1. The identity(ies) of the human being – Spirituelle Lebensführung

“Two souls dwell, alas, in my breast’ (Faust I)

The path to giving meaning to human life stands and falls with the realisation of what a person is. What is his nature: Who am I?

Even in ancient times, people were naturally aware of the importance of the answer to this question. The inscription above the temple of Delphi, where the prophetess Pythia oracled the fate of the questioners, reads: ‘Know thyself’ (‘Gnothi se auton’). And she made it clear with a further admonition: Sophrosyne, moderation. This calls on people to control their typical thoughts of fear, desire and anger (see social media). This enables them to embark on the path to liberation from suffering.

At the beginning of the process of becoming human, man was dominated by his material understanding of the deficient being. Even in ancient Greece, he was characterised as a being with a divine core (by Plotinus, among others). Later, church father Augustin took up the divine likeness from the story of creation. However, Christianity then regarded all attempts at such a spiritual self-interpretation as presumptuous: It emphasised a primordial distance between Creator and creature – Jesus excluded, of course – and has maintained this to this day (exception: theoretical ‘deification’ in the orthodoxy of the Greek church fathers: theodosia).

Due to the churches of the Middle Ages and the forlornness of the individual in the modern age, the search for self-knowledge seems to have been largely lost. Accordingly, people have also given up the attempt to achieve the associated human freedom from suffering in the here and now, although it is admonished in all wisdom writings, from Judaism to Hinduism, Islam and Daoism – and, of course, primarily by Buddhism: ‘The four noble truths about the cessation of suffering.’

Christianity has shifted this question to life after death and resigned itself to the seemingly self-evident existence of suffering. Moreover, in practice, the Church tries to combat it without reference to the meaning of Jesus’ admonition not to resist evil (Sermon on the Mount).

Nevertheless, there is of course the decisive key to a fulfilled and suffering-free life in which man realises his destiny. This life is characterised by the practical truth of the following concrete experiences: ‘Though a thousand fall at your side or ten thousand at your right hand, it will not strike you.’ If I have gathered such experiences often enough (examples in the following chapters) and thus know how and who I am, then I know what and how I am leading my life successfully. Jesus paraphrases this in a flowery way with the formula ‘’… they will possess the earth.“

The thematisation of self-knowledge can be found today in the most diverse areas of human culture:

Literature:
‘As in every human being, two people lived in Nechljudov, the moral man who sought his good in the good of others and the animal man who sought only his own good and was prepared to sacrifice the whole world to this good …’
(Leo N. Tolstoy: Resurrection; Volume I, Chapter 14)

Painting:
In his painting ‘The Drowned Boy’, the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch shows a light and a dark male figure walking side by side, which are supposed to represent the two sides of the same person, struggling to dominate this person. The artist himself comments on this as follows:
‘The division (!) of the soul, … which like two birds tied together each strive for his side … a terrible struggle in the cage of the soul.’
(Munch-museet. Oslo 2007)

Philosophy:
Arthur Schopenhauer on the question of who he was: “Man is in the heart, not in the head. It is true that we are accustomed … to regard the familiar ego as our real self. …But this is a mere brain function and not our own self, … which, when the [ego] perishes in death, remains intact.”

Islam:
The Sufi mystic Ibn Arabi wrote in the 13th century:
“Know: The human creature consists of spirit soul (ruch) … and instinctual soul (nafs) …”
(The Wisdom of the Prophets II, Chapter Junus)

Hinduism:
The holy book of the Hindus, the Bhagavad Gita, describes man thus:
‘Twofold is the nature of all beings; partly divine, partly inferior.’ (XVI,6).

Furthermore, the Gita says the following about the upper part of the human soul, the spirit soul (lower part: instinctive soul of animal self-preservation):
“I am the God, the eternal Self, which indwells every being. … (X,20)

Christianity:
The important Christian theologian of the High Middle Ages, the Dominican cleric Meister Eckhart, writes:

‘Now the soul has two countenances: the upper one looks at God at all times, and the lower one looks downwards and directs the senses.’ (Sermon 49)

Jesus expresses the vacillation between these two souls in his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane as follows (Gospel of Matthew 26):
“Not as I [ego = instinctual soul] will, but as you [spirit soul] will ’ (39);
‘The spirit is willing, but the flesh [instinctual soul, self-preservation] is weak ’ (41).

The evangelist John lets the Nazarene have his say as follows:
‘I can do nothing of myself ’ (5,30) ;
“The Father in me, he does the works’(14:10).

The Silesian mystic Angelus Silesius wrote in the 17th century:
“Two people are in me: One wants what God wants,
the other wantswhat the world, the devil and death want.”
(Cherubinischer Wanderer V, 120)

The vernacular:
It speaks crudely but aptly of the ‘inner bastard’ as the counterpart to the ‘conscience’ with its typical reminders, the pangs of conscience.

Jewish wisdom:
In the second creation story, man is symbolically expressed by the two elements from which he was created, on the one hand from the material ‘lump of earth’, and on the other from the spiritual ‘breath of God’, the immaterial transcendent dimension (Genesis 2:7). This double face is symbolised by Cain and Abel (Gen. 4, 1-16, as also in the Koran in Sura 5, 27 ff.).

These and many other similar references show first of all the structure of the two parts of our soul life; some also mention the moral value. Although every person is somehow aware of these opposing components of their inner life, they do not usually have conscious control over their functions. Rather, most people automatically react to ‘ seeking only their own good’, which – to give just one example – is indicated by 500,000 hit-and-runs per year.

The two parts of the soul consist on the one hand of the self-preservation instinct, the ego programme in humans, the instinctual soul, which primarily loves itself and then at most its own environment; it is located on the material level of existence. The other part of the soul is the love for all other people, the intuition, the inner voice, ‘the father in me’, the spirit soul, the gut feeling, the conscience. The spirit soul, the ‘better soul’ (Faust I, Study) is located on the spiritual level of human consciousness. It is the love programme (see chapter 17) that relates not only to our own unconditional survival, but to that of all people. This is the (re)born Son of God who ‘seeks his good in the good of others.’ Can one express it more aptly than Goethe, who has Faust say:

“Two souls dwell, alas! in my breast:
One holds in coarse lust of love clings to the world with clutching organs;
the other lifts itself violently from the * Dust
To the realms of high ancestors.”
(Faust I. Before the Gate)
______________________________________
* Nullity (derived from dust)

The human software

It is the bridge between God(spirit) and matter(body) and it has two faces. Substance and spirit meet in its division into two parts. Christianity calls the overcoming of the barrier, the descent of the spirit soul to the earthly plane, its physical experience, especially as an inner voice or gut feeling, and its physical power (‘guardian angel’) the Holy Spirit.

Spirit soul (nous):

Jesus’ choice of words: ‘Son of God’
Spiritual part of the soul (physically tangible), surviving, not mortal.
‘Father in me’, High I, Atman, ‘guardian angel.’
Its interpreter property consists of intuition, remorse, ‘first thought’, gut feeling.

Three-way mixer (Biezl) https:/ commons.wikimedia.org/wiki

Driven soul (soul):
Jesus’ choice of words: Son of man
Material part of the soul, mortal.
Lower self, psyche, ego, reason, intellect (!) and emotion. negative thoughts, devil in the desert (Christian), not-self (Buddhist). Worry, fear, anger, egoism, striving for possession, recognition, power; use of violence, impulses.

Mixing lever:
This distributor between the two levels of the soul is controlled on the one hand from ‘below’, from perceptions through the sensory organs – as well as feelings and reason – and the software of self-preservation. On the other hand, impulses also come from ‘above’, from gut feeling, intuition and ideas: ‘You can only see wellwith your heart.’ (St Exupéry: The Little Prince). Puccini once remarked: “I don’t compose. I only write down what my soul tells me!”

