Surrounded By the Light and the Good

THE WAY OF THE GRAIL – SUPPLEMENTARY TEXTS – March 11, 2024

Czech original: Obklopeni Světlem a Dobrem · cesta-gralu.cz

Although it appears to many a man that it is precisely he who is delivered up to many hardships and privations, it always holds that the threads of the weavers of fate of individual men are filled to overflowing with countless helps

As inhabitants of the work of Creation we are lastingly surrounded by the Light and the Good

And this Light and Good can lastingly bring strengthening to everyone who wishes to see it rightly

That is something upon which every man can rely who seeks in his life refuge and help from God

He needs, however, to seek this help precisely with God and with the animistic servants, who count as His direct servants, but not with the men of today

Even though help and protection should rightly be found also with men, under the present conditions prevailing among men on earth a man will find but little understanding with others, and therefore, alas, he will also find with them but very little help for his path through life

This is one of the greatest perils which accompany mankind on earth

Of the Good and the Light which should come to one's fellow-men through earthly men there is but desperately little compared with how it should rightly be

It is the result of the devastating influence of the intellect, and thus a proof of how greatly mankind has succumbed to the influence of the tempter, who spread upon earth the opposite principle, which drags all powers and all attention towards the vanity and self-exaltation of man, instead of towards the volition for the good and accord with others in harmony

Thereby the way was closed for that most precious thing which brings man support on the path of ascent to come to the earth also through individual men – the humanly spiritual volition for the good towards one's fellow-men

Wherever the principle of the tempter anchored itself in the thinking of men, that is, that principle which indeed has outwardly many diverse manifestations, yet always is one and the same kind of evil – the strengthening of one's own vanity above the volition to help shape harmony with other men, there everywhere there gradually came about the closing of the greatest part of the possibilities for the Good and the Light to come to the earth also by way of earthly mankind

Thereby an important connection with the Creator was destroyed, which can be maintained by man only through his pure, fervent volition towards the good, and thereby towards the Light

Although there are also here on earth men who from their birth are surrounded by the love of their fellow-men and enjoy their kindliness in that they can always turn to others for help, there is here at the same time also a great number of men who were placed by the threads of the weavers into conditions of life which press upon them with a seemingly endless flow of privation and suffering, which comes to them for the most part precisely from other men

There are thus men who have more fortune in the kindness of their fellow-men, and men who are in this not a little deprived

So it has been on earth from time immemorial

Many men rack their brains pondering how it is possible that they do not receive in their relations with others as much blessing in life as they see with others

It would be for them the best opportunity, since they are already pondering these questions, to reflect once earnestly also upon the real meaning of their earthly life

If they occupied themselves with it deeply enough and if they were able to feel it through sufficiently with their inner being, they would surely receive the needful answers

It would quickly come to them that they themselves are exactly the same in their attitudes towards their fellow-men, and that therefore in the Law of Homogeneity they meet predominantly with those who do not want the good for them, but in the first place only the good for themselves

They would recognise that the cause of the way of the good being closed to them is thus their own closedness to the state of attunement of an unconditional volition for the good, and thus of the pure wish of kindness towards other men

Because they do not, however, occupy themselves with these questions consistently enough, they form the conclusion that, if they do not find the good for themselves with other men, the origin of the injustice of the world towards them which they perceive surely lies high up in the chance and fatefulness of the stars, or still more likely in the capriciousness of God Himself

Indeed many also suppose that this is a reason for asserting that if things do not go equally well for all men, if not all men live in plenty and earthly security, it is a sign that there is no Justice of God, nay even that God does not exist

They therefore refuse to believe in God and deny His primordially eternal wisdom, which manifests everywhere through the unchangeable Laws of Creation

They would rather accept something such as that they live in a world which is the result of a sequence of chances having neither a discernible beginning nor end

However cleverly and thoughtfully the words of men who reason thus often sound in their philosophical debates, such reflections lead to only one result – to a great ruin of the spiritual spark that succumbs to it, for in this it must of necessity become ever more lukewarm and sleeping, until at last in its voluntary decision for immobility it grows rigid, and thereby loses the greatest part of its original sparkle

Men who reject God and also the primordially eternal Laws in the work of Creation formed out of His all-wisdom, however little they are aware of it, then become those stray sparks in the darkness which are threatened by complete extinction, and thereby by their spiritual death, that is, complete annihilation

