The Sunday Lectures, Vol.V

By Peter Deunov

Embark on an existential voyage through "The Sunday Lectures, Volume 5," as Peter Deunov delves into the profound essence of being. In Lecture 32, "The Son of God," Deunov elucidates the intrinsic significance of eating, music, and prayer, delineating them as the elemental pillars of physical, mental, and spiritual life. These foundational princ

• Language: English
• Publisher: Eagle Rock Publishing
• Release date: Apr 28, 2024
• ISBN: 9781952996146

Book preview

1

THEY MARVELED

When they heard it, they marveled, and left him and went away.—Matthew 22:22 (WEB)

Now, I’m not going to talk about the cause, why they marveled—you’ll look for it yourselves. I will only talk about the result—the fact that they marveled.

Two processes are at work in the world, as in nature: the ordinary and the unexpected, or the unforeseen. A person is always surprised by the unexpected process. For instance, you eat up to three times a day, and when they cook something for you on a regular basis, you assume this to be natural, in the order of things. If they tell you that you have to go hungry for two or three days, you marvel: you look at this as an unforeseen process. So, marveling is due to the fact that the ordinary process becomes unexpected. Whoever doesn’t understand the language of nature believes that the unexpected processes are destructive. The healthy person sees good health as an ordinary process which is in the order of things, but he views illness as a process that is not in the order of things. Consequently, illness, being a process that is not in the order of things, destroys the human organism. From the viewpoint of the spiritual world, it’s the exact opposite: over there they take health as a process out of the ordinary, and illness—as something ordinary. To your ears, the word illness sounds dissonant.

They asked Christ an important question, and when He answered them, they marveled how they couldn’t catch Him in the snare they set for Him, but He managed to slip away. They also wondered at themselves, how they couldn’t set another snare to catch Him. People marvel when they don’t understand things. You also marvel at some simple things. For instance, you wonder how the thief who goes stealing doesn’t foresee everything and falls into the hands of the police. The good man also marvels when he thinks of doing a good deed and fails.—He wonders how he failed to foresee a simple circumstance that appeared to him as an obstacle.

I now want you to get out of the ordinary processes and enter into the ones out of the ordinary. To think you’re good, or that you have to be good, is an ordinary process. To think you’re good is the greatest misfortune for you. Why don’t you think that you’re both good and bad? To think that you’re rich is also an ordinary process. When you’re poor, people feel sorry for you. On the outside you appear frail and gaunt, like a dried up stockfish. Once you become a chorbaji, ¹ your condition improves: in one or two years you become fat, your messed up affairs straighten out. If you start getting fatter you declare your candidacy for a chorbaji. If you’re frail as a fishhook you’re far from being a chorbaji. I address this issue on a fundamental level, in all its forms, both inside and outside. Should a person start thinking that he’s wise, he’s already a chorbaji. It means he fattened up in the mental world. Whatever issue arises before him, he knows everything. If there’s talk about some findings in the realm of mathematics or astronomy, he’ll be the first to say, wait, let me give my opinion. I know this issue. He has good fortune, so he thinks he knows everything. If you tell him that he doesn’t know something, he immediately gets offended and says, you’re ignorant, that’s why you think I don’t know. If you tell him that he knows everything, he’s pleased with you. He says, here is a man who understands things. Now this is a man!

The current society seeks such people, namely, those who approve of all their deeds and activities. If you dare to say there’s something wrong in the activities of a given society, you’ll be called a simpleton, an ignoramus, a fool. When an individual or a society falls into conceit, nature, our rational mother, places him in contradictions. She sends him a disease he can’t cope with. He immediately turns to doctors to determine the diagnosis, to help him. I ask: Why don’t you determine the diagnosis of your illness on your own?—I don’t know how.—Why don’t you help yourself?—I can’t. Consequently, when you encounter difficulties and sufferings, you will know that nature is deliberately creating them for you to show you that you don’t know everything as you’re inclined to think.

Christ says, render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s. This answer causes everyone to marvel. Regarding such an answer, the Bulgarian replies, both the wolf remains satiated and the lamb remains alive. It truly is something to marvel at, being able to simultaneously give unto God the things that are God’s, and unto Caesar’s the things that are Caesar’s. This implies two different worlds, two different moments. You will give unto Caesar the things that are from the material world, but unto God the things that belong to the Divine. In other words, you will give unto God what is of value, the eternal, but unto Caesar you will give what is transient.—What does Caesar represent?—An internal process that constantly works in man. This process seeks its own outward manifestation, hence man constantly asks questions. Only the Divine in man provides an answer to the questions one asks. The soul, that is, the Divine, also answers intelligently to the question that the Jews put forth before Christ, and we marvel how it’s possible for the soul to slip out of our hands, out of the snare that we prepared for it. Do you think when you pass off as good and pious people you always act piously towards your soul? All your troubles and sufferings are due to the fact that you disturb the peace of your soul.—Is it possible for man himself to disturb the peace of his soul?—Peace is the result of the Great Origin that operates in the world. Love brings peace. [Love] worked upon man for thousands of years, and it continues to work even to this day. Only the satiated person can be at peace, and not the hungry one; only the educated person can be at peace, and not the ignorant one; only the good person can be at peace, and not the evil one. These are quantified dimensions, attainments, which make a person peaceful and holy. These attainments make a person strong, they develop a good and courageous character in him.

