Sleeping Conscience

Boeme says that one who has not yet passed “the Judgement,” has a “sleeping conscience,” but I think it would be more accurate to say we have a sleeping spirit. The conscience is certainly connected to the spirit, but there are many people who seem to have a conscience of sorts, yet are not spiritually Awakened.

Deferred for Latter Days

Sadly, Boehme is correct here. Many people do believe that they can live their earthly life as they wish, and not be concerned with the spirit and Soul until they are old and dying. The danger in doing that is twofold. First, many die before they reach the age where they think they should be preparing for the afterlife. Second, even if they decide to start changing their ways while still alive, but quite old, they are likely to die before making enough progress for it to make any difference. You don’t want to wait until you are on a sinking ship before learning to swim. And you don’t go find a job first, then go to college to get the degree necessary to hold the job. You have to get the education first then get the job when you are fully qualified. It is much the same with spiritual development.

Devil’s Fort of Prey

What Boehme is saying here is that the longer we let ourselves be controlled by the forces and beings of darkness, the harder it is to break away from that and turn to God and Truth. We have all heard the old saying that the truth will set us free, but that is true only when we are able to accept the truth and act on it. If the barriers of darkness have been built very strongly in our subconscious mind, it is more difficult to turn away from that darkness. So Boehme advises us to do so while we are still young, and the “Devil’s Fort” within us is not so strong. While he has a point, the truth is that the majority of us will not seek a spiritual awakening until we get older and start realizing that we are mortal.

Vineyards of Heaven, Garden of Christ

Boems says that those who awaken become laborers in the vineyards of heaven and sow seeds in the Garden of Christ. He is simply saying in an allegorical way that we become workers in Heaven for God’s Great Plan. This is contrary to the image many people have of Heaven, or the afterlife. We say of the departed, “Rest in Peace,” but while peace is certainly an attribute of Heaven, resting is not. Those who reach Heaven must work hard in this world and the next to get to Heaven. And those in Heaven continue to work to help others reach that level of consciousness. So it might be better to send off those who have physically died by saying “Work in Peace”.

“Human love is changeable, Divine Love, however, is the most steadfast; there are no changes in it.

“If you let Divine Love in your spirit, you will acquire power; the power is the Light that moves.

“If love acts in your soul, it will give you warmth. Warmth is the nicest, it is necessary because, with warmth, everything glows and ripens. Without warmth, humans cannot grow and ripen.

“There is nothing nicer in Man’s life than this, to be a pure child of God, with pure thought, pure wishes, and pure actions. Not to be just for a day, but from the day you were born until the day you leave Earth, be an excellent Child.¹

“know that if you do not love, you cannot enter the Kingdom of God. No one’s foot can ever step in there if they do not love.

“If you live with love in the world, you will have one result. If you live without love, you will have another. If you live with hope, you will have one result; if you live without hope, you will have another.

Humans, for their own good, must Love God.” ~Biensa Douno

Human Love

When Douno speaks of human love, he is talking about ordinary human love, or love of material things, including material beings. Such love is changeable, as most of us know. As we age and change, the things we love change. Even the people we love sometimes change, even though we believed at one time that that would never happen.

Divine Love

Humans can also have Divine Love, but this is love of a higher nature. It is love of God, love of the spirit and soul, love of our higher self, love of Heaven as it really is and not as we wish it to be. Many people will say they have such love, but few of them actually do. You can’t love something when you actually don’t know what it is, you only have a vague concept of it as described by others. If you love God as a little old man sitting in the clouds and judging everyone, you do not have Divine Love, because that human-created concept of God is far from reality. If you think Heaven is much like earth, where you will once again be with old friends, relatives, and pets, you have a false concept of Heaven, and you don’t have Divine Love. To have Divine Love, you must awaken your spiritual faculties and develop them until you are aware of what Heaven and God really are. Then you will Love God, Heaven, and all that God created including human Souls. When that happens, you will have Divine Love.

Love Gives Warmth

Love may not literally warm you, but it will make you feel warmer, in a sense. Any form of real love fills us with joy and warmth. That is not the same as lust, which is often confused with love. The warmth of the sun does make everything grow and flourish. The Light of the Spiritual Sun helps us grow and flourish in a spiritual sense. The warmth of that light awakens and develops our spiritual faculties as nothing else can.

Kingdom of God

Douno is correct in saying that without Love, specifically Divine Love, we cannot enter the Kingdom of God. Heaven is a place of Love, Pure Love, Divine Love, and no being, no spirit, is allowed there that does not have that Divine Love. To allow someone in there who doesn’t have Divine Love would be polluting the purity of Heaven, so it doesn’t happen. Those who think that everybody goes to heaven simply because they have physically dead are wrong. If that were true, such beings as Hitler and Genghis Khan would have gone to Heaven after death. Obviously, that could not happen if Heaven is to maintain its purity. Such beings might get there eventually, but certainly not until they have gone through centuries of purification.

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“The soul, sprung from the Divine, lay self-enclosed at peace, true to its own quality; but its neighbor, in uproar through weakness, unstable of its own nature and beaten upon from without, cries, at first to itself and afterward upon the living total, spreading the disorder at large. Thus, at an assembly, the Elders may sit in tranquil meditation, but an unruly populace, crying for food and casting up a host of grievances, will bring the whole gathering into ugly turmoil; when this sort of people hold their peace so that a word from a man of sense may reach them, some passable order is restored and the baser parts cease to prevail; otherwise, the science of the better allows the rabble to rule, the distracted assembly unable to take the Word from above.

“This is the evil of state and of council: and this is the evil of Man; Man includes an inner rabble—pleasures, desires, fears—and these become masters when the person, the manifold, gives them play.

“But one that has reduced his rabble and gone back to the person he was, lives to that and is that person again, o that what is allowed to the body is allowed as to something separate.” ~Plotinus

Sprung from the Divine

Some people believe that what is called the soul is just an aspect of the mind. Others believe that the body came first, then the mind and the soul were developed later. As this simple statement from Plotinus indicates, both of those beliefs are wrong. The Soul comes from the Divine, from God.

Self Enclosed

Plotinus says that the soul is “self-enclosed,” and not communicating with “its neighbor,” which is the physical body and mind. In truth, the soul, being pure spirit, is not enclosed in anything, but it is in a dormant state when we are born into the physical world. It is our job to awaken and develop it so it can communicate with the body and mind, and control the ego. As Plotinus notes, the body and mind are weak and unstable on their own. Not necessarily weak in the sense of weak muscles, but in the sense of being easily conned by the dark forces and beings into doing that which brings the person deeper and deeper into the depths of matter, instead of turning toward the realm of spirit where redemption lies.

Spreading the Disorder

The mind knows nothing of spirit, therefore, it embraces the realm of matter which it does know and understand. This can result in the entire being becoming materialistic and pursuing the doomed path of material delights that lead to death. That is what Plotinus means by “spreading the disorder”. Eternal life in Heaven is not found by following that path. That is why the spirit must be awakened and developed into a conscious Soul, and that soul takes over control of the ego, which is needed in the physical world, but hen lest on its own, leads us astray.

Assembly of Man

Plotinus gives the example that in an assembly, the “Elders,” by which he means the spiritually developed people, should lead the crowd. Then peace and beneficial development can happen. But if the materialistic rabble holds sway, then the assembly becomes a mob that does as much damage to itself as to others. This is why it is important to have spiritually developed leaders, or at least leaders who are guided by spiritual people. When they are not spiritual people, but materialistic ones, we have the mess we have seen in recent years in politics. And it is likely to get worse before it gets better, as the dark ones among us, use various methods to silence and control the spiritual.

Inner Rabble

Humans do have an inner rabble that lives by and is controlled by, fear, emotions, desires, and false beliefs. Plotinus says we must stop this by going back to the person we were. In other words, we need to go back to what we were before we had a physical body and mind, and the spirit reigned supreme. We do that by awakening and developing our spiritual faculties. We do that primarily by turning to the Light of the Spiritual Sun, in peace, love, and humility, so that Light will awaken our True Self.

“If we will speak of our native Country, out of which we have wandered with Adam; and will tell of the resting place of the Souls; we need not cast our minds far off; for far off and near is all one and the same thing with God; the Place of the Holy Trinity is all over. Heaven and Hell is everywhere all over in this world, and Christ wells all over, for he has laid off the corruptibility, and has swallowed up death, as also that which is temporary, and he lives in God; his Body is the substance of the Element, which out of the Word of the Mercifulness, is from eternity generated out of the Gates of the Deep; it is the Habitation where the Sharpness of God breaks open the Darkness, where eternal virtue appears in Wonders, and it is the tincture of the Deity, which is before God, out of which the heavenly Virtues are generated; its name is wonderful; the earthly tongue cannot express it.” ~Jacob Boehme

Our Native Country

Our “Native Country,” as Boehme calls it, is Heaven, or the Spiritual Realm. We were created by God as spiritual beings long before we had physical bodies, long before the physical universe existed. We descended to the material world because of the errors made by early man represented by the allegorical couple, Adam and Eve. When the Bible says that they ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, that does not refer to apples. The Tree of Good and Evil is the realm of matter. So as Adam and Eve were pulled down to the material world, so are all humans. But God has provided us with a way to be redeemed and return to Heaven. It is up to us, however, to choose to follow that path.

