from an Esoteric Lesson given by Rudolf Steiner in Christiania, Norway, June 9, 1912:
Last time we gave the inner reasons
for why we're in the school. Today we'll speak more about the outer
conditions.
The first quality that one needs is
truthfulness, the will to be true. Belief in the Master should never be
dictated. One who treads the path conscientiously will certainly be led to him
or at least to the concept, the knowledge, that he exists. But if this would be a
condition right from the start it would be a lie. The existence of the master
should be known through inner reason; the truth can be found from what is
communicated exoterically, and so the path from the exoteric to the esoteric can
be found. An esotericism that wanted to dictate belief in the masters is
none.
But a student isn't just supposed
to be given teachings, he's supposed to discover forces in himself which are
there, and he's supposed to learn how to use them; he just does not know that he
has them.
What is the school there for?
Advice is given for faster and easier progress, because humanity needs that. An
unavoidable result is an appeal to a man's egoism. The side exercises are there
to combat what one adds to one's egoity. If a pupil doesn't do them, pride and
vanity will unavoidably arise in him. One should not tolerate them in oneself.
When we come together each one
should watch himself, and should ascribe conscientiousness and honesty to the
others. One should begin with one's own pride and ambition and not ascribe them
to people who are supporting something. Anyone who praises others harms them and
himself. One should always remain factual. One should let the truth speak in one
out of what is given exoterically and experience it from the latter.
Memory and the ability to think
will disappear from a man if he devotes himself to meditation with all his
might. That's supposed to be like that. But they should function all the better
in everyday life.
Improperly done exercises can lead
to megalomania or one can become subservient to other's megalomania. Or one's
memory or reason can get worse. One should try to be dutifully truthful to
counteract this. One should observe oneself, should study theosophy, should not
only try to be truthful oneself, but should investigate the truth in everything
that comes to meet one.
Four rabbis wanted to enter the
garden of maturity. The first lost his mind, the second went berserk, the third
got sick — which can never happen through our exercises — and died; only the
fourth entered the garden when he acquired a love for nature as a good result of
his striving.
One can also experience this love in small, insignificant things,
and not just in big mountains and oceans. The Gods made the former also. They
were glad about their environment and took it down into the physical world to
make men glad. Such feelings continue to work in men. Everything that's in men
will someday become manifest, even if it's only in a later incarnation.
Nothing ever became known about the
previous incarnation of leading personalities until a hundred years after their
last death; when this did happen here or there it was only confidentially as a
communication in a small circle, but never publicly, as A. Besant is doing
now.
When one comes in contact with
occult sects, occult progress is always possible there also, but the question
is: How does one get into the spiritual world? On the right path one gets ever
more humble and modest.
One should let everything that was
said here work upon one's feeling. One shouldn't do exercises like one does
outer work. One shouldn't bustle around and look for truth, but should be able
to wait quietly.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment