Fundamentals of the Science
of Initiation.
Lecture
by Dr. R u d o l f S t e i n e r.
Dornach, 17th of
October, 1919.
To-day I wish to speak to
you of some fundamental pieces of knowledge of the science of
initiation, which will then supply to us a kind of foundation for
that which we shall consider to-morrow and the day after to-morrow.
To-day we shall first speak of something which lies in the
consciousness of every human being, but is not grasped clearly enough
in the ordinary course of life. When we speak of such things, we
always speak of them from the standpoint of our present time, in the
sense and meaning which I have often explained to you: namely, that
knowledge is not in any way valid for all time and for every place,
but that it is only valid for a certain definite time, indeed, only
for a definite region of the earth. Thus, certain standpoints of
knowledge would be valid, for instance, for the European
civilisation, and other standpoints would be valid — let us say
— for the knowledge of the East.
Everybody knows that we
live, as it were, between two poles of our knowledge. Everyone feels
that, on the one hand, we have the knowledge gained through our
senses. A plain, unprejudiced person learns to know the world through
his senses, and is even able to sum up what he sees and hears, and,
in general, what he perceives through his senses. After all, that
which science supplies to us, in the form in which science now exists
in the Occident, is merely a summary of that which the senses convey
to us.
But everyone can feel that
there is also another kind of knowledge, and that it is not possible
to be in the full sense of the word a real human being living in the
ordinary world, unless another kind of knowledge is added to
the one which has just been characterized. And this kind of
knowledge is connected with our moral life. We do not only speak of
ideas pertaining to the knowledge of Nature, and explaining this or
that thing in Nature, we also speak of ethical ideas, ethical ideals.
We feel that they are the motives of our actions, and that we allow
them to guide us when we ourselves wish to be active in the ordinary
world. And every man will undoubtedly feel that this knowledge of the
senses, with the resulting intellectual knowledge (for, the
intellectual knowledge is merely a result, an appendix of the
knowledge transmitted by the senses) is a pole of our cognitive life
which cannot reach as far as the ethical ideas. The ethical ideas are
there, but when we pursue, for instance, natural science, we cannot
find these ethical ideas by contemplating the plant-world, the
mineral world, or by following any other branch of modern natural
sciences. The tragic element of our time consists, for instance, in
trying to discover, upon a natural-scientific basis, ideas which are
to be applied to the social sphere. If sound common sense were
adopted, this would never be possible. The ethical ideas exist as if
on another side of life. And our life is indeed under the influence
of these two streams: on the one hand, the knowledge of Nature, and
on the other hand, the ethical knowledge.
From my
“The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity”
you will know that the highest ethical
ideas required by us as human beings are given to us when we grasp
moral intuitions, and that when we begin to gain possession of these
ethical ideas, they are the foundation of our human freedom. On the
other hand, you may perhaps also know that for certain thinkers there
has always been a kind of abyss between that which is given, on the
one hand, by the knowledge of Nature, and on the other hand, by
ethical knowledge. The philosophy of Kant is based upon this abyss,
which he is unable to bridge completely. For this reason, Kant has
written a Critique of Theoretical Reason, of Pure Reason, as he calls
it, where he grapples with natural science, and where he says all
that he has to say about natural science, or the knowledge of Nature.
On the other hand, he has also written a Critique of Practical
Reason, where he speaks of ethical ideas. We might say: The whole
human life is born for him out of two roots which are completely
severed from one another, which he describes in his two chief
critical studies.
Of course, it would be
unfortunate for the human being if there were no connecting bridge
between these two poles of our soul-life. Those who earnestly pursue,
on the one hand, spiritual science, and on the other hand, earnestly
consider the tasks of our present time, must eagerly ask themselves:
Where is the bridge connecting ethical ideas and the ideas of
Nature?
To-day we shall adopt the
standpoint which I would like to characterize as a historical
standpoint, in order to come to a knowledge of this bridge. You
already know from the explanations which have recently been given
here, that in past times man's soul-constitution was essentially
different from that of a later time. The origin of Christianity
really forms a deep incision in the whole evolution of humanity. And
only if we understand what has really arisen in the evolution
of humanity through the birth of Christianity we shall understand
human reason.
That which lies behind the
rise of Christianity — not to mention Jewish history — is
the whole extent of pagan culture. Jewish culture was, after all, a
preparation for Christianity. This whole extent of pagan
culture is essentially different from our modern Christian culture.
