I. A Retrospect.
IT
SEEMS
WELL,
that on resuming our activities in
the Berlin Group we should look back for a little at what has passed
through our souls since our work began at this time last year.
You will remember
that about a year ago on the occasion of the General Conference of
the German Section, I lectured on the
“Sphere of the Bodhisattvas.”
With this lecture we introduced to the world a
subject that principally occupied us in our Group-meetings,
throughout the following Winter our studies were associated with the
Christ-problem, more especially in its connection with the Gospel of
Matthew. We have carried these studies further in many ways,
particularly in connection with the Gospels of John and of Luke, and
when dealing with them we indicated that at some future date we hoped
to go more deeply into this Christ-problem in a course of lectures to
be associated mainly with the Gospel of Mark.
These studies of the
Christ-problem did not consist merely in giving explanations of the
Gospels. We spoke most fully, most radically, of what Spiritual
Science had to say concerning the events that took place in
Palestine. It has to be explained that there are no external,
historical records dealing with these events. What is of the deepest
importance in the accounts of the Event of Christ is not found in any
book or record, but it stands in the eternal spiritual records, and
can be deciphered by clairvoyant consciousness in the Akashic
Chronicle. We have often made known to you what has been revealed to
us there. Our position towards the Gospels is this: we make known
what spiritual investigation tells us, and then we compare this with
the events related in the Gospels or in other parts of the New
Testament. In every case we found that we first learnt to read these
documents aright, because before reading them we had penetrated to
the secrets connected with the Events of Palestine; that it is
precisely because we had investigated these events without having
been prejudiced through having previously read any records concerning
them, that our appreciation, I may say our reverence, for them was so
greatly enhanced.
When we look not only
to the nearest, the narrowest and most fleeting interests of our
community, but when we recognise that the whole development of modern
culture longs for a new understanding of the documents dealing with
Christianity, we feel we are summoned by spiritual science not only
to satisfy our own understanding regarding the Events of Palestine,
but also to translate what we have to say concerning them into
present day language for the sake of all humanity. In order to do
this it is not enough that we should confine ourselves to what the
present century has contributed towards an understanding of the
problem and the figure of Christ. If this satisfied present day
demands for knowledge there would not be so many who are, incapable
of harmonising their desire for truth with what is taught in
Christian circles and has been accepted for centuries, but which
contradicts in one way or another what has been imparted to us
concerning the Events of Palestine. All this shows that a new
understanding and new conclusions with regard to Christian truths are
necessary to the education of to-day.
Now among many other
means that aid us in deciphering Christian truths there is one that
is specially fruitful in our field of research. It consists in our
being able to extend our vision, and also our world of feeling and
perception beyond the horizon which has limited man's view of
the spiritual world in past centuries. How our horizon can be
extended can he put before you very simply and intimately in a few
words.
In Goethe, to take
one of the greatest minds of western civilisation, we have, as we all
know, the mind of a Titan; and many of our studies have shown us how
deeply the spiritual view entered into his personality. These studies
have led us to know how we can rise to spiritual heights by sharing
in the composition of Goethe's soul. But however well we may
know Goethe, however deeply we may enter into what he has to give us,
there is one thing we do not find in him, and this we must
have if our vision is to he widened in the right way and our horizon
expanded to satisfy our most urgent spiritual needs. Nowhere do we
find in Goethe any indication that the things we are able to know
to-day, dawned in him. These things can become fruitful for us when
we accept them. They are ideas concerning man's spiritual
development, the reception of which first became possible in the
nineteenth century through the liberation of certain spiritual
documents containing the fruits (Errungenschaften) of oriental life.
From these we receive many ideas that in no way prevent our
understanding the problem of Christ, but may, if rightly received,
actually lead us to a true and full appreciation of Christ Jesus.
Therefore I believe that a study of the Christ-problem cannot be
introduced better than by a careful explanation of the mission of
those great spiritual individuals who, from time to time, have made a
deep impression on evolution, and are described by the name
“Bodhisattva,” a name derived from oriental
philosophy.
