Occult Science
GA 13
V. Cognition of the Higher Worlds—Initiation
[ 1 ] Between birth and death man, at his present evolutionary stage, lives in ordinary life through three soul states: waking, sleeping, and the state between them, dreaming. Dreaming will be briefly considered later on in this book. Here let us first consider life in its two chief alternating states—waking and sleeping. Man acquires a knowledge of higher worlds if he develops a third soul state besides sleep and waking. During its waking state the soul surrenders itself to sense-impressions and thoughts that are aroused by these impressions. During sleep the sense-impressions cease, but the soul also loses its consciousness. The experiences of the day sink into the sea of unconsciousness. Let us now imagine that the soul might be able during sleep to become conscious despite the exclusion of all sense-impressions as is the case in deep sleep, and even though the memories of the day's experiences were lacking. Would the soul, in that case, find itself in a state of nothingness? Would it be unable to have any experiences? An answer to these questions is only possible if a similar state of consciousness can actually be induced, if the soul is able to experience something even though no sense-activities and no memory of them are present in it. The soul, in regard to the ordinary outer world, would then find itself in a state similar to sleep, and yet it would not be asleep, but, as in the waking state, it would confront a real world. Such a state of consciousness can be induced if the human being can bring about the soul experiences made possible by spiritual science; and everything that this science describes concerning the worlds that lie beyond the senses is the result of research in just such a state of consciousness.—In the preceding descriptions some information has been given about higher worlds. In this chapter—as far as it is possible in this book—we shall deal with the means through which the state of consciousness necessary for this method of research is developed.
[ 2 ] This state of consciousness resembles sleep only in a certain respect, namely, through the fact that all outer sense-activities cease with its appearance; also all thoughts are stilled that have been aroused through these sense-activities. Whereas in sleep the soul has no power to experience anything consciously, it is to receive this power from the indicated state of consciousness. Through it a perceptive faculty is awakened in the soul that in ordinary life is only aroused by the activities of the senses. The soul's awakening to such a higher state of consciousness may be called initiation.
[ 3 ] The means of initiation lead from the ordinary state of waking consciousness into a soul activity, through which spiritual organs of observation are employed. These organs are present in the soul in a germinal state; they must be developed.—It may happen that a human being at a certain moment in the course of his life, without special preparation, makes the discovery in his soul that such higher organs have developed in him. This has come about as a sort of involuntary self-awakening. Such a human being will find that through it his entire nature is transformed. A boundless enrichment of his soul experiences occurs. He will find that there is no knowledge of the sense world that gives him such bliss, such soul satisfaction, and such inner warmth as he now experiences through the revelation of knowledge inaccessible to the physical eye. Strength and certainty of life will pour into his will from a spiritual world.—There are such cases of self-initiation. They should, however, not tempt us to believe that this is the one and only way and that we should wait for such self-initiation, doing nothing to bring about initiation through proper training. Nothing need be said here about self-initiation, for it can appear without observing any kind of rules. How the human being may develop through training the organs of perception that lie embryonically in the soul will be described here. People who do not feel the least trace of an especial impulse to do something for the development of themselves may easily say, “Human life is directed by spiritual powers with whose guidance no one should attempt to interfere; we should wait patiently for the moment when such powers consider it proper to open another world to the soul.” It may indeed be felt by such human beings as a sort of insolence or as an unjustified desire to interfere with the wisdom of spiritual guidance. Individuals who think thus will only arrive at a different point of view when a certain thought makes a sufficiently strong impression upon them. When they say to themselves, “Wise spiritual guidance has given me certain faculties; it did not bestow them upon me to be left unused, but to be employed. The wisdom of this guidance consists in the fact that it has placed in me the germinal elements of a higher state of consciousness. I shall understand this guidance only when I feel it obligatory that everything be revealed to the human being that can be revealed through his spiritual powers.” If such a thought has made a sufficiently strong impression on the soul, the above doubts about training for a higher state of consciousness will disappear.
[ 4 ] Other doubts, however, can still arise about such training. We may say, “The development of inner soul capacities penetrates into the most concealed holy of holies of the human being. It involves a certain transformation of his entire nature. The means for such a transformation cannot, by its very nature, be thought out by ourselves. For the way of reaching higher worlds can only be known to him who knows the way into these worlds through his own experience. If we turn to such a personality, we permit him to have an influence over the soul's most concealed holy of holies.”—Whoever thinks thus would not be especially reassured even though the means of bringing about a higher state of consciousness were presented to him in a book. For the point of the matter is not whether we receive this information verbally or whether someone having the knowledge of this means presents it in a book that we then read. There are persons, however, who possess the knowledge of the rules for the development of the spiritual organs of perception and who are of the opinion that these rules ought not to be entrusted to a book. Such people usually do not consider it permissible to publish certain truths relating to the spiritual world. This view, however—considering the present stage of human evolution—must, in a certain sense, be declared outmoded. It is correct, in regard to the publication of the rules in question, that we may do so only to a certain point. Yet the information given leads far enough for those who employ it for soul training to reach a point in the development of their knowledge from which they can then continue on the path. One can only visualize the further direction of this path correctly by what one has experienced previously on it. From all these facts, doubts may arise about the spiritual path of knowledge. These doubts disappear if one holds in mind the nature of the course of development that is indicated by the training appropriate to our age. We shall speak here about this path. Other methods of training will only be briefly touched upon.
[ 5 ] The training to be described here places in the hands of the person who has the will for his higher development the means for undertaking the transformation of his soul. Any dangerous interference with the inner nature of the disciple would only occur were the teacher to undertake this transformation by means that elude the consciousness of the pupil. No proper instruction for spiritual development in our age employs such means. A proper instruction does not make the pupil a blind instrument. It gives him the rules of conduct, and he then carries them out. There is no need to withhold the reason why this or that rule of conduct is given. The acceptance of the rules and their employment by a person who seeks spiritual development need not be a matter of blind faith. Blind faith should be completely excluded from this domain. Whoever considers the nature of the human soul, as far as it is possible through ordinary self-examination without spiritual training, may ask himself after encountering the rules recommended for spiritual training, “How can these rules be effective in the life of the soul?” It is possible to answer this question satisfactorily prior to any training by the unprejudiced employment of common sense. We are able to understand correctly the way of working of these rules prior to their practice. But it can be experienced only during training. The experience, however, will always be accompanied by understanding if we accompany each step with sound judgment, and at the present time a true spiritual science will only indicate rules for training upon which sound judgment may be brought to bear. Anyone who is willing to surrender himself to such training only, and who does not permit himself to be driven to blind faith by prejudice of any kind, will find that all doubts disappear. Objections to a proper training for a higher state of consciousness will not disturb him.
[ 6 ] Even for a person whose inner maturity can lead him sooner or later to self-awakening of the spiritual organs of perception such training is not superfluous, but on the contrary it is quite especially suited to him. For there are but few cases in which such a person, prior to self-initiation, is not compelled to pass through the most varied, crooked and useless byways. Training spares him these deviations. It leads straight forward. If self-initiation takes place for such a soul, it is caused by its having acquired the necessary maturity in the course of previous lives. It may easily happen, however, that just such a soul has a certain dim presentiment of its maturity and through this presentiment is inclined to reject the proper training. This presentiment may produce a certain pride that hinders faith in a true spiritual training. It is possible that a certain stage of soul development may remain concealed up to a certain age in human life and only then appear, but training may be just the right means of bringing forth this stage. If the individual pays no heed to such training, it may happen that his ability remains concealed during his present life and will only reappear in some subsequent life.
[ 7 ] In regard to the training for supersensible knowledge described here, it is important to avoid certain obvious misunderstandings. One of these may arise through thinking that training would transform man into a different being in regard to his entire life-conduct. It cannot, however, be a question of giving man general instructions for his conduct of life, but of telling him about soul-exercises which, properly performed, will give him the possibility of observing the supersensible. These exercises have no direct influence upon the part of his life-functions that lies outside the observation of the supersensible. In addition to these life-functions the human being acquires the gift of supersensible observation. The function of this observation is as much separated from the ordinary functions of life as the state of waking is from that of sleeping. The one cannot disturb the other in the least. Whoever, for example, wishes to permeate the ordinary course of life with impressions of supersensible perception resembles an invalid whose sleep would be continually interrupted by injurious awakenings. It must be possible for the free will of the trained person to induce the state in which supersensible reality is observed. Training, to be sure, is indirectly connected with certain instructions concerning conduct in as far as, without an ethically determined conduct of life, an insight into the supersensible is impossible or injurious. Consequently, much of what leads to the perception of the supersensible is at the same time a means of ennobling the conduct of life. On the other hand, as a result of insight into the supersensible world, higher moral impulses are recognized that are also valid for the sensory-physical world. Certain moral necessities are only recognized from out this world.—A second misunderstanding would arise were it believed that any soul function leading to supersensible knowledge might produce changes in the physical organism. Such functions have nothing whatsoever to do with anything in the realm of physiology or other branches of natural science. They are pure soul-spirit processes, entirely devoid of anything physical, like sound thinking and perception. Nothing happens in the soul through such a function—considering its character—that is different from what takes place when it thinks or judges in a healthy fashion. Just as much or as little as sound thinking has to do with the body, so do the processes of true training for supersensible cognition have to do with the body. Anything that has a different relationship to man is not true spiritual training, but its distortion. What follows is to be taken in the sense of what has been said here. Only because supersensible knowledge is something that proceeds from the entire soul of man will it appear as if things were required for this training that would transform man into something else. In truth it is a question of instruction about functions enabling the soul to bring into its life moments in which the supersensible may be observed.
[ 8 ] The attainment of a supersensible state of consciousness can only proceed from everyday waking consciousness. In this consciousness the soul lives before its elevation. Through the training the soul acquires a means of lifting itself out of everyday consciousness. The training that is under consideration here offers among the first means those that still may be designated as functions of everyday consciousness. The most important means are just those that consist of quiet activities of the soul. They involve the opening of the soul to quite definite thoughts. These thoughts exercise, by their very nature, an awakening power upon certain hidden faculties of the human soul. They are to be distinguished from the visualizations of everyday waking life, which have the task of depicting outer things. The more truly they do this, the truer they are, and it is part of their nature to be true in this sense. The visualizations, however, to which the soul must open itself for the purpose of spiritual training have no such task. They are so constructed that they do not depict anything external but have in themselves the peculiarity of effecting an awakening in the soul. The best visualizations for this purpose are emblematic or symbolical. Nevertheless, other visualizations may also be employed, for it is not a question of what they contain, but solely a question of the soul's directing its powers in such a way that it has nothing else in mind but the visualized image under consideration. While the powers of everyday soul-life are distributed in many directions—the visualized mental representations changing very rapidly—in spiritual training everything depends upon the concentration of the entire soul-life upon one visualization. This visualization must, by means of free will, be placed at the center of consciousness. Symbolic visualized images are, therefore, better than those that represent outer objects or processes, for the latter have a point of attachment to the outer world, making the soul less dependent upon itself than when it employs symbolic visualizations that are formed through the soul's own energy. The essential is not what is visualized; what is essential is the fact that the visualization, through the way it is visualized, liberates the soul from dependence on the physical.
[ 9 ] We understand what it means to immerse ourselves in a visualized image if we consider, first of all, the concept of memory. If, for instance, we look at a tree and then away from it so that we can no longer see it, we are then able to re-awaken the visualization of the tree in the soul by recollecting it. This visualization of the tree, which we have when the eye no longer beholds the latter, is a memory of the tree. Now let us imagine that we preserve this memory in the soul; we permit the soul, as it were, to rest upon the visualized memory picture; and at the same time we endeavor to exclude all other visualizations. Then the soul is immersed in the visualized memory picture of the tree. We then have to do with the soul's immersion in a visualized picture or image; yet this visualization is the image of an object perceived by the senses. But if we undertake this with a visualized image formed in the consciousness by an act of independent will, we shall then be able by degrees to attain the effect upon which everything depends.
[ 10 ] We shall now endeavor to describe an example of inner immersion in a symbolic visualization. Such a visualization must first be fashioned in the soul. This may happen in the following way. We visualize a plant as it roots in the earth, as leaf by leaf sprouts forth, as its blossom unfolds, and now we think of a human being beside this plant. We make the thought alive in the soul of how he has characteristics and faculties which, when compared with those of the plant, may be considered more perfect than the latter. We contemplate how, according to his feelings and his will, he is able to move about hither and thither, while the plant is chained to the earth. Furthermore we say that the human being is indeed more perfect than the plant, but he also shows peculiarities that are not to be found in the plant. Just because of their nonexistence in the plant the latter may appear to me in a certain sense more perfect than the human being who is filled with desire and passion and follows them in his conduct. I may speak of his being led astray by his desires and passions. I see that the plant follows the pure laws of growth from leaf to leaf, that it opens its blossom passionlessly to the chaste rays of the sun. Furthermore, I may say to myself that the human being has a greater perfection than the plant, but he has purchased this perfection at the price of permitting instincts, desires, and passions to enter into his nature besides the forces of the plant, which appear pure to us. I now visualize how the green sap flows through the plant and that it is an expression of the pure, passionless laws of growth. I then visualize how the red blood flows through the human veins and how it is the expression of the instincts, desires, and passions. All this I permit to arise in my soul as vivid thought. Then I visualize further how the human being is capable of evolution; how he may purify and cleanse his instincts and passions through his higher soul powers. I visualize how, as a result of this, something base in these instincts and desires is destroyed and how the latter are reborn upon a higher plane. Then the blood may be conceived of as the expression of the purified and cleansed instincts and passions. In my thoughts I look now, for example, upon the rose and say, In the red rose petal I see the color of the green plant sap transformed into red, and the red rose, like the green leaf, follows the pure, passionless laws of growth. The red of the rose may now become the symbol of a blood that is the expression of purified instincts and passions that have stripped off all that is base, and in their purity resemble the forces active in the red rose. I now seek not merely to imbue my intellect with such thoughts but to bring them to life in my feelings. I may have a feeling of bliss when I think of the purity and passionlessness of the growing plant; I can produce within myself the feeling of how certain higher perfections must be purchased through the acquirement of instincts and desires. This can then transform the feeling of bliss, which I have felt previously, into a grave feeling; and then a feeling of liberating joy may stir in me when I surrender myself to the thought of the red blood which, like the red sap of the rose, may become the bearer of inwardly pure experiences. It is of importance that we do not without feeling confront the thoughts that serve to construct such a symbolic visualization. After we have pondered on such thoughts and feelings for a time, we are to transform them into the following symbolic visualization. We visualize a black cross. Let this be the symbol of the destroyed base elements of instincts and passions, and at the center, where the arms of the cross intersect, let us visualize seven red, radiant roses arranged in a circle. Let these roses be the symbol of a blood that is the expression of purified, cleansed passions and instincts.1The point is not whether this or that idea of natural science finds the above thoughts justified or not. For it is a question of the development of such thoughts by means of plant and man that may be gained, without any theory, through simple, direct perception. Such thoughts have indeed their importance also, besides the theoretical ideas about the things of the outer world, which in other connections are of no less importance. Here thoughts do not have the purpose of representing a fact scientifically, but of constructing a symbol that proves itself effective in the soul, notwithstanding the objections that may occur to this or that individual in fashioning this symbol. Such a symbolic visualization should be called forth in the soul in the way illustrated above through a visualized memory image. Such a visualization has a soul-awakening power if we surrender ourselves to it in inward meditation. We must seek to exclude all other thoughts during meditation. Only the characterized symbol is to hover in spirit before the soul as intensely as possible.—It is not without significance that this symbol is not simply given here as an awakening visualized picture, but that it has first been constructed by means of certain thoughts about plant and man. For the effect of such a symbol depends upon the fact of its having been constructed in the way described before it is employed in inner meditation. If we visualize the symbol without first having fashioned it in our own souls, it remains cold and much less effective than when it has received, through preparation, its soul-illuminating power. During meditation, however, we should not call forth in the soul all the preparatory thoughts, but merely let the visualized picture hover vividly before our inner eye, at the same time letting the feeling hold sway that has appeared as a result of the preparatory thoughts. Thus the symbol becomes a token alongside the feeling-experience, and its effectiveness lies in the dwelling of the soul in this inner experience. The longer we are able to dwell in it without the intervention of other, disturbing, thoughts, the more effective is the entire process. It is well, nevertheless, for us, outside the period dedicated to the actual meditation itself, to repeat the construction of the symbol by means of thoughts and feelings of the above described kind, so that the experience may not fade away. The more patience we exercise in this renewal, the more significant is the symbol for the soul. (In my book, Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment, other examples of means for inner meditation are given. Especially effective are the meditations characterized there about the growth and decay of the plant, about the slumbering creative forces in the plant seed, about the forms of crystals, and so forth. In the present book, the nature of meditation was to be described by a single example.)
[ 11 ] Such a symbol, as is described here, portrays no outer thing or being that is brought forth by nature. But just because of this it has an awakening power for certain purely soul faculties. To be sure, someone might raise an objection. He might say, It is true, the symbol as a whole is certainly not produced by nature, but all its details are, nevertheless, borrowed from nature—the black color, the red roses, and the other details. All this is perceived by the senses. Anyone who may be disturbed by such an objection should consider that it is not the pictures of sense-perceptions that lead to the awakening of the higher soul faculties, but that this effect is produced only by the manner of combining these details, and this combination does not picture anything that is present in the sense world.
[ 12 ] The process of effective meditation was illustrated here by a symbol, as an example. In spiritual training the most manifold pictures of this kind can be employed and they can be constructed in the most varied manner. Also certain sentences, formulae, even single words, upon which to meditate may be given. In every case these means to inner meditation have the objective of liberating the soul from sense-perception and of arousing it to an activity in which the impression upon the physical senses is meaningless and the development of the inner slumbering soul faculties becomes the essential. It may also be a matter of meditation upon mere feelings and sensations. This shows itself to be especially effective. Let us take, for example, the feeling of joy. In the normal course of life the soul may experience joy if an outer stimulus for it is present. If a soul with normal feelings perceives how a human being performs an action that is inspired by kindness of heart, this soul will feel pleased and happy about it. But this soul may then meditate on an action of this sort. It may say to itself, an action performed through goodness of heart is one in which the performer does not follow his own interest, but the interest of his fellow-man, and such an action may be designated morally good. The contemplating soul, however, may now free itself from the mental picture of the special case in the outer world that has given it joy or pleasure, and it may form the comprehensive idea of kindness of heart. It may perhaps think how kindness of heart arises by the one soul absorbing, so to speak, the interests of the other soul and making them its own, and it may now feel joy about this moral idea of kindness of heart. This is not the joy in this or that process in the sense world, but the joy in an idea as such. If we attempt to keep alive such joy in the soul for a certain length of time, then this is meditation on inner feeling, on inner sensation. The idea is not then the awakening factor of the inner soul faculties, but the holding sway, for a certain length of time, of the feeling within the soul that is not aroused through a mere single external impression.—Since supersensible knowledge is able to penetrate more deeply into the nature of things than ordinary thinking, it is able through its experiences to indicate feelings that act in a still higher degree upon the unfolding of the soul faculties, when they are employed in inner meditation. Although this is necessary for higher degrees of training, we should remember the fact that energetic meditation on such feelings and sensations, as for example have been characterized in the observation of kindness of heart, is able to lead very far.—Since human beings are varied in character, so are the effective means of training varied for the individual man.—In regard to the duration of meditation we have to consider that the effect is all the stronger, the more tranquilly and deliberately this meditation is carried out. But any excess in this direction should be avoided. A certain inner discretion that results through the exercises themselves may teach the pupil to keep within due bounds.
[ 13 ] Such exercises in inner meditation will in general have to be carried on for a long time before the student himself is able to perceive any results. What belongs unconditionally to spiritual training is patience and perseverance. Whoever does not call up both of these within his soul and does not, in all tranquility, continuously carry out his exercises, so that patience and perseverance form the fundamental mood of the soul, cannot achieve much.
[ 14 ] It will have become evident from the preceding exposition that meditation is a means of acquiring knowledge about higher worlds, but it will also have become evident that not just any content of thought will lead to it, but only a content that has been evolved in the manner described.
[ 15 ] The path that has been indicated here leads, in the first place, to what may be called imaginative cognition. It is the first stage of higher cognition. Knowledge that rests upon sense-perception and upon the working over of the sense-perceptions through the intellect bound to the senses may be called, in the sense of spiritual science, “objective cognition.” Beyond this lie the higher stages of knowledge, the first of which is imaginative cognition. The expression “imaginative” may call forth doubts in those who think “imagination” stands only for unreal imaginings, that is, a visualization of something that has no corresponding reality. In spiritual science, however, “imaginative” cognition is to be conceived as something coming into existence through a supersensible state of consciousness of the soul. What is perceived in this state are spiritual facts and beings to which the senses have no access. Because this state is awakened in the soul by meditating on symbols or “imaginations,” the world of this higher state of consciousness may be named the “imaginative” world, and the knowledge corresponding to it “imaginative” cognition. “Imaginative,” therefore, means something which is “real” in a different sense from the facts and beings of physical sense-perception. The content of the visualizations that fill imaginative experience is of no importance, but of utmost importance is the soul faculty which is developed through this experience.
[ 16 ] An obvious objection to the employment of the characterized symbolic visualizations is that their fashioning corresponds to a dreamlike thinking and to arbitrary imagining and therefore can bring forth only doubtful results. In regard to the symbols that lie at the foundation of true spiritual training, doubts of this character are unjustified. For the symbols are chosen in such a way that their connection with outer sense reality may be entirely disregarded and their value sought merely in the force with which they affect the soul when the latter withdraws all attention from the outer world, when it suppresses all impressions of the senses, and shuts out all thoughts that it may cherish as a result of outer stimuli. The process of meditation is best illustrated by a comparison with the state of sleep. On the one hand it resembles the latter, on the other it is the complete opposite. It is a sleep that represents, in regard to everyday consciousness, a higher waking state. The important point is that through concentration upon the visualization or picture in question the soul is compelled to draw forth much stronger powers from its own depths than it employs in everyday life or in everyday cognition. Its inner activity is thereby enhanced. It liberates itself from the bodily nature just as it does during sleep, but it does not, as in the latter case, pass over into unconsciousness, but becomes conscious of a world that it has not previously experienced. Although this soul state may be compared with sleep in regard to the liberation from the body, yet it may be described as an enhanced waking state when compared with everyday waking consciousness. Through this the soul experiences itself in its true inner, independent nature, while in the everyday waking state it becomes conscious of itself only through the help of the body because of the weaker unfolding of its forces in that state, and does not, therefore, experience itself, but is only aware of the picture that, like a reflection, the body (or properly speaking its processes) sketches for it.
[ 17 ] The symbols that are constructed in the above described manner do, by their very nature, not yet relate to anything real in the spiritual world. They serve the purpose of detaching the human soul from sense-perception and from the brain instrument to which the intellect is bound at the outset. This detachment cannot occur in man prior to his feeling the following: I now visualize something by means of forces in connection with which my senses and my brain do not serve me as instruments. The first thing that the human being experiences on this path is such a liberation from the physical organs. He may then say to himself, “My consciousness is not extinguished when I disregard the sense-perceptions and ordinary intellectual thinking; I can lift myself out of them and then feel myself as a being alongside the one I was previously.” This is the first purely spiritual experience: the observation of a soul-spirit ego being. This, as a new self, has lifted itself out of the self that is only bound to the physical senses and the physical intellect. If without meditation the pupil had released himself from the world of the senses and intellect, he would have sunk into the “nothingness” of unconsciousness. The soul-spirit being, naturally, existed before meditation had taken place, but it did not yet have any organs of observing the spiritual world. It was somewhat similar to a physical body without eyes to see, or ears to hear. The force that was employed in meditation first has fashioned the soul-spirit organs out of the previously unorganized soul-spirit nature. The individual beholds first, therefore, what he has created. Thus, the first experience is, in a certain sense, self-perception. It belongs to the essence of spiritual training that the soul, through the practice of self-education, is at this point of its development fully conscious of the fact that at first it perceives itself in the world of pictures—imaginations—which appear as a result of the exercises described. Although these pictures appear as living in a new world, the soul must recognize that they are, at the outset, nothing but the reflection of its own being, strengthened through the exercises, and it must not only recognize this with proper discretion, but it must also have developed such a power of will that it can extinguish, can eliminate these pictures from consciousness at any time. The soul must be able to act within these pictures completely free and fully aware. This belongs to true spiritual training at this stage. If the soul were not able to do this it would be in the same circumstances, in the sphere of spiritual experience, in which a soul would find itself in the physical world, were its eyes fettered to the object upon which they gaze, powerless to withdraw them. Only one group of inner imaginative experiences constitutes an exception to this possibility of extinction. These experiences are not to be extinguished at this stage of spiritual training. They correspond to the kernel of the soul's own being, and the student of the spiritual recognizes in these pictures what, in himself, passes through repeated earth lives as his fundamental being. At this point the sensing of repeated earth lives becomes a real experience. In regard to everything else the independence of the experiences mentioned must rule, and only after having acquired the ability to bring about this extinction does the student approach the true external spiritual world. In place of what has been extinguished, something else appears that is recognized as spiritual reality. The student feels how he grows in his soul from the undefined into the defined. From the self-perception he then must proceed to an observation of an outer world of soul and spirit. This takes place when the student arranges his inner experiences in the sense that will be further indicated here.
[ 18 ] In the beginning the soul of the student of the spiritual is weak in regard to everything that is to be perceived in the spiritual world. He will have to employ great inner energy in order to hold fast in meditation to the symbols or other visualizations that he has fashioned from the stimuli of the world of the senses. If, however, he wishes besides this to attain real observation in a higher world, he must be able not only to hold fast to these visualizations, but he must also, after he has done this, be able to sojourn in a state in which no stimuli of the sensory world act upon the soul, but in which also the visualized imaginations themselves, characterized above, are extirpated from consciousness. What has been formed through meditation can only then appear in consciousness. It is important now that sufficient inner soul power be present in order really to perceive spiritually what has been formed through meditation, so that it may not elude the attention. This is, however, always the case with but weakly developed inner energy. What is thus constructed in the beginning as a soul-spirit organism and what is to be taken hold of by the student in self-perception is delicate and fleeting, and the disturbances of the outer world of the senses and its after-effects of memory are great, however much we may endeavor to hold them back. Not only the disturbances that we observe come into question here, but much more, indeed, those of which we are not conscious at all in everyday life.—The very nature of the human being, however, makes possible a state of transition in this regard. What the soul at the beginning cannot achieve in the waking state on account of the disturbances of the physical world, is possible in the state of sleep. Whoever surrenders to meditation will, by proper attention, become aware of something in sleep. He will feel that during sleep he does not “fall into a complete slumber,” but that at times his soul is active in a certain way while sleeping. In such states the natural processes hold back the influences of the outer world that the waking soul is not yet able to prevent by means of its own power. If, however, the exercises of meditation have already been effective, the soul frees itself during sleep from unconsciousness and feels the world of soul and spirit. This may happen in a twofold way. It may be clear to the human being during sleep that now he is in another world; or he may have the memory on awaking that he has been in another world. To the first belongs, indeed, greater inner energy than to the second. Therefore the latter will be more frequent for the beginner in spiritual training. By degrees this may go so far that the pupil feels on waking that he has been in another world during the whole sleep period, from which he has emerged on waking, and his memory of the beings and facts of this other world will become ever more definite. Something has taken place for the student of the spiritual in one form or another that may be called the continuity of consciousness. (The continuity of consciousness during sleep.) It is not at all meant by this, however, that man is always conscious during sleep. Much, however, has already been gained in the continuity of consciousness if the human being, who otherwise sleeps like ordinary man, has at certain times during sleep intervals in which he can consciously behold a world of soul and spirit, or if, after waking, he can look back again in memory upon such brief states of consciousness. It should not be forgotten, however, that what is described here may be only understood as a transitional state. It is good to pass through this state in the course of training, but one should certainly not believe that a conclusive perception in regard to the world of soul and spirit should be derived from it. The soul is uncertain in this state and cannot yet depend upon what it perceives. But through such experiences it gathers more and more power in order to succeed, also while awake, in warding off the disturbing influences of the physical outer and inner worlds, and thus to acquire the faculty of soul-spirit observation when impressions no longer come through the senses, when the intellect bound to the physical brain is silent, and when consciousness is freed even from the visualizations of meditation by means of which we have only prepared ourselves for spiritual perception.—Whatever is revealed by spiritual science in this or that form should never originate from any other soul-spirit observation than from one that has been made during the state of complete wakefulness.
[ 19 ] Two soul experiences are important in the process of spiritual training. Through the one, man may say to himself, “Although I now disregard all the impressions the outer physical world may offer, nevertheless, I do not look into myself as though at a being in whom all activity is extinguished, but I look at one who is conscious of himself in a world of which I know nothing as long as I only permit myself to be stimulated by sense impressions and the ordinary impressions of the intellect.” At this moment the soul has the feeling that it has given birth, in the manner described above, to a new being in itself as the kernel of its soul nature, and this being possesses characteristics quite different from those that previously existed in the soul. The other experience consists in now having the old being like a second alongside the new. What, up to the present, the student knew as enclosing him becomes something that now confronts him, in a certain sense. He feels himself at times outside of what he had otherwise called his own being, his ego. It is as though he now lived in full consciousness in two egos. One of these is the being he has known up to the present. The other stands, like a being newly born, above it. The student feels how the first ego attains a certain independence of the second, just as the body of the human being has a certain independence of the first ego.—This experience is of great significance. For through it the human being knows what it means to live in the world that he strives to reach through training.
[ 20 ] The second, the new-born ego, may now be trained to perceive within the spiritual world. There may be developed in this ego what, for the spiritual world, has the same significance the sense organs possess for the sensory-physical world. If this development has advanced to the necessary stage, then the human being will not only feel himself as a new-born ego, but he will now perceive spiritual facts and spiritual beings in his environment, just as he perceives the physical world through the physical senses. This is a third significant experience. In order completely to find his way about at this stage of spiritual training the human being must realize that, with the strengthening of soul powers, self-love and egotism will appear to a degree quite unknown to everyday soul-life. It would be a misunderstanding if someone were to believe that at this point only ordinary self-love is meant. This self-love increases at this stage of development to such a degree that it assumes the appearance of a nature force within the human soul, and in order to vanquish this strong egotism a rigorous strengthening of the will is necessary. This egotism is not produced by spiritual training; it is always present; it only comes to consciousness through spiritual experience. The training of the will must go hand in hand with the other spiritual training. A strong inclination exists to feel enraptured in the world that we have created for ourselves, and we must, in the manner described above, be able to extinguish, as it were, what we have striven to create with such great effort. In the imaginative world that has thus been reached the student must extinguish himself. Against this however, the strongest impulses of egotism wage war.—The belief may easily arise that the exercises of spiritual training are something external, disregarding the moral evolution of the soul. It must be said concerning this that the moral force that is necessary for the indicated victory over egotism cannot be attained unless the moral condition of the soul is brought to a corresponding level. Progress in spiritual training is not thinkable without a corresponding moral progress. Without moral force the described victory over egotism is not possible. All talk about true spiritual training not being at the same time moral training does not conform to facts. Only the person who does not know such an experience can make the following objection by asking, “How are we to know that we are dealing with realities and not with mere visions, hallucinations, and so forth, when we believe we have spiritual perceptions?”—The facts are such, however, that the student who has reached the characterized stage by proper training is just as able to distinguish his own visualization from spiritual reality as a man with a healthy mind is able to distinguish the thought of a hot piece of iron from an actual one that he touches with his hand. Healthy experience, and nothing else, shows the difference. In the spiritual world also, life itself is the touchstone. Just as we know that in the sense world the mental picture of a piece of iron, be it thought ever so hot, will not burn the fingers, the trained spiritual student knows whether or not he experiences a spiritual fact only in his imaginings or whether real facts or beings make an impression upon his awakened spiritual organs of perception. The general rules that we must observe during spiritual training in order not to fall victim to illusions in this regard will be described later.
[ 21 ] It is of greatest importance that the student of the spiritual has acquired a quite definite soul state when he becomes conscious of a new-born ego. For through his ego the human being attains to control of his sensations, feelings, thoughts, instincts, passions, and desires. Perception and thought cannot be left to themselves in the soul. They must be regulated through attentive thinking. It is the ego that employs these laws of thinking and through them brings order into the life of visualization and thought. It is similar with desires, instincts, inclinations, and passions. The ethical principles become guides of these soul powers. Through moral judgment the ego becomes the guide of the soul in this realm. If the human being now draws a higher ego out of his ordinary ego, the latter becomes independent in a certain sense. From this ego just as much of living force is withdrawn as is bestowed upon the higher ego. Let us suppose, however, the case in which the human being has not yet developed a sufficient ability and firmness in the laws of thought and in his power of judgment, and he wishes to give birth to his higher ego at this stage of development. He will be able to leave behind for his everyday ego only so much thought power as he has previously developed. If the measure of regulated thinking is too small, then there will appear a disordered, confused, fantastic thinking and judgment in the ordinary ego that has become independent. Because the new-born ego can only be weak in such a personality, the disturbed lower ego will gain domination over supersensible perception, and man will not show equilibrium in his power of judgment in observing the supersensible world. If he had developed sufficient ability in logical thinking, he would be able, without fear, to permit the ordinary ego to have its independence.—This is also true in the domain of the ethical. If the human being has not attained firmness in moral judgment, if he has not gained sufficient control over his inclinations, instincts, and passions, then he will make his ordinary ego independent in a state in which these soul powers act. It may happen that the human being in describing the knowledge he has experienced in the supersensible is not governed by the same high sense of truth that guides him in what he brings to his consciousness in the physical outer world. With such a demoralized sense of truth, he might believe anything to be spiritual reality that in truth is only his own fantastic imagining. Into this sense of truth there must act firmness of ethical judgment, certainty of character, keenness of conscience, which are developed in the lower, first ego, before the higher, second ego becomes active for the purpose of supersensible cognition.—What is said here must not discourage training, but it must be taken very seriously.
[ 22 ] Anyone who has the strong will to do what brings the first ego to inner certainty in the exercise of its functions need not recoil from the liberation of his second ego, brought about through spiritual training for the sake of supersensible cognition. But he must keep in mind that self-deception has great power over the human being when it is a question of his feeling himself “mature” enough for some step. In the spiritual training described here, man attains such a development of his thought life that it is impossible for him to encounter the dangers of going astray, often presumed to be inevitable. This development of thought acts in such a way that all necessary inner experiences appear, but that they occur in the soul without being accompanied by damaging aberrations of fantasy. Without corresponding thought development the experiences may call forth a profound uncertainty in the soul. The method stressed here causes the experiences to appear in such a way that the student becomes completely familiar with them, just as he becomes familiar with the perceptions of the physical world in a healthy soul state. Through the development of thought life he becomes, as it were, an observer of what he experiences in himself, while, without this thought life, he stands heedless within the experience.
[ 23 ] In a factual training certain qualities are mentioned that the student who wishes to find his way into the higher worlds should acquire through practice. These are, above all, control of the soul over its train of thought, over its will, and its feelings. The way in which this control is to be acquired through practice has a twofold purpose. On the one hand, the soul is to be imbued with firmness, certainty, and equilibrium to such a degree that it preserves these qualities, although from its being a second ego is born. On the other hand, this second ego is to be furnished with strength and inner consistency of character.
[ 24 ] What is necessary for the thinking of man in spiritual training is, above all, objectivity. In the physical-sensory world, life is the human ego's great teacher of objectivity. Were the soul to let thoughts wander about aimlessly, it would be immediately compelled to let itself be corrected by life if it did not wish to come into conflict with it. The soul must think according to the course of the facts of life. If now the human being turns his attention away from the physical-sensory world, he lacks the compulsory correction of the latter. If his thinking is then unable to be its own corrective, it must become irrational. Therefore the thinking of the student of the spiritual must be trained in such a manner that it is able to give to itself direction and goal. Thinking must be its own instructor in inner firmness and the capacity to hold the attention strictly to one object. For this reason, suitable “thought exercises” are not to be undertaken with unfamiliar and complicated objects, but with those that are simple and familiar. Anyone who is able for months at a time to concentrate his thoughts daily at least for five minutes upon an ordinary object (for example a needle, a pencil, or any other simple object), and during this time to exclude all thoughts that have no bearing on the subject, has achieved a great deal in this regard. (We may contemplate a new object daily, or the same one for several days.) Also, the one who considers himself a thinker as a result of scientific training should not disdain to prepare himself for spiritual training in this manner. For if for a certain length of time we fasten our thoughts upon an object that is well known to us, we can be sure that we think in conformity with facts. If we ask ourselves what a pencil is composed of, how its materials are prepared, how they are brought together afterward, when pencils were invented, and so forth, we then conform our thoughts more to reality than if we reflect upon the origin of man, or upon the nature of life. Through simple thought exercises we acquire greater ability for factual thinking concerning the Saturn, Sun, and Moon evolutions than through complicated and learned ideas. For in the first place it is not at all a question of thinking about this or that, but of thinking factually by means of inner force. If we have schooled ourselves in regard to factuality by a physical-sensory process, easily surveyed, then thought becomes accustomed to function in accordance with facts even though it does not feel itself controlled by the physical world of the senses and its laws, and we rid ourselves of the habit of letting our thoughts wander without relation to facts.
[ 25 ] The soul must become a ruler in the sphere of the will as it must be in the world of thought. In the physical-sensory world, it is life itself that appears as the ruler. It emphasizes this or that need of the human being, and the will feels itself impelled to satisfy these needs. In higher training man must become accustomed to obey his own commands strictly. He who becomes accustomed to this will be less and less inclined to desire the non-essential. Dissatisfaction and instability in the life of will rest upon the desire for things the realization of which we cannot conceive clearly. Such dissatisfaction may bring the entire mental life into disorder when a higher ego is about to emerge from the soul. It is a good practice if one gives oneself for months, at a certain time of the day, the following command: Today, at this definite time, I shall perform this or that action. One then gradually becomes able to determine the time for this action and the nature of the thing to be done so as to permit its being carried out with great exactness. Thus one lifts oneself above the damaging attitude of mind found in, “I should like this, I want that,” in which we do not at all consider the possibility of its accomplishment. A great personality—Goethe—lets a seeress say, “Him I love who desires the impossible.”2Goethe: Faust 11. And Goethe himself says, “To live in the idea means to treat the impossible as though it were possible.”3Goethe: Verses in Prose. Such expressions must not be used as objections to what is presented here. For the demand of Goethe and his seeress, Manto, can only be fulfilled by someone who has trained himself to desire what is possible, in order then to be able, through his strong will, to treat the “impossible” so that it is transformed through his will into the possible.
[ 26 ] In regard to the world of feeling the soul should attain for spiritual training a certain degree of calmness. It is necessary for that purpose that the soul become ruler over expressions of joy and sorrow, of pleasure and pain. It is just in regard to the acquiring of this ability that much prejudice may result. One might imagine that one would become dull and without sympathy in regard to one's fellowmen if one should not feel joy with the joyful and with the painful, pain. Yet this is not the point in question. With the joyful the soul should rejoice, with sadness it should feel pain. But it should acquire the ability to control the expression of joy and sorrow, of pleasure and pain. If one endeavors to do this, one will soon notice that one does not become less sensitive, but on the contrary more receptive to all that is joyous and sorrowful in one's environment than one was previously. To be sure, if one wishes to acquire the ability with which we are concerned here, one must strictly observe oneself for a long period of time. One must see to it that one is able fully to sympathize with joy and sorrow without losing one's self-control so that one gives way to an involuntary expression of one's feelings. It is not the justified pain that one should suppress, but involuntary weeping; not the horror of an evil action, but the blind rage of anger; not attention to danger, but fruitless fear, and so forth.—Only through such practice does the student of the spiritual attain the tranquility of mind that is necessary to prevent the soul at the birth of the higher ego, and, above all, during its activity, from leading a second, abnormal life like a sort of Doppelganger—soul double—along side this higher ego. It is just in regard to these things that one should not surrender oneself to any sort of self-deception. It may appear to many a one that he already possesses a certain equanimity in ordinary life and therefore does not need this exercise. It is just such a person who doubly needs it. It may be quite possible to be calm when confronting the things of ordinary life, but when one ascends into a higher world, the lack of equilibrium that heretofore was only suppressed may assert itself all the more. It must be grasped that for spiritual training what one already appeared to possess previously is of less importance than the need to practice, according to exact rules, what one lacks. Although this sentence appears contradictory, it is, nevertheless, correct. Even though life has taught us this or that, the abilities we have acquired by ourselves serve the cause of spiritual training. If life has brought us excitability, we should break ourselves of the habit; if life has brought us complacency, then we should through self-education arouse ourselves to such a degree that the expression of the soul corresponds to the impression received. Anyone who never laughs about anything has just as little control of his life as someone who, without any control whatever, is continually given to laughter.
[ 27 ] For the control of thought and feeling there is a further means of education in the acquirement of the faculty that we may call positiveness. There is a beautiful legend that tells of how the Christ Jesus, accompanied by some other persons, passed by a dead dog lying on the roadside. While the others turned aside from the hideous spectacle, the Christ Jesus spoke admiringly of the animal's beautiful teeth. One can school oneself in order to attain the attitude of soul toward the world shown by this legend. The erroneous, the bad, the ugly should not prevent the soul from finding the true, the good, and the beautiful wherever it is present. This positiveness should not be confused with non-criticism, with the arbitrary closing of the eyes to the bad, the false, and the inferior. If you admire the “beautiful teeth” of a dead animal, you also see the decaying corpse. But this corpse does not prevent your seeing the beautiful teeth. One cannot consider the bad good and the false true, but it is possible to attain the ability not to be deterred by evil from seeing good, and by error from seeing truth.
[ 28 ] Thought linked with will undergoes a certain maturing if we permit ourselves never to be robbed by previous experiences of the unbiased receptivity for new experiences. For the student of the spiritual the following thought should entirely lose its meaning, “I have never heard that, I do not believe that.” It should be his aim, during specific periods of time, to learn something new on every occasion from everything and everybody. From every breath of air, from every leaf, from the babbling of children one can learn something if one is prepared to bring to one's aid a certain point of view that one has not made use of up to the present. It will, however, be easily possible in regard to such an ability to go wide of the mark. One should not in any way disregard, at any particular stage of life, one's previous experiences. One should judge what one experiences in the present by one's experiences of the past. This is placed upon one scale of the balance; upon the other, however, must be placed the inclination of the student continually to experience the new. Above all, there must be faith in the possibility that new experiences may contradict the old.
[ 29 ] Thus we have named five capacities of the soul that the student must make his own by correct training: Control of the direction of thought; control of the impulses of will; calmness in joy and sorrow; positiveness in judging the world; impartiality in our attitude toward life. Anyone who has employed certain consecutive periods of time for the purpose of acquiring these capacities will still be subject to the necessity of bringing them into harmonious concord in his soul. He will be under the necessity of practicing them simultaneously, in pairs, or three and one, and so forth, in order to bring about harmony.
[ 30 ] The exercises just characterized are indicated by the methods of spiritual training because by being conscientiously carried out they not only effect in the student what has been designated above as a direct result, but indirectly much else follows, which is needed on the path to the spiritual worlds. Whoever carries out these exercises to a sufficient degree will encounter in the process many short comings and defects in his soul-life, and he will find precisely the means required by him for strengthening and safeguarding his intellectual life, his life of feeling, and his character. He will certainly have need of many other exercises, according to his abilities, his temperament, and character; such exercises will follow, however, when those named are sufficiently carried out. The student will indeed notice that the exercises described yield, indirectly and by degrees, what did not in the first place appear to be in them. If, for example, someone has too little self-confidence, he will be able to notice after a certain time that through the exercises the necessary self-confidence has developed. It is the same in regard to other soul characteristics. (Special and more detailed exercises may be found in my book, Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment.)—It is significant that the student of the spiritual be able to increase the indicated abilities to ever higher degrees. He must bring the control of thought and feeling to such a stage that the soul acquires the power of establishing periods of complete inner tranquility, during which the student holds back from his spirit and heart all that everyday outer life brings of joy and sorrow, of satisfaction and affliction, indeed, of duties and demands. During such periods only those things should enter the soul that the soul itself permits to enter during the state of meditation. In regard to this, a prejudice may easily arise. The opinion might develop that the student might become estranged from life and its duties if he withdraws from it in heart and spirit during certain periods of the day. In reality, however, this is not at all the case. Anyone who surrenders himself, in the manner described, to periods of inner tranquility and peace will, during these periods, engender so many and such strong forces for the duties of outer life that as a result he will not, indeed, perform his duties more poorly, but, certainly, in a better fashion.—It is of great benefit if in such periods the student detaches himself completely from the thoughts of his personal affairs, if he is able to elevate himself to what concerns not only himself but mankind in general. If he is able to fill his soul with the communications from the higher spiritual world and if they are able to arouse his interest to just as high a degree as is the case with personal troubles or affairs, then his soul will gather from it fruit of special value.—Whoever, in this way, endeavors to regulate his soul-life will also attain the possibility of self-observation through which he observes his own affairs with the same tranquility as if they were those of others. The ability to behold one's own experiences, one's own joys and sorrows as though they were the joys and sorrows of others is a good preparation for spiritual training. One gradually attains the necessary degree of this quality if, after one has finished one's daily tasks, one permits the panorama of one's daily experiences to pass before the eyes of the spirit. One must see oneself in a picture within one's experiences; that is, one must observe oneself in one's daily life as though from outside. One attains a certain ability in such self-observation if one begins with the visualization of detached portions of this daily life. One then becomes increasingly clever and skillful in such retrospect, so that, after a longer period of practice, one will be able to form a complete picture within a brief span of time. This looking at one's experiences backward has a special value for spiritual training for the reason that it brings the soul to a point where it is able to release itself in thinking from the previous habit of merely following in thought the course of everyday events. In thought-retrospect one visualizes correctly, but one is not held to the sensory course of events. One needs this exercise to familiarize oneself with the spiritual world. Thought strengthens itself in this way in a healthy manner. It is therefore also good not only to review in retrospect one's daily life, but to retrace in reverse order, for instance, the course of a drama, a narrative, or a melody.—More and more it will become the ideal for the student to relate himself to the life events he encounters in such a way that, with inner certainty and soul tranquility, he allows them to approach him and does not judge them according to his soul condition, but according to their inner significance and their inner value. It is just by looking upon this ideal that he will create for himself the soul basis for the surrender of himself to the above described meditations on symbolic and other thoughts and feelings.
[ 31 ] The conditions described here must be fulfilled, because supersensible experience is built upon the foundation on which one stands in everyday soul life before one enters the supersensible world. In a twofold manner all supersensible experience is dependent upon the starting point at which the soul stands before it enters into this world. Anyone who, from the beginning, does not consider making a healthy judgment the foundation of his spiritual training will develop in himself supersensible faculties with which he perceives the spiritual world inexactly and incorrectly. His spiritual organs of perception will, so to speak, unfold incorrectly. Just as one cannot see correctly in the sense world with eyes that are faulty and diseased, one cannot perceive correctly with spiritual organs that have not been constructed upon the foundation of a healthy capacity for judgment.—Whoever makes the start with an immoral soul condition elevates himself to the spiritual world in a way by which his spiritual perception becomes stupefied and clouded. He stands confronting the supersensible worlds like someone observing the sensory world in a stupor. Such a person will, to be sure, make no important statements. The spiritual observer in his state of stupor is, however, more awake than a human being in everyday consciousness. His assertions, therefore, will become errors in regard to the spiritual world.
[ 32 ] The inner excellence of the stage of imaginative cognition is attained through the fact that the soul meditations described are supported by what we may call familiarizing oneself with sense-free thinking. If one forms a thought based upon observation in the physical sense world, this thought is not sense-free. It is, however, not a fact that man is able to form only such thoughts. Human thought does not need to become empty and without content when it refuses to be filled with the results of sense-observations. The safest and most evident way for the student of the spiritual to acquire such sense-free thinking is to make his own, in thinking, the facts of the higher world that are communicated to him by spiritual science. It is not possible to observe these facts by means of the physical senses. Nevertheless, the student will notice that they can be grasped mentally if he has sufficient patience and persistence. We are not able to carry on research in the higher worlds without training, nor can we make observations in that world; yet without higher training we are able to understand the descriptions of spiritual researchers, and if someone asks, “How can I accept in good faith what these researchers say since I am unable to perceive the spiritual world myself?” then this is completely unfounded. For it is entirely possible merely by reflecting on what is given, to attain the certain conviction that what is communicated is true, and if anyone is unable to form this conviction through reflection, it is not because it is impossible to believe something one cannot see, but solely because his reflection has not been sufficiently thorough, comprehensive and unprejudiced. In order to gain clarity in regard to this point we must realize that human thinking, when it arouses itself with inner energy, is able to comprehend more than is usually presumed. For in thought itself an inner entity is already present that is connected with the supersensible world. The soul is usually not conscious of this connection because it is accustomed to developing the thought faculty only by employing it in the sense world. It therefore regards communications from the super-sensible world as something incomprehensible. These communications, however, are not only comprehensible to a mode of thinking taught through spiritual training, but for every sort of thinking that is fully conscious of its own power and that wishes to employ it.—By making what spiritual research offers increasingly one's own, one accustoms oneself to a mode of thinking that does not derive its content from sense-observations. We learn to recognize how, in the inner reaches of the soul, thought weaves into thought, how thought seeks thought, although the thought associations are not effected by the power of sense-observation. The essential in this is the fact that one becomes aware of how the thought world has an inner life, of how one, by really thinking, finds oneself already in the region of a living supersensible world. span class="paragraphMarker">[ 33 ] One says to oneself, “There is something in me that fashions a thought organism; I am, nevertheless, at one with this something.” By surrendering oneself to sense-free thinking one becomes conscious of the existence of something essential flowing into our inner life, just as the characteristics of sense objects flow into us through the medium of our physical organs when we observe by means of our senses. The observer of the sense world says to himself, “Outside in space there is a rose; it is not strange to me, for it makes itself known to me through its color and fragrance.” One needs now only to be sufficiently unprejudiced in order to say to oneself when sense-free thinking acts in one, “Something real proclaims its presence in me that binds thought to thought, fashioning a thought organism.” But the sensations experienced by observing the objects of the outer sense world are different from the sensations experienced when spiritual reality manifests itself in sense-free thinking. The observer of sense objects experiences the rose as something external to himself. The observer who has surrendered himself to sense-free thought feels the spiritual reality announcing itself as though it existed within him, he feels himself one with it. Whoever, more or less consciously, only admits as real what confronts him like an external object, will naturally not be able to have the feeling, “Whatever has the nature of being in itself may also announce itself to me by my being united with it as though I were one with it.” In order in this regard to see correctly, one must be able to have the following inner experience. One must learn to distinguish between the thought associations one creates arbitrarily and those one experiences in oneself when one silences this arbitrary volition. In the latter case one may then say, “I remain quite silent within myself; I produce no thought associations; I surrender myself to what ‘thinks in me.’ ” Then one is fully justified in saying, “Something possessing the nature of being acts within me,” just as one is justified in saying, “A rose acts upon me when I see its red color, when I smell its fragrance.”—In this connection, there lies no contradiction in the fact that the content of one's thoughts is derived from the communications of the spiritual researcher. The thoughts are, indeed, already present when one surrenders to them; but one cannot think them if one does not, in every case, re-create them anew within the soul. What is important is the fact that the spiritual researcher calls up thoughts in his listeners and readers that they must first draw forth out of themselves, while the one who describes sense reality points to something that may be observed by listeners and readers in the sense world.