You say, is all this really contained in the words, ‘they marveled, and left him and went away.’—It is both contained and not contained. It’s the same as if you were to ask me, is the entire walnut tree really contained in the little walnut? In its essence, the large walnut, the tree, is not contained within the little walnut, but it is contained when it gets projected. Consequently, when I examine a certain verse or a given teaching, I hold your attention on its primary, secondary, and tertiary substance. By substance I mean essence. So, there is a primary, secondary, and tertiary essence. The primary substance is spaceless, it is outside of time and space. It is comprised of external manifestations of that substance. According to mysticism, the primary substance is nothing more than the eternally existing, uncreated world. This world has always existed and will continue to exist eternally. It has no beginning and no end. The human mind has no conception of this world.

The secondary substance or secondary essence is a world that is already in the process of manifestation. It is called the ideal world. The tertiary substance represents the present, the already created world. It is derived from the ideational world. These are the three abstract worlds, from which you are most interested in the tertiary.

Now when I refer to the three worlds, few of you understand me. However, at a given moment I can indeed make you understand me. This is the easiest thing. I’ll spread a feast before you with roast chicken, banitsa, ² and wine, and I’ll say, you’re welcome to join! All of you will line up before the table and say, this is a very good man, we understand him. You will ask me, will you treat us to a lunch like this a second time? This is what an essential, real world means. If you exclude eating and drinking, there is no life. As long as he eats and drinks, man lives; as soon as he stops eating and drinking, he dies. If I tell you that there is no life without eating and drinking, you will marvel. Broadly speaking, by eating and drinking I mean both feeling and thinking. Can you imagine life without eating and drinking, without thinking and feeling? You say, I don’t want to think.—You’re dead in the mental world.—I don’t want to feel.—You’re dead in the spiritual world.—I only want to eat and drink.—You live only in the physical world. This is evident from your good fortune.

Study both kinds of processes, the ordinary as well as the non-ordinary, and then combine them into one. The development of the races, as well as the individuals, consists in the non-ordinary processes. Hence you should study these processes. The non-ordinary thoughts, feelings, and deeds contain a powerful and mighty force. Ordinary processes are only exercises. You enter a home, they say, welcome! You go to another home, they say, welcome! You go to a third, you hear the same words, welcome. However, they don’t give you anything, they don’t give you a morsel of bread. You go to a restaurant, but you don’t have five bucks in your coin-pouch. The host looks at you and, realizing that you have no money, immediately says goodbye! You go to another restaurant, and again you hear goodbye! The host says, if you have money in your coin-pouch, you’re welcome to join; if you don’t have money, goodbye! When the husband returns from work, the wife says to him, if you brought something, welcome; if you brought nothing, goodbye! The wife returns from work, and the husband says to her, if you brought something, welcome; if you brought nothing, goodbye! Ordinary things are greeted with welcome and non-ordinary things are greeted with goodbye. I say welcome to the full coin-pouch and goodbye to the empty one. Who bows down to an empty coin-pouch? I say goodbye to an ugly, sick person.

When people hear the word goodbye, they marvel and ask, why do they say goodbye to us?—Because your coin-pouch is empty, that is, your mind and your heart are empty.—What should I do?—Fill up your coin-pouch; fill up your mind and your heart. Therein lies the philosophy of life. Those of you who are practical say, there should be someone to fill our coin-pouches! The young woman who is thinking of getting married sits down somewhere, twiddles her fingers right and left and fantasizes. Why does she twiddle her fingers? There’s a reason for this. She’s not thinking of going to the field or to the vineyard to dig, or to weave, or to sow, or to write something. She’s dreaming of some count with black eyes and a mustache, with gold rings on his hands, with a full coin-pouch in his pocket, so he can make her happy. This too comes to pass. A count comes from somewhere and they start talking. As time passes, lunch approaches, and the two look at each other to see who will treat whom. The young woman says, aren’t you a count? The young man says, aren’t you a countess? When they realize that their coin-pouches are empty, they both say goodbye. Why do people separate from each other?—Because their coin-pouches are empty. The young woman sits down again and waits, hoping for another man to come with a full coin-pouch. There are many people in the world with empty coin-pouches, who greet by saying welcome and send away with goodbye. These are the ordinary and non-ordinary processes in human life.

Many people gather in one place to listen to a preacher or a storyteller, and when they get nothing from him, they go away dissatisfied, with empty coin-pouches, and they say good-bye! He sits, expecting them to put something in his coin-pouch, and when he gets nothing, he says, this audience is non-ordinary, they understand nothing—goodbye! And the audience also finds the preacher to be outside the ordinary, eccentric, which is why they say goodbye to him. I wish I could preach to non-ordinary people with empty coin-pouches. I don’t like people with full coin-pouches. To the one with the empty coin-pouch I would say, welcome! Open your empty coin-pouches and let me fill them for you. Afterwards you might say welcome. Don’t say that I’m a good person. This expression refers to the irrational numbers. Since you don’t understand them, don’t bother with them. If you start working with the irrational numbers, you won’t achieve anything. In order to know a man, whether he’s virtuous or not, you must command the great Divine science. How will you determine which man is virtuous? What are his qualities? You won’t search for his qualities but you will greet him with welcome. Why am I welcomed? Because I filled your empty coin-pouches.

And so, you should also strive to be welcomed by me, and I should strive to receive a welcome from you. When will you be welcomed by me? When you come to me in sickness and I heal you; I will say, open your coin-pouches! My visit is only a hundred leva. I will examine you and say, welcome! Your sickness is about to leave you. When I tell the sickness to leave you, both you and I will be welcome. First, I was welcome because I gave; now you are welcome because you give. This is not an allegory but a great truth, a great law of nature. Nature continues giving to man until he’s 50 years old. She pours into your coin-pouch and says, welcome! You open and close your coin-pouch and it’s full. Once you pass that age, nature starts taking from you. You become restless, dissatisfied and start making visits—you give from yourself. While one gives, one becomes ever younger; as soon as one starts taking, one gradually becomes older. Growing younger is an ordinary process; growing old is non-ordinary. The young person never thinks that he will grow old. One day, when he looks in the mirror, he sees white hairs on his head.—Why?—Because nature is starting to draw from him and says, goodbye! Once he becomes old, man begins to marvel and asks himself, why should a man be born and die?

Death is the dissolution of the old culture. You say that so-and-so died. Don’t say he died, but you should also wish to dispense with the old as he did. Say to yourself, thank God, because the death of my relative reminds me that I too must do away with my old unsettled accounts. Consequently, when death visits our homes, it reminds us that the time has come to dissolve our old accounts. What are the old accounts? The sins and transgressions that constantly lodge in your hearts, minds, and bodies. If you stop your attention on man in terms of his physiological, phrenological, and chiromantic ³ standpoint, you notice that man is exposed to constant changes because of the leftover residue that accrues within him. This is the reason why man is said to stand on uncertain ground. Great changes occur to man from youth to old age. You read the Bible in your youth, the letters are clear, you see well. When you become 50 years old, you read the Bible again, but you find that the letters are not clear. You say to yourself, why did this book change? Why is it so unclear? I ask, is the book unclear, or is there something in your eyes? When children learn to read, they like to trace the letters and lines with their fingers. When they run their fingers over the letters a few times, the book gets smudged, and the letters get erased. No other child can read from that same book. Just as children run their fingers over the letters of the alphabet, similarly adults run their fingers over their minds and hearts and erase what was written by the Divine. You do a good deed and then you say, wait, let me see if I did the good deed properly, whether I did it in time. When you run your finger over the good deed several times, you finally erase it. When you run your finger over your mind several times, your vision weakens. You put one pair of glasses on your eyes, a second, a third, until one day the doctor tells you, there are no glasses for you."

Spiritual science makes use of different glasses, that is, different methods of seeing. They differ from the physical kind. If you can keep calm and peaceful and direct your energy on the eyes of the blind man, a degree of light will arise in him, and he will see more clearly. What makes people go blind?—From a misunderstanding of the ordinary and non-ordinary processes. The eyes do not weaken from weeping, but from excessive sorrow. Someone loses his wealth, another one his son or daughter, and they can’t forget the loss. By repeating the loss frequently, the eyesight gradually weakens. The mother doesn’t understand that she has neither lost nor gained her daughter. What did you impart to the huge oak that grew from a small acorn? You imparted nothing to it. If it weren’t for the sun’s energy, if the oak didn’t draw nutrients from the earth, you wouldn’t have done anything. The only credit to man is that he planted the acorn in the ground and occasionally looked after it. Can you consider the oak yours for this small favor? You consider it a right of ownership, of possession! The walnut says, you have the right to enjoy my fruit as long as you protect me from evil. As soon as you cease to protect me, I will cease to give you my fruit.

Now, I take the walnut as an idea that penetrates human minds. Every idea, every thought, and every feeling helps man as long as he protects and guards them. You know that man is made up of billions of cells. Actually, where is man? You will say that he manifests through his limbs. But where is man himself? We know that after death all the cells of the human organism disperse into space. Where does man go? His spirit abides in the primary substance, his soul in the secondary, and his body in the tertiary. And what would you say about the saint whose bones are all plundered after his death? Each one of his devotees takes a bone and puts it in a special box. Everyone says, here are the remains of a holy man. I ask: Where is this man? The one who took the saint’s head has the greatest power. He will be wise like him; he who has taken his foot will acquire his virtues; he who has taken his chest will perceive his love. Every one of the saint’s bones transmits something to him who possesses it.

What do Catholics do? When they go to Rome, they want to see the Pope, to bow down to him, to kiss his feet. This is what some young men do. In order to show their love and respect for their beloved, they fall on their knees before her and kiss her feet. So, the young woman is also a Pope to her beloved. Pope implies the father and mother of your life. They say about someone that he kissed the Pope’s feet.—Oh, how many feet he kissed! When the mother gives birth, doesn’t she kiss her child? How many times she kisses him on the foot, on the back, on the face. There’s hardly a place where she didn’t kiss him! Don’t marvel at the fact that people kiss the Pope’s feet. Your child is also a Pope. [They think] that kissing the Pope’s feet is an extraordinary thing, but kissing your child’s feet is an ordinary thing! This is why, in order for an action of ours to produce the necessary effect in the mental, spiritual, or physical world, first of all, we must know what its nature is and how it should be carried out. If a mother knows how to kiss her child, she can make a genius out of him. It’s good for a mother to know where to kiss her child for the first time. The future science of education will teach the mother how to kiss her child. I’m still unable to pass on this science to the Bulgarians. It’s one of nature’s secrets. So, the mother’s first kiss represents one of life’s great mysteries.

Christ turns to one of his listeners and says, I came to your house, but you didn’t give me a kiss.—Where should he have kissed Him? You ask, is this an important issue? In my opinion, we can’t talk about any culture until people learn to kiss. Some say, let’s kiss!—Where? On the feet, on the forehead, on the mouth, or the hand? Where you kiss a person is not irrelevant. The place where you kiss a person determines the relationship between the two of you. There are kisses that bring health; there are kisses that cause disease. Man is a dynamo which produces different forces at different times. The same is said about the mouth: at different moments it produces different energies. The lower lip is a conduit of passive forces and the upper lip of active forces. When a person’s lower lip protrudes a lot, it shows extreme passiveness. Such people await a convenient moment for everything. When the upper lip is very prominent, the person is extremely active. He’s the first to approach people, he doesn’t wait for favorable moments. The passive one says, if they bring me money, that’s good; if they don’t bring me money, that’s still good. The active one says, if they don’t bring me money, I will go and get it myself.

When I speak about the kiss, I mean the purity in people’s relationships. Through the kiss I convey a great law that operates in nature itself, between people as well as animals. When two pigeons meet, for instance, they bring their beaks closer together, they kiss. Whoever doesn’t understand this thinks that the pigeons hold each other by the beaks and fight. The beak is a symbol of something. It’s shaped like the Hebrew letter yod [י]—it looks like a comma. There’s no life without commas. What the nose is to man, the beak is to the bird. Someone’s nose is twisted to one side, another’s nose twists in the other direction. The two forms have different meanings.—What is their meaning?—This is a secret that I won’t reveal. And you also need at least one small comma as a symbol for transforming the energies from one state to another.

Christ says, render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s. The language in which Christ spoke is figurative, kabbalistic. When translated, it means: we must use physical methods for physical energies and Divine methods for Divine energies. For instance, if you’re angry, you’ll take the hoe and go to the field or the vineyard. You’ll lift the hoe and set it down and say to yourself, as I strike the dirt, so will I strike the one who causes my anger. So, instead of hitting the person, hit the dirt, at least you’ll get some work done. In this way you’ll transform your anger and return home feeling calm and content. Don’t say that your wife is angry, but buy her a hoe and send her to the vineyard. Don’t say that your husband is angry, but make him harness the oxen and go plow. What do people do nowadays? An angry man and an angry woman get together and complain about each other and their children, and instead of helping each other, they get angrier. In my opinion, exactly this kind of man and woman are needed for the field and the vineyard. This is an excellent way to solve all contradictions.

Someone gets discouraged and says, nobody loves me, nobody kissed me.—Go outside, so you can greet the sunrise. The sun will kiss you. Then you’ll say to yourself, there’s someone who kissed me. If you greet the sun every day, it will kiss you every day. Can you find a better lover than the sun? Everyone can live with this lover. You can speak of this beloved freely, without any fear. If someone hears you and doesn’t understand, he will condemn you. However, once he understands, he won’t criticize you. Everyone seeks the love of the sun.

The present people still don’t know love. We are in need of kisses.—Whose kisses?—The sun’s kisses. We need kisses.—Whose kisses?—The kisses of pure water. We need kisses.—Whose kisses?—The kisses of pure air. We need kisses.—Whose kisses?—The kisses of light. These are not ordinary things in life. When I say that you should seek the kisses of the sun, I want to direct your gaze to the Divine sun. Whoever received a kiss from the Divine sun would never seek a kiss from the physical sun, the servant of the Divine. The physical sun shines and burns. Is there anyone who hasn’t experienced its black rays? Ladies wear veils on their face and umbrellas to keep away from this sun. The American woman wears a large, white hat. By this she wants to say, I won’t let the servant kiss me. If anyone should kiss me, it’s the Divine sun.

At one time the Jews asked Christ various questions, namely, how to solve various social and family issues. Even today people still ask the same questions. They ask Christ how to resolve their family issues: the relationship of the man to the woman, of the woman to the man, of the children to the parents, and so on. And even to this day the people haven’t resolved their issues, because they don’t serve God. Many say they want to serve God, but in fact, they serve themselves. In order to resolve your relationship with a woman properly, you have to leave her free to draw energy from the Divine source. This is also how a woman should proceed with her husband. Only in this way will they have real value, as souls. One must be conscious of one’s powers. Isn’t it a delusion on the part of the little river, which barely waters a dozen cabbage roots, to think that it waters the whole garden? As dangerous as it is for small things to exaggerate their power, so it is dangerous for great things to diminish their power. If you’re small, you have one precious quality—purity. This is why one must sometimes be small. Small people are small, pure springs, and big people are big, muddy rivers. If you don’t believe my words, you’ll experience them for yourself. If they say that someone is a big man, I already know that he’s a big, muddy river. The thirsty one needs a small spring, a small, pure river, whereas the merchant needs a large river; the gardener needs little rivers, and the man at the water-mill needs big ones. The man at the water-mill says, I don’t need pure water as much as I need boisterous, powerful water. Whether it’s pure or impure, what’s important is that it turns the wheel on the water-mill. This statement is true as long as there are water-mills. If there are no water-mills, we need pure water. What kind of water do we cook with? With what kind of water do we wash our dishes? Consequently, the water-mill requires any kind of water, as long as it’s boisterous. But for Divine things, however, pure, crystalline water is needed. Whoever wants to enter the Divine world, the springs of his life must be pure. This is a law that applies to nature as well. Beside clear waters and beautiful trees live beautiful birds that sing well. No birds live by murky waters. The healthy disposition, the good disposition, and happiness are beings that love pure springs. If anyone asks me why he suffers, I answer: Because you’re a big muddy river.

