From the Contents of Esoteric Classes

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.