"Journey of Worlds: Teachings and Life of Bô Yin Râ" Part 1 of 3

A Three Sages Original: First English-Language Publication

Journey of Worlds: Teachings and Life of Bô Yin Râ: Part 1 of 3

By Dr. Sc. Nat. ETH Otto G. Lienert

Introduction by Richard C. Cook, Editor, Three Sages

As readers of Three Sages are aware, for the past year we have been publishing selections of Bô Yin Râ’s spiritual writings, along with background and commentary. See additional selections of recent articles HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.

Bô Yin Râ was the spiritual name of Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken (1876-1943), born in Aschaffenburg, Germany, educated as a landscape painter, by spiritual lineage a Luminary of Primordial Light (Leuchtenden des Urlichts), and, through his writings, the creator of perhaps the most important compendium of original spiritual writings in modern Western history. His master work is the 32-volume Hortus Conclusus (“The Enclosed Garden”), which he completed in 1936, having relocated from Germany to Lugano, Switzerland, in the early 1920s.

We now present, for the first time in English translation, an extraordinary account by a Swiss scholar, the late Dr. Otto G. Lienert, entitled Journey of Worlds: Teachings and Life of Bô Yin Râ. The account is being published in three parts.

Additional resources on Bô Yin Râ:

Books to Light website for ordering books by Bô Yin Râ

Readings from “Above the Everyday” by Bô Yin Râ

Website of the German Bo Yin Ra Foundation

Website of Kober Press: The Books and Paintings of Bo Yin Ra, Berkeley, CA

Journey of Worlds: Teachings and Life of Bô Yin Râ © 2026 by Books to Light – US. Translated and edited by Three Sages (montanarcc.substack.com) for first English-language publication in cooperation with Books to Light – US. Originally published in German by Kober Verlag AG Bern © 1994.

CONTENTS

---PART ONE---

1. Introduction

2. The Work

2.1 The books

2.2 The paintings

2.3 The teaching

3. The All-Inclusive Cosmos

3.1 The Universe, the world of the external senses

3.1.1 The visible part of the Universe, “objective reality”

3.1.2 The invisible part of the Universe, the “occult” world

---PART TWO---

3.1.3 The body

3.1.4 The future of the Earth

3.2 The spiritual world, the higher creation of the Cosmos (the world from which we come and to which we return)

3.2.1 Past lives

3.2.2 Return

3.3 “Effective reality” – the realm of the soul

3.4 Bridges between the material and spiritual worlds

4. Conclusion

---PART THREE---

5. The Earthly Path of Bô Yin Râ

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Biography

5.3 Timeline

5.4 Memories

---PART ONE---

1. Introduction

“The world is profound, much more profound than you ever imagined.”

After almost 200 years of the European Enlightenment, which propagated a worldly mindset committed to “pure science,” prominent natural scientists and psychologists are beginning to recognize that the visible world cannot be grasped as rationally as a naïve belief in progress would have us imagine.

One need only recall C. F. Gauss, A. Portmann, and C. G. Jung, or the statement by Albert Einstein: “Anyone who seriously engages with the sciences comes to the conviction that a spirit manifests itself in the laws of the Universe – a spirit that is far superior to that of humans and in the face of which we, with our limited powers, must feel humble.”

In today’s intellectually-driven age, it is tempting to equate this “spirit” with the intellect; whereas in the past, it would probably have been referred to as “God.” The psychologist C. G. Jung may have come even closer to reality than the physicist Einstein with his assumption of a “transmundane world,” an idea that can already be found in Plato and in all major religions.

Today’s competent scientists admit that the mathematical and physical understanding of new phenomena such as superconductivity, the findings of space telescopes, the course of biological evolution, etc., always lags behind or reveals chaotic structures. (For those interested, see “New Challenges” in Scientific American, or “Spektrum der Wissenschaft,” Dec. 1992.) It is becoming increasingly apparent that our environment cannot be fully understood purely intellectually.

