Contents
The
importance of finding answers to questions living consciously
or unconsciously in the soul. Thinking and will: the two poles
of soul life. Feeling partaking of both the clarity of thinking
and the darkness of unconscious will. Mental life
consists of pictures. Will expresses itself as reality.
The difference of direct and indirect perceptions. Two
aspects of the external world: one is given, the other created
by man. The eye as vitalizing organ. Sunlight and soul life.
The lung as future sense organ. All man's organs are
potentially sense organs. The effect of spiritual exercises.
Spiritual truths contain their own proofs.
Lecture II, April 30, 1922 17
The
inner organs are at different stages of their evolution.
While the physical aspect of man disappears to spiritual sight
all movements become visible. The experience of the soul
world and spirit land when the lung becomes sense organ.
Present sense organs as spiritual entities and their connection
with real memory. The physical body is continually
renewed; memory alone persists. We are our memories.
Spiritual knowledge, being alive, must be continually
recreated; it cannot be preserved in notebooks. Knowledge of
history through participation. Greek tragedy and modern drama.
The human soul can be reached only through higher
consciousness.
Lecture III, May 5, 1922 34
The
states of normal consciousness have their counterpart in
the organism. Waking consciousness arises out of dream
consciousness as the astral body is drawn into the physical
body. The connection between dream and feeling (nightmares).
Man's fluid, airy and warmth organisms are disregarded by
ordinary science. The fluid organism as bearer of ether body;
the airy as bearer of the astral body. The interplay of etheric
and astral. The importance of attaining a vivid picture of
man's whole organization. The cerebral fluid contains an image
of man before birth. The soul cannot penetrate what is
solid and is reflected from salt deposits (skeleton).
Consciousness arises through soul experiences being
reflected. The effect of too much or too little salt.
Man's organism rightly understood reveals itself as an image of
the soul.
Lecture IV, May 6, 1922 51
When man attains imagination and inspiration he ceases to stand
outside of either his inner or outer world. His spiritual
experience of these two realms is essentially different. In
themselves thoughts are universal and aloof from
subjectivity. Thoughts become ensouled from instincts,
etc., that well up within the organism. The heart as
sense organ perceives—as mighty cosmic
pictures—thoughts ensouled from the spiritual world.
Self-knowledge is attained through the heart. The head is
organized essentially for reflecting the physical world. The
soul's external and internal aspect. Modern psychology is
concerned only with the external aspect. All sense impressions
are derived from the sun. Man exists within the
physical-etheric being of the sun. Influence of the moon is
active in propagation and heredity. The moon's influence as
“lower” sun on man's physical nature is
counterbalanced by the spiritual sun's influence on his soul
nature. Halves originated from an instinctive feeling for
the influence of the higher sun. Enthusiasm arising from
instinctive life and enthusiasm arising from beings of the
higher sun.
Lecture V, May 7, 7922 70
Modern man has little talent for examining his inner world
objectively. Blind faith in scientific discoveries. The
significance of technology in man's development. The technical
age was foreseen prophetically in the ancient Mysteries
as unavoidable if man was to gain independence from
divine influence.
The Philosophy of Freedom
written out of the recognition that, in the world of modern science,
devoid of spirit, man must find the spirit. In pure thinking man goes
out of his body into the reality of the external phenomena and
experiences the first glimmer of a new clairvoyance. In former
times it was through art that attempts were made to invest the
non-divine physical world with spirit. Today it is the bench in
the laboratory which must become an altar. The inability of
modern science to explain birth and death. Man's present task
is, on the one hand, to strive towards individualism and
independent thinking—the path to freedom, on the
other, to attain an ever-increasing understanding of the
Mystery of Golgotha.
Lecture VI, May 26, 1922 90
The
whole body of the young child acts as a sense organ; later in
life this imitative process is confined to the sense organs.
The importance of morality in the young child's environment.
The ether body as image of the whole universe. Between the
change of teeth and puberty the ether body forms the
individual's own heart. The astral body brought into
incarnation contains many structures which slip into the
organs. All man's actions become inscribed in the now
undifferentiated astral body. To understand the human
organs the astral body must be understood. In the heart both
etheric and astral forces are concentrated. In the heart the
human astral meets the cosmic etheric. The etheric-astral heart
constitutes an organ for human karma.
Lecture VII, May 27, 1922 106
The
way man through the ages has attained higher knowledge throws
light on his being and evolution. The path of Yoga led to an
enhanced feeling of self and to memory of existence before
birth. The
Bhagavad Gita,
the Vedanta philosophy and mantric
sayings all originated from the spiritual experiences of the
Yogi. The Yogi combined breathing and thinking into one
process, thus obtaining his higher knowledge by means of the
body. Modern man must do the opposite: separate thinking from
breathing and with pure thinking enter into the rhythms
of the external world. All modern exercises in meditation aim
at separating thinking from breathing (plant exercise in
Knowledge of Higher Worlds'). The twelve senses. The
directions of space are qualitatively different. Through
ascetic practices revelations of the great religions were
obtained. The attainment of higher knowledge through
meditation causes not physical but soul pain which must
be overcome.
Lecture VIII, May 28, 1922 122
Man's relation to elemental beings during earth
evolution. A new stream of spirituality is ready to pour
in and fructify the declining intellect. Man's special task
between the 15th and 19th Centuries. The difference between
attaining a higher attribute through strenuous effort and being
simply born with it. The Yogi attained knowledge by entering
deeper into his physical being. Modern man must go right out of
his body and participate in the external world. The four
elements and the beings connected with them. The danger that
elemental beings may, through man's materialism, come
under Ahrimanic influence and deflect the earth from its proper
course. A sign of this danger can be seen in the practice and
popularity of psychoanalysis. A similar danger would
arise if the elemental beings of the higher ether elements
would come under the domination of Lucifer. The necessity
for man to attain spiritual insight.
Lecture IX, June 17, 1922
Man's relation to his environment during sleep. Great cultures
arose in ancient times though men were not educated in the
modern sense. Their thoughts were inspired, whereas now
man has to produce them himself with effort. This necessity
began in ancient Greece
(Socrates).
[
Socrates,
469-399 B.C. Athenian philosopher.
]
In the Orient thoughts
arose of their own accord. Man's whole organization was
different and therefore also his relation to the divine beings
during sleep. Man's senses in particular have changed
considerably even within historical times. The origin of
the belief in ghosts. In former times man experienced thoughts
pulsating through his will. Modern man, especially Western man,
experiences only will impulses and instincts. For him
these become inner ghosts because, like the outer ghosts, they
are not recognized in their true nature. Luciferic and
Ahrimanic instincts. Man at present lives in a period
when ancient ghosts collide with modern ones giving rise to
chaotic conditions. Man's strongest aim now must be to attain
spiritual insight that will enable him to receive spiritual
impulses also for his life as a social being.
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