The Life, Nature, and Cultivation of Anthroposophy
GA 260a
Member Newsletter, 30 March 1924
11. On the Teaching of Anthroposophy
In most cases the stimulus to take up Anthroposophy will come from this: the looking out into the world external to man becomes a source of dissatisfaction, and the human being is thus impelled to turn his thoughts to his own human nature. He has a dim feeling that the riddles which life sets him cannot be illumined by looking out upon the restless working of the world, but rather by gazing into the inner life of man. Thus the striving for world-knowledge is changed into the striving for self-knowledge.
The members who wish to be active in the Anthroposophical Society will have to bear this in mind. Then, on the one hand, they will learn to have the right feeling for their task, while on the other hand they will recognise the dangers it involves.
Only too often the striving for self-knowledge, if wrongly led, grows into a special form of selfishness. Man may take himself too seriously and thereby lose interest in all that goes on outside him. In fact, every right striving can lead astray if it becomes one-sided.
One can reach no real conception of the world if one does not seek it by a perception of Man. For the most ancient truth that Man is a microcosm — a true world in miniature — will again and again be the most newly discovered. Man has all the secrets and the riddles of the great world, the macrocosm, concealed in his own nature.
If we take this in the right sense, then every time we look into our inner human being, our attention will be directed to the world outside us. Self-knowledge will become the door to world-knowledge. But if we take it in the wrong sense, our study of ourselves will become an imprisonment, and we shall lose our feeling for the world.
This must never happen in Anthroposophy. Otherwise the complaint, ‘How selfish, after all, are the thoughts of anthroposophists!’ which we hear from so many who newly enter the Society, will not be silenced.
If a man strives to know himself, what he gains in self-knowledge should first quicken his vision to perceive how all that is there in himself meets him too in his fellow-men. We can feel what another man is undergoing if we have experienced the like in ourselves. So long as our own experience is lacking, we pass over the experience of another without really seeing it. Yet on the other hand our feeling may become so fettered by our own experience that we have none left for our fellow-men.
If they will pay heed to these dangers, members who are active in the Society will make their activity in this direction right and helpful. They will prevent self-knowledge from degenerating into self-love. Rather will they come to work in that spirit which leads self-knowledge over into human love and sympathy. And once a man has an interest in his fellow-men, he will certainly not lack an interest in the world in general.
When friends have asked me for an autograph I have often given them the following:
If thou wouldst know thine own being,
Look round thee on all sides in the world;
If thou wouldst truly see and understand the world
Gaze into the depths of thine own soul.
The teaching of anthroposophical knowledge must always be in the spirit of this saying. Then we shall avoid the danger above-mentioned, and our discussion of the inner being of man will not give rise to self-absorption.
It certainly has a repellent effect on the newcomer if the first thing that strikes him in anthroposophists is that they always want to be concerned with themselves. One will sometimes find people who have been members of the Anthroposophical Society for a certain time, perpetually complaining that their life gives them no time or opportunity really to go into Anthroposophy. We have found this most often among those who have made the Anthroposophical Movement itself their life-work. They feel themselves over-burdened with the external work, imagining that this prevents them from meditation, from the reading of anthroposophical literature and so on. But the love of anthroposophical knowledge must not prevent our glad devotion to the needs of life. If it does so, our work in Anthroposophy will never have the true warmth it needs, but will degenerate into cold selfishness.
It will be necessary for those members who wish to be active in the Society to permeate themselves most fully with this insight. Then they will be able to strike that note in their work which will conquer dangers that can so easily arise.
11. Vom Anthroposophischen Lehren
Die Anregung, sich mit Anthroposophie zu beschäftigen, wird in den meisten Fällen davon herkommen, daß dem Menschen der Blick in die außermenschliche Welt zu einem Quell der Unbefriedigung wird, und er dadurch veranlaßt wird, die Betrachtung auf das eigene Menschenwesen zu lenken. Er ahnt, daß die Rätsel, welche das Leben aufgibt, nicht durch Hinausschauen in das Weltgetriebe, sondern durch Hineinblicken in das menschliche Innensein zur Aufhellung kommen. Das Streben nach Welterkenntnis verwandelt sich ihm in dasjenige nach Selbsterkenntnis.
