[Bruchstücke aus den Mysterien.]
Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl, with the thirteen articles assembled as a single document.[1]
Introduction[2]
“I am the truth!”
(John XIV. 6.)
There is scarcelyanything in the world which has caused so much calamity as the difference of opinion as to the person of the founder of Christendom. Trapped from those days when, under the rule of insane emperors, the arenas of the Romans were reddened with the blood of Christians, through the dark ages of the Middle Ages and the Inquisition, up to the present time, when orthodoxy is making desperate efforts, progress and the To fight liberty and regain the lost dominion over the spirits, the whole Church system revolved around a single point, namely, belief in the person of a divine being appeared on earth in human form, by the name of Jesus of Nazareth; but to this day no historian has been able to find any sure proof that such a personality described in the “New Testament” had ever lived in Palestine or anywhere else; on the contrary, scholars maintain that the brief notes about the person of the Redeemer which appear in “Josephus” are pious interpolations and falsifications; and as for the narratives in the Bible, according to experts, they are said to be long after the beginning of the Christian era by unknown members of the Christian church.
And just as the scholars are uncertain as to the truth of the biblical account, so too are the writers who have written about his character. Kant regards him as the ideal of human perfection, John Stuart Mill considered him as an exceptional man, Lord Amberly saw him as an all-consuming idealist, Fichte, as the first discoverer of the doctrine of the union of man with God, Schelling, as an avatar, Hegel, as an incarnation of the Logos, Dr. Reim, as a mystic; Strauss saw in him a moral reformer who occasionally committed fraud to secure the trust of his followers; Renan considers him a effeminate idealist and a swindler, others viewed him as a fanatic, anarchist, socialist; in short, it seems that everyone sees in him what he himself is or what he inclines to; but the great multitude of unthinking believers in the church still regard him today as a divine being who came down from heaven, who atoned for the wrath of God through his death on the cross, and by redeeming mankind in this way saved man the trouble of himself to struggle for salvation. “Vox populi vox Dei,” [voice of the people, voice of God] the unthinking are right. Their intuition correctly teaches that the true Redeemer is a heavenly being; but the conclusions they draw are wrong precisely because they do not think.
Far be it from us to deny the possibility of the incarnation of a divine being on earth; on the contrary, not only do we firmly believe that the Spirit of God, which is the Spirit of self-knowledge, has already incarnated and manifested itself in many human beings, but we also believe that as many times as a human being is born, an incarnation of it Spirit takes place to a certain degree and produces in him that divine spark which in ordinary man reveals itself as the “conscience,”in man, but in spiritually elevated and enlightened men it reveals itself as the “Voice of Silence.”[3] If this view is correct, then every human being carries God and the Redeemer in his own heart, and can find him there much more easily than in the books of world history, in the fictions of fantasists, or in the conceptions of pious fanaticism.
The revelations which have recently been made to us by the “Secret Doctrine,” written by H. P. Blavatsky, have shed great light on the “reincarnations” of godlike human beings, and now make much clear that which was formerly obscure. According to this teaching there is a constant reincarnation of the human spirit; i.e., the immortal “spirit” of man, after the death of the body and after a period of rest, manifests itself again and again in successive bodily appearances or rebirths, like an actor who, on different evenings portrays a different person each time, but still remains ever the same individual. As long as man has not come to his true spiritual self-awareness, these incarnations happen instinctively according to the law of necessity; i.e., he incarnates and is reborn without having the freedom of will to dispose of it. But once he has recognized his own divine nature and thereby gained spiritual freedom of will, he no longer needs to incarnate for the purpose of gaining this knowledge, but can enter Nirvana, into eternal bliss. If he nevertheless incarnates voluntarily for the benefit of mankind and to instruct them, he thereby becomes a teacher, prophet and, to a certain extent, a redeemer of the world.
Whether such Buddhas or saviors already existed, or how many and when they appeared, is not our purpose to investigate or even try to prove. But it is certain that there is no deliverance from ignorance save by our own knowledge, and however much the instruction of a wise teacher may be of use to us, yet the wisdom or insight which is the property of another, cannot be our own unless we acquire it, and wisdom becomes our property only by revealing itself within ourselves. However great the merits of a leader who shows us the right path, only our own effort will get us there. Granted that the Prophet of Nazareth was an adept, a nirmānakāya,[4] a buddha and incarnation of the divine Logos, provided he ever lived as a historical figure, yet he remains for us only an ideal; for the ideal only becomes reality for us when it is realized within us. Another’s light can shine into our soul, but our soul must become self-luminous, otherwise when the other leaves, the shine is lost and we do not have our own light.
It is much more likely, however, that the Bible’s narrative does not refer to any particular personality at all, but is a dramatic account of spiritual rebirth, an eternal process which was not confined to just one person in the past, but has been going on since time immemorial as the wise men of all peoples took place, is still taking place and will continue to take place in the future until all of mankind has come to divine self-knowledge. This view has not cut anything away from the Christian faith, but rather expanded its horizon to infinity; the small light which shone in a single person becomes a great light that fills the whole world and reveals itself everywhere against all odds. But everyone can find in himself the proof that this view is the right one, if he fulfills the conditions under which the Spirit of God can be revealed within himself. When this happens he ceases to marvel at the holiness of another as an incomprehensible thing as an unholy man, for he finds that the whole world, and he himself within, is a temple of the divine spirit, and in realizing that spirit, he himself is sanctified by him; for it is the spirit of God in him that recognizes itself in the universe.
Those who do not know this spirit, and therefore cling only to the outward appearances of the Christian religion, attach great importance to the miracles described in the Bible, starting from the idea that through them the superhuman power of the founder of the Christian religion and so that the truth of his teachings may also be proved.
If we are fully convinced of the possibility of the development of magical powers in man, by which amazing phenomena can be brought about, the existence of such phenomena proves nothing but their possibility. Had Christ really come down from the cross to prove that his teachings were true, he would have proved nothing other than that he could come down from the cross. Spiritual truths cannot be proved by external events; Appearances are mere appearances and relate to probabilities, but not to truth itself. Truth needs no support, it rests on nothing but itself; of its presence there is no other proof than that it is known; whoever does not recognize it does not exist for him either, because he does not exist for it. But if these miracles also proved the probability of Jehoshua’s teachings and the divinity of his person, accepting these proofs and holding his teaching to be true would still be nothing more than holding a theory to be true and not one’s own knowledge and convictions, for true knowledge arises from nothing other than the revelation of truth, and truth can be revealed to us by nothing but itself, being manifested in us by its own power.
In general, “miracles” are regarded as supernatural and therefore unnatural events, the causes of which are outside the law, or contrary to natural law. Since God is everything and consequently also the law itself, he could not act against his own law without thereby destroying himself. Seen from this point of view, belief in miracles makes God an ungodly, fickle, unreliable being. Had there ever been an event caused by God contrary to divine law, it would greatly belittle the lofty idea we intuitively have of God, and prove to us that God is not self-consistent and mutable. For this reason attempts have been made from many quarters to divest the biblical miracles of their supernatural nature and place them on the same level as the phenomena of the spiritists; but the unprejudiced person feels that such an attempt is a degradation and desecration of the religious mysteries. By interpreting the myth rationally and trying to make the supernatural comprehensible to the senses, one drags the spiritual down into the material, seeks what is sublime above all human concepts in one to force a narrow imagination, substitutes a lie for truth, and thereby becomes the enemy of truth and religion. All attempts to make the miracles of the Bible agree with the laws of nature, and to relate them to external historical events of the past, appear trivial and ridiculous from a higher spiritual point of view, and lose their deep meaning.
The situation is quite different, however, when we regard the miracles related in the Bible as symbolic representations or allegories, through which the spiritual evolution of the universe and of man is illustrated in a dramatic way. Then we do not see these allegories as meaningless fables, but as a truthful description of psychological processes which have not only just taken place once in the past or in any one place, but are happening forever and ever in the history of the universe and in the life of the individual man. If the “enlightened” understood this, then the Bible could regain the respect it had lost in their eyes, and instead of seeing a series of children’s stories in its narratives, which one tolerated and smiled at pityingly, they would without taking any further interest in it, find that in these tales are described the greatest mysteries which science strives to explain.
The same eternal truths concerning the forces at work in the soul of the universe and in the soul of man are described not only in the sacred writings of the Jews and Christians, but also in those of other peoples, in the form of fables and parables, and, it is true that this form is chosen for such descriptions because they refer to non-external things and therefore cannot be made tangible. Also, a scientific explanation of these mysteries is of little use if it only has the purpose of satisfying curiosity. Anyone who is satisfied with knowing the theory and then does not concern himself with its practice gains nothing else from it other than theory, which he can perhaps brag about, but which is of no use to him. Therefore all so-called explanations of the mysteries of religion are harmful under certain circumstances, because the purpose of the parable is to stimulate man to think for himself. It is only when he has inwardly experienced and experienced what is being told does he have the true explanation; because then the fable explains itself and is seen for what it is.
Yet there is another circumstance which comes into consideration, namely, that these sacred mysteries are called “holy” because they cannot be comprehended by the earthly human mind, in which there is no holiness. Just as one needs external senses to look at sensible things and the intellect to look at intellectual ideas, so the perception of spiritual truths requires the power of spiritual knowledge; because only the spirit perceives the spiritual.
Everything which exists, originates in the spiritual; the spirit permeates all stages of existence and is the primary cause of all material phenomena. Since there are at least three levels of existence, for example, the sensuous, the super-sensible (psychic), and the spiritual, every spiritual truth is manifested in different ways on all three levels, according to the conditions which it finds there.
For this reason, every allegory which represents an eternal truth has at least a threefold meaning, namely, a purely external or exoteric, an internal or esoteric, and a spiritual one which can only be known spiritually.
These three stages of existence (there are actually seven) exist in the universe as a whole (in the macrocosm) and in the individual human being in the small (microcosm); and each level in the great is intimately interrelated and connected with its corresponding parallel level in the small; as a result, the processes in the macrocosm are constantly being repeated and reflected in the microcosm. The investigation of the mysteries in the soul of the universe is therefore most easily accomplished by entering into oneself. Whoever succeeds in entering into oneself and investigating one’s own inner self through the power of the light of knowledge, will find the same eternal truths, whether he be a Jew, a Brahmin, a Buddhist, a “gentile” or a Christian. He experiences in himself the play of the soul forces which have come to life in himself and their relationships to the outside world, proof which is completely independent of external observations and “scientific”; he recognizes the truth because it has become a living force in himself and has entered his consciousness. He recognizes truth because it has become a part of his own existence and he recognizes its existence.
True self-knowledge is therefore completely independent of all theological disputes and scientific opinions; there is nothing to “prove”; for the knowledge of truth proves itself by its own existence; the best proof is no proof if one does not see the truth which it is meant to prove.
From the above it will be plain enough to see that it is not our purpose to accomplish the impossible, and to explain at length, anything to the profane, and make comprehensible, the divine mysteries in nature; rather, it is only a question of making the veil which covers them a little more transparent, so that the unbeliever may see that important things which are hidden beneath, and endeavor himself to advance on the path once trodden.
In our present very turbulent age, when one grabs at the news and one news chases the other, the merely superficial view of things is becoming more and more prevalent; one tries to see and read as much as possible and form an opinion as quickly as possible; one forgets to dig deep and think for oneself, and is content to accept the judgment by others as true. This may also suffice when it is merely a question of satisfying scientific curiosity or of knowing transitory things; but where our own self-assured existence and the knowledge of immortality is the purpose of our research, superficiality is not enough; there, it is necessary, with the hand of a guide, to climb down into the mysterious depths where the precious pearl lay, the price of which is salvation. This is not about theories, but about the discovery of the divine spark in the innermost part of the heart, which, fanned into a flame, becomes that light through the power of divine love that illuminates heaven and earth.
(To be continued.)
Jehovah[5]
“The root of life was contained in every drop of the ocean of immortality, and that ocean was radiant light, that is to say, fire, heat, and motion. The darkness disappeared and was no more. It disappeared into its own being, the body of fire and water, father and mother.”
(H. P. Blavatsky. “The Secret Doctrine.”)
In unity there is no relation, hence no notion of “self.” When in the Absolute One arises the sense of selfhood, there arises, thereby, the semblance of separateness, which entails the multiplicity of appearances (forms or ideas). This is the “Self.”
In the Chāndogya Upanishad it says: “From truth arises clarity (radiance, knowledge, light), from clarity the “waters” (idea, thought), from the “waters” the nourishment of the world (objectivity, the phenomenal world).” Thus the Immortal Self is the Creator of all things, the great Jehovah, whose symbol is the circle with the centre, and the numerical value of the letters in Hebrew being the ratio between the diameter of the circle and the periphery, viz. the “Ludolphian” Number; 3.1415.[6]
But the great self extends into infinity; it is the circle of self-awareness whose center is everywhere and whose periphery is nowhere; it is the spirit of all things, of the whole universe, and of all its inhabitants very self, which no one can know so long as he is caught up in the delusion of limited and personal selfhood. Within this Eternal Self move temporal forms, conscious creatures whose consciousness is a reflection of the All-Consciousness, but because it belongs to the limited form of time and space, and does not extend beyond the limits of it, it is only a limited consciousness. This is the deceptive self, the delusion of self, which, because of its limitation, thinks itself to be something special, distinct from the whole, while yet the consciousness of the universe is only one in its essence, and the idea of the personal “I” is only an illusion because of separateness of appearances with which the self identifies; and this deception lasts until in this consciousness of the individual the recognition of the unity of his being with the universe reveals itself. Thus from Jehovah is born its “heart,” Jeho-shu-a, from truth knowledge, from “Adam” “Christ.”[7]
Jehovah thus represents the general self without knowledge, the reality without self-knowledge, the generating principle in the universe, Jehoshua (Jesus), on the other hand, represents the same self, the truth, in the center of which knowledge has blossomed, and whoever grasps this will find the reason understandable, which is why Judaism as the symbol of greed; Christianity is considered the symbol of possession.
It is said that a noble god is the noblest product of man. This means that man builds his own ideal, and if he is noble, his ideal will be high. On the other hand, it is itself the realization of the ideas expressed in it; consequently the one produces the other; man nourishes his god and his god endows him with his attributes; the upper acts on the lower and the lower on the upper.
And as with humanity in general, so it is in this respect with particular nations and particular individuals. Each has its own self-developed ideal and is in turn governed by that ideal. Just as the majority of Christians do not know the true Redeemer, so too, the Jews did not know the great Jehovah, but only his caricature. The Jehovah they imagined was selfishness personified, a greedy, vengeful, vain tyrant, always insisting on his right, but inclined to take that for which he had no right, forgave no offense, and loved no other than that which sprang from the lust for possession. And like the character of their God, so too was the character of the nation, even if there were just as well laudable exceptions as there are also a great number of “Christians” who know nothing of the divine love that surpasses all selfishness.
But Judaism and Christianity also have their representatives in the individual, whether Jew or Christian. Among the former are those intellectual powers which belong to that part of the mind governed by self-love and are not accessible to the light of true knowledge; this includes the self-knowledge, self-will, self-conceit arising from self-conceit and delusions with all their selfish desires, as the “scribes” and “pharisees” of the Bible. The realm of Judaism in man is that of the science which serves only the gratification of curiosity or vanity or other selfish purposes, the kingdom of that human wisdom which is but folly before “God” in the light of true knowledge. The kingdom of Christ in man is the kingdom of God of selfless love, which recognizes in all creatures its own divine nature. This kingdom is heaven in man and its inhabitants are the angels or virtues; that is, the spiritual powers which are suitable for spiritual life. Christ in this kingdom is knowledge, and the disciples in it are those higher intellectual powers capable of illumination by the light of truth. Here, too, knowledge, will and love rule; but it is no longer the spirit of self-interest, but the spirit of the divine Self which thinks, knows, wills, loves and desires in us. The king and lord in this realm is the spiritual man who is born again in the spirit of truth, who is one with the deity in humanity as a whole. “Heaven,” the enlightened mind is its throne, its “footstool” is “earth,” matter. Once the whole organism of man has been permeated by the spirit of truth, then God’s Will, will be done on earth (in the material) as it is in heaven, and the same is the case with respect to mankind as a whole. If all mankind were permeated by the will of God, which is love, the earth would be a paradise.
Thus the kingdom of God is within the external world, and also within man wherever it is manifested, and the kingdom of the spirit, that is, the kingdom of ideas and thoughts in the great as well as in the small world, and each has its inhabitants. And likewise the whole animal kingdom is found not only in external nature, where we see it represented in visible bodily forms, but also, though in a different way, in man himself; and finally there is hell in both places; not only in external life, wherein people make hell for one another, but also in the depths of the soul where hatred and envy and selfishness reside. The inhabitants of the inner lessor world populate the greater one, and the spiritual inhabitants of the greater world nourish those of the lessor one; for it is a law in nature that the same individuals love and seek and recognize the same and connect with others. This divine love, which is divine wisdom, is folly in the eyes of this world; the “Jews” cannot understand it, because only the unselfish can know what unselfishness is.
To recognize this love, Jehovah would have to change into the Christ, that is, the “Jew” needs to become a “Christian,” that is, the earth-born spirit of man permeated with the Spirit whose home is heaven, rather, the animal mind permeated with divine knowledge. But this can only happen when this spirit of knowledge descends from its height and mixes with the earthly; in other words, that the ideal is realized in the material. So the light penetrates down into the darkness and disappears in the dark. But if it becomes powerful in it and attains dominion over the darkness, then the darkness disappears and everything becomes light. Thus, the unrevealed life enters into the seed and is bound therein; but if it attains dominion over the forces which form the organism of the seed, then it unfolds its activity there and a magnificent tree can arise from the seed. Thus, the Spirit of God enters the earthly “Adam,” the dust-born humanity, and thereby goes into “death,” that is, into the unconscious of his own divinity. But if he attains dominion over the elements of the earth (the selfish desires and passions), then from the old Adam will arise a new Adam born in the Spirit, the God-man, in whom the Godhead is realized in humanity.
Thus, the great work of redemption takes place eternally and everywhere, in the great as well as in the small, in the seed as well as in man, just as the higher descends to the lower and mingles with it; and as the higher becomes active in the lower, it transforms the lower and thereby becomes a living force which elevates the lower towards itself. This process is natural; for it takes place in nature and not outside of it, and it can also be regarded as supernatural; because the spirit by which this salvation takes place is not a product of material nature, but rather visible nature which is a product of the invisible mind.
Life existed before that which we call “matter” and which forms the world of appearances which came into being; but the kingdom of matter had to come into being in order that the life in it could develop its activities and become manifest. Light was before the darkness, but the darkness had to come into being in order for the light to be revealed within it. Wisdom was before the ignorant forms came into being, and the forms had to come into being so that the wisdom within them might manifest itself and every creature learn to discern error from truth.
Darkness cannot, of itself, produce light, death cannot produce life, folly cannot produce wisdom, selfishness cannot produce unselfishness; but where light is revealed in darkness, life in death, knowledge in ignorance, selflessness in the self, there darkness, death, ignorance and self-delusion cease to be. Only in a small way can these opposites be “reconciled” with each other; ignorance can have no part in wisdom. If God is everything, then man in himself is nothing, and where folly abounds, knowledge ceases. If folly in its self-conceit makes itself great and powerful through its own self-knowledge and self-will, only greater folly will result from it; but where wisdom, moved by its will, reveals itself in the human soul, then folly disappears into its own nothingness and the son of light and knowledge, is born. Man himself becomes a son of light and recognizes that in his own nature he is nothing, but the light in and outside of him is everything and is the essence of everything.
Nazareth.
“What good can come out of Nazareth?”
There is a “promised land” whose geographic location cannot be found in any atlas, but which those who dwell there know it well. In this promised land, there is a holy place which no unholy man can locate, but whose location is readily accessible to anyone who knows it. Palestine is considered the visible symbol of this promised land, and Nazareth is considered to be that of the sacred site; but those who know believe that the true Nazareth is to be found elsewhere other than in Palestine. This Nazareth is known as the homeland of Jesus of Nazareth, who is said to have been born in Bethlehem, and since in Hebrew the word Bethlehem means “the house of bread,” and the body of man, which through earthly food came into being, the house of bread is that in which spiritual nourishment is received, and in whose soul knowledge is revealed, unbelievers could easily fall into the opinion that Nazareth and Bethlehem are something quite different from the two towns in Palestine, which is understandable, all the more so since in Sanskrit the word “Annamaya”[8] or “the house of nourishment” which designates one of the five coverings which surround the human spirit, namely the physical body, which the ray of light of the divine spirit, is inhabited by the soul.
Be that as it may, the Nazareth of which we are speaking here appeared in ancient times like an oasis in the midst of a wasteland scorched by the blazing rays of the sun in the interior of Galilee, the land of the Teaching. Intellectual forces moved back and forth, opinions and theories of opposite kinds quarreled; the weaker were oppressed by the stronger and, lacking the strength to free themselves, they longed for a liberator. The deliverer from the compulsion of error, the King of the “Jews,” appeared in the promised land on the day when knowledge was born in man’s soul; but neither the lord of the land nor the inhabitants recognized him.
But for the sake of better understanding we want to descend from the realm of reality into the realm of symbols and fables, which the perverted world takes for the realm of reality:
At the beginning of the Christian era, selfishness reigned as king in the land of the Jews, in the person of King Herod. The capital of the country, which did not belong to this king, but in which he ruled only as a usurper, was Jerusalem, a place of wisdom, to which, as everyone knows who is acquainted with the circumstances, is the nearest way from Galilee through the land of the Samaritans, i.e., led the land of mercy, which is also understandable when one considers that true wisdom is not to be found through dogma and theories, reasoning and misleading reasoning, but only through the practice of good works. At that time Jehoshua was born, and it may be worthwhile looking at the conditions then. The outer world is a theater in which plays, written in the spiritual world, are performed and played out.
Between green fields and surrounded by shady groves and orchards where the fig tree and the olive grow, stands the village of Nazareth. The Jordan River flows peacefully in the east between flowery banks, and the water surface shines in the light of the sun, from the morning, when it rises like a fiery ball behind the skyward rising Mount Tabor, to the evening, when it sets and disappears behind the rocky reefs of the Carmel Mountains. In the far north, however, the horizon is bordered by a gray streak of mist. It is the Mediterranean Sea that washes its waves on the coast of Phoenicia. The village is not built according to the rules of modern art; there are no broad streets; on the other hand, the irregularity of the buildings and roads gives each place a certain individuality. The individual huts are built in an oriental style, with few windows to the outside, while receiving the light from within through wide courtyards, which in this mild climate serve as places to stay during the day and resting places during the night. In this respect the dwelling-houses of Nazareth differ from the palaces of our European civilization, which have many windows to the outside world, but are either dark or only artificially lighted from within.
