Note:[1]
[Aus den Papieren eines ungenannten Philosophen]
Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl
ॐ
1. Know that all is One.
This one is fact, the eternal Absolute, from which the whole world has emerged as an appearance (idea) and into which everything returns again. The Absolute is the ground of everything and consequently also that of man. Anyone who recognizes himself in the deepest depths of his soul recognizes everything; for he recognizes the One from which everything has sprung.
Meister Eckhart says: “This ground is simple stillness, which in itself is immobile; but this immobile is the basis of all movement and of all rational life in motion. The soul has a faculty of knowing everything; therefore it does not rest until it reaches the highest concept in which all is one. She soars into simplicity, beyond all things into the utterly unknowable; worthless she throws herself into the worthless god. Seeing God as God, as an image, as a trinity is still imperfection. Only when all forms are detached and the soul sees the one and only, does the pure essence of the soul find the pure formless essence of the divine unity, which, a super-essential being without action, rests in itself (318, 1.)
2. Know that everything is You.
This knowledge can only be attained through union with the Absolute, or rather, through the cessation of the delusion that gives us the illusion of a separation from the Absolute, which in fact never took place. The Bhagavad Gita says: “In its union with Brahma the mind of man finds eternal rest. Through this entry into Me he attains my own self-knowledge, my being, my greatness; and when he fully knows Me in truth, he is also fully in Me.” (XVIII, 54.)
3. Know that vibrating this One brings forth multiplicity known and unknown to you.
The root cause is tat, the vibrations emanating from it are the tatwa. The forces that have created the world of forms both on the plane that is visible to us and on the levels of existence that are invisible to us have arisen from the various interactions of the tatwa. Space (substance) is one, but the kinds of vibrations which take place in it are many; the differences in the properties of bodies are determined by the differences in the vibrations of their atoms.
The Tatwa [tattvas] are modifications of Swara. Swara is the word. Therefore, each tatwa [tattva] represents a sound, a letter, and through the combination of these sounds and letters the whole symphony of the universe and the cacophony of this earth arises, and the language of all nature, in which every single being writes a word, a poem, yes, a whole story. The Bible says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was in God, and the Word was God. All things were made of him, etc.” But this word was not just; it is and still speaks today. If movement in space were to stop, everything would stand still. That’s why Eckhart says: “If God refrained from speaking his word for even a moment, heaven and earth would have to pass away.”
4. Know that in judging this multiplicity by your knowledge you must come to the following conclusions:
5. Everything you call life, force, substance is duality.
6. Everything strives for unity, for rest.
God is eternal rest, revelation is movement; consequently, all that is revealed is a duality in which we have to distinguish between essence and appearance. There is no vital activity without something in which it acts, no force without matter, no substance without bound force, no light without darkness, no good without evil; wherever there can be a relation of one to something else, there must be that other second. God Himself, once revealed as God, can only be revealed through the opposite. (Deus est diabolus inversus. {God is the devil inverted.}) Likewise, Christ and Lucifer are the two poles of One, and Lucifer becomes the Redeemer by being overcome. Likewise, the animal man is the perverted reflection of the divine man, and truth itself cannot be revealed except by its distinction from illusion.
But everything tends towards unity, towards rest; for since God is in everything, the germ of perfection is also in everything, and this germ does not cease to strive until it has reached its perfection in unity and therewith rest (nirvana).
7. All wanting, hence all suffering, comes from duality.
Since unity is truth and all is one, deception begins with the concept of duality, and where deception begins, there disappointment and suffering also await. Nor does this suffering cease as long as the deception persists. The deception only stops when man recognizes himself in unity. But in order not merely to be in unity, but to recognize himself in it, the deception of duality had to arise, without which man could not become conscious of his unity could come. Thus “evil” is the schoolmaster of good, teaching us to appreciate good.
8. Your striving is enlightenment.
9. Know that the consequences of joys here are joys.
Enlightenment happens through nothing else than the light. True enlightenment consists neither in knowing everything, nor in a change of opinions, nor in blind faith in the statements of those who are regarded as experts, but in understanding itself. Buddhi) must illuminate the mind (Manas), only then does the real enlightenment take place. As all of nature cheers for the rising spring sun and new things begin to sprout and blossom everywhere, so does the heart rejoice in which the day of knowledge of truth has dawned, and every branch on the tree of knowledge produces flowers and fruits which carry within them the seeds of other plants from which new and glorious delights will spring.