Die in der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft tätig sein wollenden Mitglieder werden auf dieses zu achten haben. Dann werden sie auf der einen Seite ihre Aufgabe in der rechten Art empfinden lernen. Sie werden aber auch die Gefahren erkennen lernen, die mit dieser Aufgabe verbunden sind.
Streben nach Selbsterkenntnis treibt nur allzu oft, wenn sie irregeleitet ist, zu einer besonderen Form des Egoismus. Der Mensch kann sich selbst zu wichtig nehmen und dadurch das Interesse für alles verlieren, was sich außer ihm abspielt. Jedes rechte Streben kann eben, wenn es in Einseitigkeit verfällt, in die Irre gehen.
Man kommt überhaupt zu keiner Weltanschauung, wenn man diese nicht durch eine Menschen-Anschauung sucht. Denn die uralte Wahrheit, daß der Mensch ein Mikrokosmos, eine wahre «kleine Welt» ist, wird sich immer auch als die allerneueste erweisen. Der Mensch birgt in seinem eigenen Wesen alle Rätsel und Geheimnisse der «großen Welt», des Makrokosmos.
Erfaßt man dieses in rechter Art, so wird jeder Blick in das Menschen-Innere die Aufmerksamkeit auf die außermenschliche Welt lenken. Und Selbsterkenntnis wird das Tor zur Welterkenntnis werden. Erfaßt man es in irriger Art, so wird man sich mit der Selbstbetrachtung in das eigene Wesen einsperren und die Anteilnahme für die Welt verlieren.
Das letztere darf durch die Anthroposophie nicht geschehen. Sonst wird die Klage nicht verstummen, die man von vielen in die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft Neu-Eintretenden hören kann: ach, wie egoistisch denken doch die Anthroposophen.
Wer sich selbst kennen lernen will, der sollte durch das, was er in dieser Selbsterkenntnis erwirbt, den Blick schärfen können zunächst dafür, wie alles, was an ihm ist, ihm auch in dem andern Menschen entgegentritt. Man empfindet, was der Mitmensch erlebt, wenn man ein ähnliches in sich selbst erlebt hat. Solange dieses Selbst-Erleben fehlt, geht man an dem Erleben des andern vorüber, ohne es in der richtigen Weise zu sehen. Aber es kann das Fühlen auch durch das eigene Erleben so gefesselt werden, daß es für den andern nichts mehr übrig behält.
Die in der Gesellschaft tätigen Mitglieder werden ihr Wirken nach dieser Richtung zu einem förderlichen machen, wenn sie nur acht geben wollen auf die Gefahren, die da lauern. Sie werden dann verhindern, daß Selbsterkenntnis in Selbstliebe ausartet. Sie werden vielmehr ihrem Wirken den Ton verleihen, der die Selbst-Erkenntnis in die MenschenLiebe hinüberleitet. Und wer Interesse für den andern Menschen entwickelt, der wird es auch an Interesse für die Welt im allgemeinen nicht fehlen lassen.
Ich habe Freunden, die von mir zu irgendeiner Gelegenheit einen Gedenkspruch forderten, oft den folgenden gegeben:
Willst du das eigene Wesen erkennen,
Sieh dich in der Welt nach allen Seiten um. Willst du die Welt wahrhaft durchschauen, Blick in die Tiefen der eignen Seele.
In der Orientierung, welche dieser Spruch gibt, muß der Vortrag anthroposophischer Erkenntnisse sich halten. Dann wird vermieden werden, daß durch das Besprechen des menschlichen Innenwesens das egoistische Sich-Hineinspinnen in das eigene Wesen zu stark angefacht wird. Es wirkt in der Tat abstoßend, wenn der Neu-Eintretende an den Anthroposophen nur bemerken kann, wie sich diese nur mit sich selbst beschäftigen wollen. Man wird gewahr, wie Menschen, die eine Zeitlang Mitglieder der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft gewesen sind, bei jeder Gelegenheit darüber jammern, daß ihnen das Leben keine Zeit läßt, sich in die Anthroposophie recht zu vertiefen. Besonders häufig findet man das bei solchen Menschen, die ihr Tätigkeitsfeld innerhalb der anthroposophischen Bewegung selbst gefunden haben. Ihnen wird leicht die Arbeit zuviel, weil sie meinen, sie werden durch sie von der Meditation, von dem Lesen anthroposophischer Schriften und so weiter abgehalten. Aber durch die Liebe zur anthroposophischen Erkenntnis darf nicht die freudige Hingabe an die Notwendigkeiten des Lebens gestört werden. Ist das der Fall, so wird die Beschäftigung mit der Anthroposophie auch nicht die rechte Wärme haben können; sie wird zum kalten Egoismus ausarten.
