Yes Mortification of the flesh to purify the Soul(breath) is common in
many religions but you still need the soul (breath). Clearly the carnal
is not the path to the Spiritual. The problem is that unless you have a
carnal body you can not get to God. If you remember that when they wrote
Spirit that they meant breath then every thing is more understandable.
One must go inside ones conscious experience of body by closing the eyes
and mouth and going into the closet to experience the spirit/breath to
get to the Kingdom of Heaven as is pointed out in the Gnostic Scriptures
more clearly even then the New Testament.
Catawumpus wrote:
> aio <mwdarcy@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>:
>
>> If the body is the "Temple of God" where then does the "Breath" fit
into
>> this temple?
>
> In gnosticism, the body isn't a temple: it's a prison the
> spirit needs to be freed from. Take for example the
> Apocryphon of John, where the archons that reincarnate the soul
> "bind it with bonds and cast it into the prison" -- that's
> ApJohn 27:7-8 -- and a little later on -- 31:3-4 -- the Pronoia
> states, "I entered the midst of their prison, the prison of
> the body..." The Gospel of Philip says the soul is "a precious
> thing...in a contemptible body" (56:24). The Book of John --
> part of the Mandaean writings -- says, "The body holds back its
> master from returning home," and the Book of Thomas the
> Contender is uncompromising: "Woe to you who hope in the flesh
> and in the prison that will perish!" (143:10-1.) Etc.
> Shouldn't be any surprise, since gnostics are famously critical
> of Creator and Creation.
>
> -- Catawumpus
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