Selected Lectures

_____________ 

FREE YOURSELF FROM ALL DARKNESS!

FOR YOUR GUIDANCE!

 

          THE BANDAGE falls, and belief becomes conviction. Only in conviction lie liberation and redemption!

          I am speaking to earnest seekers only. They must be able and willing to examine this matter objectively! Religious fanatics and irresponsible enthusiasts may hold aloof, for they are dangerous to the Truth. As for the malevolent and prejudiced, they shall find their sentence in the very words.

          The Message will strike only those who still carry within them a spark of truth, and the longing to be true human beings. To all such it will become the shining light and staff. Without deviation, It will lead them out of all the chaos of the present-day confusion.

          The following Word brings no new religion, but is intended to be the torch to help all serious listeners or readers find the right path, which leads them to the longed-for height.

          Only he who bestirs himself can advance spiritually. The fool who uses only the available opinions of others,  walks his path as if on crutches, while his own healthy limbs remain unused.

          But the moment he boldly uses all the abilities which lie dormant within him awaiting his call, to help in his ascent, he is employing the talent entrusted to him in accordance with his Creator's Will, and will easily overcome all obstacles that seek to divert him.

          Therefore awake! Genuine faith lies only in conviction, and conviction comes solely through an inflexible weighing and examining! See that you are truly alive in the wonderful Creation of your God!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  AWAKE!

      AWAKE, ye men, out of your leaden slumber! Recognise the ignoble burden you bear, that weighs upon millions with enormous pressure. Throw it off! Is it worth bearing? Not for a single second!

      Of what does it consist? Empty husks which the breath of Truth will scatter in the wind. You have wasted time and energy for nothing. Therefore burst the fetters that hold you down, and free yourselves at last!

      The man who remains inwardly bound will always be a slave, even if he were a king.

      You bind yourselves with all that you aspire to learn. Reflect: In acquiring knowledge you force yourselves into alien forms thought out by others; you willingly adopt an alien conviction, making your own only what others have experienced within, for themselves.

      Consider: What applies to one does not apply to all! What helps one person may harm the other. Each individual must make his own way to perfection. The abilities he carries within him are his equipment for this. He must adjust himself to them and build upon them! Otherwise he will remain a stranger to his real self, will always stand beside what he has learned, which can never come to life in him. Thus he is barred from any gain. He will vegetate, all progress being impossible.

      Listen, you who seriously aspire to Light and to Truth:

      Each individual must inwardly experience the way to the Light, he must discover it himself if he wishes to be sure of the way. Only what a man experiences inwardly, what he perceives intuitively in all its variations, has he fully grasped!

      Both sorrow and joy are constantly rapping at the door to encourage and arouse man to awaken spiritually. He is then very often freed for a few seconds from the trivialities of everyday life, and in happiness or grief vaguely senses his affinity with the spirit pulsating through all that lives.

      And everything is life, nothing is dead! Happy is he who seizes and holds on to such moments of affinity, using them to soar upwards. In so doing he must not keep to rigid forms, but everyone must develop himself, from within.

      Ignore the scoffers, who are still strangers to spiritual life. They stand before the great Work of Creation, which offers us so much, like drunkards, like sick people. Like blind men who grope their way through life on earth without seeing all the splendour around them!

      They are confused, they sleep; for how can anyone still affirm, for instance, that only what he can see exists? That where his eyes perceive nothing there is no life? That with his physical death he himself also ceases to exist, all because in his blindness he could not, up till now, convince himself to the contrary through his eyes? Does he not already know from many things how very limited is the capacity of the eye? Does he not yet know that it is related to the capacity of his brain, which is bound to time and space? That because of this he cannot recognise with his eyes anything rising above time and space? Has this logical, intellectual reasoning not yet become clear to any of these scoffers? Spiritual life, let us also call it the beyond, is after all merely something that stands completely above the earthly division of time and space, and therefore requires a similar nature in order to be recognised.

      Yet our eyes do not even see all that can be classified within time and space. Think of a drop of water, which appears immaculately pure to every eye; and which on examination under the microscope is shown to contain millions of living organisms mercilessly fighting and destroying each other. Are there not sometimes bacteria in both water and air that have the power to destroy human bodies, and that are imperceptible to the human eye? But they become visible by means of powerful instruments.

      Who then will still dare to maintain that there is nothing new and as yet unknown to be seen when the power of these instruments is further increased? Increase their power a thousandfold, a millionfold, and there will be no end to what may be seen, but ever new worlds which previously you could neither see nor feel, yet which nevertheless existed, will unfold before you.

      Logical thinking also leads to the same conclusions about everything the sciences have hitherto been able to collect. There is a prospect of continuous progress and development, but never of an end.

      What, then, is the beyond? The word confuses many. The beyond is simply all that cannot be perceived by earthly means. And earthly means are the eyes, the brain and all other parts of the body, also the instruments that help them to do their work still more accurately and precisely, and to extend its scope.

      Therefore one could say: the beyond embraces all that is beyond the perceptive capacity of our physical eyes. But there is no division between this world and the beyond! Nor any gulf! All is united, as is the whole of Creation. One power streams through this world and the beyond, everything lives and works from this one life stream, and is thus quite inseparably linked. Thus the following becomes clear:

      If one part of it sickens the effect must be felt in the other part, as with a physical body. Through the attraction of homogeneous species, diseased matter from this other part will then flow across to the sick part, thus further aggravating the illness. But should such a disorder become incurable, it will absolutely be necessary forcibly to sever the ailing member, if the whole is not to suffer permanently.

      For this reason change your attitude. There is no such thing as this world and the beyond, but only one united existence! The idea of a division has been invented solely by man, because he is unable to see everything, and imagines himself to be the centre and focal point of the surroundings visible to him. Yet his sphere of action is greater. With the erroneous idea of a division, however, he forcibly limits himself, hinders his progress, and allows his imagination to run riot and conjure up grotesque pictures.

      Is it surprising then, if as a consequence many only smile incredulously, while others adopt an unwholesome form of worship that becomes servile or degenerates into fanaticism? Who can then still be astonished if some people develop a nervous fear, even terror and consternation?

      Away with all this! Why these torments? Break down this barrier which human error sought to erect, but which never existed! Your past wrong attitude also gives you a false foundation, on which you vainly endeavour continually to build up the true belief, that is, inner conviction. You consequently encounter points, obstacles, which must make you waver and doubt, or compel you to tear down the whole structure, perhaps abandoning everything out of despair or resentment.

      The loss is then yours alone, because this is not progress for you, but standstill or retrogression. The road which in any case you must follow one day will only be lengthened thereby.

      When you have at last perceived Creation as a complete whole, as it is, and do not separate this world from the beyond, then you have found the direct path, the true goal draws nearer and the ascent gives you joy and satisfaction. You are then much better able to feel and understand the reciprocal actions pulsating warmly through this uniform whole, since all activity is driven and sustained by the one power. Then the Light of Truth will dawn upon you!

      You will soon realise that many who scoff only do so out of indifference and indolence, just because it would require a certain effort to throw over existing ideas and learning and erect something new. Others would find it interferes with their customary mode of living and thus becomes uncomfortable for them.

      Leave all such alone, do not argue, but offer your knowledge helpfully to those who are not satisfied with fleeting pleasures, to those who seek for something more in their earthly lives than merely to fill their stomachs like animals. Do not then bury your talent, impart to them the recognition you are granted; for in giving, your knowledge will in turn be enriched and strengthened.

