Chapter 16
1) And words of wisdom are given to you through the true prophets which you shall heed and follow so that it shall be well with you.
2) Do not follow the advice of the deniers of the truth, neither take the way of those who are unfair ones (irresponsible ones), nor sit amongst the mockers, because they tread the truth down with their feet.
3) Follow at all times the laws and recommendations of the Creation and have a desire for love and for peace at all times.
4) Be in the truth like a tree that is planted along streams of water and brings forth good fruits, with leaves that never wither.
5) The ones having no knowledge of the truth are like useless chaff of the grain which are scattered by the wind, because all of their wrong actions are without weight and without value, and their words are like mist and smoke and without power.
6) The laws and recommendations of the creation of all things (Creation) are created for the striving towards true love, for the striving towards knowledge and wisdom and for the best possible, moral and virtuous flawlessness (perfection).
7) Each person of your kind (human being) has received natural gifts through the laws and recommendations of the creation of all things (Creation), the powers of the body, the cognition (rationality) and the true discernment (intellect) of the inner world (consciousness), the psyche and the thoughts and feelings.
8) And it is the task of each person of your kind (human beings) to allow all these powers to grow forth (evolve) and to create capabilities from them, and to discover new things and to allow them to grow (evolve).
9) Truly, continued practice leads to proficiency (capability) and to strength and mastery, and whoever has accustomed themselves to doing truthful, i.e. infallible things through continued practice will do good things with ease, with joy and with certainty, and be full of virtue.
10) And every virtue helps to make it easy, joyful and certain to do the good, the fair (responsible) and the righteous (conscientious).
11) And everyone amongst you can acquire virtues by striving to form their character and to instruct and educate themselves; and this personal discipline (self-education) must never cease during the entire life.
12) In order to give enough consideration to the real truth which is given through the laws and recommendations of the creation of all things (Creation), it is however not sufficient merely to dutifully carry out the natural powers and acquired virtues, because the truth requires very much more, namely also the power to act (energy) that proceeds from the creative power (spirit-form) in people of your kind (human beings) and which animates the body with its inner world (consciousness), its psyche and its thoughts and feelings; it is the natural creative-powerful (spirit-creational) energy through which people of your kind (human beings) are animated out of its creative power (spirit-form).
13) The powers are given through the animation of the body, but people of your kind (human beings) must bring forth (work out) the virtues themselves by integrating themselves into the creative-powerful (creational) laws and recommendations and following them in a responsible wise.
14) It is from the inner world (consciousness) that spring forth the thoughts, and out of these, the feelings which in turn are forming the psyche, and with this people of your kind (human beings) must form their character and their virtues as well as their individual being (personality) according to the guidelines of the laws and recommendations of the creation of all things (Creation), and therefore according to their guidelines (instructions).
15) Virtue is a capability (ability), i.e. a characteristic through which people of your kind (human beings) show the sublime of every characteristic of their character; the virtues in this case are manifold and relate both to the moral behaviour and the moral values as well as to the true discernment (intellect) and wisdom as well as to the teaching of ethics and morality, which finds its value in keeping to the rightful middle between extremes; truthly love, which also includes love for the next one, is regarded as significant virtue; virtue is also the readiness to bring about moral values in mentality and actions.
16) All people of your kind (human beings) can acquire virtues, and truthly it is also their duty to form their character and their virtues, which means that they must enable (educate) themselves; and the process of learning virtues and forming the character is personal discipline (self-education) which must never cease for as long as people of your kind (human beings) live.
17) However, in order for people of your kind (human beings) to become ones having knowledge of the truth with regard to the creative-powerful (creational) laws and recommendations and their mode of functioning, it is not sufficient to have only the naturally obtained powers of virtues, because truthly the laws and recommendations of the creation of all things (Creation) must be recognised and evaluated in such a wise that they can be applied usefully in all circumstances (situations) of the life; this means that the laws and recommendations must be recognised, used and followed in accordance with their effects, so that well thought-out causes are created which become very specific effects resulting from these causes.
18) Knowing the creative-powerful (creational) laws and recommendations, as they are perceived for example in the free appearance (nature) as signs (evidence) of their activity (energy) and mode of functioning, is a basic prerequisite for them to be followed in the first place, therefore the principle is given that a success and therefore knowledge and wisdom can only be achieved through cognisance and knowledge.
19) However, in order for people of your kind (human beings) to perceive any of this, to act accordingly and to obtain success from it, it is necessary that the required power is given which people of your kind (human beings) acquire themselves, namely in such a wise that they motivate themselves for it, in which case the motivation is also a virtue.
20) There are no supernatural virtues which might have been given by a god, for example, because godheads as fabulated (invented) insubstantialities are not capable of distributing any virtues, rather virtues – if they are not endowed (genetically bequeathed) in small parts by parents – must be acquired by people of your kind (human beings) yourselves through your own discipline (self-education).
