Background to the Gospel of Mark. Lecture 7.
Rudolf Steiner, Berlin, February 28, 1911:
If the goal we have set before us, which is
connected with the study of the Gospel of Mark, is to be pursued further, it
must be grasped in its widest meaning. It may perhaps be only after a
considerable time that the reason will appear why one or another line of study
has been pursued, and what connection these have with our subject. We will have
to speak today, for instance, of certain things which apparently are far
removed from our theme, but which will be of great assistance to us in our later
studies.
Allow me to say
in the first place that those who are outside our movement will always have
difficulty in understanding certain things connected with the direction of the
anthroposophical spiritual movement so long as they do not inform themselves
intimately with what concerns the central nerve of this movement. Such things,
for instance, as: what meaning and value have “clairvoyant investigations” for
those who have not yet attained clairvoyant powers. The objection might be made:
“How can a faith or conviction concerning spiritual truths be developed by
those who cannot see into the spiritual world?”
Here attention
must be drawn to the opposite — that as long as our clairvoyant eyes remain
unopened we cannot see into the spiritual world, although from this spiritual
world all the results and revelations it contains are derived. When it is stated
as a result of clairvoyant investigation that man consists of four members —
physical body, etheric body, astral body, and ego — the person who holds aloof
from such investigation might perhaps object: “I only see the physical body;
how can I convince myself of the existence of these higher members of my being
before my karma makes it possible for me to see them and realize the truth of
what I am told concerning them?”
It is easy for
anyone, if he so wishes, to deny the existence of the astral and etheric body,
but he cannot by decree annul the processes that go on in them, for they are
seen in human life. I would like, in order that you may enter into the whole
composition of the being of man, as revealed by many of the expressions found in
the Gospels, to show how clearly the results of processes within the etheric and
astral body can be seen in our ordinary life on the physical plane.
Let us, in the
first place, consider the difference between a man who is full of idealism and
sets up high ideals, and one who is disinclined to do this, who acts according
to instinct, who eats when he is hungry, sleeps when he is sleepy, does this or
that when moved by desire for one thing or another. Naturally there are all
kinds of intermediate stages between these two types; between the one just
described and others whose thoughts and ideals rise far above what they are able
to attain in ordinary life. Such idealists are always in a peculiar position
regarding life. They must always try to convince themselves of the truth of the
saying that it is not possible really to satisfy their highest ideals in any
domain of the physical plane. Idealists constantly state: “My deeds ever lag
behind my ideals.” We must therefore acknowledge when speaking strictly: in a
man's ideals — in what he thinks or feels — there is always something greater
than in his deeds. According to spiritual science this is the outstanding
feature of the idealist. Keep this clearly before you: the idealist is one whose
intentions and thoughts are always greater than what he is able to accomplish on
the physical plane. Of the man whose life we have described as being the
opposite of this, we can say: his thoughts and views are narrower, more
restricted than his deeds. Anyone who acts only from instinct, passion, or
desire has not thoughts capable of grasping the result of his actions at any
given moment; the things he does far exceed his power of thought. His intentions
and thoughts are therefore narrower, more restricted, than his deeds on the
physical plane.
The clairvoyant
has something to tell us concerning these two types. When we do something, when
we carry out some piece of work that is greater and more far-reaching than our
thoughts, this activity always casts a reflection into our astral body. We do
nothing in life that is not reflected or imaged in our astral body. This image
is imparted later to the etheric body and as it is imparted so it remains in the
Akashic Chronicle and can he seen there by the clairvoyants as a picture of what
the man has done during his life. And in the same way, images remain behind in the
astral body and are later projected into the etheric body of thoughts that are
greater than the fulfillment of them. This means thoughts that are the outcome of
idealism, that are reflected in the astral body and continue further into the
etheric body.
There is a great
difference between the reflected images of actions that have sprung from
instincts, desires, passions, etc., and the reflected images of deeds that are
the outcome of idealism. The first contain something that remains as a
destructive element during a man's whole life. They are those images, those
contents of the astral body, which gradually affect the entire human being so
that it is slowly destroyed. Such images are closely connected with the way
human life on the physical plane is gradually prepared for death. But those
other reflections, springing from thoughts which transcend our actions, have
life-giving qualities. They are specially stimulating to our etheric body, for
they continually bring new vital forces to man's whole being.
