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A lie?
8th November 1840, Sunday, from 3/4 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Writers: K.G.L. – Andreas and Anselm H.
[1] Today the most loving Father gave us the following teaching through His servant Jacob Lorber, with the heading given.
[2] It will seem strange to you, as if you could think from this heading that I am able to lie to you. But of course it is not so; but the matter is completely different. And not everything is lie, what appears to be – as also not everything is truth, what appears to be. But how it is, a small narration shall teach you soon.
[3] Someone told his friend that he had seen an enormous dragon in a region of this country and even described it’s shape in detail. He thus made the matter so probable to his friend that the latter soon found himself moved to travel to the place where his friend had said he had seen the dragon.
[4] When the friend came to the named, exactly described region, he did not find the slightest resemblance of this region to the one described by his friend, even the name was wrong; and on questioning, he was told that in this country probably no region under this name and appearance could be found.
[5] And so the friend returned again and spoke to the other with fierce words: "Oh you loose, wicked friend, what have I done to you, that you has served me so badly with your lie, and has exposed me to the laughter of the foolish!" His telling friend, however, still claimed that he had not told him a lie. “For," he said, "I have seen the monster as I described it to you; and when I inquired of the people what the name of this region was, they told me that it was as I told you.”
[6] But now the narrator was asked by his counter-friend to lead him to the place on which his lie had grown. The narrator agreed and led his friend to a place that had a slight resemblance to the one described above. However, when he, the narrator, asked the people there about the name of this region, it did not bear the slightest resemblance to the one given by the narrating friend. And nobody knew a syllable of any dragon there.
[7] Well, what do you think after you have heard such a story – did the narrator lie to his friend or not? – Yes, I say, he has lied to him, and that with relish – and again the narrator has nevertheless told his friend a very pure truth.
[8] But now the question arises, how can a thing be lie and truth at the same time? Of course, a natural human mind brings this out as little convincingly as that black is white and white is black. However, it is not so with Me! For a thing, seen with spiritual eyes, can quite well be black and white at the same time and in the same place. And so it will also be shown how this aforementioned, lying narrator has nevertheless spoken the truth.
[9] This man had such a vivid dream one day, when he fell asleep under the cool shade of a tree, in which he saw the narration so bodily and vividly, that he could not help but think to himself that he had really seen all this.
[10] For although he awoke again under the same tree under which he had lain down to rest a few hours before, his dream was of such a nature that it seemed to him that he had woken up immediately under the tree, had then left the place and had come to the aforementioned region as a result of a further walk. And when he had seen and experienced there everything mentioned earlier, he returned immediately, came to the exact same tree again, lay down again, fell asleep tired for a short time and then really woke up under the same tree under whose shadow he had gone some hours earlier safely.
[11] Now see, in the natural what is told is indeed a lie, since in the whole country no such region and no dragon can be found. But it is just not necessary that, if something is not found in nature, it would therefore not exist.
[12] And so it is with all spiritual vision in general! Just take a blind man and tell him about this and that object, which you see that it is there. Is the story a lie for the blind man, because he cannot see the object of your story himself? And so many things can exist and be true, even if they are nowhere found – since beside the natural world, even in it, there exists a still far greater spirit world. Who can claim for example, that hell is a lie, since it consists only of lies? Or who can claim that there is no heaven because it is not visible to the eye of the scientist?
[13] Thus the being and not-being and yet-being is no lie! Because a material being is no spiritual being, as the spiritual is no material – and nevertheless the material is conditioned by the spiritual, as also again vice versa the spiritual is conditioned by the material.
[14] An example will illuminate you this sufficiently! If you look at an apple still hanging on the tree, you will certainly say that this apple has grown on this tree. And again you will have to say that this whole tree has grown from such an apple. And so you will soon see an apple grow from the tree and soon again a tree from the apple.
[15] Now ask yourselves, what is actually the fruit here and what is the thing that brings forth the fruit? – If you say that the apple is the fruit, I say: "But what is the tree, if it grows from the apple? And do you say: Yes, the tree is the fruit! But I say: What then is the apple when it comes forth from the tree?
[16] Behold, also here every assertion can be in and for itself at the same time a lie and a truth. For the apple is as good fruit as the tree – and also as good producer as the tree.
[17] However, if one says: Yes, only one thing can be true! I say: "It is quite true that the truth is singular"! But it is foolish for man, in the narrowness of their judgments, to claim and say: This or that is "the first" – while you can easily see from this example that one can be "the first" as well as the other.
[18] For example, some extraordinary scholar would stand up and claim that God first created the tree, but another would step up and say to him: "If God first created the tree, why then did he put the ability into the apple, so that when it is put into the earth, a tree will come forth from it, bearing again the same fruit from which it itself came forth? Thus, after all, it is evident that God did not first create the tree, but only an apple!" And again the first scholar would object to this statement: "I believe that it was more in accordance with the order to create the tree first and to endow it with the power of reproduction". Behold, and so these two scholars would drift around in an eternal circle without ever reaching the goal. And would one, who had two interlocking clock wheels before him, claim: This tooth of this wheel grips into the teeth of the other wheel! and another would answer him: But dear friend, are you blind that you don't see that the teeth of the other wheel only mesh with the teeth of this wheel? Which of these two would be right again?