Ideas dealing with
the Bodhisattvas have not existed for any length of time in the
spiritual life of the West, and it is only when we realise what these
beings are that we are able to rise to a true understanding of what
the Christ has been, is, and can continue to be to mankind.
From this you see how
wide is the circle of spiritual development that has to become
fruitful to man before he really understands what it is so necessary
he should understand concerning the education, culture, and spiritual
life within which he lives. From another point of view it is
important that we cast our spiritual eyes, when this is possible,
over recent centuries and note the difference between a man at the
turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and one of a century
earlier; that we realise how very little was known in Europe a
hundred years ago of Buddha and Buddhism. This last, if not actually
the aim of our endeavours is the impulse and also the object of our
present studies, and gives tone to the feeling that fills our souls
when stirred by its great spiritual truths. The thing that matters
most is not what one or another desires to know, but the warmth of
feeling, the power of perception, the nobility of will that rises
within our souls when the great truths of humanity strike these
souls. More important in our Group than the words themselves is the
tone and the waves of feeling that are present when certain words
ring through space. These feelings and perceptions are of many kinds.
The most important of them that should rise in our souls is that of
reverence; such reverence as must needs develop in us towards the
knowledge of great spiritual truths; the feeling that the nature of
these great truths is such that we must approach them in humble
reverence; that we cannot think to grasp such mighty facts with any
hurriedly acquired ideas or with a few quickly won conceptions!
I have often made use
of the example that we cannot depict a tree graphically by making a
picture of it from one side only, but we must walk around it and draw
it from various sides. Only by combining these different pictures do
we gain a general impression of what the tree is like. This
comparison should impress on our souls the way to approach great
spiritual facts. We cannot make progress in any real or apparent
knowledge of the highest things if we view them from one side only.
Whether absolute truth regarding the appearance of anything can or
cannot be reached, we should all the same never lose the humble
feeling that all our ideas are acquired from one point of view only.
When filled with this emotion we gladly and willingly take into
ourselves feelings and perceptions from any side that enables us to
illumine the great facts of existence from the most varied
directions. The age in which we live makes this necessary, and in our
time the need will grow ever greater for observing things from every
possible side. Therefore we no longer shut ourselves off from other
opinions, other paths leading to the highest things, that may differ
from those of our own civilisation. Indeed we have endeavoured in
recent years, within what Western cultural development had to offer,
to uphold those principles that lead to true humility in respect of
knowledge. I have never ventured (and indeed this is deeply impressed
on my soul, for audacity was never possible in this connection) to
present a system or a survey of those great events comprised within
the term — the “Christ-Problem.” I have always said:
“We approach this event now from one point of view,”
and again, “We approach it now from another point of
view,” and have always insisted that the problem is not thereby
exhausted, but that our one desire is to carry on the work calmly and
patiently.
The reason for
studying the different Gospels is that it enables us to consider the
Christ-problem from four points of view, and we find in fact that the
four Gospels do present us with these four view points, and that in
them the maxim is set before us: — Thou shalt not approach this
— the mightiest problem — hurriedly, or view it from one
side; it must be approached from the four spiritual directions of the
heavens at least, and when thou hast approached it from these four
heavenly directions which can he named after the four evangelists
— Matthew, Mark, Luke and John — thou canst then hope it
may gradually draw nearer and nearer to thee. And it will approach
thee, so that thou needst never say of thyself, thou art cut off from
the greatest of all truths without which the human soul, in its
inmost depth, cannot live, neither shalt thou say that any one form
of truth which thou hast been able to grasp is the whole truth.
Thus all our studies
of the past Winter were intended gradually to arouse a feeling of
intellectual modesty. In fact, without such a feeling we cannot
advance in spiritual life. Incidentally, everything has been done in
these studies to impress repeatedly on you the first requirements for
progress in spiritual knowledge, and no one who has followed
attentively the, lectures given here week by week, can say that we
have not constantly pointed out the basic condition of this advance
in spiritual knowledge.
Advance in
spiritual knowledge is one of the impulses lying at the
foundation of our movement. What does advance in spiritual knowledge
mean for our souls? It satisfies the deepest, most humanly-worthy
longings of our souls, it gives that without which a man who is
conscious of his human worth, cannot live. It also gives this
knowledge in ways that correspond to the intellectual requirements of
the present day. Advance in knowledge brings illumination to us
concerning those things which a man cannot investigate with his
ordinary senses, but only with those senses which belong to him as a
spiritual being, not as a physical being.
The great questions
concerning man's position in the physical world and what lies
beyond it, the truths concerning life and death: all such questions
spring from the deep needs of the human soul. Even if a man from
various causes holds aloof from such questions, even if he is able to
remain deaf to them for a time, so that he says: —
“Science is unable to investigate such matters, the faculties
for doing so are wanting in man;” yet the need of finding
answers to these questions never leaves him permanently, neither does
the true nature of his feelings towards such questions as the
following: —
Whence comes that
something in a child and in a growing youth, that is capable of
education? Where does that go which is hidden within our souls when
the bodily nature begins to fall and die? In short, the question as
to man's connection with the spiritual world is the
great question, and springs from the most human of desires. A man
cannot live if these questions remain unanswered, unless he turns a
deaf ear to them. But because they spring from so deep a need,
because the soul cannot live in peace and contentment if it does not
receive an answer to them, it is only natural that he should answer
them in a somewhat trivial and comfortable manner. In spite of the
fact that these questions (though denied by some) have to-day become
burning questions for many, how numerous are the paths they point to
us! One can say without exaggeration that of all the paths that open
before man to-day when these great and puzzling questions arise
within him, the way of spiritual science is the most difficult.
Truly, we cannot say otherwise!
There may be many
among you who consider some much discussed science difficult; who
perhaps do not venture on it because they shrink from all that must
be overcome if it is to be gone into thoroughly. It may seem that the
path that we call the path of spiritual science is easier than the
path leading to mathematics, to botany, or any other branch of
natural science. All the same, if followed earnestly, this path is
more difficult than that leading to any other science. We say this
without any exaggeration. Why is it easier for you? Only because it
stimulates the interest of every soul with tremendous force, and
because it deals with what lies nearest to each. It is the most
difficult of all the paths by which a man can enter the spiritual
world to-day, yet one thing we must not forget: this path can lead us
to what is highest in the life of the soul! Is it not natural that
what leads to the highest should also be the most difficult? Yet: we
must never allow ourselves to be frightened by the difficulties of
the path, nor hide from our souls the necessity of these difficulties
on the path of spiritual science.
Among the many
necessities of this path, one is always specially mentioned here:
that he who decides to follow this path must, in the first place,
accept seriously what spiritual investigation has so far been able to
offer concerning the secrets and facts of the spiritual world. We
touch here on a very necessary chapter of our spiritual-scientific
life. How many say light-heartedly: — “People speak here
of a science that is unascertainable, of spiritual facts that one or
another investigator, one or another initiate, has been able to
elucidate or investigate. Would it not be much better if they simply
showed us the way so that we might ourselves quickly enter that
region from which one can see into the spiritual world? Why do they
always say — ‘This is how it looks, this is what one or
another has seen!’ Why do they not tell us how we can attain
this quickly for ourselves?” It is for very good reasons that
the facts investigated concerning the spiritual world are first
communicated in a general way before entering into what one might
call “the methods of soul-training” which can lead the
soul into spiritual regions. For something quite definite is gained
by our applying ourselves reverently to the study of what the
spiritual investigator has revealed from spiritual worlds. We have
often said that the facts of the spiritual world must be sought and
found by means of clairvoyant consciousness; but once these facts are
discovered, once trained clairvoyance has observed them and
communicated them to others, then these communications must be such
that everyone, without having passed through any clairvoyant
development, can test them, and can recognise the truth of them by
his own unprejudiced logic and the feeling for truth that is in every
soul. No true investigator of spiritual things, no man endowed with
true clairvoyant consciousness, would communicate the facts of the
spiritual world except in such a way that those who desired could
test them without clairvoyance. But he would have to communicate
these facts so that he conveyed the full value and importance of them
to the human soul.
