“Perils and misfortunes, struggle, disappointment and pain are more or less the certain lot of every man. Therefore, it is meet that every man be fortified with courage and fortitude, that he may bear with appropriate resolution his allotted share of the burden of mankind.

“ As the ass plods along, laboring under its burden and suffering heat and thirst through the dangers of the burning sands of the wilderness, and falters not, so must the courage and fortitude of man sustain

him through the dangers of life, which beset his way.

“The timid man listens to the cry of his body; his limbs tremble, and his stomach turns to water. His littleness of heart has no place for courage and audacity.

“The courageous man is one of God’s men. He listens to his heart; his face is bold and his blow sure. His fierce countenance and audacious plans overwhelm his adversary. His opponent passes into his

possession; his wife walks abroad with confidence and sleeps soundly.

“The courageous man is never the slave of change and chance. His pleasures and contentment do not depend on the whims of fickle fortune; her smiles and frowns alike leave him unmoved, for he is alert and prepared to take on whatever comes his way.”

-The Kolbrin Bible(MPR:21:1-5)

Perils and Misfortunes

Perils, misfortunes, pain and disease, hunger, and death are all part of life in the physical world, and even the most spiritual people can’t avoid them. Being spiritual can help to some degree, but none of us can avoid the misfortunes entirely. There are techniques we can use to get the Light of the Sun to help us heal when we are injured or sick, but we do get injured and sick.

Fortified with Courage

Just like others, we spiritual people do need to be fortified with courage so we can deal with those perils and misfortunes of life. In addition, we need courage and fortitude to help us deal with the attacks we face from the forces and beings of Darkness. That is one reason why it is good to belong to a spiritual community rather than being on our own. When we have weak moments when our courage fails us, the other members of the community can help keep us on the right path.

The Timid and the Courageous

It is true that the timid or weak person will easily give in to the demands of the physical body. They will baby themselves when sick, avoid working when tired, etc. As the quote says, even the ass plods along under a heavy load, even in the hot sand. While that may be an exaggeration, it makes the point that only the give easily give up in the face of adversity. The courageous person does not give in readily, and those are the people God wants to be His Chosen. Being Chosen doesn’t mean you get to cruise through this life and the afterlife. The Chosen need to work hard to help bring about the changes God wants in the world and the entire universe of matter. What’s more, is that great prophets have said that before we get to the Golden Age of Light on earth, we must go through a period of great darkness. It is somewhat like having to turn over rocks to reveal the slimy creatures dwelling under them so that the Light of the Sun can burn them up. That doesn’t mean that great numbers of people must die. It means that they will gradually have the evil “burned” out of them by the sun, until they awaken to their true Self. But during the time of Darkness, there will be some who die, that cannot be avoided. That is another misfortune we spiritual people will have to deal with.

“The wise man is less presumptuous than the fool. He has many doubts and changes his mind, for as wisdom grows, knowledge alters.

“The fool fixes his mind in obstinacy; he is stubborn, and doubt does not disturb his placidity. He knows all things, except his own ignorance. The wise man is aware of his imperfections and continually strives for improvement. The fool forever counts his own small talents and is content. He boasts of his achievements in things which are of no account.

“Thistledown floats on water for all to see, but a gemstone sinks below the surface. So does the fool shout his abilities to the wind, while a wise man keeps them hidden within himself. The goose brings forth its egg while at rest, and the tail of the peacock is displayed while it stands still. The deep, still pool holds the biggest fish, and the resting cow gives the most milk. So it is with the quiet man, who within himself, produces a fountain of strength at which lesser men drink and find refreshment and courage.

“The heart of a fool flutters at a vain hope, but the wise man puts it behind him. Fools snap at one another, but wise men agree in peace.

“Let reason rule all your desires, and let not your hopes reach out beyond the limits of probability. Thus, the chances of success bear down in your favor in the scales of fate, and your heart will not be burdened with disappointment.”

-The Kolbrin Bible (MPR:20:15-19)

Changes His Mind

When a wise man or woman is presented with new information about something they thought they knew, they are willing to listen and change their mind when appropriate. They do have to consider the source of the information. If the source is unreliable, then so is the information.

