What Now Comes to Spiritually Striving People in the Time of Sleep – Part Iii

THE WAY OF THE GRAIL – SUPPLEMENTARY TEXTS – November 20, 2023

Czech original: Co Nyní Přichází K Duchovně Usilujícím Lidem V Čase Spánku – Část Iii. · cesta-gralu.cz

Various people today seek a way in which to awaken within themselves, or to unfold still further, the faculty commonly called inner clarified understanding, or also intuition

It is because they rightly sense how disadvantaged they are in many situations of life if inner intuition does not help them to be rightly prepared beforehand for all the serious decisions which press upon them from all sides

People know that for precisely this reason they err in many of the moments which come to them, if they do not maintain the state of a wakeful and clarified intuitive perceiving

Their experiences confirm it to them

They go through life in fact continually as though half blind, and often in many vitally important situations they collide and are wounded quite needlessly, only because they have not unfolded the said faculty and therefore cannot use it to their benefit

All this happens to them only because of the limitation which brings it about that they do not stand sufficiently wakefully ahead, in an inward grasping of the things which then really come

They become aware, in all that has slipped through their fingers in life, that if they had been more open within, then it would not have come about with them to such an extent that they grope and fall into confusion

Simply said, they would not have to walk so much upon wrong paths

Neither would so much ill befall them, for in important moments they would be more receptive to everything which comes to them

For the unfolding of this valuable faculty of clear inner perceiving in the moment of the present, many then undergo the courses which offer themselves, of which there are today thousands

In meditations, in the reciting of mantras, in the turning to ancient myths, in initiations into mysterious practices of exercise, some study shamanism, others walk over glowing coals or undergo yet much else

For the most part, however, without much result, for all the said courses then show themselves quickly as unusable in ordinary everyday life

Everything which contains within it the need of unnatural practices is of very little use for a healthy manner of life

Yes, perhaps some people can indeed gain a little from it

That is when they have really resolved to leave entirely all the everyday cares of the world of the majority and have gone for a time wholly aside from everything commonplace

For a short time it can bring calming and an inner anchoring in spiritual balance

But even that is in reality unnatural for most people at the degree of understanding usual today, for the present, developmentally advanced time of the universe requires that a man who has need to lay aside many of the threads of fate of his past paths should hold his ground spiritually directly in the midst of all the ferment

He is therefore not to withdraw from human society and to flee outside the world of today

The worth which proves the value of a ripe personality is confirmed by the ability to hold one's ground in independence and in the confidence-filled walking of the spirit towards the Light through everything which meets it in this world

A long shutting of oneself off from the world behind high walls perhaps helps temporarily those who are in reality very weak and have not ripened even to the degree at which they could help other people in the smallest things

Moreover, in solitude and in separation from the world, people striving after spiritual ascent all too often cultivate within themselves the notion of being special and exceptional, which may rather be called a proud haughtiness in their dreaming that the Creator demands something of the kind of them as a condition for their becoming more spiritual

All this, however, in reality serves the spiritual inner being very little, or rather not at all, indeed with many it can even do harm, for hand in hand with all the said peculiarities here on earth there comes all too often at the same time a haughtiness about one's own skills

Anything of the kind then threatens a great slipping back

Unlike those people who consider themselves in their life as simple and normal, and who therefore also deal with others with greater naturalness and humility, most of the people who pass through the peculiarities of various courses and initiations, which they connect with their supposed spiritual progress, become the victims of their own sense of elevation above the rest of the world

Whoever has once occupied himself with these matters of many spiritual directions on earth knows what an unhealthy soil of inner conceit there is in it among those who carry out anything of the kind or who perhaps even lead others into it

One would then feel urged to call out: „Leave it, for all the peculiarities, so far removed from naturalness, are nothing of benefit for anyone. They can help no human spirit if he does not at the same time maintain and unfold within himself the highest longing for inner purity and if a childlike simple mind does not prevail with him“

Such people, however, are very few around all the said endeavours to unfold the faculties in intuitive perceiving

In spite of all that is mentioned above, which testifies to a great misunderstanding of the concept „spiritual ascent“, there remains, however, as the wish of many, that their inner clarity, or in other words their intuition, should strengthen within them and that they might walk through life armed with their perceiving, protected in advance against all the follies of other people, or that they might stand more consciously towards the coming happenings

That in itself is nothing wrong, for people of earlier times, for instance, had it naturally unfolded within them far more strongly than is the case with the man of the intellect today

And as with everything which in Creation comes from the Light, so here too it holds good that the most valuable and most effective thing for the unfolding of these faculties man has directly beside him

He does not need to travel the world for it, nor to occupy himself with peculiarities

As was already described in connection with healthy nocturnal sleep in earlier texts on the Way of the Grail, precisely here it holds good that a great helper in the faculties of the clarifying of intimation and of the inward perceiving of things beforehand unfolds from the right use of the time of sleep

We may even say that healthy, spiritually fulfilled nocturnal sleep is a unique helper of men in the unfolding of their inner intuition

It is because only in deeply healthy sleep may the spirit move away from the body for a sufficiently long time, so that it is possible to lead it upwards to places where everything needful can be shown to it beforehand in a gentle peacefulness