[ 34 ] (The path is absolutely safe upon which the communications of spiritual science lead us to sense-free thinking. There is, however, still another path that is safer and above all more exact, but it is also more difficult for many human beings. This path is presented in my books, A Theory of Knowledge Based on Goethe's World Conception, and Philosophy of Freedom. These writings offer what human thought can acquire if thinking does not give itself up to the impressions of the physical-sensory world, but only to itself. It is then pure thought, which acts in the human being like a living entity, and not thought that merely indulges in memories of the sensory. In the writings mentioned above nothing is inserted from the communications of spiritual science itself. Yet it is shown that pure thinking, merely active within itself, may throw light on the problems of world, life, and man. These writings stand at an important point intermediate between cognition of the sense world and that of the spiritual world. They offer what thinking can gain when it elevates itself above sense-observation, while still avoiding entering upon spiritual research. Whoever permits these writings to act upon his entire soul nature, stands already within the spiritual world; it presents itself to him, however, as a world of thought. He who feels himself in the position to permit such an intermediate stage to act upon him, travels a safe path, and through it he is able to gain a feeling toward the higher world that will bear for him the most beautiful fruit throughout all future time.)
[ 35 ] The object of meditation on the previously characterized symbolic mental images and feelings is, correctly speaking, the development of the higher organs of perception within the human astral body. They are created from the substance of this astral body. These new organs of observation open up a new world, and in this new world man becomes acquainted with himself as a new ego. The new organs of observation are to be distinguished from the organs of the physical sense world through the fact of their being active organs. Whereas eyes and ears remain passive, permitting light and sound to act upon them, the soul-spirit organs of perception are continually active while perceiving and they seize upon their objects and facts, as it were, in full consciousness. This results in the feeling that soul-spirit cognition is the act of uniting with the corresponding facts, is really a “living within them.”—The soul-spirit organs that are being individually developed may, by way of comparison, be called “lotus flowers,” according to the forms which they present imaginatively to supersensible consciousness. (Granted, it must be clear that such a designation has nothing more to do with the case than the expression “chamber” has to do with the case when we speak of the “chamber of the heart.”) Through quite definite methods of inner meditation the astral body is affected in such a way that one or another of the soul-spirit organs, one or another of the “lotus flowers,” is formed. After all that has been described in this book it ought to be superfluous to accentuate the fact that these “organs of observation” are not to be imagined as something that, in the mental representation of its sense-image, is a picture of its reality. These “organs” are supersensible and consist of a definitely formed soul activity; they exist only as far and as long as this soul activity is practiced. The existence of these organs in the human being produces nothing of a sensory character any more than human thinking produces some sort of a physical “vapor.” Whoever insists on visualizing the supersensory as something sensory becomes involved in misunderstandings. In spite of the superfluity of this remark, it is made here because again and again there are those who accept the supersensory as a fact, but who, in their thoughts, desire only what is sensory, and because again and again there appear opponents of supersensory cognition who believe that the spiritual researcher speaks of “lotus flowers” as though they were delicate, physical structures. Every correct meditation that is made in regard to imaginative cognition has its effect upon one or another organ. (In my book, Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment, certain methods of meditation, and exercises that affect one or another of the organs, are outlined.) Proper training sets up the several exercises of the student of the spiritual and arranges them to follow one another so that the organs are able to develop correspondingly, either singly, in groups, or consecutively. In connection with this development the spiritual student must have great patience and endurance. Anyone having only the measure of patience possessed, as a rule, by most human beings through the ordinary relationships of life will find that this does not suffice. For it takes a long time, often a very long time, before the organs are sufficiently developed to permit their employment by the spiritual student in perceiving the spiritual world. This is the moment when something occurs for him that may be called illumination, in contrast to the preparation or purification consisting of the exercises that develop the organs. (We speak of purification, because the corresponding exercises purify the student in a certain sphere of his inner life of all that springs only from the sensory world of observation.) It may happen that the student, even before his actual illumination occurs, may experience repeatedly “flashes of light” coming from a higher world. He should accept such experiences gratefully. Through them he can already become a witness for the spiritual world. But he should not waver if this does not occur during this period of preparation, which may perhaps seem to him altogether too long. If he exhibits any impatience whatever “because he does not yet see anything,” he has not yet gained the right attitude toward a higher world. This attitude can only be grasped by someone for whom the exercises performed in his training can be, as it were, an end in themselves. These exercises are, in truth, work performed on the soul-spirit nature, that is to say, on the student's own astral body, and although he “sees nothing,” he may “feel” that he is working on his soul-spirit nature. If, however, one forms a definite opinion right at the beginning of what one actually expects to “see,” one will not have this feeling. Then one will consider as nothing what in truth is of immeasurable significance. But one should be subtly observant of everything one experiences during the exercises and that is so fundamentally different from all experiences in the sense world. One will then certainly notice that one's astral body, upon which one is working, is not a neutral substance, but that in it there lives a totally different world of which one knows nothing in one's life of the senses. Higher beings are working upon the astral body, just as the outer physical-sensory world works upon the physical body, and one encounters this higher life in one's own astral body if one does not close oneself to it. If someone repeatedly says to himself, “I perceive nothing!” then, in most cases, he has imagined that spiritual perception must take place in this or that manner, and because he does not perceive what he imagines he should see, he says, “I see nothing!”
[ 36 ] If the student has acquired the right attitude toward the exercises of spiritual training, they will constitute something for him that he loves more and more for its own sake. He then knows that through the practice itself he stands in a world of soul and spirit, and with patience and serenity he awaits what will result. This attitude may arise in the consciousness of the student most favorably in the following words, “I will do everything that is proper in the way of exercises, and I know that just as much will come to me at the proper time as is important for me. I do not demand it impatiently, but I am ever ready to receive it.”
It is not valid to object that “the spiritual student must thus grope about in the dark, perhaps for an immeasurably long time; for he can only know clearly that he is on the right path in his exercises when the results appear.” It is untrue that only results can bring knowledge of the correctness of the exercises. If the student takes the right attitude toward them, he finds that the satisfaction he draws from the practice gives him the assurance that what he is doing is right; he does not have to wait for the results. Correct practice in the sphere of spiritual training calls forth satisfaction that is not mere satisfaction, but knowledge that is to say, the knowledge that he is doing something which convinces him that he is making progress in the right direction. Every spiritual student may have this knowledge at every moment, provided he is subtly attentive to his experiences. If he does not employ this attention then the experiences escape him, as is the case with a pedestrian who, lost in thought, does not see the trees on both sides of the road, although he would see them were he to direct his attention to them.—It is not at all desirable that a result be hastened different from the one that must always occur from correct practice. For this result might easily be only the smallest part of what should actually appear. In regard to spiritual development a partial success is often the reason for a strong retardation of the complete success. The movement among such forms of spiritual life that correspond to the partial success dulls the sensitivity in regard to the influences of the forces that lead to higher stages of evolution, and what we may have gained by having “peered” into the spirit world is only an illusion, for this “peering” cannot furnish the truth, but only a mirage.
[ 37 ] The psycho-spiritual organs, the lotus flowers, are fashioned so as to appear to supersensible consciousness, in the student undergoing training, as though located in the neighborhood of certain organs of the physical body. From among these soul organs the following will be mentioned here. First, the one that is felt between the eyebrows—the so-called two-petalled lotus flower; the one in the neighborhood of the larynx—the sixteen-petalled lotus flower; a third in the heart region—the twelve-petalled lotus flower; a fourth in the region of the solar plexus. Other similar organs appear in the neighborhood of other parts of the physical body. (The names “two-petalled” or “sixteen-petalled” may be used because the corresponding organs may be likened to flowers of a corresponding number of petals.)
[ 38 ] One becomes conscious of the lotus flowers through the astral body. The moment one has developed one or another of these organs, one is aware of its existence. One feels that one can employ it and through its use really enter into a higher world. The impressions that one receives from that world still resemble in many ways those of the physical-sensory world. He who possesses imaginative cognition will be able to speak of the new, higher world in such a way that he designates the impressions as sensations of heat or cold, as perceptions of tones and words, as effects of light and color, for he experiences them as such. But he is aware that these perceptions in the imaginative world express something quite different from sense reality. He recognizes that behind them stand not physical material, but soul-spirit causes. If he experiences something like an impression of heat, he does not, for instance, ascribe it to a piece of hot iron, but he considers it the outflow of a soul process that, up to the present, he has only known in his inner soul-life. He knows that behind imaginative perceptions stand soul and spiritual things and processes just as behind physical perceptions stand material physical beings and facts.—Beside this similarity of the imaginative with the physical world there is, however, a significant difference. Certain phenomena in the physical world appear quite different in the imaginative world. In the former can be observed a continual growth and decay of things, an alternation of birth and death. In the imaginative world a continual transformation of one thing into another takes the place of these phenomena. One sees, for example, the decay of a plant in the physical world. In the imaginative world, in proportion to the withering of the plant the growth of another formation makes its appearance that is not perceptible physically and into which the decaying plant is gradually transformed. When the plant has disappeared, this formation stands completely developed in its place. Birth and death are ideas that lose their significance in the imaginative world. In their place appears the concept of transformation of one thing into another.—Because this is so, the truths about the being of man become accessible to imaginative cognition, truths that have been described in Chapter 2 of this book, entitled “The Essential Nature of Mankind.” To physical-sensory perception only the processes of the physical body are perceptible. They occur in the “region of birth and death.” The other members of human nature—life body, sentient body, and ego—come under the law of transformation, and perception of them is acquired through imaginative cognition. Whoever has advanced to this point perceives the releasing itself from the physical body of what at death continues to live on in another state of existence.
[ 39 ] Development, however, does not stop with the imaginative world. The human being who might wish to stop in this world would perceive the beings undergoing transformation, but he would be unable to explain the processes of transformation; he would be unable to orientate himself in the newly attained world. The imaginative world is an unstable region. In it there exist everywhere constant motion and transformation; nowhere are there points of rest. Such points of rest are attained by man only when he has developed himself beyond the stage of imaginative cognition to the stage that may be called “cognition through inspiration.”—It is not necessary that a person who seeks cognition of the supersensible world develop himself in such a way that he advance first to the possession of a full degree of imaginative cognition, and then only advance to “Inspiration.” His exercises may be so arranged that what may lead to imagination and to inspiration proceeds hand in hand. He will then, after a certain time, enter a higher world in which he not only perceives, but in which he is able to orientate himself, and which he can interpret. To be sure, this progress will, as a rule, be of such a character that first of all some of the phenomena of the imaginative world manifest themselves to him; then after a time he will experience the feeling, “Now I am beginning to orientate myself.”—The world of inspiration is, nevertheless, something quite new in comparison with the world of mere imagination. Through the latter one perceives the transformation of one process into another; through the former one learns to know the inner qualities of beings who transform themselves. Through imagination one learns to know the soul-expression of beings; through inspiration one penetrates into their inner spiritual nature. One recognizes above all a host of spiritual beings and discerns a great number of relationships between one being and another. One has to deal with a multitude of individual beings also in the physical-sensory world; in the world of inspiration, however, this multitude is of a different character. There each being has a quite definite relationship to others, not as in the physical world through external influences, but through its inner constitution. If we perceive a being in the world of inspiration, there is no evidence of an outer influence upon another being, which might be compared with the effect of one physical being upon another, but a relationship exists between two beings through their inner constitution. Let us compare this relationship with a relationship in the physical world, by selecting for comparison the relationship between the separate sounds or letters of a word. Take, for instance, the word “man.” It is produced through the concordance of the sounds m-a-n. There is no impulse or other external influence passing over from the m to the a; both sounds act together within the whole through their inner constitution. Therefore observation in the world of inspiration may only be compared with reading,—and the beings in the world of inspiration act upon the observer like the letters of an alphabet, which he must learn to know and the interrelationships of which must unfold themselves to him like a supersensible script. Spiritual science, therefore, may call cognition through inspiration—speaking figuratively—the reading of secret or occult script.
[ 40 ] How we may read by means of this occult script, and how we may communicate what is read, will now be made clear by means of the preceding chapters of this book itself. How the human being takes shape out of various members was described at the very outset. It was then shown how the cosmic being, within which the human being develops, passes through the various states of Saturn, Sun, Moon, and Earth. The perceptions through which one can, on the one hand, cognize the members of the human being and, on the other, the consecutive states of the Earth and its preceding transformations, disclose themselves to imaginative knowledge. It is, however, also necessary that it be known what relationships exist between the Saturn state and the human physical body, the Sun state and the ether body, and so forth. It must be shown that the germinal human physical body has come already into existence during the Saturn state, and that it has evolved further to its present form during the Sun, Moon, and Earth states. It was necessary to show also, for example, what transformations have taken place within the human being as a result of the separation of the sun from the Earth, and similarly through the separation of the moon. It was necessary also to describe the powers and beings who co-operated in order that such transformations could occur in humanity as are expressed in the transformations during the Atlantean period and also during the successive periods of the ancient Indian, the ancient Persian, the Egyptian cultures, and the subsequent periods of culture. The description of these relationships does not result from imaginative perception, but from cognition through inspiration, by reading the occult script. For this sort of “reading” the perceptions of imagination are like letter symbols or sounds. This “reading,” however, is not only necessary for the purpose of explaining what has just been described, but it would be impossible to understand the life course of the whole human being were it only perceived through imaginative cognition. One would perceive, indeed, how the soul-spiritual members are released at death from what remains in the physical world, but one would not understand the relationships between what happens to the human being after death and the preceding and succeeding states, were one unable to orientate oneself within the imaginatively perceived.. Without cognition through inspiration the imaginative world would remain like writing at which we stare but which we cannot read.
[ 41 ] When the student of the spiritual advances from imagination to inspiration he soon sees how incorrect it would be to relinquish the understanding of the macrocosmic phenomena and to limit himself only to facts that, so to say, touch upon immediate human interests. Someone who is not initiated into these things might well say the following. “It appears to me only necessary to learn about the fate of the human soul after death; if I am told something about that, it will suffice; why does spiritual science wish to demonstrate such distant things as the Saturn or Sun state, and the sun and moon separation, and so forth?” Anyone properly informed about these things learns that real knowledge of what he wishes to know is never acquired without an understanding of what seems to him so unnecessary. A description of the human states after death remains completely unintelligible and worthless if man is unable to connect them with concepts that are derived from such remote matters. Even the simplest observation of the scientist of the supersensible makes his acquaintance with such things necessary. If, for example, a plant makes the transition from blossom to fruit, the human observer of the supersensible sees a transformation taking place in an astral being that during the period of flowering has overshadowed the plant from above and enclosed it like a cloud. Had the fructification not occurred, then this astral being would have made a transition into quite a different shape from the one it has assumed in consequence of fructification. Now one understands the entire process perceived by supersensible observation, if one has learned to understand its nature through the macrocosmic process through which the Earth and all its inhabitants have passed at the time of the sun separation. Before fructification, the plant is in a position similar to the entire Earth prior to the sun separation. After fructification, the plant blossom shows itself in a condition similar to the Earth after the sun had severed itself and the moon forces were still present in it. If one has made one's own the concepts that may be gained by studying the sun separation, one then understands adequately the meaning of the process of plant fructification. One will say that the plant is in a sun state before fructification, in a moon state after it. For it is a fact that even the smallest process in the world may be grasped only if we recognize that it constitutes a copy of macrocosmic processes. Otherwise its very nature remains unintelligible, just as Raphael's Madonna would remain unintelligible if nothing were to be seen but a small blue speck when the rest of the picture were covered up. Everything that occurs in the human being is a copy of macrocosmic processes that have to do with his existence. If one wishes to understand the observations of supersensible consciousness concerning the phenomena occurring between birth and death, and again between death and rebirth, one can do this if one has acquired the faculty of deciphering the imaginative observations through the concepts acquired by the study of the macrocosmic processes.—This study gives us the key to the comprehension of human life. Therefore, in the sense of spiritual science, observation of Saturn, Sun, and Moon is at the same time observation of man.
[ 42 ] Through inspiration one acquires the knowledge of the relationships between the beings of the higher world. It is possible through a higher stage of cognition to understand the inner nature of these beings themselves. This stage of cognition may be designated intuitive cognition. (Intuition is a word misused in everyday life for an obscure, uncertain insight into a fact, that is, for a certain idea which at times agrees with truth but the justification of which is at the time not provable. What is meant here has naturally nothing to do with this sort of intuition. Intuition denotes here a cognition of the highest, most illuminating clarity, and, if one has it, one is conscious in the fullest sense of its justification.)—To have knowledge of a sense-being means to stand outside it and to judge it according to the external impression. To have knowledge of a spiritual being through intuition means to have become completely one with it, to have become united with its inner nature. Step by step the student of the spiritual ascends to such knowledge. Imagination leads him to sense the perceptions no longer as outer characteristics of beings, but to recognize in them the outpouring of something psycho-spiritual; inspiration leads him further into the inner nature of beings. He learns through it to understand what these beings are to each other; with intuition he penetrates into the beings themselves.—The significance of intuition also may be shown by the descriptions given in this book. In the preceding chapters, not only the course of Saturn, Sun, and Moon evolutions was described, but it was told that beings participate in this development in the most varied ways. Thrones or Spirits of Will, Spirits of Wisdom, of Motion, and others were mentioned. In the Earth evolution mention was made of the spirits Lucifer and Ahriman. The construction of the cosmos was traced back to the beings who participate in it. What may be learned about these beings is won through intuitive cognition. This faculty is also necessary if one wishes to have a knowledge of the course of human life. What is released after death from the human bodily nature goes through various states in the subsequent period. The states directly after death might be described in some measure through imaginative cognition.
What, however, takes place when man advances further into the period between death and rebirth would have to remain quite unintelligible to imaginative cognition, if inspiration did not come to the rescue. Only inspiration is able to discover what may be said about the life of man in the land of spirits after purification. Then something appears for which inspiration no longer suffices, where it reaches, so to say, the limits of understanding. There is a period in human evolution between death and rebirth when the being of man is accessible only to intuition. This part of the being of man, however, is always present in him; and if we wish to understand it according to its true inner nature, we must investigate it by means of intuition also in the period between birth and death. Whoever wished to fathom the nature of man by means of imagination and inspiration alone, would miss the innermost processes of his being that take place from incarnation to incarnation. Only intuitive cognition, therefore, makes possible an adequate research into repeated earth lives and into karma. The truth communicated about these processes must originate from research by means of intuitive cognition.—If man himself wishes to have a knowledge of his own inner being, he can only acquire this through intuition. By means of it he perceives what progresses in him from earth life to earth life.
[ 43 ] Man is able to attain knowledge by means of inspiration and intuition only through soul-spirit exercises. They resemble those that have been described as meditation for the attainment of imagination. While, however, those exercises that lead to imagination are linked to the impressions of the sensory-physical world, this link must disappear more and more in the exercises for inspiration. In order to make clear to himself what has to happen there, let a person consider again the symbol of the rose cross. If he ponders upon this symbol he has an image before him, the parts of which have been taken from the impressions of the sense world: the black color of the cross, the roses, and so forth. The combining of these parts into a rose cross has not been taken from the physical sense world. If now the student of the spirit attempts to let the black cross and also the red roses as pictures of sense realities disappear entirely from his consciousness and only to retain in his soul the spiritual activity that has combined these parts, then he has a means for meditation that leads him by degrees to inspiration. One may place the following question before one's soul. What have I done inwardly in order to combine cross and rose into a symbol? What I have done—my own soul process—I wish to hold fast to; I let the picture itself, however, disappear from my consciousness. Then I wish to feel within me all that my soul has done in order to bring the image into existence, but I do not wish to hold the image itself; I wish to live quite inwardly within my own activity, which has created the image. Thus, I do not intend to meditate on an image, but to dwell in my own image-creating soul activity. Such meditation must be carried out in regard to many symbols. This then leads to cognition through inspiration. Another example would be the following. One meditates on the thought of a growing and decaying plant. One allows to arise in the soul the image of a slowly growing plant as it shoots up out of the seed, as it unfolds leaf on leaf, until it develops flower and fruit. Then again, one meditates on how it begins to fade until its complete dissolution. One acquires gradually by meditating on such an image a feeling of growth and decay for which the plant remains a mere symbol. From this feeling, if this exercise is continued with perseverance, there may arise the imagination of the transformation that underlies physical growth and decay. If one wishes, however, to attain the corresponding state of inspiration, one has to carry out the exercise differently. The student must recall his own soul activity that has gained the visualization of growth and decay from the image of the plant. He must now let the plant disappear completely from consciousness and only meditate upon what he has himself done inwardly. Only through such exercises is it possible to ascend to inspiration. In the beginning it will not be entirely easy for the student of the spirit to comprehend completely how he should go about such an exercise. The reason for this is that the human being who is accustomed to have his inner life determined by outer impressions immediately finds himself uncertain and wavering when he has to unfold a soul-life that has discarded all connection with outer impressions. In a still higher degree than in the acquiring of imagination the student must be clear, in regard to these exercises that lead to inspiration, that he ought only to carry them out when he accompanies them with all those precautionary measures that can lead to safeguarding and strengthening of his power of discrimination, his life of feeling, and his character. If he takes these precautions, then he will have a twofold result. In the first place, he will not, through these exercises, lose the equilibrium of his personality during supersensible perception; secondly, he will at the same time gain the faculty of being able actually to carry out what is required in these exercises. He will maintain in regard to them that they are difficult only so long as he has not yet acquired a quite definite soul condition, quite definite feelings and sensations. He will soon gain understanding and also ability for the exercises, if in patience and perseverance he fosters in his soul such inner faculties as favor the unfolding of supersensible knowledge. If he grows accustomed to withdrawing into himself frequently in such a way that he is less concerned with brooding on himself than with quietly arranging and working over his life-experiences, he will gain much. He will see that his thoughts and feelings are enriched if he brings one life-experience into relationship with another. He will become aware to what a high degree he experiences something new not only by having new impressions and new experiences, but also by permitting the old to work in him. If he sets to work in such a way that he lets his experiences, indeed, even his acquired opinions, play back and forth as though he were not at all involved in them with his sympathies and antipathies, with his personal interests and feelings, he will prepare an especially good soil for the forces of supersensible cognition. He will develop, in truth, what may be called a rich inner life. The question of chief importance here, however, is equanimity and equilibrium of the soul qualities. Man is only too easily inclined, if he surrenders himself to a certain soul activity, to fall into one-sidedness. For example, if he becomes aware of the advantage of inner meditation and of dwelling in his own thought world, he may develop such an inclination toward it that he begins to shut himself off from the impressions of the outer world. This, however, leads to the withering and devastation of the inner life. Those go the farthest who preserve, alongside the ability to withdraw inwardly, an open receptivity to all impressions of the outer world. One need not think here merely of the so-called important impressions of life, but every man in every situation—even in the poorest surroundings—may have sufficient experiences if he only keeps his mind sufficiently receptive. One need not seek the experiences; they are present everywhere.—Of special importance also is the way experiences are transformed in the human soul. For example, somebody may discover that a person revered by him or others has this or that quality that may be viewed as a fault of character. Such an experience may cause the human being to meditate in a twofold manner. He may simply say to himself, “Now, that I have recognized this fault, I can no longer revere this person in the same way as formerly.” Or he may pose the following question to himself, “How does it happen that this revered person is afflicted with this fault? Should I not consider that this fault is not merely a fault, but something due to the circumstances of this person's life, perhaps even to his great capacities?” A human being posing this question to himself will perhaps arrive at the result that his reverence is not in the least to be decreased by the discovery of such a fault. He will have learned something every time he goes through such an experience; he will have added something to his understanding of life. It would, however, certainly be disastrous to the human being were he to let himself be misled by the merit of such a view of life to excuse everything he possibly can in people and things for whom he has a preference, or even to form the habit of disregarding all faults because it brings him advantage for his inner development. This will not be the case if he has the subjective impulse not merely to censure faults but to understand them; it will occur when this attitude is demanded by the case in question, regardless of the gain or loss to him who judges. It is entirely correct that one cannot learn through condemning faults, but only through understanding them. If, however, because of understanding, one should entirely exclude disapproval, one would not get very far either. Here also it is not a question of one-sidedness in either direction, but of equanimity and equilibrium of the soul powers.—It is especially so with a soul quality that is of great significance for the development of the human being; this is what is called the feeling of reverence or devotion. Those who have developed this feeling in themselves or possess it from the outset through a fortunate gift of nature have an excellent basis for the forces of supersensible knowledge. The person who in childhood or youth has been able to look up with self-surrendering admiration to personalities as though to high ideals, possesses something at the foundation of his soul in which supersensible cognition thrives especially well. And whoever with mature judgment in later life looks upon the starry heavens and feels with wonder in complete surrender the revelation of exalted powers makes himself thus mature for knowledge of supersensible worlds. Something similar is the case with those who are able to admire the forces ruling in human life, and it is not of little importance if we, even as mature human beings, can have reverence to the highest degree for other men whose worth we divine or believe we know. Only where such reverence is present can the view into the higher world open up. The person who is unable to revere will in no way advance very far in his knowledge. Whoever does not wish to acknowledge anything in the world will find that the essential nature of things is closed to him.—The person, however, who permits himself to be misled, through an unrestrained feeling of reverence and surrender, to deaden in himself a healthy consciousness of self and self-confidence sins against the law of equanimity and equilibrium. The student will continually work on himself in order to make himself more and more mature; he is then justified in having confidence in his own personality and in having faith that its powers will continually increase. If he achieves correct feelings in this direction he may say to himself, “In me there lie hidden forces and I can draw them forth from my inner being. Therefore, when I see something that I must revere because it stands above me, I need not only revere it, but I may hope to develop myself to such a degree that I become similar to what I revere.”
[ 44 ] The greater the capacity of a human being to direct his attention to certain processes of life with which his personal judgment is not, at the outset, familiar, the greater the possibility for him to lay the foundation for a development into the spiritual worlds. An example may make this clear. A man is in a certain situation in life where he may perform a certain deed or leave it undone. His judgment suggests to him: Do this! But there may be a certain inexplicable something in his feelings that holds him back from the deed. Now it may be that he does not pay any attention to this inexplicable something that seeks to restrain him, but simply performs the deed, according to his capacity to judge. Or he may surrender to the urge of this inexplicable something and leave the deed undone. If he then follows up the matter further it may become evident that evil would have been the result had he followed his judgment, but that by non-performance of the deed, a blessing has ensued. Such an experience may lead man's thoughts into a quite definite direction. He may say to himself, “Something lives in me that is a better guide than my present capacity of judgment. I must hold my mind open to this ,something in me that cannot at all be reached by the present degree of my capacity of judgment.” The soul is benefited to the highest degree when it directs its attention toward such occurrences in life. It then becomes aware, as though in a state of healthy premonition, that something exists in man that transcends his present ability to judge. Through such attention the human being directs his efforts toward an extension of soul-life, but here also it is possible that one-sidedness may result that is dangerous. Whoever were to form the habit of disregarding his judgment because his “premonitions” impel him to this or that, would become the plaything of all sorts of uncertain impulses, and from such a habit it is not a great distance to complete lack of judgment and superstition.—Any sort of superstition is fatal to the student of the spiritual. He acquires the possibility of penetrating in a true way into the regions of spiritual life only by guarding himself carefully against superstition, fantastic ideas, and day-dreaming. No one can enter the spirit world in the right way who is happy in experiencing something that “cannot be grasped by the human mind.” A preference for the “inexplicable” certainly makes no one a student of the spirit. He must completely abandon the notion that “a mystic is someone who presumes wherever it suits him something inexplicable and unfathomable in the world.” The student shows the proper feeling by acknowledging this existence of hidden forces and beings everywhere, but also by assuming that the uninvestigated may be investigated if the necessary powers are present.
[ 45 ] There is a certain attitude of soul that is important for the student of the spirit at every stage of his development. This consists in not directing his desire for knowledge in a one-sided way by asking, “How may this or that question be answered?” but by asking, “How do I develop this or that ability in myself?” If then by inner patient work in himself this or that faculty is developed, the answer to certain questions is received. Students of the spirit will always foster this attitude of soul. Through this they are led to work on themselves, to make themselves more and more mature, and to renounce the desire to force answers to certain questions. They will wait until such answers come to them.—If, however, they become one-sided here also, they will not advance properly. The student may also have the feeling at a certain point of his development that he, with the degree of his ability, can himself answer the most sublime questions. Here also equanimity and equilibrium play an important role in the attitude of soul.
[ 46 ] Many more soul faculties could be described, the fostering and development of which are beneficial when the student strives by means of exercises to attain inspiration. In all of them, we should have to emphasize that equanimity and equilibrium are the soul faculties upon which everything depends. They prepare the understanding and the ability to carry out the exercises outlined for the purpose of acquiring inspiration.
[ 47 ] The exercises for the attainment of intuition demand that the student cause not only the images, to which he has surrendered himself in acquiring imagination, to disappear from his consciousness, but also the life within his own soul activity into which he has immersed himself for the acquirement of inspiration. He should then literally retain nothing in his soul of previously known outer or inner experiences. Were there to be, however, nothing left in his consciousness after this discarding of outer and inner experiences, that is to say, were his consciousness then entirely to disappear and he to sink down into unconsciousness, this would then make it clear to him that he had not yet made himself mature enough to undertake exercises for intuition; he would then have to continue the exercises for imagination and inspiration. A time will surely come when the consciousness is not empty after the soul has discarded all inner and outer experiences, but when, after this discarding, something remains in consciousness as an effect, to which we then may surrender in meditation just as we had previously surrendered to what owes its existence to outer or inner impressions. This something is of a quite special character. It is, in contrast to all preceding experiences, something entirely new. When one experiences it one knows, “This I have not known before. It is a perception just as the real tone, heard by the ear, is a perception, but this something can only enter my consciousness through intuition, just as the tone can only enter my consciousness through the ear.” Through intuition man's impressions are stripped of the last trace of the sensory-physical; the spiritual world now begins to open itself to cognition in a form that no longer has anything in common with the qualities of the physical world of the senses.
[ 48 ] Imaginative consciousness is attained through the development of the lotus flowers in the astral body. Through the exercises that are undertaken for acquiring inspiration and intuition, certain definite motions, forms, and currents appear in the human ether or life body that were not present previously. They are in fact the organs through which man adds to the scope of his faculties the “reading of the occult script,” and what lies beyond it. The changes in the ether body of a human being who has attained inspiration and intuition present themselves to supersensible cognition in the following manner. Somewhere in the neighborhood of the physical heart a new center becomes conscious in the ether body, which develops into an etheric organ. From this organ, movements and currents flow to the various members of the human body in the most manifold way. The most important of these currents flow to the lotus flowers, permeating them and their various petals, then proceeding outward, pouring themselves like radiations into external space. The more the human being is developed, the greater the sphere around him within which these radiations are perceptible. The center in the region of the heart does not, however, develop immediately at the start of correct training. It is first prepared. There appears, to begin with, a temporary center in the head; this then moves down into the neighborhood of the larynx and finally settles in the region of the physical heart. Were its development irregular, then the organ of which we have been speaking might immediately be formed in the neighborhood of the heart. In that case there would be danger that the student, instead of attaining quiet and factual supersensible perception, would become a visionary and fantast. As he develops further, the student acquires the ability to free the currents and structures of his ether body from his physical body and to use them independently. In doing this, the lotus flowers serve him as organs through which he brings the ether body into motion. Before this occurs, however, special currents and radiations must have formed in the sphere of the ether body, enclosing it like a fine network and making it into a self-contained being. If that has happened, the movements and currents taking place in the ether body are able to come into unhindered contact with the outer world of soul and spirit and to unite with it, so that outer occurrences in the realm of soul and spirit and inner events in the human ether body flow into one another. If that happens, the moment has arrived when man perceives the world of inspiration consciously. This cognition occurs in a different way from cognition in the sensory-physical world. In the latter we gain perceptions through the senses and form from them mental images and concepts. This is not the case with the knowledge derived from inspiration. What one knows is immediately present in the act; there is no reflection after perception. What sensory-physical cognition gains only afterwards in concepts is, in inspiration, given simultaneously with perception. Man would therefore merge with the environment of soul and spirit and would not be able to distinguish himself from it had he not developed the above characterized network in the ether body.
[ 49 ] If the exercises leading to intuition are carried out, their effect extends not only to the ether body, but right down into the supersensible forces of the physical body. One should not, however, think that in this way effects take place in the physical body that are accessible to everyday sensory observation. These are effects that only supersensory cognition can judge. They have nothing whatever to do with external cognition. They are the results of the maturity of consciousness, when the latter is able to have experiences in intuition, in spite of the fact that it has excluded all previously known outer and inner experiences.—The experiences of intuition are delicate, intimate, and subtle, and the human physical body is, at the present stage of its evolution, coarse in comparison. It offers therefore a strong hindrance to the success of intuition exercises. If these are continued with energy and persistence and with the requisite inner tranquility, the powerful hindrances of the physical body are finally overcome. The student notices this by the fact that gradually certain expressions of the physical body that formerly took place unconsciously now come under his control. He notices it also by the fact that for a short time he feels the need, for example, so to control the breath that it comes into a sort of concord or harmony with what the soul performs in the exercises or otherwise in inner meditation. The ideal of the development is that no exercises be made at all by means of the physical body itself, also no breathing exercises, but that everything that occurs in the physical body in this way should only come about as a consequence of pure intuition exercises.
[ 50 ] If the student of the spirit ascends upon the path into the higher worlds of knowledge, he notices at a certain stage that the cohesion of the forces of his personality assumes a different form from the one in the physical-sensory world, where the ego effects a uniform co-operation of the soul forces, of thinking, feeling, and willing. These three soul forces stand always in a certain relationship to each other in the conditions of ordinary human life. One sees, for example, a certain object in the outer world. It pleases or displeases the soul. That is to say, of necessity the visualizing of a thing will be followed by a feeling of pleasure or displeasure. One may, perhaps, desire the object or have the impulse to alter it in one way or another. That is, the power of desire and will associate with visualizing and feeling. [ 51 ] That this co-ordination takes place is caused by the ego uniting visualizing (thinking), feeling, and willing and in this way bringing order into the forces of the personality. This healthy order would be interrupted if the ego were to prove powerless in this regard; if, for example, desire should elect to go a different way from feeling or thinking. A human being would not be in a healthy soul condition who might think that this or that is right, but who might want something of which he is convinced that it is not right. The case would be similar if someone did not want what pleases him, but rather what displeases him. The human being now notices that on the path to higher knowledge thinking, feeling, and willing do indeed separate and each assumes a certain independence. For example, a certain thought has no longer an inward urge toward a certain feeling and willing. The matter is as follows. In thinking something may be perceived correctly, but in order to have any feeling or to come to a resolution of the will, we need again an independent impulse from ourselves. During supersensible perception thinking, feeling, and willing do not remain three forces that radiate from the common egocenter of the personality, but they become three independent entities, three personalities, as it were; one must now make one's own ego all the stronger, for it is not merely a matter of its bringing three forces into order, but of leading and directing three entities. This separation, however, must only exist during supersensible perception. Here again it becomes clear how important it is that the exercises for higher training be accompanied by those that give certainty and firmness to the power of judgment, and to the life of feeling and willing. For the person who does not bring these qualities with him into the higher world will soon see how the ego proves weak and unable to act as an orderly guide for thinking, feeling, and willing. If this weakness were present, the soul would be as though torn by three personalities in as many directions and its inner unity would cease. If, however, the development of the student proceeds in the right way the described transformation of forces signifies true progress; the ego remains master of the independent entities that now form its soul.—In the further course of this evolution the development continues. Thinking that has become independent stimulates the emergence of a special fourth soul-spirit being that may be described as a direct influx of currents into man, similar to thoughts. The entire cosmos then appears as a thought-structure confronting man as does the plant or animal world in the realm of the physical senses. Likewise, feeling and willing that have become independent stimulate two forces in the soul that act in it like independent beings. Still another seventh power and being appears that is similar to one's own ego itself.
[ 52 ] This entire experience is connected with yet another. Before his entrance into the supersensible world, man knew thinking, feeling, and willing only as inner soul experiences. As soon as he enters the supersensible world he perceives objects that do not express the physical-sensory, but the psycho-spiritual. Behind the characteristics of the new world now perceived by him stand soul-spirit beings. These now stand before him as an outer world, just as in the physical realm stones, plants, and animals stood before his senses. The student of the spiritual can now perceive an important difference between the world of soul and spirit that reveals itself to him, and the world that he was accustomed to perceiving through his physical senses. A plant in the world of the senses remains just as it is, whatever the human soul may feel or think about it. With the images of the world of soul and spirit this is, at the outset, not the case. They alter according to what the human being feels or thinks. In this way he gives them form that depends upon his own nature. Let us imagine that a certain picture appears before man in the world of imagination. If, at first, he remains indifferent to it in his soul, it then shows itself in a certain form. At the moment, however, when pleasure or displeasure is felt in regard to the picture, it changes its form. The pictures therefore, in the first instance, express not only what they are, independent of man, but they reflect what man is himself. They are permeated through and through by his own nature. The latter spreads like a veil over the supersensible beings. Although real beings confront him, he does not see them, but instead, his own creation. Thus he may have something true before him and, nevertheless, see something false. Indeed, this is not only the case in regard to what man notices in himself as his own essential nature, but everything that is in him affects this world. He may have, for example, hidden inclinations that do not come into evidence in life because of his education and character; they affect the world of the soul and spirit, which takes on a peculiar coloring through the whole being of man, no matter whether he himself knows much about this being or not.—In order to be able to advance further from this stage of development it is necessary that man learn to distinguish between himself and the outer spiritual world. It is necessary that he learn to eliminate all the effects of himself upon his soul-spirit environment. This cannot be done otherwise than by acquiring a knowledge of what he himself carries into the new world. It is therefore important that he first possess true, thoroughly developed self-knowledge, in order to be able to have a clear perception of the surrounding world of soul and spirit. Now, certain facts of human development demand that such self-knowledge must take place quite naturally at the time of the entrance into the higher world. Man develops his ego, his self-consciousness in the everyday physical-sensory world. This ego now acts as a center of attraction for everything belonging to man. All his inclinations, sympathies, antipathies, passions, and opinions group themselves, as it were, around his ego, and this ego is also the point of attraction for what may be designated as the karma of man. If this ego were to be seen unconcealed it would show that certain forms of destiny must still be encountered by it in this and in subsequent incarnations, according to the way it has lived in the preceding incarnations and has made this or that its own. Invested with all this, the ego must appear as the first image before the human soul when the latter ascends into the world of soul and spirit. This Doppelganger (double or twin likeness) of man must, according to a law of the spiritual world, emerge prior to everything else as his first impression in that world. One may easily make the law underlying this fact understandable if one considers the following. In the life of the physical senses man only perceives himself in so far as he experiences himself inwardly in his thinking, feeling, and willing. This, however, is an inner perception; it does not present itself to the human being like stones, plants, and animals. Also, man learns to know himself only partially through inner perception. He has something in himself that prevents his having more profound self-knowledge. This is an impulse to transform immediately a trait of character if he, as a result of self-knowledge, must admit to it and does not wish to deceive himself about himself.
[ 53 ] If he does not follow this impulse, if he simply turns his attention away from himself, remaining what he is, then he, naturally, also deprives himself of the possibility of self-knowledge in the point in question. If man, however, penetrates into himself and confronts himself without deception with this or that trait, then he will either be in the position to improve the trait, or he will be incapable of doing so under the present circumstances of his life. In the latter case a feeling will creep over his soul that must be described as a feeling of shame. This is indeed the reaction of healthy human nature: it feels through self-knowledge various kinds of shame. This feeling has even in ordinary life a quite definite effect. The normally thinking human being will take care that what fills him, through himself, with this feeling does not become evident outwardly in effects, does not manifest in outer deeds. Shame is thus a force that impels man to conceal something in his inner being and not allow it to become outwardly perceptible. If we give this due consideration, we shall find it comprehensible that spiritual research ascribes much farther reaching effects to an inner soul experience that is closely related to the feeling of shame. This research finds that there is, concealed in the depths of the soul, a sort of hidden shame of which the human being is not conscious in physical-sensory life. This concealed feeling, however, acts in a similar manner to the feeling of shame in everyday life; it prevents the innermost nature of the human being from appearing before him in a perceptible picture. If this feeling were not present, the human being would perceive before him what he is in truth; his thoughts, feelings, and will would not only be experienced inwardly, but would be perceived outwardly just as stones, animals, and plants are perceived. This feeling is thus the concealer of man from himself, and at the same time it is the concealer of the entire world of soul and spirit. Owing to the fact that his inner nature is concealed from him, he is also not able to perceive that by means of which he should develop inner organs in order to cognize the world of soul and spirit; he is unable so to transform his nature that it may unfold spiritual organs of perception.—If, however, through correct training man strives to acquire these organs of perception, what he himself is appears to him as first impression. He perceives his Doppelganger, his double. This self-perception is not at all to be separated from the perception of the rest of the world of soul and spirit. In everyday life of the physical-sensory world, the feeling characterized acts so as constantly to close the door of the world of soul and spirit to the human being. Even the mere attempt to penetrate into this world causes the feeling of shame—which arises immediately, but of which we do not become conscious—to conceal the part of the world of soul and spirit that strives to appear. The exercises characterized open the door to this world. It is a fact, however, that this concealed feeling acts like a great benefactor of man. For all that man acquires of power of judgment, feeling-life, and character without spiritual-scientific training does not enable him to bear without further preparation the perception of his own being in its true form. He would lose through this perception all self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-consciousness. That this may not happen, we must take the necessary precautions which we do undertake, alongside the exercises for higher knowledge, in the fostering of a healthy power of judgment, feeling-life, and character. Through this regular training man learns to know so much of spiritual science—as though without intention—and, moreover, so many means for the attainment of self-knowledge and self-observation become clear to him as are necessary in order to encounter his Doppelganger bravely. The student then only sees in another form, as a picture of the imaginative world, what he has already learned in the physical world. If he has first comprehended the law of karma properly in the physical world through his intellect, he will not be especially shaken when he now sees the beginnings of his destiny engraved in the image of his Doppelganger. If man has made himself acquainted through his power of judgment with the evolution of the cosmos and mankind and knows how, at a certain point of time of this evolution, the forces of Lucifer have penetrated into the human soul, he will bear it without difficulty when he becomes aware that the Luciferic beings with all their effects are contained within the image of his own nature.—We see from this how necessary it is that man does not demand entrance into the spiritual world before he has understood, through his ordinary power of judgment developed in the physical-sensory world, certain truths about the spiritual world. The knowledge given in this book prior to the discussion about “Cognition of the Higher Worlds” should have been acquired by the student of spiritual science by means of his ordinary power of thought in the regular course of development, before he has the desire himself to enter into supersensible worlds.
[ 54 ] In a training in which no attention is paid to the certainty and firmness of the power of judgment, of the life of feeling and character, it may happen that the student encounters the higher world before he possesses the necessary inner faculties. In that case the encounter with his Doppelganger would depress him and lead to error. If, however, the encounter were entirely avoided—something that might indeed be possible—and man nevertheless were led into the supersensible world, he would then be just as little in the position to recognize that world in its true shape. For it would be quite impossible for him to distinguish between what he carries over as projections of himself into things and what they are in reality. This distinction is only possible if one perceives one's own being as an image in itself, and if, as a result of this distinction, everything that flows from one's own inner nature becomes detached from the environment.—For man's life in the physical-sensory world, the Doppelganger's effect is such that he becomes immediately invisible through the feeling of shame characterized when man approaches the world of soul and spirit. As a result of this, he conceals the entire latter world also. Like a “guardian” he stands there before that world, in order to deny entrance to those who are not truly capable of entering. He may therefore be called the “guardian of the threshold that lies before the world of soul and spirit.”—Besides the described encounter with the guardian at the entrance into the supersensible world, man also encounters him when passing through physical death, and in the course of life between death and a new birth the guardian discloses himself by degrees in the evolution of soul and spirit. There, however, the encounter cannot depress the human being, because he then has knowledge of worlds quite different from those he knows in the life between birth and death. [ 55 ] If, without encountering the “guardian of the threshold,” man were to enter the world of soul and spirit, he might fall prey to deception after deception. For he would never be able to distinguish between what he himself has carried over into that world and what in reality belongs to it. A proper training must lead the student of spiritual science into the realm of truth only, not into the realm of illusion. This training will of itself be of such a nature that the encounter must of necessity take place sometime. For it is one of the precautionary measures, indispensable for the observation of supersensible worlds, against the possibility of falling prey to deception and the fantastic.—It belongs to the most indispensable measures that every student of spiritual science must take, to work carefully on himself in order not to become a fantast, a human being who might succumb to possible deception and self-delusion. Where the advice for spiritual training is correctly followed, the sources that may bring deception are at the same time destroyed. Naturally, we cannot speak at length here of all the numerous details that have to be considered in regard to such precautionary measures. The important points can only be indicated. Deceptions that have to be considered here are derived from two sources. They originate in part from the coloring of reality through one's own soul nature. In ordinary life of the physical-sensory world there is comparatively little danger from this source of deception; for here the outer world continually impresses its own form sharply upon our observation, no matter how the observer wants to color it according to his own wishes and interests. As soon, however, as man enters the imaginative world, its pictures are transformed through such wishes and interests, and he has before him, like a reality, what he himself has formed, or at least has helped in forming. This source of deception is removed by the student's having learned to recognize, through his encounter with the “guardian of the threshold,” his own inner nature, which he might thus carry into the world of soul and spirit. The preparation that the student of spiritual science undergoes before his entrance into the world of soul and spirit acts in such a way that he becomes accustomed to disregarding himself even when observing the physical-sensory world and to permitting the objects and processes to speak to him purely out of their own nature. If the student has thus prepared himself sufficiently, he can calmly await the encounter with the “guardian of the threshold.” This encounter will be the final test to determine whether he feels himself really in a position to disregard his own nature also when he confronts the world of soul and spirit.
[ 56 ] Besides this source of delusion, there is still another. This comes into evidence when one misinterprets an impression made on one. A simple example of this sort of delusion in the physical sense-life is the delusion that arises when a man sits in a railway coach moving in a certain direction and believes the trees and other objects of perception are moving in the opposite direction, while actually it is he himself who is moving with the train. Although there are numerous cases where such delusions In the physical sense-world are more difficult to correct than the simple one quoted, still, it is easy to see that within this world one also finds the means of disposing of such delusions when, with sound judgment, one takes into consideration all that may possibly contribute to an adequate factual explanation. The matter is different, however, as soon as one penetrates into the realms of the supersensible. In the world of the senses facts are not altered as a result of human delusion; therefore it is possible, by means of unprejudiced observation, to rectify the delusion by means of the facts. In the supersensible world this is not immediately possible. If one wants to observe a supersensible process and approaches it with false judgment, one carries this judgment over into the process and it becomes so interwoven with the fact that it is impossible to distinguish the judgment from the fact. The error is then not within the human being and the correct fact outside him, but the error itself is made a component of the outer fact. It cannot, therefore, be rectified simply by an unbiased observation of the fact. We are here pointing to what may be a superabundant source of delusion and the fantastic for those who approach the supersensible world without proper preparation.—The student of the spiritual, besides acquiring the ability to exclude the delusions that arise through the coloring of supersensible world-phenomena with his own nature, must also acquire the ability to make the second indicated source of delusion ineffective. He can exclude what comes from himself if he has first recognized the image of his own Doppelganger. He will be able to exclude the second source of delusion if he acquires the ability to recognize, from the inner quality of a supersensible fact, whether it is reality or delusion. If the delusion were to appear exactly like the actual facts, then a distinction would not be possible. This, however, is not the case. Delusions of the supersensible world have qualities in themselves by which they are to be distinguished from realities, and it is important that the student of the spiritual know by which qualities he can recognize realities. Nothing is more self-evident than the fact that anyone ignorant of spiritual training may ask, “How is it at all possible to protect myself against delusion, when its sources are so numerous?” And he may continue to ask, “Is there any proof for the student of the spiritual against the fact that all his professed higher knowledge is not something based on mere delusion and autosuggestion?” Anyone who asks such questions does not realize that in true spiritual training, through the very manner of its occurrence, the sources of delusion are stopped up. In the first place, in preparing himself the true spiritual science student will acquire sufficient knowledge about what may cause delusion and autosuggestion, and thus be in a position to protect himself from them. He has, in this regard, more opportunity than any other human being to make himself prudent and capable in judgment on the path of life. Everything that he experiences causes him to disregard indefinite premonitions and suggestions. This training makes him as careful as possible.
Besides this, all correct training leads first to concepts about great cosmic events, and thus to things that make necessary the exertion of sound judgment, which becomes, at the same time, more refined and acute. Only someone who might refuse to go into such distant realms and preferred to abide with “revelations” of a world near at hand might lose the strengthening of that sound judgment that gives him certainty in distinguishing between delusion and reality. All of this, however, is not yet the most important. That lies in the exercises themselves that are used in a correct spiritual training. These must be so arranged that the student is always consciously aware of what takes place in the soul during inner meditation. In order to bring about imagination, a symbol is first formed. In this symbol are still contained mental images of outer perceptions. The human being is not alone responsible for the content of these mental images; he does not make it himself. Thus he may delude himself in regard to its origin; he may interpret its origin incorrectly. But the student of spiritual science removes this content from his consciousness when he advances to the exercises of inspiration. Here he contemplates his own soul activity only, which has formed the symbol. Here also error is still possible. Through education, learning, and through other means man has acquired the character of his soul activity. He cannot know everything about its origin. The student of spiritual science now removes even his own soul activity from his consciousness. If now anything remains in his consciousness, nothing is attached to it that cannot be surveyed. Nothing can intermingle with it that is not to be judged in regard to its whole content. In intuition, the student of spiritual science has thus a criterion enabling him to recognize how a clear reality of the world of soul and spirit is constituted. If he now applies the signs of soul and spirit-reality thus recognized to everything that comes under his observation, he is able to distinguish between illusion and reality. He may be certain that by employing this law he will remain protected from illusion in the supersensible world just as it cannot happen to him in the physical-sensory world to mistake an imaginary piece of hot iron for one that really burns. It is taken for granted that one only takes this attitude toward the knowledge one regards as one's own experiences in the supersensible worlds, and not toward what one receives as communications from other persons and that one comprehends with one's physical intellect and sound feeling for truth. The student of the spiritual will take pains to draw an exact line between what he has acquired in the one way and what he has acquired in the other. He will receive willingly, on the one hand, the communications about the higher worlds and seek to understand them by means of his capacity to judge. If on the other hand he states something as his own experience, his own observation, he will have tested whether this has confronted him with precisely the qualities he has learned to perceive by means of unerring intuition.
