Gnostic wisdom helps to clarify the root of the problem

Good morning Clare,

I hope that you arrive home safely today.

I was having trouble meditating this morning, so I grabbed a nearby book...
This time it was The Gospel of Phillip...
another of the gnostic gospels...
the gnostic works I have have been translated by Jean-Yves Leloup.
Anyway, opening to a page I read;

Certain realities are alive
as long as they remain hidden;                                                                
when they are made visible, they die.

While people's entrail remain inside them, they are alive.
If their entrails escape, and are exposed, they die.

It is the same with the tree:
As long as its roots are hidden,
it can grow and flourish;
if they are laid open, the tree withers.

Thus it is with all that takes birth in the world of visible and invisible realities.
While the root of evil is hidden, it grows strong;
but if it is disclosed, it is already destroyed.

This is why it is said:
"Already the ax has struck to the root of the trees."
It will not be used to strike at parts that can grow back,
but shall strike deeply at the root, so as to destroy it.

Yeshua uprooted fear, which is the root of evil,
the poisoner of our lives;but he only uprooted part of it,
leaving us to dig out our own roots,
so that each person works to uproot from their own heart
that evil which is the cause of unhappiness.
 
We uproot it if we recognize it,
but if we do not recognize
that which is wrong in us, how can we uproot it?
This bad root bears its fruit in us and in this world;
it will dominate us, make us its slaves,
so that we do what we do not want to do.

Its power is our ignorance or refusal to know it.
As long as it is there, it is working:
Ignorance is the cause of all evil, and serves death.
Nothing has been or ever will be born of ignorance.

Those who live in vigilance will be happy
when the truth is revealed.

Phillip's gospel talks about being truly alive...with Wisdom and Gnosis.
He refers to the unenlightened as never having truly lived and believes resurrection (gnosis) has to occur to be truly alive.

So what I read in all of this is that humans must go through a period of cutting the roots to come to life. Not just pruning the dead wood, but severing the root that feeds the unhappiness. Exposing the evil that paralyzes our lives, this is done through disclosure and exposure of the secrets that rule our decision making and our reactions to the world around us.
This can only be accomplished when we have to courage to recognize the evil and call it what it truly is...not ignore it, accept that it is normal, all the while perpetrating harm on self and others.

We are on our journey to real life...it is good.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Love and blessings,
Maggie