      An Eternal Law operates in the Universe: That only in giving can one receive where lasting values are concerned! Like a sacred legacy of its Creator, this Law deeply permeates the whole of Creation. To give unselfishly, to help where help is needed, and to understand both the suffering and the weaknesses of your fellow-men, means to receive, because it is the simple and true way to the Highest!

      And to will this seriously brings you immediate help and strength! By one single, honest and ardent wish to do good, the wall which your thoughts have hitherto erected as a barrier is cleaved as with a flaming sword from the other side that is now still invisible to you; for you are indeed one with the beyond which you so fear, deny or long for, you are closely and inextricably linked with it.

      Try it, for your thoughts are the messengers you send forth, which return heavily laden with similar thought-forms, good or evil as the case may be. This actually happens! Remember that your thoughts are realities that shape themselves spiritually, often becoming forms outliving the earth-life of your body, then much will become clear to you.

      Thus it is quite rightly said: "For their works will pursue them!" Thought-creations are works which will one day await you! Which form light or dark rings around you, which you must traverse in order to enter the spiritual world. Neither protection nor intervention can help in this, because the decision lies with you. Therefore you yourself must take the first step in everything. This is not difficult; it lies solely in the volition, which expresses itself through thoughts. Thus you carry heaven or hell within you.

      You are free to decide, but you are then irrevocably subject to the consequences of your thoughts, of your volition! You yourselves create these consequences, and that is why I exhort you:

      Keep the hearth of your thoughts pure, by so doing you will bring peace and be happy!

      Do not forget that every thought you produce and send out attracts all similar thoughts on its way, or attaches itself to others, thus continually increasing in strength and finally also reaching a goal, a human brain which is perhaps off its guard just for a moment, thereby offering such floating thought-forms the opportunity to penetrate and operate.

      Just consider what responsibility will fall upon you if at some time or other the thought becomes a deed through some person whom it was able to influence! This responsibility already arises through the fact that every single thought keeps a constant link with you just as if by an unbreakable thread, so as to return with the strength gained on its way, either to burden you or to bring you joy, according to the kind you produced.

      Thus you stand in the world of thoughts, and according to your way of thinking at the time make room for similar thought-forms. Do not therefore waste the power of thinking, but gather it for defence and for keen thinking, which goes forth like spears and affects everything. Thus create out of your thoughts the Holy Spear which fights for the good, heals wounds and furthers the whole of Creation!

      Adjust your thinking, therefore, towards activity and progress! To do this you must shake many a pillar supporting traditional ideas. Often it is some concept wrongly understood that hinders man from finding the right way. He must return to the starting-point. One flash of light will destroy the whole structure so painfully erected over decades, and following a shorter or longer period of stunned inertia, he will make a fresh start! He must do so, for there is no standing still in the Universe. Let us take, for instance, the concept of time:

      Time passes! Times change! We hear this said everywhere, and automatically a picture arises in the spirit: We see changing times marching past us!

      This picture becomes so engrained that for many it also forms a solid foundation on which they continue to build, adjusting their whole research and speculation to it. Before long, however, they encounter obstacles which contradict each other. However hard they try, not everything will fit in. They lose their way, leaving gaps that can no longer be filled in spite of all their pondering.

      Many then believe that in such places faith must act as a substitute for the failure of logical reasoning. But this is wrong! Man should not believe in things he cannot grasp! He must try to understand them; for otherwise he opens wide the door to errors, and with errors the Truth is always debased.

      To believe without understanding is just indolence, mental laziness! It does not lead the spirit upwards, but presses it down. Look upward, therefore, we are to test and investigate. Not for nothing does the urge to do so lie within us.

      Time! Does it really pass? Why does one encounter obstacles when thinking more deeply about this axiom? Simply because the fundamental idea is wrong; for time stands still! We, however, hurry towards it! We rush into time, which is eternal, and seek the Truth in it.

      Time stands still. It remains the same, today, yesterday and a thousand years hence! Only the forms change. We plunge into time, to cull from her records for the purpose of enriching our knowledge from what has been collected there! For time has lost nothing, it has recorded all things. It has not changed, because it is eternal.

      You too, O man, are always just the same, whether you appear young or old! You remain what you are! Have you not already sensed this yourself? Do you not clearly notice a difference between the form and your "ego"? Between the body that is subject to change and yourself, the spirit, which is eternal?

      You seek the Truth! What is Truth? What you still feel to be truth today you will recognise even tomorrow as error, in which, however, you will later again discover grains of truth! For the manifestations also change their forms. Thus your seeking continues, yet amid these changes you mature!

      Truth, however, remains always the same, it does not change, for it is eternal! And being eternal it can never be clearly and truly grasped by the earthly senses, which are familiar only with the change of forms!

      Therefore become spiritual! Free from all earthly thoughts, and then you will possess the Truth, will stand in the Truth, and will bathe in it, constantly surrounded by its pure Light, for it will envelop you completely. As soon as you become spiritual, you will swim in it.

      Then you need no longer study so painstakingly what science has to offer, nor need you fear errors, but you will already have the answer to every question in the Truth itself. Moreover, you will no longer have any questions, because without thinking you will know all things, will embrace all things, because your spirit will live in the pure Light, in the Truth!

      Therefore become spiritually free! Burst all the fetters that hold you down! If obstacles present themselves welcome them joyfully; for they show you the way to freedom and strength! Look upon them as gifts from which you will benefit, and you will overcome them with ease.

      Either such obstacles are put in your way to teach and develop you, in which case you add to the means of your ascent, or they are the reaction to some debt you have incurred, which you can redeem in this way and thus free yourselves. In either case they help you to advance. Therefore set out to meet them with a bold heart, it is for your own good!

      It is foolish to talk of reverses of fortune or of trials. Every conflict and every sorrow means progress. Men are thus offered the chance to dispel the shadows of former misdeeds; for not a single farthing can be remitted to the individual, because here also the cycle of the Eternal Laws in the Universe is inflexible. The Creative Father-Will reveals Himself in them, and thereby forgives us and dispels all Darkness.

      So clearly and wisely is everything arranged that the minutest swerving from this would have to plunge the world into ruins.

      But what of the man who has very much to redeem from former times, must he not then despair, will he not tremble at the thought of the misdeeds he has to atone for?

      As soon as he honestly wills he can hopefully and gladly begin with it, free from all worry! For a balance can be brought about by the counter-current of the power of good volition, which like other thought-forms takes life in the spiritual, forging a strong weapon capable of removing every dark burden, every weight, and leading the "ego" towards the Light!

      Power of volition! A mighty force, unsuspected by so many! Attracting similar powers like a never-failing magnet, it grows like an avalanche. Uniting with similar spiritual forces, it works backwards, again reaching the starting-point, thus the origin, or rather, the producer, uplifting him high to the Light, or pressing him deeper into the mud and filth! Exactly in accordance with what the author himself originally willed.

      He who is acquainted with this steady, never-failing reciprocal effect inherent in all Creation, which manifests and unfolds itself with absolute certainty, knows how to make use of it; he must love it and fear it! Gradually the invisible world around him becomes alive to him; for he feels its influence so distinctly that it silences all doubt.

