The Life, Nature, and Cultivation of Anthroposophy
GA 260a
Member Newsletter, 2 March 1924
7. Work in the Society I
In the lectures to the Anthroposophical Society which I am now giving at the Goetheanum, I am seeking to give expression to the root-questions of the inner life of Man. The underlying point of view has been indicated in the first five ‘Leading Thoughts’ published in the News Sheet. My object has been to meet the fundamental need of an anthroposophical lecture. The listener must feel that Anthroposophy is speaking of what he, when he holds counsel with himself most deeply, realises as the essential concern of his soul. If we can thus find the right way of representing Anthroposophy, there will arise among the members the feeling that in the Anthroposophical Society the human being is truly understood.
And this is the fundamental impulse in those who become members. They want to find a place where the understanding of Man is duly cultivated.
When we earnestly seek to understand the human being, we are indeed already on the way to recognition of the spiritual being of the World. For we are made aware that, as to Man himself, our knowledge of Nature affords no information but only gives rise to questions.
If in representing Anthroposophy we tend to lead the soul away from love of Nature, confusion alone is the result. The true starting-point of anthroposophical thoughts cannot lie in the belittling of what Nature reveals to Man. To despise Nature, to turn away from the truth which flows to Man from the phenomena of life and the world, or from the beauty that pervades them and the tasks they offer to man's will: this frame of mind can at most produce a caricature of spiritual truth.
Such a caricature will always be tinged with the personal element. Even if it is not composed of dreams, it will be experienced in a dreaming way. In waking life man lives with other men, and his effort must be for mutual understanding on things of common interest. What one man states must have some meaning for the other; what one achieves by his work, must have a certain value for the other. Men who live with one another must have the feeling that they are in a common world. But when a man is living in his own dreams he cuts himself off from the common world of men. The dreams of another—even his nearest neighbour—may be utterly different from his. In waking life men have a world in common; in dreaming each man has his own.
Anthroposophy should lead from waking life, not to a dreaming, but to a more intense awakening. In everyday life we have community indeed, but it is confined within narrow limits. We are banished to a certain fragment of existence, and only in our inner hearts we bear a longing for life's fullness. We feel that the true community of human life extends beyond the confines of the everyday. We look away from the Earth to the Sun when we would see the source of light common to all earthly things. So too we must turn away from the world of the senses to the reality of the Spirit to find the true sources of humanity where the soul can experience the fullness of community it needs.
Here it may easily happen that we turn away from life instead of entering it more fully and more strongly. The man who despises Nature has fallen a victim to this danger. He is driven into that isolation of the soul, of which ordinary dreaming is a good example.
Let us rather educate our minds by contact with the light of truth which streams into the soul of man from Nature. Then we shall best develop the sense for the truths of Man, which are at the same time the truths of the Cosmos. The truths of Nature, experienced with free and open mind, lead us already toward the truths of the Spirit. When we fill ourselves with the beauty, greatness and majesty of Nature, it grows in us to a fountain of true feeling for the Spirit. And when we open our heart to the silent gesture of Nature revealing her eternal innocence beyond all good and evil, our eyes are opened presently to the spiritual world, from whence—into the dumb gesture—the living Word rings forth, revealing good and evil.
Spirit-perception, brought up in the loving perception of Nature, brings to life the true riches of the soul. Spiritual dreaming, elaborated in contradiction to true knowledge of Nature, can but impoverish the human heart.
If one penetrates Anthroposophy in its deepest essence one will feel the point of view here indicated to be the one from which all anthroposophical descriptions should take their start. With this as our point of departure, we shall come into living touch with the reality, of which every member will say, ‘There lies the true reason why I entered the Anthroposophical Society’.
It will not be enough, for the members who wish to be active in the Anthroposophical Society, to be theoretically convinced of this. Real life will only enter their conviction when they unfold a warm interest in all that goes on in the Society. As they learn of what is being thought and done by active individuals in the Society, they will receive the warmth they need for their own work in it. We must be filled with interest in other human beings, to meet them in an anthroposophical way. The study of ‘What is going on in the Society’ must gradually form the background of all our activity in it. Those above all who wish to be active members will stand in need of this.
7. Die Arbeit in der Gesellschaft
In meinen Vorträgen für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft, die ich gegenwärtig am Goetheanum halte, suche ich die Grundfragen des menschlichen Seelenlebens zur Darstellung zu bringen. In den fünf «Leitsätzen», die bisher in diesem Mitteilungsblatte enthalten waren, ist der Gesichtspunkt gekennzeichnet, von ‘dem aus die Darstellung gegeben wird. Ich wollte der Grundforderung eines anthroposophischen Vortrages entsprechen. Der Zuhörer soll die Empfindung haben, daß Anthroposophie von dem spricht, was er bei voller Selbstbesinnung als ureigene Angelegenheit seiner Seele empfindet. Kann man für eine solche Darstellung die rechte Art finden, dann wird sich unter den Mitgliedern das Bewußtsein entwickeln: In der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft wird der Mensch wirklich verstanden.