Not Far Off

Boehme then tells us that we need not cast our minds far off to find Heaven, the resting Place of Souls. This is difficult to understand when you are used to thinking in physical terms. It is true that physically, the Spiritual Realm is not far off. Since spirit exists outside of the limits of space and time, it is everywhere and every when. So as Jesus said, “The Kingdom is all around you, yet you see it not.” But this is misleading because there are multiple dimensions to the entire universe. The physical realm that we reside in is the third dimension. The spiritual dimensions are dimensions five through nine.

Christ Has Swallowed Up Death

This statement is allegorical. Christ, an Eternal Spirit and the first creation of God, is beyond the realm of death as he is in the spiritual realm and no longer has a physical body that can die. Death, disease, pain, etc. do not exist in the realm of spirit. Being pure spirit is what Boehme means when he says Christ’s body is “the substance of the Element.”

The Sharpness of God Breaks open Darkness

This is an odd way to express it, but it means that the Infinite Light of God banishes the Darkness of demons and devils. This is not darkness in the simple physical sense. If it was, a simple light bulb would banish it. This is a different sort of Darkness and only God’s Light can banish it.

The Earthly Tongue Cannot Express It

This is a problem that many great spiritual people have experienced. Those who have manages to get a glimpse, even briefly, of heaven and the Spirits that dwell there, have had great difficulty in describing it. Earthly language is not made to express such Divine things. Even if our languages could express what Heaven is truly like, our brain-minds could not comprehend it. The only way to actually know what Heaven is like is to awaken our spiritual faculties which can understand them. Fortunately, we now have the Sun of Righteousness shining down on us making it easier for us to awaken. We still have to make the effort, though. Then we can learn for ourselves that heaven really is not far off.

“Rennyo Sh Onin was one of the greatest teachers of the Shin school of Buddhism; in fact it was he who laid the firm foundation for for the modern religions institution known as the Jodo-Shin Shu, the True Sect of the Pure Land. His letters numbering about eighty-five are preserved and the title ‘Gobunsho,’ that is , ‘honorable letters,’ is given to them. Here is one of Rennyo’s letters:

‘To be established in shin faith means to understand the eighteenth vow, means to understand the frame of mind the “Namu-amida-butsu” sets up in you.

“Therefore, when you attain a state of singlemindedness as you utter the “namu”with absolute trust in Amida: you perceive the signifiance of Amida’s vow which is directed towards awakening a faith frame in you. For herein we realize what is meant by Amida Nyorsi’s ‘turning towards’; us ignorant beings. This is pointed out in the Larger Sutra of Eternal Life where we read: ‘Amida provides all beings with all the merits. …”

“The translation of such documents as Rennyo’s letters is full of difficulties as they are so laden with technical terms which defy in many cases replacement by and other language. But a word about ‘Namu-amida-butsu.’

“’Namu-amida-butsu’ is the Japanese reading of the original Sanskrit meaning ‘Adoration of the Buddha of Infinite Light.’” ~D. T. Suzuki

Buddha of Infinite Light

There is only one true God and that is the God of infinite Light, the God of infinite Love, and the God of infinite creation. This is the God of Spirit. The god of the Old Testament: the angry, jealous, vengeful god is the false god that Gnostic call the Demiurge. That god is not of Light but darkness. A deeper kind of darkness than simply being in a room with the lights out. He is dark and the creator of matter, although the world of matter is also part of the realm of the true God of Spirit and Light because the realm of matter was created by altering spirit into matter. If you think of Buddha as God, then as the God of Infinite Light, he would be the true god. Of course, no human is actually a god. Jesus, Moses, and Buddha, were all prophets, and, in the case of Jesus for sure, a messiah. But that is not the same as being God.

