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Rudolf Steiner e.Lib
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An Outline of Occult Science
Rudolf Steiner e.Lib Document
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An Outline of Occult Science
COGNITION OF THE HIGHER WORLDS. INITIATION.
The object of meditation on the previously characterized symbolic
mental images and feelings is, correctly speaking, the development of
the higher organs of perception within the human astral body. They are
created from the substance of this astral body. These new organs of
observation open up a new world, and in this new world man becomes
acquainted with himself as a new ego. The new organs of observation
are to be distinguished from the organs of the physical sense world
through the fact of their being active organs. Whereas eyes and ears
remain passive, permitting light and sound to act upon them, the
soul-spirit organs of perception are continually active while
perceiving and they seize upon their objects and facts, as it were, in
full consciousness. This results in the feeling that soul-spirit
cognition is the act of uniting with the corresponding facts, is
really a living within them. The soul-spirit organs that
are being individually developed may, by way of comparison, be called
lotus flowers, according to the forms which they present
imaginatively to supersensible consciousness. (Granted, it must be
clear that such a designation has nothing more to do with the case
than the expression chamber has to do with the case when
we speak of the chamber of the heart.) Through quite
definite methods of inner meditation the astral body is affected in
such a way that one or another of the soul-spirit organs, one or
another of the lotus flowers, is formed. After all that
has been described in this book it ought to be superfluous to
accentuate the fact that these organs of observation are
not to be imagined as something that, in the mental representation of
its sense-image, is a picture of its reality. These organs
are supersensible and consist of a definitely formed soul activity;
they exist only as far and as long as this soul activity is practiced.
The existence of these organs in the human being produces nothing of a
sensory character any more than human thinking produces some sort of a
physical vapor. Whoever insists on visualizing the
supersensory as something sensory becomes involved in
misunderstandings. In spite of the superfluity of this remark, it is
made here because again and again there are those who accept the
supersensory as a fact, but who, in their thoughts, desire only what
is sensory, and because again and again there appear opponents of
supersensory cognition who believe that the spiritual researcher
speaks of lotus flowers as though they were delicate,
physical structures. Every correct meditation that is made in regard
to imaginative cognition has its effect upon one or another organ. (In
my book, Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment, certain
methods of meditation, and exercises that affect one or another of the
organs, are outlined.) Proper training sets up the several exercises
of the student of the spiritual and arranges them to follow one
another so that the organs are able to develop correspondingly, either
singly, in groups, or consecutively. In connection with this
development the spiritual student must have great patience and
endurance. Anyone having only the measure of patience possessed, as a
rule, by most human beings through the ordinary relationships of life
will find that this does not suffice. For it takes a long time, often
a very long time, before the organs are sufficiently developed to
permit their employment by the spiritual student in perceiving the
spiritual world. This is the moment when something occurs for him that
may be called illumination, in contrast to the preparation or
purification consisting of the exercises that develop the organs. (We
speak of purification, because the corresponding exercises purify the
student in a certain sphere of his inner life of all that springs only
from the sensory world of observation.) It may happen that the
student, even before his actual illumination occurs, may experience
repeatedly flashes of light coming from a higher world. He
should accept such experiences gratefully. Through them he can already
become a witness for the spiritual world. But he should not waver if
this does not occur during this period of preparation, which may
perhaps seem to him altogether too long. If he exhibits any impatience
whatever because he does not yet see anything, he has not
yet gained the right attitude toward a higher world. This attitude can
only be grasped by someone for whom the exercises performed in his
training can be, as it were, an end in themselves. These exercises
are, in truth, work performed on the soul-spirit nature, that is to
say, on the student's own astral body, and although he sees
nothing, he may feel that he is working on his
soul-spirit nature. If, however, one forms a definite opinion right at
the beginning of what one actually expects to see, one
will not have this feeling. Then one will consider as nothing what in
truth is of immeasurable significance. But one should be subtly
observant of everything one experiences during the exercises and that
is so fundamentally different from all experiences in the sense world.
One will then certainly notice that one's astral body, upon which one
is working, is not a neutral substance, but that in it there lives a
totally different world of which one knows nothing in one's life of
the senses. Higher beings are working upon the astral body, just as
the outer physical-sensory world works upon the physical body, and one
encounters this higher life in one's own astral body if one does not
close oneself to it. If someone repeatedly says to himself, I
perceive nothing! then, in most cases, he has imagined that
spiritual perception must take place in this or that manner, and
because he does not perceive what he imagines he should see, he says,
I see nothing!
If the student has acquired the right attitude toward the exercises of
spiritual training, they will constitute something for him that he
loves more and more for its own sake. He then knows that through the
practice itself he stands in a world of soul and spirit, and with
patience and serenity he awaits what will result. This attitude may
arise in the consciousness of the student most favorably in the
following words, I will do everything that is proper in the way
of exercises, and I know that just as much will come to me at the
proper time as is important for me. I do not demand it impatiently,
but I am ever ready to receive it.
It is not valid to object that the spiritual student must thus
grope about in the dark, perhaps for an immeasurably long time; for he
can only know clearly that he is on the right path in his exercises
when the results appear. It is untrue that only results can
bring knowledge of the correctness of the exercises. If the student
takes the right attitude toward them, he finds that the satisfaction
he draws from the practice gives him the assurance that what he is
doing is right; he does not have to wait for the results. Correct
practice in the sphere of spiritual training calls forth satisfaction
that is not mere satisfaction, but knowledge that is to say, the
knowledge that he is doing something which convinces him that he is
making progress in the right direction. Every spiritual student may
have this knowledge at every moment, provided he is subtly attentive
to his experiences. If he does not employ this attention then the
experiences escape him, as is the case with a pedestrian who, lost in
thought, does not see the trees on both sides of the road, although he
would see them were he to direct his attention to them. It is not at
all desirable that a result be hastened different from the one that
must always occur from correct practice. For this result might easily
be only the smallest part of what should actually appear. In regard to
spiritual development a partial success is often the reason for a
strong retardation of the complete success. The movement among such
forms of spiritual life that correspond to the partial success dulls
the sensitivity in regard to the influences of the forces that lead to
higher stages of evolution, and what we may have gained by having
peered into the spirit world is only an illusion, for this
peering cannot furnish the truth, but only a mirage.
Last Modified: 07-Oct-2024
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