The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Seventh Meditation

The meditator tries to form ideas about the nature of experience in supersensible worlds

[ 1 ] The experiences which have proved necessary for the soul when it wants to penetrate into the supersensible worlds can appear daunting to some people. Such a person may say to himself that he does not know what will happen to him if he ventures into these processes and how he will endure them. Under the influence of such a feeling, the thought easily arises that it would be better not to intervene artificially in the soul's course of development, but to leave oneself quietly to the unconscious guidance and wait and see where this will take the human inner being in the course of the future. Such a thought, however, will always have to be pushed back by those who can really animate the other in themselves, that it is natural in the human being to bring themselves forward, and that it would mean letting forces that are waiting to unfold in the soul wither away contrary to duty if they were not taken care of. The powers of self-development lie in every human soul; and there cannot be a single one that would not want to hear the voice for the unfolding of these powers, if it is able to experience something of them and their meaning in any way.

[ 2 ] No one will allow himself to be prevented from ascending to the higher worlds if he does not place himself from the outset in an incorrect relationship to the processes he has to undergo. These processes are as they were presented in the previous meditations. And if they are expressed in words that can only be taken from ordinary human life, then they can only be expressed correctly in this way. For experiences of the supersensible path of knowledge present themselves to the human soul in such a way that they are quite similar to what, for example, a heightened feeling of loneliness, a feeling of floating above a bottomless pit, and the like can mean for the human soul. In the experience of such sensations, the forces for the path of knowledge are generated. They are the seeds for the fruits of supersensible knowledge. To a certain extent, all these experiences carry within them something that lies deeply hidden. When they are then lived through, this hidden something is brought to its fullest tension; it bursts the feeling of loneliness, which is like a shell around this "something", and emerges in the life of the soul as a means of knowledge.

[ 3 ] However, one must take into consideration that, if the right path is taken, behind every such experience another one immediately arises. It happens in such a way that if one is there, the other cannot fail to appear. To that which one has to endure is immediately added the strength to really endure the event, if only one will calmly reflect on this strength and take the time to notice that which wants to reveal itself in the soul. When a tormenting experience arises, and at the same time the certain feeling lives in the soul that there are forces which make the torment bearable and with which one can connect oneself, then it comes about that one relates to the experiences, which would be unbearable if they arose in the course of ordinary life, in such a way as if one were one's own spectator to everything experienced in this way. This is the reason why people who are on the path to supersensible knowledge experience the ups and downs of many emotional waves within themselves, and yet show themselves to be in complete equanimity within the life of the senses. - It is quite possible that experiences which take place in the inner life also communicate themselves to the mood of the outer life in the world of the senses, so that one then temporarily does not come to terms with life and with oneself as one could in the life that lies before the path of cognition. We are then dependent on drawing the forces from what we have already acquired within ourselves to enable us to come to terms again. And there can be no situation on the rightly pursued path of knowledge in which this would not be possible.

[ 4 ] The best path of knowledge will always be that which leads to the supersensible world through the intensification or condensation of the life of the soul by means of inner contemplation with the power of thought or feeling. It is not a matter of experiencing the thought or sensation as one does in order to find one's way within the sensory world, but of living intensely with and in the thought or sensation and drawing all one's soul forces into it. They should fill the consciousness completely for the time of inner contemplation. Think, for example, of a thought which has brought some conviction to the soul; first let it play out what it has in terms of conviction value and live with it again and again so that one becomes completely one with it. There is absolutely no need for a thought that relates to the things of the higher world order, although such a thought is useful to a greater degree. A thought that depicts an ordinary experience can also be used for inner contemplation. Sensations are fruitful which represent intentions, for example in relation to deeds of love, and which are kindled within oneself to the warmest and most sincere human experience. Effective, however, when it is primarily a matter of knowledge, are symbolic ideas which are gained from life, or to which one gives oneself on the advice of people who are, so to speak, experts in this field, because they know the fruitfulness of the means used from what has resulted for themselves through them.