This mixer (Tauler: homo rationalis) is the central part of human consciousness. It decides in the conflict between ‘above’ and “below” in the so-called ‘decisions of conscience’, which, however, are almost always controlled by ‘below’, i.e. by the ego, in 99% of people. In this respect, his ‘decisions’ are largely unconscious and, above all, one-sided. In principle, however, the power of decision between ‘above’ and ‘below’ is not lost, according to the material and/or spiritual influence.

A classic example of this agony of choice, in which the consciousness finds itself between the animal soul (ego) and the spiritual soul, is Jesus’ inner struggle in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mt 26:39): He is assailed from below out of fear for his existence, asking that ‘this cup maypass from him ’, i.e. torture and crucifixion; he is equally exposed to the drive from above, to divine guidance, and he ultimately decides (!) to do ‘as you will.’

In ninety-nine out of a hundred people, the influence or understanding of the impulses from above is barricaded. If this seems exaggerated to you, you can work out that in a village with 500 inhabitants, for example, there would have to be five people who base their actions on ‘Thy will be done’. (For which they would first have to know how to find out what your will is).

The two identities of man

Recognising the split nature of the human soul is crucial for success in life. A comparison with animal life shows that animal life is controlled exclusively by the programme of unconditional self-preservation: hunting, eating, resting, sleeping, reproducing, defending territory against intruders, fighting against competitors. Animals only have this one behavioural control. For them, there is no conflict between good and evil, and consequently they have no free will to differentiate between them. Members of the lion pride are therefore unable to look after other lions outside their own pride. And their lifestyle is at the expense of others. The animals live exclusively according to this programme of survival, they cannot escape. For them, the purpose of their existence is their existence.

Humans also live according to this programme. For 99% of them, the basic drive in their lives is also personal self-preservation, and if possible, as sufficient as possible. Thus, for most people, the unconscious purpose of their existence is their existence.

This manifests itself in all possible forms, from ‘having fun’ to the countless activities of material world improvement. However, although the material standard of living has improved for thousands of years, people have remained envious, self-centred and jealous, they suffer endlessly from bad neighbours and mean superiors, from accidents, theft, robbery, rape and murder, and on a collective level from pandemics with hundreds of thousands of victims, terrorist attacks with knives, firearms or lorries, political and religious system conflicts with civil war or war, they suffer from every conceivable disease, they continue to lie and cheat and continue to use violence against children, partners, other groups and peoples. They allow themselves to be blinded by the fascination and the promise of salvation of technical and social – i.e. purely material – progress and never dream of a fundamental (!) liberation from their incomprehensible suffering. Yet this would be the most natural thing in the world, and of course all wisdom teachings speak of nothing else.

Clinging to the programme of the instinctual soul, to egocentricity, leads to a seemingly endless continuation of the life of good and evil, thus also of fundamental suffering. The apparent perspective of ‘wanting to make the world a little better’ is limited to raising the material standard of living and has nothing to do with liberation from good and evil, especially liberation from suffering. The fact that this complete delusion continues to work in people’s minds is because improvement is often successful in individual cases and thus overshadows the worsening of the overall situation (climate crisis and threat of war). It is an illusion that is refuted on a daily basis, but is nevertheless more than successful and is called Maya, the goddess of concealment, in Hindu wisdom (see Chapter 23).

The showpiece of the ego programme is the so-called love of neighbour. People practise this love, which is what they call it, literally in relation to their immediate surroundings, life partners, children, parents, relatives, neighbours, friends, and indirectly also to members of their own group and also their own people (Tolstoy, see above: preferential love). It has nothing to do with the other spiritual programme of caring for all others and is worthless for human further and higher development. This is because it is nothing more than extended self-preservation, the individual benefits of which can be seen in every pride of lions. Jesus reveals this rather rudely: “Only love those who love you? There is no reward for that. Even crooks do that.” (Mt 5:45)

This understanding of love in relation to the ‘neighbour’ excludes love of strangers or enemies, especially through racist reservations, out of unconscious fear for egocentric self-preservation: see the passing of hundreds of cars past clearly visible – draped – accident victims at the side of the road or countless bank customers who want to go to the cash machine and in doing so (surveillance camera) walk unmoved over the unconscious person lying there.

The only contrast to animals, however, is the second programme in humans. It consists of devotion, dedication and preservation of all people: its characteristic is to go beyond the framework of family, friendship and clan as well as that of the people. This is indicated in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29 ff.). Jesus reminds us of this much more clearly with his demand to love our enemies (Mt 5:44). This programme is that of true neighbourly love, which recognises all people as – spiritual (!) neighbours.

The animal does not have this second programme. The reason is that man is the only being capable of development. Animals are also capable of change in the sense of adaptation, but this always remains on the horizontal, i.e. material level. They are not able to develop to a higher, i.e. spiritual level.

This second programme, which serves the preservation of all other people, is illustrated by the example of the Samaritan mentioned above – albeit without an ‘enemy’. This stranger from Samaria – despised and degraded by his Israelite surroundings – rushes to the aid of a helpless injured stranger by the roadside, showing unselfish devotion to at least strangers. This Samaritan compassion can be found in the term ‘ubuntu’ from African cultures: ‘I am because you are.’ It goes far beyond the described love for one’s emotional and spatial neighbour, because it is neither individualistic nor competitive, but contains the mutual dependence and connectedness of all (!) people – like the fingers on a hand. It shows the immediate realisation that sustainable self-preservation can only function through the preservation of all others. But practical realisation is prevented by one’s own ego – even if there are enough practical examples, such as Mandela, Gandhi or the many unnamed people who selflessly risk their lives to help strangers – even enemies. They are lifesavers, priests, blood donors, military doctors, crisis workers, whistleblowers, etc. They follow the second programme more or less consciously. Their purpose is different from that of exclusive self-preservation.

As far as a mother’s care for her child is concerned, this is predominantly done out of unconscious self-preservation in an extended form, see the pride of lions. But mothers, as well as saviours and helpers in general, are already on the first rung of the ladder to karmically overcoming egocentricity through their devotion. Nevertheless, they remain consciously within the framework of the material world; there is still no higher reference to the spiritual destiny of human life in general (see Chapter 10). In Christianity, this is referred to by the term ‘perfection’ (Mt 5:48); this is about the true meaning of existence as described by all wisdom teachings .

Its central content is turning to other people ‘as they turn to themselves’ (Mt 19:19). This goes beyond preferential love – and always involves the sacrifice of ego components (see the following chapters): ‘Sacrifice is the law of the All!’ (Bhagavad Gita).

– Judaism, Exodus 19:18:
‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself…’.

– Islam, Koran, Sura 41:34:
“Repel evil with what is better, then he with whom you live in enmity,
becomes like an intimate friend and counsellor.”

– Hinduism, Bhagavad Gita, XIIIth canto:
‘The spirit of life dwells in every heart …’ (verse 17)
“He who comprehends him as the indwelling of all, does not revile his self in the other
self. He thus walks the path to the heights.” (verse 28)

– Buddhism, Dhammapada, verse 5:
“There is never in this world / Enmity turned off by enmity. By not
enmity ceases.”

– Daoism, TaoTeKing, verse 49:
“The heart of the wise beats within all, therefore he is equally kind to the good and the bad.’