      If he only pays a little attention to it he must intuitively sense the strong waves of ceaseless activity that affect him from out of the great Universe. Finally he feels himself the focal point of strong currents, like a lens that absorbs the rays of the sun, concentrating them on one point and producing a combustive power which can burst forth to singe and destroy, but also to heal, animate and bring blessing; and likewise can start a blazing fire!

      And you, too, are such lenses, capable through your volition of gathering these invisible power-currents that reach you, and sending them forth as a united force for good or evil, to bring blessing or indeed destruction to mankind. Through this you can and should light a blazing fire in the souls of men, a fire of enthusiasm for the good, for the noble and for perfection!

      This only requires a strength of volition, which in a certain sense makes man lord of Creation and master of his own fate. It is man's own volition which brings him destruction or redemption, reward or retribution, with inexorable certainty!

      Do not fear then, that this knowledge will alienate you from the Creator, or weaken your present faith. On the contrary! The knowledge of these Eternal Laws, which you can put to use, makes the entire work of Creation appear even more sublime to you. Its magnitude forces him who searches more deeply to his knees in veneration!

      Man will then never wish for evil things. He will joyfully grasp at the best support that exists for him: Love! Love for the whole wonderful Creation, and love for his neighbour, that he too may be led to the glory of this enjoyment, of this consciousness of power.  

----------------------

SILENCE

      WHEN a thought suddenly strikes you, keep it back, do not utter it at once, but nourish it; for it will condense through being retained in silence, and gain strength like steam under counter-pressure.

      Pressure and condensation produce the quality of a magnetic activity, in accordance with the Law that all that is stronger attracts what is weak. Similar thought-forms are thus attracted from all sides and retained, constantly reinforcing the power of your own, your original thought, yet working in such a way that through the joining of other forms the originally produced form is refined, changes, and takes on different shapes until it comes to maturity. Indeed you sense all this inwardly, but you always think it is entirely your own volition. But you never give purely your own volition in any matter, there are always other influences as well!

      What does this process tell you?

      That only in the union of many elements can anything perfect be created! Created? Is that right? No, but formed! For there is really nothing new to be created; in everything it is merely a matter of producing new forms, since all the elements already exist in the vast Creation. But these elements are to be pressed into service for the way to perfection, which is brought about through union.

      Union! Do not pass over this lightly, but try to become absorbed in the concept that maturity and perfection are achieved through union. The principle rests in all Creation as a treasure that needs to be unearthed! It is closely related to the Law that only in giving can there also be receiving! And what is required to grasp these principles aright? Thus to experience them? Love! And therefore love indeed stands as the highest power, as unlimited might, in the mysteries of the great Life!

      As with a single thought, union moulds, refines and forms, so is it with man himself and with the whole of Creation, which in a never-ending fusion of existing, individual forms undergoes transformations through the power of volition, and thus becomes the way to perfection.

      A single individual cannot offer you perfection, but the whole of humanity, with all its varied characteristics, may do so! Each individual has something which is definitely part of the whole. And this is also why one so far advanced as no longer to know any earthly desires loves all mankind, not one individual, because only the whole of mankind can make the strings of his mature soul, laid bare through purification, sound the chord of heavenly harmony. He bears the harmony within himself, because all strings vibrate!

      Let us return to the thought that attracted the other forms, and thereby became strong and ever stronger. It finally emerges beyond you in firmly united power-waves, breaks through your own personal aura, and exerts an influence upon your wider environment.

      Mankind call this personal magnetism. The uninitiated say: "You radiate something!" According to your nature, either unpleasant or pleasant. Attractive or repulsive. It is felt!

      But you do not radiate anything! The process which engenders the feeling in these others has its origin in the fact that like a magnet you draw to yourself all that is spiritually similar. And it is this drawing that is felt by those around you. Yet in this, too, lies the reciprocal effect. Through the connection the other person then clearly senses your strength, and thereby "sympathy" awakens.

      Always bear in mind: Expressed according to our concepts, all that is spiritual is magnetic, and you also know that the stronger always overcomes what is weak through attraction, through absorption. In this way "from him that hath not (the weak one), even that which he hath shall be taken away". He becomes dependent.

      There is no injustice in this, but it takes place according to the Divine Laws. Man only needs to pull himself together and will aright, and he will be protected from it.

      You will now probably ask: What happens when all want to be strong? When there is nothing left to be taken from anybody? Then, dear friend, there will be a voluntary interchange, based on the Law that only in giving can there also be receiving. There will be no standstill on that account, but all that is inferior is eliminated.

      Thus it happens that through indolence many become spiritually dependent, and sometimes, in the end, they hardly possess the ability to develop thoughts of their own.

      It must be emphasised that only the homogeneous will be attracted. Hence the proverb: "Birds of a feather flock together." Thus drinkers will always find each other, smokers will have "fellow feelings", likewise gossips, gamblers, and so on; yet noble characters will also come together for a high aim.

      But it goes further: Whatever is drawn to another spiritually will eventually also manifest physically, since everything spiritual penetrates into the gross material, whereby we must bear in mind the Law of Returns, because a thought always remains connected with its origin and radiates back to it through this link.

      I am always speaking here only of real thoughts, which carry within them the vital power of the psychic intuition. Not of the power wasted by the brain-substance entrusted to you as a tool, which forms but fleeting thoughts that only manifest in a wild medley as shadowy phantoms, and fortunately very soon fade away. Such thoughts merely waste your time and energy, and thereby you fritter away a gift entrusted to you.

      If, for instance, you seriously ponder over something, this thought becomes strongly magnetic within you through the power of silence, attracting all that is similar and thus becoming fructified. It matures and rises above the commonplace, thereby even penetrating into other spheres, from which it receives an influx of higher thoughts … inspiration! Hence, in contrast to mediumship, the basic thought in inspiration must proceed from yourself, must form a bridge to the beyond, to the spiritual world, in order to draw consciously from a spring there.

      Inspiration has therefore nothing whatever to do with mediumship.

      In this way the thought is brought to full maturity within you. You approach its realisation, and bring into effect, condensed through your power, what already in countless elements was floating in the Universe before as thought-forms.

      Through unification and condensation of what has long existed spiritually you thus produce a new form! So in the entire Creation it is always only the forms that change, because all else is eternal and indestructible.

      Beware of confused thoughts, of all shallowness in thinking. Carelessness will exact a bitter revenge; for it will speedily debase you to the level of a playground for alien influences, through which you very easily become sullen, moody and unjust to your surroundings.

      If you have a genuine thought and cling to it, then the gathered power must eventually also press towards realisation; for the evolution of everything takes place entirely in the spiritual, since every power is purely spiritual! What then becomes visible to you are always only the final effects of a preceding spiritual-magnetic process, which takes place continually and uniformly according to a firmly established order.

      Observation of your thoughts and feelings will soon prove to you that all real life can in truth only be spiritual life, in which alone the origin and also the development lie. You must come to the conviction that everything you see with your physical eyes is in reality only the manifestations of the eternally driving spirit.

      Every action, even the slightest movement of a human being, is indeed always first spiritually willed. The physical bodies merely act as spiritually animated instruments, which themselves only took shape through the power of the spirit. The same applies to trees, stones and the whole earth. Everything is animated, permeated and driven by the Creative Spirit.

      However, since all matter, thus all that can be physically seen, is simply the outcome of spiritual life, it is not hard for you to comprehend that conditions on earth are also formed according to the nature of the spiritual life which immediately surrounds us. What logically follows from this is clear: Through the wise ordering of Creation man has been given the power to shape conditions for himself with the Power of the Creator. Happy is he who uses it only for good! But woe unto him who succumbs to the temptation to use it for evil!