[ 5 ] Through such contemplation, which must become a habit of life, indeed a condition of life, just as breathing is a condition of bodily life, the powers of the soul will be drawn together and strengthened in their contraction. One must only succeed in keeping oneself for the times of inner contemplation in such a way that no external sensory impressions and also no memories of such impressions play into the life of the soul. The memories of all that one has experienced in ordinary life, which gives pleasure or pain to the soul, must also remain silent, so that the soul is entirely devoted to that which one wants to be in it. The powers of supersensible knowledge arise only from what one has thus attained through inner contemplation, the content and form of which one has brought about through the expenditure of one's own soul power. It does not matter where one gets the content of the contemplation from; one can have it from an expert in the field, or even from spiritual-scientific literature; one must only make it one's own inner experience and not want to be determined to contemplation only by what comes from one's own soul, what one considers to be the best content of contemplation. Such a content has little power because the soul feels related to it from the outset and thus cannot make the necessary effort to first become one with it. However, this effort is what is effective for the supersensible powers of cognition, not the oneness with the content of immersion as such.

[ 6 ] There are other ways of attaining extrasensory vision. Through their whole disposition, people can come to inner deepening, to fervent experience. This can release supersensible powers of insight in their soul. Such powers can often arise as if suddenly in souls which might seem as if they were not at all predestined to such experiences. Supersensible soul-life can occur in the most varied ways; but an experience that controls itself, as man controls himself in his ordinary sensory being, can only come about if the path of cognition described is followed. Any other intrusion of the supersensible world into the experiences of the soul will lead to them being forced in and the person losing himself to them, or to him giving in to all kinds of illusions about their value, about their true meaning within the real supersensible world.

[ 7 ] It must be borne in mind that the soul walks on the supersensible path of knowledge. It can happen that one is not at all predisposed for life in the senses to indulge in all kinds of deceptions and illusions; but that as soon as one enters the supersensible world, one indulges in such deceptions or illusions in the most credulous way. It can also happen that one has a very good, healthy sense of truth in the senses, which says to itself: you must not believe that about a thing or a process which only satisfies your sense of self; and yet this is the case, such a soul can come to see in the supersensible world that which is appropriate to this sense of self. One must consider how this sense of self is involved in what one beholds. One sees what this sense of self is directed towards according to its inclination. One does not know that it is he who directs the spiritual gaze. And it is then quite natural that one accepts what one sees as truth. Protection can only be provided by good self-contemplation, by the energetic will to self-knowledge on the supersensible path of knowledge, to make oneself more and more ready to really notice in one's own soul how much of the sense of self is present and where it speaks. Then, if you show yourself the possibility of your own soul to fall prey to the sense of self here or there, relentlessly and energetically in inner contemplation, you will gradually free yourself from the guidance of the sense of self.

[ 8 ] True unimpeded mobility of the soul in the higher worlds requires that it acquire an understanding of how differently certain qualities of the soul relate to the spiritual world than to the sensual world. This becomes particularly clear when we look at the moral qualities of the soul. Within the senses, a distinction must be made between the laws of nature and the moral laws. If you want to explain the course of natural processes, you cannot stick to moral concepts. A poisonous plant is explained according to natural laws and is not morally condemned for being poisonous. It will be clear to you that for the animal world you can at most speak of echoes of the moral, but that a moral judgment in the true sense would only cause a disturbance of what is really under consideration. In the context of human life, moral judgment about the value of existence begins to have meaning. It is something on which man himself always makes his value dependent when he comes to judge himself impartially. No one, however, can think of regarding the laws of nature as something equal, or even similar, to the laws of morality if he considers the senses correctly.

[ 9 ] As soon as one enters the higher worlds, this becomes different. The more spiritual the worlds one enters, the more the moral laws and what can be called the laws of nature for these worlds coincide. In the senses, one is aware that one speaks for this being in a non-actual sense when one says of an evil deed that it burns in the soul. We know that natural burning is something quite different. A similar distinction does not exist for the supersensible worlds. Hatred or envy are at the same time forces which act in such a way that the corresponding effects can be described as the natural processes of these worlds. Hatred or envy have the effect that the hated or envied being has a consuming, extinguishing effect on the hater or envier, so that processes of destruction are formed which are detrimental to the spiritual being. Love works in the spiritual worlds in such a way that one must address the effect as a warmth radiation, which is generative, promoting. - This can already be noticed in the human elementary body. Within the world of the senses, the hand that performs an immoral act must be explained according to the laws of nature in exactly the same way as the hand that serves moral action. Certain elementary parts of man, however, remain undeveloped if they lack corresponding moral sentiments. And imperfect development of elementary organs must be attributed to moral qualities in the same way that natural processes are explained by natural laws according to the laws of nature in the senses. One must never conclude from the imperfect development of a sensory organ to the imperfect development of the corresponding part in the elementary body. One must always be aware that quite different kinds of laws apply to the different worlds. A human being may have imperfectly developed a physical organ; the corresponding elementary organ may not merely be normally perfect, but it may even be perfect to the extent that the physical organ is imperfect.

