"The Book on Happiness" by Bô Yin Râ--Part 6 of 8

Richard C. Cook, Editor, Three Sages: For the past year, Three Sages has included in its publishing agenda articles about German spiritual master Bô Yin Râ (Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken 1876-1943), along with excerpts from his works. This included a series of articles on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ that we recently published during Holy Week, leading up to Easter Sunday. We have had a strong and positive reception among English-speaking readers from the US, Europe, and elsewhere in the world, so have been encouraged to continue. Most recently we published the complete text of one of Bô Yin Râ’s major books; namely, “The Book on the Beyond,” the subject of which is the human afterlife.

We are now moving ahead with publishing another complete text of one of Bô Yin Râ’s books, this one entitled “The Book on Happiness.” Reader may justifiably ask what relevance such a book may have at this time of world crisis? How can one possibly seek happiness, and succeed in that search, with so much discord, exploitation, and violence going on around us? Our answer is simply that the troubles the world is facing make it more important than ever before that humans stay in touch with their spiritual core which we all know to some degree is the source of genuine, lasting happiness while we inhabit this mortal form. How to do this is the question.

We are also pleased to announce our partnership with Books to Light, a new publishing platform headquartered in the US and dedicated to bringing the texts and teachings of Bô Yin Râ to greater accessibility and awareness among English-speaking audiences.

So let us proceed.

Note: Another excellent translation entitled The Book on Happiness is published by The Kober Press. But while reading any translation, readers should also be advised of Bô Yin Râ’s advice to study his works in the original German. Accordingly, any translation must be viewed as transitional, with a second edition of the translation contained herein now being planned by Books to Light.

Finally, when reading and studying Bô Yin Râ, it is well to bear in mind this liberating thought:

“If it were not a millennia-old superstition which believed that spiritual reality had to be discovered through the mechanism of proper logical thought, the reality to which I give witness here would have been discovered a long time ago and removed from all doubt!”

The Book on Happiness—Part 6 of 8

From the series Hortus Conclusus: the standard-translation© of the Hortus Conclusus (The Enclosed Garden), encompassing the spiritual teachings in thirty-two books by Bô Yin Râ. (Bô Yin Râ is the spiritual name of Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken 1876-1943.) All rights, copyrights included, reserved by Posthumus Projects Amsterdam, 2014. Posthumus Projects Amsterdam is responsible for this standard-translation©. Posthumus Projects Amsterdam has provided general permission for reprinting and transmission of its publications with attribution.

Contents:

Prelude

The Duty to be Happy

‘I’ and ‘You’

Love

Wealth and Poverty

Money

Optimism

Conclusion

MONEY

Most people with an ‘idealistic’ outlook will be horrified when a discussion about money suddenly appears in a series of discourses on high spiritual values.

They have no idea that money too – obeys spiritual laws and is a form of expression of spiritual relationships…

They would rather not hear of money or of financial matters, and I can well understand this, because I too find all ‘financial dealings’ to be the most miserable requirements of life on this earth.

But it is only the form which here creates opposition, whereas the thing in itself corresponds to the highest spirituality. – – –

Nobody who reads the ‘quotations’ on the stock exchanges will ever think that laws of the spirit, which animate all matter, find their complete and fitting expression here. – –

By far the majority of refined souls see ‘money’ as an utterly ‘dirty’ thing, passed through many hands; in revulsion they hold everything that is related to money merely in their fingertips. –

Nevertheless, I dare express that money is something sacred, although I know there will be many peculiar saints thinking that I have become an outright blasphemer. – – –

I can do nothing for these noble dreamers; I even suspect that there might well be those among them for whom money is, although nothing ‘sacred’, at least something to be striven for by every possible means…

Money is only an expression of the value which something spiritual can attain in the material world.

In the end, possessions and wealth are also spiritual values, for there are no possessions and no wealth of which it could not be said that they owed their origins in some way to spiritual values.

If you, you the reader of this ‘Book on Happiness’ really want to create your happiness in this day and age, you will find it hard to do so without ‘money’. –

You will have to recognize that money is far from being the ‘filthy’ thing upon which custom has cast suspicion. You will have to learn to speak of money with some respect if you really want to grasp its value. –

I repeat again: money is something sacred, for it expresses the value which spiritual meaning of any kind could create for itself in this material world.

For the vast majority of people money is merely there as ‘payment’; they have no idea that on this earth you can also pay in other kinds of value, indeed, in most cases you must. – – –

It is strange to them that money can be an expression of higher spiritual values, and they think it profane to speak of money as ‘an expression of spiritual values’.

Nevertheless, there is no clearer proof of the influence of spiritual values in this material world than what could be denoted by money or monetary value.

All the exalted spiritual values which have ever appeared on this earth have frequently touched money and monetary value.

If spiritual values seek validation on this earth, they must, so to speak, enter a sort of union with matter; they must become ‘material’ themselves in order to touch matter. –

There is no other way in which they can inform the material of their existence.

Even the most exalted spiritual value which fails to set in motion the generally accepted form of expressing material values – money, will be outside human comprehension and therefore of no use. –

The greater the amounts set in motion by a spiritual value, the firmer it will be rooted in the material world. – – –

There is a lesson to be learnt from this!

