LECTURE ONE
ON THE INVESTIGATION AND COMMUNICATION OF
SPIRITUAL TRUTHS
Now that we
are resuming activities in the Berlin Group it is well to
think for a short time of the studies in which we have been
engaged since last year.
You will
remember that about a year ago, in connection with the
General Meeting of the German Section, I gave a lecture to
the Berlin Group with the title:
The Sphere of the Bodhisattvas
[When the present lecture-course was given,
Rudolf Steiner was the General Secretary of the German
Section of the Theosophical Society. His association with
that Society was terminated in 1912 by its President, Mrs.
Annie Besant, largely on account of the difference in his
teaching on Christianity and the nature of the Second
Coming, and the official founding of the Anthroposophical
Society took place in Berlin, in 1913. The lecture on the
Bodhisattvas is printed as the first in the Course
entitled:
The Christ Impulse and the Development of the Ego-Consciousness.]
In that lecture on the
mission of the Bodhisattvas in the world my purpose was to
introduce the subject to which our main attention was to be
directed in the Group meetings last winter. Our study was
concerned with the Christ-problem, particularly in relation
to the Gospel of St. Matthew and also in relation to the
Gospels of St. John and St. Luke. And I indicated that at
some later date we should be preparing for a still deeper
study of the Christ-problem in connection with the Gospel of
St. Mark.
In these
studies we were not attempting a mere exposition of the
Gospels. I have often spoken of this in perhaps rather
extreme terms, and made it clear that Spiritual Science would
still have been able to describe the events in Palestine even
if there had been no historical records of them. The real
authority for what we have to say about the Christ Event is
not to be found in any written document but in the eternal,
spiritual record known as the Akasha Chronicle, decipherable
only by clairvoyant consciousness. I have often explained
what this really means. We compare what has first been
learned from spiritual investigations with what is recorded
in the Gospels or in other New Testament sources about the
events in Palestine. And in the end we recognise that in
order to read the Gospel records as they should be read, we
must first — without reference to them — have investigated
the mysteries connected with the happenings in Palestine, and
that precisely because of this independent approach the value
we attach to the Gospels and the reverence we feel for them,
greatly increase.
But if we take
into account not only the immediate interests of our present
gathering but also the fact that contemporary culture needs a
new understanding of the recorded sources of Christianity, we
shall expect Spiritual Science not merely to satisfy our own
intellectual difficulties about the events in Palestine but
also to translate into the language of present-day culture
what it says about the significance of the Christ Event for
the whole evolution of humanity. It would not do to limit
ourselves to the contributions made in previous centuries
towards an understanding of the problem and the figure of
Christ. If that were sufficient for the cultural needs of the
modern age we should not find so many people unable to
reconcile their sense of truth with accepted Christian
tradition and who in one way or another actually repudiate
the accounts of the events in Palestine as they have been
handed down and believed in for centuries. All this makes it
clear that modern culture needs a new understanding, a new
enunciation, of the truths of Christianity.
Among many
other aids to the investigation of Christian truths one is
particularly effective. It consists in extending our vision
and our feeling and perception beyond the horizons within
which, in recent centuries, man has had to seek an
understanding of the spiritual world. Here is a simple
indication of how these horizons can be widened.
Goethe — to
take as an example this master-spirit of recent European
culture — was, as we all know, a man of titanic genius. Many
studies have helped us to understand what depths of spiritual
insight lay in Goethe's personality and to see that we
ourselves can attain a high level of spiritual understanding
through contemplating the texture of his soul. But however
good our knowledge of Goethe may be, however deeply we steep
ourselves in what he has to offer, there is something we
shall not find in him, although it is essential if our vision
is to be broadened in the right way and our horizon widened
for our most urgent spiritual needs. There is no indication
that Goethe had any inkling of certain things we can learn
about and benefit from to-day — I mean, the concepts of the
spiritual evolution of humanity which first became accessible
to us in the nineteenth century through interpretations of
documentary records of the spiritual achievements of the
East. We there find many concepts which, far from making an
understanding of the Christ-problem more difficult, if
rightly applied help us to realise the nature of Christ
Jesus. I therefore believe that there could be no better
introduction to the study of the Christ-problem than an
exposition of the mission of the Bodhisattvas — as they are
named in Oriental philosophy. They are the great spiritual
Individualities whose task it is from time to time to
influence evolution. In Western culture there had for
centuries been no knowledge of concepts such as that of the
Bodhisattvas: yet only by mastering such concepts can we
acquire some measure of knowledge of what Christ has been for
mankind, what He can be and will continue to be.
