The Book on the Living God, by Bo Yin Ra (Joseph Anton Schne

That's French for "the ancient system," as in the ancient system of feudal privileges and the exercise of autocratic power over the peasants. The ancien regime never goes away, like vampires and dinosaur bones they are always hidden in the earth, exercising a mysterious influence. It is not paranoia to believe that the elites scheme against the common man. Inform yourself about their schemes here.

The Book on the Living God, by Bo Yin Ra (Joseph Anton Schne

Postby admin » Sun Apr 22, 2018 12:48 am

The Book on the Living God
by Bo Yin Ra (Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken)
volume two of the 32-volume cycle: The gated garden THE BOOK ON THE LIVING GOD
second edition
Translated from the German by B.A. Reichenbach
First edition English translation © 1991 by B. A. Reichenbach
Second edition English translation © 2014 by B. A. Reichenbach

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

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Table of Contents:

• Word of Guidance
• 1 “The Tabernacle of God is with Men”
• 2 The White Lodge
• 3 Meta-Physical Experiences
• 4 The Inner Journey
• 5 The En-Sof
• 6 On Seeking God
• 7 On Leading an Active Life
• 8 On “Holy Men” and “Sinners”
• 9 The Hidden Side of Nature
• 10 The Secret Temple
• 11 Karma
• 12 War and Peace
• 13 The Unity among Religions
• 14 The Will to Find Eternal Light
• 15 The Human Being’s Higher Faculties of Knowing
• 16 On Death
• 17 On the Spirit’s Radiant Substance
• 18 The Path toward Perfection
• 19 On Everlasting Life
• 20 The Spirit’s Light Dwells in the East
• 21 Faith, Talismans, and Images of God
• 22 The Inner Force in Words
• 23 A Call from Himavat
• Giving Thanks
• Epilogue
• Reminder
• Editor’s Note to the Second Edition
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Re: The Book on the Living God by Bo Yin Ra (Joseph Anton Sc

Postby admin » Sun Apr 22, 2018 12:49 am

Word of Guidance

You should not read this book if you believe the teachings of your faith with heart and soul.

You should not read this book if you have never doubted God.

This book is written for all those who suffered bitter conflicts in themselves in their unceasing quest, but who, for all their labors, never found God’s Being.

It is addressed to all who are tormented by thorns of gnawing doubt.

Such readers will find help in it.

For them this book will mark the way.

WHAT I shall here convey is wisdom rooted in the ages.

The few in every generation who had the faculty of comprehending it have kept that knowledge secret since the dawn of time.

Only on a few, exceptional occasions was it possible in earlier days to tell the world of this most ancient wisdom, and even then it had to be disguised in dark, symbolic language.

But now the time has come to speak of it more plainly, given that distorted fragments of this knowledge have been, and continue to be, spread throughout the world by minds who have no calling to disclose it.

And so it was decided, in the Spirit’s inner East, to open for the nations of the West the sacred shrine that had so long been carefully protected from the gaze of the profane.

That shrine is here unlocked by one who has been authorized.

And so in the nineteenth century a difficult situation confronted those who were initiated, a situation in face of which the question forced itself upon them: Ought we to continue to keep within restricted circles the knowledge that has come over to us from ancient times and merely look on while the whole of mankind, together with culture and philosophy, sinks down into materialism? ...

The occultists divided into exotericists and esotericists. If for purposes of analogy, expressions connected with modern parliaments are adopted — although naturally they are unsuitable here — the exotericists could be compared with the left-wing parties and the esotericists with the right-wing parties. The esotericists were those who wanted to continue to abide firmly by the principle of allowing nothing of what was sacred, traditional knowledge, nothing that might enable thinking men to gain insight into the symbolic language, to reach the public. The esotericists were, so to speak, the Conservatives among the occultists. Who, then — we may ask — were the exotericists? They were and are those who want to make public some part of the esoteric knowledge....

There was widespread discussion at that time of which the outside world knows nothing but which was particularly heated in the middle of the nineteenth century. Indeed the clashes and discussions between the esotericists and the exotericists were far more heated than those between the Conservatives and Liberals in modern parliaments....

And now the exotericists proposed a way. I can tell you this today: the way proposed by the exotericists at that time is the way we ourselves are taking. Their proposal was that a certain part of the esoteric knowledge should be popularised....

-- The Occult Movement in the Nineteenth Century and Its Relation to Modern Culture, by Rudolf Steiner


BUT anyone who seeks to enter must yet be tried and strictly tested; and none shall ever cross the threshold of the Temple who has not proven worthy.

Thus, I here can show the reader only from afar what those who proved themselves shall one day come to understand.

What words are able to convey about the Temple’s mysteries, I shall not fail to tell you.

If you would search their very depth, however, you must endeavor to experience them within your inmost self.

These mysteries shall not reveal themselves, except to those who strive to comprehend them with all their energies and strength.

By merely “reading” what I here present you shall be gaining very little.

What is transmitted here in words must meet with willing hearts—hearts that shall receive and guard it in themselves—for else it has been given voice in vain.

However, none can form a valid judgment as to the merits—or defects—of what is being stated in this book, but those who passed the stringent tests that all must undergo who seek to be admitted to the Temple.

Only those who know this Temple from within can form objective judgments.

AND SO I here can show you only from without what shall one day reveal itself within the inmost self of readers who have understood what I convey.

In order that it may reveal itself you need a resolute, untiring will to reach your highest goal; and only those found strong enough to force such will to serve them can hope to see my words confirmed within their own experience.

They, indeed, will find the way that leads them to their Living God.

And in themselves they shall discover the kingdom of the Spirit and its eternal hierarchies.

Their Living God shall then be born in their eternal self.

I DO NOT seek to offer “proof” for what I have to say.

Whether my disclosures state the truth you must determine for yourself.

For only in yourself abides the silent judge who shall confirm what you may feel as you absorb my words.

The “proofs” I have to offer would tell you very little; for none of you has gone the arduous ways that I once had to travel.

Moreover, in the Spirit’s realm there are no proofs of “universal” cogency.

Here, all will find the only proof convincing them within their own eternal self.

WHAT I present is not a scientific discipline, nor is it a religious creed.

I merely show you all that can be shown of the eternal wisdom of the Spirit’s inner East: the mystery surrounding the radiant Temple of Eternity.

But in heaven that is called the east where the Lord is seen as a sun, opposite to this is the west, at the right is the south in heaven, and at the left the north; and this in whatever direction the face and the body are turned. Thus in heaven it is from the east that all the quarters are determined. That is called the east [oriens] where the Lord is seen as a sun, because all origin [origo] of life is from Him as a sun; moreover, so far as angels receive heat and light or love and intelligence from the Lord He is said to arise [exoriri] upon them. For the same reason the Lord is called the East [Oriens] in the Word.

-- Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen, by Emanuel Swedenborg


May my words encourage you to wake up and regain your timeless self at last; for to this day you still are not yet conscious of the self you truly are.

May inner strength and blessings be with all who manifest good will and firm resolve!
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Re: The Book on the Living God by Bo Yin Ra (Joseph Anton Sc

Postby admin » Sun Apr 22, 2018 12:50 am

Chapter 1: “The Tabernacle of God is with Men”
revelation 21:3

LONG AGO the Western world had quietly received a message of enlightened knowledge from the East, and thus it learned, in images reflecting Christian faith, about a wondrous Brotherhood of spiritual guides and helpers, present here on earth. The nations of the West did not, however, comprehend the revelation that had reached them in this form.

Thus, legends came to grow and spun their web around the Holy Grail and its majestic knighthood.

Knowledge offering profoundest solace was lost in a perplexing myth, and so became the fabled background for much faith-inspired poetry.

BUT NOW, in our day, there suddenly appeared exotically embellished stories, spread by enterprising mystagogues who openly told all the world about initiated “adepts” and “mahatmas”— wise men living in seclusion in the heart of Asia—who were endowed with secret knowledge. These tales betrayed at once, however, albeit unintentionally, that their inventors, while having learned about those hidden sages, had never seen one face-to-face; for else they could not have imagined that various performing fakirs and other curious “holy men” whom they had met might actually be members of that spiritual Brotherhood.

But since in the subconscious life of many souls there still survives a last faint sense of human mortals being in some way connected with a sanctuary of God’s Spirit—a Temple hidden somewhere on this earth—there soon emerged a circle of believers who felt they might establish contact with that hidden shrine.

Regrettably, they set out on mistaken paths and to this day continue searching in the wrong direction.

From bits and pieces of old knowledge lying on the way they put together a novel “scientific” system of “spiritual” instruction and research, based upon a “secret doctrine”; for in their innocence they honestly believed that conscious knowledge of the Spirit—which comprehends eternity—could in effect be learned the way that one acquires knowledge of the mind.

They practice strict asceticism, to make themselves, as they believe, more “spiritual”; they steep themselves in the miasmas of a mysticism rising from the fever-ridden jungles of the East; they scour every nook and cranny searching for instructions, old or new, on how one masters occult powers—and by such means assume that one might find those hidden guides, who look on all such doings with only pity and amusement.

Among so many seekers none will scale the rock-hewn path ascending to the sunlit peaks of the Great Mountains; instead, all trudge along the wide and dusty roads through stifling valleys to worship at some long since desecrated shrine.

MANY THOUGHT they were already on the way that leads one to the clear-eyed sovereigns who rule within the Spirit’s realm, and now they roam the forests, searching for a “holy man.”

Others are of the opinion that the hidden wisdom of those unknown sages is nothing more than the tradition of religious teachings of the East.

And so they reason, quite correctly, saying:

“In former days we, too, had our prophets and enlightened seers; we, too, have sacred writings from most ancient times.