About two thousand years ago the population of Nazareth was a mixture of Hebrews, Phoenicians, Arabs and Greeks, along with a number of Roman officers and officials employed there to look after the interests of the emperor. During the day there was a lot of activity there; Caravans came and went, trade and commerce were practiced according to necessity or pleasure; but at night the doors were carefully locked against all intruders and the residents withdrew into the inner rooms and took care of the peace while the stars twinkled above, as if they wanted to bring people new hopes for the coming day.
The women of Nazareth were beautiful, as is usually the case in all places where types of different kinds mingle, and one of the most beautiful of these was Maya,[9] who was nicknamed “the radiant one.” An old rare manuscript says of her: “She was an ethereal being and her face shone like the moon.” Be that as it may, the records leave no doubt that an intimate relationship developed between Maya and an intelligent Roman warrior, the fruit of which was the hero of our tale, Jehoshua ben Pandira.
May the pious reader not take offense at us and think that we wish to present this association as an unlawful one. She was legal; for it was conditioned by the law of necessity. The will requires intelligence to bring about any reasonable thing; nature must be obedient to spirit if spirit is to be revealed through it. This was the creation of a form to embody an idea which already existed, not the creation of an idea. The spirit of Jehoshua was neither the son of a virgin nor the son of a Roman warrior; Venus and Mars had to do only with the production of the earthly organism, which was designated as the dwelling place of this spirit; he himself was a son of the sun; a ray of light from that celestial body from which the essence of every human being originates, and which from eternity sends its rays into human forms in order to make them real human beings. That is why an ancient Egyptian document, which speaks of man’s descent, says: “His father is the sun (wisdom), his mother is the moon (radiant matter), the wind (thought) carried him in his belly, and his bodies are the human races.”[10] The divine spirit in the universe as well as in man is not the son of the great “carpenter” who constructs the world of material forms. The father of the phenomena in nature is the creative power at work in nature, which is contained in nature itself, which is why nature too, despite all giving birth, is an eternal virgin, since it carries the generating power within itself and has nothing to do with foreign gods. Likewise, every human being who begets a son is only the father of the organism in which the spirit coming from heaven incarnates and nourishes itself. He is thus only the foster father of the being who appears as his son, the soul is his mother, which is shadowed by the spirit of knowledge.
The great obstacle standing in the way of understanding such mystical contemplations, and the stumbling block to the curious, is the inability to distinguish between the eternal and the mutable, between essence and appearance in the microcosm and macrocosm. To facilitate this, let us refer to the immortal in the hero of our tale as “Jehoshua,” but his personality as Ben Pandira. In fact, the documents from which we draw our news report is that Ben Pandira did not become a son of light until he came to the realization of his immortal nature. This was the initiation by which Pandira received the name, the power of Jehoshua, and with it his essence. This is all the more credible since the story of Gautama Buddha also says that Gautama only became a Buddha when the immortal divine light filled his consciousness. Then this light arose within him and became his own. — But let’s return to earth, albeit reluctantly!
As is well known, the Jews were then ruled and oppressed by the Romans, in the same way as the intellectual activities in a man are lacking in moral strength, and are ruled by his animal instincts and desires. And just as the ignorant and foolish man searches in vain for some new theory, which finally describes the truth clearly and unequivocally for him and in spite of everything he finds no truth as long as it is not revealed in his own cognitive faculty, so too the “Jews” searched in vain for a deliverer to redeem them from their oppressors; they could not find him because they did not seek him with their own strength but were distracted by external appearances. The redeeming power is among us, even within ourselves; but we do not recognize them; we don’t want to stand on our own two feet and prefer to use the crutches of blind dogmatics and short-sighted skepticism.
Thus, the Jews did not recognize Jehoshua when he walked among them under the mask of Ben Pandira, yea even Ben Pandira did not recognize himself and did not know that he was Jehoshua. We all feel the same way, so we shouldn’t be surprised.
If a story has no inner meaning, or if one does not recognize this meaning, then the story has no value at all and can at most serve as a farce for amusement. Such farces amuse the antique dealers, the theologians, historians, and the curious; but for the seeker after truth all outward symbols have value only in so far as they are visible representations of the action of invisible forces. The history of the Jews offers no more interest than the history of the Aztecs or the Gypsies, and we do not intend to deal with it any more than as it relates to the allegories of the Bible.
Ben Pandira grew up and Jehoshua[11] strengthened in him, but did not yet reveal himself to him, but only taught him through the power of intuition, and the boy understood the teachings of his master, so that in his twelfth year his intuition won the victory and prevailed over all the cunning arguments and insidious questions put before him by the minds in the temple of reason; to which the “scribes” and “Pharisees” greatly marveled. Had Pandira at once recognized Jehoshua as his Master, he would have become that Master himself; but he wasn’t ready for him yet. Pandira was the shell, Jehoshua was the core, and the shell only opens when the core is fully formed.
The days at Nazareth passed monotonously. The inhabitants engaged in trade, animal husbandry and agriculture and took little time for inner edification; but the great occasion of the year was when, in celebration of the feast of the “Tabernacle,” the people of Judea went to the Temple in Jerusalem. On such occasions the streets leading to the Temple of Wisdom were festively decorated and the light that came out of the tabernacle penetrated the hearts of the people. The capital was filled with strangers pitching their tents outside the temple walls. Traders of all kinds encamped there, theoreticians, wisdom-mongers and greedy Pharisees who offered their inventions for sale. Jugglers and buffoons amused the crowds with fine phrases and unctuous sermons, others gave performances in which imagination and pious fanaticism played the leading part, still others screeched to the letter of the law, deriding the law, or they disputed the truth while denying it. Even within the temple the noise penetrated, but in the tabernacle there was silence; for it was tightly shut, so that neither doubt nor superstition could enter. Truth dwelt there.
Pandira, too, in his twelfth year, took part in the festival in Jerusalem, and visited that temple which bears so much resemblance to the mind of man. There, he became better acquainted with his teacher, Rabbi Perachia, a former head of the Sanhedrin. The latter invited him to accompany him on a journey to Egypt, and Pandira gladly accepted the offer.
(The sequel follows.)
Egypt[12]
“God makes eternity, eternity makes the world, the world makes time, time makes birth.” (Hermes.)
Who doesn’t know Egypt, the magic-land, the land of magic? — Who does not know the world of phenomena in nature by which he is surrounded and which have arisen in nature through the magical power of nature? — Egypt is the land of wisdom, and wisdom is gained through experience. The world is the land in which the spirit gathers its experiences, it is the great “Egypt,” its mouldings broad, which is the great “Lodge,” into which it is difficult to enter. The ghost knocks on the door three times and asks to be let in. The first time the spiritual monad appears in the mineral kingdom, the second time in the vegetable kingdom; but it does not possess the organization required for entry into the human kingdom. Only at the third time, when it has incarnated in the animal kingdom, of which the human is the most perfect form, is the monad permitted to enter the lodge of humanity, and accordingly enters the school from which the gods emerge.
Getting to know this school is with interest, especially since every human being is compelled by the law of necessity to go through its course, even if it takes millions of years to do so. Even if he supposedly doesn’t want to know anything about it and thinks the entirety of mysticism is nonsense, none of this helps him. The purpose of existence is the attainment of self-knowledge, and this is attained by no one until he knows his own mystical nature. There is nothing left but to go to the school of life, even if unwillingly; there is no choice other than either progress or annihilation.
A little-known Egyptian papyrus reads:
The personality is impermanent, but the spirit is immortal. He is connected to the body only through the chain of consequences of his actions, and should not be subject to the body. Your soul, wandering from one sphere to another, has innumerable times taken up residence in mountains, valleys, walls, caves, trees, and innumerable other places; as angel, human or animal, rich or poor, learned or unlearned, free or bound, you have been subjected to the most severe trials. After countless births and deaths you have reached the highest level of the animal kingdom. Now that you have gained ample opportunity to do good and become fit for immortality, do not waste your time and do not sink again into the dark and deep abyss of suffering.
Anyone who recognizes the truth of this doctrine of being born again, will see that Jehoshua has been to Egypt countless times; but Ben Pandira knew nothing of it and entered this land for the first time. He could never have been there before, for he was nothing but an apparition that is renewed with each appearance on the stage of life, like the mask of an actor who changes roles in different successive performances-plays. Therefore, everything that Ben Pandira saw in Egypt was new to him and aroused his interest to a great extent.
It is painful to descend from the lofty regions to which these meditations lead us, and to concern ourselves with the trifles of this life; but we owe this to the clarity of our narrative; for we are concerned not only with the great world period of the evolution of forms and the revelation of spirit in these apparitions, but also with the spiritual development of Ben Pandira, inasmuch as it is a symbol on a small scale of evolutionary history and revelation on a large scale.
In the greater as in the smaller “Egypt,” everything has become modernized and petty. As to the Megatherium, the Plesiosaurus and Ichthyosaurus, the monsters and giants of the prehistoric world have disappeared from the scene and where the cave bear lived, the rabbit now plays in the grass. Nature and people have become smaller, there are no more giants; but instead the families of the dwarves multiply. Little Egypt was once the land of wisdom, its pharaohs were inspired by great spirits; now the purpose of the pyramids they built is not even understood, let alone having imitating those structures. The modern tourist now stands in front of the obelisks and their hieroglyphs and gapes at the mysterious inscription with curious eyes, and the learned snooper scratches his head in vain to find in the contents of the yellowed papyrus, the wisdom which he himself does not possess. Defiled, O Egypt, are your temples, your sanctuaries carried away by greedy hands to foreign lands to serve as a showpiece for curiosity; but even in their state of degradation, your monuments continue to teach. Your tablets are broken, your inscriptions pasted over, but the spirit of wisdom still lives in them, and the stones speak in a voice that drowns out the cry of folly, bringing the gospel of truth to those who yearn for it. But whoever wants to enjoy your treasures must keep their hands clean from selfishness, otherwise the gold in them will turn to ashes; Whoever wants to drink from the fountain of your wisdom must bring a clean cup with him, otherwise the dirt in the cup will turn the healing power of the water into poison. What does today’s generation know with its “exact knowledge” of true greatness, sublimity, eternity, immensity, power? Men have become pygmies, none of whom can see afar, because his own imagined greatness stands in the way; an army of blind beggars has taken the place of the kings; the size has disappeared and with it the power!
Do things which don’t move have souls? Can ruins speak? — If you have a soul, ask the crumbling sphinx and the ruined temples of Isis; ask the stars that are in the sky of Egypt if they are but accumulations of dead matter. If you have a soul yourself, you will recognize the souls of stones and stars and understand their language.
What would a world be without forms, and what is form without spirit? — What would wisdom be to us if it were not manifest, and through what could it be revealed other than through form? If nature were without consciousness, where would sensation be, and without sensation, where would be the attraction that unites both atoms and world systems into harmonious magnitudes? How would the planets revolve around the sun if love for her did not show them the way, and what moves the earth to revolve on its axis but love for the light of the sun, after enjoying every part of it evenly on the surface of the globe? What could cause the rose to open its blossom in the sunlight if it had no feeling? Where there is life there is sensation, where there is sensation there is consciousness, death alone feels no charm, and the dead soul feels nothing of the power of the light of God’s wisdom, which permeates the whole universe and aspires to revelation. From this point of view contemplated, all creatures in the universe, rational or illiterate, appear to us as the children of a great family whose eternal Father governs them by his omnipresent will.
While modern astronomers (with few exceptions) know only the mechanical movements of the celestial bodies, the astrologers of the ancient Egyptians recognized their souls. They “did not,” as modern textbooks say, “attribute” certain virtues to the planets, but they recognized by their own experience that the souls of the various planets had such and such qualities of which the soulless science of our century knows nothing because she herself is spiritless, lifeless and soulless. Where there is sentiment there is love and hate, like and dislike, which in unreasonable beings express themselves by mutual attraction and repulsion; and where there is attraction and repulsion, there is like and dislike, love and hate, sentiment, consciousness, albeit a consciousness of a different kind from ours, the supreme attainment of which is the consciousness of personal selfhood. In other words, self-delusion.
For many people, the annihilation of self-conceit would be tantamount to the annihilation of their existence. One is accustomed to regard self-delusion as the first condition of existence. And yet this selfhood is a very troublesome thing, and one is happiest when one forgets it. Why do people seek distractions, intoxication and sleep? Why do they love the sound of music and reach for the cup rather than forget their own self and its toils? People are happiest when they are beside themselves. “The soul,” says the ancient Egyptian document, “is subject to many blows and abuses through its connection with the personality, like iron, which, when it becomes red-hot, receives many blows from the hammer because of the heat it contains. The soul suffers from the evil and frivolous actions of the body (the personality), it burns with the fire of anger, it is poisoned by greed, torn by pride, and defiled by falsehood.”[13]
But Christian teaching recognizes the same truth in relation to the God-man crucified in earthly man, who on the way to self-conquest is beaten by the “soldiers” and falls three times (in the past, present and future) until he finally falls on Golgotha, the symbols of self-sacrifice which achieves selflessness and rises from the bondage of a limited existence to the omnipresence of freedom and bliss.
With the force of desperation, people cling to their “I” and fear losing it, and yet they try to forget it and are unhappy to the extent that they think of that “I.” No man ceases to exist while forgetting this “I,” for this “I,” the delusion of self, is but an illusion and exists nowhere but in the realm of imagination; the true Self which is not enclosed in the body does not die; it is there even when the human being is not thinking of himself; yes, it also lives during the sleep of the personality and is there again upon awakening. Self-knowledge is the knowledge of the true Self, but it is not acquired through mere distraction or forgetting of “I,” but it is gained through overcoming this illusion. Only he who recognizes the complete insubstantiality of his personal “I-ness” recognizes his true Self.
This true self is the higher region of the mind in which the idea of separateness from the unity of the whole (God) does not exist, and of which it is said in the writings of the sages, that it is never born and never dies, that there was no time when it was not and there will be no time when it will not be, that it was there from the beginning of creation and is in all eternity.[14] This mind is the Eternal, it is “God”; but it is of divine nature only when it recognizes its own divine existence; for a god without the knowledge of his divinity is no god and cannot enjoy his divine existence because he knows nothing of it. Thus true Self-knowledge and true God-knowledge are one and the same; it is the end of human existence, and God knows who knows himself.
Not all people can feel the presence of God in their hearts, and coming to the self-awareness of divine existence is not an easy thing. This realization is not attained through theories and dogmas, through ceremonies and entreaties, or through raving and dreaming, but only through the experience of the Eternal. The school in which one acquires this knowledge is eternity and has many classes and semesters. Schooling, with its associated breaks, lasts millions of years and many exams need take place.
Just as the tides move on earth, so too in the life of the spirit, there are periods when the soul, moved by spiritual power, approaches the divine sun, and other times when it moves away from it. When she comes closer to the wisdom of God, it becomes summer in her and a paradise blooms in her heart. But when it strays from the center of divine love, winter comes, and the icy breath of selfishness freezes the soul.
It was spring when Ben Pandira came to Egypt with his teacher. The latter had long been a member of that school, whose inner circle consisted of a fraternity of teachers of wisdom, who were called “the Sons of Light” because in their souls the Spirit of Wisdom was manifest and illumined them. That is why their teachings did not spring from their own conceit and fantasies like those of our modern philosophers, but were the teachings of wisdom itself, of which the Buddha, the enlightened one, says: These teachings, O disciple, were not handed down to me by anyone; but in myself the eye was opened, in myself understanding was raised, in myself knowledge was born, in myself wisdom was revealed, in myself there was light.”[15]
In this holy brotherhood, called the “Crata Repoa,” the highest mysteries of nature were explained, or rather they were explained to the initiates who recognized them. Ben Pandira also wished to be admitted to this school. Twice he knocked in vain; but when he asked earnestly and steadfastly for the third time, after due preparation, his request was granted, and a new existence began for him as he entered the holy place.
The Secret Brotherhood.
“Whoever wants to find the gold (of wisdom) must descend into the depths of the earth.” (Alchemical proverb.)
There is somewhere in the world a secret fraternity that embraces all mankind, and the secret of it is that many of its members do not recognize the invisible bond that unites and fraternizes them, and are therefore not real members either. This bond is love, that is, the knowledge of the unity of God in all his creatures. If every human being recognized this unity, he would see his own divine self in every other creature and love God in every other being as well as in his own. Then this fraternization would no longer be secret, then there would no longer be closed societies that mystify one another; then self-conceit would cease, and the will of God, which is love, would be done on earth as it is in heaven. But the bond that binds people today is not divine love, but common class interests, with the individual hoping to find only his own advantage. Instead of harmony, there is only squabbling among the members of the society of which we speak in relation to differences of opinion; everyone imagines that he is better than the other, and even among those who call themselves the “initiates” there is usually nothing other than windbags to be found; for the knowledge of Oneness cannot be found in outward observations, not in fanaticism, dogmatism, and “knowing better” and “being better,” but only in the depths of one’s self; not in the head, where imagination resides, but in the heart, where dwells the truth, which becomes knowledge when it reaches the light of reason.
Not every creature which walks the earth in the form of a human being is a real human being, for that involves the awareness of human dignity. Many are but ravenous beasts, accepted into the society of mankind on a trial basis, but unable to raise themselves inwardly to the standpoint they hold outwardly, and therefore return to their origins in a still more animal state. Everyone bears within them the image of the Father who created them. The father of the animal man is the animal, and the animal man returns to his father in the end; the father of self-conceit is self-delusion, a son of stupidity, which is a daughter of ignorance, and ignorance is a nothingness in which self-conceit finally disappears; but the true man is the son of wisdom and its image. If he succeeds in realizing this ideal, he finds refuge in God and returns to his Father. Therefore none comes to the Father except through the Son, recognizing himself as the Son of the Father.
In the secret society of which we are speaking, there were and still are different grades, beginning with the lowest, to which belonged those who were only admitted on a probationary period, up to the highest, the immortal soul, whose robes were the Star-studded blue skies. No diplomas were awarded, as is the custom among the foolish farces of certain “secret societies” of our time, but each member bore the stamp of the grade to which he belonged, stamped in his character, and was therefore immediately recognized by all the other members of it, the degree of wisdom, and the contribution to be paid upon admission to a higher degree was the mustering of all the powers necessary to attain the ability to enter that higher degree. But the ceremonies which took place on such occasions can only be described symbolically, because the main thing was the awakening of a higher spiritual power, the entry into a higher state of consciousness, sensation, perception and knowledge, which, because they are internal processes, cannot be described externally.
As one can well imagine, Ben Pandira was also accepted into this brotherhood only on a trial basis, for he was concerned with finding out whether he was capable of recognizing himself as a real brother in it. Several times he had been warned not to give up his project if he did not feel the necessary strength to maintain the place he had once occupied in nature, for whoever appears in existence as a human being and does not assert himself as such sinks in the process among the beasts because he uses his intellect to knowingly commit selfish acts which are natural to the beast but unnatural to man. But Pandira persisted in his decision and entered the order.
The Thesmophoria[16] blindfolded him and led him through various passages, from whose walls only the echo of his footsteps echoed, down a steep stairway into an underground chamber. There the blindfold was removed from him and he found himself alone, just like a man going into his own interior. His guide had taken care that all sensory impressions of the outside world were kept at a distance from his inner contemplations. The only light that shone into his prison was a faint ray of light from above, which revealed to him various inscriptions on the walls, consisting of proverbs of wisdom which he imprinted on his memory. These sayings were of ancient times and contained nothing new, for the truth is ever the same; nevertheless they seemed new to him, because the truth never ages, but constantly appears as something new to those who have not known it for a long time.
In this solitude, Pandira occupied himself with his thoughts. They came and went, and to record them he wrote them on his slate. But when evening came, the tablet with what was written on it disappeared, and was brought back to him the next morning after the writing had been erased. Incredible as this may sound, we know that when the day of earthly life is over, the recollections of the events of that day vanish from the soul’s memory during the night, and for the new dawn of the next existence there is an unrecorded one new sheet launched. Nevertheless the notes which Pandira made were not in vain, for the thoughts which he had gathered during the day constituted an increase of his talent for the day to come, and heightened his knowledge.
It would be sad if man were to remember in every life everything that his “predecessor” did and didn’t do in an earlier existence; the reproaches and the remorse would then have no end. That is why the “body of Jesus” is always placed in a new tomb so that he can start a new life there and celebrate his resurrection. But once the spirit has risen in the light of self-knowledge, all the tablets described will also be returned to it, because it now recognizes that it was not the author of its previous actions, but the authors were his subordinates who did not recognize their master. With the awakening of spiritual consciousness, spiritual perception and spiritual memory also awaken. Then the spirit which has recognized its eternal existence looks down on its earlier manifestations as on a panorama and knows that God is not the doer but the silent spectator.[17] “Residing eternally and uncreated in his own self-knowledge, exalted above all beings, yet dwells in all; immovable in itself, it moves everything.”[18] This one is God Whoever wants to acknowledge him should follow the advice of the great master, who says: “Put away everything that is not God, and only God will remain.”[19]
There are few men who can attain solitude, for, because they do not know themselves, when they are without external stimulation, they are in company with nothing but their self-delusions and the fantasies arising from them. But he who feels the presence of God in his heart is not alone; he is with his Master, who speaks to him even though he cannot see him outwardly; he is in the company of everything because God is the essence of everything.
Also for Pandira, there came the day of light, the day of salvation. When he found the light, he found the way. Then the gate opened, his guide came and invited him to come to the gate of mankind.
Many people, out of curiosity, had gathered in the forecourt of the temple to see Theophylene, and there was a great cry, for envy stirred up among the crowd. All claimed to be human and referred to their form. All wanted to enter through the gate of mankind, and yet they could not enter, for selfishness held them back. The Thesmophoria drove the crowd back, and they passed through the garden and through a gateway called “the gate of the profane,” whereupon they entered a crypt, where Pandira was given a restorative bath and new clothes. This ceremony is still in use today, in that anyone who wishes to approach wisdom must immerse their soul in the bliss of the sense of truth and clothe it in the robe of purity.
If you want to become a real human being, you have to be sublime. Whoever wants to attain the truth for his own benefit is far too small to grasp it. That is why Pandira, when he came with his guide to the gate of mankind, was asked by the guardian of the gate, called “Pastophores,”[20] for what purpose he wanted to go to the temple. As his answer was satisfactory, he was admitted. He entered a bright hall and found himself in the midst of the assembled brothers, who were sitting in a semicircle; in their midst was the Hierophant. Here the candidate was presented with various questions relating to his experiences during his solitude. As for these questions, we do not know; but it is certain that even today every man who wants to soar above earthly life must answer the question before his hierophant whether he has fulfilled all the duties that bound him to earthly life; for no debt is forgiven unless it is paid to the last farthing. Thus tells us the doctrine of karma, and love agrees with it.