[ 57 ] After the student of the spiritual has encountered the “guardian of the threshold,” further experiences await him as he ascends into supersensible worlds. First he will notice that an inner relationship exists between this “guardian of the threshold” and the soul-power that, in the above description, has resulted as the seventh, and has shaped itself into an independent principle. Indeed, this seventh principle is in a certain regard nothing else but the Doppelganger, the “guardian of the threshold” himself, and this principle sets the student of the spiritual a special task. He has to direct and lead with his newborn self what he is in his ordinary self and which appears to him in an image. A sort of battle against the Doppelganger will result. The latter will constantly strive for supremacy. To establish the right relationship to this Doppelganger and not permit him to do anything that is not under the influence of the newborn ego strengthens and fortifies man's powers.—In the higher world, self-knowledge is different, in a certain respect, from self-knowledge in the physical-sensory world. Whereas in the physical-sensory world self-knowledge appears only as an inner experience, the newborn self presents itself at once as an outer soul phenomenon. Man beholds his newborn self as another being standing before him, but he cannot perceive it completely. For whatever stage he may have reached upon the way into the supersensible worlds, there are always still higher stages. At these stages he will perceive ever more and more of his “higher self.” This “higher self” can thus only partially reveal itself to the student of the spiritual at any of these stages. The temptation is extremely great which overtakes the human being when he first becomes aware of some aspect of his “higher self,” to observe this “higher self,” so to speak, from the standpoint he has gained in the physical-sensory world. This temptation is even good and it must appear, if development is to proceed in the right way. We must observe what appears in the Doppelganger, the “guardian of the threshold,” and place it before the “higher self” in order to note the contrast between what we are and what we are to become. Through this observation the “guardian of the threshold” begins to take on quite a different form. He presents himself as an image of all the hindrances that the development of the higher self must encounter. The student will perceive what a load he must drag in the form of his ordinary self, and if he is not strong enough through his preparations to say, “I will not remain stationary here, but unceasingly strive to reach my higher self,” he will slacken his efforts and shrink back before what is in store for him. He has plunged into the world of soul and spirit, but now gives up his efforts. He becomes a prisoner of the form that, through the “guardian of the threshold,” now stands before the soul. What is important here is the fact that in this experience he does not have the feeling of being a prisoner. On the contrary, he believes he experiences something quite different. The form that the “guardian of the threshold” calls forth can be of such a nature that it causes the impression in the soul of the observer of having before him, in the pictures that appear at this evolutionary stage, the entire compass of all imaginable worlds, of having attained the pinnacle of knowledge, with no need of striving further. Instead of feeling to be a prisoner he may feel himself as the immeasurably rich possessor of all the world mysteries. The fact that one can have such an experience that depicts the very opposite of the actual facts will, however, not astonish a person who keeps in mind the fact that, when he experiences this, he stands already in the world of soul and spirit and that it is a peculiarity of this world that events may present themselves in reverse order. This fact was pointed out earlier in this book when life after death was discussed.
[ 58 ] The figure that one perceives at this stage of development shows the student of the spiritual something in addition to what appeared to him in the first instance as the “guardian of the threshold.” In this Doppelganger all the peculiarities were perceived that the ordinary self of man has in consequence of the influence of the forces of Lucifer. Now, however, in the course of human evolution another power has entered the human soul through the influence of Lucifer. This is the power that was designated in an earlier section of this book as the power of Ahriman. It is the power that prevents the human being during physical sense-existence from perceiving the soul-spirit beings of the outer world lying behind the veil of the sensory. The form the human soul has assumed under the influence of this power is shown in a picture by the shape that emerges in the experience described.—The person who is adequately prepared for this experience will be able to interpret it correctly; very soon thereafter another form will appear that we may call the “greater guardian of the threshold” in contrast to the already described “lesser guardian.” This greater guardian tells the student of the spiritual that he must not remain stationary at this stage but must energetically work on. He calls forth in the observer the consciousness that the world that is conquered becomes truth, and is not transformed into illusion, only if the work is continued in an adequate manner.—If, because of incorrect spiritual training, a person were to enter upon this experience unprepared, then, in the encounter with the “greater guardian of the threshold,” something would pour into his soul that only can be compared to the “feeling of immeasurable horror,” of “boundless fear.”
[ 59 ] Just as the student of the spiritual in his encounter with the “lesser guardian of the threshold” is afforded the possibility of testing whether or not he is protected against delusions arising from the intermingling of his own being with the supersensible world, so can he also test himself by the experiences that finally lead to the “greater guardian of the threshold” whether he is capable of mastering the delusions described above as coming from the second source. If he is able to withstand the gigantic illusion that has been conjured up before him—that the picture world he has gained is a rich possession, while in reality he is only a prisoner—if he is able to resist this delusion, he is then, during the progressing course of his development, guarded from mistaking illusion for reality.
[ 60 ] The “guardian of the threshold” will assume, to a certain degree, an individual shape for each human being. The encounter with him corresponds indeed to the experience by which the personal character of the supersensible observations is overcome and through which the possibility is given of entering a region of experience that is free from personal coloring and applies to every human being.
[ 61 ] If the student of the spiritual has had the above described experiences he is capable of distinguishing, within the surrounding world of soul and spirit, between himself and what lies outside him. He will then recognize that it is necessary to comprehend the cosmic process described in this book, in order to understand man and his life. Indeed, we understand the physical body only when we recognize how it has been fashioned during the Saturn, Sun, Moon, and Earth evolutions. We understand the ether body when we follow its formations through the Sun, Moon, and Earth evolutions. Moreover, we understand what at present is connected with the Earth evolution when we know how everything has unfolded itself step by step. Through spiritual training the student is placed in the position to recognize the relationship of everything that exists in the human being to corresponding facts and beings of the world outside him. For it is a fact that every member of the human organism stands in a relationship to the whole world surrounding it. In this book it has only been possible to indicate the facts in a sketchy outline. We must, however, consider that the human physical body, for example, was present during the Saturn evolution only in its rudimentary beginnings. Its organs—the heart, the lungs, the brain—developed later out of these beginnings during the Sun, Moon, and Earth evolutions. The heart, lungs, and the other organs are thus related to the Sun, Moon, and Earth evolutions. It is quite the same with the members of the ether and soul body, the sentient soul, and the other principles. Man is fashioned from the entire surrounding world, and every part of him corresponds to a process or being of the outer world. At the corresponding stage of his development the student becomes acquainted with this relationship between his own being and the great world. We may designate this stage of cognition as the becoming aware of the correspondence between the lesser world, the microcosm, which is the human being himself, and the greater world, the macrocosm. If the student has struggled through to such a stage of knowledge, a new experience may occur for him. He begins to feel as though he were intergrown with the entire cosmic structure, in spite of the fact that he feels himself in his complete independence. This feeling is a merging with the entire cosmos, a becoming one with it, but without losing one's own essential being. This stage of development may be designated as the “becoming one with the macrocosm.” It is significant that this becoming one, this union, is not to be thought of as though through it the individual consciousness were to cease and the human being were to flow out into the universe, merging with it. Such a thought would be merely the expression of an opinion springing from the untrained power of judgment.—The stages of higher knowledge, in the sense of the process of initiation that has been described in this book, may now be enumerated as follows:
- Study of spiritual science, in which one employs one's power of judgment gained in the physical-sensory world.
- Acquiring imaginative knowledge.
- Reading the occult script-corresponding to inspiration.
- Living into the spiritual environment—corresponding to intuition.
- Knowledge of the relationships between microcosm and macrocosm.
- Union with the macrocosm.
- Total experience of all previous experiences as a fundamental mood of the soul.
[ 62 ] These stages need not be thought of as successive experiences. On the contrary, the training may proceed in such a way that, in accordance with the individuality of the student of the spiritual, he may have reached only a certain degree of perfection in a preceding stage when he begins exercises that correspond to a subsequent stage. It may well happen, for example, that the student has only gained a few imaginations with certainty, yet he already performs exercises leading to inspiration, intuition, or the cognition of the relationship between microcosm and macrocosm.
[ 63 ] If the student of the spiritual has experienced intuition, he not only knows the images of the psycho-spiritual world, he cannot merely read their connections in the “occult script,” but he attains to knowledge of the spiritual beings themselves through whose co-operation the world, to which the human being belongs, comes into existence. In this way he learns to know himself in the form he possesses as a spiritual being in the world of soul and spirit. He has struggled through to a perception of his higher ego, and he has become aware of how he has to continue his efforts in order to control his Doppelganger, the “guardian of the threshold.” He has, however, also encountered the “greater guardian of the threshold,” who stands before him as an ever present exhorter to further effort. This “greater guardian” becomes the ideal toward which he strives. If this feeling emerges in the student of the spiritual, he has then acquired the possibility of recognizing who it is that stands there before him as the “greater guardian of the threshold.” To the perception of the student of the spiritual this guardian now transforms himself into the form of the Christ, whose Being and participation in Earth evolution has been made clear in the previous chapters of this book. The student is now initiated into the exalted mystery that is linked with the name of the Christ. The Christ shows Himself to the student as the “great ideal of man on earth.”—If thus through intuition the Christ is recognized in the spiritual world, what occurred historically on earth in the fourth post-Atlantean evolutionary epoch—the Greco-Latin epoch—also becomes comprehensible. The way in which, at that time, the exalted Sun Being, the Christ, has intervened in the Earth evolution and how he continues to work within this evolution becomes the personally experienced knowledge of the student of the spiritual. It is thus a revelation of the meaning and significance of Earth evolution that the student receives through intuition. [ 64 ] The way to knowledge of the supersensible worlds, which is described here, is one that every human being can follow, no matter what the situation in which he may find himself within the present-day conditions of life. When describing such a path we must consider that the goal of knowledge and truth is the same in all ages of Earth evolution, but that the starting points of man have been different in different ages. If the human being wishes to tread the path to the spiritual world he cannot at present begin at the same starting point as, for example, the would-be initiate of ancient Egypt. Therefore, the exercises that were imposed upon the student of the spiritual of ancient Egypt cannot be carried out by the modern man without modification. Since that time, human souls have passed through various incarnations, and this advance from incarnation to incarnation is not without meaning and significance. The faculties and qualities of souls alter from incarnation to incarnation. Whoever considers human historical life, be it only superficially, is able to notice that since the twelfth and thirteenth centuries A.D. all life-conditions have changed when compared with previous centuries; that opinions, feelings, and also abilities of human beings have become different from what they were previously. The path to higher knowledge described here is eminently fit for souls who incarnate in the immediate present. It is one that places the point of departure for spiritual development just where the human being now stands in any situation presented by modern life.—Progressive evolution leads mankind in regard to the path to higher knowledge from period to period to ever changing forms, just as outer life changes its forms, and at all times a perfect harmony must prevail between outer life and initiation.
Die Erkenntnis der höheren Welten
(von der Einweihung oder Initiation)
[ 1 ] Zwischen Geburt und Tod durchlebt der Mensch auf seiner gegenwärtigen Entwicklungsstufe im gewöhnlichen Leben drei Seelenzustände: das Wachen, den Schlaf und zwischen beiden den Traumzustand. Auf den letzteren soll an späterer Stelle dieser Schrift noch kurz hingedeutet werden. Hier mag das Leben zunächst in seinen beiden wechselnden Hauptzuständen, dem Wachen und dem Schlafen, betrachtet werden. — Zu Erkenntnissen in höheren Welten gelangt der Mensch, wenn er sich, außer dem Schlafen und Wachen, noch einen dritten Seelenzustand erwirbt. Während des Wachens ist die Seele hingegeben den Sinneseindrücken und den Vorstellungen, welche von diesen Sinneseindrücken angeregt werden. Während des Schlafes schweigen die Sinneseindrücke; aber die Seele verliert auch das Bewusstsein. Die Tageserlebnisse sinken in das Meer der Bewusstlosigkeit hinunter. — Man denke sich nun: die Seele könnte während des Schlafes zu einer Bewusstheit kommen, trotzdem die Eindrücke der Sinne, wie sonst im tiefen Schlafe, ausgeschaltet blieben. Ja, es würde auch die Erinnerung an die Tageserlebnisse nicht vorhanden sein. Befände sich nun die Seele in einem Nichts? Könnte sie nun gar keine Erlebnisse haben? — Eine Antwort auf diese Frage ist nur möglich, wenn ein Zustand wirklich hergestellt werden kann, welcher diesem gleich oder ähnlich ist. Wenn die Seele etwas erleben kann, auch dann, wenn keine Sinneswirkungen und keine Erinnerungen an solche in ihr vorhanden sind. Dann befände sich die Seele in bezug auf die gewöhnliche Außenwelt wie im Schlafe; und doch schliefe sie nicht, sondern wäre wie im Wachen einer wirklichen Welt gegenüber. — Nun kann ein solcher Bewusstseinszustand hergestellt werden, wenn der Mensch diejenigen Seelenerlebnisse herbeiführt, welche ihm die Geisteswissenschaft möglich macht. Und alles, was diese über jene Welten mitteilt, welche über die sinnliche hinausliegen, ist durch einen solchen Bewusstseinszustand erforscht. — In den vorhergehenden Ausführungen sind einige Mitteilungen über höhere Welten gemacht worden. In dem Folgenden soll nun auch — soweit dies in diesem Buche geschehen kann — von den Mitteln gesprochen werden, durch welche der zu diesem Forschen notwendige Bewusstseinszustand geschaffen wird.
[ 2 ] Nur nach einer Richtung hin gleicht dieser Bewusstseinszustand dem Schlafe, nämlich dadurch, dass durch ihn alle äußeren Sinneswirkungen aufhören; auch alle Gedanken getilgt sind, welche durch diese Sinneswirkungen angeregt sind. Während aber im Schlafe die Seele keine Kraft hat, bewusst etwas zu erleben, soll sie diese Kraft durch diesen Bewusstseinszustand erhalten. Durch ihn wird in der Seele also die Fähigkeit eines Erlebens erweckt, welche im gewöhnlichen Dasein nur durch die Sinneswirkungen angeregt wird. Die Erweckung der Seele zu einem solchen höheren Bewusstseinszustand kann Einweihung (Initiation) genannt werden.
[ 3 ] Die Mittel der Einweihung führen den Menschen aus dem gewöhnlichen Zustande des Tagesbewusstseins in eine solche Seelentätigkeit hinein, durch welche er sich geistiger Beobachtungswerkzeuge bedient. Diese Werkzeuge sind wie Keime vorher in der Seele vorhanden. Diese Keime müssen entwickelt werden. — Nun kann der Fall eintreten, dass ein Mensch in einem bestimmten Zeitpunkte seiner Lebenslaufbahn ohne besondere Vorbereitung in seiner Seele die Entdeckung macht, es haben sich solche höhere Werkzeuge in ihm entwickelt. Es ist dann eine Art von unwillkürlicher Selbsterweckung eingetreten. Solch ein Mensch wird sich dadurch in seinem ganzen Wesen umgewandelt finden. Eine unbegrenzte Bereicherung seiner Seelenerlebnisse tritt ein. Und er wird finden, dass er durch keine Erkenntnisse der Sinnenwelt eine solche Beseligung, solche befriedigende Gemütsverfassung und innere Wärme empfinden kann, wie durch dasjenige, was sich einer Erkenntnis erschließt, die nicht dem physischen Auge zugänglich ist. Kraft und Lebenssicherheit wird in seinen Willen aus einer geistigen Welt einströmen. — Solche Fälle von Selbsteinweihung gibt es. Sie sollten aber nicht zu dem Glauben verführen, dass es das einzig Richtige sei, eine solche Selbsteinweihung abzuwarten und nichts zu tun, um die Einweihung durch regelrechte Schulung herbeizuführen. Von der Selbsteinweihung braucht hier nicht gesprochen zu werden, da sie eben ohne Beobachtung irgendwelcher Regeln eintreten kann. Dargestellt aber soll werden, wie man durch Schulung die in der Seele keimhaft ruhenden Wahrnehmungsorgane entwickeln kann. Menschen, welche keinen besonderen Antrieb in sich verspüren, für ihre Entwicklung selbst etwas zu tun, werden leicht sagen: das Menschenleben steht in der Leitung von geistigen Mächten, in deren Führung soll man nicht eingreifen; man soll ruhig des Augenblickes harren, in dem jene Mächte es für richtig halten, der Seele eine andere Welt zu erschließen. Es wird wohl auch von solchen Menschen wie eine Art von Vermessenheit empfunden, oder als eine unberechtigte Begierde, in die Weisheit der geistigen Führung einzugreifen. Persönlichkeiten, welche so denken, werden erst dann zu einer anderen Meinung geführt, wenn auf sie eine gewisse Vorstellung einen genügend starken Eindruck macht. Wenn sie sich sagen: Jene weise Führung hat mir gewisse Fähigkeiten gegeben; sie hat mir diese nicht verliehen, auf dass ich sie unbenützt lasse, sondern damit ich sie gebrauche. Die Weisheit der Führung besteht darin, dass sie in mich die Keime gelegt hat zu einem höheren Bewusstseinszustande. Ich verstehe diese Führung nur, wenn ich es als Pflicht empfinde, dass alles dem Menschen offenbar werde, was durch seine Geisteskräfte offenbar werden kann. Wenn ein solcher Gedanke einen genügend starken Eindruck auf die Seele gemacht hat, dann werden die obigen Bedenken gegen eine Schulung in bezug auf einen höheren Bewusstseinszustand schwinden.
[ 4 ] Es kann aber allerdings noch ein anderes Bedenken geben, das sich gegen eine solche Schulung erhebt. Man kann sich sagen: «Die Entwicklung innerer Seelenfähigkeiten greift in das verborgenste Heiligtum des Menschen ein. Sie schließt in sich eine gewisse Umwandlung des ganzen menschlichen Wesens. Die Mittel zu solcher Umwandlung kann man sich naturgemäß nicht selber ersinnen. Denn wie man in eine höhere Welt kommt, kann doch nur derjenige wissen, welcher den Weg in diese als sein eigenes Erlebnis kennt. Wenn man sich an eine solche Persönlichkeit wendet, so gestattet man derselben einen Einfluss auf das verborgenste Heiligtum der Seele.» — Wer so denkt, dem könnte es selbst keine besondere Beruhigung gewähren, wenn ihm die Mittel zur Herbeiführung eines höheren Bewusstseinszustandes in einem Buche dargeboten würden. Denn es kommt ja nicht darauf an, ob man etwas mündlich mitgeteilt erhält oder ob eine Persönlichkeit, welche die Kenntnis dieser Mittel hat, diese in einem Buche darstellt und ein anderer sie daraus erfährt. Es gibt nun solche Persönlichkeiten, welche die Kenntnis der Regeln für die Entwicklung der geistigen Wahrnehmungsorgane besitzen und welche die Ansicht vertreten, dass man diese Regeln einem Buche nicht anvertrauen dürfe. Solche Personen betrachten zumeist auch die Mitteilung gewisser Wahrheiten, welche sich auf die geistige Welt beziehen, als unstatthaft. Doch muss diese Anschauung gegenüber dem gegenwärtigen Zeitalter der Menschheitsentwicklung in gewisser Beziehung als veraltet bezeichnet werden. Richtig ist, dass man mit der Mitteilung der entsprechenden Regeln nur bis zu einem gewissen Punkte gehen kann. Doch führt das Mitgeteilte so weit, dass derjenige, welcher dieses auf seine Seele anwendet, in der Erkenntnisentwicklung dazu gelangt, dass er den weiteren Weg dann finden kann. Es führt dieser Weg dann in einer Art weiter, über welche man eine richtige Vorstellung auch nur durch das vorher Durchgemachte erhalten kann. Aus all diesen Tatsachen können sich Bedenken gegen den geistigen Erkenntnisweg ergeben. Diese Bedenken schwinden, wenn man das Wesen desjenigen Entwicklungsganges ins Auge fasst, welchen die unserem Zeitalter angemessene Schulung vorzeichnet. Von diesem Wege soll hier gesprochen und auf andere Schulungen nur kurz hingewiesen werden.
[ 5 ] Die hier zu besprechende Schulung gibt demjenigen, welcher den Willen zu seiner höheren Entwicklung hat, die Mittel an die Hand, die Umwandlung seiner Seele vorzunehmen. Ein bedenklicher Eingriff in das Wesen des Schülers wäre nur dann vorhanden, wenn der Lehrer diese Umwandlung durch Mittel vornähme, die sich dem Bewusstsein des Schülers entziehen. Solcher Mittel bedient sich aber keine richtige Anweisung der Geistesentwicklung in unserem Zeitalter. Diese macht den Schüler zu keinem blinden Werkzeuge. Sie gibt ihm die Verhaltungsmaßregeln; und der Schüler führt sie aus. Es wird dabei, wenn es darauf ankommt, nicht verschwiegen, warum diese oder jene Verhaltungsmaßregel gegeben wird. Die Entgegennahme der Regeln und ihre Anwendung durch eine Persönlichkeit, welche geistige Entwicklung sucht, braucht nicht auf blinden Glauben hin zu geschehen. Ein solcher sollte auf diesem Gebiete ganz ausgeschlossen sein. Wer die Natur der Menschenseele betrachtet, soweit sie ohne Geistesschulung schon durch die gewöhnliche Selbstbeobachtung sich ergibt, der kann sich nach Entgegennahme der von der Geistesschulung empfohlenen Regeln fragen: wie können diese Regeln im Seelenleben wirken? Und diese Frage kann, vor aller Schulung, bei unbefangener Anwendung des gesunden Menschenverstandes, genügend beantwortet werden. Man kann über die Wirkungsweise dieser Regeln sich richtige Vorstellungen machen, bevor man sich ihnen hingibt. Erleben kann man diese Wirkungsweise allerdings erst während der Schulung. Allein auch da wird das Erleben stets von dem Verstehen dieses Erlebens begleitet sein, wenn man jeden zu machenden Schritt mit dem gesunden Urteile begleitet. Und gegenwärtig wird eine wahre Geisteswissenschaft nur solche Regeln für die Schulung angeben, denen gegenüber solches gesunde Urteil sich geltend machen kann. Wer willens ist, sich nur einer solchen Schulung hinzugeben, und wer sich durch keine Voreingenommenheit zu einem blinden Glauben treiben lässt, dem werden alle Bedenken schwinden. Einwände gegen eine regelrechte Schulung zu einem höheren Bewusstseinszustande werden ihn nicht stören.
[ 6 ] Selbst für eine solche Persönlichkeit, welche die innere Reife hat, die sie in kürzerer oder längerer Zeit zum Selbsterwachen der geistigen Wahmehmungsorgane führen kann, ist eine Schulung nicht überflüssig, sondern im Gegenteil, für sie ist sie ganz besonders geeignet. Denn es gibt nur wenige Fälle, in denen eine solche Persönlichkeit vor der Selbsteinweihung nicht die mannigfaltigsten krummen und vergeblichen Seitenwege durchzumachen hat. Die Schulung erspart ihr diese Seitenwege. Sie führt in der geraden Richtung vorwärts. Wenn eine solche Selbsteinweihung für diese Seele eintritt, so rührt dies davon her, dass die Seele sich in vorhergehenden Lebensläufen die entsprechende Reife erworben hat. Es kommt nun sehr leicht vor, dass gerade eine solche Seele ein gewisses dunkles Gefühl von ihrer Reife hat und sich aus diesem Gefühl heraus gegen eine Schulung ablehnend verhält. Ein solches Gefühl kann nämlich einen gewissen Hochmut erzeugen, welcher das Vertrauen zu echter Geistesschulung hindert. Es kann nun eine gewisse Stufe der Seelenentwicklung bis zu einem gewissen Lebensalter verborgen bleiben und erst dann hervortreten. Aber es kann die Schulung gerade das rechte Mittel sein, um sie zum Hervortreten zu bringen. Verschließt sich ein Mensch dann gegen die Schulung, dann kann es sein, dass seine Fähigkeit in dem betreffenden Lebenslauf verborgen bleibt und erst wieder in einem der nächsten Lebensläufe hervortritt.
[ 7 ] In bezug auf die hier gemeinte Schulung für die übersinnliche Erkenntnis ist es wichtig, gewisse naheliegende Missverständnisse nicht aufkommen zu lassen. Das eine kann dadurch entstehen, dass man meint, die Schulung wolle den Menschen in bezug auf seine ganze Lebensführung zu einem andern Wesen machen. Allein es handelt sich nicht darum, dem Menschen allgemeine Lebensvorschriften zu geben, sondern ihm von Seelenverrichtungen zu sprechen, die, wenn er sie ausführt, ihm die Möglichkeit geben, das Übersinnliche zu beobachten. Auf denjenigen Teil seiner Lebensverrichtungen, der außerhalb der Beobachtung des Übersinnlichen liegt, haben diese Verrichtungen keinen unmittelbaren Einfluss. Der Mensch erwirbt sich hinzu zu diesen Lebensverrichtungen die Gabe der übersinnlichen Beobachtung. Die Tätigkeit dieser Beobachtung ist von den gewöhnlichen Verrichtungen des Lebens so getrennt wie der Zustand des Wachens von dem des Schlafens. Das eine kann das andere nicht im geringsten stören. Wer zum Beispiel den gewöhnlichen Ablauf des Lebens durch Eindrücke des übersinnlichen Schauens durchsetzen wollte, gleicht einem Ungesunden, dessen Schlaf von schädlichem Aufwachen fortwährend unterbrochen würde. Dem freien Willen des Geschulten muss es möglich sein, den Zustand des Beobachtens übersinnlicher Wirklichkeit herbeizuführen. Mittelbar hängt die Schulung mit Lebensvorschriften allerdings insofern zusammen, als ohne eine gewisse ethisch gestimmte Lebensführung ein Einblick in das Übersinnliche unmöglich oder schädlich ist. Und deshalb ist manches, das zur Anschauung des Übersinnlichen führt, zugleich Mittel zur Veredlung der Lebensführung. Auf der andern Seite erkennt man durch den Einblick in die übersinnliche Welt höhere moralische Impulse, die auch für die sinnlich-physische Welt gelten. Gewisse moralische Notwendigkeiten werden erst aus dieser Welt heraus erkannt. — Ein zweites Missverständnis wäre, wenn man glaubte, irgendeine zum übersinnlichen Erkennen führende Seelenverrichtung habe etwas mit Veränderung der physischen Organisation zu tun. Es haben solche Verrichtungen vielmehr nicht das geringste zu tun mit irgend etwas, in das Physiologie oder ein anderer Zweig der Naturerkenntnis hineinzureden hat. Sie sind so ganz von allem Physischen abliegende rein geistig-seelische Vorgänge wie das gesunde Denken und Wahrnehmen selbst. Der Art nach geht in der Seele durch eine solche Verrichtung nichts anderes vor, als was vorgeht, wenn sie gesund vorstellt oder urteilt. So viel und so wenig mit dem Leibe das gesunde Denken zu tun hat, so viel und so wenig haben mit diesem die Vorgänge der echten Schulung zur übersinnlichen Erkenntnis zu tun. Alles, was sich anders zum Menschen verhält, ist nicht wahre Geistesschulung, sondern ein Zerrbild derselben. Im Sinne des hier Gesagten sind die folgenden Ausführungen zu nehmen. Nur weil übersinnliche Erkenntnis etwas ist, was von der ganzen Seele des Menschen ausgeht, wird es so aussehen, als ob zur Schulung Dinge verlangt würden, die aus dem Menschen etwas anderes machen. In Wahrheit handelt es sich um Angaben über Verrichtungen, die die Seele in die Möglichkeit versetzen, innerhalb ihres Lebens solche Augenblicke herbeizuführen, in denen sie das Übersinnliche beobachten kann.
[ 8 ] Die Erhebung zu einem übersinnlichen Bewusstseinszustande kann nur von dem gewöhnlichen wachen Tagesbewusstsein ausgehen. In diesem Bewusstsein lebt die Seele vor ihrer Erhebung. Es werden ihr durch die Schulung Mittel gegeben, welche sie aus diesem Bewusstsein herausführen. Die hier zunächst in Betracht kommende Schulung gibt unter den ersten Mitteln solche, welche sich noch als Verrichtungen des gewöhnlichen Tagesbewusstseins kennzeichnen lassen. Gerade die bedeutsamsten Mittel sind solche, die in stillen Verrichtungen der Seele bestehen. Es handelt sich darum, dass sich die Seele ganz bestimmten Vorstellungen hingibt. Diese Vorstellungen sind solche, welche durch ihr Wesen eine weckende Kraft auf gewisse verborgene Fähigkeiten der menschlichen Seele ausüben. Sie unterscheiden sich von solchen Vorstellungen des wachen Tageslebens, welche die Aufgabe haben, ein äußeres Ding abzubilden. Je wahrer sie dies tun, desto wahrer sind sie. Und es gehört zu ihrem Wesen, in diesem Sinne wahr zu sein. Eine solche Aufgabe haben die Vorstellungen nicht, welchen sich die Seele zum Ziele der Geistesschulung hingeben soll. Sie sind so gestaltet, dass sie nicht ein Äußeres abbilden, sondern in sich selbst die Eigenheit haben, auf die Seele weckend zu wirken. Die besten Vorstellungen hierzu sind sinnbildliche oder symbolische. Doch können auch andere Vorstellungen verwendet werden. Denn es kommt eben gar nicht darauf an, was die Vorstellungen enthalten, sondern lediglich darauf, dass die Seele alle ihre Kräfte darauf richtet, nichts anderes im Bewusstsein zu haben als die betreffende Vorstellung. Während im gewöhnlichen Seelenleben dessen Kräfte auf vieles verteilt sind und die Vorstellungen rasch wechseln, kommt es bei der Geistesschulung auf die Konzentration des ganzen Seelenlebens auf eine Vorstellung an. Und diese Vorstellung muss durch freien Willen in den Mittelpunkt des Bewusstseins gerückt sein. Sinnbildliche Vorstellungen sind deshalb besser als solche, welche äußere Gegenstände oder Vorgänge abbilden, weil die letzteren den Anhaltspunkt in der Außenwelt haben und dadurch die Seele weniger sich auf sich allein zu stützen hat als bei sinnbildlichen, die aus der eigenen Seelenenergie heraus gebildet werden. Nicht was vorgestellt wird, ist wesentlich, sondern darauf kommt es an, dass das Vorgestellte durch die Art des Vorstellens das Seelische von jeder Anlehnung an ein Physisches loslöst.
[ 9 ] Man gelangt zu einem Erfassen dieser Versenkung in eine Vorstellung, wenn man sich erst einmal den Begriff der Erinnerung vor die Seele ruft. Hat man das Auge zum Beispiel auf einen Baum gerichtet und wendet man sich dann von dem Baume ab, so dass man ihn nicht mehr sehen kann, so vermag man die Vorstellung des Baumes aus der Erinnerung in der Seele wieder zu erwecken. Diese Vorstellung des Baumes, die man hat, wenn derselbe nicht dem Auge gegenübersteht, ist eine Erinnerung an den Baum. Nun denke man sich, man behalte diese Erinnerung in der Seele; man lasse die Seele gleichsam auf der Erinnerungsvorstellung ruhen; man bemühe sich, alle andern Vorstellungen dabei auszuschließen. Dann ist die Seele in die Erinnerungsvorstellung des Baumes versenkt. Man hat es dann mit einer Versenkung der Seele in eine Vorstellung zu tun; doch ist diese Vorstellung das Abbild eines durch die Sinne wahrgenommenen Dinges. Wenn man aber dasselbe vornimmt mit einer durch freien Willen in das Bewusstsein versetzten Vorstellung, so wird man nach und nach die Wirkung erzielen können, auf welche es ankommt.
[ 10 ] Es soll nun ein Beispiel der inneren Versenkung mit einer sinnbildlichen Vorstellung veranschaulicht werden. Zunächst muss eine solche Vorstellung erst in der Seele aufgebaut werden. Das kann in folgender Art geschehen: Man stelle sich eine Pflanze vor, wie sie im Boden wurzelt, wie sie Blatt nach Blatt treibt, wie sie sich zur Blüte entfaltet. Und nun denke man sich neben diese Pflanze einen Menschen hingestellt. Man mache den Gedanken in seiner Seele lebendig, wie der Mensch Eigenschaften und Fähigkeiten hat, welche denen der Pflanze gegenüber vollkommener genannt werden können. Man bedenke, wie er sich seinen Gefühlen und seinem Willen gemäß da und dorthin begeben kann, während die Pflanze an den Boden gefesselt ist. Nun aber sage man sich auch: ja, gewiss ist der Mensch vollkommener als die Pflanze; aber mir treten dafür auch an ihm Eigenschaften entgegen, welche ich an der Pflanze nicht wahrnehme, und durch deren Nichtvorhandensein sie mir in gewisser Hinsicht vollkommener als der Mensch erscheinen kann. Der Mensch ist erfüllt von Begierden und Leidenschaften; diesen folgt er bei seinem Verhalten. Ich kann bei ihm von Verirrungen durch seine Triebe und Leidenschaften sprechen. Bei der Pflanze sehe ich, wie sie den reinen Gesetzen des Wachstums folgt von Blatt zu Blatt, wie sie die Blüte leidenschaftslos dem keuschen Sonnenstrahl öffnet. Ich kann mir sagen: der Mensch hat eine gewisse Vollkommenheit vor der Pflanze voraus; aber er hat diese Vollkommenheit dadurch erkauft, dass er zu den mir rein erscheinenden Kräften der Pflanze in seinem Wesen hat hinzutreten lassen Triebe, Begierden und Leidenschaften. Ich stelle mir nun vor, dass der grüne Farbensaft durch die Pflanze fließt und dass dieser der Ausdruck ist für die reinen leidenschaftslosen Wachstumsgesetze. Und dann stelle ich mir vor, wie das rote Blut durch die Adern des Menschen fließt und wie dieses der Ausdruck ist für die Triebe, Begierden und Leidenschaften. Das alles lasse ich als einen lebhaften Gedanken in meiner Seele erstehen. Dann stelle ich mir weiter vor, wie der Mensch entwicklungsfähig ist; wie er seine Triebe und Leidenschaften durch seine höheren Seelenfähigkeiten läutern und reinigen kann. Ich denke mir, wie dadurch ein Niederes in diesen Trieben und Leidenschaften vernichtet wird, und diese auf einer höheren Stufe wiedergeboren werden. Dann wird das Blut vorgestellt werden dürfen als der Ausdruck der gereinigten und geläuterten Triebe und Leidenschaften. Ich blicke nun zum Beispiel im Geiste auf die Rose und sage mir: in dem roten Rosenblatt sehe ich die Farbe des grünen Pflanzensaftes umgewandelt in das Rot; und die rote Rose folgt wie das grüne Blatt den reinen, leidenschaftslosen Gesetzen des Wachstums. Das Rot der Rose möge mir nun werden das Sinnbild eines solchen Blutes, das der Ausdruck ist von geläuterten Trieben und Leidenschaften, welche das Niedere abgestreift haben und in ihrer Reinheit gleichen den Kräften, welche in der roten Rose wirken. Ich versuche nun, solche Gedanken nicht nur in meinem Verstande zu verarbeiten, sondern in meiner Empfindung lebendig werden zu lassen. Ich kann eine beseligende Empfindung haben, wenn ich die Reinheit und Leidenschaftslosigkeit der wachsenden Pflanze mir vorstelle; ich kann das Gefühl in mir erzeugen, wie gewisse höhere Vollkommenheiten erkauft werden müssen durch die Erwerbung der Triebe und Begierden. Das kann die Beseligung, die ich vorher empfunden habe, in ein ernstes Gefühl verwandeln; und dann kann ein Gefühl eines befreienden Glückes in mir sich regen, wenn ich mich hingebe dem Gedanken an das rote Blut, das Träger werden kann von innerlich reinen Erlebnissen, wie der rote Saft der Rose. Es kommt darauf an, dass man nicht gefühllos sich den Gedanken gegenüberstelle, welche zum Aufbau einer sinnbildlichen Vorstellung dienen. Nachdem man sich in solchen Gedanken und Gefühlen ergangen hat, verwandle man sich dieselben in folgende sinnbildliche Vorstellung. Man stelle sich ein schwarzes Kreuz vor. Dieses sei Sinnbild für das vernichtete Niedere der Triebe und Leidenschaften; und da, wo sich die Balken des Kreuzes schneiden, denke man sich sieben rote, strahlende Rosen im Kreise angeordnet. Diese Rosen seien das Sinnbild für ein Blut, das Ausdruck ist für geläuterte, gereinigte Leidenschaften und Triebe.1Es kommt nicht darauf an, inwiefern diese oder jene naturwissenschaftliche Vorstellung die obigen Gedanken berechtigt findet oder nicht. Denn es handelt sich um die Entwicklung solcher Gedanken an Pflanze und Mensch, welche, ohne alle Theorie, durch eine einfache, unmittelbare Anschauung gewonnen werden können. Solche Gedanken haben ja doch auch ihre Bedeutung neben den in anderer Beziehung nicht minder bedeutsamen theoretischen Vorstellungen über die Dinge der Außenwelt. Und hier sind die Gedanken nicht dazu da, um einen Tatbestand wissenschaftlich darzustellen, sondern um ein Sinnbild aufzubauen, das sich als seelisch wirksam erweist, gleichgültig, welche Einwände dieser oder jener Persönlichkeit einfallen bei dem Aufbau dieses Sinnbildes. Eine solche sinnbildliche Vorstellung soll es nun sein, die man sich in der Art vor die Seele ruft, wie es oben an einer Erinnerungsvorstellung veranschaulicht ist. Eine solche Vorstellung hat eine seelenweckende Kraft, wenn man sich in innerlicher Versenkung ihr hingibt. Jede andere Vorstellung muss man versuchen während der Versenkung auszuschließen. Lediglich das charakterisierte Sinnbild soll im Geiste vor der Seele schweben, so lebhaft als dies möglich ist. — Es ist nicht bedeutungslos, dass dieses Sinnbild nicht einfach als eine weckende Vorstellung hier angeführt worden ist, sondern dass es erst durch gewisse Vorstellungen über Pflanze und Mensch aufgebaut worden ist. Denn es hängt die Wirkung eines solchen Sinnbildes davon ab, dass man es sich in der geschilderten Art zusammengestellt hat, bevor man es zur inneren Versenkung verwendet. Stellt man es sich vor, ohne einen solchen Aufbau erst in der eigenen Seele durchgemacht zu haben, so bleibt es kalt und viel unwirksamer, als wenn es durch die Vorbereitung seine seelenbeleuchtende Kraft erhalten hat. Während der Versenkung soll man jedoch sich alle die vorbereitenden Gedanken nicht in die Seele rufen, sondern lediglich das Bild lebhaft vor sich im Geiste schweben haben und dabei jene Empfindung mitschwingen lassen, die sich als Ergebnis durch die vorbereitenden Gedanken eingestellt hat. So wird das Sinnbild zum Zeichen neben dem Empfindungserlebnis. Und in dem Verweilen der Seele in diesem Erlebnis liegt das Wirksame. Je länger man verweilen kann, ohne dass eine störende andere Vorstellung sich einmischt, desto wirksamer ist der ganze Vorgang. Jedoch ist es gut, wenn man sich außer der Zeit, welche man der eigentlichen Versenkung widmet, öfters durch Gedanken und Gefühle der oben geschilderten Art den Aufbau des Bildes wiederholt, damit die Empfindung nicht verblasse. Je mehr Geduld man zu einer solchen Erneuerung hat, desto bedeutsamer ist das Bild für die Seele. (In den Auseinandersetzungen meines Buches: «Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten?» sind noch andere Beispiele von Mitteln zur inneren Versenkung angegeben. Besonders wirksam sind die daselbst charakterisierten Meditationen über das Werden und Vergehen einer Pflanze, über die in einem Pflanzen-Samenkorn schlummernden Werdekräfte, über die Formen von Kristallen usw. Hier in diesem Buche sollte an einem Beispiele das Wesen der Meditation gezeigt werden.)
[ 11 ] Ein solches Sinnbild, wie es hier geschildert ist, bildet kein äußeres Ding oder Wesen, das durch die Natur hervorgebracht wird, ab. Aber eben gerade dadurch hat es seine weckende Kraft für gewisse rein seelische Fähigkeiten. Es könnte allerdings jemand einen Einwand erheben. Er könnte sagen: Gewiss, das «Ganze», als Sinnbild, ist nicht durch die Natur vorhanden; aber alle Einzelheiten sind doch aus dieser Natur entlehnt: die schwarze Farbe, die Rosen und so weiter. Das alles werde doch durch die Sinne wahrgenommen. Wer durch solchen Einwand gestört wird, der sollte bedenken, dass nicht die Abbildungen der Sinneswahrnehmungen dasjenige sind, was zur Weckung der höheren Seelenfähigkeiten führt, sondern dass diese Wirkung lediglich durch die Art der Zusammenfügung dieser Einzelheiten hervorgerufen wird. Und diese Zusammenfügung bildet nicht etwas ab, was in der Sinneswelt vorhanden ist.
[ 12 ] An einem Sinnbild — als Beispiel — sollte der Vorgang der wirksamen Versenkung der Seele veranschaulicht werden. In der Geistesschulung können die mannigfaltigsten Bilder dieser Art verwendet und diese in der verschiedensten Art aufgebaut werden. Es können auch gewisse Sätze, Formeln, einzelne Worte gegeben werden, in welche man sich zu versenken hat. In jedem Falle werden diese Mittel der inneren Versenkung das Ziel haben, die Seele loszureißen von der Sinneswahrnehmung und sie zu einer solchen Tätigkeit anzuregen, bei welcher der Eindruck auf die physischen Sinne bedeutungslos ist und die Entfaltung innerer schlummernder Seelenfähigkeiten das Wesentliche wird. Es kann sich auch um Versenkungen bloß in Gefühle, Empfindungen usw. handeln. Solches erweist sich besonders wirksam. Man nehme einmal das Gefühl der Freude. Im normalen Lebensverlaufe mag die Seele Freude erleben, wenn eine äußere Anregung zur Freude vorhanden ist. Wenn eine gesund empfindende Seele wahrnimmt, wie ein Mensch eine Handlung vollbringt, welche diesem seine Herzensgüte eingibt, so wird diese Seele Wohlgefallen, Freude an einer solchen Handlung haben. Aber diese Seele kann nun nachdenken über eine Handlung dieser Art. Sie kann sich sagen: Eine Handlung, welche aus Herzensgüte vollbracht wird, ist eine solche, bei welcher der Vollbringer nicht seinem eigenen Interesse folgt, sondern dem Interesse seines Mitmenschen. Und eine solche Handlung kann eine sittlich gute genannt werden. Nun aber kann die betrachtende Seele sich ganz frei machen von der Vorstellung des einzelnen Falles in der Außenwelt, welcher ihr die Freude oder das Wohlgefallen gemacht hat, und sie kann sich die umfassende Idee der Herzensgüte bilden. Sie kann sich etwa denken, wie Herzensgüte dadurch entstehe, dass die eine Seele das Interesse der andern gleichsam aufsauge und zu dem eigenen mache. Und die Seele kann nun die Freude empfinden über diese sittliche Idee der Herzensgüte. Das ist die Freude nicht an diesem oder jenem Vorgange der Sinneswelt, sondern die Freude an einer Idee als solcher. Versucht man solche Freude durch längere Zeit in der Seele lebendig sein zu lassen, so ist dies Versenkung in ein Gefühl, in eine Empfindung. Nicht die Idee ist dann das Wirksame zur Weckung der inneren Seelenfähigkeiten, sondern das durch längere Zeit andauernde Walten des nicht durch einen bloßen einzelnen äußeren Eindruck angeregten Gefühls innerhalb der Seele. — Da die übersinnliche Erkenntnis tiefer einzudringen vermag in das Wesen der Dinge als das gewöhnliche Vorstellen, so können aus deren Erfahrungen heraus Empfindungen angegeben werden, welche noch in viel höherem Grade auf die Entfaltung der Seelenfähigkeiten wirken, wenn sie zur inneren Versenkung verwendet werden. So notwendig dies letztere für höhere Grade der Schulung ist, so soll man doch dessen eingedenk sein, dass energische Versenkung in solche Gefühle und Empfindungen, wie zum Beispiel das an der Betrachtung der Herzensgüte charakterisierte, schon sehr weit führen kann. — Da die Wesenheiten der Menschen verschieden sind, so sind für die einzelnen Menschen auch verschiedene Mittel der Schulung die wirksamen. — Was die Zeitlänge der Versenkung betrifft, so ist zu bedenken, dass die Wirkung um so stärker ist, je gelassener und besonnener diese Versenkung werden kann. Aber eine jegliche Übertreibung in dieser Richtung soll vermieden werden. Es kann ein gewisser innerer Takt, der sich durch die Übungen selbst ergibt, den Schüler lehren, an was er in dieser Beziehung sich zu halten hat.
[ 13 ] Man wird solche Übungen innerer Versenkung in der Regel lange durchzuführen haben, bevor man deren Ergebnis selber wahrnehmen kann. Was zur Geistesschulung unbedingt gehört, ist: Geduld und Ausdauer. Wer diese beiden nicht in sich wachruft und nicht so in aller Ruhe fortdauernd seine Übungen macht, dass Geduld und Ausdauer dabei stets die Grundstimmung seiner Seele ausmachen, der kann nicht viel erreichen.
[ 14 ] Es ist aus der vorangehenden Darstellung wohl ersichtlich, dass die innere Versenkung (Meditation) ein Mittel ist zur Erlangung der Erkenntnis höherer Welten, aber auch dass nicht jeder beliebige Vorstellungsinhalt dazu führt, sondern nur ein solcher, welcher in der geschilderten Art ein gerichtet ist.
[ 15 ] Der Weg, auf den hier hingewiesen ist, führt zunächst zu dem, was man die imaginative Erkenntnis nennen kann. Sie ist die erste höhere Erkenntnisstufe. Das Erkennen, welches auf der sinnlichen Wahrnehmung und auf der Verarbeitung der sinnlichen Wahrnehmungen durch den an die Sinne gebundenen Verstand beruht, kann — im Sinne der Geisteswissenschaft — das «gegenständliche Erkennen» genannt werden. Über dieses hinaus liegen die höheren Erkenntnisstufen, deren erste eben das imaginative Erkennen ist. Der Ausdruck «imaginativ» könnte bei jemand Bedenken hervorrufen, der sich unter «Imagination» nur eine «eingebildete» Vorstellung denkt, welcher nichts Wirkliches entspricht. In der Geisteswissenschaft soll aber die «imaginative» Erkenntnis als eine solche aufgefasst werden, welche durch einen übersinnlichen Bewusstseinszustand der Seele zustande kommt. Was in diesem Bewusstseinszustande wahrgenommen wird, sind geistige Tatsachen und Wesenheiten, zu denen die Sinne keinen Zugang haben. Weil dieser Zustand in der Seele erweckt wird durch die Versenkung in Sinnbilder oder «Imaginationen», so kann auch die Welt dieses höheren Bewusstseinszustandes die «imaginative» und die auf sie bezügliche Erkenntnis die «imaginative» genannt werden. «Imaginativ» bedeutet also etwas, was in einem andern Sinne «wirklich» ist als die Tatsachen und Wesenheiten der physischen Sinneswahrnehmung. Auf den Inhalt der Vorstellungen, welche das imaginative Erleben erfüllen, kommt nichts an; dagegen alles auf die Seelenfähigkeit, die an diesem Erleben herangebildet wird.
[ 16 ] Ein sehr naheliegender Einwurf gegen die Verwendung der charakterisierten sinnbildlichen Vorstellungen ist, dass ihre Bildung einem träumerischen Denken und einer willkürlichen Einbildungskraft entspringen und dass sie daher nur von zweifelhaftem Erfolge sein könne. Denjenigen Sinnbildern gegenüber, welche der regelrechten Geistesschulung zugrunde liegen, ist ein damit gekennzeichnetes Bedenken unberechtigt. Denn die Sinnbilder werden so gewählt, dass von ihrer Beziehung auf eine äußere sinnliche Wirklichkeit ganz abgesehen werden kann und ihr Wert lediglich in der Kraft gesucht werden kann, mit welcher sie auf die Seele dann wirken, wenn diese alle Aufmerksamkeit von der äußeren Welt abzieht, wenn sie alle Eindrücke der Sinne unterdrückt und auch alle Gedanken ausschaltet, die sie, auf äußere Anregung hin, hegen kann. Am anschaulichsten wird der Vorgang der Meditation durch Vergleich derselben mit dem Schlafzustande. Sie ist diesem nach der einen Seite hin ähnlich, nach der anderen völlig entgegengesetzt. Sie ist ein Schlaf, der gegenüber dem Tagesbewusstsein ein höheres Erwachtsein darstellt. Es kommt darauf an, dass durch die Konzentration auf die entsprechende Vorstellung oder das Bild die Seele genötigt ist, viel stärkere Kräfte aus ihren eigenen Tiefen hervorzuholen, als sie im gewöhnlichen Leben oder dem gewöhnlichen Erkennen anwendet. Ihre innere Regsamkeit wird dadurch erhöht. Sie löst sich los von der Leiblichkeit, wie sie sich im Schlafe loslöst; aber sie geht nicht wie in diesem in die Bewusstlosigkeit über, sondern sie erlebt eine Weit, die sie vorher nicht erlebt hat. Ihr Zustand ist, obwohl er nach der Seite der Losgelöstheit vom Leibe mit dem Schlafe verglichen werden kann, doch so, dass er sich zu dem gewöhnlichen Tagesbewusstsein als ein solcher eines erhöhten Wachseins kennzeichnen lässt. Dadurch erlebt sich die Seele in ihrer wahren inneren, selbständigen Wesenheit, während sie sich im gewöhnlichen Tagwachen durch die in demselben vorhandene schwächere Entfaltung ihrer Kräfte nur mit Hilfe des Leibes zum Bewusstsein bringt, sich also nicht selbst erlebt, sondern nur in dem Bilde gewahr wird, das — wie eine Art Spiegelbild — der Leib (eigentlich dessen Vorgänge) vor ihr entwirft.
[ 17 ] Diejenigen Sinnbilder, welche in der oben geschilderten Art aufgebaut werden, beziehen sich naturgemäß noch nicht auf etwas Wirkliches in der geistigen Weit. Sie dienen dazu, um die menschliche Seele loszureißen von der Sinneswahrnehmung und von dem Gehirninstrument, an welches zunächst der Verstand gebunden ist. Diese Losreißung kann nicht früher geschehen, als bis der Mensch fühlt: jetzt stelle ich etwas vor durch Kräfte, bei denen mir meine Sinne und das Gehirn nicht als Werkzeuge dienen. Das erste, was der Mensch auf diesem Wege erlebt, ist ein solches Freiwerden von den physischen Organen. Er kann sich dann sagen: mein Bewusstsein erlöscht nicht, wenn ich die Sinneswahrnehmungen und das gewöhnliche Verstandesdenken unberücksichtigt lasse; ich kann mich aus diesem herausheben und empfinde mich dann als ein Wesen neben dem, was ich vorher war. Das ist das erste rein geistige Erlebnis: die Beobachtung einer seelisch-geistigen Ich-Wesenheit. Diese hat sich als ein neues Selbst aus demjenigen Selbst herausgehoben, das nur an die physischen Sinne und den physischen Verstand gebunden ist. Hätte man ohne die Versenkung sich losgemacht von der Sinnesund Verstandeswelt, so wäre man in das «Nichts» der Bewusstlosigkeit versunken. Man hat die seelischgeistige Wesenheit selbstverständlich auch vor der Versenkung schon gehabt. Sie hatte aber noch keine Werkzeuge zur Beobachtung der geistigen Welt. Sie war etwa so wie ein physischer Leib, der kein Auge zum Sehen oder kein Ohr zum Hören hat. Die Kraft, welche in der Versenkung aufgewendet worden ist, hat erst die seelisch-geistigen Organe aus der vorher unorganisierten seelisch-geistigen Wesenheit herausgeschaffen. Das, was man sich so anerschaffen hat, nimmt man auch zuerst wahr. Das erste Erlebnis ist daher in gewissem Sinne Selbstwahrnehmung. Es gehört zum Wesen der Geistesschulung, dass die Seele durch die an sich geübte Selbsterziehung an diesem Punkte ihrer Entwicklung ein volles Bewusstsein davon hat, dass sie zunächst sich selbst wahrnimmt in den Bilderwelten (Imaginationen), die infolge der geschilderten Übungen auftreten. Diese Bilder treten zwar als lebend in einer neuen Welt auf; die Seele muss aber erkennen, dass sie doch nichts anderes zunächst sind als die Widerspiegelung ihres eigenen durch die Übungen verstärkten Wesens. Und sie muss dieses nicht nur im richtigen Urteile erkennen, sondern auch zu einer solchen Ausbildung des Willens gekommen sein, dass sie jederzeit die Bilder wieder aus dem Bewusstsein entfernen, auslöschen kann. Die Seele muss innerhalb dieser Bilder völlig frei und vollbesonnen walten können. Das gehört zur richtigen Geistesschulung in diesem Punkte. Würde sie dieses nicht können, so wäre sie im Gebiete der geistigen Erlebnisse in demselben Falle, in dem eine Seele wäre in der physischen Welt, welche, wenn sie das Auge nach einem Gegenstande richtete, durch diesen gefesselt wäre, so dass sie von demselben nicht mehr wegschauen könnte. Eine Ausnahme von dieser Möglichkeit des Auslöschens macht nur eine Gruppe von inneren Bilderlebnissen, die auf der erlangten Stufe der Geistesschulung nicht auszulöschen ist. Diese entspricht dem eigenen Seelen-Wesenskerne; und der Geistesschüler erkennt in diesen Bildern dasjenige in ihm selber, welches sich als sein Grundwesen durch die wiederholten Erdenleben hindurchzieht. Auf diesem Punkte wird das Erfühlen von wiederholten Erdenleben zu einem wirklichen Erlebnis. In bezug auf alles übrige muss die erwähnte Freiheit der Erlebnisse herrschen. Und erst, nachdem man die Fähigkeit der Auslöschung erlangt hat, tritt man an die wirkliche geistige Außenwelt heran. An Stelle des Ausgelöschten kommt ein anderes, in dem man die geistige Wirklichkeit erkennt. Man fühlt, wie man seelisch aus einem Unbestimmten als ein Bestimmtes herauswächst. Von dieser Selbstwahrnehmung aus muss es dann weiter gehen zur Beobachtung einer seelisch-geistigen Außenwelt. Diese tritt ein, wenn man sein inneres Erleben in dem Sinne einrichtet, wie es hier weiter angedeutet werden wird.
