The Great Gospel of John
Volume 2
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus in the Vicinity of Caesara Philippi (Matthew 16)
- Chapter 185 -
The angel's manner of teaching.
Here the boy Josoe, now much more robust of appearance, steps over to Me and says: "Lord and life of all life, I am fully well, and still continue to enjoy eating and drinking; but I am not too happy with the angel, who visits me from Sychar for a few moments every three days, because he always has something to object to everything I say to him! I certainly like to be tutored about whatever is good, true and useful; but if to-day someone says to me that one pear and another pear is two pears, but then will not admit to it the next time I'm holding him to his own words, and then tries to saddle me up with one pear and another pear being three, four, five or even an unlimited number of pears; and that one and one is not only two but can be any imaginable number, - then I always get somewhat annoyed, falling out with my spiritual teacher and mentor nearly every time! Because on his next visit, nothing ever counts which only the previous time he presented to me as the most solid truth. In short, he sometimes comes up with things against which every hair on my head bristles! Wherefore I would like to beg You, Lord over all heavens and worlds, to tell my spiritual counsellor from Sychar to proceed with me more sensibly - or he can in future spare me his visits!"
2
Say I: "Ah, My dear Josoe, just put up with him! He is initiating you into the proper wisdom of the heavens; for the spirits' calculations are quite different from those of this world! If I were to speak to you in the manner of the heavens, then you would understand nothing; but, as a man of flesh and blood now Myself I speak with people about spiritual things merely in the fashion of this Earth, and behold, people are offended in Me because they don't understand Me, - and many don't intend to! Your occasional spiritual teacher is instructing you correctly, but you shall begin to grasp his doctrine more vividly only in your senior years, and fully in the beyond, where no carnal dulling of your pure soul shall occur!- Have you understood Me?"
3
Says Josoe: "Oh indeed, Lord of infinity; Yourself I can understand more easily than my spiritual teacher! But when same says to me that fundamentally, anger and love are all the same, then everything in me goes topsy curvy, as also when he states that at the deepest level, heaven and hell are all the same! Let whoever will grasp this; this is the most immense contradiction for my intellect!"
4
Say I: "There too the angel is right, and it is so! I shall give you a lucid example, and you are bound to see the thing more clearly, and so hearken unto Me!
5
Behold the sun: when on some winter days it feels really pleasant and mild, how it then quickens you; but when upon the African deserts, its glowing ray starts to melt even the white sand and you were to journey in such sunshine, then it would become your hell! Do you understand that?"
6
Says Josoe: "Certainly!"
7
Continue I: "Good, hearken further! After a hot day, night certainly is the exhausted mankind's greatest friend and benefactress; but let us permit the benefactress to last just thirty days, and all men shall begin to curse and condemn it! Because such long night would transform the Earth into such numbing freeze up, that ultimately no organic life could persist! Behold, there too, mankind's great benefactress once again would become your hell!
8
If journeying on a hot day, thirst begins to torment you, and you come upon a rich fountain of water, what heavenly quickening from such quenching from a pure fountain! But deeper down in the valley, the same water has accumulated into a wide and deep lake. Falling in, you find unavoidable death! Behold once more: the very water that had quickened you so celestially upon an alpine road, shall kill you in the deep lake, becoming your temporary hell!
9
Furthermore, you enjoy drinking an occasional small beaker of good wine; but drink an entire skinful all at once and the wine shall kill you, once again becoming your hell!
10
You are fond of climbing a high mountain, and the extensive views quicken your heart. But let a mountain fall upon you and it will kill you and become your hell once more!
11
When on a hot day the wind gently cools your brow, how it quickens your entire soul! However, let it turn into a storm that starts to uproot the trees, shall it still quicken you? Certainly not! For you shall flee for shelter. And so the previously quickening wind shall become your hell again!
12
Therefore, in all things, man is given a certain measure according to his strength, being and state. If he remains within, he is in the right order in which God has placed him, and everything which surrounds him, is 'heaven' to him; however, when he in whatever oversteps this order and places a world on his weak shoulders, it will crush him and become 'hell' for him!
13
And as such a right measure in all things is for people as it is for spirits a 'heaven'; however, too much of the same things is therefore for people as well as spirits a complete 'hell'! - Do you understand that now
14
Says Josoe: "Yes, now of course I understand it well, and it makes me overjoys! - But why does my spiritual teacher not clarify his doctrine, so that I would understand it like that?!"
15
Say I: "This too has its wise reason! If your spiritual teacher were to make everything as lucent as that, you would never reflect on anything, and ultimately achieve no independence; in that way however he makes you think, and independent, and behold, that is the right celestial method of teaching! When it becomes necessary and you shall have achieved the right maturity, then your spiritual guide shall also add lucent images for every doctrine; but you have to beforehand become spiritually active, or you could not possibly ever grasp the deeper truths of celestial wisdom! - Are you now completely in the clear?"
16
Says Josoe: "Yes Lord, now I understand where I stand with my spiritual teacher from Sychar, and I am generating great love towards him!"
17
Says I: "And this love shall provide you with examples! - But now something for our bodies is on the way; Marcus' wife, sons and daughters are coming with loads of food and drinks! Let you all eat according to need and fortify yourselves, that you may neither hunger nor thirst; for none is to ever hunger or thirst in My proximity and all should be fully satiated, physically and spiritually!"
18
Cyrenius and the lad Josoe have already been hungering and thirsting, and are tucking into it themselves; neither are the company waiting to be asked, but are heartily emulating Cyrenius.