“Two souls dwell, alas, in my breast’ (Faust I)
The path to giving meaning to human life stands and falls with the realization of what a human being is. What is their 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 at Delphi, where the prophetess Pythia prophesied the fate of those who sought her counsel, reads: “Know thyself” (“Gnothi se auton”). And she clarified this with a further admonition: Sophrosyne, moderation. This calls on people to control their typical thoughts of fear, desire, and anger (see social media). In this way, they can embark on the path to liberation from suffering.
At the beginning of human development, people were dominated by their material understanding of being imperfect beings. But even in ancient Greece, humans were characterized as beings with a divine core (e.g., by Plotinus). Later, the Church Father Augustine also took up the divine likeness from the story of creation. But Christianity then regarded all attempts at such a positive spiritual self-interpretation as presumptuousness: it emphasized an original distance between creator and creature – with the exception of Jesus, of course – and has maintained this to this day (exception: theoretical “deification” in the orthodoxy of the Greek Church Fathers: Theodosius).
Through the churches of the Middle Ages and the lostness of the individual in modern times, the search for self-knowledge seems to have been largely lost. Accordingly, people have also given up trying to achieve the associated freedom from human suffering in the here and now, even though it is exhorted in all wisdom writings, from Judaism to Hinduism, Islam, and Daoism—and, of course, with a particular emphasis in Buddhism: “The Four Noble Truths about the cessation of suffering.”
Christianity has relegated this question to the afterlife and resigned itself to the seemingly self-evident existence of suffering. In addition, the Church attempts to combat it in practice, 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 realizes his higher destiny. This life is characterized by the practical (!) truth of the following concrete experiences: “Though a thousand fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, it will not come near 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 to strive for and how to lead my life successfully. Jesus describes this flowerily with the phrase ”… they shall inherit the earth.“
Today, we find the theme of self-knowledge in a wide variety of areas of human culture:
Literature:
“As in every human being, two people lived in Nechljudov: the moral person who sought his good in the good of others, and the animalistic person who sought only his own good and was willing to sacrifice the whole world for this good…”
(Leo N. Tolstoy: Resurrection; Volume I, Chapter 14)
Painting:
In his painting “The Drowned Boy,” Norwegian artist Edvard Munch depicts a light and a dark male figure walking side by side, representing the two sides of the same person, struggling to control this human being. The artist himself comments as follows:
“The division (!) of the soul, … like two birds tied together, each striving in its own direction … a terrible struggle in the cage of the soul.”
(Munch Museum, Oslo 2007)
Philosophy:
Arthur Schopenhauer, when asked who he was: “The human being is in the heart, not in the head. We are accustomed to … considering the familiar ‘I’ as our true self. … But this is merely a function of the brain and not our true self, … which remains intact when the ‘I’ perishes in death. “
Islam:
The Sufi mystic Ibn Arabi wrote in the 13th century:
”Know this: human nature consists of the spirit soul (ruch) … and the instinctive soul (nafs) (The Wisdom of the Prophets II, Chapter Junus)
Hinduism:
The holy book of the Hindus, the Bhagavad Gita, describes human beings as follows:
“All beings are twofold in nature; partly divine, partly lower nature.” (XVI,6).
In addition, the Gita says the following about the upper part of the human soul, the spiritual soul (lower part: instinctual soul of animalistic self-preservation):
“I am the God, the eternal Self, which dwells within every being. … (X,20)
Christianity:
The important Christian theologian of the High Middle Ages, the Dominican priest Meister Eckhart, writes:
“The soul has two faces: the upper one always looks at God, and the lower one looks down and directs the senses.” (Sermon 49)
“It is also clearly evident that human beings have two natures within themselves, body and spirit. … There is an outer human being and another, inner human being.” (On the Noble Human Being)
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 [spiritual soul] will” (39);
“The spirit is willing, but the flesh [instinctual soul, self-preservation] is weak” (41).
The evangelist John has the Nazarene say the following:
“I can do nothing of myself.” (5:30) ;
“The Father in me, he does the works” (14:10).
In the 17th century, the Silesian mystic Angelus Silesius wrote:
“Two people are in me:
One wants what God wants,
the other what the world, the devil and death want.”
(Cherubic Wanderer V, 120)
The vernacular:
It speaks crudely but aptly of the “inner pig” as the counterpart to the “conscience” with its typical admonitions, 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 “clay,” on the other hand from the spiritual “breath of God,” the immaterial transcendent dimension (Genesis 2:7). This duality is symbolized by Cain and Abel (Gen. 4: 1-16, as well as in the Koran in Sura 5, 27 ff.)
These and many other similar references first of all show the structure of the two parts of our soul life; some also mention the moral value. Although every human being is somehow aware of these opposing components of their inner life, they do not usually have conscious control over their functions. Rather, most people react automatically to “seek only their own good,” which — to give just one example — is indicated by 500,000 hit-and-run accidents per year.
The two parts of the soul consist, on the one hand, of the self-preservation instinct, the ego program in humans, the instinctual soul, which loves itself first and foremost and then, at most, its own environment; it is located on the material level of existence. The other part of the soul is love for all other people, intuition, the inner voice, “the father in me,” the spirit soul, gut feeling, conscience. The spirit soul, the “better soul” (Faust I, Study), is located on the spiritual level of human consciousness. It is the love program (see chapter 17) that refers not only to one’s own unconditional survival, but to that of all people. This is the (born) Son of God, who “seeks his good in the good of others.” Can it be expressed more aptly than Goethe, who has Faust say:
“Two souls dwell, alas! in my breast:
One clings to the world with clinging organs in coarse lust for love;
the other lifts itself violently from the * dust
to the realms of lofty ancestors.”
(Faust I. Before the Gate)
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* Nothingness (derived from dust)
Human software
It is the bridge between God (spirit) and matter (body) and it has two faces. In its duality, matter and spirit meet. Overcoming the barrier, the descent of the spirit soul to the earthly plane, interpreting between spirit and world, its physical experience primarily as an inner voice or gut feeling, and its physical effectiveness (“guardian angel”) is what Christianity calls the Holy Spirit.
Spiritual soul (nous):
Jesus’ choice of words: “Son of God”
Spiritual part of the soul (physically experiential), surviving, not mortal.
“Father in me,” Higher Self, Atman, “guardian angel.”
Its interpretive quality consists of intuition, remorse, “first thought,” gut feeling.
Three-way mixer (Biezl) https:/ commons.wikimedia.org/wiki
Instinctual 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), non-self (Buddhist). Worry, fear, anger, selfishness, striving for possessions, recognition and power; use of violence, instinctual impulses.