[ 18 ] Zunächst ist die Seele des Geistesschülers schwach in bezug auf alles das, was in der seelisch-geistigen Welt wahrzunehmen ist. Er wird schon eine große innere Energie aufwenden müssen, um die Sinnbilder oder anderen Vorstellungen, welche er sich aus den Anregungen der Sinneswelt heraus aufgebaut hat, in innerer Versenkung festzuhalten. Will er aber außerdem noch zur wirklichen Beobachtung in einer höheren Welt gelangen, so muss er nicht nur an diesen Vorstellungen festhalten können. Er muss auch, nachdem er dies getan hat, in einem Zustande verweilen können, in dem keine Anregungen der sinnlichen Außenwelt auf die Seele wirken, aber in dem auch die charakterisierten imaginierten Vorstellungen selbst aus dem Bewusstsein heraus getilgt werden. Nun kann erst das im Bewusstsein hervortreten, was durch die Versenkung sich gebildet hat. Es handelt sich darum, dass nunmehr innere Seelenkraft genug vorhanden ist, damit das also Gebildete wirklich geistig geschaut wird, damit es nicht der Aufmerksamkeit entgehe. Dies ist aber bei noch schwach entwickelter innerer Energie durchaus der Fall. Was sich als seelisch-geistiger Organismus da zunächst herausbildet und was man in Selbstwahrnehmung erfassen soll, ist zart und flüchtig. Und die Störungen der sinnlichen Außenwelt und deren Erinnerungs-Nachwirkungen sind, auch wenn man sich noch so sehr bemüht sie abzuhalten, groß. Es kommen da ja nicht nur diejenigen Störungen in Betracht, welche man beachtet, sondern viel mehr sogar diejenigen, welche man im gewöhnlichen Leben gar nicht beachtet. — Es ist aber gerade durch das Wesen des Menschen ein Übergangszustand in dieser Beziehung möglich. Was die Seele zunächst wegen der Störungen der physischen Welt im Wachzustand nicht leisten kann, das vermag sie im Schlafzustand. Wer sich der inneren Versenkung ergibt, der wird bei gehöriger Aufmerksamkeit an seinem Schlaf etwas gewahr werden. Er wird fühlen, dass er während des Schlafes «nicht ganz schläft», sondern dass seine Seele Zeiten hat, in denen sie schlafend doch in einer gewissen Art tätig ist. In solchen Zuständen halten die natürlichen Vorgänge die Einflüsse der Außenwelt ab, welche die Seele wachend noch nicht aus eigener Kraft abhalten kann. Wenn aber nun die Übungen der Versenkung schon gewirkt haben, so löst sich die Seele während des Schlafes aus der Bewusstlosigkeit heraus und fühlt die geistig-seelische Welt. In einer zweifachen Art kann das eintreten. Es kann dem Menschen während des Schlafens klar sein: ich bin nun in einer andern Welt, oder aber er kann in sich nach dem Erwachen die Erinnerung haben: ich war in einer andern Welt. Zu dem ersteren gehört allerdings eine größere innere Energie als zu dem zweiten. Daher wird das letztere bei dem Anfänger in der Geistesschulung das häufigere sein. Nach und nach kann das so weit gehen, dass dem Schüler nach dem Erwachen vorkommt: ich war die ganze Schlafenszeit hindurch in einer andern Welt, aus der ich aufgetaucht bin mit dem Erwachen. Und seine Erinnerung an die Wesenheiten und Tatsachen dieser andern Welt wird eine immer bestimmtere werden. Es ist bei dem Geistesschüler dann in der einen oder der andern Form das eingetreten, was man die Kontinuität des Bewusstseins nennen kann. (Die Fortdauer des Bewusstseins während des Schlafens.) Damit ist aber durchaus nicht gemeint, dass etwa der Mensch immer während des Schlafes sein Bewusstsein hat. Es ist schon viel errungen in der Kontinuität des Bewusstseins, wenn der Mensch, der sonst schläft wie ein anderer, gewisse Zeiten hat während des Schlafens, in denen er auf eine geistigseelische Welt wie bewusst hinschauen kann, oder wenn er im Wachen auf solche kurz dauernde Bewusstseinszustände wieder wie hinschauen kann. Nicht außer acht möge aber gelassen werden, dass das hier Geschilderte doch nur als ein Übergangszustand aufzufassen ist. Es ist gut, durch diesen Übergangszustand behufs Schulung hindurchzugehen; aber man soll durchaus nicht glauben, dass eine abschließende Anschauung in bezug auf die geistig-seelische Welt aus diesem Übergangszustande geschöpft werden soll. Die Seele ist in diesem Zustande unsicher und kann sich darinnen noch nicht auf dasjenige verlassen, was sie wahrnimmt. Aber sie sammelt durch solche Erlebnisse immer mehr Kraft, um dann auch während des Wachens dazu zu gelangen, die störenden Einflüsse der physischen Außenund Innenwelt von sich abzuhalten und so zu geistig-seelischer Beobachtung zu gelangen, wenn keine Eindrücke durch die Sinne kommen, wenn der an das physische Gehirn gebundene Verstand schweigt und wenn auch die Vorstellungen der Versenkung aus dem Bewusstsein entfernt sind, durch welche man sich auf das geistige Schauen ja nur vorbereitet hat. — Was durch die Geisteswissenschaft in dieser oder jener Form veröffentlicht wird, sollte niemals aus einer andern geistig-seelischen Beobachtung stammen als aus einer solchen, welche bei vollem Wachzustande gemacht worden ist.
[ 19 ] Zwei Seelenerlebnisse sind wichtig im Fortgange der Geistesschulung. Das eine ist dasjenige, durch welches sich der Mensch sagen kann: wenn ich nunmehr auch alles außer acht lasse, was mir die physische Außenwelt an Eindrücken geben kann, so blicke ich in mein Inneres doch nicht wie auf ein Wesen, dem alle Tätigkeit erlöscht, sondern ich schaue auf ein Wesen, das sich seiner selbst bewusst ist in einer Welt, von der ich nichts weiß, so lange ich mich nur von jenen sinnlichen und gewöhnlichen Verstandeseindrücken anregen lasse. Die Seele hat in diesem Augenblicke die Empfindung, dass sie in sich selbst ein neues Wesen als ihren Seelen-Wesenskern in der oben beschriebenen Weise geboren habe. Und dieses Wesen ist ein solches von ganz anderen Eigenschaften, als diejenigen sind, welche vorher in der Seele waren. — Das andere Erlebnis besteht darin, dass man sein bisheriges Wesen nunmehr wie ein zweites neben sich haben kann. Dasjenige, worin man bisher sich eingeschlossen wusste, wird zu etwas, dem man sich in gewisser Beziehung gegenübergestellt findet. Man fühlt sich zeitweilig außerhalb dessen, was man sonst als die eigene Wesenheit, als sein «Ich» angesprochen hat. Es ist so, wie wenn man nun in voller Besonnenheit in zwei «Ichen» lebte. Das eine ist dasjenige, welches man bisher gekannt hat. Das andere steht wie eine neugeborene Wesenheit über diesem. Und man fühlt, wie das erstere eine gewisse Selbständigkeit erlangt gegenüber dem zweiten; etwa so wie der Leib des Menschen eine gewisse Selbständigkeit hat gegenüber dem ersten Ich. — Dieses Erlebnis ist von großer Bedeutung. Denn durch dasselbe weiß der Mensch, was es heißt, in jener Welt leben, welche er durch die Schulung zu erreichen strebt.
[ 20 ] Das zweite — das neugeborene — Ich kann nun zum Wahrnehmen in der geistigen Welt geführt werden. In ihm kann sich entwickeln, was für diese geistige Welt die Bedeutung hat, welche den Sinnesorganen für die sinnlich-physische Welt zukommt. Ist diese Entwicklung bis zu dem notwendigen Grade fortgeschritten, so wird der Mensch nicht nur sich selbst als ein neugeborenes Ich empfinden, sondern er wird nunmehr um sich herum geistige Tatsachen und geistige Wesenheiten wahrnehmen, wie er durch die physischen Sinne die physische Welt wahrnimmt. Und dies ist ein drittes bedeutsames Erlebnis. Um völlig auf dieser Stufe der Geistesschulung zurechtzukommen, muss der Mensch damit rechnen, dass mit der Verstärkung der Seelenkräfte die Selbstliebe, der Selbstsinn in einem solchen Grade auftreten, den das gewöhnliche Seelenleben gar nicht kennt. Es wäre ein Missverständnis, wenn jemand glauben könnte, dass man auf diesem Punkte nur von der gewöhnlichen Selbstliebe zu sprechen hat. Diese verstärkt sich auf dieser Stufe der Entwicklung so, dass sie das Aussehen einer Naturkraft innerhalb der eigenen Seele annimmt, und es gehört eine starke Willensschulung dazu, um diesen starken Selbstsinn zu besiegen. Dieser Selbstsinn wird durch die Geistesschulung nicht etwa erzeugt; er ist immer vorhanden; er gelangt durch das Geist-Erleben nur zum Bewusstsein. Die Willensschulung muss der andern Geistesschulung durchaus zur Seite gehen. Es ist ein starker Trieb da, sich in der Welt beseligt zu fühlen, welche man sich erst selbst herangeschaffen hat. Und man muss gewissermaßen das in der oben erwähnten Art auslöschen können, um das man sich erst mit aller Anstrengung bemüht hat. In der erreichten imaginativen Welt muss man sich auslöschen. Dagegen aber kämpfen die stärksten Triebe des Selbstsinnes an. — Es kann leicht der Glaube entstehen, dass die Übungen der Geistesschulung etwas Äußerliches seien, das von der moralischen Entwicklung der Seele absieht. Demgegenüber muss gesagt werden, dass die moralische Kraft, die zu der gekennzeichneten Besiegung des Selbstsinnes notwendig ist, nicht erlangt werden kann, ohne dass die moralische Verfassung der Seele auf eine entsprechende Stufe gebracht wird. Fortschritt in der Geistesschulung ist nicht denkbar, ohne dass zugleich ein moralischer Fortschritt sich notwendig ergibt. Ohne moralische Kraft ist die erwähnte Besiegung des Selbstsinnes nicht möglich. Alles Reden darüber, dass die wahre Geistesschulung nicht zugleich eine moralische Schulung sei, ist doch unsachgemäß. Nur demjenigen, welcher ein solches Erlebnis nicht kennt, kann sich der Einwand ergeben: wie kann man wissen, dass man es dann, wenn man glaubt, geistige Wahrnehmungen zu haben, mit Wirklichkeiten und nicht mit bloßen Einbildungen (Visionen, Halluzinationen usw.) zu tun habe? — Die Sache ist ebenso, dass derjenige, welcher in regelrechter Schulung die charakterisierte Stufe erreicht hat, seine eigene Vorstellung von einer geistigen Wirklichkeit ebenso unterscheiden kann, wie ein Mensch mit gesundem Verstande unterscheiden kann die Vorstellung eines heißen Eisenstückes von dem wirklichen Vorhandensein eines solchen, das er mit der Hand berührt. Den Unterschied gibt eben das gesunde Erleben und nichts anderes. Und auch in der geistigen Welt gibt den Prüfstein das Leben selbst. Wie man weiß, dass in der Sinnenwelt ein vorgestelltes Eisenstück, wenn es noch so heiß gedacht wird, nicht die Finger verbrennt, so weiß der geschulte Geistesschüler, ob er nur in seiner Einbildung eine geistige Tatsache erlebt oder ob auf seine erweckten geistigen Wahmehmungsorgane wirkliche Tatsachen oder Wesenheiten einen Eindruck machen. Die Maßregeln, welche man während der Geistesschulung zu beobachten hat, damit man in dieser Beziehung nicht Täuschungen zum Opfer fällt, werden in der folgenden Darstellung noch besprochen werden.
[ 21 ] Es ist nun von der größten Bedeutung, dass der Geistesschüler eine ganz bestimmte Seelenverfassung erlangt hat, wenn das Bewusstsein von einem neugeborenen Ich bei ihm eintritt. Denn es ist der Mensch durch sein Ich der Führer seiner Empfindungen, Gefühle, Vorstellungen, seiner Triebe, Begehrungen und Leidenschaften. Wahrnehmungen und Vorstellungen können in der Seele sich nicht selbst überlassen sein. Sie müssen durch die denkende Besonnenheit geregelt werden. Und es ist das Ich, welches diese Denkgesetze handhabt und welches durch sie Ordnung in das Vorstellungsund Gedankenleben bringt. Ähnlich ist es mit den Begehrungen, den Trieben, den Neigungen, den Leidenschaften. Die ethischen Grundsätze werden zu Führern dieser Seelenkräfte. Und durch das sittliche Urteil wird das Ich der Führer der Seele auf diesem Gebiete. Wenn nun der Mensch aus seinem gewöhnlichen Ich ein höheres herauszieht, so wird das erstere in einer gewissen Beziehung selbständig. Es wird diesem so viel an lebendiger Kraft weggenommen, als dem höheren Ich zugewendet wird. Man setze aber einmal den Fall, der Mensch habe in sich noch nicht eine gewisse Fähigkeit und Festigung in den Denkgesetzen und in der Urteilskraft ausgebildet und er wollte auf solcher Stufe sein höheres Ich gebären. Er wird nur so viel seinem gewöhnlichen Ich an Denkfähigkeit zurücklassen können, als er vorher ausgebildet hat. Ist das Maß des geordneten Denkens zu gering, dann wird in dem selbständig gewordenen gewöhnlichen Ich ein ungeordnetes, verworrenes, phantastisches Denken und Urteilen auftreten. Und weil bei einer solchen Persönlichkeit das neugeborene Ich auch nur schwach sein kann, wird für das übersinnliche Schauen das verworrene niedere Ich die Oberherrschaft erlangen und der Mensch das Gleichgewicht seiner Urteilskraft für die Beobachtung des Übersinnlichen nicht zeigen. Hätte er genügend Fähigkeit des logischen Denkens ausgebildet, so könnte er sein gewöhnliches Ich ruhig seiner Selbständigkeit überlassen. — Und auf dem ethischen Gebiete ist es ebenso. Wenn der Mensch nicht Festigkeit im moralischen Urteil erlangt hat, wenn er nicht genügend Herr geworden ist über Neigungen, Triebe und Leidenschaften, dann wird er sein gewöhnliches Ich verselbständigen in einem Zustand, in dem die genannten Seelenkräfte wirken. Es kann der Fall eintreten, dass der Mensch in dem Feststellen der erlebten übersinnlichen Erkenntnisse nicht einen gleich hohen Wahrheitssinn walten lässt wie in dem, was er sich durch die physische Außenwelt zum Bewusstsein bringt. Er könnte bei so gelockertem Wahrheitssinn alles mögliche für geistige Wirklichkeit halten, was nur seine Phantasterei ist. In diesen Wahrheitssinn hinein müssen Festigkeit des ethischen Urteiles, Sicherheit des Charakters, Gründlichkeit des Gewisses wirken, die in dem zurückgelassenen Ich ausgebildet sind, bevor das höhere Ich zum Zwecke der übersinnlichen Erkenntnis tätig wird. — Es darf dies durchaus nicht zu einem Abschreckungsmittel gegenüber der Schulung werden; es muss aber ganz ernst genommen werden.
[ 22 ] Wer den starken Willen hat, alles zu tun, was das erste Ich zur inneren Sicherheit in der Ausübung seiner Verrichtungen bringt, der braucht vor der zur übersinnlichen Erkenntnis bewirkten Loslösung eines zweiten Ich durch die geistige Schulung durchaus nicht zurückzuschrecken. Nur muss er sich vorbehalten, dass Selbsttäuschung dann eine große Macht über den Menschen hat, wenn es sich darum handelt, dass dieser sich für etwas «reif» befinden soll. In derjenigen Geistesschulung, welche hier beschrieben ist, erlangt der Mensch eine solche Ausbildung seines Gedankenlebens, dass er in Gefahren, zu irren, wie sie oft vermutet werden, nicht kommen kann. Diese Gedankenausbildung bewirkt, dass alle inneren Erlebnisse, welche notwendig sind, auftreten, dass sie aber so sich abspielen, wie sie von der Seele durchgemacht werden müssen, ohne von schädlichen Phantasieverirrungen begleitet zu sein. Ohne entsprechende Gedankenausbildung können die Erlebnisse eine starke Unsicherheit in der Seele hervorrufen. Die hier betonte Art bewirkt, dass die Erlebnisse so auftreten, dass man sie vollkommen kennenlernt, wie man die Wahrnehmungen der physischen Welt bei gesunder Seelenverfassung kennenlernt. Man wird durch die Ausbildung des Denklebens mehr ein Beobachter dessen, was man an sich erlebt, während man ohne das Denkleben unbesonnen in dem Erlebnis drinnen steht.
[ 23 ] Von einer sachgemäßen Schulung werden gewisse Eigenschaften genannt, welche sich durch Übung derjenige erwerben soll, welcher den Weg in die höheren Welten finden will. Es sind dies vor allem: Herrschaft der Seele über ihre Gedankenführung, über ihren Willen und ihre Gefühle. Die Art, wie diese Herrschaft durch Übung herbeigeführt werden soll, hat ein zweifaches Ziel. Einerseits soll der Seele dadurch Festigkeit, Sicherheit und Gleichgewicht so weit eingeprägt werden, dass sie sich diese Eigenschaften bewahrt, auch wenn ein zweites Ich aus ihr geboren wird. Andrerseits soll diesem zweiten Ich Stärke und innerer Halt mit auf den Weg gegeben werden.
[ 24 ] Was dem Denken des Menschen für die Geistesschulung vor allem notwendig ist, das ist Sachlichkeit. In der physischsinnlichen Welt ist das Leben der große Lehrmeister für das menschliche Ich zur Sachlichkeit. Wollte die Seele in beliebiger Weise die Gedanken hin und her schweifen lassen: sie müsste alsbald sich von dem Leben korrigieren lassen, wenn sie mit ihm nicht in Konflikt kommen wollte. Die Seele muss entsprechend dem Verlauf der Tatsachen des Lebens denken. Wenn nun der Mensch die Aufmerksamkeit von der physisch-sinnlichen Welt ablenkt, so fehlt ihm die Zwangskorrektur der letzteren. Ist dann sein Denken nicht imstande, sein eigener Korrektor zu sein, so muss es ins Irrlichtelierende kommen. Deshalb muss das Denken des Geistesschülers sich so üben, dass es sich selber Richtung und Ziel geben kann. Innere Festigkeit und die Fähigkeit, streng bei einem Gegenstande zu bleiben, das ist, was das Denken in sich selbst heranziehen muss. Deshalb sollen entsprechende «Denkübungen» nicht an fernliegenden und komplizierten Gegenständen vorgenommen werden, sondern an einfachen und naheliegenden. Wer sich überwindet, durch Monate hindurch täglich wenigstens fünf Minuten seine Gedanken an einen alltäglichen Gegenstand (zum Beispiel eine Stecknadel, einen Bleistift usw.) zu wenden und während dieser Zeit alle Gedanken auszuschließen, welche nicht mit diesem Gegenstande zusammenhängen, der hat nach dieser Richtung hin viel getan. (Man kann täglich einen neuen Gegenstand bedenken oder mehrere Tage einen festhalten.) Auch derjenige, welcher sich als «Denker» durch wissenschaftliche Schulung fühlt, sollte es nicht verschmähen, sich in solcher Art für die Geistesschulung «reif» zu machen. Denn wenn man eine Zeitlang die Gedanken heftet an etwas, was einem ganz bekannt ist, so kann man sicher sein, dass man sachgemäß denkt. Wer sich frägt: Welche Bestandteile setzen einen Bleistift zusammen? Wie werden die Materialien zu dem Bleistift vorgearbeitet? Wie werden sie nachher zusammengefügt? Wann wurden die Bleistifte erfunden? und so weiter, und so weiter: ein solcher passt seine Vorstellungen sicher mehr der Wirklichkeit an als derjenige, der darüber nachdenkt, wie die Abstammung des Menschen ist oder was das Leben ist. Man lernt durch einfache Denkübungen für ein sachgemäßes Vorstellen gegenüber der Welt der Saturn-, Sonnenund Mondenentwicklung mehr als durch komplizierte und gelehrte Ideen. Denn zunächst handelt es sich gar nicht darum, über dieses oder jenes zu denken, sondern sachgemäß durch innere Kraft zu denken. Hat man sich die Sachgemäßheit anerzogen an einem leicht überschaubaren sinnlich-physischen Vorgang, dann gewöhnt sich das Denken daran, auch sachgemäß sein zu wollen, wenn es sich nicht durch die physischsinnliche Welt und ihre Gesetze beherrscht fühlt. Und man gewöhnt es sich ab, unsachgemäß die Gedanken schwärmen zu lassen.
[ 25 ] Wie Herrscher in der Gedankenwelt, so soll ein solcher die Seele auch im Gebiete des Willens werden. In der physisch-sinnlichen Welt ist es auch hier das Leben, das als Beherrscher auftritt. Es macht diese oder jene Bedürfnisse für den Menschen geltend; und der Wille fühlt sich angeregt, diese Bedürfnisse zu befriedigen. Für die höhere Schulung muss sich der Mensch daran gewöhnen, seinen eigenen Befehlen streng zu gehorchen. Wer sich an solches gewöhnt, dem wird es immer weniger und weniger beifallen, Wesenloses zu begehren. Das Unbefriedigende, Haltlose im Willensleben rührt aber von dem Begehren solcher Dinge her, von deren Verwirklichung man sich keinen deutlichen Begriff macht. Solche Unbefriedigend kann das ganze Gemütsleben in Unordnung bringen, wenn ein höheres Ich aus der Seele hervorgehen will. Eine gute Übung ist es, durch Monate hindurch sich zu einer bestimmten Tageszeit den Befehl zu geben: Heute «um diese bestimmte Zeit» wirst du «dieses» ausführen. Man gelangt dann allmählich dazu, sich die Zeit der Ausführung und die Art des auszuführenden Dinges so zu befehlen, dass die Ausführung ganz genau möglich ist. So erhebt man sich über das verderbliche: «ich möchte dies; ich will jenes», wobei man gar nicht an die Ausführbarkeit denkt. Eine große Persönlichkeit lässt eine Seherin sagen: «Den lieb' ich, der Unmögliches begehrt». (Goethe, Faust II.) Und diese Persönlichkeit (Goethe) selbst sagt: «In der Idee leben heißt, das Unmögliche behandeln, als wenn es möglich wäre». (Goethe, Sprüche in Prosa.) Solche Aussprüche dürfen aber nicht als Einwände gegen das hier Dargestellte gebraucht werden. Denn die Forderung, die Goethe und seine Seherin (Manko) stellen, kann nur derjenige erfüllen, welcher sich an dem Begehren dessen, was möglich ist, erst herangebildet hat, um dann durch sein starkes Wollen eben das «Unmögliche» so behandeln zu können, dass es sich durch sein Wollen in ein Mögliches verwandelt.
[ 26 ] In bezug auf die Gefühlswelt soll es die Seele für die Geistesschulung zu einer gewissen Gelassenheit bringen. Dazu ist nötig, dass diese Seele Beherrscherin werde über den Ausdruck von Lust und Leid, Freude und Schmerz. Gerade gegenüber der Erwerbung dieser Eigenschaft kann sich manches Vorurteil ergeben. Man könnte meinen, man werde stumpf und teilnahmslos gegenüber seiner Mitwelt, wenn man über das «Erfreuliche sich nicht erfreuen, über das Schmerzhafte nicht Schmerz empfinden soll». Doch darum handelt es sich nicht. Ein Erfreuliches soll die Seele erfreuen, ein Trauriges soll sie schmerzen. Sie soll nur dazu gelangen, den Ausdruck von Freude und Schmerz, von Lust und Unlust zu beherrschen. Strebt man dieses an, so wird man alsbald bemerken, dass man nicht stumpfer, sondern im Gegenteil empfänglicher wird für alles Erfreuliche und Schmerzhafte der Umgebung, als man früher war. Es erfordert allerdings ein genaues Achtgeben auf sich selbst durch längere Zeit, wenn man sich die Eigenschaft aneignen will, um die es sich hier handelt. Man muss darauf sehen, dass man Lust und Leid voll miterleben kann, ohne sich dabei so zu verlieren, dass man dem, was man empfindet, einen unwillkürlichen Ausdruck gibt. Nicht den berechtigten Schmerz soll man unterdrücken, sondern das unwillkürliche Weinen; nicht den Abscheu vor einer schlechten Handlung, sondern das blinde Wüten des Zorns; nicht das Achten auf eine Gefahr, sondern das fruchtlose «sich fürchten» und so weiter. — Nur durch eine solche Übung gelangt der Geistesschüler dazu, jene Ruhe in seinem Gemüt zu haben, welche notwendig ist, damit nicht beim Geborenwerden und namentlich bei der Betätigung des höheren Ich die Seele wie eine Art Doppelgänger neben diesem höheren Ich ein zweites ungesundes Leben führt. Gerade diesen Dingen gegenüber sollte man sich keiner Selbsttäuschung hingeben. Es kann manchem scheinen, dass er einen gewissen Gleichmut im gewöhnlichen Leben schon habe und dass er deshalb diese Übung nicht nötig habe. Gerade ein solcher hat sie zweifach nötig. Man kann nämlich ganz gut gelassen sein, wenn man den Dingen des gewöhnlichen Lebens gegenübersteht; und dann beim Aufsteigen in eine höhere Welt kann sich um so mehr die Gleichgewichtslosigkeit, die nur zurückgedrängt war, geltend machen. Es muss durchaus erkannt werden, dass zur Geistesschulung es weniger darauf ankommt, was man vorher zu haben scheint, als vielmehr darauf, dass man ganz gesetzmäßig übt, was man braucht. So widerspruchsvoll dieser Satz auch aussieht: er ist richtig. Hat einem auch das Leben dies oder jenes anerzogen: zur Geistesschulung dienen die Eigenschaften, welche man sich selbst anerzogen hat. Hat einem das Leben Erregtheit beigebracht, so sollte man sich die Erregtheit aberziehen; hat einem aber das Leben Gleichmut beigebracht, so sollte man sich durch Selbsterziehung so aufrütteln, dass der Ausdruck der Seele dem empfangenen Eindruck entspricht. Wer über nichts lachen kann, beherrscht sein Leben ebensowenig wie derjenige, welcher, ohne sich zu beherrschen, fortwährend zum Lachen gereizt wird.
[ 27 ] Für das Denken und Fühlen ist ein weiteres Bildungsmittel die Erwerbung der Eigenschaft, welche man Positivität nennen kann. Es gibt eine schöne Legende, die besagt von dem Christus Jesus, dass er mit einigen andern Personen an einem toten Hund vorübergeht. Die andern wenden sich ab von dem hässlichen Anblick. Der Christus Jesus spricht bewundernd von den schönen Zähnen des Tieres. Man kann sich darin üben, gegenüber der Welt eine solche Seelenverfassung zu erhalten, wie sie im Sinne dieser Legende ist. Das Irrtümliche, Schlechte, Hässliche soll die Seele nicht abhalten, das Wahre, Gute und Schöne überall zu finden, wo es vorhanden ist. Nicht verwechseln soll man diese Positivität mit Kritiklosigkeit, mit dem willkürlichen Verschließen der Augen gegenüber dem Schlechten, Falschen und Minderwertigen. Wer die «schönen Zähne» eines toten Tieres bewundert, der sieht auch den verwesenden Leichnam. Aber dieser Leichnam hält ihn nicht davon ab, die schönen Zähne zu sehen. Man kann das Schlechte nicht gut, den Irrtum nicht wahr finden; aber man kann es dahin bringen, dass man durch das Schlechte nicht abgehalten werde, das Gute, durch den Irrtum nicht, das Wahre zu sehen.
[ 28 ] Das Denken in Verbindung mit dem Willen erfährt eine gewisse Reifung, wenn man versucht, sich niemals durch etwas, was man erlebt oder erfahren hat, die unbefangene Empfänglichkeit für neue Erlebnisse rauben zu lassen. Für den Geistesschüler soll der Gedanke seine Bedeutung ganz verlieren: «Das habe ich noch nie gehört, das glaube ich nicht.» Er soll während einer gewissen Zeit geradezu überall darauf ausgehen, sich bei jeder Gelegenheit von einem jeglichen Dinge und Wesen Neues sagen zu lassen. Von jedem Luftzug, von jedem Baumblatt, von jeglichem Lallen eines Kindes kann man lernen, wenn man bereit ist, einen Gesichtspunkt in Anwendung zu bringen, den man bisher nicht in Anwendung gebracht hat. Es wird allerdings leicht möglich sein, in bezug auf eine solche Fähigkeit zu weit zu gehen. Man soll ja nicht etwa in einem gewissen Lebensalter die Erfahrungen, die man über die Dinge gemacht hat, außer acht lassen. Man soll, was man in der Gegenwart erlebt, nach den Erfahrungen der Vergangenheit beurteilen. Das kommt auf die eine Waagschale; auf die andere aber muss für den Geistesschüler die Geneigtheit kommen, immer Neues zu erfahren. Und vor allem der Glaube an die Möglichkeit, dass neue Erlebnisse den alten widersprechen können.
[ 29 ] Damit sind fünf Eigenschaften der Seele genannt, welche sich in regelrechter Schulung der Geistesschüler anzueignen hat: die Herrschaft über die Gedankenführung, die Herrschaft über die Willensimpulse, die Gelassenheit gegenüber Lust und Leid, die Positivität im Beurteilen der Welt, die Unbefangenheit in der Auffassung des Lebens. Wer gewisse Zeiten aufeinanderfolgend dazu verwendet hat, um sich in der Erwerbung dieser Eigenschaften zu üben, der wird dann noch nötig haben, in der Seele diese Eigenschaften zum harmonischen Zusammenstimmen zu bringen. Er wird sie gewissermaßen je zwei und zwei, drei und eine und so weiter gleichzeitig üben müssen, um Harmonie zu bewirken.
[ 30 ] Die charakterisierten Übungen sind durch die Methoden der Geistesschulung angegeben, weil sie bei gründlicher Ausführung in dem Geistesschüler nicht nur das bewirken, was oben als unmittelbares Ergebnis genannt worden ist, sondern mittelbar noch vieles andere im Gefolge haben, was auf dem Wege zu den geistigen Welten gebraucht wird. Wer diese Übungen in genügendem Maße macht, wird während derselben auf manche Mängel und Fehler seines Seelenlebens stoßen; und er wird die gerade ihm notwendigen Mittel finden zur Kräftigung und Sicherung seines intellektuellen, gefühlsmäßigen und Charakterlebens. Er wird gewiss noch manche andere Übungen nötig haben, je nach seinen Fähigkeiten, seinem Temperament und Charakter; solche ergeben sich aber, wenn die genannten ausgiebig durchgemacht werden. Ja, man wird bemerken, dass die dargestellten Übungen mittelbar auch dasjenige nach und nach geben, was zunächst nicht in ihnen zu liegen scheint. Wenn zum Beispiel jemand zu wenig Selbstvertrauen hat, so wird er nach entsprechender Zeit bemerken können, dass sich durch die Übungen das notwendige Selbstvertrauen einstellt. Und so ist es in bezug auf andere Seeleneigenschaften. (Besondere, mehr ins einzelne gehende Übungen findet man in meinem Buche: «Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten?») — Bedeutungsvoll ist, dass der Geistesschüler. die angegebenen Fähigkeiten in immer höheren Graden zu steigern vermag. Die Beherrschung der Gedanken und Empfindungen muss er so weit bringen, dass die Seele die Macht erhält, Zeiten vollkommener innerer Ruhe herzustellen, in denen der Mensch seinem Geiste und seinem Herzen alles fernhält, was das alltägliche, äußere Leben an Glück und Leid, an Befriedigungen und Kümmernissen, ja an Aufgaben und Forderungen bringt. Eingelassen werden soll in solchen Zeiten nur dasjenige in die Seele, was diese selbst im Zustande der Versenkung einlassen will. Leicht kann sich demgegenüber ein Vorurteil geltend machen. Es könnte die Meinung entstehen, man werde dem Leben und seinen Aufgaben entfremdet, wenn man sich mit Herz und Geist für gewisse Zeiten des Tages aus demselben zurückzieht. Das ist aber in Wirklichkeit durchaus nicht der Fall. Wer sich in der geschilderten Art Perioden der inneren Stille und des Friedens hingibt, dem wachsen aus denselben für die Aufgaben auch des äußeren Lebens so viele und so starke Kräfte zu, dass er die Lebenspflichten dadurch nicht nur nicht schlechter, sondern ganz gewiss besser erfüllt. — Von großem Werte ist es, wenn der Mensch in solchen Perioden ganz loskommt von den Gedanken an seine persönlichen Angelegenheiten, wenn er sich zu erheben vermag zu dem, was nicht nur ihn, sondern was den Menschen im allgemeinen überhaupt angeht. Ist er imstande, seine Seele zu erfüllen mit den Mitteilungen aus der höheren geistigen Welt, vermögen diese sein Interesse in einem so hohen Grade zu fesseln, wie eine persönliche Sorge oder Angelegenheit, dann wird seine Seele davon besondere Früchte haben. — Wer in dieser Weise regelnd in sein Seelenleben einzugreifen sich bemüht, der wird auch zu der Möglichkeit einer Selbstbeobachtung kommen, welche die eigenen Angelegenheiten mit der Ruhe ansieht, als wenn sie fremde wären. Die eigenen Erlebnisse, die eigenen Freuden und Leiden wie die eines andern ansehen können, ist eine gute Vorbereitung für die Geistesschulung. Man bringt es allmählich zu dem in dieser Beziehung notwendigen Grad, wenn man sich täglich nach vollbrachtem Tagewerk die Bilder der täglichen Erlebnisse vor dem Geiste vorbeiziehen lässt. Man soll sich innerhalb seiner Erlebnisse selbst im Bilde erblicken; also sich in seinem Tagesleben wie von außen betrachten. Man gelangt zu einer gewissen Praxis in solcher Selbstbeobachtung, wenn man mit der Vorstellung einzelner kleiner Teile dieses Tageslebens den Anfang macht. Man wird dann immer geschickter und gewandter in solcher Rückschau, so dass man sie nach längerer Übung in einer kurzen Spanne Zeit vollständig wird gestalten können. Dieses Rückwärts-Anschauen der Erlebnisse hat für die Geistesschulung deshalb seinen besonderen Wert, weil es die Seele dazu bringt, sich im Vorstellen loszumachen von der sonst innegehaltenen Gewohnheit, nur dem Verlauf des sinnenfälligen Geschehens mit dem Denken zu folgen. Im Rückwärts-Denken stellt man richtig vor, aber nicht gehalten durch den sinnenfälligen Verlauf. Das braucht man zum Einleben in die übersinnliche Welt. Daran erkraftet sich das Vorstellen in gesunder Art. Daher ist es auch gut, außer seinem Tagesleben anderes rückwärts vorzustellen, zum Beispiel den Verlauf eines Dramas, einer Erzählung, einer Tonfolge usw. — Das Ideal für den Geistesschüler wird immer mehr werden, sich den an ihn herantretenden Lebensereignissen gegenüber so zu verhalten, dass er sie mit innerer Sicherheit und Seelenruhe an sich herankommen lässt und sie nicht nach seiner Seelenverfassung beurteilt, sondern nach ihrer inneren Bedeutung und ihrem inneren Wert. Er wird gerade durch den Hinblick auf dieses Ideal sich die seelische Grundlage schaffen, um sich den oben geschilderten Versenkungen in symbolische und andere Gedanken und Empfindungen hingeben zu können.
[ 31 ] Die hier geschilderten Bedingungen müssen erfüllt sein, weil sich das übersinnliche Erleben auf dem Boden auferbaut, auf dem man im gewöhnlichen Seelenleben steht, bevor man in die übersinnliche Welt eintritt. In zweifacher Art ist alles übersinnliche Erleben abhängig von dem Seelen-Ausgangspunkt, auf dem man vor dem Eintritte steht. Wer nicht darauf bedacht ist, von vornherein eine gesunde Urteilskraft zur Grundlage seiner Geistesschulung zu machen, der wird in sich solche übersinnliche Fähigkeiten entwickeln, welche ungenau und unrichtig die geistige Welt wahrnehmen. Es werden gewissermaßen seine geistigen Wahmehmungsorgane unrichtig sich entfalten. Und wie man mit einem fehlerhaften oder kranken Auge nicht richtig in der Sinnenwelt sehen kann, so kann man mit Geistorganen nicht richtig wahrnehmen, die nicht auf der Grundlage einer gesunden Urteilsfähigkeit herangebildet sind. — Wer von einer unmoralischen Seelenverfassung den Ausgangspunkt nimmt, der erhebt sich so in die geistigen Welten, dass sein geistiges Schauen wie betäubt, wie umnebelt ist. Er ist gegenüber den übersinnlichen Welten, wie jemand gegenüber der sinnlichen Welt ist, der in Betäubung beobachtet. Nur wird dieser zu keinen erheblichen Aussagen kommen, während der geistige Beobachter in seiner Betäubung doch immerhin wacher ist als ein Mensch im gewöhnlichen Bewusstsein. Seine Aussagen werden deshalb zu Irrtümern gegenüber der geistigen Welt.
[ 32 ] Die innere Gediegenheit der imaginativen Erkenntnisstufe wird dadurch erreicht, dass die dargestellten seelischen Versenkungen (Meditationen) unterstützt werden von dem, was man die Gewöhnung an «sinnlichkeitsfreies Denken» nennen kann. Wenn man sich einen Gedanken auf Grund der Beobachtung in der physisch-sinnlichen Welt macht, so ist dieser Gedanke nicht sinnlichkeitsfrei. Aber es ist nicht etwa so, dass der Mensch nur solche Gedanken bilden könne. Das menschliche Denken braucht nicht leer und inhaltlos zu werden, wenn es sich nicht von sinnlichen Beobachtungen erfüllen lässt. Der sicherste und nächstliegende Weg für den Geistesschüler, zu solchem sinnlichkeitsfreien Denken zu kommen, kann der sein, die ihm von der Geisteswissenschaft mitgeteilten Tatsachen der höheren Welt zum Eigentum seines Denkens zu machen. Diese Tatsachen können von den physischen Sinnen nicht beobachtet werden. Dennoch wird der Mensch bemerken, dass er sie begreifen kann, wenn er nur Geduld und Ausdauer genug hat. Man kann ohne Schulung nicht in der höheren Welt forschen, man kann darin nicht selbst Beobachtungen machen; aber man kann ohne die höhere Schulung alles verstehen, was die Forscher aus derselben mitteilen. Und wenn jemand sagt: Wie kann ich dasjenige auf Treu und Glauben hinnehmen, was die Geistesforscher sagen, da ich es doch nicht selbst sehen kann? so ist dies völlig unbegründet. Denn es ist durchaus möglich, aus dem bloßen Nachdenken heraus die sichere Überzeugung zu erhalten: das Mitgeteilte ist wahr. Und wenn diese Überzeugung sich jemand durch Nachdenken nicht bilden kann, so rührt das nicht davon her, weil man unmöglich an etwas «glauben» könne, was man nicht sieht, sondern lediglich davon, dass man sein Nachdenken noch nicht vorurteilslos, umfassend, gründlich genug angewendet hat. Um in diesem Punkte Klarheit zu haben, muss man bedenken, dass das menschliche Denken, wenn es sich energisch innerlich aufrafft, mehr begreifen kann, als es in der Regel wähnt. In dem Gedanken selbst liegt nämlich schon eine innere Wesenheit, welche im Zusammenhang steht mit der übersinnlichen Welt. Die Seele ist sich gewöhnlich dieses Zusammenhanges nicht bewusst, weil sie gewöhnt ist, die Gedankenfähigkeit nur an der Sinnenwelt heranzuziehen. Sie hält deshalb für unbegreiflich, was ihr aus der übersinnlichen Welt mitgeteilt wird. Dies ist aber nicht nur begreiflich für ein durch Geistesschulung erzogenes Denken, sondern für jedes Denken, das sich seiner vollen Kraft bewusst ist und sich derselben bedienen will. — Dadurch, dass man sich unablässig zum Eigentum macht, was die Geistesforschung sagt, gewöhnt man sich an ein Denken, das nicht aus den sinnlichen Beobachtungen schöpft. Man lernt erkennen, wie im Innern der Seele Gedanke sich an Gedanke webt, wie Gedanke den Gedanken sucht, auch wenn die Gedankenverbindungen nicht durch die Macht der Sinnenbeobachtung bewirkt werden. Das Wesentliche dabei ist, dass man so gewahr wird, wie die Gedankenwelt inneres Leben hat, wie man sich, indem man wirklich denkt, im Bereiche einer übersinnlichen lebendigen Welt schon befindet.
[ 33 ] Man sagt sich: Es ist etwas in mir, was einen GedankenOrganismus ausbildet; aber ich bin doch eines mit diesem «Etwas». Man erlebt so in der Hingabe an sinnlichkeitsfreies Denken, dass etwas Wesenhaftes besteht, was einfließt in unser Innenleben, wie die Eigenschaften der Sinnendinge durch unsere physischen Organe in uns einfließen, wenn wir sinnlich beobachten. Da draußen im Raume — so sagt sich der Beobachter der Sinnenwelt — ist eine Rose; sie ist mir nicht fremd, denn sie kündigt sich mir durch ihre Farbe und ihren Geruch an. Man braucht nun nur genug vorurteilslos zu sein, um sich dann, wenn das sinnlichkeitsfreie Denken in einem arbeitet, ganz entsprechend zu sagen: es kündigt sich mir ein Wesenhaftes an, welches in mir Gedanken an Gedanken bindet, welches einen Gedankenorganismus formt. Es besteht aber ein Unterschied in den Empfindungen gegenüber dem, was der Beobachter der äußeren Sinnenwelt im Auge hat, und dem, was sich wesenhaft in dem sinnlichkeitsfreien Denken ankündigt. Der erste Beobachter fühlt sich der Rose gegenüber außenstehend, derjenige, welcher dem sinnlichkeitsfreien Denken hingegeben ist, fühlt das in ihm sich ankündigende Wesenhafte wie in sich, er fühlt sich mit ihm eins. Wer mehr oder weniger bewusst nur das als wesenhaft gelten lassen will, was ihm wie ein äußerer Gegenstand gegenübertritt, der wird allerdings nicht das Gefühl erhalten können: was ein Wesenhaftes für sich ist, das kann sich mir auch dadurch ankündigen, dass ich mit ihm wie in eins vereinigt bin. Um in dieser Beziehung richtig zu sehen, muss man folgendes innere Erlebnis haben können. Man muss unterscheiden lernen zwischen den Gedankenverbindungen, die man durch eigene Willkür schafft, und denjenigen, welche man in sich erlebt, wenn man solche eigene Willkür in sich schweigen lässt. In dem letzteren Falle kann man dann sagen: Ich bleibe in mir ganz still; ich führe keine Gedankenverbindungen herbei; ich gebe mich dem hin, was «in mir denkt». Dann ist es vollberechtigt, zu sagen: in mir wirkt ein für sich Wesenhaftes, wie es berechtigt ist zu sagen: auf mich wirkt die Rose, wenn ich ein bestimmtes Rot sehe, einen bestimmten Geruch wahrnehme. — Es ist dabei kein Widerspruch, dass man doch den Inhalt seiner Gedanken aus den Mitteilungen der Geistesforscher schöpft. Die Gedanken sind dann zwar bereits da, wenn man sich ihnen hingibt; aber man kann sie nicht denken, wenn man sie nicht in jedem Falle in der Seele wieder neu nachschafft. Darauf eben kommt es an, dass der Geistesforscher solche Gedanken in seinem Zuhörer und Leser wachruft, welche diese aus sich erst holen müssen, während derjenige, welcher Sinnlich-Wirkliches beschreibt, auf etwas hindeutet, was von Zuhörer und Leser in der Sinnenwelt beobachtet werden kann.
[ 34 ] (Es ist der Weg, welcher durch die Mitteilungen der Geisteswissenschaft in das sinnlichkeitsfreie Denken führt, ein durchaus sicherer. Es gibt aber noch einen andern, welcher sicherer und vor allem genauer, dafür aber auch für viele Menschen schwieriger ist. Er ist in meinen Büchern «Erkenntnistheorie der Goetheschen Weltanschauung» und «Philosophie der Freiheit» dargestellt. Diese Schriften geben wieder, was der menschliche Gedanke sich erarbeiten kann, wenn das Denken sich nicht den Eindrücken der physisch-sinnlichen Außenwelt hingibt, sondern nur sich selbst. Es arbeitet dann das reine Denken, nicht das bloß in Erinnerungen an Sinnliches sich ergehende in dem Menschen, wie eine in sich lebendige Wesenheit. Dabei ist in den genannten Schriften nichts aufgenommen aus den Mitteilungen der Geisteswissenschaft selbst. Und doch ist gezeigt, dass das reine, nur in sich arbeitende Denken Aufschlüsse gewinnen kann über die Welt, das Leben und den Menschen. Es stehen diese Schriften auf einer sehr wichtigen Zwischenstufe zwischen dem Erkennen der Sinnenwelt und dem der geistigen Welt. Sie bieten dasjenige, was das Denken gewinnen kann, wenn es sich erhebt über die sinnliche Beobachtung, aber noch den Eingang vermeidet in die Geistesforschung. Wer diese Schriften auf seine ganze Seele wirken lässt, der steht schon in der geistigen Welt; nur dass sich diese ihm als Gedankenwelt gibt. Wer sich in der Lage fühlt, solch eine Zwischenstufe auf sich wirken zu lassen, der geht einen sicheren Weg; und er kann sich dadurch ein Gefühl gegenüber der höheren Welt erringen, das für alle Folgezeit ihm die schönsten Früchte tragen wird.)
[ 35 ] Das Ziel der Versenkung (Meditation) in die oben charakterisierten symbolischen Vorstellungen und Empfindungen ist, genau gesprochen, die Heranbildung der höheren Wahrnehmungsorgane innerhalb des astralischen Leibes des Menschen. Sie werden aus der Substanz dieses astralischen Leibes heraus zunächst geschaffen. Diese neuen Beobachtungsorgane vermitteln eine neue Welt, und in dieser neuen Welt lernt sich der Mensch als ein neues Ich kennen. Von den Beobachtungsorganen der sinnlich-physischen Welt unterscheiden sich jene neuen schon dadurch, dass sie tätige Organe sind. Während Auge und Ohr sich passiv verhalten und Licht und Ton auf sich wirken lassen, kann von den geistig-seelischen Wahrnehmungsorganen gesagt werden, dass sie in fortwährender Tätigkeit sind, während sie wahrnehmen, und dass sie ihre Gegenstände und Tatsachen gewissermaßen in vollem Bewusstsein ergreifen. Dadurch ergibt sich das Gefühl, dass geistig-seelisches Erkennen ein Vereinigen mit den entsprechenden Tatsachen ist, ein «in ihnen leben». — Man kann die einzelnen sich bildenden geistigseelischen Organe vergleichsweise «Lotusblumen» nennen, entsprechend der Form, die sich das übersinnliche Bewusstsein von ihnen (imaginativ) machen muss. (Selbstverständlich muss man sich klar sein darüber, dass solche Bezeichnung mit der Sache nicht mehr zu tun hat als der Ausdruck «Flügel», wenn man von «Lungenflügeln» spricht.) Durch ganz bestimmte Arten von innerer Versenkung wird auf den Astralleib so gewirkt, dass sich das eine oder andere geistig-seelische Organ, die eine oder die andere «Lotusblume» bildet. Es sollte, nach allem in diesem Buche Ausgeführten, überflüssig sein, zu betonen, dass man sich diese «Beobachtungsorgane» nicht wie etwas vorzustellen hat, das in der Vorstellung seines sinnlichen Bildes ein Abdruck seiner Wirklichkeit ist. Diese «Organe» sind eben übersinnlich und bestehen in einer bestimmt geformten Seelenbetätigung; und sie bestehen nur insofern und so lange, als diese Seelenbetätigung geübt wird. Etwas, was sich als Sinnenfälliges anschauen lässt, ist mit diesen Organen so wenig am Menschen, als irgendein «Dunst» um ihn ist, wenn er denkt. Wer sich das Übersinnliche durchaus sinnlich vorstellen will, gerät eben in Missverständnisse. Trotz des Überflüssigen dieser Bemerkung mag sie hier stehen, weil es immer wieder Bekenner des Übersinnlichen gibt, die in ihren Vorstellungen nur ein Sinnliches haben wollen; und weil es immer wieder Gegner der übersinnlichen Erkenntnis gibt, die glauben, der Geistesforscher spreche von «Lotusblumen» wie von feineren sinnfälligen Gebilden. Jede regelrechte Meditation, die im Hinblick auf die imaginative Erkenntnis gemacht wird, hat ihre Wirkung auf das eine oder das andere Organ. (In meinem Buche «Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten?» sind einzelne von den Methoden der Meditation und des Übens angegeben, welche auf das eine oder andere Organ wirken.) Eine regelrechte Schulung richtet die einzelnen Übungen des Geistesschülers so ein und lässt sie so aufeinander folgen, dass die Organe sich einzeln mitoder nacheinander entsprechend ausbilden können. Zu dieser Ausbildung gehört bei dem Geistesschüler viel Geduld und Ausdauer. Wer nur ein solches Maß von Geduld hat, wie es die gewöhnlichen Lebensverhältnisse dem Menschen in der Regel geben, der wird damit nicht ausreichen. Denn es dauert lange, oft sehr, sehr lange, bis die Organe so weit sind, dass der Geistesschüler sie zu Wahrnehmungen in der höheren Welt gebrauchen kann. In diesem Momente tritt für ihn das ein, was man Erleuchtung nennt, im Gegensatz zur Vorbereitung oder Reinigung, die in den Übungen für die Ausbildung der Organe besteht. (Von «Reinigung» wird gesprochen, weil durch die entsprechenden Übungen sich der Schüler von all dem für ein gewisses Gebiet inneren Lebens reinigt, was nur aus der sinnlichen Beobachtungswelt kommt.) Es kann durchaus so kommen, dass dem Menschen auch vor der eigentlichen Erleuchtung wiederholt «Lichtblitze» kommen aus einer höheren Welt. Solche soll er dankbar hinnehmen. Sie schon können ihn zu einem Zeugen von der geistigen Welt machen. Aber er sollte auch nicht wanken, wenn dies während seiner Vorbereitungszeit gar nicht der Fall ist, die ihm vielleicht allzu lang erscheint. Wer überhaupt in Ungeduld verfallen kann, «weil er noch nichts sieht», der hat noch nicht das rechte Verhältnis zu einer höheren Welt gewonnen. Das letztere hat nur derjenige erfasst, dem die Übungen, die er durch die Schulung macht, etwas wie Selbstzweck sein können. Dieses Üben ist ja in Wahrheit das Arbeiten an einem Geistig-Seelischen, nämlich an dem eigenen Astralleibe. Und man kann «fühlen», auch wenn «man nichts sieht»: «Ich arbeite geistig-seelisch». Nur wenn man sich von vornherein eine bestimmte Meinung macht, was man eigentlich «sehen» will, dann wird man dieses Gefühl nicht haben. Dann wird man für nichts halten, was in Wahrheit etwas unermesslich Bedeutungsvolles ist. Man sollte aber subtil achten auf alles, was man während des Übens erlebt und was so grundverschieden ist von allen Erlebnissen in der sinnlichen Welt. Man wird dann schon bemerken, dass man in seinen Astralleib hinein nicht wie in eine gleichgültige Substanz arbeitet, sondern dass in demselben lebt eine ganz andere Welt, von der man durch das Sinnenleben nichts weiß. Höhere Wesenheiten wirken auf den Astralleib, wie die physisch-sinnliche Außenwelt auf den physischen Leib wirkt. Und man «stößt» auf das höhere Leben in dem eigenen Astralleib, wenn man sich davor nur nicht verschließt. Wenn sich jemand immer wieder und wieder sagt: «ich nehme nichts wahr», dann ist es zumeist so, dass er sich eingebildet hat, diese Wahrnehmung müsse so oder so aussehen; und weil er das dann nicht sieht, wovon er sich einbildet, er müsse es sehen, so sagt er: «ich sehe nichts.»