They marveled. And you, when you come out of here, will wonder what to do, living in a world with which you cannot harmonize. You wonder why the world was created this way. There are things in the world that God did not make. Who made your houses, water-mills, and factories? Who made your clothes? Who invented cooking? The world that you’re unhappy with was made by humans. It’s a human world. To say that the world created by God is bad means that you either don’t speak the truth or you don’t understand it. Someone dyed his hair black and said this is the color of his hair. He’s not telling the truth. Why doesn’t he say he dyed it? Hair can be dyed, it can become black, blond, red, white—whatever you want. If God dyed our hair, it wouldn’t go bald. If we were born from God, we wouldn’t get sick and die. The weak body is a human invention. What sort of idea can be put into such a body? It can be infused with a human idea, but not with a Divine one. Do you think God would pour Divine nectar into a flimsy bottle? You say, I want the Spirit of God to come into me.—If you want this, you must get a bottle made by angels. Work towards this so you can get such a bottle. Then, only a single kiss from the Divine Sun will transform your life, it will bring within you an impulse for new work. The Divine origin within you will put down its deep roots in the physical world and draw out the juices needed for the new life. This means the resurrection of the human soul. This is the true man who passes among men like a great elephant. They bite him, prick him, mock him, but he goes on, paying no attention. They say to him, remember when you passed through our kingdom. The elephant walks calmly, gives a flourish with his trunk, wags his tail, and says, you should remember when I passed through your kingdom!

When they heard it, they marveled, and left him and went away. Put the following idea within your minds: that your bottle is man-made, that it’s not made by God. If this is so, what bottle will you enter when you leave the physical one? You will say that even if the bottle breaks, it’s important to preserve the water.—Where will this water go?—Either in another bottle, or it will scatter in nature. There it will travel, but it won’t end up in the place where it is destined. This water is not Divine either. Indeed, scientists say that water is made up of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen, but they don’t know the whole truth. This water is a tertiary substance. Scientists do not yet know the secondary and primary substance of water. From the point of view of the real science, water is not made up of hydrogen and oxygen, but they themselves are made up of it. Do you think that with the knowledge you have today you can transform the world? This knowledge can’t make you cultured. Today, out of a hundred people, you will hardly find one real person who thinks in a Divine way. The thought of many philosophers and scientists is as simple as beans. In some respects, their thought is simpler even than beans. This is not a reproach. I present the facts as they are. If you put a dry stick near the bean, it will wrap itself around it. However, if there’s a living tree next to the bean, even farther away than the dry stick, it will prefer the living tree and wrap itself around it. In this respect, many people will do the opposite: they will wrap themselves around the dry stick.—Why?—Because it’s closer to them. Today most people have wrapped themselves around dry sticks and, nevertheless, expect some transformation in their lives. As long as you wrap yourselves around dry sticks, no transformation can take place.

When they heard it, they marveled, and left him and went away. Free yourselves from the dry sticks. Take them out, and instead of them, make your hedge out of living trees, so that each one of them may speak to you: Lord, I completed my task, just as you wanted. I wish that all of you would surround yourselves with a living hedge, so you may enter and leave the Divine garden freely. Strive to find the secondary substance of things.

—Lecture by the Master, held on 4 April 1920, the city of Sofia

2

HE FOLLOWED HIM

As Jesus passed by from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax collection office. He said to him, follow me. He got up and followed him.—Matthew 9:9 (WEB)

Now you’ll ask me why I don’t refer to a verse about Easter.—I’m not talking about Easter, because there is no Easter on earth. What people are doing on earth nowadays is a rehearsal, a preparation. There is no Easter on earth yet. If there were an Easter, there would be no prisons, no murders, no gallows. The wheat, the bread, the butter would be cheap. Since they don’t live as they should, people deceive themselves by thinking there is an Easter on earth. Easter is about to come now.

As Jesus passed by from there, he saw a man sitting at the tax collection office. You ask, what does the tax collector have to do with us? A tax collector is a person who sits at the collection office and waits for something to fall from somewhere. Is there any one of you who isn’t a tax collector? Everyone expects to get something. When Jesus passed by the tax collector, he said to him, come after me! He left the collection office and followed Christ. He did away with his contradictions and debts in a single moment. They have to pay insurance policies, taxes, but they constantly procrastinate. All the misunderstandings in life are due to improper relations when it comes to taking and giving. This is why I say the present culture is one of taking and giving. If you give, you’re good; if you don’t give, you’re bad. You give, you’re good; you take, you’re bad. You say, don’t we believe in Christ? We believe that God exists, that Christ came on earth.—These are empty words. If you really believed in Christ you would change your life upon His coming on earth. If you don’t change it, you don’t believe in Christ. You need to have a spine! The young man says to his beloved, you don’t love me.—I do love you, I love you very much.—Prove it—How can I prove it?—Leave your mother and father, that is, the tax collection office, and come with me. It’s easy for a person to cross himself; it’s easy to crawl under the table where the body of Christ is laid, but is the person ready to follow Him? All of you claim to serve Christ, but what kind of service is this if you’re not willing to leave the collection office? When Christ tells the young woman to follow Him, she begins to back away from her promise and says, how will society regard this? What will my mother and father say? If the young woman loves sincerely, she will say, I’ll come after you, because my love is both a mother and a father. The mother and the father, in the full sense of the word, are an emblem of love. Love begins with them. Christ says to the tax collector, come after me!—Why?—So you can free yourself from all difficulties and troubles. The man sits at the collection office and looks through his notebooks, seeing what he has to take and give. The woman also sits at the collection office, she has her notebooks open, and says to herself, my husband bought me nothing, but I need 400 leva for a dress, 300 leva for shoes, 200 leva for a hat, 200 leva for butter, for a kozunak, and so on. The man manages his bills, deciding which policies to pay, how much to give for sugar, for butter, for flour. Both the man and the woman live to fulfill this long list of items. On the other hand, the man is told, listen, dear debtor, see that you pay off your old policies on time. If you don’t pay them off, a new loan will not be granted to you. Christ says to the woman, leave the old notebooks aside. They can’t fix the world. Even with new clothes and new shoes, you’ll remain the same as you are. Even with new clothes and new shoes a bad woman is still bad; she’s bad even without them. But a good woman is still good with or without new clothes. Nowhere is it written in the book of nature about high-heeled shoes. You won’t find fancy dresses and hats anywhere in nature. Fashions, as an outward manifestation of human life, spoil the noble thoughts, feelings, and desires in man. They spoil the harmony in life.