The more we go back into time, the more we shall find that this pagan
culture had a uniform character. It was principally based upon
human wisdom. I know that it is almost offending for a modern man to
hear that, as far as wisdom is concerned, the ancients were far more
advanced than modern man; nevertheless it was so. In ancient pagan
times a wisdom extended over the earth, which was far nearer to
the origin of things than our modern knowledge, particularly
our modern natural sciences. This ancient, this primeval knowledge,
was very concrete, it was a knowledge intensively connected
with the spiritual reality of things. Something entered the human
soul through man's knowledge of the reality of things. But the
special characteristic of this ancient pagan wisdom was the fact that
the human beings obtained it in such a way (you know that they
obtained it from the Mysteries of the Initiates) that this wisdom
contained both a knowledge of Nature, and an ethical knowledge. This
extraordinarily significant truth in the history of human
evolution, this truth which I have just explained to you, is
ignored to-day only because people cannot go back to the truly
characteristic times of the ancient pagan wisdom. A historical
knowledge does not reach back so far as to enable us to grasp the
times when the human beings who looked up to the stars really
received from the stars, on the one hand, a wisdom explaining to them
in their own way the course of the stars, but on the other hand, it
also told them how they were to behave and act here upon the earth.
Metaphorically speaking, (yet it is not entirely metaphorical, but
quite objective up to a certain degree), we might say, that the
ancient Egyptians and the ancient Chaldean civilisations were, for
instance, of such a kind that men could read the laws of Nature in
the course of the stars, but in the star's course they could also
read the rules governing that which they were to do upon the
earth.
The codices of the
ancient Egyptian Pharaohs contain, for instance, rules concerning
that which was to become law. It was so that for centuries ahead that
which would later on become law was foretold prophetically.
Everything contained in these codices was read from the course
of the stars. In those ancient times there was no astronomy such as
we have it now, merely containing mathematical laws of the
movements of the stars or of the earth, but there was a knowledge of
the cosmos which was at the same time moral knowledge, ethics.
The doubtful element of
modern astrology, which does not go beyond the stage of dilettantism,
is that people no longer feel that its contents can only be a
complete whole if the laws discovered in it are at the same time
moral laws for the human beings. This is something extraordinarily
significant.
In the course of human
evolution, the essence of that primeval science was lost. This lies
at the foundation of the fact that certain Secret Schools
— but the schools of an earnest character have really ceased to
exist at the end of the 18th century — and even certain Secret
Schools of the Occident, have again and again pointed back to this
lost science, to the lost Word. As a rule, those who came later no
longer knew what was meant by the expression “Word”.
Nevertheless, this conceals a certain fact. In Saint-Martin's books
we may still find an echo showing that up to the end of the 18th
century it was very clearly felt that in ancient times men
possessed a spiritual wisdom which they obtained simultaneously with
their knowledge of Nature. Their spiritual wisdom also contained
their moral and ethical wisdom; this had already disappeared in
the eight centuries preceding the rise of Christianity. We may even
say: Ancient Greek history is, essentially, the gradual loss of
primeval wisdom.
If we study the
philosophers before Socrates, namely Heraclitus, Thales,
Anaximenes, Anaxagoras, the philosophers of the tragic epoch, as
Nietzsche called them — I have dealt with them in my book
“Riddles of Philosophy”,
and have tried to give as good
as possible a picture, from an external standpoint — if we
study these philosophers (but the external writings tell us very
little about them), we shall find again and again that the passages
which have remained like oases in a desert, re-echo a great,
encompassing wisdom and knowledge which existed in the remote past of
human evolution. The words of Heraclitus, of Thales, Anaxagoras
and Anaximenes, appear to us as if humanity had, as it were,
forgotten its primeval wisdom and only remembered occasionally some
fragmentary passages. The few passages of Thales, Anaxagoras, of the
seven Greek sages, etc., which have been handed down to us
traditionally, appear to us like fragmentary recollections.
In Plato we still encounter
a kind of clear consciousness of this primeval wisdom; in
Aristotle everything has been transformed into human
wisdom.
And among the Stoics and
Epicureans this gradually disappears. The ancient primeval knowledge
only remains like an old legend. This is how matters stood with the
Greeks.