[ 36 ] Wer sich aber die rechte Gesinnung aneignet gegenüber dem Üben der Schulung, der wird in diesem Üben immer mehr etwas haben, was er um seiner selbst willen liebt. Dann aber weiß er, dass er durch das Üben selbst in einer geistig-seelischen Welt steht, und er wartet in Geduld und Ergebung, was sich weiter ergibt. Es kann diese Gesinnung in dem Geistesschüler in folgenden Worten am besten zum Bewusstsein kommen: «Ich will alles tun, was mir als Übungen angemessen ist, und ich weiß, dass mir in der entsprechenden Zeit so viel zukommen wird, als mir wichtig ist. Ich verlange dies nicht ungeduldig; mache mich aber immer bereit, es zu empfangen.» Dagegen lässt sich auch nicht einwenden: «Der Geistesschüler soll also im Dunkeln tappen, durch eine vielleicht unermesslich lange Zeit; denn dass er mit seinem Üben auf dem richtigen Wege ist, kann sich ihm doch erst zeigen, wenn der Erfolg da ist.» Es ist jedoch nicht so, dass erst der Erfolg die Erkenntnis von der Richtigkeit des Übens bringen kann. Wenn der Schüler richtig sich zu den Übungen stellt, dann gibt ihm die Befriedigung, die er durch das Üben selbst hat, die Klarheit, dass er etwas Richtiges tut, nicht erst der Erfolg. Richtig üben auf dem Gebiete der Geistesschulung verbindet sich eben mit einer Befriedigung, die nicht bloße Befriedigung, sondern Erkenntnis ist. Nämlich die Erkenntnis: ich tue etwas, wovon ich sehe, dass es mich in der richtigen Linie vorwärts bringt. Jeder Geistesschüler kann diese Erkenntnis in jedem Augenblick haben, wenn er nur auf seine Erlebnisse subtil aufmerksam ist. Wenn er diese Aufmerksamkeit nicht anwendet, dann geht er eben an den Erlebnissen vorbei, wie ein in Gedanken versunkener Fußgänger, der die Bäume zu beiden Seiten des Weges nicht sieht, obgleich er sie sehen würde, wenn er den Blick aufmerksam auf sie richtete. — Es ist durchaus nicht wünschenswert, dass das Eintreten eines anderen Erfolges, als derjenige ist, der im Üben sich immer ergibt, beschleunigt werde. Denn es könnte das leicht nur der geringste Teil dessen sein, was eigentlich eintreten sollte. In bezug auf die geistige Entwicklung ist oft ein teilweiser Erfolg der Grund einer starken Verzögerung des vollen Erfolges. Die Bewegung unter solchen Formen des geistigen Lebens, wie sie dem teilweisen Erfolg entsprechen, stumpft ab gegen die Einflüsse der Kräfte, welche zu höheren Punkten der Entwicklung führen. Und der Gewinn, den man dadurch erzielt, dass man doch in die geistige Welt «hineingesehen hat», ist nur ein scheinbarer; denn dieses Hineinschauen kann nicht die Wahrheit, sondern nur Trugbilder liefern.
[ 37 ] Die geistig-seelischen Organe, die Lotusblumen, bilden sich so, dass sie dem übersinnlichen Bewusstsein an dem in Schulung befindlichen Menschen wie in der Nähe bestimmter physischer Körperorgane erscheinen. Aus der Reihe dieser Seelenorgane sollen hier genannt werden: dasjenige, das wie in der Nähe der Augenbrauenmitte erfühlt wird (die sogenannte zweiblättrige Lotusblume), dasjenige in der Gegend des Kehlkopfes (die sechzehnblättrige Lotusblume), das dritte in der Herzgegend (die zwölfblättrige Lotusblume), das vierte in der Gegend der Magengrube. Andere solche Organe erscheinen in der Nähe anderer physischer Körperteile. (Die Namen «zwei-» oder «sechzehnblättrig» können gebraucht werden, weil die betreffenden Organe sich mit Blumen mit entsprechender Blätterzahl vergleichen lassen.
[ 38 ] Die Lotusblumen werden an dem astralischen Leibe bewusst. In dem Zeitpunkte, in dem man die eine oder die andere entwickelt hat, weiß man auch, dass man sie hat. Man fühlt, dass man sich ihrer bedienen kann und dass man durch ihren Gebrauch in eine höhere Welt wirklich eintritt. Die Eindrücke, welche man von dieser Welt erhält, gleichen in mancher Beziehung noch denen der physisch-sinnlichen. Wer imaginativ erkennt, wird von der neuen höheren Welt so sprechen können, dass er die Eindrücke als Wärmeoder Kälteempfindungen, Tonoder Wortwahrnehmungen, Lichtoder Farbenwirkungen bezeichnet. Denn wie solche erlebt er sie. Er ist sich aber bewusst, dass diese Wahrnehmungen in der imaginativen Welt etwas anderes ausdrücken als in der sinnlich-wirklichen. Er erkennt, dass hinter ihnen nicht physisch-stoffliche Ursachen, sondern seelisch-geistige stehen. Wenn er etwas wie einen Wärmeeindruck hat, so schreibt er diesen nicht zum Beispiel einem heißen Stück Eisens zu, sondern er betrachtet ihn als Ausfluss eines seelischen Vorganges, wie er ihn bisher nur in seinem seelischen Innenleben gekannt hat. Er weiß, dass hinter den imaginativen Wahrnehmungen seelische und geistige Dinge und Vorgänge stehen, wie hinter den physischen Wahrnehmungen stofflich-physische Wesen und Tatsachen. — Zu dieser Ähnlichkeit der imaginativen mit der physischen Welt kommt aber ein bedeutsamer Unterschied hinzu. Es ist etwas in der physischen Welt vorhanden, was in der imaginativen ganz anders auftritt. In jener kann beobachtet werden ein fortwährendes Entstehen und Vergehen der Dinge, ein Wechsel von Geburt und Tod. In der imaginativen Welt tritt an Stelle dieser Erscheinung eine fortdauernde Verwandlung des einen in das andere. Man sieht zum Beispiel in der physischen Welt eine Pflanze vergehen. In der imaginativen zeigt sich in demselben Maße, in dem die Pflanze dahinwelkt, das Entstehen eines andern Gebildes, das physisch nicht wahrnehmbar ist und in welches sich die vergehende pflanze allmählich verwandelt. Wenn nun die Pflanze dahingeschwunden ist, so ist dieses Gebilde an ihrer Stelle voll entwickelt da. Geburt und Tod sind Vorstellungen, welche in der imaginativen Welt ihre Bedeutung verlieren. An ihre Stelle tritt der Begriff von Verwandlung des einen in das andere. — Weil dies so ist, deshalb werden für das imaginative Erkennen jene Wahrheiten über die Wesenheit des Menschen zugänglich, welche in diesem Buche in dem Kapitel «Wesen der Menschheit» mitgeteilt worden sind. Für das physisch-sinnliche Wahrnehmen sind nur die Vorgänge des physischen Leibes wahrnehmbar. Sie spielen sich im «Gebiete von Geburt und Tod» ab. Die andern Glieder der Menschennatur: Lebensleib, Empfindungsleib und Ich stehen unter dem Gesetze der Verwandlung, und ihre Wahrnehmung erschließt sich der imaginativen Erkenntnis. Wer bis zu dieser vorgeschritten ist, nimmt wahr, wie sich aus dem physischen Leibe gleichsam herauslöst dasjenige, was mit dem Hinsterben in anderer Daseinsart weiterlebt.
[ 39 ] Die Entwicklung bleibt nun aber innerhalb der imaginativen Welt nicht stehen. Der Mensch, der in ihr stehenbleiben wollte, würde zwar die in Verwandlung begriffenen Wesenheiten wahrnehmen; aber er würde die Verwandlungsvorgänge nicht deuten können, er würde sich nicht orientieren können in der neugewonnenen Welt. Die imaginative Welt ist ein unruhiges Gebiet. Es ist überall nur Beweglichkeit, Verwandlung in ihr; nirgends sind Ruhepunkte. — Zu solchen Ruhepunkten gelangt der Mensch erst, wenn er sich über die imaginative Erkenntnisstufe hinaus zu dem entwickelt, was die «Erkenntnis durch Inspiration» genannt werden kann. — Es ist nicht notwendig, dass derjenige, welcher die Erkenntnis der übersinnlichen Welt sucht, sich etwa so entwickele, dass er zuerst in vollem Maße das imaginative Erkennen sich aneigne und dann erst zur «Inspiration» vorschreite. Seine Übungen können so eingerichtet werden, dass nebeneinander das geht, was zur Imagination, und das, was zur Inspiration führt. Er wird dann, nach entsprechender Zeit, in eine höhere Welt eintreten, in welcher er nicht bloß wahrnimmt, sondern in der er sich auch orientieren kann, die er zu deuten versteht. Der Fortschritt wird in der Regel allerdings so gemacht werden, dass sich zuerst dem Geistesschüler einige Erscheinungen der imaginativen Welt darbieten und nach einiger Zeit er in sich die Empfindung erhält: Jetzt fange ich auch an, mich zu orientieren. — Dennoch ist die Welt der Inspiration etwas ganz Neues gegenüber derjenigen der bloßen Imagination. Durch diese nimmt man die Verwandlung eines Vorganges in den andern wahr, durch jene lernt man innere Eigenschaften von Wesen kennen, welche sich verwandeln. Durch Imagination erkennt man die seelische Äußerung der Wesen; durch Inspiration dringt man in deren geistiges Innere. Man erkennt vor allem eine Vielheit von geistigen Wesenheiten und von Beziehungen des einen auf das andere. Mit einer Vielheit verschiedener Wesen hat man es ja auch in der physischsinnlichen Welt zu tun; in der Welt der Inspiration ist diese Vielheit doch von einem anderen Charakter. Es ist da ein jedes Wesen in ganz bestimmten Beziehungen zu andern, nicht wie in der physischen durch äußere Einwirkung auf dasselbe, sondern durch seine innere Beschaffenheit. Wenn man ein Wesen in der inspirierten Welt wahrnimmt, so zeigt sich nicht eine äußere Einwirkung auf ein anderes, die sich mit der Wirkung eines physischen Wesens auf ein anderes vergleichen ließe, sondern es besteht ein Verhältnis des einen zum andern durch die innere Beschaffenheit der beiden Wesen. Vergleichen lässt sich dieses Verhältnis mit einem solchen in der physischen Welt, wenn man dazu das Verhältnis der einzelnen Laute oder Buchstaben eines Wortes zueinander wählt. Wenn man das Wort «Mensch» vor sich hat, so wird es bewirkt durch den Zusammenklang der Laute: Mensch. Es geht nicht ein Anstoß oder sonst eine äußere Einwirkung zum Beispiel von dem M zu dem E hinüber, sondern beide Laute wirken zusammen, und zwar innerhalb eines Ganzen durch ihre innere Beschaffenheit. Deshalb lässt sich das Beobachten in der Welt der Inspiration nur vergleichen mit einem Lesen; und die Wesen in dieser Welt wirken auf den Betrachter wie Schriftzeichen, die er kennenlernen muss und deren Verhältnisse sich für ihn enthüllen müssen wie eine übersinnliche Schrift. Die Geisteswissenschaft kann daher die Erkenntnis durch Inspiration vergleichsweise auch das «Lesen der verborgenen Schrift» nennen.
[ 40 ] Wie durch diese «verborgene Schrift» gelesen wird und wie man das Gelesene mitteilen kann, soll nun an den vorangegangenen Kapiteln dieses Buches selbst klargemacht werden. Es wurde zunächst die Wesenheit des Menschen b~ schrieben, wie sie sich aufbaut aus verschiedenen Gliedern. Dann wurde gezeigt, wie das Weltwesen, auf dem sich der Mensch entwickelt, durch die verschiedenen Zustände, den Saturn-, Sonnen-, Mondenund Erdenzustand hindurchgeht. Die Wahrnehmungen, durch welche man die Glieder des Menschen einerseits, die aufeinanderfolgenden Zustände der Erde und ihrer vorhergehenden Verwandlungen andererseits erkennen kann, erschließen sich der imaginativen Erkenntnis. Nun ist aber weiter notwendig, dass erkannt werde, welche Beziehungen zwischen dem Saturnzustande und dem physischen Menschenleib, dem Sonnenzustande und dem Ätherleib usw. bestehen. Es muss gezeigt werden, dass der Keim zum physischen Menschenleib schon während des Saturnzustandes entstanden ist, dass er sich dann weiterentwickelt hat bis zu seiner gegenwärtigen Gestalt während des Sonnen-, Mondenund Erdenzustandes. Es musste zum Beispiel auch darauf hingewiesen werden, welche Veränderungen sich mit dem Menschenwesen vollzogen haben dadurch, dass einmal die Sonne sich von der Erde trennte, dass ein Ähnliches bezüglich des Mondes geschah. Es musste ferner mitgeteilt werden, was zusammenwirkte, damit solche Veränderungen mit der Menschheit sich vollziehen konnten, wie sie in den Umwandlungen während der atlantischen Zeit, wie sie in den aufeinanderfolgenden Perioden, der indischen, der urpersischen, der ägyptischen usw., sich ausdrücken. Die Schilderung dieser Zusammenhänge ergibt sich nicht aus der imaginativen Wahrnehmung, sondern aus der Erkenntnis durch Inspiration, aus dem Lesen der verborgenen Schrift. Für dieses «Lesen» sind die imaginativen Wahrnehmungen wie Buchstaben oder Laute. Dieses «Lesen» ist aber nicht nur für Aufklärungen notwendig, wie die eben gekennzeichneten. Schon den Lebensgang des ganzen Menschen könnte man nicht verstehen, wenn man ihn nur durch die imaginative Erkenntnis betrachten würde. Man würde da zwar wahrnehmen, wie sich mit dem Hinsterben die seelisch-geistigen Glieder aus dem in der physischen Welt Verbleibenden loslösen; aber man würde die Beziehungen dessen, was nach dem Tode mit dem Menschen geschieht, zu den vorhergehenden und nachfolgenden Zuständen nicht verstehen, wenn man sich innerhalb des imaginativ Wahrgenommenen nicht orientieren könnte. Ohne die Erkenntnis durch Inspiration verbliebe die imaginative Welt wie eine Schrift, die man anstarrt, die man aber nicht zu lesen vermag.
[ 41 ] Wenn der Geistesschüler fortschreitet von der Imagination zur Inspiration, so zeigt sich ihm sehr bald, wie unrichtig es wäre, auf das Verständnis der großen Welterscheinungen zu verzichten und sich nur auf die Tatsachen beschränken zu wollen, welche gewissermaßen das nächste menschliche Interesse berühren. Wer in diese Dinge nicht eingeweiht ist, der könnte wohl das Folgende sagen: «Mir erscheint es doch nur wichtig, das Schicksal der menschlichen Seele nach dem Tode zu erfahren; wenn mir jemand darüber Mitteilungen macht, so ist mir das genug: wozu führt mir die Geisteswissenschaftlich entlegene Dinge vor, wie Saturn-, Sonnenzustand, Sonnen-, Mondentrennung und so weiter.» Wer aber in diese Dinge richtig eingeführt ist, der lernt erkennen, dass ein wirkliches Wissen über das, was er erfahren will, nie zu erlangen ist ohne eine Erkenntnis dessen, was ihm so unnötig scheint. Eine Schilderung der Menschenzustände nach dem Tode bleibt völlig unverständlich und wertlos, wenn der Mensch sie nicht mit Begriffen verbinden kann, welche von jenen entlegenen Dingen hergenommen sind. Schon die einfachste Beobachtung des übersinnlich Erkennenden macht seine Bekanntschaft mit solchen Dingen notwendig. Wenn zum Beispiel eine Pflanze von dem Blütenzustand in den Fruchtzustand übergeht, so sieht der übersinnlich beobachtende Mensch eine Verwandlung in einer astralischen Wesenheit vor sich gehen, welche während des Blühens die Pflanze wie eine Wolke von oben bedeckt und umhüllt hat. Wäre die Befruchtung nicht eingetreten, so wäre diese astralische Wesenheit in eine ganz andere Gestalt übergegangen, als die ist, welche sie infolge der Befruchtung angenommen hat. Nun versteht man den ganzen durch die übersinnliche Beobachtung wahrgenommenen Vorgang, wenn man sein Wesen verstehen gelernt hat an jenem großen Weltvorgange, welcher sich mit der Erde und allen ihren Bewohnern vollzogen hat zur Zeit der Sonnentrennung. Vor der Befruchtung ist die Pflanze in einer solchen Lage, wie die ganze Erde vor der Sonnentrennung. Nach der Befruchtung zeigt sich die Blüte der Pflanze so, wie die Erde war, als sich die Sonne abgetrennt hatte und die Mondenkräfte noch in ihr waren. Hat man sich die Vorstellungen zu eigen gemacht, welche an der Sonnentrennung gewonnen werden können, so wird man die Deutung des Pflanzen-Befruchtungsvorganges sachgemäß so wahrnehmen, dass man sagt: Die Pflanze ist vor der Befruchtung in einem Sonnenzustand, nach derselben in einem Mondenzustand. Es ist eben durchaus so, dass auch der kleinste Vorgang in der Welt nur dann begriffen werden kann, wenn in ihm ein Abbild großer Weltvorgänge erkannt wird. Sonst bleibt er seinem Wesen nach so unverständlich, wie die Raffaelsche Madonna für denjenigen bleibt, der nur ein kleines blaues Fleckchen sehen kann, während alles andere zugedeckt ist. — Alles, was nun am Menschen vorgeht, ist ein Abbild all der großen Weltvorgänge, die mit seinem Dasein zu tun haben. Will man die Beobachtungen des übersinnlichen Bewusstseins über die Erscheinungen zwischen Geburt und Tod und wieder vom Tode bis zu einer neuen Geburt verstehen, so kann man dies, wenn man sich die Fähigkeit erworben hat, die imaginativen Beobachtungen durch dasjenige zu entziffern, was man sich an Vorstellungen angeeignet hat durch die Betrachtung der großen Weltvorgänge. — Diese Betrachtung liefert eben den Schlüssel zum Verständnisse des menschlichen Lebens. Daher ist im Sinne der Geisteswissenschaft Saturn-, Sonnen-, Mondbeobachtung usw. zugleich Beobachtung des Menschen.
[ 42 ] Durch Inspiration gelangt man dazu, die Beziehungen zwischen den Wesenheiten der höheren Welt zu erkennen. Durch eine weitere Erkenntnisstufe wird es möglich, diese Wesenheiten in ihrem Innern selbst zu erkennen. Diese Erkenntnisstufe kann die intuitive Erkenntnis genannt werden. (Intuition ist ein Wort, das im gewöhnlichen Leben missbraucht wird für eine unklare, unbestimmte Einsicht in eine Sache, für eine Art Einfall, der zuweilen mit der Wahrheit stimmt, dessen Berechtigung aber zunächst nicht nachweisbar ist. Mit dieser Art «Intuition» hat das hier. Gemeinte natürlich nichts zu tun. Intuition bezeichnet hier eine Erkenntnis von höchster, lichtvollster Klarheit, deren Berechtigung man sich, wenn man sie hat, in vollstem Sinne bewusst ist.) — Ein Sinneswesen erkennen, heißt außerhalb desselben stehen und es nach dem äußeren Eindruck beurteilen. Ein Geisteswesen durch Intuition erkennen, heißt völlig eins mit ihm geworden sein, sich mit seinem Innern vereinigt haben. Stufenweise steigt der Geistesschüler zu solcher Erkenntnis hinauf. Die Imagination führt ihn dazu, die Wahrnehmungen nicht mehr als äußere Eigenschaften von Wesen zu empfinden, sondern in ihnen Ausflüsse von SeelischGeistigem zu erkennen; die Inspiration führt ihn weiter in das Innere der Wesen: Er lernt durch sie verstehen, was diese Wesenheiten für einander sind; in der Intuition dringt er in die Wesen selbst ein. — Wieder kann an den Ausführungen dieses Buches selbst gezeigt werden, was für eine Bedeutung die Intuition hat. Es wurde in den vorhergehenden Kapiteln nicht nur davon gesprochen, wie der Fortgang der Saturn-, Sonnen-, Mondenentwicklung usw. geschieht, sondern es wurde mitgeteilt, dass Wesen sich an diesem Fortgange in der verschiedensten Art beteiligen. Es wurden Throne oder Geister des Willens, Geister der Weisheit, der Bewegung usw. angeführt. Es wurde bei der Erdenentwicklung von den Geistern des Luzifer, des Ahriman gesprochen. Der Weltenbau wurde auf die Wesenheiten zurückgeführt, welche sich an ihm beteiligen. Was über diese Wesenheiten erfahren werden kann, wird durch die intuitive Erkenntnis gewonnen. Diese ist auch schon notwendig, wenn man den Lebenslauf des Menschen erkennen will. Was sich nach dem Tode aus der physischen Leiblichkeit des Menschen herauslöst, das macht nun in der Folgezeit verschiedene Zustände durch. Die nächsten Zustände nach dem Tode wären noch einigermaßen durch die imaginative Erkenntnis zu beschreiben. Was aber dann vorgeht, wenn der Mensch weiter kommt in der Zeit zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt, das müsste der Imagination ganz unverständlich bleiben, wenn nicht die Inspiration hinzukäme. Nur die Inspiration kann erforschen, was von dem Leben des Menschen nach der Läuterung im «Geisterland» gesagt werden kann. Dann aber kommt ein Etwas, für welches die Inspiration nicht mehr ausreicht, wo sie gewissermaßen den Faden des Verständnisses verliert. Es gibt eine Zeit der menschlichen Entwicklung zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt, wo das menschliche Wesen nur der Intuition zugänglich ist. — Dieser Teil der menschlichen Wesenheit ist aber immer in dem Menschen; und will man ihn, seiner wahren Innerlichkeit nach, verstehen, so muss man ihn auch in der Zeit zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode durch die Intuition aufsuchen. Wer den Menschen nur mit den Mitteln der Imagination und Inspiration erkennen wollte, dem entzögen sich gerade die Vorgänge des innersten Wesens desselben, die von Verkörperung zu Verkörperung sich abspielen. Nur die intuitive Erkenntnis macht daher eine sachgemäße Erforschung von den wiederholten Erdenleben und vom Karma möglich. Alles, was als Wahrheit über diese Vorgänge mitgeteilt werden soll, muss der Forschung durch intuitive Erkenntnis entstammen. — Und will der Mensch sich selbst seiner inneren Wesenheit nach erkennen, so kann er dies nur durch Intuition. Durch sie nimmt er wahr, was sich in ihm von Erdenleben zu Erdenleben fortbewegt.
[ 43 ] Erlangen kann der Mensch die Erkenntnis durch Inspiration und Intuition auch nur durch seelisch-geistige Übungen. Sie sind denen ähnlich, welche als «innere Versenkung» (Meditation) zur Erreichung der Imagination geschildert worden sind. Während aber bei jenen Übungen, welche zur Imagination führen, eine Anknüpfung stattfindet an die Eindrücke der sinnlichphysischen Welt, muss bei denen für die Inspiration diese Anknüpfung immer mehr wegfallen. Um sich zu verdeutlichen, was da zu geschehen hat, denke man nochmals an das Sinnbild des Rosenkreuzes. Wenn man sich in dasselbe versenkt, so hat man ein Bild vor sich, dessen Teile von Eindrücken der sinnlichen Welt genommen sind: die schwarze Farbe des Kreuzes, die Rosen usw. Die Zusammenstellung dieser Teile zum Rosenkreuz ist aber nicht aus der sinnlich-physischen Welt genommen. Wenn nun der Geistesschüler versucht, aus seinem Bewusstsein das schwarze Kreuz und auch die roten Rosen als Bilder von sinnlich-wirklichen Dingen ganz verschwinden zu lassen und nur in der Seele jene geistige Tätigkeit zu behalten, welche diese Teile zusammengesetzt hat, dann hat er ein Mittel zu einer solchen Meditation, welche ihn nach und nach zur Inspiration führt. Man frage sich in seiner Seele etwa in folgender Art: Was habe ich innerlich getan, um Kreuz und Rose zu dem Sinnbild zusammenzufügen? Was ich getan habe (meinen eigenen Seelenvorgang) will ich festhalten; das Bild selber aber aus dem Bewusstsein verschwinden lassen. Dann will ich alles in mir fühlen, was meine Seele getan hat, um das Bild zustande zu bringen, das Bild selbst aber will ich mir nicht vorstellen. Ich will nunmehr ganz innerlich leben in meiner eigenen Tätigkeit, welche das Bild geschaffen hat. Ich will mich also in kein Bild, sondern in meine eigene bilderzeugende Seelentätigkeit versenken. Solche Versenkung muss in bezug auf viele Sinnbilder vorgenommen werden. Das führt dann zur Erkenntnis durch Inspiration. Ein anderes Beispiel wäre dies: Man versenkt sich in die Vorstellung einer entstehenden und vergehenden Pflanze. Man lässt in der Seele das Bild einer nach und nach werdenden Pflanze entstehen, wie sie aus dem Keime aufspießt, wie sie Blatt nach Blatt entfaltet, bis zur Blüte und zur Frucht. Dann wieder, wie das Hinwelken beginnt, bis zur völligen Auflösung. Man gelangt allmählich durch die Versenkung in solch ein Bild zu einem Gefühl des Entstehens und Vergehens, für welches die Pflanze nur noch Bild ist. Aus diesem Gefühl kann dann, wenn die Übung ausdauernd fortgesetzt wird, sich die Imagination von jener Verwandlung herausbilden, welche dem physischen Entstehen und Vergehen zum Grunde liegt. Will man aber zur entsprechenden Inspiration kommen, dann muss man die Übung noch anders machen. Man muss sich auf die eigene Seelentätigkeit besinnen, welche aus dem Bilde der Pflanze die Vorstellung von Entstehen und Vergehen gewonnen hat. Man muss die Pflanze nun ganz aus dem Bewusstsein verschwinden lassen und sich nur in das hineinversenken, was man selbst innerlich getan hat. Durch solche Übungen nur ist ein Aufsteigen zur Inspiration möglich. Zunächst wird es dem Geistesschüler nicht ganz leicht sein, in vollem Umfange zu begreifen, wie er sich zu einer solchen Übung anzuschicken hat. Es rührt dies davon her, dass der Mensch, welcher gewohnt ist, sich sein Innenleben von den äußeren Eindrücken bestimmen zu lassen, sofort ins Unsichere und völlig Schwankende gerät, wenn er noch ein Seelenleben entfalten soll, das alle Anknüpfung an äußere Eindrücke abgeworfen hat. In einem noch höheren Maße als bezüglich der Erwerbung von Imaginationen muss der Geistesschüler sich gegenüber diesen Übungen zur Inspiration klar sein, dass er sie nur vornehmen sollte, wenn er nebenher gehen lässt alle Vorkehrungen, welche zur Sicherung und Festigung der Urteilsfähigkeit, des Gefühlslebens und des Charakters führen Können. Trifft er diese Vorkehrungen, so wird er ein Zweifaches davon als Erfolg haben. Erstens wird er durch die Übungen nicht das Gleichgewicht seiner Persönlichkeit beim übersinnlichen Schauen verlieren können; zweitens wird er sich zugleich die Fähigkeit aneignen, das wirklich ausführen zu können, was in diesen Übungen verlangt wird. Man wird diesen Übungen gegenüber nur so lange sagen, sie seien schwierig, als man sich eine ganz gewisse Seelenverfassung, ganz gewisse Gefühle und Empfindungen noch nicht angeeignet hat. Derjenige wird alsbald Verständnis und auch Fähigkeit für die Übungen gewinnen, der in Geduld und Ausdauer in seiner Seele solche innere Eigenschaften pflegt, welche dem Aufkeimen übersinnlicher Erkenntnisse günstig sind. Wer sich daran gewöhnt, öfters Einkehr in sein Inneres so zu halten, dass es ihm dabei weniger zu tun ist, über sich selbst nachzugrübeln, als vielmehr still in sich die im Leben gemachten Erfahrungen zu ordnen und zu verarbeiten, der wird viel gewinnen. Er wird sehen, dass man seine Vorstellungen und Gefühle bereichert, wenn man die eine Lebenserfahrung mit der anderen in ein Verhältnis bringt. Er wird gewahr werden, in wie hohem Grade man nicht nur dadurch Neues erfährt, dass man neue Eindrücke und neue Erlebnisse hat, sondern auch dadurch, dass man die alten in sich arbeiten lässt. Und wer dabei so zu Werke geht, dass er seine Erlebnisse, ja sogar seine gewonnenen Meinungen so gegeneinander spielen lässt, als ob er selbst mit seinen Sympathien und Antipathien, mit seinen persönlichen Interessen und Gefühlen gar nicht dabei wäre, der wird für die übersinnlichen Erkenntniskräfte einen besonders guten Boden zubereiten. Er wird in Wahrheit das ausbilden, was man ein reiches Innenleben nennen kann. Worauf es aber vor allem ankommt, das ist Gleichmaß und Gleichgewicht der Seeleneigenschaften. Der Mensch ist nur zu leicht geneigt, wenn er sich einer gewissen Seelentätigkeit hingibt, in Einseitigkeit zu verfallen. So kann er, wenn er den Vorteil des inneren Nachsinnens und des Verweilens in der eigenen Vorstellungswelt gewahr wird, dafür eine solche Neigung erhalten, dass er sich gegen die Eindrücke der Außenwelt immer mehr verschließt. Das aber führt zur Vertrocknung und Verödung des Innenlebens. Am weitesten kommt derjenige, welcher sich neben der Fähigkeit, sich in sein Inneres zurückzuziehen, auch die offene Empfänglichkeit bewahrt für alle Eindrücke der Außenwelt. Und man braucht dabei nicht etwa bloß an die sogenannten bedeutsamen Eindrücke des Lebens zu denken, sondern es kann jeder Mensch in jeder Lage auch in noch so ärmlichen vier Wänden — genug erleben, wenn er nur den Sinn dafür empfänglich hält. Man braucht die Erlebnisse nicht erst zu suchen; sie sind überall da. — Von besonderer Wichtigkeit ist auch, wie Erlebnisse in des Menschen Seele verarbeitet werden. Es kann zum Beispiel jemand die Erfahrung machen, dass eine von ihm oder andern verehrte Persönlichkeit diese oder jene Eigenschaft habe, die er als Charakterfehler bezeichnen muss. Durch eine solche Erfahrung kann der Mensch in einer zweifachen Richtung zum Nachdenken veranlasst werden. Er kann sich einfach sagen: Jetzt, nachdem ich dies erkannt habe, kann ich jene Persönlichkeit nicht mehr in derselben Art verehren wie früher. Oder aber er kann sich die Frage vorlegen: Wie ist es möglich, dass die verehrte Persönlichkeit mit jenem Fehler behaftet ist? Wie muss ich mir vorstellen, dass der Fehler nicht nur Fehler, sondern etwas durch das Leben der Persönlichkeit, vielleicht gerade durch ihre großen Eigenschaften Verursachtes ist? Ein Mensch, welcher sich diese Fragen vorlegt, wird vielleicht zu dem Ergebnis kommen, dass seine Verehrung nicht im geringsten durch das Bemerken des Fehlers zu verringern ist. Man wird durch ein solches Ergebnis jedesmal etwas gelernt haben, man wird seinem Lebensverständnis etwas beigefügt haben. Nun wäre es gewiss schlimm für denjenigen, der sich durch das Gute einer solchen Lebensbetrachtung verleiten ließe, bei Personen oder Dingen, welche seine Neigung haben, alles Mögliche zu entschuldigen oder etwa gar zu der Gewohnheit überzugehen, alles Tadelnswerte unberücksichtigt zu lassen, weil ihm das Vorteil bringt für seine innere Entwicklung. Dies letztere ist nämlich dann nicht der Fall, wenn man durch sich selbst den Antrieb erhält, Fehler nicht bloß zu tadeln, sondern zu verstehen; sondern nur, wenn ein solches Verhalten durch den betreffenden Fall selbst gefordert wird, gleichgültig, was der Beurteiler dabei gewinnt oder verliert. Es ist durchaus richtig: Lernen kann man nicht durch die Verurteilung eines Fehlers, sondern nur durch dessen Verstehen. Wer aber wegen des Verständnisses durchaus das Missfallen ausschließen wollte, der käme auch nicht weit. Auch hier kommt es nicht auf Einseitigkeit in der einen oder andern Richtung an, sondern auf Gleichmaß und Gleichgewicht der Seelenkräfte. — Und so ist es ganz besonders mit einer Seeleneigenschaft, die für des Menschen Entwicklung ganz hervorragend bedeutsam ist; mit dem, was man Gefühl der Verehrung (Devotion) nennt. Wer dieses Gefühl in sich heranbildet oder es durch eine glückliche Naturgabe von vornherein besitzt, der hat einen guten Boden für die übersinnlichen Erkenntniskräfte. Wer in seiner Kindheits und Jugendzeit mit hingebungsvoller Bewunderung zu Personen wie zu hohen Idealen hinaufschauen konnte, in dessen Seelengrund ist etwas, worinnen übersinnliche Erkenntnisse besonders gut gedeihen. Und wer bei reifem Urteile im späteren Leben zum Sternenhimmel blickt und in restloser Hingabe die Offenbarung hoher Mächte bewundernd empfindet, der macht sich eben dadurch reif zum Erkennen der übersinnlichen Welten. Ein gleiches ist bei demjenigen der Fall, welcher die im Menschenleben waltenden Kräfte zu bewundern vermag. Und von nicht geringer Bedeutung ist es, wenn man auch noch als gereifter Mensch Verehrung bis zu den höchsten Graden für andere Menschen haben kann, deren Wert man ahnt oder zu erkennen glaubt. Nur wo solche Verehrung vorhanden ist, kann sich die Aussicht in die höheren Welten eröffnen. Wer nicht verehren kann, wird keinesfalls in seiner Erkenntnis besonders weit kommen. Wer nichts in der Welt anerkennen will, dem verschließt sich das Wesen der Dinge. — Wer sich jedoch durch das Gefühl der Verehrung und Hingabe dazu verführen lässt, das gesunde Selbstbewusstsein und Selbstvertrauen in sich ganz zu ertöten, der versündigt sich gegen das Gesetz des Gleichmaßes und Gleichgewichtes. Der Geistesschüler wird fortdauernd an sich arbeiten, um sich immer reifer und reifer zu machen; aber dann darf er auch das Vertrauen zu der eigenen Persönlichkeit haben und glauben, dass deren Kräfte immer mehr wachsen. Wer in sich zu richtigen Empfindungen nach dieser Richtung kommt, der sagt sich: In mir liegen Kräfte verborgen, und ich kann sie aus meinem Innern hervorholen. Ich brauche daher dort, wo ich etwas sehe, das ich verehren muss, weil es über mir steht, nicht bloß zu verehren, sondern ich darf mir zutrauen, alles das in mir zu entwickeln, was mich diesem oder jenem Verehrten gleich macht.
[ 44 ] Je größer in einem Menschen die Fähigkeit ist, Aufmerksamkeit auf gewisse Vorgänge des Lebens zu richten, welche nicht von vornherein dem persönlichen Urteil vertraut sind, desto größer ist für ihn die Möglichkeit, sich Unterlagen zu schaffen für eine Entwicklung in geistige Welten hinauf. Ein Beispiel mag dies anschaulich machen. Ein Mensch komme in eine Lebenslage, wo er eine gewisse Handlung tun oder unterlassen kann. Sein Urteil sage ihm: Tue dies. Aber es sei doch ein gewisses unerklärliches Etwas in seinen Empfindungen, das ihn von der Tat abhält. Es kann nun so sein, dass der Mensch auf dieses unerklärliche Etwas keine Aufmerksamkeit verwendet, sondern einfach die Handlung so vollbringt, wie es seiner Urteilsfähigkeit angemessen ist. Es kann aber auch so sein, dass der Mensch dem Drange jenes unerklärlichen Etwas nachgibt und die Handlung unterlässt. Verfolgt er dann die Sache weiter, so kann sich herausstellen, dass Unheil gefolgt wäre, wenn er seinem Urteil gefolgt wäre; dass jedoch Segen entstanden ist durch das Unterlassen. Solch eine Erfahrung kann das Denken des Menschen in eine ganz bestimmte Richtung bringen. Er kann sich sagen: In mir lebt etwas, was mich richtiger leitet als der Grad von Urteilsfähigkeit, welchen ich in der Gegenwart habe. Ich muss mir den Sinn offen halten für dieses «Etwas in mir», zu dem ich mit meiner Urteilsfähigkeit noch gar nicht herangereift bin. Es wirkt nun in hohem Grade günstig auf die Seele, wenn sie ihre Aufmerksamkeit auf solche Fälle im Leben richtet. Es zeigt sich ihr dann wie in einer gesunden Ahnung, dass im Menschen mehr ist, als was er jeweilig mit seiner Urteilskraft übersehen kann. Solche Aufmerksamkeit arbeitet auf eine Erweiterung des Seelenlebens hin. Aber auch hier können sich wieder Einseitigkeiten ergeben, welche bedenklich sind. Wer sich gewöhnen wollte, stets deshalb sein Urteil auszuschalten, weil ihn «Ahnungen» zu dem oder jenem treiben, der könnte ein Spielball von allen möglichen unbestimmten Trieben werden. Und von einer solchen Gewohnheit zur Urteilslosigkeit und zum Aberglauben ist es nicht weit. — Verhängnisvoll für den Geistesschüler ist eine jegliche Art von Aberglauben. Man erwirbt sich nur dadurch die Möglichkeit, in einer wahrhaften Art in die Gebiete des Geisteslebens einzudringen, dass man sich sorgfältig hütet vor Aberglauben, Phantastik und Träumerei. Nicht derjenige kommt in einer richtigen Weise in die geistige Welt hinein, welcher froh ist, wenn er irgendwo einen Vorgang erleben kann, der «von dem menschlichen Vorstellen nicht begriffen werden kann». Die Vorliebe für das «Unerklärliche» macht gewiss niemanden zum Geistesschüler. Ganz abgewöhnen muss sich dieser das Vorurteil, dass ein «Mystiker der sei, welcher in der Welt ein Unerklärliches, Unerforschliches» überall da voraussetzt, wo es ihm angemessen erscheint. Das rechte Gefühl für den Geistesschüler ist, überall verborgene Kräfte und Wesenheiten anzuerkennen; aber auch vorauszusetzen, dass das Unerforschte erforscht werden kann, wenn die Kräfte dazu vorhanden sind.
[ 45 ] Es gibt eine gewisse Seelenverfassung, welche dem Geistesschüler auf jeder Stufe seiner Entwicklung wichtig ist. Sie besteht darin, seinen Erkenntnistrieb nicht einseitig so zu stellen, dass dieser immer darauf ausgeht: Wie kann man auf diese oder jene Frage antworten? Sondern darauf: Wie entwickele ich diese oder jene Fähigkeit in mir? Ist dann durch innere geduldige Arbeit an sich diese oder jene Fähigkeit entwickelt, so fällt dem Menschen die Antwort auf gewisse Fragen zu. Geistesschüler werden immer diese Seelenverfassung in sich pflegen. Dadurch werden sie dazu geführt, an sich zu arbeiten, sich immer reifer und reifer zu machen und sich zu versagen, Antworten auf gewisse Fragen herbeizwingen zu wollen. Sie werden warten, bis ihnen solche Antworten zufallen. — Wer aber auch darin wieder an Einseitigkeit sich gewöhnt, auch der kommt nicht richtig vorwärts. Der Geistesschüler kann auch das Gefühl haben, in einem bestimmten Zeitpunkte sich mit dem Maße seiner Kräfte selbst die höchsten Fragen zu beantworten. Also auch hier spielen Gleichmaß und Gleichgewicht in der Seelenverfassung eine gewichtige Rolle.
[ 46 ] Noch viele Seeleneigenschaften könnten besprochen werden, deren Pflege und Entwicklung förderlich ist, wenn der Geistesschüler die Inspiration durch Übungen anstreben will. Bei allem würde zu betonen sein, dass Gleichmaß und Gleichgewicht diejenigen Seeleneigenschaften sind, auf die es ankommt. Sie bereiten das Verständnis und die Fähigkeit für die charakterisierten Übungen vor, die behufs der Erlangung der Inspiration zu machen sind.
[ 47 ] Die Übungen zur Intuition erfordern, dass der Geistesschüler aus seinem Bewusstsein nicht nur die Bilder verschwinden lässt, welchen er sich zur Erlangung der Imagination hingegeben hat, sondern auch das Leben in der eigenen Seelentätigkeit, in welche er sich für die Erwerbung der Inspiration versenkt hat. Er soll also dann buchstäblich nichts von vorher gekanntem äußeren oder inneren Erleben in seiner Seele haben. Würde nun aber nach diesem Abwerfen der äußeren und der inneren Erlebnisse nichts in seinem Bewusstsein sein, das heißt, würde ihm das Bewusstsein überhaupt dahinschwinden und er in Bewusstlosigkeit versinken, so könnte er daran erkennen, dass er sich noch nicht reif gemacht hat, Übungen für die Intuition vorzunehmen; und er müsste dann die Übungen für die Imagination und Inspiration fortsetzen. Es kommt schon einmal die Zeit, in welcher das Bewusstsein nicht leer ist, wenn die Seele die inneren und äußeren Erlebnisse abgeworfen hat, sondern wo nach diesem Abwerfen als Wirkung etwas im Bewusstsein zurückbleibt, dem man sich dann in Versenkung ebenso hingeben kann, wie man sich vorher dem hingegeben hat, was äußerlichen oder inneren Eindrücken sein Dasein verdankt. Es ist dieses «Etwas» aber von ganz besonderer Art. Es ist gegenüber allen vorhergehenden Erfahrungen etwas wirklich Neues. Man weiß, wenn man es erlebt: Dies habe ich vorher nicht gekannt. Dies ist eine Wahrnehmung, wie der wirkliche Ton eine Wahrnehmung ist, welchen das Ohr hört; aber es kann dieses Etwas nur in mein Bewusstsein treten durch die Intuition, wie der Ton nur ins Bewusstsein treten kann durch das Ohr. Durch die Intuition ist der letzte Rest des Sinnlich-Physischen von des Menschen Eindrücken abgestreift; die geistige Welt beginnt für die Erkenntnis offen zu liegen in einer Form, die nichts mehr gemein hat mit den Eigenschaften der physisch-sinnlichen Welt.
[ 48 ] Die imaginative Erkenntnis wird erreicht durch die Ausgestaltung der Lotusblumen aus dem astralischen Leibe heraus. Durch diejenigen Übungen, welche zur Erlangung von Inspiration und Intuition unternommen werden, treten im menschlichen Ätheroder Lebensleib besondere Bewegungen, Gestaltungen und Strömungen auf, welche vorher nicht da waren. Sie sind eben die Organe, durch welche der Mensch das «Lesen der verborgenen Schrift» und das, was darüber hinausliegt, in den Bereich seiner Fähigkeiten aufnimmt. Für das übersinnliche Erkennen stellen sich die Veränderungen im Ätherleibe eines Menschen, der zur Inspiration und Intuition gelangt ist, in der folgenden Art dar. Es wird, ungefähr wie in der Gegend nahe dem physischen Herzen, ein neuer Mittelpunkt im Ätherleibe bewusst, der sich zu einem ätherischen Organe ausgestaltet. Von diesem laufen Bewegungen und Strömungen nach den verschiedenen Gliedern des menschlichen Leibes in der mannigfaltigsten Weise. Die wichtigsten dieser Strömungen gehen zu den Lotusblumen, durchziehen dieselben und ihre einzelnen Blätter und gehen dann nach außen, wo sie wie Strahlen sich in den äußeren Raum ergießen. Je entwickelter der Mensch ist, desto größer ist der Umkreis um ihn herum, in dem diese Strömungen wahrnehmbar sind. Der Mittelpunkt in der Gegend des Herzens bildet sich aber bei regelrechter Schulung nicht gleich im Anfang aus. Er wird erst vorbereitet. Zuerst entsteht als ein vorläufiger Mittelpunkt ein solcher im Kopfe; der rückt dann hinunter in die Kehlkopfgegend und verlegt sich zuletzt in die Nähe des physischen Herzens. Würde die Entwicklung unregelmäßig sein, so könnte sogleich in der Herzgegend das in Rede stehende Organ gebildet werden. Dann läge die Gefahr vor, dass der Mensch, statt zur ruhigen, sachgemäßen übersinnlichen Schalung zu kommen, zum Schwärmer und Phantasten' würde. In seiner weiteren Entwicklung gelangt der Geistesschüler dazu, die ausgebildeten Strömungen und Gliederungen seines Ätherleibes unabhängig zu machen von dem physischen Leibe und sie selbständig zu gebrauchen. Es dienen ihm die Lotusblumen dabei als Werkzeuge, durch welche er den Ätherleib bewegt. Bevor dieses geschieht, müssen sich aber in dem ganzen Umkreis des Ätherleibes besondere Strömungen und Strahlungen gebildet haben, welche ihn wie durch ein feines Netzwerk in sich abschließen und zu einer in sich geschlossenen Wesenheit machen. Wenn das geschehen ist, können ungehindert die im Ätherleibe sich vollziehenden Bewegungen und Strömungen sich mit der äußeren seelisch-geistigen Welt berühren und mit ihnen sich verbinden, so dass äußeres geistig-seelisches Geschehen und inneres (dasjenige im menschlichen Ätherleibe) ineinander fließen. Wenn das geschieht, ist eben der Zeitpunkt eingetreten, in dem der Mensch die Welt der Inspiration bewusst wahrnimmt. Dieses Erkennen tritt in einer anderen Art auf als das Erkennen in bezug auf die sinnlich-physische Welt. In dieser bekommt man durch die Sinne Wahrnehmungen und macht sich dann über diese Wahrnehmungen Vorstellungen und Begriffe. Beim Wissen durch die Inspiration ist es nicht so. Was man erkennt, ist unmittelbar, in einem Akte da; es gibt nicht ein Nachdenken nach der Wahrnehmung. Was für das sinnlichphysische Erkennen erst hinterher im Begriffe gewonnen wird, ist bei der Inspiration zugleich mit der Wahrnehmung gegeben. Man würde deshalb mit der seelisch-geistigen Umwelt in eins zusammenfließen, sich von ihr gar nicht unterscheiden können, wenn man das oben charakterisierte Netzwerk im Ätherleibe nicht ausgebildet hätte.
[ 49 ] Wenn die Übungen für die Intuition gemacht werden, so wirken sie nicht allein auf den Ätherleib, sondern bis in die übersinnlichen Kräfte des physischen Leibes hinein. Man sollte sich allerdings nicht vorstellen, dass auf diese Art Wirkungen im physischen Leibe vor sich gehen, welche der gewöhnlichen Sinnenbeobachtung zugänglich sind. Es sind Wirkungen, welche nur das übersinnliche Erkennen beurteilen kann. Sie haben mit aller äußeren Erkenntnis nichts zu tun. Sie stellen sich ein als Erfolg der Reife des Bewusstseins, wenn dieses in der Intuition Erlebnisse haben kann, trotzdem es alle vorher gekannten äußeren und inneren Erlebnisse aus sich herausgesondert hat. — Nun sind aber die Erfahrungen der Intuition zart, intim und fein; und der physische Menschenleib ist auf der gegenwärtigen Stufe seiner Entwicklung im Verhältnisse zu ihnen grob. Er bietet deshalb ein stark wirkendes Hindernis für den Erfolg der Intuitionsübungen. Werden diese mit Energie und Ausdauer und in der notwendigen inneren Ruhe fortgesetzt, so überwinden sie zuletzt die gewaltigen Hindernisse des physischen Leibes. Der Geistesschüler bemerkt das daran, dass er allmählich gewisse Äußerungen des physischen Leibes, die vorher ganz ohne sein Bewusstsein erfolgten, in seine Gewalt bekommt. Er bemerkt es auch daran, dass er für kurze Zeit das Bedürfnis empfindet, zum Beispiel das Atmen (oder dergleichen) so einzurichten, dass es in eine Art Einklang oder Harmonie mit dem kommt, was in den Übungen oder sonst in der inneren Versenkung die Seele verrichtet. Das Ideal der Entwicklung ist, dass durch den physischen Leib selbst gar keine Übungen, auch nicht solche Atemübungen gemacht würden, sondern dass alles, was mit ihm zu geschehen hat, sich nur als eine Folge der reinen Intuitionsübungen einstellte.
[ 50 ] Wenn der Geistesschüler auf dem Wege in die höheren Erkenntniswelten aufsteigt, so bemerkt er auf einer gewissen Stufe, dass das Zusammenhalten der Kräfte seiner Persönlichkeit eine andere Form annimmt, als es in der physisch-sinnlichen Welt hat. In dieser bewirkt das Ich ein einheitliches Zusammenwirken der Seelenkräfte, zunächst des Denkens, Fühlens und Wollens. Diese drei Seelenkräfte stehen ja in den gewöhnlichen menschlichen Lebenslagen jeweilig immer in gewissen Beziehungen. Man sieht zum Beispiel ein gewisses Ding in der Außenwelt. Es gefällt oder missfällt der Seele. Das heißt, es schließt sich mit einer gewissen Notwendigkeit an die Vorstellung des Dinges ein Gefühl der Lust oder Unlust. Man begehrt auch wohl das Ding oder erhält den Impuls, es in dieser oder jener Richtung zu ändern. Das heißt: Begehrungsvermögen und Wille gesellen sich zu einer Vorstellung und einem Gefühle hinzu.
