"Journey of Worlds: Teachings and Life of Bô Yin Râ" Part 2 of 3
A Three Sages Original: First English-Language Publication
Journey of Worlds: Teachings and Life of Bô Yin Râ: Part 2 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.
Part One of Journey of Worlds: Teaching and Life of Bô Yin Râ has been published previously and may be accessed and read HERE.
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 Two---
3.1.3 The body
Of all the invisible and visible things that surround us on Earth, the physical human body is most familiar to our currently very limited consciousness. Physically speaking, it is an almost unbelievable marvel—we share it with higher animals—and serves the Spirit as a “diving suit” into a world that would otherwise be inaccessible to it. The connection between eternal consciousness and the “suit” is very intimate, and we experience the tight bonds of our earthly body every day. How tight these bonds actually are often becomes apparent to us in times of illness or distress. The examples of identical twins who grew up separately show how much our “character traits,” which we believe to be shaped by our spirit or soul, are still rooted in the biological structures of our body. Despite completely different upbringings, they exhibit similar behaviors, give their children the same names, dress similarly, or work in comparable professions. Since the eternal individuality of the earthly human being can be almost completely covered over by his physical genetic makeup, finding the boundary between physical and spiritual individuality is one of the most essential tasks of a seeker.
Behind man’s efforts to use his technical intelligence to manufacture devices that expand the freedom of movement and the capabilities of the eye and ear, there lies, not least, a vague memory of a state of almost limitless freedom. In the spiritual worlds, this freedom can lead to a “fall” into the depths of the material Universe, its final impulses—misdirected—also possibly leading to the destruction of the environment on Earth. The frantic attempts to make travel ever faster and more convenient, to expand communication without gaps, and to extend the life of the Earth as long as possible spring from the conscious or unconscious desire to create a spiritual state – paradise – on Earth. Judged by the inexorable laws of nature that apply in the Universe, this attempt is doomed to failure from the outset.
However, the help that our earthly existence receives through the sensible and moderate use of technology and medicine is by no means to be despised, as it gives us the leisure to occupy ourselves with things other than the mere search for food.
3.1.4 The future of the Earth
Although helpers like Bô Yin Râ will voluntarily remain in the sphere of influence of the Earth until the last human being is saved, and are thus personally affected by the future fate of the inhabited planet, during the hard times of their spiritual training they had to free themselves from fearful questions and worries about the future that are unworthy of a free spirit. Likewise, everyone who has transcended dabbling in the occult realm has consciously renounced “clairvoyance” and “predictions of the future.” Eternal life is above all eternal presence and far removed from curiosity and fear of past and future events. Both emotions arise only from the time-bound existential fear of the animal soul. If there are passages in the books of Bô Yin Râ that concern the future, they refer to the effects of his work on human society from a spiritual point of view without specifying any particular time frame.
The hope for a supernatural power or a “messiah” who could arrange political and moral conditions to everyone’s satisfaction is certainly very romantic and convenient. Realistically speaking, however, an improvement in earthly existence will depend on how many people have awakened to active love for their fellow human beings and for the wonderful creation that surrounds us; or in other words, on whether the “children of light” or the “children of darkness” will have more influence on earthly events.
We believe that the sun, which provides our naturally beautiful Earth with light and warmth, is only in the middle of its life. It can continue to shine on the people of Earth for billions of years. But we also know that the raw materials considered “indispensable” may be exhausted in a few centuries. Humanity will therefore have no choice but to re-align itself with the laws of living nature and adapt. This can be done in a reasonable and peaceful manner, or in decimating wars of conquest for the last arable land and the last ore deposits.
It is to be hoped that humans will become aware in time of their positive powers, which are rooted in love for the Earth and all fellow creatures. Animals and plants are not insensitive, computer-controlled automatons, as genetic engineers would have us believe. Living beings react to moods and harmonies or disharmonies in their environment. Experiments have shown that plants thrive better with Mozart’s music than with hard rock.
What applies to plants and animals applies even more so to humans. Only when everyone sees in others – despite all their obvious weaknesses – fellow human beings who originate from the Light, will it be possible for peoples and races to coexist in a humane manner. There is no doubt that the teachings transmitted by Bô Yin Râ from the eternal Spirit will play an essential role in this process as soon as they have entered the general consciousness.