      The spirit in men is only encompassed and darkened by earthly desire, which clings to it like dross, burdens it and drags it down. However, his thoughts are acts of will endowed with spiritual power. The decision to think in a good or evil way lies with man, and he can thus guide the Divine Power to good or evil purpose! Therein lies the responsibility that man bears, for reward or retribution will infallibly be his, as all the consequences of his thoughts return to the starting-point through the established reciprocal action, which never fails, and which is quite inflexible in this matter, thus inexorable. Thereby also incorruptible, stern and just! Do people not also say the same of God?

      If today many opponents of religion reject the existence of a Godhead, this cannot in any way alter the facts I have cited. People need only omit the little word "God", and engross themselves deeply in science, and they will find exactly the same, only expressed in different words. Is it not absurd, therefore, still to argue about it?

      There is no getting round the Laws of Nature, no man can defy them. God is the Power that activates the Natural Laws; the Power that nobody has yet grasped or seen, but whose effects every one, daily, hourly, indeed in every fraction of a second, must see, intuitively sense and observe, if only he wants to do so — in himself, in every animal, every tree, every flower, in every fibre of a leaf swelling and bursting its sheath to come to the light.

      Is it not blindness to oppose this so obstinately while everyone, including these stubborn repudiators themselves, confirms and acknowledges the existence of this Power? What is it that prevents them from calling this acknowledged Power God? Is it childlike obstinacy? Or is it a certain shame at being obliged to confess that they have been obstinately trying all the time to deny something, the existence of which has always been clear to them?

      Probably nothing of all this. The cause may well lie in the caricatures of the great Godhead held up to mankind from so many sides, which on serious investigation they could not accept. Any attempt to press the all-embracing and all-pervading Power of the Godhead into a picture must certainly debase and dishonour It!

      On serious reflection no picture can be brought into harmony with It! Just because every man bears within him the awareness of God, he rejects with misgiving the narrowing down of the great inconceivable Power that created and guides him.

      It is dogma that is to blame for a great number of those who, in their antagonism, seek to overstep the mark altogether, very often against the certainty living within them.

      The hour is not far distant, however, when spiritual awakening will come! When the words of the Redeemer will be rightly interpreted and His great Work of Redemption rightly grasped; for Christ brought redemption from the Darkness by pointing out the way to the Truth, by showing as a man the path to the Luminous Height! And with His blood shed on the cross He set the seal to His conviction!

      Truth has never yet been different from what it was even then, and is today, and still will be tens of thousands of years hence; for it is eternal!

      Therefore learn to know the Laws contained in the great Book of the entire Creation. To submit to them means: To love God! For then you will bring no discord into the harmony, but will help to bring the resounding chord to its full magnificence.

      Whether you say: I voluntarily submit to the existing Laws of Nature because it is for my own good, or: I submit to God's Will, Which manifests in the Laws of Nature, or to the unfathomable Power Which activates the Laws of Nature … would the effect be any different? The Power is there and you recognise it, you simply must acknowledge it, because as soon as you reflect a little there is nothing else you can do … and thereby you acknowledge your God, the Creator!

      And this Power also operates within you when you are thinking! Therefore do not misuse it to evil purpose, but think good thoughts! Never forget: When you are producing thoughts you are using Divine Power, with which you can achieve the purest and highest!

      Try never to forget here that all the consequences of your thoughts always fall back upon you in proportion to the power, importance and extent of the effect of the thoughts for good or evil.

      Since thought is spiritual, however, the consequences will return spiritually. They will thus affect you no matter whether here on earth, or later in the spiritual after your departure. Being spiritual they are by no means bound to the material either. Thus it follows that the disintegration of the body does not prevent the consequences from taking effect! The requital in the reaction will surely come, sooner or later, here or hereafter, with all certainty.

      The spiritual link with all your works remains firm; for indeed earthly, material works also have a spiritual origin through the creative thought, and will remain in existence even when everything earthly has passed away. It is therefore rightly said: "Your works await you, in so far as the effect has not yet reached you through the reaction".

      If you are still here on earth when a reaction is due, or if you are again here, the consequences coming from the spiritual will exert their force according to their nature either for good or for evil, through your circumstances and your environment, or directly on yourself, on your body.

      Here it must once more be specially emphasised: The true real life takes place in the spiritual! And that knows neither time nor space, and therefore no separation either. It stands above earthly conceptions. For this reason the consequences will strike you, wherever you may be, at the time when, according to the Eternal Law, the effect returns to its starting-point. Nothing is lost in the process; it is bound to come.

      This now also answers the question so often asked: Why is it that obviously good people must sometimes suffer such bitter adversity in their earth-lives as to make it appear unjust? These are reciprocal effects, which must strike them!

      Now you know the answer to this question; for your existing physical body plays no part in it. Your body is not you personally, it is not your entire "ego", but an instrument which you have chosen or which you were obliged to take according to the existing Laws of the spiritual life, which you may also call Cosmic Laws if that makes them easier to understand. The particular earth-life is but a short span of your real existence.

      A crushing thought if there were no escape, no protecting power to counteract it. On awakening to the spiritual many a person would then have to despair, and wish rather to go on sleeping in the same old way. For he has no idea what awaits him, what will still strike him in the shape of reaction from former times! Or as people say: "What he has to make good."

      But take comfort! In the wise provision of the great Creation, as you awaken a path is also shown to you through that power of good volition to which I have already called special attention, and which mitigates or entirely pushes aside the dangers of the karma that is taking effect.

      This, too, the Father's Spirit has given into your hands. The power of good volition forms a circle around you capable of disintegrating the evil pressing upon you, or at least of greatly modifying it, exactly as the atmosphere also protects the earth.

      But the power of good volition, this strong protection, is fostered and nourished by the power of silence.

      Therefore I once more urgently exhort you, seekers:

      "Keep the hearth of your thoughts pure and then, above all, exercise the great power of silence if you wish to ascend."

      The Father has already endowed you with the strength for everything! You have only to use it! 

-----------------

ASCENT

      YOU WHO are striving for recognition, do not entangle yourselves in a web, but become seeing!

      Through an Eternal Law you are burdened with an irrevocable obligation to make atonement, which you can never cast upon others. What you burden yourselves with through your thoughts, words or deeds can be redeemed by no one but yourselves! Consider, were it otherwise Divine Justice would be but an empty sound, in which case everything else would also crumble into ruins.

      Therefore free yourselves! Do not delay a single hour in setting a limit to this enforced atonement! The honest volition for what is good, for something better, reinforced by a truly heartfelt prayer, will bring redemption!

      Without the honest, steadfast volition for good there can never be atonement. Evil will then perpetually find ever fresh nourishment to keep it alive, and thus require ever new atonement, unceasingly, so that through constant renewal it only appears to you as a single vice or affliction! Whereas it is a whole chain without end, continually binding anew even before the old could be severed.

      Then there will never be redemption because of the demand for constant atonement. It is like a chain that keeps you fettered to the ground; and there is very great danger of being dragged still further down. Therefore, you who are still in this world or already in what you regard as the beyond, pull yourselves together at last and concentrate your volition on what is good! With steadfast good volition the end of all atonements must come, since he who wills what is good and acts accordingly will incur no fresh debts demanding further atonement. This will then bring deliverance, redemption, which alone permit ascent to the Light. Listen to the warning! There is no other way for you! For no one!

