by Michael Maciel

In the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, it says:

8) And she began to speak to them these words: I, she said, I saw the Lord in a vision and I said to Him, Lord I saw you today in a vision. He answered and said to me,

9) Blessed are you that you did not waver at the sight of Me. For where the mind is there is the treasure.

10) I said to Him, Lord, how does he who sees the vision see it, through the soul or through the spirit?

11) The Savior answered and said, He does not see through the soul nor through the spirit, but the mind that is between the two that is what sees the vision…

Mary is asking whether visions are memories or are they produced in the imagination. In other words, are we seeing an echo, or are we constructing an image that then speaks to us, the way one can imagine an invisible counselor and then ask it questions? 

Jesus says neither. A vision is a direct experience, not a product of the soul or the spirit, a memory or an ideal. It is a living, present-moment experience. He’s telling her that visions are real. 

The mind is between the sub-conscious and super-conscious—the mind that Buddha described when he said, “I am AWAKE.” That is where the “treasure” is. The awakened mind sees a larger portion of the spectrum of reality. This kind of expanded capability is implied in the word “vision.”

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