H. Adler - Panorama

Josef recalls with disgust how once out of curiosity he took part in a demonstration against the government, the people rubbing up against one another in a dense crowd as they pressed on toward the Heumarkt, inflammatory signs swinging to and fro that also adorned a platform, while there up above they stood, fists waving and mouths wide open, hatred and condemnations yelled and spit out against the exploitative power of the ruling class, a furious clamor rising up in the background as black-clad and well-groomed mounted policemen pushed their way out of Jacobstrasse and told the crowd to disperse because the gathering had become unruly, but then those up on the platform incited the crowd, unleashing a wave of hatred against the police. “Criminals! Exploiters! Executioners! Bloodsuckers!” Then cobblestones were pried out of the pavement and tossed at the police, who by riding toward the demonstrators with unsheathed sabers only exacerbated the situation, after which some enraged men tried to grab the horses by the reins and drag the police down in order to stop the attack, but the police swung their sabers unmercifully, while here and there they engaged in hand-to-hand combat, the stubborn ones arrested, some of the police wounded, a blind salvo fired over the waves of people, after which slowly but surely the fearful, raging mob was split up into smaller bunches that hastily tried to flee. Josef didn’t want to remain among their number and tried to find a door to slip through, but all the houses were locked, and so he had to move along with the running horde until he reached a side street where it was likely that he could disappear among uninvolved onlookers.

What was the sense of it all, what was all the fighting about? Many friends tried to convince Josef how necessary such battles were in order to attain a more just and better world, and that meant action. Dreams were of no help, nothing but bourgeois lies, whereas true ideals demanded that they be realized, because society cannot remain the same, and it was not enough that it slowly decay, it had to be shattered. Besides, that’s all there was to history, endless wars, robbery, murder, and pestilence, barbarity bubbling up, while in between ideals were like flowers in a garden cut off from all events of the world, and that amounted to nothing. Josef mustn’t remain an individualist, so he let himself take part in a revolutionary festival as part of a day for the people sponsored by the party in a small town, letting himself be lectured to as on the decorated market square a delegate spoke to the people, telling them that today everything was a mess, in his opinion, everything would be better tomorrow once the party was victorious, and that was what had to happen, which is why you had to help it along and make it happen, and tirelessly work to make it happen. Everything he said was right, the cheers and applause confirming it, after which the crowd marched the length of the town and finally emptied out into a beer garden full of workers and farmers, wives and children, the beer flowing in streams. Josef was disgusted to see that kids were given beer, yet someone said to him it was the fault of the ruling class that the underclass would always drink away the last of its money until it was freed of its chains, which was why one needed to become brothers with the masses and warn them of the dangers of alcohol, whose consumption led them to be only more tightly locked in the grip of their class enemies. Yet Josef was unconvinced and asked, Why is it that now for the first time one claims to have discovered and seized hold of the people’s salvation?

Truth can be found only through a spiritual life like the one Josef now embraces. Certain voices said that he must withdraw from the world if he wanted to attain true understanding, as nothing is as it appears, for everything evolves amid the continual depths in the midst of life, one having to be very still, for then the onslaught occurs, colored beams pressing down upon humankind from the firmament to the sounds of sacred music, slowly progressing toward the body that will be bathed in pureness, the beams then pressing their blessing into the body until they strike the heart, at which thunderous sound is released, you experience a freedom never felt before, you feel light, and you are released from the world and know that you are accountable only to yourself, everything else is immaterial and leads only to painful confusion, the inner realm the only thing that continues, each having to go his own way, though he must not be forced by anyone, for that is not allowed. The evil of the world comes directly from the impure spirit, for anyone who does not have an inner life must suffer, because only then will he feel worry and deprivation, which is the root of all fear and every terror. The true and good person lives selflessly, but at first selflessness involves spiritual sacrifice, and only when a number of people have chosen to embrace this can the outward circumstances be altered.

Josef could gather a circle around himself and spread the true teaching, but he feels no pressure to do so, it would too easily lead to endless misunderstanding, too many people valuing only speeches and gestures, seeking advice as to how to achieve blessedness, but such recipes don’t exist, and whoever issues the clearest rules soon notes that the words are understood and followed but they do no good, for the secret, the mystery, cannot be explained to the uninitiated, which is also what Josef had told Herr Koppelter, whom he first spoke with on a park bench. Herr Koppelter is a member of a society, which he calls a circle of people in search of the true spirit from all different countries, Herr Koppelter having spoken about them in a positive and impressive way, such that Josef accepted an invitation to a gathering of the local chapter, though he found that what was talked about there sounded stilted, seeming to him a preachy mixture of science, philosophy, religion, and mysticism, the hall having a strange smell, women with sentimental eyes sitting around, men wearing high, stiff collars with lavender or green ties, some having long hair done in strange styles, and almost all looking rapturous. Josef disapproved of it all, and told Herr Koppelter so, but he replied that you just had to get used to it all, the teachings are all-embracing, it requiring decades to penetrate the master’s enlightenment, though books full of such mysteries must be studied each day, all wisdom and an incomparable beauty rising from them as your awareness grows within the master’s circle of light, which has truly grasped everything and explained it, he being the man for our times; nor can he be ignored, for without the proclamations of his teachings nothing more can be understood, be it the constant misery of the world, the unjust social conditions, the decline of culture, or the lacerated world, the teachings of the master are all that allow such to be understood, changed, and avoided. Josef counters that he follows no master, much less a single one with whom one must first study and be handed what no one has been handed before, such that everything that has come before him is taken only as a harbinger of this master.

Herr Koppelter says this is a gross oversimplification, for the master in no way thinks of himself as being above the geniuses of earlier times, but the world runs according to a certain plan in which the master plays his role, he not wanting to found a new religion but rather a spiritual science that doesn’t have to be believed but simply learned, thus allowing everyone to test its particulars and verify them, but not through the usual methods, one needs to follow the master’s method, which can be assessed only within the confines of his own teaching, since whoever approaches from the outside cannot help but fall into error. Josef has his doubts and explains that he must believe in himself above all others, he cannot accept any teachings that say how one should live without knowing whether they are true or false. Then Herr Koppelter asks whether Josef believes he is infallible, or whether it wouldn’t be more reasonable and productive to first adopt through intensive study teachings familiar to the best minds of our times, such teachings being what enabled them to find and follow the right path, all their previous efforts amounting to nothing more than groping in the dark. Indeed, there are great men who are devotees of the master, among them a famous poet and another poet who devotes most of his time to the society, such that he is hardly able to bring out his own marvelous work, only because he finds the master’s society to be decidedly more important, this example speaking volumes, as do so many others. Josef remains dismissive, though he cannot prevent Herr Koppelter from continuing to make his case at length, even though Josef has already declared himself so unsympathetic to the master that Herr Koppelter responds, “Perhaps on the surface you are so against the master because on the inside his teachings have so much to say to you. But you will only feel this power while young. Later you will stand empty-handed, feeling lost.” Josef remained unconvinced by this view, for though the master’s teachings attracted him a great deal, they also repelled him even more, he finding them bogus, the society an embarrassment, Josef soon turning away from Herr Koppelter.