“God’s reality, however, is everywhere the same.

“Why, then, should we, whose heritage is of the West, now seek our soul’s salvation only in the East?”

Their reasoning is valid; for if it merely were a question of finding that which any pious human soul on earth can learn to realize within itself and on its own; or if one only had in mind the ancient teachings that still govern the religious concepts of the East, then all, indeed, could reach fulfillment by themselves and in the wise instructions they received from prophets and great teachers of their people.

YET NEITHER the wisdom, nor the quiet work of those who rule within the Spirit has much in common with the teachings of Eastern religions; for the Spirit’s secret helpers are guiding human souls beyond the kind of heaven that every age created, by virtue of its faith, as an expression of its deepest yearnings.

The guardians of all humanity’s primordial heritage are the most powerful protectors of every human’s spiritual nature. At the same time, in this earthly life, they are the human being’s truest and most understanding friends and helpers.

Since ages immemorial they have been sending Brothers from their midst to all parts of the earth, who then created focal points of spiritual energy wherever there was need.

Through the ages they have found their spiritual Sons and Brothers among all nations of the earth. The Spirit’s law itself, however, will determine whom they choose.

But those who have been chosen all recognize a site in central Asia as their spiritual birthplace on this planet. It is a site where no one finds admittance who has not been invited.

The few that since the dawn of time resided here together never enter life on earth in mortal form.

This task they will assign, instead, to those among their spiritual Sons and Brothers who were chosen by eternal law to take an active part in physical existence.

They themselves are but the guardians who faithfully protect a treasure in the kingdom of the Spirit that mortal human beings once possessed— before their Fall into the realm of matter.

They generate the spiritual energy which those of their elected Brothers who are active in the world require, if they are to perform their labors in the service of all humankind.

Would it not be simple-minded to assume that these sublime immortals need be Buddhists, Brahmans, lamas, pundits, let alone performing fakirs?

Nor should one take those guardians to be all-knowing experts in the pseudo-science that would study the occult.

All such ideas are fundamentally in error.

THE LUMINARIES, who mediate eternal Light, are first and foremost active agents here on earth.

Their Elders, the immortal Fathers, have never known the human mortal’s “thirst for knowledge,” nor could they even have experienced this desire.

The Luminaries, on the other hand, who are at once their spiritual Sons and Brothers, have long ago outgrown the mortal mind’s insatiable curiosity.

None of them is interested in converting humankind to the teachings of Eastern mysticism and philosophy. To them it matters

little whether you believe in the Bible, the Koran, the Vedas, or in the teachings of the Buddha.

Among the followers of all these faiths, however, they always find some individuals to whom they can send help and guidance, even if the souls they counsel and protect are often unaware of how this inner contact comes about.

The Luminaries, who convey eternal Light, do not intend to give you doctrines that you must believe; instead, they want to build for you the inner bridge connecting you—the creature-fettered mortal of this world—with the eternal kingdom of the Spirit and its radiant substance.

But they reject all practices that seek to lash a person’s consciousness into a state of ecstasy, in which the human mind—no longer master of its senses—may then hallucinate about its power of making God descend upon itself.

They clearly also know that one cannot attain through intellectual exertion that which antecedes all human thought and whose reality lies far beyond the grasp of mental comprehension.

They only smile when seeing those who look upon themselves as gods in mortal guise.

But they shall offer help and guidance, without being seen, to all who strive to find their Living God within.

They are the true and real high priests of the Spirit whose cup of blessings will give strength to every pilgrim seeking God with heart and soul.

SURELY, you will recognize the difference between those spiritual helpers and the alleged “adepts” of occult research who function in that stew of shrouded mystical traditions, gathered from all corners of the earth, which its creators named “Theosophy”—the wisdom of the gods.

This kind of “theosophy,” pursued by self-deluded dreamers, with its required exercises, meditations and fasting, will not—for all your purity in thought and deed, for all your knowledge touching things one need not know— advance you by a single step toward that sublimest goal you long to reach and whose existence you may sense within your heart.

You well may end up as a fool; if not, indeed, become what you and others call a “saint”; but never shall you in this manner find your God.

IF WHAT you seek is nothing more than what you can at all times find within you, independent of the Spirit’s help, then you clearly need not fix your eyes upon the inner East.

The guides whose help you are receiving from that hidden realm—even if they lived in your own city or, for that matter, your own house— have other things to give you.

They can create within you what you never could bring forth yourself. A force that shall take root in you and for whose life your being shall prove sustenance.

A force you do not now possess, nor ever could attain out of your self alone.

Indeed, not even Luminaries, who mediate eternal light, are able to attain it on their own.

They only would restore to you what you had once possessed: before desire to experience life within this world of matter caused you of necessity to lose it.

The Elders of the spiritual Brotherhood have never been without it, because they did not know the Fall into the realm of matter, into the body of a mortal creature here on earth.

Never having tasted death, they are alive on earth today—as they have been through the millennia—in bodies formed of purest spiritual substance, which does not perish, nor decay.

They were never born into a mortal creature organism, such as you and I.

However, in the Spirit’s world they raised, as their elected Brothers, certain human spirits that had once endured the Fall and, thus, were due to be embodied in a mortal organism: in order that these Brothers, once incarnate here on earth, might then accomplish tasks which in this world can only be accomplished by virtue of a mortal body.

And in this way they even now prepare their future Brothers for a coming age.

Their true location on this earth, however: the site from which their help proceeds, has been since ancient times—when first the human animal became a vessel to receive the human spirit’s timeless self—a center, near the highest mountains on this planet, which no one can approach whose spirit they will not themselves invite into their midst.

HERE, INDEED, the “Tabernacle of God” is found on earth “with men.”

Here, with energies of purest spiritual substance, the kingdom of the Spirit reaches down into this planet’s physical events.

From here, eternal Light goes forth in rays of purest spiritual substance, reaching all who dwell on earth.

But far too many people on this earth still seek the Spirit’s light in vain, because their searches lead them in the wrong direction.

To all of them I here can only offer the advice that they should turn around; because the living light proceeding from the inner East will not be able to infuse them while their eyes continue to be blinded by the many lights that humans kindled through the ages: all the lamps and torches that they had lit, attempting in their fallen state—embodied in a mortal creature body—to penetrate the darkness on their path.

Only those, indeed, whose eyes are not distracted by the constant glitter of this world, but who, instead, keep calmly looking toward the inner East, will there discover living light on holy mountains.

Once having found it, that light will shine upon their way until they shall have reached their goal—until they shall have reached their goal.
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Re: The Book on the Living God by Bo Yin Ra (Joseph Anton Sc

Postby admin » Sun Apr 22, 2018 12:51 am

Chapter 2: The White Lodge

In the vocabulary of Theosophy the title “Great White Brotherhood” is meant to signify the spiritual helpers of humanity on earth, and as this term is now in use, it is retained here for that purpose. Still, it should be noted that the members of that body merely recognize that term, but do not use it as a name among themselves.

Their strict seclusion from the outside world may seem to justify that one conferred upon that purely spiritual body a name suggesting some connection with Freemasonry; namely, the “White Lodge,” a title given them in German. As a body, this spiritual Brotherhood is without equal among associations on this planet. There are no forms of human fellowship to which this Brotherhood might be compared, not even in a figurative sense.

The members of that body never meet in person, except when circumstances make it unavoidable, and seldom do they write each other letters.

Yet, on the spiritual plane, they live in permanent, uninterrupted contact and community of knowledge; forming, in effect, a single consciousness in the dimension of the soul.

This Brotherhood was not established by external laws or rules.

All of its members share complete equality, but each one knows the place assigned to him alone, which is determined by his given spiritual endowment and potential.

They all, however, of their own free will obey the same supreme authority, in whom they recognize their spiritual head.

That head is not elected nor appointed, but none belonging to this Brotherhood will ever be in doubt concerning his identity.

Membership in this eternal body is not obtained by formal application, nor can one gain it by deceptive means or force.

Whether someone is to be admitted depends alone on certain undiscoverable laws within the Spirit, which will affect a person’s innate faculties. But where this is the case, no might on earth could ever hinder his admission.

Those having been admitted are not, however, bound by any promise, pledge, or vow.

They are themselves their only law and norm.

One cannot recognize the members of that body by any outward sign, nor by some shared characteristics in their way of life.

They, on the other hand, will know a member of their circle, even if they never met before, whenever need arises that they meet in person; and they will recognize each other without password, sign, or grip.

Owing to its very nature, this Brotherhood’s identity must needs be hidden from the outside world; yet many individuals, indeed whole nations have at times been guided by its spiritual influence.

No mortal ever entered any path toward higher, nonmaterial goals without the unseen help and guidance of a member of that Brotherhood, or of that body as a whole.

Those who are receiving spiritual guidance very seldom know of or suspect the unseen influence to which they owe their very best.

But in cases showing more developed spiritual awareness, this influence of inner help is felt indeed; only it is then attributed, almost without exception—owing either to deficient insight, or misled by superstitious concepts— to powers of the “super-natural.”

To be sure , the realm of fantasy, where writers of all times and regions found poetic inspiration, owes to this misunderstanding a wealth of its colorful characters.

Fantasy has ever been the poets’ friend; for pure and simple truth is far too unaffected and austere to let herself be draped in the luxurious garments of a poet’s fancy.

Wrong interpretation of the spiritual help provided by the silent circle of humankind’s elder Brothers here on earth has equally enriched the myths and legends of religion.

From time to time, however, there have been individuals who consciously perceived the influence and presence of that invisible, eternal body, which nonetheless reveals itself through living human mortals. But others then obscured again, with doubts of every kind, all traces pointing to such knowledge, so that at last mere enigmatic tales remained, which still suggested here and there that more was known about these things in earlier days; indeed, that certain human souls must have experienced insights of profound significance in this connection.