Obstinate Fool

The fool, on the other hand, stubbornly sticks to his beliefs no matter how much evidence there is to the contrary. He also does not consider the source of the information, and accepts statements from dubious sources.

Imperfections

The wise person is aware that they are not perfect (nobody is), so they strive for improvement. More significantly, the wise person seeks improvement in their spiritual Self, not just the physical. The fool rarely seeks improvement, and when they do, it is in physical matters that are far less important than spiritual growth.

Floats on Water

The fool loves to brag about his abilities, even if they are not great and are not truly things that matter. The quote compares that to a thistle floating on water. The gemstone, which represents the wise person, sinks. That is saying that the wise person doesn’t brag about his abilities, he simply does what he knows how to do and continues to learn how to do more.

Live in Peace

Wise people live together in peace. Even if other people speak a different language, practice a different religion, or have a different skin color. The wise person knows such things are superficial and should not be used as excuses to hate others. The foolish people look for anything that makes others different, and uses those things to hate them, refuse to help them, or even start wars with them. God never wanted people to hate each other. He wants all of us to live together in peace. The wise people strive to live according to God’s Law, the fool makes up his own laws to live by.

“If wisdom now be held in low esteem, it is not wisdom’s loss but the loss of man. Wisdom cries outside the palace and the hovel. She is heard in the streets and in the gathering places. Her voice says, “O fools and sons of fools, how long will you delight in your foolishness?” But the pleasure of fools is in their foolishness, and the pleasure of the weak is in their own weakness, and therefore, they scorn the voice of wisdom.

“Let the fool eat of his tree; it will provide no sustenance in times of evil. When the whirlwind sweeps across the face of the land, bringing destruction in its wake, fools will be swallowed up, and Earth will

be as if they had never been.

“The nature of life is such that the fool does not always fail, nor is the wise man always successful. Yet failure will always be the attendant of fools and success the servant of the wise. But how is earthly success or failure measured in regions greater than Earth?

“Wisdom is the food of the soul. The wise man nourishes his soul, and it grows in beauty and strength. The fool starves his soul, and it shrivels and is distorted by weakness.

“He who has grown to wisdom never acts but at wisdom’s command. To some has been granted the ability to soak up wisdom, as the sand soaks up water. If this be your gift from God, then hug it not to your own breast as would the mean man. Share it with those who are less wise for their instruction, and hide it not from the wise, for they will multiply it.”

-The Kolbrin Bible (MPR:20:10-14)

Wisdom in Low Esteem

Wisdom is held in low esteem today. Conservatives refer to those who seek spiritual development as “Woke,” a word that they say as if it were something evil instead of being the best thing that could happen to a person. As the quote says, it is Man’s loss, not Wisdom’s. Wisdom will continue to exist without Man. It is true, however, that if few people seek the Spiritual Light of the Spiritual Sun, that Light will go out again, and humanity will be trapped in a world of materialism.

The Pleasure of Fools

The material pleasures that are sought by fools are hard to resist. Even some who have started down the path of Spiritual Enlightenment can fall to the temptations of the material world when the Evil Ones whisper lies in their ears. That is why it is best for those developing their Spiritual Self to do so as part of a group that can help protect them from failure.

When the Whirlwind Sweeps

The whirlwind that sweeps away the material world is not an ordinary whirlwind. This is an allegorical reference to the power of God that will gradually change the world and the entire realm of matter, back into Spirit as it was in the beginning. Most of us have seen videos of people clinging to trees near the shore when a huge tidal wave is approaching, instead of going to higher ground where they will be safe. That is much like those who will cling to the material world as it disappears around them instead of making the effort to become Spiritual Beings.

Wisdom is the Food of the Soul

It is not true that wisdom is the food of the soul, although it is understandable why the Kolbrin Bible says this. It is God’s Light that feeds the Soul, but only those who seek wisdom through Spiritual Development gain access to that light. It is true that the Light of the Sun of Righteousness shines on all of us, but only those who seek it with the proper attitude of love and humility can absorb it in any significant amount. So continue to seek Wisdom and Spiritual Light, and do what you can to help others awaken.