21) Therefore there are no godly virtues as is taught by false prophets, but only virtues that are fathomed out (worked out) by people of your kind (human beings) or are transferred in small parts through endowment (heredity) from parents.
22) Belief is thereby no virtue, rather a desire for something, of which is assumed that it can be beseeched and worshipped and can provide help, although as an assumed (fictitious) being it is invisible and fully powerless (incapable), and is not able to bring either harm or benefit (success).
23) Virtues are not the gifts of fabulated (invented) gods, rather they are gifts of decency, of recognition (rationality) and of true discernment (intellect), of character and the entirety of the nobleness that you bring forth (create) in yourselves.
24) However, virtue only originates in people of your kind (human beings) if you turn yourselves to the truth and to its honesty and you are moral in yourselves in its sense.
25) Truly, the truthliness of all truth is only in the creative-powerful (creational) laws and recommendations, and it alone is that which cannot delude and cannot be deluded.
26) Only the truth leads you to love and wisdom, from which consonance (harmony), peace and freedom grow for you, in yourselves and outside yourselves as well.
27) If you follow the truth then it will lead you to your own well-being and to the well-being of all people of your kind (humankind), because it helps you to achieve peace and freedom as well as love and consonance (harmony) in your thoughts and feelings as well as in your deeds, and in how you deal with people of your kind (fellow human beings) through connecting (interhuman) bonds (relationships).
28) And learn this: True love is the queen of all virtues and therefore the building block of the life and for people of your kind (human beings) to live together.
29) And whoever effectuates (creates) true love in themselves and also protects it, are true friends to themselves and to people of their kind (fellow human beings) as well as to all people of their kind (humankind).
30) And whoever effectuates (creates) true love in themselves and also protects it, are peaceful and free in themselves and externally, and are continuously searching for consonance (harmony).
31) However, those who do not effectuate (create) true love in themselves and only know feigned love, as is given by fabulated (supposed) gods, they only effectuate (create) evil in themselves and they cry for hatred, revenge, retaliation and for battles (wars) as well as also for bloody deeds (murder) and outrage (torture and acts of Gewalt), because the fabulated (invented) love of the fabulated (invented) god(s) is merely a work of depraved people of your kind (human beings); fabulated (invented) love from fabulated (invented) gods as well as from godlinesses (religions) and sub-godlinesses (sects/cults) is no true love, but only semblance, lies and deception, which explains why people of your kind (human beings) who have fallen prey to this false love effectuate (create) hatred and jealousy in themselves, as well as a revengeful mentality and the urge for retaliation, by means of which they punish people of your kind (fellow human beings) with bloody deeds (death penalty) and also bring battles (wars) down on their own people or on other peoples, as they also wreak death and ruin on the people who live nearby (neighbours) or, out of a false sense of honour, also bring death and ruin (honour killings) on their own clan (family/relations).
32) The virtues are in their entirety indeed of great, but varying significance, and therefore also of varying value, whereby these fundamental values of the virtues are the most important ones and are of the greatest significance as true love and love for the next one as well as love for the truth, which are followed by uprightness, equitableness (fairness) and accountability (conscientiousness) and being fair (assessing appropriately), as well as modesty and courageous strength.
33) The fundamental values of the virtues regulate the entirety of moral virtuous living, through which the bearing (behaviour) towards oneself is also determined, as well as the bearing (behaviour) towards people of your kind (fellow human beings).
34) The appropriate virtues make the life of people of your kind (human beings) moral and good.
35) Many virtues are necessary in order to lead a good life in real truth and therefore according to the laws and recommendations of the creation of all things (Creation), these include kindheartedness, feeling for the other, diligence and dignity as well as many other great and small values of the life-conduct.
36) However, no virtues are ever poured into you (given to you as a gift) by a god that is certainly (in every case) only a fabulation (invention) by people of your kind (human beings), because all virtues are effectuations (creations) by people of your kind (human beings) out of yourselves, as you effectuate (create) or have effectuated (created) them in this life or in a life before the one that you are leading today.
37) And if you knowingly (consciously) and willingly learn the truth and the virtues, then you will gain an ever greater facility in this, which is why you shall always learn and practise what you have learned, because it is only by doing this that you will strengthen yourselves in the knowledge of the truth and in the virtues.
38) Always strive to increase your virtues, which is something that you can do through constant practice and overcoming yourself (self-conquest).
39) Every virtue becomes greater, richer in its extent (more extensive) and stronger the more frequently and more powerfully you practise it.
40) Consider that in each rank in society special requirements (duties/obligations of rank) are demanded, and therefore also special virtues and rank-virtues.
41) And if you are in a bond (marriage) then you have quite different requirements (duties) to fulfil (master) than those who are still without wife or without husband.
