Chapter 20
1) Confidence lies in people of your kind (human beings) themselves, also for all the time that still lies before your unused life (life still to come).
2) All the days of your time to come (future) still lie before you, and therefore these are still free for you and unburdened, and not characterised by impressions, so that they are still as untouched as the purity of innocence itself.
3) You are still free from the efforts and loads of the coming days, and you still have not failed in anything because everything still lies before you and is open, such as the hours of the love, joy and happiness, as well as those of the joylessness, worries and sorrow, because you are still living in the moment (today), because truly nothing has yet been of the time to come (future), in which you will first have to live into.
4) But what shall happen to you in the coming days and in the new time (future) is something that you already determine at the present time (now), therefore you can change much that was previously not good (bad/negative) in your existence (life), because truly nothing is obliged to be repeated if it already was once – and you shall not doubt this.
5) Truly, you think that you bring yourselves into the coming days and into the new time (future), but truly this is only partially correct because you do indeed live into the new days and into the time to come (future), but only together with the activity of the laws and recommendations of the life-giving (Creation) in which you are embedded.
6) And as everything in the extent of your world (all around you) changes, so you also change because everything is integrated into developmental change (renewal/change) so that there may be continuous advancement (progress).
7) Therefore also no person of your kind (human being) is the same as another in his or her inner nature, in his or her inner world (consciousness), in his or her thoughts and feelings or in his or her psyche, in his or her character in all other things that make him or her into a person of your kind (human being).
8) And no person of your kind (human being) will remain so in himself or herself as he or she is at the moment (currently), because everyone changes inexorably in order to unfold (evolve) so that he or she may fulfil the determination of the life.
9) All life changes constantly, above all the people of your kind (human beings), both in their body and their inner world (consciousness), as well as in their psyche, in knowledge and in wisdom, in ability (capabilities) and in talents (skills), in thoughts and feelings, in the admonishment (conscience) and in the fertilisation of the truth (learning of the knowledge about the truth) or in the belief of godliness (religiosity).
10) How and in what direction you people of your kind (human beings) change yourselves is principally dependent upon the extent to which you knowingly (consciously) involve yourselves in the process of evolution.
11) It is truly important for you to lead your lives upbuildingly (positively) yourselves in a knowing (conscious) wise, or whether you have it led (guided) by other people of your kind (fellow human beings).
12) Therefore you can determine your own determinations yourselves just as your own thoughts and feelings, your striving for the fertilisation of the truth (learning of the knowledge about the truth) or in the belief of godliness (religiosity) – or you can give your own freedom in subordination (servitude) and have everything effected (determined) by external orders from people of your kind (fellow human beings).
13) Consider that each new day and the entire time to come (future) will not bring any fewer terrible things and calamities with it for all people of your kind (humankind) than all the days and the time before you (past), because truly you are not better than your forefathers and foremothers (ancestors/forebears) who brought terrible things and calamity down upon your worlds and all people of your kind (humankind); therefore, in order for everything to change (alter) to the better, you must start in the moment (now) with yourselves and turn the terrible things and the calamity away from yourselves, otherwise everything will stay as it was in all the time before you (in the past).
14) Therefore see to it – but differently from your forefathers and foremothers (ancestors/forebears) in the times before you (past) – that you see (become aware of) the terrible things and the calamity and do not overlook anything so that you may recognise the evil in it and strive for all goodness which is waiting to be found by you.
15) And consider that nothing in life is so quickly blown away (fleeting) as thoughts that could lead to the growth (expansion) of the knowledge and the wisdom of the inner world (consciousness) and to a life in true love and to gain (fulfilment) of the life-giving (creational) laws and recommendations, because people of your kind (human beings) rather follow the life of earthly (material) joys, instead of the joys and values that proceed from the truth and the gain (fulfilment) of the love and of the truly life-giving (creational) mightiness which is your own, but which you must find in yourselves through insight (intellect) and true discernment (rationality) in a knowing (conscious) wise, and must unfold to a high value.