      But thereby everyone also receives the certainty that it can never be too late. For the individual deed, that you will have to redeem and settle, certainly; yet in the moment when you earnestly begin to strive for the good you mark the end of your atonement. Rest assured that this end must come one day, and your ascent will therewith begin! You can then joyfully start working off all your karmaic burden. Whatever you then still encounter is for your own good and brings you nearer to the hour of redemption, of liberation.

      Do you now understand the value of my counsel to start exerting yourselves with all your strength for what is good, and to keep your thoughts pure? Not giving up, but pursuing this course with all your longing, all your energy? It will uplift you! It will change you and your environment!

      Bear in mind that every life on earth is a short time of schooling, and that you yourselves do not cease to exist when you lay aside your physical body. You will continually live or continually die! Continually enjoy bliss or continually suffer!

      Whoever imagines that with earthly burial everything is also ended and balanced for him, may turn and go his own way; for he is only trying to delude himself thereby. Horrified, he will come face to face with the Truth and … will have to begin his path of suffering! His true self, deprived of the protection of his body, whose density surrounded him like a wall, will then be attracted, enveloped and held fast by what is homogeneous.

      It will be more difficult for him, and for a long time impossible, to arouse the earnest volition for what is better, which could liberate and help him to ascend, because he is entirely subject to the influence of the homogeneous surroundings, which does not carry the kind of light-thought that might awaken and support him. He must suffer doubly under everything he has created for himself.

      For this reason ascent is much harder than when he was in the flesh, where good and evil dwell side by side, which only the protection of the physical body makes possible because ... this earth-life is a school in which every "ego" is given the opportunity of further development according to its free will.

      Therefore rouse yourselves at last! The fruit of every thought will return to you, here or there, and you have to taste of it! No one can escape this fact!

      Of what use is it to try and bury your head timidly in the sand like an ostrich, to evade this reality? Face the facts boldly! You thereby make it easy for yourselves; for here progress is quicker.

      Make a start! But realise that all old debts must be settled. Do not expect blessings to rain down upon you immediately, as many fools do. Perhaps some of you still have a long chain to expiate. But he who despairs on that account only harms himself, because it cannot be spared and remitted him. Through hesitation he only makes everything more difficult for himself, perhaps for a long time impossible.

      This should spur him on not to delay another hour; for he only begins to live when he takes the first step! Happy is he who plucks up the courage to do so, for link by link he will be released. He can rush ahead with giant strides, jubilantly and gratefully overcoming also the last obstacles; for he becomes free!

      The stones that his previous wrong-doing had heaped up before him like a wall, inevitably barring his advance, will indeed not be cleared away, but on the contrary will be carefully laid out before him so that he may recognise and surmount them, because he must bring about the balance for all his errors. However, filled with astonishment and admiration, he will soon see the love that surrounds him as soon as he only evidences his goodwill.

      With tender forbearance the way will be made as easy for him as a child's first steps, aided by its mother. Should there be things in his former life that were a silent source of apprehension to him, and which he would rather let sleep forever … quite unexpectedly he will be placed directly before them! He must decide, must act. In a striking way he is urged to do so through the enchainments. If he then ventures to take the first step, trusting in the victory of the good volition, the fateful knot is severed, he passes through and is freed from it.

      But hardly is this debt settled than already the next one in some form or other presents itself to him, requesting as it were also to be settled.

      Thus one by one the fetters that restricted and were bound to weigh him down are burst. He feels so light! And the feeling of lightness which some of you have surely experienced at one time or another is no illusion, but the effect of reality. The spirit thus freed from pressure becomes light and, in accordance with the Law of Spiritual Gravity, leaps upwards, to that region to which in accordance with its lightness it now belongs.

      And so it must rise steadily upwards towards the longed-for Light. An evil volition presses the spirit down and makes it heavy, whereas a good volition uplifts it.

      For this, too, Jesus has already shown you the simple way leading unerringly to the goal; for deep truth lies in the simple words: "Love thy neighbour as thyself!"

      With these words He gave the key to freedom and ascent! Because it is an irrefutable fact: What you do for your neighbour you do in reality only for yourselves! Solely for yourselves, since according to the Eternal Laws everything returns to you without fail, good or evil, either already here or there. It will surely come! Thus you are shown the simplest of ways in which this step to the good volition is to be understood.

      You should give to your neighbour with your being, your nature! Not necessarily with money and goods. For then those without means would be excluded from the possibility of giving. And in this being, in this "giving yourself" in the relation with your neighbour, in the consideration and respect you voluntarily offer him, lies the "love" of which Jesus speaks; lies also the help you give to your neighbour, because it enables him to change himself or ascend further, and because he gains strength from it.

      The returning radiations of this, however, will quickly uplift you in their reciprocal action. You will receive continually new strength through them. With a soaring flight you will then be able to strive towards the Light ...

      Poor fools are they who can still ask: "What do I gain by giving up so many old habits and changing myself?"

      Is it a question of a business deal? And were they only to gain as human beings, to become ennobled as such, that alone would be reward enough. But there is infinitely more to it! I repeat: The moment a man begins to exert his good volition he also marks the end of his obligation to make atonement, which he must fulfil and can never escape. In this respect no one else can take his place.

      Thus with this resolution the end of the enforced atonement is in sight. Of such great value is this that all the treasures of this world cannot outweigh it. He thus struggles free from the chains that fetter him, which he is constantly forging for himself. Therefore rouse yourselves from your enervating sleep. Let the awakening come at last!

      Away with the intoxication that brings the paralysing delusion that redemption through the Saviour has become a letter of safe conduct, enabling you to spend your whole life in careless selfishness, provided that in the end you embrace the faith, turn back, and depart this earth believing in the Saviour and His Work! Fools to expect such miserable, defective piecework from the Godhead! That indeed would mean cultivating evil! Remember this, and free yourselves!  

---------------

THE FIRST STEP

      LET MY Word become alive within you; for this alone can bring you that benefit which you need, enabling your spirit to ascend to the Luminous Heights of the Eternal Gardens of God.

      It is of no avail to know of the Word! And if you could recite my entire Message sentence by sentence from memory, in order to teach yourselves and your fellow-men … it is of no avail unless you act accordingly, think in the sense of my Word, and adjust your whole earth-life to it as a matter of course, as something which has become an integral part of your being, which cannot be separated from you. Only then will you be able to draw from my Message the eternal values it holds for you.

      "By their works ye shall know them!" This saying of Christ is primarily intended for all the readers of my Message! By their works means by their activity, that is, by their thinking and deeds in their daily life on earth! Your deeds also include your speech, not only your actions; for speaking is action, the effect of which you have hitherto under-estimated. Even your thoughts are included here.

      Men are in the habit of saying that thoughts are "free". By this they wish to imply that they cannot be held accountable on earth for their thoughts, because these are on a level which is inaccessible to human hands.

      Therefore they often play with thoughts in the most careless way or, better expressed, they play in thoughts. Unfortunately often a very dangerous game, in the light-hearted illusion that they can emerge from it unharmed.

      But here they err; for thoughts too belong to the World of Gross Matter, and must in all circumstances also be redeemed in it before a spirit becomes capable of swinging itself freely upwards, once it has severed the connection with its earthly body.

      Therefore seek at all times to swing even with your thoughts in the sense of my Message, in such a way that you desire only what is noble, and do not lower yourselves because you imagine that nobody can see or hear it.

      Thoughts, words and the visible deed all belong to the Realm of Gross Matter in this Creation!

      Thoughts operate in the World of Fine Gross Matter, words in the World of Medium Gross Matter, and visible actions take form in the World of coarsest, that is, densest Gross Matter. These three kinds of your activity are gross material!

      But the forms of all three are closely connected with each other, their effects are interwoven. What that implies for you, how incisive and decisive its effect often is in the course of your existence, you cannot estimate all at once.

      It means nothing else than that also a thought, automatically working on according to its nature, can strengthen a homogeneous type in the World of Medium Matter, thereby producing more powerful forms; likewise then, deducing from this, it again continues to work on within this intensification, and arises in a visible active form in the coarsest World of Matter, without you yourselves seeming to be directly concerned with it.

      It comes as a shock to know this, when one realises how superficial and careless these earthmen are in their thinking.

      Thus without knowing it you participate in many a deed perpetrated by one or other of your fellow-men, simply because he has received the intensification in the way I have just explained to you. It became capable of driving him to the crudest perpetration of something that had hitherto slumbered within him, with which previously he had always merely toyed in his thoughts.

      Thus many a person on earth very often looks with disapproval upon some action of one of his fellow-men, angrily repudiating and condemning it, and yet he is partially responsible for it before the Eternal Laws of God! In this someone who is a complete stranger to him may be involved, and it may concern a deed which he himself would never have committed in the Realm of Coarsest Matter.

      Think yourselves deeply into such happenings for once, and you will then all the more understand why I call to you in my Message: "Keep the hearth of your thoughts pure, by so doing you will bring peace and be happy!"

      But when you have become sufficiently strong in this respect through your own purification, far fewer crimes than hitherto, in which many have been unknowingly implicated, will be committed on earth.

      The time and place of such deeds as you may become implicated in are of no importance here. Even if they occurred at the opposite end of the earth to where you live, in places where you have never set foot, of whose existence you have no knowledge whatever. Through your toying with thoughts intensifications will strike wherever they discover homogeneous types, independent of distances, nation and country.

      Thus in the course of time thoughts of hate and envy may thrust themselves upon individuals, groups or whole nations, wherever they find homogeneity, impelling them to actions expressed in forms entirely different from those that first arose through your toying with thoughts.

      The final result may then manifest according to the inner state of the perpetrator at the time of the deed. Thus you may have contributed to the perpetration of such horrible deeds as you yourselves have never really contemplated, and yet you are connected with them, and a part of the reaction must burden your spirit, must hang on it like a weight when it severs itself from the body.

      But on the other hand you can also contribute even more powerfully to the peace and happiness of humanity, and through pure, joyful thinking can have a share in works that develop through total strangers.

      From this the blessing also naturally flows back to you, and you do not realise why.

      If you could but once see how the immutable Justice of God's All-Holy Will is always fulfilled in the self-acting Laws of this Creation for every single thought you harbour, you would strive with all your might to attain purity in your thinking!

      Only then will you have become such human beings as the Creator in His Work will mercifully guide to the knowledge that bestows eternal life upon them, allowing them to become helpers in Creation worthy to receive the high blessings destined for the human spirit; so that these may be joyfully and gratefully transformed and passed on to those creatures who are only able to absorb them through such a transformation by man, and who today, through the decline of the human spirit, remain wantonly cut off from them, after it had already been possible for them to come into existence in times of a better and more purely swinging humanity.

      With this, however, you will have made only one sentence from my Message glow with vitality for yourselves on earth!

      For you it is the most difficult one, which will then make all the rest much easier, whose fulfilment must already let miracle upon miracle arise before you in earthly visible and tangible form. —

      When you have conquered yourselves in this, you will be confronted on your path with yet another danger resulting from the distortion of human thinking: You will recognise in it a power which you will wish to press all too readily into quite definite forms, so that it may serve this or that special purpose made up of selfish desires!

      Already today I wish to warn you against this; for the danger can engulf you, you would perish in it, even after you have set out on the right path.

      Beware of a desperate struggle to enforce this purity of thoughts; for in so doing you would already press them into definite channels, and your effort would become an illusion, would always be only artificially enforced, and could never have the great effect that it should have. Your efforts would bring harm rather than benefit, because they lack the genuineness of the free intuition. Again it would be a product of your intellectual volition, but never the work of your spirit! Against this I warn you.

      Remember my Word of the Message which tells you that all true greatness can lie only in simplicity, since true greatness is simple! You may be better able to understand that simplicity which I mean here, if for the time being you use instead the human-earthly concept of being unassuming. This perhaps comes nearer to your comprehension, and you will hit upon the true meaning.

      You cannot give the purity that I mean to your thoughts through your thought-volition; but the pure volition, unassuming and boundless, must well up within you from your intuitive perception, not compressed into a word which can only give rise to a limited concept. That must not be; but an all-embracing urge for the good, able to envelop your thoughts as they arise and to permeate them even before they take form, is the right thing which you need.

      It is not difficult, indeed much easier than the other attempts, once you become unassuming, whereby intellectual conceit about your own abilities and your own power cannot arise. Empty yourselves of thoughts, and set free within you the urge for what is noble and good. Then you will have that foundation for thinking which comes from the volition of your spirit; and whatever arises from that you can then safely leave to the work of your intellect to carry out in the Realm of Densest Gross Matter. Nothing wrong can ever develop.

      Cast off all the torment caused by thoughts, and trust instead in your spirit, which will surely find the right way if you yourselves do not wall it up. Become free in spirit, which means nothing else than let the spirit within you have its way! Then it simply cannot do other than journey towards the height; for its very nature draws it upwards with all certainty. Hitherto you have restrained it so that it could no longer unfold, thereby you had restricted its flight or bound its wings.

      The foundation for the upbuilding of a new humanity, which you cannot and must not evade, rests in the one sentence: Keep the hearth of your thoughts pure!

      And it is with this that man must begin! That is his first task which will make him what he must become. An example to all who strive for Light and Truth, who wish to serve the Creator gratefully through the nature of their whole being. He who fulfils this needs no further directions. He is as he should be, and will thus receive the full measure of help that awaits him in Creation and leads him upwards without interruption.

________________________

RESPONSIBILITY

      THIS question is always one of the first, because the vast majority of people would be only too glad to throw off all responsibility, and cast it on anything rather than themselves. That this is in fact self-humiliation causes them no concern here. In this respect they are really remarkably humble and modest, but only so that they can go on living all the more merrily and unscrupulously.

      It would indeed be so wonderful to be permitted to gratify all one's wishes and calmly to let all one's desires run riot, even at other people's expense, without having to atone for it. If necessary, the earthly laws can be evaded and conflicts avoided. Under their cover the more adept can even rake in quite a successful haul, and do many a thing that would not stand up to any moral examination. In addition they often even enjoy the reputation of being especially capable people.

      Thus with a little shrewdness one could really live very comfortably according to one's own ideas, if ... there were not something somewhere that awakened an uneasy feeling, if from time to time there did not appear a rising disquiet that after all many a thing might be somewhat different from how one's own wishes shape it.

      And indeed it is so! The reality is serious and inexorable. The wishes of men can bring about no deviation whatsoever in this respect. Adamantine stands the Law: "What a man sows he will reap many times over!"