– Christianity, Mt 5:44:
‘Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you .’
‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’

However, the crucial addition ‘as to yourself’ is a foreign concept for 99% of people. Because it is not possible for me to treat all other people as I treat myself at the level of exclusively material consciousness. Cain sends his regards. ‘As with oneself’ presupposes a level of spiritual consciousness at which the beginning of forgiveness of all things and practised love of one’s enemies can be found. This means – not immediately obvious – the central factor of sacrifice. It is not primarily about giving money, energy or time, but above all about not striking back, not worrying, giving only in secret (Mt 6) and all other impositions, such as those contained in the Sermon on the Mount. It is the surrender of negative thoughts and the selfish will, the ego-self-centredness.

On the one hand, being there for others is nothing more than a job for some people in corresponding fields of activity, but on the other hand it is also a vocation for many. It enables the devotion and dedication to others that is inherent in them. But what a level of understanding, consideration, protection, caring and boundless forgiveness it requires to ‘love everyone as yourself’. This is a stab in the heart of the personal ego – currently particularly visible in the migrant issue, especially in Europe and the USA. This involves a great deal of ego sacrifice, as shown by the great role models such as Gandhi, Buddha, Jesus, Martin Luther King, Mandela (forgiveness), Janusz Korczak, the US Army medic Desmond Doss, Mother Teresa or Malala, but also by many ‘normal’ fellow citizens who have repeatedly and consciously paid for their devotion with their lives, such as Franz Jägerstätter (executed in 1943 for conscientious objection) or Arland Dean Williams Jr.

The level of all-love (see chapter 17) refers to an understanding of the spiritual unity of all people: it has nothing to do with earthly feelings such as affection. It is ‘only’ about recognising the spiritual substance inherent in one’s own (!) self and that of all other people. It is about the aforementioned recognition of the ‘eternal self that is inherent in every being’, which recognises ‘its self in the other self’ .

When Jesus uses the term ‘love of enemies’, it has nothing to do with the content of the word ‘love’ as people use it on a material level with sympathy and emotion. Rather, it is exclusively about the understanding of the spiritual unity of all people, such as the fingers on a hand. For the basis of this unity is the common bloodstream, without which these fingers and indeed the whole human being would not exist. Transferred to the spiritual level, it is the realisation of the common divine likeness in every human being:

‘You are gods!’
(John 10:34)

‘God does not look at the person!’
(1 Sam. 16:7)

‘Let man with his breath in his nostrils depart!’
(Isa. 2:22)

‘I can do nothing of myself [person; mat.] , the Father in me [intuition; spir.] does the works!’
(Joh. 5, 19)

‘There is no respect of persons before God!’
(Acts 10, 34)

‘You are gods and all children of the Most High!’
(Ps. 82:6)

‘He who isin you is greater than he who is in the world!’
(1 John 4:4)

‘You will do even greater things than I!’
(Joh. 14, 12)

The understanding of common likeness is the basis and perspective for Jesus’ ‘love of enemies’. This level of ‘love’ does not refer to the material part of the soul (instinctive soul of self-preservation), but only to the spiritual part (see below). It is the realisation that even the most brutal human being is a son of God, even if his access to this disposition is completely blocked. (Of course, any self-evident punishment for an offence remains on the worldly level).

The higher level of love contains the awareness of one’s own spiritual soul of likeness (Gen. 1:27) above the dimension of matter with the instinctual soul. It is the conscious realisation of the unity of one’s own divine part with that of the other person. It is the decisive ladder to achieving the awareness of the unity of all being.

In Christianity, this level of ‘love’ is essentially demonstrated by Jesus’ way of life, in Buddhism by Siddharta Gautama, for example, but also much more concretely by Mahatma Gandhi, for example. However, it is alien to the vast majority of people. The reason for this is the associated unconscious fear of jeopardising one’s own self-preservation. After all, it would mean practically standing up for strangers, just as one would want to do for oneself, i.e. for one’s own preservation, if one were in their place (Golden Rule).

However, all these passages are just quotations, more or less obvious. What is ultimately decisive is their effectiveness in everyday life. Anyone who begins to use this level of consciousness to interact with the people around them – and beyond – will experience miracle after miracle: their previous world of good and evil will increasingly transform into a world of only good, i.e. without evil. Although it remains the familiar material environment and occasionally contains mishaps, it always ends harmoniously and successfully.

With regard to the aforementioned interaction with strangers, however, we are not talking about opening the floodgates to uncontrolled immigration – as far as the problem of modern-day migration is concerned. On the contrary: because a disorderly influx of mass immigration, especially into existentially attractive areas, quickly leads to the overpopulated collapse of the whole, caring for impoverished foreigners ‘as for oneself ’ can only consist of a collective overall effort to ensure humane living conditions for those there in their previous places of residence – just as one would wish for oneself as a person affected there. But people are currently a long way from such a self-evident solidarity in the sense of global humanity.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

We are born with self-preservation, the unconditional instinct to survive, of course: it is a necessary basic programme that enables us to overcome crises, find solutions, protect the upbringing of children, and so on. However, for the 99% mentioned above, this basic programme develops into egocentricity, which remains trapped in the described framework of animalistic, selfish ‘love of neighbour’, driven by instinct and without understanding. Humanity that goes beyond the framework of the self-centred environment is unconsciously blocked in people by the programme of self-preservation. With their egocentric behaviour, people are ‘only’ obedient executors of the impulses of their instinctive soul. This leads to people behaving ‘more animal-like than any animal ’ (Goethe: Faust I, Auerbach’s Cellar): Animals do not build concentration camps.

The fact that people live in ignorance of their two inner controls and also have no idea that they have the potential to change the distribution lever is the reason for the efforts at enlightenment through the Bible, Gita, Koran, Dhammapada, TaoTeKing etc. The Sermon on the Mount, for example, constantly calls on people to make this 180° course correction, to ‘love’ their enemies and to forgive them comprehensively.

Although people generally have no awareness of true love of neighbour in the sense of the Golden Rule, they always find themselves in an equally unconscious conflict between ego love and love of others as a result of the unconsciously nagging spiritual programme (conscience).

In his novel ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’, Robert Louis Stevenson tried to deal with the division of the human soul in literary terms, even if he only sees it on the material horizontal level and does not recognise the spiritual vertical.

As far as the dominance of egocentricity in humans – in contrast to intuition, the inner voice – is concerned, people have always tried to depict this animal power through the millennia, such as the prehistoric lion-man from the Hollow Stone, the ancient Greek Minotaur or the centaurs.

Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

It was not until the great wisdom texts from around 2000 years before our era that the divine part of man (e.g. Gilgamesh) began to be recognised.

Becoming aware of your split soul means gradually reducing your material part, that of the mammal, and gradually activating your spiritual part. Buddhist wisdom calls this ‘recognising both worlds’ (Dhammapada XIX, 269). St Paul calls this ‘daily dying.’ By this he does not mean a biological withering away of the body, the ‘hardware’, but to unfold the spiritual soul, the software of the Son of God, through this ego reduction. In practice, this is usually initiated by meditation, which practises suppressing the egoistic and therefore always fear- and revenge-filled whispers. This increases receptivity to the inner voice, intuition and gut feeling. As a result, in practical everyday life this leads more and more to overcoming ego behaviour through service and sacrifice for others, with the focus on strangers. Self-giving for one’s own partners or children is the horizon of the animal world and is something everyone can do. It also has a solidary meaning on the earthly level, but is worthless for ego death.

Oleksandr Chaban: In a human being is good and evil … Who are you, human? iStock 94401140

In ancient Greek mythology, the activated spirit soul of a human being is referred to as a ‘demigod’, for example by Heracles. Very few people have any idea that this actually refers to every human being, even if this spiritual potential is often walled off, even completely in many cases. However, the term demigod primarily refers to those who actually face up to their inner conflicts (attacks of selfishness, envy, greed, hatred, etc.) and, with increasing awareness of the power of their spiritual aura, successfully take up the fight against their animalistic software.