Is it even possible to find a credible link between scientific knowledge and religion, though most people today consider religion to be irrational. So is there really a work among the almost overwhelming flood of esoteric writings that does justice not only to the scientifically trained intellect, but also to the innermost spiritual feelings?

Anyone who seriously immerses themselves in the books and paintings of Bô Yin Râ can answer this question with an honest “Yes.” In doing so they will not need to sacrifice sober thinking which will still find its place where it naturally belongs: in the head of an otherwise defenseless earthly body, which must be ensured survival.

It is very difficult to classify the content of the work of Bô Yin Râ within existing literary or philosophical classifications, as it transcends the usual dimensions. In the following, I will undertake the almost hopeless task of describing the teachings of Bô Yin Râ from my personal experience seen through our “modern” worldview. However, the reader must be willing to accept a previously unimagined expansion of this worldview. The reader is also assumed to have received the usual rational Western education. The positive side of this education is that, at best, it teaches us to approach knowledge without prejudice.

In contrast to animals, which bluntly accept the situation presented to them, ideas and feelings may arise in every human being which seem to originate from spheres where there is no earthly gravity and a benevolent light shines above everything. Such impressions go far beyond what would be expected from a computer-like structure that, according to scientific opinion, represents the brain.

Further, in almost all religions memories are preserved of a higher world inhabited by one or more “gods,” by spirit beings who remain forever in the bright regions, and by others who leave them and return only after one or many earthly lives. Anyone who delves into the history of the various forms of belief can hardly doubt that there have indeed been people who, even in their earthly lives, have recognized what is hidden from others. For a long time now, there has also been a prejudice that, for the sake of this inner world glimpsed within, one must renounce earthly life and can only find it in solitude or in the company of like-minded people.

Unlike the intellectually influenced theories of modern theologians, Bô Yin Râ’s work is rooted in completely different depths of feeling. His artistic talent and inclination were ideally suited to the task he took on, but once he became fully aware of spiritual life, they became merely the instrument through which it was communicated. Every human being is rooted in the same depths, but most have lost touch with the innermost core of their being and now need a mediator to find their way home again.

Since there are already some excellent writings that primarily appreciate the artistic aspect of Bô Yin Râ’s work (R. Schott, F. Weingartner, M. Wollwerth), I would like to attempt – imperfectly, I am sure – to consider the physically verifiable, scientific, so to speak, side of his books, even though they were by no means written to propagate or support any cosmological, historical, or biological hypotheses.

2. The Work

2.1 The books

In thirty-two individual volumes plus some related writings, Bô Yin Râ introduces the reader to the world of the living Spirit, taking into account the different characters and mental states of the reader with empathy. An integral part of the written “Textbook” are twenty “World Pictures” which depict the spiritual-cosmic path of human beings.

These are, as it were, “travel books” that tell of countries that normally remain inaccessible to earthly human beings and can only occasionally be sensed or felt, hidden behind dark veils. Anyone interested in geographical travelogues will soon notice whether the author describes his experiences truthfully and objectively or whether he is more concerned with promoting himself. This is where the evaluation can begin that so clearly distinguishes Bô Yin Râ’s work from the numerous publications written by self-appointed authors driven by a desire for recognition. Bô Yin Râ’s sober manner, which was averse to any public appearance, will be referred to later in the biography.

A truthful account of things that are not perceptible to our earthly senses should not contain any logical contradictions, and statements about earthly events should be compatible with the known laws of nature. Furthermore, it can be assumed that the “teaching” should correspond in meaning with authentic statements made by others from the transmundane world – in Spirit– who are conscious, such as Jesus of Nazareth or Lao Tzu, taking into account the differences in culture and language and the often inadequate traditions.