Man trifft damit auf dasjenige, was für die Menschen, die Mitglieder werden, der treibende Impuls ist. Sie wollen eine Stätte finden, an der Menschenverständnis seine rechte Pflege findet.
Man ist eigentlich schon auf dem Wege zur Anerkennung des Geisteswesens der Welt, wenn man ernstlich Menschenverständnis sucht. Denn man wird in diesem Suchen gewahr, daß die Naturerkenntnis in bezug auf den Menschen keine Aufschlüsse gibt, sondern nur Fragen erzeugt.
In den anthroposophischen Darstellungen kommt nur Verwirrung zustande, wenn man die Seele von der Liebe zur Natur hinwegführen will. Nicht in der Geringschätzung dessen, was die Natur den Menschen offenbart, kann der Ausgangspunkt der anthroposophischen Betrachtung liegen. Naturverachtung, Abkehr von der Wahrheit, die in den Erscheinungen des Lebens und der Welt dem Menschen entgegenstrahlt, von der Schönheit, die in diesen Erscheinungen waltet, von den Aufgaben, die sie dem Menschenstreben stellen, kann nur zu einem Zerrbilde vom Geisteswesen führen. Ein solches Zerrbild wird immer einen persönlichen Charakter haben. Es wird, auch wenn es nicht bloß aus Träumen gewoben ist, doch wie das Träumen erlebt werden. Wenn der Mensch im wachen Dasein mit Menschen lebt, dann muß sein Streben auf Verständigung über Gemeinsames ausgehen. Was der eine behauptet, muß Bedeutung für den andern haben; was der eine erarbeitet, muß für den andern einen gewissen Wert haben. Die Menschen, die miteinander leben, müssen das Gefühl haben, daß sie in einer gemeinsamen Welt sind. Wenn der Mensch in seinen Träumen webt, dann löst er sich aus dieser gemeinsamen Welt heraus. Ein anderer Mensch in seiner unmittelbaren Nähe kann ganz andere Träume haben. Im Wachen haben die Menschen eine gemeinsame Welt; im Träumen hat ein jeder seine eigene.
Anthroposophie sollte nicht aus dem Wachen in das Träumen, sondern in ein stärkeres Erwachen hineinführen. Im alltäglichen Leben ist zwar Gemeinsamkeit vorhanden; aber diese wird doch in engen Grenzen erlebt. Man ist da in ein Stück Dasein hineingebannt; man trägt die Sehnsucht nach dem vollen Leben nur im Herzen. Man fühlt, die Gemeinsamkeit des menschlichen Erlebens geht weiter als der Umkreis des alltäglichen Lebens. Und wie man von der Erde weg zur Sonne blicken muß, wenn man die allem Irdischen gemeinsame Quelle des Lichtes gewahr werden will, so muß man von der Sinnenwelt hinweg zum Geistes-Inhalt sich wenden, wenn man finden will, was aus dem echt Menschlichen heraus die Seele zur befriedigenden Menschengemeinschaft, zum vollen Erleben dieser Gemeinschaft führen kann.
Da ist es denn leicht möglich, daß man sich vom Leben abwendet, statt in einem intensiveren Maße in dasselbe einzutreten.
Und dieser Gefahr unterliegt der Naturverächter. Er wird in die Einsamkeit der Seele hineingetrieben, für die das natürliche Träumen ein Vorbild ist. Für menschliche Wahrheit, die zugleich Weltwahrheit ist, entwickelt man am besten den Sinn, wenn man diesen heranerzieht an derjenigen Wahrheit, die aus der Natur der Menschenseele entgegenleuchtet. Wer aber Naturwahrheit mit offenem, freiem Sinn in sich erlebt, der wird durch sie zur Geisteswahrheit hingeführt. Wer sich von der Schönheit, Größe und Erhabenheit der Natur durchdringt, in dem werden diese zur Quelle der Geistempfindung. Und wer sein Herz der stummen Naturgebärde öffnet, die jenseits von Gut und Böse in ewiger Unschuld sich offenbart, dem erschließt sich der Blick für die geistige Welt, die in die stumme Gebärde das lebendige Wort tönen läßt, das den Unterschied von Gut und Böse offenbart.
Geistanschauung, die durch die Liebe zur Naturanschauung hindurchgegangen ist, bereichert das Leben um die wahren Schätze der Seele; Geistesträumen, das im Widerspruch mit der Naturanschauung sich entwickelt, verarmt das Menschenherz.
Wer Anthroposophie im tiefsten Wesen durchdringt, wird, was in diesen Sätzen angedeutet ist, als den Gesichtspunkt empfinden, von dem in den anthroposophischen Darstellungen ausgegangen werden muß. Man wird durch solche Ausgangspunkte dasjenige berühren, von dem ein jedes Mitglied der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft sich sagt: darin liegt, was den wahren Grund meines Eintrittes in die Gesellschaft gebildet hat.
