Unnecessary self-torment
Most people in the western cultural sphere – regardless of the religious community to which they belong – know nothing of the possibility, already existing here in this earthly life, of developing the capacity for experiencing the substantial spiritual organism which is the only bearer of consciousness after the end of existence in the earthly body.
Others have indeed heard of this possibility for development, – even if from dubious sources, – and can not bring themselves to believe in it.
Still others eventually intuit that knowledge based on their own experience of a world imperceptible to physical organs: – the world of the eternal spirit – is possible, and they vainly seek a ‘method’ to acquire this knowledge.
Widespread among these seekers is the belief that ‘spiritualisation’ is required to attain the goal of their search; – and since they know nothing about themselves other than their own form of existence determined by their earthly bodies, they think they can reach their goal most readily through what they suppose to be spiritualisation of the earthly body.
This poor earthly body, however, is alive through the spirit, yet can never become spirit.
As he must observe that the body resists the inappropriate imposition put on it, he tries to ‘overcome’ it and regards it as a victory once he believes he has ‘mortified’ the best powers of his spiritually enlivened body.
Those particularly energetic in this act of ‘mortification’ are then regarded as the most ‘spiritualised’; they find confirmation for this delusion in hallucinations and other presumed ‘blessings’ which in truth are nothing other than the consequences of inappropriate subtle or crude torture of the body.
The history of all religious systems is richly endowed with examples of this perversion of the senses, and also, unfortunately, with accounts glorifying it.
As much as one may admire the courage a fellow man finds to inflict torture upon himself, this inhumanity has little to admire about it.
As men here on earth we live neither in order only to care for what belongs to us as animals, allowing ourselves to be determined by the urge for
lust or the love of indolence of the animal body, nor is it our task to torture the animal nature within us.
Yet we do indeed behave rightly when we train our earthly bodies to become a manifestation of the substantial, life-giving spirit.
Anything but self-torment and torture of the body is useful in this respect!
I do not speak here as one incapable of denying his body anything.
In the past I firmly held the view that ‘fasting and chastisement’ were actions ‘pleasing to God’; for many years I observed not only the forty days of Lent preceding Easter more strictly than a penitent monk, but I was also able at other times to deny myself for days on end all nourishment except spring water.
There may be those who are more practised than me in these arts, and I am certainly happy to concede to their pre-eminence, for, once I awoke to the experience of the substantial eternal spirit I lost all ambition with regard to asceticism.
Since that time I know that every motive to lead an ascetic life is based on catastrophic errors. Indeed, there is only one justification for asceticism: – that is, as a therapy healing the earthly body itself. –
This is where the personal inclination of individuals for a frugal or even rigorously Spartan lifestyle belongs as well, provided they are only pursued for the promotion – presumed or actual – of the health and development of the earthly body.
Yet as soon as the motive for such a lifestyle grows out of the view that an ascetic life can bring one closer to the eternal spirit, it is contemptible.
What the athletes of asceticism see as an ‘experience of the spiritual’ is without exception completely dubious in nature!
Either we are talking about reactions of the weakened body to the brain, or: the abused body has become prey to lemuroid forces of the invisible physical world which no longer willingly release their poor victim but seek to ‘entertain’ him with everything proven useful in keeping his critical faculties dormant…
What the deceived victim then regards as a spiritual experience is an excitation of the nerves and the ghostly spectre of deeply unpleasant semi-animal beings invisible to the physical eye yet belonging to the physical world, even though their existence can never be ‘demonstrated’ by any powerful microscope.
In my books I have explained most clearly in various contexts their manifestation of life, their innate activities, and their perverse degeneration brought about by human stimulation.
Those who believe that it is unnecessary to expound seriously upon these things have no idea how many of their fellow men are caught in the mantraps set by the invisible physical beings of which we are speaking here. –
Not only do I have to warn about ascetic self-torture of the earthly body and the consequent psychic risks, but I must also warn of another form of self-torment in which many seekers are inclined to engage.
By no means is it the frailest of seekers after light who are at greatest risk of overestimating their powers!
As a result of this overestimation they think they can travel their path by making uncontrolled leaps; in all seriousness they imagine they can reach their goal in a matter of months, a goal which others have taken years, – often a whole lifetime, – to attain.
