Sunsets Into Sunrises
Bishop Martin - The Progress of a Soul in the Beyond
- Chapter 50 -
DIFFERENT EFFECTS OF EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL TUITION. - THE POTTER'S WORKSHOP.
1
(The moon-dweller): "Friend, you talk and ask as you see it, and I shall answer in my own way. According to you, the Supreme Divine Spirit must have taught you from the outside with a cudgel in His hand. For an inner spiritual tuition you still seem to be much too dull, and so is, most likely, all mankind on your globe.
2
Do you seriously believe that the most supreme, almighty Divine Spirit created man, as His most perfect creature, like an empty bag which has to be filled before it can be expected to contain something? How wrong you are!
3
Man, on whatever globe he lives, has already within him a vast treasure of wisdom! This must only be awakened by some suitable means and then it will bring forth the most splendid fruit, quite by itself! The sublime Spirit of God provides this means.
4
If man does not ignore such means, but makes use of it, the seed in his inner self will sprout and grow and finally begin to ripen. Thus, no outside tuition is needed; it all comes from within!
5
For everything that approaches man from the outside is foreign and cannot give the recipient true, permanent, inherent wisdom; instead it will give a wisdom that is like a parasitic plant, not promoting life but stunting and spoiling it, for, coming from the outside, it will always be inclined to turn to the outside rather than to the inside - the seat of the true eternal life from God, the Supreme Spirit.
6
In this way we attain our wisdom - from the inner and never from an outer source! If your earth-men require external tuition, you must be extremely stubborn beings, most sensual and, therefore, sinful: consequently, opponents of the Divine Order and your own innermost life. In such a case, A - as well as B and C - will be blind and stay so unless awakened by external tuition.
7
Here you have the external answer to your question, for, judging by your question, you still have to go a long way before you'll be ready for the inner one. But you may go on asking questions. "
8
During these words of the moon-dweller, Bishop Martin has pulled quite a long face, realizing that he cannot compete with this man's wisdom. He is now thinking hard how to prove to the moon couple that he, as a mortal from earth, is the wiser man after all. He thinks of this and that, but nothing really clever comes to his mind.
9
Therefore, he turns to Me and says: "Lord, do not let me down. Help me to prevail over this all-too-clever moon-dweller, and let me show him that men on Your earth are worth something, too. He has dealt with me in a way that I have nothing to say and that notwithstanding the fact that I am to be his master and, in due course, the leader of this entire world!
10
What would happen if the inhabitants of all the worlds I have so far been introduced to came to me as their master and proved that I was the most stupid chap in all of creation? To prevent this from happening, they should be shown, through superior wisdom, that one is really their master. This might keep them from treating one like a schoolboy!"
11
(Say I): "Listen, My dear Martin, do you think that weighty arguments on your part would make such a true philosopher shut up? There you are quite wrong! For, as there is only one truth, thus there is also only one wisdom, which stands like an eternal fortress, forever invincible. And since this moon-dweller confronted you with the sole truth, what greater wisdom could you use to beat him with?
12
However, there is quite a different way to make these spirits obliging and submissive. And this way is called love, humility, and great meekness. These three foremost and extremely important characteristics help one to encounter these innumerable star-dwellers most forcibly.
13
Love teaches you to do good to all these beings and to make them as happy as possible. Humility teaches you to be small and consider yourself the least important, and never to raise yourself arrogantly above anybody else, however small and insignificant he may seem. And meekness teaches you to tolerate everyone with unchanged goodwill and endeavor, from the bottom of your heart, to help wherever help is needed. And this should always be done in the gentlest of ways so as not to infringe upon anybody's freedom. If, occasionally, stronger methods have to be applied, the motive behind them must never be the wish to punish, nor a condemning wrath, but always pure, supreme, unselfish love.
14
Those are the aids of celestial mastery! If you acquire them, you will get on much better with the moon-dwellers. Therefore, go back to the couple and try to handle them in this celestial way and you might find it quite successful. Go now and do this! So be it!"
15
(Bishop Martin once more turns to the moon-couple and says): "My dear great little friend, I have weighed your wise words and see, thanks to the Lord, that you are completely right in everything you say. Nevertheless, I have a further question to put to you - not with a view to testing your wisdom any further, but simply in order to learn from you.
16
You previously declared that all external tuition is useless, and I cannot maintain that you are wrong. However, if all external tuition, including external perception, wherever it may come from and through whichever of his senses man has received it, is bad, useless and thus unacceptable, do explain to me, in your wisdom, why the Creator of all the worlds, human beings, and angels, has given us external senses at all? And why a voice with an outward-directed sound, and why a tongue capable of speaking? What is all this outer form for, all outer appearance of the countless things and beings? Or would it be possible to imagine a being without an exterior? Would not the removal of this put an end to a being? For I cannot imagine any being without an exterior! You will understand my well-founded doubts, so have patience and please clarify these doubts for me!"
