Philosophy, Cosmology & Religion
GA 215
7 September 1922, Dornach
2. Soul Exercises in Thinking, Feeling and Willing
Philosophy did not arise in the way it is carried on at the present time. Now it is a sum, a group of connecting ideas whose inner, real content is not experienced by the philosophers; instead, they seek theoretical proof for it to show that it relates to reality. So the philosopher is not able to verify his ideas in reference to reality as directly as one always can in the case of any given fact in the real world. Of course, people can certainly harbor some illusions concerning a given fact, but they can easily come to mutual understanding about it when confronting it. In philosophy, the ideas, which despite one's belief to the contrary are actually taken only from tradition, can be related in various ways to reality because this reality is not experienced. In this way the various, diverging systems of philosophy arise. The validity of none of them can be absolutely established because, as reasons for the one or the other system are presented, one can always bring forward opposing reasons to refute them. Since it is only a matter of relative correctness, one can say then that the one who proves something and the one who refutes it are, in most cases, equally in the right. While at the present time a philosophy can be attained that differs from that of one or the other philosopher, it is impossible to arrive at anything that both could be felt directly as real and that also carries conviction because of the directness of observation.
Philosophy has originated out of a state of consciousness differing completely from that of abstract thinking in which it is now produced. Therefore, one must learn once again to live with one's soul in that state of consciousness. But since humanity has in the meantime progressed in its evolution, one cannot just resume the ancient consciousness that gave rise to philosophy. While something similar must be attained if one is to have a philosophy today, it is nevertheless something quite different. The old state of consciousness, which gave birth to philosophy and by means of which a philosopher experienced the activity of his own etheric organism, was partly unconscious.
Compared to modern consciousness in which we think scientifically, that consciousness was dream-like. What we must keep in mind as an ideal for a new philosophy is to be able to experience philosophy in the etheric body, but not in that dream-like way as was the case in olden times. But it must be realized that these dreams of ancient philosophers were not dreams in the same sense as dreams are today. Today's dreams are pictorial conceptions in which, however, the reality factor is nowhere assured by the content of the dream conceptions themselves. These conceptions may consist of all kinds of reminiscences of life; they may relate to processes of the physical organism. In the dream conception itself one never has a convincing indication of any reality. With the consciousness that cultivated philosophy in ancient times it was otherwise. Those conceptions were also pictorial, but they arose in such a way that the picture absolutely guaranteed the presence of a spiritual, an etheric reality, indicated by the picture itself. Today we cannot abandon ourselves to this dreamy, half-conscious soul state. Our scientific manner of forming concepts requires that we think in a fully conscious way, that in all respects we live in full consciousness in our soul life if we want to attain knowledge. Therefore, to achieve a new philosophy we must develop a way of thinking that takes its course in the etheric organism, but at the same time is as fully conscious as the scientific thinking we utilize in mathematics or natural science.
Such fully conscious, pictorial thinking that relates itself to an etheric reality is achieved today in anthroposophical research by means of an inner meditative exercising of the soul. These meditative exercises consist basically in the concentration by the soul on a conceptual content easily visualized at a glance. I shall have to describe details concerning this meditating in the following lectures. You will find it also in my book, Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment, and in my An Outline of Occult Science. Here I shall only mention in principle that it consists in concentrating all the forces of the soul, disregarding everything that makes impressions from outside or from within, so that the soul's forces may rest undisturbed upon an easily surveyable concept. If, with the necessary energy and perseverance, you repeat for months or perhaps for years such a meditative exercise, you arrive one day at the point where you notice that in your soul-spiritual life you are becoming entirely independent of the physical organism so that you can actually come to the realization, “When I think in the physical organism I am making use of it as a tool. To be sure, thinking itself does not run its course in the physical organism, but, because of its finer organization, the latter gives a reflection of the thinking; thereby I become conscious of it. “
Without the physical organism the thinking of ordinary consciousness cannot be carried out; ordinary consciousness, therefore, is bound to the physical organism. Just as we realize clearly that all ordinary thinking takes place only with the help of the physical organism, we also see clearly that in meditation a pictorial thinking activity is brought into play; for by means of meditation, through these ever-recurring periods of the soul's resting on an easily visualized conceptual content, in this inner soul activity we are set free of the physical body. Now, a picture world is experienced that surrounds us, which, in regard to this pictorial quality, resembles the picture world of the ancient thinkers who acquired their philosophy from it. It is experienced, however, with the same clear presence of mind found in any clear concept produced by the observations and experiments of natural science.
In this picture world that he has before him, man now gains an overall view of those forces in his own being that have been active since birth as the forces of growth, and that were responsible for the increase in his bodily size. He also gains a view over the forces active in the metabolism, in nutrition, and in the processes of digestion. In other words, he gains in picture form a complete survey of the life forces that permeate him out of the spiritual etheric world, and build up in him a particular etheric organism, bringing about his form and his life. Again, there arises in man, but in full consciousness, what was present in the earliest philosophers in a dream-like condition, from whom later philosophers have simply taken, in a more abstract form, what is now commonly known as philosophy. In other words, he now rises to the level of supersensible knowledge, which may be designated as imaginative knowledge, the knowledge of imagination. In this imaginative knowledge he surveys the forces of his own growth and life.
But what one perceives here as the etheric or life organism is not as sharply separated from the outer world as, in sense observation, objective things are separated from what is subjective. In sense perception I know: the object is there, I am here. In etheric imaginative perception one's own etheric organism grows together, so to say, with the etheric cosmos. In like manner, one experiences oneself within one's own etheric organism and in the etheric cosmos. What is thus experienced through the confluence of his own etheric nature with the etheric weaving and pulsing in the cosmos, man is now able to bring into sharply outlined picture concepts, and then also to formulate and to express it in human language. In this way man can acquire a philosophy once again.
This philosophy, therefore, can be recovered through the fact that man works himself up to the development of imaginative thinking. But when the imaginative thinker—at the level of exact clairvoyance it may be called imagination—expresses his insights in speech and in thought forms, the matter is formulated in such a way that another person, who cannot perceive imaginatively on his own, can carry over into the full consciousness of ordinary thinking what the philosopher says, and, because it is different, it is also felt and experienced differently. But through the verbal communication and its comprehension, that reality is also experienced in ordinary consciousness. The imaginative thinker can imbue his words with this reality, for he acquires his conceptions out of the real etheric world.
Thus, a philosophy can again be achieved that has been won out of the etheric world, out of the human etheric organism and the etheric cosmos. It affects the listener in such a way that in taking it in with his ordinary, healthy understanding he feels: It has been brought out of the super-sensible—first of all from the etheric—reality. So, when imaginative thinking is attained, a true philosophy will be restored to the world whose authenticity is guaranteed.
For cosmology, the meditative life must be extended. This can take place, if—with the whole range of its forces—the soul accustom itself not only to dwell on a surveyable concept, or complex of concepts, and to dwell on it over and over again in order to enter into an increased intensive activity—which finally is torn loose from the physical organism and continues in the purely etheric—but the soul must also reach the point of being able to eliminate from its consciousness again those concepts on which it has been dwelling. In the same fully willed manner in which it concentrates totally on certain concepts, holding them in its consciousness, so the soul must be able to eliminate them again and to enter a condition of mere wakefulness and full consciousness, devoid of any soul content derived from the senses or from thinking. The soul must be awake but have within itself nothing of all the contents acquired through ordinary consciousness.
When, in full wakefulness, the soul brings about an empty state of consciousness after meditation and attains a certain invigoration with inner strength in maintaining this emptiness of soul while fully awake, then the moment finally comes when a soul-spiritual, cosmic content not previously known flows into this emptiness—a new spiritual world, a spiritual outer world. This, then, is the stage of inspiration, which follows the stage of supersensible perception through imagination.
If one has this capacity for receiving a soul-spiritual cosmic content into the emptied consciousness through inspiration, one is also able to take hold of what I called yesterday man's astral organism. It is that part of him that lived in a soul-spiritual world before it descended to earth and clothed itself in a physical and etheric body. Man becomes acquainted with his own soul-spiritual life before the embryonic life, before birth. He learns to know the astral organism that leaves physical man at death and lives on further in the soul-spiritual world. In inspired cognition he thus learns to know the astral organism that in ordinary consciousness lives itself out in thinking, feeling and willing.
But at the same time, he learns to know the spiritual cosmos. As man has the physical cosmos before him by means of his senses and his sense-bound thinking, he now confronts the spiritual cosmos; only, what within his physical and etheric organism is the work of this spiritual cosmos is much more real than the sense impressions received in ordinary consciousness. One can indeed say that what flows into man through inspiration, whereby he comes to a soul life independent of his body, can be compared with the breathing in of real oxygen. Among other things, through this inspired knowledge one gains a more exact insight into the nature of the human breathing process, and also into the process of blood circulation, which is rhythmically connected with the process of breathing. Through inspired knowledge, one gains an actual view of all the rhythmical processes in man. One attains a view of how the astral organism works in rhythmical man, and further, how this organism, ensheathed by the physical and etheric organisms, is connected with the breathing, with the whole rhythmic system, inserting itself directly in the rhythm of breathing and blood circulation.
Now we are also in a position to comprehend through cognition what is merely hereditary in the physical and etheric organisms and is therefore subject to the laws of heredity that are of the earth, and what man brings with him out of the supersensible, cosmic world, as soul and spirit being. This being enters the earthly world and only clothes itself in the physical and etheric organisms. One can then distinguish between man's inherited characteristics and what he brought with him out of a spiritual world into his physical existence.
In what we now perceive through our astral organism and its reflection in the rhythmic human processes, we have something that can now be integrated into the spiritual cosmos surrounding us, made accessible to us through inspiration. We attain a cosmology that can include man. One gains a cosmic picture of how man's astral organism, with the ego—of which I shall speak shortly—enters the physical organism on the waves of breathing and the other rhythmic processes. We see the cosmos in its fundamental, lawful order as it continues into man through his rhythmic processes. We arrive at a cosmology by which the astral organism is understood; likewise, the rhythmic processes in each individual person.
Thus, inspired knowledge becomes the source of a genuine, modern cosmology that is on a par with that ancient cosmology, which by man's dream-like forces of soul made him similarly a member of the whole cosmos, of a soul-spiritual, cosmic world. The knowledge gained in inspired perception, however, is gained in full consciousness, and can then be seen in its reflection in the etheric body. It is like this: The experiences of inspiration project themselves in pictures upon the etheric body. The insight thus gained in inspiration in the cosmos connects itself with the experiences of fantasy in the activity of the etheric body. What is inspired out of the cosmos is to a certain degree inwardly in motion and cannot at once be brought into sharp outlines. This only happens when it links itself with the experiences of fantasy in the ether body. Then, cosmology also can be brought into sharp outlines. Thereby arises a cosmic philosophy completely appropriate for modern man; a philosophical cosmology, which in this way is formed through a flowing together of inspired knowledge with the imaginations experienced pictorially in the ether body. It is such a cosmology that I have sought to give in my book, An Outline of Occult Science, translated into French as La Science de l'Occulte.