State of Singlemindedness

Many people may have a state of singlemindedness, but Rennyo is talking about a specific kind of singlemindedness. He is talking about those who put the Will of God and the desire to develop their spiritual attributes above all else. Such people are rare in this very materialistic age, but that is starting to change. Now that we have the Sun of Righteousness shining down on us, the number of such people is growing.

Rennyo’s Letters

Suzuki says that Renyo’s letters are difficult to translate properly because of his use of technical terms which defy translation from the original Sanscrit. I find that interesting as Rennyo is given credit for bringing Buddhism to Japan, so it seems odd that he wrote in Sanscrit. In any case, I think the translators have done well to translate ‘Namu-amida-butsu’ as ‘Adoration of the Buddha of Infinite Light.’ Adoration of the God of Light is what real spiritual development is all about. And we must turn to the Spiritual Sun, the Sun of Righteousness, to best follow the Will of God and develop our dormant spiritual natures.

“What we have to consider is how by training, one may develop those organs of perception, lying dormant in the Soul. Those who do not feel themselves especially impelled toward doing something for their own development may easily say that man stands under the guidance of spiritual powers, that such guidance should therefore not be interfered with, and that the moment, deemed by those powers to be the right ones for revealing another world to the Soul, should be awaited in patience. Indeed, persons who are of this opinion are inclined to consider it a kind of presumption, or unjustifiable desire for anyone to interfere with the wisdom of such spiritual guidance.

“Those who think in this way will only change their opinion if some other mode of presenting the case makes a sufficiently strong impression upon them. If they were to say to themselves, ‘This wise guidance has endowed me with certain faculties, and it has done so, not that I should let them lie idle, but rather that I should use them. Indeed, the very wisdom of such guidance lies in the fact of its having placed in me the rudiments of those organs necessary for a higher state of consciousness.’” ~Rudolf Steiner

Train to Develop

If you want to develop your muscles, you can’t just sit on the sofa and watch fitness videos, you have to actually exercise. If you want to learn to speak Chinese, you can’t just wait for the language to simply arrive in your head. You have to study, you have to actively work at learning. The same is true for our spiritual Self. It does not simply develop spontaneously, and sitting around waiting for that to happen simply means that it never will.

Those Who do not Feel Impelled

A common fantasy today is that we need to do nothing to awaken and develop our spiritual faculties. They say that the spirit and soul will develop when the time is right for it to happen. Or they say that there is no reason to develop our spiritual Self while in the physical world and we should wait until the afterlife to do that. As Steiner indicates, neither of those attitudes is accurate and neither of them is wise. In this world, we don’t develop skills just by wishing for them. We don’t learn to swim on the day we fall off a ship. We need to know how to swim before that happens. We don’t know how to fight a war the day we join the military or get drafted. That is why every military in the world trains its soldiers and sailors before sending them off to fight. That is even more true today with the sophisticated weapons and equipment the soldiers have to deal with. The spiritual faculties are no different. We must work at developing them.

Techniques of Development

What Steiner isn’t saying is how to awaken and develop those faculties. Unfortunately, many who do want to develop their spiritual Self have fallen for the misguided belief that meditation is all that is needed. While forms of meditation have been taught in spiritual schools throughout the ages, it is only the first step on a long path. Also, the type of meditation that has become popular these days moves one away from spiritual growth rather than toward it. That is because these forms of meditation are designed to lower our brain frequencies to the frequencies of bugs and frogs when what we need is to raise our frequencies to those of Angels and Light Beings. The best way to do that is through spiritual forms of sun gazing as practiced in Cosolargy. That is not all of it, of course. We also need to develop love and humility. But the spiritual sun gazing is the most important part of it.

Organs Necessary for Higher Consciousness

Steiner says that making the effort to develop our spiritual faculties will, if done correctly, give us“the rudiments of those organs necessary for a higher state of consciousness.” What do higher states of consciousness have to do with developing our spiritual Self? Everything! As mentioned earlier, higher-level beings such as Angels operate at higher frequencies. That also means that they are at higher states of consciousness. So the development of our spiritual faculties also helps us rise to higher states of consciousness. That can help us in this world as well as the next.

Yeshua said, Blessings on you when you are hated and persecuted, and no place will be found, wherever you are persecuted.

Yeshua said, Blessings on you who have been persecuted in your hearts. Only you truly know the father. Blessings on you who are hungry that the stomach of someone else in want may be filled.

