img The Way of Initiation; or, How to Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds  /  Chapter 1 THE SUPERPHYSICAL WORLD AND ITS GNOSIS | 10.00%
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The Way of Initiation; or, How to Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds

The Way of Initiation; or, How to Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds

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Chapter 1 THE SUPERPHYSICAL WORLD AND ITS GNOSIS

Word Count: 3769    |    Released on: 01/12/2017

uld at once ask the question: "How may we for ourselves know the truth of such statements?" Indeed, it is noticeable, as a characteristic

uman soul and spirit before birth and after death, he is at once confronted with that fundamental demand. Such doctrine,

emonstrated; therefore, prove to us what you assert." They demand that the truth must be something clear and simple, something which an ordinary intellect may comprehend. "Surely," they add, "this knowledge cannot be the possession of a chosen few, to whom it is given by a special revelation." And in this way the real messenger of transcendental truth is frequently confronted with people who reject him, because-unlike the scientist, for ex

losophy is confronted; but they are similar to all those which compose the key-note of our time, and h

angible, for example, as those that form the foundation of the experiences and observations described by a travelle

characteristics. If he was contradicted, laughed at, set right, by untravelled critics, he would be neither ruffled nor distressed, but would merely leave them alone. Ignorance cannot convince knowledge by repeated asseveration of its nescience. The opinion of a hundred

lf he has no need to dispute them. He realizes that his certain knowledge is being criticized by those who have not had his experience, that

have learned of its truth through our own investigation." Such then have reason to consider themselves to be in the right, because it is clear to them that anyone who acquires the necessary knowledge

hat the way to Higher Knowledge is open to anyone who will acquire for himself the faculties by which he may prove the spiritual truths herein claimed. The mystic asserts nothing which his opponents would no

ies through which it is possible to speak of glimpses into superphysical regions." These senses are dormant within you and every other person, until they are developed, (as is necessary with the usual senses and faculties more noticeable in the growth of a child). Yet his opponents answer: "You must prove your truths to us as we now are!" This at once appears a difficult task

tice they continually act in contradiction. The mistake has grown to be second nature with many; they indulge it without realizing that they do so without desiring to be convinced of its error; just as they set themselves against other laws which they should and would at all times recognize as embodying a principle of the simplest nature, if

against the higher truths, lies deep in the very being of our age. We must understand clearly that the great successes, the immense advance marking our time, necessarily encourages this condition. The nineteenth century especially had in the above respect a dark side

grown great. People were taught to train themselves to admit nothing as true except those things that were presented to them by the senses or the intellect. And nothing is more apt to claim for itself the only valid testimony, the only absolute authority, than the mind or the senses. If a man has acquired by means of them a certain degree of culture, he thenceforth accustoms himself to submit everything to their consideration, everything to their criticism. And again in another sphere, in the do

ill make more progress, another less. But when they develop those powers, and attach value to them, men begin to differentiate themselves. And then one must allow, to the advanced student, more right to speak on the s

efore, unknown to the physical man. It is only necessary to attend mass-meetings, if one wishes to be convinced of the fact that the speakers there are totally unable to think any thoughts but those which refer to the physical plane, the world of sense. This can also be seen through the leading journalists of our papers and magazines; and, indeed, on all sides one may observe the haughtiest and most complete denial of everything that cannot be seen with the eyes, or felt with the

facts already named; it would be easy to demonstrate, by certain examples (which are greatly underrated, especially to-day), how deeply rooted in the mind of the moder

onsider the so-called idea of Revelation. They ask themselves: "How is it possible to accept the idea that the contents of the Old Testament were revealed by God, when we find very similar conceptions among decidedly heathen nations?" This problem cannot here be further discussed. Delitzsch found many opponents who feared that through his exposition, the very foundations of Religion had been shaken. He has defended himself in a pamphlet, Babel and Bible, a Retrospect

term "Revelation," and who would fain regard it as "a kind of old priestly

sive' answers. For this very reason it will be gratifying to many searchers after Truth when the dogma of a special 'choosing' of Israel shall have been brought forward into the light of a wider historical outlook, through the union of Babylonian, Assyrian, and Old Testament research.... [A few pages earlier we are shown the direction of such thoughts

e mind which is engaged upon physical investigation may assert the right of judging experiences of superphysical nature. There is no thought that this mind without further development may perhaps be unfit to reflec

ere are revealed to him truths of a higher nature than those which may be comprehended by the intellect, which is only concerned with the things of sense. His own experiences wi

overy of a similar story elsewhere. Instead of demanding that everyone should insist upon his right, or even his duty, to think independently on the so-called "Revelations," we ought rather to consider that only he who has dev

sense-knowledge, sets itself up, in naive pride, as a judge in domains, the existence of which it does not even

directed upon the Gospels. These documents have been compared with each other, and brought into relation with all sorts of records, in order that we might find out

has already expressed the whole of the criti

you yourself, then were you lost for ever; And if within yourself it

Christian, strong in his belief. And his equally fervent pr

ove a cow, so they desire to love God.... Simple-minded people imagine that God may be seen as i

lyses are quite worthless, for no one can discover who was "born in Bethlehem" but he who has mystically experienced the Christ within himself; neither can anyone in whom it has not already been erected, decide how it is that "the Cross at Golgotha" can deliver us from pain. Purely historical inves

ellect, which only concerns itself with the facts of sense. It says: "I do not wish to develop faculties in order

hat spirit of the age which we have already indicated (What do we

e man of to-day can create Christ just as well as the author of a gospel created him; as a man he may put himself in the same p

efer to the development of powers dormant in every human soul, which, from some such idea, endeavors to experience within itself the Christ of the Gospels. They are altogether

f the higher truths if he demands that they shall be lowered to the "average understanding." This statement provokes the question: "Why, then, do you mystics proclaim these truths to people who, you d

the lower intellect. Yet, in spite of this, these spiritual currents are not to be considered as less scientific than the science which is based upon physical facts alone. Rather do they extend the field of scientific in

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