Christ says, follow me! The tax collector left the collection office and followed Christ. An American millionaire, a devout Christian, loved to do good deeds. He often gave money to churches, schools, and hospitals, for which he passed as a great benefactor. When he died, he headed for Heaven, hoping that he would be accepted as a citizen of the Kingdom of God for his good works. Saint Peter stopped him and asked him, what good deeds did you do on earth?—All kinds! I gave a million leva to a church.—How were you compensated for this?—I was held in special honor and esteem.—What else?—I gave a million leva to a Sunday school.—Did they give you something in return?—They made me a member of the central committee at the school.—What else?—I gave two million leva to the university.—How did they compensate you?—They made me an honorary member of the university.—Tell me one good deed that you did for which you weren’t paid. The American delved into his memory to remember such a good deed. At last he said, one day, as I was going to work, a poor widow stopped me and began complaining about her situation. Since I was in a hurry, I threw her a dollar and continued on my way.—See, this affair is a little peculiar, and I can’t solve it, replied St. Peter. We need to go to the Lord, so He can settle the matter. They both went to the Lord and told Him the case. The Lord listened to them attentively and, turning to St. Peter, said, give him two dollars and return him back to earth.

And so, people do many good deeds, but when they go to the Lord, He will say, give them two dollars for all their works, and send them to earth so they can learn there. One must understand the basic principles of the good life based on love. The good impulses of all beings, from the smallest to the greatest, are hidden precisely in this life. Everyone seeks a person, a society, or a nation that can love him. Despite this, history shows us that there isn’t a person on earth who is truly understood. Every person remains misunderstood. From eight thousand years onwards, people complain because no-one understands them. If you meet a man and a woman who love each other and understand each other properly, they will both go to the other world together. As souls, they are connected in the name of love and are inseparable.

Now, let us turn to the age of slavery: A young man and a young woman fall in love with each other: the young woman is a free citizen and the young man is a slave. In order to marry, the young woman must take the position in which the young man finds himself, to become a slave. Whoever comes down to earth will surely enslave himself. Don’t delude yourselves. Life on earth is slavery. If you don’t think so, you don’t understand the truth. Consequently, if you love someone, you’ll descend to his level and accept his yoke. Only in this way will you manifest your love. You love a young woman and you say, let’s kiss!—Let’s kiss, however, after a little while, both of their guts begin to growl—they want bread. Love involves eating from within. There is no love without eating. You say this is a new teaching.—No, it’s an old teaching, which the people want to replace with hugs and kisses. Kissing is an inner impulse, like the air that goes into the pump. The tires of cars and motorbikes are filled through this pump, so they can travel gently on their way without jolting and bouncing.

Follow me! With these words, Christ invited the tax collector to leave the collection office and get down from there. This means: to leave the old understandings and accept the new understandings about life. What do the young do nowadays? Two young people get together and ask each other, do you love me?—I love you. But do you love me?—I love you too.—Then let’s kiss. I observe them: the young woman has a broad and high forehead, with a highly developed sense for music and poetry, with a strong imagination. The young man has a low forehead, he is an extreme materialist. The young woman thinks about music and poetry while the young man thinks about wealth, houses, and property. The two get together and start arguing without coming to any conclusion. This also occurs among Christians. Two people get together and say, let us be in solidarity! It’s good if we share the same convictions!—It’s good if they share the same convictions, but how can this be achieved? One of them has a broad and high forehead and the other one has a low and narrow forehead. One person’s head is narrow and the other person’s head is broad. Whoever has a narrow head is a cavalryman, quick to attack; the broad head is that of an armor-bearer, an artilleryman. A man whose head is narrow doesn’t like to work. He says to the young woman, once I get on the horse, you’ll see what I can do. He gets on the horse and gets off, but he doesn’t do anything. All he can do is ride the horse. Whoever has a broad head can do with or without a horse. This is not only in a figurative sense, but is factually so, if not completely, at least halfway.

What is to be done now?—You will bear the consequences of your present life with patience. You yourselves created your life. You yourselves gave the plan and the means for the arrangement of your head as well as your body. Your house is narrow, its doors and windows are small.—Why?—These are all the means you had. The fault is in you. If a guest comes to you, he must stoop to enter your house. You yourself find it difficult to enter inside. In this respect, you are like those Bulgarian wedding guests who stopped at the door of their low house and didn’t know how to get the bride, who was quite tall, inside. At last they came together after deliberation and decided to cut off the bride’s head. This seemed very dreadful to them, and they began to weep. A traveler passed by, saw them weeping, and asked them, what misfortune befell you? They recounted the reason for their weeping. The traveler answered them, I will help you easily, but on condition that you pay me for my advice. They promised to give him as much as he wanted, as long as he would help them. He said, I’ll get on the bride’s neck, and you’ll pull her forward. Indeed, he sat on her neck, and they began to pull her inward until she passed through the door. This is what you do as well. You get down on the ground in your tiny little houses, but you want to get right in without bending over. You meet the traveler—fate, which rides up on your neck and forces you to bend over. As soon as you enter your hut, you begin to idealize everything and say, my father was a good and noble man, my mother was also a good and noble woman.—Leave that aside; see what you’ll do in this hut where you have neither a chair nor a table. Christ preached to the people a doctrine concerning the real life, real science. However, as soon as they moved away from Christ, science moved out of its way, and they felt helpless.