It can be shown to it because it has earned it through its work in the time of night

For the understanding let us here set forth a picture:

The spirit which inwardly and genuinely longs to live purely forms automatically around itself, through its attunement, a radiation out of which helping threads are formed for it

These threads, which are first spun by the Vaenen, are after a very short time, figuratively speaking, formed into the shape of a ladder or of a flight of steps, up which the spirit may ascend higher to places where significant help is made ready for it for the further unfolding of its powers and abilities

During the day, however, man knows only little of this in his day-consciousness, often rather nothing at all

And this even when it is a matter of a really spiritually disposed man

His brain, however, does not allow him with its radiation to perceive these fine helps which are woven into the form of steps leading to the Light

In the moment, however, when the body together with the brain rests, the spirit may loosen itself and, seeing before it the said ladder, hastens up it, for it knows that this is significant help granted to it from the Light as a form coming to meet its inward living wish to advance upwards to the spiritual homeland

And precisely if the time of night is filled with the calm sleep of the body, when the brain rests, the spirit may, the longer this state lasts, all the more move away and experience much which helps its strengthening and its becoming luminous

This strengthening and becoming luminous then shows itself ever more also in the day-consciousness, when despite the working intellect the spirit nevertheless remains in the needed strength, and this then shows itself in a clearer perceiving of things and in right intuitive action in the most varied moments of the day

So simple it is in reality

It suffices for this only, together with an inward all-embracing longing for the Good and the Light, to grant one's spiritual inner being in the night sufficient time for the drawing of help from the Light in ever higher planes of the work of Creation

Everything in Creation is so formed as to work naturally as a support and a help for the human spirit on its path

Why then will people not see it

If they were guided by it in everything, then the whole of mankind could already be much further than it is today

Spiritual ascent here on earth is inseparably bound up also with something so simple and plain as the natural healthy sleep lasting through the night, of a man not made unfree by anything oppressive

As was already said earlier in the preceding discourses about the deep meaning which lies concealed in healthy sleeping, it is of course not a matter of course, but it is conditioned by the inward and also the thought-attunement of man during the day, and above all also in the time before he lies down to sleep

This time is the most important for the inner being of man to be permitted, in a calm and clarified attunement, to prepare for the time of the loosening from the resting earthly body

A long deep sleep, if possible uninterrupted by anything disturbing, is the foundation for the free release of the spirit hastening into the brighter planes

In these planes there can then await the spirit, among other things, help and strengthening in the form of the experiencing of happenings which on earth are only to come to fulfilment

It is not so that anything of the kind will happen at once the next day with the dawn, but sometime in the coming time it will happen more or less as the spirit was permitted already to experience it at the time of one of its nightly acquaintings with it

The spirit as such does not receive a band of ignorance, but on the contrary much is shown to it beforehand in the greatest kindliness, provided it manifests in its striving the longing for the Light

Thereby in the result that intuition so often mentioned by men becomes strengthened, in that man is in his inner being already prepared for what comes to him, so that he may hold his ground in it and thereby advance further

Ignorance, as people know it today on earth, was never willed from the Light

It is the result of the spiritual slackness of men not only during the day, but also in the night

In the time when the brain cannot bind the spirit, many mistakes are today made by most people in their wrong approach to sleep

Therefore not even those people who in the time of day lead a conscious struggle of their inner being with the overgrown intellectuality of the brain of today make right use of the help granted to them by the Creator at the time when the spirit could easily advance further

There is no one here on earth among men who could not open himself more in this matter and thereby come further

In the night it is for everyone much easier, provided however that man does not himself make it harder, or even make it wholly impossible through the negligence with which he approaches the valuable time of nocturnal sleep

And in general it is very bad, for people have no inkling at all that the attunement in which they lie down influences the state of calming of the body and of the brain, whereby the spirit too is then closely affected, which needs to have in deep sleep a support for its longer-lasting loosening from the nerves of the body

Where the state of a certain fullness of peace in the nerves is not attained, there there always threatens the renewed springing up of the wakefulness of the brain, and thereby the swift drawing of the spiritual inner being to the body

By the fullness of peace there is here meant a complete calming, which amounts to the freeing of the animistic radiation of the nerve cells from a strong connection with the radiation of the spirit

It is the state in which the silver cord is gently loosened, the cord which binds the astral and also the soul coverings of a more ethereal kind

Although this cord is loosened, it nevertheless still holds, in a certain binding of its radiation, the soul covering not far from the body, but the golden cord which connects the spirit with the nerve plexus of the heart is loosened many times more

Therein lies a certain freedom in the perceiving of the spiritual inner being of man, which does indeed draw the soul body with it in part, but which nevertheless ascends gradually, within the Subsequent work of Creation, into the luminous planes which correspond to its ripeness and to its abilities

If the spirit is already wholly ripened, then it may be made possible for it to step for a certain while upon the threshold of Paradise itself, where it meets those who can mediate to it much knowledge

Such a state is then perceived in looking back as a great inner refreshment which sets in together with the morning awakening