“He said,Master, there are many around the drinking trough but nothing in the well. Yeshua said, There are many standing at the door but those who are alone will enter the wedding chamber. Yeshua said, The father’s kingdom is like a merchant who owned a supply of merchandise and found a pearl. The merchant was prudent. He sold his goods and bought the single pearl for himself.”

“They said to him, Tell us who you are so that we may believe in you. He said to them, You examine the face of heaven and earth but you have not come to know the one who is in your presence, and you do not know how to examine this moment. Yeshua said, Seek and you will find. In the past I did not tell you the things about which you asked me. Now I am willing to tell you, but you do not seek them.”

“The students said to him, Your brothers and your mother are standing outside. He said to them, Those here who do the will of my father are my brothers and my mother. They will enter my father’s kingdom. They showed Yeshua a gold coin and said to him, Caesar’s people demand taxes from us. He said to them, Give Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, give god the things that are god’s, and give me what is mine. “ ~The Gospel of Thomas

The Cornerstone

According to Thomas, Jesus (Yeshua) said that the stone the builder rejects will be the cornerstone. This is not about stones or building, it is allegory. The stone the builder rejects represents the spiritual type of people who are often rejects in an overly materialistic world. The cornerstone, being the most important part of the building, represents the one from many are are chosen by God to do His work here on earth. Of course, God is not going to choose only one person to do a job. He chooses several so that at least one will seek the true spiritual path and develop the necessary spiritual faculties to do the job. Tyhe know-it-all, who thinks he knows everything, but actually only knows material things, and even those only in a limited way, is not one who will be chosen. The one who iss chosen admits that he doesn’t know everything and seeks to learn more.

Hated and Persecuted

Jesus is not blessing all who are pursecuted, only those who are persecuted for being spiritual in a materialistic world and those who are unjustly persecuted when they have done no wrong. Jesus blesses such people because they are following the path of righteousness, regardless of what society things of such behavior.

You Who are Hungry

It is a simple fact that people who have little are often the ones most likely to share what they have with others. Greedy people rarely share unless they can see some way to profit from it, such as getting publicity. So jesus is not blessing them simply because they are hungry, but because they are hungry due to sharing what little they have. And hunger here can represent more then hunger for food. The person may need new clothes, new shoes, etc., but is nevertheless sharing what they have. That is a true person of God, and so blessed by God and Jesus.

The Single Pearl

The wise merchant who sells all he has to buy the single pearl is not buying a pearl in the physical sense. This is another allegory. The pearl of great price is the Truth and Wisdom found in Heaven, the Truth and Wisdom that we can gain only by developing our spiritual faculties. Like the Fountian of Youth, some seek this pearl as if it were a physical object, but it isn’t. It is purely spiritual.

My Brothers and Mother

This is one of the sayings of Jesus that are disliked by many. Some refuse to believe he said it. But Jesus is not dishonoring his blood relatives, he is saying that those who are our brothers and sisters in the spiritual quest for enlightenment are more important than those we are related to by blood, especially when those blood relatives choose not to develop their spiritual Self.

“In our study of the Mystic Life, its purification and illumination, we have been analyzing and considering a process of organic development, an evolution of personality. We may treat this either as a movement of consciousness toward higher levels, or as a remaking of consciousness consequent on the emergence and growth of a factor which is dormant in ordinary people, but destined to be supreme in the full-grown mystic type. We have seen the awakening of this factor—this spark of the soul—with its innate capacity for apprehending the absolute. We have seen it attack and conquer the old sense-fed and self-centered life of the normal self, and introduce it into a new universe, lit up by the Uncreated Light. These were the events which, taken together constitute the ‘First Mystic Life’; a complete round upon the spiral road which leads from Man to God.

“What we have been looking at, then, is a life process, the establishment of a certain harmony between the created self and the Reality whose invitation it has heard: and we have discussed this life process as if it contained no elements which were not referable to natural and spontaneous growth. … But side by side with this organic growth there always goes a specific kind of activity which is characteristic of the mystic: that his consciousness of the Infinite may be stabilized, enriched, and defined.” ~Evelyn Underhill

Mystic Life

The book from which the above quote is taken is all about the life of the mystics, so Underhill uses that name a lot, but we could just as easily say spiritual student or spiritual adept, so the Mystic life is also the Spiritual life, at least if you are talking about actual spiritual development and not the pretense of it that is so common today.

