Transfiguration (Verklärung) 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.

Parts Three and Four of The Book on Man contain Bô Yin Râ’s teachings on “The Path of the Woman” and “The Path of the Man.” We have now seen that prior to humanity’s “fall” into material existence through the acquisition of animal bodies, the human being as originally created encompassed both male and female essences. Upon incarnation, these essences divided into separate male and female individuals for the duration of their earthly sojourn. Now, they have the opportunity to reunite on the physical plane. This is the origin not just of sexual union and procreation, but also, at a higher level, the institution of marriage. In a few cases, individuals are able to find their original spiritual half during their existence on earth. But for the most part, physical union involves more random mating. Nevertheless,. those joined in marriage are advised to treat their spouse as though he or she were their original spiritual partner, whether that is actually the case or not. Union of couples will later be sorted out in the next world, but living as spiritual partners while on earth is the best preparation. In a time like ours, with so many divorces and such an abundance of unhappy marriages, Bô Yin Râ’s message is truly one of salvation, particularly since, even if a person has experienced such failure, it is often possible to try again. In fact, marriage is so important that he devotes an entire volume of the Hortus Conclusus to this topic. This volume will be posted by Three Sages soon.

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: mail@bookstolight.org.

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

The child

New mankind

Epilogue

Final teaching!

Sexual intercourse between man and woman on earth is one thing, marriage is another. – –

Those who have recognized the mystery surrounding man and woman, a mystery which reaches up into the innermost regions of the pure spirit, up into the First Light itself, will regard ‘monogamy’ as sacred, binding one man and one woman together for their lives on earth.

Blessed are those who already find in this earthly life within marriage their own, eternal opposite pole; the opposite pole with whom one day they will be eternally at one in a unified being in the spirit because they had once been united before their ‘division into two’! – –

Many may enjoy such ‘bliss’ without being aware of it, yet it will always be a great ‘bliss’, for the paths of those ‘divided into two’ do not in any sense run so parallel that their finding each other again could often occur here on this earth.

In a large number of all marriages poles will find themselves together which have not originated from the same unified being.

Having freely committed themselves to each other during this earthly life, both parties thus bear the cosmic responsibility of regarding their bond in the way as if they had once been united for eternities before and will be reunited for all eternity as a unified spiritual being. – –

Here on this earth only those who are fully ‘awakened’ spiritually can know with certainty whether their opposite pole on earth is at the same time their own eternal opposite or not. –

In the confused entanglements of this earth deception lurks everywhere.

Some who may regard themselves as ‘found again’ in the way I have described, will nevertheless not be so; some whose earthly acquired differences in their thinking and experiencing might mislead them into feeling they are mutual strangers will indeed form the poles of a spiritual being once divided into two…….

Who amongst those not spiritually ‘awoken’ would presume to decide these things!? –

Therefore highest cosmic duty demands in all cases where a free choice of companionship has been made that one acts as if both parties were sure that they had once lived one single spiritual life and that they will for always find, united again in the spirit, this spiritual life. –

Every bond between man and woman where there is no conscious intention to behave in this way should be rejected.

“What you have done unto the least of my brethren, you have done unto me,” – once spoke the Master, proclaimed by the sacred books. –In the same way, we can say: that whatever you do to your masculine or feminine opposite pole here in the marital companionship of this life on earth, you will do unto yourself, and most certainly to your own spiritual opposite pole, whether you have found it here on earth or not! –

It is you who gives yourself form in this communal life of marriage on earth; the more successfully you have perfected the formation of yourself, according to the exalted kind demanded by your eternally unified life as a bipolar spiritual being, the sooner you will be able to exchange one day the restless manner of life ‘divided into two’ for the union which gives you forever your opposite pole in which you find yourself again. – –

None of the effort, patience and self-restraint you have invested in your marriage will be lost to you; for everything you thus gain will be gained for all eternity. – –Everywhere in this earthly life one substitutes for the other.