What value have the
communications and presentations of spiritual facts to a human soul?
The value is this; that the man who knows “how things are seen
in the spiritual world” can order his life, his thoughts,
feelings, and perceptions according to his relationship towards the
spiritual world. In this sense every communication of spiritual facts
is important — even if he to whom they are communicated, and
who receives them, cannot himself investigate them clairvoyantly.
Indeed, even for the investigator these facts first acquire
“human worth” when he has brought them down into a sphere
where he can express them in a form accessible to all. However much a
clairvoyant may be able to investigate and see in the spiritual
world, what he sees is of no value to him and to others so long as he
is unable to bring it down into the ordinary sphere of men, and to
express it in thought that can be grasped by sound logic and a
natural feeling for truth. The clairvoyant must in fact first
understand the matter himself if it is to be of any use to him. Its
value begins where the possibility of logical proof begins.
We can prove what has
just been said in a double way. Among the many valuable things
connected with the spiritual truths and spiritual communications
which a man can receive on the physical plane between birth and
death, those without doubt are the most important which he can take
with him through the gates of death. Or let us put it as a question
in this way:— “How much remains to a man of all he has
received here, and been able to make his own? What remains of all he
has learnt concerning the spiritual world while leading an
anthroposophical life?” Just as much remains to him as he has
been able to understand, as he has been able to translate into the
ordinary language of human consciousness.
Picture to yourselves
a man who has perhaps made quite exceptional discoveries in the
spiritual world through purely clairvoyant observation, but who has
neglected to clothe these observations in language suited to the
ordinary sense of truth of any age. Do you know what would happen to
him? All his discoveries would be wiped out after death! Just as much
of value would remain as it was possible for him to translate or
formulate into any language that corresponded to a sound sense for
truth.
It is certainly of
the greatest importance that there should be clairvoyants capable of
bringing over communications from the spiritual world and handing
them on to others. This brings blessing to our day, for our age has
need of wisdom and cannot advance unless it gets it. Such
communications are necessary to the culture of the present time. If
not recognised to-day, in fifty or a hundred years it will be the
universal conviction of all mankind that culture cannot advance but
must perish unless convinced of spiritual wisdom.
One thing is
necessary for man if evolution is to advance — this is the
acceptance by him of spiritual truth. Even if all spheres were
conquered and intercourse with them established, humanity would still
be faced with the death of civilisation if no spiritual wisdom had
been acquired. This is undoubtedly true. The possibility of looking
into the spiritual world must exist.
The facts of
spiritual wisdom mean more to the individual after death than human
progress upon earth. We must therefore ask in order to form a right
conception of this — What has the clairvoyant to tell of the
things he has investigated and brought into line with truth and sound
logic? What more in the way of fruits does a man possess
after death through having been able to look into the spiritual
world, than those have whose karma in this incarnation makes it
impossible for them to do so, and who therefore have to hear the
results of spiritual research from others? How do spiritual truths
perceived by an Initiate differ from those heard by a man who has
only heard them, and not himself looked into the spiritual world?
Does the Initiate understand them better than those to whom they have
only been imparted?
As regards mankind in
general perception of the spiritual world is of higher worth than
non-perception. For one who is able to look into the spiritual world
has intercourse with that world, he can teach not only men, but
others, spiritual beings, and so further their development.
Clairvoyant consciousness has therefore a quite special value, but
for individuals knowledge only has value; and in respect of
individual worth the clairvoyant does not differ from anyone else who
only receives communications, and is himself unable to look into the
spiritual world in any particular incarnation. Whatever we have
received of spiritual truth is fruitful after death, no matter if we
have beheld these truths ourselves or not.
In stating this, one
of the greatest moral laws of the spiritual world and one most worthy
of reverence is placed before our souls. Our present day morality is
perhaps not fine enough fully to understand the ethics of this.
