Secret Book of John -- The One

The Secret Book of John, an excerpt titled "The One."

A spirit appeared to John and told him that he would teach him of unimaginable things:

"I asked if I might understand this and it said to me, The One is a sovereign that has nothing over it. It is god and father of all, the invisible one that is over all, that is incorruptible, that is pure light at which no eye can gaze. 

The One is the invisible spirit. We should not think of it as a god or like a god. For it is greater than a god, because it has nothing over it and no lord above it. It does not exist within anything inferior to it, since everything exists within it alone. It is eternal, since it does not need anything. For it is absolutely complete. It has never lacked anything in order to be completed by it. Rather, it is always absolutely complete in light. The One is: 

illimitable, since there is nothing before it to limit it,

unfathomable, since there is nothing before it to fathom it, 

immeasurable, since there was nothing before it to measure it,

invisible, since nothing has seen it,

eternal, since it exists eternally,

unutterably, since nothing could comprehend it to utter it,

unnamable, since there is nothing before it to give it a name. 

The One is the immeasurable light, pure, holy, immaculate. The One is unutterable and is perfect in incorruptibility. No that it is part of perfection or blessedness or divinity: it is much greater. 

The One is not corporeal and it is not incorporeal.

The One is not large and it is not small. 

It is impossible to say, 

"How much is it?" or "What kind is it?"

For no one can understand it. 

The One is not among the things that exist, but it is much greater. Not that it is greater. Rather as it is in itself, it is not a part of the eternal realms or of time. For whatever is part of a realm was once prepared by another. Time was not allotted to it, since it receives nothing from anyone: what would be received would be on loan. The one who is first does not need to receive anything from another. Such a one beholds itself in its light. 

The One is majestic and has an immeasurable purity. 

The One is a realm that gives a realm, life that gives life, a blessed one that gives blessedness, knowledge that gives knowledge, a good one that gives goodness, mercy that gives mercy and redemption, grace that gives grace. 

Not as if the One possesses all this. Rather it is that the One gives immeasurable and incomprehensible light. 

What shall I tell you about it? It's eternal realm is incorruptible, at peace, dwelling in silence, at rest, before everything. 

It is the head of all realms, and it sustains them through its goodness. 

We would not know what is ineffable, we would not understand what is immeasurable, were it not for what has come from the father. This is the one who has told these things to us alone."

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It sounds as though John received quite an earful from this angelic spirit! How do you measure something so infinite in it's infinity? How does the human mind grasp it without going insane?

"The one who is first does not need to receive anything from another."

So he does not crave our adulation or obeisance, he simply offers to show us the mystery behind the curtain. It's free. No sit, kneel, pray, sit, kneel, pray required. No long chants or prayers at a certain time of the day and no facing a certain direction. There is no ritual required to summon him and no hoops to jump through because he is already here! We just have to open our ears.