"The Path to God" by Bô Yin Râ: Part 6 of 7

"The Great Struggle"

Aug 01, 2025

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. 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 two of Bô Yin Râ’s major books; namely, “The Book on the Beyond,” and “The Book on Happiness.” We are now moving ahead with publishing another complete text of one of Bô Yin Râ’s books, this one entitled “The Path to God.” Readers familiar with spiritual literature may rightfully ask whether anything new can be said on this topic. Please follow along with us over the next few weeks. You may find yourself very pleasantly surprised; perhaps even grateful! Three Sages is the only US website currently publishing Bô Yin Râ’s works, though we welcome others to join us. We are bringing you his books courtesy of the new US publishing house, Books to Light. We now proceed starting with editorial information from Books to Light. Another excellent translation of “The Path to God” may also be found through the website of Kober Press.

Bô Yin Râ

The Path to God (Der Weg zu Gott)

Hortus Conclusus Book Six

October 2024

' Der Weg zu Gott ' was first published in German language in 1924 by Rhein-Verlag, Basel, (Switzerland)

© Books to Light (the United States) The Standard-translation© into English, 2nd Edition (1st Edition was published by Posthumus Projects in 2015). The emphases used in original German are included in this new hardcopy edition (emphases edited by Books to Light to match the original writings).

Library of Congress Control Number: 2024946722

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. Published by Books to Light. Editors: Posthumus Projects (the Netherlands), Books to Light (the United States), Detlef Janssen (Germany). All rights, copyrights included, reserved by Books to Light. Posthumus Projects and Books to Light are responsible for this Standard-translation©. Primary place of publication: U.S.

Advice to readers from Bô Yin Râ:

“Dearest Reader, please note, that I can not write anything that is not experienced most emphatically as spoken language. This explains everything which at first sight might appear as a deliberate eccentricity in my sentence structure and punctuation.” (From: 'Letters to One and Many', middle of chapter About my Manner of Writing)

“(...) no translation, no matter how excellent, can ever replace knowledge in the original language. One day we may learn German as we once learnt Latin and Greek because we wanted to understand the ancient authors in their own language. This is not a ‘prophecy’, but an unalterable view of spiritually assured insight, which, however, refers only to my work and exclusively to its language – for its own sake !” –(From: Bô Yin Râ, 'Kodizill to My Spiritual Teachings', middle of first chapter)

Contents of The Path to God

Delusion and Belief . . . 5
Sure Knowledge . . . 39
The Dream of Souls . . . 67
Truth and Reality . . . 95
Yes and No . . . 123
The Great Struggle . . . 161
Completion . . . 175

Part 6 of 7: The Great Struggle

THE GREAT STRUGGLE

The fact that you have, to this day, still not found your God within yourself, and you are not united with the Living One in its light, may be proof enough for you that you are still subject to another force, which is neither your God nor yourself . . .

You are bound in dreadful chains; only through a bitter struggle will you be able to free yourself from these chains ! – –

However, prior to this you need to recognize: – who it is you are to struggle with? !

The one who holds you bound in invisible chains is himself invisible. You can feel him without ever fathoming him, and he gladly lets you to honor him as a ‘God’ and bring him sacrifices . . .

[Editors’ note: historic/tradition-related references are made here by using the pronouns “him”, “himself”, “his”, etc.]

Certainly he is no ‘idol of your own making’; he gains his might not from your belief !

He is also not – as ancient religious doctrines would have it – God’s ‘enemy’ and adversary, for he knows nothing of God, and all belief in God is for him human folly. –

When he sees men yearning for God, he knows of himself only as a ‘God’ and comes himself forward as the object of men’s yearning, – yet if he sees that men are truly trying to find a way to break free of his chains, he becomes men’s most dreadful enemy and seeks to destroy their earthly lives . . .

If mightier boundaries were not imposed on his own might, no human on Earth would ever be able to come to God during this life on Earth ! – – –

One of those who broke free of this invisible ruler’s powerful chains spoke to you of him as the ‘prince of darkness’, – but you did not know of whom he spoke, and still you do not know . . .

Unless this saying was taken symbolically, a bogeyman corresponding to this description was created in the imagination . . .

But, the one described as the ‘prince of darkness’ in the definite conception of that exalted master is indeed a ‘prince’ of the cosmic night, even if his dominion was much diminished by the same man whose lips first came up with that designation. – –

We speak here of a real being in the invisible physical cosmos to which all things on Earth of a physical nature are physically subjected until it one day disintegrates itself along with this planet: – to dissolve into unconscious cosmic power ! – – –

As an animal of the Earth – which also includes your thinking and everything man on Earth has ever created and will create in the way of mechanical works – you are completely in the power of this being.