Individuals gain no advantage through their Karma having made it
possible for them to look into spiritual worlds, thereby gratifying
their egoism, Everything we strive to gain for ourselves in our
individual life must he gained on the physical plane, and in forms
that accord with the physical plane. If a Buddha or a Bodhisattva
stands higher among the hierarchies of the spiritual world than other
human individuals this is because of his having passed through so
many and varied incarnations an earth.
What I mean by the
higher ethics, the higher moral teaching given out to us from the
spiritual world is this:— No one should think for a moment that
he gains an advantage over his fellow men through the development of
clairvoyance. This is not at all the case. He gains no advantage in
any egoistic sense. All that he gains is that he can be better than
others. Anything that serves egoism is absolutely excluded from
spiritual fields, it is held to be immoral. A man gains nothing for
himself through spiritual illumination. What he gains is only as one
who serves the world in general, not himself, and only in so far as
he gains it also for others.
The position of the
spiritual investigator with regard to his fellowmen is this: —
If they wish to hear of of the discoveries he has made and to accept
them, they can make the same progress through these discoveries as he
has made himself, they can advance individually as far as he has
advanced, which means: — spiritual things are of value only in
the Spirit of humanity as a whole, not in any egoistic spirit.
There is a realm
where a man is not moral merely from preference, but because
immorality or egoism would not help. In this case it is easy to see
something else, namely, that it is dangerous to enter the spiritual
realm unprepared. Nothing of an egoistic nature will ever be won for
the life after death through leading a spiritual life, but a man
might easily desire something egoistic for this life on the
physical plane through spiritual development. Although nothing of an
egoistic nature can be gained for the spiritual world things can be
desired which are in a sense egoistic.
Most of those who
pursue a certain higher development will probably say:—
“It is self-understood that I should endeavor to overcome
egoism before gaining entrance to the spiritual world.” But I
beg of you to believe, in no region of human development is deception
so great as in that where men say — “I strive against
egoism!” It is easy to say it, but whether one can do it, can
really accomplish it, is quite another question. It is another
question in the first place, because when we begin to practise
certain soul activities that can lead us into the spiritual world, we
meet ourselves in our true form. There are very few things which are
experienced in true form in the outer world. We live interwoven in a
net of ideas, will-impulses, moral perceptions, and customary actions
that have their rise in the surrounding world, and we seldom ask:
— “How would I act, how would I think regarding any
matter if I did not feel constrained by my upbringing to think and
act in such and such a way?”
If we answered these
questions we would see that we are ordinarily very much worse than we
suppose. Now, the result of carrying out those exercises that are
intended to help us to rise to the spiritual world is that we outgrow
all our surroundings, all that custom and education have woven round
us. We become more sensitive, more soulful and spiritual, and ever
more and more naked. The veils with which we have clothed ourselves,
and to which we cling with our ordinary ideas and actions, fall from
us. Hence we have the quite ordinary result of which I have often
spoken:— Before beginning his spiritual development a man is
perhaps a quite decently behaved person, who does not make any very
stupid blunders in life. Then his spiritual development begins. While
until now he was perhaps quite a modest man he now becomes arrogant,
and does all sorts of stupid things. When spiritual development
begins he loses his balance and his bearings. The reason for this is
best seen by those who are familiar with the spiritual world. Two
things are necessary in order to know where we are with regard to
what approaches us from the spiritual world so that balance is
maintained. We must not be made giddy by what comes to us from the
spiritual world. In physical life our organism shields us from
giddiness through the “sense of balance of which you have heard
in anthroposophical lectures, the static-sense. And just as this
gives to physical man power to hold himself upright (for if his
organism does not function correctly a man becomes giddy and he falls
down) there is something also in spiritual life by which he can
regulate his position to the world. This he must be able to do.
“Spiritual giddiness” results from the falling away from
him of what formerly gave support, those acquired perceptions, all
that is brought about in us by the inter-blending activities of the
external world. We must now learn to depend on ourselves. It is easy
for us to become arrogant when these outer supports fall away. Pride
is situated in us naturally; only, till now it was not so apparent.