Every good book imparts knowledge to the reader by comparing the unknown with the known. People who have attended Western schools are primarily familiar with the physically and mathematically comprehensible worldview which is constantly being expanded by research, driven mainly by curiosity and prestige. Bô Yin Râ wrote primarily for Europeans, both those who had stayed at home and those who had emigrated, as he was a modern European in terms of his earthly origins, education, and environment, and was also interested in science and technology. He witnessed the discoveries and inventions that so strongly determine our lives today, such as the theory of relativity, galactic space, radio, television, cars, and airplanes, and had no objection to the sensible use of technology.

In terms of conventional literary understanding, the books can also be described as linguistic works of art. However, due to their extraordinary and timeless content, they are difficult to classify within the framework of traditional literary history and often pose a challenge for those working in this field, including professional critics, who usually do not have the time to delve deeper into the work. On the other hand, people of all ages and professions feel immediately addressed and can uncover the hidden treasures.

Almost more important than the “factual” content, for which the author had only the masterfully handled but rather cumbersome language of the Earth at his disposal, is the “inner attitude” of the writer expressed in a book. When reading any text – even a profane one – with concentration, one is consciously or unconsciously forced to place oneself on the author’s level, whether this is at the height of a basement window or a mountain peak.

Those who take the trouble to collect and read Bô Yin Râ’s books without prejudice begin – at first almost unconsciously – to view earthly things from above, as it were. Step by step, the reader who works on himself is lifted to higher levels until his individual position in the Spirit manifests itself in secure feeling and inner clarity.

Patience, perseverance, and above all love are the most necessary qualities on this path. There are no crash courses in spirituality. On the contrary, even those who have known the books for a long time will, to their surprise, always find something new and deeper in them. They cannot be exhausted in one earthly lifetime. With each page, a new view opens up into the living, inexhaustibly deep landscape of Eternity that every human being cherishes in their innermost being.

2.2 The paintings

In terms of his artistic disposition, Bô Yin Râ felt primarily called to be a freelance painter, while his written work arose from a heavy obligation weighing on him.

When we speak of “landscapes of Eternity,” this applies above all to his paintings. With the exception of the twenty World Pictures, these are not illustrations for the various books of the teaching material, but independent representations that lead the viewer into the depths of creation, which the written word can only describe with difficulty. [For representations of Bô Yin Râ’s paintings, see especially the website of the German Bô Yin Râ Foundation HERE.]

This refers to the paintings that the artist described as “spiritual” and which appear “abstract” to an art connoisseur. In contrast to abstract painting, which arises from creative imagination, the spiritual paintings depict objective spiritual events, comparable to an artistic, but true-to-life, landscape painting. Similarities between Bô Yin Râ’s paintings and contemporary abstract works are therefore largely coincidental, insofar as one can describe the influences of the forces that determine the spirit of the times as coincidence.

With great skill Bô Yin Râ also painted numerous “concrete” pictures, especially landscapes. Here nature is rendered very objectively but generously. The conclusion is obvious that the spiritual pictures also represent concrete spiritual realities. After all, earthly landscapes are not dead structures, but colorful forms shaped by the powerful forces of the Earth’s interior and living nature. The primal forces of spiritual origin, which can also find expression here, are particularly noticeable in the magnificent Greek landscapes. It was then only a small step to the spiritual images that depict similar events on a higher level. Both earthly and otherworldly landscapes represent moments of spiritual reality, whereby the spiritual energies at work in the “Beyond” radiate far more intensely and vividly than the comparatively sluggish and dull forces of nature and humanity that shape planet Earth.

The insight into spiritual worlds, freed from linguistic barriers, must not lead us to see the colorful and geometric forms of the images as freely invented construction elements, as they appear in contemporary images, for example, but must allow us to feel, in complete calm and concentration, the mood that emanates from spiritual images, but also from most concrete images, like spherical music.