The Romans — and they
were by Nature a prosaic, matter-of-fact nation — even denied
that this primeval knowledge had any meaning at all, and they
transformed everything into abstractions. The course which I
have just described to you in regard to the primeval knowledge, was
necessary for the evolution of humanity. Man would never have
reached freedom in the course of his development, had the primeval
wisdom, which came to him indirectly through atavistic
clairvoyance, remained in its original intensity and
significance. Nevertheless, this primeval knowledge was
connected with everything which could reach man from divine heights
in the form, I might say, of moral impulses. This had to be
rescued. The moral impulse had to be rescued for man.
Among the many things which
we have already explained in regard to the Mystery of Golgotha we
have also explained that the divine principle which descended to the
earth trough the man, Jesus of Nazareth, contained the moral
power which was little by little dispersed and cleft through the
waning and gradual dying out of the ancient primeval wisdom. It is
indeed so — although this may seem paradoxical to a modern man
— that we can say: Once upon a time there was an old primeval
wisdom. Man's moral power and moral wisdom were connected with
primeval knowledge; this was contained in it as an integrant. The
ancient primeval wisdom then lost its power, it could no longer be
the bearer of a moral impulse
This moral impulse had, as
it were, to be taken under the wing of the Mystery of Golgotha. And
for the civilisation of the Occident, the further continuation
was the Christ Impulse which has arisen from the Mystery of Golgotha
containing that which had remained as a kind of moral extract from
the ancient primeval wisdom.
It is very strange to
follow, for instance, that which Occidental civilisation contains in
the form of true science, true wisdom, up to the 8th or 9th century
after Christ. Try to read the description of Occidental wisdom up to
the 8th and 9th century, as contained in my book,
“Riddles of Philosophy”,
and you will see that, after all, this course of
development contains nothing of what may be designated as knowledge,
in our modern meaning. For this arises towards the middle of the 15th
century, at the time of Galilei. Until that time, knowledge has
really been handed down traditionally from the primeval wisdom of the
past. It is no longer a wisdom gained through inner intuition, no
longer a primeval wisdom experienced inwardly, but an external wisdom
handed down traditionally. I have often told you the story of
Galilei, the story which is not an anecdote, namely, how Galilei had
to make a great effort in order to convince a friend of the truth of
his statements. Like all the other people of the Middle Ages who
pursued wisdom, this friend was accustomed to accept what was
contained in the books of Aristotle, or in the other traditional
works. Everything which was taught at that time was traditional. That
which was contained in the books of Aristotle was handed down
traditionally. And the learned friend of Galilei agreed with
Aristotle that the nerves go out from the heart. Galilei endeavoured
to explain to him that according to the knowledge he had gained by
studying a corpse, he was obliged to say something else: namely, that
in the human being the nerves go out from the head, or the brain.
This Aristotelian thinker could not believe it. Galilei then
led him to the corpse, showed him that the nerves in fact go out from
the brain and not from the heart, and felt sure that his friend would
now have to believe what he saw with his own eyes. But his friend
said: “Indeed, this appears to be true; I can see with my own
eyes that the nerves proceed from the brain. But Aristotle says the
opposite, namely that the nerves proceed from the heart. If I have to
choose between the evidence of the senses in Nature and Aristotle's
statements, I prefer to believe in Aristotle, and not in
Nature!” This is not an anecdote, but a true occurrence. After
all, in our time we simply experience the same thing, only the other
way round.
You see, at that time all
knowledge was traditional. A new knowledge only began with the time
of Galilei, Copernicus, and so forth. But throughout these
centuries the moral impulse was borne by the Christian impulse.
It was essentially connected with the religious element. This
was not the case in pagan times. The pagans realised that when they
obtained cosmic wisdom, they obtained at the same time a moral
impulse.
A new impulse arose towards
the middle of the 15th century, an impulse which completely severed
the connection with everything that existed in the form of ancient
wisdom, even though this merely existed traditionally. It is
very interesting to see the passion with which those who brought to
the surface this new science — for instance, Giordano
Bruno — abuse everything which existed in the form of
old traditional wisdom. Bruno almost begins to rave when he rails
against the recollections of ancient wisdom. Something entirely new
arises. In fact, we shall be far from understanding human
evolution if we are unable to look upon this new element which thus
arises, as a beginning.
We may say (a drawing is
made on the blackboard): If we indicate, here, the Mystery of
Golgotha ... the moral impulse will continue from there, but what was
that which the Mystery of Golgotha carried from an older into a more
recent time? What was it, in reality, while it was being borne in
that direction? It was an end. The more we progress, the more
the ancient wisdom disappears, even in its traditional form. We
may say that it continues to drip like water, in the form of
traditional knowledge; but a new element, a beginning, arises
with the 15th century.