But then, in our time, some overly enthusiastic minds had come to know of the existence of that spiritual body. Only the simplicity of all its spiritual work and nature did so little satisfy the colorful imagination of these visionaries that they found it necessary to embellish their accounts about the Brotherhood with some exotic touches. Thus, humankind’s elder —namely, spiritually older—Brothers were dressed up more like demigods, at least as mighty sorcerers, who, of course, had long since known whatever modern science is only now beginning to explore and who were, in addition, generously furnished with all the magical resources ever dreamed up by oriental fabulists.

It would appear those seekers erred here in good faith, trusting that the end would surely justify the means if they endeavored to enthrone the inaccessible immortals, of whom they had some vague idea, high above all humankind. In this they saw themselves confirmed by some quite vulgar fakir tricks, which were naively taken as conclusive proof that their performers were authentic members of that “Great White Brotherhood.”

Those, however, to whom this name supposedly refers: the spiritual Luminaries who mediate eternal Light—the priesthood serving in the Temple of Eternity on earth—thoroughly reject all idle masquerades.

They know full well that they are human beings, quite like other mortals on this earth; except that, owing to their higher spiritual age, they can assume their given place within the Spirit’s hierarchy and, thus, are able to convey to all their fellow mortals, energies of spiritual substance. However, they do not themselves create the energies that they transmit.

To BE SURE, the Brotherhood in its reality presents a far more dignified and worthy sight than even the most colorful imagination might envisage.

The silent influence exerted by the members of that body encompasses all fields of humanity’s spiritual development.

The threads their hands are guiding will sometimes lead to works revealing highest human creativity; at other times they end in centers of great worldly power.
They, indeed, are able to move mountains without lifting even a finger, because their timeless will—purely guided by the Spirit’s light and purged of every personal desire—is the effective force behind the will of not a few who then cause other hands and minds to be employed and active.

For occult powers of the sort that fakirs seek to master there truly is no place in the activities of human beings’ elder Brothers.

Their task, instead, is to participate, by spiritual means alone, in the immeasurable plan of evolution that cosmic law designed for humankind on earth. And in their work they show no preference for special, private causes; nor will they favor any individual, not even for the purest motives.

The curious who mean to witness vulgar “miracles” shall certainly not find them here.

To be sure, the actual events connected with the work of humankind’s elder Brothers often are miraculous indeed. The more wondrous their deeds, however, the more assuredly will they not be visible to mortal eyes.

It is their sphere of spiritual influence that all fellow human beings enter who in their hearts are earnestly resolved to reach the highest form of spiritual development that they are able to attain in life on earth.

The purer their will—the freer from all selfish motives and desires—the more distinctly shall the Spirit’s life be able to infuse them; the sooner and more strongly, too, shall they then feel that influence within.

Countless souls experience it—without suspecting its true source.
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Re: The Book on the Living God by Bo Yin Ra (Joseph Anton Sc

Postby admin » Sun Apr 22, 2018 12:51 am

Chapter 3: Meta-Physical Experiences

ANY HUMAN BEING may , at given times , have meta-physical experiences, provided there exist specific meta-physical conditions, and there is not too much resistance active in the physical environment. Best endowed for having such experiences are persons of the simplest disposition and—true artists: the creative geniuses whose source of inspiration lies within.

To RECEIVE within oneself a genuine creative impulse or an original idea is, in itself, a kind of meta-physical experience.

Nonetheless, there is a fundamental difference between artistic inspiration of whatever form —or the profounder kind of meta-physical perception that any person may at times be granted, and which may reach remarkable intensity in people of innate potential—and that quite singular experience of nonmaterial realities known among the few for whom the spiritual heritage of humankind is truly more than just a source to satisfy a thirst for knowledge: the spiritual helpers of humanity, who know themselves entrusted with this faculty of spiritual perception only to the end that, from the heights of sacred mountains, they might offer help and guidance to their spiritually younger fellow souls here on earth.

The few to whom I here refer are not to be confused with so-called mystics.

“MYSTICISM” and the Royal Art entrusted to the true initiates in the dimension of the Spirit are altogether different things.

The experience of a mystic is much like that of the creative artist.

Both receive their inspiration from a sphere they do not know, and which they consciously could never enter in complete awareness of their faculties and of their personal identity.

Both feel gripped and overwhelmed by some unknown external force and, thus, become that power’s voice; or they may solely witness its effect within themselves in silence.

Completely different from such experience is the situation of the true initiate: of one who has been consecrated in the realm of Spirit, as a master of the Royal Art, and who is, thus, a Son and Brother of the Luminaries, who mediate eternal Light.

For he is every moment fully conscious of his being present and alive in each of the three separate dimensions that together constitute Reality: the domain of physical matter; the dimension of the soul, whose elements are nonmaterial; and the world of radiant spiritual substance.

At no time is he in a state of ecstasy or any kind of trance, and he rejects all mystifying rituals and exercises; for otherwise he could not be a member of the spiritual Brotherhood, a Son of the immortal Fathers.

WHILE gathering experiences in nonmaterial dimensions, he remains completely conscious of his own identity in each of these distinct domains. His self-awareness in the world of physical perception, which is present to all mortals in their waking state is, therefore, at no time diminished in the least.

On the contrary, his perception of external matters is not only widened, but raised to the degree of clarity with which he apprehends nonphysical reality.

While he “converses” with his spiritual Brothers on a nonmaterial plane, and they in turn communicate with him, he will perceive the most minute event occurring in his physical environment as clearly and intensely as the realities one can experience only with one’s spiritual senses.

His consciousness is not, in other words, contracted but, instead, expanded almost to infinity.

Much of what is “spoken” in the Spirit’s world, which in itself comprises countless individual domains, can never be expressed in words of any human tongue. And yet, it is communicated in a clear, intelligible “language,” possessing form and rhythm, full of truth and meaning, so that it would not be impossible to find compatible equivalents in human languages. However, by such human words one never could transmit as well the spiritual insight allowing one to see, and at the same time comprehend, the facts of spiritual reality from every side at once.

What, consequently, he may “translate” into words of a particular human language is determined by the unique endowment of the individual Brother, as well as by the times in which he must perform his task, and, finally, the cultural environment surrounding him on earth.

Yet, whatever he discloses will at all times be the purest truth: unclouded revelation of absolute Reality, which is forever present to the eyes of every master of the Royal Art; unaffected by the countless possibilities for errors and illusions that beset all scientific probing in the physical domain.

Intellectual speculations and philosophical bravura simply have no place in any of the worlds of spiritual substance.

For here one is not, after all, “deducing” one truth from another, as is the practice in the mental quest for knowledge, which is subject to the functions of the brain.

Within the worlds of radiant spiritual substance, all truths are present as realities before the eyes of the beholder.

Seeming contradictions in the disclosures of all spiritual initiates of every age and region— noted with great satisfaction by those who cannot verify the truth of such disclosures— are easily explained as the result of the specific character of meta-physical perception, which lets a person see all things at once, from every side. In revealing what he sees, however, a Mediator can only show one aspect of his insight at a time, if he would be, at least to some extent, intelligible to his fellow humans, who cannot share his manner of perception. And furthermore, he often must present realities for which there are no suitable comparisons, because the physical domain does not provide analogies for the characteristic nature of existence in the Spirit’s world.

The idiomatic style and diction that a Luminary chooses for his expositions are, on the other hand, his own decision. In this he might pay homage to his former teachers, be guided by his inclinations, or influenced by the demands of literary form.

Although the heart of Asia to this day encloses, as it has through the millennia, the physical location of the Temple in which the Spirit’s energies are centered here on earth, none of the Brothers who look upon this spiritual center on our planet as their true home on this earth, is obligated to employ the concepts of religion and philosophy of Eastern cultures when he gives form to his disclosures.

Thus, if a member of this circle, although his roots are in the West, will nonetheless make use of Eastern terms and images, it is a matter of free choice. It may express his fondness for oriental poetry, his love of certain metaphors, which more effectively convey realities of Spirit than Western usage can and, finally, his wish to leave profound and unforgettable experiences in their authentic setting.

Even at his highest level of development a Mediator working in the world remains a human being; indeed, is grateful for his human state. He, thus, is not devoid of human inclinations, is no ascetic without feeling for this life on earth. This is a fact, however, which some fanatics of renunciation who reject all earthly things have difficulty comprehending, because they can no longer break the spell that chains them to their demon-prompted creed.

But is there any human being capable of feeling and affection who would not prefer to speak of treasured things in words once heard from kindly teachers?

To be sure , the same realities could very well be rendered also in the forms of a completely different culture, without becoming any less authentic.

The only danger is “translation” of such truths by anyone not qualified.

It is more difficult than many would suspect to recreate a sentence uttered by a true initiate, within a Christian context, so that its message will be clear in India; or to recast ideas conceived in China in the specific mold of European thought.

And frequently one even must combine ideas and concepts found in very different traditions, if certain facts of spiritual reality, which still are new to Western minds, should nonetheless become intelligible to a reader in that world.

But no one seeking truth should ever be misled to think that by such free employment of the means of presentation the writer is intending to promote the doctrines of religion and philosophy from whose particular vocabulary he adopted whatever proved most useful to evoke an understanding of eternal truth.

It is well known that social groups who aim to guide their members to transcendent, nonmaterial goals observe the custom of giving up the proper names of their constituents and of addressing them, within that circle, by other chosen names.

The following will shed some light on the true origin of this tradition, which may be traced to humankind’s beginnings.