Thus, according
to clairvoyance, we have destructive forces within us on the physical plane and
at the same time forces that continually impart fresh life. As a rule the effect
of these forces on life can be easily seen. We meet people who are gloomy,
hypochondriacal, of a somber temperament, people who are not happy in their soul
life: all this works back on their physical organism. They become nervous, and
one observes how nervousness, if it continues, undermines the health of the
physical organism. Such men become melancholy in later life, are discontented
with themselves, and in various ways are unbalanced natures. If the cause of
this is investigated we find that such persons have had little opportunity in
the earlier periods of their physical life of transcending action by idealistic
thought. In ordinary life such things are not noticed; but their results are
clear! Many people feel these results strongly: they feel them as an attitude of
soul and of life, and perceive them also in bodily conditions.
So, though the
astral body may be denied, its consequences cannot be denied, for they are felt.
And when life reveals the things I have just described, people are forced to
acknowledge that we are not so very foolish when we declare that we have proof
of them. For though spiritual happenings can only be seen by the clairvoyant,
the results can be seen by anyone.
On the other
hand we find that thoughts which are more noble than the actions connected with
them leave impressions which appear in later life as courage, confidence, and
calmness. These continue to work even into the physical organism, but the
connections are only noticed when a man's life is observed over long periods of
time. The mistake of many scientific observations is that people are apt to
judge results immediately in the course of the first few years, whereas the
results of many things are only apparent after decades.
Now, we must
realize, there are not only people of a purely idealistic nature whose thoughts
transcend their various experiences, and others whose thoughts lag behind their
experiences, but we have a large number of experiences which our thoughts only
grasp with the greatest difficulty. Eating and drinking are things that spring
anew each day from instinct, and it takes a long time before those who are going
through a spiritual training learn to connect such things with spiritual life.
It is precisely everyday things that are the most difficult to connect with
spiritual life. We have first done this as regards eating and drinking when we
have discovered why, in order to serve the progress of the world, we have to
receive physical substances into us regularly, and what connection these
physical substances have with spiritual life. We then learn that digestion is
not merely a physical process, but that there is something spiritual in its
rhythm. In any case there is a way of gradually spiritualizing those things
which are not demanded purely by external necessity; it is possible so to regard
them that we say: We eat this or that fruit, and through our spiritual
knowledge can always form an idea of how an apple, or any other fruit, is
related to the universe as a whole. This, however, takes a long time. For we
must in this case accustom ourselves to allow eating to be no mere material
fact, but to observe the connection between the spirit and the ripening of any
fruit by the rays of the Sun.
In this way we
spiritualize the most material, most everyday processes, and acquire power to
enter into them with our thoughts. (Here it is only possible to hint how
thoughts and ideas can be brought into this realm.) It is a long road, and very
few men in our age can arrive at thinking perfectly as regards eating.
Thus there are
not only people who act instinctively, and others who act idealistically, but
with everyone life is partitioned so that one part of a man's actions is carried
out in a way that thought cannot follow, and others so that thoughts and ideas
have a wider range than actions. We have one set of forces within us which lead
our life downhill, and operate so that our physical organism through internal
causes is gradually prepared for death; and another set of forces which bring
life to our astral and etheric bodies, and dawn continually like a new light
within these bodies. These are the life-giving forces within our etheric
body.
When after death
we forsake our sheaths with the spiritual part of our being, we still have the
etheric body about us for a few days, and because of this we have that backward
vision of our whole life of which I have often spoken. The best of what now
remains to us is something inwardly constructive, the life-giving forces just
mentioned, that rise within us because our ideas transcend the sum of our
actions. These continue to work in us after death, and contain the life-forces
necessary for our following incarnation.
The life-giving
forces we implant in us remain within our etheric body, they are forces of
enduring youth, and though we cannot lengthen our life through them we can so
shape it that it retains the freshness of youth for a longer time. We do this by
acting in such a way that our thoughts surpass the measure of our deeds.
