Wellspring: Consuming Fire: 40 years at the Himalayan Institute

And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. —Luke 9:23-24

"If one observes how karma works itself out, it may be said from the human side that this living out of karma can only be described as a kind of hunger and its satisfaction." — Rudolf Steiner

As of today, July 3, 2021, Darlene and I have been residents at the headquarters of the Himalayan Institute for exactly 40 years.

My guru, Swamiji

Swamiji: "Isn't this a cremation ground? You come here to be burned, and if you can't get that into your head, there's no point in your being here!"

"I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled? But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!" — Luke 12:49-50

The quintessential Maha-Vakya: "ES IST ICH"

Rudolf Steiner: "In older languages the self was not specifically designated, for it was contained within the verb. The ‘I’ was not directly mentioned. The verb was used to show what one was doing, and this was what indicated that one was speaking about oneself. There was no name for the self. It only came about in later times that the human being gave his self a name, and in our German language that name [ich] contains the initials of Jesus Christ, which is an important symbolic fact." [Iesus CHristus: ICH]

Jesus: Krishna, redeemed by Christ

"I praise what is truly alive, what longs to be burned to death." — Goethe

Rudolf Steiner: “To thee, O Flame, I commit what is mine on Earth, that the Gods may receive it when the smoke rises upward. May that which is borne upward by the Flame be changed into divine blessing and pour down again to Earth as creative, fructifying power!”

Rudolf Steiner, "Verse for America"

May we be centered in the feeling

of compassionate love in our hearts

as we seek to unite with human beings who share our goals

and with spirit beings who, full of grace,

behold our earnest, heartfelt striving,

strengthening us from realms of light

and illuminating our love.

"Ma Swaha" is my name for the spiritual being that is the Himalayan Institute.

The words of Benedictus, from scene 7 of Rudolf Steiner’s Mystery Drama “The Portal of Initiation”:

You have been joined by destiny
together to unfold the powers
which are to serve the good in active work.
And while you journey on the path of soul,
wisdom itself will teach you
that the highest goal can be achieved
when souls will give each other spirit certainty,
will join together in faithfulness
for the healing of the world.
The spirit’s guidance has united you in knowledge;
so now unite yourselves for spirit work.
The rulers of this realm bestow on you,
through me, these words of strength:

Light’s weaving essence radiates
from person to person
to fill the world with truth.
Love’s blessing gives its warmth
to souls through souls
to work and weave the bliss of all the worlds.
And messengers of spirit
join human works of blessing
with purposes of worlds.
And when those who find themselves in others
join with each other
the light of spirit radiates through warmth of soul.

The New Yoga : The Yoga of Light

"The healthy social life is found when in the mirror of each human soul the entire community finds its reflection and when, in the community, the virtue of each one is living." — Rudolf Steiner

The Himalayan Institute's meditation shrine

"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." — Matthew 11:28-30

"And the Veda was made flesh, and dwelt among us."

Rudolf Steiner: "Anthroposophy is especially equipped to lift us above what can happen on a material level in space and time."

"Knowledge should become the most heartfelt offering of soul."
— Rudolf Steiner

Seek ye first the kingdom of God
Photo by Ransom Hare

May God's protecting, blessing ray
Fill my growing soul,
That it may lay hold of
Strengthening forces everywhere.
My soul shall vow
To awaken to full life in itself
The power of Love,
And thus see God's strength
On its life's path,
And act in accordance with God
With all that it has.

— Rudolf Steiner

"Find what you love and let it kill you."
— Charles Bukowski

Swamiji in Glenview, Illinois, 1975

Rudolf Steiner: "A grafting of any Oriental system upon our own culture would be of no avail, for it would oppose every condition of the spiritual life of the West."