In order to establish the religious life on a basis of knowledge, further development of the meditative life, of soul exercises, is necessary. These exercises must now be extended to the human will. So far, we have chiefly described a form of soul exercises based on a special development of the life of thought. Now the soul's life, insofar as it is revealed in the will, has to be set free from the life of the spiritual researcher's physical and etheric organisms. That happens when the will is employed otherwise than in ordinary consciousness. I will illustrate this method by an example.
The events in the outer world are ordinarily observed as following one upon the other: the earlier one first, subsequently the later one—and thus we trace them also in our thinking. Now, however, we must try to place these events in reverse order, putting the last one first, then the immediately preceding one next, and so on back to the first event. In this way, through an exertion of the will in the soul, we accomplish something not achieved in ordinary consciousness. Normally, you follow the course of outer events with the will that lives in thinking. By means of this thinking in reverse order, thinking differently from the actual course of events in nature, you tear the will free from the physical and etheric organisms. The will that otherwise is merely a reflection of the astral organism is thereby bound to this astral organism. Since the latter is lifted out of the physical and etheric organisms through the other meditations, the will is carried along out of the physical organism into the spiritual world outside. In thus taking the will out of your own organism in the astral body, you also take with it, out of the physical and etheric bodies, what is the real spiritual man, the 'I.' Now, it is possible to live with the ego and the astral organism in the spiritual world together with the spiritual beings. As we live by ourselves in our own body in the physical world, we now learn—through such a training of the soul's life—to live together in the outer spiritual world with all the beings who first revealed themselves in imagination and inspiration. In this way we attain the ability to lead a life in the spiritual world independent of our own physical organism.
Such exercises can be strengthened still more, so that the will puts forth another kind of effort. The more exertion needed for this development of the will, the better it is for experiencing the spiritual world outside the physical and etheric organisms. Man can change his habits by making the deliberate, conscious resolve, “This or that habit you have had for many years; you will now change it into something else by an energetic use of your will so that in four, five or ten years it is so transformed that in regard to it you will appear like a different person.” They may, for example, be small, insignificant habits, of the kind that persist without being given much attention. If you work at them they are the most effective for the sort of supersensible knowledge I am now characterizing. For example, you have a certain form of handwriting. With all your energy, you apply yourself to changing it into a form different from what you are accustomed to and have developed since childhood.
When one devoted oneself for years to such will exercises, the soul finally becomes strong enough to live outside the physical and etheric organisms with the spiritual beings of the outer spiritual world, with human souls either before they are incarnated, or after they go through death and are living in the spiritual world before returning into physical existence and also with those spiritual beings who are only in the spiritual world and dwell there in such a way that, unlike human beings, they never have a physical and etheric body. In this way one arrives at living with one's soul and spirit in that world where the content of religious consciousness is experienced. In full consciousness one enters that world described by the ancient teachers of religion as the divine world; at that time this happened through a more dream-like familiarization with the divine, but now, it is through a fully conscious one, the same fully conscious state of mind as is only developed in mathematics or the exactness of modern natural science. In this way the third level of supersensible knowledge is cultivated, that of true intuition.
Through this true intuition by which we learn to live in the divine-spiritual world, we are able to bring back experiences from that world so as to form them into the content of religious consciousness. Once again, we learn to recognize a basic fact of human nature: how man, with his true 'I' and his astral organism, can live in a purely spiritual world. We now gain a view of man's condition in wakefulness and in sleep; we gain insight into how the ego and astral organism envelop themselves during the waking state in what I have described earlier as the processes of breathing and circulation, the rhythmic processes; but how, as the 'I' creates a reflection of itself in the physical organism, the metabolic processes that live in the circulation of the blood are included in this reflected nature. What man in his ordinary consciousness calls his 'I' is merely a weak reflection of his true 'I.' The true ego is rooted in the divine-spiritual world characterized above. In ordinary consciousness this ego is perceived through the permeation of the circulatory system by the metabolic processes. In these latter, pulsating in the circulation, one senses, feels, what in ordinary consciousness is perceived as the ego. But that is only a weak reflection of the true ego.
In the waking state the reflection of the ego lives in the metabolism that circulates through the rhythmic system of man. That is to say, the true ego exists, but ordinary consciousness only contains its reflection produced in metabolism. When, however, the human physical and etheric organisms use the processes of breathing and circulation, permeated by metabolism, when they use the forces of this rhythmical man themselves, as is the case in the state of sleep, then the true ego, with the astral body, lives in the outer spiritual world. Breathing and circulation, with the pulsating metabolism contained within, then care for the needs of the physical and etheric organisms on their own; the true ego and the astral organism carry on an existence aside from the physical and etheric bodies in the spiritual world. One beholds these alternating conditions by means of true intuition—how the physical and etheric organisms need the breathing and blood circulation, with the metabolism contained in them, to renew their forces. During this time the true ego and the astral organism stay for a while in the spiritual world, carrying on their own existence. When the forces of the physical and etheric bodies are regenerated through rhythmical man to the extent that further rhythmical regenerative processes are not needed, the astral body and ego return and permeate the metabolic process pulsating through the breathing and blood circulation, and man is then awake again.
Thus, one sees how the true ego and astral organisms pulsate in the metabolism. Thus, one learns to know that world designated by the old religions as the divine world in which the ego of man, the true ego, has its innate home. Since what one grasps in this way through intuition is once again reflected in the physical and etheric organisms as in a mirror, one can also express in words, in pictures, in concepts, what one experiences in the purely spiritual world, independent of all human corporeality. This can then be grasped in turn by man's healthy human reason. It can be felt and sensed, it can be experienced in the human heart, and then it forms the content of religious consciousness, which thereby is founded on knowledge.
It is not necessary for every person to find his way into the divine world through intuition. That must be done by one who becomes a researcher of the spirit. But when the spiritual researcher puts what he discovers in the spiritual world into words in the manner characterized above, it then takes on such forms that, through what comes to be revealed in this way, one experiences in the ordinary state of consciousness: “Here, words are spoken that do not relate to this world, but with the power of the reality inherent in them they fully come to life in the human soul.” It is through this power that what is drawn from the spiritual world by spiritual research through an intuitive experience of the divine-spiritual world has its religious influence upon our consciousness.
If men want to acquire once more through their own efforts a religious life based on knowledge, they must accept what the spiritual researcher is able to reveal as his own experiences in the divine-spiritual world gained through true intuition. The religion will return to what it once was. In its inception, every religion was a revelation from the divine-spiritual world: a revelation of those experiences that can be had with those divine beings that earlier reveal themselves to imaginative and inspired perception, but whom one meets on their own level only through intuition.
The kind of thinking that can live in abstractions, that is chiefly employed in scientific research and on which we base our observations and experimentations, has been attained only in the course of human evolution. It did not exist among those people from whom the early philosophers and teachers of religion came—those who founded the old philosophy, cosmology and religious life, of which much has been preserved by way of tradition. In those times, half-conscious dreamily imaginative, inspired and intuitive experiences prevailed. It is from these experiences that men of earlier ages drew their knowledge in every domain of life. Only since the rise of modern natural science do we have what we experience as abstract thinking. One should not believe that only scientists think in this way. Nowadays, it is absorbed through the ordinary schools and by the simplest person living in a rural area far from all urban culture.
No trace of the consciousness that is spread through the civilized world today by this abstract thinking existed in any part of humanity even in the eighth and ninth centuries A.D. Everywhere there lived what had been attained by means of the other three states of consciousness. But the fully conscious condition, which we must interpret as the true expression of mankind today, could be achieved only by the fact that abstract thinking, now the pride of scientific life, has integrated itself into the human experience. In other words, the form of thinking that utilizes man's physical organism and needs it in order to think as is the case today—such thinking did not exist in ancient times. Then, man thought only with the etheric and astral elements in his nature and with his ego organization. His thoughts were given him by the revelations of imagination, inspiration and intuition. This is still the case today with people who, through some circumstance that we will mention later, possess a kind of clairvoyance. That is not the modern, exact clairvoyance but something inherited from ancient conditions of dreamlike clairvoyance. Such persons are never able to control their soul experiences, but they can have them, as people in earlier times had them. It is often surprising what clear thoughts are given to such people in their dream-like visions; thoughts based on a far more brilliant logic than even a philosopher can produce. Those are just the thoughts revealed out of the spiritual world. In ancient epochs of human evolution, only such thoughts existed, that is, revealed thoughts.
Abstract thinking, the only kind known today, is obtained by using the physical body as a tool. It is experienced through the instrument of the physical body. This characterizes what modern humanity has achieved in rising to its full consciousness. In regard to the spiritual world, such thinking achieved through the physical body is actually a displaced thinking. For particularly through what I have just characterized, thinking shows that it belongs to the spiritual world. It is now displaced when man employs his physical organization in his thinking. Thereby, thinking lives in an element that is not its very own. But man, nevertheless achieves something in this thinking that he could never attain if thinking would merely result as a revelation out of imagination, inspiration and intuition. Because thinking is obtained through the physical organism it substantially contains nothing from the spiritual world. It is fundamentally an activity taking place solely in the physical body. In other words, this abstract thinking experiences nothing real; it is as if pressed out, filtered out of imagination. What is experienced is illusion. What we experience in abstract thinking is an illusory experience just because we become fully conscious in this thinking.
We can experience two facts in this thinking. First, the illusion in it, which does not itself pretend to express something, becomes a reflection of objective nature. Only thereby has man attained what he is so proud of today, an objective natural science. Outer occurrences in nature could not be objectively presented by a thinking filled with substance of its own. We cannot acknowledge such descriptions of natural processes as were given in olden times as objective natural science. Just because thinking has only a life of semblance, the outer world can reflect itself in this semblance. In a thinking that does not have a substance of its own, the substance of the outer occurrences of nature appears in picture form. So, humanity in its progress is indebted to objective natural science for the fact that it attained full consciousness in an illusory experience of thinking. The epoch in which abstract thinking arose also became the time when objective natural science was attained.
A second fact that man owes to this advance into abstract thinking is his experience of freedom. What man experiences as moral impulses through imagination, inspiration and intuition, even when he experiences it in a dream-like manner as in ancient times—when it was always experienced through dreams, instincts and emotions and thus became an impulse to action—this always puts a constraint on man. An instinct underlying an action in man's organism is something that drives him, forces him here and there. What is brought out of the real etheric world in imagination as moral impulses impels me; I cannot do otherwise than follow it. So it is also with what derives from inspiration and intuition.
Between birth and death man experiences the illusory life of abstract thinking, of pure thinking that is nothing but thinking, yet is carried out through the physical organism. If man now takes moral impulses into this thinking, they then live in the pure thinking that has only an illusory life and cannot force him to do anything, anymore than a mirrored image can compel one to some action. Something that thrusts at me in reality does coerce me. But something that has a mere semblance of life, as, for example, what we experience in pure thinking, cannot compel a person. I myself must decide whether or not I want to follow it. In this way, through the illusory experience of thinking, the possibility of human freedom is given at the same time. Even though a man's thinking is able to experience nothing but semblance, when moral impulses rooted in the spiritual world enter into it and form its content, then they become free impulses.