10. Rise above the compression.
Densification is the personal material existence, freedom is the knowledge of the great whole, the oneness of the inner man with the soul of the whole human race. From the urge for personal existence and the bondage to it arise the sufferings of it, birth, death and the conditions after death of the body. Gautama Buddha says: “Ignorance is the source of all suffering. From it arise the sankhara [Saṃskāra] (tendencies), from these consciousness (personal) and from this the name (character) and form (organism); from these the six regions (senses), from the senses desire, from desire existence, bondage, from this birth, old age, death, sorrow, lamentation, suffering, pain and despair. Through the attainment of self-knowledge, the sankhara [Saṃskāra] is destroyed, as well as its consciousness, name and form, the six regions, touch, feeling, attraction, bondage and the evils arising therefrom. All evils arise from ignorance, and their cessation from knowledge. The truly enlightened one stands firm and disperses the hosts of delusions (māyā), like the sun illuminating the sky dispersing the clouds.”
11. Know that the consequences of densification are suffering.
Opposed to light, knowledge, spirit is dark, ignorance, matter; Condensation is the opposite of transfiguration, the real is the opposite of the ideal; but all these opposites are mutually dependent, none is revealed without the other. He who wants to scale the top of a mountain does not succeed by ignoring the way and imagining that he is already at the top, but must slowly and laboriously overcomes the rocky steps which give his foot a sure footing; only then does he reach his goal. He neither despises the ground on which he treads, nor considers stepping on to be the purpose of his ascent, but uses the low to reach the highest by overcoming it.
It is the same in the spirit. Through night one comes to light, through struggle to victory, through victory to freedom, through freedom to pleasure, from pleasure to the cessation of craving, from the cessation of craving to rest, and from rest to self-knowledge.
12. Condensation lies on the way from the moving unity to rest; it is the reason for your delusion, because you see it as calm, and your doubts, because you see it as what you want.
Know, however, that the striving for the union of duality is the sole source of your will, your longing and those joys whose attendants you call sorrow.
As in the whole (in the macrocosm), so it is in the individual human being (in the microcosm). Anyone can see the creation of the world, the fall of the angels, salvation, and the whole history of human evolution by observing themselves.
“Scripture teaches: First there was darkness
And Brahma absorbed in it in itself.”[2]
In other words, in the beginning there was calm, absolute self-consciousness. Brahm knew neither the shine of the light nor the darkness, since He Himself was this light and lived in Himself. It was just the unit. In order to recognize the light, duality had to occur, te contrast had to arise. Parabrahm had to reveal himself as Brahma, the so called “unconscious” had to emerge from itself, so to speak, in order to become conscious of itself. Through this came the knowledge of the glow of light, but at the same time also the perception of darkness, the knowledge of clarity and its opposite, of concentration.
To make this still clearer, we must recall that there are three things involved in cognition, one of which can be regarded as absolute, the other two as respectively existent, namely:
1. Knowledge.
2. The Knower. 3. The Known.
Knowledge itself in the absolute sense is eternal; the knowing as well as the known are transient states of the eternal One; for even if there were no one to know, and nothing to be known, the certainty of knowledge was eternal, and would come as soon as a knower and a thing known came forth again. In this way knowledge itself would also be revealed again.
Simultaneously, with the stepping out of himself comes the delusion of duality, and the more man loses the sense of oneness innate in his heart, or, to put it in other words, moves away from God (Being) the more he becomes caught up in this delusion of being separate. With this, however, the struggle between the spark of the unified God-consciousness which resides in him and his material nature, which has emerged from this delusion, also occurs. As long as he has the power of truth in himself, he resists the persuasive arts of the senses and earthly reasoning, the true divine reason in him struggles for the knowledge of his immortality; his soul strives to emerge from condensation into transfiguration. The earthly mind, which is the perverted reflection of the Divine, does not comprehend its high origin; he only sees the matter (the willed) and this wrong will is the cause of his suffering.