How can we attain spiritual balance so that this giddiness does not
occur? By devoting ourselves with patience and perseverance to what
spiritual investigation has discovered and succeeded in putting into
words that agree with the ordinary formula of logical veracity. It is
not from choice that I emphasize again and again the need of studying
what we call spiritual science or anthroposophy. I lay stress on it
because it is not possible by any other means to acquire the solid
supports necessary to a spiritual development. The diligent and
earnest acceptance of the results of spiritual science is the
antidote to spiritual giddiness and insecurity.
Many a one has fallen
into spiritual insecurity through carrying out his development
incorrectly; we know that though such a one may seem to have been
very diligent, this is because he has failed to acquire certain
things that flow from the well-head of spiritual science. This is why
the facts of spiritual science should he studied from every side, and
why all through last winter, while desiring ultimately to bring home
to you the importance of the Event of Christ to man we returned ever
and again to deal with the fundamental conditions of spiritual
progress. A balanced soul is necessary to a man's progress; but
other things are also necessary.
While the soul
acquires certainty through the study of spiritual science something
else brings us what is equally necessary. This is a certain degree of
spiritual strength and courage. The courage necessary to spiritual
progress is not required of us in ordinary life for this reason, that
in ordinary life our innermost being is embedded in our physical and
etheric body from the time we waken until we fall asleep, and in the
night we can do nothing, we cannot spoil anything. Supposing an
unevolved man were able to be active during sleep he could do a great
deal of harm. But the forces active on our physical and etheric
bodies, making us conscious — that is thinking and feeling
men — are not the only forces at work in us. Other forces are
also active there, forces on which divine spiritual Beings have
worked all through the Saturn, Sun and Moon periods, and on into our
own Earthly period. Here forces from higher realms are continually at
work maintaining us. When we waken and draw within the physical and
etheric bodies we give ourselves over immediately to these Divine
spiritual forces which, for our welfare and blessing, guide and
control our physical and etheric bodies from morning till evening.
Thus the whole spiritual universe works within us. We can injure it
in many ways, but can do very little to improve it.
Now you must realise
that all spiritual development depends on our inner being — our
astral body and ego — becoming free, that we become able to
see, that is learn to become consciously clairvoyant of that which
lives unconsciously within us from the time we fall asleep till we
waken; and because it lives there unconsciously, can cause no harm.
All the strength, all the power that is ours, through our being taken
in hand on waking by what is securely bound to our physical and
etheric bodies, falls away from us when we become independent of
these bodies and begin to be clairvoyantly aware. All the strength
and power of the world remains outside us. We have withdrawn from the
powers which make us strong and provide us with a shield against the
influences of the outer world. We have withdrawn from these
supporting powers. The world, however, remains as it is, and because
this is so we are faced with the whole power, the whole impact of the
surrounding world. The strength we otherwise received directly from
our physical body and etheric body must now be within us, so that we
can endure and withstand the impact of the world. We must develop
this power in our ego and astral body. This is done by following the
rules you have received, and which are found in my book,
“Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and how to attain it.”
These rules are calculated to give that inner strength which formerly
was imparted to us by higher Beings, and which fails when the external
supports which enabled us to withstand the impact of the world fail,
when we have ourselves discarded the support provided by our physical
and etheric bodies.
Those who have not
made themselves inwardly strong enough to be able to replace the
supports laid aside with their physical and etheric bodies, by
carrying out a true and serious soul-training, those, who above all,
have not purified themselves from the qualities of the outer world we
describe as “immoral,” may certainly acquire faculties
which enable them to some extent to see into the spiritual world. But
what is the result? They become what is called
“hypersensitives,” they become super-sensitive, as if
attacked from every side; they cannot endure what approaches them on
all hands. One of the most important facts we have to recognise when
striving for progress in spiritual knowledge is that we must
strengthen ourselves inwardly by developing the noblest qualities of
the soul.
What are these
qualities of which we have been speaking and towards which we must
strive?
As it is impossible
to live in the spiritual world under the brand of selfishness, it is
only natural that the banishment of egoism — of everything of
the nature of “self” that would fain shelter behind what
is spiritual — must form the preparation for spiritual life.