Measured in terms of eternal life and even in earthly geological time, a human being’s existence on Earth is enormously short. The most important task during this short span of time on Earth is to work on oneself, to find one’s way back to one’s own spiritual being, which, in contrast to what happens on Earth, is not subject to the law of destruction and transformation. It would therefore be a useless waste of energy if a person were to devote all their physical and mental energy to eliminating the natural imperfections of earthly existence. Our earthly body is too fragile for this, and the Earth’s habitat is too limited. A person who behaves in a spiritually appropriate manner will never want to cause suffering to fellow human beings or the environment, and for someone who has the prospect of emigrating to a land full of love and sunshine, it will be a matter of common decency to hand over their now unneeded planetary residence to their descendants in good condition.
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
Almost everyone experiences moments or hours when the things of this Earth seem strangely foreign to them and trigger an inexplicable longing in their innermost feelings: homesickness at the sight of a magnificent landscape or when listening to sublime music, blown by a breath of memory of eternal beauty.
The fairy-tale world of all peoples, as a creation of the human spirit, knows different laws than those taught to us by reality, where evil seems to prevail over good. These premonitions flow unconsciously from spiritual worlds and are clearly distinct from intellectual wishful thinking. All these are almost vanished memories of the living reality of the spiritual world, which we experienced, felt, saw, and heard before our birth, far more intensely than in our Robinson Crusoe existence on the small planet Earth.
The fall from eternal Light into the night of matter was so profound, the separation from our true home has lasted so long, that for most people the Spirit is now only perceptible as a distant memory – perhaps most vividly in childhood or in a genuine love relationship between a woman and a man.
Normally, a person remains in the material realm of the Universe for only the duration of their earthly body. Reincarnation, which is accepted as normal in some Eastern religions, occurs only in exceptional cases, such as death in early childhood, suicide, or complete animalization. In each of these cases, the spiritual “I” has not succeeded in finding or maintaining the connection with animal consciousness. It is easy to recognize in this the effect of divine Love, which gives those who have failed completely, physically or psychologically, another opportunity to consciously master earthly life.
Note that the initial “fall” of the spiritual human being into earthly life may seem to be sudden and involuntary, but it is actually the end of a very long journey, also in terms of time, which leads from closeness to God into ever denser and more distant regions of the Universe, until it reaches the vicinity of nothingness. The turning away from God does not arise from a compelling law, but from the free will of the spiritual human being. It is, of course, easier to blame God or the devil for the earthly misery one has endured than to blame oneself.
3.2.2 Return
After the preceding explanations, it will be understandable that after death we reenter the same world of Spirit from which we came at birth. Our stay on Earth is only a short, albeit extremely important, stopover for the imperishable self-consciousness that constitutes the real human being. Having reached the lowest point of existence on Earth, this pause provides an opportunity to reverse the direction of the will that led us away from God into earthly incarnation and to find our way back to our true origin.
The fear of the irrevocable destruction of the earthly body causes many people to repress the thought of death, which in reality is only a return to the realm of Spirit. Time and again, Jesus, to whom the higher spiritual worlds were open, called out to people entangled in doubt and existential fears: “Fear not.” The fact that the Christian churches frightened their believers for a long time with scenes of judgment and hellfire had a great deal to do with earthly lust for power and very little to do with true spiritual insight.
In “The Book On the Beyond,” published in 1920, Bô Yin Râ describes life after death, which he knew from spiritual insight, in detail and objectively. The fact that his statements correspond to the reports of people who have actually died, collected much later by modern researchers into death, proves the truth of the teaching in an impressive way. This description of personal experiences of death was only made possible by modern medical technology, which can force the spiritual soul, already separated from the body, back into the revived body – usually not to the delight of those affected. The experiences recounted by people of all levels of education are understandably very limited in time and are therefore also partly influenced by the usually not-completely-severed connection to the earthly body. As an objectively judging physician, it was Dr. Raymond Moody who concluded that the statements of respondents consistently reflect an objective state of affairs and are not figments of the imagination.
Compared to the contents of the “The Book On the Beyond,” the death experiences described in Moody’s and Sabom’s publications, for example, are only a fleeting glimpse through a narrow crack in the gate to heaven. Those who linger longer in the afterlife cannot return. Only the very few “masters” such as Bô Yin Râ are capable of being conscious simultaneously in this world and in already high realms of the afterlife, where, in contrast to ecstatic mystics, their consciousness in this world is not obscured.
This high state cannot be achieved through exercises, hypnosis, strange lifestyles, or even drugs, but occurs quite naturally for those capable. It is a very rare exception, initiated by Spirit, which serves to bring the Light and Love of Eternity into the material world. The few who possess this “mastery” in each generation naturally have no need for books or religious organizations, because all the things described there are real and present to them at all times. External ties are unnecessary. All members of this community are inseparably connected to each other through spiritual contact. However, they, the true helpers from Spirit, require long and hard training until their earthly consciousness finds its way back to the spiritual home they voluntarily left out of love for their “fallen” fellow human beings. They are the few who “know where they come from and where they are going.” [These are the “Luminaries of Primordial Light”—Leuchtenden des Urlichts.]