So we find
that study of an extensive phase of the spiritual development
of mankind can be fruitful for the civilisation and culture
of our own time. From another point of view as well it is
important, when reviewing past centuries, to emphasise
clearly the difference between men living at the turn of the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries and men living in the
eighteenth or nineteenth centuries, as well as the fact that
until about a century ago very little was known in Europe
about Buddha and Buddhism. Finally, we must remember that the
impulse leading to the goal of our endeavours is the feeling
we have when we confront great spiritual truths. For what
really matters is not so much the knowledge that someone may
wish to acquire, but rather the warmth of feeling, the power
of perception, the nobility of will, with which his soul
confronts the great truths of humanity. In our Groups the
prevailing tone and atmosphere are more important than the
actual words spoken. These feelings and perceptions vary
greatly but the most important of all is reverence for the
great truths and the feeling that we can approach them only
with awe and veneration; we must realise that we cannot hope
to grasp a great reality through a few concepts and ideas
casually acquired and co-ordinated.
I have often
said that we cannot accurately visualise a tree that is not
actually in front of us if we have drawn a sketch of it from
one side only, but that we must go round it and sketch it
from many different sides. Only by assembling these different
pictures can we obtain a complete impression of the tree.
This analogy should make clear to us what our attitude should
be to the great spiritual truths. We can make no progress at
all in any real (or apparent) knowledge of higher things by
approaching them from one side only. Whether or not there is
truth in the particular view we may hold, we should always be
humble enough to recognise that all our ideas are, and cannot
help being, one-sided. If we intensify such a feeling of
humility we shall welcome all ideas which throw light on any
possible aspect of the great facts of existence. The age in
which we are living makes this necessary, and the necessity
will be increasingly borne in upon us. Consequently we no
longer shut ourselves off from other views or from paths to
the supreme truths which may differ from our own or from that
of contemporary thought. During the course of the last few
years, in considering the fruits of Western culture, we have
tried always to maintain the principle of true humility in
knowledge. I have never had the audacity to attempt to give
one single survey of the events which comprise what we call
the Christ-problem. On the contrary, I have always said that
we were approaching the problem now from one point of view,
now from another. And I have always emphasised that not even
then has the problem been exhausted but that much further
patient work is necessary.
The reason for
studying the four Gospels separately is that we can then
approach the Christ-problem from four different standpoints.
We find that the four Gospels do, in fact, present four
different aspects, and we are reminded that this stupendous
problem must not be approached from one side only but at
least from the four directions of the spiritual heavens
indicated by the names of the four Evangelists: Matthew,
Mark, Luke and John. If this is done we shall come
increasingly to understand the problems and the great truths
which are needed for the life of the human soul; and on the
other hand, we shall never say that the one form of truth we
may have grasped is the whole truth.
All our
studies this last winter have been directed towards evoking a
mood of humility in knowledge. Indeed without such humility
no progress in the spiritual life is possible. Again and
again I have laid stress upon the basic qualities essential
for any progress in spiritual knowledge, and anyone who has
followed the lectures given here week by week will confirm
this.
Progress in
spiritual knowledge — this is of course one of the basic
impulses of our Movement. What does it mean to the soul? It
fulfils the soul's worthiest needs and longings and provides
the support which everyone conscious of his true humanity
requires. Moreover this support is completely in line with
the intellectual needs of the present day.
The progress
in knowledge made possible by Spiritual Science should throw
light on things which cannot be investigated by our ordinary
senses but only by the faculties which belong to man as a
spiritual being. The great questions about man's place in the
physical world and what lies beyond the manifestations of the
senses in this world, the truths concerning what lies beyond
life and death — these questions meet a profound need,
indeed the most human of all needs, of man's soul. Even if
for various reasons we hold aloof from these questions and
succeed for a time in deceiving ourselves by maintaining that
science cannot investigate them, that the necessary faculties
do not exist, nevertheless in the end the need and longing to
find answers to them never disappear. The origin of what we
see developing in the course of childhood and youth, the
destination of what lies harboured in our soul as our bodily
constitution begins to wilt and wither, in short, how man is
connected with a spiritual world — these questions arise
from a deep human need and man can dispense with the answers
to them only when he deceives himself about his true
nature.
