322. By now we have obtained our first glimpse of the "living being's" profound mystery and have seen that it constitutes an indissoluble interaction of three great basic principles, which again, through this interaction, become an unshakeable unit or "triune principle". On account of this interaction, the principle, in the shape of a "living being", is enabled to bring forth "temporal" or "mortal" phenomena through which it can announce or reveal its eternal existence and divine identity as the Lord of Life and all creation.
      As the I can, therefore, only make known its existence and consciousness through the reactions of substance or matter and these reactions must necessarily be finite or temporal, and moreover, as only these reactions can be experienced directly, it follows that everything that can be sensed directly is merely an experience of things finite or temporal. No wonder, then, that the I itself and the eternal principles of life are remote for a whole series of people who are still at a stage where they are unable to acquire indirect experience of the eternal facts, for it is the purpose of direct temporal experience to give this to the individual. That people of this category deny the immortal, eternal nature of their own I and every eternal factor connected to it, is only to be expected. Furthermore, this analysis of the eternal nature of the I, as roughly outlined here, is not intended to constitute satisfactory proof for that category of people, but on the contrary is only meant to be a provisional basis for mature and definitely well-advanced investigators. For a more thorough description the reader is referred to a special analysis of the subject included later in "Livets Bog".
      So far, then, we have worked out only a provisional basis for, or appraisal of, the deepest cause of the creation – that is, the release of energy or the cosmic-chemical process – which all matter in the Universe displays. We will proceed to a direct analysis of these substances or materials, having now obtained both a preliminary glimpse of a "cosmic chemist" causing these reactions in substances, and the knowledge that behind every release of energy there is a "living being". And this is so regardless of whether it is the depths of the ocean or the heights of a mountain, whether a profound abyss or eternal snow, whether it is the howling of the storm or the stillness of a calm sea, whether it is hurrying clouds or immovable rocks; it is just the same whether it is the fiery core of the sun or the frozen seas of the poles, the flowery profusion of a meadow or the desolate hills of the desert – for all these phenomena, their form, colouring, consistency and the whole of their manifestation are cosmic-chemical processes, the results of consciousness, thought and will in just the same way as are all those realities produced by Man such as houses, machines, ships, art, literature and so forth. Nothing can come about except as effects of these two pre-existent principles: the "divine Something" and its "creative power". These two principles are unfailingly present in all that can be sensed and in all that can be seen. Furthermore, to the advanced observer they reveal themselves just as much in minerals as in flesh and blood.