Mixing lever:
This distributor between the two levels of the soul is controlled on the one hand by “below,” by perceptions through the sensory organs—as well as feelings and reason—and the software of self-preservation; on the other hand, however, impulses also come from “above,” from gut feeling, from intuition, from ideas: “One sees clearly only with the heart.” (St. Exupéry: The Little Prince).
Puccini once remarked: “I don’t compose. I just 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, in 99% of people are almost always controlled by “below,” i.e., by the ego. In this respect, its “decisions” are largely unconscious and, above all, one-sided. Fundamentally, however, the power of decision between “above” and “below” is not lost, regardless of material and/or spiritual influence.
A classic example of this agony of choice, in which consciousness is caught between the animal soul (ego) and the spirit soul, is Jesus’ inner struggle in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:39): Out of fear for his existence, he is assailed from below, asking that “this cup may pass him by,” that is, torture and crucifixion; he is also exposed to the impulse from above, 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, one can calculate that, for example, in a village with 500 inhabitants, there should be at least five who base their actions on “Thy will be done.” (To do this, they would first have to know how to find out what Thy will is.)
The two identities of human beings
Recognizing the duality of the human soul is crucial to success in life. A comparison with animal life illustrates this: the lives of animals are controlled exclusively by the program of unconditional self-preservation: hunting, eating, resting, sleeping, reproducing, defending their territory against intruders, fighting against competitors. Animals have only this one behavioral control. They do not experience the conflict between good and evil, and consequently they have no free will for the purpose of discernment. Accordingly, members of a lion pride are unable to care for lions outside their own pride. And their way of life is at the expense of others. Animals live exclusively according to this program of survival; they cannot break out of it. For them, the meaning of their existence is their existence.
Humans also live according to this program. For 99% of them, the basic drive in their lives is also personal self-preservation, and if possible, as comfortably as possible. Thus, for most people, the unconscious meaning of their existence is their existence.
This is evident in the fact that they instinctively resist all impulses that describe humans as beings in development; they want to remain in their way of life. However, there are also many who affirm further development but consistently limit it to the earthly horizontal. And finally, there are people who “believe” but live out their formal religiosity only in the form of rituals and traditions, and after church they continue to lie and be jealous.
The reduction of the meaning of life to mere existence manifests itself in all kinds of forms, from “having fun” to the countless activities of purely material world improvement. However, although the material standard of living has improved enormously over the millennia, people have remained envious, egocentric, and jealous. They suffer endlessly from evil neighbors and mean superiors, from accidents, theft, robbery, rape, and murder, and on a collective level from pandemics with hundreds of thousands of victims, from terrorist attacks with knives, firearms, or trucks, and political and religious conflicts involving civil war or war. They suffer from every conceivable disease, 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 promise of salvation offered by technical and social—i.e., purely material—progress and do not even dream of the idea 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 program of the instinctual soul, to egocentricity, leads to a seemingly endless continuation of the life of good and evil, and thus also of fundamental suffering. The apparent prospect of “wanting to make the world a better place” 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 reason why this complete delusion continues to function in people’s minds is that individual improvements are often successful and thus overshadow the worsening of the overall situation (climate crisis and threat of war). It is an illusion that is refuted on a daily basis, yet it appears to be more than successful and is referred to in Hindu wisdom as Maya, the goddess of deception (see later chapter 23).
The showpiece of the ego program is so-called charity. People practice this love, as they call it, literally in relation to their immediate surroundings, to life partners, children, parents, relatives, neighbors, friends, and indirectly also to members of their own group and even their own people (Tolstoy, see above: preferential love). It has nothing to do with the other spiritual program of caring for all others and is worthless for human further and higher development. For it is nothing more than extended self-preservation, the individual benefits of which can be seen in any 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 one’s “neighbor” excludes love for strangers or enemies, especially due to racist prejudices, which stem from an unconscious fear of egocentric self-preservation: See the hundreds of cars driving past clearly visible — draped — accident victims on the side of the road, or the countless bank customers who want to get to the ATM and (surveillance camera) step over the unconscious person lying there, unmoved.
However, the only difference between humans and animals is that humans have the aforementioned second program. It consists of caring for, devotion to, and preservation of all people: Its characteristic is to go beyond the scope of family, friendship, and clan, as well as that of the people. This is hinted at in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29 ff.). Jesus admonishes this much more clearly with his demand to love one’s enemies (Matthew 5:44). This program is that of true charity, which recognizes all people as — spiritual (!) — neighbors.
The animal does not have this second program. The reason is that man is the only being capable of development. Although animals can also achieve change in the sense of adaptation, this remains fundamentally on the horizontal, i.e., material level. They are not capable of developing to a higher, i.e., spiritual level.
This second program, which serves to preserve all other human beings, becomes clear, at least in its basic form, in the example of the Samaritan mentioned above — albeit still without an “enemy.” This stranger from Samaria—despised and degraded by his Israelite surroundings—rushes to the aid of a complete stranger, a helpless injured man on the side of the road, showing selfless devotion to strangers. This Samaritan humanity can be found in the term “ubuntu” from African cultures: “I am because you are. ” It goes far beyond the love for one’s emotional and physical neighbor described above, because it is neither individualistic nor competitive, but encompasses mutual dependence and connectedness of all (!) people — like the fingers on a hand. It shows the immediate insight that sustainable self-preservation of humans can only work through the preservation of all others. But practical realization is prevented by one’s own ego, even though there are enough practical examples, such as Mandela, Gandhi, or the many unnamed people who selflessly risk their lives for strangers, even enemies. They are lifesavers, priests, blood donors, military doctors, crisis workers, whistleblowers, etc. They follow the second program more or less consciously, although for quite a few of them, their commitment is motivated by a good dose of self-preservation in the sense of self-affirmation. But for most of them, the meaning they attach to it is higher than that of exclusive self-preservation.
As far as a mother’s care for her child is concerned, this is mainly done out of unconscious self-preservation in an extended form, see lion pride. But mothers, as well as rescuers and helpers in general, are already climbing the first rung of the ladder to karmic overcoming of egocentricity through their devotion. Nevertheless, they remain within the framework of the material world in terms of consciousness; there is still no higher connection to the spiritual destiny of human life in general (see chapter 10). In Christianity, this is referred to as “perfection” (Matthew 5:48); this refers to the true meaningg — and purpose — of existence, as described in all wisdom teachings. Whether you believe it or not, they have a meaning. And their central content is the turning toward other people “as toward oneself” (Matthew 19:19). This goes beyond preferential love – and always involves the sacrifice of ego components (see the following chapters): “Sacrifice [of egocentricity] is the law of the universe!” (Bhagavad Gita):
– Judaism, Leviticus 19:18:
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself…”.
