The Public Life of Jesus: Popular and Esoteric Instruction
"Jesus happens to be passing by Jerusalem. He is not yet preaching in the temple, though he heals the sick and gives instruction to his friends. The work of love must prepare he ground into which the fruitful seed shall fall. Nicodemus, a learned Pharisee, had heard of the prophet. Filled with curiosity, though unwilling to compromise himself in the eyes of his sect, he requests with the Galilean a secret interview, which is granted. The Pharisee calls at his dwelling by night and says t him: "Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.” Jesus replied: "Verily, verily I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus asks if it is possible for a man to enter a second time into the his mother's womb and be born. Jesus answered: "Verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”"
JESUS : THE LAST GREAT INITIATE
Chapter four
The Public Life of Jesus: Popular and Esoteric Instruction, Miracles, Apostles, Women
Hitherto I have endeavoured to illuminate with its own light that
portion of the life of Jesus which the Gospels have left in
comparative obscurity, or wrapped around with the veil of legend. I
have related by what kind of initiation and development of soul and
thought the great Nazarene attained to the Messianic consciousness.
In a word, I have endeavoured to reconstruct the inner genesis of the
Christ. The rest of my task will be all the easier if this genesis be
once acknowledged. The public life of Jesus has been related in the
Gospels. These narratives contain divergences and contradictions as
well as additions. The legend which overlies or exaggerates certain
mysteries may still be traced here and there, but from the whole
there is set free such a unity of thought and action, so powerful
and original a character, that we invincibly feel ourselves in the
presence of reality and of life. These inimitable stories cannot be
reconstructed; their childlike simplicity and symbolical beauty tell
us more than any amplifications can do. But what is needed nowadays
is the illumination of the role of Jesus by esoteric traditions and
truth, showing the signification and bearing of this double teaching.
What were these good tidings of which he was the bearer, this already
famous Essene who had now returned from the shores of the Dead Sea to
this nave Galilee to preach there the Gospel of the Kingdom? How
was he to change the face of the world? The thoughts of the prophets
had just found their realisation in him. Strong in the entire gift of
his very being, he now came to share with men this kingdom of heaven
which he had won in meditation and strife, in torments of pain and
boundless joy. He came to rend asunder the veil which the ancient
religion of Moses had cast over the future beyond the tomb. He came
to say: "Believe, love, act, and let hope be the soul of your deeds.
Beyond this earth there is a world of souls, a more perfect life.
This I know, for I come there from; thither will I lead you. But mere
inspiration for that world will not suffice. To attain you must begin
by realising it here below, first in yourselves, afterwards in
humanity. By what means? By Love and active Charity.”
So the young prophet came to Galilee. He did not say he was the
Messiah, but discussed in the synagogues concerning the laws and the
prophets. He preached on the banks of the lake of Gennesareth, in
fishermen's boat, by the fountains, in the oases of verdure abounding
between Capernaum, Bethsaida, and Korazin. He healed the sick by
laying-on of hands, a mere look r command often by his presence
alone. Multitudes followed him, and already numerous disciples
attached themselves to him. These he recruited from among the
fishermen, tax-collectors, in a word, from the common people. Those
of upright, unsullied nature, possessed of an ardent faith, were the
ones he wanted, and these he irresistibly attracted to himself. He
was guided in his choice by that gift of second sight, which has ever
been the peculiarity of men of action, but especially of religious
initiators. A single look enabled him the fathom the depths of a
soul. He needed no other test, and when he said: "Follow me!"he was
obeyed. A single gesture summoned to his side the timid and
hesitating, to whom he said: "Come unto me, ye that are heavy-laden
and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for
I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your
souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” He divined the
innate thoughts of men, who in trouble and confusion recognised the
Master. At times, he recognised in unbelief uprightness of heart.
When Nathaniel said," Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”Jesus
replied: "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!"From
his adepts he required neither oaths nor profession of faith; simply
love and belief in himself. He put into practice the common
possession of goods as a principle of fraternity among his own people.
Jesus thus began to realise, within his small group of followers, the
Kingdom of Heaven he wished to establish on earth. The Sermon of the
Mount offers us an image of this kingdom already formed in germ,
along with a"résumé"of the popular teaching of Jesus. He is seated
on the top of a hill; the future initiates are grouped at his feet;
farther down the slope the eager crowd drinks in the words which fall
from his mouth. What is the doctrine of the new teacher? Fasting or
maceration or public penance? No; he says," Blessed are the poor in
spirit: for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that
mourn: for they shall be comforted.” Then he unrolls in ascending
order the four final beatitudes, the marvellous power of humility, of
sorrow for others, if the inner goodness of the heart and of hunger
and thirst after righteousness.... Then, in a glowing colours he
depicts the active and triumphant virtues, compassion, purity of
heart, militant kindness, and finally martyrdom of righteousness'
sake.”Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” Like
the sound of a golden bell, this promise gives his listeners a faint
glimpse of the starry heavens above the Master's head. Then they see
the humble virtues, no longer in the guise of poor emaciated woman in
grey penitent's robes, but transformed into beatitudes, into virgins
of light whose brightness effaces the splendour of the lilies and the
glory of Solomon. With the gentle breath of their palm leaves they
scatter over these thirsting souls the fragrant perfumes of the
heavenly kingdom.
The wonder is that this kingdom expands, not in the distant heavens,
but in the hearts of the listeners. They exchange looks of
astonishment with one another; these poor in spirit have, of a
sudden, become so rich. Mightier than Moses, the soul's magician has
struck their hearts, from which rushes up an immortal spring of life.
