The State of All-pervading Happiness

THE WAY OF THE GRAIL – SUPPLEMENTARY TEXTS – April 15, 2024

Czech original: Stav Vše Prostupujícího Štěstí · cesta-gralu.cz

Only when a man detaches himself from all his wishes and notions of the earthly kind, only then, for the most part, can there open a little before him the prospect of a wholly new being, which may be called a life sounding in accord with the whole of the work of Creation

In that moment there opens for him the prospect of the true state of lasting happiness and of inner joy

The state of all-pervading happiness is that state which draws near to those human souls who have been permitted to climb so high that most of the narrowed modes of receptivity bound up with the earthly world have fallen away from them

Only then may the soul in the ethereal planes come to know what a true liberation is from all the thought-pictures of the understanding of the surrounding world and of itself, pictures which are pressed into the earthly consciousness out of the outwardness of gross matter

This liberating experience concerns also a quite new understanding of what it means when the concept God is sounded

As a distant state of incomprehensible ponderousness there then appears all that bound the soul to the gross material world, of which the soul so long supposed that it is the most important thing in all happening

Here above, in the planes of the brighter gardens of the ethereal, all that is earthly appears only as a distant murmur of a strangely sounding past

For all that man holds to be beautiful in the single experiences of his life on earth, this life with all that belongs to it is only a distant shade of the true blessedness of the spiritual kind

To the soul in which its own spiritual inner being suddenly sounds more strongly there then appears almost laughable all that is past, all that it had hitherto known in the material body and that in the time of earthly life bound man with its concentrated doggedness only to the ordering of one small world happening in the gross material universe

In its becoming luminous, thanks to the heightened influx of Light, the soul now sees how insignificant in reality the human earthly world is, to which it, like millions of other souls, devoted so much attention in the time of its earthly being

Through how many trifles, which in earthly life seemed to it the most important things in the world, it had to wade, and not seldom also to soil with them its garment of soul

It did not have to do so, but because the others around it did so, the incarnated soul accepted the given state as a necessity without which earthly life would have seemed to it worthless

Then it had no inkling how everything on earth is overgrown with distortion and often goes even directly against the origin of all Life in the work of Creation, against God and his Laws

Its delusion was great

Yet it perceived nothing of this, for it was in the grip of the ponderous material understanding of life

It often strove to be a good earthly human being, without an inkling of how much in connection with this concept on earth is far removed from the true spiritual origin of man

How unworthy this was it sees only in the planes more radiantly shone through with Light, where it shows itself that the earthly world, which it perceived as the centre of all happening, is only one small precipitation of matter in which, apart from rigid dogmas, truly nothing really higher can be found

And alas, it further sees that in all this it was never left without help on the part of the Creator, because on earth too there was to be found among all human opinions, in its translucence, the Word of Truth

However much the Truth of God was mediated to earthly men also, that is, was brought down even into the planes of the coarsest materiality, here too in the rigidity of thinking it became only a collection of quotations and references in which, without independence of intuitive perception, it is very hard to find that portion of livingness which is so needful for inner spiritual progress

In looking back it all appears as a strange, distant dream

In the fine streaming of the all-quickening breath in the brighter ethereal spheres the soul, however, gradually observes with joy how all this falls away from it, and with newly won freedom it looks forward to all that is to be found in the flood of Light high above it

In this Light the concept Truth shines with a wholly different kind of brightness of magnetic attraction than was ever the case before on earth, whenever there was talk of the Truth of the Lord

The inhabitants of the planes spoken of strive to absorb into themselves as much as possible from the Source of the Truth of God

They know that they are still far from being able to speak of ripe wisdom, which is born only out of the many times repeated personal experiencing of the living content of the sound of the Truth, but with every new knowledge there mounts in them the joyful longing to draw from the Truth as much as possible for themselves

And it is exactly this which fills the inner being of every inhabitant of those planes with all-pervading happiness

The possibility of occupying oneself at every moment with that which is the most important thing for the essence of human being

To come to know it and through experiencing to penetrate ever deeper into the infinite Wisdom of God, out of which alone there rises the Living Truth as a form of answer to every question that arises

The spiritual inner being of the blessed who are in the Light may drink into itself new degrees of understanding of all that arose and of all that endures out of the Loving-Kindness of God