[ 10 ] The difference between the supersensible worlds and the sensible world is also significant in everything connected with the concepts of "beauty" and "ugliness". The way in which one uses these concepts in the senses loses all meaning as soon as one enters the supersensible worlds. A being can only be called "beautiful", if one remembers the meaning of the word in the senses, if it succeeds in revealing everything that it experiences within itself to the other beings in its world, so that these other beings can participate in its entire experience. The ability to reveal oneself completely with everything that is within, and not to have to keep anything hidden within oneself, could be described as "beautiful" in the higher worlds. And this concept coincides completely with that of unreserved sincerity, of honestly living out what a being carries within itself. That could be called "ugly" which does not want to reveal its inner content in its outer appearance, which holds back its own experience and hides itself from other beings with regard to certain qualities. Such a being withdraws from its spiritual environment. This concept coincides with that of insincere self-revelation. In the spiritual world, lying and being ugly are as a reality the same thing, so that a being that appears ugly is a liar.

[ 11 ] Also that which is recognized in the senses as desires, wishes, appears with a completely different meaning in the spiritual world. Such desires, which arise from the inner nature of the human soul in the sense world, do not exist in the spiritual world. What can be called desires there are kindled by what is seen outside the being. A being that must feel that it does not have some quality that it should have according to its nature, sees another being that has this quality. And it cannot help but constantly have this other being before it. Just as in the world of the senses the eye naturally sees visible things, so the lack of a quality always leads a being in the supersensible world into the vicinity of a corresponding other being that has the perfection in question. And the sight of this being becomes a perpetual reproach which acts as a real force, so that the being which is afflicted with the defect has the desire to correct the defect in itself through the sight. This is a completely different experience from that of a desire in the senses. - Free will is not impaired by such conditions in the spiritual world. A being can defend itself against what a sight wants to evoke in it. Then it will gradually manage to get away from the proximity of the exemplary being. However, the consequence of this will be that such a being that rejects its model will place itself in worlds in which it has worse conditions of existence than those that would have been given to it in the world for which it is, so to speak, predestined.

[ 12 ] This all shows the human soul that after entering the supersensible worlds, the world of imagination must be transformed. Concepts must be transformed, expanded, merged with others if the supersensible world is to be described correctly. - Hence it is that descriptions of the supersensible worlds, which want to use the concepts coined for the senses without further change, always have something inappropriate about them. - We can remember that it is the result of correct human feeling to use concepts that first have their full meaning for the supersensible worlds more or less symbolically within the senses, or even as truly descriptive of the thing. In this way, someone can really perceive lying as ugly. Compared with the way this concept stands in the supersensible world, however, such a use of the word in the senses is only an echo that arises because all worlds have relationships to one another, and these relationships are darkly felt, unconsciously thought in the senses. But it must be borne in mind that in the senses what is false, which is felt to be ugly, need not be ugly in its outer appearance. That one would even confuse the ideas if one wanted to explain an ugly thing in sensual nature from a lying thing. For the supersensible world, however, it is the case that the illusory, if it is seen to be true, imposes itself as ugly in its revelation. - Here, too, deceptions come into consideration, which we must beware of. The soul may encounter a being in the supersensible world which must rightly be called evil, and yet which reveals itself in such an image as is called "beautiful" if one applies the idea of "beauty" which one brings with one from the senses. In such a case, one will only really see when one penetrates to the inner depths of the being. Then one will experience how the "beautiful" revelation is a mask that does not correspond to the essence; and one will then perceive with particular strength as ugliness what one wanted to perceive as "beautiful" according to ideas from the senses. And the moment this succeeds, the "evil" being is no longer able to feign "beauty". It must reveal itself to such an observer in its true form, which can only be an imperfect expression of what it is on the inside. Such phenomena of the supersensible world make it particularly clear how human ideas must change when entering this world.