Indeed, we have not
advanced very far in this new direction. The few centuries which have
elapsed since the middle of the 15th century have brought us some
natural science, but we have not progressed far since that
beginning.
What is this new wisdom?
You see, it is a wisdom which, to begin with, in the form in which it
has appeared, has this peculiarity: Contrary to the ancient
pagan wisdom, it does not contain a moral impulse. You may study as
much as possible of this new wisdom, of this Galilei wisdom —
mineralogy, geology, physics, chemistry, biology, etc. etc., —
but you will never be able to draw a moral impulse out of this
knowledge of Nature.
If modern people think that
they can establish sociology upon the foundation of natural sciences,
this is a tremendous illusion. For it is impossible to squeeze out of
natural science, such as it exists to-day, that kind of knowledge
which can be an ideal for human actions. For natural science is
altogether in an elementary stage, and we can only hope that by
developing more and more, it will again come to the point of
containing, as natural science, moral impulses.
If the knowledge of Nature
were to continue only in accordance with its own form, it would not
be able to produce moral impulses out of its own nature. A new
super-sensible knowledge will have to develop by the side of this
knowledge of Nature. This super-sensible knowledge will then contain
once more the rays of a moral will. And when the beginning which was
made towards the middle of the 15th century will have reached its end
at the conclusion of the evolution of the earth, then super-sensible
knowledge will flow together with the knowledge of the senses,
and a unity will arise out of this.
When the old pagan sage, or
the follower of pagan wisdom received pagan wisdom from his initiate
in the Mysteries, he received at one and the same time a
knowledge of Nature, a cosmic knowledge, an anthropogenesis and
a moral science, and this was simultaneously a moral impulse.
All this was one.
To-day it is necessary to
admit that we obtain on the one hand, a knowledge of Nature, and on
the other hand, super-sensible knowledge. This knowledge of Nature is,
as such, devoid of moral impulses. Moral impulses must be
gained through a super-sensible knowledge. Since the social impulses
must, after all, be moral impulses, no true social knowledge, and not
even a sum of social impulses can be imagined, unless man rises to
super-sensible knowledge.
It is important that modern
man should realise that he must strike out a new course in regard to
social science; he must tread a different path than that of natural
science. But I am at the same time obliged to draw your attention to
a strange paradox: — I have often explained to you here that
the deepest truths of the science of initiation appear strange to the
ordinary every-day consciousness, may even appear crazy to an extreme
materialist, but in our time it is necessary to grow acquainted with
this wisdom which appears so paradoxical to-day. For in our time many
things which appear foolish to men are wisdom before God. It would be
a good thing if this bible passage were to be considered a little by
those who brush aside Anthroposophy with a supercilious smile,
or who criticize it in a vile way. They should consider that what
they look upon as foolishness may be “wisdom before the
Gods”. It would be a very good thing if several people —
and by “several” I mean many — particularly those
who go to church with their prayer book and revile Anthroposophy,
were to insist less upon their proud faith and look more closely into
that which is really contained in the Christian faith. In our time it
is necessary to become acquainted with several things which appear
paradoxical. You see, two things are possible to-day. Someone may
become acquainted with the natural science of to-day (I shall now
characterize these two things rather sharply), he may, for instance,
take up the facts supplied by the science of chemistry, physics,
biology, etc. He may study diligently and eagerly the Theory of
Evolution which has arisen from the so-called Darwinism. If he
studies all this he may become a materialist, as far as his world
conception based on knowledge is concerned. Indeed, he will become a
materialist; this cannot be denied. Since men, as it were, so
quickly arrive at an opinion, they become materialists if they
give themselves up wholly to the external knowledge of Nature,
according to the intentions of some of their contemporaries. But it
is also possible to do something else. In addition to that which
physics, chemistry, mineralogy, botany, geology, biology, offer, in
addition to that which these sciences teach, we may also direct our
attention to what we do in the physical laboratory, to our behaviour
during an experiment; we may watch carefully how we behave in the
chemical laboratory and what we do there; we may watch the way
in which we investigate plants, animals, and their evolution.
Goethe's knowledge of
Nature is chiefly based upon the fact that he has deeply studied the
way in which others have come to their knowledge. The greatness of
Goethe depends upon this very fact, namely, that he has deeply
occupied himself with the way in which others have attained to their
knowledge. And it is very, very significant to penetrate really into
the essence and spirit of an essay by Goethe, such as
“The Experiment as Mediator between Object and Subject”.