Man, therefore, owes two things to his advance to illusory experience in thinking: the era of objective natural science, and the attainment of real freedom. Just as I have described the ascent into supersensible worlds in the books Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment, in An Outline of Occult Science, and in Theosophy, likewise have I sought to present the basis for attaining the consciousness of freedom in the modern age in my Philosophy of Freedom. Thus, we can say that in the epoch in which man has achieved his full consciousness because thinking has streamed down into his physical organism and makes use of it, this thinking has rejected the old dream-like clairvoyance that was once the basis of an old philosophy, an old cosmology and an old religious life. Thereby man has gained the possibility of developing objective natural science in his physical organism between birth and death, and further, the possibility of developing freedom.
Today, however, man is at the point where, retaining his full consciousness, he must again travel the road into the supersensible world in fully conscious imagination, inspiration and intuition. He must do this in order to attain—in addition to what he can experience in objective natural science, and in freedom—a new philosophy, a new cosmology, and a new religious life built upon knowledge of the super-sensible world. These, as revelations from the supersensible world, satisfy modern man in the same way that he is satisfied when by means of his wideawake consciousness in the sense world he attains to an objective science, and to freedom.
Thus, we have now characterized freedom and objective natural science on the one side, and on the other modern spiritual science, and thereby shown how humanity must go forward from the present into the future, so that through attaining supersensible knowledge it can participate in the true human advancement demanded by the world order.
Seelenübungen des Denkens, Fühlens und Wollens
[ 1 ] Philosophie ist nicht so entstanden, wie sie in der gegenwärtigen Zeit weitergeführt wird. Sie wird in der Gegenwart so weitergeführt, daß sie eine Summe, ein Zusammenhang von Ideen ist, deren innerer substantieller Wirklichkeitsgehalt von den Philosophen nicht erlebt wird, sondern für den man eine theoretische Begründung sucht, daß er sich auf eine Wirklichkeit beziehe. Dadurch ist der Philosoph nicht in der Lage, in so unmittelbarer Art seine Ideen an der Wirklichkeit zu erweisen, wie man das irgendeinem vorliegenden Wirklichen gegenüber immer tun kann. Über ein vorliegendes Wirkliches können die Menschen ganz gewiß einzelne Illusionen haben, aber man wird sich leicht verständigen, wenn man davor steht. In der Philosophie kann man die Ideen, die eigentlich doch nur aus der Tradition genommen werden - trotzdem man anderes glaubt -, in verschiedener Weise auf die Wirklichkeit beziehen, weil man diese Wirklichkeit nicht erlebt. Und so entstehen die verschiedenen voneinander abweichenden philosophischen Systeme, bei denen es so ist, daß eigentlich keines in seiner absoluten Gültigkeit erwiesen werden kann, weil man immer gegen die Gründe, die für das eine oder das andere System vorgebracht werden, entgegengesetzte Gründe vorbringen kann, um es zu widerlegen. Und da nur eine relative Richtigkeit vorliegt, kann man sagen, der Beweisende und der Widerlegende haben zumeist ein gleiches Recht. Auf diese Art kann man in der Gegenwart zwar zu einem von dem einen oder anderen Philosophen abweichenden Philosophieren kommen, aber zu nichts, das unmittelbar als Wirkliches gefühlt würde und das in ebensolcher Unmittelbarkeit überzeugend wirken könnte.
[ 2 ] Philosophie ist hervorgegangen aus einem ganz anderen Bewußtseinszustande als dem des abstrakten Denkens, in dem sie heute erarbeitet wird. Man muß dazu kommen, wiederum in diesem Bewußtseinszustande mit der Seele zu leben. Da aber die Menschheit mittlerweile in ihrer Evolution fortgeschritten ist, kann man den alten Bewußtseinszustand, aus dem die Philosophie entstanden ist, nicht etwa wieder herübernehmen. Man muß zwar ein Ähnliches erreichen, wenn man heute eine Philosophie haben will, aber doch wiederum ein ganz anderes.
[ 3 ] Der alte Bewußtseinszustand, aus dem die Philosophie gewonnen worden ist, und durch den der Philosoph die eigene Tätigkeit der ätherischen Organisation erlebt hat, war halb unbewußt. Dieser Bewußtseinszustand hatte gegenüber dem modernen Bewußtsein, in dem wir wissenschaftlich denken, etwas Traumhaftes. Was uns für eine neue Philosophie als Ideal vorschweben muß, das ist, wieder eine Philosophie im ätherischen Leibe erleben zu können, aber nicht in jener traumhaften Weise, wie sie in den alten Zeiten erlebt worden ist. Man muß sich nur klar sein, daß diese Träume der alten Philosophen nicht in derselben Weise Träume waren, wie heutige Träume sind. Heutige Träume sind bildhafte Vorstellungen, bei denen aber der Wirklichkeitsgehalt nirgends durch den Inhalt der Traumvorstellungen verbürgt ist. Diese Vorstellungen können allerlei Lebens-Reminiszenzen sein; sie können sich auf Vorgänge des physischen Organismus beziehen. Man hat niemals in der Traumvorstellung selbst einen überzeugenden Hinweis auf eine Wirklichkeit. Das war bei jenem Bewußtseinszustande, aus dem in alten Zeiten die Philosophie erarbeitet worden ist, anders. Bildhaft waren auch diese Vorstellungen, aber sie traten in solcher Weise auf, daß im Bilde zugleich eine völlige Verbürgung vorhanden war für eine Wirklichkeit geistiger Art, ätherischer Art, auf die das Bild deutet. Diesem traumhaften, halbbewußten Seelenzustande können wir uns heute nicht hingeben. Unsere wissenschaftliche Vorstellungsweise fordert, daß wir in vollbewußter Art denken, überhaupt in vollbewußter Art in der Seele leben, wenn wir erkenntnismäßig arbeiten wollen. Wir müssen daher, um eine neue Philosophie zu gewinnen, ein Vorstellen herbeiführen, welches im ätherischen Organismus verläuft, aber zugleich vollbewußt ist wie das wissenschaftliche Denken, das wir in der Mathematik oder in der Naturwissenschaft anwenden.
[ 4 ] Ein solches vollbewußtes, bildhaftes Denken, das sich auf eine ätherische Wirklichkeit bezieht, erringen wir uns heute innerhalb der anthroposophischen Forschung durch ein meditatives inneres Seelenüben. Diese meditativen Übungen bestehen im wesentlichen darin, daß die Seele sich konzentriert auf einen leicht überschaulichen Vorstellungsinhalt. Das Ausführliche über dieses Meditieren werde ich in den folgenden Vorträgen noch zu beschreiben haben. Sie finden es auch in meinem Buche «Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten?» und in meiner «Geheimwissenschaft im Umriß». Hier will ich nur das prinzipiell sagen, daß es sich darum handelt, alle Seelenkräfte zusammenzuziehen, von allem übrigen, das Eindrücke von außen oder innen macht, abzusehen, zu abstrahieren und die Seelenkräfte ruhen zu lassen auf einer leicht überschaulichen Vorstellung. Wenn man eine solche meditative Übung, die im einzelnen Falle nur kurz zu sein braucht, immer wieder und wieder durch Monate, vielleicht durch Jahre wiederholt mit der nötigen Energie und Ausdauer, so kommt man dazu, eines Tages zu bemerken, daß man in seinem seelisch-geistigen Leben völlig unabhängig wird von dem physischen Organismus, daß man tatsächlich jetzt einsehen kann: Wenn ich im physischen Organismus denke, so bediene ich mich dieses physischen Organismus’; zwar verläuft das Denken selbst nicht im physischen Organismus, aber dieser physische Organismus gibt durch seine feinere Organisation ein Abbild dieses Denkens; dadurch wird es mir bewußt.
[ 5 ] Ohne den physischen Organismus kann das Denken des gewöhnlichen Bewußtseins nicht vollzogen werden. Daher ist das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein an den physischen Organismus gebunden. So klar man einsieht, daß alles gewöhnliche Denken nur mit Hilfe des physischen Organismus vor sich geht, so klar wird es einem, daß man in dem Meditieren eine bildhaft-denkerische Tätigkeit ausübt, indem man durch Meditation, durch jenes immer wiederkehrende Ruhen der Seele auf einem leicht überschaubaren Vorstellungsinhalt, frei geworden ist in seiner inneren Seelentätigkeit von dem physischen Leibe. Und jetzt erlebt man um sich herum eine Bildwelt, die in bezug auf diese Bildhaftigkeit ähnlich ist derjenigen der alten Denker, die daraus ihre Philosophie gewonnen haben, die aber bei durchaus klarer Besonnenheit erlebt wird wie jede klare Vorstellung im naturwissenschaftlichen Beobachten und Experimentieren. Jetzt bekommt man in dieser Bilderwelt, die man so vor sich hat, eine Überschau über diejenigen Kräfte im eigenen Menschen, die als Wachstumskräfte seit der Geburt gewirkt haben, die unseren Organismus immer größer und größer werden ließen. Man bekommt auch eine Überschau über die Kräfte, die im Stoffwechsel, in der Ernährung und in den Verdauungsvorgängen wirken. Man bekommt, mit anderen Worten, in Bildvorstellung eine völlige Überschau über die Lebenskräfte, die aus der geistig-ätherischen Welt heraus den Menschen durchsetzen und als ein besonderer ätherischer Organismus ihn eigentlich aufbauen, seine Form und sein Leben bewirken. Wieder ersteht in dem Menschen das, aber vollbewußt, was traumhaft bei den Urphilosophen vorhanden war, von denen dann in einer mehr abstrakten Form die späteren Philosophen nur das aufgenommen haben, was man heute vielfach als Philosophie kennt. Man steigt, mit anderen Worten, auf zu der Stufe übersinnlicher Erkenntnis, die man bezeichnet als die imaginative Erkenntnis, als die Erkenntnis der Imagination. Im imaginativen Erkennen überschaut man also die eigenen Wachstums- und Lebenskräfte.
[ 6 ] Aber was man da als ätherischen oder Lebensorganismus überschaut, ist nicht in so strenger Weise getrennt von der ätherischen Außenwelt, wie man im sinnlichen Anschauen das Objektive von dem Subjektiven trennt. Im sinnlichen Anschauen weiß ich: Der Gegenstand ist dort — ich bin hier. Im ätherischen imaginativen Anschauen wächst sozusagen der eigene ätherische Organismus mit dem Ätherischen des Kosmos zusammen; man fühlt sich in gleicher Art in seinem eigenen ätherischen Organismus und im Ätherischen des Kosmos darinnen. Was man nun da erlebt durch den Zusammenfluß des eigenen ätherischen Organismus und des ätherischen Webens und Treibens im Kosmos, das ist man nun imstande, in scharf konturierte Bildvorstellungen zu bringen und es dann auch in menschliche Sprache zu kleiden und so auszudrücken, daß es in der menschlichen Sprache erscheinen kann. Auf diese Weise kann man wieder eine Philosophie gewinnen.