Even in the hereafter, which is actually only the other, far greater side of the imperishable Cosmos, only those who overcome hatred, greed, and selfishness and embrace everything outside and within themselves with love can be truly happy. People who loved each other on Earth will unfailingly meet again in the hereafter if they both wish it.
Those who have reached the hereafter prepare “Hell” for themselves if, due to a lack of love, they are unable to enter the higher, harmonious spiritual worlds and remain for a long time in the lowest realms in strife and discord with themselves and their fellow beings. In contrast to earthly life, where even the well-meaning are constantly exposed to the malice and lust for power of negative forces, the higher spiritual worlds are no longer accessible from the lower realms – Bô Yin Râ calls them “shoreline realms.”
But even the people in the “shoreline realms” of the Beyond find their way back to their origin in the high realms of the Spirit after unspeakably long periods of time with the help of eternal Love, but the experiences they had during their earthly life are lost to them in these periods spent in self-reproach and far from God….They will lose memory of their experience of earthly existence, which could make the splendor of the spiritual world all the more blissful.
“Bliss” in the afterlife includes the regained unity of woman and man in their individual feelings of harmony and joy. The earthly longing of one sex for the other is conditioned by more or less clear memories of a pre-birth state of perfect union with the partner who has belonged to them since Eternity. In the darkened earthly existence, it is usually no longer possible for the human being, who has become a single pole, to find and recognize his or her own opposite pole, since the earthly paths of the separated do not necessarily cross. Since only monogamy of man and woman corresponds to the spiritual nature of human beings, the beloved partner in earthly marriage should also be seen as the eternal counterpart and lived with as if one were eternally united.
Since all who love each other remain close in spirit, true love will continue to exist even after union with one’s own pole. Preparation for coexistence with one’s former sexual counterpart is of great importance, which is why Bô Yin Râ devoted an entire book to marriage. Even in ancient times the myth handed down by Plato circulated that woman and man once formed a perfect unity. The permanent union of the two individual and completely equal poles is, as it were, the “normal form” of the spiritual human being before his fall into matter. Only with incarnation into an earthly body, which can only reproduce separately by gender, does the intimate connection break apart. There is no interchange from male to female or vice versa. Each pole retains its gender for all Eternity.
The highest and innermost realm of Spirit, the realm of perfect fulfillment, is the ultimate goal of the human being. There he will also rediscover his individuality, his “name,” given to him from Eternity. From this perspective, it may be understandable why the more or less random name “Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken” played only a peripheral role for the creator of books and pictures, who lives in eternal consciousness as Bô Yin Râ
3.3 “Effective reality” – the realm of the soul
The all-inclusive Cosmos in the broadest sense encompasses the infinity of the real spiritual worlds and the finiteness of both the visible and invisible realms of the material Universe. There are “primal powers” with creative capabilities who lie at the source of the Cosmos, “animators,” so to speak, working in the highest as well as the lowest worlds. These primal powers, which are blind in and of themselves, gather around centers of consciousness, either spiritual or animal, depending on their nature. Dull, instinctive, and mercilessly playful, some of them form the souls of animals, only to dissolve after their deaths and re-enter the chain of unconscious life. The “soul” of the human body, also an animal, is also composed of these lower soul forces.
In contrast to animals, however, every human being also possesses an eternal individual consciousness in their spirit body, which is barely perceptible on Earth, around which the much higher eternal soul forces can form. This is the soul. The soul forces belonging to each human being are not rigid structures, but are in a state of constant change. The soul may also include impulses left behind by people who did not find the time or opportunity to live out their own individual soul forces in the earthly realm. It is therefore very important not to burden oneself on Earth with unfulfillable wishes and longings which would hinder one’s progression into the higher spiritual worlds and should be allowed to wait to be fulfilled in the earthly lives of other people. (Since these “inherited” soul powers can also be connected with a recollection of the existence of the former bearer, a belief in a chain of earthly rebirths of the imperishable personal consciousness has arisen in the East.)
The patient and unwavering pursuit of higher soul forces corresponding to the individuality of the spiritual “I” – despite all material obstacles – is the most noble and important task that earthly life presents. These are the treasures that “rust and moths cannot destroy.” Escaping from everyday life is neither necessary nor conducive to this and is actually contraindicated. Those who want to detach themselves from their family and professional duties in order to live entirely for their “soul” run the risk of becoming victims of fantasies or even occult powers that have always preyed on the lonely and the weak. It is not distance, but closeness to people and to the Earth that corresponds to true spiritual life, which knows no selfish separation, but only all-encompassing love.