Those who have retained the natural childhood feeling for color and form are already halfway into the inner world of these images. Ultimately, they are “images of home,” representations of the eternal home of humankind. Everyone knows from their circle of acquaintances how differently the earthly sense of home is shaped, and one can imagine that the richness of the spiritual worlds shapes even more individual homes. Therefore, the images will remind each person of their personal origins in the Spirit. For these reasons, Bô Yin Râ did not want interpretations of his images that often strayed far from their true content. An exception to this are the notes in Rudolf Schott’s books on painting, which Bô Yin Râ discussed with the author, a friend of his, before they went to press, and the twenty images interwoven with text, “Weltenbilder” (Images of Worlds).

Here, the author himself provides an authentic explanation of the depictions. It is easy to understand that this also provides a key to a deeper understanding of the other paintings.

Among Bô Yin Râ’s many paintings, one stands out in particular: the portrait of Jesus. The best way to understand the origins of this unique painting is to read the book “Aus Meiner Malerwerkstatt” (From My Painting Studio). Anyone who begins to comprehend the structures of the Universe expressed in the work will find the explanation surprising but understandable.

After reading this explanation, it comes as no surprise that these paintings are ideally suited for “meditation” in the positive sense of the word – allowing oneself to be influenced without the intrusive interference of one’s own or someone else’s intellect.

2.3 The teaching

What has been called Bô Yin Râ’s “Textbook” is not a scientific, systematic guide to “learning,” but rather an artistically sophisticated description of spiritual life and spiritual reality. The advice given ultimately aims to open oneself to spiritual influences through a serious, honest, and cheerful way of life. Those who expect strange exercises or eccentric “secret teachings” would be better off putting the books aside. The following explanations serve only to build bridges to a higher understanding for “modern” thinking, which is strongly influenced by the natural sciences.

3. The All-Inclusive Cosmos

In order to avoid confusion in the following, two areas of being must be clearly distinguished:

– The world of matter with its visible and invisible objects, which we experience as reality in our physical bodies.

– The world of Spirit, inaccessible to our present earthly senses, which can sometimes only be felt in our innermost being. This world is the true home of the spiritual core of every human being, from which he came at birth and to which he will return at death.

Both worlds interpenetrate each other. The senses of the earthly body can only perceive material things, and in exceptional cases, the “occult” (i.e., “hidden”) realms that are invisible to people but also belong to matter. Human beings, as spiritual beings at their core, normally only regain conscious use of the senses of their spiritual body with the loss of their animal body, as their spirit is blinded by incarnation in that animal body. The material world – and thus also the occult world – disappears at death and is replaced by the reality of the spiritual world. Only the memories and soul impressions absorbed into the imperishable consciousness during earthly life remain. Since every human being, unlike the animals around them, is essentially a spiritual being even during their earthly life, their spiritual body is perceived as reality by the deceased.

There is no universally valid term for the totality of being, within which the world of matter, the “Universe,” represents only a marginal area. In the following, the term “All” is understood to mean the incomprehensible fullness of eternal and infinite being, while the Latin “Universe” is to stand for the ever-changing starry space with all its animate and inanimate, visible and invisible, or occult, phenomena. The Universe is, as it were, the “outer” boundary of the far richer spiritual world, whose innermost core is the kingdom of God’s Light.

Bô Yin Râ was an artist and not a philosopher in the academic sense, and so he often used these terms – including "Cosmos" – as synonyms in his books. The respective meaning is always clearly recognizable from the context.

In space, humans occupy what could almost be described as an unnatural hybrid position. They are the only living beings that can break through the razor-sharp boundary between the higher realm, the spiritual world, and its material periphery, the Universe. The fall into matter is the ultimate consequence of a self-imposed turning away from God. The price then demanded for the experience of the earthly, actually the approach to nothingness, is extraordinarily high for the spiritual human being. Fear, illness, pain, hardship, and limited resources constantly threaten his vulnerable body, which consists of elements of the Earth and whose life functions are bound by the harsh laws of nature. For the formerly almost limitlessly free spiritual human being, who knew neither fear nor misery, earthly birth means a fall into darkness, into the almost complete extinction of his spiritual senses, into the narrow shackles of space and time, into the experience of limitation, whose certain end seems to be predetermined by the decay of the earthly body, which the animal soul instinctively fears.