[ 7 ] Diese Philosophie kann also dadurch wieder erarbeitet werden, daß der Mensch sich aufschwingt zur Ausbildung des imaginativen Denkens. Wenn aber der imaginative Denker, der Denker auf der Stufe der exakten Clairvoyance, die man eben Imagination nennen kann, seine Erkenntnisse in der Sprache und in Gedankenformen zum Ausdruck bringt, dann ist die Sache so gefaßt, daß der, welcher nun nicht selber imaginativ vorstellen kann, in das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein, in das Vollbewußtsein des gewöhnlichen Denkens das, was der Philosoph sagt, herübernehmen kann. Und dadurch, daß es anders ist, wird es auch anders empfunden, anders gefühlt und erlebt. Es wird aber jene Wirklichkeit durch die sprachliche Mitteilung und durch die Aufnahme des sprachlich Mitgeteilten auch im gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein erlebt, jene Wirklichkeit, die der imaginative Denker seinen Worten dadurch verleihen kann, daß er seine Vorstellungen aus der wirklichen ätherischen Welt heraus schöpft.
[ 8 ] So kann wieder eine Philosophie gewonnen werden, die aus der ätherischen Welt, aus dem menschlichen ätherischen Organismus, aus dem ätherischen Kosmos heraus gewonnen ist, die auf den Zuhörer so wirkt, daß er im Aufnehmen mit dem gewöhnlichen gesunden Menschenverstande erfühlt: Das ist aus der übersinnlichen, zunächst ätherischen Wirklichkeit herausgeholt. - Und so wird, wenn das imaginative Denken errungen wird, für die Welt auch wieder eine wahre, die Wirklichkeit verbürgende Philosophie gewonnen werden.
[ 9 ] Für die Kosmologie muß das meditative Leben erweitert werden. Es kann dies dadurch geschehen, daß die Seele sich daran gewöhnt, nicht nur mit dem ganzen Umfange ihrer Kräfte auf einer überschaubaren Vorstellung oder einem überschaubaren Vorstellungskomplex zu ruhen und immer wieder und wieder zu ruhen, um in eine gesteigerte, intensive Tätigkeit hineinzukommen, die zuletzt losgerissen wird vom physischen Organismus und im rein Ätherischen verläuft, sondern es muß die Seele auch dazu kommen, solche Vorstellungen, auf denen sie ruht, wiederum aus dem Bewußtsein zu entfernen. Die Seele muß dazu kommen, in derselben willkürlichen Art Vorstellungen, auf die sie sich vollständig konzentriert, anwesend sein zu lassen im Bewußtsein und sie dann wieder aus dem Bewußtsein zu entfernen und in einen Zustand zu kommen, in welchem bloßes Wachsein, bloßes Vollbewußtsein vorhanden ist ohne einen seelischen Inhalt, der auf eine solche Art erworben ist, wie der sinnliche Inhalt oder wie der Denkinhalt. Die Seele muß wach sein, aber von allen den Inhalten nichts in sich haben, die man durch das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein erwirbt.
[ 10 ] Wenn die Seele also bei völligem Wachsein nach der Meditation einen leeren Bewußtseinszustand herbeiführt und eine gewisse Stärkung mit innerlicher Kraft in dem Aufrechterhalten dieser Leerheit der Seele bei völligem Wachsein erreicht, dann kommt es zuletzt dahin, daß in das leere Bewußtsein hineinfließt ein geistig-seelischer kosmischer Inhalt, den man bisher überhaupt nicht gekannt hat, eine neue geistige Welt, eine geistige Außenwelt. Das ist dann die Stufe der Inspiration, die sich anreiht an die Stufe der übersinnlichen Erkenntnis durch Imagination.
[ 11 ] Hat man diese Fähigkeit, in das leer gemachte Bewußtsein hereinzubekommen durch Inspiration einen geistig-seelischen kosmischen Inhalt, dann bekommt man auch herein jene Organisation, die ich gestern genannt habe den astralischen Organismus des Menschen, jenen astralischen Organismus, der gelebt hat in einer geistig-seelischen Welt, bevor er heruntergestiegen ist auf die Erde und sich mit einem physischen und ätherischen Leib umkleidet hat. Man lernt das seelisch-geistige Leben des eigenen Menschen vor dem Keimesleben, vor der Geburt kennen. Man lernt die astralische Organisation kennen, die wiederum im Tode den physischen Menschen verläßt und in der geistig-seelischen Welt weiterlebt. Man lernt also in inspirierter Erkenntnis den astralischen Organismus kennen, der sich im gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein durch Denken, Fühlen und Wollen auslebt.
[ 12 ] Damit lernt man aber auch zugleich den geistigen Kosmos kennen. Wie man durch seine Sinne und durch das an die Sinne gebundene Denken den physischen Kosmos vor sich hat, so hat man jetzt den geistigen Kosmos vor sich; nur ist das, was sich aus diesem geistigen Kosmos heraus mit der physischen Menschenorganisation, auch mit der ätherischen Menschenorganisation abspielt, viel realer als die sinnlichen Wahrnehmungseindrücke, die man sonst im gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein erhält. Man kann schon sagen: Was da durch Inspiration in den Menschen hereinfließt, wodurch er zu einem von seinem Leibe unabhängigen Seelenleben kommt, das läßt sich vergleichen mit dem Einatmen des realen Sauerstoffes. Man erlangt auch jetzt durch diese inspirierte Erkenntnis ein genaueres Durchschauen gerade dessen, was menschlicher Atmungsprozess ist, und des Prozesses, der sich etwa als der Blutzirkulationsprozeß in rhythmischer Art anschließt an den Atmungsprozeß. Man erhält eine wirkliche Anschauung des rhythmischen Menschen, aller rhythmischen Vorgänge im Menschen durch inspirierte Erkenntnis. Man erlangt eine Anschauung, wie die astralische Organisation im rhythmischen Menschen arbeitet. Man erlangt ferner eine Anschauung, wie der astralische Organismus in seiner Einkleidung in den physischen und ätherischen Organismus mit dem Atmungswesen, überhaupt mit der ganzen rhythmischen Organisation zusammenhängt, sich gerade in den Rhythmus der Atmungs- und Blutzirkulation hineinfindet.
[ 13 ] Dadurch aber ist man auch in der Lage, erkenntnisgemäß zu durchschauen, was beim Menschen im physischen und ätherischen Organismus nur Vererbung ist, was den Vererbungsgesetzen unterliegt, die irdisch sind, und was sich der Mensch mitbringt aus der übersinnlichen, aus der kosmischen, aus der außerirdischen Welt als seelisches und geistiges Wesen, das hereinkommt in die irdische Welt und sich mit dem physischen und ätherischen Organismus nur umkleidet oder, vielleicht besser gesagt, sich in dieselben einkleidet. Man kann dann unterscheiden zwischen dem, was vererbte Eigenschaften im Menschen sind, und dem, was er sich aus einer geistigen Welt in sein physisches Dasein herein mitgebracht hat.
[ 14 ] In dem, was man nun durch seine astralische Organisation und durch ihr Abbild in den rhythmischen Menschenprozessen erkennt, hat man etwas, was man in den geistigen Kosmos, den man um sich hat und der einem durch Inspiration gegeben ist, jetzt eingliedern kann: man gelangt zu einer Kosmologie, die den Menschen umfassen kann. Man gelangt zu einem kosmischen Bilde, das die Art und Weise enthält, wie der astralische Menschheitsorganismus mit dem Ich -— von dem ich gleich nachher sprechen werde - auf den Wellen und Wogen der Atmung und der übrigen rhythmischen Vorgänge in den physischen Organismus einzieht. Man sieht den Kosmos in seiner tatsächlichen Gesetzmäßigkeit sich durch die menschlichen rhythmischen Prozesse in den Menschen hinein fortsetzen. Man gelangt zu einer Kosmologie, durch die man den astralischen Organismus versteht, durch die man aber auch die rhythmischen Vorgänge im einzelnen Menschen versteht.
[ 15 ] Dadurch wird die inspirierte Erkenntnis zum Quell einer wirklich modernen Kosmologie, die sich wiederum messen kann mit der alten Kosmologie, die durch ebenfalls traumhafte Seelenkräfte den Menschen in einer ähnlichen Weise eingegliedert hat in den ganzen Kosmos, in eine seelisch-geistige kosmische Welt. Das aber, was in der inspirierten Erkenntnis errungen wird, das wird wiederum im vollen Bewußtsein errungen und kann dann in seinem Abglanz in dem menschlichen ätherischen Leibe angeschaut werden. Es ist so, daß das, was man in der Inspiration erlebt, sich in Bildern projiziert auf den ätherischen Leib. Und so verbindet sich das in der Inspiration aus dem Kosmos heraus Gewonnene mit dem, was als Phantasie in der Betätigung des ätherischen Leibes erlebt wird. Das aus dem Kosmos Inspirierte, das in einer gewissen Weise innerlich beweglich ist, kann nicht gleich in scharfe Konturen gebracht werden, sondern erst, wenn es sich verbindet mit dem, was im ätherischen Leibe als Phantasie erlebt wird. Dann aber kann auch die Kosmologie in scharfe Konturen gebracht werden und es entsteht dadurch eine dem modernen Menschen völlig angemessene kosmische Philosophie, eine philosophische Kosmologie, die in dieser Weise ausgebildet ist durch einen Zusammenfluß von inspirierter Erkenntnis mit demjenigen, was im ätherischen Leibe bildhaft in Imaginationen erlebt wird. Eine solche Kosmologie habe ich zu geben versucht in meinem Buche «Geheimwissenschaft im Umriß», das ja auch ins Französische als «Science Occulte» übersetzt worden ist.
[ 16 ] Um das religiöse Leben erkenntnismäßig zu begründen, ist eine weitere Ausbildung des meditativen Lebens, der Seelenübungen notwendig. Nur muß dieses meditative Leben, müssen diese Seelenübungen jetzt ausgedehnt werden auf den menschlichen Willen. Bisher ist mehr gekennzeichnet worden eine Art von Seelenübungen, welche durch eine besondere Ausbildung des Gedankenlebens sich auszeichneten. Es muß nun auch das seelische Leben, insofern es sich im Willen offenbart, für den Geistesforscher losgelöst werden von dem Leben des physischen Organismus, von dem Leben des ätherischen Organismus. Das geschieht, indem der Wille in einer Weise angewendet wird, wie er sonst im gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein nicht angewendet wird. Ich will das an einem Beispiele charakterisieren.
[ 17 ] Man versuche, Vorgänge der äußeren Welt, die man sonst so verfolgt, wie sie — das Frühere zuerst, das Spätere nachher — aufeinanderfolgen, die man so auch mit dem Denken verfolgt, man versuche, diese Vorgänge in rückläufiger Art so vorzustellen, daß man das Letzte zuerst, dann das unmittelbar Vorhergehende, dann das weiter Vorhergehende bis zum Ersten hin rückläufig vorstellt. Dadurch führt man durch eine Willensanstrengung in der Seele dasjenige aus, was man im gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein nicht ausführt. Im gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein folgt man mit dem Willen, der im Denken lebt, dem Verlauf der äußeren Vorgänge. Durch dieses Rückwärtsdenken, Andersdenken, als der Tatsachenverlauf in der Natur ist, reißt man den Willen los von dem physischen und ätherischen Organismus, und dadurch verbindet man den Willen, der sonst nur ein Abglanz des astralischen Organismus ist, mit diesem astralischen Organismus. Und da der astralische Organismus durch die anderen Meditationen herausgeht aus dem physischen und ätherischen Organismus, so nimmt man den Willen mit hinaus aus dem physischen Organismus in die spirituelle Welt draußen. Indem man so den Willen aus dem eigenen Organismus im astralischen Leibe heraustreibt, nimmt man auch das, was der eigentliche Geistesmensch oder das Ich ist, so mit hinaus aus dem physischen und ätherischen Organismus, daß man nun mit dem Ich und mit dem astralischen Organismus in der spirituellen Welt mit den spirituellen Wesenheiten zusammenleben kann. So wie man in der physischen Welt in seinem eigenen Leibe allein lebt, so lernt man jetzt durch eine solche Ausbildung des Seelenlebens zusammenzuleben draußen, in der spirituellen Außenwelt, mit allen den Wesenheiten, die sich zuerst geoffenbart haben in der Imagination und in der Inspiration. Dadurch gelangt man dazu, ein von der eigenen Körperlichkeit unabhängiges Leben in der geistigen Welt zu führen.