The rampant impatience of cerebral consciousness to want to learn as quickly as possible how to experience the substantial eternal spirit produces a restlessness which can only bring severe harm to psychic and physical life, without ever leading to what the seeker, tormented and close to despair, strives for. –
In this kind of seeker the unnecessary self-torment consists of an unending enervation of the brain which of all things must achieve peace and the conscious and patient readiness-to-wait, if the path leading ‘to the spirit’ is truly to be followed. –
Impatience and unrestrained longing do not just divert one from the path leading to the goal, they also increase the same danger as for the ascetic to be deceived. –
It was once said about the ‘kingdom of God’ that only those who used ‘force’ could take it, – but what is meant here by ‘force’ can only properly be known by comparing this saying with the words of Jacob who wrestled with the angel: “I will not let you go unless you bless me!”
Here ‘force’ is not meant in the sense of being able to usurp; it is a resolute holding on whilst being fully aware of one’s own impotence, weakness and smallness.
Yet if a seeker feels so bound by this saying that he cannot rid himself of it, let him be counselled to direct the ‘force’ he thinks he cannot renounce to restrain permanently all the obstacles produced by his restlessly brooding brain seeking to make it harder for him to reach his goal.
There must be no rushing, insisting and chasing after the goal for one who as my pupil has set off on the path I show to him, on which he can reach his goal in the manner suited to his individual nature!
With certain assurance he must walk step by step, with perseverance and thoughtfulness, always according to the manner suited to him as he found described in my words and then chose for himself, – for this ‘path’ will not be ‘dispensed with’ on the final attainment of the goal like something one no longer needs, but will become the eternal spiritual possession of whoever has reached the goal.
He needs this path which has been ‘opened’ for him, – since it has been opened by him –, if the eternal spiritual consciousness he has attained is to remain united with what guarantees him his identity in his spiritual and earthly experience…
The ‘walk upon’ the path which allows him to attain the spirit is a ‘walk’ in physical time but within his own inner spiritual space!
Though the goal is reached in physical time it can only be found in inner spiritual space. –
There is therefore no point in seeking externally; it is wrong to think that the goal can be reached more easily in one place rather than another.
The analogy of the ‘path’ is certainly not chosen arbitrarily to describe the progress made in one’s inner life and during the uninterrupted passage of physical time.
It is no ‘coincidence’ that all teachers ‘from the spirit’ have always referred to the analogy since the most ancient of times.
Although the seeker will only find his goal in his own inner spiritual space, he can certainly still be endlessly removed from his goal in that same inner space. –
He must ‘wander through’ physical time bringing him every day nearer to the day of attainment.
There are stages which can be felt in the capacity for experience following one another.
Each following one is dependent on the preceding one attaining consciousness, and not one can, as it were, be ‘bypassed’ or dispensed with!
Therefore it is an unnecessary self-torment for the seeker to worry about making slow progress or because he is acutely aware that he is only at the start, whereas he would prefer to experience the day of attainment today rather than tomorrow.
It is merely stimulating to know where one is in reality whereas the presumptuous belief that one has already covered most of the way can turn into bitter disappointment…
Some who already think they are my pupils because they ‘know’ everything I have written aggravate their unnecessary self-torment still further by seeking to increase their innate tempo. This they do by often adding dubious impetus from all sorts of philosophical or occult literature having not even the slightest connection with the teaching I have fashioned in words, neither with respect to the goal to be reached nor with regard to the way to attain it, even if the words found are also used by me.
With a smile, as though observing the foolish behaviour of children too young to discern, I could ignore these attempts ‘to help things along’ by adding from other sources what I supposedly held back, – if I had not had to note time and again how these zealots obstruct their own path.
For better or worse I must therefore, in the utmost interest of those who seek, refuse most explicitly any responsibility for the results of this ‘ingenious’ pasting together of the incompatible which of necessity lead to the grossest self-deception among the high-handed!
I can only counsel those who believe, on the other hand, that they can make better progress independently rather than by following my guidance imparted in knowledge of my eternal responsibility, – and in the form it is given – to leave my books unread, so that at least they are not responsible for misusing them.
Yet some who feel they are my pupils, although they refer to my work in the same breath as all sorts of irresponsible and tangled thoughts, could perhaps learn the lesson that not one of the pupils I recognise as such, having made the greatest progress, has failed to concentrate with the strictest self-discipline on heeding my instructions – and only them – when fashioning his striving.
This is really not surprising since the teachings for which I have created a form of words in order to communicate them have been tried and tested over thousands of years.
It goes against the consistency of the spirit to believe that one can win more than can be won by following the guidance in my books through simultaneously adopting as a guiding principle any human conjectures and imaginings…