42) And truly, whoever fulfils the requirements (duties) made on them faithfully and to the best of their ability, also creates in themselves the virtues which are required for their rank in society.
43) And if the virtues are effectuated (created) then they will lead to ever greater wholeness (completeness), which is why there can never be enough however much is achieved, because there is always a going further.
44) The effort of achieving the wholeness (completeness) of the virtues is very great and very high, but every day in which they are practised brings you closer to the fulfilment of achieving the best possible (relative) wholeness – but every day without practise is a lost day.
45) The most beautiful examples of virtues are those people of your kind (human beings) who dedicate themselves to the teaching of the truth, the teaching of the spirit, the teaching of the life and to all the high values of the life.
46) Those amongst you who bring the virtues to fruition up to the best possible (relative) wholeness (completeness), you are blissful ones (happy ones) in your inner world (consciousness) and ones living in the truth.
47) And you are blissful ones (happy ones) if you are rich in love, knowledge and wisdom in your inner world (consciousness), because yours is the truthly life.
48) And they are rich in the inner world (consciousness) who do not bow down in submission before a god, and neither before priests nor other servants of gods or before those people of your kind (human beings) who raise themselves up above you as gods or emissaries of gods or their substitutes.
49) And truly, all gods are merely fabulations (inventions) of people of your kind (human beings) who have fallen prey to erroneous assumption, therefore you do not need to feel poor and small before any god, and you do not need to find your happiness and your consolation with them.
50) Do not attach your thoughts and feelings to earthly riches because you cannot attain the realm of the real truth through any earthly might, no matter of what kind, just as you cannot achieve even a single virtue.
51) If you lead a life in truth of the creative laws and recommendations, then you will be consoled and blissful (happy), even if sorrow befalls you.
52) And truly, they shall also be consoled who are sorrowing because of evil and who feel pain because of everything that people of your kind (human beings) are doing against the truth of the laws and recommendations of the creation of all things (Creation) and are therefore themselves insulting the existence (life), such as infamous actions (crimes), bloody deeds (killings), persecution of the truthly truth, battles (wars), hatred and jealousy, enmity and pathological craving for revenge, pathological craving for retaliation and all other terrible things by means of which calamity is brought down upon the world and on all people of your kind (humankind).
53) And you are blissful (happy) when you are mild in behaviour, because you are people of your kind (human beings) who remain patient in the face of troubles and worries and who regulate (arrange) everything calmly according to cognition (rationality) and true discernment (intellect), because you control your anger and pathological craving for revenge and only act according to the truth of the creative (creational) laws and recommendations.
54) And blissful (happy) are those amongst you who do rightfully in all things and allow equitableness (fairness) to prevail.
55) And blissful (happy) are those amongst you who provide food and drink to the starving and the thirsty, so that they may be assuaged; but truly people of your kind (human beings) are also given hunger and thirst for truthly love, for knowledge and wisdom of the truth, for equitableness (fairness), peace, freedom and consonance (harmony), and you will achieve all of this and find blissfulness (happiness) in yourselves when you strive for the truth and follow the creative (creational) laws and recommendations.
56) And you are blissful (happy) if you dedicate yourselves to benevolence (humanity); and they are connected to benevolence (humanity) who are able to help both themselves in their own distress as well as the nearby people of their kind (next ones) or strangers of their kind (fellow human beings) who have fallen into distress or otherwise need help, such as poor people, needy people, ill people, unfortunate people and people who commit outrages (deniers of the truth) of all kinds.
57) And blissful (happy) are all those amongst you who are pure in thoughts and feelings and are full of virtues, and always be mindful of the truth whatever you do; upright and honest thoughts and feelings are the joy of every fair one (responsibility-conscious one) and righteous one (conscientious one) amongst people of your kind (human beings).
58) And upright and honest thoughts and feelings are free from any evil intent and guile, and if you follow this wisdom then you will gain great blissfulness (happiness) in yourselves.
59) And you will live in blissfulness (happiness) if you go forth in peaceableness and give choice (preference) to your virtues in all thoughts and feelings as well as in all deeds and works.
60) Peace is a great virtue, and whoever keeps peace and promotes peace will live in true love and in inward and outward freedom and consonance (harmony), and is a true person of your kind (human being).
61) And blissful (happy) are those amongst you who have given (dedicated) themselves to equitableness (fairness), because righteousness (conscientiousness) and fairness (responsibility) are just as much their own as are many virtues.
62) And truly, those amongst you who are not connected to virtues and who persecute them, they also persecute the truth of the laws and recommendations of the creation of all things (Creation); and those who persecute the truth, they also persecute equitableness (fairness) and bring ignominy upon them, just as they also beset (affect) those having knowledge of the truth and those following the truth through persecution and slander.