Das Innere des Parthenon (“The Interior of the Parthenon”) by Bô Yin Râ

The Three Sages Substack continues its presentation of works by the Luminary Bô Yin Râ in cooperation with Books to Light, publisher and copyright holder of the complete English translation of the Luminary’s masterwork: the 32-volume German-language compendium of his spiritual guidance under the general title of Hortus Conclusus (“The Enclosed Garden”).

Bô Yin Râ was the spiritual name of Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken, who was born in Aschaffenburg, Germany, in 1876 and who passed away in Lugano, Switzerland, in 1943. In his explanations of spiritual realities and the inner path thereto, Bô Yin Râ openly identified himself as part of the same society of Luminaries of the First Light (Leuchtenden des Urlichts) to which Jesus Christ himself belonged.

The Luminaries consist of those human individuals with ultimate responsibility for the spiritual destiny of all humanity on planet earth. Their terrestrial headquarters are located in the heart of Asia, and they have been providing their guidance for millennia. The existence of the Luminaries is hinted at in the Bible by references to the Order of Melchizedek of which Jesus was a priest (Hebrews 7:1-28).

It is extremely rare for a Luminary to work openly and in public as Jesus and Bô Yin Râ have done. Bô Yin Râ wrote that the work of the Luminaries is still at an early stage. This idea is supported by the realization that in both cultural and ethical terms humanity is not far removed from a primitive state of savage barbarism. Events in the world today show this clearly.

At the same time, humanity’s spiritual hunger is shown by the proliferation of sects and cults claiming to show the way, along with the course of the historic religions. But it is not necessary that vast numbers of people embrace the teachings of the Luminaries for the world to change.

At present the number of people with spiritual hunger is substantial. During Bô Yin Râ’s lifetime over a million people in the German-speaking world purchased and read his books until they were banned by the Third Reich. More and more people are reading the books in Germany today, and they are also being widely translated and read in other languages, including English. Bô Yin Râ predicted that a time would come when everyone on earth who was seeking the spiritual life would read and study his works. We at Three Sages are trying to do our own small part in making them better known and more available in the U.S. and among other English-speaking people.

One of the key facts about Bô Yin Râ’s teachings is that he clearly expressed the necessity of answering the fundamental question: What is a human being? If we are honest, we must face the fact that we really don’t know the answer to that question. Not that there is a shortage of those attempting to provide an answer, many of these being quite fantastic. Rather the problem often is that the answers are incomplete, mutually contradictory, or self-serving. In the absence of a satisfactory answer, we lack the inner assurance and self-confidence needed to resist the negative forces that would enslave and exploit us during our sojourn on earth. On the other hand, true self-knowledge as defined by Bô Yin Râ, and previously by Jesus, has the potential to assist us in becoming truly happy, joyful, and free, both in this world and in the world we all must enter at death. How to accomplish this? Bô Yin Râ’s teachings constitute what is always most rare: authentic guidance.

Bô Yin Râ’s Hortus Conclusus is a comprehensive work but is broken down into 32 separate books, each of which approaches spirituality from a different though complementary angle. But the core is the trilogy consisting of 1) The Book on the Living God; 2) The Book on the Beyond; and 3) The Book on Man.

The first of these three volumes, The Book on the Living God, may be read in translation in an on-line version published by the Kober Press of Berkeley, CA, which is available HERE.

The second volume, The Book on the Beyond, is available in the Books to Light translation published by Books to Light and available in the series presented by Three Sages HERE.

What you are now about to read is the Books to Light translation of the third book of the trilogy, The Book on Man. We can promise that if you read these books attentively you will not view your life and purpose in the same light as you did before you began. We wish you well on this most important and personal of all journeys.

One of Bô Yin Râ’s basic teachings was that 20th century humanity was caught in the throes of a “transitional age” and that the future was much brighter than usually realized. Without a doubt we are mired in a period of history where hate and violence, combined with ever-advancing technology, is capable of murdering people by the million. This has been against the background of an exponentially increasing human population which governments are hard-pressed to feed, house, and educate properly. But according to Bô Yin Râ, a more humane future does not depend on external “reforms,” more clever machinery, or striving for “equality,” but on the inner regeneration of our spiritual life. Looking around, even in a Europe laid low by conflict, he saw signs of hope in the growing spiritual sense of the people who came to him for guidance. He saw a new age dawning that the children’s children of the period would begin to realize. His observations and guidance may also raise our hopes today.

The standard-translation© of Hortus Conclusus (“The Enclosed Garden”) encompasses Bô Yin Râ’s spiritual teachings in 32 books. Bô Yin Râ is the spiritual name of Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken. Published by Posthumus Projects Amsterdam, Inc. in The Netherlands under number 33079516, www.bo-yin-ra.org. All rights, copyrights included, reserved by Posthumus Projects Amsterdam, 2014. Copyright now held by Books to Light—USA. Posthumus Projects Amsterdam and Books to Light—USA are responsible for this standard-translation©. Posted by Three Sages with permission of Books to Light.

