AS JESUS CAME from the Divine He was right in using these words because He was the only One who could overlook and really explain everything.
His Message, which cannot be separated from Him personally, shows the clear path up to the Light amid the confusion arising from erroneous views.
For all human spirits this means the possibility of rising or resurrection from the World of Matter into which they had been immersed for their further development.
Such resurrection means life for everyone!
Now listen attentively!
All that is base and all that is evil, i.e., all that is called Darkness, exists only in the World of Matter, both in gross matter and in ethereal matter.
He who grasps this aright has already gained much!
As soon as a man thinks in an evil or base manner he does immense harm to himself.
The main strength of his volition then flows forth like a magnetic ray towards all that is base where it attracts ethereal matter which, due to its weight, is denser and thus darker.
As a result the human spirit from which this volition issues is enveloped in this dense kind of matter.
Even if a human mind is primarily bent on worldly things, i.e., if a man is under the spell of a passion for something which need not necessarily be immorality, gambling or drinking, but can also be a marked partiality for anything of an earthly nature, his spirit will be covered by a more or less dense ethereal cloak through the process I have already mentioned.
This dense and consequently dark covering prevents all possibility of the spirit rising upwards, and remains with it as long as it does not change the nature of its volition.
Only an earnest volition and an earnest striving for sublime spirituality can loosen and at last completely detach such a cloak, because it then no longer receives a supply of strength of a like nature and gradually loosens its grip.
Finally it is dissolved and sinks away, thus freeing the spirit for its ascent.
Ethereal matter must not be regarded as refinement of visible gross matter, for it is a species quite alien to gross matter and of different consistency, which however can still be called matter.
It forms a transition to animistic substantiality from which the animal soul originates.
If men remain in the World of Matter they must naturally be drawn at some time or other into the disintegration to which all matter is subject, because owing to their cloak they can no longer free themselves from matter in time.
Those who of their own desire have descended into the World of Matter for their development will remain bound in it unless they continue on the right path!
They are unable to sever themselves from it, which if they did would be tantamount to a resurrection towards the Light!
It should be further explained that every development of a spirit-germ longing for personal consciousness necessitates a descent into the World of Matter.
Only through experiences in the World of Matter can it so develop.
No other way is open to it!
The spirit-germ, however, is not forced to make this descent, it only happens when its own desire to do so awakens within it.
Its own wishes then impel it towards the necessary course of development, out of the so-called Paradise of unconsciousness and thus out of its state of non-responsibility.
If through their wrong desires men lose the right path which leads upwards again, back to the Light, they remain wandering about in the World of Matter.
Now try and observe the happenings in the World of Gross Matter, the development and the decaying in your immediate and visible surroundings!
Observe in the germination, growing, ripening and decaying how the process of forming goes on, i.e., how the basic substances become merged, the development which takes place, followed again by deterioration into the same basic substances through disintegration, that is, through the falling apart in the process of decaying of what has been formed!
You can distinctly see this with water, also with the so-called decomposition of stones, with plants and also with animal and human bodies.
And in the same way that this happens with small things it also happens with great things, and ultimately with all world events!
And not only in the Gross Material World which is visible to man on earth, but also in the Ethereal World, in the so-called beyond which, however, has nothing to do with Paradise!
As the lowest part of Creation the entire World of Matter hangs like a huge wreath, rotating in an immense circle which it takes millions of years to complete.
Thus in the great cosmic happenings everything not only revolves around itself, but the whole of Creation also continually rotates in an immense circle.
Just as this great cycle resulted from the first union and developed to its present perfection, so it continues unswervingly on its course in the same manner until disintegration sets in and returns the component parts to their primeval substance.
The circle, however, calmly continues to rotate along with this primeval substance in order to form new worlds with new and virgin powers through newly-effected unions.
Such is the great process of evolution, eternally repeating itself on the smallest as well as on the greatest scale!
And above this rotating circle there stands firmly anchored the first spiritually pure Creation, the so called Paradise.
In contrast to the formed World of Matter, Paradise is not subject to disintegration.
In this Eternal Spiritual Sphere, which stands luminously above the rotating circle, lies the origin of the unconscious spirit-germ of man.