Your behavior towards your fellow men will irrevocably bear its consequences, and those consequences will match your actions. If you have ever done anything evil to someone, you will be unable to avoid, through cunning and caution, experiencing the same evil, whether by the hand of the person you have hurt or throughanother in his place – whether it is the same form of evil which afflicts you or whether the evil is returned to you in a different form. – –

It will always correspond precisely to the level of evil you created yourself. He who hurts you merely takes the place of the one who was harmed by your deed, even though he, upon whom you afflicted your evil deed, has long ago forgiven you from the depths of his heart and would never be capable of carrying out an act of vengeance…

You may find forgiveness, but you can never escape your ‘karma’, the consequences of your deed. – – Maybe you will feel triumphant because the consequence has not struck you at once. Be not too hasty in your rejoicing!! –

Though decades may pass, one day you will experience for yourself what you made others experience! – – – And if this compensation fails to occur during your lifetime, you will be forced to experience it one day in another form of existence but in the same manner, for there is no escape in this respect. – –

The same that has been said of evil you have inflicted on others applies in like manner for all the good, for every deeply concealed act of love with which you have brought joy to others. –

The consequences of your deeds are unstoppable, though today you may not know the man who will be their instrument…

Sooner or later he will enter your life; he himself will not know that he carries out, through what he does, the consequences created by your own actions, in good or in evil. – –

In precisely this way you will create consequences for yourself through your behavior towards your opposite pole on earth to whom you bound yourself in ‘married life’ for this life on earth through your own free decision. – – –

Yet here you will only feel the ultimate consequence when you have cast off this earth’s apparel, when you strive upwards in your spiritual form towards that light and lofty realm of eternal union with your spiritual opposite pole once separated from you; be it that it has already been bound in marriage to you here on earth, be it that another human spirit has accompanied you here in your marriage during your existence on earth. – –

And if you are only continually met with evil for all the goodness you have shown in your marriage, if all your goodwill never encounters understanding, you are nevertheless not deceived, for it lies in your hands alone what ‘karma’ you create for yourself; your opposite pole on earth is incapable of stealing from you one whit of your thus created self-formation. –

All the goodness you do for it you have also done for your eternal opposite pole with whom, one day united, you will live a single spiritual life, be it that the person to whom you are bound in marriage here on earth is himself in truth this opposite pole of your spiritual being, be it that you are bound in him to something spiritual which is only capable of finding its own real opposite pole in spiritual existence after thousands of years. – –

‘Marriage’ in the highest sense is merely preparation of the individual pole ‘divided into two’ for the bipolar life of the united human spirit – ‘man and woman’ – in eternity. –

Not through cowardly flight from the difficulties of this preparation, but by seeking to overcome them will you attain here on earth already the highest level of spiritual skill for life possible to man. –

I would seek to speak quietly and cautiously here of the mystery that envelopes both opposite poles, male and female, even in their animal shape through the physical compensation of their polarities. –

What can be coarse lustfulness and carnal bestiality between two ‘human animals’ can also become the ‘key’ which unlocks the most secret doors of the soul and permits entry into the holy of holies…

Just as fire can impart light and warmth but can also destroy house and home, so too can the powers of sensual lust become as winged steeds before the triumphant chariot of the spirit, if they are directed by a ‘charioteer’ with vision; – yet they can also turn into fatal demons. –

Only within supreme spiritual love the union of physical poles is allowed to take place if it is to release the high spiritual powers slumbering within the physical phenomenon of the human being on earth. – –

Then a ‘miracle’ can take place within such a union which constantly touches the highest spirituality anew. Those who experience it are together aware of themselves in spheres of spiritual being which no poet’s imagination can ever intuit. – – –

I am not permitted to speak further of these things. To those mature enough to walk upon this most holy of earthly paths without danger, only the merest hint in order to attain this lofty, divinely enlightened goal will suffice.

But let all who read these words examine whether they are worthy and prepared to enter with pure heart the holy of holies in the temple of the visible cosmos; for nowhere is a ‘desecrator of temples’ so dreadfully punished than here! – – –

Marriage is a union of two spirits and two bodies, – yet within their physical existence man and woman possess a spiritual power for which even the ‘gods’ could envy them.

One day you are to become a ‘totality’ united with another ‘totality’, but still you are only ‘part’! –The magical might of marriage can help you greatly to transform yourself into a ‘totality’ if you learn to make use of it!…

Marriage in truth also wants the child; yet the child is by no means the supreme fulfilment and meaning of marriage!

The fact that you could conceive and bear children is not a guarantee that your physical communion is a marriage! – –

Marriage only exists where two individual poles from the spiritual world of phenomena, separated on earth from their opposite pole, strive anew to establish a bipolar unity. –

Surely children given existence within a true marriage are at the same time best protected, – yet the meaning of marriage is certainly not just providing the next generation with life, body and food, education and upbringing.

Above all other things, from marriage should grow stimulation for those who have found themselves in oneness-in-marriage !

Let your marriage be celebrated for your own sakes – yet your child be for you: pledge for your debt to the future! – – –