The Great Gospel of John
Volume 9
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord in Jesaira
- Chapter 142 -
The activity of the soul.
Upon that, another fisherman said: "O Lord and Master, You said that when a soul enters into this world it would not be useful to him to possess directly a complete inner clearness, because - and this we very well can understand now - he would fall back into great laziness and complete passivity, for when someone has lost something valuable, he will certainly search for it as long as he will perhaps find it again. And in this way the soul seeks the clear inner light that was lost by his obscure outer sense organs. But when he has found that greatest treasure of life again, what will happen to his further activity? Because when man has fortunately found back that which he had lost, then his seeking, and thus his activity, will cease. When a soul has found again completely that which he sought by his active seeking, then most probably he will fall back again into complete laziness and passivity. But in that case, he would be as it were dead again, and that would in no way be beneficial for his blissfulness. In this respect, o Lord and Master, it is still not completely clear to me."
2
I said: "Friend, since the true blissfulness of life does not consist of clear visioning and understanding, but only of the activity of love that should increase more and more, every soul should first make this his only life's element, for he otherwise can never attain to the inner clearness of life, because the activity of love is an inner fire of life, which must become a bright light-giving flame by its increasing activity.
3
However, when this life's element in the soul is completely awakened, in such a way that the soul himself becomes this life's element - which means to say that the whole man is born anew and thus born again in the spirit - then the soul stays also active in the highest possible degree, despite his inner clearness which is a result of the activity of love that has raised to the highest possible level. And his blissfulness and clearness will increase according to the degree of his activity of love and not according to the degree of his clearness, to which at no time he can attain without the activity of love, because God has determined since eternity that no spirit and no human soul can ever attain to the light without the corresponding activity.
4
How do people in this material world make light? Look, they rub wood against wood or stone against stone, just as long as fire sparks will come off. The fire sparks fall on lightly inflammable material that maintain the glow. Once that glow is sufficiently present, and inflammable objects come in contact with it - like wood, straw or a certain lightly inflammable resin mixed with sulfur and naphtha - then soon a bright flame will flare up and it will become light in himself and around him into all directions.
5
Could there ever have been any glow without that preceding activity, and from that, a shining flame which shows the highest degree of activity itself through its visible active movement?
6
Look, in this way, already the dead material world shows, that in order to make fire and light a certain activity must precede. Thus, to the light of the soul's life must all the more precede a certain activity. By this, love will be awakened, which is the life element, and only from then on, the light of the soul will exist from its increased activity, and this is the wisdom, which recognizes, evaluates and orders itself and all things out of itself.
7
Look, friend, this is how things are concerning the life of the soul and his inner clear ability to recognize himself, and so you should not be afraid that a blessed soul will ever become lazy and passive as a result of his divine wisdom, because the wisdom of a soul here, and still more in the beyond, will always be the result of his activity. If this would or could cease, then with the soul, also his wisdom and his inner clearness of life would cease. Did you understand this now?"