Seek, and ye shall find
…after the world has slept off the intoxication from its poisonous numbing cup and early in the morning can go towards the rising sun with an open heart, bare head and barefoot, cheerful and jubilant[1] .
This jubilant cry in the Rosicrucian writing Confessio Fraternitatis (1615) expresses the complete overcoming of strangeness in a world characterized by division, hatred, and jealousy. What is the basis for this statement?
The World Today
Let’s take a look at our world of today:
Humans are increasingly exploiting the earth and its atmosphere, resulting in disasters, storms and loss of livelihoods. Why do we seem incapable of fundamentally changing our behaviour? Has humankind drunk itself into a stupor from a cup filled with toxic, narcotic substances, from which it is difficult to wake up? Is humankind a foreign body on this earth, one that causes harm as long as it has not found its destiny?
These questions have preoccupied generations of philosophers, politicians and individuals, and they require an answer more and more urgently every day. Religious founders and sages have shown ways, found explanations and propagated them. People created new theories trying to provide an answer. Disputes and wars over the “right answer” in world history bear witness to the problem of being human here on earth without a consensual solution having been found. Is it perhaps necessary for each individual to find the solution within themselves? I want to try to illustrate how I have dealt with and continue to deal with this “strangeness” of living on different continents of this world.
During my youth, education, and studies in Germany, I already felt a sense of alienation from my family and friends. It intensified during my stays abroad. In the 1960s, I was confronted with the still-present traumas of the Third Reich as part of a collective guilt of being German. This was understandable, and I could relate to it, although the question of “why?” increasingly arose in my consciousness: why the seduction by demagogic rulers of entire classes of people, why the wars; why the brutal killings; why the inequality in the world; why the oppression of the cultures and populations of the so-called Third World? The discourses in society and the teachings of the church, in whose faith I was brought up, did not give me a satisfactory answer. My studies of theosophy and anthropology did not satisfy my inner searching and questioning either.
So, my path led me to Eastern philosophies and religions. But here, too, the question remained: How is it that such high and wise philosophies, especially in India and China, were not able to overcome misery, famine and oppression (e.g. through the caste system or political ideologies)? Why have these mechanisms been so dominant and decisive in the past and present? Studying the Bhagavad Gita, practising yoga and meditation, studying Buddhism, etc., followed and awakened in me the need to get to know and experience the reality of India directly. So I went to live there, not as a tourist or hippie, but using my acquired professional knowledge to make a humble contribution, trying to alleviate hardship and misery, while hoping to find self-knowledge and answers to my inner questions.
Searching in the East
I was given the opportunity to work and live in Nepal. A deep immersion in the culture, customs, behaviour and language helped me reduce my external strangeness in this environment. However, I could not find answers to the fundamental questions of being a stranger in this world for a long time. As far as the external circumstances of life were concerned, I felt less and less “foreign” and more “different”. Only after a long search, I found answers to my deep inner questions, a search that shifted me inwardly.
During this time, I observed the collapse of externalized norms, behaviours and religiosity. I questioned Centuries-old traditions and rejected by “development”, and the search for something new became desperate. I noticed Social conflicts, the break-up of families and changes in the social structures occurred and are still ongoing. On the one side, as a counter-movement, many tried to cling to old traditions and formalities. However, they were faced with the question of whether conventional religious practice has become a mere formality, where the external procedure is routinely followed, or whether the inner, spiritual content is still present and real. This doubt and question seems to be in line with Krishna’s statements in his conversation with Arjuna, which took place several thousand years ago and is reported in the Bhagavad Gita:
The unwise are attached to the Vedas because of the fruits of the ceremonies they contain and say, “There is nothing more.” They know nothing but many rituals that procure wealth and a happy reincarnation. But they have no real knowledge of the soul and are least inclined to meditation. Be free from the pair of opposites, free from worldly anxiety and the desire to preserve present possessions.[2]
Is this statement of Krishna not identical to the demand of the Bible?.
…and when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets so that they may be seen by men. Verily, I say unto you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your closet, shut the door, and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not babble much like the Gentiles, for they think they will be heard if they speak much. Therefore, do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.[3] .
My exchange with Nepalese, Indian, European and American friends intensified my spiritual search. During this time, I gained access to the Meditation Sutras of Mahayana Buddhism[4], in particular the Heart Sutra[5] and the Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch[6]. They generated a strong spiritual attraction that went beyond the common Pujas and temple rituals.
Back to Europe
I also came into contact with the philosophy and way of life of the movement of the Cathars in the south of France[7]. The Rosicrucian manifestos of the early 17th century[8] drew my interest back to Europe. Studying these manifestos and other writings on the Rosicrucian impulse became a lasting guideline for my further life. The confrontation with the external circumstances of life in Nepal, Germany, and other countries I lived in became secondary to the background of my spiritual search. The daily “foreignness” in social, cultural, political and other respects lost its significance. My focus on the processes of soul transformation described in the Fama Fraternitatis, the Confessio Fraternitatis and the Alchemical Wedding of Christian Rosycross[9] increasingly led to an internal believe and knowledge that is “not of this world”. The increasing connection with the “other” within me, the creative source working from the depths of my heart, displaced the worldly strangeness. It was replaced by inner peace and stillness, a feeling of “coming home”.
The slowly growing internal knowledge led to an increasing serenity[1] and joy. The feeling of being a stranger in this world opened the door for me to go home. The decades of searching have enabled me to meet a sun breaking out of my innermost being “with an open heart and an uncovered head”, as the classical Rosicrucians expressed it in their jubilant cry: “and merrily and joyfully, with open heart, bare head, and unshod feet, steps forth early in the morning to meet the rising sun.”
[1] See also: www.logon.media: LOGON print, issue 19: Heiterkeit, Handeln ohne zu handeln; July 1, 2024
[1] Jan van Rijckenborgh, The Confession of the Rosicrucian Brotherhood, Volume 2, Rozekruis Pers, Haarlem, 1971, p. 18
[2] Bhagavad Gita Chapter II, verses 42/43
[3] Matthew 6; 5-8
[4] Meditation Sutras of the Mahayana Buddhism: Vol. 1 – 3; publisher (in German) Raoul von Muralt, Origo Verlag, Zuerich1958
[5] www.logon.media: The Heart Sutra or: Fulfillment is something else; Mind and Soul, July 2, 2023
[6] www.logon.media: The Doctrine of Universal Consciousness of the Sixth Patriarch Hui-neng; Mind and Soul, July 2, 2022
[7] See f.ex.: Albigensian Crusade – Wikipedia
[8] J. van Rijckenborgh: The Confession of the Rosicrucian Brotherhood, Vol. 1 – 4, Rozekruis Press, Haarlem, 1971,
[9] J. van Rijckenborgh: The Confession of the Rosicrucian Brotherhood, Vol. 3 and 4, Rozekruis Press, Haarlem, 1971,
[10] See also: www.logon.media: LOGON print, issue 19: Heiterkeit, Handeln ohne zu handeln; July 1, 2024