[ 18 ] Solche Übungen können noch dadurch verstärkt werden, daß der Wille in einer anderen Art angestrengt wird, und je mehr Anstrengung zu dieser Evolution des Willens notwendig ist, desto besser ist es für das Erleben der geistigen Welt außerhalb des physischen und ätherischen Organismus. Man kann Gewohnheiten, die man hat, umwandeln, indem man sich vollbewußt vornimmt: Diese oder jene Gewohnheit, die du seit vielen Jahren hast, gestaltest du durch eine energische Aufwendung des Willens in einer anderen Weise aus, daß sie in vier, fünf oder zehn Jahren so umgewandelt ist, daß du mit Bezug auf diese Gewohnheit als ein anderer Mensch erscheinst. — Es können kleine, unbedeutende Gewohnheiten sein, vielleicht sogar jene kleinen, unbedeutenden Gewohnheiten, die so fortleben, ohne daß man sie viel bedenkt. Wenn man an ihnen arbeitet, sind sie am richtigsten für die Art der übersinnlichen Erkenntnis, die ich jetzt charakterisiere. Zum Beispiel hat man gewisse Schriftformen. Man nimmt sich mit aller Energie vor: Man eigne sich einen anderen Schriftduktus an als der ist, der einem gewohnt ist und den man seit seiner Kindheit an sich ausgebildet hat. - Wenn man sich so durch Jahre hindurch solchen Willensübungen hingibt, wird die Seele zuletzt stark genug, um in der spirituellen Außenwelt, außerhalb des physischen und ätherischen Organismus, mit den spirituellen Wesenheiten draußen zu leben, mit den Menschenseelen zu leben, entweder bevor sie in das physische Dasein eingetreten sind, oder nachdem sie durch den Tod gegangen sind und nun in der geistigen Welt leben, ehe sie wieder ins physische Dasein zurückkehren, oder auch mit denjenigen geistigen Wesenheiten zu leben, die nur in der geistigen Welt sind und diese Welt so bewohnen, daß sie nicht, wie die Menschen, sich in einen ätherischen und physischen Organismus einkleiden.
[ 19 ] Auf diese Art gelangt man dazu, mit seinem Seelisch-Geistigen in derjenigen Welt zu leben, wo das erlebt wird, was den Inhalt des religiösen Bewußtseins ausmacht. Man gelangt vollbewußt in diejenige Welt hinein, die von den alten Religionslehrern als die göttliche Welt den Menschen mitgeteilt worden ist, damals durch ein mehr traumhaftes Hineinleben, jetzt durch ein so vollbewußtes Hineinleben, wie wir das Vollbewußtsein nur ausbilden in der Mathematik oder in der exakten Naturwissenschaft der modernen Zeit. Man gelangt auf diese Weise dazu, die dritte Stufe der übersinnlichen Erkenntnis, die wahre Intuition auszubilden.
[ 20 ] Durch diese wahre Intuition, durch die man erlernt, in der göttlich-geistigen Welt zu leben, kann man die Erfahrungen aus dieser göttlichgeistigen Welt herüberholen, um sie zum Inhalt des religiösen Bewußtseins zu machen. Wiederum ist es so, daß man ein Wesentliches in der menschlichen Natur erkennen lernt: wie der Mensch mit seinem wahren Ich und mit seinem astralischen Organismus leben kann in einer rein geistigen, spirituellen Welt. Man erlangt jetzt eine Anschauung davon, wie der Mensch im Wachzustande und wie er im Schlafzustande ist. Man kommt dazu, einzusehen, wie während des Wachzustandes das Ich und der astralische Organismus sich hineinkleiden in dasjenige, was ich vorhin als Atmungs- und Zirkulationsvorgänge, als rhythmische Vorgänge geschildert habe, wie aber, indem das Ich sich ein Abbild schafft im physischen Organismus, einbezogen werden in diese Abbildlichkeit die Stoffwechselvorgänge, die in der Zirkulation des Blutes leben. Das, was der Mensch im gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein sein Ich nennt, ist nur ein schwacher Abglanz seines wahren Ich. Das wahre Ich wurzelt in der eben charakterisierten geistig-göttlichen Welt. Im gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein wird dieses Ich dadurch wahrgenommen, daß das Zirkulationssystem des Menschen durchzogen wird von den Stoffwechselvorgängen. In diesen in der Zirkulation selbst pulsierenden Stoffwechselvorgängen wird dasjenige gespürt, empfunden und gefühlt, was das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein als das Ich wahrnimmt. Das aber ist nur ein schwacher Abglanz des wahren Ich.
[ 21 ] Im Wachzustande lebt im Stoffwechsel, der da kreist in dem rhythmischen Menschen, das Abbild dieses Ich. Das heißt, es lebt das wirkliche Ich, aber das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein hat nur das durch den Stoffwechsel bewirkte Abbild in sich. Wenn aber der menschliche physische und ätherische Organismus das, was im Atmungs- und Zirkulationsprozesse geschieht und vom Stoffwechsel durchdrungen wird, wenn der physische und ätherische Organismus — wie es im Schlafzustande der Fall ist — die Kräfte dieses rhythmischen Menschen selber brauchen, dann lebt das wahre Ich mit dem astralischen Leibe in der spirituellen Außenwelt. Dann versorgen die Atmung und die Zirkulation mit dem darin pulsierenden Stoffwechsel den physischen und den ätherischen Organismus für sich, und das wahre Ich und die astralische Organisation haben einen Bestand neben dem physischen und dem ätherischen Organismus in der spirituellen Welt. Man schaut diese abwechselnden Zustände durch die wahre Intuition, wie der physische und ätherische Organismus Atmungs- und Blutzirkulation mit dem darin enthaltenen Stoffwechsel brauchen, um ihre Kräfte zu erneuern. Während dieser Zeit halten sich das wahre Ich und der astralische Organismus in der spirituellen Welt auf, haben dort Bestand. Und dann, wenn die Kräfte des physischen und ätherischen Organismus durch den rhythmischen Menschen so weit regeneriert sind, daß weitere rhythmische Prozesse nicht notwendig sind, dann kehren astralischer Leib und Ich zurück und durchsetzen den Stoffwechsel, der im Atmungs- und Blutzirkulationsprozesse pulsiert, und der Mensch ist dann wieder ein wacher Mensch.
[ 22 ] So schaut man hin, wie das wahre Ich und der astralische Organismus im Stoffwechsel pulsieren. So lernt man diejenige Welt erkennen, welche die alten Religionen als die göttliche Welt bezeichneten, in der das Ich des Menschen, das wahre Ich, seine ihm ureigene Heimat hat. Und da das, was man so in der Intuition erfaßt, sich wiederum in Spiegelbildern ergibt - an dem physischen, an dem ätherischen Leibe, wie eben in einem Spiegel —, so kann man auch das, was in der rein spirituellen Welt unabhängig von aller Körperlichkeit des Menschen erfahren wird, wieder in Worte bringen, kann es in Bildern, in Begriffen zum Ausdruck bringen. Dann kann es wiederum von dem gesunden Menschenverstande aufgefaßt werden, kann gefühlt und empfunden werden, kann im menschlichen Gemüt erlebt werden und bildet dann den Inhalt des religiösen Bewußtseins, der damit erkenntnismäßig begründet ist.
[ 23 ] Es ist nicht für jeden Menschen notwendig, durch Intuition sich hineinzuleben in die göttlich-geistige Welt. Das muß derjenige tun, der ein Geistesforscher wird. Wenn aber der Geistesforscher das, was er in der göttlich-geistigen Welt erfährt, auf die eben charakterisierte Art in Worte kleidet, dann nimmt das solche Formen an, daß man an dem, was auf diese Art zur Offenbarung kommt, im gewöhnlichen Menschen mit Bewußtsein erlebt: Da werden Worte gesprochen, die sich nicht auf diese Welt beziehen, die sich aber mit der Kraft der ihnen innewohnenden Wirklichkeit im menschlichen Gemüte ausleben. — Und das ist die Kraft, mit der religiös auf das Bewußtsein das wirkt, was durch die Geistesforschung aus der geistigen Welt herausgeholt wird durch das intuitive Erleben dieser geistig-göttlichen Welt.
[ 24 ] Wenn die Menschheit wiederum zu einem ursprünglichen, auf Erkenntnis begründeten religiösen Leben kommen will, dann muß sie das gelten lassen, was der Geistesforscher durch wahre Intuition als seine Erlebnisse in der göttlich-geistigen Welt aus dieser zu verkünden vermag. Dann wird Religion wieder zurückkehren zu dem, was sie einst war. Jede Religion war an ihrem Ausgangspunkte Offenbarung aus der göttlich-geistigen Welt heraus, Offenbarung derjenigen Erlebnisse, die mit den Wesenheiten in der spirituellen Welt gemacht werden können, mit jenen Wesenheiten, die sich vorher der imaginativen und inspirierten Erkenntnis offenbaren, mit denen man aber erst in der Intuition zusammenkommt.
[ 25 ] Das Denken, welches in Abstraktionen leben kann und das wir vorzugsweise heute im wissenschaftlichen Forschen anwenden, das wir unserem Beobachten und Experimentieren zugrunde legen, ist eigentlich erst im Laufe der Menschheitsentwickelung erworben worden. Es war nicht bei denjenigen Menschen vorhanden, aus denen jene alten philosophischen Forscher und Religionslehrer hervorgingen, welche die alte Philosophie, die alte Kosmologie, das alte religiöse Leben begründet haben und von denen vieles in einer Art Tradition sich erhalten hat. Damals waren vorhanden halbbewußte, traumhafte imaginative, inspirierte, intuitive Erlebnisse. Aus diesen heraus wurden die alten Erkenntnisse auf den verschiedensten Gebieten gewonnen, und eigentlich erst seit dem Entstehen der neueren Naturwissenschaft haben wir das, was wir heute als das abstrakte Denken erleben. Man darf nicht glauben, daß dieses abstrakte Denken nur vorhanden ist bei den wissenschaftlichen Arbeitern. Es wird heute aufgenommen durch die gewöhnlichen Schulen und vom einfachsten, primitivsten Menschen, der noch fern von aller städtischen Bildung draußen auf dem Lande lebt.