One also might be mindful in this context of these verses from the Book of Genesis:

“Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham.”

And, similarly, “Thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name.”

The proper name borne by an individuated spiritual self is something very different from the extraneous appellation given human beings by tradition, in the language of their native land, and commonly depending on external factors.

Human mortals, too, are spiritual individualities; but—excluding rare exceptions, who can be found in every age—they are not conscious of their timeless name.

Only when the mortal being has gained consciousness of its true spiritual form and substance will it also know its timeless proper name.

Clearly, then, the spiritual proper name of any true initiate—in the past it often was a well-kept secret, as one feared it might be desecrated by being on everyone’s lips—is not some arbitrary designation, as is the name a person uses in daily life, which owes its form to either an ancestral residence, or to a trade or quality of distant forebears and, lastly, also to the parents’ pleasure.

Once accepted as a spiritual Son and Brother, the initiate is given his eternal name by the immortal Elders of the Brotherhood. Formed in the letter-language used among them here on earth, that name expresses the specific energies that are effective in the Brother’s spiritual self.

The active power of a spiritual name is borne, however, by certain letters it contains. Its bearer, thus, could also have a different name, so long as the effective letters, which constitute his cosmic “sum”—his timeless, everlasting spiritual essence— are present in that name.

The name eternally existing in the Spirit’s world is, consequently, always covered still by a protective veil, which thereby is itself already hallowed. No one, however, can pronounce a spiritual proper name—even when knowing its active letters—except the one whose self is signified within that name.

In his eternal name a Mediator is a Word within the Word of the Beginning, which speaks itself through him, who thus becomes its self-articulation in an individuated, spiritually conscious form.

Scientific methods of research for probing into spiritual realities are, understandably, as foreign to the members of the Brotherhood on earth as to their spiritual Fathers, who never knew the Fall from the dimension of eternal Light.

The “knowledge” mastered by a true initiate, who is anointed in the Spirit, does not consist in things discovered and accumulated by his mind; it is rather the result of his possessing certain sacred faculties permitting him to apprehend, directly and at will, the object in itself that he intends to know.

Whatever knowledge of this world he may have gathered, by his mental faculties, becomes irrelevant for his activity and only in the rarest cases is it found compatible with spiritual reality.

The more of all such knowledge he had earlier possessed, the harder was it for him then—at the beginning of his path, when he was still his master’s pupil—to overcome the obstacles imposed by preconceptions of the mind; obstacles that one must have surmounted, however, before one is initiated in the Spirit.

One must not ask for rational explanations if one would undergo this schooling, which in the end will open—to those who earned the right to enter—the inner gate which no amount of formal learning can unlock.

No TRUE initiate will ever be the founder of any system of dogmatic faith or esoteric “science.”

Events of spiritual reality are manifested clearly to his eyes; and all his teaching deals with only this reality, which no mere system of religion or philosophy could ever comprehend.

Wherever systems of that kind infringe on spiritual realities, they merely are derivative ideas of others: of minds who seized upon the revelations made by one who had attained his knowledge through himself becoming the reality he sought to comprehend.

Self-styled “explorers of higher dimensions” who would impress the world by draping the results of their “research” in scientific garb are not, of course, to be mistaken for authentic spiritual initiates.

All such “researchers” in the realm of the occult are no more than unwitting thralls of self-induced hallucinations, caused by a highly treacherous, potentially destructive faculty in human mortals; this power can be forcefully awakened, and then will let its hapless victim see, as tangible reality, all things the person’s mind had earlier provided as a pattern, by means of wishes, thoughts, and fears.

Thus came into being all those bizarre “excursions on higher planes” with their description of “higher worlds” to which now more than a few “researchers of the spirit” and “esoteric teachers of secret knowledge” owe their reputation as inspired “seers” among their trusting followers. But even here one would have to examine first how much is simply purposeful invention, which as a rule is fairly easy to detect.


To the practice of all that has here been indicated must be added the ardent study of what the spiritual researchers impart to the world. In all esoteric training such study belongs to the preparatory period, and all other methods will prove ineffective if due receptivity for the teachings of the spiritual researcher is lacking. For since these instructions are culled from the living inner word, from the living inwardly instilled speech, they are themselves gifted with spiritual life. They are not mere words; they are living powers. And while you follow the words of one who knows, while you read a book that springs from real inner experience, powers are at work in your soul which make you clairvoyant, just as natural forces have created out of living matter your eyes and your ears.

-- Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment, by Rudolf Steiner


Given that the images of self-induced hallucination are readily transferred from soul to soul by mutual infection, the followers and pupils of such “prophets” and initiators of new sects feel sure that they have spiritual proof as to the truth of their great teachers’ “revelations,” as soon as they succeed, through a mystifying secret schooling, to project their own creations into the consciousness of their disciples; just like skillful hypnotists will let their subjects see, and personally experience, whatever the hypnotists desire.

Once a person has been victimized by such delusions, any later rescue is virtually impossible.

Countless souls have thus unwittingly deceived themselves, uncounted others ended as pathetic victims of betrayal.

If i discuss these matters here in plain, unvarnished terms, while dealing with the nature of nonphysical experiences, I do so only to provide all honest seekers after truth with the criteria they need for forming valid judgments.

I speak of things one need not shroud in mystery and, at the same time, must shed light on others that have to be disclosed—for the sake of all those seeking Truth as spiritual Reality.

May these words not have been written here in vain!

May every reader come to understand that none among the few possessing conscious life within the Spirit’s radiant substance would ever dream of so degrading the wisdom of eternal Light, which he discovers to his fellow humans, that he might stoop to “proving” spiritual realities by “scientific” methods.

The teachings of a true initiate—of one who is initiated in the realm of Spirit—are given to be verified by dedicated action in one’s life.

The message he delivers to his younger fellow souls—the men and women of his time, and those of future generations—is not to be dissected intellectually, but should instead become the reader’s own experience, so that the many souls that seek may find their way into the Spirit, their way to timeless Truth.
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Re: The Book on the Living God by Bo Yin Ra (Joseph Anton Sc

Postby admin » Sun Apr 22, 2018 12:52 am

Chapter 4: The Inner Journey

ALL GREAT GOALS in life need faith and courage.

Before you suffered on the “cross” you cannot celebrate your “resurrection.”

Before you learned to summon faith, the “fiery pillar” cannot guide your foot “on dry land through the midst of the sea.”

THERE STILL is much in you today that you will have to overcome, and even more you must in future learn to master if you are truly to move forward on your way.

The sea will threaten to devour you and in the desert you shall search for food in vain. Yet you must never let timidity and doubt detain you even for a moment if you have once resolved to enter on this inner path, which is to take you to yourself and, in yourself, to your eternal Living God.

How difficult this is you will discover only on the way itself.

But do not be afraid!

For on this inner journey you are not alone.

All those are by your side who went that way before you.

They, too, had once to face and overcome all dangers.

Not one of them had found the journey any easier than it will be for you.

But now they have ascended to the “promised land.”

They now have reached the end of all their labors and, from sacred mountains, are sending you support and inner strength.

FROM THE DOMAIN of those who, in their God’s most radiant light, are unified as One, a single, everlasting sun of suns—beings that, in godlike splendor, illuminate all suns and worlds within creation—down to those abiding here on earth unseen, in spiritual form and, finally, the Mediators, who still experience life as mortals: through this eternal hierarchy descending, the Spirit’s radiant current flows through all infinity; uniting, in sublime identity of will, all those that manifest its power.

But on the lowest rung of this eternal “Jacobs ladder,” the level nearest you in life on earth, there you will find the inner helpers who can offer you their hand, provided that you want their guidance.

They shall abandon none of those who strive to make their way through all the horrors of the night, searching for the peaceful, radiant sanctuary in which their Living God is to be born—from light to light—within their timeless soul.

Do not expect, however, that their help will reach you from without; for they shall be connected with you in yourself, as soon as you courageously begin your inner way. Your way shall be the same which any soul that ever found its Living God has had to journey. The inner guides, who now are helping you, have also gone that way in their own day, even though their spiritual self and essence had long before been carefully prepared, for thousands of years, in order to endow them with the power to perceive and clearly comprehend all spiritual reality.

Unless your guide be one of them, he cannot ever lead you to your goal, no matter what astounding feats or miracles he elsewhere might perform.

You WILL encounter many teachers who are false; teachers who themselves need sorely to be taught, and numberless conceited braggarts will flaunt their “knowledge” to impress you.

Also, you may come upon self-righteous “holy ones” who are consumed with vanity and count it as a worthy deed to see that others are seduced to honor their pretended “holiness” and “dignity.”

Again, you may be startled by outlandish pseudo-priests, seeking to bewilder anyone they can attract with the mysterious glitter of the magic symbols which, in their delusion, they stitched in imitation gold on their magician’s costume.

And if you should be careless even once, you also may quite easily get caught in sundry hidden snares, which few are able to escape again unharmed who once had been entangled.

Only being constantly alert can keep you safe from danger.

BEWARE OF all whose so-called wisdom touching God is taught and learned like any other subject studied by the human mind.

Beware of all who would seduce you by displaying occult powers.

There truly still are many things which even in this self-assured, supposedly “enlightened” age might strike you as a “miracle.” Nor is there any doubt that wondrous faculties lie hidden deep in human nature. But never could the Spirit of Eternity so utterly mistrust its own reality that it would stoop to “proving” its existence by performing public “miracles.” If some mysterious faculties reveal themselves in a particular person, it proves no more than that such faculties exist. It is no proof whatever that their owner has awakened in the Spirit as a conscious being and, therefore, can bear witness to eternal Truth, whose source is spiritual Reality.