When a man asks
himself “How can I gain those ideals which best transcend my actions?” we
answer: This is possible when people give themselves up to spiritual science,
which directs their thoughts to supersensible worlds. When they learn, for
instance, from spiritual science of the evolution of man, these communications
stir up forces in the higher members of their being, and they gain through them
at the present day the most certain, most concrete idealism. And when questioned
further: — “What specially does spiritual science do compared with other
sciences?” We answer: — “It pours into our astral and etheric bodies fresh,
youthful, life-giving forces.”
People are
related to what we call spiritual science in so many different ways not because
as men of today they are non-clairvoyant, but because they do not observe
things in ordinary life with sufficient care; otherwise they would see the
various ways in which what we call the man of soul and spirit reveals himself,
even within his organism.
Those who live
in the world and only approach spiritual science as thorough unbelievers may
hear it said: “This science holds that the human physical body is filled by
various higher members; it sums these up as the soul- and
spirit-man." But the materialists of the present day do not wish to
believe in this man of soul and spirit. They believe only in the physical man,
and for this reason they are materialists. Under the term materialists
people frequently understand only theoretical materialists, those who only
believe in matter! But as I have often said: these theoretical materialists are
not the worst, for such a materialist might be one who created ideas merely
through his understanding, and such ideas are usually very short-sighted: a
materialism that springs only from ideas is not necessarily very harmful. But
when it is fortified by other things, it can be very harmful for a man's whole
life, especially when with the innermost spiritual kernel of his being he is
attached to his material side. And how dependent people are today on what is
material!
It may be
misleading to assert that there are theoretical materialists as regards
thoughts, and that some thoughts are fatal to our souls; but our external life
is also greatly influenced by the fact that in the practices of life there are
so many materialists. What do I mean by this? I mean a man who is so dependent
on physical things that he can only spend a few months in his office in winter,
and in the summer must go to the Riviera. Such a man is entirely dependent on
materialistic arrangements and combinations; he is a materialist as regards the
practices of life; he is entirely dependent on material things; his soul is
forced to run after the wants dictated by life. This is a different kind of
materialist from the one who lives only in thoughts which are materialistic. A
theoretical idealism may yet lead to the conviction that theoretical materialism
is a mistake, but the practical materialist can only be cured by entering
profoundly into spiritual science.
If people would
only think — that is, if their thoughts did but spring not merely from
understanding but from a connection with reality — they would recognize from
quite ordinary facts that there is a great difference between the various parts
of man's being.
I will first
point out the difference between the hands and, let us say, the shoulders.
If we
investigate physical man in an entirely external way, we find physical
differences, for instance, in the way the nerves behave. Yet we must remember
that we can exercise a certain influence on this. If the behavior of our nerves
was the absolute and only authority for the soul, we should be dependent on the
activity of substance, for the behavior of the nerves is an activity of
substance. This we most assuredly are not; for we are able to influence the
state of our nerves, and we do so in the most varied ways, especially through our
etheric and astral bodies — that is, through our soul and spirit. We must not
simply say: “The physical body is filled by the etheric and astral body,” for
this varies according to the part we are considering, whether it be the head or
the shoulder or some other part. Different spiritual parts act differently. It
is easy to convince ourselves of this. We must, however, realize that what takes
place in life is in accordance with reality, and cannot be studied without
thought. If our breath is not drawn correctly, the physiologist discovers by
physiological laws why it did not reach the place intended.
And why do
people not ponder the profound significance there is for life in the fact that
they wash their hands more often than any other part of their body? (It may seem
strange that such things should be mentioned, but it is precisely by everyday
events that the communications of the clairvoyant can be verified.) In any case
this is a fact. And it is also a fact that some people wash their hands more
frequently and more gladly than others. This fact, so apparently trivial, is
really connected with the highest knowledge. When a clairvoyant observes the
hands, they are for him wonderfully different from all the other members, even
from the face. From the fingers luminous projections stream forth from the
etheric body, sometimes glimmering feebly, sometimes piercing surrounding space.
They stream forth differently according to whether the person is joyful or sad,
and differently from the inner surfaces than from the backs of the hands. For
anyone who can observe things clairvoyantly the hand, more especially in its
etheric and astral parts, is a most wonderful formation.