His teaching to the people may be summed up in the sentence: The
kingdom of heaven is within you!
Now that the lays before them the means necessary to attain to this
unheard-of happiness, they are no longer astonished at the
extraordinary things he asks of them: to kill even the desire for
evil, to forgive offences, to love their enemies. So powerful is the
stream of love with which his heart overflows, that he carries them
away along the current. In his presence they find everything easy.
Mighty the novelty, singular the boldness of such teaching. The
Galilean prophet sets the inner life of the soul above all outer
practices, the invisible above the visible, the Kingdom of Heaven
above the benefits of earth. He commands that the choice be made
between God and man. Then, summing up his doctrine, he says," Love
your neighbour as yourself!.”.. Be ye perfect even as your Father
which is in heaven is perfect!"Thus, in popular form, he afforded a
glimpse of the whole profundity of science and morals. For the
supreme commandment of the initiation is to reproduce divine
perfection in the perfecting of the soul, and the secret of science
lies in the chain of analogy and correspondences, uniting in ever-
enlarging circles the particular to the universal, the finite to the
infinite.
If such was the public and purely moral teaching of Jesus, it is
evident that in addition he gave private instruction to his
disciples, parallel, with and explanatory of the former, showing its
inner meaning and penetrating to the very depths of the spiritual
truth he derived from his own experience. As this tradition was
violently crushed by the Church from the second century onwards, the
majority of theologians no longer knew the real bearing of the
Christ's words, with their sometimes double and triple meanings, and
saw none but the primary and literal signification. For those who
deeply studied the doctrine of the mysteries in India, Egypt and
Greece, the esoteric thought of the Christ animated not merely his
slightest word, but every act of his life. Dimly perceptible in the
three Synoptics, it spring s into complete evidence in the Gospel of
John. Here may be stated an instance touching an essential point of
the doctrine:
Jesus happens to be passing by Jerusalem. He is not yet preaching in
the temple, though he heals the sick and gives instruction to his
friends. The work of love must prepare he ground into which the
fruitful seed shall fall. Nicodemus, a learned Pharisee, had heard of
the prophet. Filled with curiosity, though unwilling to compromise
himself in the eyes of his sect, he requests with the Galilean a
secret interview, which is granted. The Pharisee calls at his
dwelling by night and says t him: "Rabbi, we know that thou art a
teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou
doest, except God be with him.” Jesus replied: "Verily, verily I say
unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of
God.” Nicodemus asks if it is possible for a man to enter a second
time into the his mother's womb and be born. Jesus
answered: "Verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”
Under this evidently symbolical form, Jesus sums up the ancient
doctrine of regeneration already known in the mysteries of Egypt. To
be born again of water and of the Spirit, to be baptized by water and
by fire, mark two degrees of initiation, two stages of the inner and
spiritual development of man. Water here represents truth perceived
intellectually, i.e. in an abstract and general manner. It purifies
the soul and develops its spiritual germ.
A new birth by the Spirit, or baptism by (heavenly) fire, signifies
the assimilation of the truth by the will in such a way that it may
become the blood and life, the very soul of every action. From this
results the complete victory of spirit over matter, the absolute
mastery of the spiritualised soul over the body transformed into a
docile instrument; a mastery which awakens its dormant faculties,
opens its inner sense, and gives it an intuitive insight into truth,
and a direct action of soul on soul. This state is equivalent to the
heavenly one which Jesus Christ called the Kingdom of God. Baptism by
water, or intellectual initiation, is accordingly the first step in
rebirth; baptism by the spirit is total rebirth, a transformation of
the soul by the fire of intelligence and will, and consequently, to a
certain extent, of the elements of the body; in a word, a radical
regeneration. From this come the exceptional powers it gives to man.
This is the earthly signification which might briefly be called the
esoteric doctrine concerning the constitution of man. According to
this doctrine, man is threefold: body, soul, and spirit. He has an
immortal and indivisible part, the spirit; a perishable and divisible
part, the body...
Now water, in ancient esoterism, symbolises fluidic matter which is
infinitely transformable, as fire symbolises the one spirit. In
speaking of rebirth by water and spirit, the Christ makes allusion to
that double transformation of his spiritual body and his fluidic
envelope, which awaits man after death, and without which he cannot
enter the Kingdom of lofty souls and purified spirits. For"that
which is born of the flesh (i.e. chained down and perishable), and
that which is born of the Spirit is spirit (i.e. free and immortal).
Marvel not that I say unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind
bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but
canst not tell whence it cometh and wither it goeth: so is every one
that is born of the Spirit.”
Thus spoke Jesus to Nicomedus in the silence of the night at
Jerusalem. A small lamp, placed between the two, daily lights their
vague, uncertain forms. But the eyes of the Galilean Master shine
with mysterious brilliancy through the darkness. How could one help
believing in the soul, when looking into those eyes, now gently
beaming, now flashing forth the glory of heaven? The learned
Pharisee has seen his knowledge of Scripture texts crumble away, but
then he obtains a glimpse of a new world. He has seen a divine light
in the face of the prophet, whose long auburn hair is falling over
his shoulders. He has felt the powerful warmth emanating from his
being draw him to the Master. He has seen small white flames like a
magnetic halo appear and disappear around his brow and temples. And
then he imagined he felt the breath of the Spirit pass over his
heart. Moved to his inmost soul, Nicodemus returned secretly in the
silence of the night to his home. He will continue to live among th
Pharisees, but in the secrecy of his heart he will remain faithful to
Jesus.
The Public Life of Jesus: Popular and Esoteric Instruction
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