Chapter 13
O man, to know the creations of your Creator, and the things He has placed in your reach!
To apply your knowledge, and understand with reverence the work of His hand!
How considerate He is of your little wisdom, and your love of liberty, which He gave to you.
Even before He had perfected you, He called out to you to behold His creations. And you did not pause to learn, but ran away, half completed, to vent the exuberance of your soul, which He gave to you.
Behold me, your God; I am your elder brother whom He sent after you. Come, and learn wisdom from your God.
You linger in the grade; you are not aroused to know your Creator. You turn your back on me, and say: Behold, there is no God!
I beseech you, turn about, and hear the wisdom of my words: I will teach you to know your Creator; to hear His voice, and to see His hand.
And you shall rejoice in your life, and teach your brethren to rejoice also.
You have a corporeal body and a spiritual body: Hear me, and I will open your understanding.
Your spirit has eyes, ears, and judgment. Nevertheless the beginnings of your two parts were, at the same time, quickened into one person, because of the presence of your Creator.
O man of the earth, if only your spirit and your corpor stood even in wisdom and power all the days of your life!
But you are so delighted in the earth that you have left your spirit unfed. And it stands within you like a spear of grass covered with a stone.
And you do not see spiritual things; nor hear the Unseen. For a stone lies upon your soul.
Yet you have great learning as to corporeal knowledge; and great vigor as to corporeal judgment.
And you rate your neighbor a fool, because, in fact, in contradistinction to you, he hears and sees spiritually.
And your God weeps for you; because at the time of your death, you shall stand in heaven in grade one, even as the spirits of the beasts of the field.
Your present knowledge shall be void, and your vigor only like that of a newborn child. And my angels who are wise and strong shall take you about, in hada, the heavenly plateaus that rest on the earth, and divert you with things approximating between the two worlds, so that you may be made to comprehend yourself and your Creator’s work.
As your corpor was fed on corporeal substances, so, then, your young spirit shall be fed on atmospherean substances, which your guardians shall provide to you.
Consider the wisdom of your Creator, Who sent me to fetch you into places of delight.
O if only I could take you to the highest heavenly places! If you could stand before me, and talk face to face!
But, even as a newborn child is unsuited to feed on corn and nuts, your spirit is as a starveling in high heaven. And I take you to the nurseries where I have provided for you according to your weakness.
Your mother was provided for you before you were born; and my heavens arranged before your spirit enters there. You did not shape yourself in your mother’s womb; and, behold the perfection of your every part.
Trust in your Creator, but seek also to go with Him, and you shall attain easily to the highest mountains (places, conditions) He created for your glory.
O if only you had not contaminated your corporeal part by the flesh of the beast and the meat of His living creatures! This is one of the things that like a stone, covers up your soul, and blockades your way to the upper grades.
Your young spirit must remain within the atmosphere of the animal creation for a long season; like to like, you have fashioned your spirit to the flesh of your body.
According to the atmosphere of things, as to the purity and sweetness, behold, your Creator has fashioned them in relative ascent above the earth. That which stinks, rests on the earth; that which is pure, is upward and high.
Consider the place of the hells of the spirits of the dead, and the weapons of warfare in their hands. As the corporean is to corpor, so is the spirit as to the atmosphere of the earth.
O man of the earth, consider what you put into your mouth, for its atmosphere is the food of your spirit. And the habit of that will be entailed on your spirit for a long season after your mortal death.
If you have been a gross feeder on flesh, your spirit will seek to linger in the atmosphere of gross feeders still dwelling on the earth. The slaughterhouse, the kitchens and the restaurants, shall be the places of your spirit’s resort.
And your spirit shall feed on the atmospherean part of dead flesh in these places; and your companions shall be millions and millions of drujas; like vultures that flock to a dead carcass, and you cannot withdraw away; like the pull and grip of a magnet, these haunts are to the spirits of darkness.
O man, I have heard you in your fullness, say: I must have my flesh-food; I must have my wine and beer and tobacco and opium.
I say to you, if you do not have strength today, neither shall you have strength tomorrow. What strength shall you gain by the loss of your corporeal body?
Consider your corporeal body as a ship, in which your spirit is sailing across a wide sea of water. It is better that your spirit learns to acquire strength while it has a corporeal body to ride in. After death, it floats in the direction you have shaped it. Neither do you have power for a long season (after you are dead) to go against the current.
Remember, O man, these are the lessons of your Creator, which He gave to you, to learn to master the elements of your surrounding.
Stretch forth your hand to your Creator, and swear to Him, you will conquer every passion that is unclean, and every habit not conducive to the purity of the growth of your spirit.
This is the beginning of your resurrection; and you shall be your own judge and master.
Neither shall you call out: God, God, exalt my soul! or, O Lord save me and raise me up! || until you have first begun to do something for yourself.
O, if only you knew where the virtue of prayer begins! And that he who practices the All Highest he knows, has the ear and the hand of his God! In which the prayers of the righteous accomplish, while the prayer of the un-godlike is as void as the wind.
Certain men were down in a deep well, and they laid flat down on their bellies, and prayed to be taken up, yet they would not even raise their eyes to look upward. And others, at the top of the well, let down ropes, and they called down to those beneath to look up and catch the ropes, but they would not. And in course of time, those at the bottom said: Alas! Our prayers are not answered!
O man, if only you would put yourself in the way of your God! To put away the uncleanness of the body first, and the uncleanness of your spirit afterward.
To seek for things that are pure and good, instead of criticisms and philosophies that rise up out of your contaminated flesh-house (physical body).
Whoever desires resurrection, let him begin to resurrect himself.
Do not make your confessions, which are between you and your Creator, before men; but covenant with Him, within your own soul, saying nothing of this for the laudation of men.
Your spirit is as a seed of a beautiful tree, which your Creator planted; give it good light and a clean soil, so that its blossoms and its fruits may glorify your Creator and you.
Such is the resurrection of the spirit of men. Do not wait for a Savior to save you; nor depend on words or prayers; nor on listening to good sermons, flattering yourself that you have done well; but begin to save yourself:
By purifying your flesh, by purifying your thoughts, and by the practice of good works done to others, with all your wisdom, love and strength.
For through these only is there any resurrection for you, either in this world or the next.