Everything
around us, even if material, is a revelation of spirit. Matter has to be thought
of in regard to spirit as ice is to water; matter is formed out of spirit. If
you like, you may call it consolidated spirit. Therefore if we come in contact
with any substance, we contact the spirit in that substance. Any contact we make
with substance, in so far as this is material, is maya, illusion. In reality it
is the spirit we encounter.
The way we come
in touch with the spirit in water, when we wash our hands, for instance, is seen
— when life is observed with sharpened senses — to have a great influence on our
whole disposition, however often we wash them. There are natures that have a
certain preference for washing their hands: they must wash at once if they touch
anything dirty. These natures are related in a quite special way to their
surroundings. They are not restricted merely to what is material, for it is as
if a fine force within the material substance begins to affect them, and that
they have established the connection I mentioned between their hands and the
element of water. Such people are even seen to possess, in an entirely healthy
sense, more sensitive natures, finer powers of observation than others. They
know at once, for instance, if they encounter anyone of a brutal or of a kindly
nature. Whereas those others who endure dirt on their hands are actually of a
coarser nature, and show by such ways that they have raised a wall between
themselves and the more intimate relationships with the surrounding world. This
is a fact and, if you like, it can be proved ethnographically. Pass through and
observe the various countries of the world. You are then able to say: “Here or
there people wash their hands more.” Observe the relationship between such
people; observe how different the relationship is between friend and friend,
between acquaintance and acquaintance, in regions where hands are more
frequently washed than in regions where walls have been raised between them
owing to this being done less frequently.
Such things have
the value of natural laws, Other connections can cancel them. If we throw a
stone through the air, the line of its flight describes a parabola. But if the
stone is caught by the wind, the parabola is not there. This shows that we have
to know the conditions before certain relationships can be observed
correctly!
Whence does this
knowledge come? It comes from clairvoyance, for it is revealed to this
consciousness how finely the hands are permeated by soul and spirit qualities.
This is so much the case that a special relationship of the hands to water is
apparent, greater than in the case of the human countenance, and greater still
than in respect of the surface of other parts of the human body. This must not
be understood as an objection in any way to bathing and washing, but rather as
throwing light on certain relationships. It is only to show how very differently
man's soul- and spirit-nature is related to his various members, and how
differently this is impressed on them.
You will find it
hard to believe, for instance, that anyone could suffer injury in his astral
body through washing his hands too frequently. But this must be considered in
its widest aspect. It depends on the maintenance of a healthy relationship
between man and the surrounding world — that is, between the astral body of man
and the surrounding world — through the relationship of his hands to water.
If people think
only in a materialistic way, clinging with their thoughts to what is material,
they say “What is good for the hands is good for the rest of the body” — showing that they do not note the fine differences between the hands and the other
members.
The result is
one that is seldom noticed: namely, that as regards certain things all of the
human body should not be treated alike. For instance, as a specific cure
children used to be ordered frequent cold baths and friction. Fortunately,
because of certain results on the “nervous system,” physicians have found these
methods unwise. For, owing to the special relationship between the hands and the
astral body, what is in some ways suitable for them may soon prove harmful
where the body stands in a different relationship to the astral body. Where a
healthy sense of perception toward the surrounding world is evoked through
frequent handwashings, an unhealthy hyper-sensitiveness is often the result of
an exaggerated cold-water treatment; and this, especially if employed in
childhood, may last during the whole life.
