PREFATORY NOTE
The following lecture was given by Rudolf Steiner to an audience
familiar to some extent with the contents of other lectures on
different aspects of Christianity. In should be remembered that in his
autobiography,
The Course of My Life,
he emphasizes the distinction
between his written works on the one hand and, on the other, reports
of lectures which were given as oral communications and were not
originally intended for print.
Readers are reminded that the following lecture is printed here for the
first time in English and must not be confused with another which has
been available for some years on the same subject but with a different
title, given by Rudolf Steiner in Berlin a few weeks earlier.
A brief list of publications in English translation of other lectures
and of a fundamental book on the subject of Christianity will be found
at the end of the text, together with a summarized plan of the
Complete Edition of the works of Rudolf Steiner in the original
German.
THE STRUCTURE OF THE LORD'S PRAYER
ALL the formulae of a devotional or petitionary character, wise saws,
aphorism and the like will be found at all times to contain much that
touches upon the hidden mysteries of existence. But we must realize
that all the different religions practiced prayer, but differed in one
particular aspect in that some practiced prayer more in the form of
so-called meditation, whilst Christianity and a few other religions
practiced true prayer in the sense we know it to-day. On the whole,
meditation is characteristic of the oriental religions. Meditation
implies identification with some specific spiritual theme or object so
that the meditator finds union with the divine Ground through this
spiritual theme or object with which he is identified. Let us be quite
clear that there are religions which, for example, prescribe for their
members exercises in meditation, definite formulae of a devotional
character on which they concentrate their mind, and as they
concentrate upon these formulae they feel that divine spiritual life
permeates their soul and that the individual, at this moment, is
merged with the divine Ground. These formulae, however, belong to the
mental realm. Fundamentally Christian prayer is no different except
that its content is associated more with the emotional nature and
feeling part of man. The Christian merges with the all-pervasive
divine Being more through his emotions and feelings.
One should not imagine however that Christian prayer was always
understood in this sense, nor indeed should it be understood in the
manner in which it is frequently understood to-day. Now there exists an
original, archetypal Christian prayer in which Christ Jesus Himself
has indicated in the clearest possible way what attitude of mind the
Christian should adopt towards prayer. And the injunction of this
original prayer is simply this: “Oh my Father, if it be possible let
this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou
willt.” Now let us look closely at these final words. We are first of
all faced with a definite request — Christ asks to be spared the cup
of suffering; but at the same time we are asked to surrender to the
Divine Will: “Not as I will but as Thou willt.” This frame of mind
which, when we pray, allows the Divine Will to pervade us, wills
nothing for itself, but allows the Godhead to will in us, this frame
of mind, this attitude of surrender must form the undercurrent, the
key-note of prayer, if prayer is to reflect the Christian spirit.
So long as this spirit of humility prevails it is clear that it is
impossible to practice petitionary prayer. And there are additional
reasons why it is impossible to pray to God for the gratification of
one's desires: one person would pray for rain, another for sunshine
and both would be motivated by self interest. Or take the case where
two armies are facing each other. Before the battle is joined each
side prays for victory. But it is obviously impossible to grant both
requests. But if the spirit in which one asks is, “Not my will but
Thine be done”, then the petition is irrelevant — one surrenders
to the divine Will. If I wish to make a particular request I leave it to
the divine Being to decide whether my request should be granted or
not.
This is the predominant spirit of Christian prayer and it is this
spirit that gave birth to that universal, all-embracing prayer of
Christian tradition, the Lord's Prayer, which according to Christian
tradition was taught by Christ Himself. This prayer must, in fact, be
reckoned amongst the most profound of all prayers. To-day we cannot
really measure the full depth and dimensions of the Lord's Prayer as
revealed by the original language in which it was taught. But the
thought-content is so powerful that it could lose nothing of its
effectiveness in translation into any language.