“Only through the building up of a moral world order by intelligent self-conscious individuals can the world process be led towards its goal. … True existence is the incarnation of the Godhead; the world process is the Passion of the incarnated Godhead and at the same time the way of redemption for Him who was crucified in the flesh; morality, however, is the collaboration in the shortening of this path of suffering and redemption. Here, man does not act because he wants to, but he shall act because it is God’s will to be redeemed. Whereas the materialistic dualist makes man an automaton whose actions are only the result of a purely mechanical system, the spiritualistic dualist (that is, one who sees the Absolute, the Being-in-itself, as something spiritual in which man has no share in his conscious experience) makes him a slave to the will of the Absolute. As in materialism, so also in one-sided spiritualism, in fact, in any kind of metaphysical realism inferring but not experiencing something extra-human as the true reality, freedom is out of the question.

“Metaphysical as well as naïve realism, consistently followed out, must deny freedom for one and the same reason: they both see man as doing no more than putting into effect, or carrying out, principles forced upon him by necessity. Naive realism destroys freedom by subjecting man to the authority of a perceptible being or of one conceived on the analogy of a perceptible being, or eventually to the authority of the abstract inner voice which it interprets as “conscience”; the metaphysician, who merely infers the extra-human reality, cannot acknowledge freedom because he sees man as being determined, mechanically or morally, by a “Being-in-itself”.

-Rudolf Steiner

Moral World Order

It is true that we need to build up a moral world order in order to reach that state where the world can be one with the Godhead. Unfortunately, the number of people doing that is quite small, although growing. It is God’s Will that humanity be redeemed, but God is not going to force us to do so. God gave us a certain degree of free will so that we can choose to serve Him, or not. Without that free will, we would be little more than automatons doing what we are programmed to do.

Materialist and Spiritualist

The materialist acts according to what is happening in the physical realm, with no regard for the spiritual. As a result, they lack empathy and humility and are likely to be greedy and unkind. Most of them don’t believe in an afterlife. A few do, but their idea of an afterlife is probably something very similar to life in the material realm. You can see example of this on social media where they post memes of dogs with the message “This is what I think Heaven is,” or an image of fishing with the text, “I hope the fishing is good in Heaven”. None of that shows Heaven as the spiritual place that it truly is.

On the other hand, the pure spiritualist concentrates so much on the spiritual that he becomes ineffective in the physical realm. They may find it impossible to keep a job or to stay physically healthy.

Neither of these extremes is good. We all need to know that there is a God and we must obey his will, even in the physical realm. We must also recognize that while we are in the physical realm, we need to function in it to the best of our abilities.

“The first step towards being wise is to acknowledge the extent of your ignorance. Concern yourself with the vast amount of knowledge that you lack, and place no undue importance on that, which you possess. As womanly loveliness is best displayed in a modest garment, so is quiet behavior and unpretentious bearing best becoming the wise.

“Remember that all men are born equally into ignorance, and no man, whatever his estate, lacks the means to knowledge. True wisdom comes not from books and instruction but from observation and enquiry.

“The learned scribe knows a thousand books, but what knows he about the ways of the grasshopper? The knowledge of a gardener brings him more joy than does knowledge to a magistrate. The life of a wilderness wanderer depends not on his knowledge of books but on his knowledge of the ways of the wilderness.

“If you would not be deemed foolish in the eyes of others, then cast aside the desire to appear wise to your own edification. If you would appear wise among the foolish, then you will appear foolish among the wise.

“A wise man speaks but rarely, and each word is a precious stone. The fool pours forth a torrent of words, but they are all dross. Words spoken with calm forthrightness are burnished with the luster of Truth.

“The wise man turns a deaf ear to his own praise; he does not know his own worth and is the last in discovering the greatest of his achievements.

“No man is wise enough to know his own folly before he has committed it, but nothing is lost to the wise, for failure becomes his guide to success.”

-The Kolbrin Bible (MPR:20:1-7)

The First Step

The first step for gaining true wisdom is to admit that you are ignorant in certain ways, no matter how great a formal education you have. Formal education is good for learning about the physical world, but in most cases, teaches nothing about the spiritual. If they do have any classes on spirituality or religion, it is from the churches that have lost their way and embraced materialism. A good rule of thumb is that if a church or religion teaches that it is acceptable to kill other people under certain circumstances, such as when the government declares war, that is a lost church.