This spiritual sphere again becomes the final goal of the human spirit after it has become self-conscious and thus personal in the World of Matter.
It comes forth as an unconscious and non-responsible germ.
It returns as a self-conscious and therefore responsible personality provided that … it does not get lost on its necessary journey through the World of Matter (thereby becoming entangled in it), but celebrates its resurrection from it as a human spirit which has become fully conscious.
A joyful emergence from the World of Matter towards this luminous and eternal part of Creation!
As long as the human spirit remains in the World of Matter it joins in part of this great and eternal rotating movement without, of course, realizing it.
Thus one day it will at last arrive at the boundary line where that part of Creation inhabited by the human spirits slowly drifts towards disintegration!
Then, however, it is high time for all human spirits which are still within the World of Matter to make haste and improve themselves to such an extent that they can ascend to the safe and luminous haven of the Eternal Kingdom, which means to find the right way and above all the shortest way of escape from the impending dangers in the World of Matter before being overtaken by them!
If they do not do so it will become more and more difficult, and finally too late for them!
With all the rest they will then be slowly drawn into disintegration, in which process the personal “ego” they have acquired will be torn to pieces.
Suffering a thousand torments they will again become unconscious spirit-germs, the most dreadful fate which can befall a spirit that has attained self-consciousness!
This concerns all those who have developed their personality in the wrong direction.
As their personality is both useless and detrimental it must therefore again be forfeited.
It should be noted that disintegration is not the same as destruction.
Nothing can be destroyed!
It only relapses into a primeval state.
What will be destroyed in these lost ones is the personal “ego” they had acquired up to that time, and this will be accompanied by unspeakable torments!
Such lost or damned ones then cease to be complete human spirits, while the others are permitted to return home to the Eternal Kingdom of Joy and Light as self-conscious spirits, consciously enjoying all its splendor.
In the same way as a field after a number of years yields an ever decreasing harvest of grain, and only receives new strength through planting different crops, so it is with the whole World of Matter.
This, too, becomes exhausted after a time and must refresh its strength through disintegration and a new composition.
Such events, however, cover millions of years, but even in happenings extending over many millions of years there comes one definite year which is absolutely decisive for the necessary separation of what is useful from what is useless.
And the earth has now reached this point of time in the great cycle!
The human spirit still dwelling in the World of Matter must at last decide to make its ascent, or the World of Matter will clasp it firmly for the ensuing disintegration.
This is the eternal damnation from which it will never be possible to rise as a conscious spiritual personality and ascend towards the luminous eternal part of Creation which stands above such disintegration!
In the natural development of the whole every possibility that spirit germs striving to become conscious can incarnate upon this overripe earth-plane has long since been forfeited, because they would require too long a period to make a timely departure from the World of Matter as personal self-conscious spirits.
In the natural course of events the spirit-germs can only flow to such parts of the cosmos as are of the same nature in respect of the fact that their necessary development requires just as much time as a spirit-germ also needs if it were to use all the time allotted to it to gain perfection.
Only the fact that they are on the same stage of development opens the way for a spirit-germ, while if any part of the cosmos were of greater maturity it would create quite insurmountable barriers.
Thus here too there can be absolutely no question of an injustice and a deficiency!
Every human spirit can therefore stand equally matured with the greatest maturity of the material environment in which it has its being, and at the same point as that now reached by the particular part of the World of Matter we at present inhabit.
There is not one human being who could not be mature!
The disparity among men is but the necessary consequence of their own free volition.
Because it is over-ripe the World of Matter is now entering a period of disintegration and simultaneously drifting towards a new birth.
For the human spirits, however, the time of harvesting has arrived, and with it the separation!
That which is mature will be uplifted towards the Light through the effects of the Natural Laws which permit the ethereal cloak gradually to be cast off, leaving the spirit thus freed from its burden consciously to swing upwards to the realm of its own nature, of all that is eternally spiritual.
That which is useless, however, will be retained in the World of Matter by the self-imposed density of their ethereal bodies.
The fate of these latter is that their ethereal bodies will remain subject to the changes now beginning in the World of Matter, and they will have to suffer under the most painful disintegration covering thousands of years.
The magnitude of their suffering will finally affect the human spirit in such a manner as to make it lose its self-consciousness.