When we turn to the prayers of other peoples, we find, wherever
religions have reached their high-point, prayers such as I have
described to you. But when the various religions declined, these
prayers inevitably lost something of their true character. They have
become magical formulae, instruments of idolatry, and in the epoch
when Christ Jesus taught His followers to pray, many of these magic
formulae — all of which had their particular significance in their
place of origin — were in common use. These magic formulae were
always associated with worldly desires, with personal demands of a
self-interested nature. Jesus taught that petitionary prayer, asking
for oneself, was contrary to the Christian idea of prayer. Such
prayers were secular in intention. When the Christian prays he should
withdraw into his inner chamber, into the inner recesses of the soul
where he can unite with the divine, spiritual Being. We must realize
that in each of us dwells a spark of the Divine, that we partake of
the Divine nature. But it would be wrong to assume that the creature
is therefore commensurate with the Creator. When we say that man
partakes of the Divine this does not imply that man himself is divine.
A drop of water from the ocean is of the same element as the ocean,
but is certainly not the ocean. So too the human soul is a drop from
the ocean of the Godhead, but it is not God. Just as the drop can
unite with its own element when returned to the ocean, so, as a drop
from the Godhead, the soul unites spiritually in prayer or meditation
with its God. This union of the soul with its God is called by Christ
entering into the inner chamber.
Now that we have described the nature of Christian prayer and what is
demanded of the Christian in prayer we shall be able to turn our
attention to the content of the Lord's Prayer itself. I stated that the
Lord's Prayer is the most all-embracing prayer. Therefore, in order to
understand the Lord's Prayer, it is necessary to begin by widening the
scope of our enquiries; we shall need to make many a detour in order
to grasp its full meaning. We must study the being of man from a
certain angle. As you know, we follow the traditional method which
spiritual investigation has practiced over thousands of years. Let us
briefly recall the nature of man's being.
First there is the physical body. Its substances and forces are
identical with the mineral kingdom and the whole of inorganic nature.
This physical body however is not, as the materialist imagines, simply
an object in space, but it is also the lowest member of the human
being. The next member is the etheric or life-body which man shares in
common with the plants and animals, for every plant, animal or human
being must call upon the chemical and physical substances so that they
are galvanized into life, since of themselves they would remain inert.
The third member is the astral body, the bearer of joy and sorrow, of
impulses, desires and passions and the normal impressions of daily
life. All these are the province of the astral body. Man shares this
astral body only with the animal kingdom for the animal also is
subject to joy and sorrow, impulses, desires and passions. To sum up,
therefore: man shares the physical body in common with inorganic
nature, the etheric with all that grows and propagates, with the
entire plant kingdom, and the astral body with the animal kingdom. In
addition there is a fourth member of his being which raises him above
these kingdoms of nature and makes him the crown of Creation.
Such is the conclusion we arrive at after a little reflection. Now there
is a name which differs from all others, the “ I ”, which can only
refer to oneself. To everyone else I am a “thou”, and everyone
else is a “thou” to me. As a name for the identity of the
individual, the “ I ” can only arise within the soul itself; it
cannot be experienced from without. The great religions have always been
aware of this and therefore they said: when the soul recognizes itself as
an “ I ”, then the God in man begins to speak, the God who speaks
through the soul. The name “ I ” cannot be experienced from
without, it must be experienced within the soul itself. This is the fourth
principle or member of the human being.
The occult science of the Hebrews called this “ I ” the ineffable
name of God. “Jahve” signifies simply “I am”. Wherever
interpretations may be given by external scholarship, it really meant
“I am”, namely, the fourth principle of the human being. Man
consists of these four principles and we call them the four principles
of man's lower nature.
Now if we wish to understand the being of man as a whole, we must look
back into the history of human evolution. We can trace in retrospect
the many and diverse peoples who precede us: the old Teutonic and
Central European civilization, the Greco-Latin and Chaldean peoples,
the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians and Hebrews, the Persian
peoples, even as far back as the Indian people from whom our present
civilization stemmed. And in their turn the Indian people could look
back to their forebears who dwelt in Atlantis, the continent which now
forms the ocean-bed between Europe and America. Atlantis was destroyed
by a series of deluges and vanished beneath the waters. The memory of
this catastrophe has survived in the myths and legends of all peoples
as the story of the Flood.
But even this civilization is not the oldest on earth. We can look
back to still earlier times when man inhabited a continent that was
situated approximately between the present Indo-China, Australia and
Africa — ancient Lemuria, a continent of immemorial antiquity where
totally different conditions from those of to-day prevailed. Usually
we are not sufficiently aware of the vast and sweeping changes on
earth in the course of human evolution. Now at this time the lower
principles in man were already in eminence, and this continent was
inhabited by beings consisting of the four principles, physical body,
etheric body, astral body and the ego-nature. These beings were more
highly organized than the highest animals of to-day, but had not
reached the human stage. They were animal-men, yet different from the
existing animals of our time. The latter are degenerate descendants
which have evolved from these animal-men as a result of retardation
and degeneration. The Lemurian beings, therefore, living at that time
underwent a quite specific modification.
At that time they were ready to receive a certain force, the force of
our higher soul to-day. There took place what we may describe as the
union of the lower human nature with the human soul. Up to this time
this human soul rested in the bosom of the Godhead, was an integral
part of the Godhead Himself. Above therefore, in the realm of the
spiritual, we have the divine-spiritual Being; below, the human
envelopes consisting of four principles which had evolved so far that they
were able to receive “drops” of this Godhead. We can illustrate
what took place at that time by the following analogy. Picture a glass
full of water. Let us imagine a number of sponges each containing a
drop of this water. The drops which had previously formed an integral
part of the water are now distributed amongst the sponges. This is a
simple illustration which serves to show how the process of ensoulment
took place at that time. Hitherto the soul had been one with the
divine First Cause, just as the drop had been one with the water.
These physical human envelopes behaved exactly as the sponges. These
spiritual “drops”, separated from the common divine substance,
became individualized. When they became souls they were like drops within
the envelopes and from that moment actively began to fashion man as a
physical and spiritual being such as he is to-day. These souls
incarnated for the first time in the Lemurian epoch, then passed
through innumerable incarnations and developed their physical body to
its present stage. Thus parts of the Godhead were united with the
lower principles of man's being. With each embodiment these souls
progressively evolved, with each embodiment they became more perfect
in order to attain a higher stage of being in the future.
This part of the higher nature which at that time was united with the
lower nature and transformed it, and in the process of this
transformation raised itself to a higher level, we call the higher
principle of man's being: Spirit Self (Manas), Life Spirit (Buddhi),
and Spirit Man (Atma). These are the aspects of the divine Essence by
means of which man transforms in gradual stages his lower nature into
the higher nature. By means of the force working within Manas he
transforms his astral body, through the force of Buddhi he transforms
his etheric body and through that of Atma the physical body. Therefore
in order to attain the goal of his evolution he must transfigure and
spiritualize these three bodies. Formerly, man consisted of the four
lower principles — physical body, etheric body, astral body and ego,
to which was added at that time the germ of higher development which
in reality is an emanation of the highest spiritual principle, namely
the higher Triad, the divine Essence, the spiritual potentiality of
man. Now we can look at this higher aspect of human nature from two
standpoints: on the one hand as the higher nature of man which he is
to evolve in the course of evolution, or on the other, as an aspect of
the divine Being from which he has emerged, as the Divine aspect in
man. Christ takes the second point of view first. We shall follow the
same course and enquire into the nature of these higher forces in
human nature. We shall start from the highest principle, the force of
Atma working within man.
I would now like to characterize for you the true nature and essence
of this higher principle of human nature rather than to offer you some
kind of superficial definition. That which becomes the force of Atma
is, in so far as it is a force emanating from the Godhead, of a
volitional nature. If you pause to reflect upon your own power of
volition, upon your will power, then you have a pale copy, a pale
reflection of that which proceeds from the force of Atma, from the
Godhead. Will is the power or force which is least developed to-day.
The will, however, has the potentiality to grow increasingly in
strength until a time will come when it reaches its maximum
potentiality, when it will be able to attain its goal, which the
religions call the “Great Sacrifice”.
Now imagine you are looking into a mirror. Your reflection is a
faithful copy of your physiognomy, imitates your every gesture,
resembles you in every respect, but it is a lifeless image of
yourself. You stand before the mirror as a living being and are faced
with your lifeless image, which resembles you in every detail, but is
without the living reality, the essential self. Imagine that your will
had developed to the point when it was able to make the decision to
sacrifice your own existence, your own being, or to surrender it to
your reflected image. You would then be in a position to sacrifice
yourself wholly in order to endow your reflected image with your own
life. Of such a will we say: it emanates, it pours out its own nature.
What Christianity terms “the divine Will of the Father” is
the highest expression of the will.
