The Great Gospel of John
Volume 7
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord on the Mount of Olives. (cont.) Gospel of John, Chapter 8
- Chapter 76 -
The liberation from matter.
Said Agrikola: "See, it has already become significantly brighter in me, and I remember now some of the sentences of the old wise Plato. He searched for a long time for the spiritual being of God and finally one day he had a vision as in a bright dream. There it was indicated to him that he will see the spiritual being of God. - It then seemed to him that everything around him became fire and light. He himself felt like completely dissolved, but without losing his fullest consciousness. In this fire he did not feel any burning, but only a mighty, highly delightfully pleasing love- and life warmth, and a voice similar to the purest harmony of a melodious lyre spoke out of the sea of fire and light to him: 'See and feel the spiritual being of God, and see and feel yourself in Him and through Him!' And Plato saw his form as a man but also saw around him countless forms like himself. Within these forms he discovered in smallest pictures countless other forms, which, however, altogether presented only one form of a person. And see, your explanation has a great resemblance with the vision of the great wise of the world, who is very famous in all of the educated world!
2
Now, the fire and light seen by Plato, he surely hasn't seen with his carnal eyes, but only with the eyes of his spirit, and thus I think by myself: If I once have become more spiritual, then I also will see, just like Plato, the same fire and light, what he has seen and felt. - Did I judged this correctly or incorrectly?"
3
Said Raphael: "Oh, you judged this very much correct and right, and to this I can say nothing else except this: The matter is more or less like this! However, Plato was a heathen and was not able to get to that clear view and observation, which a person according to the teaching of God the Lord can achieve. But in order to give you a few very convincing proofs about the only true and most real something of the spirit, I will entertain you with some experiments of the pure spirit, and as such pay very close attention to everything, what I with the most merciful admission of the Lord will show you!
4
See, what surrounds us here, is pure, very transparent air, and you can exert your senses as much as you like, but you will not see anything in it except perhaps a large number of mosquitoes and all kinds of flies swarming about, here and there a bigger beetle or even a bird! But I will only for a short period of time open the inner sight of your soul, and you will be amazed about all the things you will see in this our atmospheric air."
5
Said Agrikola: "Heavenly friend, do this, and what is useful to me, will be within a short time useful to many thousands!"
6
Said Raphael: "Very good, I only need to want it, and you are already standing at the point where I want you to be. - What are all the things you see in the air?"
7
Said Agrikola: "Ah, listen, this is indescribable! This endless number of beings, plants, animals, landscapes and even people! And I also see a countless number of very small luminous worms twitching and floating back and forth, then here and then there a bundle of them seize each other, and within a moment it is transformed into a new form; but it doesn't last long and changes immediately into another form. Everywhere is light, it is just that things does not have duration and continuously change again; only a few forms hold on to the shape they have become. No, by looking at this, even the most level headed person must become dizzy!
8
Yes, what are these zillion times zillions luminous tiny worms, and what are these countless continuously newly formed shapes and figures of all kind? And if I grab them and try to hold on to such form or figure, I hold absolutely nothing in my hand! Ah, this is truly a deception of life!"
9
Said Raphael: "Now, just wait a little longer, and soon you will have something more permanent!"
10
Then came all kind of birds and even fish, like swimming in the air, into close vicinity of the Roman, and he caught a bird and a very strange fish and held both in his hands.
11
After catching them, he (Agrikola) said to the angel: "Listen, you my heavenly friend, I have already made my catch! Make, that I see the air in its natural state, and I want to convince myself, if I still hold the bird and the fish in my hands!"
12
Said the angel: "Oh, this can be done for you! See, you are already back in the natural air and can have a closer look at your catch!"
13
Agrikola was back in his natural state, and immediately wanted to have a closer look at his bird and his fish; but there was neither a bird nor any fish in his hand.
14
Thereby amazed, Agrikola asked the angel by saying: "Yes, what happened to the bird and the fish? Where are they now? My whole viewing was, nevertheless, nothing more than a dream than something of a full reality!"
15
Said the angel: "Or just vice versa! Just now you were closer to the true reality, than you are now! You still have your bird and your fish, but not in your flesh hand, but in the hand of your soul, and I say to you, and I say to you that these animals which are corresponding to you, you will not leave them so soon and neither will they leave you; because see, you have back home in Rome as an old descendent of the patricians a shield on which outer side an identical bird with an ear in its beak and an identical fish with a worm in its mouth is pictured in gold, and since you still regard such worldly signs of honor as quite important, you will not very soon get rid of them.
16
You have seen with the eyes of your soul quite a few figures and forms in the actual air - these were appearances, corresponding with your new experiences -; but you were not able to hold on to them as yet. And as your own thoughts continuously changed therein and be transformed and degenerated in all kinds of shapes, in the same manner they presented themselves visually to your soul; but your bird and fish of honor on your shield continued to stay fixed and unchanged in your soul hand - which corresponds with the want and desire of the soul to the outside -, and if you want to see it in its natural state, I can also do that for you."
17
Said Agrikola: "If this is also possible for you, then do it! I want to see if this is my bird and my fish! Perhaps I then could more easily get rid of such worldly stupidity."
18
Said the angel: "Look at your hands and you will see your worldly signs of honor!"
19
Here Agrikola looked at his hands and noticed in his right hand a bird, a kind of phoenix, and in his left a kind of small dolphin. He was immensely astonished about this appearance and immediately asked the angel, how he could rid himself soonest of these tiresome animals.
20
Said the angel: "You can very easily get rid of these two to you completely useless animals, by turning your heart completely away from them and directing it completely towards the Lord. If you can do that, then those two animals will shortly completely leave your soul. And see, I want them to be gone! And see, your hands are free again. Now I have shown to you everything what the inner truth can more and more illuminate for you; anything further you must from now search and find in yourself."