3.4 Bridges between the material and spiritual worlds
The “structure” of the material Universe sharply separates the spiritual and material realms of experience. Between birth and death, after eons of wandering through worlds increasingly distant from God, the human being who has finally “fallen” to Earth remains inextricably bound to his earthly body and the material laws that govern it. There is a great danger of forgetting, denying, or laughing at the path to the Light in the twilight of brain consciousness, a state that is also characteristic of higher animals. Although eternal life cannot be completely lost, after death a person who is only interested in the material world awakens in the lower realms of the spiritual world and only finds his way back to his origin after periods of time that can hardly be expressed in earthly terms.
In the higher spiritual worlds, there is all-encompassing Love, which also wants to help those who have fallen into the earthly depths through their own choice. Since human beings are, according to their spiritual origin, extremely free beings, only voluntary helpers can be considered, and the help they bring will never use coercion or try to lead a person to “salvation” against their will.
This help can be given by fellow human beings who, out of compassion, have already committed themselves at a high level in the spiritual world to helping their fellow human beings who have fallen to Earth. These too share the fate of those born on Earth, and it takes hard training before they regain their previous full consciousness in the high spiritual worlds. Once in a millennium, one of them is given the task of appearing before the public with words and teachings. In the intervening years, it is sufficient for the few “masters” living on Earth to maintain their connection with their divine origin and to transform the spiritual rays, so to speak, so that these influences can also be felt by other earthlings. All spiritual help and “enlightenment,” whatever it may be called, comes from these sources. [Some of these spiritual helpers may remain accessible to humans on earth after their passing into the afterlife as “angels,” etc.]
The connection between the spiritual worlds and earthly humans never breaks completely. But the intensity changes. There are times in the life of humanity when the focus is on the inner life of humans and times when the focus is on exploring or mastering the outer world. Jesus of Nazareth took on the heavy burden of proclaiming the freedom of the spirit in a formally rigid Judaism and a brutally ruled Roman Empire. In the work of Bô Yin Râ, who writes about Jesus, Jesus appears to us as the person he really was: connected to God and the Spirit, loving, gifted with tremendous spiritual power as well as humor, natural by inclination and not a despiser of earthly things. Jesus, the greatest of bridge builders, did not perform fakir miracles, even though he was given a certain gift of healing the sick, which, however, had nothing to do with his spiritual mission, but was based on the healing powers of his earthly body, as are sometimes found in individual people. His words were intended to call his fellow human beings to repentance and reflection, to independent personal action, but not to a sentimental “Just carry on as before, I will take everything upon myself.”
With his death on the cross, Jesus did much more than the followers of a comfortable vicarious sacrificial death suppose. He reopened the way from evil to good for all people and made the path unspeakably easier through his love, which even on the cross of torture allowed him to love his tormentors as himself. This is the good news for all people on Earth: that the Kingdom of Heaven—as Jesus calls the realm of Spirit—has come near and the power of evil has been broken. Like his other “brothers,” Jesus will not leave the sphere of influence of the Earth until the last person on Earth has found their way back to their true spiritual home.
Today, only a few representatives of the churches that profess Christ have recognized that Bô Yin Râ’s work has provided them with a completely new and incredibly profound foundation for the rebuilding that is so necessary today.
In all cultures and at different times, people have been more or less aware of this unique circle of “bridge builders.” [ or “Luminaries of the Primordial Light.”] Lao Tzu was one of them who taught in the Eastern way. We no longer know the actual originator of the Grail legend, but it bears the stamp of an initiate. Buddha, one of the most distinguished figures in religious history, did not belong to this circle, but was at least close to it, just as India and Tibet are geographically closer to the spiritual center of the “Grail” than Europe.
After all that has been said, it should not be too difficult to understand Bô Yin Râ’s position, even if it may seem puzzling to most “European” people that in the age of technology and “pure science” one of their own belonged to those fully conscious in Spirit. This skepticism is reinforced by an abundance of “esoteric” literature, which mostly draws uncritically from a wide variety of sources and mixes truth and fantasy in a motley fashion. [Bô Yin Râ called the purveyors of this literature “modern mystagogues.”] Here, only a healthy spiritual sensibility will enable the reader to distinguish between genuine vs. falsified or fraudulent revelation.