How desolate and parched the former earthly world appears to the soul in the possibility of the new experiencing of the endless drawing from the life-giving Light, whenever it looks back to become aware of all that it wandered through and of what it then made its own, however much this was only a mirroring, narrowed and distorted in every respect, of the translucent all-embracingness of the Grace of God

Never in the earthly world could it imagine what it means to be permitted to live after death

It was not aware that only by detaching itself from bodily intellectuality and by gradually making its own again all its faculties of soul would there return for it the understanding of what it means to live life fully and truly

And this life has returned

Truly it has returned, for before its union with the earthly body the soul knew all this and also fully experienced it

Neither had it any clear inkling of all that it means to incarnate into the earthly world, for before that, seen by it from above, it all appeared as something quite easy and in a certain respect even alluring

But what the fearful reality was, bound up with being caught fast in the ponderousness of all mental understanding, that it could become aware of again only in the planes lying high above the matter of the universe, when it was once more freed from the ponderousness of the wholly deformed earthly thinking

Then suddenly it became aware of that desperateness lying in the consequences of the fall into rigidity of the whole of earthly mankind

It saw that it had to come to earth for the closing of certain circles which remained for it in the threads of fate as a condition for atonement through the experiencing of the earthly world

But in the time of its sojourn on earth, even though a certain knowledge came to it, in that paralysis of all free understanding it could never value that greatness and wisdom of the Love of God which grants the human spirit for his development the possibility of wandering in Subsequent Creation from one plane of the materialities to another

On earth, beside its own paths and tasks which led it to the places of atonement for the past, it was drawn into the whole setting of the paralysing manner of thinking which pervaded the entire world as the given developmental degree of the maturity of mankind

Like millions of others it became peevish and irritated at everything that came from other men, touchy and also in many respects aggressive whenever it was a question of views upon the ordering of social life on earth

It could not bear any contrary opinion and held it for an attack upon itself if someone did not entirely agree with its own view of how, according to its notions, the world ought rightly to look

It could not comprehend it if someone saw the world with other eyes

It took it as a reason for a fight against other social opinions, against other nations, against the colour of skin, against another creed, against wealth, and indeed against any other understanding of life

It was also indignant when it was permitted to observe the experiencing of happiness in other men who according to its understanding stood against the Laws of God

The happiness and the success of one's fellow-men, and much else besides that the earthly world offers, is for whole hosts of men a reason why they take refuge in an implacable fight against those whom they see as strangers, as men of another faith, and as enemies

By all this more than one soul has already been painfully struck in return in its awakening after its departure from the earthly world, when it was gradually permitted to see it otherwise, thanks to the fact that in spite of all it had done it was in time enabled to advance higher in the ethereal worlds

Gradually it was permitted to see most of its thought-forms condensed into opinions which in the time of its life on earth it wrongly held for its true conviction, although these were something merely instilled into it and slipped to it by upbringing and by the influence of other men

How greatly it had to be ashamed later after its departure from the earth, when it found that almost none of this came from the true possession of its own conviction

In fact already on earth it recognised nothing good in the many thoughts of men proclaiming the need to fight against others, it only needed in the time of its earthly being to find kindred opinions so as not to feel lost and to be able instead to regard itself as anchored by belonging to some current

How many bitter tears it had to shed on this account in its later understanding, before it could feel itself again wholly and truly free, that is, spiritually more independent upon its path to the Light

Much it had to change within itself before it could at last smile over its past

On earth it proudly supposed itself to be a personality of its own, and yet let quite alien opinions into its earthly thinking

How greatly debased all this thinking and understanding was beside that which is to be found higher above the ponderous matter of the universe

It was to be itself, but it was afraid, because that often meant saying that in this or that matter it had another view, that it did not agree, or also that to this or that question it perhaps did not know the answer

That most personal thing which in reality holds the highest worth for the human inner being became, in the earthly understanding of the brain, an object of mockery and of contempt

At this awareness the soul had at first always to shudder anew with horror and loathing whenever it rose before its sight

For it on earth this was in reality something so immeasurably enslaving, for it did not allow it to express itself as it had been used to before