All Born Ignorant

Whether our parents are rich, poor, or middle-class, we are all born ignorant. We have to gradually learn about the world around us by observation, and by what our parents tell us. It is worth noting that very few infants are prejudice in any way, unless they have been taught prejudice by their parents. More importantly, we need to awaken our dormant spirit and develop our spiritual Self. Only by developing our Spirit can we gain True Wisdom, the kind that comes from God and was called Gnosis by the Gnostics.

Do not try to Appear Wise

No matter how wise you think you are, you should avoid trying to appear wise. One reason is because doing so indicates that you lack humility, and humility is needed for spiritual growth. Another reason is it may anger others and cause them to send negative energy towards you, which can cause harm.

Speak When You have Something to Say

I remember years ago, before I retired, that a manager told me after a staff meeting, that I rarely said anything during the meetings. He said that I needed to say more, even if it was trivial, just to show that I was participating. That is the attitude of the materialistic world. Spiritual people know it is better to remain silent if you have nothing significant to say, or if you realize that the people you are with would not listen to what you said anyway.

Not Wise Enough

None of us is wise enough to always know when we are making a bad decision. But the wise person learns from their bad decisions, and pledges to do better in the future.

“Each man’s life should leave its impress on Earth, and each man should depart a better man for having lived. Repine not for lost opportunities, for opportunity does not perish at death. Do your best here and

you will do better elsewhere. Be wise here, and you will be wiser in another place.

“Earthly success is not the measure of a man’s achievement, for a gain here may mean a loss elsewhere. An earthly loss may mean a spiritual gain; the scales are always just.

“When in old age you say, “Alas that life is short,” then consider the way you abused and wasted it in your youth, is not your reward fitting? Remember that the paths to pleasant old age are chosen in youth.

They are the paths of simplicity, moderation, cleanliness and virtue.

“Consider the ruthlessness of rulers, the greed of the rich and

the willfulness of the powerful. If these dare to enslave the Earth and wreck misery upon the people, knowing they can enjoy the fruits of their oppression but a brief span of years, what would they not set out to achieve were their span of life doubled or were they immortal?

“Therefore, the Great God in His wisdom has ordained the proper span of man’s life. If, then, you think life is short, why dissipate it so and why waste the precious days? Is it not economy, which makes a man rich, and not abundance?

“The wise man lives fully all his life, and he is always conscious of being alive. The fool is always beginning to live, and the weakling shrinks from it and seeks forgetfulness in comfort. Those who half

live are already half dead.”

-The Kolbrin Bible (MPR:4:33-38)

Leave an Impression

It is a good thing to leave an impression behind when our earthly life is over, provided that impression is positive. To leave an impression as a criminal, a liar, or a greedy person is not desirable, yet many choose to do so. As spiritual people, we should leave an impression of one who has helped people and the planet itself become more spiritual, as is God’s desire. At the very least, we should leave an impression of one who is kind, loving, generous, and helpful.

Repine Not

We should not fret over our mistakes or missed opportunities of the past, but instead, seek to do better in the present and the future. Very few of us have been spiritual since birth. We may have even gone through a period of being very materialistic. But if we learned our lesson and became more spiritual, we need not worry about the past. It is possible that we will have a karmic debt to pay, but it is possible that our good deeds of today will wipe out those debts. Also, as the quote says, if you do your best here, you will be able to do even more good in the afterlife.

Earthly Success

What most people consider success on earth is not true success at all. Having a lot of money or material possessions is not true success. Having political power is not real success. Those things are gone when you depart the earth, and wasting your time on them means you will probably do little to develop true success, which is the awakening and developing of the spiritual faculties. Earthly success is fleeting; spiritual success makes one immortal.

Span of Life

While it can be argued that if spiritual people lived longer, they could do more good, it is also true that if evil people lived longer, they would do more evil. Unfortunately, at this time the evil people in the world outnumber the good, so it is a good thing that physical life is limited to 120 years, at most. It is possible that in the future, when we become more spiritual, that may increase quite a bit. And it is not so much how long you live as how you live that matters. Sometimes, those who accomplish great things live short lives. So don’t be a fool and hide from life; embrace life, and use it as an opportunity to grow spiritually.