But because
these questions spring from so deep a need, because the soul
cannot live in peace and contentment if it does not find the
answers, it is only natural that people should look for an
easy, comfortable way of finding them. Although many people
would like to deny it, these questions have become
particularly urgent in every domain of life, and what a
variety of paths to the answers are offered to us! It can be
said without exaggeration that the path of Spiritual Science
is the hardest of them all. Many of you will admit that some
of the sciences to-day are very difficult, and you will
hesitate to tackle them because you are frightened by what
you will have to master if you are really to understand them.
The path of Spiritual Science may appear to be easier than,
let us say, that of mathematics or botany or some other
branch of natural science. Yet in the strictest sense the
path of Spiritual Science is more difficult than that of any
other science. This can be said without exaggeration. Why,
then, does it seem easier to you? Only because it stirs the
interests of the soul so forcefully and makes so compelling
an appeal. It may be the most difficult of all the paths
along which man is led into the spiritual world to-day, but
we  should not forget that it will
lead to the highest within us. Is it not natural that the
path to the highest should also be the hardest? Hence we
should never be frightened by or blind to the inevitable
difficulties of the path of Spiritual Science.
Among many
features of this path, one has repeatedly been mentioned
here. A person wishing to follow it must, to begin with,
seriously imbibe what spiritual investigation has already
been able to present about the mysteries and realities of the
spiritual world. Here we touch upon a very important chapter
of progress in Spiritual Science. People speak glibly about a
spiritual science that cannot be corroborated, about
spiritual facts alleged to have been witnessed and
investigated by some initiate or seer, and they ask: Would it
not be better simply to show us how we can quickly make our
own way upwards into regions from which to glimpse the
spiritual world? Why are we constantly told: This is what it
looks like, this is how it appears to such and such a seer?
Why are we not shown how to make the ascent quickly
ourselves?
There are good
reasons why facts which have been investigated about the
spiritual world are communicated in general terms before
details are given of the methods of training whereby the soul
itself can be led into those higher spheres. We gain
something very definite if we apply ourselves reverently to
the study of what spiritual investigations have revealed from
the spiritual world. I have often said that the facts of the
spiritual world must be investigated and can be discovered
only by clairvoyant consciousness; but I have as often said
that once someone possessed of clairvoyant consciousness has
observed these facts in the spiritual world and then
communicates them, they must be communicated in such a way
that even without clairvoyance, everyone will be able to test
them by reference to the normal feeling for truth present in
every soul, and by applying to them his own unprejudiced
reasoning faculties. Anyone endowed with genuine clairvoyant
consciousness will always communicate the facts about the
spiritual world in such a way that everyone who wishes to
test what he says will be able to do so without clairvoyance.
But at the same time he will communicate them in a form
whereby their true value and significance can be conveyed to
a human soul.
What, then,
does this communication and presentation of spiritual facts
mean to the soul? It means that anyone who has some idea of
conditions in the spiritual world can direct and order his
life, his thoughts, his feelings and his perceptions in
accordance with his relationship to the spiritual world. In
this sense every communication of spiritual facts is
important, even if the recipient cannot himself investigate
those facts with clairvoyant consciousness. Indeed for the
investigator himself these facts acquire a human value only
when he has clothed them in a form in which they can be
accessible to everyone. However much a clairvoyant may be
able to see and investigate in the spiritual world, it
remains valueless both to himself and to others until he can
bring the fruits of his vision into the range of ordinary
cognition and express them in ideas and concepts which can be
grasped by a natural sense of truth and by sound reasoning.
In fact, if his findings are to be of any value to himself he
must first have understood them fundamentally; their value
begins only at the point where the possibility of reasoned
proof begins.
There is a
radical test which can be applied to what I have just said.
Among many other valuable spiritual truths and communications
you will certainly attach very great importance to those
concerning what a man can take with him through the gate of
death of the spiritual truths he has assimilated on the
physical plane between birth and death. Or, to put it
differently: How much remains to a man who, by cultivating
the spiritual life, has mastered the substance of
communications relating to the spiritual world? The answer
is: Exactly as much remains to him as he has fundamentally
grasped and understood and has been able to translate into
the language of ordinary human consciousness.
Picture to
yourselves a man who may have made quite exceptional
discoveries in the spiritual world through clairvoyant
observation but has never clothed them in the language of
ordinary life. What happens to such a man? All his
discoveries are extinguished after death; only so much
remains of value and significance as has been translated into
language which, in any given period, is the language of a
healthy sense of truth.