To speak sincerely, down to the smallest vibration, only what it truly perceives within

All that had before filled it with joy to the point of enthusiasm had in the earthly world to remain deep within, for any attempt to express it outwardly became an object of mockery or of enmity

But every attempt at sincerity also appeared at once to the soul itself as a distortion of the original volition

Everything that came outward appeared to the soul as insufficient beside the way its inner being understood and experienced it in distant intuition

Almost everything it did in life on earth it did mechanically

It also lacked inner pure enthusiasm

It acted exactly according to the attitudes it had outwardly made its own from its family and from others whom at a certain time of life it held for friends

It thus learned to do things because they were generally so done

These were the customs needed for asserting oneself in life

Although in all this it unfolded earthly with a certain ease, for it knew it from past lives

Yet beside the former planes from which it came it was all convulsive and grating, like the shapeless movement of a rusted wagon whose wheels could not turn properly

In everything there was an alien quality which chilled by its poverty in the powers of expression of the earthly body and of its mental skill

Only when the soul returned again into the life which followed upon the laying aside of the material body was it permitted gradually to come to know once more the state of that ancient all-pervading happiness

At a distance it was suddenly permitted, and is still permitted, to see and to experience it

And in its inner being there rises, together with the experienced state of all-embracing happiness, the thought whether it is possible at all for men to experience such a thing during incarnation in union with the earthly bodily covering

And then suddenly there sounds close above it a voice in which words of wisdom vibrate

“Men can always experience the union with the great Harmony, no matter in what place of the Work of Creation of God they find themselves

From all places in Creation it is possible for the human spirit to raise himself above all that surrounds him and to experience the state of all-pervading happiness

Not even the earthly world is to be an obstacle to him in this

Never was anything else willed by the Light than that the human inner being should find union with the helping guidance flowing in blessedness out of the Divine Light

The spiritual in man was permitted throughout his whole life to draw from that Light sufficient power for his ascent even in the earthly body on earth

Thus in the human world on earth too it is possible to free oneself from all the pettinesses in which the greater part of mankind finds itself, and to step upon the path which the Light shows to the human spirit

Men have within themselves all that is needful for it

It rests with them alone whether they will use the abilities slumbering within them and enable them fully to come alive, in defiance of the narrowings of all the thinking around them”

In these words the soul may become aware how simple and easy everything could in fact have been, had it too held to what was thus uttered as to a rescuing rope

All this holds still for every man incarnated into the covering of the earthly world

The Light flows continually from the heights of Creation

In its fullness of grace it is attainable to everyone, and therefore the measure of the experiencing of the state of all-pervading happiness rests always and only in the attunement of the single man

No one is exempt from this principle of the working of the Loving-Kindness of God

Only by his own decision does each one sever himself from the experiencing of the whole Harmony of the work of Creation

Here on earth too the human spirit can learn continually in the beneficent knowing of the connections which work and labour in everything around him

An unhappy fool is he who sees nothing of this

He does not see it solely and only because he does not wish to see it

Instead of holding within himself a state of openness for all understanding of the connections, he lets there be slipped into his mental subconscious a view of the world which was formed only by alien interests out of the volition of the ill striving of a few men on earth, who spread abroad their insatiable desires and skilfully make of them the social atmosphere for all

They force upon millions of men that they must think and act only in a certain way, which however bears within it weakening and even disintegration in many respects

Above all, however, a rending of the inner being, out of which there are then born irritability, malice, envy and hatred

Men are driven against one another who, were they permitted to meet in the ethereal worlds, would from the first moment hold each other for neighbours, and nothing would stand in the way of their friendship

And so it comes about with many souls that they are afterwards permitted to meet in the brighter worlds souls of foreign nations whom on earth they perhaps held for hostile, or that they meet face to face souls whom perhaps once in earthly life they held for men of another faith, and it had been instilled in them that they must never give them their hand if ever they wished to enter heaven and thereby the nearness of God

Many men on earth are dragged into oppositions of opinion which within themselves would never have been born towards other men

All that concerns the hatred of races, of religions, of politics, but also the pitiless aggression towards fellow-men who at their degree of maturity still grope and stray and therefore let themselves be drawn into certain snares of mistaken conduct, is the consequence of the material narrowing, formed by the brain, in the comprehension of the human world