3.1 The Universe, the world of the external senses

3.1.1 The visible part of the Universe, “objective reality”

Science has advanced in its study of the Universe to objects that may be embryos of galaxies many billions of light years away from Earth. Both the age and distances of these structures are beyond human imagination. Our sun has existed for barely a third of this time. Despite enormous technical research, astronomers have not yet reached the limits of “space.” The Universe is not a rigid structure. Since the “Big Bang,” the assumed, as yet unproven, origin from a small sphere, it has been expanding at the speed of light. Whether this expansion will continue for eternity or eventually reverse cannot be determined with certainty based on current astronomical knowledge. Such a reversal, which ultimately would lead to the destruction but also to the rebirth of the Universe, seems more likely from a physical point of view and would also correspond more closely to the eternal becoming and passing away of the material worlds.

In this case, space would be curved, which is consistent with the statement by Bô Yin Râ in the book “Welten” (Worlds): “We are as inside an incomprehensibly enormous sphere (the Cosmos), whose outer boundary (the Universe) is formed by myriads of world systems...”. There are also astronomers who believe that our Universe was created by the separation of a much larger material space. Anyone who has followed the history of astronomy in recent decades cannot help but feel that the collected facts are gradually overwhelming the human intellect.

About three billion years ago, the first primitive single-celled organisms emerged in the primordial oceans of planet Earth. At that time, the air did not yet contain oxygen. Experiments have shown that in a mixture of seawater and an oxygen-free atmosphere, electrical discharges—imitating thunderstorms—can produce quite complex organic compounds. The mathematical probability that such molecules will begin to multiply and ultimately develop into enormously complex structures, such as an elephant, is practically zero, despite the vast amounts of time available. Aristotle coined the term “entelechy” to describe the invisible creative force that gives shape and life to plants and animals. Even though science is now better able to track the slow development of the biosphere, Aristotle’s view does not seem outdated. Teilhard de Chardin expressed similar views from a Christian perspective, and A. Portmann postulated them based on his own observations.

Modern brain researchers have concluded that the development of humans’ current intellectual capacity cannot be explained by natural selection alone; it takes only a little abstract thinking and certainly no artistic talent to prevail over other mammals. However, it is easy to understand that spiritual humans need a highly differentiated organism as a carrier of consciousness in the material world. That is why the evolution from primitive single-celled organisms to Homo Sapiens, who were able to connect with spiritual consciousness, took billions of years. Driven by mysterious forces, new plant and animal forms were repeatedly developed and tested until species emerged that corresponded to a certain extent to the spiritual blueprints. The biological implementation, hampered by the physical laws of nature, was extremely lengthy, but in terms of spiritual origins, the time factor seems to play a minor role. Eternity is timeless.

“Modern” humans, indistinguishable from those found today, have existed on Earth for about 40,000 years. We do not know exactly when the union between spiritual humans striving for earthly experience and highly developed hominids first took place. In view of the immense periods of time that preceded it, this question is also insignificant. Despite the unfortunately morally weak development of Homo Sapiens, the Earth seems to be a very popular destination for spiritual humans. While an estimated five million people populated the Earth in 8000 BC, today there are more than six billion.

We have now arrived where we currently find ourselves: in the sphere of influence of the densely populated planet Earth, equipped with a body that differs only slightly from that of higher animals. The limited sensory organs of this body allow only a small part of the environment to enter our consciousness. Contact with our counterparts in other parts of the Universe and—even more significantly—with the spiritual world has been largely severed.