[ 26 ] So, wie das menschliche Bewußtsein durch dieses abstrakte Denken in der gesamten zivilisierten Welt ist, so war es noch im 8., 9. nachchristlichen Jahrhundert in keinem Teile der Menschheit. Überall lebte das, was aus den drei anderen Bewußtseinszuständen heraus gewonnen worden ist. Aber jene Vollbewußtheit, welche wir heute als den wahren Ausdruck des Menschlichen auffassen müssen, die konnte nur dadurch errungen werden, daß das abstrakte Denken, das heute eine Zierde des wissenschaftlichen Lebens ist, sich dem menschlichen Leben eingegliedert hat. Mit anderen Worten: Ein Denken in der Weise, daß man sich dazu der physischen Menschenorganisation bedient und diese physische Organisation zum Denken braucht, wie das heute der Fall ist, ein solches Denken hat es in den älteren Zeiten nicht gegeben. Da dachte der Mensch nur mit demjenigen in seiner Organisation, was ätherische, was astralische, was Ich-Organisation war. Durch das, was sich aus Imagination, Inspiration und Intuition offenbarte, wurden ihm die Gedanken mitgegeben. So ist es heute noch bei Menschen, die durch irgendwelche Umstände, die wir noch erwähnen wollen, eine Art Hellsehen haben, das nicht das moderne exakte Hellsehen ist, sondern das aus alten Zuständen vererbtes, traumhaftes Hellsehen ist. Solche Personen können niemals ihre seelischen Erlebnisse kontrollieren, aber sie können sie haben, so haben, wie die Menschen älterer Epochen sie hatten. Dann ist man manchmal erstaunt, welche scharfen Gedanken solchen Menschen in ihren traumhaften Visionen mitgegeben werden, Gedanken, denen manchmal eine weit geistreichere Logik zugrunde liegt, als sie sich selbst ein heutiger Philosoph machen kann. Das sind eben die Gedanken, die aus der geistigen Welt heraus offenbart werden. Einzig solche Gedanken gab es in älteren Zeiten der Menschheitsentwickelung, geoffenbarte Gedanken.
[ 27 ] Das abstrakte Denken, das man heute allein kennt, ist mit dem Werkzeug des physischen Leibes erarbeitet. Es wird erlebt mit dem Werkzeuge des physischen Leibes, und das ist das Charakteristikon dessen, was die Menschheit in ihrer neueren Zeit, wo sie zu ihrem Vollbewußtsein aufgestiegen ist, sich errungen hat. Ein mit dem physischen Leibe errungenes Denken ist eigentlich gegenüber der geistigen Welt ein deplaciertes Denken. Denn gerade durch das, was ich eben charakterisiert habe, zeigt sich das Denken als angehörig der geistigen Welt. Es ist jetzt deplaciert, wenn sich der Mensch in seinem Denken der physischen Organisation bedient. Dadurch lebt das Denken in einem Element, das nicht sein ureigenes Element ist. Aber dadurch erlangt der Mensch auch in diesem Denken etwas, das er niemals erlangen könnte, wenn das Denken nur als Offenbarung aus Imagination, Inspiration und Intuition sich ergeben könnte. Dadurch, daß das Denken durch den physischen Organismus erarbeitet wird, hat es in seinem substantiellen Gehalt nichts in sich von der geistigen Welt. Es ist im Grunde genommen eine Tätigkeit, die bloß im physischen Organismus ausgeübt wird. Mit anderen Worten: Dieses abstrakte Denken erlebt nichts Wirkliches; es ist wie herausgepreßt, herausfiltriert aus der Imagination. Was erlebt wird, ist Schein. Was wir im abstrakten Denken erleben, ist Schein-Erleben gerade dadurch, daß wir vollbewußt werden in diesem Denken.
[ 28 ] Zweierlei können wir in diesem Denken erleben. Einmal kann dasjenige, was wir in diesem abstrakten Denken als Schein-Erleben haben und was nicht selbst darauf Anspruch macht, etwas auszudrücken, Abbild der objektiven Natur werden. Dadurch erst hat der Mensch das errungen, worauf er heute so stolz ist: eine objektive Naturwissenschaft. Die Naturvorgänge draußen könnten von einem eigenen, mit Eigensubstanz erfüllten Denken nicht in einer objektiven Darstellung gegeben werden. Wir können solche Beschreibungen, wie sie in alten Zeiten von den Naturvorgängen gegeben sind, nicht als objektive Naturwissenschaft anerkennen. Gerade indem das Denken nur ein Scheinleben hat, bildet sich im Scheinleben die äußere Welt ab. In einem Denken, das nicht eine eigene Substanz hat, erscheint bildhaft die Substanz der äußeren Naturvorgänge. So verdankt die Menschheit in ihrem Fortschritt dem Umstande, daß sie sich ihr Vollbewußtsein in einem denkerischen Schein-Erleben errungen hat, die objektive Naturwissenschaft. Es wurde der Zeitraum, in welchem das abstrakte Denken heraufkam, auch die Zeit, in der die objektive Naturwissenschaft errungen worden ist.
[ 29 ] Ein Zweites, das der Mensch diesem Aufschwunge zum abstrakten Denken verdankt, ist sein Erleben der Freiheit. Was man als moralische Impulse erlebt durch Imagination, Inspiration und Intuition, auch wenn man es so erlebt wie in alten Zeiten, traumhaft - wo es immer durch die Träume, die Instinkte und Emotionen des Organismus erlebt wurde, indem es ein Impuls zum Handeln wurde -, das übt immer auf den Menschen einen Zwang aus. Was immer man seinem Organismus als Trieb in seinem Handeln zugrunde legen muß, das treibt einen, zwingt einen da- und dorthin. Und das, was aus einer wirklichen ätherischen Welt herausgeholt wird in der Imagination als moralische Impulse, das zwingt mich; man kann nicht anders, als ihnen folgen. Ebenso ist es mit dem, was aus der Inspiration und aus der Intuition stammt. Nimmt aber der Mensch, indem er zwischen Geburt und Tod das Scheinleben des abstrakten Denkens erlebt — des reinen Denkens, das nichts ist als Denken, aber das durch den physischen Organismus ausgeführt wird -, nimmt er in dieses Denken die moralischen Impulse herein, so leben diese in dem reinen Denken, das nur ein Scheinleben hat und zu nichts zwingen kann, das ebensowenig zu etwas zwingen kann, wie Spiegelbilder zu etwas zwingen können. Was in der Wirklichkeit stößt, das zwingt mich; was aber bloß ein Scheinleben hat wie das, was wir im reinen Denken erleben, das kann einen Menschen nicht zwingen. Da muß ich mich selber entschließen, wenn ich ihm folgen will. Damit ist zu gleicher Zeit in diesem Schein-Erleben des Denkens die Möglichkeit der menschlichen Freiheit gegeben. Und indem moralische Impulse, die in der geistigen Welt wurzeln, hereinkommen und den Menschen erfüllen in diesem Schein erlebenden Denken, werden sie zu freien Impulsen.
[ 30 ] Zweierlei also verdankt der Mensch seinem Aufschwunge zu dem Schein-Erleben im Denken: das Zeitalter der objektiven Naturwissenschaft und das Erringen der wirklichen Freiheit. Diese Beziehungen habe ich, ebenso wie ich das Erheben in die übersinnlichen Welten in dem Buche «Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten?», in meiner «Geheimwissenschaft» und in der «Theosophie» darstellte, so habe ich versucht, das Erringen des Freiheitsbewußtseins in der modernen Zeit in meiner «Philosophie der Freiheit» nach seiner Grundlegung hin darzustellen. So können wir sagen: In dem Zeitalter, in welchem der Mensch sein Vollbewußtsein dadurch errungen hat, daß das Denken heruntergeströmt ist bis zum physischen Organismus und sich dessen bedient, in dem Zeitalter hat dieses Denken abgelehnt das alte traumhafte Hellsehen, durch das einmal eine alte Philosophie, eine alte Kosmologie und das alte religiöse Leben begründet wurden. Der Mensch hat dadurch die Möglichkeit erlangt, in der physischen Organisation zwischen Geburt und Tod objektive Naturwissenschaft auszubilden. Er hat weiter die Möglichkeit erlangt, Freiheit auszubilden. Aber er steht heute an dem Punkt, wo er den Weg wieder beschreiten muß hinauf in die übersinnliche Welt — unter Beibehaltung seines Vollbewußtseins - in vollbewußter Imagination, Inspiration und Intuition, um zu dem, was er in objektiver Naturwissenschaft und Freiheit erleben kann, hinzu zu erringen eine auf Erkenntnis der übersinnlichen Welt gebaute neue Philosophie, eine neue Kosmologie und ein neues religiöses Leben. Sie genügen dem modernen Menschen in derselben Weise als Offenbarung einer übersinnlichen Welt, wie er durch seine Vollbewußtheit innerhalb der sinnlichen Welt befriedigt ist durch die Erringung der objektiven Naturwissenschaft und der Freiheit.
[ 31 ] Damit ist auf der einen Seite durch die Kennzeichnung von Freiheit und objektiver Naturwissenschaft, auf der anderen Seite durch die Kennzeichnung einer modernen spirituellen Wissenschaft zugleich charakterisiert, wie die Menschheit aus dem gegenwärtigen Zeitalter in die Zukunft hinein fortschreiten muß, damit sie durch die Erringung einer übersinnlichen Erkenntnis sich einfügen kann in den von der Weltenordnung geforderten wahren Menschheitsfortschritt.
Exercises for the Mind, Feelings, and Will
[ 1 ] Philosophy did not come into being in the way it is continued today. It is continued in the present in such a way that it is a sum, a collection of ideas whose inner substantial reality is not experienced by philosophers, but for which a theoretical justification is sought that it relates to reality. As a result, philosophers are unable to prove their ideas in reality in such a direct way as one can always do with any given reality. People can certainly have individual illusions about a given reality, but it is easy to reach agreement when one is faced with it. In philosophy, ideas that are actually only taken from tradition—even though one believes otherwise—can be related to reality in various ways because one does not experience this reality. And thus arise the various divergent philosophical systems, in which it is the case that none can actually be proven to be absolutely valid, because one can always advance opposing reasons to refute the reasons put forward for one system or another. And since there is only relative correctness, it can be said that the person proving and the person refuting usually have equal rights. In this way, it is possible in the present to arrive at a philosophy that differs from that of one philosopher or another, but not to anything that would be immediately felt as real and that could be convincing with the same immediacy.
[ 2 ] Philosophy emerged from a state of consciousness quite different from that of abstract thinking in which it is developed today. We must return to living with the soul in this state of consciousness. However, since humanity has now advanced in its evolution, we cannot simply revert to the old state of consciousness from which philosophy emerged. If we want to have a philosophy today, we must achieve something similar, but something entirely different.
[ 3 ] The old state of consciousness from which philosophy was derived, and through which the philosopher experienced the activity of his own etheric organization, was half unconscious. Compared to the modern consciousness in which we think scientifically, this state of consciousness had something dreamlike about it. What we must envision as the ideal for a new philosophy is to be able to experience philosophy again in the etheric body, but not in the dreamlike way it was experienced in ancient times. It must be clear that the dreams of the ancient philosophers were not dreams in the same way that dreams are today. Today's dreams are pictorial images, but their reality is nowhere guaranteed by the content of the dream images. These images can be all kinds of reminiscences of life; they can refer to processes of the physical organism. One never finds a convincing indication of reality in the dream image itself. This was different in the state of consciousness from which philosophy was developed in ancient times. These images were also pictorial, but they appeared in such a way that the image itself provided complete assurance of a reality of a spiritual, ethereal nature to which the image pointed. We cannot surrender ourselves to this dreamlike, semi-conscious state of mind today. Our scientific way of thinking demands that we think in a fully conscious manner, indeed that we live in a fully conscious manner in our souls, if we want to work in a cognitive way. In order to gain a new philosophy, we must therefore bring about a way of thinking that proceeds in the etheric organism but is at the same time fully conscious, like the scientific thinking we apply in mathematics or the natural sciences.