Rudolf Steiner: "...these societies built on brotherliness and spiritual insight are the worst beset with conflicts. They present the widest opportunities for fighting, for partings-of-the-way, for splitting up into separate factions within the larger group, for group resignations, for sharp attacks on those who stay and those who leave, and so on. In short, human strife is at its most rampant in groups dedicated to brotherhood.... When people apply their ordinary soul habits to what they think they are understanding of teachings about the higher worlds, then this inevitably develops strife and egotism. Thus it is just by grasping the true nature of the higher worlds that one is led to understand how easily societies with a spiritual content can become involved in conflicts and quarreling, and how necessary it is to educate oneself to participation in such groups by learning to tolerate the other person to an immeasurably greater degree than one is used to doing."

Not I, but Christ in me

"The Fundamental Social Law"

Rudolf Steiner: "In a community of human beings working together, the well-being of the community will be the greater, the less the individual claims for himself the proceeds of the work he has himself done — that is, the more of these proceeds he makes over to his fellow workers — and the more his own requirements are satisfied not out of his own work done, but out of work done by the others."

"The degree to which the necessity for brotherliness is felt
is the degree of our permeation by Christ." ~ Rudolf Steiner

"ES IST ICH"

"I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." — Galatians 2:19-21

"ES IST ICH"

Rudolf Steiner: "If we wish to find God, but wish this only in order to keep him in our own soul, this shows that our egoism has in an unhealthy way crept into our highest endeavors. Then this egoism will have its revenge on us. We shall be healed only if, after having found God within us, we pour what we now have in us unselfishly into the world, through our thoughts, our feelings, and our will and actions."

"He must increase : I must decrease." —John 3:30

"In the beholding of God we do not fall;
in the beholding of ourselves we may not stand."
— Julian of Norwich

"The Return of the Prodigal Son" by Rembrandt

"Something must come about anew that resembles the working of the old Mysteries, something that is described as an offering and devotion of the whole human being, an opening out of the whole human being within his or her task.... the impulse to give one's whole humanity as an offering to the work that you have recognized as being holy." —Rudolf Steiner

The Himalayan Institute

"On the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience." —Luke 8:15

The Himalayan Institute's Meditation Shrine

Choleric Larry Clark

Rudolf Steiner: "Persons of a choleric temperament should purposely put themselves in situations where rage is of no use, but rather only makes them look ridiculous."

Rudolf Steiner: "Let us suppose that a person intended to accomplish something in the world through inner spiritual means. The individual has to prepare himself or herself by learning above all to suppress his or her wishes or desires. And while one becomes stronger in the physical world if one eats well and is well nourished and thus has more energy, one will achieve something significant in the spiritual world — this is a description, not advice — when one fasts or does something to suppress or renounce wishes and desires. Preparation that involves relinquishing the wishes, desires, and will impulses arising in us is always part of the greatest spiritual endeavors. The less we will, the more we can say that we let life stream over us and do not desire this or that, but rather take things as karma casts them before us; the more we accept karma and its consequences; the more we behave calmly, renouncing all that we otherwise would have wanted to achieve in life — the stronger we become."

Rudolf Steiner: "Wherever we are gathered together we are gathered in the name of the search for wisdom and the search for love."

Rudolf Steiner: "If anyone is to work for the community, he must perceive and feel the value, the nature and importance, of this community. He can do this only when the community is quite different from a more or less indefinite sum of individual human beings. It must be informed by an actual spirit, in which each single one has their part. It must be such that each one says 'It is as it should be, and I will that it be so.' The community must have a spiritual mission, and each individual must have the will to contribute toward the fulfilling of this mission."

"Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." — Matthew 10:16

Photo by Ransom Hare

This is where I start each day:

The Himalayan Institute's meditation shrine

The Gate of Humility

"The heights of the spirit can be scaled only by passing through the gate of humility." — Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Steiner: "In spiritual investigation when such a question arises it must first of all be thoroughly experienced. One must live into it. If one begins to speculate as to a possible solution to such a question, as to a possible answer, one will certainly arrive at a false conclusion. For the effort of the ordinary brain-fettered understanding gives, as a rule, no solution. That can only be ascertained through inner activity. The answers to questions relating to the enigmas of the spiritual world descend from the spiritual world as by an act of grace. One must wait. There is really nothing else to be done but to live with the question and meditate on it again and again. Let it live in the soul with all the feelings aroused by it, and then calmly wait; wait till one is worthy — that is the right word — worthy to receive an answer from the spiritual world. And, as a rule, this comes from quite a different quarter than one would expect. Thus the answer comes from the spiritual world at the right moment, that is, at the moment when one has sufficiently prepared one's soul to receive the answer. As to whether it is then the right answer can as little be decided theoretically as can any statement concerning physical reality; experience alone can furnish the criterion. To those who are always denying spiritual reality by saying ‘That cannot be proved; and everything must be proved,’ I should like to put one question: Would it have been possible to prove the existence of a whale in the physical world if none had ever been discovered? Nothing can be proved, unless it can be shown in the same way as a reality; even in the spiritual world one must experience that which is reality."

“A man who does not have something for which he is willing to die is not fit to live.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

"Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing." — Helen Keller

"Either the spiritual path is difficult or it is no path at all."
— Rudolf Steiner

August 15, 1987

Swamiji giving a kung fu lesson to 7 Tuter Tots.

I'm the 40-year-old P.E. teacher on the left in two-tone blue.

The cry of the human heart is "How can I help?"

The Altar of Humanity
The Solar Plexus : The Manipura Chakra : The Stronghold of Manu

Rudolf Steiner's Golden Rule of Sadhana: For each step forward that you take in the acquisition of knowledge, take three steps forward in the improvement of your moral character.

Rudolf Steiner: "To think I strive for happiness is a misconception. I want to be productive and work as much as I can. I want nothing besides."

In the summer of 1978, when I was 31, I fell asleep after reading this passage from Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi:

Shortly after my healing through the potency of the guru’s picture, I had an influential spiritual vision. Sitting on my bed one morning, I fell into a deep reverie.

“What is behind the darkness of closed eyes?” This probing thought came powerfully into my mind. An immense flash of light at once manifested to my inward gaze. Divine shapes of saints, sitting in meditation posture in mountain caves, formed like miniature cinema pictures on the large screen of radiance within my forehead.

“Who are you?” I spoke aloud.

“We are the Himalayan yogis.” The celestial response is difficult to describe; my heart was thrilled.

“Ah, I long to go to the Himalayas and become like you!” The vision vanished, but the silvery beams expanded in ever-widening circles to infinity.

“What is this wondrous glow?”

“I am Ishwara. I am Light.” The voice was as murmuring clouds.

“I want to be one with Thee!”

Out of the slow dwindling of my divine ecstasy, I salvaged a permanent legacy of inspiration to seek God. “He is eternal, ever-new Joy!” This memory persisted long after the day of rapture.

I found myself in a space with twelve sages in a circle, all focused on an endless column of living white light that was in the middle of the circle. One of the sages sent a ray of consciousness to me: "What do you want to know?" Immediately I responded: "How can I help?"

"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." —John 14:27

"You should be leading lives of joy — deep inner joy in the truth! There is nothing in the world more delightful, nothing more fascinating, than the experience of truth." — Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Steiner: "If we grasp the concept of the willing that lives in the mental pursuit of truth, then that concept is that of the soul as a substantial being."

"The human being himself must create an organ so that he can bear suffering." — Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Steiner: "The angels want to enable us to come to the spirit by way of our thinking, to bridge the abyss between the physical world and the spiritual realm with our thinking."

“In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” — John 16:33

Rudolf Steiner: “Freedom is the sense of being capable of actions motivated solely by love.”

"Duty is when one loves the commands one gives to oneself."

—Goethe

"What is a good person? One who achieves tranquility by having formed the habit of asking on every occasion: 'What is the right thing to do now?'" —Epictetus

"The Return of the Prodigal Son" by Rembrandt

"I have been driven to my knees many times by the overwhelming conviction that I had no place else to go." — Abraham Lincoln

Rudolf Steiner: "A single human life on Earth is an entire mystery. What else can it be, until seen against the background of the former lives on Earth?"