Although all around man all life lives and works lastingly in the Will and in the praise of God, and at every moment in the hands of all the animistic servants there is fulfilled that perfect Wisdom which bears witness to the Harmony and to the omnipresent Good which is fulfilled also here on this earth, there are here whole hosts of men who have to a great extent lost the sparkle in their spiritual development and perceive nothing of it

In such men it testifies to an incomprehensible closing of themselves to their intuitive sensing and to the ability to attune themselves to the vibration of the Good, which would otherwise, in earnest seeking, lead them simply and plainly to the recognition of the great and perfect Wisdom of God, which rests wholly in all happening

Thus many, in rejecting the Justice of God, which in its fulfilment follows more far-reaching ways than they themselves think, arrive in their short-sighted reflections of the material intellect at the view that there is no God and that therefore there is also nothing that would speak for the Good and the Light, which for man are necessarily contained in the Love of God, in which they could take refuge in a time of danger

Intellectual men seek the Creator in the narrowness of their comprehension for the greatest part only in outward manifestations, that is, in the ordering of human society hitherto, and most often then in how other men act towards themselves

Thus although they speak of God, they wish to find this help and protection from Him only in the earthly, and that often precisely through expecting kindness from other earthly men, which must lead all too often to their disappointment and discontent

And alas this holds also where there are men who present themselves to others as representatives of God on earth and who without any diffidence speak of their connection with God

Men who speak of God in this way prove thereby that they do not know their Lord, and above all they prove that they have not in the least understood His wise Will, laid in as a lastingly valid fundamental principle which determines the working of a uniform kind of unshakable justice for all manifestations of life in the work of Creation

Therefore there is talk among men of God's incomprehensible intentions, also of God's trials of man, and not seldom also of suffering intentionally inflicted by God upon man as an exceptional opportunity to follow Christ

All this is wont to be used where the Good and the Light are lost to man on his path through life

That many men speak of themselves as men striving towards God can often be regarded only as an outward label without inner content, and therefore many a one must yet be painfully mistaken, for the present mankind on earth for the most part has service to God only in its mouth, and not in its inner being

Whoever seeks the Love of God solely through mankind must all too often waver, if he takes his experiences with men at the same time for experience with God Himself

The result of this is then a menacing undermining of trust in the real working of God, if this is sought solely and only through earthly man

Something of this kind subsequently leads all who waver to distrust towards the Creator and the whole world

Whoever seeks the Love of God only through the men of today must all too often waver gravely, if he regards his experiences with men at the same time as experiences with God Himself

It is a manifestation of great ignorance of the Wisdom of the Creator, who precisely granted to the human spirit for the full value of his being a free will, with which he himself then in his development finds the ways to the recognition of the Laws of Creation

Men who must then repeatedly live through in their wounds their lack of comprehension of the working of the just Laws of Creation close themselves not only to men, but precisely inwardly also to every help from God which could come to them also otherwise than only through human doing

In their closedness born of their experiences, these painfully marked men tell their fellow-men everywhere that it is a mistake to rely on God, because according to them there is no higher power of the Good which would influence the development of things on earth

Without being aware of it, they thereby alas only confirm that they themselves have become in their mental setting entirely separated from all the currents of the higher flowing of the powers of the Good

They themselves have become closed and in a certain sense resemble a withering spiritual flower in the garden of the work of Creation

Although they see nothing around them, God's kindness is still at work everywhere around them

Inwardly lukewarm men do not understand the principle of Justice which is to be found in all happenings that of necessity unfold according to the ordered threads of fate

The cause of their wrong understanding of the Justice of God lies in this, that they do not seek further beyond the bounds of a single earthly life and also more in the depths of themselves, but sift only the manifestations of the visible end results of the threads which, precisely with the highest justice, the Vaenen and the Alphar weave for the human spirit in such a way that he may always see therein the Wisdom of God, if only he wishes to see it

And in this lies precisely the great peril, for there are but few men who wish to see in everything that enters their life a manifestation of the Just Wisdom of God, which under all circumstances works for their spiritual ascent

That alone is a grave obstacle which in his thoughts separates many a man from accord with the powers of the Good

Man is separated from the Good when he closes within himself the childlike simple receptivity for the things around him, and together with the strengthening of intellectualism there grows in him, with the intellect's own vanity, distrust as to whether the Good and God are something real

Thereby for them everything that comes from God's grace-filled kindness is pushed away into an unbelievable world

Only he who is good in himself and strives in his volition towards the Light may see the Good and the Light around him