After Pandira had satisfactorily answered the questions put to him, he was led to the Bisantha, where his personal courage was put to the test. Fiery lightning flashed around him, thunderbolts shook the earth beneath his feet, hideous monsters threatened to devour him, and terrible specters approached him. This is also not surprising; for the struggle with evil begins with freedom of will. The animal man follows his animal instincts and acts according to the laws of his animal nature; but the man struggling for freedom of will must not allow himself to be ruled and subjugated by his desires. The spiritual power, once awakened, works in man with redoubled power and impels him to do both good and evil. Desire may pierce his soul like a fiery bolt, the thunder of anger rumble within him and seek to shake his steadfastness, passions may overwhelm him, and memories of past misdeeds seek to terrify him; the true man must face all this courageously and be master of himself, and he becomes master of himself by recognizing and obeying the law of unselfish love.[21]
Pandira having passed these trials victoriously, he was again brought before the assembly, and the Menies read to him the laws of the brotherhood, which the initiate promised to observe; for no one can be a member of true humanity for a single day unless he obeys the laws of humanity. But if he becomes a real member of true humanity by realizing his true human dignity, then his spiritual eye opens, the spirit of knowledge reveals itself in him; there is light in him, and in this light he recognizes his master and finally also receives his power with his name.
Progress does not leapfrog in the course of evolution. Long is the road that the Monad must traverse before it attains true human existence; hard is the struggle until she can ascend through humanity to divinity; many are the dangers which it must overcome, the obstacles over which it must conquer; but the greater the obstacle, the more glorious is the victory, and the stronger becomes the power to overcome it.
So did Ben Pandira. It was day inside him and he found his master; but there were still many obstacles to be overcome before he could be called a master over himself. Well he now recognized many mysteries of nature, which are forever a riddle to the profane scholar. He saw the power of all-embracing, all-pervading, and all-sustaining love in the universe, which binds worlds together as well as small creatures, whether they know it or not; he recognized the seven rungs of the ladder of evolution, on which the spirit descends from heaven to earth, and ascends with new powers from earth to heaven; he recognized the power of faith, liberty, virtue, and justice, all of which are eternal principles, but the essence of which is unknown to the beasts; he saw the infinite one life in the universe, whose activity manifests itself in innumerable forms; he recognized the unity of God in all creatures, and was thereby united with the brethren of the covenant.
In the ordinary brotherhoods and associations of this world, the union is only external; the true lodge of humanity is an inner brotherhood held together by a spiritual bond, and it is not even necessary for the individual members to know each other personally. Like-minded souls come together in the realm of the spirit; their thoughts affect each other, and they can communicate without post or telegraph; for love of truth is the conduit upon which thoughts fly to and fro, and the unity of purpose they pursue binds them together.
Already in the last century Karl von Eckhartshausen described this lodge of mankind, but his description is understood only by those who are themselves members. He says: “The temple of Solomon is the temple of Deity. This temple is the heart of man, which must first be formed and built up by goodness before divine wisdom descends into it. Love unites the company of the wise; they therefore have no convents or lodges (they are always together); they get to know each other in distant parts of the world, and truth and goodness is their organ. Their work is active love of God and humanity; — the Creator excludes no one from it. — Therefore no one welcomes the other, but everyone must accept himself, according to the degree of knowledge and the degree of love on which he stands. No one can cheat or be cheated. The divine wisdom communicates itself according to the degree of love and knowledge, and from above everyone is given what he can comprehend. The society of the wise is an eternal society, illuminated by the eternal sun, where there can be no deceit, no darkness. Their work is worship of the deity in spirit and in truth. Each communicates as much to the other as he can communicate and the other is capable of receiving. As a crystal, when warmed by the sun, cools again when removed from the sun’s rays, so too, wisdom loses itself again in the heart of man when he turns away from truth and goodness.”[22]
(Continues.)
The Apprentice. the Journeyman.[23]
(Continuation.)
“Separate the earth from the fire and the subtle from the gross. It rises from earth to heaven and returns to earth again. Thus it (the mind) absorbs the power from above and below.” (Hermes.)
A flash of lightning which illuminates the night does not bring the day. Flashes of illumination, by which man sees truth gleaming through the darkness, are common; but only in those who have become mature for it, the truth becomes the living force, the “philosopher’s stone” which will not perish again. In and out moves the spirit of knowledge in the hearts of men, but only few can hold it and bind it securely. In and out like the birds of the forest, thoughts fly into the distance and affect other people; but we do not know whence they come, nor whither they fly, nor where they settle; for our consciousness does not move with them. But the person who has been born again in the spirit, who has become the master of his will and lives in universal consciousness, can mentally transfer himself wherever he wants; his thoughts drive him, his love lends him wings, he is self-conscious where he thinks of himself.[24] But in order to step into the all-consciousness, it is necessary to rise above the personal consciousness. In order to become the master of one’s will, one must become master of the desires which guide one’s own will without wanting it.
Therefore, Pandira still had to pass various tests before he could be accepted as a permanent member of the spiritual brotherhood of mankind.
The hierophant rose within himself and said:
“I speak only to you who have the right and the power to hear me. Firmly close all the doors of the senses and dampen out the profane and mockers. But you, O sons of light, hear my words: Beware of passions and evil desires, false opinions and prejudices. Always direct your thoughts to me, who am the source of your existence; strive for the knowledge of the presence of the Highest, and if you have the desire to attain eternal bliss on the path of light, do not forget for a moment that you live in Him whose power gave birth to you. He is everything and everything is in him. He is uncreated pure knowledge and essence. He is Eternal Wisdom itself, and though he is known by no man, yet there is nothing in the universe which escapes his knowledge.”
Then the hierophant Ben Pandira taught about the meaning of the sacred syllable OM and accepted him into the school of life. In this school he learned the laws of nature; not only what is called “natural science” today, and what only refers to the external phenomena in nature, but he got to know the soul life in nature, he learned to understand the language of stones, plants and animals and all creatures testified to him of their nature. The stars spoke to him of times long past and taught him astrology; love imparted to him the secret of its magical powers, patience gave him stamina and perseverance, adversity gave him patience, and sin enlightened him to the value of virtue. Impending dangers taught him determination and longing enabled him to see the star of hope, and all the spirits of the universe came together and showed him the glory of the Most High and taught him to worship him.
Who knows how long Ben Pandira stayed in this school and how many semesters he completed; — but in the end he felt empowered enough to pass the exam for entry to the next higher degree. In preparation for the same, he was led into a fabulously beautifully furnished grotto, which bore the name “Endymion” and which many readers will know under the name “Fantasy.” The grotto was illuminated with a soft rose-colored light, and furnished with everything that comfort could wish for. Delicacies of various kinds and fiery wines were served, and the guide who had taken him there invited him to enjoy.
“Now,” said the guide, “you have won the victory. You have realized that your animal nature is not your true self, and that whatever your lower nature accomplishes, it cannot touch or harm your higher nature. Let the instincts of your animal nature run free, let them enjoy life, since they are mortal after all. You yourself are immortal; what harm can it do you?” — Thus spoke the voice of the seducer and the master of Pandira was silent and left him alone. Then the door of desire opened, and desires of various kinds in the form of charming female figures entered and begged to serve him. Their magnificent forms were only half veiled, and their seductive smiles made him understand that all he needed was a wink to see all his wishes fulfilled.
But Pandira resisted her temptations and raised his soul to the realm of beauty, which is not ephemeral like form. Through this he acquired a mysterious power, through the magic of which the temptresses disappeared. So he locked the door and threw himself down on a couch, exhausted.
But he could not remain undisturbed for long. A faint noise awoke him from his dreams, and he saw a secret door, the existence of which he had not previously noticed, opened, and passion, bold and proud, entered his room in the form of a woman of incomparable beauty. Her gaze was fiery, and her lofty figure was wrapped in a loose robe of crimson; a golden diadem glittered in her hair and seemed to move like a living snake. With a wonderful attitude she approached.
“Fear nothing,” she said, “I come not to tempt you, but to save you. I am the daughter of the guardian of this temple and I know the danger which awaits you. Has it escaped your wits that these hypocritical priests want to kill you? You forfeited your life spying out their secrets; for they consider you a traitor because you are a foreigner and not of Egyptian descent. I have the power to save you. rise up and follow me.”
“Daughter of Fear!” replied Pandira, “I recognize your power and the magic you exercise over mortals; but I have no part in you.”
“Make no mistake,” continued the tempter, “without me there is no salvation for you. Is not the law of self-preservation the supreme duty of life? I bring you freedom. Take courage, otherwise you are dead at the hands of murderers.”
To this Pandira replied. “The God who lives in me was never born and can never be killed. Let the murderers come when it is written in the book of life. The form is impermanent, but not the spirit. They may do the minting of the coin, but the gold remains.”
As Pandira spoke, the form of the apparition changed. She threw back her veil and stood before him incomparably more lovely than before.
“Look!” she said, “I am compelled to reveal to you what modesty forbade me to say. I come not only to save you; no! I want to own you! Hear me,” she continued when Pandira turned away unwillingly, “flee with me! It is not the life of an exile that I offer you, but a life full of love and lust. Behold, I am rich, I am young. I am love and I will hold you in my arms and protect you.” As she spoke, she stepped closer and laid her white arm on his shoulder and looked searchingly into his eyes. “See,” she said, “if I can love. Do you want to waste your youth within these walls, to investigate things that which are nowhere else other than in the realm of imagination? Come with me and I will give you true bliss; for how could a man find greater bliss than that which the love of his beloved procures for him?”
Then all the sensual elements in his nature arose and tried to drag him into the tempter’s embrace; but Pandira remained strong; for the Master’s hand rested invisibly on his head.
“Lovely lie!” said Pandira. “The power of your beauty is great and the sensual instincts in my nature fly towards you; but my longing is not for what you can offer me. I seek that which is not subject to decay. What is yours is among the dominion of death!”
“Don’t you dare tell me the truth!” answered the figure. “Do you know what a woman whose love is spurned can accomplish?”
Thus speaking, she yanked a dagger from her belt and aimed it at her chest. “Scorn me!” she exclaimed, “this is how this weapon strikes my heart. I do not want to live without you; but if I die, my death will be avenged on you. You and you alone will be considered my murderer if my body is found in your room.”
Seeing that her words made no impression on Pandira, she lowered her raised arm as if in desperation and the dagger fell from her hands. Then she sank down at Pandira’s feet and besought his favor. With a seemingly involuntary movement, the veil came loose from her head and her loose hair fell in luxuriant waves over her bare shoulders and arms. Tears welled up in her eyes and her words were stifled by sighs.
But the spirit of Jehoshua arose in the soul of Pandira and gave him strength — “Go!” — he said, and as if by magic the apparition disappeared. Then the room opened and widened into a great hall, in which the brothers stood with the hierophant in their midst, and they congratulated him on his victory. Holding the hierophant’s hand, he passed through the hall of humanity and climbed the stairs into the hall of the godhead. There, his master awaited him, embraced and blessed him and transferred his power to him. Thus Ben Pandira received baptism and was united with the power of his Master; thus, through this union, he received a part of the Master’s essence and name, and henceforth was no longer called Pandira, but Jehoshua.
The Journeyman
“Whoever is smallest on earth
will be greatest in heaven.”
Jehoshua Ben Pandira had now become a “companion” (chelā) from an “apprentice” (neophyte). He could not yet be a Master, since he had overcome his passions through the power of his master, but had not yet completely cast off the earthly. This earthly is the personal self, which can only be made to disappear through the full realization of the non-self, which is the All-Self. The knowledge of God in which there is no “I” and “Thou,” is true self-knowledge; for the very core of the being from which our personality has arisen is identical with God, who is the one true being of all. The more self-delusion disappears in us, the more God emerges in us. True self-knowledge is not merely recognizing one’s faults and virtues, for these are not our selves, but true self-knowledge lies in the self-sacrifice of self with all its faults and virtues in God-consciousness. The human self is nothing, a mere appearance, and therefore its faults and virtues are only transitory and apparent states of this essentially insubstantial phenomenon, which is called the personality. The greater the self-delusion of this earthly thing, the smaller is the consciousness of God in it; but where self-conceit (ego) is smallest, there the consciousness of God can reveal itself most, and such a person will be greatest “in heaven.”
When Ben Pandira attained the power and name of Jehoshua, he knew that he had become a different and higher man. With a spiritual eye he could look back on his previous forms of existence on earth, he now knew who he was in previous lives and surveyed their events; but that he did not speak to the profane about it is easy to understand; for he could not have given the book scholars sufficient proof of the truth of such assertions.
Since he had now come into conscious possession of spiritual powers through the awakening of his spirit, it was also easy for him to understand the secrets of alchemy. He had found within his own soul the essence from which the Philosopher’s Stone could be made, and it was a matter of fixing it. But the elixir of life, which brings immortality, he had previously received from his Master, and by consuming it daily it strengthened his soul and permeated his purified body. For the preparation of this universal medicine, he gathered the heavenly dew of sublime thoughts early in the morning when they sparkled in the splendor of the rising sun of wisdom, and treated it with the fire of divine love, so that the fragrant dew rose like a sacrificial prayer and as a blessing from above came back to earth in white flakes and fertilized it. But when the sun went down and the night appeared with its cloak of stars, he shut himself up in the inner sanctuary and worked eagerly to free the collected silver from all the lower metals still clinging to it, so that only the gold of divine wisdom remained stayed. In this way Jehoshua amassed great treasures rarely found on earth today.
But his life did not always flow so peacefully. Earthly existence is a constant struggle and no peace can be made with evil. Jehoshua was also surrounded by enemies. From the room in which he lived, a stairway led down into an underground cave. More than once he was forced to climb down there. It was dark there and he could not distinguish any object; but at close range he heard hissing noises, and as he took a step forward he stepped upon a living slippery thing, which immediately twined about his body and constricted his chest so that it threatened to suffocate him. Gradually his eyes adjusted to the prevailing darkness, and he could discern the slithering forms of hideous snakes and reptiles moving about the room. Balled in hideous knots, they lay in the corners here, or crawled over the damp rocks there; they curled up his body and wrapped around his arms. Also, anyone versed in metaphysics will know that this tale is not a fairy tale. All mystics know of this type of worm, and even the Christian writer Angelus Silesius says that if man saw the beasts which cling to him, he would be loathed by his own self.
Jehoshua too, feeling that touch, was momentarily terrified, but he invoked the power of his spirit name and saw that his earthly form, exposed to that hideous embrace, was made of the same stuff; but that the reptilians could not touch his true self without his willing it, and this thought gave him the strength to consider quietly as an independent spectator whatever befell his person, without taking part in it himself. In the same way, the imagination can bring all kinds of sinful processes before the eyes of man and awaken sensual desires within him; but so long as he does not give his assent, and animate the spirits of sin with his will, he himself has no part in it, and they do not touch his heart.
Freedom appeared to him more glorious than ever as he emerged from this prison. The sun was high in the sky. The air and ether, water and light were populated with lovely, ethereal beings visible only to the immortal eye. There were innumerable fairy figures of various kinds, and those who dwelt in the higher regions, high above the earth, were of indescribable beauty. Thus, Jehoshua came to know the spirits of the four elements; not through the theories contained in books, but through personal observation and experience. Since he himself was no longer bound to his mortal body, he could accompany these beings on their flight and take part in their excursions through infinite space.
The “experts” will certainly resist these claims; but those for whom these leaves are written will find nothing improbable in them; for they know that the visible body of man is not man himself, but only the earthly shell in which he inhabits. The helpless child cannot free himself from his diapers, but the adult takes off his overcoat when he wants to move more freely. Similarly, when man’s spirit has become free through knowledge, it is no longer bound to the gross shell. On the other hand, these things are essential to so-called exact “science,” which sees everything through the lens of crude materialism, sees nothing but mechanical activity and dead matter, but fails to see the sacredness in nature. It was different with the science of the ancient Egyptians, which says:
“Holy are you, who put everything together through the word! Holy are you, whose image all nature has become! Holy are you who are copied from nature! Holy are you, who are stronger than all powers. Accept the reasonable and pure offering from my soul and from the hearts turned to you, you who are called unspeakable, ineffable, and alone in silence; we ask you that we will not be led astray from the path of knowledge.”[25]
Where in the other “exact science” is truth, love, wisdom, true knowledge, goodness, etc. to be found? One cannot weigh these things on the scales, nor measure them with a cubit; they are not discovered through the microscope or the telescope, and yet every unprejudiced child knows that these principles are not qualities created by bodies, but spiritual forces manifest in creatures and giving them their qualities. But if the “exact science” knows nothing of what is really true and constant, then it is not a true science either, but a “sham science” whose knowledge does not relate to the truth but only to appearances. Even if it knows how to correctly explain the laws of many phenomena in nature, it is still only a semblance of science, for its explanations only refer to appearances, and what is considered probable is by no means knowledge of the truth.
Little science clings to the dust of the earth and what it finds there is dust. She sits engrossed in the books in which the thoughts of others are recorded, and her famulus [servent] is imagination. She may soar to the ideal on wings of infatuation; but enthusiasm is dreaming and does not have the power to realize the ideal. Great science looks up from the books, raises its eyes on high, and beholds with its own eyes the glory of God in nature. Little science is blind, crying out for proof and relying on reasoning and deduction; great science sees; she sees and recognizes.
Ben Pandira learned the great science when his eyes were opened by the power of his Master.
(Sequel follows.)
The Master[26]
“Let’s not be someone else who can be his own.” Paracelsus
Jehoshua was first an “apprentice,” then a “journeyman,” but not yet a Master. The apprentice works for himself in order to learn something; the journeyman helps his master, but the master works for his customers. And as on the outside, so it is on the inside. Many want to be teachers who are not called to do so, since they have not yet gone through the apprenticeship years; others want to work for themselves without assisting the master; but whoever is a true master does not work spiritually for himself but for others, and by working for others he acquires the right to be a master.
But how could one stop working for himself who is still bound to the chain of selfhood? As long as the self is there, it demands its rights. All possessions bring responsibilities; whoever is connected to the Self must provide for the things. Therefore no one can become a ‘perfect’ master except through death.
But the death we are talking about is the mystical death and not the dissolution of the earthly body. Just as no one can gain freedom by burning down the house over his head and thus perishing, but by leaving the house, so the unknowing soul cannot gain knowledge by destroying his dwelling. Nor can a man be without the house, nor the soul without the body, as long as they need it; the homeless person looks for a house again and the homeless soul finds another incarnation.
These eternal truths were symbolized in the Egyptian mysteries. The third grade, the grade of the Master, was called Melanephores, and the entrance to it was through the “Gate of Death.” The chamber which the candidate entered after passing through the Gate of Death was filled with corpses, and in in the middle of it stood the sarcophagus of Osiris, covered with blood. The Parakites, i.e., the men who opened the bodies of the dead and the heroi who did the embalming were at their work. From there they went to another chamber, where the black-robed Melanephores received the candidate and brought him before the king, who spoke kindly to him, advising him not to go deeper into the mysteries, but advising him that, what he had already attained to be satisfied. He commended him for his courage and virtues and told him that he could now enjoy his achievements and retire; that he would henceforth be highly honored by all, and as a token of his esteem the king took his own crown and placed it on the candidate’s head.
If the candidate possessed wisdom enough to understand the meaning of this ceremony and to pass the test, he would throw down the crown and step on it with his foot to indicate that his wisdom and virtues were not of his own merit and not were his own, but that all goodness belongs only to God in man.
Then everyone present broke into a cry of indignation, and there was another ceremony signifying that the self in man must be utterly and irretrievably put to death if the Lord God is to celebrate his resurrection in him and reign in him alone. For similar reasons also by that mystical society which called themselves “Christians” were the letters (I. N. R. J.) placed above the symbol of the Cross, meaning: In Nobis regnate Jesus; i.e., that is, “Jesus reigns in us,” the light of the world. Anyone who can say this without telling a lie is a Christian.
While the candidate passed through the gate of death, his whole past life with all its events stood before his soul. As in a panorama, all his good and bad actions and omissions lay before his eyes.[27] The spirits of the past arose before him and the accusing spirits, urged him to return to earth to right the evil he had done; the judging spirits who restrained him on the pretext that he was not worthy to receive the dignity of the Master, the avenging spirits of past misdeeds exacted from him the unpaid tribute. If he succeeded in overcoming these spirits, then the heavenly forces would awaken within him and introduce him to the heaven of bliss. But he who failed to overcome these spirits had to remain in the Hall of Death for the remainder of his natural life, and his whole occupation was to be with the embalming and burial of the dead.
But we are not dealing here with empty symbols and lying ceremonies; but with the reality underlying these symbols. A ceremony which outwardly represents an inner process is only a comedy if one does not know, at all, the inner process which it is supposed to represent. Little is served by believing that any one cut off the head of Medusa, or that Hercules conquered the many-headed Cerberus, unless the pious believer himself cut off the head of beautiful Medusa, which is selfishness, and know only through the power of his Herculean spiritual will can he overwhelm the many-headed beast which represents self-conceit. Like many of our modern church-goers, they would gladly take the crown from the king’s head and put it on the head of themselves, for they fancy themselves to have been good and moral, clever, benevolent, virtuous, etc., and so on, and can not comprehend that the Self in them is nothing and worthless, and can accomplish nothing of its own accord, but that all its seeming good qualities are only manifestations of the power of the King, whose eternal kingdom is power and glory.
Man as such possesses nothing to call his own, and has no right to be proud of his supposed possessions; he didn’t make himself. He may be a great orator, but he has not invented or manufactured the Spirit which speaks through him, nor given himself the gift of oratory. Everything he owns is lent to him by God and nature, he can use it or abuse it, but it is not his own, he must return it with interest. His life does not belong to him, it is a revelation of the life of great nature in its individual form, which without that life is only an empty mask, an apparition; and so it is with all its natural powers, which are all the emanations, effects, or manifestations of the action of this life in its short-lived organism.
It is the same with those forces which are called “supernatural” because they spring from a higher source than the interaction of physical natural forces. Thus, spiritual self-knowledge is not a product of thought, but it is a revelation of the divine power of wisdom which is in the man’s thought which is revealed as it penetrates and enlightens his mind. The learned fool nowadays always smiles idiotically at the mention of “magic,” and yet he himself lives in a world made and inhabited by the magical enchantment of the will of nature which continually emerges from the unmanifested, and he himself is a product of that will. What would the world be without the magical power of love that binds the suns together, without the magical force of justice that keeps the world in order and to which even “science” must bow? But even these spiritual powers are not the product of man and not his property; they are the manifestations of the Spirit of God in the universe, coming to the consciousness in the individual, and they pertain not to individual appearance but to the omnipresent Spirit, just as sunlight does not belong to the glass through which it shines, but the glass gets its brightness from the light of the sun.
If you want to become a real master, you don’t have to imagine that you are a master, you have to recognize the master within yourself. When the Master grows in him and the Master takes complete possession of the disciple, then the disciple disappears in the Master; then there is no more pupil or journeyman; then the journeyman has completely become a Master. Where man ends with his self-conceit, is where God begins; where one’s own existence ends, is where the omnipresent existence of God begins; where the limited self-consciousness of man becomes one with the all-consciousness of the infinite, is where there is no longer any ignorance tied to self-delusion, which is where man rises up in the light of freedom and omniscience.