Bei den Mitgliedern, die in der Gesellschaft tätig sein wollen, wird es nicht genügen, daß sie von dem hier Angedeuteten theoretisch überzeugt sind. Es wird das rechte Leben in ihre Überzeugung erst kommen, wenn sie ein warmes Interesse für alles entfalten, was in der Gesellschaft vorgeht. Durch das Erfahren dessen, was von den Persönlichkeiten, die in der Gesellschaft sind, erdacht und erlebt wird, werden sie die Wärme empfangen, die sie für ihre Arbeit in der Gesellschaft brauchen. Man muß viel Interesse für die andern Menschen haben, wenn man ihnen auf anthroposophische Art gegenübertreten will. Das Studium dessen, «was in der Gesellschaft vorgeht», muß die Unterlage für das Wirken in der Gesellschaft werden. Gerade diejenigen Mitglieder brauchen dieses Studium, die in der Gesellschaft tätig sein wollen.
7. Work in the Society
In my lectures for the Anthroposophical Society, which I am currently giving at the Goetheanum, I seek to present the fundamental questions of human soul life. The five “guiding principles” that have been included in this newsletter so far characterize the point of view from which the presentation is given. I wanted to meet the basic requirement of an anthroposophical lecture. The listener should have the feeling that anthroposophy speaks of what he feels, in full self-reflection, to be a matter of his own soul. If the right way of presenting this can be found, then the members will develop the awareness that the Anthroposophical Society truly understands the human being.
This is what drives people to become members. They want to find a place where human understanding is properly cultivated.
One is actually already on the path to recognizing the spiritual nature of the world when one seriously seeks understanding of the human being. For in this search, one becomes aware that knowledge of nature does not provide any insights into the human being, but only raises questions.
In anthroposophical descriptions, confusion only arises when one tries to lead the soul away from the love of nature. The starting point of anthroposophical consideration cannot lie in contempt for what nature reveals to human beings. Contempt for nature, turning away from the truth that shines forth to human beings in the phenomena of life and the world, from the beauty that reigns in these phenomena, from the tasks they set for human striving, can only lead to a distorted image of the spiritual being. Such a distorted image will always have a personal character. Even if it is not woven solely from dreams, it will still be experienced as dreaming. When people live with other people in their waking existence, their striving must be directed toward understanding what they have in common. What one person asserts must have meaning for another; what one person works out must have a certain value for another. People who live together must feel that they are in a shared world. When people weave in their dreams, they detach themselves from this shared world. Another person in their immediate vicinity may have completely different dreams. When awake, people share a common world; when dreaming, each has their own.
Anthroposophy should not lead from wakefulness into dreaming, but into a stronger awakening. There is commonality in everyday life, but it is experienced within narrow limits. One is bound to a piece of existence; one carries the longing for a full life only in one's heart. One feels that the commonality of human experience extends beyond the sphere of everyday life. And just as one must look away from the earth toward the sun if one wants to perceive the source of light common to all earthly things, so one must turn away from the sensory world toward the content of the spirit if one wants to find what, out of genuine humanity, can lead the soul to a satisfying human community, to the full experience of this community.
It is then easy to turn away from life instead of entering into it more intensely.
And the despiser of nature is subject to this danger. He is driven into the loneliness of the soul, for which natural dreaming is a model. The best way to develop a sense of human truth, which is at the same time world truth, is to draw it closer to the truth that shines forth from the nature of the human soul. But those who experience natural truth with an open, free mind are led by it to spiritual truth. Those who allow themselves to be permeated by the beauty, grandeur, and sublimity of nature will find these qualities becoming a source of spiritual feeling. And those who open their hearts to the silent gestures of nature, which reveal themselves in eternal innocence beyond good and evil, will gain insight into the spiritual world, which makes the living word resound in the silent gestures, revealing the difference between good and evil.
Spiritual contemplation that has passed through the love of nature contemplation enriches life with the true treasures of the soul; spiritual dreams that develop in contradiction to nature contemplation impoverish the human heart.
Those who penetrate anthroposophy in its deepest essence will perceive what is indicated in these sentences as the point of view from which anthroposophical representations must proceed. Such starting points will touch upon what every member of the Anthroposophical Society says to themselves: this is what formed the true reason for my joining the Society.
For members who want to be active in the Society, it will not be enough to be theoretically convinced of what is indicated here. Their conviction will only come to life when they develop a warm interest in everything that goes on in the Society. By experiencing what is conceived and experienced by the personalities in the Society, they will receive the warmth they need for their work in the Society. One must have a great deal of interest in other people if one wants to approach them in an anthroposophical way. The study of “what is happening in the society” must become the basis for working in the society. It is precisely those members who want to be active in the society who need this study.