Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts
GA 26
25. The Sense- and Thought-Systems of Man in Relation to the World
[ 1 ] When man first applies Imaginative Cognition to the contemplation of his own human being, he begins by eliminating his own sense-system from the field of vision. As he now observes himself, he becomes a being without the system of senses. Not that he ceases to have before his soul pictures such as were previously conveyed by the sense-organs. But he ceases to feel himself connected with the outer physical world through the sense-organs. The pictures of the outer physical world which he now has before his soul are no longer conveyed by the organs of sense. His very vision of them is proof of the fact that even through the sense-connection with the outer world of Nature, he has yet another connection with this world—one that does not depend on the senses. It is a connection with the Spirit that is embodied in the world of Nature.
[ 2 ] In such vision, therefore, the physical world falls away from man. It is the earthly world that falls away. Man no longer feels this earthly world upon him.
[ 3 ] It might be imagined that he would in the same moment lose self-consciousness. For this would seem to follow from our previous studies, which showed self-consciousness to be an outcome of the connection of man with the Earth-nature. But it is not so. Man preserves what he has gained through the earthly nature, even when, after having gained it, he divests himself of it in the conscious activity of higher knowledge.
[ 4 ] By the above-described, spiritually Imaginative vision, the fact is revealed that man's sense-system is not, fundamentally speaking, at all intensely connected with his being. It is not really he who lives in this sense-system, but his environment. It is the outer world with its nature which has built itself into the sense-organisation of man.
[ 5 ] Therefore, when he becomes an Imaginative seer, man really regards his sense-system as a portion of the outer world.
It is indeed closer to his being than the world of Nature around him; but still, it belongs to the outer world. It is only distinguished from the remaining outer world in this, that man can dive down into the latter with activity of knowledge through sense-perception and in no other way. Into his own sense-system, on the other hand, he dives down with conscious inner experience. The sense-system is a part of the outer world; but into this outer world man penetrates with his own being of soul-and-spirit, which he brings with him as he descends from the Spirit-world and enters Earth-existence.
[ 6 ] Except for this fact that he fills it with his own being of soul-and-spirit, man's sense-system is of the outer world, just as is the plant kingdom that is spread around him. The eye in the last resort belongs to the world and not to man, just as the rose which man perceives belongs not to him, but to the world.
[ 7 ] In the age of cosmic evolution that man has just passed through, thinkers arose who declared that colour, sound, warmth-impressions and the like were not really in the world, but in the human being. The ‘red colour,’ they say, is not anything at all out there in the world-environment of man; it is but the effect of an unknown reality upon him. But the very opposite of this conception is the truth. It is not the colour which, with the eye, belongs to man; it is the eye that with the colour belongs to the world. During his life on Earth man does not let the Earth-environment pour in upon himself, but grows outward—from birth to death—into this outer world.
[ 8 ] It is significant that at the end of the Age of Darkness, when men stared out into the world without even dimly experiencing the light of the Spirit, the true idea of man's relationship to his environment was replaced by its very opposite.
[ 9 ] When, in Imaginative Cognition, man has eliminated that environment in which he lives by means of his sense-system, there enters into the sphere of conscious experience another system—namely, that which is the bearer of his Thought, even as the sense-system is the bearer of his picture-world of sense-perception.
[ 10 ] And now man knows himself to be connected through his thinking system with the cosmic environment of the stars, even as he previously knew himself to be connected through his sense-system with the Earth-environment. He now recognises himself as a cosmic being. His thoughts are no longer phantom-shadow pictures. They are saturated with reality, as sense-pictures are in the act of sense-perception. [ 11 ] And if at this stage the knower passes on to Inspiration, he becomes aware that he can cast aside this world of which the thinking system is the bearer, just as he can cast aside the earthly. He sees that with his thinking system, too, he belongs, not to his own being, but to the world. He realises how the world thoughts hold sway in him by means of his own thinking system. Here again he becomes aware that he thinks, not by receiving images of the world into himself, but by growing outward with his own thinking Organisation into the Thinking of the world.
[ 12 ] Both with respect to his sense-system and his thinking system, man is world. The world builds itself into him. In sense-perception and in thought, he is not he himself, but part of the contents of the world.