Everyone has the potential of the demigod or child of God because they are the owner of the divine spark, whether they realise it or not. Everyone has the spiritual potential for self-knowledge and self-liberation: ‘You are gods and all children of the Most High.’ (see above) From this it is clear that spiritual development, transformation, enlightenment or whatever you want to call the attainment of a higher consciousness is the very essence of man; no special talent is required for this.

Figure emerges from the cosmos. Bestdesigs. iStock 1099434540

But few have told us that each of us is unique, divine and fascinating at the core of our being:
What good would it be if I were king and did not know it?’
(Meister Eckhart: Sermons 15)

Especially since the beginning of the Middle Ages, the churches have focussed exclusively on the sinfulness of people. The teaching of Jesus to show people ways to perfect themselves (‘You will do even greater things than I!’) (see above) and to set an example of this was nothing other than presumption, arrogance and arrogance for them. Their understanding of man was that of a creature, that of a purely earthly creature with ‘primordial distance’ from the Creator God. With this constant devaluation, they tried to suggest their own superiority and thereby strengthen their position of power. This is why they have wisely hushed up any enlightenment, such as that of Meister Eckhart, and suppressed it by force if necessary – with the combat term ‘heretic’. And it is also why they persecuted and, if possible, killed the Cathars, Johannes Tauler (‘God-like nature of our spirit’) and Joan of Arc.

The story of creation gives the reason for our divine origin: it is the aforementioned likeness, i.e. a relationship like that between father or mother and child. Although not equal to adults, they are on the same level. In contrast to other mammals, this is associated with creation potential. For the ego in humans, however, likeness is not enough. It wants to play God (Gen. 3:5) and achieve equality: ‘ … above all things in the world.’

Of course, man has creative power, but only of developments and not of principles. These were already there before man, like relativity before Einstein. Humans can create the design of life through genetic manipulation and cloning, but not life itself. Dr Viktor Frankenstein sends his regards.

The idea that humans have a divine core does not seem very credible in view of their predatory behaviour and what they are doing to our planet and their kind. Modern man in times of globalisation is faced with a myriad of threats from ‘others’, such as competitive pressure, attacks, job insecurity, streams of refugees, burglaries, drug use and religiously motivated violence, etc., in which it is difficult to discern the aforementioned divine heritage.

And yet it is also part of everyday life that incredible talents, brilliant achievements and sacrifices for the common good can be observed. These are the great role models of human history, who are not to be understood as exceptions, but as examples of the inner potential in every human being, similar to parents for their children. Every day we witness the incredible abilities, talents and courage that lie within human beings, such as lifesavers, healers, scientific talents, gifted leaders like Mandela or Gandhi, social angels, and so on.

Humans are the only living beings with the capacity for vertical transformation. Neither a rose nor a lion can do this. And animals, as I said, cannot break out of the animalistic programme of self-preservation. Only humans can develop higher spiritually. Goethe, as a master of poetic summarisation, puts it in a nutshell:

“Were not the eye sunlike,
it could never see the sun, were it not for the power of God within us, how could the divine delight us.”
(Tame Xenia, 3rd book)

The two controls of human behaviour between which consciousness must decide: Two souls dwell, alas, in my breast!

An awareness of the spiritual second identity – i.e. beyond the egoistic instinct for self-preservation and emotional love – this awareness of the soul power of spiritual love (see Chapter 7) is inherent in most people, but blocked. Their self-awareness amounts to perhaps 1% of their entire way of being. For a level of spiritually controlled life (‘Thy will be done!’) would be recognisable through freedom from all suffering, all worry and all fear (Job 42).

Materially orientated people believe that they only consist of mind, feelings, memory and, of course, the body. They are convinced that the mind is their main controlcentre. However, the fact that it is only a tool and is in turn controlled by inputs from ‘above’ (spirit) and – almost always – from ‘below’ (ego) is out of the question for them.

Of course, there are also many who ‘believe’ in the existence of a controlling soul within them, but without any consequences: Because, having left the church service, they continue to envy, covet, be jealous and lie. And the churches do everything they can to leave this contradiction unmentioned, because then their lack of success throughout the millennia would become clear. To cover this up in a makeshift way, their teaching postpones salvation to the realm after death: ‘post mortem.’ Of course, people realise this and therefore leave them in droves. Incidentally, other religions emphasise the opposite of ‘post mortem’: ‘he has reachedperfection here’; see not only Job (see above) or the Bhagavad Gita in XVIII, 46. What is decisive, however, is the concrete experience of the many people who have taken the path of ego crucifixion. (A promising practical aid here is always to imagine one’s own likeness before every undertaking, decision or step, for example by visualising it as a surrounding aura. For more details, see the chapter on meditation).

You are thus on the path to personal fulfilment, which is clearly visible in ego sacrifice on the one hand and freedom from suffering on the other. In some cases, the personal sacrifice of self-preservation even goes as far as giving one’s life, as with Janusz Korczak, Arland Williams and many soldiers at the front.

Ignorance of one’s own higher identity is the cause of all suffering in this world, as the Buddha clearly recognised two and a half thousand years ago. We are biological mammals (‘sons of men’), but at the same time, as far as our spiritual part is concerned, we are demigods, i.e. sons of God. We are an expression of the mammal’s instinctual life, but also an expression of the divine power of love that the hand recognises in the glove. Accordingly, Jesus emphasises: ‘You are all gods!’ (John 10:34). The fact that we live in a vale of tears is the result of our unilateral ignorance.

What would have happened if people had been aware of their divine heritage, their divine identity (alongside their animal identity) from the beginning of their earthly existence? The enlighteners were there: Odysseus, Heracles, Jesus, many prophets, martyrs, Plato, Plotinus, Ibn Arabi, Nanak, Buddha, Lao Tse, Maimonides, Meister Eckhart, Goethe through Faust, Gandhi, Mandela, Mother Teresa, Eckhart Tolle, many others. However, people have never perceived these signposts as examples of theirown hidden potential, but as exceptions from some other star that can only be confronted with wonder and adoration. This is why the Hindu monk Vivekananda challenges every human being:

“Do you know how much power, strength and greatness lies hidden within you? Man has only revealed an infinitely small part of his real power. Anyone who thinks he is small and weak is mistaken. Do you know everything that lies within you? Within you are unlimited power and bliss. Within you lives the world spirit, whose inner word is the only one you should listen to. Recognise who you really are, the all-knowing … soul that is not subject to death. Remind yourself of this truth day and night until it has become a part of your life and determines your thoughts and actions. Remember that you … are not the sleeping everyday person. Awaken and arise … and reveal your divine nature.”

It goes without saying that such a call has never been made from a Christian pulpit, nor can it ever be. For it would immediately cause the house of cards that is the doctrine of Jesus as the only Son of God to collapse — along with the unconscious downgrading of other great prophets such as Moses, Buddha, Mohammed, Zarathustra, Krishna, Nanak, and Lao Tzu.

However, as long as the self-knowledge of each individual in relation to himself as a divine image is missing, the lower animalistic behaviour characterised by self-preservation dominates. This is precisely the reason why the self-centred person can fall ill, have desires and fears, lie, cheat, torture and kill.

Lower ego and higher ego

The Nazarene’s statement ‘I (?) am the way, the truth and the life’ (John 14:6) can certainly not refer to the half that knows of itself: ‘I (?) can of myself do nothing ’ (John 5:30): For ‘it is the Father in me who does the works ’ (Jn.14:10). The material I, who can do ‘nothing of myself ’, could not be the part of the Nazarene that embodies and brings about truth and life. Due to the lack of clarity about the divine part of our identity, the word ‘I’ was mostly used to refer to the material side of the Nazarene, to his person, although he himself testified in various places that he was not to be respected as this person, as an external human being, as a glove, as a ‘little I’:

‘If I (!) testify of myself, my testimony is not true.’
‘God does not look at the person.’
‘A person sees what is before his eyes, but the Lord looks at the heart.’