It is therefore
most necessary that the limits should be known, and this is only possible when
people acknowledge the fact that the physical body is closely linked with the
higher members of man's being. People will then realize that the more physical
part of us — the physical instrument — must be treated quite differently from
the soul- and spirit-nature. They must also realize this in connection with the
glands, which are instruments especially of the etheric body, while everything
connected with the nerves and the brain is intimately associated with the astral
body. If these things are not understood, neither will certain other appearances
ever be understood. Materialists err most in this, because they always look to
the instrument and not back to the cause. Everything we experience is
experienced in the realm of the soul, and that we are conscious of these
experiences depends on our having an instrument of reflection in the physical
body. In it everything is preserved — but the physical body is only the
instrument. This is often brought to our notice in a remarkable way. I need only
mention the thyroid gland. This, you know, is regarded as a meaningless organ, and
in cases of illness is removed — but the patient may sink into idiocy. If only a
part of this gland remains, the danger is avoided. This shows that the secretions
of this gland are necessary for the development of certain things in the life of
the soul. Now, the strange nature of this organ is further revealed in the fact
that if the secretions of the thyroid gland of a sheep are given to the patient
who has lost his own gland, the tendency to idiocy is lessened, but the
contrary if the secretions of the sheep are withheld. Materialists find great
satisfaction in this fact. Spiritual science is able, however, to estimate it in
the right way. We are faced with the strange fact that we are here concerned
with an organ the products of which we can trace directly to our organism.
Activities such as occur in the thyroid gland are only possible when there is a
certain connection with the etheric body. Where a similar connection exists with
the astral body, these activities are not possible.
I have known
more or less feebly endowed men who have eaten sheep's brains, yet have not
become clever! This shows the great difference there is between different
organs. This difference is only so considerable because one group of organs have
connection with the etheric body, others with the astral body. From this another
very remarkable fact is disclosed to spiritual observation.
It seems very
strange that a man becomes feeble-minded when his thyroid gland is removed, but
can be restored to cleverness by having the extract of the same gland
administered to him. It seems strange because it cannot be discovered that his
brain is affected thereby. This is again a point where ordinary human
observation is of necessity led to spiritual-scientific methods of observation,
for spiritual science shows that the man did not become the least feeble-minded
when his thyroid gland was removed. “But,” you say, “the facts show that the man
was feeble-minded!” In reality men do not become idiotic because they are
wanting in understanding, but because the possibility of making use of the
instrument which gives them “awareness” is wanting. They do not become idiotic
through any loss of understanding, but because contact with their surroundings
is blunted, and bluntness is different from the loss of understanding.
Understanding is not lost if through want of awareness it has never been
developed. If you are unable to think about a thing, you cannot express
yourself regarding it; you must first think of it before any contact with it can
be established. The “power to participate,” the living interest in things, is
undermined when the thyroid gland is removed. Men become indifferent to such an
extent, indeed, that they cease to employ their understanding.
From this you
can see the great difference between the employment of an instrument of
understanding like the various parts of the brain, and of an instrument
connected with a gland such as the thyroid gland. In this way we are able to
throw light on the different ways in which our physical body is an instrument,
and when this is understood we can distinguish between the different parts of
human consciousness.
Even in respect
of the ego we can say that it is related in the most varied ways to the
surrounding world. We have here to consider things connected with the ego which
I have described elsewhere from different aspects, showing how man either enters
more within himself with his ego, strives to become more aware of himself, or he
turns to the outer world, striving rather to find his connection with it. We
become in a certain sense conscious of ourselves when we turn our glance inward
— when we devote ourselves to the thought of what life gives us, what it holds
for us. We are then conscious of our ego. We can become conscious of it when we
come in contact with the outer world; for instance, when we knock up against a
stone, or if we cannot solve a calculation, we are conscious of our ego as
something feeble compared to conditions in the external world. In short, both
within ourselves and also in the external world we can become conscious of our
ego. We become aware of our ego in a very special way when those magic
connections between man and the surrounding world arise which we describe as
feelings of sympathy or compassion. Here it is clearly seen that a magic
activity passes from soul to soul, from spirit to spirit. For whatever takes
place in the world is felt by us; what is there felt or thought, is experienced
again within us: we experience it as something inward, something of the soul
and spirit. We are then inwardly intensified; for compassion and sympathy are
experiences of the soul. And if our ego is not sufficiently developed for these
experiences and requires strengthening, this is expressed in a purely spiritual
way through sorrow and in a physical way through tears. Sorrow as a
soul-experience brings greater strength to the ego in respect of outward
experience than does indifference. Sorrow is always an inner enhancement of the
ego. Tears but express the fact that, at the moment, the ego strives to experience
more than it would through indifference.