And this even though others try to persuade him of the opposite

If he then keeps within himself a wider view of comprehension, he may then see also everything which comes from the heights and which thus enters his life as the vibrating working of the Good

For this, however, there needs to come alive precisely in the inner being of man the receptivity for that which is supra-earthly, thus finer in its kind, so that his spiritual intuitive perception may find support therein

That the meaning of all the existence of men on earth is, from the standpoint of all the helps, the spiritual ascent leading up to the spiritual home, and thus neither earthly egalitarianism nor a comfortable life, all this is part of an enlightened view of earthly conditions, which only then can man fill with a deeply felt volition for an all-embracing good

Therein he fully accepts all outward conditions which help him to develop in nobility of character and in the conscious recognition of his own weaknesses, which are always the greatest cause of where he finds himself and of what befalls him

Upon this millions of men stumble, for precisely their doubting of God proceeds from the fact that things do not go for them under all circumstances here on earth as they themselves would imagine

Therefore let us pause for a while over this manner of thinking of men

Every man passes through a development in his knowledge about life and in his attitudes towards it

There is an uncommonly great number of men who in the course of their life wholly change their attitudes in the perceiving of the values of life, so that it may be said that something such as development in the knowledge about life is a necessary part of human existence

What holds when a man is twenty years old only seldom still stands at a time when the same man is twice or even three times as many years old

All this only testifies repeatedly to the development of the perceiving and also of the understanding of things on the part of man

In contrast to man, however, the Wisdom of God is unchangeable

It is ever in its original perfect setting, in which it needs to change nothing, for in the human spirit it follows solely and only his path of spiritual development

Man as a human spirit develops inwardly, that is, ripens and changes

He who does not change and does not develop is in fact inwardly empty and may from the spiritual point of view be regarded as lifeless, that is, as dead

Thus there are men who develop in their experiencings, so that perhaps at last at the end of their life they may once recognise that the starting point for everything, and thus also for themselves, is God and His All-Wisdom contained in everything around

It is to be wondered at how many men conceal that at last in their life they have come to this certain acknowledgement of the All-Wisdom of God, gradually perceived by them ever more strongly, for precisely the sharing of this precious recognition, which is wont to be a sign of the mature age in the life of man, would make easier and thereby also help the intuitive inward progress of many of those close to them

Nevertheless it remains something hidden in which many a one inwardly believes, however much outwardly he would never let it be known that something has changed for him in his views which leads him to take refuge in the nearness of the Light, which only a while before he had mocked

How much greater then is the pain of the soul when it leaves this world and all that it dimly sensed within is shown to it as a reality existing beyond all doubt

How fervently would such a soul then wish to turn and tell the men close to it, from whom it concealed its inner change, that all this was a right sensing of a small particle of truth about the meaning of human life

It remains, however, separated by the impenetrable wall of the limited receptivity of those whom it itself had formerly confirmed in the view that neither the Good nor God is anything real

For a long time it confirmed others in the view that there is no greater folly than to trust that the volition for the good is so important a value in human life

Now, however, it sees that there is nothing greater than precisely fervent kindness, which gradually leads the path of every man in the beyond upwards and step by step opens before him the vistas of an unsuspected blissful being

The soul, which at that moment is a very little more seeing than is the case with most earthly men of today, beholds as the fundamental power drawing through everything around it the Good and the Harmony, which in quiet flowing tell of the great Love and Justice of God, which give to all life power and strengthening for development and ripening

How gladly would the soul in the beyond then let its fellow-men know how distorted the view of earthly men is in understanding the meaning of life

Gladly would it grant at least a particle of that which it may suddenly perceive as the Good vibrating around it and the Light accompanying it on all its paths

It would itself give everything to be able to be much nearer to this Light than it is now, for in its lasting drawing near to the attracting kindliness of the Light it is hindered by many of its faults and shortcomings which it brought with it to the other shore, although it could have laid aside most of them already during its earthly life, had it given itself more to natural human kindness, which it often precisely despised and also mocked as something naive and fanciful in human life

It thoroughly recognises how that Good and Light were always near to it and only it itself formed a wall so as not to yield to a greater refinement, which would have opened to it in its intuitive sensing the access into the nearness of all the helps which were to be found therein for it

It sees also how it itself lagged behind in first giving out of itself, in the best noble volition, to other men the opportunity to come to know the good, deep inner peace and joyful resolve for creative endeavour