God is the light and selfhood in appearances. There is calm in the light, but the shadows fight each other. Whoever wants to come to the light must above all overcome his own shadow, and he only overcomes it by the light being revealed within him. At the entrance to the Temple of Light stands the Guardian of the Threshold, the Shadow,[28] which is the residue of previous conceptions and actions; he is the illusory self formed in the past; a product of error and sin. His home is the underworld, the realm of night, ignorance and self-made torment; his surroundings are the products of animal forces, which are given shape and form by his imagination and life by his will. They are said not to be “real,” but only imagined; but in the same sense everything we know of the world is not “real,” but contained only in our own imagination. There is only one reality, namely the truth; everything that is not true is also not real, and in this sense our own personal existence is not real either, but only a figment of the imagination; but as long as we ourselves are only imaginary creations, the imaginary creations that surround us also appear to us as reality; God alone is the truth and can know the truth. The modern “enlightened” theologian says “a big word calmly” when he says that there is no hell and that hell only exists within us. It is true that not only hell exists, but everything we know of the world exists only in our own imagination and feeling, but is nevertheless really there for us. The forces that are at work in us work outwards and produce living images within us, which present themselves objectively to the soul and are just as real for the soul as the physical appearances in nature are for sensory perception. The devils as well as the angels that man creates are really there for the soul, only for the spirit of God they are nothing.
The self cannot be conquered by any theoretical discussion and by any mere ceremony, but only by deed. Therefore Jehoshua could not be made a Master by any outward initiation, but had to learn to work for others before he could attain the “password,” which is the self-awareness of immortality.
The Wisdom Religion
“Take the bandage from your angel, break the slave chain, seize the torch of reason, and search the dark vaults of mysteries.”
Eckartshausen.
If an Affenpinscher[29] can perform more astounding feats than a farm dog, it is not because the former can produce greater wisdom than the latter, but because the Affenpinscher possesses a better organization for such training than the farm dog. The human animal can also be trained, and often attains a high degree of training by accumulating a great deal of knowledge in its brain. But just as the Affenpinscher does not invent any tricks of his own accord, but someone has to teach them to him first, and just as the scholar knows nothing but what he has been taught, so also the wise man has no other knowledge than that which he has not invented himself, but which has become his knowledge through the revelation of the truth within him.
That there is such an inward cognition which is derived from no tradition and is not composed of accepted theories and conclusions, but is based on nothing other than itself, i.e., based on personal experience and knowledge, there are few who know about it and only a few who can understand it. That is why the everyday critics who write lengthy and complicated commentaries on the works of the ancient sages believe that the teachings of the sages contain cleverly elaborate theories, and they berate the sages, praising them only for their cunning and sophistry.
But even if today there are many scholars but only a few sages, the truth is eternal and uncreated and always the same, and at all times there have been individuals who were gifted and “endowed” in whom the truth was revealed and who were accordingly enabled to proclaim it. From this direct knowledge, which because it comes from above, is also called divine inspiration, sprang the wisdom religion or “theosophy,” which was also known in ancient Egypt and taught in the temples of Isis.
Therefore, before proceeding with our narrative, which is of little value as it relates to the experiences of a single man, it will be well to glance at the outline of these doctrines, though it is impossible to do so in a few words, to describe a truth which encompasses the entire world.
Jehoshua ben Pandira, too, learned more through the flowering of his own understanding than through external instruction, though the latter helped to dispel the clouds of error which prevented the light from illuminating his mind. The more he attained purity of soul, the more the truth could be reflected in his heart. As the lotus bud unfolds into a blossom and flower under the warming influence of sunlight, so too was his soul quickened by the power of universal love, and the light of divine wisdom enlightened his mind. He saw in his own inner being the processes which take place throughout eternity in the great whole of the universe. He recognized himself as the creator in his own little world and God as the creator in the universe. He knew from his own experience that he could remain undisturbed even within himself and yet create worlds of thought-pictures in his soul without being moved by them, although he himself was the mover of his creations, and he realized that what is in the great is also in the small, and below is like above, because below is a miniature image of what is in the above.
The more his spirit rose above the world of terrestrial forms and increased in size, the further was his spiritual perception extended, and he could penetrate not only with the eye of imagination but with the eye of the spirit, the depths of the universe. There, he never found death, but only a constant change of forms; appearances varied, the workings of life manifested themselves in various ways, but life itself always remained what it was eternally.
He saw this life in the mirror of the entirety of nature and therefore recognized the world as a living being in which innumerable smaller worlds arose and passed away, and he understood that just as every small world has its definite periods of waking and sleeping, so too does it take place for the greater world, where there are periods of activity and periods of inactivity. He saw that every time there is a period of waking, lasting through untold periods of time, it is followed by a “night of creation” of similar duration, during which all things enter into the unmanifest and rest in God, just as thoughts rest in man when he is not thinking, without man losing his knowledge. Thus he saw how all of nature rests in eternity until “in the beginning” God awakens again to objective existence, and through endless space the creative Word resounds:
“Let there be light!”
(Sequel follows.)
Temptation[30]
“The sons of heaven saw that the daughters of the earth were beautiful, and they united with them, and the earth became their home.”
(From The Secret Doctrine.)
The secret doctrine, the secret of which consists in the fact that, despite all explanations, it will remain an eternal secret for all those who are not capable of a higher conception and world view than the everyday, teaches us that as the human-like but still animal creatures of nature, those degree of development to serve as sheaths, abodes and tools for the higher intelligence that the higher intelligences in the universe “overshadowed” them, incarnated in and enlivened them.
Thus the “sons of light” were deceived by the “daughters of the night,” following the law of necessity; for without the combination of spirit and force, spirit would have had no power, and force (matter) would have had no spirit (intelligence). The spirit is the male (producing) principle, the force (the will) the female, giving birth. The will or power without spirit has no higher intelligence, and must be penetrated, guided, and enlightened by spirit, and therefore obedient to spirit, until it has attained intelligence enough of itself to find its way alone; when the all-seeing spirit is subjected to blind matter, its sight is lost. “Wisdom is spirit, earthly understanding is matter”; the mind must allow itself to be penetrated by the spirit of wisdom in order to come to cognition.
If the earthly mind wants to dominate eternal wisdom, it becomes folly, as we see it in everyday life. Thus, the great spectacle of the world is played out in the lessor, and the life of the individual is a symbol of life in the whole universe. In the great as in small, there is no victory without a struggle, and the devil[31] thus becomes man’s savior when man has overcome him. Let us descend from the throne of our self-conceit and consider human beings (not excluding our own ego) not as independent beings isolated from the whole, but as personifications of various natural forces, spiritual principles and intelligences; If we strip off the mask of personality so that only the individual character appears as a symbol of certain qualities in the organism of the whole, then from the actions of the individual we can recognize the spiritual currents in the universe, whose representatives the individuals are. Then we no longer have anything to do with the person of an individual, except insofar as the individual appearance is an external expression of the processes taking place as a whole. Then all personal relationships and considerations stop; the sage no longer appears to us as a man possessing wisdom, but as a spiritual organism through which wisdom is revealed, and we do not praise him, but only wisdom.
We cannot then blame the stupid for his stupidity, but recognize in him a blind natural force in which the intellect has not yet developed. The “scribe” or scholar of letters need not be offended if we depict him as he is; for we do not concern ourselves with his person, but see in him only a plastic representation of that general principle which is called the earthbound intellect, which knows nothing of the light of truth and does not want to know anything because it does not recognize it. The Pharisee is not a person to us, other than a personification of the principle of hypocrisy and self-conceit. John the Baptist is not an individual human being, but an embodiment of reason, which must precede knowledge, but is not yet knowledge itself, and even in Jesus of Nazareth himself, whether he lived as a person or not, we do not consider the person to be essential, but rather the world-redeeming principle presented to us in the person, namely the knowledge of God. The characters in our narrative, as well as all personal occurrences in world history, are but puppets set in motion by the forces and qualities which they represent. In themselves they have no value.
Once knowledge had been born through the light of truth in the earthly mind, and the mind had matured in order for enlightenment to show through this light, it sought to spread and to enlighten, to transfigure, and to bring all intellectual powers under its control.
Returning to our semi-symbolic narrative:
After earning the second degree in the Secret Fraternity in Egypt, Jehoshua returned to Palestine to teach his countrymen and to help them rise out of the state of degradation in which they found themselves. There was no help for them other than him; for he himself was “the true light which enlightens every man who comes into the world.” This light appeared among them hidden under the mask of Ben Pandira, and since they could not see this light, he spread its teachings through his word. If people had been able to see and recognize the truth for themselves, he would not have been needed to teach them anything.
Even then reason was among men and taught them; but reason “was not itself the light,” but should only bear witness to the light that shone upon it. Likewise there was also a man sent by God, named John,[32] who was not himself wisdom, but was able to bear witness to the wisdom which was revealed in him, and a number of people known by the name of the “Nazarenes” who on the east side of the Jordan River, near the lake of Liberia, followed his voice and recognized him as their prophet. Like every other human being, he was an appearance and therefore not a reality; but the laugh that came to him was the essence, the truth itself. This man was of the tribe of Levites, from which the priests were elected, but the Pharisees regarded him as an apostate of their order, which is not surprising, since reason seldom conforms to orthodox dogma, and he therefore his ecclesiastical position gave up with all their sports and benefits and chose a life of poverty. Wrapped in rough skins he strode along; his noble face was overshadowed by shaggy hair and beard; his appearance was awesome, and his words resounded in the hearts of men like thunder in the crags of Lebanon.
“Repent!” he cried, “behold, the day of judgment, the day of knowledge, is at hand. Do not seek your salvation in sensual pleasures, nor content yourselves with the belief in theories, hypotheses, opinions, and proofs, but see and know the truth itself through the power of obedience, which takes away the sins of the world; because he who obeys the law of truth commits no sin. I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness; prepare the way of the Lord!”
Thus cried John, and many heeded his call, and the wilderness was thereby transformed into a garden, in a manner similar to how it was in the beginning, when “the earth was waste and empty,” order came into chaos, and the upper parted from the lower, when the light of wisdom appeared throughout creation. And reason watered wisdom with the water of devotion, for otherwise it would not have had its presence recognized; but wisdom baptized reason with the fire of love alone, and made it immortal by giving it knowledge.
Even today reason, which is not penetrated by love, is not capable of true knowledge, and one has to speak to it in fables and parables, because it cannot see the truth without a mask; for truth is clarity, and that which is clear and transparent is invisible and not manifest unless it appears in some visible form, and short-sighted reason often sees only the form and not the truth itself.
The voice of reason resounded through the whole realm of reason, even to the throne of King Herod, who was self-conceit personified, so to speak. The king heard the voice of the prophet, which sounded like the lion’s roar in the desert, but he would not obey it; for she commanded him to forsake the beautiful Herodias, a daughter of lust, and being weary of the warnings of the prophet, he had him taken prisoner, and thought of suffocating him. But he feared to get rid of reason altogether, dreading the judgment which the prophet had announced to him, believing that if disaster should come upon him, reason would in the end save him. Therefore he did not drive the prophet out of his kingdom entirely, but only locked him up in an underground dungeon. But when reason lost its freedom, the light of wisdom could no longer reveal itself and therefore withdrew into solitude, into its own being.
There are deserts in the heart of Judea, where the sun sends its scorching rays down on the treeless wilderness, where during the dry season only bare rocks stare at us, and not a drop of water is to be found among the pebbles of the dried-up riverbeds. There is no life there. At most, a snake glides silently between the stones and the eagle, circling high in the air, lies in wait for it. There are also deserts in the human soul where there is no knowledge and only a jumble of opinions and theories can be found; where hope is silent and in the endless emptiness the heart yearns in vain for a drop of truth, and nothing stirs but perhaps the serpent of desire and the eagle chasing after it. There, the languishing wanderer often believes oases and lakes and fish. Sources to see, and when he approaches, instead of reality he finds only a mirage, an illusion.
Into such a desert Jehoshua withdrew after the capture of the Prophet, and fought the battle with self which must be fought without ceasing in the great world as well as in the small; for truth and falsehood cannot live together in harmony; the life of one is the death of another.
When Jehoshua first felt his calling as world savior, the devil of the “I” appeared before him out of the earth, and assuming the form of sensuality, he came up to him, whispered in his ear, and said:
“Mighty one! If you want to save mankind, make these stones become bread, teach people the art of magic, awaken in them the dormant spiritual powers, and thereby give them, the foolish, the power to make the divine serve their selfish ends . Don’t you hear how they cry out to God in their temples to induce him to do their will, how they try to deceive him with pretenses and promises, with outward sacrifices to bribe him, even with threats to intimidate him so that he will serve, satisfy their desires, and perform for them the duties they do not wish to perform themselves? Make them comfortable, so that without work they can have plenty of wealth and transgress the laws of nature without harm to their health. Teach them the art of conquering without fighting, becoming wise without learning, and making the spirit subservient to matter, and you will be praised by all.”
But Jehoshua’s soul rose above the “I” and its temptations and said: “The “I” is a vain delusion and transitory with all its possessions. If the spirit were subjected to the self, it would lose its immortality and perish with it. How could the truth conquer the lie if it were its servant? If evil were to become the master of good, it would ultimately annihilate itself. No knowledge is gained by idleness, and no strength is gained without overcoming weakness. Ignorance cannot overcome itself; there is no salvation from it other than the power of knowledge.”
Then the tempter assumed the shape of science and raised his voice and said: “How will you prove to people which knowledge is the right one? Throw yourself off the pinnacle of the temple in your Jerusalem, work miracles, and they will believe in your evidence.”
To this, Jehoshua replied: “Men should not believe merely in proofs that the truth exists, but they should learn to know the truth in and of itself. Divine Wisdom is too sublime for the limited human mind to comprehend; the great, infinite spirit cannot be constrained into narrow forms; he would thereby lose his freedom. The noble does not humble itself; whoever wants to recognize it must rise to it and climb to the top of the temple. You don’t need a lantern to find the light of the sun; divine wisdom is recognized not in the light of theoretical speculation, but by its own light. Whoever rises to this light recognizes it without any proof, but the best proof does not yet give the blind a knowledge of the light.
When the self received this answer, it showed itself in its true form and said: “Will you then take away the crutches on which sick humanity is limping? Do you want to destroy the playthings that make mankind happy, and wake them from the dream that delights them? Men do not demand liberty while they are slaves to folly. Overthrow the throne of their superstitions and slay their tyrant, and tomorrow they will have another lord to rule them. To what could man adhere but to the prescribed opinions, since he cannot stand on his own two feet? They will give you little thanks for the truth, which they cannot grasp after all. Let the lie rule them, they will welcome it. Fasten their shackles and they will cheer you on. Give them a well-received authority on which they can rely and sleep peacefully. Behold I am the devil of self; my kingdom extends over the whole world. Fall down before me and worship me. Sacrifice Your Highness to me and unite Yourself with me, then the people will crawl in the dust before us and you will be the ruler of the world by my power.”
As the devil spoke these words, he increased in size, and his form appeared like an immense dark cloud which spread over the whole earth, and through which no ray of light could penetrate. She ruled the world, and even among those who sought truth there was none who loved it for its beauty and goodness, and not for the advantages which it brought him; for the few who did not love their own self above all else had grown beyond the dark cloud and were no longer human but gods.
But just as Jehoshua looked deeper into the hearts of men, he saw that the love of self was only an attribute of the heart’s outer covering, and that within each lay a spark of truth. He saw that in kindling this spark into a flame by the breath of unselfish love, it spread a light which was true knowledge, and that nothing but the delusion of selfhood stood in the way of this spiritual development. Then the deity in the heart of Jehoshua rose up and said to the devil of self, “Get away, Satan, and stand behind me,” meaning that man should heed the truth first and then himself. When Jehoshua spoke these words, the light of knowledge pierced the clouds of ignorance and the devil of self shrank until at last he vanished into his own nothingness.
Then the angels of heaven appeared and brought him spiritual nourishment and showered him with such immeasurable treasures that he no longer felt the loss of his self-delusion.
(Sequel follows.)
The Sermon on the Mount[33]
Also in science there is no clarity
without the knowledge of the truth.
Science deals with external appearances, philosophy with probabilities, and Theosophy with the inner life in which truth is revealed; it is the knowledge of truth itself and teaches nothing other than itself; it does no rely on evidence; if the truth is known, then the knowledge is there. With that, all has been said.
Ben Pandira had now become strong, having repressed the delusion of selfhood by the indwelling power of Jehoshua; knowledge had come to him, and he now felt the calling to proclaim its teachings. Formerly, he had felt the presence of the Spirit of Truth as a blind man feels the warmth of sunlight, though he cannot see the light itself, but now his eyes were opened; it had become clear in his mind, and he recognized the light that illuminated his soul. Love and understanding had united in him, and from these two came the light through which the truth was revealed to him. Thus, he was imbued with the spirit of truth, and he recognized that spirit as his true eternal Self, which is the one path to immortality for all men.
He taught in many towns and villages of Galilee; indeed, a ray of knowledge penetrated into all branches of science and philosophy as soon as the truth appeared. The calm and the light which reigned within him filled his whole being and even transfigured his outer appearance. He wandered from place to place and awakened the dormant memories of long-forgotten spiritual teachings, and where he appeared, love awoke and from this arose knowledge; even through the closed doors of human hearts the spirit of truth penetrated; but when the synagogues denied him entry, he chose the great outdoors as his auditorium, and the stars in the sky bore witness to him. Nor did he utter many words, and needed no ramblings of speech, for the word of truth spoke through him. He didn’t need to collect ideas and piece them together into new thoughts; for everything he taught was permeated by the one idea which can be expressed in the few words: “Man, know thyself!”
Among the orators of this world there are many human parrots who only mechanically repeat the phrases they have been taught, without understanding their meaning; others take theories invented by clever people from the junk room of the imagination, pick out what seems prettiest to them, and construct a new toy from it to amuse the public; still others are made to speak by a strange spirit which they themselves do not know, and not knowing it they do not know whether it is the spirit of truth or of falsehood; but anyone who is united with the spirit of truth through the power of knowledge also recognizes it, for this spirit is itself. So the bird in the forest does not need a schoolmaster to teach it to sing by means of a barrel organ, and in whom the word who speaks the truth does not need to be played with beforehand. When the heart feels the truth, thoughts spring from it, and from thoughts comes the word. Then the ear hears the words, the mind grasps the thoughts, but the spirit contained therein is only recognized by the spirit. Blessed are those who do not need to listen to external words, but in whom the truth itself sits on the mountain of faith and teaches them through its own word.
Perhaps it is worthwhile taking a closer look at what Jehoshua taught on the mountain.
In the Greek translation of an old Syrio-Chaldean manuscript we find the following about this [34]:
- But when Jesus saw the crowd, he went up a high mountain, and after sitting down, his disciples came to him.
When all the intellectual powers of man were striving to know the truth, the truth appeared on the peak of the mountain of faith, and having taken possession of the highest region of the soul, the most sacred sentiments gathered around it.
- And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
Then the heart of man opened and the light enlightened the mind and the voice of wisdom spoke:
The breath of God in the universe is spiritual love, and without possessing it there is no true knowledge. The kingdom of God will not reveal itself in the soul through dreams and ravings, nor through suppositions and delusions, or through drawing conclusions, but only through awakening to the consciousness of immortality.
- Immortal are those who mourn, for they will be cared for.
When the soul, after having been imprisoned in the sensual for many millennia, becomes aware of its degradation, redemption is already at hand; for without the awakening of the redeeming power of knowledge of God she could not have felt and understood her state of humiliation.
- Immortal are those who rest; for they will be heirs to the kingdom of the earth.
The stillness of the soul is freedom from all desires and passions. Only in a calm soul can the image of God be reflected in its clarity.
- Immortal are those who hunger and thirst for righteous conduct[38]; for their desire shall be satisfied.
Just to walk is the fulfillment of duty. Anyone who earnestly desires to fulfill his duty also fulfills it according to the degree of his knowledge, and his knowledge increases through the fulfillment of his duty.
- Immortal are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
True mercy springs from selfless love, which is the knowledge of the unity of God in all creatures. It is therefore a spiritual power belonging to immortal man, and in whom it fills, his soul is immortal in it.
- Immortal are those who are pure in heart, for they will see the highest.[39]
Whoever is pure in heart is free from selfishness and is “superhuman.” He already has the clarity of soul in which the flower of knowledge unfolds through the light of truth, like the lotus flower on a still pond.
- Immortal are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.
Those soul forces which have come to rest through knowledge are at peace and belong to the immortal part of human nature. Satisfaction is the way to knowledge.[40]
- Immortal are those who were exiled for the sake of justice, for their home is the overworld.
Banished are those who, in order to help humanity, voluntarily descend to earth and take human form (incarnate) there. They do not belong to this world but to the overworld.[41]
- You are immortal if you are reviled and banished, and all sorts of bad things are falsely spoken of against you for my sake.
Truth is always crucified and banished on earth; but precisely this persecution by ignorance strengthens the higher self-consciousness, ie., the trust in God.
- Rejoice and be glad; for your reward will be great in the world above; for thus were the prophets who were before you persecuted.
The reward is union with those high spirits (mahātmas) who have overcome the folly of the world and are united among themselves by the unity of the purpose they pursue. As the sun is untouched by one of its rays shining in a pool of dirt, so the spirit is only like an unconcerned spectator high above all material things.
- You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt becomes tasteless, what will be salted with? It’s good for nothing but to be thrown away and trampled on by people.
The salt of the earth is the light of wisdom in the higher soul forces, which, as intuition, also penetrates the lower intellectual powers. If the mind, born of dust, seeks to take hold of the eternal truths represented in images and allegories, and adapt them to its own limitations, the high and noble will lose their beauty and the salt their taste. A science without spirit is folly, and a mere intellectual religion, lacking in sentiment, is of no value. A belief based only on calculation is lifeless.[42]
- You are the light of the world. A city which is on the mountains cannot be hidden.
The upper soul-forces permeated by the light of wisdom are the light which illuminate the lower soul-forces, in the microcosm as well as in the macrocosm. Divine wisdom is not hidden from anyone who does not hide from it. But if you only look at the earth, you cannot see heaven.
- Nor is a lamp lighted to be put under a bushel, but to be put on a stand, that it may give light to all in the house.
It is not enough to be aware that one has some degree of spiritual knowledge, but rather the will and thoughts should be constantly directed to the Divine, that the spark may become light and enlighten the whole soul.
- So also, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good (magical) works, and increase the glory of your Father who is in the world above.
Since man himself is nothing from a spiritual point of view, he cannot produce anything good out of his own will, and only what he does with the power of wisdom which has become manifest in him is good. But this power is the property of his “Father in the world beyond,” i.e. of the incarnate spirit in him, of which his earthly appearance is representative, and what “God” accomplishes in us and through us increases his own power and glory.
- Do not think that I have come to abolish the forms of the law or inspiration (the prophets). I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.
The truth is revealed through the form. It is not a question of destroying the form, but of recognizing the spirit in it. Nor is the mind to be abolished, but to be enlightened.
- Amen![43] for I say unto you, till the firmament and the earth passes away, not one letter or accent shall pass from the law, till all have come to pass.
As long as there are forms which are subject to the law of karma, the law of karma will operate and create new forms when the old ones have become useless.
These are some of the teachings which the Spirit of Truth proclaimed on the Mount of Faith. The disciples listened devoutly, and Ben Pandira found that whatever the truth taught was really nothing new, quite self-evident and requiring no proof once properly understood. Yet these teachings cannot be repeated often enough and engraved in memory; for the mind caught up in the sensuous is only too inclined to forget them again or to ignore them. Nor is their remembrance of any real value until these teachings are followed and their precepts practiced. In this alone consists the practical occult science, that one brings to realization in oneself by deed, the eternal truth, which one feels and recognizes in the inner heart. It then becomes a living force in the human being, which serves as nourishment for the soul. Just as a hungry person is not satisfied by knowing what is on the menu, so the soul cannot be strengthened by a mere knowledge of theory. Without the inward assimilation of the truth, all mere knowledge is but a haze.
But whoever has absorbed this teaching and accordingly realized the truth within himself, has no need of instructions to which he needs to direct himself, because he directs himself according to the truth, itself, which has become his own being and the truth himself expresses himself in his willing, thinking and speaking and in his actions. It is not by external words and decrees made by men, but by the knowledge of the truth itself, which has become the law in him, he is taught what to do and what not to do. Jesus is still sitting on the mountain of faith and speaks the following words to everyone who wants to hear him:
“Do not imagine that your own self is better than that of other men, but recognize yourselves as instruments of the divine power within you and ascribe all good, not to yourselves, but to the power of good which is manifest in you; for the self belongs to mortality and selflessness to immortality, and unless your good deeds surpass in selflessness those of the hypocrites and Pharisees, who are accustomed to acting in self-delusion, you will not enter the kingdom of the overworld.
“Whoever recognizes his own eternal nature as a unity in all creatures will not kill any living thing; for he knows that he who destroys a living form thereby destroys part of the revelation of his own spiritual life. Also, when he sees his own true Self in others, he will not hate anyone, for his hatred would then rebound on himself.”
“One who has made an obligation cannot have his debt forgiven until the last penny is paid; for otherwise justice would not be just to itself. But when the debt is paid, it is forgiven.”
“Whoever looks at falsehood to lust after it has already broken his connection with the truth in his heart; for the truth is known only to those who love it with all their heart. Only what is true in man can know the truth; appearance pays homage to appearance.”
Such and similar are the laws which truth teaches. The “Christians,” i.e., to those upper soul forces who are permeated by the spirit of truth, these teachings are of themselves clear, but to the “Jews,” i.e., to the lower minds, who do not see the truth directly, but seek it in a roundabout way, these teachings must first be explained and expounded, and their truth proved. Truth is simple and it knows itself, but it embraces the whole world and its full knowledge requires the investigation of all its laws at all levels of existence; because the whole universe is a revelation of eternal reality.
(Sequel follows)
The Teachings of the Spirit of Self-Knowledge.[44]
The truth needs no explanation, it is clear to everyone as soon as he recognizes it. But we need the explanation so that we are able to recognize it.
There are a lot of things which are true because they contain truth, but only one absolute truth. Truth is reality. What is real is true; what only seems to be true is not real. To recognize the truth means to recognize in all things what their real essence is, and to distinguish it from mere appearance, and this essence is only recognized by what is true and real and essential in man. Truth is free and no one can see it unless it reveals itself in him. No one can reveal the truth to another unless it is revealed to himself. No one can speak the truth, for no one has it in his possession; one can say what one believes to be true, or describe what one knows to be true; but the truth itself is not subject to anyone, it expresses itself by revealing itself. “Good is good and evil is evil,” these are doctrines which spring from the knowledge of truth, and which no sane man can deny. They are true, but they are not the truth itself, only its teachings, and they cease to be true as soon as they refer to anything in particular; for under certain circumstances good is evil, and even evil becomes good by serving its purpose. No man can make, invent, or own the truth; he possesses it no more than infinite space; it belongs to him only in so far as he is in it, and as a small body occupies a small space, and a large one a large one, so only a great mind can comprehend a large area of eternal truth; the infinite truth encompasses only the self-recognizing soul which has become completely selfless, i.e., infinity itself.
As incomprehensible as it may seem to the man caught in the limitations of his own nature, there have always been great and selfless souls who have appeared on earth in human form and who are called world-wise because in them the one eternal truth resides reflected and revealed through them. Such appearances were Gautama Siddharta, Sankaracharya [Śaṅkarācharya], Plato, Pythagoras, Hermes, Krishna, Confucius and innumerable others whose names are known and unknown in history. In all such forms, however, it is not the appearance which gives us their personal opinions at best, but the one eternal and indivisible truth, which has reached self-knowledge in these persons and speaks through them, and therefore this divine revelation is also allowed at all times, though different in the form of expression, yet essentially one and the same. That the blind ignorance, of which the learned critic is the personification, cannot understand this is easy to explain; for he cannot rise above the limitations which self-conceit imposes upon him; all his wisdom consists in patchwork theories and hypotheses; he lives in the realm of error and probability, but does not know the truth; because he is unable to feel them. Crushed by the force of vanity, and shriveled by the constricting force of self-conceit, crystallized and hardened in his self-delusion, his soul cannot rise to the Eternal; she needs the dissolving power of love before she can feel infinity. The transitory cannot grasp the immortal, the limited cannot grasp freedom. That is why Rückert says:
“Eternity embraces eternity alone,
What eternity thinks in me must be immortal.”[45]
Ben Pandira, too, was nothing more than a personal appearance, and what he believed or disbelieved would not have interested us; but in him truth had become self-knowledge, and in him had given birth the “son” whom we call Jehoshua, and thereby Ben Pandira had himself become Jehoshua and a mirror of truth, through which truth could speak and be revealed, as she did through Krishna, Gautama, Hermes, etc. The teachings which Pandira proclaimed were therefore not his own, but the teachings of truth revealed to him by the spirit of Self-knowledge.[46]
Far be it from us to want to prove anything to the learned critic; we don’t want to disturb him in his dreams. But in order to assist the truthful reader in discerning the identity of meaning of the doctrines contained in the “holy scriptures” of different peoples, we make some comparisons; It should also be noted that for this purpose it is more a matter of correctly reproducing the meaning of the original text than just translating the grammatically correct individual words. A Beethovenian symphony, fiddled on a wooden rasp, would hardly be able to be properly expressed, and a set of words which may sound very beautiful in Sanskrit easily loses its meaning in the same set in our modern languages, however much it may irritate the wooden philologist, who only sees words but does not recognize the spirit. In order to recognize the spirit which permeates the words of the teachings of truth, it is necessary to consult not only the dictionary but also this spirit itself.
The truth speaks:
- “Of all men who take refuge in me, the wise one who in unbroken devotion devotes himself entirely to me is the foremost; for the wise man loves me more than anything, and I love him. He is like my own self; for in his love he dwells in me, who am his ultimate goal.” (“Bhagavad Gita,” XII, 17 and 318.)
- “Arise and embrace me with your whole being, and whatever you wish to learn I will show you.” (Hermes, II, 3.)
- “He who rises to the highest regions of thought and gathers himself within attains great bliss.” (Dhammapada.)
- “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” (Matthew XXII, 37.)
The eternal is immortal.
- “There was not a time when I was not, nor you, nor these rulers of men (the Sons of Light), nor shall any of us all cease to be. Just as in this present body childhood, youth and old age are only transient qualities of the embodied, so it will also be in subsequent phenomena of existence. The immortal reappears in other forms. That which is immaterial has no true being, and what is real never ceases to be; but only the wise can distinguish between the imperishable and what only seems to be.” (“Bhagavad Gita,” II, 12–16.)
- “The eternal source of all things is God, the essence of which is eternity, and from this is the substance of this world. The power of God is eternity and the work of eternity is the world, which did not just exist once, but is still all the time of eternity, which is why it will never pass away; for eternity is immortal; just as nothing of the essence of things that are in the world shall perish, because eternity comprehends the essence of the world.” (Hermes, II, 50.)
- “All creatures that have life will shed their composite form, which is a sum total of mental and material qualities that give them their transient individuality in the unseen or visible world. (What is born dies, but the reason from which all things are born is eternity.)” (Mahā-Parinibbāna-Sūtta, VI, 15.)
- “Before the mountains were begotten, and before the earth and the world were created, from everlasting to everlasting thou art God.” (Psalms, XC, 2.) — “Before Abraham was, I am.” (John, VIII, 58.)—By the word of Jehovah the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host. (Psalms XXXIII, 6.)
Thus, the Eternal and Imperishable is the essence of all things; but a thing is not God until it has attained to Self-consciousness of its inherent divine nature. But when it enters the All-Consciousness of the Divine Being, by realizing the truth which is revealed in it, it ceases to be “one thing” and recognizes itself as the essence of everything. It is a small light in the big light, which rises up in the big light and differs from this in nothing.
- “In union with Brahm (the Eternal Self) the soul of the sage finds eternal rest. Nothing grieves him and he has no desire for anything. He is the same for all beings and attains supreme submission in Me. Through this entry into Me he attains my own self-knowledge, my nature, my truth, my being, my greatness; and if in reality he fully knows Me, then he is also fully in Me.” (“Bhagavad Gita,” XVIII, Z4-55.)
- “God is the soul of eternity, eternity is the soul of the world, heaven is the soul of earth. God as Father is the light and life of which man is made. Therefore, if you want to get to know yourself and know that you were born of the light, you will enter this light and life again.” (Hermes, II, 50.)
- “When the palace of righteousness was completed and the lotus pool of purity made, the great king of glory made his entrance.” (Mahā Sudanana Sutta, I, 92.) — If you follow the path of light, you will find the end of suffering.” (Dhammapada, 275.)
- “You also are filled with him who is the head of all power and authority.” (Colossians, II, 10.) “Whoever sees me, sees the Father, for the Father is in me and I in him. I and the Father are one.” (John, X, 30.)
This light of knowledge is the Redeemer of the world; it is to be found within ourselves.
- “Brahma is the light in all things that have light and is above all darkness. He is knowing, knowing and knowing. He dwells in everyone’s heart. Exalted above all creatures, he dwells in all; unmoved in itself, it moves (through its powers) in its nature. He is far and yet near.” (“Bhagavad Gita,” XIII, 15, 16.)
- “The Creator dwells in all things, and not in a few alone; neither does he alone make some, but all things. His effective power is sufficient to make all things that are made under him. — When the soul has learned to know its own origin, it has intense love and forgetfulness of all evil.” (Hermes, V, 8.)
- “Whoever knows that this body is foam, and has come to know that it is empty like a mirage, shall break the point of Mara’s (lust) flower-crowned arrow and shall not see the Lord of Death.” (Dhammapada, 46.)
- “He was the true light that enlightens every human being that comes into the world.” (John, 9.) “Christ in us is the mystery of redemption, the hope of this glory.” (Colossians, I, 27.)
It is one’s own immortal life in every human being, and is therefore not outside of oneself for everyone, but within him.
- “In the body of each in which it has incarnated it is immortal. Therefore you should not mourn for any being.” (“Bhagavad Gita,” II, 30.)
- “Man is mortal in personality, but immortal in eternal nature.” (Hermes, II, 26.)
- “Blessed is the resurrection of the awakened. Even the gods envy one who has come to the consciousness of his divine existence.” (Dhammapada, II, 20.)
- “I live, not I, but Christ lives in me.” (Galat, II, 20.) — “Whoever has the Son of God has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” (I John, V, 12.)
All outward appearances are only an ephemeral appearance.
- “Fools indulge in unctuous phrases and waste their time in vain opinions. They follow religious observances to gain power and prestige, and their knowledge does not come from knowing the truth.” (“Bhagavad Gita,” II, 42.)
- “The earthly brings no advantage to the heavenly; but the heavenly brings profit to all that is on earth. For the ungodly man I am far away, making way for avenging demons.” (Hermes, II, 56.)
- “Driven by fear, people seek refuge in all sorts of places; they seek shelter in mountains and forests, sacred groves and trees. But this is not the right refuge. The frivolous man, though he can utter many words of the law and yet does not act according to them, is like the shepherd who counts other people’s oxen but does not own any himself” (Dhammapada, 188.)
- “Not all who say to me: Lord! Mister! enter the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew, vii, 31.)
Therefore renounce deception and know reality by deed.
- “When your soul has traversed the tangled paths of the world of appearances and deception, you will no longer concern yourself with what appears to be and is deceptive. If your mind, having strayed from the path of truth by what you have heard or read from others, returns and is established in the knowledge of the truth, you will attain immortality.” (“Bhagavad Gita,” II, 53.)
- “You must make yourself (by overcoming the delusion of “self”) immeasurable, and come out of all your shells. You must rise above all time and all ephemeral, and become eternity. Then when you know yourself, your true essence, as the essence of all things, you will understand God. You must become higher than all highs and lower than all lows; for unless you can make yourself equal to God, you cannot understand him, because he is only of his equal, i.e., by himself, is understood.” (Hermes, II, 78.)
- “Devotion without knowledge is nothing, and knowledge is not attained without devotion. (One arises from the other.) Whoever has both is close to nirvana.” (Dhammapada, 372.)
- “He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for without me (without the spirit of self-knowledge in you) you can do nothing.” (John, xv. 5.)
Take up the teachings of wisdom and follow them.
- “Whoever wants to be one with God should always practice submission to God; his dwelling place should be within himself. He should become the master of his thoughts and feelings and control himself without expecting any reward (in this world or the hereafter) for himself, and not be attached to anything external. (“Bhagavad Gita,” VI, 10.)
- “Why do you surrender to death when you have the power to partake of immortality? O you dust-born men who have given yourselves up to numbness, to sleep, and to ignorance of the truth! Sober up and stop overeating; otherwise the animal and unreasonable sleep will overtake you!” (Hermes, II, 75.)
- “Always awake, Gotama’s disciples carry Buddha (the light of knowledge) in their hearts day and night. Just as a frontier fortress is defended from within and without, so everyone should protect his will and thoughts and not let them escape for a moment; because whoever misses the right time will be harmed. (Dhammapada, 318.)
- “Truth does not come in the soul of a wicked man, nor dwell in a body that submits to sin.” (Wisdom, I, 4.) — “That which is born (in you) of God conquers the world.” (I John, V, 4.) “I will give you a new heart and a new spirit, and take away the heart of stone from your flesh.” (Hes., XI, 19.)
The truth will be revealed to those who love it.
- “Whoever sees Me in everything and everything in Me, I will not forsake him and he will not forsake Me. Whoever recognizes Me in every being dwells in Me. One who is united with Brahma by devotion sees all in one; he sees the soul in everything and everything in the soul. I am the origin of everything, the whole universe springs from me. The wise, who recognize Me, worship Me.” (“Bhagavad Gita,” VI, 30, 3, X, 8.)
- “The eternal light of knowledge, shining uninterruptedly upon and into the whole mind, enlightens the whole soul and redeems it from outward attractions. It withdraws them from the body and changes them completely into the nature of God; for it is possible, O son! to become divine while the soul still dwells in the body of man, contemplating the beauty of good” (Hermes, IV, 18.)
- “Self (the divine self) is the lord of the (earthly) self; who else could possibly be his master? You will never find a better master than when you are master of yourself.” (Dhammapada, 160.)
- “The light (of wisdom) shines in the darkness, but the darkness does not contain it.” (John, I, 5.)
These are some examples of the teachings of truth taught by the Spirit of Self-knowledge through the sages of India, Egypt, Buddhism and Christianity. But when the scribes had heard them, they knew of nothing better to do with it than to argue about which of the above religious communities they might have copied from the others; for they did not recognize that there is a personal perception and knowledge of eternal truth, and since their own wisdom was borrowed or stolen, they could not understand it either.
(Sequel follows.)
Herodias.[47]
“The truth does not do so much good in the world,
when false appearances of truth do evil.”
(La Rochefoucauld.)
There are grown-up children in the world who, when told a fairy tale, regard it as the narration of an external event which actually took place in sensible life, if they are then told that the tale is a fairy tale and not as it literally happened how it was told, they take the whole thing for a lie; because they cannot grasp the deep meaning hidden in it. But the adult, who can distinguish between the meaning of a fairy tale and its embellishment, recognizes the truth in the fictional form, and the truth does not suffer from the fact that the imagination gives it a tangible form. Perhaps we can also succeed in finding an eternal truth and to present ever-repeating facts in the form of a fairy tale:
Once upon a time there was a universal substance that filled the whole universe and from which all things were made, and yet nobody knew it because it was invisible; for though it produced all sorts of phenomena which could be seen, people saw only those phenomena, and not the substance itself, which was quite clear and transparent. This substance was also called “World Force” or “World Soul” and was permeated with life, sensation and consciousness, and as a result of the movement which took place in it, various qualities or states of being were formed in it, which combined with each other and aggregates of such forces or represented qualities which were called organisms or elementals. The forces that made up these connections were of various kinds; some behaved “good,” others “evil”; the foremost of these were wisdom, love, understanding, reason, hope, faith, justice, etc.; but there were also other no less powerful forces, such as such as selfishness, self-conceit, hatred, envy, malice, lust, passion, avarice, fear, folly, ignorance, etc., and all these qualities acted on one another, intermarried, and produced children, so that many of them had a very had numerous relatives. As these forces of the world soul interacted at certain points, a multitude of such invisible organisms arose, each representing a small world which finally became incarnate and visible, and in the end there were just as many such small worlds as there are people in the big world; In fact, these small worlds were actually called “people,” and in each of them the same forces were to be found in the small as in the large, and these forces fought each other; so that now one and now the other gained supremacy.
But in one of these worlds, if not in all, something very strange happened, namely, since all these powers were endowed with sensation and moved towards a single center in their organism, there arose in this center the sensation and the consciousness of the peculiarity; the small world imagined that it existed on its own and was different from the great world soul, because it did not know that its entire existence depended only on the momentary interaction of constantly changing natural properties, and from this false sense of self sprang the delusion of selfhood, who grew and became great, and finally ruled the whole little world as one king. This king was called “Self-conceit” by some, “Herod” by others.
At the time when this story took place, self-conceit reigned supreme in the world he inherited, and had its abode in the capital of the empire, which is commonly called “Mind,” but is sometimes called “Jerusalem.” His lawful wife was a princess of high house, and known by the name of “Unselfishness.” She was modest and unpretentious, but for that very reason self-conceit, whose nature was diametrically opposed to hers, could not be tolerated with her. He cast her out and took into his house the self-love known by the name of Herodias, a daughter of Desire, a half-brother of the king. Various properties such as, for example, justice, virtue, wisdom, benevolence, etc., discourage self-conceit from uniting with self-love; but the king’s sister, Desire, advised him to do so, and her voice decided.
Among those most opposed to this union was a God-enlightened man named “Mind,” who was considered a prophet throughout the land, and is known in history as “John the Baptist,” because he baptized the animal sensations with his thoughts and thereby made them into human sensations. Fearless and incessant, the voice of reason thundered at the gate of the palace, where Self-conceit sat on his throne. Like the roar of a lion in the desert, his voice was heard, and its echo penetrated the whole Mind and disturbed the comfort of Self-love. In vain, the Prophet threatened the king such that death and ruin would befall him as soon as the day of knowledge came. It is true that Herod was very afraid and asked the prophet by what means the enraged deity could be appeased; but when reason answered that there was no other way of doing this than abandoning Self-love, Self-conceit allowed reason to be captivated by Desire, as already described, and imprisoned it in the dungeon of error. It was not his intention to cast aside the Mind altogether, as he thought he could use it in case of need to seek advice from it; but the beautiful Herodias hated the prophet, for the reason that is was a great obstacle to Self-love, and she therefore tried to persuade the king to have the prophet murdered.
The king also began to hate Reason, all the more so when the prophet sent him admonitions from his prison through a messenger called “Conscience.” Yet Self-conceit of Self-love would not grant this wish, the more so knowing that Mind had influential relatives, and fearing that its destruction would cause great disorder and indignation throughout the land.
Now Self-love devised a plan to achieve its purpose. She had a wonderfully beautiful daughter named Salome, who was the personification of passion, and to him she communicated her intentions. Passion gladly responded to the desires of Self-love, and it was decided to carry out the plan on the wedding day, when Self-conceit combined with Self-love.
Now, in order to make our story clearer, we can confidently let the characteristics involved appear as persons, without the understanding reader accusing us of lying. After all, man himself is nothing other than a symbol of those physical, psychic, intellectual and spiritual forces which he represents and which work in him, and of which that which works in him most strongly controls him the most. None of these qualities is his true and real self; only when he finds God, who is above all these qualities and looks down at their play like an uninvolved spectator, only in this all-consciousness that is above all existence, in which the delusion of being separate from the whole, the idea of being unique and special, does not exist is, the soul finds the true divine self. Only then, when man realizes that the sum total of qualities which constitute his perishable self are not his own but are of nature, can he see what is real and immortal in his own being. But when the light of truth is gone, and understanding is in darkness, when lust controls the heart, and appearances are taken for truth, then folly has dominion over the mind; passion comes and with it the death of reason.
It was the same at the court of King Herod. A noisy crowd filled the halls of Makur Fortress. Stately warriors in shining armor, with sparkling helmets, and beautiful women, wrapped in costly garments and adorned with jewels, strode through the festively garlanded halls; Nubian and Arab slaves bustled to and fro to prepare the feast, and all arrangements were made to celebrate the king’s birthday with great splendor. A great feast of music and dancing was to take place and please the king. But down in the deepest dungeon the Prophet languished and his voice was no longer heard.
Let’s take a look at the history of that time as described in books written later:
Just as in man, the irrational animal instincts will not submit to the dominion of reason, yet reason retains its dominion when assisted by wisdom, so also Herod Antipas was an object of hatred and fear to the Jews while he in his turn despised and scorned them, for he trusted in the might of the Roman army, and as a favorite of the emperor he laughed at the murmurings of the disaffected people. Only when one or the other of these dissatisfied spirits, bolder or more ambitious than the others, came up to him and became a nuisance did he give a sign, and the noisemaker paid for his haste with a slow death on the cross, or with the milder punishment of beheading through the sword.