Today, therefore, the human will is the least developed member of the
soul forces. It is however in the process of developing such strength
that it is able to consummate the “Great Sacrifice”. Volitional
nature, in so far as it is an outpouring of Divinity, is the true
nature of that which can develop as the power of Atma.
Let us now consider from the Christian standpoint the second principle
of man's higher nature, Buddhi or Life Spirit, as an outpouring of the
Godhead. You will have no difficulty in understanding this if you do
not concentrate on the force radiating from itself in order to lend
life to the reflected image, but upon the reflected image itself. The
reflected image is an exact repetition of the original entity. It is
the same — and yet not the same — when you apply this idea to the
entire universe, showing how the divine Will as a center is reflected
in all directions.
Imagine a hollow globe whose inner walls are reflecting surfaces. A
center of illumination inside this globe is reflected in myriad
sequins on the walls: everywhere the universal Will in endless
multiplicity, everywhere reflected images, single aspects of the
Godhead.
Consider the Cosmos in this way — the Universe as a reflection of the
infinite Divine Will. The Divine Will is not present in any single
being, but expresses itself in infinite diversity. The reflection of the
Godhead — where the Godhead occupies the central position and yet at
the same time by virtue of the “Great Sacrifice” pours life into
every reflected image of Himself — is called in Christian terminology
“the Kingdom”. And this expression, “the Kingdom”, is
identical with the Buddhi in man. When we contemplate the creative and
productive principle in the Universe, the principle that issues from the
Divine First Cause, then the next higher principle associated with Atma is
Buddhi, a vital spark of this creative principle. In the form of
“Kingdom”, Buddhi is universal and cosmic.
Let us now turn our attention to the individual aspects of the
“Kingdom”. So far we have only considered it as a whole. Let us
now look into the separate entities. How do we distinguish between them?
By what is called in Christian terminology “the Name”. Each
separate entity is invested with a name and thus we distinguish respectively
the manifold, and the particular. By “the Name” the Christian
understands what is often called the “representation”, that
which is characteristic of an object. Just as the individual is distinguished
from his neighbor by the name, so too the name is felt to reflect at
the same time a part of the divine Being. The Christian responds to
this name in the right way when he realizes that every member of “the
Kingdom” is an outpouring of the Divine, that every morsel of bread he
consumes is an outpouring, a mirror and a part of the Godhead. The
Christian must realize that this is true of the smallest things. In
human nature man owes it to the individual Spirit Self that he becomes an
individual over against the others. What in “the Kingdom” is
“the Name”, man possesses in his individual Spirit Self or Manas
through the fact that he is a special part of the Godhead, that he has his
own particular name, the name which in the individual passes from
incarnation to incarnation.
Thus this threefold nature is seen to be a manifestation of the Supreme
Being and from this point of view Atma is “the Will” of the
Godhead, Buddhi or Life Spirit “the Kingdom”, and Manas or Spirit
Self “the Name”.
Let us now look at the four lower principles of human nature, starting
from the lowest, the physical body. This body is composed of the same
substance and forces as external nature, substances and forces which
the body continually transforms. It is only through the processes of
anabolism and catabolism in the physical organism of man that life is
maintained. He can only continue to exist because he is continually
renewed by the transformation of these physical substances. He is an
integral part of the whole of physical nature. A finger cannot
preserve its identity if severed — it withers the moment it is
separated from the body; it keeps its identity because it is an
integral part of the whole organism; in the same way the physical body
cannot preserve its identity if detached from the Earth. Thus man only
preserves his identity when he is intimately related to the elements
of the Earth. It is only through the metabolic processes that his
fundamental being is maintained. Such is the nature of the physical
body.
The second principle is the etheric or life-body. We must realize that
it is this body which activates the physical substances and forces. It
is not only the bearer of growth and propagation and of biological
phenomena in general, but also of all those qualities in man which are
of a more permanent nature than the transient impulses, desires and
passions. In what respect does it differ from the astral body? If you
wish to understand wherein this difference lies then you need only
look back to the time when you were only eight years old. Think of all
that you have learnt since that time, of the vast store of concepts,
ideas and lessons won from those experiences which have enriched your
life. Then think how painfully slow are the changes in your etheric
body. Think how choleric you were as a child and ask yourself if you
are not still prone to fits of anger on frequent occasions. Think of
how your tendencies or your temperament have largely remained
unchanged. They have not changed so much as your personal experiences.