– Islam, Koran, Sura 41:34:
“Repel evil with what is better, then the one with whom you live in enmity will
become like a close friend and helper.”
– Hinduism, Bhagavad Gita, XIII. Song:
“The spirit of life dwells in everyone’s heart…” (Verse 17)
“He who understands him as the one who dwells in all things does not revile his self in the other self. He thus walks the path to the heights.” (Verse 28)
– Buddhism, Dhammapada, Verse 5:
“In this world, enmity is never ended by enmity. By non-enmity, enmity ceases.”
– Taoism, TaoTeKing, Verse 49:
“The heart of the wise beats in all, therefore he is equally kind to the good and the bad.”
– Christianity, Matthew 5:44:
“Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you.”
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
However, the crucial addition “as yourself” is a foreign concept to 99% of people. For treating all other people as I treat myself is not possible at the level of exclusively material consciousness. Cain sends his regards. “As to oneself” presupposes a level of spiritual consciousness at which the beginning of forgiveness and the practice of loving one’s enemies is found. This means – not visible at first glance – the central factor of sacrifice. This is not primarily about giving money, energy, or time, but above all about not striking back, not worrying, giving only in secret (Matthew 6), and all the other demands contained in the Sermon on the Mount, for example. It is the surrender of negative thoughts and selfish will, the overcoming of ego-centeredness, the sacrifice of the ego.
For some people in certain fields of work, being there for others is nothing more than a job, but for many others it is a calling. It enables them to express their innate caring and devotion to others. But what a degree of understanding, consideration, security, care, and boundless forgiveness it requires to “love others 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 US. This involves a great deal of ego surrender, as demonstrated by great role models such as Gandhi, Buddha, Jesus, Martin Luther King, Mandela (forgiveness), Janusz Korczak, US Army medic Desmond Doss, Mother Teresa, and Malala, but also many “ordinary” citizens who have repeatedly paid for their devotion with their lives, such as Franz Jägerstätter (executed in 1943 for conscientious objection) or bank employee Arland Dean Williams Jr. (“Potomac Mystery Hero Identified”).
The level of universal 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 the recognition of the spiritual substance inherent in one’s own (!) self and that of all other human beings. It is about the aforementioned recognition of the “eternal self that dwells within every being,” which recognizes “its self in the other self”.
When Jesus uses the term “love your enemies,” it has nothing to do with the meaning of the word “love” as people use it in interpersonal relationships on the material level with sympathy and emotion. Rather, it is exclusively about the understanding of the spiritual unity of all people, similar to that of 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 this spiritual level, it is the insight into the common divine likeness in every human being:
“You are gods!” (John 10:34)
“God does not show partiality!” (Acts 10:34)
“Cease from man, who has but a breath in his nostrils!” (Isaiah 2:22)
“I can do nothing of myself; the Father who sent me does the works!” (John 5:19)
“There is no partiality with God!” (Acts 10:34)
“You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High!” (Ps. 82:6)
“He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world!” (1 John 4:4)
“You will do even greater things than I have done!” (John 14:12)
The understanding of shared 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 (the instinctive soul of self-preservation), but only to the spiritual part (see below). It is the insight 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 a misdeed remains in place 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 insight into the unity of one’s own divine part with that of one’s counterpart. It is the decisive step toward achieving the awareness of the unity of all being.
This level of “love” is essentially demonstrated in Christianity by Jesus’ way of life, in Buddhism by Siddhartha Gautama, but also much more concretely by Mahatma Gandhi, for example. However, it is foreign to the vast majority of people. The reason for this is the associated unconscious fear of endangering one’s own self-preservation. It would mean practically standing up for complete strangers, just as one would wish for oneself, i.e., for one’s own preservation, if one were in their place (Golden Rule).
However, all these passages are only quotations, more or less understandable. Ultimately, what matters is their effectiveness in everyday life. Those who begin to interact with the people around them—and beyond—at this level of consciousness experience miracle after miracle: their previous world of good and evil is increasingly transformed 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.
However, with regard to dealing with complete strangers, this does not mean opening the floodgates to uncontrolled immigration, which is a problem that is always relevant in modern times. On the contrary: because mass immigration, especially to existentially attractive areas, can quickly lead to overpopulation and the collapse of the whole, caring for impoverished strangers “as for ourselves” can only consist of a collective effort to ensure humane living conditions for the local population in their current places of residence – just as we would wish for ourselves if we were affected there. But people are currently (“first,” “above all”) far removed from such solidarity and global humanity.
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We come into the world with self-preservation, the unconditional instinct for survival, as a matter of course: it is a necessary basic program that enables us to overcome crises, find solutions, protect our children as they grow up, etc. But in the case of the aforementioned 99%, this basic program develops into egocentricity, which remains incomprehensibly driven by instinct within the described framework of animalistic, self-serving “charity.” . Humanity that goes beyond the framework of the self-centered environment is unconsciously blocked in humans by the program of self-preservation. With their egocentric behavior, these individuals are “only” obedient executors of the impulses of their instinctual soul. These impulses cause humans to behave “more animalistic 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 internal controls and also have no idea that they have the potential to flip the distribution lever is the reason for the enlightenment efforts of 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 completely.
Although people are generally unaware of true charity in the sense of the Golden Rule, they nevertheless find themselves in an equally unconscious conflict between ego and charity as a result of the unconsciously nagging spiritual program (conscience).
Literarily, Robert Louis Stevenson attempted to address the division of the human soul in his novella “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” even though he sees it only on the material horizontal plane and is unaware of the spiritual vertical.
As far as the dominance of egocentricity in humans is concerned—in contrast to intuition, to the inner voice—people have always tried to depict this animalistic force in art throughout the millennia, such as the prehistoric lion man of Hohlenstein, the ancient Greek Minotaur, or the centaurs.
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But it was not until the great wisdom texts of around 500 BC that the divine part of human beings began to be brought into consciousness. (Even more than 1000 years earlier, Gilgamesh and Zarathustra.)
Becoming aware of one’s divided soul means reducing one’s material part, that of the mammal, more and more and gradually activating one’s spiritual part. Buddhist wisdom calls this “recognizing both worlds” (Dhammapada XIX, 269). Paul calls this “daily dying.” By this he does not mean the biological decay of the body, the “hardware,” but rather the unfolding of the spirit soul, the software of the Son of God, through this reduction of the ego. In practice, this is usually initiated through meditation, which trains one to suppress the selfish and therefore always fear- and vengeance-filled whisperings. 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 behavior through service and self-sacrifice for others, with the focus on strangers. Self-sacrifice for one’s own partner or children is the horizon of the animal world and anyone can do it. It also has considerable significance in terms of solidarity on the earthly plane, but as mentioned above, it is worthless for the death of the ego.