[ 51 ] Dass dieses Zusammengesellen stattfindet, wird bewirkt dadurch, dass das Ich Vorstellen (Denken), Fühlen und Wollen einheitlich zusammenschließt und auf diese Art Ordnung in die Kräfte der Persönlichkeit bringt. Diese gesunde Ordnung würde unterbrochen, wenn sich das Ich nach dieser Richtung machtlos erwiese, wenn zum Beispiel die Begierde einen andern Weg gehen wollte als das Gefühl oder die Vorstellung. Ein Mensch wäre nicht in einer gesunden Seelenverfassung, welcher zwar dächte, dass dies oder jenes richtig sei, aber nun etwas wollte, wovon er nicht die Ansicht hat, dass es richtig ist. Ebenso wäre es, wenn jemand nicht das wollte, was ihm gefällt, sondern das, was ihm missfällt. Nun bemerkt der Mensch, dass auf dem Wege zur höheren Erkenntnis Denken, Fühlen und Wollen in der Tat sich sondern und jedes eine gewisse Selbständigkeit annimmt, dass zum Beispiel ein bestimmtes Denken nicht mehr wie durch sich selbst zu einem bestimmten Fühlen und Wollen drängt. Es stellt sich die Sache so, dass man im Denken etwas richtig wahrnehmen kann, dass man aber, um überhaupt zu einem Gefühle oder zu einem Willensentschluss zu kommen, wieder aus sich heraus einen selbständigen Antrieb braucht. Denken, Fühlen und Wollen bleiben eben während der übersinnlichen Betrachtung nicht drei Kräfte, welche aus dem gemeinsamen IchMittelpunkte der Persönlichkeit ausstrahlen, sondern sie werden wie zu selbständigen Wesenheiten, gleichsam zu drei Persönlichkeiten; und man muss jetzt das eigene Ich um so stärker machen, denn es soll nicht bloß in drei Kräfte Ordnung bringen, sondern drei Wesenheiten lenken und führen. Aber diese Teilung darf eben nur während der übersinnlichen Betrachtung bestehen. Und wieder tritt es hier deutlich zutage, wie wichtig es ist, neben den Übungen zu höherer Schulung diejenigen einhergehen zu lassen, welche der Urteilsfähigkeit, dem Gefühlsund Willensleben Sicherheit und Festigkeit geben. Denn bringt man diese nicht mit in die höhere Welt, so wird man alsbald sehen, wie sich das Ich schwach erweist und kein ordentlicher Lenker sein kann des Denkens, Fühlens und Wollens. Die Seele würde, wenn diese Schwäche vorhanden wäre, wie von drei Persönlichkeiten in die verschiedenen Richtungen gezerrt, und ihre innere Geschlossenheit müsste aufhören. Wenn die Entwicklung des Geistesschülers aber in der rechten Art verläuft, so bedeutet die gekennzeichnete Kräftewandlung einen wahren Fortschritt; das Ich bleibt über die selbständigen Wesenheiten, welche nun seine Seele bilden, der Herrscher. — Im weiteren Verlaufe der Entwicklung schreitet die angedeutete Entwicklung dann fort. Das Denken, das selbständig geworden ist, regt das Auftreten einer besonderen vierten seelisch-geistigen Wesenheit an, welche man bezeichnen kann wie ein unmittelbares Einfließen von Strömungen in den Menschen, die den Gedanken ähnlich sind. Die ganze Welt erscheint da als Gedankengebäude, das vor einem steht, wie die Pflanzenoder Tierwelt im physisch-sinnlichen Gebiete. Ebenso regen das selbständig gewordene Fühlen und Wollen zwei Kräfte in der Seele an, welche in derselben wie selbständige Wesen wirken. Und noch eine siebente Kraft und Wesenheit kommt dazu, welche ähnlich dem eigenen Ich selber ist.
[ 52 ] Dieses ganze Erlebnis verbindet sich noch mit einem andern. Vor dem Betreten der übersinnlichen Welt kannte der Mensch Denken, Fühlen und Wollen nur als innere Seelenerlebnisse. Sobald er die übersinnliche Welt betritt, nimmt er Dinge wahr, welche nicht Sinnlich-Physisches ausdrücken, sondern SeelischGeistiges. Hinter den von ihm wahrgenommenen Eigenschaften der neuen Welt stehen jetzt seelisch-geistige Wesenheiten. Und diese bieten sich ihm jetzt so dar als eine Außenwelt, wie sich ihm im physisch-sinnlichen Gebiet Steine, Pflanzen und Tiere vor die Sinne gestellt haben. Es kann nun der Geistesschüler einen bedeutsamen Unterschied wahrnehmen zwischen der sich ihm erschließenden seelisch-geistigen Welt und derjenigen, welche er gewohnt war, durch seine physischen Sinne wahrzunehmen. Eine Pflanze der sinnlichen Welt bleibt, wie sie ist, was auch des Menschen Seele über sie fühlt oder denkt. Das ist bei den Bildern der seelisch-geistigen Welt zunächst nicht der Fall. Sie ändern sich, je nachdem der Mensch dieses oder jenes empfindet oder denkt. Dadurch gibt ihnen der Mensch ein Gepräge, das von seinem eigenen Wesen abhängt. Man stelle sich vor, ein gewisses Bild trete in der imaginativen Welt vor dem Menschen auf. Verhält er sich zunächst in seinem Gemüte gleichgültig dagegen, so zeigt es sich in einer gewissen Gestalt. In dem Augenblicke aber, wo er Lust oder Unlust gegenüber dem Bilde empfindet, ändert es seine Gestalt. Die Bilder drücken somit zunächst nicht nur etwas aus, was selbständig außerhalb des Menschen ist, sondern sie spiegeln auch dasjenige, was der Mensch selbst ist. Sie sind ganz und gar durchsetzt von des Menschen eigener Wesenheit. Diese legt sich wie ein Schleier über die Wesenheiten hin. Der Mensch sieht dann, wenn auch eine wirkliche Wesenheit ihm gegenübersteht, nicht diese, sondern sein eigenes Erzeugnis. So kann er zwar durchaus Wahres vor sich haben und doch Falsches sehen. Ja, das ist nicht nur der Fall mit Bezug auf das, was der Mensch als seine Wesenheit selbst an sich bemerkt; sondern alles, was an ihm ist, wirkt auf diese Welt ein. Es kann zum Beispiel der Mensch verborgene Neigungen haben, die im Leben durch Erziehung und Charakter nicht zum Vorschein kommen; auf die geistigseelische Welt wirken sie; und diese bekommt die eigenartige Färbung durch das ganze Wesen des Menschen, gleichgültig, wieviel er von diesem Wesen selbst weiß oder nicht weiß. — Um weiter fortschreiten zu können von dieser Stufe der Entwicklung aus, ist es notwendig, dass der Mensch unterscheiden lerne zwischen sich und der geistigen Außenwelt. Es wird nötig, dass er alle Wirkungen des eigenen Selbstes auf die um ihn befindliche seelisch-geistige Welt ausschalten lerne. Man kann das nicht anders, als wenn man sich eine Erkenntnis erwirbt von dem, was man selbst in die neue Welt hineinträgt. Es handelt sich also darum, dass man zuerst wahre, durchgreifende Selbsterkenntnis habe, um dann die umliegende geistig-seelische Welt rein wahrnehmen zu können. Nun bringen es gewisse Tatsachen der menschlichen Entwicklung mit sich, dass solche Selbsterkenntnis beim Eintritte in die höhere Welt wie naturgemäß stattfinden muss. Der Mensch entwickelt ja in der gewöhnlichen physisch-sinnlichen Welt sein Ich, sein Selbstbewusstsein. Dieses Ich wirkt nun wie ein AnziehungsMittelpunkt auf alles, was zum Menschen gehört. Alle seine Neigungen, Sympathien, Antipathien, Leidenschaften, Meinungen usw. gruppieren sich gleichsam um dieses Ich herum. Und es ist dieses Ich auch der Anziehungspunkt für das, was man das Karma des Menschen nennt. Würde man dieses Ich unverhüllt sehen, so würde man an ihm auch bemerken, dass bestimmt geartete Schicksale es noch in dieser und den folgenden Verkörperungen treffen müssen, je nachdem es in den vorigen Verkörperungen so oder so gelebt, sich dieses oder jenes angeeignet hat. Mit alle dem, was so am Ich haftet, muss es nun als erstes Bild vor die Menschenseele treten, wenn diese in die seelischgeistige Welt aufsteigt. Dieser Doppelgänger des Menschen muss, nach einem Gesetz der geistigen Welt, vor allem andern als dessen erster Eindruck in jener Welt auftreten. Man kann das Gesetz, welches da zugrunde liegt, sich leicht verständlich machen, wenn man das Folgende bedenkt. Im physischsinnlichen Leben nimmt sich der Mensch nur insofern selbst wahr, als er sich in seinem Denken, Fühlen und Wollen innerlich erlebt. Diese Wahrnehmung ist aber eine innerliche; sie stellt sich nicht vor den Menschen hin, wie sich Steine, Pflanzen und Tiere vor ihn hinstellen. Auch lernt sich durch innerliche Wahrnehmung der Mensch nur zum Teil kennen. Er hat nämlich etwas in sich, was ihn an einer tiefergehenden Selbsterkenntnis hindert. Es ist dies ein Trieb, sogleich, wenn er durch Selbsterkenntnis sich eine Eigenschaft gestehen muss und sich keiner Täuschung über sich hingeben will, diese Eigenschaft umzuarbeiten.
[ 53 ] Gibt er diesem Triebe nicht nach, lenkt er einfach die Aufmerksamkeit von dem eigenen Selbst ab und bleibt er, wie er ist, so benimmt er sich selbstverständlich auch die Möglichkeit, sich in dem betreffenden Punkte selbst zu erkennen. Dringt der Mensch aber in sich selbst und hält er sich ohne Täuschung diese oder jene seiner Eigenschaften vor, so wird er entweder in der Lage sein, sie an sich zu verbessern oder aber er wird dies in der gegenwärtigen Lage seines Lebens nicht können. In dem letzteren Falle wird seine Seele ein Gefühl beschleichen, das man als Gefühl des Schämens bezeichnen muss. So wirkt in der Tat des Menschen gesunde Natur: Sie empfindet durch die Selbsterkenntnis mancherlei Arten des Schämens. Nun hat dieses Gefühl schon im gewöhnlichen Leben eine ganz bestimmte Wirkung. Der gesund denkende Mensch wird dafür sorgen, dass dasjenige, was ihn an sich selbst mit diesem Gefühl erfüllt, nicht in Wirkungen nach außen sich geltend mache, dass es nicht in äußeren Taten sich auslebe. Das Schämen ist also eine Kraft, welche den Menschen antreibt, etwas in sein Inneres zu verschließen und dies nicht äußerlich wahrnehmbar werden zu lassen. Wenn man dies gehörig bedenkt, so wird man begreiflich finden, dass die Geistesforschung einem inneren Seelenerlebnis, das mit dem Gefühl des Schämens ganz nahe verwandt ist, noch viel weitergehende Wirkungen zuschreibt. Sie findet, dass es in den verborgenen Tiefen der Seele eine Art verborgenes Schämen gibt, dessen sich der Mensch im physischsinnlichen Leben nicht bewusst wird. Dieses verborgene Gefühl wirkt aber in einer ähnlichen Art wie das gekennzeichnete offenbare des gewöhnlichen Lebens: es verhindert, dass des Menschen innerste Wesenheit in einem wahrnehmbaren Bilde vor den Menschen hintritt. Wäre dieses Gefühl nicht da, so würde der Mensch vor sich selbst wahrnehmen, was er in Wahrheit ist; er würde seine Vorstellungen, Gefühle und seinen Willen nicht nur innerlich erleben, sondern sie wahrnehmen, wie er Steine, Tiere und Pflanzen wahrnimmt. So ist dieses Gefühl der Verhüller des Menschen vor sich selbst. Und damit ist es zugleich der Verhüller der ganzen geistigseelischen Welt. Denn indem sich des Menschen eigene innere Wesenheit vor ihm verhüllt, kann er auch das nicht wahrnehmen, an dem er die Werkzeuge entwickeln sollte, um die seelisch-geistige Welt zu erkennen; er kann seine Wesenheit nicht umgestalten, so dass sie geistige Wahmehmungsorgane erhielte.—Wenn nun aber der Mensch durch regelrechte Schulung dahin arbeitet, diese Wahmehmungsorgane zu erhalten, so tritt dasjenige als erster Eindruck vor ihn hin, was er selbst ist. Er nimmt seinen Doppelgänger wahr. Diese Selbstwahrnehmung ist gar nicht zu trennen von der Wahrnehmung der übrigen geistig-seelischen Welt. Im gewöhnlichen Leben der physischsinnlichen Welt wirkt das charakterisierte Gefühl so, dass es fortwährend das Tor zur geistig-seelischen Welt vor dem Menschen zuschließt. Wollte der Mensch nur einen Schritt machen, um in diese Welt einzudringen, so verbirgt das sogleich auftretende, aber nicht zum Bewusstsein kommende Gefühl des Schämens das Stück der geistig-seelischen Welt, das zum Vorschein kommen will. Die charakterisierten Übungen aber schließen diese Welt auf. Nun ist die Sache so, dass jenes verborgene Gefühl wie ein großer Wohltäter des Menschen wirkt. Denn durch alles das, was man sich ohne geisteswissenschaftliche Schulung an Urteilskraft, Gefühlsleben und Charakter erwirbt, ist man nicht imstande, die Wahrnehmung der eigenen Wesenheit in ihrer wahren Gestalt ohne weiteres zu ertragen. Man würde durch diese Wahrnehmung alles Selbstgefühl, Selbstvertrauen und Selbstbewusstsein verlieren. Dass dies nicht geschehe, dafür müssen wieder die Vorkehrungen sorgen, welche man neben den Übungen für die höhere Erkenntnis zur Pflege seiner gesunden Urteilskraft, seines Gefühlsund Charakterwesens unternimmt. Durch seine regelrechte Schulung lernt der Mensch wie absichtslos so viel aus der Geisteswissenschaft kennen und es werden ihm außerdem so viele Mittel zur Selbsterkenntnis und Selbstbeobachtung klar, als notwendig sind, um kraftvoll seinem Doppelgänger zu begegnen. Es ist dann für den Geistesschüler so, dass er nur als Bild der imaginativen Welt in anderer Form das sieht, womit er sich in der physischen Welt schon bekanntgemacht hat. Wer in richtiger Art zuerst in der physischen Welt durch seinen Verstand das Karmagesetz begriffen hat, der wird nicht besonders erbeben können, wenn er nun die Keime seines Schicksals eingezeichnet sieht in dem Bilde seines Doppelgängers. Wer durch seine Urteilskraft sich bekanntgemacht hat mit der Weltenund Menschheitsentwicklung und weiß, wie in einem bestimmten Zeitpunkte dieser Entwicklung die Kräfte des Luzifer in die menschliche Seele eingedrungen sind, der wird es unschwer ertragen, wenn er gewahr wird, dass in dem Bilde seiner eigenen Wesenheit diese luziferischen Wesenheiten mit allen ihren Wirkungen enthalten sind. — Man sieht aber hieraus, wie notwendig es ist, dass der Mensch nicht den eigenen Eintritt in die geistige Welt verlange, bevor er durch seine gewöhnliche in der physisch-sinnlichen Welt entwickelte Urteilskraft gewisse Wahrheiten über die geistige Welt verstanden hat. Was in diesem Buche vor der Auseinandersetzung über die «Erkenntnis der höheren Welten» mitgeteilt ist, das sollte der Geistesschüler im regelrechten Entwicklungsgange durch seine gewöhnliche Urteilskraft sich angeeignet haben, bevor er das Verlangen hat, sich selbst in die übersinnlichen Welten zu begeben.
[ 54 ] Bei einer Schulung, in welcher nicht auf Sicherheit und Festigkeit der Urteilskraft, des Gefühlsund Charakterlebens gesehen wird, kann es geschehen, dass dem Schüler die höhere Welt entgegentritt, bevor er dazu die nötigen inneren Fähigkeiten hat. Dann würde ihn die Begegnung mit seinem Doppelgänger bedrücken und zu Irrtümern führen. Würde aber — was allerdings auch möglich wäre — die Begegnung ganz vermieden und der Mensch doch in die übersinnliche Welt eingeführt, dann wäre er ebensowenig imstande, diese Welt in ihrer wahren Gestalt zu erkennen. Denn es wäre ihm ganz unmöglich, zu unterscheiden zwischen dem, was er in die Dinge hineinsieht, und dem, was sie wirklich sind. Diese Unterscheidung ist nur möglich, wenn man die eigene Wesenheit als ein Bild für sich wahrnimmt und dadurch sich alles das von der Umgebung loslöst, was aus dem eigenen Innern fließt. — Der Doppelgänger wirkt für das Leben des Menschen in der physisch-sinnlichen Welt so, dass er sich durch das gekennzeichnete Gefühl des Schämens sofort unsichtbar macht, wenn sich der Mensch der seelisch-geistigen Welt naht. Damit verbirgt er aber auch diese ganze Welt selbst. Wie ein «Hüter» steht er da vor dieser Welt, um den Eintritt jenen zu verwehren, welche zu diesem Eintritte noch nicht geeignet sind. Er kann daher der «Hüter der Schwelle, welche vor der geistig-seelischen Welt ist», genannt werden.—Außer durch das geschilderte Betreten der übersinnlichen Welt begegnet der Mensch noch beim Durchgang durch den physischen Tod diesem «Hüter der Schwelle». Und er enthüllt sich nach und nach im Verlaufe des Lebens in der seelischgeistigen Entwicklung zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt. Da kann aber die Begegnung den Menschen nicht bedrücken, weil er davon andern Welten weiß als in dem Leben zwischen Geburt und Tod.
[ 55 ] Wenn der Mensch, ohne die Begegnung mit dem «Hüter der Schwelle» zu haben, die geistig-seelische Welt betreten würde, so könnte er Täuschung nach Täuschung verfallen. Denn er könnte nie unterscheiden, was er selbst in diese Welt hineinträgt und was ihr wirklich angehört. Eine regelrechte Schulung darf aber den Geistesschüler nur in das Gebiet der Wahrheit, nicht in dasjenige der Illusion führen. Eine solche Schulung wird durch sich selbst so sein, dass die Begegnung notwendig einmal erfolgen muss. Denn sie ist die eine der für die Beobachtung übersinnlicher Welten unentbehrlichen Vorsichtsmaßregeln gegen die Möglichkeit Von Täuschung und Phantastik. — Es gehört zu den unerlässlichsten Vorkehrungen, welche jeder Geistesschüler treffen muss, sorgfältig an sich zu arbeiten, um nicht zum Phantasten zu werden, zu einem Menschen, der einer möglichen Täuschung, Selbsttäuschung (Suggestion und Selbstsuggestion) verfallen kann. Wo die Anweisungen zur Geistesschulung recht befolgt werden, da werden zugleich die Quellen vernichtet, welche die Täuschung bringen können. Hier kann natürlich nicht ausführlich von all den zahlreichen Einzelheiten gesprochen werden, die bei solchen Vorkehrungen in Betracht kommen. Es kann nur angedeutet werden, worauf es ankommt. Täuschungen, welche hier in Betracht kommen, entspringen aus zwei Quellen. Sie rühren zum Teil davon her, dass man durch die eigene seelische Wesenheit die Wirklichkeit färbt. Im gewöhnlichen Leben der physisch-sinnlichen Welt ist diese Quelle der Täuschung von verhältnismäßig geringer Gefahr; denn hier wird sich die Außenwelt immer scharf in ihrer eigenen Gestalt der Beobachtung aufdrängen, wie sie auch der Beobachter nach seinen Wünschen und Interessen wird färben wollen. Sobald man jedoch die imaginative Weit betritt, verändern sich deren Bilder durch solche Wünsche und Interessen, und man hat wie eine Wirklichkeit vor sich, was man erst selbst gebildet oder wenigstens mitgebildet hat. Dadurch nun, dass durch die Begegnung mit dem «Hüter der Schwelle» der Geistesschüler alles kennenlernt, was in ihm ist, was er also in die seelisch-geistige Welt hineintragen kann, ist diese Quelle der Täuschung beseitigt. Und die Vorbereitung, welche der Geistesschüler vor dem Betreten der seelisch-geistigen Welt sich angedeihen lässt, wirkt ja dahin, dass er sich gewöhnt, schon bei der Beobachtung der sinnlich-physischen Welt sich selbst auszuschalten und die Dinge und Vorgänge rein durch ihre eigene Wesenheit auf sich einsprechen zu lassen. Wer diese Vorbereitung genügend durchgemacht hat, kann ruhig die Begegnung mit dem «Hüter der Schwelle» erwarten. Durch sie wird er sich endgültig prüfen, ob er sich nun wirklich in der Lage fühlt, seine eigene Wesenheit auch dann auszuschalten, wenn er der seelisch-geistigen Welt gegenübersteht.
[ 56 ] Außer dieser Quelle von Täuschungen gibt es nun noch eine andere. Sie tritt dann zutage, wenn man einen Eindruck, den man empfängt, unrichtig deutet. Im physisch-sinnlichen Leben ist ein einfaches Beispiel für solche Täuschung diejenige, welche entsteht, wenn man in einem Eisenbahnzuge sitzt und glaubt, die Bäume bewegen sich in der entgegengesetzten Richtung des Zuges, während man sich doch selbst mit dem Zuge bewegt. Obwohl es zahlreiche Fälle gibt, wo solche Täuschungen in der sinnlich-physischen Welt schwieriger richtigzustellen sind als in dem angeführten einfachen, so ist doch leicht einzusehen, dass innerhalb dieser Welt der Mensch auch die Mittel findet, solche Täuschungen hinwegzuschaffen, wenn er mit gesundem Urteil alles das in Betracht zieht, was der entsprechenden Aufklärung dienen kann. Anders steht die Sache allerdings, sobald man in die übersinnlichen Gebiete eindringt. In der sinnlichen Welt werden die Tatsachen durch die menschliche Täuschung nicht geändert; deshalb ist es möglich, durch eine unbefangene Beobachtung die Täuschung an den Tatsachen zu berichtigen. In der übersinnlichen Welt aber ist das nicht ohne weiteres möglich. Wenn man einen übersinnlichen Vorgang beobachten will und mit einem unrichtigen Urteile an ihn herantritt, so trägt man dieses unrichtige Urteil in ihn hinein; und es wird dieses mit der Tatsache so verwoben, dass es von ihr nicht sogleich zu unterscheiden ist. Der Irrtum ist dann nicht in dem Menschen und die richtige Tatsache außer demselben, sondern der Irrtum ist selbst zum Bestandteil der äußeren Tatsache gemacht. Er kann deshalb auch nicht einfach durch eine unbefangene Beobachtung der Tatsache berichtigt werden. Es ist damit auf dasjenige hingewiesen, was eine überreich fließende Quelle von Täuschung und Phantastik für denjenigen sein kann, welcher ohne die richtige Vorbereitung an die übersinnliche Welt herantritt. — Wie nun der Geistesschüler sich die Fähigkeit erwirbt, diejenigen Täuschungen auszuschließen, welche durch die Färbung der übersinnlichen Welterscheinungen mit der eigenen Wesenheit entstehen, so muss er auch die andere Gabe erlangen: die zweite charakterisierte Quelle der Täuschung unwirksam zu machen. Er kann ausschalten, was von ihm selbst kommt, wenn er erst das Bild des eigenen Doppelgängers erkannt hat; und er wird ausschalten können, was in der angegebenen Richtung eine zweite Täuschungsquelle ist, wenn er sich die Fähigkeit erwirbt, an der Beschaffenheit einer Tatsache der übersinnlichen Welt zu erkennen, ob sie Wirklichkeit oder Täuschung ist. Wenn die Täuschungen genau so aussehen würden wie die Wirklichkeiten, dann wäre eine Unterscheidung nicht möglich. So ist es aber nicht. Täuschungen der übersinnlichen Welten haben an sich selbst Eigenschaften, durch welche sie sich von den Wirklichkeiten unterscheiden. Und es kommt darauf an, dass der Geistesschüler weiß, an welchen Eigenschaften er die Wirklichkeiten erkennen kann. Nichts erscheint selbstverständlicher, als dass der Nichtkenner geistiger Schulung sagt: Wo gibt es denn überhaupt eine Möglichkeit, sich gegen Täuschung zu schützen, da die Quellen für dieselbe so zahlreich sind? Und wenn er weiter sagt: Ist denn überhaupt irgendein Geistesschüler davor sicher, dass nicht alle seine vermeintlichen höheren Erkenntnisse nur auf Täuschung und Selbsttäuschung (Suggestion und Autosuggestion) beruhen? Wer so spricht, berücksichtigt nicht, dass in jeder wahren Geistesschulung durch die ganze Art, wie diese verläuft, die Quellen der Täuschung verstopft werden. Erstens wird sich der wahre Geistesschüler durch seine Vorbereitung genügend viele Kenntnisse erwerben über alles das, was Täuschung und Selbsttäuschung herbeiführen kann, und sich dadurch in die Lage versetzen, sich vor ihnen zu hüten. Er hat in dieser Beziehung wirklich wie kein anderer Mensch Gelegenheit, sich nüchtern und urteilsfähig zu machen für den Gang des Lebens. Er wird durch alles, was er erfährt, veranlasst, nichts von unbestimmten Ahnungen, Eingebungen usw. zu halten. Die Schulung macht ihn so vorsichtig wie möglich. Dazu kommt, dass jede wahre Schulung zunächst zu Begriffen über die großen Weltereignisse, also zu Dingen führt, welche ein Anspannen der Urteilskraft notwendig machen, wodurch diese aber zugleich verfeinert und geschärft wird. Nur wer es ablehnen wollte, in solche entlegene Gebiete sich zu begeben, und sich nur an näherliegende «Offenbarungen» halten. wollte, dem könnte verlorengehen die Schärfung jener gesunden Urteilskraft, welche ihm Sicherheit gibt in der Unterscheidung zwischen Täuschung und Wirklichkeit. Doch alles dieses ist noch nicht das Wichtigste. Das Wichtigste liegt in den Übungen selbst, welche bei einer regelrechten Geistesschulung verwendet werden. Diese müssen nämlich so eingerichtet sein, dass das Bewusstsein des Geistesschülers während der inneren Versenkung genau alles überschaut, was in der Seele vorgeht. Zuerst wird für die Herbeiführung der Imagination ein Sinnbild geformt. In diesem sind noch Vorstellungen von äußeren Wahrnehmungen. Der Mensch ist nicht allein an ihrem Inhalte beteiligt; er macht ihn nicht selbst. Also kann er sich einer Täuschung darüber hingeben, wie er zustande kommt; er kann seinen Ursprung falsch deuten. Aber der Geistesschüler entfernt diesen Inhalt aus seinem Bewusstsein, wenn er zu den Übungen für die Inspiration aufsteigt. Da versenkt er sich nur noch in seine eigene Seelentätigkeit, welche das Sinnbild gestaltet hat. Auch da ist noch Irrtum möglich. Der Mensch hat sich durch Erziehung, Lernen usw. die Art seiner Seelentätigkeit angeeignet. Er kann nicht alles über ihren Ursprung wissen. Nun aber entfernt der Geistesschüler auch noch diese eigene Seelentätigkeit aus dem Bewusstsein. Wenn nun etwas bleibt, so haftet an diesem nichts, was nicht zu überschauen ist. In dieses kann sich nichts einmischen, was nicht in bezug auf seinen ganzen Inhalt zu beurteilen ist. In seiner Intuition hat also der Geistesschüler etwas, was ihm zeigt, wie eine ganz klare Wirklichkeit der geistig-seelischen Welt beschaffen ist. Wenn er nun die also erkannten Kennzeichen der geistig-seelischen Wirklichkeit auf alles anwendet, was an seine Beobachtung herantritt, dann kann er Schein von Wirklichkeit unterscheiden. Und er kann sicher sein, dass er bei Anwendung dieses Gesetzes vor der Täuschung in der übersinnlichen Welt ebenso bewahrt bleiben wird, wie es ihm in der physisch-sinnlichen Welt nicht geschehen kann, ein vorgestelltes heißes Eisenstück für ein solches zu halten, das wirklich brennt. Es ist selbstverständlich, dass man sich so nur zu denjenigen Erkenntnissen verhalten wird, welche man als seine eigenen Erlebnisse in den übersinnlichen Welten ansieht, und nicht zu denen, die man als Mitteilungen von anderen empfängt und welche man mit seinem physischen Verstande und seinem gesunden Wahrheitsgefühle begreift. Der Geistesschüler wird sich bemühen, eine genaue Grenzscheide zu ziehen zwischen dem, was er sich auf die eine, was auf die andere Art erworben hat. Er wird willig auf der einen Seite die Mitteilungen über die höheren Welten aufnehmen und sie durch seine Urteilsfähigkeit zu begreifen suchen. Wenn er aber etwas als Selbsterfahrung, als eine von ihm selbst gemachte Beobachtung bezeichnet, so wird er geprüft haben, ob ihm diese genau mit den Eigenschaften entgegengetreten ist, welche er an der untrügerischen Intuition wahrnehmen gelernt hat.
[ 57 ] Wenn der Geistesschüler die Begegnung mit dem gekennzeichneten «Hüter der Schwelle» hinter sich hat, dann stehen ihm beim Aufstieg in übersinnliche Welten weitere Erlebnisse bevor. Zunächst wird er bemerken, dass eine innere Verwandtschaft besteht zwischen diesem «Hüter der Schwelle» und jener Seelenkraft, die sich in der oben gegebenen Schilderung als die siebente ergeben und wie zu einer selbständigen Wesenheit gestaltet hat. Ja, diese siebente Wesenheit ist in gewisser Beziehung nichts anderes als der Doppelgänger, der «Hüter der Schwelle» selbst. Und sie stellt dem Geistesschüler eine besondere Aufgabe. Er hat das, was er in seinem gewöhnlichen Selbst ist und was ihm im Bilde erscheint, durch das neugeborene Selbst zu leiten und zu führen. Es wird sich eine Art von Kampf ergeben gegen den Doppelgänger. Derselbe wird fortwährend die Überhand anstreben. Sich in das rechte Verhältnis zu ihm setzen, ihn nichts tun lassen, was nicht unter dem Einflusse des neugeborenen «Ich» geschieht, das stärkt und festigt aber auch des Menschen Kräfte. — Nun ist es in der höheren Welt mit der Selbsterkenntnis nach einer gewissen Richtung hin anders als in der physisch-sinnlichen Welt. Während in der letzteren die Selbsterkenntnis nur als inneres Erlebnis auftritt, stellt sich das neugeborene Selbst sogleich als seelisch-äußere Erscheinung dar. Man sieht sein neugeborenes Selbst wie ein anderes Wesen vor sich. Aber man kann es nicht ganz wahrnehmen. Denn welche Stufe man auch erstiegen haben mag auf dem Wege in die übersinnlichen Welten hinauf: es gibt immer noch höhere Stufen. Auf solchen wird man immer noch mehr wahrnehmen von seinem «höheren Selbst». Es kann also dieses dem Geistesschüler auf irgendeiner Stufe nur teilweise sich enthüllen. Nun ist aber die Versuchung ungeheuer groß, welche den Menschen befällt, wenn er zuerst irgend etwas von seinem «höheren Selbst» gewahr wird, dieses «höhere Selbst» gleichsam von dem Standpunkte aus zu betrachten, welchen man in der physischsinnlichen Welt gewonnen hat. Diese Versuchung ist sogar gut, und sie muss eintreten, wenn die Entwicklung richtig vor sich gehen soll. Man muss das betrachten, was als der Doppelgänger, der «Hüter der Schwelle», auftritt, und es vor das «höhere Selbst» stellen, damit man den Abstand bemerken kann zwischen dem, was man ist, und dem, was man werden soll. Bei dieser Betrachtung beginnt der «Hüter der Schwelle» aber eine ganz andere Gestalt anzunehmen. Er stellt sich dar als ein Bild aller der Hindernisse, welche sich der Entwicklung des «höheren Selbst» entgegenstellen. Man wird wahrnehmen, welche Last man an dem gewöhnlichen Selbst schleppt. Und ist man dann durch seine Vorbereitungen nicht stark genug, sich zu sagen: Ich werde hier nicht stehenbleiben, sondern unablässig mich zu dem «höheren Selbst» hinaufentwickeln, so wird man erlahmen und zurückschrecken vor dem, was bevorsteht. Man ist dann in die seelisch-geistige Welt hineingetaucht, gibt es aber auf, sich weiterzuarbeiten. Man wird ein Gefangener der Gestalt, die jetzt durch den «Hüter der Schwelle» vor der Seele steht. Das Bedeutsame ist, dass man bei diesem Erlebnis nicht die Empfindung hat, ein Gefangener zu sein. Man wird vielmehr etwas ganz anderes zu erleben glauben. Die Gestalt, welche der «Hüter der Schwelle» hervorruft, kann so sein, dass sie in der Seele des Beobachters den Eindruck hervorbringt, dieser habe nun in den Bildern, welche auf dieser Entwicklungsstufe auftreten, schon den ganzen Umfang aller nur möglichen Welten vor sich; man sei auf dem Gipfel der Erkenntnis angekommen und brauche nicht weiter zu streben. Statt als Gefangener wird man sich so als der unermesslich reiche Besitzer aller Weltengeheimnisse fühlen können. Darüber, dass man ein solches Erlebnis haben kann, welches das Gegenteil des wahren Tatbestandes darstellt, wird sich derjenige nicht verwundern, welcher bedenkt, dass man ja dann, wenn man dies erlebt, bereits in der seelisch-geistigen Welt steht, und dass es Eigentümlichkeit dieser Welt ist, dass in ihr sich die Ereignisse umgekehrt darstellen können. In diesem Buche ist auf diese Tatsache bei der Betrachtung des Lebens nach dem Tode hingewiesen worden.
[ 58 ] Die Gestalt, welche man auf dieser Stufe der Entwicklung wahrnimmt, zeigt dem Geistesschüler noch etwas anderes als diejenige, in der sich ihm zuerst der «Hüter der Schwelle» dargestellt hat. In diesem Doppelgänger waren wahrzunehmen alle diejenigen Eigenschaften, welche das gewöhnliche Selbst des Menschen hat infolge des Einflusses der Kräfte des Luzifer. Nun ist aber im Laufe der menschlichen Entwicklung durch den Einfluss Luzifers eine andere Macht in die Menschenseele eingezogen. Es ist diejenige, welche als die Kraft Ahrimans in früheren Abschnitten dieses Buches bezeichnet ist. Es ist dies die Kraft, welche den Menschen im physisch-sinnlichen Dasein verhindert, die hinter der Oberfläche des Sinnlichen liegenden geistigseelischen Wesenheiten der Außenwelt wahrzunehmen. Was unter dem Einflusse dieser Kraft aus der Menschenseele geworden ist, das zeigt im Bilde die Gestalt, welche bei dem charakterisierten Erlebnisse auftritt. — Wer entsprechend vorbereitet an dieses Erlebnis herantritt, der wird ihm seine wahre Deutung geben; und dann wird sich bald eine andere Gestalt zeigen, diejenige, welche man den «großen Hüter der Schwelle» im Gegensatz zu dem gekennzeichneten «kleinen Hüter» nennen kann.. Dieser teilt dem Geistesschüler mit, dass er nicht stehenzubleiben hat auf dieser Stufe, sondern energisch weiterzuarbeiten. Er ruft in dem Beobachter das Bewusstsein hervor, dass die Welt, die erobert ist, nur eine Wahrheit wird und sich in keine Illusion verwandelt, wenn die Arbeit in entsprechender Art fortgesetzt wird. — Wer aber durch eine unrichtige Geistesschulung unvorbereitet an dieses Erlebnis herantreten würde, dem würde sich dann, wenn er an den «großen Hüter der Schwelle» kommt, etwas in die Seele gießen, was nur mit dem «Gefühle eines unermesslichen Schreckens», einer «grenzenlosen Furcht» verglichen werden kann.
[ 59 ] Wie die Begegnung mit dem «kleinen Hüter der Schwelle» dem Geistesschüler die Möglichkeit gibt, sich zu prüfen, ob er gegen Täuschungen geschützt ist, welche durch Hineintragen seiner Wesenheit in die übersinnliche Welt entstehen können, so kann er sich an den Erlebnissen, die zuletzt zu dem «großen Hüter der Schwelle» führen, prüfen, ob er jenen Täuschungen gewachsen ist, welche oben auf die zweite gekennzeichnete Quelle zurückgeführt wurden. Vermag er jener gewaltigen Illusion Widerstand zu bieten, welche ihm die errungene Bilderwelt als einen reichen Besitz vorgaukelt, während er doch nur ein Gefangener ist, so ist er im weiteren Verlauf seiner Entwicklung auch davor bewahrt, Schein für Wirklichkeit zu nehmen.
[ 60 ] Der «Hüter der Schwelle» wird für jeden einzelnen Menschen eine individuelle Gestalt bis zu einem gewissen Grade annehmen. Die Begegnung mit ihm entspricht ja gerade demjenigen Erlebnis, durch welches der persönliche Charakter der übersinnlichen Beobachtungen überwunden und die Möglichkeit gegeben wird, in eine Region des Erlebens einzutreten, die von persönlicher Färbung frei und für jede Menschenwesenheit gültig ist.
[ 61 ] Wenn der Geistesschüler die beschriebenen Erlebnisse gehabt hat, dann ist er fähig, in der seelisch-geistigen Umwelt dasjenige, was er selbst ist, von dem, was außer ihm ist, zu unterscheiden. Er wird dann erkennen, wie das Verständnis des in diesem Buche geschilderten Weltprozesses notwendig ist, um den Menschen und dessen Leben selbst zu verstehen. Man versteht ja den physischen Leib nur, wenn man erkennt, wie er sich aufgebaut hat durch die Saturn-, Sonnen-, Mondenund Erdenentwicklung. Man versteht den Ätherleib; wenn man seine Bildung durch Sonnen-, Mondenund Erdenentwicklung verfolgt usw. Man versteht aber auch dasjenige, was gegenwärtig mit der Erdenentwicklung zusammenhängt, wenn man erkennt, wie sich alles nach und nach entfaltet hat. Man wird durch die Geistesschulung in den Stand gesetzt, das Verhältnis von allem, was am Menschen ist, zu entsprechenden Tatsachen und Wesenheiten der außer dem Menschen befindlichen Welt zu erkennen. Denn so ist es: jedes Glied am Menschen steht in einem Verhältnis zu der ganzen übrigen Welt. In diesem Buche konnten darüber ja nur die Andeutungen im skizzenhaften Umriss gemacht werden. Man muss aber bedenken, dass zum Beispiel der physische Menschenleib während der Saturnentwicklung nur in der ersten Anlage vorhanden war. Seine Organe: das Herz, die Lunge, das Gehirn haben sich später, während der Sonnen-, Mondenund Erdenzeit, aus den ersten Anlagen herausgebildet. So also stehen Herz, Lunge, usw. in Beziehungen zu Sonnen-, Mondenentwicklung, Erdenentwicklung. Ganz entsprechend ist es mit den Gliedern des Ätherleibes, des Empfindungsleibes, der Empfindungsseele usw. Es ist der Mensch aus der ganzen, ihm zunächst liegenden Welt herausgestaltet; und jede Einzelheit, die an ihm ist, entspricht einem Vorgange, einem Wesen der Außenwelt. Der Geistesschüler kommt auf der entsprechenden Stufe seiner Entwicklung dazu, dieses Verhältnis seines eigenen Wesens zur großen Welt zu erkennen. Und man kann diese Erkenntnisstufe das Gewahrwerden nennen des Entsprechens der «kleinen Welt», des Mikrokosmos, das ist des Menschen selbst, und der «großen Welt», des Makrokosmos. Wenn der Geistesschüler bis zu solcher Erkenntnis sich durchgerungen hat, dann kann für ihn ein neues Erlebnis eintreten. Er fängt an, sich wie mit dem ganzen Weltenbau verwachsen zu fühlen, trotzdem er sich in seiner vollen Selbständigkeit empfindet. Es ist diese Empfindung ein Aufgehen in die ganze Welt, ein Einswerden mit derselben, aber ohne die eigene Wesenheit zu verlieren. Man kann diese Entwicklungsstufe als «Einswerden mit dem Makrokosmos» bezeichnen. Es ist bedeutsam, dass man dieses Einswerden nicht so zu denken hat, als wenn durch dasselbe das Sonderbewusstsein aufhören und die menschliche Wesenheit in das All ausfließen würde. Es wäre ein solcher Gedanke nur der Ausdruck einer aus ungeschulter Urteilskraft fließenden Meinung. Die einzelnen Stufen der höheren Erkenntnis im Sinne jenes Einweihungsvorganges, der hier beschrieben worden ist, können nun in der folgenden Art bezeichnet werden:
- Das Studium der Geisteswissenschaft, wobei man sich zunächst der Urteilskraft bedient, welche man in der physischsinnlichen Welt gewonnen hat.
- Die Erwerbung der imaginativen Erkenntnis.
- Das Lesen der verborgenen Schrift (entsprechend der Inspiration).
- Das Sicheinleben in die geistige Umgebung (entsprechend der Intuition).
- Die Erkenntnis der Verhältnisse von Mikrokosmos und Makrokosmos.
- Das Einswerden mit dem Makrokosmos.
- Das Gesamterleben der vorherigen Erfahrungen als eine Grund-Seelenstimmung.
[ 62 ] Diese Stufen brauchen aber nicht etwa so gedacht zu werden, dass sie nacheinander durchgemacht werden. Die Schulung kann vielmehr so verlaufen, dass je nach der Individualität des Geistesschülers eine vorhergehende Stufe nur bis zu einem gewissen Grade durchschritten ist, wenn er beginnt, Übungen zu machen, welche der folgenden Stufe entsprechen. Es kann zum Beispiel ganz gut sein, dass man erst einige Imaginationen in sicherer Art gewonnen hat und doch schon Übungen macht, welche die Inspiration, die Intuition oder die Erkenntnis vom Zusammenhange des Mikrokosmos und Makrokosmos in den Bereich des eigenen Erlebens ziehen.
[ 63 ] Wenn der Geistesschüler sich ein Erlebnis von der Intuition verschafft hat, so kennt er nicht nur die Bilder der seelischgeistigen Welt, er kann nicht nur ihre Beziehungen in der «verborgenen Schrift» lesen: er kommt zu der Erkenntnis der Wesen selbst, durch deren Zusammenwirken die Welt zustande kommt, welcher der Mensch angehört. Und er lernt dadurch sich selbst in derjenigen Gestalt kennen, die er als geistiges Wesen in der seelisch-geistigen Welt hat. Er hat sich zu einer Wahrnehmung seines höheren Ich durchgerungen, und er hat bemerkt, wie er weiter zu arbeiten hat, um seinen Doppelgänger, den «Hüter der Schwelle», zu beherrschen. Er hat aber auch die Begegnung gehabt mit dem «großen Hüter der Schwelle», der vor ihm steht wie ein stetiger Aufforderer, weiterzuarbeiten. Dieser «große Hüter der Schwelle» wird nun sein Vorbild, dem er nachstreben will. Wenn diese Empfindung in dem Geistesschüler auftritt, dann hat er die Möglichkeit erlangt zu erkennen, wer da eigentlich als der «große Hüter der Schwelle» vor ihm steht. Es verwandelt sich nämlich nunmehr dieser Hüter in der Wahrnehmung des Geistesschülers in die Christusgestalt, deren Wesenheit und Eingreifen in die Erdenentwicklung aus den vorhergehenden Kapiteln dieses Buches ersichtlich ist. Der Geistesschüler wird dadurch in das erhabene Geheimnis selbst eingeweiht, das mit dem Christus-Namen verknüpft ist. Der Christus zeigt sich ihm als das «große menschliche Erdenvorbild». — Ist auf solche Art durch Intuition der Christus in der geistigen Welt erkannt, dann wird auch verständlich, was sich auf der Erde geschichtlich abgespielt hat in der vierten nachatlantischen Entwicklungsperiode der Erde (in der griechisch-lateinischen Zeit). Wie zu dieser Zeit das hohe Sonnenwesen, das Christus-Wesen, in die Erdenentwicklung eingegriffen hat, und wie es nun weiter wirkt innerhalb dieser Erdenentwicklung, das wird für den Geistesschüler eine selbsterlebte Erkenntnis. Es ist also ein Aufschluss über den Sinn und die Bedeutung der Erdenentwicklung, welchen der Geistesschüler erhält durch die Intuition.
[ 64 ] Der hiermit geschilderte Weg zur Erkenntnis der übersinnlichen Welten ist ein solcher, welchen ein jeder Mensch gehen kann, in welcher Lage er sich auch innerhalb der gegenwärtigen Lebensbedingungen befindet. Wenn von einem solchen Wege die Rede ist, so muss man bedenken, dass das Ziel der Erkenntnis und Wahrheit zu allen Zeiten der Erdenentwicklung dasselbe ist, dass aber die Ausgangspunkte des Menschen zu verschiedenen Zeiten verschiedene waren. Der Mensch kann gegenwärtig nicht von demselben Ausgangspunkte ausgehen, wenn er den Weg in die übersinnlichen Gebiete betreten will, wie zum Beispiel der alte ägyptische Einzuweihende. Daher lassen sich die Übungen, welche dem Geistesschüler im alten Ägypten auferlegt wurden, nicht ohne weiteres von dem gegenwärtigen Menschen ausführen. Seit jener Zeit sind die menschlichen Seelen durch verschiedene Verkörperungen hindurchgegangen; und dieses Weiterschreiten von Verkörperung zu Verkörperung ist nicht ohne Sinn und Bedeutung. Die Fähigkeiten und Eigenschaften der Seelen ändern sich von Verkörperung zu Verkörperung. Wer das menschliche, geschichtliche Leben auch nur oberflächlich betrachtet, kann bemerken, dass seit dem zwölften und dreizehnten Jahrhundert nach Christus sich gegen früher alle Lebensbedingungen geändert haben, dass Meinungen, Gefühle, aber auch Fähigkeiten der Menschen anders geworden sind, als sie vorher waren. Der hier beschriebene Weg zur höheren Erkenntnis ist nun ein solcher, welcher für Seelen tauglich ist, welche in der unmittelbaren Gegenwart sich verkörpern. Er ist so, dass er den Ausgangspunkt der geistigen Entwicklung da ansetzt, wo der Mensch in der Gegenwart steht, wenn er in irgendwelchen durch diese Gegenwart ihm gegebenen Lebensverhältnissen sich befindet. — Die fortschreitende Entwicklung führt die Menschheit in bezug auf die Wege zu höherer Erkenntnis ebenso von Zeitabschnitt zu Zeitabschnitt zu immer anderen Formen, wie auch das äußere Leben seine Gestaltungen ändert. Und es muss ja auch jederzeit ein vollkommener Einklang herrschen zwischen dem äußeren Leben und der Einweihung.
The Realization of the Higher Worlds
(On Initiation)
[ 1 ] Between birth and death, man experiences three states of soul in his present stage of development in ordinary life: waking, sleep and, between the two, the dream state. The latter will be briefly alluded to later in this book. Here, life may first be considered in its two alternating main states, waking and sleeping. - Man attains knowledge in higher worlds when he acquires a third state of soul in addition to sleeping and waking. During waking, the soul is devoted to the sensory impressions and the ideas which are stimulated by these sensory impressions. During sleep, the sensory impressions are silent; but the soul also loses consciousness. The experiences of the day sink down into the sea of unconsciousness. - Now think of it: the soul could become conscious during sleep, even though the impressions of the senses remain switched off, as otherwise in deep sleep. Yes, even the memory of the day's experiences would not be present. Would the soul now be in a void? Could it have no experiences at all? - An answer to this question is only possible if a state can really be created that is the same or similar to this one. If the soul can experience something, even if no sensory effects and no memories of such effects are present in it. Then the soul would be as if asleep in relation to the ordinary external world; and yet it would not be asleep, but would face a real world as if it were awake. - Now such a state of consciousness can be produced if man brings about those experiences of the soul which spiritual science makes possible for him. And everything that spiritual science communicates about those worlds that lie beyond the sensory is explored through such a state of consciousness. - In the preceding remarks some information has been given about higher worlds. In the following, the means by which the state of consciousness necessary for this research is created will also be discussed, insofar as this can be done in this book.
[ 2 ] Only in one direction does this state of consciousness resemble sleep, namely in that through it all external sensory effects cease; also all thoughts that are stimulated by these sensory effects are extinguished. But while in sleep the soul has no power to consciously experience anything, it should receive this power through this state of consciousness. Through it, therefore, the ability to experience is awakened in the soul, which in ordinary existence is only stimulated by the effects of the senses. The awakening of the soul to such a higher state of consciousness can be called initiation.
[ 3 ] The means of initiation lead the human being from the ordinary state of day-consciousness into such a soul activity through which he makes use of spiritual tools of observation. These tools are present in the soul beforehand like germs. These germs must be developed. - Now it can happen that a person at a certain point in his life makes the discovery in his soul without any special preparation that such higher tools have developed in him. A kind of involuntary self-awakening has then occurred. Such a person will find his whole being transformed as a result. An unlimited enrichment of his soul experiences will occur. And he will find that through no knowledge of the sense world can he feel such bliss, such a satisfying state of mind and inner warmth as through that which opens up to a knowledge that is not accessible to the physical eye. Strength and certainty of life will flow into his will from a spiritual world. - There are such cases of self-initiation. However, they should not lead one to believe that the only right thing to do is to wait for such a self-initiation and do nothing to bring about the initiation through proper training. There is no need to talk about self-initiation here, as it can occur without observing any rules. However, it will be shown how one can develop the organs of perception germinating in the soul through training. People who feel no particular impulse within themselves to do something for their own development will easily say that human life is under the guidance of spiritual powers and that we should not interfere with their guidance; we should wait quietly for the moment when those powers deem it right to open up another world for the soul. It is probably also felt by such people as a kind of presumption, or as an unjustified desire to interfere with the wisdom of spiritual guidance. Personalities who think in this way are only led to a different opinion when a certain idea makes a sufficiently strong impression on them. When they say to themselves: That wise guidance has given me certain abilities; it has not given them to me so that I may leave them unused, but so that I may use them. The wisdom of the guidance consists in the fact that it has planted the seeds in me for a higher state of consciousness. I only understand this guidance if I feel it is my duty to reveal everything to man that can be revealed through his spiritual powers. When such a thought has made a sufficiently strong impression on the soul, then the above objections to training for a higher state of consciousness will disappear.
[ 4 ] However, there may be another objection to such training. One can say to oneself: "The development of inner soul abilities intervenes in the most hidden sanctuary of the human being. It involves a certain transformation of the whole human being. Naturally, one cannot devise the means for such a transformation oneself. For only those who know the path to a higher world as their own experience can know how to reach it. If one turns to such a personality, one allows him to influence the most hidden sanctuary of the soul." - Those who think in this way could not be particularly reassured if the means to bring about a higher state of consciousness were presented to them in a book. For it does not matter whether one is told something orally or whether a personality who has the knowledge of these means presents them in a book and another person learns them from it. There are now such personalities who possess the knowledge of the rules for the development of the spiritual organs of perception and who hold the view that these rules should not be entrusted to a book. Such people usually also regard the communication of certain truths relating to the spiritual world as inadmissible. However, this view must in some respects be considered outdated in the present age of human development. It is true that one can only go so far in communicating the relevant rules. However, what has been communicated leads so far that the person who applies it to his soul reaches a point in the development of knowledge where he can then find the way forward. This path then leads on in a way that can only be correctly understood through what has been experienced beforehand. All these facts can give rise to reservations about the spiritual path of knowledge. These misgivings disappear when one considers the nature of the course of development which the training appropriate to our age outlines. We will speak of this path here and only briefly refer to other trainings.
