63. “I am the Resurrection and the Life, no Man Cometh to the Father but by Me.”
Jesus came from Divinity unsubstantiate, therefore, He had the right to use these words. He was the only one who could survey all things, and who could explain all things. Men were confused by erroneous teaching and false doctrines and He brought them His message (and this cannot be severed from His person, for it is one with His person) to show them the plain, straight way to the Light. His message made it possible for those human spirits who had descended into matter in order to develop, to rise again. Such resurrection means life for each individual soul.
Now listen and attend closely to what follows: all that is base, all that is evil, all that belongs to what we call the Powers of Darkness only exists in matter, in the denser, physical matter as well as in the less dense, ethereal matter. He who has fully grasped and understands this fact has advanced a step in understanding.
When man's thoughts are wicked or even base, he does himself immense and grievous harm. The chief energy of his volition flows forth like a magnetic ray towards baseness; there it attracts other invisible matter of the same weight and density as its own and thus burdened, it returns to envelop the man's spirit with its noxious effluvium. This dense and consequently dark covering precludes all possibility of his rising upwards and continues dominating the man till he changes his way of thinking. It requires firm, set purpose and untiring effort to lift this covering and cast it aside, and this can only be done if it is no longer nourished with the former thoughts.
Ethereal matter must not be looked upon as merely a finer sort of visible, physical matter, for it is something quite different and is of quite different consistency although still matter. It forms a bridge to the Natural World from which the souls of animals come. If man remains attached to matter, he must naturally share the common fate of all matter; he will not be able to get rid of his material covering in time to escape general disintegration. Those, who, incited by their own wish, have descended into matter, remain bound to it unless they keep to the right way! They are not able, of their own strength, to rise out of it towards the Light.
You must know that the spirit germ in order to develop into a self- conscious individual, must descend into matter. It can only develop by the experiences it gains in matter, and cannot do so in any other way. It is, however, under no sort of obligation to descend into matter. It is its longing to develop that impels it to leave Paradise, where its state was unconscious but also irresponsible.
If man then loses the right way back to the Light by foolish wishes he remains attached to matter.
Now look around at what happens in the dense, visible world you are in, notice the budding, growing, ripening and decaying of all matter, or in other words, how the component parts conjoin to a form, and how this form is destroyed when decomposition sets in, thus liberating the component parts which return to their original state. You can observe this in water, in stone and in the bodies of man and beast; and in the same way that this happens in miniature on this earth, it also happens in ethereal matter, the Beyond, to which Paradise does not belong.
The lowest stratum of Creation is matter. This hangs like a great wreath and rotates in an enormous circle which it takes millions of years to complete. Not only do all phenomena revolve round their centre, but also the whole of Creation rotates in a giant circle for itself. Matter clustered together in this great circuit at the beginning of all things, has continued to do so up to the present day, and will continue to do so till the process of disintegration sets in and the component parts return to their primeval condition. The circle, however, will continue to rotate with this pristine matter which will again conjoin and form new virgin worlds.
This is the great process of evolution, continually repeating itself in the smallest as well as in the greatest things and above this rotating circle is Paradise, firm and stable, God's own, Original Creation. Paradise, in contradistinction to formed matter, is not subject to disintegration.
This eternal region stands high above the rotating circle of matter in radiant brightness. It is the spiritual home of the unconscious spirit- germ of man and it is also the destination to which it will return, after having become self-conscious and developed its individual personality in matter; it went forth unconscious and irresponsible and returns conscious and responsible, always provided it has not been turned aside from the path and become entangled in matter. Such resurrection from matter to the eternal Light is indeed indescribable blessedness.
During the time the human spirit is in the material world, it must naturally, though all unconsciously, participate in the eternal evolution. Thus, in time the day comes for it also to arrive at the boundary-line where that part of Creation it is in, will slowly begin to disintegrate. Then it is high time for all those human spirits who are still in the material world to hasten to prepare themselves to rise upwards to the safe haven of Light in the Eternal Kingdom, that is to say to find the right and the shortest way to escape from impending danger before they are overtaken by it.