Anyone who seriously begins to delve into the books of Bô Yin Râ will realize that he never attempted to found a church organization or gather followers around him. He strictly rejected any “adulation” of his person. His books are directed to individuals who are freely and independently seeking God. However, they are not directed against any of the existing major religious communities. Every genuine religion strives to lead its followers away from purely materialistic pursuits in connection with the “transmundane” world, ideally in a way that is adapted to the psychological and creative characteristics of the various cultures and races.
However, every person must walk the path to God on their own two feet. Religious cults can certainly be a starting point and a source of inspiration, but the path to God is different for every person, just as each person is different from their fellow human beings. In contrast to politics, “massification” only leads away from true religion and into the dark abyss of mass psychosis. The freedom of the higher spiritual worlds, which is bound only by selfless love, will forever remain incompatible with earthly claims to power, greed, and coercion.
Only love, faith, and hope will lead us further on the path to the Spirit, whose often quite steep stretches do not always appeal to the instincts of the earthly body. However, it would be wrong to weaken and undermine the inherently positive forces of the body and soul through excessive asceticism. Rather, it is a matter of directing these forces in a direction desired by the Spirit and God. Innate aggressiveness, for example, can be transformed into positive activity, the sexual drive into a deep spiritual-physical marital union, and the animalistic instinct for self-preservation into the pursuit of eternal life.
For most people, the reversal of the direction of the will on Earth can only be the beginning of a path, a tracking towards the imperishable goal, a preparation for the journey, which, however, can make it much easier to continue on the path after leaving the earthly body. Outward success and position, wealth or poverty, learning and education do not count; only good will and positive behavior toward one’s fellow human beings and oneself matter. The stay in the material world, within the material Universe, can give those who happily return to their Light-filled home a new feeling of spiritual wealth, such as only the royal child, who had been enslaved, experiences under the gate of his rediscovered home castle.
People who do not succeed in reaching the turning point on Earth, in reversing their downward striving will, and in seeking the way back to the Spirit despite all resistance, will remain stuck in the lower realms of the Beyond, still close to the material world, after their death. After an almost infinitely long period of time, loving helpers will eventually guide them back to their spiritual home. But the arduous journey into the abysses of the material Universe, far from God, will have been in vain. The memory of earthly existence, of life on a planet in an animal body, which can give spiritual life a new dimension, will be irretrievably lost in the long intervening period.
4. Conclusion
Every human being has an indestructible, eternal “I,” whose “normal” sense of existence can be a constant presence in one’s own individuality and in the Light-filled, living reality of the spiritual world. The idea of birth and death, of beginning and end, which dominates everything on Earth, is derived from the narrowly limited sphere of experience of the earthly body. By contrast, spiritual life is rooted in the joyful spheres of eternal divine Light, not in the black wastelands of the material Universe. There, love is not a sentimental feeling for brief moments, but the primal power of being that unites and connects everything positive, a power which has no beginning and no end.
All manifestations of being are full of life: fragile and in constant change in the material Universe; perfect and imperishable in the highest spiritual worlds; most perfect in God. Life can only exist through contrast, but it is less the discrepancy between good and evil or the fullness of God and absolute nothingness, and more the tremendous balance between the equal poles of “male” and “female,” which shapes all the worlds of the Universe and their inhabitants, from cherubim to ants.
The Bible actually expresses this reality very succinctly: “God created man in his own image. He created him as man and woman” (Genesis 1:27). The fact that power-intoxicated masculinity later attempted to reinterpret this succinct truth does not change the reality which the ancient Chinese symbolized with yin and yang. Unfortunately, male societies later attributed negative characteristics to the female pole, characteristics that every oppressed person, whether female or male, develops as a survival strategy. In reality, the two poles are absolutely equal. They must be, otherwise the Universe would lose its eternal balance.
Among the creatures of the Universe, humans are the only ones whose existence does not end with death, because their innermost core—whether or not the respective bearer can recognize this in the darkness of the starry night—originates from the eternal Spirit and will return to its eternal home. What remains is the “imprint” of their spiritual form conferred by their earthly life, as well as the impulses of their good or bad deeds. The “judgment in the Hereafter” conceived by the naive minds of all religions, is nothing more than the effect of immutable spiritual laws that bring like-minded people together in isolated “circles.” It is easy to imagine that Heaven or Hell depends on the prevailing attitude in each circle. Those united in love and joy in the higher circles remain untouched by the disturbing malice from the depths. Existence in divine Eternity is no longer conceivable for an earthly human being, as it transcends all earthly parables and images.
Finally, it should be noted that this brief and overly sober summary of Bô Yin Râ’s teachings from a more scientific perspective cannot do justice to the inexhaustible content of his books and images. If this short text inspires you to pick up one of Bô Yin Râ’s books, then it has fulfilled its purpose.