4110 Realisation of the worthlessness of the earthly.... afterlife....
August 24, 1947: Book 50
What can earthly life still offer you if you have realised that life in the spiritual kingdom is far more valuable, that it is, after all, the actual life which is only preceded by a period of preparation.... the life of the soul in embodiment as a human being.... And when this time of preparation draws to a close, every thought must then be directed towards the afterlife, this afterlife must be eagerly awaited because it replaces the life in the last shell and the soul as a free spirit enters spheres which touch it in an extremely pleasant way if only the soul has reached a certain degree of maturity. Everything earthly must lose its appeal in view of this realisation and every day must only be regarded as an intermediate station. And thus the human being cannot be shocked by the knowledge of the near end, for if he has this knowledge he knows the cause and purpose of it, and the knowledge of it only contributes to a faster detachment from everything that belongs to earth. The human being has to become calm within himself, he only has to concentrate on spiritual knowledge, he has to strive to avoid every temptation and hand himself completely over to God so that he will be seized by His love, and then he will only live in God and his earthly life will not have been in vain. However, the knowledge of eternal truth is a gift of grace which the human being can and must acquire for himself through unselfish neighbourly love; but this always means overcoming selfish love and thus renouncing earthly joys and pleasures of his own accord.... Consequently, the human being must first give something before he can receive, he must not regard the earth with its appeals as desirable, but he must learn to despise it, only then does he relinquish what is still valuable to his fellow human beings. He gives it to the needy neighbour and receives something purely spiritual in return.... The spheres of light open up to him and radiate into his heart, which now detaches itself more and more from earthly things and exchanges spiritual knowledge for it, which now makes him consciously strive for spiritual life. The end will not come as a surprise to such people, for through knowledge they stand in deep faith and through faith again in the knowledge of God's eternal plan of salvation, of the meaning and purpose of earthly life and of the worthlessness of earthly matter. They live consciously and with God and will gladly exchange life for eternal bliss....
Amen
This proclamation
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