If they do not make haste, the task will become harder and harder, and at last it will be too late for them.
They will then be drawn with all the rest into the slow process of disintegration, and this will tear to pieces the personality they have acquired. After suffering a thousand torments they will return to their original state of unconscious spirit germs — the most awful fate that can befall a spirit- germ that has attained to self-consciousness.
These are the souls who have developed their personality in the wrong direction, and this personality being both useless and detrimental must be forfeited. Disintegration is not the same as destruction, for destruction does not exist: it is only a relapse into a primeval state. What will be destroyed in these lost souls is the personality they have acquired and this destruction is accompanied by unspeakable torments.
Such lost, damned souls cease to be individual spirits, whereas the others, thanks to their individuality, can enter the celestial Kingdom of joy and peace and enjoy all its delights.
In the same way as a field will always bring forth poorer and poorer crops if the same grain is sown in it for a succession of years, and can only be restored to its original fertility by a change of seed, so it is with the whole material universe. After a time it becomes exhausted and must renew its strength by disintegrating and reconstructing. This process takes many millions of years, but at last a year comes, the decisive year, when what is used up and useless must be separated from what is useful.
We have now reached this point in the great evolution, and souls in the material world have finally to decide whether they will soar upwards, or whether matter shall encompass them and drag them on to disintegration, i.e. eternal damnation from which no self-conscious spirit can hope ever to rise again.
It is quite plain that, owing to the advanced stage of maturity this globe has reached, it has long since been impossible for spirit germs striving for self-consciousness to be incarnated here, as there would not be time enough left for them to develop into individual spirits. Spirit germs can only alight on globes with which they have a certain affinity with respect to their stage of development. It is only in surroundings where maturity has arrived at the same point that the spirit germ is able to unfold, whereas if the surrounding matter is in a more advanced state of maturity it would bar the way or set impossible limits to the immature spirit germ's efforts. Thus here as elsewhere, perfect justice reigns and it is quite plain that every human spirit is able to keep pace with its material surroundings and can be as highly developed as they are when it comes to that boundary-line to which our part of Creation has now come.
There is not one human spirit that could not have got so far! That human spirits are in such different stages of advancement is the result of their own choice, of their own free- will. Now the time has come when the fruit is over-ripe. Matter is about to disintegrate preparatory to rejuvenation and the spiritual harvest of human souls will now take place. Those that are acceptable will be uplifted by the operation of natural law; their ethereal covering will gradually fall away and the liberated and conscious spirits will soar up to their brothers in the eternal Kingdom of Light. Those who have failed must remain behind; kept back by the density of their bodies, they will be subject to the same changes there that will take place in matter. Their sufferings during the slow process of disintegration will last thousands of years, and at last, become so terrible, that they will lose their self- consciousness and with their self-consciousness the form of man, shaped after God's own image, will be lost for ever. When the process of disintegration has come to an end and all matter has returned to its pristine stage, the unconscious spirit will again be free to rise and it will return to the sphere to which it belongs, not to come back as a conscious human spirit, but if it is moved by the desire, as an unconscious spirit-germ to recommence its career from the beginning in some new part of the universe.
Christ chose His words as He always did, looking down from His infinitely high standpoint, to suit the process as it appears from above, of the spirit-germs first descending into and then again rising out of matter.
Try to imagine yourself standing above matter: below you, like a great seed-field, is matter in all its endless varieties. You see the spirit- germs descending from above, burying themselves in this seed-field. After a lapse of time, at long intervals, human spirits, having attained to self-consciousness by their experiences on the earth and longing for higher things, cast their material covering from them and rise aloft. This is resurrection from matter. Many there be, however, who never come to the surface again; they perish having lived in vain. As the mystical development of the grain of wheat goes on in the depths of the earth, so it is with the spirit-germs whose principal development must take place in matter.
Christ explains all his teaching by illustrations taken from natural life. Whether Christ says: “ No man cometh to the Father but by My message ”, or by my word or by Me, He means: “No man findeth the way but by what I say.” The one expression means the same as the other, and it is just the same whether He says: “My message makes it possible for you to rise again to life”, or “I am, by My word, resurrection and life for you.”