Authentic witness of the truth is only proved by virtue of the miracle of spiritual awakening, which final truth is able to effect within the human soul. Therefore, you should not regard as truth whatever is not borne out by your innermost experience; provided you fulfill the spiritual conditions on which all such experience depends.

Forget as well the foolish notion that by consuming only certain foods, or by engaging in some foolish exercise, you might just eat or breathe yourself onto a “higher plane of spiritual life.”

The Mediators of the light that shines through all creation shall never tell you to employ such means.

Nor shall they ever ask you to withdraw from life among your fellow humans, so that you might indulge in secret, mind-deluding practices or esoteric rites.

They never shall invest you with arcane “degrees,” strange-sounding titles, or especial “honors,” which merely would abet your vanity and kindle foolish pride.

Only what is manifest in you as spiritual reality— because your own endeavor made it so—has any value in their eyes and it alone will tell them where you stand.

To be sure, you will not find these Mediators holding forth from rostrums, imitating actors of the stage, nor in the market place surrounded by large crowds.

Rather, they shall offer you their help in words that you may weigh within your soul, in quiet, when you are by yourself, not swayed by cunning rhetoric.

Their help will reach you in your soul, and they shall never seek to show themselves in person.

You NEED not recognize the Spirit’s Mediators, if in this life you ever were to meet one.

Nor is it necessary that you find them in their mortal form.

It is they who shall be finding you, and they know how to help you, even if you cannot fathom who that helper is.

Truly, they have other means of reaching you than do the vain impostors who seek to lure their flock with hints of hidden mysteries and ringing, hollow phrases.

Nor shall they ever ask for, or expect, that you pay money for their guidance; indeed, they all would rather give you their last penny than take from you so much as half a penny for their help.

What they have to bestow are treasures of the Spirit, and none who has the power to bestow such gifts would ever trade them for material things.

Only work that needs the tool of a material body may justly ask for payment in material coin.

LET All readers who have eyes to see and ears to hear protect themselves against pied pipers and deceivers.

They will not find it difficult to see through their disguises.

The Spirit’s Luminaries, who mediate eternal Light, are not, by contrast, quite so easy to identify.

You scarcely will detect them among your fellow mortals in this life, and nothing strange or special will betray them to your eyes; for they prefer to live in undisturbed obscurity.

Compelled to live amidst the turmoil of this world, they will be indistinguishable from all other honorable persons who go about their daily tasks.

Wise are those who put their trust in them!

But NOW, my friend, who would discover truth, let us withdraw to find a quiet place, and I will show you the beginning of your way.

Collect your thoughts and listen to my words; for surely, you are now sufficiently instructed to bring an open mind to what I further have to tell you.

BEFORE ALL else, my friend, who would find truth, you will have to forget and clear your mind of many things that you were taught.

Your teachers filled your head with false ideas of “God,” and thus destroyed in you, with baseless doctrines, the living seed from which should have arisen, out of your soul’s most hallowed waters, the “lotus flower” in whose blossom shall be born the Light that is to shine in you forever.

The Spirit that “hovered over the face of the waters” pervades all reaches of infinity, but you can only find that Spirit—in yourself.

Only if it will create and form itself in you—as light from light—and thus become your God, can you bear witness to its silent wonders.

Those who seek to “comprehend” the Spirit’s measureless infinity are very much deceived.

They haughtily assume their thoughts define the One whom all dimensions of creation do not grasp, and fail to see that they construed a mental phantom by whose power they are now possessed.

BUT WE WOULD once more sow today the seed of that eternal lotus flower in your heart.

Perhaps your soul will now provide the soil it needs to grow and flourish.

The day on which its blossom shall have fully opened, the self-begetting, self-sustaining Spirit of Eternity shall finally descend upon your soul and thus be born in you: to be your Living God—the God who lives within you.

Before you have experienced this, you do not know of God.

Distrust all those who tell you of a God they see in visions, a God one finds in ecstasy and trance.

Whatever can be found that way is but a phantom image of the inner world. You still have no idea what treasures you possess within your soul’s immense horizon.

One here encounters energies and forces which you would worship on your knees—like the prophet when he faced the burning bush—if I could make you see them with your eyes.

Your soul is like an ocean, vast beyond all measure, and none has ever probed its depth, nor witnessed all the wonders of the energies that form this timeless sea.

You THINK your soul to be a kind of insubstantial “body’’ in which you will find nothing but yourself.

Yet in reality, your soul is like an ocean, composed of countless individual drops, each possessed of latent power: or like a cloud, alive with myriads of dynamic elements—and you are to assert yourself as lord and master of this host of forces.

Unless they clearly recognize you as their master, they will benumb you with their awesome powers and you will find yourself their slave.

Once you have subdued them to your will, they must be at your service, but if misplaced humility should make you kneel before them, their mystifying energies shall never cease deluding you.

They need a will of strong resolve, a will that shall unite them all within itself.


Before you have united them within a single will, you cannot in your soul attain that state of inner quiet which alone will cause the lotus flower to develop and to blossom.

NOR SHALL your soul’s inherent faculties allow you any sooner to perceive within yourself that silent realm of spirits, which you may sense and feel, and sometimes even see and hear— once your soul is unified within a single will —because that realm abides in you, as it does everywhere, by virtue of the selfsame energies.

Nor can the one who guides you from the realm of Spirit any sooner offer you a lucid sign, nor shall you any earlier perceive within yourself the Spirit’s timeless rulers, the Luminaries, who mediate eternal Light.

If, therefore, you would find what you are seeking, you must above all else develop in yourself a clearly formed and steadfast will, determined to assert your self.

You must be able to accept yourself if, in the Spirit’s world, you seek acceptance by the Spirit.

You cannot find yourself, nor your eternal Living God, except within your inmost self.

ENDEAVOR calmly to assert your inmost self within you, with quiet joy and with serene detachment, and turn away from all the images your still not self-collected, easily excited mind would force on your attention.

You need first to become profoundly conscious of your inmost self, secure in confidence and inner joy.

Before you have collected all your inner energies, securing your own confines on all sides —like an ocean self-defining its own shores, or like a cloud that wills its proper shape— you shall in vain endeavor to possess your soul, because its elements will only bow to someone truly worthy of their homage.


Do not assume, however, that you might ever reach this goal by shunning all activity in outer life.

As a mortal born into this world of matter, you here must strive to be productive day by day; even as nature herself, of which you now are part, never ceases to create new life and forms.

Thus only shall you see your will grow strong as steel, so that your soul’s dynamic forces can obey it.

There is no single thing so small or unimportant in this outer life that you could not regard it as a lesson.

There is something to be learned in every moment you experience, and no activity or work is so ignoble in itself that it might not still teach you something new.

ABOVE ALL else, however, you must learn to gather and control your passing thoughts, and have them concentrate themselves on one thing at a time.

Perhaps the most widely used and effective way to control cult members' thoughts is thought-stopping rituals. Members are taught to use thought-stopping on themselves. They are told it will help them grow or be more effective. Whenever a cult member begins to experience a "bad" thought, he uses thought-stopping to drown out the "negativity" and center himself, thus learning how to shut out anything that threatens his reality....

For more than twenty years, I used to purposely bring up a specific image when negative thoughts came into my mind -- especially negative thoughts about AMORC, which was the main source of my doubts....Every time a thought like this came into my head, I would, as instructed by AMORC, visualize a chosen master, someone from the Rosicrucian pantheon whom I truly respected. This would theoretically bring a spiritual influx into my immediate experience and deflect the negative energy. Of course, the natural person to choose was H. Spencer Lewis. Lewis was the founder of our order, the powerhouse who had found a true connection with the ancient order and resurrected it in the United States, the writer of the sacred monographs. Perfect choice. Given my circumstances, as you can imagine, I visualized him a lot. Unfortunately, owing to these continuous efforts, when I began to separate myself from AMORC, Lewis's face became a trigger point for me....When I reached the point where I began to intentionally mentally distance myself from the organization, his pictures persisted and began to flood my imagination. As my efforts increased, I was bombarded with the picture of his face day and night. Since I did not have any money to hire a therapist to help me deal with the problem, I started on my own, using what I called then the "brute force method." I started by deliberately visualizing the unsavory behavior of H. Spencer Lewis. By that time, I was convinced that he had used the name of God to enslave many of his children, and this was unsavory and wrong. I also started to mentally associate his image with the other brainwashers of the world, such as Jim Jones and Marshall Applewhite of Heaven's Gate and the like.

-- The Prisoner of San Jose: How I Escaped From Rosicrucian Mind Control, by Pierre S. Freeman


Neither a hermit’s life in the desert, nor living among the wild beasts of the jungle could prove more beneficial to your goal than will the commerce in a busy city in which you are pursuing your own work.

When you have learned to not become distracted even in the loudest turmoil of this outer life; when you have gained complete control of all your thinking and your will; when your wishes only come and go as you would have them come and leave you—then only should you make the first attempt to unify within yourself the elements that form your timeless soul.

Even then you may expect to face much opposition in yourself.

Although your will is now already formed and strengthened, you still may be asserting it in vain—for quite some time—in order to subdue the many elements within your soul that are reluctant to obey it.

Each element within your soul shall struggle to possess your will alone and by itself, and none shall readily become your will’s possession.

You shall more clearly understand this once you recognize that every element found in your soul —although you think of them as innate qualities of your own nature, inseparable from yourself—is, in reality, an independent, conscious being in the ocean of the soul; a being that is driven by the will to manifest itself alone, even if it were at the expense of all the other elements within you.


But you must never feel discouraged in this continuing and often still unequal struggle to impose your will upon the many other wills that only want to manifest themselves within your soul.

You never must lose faith in your own powers.

And never must you lose your inner joy, nor your dispassionate serenity.