      These few words hold and convey much more than many a person thinks. They correspond minutely and exactly to the actual process of the reciprocal action resting in Creation. No more appropriate expression could be found for it. Just as the harvest yields a multiple of the seed, so man always receives back greatly multiplied what in his own intuitive perceptions he awakens and sends out, according to the nature of his volition.

      Thus man bears spiritually the responsibility for everything he does. This responsibility begins already with the making of the resolution, not just with the accomplished deed, which is simply a consequence of the resolution. And the resolution is the awakening of an earnest volition!

      There is no division between this world and the so-called beyond, but all is only one single immense existence. The whole mighty Creation, visible and invisible to man, gears together like an amazingly ingenious, never-failing mechanism; it does not function separately. Uniform Laws support the whole, penetrating everything like nerve-strands, holding it together and affecting each other in constant action and reaction!

      When schools and churches speak of Heaven and hell, of God and the devil, this is right. It is wrong, however, to explain it as good and evil powers. That must at once plunge every serious seeker into error and doubt; for where there are two powers there must also logically be two rulers, hence in this case two gods, a good one and an evil one.

      And this is not the case!

      There is only one Creator, one God, and hence only one Power which streams through all that exists, animating and furthering it!

      This pure, creative Power of God flows continually through the whole Creation, lies in it and is inseparable from it. It is to be found everywhere: in the air, in every drop of water, in the growing rock, the struggling plant, the animal, and naturally also in man. There is nothing where it would not be.

      And just as it flows through everything, so it also streams unceasingly through man. Now the latter is so constituted that he resembles a lens. Just as a lens collects the sun's rays streaming through it, and passes them on in concentrated form, so that the heat-giving rays, united on one spot, singe and set on fire, so man by virtue of his specific nature collects through his intuitive perception the Power of Creation streaming through him, and passes it on in concentrated form through his thoughts.

      According to the nature of this intuitive perceiving and the thoughts connected with it, he thus guides the self-acting creative Power of God to good or evil effect!

      And that is the responsibility which man must bear! Therein also lies his free will!

      You who often seek so strenuously to find the right way, why do you make it so hard for yourselves? In all simplicity picture to yourselves how the pure Power of the Creator flows through you, and how you guide it with your thoughts in a good or in an evil direction. There you have it all, without trouble and without racking your brain!

      Consider that it lies with your simple intuitive perceiving and thinking whether this mighty Power will evoke good or evil. What a furthering or destructive power is thus given to you!

      You need not exert yourselves till you perspire, you need not convulsively cling to some so-called occult practice in order to reach, through every conceivable and inconceivable physical and spiritual contortion, some stage that is completely worthless for your true spiritual upward-swinging!

      Cease this time-wasting trifling, which has so often become painful torment, signifying nothing else than the former self-scourgings and mortifications practised in the monasteries. It is only another form of the same thing, which can bring you as little gain.

      The so-called occult masters and pupils are modern Pharisees! In the truest sense of the word. They are the true reflection of the Pharisees at the time of Jesus of Nazareth.

      Realise in pure joy that through your simple, good-willing intuitive perceiving and thinking you are able without effort to guide the one and mighty Power of Creation. The Power will then take effect exactly according to the nature of your intuitive perceiving and your thoughts. It works by itself; you need only guide it.

      This takes place in all simplicity and unassumingness! No erudition is required for this, not even reading and writing. It is given to each of you in the same degree! In this no difference exists.

      Just as a child playing with a switch can turn on an electric current that produces tremendous effects, so is it given to you, through your simple thoughts, to guide Divine Power.

      You may rejoice over this, may be proud of it, when you use it for the good! But tremble if you fritter it uselessly away, or even employ it for impure purposes! For you cannot escape the Laws of Reciprocal Action that rest in Creation. And if you had the wings of the morning, the Hand of the Lord Whose Power you thus misuse would strike you through this automatic reciprocal action, wherever you wished to hide.

      Evil is brought about with the same pure Divine Power as good!

      And it is the kind of use made of this uniform Power of God, left to the free choice of each one, that bears within it the responsibility which no one can escape. Therefore I call out to every seeker:

      "Keep the hearth of your thoughts pure, by so doing you will bring peace and be happy!"

      Rejoice, you ignorant and weak ones; for to you is given the same power as to the strong! Therefore do not make it too hard for yourselves! Do not forget that the pure, self-creating Power of God also streams through you, and that you too, as human beings, are enabled to give a definite direction to this Power through the nature of your inner intuitive perceptions, that is of your volition, for good as well as for evil, destructively or constructively, bringing joy or sorrow!

      Since there is only this one Power of God, the mystery of why in every serious final struggle the Darkness must retreat before the Light, evil before good, is also cleared up. If you guide the Power of God to the good, it remains undimmed in its original purity and thereby develops a much greater force, whereas with the dimming into the impure a weakening takes place at the same time. Thus it is the purity of the Power which in any final struggle will always work effectively and be decisive.

      Everyone feels to the very finger-tips what is good and what is evil, without a word said. To brood over it would only cause confusion. Dull brooding is a waste of power, it is like a swamp, a clammy mire which paralysingly clutches and suffocates all within its reach. But a brisk cheerfulness tears apart the spell of brooding. You need not be sad and depressed!

      At any moment you can set out on your way to the Height and make good the past, whatever it may be! Do nothing more than think of the process of the pure Power of God always streaming through you, then you yourselves will shrink from guiding this purity into the unclean channels of evil thoughts, because without any effort you can equally attain to what is highest and noblest. You only need to guide it, the Power then works on by itself in the direction you desire.

      Thus you have happiness or unhappiness in your own hand. Therefore raise your head proudly, and face everything freely and courageously. Evil cannot approach unless you call it! As you wish it, so will it happen to you! 

----------------

FATE

      MEN SPEAK of deserved and undeserved fate, of reward and punishment, retribution and karma.

      All these are only part-designations of a Law resting in Creation: The Law of Reciprocal Action!

      A Law which lies in the entire Creation from its earliest beginning, which has been inseparably interwoven with the great, never-ceasing evolution as an essential part of creating itself, and of development. Like a gigantic system of the finest nerve-strands, it supports and animates the mighty Universe, and promotes continual movement, an eternal giving and taking!

      Plainly and simply, and yet so aptly, Jesus Christ has already expressed it: "What a man sows that shall he reap!"

      These few words render the picture of the activity and life in the entire Creation so excellently that it can hardly be expressed differently. The meaning of the words is inflexibly interwoven with life. Immovable, inviolable, incorruptible in its continual operation.

      You can see it if you want to see! Begin by observing the surroundings now visible to you. What you call Laws of Nature are, of course, the Divine Laws, are the Creator's Will. You will quickly recognise how unswerving they are in constant activity; for if you sow wheat you will not reap rye, and if you scatter rye it cannot bring you rice!

      This is so obvious to every man that he simply never reflects on the actual process. Therefore he does not become at all conscious of the strict and great Law resting in it. And yet here he faces the answer to a riddle, which need be no riddle to him.

      Now the same Law which you are able to observe here takes effect with equal certainty and force also in the most delicate things, which you are only able to discern through magnifying glasses, and, going still further, in the ethereal part of the whole Creation, which is by far the larger part. It lies immutably in every happening, also in the most delicate development of your thoughts, which also still have a certain element of material substance.

      How could you imagine that it should be different just where you would like to have it so? Your doubts are in reality nothing more than the expression of your inner wishes!

