Hortus Conclusus

The Book on The Living God:

I know there will be many reading these words for whom the world being revealed in them seems far too alien; it disturbs their own view of the world, which they have cleverly conceived or obstinately ‘believe’ to be true, with the result that they reject with hostility what has come to them here – ‘not completely by chance’ –.

Their hostility towards it will hardly prevent reality from remaining as it is, always was and must be. – –

Be not deceived!

This is no fantasist depicting his dreams of ecstasy!

This is no poet wanting to describe his visions!

What is imparted here is secure guidance; every word is anchored in deepest reality!

Those who hitherto have been unable to know this reality can learn to do so; they will be shown the ‘path’ leading to this knowledge which far surpasses and encompasses all other knowledge. –

Everyone will do well from the very start to take into consideration that the primal elements of spiritual occurrence, illuminated in this book from many perspectives, are realities – much ‘more real’ than everything everyday speech calls ‘real’ – and that these realities exert their influence continually, even if earthly man knows nothing of them, – even though he might wish to refute their influence…

This will certainly have consequences for many who now hear of these things. However, they will only benefit themselves if they learn to see the ‘reality’ in its essence and thereafter no longer remain in doubt that what they until now have called their ‘picture of life’ was a mere deception, even if it appeared very ‘true’ to them, since they put their trust in the outer appearance, – even if they believed that the reflections of their thoughts were illuminated from the innermost part of their being. – – –

“Standing still is regressing” says a proverb, – but in truth standing still is much worse than regressing, for even regression can lead to the acquisition of new values denied to anyone who is too comfortable or stubborn to give up his ‘standpoint’ for the sake of seeking. – –

He who fears regression has every reason for being suspicious about trusting progress…

Unlimited progress here on earth does not exist!

All human development is subject to the laws of ebb and flow! –

Men in this day and age have lost much knowledge and many skills which their distant forebears once believed ‘could not be lost’. And in those areas where those forbears knew little and had little skill, today great knowledge and advanced skills have been attained.

Only, nature does not tolerate standing still!

“I would thou wert cold or hot! – So then because thou art lukewarm, I will spew thee out of my mouth!”

Thus spoke the ‘eternal’ law at all ages; even today it has not altered its words…

Those remaining spiritually in the dark still do not have the will to reach the light!

They certainly ‘would like’ to be in the light they hear others speak about, – but they still do not will it!

As soon as they truly will it, they have already set off on the ‘path’ leading to the light! –

If the light of the spirit is of ‘value’ to you, and you would dedicate all your strength to it, then you will surely one day be able to approach that light!

But as long as your spiritual eye lies under a thick blanket, it will be impossible for you to ‘see’!

Only your will, – not your ‘wish’ – can remove this thick blanket! – –

If you carry the will to reach the light within you, you will surely attain the light – regardless of whether you approach it as someone who is sober and careful or as one burning with passion. – –

Only a half-hearted will does not take you to your goal!

You cannot reach any external God throughout space and beyond all the stars who would hear your feeble pleas…

You must will to help yourself if you will that your God, who can only be reached by you within you, sends you sublime help according to the original determined order within him! –

All being is contained within your ‘I’; you create all appearance yourself, unconsciously from the powers of your ‘I’. – – –

You separated yourself from your God before your time on earth when you no longer recognised him in your ‘I’, because you sought yourself where – only your God could be found…

Thus ‘God’ became ‘another’ for you, and you became a ‘stranger’ to him. – – –

And now you split your ‘I’ in your mind, and it seems to you there is a ‘higher’ and a ‘lower’ ‘I’ hidden within you, since you do not know the extent of your undivided, indivisible ‘I’.

Yet there is no ‘higher’ and no ‘lower’ I in you; in your one ‘I’ is hidden all endlessness; it encompasses the deepest depths and the highest heights in the spiritual world…

You must make the choice yourself – and you ‘choose’ here only by deeds – what you want to reveal to yourself in your ‘I’…

In your own endlessness, – in the centre of being contained by your ‘I’ – your ‘God’ will then be ‘born’ to you anew! – – –

Even then you will experience him at first as another being, until you recognise that he comprehends you in your complete undivided ‘I’. – – –