All your struggles now are but a constant test, both of your patience and of the strength you have already gained in practicing your will
.

Be assured, however, that in this way you shall prevail and triumph in the end.

The DAY will come when you shall truly feel the joy of victory in every fiber of your being.

Then shall the “lotus flower’s” seed have opened, and on the Temple’s sacred pond, forever hidden from the sight of mortals, the inner eye of your invisible protector—in former days one knew him as the human being’s guardian angel—shall see a bud upon the motionless, mysterious waters.

Full of joy he then shall call his Brothers, and from that day will chosen guardians protect the hallowed waters of your soul.

A “miracle” has here become reality.

A miracle, accomplished by a mortal. For, truly, it is easier to “hold a raging elephant by no more than a string of hemp, and guide him through a market’s busy crowd” than fully to unite, within a single human will, the countless wills that form a human soul.


BUT NOW the light of day must softly bathe the flower’s bud, that it may one day bloom in all its splendor.

Trees of ageless majesty surround the mystery-enshrouded pond, protecting the still tender plant against the searing arrows of the sun, which at this time would only wither and destroy the barely sprouted seed.

The Temple’s mighty walls fend off the burning sandstorms from the desert.

Now, my friend who seeks the Truth, you will have to pursue a new activity.

But this new task indeed requires also outer calm and time for meditation.

You will be able to devote yourself to this, however, after you have finished with your daily chores, or in the peace and quiet of the early morning.

You now must learn how to give voice to inner questions, quietly and calmly, and then to listen for an answer in yourself.

You cannot be too silent as you pursue this task.

What still abides concealed within your depth, but soon shall be revealed, cannot be heard while noisy thoughts are rushing through your mind.

It speaks within your heart of hearts, but you can still not hear its word, because its voice is fainter than the call of a bird far in the distance.

Be very careful, lest it shy away.

Pay close attention even to its faintest sound.

Its voice in you can easily be missed if you will not keep perfect silence.

At first your inner questions will be answered in a voice so faint that even a breath in your soul would scatter its sound to the winds.


One day, however, you shall truly learn to hear that inner voice, and will be able to distinguish it from any other voice that you might hear within you.

You will not hear the Spirit’s voice the way your ear perceives external sounds.

Nor will you hear it speaking in your native tongue, nor in any other language spoken on this earth.

Yet what that voice shall have to tell you will be far more intelligible to your understanding than anything you ever heard from childhood on in words of any human tongue.

FROM HERE on you will have to follow the counsels of that inner voice.

All future progress on your inner way will henceforth be determined only by your loyalty.

Step by step you will begin to recognize how your own will no longer serves you merely as your mortal insight wishes, but that, instead, you can already redirect it, almost imperceptibly, according to the Spirit’s will, whose guidance you are given through that voice.

More and more deeply shall you penetrate into your soul’s profoundest mysteries.

The more you may already comprehend, the greater mysteries you still shall fathom, hidden in dimensions unrevealed.

With gratitude receive and carefully preserve even the smallest insight that your soul will grant you; for if you gratefully accept what may seem little, you will the soonest know the full abundance of experience.

In the end you shall behold a realm of inner wonders of which no human words today could give you the faintest conception.

Events shall happen in your life which you today would call impossible, and such they truly are—today.

But the most astounding of all wonders, it will then appear to you, is that so much power should be granted you; for now you need no longer wait in anxious doubt to see your deepest longing answered, because it henceforth shall fulfill itself: by virtue of its own inherent power.

IF YOU HAVE thus far always loyally fulfilled the expectations of your inner guidance, the lotus flower on the sacred pond within the Spirit’s temple shall slowly have unfolded more and more.

It now shall not be long before you see the day on which the fully opened blossom will shine upon the waters in a light whose radiance is not of this material earth.

Know, then, my friend, who would find truth, that you have come to see the day on which the Will of God reveals itself—as your own Living God—in your eternal self.

As God is born in you, so are you born in God.

What here is done remains a mystery which even those who have awakened in the Spirit do not see.

To BE SURE, you cannot yet forgo your inner guide; but you will henceforth be united with him in a different way.

Already when the lotus bud has surfaced on the waters, it may be that you will behold your inner guide before you in a nonmaterial image, provided you possess the faculty one needs for such perception.

What you shall thus behold, however, is not your inner guide himself.

It rather is a likeness of his person, molded by his will from certain “plastic” energies within your soul.

Be grateful if your inner guide is able to be near you in this way; if he can teach you through his likeness, so that you feel as if you heard his voice.

Yet do not be concerned if in this life you never see your teacher’s likeness face to face.

Only in exceptional cases can he thus appear to you in visual form, and he never shall approach you in this way if it might cause you any harm, or tempt you to misuse your soul’s potential for the sake of seeing other things.

It is better for you never to behold your teacher’s likeness than risking that his influence upon the elements that form your soul might also render them susceptible to forces that deceive.

If, thus, you do not see your inner guide, you will the more securely feel his presence in your heart; and what your eyes may not perceive without, shall manifest itself the more concretely to your inmost comprehension.


Now, HOWEVER, that your God is born in you, as you are born in God, your inner guide shall manifest himself within you only in his spirit’s highest life: united with your inmost self and with the voice of your eternal Living God.

Whenever he is with you, it will appear to you as though your consciousness and his were only one.

He shall no longer guide you by his teachings, but rather open up to you his very self; and from the treasures of his inner life you will select and make your own whatever you still need.

Above all this, however, the joy of God will shine in sun-like splendor, and what you once had suffered in your quest for light and knowledge, before you found your inner way, shall now seem like the torments of the damned that you had lived through long ago.

Before your eyes expanding you behold eternity, whose farthest depth will make you fathom ever deeper realms, feeling certain in the knowledge that, united with your Living God, you will proceed from mystery to mystery forever without end.

If you observe yourself amidst the joys and sorrows of this earthly life, you still shall only see a mortal—and yet, your spirit, radiant in your Living God, shall be exalted far above all physical mortality; for now your soul is made a kingdom in the spheres of the eternal, a heaven in the realm of heavens.

THIS, THEN, is the inner way, my friend, that you will have to choose and follow to the end, if you would truly find your Living God.

The way to God is in you—within your very self!

No other way shall ever lead you to your highest goal: to your awakening within the kingdom of the Spirit.

If you do not awaken in that realm while you still live your life on earth, you will continue sleeping, for a long time, also in your life beyond, when you have left this mortal world. Eternities may pass before one in that other life can finally awaken you: from dreams which you yourself brought into being and which may then enslave your consciousness for eons.

Now LET ME also offer you the following advice:

Once you have decided to pursue your inner way, you shall be needing a resilient “staff" that will support you on your journey.

You shall not lack the proper “wood” to fashion such a staff if in yourself you can detect and feel the latent energy contained in words, such as it manifests itself in every human language.

Find some words that touch your heart; words by which you feel inspired, stirred, and inwardly uplifted.

Set aside a little time each day and, if you can, at always the same hour; a time when you may seek to penetrate the spirit of such words in contemplation and will not be disturbed by duties of your daily life.

Continue using such a word that moved you, in your daily contemplation, and let it be an exercise to school your thinking for some time to come; much as a player on the flute repeats the same phrase many times, until it gains its purest sound.


You will find many words throughout this book that lend themselves to such an exercise in thinking.

More I gave you in my other books.

To be sure, you are not obligated to confine yourself to words included in my texts.

The sacred writings of humanity are rich in words that may inspire and uplift your soul.

Sages and poets have given the world such words in abundance.

The only danger you incur by using words from other sources is that you also will absorb the error-laden doctrines which lack of insight and conventional interpretation will lead you to read into those words.

Thus, I would advise you, at least in the beginning, rather to select your words from books I wrote; given that you are resolved to trust me with your guidance.

Begin, then, as I already told you, by searching with your mind for the profoundest meaning of the words you chose.

Next, however, try to find a way of thinking without “words.”

Do not give up until you feel assured that— through this wordless comprehension—you have completely grasped the deepest meaning of those words.

At the same time, write the words in your own hand, clearly, and apart from others, by themselves. and let your eyes create an image of them that you can retain.

Now try to feel the words you chose as if they were your own.

Seek thereafter to create within yourself the spiritual consciousness that moved their author to express those words.

Try to awaken your sense of inner hearing by listening for the sound those words produce within you.

When you are certain that you have achieved results in all these forms of comprehending, you will be ready to proceed—but only then, even if you do not reach this point for quite some time.

I must expressly warn you: do not take this admonition lightly and proceed too soon!


To be sure, you well may think that all this can be easily accomplished in the space of a few hours.

Perhaps, indeed, you feel already certain, even as you are receiving these instructions, that you no longer really need to practice such a way of comprehending.

Many who had once intended to pursue their inner goal fell by the wayside—at the very start—because they held that view.

There is far more demanded here than you at first are likely to suspect.

But often one must speak of things that are profoundly different by using terms that, on the surface, seem to be quite similar.

Thus, you here need not possess what one might call an “ear for language,” although a person who intuitively senses the rhythm, sound, and inner weight of words is not too far from understanding what the present task demands.

But if you truly have accomplished everything that is required, you shall have gained a new and much expanded sense of your existence, a far more conscious way of living your external life; and this will give you the assurance that you are safe from any form of self-deception.

Then, my friend, who seeks the highest of all human goals, you may continue on your way.

You now must try to feel those words within yourself, with your entire being.

Those words must now begin to come alive in you.

Not just your soul should now be penetrated by the spirit of those words, but all your body must begin to feel them: in its every fiber.

With yourself, your soul, and your whole body must those words now be completely fused into a single consciousness.