[ 4 ] We achieve such fully conscious, pictorial thinking, which relates to an etheric reality, today within anthroposophical research through meditative inner soul exercises. These meditative exercises consist essentially in the soul concentrating on a clearly comprehensible content of imagination. I will describe this meditation in detail in the following lectures. You can also find it in my book “How to Know Higher Worlds” and in my “An Outline of Esoteric Science.” Here I will only say in principle that it is a matter of gathering all the soul forces together, of refraining from everything else that makes impressions from outside or inside, of abstracting, and of allowing the soul forces to rest on an easily comprehensible idea. If one repeats such a meditative exercise, which in individual cases need only be short, over and over again for months, perhaps for years, with the necessary energy and perseverance, one will one day notice that one has become completely independent of the physical organism in one's soul-spiritual life, that one can now actually see: When I think in the physical organism, I make use of this physical organism; although thinking itself does not take place in the physical organism, this physical organism, through its finer organization, gives an image of this thinking; through this, it becomes conscious to me.
[ 5 ] Without the physical organism, the thinking of ordinary consciousness cannot take place. Therefore, ordinary consciousness is bound to the physical organism. As clear as it is that all ordinary thinking takes place only with the help of the physical organism, it is equally clear that in meditation one engages in a pictorial-thinking activity, in that through meditation, through that repeated resting of the soul on an easily comprehensible content of imagination, one has become free in one's inner soul activity from the physical body. And now one experiences around oneself a world of images which, in terms of its pictorial nature, is similar to that of the ancient thinkers who derived their philosophy from it, but which is experienced with complete clarity, like any clear idea in scientific observation and experimentation. Now, in this world of images that one has before one, one gains an overview of those forces within oneself that have been working as forces of growth since birth, making our organism grow larger and larger. One also gains an overview of the forces at work in metabolism, nutrition, and digestive processes. In other words, one gains a complete overview in pictorial form of the life forces that permeate human beings from the spiritual-etheric world and actually build them up as a special etheric organism, giving them their form and life. What was present in a dreamlike form in the early philosophers is reborn in the human being, but now in a fully conscious form. Later philosophers took only what is now widely known as philosophy from the earlier philosophers, but in a more abstract form. In other words, one rises to the level of supersensible knowledge, which is called imaginative knowledge, the knowledge of the imagination. In imaginative cognition, one thus surveys one's own forces of growth and life.
[ 6 ] But what one surveys there as the etheric or life organism is not separated from the etheric outer world in such a strict manner as one separates the objective from the subjective in sensory perception. In sensory perception, I know that the object is there and I am here. In etheric imaginative perception, one's own etheric organism grows together, so to speak, with the etheric of the cosmos; one feels oneself in the same way in one's own etheric organism and in the etheric of the cosmos. What one now experiences through the confluence of one's own etheric organism and the etheric weaving and striving in the cosmos, one is now able to bring into sharply contoured images and then also clothe in human language and express in such a way that it can appear in human language. In this way, one can regain a philosophy.
[ 7 ] This philosophy can therefore be reworked by the human being raising himself to the development of imaginative thinking. But when the imaginative thinker, the thinker at the stage of precise clairvoyance, which can be called imagination, expresses his insights in language and thought forms, then the matter is presented in such a way that those who cannot themselves imagine imaginatively can transfer what the philosopher says into their ordinary consciousness, into the full consciousness of ordinary thinking. And because it is different, it is also perceived differently, felt differently, and experienced differently. But that reality is also experienced in ordinary consciousness through linguistic communication and through the reception of what has been communicated linguistically, that reality which the imaginative thinker can give to his words by drawing his ideas from the real etheric world.
[ 8 ] In this way, a philosophy can be regained that is derived from the etheric world, from the human etheric organism, from the etheric cosmos, and that has such an effect on the listener that, in receiving it with ordinary, healthy common sense, he senses: This is drawn from the supersensible, initially etheric reality. And so, when imaginative thinking is achieved, a true philosophy that vouches for reality is regained for the world.
[ 9 ] For cosmology, the meditative life must be expanded. This can be achieved by the soul becoming accustomed not only to resting with all its powers on a comprehensible idea or a comprehensible complex of ideas, and resting again and again in order to enter into an intensified activity which is ultimately torn away from the physical organism and proceeds in the purely etheric, but the soul must also come to remove from consciousness the ideas on which it rests. The soul must come to allow ideas on which it is completely concentrated to be present in consciousness in the same arbitrary manner, and then remove them again from consciousness and enter a state in which there is mere wakefulness, mere full consciousness without any soul content acquired in the same way as sensory content or thought content. The soul must be awake, but have nothing within itself of the content acquired through ordinary consciousness.
[ 10 ] If, therefore, after meditation, the soul brings about a state of empty consciousness while fully awake and achieves a certain strengthening with inner power in maintaining this emptiness of the soul while fully awake, then it finally comes to pass that a spiritual-soul cosmic content, which was previously completely unknown, flows into the empty consciousness, a new spiritual world, a spiritual external world. This is then the stage of inspiration, which follows on from the stage of supersensible knowledge through imagination.
[ 11 ] Once one has this ability to bring spiritual-soul cosmic content into the emptied consciousness through inspiration, one also receives the organization I mentioned yesterday, the astral organism of the human being, that astral organism that lived in a spiritual-soul world before it descended to earth and clothed itself in a physical and etheric body. One learns about the spiritual-soul life of one's own human being before it descended to earth and clothed itself in a physical and etheric body.-soul world before descending to earth and clothing itself in a physical and etheric body. One learns about the soul-spiritual life of one's own human being before germ life, before birth. One learns about the astral organization, which in turn leaves the physical human being at death and continues to live in the spiritual-soul world. Through inspired knowledge, one thus learns about the astral organism, which in ordinary consciousness lives out its life through thinking, feeling, and willing.
[ 12 ] At the same time, however, one also learns about the spiritual cosmos. Just as one has the physical cosmos before one through one's senses and through thinking bound to the senses, so now one has the spiritual cosmos before one; only what takes place out of this spiritual cosmos with the physical human organization, and also with the etheric human organization, is much more real than the sensory impressions one otherwise receives in ordinary consciousness. One can already say that what flows into the human being through inspiration, enabling him to attain a soul life independent of his body, can be compared to the inhalation of real oxygen. Through this inspired knowledge, one now also gains a more precise insight into what the human breathing process is and into the process that follows the breathing process in a rhythmic manner, such as the blood circulation process. Through inspired knowledge, one gains a real insight into the rhythmic human being and all rhythmic processes in the human being. One gains an insight into how the astral organization works in the rhythmic human being. One also gains an insight into how the astral organism, in its clothing in the physical and etheric organisms, is connected with the respiratory system, indeed with the entire rhythmic organization, and finds its place precisely in the rhythm of respiration and blood circulation.
[ 13 ] This also enables us to understand, based on knowledge, what in the physical and etheric organism of the human being is merely heredity, subject to earthly laws of heredity, and what human beings bring with them from the supersensible, cosmic, extraterrestrial world as soul and spirit beings who enter the earthly world and merely clothe themselves in the physical and etheric organism, or, perhaps better said, clothe themselves in it. One can then distinguish between what are inherited characteristics in human beings and what they have brought with them from a spiritual world into their physical existence.
[ 14 ] In what we now recognize through our astral organization and its reflection in the rhythmic human processes, we have something that we can now integrate into the spiritual cosmos that surrounds us and is given to us through inspiration: we arrive at a cosmology that can encompass the human being. One arrives at a cosmic image that contains the manner in which the astral human organism, together with the I—which I will speak about shortly—enters the physical organism on the waves and surges of breathing and the other rhythmic processes. One sees the cosmos in its actual lawfulness continuing into human beings through the human rhythmic processes. One arrives at a cosmology through which one understands the astral organism, but through which one also understands the rhythmic processes in the individual human being.
[ 15 ] In this way, inspired knowledge becomes the source of a truly modern cosmology, which in turn can measure itself against the ancient cosmology, which, through equally dreamlike soul forces, has integrated human beings in a similar way into the whole cosmos, into a soul-spiritual cosmic world. But what is gained in inspired knowledge is in turn gained in full consciousness and can then be seen in its reflection in the human etheric body. What is experienced in inspiration is projected in images onto the etheric body. And so what is gained from the cosmos in inspiration is connected with what is experienced as imagination in the activity of the etheric body. What is inspired from the cosmos, which is in a certain way internally mobile, cannot immediately be brought into sharp contours, but only when it connects with what is experienced as imagination in the etheric body. But then cosmology can also be given sharp contours, and this gives rise to a cosmic philosophy that is entirely appropriate for modern human beings, a philosophical cosmology that is formed in this way through a confluence of inspired knowledge with what is experienced pictorially in the etheric body in the form of imaginations. I have attempted to present such a cosmology in my book “Outline of Occult Science,” which has also been translated into French as “Science Occulte.”
[ 16 ] In order to establish religious life on a cognitive basis, further training in meditative life and soul exercises is necessary. However, this meditative life and these soul exercises must now be extended to the human will. Up to now, a type of spiritual exercise has been described that is characterized by a special training of the life of the thoughts. Now, the soul life, insofar as it reveals itself in the will, must also be detached from the life of the physical organism, from the life of the etheric organism, for the spiritual researcher. This is achieved by applying the will in a way that is not normally done in ordinary consciousness. I will illustrate this with an example.
[ 17 ] Try to imagine the events of the external world that you normally follow as they occur—first the earlier ones, then the later ones—in the same way that you follow them with your thinking. Try to imagine these events in reverse order, so that you imagine the last event first, then the one immediately preceding it, then the one before that, and so on, until you reach the first event. In this way, through an effort of will in the soul, one carries out what one does not carry out in ordinary consciousness. In ordinary consciousness, one follows the course of external events with the will that lives in thinking. Through this backward thinking, thinking differently from the course of events in nature, one tears the will away from the physical and etheric organism, and thereby connects the will, which is otherwise only a reflection of the astral organism, with this astral organism. And since the astral organism emerges from the physical and etheric organisms through the other meditations, one takes the will out of the physical organism and into the spiritual world outside. By driving the will out of one's own organism in the astral body in this way, one also takes what is the actual spirit-human being or the I out of the physical and etheric organism, so that one can now live together with the I and with the astral organism in the spiritual world with the spiritual beings. Just as one lives alone in one's own body in the physical world, one now learns, through such training of the soul life, to live together outside, in the spiritual world, with all the beings that first revealed themselves in imagination and inspiration. In this way, one comes to lead a life in the spiritual world that is independent of one's own physicality.