[ 13 ] Now into his thinking system man penetrates with his own being of soul-and-spirit, which belongs neither to the earthly world nor to the world of stars, but is of a wholly spiritual nature and thrives in man from life to life on Earth. This being of soul-and-spirit is accessible only to Inspiration.
[ 14 ] Thus man steps out of the earthly and cosmic systems of his nature, to stand before himself as a being of pure soul-and-spirit through conscious Inspiration.
[ 15 ] And in this being of pure soul-and-spirit he meets the life and law of his own destiny.
[ 16 ] With the sense-system man lives in his physical body, with the thinking system in his etheric body. Both systems having been cast aside in living activity of knowledge, he finds himself in his astral body.
[ 17 ] Every time man casts aside a portion of the nature which he has assumed, the content of his soul is indeed impoverished on the one hand; and yet on the other hand it is enriched. The physical body being eliminated, the beauty of the plant world as the senses see it is before him no longer, save in a far paler form; but on the other hand the whole world of elemental beings dwelling in the plant-kingdom rises up before his soul.
[ 18 ] Because this is so, the man of true spiritual knowledge has no ascetic attitude to what the senses can perceive. In the very spiritual experience, there remains alive in him the inner need to perceive once more through the senses what he now experiences in the Spirit. In the full human being, seeking as he does to experience the whole reality, sense perception awakens the longing for its counterpart—the world of elemental beings. Likewise the vision of the elemental beings kindles the longing for the content of sense-perception once again.
[ 19 ] Thus in the fullness of the life of man, Spirit longs for sense and sense for Spirit. There would be emptiness in spiritual existence, if the experiences of the conscious life in the senses were not there as a memory. There would be darkness in the life of sense-experience, if it were not for the active force of the Spirit which lights into it, albeit subconsciously at first.
[ 20 ] Hence, when man will have made himself ripe to experience the activity of Michael, it will not mean that souls become impoverished in their experience of Nature. On the contrary, they will be enriched in this respect. And in the life of feeling, too, man will not tend to withdraw from sense experience, but will be glad and eager to receive the wonders of this world of the senses more fully yet into his soul.
(March, 1925)
Further Leading Thoughts, issued from the Goetheanum (with regard to the foregoing study: The Sense- and Thought-Systems of Man, in relation to the World)
[ 21 ] 171. The Organisation of the human senses belongs not to man's own nature, but is built into it by the outer world during his earthly life. Spatially though it is in man, in its real essence the perceiving eye is in the World. Man with his soul and spirit reaches out into that which the World is experiencing in him through his senses. He does not receive the physical environment into himself during his life on Earth, but grows out into it with his own soul and spirit.
[ 22 ] 172. Likewise his thinking Organisation: through this he grows out into the existence of the stars. He knows himself as a world of stars; he lives and moves in the Cosmic Thoughts, when in the living experience of Knowledge he has put away the Organisation of the senses.
[ 23 ] 173. When both are put away-the earthly world and the world of the stars as well-man stands before himself as a Being of soul, and spirit. Here at length he is no longer of the World; here he is truly man. To become aware of what he experiences here, is Self-knowledge; even as it is World-knowledge to become aware in the Organisation of the senses and of thought.
Des Menschen Sinnes- und Denkorganisation im Verhältnis zur Welt
(Goetheanum, Februar 1925)
[ 1 ] Wenn der Mensch, das eigene Menschenwesen betrachtend, zunächst das imaginative Erkennen auf sich anwendet, so streift er in der Anschauung sein Sinnessystem ab. Er wird für seine Selbstanschauung ein Wesen ohne dieses System. Er hört nicht auf, Bilder vor seiner Seele zu haben, die vorher von den Sinnesorganen getragen waren; aber er hört auf, sich durch diese Organe mit der physischen Außenwelt verbunden zu fühlen. Die Bilder, die er von der physischen Außenwelt vor der Seele hat, sind jetzt nicht von den Sinnesorganen getragen: sie sind für die unmittelbare Anschauung ein Beweis dafür, daß der Mensch durch die Sinnesverbindung hindurch mit der natürlichen Umwelt noch in einer ändern Verbindung steht, die nicht von den Sinnen getragen ist. Es ist die Verbindung mit dem Geiste, der in der natürlichen Außenwelt verkörpert ist.