Your mortal body must become the very body of those words, as if no other life were active in its form.

The elements that shape your soul, already integrated fully with your will, must now be also integrated with the words you chose; and you must feel yourself as if you were the very consciousness alive within those words.

With the attainment of this goal you have accomplished something great.

For the first time you shall here encounter Life itself: the energy that is alive in you and in all living things.

It will appear to you as if you had awakened on a new and different earth, within a world you never dreamed existed.


You shall perceive and comprehend that the condition mortals call their “waking state” is in effect a deep, lethargic sleep and muddled dream.

ALREADY HERE you may begin to see the Spirit’s world with clarity, provided that your innate faculties allow for such perception and, owing to your nature, your strength lies more in visual than in conceptual experience.

But if your faculties are such that you can only apprehend what you would know if you are able conceptually to grasp it, then you will not so much behold as rather comprehend the insights you receive.

In either case, however, you now shall have become a new and very different being; for you have gained a consciousness of your own self to which your present sense of being can hardly be compared.

For even as a little oil lamp’s flicker will vanish in the radiant sun at noon, so too shall be absorbed and vanish, in a new and different consciousness, what you today still call your “self-awareness.”

You then will understand the reason why an ancient sage once spoke of life as of the “light of men”; and you will comprehend the depth of the majestic words that have inspired so much commentary:

“In the beginning is the Word, and the Word is with God, and God is the Word.

“In it all things have life, and its life is the light of men.

“And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot put it out.


THE AUTHOR of those words knew very well what he was saying, and so shall you, when you have reached that threshold on your way.

But remember, “the kingdom of heaven submits to force, and only the forceful shall seize it.”

Without controlling your impatience, without untiring practice of your inner faculties, you cannot rightfully expect success.

Yet do not think that stubborn, blind exertion or convulsive strain might ever bring you closer to your goal.

For that is not the meaning of this admonition.

You must at all times feel surrounded by an atmosphere of quiet joy and of dispassionate serenity, and all your care must be directed toward attaining, with utmost sensitivity, the keen perceptiveness within yourself of which I spoke above.

You need more “force” to curb your passions in this way than you should want for some heroic deed, conspicuous for all the world to see.

If, however, you have carefully considered what I told you, and will in future undertake what is required, then I can offer you assurance that also you shall one day find yourself among those granted to perceive, within themselves, the mystery of “the kingdom of heaven.”

BEGIN, THEN, your demanding inner journey!

May never-failing patience accompany your efforts to the end!

Help and guidance from above shall always be beside you.

Do not look back upon the life that is behind you: the past with all its joys and sorrows, its good deeds and its wrongs.

Also bear in mind that for your task it is of no importance whether you have mastered all the learning of this world, or whether you rank last among the uninstructed.

Do not attempt to live in separation from your fellow human beings, nor ever think that you might benefit by choosing an eccentric way of life, cultivating habits that ignore the customs of your time and place.

Even less important for your inner journey shall be what you eat and drink; for nothing here can either help or harm you, as long as it will keep your body in good health.


If you prefer avoiding the meat of slaughtered animals, by all means, do avoid it; and if you would abstain from wine, then simply do not drink it; but you ought never to imagine that such a choice will make of you a “purer,” let alone a “morally superior,” human being.

The same is to be said concerning physical passion between man and woman.

Let not your drives reduce you to the level of a brute, but always keep them firmly tamed, that they may never vanquish you against your will and render you their slave. Yet do not blasphemously scorn a mystery that you can only comprehend in all its purity when you yourself shall have awakened in the Spirit.

Not without having probed the very depth of Being did priests of ancient cults declare the symbols representing procreation to be sacred. And, truly, what they venerated here was more than just an image of nature’s inexhaustible fertility.

Abstention is demanded only where the untamed passion of your drives might lead to harm, both to yourself and others.

Abstention is demanded from all vices, because they soon would stifle and, in the end, extinguish your lofty striving toward the Spirit.

Avoid all things that might bring harm to others, or yourself.

You even should avoid all heartless thoughts!

Feel love for your own self! For if you cannot love your very self, you will show little kindness for another if you but “love your neighbor like yourself.”

Pursue the path that you have chosen, but also let all others follow theirs; even should their goals lie far behind your own.

You do not know when others’ time has come, and thus you have no right to interrupt their sleep.

Do not imagine that you could awaken them; for none of them escape their sleep before their time has come.

But if their hour is approaching, then they themselves shall ask you to instruct them.

Only then are you allowed to speak of what you know.

And only then shall your assistance also be effectively supported by the Luminaries, who mediate eternal Light.

You are not called upon to guide another to the Spirit, from within the Spirit’s realm, and those entrusted with that calling shall never pressure anyone to follow and accept their guidance.

Set out, then, on your inner path to your own self, in quiet joy and confidence.

The way to your own self shall take you to your inner guide, in the domain of your eternal soul, and he shall lead you, in yourself, to your sublimest goal.

Your way to your own self is, in the end, your way to God.

For never shall you know of God unless you find your Living God’s true Being—within your inmost self.

BUT NOW I want to tell you also more of other things, which will enable you to understand the workings of the Spirit’s world on earth, as well as other hidden laws—if, indeed, it is your honest will to know the Spirit’s ways.

I shall adorn your house with festive garlands.

Garlands braided out of flowers I collected on my highest paths, and at my final journey’s end, within my blossoming garden.

Do not despoil those garlands, but leave each flower where you find it.

For otherwise you will not grasp, in undistorted clarity, the one great Truth which every sentence of this book would make you see.

And then you might not comprehend the mystery that here reveals itself in silent words: the mystery of Life divine in mortals—the mystery that is the Living God.
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Re: The Book on the Living God by Bo Yin Ra (Joseph Anton Sc

Postby admin » Sun Apr 22, 2018 1:13 am

Chapter 5: the en-Sof

THE EN-SOF—the Infinite, existing of itself— is Spirit, which in itself encloses everything that is.

The forces of the universe, by contrast, work as causes generating numerous effects; and this misled you to pursue the quest for an imagined first, or primal cause.

Yet there has never been a “first cause” of the kind that you envision.

God eternally brings forth God’s Self, rising from the chaos of the unformed elements of Being.

Nothing here is “cause,” nor anything “effect.”

There is alone the Spirit’s free, self-knowing will, which manifests its very being, for itself, as God.

AT THEIR very source, where they are hurled forth from the Ground of Being, the unformed elements of Being manifest themselves as chaos, as the profoundest, most prolific forces of eternal nature.

They here assert themselves as purely driven needs and urges, without awareness of their being, nor of the consequences they effect.

They here still are opposed to one another, and every element asserts itself alone.

But from the self-assertion of opposing elements there will result polarity and, thus, reciprocal attraction; and such attraction will prepare, in time not countable in human terms, the gradual accumulation of the scattered elements.

In the dimension of the soul of mortal humans the elements arising from the Ground of Being will then become united once again: if human will aspires to attain that goal.

The turmoil in your heart that seeks expression; the inner restlessness that keeps you constantly in motion; the driving need of having to achieve a certain goal: herein you may perceive the influence effected by the elements of Being, which seek to unify themselves again in you, and now in a specific, individuated form.


TODAY, HOWEVER, there still are many of these elements competing in you for your will. In the sublime, developed form your consciousness requires, they manifest themselves within you as the energies that form your timeless soul.

Today, you do not yet command the dominating will that can unite all of these energies within you.

What you today regard as your own self, both in your inner life and in the world without, is seldom more than only one among the countless wills that one day shall be unified within the radiant spiritual scintilla that is your consciously awakened self.


For only in a conscious self can God’s eternal consciousness reveal itself anew: manifested by the elements born in the Ground of Being.

Rising from the horrifying turmoil in the lowest depth of nature, both in its visible and its unseen dimension, until they reach their integration in the conscious self-awareness of a mortal born on earth—and there are countless “earths” inhabited by human mortals— the elements at work within the Ground of Being will once again ascend to their sublimest height: returning to a new and conscious life in God.

The physical phenomena your senses can observe, and which you speak of as “forces of nature,” are in fact no more than visible effects: reflections showing the reciprocal exchange and influence between the elements of Being, but not in any way identical with these eternal elements.

What you regard as the “reality” of the observable— as well as of the unseen—universe is ultimately “real” only insofar as it represents the effect created by the elements that underlie the Ground of Being, made manifest at various levels of activity and form.

The universe exists because the elements of Being cause it to exist; not, however, “of itself.”

You still are speaking of a “God” whom you consider the “creator” of all things; a “God” who brought forth and sustains an everlasting world in “His” own honor, declaring “His” own glory.

Yet such a view of God and of creation’s origin could only be excused in ages of the past that still possessed no knowledge of the countless ways in which the elements of Being manifest themselves; knowledge that should be sufficient for a thinking mind today to put away the old ideas.

Clinging to them in this day and age is at the same time blasphemy and folly.

God is the creator of only God’s own Self in all things that exist: and everything that truly is embodies Being that is God’s.

God brings forth God’s Self alone, and did not, as you believe, create the human being and the world.