You must never expect to be able to benefit mankind with all your ‘idealism’ and lead it to victory, if you despise money and monetary value. – –

You should certainly not ‘kneel before the idol Mammon’ and seek the possession of money as an end in itself. All your striving should rather have in its sights the aim of moving money. It should be less about possessing than creating the possibility of setting ‘into motion’ ever greater sums in the service of spiritual values. – –

However little money you call your own, you should still be aware of the power contained in every penny. Just as a pebble can set in motion an avalanche, so too can a penny set the largest sums in motion. – – –

And you must also trust the power to move which lies behind money!

This magical power reacts very sensitively to any absence of trust; on the other hand, it never lets down an unshakable trust coupled with patience.

The more money you can make ‘work’ for an inherently good cause, the more prospects you will have to get back this money over time with all the interest which has accrued.

But if you are frugal in testing the power of your money, being filled with mistrust, you will very easily run the risk of losing even the small amount you have dared invest. – –

Of course, you must not recklessly speculate beyond your powers; you should consider in advance whether the sums required for an investment correspond to your disposable means. Otherwise the most valuable spiritual asset, to be rooted in the material world through your money, will become a curse and source of misery for you. –

Anything you produce which is of genuine benefit to mankind will most certainly create new material values sooner or later. But everything you undertake requires necessary investment; if you do not have the means at your disposal, it is far better you stay well clear, even if promoting this venture seems to promise you large profits and could greatly benefit all.

Your actions would be dishonest from the start if you expected profits without being able to risk the investment required.

You must also never use other people’s money for a venture close to your heart if you do not know with certainty that those other people have at their disposal the full investment required, which in the end will guarantee them the creation of new values along with a profit commensurate with their investment.

Otherwise you might deprive others of their possessions. The spiritual laws of mankind as a whole would make you alone liable for the damages caused.

These laws can reach everyone in some form and they require settlement to the last penny, irrespective of the manner in which you are able to pay compensation, even if the other party to whom you are liable will personally not be thereby compensated.

The laws which hold sway within the spiritual organism of mankind as a whole care not about ‘compensating’ the individual or ‘punishing’ the perpetrator. – They only have to create a balance within the organically connected life of the whole, and each individual can take the place of another, – indeed can, without suspecting it, become the tool of their inexorably certain and automatically regulated activity…

In a higher sense there is no real possession of money!

The apparent owner is only ever a temporary steward of a part of the values created in the material world through the influence of mankind as a whole. –

The extent of the apparent ownership of money demonstrates only the suitability a person has as an administrator of wealth. Whoever faithfully administers small amounts and thereby creates new wealth, will at some time in all certainty be put in charge of large amounts as an ‘administrator’ by the spiritual laws within the whole organism of mankind, should his will and not just his wish earnestly seek it. – – –

The ‘continuous failures’ about which so many apparently hard working people complain, give merely proof that they have, somehow or other, habitually violated the spiritual laws without knowing it. – –

Either their will is worn out and replaced by wish, or only some of the laws are fulfilled, whilst the rest are ignored…

Many also do not know that it is completely outside their discretion to what extent they can create new material wealth. Rather, every investment must create a certain amount of new financial value, whether this amount is above or below the desired result. – –

Thus there are those who work year after year and are concerned about their ‘failures’. They do not suspect that they commit gross violations at some point against spiritual laws, being completely unaware of their existence.

Now one could easily suppose that I had merely those people in mind who manage their own enterprises, either with their own or with other people’s money.

I am thinking, however, no less about all those thousands of people who are in the employment of others.

Here often whole categories have to suffer through the violations of individuals, and the responsibility of the individual increases here until it becomes immense, while observance of the spiritual laws I am describing may just as well sometimes alleviate the path of thousands.

At the moment you commit yourself to service within the enterprise of another person, you are taking on all responsibility for that part of the enterprise entrusted to you. All violations of spiritual laws for which you are responsible will have the same consequences for you as if you managed your own enterprise on your own behalf.

I can give you no better advice than to act always in your position, whether it is high or insignificant, as though you had to carry out the same obligations within your own enterprise.

If you feel you are ‘badly remunerated’, try to obtain better pay within what is possible. But do not forget that even the poorest remuneration does not free you from your duty to think and act according to those spiritual laws which must be followed with regards to money, if you are not to suffer harm because you have been the cause of damage to an other! – –

You must also know that your remuneration is measured by spiritual laws, always in the fairest manner, commensurate with your commitment at work. – Thus you will one day, in some form or other, receive to the last penny everything your employer may have held back from you. – On the other hand, if you achieve higher remuneration than is justified by your commitment at work and your interest, – you will with absolute certainty be required to pay back one day the excess. – –

Every form of value is equal for this continuous compensation created by these spiritual laws, so that you may perhaps receive or have taken away the amount you are entitled to, or which you have received unjustly in a completely different ‘currency’. – –

Money is the representative of all material values; with respect to the compensation which the spiritual laws must bring about it is all the same which of these values create the balance or whether it is created by the representative of all material values – money. – – –

Now perhaps you will understand why I referred to money as ‘something sacred’, – for it represents every value bestowed by this material earth, – for it is the expression of all value created by the spiritual here through its influence on matter; and at the same time it is the connecting link and bearer of this influence! –

You will have to, whether you want to or not, count money among the means to bring about your earthly happiness. If you want to create that happiness, you must learn to pay heed to the laws according to which money and all material values represented by money are always but a servant of spiritual impulses.

The Book on Happiness -- Part 1

The Book on Happiness -- Part 2

The Book on Happiness -- Part 3

The Book on Happiness -- Part 4

The Book on Happiness -- Part 5