This PDF is multilingual, where the German original text has been presented alongside the Standard-translation© in English, so that any one being sufficiently conversant in German is able to ascertain the correctness of the translation and also benefit (as hinted by the Author) from the exposure to the German language the book has originally been written in. Also the emphases (in bold text) on words/phrases used in original German is reflected in this new edition (emphases match the original writings). Any remarks or amendments are invited at [email protected]. For a hardcopy edition please see below*. _________________________________________________________________________________ BÔ YIN RÂ (Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken) was a German writer, poet and painter (1876-1943). He lived in Germany (Frankfurt, Görlitz, Berlin, Munich, Königsberg), Austria (Vienna), France (Paris), and Switzerland (Horgen, Massagno). Bô Yin Râ expressed his insights into the metaphysical structures of the eternal spiritual reality through art and writings. His spiritual written teaching Hortus Conclusus is compiled into a series of 32 books. As a whole, it consists of books as well as spiritual paintings. – GERMAN BÔ YIN RÂ FOUNDATION (to learn more about Bô Yin Râ, his life, his writing and painting, visit www.bo-yin-ra-stiftung.de) _________________________________________________________________________________ “I SEE YOU RUSHING HITHER AND THITHER, MY FRIEND! WHAT IS THE GOAL OF YOUR PATH?!” This is the question I have asked of many people; many have been the goals given me in answer. Alas, so few have realised that they were hurrying to no particular goal as they had lost the PATH which leads to the high goal they once hoped to reach:– the PATH TO GOD ! (...) I do not want to ask the question: whether it is ‘necessary’ for earthly man to believe in ‘God’… All those who have lived by this belief have always and everywhere answered in the affirmative! This has long since brought serious discredit on both the question, as well as all answers to it… I want to ask the question how it might be possible for earthly man to claim he believes in GOD ! ? ! (...) Whether you are merely repeating what others before you have said to you concerning ‘God’ and ‘God’s nature’, or whether you disdain these ancient fables and conceive ‘God’ on your own terms, – you are still permanently caught in the spell of the magic circle your arrogant superstition had you draw, even if you feel yourself to be ‘raised’ above all ‘belief’ and spiritually ‘free’ ! – – – I want to free you from these delusions, my friend; I want to show you that it is, nevertheless, possible to ‘believe in God’. – – I want to show that you can believe in a ‘God’ who is not created from my or your narrow delusions, and who can never be touched by ‘proof’ relying on thought for its effectiveness ! – – – (...) (...) Only he who has thus experienced his living God within himself knows with sure knowledge of God, just as he only now knows of himself with sure knowledge ! – – – Yet this high stage is but the precondition for all further development in the spiritual world, even if only few throughout the ages have ever reached or surpassed this stage during their lives on Earth. – – It is a crime to speak of God, even in the most wondrous terms, unless the speaker knows with all certainty that he has reached this stage ! ! – (...) If you ever want to gain experience of your living God within yourself, you must not shun the help of your brothers already living in the spirit. All those shun this help who search the peaks and depths to find God, yet remain tied to their own self-importance which constantly whispers to them: that they have no need of human spiritual help. If you want to encounter reality within yourself, you will have to take heed of what reality has called forth in-to existence ! - THE PATH TO GOD They have never heard the teaching telling them of the duty to use life on this Earth in the way that it becomes a source of continual happiness. (...) But those who would attain happiness must strive alone for their happiness; everything else they would like to achieve must be subordinated to this striving and wisely woven into it. – – (...) No other task can be higher than the duty to attain the purest enduring happiness and to increase this Earth’s happiness within oneself and thereby in others too. – THE BOOK ON HAPPINESS What I have to say is beyond belief and disbelief ! I'm not a prophet who needs "confessors" – nor a fighter, who is looking for "followers" behind him, but only a mediator of spiritual insights about the real home of mankind. My writings shouldn't be "believed" but taken up objectively, to awaken innermost experience. – ABOUT MY WRITINGS Countless people – and in truth not just those whose souls are the most frigid – continually await an immense experience to shake their innermost depths. Since all their longing is incapable of summoning up this experience, they rush restlessly searching from experience to experience, caught up in the delusion that the hoped for experience is bound to be attained, if they could only locate the powerful phenomenon capable of overpowering their souls with its immensity. – SHOWING THE WAY A yearning is passing through the world, – a consuming desire, – and every soul not yet completely hardened and incapable of awakening feels gripped by it. (...) One ‘may’ once again believe in things which cannot been proven by 'experiments’, and one is no longer mocked for recognising that we are surrounded and influenced by the invisible, even if we cannot solve its mystery… The ‘miraculous’ would again become reality; the realm of faith extends its borders. – THE BOOK ON THE LIVING GOD The design of pages, emphases placed on particular words, use of spaces, long hyphens, exclamation marks etc. — included in this English translation enables ‘heart-Readers’ to meditate, to breathe-in while willingly absorbing the text as a ‘spiritual sustenance’. – Sarah Havah Theebaum, historian of ideas, painter, poet. _________________________________________________________________________________ The Standard-translation© into English * Currently the hardcopy/hardcover edition of this book is published on the Amazon sites via the Kindle Direct Publishing - and is now available through all major Amazon country sites (including UK, Canadian and Australian sites). On all Amazon sites you can look up available publications by searching for Books to Light or Posthumus Projects. U.S.: https://kdp.amazon.com/amazon-dp-action/us/dualbookshelf.marketplacelink/B0CYH8TZ9Y UK: https://kdp.amazon.com/amazon-dp-action/uk/dualbookshelf.marketplacelink/B0CYH8TZ9Y TO CONTACT THE PUBLISHER (THE BOOKS OF LIGHT), PLEASE WRITE TO [email protected]