Karl von Eckartshausen (1752-1803)
A part from his letters
From Letter III
Absolute and relative truth
All the science of the world is based on the assumption that things are actually as they appear to be, even though it requires but little thought to understand the error of this supposition, for the appearance of things depends not only on what they really are, but in addition depends upon our organization and the constitution of our perceptive faculties. The greatest of the obstacles which the student of occult sciences encounters in his path of progress is having to abandon in himself the erroneous belief that things are as they appear to him; and unless he can raise himself above this superstition and consider things not merely from the relative point of view of his limited ego but from the infinite and the Absolute, he will not be capable of knowing absolute truth.
Before we proceed further in our instructions respecting the practical method of approaching the Light, it will be necessary to impress with great force on the mind the illusory character of all external phenomena. All that the physical man knows concerning the outer world he has learned by means of the impressions that come to his consciousness through his senses. Receiving repeated or continually similar impressions. comparing one with another, and taking what he thinks he knows as a basis for speculations concerning the things that he does not know, he can form certain opinions with respect to things that he does not know , he can form certain opinions with reference to things which transcend his power of physical perception ; but as to the true or false character of his opinions with respect to things inner or outer , these opinions can be true only with respect to himself and with relation to other beings constituted the same as himself.
In regard to other beings with entirely different organizations will find no application whatever; and there can exist in the universe incalculable millions of beings with entirely different organizations superior or inferior to ours to whom the world and all things appear under a completely different aspect, and who see all things in a different light. Such beings, though living in the same world in which we live, can know absolutely nothing of the world which is the only one conceivable to us; and we are not able to know anything intellectually of their world in spite of the fact that both the one and the other are identical.
In other to see their world we need to be of sufficient strength to dismiss from ourselves all hereditary and acquired errors and preconceptions; we must raise ourselves to a higher level than that of the self that is bound to the sense world by a thousand chains, and must mentally occupy a place from which we can contemplate the world in its higher aspects. We must die, so to speak, to that with which spiritual beings are inconsistent, in order to acquire the consciousness of superior life and to see the world form the plane and point of view of a god.
All of our modern science is for this reason only relative science, which is equivalent to saying all our modern scientific systems teach simply the relation existing between the outer and mutable things and the mundane manifestation of man, which is transitory and illusory , and in reality no more than an external apparition originated by a certain inner activity concerning which material science knows nothing. All scientific thought, apparently so high and important, is nevertheless nothing more than superficial knowledge, referring to one perhaps of the infinite number of aspects by means of which God manifests Him(Her)self.
Those who are in the ignorance above illustrated believe that their special manner of considering the world of phenomena is the only true one, and cling desperately to their illusions, believing them to be realities, and that those who realize their illusory character are dreamers. But as long as they cling to these illusions, they will not raise themselves above them; they will continue believing an illusory science, and will ask in vain for such knowledge to be shown them by God, while closing their eyes and withdrawing themselves from eternal light. It is not in any way our intention to ask that modern science shall attempt to enter the plane of the Absolute because in that case it would cease to be relative to external things, and would lose its utility in these things.
It is admitted that colors have no reality in themselves and that a certain number of ondulations or wave motions of light cause them, but we have no intention in the foregoing statements of discouraging purely scientific investigation, but only to instruct people for whom superficial and external knowledge is insufficient, and also to moderate if possible the presumption of those who think they are possessed of wisdom and who, chained to their illusions, lose the view of the external and the real and carry their presumption and blind vanity even to the point of denying their own existence.
It will be admitted that it is not the external body that sees, hears, smells, reasons, and thinks, but that it is the inner man, to us invisible, who discharges these functions by means of the physical organs. There is no reason for us to believe that this inner man ceases to exist when the body dies, on the contrary, as we shall see later, to suppose such a thing is opposite to all reason. If the inner man loses by the death of physical organism the power of receiving sensible impressions from the external world, and if in consequence of the loss of the brain he loses the power of thinking, it will change completely the relations under which he lives in this world, and his future existence will be quite different from ours. His world will not be our world, although in the absolute sense of the word, both worlds are one.
Thus it is that in this same world there can exist a million different worlds, in which there are millions of beings whose constitutions differ one from another; in other words there is but one nature, but it may appear under an infinite number of aspects. According to each of the changes of our organization, the world is presented to us from a different angle; at each death we enter into a new world, although it is not necessarily the world that has changed, but only our relations with it which vary in the course of time.
Who knows the world according to absolute truth? What is it that we really know? There can in reality exist neither Sun nor Moon nor Earth; neither fire nor air nor water can have real existence; all of these things exist with relation to ourselves only while we are in a certain state of consciousness, during which we believe that they exist. In the kingdom of phenomena absolute truth does not exist; not even in mathematics do we find absolute truth, because all mathematical rules are relative, and are founded on certain suppositions referring to magnitude and extension which in themselves posses no more than a phenomenal character. Change the fundamental concept upon which mathematics is based, and the entire system of necessity suffers complete change. The same may be said in regard to our concepts of matter, of movement and of space.