      In all existence, visible and invisible to you, it is no different, but each kind produces its own kind, no matter what the substance. Just as continual are the growing and developing, the bearing of fruit and reproducing of the same kind. This process runs uniformly through everything, it makes no distinctions, leaves no gap, it does not stop at some other part of Creation, but carries the effects through like an unbreakable thread, without interruption or cessation.

      Even though the greater part of mankind, in their limitation and conceit, have isolated themselves from the Universe, the Divine or Natural Laws have not ceased on that account to regard them as belonging to it, and to go on working without change, calmly and evenly.

      But the Law of Reciprocal Action also stipulates that whatever a man sows, thus where he causes an effect or consequence, he must also reap!

      Only at the beginning of every matter is man free to resolve, free to decide where the Omnipotent Power flowing through him is to be guided, in what direction. He must then bear the consequences arising from the Power that was set in motion in the direction willed by him. In spite of this, many persist in asserting that even so man has no free will if he is subject to fate!

      This foolishness is only meant to serve as a narcotic, or to be a grudging submission to something inevitable, a discontented resignation, but mainly a self-excuse; for each of these consequences falling back on him had a beginning, and at this beginning the cause of the subsequent effect lay in a previous free decision by man.

      This free decision has at some time or other preceded every reciprocal action, thus every fate! With a first volition man has each time produced or created something in which he himself has to live afterwards, sooner or later. When this will happen, however, varies greatly. It can still be in the same earth-life in which his first volition made the beginning for it, but it can equally well happen in the Ethereal World, when the gross material body has been laid aside, or later still in yet another gross material earth-life.

      The variations are not important here, they do not free man from the consequences. He carries the connecting threads with him continually, until he is redeemed from them, that is to say, "detached" through the final effect that ensues through the Law of Reciprocal Action.

      The one who forms is bound to his own work, even if he has intended it for others!

      If therefore a man today decides to do another an ill turn, either in thought, word or deed, he has thereby "put something into the world", quite irrespective of whether this is generally visible or not, thus whether gross material or ethereal; it has within it power and therefore life, which continues to develop and work on in the desired direction.

      How it will affect the person for whom it is intended depends entirely on the psychic condition of the one concerned, to whom it may thereby bring either much or little harm, perhaps also different from what was intended, or even none whatever; for again the psychic state of the one concerned is solely decisive for himself. Hence no one is exposed to such things unprotected.

      It is different with him who through his decision and his volition has given rise to this movement, that is to say, who was its producer. His product remains unconditionally bound to him, and after a short or long journeying in the Universe returns to him reinforced, laden like a bee, through the attraction of similar species.

      Here the Law of Reciprocal Action takes effect in that every single product in its movement through the Universe attracts, or is itself attracted by, various similar species, through whose union a source of power then comes into being, which sends back as from a power station reinforced power of the same kind to all those who through their products are connected as if by cords with the assembly-point of similar species.

      Through this reinforcement an ever greater density also occurs until there finally arises from it a gross material precipitation, in which the one-time producer must now live and experience to the full what he once willed, in order at last to be freed from it.

      That is the origin and development of the so dreaded and misunderstood fate! It is just, down to the minutest and finest shading, because through the attraction of only similar species it can never bring in the returning radiation anything other than what was actually willed personally in the beginning.

      Whether for a particular individual or in general makes no difference here; for it is naturally also the self-same process when man does not specifically direct his volition to one or several persons, but lives generally in some kind of volition.

      The kind of volition which he decides upon determines the fruits he must eventually reap. Thus countless ethereal threads cling to man, or he to them, all of which let whatever he once willed flow back to him. These currents result in a mixture that constantly has a strong influence on the forming of his character.

      Thus in the mighty machinery of the Universe there are many things which contribute to how man "fares", but there is nothing to which man has not himself first given cause.

      He furnishes the threads out of which in the untiring loom of life the cloak he has to wear is made.

      Christ plainly and distinctly expressed the same when He said: "What a man sows, that shall he reap". He did not say, "can" he reap, but he "shall". That is the same as saying: he must reap what he sows.

      How often does one hear otherwise very sensible people say: "It is incomprehensible to me that God should allow such a thing!"

      But it is incomprehensible that men can speak thus! How small they imagine God to be with this remark. They prove thereby that they think of Him as an "arbitrarily acting God".

      But God does not at all directly intervene in all these small and great cares of men, such as wars, misery and other earthly matters! From the very beginning He has woven into Creation His perfect Laws, which automatically carry out their incorruptible work so that all is accurately fulfilled, forever taking effect uniformly, thus preventing any preference as well as any prejudice, an injustice being impossible.

      Hence God has no need to trouble Himself especially about this, His Work is without flaws.

      But one of the principal mistakes so many people make is that they only judge according to gross matter, regarding themselves as the centre therein, and taking into consideration one earth-life, whereas in reality they already have several earth-lives behind them. These, as well as the intervening times in the Ethereal World, are equal to one uniform existence, through which the threads are tightly stretched without breaking, so that in the effects of a particular earthly existence only a small part of these threads therefore becomes visible.

      Hence it is a great mistake to believe that at birth an absolutely new life begins, that a child is thus "innocent", and that all happenings can be accounted for in only the short life on earth. If this were true, then the existing Justice would naturally require the combined causes, effects and reactions to occur during the span of one earth-life.

      Turn away from this error. You will then soon discover in everything that happens the logic and justice which are now so often missed!

      Many are alarmed at this and afraid of what they still have to expect from the past through the reaction in accordance with these Laws.

      But such are unnecessary worries for those who are in earnest about the good volition; for in the self-acting Laws also lies at the same time the certain guarantee of mercy and forgiveness!

      Quite apart from the fact that, with the firm beginning of the good volition, a limit is immediately set for the point where the chain of evil reactions must come to an end, yet another process of immense importance comes into force:

      Through the continuing good volition in every thought and deed, a constant reinforcement also flows retroactively from the homogeneous source of power, so that the good becomes more and more firmly established in man himself, emerges from him, and first of all forms accordingly the ethereal surrounding that envelops him like a protective covering in much the same way as the atmospheric layer round the earth affords it protection.

      Now when evil reactions from the past return to this man to be redeemed, they slide off the purity of his surrounding or covering, and are thus deflected from him.

      But should they nevertheless penetrate this covering, the evil radiations are either immediately disintegrated or at least appreciably weakened so that the harmful effect cannot manifest at all, or only to a very minor extent.

      In addition, through the resulting transformation, the actual inner man to whom the returning radiations are adjusted has also become much more refined and lighter through the continuous striving for the good volition, so that he no longer has any homogeneous affinity with the greater density of evil or base currents. Similar to wireless telegraphy, when the receiver is not tuned in to the energy of the transmitter.

      The natural consequence of this is that the denser currents, because they are of a different species, cannot take hold of anything, and thus pass harmlessly through without evil effect, redeemed by some unconscious symbolic action, the various kinds of which I will speak about at some later time.

      Therefore set to work without delay! The Creator has placed everything in Creation into your hands. Make use of the time! Every moment holds disaster or gain for you!  

--------------------------- 

In case you wish to read more such chapters, please write to grailindia@...

 

On 8/26/07, PmacArtist@... <PmacArtist@...> wrote:

Hi...I downloaded this but it won't open...can you send it again or perhaps put it in the body of an email.

 

Thanks,

Saraswati