[ 5 ] The training to be discussed here provides those who have the will for their higher development with the means to undertake the transformation of their soul. There would only be a questionable interference in the being of the pupil if the teacher were to carry out this transformation by means that are beyond the consciousness of the pupil. However, no proper instruction of spiritual development in our age makes use of such means. It does not turn the pupil into a blind tool. It gives him the rules of conduct, and the pupil carries them out. When it comes down to it, there is no concealment of why this or that rule of conduct is given. The acceptance of the rules and their application by a personality seeking spiritual development need not be based on blind faith. Such a belief should be completely excluded in this area. Anyone who observes the nature of the human soul, insofar as it is already apparent through ordinary self-observation without spiritual training, can ask himself after receiving the rules recommended by spiritual training: how can these rules work in the life of the soul? And this question can be answered sufficiently, before all training, with the unbiased application of common sense. One can form correct ideas about the effect of these rules before giving oneself over to them. However, one can only experience this mode of action during the training. But even then, the experience will always be accompanied by the understanding of this experience, if one accompanies every step to be taken with sound judgment. And at the present time a true spiritual science will only give such rules for the training against which such sound judgment can assert itself. Whoever is willing to devote himself only to such training, and whoever does not allow himself to be driven by any bias to a blind faith, all doubts will disappear. Objections against a proper training to a higher state of consciousness will not bother him.
[ 6 ] Even for such a personality, which has the inner maturity that can lead it in a shorter or longer time to the self-awakening of the spiritual organs of perception, a training is not superfluous, but on the contrary, it is particularly suitable for it. For there are only a few cases in which such a personality does not have to go through the most manifold crooked and futile side paths before self-initiation. The training spares him these side paths. It leads forward in a straight direction. If such a self-initiation occurs for this soul, it is because the soul has acquired the corresponding maturity in previous lives. It is very easy for such a soul to have a certain dark feeling about its maturity and to reject training because of this feeling. Such a feeling can create a certain arrogance, which hinders trust in genuine spiritual training. A certain stage of soul development can remain hidden until a certain age and only then emerge. But training can be just the right means to bring it to the fore. If a person then closes himself off to the training, it is possible that his ability remains hidden in the course of life in question and only emerges again in one of the next courses of life.
[ 7 ] With regard to the training for extrasensory cognition meant here, it is important not to allow certain obvious misunderstandings to arise. One can arise from the fact that one thinks that the training is intended to make man into a different being with regard to his whole way of life. But it is not a question of giving man general rules of life, but of speaking to him of soul activities which, when he carries them out, give him the possibility of observing the supersensible. These activities have no direct influence on that part of his life which lies outside the observation of the supersensible. In addition to these life activities, man acquires the gift of supersensible observation. The activity of this observation is as separate from the ordinary activities of life as the state of waking is from that of sleep. The one cannot disturb the other in the least. For example, anyone who wanted to enforce the ordinary course of life through impressions of supersensible vision would be like an unhealthy person whose sleep would be continually interrupted by harmful awakenings. It must be possible for the free will of the trained person to bring about the state of observing supersensible reality. Indirectly, however, the training is connected with the rules of life in so far as without a certain ethically attuned way of life an insight into the supersensible is impossible or harmful. And that is why many things that lead to an insight into the supersensible are at the same time a means of refining the conduct of life. On the other hand, through insight into the supersensible world one recognizes higher moral impulses that also apply to the sensual-physical world. Certain moral necessities are only recognized from this world. - A second misunderstanding would be to believe that any soul activity leading to supersensible cognition has anything to do with a change in the physical organization. On the contrary, such processes have not the slightest connection with anything into which physiology or any other branch of natural knowledge has any say. They are purely spiritual-soul processes that are as completely divorced from the physical as healthy thinking and perception itself. Nothing else happens in the soul through such an activity than what happens when it imagines or judges healthily. As much and as little as healthy thinking has to do with the body, as much and as little do the processes of genuine training for supersensible knowledge have to do with it. Everything that behaves differently towards man is not true spiritual training, but a distorted image of it. The following remarks are to be taken in the sense of what has been said here. Only because supersensible knowledge is something that emanates from the whole soul of man will it appear as if things are required for training that make something else out of man. In truth, it is a matter of information about activities that enable the soul to bring about such moments in its life in which it can observe the supersensible.
[ 8 ] The elevation to a supersensible state of consciousness can only start from the ordinary waking day consciousness. The soul lives in this consciousness before its elevation. It is given means through training that lead it out of this consciousness. Among the first means, the training under consideration here gives those which can still be characterized as activities of the ordinary day consciousness. The most important means are those that consist of quiet activities of the soul. It is a matter of the soul devoting itself to certain ideas. These ideas are those which, by their very nature, exert an awakening power on certain hidden faculties of the human soul. They differ from the imaginations of waking daily life, which have the task of depicting an external thing. The truer they do this, the truer they are. And it is part of their nature to be true in this sense. The imaginations to which the soul should devote itself for the purpose of spiritual training do not have such a task. They are designed in such a way that they do not depict an exterior, but have the intrinsic quality of having an awakening effect on the soul. The best ideas for this are allegorical or symbolic ones. However, other images can also be used. For it is not at all important what the ideas contain, but only that the soul directs all its forces towards having nothing else in consciousness than the idea in question. Whereas in the ordinary life of the soul its powers are distributed over many things and the ideas change rapidly, in the training of the spirit it is a matter of concentrating the whole life of the soul on one idea. And this idea must be brought to the center of consciousness through free will. Symbolic ideas are therefore better than those that depict external objects or processes, because the latter have their point of reference in the outside world and therefore the soul has less to rely on itself alone than in the case of symbolic ideas that are formed out of the soul's own energy. It is not what is imagined that is essential, but the fact that the imagined detaches the soul from any connection to the physical through the way it is imagined.
[ 9 ] One arrives at a grasp of this immersion in an imagination when one first calls the concept of memory before the soul. For example, if one has directed the eye towards a tree and then turns away from the tree so that one can no longer see it, one is able to reawaken the idea of the tree from memory in the soul. This image of the tree, which you have when it is not in front of your eyes, is a memory of the tree. Now think of keeping this memory in the soul; let the soul rest, as it were, on the memory-image; endeavor to exclude all other ideas. Then the soul is immersed in the memory of the tree. One then has to do with an immersion of the soul in an imagination; but this imagination is the image of a thing perceived by the senses. But if you do the same with an idea that has been brought into consciousness through free will, you will gradually be able to achieve the effect that matters.
[ 10 ] An example of inner immersion with a symbolic imagination will now be illustrated. First of all, such an image must be built up in the soul. This can be done in the following way: Imagine a plant as it takes root in the ground, as it sprouts leaf after leaf, as it unfolds into a flower. And now imagine a person standing next to this plant. Bring to life the thought in his soul of how man has qualities and abilities that can be called more perfect than those of the plant. Consider how he can move here and there according to his feelings and his will, while the plant is bound to the ground. But now also say to yourself: yes, man is certainly more perfect than the plant; but in return I also notice qualities in him which I do not perceive in the plant, and because of their absence it can appear to me in certain respects more perfect than man. Man is filled with desires and passions; he follows these in his behavior. In his case I can speak of aberrations caused by his instincts and passions. With the plant I see how it follows the pure laws of growth from leaf to leaf, how it opens its blossom dispassionately to the chaste rays of the sun. I can say to myself: man has a certain perfection before the plant; but he has bought this perfection by adding instincts, desires and passions to the forces of the plant that seem pure to me. I now imagine that the green colored sap flows through the plant and that this is the expression of the pure, passionless laws of growth. And then I imagine how the red blood flows through the veins of the human being and how this is the expression of the drives, desires and passions. I let all this arise as a vivid thought in my soul. Then I further imagine how man is capable of development; how he can purify and cleanse his drives and passions through his higher soul faculties. I imagine how this destroys a base in these drives and passions and how they are reborn on a higher level. Then the blood can be presented as the expression of the purified and cleansed instincts and passions. For example, I now look at the rose in my mind and say to myself: in the red rose leaf I see the color of the green sap transformed into red; and the red rose, like the green leaf, follows the pure, passionless laws of growth. May the red of the rose now become for me the symbol of such a blood, which is the expression of purified drives and passions that have cast off the baseness and in their purity resemble the forces at work in the red rose. I now try not only to process such thoughts in my mind, but to bring them to life in my feelings. I can have a blissful sensation when I imagine the purity and passionlessness of the growing plant; I can create the feeling in me of how certain higher perfections must be purchased through the acquisition of instincts and desires. This can transform the bliss I felt before into a serious feeling; and then a feeling of liberating happiness can stir within me when I surrender to the thought of the red blood, which can become the bearer of pure inner experiences, like the red juice of the rose. It is important that one does not numbly confront the thoughts that serve to build up a symbolic image. After having indulged in such thoughts and feelings, transform them into the following symbolic image. Imagine a black cross. Let this be the symbol of the destroyed baseness of the impulses and passions; and where the beams of the cross intersect, imagine seven red, radiant roses arranged in a circle. These roses are the symbol for a blood that is the expression of purified, cleansed passions and instincts.1It does not matter to what extent this or that scientific conception finds the above thoughts justified or not. For it is a question of the development of such thoughts about plants and man, which, without any theory, can be gained by simple, direct observation. After all, such thoughts also have their significance alongside the theoretical ideas about the things of the outside world, which are no less important in other respects. And here the thoughts are not there to scientifically represent a fact, but to build up a symbolic image that proves to be effective in the soul, regardless of what objections this or that personality may come up with when building up this symbolic image. Such a symbolic image should now be called before the soul in the way that is illustrated above with a memory image. Such an image has a soul-awakening power if one surrenders to it in inner contemplation. One must try to exclude any other imagination during contemplation. Only the characterized symbol should hover in the mind before the soul, as vividly as this is possible. - It is not insignificant that this symbol has not simply been mentioned here as an awakening idea, but that it has only been built up through certain ideas about plants and man. For the effect of such a symbol depends on the fact that one has put it together in the way described before using it for inner contemplation. If one imagines it without having gone through such a construction in one's own soul, it remains cold and much less effective than if it has received its soul-illuminating power through preparation. During contemplation, however, you should not call all the preparatory thoughts into your soul, but merely have the image floating vividly before you in your mind, allowing the sensation that has arisen as a result of the preparatory thoughts to resonate. In this way, the symbol becomes a sign alongside the sensory experience. And it is in the lingering of the soul in this experience that it is effective. The longer one can dwell without any other disturbing idea interfering, the more effective the whole process is. However, it is good if, in addition to the time you devote to the actual immersion, you often repeat the structure of the image through thoughts and feelings of the kind described above, so that the sensation does not fade. The more patience one has for such a renewal, the more significant the image is for the soul. (In the discussions of my book: "How does one attain knowledge of the higher worlds?" other examples of means for inner contemplation are given. Particularly effective are the meditations characterized there on the growth and decay of a plant, on the forces of development slumbering in a plant seed, on the forms of crystals, etc. Here in this book, the essence of meditation should be shown by means of an example.)
[ 11 ] A symbol such as the one described here does not depict an external thing or being produced by nature. But this is precisely why it has its power to awaken certain purely spiritual abilities. However, someone could raise an objection. He could say: Certainly, the "whole", as a symbol, is not present through nature; but all the details are borrowed from this nature: the black color, the roses and so on. All this is perceived through the senses. Whoever is disturbed by such an objection should consider that it is not the images of the sensory perceptions that lead to the awakening of the higher faculties of the soul, but that this effect is merely caused by the kind of combination of these details. And this combination does not represent something that is present in the sensory world.
[ 12 ] The process of effective immersion of the soul should be illustrated using a symbol as an example. In spiritual training, the most diverse images of this kind can be used and these can be constructed in the most diverse ways. Certain sentences, formulas and individual words can also be given to immerse oneself in. In any case, these means of inner contemplation will have the aim of tearing the soul away from sensory perception and stimulating it to such an activity in which the impression on the physical senses is meaningless and the unfolding of inner dormant soul abilities becomes the essential thing. It can also be a matter of immersion in feelings, sensations, etc. This proves to be particularly effective. Take for example the feeling of joy. In the normal course of life the soul may experience joy if an external stimulus to joy is present. If a healthy soul perceives how a person performs an action which gives him the goodness of his heart, this soul will be pleased, will take pleasure in such an action. But this soul can now reflect on an action of this kind. It can say to itself: An action that is performed out of the goodness of the heart is one in which the performer does not follow his own interests, but the interests of his fellow human being. And such an act can be called a morally good one. Now, however, the contemplating soul can free itself entirely from the idea of the individual case in the external world which has given it joy or pleasure, and it can form the comprehensive idea of the goodness of the heart. It can imagine how goodness of heart arises when one soul absorbs the interest of another, as it were, and makes it its own. And the soul can now feel the joy of this moral idea of goodness of heart. This is not joy in this or that process of the sensory world, but joy in an idea as such. If one tries to keep such joy alive in the soul for a longer period of time, then this is immersion in a feeling, in a sensation. It is then not the idea that is effective in awakening the soul's inner faculties, but rather the long-lasting activity of the feeling within the soul that is not stimulated by a single external impression. - Since supersensible knowledge is able to penetrate deeper into the essence of things than ordinary imagination, sensations can be indicated from its experiences which have a much greater effect on the development of the soul's faculties when they are used for inner contemplation. As necessary as the latter is for higher degrees of training, it should be borne in mind that energetic immersion in such feelings and sensations, such as those characterized by the contemplation of the goodness of the heart, can already lead very far. - Since people's natures are different, different means of training are effective for different people. - As far as the length of time for contemplation is concerned, it should be borne in mind that the more serene and prudent this contemplation can be, the greater the effect. However, any exaggeration in this direction should be avoided. A certain inner rhythm, which results from the exercises themselves, can teach the student what he has to adhere to in this respect.
[ 13 ] As a rule, one will have to perform such exercises of inner contemplation for a long time before one can perceive their results oneself. Patience and perseverance are essential for training the mind. Those who do not awaken these two in themselves and do not do their exercises so calmly and continuously that patience and perseverance always form the basic mood of their soul cannot achieve much.
[ 14 ] It is evident from the foregoing description that inner contemplation (meditation) is a means of attaining knowledge of higher worlds, but also that not just any imaginative content leads to this, but only one that is directed in the manner described.
[ 15 ] The path referred to here first leads to what can be called imaginative cognition. It is the first higher level of cognition. Cognition that is based on sensory perception and on the processing of sensory perceptions by the mind bound to the senses can - in the sense of spiritual science - be called "objective cognition". Beyond this lie the higher levels of cognition, the first of which is imaginative cognition. The term "imaginative" could raise doubts in someone who thinks of "imagination" as merely an "imaginary" conception that corresponds to nothing real. In spiritual science, however, "imaginative" cognition should be understood as that which comes about through a supersensible state of consciousness of the soul. What is perceived in this state of consciousness are spiritual facts and entities to which the senses have no access. Because this state is awakened in the soul through immersion in symbolic images or "imaginations", the world of this higher state of consciousness can also be called the "imaginative" and the knowledge relating to it the "imaginative". "Imaginative" thus means something that is "real" in a different sense than the facts and entities of physical sense perception. Nothing depends on the content of the ideas that fulfill the imaginative experience; on the other hand, everything depends on the capacity of the soul that is formed by this experience.
[ 16 ] A very obvious objection to the use of the characterized symbolic ideas is that their formation springs from dreamy thinking and an arbitrary imagination and that they can therefore only be of dubious success. The misgivings expressed in this way are unjustified with regard to the allegories on which the proper training of the mind is based. For the symbolic images are chosen in such a way that their relationship to an external sensory reality can be completely disregarded and their value can only be sought in the power with which they act on the soul when it withdraws all attention from the external world, when it suppresses all impressions of the senses and also eliminates all thoughts that it can harbor in response to external stimulation. The process of meditation is most clearly illustrated by comparing it with the state of sleep. On the one hand it is similar to sleep, on the other it is completely opposite. It is a sleep that represents a higher awakening compared to daytime consciousness. The point is that by concentrating on the corresponding imagination or image, the soul is compelled to draw much stronger forces from its own depths than it uses in ordinary life or ordinary cognition. This increases its inner agility. It detaches itself from corporeality as it detaches itself in sleep; but it does not pass into unconsciousness as it does in sleep, but experiences a vastness which it has not experienced before. Its state, although it can be compared to sleep in terms of detachment from the body, is such that it can be characterized as an elevated wakefulness compared to ordinary daytime consciousness. In this way the soul experiences itself in its true inner, independent essence, whereas in ordinary daytime waking it only brings itself to consciousness with the help of the body through the weaker development of its powers present in it, thus not experiencing itself, but only becoming aware of itself in the image that - like a kind of mirror image - the body (actually its processes) creates before it.
[ 17 ] Those symbolic images that are constructed in the manner described above do not yet naturally refer to something real in the spiritual world. They serve to tear the human soul away from sensory perception and from the brain instrument to which the mind is initially bound. This detachment cannot take place before the human being feels: now I imagine something through powers in which my senses and the brain do not serve me as tools. The first thing a person experiences on this path is such a liberation from the physical organs. He can then say to himself: my consciousness is not extinguished when I leave sense perceptions and ordinary intellectual thinking out of consideration; I can lift myself out of this and then feel myself as a being next to what I was before. This is the first purely spiritual experience: the observation of a soul-spiritual I-entity. This has emerged as a new self from the self that is only bound to the physical senses and the physical mind. If one had detached oneself from the sensory and intellectual world without immersion, one would have sunk into the "nothingness" of unconsciousness. Of course, one already had the soul-spiritual entity before immersion. However, it did not yet have any tools for observing the spiritual world. It was like a physical body that has no eyes to see or ears to hear. The power expended in contemplation first created the soul-spiritual organs out of the previously disorganized soul-spiritual entity. What one has created in this way is what one first perceives. The first experience is therefore in a certain sense self-perception. It is part of the essence of spiritual training that the soul, through the self-education practiced on itself at this point in its development, has a full awareness of the fact that it first perceives itself in the pictorial worlds (imaginations) that arise as a result of the exercises described. Although these images appear as living in a new world, the soul must recognize that they are initially nothing other than the reflection of its own being, which has been strengthened by the exercises. And it must not only recognize this in the right judgment, but also have come to such a training of the will that it can remove the images from consciousness again at any time, erase them. The soul must be able to act completely freely and prudently within these images. This is part of the correct training of the spirit in this point. If it could not do this, it would be in the same situation in the realm of spiritual experiences as a soul would be in the physical world, which, if it turned its eye towards an object, would be bound by it so that it could no longer look away from it. The only exception to this possibility of erasure is a group of inner pictorial experiences that cannot be erased at the level of spiritual training attained. This corresponds to the soul's own core of being; and in these images the student of the spirit recognizes that in himself which runs through the repeated lives on earth as his basic being. At this point the feeling of repeated earth lives becomes a real experience. With regard to everything else, the aforementioned freedom of experience must prevail. And only after one has attained the ability of extinction does one approach the real spiritual outer world. In place of that which has been extinguished comes another in which one recognizes the spiritual reality. One feels how one grows mentally out of an indeterminate as a determinate. From this self-perception, one must then proceed to the observation of a soul-spiritual outer world. This occurs when one establishes one's inner experience in the sense that will be further indicated here.
[ 18 ] At first, the soul of the spiritual disciple is weak in relation to everything that can be perceived in the soul-spiritual world. He will have to expend a great deal of inner energy in order to hold on to the symbols or other ideas which he has built up from the stimuli of the sensory world in inner contemplation. But if he also wants to arrive at real observation in a higher world, he must not only be able to hold on to these ideas. After he has done this, he must also be able to remain in a state in which no stimuli from the sensory external world act on the soul, but in which the characterized imagined concepts themselves are also eradicated from consciousness. Only now can that which has been formed through immersion emerge in consciousness. It is a matter of there now being enough inner soul power so that what has thus been formed can really be seen spiritually, so that it does not escape attention. However, this is certainly the case when the inner energy is still weakly developed. What first emerges as a soul-spiritual organism and what is to be grasped in self-perception is delicate and fleeting. And the disturbances of the sensual outer world and their memory after-effects are great, no matter how hard one tries to keep them at bay. It is not only those disturbances that one pays attention to, but even more so those that one does not pay attention to at all in ordinary life. - But it is precisely the nature of the human being that makes a transitional state possible in this respect. What the soul cannot do in the waking state because of the disturbances of the physical world, it can do in the sleeping state. Anyone who surrenders to inner contemplation will become aware of something in his sleep if he pays proper attention. He will feel that he is "not completely asleep" during sleep, but that his soul has times in which it is active in a certain way while asleep. In such states, the natural processes keep out the influences of the outside world, which the soul cannot yet keep out by its own power when awake. If, however, the exercises of contemplation have already worked, then during sleep the soul releases itself from unconsciousness and feels the spiritual world. This can occur in two ways. It can be clear to the person during sleep: I am now in another world, or he can have the memory in himself after awakening: I was in another world. The former, however, requires a greater inner energy than the latter. Therefore, the latter will be the more common for the beginner in the training of the spirit. Gradually this can go so far that after awakening the pupil will think: I was in another world all the time I was asleep, from which I emerged when I woke up. And his memory of the beings and facts of this other world will become more and more definite. Then, in one form or another, the disciple of the spirit has entered into what can be called the continuity of consciousness. (The continuity of consciousness during sleep.) This does not mean, however, that a person is always conscious during sleep. Much has already been achieved in the continuity of consciousness if the human being, who otherwise sleeps like another, has certain times during sleep in which he can look at a spiritual world as if consciously, or if he can look at such short-lasting states of consciousness again in waking. However, it should not be forgotten that what is described here is only to be understood as a transitional state. It is good to go through this transitional state for the purpose of training; but one should certainly not believe that a conclusive view of the spiritual-soul world is to be drawn from this transitional state. In this state the soul is uncertain and cannot yet rely on what it perceives. But it gathers more and more strength through such experiences in order to then, also during waking, to keep the disturbing influences of the physical outer and inner world away from itself and thus to arrive at spiritual-soul observation when no impressions come through the senses, when the mind bound to the physical brain is silent and when also the ideas of contemplation are removed from consciousness, through which one has only prepared oneself for spiritual seeing. - What is published by spiritual science in this or that form should never originate from a spiritual observation other than one made in a fully awake state.
[ 19 ] Two experiences of the soul are important in the progress of spiritual training. One is that through which the human being can say to himself: even if I now disregard everything that the physical outer world can give me in the way of impressions, I do not look into my inner self as if at a being to which all activity is extinguished, but I look at a being that is conscious of itself in a world of which I know nothing, as long as I allow myself to be stimulated only by those sensual and ordinary impressions of the intellect. At this moment the soul has the sensation that it has given birth to a new being within itself as its soul essence in the manner described above. And this being is one with completely different characteristics to those that were previously in the soul. - The other experience consists in the fact that one can now have one's previous being next to oneself like a second being. That in which one knew oneself to be enclosed becomes something to which one finds oneself confronted in a certain way. One feels temporarily outside of what one has otherwise addressed as one's own being, as one's "I". It is as if one were now living in full contemplation in two "I's". One is the one you have known up to now. The other stands above it like a newborn being. And one feels how the former acquires a certain independence from the latter, just as the human body has a certain independence from the first self. - This experience is of great significance. For through it man knows what it means to live in that world which he strives to attain through training.
[ 20 ] The second - the newborn - I can now be led to perceive the spiritual world. It can develop what has the meaning for this spiritual world that the sense organs have for the sensory-physical world. When this development has progressed to the necessary degree, the human being will not only perceive himself as a newborn ego, but he will now perceive spiritual facts and spiritual beings around him, just as he perceives the physical world through the physical senses. And this is a third significant experience. In order to fully come to terms with this level of spiritual training, the human being must reckon with the fact that with the strengthening of the soul forces, self-love and self-awareness arise to a degree that is unknown to the ordinary life of the soul. It would be a misunderstanding if anyone were to believe that at this point we only have to speak of ordinary self-love. At this stage of development it intensifies in such a way that it takes on the appearance of a natural force within one's own soul, and it takes a strong training of the will to conquer this strong sense of self. This sense of self is not produced by the training of the spirit; it is always present; it only comes to consciousness through the experience of the spirit. The training of the will must certainly go side by side with the other training of the spirit. There is a strong urge to feel blessed in the world that one has created for oneself. And to a certain extent one must be able to extinguish, in the manner mentioned above, that which one has striven for with all one's effort. In the imaginative world we have reached, we must extinguish ourselves. But the strongest instincts of the sense of self fight against this. - It is easy to believe that the exercises of spiritual training are something external and detached from the moral development of the soul. On the contrary, it must be said that the moral strength necessary for the marked conquest of the sense of self cannot be attained without bringing the moral constitution of the soul to a corresponding level. Progress in the training of the spirit is inconceivable without moral progress at the same time. Without moral strength, the aforementioned conquest of the sense of self is not possible. All talk about true spiritual training not being moral training at the same time is inappropriate. Only those who do not know such an experience can raise the objection: how can one know that if one believes to have spiritual perceptions, one is dealing with realities and not with mere imaginations (visions, hallucinations, etc.)? - The point is that a person who has reached the stage described above through proper training can distinguish his own imagination from a spiritual reality in the same way that a person of sound mind can distinguish the imagination of a hot piece of iron from the actual presence of one that he touches with his hand. The difference is made by healthy experience and nothing else. And in the spiritual world, too, the touchstone is life itself. Just as one knows that in the world of the senses an imaginary piece of iron, however hot it is thought to be, does not burn the fingers, so the trained student of the spirit knows whether he is only experiencing a spiritual fact in his imagination or whether real facts or entities are making an impression on his awakened spiritual organs of perception. The measures to be observed during the training of the mind, so that one does not fall victim to deception in this respect, will be discussed in the following presentation.
[ 21 ] It is now of the greatest importance that the student of the spirit has attained a very specific state of soul when the consciousness of a newborn ego enters him. For it is through his ego that man is the leader of his sensations, feelings, ideas, instincts, desires and passions. Perceptions and ideas cannot be left to themselves in the soul. They must be regulated by thinking prudence. And it is the ego that handles these laws of thought and brings order to the life of imagination and thought through them. It is similar with desires, drives, inclinations and passions. The ethical principles become the guides of these powers of the soul. And through moral judgment the ego becomes the soul's guide in this area. If man now draws a higher ego out of his ordinary ego, the former becomes independent in a certain respect. As much living power is taken away from it as is given to the higher ego. Suppose, however, that man has not yet developed within himself a certain ability and consolidation in the laws of thought and in the power of judgment, and that he wanted to give birth to his higher ego at such a stage. He will only be able to leave so much thinking ability behind in his ordinary self as he has previously developed. If the degree of orderly thinking is too small, then disorderly, confused, fantastic thinking and judgment will appear in the ordinary ego that has become independent. And because the newborn ego can only be weak in such a personality, the confused lower ego will gain supremacy for the supersensible vision and the person will not show the balance of his power of judgment for the observation of the supersensible. If he had developed sufficient capacity for logical thinking, he could calmly leave his ordinary ego to its own devices. - And it is the same in the ethical sphere. If man has not attained firmness in moral judgment, if he has not become sufficiently master of inclinations, impulses and passions, then he will make his ordinary ego independent in a state in which the soul forces mentioned are at work. It can happen that a person does not allow the same high sense of truth to prevail in the ascertainment of the supersensible knowledge he experiences as in what he brings to his consciousness through the physical outer world. With such a loosened sense of truth, he could take anything for spiritual reality, which is only his fantasy. Into this sense of truth must enter firmness of ethical judgment, certainty of character, thoroughness of certainty, which are developed in the ego left behind before the higher ego becomes active for the purpose of supersensible knowledge. - This must by no means become a deterrent to training; but it must be taken quite seriously.
[ 22 ] Whoever has the strong will to do everything that brings the first ego to inner security in the performance of its tasks does not need to shy away from the detachment of a second ego brought about by spiritual training for the purpose of supersensible knowledge. But he must be aware that self-deception has great power over man when it is a question of his being "ripe" for something. In the mental training described here, man attains such an education of his thought life that he cannot be in danger of making the mistakes that are often suspected. This thought training ensures that all inner experiences that are necessary occur, but that they take place as they must be experienced by the soul, without being accompanied by harmful fantasy aberrations. Without appropriate thought training, the experiences can cause a strong insecurity in the soul. The way emphasized here causes the experiences to occur in such a way that one gets to know them completely, just as one gets to know the perceptions of the physical world in a healthy state of soul. Through the development of the mental life, one becomes more of an observer of what one experiences in oneself, while without the mental life one stands in the experience without thinking.
[ 23 ] Certain qualities are mentioned of proper training, which those who wish to find their way into the higher worlds should acquire through practice. Above all, these are: control of the soul over its thoughts, will and feelings. The way in which this mastery is to be brought about through practice has a twofold aim. On the one hand, it is intended to instill firmness, security and balance in the soul to such an extent that it retains these qualities even when a second self is born from it. On the other hand, this second self should be given strength and inner stability along the way.
[ 24 ] What man's thinking needs above all for the training of the spirit is objectivity. In the physical-sensual world, life is the great teacher of objectivity for the human ego. If the soul wanted to let its thoughts wander to and fro at will, it would soon have to allow itself to be corrected by life if it did not want to come into conflict with it. The soul must think according to the course of the facts of life. If man now diverts his attention from the physical-sensual world, he lacks the compulsory correction of the latter. If his thinking is then incapable of being its own corrector, it must become misleading. Therefore, the thinking of the student of the spirit must be practiced in such a way that it can give itself direction and purpose. Inner firmness and the ability to remain strictly with an object is what thinking must draw from within itself. For this reason, corresponding "mental exercises" should not be carried out on distant and complicated objects, but on simple and obvious ones. Whoever overcomes himself to turn his thoughts to an everyday object (for example, a pin, a pencil, etc.) for at least five minutes a day for months on end and during this time to exclude all thoughts that are not related to this object has done a great deal in this direction. (You can think about a new object every day or hold on to one for several days). Even those who feel themselves to be "thinkers" through scientific training should not disdain to "mature" themselves in this way for the training of the mind. For if one fixes one's thoughts for a while on something that is quite familiar to one, one can be sure that one is thinking appropriately. If you ask yourself: What components make up a pencil? How are the materials prepared to make the pencil? How are they assembled afterwards? When were pencils invented? and so on, and so on: such a person will certainly adapt their ideas more to reality than someone who thinks about the origins of man or what life is. One learns more through simple mental exercises for a proper conception of the world of Saturn's, the sun's and the moon's development than through complicated and learned ideas. For initially it is not a question of thinking about this or that, but of thinking appropriately through inner strength. If one has learned to think appropriately through an easily comprehensible sensory-physical process, then thinking becomes accustomed to wanting to be appropriate when it does not feel dominated by the physical-sensory world and its laws. And you get used to letting your thoughts rave improperly.
[ 25 ] As a ruler in the world of thoughts, so should the soul become in the realm of will. In the physical-sensual world it is also here that life appears as ruler. It asserts these or those needs for the human being; and the will feels stimulated to satisfy these needs. For higher training, man must become accustomed to strictly obeying his own commands. Whoever becomes accustomed to this will find it less and less pleasant to desire insubstantial things. However, the unsatisfactory, unsustainable aspect of the life of the will stems from the desire for such things, the realization of which is not clearly understood. Such unsatisfactoriness can disorder the whole emotional life if a higher self wants to emerge from the soul. A good exercise is to give yourself the command at a certain time of day for months on end: Today "at this particular time" you will perform "this". You then gradually come to command yourself the time of execution and the nature of the thing to be done in such a way that the execution is possible quite precisely. Thus one rises above the pernicious: "I want this; I want that", whereby one does not even think of the feasibility. A great personality has a seer say: "I love the one who desires the impossible". (Goethe, Faust II) And this personality (Goethe) himself says: "To live in the idea means to treat the impossible as if it were possible". (Goethe, Proverbs in Prose.) Such sayings should not, however, be used as objections to what is presented here. For the demand made by Goethe and his seer (Manko) can only be fulfilled by those who have first trained themselves in the desire for what is possible, in order to then be able to treat the "impossible" through their strong will in such a way that it is transformed into a possible through their will.
[ 26 ] With regard to the emotional world, the soul should be brought to a certain serenity for the training of the spirit. To this end, it is necessary for this soul to become master of the expression of pleasure and suffering, joy and pain. Many a prejudice can arise against the acquisition of this quality. One might think that one becomes dull and apathetic towards one's fellow human beings if one "should not rejoice over the pleasurable and feel pain over the painful". But that is not the point. A pleasant thing should delight the soul, a sad thing should hurt it. It should only come to master the expression of joy and pain, of pleasure and displeasure. If you strive for this, you will soon notice that you do not become duller but, on the contrary, more receptive to everything pleasant and painful in your surroundings than you used to be. However, if you want to acquire the quality we are talking about here, you need to pay close attention to yourself over a longer period of time. You have to make sure that you can fully experience pleasure and pain without losing yourself so much that you give involuntary expression to what you feel. It is not justified pain that should be suppressed, but involuntary weeping; not disgust at a bad action, but the blind raging of anger; not paying attention to danger, but the fruitless "being afraid" and so on. - Only through such practice does the student of the spirit attain that calmness in his mind which is necessary to prevent the soul from leading a second unhealthy life like a kind of double next to this higher self when it is born and especially when the higher self is active. It is precisely with regard to these things that one should not indulge in self-deception. It may seem to some that they already have a certain equanimity in ordinary life and that they therefore do not need this exercise. Such a person needs it twice over. For one can be quite serene when facing the things of ordinary life; and then, when ascending to a higher world, the lack of equilibrium, which was only repressed, can assert itself all the more. It must be recognized that the training of the spirit depends less on what one seems to have beforehand than on practicing what one needs in a lawful manner. As contradictory as this sentence may seem, it is correct. Even if life has taught you this or that: the qualities which you have taught yourself serve to train your mind. If life has taught you excitement, you should train yourself out of excitement; but if life has taught you equanimity, you should shake yourself up through self-education so that the expression of your soul corresponds to the impression you have received. He who cannot laugh at anything controls his life just as little as he who, without controlling himself, is continually provoked to laughter.
[ 27 ] For thinking and feeling, another means of education is the acquisition of the quality that can be called positivity. There is a beautiful legend that tells of Christ Jesus walking past a dead dog with some other people. The others turn away from the ugly sight. Christ Jesus speaks admiringly of the animal's beautiful teeth. One can practise maintaining a state of mind towards the world that is in the spirit of this legend. The erroneous, bad and ugly should not prevent the soul from finding the true, good and beautiful wherever it exists. This positivity should not be confused with a lack of criticism, with arbitrarily closing one's eyes to the bad, the false and the inferior. Anyone who admires the "beautiful teeth" of a dead animal also sees the decaying corpse. But this corpse does not prevent him from seeing the beautiful teeth. One cannot find the bad good, the error not true; but one can make it so that one is not prevented by the bad from seeing the good, by the error from seeing the true.
[ 28 ] Thinking in connection with the will undergoes a certain maturation if one tries never to allow anything that one has experienced or learned to rob one's unbiased receptivity to new experiences. For the spiritual disciple, the thought should completely lose its meaning: "I have never heard that before, I don't believe that." For a certain period of time, he should be prepared to be told new things and beings at every opportunity. One can learn from every breath of air, from every leaf of a tree, from every babble of a child, if one is prepared to apply a point of view that one has not yet applied. However, it will be easy to go too far with regard to such an ability. One should not disregard the experiences one has had about things at a certain age. One should judge what one experiences in the present according to the experiences of the past. That goes on one side of the scales; on the other, however, the student of the spirit must be inclined to constantly learn new things. And, above all, the belief in the possibility that new experiences can contradict the old ones.
[ 29 ] This mentions five qualities of the soul that the student of the spirit must acquire through proper training: mastery of thought, mastery of the impulses of the will, serenity towards pleasure and suffering, positivity in judging the world, impartiality in the perception of life. Whoever has used certain periods of time in succession to practise the acquisition of these qualities will then still need to bring these qualities into harmonious tune in the soul. In a sense, he will have to practice them two and two, three and one and so on at the same time in order to achieve harmony.
[ 30 ] The characterized exercises are indicated by the methods of spiritual training because, if performed thoroughly, they not only bring about in the spiritual disciple what has been mentioned above as a direct result, but also have many other indirect results that are needed on the path to the spiritual worlds. Whoever does these exercises to a sufficient degree will, during them, come across many deficiencies and faults in his soul life; and he will find the means he needs to strengthen and secure his intellectual, emotional and character life. He will certainly have need of many other exercises, according to his abilities, temperament and character; but these will arise if the above-mentioned are practiced extensively. Indeed, you will notice that the exercises described will also gradually give you what does not seem to be there at first. For example, if someone has too little self-confidence, they will notice after a certain amount of time that the exercises will give them the necessary self-confidence. And it is the same with other qualities of the soul. (Special, more detailed exercises can be found in my book: "How does one attain knowledge of the higher worlds?") - It is significant that the student of the spirit is able to increase the indicated abilities to ever higher degrees. He must master his thoughts and feelings to such an extent that the soul acquires the power to create times of perfect inner peace, in which man keeps away from his mind and heart everything that everyday, external life brings in the way of happiness and suffering, of satisfactions and worries, indeed of tasks and demands. At such times, only that which the soul itself wants to admit in a state of contemplation should be admitted into the soul. A prejudice can easily arise against this. The opinion could arise that one becomes alienated from life and its tasks if one withdraws from it with heart and mind for certain times of the day. In reality, however, this is not the case at all. Those who devote themselves to periods of inner stillness and peace in the manner described above will gain so much and such strong strength for the tasks of outer life that they will not only fulfill the duties of life no worse, but certainly better. - It is of great value if, during such periods, a person can completely free himself from thoughts of his personal affairs, if he is able to rise to what concerns not only him but man in general. If he is able to fill his soul with the messages from the higher spiritual world, if these are able to captivate his interest to such a high degree as a personal concern or matter, then his soul will reap special fruits from this. - Whoever endeavors to intervene in his soul life in this regulating way will also come to the possibility of self-observation, which looks at his own affairs with the calmness as if they were foreign ones. Being able to look at one's own experiences, one's own joys and sufferings as if they were those of another is a good preparation for training the spirit. You will gradually reach the necessary level in this respect if you allow the images of your daily experiences to pass before your mind every day after you have completed your daily work. One should see oneself in the picture within one's experiences; in other words, one should look at oneself in one's daily life as if from the outside. One achieves a certain practice in such self-observation when one begins by imagining individual small parts of this daily life. You will then become more and more skillful and adept at such retrospection, so that after a long period of practice you will be able to complete it in a short period of time. This looking backwards at experiences has a special value for the training of the spirit because it leads the soul to break away from the habit of only following the course of sensory events with the mind. In backward thinking one imagines correctly, but is not held by the sensory process. You need this to settle into the supersensible world. Imagining in a healthy way is based on this. Therefore it is also good to imagine other things backwards besides one's daily life, for example, the course of a drama, a story, a sequence of notes, etc. - The ideal for the student of the spirit will become more and more to behave towards the life events that approach him in such a way that he lets them approach him with inner security and peace of mind and does not judge them according to the state of his soul, but according to their inner meaning and their inner value. It is precisely by focusing on this ideal that he will create the spiritual foundation to be able to devote himself to the immersion in symbolic and other thoughts and feelings described above.
[ 31 ] The conditions described here must be fulfilled, because the supersensible experience is built on the ground on which one stands in the ordinary life of the soul before one enters the supersensible world. In two ways, all supersensible experience is dependent on the starting point of the soul on which one stands before entering. Anyone who is not careful to make sound judgment the basis of his spiritual training from the outset will develop supersensible abilities that perceive the spiritual world inaccurately and incorrectly. His spiritual organs of perception will, so to speak, develop incorrectly. And just as one cannot see correctly in the sensory world with a defective or diseased eye, so one cannot perceive correctly with spiritual organs that have not been developed on the basis of a healthy capacity for judgment. - He who takes an immoral state of mind as his starting point will rise up into the spiritual worlds in such a way that his spiritual vision will be numb, fogged over. He is to the supersensible worlds as someone is to the sensuous world who observes in a daze. But he will not come to any significant conclusions, whereas the spiritual observer in his stupor is at least more alert than a person in ordinary consciousness. His statements therefore become errors in relation to the spiritual world.
[ 32 ] The inner solidity of the imaginative level of cognition is achieved by the fact that the mental immersions (meditations) described are supported by what can be called the habituation to "sensuality-free thinking". If a thought is formed on the basis of observation in the physical-sensual world, then this thought is not free of sensuality. But it is not the case that man can only form such thoughts. Human thought need not become empty and devoid of content if it does not allow itself to be filled with sensory observations. The safest and most obvious way for the student of the spirit to arrive at such sensory-free thinking is to make the facts of the higher world communicated to him by spiritual science the property of his thinking. These facts cannot be observed by the physical senses. Nevertheless, man will realize that he can comprehend them if he has enough patience and perseverance. Without training one cannot investigate the higher world, one cannot make observations in it oneself; but without higher training one can understand everything that the researchers communicate from it. And if someone says: How can I accept in good faith what the spiritual researchers say, since I cannot see it myself? this is completely unfounded. For it is quite possible to obtain the certain conviction from mere reflection that what has been communicated is true. And if someone cannot form this conviction through reflection, this is not because it is impossible to "believe" in something that one does not see, but merely because one has not yet applied one's reflection unprejudicedly, comprehensively and thoroughly enough. In order to have clarity on this point, one must consider that human thinking, if it energetically pulls itself together, can comprehend more than it usually thinks. For in the thought itself there is already an inner entity which is connected with the supersensible world. The soul is usually unaware of this connection because it is accustomed to using the faculty of thought only on the world of the senses. It therefore considers what is communicated to it from the supersensible world to be incomprehensible. However, this is not only understandable for a mind that has been educated through spiritual training, but for any mind that is aware of its full power and wants to make use of it. - By constantly making what spiritual research says one's own, one becomes accustomed to a way of thinking that does not draw on sensory observations. One learns to recognize how, within the soul, thought weaves itself into thought, how thought seeks thought, even if the thought connections are not brought about by the power of sensory observation. The essential thing here is that one becomes aware of how the world of thought has inner life, how, by really thinking, one is already in the realm of a supersensible living world.
[ 33 ] You say to yourself: There is something in me that forms an organism of thought; but I am one with this "something". In devoting oneself to sensory-free thinking, one experiences that something essential exists which flows into our inner life, just as the qualities of sensory things flow into us through our physical organs when we observe sensually. Out there in space - the observer of the sensory world says to himself - there is a rose; it is not strange to me, for it announces itself to me through its color and its smell. One only needs to be sufficiently unprejudiced to say to oneself, when the sensuality-free thinking is at work in one, quite accordingly: an entity announces itself to me, which binds thought to thought in me, which forms a thought organism. There is, however, a difference in the sensations between what the observer of the outer sense world has in mind and that which announces itself essentially in the sensuality-free thinking. The first observer feels himself to be outside the rose, the one who is devoted to sensuality-free thinking feels the essence that announces itself in him as in himself, he feels at one with it. He who more or less consciously only wants to accept as essential that which confronts him like an external object will not, however, be able to maintain the feeling that what is essential in itself can also announce itself to me through the fact that I am united with it as if in one. In order to see correctly in this respect, one must be able to have the following inner experience. One must learn to distinguish between the thought connections that one creates through one's own arbitrariness and those that one experiences within oneself when one allows such arbitrariness to remain silent within oneself. In the latter case, one can then say: I remain completely silent within myself; I do not bring about any thought connections; I surrender to that which "thinks within me". Then it is fully justified to say: something essential works in me, just as it is justified to say: the rose works on me when I see a certain red, perceive a certain smell. - It is not a contradiction that one draws the content of one's thoughts from the communications of spiritual researchers. The thoughts are already there when you give yourself over to them, but you cannot think them if you do not recreate them in your soul. What matters is that the spiritual researcher evokes such thoughts in his listener and reader, which they must first draw from themselves, while the one who describes the sensual-real points to something that can be observed by the listener and reader in the sensory world.
[ 34 ] (The path that leads through the communications of spiritual science into sensuality-free thinking is an absolutely certain one. But there is another one, which is safer and, above all, more precise, but also more difficult for many people. It is described in my books "Erkenntnistheorie der Goetheschen Weltanschauung" and "Philosophie der Freiheit". These writings reflect what human thought can achieve when thinking does not surrender to the impressions of the physical-sensual outside world, but only to itself. Pure thinking then works in the human being, not the thinking that is merely lost in memories of the sensual, like an entity that is alive in itself. At the same time, nothing is included in these writings from the communications of spiritual science itself. And yet it is shown that pure thinking, working only within itself, can gain insights into the world, life and man. These writings stand on a very important intermediate stage between the cognition of the sense world and that of the spiritual world. They offer what thinking can gain when it rises above sensual observation but still avoids entering spiritual research. He who allows these writings to affect his whole soul is already in the spiritual world, except that it presents itself to him as a world of thought. Whoever feels able to allow such an intermediate stage to have an effect on him is walking a safe path; and he can thereby gain a feeling towards the higher world that will bear him the most beautiful fruits for all subsequent times.
[ 35 ] The goal of immersion (meditation) in the symbolic ideas and sensations described above is, to be precise, the development of the higher organs of perception within the astral body of the human being. They are initially created out of the substance of this astral body. These new organs of observation convey a new world, and in this new world the human being gets to know himself as a new ego. These new organs of observation differ from the organs of observation of the sensory-physical world in that they are active organs. While the eye and ear are passive and allow light and sound to affect them, it can be said of the spiritual-mental organs of perception that they are in constant activity while they perceive, and that they grasp their objects and facts in full consciousness, so to speak. This gives rise to the feeling that spiritual-soul cognition is a unification with the corresponding facts, a "living in them". - The individual spiritual-soul organs that form can be called "lotus flowers" in comparison, corresponding to the form that the supersensible consciousness must (imaginatively) make of them. (Of course, one must be aware that such a designation has no more to do with the matter than the term "wings" when one speaks of "lung wings"). Through very specific types of inner contemplation, the astral body is influenced in such a way that one or the other spiritual-soul organ, one or the other "lotus flower" is formed. After all that has been said in this book, it should be superfluous to emphasize that these "organs of observation" should not be imagined as something that is an imprint of its reality in the imagination of its sensory image. These "organs" are precisely supersensible and consist in a certain kind of soul activity; and they only exist insofar and as long as this soul activity is practiced. Something that can be seen as sensual is as little in man with these organs as any "haze" is around him when he thinks. Anyone who wants to imagine the supersensible in a sensual way will fall into misunderstandings. In spite of the superfluous nature of this remark, it may be included here because there are always confessors of the supersensible who only want to have a sensuality in their conceptions; and because there are always opponents of supersensible knowledge who believe that the spiritual researcher speaks of "lotus flowers" as if they were finer, sensuous formations. Every regular meditation made with a view to imaginative cognition has its effect on one organ or the other. (In my book "How does one attain knowledge of the higher worlds?" some of the methods of meditation and practice are given which have an effect on one organ or another). Proper training arranges the individual exercises of the student of the spirit in such a way and lets them follow each other in such a way that the organs can train themselves individually or successively. This training requires a great deal of patience and perseverance on the part of the spiritual disciple. Anyone who only has the level of patience that normal living conditions usually give a person will not be able to achieve this. For it takes a long time, often a very, very long time, until the organs are so far advanced that the spiritual disciple can use them for perceptions in the higher world. At this moment, what is called enlightenment occurs for him, in contrast to the preparation or purification that consists of the exercises for the training of the organs. (The term "purification" is used because through the corresponding exercises the disciple purifies himself of all that comes from the sensory world of observation for a certain area of inner life). It is quite possible that even before actual enlightenment, a person will repeatedly receive "flashes of light" from a higher world. He should gratefully accept such flashes. They alone can make him a witness of the spiritual world. But he should also not waver if this is not the case during his preparation time, which may seem too long to him. Whoever can fall into impatience "because he does not yet see anything" has not yet gained the right relationship to a higher world. The latter has only been grasped by those for whom the exercises they do through training can be something of an end in themselves. This practice is in truth work on a spiritual-soul, namely on one's own astral body. And one can "feel", even if "one sees nothing": "I am working spiritually and emotionally". Only if you form a certain opinion from the outset about what you actually want to "see", then you will not have this feeling. Then you won't think of anything that is actually something immeasurably meaningful. But you should pay subtle attention to everything you experience while practising, which is so fundamentally different from all experiences in the sensory world. You will then notice that you are not working into your astral body as into an indifferent substance, but that a completely different world lives in it, of which you know nothing through your sensory life. Higher beings work on the astral body, just as the physical-sensual outer world works on the physical body. And one "encounters" the higher life in one's own astral body, if only one does not close oneself off from it. If someone says to himself again and again: "I perceive nothing", then it is usually because he has imagined that this perception must look like this or that; and because he then does not see what he imagines he must see, he says: "I see nothing."
[ 36 ] But he who acquires the right attitude towards the practice of training will increasingly have something in this practice that he loves for its own sake. But then he knows that through practicing he himself is in a spiritual-soul world, and he waits in patience and surrender to see what further results. This attitude in the spiritual disciple can best be expressed in the following words: "I want to do everything that is appropriate for me as exercises, and I know that in the appropriate time I will receive as much as is important to me. I do not demand this impatiently; but always make myself ready to receive it." There is also no objection to this: "The spiritual disciple should therefore grope in the dark, perhaps for an immeasurably long time; for it can only become clear to him that he is on the right path with his practice when success is achieved." However, it is not the case that only success can bring the realization of the correctness of the practice. If the student is doing the exercises correctly, then the satisfaction he gets from practicing will give him the clarity that he is doing the right thing, not just the success. Practicing correctly in the field of spiritual training is associated with a satisfaction that is not mere satisfaction, but realization. Namely the realization that I am doing something that I can see is moving me forward in the right direction. Every student of the mind can have this realization at any moment, if only he is subtly attentive to his experiences. If he does not apply this attention, then he simply passes by the experiences, like a pedestrian lost in thought who does not see the trees on either side of the path, although he would see them if he looked at them attentively. - It is not at all desirable to hasten the occurrence of any other success than that which always results from practicing. For this could easily be only the smallest part of what should actually occur. With regard to spiritual development, partial success is often the cause of a great delay in full success. Movement under such forms of spiritual life as correspond to partial success blunts the influences of the forces which lead to higher points of development. And the gain that one achieves by having "looked into the spiritual world" is only an apparent one; for this looking in cannot provide the truth, but only illusions.
[ 37 ] The spiritual-soul organs, the lotus flowers, are formed in such a way that they appear to the supersensible consciousness of the person undergoing training as if they were close to certain physical body organs. Of the series of these soul organs, the following should be mentioned here: the one that is felt near the center of the eyebrow (the so-called two-petaled lotus flower), the one in the region of the larynx (the sixteen-petaled lotus flower), the third in the region of the heart (the twelve-petaled lotus flower), the fourth in the region of the pit of the stomach. Other such organs appear near other physical parts of the body. (The names "two-petaled" or "sixteen-petaled" can be used because the organs in question can be compared to flowers with the corresponding number of petals.
