Observations placeholder
Count of Eulenburg – 14 1915, September 25th
Identifier
022468
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
The Bridge over the River
Death is not extinction, but resurrection; life is not a becoming, but annihilation. The structure of matter must be shattered in order to liberate the force gained by the spirit during life. As long as matter prevails, spirit remains anchored within it. When the matter returns to nature, that spiritual force remains because it is different from nature's and cannot be dissolved in it. Then the spirit searches for what earthly life has preserved for it-and finds that force!
The spirit, strengthened by it, begins the ascent toward the heights. This force is of multiple kind and form. It arises like the precipitation of crystals from all that man achieves and creates by his efforts on earth. Spiritual currents move through even the most materialistic endeavours, and with the sweat of his brow man must shape these currents into what he calls his works. The soul that enlivens his works is the force man has created; it endures beyond his earthly body and becomes the ladder on which man's liberated spirit ascends to perfection.