He is the ‘lord over physical nature’ and thus lord of your physical nature too; you could indeed worship him as ‘God’, were you not something other than just this earthly animal. – – –

Only because you are something other than a creature born of this Earth can you escape him and raise yourself, insofar as you are intransient, above the transient ! –

Nonetheless, you will still remain under his dominion as earthly body, yet as one who is not unconditionally within his power, even if you are sometimes compelled to sense it with bitterness. – –

It is a major undertaking to challenge this immense cosmic being ! –

You need more than human ‘courage’ to wrestle with him ! –

And yet you will have to begin and carry through this struggle – a struggle which will only end when the earthly animal which you inhabit will one day release itself from you, the intransient one. – – –

Many have been left behind on the battlefield who boasted vaingloriously that they would engage in the struggle and knew not with whom they were fighting . . .

Here too you need help from on high, if you are to remain victorious during your time on Earth. – –

The battlefield is far from being only within yourself !

You will be challenged to engage in a bitter struggle also from outside. You will have to prove your mettle simply in resistance, for the start of this battle can never be an attack on your part. Rather it will be a renunciation of the lord of that earthly animal which henceforth should serve you as an earthly tool, whereas previously you, the intransient one, had to subject yourself to his power.

Never will the prince of dark matter willingly relinquish those things under his dominion, which, nevertheless, you must make serve your will, if you are to come to your God within yourself during your life on Earth ! – – –

He will also never be able to ‘understand’ your actions, except as presumption, for he sees everything spiritual, including your God, as fantasies exclusively emanating from the brains of the one of all the species born on this Earth who are subject to his power, who, despite everything, appears ‘strange’ to him.

He will never engage in battle himself !

He despises you too much to do that. In the battle he will remain as the ‘prince’ of earthly animals and will have his bondsmen alone engage in the struggle with you . . .

The struggle is unequal, for one individual must constantly measure up against many opponents; – a large number of these alone already far exceed his strength, if he was not constantly reinforced by the elevated powers of the spirit. – – –

It is a fateful day when your inner being rises up against the power of this invisible prince, – to whom not only belong his own hordes but also those deeply-sunken ones who once fell as ‘masters’ from the exalted light – and resolves to abjure obedience to him for all time hence . . .

At first it may seem to you that it is all like acting in a child’s play you have written yourself, and without any lasting effect within the invisible cosmic realms.

Soon you will think differently, and you will learn to recognize all too clearly with whom you are struggling . . .

Whatever you may encounter: – be steadfast and know that help from on high is near at hand, – even then when you might believe your defeat is assured ! – – –

You cannot be defeated as long as your confidence in victory is built solely upon the power of the spirit.

Those who have succumbed in this struggle were always too sure of their own strength, so that the help from the power of the spirit was not able to participate in their struggle.

Only when you allow the power of the spirit to play its part in your struggle will it fight for you . . .

It is not the worst, and not the cowardly, who refuse to accept this participation in the struggle. –

It is not always arrogance if anyone believe the outcome of the struggle depends solely on their own strength. – –

Yet it is always humanly narrow error for people to believe they have the ability to win victory in this struggle without spiritual help. – –

They can then no longer be helped, even if in desperate need of spiritual help; for all their actions reject the help which would fight for them the battle to its end . . .

Those who would have the victory won for them here must never want to win it by their own strength !

They must accept with gratitude the victory which the exalted power of the spirit has won for them. – –

They must always be conscious within themselves that their will to fight this struggle is all the spirit asks of them; yet the struggle itself can only be settled by the spirit . . .

Those, however, who imagine that victory can be achieved through their own strength, do not yet know what the price of this victory is: – they do not suspect that, in the end, something earthly must be torn from its earthly bondage so that it can unite with the spirit. –

Certainly you will, even after the victory has been gained by spiritual power, still have to remain subservient in your earthly animal nature to the ‘prince of this world’ for all the time you live this life on Earth: – however, only that which will decay one day, will remain within his power . . .

What you possess as inhabitant of the Earth beyond this once corruptible substance – however you prefer to describe it – will remain yours after your earthly death; it will belong to you, – you, united with the intransient, – for all eternity . . .

So, enter the struggle with confidence and trust, a struggle you can only win with spiritual strength by defensive resistance !

You will surely gain the victory, if you only allow the power of the spirit to play its part in your struggle !

You have indeed to make your contribution, – yet what is ‘your contribution’ always consists in renouncing the cosmic power of the earthly demon, as well as turning your will so that you can resist it – uninterruptedly, in every moment of the rest of your life on Earth. – – –

If you unceasingly make ‘your contribution’, the elevated power of the spirit will win the victory for you ! You will then learn to unite the not corruptible part of your earthly being with your spiritual being for all time !

Thus, united within yourself, it will no longer be possible for you to lose your path to God within yourself, until one day you reach the high goal of the path within yourself! – – –