Purification and Illumination

Purification and illumination are what spiritual (or mystical) development is all about. Foolish people claim they are perfect just as they are and have no need for development. Mystery schools and spiritual schools have not existed for many centuries in many parts of the world for nothing. Just as the doctor, carpenter, or lawyer needs training and development, so does the spiritual adept. In this world, there is no free ride. You don’t climb out of the deep hole of matter by simply wishing for it, or pretending you have already gotten out.

Organic Development

What Ms. Underhill means when she says “organic development,” is the natural growth of the body and mind that happens to everyone, or at least everyone who doesn’t have some disease that prevents it. It is the development that largely happens on its own, with little conscious effort, as opposed to spiritual development which requires a conscious effort applied regularly and consistently. But as Underhill adds to this, the Mystic follows a different kind of organic process by seeking to awaken and develop his spiritual faculties and develop higher levels of consciousness. The highest level of consciousness is that found in the highest dimension that most call Heaven.

Levels of Consciousness

Underhill tells us that the mystic undergoes a process of either remaking their consciousness or developing higher levels of consciousness. There are those who have made both spiritual and scientific studies of this, and most agree that there are multiple levels of consciousness. Obviously, a potato doesn’t have the same level of consciousness as a fish, and generally, a human has a higher level of consciousness than that fish. But are their levels of consciousness beyond humans? Spiritual people and mystics believe so, and some of the more advanced have achieved very high levels, levels where they gain the Truth and Wisdom known as Gnosis, which cannot be gained by reading books.

Conquer the Self-Centered Life

Yes, spiritual development does require us to conquer the self-centered life. To put it another way, the Soul must be awakened and developed to the point where it can control the ego which is all about the world of matter. The ego does not need to be destroyed, as some claim, it needs to be controlled. We need ego to function in the material world, but we can’t let it dominate and prevent us from making spiritual progress.

The Spiral Road

The Spiral Road (or staircase) is the path of illumination that leads to Heaven. It is spiral because it is the nature of man that most of us don’t move forward on a straight and continuous path. We take a few steps forward, we fall back, we move forward again, etc. That is why the path is best depicted as a spiral. And it is, as Underhill says, a “life process,” the gradual establishment of harmony between our material and spiritual natures so that we can continue forward on that spiritual path and also continue to function in the world. And when we finally face physical death, the spirit and soul will continue on that spiral road until the highest level is reached.

“The Spirit of our Lord speaks thus in the Book of the Secrets of God, which St. John wrote down: to him that overcomes, He says, that is, to him who overcomes and conquers himself and all else, will I give to eat of the hidden manna, that is, an inward and hidded savour and celetial joy; and will give him a sparkling stone, and in the stone a new name is written which no person knows saving the one who receives it. This stone is called a pebble, for it is so small that it does not hurt when one treads on it. This stone is shining white and red like a flame of fire, and it is small and round, and smooth all over, and very light. ….

“Now to him who overcomes and transcends all things, this sparkling stone is given; and with it he receives light and truth and life. This stone is also like a fiery flame, for the fiery love of the eternal Word has filled the whole world with love and wills that all loving spirits be burned up in love.” ~John of Ruysbroeck

Book of the Secrets

The “Book of the Secrets of God”, better known today as “The Secret Book of John,” or “The Apocryphon of John) is a Gnostic book that talks about God being the One who rules all and the Pure Light, among other things. It is surprising that Ruysbroeck references it since he was not known to be particularly gnostic in his beliefs and teachings.

Overcomes and Conquers

What it means to overcome and conquer yourself is that you are able to control your animal instinct, and your ego, and put the development of spirit and soul above all else. That may seem like an impossible task in today’s materialistic, capitalistic world, but it can be done. It doesn’t mean that you can’t have a normal job but must live in a monastery. You can have a normal life, but with the idea always in front of your mind that the spirit comes first and the Laws of God come before those of Man. And spiritual development techniques only need to be practiced for five to fifteen minutes a day, so should be doable by all.

Hidden Manna

There are two kinds of Manna. There was the manna given to the starving Jews in the desert that was a physical bread to nourish their bodies. There is another manna that is spiritual and available to those who seek it in love and humility. That second manna is God’s Light that comes to us through the spiritual sun. That manna is the hidden manna that awakens and nourishes the spirit and soul. Nothing physical can do that.