Men should look to the meaning and grasp that, and not persist in confusing themselves by haggling over words.
Now listen and attend closely to what follows: all that is base, all that is evil, all that belongs to what we call the Powers of Darkness only exists in matter, in the denser, physical matter as well as in the less dense, ethereal matter. He who has fully grasped and understands this fact has advanced a step in understanding.
When man's thoughts are wicked or even base, he does himself immense and grievous harm. The chief energy of his volition flows forth like a magnetic ray towards baseness; there it attracts other invisible matter of the same weight and density as its own and thus burdened, it returns to envelop the man's spirit with its noxious effluvium. This dense and consequently dark covering precludes all possibility of his rising upwards and continues dominating the man till he changes his way of thinking. It requires firm, set purpose and untiring effort to lift this covering and cast it aside, and this can only be done if it is no longer nourished with the former thoughts.
Ethereal matter must not be looked upon as merely a finer sort of visible, physical matter, for it is something quite different and is of quite different consistency although still matter. It forms a bridge to the Natural World from which the souls of animals come. If man remains attached to matter, he must naturally share the common fate of all matter; he will not be able to get rid of his material covering in time to escape general disintegration. Those, who, incited by their own wish, have descended into matter, remain bound to it unless they keep to the right way! They are not able, of their own strength, to rise out of it towards the Light.
You must know that the spirit germ in order to develop into a self- conscious individual, must descend into matter. It can only develop by the experiences it gains in matter, and cannot do so in any other way. It is, however, under no sort of obligation to descend into matter. It is its longing to develop that impels it to leave Paradise, where its state was unconscious but also irresponsible.
If man then loses the right way back to the Light by foolish wishes he remains attached to matter.
Now look around at what happens in the dense, visible world you are in, notice the budding, growing, ripening and decaying of all matter, or in other words, how the component parts conjoin to a form, and how this form is destroyed when decomposition sets in, thus liberating the component parts which return to their original state. You can observe this in water, in stone and in the bodies of man and beast; and in the same way that this happens in miniature on this earth, it also happens in ethereal matter, the Beyond, to which Paradise does not belong.
The lowest stratum of Creation is matter. This hangs like a great wreath and rotates in an enormous circle which it takes millions of years to complete. Not only do all phenomena revolve round their centre, but also the whole of Creation rotates in a giant circle for itself. Matter clustered together in this great circuit at the beginning of all things, has continued to do so up to the present day, and will continue to do so till the process of disintegration sets in and the component parts return to their primeval condition. The circle, however, will continue to rotate with this pristine matter which will again conjoin and form new virgin worlds.
This is the great process of evolution, continually repeating itself in the smallest as well as in the greatest things and above this rotating circle is Paradise, firm and stable, God's own, Original Creation. Paradise, in contradistinction to formed matter, is not subject to disintegration.
This eternal region stands high above the rotating circle of matter in radiant brightness. It is the spiritual home of the unconscious spirit- germ of man and it is also the destination to which it will return, after having become self-conscious and developed its individual personality in matter; it went forth unconscious and irresponsible and returns conscious and responsible, always provided it has not been turned aside from the path and become entangled in matter. Such resurrection from matter to the eternal Light is indeed indescribable blessedness.
During the time the human spirit is in the material world, it must naturally, though all unconsciously, participate in the eternal evolution. Thus, in time the day comes for it also to arrive at the boundary-line where that part of Creation it is in, will slowly begin to disintegrate. Then it is high time for all those human spirits who are still in the material world to hasten to prepare themselves to rise upwards to the safe haven of Light in the Eternal Kingdom, that is to say to find the right and the shortest way to escape from impending danger before they are overtaken by it.
If they do not make haste, the task will become harder and harder, and at last it will be too late for them.
They will then be drawn with all the rest into the slow process of disintegration, and this will tear to pieces the personality they have acquired. After suffering a thousand torments they will return to their original state of unconscious spirit germs — the most awful fate that can befall a spirit- germ that has attained to self-consciousness.
