The Great Gospel of John
Volume 3
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi
- Chapter 95 -
On the process of education in ancient Egypt.
Mathael, with a very cheerful mood, since the very appropriate remark by the old man had really struck a chord with him, says, "Dearest friend Ouran! You have now spoken as a person from out of your natural side truly so wisely and as truly as possible, and it was dealing with the comprehension of new, previously never existent truths exactly as you have spoken about it. But on the other hand I must make the following counter remark: You see, in Egypt and exactly in the old schools of this kingdom, there was a most curious way of bringing up those children who belonged to the priests" class, which was basically not bad at all.
2
The new-born children were immediately put in underground, very spacious chambers into which the light of day could never penetrate. They were well looked after there and never saw any other light than the artificial light of some well constructed naphtha lamp, of which the Egyptians were known to be inimitably great masters. In such underground chambers the person had to remain until his twentieth year and received education from the beautiful upper or actually outside world which he had never seen however.
3
He created images in his fantasy of it as much as was possible; but he could not possibly make himself any true picture of the far expanse of the areas, and of the great light, namely of the sun, of the moon and of the countless stars, as well as from the strength of its light and its warmth.
4
Such a very cheerful disciple of the underground dark school rooms therefore had only sheer pieces of truths about the upper world and its relationships in his head, but he could not, despite all his industriousness and all his attentiveness, as one says, piece it all together.
5
Those were then also sheer individual solid and truthful building blocks whose joining together into a great palace was still significantly far off and naturally purely impossible in the underground chambers.
6
But if then such a disciple of the underworld had reached the demanded level of education according to the judgment of his teachers, it was shown to him that he would soon and directly through the mercy of God reach the illuminated upper world in whose light he would experience and learn more in a moment than in many hours in the dark underworld.
7
The disciple of the underworld looked forward to this very much, of course, although he would actually have to die in a very curious way first. Death consisted of a very deep sleep, while the disciple was brought into a magnificent palace of the upper world.
8
What wide eyes of amazement did the disciple make when he woke from his sleep for the first time and found himself in the divine light of the sun! How did he seem to himself in white clothes which were trimmed with red and blue stripes! How must the friendly, just as beautifully dressed people of both sexes seem to him! How did the well prepared new dishes taste to him! But what must his soul first feel when he came out from the friendly people into the open air, walked through the magnificent gardens there and breathed in their ambrosian smells, when he saw before him for the first time the whole of nature in concrete fullness, lit by the sun, before his above all human comprehension blissfully drunk eyes!
9
You see, from this picture that you can further imagine yourself in your own fantasy, you see your own present level of understanding as far as all the new truths are concerned that were revealed to you here!
10
What you now hear in the dark chambers in which your soul still exists, is only pieces and cannot be something whole and completed; but if your spirit is awakened in your soul through true love towards God the Lord, and from this love also a love for your neighbor, then you will look into the brightest light of life in your spirit and see all that in its fullest connections and there you will see an immeasurable sea of light full of the highest truth where you now are hardly capable of seeing an individual drop.
11
Our first and most preferable task will therefore be this: to make the spirit in the soul free and to bring the soul into its light; once we have achieved that, friend, then we will no longer need to collect little drops, but we will immediately have to do with the immeasurable seas full of the highest light of wisdom from God.
12
Then, friend, you will certainly no longer ask me about the relationships of the moon, our Earth, the sun and all the stars; for all that will become clearer to you even at one glance than the sun on the brightest midday.
13
But another school will begin for us about which you cannot have any idea yet. Tell me friend, whether you have understood this image a little! How did you like it?"