And with it the form of the image of God, the form of man, acquired in the course of becoming conscious, again disintegrates!
After the complete disintegration of matter back into primeval substance, that which has become unconscious spiritual substance is again set free and, in accordance with its nature, rises upwards.
Then, however, it does not return as a conscious human spirit, but as an unconscious seed which at some time or other, through a newly awakened desire, sets out from the very beginning on a new course of development in a new part of the world.
Looking down from His infinitely high standpoint, that is, from On High, Christ, as always, chose His words in such a way as to describe the quite natural process of the spirit rising out of the World of Matter into which it had descended as a spirit-germ.
Try to imagine yourself standing above the World of Matter!
Below you, spread out like a field, lies the World of Matter in its many varieties!
The spirit-germs, coming from above, now descend into the World of Matter.
After a long time and at many different intervals there gradually emerges a number of complete human spirits which have become self-conscious through their experiences in the World of Matter, and which through their urge to strive upwards have been able to cast off all that is material and leave it behind.
These then celebrate their resurrection from the World of Matter!
But not all germs rise as matured spirits above the surface.
A good many of them never emerge and must perish without being of any use!
It is exactly the same as with a field of grain!
Just as with the seed of wheat all the mysterious and real development takes place in the soil needed for the purpose, so the principal development of the spirit-germ takes place in the general World of Matter.
In each one of His sentences Christ invariably illustrates some natural happening in Creation!
Whether He said: “No man cometh to the Father but by My Message, or by My Word, or by Me”, it is one and the same thing!
It means: “No man can find the way except through what I say!” One expression means the same as the other!
It is also the same whether He says: “Through My Message I bring you the possibility of resurrection from the World of Matter and with it life” or “I am, by My Word, resurrection and life for you!”
Men should grasp the meaning and not persist in confusing themselves by haggling over words!
The processes in the cycle of the World of Matter indicated here only in broad outline may also produce a few exceptions which, however, are not caused by any changes or distortions in the effective Laws of Creation, but which contain complete and inexorable fulfilment.
In order to avoid errors creeping in I now wish to give a few brief explanations in advance of later lectures where the subject is dealt with more fully.
The afore-mentioned periodic disintegration of all matter at a certain definite point in its cycle is a consequence of the fact that the human spirit-germs, which have the capacity to make a free decision, are permitted to develop in the Worlds of Matter.
Since with this ability to make a free decision the spirit-germs do not always choose the way upwards to the Light, a certain increase in the density of the World of Matter not willed by the Light takes place, causing it to become heavier and forcing it down onto a course that leads to over-ripeness and to the funnel which acts like a cleansing filter upon everything, and in which disintegration simultaneously occurs.
Any part of the Cosmos or any celestial body in the World of Matter in which the developing human spirits adjust all their desires and pure volitions only to the Light remains more luminous, and therefore lighter, on a plane where it can uninterruptedly absorb the living radiating powers out of the Light.
It always remains fresh and healthy and swings in the Laws of Creation, thus avoiding a course which must otherwise lead to over-ripeness and disintegration.
Such parts quite naturally, i.e., by the Will of the Light, wing their way high above the boundary where disintegration sets in.
Unfortunately there are only very few of these!
The guilt for this must lie at the door of the spirit of man which is allowed to develop but which chose wrong paths and, despite all admonitions, clung to them persistently!
Where, however, by an act of Grace the Creator wishes to offer help when distress is at its highest, that is, shortly before the particular part enters the sucking power of the vortex of disintegration, there the process is changed!
Without the participation of the human spirits the anchoring of the Light through the coming of an Envoy of God so strengthens the Power of the Light that a purification takes place which then, in the last moment, pulls up the thus blessed part of the World of Matter towards more luminous regions so that it passes above the funnel of disintegration and thereby remains in existence.
The purification naturally sweeps away all that is dark along with all its creatures, its servants and all their abominations, while the human spirits which still remain must gratefully strive upwards to the Light with all their strength!
Even this extraordinary event swings completely in the Laws of Creation and its effects do not deviate from them by a hair’s breadth.
The compulsory purification connected with the anchoring of the Light is the same as an absolutely new birth!
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