Self-conceit had so possessed Herod, and had become so great and powerful in him, that he had become a personification of it, and his arrogance gave constant cause for complaints, which, however, were seldom voiced, as fear kept them in check; for just as the lust for power in the king, so fear had personified itself in a certain part of his subjects, dominated them and made them cowards. The same thing happens today, not only with individuals but with entire peoples, and one can conclude from this that it is not the people themselves who produce the qualities they possess, but rather that these general principles give individuals and peoples their individual and national qualities and are granted by taking possession of them and developing their powers in them. Were the personal man responsible for his qualities, or could he produce them at will, it would be inconceivable that certain qualities should spread and become manifest among certain nations, but not among others; but we know from experience that no one can make himself good, wise, virtuous, etc., by his own efforts; at most he can strive for goodness, wisdom, virtue, etc., to have them developed in him and be revealed through him. The personalities of men, like reflections in water, are ephemeral appearances, but the forces which are embodied in them do not die. So why do we care about the story of the now dead Herod? We still have the self-conceit which he embodied among us! But perhaps it would help to get rid of our own self-importance and cause us to judge others more leniently than we usually do if we could get used to it, instead of regarding the personality of man as a being existing in itself, which great, wise, virtuous, etc., or also vain, stupid, malicious, etc., is to recognize it for what it really is, namely a variable composition of forces in which the properties of existence are represented and revealed. Seen from this point of view, the mortal “I” disappears into its nothingness and gaze is directed towards the great infinite I, which is immortal, immeasurable, without beginning and without end, the true essence and self of all creatures.
Herod knew nothing of all this; his eyes were only focused on self-love and this finally drove him insane; as has happened to many others, even if they were not kings of Jerusalem.
The festive meal took place in one of the halls of the castle, the entrance to which was draped with costly carpets. The guests were seated in a circle and in the middle was the throne of the king and Herodias. Everything that could please the senses was most tastefully prepared, the tables were set with delicious food and fiery wine, and all reveled in joy and glory. All kinds of games entertained those present, but the best was scheduled for the midnight hour.
As that hour drew near, a number of select beauties, dexterous dancers, appeared from Arabia. The manner of their dress served to accentuate their charms rather than to conceal them, and the dance they performed excited the senses of the half-drunk king to the utmost. Then, in the middle of the dance, the curtains opened and Salome whirled into the hall. As the moon surpasses the stars in splendor, so did Salome’s beauty surpass that of the other dancers. Her flawless form was draped in a loose robe that enveloped her like a transparent mist, and as she twisted in graceful oscillations, veil after veil shed from her form until at last she stood before the Tetrarch in naked beauty, her hands clasped over her heaving chest.
A thunderous round of applause followed from all present, and Herod gave his applause.
“A royal treat!” stuttered the intoxicated ruler.
“And worthy of a royal reward,” added Herodias.
This aroused the king’s vanity, and he said to Salome:
“Ask for whatever reward you want and I will give it to you.”
Then Salome spoke with a loud voice, and fixed her fiery gaze on Herod: “Give me the head of the prophet?”
For a moment the king stared at her in fear and surprise. He saw that he had been outwitted, but his pride would not allow him to take back the promise so foolishly made. Then, as if ashamed of his hesitation, he answered with a forced laugh and sent his servants to fulfill Salome’s wish. So self-conceit got out of his mind.
(Sequel follows)
Jerusalem.[48]
Where error appears,
then the truth disappears.
It goes without saying that during the events related in the previous chapter the knowledge of the truth was not present, for otherwise these things could not have taken place and passion could not have triumphed over reason. Jehoshua had retired to solitude with his disciples, patiently waiting for peace to be restored in Jerusalem, where the news of the prophet’s death had caused great excitement. With the disappearance of the law, all sense of order and justice was gone, the passions gained unrestrained liberty, the animal instincts were subdued only by fear, which had taken the place of reason, the intellectual faculties followed folly and in fact, the quiet Jerusalem had become a raging Babylon.
Perhaps it will not be without interest to take a closer look at life in that cosmopolitan city which appears to us now as “Babel” and now as “Jerusalem” and which is commonly called “the soul”; whereby we either look at the inner life directly within ourselves, or if this is not possible, we can draw conclusions from the outside to the inside. In order to see life in Jerusalem itself, we must be in Jerusalem ourselves and understand our own inner life; But whoever lives only in his imagination and therefore outside himself, sees nothing more than Babel and judges only by appearances.
There are two Jerusalems and two Babylons, one in the big world and the other in the small world, which are nonetheless intimately connected with one another, because everything that goes on in the mind of the individual person is nothing more than a reflection of what is happening in the big world world soul. If the wisdom which dwells in the temple of the great Jerusalem were manifest in all people, the inhabitants of the world would consist of nothing but wise men, and if all people were wise, then the end of the great Babylon would be the case and the whole world would be a temple of Wisdom. So here, too, what is above acts on what is below, what is great on what is small, and what is small and what is below works back on what is above and what is great, and one becomes evident in the other, as can be read in the Book of Zohar, where it is written: “Everything that exists on earth has its etheric model in the super-mundane, and there is nothing so small or seemingly insignificant in the world that does not depend on something superior to it; so that when that which is below stirs, that which is superior to it stirs against it.”[49]
The question is which is the better method of teaching, a dry, arid, scientific dissertation and discussion of things that cannot be explained because they are not in their essence, but only according to the ideas that one has of them are different from each other, or a symbolic representation in the form of a fairy tale, which acts not only on the brooding mind (or lack of mind), but also on the feeling, which latter is necessary for all understanding, since it is impossible to understand anything which you don’t even feel? The answer to this question will be that everyone prefers that method which suits his own best nature. The heartless, insane brooding mind, knowing no higher sensation, will take a “discourse” of the indisputable truth to be “exact science,” and be content to lie to himself; the unthinking enthusiast will indulge in his sensations and lose his mind in the realm of imagination; but the intelligent will know how to distinguish the spirit from the form, he will let himself be carried up by the feeling into the higher regions of the spirit, and what he finds there he will recognize through the intellect.
The man possessed by the spirit of self-conceit, however learned and versed in philosophy, theology, etc., dwells only in the earth-born part of his mind, where Babylonian confusion reigns, and knows nothing of the higher regions of it, the heavenly. “Jerusalem,” is where in eternal clarity, the temple of wisdom stands upon the rock of the spiritual sense of truth. For those who have no spiritual vision of their own, everything that does not belong to impermanence is only “enthusiasm”; he closes his eyes and is always looking for evidence of the existence of the light, and can never find it; but whoever lives in his own Jerusalem sees from his exalted standpoint the fools who are up to mischief not only among men in general, but also in the lower regions of his own nature. He can confidently laugh at “himself”; because what he laughs at is not himself, but the qualities that belong to his personality, with which he is intimately but not indissolubly connected during his life on earth. But if he takes part in the follies of this personality and fulfills its desires, he lowers his spiritual ego to the servant of folly and the “superman” becomes an animal possessed by megalomania.
The universe is heaven, man is earth; heaven is the impersonal, earth (man’s earthly appearance) is the personal self. Accordingly, there are two different points of view, the geocentric and the heliocentric, the large and the small. Seen from the small point of view everything seems petty and confused, one sees how thousands of threads move in the whole, it is the products of actions that make up the karma of mankind. One follows the movements of the individual threads and yet never comes to the goal, because the movements of the individual intertwining threads do not reveal the mechanism that moves the whole thing. But whoever is capable of taking the standpoint from which the whole loom is seen can recognize the whole and thus also the causes which move the individual threads. The outer eye sees only the outer form, which is the symbol of an embodied idea, a “materialized” thought; but the eye of the clear mind discerns the incorporeal idea, and grasps the constellation of thought, which creates forms in the realm of the sensuous, which, when clothed in earthly matter, are also visible to the outward eye.
For the man lost in the labyrinth of the Babylonian capital, whose gaze is not free because at every step the deception of his own self stands in his way, there is no “Jerusalem” and no spiritual world; he thinks he creates his own thoughts; but the free spiritual view recognizes in every thought that is born from the human soul the product of an idea already existing in the universe. The outward only recognizes appearances; but the spirit penetrates into the essence of things; he recognizes how every sensation generated in the soul is the revelation of a vibration existing in the world soul and every thought the revelation of an idea already existing in the world spirit. He also sees how the feelings and thoughts already present in the greater whole increase in power and strength through their finding expression in the individual person; just as the light in a room increases in strength, when new fuel is added to the fire which produces it. Thus the “good” and “evil” in the universe are revealed through the particular appearances in which they are embodied and expressed, and the sentiments and thoughts born in the individual forms increase the power of the “good” and “evil” in the universe; the upper, the “spirit,” gives life to the lower, the “matter,” and is strengthened by the lower, “material.” But “good” and “evil” are relative terms; for there is nothing evil in the world that is contrary to the purpose of its existence, and everything is good that fulfills the purpose of its existence.
Viewed from this spiritual standpoint, not only does the soul of the individual appear to us, but also the soul of the world with spiritual powers or “spirits,” i.e., filled with units of will and ideas which actually exist, whether formless or embodied in visible or invisible forms (elementals). The spiritual powers illuminated by the light of wisdom represent the higher part of the mind, “the heavenly Jerusalem,” those that came into being through ignorance of the transitory part, are the corrupted Babylon; and how the individual man is a part of all mankind, and mankind would not exist if there were no men; Thus the spirits of the great and the small world determine each other’s existence, the “angels in heaven” influence the angels of earth, the angels of earth influence the angels of heaven and are identical with them; but the same is the case with “the devils,” for hell on earth is the product of the revelation of the spirit of wickedness existing in the world, and hell in man gives birth to the devils, which nourishes the spirit of wickedness on a large scale. But man himself is the center on which these forces act, in which they take shape and receive life, and to which they return again because they are his own creation and property, the products of his feeling, thinking, willing and acting. His own nature is composed of these products, and they determine his future mindset and the resulting actions. This is the doctrine of karma; because “karma” means that. The kind of qualities of which man is made are the product of his deeds, and consequently man is his own karma.
We do not draw our faith from the Bible, but from the spirit of self-knowledge, which also taught the authors of the Bible; yet the Bible, when rightly understood, is an invaluable textbook bearing witness to eternal truth. So it says in it: “What is born of the flesh is flesh, but what is born of the spirit is spirit,”[50] thereby saying, among other things, that what springs from the self-conceited mind is a delusion, but what comes from knowing the truth, is true. Man made up of false feelings and delusions is a thing of folly; but the man whose consciousness is completely filled and permeated with the knowledge of the truth is a revelation of the truth. One acts foolishly and the consequences of his foolish actions fall back on himself; the other acts wisely, and wisdom rewards itself by possessing itself.
“Jerusalem” ist das Reich der Wahrheit; tritt in ihr die Erkenntnis auf, so hält “der König” seinen Einzug in ihm; erlangt aber der Irrtum die Herrschaft, so verschwindet die Erkenntnis und aus dem himmlischen Jerusalem wird das verdorbene Babylon, dessen Symbol die moderne Gesellschaft ist.
“Jerusalem” is the realm of truth; if knowledge appears in it, “the king” enters into it; but when error prevails, knowledge vanishes, and the heavenly Jerusalem becomes the corrupt Babylon of which modern society is the symbol.
Renunciation.
The truth need not be long sought;
for when error disappears, it is already there.
For most people nothing is so far away as their own real self. They think that when truth, knowledge, salvation, freedom is spoken of, it is about strange things or historical events that belong to the past, and do not know that it all concerns their own existence. Jacob Böhme also said: “When one speaks of heaven and the birth of the elements, one does not speak of distant things that are far from us, but we speak of things that happen in our body and soul and are, to us, nothing closer than this birth, for we live and float in it as in our mother. The hidden man, which is the soul (so far as love arises in the light of God in your center), is God’s own essence; how could you not have power to speak of God, who is your Father, whose essence you are yourself?”[51]
Since this book deals not so much with the experiences of another person as with one’s own knowledge of oneself, we have not concerned ourselves much with the fate of Ben Pandira; but in order to take from him an example, which is the duty of every man who wishes to learn his own higher nature, we must return to him again. His example is all the more instructive for us, as the spectacle which was enacted by him on a small scale is a symbolic but truthful representation of a great process of redemption taking place in the evolutionary history of the world through all eternity; for on a large as well as on a small scale, the spreading of the light takes place only through the overpowering of the darkness, the knowledge of the truth only through the conquering of the error. The steps leading up to the top of the mountain are useless in themselves, for if they are not used they are of no use. They are not there to be sat on, but to be tested, and one by one to get under one’s feet and climb on them. So it is with the opposites of the good, which spring from selfishness. If there were no selfishness, there would be no struggle for existence and no individual development. For the animal, the development of material individuality is the highest attainable ideal. This animal individuality, when perfected in man, is capable of receiving the higher knowledge, and thereby of attaining spiritual individuality, which is attained by the spirit overcoming the notion of limitation and closure arising from the individuality of form, and recognizes itself as the whole in the whole. Only then does he recognize his own true, divine self, which was born in his body when love began to shine in the light of knowledge in his center.
Perhaps Herder had a foreshadowing of this divine existence when he wrote: “What lives in the hearts of others of us is our truest and deepest selves.” But for the one who truly recognizes this Self, there is no “other” at all; he himself is everything and thus also the “other”; for the truth, which is all in all, has materialized in his consciousness and realized that everything that appears to be outside of itself is not the reality but only an illusion.
Ben Pandira, overcoming the delusion of selfhood by the power of Spirit at work in him at the time of temptation, came to realize the nature of his own divine Being manifested in him; he now knew that he himself was Jehoshua and that Pandira was only his temporary appearance and earthly instrument. He had found his leader and master, and with that found himself. His spirit was now awakened to spiritual self-awareness and could look back on the past just as a man awakened from sleep can look back on the previous days of his life on earth. He now realized that he had already lived and suffered in innumerable other forms not only on this earth but also on other planets, and had appeared under many names in the theater of the world; but that he was never imprisoned in these forms, but had only “overshadowed” them and drawn strength from them; just as a tree is not enclosed in the earth, but only takes root in it and draws its nourishment from it. He now fully realized his divine mission and the purpose for which he had left his heavenly home and come to earth. He recognized himself as a living ray of light from the Spirit Sun of Wisdom, which had assumed a mortal form in order to spread light on earth.
It is easy to preach morality to people, or to admonish them to walk the path of light, which one knows only theoretically from what one has heard and read about it; But in order to spread this light, beautiful phrases are not enough, but this light must be manifest in the preacher himself. Theories produce nothing more than theories; but the living example inspires others to imitate; the strongest word is the deed. A person in whom matter has been overcome through spiritual power becomes a power center from which spiritual powers flow; he is not like a blind man who gives others a description of the light which he himself has never seen, but through the revelation of the light in himself he has become a flame whose light drives out the darkness. As in a drop of water the power of steam is bound and contained in it an electrical tension which can shatter rocks; thus man is an atom in the universe in which spiritual forces are bound which he cannot know as long as they have not awakened in him and become free and come to his consciousness. But if they become free, there is no limit to their sphere of activity; their existence needs no indirect proof, for it is felt directly; as the proximity of a fire ignites a smoldering piece of wood, so the presence of a person born again in the spirit acts on receptive minds and increases the struggling spirit power in them to awaken. The sun need not do anything to prove its presence to us, its very presence is enough for us to know it in its own light, nor does it need a lantern to prove the light of truth; as soon as the error disappears, it is recognized in its own clarity.
So long as the flames of passion blazed in Babylon, so long as lusts were in turmoil, and folly reigned supreme, the knowledge of truth could not make its entrance. But when the indignant elements grew tired and calm returned, there was again the possibility that knowledge would come. During this time Jehoshua had been with his disciples. He had not wasted his time in discussing theories of spiritual things, but had realized in himself the Godman (Christ) as is the ultimate purpose of every man, and his disciples had recognized him; but those caught in spiritual sleep did not know him; they only saw the person of Ben Pandira; they knew nothing of Jehoshua.
It was well known to the Prophet, to whom the future as well as the past was clearly before his eyes, that by returning to the capital of the country he would turn against himself all the powers of ignorance and folly, and that the persecution to which he subjected himself would end with the destruction of the form in which he appeared among them; After all, at all times that part of the church which clings to the dead letter has been the bitter enemy of the truth. Also, among the theologians and literal scholars of that time there were exceedingly many who thought that all was done by discovering some satisfactory theory as to the truth, and believing in some system which might be supposed to contain be truth; but that the truth remains for man only a dream if it is not revealed and realized in himself, and that it needs no system and no proofs, but is in itself eternal and unshakable, of this they knew nothing. They thought that everything was done, that they held this or that dogma to be true because it was passed off as true; but they did not recognize the truth itself which stood in their midst. Then as now there were learned theologians and wisdom-mongers who wasted their time in writing books on divine things, without themselves possessing them, and without striving to attain them; there were also many who sought God above the stars with telescopes, but denied and rejected him when he wanted to proclaim his presence within themselves.
All this, then as now, was not the fault of the church, but of the lack of knowledge of those who represented the church. A church or congregation made up of people, like man, has its downside, its higher and lower organization; in the upper heavenly region the spirit of truth reigns, in the lower is the beast spoken of in the apocalypse. In the Church, as in the individual, the victory to be gained is not in removing external obstacles, but above all in overcoming one’s own self, and the more intellectual, shrewd and subtle are the spiritless elements of the earthly region of the Church, they are all the more difficult to overcome through the power of faith, which is why precisely in the so-called scientific religious systems, which are based on external evidence, there is the least inner conviction, and on the other hand most foolish and impudent clericalism, scholarly narrow-mindedness, intellectual short-sightedness, unbelief, hypocrisy and self-conceit are to be found.
All this Jehoshua knew. He knew too well the qualities of the Pharisees to hope to discern them; he also knew that they would betray him and destroy the body in which he dwelt; yet he did not hesitate to face death for the sake of the few who could recognize him and be redeemed thereby. Even today the immortal spirit dwells in mortal human nature, shares its destinies, is tormented by animal wills, mocked by perverted intellectual powers, condemned by self-conceit and condemned by false theological conceptions in the mind, and it suffers all of this for the sake of the few better elements which are to be found in man’s higher nature, and which, having been crucified with him, can partake in his resurrection because they have entered into him and become parts of his own being.
All this is not a new theory, but was known to the wise men of the East long before the beginning of the Christian era. For example, the Bhagavad Gita of the Indians teaches us that in this world there are two forms of existence, the divisible and the indivisible. The divisible and perishable consists of all living forms; the imperishable is the indivisible and is called the “Lord on high” (Īśvara, Jesus). But there is another highest being, the highest world spirit (eternity), which penetrates and sustains the threefold world. “Fools despise me when I appear in my human form; they do not recognize my supreme being, who am the lord of the universe; they believe that I, the formless, have a visible form; they do not recognize my spiritual nature, which is imperishable and sublime. — Though I am unborn and eternal and the lord of all creatures, yet, controlling my nature, I am born in the physical world by my power. Whenever righteousness among men slacks and injustice abounds, I beget myself in human form and make my dwelling place among men; but only the wise recognize me, and the fools torment themselves and with it myself.”[52]
It is said that when Jehoshua made his entry into Jerusalem he rode on a donkey, and if the donkey is the symbol of obstinacy, it cannot be otherwise, for obstinacy must be subdued before knowledge can enter the heart. When self-will yields to the divine will, it thereby becomes the divine will, which gives the soul the power to ascend to that height where knowledge dwells; but if one’s own will and stubbornness rides on the higher will, then the donkey has the upper hand.
(Sequel follows.)
The Temple.[53]
“Do you not know that you are the temple of God,
and the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (I Corinth. III, 16.)
Somewhere in the human soul, in a place which no one can describe because it is infinitely high and also infinitely deep and indeed limitless, stands the temple of wisdom. It is built neither of stones nor of cobbled together theories, but is truth itself, dwelling in eternal clarity above the clouds of error and superstition in endless eternity, where there is no more delusion of selfhood, where the light is in the light, self-awareness merges into the All-Consciousness and human wisdom disappears in the knowledge of God, like the drop of water that disappears into the sea becomes one with the ocean. This temple is also called the Temple of Sol-Om-On[54] because this name means a triple sun whose light illuminates and penetrates the three worlds, the material, intellectual and spiritual worlds. The mountain on which this temple stands is the mountain of faith, where the light of truth is felt, and the city in which it is built is heaven in man, in other words, the nobler part of the mind.
Jehoshua made his entry into this temple from time immemorial when the animal-like human forms had matured in the course of evolution to receive the sons of light and to serve as their dwelling place; for when the divine will arose and said to the forces emanating from it: “Let us make men in our image,”[55] then the spirit breath of the same entered the senseless creatures prepared for this and transformed them into men. “Then the third race became the vessel of the angels of wisdom, and brought forth the sons of good will and true knowledge.”[56]
But even today this entry of Jehoshua and the transformation of animals into men takes place daily; but often he finds the door locked; for the holy city of Jerusalem is surrounded by the unholy Babylon, inhabited by the enemies of the truth. Thousands of creatures roam there, having only the human form of man, but inwardly possessing nothing of the essence of man. They do not know that they are temples of the Holy Spirit, for the devils, born of selfishness, have made their dwelling place in them and corrupted the temple of God. It also happens that knowledge has germinated in the heart, but is again stifled or driven out by the Pharisees and scribes, that reasoning kills faith, that all higher and noble feelings disappear under previous terrible anguish, the spiritual consciousness dies and so that the path to further development is cut off forever for the individual soul. This is spiritual death.
The processes within the world soul are reflected externally in the world of appearances. What Jehoshua experienced eternally, he had to experience temporally as Ben Pandira. He found the Temple of Jerusalem in possession of Pharisees and literalists, hypocrisy and scholarly stuff. Everyone wanted to brag about their self-made wisdom, everyone wanted to be right, everyone fought over hypotheses and opinions, dogmas and beliefs; each wanted to deprive the other of their own opinions, but no one wanted to know the truth. Everyone screamed wildly, and those who could make the most noise found the most admirers, but few would listen to the voice of truth that speaks in the silence; the vain and chatterers were in the majority then, too. Few knew that with all this noise it wasn’t really about whether this or that opinion was the right one, but about recognizing one’s own true self in one’s own light; just as now it is not a question of what one thinks of a Savior who came and went, but of knowing the true, immortal Savior. But in the forecourt of the temple moved a crowd of animal figures, the personifications of blind, animal instincts and desires, which could recognize nothing higher than their own animal self, and from whom one could neither demand nor expect a recognition of the deity.
To whom could one also describe the divine existence if he does not feel it and does not recognize it himself, and what use would a description be to someone who does not want to believe in it? Who but wisdom itself can reveal truth, since the revelation of truth within man is wisdom? No matter how inflated the scholarly arrogance of theologians and philosophers, and no matter how much scientific curiosity may strive to penetrate the mysteries of eternity; what is ephemeral only comprehends the ephemeral, the eternal alone comprehends eternity and the clear clarity; but error cannot make itself clear, no matter how much it broods.