All that we experience, all that we learn from experience can be
compared to the minute hand of a clock and the changes in character,
temperament and habits to the hour hand. This difference then is
explained by the fact that the astral body is the bearer of the former,
whilst the etheric body is the bearer of the latter. A change in your
habits implies a change in your etheric body. The lessons learned from
experience imply a change in the astral body.
The training of the student in true occultism does not depend on what
he outwardly learns; all spiritual training modifies the etheric body.
Therefore you have done more for your real occult development if you
have succeeded in transforming a single deep-rooted trait than if you
have acquired unlimited external knowledge. Accordingly we distinguish
exoterically, that for which the etheric body is the vehicle, and
esoterically, what the etheric body needs. The etheric body is also
the vehicle of the faculty of memory, but not of memory as conscious
recollection. Any strengthening of the memory, for example, is
associated with a transformation of the etheric body; any weakening of
the memory implies a change in the etheric body, a change in the power
to remember. And there is an additional factor of vital importance.
Man lives to-day on two levels. He is a member of a family, of a clan,
a nation and so on, and he also possesses certain characteristics
which he shares in common with others and which bind him to that
relationship. The characteristics of the Frenchman are quite different
from those of the German and these again are different from those of
the Englishman. They all share certain characteristics of their
descent. At the same time every man has his own individual
characteristics through which he transcends the limitations of his
nation and through which he establishes his particular identity. One
is a member of a community by virtue of certain qualities or
characteristics of the etheric body. It is these characteristics which
determine one's membership of a nation, a race and especially of a
community. That which makes it possible to transcend the limitations
of this community originates in the astral body. The astral body
determines man's individual tendencies.
Therefore it is important for man's life in the community that his
etheric body should harmonize with the etheric bodies of those with
whom he has to associate. If he cannot make this adjustment it is
impossible for him to live with them: difficulties arise and he is
rejected by the community, he becomes an outcast. The task of man's
etheric body therefore is to adjust itself to the etheric bodies of
others. The astral body determines man's individual tendencies; it
must live in such a way that the individual does not commit personal
sins. Personal sins are the consequences of errors on the part of the
astral body, are in effect defects of the astral body. Failure to
achieve harmony with the community is the consequence of defects of
the etheric body. In the esoteric teachings of Christianity the
correct term for the defects of the etheric body was “debt”, that
which disturbs harmonious relationship with others. A defect of the astral
body, a defect which stems from individuation was called in Christian
esotericism “succumbing to temptation”. It is the impulses,
passions and desires of the astral body which lead man into
temptation. The astral body errs through its own inner defects. In
this way Christian esotericism distinguished between “debt” and
yielding to temptation.
Let us now turn to the fourth principle of the human being, the ego. We
have already described the physical body which is continuously
recreated by means of metabolic processes, the etheric body which may
be burdened with “debt”, and the astral body which may succumb to
temptation. The fourth principle, the ego, is the primal source of
selfishness, of egoism. It is through the efforts and operation of the
ego that what was a unity in the Godhead is now diffused among the
many. The defection from the divine unity into individualized
existence is the work of the ego. Hence Christian teaching attributed
to the ego the real origin of self-seeking and egoism. So long as the
separate entities were united in the Godhead, conflict could not exist
among them. Conflict could only arise when they became individualized,
i.e. separate egos. The mutual development through conflict, which is
tantamount to egoism, is called in Christianity the transgression of
the ego, and Christian tradition indicates very precisely the moment
when this soul became incarnated in the body through the Fall into
sin, the eating of the apple in Paradise. The real “sin” or
transgression of the ego is designated by the term “evil”. Evil
therefore is the defect or transgression of the fourth lower
principle. Only the ego can succumb to evil, which arose through the
eating of the apple. In Latin, “malum” means both evil and apple.
To sum up: the physical body and the physical elements of the
environment are of the same nature. The physical body is sustained by
the processes of metabolism, the continuous interchange of forces and
substances. The etheric body is that which holds the balance between
the different members of the community and may incur “debt”.