Although it was precisely surrounded in the finer planes of its being by everything needful to become already during its earthly life a mediator of the good for other men, it remained ever closed to everything that was given to it for this from the Light

Now it may perceive how this is in reality a vicious circle, which does not find in earthly men the power to cut it through, so that more Light and Good might be permitted to pour through them upon the earth as a visible glorification of the Creator and of His incomprehensible Love

It is the sad part of the otherwise blissfully received enlightenment which is granted to many souls after passing over into the ethereal planes, once they may leave the earthly body

All former earthly philosophising, all strong religious or, on the contrary, anti-religious attitudes and opinions gradually become as nothing, as it steps forth ever more clearly that God demands nothing of the kind from the human spirit, but that the most precious thing he can bring on his own behalf is precisely the sharing in the great mediation of Harmony, Good and Light through a pure and fervent attitude towards his fellow-men

As with the withdrawal from the earthly brain a certain kind of vanity also recedes, the soul may perceive how everything is in its essence simple and translucent in the self-acting working of all happenings

That which should have been a matter-of-course part of earthly life was buried under distorted notions of the importance of exalting oneself in the time of earthly human existence

Only from a distance may the soul see this, and it leads it to accept all further paths unfolding for it from this, even if it were to mean returning again to the earth into conditions bearing within them for it initial hardships and perhaps also a certain suffering, even if this were only of an inner kind of the soul

Alas, it holds hitherto that on stepping upon the earth even many a soul otherwise not wholly burdened within enters upon a path on which that wise kindness and nobility of character dwelling within it, which it longs with all its powers to experience with other men, is often wholly pushed into the background, nay is literally stifled by the surrounding influences, such as family circumstances, upbringing and also ways of schooling directed only towards attaining a perfectly trained earthly intellect

Thereby everything is closed off which might help man in his task, so that he could be called a true servant of God, that is, much of the connection with the currents that bear to the earth the helping and strengthening radiation of the Good and the Light is suppressed

Men should pay more heed to this peril and, as long as they are still capable of an intuitive life in their inner being, direct all their inner spiritual volition towards kindness and noble conduct towards other men

In this they will never be alone

Nor will evil ever be able to attack them, for their inner endeavour for pure good volition forms for them the best conditions for protection against it

Evil can come to man only then and only in such measure as he has within himself something homogeneous

And the most homogeneous thing among earthly men, which binds them and forms for them the threads of experiencing, is precisely vanity, in the various degrees of ardour with which it manifests

Here it holds that even only faint tremors are also in their kind homogeneous even with the strongest manifestation of vain tyranny

If therefore it holds that now like will fight against like, so that at last evil may come to be lived out on earth, then for all who bear within themselves something homogeneous with evil there lastingly threatens the danger that they will be drawn into the whirlpool of manifold livings-out within the effect of the Ray of Parzival in the purifying happening now being fulfilled on earth

At the same time, however, it holds that he who is able to free himself from all wrathful malevolence and from everything impure, which always has its origin solely and only in vanity, will then at once be permitted to stand in the protecting pillar of the Light and the Good, so that he may be separated by them from the rest of the ferment

External evil will no longer be able to reach him in any form, unless he himself lets it in to him through something that would again form within him a homogeneous bridge

The strongest protection for every spiritually striving man is therefore his inner purity and humility

Even if the greatest evil were to draw near to him, he will be protected and will come forth set free, for in the simple working of the Laws of Creation he will keep everything around him at a distance

Every enemy will in the end be put to shame by the power of pure humility shining in the inner being of him who has wholly set out upon the path of volition for an all-embracing good

The Good and the Light will be above him and around him in protective working in exactly such measure as he himself bears the volition for the good in his inner being

And because there now draws near the happening in which it will be possible to perceive ever more strongly unprecedented manifestations of the near Ray of Parzival, it holds that the expending of every endeavour for the good will be strengthened by unprecedented kinds of help

It is thus high time and at the same time also the very best time for every man to allow the strengthened radiation of the Light to enter into him in the sense that he makes use of it for a complete cleaving to the Good and the Light in all his thinking and acting

Only this means the true fulfilment of the service to God fervently implored by many a human spirit, which he has been granted to fulfil here on earth

The time for this is now here

All who will pray for it and also expend all their powers for it will be able to be wholly surrounded by the Good and the Light, so that, despite the sifting around them and the men fighting one another, they may walk creative and blessed paths in the nearness of Parzival

The most glorious period of life on earth thus lies solely and only in the hands of each one of us