(Return to part 2)
The multidimensionality of the human being
There is an original knowledge, a Sophia Perennis, which is reflected in almost all the cultural traditions – we find it if we look at the Vedas, the Hermetic philosophy, Sufism, Theosophy, Anthroposophy, and esoteric Christianity, to which also the Rosycross belongs. A part of this original knowledge is the insight that the human being is a sevenfold microcosm, which consists of an immortal and a mortal part.
Let us have a closer look at this sevenfold miracle of our existence:
There is the true self of man, the core of his immortal individuality. His innermost being is:
(7) the eternal, immaterial spirit element (Atman), which clothes itself with
(6) the eternal soul (Buddhi) and
(5) the higher reason (the higher Manas)
This trinity waits for the unfolding in the earthly man. He can create the possibilities for this to happen.
His earthly personality consists of:
(4) his earthly intellect (the lower Manas) – the mental body
(3) his emotional aspect – the astral body
(2) his vitality – the ether body and
(1) the physical body.
It is clear that it is the immortal microcosmic structure with its spirit and soul core, which dives into the material world during an incarnation, and there connects with a mortal earthly personality in order to possess a physical form as a means to express itself in the material world.
About the sense of human life
Our true self lies dormant in our being like a seed. It waits for our personal earthly consciousness to perceive this seed and to support its unfolding into a perfect spirit-soul human being. Our longing for perfection, justice, peace, and all-encompassing love, is an attribute of the immortal true self. It is the motor which makes us seek until we have found this inner source and recognize that we, as earthly, self-conscious people must become servants for our higher identity, so that it can become active. In our true self, which is inseparably connected with the divine source, there are all the wisdom and all the creative force needed to enable the spiritual awakening in our natural being to happen, so that we can become a living instrument of the eternal spiritual forces, and so support the natural and spiritual evolution to be manifested in accordance with the divine will.
The highest sense of our existence consists of supporting an all-encompassing cosmic consciousness grounded down in to the material aspect.
In order for that to happen, our earthly thinking, the ego logic of today’s people, has to be transformed into a higher reason, in which there are wisdom and love. Our higher thinking capacity is already active in a transpersonal space of consciousness, and yet can be expressed in the material world with the help of the voluntary serving of the personality.
When we die, our true self first separates from the physical form and takes the subtle bodies with it into the spheres of the beyond. There the essence of the lived life is integrated into the structure of the essence of innumerous incarnations of the microcosm. They form the seed for the conception of a fitting new incarnation in matter.
The law of karma gives each individuality a chance to experience the consequences of all their past actions and failures, which do not correspond with the divine law, in their next incarnation. Thus they are given the opportunity to transcend those consequences voluntarily, and so transform them in wisdom.
The wheel of reincarnation turns for our true self until we recognize our true destination and enable its realization. The coming new man is the image realization of a spirit-soul person, whose manifestation of form will be imperishable and will no longer be subject to death. He will truly become a child of God, who is called to cooperate in the manifestation of the all.
When we become conscious of this wonderful development, which is innate in us and to which we are called, then we will, in silence, turn inwardly to the heavenly soul core that dwells in our heart, and we will then find the right decision, which corresponds with the higher, creative will, in each moment of our life.
When we gain our own inner autonomy, whose only binding is to our spirit soul identity, we will know at every moment how we are to behave in order to remain in accordance with our inner law.
As a final contemplation about the mystery of life and death, I would like to point to a poem of Hermann Hesse with the title The Life that I chose Myself. In this poem, he states that, before he came to this earth life, he was shown how he would live it, with all its sorrow, its grief, its joys, its light.
“I was shown the bad and the good
I was shown the abundance of my failings …” and then
“I heard a being pose the question
whether I’d have the courage to live it”. And the poem goes on:
“This is the life that I shall live!”
gave I as answer with decisive voice.”