Finally we have the astral body which must not fall into sin and the ego
which must not become the victim of egoism, of evil. This lower Quaternary
unites with the higher Triad, the divine Essence,
ATMA BUDDHI MANAS
(Will) (Kingdom) (Name)
Now think of prayer as a union of man, who has withdrawn into his inner
chamber, with the Godhead itself. In the original teaching of
Christianity the soul is portrayed as divine, as a drop from the ocean
of the Godhead. And the soul in its separateness must pray to be
reunited with the immanent and transcendent Godhead. The origin of the
divinity in man is given the name of the Father. And the goal of the
soul's destiny, where the soul will be united with the Father is
Devachan or heaven.
And now let us recall the nature of the primal or archetypal prayer.
It is an appeal by the alienated soul to be united with the divine
Fatherhood.
The purpose of this prayer was to beseech God for the consummation of
the three higher principles, to pray that the Will, the highest
manifestation of the Divine may be realized in man; that the second
higher principle, the Kingdom, shall take possession of the soul; and
that the third higher principle, the Name, shall be felt as holy. This
prayer therefore would refer to the three higher principles of the
divine in man. In respect of the four lower principles he would ask:
may my physical body be granted the substances necessary to sustain
it; may the etheric body strike a balance between its own debt and the
debt of others; may man live in harmony with his neighbor. May the
astral body not fall into temptation and may the ego not succumb to
evil, the true outcome of what we ordinarily mean by egoism.
You should pray for union with the Father in the words of a primal or
archetypal prayer. And you should pray in such a way that, as you
pray, you meditate upon the single principles of your sevenfold being.
“Our Father which art in Heaven.” First you invoke the Father,
then you prefer your petitions which are related to the three higher
principles:
“Hallowed be Thy Name, Thy Kingdom come.
Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Then follow the four petitions which refer to the four lower
principles:
“Give us this day our daily bread.
Forgive us our trespasses (our debts) as we
forgive them that trespass against us
(as we forgive our debtors).”
This implies reconciliation with our fellow men.
“Lead us not into temptation” — refers to the astral
body, and “Deliver us from evil”, i.e. from all manifestation
of egoism or self-interest — to the ego.
Thus the meaning of the evolution of the seven-principled being of man
is incorporated in the seven petitions of the Lord's Prayer. The
Lord's Prayer as a Christian prayer, is offered to Christians from out
of a deep understanding of the being of man and it incorporates the sum
of theosophic teaching concerning the nature of man. Prayers that are
not of merely transient effect, but which possess the soul and rejoice
the heart for thousands of years, are the fruit of deepest wisdom.
Such a prayer could never have arisen through an arbitrary collocation
of beautiful or sublime words. It is only because these words have
been drawn from the deep well of wisdom that they possess the power to
influence the soul of man for thousands of years.
To maintain that the simple-minded have no understanding of this
wisdom is not a valid objection. They have no need of understanding,
for the power of the Lord's Prayer stems from this wisdom and is
effective even when there is no understanding of the wisdom content. It
is important to have a right understanding of this. When we look at a
plant we are captivated by its beauty. And the most simple minded will
also be captivated though he may know nothing perhaps of the divine
wisdom concealed in the plant. And the same is true of prayers that
answer our deepest needs. One need know nothing of the wisdom they
embody and yet such prayers possess none the less the power, the
wisdom, the exaltation and the sanctity of prayer. If a prayer is born
of the highest wisdom, it is not essential that we know of this
wisdom. What is of importance is that we experience personally the
power of that wisdom.
Only in our present epoch is it possible once more to throw light upon
what Christ Jesus contributed to prayer and to discover afresh the
power He has infused into it, especially the Lord's Prayer. And
because this prayer has issued from the fountain head of wisdom
concerning man himself and his sevenfold being it not only exercises a
powerful and lasting influence upon the most untutored mind, but is
all the more edifying for those who are able to discover its deeper
meaning. And at the same time it loses nothing of that power which if
has always exercised, a power that overwhelms yet exalts, for the
whole of theosophy, of divine wisdom, is found in the Lord's Prayer.
Christ often spoke to the multitude in parables. When He was alone
with His disciples He expounded the parables to them. From this
wisdom-filled exegesis of the parables the disciples were to derive
that power through which they could become His messengers and could
learn how Christ Himself had attained that magic power through which
His mission is destined to continue acting upon mankind for thousands
of years.
In this way we come to understand the meaning of the Lord's Prayer.
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