But the divine spark of self-knowledge in him constantly strives back to its origin, to unity; it is the sole source of the true and correct volition, and of the inner conviction which, as long as there is still a spark of reason active in man, no modern school scholar can dispute; that the true home of the essential man is not this dark earth, but his divine self-awareness, unbounded by any space. From the beloved delusion arise the painful disappointments; but these are the very sources of his joys and wrongly called “sorrows” ; for surely it is better to come to a knowledge of the good through disappointment than to remain in delusion until the curtain falls at the end of life.
13. Know that the gateway to dissolution is called “substance.”
Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as is usually imagined as “substance.” What we call “matter” is bound, condensed force, “crystallized” or still vibrations of what we call prakriti (substance); but for which modern science has no name, nor can it be termed “cosmic ether,” nor “matter”; because since all One and this One is parabrahm (the absolute), but parabrahm is not “substance,” there is also no substance in the absolute sense, but the vibrations of unity bring to our imagination those phenomena which we are accustomed to designate as “matter,” ; because our external sensory experience makes us believe that in order to create a form, there must be an externally present substance, and we do not yet know that everything exists in our own imagination, in our own consciousness, and we create everything from it and can create, as soon as we recognize ourselves in truth and the magical power of the will, which lies dormant within us, will be awakened.
14. Know that all must pass through this gate.
The ideal can only be realized if it is combined with the real; without realization, life remains a dream. The spirit remains spirit forever and becomes nothing else as long as it does not combine with the entity and thereby becomes an entity. Not much is gained with mere knowledge, objective observation, observation from a distance; thought only acquires substance through deed. It is not of much use to me to have precise knowledge of what another possesses, only what I possess is mine, and the only inalienable possession I have is what I am myself.
Out of darkness (matter) comes light; the forces which the spirit needs for its clothing are bound in darkness. Therefore the spirit descends to matter in order to set free in it those elements which it needs for its sustenance, and of all dissolved substances it takes with it only those (feelings, thoughts, memories) which are appropriate to its higher nature; the rest is left to decay, left behind on earth.
15. Know that the gate of dissolution is also called “life” by you.
16. Know that everything must pass through this gate.
17. And that the long sojourn in matter and the interruption of the journey through life means delay in dissolution, delay in the union of duality into unity.
Just as the whole physical world is the wrong mirror image of the spiritual, falsehood is the wrong mirror image of truth, so too is prāṇa, the physical life, the reflection of the jīva, the spiritual life. The transformation of outward life into spiritual life, the straightening out of perverted human nature, the reawakening of the sense of freedom in place of the craving for bondage, this is man’s “repentance” from sin, turning his face back to the light instead of the shadow.
Everything has to pass through this gate of earthly life before it can grow beyond it; but whoever considers this life itself to be the goal, strives for nothing higher and gets stuck in the morass. However, at the end of the end of the world (pralaya) everything returns back to unity; but the longer man hesitates on the path of salvation, the longer he must bear his cross. Good for him if, after falling, he gets up again and doesn’t lie down.
18. Force the exercise of the dissolved over the condensed.
That is, the mind should rule the body. No one can make themselves better than they already are by their own bestial effort; but everyone can act according to the degree of that knowledge which has already come to him through his higher ego; Realize and express this knowledge through deeds in yourself, and thereby enable yourself to partake of still further knowledge.
“Forcing” therefore does not mean that the body must conquer the spirit, that the earthly mind (Kāma Manas) must force itself into the light of higher wisdom (Buddhi Manas), as so many mistakenly believe, but that man should keep his passions and earthly desires in check, rise above the low way of thinking, sophistry and rationalism, so that his mind can be illuminated by the knowledge coming from above, and the dissolved and transfigured wins the victory over the condensation. “Freedom! Calls reason; Freedom! The wild desire”; but both cannot be free at the same time. Where reason should speak, unreason must be silent. True freedom is the purity of all that pertains to the personal man and his Self-love.