These are words, pure and simple: merely expressions for indicating to ourselves certain ideas that we have formed concerning really inconceivable things. In other words they indicate certain states of our consciousness. If we look at a tree, an image is formed in the mind, which is equivalent to saying that we enter a certain state of consciousness that puts us into relation with an external phenomenon concerning whose real nature we know nothing but to which we give the name of tree. But to a being organized differently, it would not be a tree but something quite different, possibly transparent, and without solid matter; in fact, to a thousand beings with constitutions different one from another, this would appear under a thousand different aspects. We can see the Sun only as a globe of fire, but to a being whose perceptive faculties are superior to ours, what we call the Sun would be seen in a manner totally indescribable to us; because lacking the necessary faculties to describe it, the description becomes inconceivable to us.
The outer man maintains a certain relation with the outer world, and as such can know no more of the world than this external relation. Some people may object that we should be content with that knowledge and not attempt to go deeper. This, however, is equivalent to depriving one of any further progress and of condemning one to remain sunk in error and in ignorance, because his only means of knowledge is a science that depends entirely upon illusions and which is therefore no more than an illusory science.
Moreover, the external aspect of things is the consequence of an inner activity, and unless the true character of the external phenomenon will not be really understood. Besides the real inner man, who resides in the external form, maintains certain relations with the inner activity of the cosmos which are no less strict and definite than the relations existing between external man and external nature; and unless man recognizes the relations which link him to that power, in other words, to God, he will never comprehend his own divine nature and will never reach the true knowledge of himself.
To teach the true relation existing between man and the infinite Whole and to raise him to that plane of exalted life that he should occupy in nature, is and must be the one and true object of all true religion and true science. The fact that a man may have been born in a certain city does not indicate that he must remain there all his life; the fact that a man has been for a long time in any condition physically, morally, or intellectually inferior, does not impose upon him the necessity of remaining forever in such state, nor debar him from elevating himself to greater heights. The highest possible knowledge is that having the highest object; and there can exist no higher nor more worthy object for consideration than the cause of universal good. God is, therefore, the highest objective of human knowledge, and we can know nothing regarding Him that is not manifested by His activity in our inner minds.
To obtain a knowledge of the superior self is equivalent to obtaining a knowledge of the divine principle within ourselves; in other words, a knowledge of our own inner self after it has turned to the divine and has awakened to a consciousness of its divinity. Then the inner divine self will recognize the relations existing between itself and the divine principle in the universe, if we can speak of relations existing between two things which are not two but are one and the same. In order to express ourselves more correctly, we should say the spiritual knowledge of the One Self is attained when God recognizes His own divinity in man. All power whether pertaining to the body, the soul, or the intelligent principle in man originates from the center, Spirit. To spiritual activity man owes the fact that he sees, feels, hears, and perceives with his outer senses. In the greater number of men this inner spiritual force has awakened only by the intellectual ability and brought into activity the outer senses.
But there are exceptional persons in whom this spiritual activity has reached a much higher plane, and in whom have been unfolded the highest or inner faculties of perception. Such people can perceive things that are invisible to others, and can exercise powers not possessed by the rest of mortals. If so-called wise men encounter such a case as above, referred to, they consider it to be caused by a sickly condition of the body, and designate it as the effect of a ―pathological condition‖; for it’s a fact of everyday experience that external, superficial knowledge embracing absolutely nothing respecting the fundamental laws of Nature, continually repeatedly mistakes causes for effects and effects for causes. With equal reason and with the same logic a flock of sheep might say to one of their number which had attained the faculty of speech with its ―pathological condition.
Thus it is that wisdom appears foolishness to the foolish; to the blind the light is but darkness; virtue is a vice to the vicious; truth seems trickery to the false; and everywhere we see that man perceives things not as they are but as he imagines them. Thus we see that whatever men are accustomed to calling good or evil or false, useful or useless, is so perceived in but a relative sense. It may be true relative to one person and be quite the contrary with respect to another whose opinions, objectives, or aspirations are different. It is also a necessary consequence of this state of things that where language commences, confusion begins, because owing to the differentiations continually taking place in the diverse constitutions of men, their manner of forming concepts will differ one form another.
This being the truth in ordinary affairs, it is yet more in evidence in questions relating to the occult, concerning which the greater part of men posses only false ideas, and it is doubtful that one sentence could be uttered which would not give rise to disputes and false interpretations. The only truths found to be outside the reach of all disputes are absolute truths, and these need not be stated as they are self-evident. To express them by means of language is to say what all the world knows and what no one controverts; for example, to say that God is the cause of all good simply means that we are symbolizing to ourselves the unknown origin of all good with the word ―God.‖ All relative truth refers only to the unstable personalities of men, and no one can know truth in the absolute excepting the one who, rising above the sphere of self and of phenomena, reaches the region of the real, eternal and immutable.
To do this it is necessary in a certain sense to die to the world; or what is the same, to unburden one’s self completely of the idea of self, which is an illusion, and to become one with the Universal, in which being there is not the least sense of separation. If thou art disposed to die thus, thou mayest pass through the door into the sanctuary of the hidden knowledge, but if the illusions of the outer worlds, and above all if the illusions of thine own personal existence lure thee, in vain wilt thou seek the knowledge of that which exists in itself, and which is entirely independent of all things; that which is the eternal center, the flaming center, from which all proceed and to which all return; the Father , to Whom none may draw near other than the Son , Who is the Light, the Life , and the Supreme Truth.