These are the souls who have developed their personality in the wrong direction, and this personality being both useless and detrimental must be forfeited. Disintegration is not the same as destruction, for destruction does not exist: it is only a relapse into a primeval state. What will be destroyed in these lost souls is the personality they have acquired and this destruction is accompanied by unspeakable torments.
Such lost, damned souls cease to be individual spirits, whereas the others, thanks to their individuality, can enter the celestial Kingdom of joy and peace and enjoy all its delights.
In the same way as a field will always bring forth poorer and poorer crops if the same grain is sown in it for a succession of years, and can only be restored to its original fertility by a change of seed, so it is with the whole material universe. After a time it becomes exhausted and must renew its strength by disintegrating and reconstructing. This process takes many millions of years, but at last a year comes, the decisive year, when what is used up and useless must be separated from what is useful.
We have now reached this point in the great evolution, and souls in the material world have finally to decide whether they will soar upwards, or whether matter shall encompass them and drag them on to disintegration, i.e. eternal damnation from which no self-conscious spirit can hope ever to rise again.
It is quite plain that, owing to the advanced stage of maturity this globe has reached, it has long since been impossible for spirit germs striving for self-consciousness to be incarnated here, as there would not be time enough left for them to develop into individual spirits. Spirit germs can only alight on globes with which they have a certain affinity with respect to their stage of development. It is only in surroundings where maturity has arrived at the same point that the spirit germ is able to unfold, whereas if the surrounding matter is in a more advanced state of maturity it would bar the way or set impossible limits to the immature spirit germ's efforts. Thus here as elsewhere, perfect justice reigns and it is quite plain that every human spirit is able to keep pace with its material surroundings and can be as highly developed as they are when it comes to that boundary-line to which our part of Creation has now come.
There is not one human spirit that could not have got so far! That human spirits are in such different stages of advancement is the result of their own choice, of their own free- will. Now the time has come when the fruit is over-ripe. Matter is about to disintegrate preparatory to rejuvenation and the spiritual harvest of human souls will now take place. Those that are acceptable will be uplifted by the operation of natural law; their ethereal covering will gradually fall away and the liberated and conscious spirits will soar up to their brothers in the eternal Kingdom of Light. Those who have failed must remain behind; kept back by the density of their bodies, they will be subject to the same changes there that will take place in matter. Their sufferings during the slow process of disintegration will last thousands of years, and at last, become so terrible, that they will lose their self- consciousness and with their self-consciousness the form of man, shaped after God's own image, will be lost for ever. When the process of disintegration has come to an end and all matter has returned to its pristine stage, the unconscious spirit will again be free to rise and it will return to the sphere to which it belongs, not to come back as a conscious human spirit, but if it is moved by the desire, as an unconscious spirit-germ to recommence its career from the beginning in some new part of the universe.
Christ chose His words as He always did, looking down from His infinitely high standpoint, to suit the process as it appears from above, of the spirit-germs first descending into and then again rising out of matter.
Try to imagine yourself standing above matter: below you, like a great seed-field, is matter in all its endless varieties. You see the spirit- germs descending from above, burying themselves in this seed-field. After a lapse of time, at long intervals, human spirits, having attained to self-consciousness by their experiences on the earth and longing for higher things, cast their material covering from them and rise aloft. This is resurrection from matter. Many there be, however, who never come to the surface again; they perish having lived in vain. As the mystical development of the grain of wheat goes on in the depths of the earth, so it is with the spirit-germs whose principal development must take place in matter.
Christ explains all his teaching by illustrations taken from natural life. Whether Christ says: “ No man cometh to the Father but by My message ”, or by my word or by Me, He means: “No man findeth the way but by what I say.” The one expression means the same as the other, and it is just the same whether He says: “My message makes it possible for you to rise again to life”, or “I am, by My word, resurrection and life for you.”
Men should look to the meaning and grasp that, and not persist in confusing themselves by haggling over words.