It is a refreshment which may be compared to a strong impression of experienced happiness, which at the same time often has no outward cause of material origin

It is the flame of the spirit which irradiates the consciousness of man to the highest degree of blissful joy

This state, however much it appears to people today as something quite impossible, is nevertheless attainable, and this by a comparatively easy way

The condition for this state is to make it possible for the spirit to ascend into the nearness of the spiritual homeland

Nothing else is the cause of so strongly experienced a state of morning awakening in the fullness of fresh strength and overflowing joy

But here there lies in reality a certain condition

This condition is that the spirit be connected with the radiation of the Truth

Only the Truth as such makes it possible for the spirit to ascend high upwards, into the nearness of the golden gates of the spiritual homeland

There is therefore in reality with the spiritual movement yet one condition which is to be found here, so that the spirit may be led up the rungs of the ladder strongly and without hindrance upwards into the nearness of the blissful Light

This condition is a clear and direct path lying only and solely in the radiation of the Truth

Where this is lacking, then although all the other conditions are fulfilled, the degree to which the spirit may ascend in the time of night is limited by its ripeness

And precisely ripeness is connected with the experiencing of the grasp of the Truth

Here for the reader of this text there gradually emerges the knowledge why there are many people on earth who, although they perhaps go to sleep sufficiently early and also in a certain calm, are permitted to ascend only to a certain kind of planes, which correspond to the ripeness of their knowledge about God and His work of Creation

There is lacking to them, as a guide for their spirit, the radiation of the Truth brought from God

The Truth illumines the path for the spirit in every moment in which it loosens itself from the body and may wander more freely through the space of the finer planes

If in its spiritual spark there burns a strong longing to follow the radiation which touched it from the Light of the Truth, then it does not need the dim glow which spreads a little higher above the earth and which many souls mistakenly consider to be a sign of the nearness of paradise, but its inner being hastens upwards high above these places

Its inner being may thus draw near to the real state of bliss which descends from the places of the true spiritual paradise, which lies above all the spheres of the luminous planes of the Subsequent work of Creation

Just as therefore whole millions of men are placed into subordination to this Lawful happening, so it is possible to grasp from it all with what an extraordinary thing all those are endowed who were permitted already here on earth to receive into their spirit the knowledge of the Truth

It is something immeasurably valuable which lies therein and which shows itself precisely at the time when the spirit can, in the loosening from the body, rise upwards into the planes filled with brightness which are to be found higher in the Subsequent work of Creation

Always there must necessarily show itself therein the ripeness of the spirit, which is closely bound up with the grace of the Truthful knowledge about the work of Creation, unclouded by anything

And this the spirit can absorb into itself today only through the knowledge of the Truth brought from God

Yes, here the emphasis rightly belongs upon the word absorb, because to know only a text speaking of the Truth is not enough

The Truth needs to be absorbed into the inner being, in the wholeness of the knowledge about the Laws of God and also about everything which is part of the wonderful work of Creation, as a living radiation which has united itself with the spirit

Only when the living absorbing of the Truth becomes a part of the spiritual inner being of man, only then may the spirit be drawn in the time of night by a homogeneous kind of radiation high into the luminous heights, which are far more irradiated by the Light and also permeated by the purity of the Truth of God than the other planes lying lower

Only the livingly absorbed knowledge of the Truth, that is, received and worked through by the inner being, living joyfully in the spirit, makes possible this happening during the night, when the spirit may loosen itself from the earthly body and from the influence of the material brain with its nerves

In this those who were permitted to know the Word of Truth are to a certain degree different, for through the absorbing of the radiation of the Truth they are connected with places which bear this Truth purely and strongly within them

Thus they are connected with places bathing lastingly in a flood of Light, whither the spirit, if it is burdened with nothing else, may ascend in order to draw here, among other things, everything needful for a sure walking through earthly life

That, however, is not only a blessing, but also a responsibility, for only by this way may there come to men on earth much further knowledge which is important for the helping of mankind in this serious time of changes

The blessing from the Light is at the same time for the spirit a consciously accepted responsibility

That many know nothing of it in their day-consciousness does not mean that precisely in the time of night they are not called from the Light to set out upon the path of an ever more conscious connection with the Light

Therein lie many serious conditions for the present development of many events on earth seemingly unconnected with it

Spiritually striving people can therefore draw from the connection with the Light much blessing for themselves

At the same time, however, they are through the radiation of the Truth the bridge-builders of the needed knowledge which is to penetrate into the human world on this earth

The ability of a clearer intuitive perceiving of what comes in the momentous happenings into the life of a man who knows the Truth is therein only one small part

In reality there is much more which is today required of the people who are connected with the radiation of the Truth from the Light, to bring to life in this time on earth

They should therefore all occupy themselves with it in the highest earnestness

Their spirit will gladly bring it to them in the time of night for the subsequent use in daily life

It is only needful to perceive nocturnal sleep as an inseparable part of spiritual work

The most important thing for this work in the time of nocturnal sleep has already been described

It suffices only to occupy oneself with it, and it will gradually become a natural part of the life of every spirit which has already been awakened by the Truth