Show me the stone which the builders have rejected. That one is the cornerstone.
– Gospel of Thomas, verse 66.
Again, there are many ways to look at this. And maybe the simplest is that it refers to what we are.
What we are, that which all experience happens within and as, is easy to miss. When we are identified with content of experience, what we are appears as the background. It can seem insignificant. Too simple. Too close to ordinary experience. Easy to miss. And if we notice, it is easy to not take seriously. To not take the consequences of it.
What we are is so simple that it is rejected. Yet, it is also the cornerstone. Noticing and taking it seriously is the cornerstone for what we are waking up to itself. And it is the cornerstone of all there is, and not only the cornerstone but the whole building.
It can also be seen as referring to the shadow. What is in the shadow is what is rejected from our self image. It doesn’t fit, so it is left out even as it is still here. When it is noticed and owned as part of who we are, it shows itself as gold and becomes a cornerstone for us.
………………..
Initial outline…
- cornerstone
- what we are, easy to miss, see as not important, not take consequences of
- also, shadow