16) Truly, a good effect upon people of your kind (human beings) can only be had by what is in you and in your inner nature which you knowingly (consciously) take in and use (process) in the same wise; and only through you knowingly (consciously) taking in and using (processing) everything in the same wise will there be sufficient reasons for you to let you find a truly successful (strengthening) and prosperous (blossoming) life.
17) However, be knowing (conscious) that you can never experience the good (positive) if there were not also the bad (negative), therefore you would never know what is freedom in yourselves and outside yourselves if there were not unfreedom, and therefore there would not be any joy without joylessness, nor any happiness without affliction.
18) However, it is wrong that there shall be no love without hatred, because hatred is not laid down in the life-giving (creational) laws and recommendations, but rather truthly love; but people of your kind (human beings) have the power of free determination (will), by means of which you can think out (form) everything according to your choice (discretion), therefore it is possible for you – instead of turning yourselves to the true love of the life-giving (Creation) according to free determination (will) – to effect (create) hatred, in which case you then fallaciously assume that this is laid down in a life-giving (creational) wise, which is however not at all the case; truthly, the life-giving (creational) laws and recommendations only secure that you yourselves make your choice (decision) and act accordingly, therefore you act in free determination (will) according to your insight (intellect) and true discernment (rationality).
19) If you want to live and act solely according to the truth of the life-giving (creational) laws and recommendations then you must first comprehend (recognise) them in order to understand their effect (mode of effectuation) of proceeding (origin) and decision (effect = cause and effect), because it is only with this insight (cognition and cognisance) that it is possible to act fairly (responsibly), righteously (conscientiously) and in fairness.
20) And truly, as a light in the firmament (celestial body/star) can only shine against the dark background of the firmaments (universe), so you can only shine in fairness (responsibility) and in righteousness (conscientiousness) as well as in equitableness (fairness) if you step out of your darkness of your unknowledge of the truth by turning to the life-giving (creational) laws and recommendations, by fathoming (researching) them, grasping (recognising) them and understanding them in their effect (mode of effectuation), so that you may act according to them and therefore follow them.
21) And acting according to the laws and recommendations of the life-giving (Creation) is the same as the allegory (example/comparison) of the surging sea that inspires you because you know the high tide that always brings the water back after the ebb, because if you fall prey to all kinds of terrible things due to you falling away from the truth of the life-giving (creational) recommendations or simply show contempt for them, then the joy of living and happiness will return to you – like the water of the tide – if you once again bethink the laws and recommendations of the life-giving (Creation) and turn yourselves back to them and follow them.
22) Always consider that your life is given to people of your kind (human beings) in order to bring it to fulfilment, for which you require the life-giving (creational) principles and all recommendations, through the forming effects (mode of effectuation) of which you can only live and learn, from which you can see (recognise) that your life is indeed precious, which is however only possible for you because you are knowing (conscious) that this is limited by death.
23) Know, every differentness (contrariness) depends on each other (has a logic/precondition) like ebb and flow, like day and night and like life and death, because everything belongs together and is a whole (unity).
24) All amongst you, know, if you are capable of insight (rationality) and true discernment (intellect), that this is the pure truth which you shall follow and in doing so keep to the life-giving (creational) laws and recommendations so that you have a good life in fairness and in righteousness (conscientiousness), as well as in responsibility.
25) Truly, you do not want the untruthful (false/negative) and not the evil and therefore not the bad (negative), just as also not affliction, not lovelessness, not unright, not inequity, not unrighteousness (consciencelessness), not badness (the dishonourable), not unfairness (irresponsibility), not unfreedom, not unpeace and not dissonance (disharmony) and nothing else that is villainous (heinous).
26) Just as, however, you do not want the untruthful (false/negative) but rather the truthful (good/upright/positive), so at the same time you overlook the fact that precisely these pernicious (negative) things of the untruthful (false) are the prerequisites for the possibility that you are able to effectuate (create) all good (positive) things and values in yourselves, which are true love, internal and external freedom as well as peace and consonance (harmony) in yourselves and in the extent (amply) amongst people of your kind (human beings) individually as well as amongst all people of your kind (humankind).
27) Truly, you shall not effectuate (create) the untruthful (false/negative) in any wise in yourselves and you shall not bring it into life (not live it out), rather you shall only make it imaginable (conceivable) through your insight (rationality) and true discernment (intellect), thoughts and feelings so that you may have insight (recognition) of all terrible things at their root, so that you may knowingly (consciously) turn yourselves away from them before they can become effective (active).
28) Therefore it is not given through the life-giving (creational) laws and recommendations that the untruthful (false/negative) shall be effectuated (created) in yourselves and serve as a cause for a decision (effect), because truthly it shall only serve as a source (means) of observation (imagination) for cognition and understanding (comprehension). (= The untruthfulnesses [the false/negative in any form] shall not be active and not become acute and therefore not break out, but be solely and exclusively created and become conscious in the imagination for the purpose of recognising (seeing) the false and the negative in it in order to take measures against it so that it cannot gain might over human beings and therefore cannot become active inwardly or outwards, and cannot come to an upsurge.)
29) If you are undisguised (truly open) in your world of thoughts then you would like nothing better than to avoid and remove (eradicate) everything that belongs to the extent (realm) of the untruthful (false/negative), how - ever this may only be done in such a wise that all that is removed (eradicated) is what is really vigourous (active) and ausgeartet in the untruthful (false/negative) and is therefore lived; however the source (means) of viewing (imagining) for reaching the cognition of understanding (comprehending) may not be broken off (switched off), otherwise it will be (it will happen) that the internal whole (unity) of differentness (contrariness) will dissolve, by means of which people of your kind (human beings) will lose equality (identity).
30) Truly, this misinterpretation (misunderstanding) does produce (result in) very many difficulties in life (life problems) which you as people of your kind (human beings) experience as difficult hours, days and times, but which you can understand (comprehend) and experience quite differently if you make it clear to yourselves that you only then truly have a full life if you direct yourselves according to the life-giving (creational) laws and recommendations and therefore according to the truth and bring about (form) truthly love in yourselves so that you also find your equality (identity) and you form your own character and your all-of-yourself (personality).
31) And truly, your all-of-yourself (personality), which you can continually widen until the moment that you depart from life, belongs to the characteristic things of people of your kind (human beings).
32) And those amongst you who do not know that shall be taught that this way (possibility) has to do with the fact that you as people of your kind (human beings) can bear (conduct) yourselves freely during your life and be able to determine (decide) everything freely according to your will, although you shall bear in mind that everything remains within certain boundaries (limits) which are set for you so that you may heed and follow the guidelines (instructions) of the regulation and the laws and recommendations of the life-giving (Creation).
33) The fact that you truly see (realise) and comprehend (implement) only little of this freedom of your right of determination (self-determination) is explained in your extraordinarily pervasive (profound) idleness (laziness) through which you turn yourselves away from the truth and from taking insight into the true life just as also you turn away from true love that is given to you along with everything else important in life through the life-giving (creational) laws and recommendations.
34) There is no phase in life in which people of your kind (human beings) necessarily find less sense, whether it be in the time of youth, in the time of middle (settled) age or in the time of old age (advancement in years), because each time brings forth its own laws of the life, exceptional (special) difficulties (problems) and special (particular) opportunities (possibilities) which you must meet (master) yourselves according to their condition (form).
35) Truthly, it is of significance (importance) for people of your kind (human beings) whether and how you allow yourselves to be touched by life, whether you make use of your inner freedom and consonance (harmony) or not, and at the same time you have to ask the question to your admonishment (conscience) as to whether you are willing to do so or not.