[ 2 ] In solcher Anschauung fällt also die physische Welt von dem Menschen ab. Es ist das Irdische, das abfällt. Der Mensch fühlt dieses Irdische nicht mehr an sich.
[ 3 ] Man könnte glauben, daß ihm damit das Selbstbewußtsein schwindet. Das scheint aus den bisherigen Betrachtungen zu folgen, die das Selbstbewußtsein als ein Ergebnis des Zusammenhanges des Menschen mit der Erden-Wesenheit aufgezeigt haben. Es ist aber nicht so. Was der Mensch durch das Irdische erworben hat, das bleibt ihm, auch wenn er nach der Erwerbung im erlebenden Erkennen das Irdische von sich abstreift.
[ 4 ] Durch die geschilderte geistig-imaginative Anschauung zeigt sich, daß der Mensch im Grunde sein Sinnessystem gar nicht intensiv mit sich verbunden hat. Es lebt eigentlich nicht er in diesem Sinnessystem, sondern die Umwelt. Diese hat sich mit ihrem Wesen in die Sinnesorganisation hineingebaut.
[ 5 ] Und der imaginativ-schauende Mensch betrachtet deshalb auch die Sinnesorganisation als ein Stück Außenwelt. Ein Stück Außenwelt, das ihm allerdings nähersteht als die natürliche Umwelt, das aber doch Außenwelt ist. Es unterscheidet sich von der übrigen Außenwelt nur dadurch, daß der Mensch in diese nicht anders als durch die Sinneswahrnehmung erkennend untertauchen kann. In seine Sinnesorganisation taucht er aber erlebend unter. Die Sinnesorganisation ist Außenwelt, aber der Mensch streckt in diese Außenwelt sein geistig-seelisches Wesen hinein, das er beim Betreten des Erdendaseins aus der Geist-Welt mitbringt.
[ 6 ] Mit Ausnahme der Tatsache, daß der Mensch seine Sinnesorganisation mit seinem geistig-seelischen Wesen erfüllt, ist diese Organisation Außenwelt, wie es die um ihn sich ausbreitende Pflanzenwelt ist. Das Auge gehört letzten Endes der Welt, nicht dem Menschen, wie die Rose, die der Mensch wahrnimmt, nicht ihm, sondern der Welt gehört.
[ 7 ] In dem Zeitalter, das der Mensch in der kosmischen Entwickelung eben durchgemacht hat, traten Erkennende auf, die da sagten: Farbe, Ton, Wärme-Eindrücke seien eigentlich nicht in der Welt, sondern im Menschen. Die «rote Farbe», so sagen sie, sei nichts da draußen in der menschlichen Weltumgebung, sondern nur die Wirkung von etwas Unbekanntem auf den Menschen. - Aber die Wahrheit ist das gerade Gegenteil von dieser Anschauung. Nicht die Farbe gehört mit dem Auge dem Menschenwesen an, sondern das Auge gehört mit der Farbe der Welt an. Der Mensch läßt während seines Erdenlebens nicht die irdische Umgebung in sich hereinströmen, sondern er wächst zwischen Geburt und Tod in diese Außenwelt hinaus.
[ 8 ] Es ist bedeutsam, daß sich am Ende des finsteren Zeitalters, in dem der Mensch in die Welt starrt, ohne das Licht des Geistes auch nur ahnend zu erleben, die wahre Ansicht von dem Verhältnis des Menschen zur Umwelt geradezu in das Gegenbild des Wahren verkehrt.
[ 9 ] Hat der imaginativ Erkennende diejenige Umwelt abgestreift, in der er mit seiner Sinnesorganisation lebt, so tritt in das Erleben eine Organisation ein, von der das Denken so getragen ist wie das sinnliche Bild-Wahrnehmen durch die Sinnesorganisation.