17
(The moon-dweller): "Friend, on the one hand you are too superficial, and on the other hand too profound! Thus you will not reach your goal.
18
The Great Spirit has created a multitude of everything. And this multitude can have only external contact in all its parts and, therefore, is only external in its correlation. To enable man to grasp also the external, he has been equipped with external senses. However, he can comprehend it only with the inner senses of his spirit, and never with the outer.
19
Thus man possesses outer senses to grasp external things and inner senses for the comprehension of inner things. And wisdom is part of the inner senses of the spirit. That is why it also has to be developed within man and not through external tuition!
20
The inner tuition of the soul is performed solely by the spirit, to which the full truth has been revealed by the Great God about all things that have been created and still will be in eternity.
21
The external language is a means to ascertain the external and then unite it with the internal, and through this union full cognition of the divine order is attained. This cognition is the actual wisdom we should seek, which implies the integral inner strength of the spirit and its effectual life.
22
You will now understand that God has never taught men through external revelations, but always from within, through the spirit. Even if it appeared to be personal, external tuition, this could not have any inner effect before God's animating power had penetrated the innermost spirit of man. Thus, what I have just explained to you will be of no effect until you perceive it within you.
23
If God Himself instructed you externally in all wisdom, as I have now done, this divine tuition would not help you as long as He, the Great God, did not let His most holy spirit teach your own within you.
24
Apprehend this, if you can, as the right answer to your question, and bear in mind that it will not lead to your salvation, but only to your judgment, as long as you do not receive it within yourself. For what is not yours, cannot make you free and will be your judgment until you have made it yours! If you have any further questions, ask, and I shall answer."
25
(Bishop Martin): "Friend, I am all the more convinced that, notwithstanding your smallness, you are a being of truly profound wisdom. I also realize that I am not a match for you by a long way! But even you, as a wise philosopher, will have to admit that if out of great love I instructed someone in matters pertaining to God's order, His might, love and wisdom, such tuition could not possibly be a judgment for a willing disciple, but just a true path to eternal life. I personally do not make too much of wisdom as such, but rather of love. Where there isn't any love, wisdom has no value for me!
26
What do you think of this my opinion? I am quite aware that a man must be born again of the spirit before he can enter into the Kingdom of God. But in order to attain this rebirth, the first direction must be given through external tuition; I cannot imagine inner tuition at the initial stage, especially with children. If I am wrong also in this, tell me how you moon-men instruct your children."
27
(The moon-dweller): "What do you go on asking questions for if you are convinced that your opinion is right? Shortsighted chatterer, is not every external tuition a law that determines how one or the other thing is to be understood? But is not every law or rule a judgment? Where has anybody ever been set free by the law?
28
It is a fact that you make your children prisoners first and then cannot set them free, ever! But we bring up our children the same way a potter makes his vessel, shaping it simultaneously on the inside and outside on his potter's wheel. Otherwise, he would produce a most one-sided pot! So if you want to learn how to educate a human being toward eternal freedom, visit a potter's workshop and recognize your misinterpreted love. Realize this, that there is more wisdom in a potter than as yet in you!"
29
(After this blow, Bishop Martin once more turns to Me and says): "O Lord, there is no getting at this really radical moon-man. For, when I present something in full accordance with Your teaching, he is ahead of me for a good thousand years. The most peculiar thing, however, is that he, as a moon-dweller, has most likely never seen the earth, even as a star, but seems to know it better than even I do. He suggests that I see a potter on earth so that I might study wisdom and, as it were, the secret of love. That is really very funny!
30
What will I do with a potter? Am I supposed to work in this trade here? The fellow goes even so far as to say that You, o Lord, could not help me with Your verbal tuition if such did not come from within me, through my own spirit! That is obviously a gross sin. If it were up to me, I would teach him a lesson about what it means to dispute even the effective power of Your tuition!"
31
(Say I): "Never mind, My dear Martin! If you started an argument with this moon-dweller, you would get the worst of it. He is a very good spirit and does not deserve at all being let down by Me. The reason why he was so blunt towards you was that he discovered in you a sort of very ambitious malice, which these moon-dwellers detest more than anything else. With them, the outer must conform to the inner in every respect.
32
Besides, better heed what you have heard from him, for there will come a time when you'll find it very useful. The potter is an excellent metaphor: from this you can get to know My order in its entirety! For I Myself am a potter, and My work is that of a potter! My order can be compared to a potter's wheel, and My works to a potter's products! How, the future will reveal to you.
33
Let us now proceed to the twelfth door, where some things that you do not understand as yet will become clear to you. So be it!"