Читать книгу Love Your Enemies - Gerd Steeger - Страница 8

I left the residential area, wearing a T-shirt and crossed the street, in order to be able to later reach the beach promenade, from the other side of the street. At over 25°C, it was unusually warm for the month of March. After a pleasant walk, the beach lay directly before me.

The light brown sandy beach stretched out in front of me, which was sparsely used, as the water was still quite cold and you very rarely see people bathing in the sea, at this time of the year. Only the toughest tourists, probably from the Scottish Highlands or Iceland, spend their nice holidays, here. The colour of the water was blue/grey and changed to a light blue on the horizon, which in turn led to a deep blue sky.

I can hardly put into words, the beauty that was revealed to me. It wasn't the first time I had been here, but everything seemed to be different that day. On the wayside, lured by the warmth of spring, beautiful violet flowers lined up, interrupted only by the green bushes and palm trees. A warm wind gently grazed my skin. With the sight of the sea and the wide horizon, more and more peace and tranquillity returned to me. A form of serenity gradually spread within me. In silence I stood here surrounded by the impressive beauty of nature that offered itself to me, the music of the waves when they broke and the infinity of the moment.

I took a seat on a bench, overlooking the sea. The sounds of the sea seemed like a symphony to me, simply reassuring. A light, pleasantly warm breeze continued to sweep over my body. I closed my eyes with the aim of giving myself completely to nature. I demanded complete serenity and peace within myself. But as much as I longed for it, I could not find perfect inner peace. My thoughts were always shooting through my head like hundreds of vehicles on the highway. I tried, as I have tried for some time, to see sense in all the injustices happening in the world. No matter how hard I tried to look at everything impartially, as in the Lao-Tze story, something in me always demanded answers, logically comprehensible explanations. It almost seemed as if I could not find my inner peace without answers to all these questions. Like a restless person, constantly searching for the meaning of life, for the meaning of everything that reveals itself to me and emerges before my eyes. Spontaneously, I remembered the words of a businessman who had a good heart, but who was still an atheist: "Gerd, if there was a God, he would be quite perverted. Look around you! Look at the people, how they behave. Look at how many good people live in misery, through no fault of their own. Which kind of God can approve of this?”

Despite my eloquence, I was unable to answer him, not even attempting to find counter-arguments. Inside I knew he was wrong, but it would have been a rhetorical feat to question his statement with good counter-arguments. While many thoughts were shooting through my head, I continued to listen, with closed eyes, to the singing of the birds, the voices of children playing, the footsteps of passing people who also felt attracted to the beauty of the area on this cloudless day. Furthermore, I tried to enjoy nature and to bring peace in my head, to find inner peace. I then noticed steps getting louder and louder of a person approaching me. Disconcerted, I opened my eyes and noticed that a slim, older man was coming towards me. I was sure that I had never seen this man before, yet I had an inner certainty of somehow knowing him. He came up to me and asked to share the bench with me to rest. I immediately agreed and asked him to sit on the other end of the bench. With his rigid gaze and deep-set eyes, he looked at me without wasting a word. To lighten up the situation, I reached out my hand to him in order to introduce myself when he interrupted with the words: "You don't have to tell me your name, I know who you are." From a person whom I have demonstrably never met in my life, this was indeed a bold statement, I thought to myself. While I was wondering if I should put him to the test, he returned my reaching hand with a firm handshake and said, "Gerd, you want to know my name? Basically, it doesn't matter because I have already had many names. Just call me Raphael. You too have already had many names, both male and female. The fact that we have often visited this world in another body, is not unknown to you. Although you have had many spiritual experiences in recent years, that many other people have not, you sit here looking for answers to so many questions. You seek inner peace, even though you create restlessness within yourself. You have everything in you and yet you behave like a little child who doesn't know how to rebuild the house of cards. Nevertheless, I will try to answer some of your questions in a way that you will understand them."