It is
naturally of the greatest importance that clairvoyants should
be able to bring tidings from the spiritual world and make
them fruitful for their fellow-men. Our age needs such wisdom
and cannot make progress without it. It is essential that
such communications should be made available to contemporary
culture. Even if this is not recognised to-day, in fifty or a
hundred years it will be universally acknowledged that
civilisation and culture can make no progress unless men
become convinced of the existence of spiritual wisdom and
realise that humanity must die unless spiritual wisdom is
assimilated. And even if all space were conquered for the
purposes of intercommunication, mankind would still have to
face the prospect of the death of culture if spiritual wisdom
were rejected. This is true beyond all shadow of doubt.
Insight into the spiritual world is absolutely essential.
In addition to
the value of spiritual wisdom for single individuals after
death there is its value for the progress of humanity on the
Earth. To have the right idea here, distinction must be made
between the clairvoyant who has been able to investigate the
spiritual world and express his findings in terms of healthy
human reason, and a man whose karma while he was incarnated
made it impossible for him to see into the spiritual world,
and who had consequently to rely upon hearing from others
about the findings of spiritual research. What is the
difference between the fruits enjoyed after death by two such
individuals? How do the effects of spiritual truths differ in
an Initiate and in one who knows them only by hearsay and
cannot himself see into the spiritual world? Is the Initiate
better off than a man who could only hear these truths from
someone else?
For humanity
in general, vision of spiritual worlds is, of course, worth
more than absence of vision. A seer is in touch with those
worlds and can teach and help forward the development not
only of men but of spiritual beings as well. Clairvoyant
consciousness, then, is of special value. For the individual,
however, knowledge alone has value and in this respect the
most gifted clairvoyant is not to be distinguished from one
who has merely heard the communications without being able in
the present incarnation to look into the spiritual world
himself. Whatever spiritual wisdom we have assimilated will
be fruitful after death, no matter whether or not we
ourselves are seers.
One of the
great moral laws of the spiritual world is here presented to
us. Admittedly, our modern conception of morality may not be
subtle enough to understand its implications fully. No
advantage is gained by individuals — except perhaps a merely
selfish gratification — because their karma has made it
possible for them to see into the spiritual world. Everything
we acquire for our individual life must be acquired on the
physical plane and must be moulded into forms appropriate to
that plane. If a Buddha or a Bodhisattva stands at a higher
level than other human individualities among the hierarchies
of the spiritual world, it is because he has acquired these
higher qualities through a number of incarnations on the
physical plane.
Here is an
indication of what I mean by the higher morality, the higher
ethics, resulting from the spiritual life. Â -- Let
nobody imagine that he gains any advantage over his
fellow-men through developing clairvoyance, for that is
simply not so. He makes no progress which can be justified on
any ground of self-interest. He achieves progress only in so
far as he can be more useful to others. The immorality of
egoism can find no place in the spiritual world. A man can
gain nothing for himself by spiritual illumination. What he
does gain he can gain only as a servant of the world in
general, and he gains it for himself only by gaining it for
others.
This, then, is
the position of the spiritual investigator among his
fellow-men. If they are willing to listen to him and
assimilate his findings, they make the same progress as he
does. This means that spiritual achievement must be employed
only to further the general well-being of man, and not for
any selfish purposes. There are circumstances when a man is
moral not merely of his own volition but because immorality
or egoism would be of no advantage. It is also easy to
realise that there are dangers in penetrating into the
spiritual world without proper preparation. By leading a
spiritual life we do not achieve anything which will fulfil a
selfish purpose after death. On the other hand, a man may
wish to gratify an egotistic purpose in his life on Earth
through spiritual development. Even if nothing egotistic can
benefit existence in the spiritual world, there may be a wish
to fulfil some egotistical purpose on the Earth.
Most people
who follow the path leading to higher development are likely
to say that they will obviously strive to discard egoism
before trying to enter the spiritual world. But believe me,
there is no province of life where deception is likely to be
as great as it is among those who claim that their endeavours
are free from egotistic interests. It is easy enough to say
this, but whether it can be a fact is quite another matter.
It is a different matter because when a man begins to
practise exercises which can lead him into the spiritual
world, he then, for the first time, confronts himself as he
truly is. In ordinary life very few things are experienced in
their true form. A man lives in a web of ideas, of impulses
of will, of moral perceptions and conventional actions, all
of which originate in his environment, and he seldom stops to
ask himself how he should act or think in a given case if his
upbringing had not been what it was. If he were to answer
this question honestly, he would realise that his
shortcomings are very much greater than he has assumed them
to be.
