The Great Gospel of John
Volume 10
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord in the region of Caesarea Philippi (cont.)
- Chapter 22 -
The composition of the human soul.
But that a human soul, and correspondingly even his at first very clumsy body, are put together in this way, everyone who thinks and feels more deeply will more or less be able to assume from the many indications that he can discover with himself.
2
Take the great many various notions and ideas that a soul can develop out of himself with only little training, and which he also can imagine - correctly or less correctly, that is for the moment the same - if he would not be as if put together, like a unity that contains everything in itself, he would as less as an ox or a donkey be capable to design the construction of a royal castle and build it according to that design.
3
If you consider all the various animals in the air, like the insects and birds, as well as the animals on the solid surface of the Earth, and those in the water, then you will discover with most of them the capability to build something. Just look at the bees and other little animals in the air that more or less look like it. Look at the very various nests of the birds, and the ants and still other insects in the soil, the spiders and the caterpillars. Furthermore all sorts of mouse, the beaver that builds a precise hut, the foxes, wolves, bears and still a great number of other animals, and see how they build and arrange their habitations very efficiently for themselves. Look furthermore at the various animals in the sea, especially the crustaceans. Then you will see with them such great capability to build that it often even very much amazes the best architect.
4
Now, every animal, from the smallest to the biggest, has of course its own very simple building capability that is typical to the intelligence of its animal soul. It moreover knows the building material and always uses it in its own way and manner. But in the human soul a very large number of all those animal-intelligent building capabilities are present, and from them, he can, as it were through a silent awareness, put also a very large number of concepts and ideas together, and so he can create completely new and great forms.
5
And so man can, when he is somehow developed, personally invent all kinds of houses in a very large variety, and countless other things, and also accomplish them with his will, reason and zeal. Could he do that if in his soul all those various capabilities would not be present in the manner that was described? Certainly not, for even the next most intelligent animal after man has no imagination and has therefore also no all-embracing talent to give form to things.
6
Now you say by yourself: 'Yes, but why must a human soul actually acquire those abilities by means of such a long and weary way?'
7
And I say to you: the eternal, best and most wise Master Builder of all things and beings knows best of all why He has planned it that way on this Earth for the development of a perfected human soul, and My word in this should be sufficient for you. When you will be more perfected in yourself, you will also realize the reason for your long and weary way.
8
You Romans, the Greeks and the Phoenicians and also the Egyptians believed in the migration of the soul, and still believe in it today, just like the Persians, Indians, the Sihinites on the other side of the high mountains in the vast, big and far east, and another large people that live further to the east on big islands that are surrounded by the greatest sea of this Earth - and also still many other tribes on the vast Earth. But the truth, which was very well known by the first fathers of the Earth, is distorted everywhere and completely wrong because in course of time very imperious men stood up. They were teachers at first but later became priests full of greediness and lust for power. Because the true facts about the migration of the souls would not yield any offerings and interest to them, and that is why they let the human souls migrate again in the animals and let them suffer in those animals, out of which suffering only the priests could deliver them in return of great offerings."