"He who with sincerity seeks his real purpose in life is himself sought by that purpose." —Hazrat Inayat Khan

My yoke is easy : my dharma is penance. In 2003, at the age of 56, I traveled to the School of Metaphysics in Windyville, Missouri, because they claimed to be able to tell you what your dharma actually is. Turns out they truly can do what they claim. Here's a transcript of the session in which they lay the light of my dharma on me.

September 13, 2003. You will search for the identity of the entity referred to as Lawrence Michael Clark. You will relate this one’s dharma from the past and past lifetimes in general in terms of incarnations.

This would be penance. There is a very strong urge within this one and a configuration of attitudes which promote the need for, as well as the capacity for, penance. This is the ability to assess and to give according to the assessment. We see that it is the obligation and the duty and the debt that this one has in any situation, and we see that it does manifest in ways that are appropriate to this. We see that there have been many incarnations in which this one has been somewhat negligent in this regard, inasmuch as this one either did not perceive or did not admit or did not assess accurately the people, places, and things in the life for this one to be able to understand how this one was accountable and how this one was responsible and what this one was responsible for. We see that this then left many situations in many lives where things were left undone, where there were opportunities that were pushed away, from the scattering of attention or the denial of the situation at hand. We see that this then built a considerable amount of energy toward that of penance, of being able to pay what this one owes, and we see that it is through this ability that this one has formed different understandings through subsequent lives, where the penance has become this one’s dharma. We see that this is very strong within this one and there is a constant awareness — even when it is unconscious it is still present, it is a force in this one’s consciousness and therefore in this one’s life — that this one is obligated, is how it is often seen, and we see that it is through this one accepting and moving beyond the limitations of obligation to be able to perceive the benefits of obeisance and generosity that this one will be able to come to a new level of understanding of the dharma itself. This is all.

Very well. What would be the relevance of this one’s dharma to the present lifetime?

In the present we see that this one tends to become distracted through the conscious configuration of obligation. We see that this one has different attitudes about this and we see that some of them are embracing, others are resistant, and we see that it is through this that the awareness is limited of the dharma itself. It would be helpful for this one to begin to develop an image of penance which is desirable. It would be helpful for this one in this to be able to see what it brings to the world personally as well as in this one being connected with living beings. We see that there is a sincere need within this one as well as many others to recognize the sense of duty, purpose, responsibility in order for there to be a greater or heightened sense of connectedness. The sense of duty comes from within the self, it does not pose itself externally; its origin is not apart from this one. And as this one will reconcile this thinking, then there will be a greater flow from within the self of what this one needs to do and why. There is also a need for this one to recognize that the sense of obligation does give this one the sense that there is a need for gratitude. And it is in the embracing of gratitude that this one will become free of the negative connotations to obligation, and these when they are no longer present will make space for there to be joy in the penance — the ability for recompense.

"It is the highest and holiest of the paradoxes that the man who really knows he cannot pay his debt will be forever paying it. He will be for ever giving back what he cannot give back, and what he cannot be expected to give back. He will be always throwing things away into a bottomless pit of unfathomable thanks." — G. K. Chesterton, St. Francis of Assisi

Socrates: "What the most decent people experience in relation to their community is so hard to bear that there's no other experience like it."

Abraham Lincoln: "I am like the man who was tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail. When they asked him how he felt about it, he said that if it were not for the honor of the thing, he would rather have walked."

"Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." —Matthew 5:44-45

The recompense of penance is joy

Rudolf Steiner: "Let us imagine that we face someone who meets us with disparagement and insult. If we have dwelt long enough upon the teachings of reincarnation and karma, we will be able to ask who it is who has uttered injurious or insulting words that have penetrated our ears and overwhelmed us with their scorn, and may even have raised their hand to strike us. And we will be able to reply: We ourselves! The hand is only seemingly that of the other person, for I am myself the person who, through my past karma, solicited the blow that the other has given me."

Hebrews 12

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.

And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:

For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.

Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;

And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.

Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:

Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;

Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.

For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,

And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more:

(For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart:

And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:)

But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,

To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,

And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:

Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.

And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:

For our God is a consuming fire.