19. Listen to the awareness of the dissolved in the sun of your body.
The “sun of the body” (Buddhi), through whose rising man becomes an enlightened being (Buddha), is understood as the spiritual self-knowledge arising from the feeling of higher self-awareness. It is scarcely necessary to say that it is not a question of imagining anything oneself, or imagining something, since all self-made ideas would hinder the perception of the non-self-made; just as a sleeper is not awake by dreaming of being awake.
Listening to the consciousness of the dissolved, that is, of that which has united and was able to unite with the higher self-awareness because it “dissolved” itself, that is, spiritual and noble in nature, occurs through the awakening sixth sense, which some call the cosmic, for once developed its perceptual faculty extends throughout our solar system.
A modern writer (Walt Whitman) has this to say about it:
“It is a sense which will presumably belong to the whole future human race, but has already awakened in individuals now and also earlier. When it occurs, which happens suddenly and unexpectedly, the soul (the mind) feels as if filled with a rose-colored light; the mind is bathed in a sea of triumph, joy, and bliss; he recognizes the greatness of nature and the greatness of God in it. He then knows that the power which rules in the universe is infinite goodness; he sees the whole spread out before him and recognizes the arrangements of its appearances. In this state he understands and recognizes his immortality; or, to put it more correctly, the presence of the immortal being within him. At the same time, his intellectual functions become sharper, more penetrating, and more sublime, and even his outward appearance becomes thereby spiritualized, transfigured, and enlightened. In this state, the knowledge of the truth is not the result of intellectual speculation, but of direct intuition. One has the knowledge — because it is there and because one has it.”
20. Lead this awareness through all zones of your being.
That means, through the power of obedience and submission, make your whole being receptive to the influence of the divine light, so that it can penetrate your whole mind (manas), your soul, your astral body and also your earthly appearance and find nothing that is in the way.
21. Elevate your whole body (organism) to the ability of (higher) thinking, hearing and seeing.
If we consider that everything comes from One, and that therefore the different elements that form the human organism (Manas, Kāma, Liṅga, etc.) only represent different degrees of condensation of the one element (Prakriti), then it becomes understandable that with to a certain degree of development, not only the head is able to think and the heart to feel, but that this ability belongs to all organs as soon as they are awakened from their rigidity by the influence of the higher life (jīva).
22. By doing so, make the tool fit for the use of your unity consciousness, your unity power.
The one who is completely absorbed in God (Consciousness of Unity) does nothing in his own person, because the delusion of personal existence has disappeared from his consciousness. God (the Unity Force) acts through him; the truth which fills him expresses itself in his thoughts, words, and actions of his own accord and without the recourse to his earthly common sense (which is a product of delusion); he does nothing “himself,” because his “self” no longer lives, but his God (Iśvara) lives in him and acts through him; he is like the apostle who says: “I live, not I, but Christ the Lord lives in me” (Galat. II, 20), and the Bhagavad Gita says: “He who rises in the Divine can rightly say: “It’s not me who works. Whoever does everything in the name (by power and as an instrument) of the Most High, without being attached to his works, is not tainted by sin; just as the lotus leaf floating in the water is not defiled by the water.” (Chap. V, 8.)
23. Get over the pain of this.
The perfect purification consists in the casting off and separation of the impure; but as the lower elements are a part of our nature, our natural or unnatural selves, this process also consists in a dying away of things which make up our selves. This process is associated with pain, which is symbolized in the “Story of Passion” of the Bible, and it only ends when man achieves transfiguration through the death of these lower elements and the demands of his karma are fulfilled.
24. Once the language sounds in your heart, the king (Iśvara) within you comes to rule, your inner eye sees clearly, you have passed through water (the astral plane) and fire (kāma), and your blood (prāṇa) is to become the blood of your blood (jīva), then say: I am, go and stay.
He who recognizes himself in the Eternal One is everywhere.
Notes
[1] From the Papers of an Unnamed Philosopher (With Remarks) [Aus den Papieren eines ungenannten Philosophen. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 3, no. 17 (February 1893), 87-109]
{This was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos. Translation from the German by Robert Hütwohl, ©2025}
[2] Edwin Arnold: “The Light of Asia.”