In the Pronaos of the Temple of Wisdom

Footnotes

10:1 It will readily be perceived that all this refers to the "Inner Man," and not to his mortal physical frame. It is neither the physical body with its external senses, nor the perishing mind of man which can know divine truth. It is only divine truth in man that can know its own self. No mail can attain true knowledge of any spiritual power, unless that power becomes alive in him and he identified with it. Occultism is not a question of what one should know, nor of what one should do; but of what one must be. If the inner man has become truly spiritual, not merely in his imagination, but in his will; then his awakened spirit will penetrate even through the physical form and change its nature in the same sense as darkness is consumed by light.

10:2 All this refers not to the man of terrestrial flesh; but to him who has been regenerated in the life of the spirit. The elementary body of man is not above disease and death; nor above that which gives pain. That body requires to be sheltered against the elements whereof it is made; and needs terrestrial food; but the man of the celestial kingdom is free. His home is as wide as his thoughts can reach, and his nutriment is the "Manna" from heaven.

11:3 "God" (according to Jacob Boehme) is the will of divine wisdom. He who rises up in his self-conceit will fall; because he will be full of his delusive knowledge, and the will of the Eternal cannot awaken divine wisdom in him. True humility does not consist in abject fear; but in the highest sense of dignity, such as can be felt only by him who feels that God is in and with him.

11:4 The "sophists" are those sceptical inquirers who diligently examine the external shell of the fruit that grows upon the tree of knowledge; without knowing that there is a kernel within the fruit. They persuade themselves that there is no kernel, and imagine that those who are capable to perceive by the power of the spirit the light that shines from the interior fountain, are dreamers; while they themselves little know that their own life is merely a sleep and their fancied knowledge a dream.

11:5 The spirit of man is not of this world; it belongs to eternity. There never was a time when the spirit of man was not; even since the beginning of creation; neither is its presence limited to this planet Earth. He who succeeds in merging his consciousness with that of the divine spirit that overshadows his personality, and which is his own real self, will know his past forms of existence and set the future; but the animal principles in man cannot partake of that state; they die and enter again into the Chao!, the storehouse for the production of forms.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------