The more earnestly this maxim is accepted, the better it is for
spiritual progress. It cannot be accepted too earnestly.
Anyone concerned with
such things often hears it said: — “I have not done this
from egoism!” But when these words are about to pass a
man's lips he should pause, he should not allow them to pass,
he should rather say to himself: — Thou art really not in a
position to say thou canst do something without a trace of egoism.
This would be better, because more truthful, and truth in respect of
self-knowledge is most important. In no domain does falsehood wreck
such vengeance as in the domain of spiritual life. It were better for
a man there to lay on himself the command to be truthful than speak
in a vague way of “not being egoistic!” It would be
better to be truthful and say: — “I acknowledge my
egoism,” thus showing his desire at least to overcome it.
I can best express
what is connected with the idea of spiritual truth in the following
way. One might easily be of the opinion: — “There are
people who tell of all kinds of things they have seen and experienced
in the higher worlds; this is then spread abroad and is known by
others. If one realises that these things are not true, ought one not
to use every possible means to contradict them?” Certainly,
there are points of view from which such contradiction is necessary.
But for those, who as spiritual men are only concerned with the
truth, there is always another thought, namely this: — Of the
things brought from the spiritual world, only those that are true
flourish and bear fruits for the world; what is untrue is most
certainly unfruitful.
Expressed more
trivially we might say: — However much people lie with regard
to spiritual matters these lies have very short legs. The people who
spread these lies have to acknowledge that nothing really fruitful
comes from them. Truth alone bears fruits in the spiritual realm.
This is where our individual spiritual development begins, where we
realise and acknowledge our true position. That truth alone is
fruitful — that it alone has power to affect anything, must
dwell as vital impulse in all spiritual, in all occult movements.
Truth is proved by its fruitfulness and by the blessings it brings to
man. Untruths and lies are unfruitful. They have but one result which
I only hint at, but cannot deal further with to-day — they
react most powerfully upon those who originate them. We shall deal
with the meaning of this important statement some other time.
As I said, I wished
to-day to glance backwards over the work done during the past year;
to recall the tone which as feeling-content filled and resounded in
our souls.
In speaking of the
work carried on outside our own group during the past year I may
perhaps mention my own share which reached its culmination in the
Rosicrucian Mystery Play we produced in Munich,
“Die Pforte der Einwerhung,”
the
“The Portal of Initiation.”
We shall speak at our next group-meeting of what was then attempted, at
present I only wish to say that it was then possible to express in a
more artistic, more individual form, what had otherwise been said in
a more general way. When speaking here or elsewhere of the conditions
of spiritual life we speak of these as they are right for every soul.
But in doing so it is necessary to keep in view that each man is an
independent Being, and each soul must be considered individually.
This is why we were obliged to depict one soul in
“The Portal of Initiation.”
Therefore you must look on this Rosicrucian
Mystery not as a hook of instruction, but as an artistic presentation
of the preparation for initiation of one man.
We are not concerned
here with the way this or that man progresses, but with the progress
of him who in the play is called “Johannes Thomasius,”
that is with the very individual form the preparation for initiation
took in a particular man.
Thus, by approaching
nearer to truth, we have arrived at two distinct points of view.
First, where we described the whole course of progress, and then that
where we penetrated to the very core of an individual soul. All the
time we were inspired by the thought that we must draw near, and
patiently await the truth from many sides, until these different
aspects of the truth were linked together into a single perception.
This attitude of reserve in respect of knowledge we desire most
especially to acquire. Never let it be said that man cannot
experience truth. He can experience it! Only he cannot know the whole
truth all at once, but only one side of it. This makes one humble.
True humility is a feeling that must be developed here within our
group, so that from here it may pass out into the general culture of
our day, and there make its influence felt. Our age has need of great
modesty in all its activities.
In the spirit of this
impulse we shall continue the work of explaining the Christ-problem
so that here also we may experience how modesty in respect of
knowledge (Erkenntnisbescheidenheit) can be attained, and may thereby
progress ever further in the experiencing of truth.
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