106. EL, Frankfurt, 3-10-'12
The
most important part of esoteric life is our exercises, through which
we gradually work our way up into the spiritual world. The way we do
them and our accompanying attitude is important as we work with
higher worlds and beings.
We
should have no greed for spiritual knowledge, but a mood should
spread out in us like we feel in compassion and moral actions.
Otherwise an esoteric is in great danger of becoming morally worse in
exoteric life than he was before. That's why accessory exercises
for the strengthening of intellectual and moral qualities are always
demanded in addition to the actual meditations.
Another
danger lies in wait for an esoteric in connection with the karma that
he's trying to control and make good. Here one almost always
finds that the one working intensively on his inner life becomes
careless with respect to outer karmic phenomena and conditions.
Previous karmic mistakes that an esoteric has become burdened with
and that then between death and rebirth have given him a strong urge
to make them good put him in situations and bring him in contact with
people so that he can fulfill his karmic obligations towards them. In
normal exoteric development, karma would unwind slowly or become
partially worked out.
If a
pupil is working at his esoteric development too much and does not
pay attention to the outer situations that make up his destiny, then
karma breaks in on him And what otherwise takes place in years or in
various incarnations must now work itself out in a concentrated way
with severe upheavals. Here one can get to the edge of despair and
can also wreak havoc on one's surroundings and draw them into
the karmic eruption. But even in the simplest initial exercises he
has the consolation that there's forces that hold and support
him also. We may and should always think of this.
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