I looked at him and had to swallow hard. I did not expect a conversation like this. The whole day had gone by strangely, what else should I be surprised about? He knows my name although we have never met, I think I know him and yet I have never seen his face before. Since I didn't want to let the dialogue die, I asked: "Who are you?” The answer followed immediately: "Didn't I introduce myself to you?” he said, "Well, you gave me your name, but who or what are you, I still don't know, why should I know you?” He turned his gaze away from me, looked into the sky for a few seconds and turned his gaze back at me without saying anything for a while. "I am, who I am" he said and looked at me and radiated a kindness and warmth that was strange, yet pleasant to me. The whole situation still seemed to be suspicious to me although, in spite of everything, I enjoyed the presence of the old man. His answer sounded like that of a person who boasts spiritual slogans and half-knowledge and yet, I was intrigued by this old man who really had a very special charisma. This charisma, and the special feeling, was the reason why I didn't just get up and walk away. I was curious what was to come.... and there was a lot more that I was about to learn from him!

Raphael looked at me like he was just waiting for my next question. His age appeared to be at about 70 years of age, yet when he smiled, he seemed almost youthful. It seemed as if he knew exactly what moved me, what thoughts and questions tortured me and yet he waited patiently for me to say something first. There are too many questions that have accumulated over time, to which I would like to receive an answer. But who would provide these answers? For centuries philosophers have tormented themselves with questions like these: Where do we come from, what are we and where are we going? Many people have come and gone since then. Nobody has ever returned from the dead and reported how the world looks like after death and what awaits us there. Despite all the scientific developments, we have never been told in schools what the real meaning of our existence is. Who can provide answers to all these questions? Could it be the old man sitting next to me, who calls himself Raphael? What answers could he be able to give that billions of people could not get a satisfactorily answer to, before? On the other hand: How can he know that many questions torture me and how does he know my name, although I have never met him in my life? Why am I sitting on the bench with this person right now? It quickly became clear to me that my thoughts would only lead to further thoughts and new questions, but not to answers that would satisfy me in the end. The only way to find out if the old man would be able to answer even one of my questions meaningfully, and satisfactorily, was to finally interrupt the flow of thoughts and start the dialogue with Raphael. Since I had to find a beginning somewhere in my question and answer game, I decided to address current news topics. I started with the question: "Are you informed about the latest events that have been mentioned on television or on the radio? Raphael looked at me and said briefly: "I don't have a television or a radio and don't read a newspaper either, yet I am informed about everything that has happened in your world. Why should I want to read something again in a newspaper about which I was already informed at the time of the event?” "I don't understand..." I replied calmly with a questioning expression on my face. "Why are you talking about this world as if you were a stranger here and why are the news in the media a repetition of what you already know" I added. "That's clear to me, how could you understand if you can't even remember me and have no idea who I am? To express it in your language, I am in the here and now and everything that is. For me there is no past, no present and no future. Even your word “present” is paradoxical because even according to your understanding there can be no present. The moment you think about something like the present, it is already in the past. The present is a crutch to better assign temporal processes, linguistically. Until here, you can still follow me, but if I explain to you that there is no past or future in the universe, as everything takes place simultaneously, you will undoubtedly be overwhelmed, because this cannot be reconciled with your thinking. The first 3-dimensions are for height, width, and depth and then Albert Einstein added time as a fourth dimension. It would surprise you if I told you that there are more than 10 dimensions in the galaxy. Any attempt to explain to you how these other dimensions work, would be pointless, as you cannot imagine this with the best will in the world. Your quantum physicists are also working eagerly to develop a model that could explain a 12-dimensional model in such a way that anyone can understand it. Gerd, my old friend, believe me when I tell you that in this state of low vibration you cannot imagine such a model; neither can you imagine in the least the splendour and glory of God's creation."

I looked at Raphael in amazement and needed some time to answer. "Raphael, you talk as if you were a being from another star. My senses tell me that you are an ordinary person, I can hear you, I can see you, I have felt your handshake, one cannot perceive a person more realistically, yet you speak as if you were not one of us.

"I have preferred to choose this form, because it is most conducive to the course of our conversation. I could have shown myself as a young, attractive woman, but I am sure that you would then have focused less on the questions that have plagued you for so long. I could also have shown myself as a young man, but I am sure you would have dismissed my statements as incompetent, because of my apparent age, and the conversation would not have lasted long. Alternatively, I could have chosen a non-human appearance, the universe is full of life forms that do not correspond to your appearance. You would probably have run away immediately and looked for a safe place, as you humans are often unable to distinguish which alien life forms are good to you, and which are not. I have consciously chosen this manifestation with which you now perceive me, as it corresponds to your concept of cleverness and wisdom and makes it easier to ensure that you will pay attention to me".