Between birth and death, we spend our existence on this small planet, which is illuminated and warmed by one of the billions of suns in the Milky Way. When we look at the night sky with its countless stars and galaxies, the tiny optics of our eyes allow us to perceive the blackness of the immense abyss in which light and life have contracted into tiny points in space. The terrible emptiness of space, which for biological and physical reasons will always be insurmountable for humans living on other planets – despite all technological fantasies – borders very closely on nothingness, the total opposite of the abundance of light and life in the higher spiritual worlds, where love removes all separation. Who as a child still holding memories of the Light of Eternity within them has not feared the darkness of the earthly night when they first became aware of it? Animals do not know this fear because they lack ideas of spiritual origin.

On the other hand, a restless urge to explore is venturing ever deeper into the microcosm. It has long been recognized that the components of atoms are themselves composed of even smaller particles. Further division seems to be only a question of technical effort. Unintentionally, physicists thus confirm what is written in Bô Yin Râ’s “Book On the Living God”: “...Everything that is split will continue to split into infinity, everything that is fragmented will continue to fragment into infinity, and again and again you will discover that new fibers can be separated from what you believe to be split into its final fibers...” The latest results from CERN actually only reveal complicated force fields whose apparent ultimate cause eludes physical detection.

For someone who deals strictly mathematically and physically with the laws of dead matter, which at least statistically seem to proceed with rigid causality, the origin of our Earth and the life that later developed on it pose almost unsolvable mysteries. The constantly changing “cosmic” theories and attempts to explain the leap from chemical compounds to living organisms speak for themselves.

Some modern researchers are already expressing doubts about a mathematically complete world view. Computer calculations indicate that, for example, the planetary orbits would have ended chaotically long ago in purely mathematical terms. They actually seem to be constantly corrected by invisible intelligences.

3.1.2 The invisible part of the Universe, the “occult” world

[Editor’s note: Human beings are subject to influence or even possession by entities from the “occult” world. These entities are to be distinguished from the positive influences from the spiritual world to which human also have access through prayer, meditation, etc. The ability to tell the difference between the two sources of influence is an important part of mature spiritual development.]

The powers [“entities”] and their effects that originate in the deeper realms of matter, that part of the Universe which may be called "occult," meaning “hidden,” and which is of interest to parapsychology, are hardly physically comprehensible, as serious researchers openly admit. People with special predispositions may be more or less able to access this realm of nature, regardless of their moral perspective. Even the most intelligent of the beings operating within the occult, who secretly influence and seek to guide the visible world of the living, are never able to recognize the spiritual worlds and feel true love. In contrast to eternal human beings, these entities, like all material things, are subject to the laws of nature, which create constant change and are themselves subject to constant change, possibly over enormous periods of time.

The few humans who have already awakened to the true Spirit in their earthly life must also learn to control or resist these entities so that they are not disturbed by them in the performance of their spiritual tasks. They alone know with certainty how to distinguish between what belongs to the spiritual world, which is invisible to most people, and what belongs to the occult world, also largely invisible.

The roots of “evil” also reach much deeper than is usually assumed. Even more than in the visible realm, the wickedness of fallen spiritual beings has taken root in the invisible realm of the Universe, beings who have arrogantly and consciously turned away from God. Lucifer, originally the bringer of Light, who turning away from love and radiance willfully plunged into hatred and darkness, tries to drag into the abyss whoever and whatever comes his way. The Bible’s vivid description comes very close to reality. The only difference is in the continuity of events. Every now and then, one of the “Light Bearers” succumbs to the spirit of darkness and, in hateful powerlessness, joins the ranks of evil until, after eons, he himself becomes nothing. In our day, when tens of thousands of researchers and engineers are engaged in the planning and manufacture of ever more terrible means of destruction, the seeds of darkness seem to be blooming morbidly.

The outermost regions of the Universe are so far removed from the Spirit and forsaken by God that even the innermost core of the spiritual human being can fall prey to dissolution, the only true death that a human being can suffer when he succumbs to his own will to destroy.

---This concludes Part 1 of 3---