[ 18 ] Such exercises can be reinforced by exerting the will in a different way, and the more effort is required for this evolution of the will, the better it is for experiencing the spiritual world outside the physical and etheric organism. You can change habits you have by consciously deciding: This or that habit you have had for many years, you will change through an energetic exertion of the will in such a way that in four, five, or ten years it will be transformed so that you will appear to be a different person with regard to this habit. These can be small, insignificant habits, perhaps even those small, insignificant habits that continue without one thinking much about them. If one works on them, they are most suitable for the kind of supersensible knowledge I am now characterizing. For example, one has certain ways of writing. You resolve with all your energy to acquire a different style of writing than the one you are accustomed to and have developed since childhood. If you devote yourself to such exercises of will for years, your soul will eventually become strong enough to live in the spiritual world outside the physical and etheric organism, to live with the spiritual beings outside, with the human souls either before they entered physical existence or after they have passed through death and now live in the spiritual world before returning to physical existence, or even to live with those spiritual beings who are only in the spiritual world and inhabit this world in such a way that they do not, like human beings, clothe themselves in an etheric and physical organism.
[ 19 ] In this way, one comes to live with one's soul and spirit in the world where one experiences what constitutes the content of religious consciousness. One enters fully conscious into the world that was communicated to humans by the ancient religious teachers as the divine world, at that time through a more dreamlike immersion, now through a fully conscious immersion, as we develop full consciousness only in mathematics or in the exact natural sciences of modern times. In this way, one arrives at the third stage of supersensible knowledge, the development of true intuition.
[ 20 ] Through this true intuition, through which one learns to live in the divine-spiritual world, one can bring the experiences from this divine-spiritual world over to make them the content of religious consciousness. Once again, one learns to recognize something essential in human nature: how human beings can live with their true self and their astral organism in a purely spiritual world. One now gains an insight into how human beings are in the waking state and how they are in the sleeping state. One comes to understand how, during the waking state, the ego and the astral organism clothe themselves in what I have just described as respiratory and circulatory processes, as rhythmic processes, but how, as the ego creates an image of itself in the physical organism, the metabolic processes that live in the circulation of the blood are incorporated into this image. What human beings call their ego in ordinary consciousness is only a faint reflection of their true ego. The true ego is rooted in the spiritual-divine world just described. In ordinary consciousness, this ego is perceived through the fact that the human circulatory system is permeated by metabolic processes. In these metabolic processes, which pulsate in the circulation itself, what ordinary consciousness perceives as the ego is sensed, felt, and experienced. But this is only a faint reflection of the true ego.
[ 21 ] In the waking state, the image of this I lives in the metabolism that circulates in the rhythmic human being. This means that the real I lives, but ordinary consciousness has only the image produced by metabolism within itself. But when the human physical and etheric organism needs what happens in the processes of respiration and circulation and is permeated by metabolism, when the physical and etheric organism—as is the case in the state of sleep—needs the forces of this rhythmic human being itself, then the true self lives with the astral body in the spiritual outer world. Then the respiration and circulation, with the metabolism pulsating within them, supply the physical and etheric organisms for themselves, and the true I and the astral organization exist alongside the physical and etheric organisms in the spiritual world. Through true intuition, one sees these alternating states, how the physical and etheric organisms need respiration and blood circulation with the metabolism contained therein in order to renew their forces. During this time, the true self and the astral organism remain in the spiritual world, where they exist. And then, when the forces of the physical and etheric organisms have been regenerated by the rhythmic human being to such an extent that further rhythmic processes are no longer necessary, the astral body and the ego return and take over the metabolism that pulsates in the processes of respiration and blood circulation, and the human being is then once again an awake human being.
[ 22 ] In this way, one observes how the true I and the astral organism pulsate in the metabolism. In this way, one learns to recognize the world that the ancient religions called the divine world, in which the human I, the true I, has its original home. And since what is grasped in this way through intuition is reflected back in mirror images—in the physical and etheric bodies, just as in a mirror—it is also possible to put into words what is experienced in the purely spiritual world, independent of all physicality, and to express it in images and concepts. Then it can in turn be grasped by common sense, can be felt and sensed, can be experienced in the human mind, and then forms the content of religious consciousness, which is thus cognitively grounded.
[ 23 ] It is not necessary for every human being to use intuition to enter into the divine-spiritual world. This must be done by those who become spiritual researchers. But when the spiritual researcher puts what he experiences in the divine-spiritual world into words in the manner just described, it takes on such forms that what is revealed in this way can be consciously experienced by ordinary human beings: Words are spoken that do not refer to this world, but which, with the power of their inherent reality, live out their full meaning in the human mind. — And this is the power with which what is brought out of the spiritual world through spiritual research, through the intuitive experience of this spiritual-divine world, works religiously upon consciousness.
[ 24 ] If humanity wants to return to an original religious life based on knowledge, then it must accept what spiritual researchers are able to proclaim through true intuition as their experiences in the divine-spiritual world. Then religion will return to what it once was. At its outset, every religion was a revelation from the divine-spiritual world, a revelation of those experiences that can be had with the beings in the spiritual world, with those beings who previously reveal themselves to imaginative and inspired knowledge, but with whom one only comes into contact through intuition.
[ 25 ] The thinking that can live in abstractions and that we prefer to use today in scientific research, which we base our observations and experiments on, has actually only been acquired in the course of human evolution. It was not present in those people from whom the ancient philosophical researchers and religious teachers emerged who founded ancient philosophy, ancient cosmology, and ancient religious life, and from whom much has been preserved in a kind of tradition. At that time, there were semi-conscious, dreamlike, imaginative, inspired, intuitive experiences. From these, ancient knowledge was gained in various fields, and it is only since the emergence of modern science that we have what we now experience as abstract thinking. One must not believe that this abstract thinking is only present in scientific workers. Today, it is absorbed by ordinary schools and by the simplest, most primitive people who still live far from all urban education out in the countryside.
[ 26 ] Just as human consciousness is throughout the civilized world today through this abstract thinking, so it was in the 8th and 9th centuries AD in no part of humanity. Everywhere, people lived according to what had been gained from the three other states of consciousness. But that full consciousness which we must today regard as the true expression of humanity could only be achieved through the integration of abstract thinking, which today is an ornament of scientific life, into human life. In other words: Thinking in such a way that one makes use of the physical organization of the human being and needs this physical organization for thinking, as is the case today, did not exist in earlier times. Then, human beings thought only with that part of their organization which was etheric, astral, and ego-related. Through what was revealed by imagination, inspiration, and intuition, thoughts were given to them. This is still the case today with people who, through circumstances we will mention later, have a kind of clairvoyance that is not modern, precise clairvoyance, but rather dreamlike clairvoyance inherited from ancient times. Such people can never control their soul experiences, but they can have them in the same way that people in earlier epochs had them. Then one is sometimes amazed at the sharp thoughts that are given to such people in their dreamlike visions, thoughts that are sometimes based on a far more ingenious logic than even a modern philosopher can come up with. These are precisely the thoughts that are revealed from the spiritual world. Only such thoughts existed in earlier times of human development: revealed thoughts.
[ 27 ] The abstract thinking that we know today has been developed with the tools of the physical body. It is experienced with the tools of the physical body, and that is the characteristic feature of what humanity has achieved in its more recent times, when it has risen to full consciousness. Thinking acquired with the physical body is actually out of place in relation to the spiritual world. For it is precisely through what I have just characterized that thinking shows itself to belong to the spiritual world. It is now out of place when human beings use their physical organization in their thinking. As a result, thinking lives in an element that is not its own. But through this, the human being also gains something in this thinking that he could never gain if thinking could only arise as a revelation from imagination, inspiration, and intuition. Because thinking is developed through the physical organism, it has nothing of the spiritual world in its substantial content. It is basically an activity that is carried out solely in the physical organism. In other words, this abstract thinking experiences nothing real; it is as if it has been squeezed out, filtered out of the imagination. What is experienced is appearance. What we experience in abstract thinking is an appearance precisely because we become fully conscious in this thinking.
[ 28 ] We can experience two things in this thinking. First, what we have in this abstract thinking as an illusory experience and which does not itself claim to express anything can become a representation of objective nature. Only through this has man achieved what he is so proud of today: an objective natural science. The natural processes outside could not be given in an objective representation by a thinking that has its own substance. We cannot recognize such descriptions of natural processes as given in ancient times as objective natural science. Precisely because thinking has only an illusory life, the external world is reflected in this illusory life. In a thinking that does not have its own substance, the substance of external natural processes appears pictorially. Thus, humanity owes its progress to the fact that it has attained full consciousness in a thinking illusory experience. The period in which abstract thinking arose was also the period in which objective natural science was achieved.
[ 29 ] A second thing that man owes to this upsurge in abstract thinking is his experience of freedom. What we experience as moral impulses through imagination, inspiration, and intuition, even if we experience them as in ancient times, in a dreamlike state—where they were always experienced through the dreams, instincts, and emotions of the organism, becoming an impulse to act—always exerts a compulsion on humans. Whatever one must take as the basis of one's organism in one's actions drives one, compels one here and there. And what is brought out of a real ethereal world in the imagination as moral impulses compels me; one cannot help but follow them. The same is true of what comes from inspiration and intuition. But when human beings, between birth and death, experience the illusory life of abstract thinking—pure thinking, which is nothing but thinking, but which is carried out by the physical organism—and when they take moral impulses into this thinking, so they live in pure thinking, which has only an illusory life and cannot compel anything, just as mirror images cannot compel anything. What encounters me in reality compels me; but what has only an illusory life, such as what we experience in pure thinking, cannot compel a human being. I must decide for myself if I want to follow it. At the same time, this apparent experience of thinking gives rise to the possibility of human freedom. And as moral impulses rooted in the spiritual world enter and fill human beings in this apparent experiential thinking, they become free impulses.
[ 30 ] Human beings therefore owe two things to their rise to apparent experience in thinking: the age of objective natural science and the attainment of real freedom. I have attempted to describe these relationships, just as I described the ascent into the supersensible worlds in the book How Does One Reach a Knowledge of the Higher Worlds?, in my Secret Science, and in Theosophy, in my Philosophy of Freedom, based on its foundations. Thus we can say: In the age in which human beings attained full consciousness through the descent of thinking into the physical organism and its use of the latter, this thinking rejected the old dreamlike clairvoyance that had once founded an old philosophy, an old cosmology, and the old religious life. Human beings have thereby gained the ability to develop objective natural science in the physical organization between birth and death. They have also gained the ability to develop freedom. But today he stands at the point where he must once again tread the path upward into the supersensible world—while retaining his full consciousness—in fully conscious imagination, inspiration, and intuition, in order to attain, in addition to what he can experience in objective natural science and freedom, a new philosophy, a new cosmology, and a new religious life built on the knowledge of the supersensible world. They satisfy modern man in the same way as a revelation of a supersensible world, just as he is satisfied within the sensory world by the attainment of objective natural science and freedom through his full consciousness.
[ 31 ] Thus, on the one hand, by characterizing freedom and objective natural science, and on the other hand, by characterizing a modern spiritual science, we have at the same time characterized how humanity must progress from the present age into the future in order to be able to integrate itself into the true progress of humanity demanded by the world order through the attainment of supersensible knowledge.