Thanks for summarising that chapter so well, Chris.

 

I want to simply give you my thoughts as I read the chapter.

 

 

When you think about the implications of this with a neutral mind, the conclusions you come to are extremely startling and far reaching. This means there are millions of people on this planet whose sole purpose is to bring to life their Inner Christ, but who are trapped in the delusions of earthly life. The reasons:

1. ignorance

2. lack of adequate instruction

3. intentional misleading

4. fixation on earthly things.

 

In my opinion ignorance is probably the worst disease afflicting humanity. Millions of people have no idea they have an eternal principle in their heart, and if they do think they have it, they regard their biological soul as the one concerned. Probably the greatest truth that humanity lacks is the alchemical formula that the biological soul must be dissolved, to be replaced by the eternal soul. This is why I'm so happy when I think about Harry Potter. Harry is absolutely determined to face death, which means he can die but come back to life  without his I-consciousness. Millions of people all over the world are reading this sublime story and getting used to the idea of self-sacrifice to vanquish evil. It's a big step in the right direction.

 

The second reason, lack of adequate instruction, is due to the success of thousands of years of campaigning by Voldemort's Death Eaters, as Harry Potter would put it. What van Rijckenborgh says in his books is that the powers that keep humanity imprisoned have been extremely successful in keeping humanity ignorant of the purpose of its existence, and in feeding it false information. This information tells people that Jesus' birth was purely historical and happened outside of them, at one point in time. All people have to believe is that this Jesus is the one and only son of God, and if you live a decent life holding on to this belief, your soul will rest in eternal peace in heaven. (Sounds more like eternal torture to me)The result of this false information is that people look for God outside of themselves, whereas he can be found only within themselves. This is where lack of adequate instruction merges into intentional misleading. The teachings of liberation have been bent into a downward direction so they could be used to imprison humanity instead. It is to the advantage of the imprisoning powers to keep people here, because if all of humanity went the Path of Liberation, Voldemort and his cohorts would be finished.

 

The fourth reason, fixation on earthly things, means millions of people are engaged in all sorts of frenetic activities which, when you look at them from a liberating point of view, are totally pointless, futile, meaningless and achieve absolutely nothing on a long term basis. If we assume for a minute that the only reason for existing here on earth is to go the Path of self-sacrifice for the Inner Christ, then this earth is nothing but an asylum for the criminally insane. Obviously we need to earn money for adequate food, clothing and shelter, but, let's face it, all of us are engaged enthusiastically in pursuing hobbies, political affairs, entertainment, aesthetic appreciation, conservation issues, etc. which take a great deal of our time. If we were to look back at, say, the last 12 months and make a list of how much time we spent in necessary things and in futile activities motivated by the "self of matter", we would be shocked. Fixation on earthly things is not just restricted to non seekers. People who are going the Path of Liberation are just as prone to wasting their time on earthly pursuits are anyone else.

 

And so this is why we're stuck in this asylum: ignorance, lack of truthful teachings, false teachings for thousands of years, and desperate clinging onto futile, time wasting activities which waste our short lifetimes and stop us thinking about liberation. What a lunatic asylum we live in! Let's get out of here.