[ 38 ] The lotus flowers become conscious in the astral body. At the time when you have developed one or the other, you also know that you have them. One feels that one can make use of them and that one really enters a higher world through their use. The impressions one receives from this world are in some respects still similar to those of the physical-sensory world. Those who perceive imaginatively will be able to speak of the new higher world in such a way that they describe the impressions as sensations of warmth or cold, perceptions of sound or words, effects of light or color. For he experiences them as such. However, he is aware that these perceptions express something different in the imaginative world than in the sensual-real world. He recognizes that behind them are not physical-material causes, but mental-spiritual ones. If he has something like an impression of warmth, he does not attribute it to a hot piece of iron, for example, but regards it as the outflow of a mental process that he has only known in his inner mental life. He knows that behind the imaginative perceptions there are mental and spiritual things and processes, just as behind the physical perceptions there are material-physical beings and facts. - In addition to this similarity between the imaginative and the physical world, however, there is a significant difference. There is something in the physical world that appears quite differently in the imaginative world. In the latter we can observe a continuous coming into being and passing away of things, an alternation of birth and death. In the imaginative world, this phenomenon is replaced by a continuous transformation of one thing into another. In the physical world, for example, we see a plant decay. In the imaginative world, to the same extent that the plant withers away, the emergence of another entity appears, which is not physically perceptible and into which the decaying plant gradually transforms. When the plant has passed away, this entity is fully developed in its place. Birth and death are concepts that lose their meaning in the imaginative world. In their place comes the concept of the transformation of one into the other. - Because this is so, those truths about the essence of man, which have been communicated in this book in the chapter "Essence of Humanity", become accessible to imaginative cognition. Only the processes of the physical body are perceptible to physical-sensory perception. They take place in the "realm of birth and death". The other members of human nature: the vital body, the sensory body and the ego are subject to the law of transformation, and their perception opens up to imaginative cognition. Those who have progressed to this point perceive how that which lives on in a different mode of existence after death is, as it were, detached from the physical body.
[ 39 ] The development, however, does not stand still within the imaginative world. The human being who wanted to remain within it would indeed perceive the entities undergoing transformation; but he would not be able to interpret the processes of transformation, he would not be able to orient himself in the newly acquired world. The imaginative world is a restless area. There is only movement and transformation everywhere in it; nowhere are there points of rest. - Man only reaches such points of rest when he develops beyond the imaginative level of cognition to what can be called "cognition through inspiration". - It is not necessary for those who seek knowledge of the supersensible world to develop in such a way that they first fully acquire imaginative cognition and only then progress to "inspiration". His exercises can be arranged in such a way that what leads to imagination and what leads to inspiration go side by side. After a suitable period of time, he will then enter a higher world in which he not only perceives, but in which he can also orientate himself and which he knows how to interpret. As a rule, however, progress will be made in such a way that first the student of the spirit is presented with some phenomena of the imaginative world and after some time he receives the sensation within himself: Now I am also beginning to get my bearings. - Nevertheless, the world of inspiration is something quite new compared to that of mere imagination. Through the latter one perceives the transformation of one process into another, through the latter one learns about the inner qualities of beings that transform themselves. Through imagination one recognizes the spiritual expression of beings; through inspiration one penetrates into their spiritual interior. Above all, one recognizes a multiplicity of spiritual beings and the relationship of one to another. In the physical world we also have to deal with a multiplicity of different beings; in the world of inspiration, however, this multiplicity is of a different character. There each being is in quite definite relations to others, not as in the physical world through external influence on it, but through its inner constitution. When one perceives a being in the inspired world, there is not an external influence on another that could be compared with the effect of one physical being on another, but there is a relationship of one to the other through the inner nature of the two beings. This relationship can be compared with such a relationship in the physical world if one chooses the relationship between the individual sounds or letters of a word. If you have the word "human" in front of you, it is brought about by the harmony of the sounds: human. There is no impulse or other external influence, for example, from the M to the E, but both sounds work together within a whole through their inner nature. Therefore, observing in the world of inspiration can only be compared to reading; and the beings in this world have an effect on the observer like characters which he must get to know and whose relationships must reveal themselves to him like a supersensible writing. Spiritual science can therefore also call knowledge through inspiration comparatively the "reading of the hidden script".
[ 40 ] How this "hidden scripture" is read and how what has been read can be communicated will now be made clear in the preceding chapters of this book. First the essence of man was described, how it is made up of different parts. Then it was shown how the world being, on which the human being develops, passes through the various states, the Saturnian, solar, lunar and earthly states. The perceptions through which one can recognize the limbs of man on the one hand, and the successive states of the earth and its previous transformations on the other, are revealed by imaginative cognition. Now, however, it is further necessary to recognize what relationships exist between the Saturnian state and the physical human body, the solar state and the etheric body, and so on. It must be shown that the germ of the physical human body was already formed during the Saturnian state, that it then developed further to its present form during the solar, lunar and earthly states. It also had to be pointed out, for example, what changes took place in the human being when the sun separated from the earth and what happened to the moon. Furthermore, it had to be communicated what interacted so that such changes could take place with humanity, as they expressed themselves in the transformations during the Atlantean period, as they did in the successive periods, the Indian, the Urperian, the Egyptian, etc. The description of these connections does not result from imaginative perception, but from knowledge through inspiration, from the reading of the hidden Scriptures. For this "reading", the imaginative perceptions are like letters or sounds. However, this "reading" is not only necessary for enlightenments such as those just described. Even the course of life of the whole human being could not be understood if one were to view it only through imaginative cognition. One would indeed perceive how, with death, the soul-spiritual members detach themselves from what remains in the physical world; but one would not understand the relationship of what happens to the human being after death to the preceding and subsequent states if one could not orient oneself within the imaginatively perceived. Without knowledge through inspiration, the imaginative world would remain like a script that one stares at but is unable to read.
[ 41 ] When the student of the spirit progresses from imagination to inspiration, it very soon becomes apparent to him how wrong it would be to renounce the understanding of the great phenomena of the world and to limit himself only to those facts which, so to speak, touch the nearest human interest. He who is not initiated into these things might well say the following: "It only seems important to me to know the fate of the human soul after death; if someone tells me about it, that is enough for me: why does spiritual science show me remote things, such as the state of Saturn, the sun, the separation of the sun and moon, and so on." But he who is properly introduced to these things learns to recognize that a real knowledge of what he wants to experience can never be attained without a knowledge of what seems so unnecessary to him. A description of the human condition after death remains completely incomprehensible and worthless if the human being cannot connect it with concepts taken from those remote things. Even the simplest observation of the supersensible cognizer makes his acquaintance with such things necessary. For example, when a plant passes from the flowering state to the fruiting state, the supersensible observer sees a transformation taking place in an astral entity, which covered and enveloped the plant from above like a cloud during the flowering. If fertilization had not occurred, this astral entity would have changed into a completely different form than the one it assumed as a result of fertilization. Now one understands the whole process perceived through supersensible observation when one has learned to understand its essence from that great world process which took place with the earth and all its inhabitants at the time of the separation of the sun. Before fertilization the plant is in the same position as the whole earth was before the separation of the sun. After fertilization, the blossom of the plant shows itself as the earth was when the sun had separated and the lunar forces were still in it. If one has adopted the ideas that can be gained from the separation of the sun, then one will perceive the interpretation of the plant fertilization process appropriately in such a way that one says: The plant is in a solar state before fertilization and in a lunar state after fertilization. It is indeed the case that even the smallest process in the world can only be understood if it is recognized as a reflection of larger world processes. Otherwise it remains as incomprehensible in its essence as Raphael's Madonna remains for those who can only see a small blue spot while everything else is covered up. - Everything that happens to man is a reflection of all the great world processes that have to do with his existence. If one wants to understand the observations of the supersensible consciousness about the phenomena between birth and death and again from death to a new birth, one can do so if one has acquired the ability to decipher the imaginative observations through that which one has acquired in terms of ideas through the contemplation of the great world processes. - This contemplation provides the key to understanding human life. Therefore, in the sense of spiritual science, observing Saturn, the sun, the moon etc. is at the same time observing the human being.
[ 42 ] Through inspiration one comes to recognize the relationships between the beings of the higher world. Through a further level of knowledge, it becomes possible to recognize these entities within themselves. This level of cognition can be called intuitive cognition. (Intuition is a word that is misused in ordinary life for an unclear, indeterminate insight into a matter, for a kind of idea that sometimes coincides with the truth, but whose justification cannot initially be proven. What is meant here has nothing to do with this kind of "intuition". Of course, what is meant here has nothing to do with it. Intuition here refers to an insight of the highest, most luminous clarity, the justification of which, if one has it, one is fully aware of). - To recognize a sensory being means to stand outside it and judge it according to external impressions. To recognize a spiritual being through intuition means to have become completely one with it, to have united with its inner being. The student of the spirit gradually ascends to such knowledge. Imagination leads him to no longer perceive perceptions as external qualities of beings, but to recognize in them emanations of the soul-spiritual; inspiration leads him further into the inner being: Through it he learns to understand what these entities are to each other; in intuition he penetrates into the beings themselves. - Again, the importance of intuition can be seen in this book itself. In the preceding chapters we have not only spoken of the progress of the evolution of Saturn, the sun, the moon, etc., but we have also been told that beings take part in this progress in the most varied ways. Thrones or spirits of will, spirits of wisdom, of movement, etc. were mentioned. The spirits of Lucifer and Ahriman were spoken of in the development of the earth. The construction of the world was traced back to the entities that participate in it. What can be learned about these entities is gained through intuitive knowledge. This is also necessary if one wants to recognize the course of a person's life. That which separates itself from the physical body of the human being after death goes through various states in the following period. The next states after death could still be described to some extent by imaginative cognition. But what happens when the human being moves on in the time between death and a new birth would remain completely incomprehensible to the imagination if it were not for inspiration. Only inspiration can explore what can be said of man's life after purification in "spirit land". But then comes something for which inspiration is no longer sufficient, where it loses the thread of understanding, so to speak. There is a time in human development between death and a new birth when the human being is only accessible to intuition. - But this part of the human being is always within the human being; and if one wants to understand it according to its true inwardness, one must also seek it out through intuition in the time between birth and death. Anyone who wanted to recognize the human being only by means of imagination and inspiration would be deprived of the very processes of his innermost being, which take place from embodiment to embodiment. Only intuitive cognition therefore makes a proper investigation of repeated earth lives and karma possible. Everything that is to be communicated as truth about these processes must come from research through intuitive knowledge. - And if man wants to recognize himself according to his inner nature, he can only do so through intuition. Through it he perceives what moves within him from earthly life to earthly life.
[ 43 ] Man can only attain knowledge through inspiration and intuition through spiritual exercises. They are similar to those which have been described as "inner contemplation" (meditation) to achieve the imagination. However, while in those exercises that lead to imagination there is a connection to the impressions of the sensory-physical world, in those for inspiration this connection must increasingly fall away. To illustrate what has to happen, think again of the symbol of the rose cross. If you immerse yourself in it, you have before you an image whose parts are taken from impressions of the sensual world: the black color of the cross, the roses, etc. But the combination of these parts to form the rose cross is not taken from the sensual-physical world. If the spiritual disciple now tries to let the black cross and the red roses disappear completely from his consciousness as images of sensual-real things and to retain only in his soul that spiritual activity which has composed these parts, then he has a means of such meditation which will gradually lead him to inspiration. Ask yourself in your soul something like this: What have I done inwardly to put the cross and the rose together to form the symbol? I want to hold on to what I have done (my own soul process), but let the image itself disappear from my consciousness. Then I want to feel everything within me that my soul has done to create the image, but I don't want to imagine the image itself. I now want to live completely inwardly in my own activity that created the image. So I don't want to immerse myself in an image, but in my own image-creating soul activity. Such immersion must be undertaken in relation to many symbolic images. This then leads to realization through inspiration. Another example would be this: One immerses oneself in the image of a growing and decaying plant. One allows the image of a gradually developing plant to arise in the soul, how it sprouts from the seed, how it unfolds leaf by leaf until it blossoms and bears fruit. Then again, how it begins to wither away until it completely dissolves. By immersing oneself in such an image, one gradually arrives at a feeling of emergence and decay, for which the plant is only an image. From this feeling, if the exercise is continued persistently, the imagination of the transformation that underlies the physical arising and passing away can develop. But if you want to achieve the corresponding inspiration, you have to do the exercise in a different way. One must reflect on one's own soul activity, which has gained the idea of coming into being and passing away from the image of the plant. You must now let the plant disappear completely from your consciousness and only immerse yourself in what you have done inwardly. Only through such exercises is it possible to ascend to inspiration. At first it will not be easy for the student of the spirit to fully understand how to approach such an exercise. This is due to the fact that a person who is accustomed to allowing his inner life to be determined by external impressions immediately becomes uncertain and completely unstable if he is still to develop a soul life that has thrown off all ties to external impressions. To an even greater degree than with regard to the acquisition of imagination, the student of the spirit must be clear about these exercises for inspiration that he should only undertake them if he allows all the precautions to go alongside which can lead to the securing and consolidation of the faculty of judgment, the emotional life and the character. If he takes these precautions, his success will be twofold. Firstly, he will not be able to lose the balance of his personality in the supersensible vision through the exercises; secondly, he will at the same time acquire the ability to really carry out what is demanded in these exercises. These exercises will only be said to be difficult as long as one has not yet acquired a certain state of mind, certain feelings and sensations. He will soon gain understanding and also ability for the exercises who, through patience and perseverance, cultivates such inner qualities in his soul which are favorable to the germination of supersensible knowledge. Those who become accustomed to frequently contemplating their inner self in such a way that they are less concerned with brooding about themselves than with quietly organizing and processing the experiences they have had in life will gain much. They will see that their ideas and feelings are enriched when they relate one life experience to another. He will become aware of the extent to which he not only experiences new things by having new impressions and new experiences, but also by allowing the old ones to work within him. And if you go about it in such a way that you allow your experiences, even the opinions you have gained, to play against each other as if you were not even there with your sympathies and antipathies, with your personal interests and feelings, you will prepare particularly good ground for the supersensible powers of knowledge. In truth, he will develop what can be called a rich inner life. What matters above all, however, is the balance and equilibrium of the soul's qualities. Man is only too easily inclined to fall into one-sidedness when he indulges in a certain activity of the soul. Thus, when he becomes aware of the advantage of inner contemplation and of dwelling in his own imaginary world, he can become so inclined to do so that he closes himself off more and more from the impressions of the outside world. This, however, leads to the drying up and desolation of the inner life. The person who goes furthest is the one who, in addition to the ability to withdraw into his inner self, also retains an open receptivity to all impressions from the outside world. And it is not necessary to think only of the so-called significant impressions of life, but every person can experience enough in every situation - even in the poorest four walls - if he only keeps his mind receptive to them. There is no need to look for experiences; they are everywhere. - How experiences are processed in the human soul is also of particular importance. For example, someone may experience that a personality they or others admire has this or that quality, which they must describe as a character flaw. Such an experience can cause a person to reflect in two ways. He can simply say to himself: Now that I have recognized this, I can no longer worship that personality in the same way as before. Or he can ask himself the question: How is it possible that the revered personality is afflicted with that defect? How must I imagine that the fault is not just a fault, but something caused by the life of the personality, perhaps precisely by its great qualities? A person who asks himself these questions will perhaps come to the conclusion that his veneration cannot be diminished in the least by noticing the flaw. One will always have learned something from such a result, one will have added something to one's understanding of life. Now it would certainly be a bad thing for someone who could be tempted by the goodness of such a view of life to excuse all sorts of things or people who have his inclination, or even to get into the habit of ignoring everything that is reprehensible, because this would benefit his inner development. The latter is not the case when one receives the impulse to not only reprove mistakes but to understand them; but only when such behavior is demanded by the case in question, regardless of what the judge gains or loses in the process. It is quite true that one cannot learn by condemning a mistake, but only by understanding it. However, anyone who wanted to rule out disapproval on the basis of understanding would not get very far either. Here, too, it is not a question of one-sidedness in one direction or the other, but of balance and equilibrium of the soul's forces. - And this is particularly true of a characteristic of the soul that is of outstanding importance for human development: the feeling of devotion. Anyone who develops this feeling in himself or possesses it from the outset through a fortunate natural gift has a good basis for the supersensible powers of knowledge. Those who in their childhood and youth were able to look up with devoted admiration to persons and high ideals have something in the depths of their soul in which supersensible knowledge can flourish particularly well. And he who, in mature judgment, looks up to the starry heavens in later life and admires the revelation of high powers with complete devotion, thereby makes himself ripe for the recognition of the supersensible worlds. The same is the case with those who are able to marvel at the forces at work in human life. And it is of no small importance if, even as a mature person, one can still have reverence to the highest degree for other people whose value one suspects or believes to recognize. Only where such reverence exists can the prospect of the higher worlds open up. Those who are unable to worship will not make much progress in their knowledge. He who does not want to recognize anything in the world is closed to the essence of things. - However, those who allow themselves to be seduced by the feeling of worship and devotion into completely killing their healthy self-awareness and self-confidence are sinning against the law of balance and equilibrium. The student of the spirit will continue to work on himself in order to make himself more and more mature; but then he may also have confidence in his own personality and believe that its powers are growing more and more. Anyone who comes to the right feelings in this direction says to himself: "There are powers hidden within me and I can draw them out of my inner self. Therefore, where I see something that I must venerate because it is above me, I need not merely venerate it, but I may trust myself to develop everything within me that makes me equal to this or that venerated person.
[ 44 ] The greater a person's ability to pay attention to certain processes in life that are not familiar to his personal judgment from the outset, the greater the possibility for him to create a basis for development in spiritual worlds. An example may illustrate this. A person comes to a situation in life where he can do or refrain from a certain action. His judgment tells him: Do this. But there is a certain inexplicable something in his feelings that prevents him from doing so. It may be that the person pays no attention to this inexplicable something, but simply performs the action in a way that is appropriate to his judgment. But it can also be the case that the person gives in to the urge of that inexplicable something and refrains from the action. If he then pursues the matter further, it may turn out that disaster would have followed if he had followed his judgment, but that blessing has resulted from the omission. Such an experience can lead a person's thinking in a very specific direction. He can say to himself: Something lives in me that guides me more correctly than the degree of judgment I have in the present. I have to keep my mind open to this "something in me" that I have not yet matured to with my ability to judge. It has a highly beneficial effect on the soul when it focuses its attention on such cases in life. It then shows itself, as if in a healthy intuition, that there is more to man than he can overlook with his power of judgment. Such attention works towards an expansion of the soul's life. But here too, one-sidedness can arise, which is questionable. Anyone who wants to get into the habit of always turning off his judgment because "hunches" drive him to do this or that could become a plaything of all kinds of indeterminate urges. And it is not far from such a habit to lack of judgment and superstition. - Any kind of superstition is disastrous for the spiritual disciple. One only acquires the possibility of penetrating the realms of spiritual life in a true way by carefully guarding against superstition, fantasy and reverie. He does not enter the spiritual world in the right way who is happy if he can experience a process somewhere that "cannot be grasped by human imagination". A preference for the "inexplicable" certainly does not make anyone a student of the spirit. The latter must completely get rid of the prejudice that a "mystic is one who presupposes the inexplicable, the inscrutable" in the world wherever it seems appropriate to him. The right feeling for the student of the spirit is to recognize hidden powers and entities everywhere; but also to presuppose that the unexplored can be explored if the powers to do so are present.
[ 45 ] There is a certain state of mind which is important to the spiritual disciple at every stage of his development. It consists in not placing one's cognitive drive in such a way that it always focuses on: How can one answer this or that question? Rather: How can I develop this or that ability within myself? Once this or that ability has been developed through patient inner work, the answer to certain questions will come to the person. Students of the spirit will always cultivate this state of mind within themselves. This will lead them to work on themselves, to make themselves more and more mature and to deny themselves the desire to force answers to certain questions. They will wait until such answers come to them. - But those who become accustomed to one-sidedness will not make any real progress. The spiritual disciple can also have the feeling that at a certain point in time he can answer the highest questions for himself to the extent of his powers. So here too, balance and equilibrium in the constitution of the soul play an important role.
[ 46 ] Many more qualities of the soul could be discussed, the cultivation and development of which is beneficial if the student of the spirit wants to strive for inspiration through exercises. It should be emphasized that balance and equilibrium are the qualities of the soul that are important. They prepare the understanding and the ability for the characterized exercises that are to be done in order to attain inspiration.
[ 47 ] The exercises for intuition require that the student of the mind not only lets disappear from his consciousness the images to which he has devoted himself for the attainment of the imagination, but also the life in his own soul activity in which he has immersed himself for the acquisition of inspiration. He should then literally have nothing of previously known outer or inner experience in his soul. If, however, after this casting off of outer and inner experiences there were nothing in his consciousness, that is, if his consciousness were to disappear altogether and he were to sink into unconsciousness, he could recognize from this that he has not yet made himself ripe to undertake exercises for intuition; and he would then have to continue the exercises for imagination and inspiration. There comes a time when the consciousness is not empty, when the soul has thrown off the inner and outer experiences, but when after this throwing off something remains in the consciousness as an effect, to which one can then devote oneself in contemplation just as one has previously devoted oneself to that which owes its existence to outer or inner impressions. However, this "something" is of a very special kind. It is something truly new compared to all previous experiences. When you experience it, you know: I did not know this before. This is a perception, just as the real sound is a perception that the ear hears; but this something can only enter my consciousness through intuition, just as the sound can only enter consciousness through the ear. Through intuition, the last remnant of the sensual-physical is stripped away from man's impressions; the spiritual world begins to lie open to cognition in a form that no longer has anything in common with the characteristics of the physical-sensual world.
[ 48 ] Imaginative cognition is achieved through the formation of the lotus flowers out of the astral body. Through those exercises which are undertaken for the attainment of inspiration and intuition, special movements, formations and currents appear in the human etheric or vital body which were not there before. They are precisely the organs through which the human being absorbs the "reading of the hidden script" and that which lies beyond it into the realm of his abilities. For supersensible cognition, the changes in the etheric body of a person who has attained inspiration and intuition present themselves in the following way. As in the region near the physical heart, a new center becomes conscious in the etheric body, which develops into an etheric organ. From this, movements and currents run to the various limbs of the human body in the most varied ways. The most important of these currents go to the lotus flowers, run through them and their individual leaves and then go outwards, where they pour out like rays into the outer space. The more developed a person is, the larger the circle around him in which these currents are perceptible. However, the center in the region of the heart is not formed right from the start with proper training. It is first prepared. First, a provisional center is formed in the head; this then moves down into the larynx region and finally shifts to the vicinity of the physical heart. If the development were irregular, the organ in question could be formed immediately in the region of the heart. Then there would be the danger that the human being, instead of coming to a calm, proper supersensible formation, would become a 'raver and fantasist'. In his further development, the student of the spirit comes to make the developed currents and structures of his etheric body independent of the physical body and to use them independently. The lotus flowers serve him as tools through which he moves the etheric body. Before this happens, however, special currents and radiations must have formed in the entire circumference of the etheric body, which close it off as if through a fine network and make it a self-contained entity. When this has happened, the movements and currents taking place in the etheric body can touch and connect with the outer spiritual world without hindrance, so that outer spiritual events and inner events (those in the human etheric body) flow into one another. When this happens, the time has come when the human being consciously perceives the world of inspiration. This cognition occurs in a different way than cognition in relation to the sensory-physical world. In the latter, one receives perceptions through the senses and then forms ideas and concepts about these perceptions. This is not the case with knowledge through inspiration. What one recognizes is there immediately, in one act; there is no reflection after perception. In the case of sensory-physical cognition, what is only gained afterwards in the concept is given in inspiration at the same time as the perception. One would therefore merge into one with the soul-spiritual environment, would not be able to distinguish oneself from it at all, if one had not developed the network characterized above in the etheric body.
[ 49 ] When the exercises for intuition are done, they not only affect the etheric body, but also the supersensible powers of the physical body. However, one should not imagine that in this way effects take place in the physical body which are accessible to ordinary sensory observation. These are effects that can only be judged by supersensible cognition. They have nothing to do with all external cognition. They arise as a result of the maturity of consciousness when it can have experiences in intuition, even though it has separated all previously known outer and inner experiences from itself. - Now the experiences of intuition are delicate, intimate and subtle; and the physical human body at the present stage of its development is coarse in relation to them. It is therefore a powerful obstacle to the success of the exercises of intuition. If these are continued with energy and perseverance and with the necessary inner calm, they will ultimately overcome the formidable obstacles of the physical body. The student of the spirit notices this by the fact that he gradually takes control of certain manifestations of the physical body that previously took place entirely without his consciousness. He also notices it in the fact that for a short time he feels the need, for example, to arrange his breathing (or the like) in such a way that it comes into a kind of unison or harmony with what the soul does in the exercises or otherwise in inner contemplation. The ideal of development is that the physical body itself would not do any exercises at all, not even such breathing exercises, but that everything that has to happen with it would only occur as a consequence of pure intuition exercises.
[ 50 ] When the student of the spirit ascends to the higher worlds of knowledge, he notices at a certain stage that the cohesion of the forces of his personality takes on a different form than it has in the physical-sensual world. In the latter, the ego brings about a unified interaction of the soul forces, first of all of thinking, feeling and volition. These three powers of the soul are always in certain relationships in the ordinary situations of human life. For example, you see a certain thing in the outside world. It pleases or displeases the soul. That is to say, a feeling of pleasure or displeasure follows with a certain necessity from the perception of the thing. One also desires the thing or receives the impulse to change it in this or that direction. In other words, desire and will are added to an idea and a feeling.
[ 51 ] This joining together is brought about by the fact that the ego unifies imagination (thinking), feeling and volition and in this way brings order to the forces of the personality. This healthy order would be interrupted if the ego proved to be powerless in this direction, for example if desire wanted to go a different way from feeling or imagination. A person would not be in a healthy state of mind if he thought that this or that was right, but now wanted something that he did not believe to be right. It would be the same if someone did not want what he liked, but what he disliked. Now man notices that on the way to higher knowledge, thinking, feeling and willing do indeed become independent of each other and each assumes a certain independence, for example, that a certain way of thinking no longer pushes, as if by itself, towards a certain way of feeling and willing. The situation is such that one can perceive something correctly in thinking, but in order to arrive at a feeling or a decision of will at all, one needs an independent impulse from within oneself. Thinking, feeling and willing do not remain three forces during the supersensible contemplation, which radiate from the common ego center of the personality, but they become like independent entities, as it were three personalities; and one must now make one's own ego all the stronger, because it should not merely bring order into three forces, but direct and lead three entities. But this division may only exist during supersensible contemplation. And here again it becomes clear how important it is to accompany the exercises for higher training with those that give security and stability to the ability to judge and to the emotional and volitional life. For if you do not bring these with you into the higher world, you will soon see how the ego proves to be weak and cannot be a proper controller of thinking, feeling and willing. If this weakness were present, the soul would be pulled in different directions as if by three personalities, and its inner unity would have to cease. If, however, the development of the spiritual disciple proceeds in the right way, the marked transformation of forces signifies true progress; the ego remains the ruler over the independent entities which now form his soul. - In the further course of development the development indicated then progresses. Thinking, which has become independent, stimulates the appearance of a special fourth soul-spiritual entity, which can be described as a direct flow of currents into the human being that are similar to thoughts. The whole world appears as a structure of thoughts that stands before you, like the plant or animal world in the physical-sensual realm. In the same way, feeling and volition, which have become independent, stimulate two forces in the soul, which work in it like independent beings. And a seventh power and entity is added, which is similar to the self itself.
[ 52 ] This whole experience is combined with another. Before entering the supersensible world, man knew thinking, feeling and willing only as inner experiences of the soul. As soon as he enters the supersensible world, he perceives things that do not express the sensory-physical, but the soul-spiritual. Behind the qualities he perceives in the new world are now soul-spiritual entities. And these now present themselves to him as an external world in the same way as stones, plants and animals have presented themselves to his senses in the physical-sensual realm. The spiritual disciple can now perceive a significant difference between the soul-spiritual world that opens up to him and that which he was used to perceiving through his physical senses. A plant in the sensory world remains as it is, whatever the human soul feels or thinks about it. This is not initially the case with the images of the soul-spiritual world. They change depending on what a person feels or thinks about them. In this way, man gives them a character that depends on his own nature. Imagine a certain image appearing before a person in the imaginative world. If he is at first indifferent to it in his mind, it shows itself in a certain form. But the moment he feels pleasure or displeasure towards the image, it changes its form. The images thus not only express something that is independently outside the human being, but they also reflect what the human being himself is. They are completely permeated by man's own essence. This covers the entities like a veil. Even if a real entity stands opposite him, man does not see it, but his own product. Thus he can indeed have true things before him and yet see false things. Indeed, this is not only the case with regard to what man notices in himself as his own being; but everything about him has an effect on this world. For example, a person can have hidden inclinations that do not come to light in life through education and character; they have an effect on the spiritual world, and this gets its peculiar coloring through the whole being of man, no matter how much he knows or does not know about this being itself. - In order to be able to progress further from this stage of development, it is necessary for the human being to learn to distinguish between himself and the spiritual outer world. It becomes necessary for him to learn to eliminate all effects of his own self on the soul-spiritual world around him. There is no other way to do this than by acquiring a knowledge of what you yourself carry into the new world. It is therefore a matter of first having true, thorough self-knowledge in order to then be able to perceive the surrounding spiritual-mental world purely. Now certain facts of human development mean that such self-knowledge must naturally take place on entering the higher world. The human being develops his ego, his self-consciousness, in the ordinary physical-sensual world. This ego now acts like a center of attraction on everything that belongs to the human being. All his inclinations, sympathies, antipathies, passions, opinions etc. are grouped around this ego, as it were. And this ego is also the center of attraction for what is called a person's karma. If one were to see this ego unveiled, one would also notice in it that certain destinies must still befall it in this and the following embodiments, depending on whether it has lived in this or that way in the previous embodiments, whether it has acquired this or that. With all that clings to the ego, it must now appear as the first image before the human soul when it ascends into the soul-spiritual world. This double of the human being must, according to a law of the spiritual world, appear before all others as its first impression in that world. The underlying law can be easily understood by considering the following. In physical-sensory life man only perceives himself in so far as he experiences himself inwardly in his thinking, feeling and willing. But this perception is an inner one; it does not place itself in front of man as stones, plants and animals place themselves in front of him. Through inner perception, man also only partially gets to know himself. There is something within him that prevents him from a deeper self-knowledge. This is an impulse to rework a characteristic as soon as he has to admit it to himself through self-knowledge and does not want to indulge in any deception about himself.
[ 53 ] If he does not give in to this urge, if he simply diverts his attention from his own self and remains as he is, he naturally also denies himself the opportunity to recognize himself in the point in question. If, however, a person penetrates himself and without deception holds this or that of his qualities against himself, he will either be able to improve them in himself or he will not be able to do so in the present situation of his life. In the latter case, a feeling will creep over his soul which must be called a feeling of shame. This is indeed how man's healthy nature works: through self-knowledge it feels various kinds of shame. Now this feeling already has a very definite effect in ordinary life. The healthy-minded person will ensure that what fills him with this feeling in himself does not assert itself in outward effects, that it does not express itself in outward deeds. Shame is therefore a force that drives people to close something inside themselves and not allow it to become outwardly perceptible. If you consider this properly, you will understand that spiritual research ascribes much more far-reaching effects to an inner experience of the soul, which is very closely related to the feeling of shame. It finds that in the hidden depths of the soul there is a kind of hidden shame of which the human being is not aware in physical-sensory life. This hidden feeling, however, works in a similar way to the marked manifest feeling of ordinary life: it prevents man's innermost being from appearing before him in a perceptible image. If this feeling were not there, man would perceive before himself what he really is; he would not only experience his ideas, feelings and will inwardly, but would perceive them as he perceives stones, animals and plants. Thus this feeling is man's concealer from himself. And thus it is also the concealer of the entire spiritual world. For since man's own inner being is veiled from him, he cannot perceive that in which he should develop the tools to recognize the soul-spiritual world; he cannot transform his being so that it would receive spiritual organs of perception - but if man now works through proper training to receive these organs of perception, that which he himself is appears before him as the first impression. He perceives his double. This self-perception cannot be separated from the perception of the rest of the spiritual-soul world. In the ordinary life of the physical-sensory world, the characterized feeling works in such a way that it continually closes the gate to the spiritual-soul world in front of man. If a person wanted to take just one step to penetrate this world, the feeling of shame that immediately arises but does not come to consciousness hides the part of the spiritual world that wants to come to light. The exercises described, however, open up this world. Now the thing is that this hidden feeling acts as a great benefactor of man. For through all that one acquires in the power of judgment, emotional life and character without spiritual-scientific training, one is not able to bear the perception of one's own being in its true form without further ado. One would lose all sense of self, self-confidence and self-awareness through this perception. That this does not happen must again be ensured by the precautions which, in addition to the exercises for higher knowledge, one undertakes to cultivate one's healthy power of judgment, one's feelings and character. Through his regular training, man learns so much from spiritual science, as if unintentionally, and he also becomes aware of as many means of self-knowledge and self-observation as are necessary to powerfully confront his double. It is then the case for the student of the spirit that he only sees as an image of the imaginative world in a different form what he has already familiarized himself with in the physical world. He who has first grasped the law of karma in the right way in the physical world through his intellect will not be able to tremble particularly when he now sees the seeds of his destiny marked in the image of his double. He who through his power of judgment has acquainted himself with the development of the world and of mankind, and knows how at a certain point in this development the powers of Lucifer have penetrated into the human soul, will easily bear it when he becomes aware that in the image of his own being these Luciferic entities with all their effects are contained. - From this, however, one can see how necessary it is that man should not demand his own entry into the spiritual world before he has understood certain truths about the spiritual world through his ordinary power of judgment developed in the physical-sensual world. What is communicated in this book before the discussion of the "knowledge of the higher worlds", the spiritual disciple should have acquired in the regular course of development through his ordinary power of judgment before he has the desire to enter the supersensible worlds himself.
[ 54 ] If the training does not focus on the security and stability of the power of judgment, the emotional and character life, it can happen that the student encounters the higher world before he has the necessary inner abilities. Then the encounter with his double would depress him and lead to errors. If, however - which would also be possible - the encounter were completely avoided and the person were nevertheless introduced to the supersensible world, then he would be just as incapable of recognizing this world in its true form. For it would be quite impossible for him to distinguish between what he sees in things and what they really are. This distinction is only possible if one perceives one's own being as an image for oneself and thereby detaches everything that flows from one's own inner being from its surroundings. - The doppelganger has such an effect on a person's life in the physical-sensual world that it immediately makes itself invisible through the characteristic feeling of shame when a person approaches the soul-spiritual world. In doing so, however, it also conceals this entire world itself. Like a "guardian", he stands before this world to deny entry to those who are not yet fit to enter. He can therefore be called the "Guardian of the Threshold, which is before the spiritual-soul world".-Except by entering the supersensible world as described, man still encounters this "Guardian of the Threshold" when passing through physical death. And he gradually reveals himself in the course of life in the soul-spiritual development between death and a new birth. But the encounter cannot oppress the human being because he knows of other worlds than in the life between birth and death.
[ 55 ] If man were to enter the spiritual-mental world without the encounter with the "Guardian of the Threshold", he could fall prey to deception after deception. For he would never be able to distinguish between what he himself carries into this world and what really belongs to it. But a proper training must only lead the spiritual disciple into the realm of truth, not into that of illusion. Such a training will in itself be such that the encounter must necessarily take place once. For it is one of the precautions against the possibility of deception and fantasy that are indispensable for the observation of supersensible worlds. - It is one of the most indispensable precautions that every student of the spirit must take to work carefully on himself in order not to become a fantasist, a person who can fall prey to possible deception, self-deception (suggestion and self-suggestion). Where the instructions for training the mind are followed correctly, the sources that can bring deception are destroyed at the same time. Of course, it is not possible here to go into all the numerous details that are involved in such precautions. We can only hint at what is important. The deceptions under consideration here arise from two sources. They stem in part from the fact that one colors reality through one's own spiritual being. In the ordinary life of the physical-sensual world, this source of deception is of relatively little danger; for here the external world will always impose itself sharply on observation in its own form, just as the observer will want to color it according to his wishes and interests. However, as soon as one enters the imaginative world, its images are changed by such wishes and interests, and one has before one like a reality what one has first formed or at least helped to form oneself. This source of deception is eliminated by the fact that through the encounter with the "Guardian of the Threshold" the spiritual disciple gets to know everything that is in him, that he can carry into the soul-spiritual world. And the preparation that the spiritual disciple undergoes before entering the soul-spiritual world has the effect that he becomes accustomed to switching himself off when observing the sensual-physical world and allowing things and processes to speak to him purely through their own essence. Anyone who has gone through this preparation sufficiently can calmly await the encounter with the "Guardian of the Threshold". Through it, he will finally test himself as to whether he now really feels able to switch off his own essence even when he is confronted with the soul-spiritual world.
[ 56 ] In addition to this source of deception, there is another one. It comes to light when we misinterpret an impression that we receive. In physical-sensory life, a simple example of such an illusion is that which arises when one sits in a train and believes that the trees are moving in the opposite direction of the train, when in fact one is moving with the train. Although there are numerous cases where such deceptions are more difficult to correct in the sensory-physical world than in the simple one mentioned above, it is easy to see that within this world man also finds the means to dispel such deceptions if he considers with sound judgment everything that can serve the corresponding enlightenment. The situation is different, however, as soon as one enters the supersensible realms. In the sensory world, the facts are not altered by human deception; it is therefore possible to correct the deception of the facts through unbiased observation. In the supersensible world, however, this is not readily possible. If one wishes to observe a supersensible process and approaches it with an incorrect judgment, one carries this incorrect judgment into it; and it becomes so interwoven with the fact that it cannot be immediately distinguished from it. The error is then not in the man and the correct fact outside him, but the error itself is made a part of the external fact. It cannot therefore be corrected simply by an impartial observation of the fact. This points to what can be an abundant source of deception and fantasy for those who approach the supersensible world without the right preparation. - Just as the student of the spirit acquires the ability to exclude those deceptions that arise through the coloring of the supersensible world phenomena with his own being, he must also acquire the other gift: to make the second characterized source of deception ineffective. He can eliminate what comes from himself when he has first recognized the image of his own double; and he will be able to eliminate what is a second source of deception in the direction indicated if he acquires the ability to recognize from the nature of a fact of the supersensible world whether it is reality or deception. If the illusions looked exactly like the realities, then it would not be possible to distinguish between them. But this is not the case. Illusions of the supersensible worlds have properties in themselves that distinguish them from realities. And it is important that the student of the spirit knows by which characteristics he can recognize the realities. Nothing seems more self-evident than for a person who is not familiar with spiritual training to say: Where is there any possibility at all of protecting oneself against deception, since the sources for it are so numerous? And when he goes on to say: Is any student of the spirit safe from the fact that not all his supposed higher insights are based only on deception and self-deception (suggestion and auto-suggestion)? Those who speak in this way do not take into account that in every true spiritual training the sources of deception are blocked by the whole way in which it proceeds. Firstly, the true student of the spirit will, through his preparation, acquire sufficient knowledge of everything that can bring about deception and self-deception, and thus put himself in a position to guard against them. In this respect, he really has the opportunity like no other person to make himself sober and capable of judgment for the course of life. Everything he experiences causes him to think nothing of vague premonitions, intuitions, etc. The training makes him as cautious as possible. In addition, every true training first leads to concepts about the great events of the world, i.e. to things which make it necessary to strain the power of judgment, but which at the same time refine and sharpen it. Only those who refuse to go into such remote areas and only want to stick to closer "revelations" could lose the sharpening of that healthy power of judgment that gives them certainty in distinguishing between deception and reality. But all this is not the most important thing. The most important thing lies in the exercises themselves, which are used in a proper training of the mind. These must be set up in such a way that the consciousness of the spiritual disciple can see exactly what is going on in the soul during inner contemplation. First, a symbol is formed to induce the imagination. This still contains ideas of external perceptions. The human being is not solely involved in their content; he does not create them himself. He can therefore delude himself as to how it comes about; he can misinterpret its origin. But the student of the spirit removes this content from his consciousness when he ascends to the exercises for inspiration. There he immerses himself only in his own soul activity, which has formed the symbol. Here, too, error is still possible. Man has acquired the nature of his soul activity through education, learning and so on. He cannot know everything about its origin. But now the student of the spirit also removes his own soul activity from his consciousness. If something now remains, nothing adheres to it that cannot be surveyed. Nothing can interfere with it that cannot be judged in relation to its entire content. In his intuition, therefore, the student of the spirit has something that shows him how a very clear reality of the spiritual-soul world is constituted. If he now applies the thus recognized characteristics of spiritual-mental reality to everything that approaches his observation, then he can distinguish appearance from reality. And he can be sure that by applying this law he will be protected from deception in the supersensible world, just as he cannot be deceived in the physical-sensible world into mistaking an imaginary hot piece of iron for one that is really burning. It is self-evident that one will only behave in this way towards those insights which one regards as one's own experiences in the supersensible worlds, and not towards those which one receives as communications from others and which one comprehends with one's physical intellect and one's healthy sense of truth. The student of the spirit will endeavor to draw a precise boundary between what he has acquired in one way and what in another. On the one hand, he will willingly accept the messages about the higher worlds and seek to comprehend them through his faculty of judgment. But if he describes something as self-experience, as an observation made by himself, he will have checked whether it has confronted him exactly with the qualities which he has learned to perceive in his unerring intuition.
[ 57 ] Once the spiritual disciple has had the encounter with the designated "Guardian of the Threshold", further experiences await him on his ascent into the supernatural worlds. First of all, he will notice that there is an inner relationship between this "Guardian of the Threshold" and that soul power which, in the above description, has emerged as the seventh and has formed itself into an independent entity. Indeed, this seventh entity is in a certain respect nothing other than the double, the "Guardian of the Threshold" itself. And it presents the spiritual disciple with a special task. He has to guide and lead what he is in his ordinary self and what appears to him in the image through the newborn self. There will be a kind of struggle against the double. It will continually strive for the upper hand. However, placing oneself in the right relationship to it, not allowing it to do anything that does not happen under the influence of the newborn "I", also strengthens and consolidates man's powers. - Now in the higher world, self-knowledge in a certain direction is different from that in the physical-sensual world. Whereas in the latter, self-knowledge only occurs as an inner experience, the newborn self immediately presents itself as a soul-outward appearance. You see your newborn self before you like another being. But you cannot perceive it completely. For whatever stage one may have climbed on the way up into the supersensible worlds, there are still higher stages. On such levels you will always perceive more of your "higher self". It can therefore only partially reveal itself to the spiritual disciple at any one stage. But now the temptation is tremendously great, which befalls man when he first becomes aware of something of his "higher self", to view this "higher self" as it were from the standpoint which one has gained in the physical-sensory world. This temptation is even good, and it must occur if development is to proceed correctly. One must look at what appears as the double, the "guardian of the threshold", and place it in front of the "higher self" so that one can notice the distance between what one is and what one is to become. In this contemplation, however, the "Guardian of the Threshold" begins to take on a completely different form. It presents itself as an image of all the obstacles that stand in the way of the development of the "higher self". You will realize the burden you are carrying on your ordinary self. And if you are not strong enough through your preparations to say to yourself: I will not stop here, but will continue to develop towards the "higher self", then you will weaken and shrink back from what lies ahead. You are then immersed in the soul-spiritual world, but give up working further. You become a prisoner of the figure that now stands before your soul through the "Guardian of the Threshold". The significant thing is that in this experience you do not have the feeling of being a prisoner. Rather, you will believe you are experiencing something completely different. The figure that the "Guardian of the Threshold" evokes can be such that it creates the impression in the soul of the observer that he now has the entire scope of all possible worlds before him in the images that appear at this stage of development; he has arrived at the summit of knowledge and needs to strive no further. Instead of being a prisoner, you can feel like the immeasurably rich owner of all the secrets of the world. The fact that one can have such an experience, which represents the opposite of the true facts, will not surprise anyone who considers that when one experiences this, one is already standing in the soul-spiritual world, and that it is a peculiarity of this world that events in it can present themselves in reverse. In this book, this fact has been pointed out in the consideration of life after death.
[ 58 ] The form which one perceives at this stage of development shows the spiritual disciple something else than that in which the "Guardian of the Threshold" first presented himself to him. In this double were to be perceived all those qualities which the ordinary self of man has as a result of the influence of the powers of Lucifer. But now, in the course of human development, another power has entered the human soul through the influence of Lucifer. It is that which is described as the power of Ahriman in earlier sections of this book. It is the power which prevents man in his physical-sensual existence from perceiving the spiritual-soul entities of the outer world which lie behind the surface of the sensual. What has become of the human soul under the influence of this force is shown in the picture by the form that appears in the characterized experience. - Whoever approaches this experience suitably prepared will give it its true interpretation; and then another form will soon show itself, the one that can be called the "great guardian of the threshold" in contrast to the characterized "small guardian". This one informs the spiritual disciple that he must not stop at this stage, but must continue to work energetically. He evokes in the observer the awareness that the world that has been conquered will only become a truth and will not turn into an illusion if the work is continued in the appropriate manner. - But whoever would approach this experience unprepared by an incorrect training of the spirit, would then, when he comes to the "great guardian of the threshold", have something poured into his soul which can only be compared to the "feeling of an immeasurable terror", a "boundless fear".
[ 59 ] Just as the encounter with the "small guardian of the threshold" gives the spiritual disciple the opportunity to test whether he is protected against illusions which can arise by carrying his being into the supersensible world, so he can test himself by the experiences which finally lead to the "great guardian of the threshold" whether he is equal to those illusions which were traced back to the second marked source above. If he is able to offer resistance to the powerful illusion that makes him believe that the world of images he has attained is a rich possession, while he is still only a prisoner, he is also protected from taking appearance for reality in the further course of his development.
[ 60 ] The "Guardian of the Threshold" will take on an individual form for each person to a certain degree. The encounter with him corresponds precisely to that experience through which the personal character of supersensible observations is overcome and the possibility is given to enter a region of experience that is free of personal coloring and valid for every human being.
[ 61 ] When the student of the spirit has had the experiences described, then he is able to distinguish in the soul-spiritual environment that which he himself is from that which is outside him. He will then recognize how the understanding of the world process described in this book is necessary in order to understand man and his life itself. One can only understand the physical body if one recognizes how it has developed through the evolution of Saturn, the sun, the moon and the earth. One understands the etheric body when one follows its formation through the development of the sun, moon and earth, etc. But one also understands that which is currently connected with the earth's development when one recognizes how everything has gradually unfolded. Through the training of the spirit one is put in a position to recognize the relationship of everything that is in man to the corresponding facts and entities of the world outside man. For this is how it is: every part of man stands in a relationship to the rest of the world. In this book we have only been able to give a sketchy outline of this. It must be remembered, however, that the physical human body, for example, was only present in the first stage of Saturn's development. Its organs: the heart, the lungs and the brain developed later, during the solar, lunar and terrestrial periods, from the first anlage. Thus the heart, lungs, etc. are related to the development of the sun, moon and earth. It is quite corresponding with the members of the etheric body, the sensory body, the sensory soul, etc. The human being is formed out of the whole world that lies before him; and every detail that is in him corresponds to a process, a being of the outer world. At the appropriate stage of his development, the student of the spirit comes to recognize this relationship of his own being to the great world. And this stage of cognition can be called the realization of the correspondence between the "small world", the microcosm, which is man himself, and the "great world", the macrocosm. When the spiritual disciple has come to this realization, a new experience can occur for him. He begins to feel as if he has grown together with the whole structure of the world, even though he feels fully independent. This feeling is an absorption into the whole world, a becoming one with it, but without losing its own essence. This stage of development can be described as "becoming one with the macrocosm". It is significant that this becoming one should not be thought of as if the special consciousness would cease and the human being would flow out into the universe. Such a thought would only be the expression of an opinion flowing from untrained judgment. The individual stages of higher knowledge in the sense of the initiation process described here can now be described in the following way:
- The study of spiritual science, whereby one first makes use of the power of judgment which one has gained in the physical-sensual world.
- The acquisition of imaginative knowledge
- Reading the hidden Scriptures (corresponding to inspiration).
- Living in the spiritual environment (according to intuition).
- The realization of the relationship between microcosm and macrocosm.
- Becoming one with the macrocosm.
- The overall experience of the previous experiences as a basic mood of the soul.
[ 62 ] However, these stages need not be thought of as being experienced one after the other. Rather, the training can proceed in such a way that, depending on the individuality of the spiritual disciple, a previous stage is only passed through to a certain degree when he begins to do exercises that correspond to the following stage. For example, it can be quite good that one has only gained a few imaginations in a safe way and yet is already doing exercises that draw inspiration, intuition or the realization of the connection between the microcosm and macrocosm into the realm of one's own experience.
[ 63 ] When the student of the spirit has gained an experience of intuition, he not only knows the images of the soul-spiritual world, he can not only read their relationships in the "hidden script": he comes to the realization of the beings themselves, through whose interaction the world to which the human being belongs comes into being. And he thereby learns to know himself in the form he has as a spiritual being in the soul-spiritual world. He has come to a realization of his higher self, and he has noticed how he must continue to work in order to master his double, the "guardian of the threshold". However, he has also had an encounter with the "great guardian of the threshold", who stands before him like a constant encouragement to continue working. This "great guardian of the threshold" now becomes his role model, whom he wants to follow. When this feeling arises in the spiritual disciple, then he has gained the opportunity to recognize who actually stands before him as the "great guardian of the threshold". This guardian is now transformed in the disciple's perception into the figure of Christ, whose nature and intervention in earthly development can be seen in the previous chapters of this book. The spiritual disciple is thereby initiated into the sublime mystery itself, which is linked to the name of Christ. The Christ shows himself to him as the "great human earthly model". - If the Christ is recognized in the spiritual world in this way through intuition, then it also becomes understandable what took place on earth historically in the fourth post-Atlantean period of the earth's development (in the Greco-Latin period). How the high solar being, the Christ-being, intervened in the earth's development at this time, and how it now continues to work within this earth's development, becomes a self-experienced realization for the student of the spirit. It is therefore an insight into the meaning and significance of earthly development, which the spiritual disciple receives through intuition.
[ 64 ] The path to knowledge of the supersensible worlds described here is one that every human being can take, regardless of the situation in which he finds himself within the present conditions of life. When speaking of such a path, one must bear in mind that the goal of knowledge and truth is the same at all times of earthly development, but that man's starting points were different at different times. At present, man cannot start from the same point of departure if he wants to enter the supersensible realms, as for example the ancient Egyptian initiate did. Therefore, the exercises that were imposed on the spiritual disciple in ancient Egypt cannot easily be carried out by the man of today. Since that time human souls have passed through various embodiments; and this progression from embodiment to embodiment is not without meaning and significance. The abilities and characteristics of souls change from embodiment to embodiment. Anyone who takes even a superficial look at human historical life can see that since the twelfth and thirteenth centuries after Christ, all living conditions have changed in comparison with the past, and that people's opinions, feelings and abilities have become different from what they were before. The path to higher knowledge described here is one that is suitable for souls who embody themselves in the immediate present. It is such that it sets the starting point of spiritual development at the point where man stands in the present, when he finds himself in any of the living conditions given to him by this present. - Progressive development leads mankind from period to period to ever different forms with regard to the paths to higher knowledge, just as outer life changes its forms. And there must always be perfect harmony between the outer life and the initiation.