117. EL, Basel, 9-20-'12
A soul
who sees the things that our outer movement is going through and that
tend to make one criticize can ask: How is this criticism compatible
with the development of the positivity that we're supposed to
develop as a basic exercise?
In
earlier times they didn't have as many pupils cultivating the
esoteric life as we do now. Various forces are combating our kind of
esoteric life. Pupils must take esoteric life seriously and worthily.
We should realize how tremendously important the step from the
exoteric life into the esoteric one is. An esoteric must gradually
see exoteric life in an entirely different light.
For
example, we can all remember that we played as kids and that we took
this play seriously. Let's ask ourselves: If we adults wanted
to play with kids how would we do it? Of course we could play with
kids and maybe even better than they, because we can use our
intellect for this. But we would have to put ourselves in a different
soul state to really be in the playing activity.
An
esoteric has a relation to outer life that's quite similar to
the one that an adult has to the play of children. When he returns to
outer exoteric life from esoteric exercises he'll gradually
look upon the former as if he wanted to play with children as an
adult. And just as an adult must put himself in another soul state,
so an esoteric feels that he's put into another soul state when
he goes over to exoteric life. An esoteric won't be less
capable in everyday life, but will stand in it in a more capable and
vigorous way than he did before he got into esotericism. Thus the
transition from exoteric to esoteric life is a unique incision into
human life, and esoteric life can't be taken seriously and
worthily enough.
Let's take a closer look at esoteric life. We know that various
changes take place in our soul life through the exercises we
received. For instance, the passions that a man had before get
stronger. Old inclinations, drives and passions one thought one had
overcome and put aside reemerge from the dark shafts of soul life and
assert themselves vehemently. Or an esoteric often thoughtlessly does
something which he would have been ashamed of before the start of his
esoteric training or wouldn't have done at all. His antipathies
and sympathies for people become stronger than before; his whole soul
life becomes stirred up. In short, a man gets to know what he's
really like in his soul depths so that he has real self-knowledge.
Therefore strict and strong self-control is indispensable for an
esoteric pupil.
If the
exercises are continued energetically and patiently the changes in an
esoteric's soul life can be about as follows. At first he may
be that nothing special results from the exercises in concentration
and meditation. But one should realize that the first experiences can
be so fine and subtle that they can only be noticed by the use of a
certain attentiveness. For instance, it could be that an esoteric in
the midst of his everyday life suddenly has a thought that seems to
spring out of his other thought life, that obviously doesn't
belong to this everyday life — a thought that's about his
own being. Such a thought flits by unnoticed if there isn't
enough attentiveness there. The important and necessary thing is to
become attentive enough to notice thoughts that seem to fall out of
one's ordinary thought life, and that we become aware that
possibly grotesque thoughts rise in our soul without our ordinary
waking ego-consciousness being involved. Thereby we become aware that
something lives behind our ordinary ego that we hadn't known
previously, that something is active behind this ego which weaves
thoughts. If we direct more and more attentiveness towards these
thoughts that fall out of everyday life, they'll appear with
increasing frequency, and eventually we'll be able to
experience them at will. Then a pupil sees as through a door that
this weaving on what one what one is used to calling the thought
body, is going on continuously. Every pupil will someday experience
this is he works on patiently and energetically. But he won't
arrive at such experiences if he stops doing exercises. Hindrances of
the outer and inner life may induce a pupil to stop doing his
exercises. Difficulties that oppose esoteric life can arise
outwardly, and resistance to it can also arise from weakness and
laziness. If a pupil succumbs to these and doesn't continue on
the path, the fruit of his previous esoteric striving remain for him,
but he can't get any further. Such weakness can't develop
if esoteric life is cultivated rightly, for firmness and perseverance
are enveloped therein which prevent one from giving up on one's
original resolve.
So if a
pupil does the exercises that were given him energetically and
patiently and then creates the quiet in which his consciousness is
quite empty, this will eventually lead to experiences from the
spiritual world. The attitude of soul with which a pupil receives
revelations is also quite important. He should be thankful to the
divine, spiritual hierarchies for every thought and experience form
the super-sensible realm. He should develop such thankful feelings
ever more intensely; an honest cultivation of them may give him more
revelations and it brings him forward. A pupil must put himself into
a prayerful mood that prepares him to receive revelations rightly. If
an experience presents itself from the spiritual world he should
realize that something was given through grace.
In the
last ten years the masters' grace has brought a great many
spiritual truths into exoteric and esoteric theosophical life. An
enormous spiritual treasure has been entrusted to us during this
time, so that for instance, it may be hard for some souls to
assimilate everything that's been said about the four Gospels.
Some souls even have a negative attitude to this treasure, and they
express their dislike for it. Such an attitude is understandable, for
one has to admit that it's hard to master the given teachings.
But after all, it's our task to work our way through to an ever
more comprehensive understanding of Christ and to penetrate ever
deeper into the Mystery of Golgotha. All statement of Krishna or
Elijah and all wisdom of past times flowed into this. Therefore we
shouldn't slacken but should pull ourselves together, work
willingly, learn and learn again. We must master page after page of a
lecture cycle and we should never let up.
However, the earth is a battlefield for Luciferic and Ahrimanic
powers who can take over human beings. What do these powers tell each
other? They say: There are lazy souls who don't want to go
along with what flowed down from spiritual worlds. We can work on
them and capture them.
And so
these beings take possession of such souls and draw them away from
the path by leading them into illusions and errors and making them
into agents for their adversarial work. Whereas, if we work hard and
steadily, our path is the straight line from Krishna — if we
don't want to go further back — to Buddha, Elijah, John and
Christ. If we strive seriously and apply thought power, effort and
time to understand everything that was and is being said about Christ
and the Mystery of Golgotha, we'll be equal to the attacks of
the adversarial forces that are trying to stop esoterics'
development. But all those who slacken and don't want to keep
up succumb to the attacks of the adversarial powers. They're
the ones who become opponents of our movement and who create the
increasing number of hindrances that we've noted over the
years.
Another
thing that esoterics should especially cultivate is a feeling for
truth. Nothing should ever hinder us from saying the truth freely and
openly. Every attempt to deviate from the truth must be paid for at
some point … But there's one thing we can do, and this
shall be the answer to the question we asked at the beginning: Even
if we must condemn a man's deeds, we shouldn't criticize
the man himself, but love him. Whether or not we really love him will
become evident in the moments of our meditation. Take none of the
sympathies and antipathies and the little worries and so on into the
spiritual worlds — this will open them for us and let us get into
them in the right way.
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