[ 10 ] Und jetzt weiß sich der Mensch durch diese Denk-Organisation mit der kosmischen Sternen-Umgebung so in Zusammenhang, wie er sich vorher durch die Sinnes-Organisation mit der Erden-Umgebung in Zusammenhang gewußt hat. Er erkennt sich als kosmisches Wesen. Die Gedanken sind nicht mehr Schattenbilder; sie sind von Wirklichkeit durchtränkt wie die Sinnesbilder in der sinnlichen Wahrnehmung.
[ 11 ] Steigt nun der Erkennende zur Inspiration auf, so wird er gewahr, daß er diese Welt, die sich auf die Denkorganisation stützt, ebenso abstreifen kann wie die irdische. Er durchschaut, wie er auch mit dieser Denkorganisation nicht dem eigenen Wesen, sondern der Welt angehört. Er durchschaut, wie die Weltgedanken durch seine eigene Denk-Organisation in ihm walten. Er wird wieder gewahr, wie er denkt, indem er nicht Abbilder der Welt in sich hereinnimmt, sondern wie er mit der Denkorganisation in das Weltdenken hinauswächst.
[ 12 ] Sowohl in bezug auf die Sinnesorganisation wie auf das Denksystem ist der Mensch Welt. Die Welt baut sich in ihn hinein. Dadurch ist er im Sinneswahrnehmen und im Denken nicht er selbst, sondern er ist da Welt-Inhalt.
[ 13 ] In die Denkorganisation streckt nun der Mensch das Geistig-Seelische seines Wesens hinein, das weder der Erden- noch der Sternen-Welt angehört, das ganz geistiger Art ist und von Erdenleben zu Erdenleben in dem Menschen west. Dieses Geistig-Seelische ist nur der Inspiration zugänglich.
[ 14 ] So tritt der Mensch aus seiner irdisch-kosmischen Organisation heraus, um durch seine Inspiration als rein geistigseelisches Wesen vor sich zu stehen.
[ 15 ] In dieser rein geistig-seelischen Wesenheit trifft der Mensch auf das Walten seines Schicksals auf.
[ 16 ] Mit der Sinnes-Organisation lebt der Mensch in seinem physischen Leib, mit der Denk-Organisation in seinem ätherischen Leib. Nach Abstreifung beider Organisationen durch das erlebende Erkennen ist er in seinem astralischen Leib.
[ 17 ] Jedesmal, wenn der Mensch von seinem angenommenen Wesen etwas abstreift, wird zwar auf der einen Seite sein Seelen-Inhalt ärmer; aber er wird auf der ändern Seite zugleich reicher. Hat der Mensch nach der Abstreifung des physischen Leibes die Schönheit der sinnenfälligen Pflanzenwelt nur noch abgeblaßt vor sich, so tritt dafür vor seine Seele die ganze Welt der Elementarwesen, die in dem Pflanzenreiche leben.
[ 18 ] Weil es so ist, herrscht aber bei dem wirklich geistig Erkennenden nicht eine asketische Stimmung gegenüber dem, was die Sinne wahrnehmen. Im geistigen Erleben bleibt ihm voll-lebendig das Bedürfnis, das Geistig-Erlebte auch wieder durch die Sinne wahrzunehmen. Und wie bei dem Vollmenschen, der nach Erleben der ganzen Wirklichkeit strebt, die Sinneswahrnehmung die Sehnsucht nach dem Gegenpol, nach der Welt der Elementarwesen weckt, so weckt das Anschauen der Elementarwesen wieder die Sehnsucht nach dem Inhalt der Sinneswahrnehmung.
[ 19 ] Im Gesamt-Menschenleben verlangt der Geist nach dem Sinne, und der Sinn nach dem Geiste. — Im geistigen Dasein wäre Leerheit, wenn nicht als Erinnerung die Erlebnisse des Sinnen-Erlebens darinnen wären; im Sinnes-Erleben wäre Finsternis, wenn nicht leuchtend, obwohl zunächst unterbewußt, die Kraft des Geistigen hereinwirkte.
[ 20 ] Es wird daher, wenn sich der Mensch reif gemacht haben wird, die Betätigung des Michael mitzuerleben, nicht etwa ein Verarmen der Seelen an Natur-Erlebnissen eintreten, sondern im Gegenteil eine Bereicherung. Und auch das Gefühlsleben wird nicht dazu neigen, sich von dem Sinnes-Erleben abzuziehen, sondern es wird freudige Neigung da sein, um die Wunder der Sinnen-Welt voll in die Seele aufzunehmen.