Furthermore, he only uses the term ‘Son of Man’ when making statements about himself as a person.

The ‘I’ as path and truth could therefore not be the material I of the person of the carpenter and rabbi, i.e. by no means the small I, the self-preserving half of the person in the form of the instinctive soul. It had to be the divine soul in him, the other part, the immaterial, the mighty high I from Ex. 3, in which God names himself. (‘I am who I am’), the Christ in man. (It is that instance, the inner voice, which the Quakers call the ‘Inner Light’). The Nazarene thus refers his utterances at one time to the material part of his soul, at another time to his divine part; he does not emphasise – exceptions see above – whether he means the ‘lower’ part of his soul or the ‘upper’ part.

He continues: ‘You will recognise the truth, and the truth will set you free.’ He does not say ‘I’ will set you free! Jesus also never said that hewas God, he emphasised that he had him in himself.

From the very beginning, the churches have used this saying to mean that Jesus is the only person who embodies this way and this truth. This is not only contradicted by a number of his own statements:

‘The kingdom of God is within you.’
‘He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.’

Jesus was indeed the great beacon of Christianity, but by no means the only one valid worldwide. His teaching of human self-knowledge in relation to the divine part with forgiveness and love of enemies can also be easily found in the Hindu original texts of the Vedas, especially in the Bhagavad Gita: ‘I dwell in everyone’s heart.’ (XV,15) The Islamic mystic Ibn Arabi comments on a saying by Mohammed with the same substance: ‘He who knows himself knows his Lord.’ ‘Look within, you are the Buddha’ is attributed to Siddha Yoga. The same content can be found in the ancient Chinese Tao Te King (Daodejing): ‘He who, striving for clarity, looks within, arrives at … truth.’ (10)

Because the ‘breath of Godisbreathed intoman’ (Gen. 2:7), it is true for everyone that the I in him is ‘the way, the truth and the life’, regardless of how strongly this inner light is either unfolded or blocked. Jesus expresses this polarity of man, on the one hand the animal, on the other hand the spiritual man, by saying about himself: ‘Of myself [material person] I can do nothing’, ‘ the Father in me [spiritual intuition] does the works’. (John 5:30; 14:10).

The concept of the soul has given rise to countless interpretations with the corresponding confusion (see Wikipedia). Goethe’s choice of words about the two souls in the breast brings simplicity and clarity, but insight can ultimately only ever be confirmed by practical life; and anyone who ‘always strives ’ (Faust II: Mountain Gorges) can recognise these differences for themselves if they learn to distinguish between fantasies of fear, retaliation and anger on the one hand and first thoughts, ideas and gut feelings – seen with the ‘heart’ – on the other, especially with regard to the results.

Human consciousness, unlike that of the lion, is a bridge between spirit and matter, two-faced between intuition and logic, between divine and animal heritage, between idea (Plato) and reason, between the ‘inner man’ (St Paul, Ephesians 3:16) and the outer person (‘son of man’). Intuition corresponds to the sunbeam of the sun, which provides people with light (knowledge) and warmth (love). The mixer, the human consciousness with the mind as an instrument for both impulses, decides which inspirations it follows, whereby ‘decisions’ are also to be understood as unconscious behaviour.

Jesus always tried to divert attention from his person through his inner intuitive lifestyle, the ‘Father in me’ : ‘Why do you call me good, no one is good but God!’ (Mt. 19, 17) In this way, he expresses the difference between the two instances in man; as a person, he turns to his inner God with his material consciousness (Mt. 26, 39 ff.). His existence was already expressed in the Gita five hundred years before the Gospel.

The churches avoid teaching the direct individual access of each individual to his divine soul, the path of all spiritual seekers. The churches also suppress other statements from the Gospels, labelling them ‘mistranslated’ or attempting to reinterpret them:

‘I live, yet not I, but the Christ lives in me.’
‘Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you.’

The reason is obvious: if they were to recognise that this perfect self is in every human being, they would lose their monopoly on being the authorised representative for access to God and lose most of their social power in one fell swoop. Therefore, for them Jesus should be the only Son of God(sole; quant.). Of course, it is then annoying for them: ‘You are all gods.’ (John 10:34) Their interpretation of his uniqueness(exceptional; qual.) as the only one, as with Buddha, Krishna, Mohammed, Moses or Lao Tse, distracts from the fact that every human being is unique, but that an outstanding special case is therefore not unique. In this way, they successfully distract from the divine potential in every human being, no matter how barricaded it may be in a completely empathy-free murderer, for example. The interpretation of the One and Only in contrast to the great prophets of all other religions is intended to divert attention away from spiritual enlightenment through other wisdom teachings as well as from situational guidance through one’s own intuition. However, Johanna shows that this is what matters; she makes it clear that the path to spiritual enlightenment is individual and, as in her case, works without a church or priesthood:

“I do believe that the militant church cannot err or lack. But I hand over and leave my words and deeds to God alone, who told me to do what I did.” (In: DIE ZEIT, No. 2, 5 January 2012).

The churches direct attention outwards to the person, not only away from the guidance of their own inner voice, but also away from the statement: ‘He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world!’ (1 John 4:4), as Paul clearly notes. That is why it is so important for them to take on board Jesus’ admonitions on the subject of ‘Know thyself’, such as ‘You are all gods!’ (Ps. 82:6; Isa. 41:23; John 10:34) ‘and will do even greater things than I’ (John 14:12).

This is why Christian organisations used to immediately execute anyone who claimed to have a kind of divine spark – the ‘inner light’ – i.e. as someone who had recognised their spiritual identity in addition to their earthly identity, such as Al-Halladsch, Joan of Arc or, remotely similar, the Cathars and, of course, Jesus. In this respect, it is important for them to avoid the association of ‘inner light ’ and ‘seeing well only with the heart ’ with that of ‘even greater works ’.

Any emphasis on the personal characteristics from Jesus’ career is not desired by the churches:
– His going crazy in front of the temple with overturning the tables of the money changers,
– his agonising between ‘above’ and ‘below’ in the Garden of Gethsemane,
– his seemingly still existing doubts on the cross: “Why have you forsaken me?
forsaken me?”

Rather, it is always about emphasising his sonship with God, although Jesus himself avoided this wherever possible (‘Why do you call me good? No one is good except the one God!’ Mt 18:19).

The anger of Scottish Presbyterians towards the Quakers can be seen in the following outburst: ‘Cursed be all they that say any man hath a light sufficient to lead to Christ’ (Paul Held: The Quaker George Fox. Ch. 10)

For the churches, it has been very easy to maintain this special kind of (non-)personality cult as a means of power until today, because the awareness of one’s own likeness is not so easy to achieve. And as Meister Eckhart, who says about Jesus (Wikipedia) that his

“…human nature is… no different from that of any other human being, … an unrivalled model, but by nature no different in principle from other human beings. In principle, everyone is capable of realising and accomplishing what Christ realised and accomplished” ,

he was cursed with the papal curse. Today, the churches no longer have the curse, at most the withdrawal of the church’s teaching authorisation as with the reformer Hans Küng; but any teaching that ‘everyone has an inner light for spiritual self-knowledge’ would still be poison for them. This is all the more true because this personal-spiritual self-knowledge is the decisive access to the spiritual realisation of all other people (love of enemies: Mt 5:43).

No other religion has come up with the idea of exalting its great prophets such as Buddha, Mohammed, Moses, Lao Tzu or Krishna in such a way, let alone declaring them to be the only ones in the world and thus devaluing other religions: ‘Seek first the kingdom of God, and all things will be added unto you.’ The churches would have to explain to people what is meant by seeking, how it is practised and what the results must look like (see chapters 8 ff.), and not always after death, but in the here and now. Above all, they would have to show and prove in practice what the consequences of the pursuit look like. But theology already stops at the understanding of the term ‘kingdom of God’ because it limits the ‘Father in me’ to Jesus and does not recognise the inner guidance, the intuition, the ‘Christ in me’ as this very concrete and very effective kingdom.

It cannot be repeated often enough that it is not the ecclesiastical persons who are the agents, but the ego programme of the soul of self-preservation, which is no less effective in them than in all other people and which Hindu wisdom calls Maya, the goddess of concealment.

Although Jesus emphasised all the characteristics of likeness (Gen. 1:27), i.e. the filiation of all people with God, the churches want a god somewhere up there to solve the problems; literature, sermons and the internet are full of these views:

– ‘Lord, make haste to help me!’
– ‘Jesus – the problem solver.’
– ‘Jesus Christ – the solution to the problems of our lives.’
– ‘Jesus is more than a solution to problems.’

However, the wisdom of all religions, especially our own experiences in everyday life, show that the solutions to all illnesses and other everyday problems are within us: ‘It is I, the Lord, who am your physician’, Ex. 15:26) by which is meant our inner spiritual identity, the Son of God, the inner voice, the gut feeling. They teach that we should ‘look within’ and consciously use our ability to open the floodgates in order to release our individual spiritual guidance in relation to solving material problems. They show the ways to the solution and prove themselves through their successes.

Everyone knows the two inner voices, the higher one as gut feeling, idea, intuition, flash of inspiration etc., the negative, corrosive one as fear, inferiority complex, arrogance, despondency etc., which then express themselves as negative emotions. However, most people are not aware of the possibility of being able to consistently switch off the barrage of negativity and its intrusion into their consciousness. There is also a general lack of clarity about why this barrage exists in human life in the first place (see Chapter 13) and that it exerts a decisive influence on our life’s destiny. This is why George Bernard Shaw’s bon mot is so apt: ‘Man is the only creature that has a bad opinion of himself.’ (For the fact that this fatal self-assessment is the decisive tool for overcoming it, see chapter 13).

This applies first of all to the destructive effect of the behavioural programmes from ‘below’, which express themselves as mistrust, hatred, arrogance, inferiority complex, anger, etc.. But it also concerns the possibilities of following the impulses that are opened up from ‘above’, i.e. through the dialogue with the inner spiritual (!) voice, which are difficult to implement at first. True self-knowledge of the divine being in the individual breaks through when we know what to do and when we (can) follow the guidance that says: ‘Thy will be done!’ (It speaks volumes that the usual abstruse emphasis in worship is: ‘Thy will be done!’ This ultimately happens anyway. Above all, the emphasis on your will would be a disaster for the human ego.

The prerequisite for the fundamental solution to all our problems is that we increasingly acquire the ability to recognise our will, which, as Tolstoy said above, ‘seeks only its own good’, as such and to put it aside in favour of the will of the inner spiritual voice. If we then find more and more ‘our own good in the good of others’, then our crises in living together in marriage or family, with unaffordable housing or even crises such as job loss or abortion will collapse. Then the spiritual forces unfold their effect, as such examples from everyday spiritual life practice show. (For information on how spiritual living can lead us through existential emergencies (‘as if by a miracle’), see the relevant chapters).

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

I and self

In the Christian New Testament, the spiritual core of man is expressed in the temptations in the desert (e.g. Mt 4:9). There, the tempter wants to extinguish all spiritual awareness of inner sonship with God through the temptation to worship only him, i.e. matter, the life of the good/evil world with all possible material glories. It is precisely this temptation that people are following more than ever. A current term for this is ‘secularisation’. One major reason for this is, of course, that the churches have failed to prove their practicability and effectiveness, neither in terms of overcoming evil nor in terms of liberation from suffering (see chapter 13)

However, those who have overcome the sacrifice of ego crucifixion usually lead a new life in safety, a loving environment and material prosperity – in the eye of the hurricane, so to speak. He has left the level of the good-evil world. We can already see this in Job (verse 42), but above all in the published life stories of such beacons as Mandela, Gandhi, N. D. Walsch or Eckhart Tolle. The principle is, through the ascent into the spiritual dimension, through the return of the Prodigal Son (Lk. 15, 11 ff.), to be able to lead the remaining time of life without material good and without material evil, on the spiritual level of only good within the material environment.

The tempter (Maya, instinct of self-preservation, devil in the desert, Mephisto), on the other hand, wants to reduce man to his shell. He wants to address himself exclusively to the small ego and distract from the incarnated (or born-into) Son of God, the High Ego. It is his only task to ensure that people do not get the idea of recognising the principle of the spirit behind the surface of the material surface, the principle of divine life in all people, that of the hand in the glove.

“It is not you who live,
for the creature is dead. The life that is in you makes you live, is God.”
(Angelus Silesius: Cherubinischer Wandermann II, 207)

Instinctual soul and spiritual soul

Of the two souls that dwell ‘alas, in my breast’, one is the animal instinct soul (psyche), which expresses itself in the instinct of self-preservation. It controls my life by eating, drinking, reproducing, fighting for my livelihood, defending my territory, driving away competitors, raising my offspring and resting. Our domestic cat also has all these characteristics. Only our higher level of consciousness with the associated ability to reach the spiritual dimension distinguishes our mammalian constitution from it. The other soul, the spirit soul, wants to nourish, protect, guide and develop us vertically. When it is consciously recognised, there is no (!) material lack and comprehensive protection. For anyone who has experienced this many times, such as falling off a ladder, being rescued after misjudging an overtaking manoeuvre, etc., these events are no longer coincidences.

After sport, I drive home in the evening in deep darkness and pouring rain. On a sloping road, I take the sharp left-hand bend that I know well. I turn the steering wheel to the left, but because the road is wet with rain, the back of the car swerves to the right. I jerk the steering wheel to the right, causing the car to swerve to the rear left. It then hits a young birch tree in the middle, shaves it off, spins around its longitudinal axis in the air, flies over the deep ditch to the right of the road and lands softly in the recently ploughed field, four metres from the edge of the road at right angles to the direction of travel on all four wheels. I am completely unharmed. After a few moments of trying to realise what has just happened, I get out of the car, get my sports bag out of the boot in the pattering rain, sink up to my ankles in the soft clod of earth, stomp towards the road, lower myself into the ditch, crawl up the ditch wall on all fours to the edge of the road. At that moment, I see headlights coming towards me. The car stops, it’s a police patrol car. The officers take me in, ask what happened and drive me home.

By recognising our spiritual soul, we become an inexhaustible stream of abundance for ourselves and our surroundings. The proof of this is the concrete experience that anyone can have who opens themselves to it, who ‘knocks’ and (!) receives an answer. The effect of the spirit soul only unfolds where it is recognised as a presence and at some point physically (!) perceived. When I have consciously entered into a dialogue with question and answer in this way, I have fullness and fulfilment. Then I no longer live by myself, but am essentially lived by my higher soul, which is a horrible idea for the ego in man; moreover, the usual view of ‘finally being able to do what I want ’ is unconscious self-deception anyway, because it is the illusion of a person ‘s self-determined behaviour, although it is nothing other than external control by the instinct for self-preservation.