The disciples of Jehoshua, i.e., the spiritual powers which surrounded him, recognized him, but the mindless intellectual powers could not see the truth, though it stood in their midst, and Jehoshua therefore had no choice but to convince them of his presence by external means signs and words to inform them of his presence; He did this when he appeared before the scribes and Pharisees in the form of Ben Pandira and said: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the truth except through knowledge. When you get to know me, you will recognize the truth, because I myself am the spirit of knowledge. I was before the world was created and will be forever. I dwell in you all, but you do not recognize me. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world that enlightens people’s souls, and whoever lets this light shine within him makes him immortal. See the light that shines from eternity out of darkness into darkness. I am the spirit into which all must enter in order to attain immortality. Whoever believes in God also believes in me, for I, the truth and the knowledge of it, are one.” Such and similar words spoke the spirit of truth to the unbelievers, communicating with them through the mask of Ben Pandira; but the learned among the scriptures and Pharisees saw only the outward form and could not comprehend the Spirit, and though Ben Pandira assured them that he could do nothing by his own strength, but only accomplished the works of the Spirit that dwelt in him,[57] so they did not believe him, but picked up stones to stone him. Thus, he left the temple.
But when the spirit of knowledge of the truth had departed from the temple, the reign of the clergy began. Amid the jeering of the ignorant crowd, they substituted blind faith in dogma for true knowledge, and substituted the idol of ecclesiastical interests for wisdom as an object of worship. They wanted to compel the Spirit of truth, instead of being the lord of the church, to become a minister, and as he would not deign to do so, they took refuge in falsehood, surrounded it with the semblance of truth, and made it their servant. There came all who desired personal favors, and who wished to gratify egoistic desires, and they all received empty promises and were satisfied with them, while the chambers of the church were filled with perishable riches, which at night gleamed like gold and silver, but turned to ashes and filth at daybreak.
Meanwhile Jehoshua went about the land making himself known to all who could recognize him, and where he appeared he worked miracles. Wherever the spirit of knowledge arose, the wildly surging sea of passion calmed down; a word of his gave liberty to those who were caught in error, his touch healed those sick of selfishness, and raised the spiritually dead to new life. A single thought from the sea of his knowledge was enough to give spiritual nourishment to ten thousand people, and the more it was spread, the more it increased. And all the disciples of Jehoshua worked the same miracles in his power; for it was the one spirit of knowledge that animated them all and revealed himself in each according to his own kind; which is why it is written, “There is only one God, but many powers.”[58]
Lying is the natural enemy of truth, error the enemy of knowledge, whether we regard them merely as incorporeal principles or as embodied in man, for, as we know, man is in himself the embodiment of a sum of principles which are evolved and bestow upon it their qualities and powers, and the same is the case with any system, physical or theoretical. A mindless science, a godless theology, or a lying philosophy is just as baseless, and stares at us with the same fixed, glazed eyes as a human corpse; they all decompose. As a corpse from which life has escaped crumbles into its elements, so too does every system in which there is no knowledge of truth and will crumble into itself, leaving no stone unturned. Man, like every system built up from theories, represents a unit composed of many different units; each of these entities is a small “I” in the big “I,” each has its own life and seeks to expand; each fights the battle for its own existence, and since they are all together only illusory beings, they all fight against the truth.
In our allegory we find the formalism and mindless blind speculation represented by the Pharisees and literalists who pursued the truth embodied in Jehoshua. Since these people had no spirit, they could not grasp the spiritual meaning of his teachings. The immortal spirit speaking through Jehoshua pointed to an infinite existence in which there is no separation of “I” and “thou” but all are one in knowledge, but just as today, so also then could those who were all about their ephemeral “me,” not freeing themselves from the self-delusion that held them captive; they dreamed of a heaven in which their selfish desires found fulfillment, and each wished to enrich themselves, even if spiritually, at the expense of the other; everyone wanted it better than the other.
There is only one reality and only one knowledge. Those who can grasp it know that their own selfhood is nothing and can only be an illusion, because the one reality is the essence of everything; but the “pious” man caught by this self-delusion does not want to disappear in his nothingness before the face of God; he creeps before him in supposed “humility,” imagining himself, if only a small thing, to be something notable, worthy of some favor of receiving favors from the god of the universe; he looks up at the divine existence that awaits him as if it were a foreign object, without realizing that he himself must be absorbed in this divine existence before he can partake of it; he does not see that where there is even a trace of egoism, this is a cloud on the spiritual horizon, which is an obstacle to the knowledge of eternal clarity.
The Pharisaic spirit makes people complacent, self-righteous, it increases egoism and embellishes it with all sorts of sham virtues; but since this “self” is insubstantial, all virtues born of it are also insubstantial. The larger and more brilliant this insubstantial larva appears, the greater an obstacle is it to the knowledge of the truth; all self-knowledge, self-will, self-love, self-doing and “being oneself” prevents the realization of true knowledge and the revelation of the eternal power of God in man. This does not mean, however, that man should sit back and let a God whom he does not know do his duty for him; but that in him the knowledge of the truth should overcome the delusion of the self and the will-o’-the-wisp of one’s own thoughts and delusions should disappear under the influence of the light of the sun of divine wisdom.
The eternal spirit of self-knowledge, speaking from Jehoshua, sought to transcend the ephemeral so that divinity might be revealed in mankind; but the animal understood the danger that threatened its existence. Therefore it was now a question of fighting the truth, and since it itself is imperishable and indestructible, the anger of the enemies turned against the form in which it appeared. The elements of error, who did not know the truth, believed themselves to be true and to serve the truth by fighting against it.
It is so today, and it will always be so, as long as people cannot distinguish between revealing the truth within themselves and accepting theories. Thousands fight for lies under the name of truth they don’t even know; they think they fight for the truth by defending the lie they believe to be true.
Had Jehoshua established a new dogma, the Pharisees would have had the right to contrast him with another dogma, and it would then have been a matter of proving which of these dogmas had the most grounds for its probability; but in all the traditions of that time we find nothing to justify us in believing that the spirit of knowledge required anyone to believe in this or that theory. Nowhere do we find him saying: “Believe in the probability of the theories which I have also put forward”; but “Believe in Me! Anyone who believes in me does not believe in my person, but in the Father who sent me,[59] who is the original source of all light and the existence of all things.[60] Believe, therefore, in your own true, immortal Self, which is the divinity in humanity, the epitome of all perfection.”[61]
There was nothing alien or distant to speak of, no claims to be proven, nothing more than one’s own realization of the true infinite self which encompasses all, and that for everyone, neither in books nor in outward appearances, but in the sanctuary of the temple of the soul. But the Pharisees did not recognize themselves, and therefore they could not recognize Jehoshua either. If they had recognized the truth revealed in him, their own existence would also have become clear to them. But this is precisely the most difficult thing of all things, to recognize oneself, and therefore we cannot blame the Pharisees for not recognizing the truth; because the spirit of self-knowledge was alive not in themselves but in another. It is much easier to acquire all human sciences, to be a great scholar, philosopher or theologian, than to know yourself, for the real Self to be known is God,[62] and whoever knows him knows all his mysteries, which are not accessible to human knowledge, because not the light of human understanding, but only the breath of God, the divine love in man penetrates and explores the mysterious depths of divine existence.[63]
(Sequel follows.)
Initiation[64]
“Christ (the realization of truth) in us,
is the mystery of salvation.”
(Compare, Colossians I, 27. — Galatians IV, 19.)
The great mystery of initiation, or of initiation into the highest mysteries, may perhaps be scientifically established in the following way: There is no other deliverance from delusion than knowledge of the truth. But eternal truth is limitless and infinity itself; it can therefore neither be grasped nor comprehended by the limited and ephemeral. The key to knowing the Eternal, therefore, is entering into the Eternal through abandoning the delusion of self, and the power by which this delusion of self is overcome is love, transcendent to self-interest, and therefore “divine.” But it doesn’t do much good that we know this theory and rave about selfless love or preach it to others as long as we ourselves are in selfhood. The ideal will always remain an unattainable ideal for us as long as it is not realized in ourselves through actions. The ideal must be embodied in ourselves, otherwise it will remain just a dream for us, and all our scientific theories relating to it will be nothing more than meaningless enthusiasm, but the more selfless love becomes effective in us and is put into action and realized by us, the more it becomes a living force in us and fills our entire consciousness, until finally the illusion of selfhood disappears in this all-consciousness of limitless love, which is the beginning and end of everything because it springs from the feeling of eternal truth and completes itself in knowing it.
Thus in the spirit-born again selfless love and the light of divine wisdom are presented to us in personified form; his bodily appearance belongs to limitation, his knowledge to infinity. Just as everything in the spiritual has its symbol in the sensuous, so we can see in an earthly tree the symbol of a man who has been born again in the spirit. The light of the sun awakens the germ dormant in the earth and builds from it an organism whose roots cling to the earth to suck nourishment from it, while a thousand branches are stretched like open arms to heaven, to the air of heaven to breathe and receive the light that comes from above. Thus the light is tied to the earth, the spirit to the material, and the tree brings forth blossoms and fruits, but spreads no light itself. Years pass and perhaps on a stormy night a igniting bolt of lightning strikes the trunk. Then the flame blazes up and the light of the sun bound in the wood is released again and illuminates the dark corners of the thicket where the direct light of the sun cannot penetrate.
Man is the earth, the soul the germ, love the warmth, knowledge the light. The earthly clings to the earthly with many roots and the soul draws its strength from it; but love awakens the germ of the divine and the spirit of knowledge builds the spiritual organism, whose thoughts are directed towards eternity and receive their nourishment from infinity. The wise man does not spread his own light different from the light of wisdom, but the light of divine wisdom is revealed through him in thought, word and deed, just as beauty and order in nature are personified and revealed through a stately tree. The flowers which the mind produces through it are its noble sentiments and thoughts; the fruits are the deeds that result from them, and the purpose of his existence is immortality, which he enjoys even before his body breaks down into its elements according to the laws of nature. The igniting lightning bolt is the light of enlightenment coming from above, which awakens the divine spark in his soul, which, blazing in the flame of love, spreads the light of wisdom to all places.
It is a small thing to indulge in learned idioms on the theory of “monism,” but a great thing to see the oneness of God in all things oneself, to see one’s own divine self in all creatures, and to love it in all creatures. Knowledge is not to be despised, but knowledge alone does not make a god and is not true knowledge, any more than mere theory is experience. True knowledge is conditioned by one’s own becoming and becoming through the knowledge of one’s own being. No one can know God but God himself, to know God, man’s “self” must cease and be only God; then it is no longer man in his own self who does the works, but God does his works through him.[65]
When Jehoshua Ben Pandira was still an apprentice, the concept of personal selfhood reigned in his mind, but deep down in his heart was the sense of the unknown, the infinite, the intuition of the eternal and imperishable, wherein there is no change As in the great evolution of humanity, the self had to develop in him, as in every other human being, before it could be overcome. Spiritual strength grows by overcoming the resistance of matter. The greater the resistance of “evil” which is overcome, the more vigorous and glorious does the spirit of good which overcomes it emerge from the struggle. What good would a silly life that ends with death be if all personal desires fulfilled themselves and there was nothing to strive for and nothing to overcome. Just as a drowsy man is awakened from his sleep by shoves and thumps, so the sufferings and misfortunes of life are the thumps that bring knowledge to those lost in delirious senses, and without this shaking and shaking of the hand of fate few would come to their senses. Peace is not for the idle; it is permanent only when one has gained the power to dictate it oneself. The Spirit of Truth does not come to bring peace to the rebels, but to separate the useful from the useless by the sword of will.[66] The battle of the gods with the heaven-storming titans and the battle between the army of Krishna and the Pandavas, as described in the Bhagavad Gita, takes place in every single human being as soon as the instinct for the noble awakens in him. Whether or not these legends refer to historical events that took place in external life may interest the archaeologist; but it can be all the same to us. For the person striving for self-conquest, it is not about the past but about the present; his immortality does not depend on his knowing what has happened in history, but on his being the God-man, the Lord and the Victor.
When Jehoshua had resisted the temptations of the sensual by the power of awakened knowledge in him, the apprentice had become a journeyman, a “collaborator,” or rather a conscious instrument of the divine spirit; for the spirit of God in man does everything alone, he needs no co-worker who is not himself; man’s selfhood can be neither a servant nor an accomplice of God, it is a delusion to be conquered as light conquers darkness, that the will of divinity may come to consciousness and be manifest in the will of mankind. Man can therefore only be called a co-worker of the divine spirit insofar as he allows this spirit of truth to be revealed in himself by subjecting his own will to the Will of divine wisdom, which is given to him through the ever-increasing light of knowledge in heart and mind which becomes more and more clear and subordinates and carries out his orders.
As long as the delusion of selfhood still exists, even if in a small degree, the journeyman cannot become the master. It is only when he is fully imbued with the consciousness of the Master does he become the Master himself. As long as selfhood works, Deity cannot work without hindrance; where ignorance rules, wisdom cannot rule; only as the darkness vanishes does day come to be.
Divine wisdom is not revealed in the sway of the blind forces of nature; in the realm of Saturn only blind law reigns; the appearances in the physical world are but the reflections of the images within, the embodiments of ideas which spring from the consciousness of the earthly, and that consciousness itself is but a reflection of the divine light. In the mineral kingdom this reflection expresses itself as attraction, in the vegetable kingdom as sensation, in animals as instinct, in man as intelligence; but it is only in the spiritually reborn that man can reveal the one light of wisdom. The highest conceivable ideal of a cow is fragrant grass, she knows nothing of the possibility of intellectual development; the highest attainable ideal of the heartless and loveless intellectual is the development of intellectual activity; he knows nothing of “spirit,” but understands in his selfhood only that which springs from selfhood and was produced out of self-delusion; but in the soul which is permeated by divine love, eternal uncreated wisdom is revealed. Thus the “ideal” descends into form and is realized in it, and in rising again above form it attains self-awareness of its own glory. But the struggle for the appearance of existence will be a necessity, both in detail and in the whole, until one recognizes the true existence of the whole in detail and the detail as a whole.
Easy as it is for the imagination to form an idea of anything that has been seen before, it is a general and invariable law of nature that only like can truly know like, because all real Knowledge based on self-knowledge Thus, the sensual can only grasp and recognize the sensual, the intellect the intellectual, matter the material, the spirit the spiritual. Every form or appearance represents a sum of forces or qualities, the symbol of which is outward appearance. We are familiar with the phenomenon, but we do not recognize the forces themselves unless the same forces have become alive in our own soul and have entered our consciousness. Only then can we truly recognize these forces in other forms, because we feel them within ourselves. A piece of ice doesn’t feel warmth and a corpse doesn’t know love; neither can the spiritless mind discern the spirit of truth; but if the spirit of knowledge is born in the heart of love, then it also enlightens the intellect, just as the sun enlightens the moon and gives it its splendor.
The seat of love, however, is not the all-picking acumen, but the soul. She is the mirror in which all impressions received through the senses are reflected, forming in her images which can then be inspected and examined by the mind; but it is also the seat of true knowledge, because within it is contained the divine spark, which can be awakened to the flame of self-knowledge through the influence of the light of wisdom. Therefore heartless science will never penetrate into the mysteries of the higher regions unless it rises by the power of spiritual knowledge to those heights where truth shines in eternal clarity above the clouds of error.
So long as man is only the “companion” of the divinity awakening within him, he can by the power of the spirit resist the temptations which spring from the delusion of selfhood, but he becomes the “master” only when this delusion is overcome and he recognizes his own true infinite Self in himself and in all other beings. The way which leads to this knowledge is not scientific theory, but selfless love, which springs from the feeling of the omnipresence of God in all things and is not a product of the imagination, but the all-consciousness of God, a spiritual power by which the God-man feels his divine existence throughout the universe; yes, this love becomes knowledge itself as soon as the divine spark in the heart, whose warmth it is, becomes light through the power of wisdom. This alone is the true initiation by which man is received into the circle of the gods.
The world is overflowing with scientific theories as to the purpose of existence; it abounds with philosophical hypotheses, moral preachers of all kinds who overwhelm us with rules which are not followed, do-gooders of various sorts bring out the most adventurous plans, and yet improvement can only occur in so far as mankind “God,” i.e., recognizes the unity underlying all existence, and this unity is in truth only recognized through the love for this unity in all creatures. Not by scientific hypotheses, nor by clinging to ecclesiastical opinions, not by clinging to external forms, nor by changing them, will the world attain liberty and deliverance from the bondage of error, but only through knowledge, which is the arising of divine love.[67] This love is far from all religious fanaticism, it does not indulge in unctuous phrases, it works in silence and is revealed through deeds. It is of a “divine” nature because, unlike the love of earthly man, it is not a product of his imagination and therefore an appearance, but is an outflow of the awakening divine consciousness in man.
But even this consciousness of God is not an empty delusion for the spiritually reborn human being, even if it appears as folly for the mortal part of the human being who does not know it. In the true self-awareness of man, who has outgrown self-delusion and recognizes his divine self in himself and in everything, there is the whole fullness of divinity[68]; for as in him the deity has consumed selfhood, he differs in nothing from the deity; he and the Father are one[69]; what is not revealed has become revelation in him; just like the fire which consumes objects of different kinds, but is only revealed as the one light. In the spirit-born man, in whom self-delusion has been destroyed and divinity is revealed in the light of self-knowledge, we see, therefore, the epitome of all perfection and the embodiment of all selfless virtues and mystical powers. But the man in whom this incarnation has taken place, and who has thereby become the living image of God, is called an “Adept”; the realization of this highest ideal is the highest initiation. Whoever attains it can no longer ask for anything higher; for there can be no higher state than that of supreme perfection, and even in this state, which is infinite and all-encompassing, there is no longer any “self” which could desire anything; this state is the highest existence, perfect knowledge, eternal bliss itself. It is not a person existing outside of ourselves and separate from us, but a state into which we can all enter, and in which we already are in the very core of our hearts; but which appears to us as something alien, because we are biased in error and do not recognize our true Self. The mystic enthusiast and he who serves “foreign gods” by seeking the realization of this divine ideal outside his own being knows nothing of it, but the true mystic knows the place where the treasure lies hidden, and Master Eckhart describes it exactly, saying, “Put everything away which is not God, and then only God remains.”
Certainly the bigot who loves to deceive himself and others will shrink from the grandeur of the thought that God could be contained within himself; for where then should he hide from him, and how should he go about lying and misleading him with feigned humility? But the sage realizes that nothing can be contained in the macrocosm of the world which is not also contained in the microcosm of man; for otherwise man would not be a child of nature, which is nevertheless a unity, a whole. It is therefore not a question of creating in him something new and not already potentially present, but only of awakening the principles already present but dormant in him, so that they become living forces in him, giving him their qualities. But this happens in no other way than through the influence of the corresponding forces in the universe, which in general are already active and exist in God from eternity without beginning, even though their activity has a periodic beginning and end.[70]
If the highest ideal were not there and only a figment of the imagination, then there could be no question of its realization in man, one could neither form an idea of it nor feel its existence; for nobody can imagine anything; Man does not create new ideas, he can only make new compositions from already existing ideas, as he builds new houses from already existing materials; but the spiritual feeling, like the external feeling, is a result of touch; a state that does not exist, cannot be touched and also cannot be felt. Not only is the highest ideal not a delusion of the imagination, but it is the eternal truth, reality and perfection itself, which does not need to be realized for itself, but which is only available to man when it is realized in him, i.e.., becomes apparent in his consciousness.
Has the highest ideal ever been realized in any man, or in other words, has any man ever come to the true knowledge of God? This seems to us an idle question, for though the truth which is revealed in mankind is but one, yet the degree of knowledge varies in the individual, and the light which is manifest in the one, is not the property of the other. It is with the gold of wisdom as with the gold of the earth, some have more and others less in their possession; the gold of many is mixed with impure metals, few have it pure.
After all this, what should we say about the person of Jehoshua Ben Pandira? Judging by what has become known from historical traditions, he fared like everyone else who recognized the truth and wanted to announce it to people. He fought falsehood, and since lying in the physical world was stronger than the knowledge of truth, falsehood captured him and brought him before the judgment seat of reason, but since reason was not enlightened by the truth, it could not perceive the truth either. It is said that Ben Pandira was stoned to death by the Jews and then his body was nailed to a cross. It is also said that even today, when Ben Pandira is mentioned, the Jews do not refer to him by his name, but only refer to him as “the one whose name must not be mentioned.”
We must leave it to the reader to find out whether this is really the case externally, or whether there is an allegorical meaning behind it. It is certain, however, that the soul of a person born again in the spirit never dies, but is immortal, and that the spiritual light emanating from it increases the power of the sun of wisdom, which illuminates the hearts of people,[71] similar to what could be imagined that a comet falling into the sun could increase the luminosity of the sun. Nor is the spirit of a spiritually exalted person, after the death of the body, a thing whose immortality, consists, as certain enlightened philosophers believe, consists only in the fact that posterity takes care of it, for otherwise the immortality of those who have not made a name for themselves but have quietly done good things would look bad; on the contrary, such a self-conscious spiritual force, when no longer bound to the body but freed from all bondage, is even more able than before to let its light shine in the whole world.
In the character of a man and not with his personal appearance, lies his individuality. The personality is the tool of the individual human being, expressing only a small part of the power inherent in individuality at one time. No one is aware of all of their knowledge at once; no one can manifest in his personality all that is contained in him at once; the personal appearance of a man which we see is not the whole man standing before us, but only a tool of it; he can impart his knowledge to us without losing anything himself; his will and thoughts are not diminished by his imparting them to us, nor is his love or hatred diminished by his loving or hating this or that, but rather these powers are strengthened by their exercise. Thus man is also a non-manifestable being, of whom only now these, now those qualities are revealed in a successive series. The unmanifest is the “Father,” the manifest is the “Son,” and none can come to his own Father except through the Son, because man himself is the “Son” and revelation of the Father; no one can know himself merely by observing his outward appearance and outward actions, but only by knowing his own mind, inasmuch as his mind is manifest in his own consciousness.
The greater and loftier a character is, the greater is his spiritual individuality, so that the earthly personality is insufficient to express it. Also, the activation of external organs is often not necessary at all in order to exert an effect; a self-confident, ingenious mind often achieves success over others simply by its mere presence, which a small mind, despite all the art of persuasion, cannot achieve. This spirit is the “thought” which lives, though the personality which was the embodiment of that thought perishes from existence; but it is more than “thought,” for it is a unity of thought and will, a form of will made self-conscious by thought, or in other words, a sum of ideas animated by will, which we must therefore call “spirit,” even at the risk that the non-mystic should think of “spirit” as a ghost or demon.
Dark are these spirits which are not enlightened by the light of divine wisdom; but those in whom that light was manifested are the living stars which shine in the spiritual heavens, and whose light shines in the hearts of those who do not close themselves to it. They all received their light from a single source, the eternal Sun of Wisdom, and yet it appears differently colored in each[72]; just as a ray of light breaks into different colors in a drop of water; none of which is better than the other, but each is the best in its own way; but all together only bear witness to the existence of the one light and its glory. Therefore, whether we have this testimony through (Gautama Siddhartha, who is called a “Buddha,” i.e., an Enlightened One, because of the light which was revealed in him, or through Jehoshua (assuming that he was a historical figure), or through another son of the receiving light which can be all the same to us; the main thing is that the One Light, which makes them all sons of light, also overcomes the error and delusion of self-delusion in ourselves, drives away darkness and makes us sons of light, in which divine love is revealed through deeds.