Sparkling Stone

Ruysbroeck says the awakened person receives a sparkling stone that is shiny, white and red, and does not hurt. So he is saying in an indirect way that this stone is not something physical like the Sorcerer’s stone in the Harry Potter tales. I have left out a section of the quote from Ruysbroeck because I think it is misleading. Ruysbroeck goes on to say that the stone is actually Jesus Christ, who is the savior of all. Those who are spiritual students generally know better. The Sparkling Stone, also known as the Philosopher’s Stone, is our own inner Christ that is awakened with spiritual practice. That is what Jesus meant when he said we should follow him. He meant that we should awaken our own inner Christ, our own Sparkling Stone. It is only by doing so that we are able to reach up to the highest level of consciousness known as Heaven, and become one with the All.

“I have never failed to come to the aid of the poor and lowly. I have ever obeyed the laws of God and Man. Goodness has always been honored in my heart, and I have consistently read the sacred writings. Yet never have I found these things consistent with mortal wellbeing. Because my tongue did not turn around corners and twist back on itself, because the words I spoke came from my heart, undiluted with any malicious thought, because I chided the rich for their selfishness and inconsideration, their wasteful living and meaningless activities, they became my enemies. Because I called upon the powerful to live according to the laws they professed to uphold and the words declared to be sacred, I was seized and imprisoned. When I protested the injustice to the ears of the people, I was beaten with rods, I was branded as one who seeks to destroy the stability of the land. I, who tried to set an example of goodness, to lead a life dedicated to my God, to convert the wicked to righteousness, am myself declared wicked by the workers of evil. Why is this, O my God? Have I, to my sorrow and undoing, weighted the values of life wrongly?” ~The Kolbrin Bible (MAN:19:8)

To Aid the Poor and Lowly

To aid the poor is certainly a good thing, although not always done properly. When done with humility and a sense of brotherhood and sisterhood, it is a good thing. When done to show off how much better a person you are and to boost your ego, it isn’t.

Obeyed the Laws

It is usually a good thing to obey the law, but there are exceptions. Sometimes, the laws of Man conflict with the Laws of God. When that happens, the spiritual person must put the Laws of God before the laws of Man. Between those two are the laws of nature. We would also be wise to obey the laws of nature as much as possible, even when they conflict with Man’s law. We don’t need to worry about the laws of nature conflicting with the Laws of God, they never do.

Reading Sacred Writings

Like obeying the law, reading scripture is usually a good thing, but not always. If you read scripture with no comprehension of what it means, or your read it without even trying to understand it, then reading it is pointless. Perhaps even worse than reading sacred books without comprehension is reading them with a false comprehension, something which is unfortunately common today. Most of humanity has become so material oriented that we interpret everything in a material and literal way. When you do that with scripture, you almost always end up wit nonsense. The holy ones who wrote scripture knew that true spiritual teachings were dangerous in the hands of materialistic or evil people, so they generally wrote in allegory or other kinds of code. If you don’t have some understanding of the codes they used, you will get a false understanding.

Tongue did not Turn

I think this allegory is one that is easy to understand. When the author says his tongue “did not turn around corners’” he is simply saying that he did not lie, but always told the truth as he knew it. While this is definitely a good thing, there may be occasions when telling the truth is not the best thing to do. If telling the truth will hurt another person’s feelings, it may be best to tell a white lie or say nothing at all. If corrupt authorities ask you about the location of some innocent person they want to arrest, it is best to not answer, or tell a white lie. When the early Christian Martyrs were arrested, they were often tortured to get them to reveal the names and locations of other Christians. Most refused to do so, and that was as it should be.

Chided the Selfish

Here is where the person in the quote went wrong. Chiding the rich and powerful is rarely a good idea. If you are not in a position that prevents them from taking revenge, it is a bad idea. It is not that greed is acceptable, but trying to teach people something they are not ready to learn is pointless and likely to get you into trouble. Instead of chiding the rich and selfish, you could gently suggest to them that there is great joy in sharing, otherwise, it is generally best to keep those beliefs to yourself. Of course, it is always acceptable to speak in generalities and say things like “greed is not a good thing,” but don’t mention individuals or classes of people when doing so.

Likewise, chiding government officials for not doing their job can get one in trouble, depending on the type of government you are under.

Ego Trip

Most of all, when your idea of spiritual practice is to complain about the greedy, the corrupt, and those who oppose spiritual development, you are feeding your ego, not your spirit. That is why much of what this person did was not moving him forward in a spiritual way. The ego is not an enemy that needs to be destroyed, but it does need to be kept under control by an awakened Soul.