Here we may
see how Goethe carefully follows the way in which phenomena of Nature
are handled. What we may call the method of investigation, this is
something which he has studied with the greatest attention. If you
read my
“Introduction to Goethe's Natural-Scientific Writings”
[This is probably,
Goethean Science.
– e.Ed],
you will find what great results Goethe has reached
by thus pursuing the natural-scientific method.
In a certain way, that
which Goethe has done can be developed further for the achievements
of the 19th century and up to the 20th century ... but Goethe was no
longer able to do this.
I therefore state: Two
things are possible. Let us keep to this, to begin with. We remain by
the results which natural science supplies, or else we investigate
the attitude needed in order to arrive at these natural scientific
results. Let us keep to what we have said in regard to the knowledge
of Nature; let us now observe the human striving after knowledge from
another standpoint.
You know that beside
natural science there is also a spiritual knowledge; in the form of
Anthroposophy, the knowledge of man, we may pursue cosmology,
anthropology, etc., in such a way that they lead to the kind of
results described, for instance, in my
“Occult Knowledge”.
[This is probably,
Occult Science.
– e.Ed],
There, we may find positive knowledge
pointing to the spiritual world. Just as we obtain positive
knowledge in natural science, in mineralogy, geology, etc., so we
have, here, a positive knowledge referring to the spiritual world. In
our anthroposophical movement it was particularly important for me to
spread also this kind of positive knowledge concerning the spiritual
world in the various books which I have written. Now we may also
tackle things in such a way that we observe chiefly the way in
which these things are done, and do not merely aim at obtaining
knowledge. We observe how a person describes something, how he rises
from external observation to inner observation; how he arrives to a
higher spiritual conception, not through scientific investigations in
the laboratory, in the clinic, in the astronomical observatory, but
through his inner soul-development, along a mystical path. This would
be parallel to the observation of the natural-scientific
method, of the handling, of the way in which things are done. Also
here we have this twofold element: to watch the results, and
to watch the way in which our soul comes to these results.
Let us take hypothetically
something which may seem rather paradoxical. Let us suppose that
someone were to pursue the natural-scientific methods, like Goethe:
he will certainly not become a materialist, but will undoubtedly
accept a spiritual world-conception. An infallible way of overcoming
materialism in our modern time is to have in insight into the
natural-scientific methods of investigation. In the
natural-scientific sphere, men become materialists only because
they do not observe, because they insufficiently observe the way in
which they carry on their investigations. They are satisfied
with results, with what the clinic, the laboratory, the observatory
supply. They do not progress as far as Goetheanism, i.e. the
observation of their manner of research; for those who allow
themselves to be influenced by the natural-scientific manner of
contemplating the world and of handling things in order to reach
knowledge, will at least become idealists, and probably
spiritualists, if they only proceed far enough.
If we now try to avoid
reaching the positive results of spiritual science, if we find it
boring to enter into the details of spiritual science, and only like
to hear again and again how man's soul becomes mystical, if we
concentrate our chief attention upon the methods leading to the
spiritual sphere, this will be the greatest temptation for really
becoming materialists. The greatest temptation for becoming
materialists is to ignore the concrete results of spiritual science
and to emphasize continually the importance of mystical
research, mystical soul-concentration, and the methods of
entering the spiritual world.
You see this is a paradox.
Those who observe natural science, natural research, become
spiritualists; those who disdain to reach a real spiritual knowledge
and who always speak of mysticism and of how spiritual
knowledge is gained, are exposed to the great temptation of becoming
more than ever materialistic. This should be known to-day. We cannot
do without the knowledge of such things.
To-day we have monistic
societies. Those who give themselves the air of leaders in these
monistic societies spread a very superficial world-conception. They
condense the external materialistic results of natural science
to a superficial world-conception. This is so easy for modern men who
do not wish to make a great effort, who prefer to go to the
“movies” rather than to other places, and consequently
prefer to accept a kind of cinema-science — for
materialism is nothing else — they prefer this to something
which must be worked out inwardly. These leaders of monistic
societies therefore supply a superficial materialism.
Undoubtedly they are, at least for a time, temporarily noxious
creatures, for they spread errors. It is not good if they flourish,
for of course they turn the heads of people in a materialistic way.
Nevertheless they are the less dangerous elements, for to begin with
they are generally honest people, but this honesty does not protect
them against this spreading of errors; however, they are for the most
part frankly honest and their errors will be overcome. They will only
have a temporary significance.