In this
connection we are forced to admire the poetic fantasy of the young Goethe,
closely connected as it was with profound facts of human nature. It is where he
allows the weakness of Faust's ego to lead him so far that he feels at first
constrained to extinguish this ego physically — he feels driven to suicide.; then
the Easter bells ring out, and at the sound the ego of Faust begins to gather
strength, so much so that tears spring — the sign of this in the soul of Faust:
— “Tears start, Earth holds me once more,” he cries.
This means that
what belonged to Earth was strengthened through the shedding of tears — the
increased intensity of the ego found expression in tears.
In mirth and
laughter we again have what is connected with the strength or weakness of the
ego in its relationship to the external world. These show that the ego feels
strong as regards its understanding of things and events. In laughter our ego
draws together, and its intensity is strengthened. [ 1 ] This finds expression in mirth, in the way we show our
amusement. With this is associated the fact that sorrow is fundamentally
something that should be so experienced, at least by the healthy man, that what
occasions this sorrow is real to him. What affects us in this reality so that
in sharing it we feel we must enhance the inner activity of our ego, brings
about a feeling of sadness. But when sorrow depends on what is unreal and is
expressed merely in an artistic sense, the man of sound thought will feel that
he requires something more. He feels that to the cause of his sadness a certain
conviction must be added that sorrow can be overcome by something able to
conquer misery. Therefore we demand from the drama that it should represent the
victory of the person who is overtaken by misery. It is no aesthetic
representation of life that sets only its trivial elements before us; in a man
who trusts entirely to his healthy nature, the ego is not satisfied when
confronted with misery that is counterfeited.
The whole weight
of reality is required before our ego can rise to compassion.
Now, do you not
feel in your souls how different it is as regards anything comic? It is in a
certain extent inhuman to laugh at a simpleton, but it is quite sound to laugh
at one when represented on the stage. Burlesques and comedies are a healthy
means of showing how the folly of men's actions leads to absurdities.
When our ego is
able to rise to laughter over what is generally recognized as folly, it is
strengthened, and there is no healthier laughter than that evoked through such
artistic presentations, though it is inhuman to laugh at what actually befalls
our fellow men, or at a real simpleton. Thus different laws come into operation
whether these things affect us as representations or in actual life. We must
allow that if our ego is to be strengthened through compassion this is best done
when we are actually confronted with the fact that moves us to compassion. On
the other hand, as healthy men we demand from misery that is counterfeited, that
we should find in it the means of overcoming it. In the dying heroes of tragedy,
where death is actually enacted before our eyes, we feel that the victory of the
spirit over death is symbolized in these deaths. The whole matter is reversed
when the ego is brought in touch with the world around us. We then feel that
faced with reality we cannot attain to mirth or laughter in the right way, that
we are best able to laugh at those things that are more or less removed from
reality.
When a man meets
with some misfortune which does not specially injure him and is not closely
connected with the real facts of life, we may well laugh at his misfortune. But
the nearer this experience is to reality the less can we laugh at it when we
understand it. From this we see how varied are the relationships of our ego to
reality, but in all this variety of facts we recognize everywhere a link with
what is greatest.
From many
lectures you have learnt that in ancient initiation there were two ways of
gaining entrance to the spiritual world. One method was by sinking deeply within
one's own being — within the Microcosm; the other was by passing out into the
life of the Macrocosm or great world. Now everything which comes to expression
in great things is revealed also in the smallest. The way in which a man
descends into his own inner being in daily life is shown by his sadness; and the
way in which he is able to expand into the life of the outer world is shown by
his ability to grasp the connections of such events as he there encounters. In
this is seen the supremacy of the ego. And you have heard that if the ego is not
to be lost it must be guided by the initiation that leads into the outer world;
otherwise it loses itself, and instead of going forth into the outer world it is
brought to apparent nothingness.
The smallest
things are connected with the greatest. Therefore, in spiritual science, where
we have so often to rise to the highest spheres, we must sometimes concern
ourselves with what belongs to the most everyday things. In the next lecture,
when once more we shall occupy ourselves with higher spheres, we shall make use
of some of the things dealt with today.
Notes:1. See Paths of Experience: the Chapter on Laughing and Weeping, where this subject is fully explained.
Source: http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA/GA0124/19110228p01.html
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment