The Revelation of All That Is.

By
Frits Schotsman

1. A brilliant Discovery.

‘The revelation of Al That is’.

Jonathan looked with fascination at the text inscribed in golden letters on a brown leather-bound book. Curious, he wondered what exactly this title meant, and why it was offered for sale here at this stall. The longer he absorbed the words, the more enchanted he became. The title touched him extraordinarily deep, although he could not really grasp why this was the case. The accompanying price tag told him that the book should cost 25 euros, and although he found the price rather on the high side, his curiosity was nevertheless piqued. He picked up the book and opened it. On the first page was the following text:

The Revelation of All-That-Is.
Nine Keys to Opening the Gate to Success.

Amazed, he turned a few more pages and was confronted with the following text:

First Key:
“Everything you desire is already there.
All you have to do is pick it up.”

His curiosity was now definitely aroused, and impatiently he browsed further. He was amazed to discover that the rest of the book consisted of blank pages. What strange thing is going on here, he thought excitedly. Nevertheless, he continued to hold the book tightly. Somehow it managed to keep him under its spell, although he did not understand why.
He looked around, taking in the local situation. Behind the stall was a house with a barn roof. To the right of the main house was a side wing. Next to this side wing was a vegetable garden, and beyond it the property seemed to extend even further, but a further view was denied him by a row of tall bushes, which ran to the rear along the boundary between the plot and the road.
The two large doors of the barn to the left of the house were wide open, allowing him to look inside freely. The machines he saw inside were unmistakably intended for woodworking, that much he knew. The free space between the house and the small building on the left afforded him a wonderful view of a kind of meadow landscape through which a narrow stream meandered.
“So, you succumbed to temptation after all,” it suddenly sounded behind him. Startled, he turned and looked straight into the face of an approximately 65-year-old man with a gray, short-cropped beard and bright blue eyes that looked at him piercingly.
“What do you mean?” asked Jonathan in surprise.
“Well,” continued the man, “I see that you are holding the book quite firmly in your hands, and from that I infer that you are sufficiently touched to seriously consider the lure of an important step forward in your life.”
“Are you referring to this wonderful book I have here in my hands?” Jonathan responded in surprise. “Well, I’m not exactly planning to plunk down 25 euros for a book with no content, even if the title seems so promising.”
“Still, you would be wise to buy it,” the man urged. “Often the content is not immediately apparent, but reveals itself when you begin to look seriously for the underlying intent.”
“Surely you have lost me now,” Jonathan spoke in amazement, looking at the man in despair.
“I understand that all too well,” this one responded decisively, “but if you’ll allow me I’d still like to talk with you a little further. I promise you that you will not regret it. Nor will you be disappointed in any way if you decide to invest the price of 25 euros in your own future. After all, that could well be a decisive factor in the further course of your life.”
With a broad smile on his face, he gestured to the small cash box on the table, apparently wanting to invite Jonathan to deposit the requested twenty-five euros in it.
Ah, what the heck, thought this one to his own surprise, and spontaneously he pulled out his wallet, dug out the required amount, and inserted it into the slot of the money box. He was shocked at his own boldness
“Excellent job,” the man exclaimed enthusiastically. “With this act you have begun an adventure of which you can barely imagine the outcome. Come with me, and we will talk further on the terrace. It has been some time since I last had the pleasure of helping someone on his way, and I am looking forward to doing that for you now.”
Without waiting for a response, he then walked away across the yard. As if attracted by a mysterious magnet, Jonathan followed him into the magnificent garden behind the house. The view of the field cut through by the meandering stream and dotted with a sea of beautiful, multicoloured flowers was truly breathtaking. The field was about 500 meters wide and more than a kilometer long, and was enclosed on three sides by forest. His gaze slid curiously over the area and finally lingered on a pair of red-colored cattle that were grazing halfway across.
“Scottish Highlanders,” said the man, who had apparently guessed what was occupying Jonathan’s attention at that moment. He then pointed to a chair and said, “Sit down and tell me what you are doing here.”
Jonathan took a bewildered seat on the designated chair and began to stammer. “Uh….., I don’t know exactly what you want to know, but I’m just here on holiday and was taking a walk when I happened to land here and find this wonderful book. I don’t really know……”
“Do you really think you are here by chance?” the man interrupted him abruptly. “Apparently, you haven’t understood the reason for that yet. But perhaps another question will help you along a bit more. For example, what would you answer if I asked you what your deepest wish is? In other words, what would you like to achieve most in your life?”
Now Jonathan was even more distraught, and didn’t know how to react at all. He shrugged his shoulders.
“Look, if you don’t formulate exactly what you want from life,” the man continued imperturbably, “then life can never give you what you secretly dream of. Therefore I ask you what you want most of all. Do you understand?”
“But what business is that of yours?” responded Jonathan gruffly.
“Ah, there we have it again,” the man called out amusedly. “Look, every now and then people come along who have an above-average interest in the book, and despite the high price, can’t resist the temptation to buy it. These are almost always people who have the urge to make something more of their lives than they have done so far. But as soon as they are asked about concrete desires, they are frightened and become afraid. Forgive me for the impertinence which I assume, but I get the impression that you also belong to this category. Hence my rather intrusive question. But, if you don’t like it, no hard feelings.
“Well, that’s not the point either,” responded Jonathan, who, despite the man’s curious behavior, had recovered somewhat. His interest had been firmly piqued in any case, and now he certainly wanted to find out more.
“Tell me, then, what you expect from your life. What you want most for yourself,” the man continued imperturbably.
“I don’t know exactly that yet, “Jonathan replied after some thought. “There are so many things I’ve dreamed of and read books about, with methods of achieving them. But although all this has brought me some benefits, the results I desired have not really been realized to the full extent. Probably because my goals were not quite realistic after all.”
“Aha, so you don’t really believe in what you want. But that is precisely the point. Something you really want is often not at all realistic – in the usual sense of the word – and for that very reason it’s more than worth the effort.”
“What on earth do you mean by that?” Jonathan cried agitatedly.
“I’ll tell you that,” the man continued in a calm tone. “When your dreams have not yet been realized to their fullest extent, it indicates that you have a limited worldview. Anything outside of that is not possible for you, and therefore you experience them as unrealistic. But as soon as you allow yourself to break free from this self-chosen limitation, it will suddenly become apparent that the possibilities for the realization of your deepest dreams have been waiting for you. In other words, what you first thought was unrealistic suddenly turns out to be an attainable possibility. Do you understand?”
“I must admit that it does touch me what you say,” Jonathan reluctantly admitted, “but still I don’t think it’s that simple. I’ve tried a lot, you know.”
“You then make a crucial mistake with that, if you will allow me this boldness.. For the point is that your mind has been lying fallow for much longer than you suspect to receive that which you truly desire.”
“What on earth do you mean by that?” asked Jonathan resentfully. Nevertheless, deep within him awoke the unmistakable feeling that this information might well be an important key to the realization of his hidden dreams. At the same time, however, he also felt despair strike, and that made him rebellious.
“I mean,” the man continued stoically, “that in your mind there is already much more waiting for you than you currently assume. All you have to do is pick it up. But to know how to do that you will first have to learn the nine keys of the gate to success. Plenty of reason, then, for you to explore further.”
Those were challenging words, but before Jonathan could ask any questions about them the man talked further.
“You have received the first key to a successful life through the purchase of the book, although you cannot yet fathom this gift to its deepest essence. For this you will first have to travel a longer road, which will lead you through the understanding of all nine keys to the gate of success. And if you pay attention during this journey, you will learn the nature of this gate and how to open it.”
New questions surfaced in Jonathan’s mind. What on earth did the man mean by his talk of a gate and keys to open it, and what then should be the special significance of the first key with which the book began?
Just as he was about to fire these questions at the man, the man nudged him and pointed to the sky.
“See that big buzzard flying there?”
Jonathan looked, and saw a large bird of prey approaching in their direction. He nodded that he had seen him.
“Pay close attention to what this buzzard is doing. He might have an important message for you.”
Mesmerized, Jonathan held the buzzard in his gaze, watching it fly towards him at great speed. When he got closer, the bird did not seem to have any intention of changing its course and headed straight for Jonathan at great speed. Jonathan feared a collision and was suddenly struck by fear. Instinctively he closed his eyes, dived and let himself fall to the ground. When he opened his eyes again, he was astonished to find himself on the floor of his bedroom. He was totally astonished.

2. A new Signal.

After discovering that his encounter with the mysterious man and his book had been a dream, Jonathan initially did not know what to do with it. However, after he recovered from the worst of the confusion he realized that the dream could be a wonderful gift that would give him a whole new direction in his life. The first key to the gate of success that had been given to him in the dream was still clear in his mind, and he wondered if there really could be such a thing as a system of nine keys. That would be simply amazing.
After fantasizing about this idea for a while, he quickly realized that this path was actually impassable. He shifted his attention to the only concrete thing he had in hand, and that was the first key that had claimed that everything you wished for was already there, and that all you had to do was pick it up.
He found that to be a brilliant and inspiring fact that was challenging enough to explore further, although he knew from his own experience that what he had wished for in his life thus far had by no means always been there for him. But nevertheless, the statement asserted that it should be. An intriguing question, one he would like to explore. But how on earth would he go about this? In what way could he find out the deeper meaning of this claim? And suddenly he had a bright inspiration. The secret of this first key had to be hiding in the assertion itself. He only had to find out how it was that not all his dreams and desires manifested in his life. Then he would know what the gift was that was hidden in this key. Although he did not yet know how to proceed from here, he found this to be an encouraging start. For the moment, however, he thought enough was enough, and let the matter go. He decided to have breakfast and then to go to town to relax and do some shopping.

The Buzzard and the Book.

The city was quite crowded, and soon this began to irritate Jonathan, who was quite fond of his rest. He decided to browse around in the quieter backstreets. There were often small stores to be found where he occasionally managed to make some nice purchases. Some time later he walked through a narrow alley and gazed enthralled at the colorful shop windows. Although there were nice things on display, he didn’t see anything worthy of his attention more than average.
Until, at the corner with another alley, his gaze was suddenly struck by a stuffed buzzard standing pontifically amidst some displayed books in a shop window. Curious, he walked up to the window, and to his dismay he saw next to the buzzard the brown-leather book with the golden inscription from his dream. How on earth was that possible? He had to know more about this. He stepped resolutely into the store, and found an old man behind an old-fashioned, wooden counter.
“What can I do for you, young man,” the man asked kindly. “Or would you like to look around a bit first?”
“Well no,” Jonathan replied. “To tell you the truth, I’m only interested in a special book I saw in the window.”
“Fine,” the man responded, stepping out from behind the counter. “When you just point me to the book in question I will grab it for you.”
At Jonathan’s direction, the man grabbed the book from the window and handed it to him. With trembling fingers Jonathan opened it. What would he discover? On the title page he found the same text as in his dream:

The Revelation of All-That-Is.
Nine Keys to Opening the Gate to Success.

Quickly he flipped through two more pages and, to his rising astonishment, saw the familiar text:

First Key
“Everything you desire is already there.
All you have to do is pick it up.”

Once again, the rest of the book appeared to consist of blank pages. Jonathan didn’t understand it at all, and looked at the bookseller questioningly.
“Do you know what’s going on here?” he asked, handing the book to the bookseller.
The man leafed through the book and handed it back to Jonathan. “I suspect that this is some kind of dummy, in which someone has tried to start writing a book. It’s a somewhat strange way to start a book, but it happens from time to time. I don’t know exactly how this ended up here, but I suppose the owner of this store thought the cover interesting enough to put in the window without paying further attention to it. I suppose you won’t be interested in it any further.”
Jonathan certainly was.. He asked the man what the price of the book was, and after looking in the back it turned out that – just like in his dream – it should cost 25 euros. Although both men thought this was an idiotic price, Jonathan decided to buy it anyway. This coincidence fascinated him greatly, and a little later he left the store with his new possession. Sitting on a park bench, he opened the book again. At the bottom of the title page it said in small letters that this was a book by ‘Publisher The Free Universe’ from Lumia. The publisher meant nothing to him, but he knew the name of the island of Lumia, and he knew it was in the far north of the country.
He thought it was a peculiar situation in which he had now ended up, and he could hardly comprehend it. However, this did not prevent him from thinking feverishly about what to do next. It soon became clear to him that there must be a mysterious connection between his dream and the discovery of the book. This simply could not be a coincidence anymore. He realized that this whole situation contained all kinds of clues to further explore the mentioned secrets of life.
He was now 35 years old and had not had the feeling of being very successful, although secretly he had wanted to be. Because of his profession as a social worker in the municipality where he lived he did have contact with many people, but he missed the depth which he would have liked so much. Actually he found the work to be no more than a glorified kind of patching, and therefore he experienced it as particularly boring and uninspiring.
In the past, in his youth, he had often dreamed of a grand and compelling existence, but after facing the necessary setbacks and obstacles, these dreams had been pushed further and further into the background. Eventually, they had faded and been relegated to a shadowy existence in the dark dungeons of his mind.
But now, through the miraculous discovery of the enigmatic book, the doors of these deep spaces were once again left ajar, and he became vaguely aware of his youthful ambition once more.
His curiosity had been definitively aroused, but he wondered how to proceed. The only concrete lead he was given was the fact that the book’s publisher was on the island of Lumia. A wild plan bubbled up in his mind. He would take vacation days and then travel to the island in search of a way to discover these nine keys. Nothing was certain – it could also just be one big joke – but here he had to find out the ins and outs no matter what.