Now, in celebration of Easter, I will explain to you what the lambs, the pigs, the chickens, which fill people’s tables today, represent. The spirit of these animals lives in the center of the earth, their bodies—on earth, among people. When a festive day comes, like Easter for instance, people start slaughtering these animals. They croak, they bleat, they cry for help. Their spirit from below asks them, what are you doing? What is this disturbance that is happening on earth? I say: There’s an Easter up there, a festive day has come for the people. Now you also suffer and ask, why is there suffering on earth?—There’s an Easter above. Since you’re not aware of the cause of sufferings, you say, how nicely they roasted the chicken! How delicious the goose turned out! You rejoice, but the chicken and the goose suffer. Whatever you do will come back to you. You cause suffering to some, others cause suffering to you, and so on. This is a strict karmic law. You say, God ordained it this way. He permitted the slaughtering of lambs, pigs, and chickens.—I don’t believe this teaching. In my view, it’s a false teaching. You yourselves arrange your lives, you yourselves allow one thing and another, yet you attribute everything to God. If this were ordained by God, there would be no suffering. If the slaughter of animals were permitted by God, the lamb would come to man by itself, to sacrifice itself for him. Is it actually like this? The lamb flees while a man chases it until he finally slaughters it. You then ask, where will I go after I die?—You’ll go to St. Peter, who will take you to God so He can give a ruling regarding your deeds. He’ll say, "give him two grosz ¹ and bring him back." This is not to pass judgment on you. I’m stating the facts. Everyone needs to acknowledge his mistakes and correct them in order to improve his life.

A person’s thoughts, feelings, and desires are living beings with a definite impact on the person. Every thought is a living thing; it has a heart and a brain. Every feeling is a living thing, it has a heart and soul within. If the thoughts and feelings weren’t alive, how would you explain the inner conflict within yourself? Who argues within the person?—The feelings and the thoughts, with the desire for each of them to get the upper hand. Thoughts are the sons and daughters of wisdom, the bearers of the new culture. They are the children of the cherubim and seraphim, but today they’re still in their infancy. You say, my thoughts and desires.—They’re not yours, they’re just tenants of yours who will one day have their say about you. They hold you accountable for your life, for how many lambs and pigs you ate, and they’ll hold you accountable for everything else. Then you’ll say, Lord, am I the most sinful person? Since you won’t admit your mistakes, the Lord will say, call this righteous man to say what good things he did in his life. You’ll say you gave a grosz to a poor widow to get rid of her, so she wouldn’t bother you. God will say, give him two grosz and let him go. This is what the present culture represents.—The people are bad.—They’re not bad, but unruly, presenting themselves for something they’re not. What does it cost for people to plant fruit trees everywhere, grains and vegetables, so there can be plenty for everyone? You’ll say there’s enough meat to go around.—Who gave you the right to slaughter animals?—They’re cattle, they don’t understand.—This is not so.

You’ll say that someone is a noble, high-ranking person.—His blood is completely contaminated.—Why does God send us so many punishments?—He hasn’t inflicted upon you even a thousandth part of the punishments you deserve. After all this, you will say, Christ is risen.—For you, Christ is not yet risen.—This is heretical.—Everyone is a heretic. When they go to Heaven they’ll be excluded from there as well. Hardly one person out of a hundred thousand Christians can approach the door of the Kingdom of God. The Lord says to the archangel Michael, go to those troublemakers on earth, inflict such a punishment on them so they can remember what [happens when] the great laws of existence are transgressed. In the span of 10-20 years, people’s heads will ripen. Such is the will of God. He says, I’m over-satiated with your lies and delusions; I’m over-satiated with your candles, candlesticks, and incense. I’m over-satiated with your lies and your insincerity. When they hear this, the devils within you say, a terrible thing awaits us!—It’s terrible for those who don’t fulfill God’s law and God’s will. I don’t believe in a law written by men. I believe in that law written within you yourselves.

Today all the ruling authorities and teachers argue over the issue whether the subject The Law of God ² should be thrown out of the school or whether it should continue to be taught. I ask: What was accomplished by teaching this subject for so many years? We don’t need The Law of God; we need God’s Law. When God’s Law enters our minds, hearts, and souls, we will have a correct understanding of life. Outside of you are unknown forces which, once developed, will no longer make you slaves to the conditions, but masters. All of you will be engaged in physical labor for only two hours a day. The remainder of the time you will use for the great Divine school in life. Christ says to the tax collector, follow me.—Why?—So I can teach you the great art of living.

Five or six thousand years ago, a great king reigned in Egypt who had only one daughter. His misfortune lay in the fact that his daughter’s mouth was crooked. I won’t say what the reason was. You might think it was God’s will. The cause for this is not important; what is important is that no doctor, no scientist could help—the king’s daughter’s mouth remained crooked. Finally, the father was forced to make a mask for his daughter to cover her blemish. He then sent her to Eden to study with a great Master, a member of the White Brotherhood. According to the laws of that Brotherhood, no member was allowed to kiss a woman, no matter how holy and pure she might be. The king’s daughter studied for a long time with her Master, but she always wore the mask on her face. One day she grew exceedingly weary of it and decided to throw it off, to appear to her Master as she really was.

