asi). This transformative gnosis is the kernel of the message of the indwelling Christ that we all essentially are that Jesus, the fully incarnated Christ, preached and approached, the pearl of great price, the treasure, the Kingdom of Heaven within. The translator expresses his own understanding in the concluding sentence of his foreword (bold in the original): “Christ is no mere exemplar; he shows us, not what we should be or aspire to be, but the perfection we intrinsically are.” It is our path and task to realise, unfold and manifest the indwelling Christ, the heart of Christian mysticism, the true goal of metanoia—the mind turning in upon itself (p. 34).
In his own Foreword, Roberto explains the methodology behind his hidden exegesis, already present in the other Gospels—especially John—in the dual aspect of Christ. In the gnomic expressions of Thomas, we can discover “knowledge of such density as to endow them with transformative power.” This is revealed in a baptism of the spirit from above and within; “the Word is sown in every man who comes into this world, and dwells hidden within us.” The eternal Christ, the I Am, is always the one and the same (p. 29). This eternal Christ is our true Being (p. 31) that can be revealed and experienced directly as Divine Presence. One of the unique aspects of this book is Roberto’s extraordinary knowledge of the New Testament and the way in which he is able to draw threads together into an indivisible unity, enabling us to realise or be “resurrected consciousness of the Light and Life that we in essence are” (p. 45).
All 114 logions are translated with commentaries of incredible richness and depth, also explaining the fundamental components of the human being and their relationship to each other. As an example, here is some commentary from Logion 113 talking about the coming of the Kingdom, about which Roberto writes: “The Kingdom is infinite, it is eternal, it cannot come but must be discovered; for it is already present, it cannot arrive, since there is no place that it has not occupied since the beginning of time… the spirit of man is the Kingdom of God, and what we call the Coming of the Kingdom to us, the Coming which Christianity is awaiting, is in truth the opening up of consciousness to the light of the Son of Man, the light which is knowledge and life and which in essence we are and always have been, without knowing it” (p. 705). The Coming also represents salvation through the manifestation of God in the soul, which is a decisive event of every human life. This transformation brings true freedom.
Here is another example from Logion 64, which is a version of the parable of the invited guests who excuse themselves from the feast, and is related to the most fundamental of parables, the parable of the sower whereby the Word is sown inside every person. Those who make excuses have failed to recognise the seed sown in them, and prefer to remain wedded to the things of the world (“buyers and merchants will not enter the places of my father”). The call goes out to everyone, but “it is his dense awareness that prevents man from turning his attention inward (metanoia) to discover the Spirit—the one that dwells in him and speaks in tongues of fire—the seed of light sown by the Father.” The newly invited guests are those in whom the seed sown within bears fruit. Finally, there are the chosen, who have undergone “the mystic union of the bridegroom (the spirit) and the spouse (the soul),” and are qualified to put on a wedding garment, having made the two one in recognising the Self as knower of the known (the soul). Roberto further observes that “this transformation is referred to in the passage from the marriage at Cana when water (psyche) is turned into wine (pneuma)” (p. 380).
This spiritual masterpiece—surely one of the great books of the 20th century—gives readers true nourishment represented by the bread and waters of life, taking us into our own essential depths on an initiatic journey of renewal, rebirth and resurrection. The book conveys the treasures of the hidden inner teaching of Christ for our time and indeed for all time. It will continue to speak to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear down the centuries—hundreds of years from today—as the human quest to the Centre is a perennial one.
Roberto Pla, «El hombre Templo de Dios vivo».
El evangelio de Tomás es una recopilación de dichos de Jesús que, en buena parte, también se encuentran en los evangelios canónicos. Como es sabido, los evangelios (incluidos los denominados apócrifos) pueden ser interpretados desde diversos aspectos, los más corrientes de los cuales son los puntos de vista histórico, moral y religioso. Pero todas las interpretaciones penden y se “unifican” en la clave espiritual o metafísica, que es superior a todas ellas. Esa es precisamente la clave que ha utilizado Roberto Pla (1915-2004) con excepcional maestría para explicar la esencia del cristianismo primitivo (e igualmente de la tradición judía). Si bien este libro comenta y desentraña el Evangelio de Tomás, son de destacar los «paralelos» e interpretación «oculta» de los evangelios canónicos que efectúa el maestro Roberto. En este sentido, la obra de Roberto Pla es una de las más certeras y luminosas interpretaciones de la doctrina original de Jesucristo, por lo que su lectura constituye un verdadero descubrimiento y deleite. En muchos párrafos se percibe claramente que la obra ha sido escrita por quien fue un comprehensor de su naturaleza real. Igualmente, dada la vinculación advaita del maestro Roberto, también se adivina que, al escribir algunas páginas, hubo de resistir la tentación de dejar constancia de ciertas similitudes del cristianismo primitivo con las doctrinas hindúes, especialmente el vedanta. En suma, la «música» que rezuma de los poros del libro de Roberto resulta «angelical».