In all this there burns only a fire fed by those who are at heart truly condemnable, and who therefore will also be condemned

But it is the Creator who will judge them through his Laws, and not men, who are not to do evil and suffering to their fellow-men on the ground of their own notions about the world

The human spiritual inner being is to live in an attunement of trust in the guidance of the worlds by the Wisdom of God

In the great weaving of ways out of this Wisdom of God every single man has his place

He is to take care that he rightly knows this place and also fulfils it, for therein lies his unique contribution to the work of Creation and thus also to this earthly world of men

Yet how many men there are who are ready at every moment to force their counsels upon others without themselves knowing their own place and their own unique task in this life

And how few there are, on the contrary, who, knowing their task, go kindly and gently through life, radiating to all sides as models of true spiritual humanity

Such men are recognisable in that they have no need to drive others into strife, because they know that without inner conviction everyone is only a puppet, or a mercenary in the service of others

In the end every single soul in the planes of higher radiant brightness will also recognise how little it was itself on earth and how for the most part, even in good striving, it let itself be dragged along by outward events without standing wholly for itself in them

It will recognise how, even in good intent, it often threw itself into conduct which was not its own, and this only because the outward world created the outward impression that it is not possible to do otherwise

In the conceit that it was making the world better, it threw stones at its fellow-men, for so it had been impressed upon its thinking by shouting leaders

It matters not whether these were gross material stones, or only at the degree of words and of thoughts, for in the Laws of God there is no difference in this

And so this or that soul, instead of living the state of all-pervading happiness, lives an alien life filled with parched agitation and with illusions which shape for it the false impression of a struggle for a better earthly world

Where, however, conviction vanishes together with the nobility of character held in conduct, there the soul of man already wades in that moment through mire which must of necessity stain its garment

And this garment it will afterwards have to whiten in the bitterness of its tears in the knowledge of how terribly it erred in its understanding of the world, although it need not have been so, for the Light always stood helpfully near, if only it had wished to turn to it for counsel

Millions of men are afraid to enter into themselves, into their inner being, where alone they can find fulfilment and happiness

The greater part fear this step, for they sense a great debt in their spiritual development upon the path of ascent

Men fear that if they withdrew into themselves in search of who they truly are and of what their own true impulses to thinking and acting are, they would find within themselves only emptiness

But this is again only a further error impressed upon the subconscious once more from without by those who wish men to see it so

They create the impression that without outward cares and also amusement the human inner being would swiftly collapse in upon itself in emptiness and loneliness

It is not so, however, for in the inner being of every man there is soil able to receive the Light flowing from the heights from God

In this inner being lies the very promise of independence, and thereby of the maturity of every single man

It suffices only to step with courage into one's own inner being and to find out who man is and what in reality the concept human spirit means

It is something very precious and lofty, if man is able rightly to perceive it

The spark in the inner being bears within it the promise of lasting being in the attunement of the state of all-pervading happiness

And this can be attained already here on earth

It was always meant to be so, and the state of maturity in the single man is no obstacle to this experiencing of joyful enthusiasm for life

On the contrary, therein lies the promise of the diversity of men on earth, if only they are able to draw near to one another in the awareness that the condition of building up together with one's fellow-men is a living in accord with the Harmony of the work of Creation

That always means the following of the Will of God in Creation

Whoever looks to this and goes to meet new days with striving for his own ennoblement in co-operation with others is near the state of experiencing happiness again and again in his life

Thereby he would also become for the Creator and for the whole of Creation far more precious than all those who in their narrowed material thinking seek from the position of leaders to remould other men and the ordering of the whole world in the notion that victory belongs only to the strongest and the most successful

The Wisdom of God, however, awaits a far richer world in which there live men of varied attunement and of varied perceiving of opinion, men who despite all the differences that set them apart from others have within them, for all moments, in the alert readiness of their intuitive perception, always at hand that great volition for all-embracing good

In that alone lies the ascent for everyone, and in the end the ascent for the whole earthly world

Every man should already here on earth live so that with joy in his inner being he may at any time look back in the world of souls without experiencing bitterness and pain over what he did in his lives in the times when he was permitted to wander through the earthly world