The Great Gospel of John
Volume 6
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
At the Sea of Galilee (John 6)
- Chapter 85 -
The art of living.
After the agreement we were invited for a meal and stepped into a dining hall which did not have its equal in Jerusalem. In the centre of the hall stood a large table made from cedar wood, covered with all kinds of food and the noblest of wines. We sat down and ate and drank. Since the earlier bought bread loafs were not good and also quite small, just like the poorly prepared fish, - we only ate very little of it.
2
During the meal not much was said; but when the good wine loosened the tongue of the guests, it began lively around the table. I however did not speak since I was sitting between the awakened son and his father; they had a too big reverence for Me and did not dared to bother Me while I Myself was eating and drinking.
3
However, when I said that I had sufficiently ate and drank, only then did the tax collector asked Me, how it was possible for Me, to even give back live to a dead person; since something like that was never heard before on this earth.
4
But I said to him: "Friend, the spirit of man, once awakened in a proper manner, discovers many secrets, and if fully awakened in the full light, he also discovers the great secret of life and recognizes, that he is the originator of all life. But it is the greatest art of life, to find and recognize oneself as such!
5
You also live and think and want and become active according to your thinking and will; but you do not know what life is, how it thinks and how it wills and how it makes the limbs correspondingly active. But who in himself has found all this and recognized it, is also a true master of his life, and also of the life of his fellow-man and can then do what I have done to your son. Yes, he can do even more: See, he can make himself absolutely immortal!
6
If by the current blindness, selfishness, greed, jealousy and power-greed of the people one would arrest and even kill Me, it will not be of any use to the evil people; since before three days have passed, I will awaken Myself from death again, and continue to live forever and do even greater things than now. - This what I now have told you, is so true and so certain, as it is true that your son Jorabe was dead and is now totally alive again. Do you believe this?"
7
Said the tax collector: "That you do not tell me any untruthfulness, I am fully convinced of; since firstly my son lives through the power of your secret life art, which is the result of your science, and secondly also the old, wise Greeks have set up such teachings. However, if they ever have penetrated with their spirit to the great secret of life, I do not know and also can't recall ever having read or heard something about it.
8
The fables about our gods and half-gods do of course tell us about some miracle which they were supposed to have performed; but who of only a little reason, can belief something like that?! Also in the mystic writings a lot is said about an almighty God who is surrounded by a countless number of all kinds of very powerful spirits, who most punctual carry out his orders in the whole of the universe. They are not visible to man, just like God, but still have the most perfect mind and an almightiest will. It is said that many hundred years ago they have showed themselves to devout people, like to the old Greeks their gods and especially the half-gods.
9
If thinking calmly and impartially about it, one can conclude that finally the gods- and life teachings of the Greek and Jews are culminating in one and the same. Everything is shrouded into an impenetrable darkness, and irrespective through how much trouble the greatest wise of all times and all nations went, they nevertheless were not able to lift the extremely fateful veil of Isis, and we mortals are still standing on the same disentangled Gordian knot, where our ancestors have stood many thousands of years ago.
10
You would now be the sole and only who truly has disentangled this knot, and as such I want to ask you, as a true master of life, to show me and actually all of us the great art, how one most certainly understands the secret of life, recognizes it and finally becomes a master of life himself. You have apparently brought it so far and thus also must know the means and ways quite well. Since you must know them, it would be a great mercy from you to us, if you would show such to us.
11
This request from me to such a great artist is quite exceptionally audacious, since every true artist regards his art as his most valuable property and also must regard it as such and also I quite well know, that even the greatest art loses its value, if it becomes generally known and practised among the people; but since such your art at least for the better part of mankind would be foremost a main life question and by its certain solution would bring man the greatest and incalculable life's fortune, I truly would like to give you three quarters of my biggest treasures, if you only could reveal to me a few hints, how to certainly attain this secret for the benefit of the people. You would surly not loose anything by it and we would profit from it infinitively! - What do you think, great master, to such my proposal?"