Sometimes people do the same. When their mouths or eyes are deformed, they wear a mask to hide them. However, when they get fed up they throw off the mask and show themselves as they really are. Upon seeing his disciple’s crooked mouth, the Master felt great pity for her and wished to help her. He could cure her with just one kiss. Finally he decided to help her. A struggle emerged within him, two feelings battled: on the one hand, his desire to help her—duty to his fellow-man; on the other, fear, of breaking the strict law of the Brotherhood. After a long struggle, pity for the king’s daughter prevailed in him, and he decided to sacrifice himself—he kissed her. Dissatisfied with this, she put the mask back on her face and returned to her father. He asked her why she abandoned her studies. The daughter told her father that her Master kissed her. The father called the Master to him to ask why he had done so. He explained to the father the reason for the kiss. Thus he fulfilled his duty to his fellow-man, but his expulsion from the Brotherhood was not delayed. And you, in your present life, fall into the position of that great Master, a member of the White Brotherhood.

Follow me!—Why?—Because you did a good thing. So, whoever does one good thing leaves the collection office. As soon as you leave the collection office they will fire you, because you can’t be both a servant of the world and a servant of God. Both God and the world want to be served. You have to be heroes, not merely to embrace new ideas, but to try and see if you’re ready to hold them within yourselves as well. You approach a woman, you kiss her to fix her mouth, but it doesn’t straighten out. Then what will happen to you?—They’ll put you in prison.

In America, on a dark night, a black man dared to kiss an American woman. When she came to the light, she saw that the man was black and handed him over to the authorities, who fined him $10,000. Ten thousand dollars for one kiss! I’m not criticizing either you or society. Criticism is not a science, but what I’m saying is you need to straighten out your mistakes. You have to know how to correct them. If you’re a tax collector, you can’t serve God. You have to leave the collection office—the old life of limitations. All the miseries in your life are due to the tax collector within you. While you’re suffering, you’re with the tax collector. Once you stop suffering, you’re with Christ. You give up the collection office, but then you start to miss it, you return to it. You go and come back, you can’t give it up once and for all. Once you give it up, [this decision] has to rest on a deep inner principle. Leave the collection office without telling people, without reporting it in the newspapers. Even without your request, the newspapers will learn and they’ll write that so-and-so left the collection office.

Christ says to the tax collector, follow me! I ask: What is your experience regarding Christ, in whom you believed for two thousand years? You say that He came to earth, suffered, was crucified, and on the third day rose again. Now you expect Him to come on earth a second time. In spite of all this, you lack the courage to leave the collection office. When Christ tells you to follow Him, you reply, Lord, I still have some work to do. When You pass by here a second time, then I’ll come after you. You postpone the task from day to day, and when you grow old, you regret that the time is approaching for you to go to the other world without being prepared. When you go to God, He will say, give Him two grosz, and let him go back! You can’t deceive God! Unless you devote your life from your youth to noble work, so that all creatures, men and animals, fowls and lambs, may know that you are men, disciples of the new doctrine, God will not receive you. If you belong to the new doctrine, the chickens and ducks won’t run away from you, but they’ll make a way for you to pass through.

Yesterday, I sat in the front yard, reflecting on today’s lecture. At one point a cat came in and started calmly rolling on the ground and playing. Suddenly she got to her feet, listened to the footsteps in the street and ran through the fence. After a little while she came back again. I asked her, why did you run away? These people aren’t dangerous.—I still don’t believe they’re [followers] of the new doctrine. Do you know how many animal hides they flayed just for the women alone! I reply to her, you have a right to be afraid." Now it seems funny to you that I was talking to the cat. It’s a fact, I did indeed have a talk. One can converse with animals. It’s true, their language might be different from that of humans, but I can converse with them and understand what they say.

Follow me! The first thing required from people is to leave the sin in which they are living without judging themselves. You say, I slaughter a lamb every year, a kurban dedicated to St. George. Say to yourself, I will break my custom this year, I won’t slaughter a lamb. Don’t you think you have the power to give up slaughtering lambs? Did you make a contract with someone to slaughter? You say, last night I dreamt of my late father, he appeared to me and wished that I would do something to help him. I will slaughter a lamb for St. George’s Day, and I hope St. George will help him. That’s what the Jews used to do—they used to offer sacrifices. Today the Lord says, I’m over-satiated with your sacrifices; I’m over-satiated with the slaughter of lambs and chickens. And St. George says, I’m over-satiated with your lambs. If I wanted to eat, should I expect something from you? The people justify themselves with St. George. They have their meal, but they say they slaughter for St. George, that he may be accountable. The people are clever! They eat while St. George pays! This was the situation of Jacob, who worked under Laban. No matter how many sheep the wolves ate, Jacob always paid for them. If people are clever, then God is wise. He’ll cry out within them, and he’ll call St. George and ask him, did you want others to slaughter lambs for you?—Never, Lord! A great lawsuit will be filed against us. You should know this! You can slaughter one lamb, but which lamb and when? To slaughter a lamb means to transform it, to have it pass from a lower to a higher state, from a lower to a higher life. To slaughter a chicken means to improve its life. If it’s anything other than this, then slaughtering is a criminal act. Everything in nature is based on the law of transformation. When you eat a fruit, the seed implores you to plant it in the ground. It says, the wages of your labor is my flesh. I ask you: did you plant the seed of the chicken that you ate? These are symbols of which you must understand the inner