The Great Gospel of John
Volume 3
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi
- Chapter 182 -
The reach of mental understanding.
Here I sit up quite alert again and say with a very friendly face to Philopold, "Oh, by no means!"
2
Your observation about the difference between an angel and a true person of this Earth is quite right; it is very accurate how you have summarized things and developed them quite superbly. My gentle dozing was only a consequence of the bodily tiredness; for we have now worked for almost two full nights!
3
But since you are such a true platonic sage, explain to us now the actual reason for My descent into the flesh of this Earth!
4
What I am in the spirit and was since eternity, you know; but that I also have a body with flesh and blood like any other person, that you see and feel as well as everyone here at this table.
5
Why did I clothe Myself with a mortal shell? Why did the original reason for all existence and life clothe himself in a shell of obvious mortality?! Must it be so, or is this only a whim of the eternal spirit of God which is in Me and resides and works? If you can uncover these things satisfactorily, you shall receive a token of wisdom from the heavens even in this life!"
6
Philopold says, "Lord, to be honest, I suspect it, and my night of life is beginning to dawn like early morning, obviously through the gift of Your mercy, oh Lord! Yes, I feel the endless greatness of what is to be disclosed; but the words fail me!
7
Things cannot be explained with an eon of earthly wisdom; one would have to have the native language of the spirits, and this would have to be understood by everyone, otherwise one would be speaking to deaf ears.
8
But firstly, where should one find such a language, and secondly how could one give the people the correct understanding?! Look, oh Lord, in my opinion those are very essential things, without which a very high revelation of wisdom is totally and utterly impossible!
9
But nonetheless I feel very acutely the great and blessedly wonderful truth in me; but I also feel the fullest impossibility of clothing this greatest and most blessed of all truth in our pitiful words for the purpose of correct understanding. You, oh Lord, will mercifully see this reason and therefore dispense me with such a very most enormously high and great revelation of wisdom!"
10
I say, "Ah, that is vain, so much is not needed as you think! In the brain, where the soul usually harvests its wisdom, you will certainly find the appropriate words with difficulty; but in the heart it is all the more so, since that is the carrier of the spirit from the heart of God.
11
Seek then, and you will find that even the greatest depth of wisdom can be revealed for everyone with the simplest and shortest words in the world much better than with the high words of Solomon's wisdom! What use is this Song of Songs if you understand it as little at the thousandth reading as at the first?!
12
But Solomon had to write like that because it was not yet the time then to completely reveal the deepest secrets of heaven to the incapable people, who were still completely devoid of the spirit in their hearts, but to give them only hidden pointers in order to make their souls keen for what was to come. But there was no talk of understanding the texts.
13
For Solomon understood just as little of his Song of Songs as you do; for had he understood it, he would not have sinned and would not have become a complete idolater and adulterer a thousand times over.
14
But what he wrote through the spirit of God, which passed through his soul in certain moments, is nonetheless God's pure word - but not given to be understood with the brain, but with the capable spirit in the heart from God, which has only been placed in the hearts of a few people as exceptions in this time since My descent, so that they will recognize Me and understand Me, for their own sake and for the sake of many other yet spiritless people.
15
But in your heart the mentioned spirit has already been laid like an embryo in the lap of a mother; you only have to look around a little in your own heart and you will find the spirit from God already in you, and this will then lend you words with which you can easily reveal to this table what I have asked you."
16
Philopold says, "Lord! That would all be very correct, and it may well be that I can find the key in my heart; but for You, oh Lord, it would be a very easy thing to reveal this deep secret to us, and we would then be Your very most attentive listeners. But for me it would be something terribly difficult, and in the end I might be completely laughed at, and with reason!"
17
I say, "Oh, not at all, firstly it is within My order that I should be revealed also by you people quite freely, in order to have a purpose in your lives, and secondly things are not at all as difficult as you imagine in your brain.
18
I could very well tell you and others, and you would also understand Me if it was necessary; but your soul would store it just as well as everything else for your brain alone, where it would then be of no use to your soul. For what the soul stores in the palace of its brain, dies and passes away in time along with the brain; what use then can the spirit draw from what has happened and what has stopped existing?!
19
But if you develop such a thing from your heart, it will then remain there for ever in something that is eternal, namely your spirit, and likewise through that forever in your soul; but what the brain seizes, passes away, and nothing is left of all the worldly wisdom in the soul when it one day leaves the body.
20
Therefore you must all take everything to heart and bind it in your heart and reveal it; for what the brain creates is suitable only for the passing life on this world and for the mortal body.
21
Soul and spirit do not need this; they need no earthly clothing, no house, no field and no vineyard. All cares from the recognition of the brain is directed at the covering of the bodily needs which unfortunately have such a high degree among the people that they can never be counted and even less achieved for the largest part of humanity.
22
The earthly intelligence of the brain can therefore never accept and understand something purely spiritual, because it has been given to man only for the necessary care for his body. Such a thing can only be done by the divine spirit in the heart; it must therefore be practiced from early on. Once it has reached some degree of solidity, the correct order in life will have been as good as established; and so just try to unfold what I demand of you, and your spirit will gain a great advantage!"