[19] I say: Each one is right and speaks the truth – and again: One lies as well as the other. The part of the lie consists here of course only in the one-sidedness of the assertion, by which the one truth rebels again the other. And to the extent that it challenges the other truth, it is a lie. In and for itself, however, it is as good true as that which it contests.
[20] But the one truth is this: One consists and originates from the other – and one is there for the other. But I am the eternal origin of all existence and have arranged everything in such a way that the natural originates and exists out of the spiritual and the spiritual again, vice versa, in a constant and unchangeable cycle, out of the natural.
[21] From this it is also clear to you how the spirit world constantly projects into the natural and the natural again into the spiritual. For when any spirit becomes free, it loves, thinks and acts in it’s
assigned sphere. This action and effect of a spirit, since it happened, cannot possibly pass by without a trace, as if there had been no action and effect at all. Therefore, the question arises, how does the action and effect of the free spirit become apparent?
[22] Then I say: Look at the things as they are, as they originate and exist, and you will have to say to yourselves that each of these phenomena must have some sufficient reason of origin – but where does this reason lie? Certainly not in matter, but in the spiritual working and acting, which working and acting is an inward one.
[23] But if any master-builder builds a house, he certainly did not build the house for the sake of the house itself, but he pursued a purpose with the building which completely corresponded to his intention. Since a master-builder already does this, and even as a mortal man would like to give his work an eternal duration, how much more will a free, eternal spirit arrange his actions and effects in such a way that they correspond to his love and his nature!
[24] And so it is again clear that matter itself is only a means from which a spiritual purpose is to arise in the intention of the spiritual producer.
[25] And if you justly consider this so, then it must become clear to you how the one is there for the other and how always one reaches into the other and projects into it. And from this you will further see clearly what is the lie and what is the truth, and will recognize how for the pure, everything is pure and true, but for the blind, the truth is lie. In this way also in Me, as the eternal Origin of all existence, there can be no lie; yes, it’s existence is an impossibility before Me.
[26] To the blind man, of course, the existence of a thing as well as it’s formal nature is unbelievable, since he cannot convince himself of it’s reality. But if he believes that the thing is so, he has the truth. But if he does not believe, his persistent unbelief is the lie itself, in which his blindness imprisons him.
[27] Faith is therefore an salve for the eyes of the blind. If they want to use it in the simplicity of their heart, they will soon reach the light of their eyes and see things as they are. And even if they find them to be different from what they have been told, what they have been told, is true, because they believe it to be so.
[28] Therefore, everyone will also find everything sooner or later in the spirit, as he has believed! For as the light, so the color of the illuminated objects. But faith is the light of the spirit; therefore such a man will also see, how his light is constituted.
[29] But out of the tree shall not come forth any other apple than that which is put into the tree; as again out of the apple shall not come forth any other tree than that which is put into the seed. And so also every man is the fruit of his own faith, and faith itself is the fruit of man's love. And therefore: As a man believes, so shall he see, and as he loves, so shall he live.
[30] But whoever believes My words, he has received Me into himself, insofar as he believes that it is I who make such things known to him. And since every man is his own love at the ground of his being, then, when he receives Me into his love through faith, I become his love, as he becomes Mine. For as he has received Me, so have I also received him. And so we will then become one, as the tree and the apple are basically only one – and will interlock like the teeth of a clock gear – and from this then, truth will become.
[31] For whoever has received Me into his love through faith, he has received the eternal truth into himself and becomes the eternal truth himself. And since I am the Eternal Love Myself, I am also then in all truth the person who has made Me his love.
[32] And there that person will be like a refined tree, which has taken up the higher in itself, so that this becomes it’s character, and will bear therefore many noble and precious fruits, in which nevertheless it’s free independence will never perish. For as you can get back the original nature of the tree from the seed of a grafted tree (since it still exists independently in spite of the nobility) – so
it is also with the man grafted by Me, that he likewise, in spite of My reception and the ennoblement thereby effected, will keep his independence freely and eternally.
[33] Behold, this teaching given to you now is very important, and without it you cannot easily reach the inner firmness of your faith, and your love would constantly remain a cycle returning to itself. But if you know that the union with My love takes you into the infinite circle of My eternal work, then you can also conclude with the greatest certainty that next to the infinity of My work, there will remain little space where a lie could hide. For whoever separates himself from the light will certainly be illuminated only on one side and will discover a shadow on the opposite side, which is a lightless mirage of his own independence, but whoever is in the middle of the shining flame of My love – ask yourselves whether any shadow is possible there, too?
[34] Therefore make Me your love through faith in your love, so that the light embraces you and penetrates you and you yourselves become light out of Me. This I say, the Eternal Love and Truth. Amen.