3. The Balloonist.

Jonathan lay restlessly tossing and turning in his bed. Although he was very tired, he couldn’t sleep. It had been an exciting day.
This morning he had gotten up early and set off on his journey. After a long train ride and a stormy crossing he had finally arrived on Lumia, where a cab had taken him to the inn “The Gilded Dream” in the south of the island. There, after a warm welcome, he had taken up residence. William, the innkeeper, was a friendly, somewhat corpulent man of about 60 years of age, who wielded the sceptre over his small inn in an engaging manner. Effortlessly, he had managed not only to put Jonathan at ease, but also to make him feel extremely important, a feeling that Jonathan was not usually given very often by anyone else. During the meal, he had polled the innkeeper about the publisher he was looking for, to which the innkeeper had emphatically asked the reason for this question. After Jonathan had told him briefly about the book, without mentioning the strange way in which he had come into possession of it, the innkeeper had nodded understandingly and told him that he did not know the publisher. Then he had promised Jonathan that he would make inquiries and inform him as soon as there was any news.
Now there was nothing left to do but wait and see how things would turn out, and that was what made him lie here tossing and turning so restlessly that he couldn’t get to sleep. Finally, after another full hour of tossing and turning, he fell into a restless but uninterrupted sleep.

The first Challenge.

“Jonathan, wake up!” it sounded loudly, as there was a loud banging on the door.
Jonathan was instantly wide awake, but did not understand at all what was going on.
“What is it?” he asked in a distressed voice.
“You must get up at once. There’s someone for you who can’t wait too much longer.”
Jonathan immediately shot out of bed, hastily put on an available morning coat, and opened the door. Standing in the hallway was William with a hunted gaze in his eyes. Jonathan looked at him in amazement.
“What for goodness sake is the hurry?” he asked irritably.
“I can’t tell you that right now,” William said, “but I do know that you have to hurry up, or your chance at something beautiful will be completely gone. So dress warmly quickly, pack your rucksack with some clean clothes, toiletries and your book, if you have it with you, and come down immediately, and it will all become clear to you.”
Immediately thereafter, he left the hallway and disappeared downstairs, leaving Jonathan in fierce confusion.
Soon, however, Jonathan’s dismay gave way to curiosity, and hurriedly he got dressed, ran a washcloth over his face, and fleetingly brushed his teeth. Then he packed his backpack with the requested items, and hastily left his room to go downstairs. There he found William in the company of a large man with an enormous pointed moustache. The latter wore brown leather overalls that were molded tightly around his body. His head was adorned with a leather helmet and some sort of motorcycle goggles that he had pushed up on his forehead. The man stepped resolutely towards Jonathan and grabbed his hand, which he then swung violently up and down.
“Hello,” he roared, “I’m Otto, your tour guide for today. If you would just follow me.”
Immediately afterwards he walked away, and Jonathan knew nothing better to do than to follow him. Outside, a big surprise awaited him. There appeared to be an enormous hot air balloon in the garden. Otto went straight to it, climbed into the basket and beckoned Jonathan to follow him. Jonathan did not know what to do with this unexpected invitation. Otto, seeing his hesitation, urged him to follow anyway, and when Jonathan did not follow him either, William, who had followed them, interfered.
“Don’t you remember what you asked about yesterday, Jonathan? “he asked insistently.  “You obviously haven’t realized it, but your request is answered sooner than you thought, and now you have just the opportunity to get to know the publisher of the book.”
“But what for heaven’s sake is expected of me?” cried Jonathan in fierce despair. He no longer understood at all what was going on here.
“Simply, that you trust Otto and me, get into the basket and then let yourself be taken on a journey of discovery into the secrets of life. I promise you won’t regret it.”
Jonathan looked at William in amazement, and saw that the man was dead serious. He then turned his gaze to Otto, and when he saw the reassuring look in his eyes, he resolutely cut the knot and stepped aboard. Immediately after that William, together with a meanwhile arrived servant, loosened the ropes that had kept the balloon on the ground and the whole thing started to move.

A Broader Perspective.

The balloon took off quickly, and within a short time they were hovering high above the landscape that lay like an immense patchwork quilt below them, basking in the early morning sun. Jonathan couldn’t grasp it all anymore. He had never flown before, so he had no idea what the world looked like from above. Although he was still a little uncomfortable about the altitude they were at, he marveled at the thrill it gave him to look out over the land from such an elevated vantage point. Somehow this gave him an extraordinary sense of power that he did not recognize in any way.
“Let go of all limiting thoughts, and just surrender to the positive feelings you are sure to have now,” Otto spoke softly. “This is the beginning of your new life, and it’s good to let yourself be carried away by the inspiring energy that you are undoubtedly feeling running through you at the moment.”
Jonathan did not know exactly why, but these words touched on exactly what he already felt bubbling up deep inside him. Immediately afterwards, this fizzled out in all its ferocity and filled him with an intense sense of joy and freedom. He had never experienced this so strongly before.
“Here, have a sandwich,” Otto ordered, holding a tray of sandwiches under his nose.
Gratefully, Jonathan took a sandwich from the tray and began to munch on it.
Otto let him eat for a while, and then asked him to take a good look around. Jonathan willingly complied and became more and more fascinated by what he saw. The world that lay beneath him suddenly didn’t look as awe-inspiring as he had often experienced. Seen from above, it seemed to him that everything not only looked smaller and more puny in a literal sense, but was also easier to comprehend inside his mind. An extraordinarily strange experience.
“How do you look at that world down there now,” Otto asked suddenly, as if he had guessed Jonathan’s thoughts. “I seem to see that somehow it brings you great joy. Or am I wrong?”
“No, not at all,” Jonathan replied enthusiastically. “It’s as if this experience makes all my worries disappear. Or do you think it’s crazy for me to say this?”
“Not at all,” Otto responded eagerly. “On the contrary, I had hoped that you would experience something similar. But tell me, what else is going through you?”
“Well, actually I don’t know exactly what I could say more about this. I feel much freer than usual, and have to admit that at the moment I’m not at all worried about any future. But then again, that’s only temporary, of course. Soon, when this adventure is over, I will have both feet on the ground again and I will have to face the usual difficulties of my life. Now that I think about it, it unintentionally puts a mark on this special experience.”
“I understand,” Otto responded, “but above all, remember that you have to stay in this moment. Just let go of all those limiting thoughts for a while, and surrender completely to what you are going through right now.”
“But won’t I have to pay for that later?” asked Jonathan anxiously.
“See, that’s exactly why people like you get into trouble. They think too much about all kinds of potentially negative prospects, and in the meantime forget what happiness lies in their immediate vicinity. No, I know what you want to say. You want to call attention to all sorts of dark clouds that may lie hidden in the future for you, but I tell you, forget them, and surrender completely to the magic of this moment. Just look around you a little wider and then tell me what you see.”
Jonathan followed the suggestion, and now looked around with even greater attention. “The world suddenly seems so much more expansive,” he said after a while. “It looks just like a huge patchwork quilt punctuated by squiggly lines on which a giant hand has carelessly strewn a quantity of tiny toy houses. I continue to find it fascinating to see this,” he said.
“And what does that tell you?” insisted Otto.
That I now have a much broader perspective on the world than usual,” Jonathan answered spontaneously.
“Right,” Otto exclaimed, pulling the throttle on the burner. The burner started to blare and the balloon quickly rose to a greater height.
“And what happens to that perspective now?”
“It gets even wider.”
“Exactly. You now see the world in an even wider context, and that’s because we’ve now taken an even higher vantage point. What do you make of that?”
“I suspect you mean that I can do this with my life too,” Jonathan guessed after some thought.
“Exactly,” Otto responded to Jonathan’s surprise. “You hit the nail on the head. The way you look at the earth beneath you from this vantage point is the way you might look at everything in your life, namely from an elevated vantage point. This means that by creating more distance between you and your experiences, you get a completely different perspective. You find yourself above your experiences, as it were, instead of being in the middle of them. That makes a huge difference.”
“So now you are talking about my way of thinking. Do you also mean that the higher I raise myself above my experiences, I can also experience more possibilities in my thinking?”
“You are a quick learner, for that’s indeed what I am trying to get at. What you may not yet realise is that the higher you raise yourself above your experiences, not only will you see new possibilities, but you can also become more detached.”
I don’t understand this,” Jonathan sighed. “Could you perhaps elaborate on that a bit?”
“Of course,” declared Otto. “That’s exactly what I was already planning. Think of it this way. The further you raise yourself above your experiences, the greater the distance you are from them. And if you think that through, you will surely discover that an increase in distance always means a certain loss of contact. In other words, the increase of distance is inversely proportional to the intensity of contact. And as the intensity of your contact with a particular subject decreases, so will the intensity of your connection with it. Connection and attachment are in this case synonymous, and therefore your attachment decreases as the distance to your subject decreases. Do you understand so far?”
“I believe so,” Jonathan replied, “but please continue. It’s getting more and more interesting.”
“Very well then,” Otto resumed. “There is something special about attachment. It turns out that as it decreases, you have more and more energy at your disposal to consider other options, thus also other ways of thinking. For example, as long as you are strongly focused on one subject, you will discover that you cannot perceive what is around it, as it were. This is because the energy of your attention is too much occupied by the subject on which you are focused. What I am trying to say is that distance and focus are one and the same phenomenon. So as soon as you move up here in this balloon above the earth, you will find that your perspective widens. So, in essence, it is exactly the same as when you loosen your attention on a subject. You will get a wider perspective, and therefore see more possibilities. So you could translate this into your own life.”
“How?”
“For example, in the event that you threaten to get stuck in a particular issue. What happens then is that you have identified too much with the nature of that matter. By loosening your consciousness from that tight grip, and raising yourself above it, you will then discover that there are many more options surrounding the issue than you initially thought. By subsequently raising your consciousness still further you will discover an even greater number of possibilities. You may even discover that the problem never really existed in the first place, but that is too far for me to go into right now. By the way, have you taken the trouble to shift your gaze northward yet?”
Jonathan was momentarily taken aback by this unexpected turn of events, but willingly complied with the suggestion to look into the distance. Peering northwards, he saw the outline of an impressive mountain range.
“Hey, I didn’t know there was such an imposing mountain range here on the island,” he said in amazement. “Is that where you intend to take me?
“That was the plan.
“And what are we going to do there?”
“Now you are asking a somewhat premature question. Just wait, because it will be some time before we get there. First enjoy this wonderful experience, and then we’ll see later.”
Jonathan followed the suggestion, and soon he was again completely engrossed in the beautiful view of the mountains. These were coming nearer and nearer, and he enjoyed the view of the stark mountain peaks over which the play of sunlight and the clouds cast a rich shade of soft colors and dark shadows. However, the unfinished business of raising his consciousness continued to nag at him in the background. Finally, he could no longer contain his curiosity and asked:
“You obviously don’t want to tell me yet what we’re going to do later, so I’ll leave that question at that. But you did break off the subject of the increase in consciousness a bit abruptly. Would you tell me more about that now? You claimed, for example, that in the case of sufficient elevation it could turn out that a problem would not exist at all. I still find that somewhat implausible.”
“And yet you do. In fact, you can raise your consciousness even to the point of encompassing All-That-Is in its entirety. In fact, then you are All-That-Is. Only then there is nothing left to experience, and of course that would completely wipe out the pleasure of creating. The question is whether you really want that.”
“Now you’re suddenly taking such big steps that I don’t see any chance of following you any longer,” Jonathan responded bemusedly. “Please help me to understand, because somehow what you just said seems crucial to me.”
“That’s right,” Otto suddenly shouted loudly, “but at the moment I lack the ability to go into this further. After all, we are running out of gas and will have to make an emergency landing.”

IF YOU WANT TO READ ON