Goetheanum, Februar 1925.
Leitsätze Nr. 171 bis 173
(15. März 1925)
(Mit Bezug auf die vorhergehende Betrachtung: Des Menschen Sinnes- und Denkorganisation im Verhältnis zur Welt)
[ 21 ] 171. Die menschliche Sinnesorganisation gehört nicht der Menschen-Wesenheit an, sondern ist von der Umwelt während des Erdenlebens in diese hineingebaut. Das wahrnehmende Auge ist räumlich im Menschen, wesenhaft ist es in der Welt. Und der Mensch streckt sein geistig-seelisches Wesen in dasjenige hinein, was die Welt durch seine Sinne in ihm erlebt. Der Mensch nimmt die physische Umgebung während seines Erdenlebens nicht in sich auf, sondern er wächst mit seinem geistig-seelischen Wesen in diese Umgebung hinein.
[ 22 ] 172. Ähnlich ist es mit der Denk-Organisation. Der Mensch wächst durch sie in das Sternendasein hinein. Er erkennt sich selbst als Sternenwelt. In den Weltgedanken webt und lebt der Mensch, wenn er im erlebenden Erkennen die Sinnes-Organisation abgestreift hat.
[ 23 ] 173. Nach Abstreifung von beidem, der Erden weit und der Sternenwelt, steht der Mensch als geistig-seelisches Wesen vor sich. Da ist er dann nicht mehr Welt, da ist er im wahren Sinne Mensch. Und gewahr werden, was er da erlebt, heißt Sich-Erkennen, wie Gewahr-Werden in der Sinnes- und Denkorganisation Welt-Erkennen heißt.
Man's organization of sense and thought in relation to the world
(Goetheanum, February 1925)
[ 1 ] When man, contemplating his own human being, first applies imaginative cognition to himself, he casts off his sense system in contemplation. For his self-perception, he becomes a being without this system. He does not cease to have images before his soul which were previously carried by the sense organs; but he ceases to feel himself connected with the physical outer world through these organs. The images he has of the physical outer world before his soul are now not borne by the sense organs: they are proof for the immediate perception that the human being, through the sense connection, is still in a changed connection with the natural environment that is not borne by the senses. It is the connection with the spirit that is embodied in the natural external world.
[ 2 ] In such a view, the physical world falls away from the human being. It is the earthly that falls away. The human being no longer feels this earthly in himself.
[ 3 ] One could believe that his self-consciousness thus disappears. This seems to follow from the previous observations, which have shown self-consciousness to be a result of man's connection with the earthly being. But it is not so. What man has acquired through the earthly remains with him, even if after the acquisition he strips the earthly from himself in experiencing cognition.
[ 4 ] Through the spiritual-imaginative view described above, it becomes apparent that the human being has basically not intensively connected his sensory system with himself. It is not actually he who lives in this sensory system, but the environment. This has built itself into the sensory organization with its essence.
[ 5 ] And the imaginative-seeing human being therefore also regards the sensory organization as a piece of the external world. A piece of the outside world that is closer to him than the natural environment, but which is still the outside world. It differs from the rest of the external world only in that man cannot immerse himself in it other than through sensory perception. But he immerses himself in his sensory organization through experience. The sensory organization is the outer world, but man stretches into this outer world his spiritual-soul being, which he brings with him from the spirit world when he enters earthly existence.
[ 6 ] With the exception of the fact that man fills his sense organization with his spiritual-soul being, this organization is the outer world, as is the plant world that spreads out around him. The eye ultimately belongs to the world, not to man, just as the rose that man perceives belongs not to him but to the world.
[ 7 ] In the age that man has just passed through in the cosmic development, cognizers appeared who said that color, sound and warmth impressions are not actually in the world, but in man. The "red color", they say, is nothing out there in the human world environment, but only the effect of something unknown on the human being. - But the truth is the exact opposite of this view. It is not the color that belongs to the human being with the eye, but the eye belongs to the world with the color. During his life on earth, man does not allow the earthly environment to flow into him, but he grows between birth and death into this outer world.