For the Books to Light website with ordering information for Bô Yin Râ’s books, click HERE. For the Books to Light YouTube channel, click HERE.

For the first 100 purchases, Books to Light is offering the ONLY single-volume English translation of Bô Yin Râ’s Hortus Conclusus—his complete spiritual teachings—at a special discount to Three Sages subscribers at 40 percent off the usual retail purchase price. Order HERE.

For the Three Sages Subscribers’ offer of 40% off on Hortus Conclusus (32 Books in one large volume—1193 pages plus selected spiritual paintings by Bô Yin Râ) please utilize the code to enter at checkout: THREE SAGES 40% OFF.

Discounts are limited to a maximum of three books in one cart of the Hortus Conclusus.

If there is any issue or question with the checkout or use of the discount, buyers may contact the Site Admin directly (preferably via text message) at 703-989-5550 or email: [email protected].

Introduction (Click HERE)

The Mystery: ‘Man and Woman’ (Click HERE)

The Path of the Woman (Click HERE)

The Path of the Man (Click HERE)

Marriage (Click HERE)

The Child (Click HERE)

New Mankind

Epilogue

Final Teaching!

As long as men on this earth live together in any kind of community there will always be individuals who are not satisfied with the kind of communal life binding them to others; nevertheless, men will never find a perfect form of government. –

Always the advantage held by one will be a disadvantage to another; it is always the case that very few willingly give up the advantages they hold even if they recognize it brings disadvantage to others.

It is not possible for a ‘theocracy’ to come into existence on this earth which would freely unite all men in love, for this earth was once deprived of God by man himself when, afraid of his own might, he lost his dominion over it. – – –

However much joy on earth for all men may be theoretically proclaimed, reality will mock unconcernedly all these theories. –In every ‘republic’ there will be ‘kings’ and ‘princes’; no ‘despot’ will ever be able to prevent there being territories in his realm where his might and arbitrariness are impotent. – – –

Never will a law spring forth from the ‘council of all men’ which could surpass those wise and sublime laws once passed by the great ‘kings’ of the world.

There will only ever be a few individuals to whom nature has given the talent and power to bring order to chaos and to lead those who without leadership fail to bring prosperity to themselves and to others. – –

Even rarer are those who from birth nature has endowed with the right to be in control – – to be in control of everything incapable of, or unwilling to practice self-control.

In all realms of the cosmos, whether disclosed to the physical or spiritual senses, rules the system of ‘hierarchy’, of higher and lower ranking, and the number of effective powers diminishes the further their might and influence reach. – – –

The communal life of men on earth is also subject to this law; any arbitrary will seeking with good intentions to create ‘equality’ is inherently destined to fail from the beginning, – it travels the path of abundant disappointments which nature always keeps open for all human wisdom failing to recognize its law, or if recognizing it, ignoring it. –

Every kind of human communal life on earth is built upon hierarchy and rank, according to nature’s law. If this is not consciously sought, nature will itself build it according to its own rules and without regard to the number of victims demanded by its iron law…

There is no avoidance, no alternative route to the goal, where general cosmic law commands. –

A man does not become a ‘king’ by being born in a royal palace, and all the wisdom of a philosopher who would like to see the people happy under his leadership will not make a ‘statesman’ of him.

The mystical force really creating ‘kings’ may be preserved within a dynasty for centuries. It must be extinguished as soon as the impulses which once founded the ‘royal’ character within it have exhausted themselves in deed and life. Nothing on earth can then replace what has become extinct by another authority, and thus protect an empty ‘kingship’…

However, not every ‘king’ who has lost his land has thereby ceased wearing the royal ermine. – – The opposite also applies; many a royal throne was toppled by an enemy of the ‘royal’ might who in all certainty was not aware that he was himself a ‘king’ who had not yet found his realm. – – –

One can forgive belief in ‘evolution’ as far as the structure of society is concerned, for human eyes tend too readily to regard their immediate environment as the ‘world’. In the same way man struggles to consider the times he can survey as ‘eternal seconds’. – –

The few on this earth capable of perceiving more widely in space and time must recognize, despite all apparent contradiction, that everything man on earth regards as ‘evolution’ with respect to ‘polity’ is plain vanity and illusion; in thousands of years’ time, mankind will still bleed itself to death in the same struggles for dominance as are waged today or were waged thousands of years ago when civilizations fell leaving no evidence as yet uncovered by archaeologists…

At times ‘the people’ will succumb to the illusion that it can be the ‘ruler’ and rule itself – as the ‘ruler’ – –. At other times kings lacking any trace of true ‘kingship’ and its mystical power will seek to secure by force of arms the throne to which they have no claim. Again and again, fortunes will change until the last remaining men on earth, unless spiritual insight prevents it, will slay each other, since the last animal was slaughtered long ago, and the last plant perished in sand and ice. – For this earth must freeze, and the eternal ‘redemption’ of earthly man will then witness a new world cycle. – – –