Rudolf Steiner: "All that we assimilate in life becomes reverence and devotion if we imbue ourselves with the right feelings. Humility and devotion to the world of spirit will pervade all our feelings."

John 15:1 - 16:3

I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.

As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.

If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.

These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.

Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

These things I command you, that ye love one another.

If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.

If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.

But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me.

If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin.

He that hateth me hateth my Father also.

If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.

But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.

But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.

These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended.

They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.

And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.

Ex Deo Nascimur In Christo Morimur Per Spiritum Sanctum Reviviscimus

"I cannot think of permanent enmity between man and man, and believing as I do in the theory of reincarnation, I live in the hope that if not in this birth, in some other birth I shall be able to hug all of humanity in friendly embrace." — Gandhi

Rudolf Steiner: "a truth which should be engraved in the human soul as a lofty moral maxim: When you see something evil in the world, do not say, Here is evil — that is, imperfection; ask, rather, How can I attain to the enlightenment which will show me that on a higher plane this evil is transformed into good by the wisdom of the cosmos? How can I learn to tell myself: Here you see naught but imperfection because you are as yet unable to grasp the perfection of this imperfect thing? Whenever man sees evil he should look into his own soul and ask himself, Why am I not yet able to recognize the good in this evil that confronts me?"

"Let each one of us see in each other what is just and imbued with strength. Let strength generate and empower strength. Only then shall we move forward together." — Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Steiner: "People pass each other by like ships in the night. They may live together in the closest proximity and then their ways part without them really knowing one another. Knowing another person does not have to be based on intellectual analysis. If we feel analyzed by the person we live with we will experience this, if we are sensitive, as a kind of punishment or beating. It is not about analysis. One gains the greatest insight into others through heartfelt accord."

"Let brotherly love continue." — Hebrews 13:1

"Father, let our mercy toward others make up for the sins done to us." — Rudolf Steiner

Anthropos-Sophia

"Wisdom is crystallized pain." — Rudolf Steiner

"In spiritual life, so long as you have grasped it properly, nothing can go wrong." — Rudolf Steiner

"If you try to see for yourself how human individuals have fared who really wanted to seek Christ Jesus, who really wanted to find the path to Him, it has always been a path of martyrdom. Christ Jesus has always had to be sought in defiance of convention, just as even today He must still be sought in the context of a battle against the conventions that still persist." — Rudolf Steiner

"All true, great cognition is born from pain and sorrow. When we set out on the path to higher worlds using the means of cognition described in anthroposophical spiritual science, we can reach our goal only by enduring pain. Through suffering—much suffering—we are freed from the oppressive aspects of pain. Without this step, we cannot perceive the spiritual world." — Rudolf Steiner

"Valor transposed into the spiritual, bravery transposed into the spiritual, is love." — Rudolf Steiner

"The hero is he who is immovably centered." — Emerson

"Every noble work is at first impossible." — Thomas Carlyle

"If there is something more powerful than destiny, this must be the human being who bears destiny unshaken." — Rudolf Steiner

Let your heart go BOOM!

"Our value for the world must be seen to lie wholly in acts of love, not in what is done for the sake of self-perfecting. Let us be under no illusion about this. When a person is endeavoring to follow Christ through love of wisdom and dedicates that wisdom to the service of the world, it only takes real effect to the extent it is filled with love." — Rudolf Steiner

Namaste

"Every human being shall see in each and all of his fellow-men a hidden divinity... that every human being is made in the likeness of the Godhead. When that time comes there will be no need for any religious coercion; for then every meeting between one man and another will of itself be in the nature of a religious rite, a sacrament." — Rudolf Steiner

“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.”

— Galatians 5:22-23

"Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins."

— 1 Peter 4:8

Rudolf Steiner: "We do not seek the higher self only in ourselves but also in our fellow human beings. Everyone living around us exists in undivided unity in the inner kernel of our being."

Rudolf Steiner: "Only when we experience human feeling on Earth as a weak, half-living reflection of the radiant might of the Sun that shines through the entire cosmos as universal cosmic love, only then do we experience feeling in the right way."