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 humans appears in the term “demigod,” for example in Heracles. Very few people realize that this basically refers to every human being, even if this spiritual potential is often blocked, in many cases completely. However, demigods are primarily those who actually deal with their inner conflicts (egoism attacks, 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 to be a demigod or child of God because they possess the divine spark, whether they are aware of it or not. Everyone has the spiritual potential for self-knowledge and liberation: “You are gods and all children of the Most High.” (see above). This shows that spiritual development, transformation, enlightenment, or whatever one wants to call the attainment of a higher consciousness, is the very essence of human beings; no special talent is required for this.
Figure emerges from the cosmos. Bestdesigs. iStock 1099434540
But only a few have tried to make it clear to us that each and every one of us is unique, divine, and fascinating at our very core: “What good is it if I were king and did not know it?” (Meister Eckhart: Sermons 15)
Since the beginning of the Middle Ages, churches have focused exclusively on harping on the sinfulness of human beings. Jesus’ teaching to show people the way to perfection (“You will do even greater things than I have done!” (see above)) and to exemplify this himself was nothing less than presumption, arrogance, and hubris to them. Their understanding of human beings was that of creatures, purely earthly beings with an “original distance” from the Creator God. With this constant devaluation, they tried to suggest their own superiority and thereby expanded their position of power. That is why they wisely hushed up any enlightenment, such as that provided by Meister Eckhart, and, if necessary, suppressed it by force—using the combative term “heretic.” And that is why they also persecuted and, where possible, killed the Cathars, Johannes Tauler (“Godlikeness of our spirit”) and Joan of Arc.
The reason for our divine origin is stated in the story of creation: it is the aforementioned “likeness,” that is, a relationship like that between a father or mother and a child. Although it is not the same as that of adults, it is already on the same level. In contrast to other mammals, this is associated with creative potential. However, the ego in humans is not satisfied with likeness. It wants to play God (Gen. 3:5) and achieve equality: “… over everything in the world.”
Of course, humans have creative power, but only in terms of developments and not principles. These existed before humans, just as relativity existed before Einstein. Humans can create the design of life through genetic manipulation and cloning, but not life itself. Dr. Victor Frankenstein sends his regards.
Given humanity’s predatory behavior and what it does to our planet and its fellow creatures, the idea that humans have a divine core seems implausible at first glance. In this age of globalization, modern humans face a myriad of threats from “others,” such as competitive pressure, attacks, job insecurity, refugee flows, 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 to observe incredible talents, outstanding achievements, and sacrifices for the common good. It is 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, etc.
Humans are the only living beings with the capacity for vertical transformation. A rose cannot do this, nor can a lion. And, as mentioned, animals cannot break out of their animalistic self-preservation program. Only humans can develop spiritually. Goethe, a master of poetic summary, sums it up:
“Were not the eye sunlike,
it could never behold the sun,
were not God’s own power within us,
how could the divine delight us?”
(Tame Xenien, Book 3)
The two controls of human behavior between which consciousness must choose: Two souls dwell, alas, in my breast!
An awareness of the spiritual second identity—that is, beyond the egoistic self-preservation instinct and emotional love—this awareness of the soul power ofspiritual love (see Chapter 7) is inherent in most people, but blocked. Their self-awareness is perhaps 1% of their entire way of being. For a level of spiritually controlled life (“Thy will be done!”) would be recognizable by freedom from all suffering, all worry, and all fear (Job 42).
Materially oriented people believe that they consist only of mind, feelings, memory, and, of course, the body. They are convinced that the mind is their main controlling authority. However, they do not consider that it is only a tool and is itself controlled by inputs from “above” (spirit) and — almost always — from “below” (ego).
Of course, there are also many who “believe” in the existence of a controlling soul within them, but without any consequences: because after they leave the church service, they continue to envy, begrudge, and lie. And the churches do everything they can to keep this contradiction unmentioned, because then their lack of success over the millennia would become apparent. To cover this up, their teaching shifts salvation to the realm after death: “post mortem.” Of course, people notice this and therefore leave them in droves. Other religions, incidentally, emphasize the opposite of “post mortem”: “he has achieved perfection 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 walked the path of ego crucifixion.
(Here, it is always a promising practical aid to imagine one’s own likeness before every undertaking, decision, or step, visualizing it as a surrounding aura. For more details, see the chapter on meditation).
They are thus on the path to personal perfection, 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 extends to the surrender of life, as in the cases of Janusz Korczak, Arland Williams, and many soldiers on the front lines.
Ignorance of one’s own higher identity is the cause of all suffering in this world, as Hindu wisdom clearly recognized 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, that is, sons of God. We are an expression of the instinctual life of the mammal, but also an expression of the divine power of love that recognizes the hand in the glove. Accordingly, Jesus emphasizes: “You are all gods!” (John 10:34). The fact that we live in a vale of tears is a consequence of our one-sided ignorance of this.
What would have happened if humans had been aware of their divine heritage, their divine identity (alongside their animalistic one), from the beginning of their earthly existence? The enlightened ones were there: Odysseus, Heracles, Jesus, many prophets, martyrs, Plotinus, Ibn Arabi, Nanak, Buddha, Lao Tzu, Maimonides, Meister Eckhart, Goethe (Faust), Gandhi, Mandela, Mother Teresa, Eckhart Tolle, and many others. However, people have never regarded these guides as examples of theirown hidden potential, but as exceptions from some other star, whom one can only regard with amazement and adoration. That 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 revealed only an infinitely small part of his real power. Those who think him small and weak are mistaken. Do you know everything that is 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. Recognize who you really are, the omniscient soul that is not subject to death. Remember this truth day and night until it becomes part of your life and determines your thoughts and actions. Remember that you are not the sleeping everyday person. Awaken and rise up… 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 the other great prophets such as Moses, Buddha, Mohammed, Zarathustra, Krishna, Nanak, and Lao Tzu.
As long as each individual lacks self-knowledge in relation to themselves as divine images, however, lower animalistic behavior characterized by self-preservation dominates. This is precisely the reason why egocentric people can become ill, have desires and fears, lie, cheat, torture, and kill.
Lower self and higher self
The Nazarene’s statement “I (?) am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6) certainly cannot refer to the half that knows of itself: “I (?) can do nothing of myself” (John 5:30):
For “it is the Father in me who does the works” (John 14:10). The material self, which “can do nothing on its own”, 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 referred to the material side of the Nazarene, to his person, even though he himself testified in various places that he, as this person, as an outward man, as a glove, as a “little self,” was not to be regarded:
“If I (!) bear witness of myself, my testimony is not true.”
“God does not look at the person.”
“A man looks at what is before his eyes, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
“Why do you call me good? No one is good except the one God.”
Furthermore, when speaking about himself as a person, he exclusively uses the term “Son of Man.”
The “I” as the way and the truth could therefore not be the material self of the carpenter and rabbi, i.e., not the little self, the self-preserving half of the person in the form of the instinctual soul. It had to be the divine soul within him, the other part, the immaterial, the mighty high I from Ex. 3, in which God names himself. (“I am that I am”), the Christ in man. (It is that authority, that inner voice, which the Quakers call the “Inner Light.”) The Nazarene thus refers his statements sometimes to the material part of his soul, sometimes to the divine part; in doing so, he does not emphasize—with the exceptions mentioned above—whether he means the “lower” part of his soul or the ‘higher’ part.
He continues: “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” He does not say, “I” will set you free! Jesus also never said that he is God, he emphasizes that he has God within him.
From the beginning, the churches have used this saying in such a way that Jesus is the only person who embodies this path and this truth. This is contradicted not only 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.”
Indeed, Jesus was the great beacon of Christianity, but by no means the only one of global significance. 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) With the same substance, the Islamic mystic Ibn Arabi comments on a saying of Mohammed: “He who knows himself knows his Lord.” Siddha Yoga is credited with: “Look within, you are the Buddha.” The same content can be found in the ancient Chinese Tao Te Ching (Daodejing): “He who, striving for clarity, looks within, attains … truth.” (10)
Because man is “breathed into by God” (Gen. 2:7), it is true for everyone that the I within him is “the way, the truth, and the life,” regardless of how strongly this inner light is either developed or blocked. Jesus expresses this polarity of man, on the one hand the animalistic, 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 and corresponding confusion (see Wikipedia). Goethe’s choice of words, “two souls in one breast,” brings simplicity and clarity, but insight can ultimately only come from confirmation through practical life; and anyone who “always strives and endeavors” (Faust II: Mountain Gorges) can discern these differences for themselves when they learn to distinguish between fantasies of fear, retribution, and anger on the one hand, and first thoughts, ideas, and gut feelings — seen with the “heart” — on the other, especially through the results of practical living.
In contrast to that of the lion, human consciousness is the life-deciding 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” (Paul, Ephesians 3:16) and the outer person (“Son of Man”). Intuition corresponds to the sun’s rays, which provide humans with light (knowledge) and warmth (love). The mixer—human consciousness with the mind as an instrument for both impulses—decides which inspirations to follow, whereby “decisions” also include unconscious behavior.
Through his inner intuitive way of life, the “Father in me,” Jesus always tried to divert attention from his person: “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God!” (Mt. 19:17) In this way, he expresses the difference between the two instances in man; he turns as a person with his material consciousness to his inner God (Mt. 26:39 ff.). Its existence was already expressed in the Bhagavad Gita five hundred years before the Gospel.
The churches avoid teaching the direct individual access of each person to his or her divine soul, the path of all spiritual seekers. The churches also suppress other statements from the Gospels, describing them as “mistranslated” or attempting to reinterpret them:
“I live, but it is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”
“Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you.”
The reason is obvious: if they acknowledged that this perfect self resides in every human being, they would lose their monopoly as the authorized representatives for access to God and, in one fell swoop, lose most of their social power. That is why, for them, Jesus must be the only Son of God (sole; quantitatively). Naturally, this makes statements such as “You are all gods. “ (John 10:34). Their interpretation, based on his uniqueness (exceptional; qualitative), as with Buddha, Krishna, Mohammed, Moses, or Lao Tzu, distracts from the fact that every human being is unique, but that an outstanding special case is not therefore one of a kind. In this way, they successfully distract from the divine potential in every human being, no matter how barricaded it may be, for example, in a murderer completely devoid of empathy. The interpretation of the One, in contrast to the great prophets of all other religions, aims to divert attention both from spiritual enlightenment through other wisdom teachings and from situational guidance through one’s own intuition. But 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 combative church cannot err or fail. But I surrender and leave my words and deeds solely to God, who told me to do what I have done. “ (In: DIE ZEIT, No. 2, January 5, 2012).
The churches direct attention outward toward the person, not only away from guidance by one’s 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 ignore Jesus’ admonitions on the subject of “know thyself,” such as “You are all gods!” (Ps. 82:6; Isa. 41:23; John 10:34) “and you will do even greater things than I do” (John 14:12).
That is why Christian organizations in the past immediately executed anyone who claimed to have a kind of divine spark—the “inner light”—that is, someone who had recognized their spiritual identity beyond their earthly identity, such as Al-Hallaj, Joan of Arc, or, remotely similar, the Cathars and, of course, Jesus. In this respect, it is important for them to avoid the connection between “inner light” and “seeing well only with the heart” with that of “even greater works”.
The churches do not want any emphasis on certain personal characteristics from Jesus’ life:
– his outburst in the temple, overturning the tables of the money changers,
– his agonizing between “above” and “below” in the Garden of Gethsemane,
– his seemingly still existing doubts on the cross: “Why have you forsaken me?”
Rather, the focus is always on emphasizing his divinity, even though Jesus himself avoided this whenever possible (“Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone!” Mt. 19:17).
The anger of Scottish Presbyterians toward the Quakers can be seen in the following outburst: “Cursed be all who say that everyone has a light sufficient to lead them to Christ” (Paul Held: The Quaker George Fox. Chap. 10).
Until today, it has been very easy for churches to maintain this special kind of personality cult as a means of power, because awareness of one’s own likeness is not so easy to achieve. And when Meister Eckhart said of Jesus (Wikipedia) that his
“…human nature was… no different from that of any other human being… an unattained ideal, but not fundamentally different from other human beings in nature. In principle, everyone is capable of realizing and accomplishing what Christ realized and accomplished” ,
he was excommunicated by the Pope. Today, the churches no longer have the power of excommunication, at most the withdrawal of ecclesiastical teaching authority, but any teaching that “everyone has an inner light for spiritual self-knowledge” would still be poison to them. This is all the more true because this personal spiritual self-knowledge is the decisive gateway to the spiritual recognition of all other people (love your enemies: Matthew 5:43).
No other religion has come up with the idea of declaring its great prophets such as Buddha, Mohammed, Moses, Lao Tzu, or Krishna to be the only ones in the world, thereby devaluing other religions.
It should be emphasized that it is not the church figures who are the actors, but the ego program of the self-preserving soul, which is no less effective in them than in all other people, and which Hindu wisdom calls Maya, the goddess of veiling.
Although Jesus emphasized all the characteristics of likeness (Gen. 1:27), i.e., the divine sonship of all human beings, the churches want a God somewhere up there to solve the problems. Literature, sermons, and the internet are full of these views:
– “Lord, hurry to help me!”
– “Jesus – the problem solver.” “
– ”Jesus Christ – the solution to the problems of our lives.“
– ”Jesus is more than a problem solver.“
However, the wisdom of all religions, and above all our own experiences in everyday life, show that the solutions to all illnesses and all other everyday problems lie within us: ”I, the Lord, am your healer,” Ex. 15:26), which refers to 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 through our enlightened consciousness in relation to the solution of material problems. They show the ways to the solution and prove themselves through their practical successes.
Everyone is familiar with the two inner voices: the higher one as gut feeling, idea, intuition, flash of inspiration, etc., and the negative, destructive one as fear, inferiority complex, arrogance, despondency, etc., which then manifest themselves as negative emotions. However, most people are not aware of the possibility of consistently turning off the barrage of negativity and its intrusion into their consciousness. In addition, there is general uncertainty about why this barrage exists in human life at all (see Chapter 13) and that it has a decisive influence on our destiny in life. That is why George Bernard Shaw’s bon mot is so apt: “Man is the only animal that has a bad opinion of himself.” (See Chapter 13 for how this fatal self-assessment is also the decisive tool for overcoming it.)
This applies first and foremost to the destructive effect of the behavioral programs from “below,” which manifest themselves as mistrust, hatred, arrogance, inferiority complexes, anger, etc. But it also applies to the initially difficult-to-implement possibilities of following the impulses that are opened up from “above,” i.e., through dialogue with the inner spiritual (!) voice. True self-knowledge of the divine nature 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 emphasis in worship is “Thy will be done!”, because this happens anyway — at least on balance. Above all, the emphasis on your 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 recognize our will, which, as Tolstoy states above, “seeks only its own good,” as such and to defer it in favor of the will of the inner spiritual voice. When we then find more and more “our own good in the good of others,” our crises in married or family life, with unaffordable housing, or even those such as job loss or abortion, will also collapse. Then the spiritual forces unfold their effect, as such examples from everyday spiritual life practice show. (How spiritual living guides 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 human beings is expressed in the temptations in the desert (e.g., Matthew 4:9). There, the tempter wants to erase all spiritual awareness of inner sonship of God by tempting us to worship only him, that is, matter, the life of the good/evil world with all its material glories. It is precisely this temptation that people are following more than ever. A current term for this is “secularization.” An essential reason for this is, of course, that the churches have failed to prove their practicality and effectiveness, both in terms of overcoming evil and in terms of liberation from suffering (see chapter 13)
But those who have mastered sacrifice in the form 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. They have left the level of the good/evil world. We see this already in Job (verse 42), but especially in the published life stories of such beacons as Mandela, Gandhi, N. D. Walsch, or Eckhart Tolle. The principle is that by ascending into the spiritual dimension, through the return of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11 ff.), one can live the remaining lifetime without material good and without material evil, on the spiritual level of only good within the material environment.
The tempter (Maya, self-preservation instinct, devil in the desert, Mephisto), on the other hand, wants to reduce humans to their outer shell. He wants to address only the small ego and distract from the breathed-in (or born-in) Son of God, from the Higher Self. His only task is to ensure that people do not get the idea of recognizing the principle of the spirit behind the surface of the material world, the principle of divine life in all people, that of the hand in the glove.
“It is not you who lives,
for the creature is dead.
The life that makes you live in you
is God.”
(Angelus Silesius: Cherubic Wanderer II, 207)
Instinctive soul and spiritual soul
Of the two souls that dwell “oh, in my breast,” one is the animalistic instinctive soul (psyche), which manifests 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 possibility of reaching the spiritual dimension, distinguishes our mammalian constitution from hers. The other soul, the spirit soul, wants to nourish, protect, guide, and develop us vertically. When we consciously recognize it, there is no longer any (!) material deprivation and we are comprehensively protected. For those who have experienced this often, such as falling off a ladder, being rescued after misjudging an overtaking maneuver, etc., these events are no longer coincidences.
After sports, I drive home in the evening in the dark of night in pouring rain. On a sloping road, there is a sharp left turn that I know well. I pull the steering wheel sharply to the left, but because the road is wet from the rain, the car swerves to the right at the rear. 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 on the right side of the road, and lands softly in the freshly plowed field, four meters from the roadside, perpendicular to the direction of travel, on all four wheels. I am completely unharmed. After a few moments of trying to comprehend what has just happened, I get out, retrieve the sports bag from the trunk in the pouring rain, sinking ankle-deep into the soft clods of earth, stomp toward the road, let myself down into the ditch, and laboriously crawl on all fours up the ditch wall to the roadside. At that moment, I see headlights approaching. The car stops; it is a police patrol car. The officers take me in, ask me what happened, and drive me home.
Through the realization of our spirit 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 recognized as present and at some point physically (!) perceived. When I have consciously entered into dialogue with questions and answers, I have abundance and fulfillment. Then I no longer live from myself, but am essentially lived by my higher soul, which is a gruesome idea for the ego in humans; moreover, the usual view of “Finally being able to do what I want” is unconscious self-deception anyway, because it is the illusion of self-determined behavior on the part of the person, although it is nothing more than external control by the self-preservation instinct.
The dialogue with our highest self cannot be established willfully, and certainly cannot be earned. But what we can do is to build up ourreadiness to receive through meditation, that is, to turn our gaze outward and begin the journey of consciousness inward. The spirit soul constantly knocks quietly to make itself heard, but most people are so caught up in the worldly dimension that they do not seek it at all, do not hear it—with the exception of the “gut feeling” some people have—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 running to,
heaven is within you;
if you seek God elsewhere,
you will miss him forever.”
(Cherubic Wanderer I, 82)
The belief that we are separated from our spiritual power, or the ignorance that this inner voice even exists, is the cause of all our problems, without exception, of every deficiency. Those who do not know that their essential nature is primarily divine are subject to the suffering and deprivation of the vale of tears, even though it would only take one step—albeit a big one—to achieve complete self-knowledge. Every moment of worry is a demonstration of distrust of my inner voice. Even when we look “up” — as many footballers do before crossing themselves and then entering the field — we have created separation in that moment.
The solution is to look inward and become aware of the presence of our spiritual identity. Then we take a giant step toward unity, or at least union, like the ink with a piece of chalk. Although the example is flawed because ink also belongs to the material realm and not to the spiritual dimension, it clearly shows how much the activated divine influence changes the animal part. Then the consciousness that Jesus refers to grows: “You are all gods and children of the Most High.” Then our lives will 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 can flow. Then (Isaiah 45) all obstacles will be leveled. This is the sensual and practical experience of all people who are cared for and protected in their everyday lives because they are guided daily in dialogue with their inner voice, because they allow themselves to be guided. If we ask our soul power for guidance, it will care for, protect, guide, and elevate us. To do this, we enter into silence, into meditative contemplation, so that the cries of fear, anger, and hatred of the little self become quiet and our Higher Self becomes conscious, audible, and effective.
The search for my spirit soul is the path to true self-knowledge and self-realization and, at the same time, to individual happiness in the here and now. Those who recognize this have life and complete 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 and, above all, that we can rely on it. This is the meaning of the biblical instruction: “Do not worry!” We simply ‘only’ do the things that come our way, even if this means considerable, sometimes enormous effort. We no longer have to toil for our income “by the sweat of our brow,” but rather we inherit. We are then no longer dependent on earthly conditions, but truly free. This freedom means liberation from causality and development toward perfection. This is why Jesus emphasizes as the goal of creation: “You shall be perfect” (Matthew 5:48).
The term perfection fundamentally refers to a state that (according to Plato) cannot be further changed or improved. Since there is nothing on the material level that is not capable of further development, a state of perfection is necessarily independent of time, which is referred to in several wisdom texts with the adjective “eternal.” This refers to the spiritual level. This is precisely the development of the Prodigal Son, the structure of which can be found in many religions, myths, fairy tales, legends, novels, etc.
It consists of the three steps of the whole life of the “Prodigal Son”:
1) Birth into matter with abstinence from spiritual consciousness, but with the “inheritance” of the spirit soul (!). Then a fall into suffering with poverty, illness, separation, loneliness, and complete earthly desolation.
2) Then the phase in the “belly of the whale” (Jonah), which can coincide with the beginning of 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 (active) letting go of previous earthly dependencies. Added to this, above all, is the experience of the erasure of all expectations, fears, retaliations, plans, worries, desires, anxieties, and other earthly contents of consciousness, all in favor of far-reaching liberation from them and complete serenity with regard to security, protection, and provision through spiritual refuge:
“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 in life.
This sequence can be found in Jonah, who is thrown into the sea, swallowed by a whale, who “cried out to God” in its belly, and is then rescued 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 “strayed from the path,” was then swallowed by the wolf, but was freed and rescued unharmed.
Similarly, we see in Jesus that his earthly torments of the material ego stage lead to the tomb cave and then to leaving the valley of tears and thus to liberation from the good/evil stage.
Job suffers the same fate, whose material suffering reveals the futility of formal faith (“I had heard of you …”), who then humbles himself, thus defeating his ego (chapter 42), thus finding direct spiritual dialogue (“the Lord answered”) and then experiencing his enlightenment (“now my eye has seen you”), whereupon he is released from his pain, completes his resurrection on a spiritual basis, and reaps its rich fruits; in Job’s case, too, terrible suffering in the material world is necessary before he awakens to spiritual dialogue. A modern choice of words for this dialogue that is then achieved is, for example, that of N. D. Walsch: “Conversations with God.”
The path of Parzival also shows that of man on the path to higher development and perfection: First, he must pass through the disaster of his lack of compassion before King Amfortas before he can ascend to spiritual kingship. His example, as well as those of many others, but above all Jesus and Johanna, for example, makes it clear that, as mentioned above, they avoided any influence from external organizations and allowed themselves to be guided only from within, by their intuition.
Odysseus also undergoes the three-step development toward spiritual maturity. Clinging to a beam, he drifts in a raging storm, then is urged by the sea goddess to let go, thereby giving up even the very last straw of his material existence: “Jump!” (V, 344) He then drifts for the aforementioned three days in the raging floods and is finally washed ashore to his “home.” Although he still has to fight through further difficult conflicts, he now does so with spiritual awareness and thus ultimately triumphs.
The same pattern can be found in Joseph’s survival in the cistern, in Snow White’s liberation from the glass coffin, and in the ancient Egyptian tradition of Osiris:
Public domain: Osiris-nepra.jpg Copy (The wheat stalks symbolize resurrection.)
In the ego sacrifice of the Northern European creator god Odin (Wotan), he wounds himself with a spear and hangs himself upside down from the world tree; here, however, it takes nine days until he “finds the runes,” spiritual vision and knowledge, spiritual dialogue (in Job: “Now I have seen you”). Odin “cries out” and begins to “flourish” spiritually.
The Eskimo hero Raven brings about his own destruction, i.e., the annihilation of his ego, by asking the giant whale to open its mouth wide and then jumping in himself. However, he does not do this without taking his fire drill with him, which he uses to cut himself out of the monster after four days (Campbell: pp. 92, 200).
We see the same thing in Heracles, who plunges into the whale’s throat to rescue Hesione, cuts himself out of this kind of tomb cave, and thus wins victory over matter.
Above all, it is the modern Enlightenment thinkers who make these steps the experience of the Prodigal Son with a fall into the disaster of material life, the valley of tears. In Walsch’s biography, however, it is not three days, but a year that he spends as a homeless person, so to speak, on a park bench before his “Conversations with God” are revealed to him.
Exceptions with seemingly disastrous endings, such as that of Joan of Arc, are rare. This also applies to Goethe’s Faust, in which the path of the Prodigal Son is only shown up to the pile of rubble (Faust I), but then ultimately also the final goal of perfection at the end of Faust II, when the angels rescue Faust’s soul, which he had signed over to the devil: “Faust’s immortal soul.” (Chapter: Burial)
Virtually everyone on the spiritual path experiences the sequence of experiences described above, in which they learn to follow the guidance of their inner voice through some kind of rubble heap of material existence, through the annihilation of their own ego “in the belly of the whale,” and thus the realization of “Thy will be done.”
Like Buddha, Mohammed, Zarathustra, Mahavira, Krishna, Nanak, or Laozi, Jesus demonstrated the principle of ego annihilation 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 behavior how nafs, the self-preservation instinct, the ego, can be broken by liquidating “preferential love” and practicing universal love ruch (“as I love you”).
The churches fought tooth and nail against this development toward perfection in the Middle Ages, and even today they consistently remain silent about spiritual self-knowledge and perfection. Some of their main tasks would be to show how people can meet the requirement of being perfect, what prerequisites are necessary for this, and what dead ends exist, such as formal blind faith.
Identifying with our Higher Self is so difficult because it is completely unfamiliar to us to trust and surrender to an invisible entity. Instead, we believe that we, as individuals, are actually responsible for our lives and, if applicable, their purpose, even though we are “only” executors. Furthermore, it is difficult to identify with our intuition because we are accustomed to the powers of the external world from an early age. And finally, we have not even been made aware of its individual (!) existence. Although, each of us should know better that there is more than just the body, feelings, and mind, namely our spirit soul, colloquially known as our gut feeling or conscience.
Our greatest enemy in life is the false conception of the self, that is, of myself as merely a material person, which leaves out the more important other half of our holistic self-knowledge. This conception is a one-sided view of our mammalian half, a complete misunderstanding of the statement that we are created in the image of God, whereby this misunderstanding ultimately amounts to an insult to the Creator. Despite their expulsion from paradise, Adam and Eve did not lose their status as images and likenesses. In this respect, the first goal of life remains to attain contact with our higher consciousness, which extends far beyond the earthly realm. Then the prince (our spiritual consciousness through the “mixer lever” that has been switched) has successfully fought his way through the thorn hedge (the vale of tears, the herd of pigs) to Sleeping Beauty (to the spirit soul, to intuitive guidance).
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(For more on the specific ways in which the individual (I) can interact with their own inner guidance (I) in everyday life, see the forthcoming Chapter 24: “Spiritual Life in Everyday Practice.”)
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Comments
Eva says:
It’s nice to have this issue described from such different sources.
At the same time, I get the impression that the two sides are evaluated differently. The instinctive side is evil, and the side that rises to the “realms of high ancestors” is good. But what would God do without the material, active side? I guess he would soon get quite bored in his eternal peace, he would not be able to encounter himself in others and would soon long for the next Big Bang.
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jlang says:
You’ll find the answer in Chapter 3. The instinctive side is there to drive us toward the spiritual side. It is the “evil” part that … always creates 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 a misunderstanding of self-preservation. But more on that later.
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Kerrysek says:
Bravo, I think that’s an excellent idea.
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Eva says:
Dear Jürgen,
Your comments are very interesting. I am impressed by the many quotes; you must be very well-read! And they largely coincide with my IFS model, working with inner parts, the inner family. However, I would disagree with Meister Eckhart when he says that the inner person is good and the outer person is evil. There is a lot of good in the outer person too!
I don’t like to divide things so black and white into good and evil, because experience shows that good also produces evil and vice versa. And it always depends on your perspective: for the tiger, catching its prey is good, but for the gazelle it is rather evil.
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Claudia says:
This article touched me deeply, thank you very much for it and I would love to read more like this.
Kind regards
Claudia
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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 whenever I encounter a disturbance, a problem, or an unanswered question, I immediately enter into the consciousness of mirroring and then receive the solution, not always immediately, but always correctly (as it turns out).
Would you like more? You can have that, either in the form of more in-depth explanations of the statements on my website (which are very abbreviated versions of the respective topics and also only represent about half of the overall concept) or answers to specific questions you may have.
Go ahead!
Greetings from the rainy Harz Mountains.
JL
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Claudia says:
Hello Mr. Lang,
I found your blog while searching for help with “what is still important to me and how I want to live my life in the future.” Like you, I have been through some difficult times and am now trying to give my life a different direction and reflect on what I have always had: a strong sense of structure and a penchant for spirituality.
I find your blog extremely interesting and, above all, very multi-layered.
I am far from finished reading it, but I am delighted with every new page you describe in your entries.
Thank you very much for that!
Best regards from the Baltic Sea, where it is rainy today.
C
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Eva says:
I wonder whether more and more people are actually awakening to this knowledge and whether this could bring about a positive change in the brutality of this world. I would like to believe so, but I can’t quite believe it, as I haven’t noticed any development in this direction since I’ve been in this world. I rather have the impression that it is becoming more and more cruel. But maybe that’s just because of the one-sided news that we are bombarded with every day.
Regarding the description above: In this description, animals come across as very unenlightened, as lower beings.
When I watch my dog, I sometimes think he can meditate much better than I can. Or a tree, for example! Who’s to say it doesn’t meditate? And that it might not be far more advanced in this discipline than humans? Hm?
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Eva says:
That is explained very conclusively and is supported by many writings from around the world. What a difference a few small words can make in interpretation if they are not taken into account!
Thank you very much for this impressive collection!
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Nata says:
Yes, Jesus, the totally wise God, wow, of course that was his Higher Self, he spoke to himself and then asked himself on the cross why he was hanging there so beautifully. Why have you forsaken me? Oh, let the cup pass! Do you want another way for me? Ohhhh, the cup didn’t move x). Wow, how wise Jesus was, and his higher self, even today I still recognize it in the sweet tutu.
Wow, what a great soul plan and how clever his self was. It’s just funny that he was completely different and stupid and didn’t even understand his higher self x) “Why have you forsaken me?” Whyyyyyyy help me higher self, I’m so stupid without you, but you are me, aren’t you?
Then why don’t I know how beautiful I look hanging on the cross x).
So sarcasm.
If all people have a higher self, I’ll eat a broom.
Many are more likely descended from disturbed monkeys, and the rest from cooler ones. No, not everyone has a higher self, and if they do, it’s dead x) as stupid as they are x) IDIOTIC SUFFERING.
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RodneySlido says:
Прибарахлился: поменял взгляды на вещи.
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MarcusEcotT says:
Only a true friend can tolerate their friend’s weaknesses.
—–
цена военный билет | https://g0g0.net/
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Eva says:
I still have my difficulties with that.
It would mean total surrender, and my controlling side is reluctant to go along with that. It feels responsible for ensuring that my earthly manifestation can live as long and comfortably as possible. But the higher self may have other plans, or none at all. Everything flows somehow, influenced by billions of things working together, such as the flutter of a butterfly’s wings in China, and I live well or badly, or I am infected by a virus and die. To accept all this with the stoic devotion of a samurai is really asking a lot.
But it is probably the only salvation from the psychological valley of tears and the pain that resistance to what is alone creates. So I will continue to practice bowing in humility before the great God who dwells within me and of whom I am also a part.
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jlang says:
The spiritual path is comparable to that of a soldier. The soldier is provided with everything by his master: 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: obey, i.e., devote himself completely to his spiritual guidance.
The only exception to this parallel is that he not only risks his life in carrying out his duties, but in any case gives it up; this does not mean physical life, but the animal part, the ego program.