The dialogue with our highest self cannot be established voluntarily and certainly cannot be earned. What we can do, however, is to build up the willingness to receive through meditation, i.e. to turn our gaze outwards and start the journey of consciousness inwards. The spirit soul is constantly knocking quietly to make itself heard, but most people are so caught up in the worldly dimension that they do not seek it at all, nor do they hear it – with the exception of some people’s ‘gut feeling’ – and certainly do not listen to it. As a result, they live in a world of scarcity, chance, unpredictability and fear.

“Stop, where are you going?
the sky is within you; you seek God elsewhere, you miss him for and for.”
(Cherubic Wanderer I, 82)

The belief that we are separated from our spiritual power, or the ignorance that this inner voice exists at all, is the cause of all our problems without exception, of every deficiency. Those who do not know that they are above all divine in nature are subject to the suffering and lack of the valley of tears, although it would only be one step – albeit a big one – towards complete self-knowledge. Every moment of worry is a demonstration of mistrust towards my inner voice. Even when we look “up” – as many footballers do before they cross themselves and then enter the pitch – we have created separation in that moment.

The solution is to look inwards and become aware of the presence of our spiritual identity. Then we take a giant step towards unity, or at least union, like ink with a piece of chalk. Although the example is flawed because the ink also belongs to matter and not to the spiritual dimension, it clearly shows how much the activated divine influence changes the animal part. Then the aforementioned consciousness that Jesus refers to grows: ‘You are all gods and children of the Most High.’ Then our lives change as long as we approach all things in everyday life with this awareness.

Nothing has to come to us, everything has to come from us so that freedom from suffering and abundance flow. Then (Isaiah 45) all obstacles will be levelled. This is the sensory-practical experience of all people who are cared for and protected in their everyday lives because they are guided in dialogue with their inner voice on a daily basis, because they allow themselves to be guided. When we ask our soul power for guidance, it provides, protects, guides and elevates us. To do this, we go into silence, into meditative contemplation, so that the cries of fear, anger and hatred of the small ego become quiet and our High Ego becomes conscious, audible and effective.

The search for my spiritual soul is the path to true self-knowledge and self-realisation and at the same time to individual happiness in the here and now. Those who recognise it have life and full satisfaction. Then we are no longer responsible for our livelihood, just as the children of a loving father are not. That is his task. This does not mean that it is no longer necessary for us to work, but that we no longer have to fight for it. We simply ‘only’ do the things that come our way, even if this means considerable, sometimes tremendous effort. We no longer have to labour in the ‘sweat of our brow’ for our income, but we inherit. We are then no longer dependent on earthly conditions, but truly free. This freedom means liberation from causalities and development towards perfection. This is the reason why Jesus emphasises the goal of creation: ‘You shall be perfect’ (Mt 5:48).

The term perfection basically refers to a state that (see Plato) cannot change or improve any further. As there is nothing on the material level that is not capable of further development, a state of perfection is inevitably independent of time, which is described in several wisdom texts with the adjective ‘eternal’. This refers to the spiritual level. Precisely this development is that of the Prodigal Son, the structure of which can be found in many religions, sagas, fairy tales, legends, novels, etc.

It consists of the three steps of the whole life:

1) Birth in matter with abstinence from spiritual consciousness, but taking along the ‘inheritance’, the spirit soul (!). Then a fall into suffering with poverty, illness, separation, isolation and complete earthly forlornness.

2) Then the phase in the ‘whale’s belly’ (Jonah), which can coincide with the beginning of the spiritual dialogue. It is the ‘dark night of the soul’ (John of the Cross), the deepest depression, the absolute hopelessness and at the same time the turning point, the letting go (actively) of previous earthly dependencies. Above all, however, there is the passive experience of the deletion of all expectations, fears, retributions, plans, worries, desires, fears and other earthly contents of consciousness, all this in favour of far-reaching liberation from them and complete serenity in terms of security, protection and provision through spiritual upliftment: ‘Whoever loses his life [ego] for my sake will find it!’ (Mt 16:25)

3) Return and further ascent into spiritual consciousness, promoted by freedom from fear, security, protection, provision and comprehensive love and harmony of life.

This sequence can be found in Jonah, who is thrown into the sea, swallowed by the whale, who ‘cried out to God’ in its bowels and is then saved after three days. His ascent into spiritual consciousness is shown by the fact that he begins to preach.

The same applies to Little Red Riding Hood, who ‘goes astray’, is devoured by the wolf and is then freed and saved unharmed.

It can also be seen in Jesus that his earthly torments of the material ego level lead to the burial cave and then to leaving the vale of tears and thus to liberation from the good/evil level. Job has the same fate, whose material suffering shows the futility of formal faith (“I had heard of you … ‘), who then humbles himself, thus defeating his ego (chapter 42), thus finding the spiritual direct dialogue (’the Lord answered‘) and then experiences his enlightenment (’now my eye has seen you“), whereupon he is redeemed from his pain, completes his resurrection on a spiritual basis and reaps its rich fruits; in Job’s case, it also takes terrible suffering in the material world before he awakens with the spiritual dialogue. A modern choice of words for this achieved dialogue is, for example, that of N. D. Walsch: ‘Conversations with God.’

The path of Parzival also shows man’s path to perfection: first he has to go through the disaster of his compassionlessness before King Amfortas, before only then does he reach spiritual kingship. This is made clear by his example as well as those of many others, especially Jesus and, for example, Joan of Arc, who, as already mentioned, only allowed herself to be guided by her intuition.

Odysseus also undergoes the development to spiritual maturity with the three-step process. Clinging to a beam, he drifts in the raging hurricane and is then asked by the sea goddess to let go, thereby giving up the very last straw of his material existence: ‘Jump!’ He then drifts for three days in the raging waters and is finally washed up on the shore of his ‘home’. Although he has to fight through further serious conflicts, he now does so with spiritual awareness and thus to ultimate victory.

The same pattern can be found in the survival of Joseph in the cistern, in the liberation of Snow White from the glass coffin or in the ancient Egyptian tale of Osiris:

Public domain: Osiris-nepra.jpg Copy (The stalks of wheat symbolise the resurrection.)

In the ego-self-sacrifice of the northern European creator god Odin (Wotan), he wounds himself with a spear and hangs himself upside down from the world tree; but here it is nine days until he ‘findstherunes’, the spiritual vision and knowledge, the spiritual dialogue (In Job: ‘Now I have seen you.’); Odin ‘cries out’ and begins to ‘thrive spiritually .’

The Eskimo hero Raven carries out his self-destruction, i.e. his ego annihilation, by asking the giant whale to open its mouth wide and jumping in by itself. However, he does not do this without taking his fire drill with him, which he uses this time to cut himself out of the monster after four days (Campbell: pp. 92, 200).

We see the same thing with Heracles, who throws himself into the mouth of the whale to save Hesione, cuts himself out of this kind of burial cave and thus achieves victory over matter.

Above all, it is the modern Enlightenment thinkers who take these steps in the experience of the Prodigal Son with a fall into the disaster of material life, the vale of tears. In Walsch’s biography, however, it is not three days, but a year that he spends as a homeless man on a park bench, so to speak, before his ‘Conversations with God’ are opened to him.

Exceptions with seemingly disastrous endings, such as Joan of Arc, are rare. This also applies to Goethe’s Faust, in which the path of the Prodigal Son is only shown as far as the pile of broken glass (Faust I), but then ultimately also the final goal of perfection at the end of Faust II, in which the angels rescue Faust’s soul, which he had signed over to the devil: ‘Abduct Faust’s immortal.’ (Chapter Entombment)

Just about everyone on the spiritual path experiences the described sequence of experiences in which, through some kind of wreckage of material existence, they then learn to follow the guidance of the inner voice via the annihilation of their own ego ‘in the belly of the whale’ and thus the realisation of ‘Thy will be done.’

