1500 Recognizing the transient and the imperishable....

July 2, 1940: Book 24

It is tremendously important to know about the transience of everything earthly and about the responsibility towards that which is imperishable. People lack the evidence for the immortality of the soul, they therefore try to minimize or deny everything which presupposes precisely this immortality of the soul, and thus they take little account of this immortality. And this is the result of not realizing that a spiritual life can be lived alongside the earthly life and that only this spiritual life brings the human being everlasting success. The spiritual life alone is important, although it is apparently only the accompanying life of earthly existence.... Earthly life can certainly be lived without any connection with the spiritual, but this is completely unsuccessful for eternity. However, once a person focusses his attention on the immortality of the soul, if he takes this factor into account, he already consciously assumes responsibility for the soul. And his efforts will now be directed towards collecting spiritual treasures, for he now regocnizes everything that is earthly possessions as worthless because he knows that none of it is permanent but must pass away according to divine law. Thus he clings to that which he regocnizes as imperishable, i.e. he seeks it first in order to make it his own.... And the imperishable is spiritual.... Thus he seeks the spiritual and also finds it, for God supports this endeavour because it corresponds to the actual purpose of earthly life. Once the human being has knowledge of what is worth striving for in eternity, his sense of responsibility towards the soul will become increasingly stronger and he will live a second life, as it were, which is completely separate from his actual earthly life. He establishes spiritual connections, he lets his thoughts wander upwards into the spiritual kingdom, he communicates with spiritual beings, confides in them, asks for information and advice, he lets himself be taught by them, and he does everything to increase his spiritual knowledge.... He therefore consciously strives for the imperishable, and he will learn to despise earthly life, i.e. everything that is transient, to the same extent. He is therefore still on earth, but detaches himself from the heaviness of earth and is far more often in the spiritual realm than on earth. Therefore, the human being must first be given the knowledge of the worthlessness and futility of everything he can see and grasp, and at the same time spiritual knowledge must be presented to him so that he can now decide for himself which life is more appealing to him.... He must surrender the treasures of the world, he must try to satisfy his desire other than with earthly pleasures. He must willingly surrender these in order to receive spiritual pleasures. He must realize for himself that only the imperishable, the soul, must be considered during earthly existence, but that both cannot be satisfied at the same time, thus in order to receive imperishable good, earthly good can also be desired. The one must be given in order to receive the other.... The human being must make a decision, he must allow his will to become active, and this can only apply to either the earthly desirable or the riches of the soul.... Man must choose between perishable and imperishable good....

(2.7.1940) And he will be blessed whose spirit regocnizes the value of imperishable good.... For it will now also become apparent to him that striving for it also brings the human being closer to God at the same time. And he will feel the bond with God if he disregards the transient and only seeks to enrich himself with spiritual possessions. His state of soul is considerably freer because matter, i.e. earthly desirable things, is no longer desired and is therefore overcome, i.e. the shackles of the soul have been loosened through the desire for imperishable, for spiritual good. And this freedom is incomparably fruitful. In its now unbound state it is inconceivably lively and seeks the connection with likewise spiritual things. And the union with this imparts wisdom and light.... in the form of knowledge, which he now wants to bring back to his soul. Thus the human being is guided into truth and the soul now shares in all spiritual wealth. For it receives, as it were, the spiritual strength which has come to the spirit from God through augmentation with spiritual substances. A soul thus permeated by the divine spirit must irrevocably ascend, for its goal was to reach the highest possible spiritual level, which is now achieved by overcoming everything that belongs to earth, thus is transient and therefore worthless for eternity. This increase of the spiritual means liberation from the form, and therefore the soul of man is united with the spirit out of God, it is truly immortal, i.e., it lives in eternity....

Amen

This proclamation is used in the following themebook:

Themebook	Title	Download
106	The Immortality Of The Soul	ePub   PDF   Kindle

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