Woe upon the ‘last men’, for then the myth of Cain and Abel will be repeated a thousand times over, unless earthly man realizes in time that every ‘you’ is an ‘I’ seeking to find himself in him. – –

Each among the few for whom the spirit and the spirit’s transmission illuminated brightly expanses of time and space, is at one with me in expressing the wish: – may just one of those hoping to achieve lasting happiness today or in days to come on earth, be able to see those things we few, almost overwhelmed by compassion, must teach to see clearly! – –

He surely would, paralyzed by terror and with profound shame in his heart, banish his dreams of the future to the deepest shaft of his soul; never would he seek again on this earth the things his spirit showed him, and which he believed, trapped in the illusion of error, could be given shape on this cosmic particle ‘earth’. – –

Nevertheless, the happy dreams of these visionaries are replete with truth, only the happiness they wish for mankind can never be attained on earth; it can never be realized by earthly means; it is never reserved for earthly man in the form of his dreams. – – –

Therefore let us seek a different ‘new mankind’, a mankind which, although living on earth and enjoying this earthly life as much as is possible, has long since stopped being only ‘of this earth’! –

We must lead man to a deeper source of happiness, a source which flows more abundantly, if we are to offer fraternal support to those ‘philanthropists’ who have been deceived by the illusion of earthly happiness. –

We must free them from themselves and their dreams, if we are to make the truth which they vaguely sense and then seek to cast into sterile philosophies into something useful for mankind. – – –

Although it is not within the bounds of possibility for a truly righteous man to be able to procure justice for all, every individual can nevertheless strive for righteousness and thereby help to counteract the will to commit injustice which even divine powers can never expunge from this earthly existence. – – –

‘The happiness of mankind’ is an individual happiness and can only be attained in the soul of each individual man. –

The ‘new mankind’ which one day may arise on this earth will most certainly no longer expect happiness to come from outside. – It will recognize that the things of this external world are only what we make of them, and that they can only determine us in as much as we allow us to be determined…

The inner world of the individual must become a world of peace and pure happiness; here alone man on earth can encounter true happiness. – – –

How this happiness of the individual is to be found is shown by the teaching unfolding from the pages of these books.

That following their advice can also make life in the external world far happier none will deny who once recognized that all existence in this external world is but witness to the invisible effect of inner powers. – –

Everything which is to bring true happiness in the external life on earth must germinate from within. –

In the external world exists only the realm of the effect of those powers which are anchored within the depths of the soul alone.

Those who seek to improve things here in the external world will only harvest illusory successes; they will only bestow momentary happiness, and the things they achieve are destined soon to collapse since inherent energy necessary to sustain them in the external world is lacking. – –

May this ‘Book on Man’ open the eyes of many who, filled with the best of intentions, still waste their powers today because they hope to attain the ‘happiness of mankind’ in the external world!

May those who keep watch from dawn to dusk looking for salvation and help, finally attain insight!

Only when ‘gazing outwards’ is replaced by ‘looking inwards’ can the external life of mankind become worthy of man as well. – – –

Only then can some of those ‘dreams of the future’ be realized which, with currently popular methods run merely the risk of evaporating into mist and fog. – –

‘Mankind of old’ is very adept at forcing the external world to serve it. But since this ‘coercion’ only comes from without, it risks succumbing to those powers which it has unleashed to serve it. –

‘New mankind’ will no longer seek to force from without the things it will learn more effectively to steer from within. – –

In every individual belonging to the ‘new mankind’ powers will be revealed overshadowing everything ‘mankind of old’ proudly admired as ‘spiritual achievements’, – unaware that all thinking can never comprehend the ‘spirit’, which like the power of lightning fills the whole world; never will it become useful to man through thinking, never through external mechanics; it mocks that mockery itself which the ‘spirit’ of many ‘thinkers’ sets against its own reality. – – –

Far removed from all illusions, I know for certain that the true spirit cannot reveal itself everywhere from one day to the next. For mankind of old has systematically blocked all the shafts through which man today could find his way to the depths within himself where the sources of all becoming flow.

Yet one day these sources will be opened up again; those who can then draw from them will be able to achieve many things by the power of the true spirit which today are vainly sought with all the brain’s rational power.

Yet even then this earth will not become a ‘heaven’, and untamed powers will continue to keep most men in bondage. – –

‘New mankind’ will be a realm of the chosen and called; some individuals are even now founding this realm within themselves.

It may even be possible for this generation to experience its first traces, – certainly our children’s children will one day know of its powers, as we today know those powers which mankind of old believed it had torn from nature, being cunningly able with external force to make nature serve its aims.

The holy books of ancient times rightly proclaim both a kingdom of the ‘children of light’ and a kingdom of the ‘children of this world’ of the external powers which cannot be eliminated. One who truly knew of these things once said: “The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light!” – –

It is to be wished that the ‘children of light’ would become ‘wiser’ in their way, and could break the spell by which they are fettered by the ‘children of this world’!