The result of
practising exercises through which a man learns how to rise
into the spiritual world is that he grows beyond the web
woven around him through custom, education, environment. He
quickly grows beyond all this. In soul and spirit he is
stripped naked. The veils with which he has clothed himself
and to which he clings in his ordinary feelings and actions,
fall away. This accounts for a quite common phenomenon of
which I have often spoken. — Before beginning to work at his
spiritual development a man may have been a reasonable,
possibly also a very intelligent and at the same time, humble
person who went through life without committing any
particular stupidities. Then, after beginning this
development, he may become arrogant and do all sorts of
senseless things. He seems to have lost his bearings in life.
To those familiar with the spiritual world the reason for
this is clear. If we are to maintain balance and a sense of
direction in face of what comes to the soul from the
spiritual world, two things are necessary. It must not make
us giddy or light-headed. In physical life our own organism
protects us through what we call in anthroposophical
lectures, the 'sense of balance or equilibrium'. Just as in a
man's physical body there is something which enables him to
keep himself upright — for if the organism is not
functioning properly he will get giddy and may fall down —
so in the spiritual life there is something which helps him
to orientate himself in his relation to the world, and this
he must be able to do. Spiritual unsteadiness comes about
because what used to support him, namely the external world
and his own sense-perceptions, fall away and he has then to
rely upon himself alone. The supports have gone and there is
a danger of giddiness. When the supports fall away we may
easily become arrogant, for arrogance is always latent in us
although it may not previously have disclosed itself.
How, then, can
we attain the necessary spiritual balance or equilibrium? We
must assimilate with diligence, perseverance and dedication
the findings of spiritual research which have been expressed
in terms harmonising with our normal sense of truth and sound
reasoning. It is not out of caprice that I emphasise so
repeatedly how necessary it is to study what we call
Spiritual Science. I emphasise it not in order that I may
have opportunity to speak here often but it is the only thing
which can give the firm support we need for spiritual
development. Earnest, diligent assimilation of the results of
Spiritual Science is the antidote for spiritual `giddiness'
and insecurity. And anyone who has experienced this
insecurity through having followed a wrong path of spiritual
development — although he may think he has been very
diligent — should recognise that he has failed to take in
what can flow from Spiritual Science. The study of
spiritual-scientific facts from every possible aspect — that
is what is necessary for us. And that was why, last winter —
though our ultimate purpose was to bring home the
significance of the Christ Event for humanity — emphasis was
laid over and over again upon the fundamental conditions for
spiritual progress.
If a man is to
make such progress there must be purpose and direction in his
life of soul; but he needs something else as well. The soul
can indeed acquire assurance through the study of Spiritual
Science but it also needs a certain spiritual strength and
courage. Courage of the kind necessary for spiritual progress
is not essential in ordinary life because from the time of
waking to that of going to sleep, our inmost being of
soul-and-spirit is embedded in our physical and etheric
bodies; and during the night we are inactive and can do no
harm. If a man spiritually undeveloped were capable of acting
during sleep as well as during waking life, he could do a
great deal of harm. But in our physical and etheric bodies
there are not only the forces which are active in us as
conscious beings, or as thinking and feeling beings, but also
those forces at which divine-spiritual Beings have worked
through the evolutionary periods of Old Saturn, Old Sun, Old
Moon and the Earth itself. Forces from higher spheres are
continually active in us and support us. On waking from sleep
we give ourselves up to the divine-spiritual Powers which,
for our Well-being and blessing, are present in our physical
and etheric bodies and lead us through life from morning till
evening. Thus the whole spiritual world is active within us;
we can do harm to it in many respects but very little to make
amends for the damage we have done.
All spiritual
development depends upon our inner being, that is to say, our
astral body and Ego, becoming free; we have to learn to
become clairvoyant in the part of ourselves that is
unconscious during sleep, and because it is unconscious can
do no harm. What is unconscious in the members of our
constitution in which divine-spiritual forces are active,
must become conscious. All the strength we have because on
waking we are taken in hand by spiritual powers anchored in
our physical and etheric bodies, falls away when we become
independent of those bodies and clairvoyant perception
begins. We withdraw from the forces which have been a
buttress for us against the influences working from the
external world; but that world remains as it was and we still
confront the whole power of its impact. If we are to resist
this impact we must develop in our Ego and astral body all
the power we otherwise draw from the physical and etheric
bodies. This can be achieved if we follow the indications
given in my book,
Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and its Attainment.
