Jerome A. Stone (2003) elucidates the tension between ‘self-power’ and ‘other-power’ as motivators of practice – a tension which seems to play itself out in most religious traditions. Perhaps the tension between the two is more fruitful than the predominance of one over the other.
In Buddhism we find a tension between enlightenment conceived as a state attained only with great effort, and enlightenment conceived as realization of that Buddha-nature which you already are. Dogen both resolved and maintained this tension by assuring us that practice is enlightenment. In Christianity there is a similar tension between one’s own efforts and ‘God’s grace,’ where the relationship between the two seems to be a positive feedback loop (as in the economy of perception, where your income depends on the attention you pay):
Jesus said, ‘Whoever has something in his hand will receive more, and whoever has nothing will be deprived of even the little he has.’
— Thomas 41 (Lambdin)
Parallels in other gospels include Matthew 13:12, 25:29; Mark 4:25; Luke 8:18, 29:26. Thomas 88 carries this pattern forward to the next turn of the semiotic wheel:
Jesus said, ‘The messengers [or ‘angels’] and the prophets will come to you and give you what is yours. You, in turn, give them what you have, and say to yourselves, “When will they come and take what is theirs?”’
— Thomas 88 (Meyer)
Suppose you recognize prophets or angels or genuine teachers by hearing from them what you recognize as rendering your own experience meaningful, in some way that you hadn’t realized before. Perhaps they offer a larger context for the signs you embody. What do you do then? The ethos of conversation (of turning and returning the sign) obligates you to reciprocate in some way, either to the individuals who have ‘given you what is yours,’ or to the community. All you have to give back is an interpretant of whatever message you have received, which will serve as a sign to others of what is theirs. One transmission triggers another which is a further development of the first. Whoever receives it may or may not call the current sender a ‘prophet’ or ‘guru’ or ‘master’; what matters is the interpretant sign which is the next iteration of the meaning cycle. Even a prophet can only provide a sign to those who ‘have ears to hear’ – how can he give what nobody takes? If the taking up of the ‘transmission’ is not immediate – and every process takes some time – the utterer of the sign may well wonder when it will be heard. And perhaps, in order to pass it on, you need to do more than ask when a hearing ear will come to you: perhaps you need to go to them just as the angels have ‘come to you.’
The ‘angels’ or messengers (in Greek, ἀγγελοι) may not be prophets in the sense authorized by religious convention, or you may not recognize them as such. Clearly they are partners with you in a give-and-take (dialogue) relationship, and whoever will take up the task of carrying it forward must be thereby receiving what belongs to them, and uttering in their turn the signs of what belongs to the next generation – or to the ‘prophets’ themselves. Valantasis (1997, 168-9) suggests that seekers of self-knowledge ‘surpass the knowledge even of angels and prophets … The seekers, that is, find the angels and prophets lacking their full knowledge, but fully deserving of and entitled to having the fullness that the seekers have, and the seekers are eager to reciprocate.’
Deconick (2007a, 255) takes Logion 88 to be an accretion referring to the mundane question of whether itinerant preachers should be economically self-supporting (like Paul) or supported by the community. But this does not preclude a reference to semiotic and spiritual economy, lending more lasting urgency to the question at the end: “When will they come and take what is theirs?”