This commentary on Thomas’s Gospel by Roberto Pla is an extraordinary work. Not only does the commentary open up an understanding of Thomas’s Gospel , a text which challenges every reader I have ever spoken to but it , at the same time , opens up the New Testament to depths that are both challenging and incredibly profound.
I discovered this book while on retreat at Bonnevaux , the Christian Meditation Centre in central France. It began to percolate inside me immediately. Not just when I was reading it but throughout the whole day. It took me about 5 months to read it in its entirety and this sense of something percolating deep inside me has never left me. It has been one of the great reads of my life. I have started reading again and I expect it will be something I will do as long as I live.
Why it has affected me so deeply is a mystery in one way but in another it stems from the way it re presents the gift of what Jesus is offering each and everyone of us in a way that is truly beyond our wildest expectations.
This book is a spiritual masterpiece and I can not recommend it highly enough to all who really wonder what is the point of this gift of life which we have all been lucky enough to receive.
Aunque en rigor, asimilar el contenido de la obra de Roberto Pla requeriría un trabajo de atención no menor al suyo, tras una primera inmersión en sus páginas, no puedo sino mostrar mi mayor gratitud y asombro ante un autor de cualidad única por su trabajo que, si bien desborda mi propia capacidad para comprender y discernir el alcance del mismo plenamente, acerca las enseñanzas del cristianismo al corazón de cuantas personas se sientan llamadas a ese estudio “en el que -en sus propias palabras- el investigador se identifica con la cosa investigada de forma tan entrañada … que el conocimiento y la cosa conocida pierden su significación separada…”, invitando de ese modo a hacer del mismo una práctica de vida, una disposición de apertura interior y un trabajo de amor y de conciencia. Por otro lado, como él mismo afirmaba, “un proyecto como este no puede, ni podrá, darse jamás por concluido…” Me he sentido profundamente conmovido por el propósito que le animó a emprender tan noble proyecto, desde su condición de ser humano y “templo de Dios vivo”: “despertar el amor hacia el Cristo completo”, el que murió por nosotros y el Cristo eterno.
Reading this book is in itself a spiritual exercise. The activity calls for patience and concentration. And it is all too easy to get lulled into somnolence by the density of the language. Yes, but regardless of ups and downs in the writing, the text has content. It needs to be taken mouthful by mouthful and chewed over attentively until it yields its true taste. It could hardly be further from the superficial self-help presentation of so many books that claim to throw new light on spiritual questions. I can’t help seeing the book as a manual for masters, men and women in whom passion accompanies erudition, able to read it critically and single out its flaws while finding those passages that work on the diligent reader bringing flashes of insight that illumine heart and mind. Men and women able so to assimilate its deeper message that they can share that message with those who have neither the time nor the inclination to read Pla yet can be enriched by what he is telling us.
La obra de Roberto Pla -convertida en obra de cabecera desde que un buen amigo la puso en mis manos- ha logrado traer un prodigio a mis días: unir el movimiento de mi inteligencia, el movimiento de mis emociones y el movimiento de mi voluntad, provocando en mí la experiencia sin fin de estas tres realidades: alegría, libertad y serenidad. La alegría de entender, la vivencia profundísima de la libertad interior y el preciado paladeo de la serenidad. ¡Gracias por siempre!
El libro de Roberto Pla no es de sencilla lectura pero cautiva y engancha desde el primer momento. Es un libro para leer y releer a lo largo de los años. Imprescindible para descubrir, en la manera de lo posible, el sentido profundo de las enseñanzas de Jesús.
Personalmente ha sido una auténtica revelación el libro de Roberto Pla “El hombre, Templo de Dios Vivo”.
Ha cobrado todo un sentido profundo, y han encajado las piezas.
Maravillosa también Esperanza Borus.
Me alegra esta sincronicidad en este momento en el que para mí está siendo tan reveladora la interpretación que nos ofrecen. Gracias!!!! Sería interesante la reflexión en torno a la interpretación indicada… ahí lo dejo….Realmente llena!
Es frecuente tener interpretaciones interesantes de algunos relatos del Nuevo o del Antiguo Testamento, pero no conocía una lectura armonizada desde su esencia de todo el mensaje cristiano. Esto es lo que se hace en El hombre Templo de Dios Vivo, construido siguiendo los dichos del evangelio de Tomás.
Es un libro maravilloso en el fondo y en la forma, pero no exento de cierta dificultad en su lectura, no tanto por ser intelectualmente difícil, como por la expresión a veces compleja y/o reiterativa que en él se emplea. Lo disfrutarán especialmente quienes sientan una llamada de realización y estén dispuestos a dedicarle la calma que requiere.