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Dhammapada · narration sample

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Gospel of Mary · 5 of 6

Overcoming the Powers

1.“‘[…] it.’

2.And Lust said: ‘I did not see you when you descended, but now I see you as you ascend. So why do you lie, given that you belong to me?’

3.The soul replied, and said: ‘I saw you; you neither saw me, nor did you recognize me. To you I was a garment, and you did not recognize me.’

4.After saying this, it left, greatly rejoicing.

5.Next, it approached the third power, which is called ‘Ignorance.’

6.[It] interrogated the soul, saying: ‘Where are you going? You are fettered in adultery. You are truly fettered, (so) judge not!’

7.And the soul said: ‘Why are you judging me, when I have not passed judgment?

8.I have been fettered, yet I have not fettered.

9.I was unrecognized, yet I have recognized that the All is dissolving, both earthly and heavenly things.’

10.When the soul had conquered the third power, it ascended and saw the fourth power;

11.it had seven forms.

12.The first form is darkness, the second is lust, the third is ignorance, the fourth is jealousy that brings death, the fifth is the kingdom of the flesh, the sixth is foolish fleshly insight, the seventh is wrathful wisdom. These are the seven [pow]ers of Wrath.

13.They interrogate the soul: ‘Where do you come from, you who kill men, or where are you going, you who overcome space?’

14.The soul replied and said: ‘What fetters me has been slain, and what surrounds me has been defeated, and my lust has been finished, and ignorance has died.

15.In a world, I was set free from a world [an]d in a type from a heavenly type, and from the fetter of forgetfulness, which endures for a season.

16.Beginning at this moment, I will reach the repose of the time of the season of the aeon inside Silence.’”

17.When Mary had said this, she stayed silent, because the Savior had spoken to her (only) up to this point.

Asked of Guide

Why does the soul answer the powers as if explaining its ascent and freedom?

The soul answers to demonstrate its transformation: it names what once bound it—lust, ignorance, fetters—and reports they are defeated, saying “what fetters me has been slain.” That answer functions as evidence for the powers that it no longer belongs to their order and so can ascend into “the repose of the time of the season of the aeon inside Silence.”

This scene treats speech as proof of liberation; the interrogations force the soul to declare its origins and victory, which is how it passes each gate. Compare the Bridegroom tradition in the Gospel of Philip, where correct naming and recognition open access to higher realms.

Guide is the guide inside the Gnosis app, where every book on these shelves is free to read. Guide is the part you pay for — your guide has read all of them, and answers about the passage you’re actually on. Ask your guide your own question.