Like Buddha, Mohammed, Zarathustra, Mahavira, Krishna, Nanak or Laozi, Jesus demonstrated the principle of ego extinction and the steps to be taken (Sermon on the Mount). He pointed to self-knowledge as a divine being and also demonstrated through his concrete behaviour how nafs, the instinct of self-preservation, the ego, can be broken through devotion to ‘preferential love’ and the practice of love for all (‘As I loveyou’).

This development towards perfection was fought to the death by the churches in the Middle Ages, and even today they are consistently silent about spiritual self-knowledge and perfection. Some of their main tasks would be to show how people can fulfil the requirement to be perfect, what ‘striving’ looks like, what prerequisites are needed for this and what dead ends exist, such as formal blind faith.

Identifying with our High Ego is so difficult because we are completely unaccustomed to trusting and surrendering to an invisible entity. Rather, we believe that we are actually responsible for our life and possibly its destiny ‘ourselves’ as a person, although we are ‘only’ performers. It is also difficult to identify with our intuition because we are used to the powers of the external world from an early age. And finally, we have not even been made aware of their individual (!) existence. Although, everyone should know better that there is more than body, feelings and mind, namely our spirit soul, colloquially known as our gut feeling or conscience.

Our greatest enemy in life is the false concept of the ego, i.e. of me as a merely material person, which means that the more important other half of our holistic self-knowledge is missing. This view, which the churches have preached over the millennia, is a simplification of our mammalian half, a complete lack of understanding of the statement that we are created in the image of the Creator, which ultimately amounts to an insult to the Creator. Despite their expulsion from paradise, Adam and Eve did not lose their image and likeness status. In this respect, the first goal of life remains the attainment of contact with our higher consciousness, which reaches far beyond the earthly. Then the prince (our spiritual consciousness through a flipped ‘mixer lever’) has successfully made his way through the hedge of thorns (vale of tears, herd of pigs) to Sleeping Beauty (to intuitive guidance).

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Comments

Eva says:

That’s nice to have these facts described from so many different sources.

At the same time, I get the impression that the two sides are valued differently. The instinctual side is the evil one, and the one that rises to the ‘realms of high ancestors’ is the good one. But what would God do without the material, instinctive side? I reckon he would soon be pretty bored in his eternal peace, he wouldn’t be able to meet himself in the other and would probably soon be longing for the next big bang.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

jlang says:

You’ll find the answer in chapter 3. The drive side is there to drive us to the spirit side. It is the ‘evil’ part that … always creates the good. In this respect, there is nothing evil in creation, which is ‘very good’ (Gen. 1:31). The only evil is what humans do to themselves and the planet. The reason is misunderstood self-preservation. But more on this later orally.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Kerrysek says:

Браво, мне кажется это отличная мысль

ИндивидуальныеПЭТ-Формы | https://novopet.ru/

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Eva says:

Dear Jürgen,

Your comments are very interesting. The many quotes impress me, you must be very well read! And they largely coincide with my IFS model, the work with the inner parts, the inner family. However, I wouldn’t agree with Meister Eckhart when he says that the inner person is the good one and the outer person is the bad one. There is a lot of good on the outside too!

I don’t like the black and white division between good and evil, because experience shows that good also produces evil and vice versa. And it always depends on your point of view: For the tiger, catching its prey is a good thing, for the gazelle it’s more evil.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Claudia says:

I was very touched by this article, thank you very much for it and I would love to read more.

Kind regards

Claudia

___________________________________________________________________________________________

jlang says:

Hello Claudia, thank you very much for your kind comment. In fact, my daily experience is still and now more than ever that with every disturbance, with every problem, with every open question, I immediately go into the consciousness of likeness and then receive the solution, not always immediately, but always correctly (which then turns out to be the case).

Would you like more? You can have that, either a deepening of the statements on my website (these are, of course, strong abbreviations of the respective topics and also represent only about half of the overall concept) or answers to specific questions on your part.

Go ahead!

Greetings from the rainy Harz Mountains.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Claudia says:

Hello Mr Lang,

I found your blog in search of help‘ what is still important to me and how do I want to live my life in the future?’ Like you, I have been through some bad things and am now trying to give my life a different direction and am focussing on what I have always had. A strong sense of construction and a penchant for the spiritual.

I find your blog extremely interesting and, above all, very complex.

I still have a long way to go, but I look forward to every new page that you describe in your entries.

Thank you very much for that!

VG from the Baltic Sea, which is raining today.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Eva says:

I wonder whether more and more people are actually awakening to this knowledge and whether the brutality of this world could change for the better as a result. I wish it could, but I can’t quite believe it, as I haven’t noticed any development in this direction since I’ve been in the world. I rather have the impression that things are getting more and more cruel. But maybe that’s only due to the one-sided news that you get pressed into your ears every day.

To the description above: In this description, the animals come across as very unenlightened, as lowly creatures.

When I watch my dog, I sometimes think that he can meditate much better than I can. Or a tree, for example! Who told you that it doesn’t meditate? And is possibly far more advanced in this discipline than humans? Huh?

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Eva says:

This is really very coherently explained and supported by many scriptures from around the world. What a difference single little words can make in interpretation if they are ignored!

Thank you for this impressive collection!

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Nata says:

Yes Jesus totally the wise God,wow, clearly that was his High I, he was talking to himself and then asked himself on the cross why he was hanging out there looking so beautiful. Why have you left me? Oh let the cup pass over! Do you want another way for me! Ohhhh chalice did not move x) . Wow how wise Jesus was, and his high ME, even today I still recognise him in the sweet TüTü.

Wow what a great soul plan and how wise his I was. It’s just funny that he was completely different and stupid and didn’t even understand his high I x) ‘why did you leave me?’ Waruuummmmm help me high ME, I am so stupid without you, but you are me?

Then why don’t I know how beautiful I am on the cross x).

So sarcasm.

If all people have a high ME, I’ll eat a broom.

It’s more likely that many are descended from disturbed apes, and the rest from something cooler. No, not everyone has a high I, and if they do it’s dead x) as stupid as they are x) IDIOTIC.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

RodneySlido says:

Прибарахлился: поменял взгляды на вещи.

https://www.threexvideo.com/super-hot-snapchat-couple-snapchat-username-sofia-kaylala/ | https://www.threexvideo.com/

___________________________________________________________________________________________

MarcusEcotT says:

Только настоящий друг может терпеть слабости своего друга.

—

ценавоенный билет | https://g0g0.net/

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Eva says:

I still have my difficulties there.

It would mean total surrender, and my control part is reluctant to go along with that. It feels responsible for ensuring that my earthly manifestation can live as long and pleasantly as possible. But the higher self may have other plans or none at all, everything flows somehow, influenced by billions of things that work together, such as a butterfly flapping its wings in China, and I live well or badly or I get infected by a virus and die. Accepting all this with the stoic devotion of a samurai is really asking a lot.

But it is probably the only salvation from the psychological vale of tears and the pain that only resistance to what is creates. So I will continue to practise bowing in humility before the great God who dwells within me and of whom I am also a part.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

jlang says:

The spiritual path is comparable to that of a soldier. The soldier receives everything from his employer: food, clothing, accommodation, a responsible job and everything else he needs. This also includes a partner, family life, friends, rest periods, etc. In return, he has only one thing to do: obedience, i.e. complete devotion to his spiritual leadership.

The only exception in this parallel is that he not only risks his life in the fulfilment of his orders, but surrenders it in every case; this does not refer to physical life, but to the animal part, the ego programme.

Translated by software