Stages in the Seeker's Life

     ‘What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?’

‘I have seen everything that is done under the sun; 
and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.’ 
Ecclesiastes 1:3 and 14.

After a long development, probably encompassing many incarnations of his microcosm, the moment arrives for every human being when, like Solomon, he begins to question the purpose of life.

   If he looks back along the path of life travelled so far he will see that of all his ideals such as love, peace, freedom and harmony nothing is left but fragments and shards. Possessions, esteem, honour and power have lost their attraction. Old age is approaching and before long he will have to leave behind even the little he has acquired. He has been born into a world he does not know and which does not provide him with a reason for existence. As far as he can see, everything is meaningless. Everyday life has become empty. He no longer gets involved in the general urge of earthly life. Lonely as he is, he becomes conscious of being imperfect and of having missed his path of life. Because of this state of inner distress, he begins to seek for the true meaning of life.

Where should he Start?

   Has not history again and again produced people who claimed to have knowledge of the Truth? For example Gautama, who later became the Buddha, said of himself: ‘I am a holy one in the world; I am a master, unsurpassed. I am completely awakened; I have come to rest. I am immovable.’

   But what is true in these statements? Does truth exist? Can one wake up to the truth? Once again, the longing heart urges the seeker to read the holy language and so he does. He makes a fundamental discovery. He sees that there are two nature orders, completely separated and of an entirely different character. One of these is the world into which he was born. This world is characterized by transience, death, suffering and the relativity of all things. It is a system of cycles imprisoned within the limitations of space and time. One of these cycles is the wheel of birth and death which sweeps man along in this world order. Some times his life nucleus exists on this side, some times on yonder side of death, a victim of cruel, seemingly arbitrary powers.

Uninterrupted growth and development

   But in the holy language he can read that there must be another kingdom that can be reached by a narrow path and a narrow gate and that has unimaginable properties like immortality, love and harmony and is without time, space or death. It is a kingdom of uninterrupted growth and development. The discovery that there are two nature orders not only causes joy by understanding, but also a deep agitation in the mind. For the first time his seeking has success. In the heart of the seeker the longing for this newly discovered kingdom, of which Jesus says that it is not of this world, now grows. ‘My Father is not a God of the Dead.’

   Whoever seeks with an honest, opened heart will sooner or later meet all the others who seek the same. They gather together in a group like the Spiritual School of the Golden Rosycross. Here the seeker is placed before the Universal Doctrine, a knowledge as old as mankind. He now discovers that both nature orders not only exist outside of him, but also within him; that he is in fact an inhabitant of both worlds. His body and his consciousness have been created out of this world and are mortal because of it. On the other hand there is an eternal principle within him originating in the other kingdom and therefore immortal. He now understands the meaning of the words: ‘The kingdom of God is within you.’

The source of inner conflict

   Thus both worlds meet in man: the I-centred personality seeking its fulfilment of life in this nature and the eternal principle chained to the personality and longing for the original fatherland. He now understands the origin of his inner conflict because of which his emotions are contradictory. And he becomes conscious of his ultimate, true destination, for which he has been seeking for such a long time.

   This destination is a way of life by which the personality puts himself in the service of the eternal principle, so that it can be liberated from its imprisonment. Gradually the consciousness of the personality surrenders to the eternal principle and lets itself be guided by it. During this process the personality steadily decreases. At the end of this fundamental change a complete transfiguration results. Christ says with regard to this: ‘For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.’ By insight and longing for eternal salvation the seeker matures to self-surrender. Realisation of this inner process in the practice of his daily life is supported by the Spiritual School in all respects. And the seeker enters the path of return to the Kingdom of God with confidence.

© Lectorium Rosicrucianum 1994.

Article from Pentagram Vol 16 No 5, pg 27-29. 1994