The aim of all these indications is to
impart to our inmost self the strength previously bestowed by
higher Beings, the strength which falls away when we lose the
external supports provided by our physical and etheric
bodies.
Individuals
who have not made themselves inwardly strong enough to
replace the powers they have discarded when they become
independent of the physical and etheric bodies through
serious training of the soul — above all through purifying
the quality designated as immorality in the external world —
these individuals may still be able to acquire faculties
enabling them to see into the spiritual world. But what
happens then? They become over-sensitive, hypersensitive.
They feel as if from every side they are being spiritually
buffeted and cannot stand up against the blows rained on them
from all sides. One of the important facts to be realised by
anyone who aspires to make progress in spiritual knowledge is
that inner strength must be developed through the cultivation
of the noblest and finest qualities of the soul.
What are these
qualities? Egoism will not help us in the spiritual world and
indeed makes it impossible to exist there. Naturally, then,
the best preparation for the spiritual life is to banish
egoism and everything which stimulates selfish prospects of
spiritual progress. The more earnestly we adopt this
principle the better are our prospects for spiritual
progress. Anyone who has to do with these things will often
hear a man say that his action was not prompted by egoism.
But when such a man is on the point of letting words like
this pass his lips, he should check them and admit to himself
that he is not really able to insist that there is no trace
of egoism in his action. To admit it is much more
intelligent, simply because it is more truthful. And it is
truth that matters whenever self-knowledge is concerned. In
no realm does untruthfulness bring such severe retribution as
in the realm of spiritual life. A man should demand truth of
himself instead of claiming to be without egoism. At least if
we acknowledge our egoism we have a chance to get rid of
it!
In regard to
the concept of spiritual truth, let me say this. There are
people who claim to have seen and experienced all kinds of
things in the higher worlds — things which are then made
public. If we know that these things are not true, should we
not use every possible means to oppose them? Certainly, there
may be points of view according to which such opposition is
necessary. But those whose main concern is truth have a
different thought, namely that only what is true can flourish
and bear fruit in the world and what is untrue will quite
certainly be unfruitful. Put more simply, this means that
however much people may lie about spiritual matters, what
they say will not get very far, and they should recognise
that nothing fruitful can be achieved by lies. In the
spiritual world, truth alone will bear fruit; and this holds
good from the very beginning of our own spiritual
development, when we must admit to ourselves what we really
are. The conviction that truth alone can be fruitful and
effective must be an impulse in all occult movements. Truth
justifies itself by its fruitfulness and by the blessings it
brings to mankind. Untruths and lies are always barren. They
have only one result which I cannot go into in any further
detail now; I can only say that they react most violently
against those who actually spread them abroad. We shall
consider on some other occasion what this significant
statement implies.
I have tried
to-day to give a kind of review of the activities in our
Groups during the past year and to recapture the mood and
tone which permeated our souls.
In speaking of
the work carried on outside the Groups during the past year,
I may perhaps mention my own participation which culminated
in the production in Munich of the Rosicrucian Mystery Play,
The Portal of Initiation.
Later Group meetings will
give us an opportunity of explaining what was then attempted.
For the present I will merely say that in the Play it was
possible to give a more artistic and individual form to what
could otherwise be expressed in a more general way. When we
speak here or anywhere else of the conditions of the
spiritual life, we speak of them as they concern every soul.
But it must always be borne in mind that each man is an
individual whose soul must be studied individually.
Consequently it was essential that one particular soul should
be depicted at the threshold of Initiation. The Rosicrucian
Mystery Play is accordingly to be regarded not as a manual of
instruction but as an artistic representation of the
preparation for Initiation of a particular individual,
Johannes Thomasius.
In our
approach to truth we have thus reached two important
standpoints. We have presented the general line of progress
and have also penetrated to the heart of an individual soul.
We are always conscious of the fact that truth must be
approached from many sides and that we must wait patiently
until its different aspects merge into a single picture. We
shall adhere faithfully to this attitude of humility in
knowledge. Let us not say that man can never experience
truth. He assuredly can! But he cannot know the whole truth
at once; he can know only one side. This makes for humility
in knowledge and true humility is a feeling that must be
cultivated in our Groups and carried into the general culture
of the day, for the whole character of our age needs such an
attitude.
In this spirit
we shall continue our task of presenting the Christ-problem,
in order to learn from it how to achieve real humility in
knowledge and thereby make further and further progress in
the experience of truth.
|