The Great Gospel of John
Volume 3
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi
- Chapter 42 -
Soul and spirit.
Mathael, who has clearly heard these words, says, "Make your soul as free as possible from all ties to the world, and then you will soon understand very easily from where a soul can quickly achieve the greatest wisdom! But as long as the soul lies yet firmly buried in the old heap of the decay of death, which is your body, there can be no discussion and no comprehension of any special divine wisdom!
2
There, a few steps in front of us, you can see a tree stump which seems to be firmly stuck in the earth. Go there and sit on it, and I give you my word that you will not move it from the spot even after many years; only when it becomes rotten and totally brittle will you fall to the earth along with it. But if you cannot separate yourself then from your favorite seat, you will then certainly decay along with it in the end; for everything that is dead must first be completely destroyed, if it is to cross over to any sphere of life again. But if you go down to the water, get onto a boat, untie it, raise the sail and take hold of the rudder, in this way you will no longer remain on one spot, but instead you will soon reach a new land in which you will learn many new things and enrich the treasure chamber of experience. You see, as long as you look after your flesh and your sweet and comfortable life, you will sit on that stump and cannot move on; but if you completely give up the overwhelming worry about your flesh, and only concern yourself with what affects the life of the soul and its spirit, you board the ship of life and will soon move on. Do you understand this image?"
3
Suetal says, "What did you just say about a spirit in the soul? The soul is what one calls the spirit, isn't it?!"
4
Mathael says, "Yes, friend, if you don't know yet that a spirit of all life lives in every soul, you can certainly not understand from where my little bit of wisdom comes! You know, it is still difficult to talk to you; for with your open ears you hear nothing and likewise with your open eyes you see nothing!
5
The soul is only a receptacle of life from God, but by no means life itself; for if it was life itself, which ox of a prophet could ever pretend to know anything about the achievement of eternal life, or on the other hand about a possible eternal death? But since the soul can only achieve eternal life on the path of true divine virtue, as can be proven by very many examples, it cannot possibly be life itself, instead only a vessel to hold life.
6
What one calls the spirit of God and actual life is only a little spark in the centre of the soul. This little spark must be nourished with spiritual food which is the pure Word of God. Through this food, the little spark becomes larger and more powerful in the soul, finally it even takes on the human form of the soul, fills the soul finally once and for all and in the end it transforms the whole soul into its being; then the soul itself becomes complete life which recognizes itself as such in all profundity.
7
When life fully recognizes itself in this way and becomes quite clearly aware of it, it recognizes the truth in its foundations; but as long as that is not the desired case, there can be no talk of wisdom!
8
True wisdom is the light of the spirit in the eye of the soul; but if a soul still asks what the spirit is in it - where should the light of the spirit and of all life come from into its otherwise completely blind eye?"
9
Suetal says, "I beg you, friend, stop talking like this and pause for a moment until I become more receptive to this; for I see very well now that I am still much too stupid and blind for this! But we all want to take as active a note of your present instruction as possible! For I now see that you are completely correct; but to understand your deepest wisdom quite thoroughly requires great preparation which was completely impossible for us until now! But as I said, we want to become very strong disciples for you!"