Angels from their wisdom go still further. They say that not only everything good and true is from the Lord, but everything of life as well. They confirm it by this, that nothing can spring from itself, but only from something prior to itself; therefore all things spring from a First, which they call the very Being [Esse] of the life of all things. And in like manner all things continue to exist, for continuous existence is a ceaseless springing forth, and whatever is not continually held by means of intermediates in connection with the First instantly disperses and is wholly dissipated. They say also that there is but One Fountain of life, and that man's life is a rivulet therefrom, which if it did not unceasingly continue from its fountain would immediately flow away. [2] Again, they say that from this One Fountain of life, which is the Lord, nothing goes forth except Divine good and Divine truth, and that each one is affected by these in accordance with his reception of them, those who receive them in faith and life find heaven in them while those who reject them or stifle them change them into hell; for they change good into evil and truth into falsity, thus life into death. Again, that everything of life is from the Lord they confirm by this: that all things in the universe have relation to good and truth,-the life of man's will, which is the life of his love, to good; and the life of his understanding, which is the life of his faith, to truth; and since everything good and true comes from above it follows that everything of life must come from above. [3] This being the belief of the angels they refuse all thanks for the good they do, and are displeased and withdraw if any one attributes good to them. They wonder how any one can believe that he is wise from himself or does anything good from himself. Doing good for one's own sake they do not call good, because it is done from self. But doing good for the sake of good they call good from the Divine; and this they say is the good that makes heaven, because this good is the Lord.{1}

-- Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell: From Things Heard and Seen, by Emanuel Swedenborg


THE FORCES that give shape to all the suns and worlds within creation are aspects of the Spirit —elements that form the Ground of Being— and as they manifest themselves in time and space, they generate phenomena within these limitations: things existing only for a time, and always subject to the laws of space.

New elements, however, are continuously hurled forth from the Ground of Being, while others are unceasingly returning to their source.

Thus it was since time began, and so it shall remain for all eternity.

Forever alternating their effect, the elements that form the Ground of Being at times will manifest themselves as forces that create, at other times again they will destroy what they created.

They themselves, however, simply are in being—from eternity to eternity—although forever changing their effect, and they were not “created,” as it were, by anyone.

THERE Never has been a “beginning” of this everlasting Life, nor can it ever have an “end.”

The whole, unfathomable universe with its immeasurable wealth of forms, with all its visible and its unseen dimensions, is but the ever restless surface of an eternal spiritual sea from which arises, through its own inherent power, the radiant cloud of Godhead.

Except for God, there would exist no universe; and if there were no universe, there would exist no God.

The perpetuum mobile, which fools and sages endeavored to invent, always has existed and cannot be “invented,” in that sense, a second time.

Those who labored to invent it merely sensed within themselves, albeit in minute proportions, the essence of the boundless All; the truth of that which is in being through Itself— without beginning. without end—Eternal Life proceeding through its cosmic cycles.
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Re: The Book on the Living God by Bo Yin Ra (Joseph Anton Sc

Postby admin » Sun Apr 22, 2018 1:13 am

Chapter 6: On Seeking god

You are still searching for a God beyond the stars who rules in the infinity of space.

But I can tell you this:

Before your God is born in you, as you are born in God, your search shall never end.

Before your God is born in you, you shall in vain make all dimensions of creation tremble with your anguished cry for God.

You MAY have heard it said that mortal beings are actually “Gods” in temporal disguise and merely need to discover their true nature to find themselves as “Gods” for all eternity.

Those who hold this view are very far from God, much farther than they might suspect.

Not you are God, but in your inmost self alone can God gain timeless form, and in such union you shall then be One, as word and meaning are combined in song.

Nothing then can ever separate you from your God in all eternity.

For God shall from this time forth be alive in you forever.

You SHOULD not, therefore, any longer search for God in measureless infinities, in worlds you cannot reach, behind the farthest galaxies.

As long as you are seeking God, your God is not yet born in you.

As soon as God is born in you, your search is at an end.

There is nothing so unnecessary as your “seeking God.”

What you should seek instead, however, is the inner path on which your God can reach you.

Having found it, see that everything within you shall be ready and prepared for God becoming one with you.

COMPREHEND: the will of the eternal, all-embracing Spirit wills that you exist, and it is even now alive in you, seeking one day to reveal its self-born life in you as God.

Advent, the time of preparation, should henceforth animate your soul; for, truly, you are Bethlehem, and in you shall be born your king: the One, the only One, who can indeed redeem you.
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Re: The Book on the Living God by Bo Yin Ra (Joseph Anton Sc

Postby admin » Sun Apr 22, 2018 1:14 am

Chapter 7: On Leading an Active Life

Be ACTIVE as you make your inner way and always seek productive use of all your faculties and powers.

Having one day found your God within you, your whole existence shall be action; indeed, your very self shall then be pure activity.

GOD is a living fire!

A fire that consumes all things that idly stagnate and decay.

The Spirit’s will cannot bring forth its life within you—as your Living God—if you do not pursue an active life on earth, as if you were already one with God.

YOUR LIVING God will be a God of energy and daring, not some demon of anemic wishes and consuming fears.

May you always love to lead an active life, even as the Spirit is itself forever active, eternally creating its own essence.

How can you hope that you and God shall ever become one, while yet your love is seeking other goals?

You cannot find yourself within your God, unless you are resolved to be united with God in a life of action; for the eternal Living God is not an idol of enraptured dreamers.

In souls alone that have awakened can God come forth in timeless form.

The Godhead’s Light is far too radiant to be endured by souls that seek no more than twilight.

UNIFY the elements that form your soul and use them for your highest goals.

Complete whatever you can finish in your life on earth and be at all times active, as far as your ability permits.

Thus, you one day shall be strong enough to stand before your God—before the Living God within you—without fear.

You WOULD not have existence in this life if Life, the Spirit’s very action, were not, in fact, at work in you.

Nor would you have eternal life, but for the fact that all the Spirit’s works are everlasting, even as itself.

In life on earth, however, you have existence that is only temporal, and thus it is your duty in this temporal domain to bring forth works in earthly life; even as, within the Spirit’s world, your own existence is brought forth, eternally, by will of the eternal.

Only by pursuing a continuously active life can you truly prove your worth; and through your actions must you have prepared yourself, as your inner guidance shall demand, if your Living God is to be born within you.
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Re: The Book on the Living God by Bo Yin Ra (Joseph Anton Sc

Postby admin » Sun Apr 22, 2018 1:14 am

Chapter 8: On "Holy Men" and "Sinners"

THOSE GIVEN insight into final things have always viewed the “holy man” in his conceit and false humility as something ludicrous and foolish; they also can distinguish, however, between some unctuous hypocrite and those inspired souls that have at times been canonized.

The Spirit’s guides would like to see you living proudly and with self-esteem, not as a sorry wretch who begs for mercy at the gates of heaven, not as some miserable penitent.

They want to see you turn your life into a work of art, not meekly to submit to life the way a beast of burden bears its yoke.

All wHO will allow themselves to be deflected from their path by sins and feelings of guilt are still not worthy to attain their goal. They who would achieve the greatest of all victories must not consume themselves with anguished thoughts, seeing that the dust of daily life at times will stain their garment.

Those who constantly would cleanse their coat of every speck shall soon be losing sight of their sublimest goal.

I certainly do not suggest that one should wallow in the mud; but those who would attain their inner goal must learn to disregard the dust and all the little stains that needs will soil their garment on the way.

You never shall advance a single step, nor ever find your natural stride, if you allow some errors —which no mortal can entirely avoid— to distract you on your journey.

The so-called holy man, however, is like a person who has cut the tendons of his legs with his own hands, and now is lying by the wayside as a cripple, but dreams with open eyes that he can fly.

TRULY, I would rather see you wade through sin and guilt up to your neck than ever tempted to become a “saint.”

You would be wasting your most precious energy if you attempted living like a “holy person” and sought above all else to purge yourself of “sin.”

You cannot properly employ your strength if you are constantly concerned with not committing any “sin”; because wherever you are truly active, you cannot help but “sin” and make mistakes—against your will.

But as a sculptor’s work is surely not diminished by the dust of marble on the floor, so also shall your timeless self, which you would carve from unhewn rock, by no means lose its value because of the debris you leave behind until you hammered out your lasting form.

Forget the workshop with its dust and rubble and always keep your mind upon the work of art you are to fashion from your present life; a work of radiant beauty and enduring without end.

AND IF you took a serious fall where standing firm had been your will, see that you promptly rise again and do not dwell on your defeat.

But even where your will had led you to succumb, your only thought should be to get back on your feet again at once.

Remorse will help you nothing after you have fallen—but if you rise again with strong resolve, this may prepare you to gain permanent self-confidence, which will in turn allow you to avoid recurrent falls.

Clearly, those who feel that they are strong enough to rise again if they should fall are going to advance more quickly than others, who hesitate at every step because they fear that they might stumble.

There is nothing that can harm you on your way except your fear of the obstructive energies of guilt; and these impeding forces derive their power solely from your fear.

Lead a life of kindness and compassion— free of fear—but never let compassion undermine the energies you need to keep yourself protected.

Show kindness always and to all things having life; but kindness toward the tiger is a well- aimed shot; for even what you must destroy should not be made to suffer.

Agai N, your kindness and compassion must be free, lest even they become your vices.

None is free but they who free themselves.

No “God” imagined by your mind beyond the stars of the external universe can ever grant you freedom.

If you, however, seek to free yourself, your God will likewise help you: your Living God, who wants to be reborn in you one day.

You have yourself created all the phantoms that torment you, and only you possess the power also to destroy them.

You still consider much as “sin” and “guilt” that truly does not justify such scorn; and other things you will take lightly, or even count among your “virtues,” although they are temptations that might lead to your undoing.

To be sure, you should not purposely seek out temptation; yet, on the other hand, you must not, like some self-anointed “saint,” be so obsessed with sin that you suspect temptations all around you.

Go YOUR way with pride and self-assurance, knowing that you will be best protected if you can fully trust yourself.

No “sin” nor “fall” can then impede your stride, until the day that, strengthened by the Spirit’s power, you shall attain the goal that lies within yourself.

But—heed this warning and advice:

Better suffer “sin” and “guilt,” but guard against the vain ambition to be “holy.”
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