[ 8 ] It is significant that at the end of the dark ages, in which man stares into the world without even suspecting the light of the spirit, the true view of man's relationship to the environment is virtually transformed into the antithesis of the true.
[ 9 ] Once the imaginative cognizer has stripped off the environment in which he lives with his sensory organization, an organization enters into experience by which thinking is supported in the same way as sensory image-perception is supported by sensory organization.
[ 10 ] And now, through this organization of thought, man knows himself to be in connection with the cosmic stellar environment in the same way as he previously knew himself to be in connection with the earthly environment through the organization of the senses. He recognizes himself as a cosmic being. The thoughts are no longer shadow images; they are imbued with reality like the sensory images in sensory perception.
[ 11 ] When the cognizer ascends to inspiration, he becomes aware that he can strip off this world, which is based on the organization of thought, just as he can strip off the earthly world. He sees through how, even with this mental organization, he does not belong to his own being but to the world. He sees through how the thoughts of the world rule in him through his own mental organization. He becomes aware again of how he thinks by not taking images of the world into himself, but how he grows out with the organization of thought into the thinking of the world.
[ 12 ] Both in relation to the organization of the senses and to the system of thought, man is world. The world builds itself into him. As a result, he is not himself in sensory perception and thinking, but he is the content of the world.
[ 13 ] Into the organization of thought man now stretches the spiritual-soulful of his being, which belongs neither to the earth-world nor to the star-world, which is of a completely spiritual kind and from earth-life to earth-life in man west. This spiritual-mental is only accessible to inspiration.
[ 14 ] So man steps out of his earthly-cosmic organization in order to stand before himself as a purely spiritual-soul being through his inspiration.
[ 15 ] In this purely spiritual-soul entity, man encounters the workings of his destiny.
[ 16 ] With the sense-organization man lives in his physical body, with the thinking-organization in his etheric body. After stripping off both organizations through the experiencing cognition, he is in his astral body.
[ 17 ] Every time man strips off something from his assumed being, his soul content becomes poorer on one side; but it becomes richer on the other side at the same time. If, after the shedding of the physical body, the beauty of the sensuous plant world is only pale before him, then the whole world of elemental beings that live in the plant kingdom appears before his soul.
[ 18 ] Because it is so, however, the truly spiritually cognizing person does not have an ascetic mood towards what the senses perceive. In spiritual experience the need to perceive what is spiritually experienced through the senses remains fully alive. And just as sensory perception awakens the longing for the opposite pole, for the world of elemental beings, in the full human being who strives to experience the whole of reality, so looking at the elemental beings again awakens the longing for the content of sensory perception.
[ 19 ] In human life as a whole, the spirit longs for the senses, and the senses for the spirit. - In spiritual existence there would be emptiness if the experiences of sense-experience were not in it as memory; in sense-experience there would be darkness if the power of the spiritual did not shine in, although at first subconsciously.
[ 20 ] When the human being has matured to experience the activity of Michael, there will therefore not be an impoverishment of the souls in natural experiences, but on the contrary an enrichment. And also the emotional life will not tend to withdraw from the sensory experience, but there will be a joyful inclination to fully absorb the wonders of the sensory world into the soul.
Goetheanum, February 1925.
Guiding Principles No. 171 to 173
(March 15, 1925)
(With reference to the previous consideration: Man's organization of sense and thought in relation to the world)
[ 21 ] 171 The human sensory organization does not belong to the human being, but is built into it by the environment during life on earth. The perceiving eye is spatially in man, essentially it is in the world. And man stretches his spiritual-soul being into that which the world experiences in him through his senses. The human being does not absorb the physical environment during his life on earth, but he grows into this environment with his spiritual-soul being.
[ 22 ] 172 It is similar with the mental organization. Through it, the human being grows into star existence. He recognizes himself as a starry world. Man weaves and lives in the world thoughts when he has stripped off the sense organization in experiencing cognition.
[ 23 ] 173 After stripping off both, the earth far and the starry world, man stands before himself as a spiritual-soul being. There he is no longer world, there he is man in the true sense. And becoming aware of what he experiences there is called knowing himself, just as becoming aware in the sensory and mental organization is called knowing the world.