But there are other people
who systematically, knowingly, refuse to lead man towards the
concrete positive results of spiritual-science. Indeed, they nourish
the aversion which exists to-day through a certain love of ease, the
aversion of penetrating into the positive concrete results of
spiritual science. You know that the things described in my
“Occult Science”
must be studied several years if we wish
to understand them, they are not comfortable for a modern man, who
may indeed send his son to the university, if he is to become a
chemical scientist; nevertheless, if he is to recognize and grasp
heaven and earth in a spiritual way, he expects him to do this
in a twinkle, at least in one evening, and from every lecture on the
super-sensible worlds he expects to have the whole sum of cosmic
wisdom. Concrete results of a positive spiritual research are
uncomfortable for most men, and this aversion is made use of by
certain personalities of the present time who persuade men that they
do not need these things, that it is not necessary to pursue the
positive concrete details of spiritual facts. “What is
this talk of the higher hierarchies which must first be known? What
is this talk of Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth, Jupiter, Venus, Vulcan
etc.? All this is unnecessary.” They will tell you: “If
you concentrate deeply, if your soul becomes quite mystical, you
shall reach the God within you”. They will tell you these
things, give general indications on the connection of the material
and the super-sensible world. They nourish man's aversion to
penetrate into the concrete spiritual world. Why do they do this?
Because apparently, apparently they wish to spread a spiritual
mentality, but in reality they aim at something else: Along this
path, more than ever, they seek to produce materialism. For this
reason the leaders of the monistic societies are less harmful. But
the others who so often spread mysticism to-day, and who always speak
of all kinds of mystical things, they are those who truly foster
materialism, who foster it in a most refined way. They put into the
heads of men that one or the other way leads into the spiritual
world, and they avoid speaking about it concretely. They chiefly
speak in general phrases and if they remain victorious they will
undoubtedly succeed in making the third generation entirely
materialistic. To-day, the more certain and also more refined way
leading into materialism is to transmit mysticism
traditionally, a mysticism which despises to penetrate into positive
spiritual-scientific results. Many things which appear to form part
of the spiritual literature of to-day foster materialism far more
strongly than, for instance, the books of Ernst Häckel.
You see, these things are
uncomfortable to hear, because in setting them before men we strongly
appeal to their power of discernment, but men do not wish to listen
to this appeal to their power of discernment. They are much more
satisfied if every kind of mystical nonsense stimulates an inner lust
of the soul. This is why there are so many opponents,
particularly of those efforts which to-day honestly pursue
spiritual life by disdaining to approach men with a shallow mysticism
of a general nature. True spiritual science arouses opposition. In
the present time there are numerous people and communities who do not
in any way wish that a true spiritual regeneration and
elevation should take hold of humanity, and who make use of the fact
that materialism is undoubtedly festered if they speak to men
of mysticism in general terms. They make use of this fact. For this
reason they wage war to the knife where they encounter honest
paths which are meant to lead into spiritual science.
I have thus characterized
an extensive literature which exists to-day. In reality everyone who
takes up a mystical book, no matter of what kind, should appeal
strongly to his own judgment. This is strictly necessary. For
this reason we should not be led astray by the fact that the many
pseudo-mystical scribbles of our present time seem to be so easily
accessible. Of course, people will easily understand us if we tell
them, for instance: “You only need to penetrate deeply into
your inner being and God will be within you; your God whom you only
find by treading your own path; no one can show you this path because
every other man speaks of another God”, or similar stuff.
To-day you will find this in many books, and it is described in a
most tempting and misleading manner.
I would like you to take to
heart these things very deeply. For that which is to be reached
through our anthroposophical movement can only be reached through the
fact that you are at least a small number of people who strive to
cultivate the characterized power of discernment; it would be fatal
for humanity if no effort were made to develop this power of
discernment. To-day we must try to stand firmly on our feet, if
we do not wish to lose our foothold in the midst of the confusion and
chaos of the present. We may often ask to-day after the cause of so
much confusion in humanity. But we can almost touch these causes. We
may find them in insignificant facts, but we must be able to judge
these little facts on the right way.
It is uncomfortable to see
this immediately, in the many forms in which it exists on all sides.
Many grotesque paradoxes can be found not only in rather
loathsome places, but also in the modern life of humanity. They
undoubtedly exist also in the modern life of humanity. And it is
necessary to-day to strive to obtain a clear understanding, an
understanding as sharp as a blade, if we wish to gain a firm
foothold. This is the essential thing.
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