Sich stark mit dieser Erkenntnis zu durchdringen, wird eine Aufgabe für die in der Gesellschaft tätig sein wollenden Mitglieder sein müssen. Dann werden sie den Ton für ihr Wirken finden können, der Gefahren aus dem Felde schlägt, die sich leicht einstellen können.
11. On Anthroposophical Teaching
The impulse to engage with anthroposophy will in most cases arise from the fact that looking at the world outside of humanity becomes a source of dissatisfaction for people, prompting them to turn their attention to their own human nature. They sense that the mysteries of life cannot be solved by looking out into the world, but by looking inward into their own human nature. The quest for knowledge of the world is transformed into a quest for self-knowledge.
Members who wish to be active in the Anthroposophical Society will have to pay attention to this. Then, on the one hand, they will learn to perceive their task in the right way. But they will also learn to recognize the dangers associated with this task.
When misguided, the pursuit of self-knowledge all too often leads to a particular form of egoism. People can take themselves too seriously and thereby lose interest in everything that happens outside themselves. Any right pursuit can go astray if it becomes one-sided.
One cannot arrive at a worldview at all unless one seeks it through a view of humanity. For the ancient truth that man is a microcosm, a true “small world,” will always prove to be the newest truth. Man contains within his own being all the mysteries and secrets of the “big world,” the macrocosm.
If one grasps this in the right way, every glance into the inner life of human beings will draw attention to the world outside of humanity. And self-knowledge will become the gateway to knowledge of the world. If one grasps it in the wrong way, one will lock oneself into one's own being through self-contemplation and lose interest in the world.
Anthroposophy must not allow the latter to happen. Otherwise, the complaint that can be heard from many new members of the Anthroposophical Society will not cease: “Oh, how selfishly the anthroposophists think!”
Those who want to get to know themselves should be able to use what they gain from this self-knowledge to sharpen their view of how everything that is in them also meets them in other people. One feels what one's fellow human beings experience when one has experienced something similar in oneself. As long as this self-experience is lacking, one passes by the experience of the other without seeing it in the right way. But one's feelings can also be so captivated by one's own experience that there is nothing left for the other.
Members active in society will make their work beneficial in this direction if they are willing to pay attention to the dangers that lurk there. They will then prevent self-knowledge from degenerating into self-love. Rather, they will give their work a tone that leads self-knowledge over into love for humanity. And those who develop an interest in other people will not lack an interest in the world in general.
I have often given the following saying to friends who have asked me for a commemorative saying on some occasion:
If you want to know your own nature, look around you in all directions in the world. If you want to truly understand the world, look into the depths of your own soul.
The presentation of anthroposophical insights must adhere to the orientation provided by this saying. This will prevent the discussion of the human inner being from overly encouraging selfish immersion in one's own nature. It is indeed repulsive when newcomers to anthroposophy can only observe how anthroposophists seem to be concerned only with themselves. One notices how people who have been members of the Anthroposophical Society for some time complain at every opportunity that life does not allow them time to delve deeply into anthroposophy. This is particularly common among people who have found their field of activity within the anthroposophical movement itself. They easily become overwhelmed by their work because they believe it prevents them from meditating, reading anthroposophical writings, and so on. But love for anthroposophical knowledge must not interfere with joyful devotion to the necessities of life. If this is the case, then engagement with anthroposophy will not have the right warmth; it will degenerate into cold egoism.
Imbuing themselves strongly with this insight will have to be a task for members who want to be active in society. Then they will be able to find the right tone for their work, which will avert dangers that can easily arise.