(Sequel follows.)
The Church[73]
“Where God builds a church,
the devil builds a chapel next to it.”
(Old saying.)
The truth has never come among the people without being misunderstood, laughed at, ridiculed, desecrated, abused and finally expelled by its alleged admirers. It is said that soon after the death of Jehoshua, a specter appeared to his disciples and said to them: “All the sins which you forgive other persons shall be forgiven, and all the sins which you do not forgive must remain the same.” This laid the foundation for the rule of the clergy over minds. This doctrine drove God’s justice from its throne and put human caprice in its place; yes, it made the god of the universe himself into a superfluous old man who, since he himself can no longer intervene actively on earth, must have a representative to whom he can entrust earthly affairs in a trusting manner.
As absurd as this teaching was, it was welcomed by any self-interested person. From then on it was no longer necessary to search for the unknown god, since instead of him one had visible gods, whom one could easily approach and use their mediation to attain eternal bliss. Now it was no longer necessary to strive for the development of the divine powers within oneself; it was much easier to rely on external support and to use the strengths of others to one’s own advantage. It had previously been difficult to bear the consequences of sin, and still more difficult to pluck the root of sin from the heart; but now that was no longer necessary; after all, many easily won priests had the power of God in their hands.
When truth appeared among men it had to take a form in order to make itself understood; but the people only saw the form; the truth itself could not comprehend it, despite the form. It was easier to build churches of wood and marble than to purify one’s heart and make it a temple of the divine spirit. It was easier to rip the enemy’s heart out and sacrifice it with a bloody hand to the God of peace than to sacrifice one’s own heart to God and thereby gain peace; easier to burn heretics than to refute their errors; easier to take refuge in cooked articles of faith than to rise to God and seek divine sustenance in the light of wisdom.
Love had come to redeem people from self-delusion; but when it took up residence in the hearts of the people, it was transformed into love of the [lower] self. By her own strength she wished to free all who came to serve her; but when she connected with people, they captured love and put it to their service. Then love became lust for possessions, and from its association with self-conceit sprang greed, envy, and avarice among their followers.
The great world spirit, the great self, had come to reflect its image in humanity, but humans did not recognize it. In their souls this image turned into the caricature, into the idol of their own ephemeral “self” from which sprang the devil of egoism. They erected altars to this god, knelt before him, worshiped him and offered him what was not their own. Then the idol of self was exalted above the god of the universe, and means were sought of compelling the true deity to serve the idol of self. Great temples, churches and palaces were built for the idol of the self, and only the few who recognized the true God worshiped him quietly, in secret places, in the innermost heart, to which no one but themselves had access.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and in me you will find rest and peace and happiness.” Thus spoke the voice of the one in whom there was no difference in personality, no self-delusion, no self-conceit, no personal desires. Then all the self-obsessed, the delusional, the curious, and the greedy came, and begged him for the fulfillment of their selfish desires and the gratification of their sinful desires. Each sought to press forward to the detriment of the other, and to get something for himself, both individuals and communities; for every association of people has as such its self-delusion and self-interest, its transitory self crying out for growth and possession. The constitution of a church community is like that of a human being. The Holy Spirit in it is their true life, but it is not recognized by the unholy. The knowledge of God is the supreme principle, but few understand what is meant by the expression. This is the immortal part of the Church. Then comes the mortal part, corresponding to man’s earthly thought principle (kāma-manas). It includes theologians and churchgoers who want to reach God without sacrificing themselves to him, who want to be assured of his services instead of taking refuge in him. Then comes the animal body (kāma rūpa) of the church, consisting of those worthless who use their artificially created ecclesiastical authority to gratify their lust for power and other passions. Their “church” is built on the stupidity of men, and they seek to fortify that foundation in every way. They call on the devils of intolerance and “religious” persecution for help. What they hold most sacred is the self-interest of their “church” as well as their own, and to further that end no means is too unholy for them.
The head of the church is God; but how few recognize him! The body of the church, like that of man, consists of higher and lower soul forces; the lowest in man is the region of his passions, and likewise the ground of the church is hell. Man’s external enemies are of little importance compared with those who threaten him within. When he becomes master of himself, the external enemies disappear. In the same way the church could easily rid itself of its external enemies if it would cleanse itself of filth, cast off self-interest, and know the truth; but this cannot happen through new dogmas and articles of faith, but only through the fact that each individual comes to true insight.
The true church of God is the communion of saints. It is rooted in heaven, in the power of absolute love which pervades and encompasses everything. Its branches extend over the earth and take root here and there in the earth, and from this spring the many churches and sects and communities, the basis of which is not divine love but self-love. And the more such a church grows, the more unreasonable it also increases, because the church consists of men, and at the present point of evolution of mankind the wise are still rare, and those who have no spiritual knowledge in are the majority.
If we look at the history of the Church, which calls itself “Christian,” we find in it, too, the spectacle that is repeated forever. The religion of the Greeks and Romans sought to promote knowledge of the spiritual forces in the universe by personifying them in symbols. There “Jupiter” meant the generating force in the universe, “Minerva” all-encompassing wisdom, “Venus” the omnipresent, all-pervading love, which expresses itself in stone as gravitation, in animals as instinct, in man as passion, in God-man as selflessness etc. But the spirit of religion vanished; people, corrupted by culture, saw only the symbols, but no longer recognized the forces which they represented. Personal gods were then made out of these symbols, which people tried to use through sacrifices and supplications, but the shadow images disappeared; the forms from which life had escaped crumbled to dust.
There, arose the sect of the Nazarenes, imbued with the spirit of self-knowledge, and Jehoshua preached, demonstrating the dominion of spirit over form; but the blind, whose inner eye was not opened, could not see the spirit and only looked at the form. They did not recognize the inner Redeemer; The belief in an external Redeemer, who not only shows people the way to immortality, but also walks it for them, was all the more successful.
The good news flew from house to house, how one could become happy and perfect without trying to do so oneself. There was no more talk of a development of the inner divine powers that lie dormant in man; immortality became an outward gift of grace for special favorites. The persecutions suffered by the Church had only the result of spreading her reputation; the adversities which the selfishness of the Church had to overcome gave them strength. Ecclesiastical opinions took the place of faith, which springs from true knowledge. There have certainly been martyrs who recognized or felt the truth; but thousands also sacrificed themselves for their selfishness. They threw themselves under the wheels of Juggernaut and were crushed; for what is the sacrifice of a short existence on earth in comparison with the eternal heavenly joys which can be won!
From the struggle for external possessions came external power. The church ceased to be the persecuted and became the persecutor itself. Emperors and kings soon saw the advantage of an alliance with the Church, and said, “What shall we do to make religion our ally?” And the Church replied: “Lend us your arm and we will help you by darkening minds so that they cannot see freedom.” Then the pact was made with evil, which Jehoshua had rejected in the wilderness, and the name of God was put under it by human hands.
Now in this name the power of the devil was unfolded. The dregs of Europe spilled East to conquer the “promised land” which none can find anywhere but within itself. Murder and robbery and desecration have been committed in the name of the one whose essence is love. Then the “Holy Inquisition” appeared and the pyres were blazed in the name of religion. In a few years, over a hundred thousand martyrs of stupidity were burned alive. The gospel of love, or rather the misunderstanding of it, brought death and plague, war and ruin over the whole world.
Then came the time of the great Reformation. Luther was one of the few who could distinguish spirit from form. He sought to free the spirit from the bondage of form, and when he succeeded in separating the two, the spirit vanished and the dead form remained. With the destruction of superstition, the power of belief was also lost. The pope was abolished and consistorial councils were put in his place. The concept of self-knowledge through the inward revelation of truth was lost, and divine illumination was replaced by the majority of opinions whose origin is ignorance of truth.
It was certainly a little lighter in the newly built Protestant churches, stripped of symbols, with their bare walls than in the Roman Catholic cathedrals, where a mysterious darkness reigned. On the other hand, they also lacked the attraction of the mysterious and unknown, which drives the mind to search for something higher than it can find on earth. There was now nothing superhuman that could only be grasped by the power of intuition. Anything beyond the bounds of animal-human understanding was condemned as superstition and heresy; the truth could only show itself publicly when it came certified by letter and seal from the supreme council of the church; religion has its wings clipped; a bonnet was put on her, and an apron tied, and she, who had been accustomed to carrying messages between heaven and earth on the wings of liberty, now had to minister in the Lord’s pastor’s church.
The “Bible” was originally only in the possession of initiates, who held the key to its understanding. Then, through the centuries, it became the property of a class which had lost the key to it. Now it became the common property of all the ignorant, who not only did not know this key, but also did not want to know anything about it. They appropriated the letter, which kills, and expelled the spirit, which brings life. They believed in fairy tales and denied their meaning. After the spirit fled, ignorance appeared in the guise of “science,” and beheld the dead form. He saw that it was only fairy tales; but it never occurred to him that behind these fairy tales there might be a meaning worth investigating. Now narrow-minded scholarship looks down with contempt on what it does not understand, and since all spiritual things are beyond its narrow horizon, the writings of the wise contain nothing of value to them either. The unholy wants nothing to do with the holy, and thereby condemns itself. If those of our scholars who really care about the knowledge of the truth know that the greatest mysteries of the great and small world are hidden in the writings of the wise if they are constantly looking for them in detours and wrong ways, they would leave their stuff aside and look where the real treasures are hidden.
Anyone who wants to recognize the spirit of a thing must have spirit himself. Whoever wants to distinguish the spirit of a religious system from the form in which it is clothed must learn to distinguish within himself the eternal from the transitory, wisdom from the animal mind. When we recognize the truth contained in a religious system, we recognize it; if we see nothing in it but the nonsense connected with it, then everything is nonsense for us. In every great system of religion there is a kernel of truth; therefore, there is no need to introduce a new system either; it suffices if each learns the truth which is present in his own system, and puts nonsense aside. The true church is that which has no name but includes all churches and in which all people come together in the knowledge of God.
The true church is based on the knowledge of the unity which underlies all existence and is the true self of all things; the perverted church rests on the glorification of that imagined “self” which is the greatest obstacle to the knowledge of truth. The Lord of all beings speaks in the heart of man: “Whoever does not renounce himself and everything, cannot be my disciple.” But the Church says: “Give us some of your belongings and we will comfort you with promises of a better afterlife. We will forgive your sins so you don’t have to worry about them. We give you articles of faith that you can cling to blindly and save yourself the trouble of thinking for yourself. We give you smallpox to swim and crutches to walk; but if you try to swim and walk yourself, or move out of the circle that we prescribe for you, we will treat you as apostates and heretics.”
Clear and bright shines the sunlight through the crystal dome of the Temple of Wisdom; but he stands there deserted; for the great multitude has crept into caves and dark chambers, where, by the light of imagination, they seek wisdom among books and old junk. The fire of divine love on the altar in the sanctuary no longer burns; on the other hand, thousands of altars are erected in the churches where sacrifices are made to the idols of selfishness. The infinite eternal self of all beings has vanished from human sight; on the other hand, egoism, inflated to the point of bursting, is still increasing. But the “pious” have grown so fond of their smallpox and crutches that they no longer want to be without them and make no attempt to stand on their own two feet.
Modern science has given the pious delusion the deathblow and put an end to many a superstition, but since it does not know the eternal truth itself, it could only destroy and not build up, it could only put another delusion in the place of the destroyed delusion. In vain does the pious egoist howl to heaven and beg for the fulfillment of his personal wishes. The sky is deaf and the god he wants to summon is dead. With the delusion, faith vanished; the churches serve scarcely more than for social entertainment, and one hears it from the sound of the preacher’s voice that he himself believes nothing of all the things which he proclaims so unctuously.
We have arrived at a turning point; the balance is tipped between a regression to religious superstition and an advance in the wrong direction to scientific disbelief and devilry. Then a new light dawns on the spiritual horizon of knowledge and seeks to penetrate through the region of the fire of passion down into the darkness of ignorance. It seems new to us, but it is the old eternal light that shone upon mankind when it was still infancy. The wisdom of antiquity opens its treasures to modern times; the sacred scriptures of the East proclaim to us the oldest wisdom teachings that have sprung from pure knowledge, the source from which the Bible also stems. A “theosophical movement” permeates the world, which, if not in external form, at least equals the great Reformation in inner significance, indeed will far surpass it. Attempts are being made, now from this side and now from that, to make the forces that bring this movement into being at the service of the special interests of certain sects; indeed, in the soul of this movement, as well as in the individual human being, there is a constant struggle between the enlightened upper elements (Buddhi Manas) and the ignorant, lower elements dependent on conceits and opinions; Admittedly, everywhere where many people come together, there is no lack of lust for power, envy and intolerance, but the spiritual power that stands behind this movement and has brought it about also recognized the maturity of the time and it is to be expected that this time. Light triumphs over darkness, and the majority of people come to the realization that their salvation is neither in theological scholarly stuff, nor in the rejection of the ideal, nor in pious dreams and enthusiasm, but solely in the law of harmony of the whole, and in the knowledge of the unity underlying all beings. Then the whole world will become a church of God in which the sun of wisdom shines.
The End
Notes:
[1] Fragments from the Mysteries, by Franz Hartmann, M.D. The thirteen separate articles assembled as a single document, translated from the German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025} Listed individually as follows.
Fragments from the Mysteries. Introduction [Bruchstücke aus den Mysterien. Einleitung. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 7, no. 41 (February 1896), 122-138]
Fragments from the Mysteries. Jehova. Nazareth. [Bruchstücke aus den Mysterien. Jehovah. Nazareth. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 7, no. 42 (March 1896), 189-212]
Fragments from the Mysteries. Egypt. [Bruchstücke aus den Mysterien. Ägypten. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 7, no. 43 (April 1896), 252-281]
Fragments from the Mysteries. The Apprentice. The Journeyman. [Bruchstücke aus den Mysterien. Der Lehrling. Der Geselle. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 7, no. 44 (May 1896), 353-372]
Fragments from the Mysteries. The Master; The Wisdom Religion. [Bruchstücke aus den Mysterien. Der Meister. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 7, no. 45 (June 1896), 431-447]
Fragments from the Mysteries. Temptation. [Bruchstücke aus den Mysterien. Die Versuchung. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 8, no. 46 (July 1896), 526-541]
Fragments from the Mysteries. The Sermon on the Mount. [Bruchstücke aus den Mysterien. Die Bergpredigt. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 8, no. 47 (August 1896), 594-610]
Fragments from the Mysteries. Teaching the Spirit of Self-Knowledge. [Bruchstücke aus den Mysterien. Lehren des Geistes der Selbsterkenntnis. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 8, no. 48 (September 1896), 683-700]
Fragments from the Mysteries. Herodias. [Bruchstücke aus den Mysterien. Herodias. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 8, no. 49 (October 1896), 767-781]
Fragments from the Mysteries. Jerusalem. [Bruchstücke aus den Mysterien. Jerusalem. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 8, no. 50 (November 1896), 836-859]
Fragments from the Mysteries. The Temple. [Bruchstücke aus den Mysterien. Der Tempel. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 8, no. 51 (December 1896), 915-931]
Fragments from the Mysteries. Initiation. [Bruchstücke aus den Mysterien. Die Initiation. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 9, no. 52 (January 1897), 51-74]
Fragments from the Mysteries. The Church. [Bruchstücke aus den Mysterien. Die Kirche. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 9, no. 56 (May 1897), 359-377]
[2] Fragments from the Mysteries. Introduction [Bruchstücke aus den Mysterien. Einleitung. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 7, no. 41 (February 1896), 122-138]
[3] Lotusblüten. No. 1.
[4] Lotusblüten III, page 30.
[5] Fragments from the Mysteries. Jehova. Nazareth. [Bruchstücke aus den Mysterien. Jehovah. Nazareth. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 7, no. 42 (March 1896), 189-212] {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos. Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025}
[6] {R.H.—The approximate value of π (ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter) to 32 decimal places, which was worked out by the Dutch mathematician, Ludolph Van Ceulen (1540-1610)}
[7] יְחשדׇח Jodh (male) intelligence — Hevah (female) will. Father, mother whose son is wisdom.
[8] {R.H.—Sanskrit meaning, “consisting of food.” The anna-maya kośa means the sheath or body consisting of food, i.e., the physical body, which exists at the three lower sub-planes of the physical plane.}
[9] Maya or Ādi-bhūta, the radiant primordial matter, the birthing force in the universe, the soul of the world. {R.H.—Literally, “first of all things.” Since this is the metaphysical meaning, a woman with that name would have a special presence.}
[10] Hermetic Table. [Emerald Tablet]
[11] {R.H.—To be clear, Jesus or Ben Pandira, was the vehicle which was later utilized by the Christ or Jehoshua, for approximately three years.}
[12] Fragments from the Mysteries. Egypt. [Bruchstücke aus den Mysterien. Ägypten. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 7, no. 43 (April 1896), 252-281] {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos. Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025}
[13] For a better understanding of this doctrine, it may be helpful to mention the sevenfold classification of the principles of which both man and the universe are composed, as described by the ancient Egyptians:
[14] Bhagavad Gita, II, 12. — Bible, John VIII, 5.
[15] Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta. 9–21. {R.H.—Sanskrit: Dharmacakrapravartana Sūtra}
[16] {R.H.—The Thesmophoria (Ancient Greek: Θεσμοφόρια) was an ancient Greek religious festival held annually, in honor of the goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone. Only adult women could attend and the rites were secret.}
[17] Bhagavad Gita, XIV, 23.
[18] Ibid. XIII, 15.
[19] Eckhart.
[20] Pastophore is defined as “guardian of the sacred symbols.”
[21] {R.H.—This deals with the secrets of the Dweller on the Threshold.}
[22] Karl von Eckhartshausen. “Revelations in Magic.” 1790. Vol. I. p. 205.
[23] Fragments from the Mysteries. The Apprentice. the Journeyman. [Bruchstücke aus den Mysterien. Der Lehrling. Der Geselle. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 7, no. 44 (May 1896), 353-372] {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos. Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025}
[24] Here the skeptic will ask for “proof” but we owe him none. We do not write to prove the truth to the ignorant, but to bring the truth-lover closer to his own knowledge of the truth. Whoever recognizes the truth has proven it.
[25] Hermes, I, 87.
[26] Fragments from the Mysteries. The Master. [Bruchstücke aus den Mysterien. Der Meister. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 7, no. 45 (June 1896), 431-447] {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos. Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025}
[27] This process is known from experience by some who have been close to drowning and have been brought back to life. Compare F. Hartmann: “Buried alive,” London 1896.
[28] {R.H.—Also known as the Dweller at the Threshold or Dweller on the Threshold.}
[29] {R.H.—An Affenpinscher is a rough haired, small and compact dog with a monkey-like expression.}
[30] Fragments from the Mysteries. Temptation. [Bruchstücke aus den Mysterien. Die Versuchung. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 8, no. 46 (July 1896), 526-541] {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos. Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025}
[31] {R.H.—Metaphorically speaking, because Hartmann did not believe in the Devil as the Church defined him.}
[32] John, Oannes or Vishnu, the personified microcosm symbolized by the fish, or thought personified in the ocean of ideas.
[33] Fragments from the Mysteries. The Sermon on the Mount. [Bruchstücke aus den Mysterien. Die Bergpredigt. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 8, no. 47 (August 1896), 594-610] {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos. Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025}
[34] Compare Matthew, chap. V.
[35] Macarios. Free from karma or death. Redeemed, immortal.
[36] Peuma. Wind. Air. Soul. Spirit.
[37] Ouranoi. The firmament. The ether. The abode of the blessed. The higher regions of the astral light. Eternity.
[38] Dikaiosune. Right change. Fulfillment of duty.
[39] Theos. The highest. The divine existence. God who is undefinable because he encompasses everything in everything.
[40] All qualities or virtues (powers) have three different states of existence (tattva) and present themselves quite differently depending on whether they arise from stupidity (tamas), from desire (rajas) or from knowledge (sattva). Likewise, contentment has no real value unless it springs from a self-awareness of supremacy, not from dull indifference or self-conceit.
[41] Nirmānakāya. See “Lotusblüten,” III.
[42] Therefore, it is not our purpose to make the divine mysteries palatable to the unbelieving brooding mind, but rather to give hints, by which the truth-lover will be prompted to abandon the merely outward interpretation of such allegories, and by the power of his own insight to delve deeper into them in order to penetrate the mysteries.
[43] OM. See “Lotusblüten,” XL. January 1896.
[44] Fragments from the Mysteries. Teaching the Spirit of Self-Knowledge. [Bruchstücke aus den Mysterien. Lehren des Geistes der Selbsterkenntnis. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 8, no. 48 (September 1896), 683-700] {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos. Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025}
[45] F. Rückert, Didactic Poems, p. 350.
[46] Cf. John, verses, 24–26.
[47] Fragments from the Mysteries. Herodias. [Bruchstücke aus den Mysterien. Herodias. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 8, no. 49 (October 1896), 767-781] {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos. Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025}
[48] Fragments from the Mysteries. Jerusalem. [Bruchstücke aus den Mysterien. Jerusalem. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 8, no. 50 (November 1896), 836-859] {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos. Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025}
[49] Compare F. Hartmann, “White and Black Magic,” page 7.
[50] St. John III, 6.
[51] Of the Three Principles, chap. IV, 8. {R.H.—De Tribus Principiis (The Three Principles of the Divine Essence, 1618–1619)}
[52] “Bhagavad Gita” XV, 17. – IX, 11. – VII, 24. IV, 6. – XVII, 6.
[53] Fragments from the Mysteries. The Temple. [Bruchstücke aus den Mysterien. Der Tempel. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 8, no. 51 (December 1896), 915-931] {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos. Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025}
[54] Sol — lateinisch. Om — Sanskrit. On — chaldäiscb.
[55] Moses I, 26.
[56] See “Lotusblüten”. VoL II, page 591.
[57] John VI, 29.
[58] I. Corinth. 12, 6.
[59] John XII, 44.
[60] John I, 1.
[61] Colossus. II, 3.
[62] II. Corinth, 13, 5.
[63] I. Corinth. II, 10.
[64] Fragments from the Mysteries. Initiation. [Bruchstücke aus den Mysterien. Die Initiation. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 9, no. 52 (January 1897), 51-74] {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos. Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025}
[65] Galatians II, 20.
[66] Mathew X, 34.
[67] I. Corinthians XIII, 2.
[68] Colossians II, 3.
[69] John X, 30.
[70] John I, 1.
[71] Logos.
[72] {R.H.—This is treated upon, wherein the Monad and the Higher Ego have their nature imbued with the particular Ray (either 1, 2, 3) which the Monad is “on.” The Alice Bailey books clarify this considerably.}
[73] Fragments from the Mysteries. The Church. [Bruchstücke aus den Mysterien. Die Kirche. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 9, no. 56 (May 1897), 359-377] {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos. Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025}