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The Rudolf Steiner Archive

a project of Steiner Online Library, a public charity

Search results 4011 through 4020 of 6549

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68a. The Essence of Christianity: World Law and Human Destiny: A Christmas Reflection 11 Dec 1903, Weimar

Only by placing oneself in the position of the great law of spiritual causes and effects, which brings about a balance in the many lives of the human spirit that can never be understood in one life, can one arrive at a solution to this apparent injustice in the world. Not only the theosophists of the present day know that the human spirit does not embody itself only once, but many times, but deeper spirits of all times have professed this view.
Just as this solstice brings light again, so the Son of God brought spiritual light by showing that man progresses towards perfection and by exemplifying this perfection himself. From the sounds of Christmas, if we understand the true meaning, we hear the goal of human development resound: the former harmony between world law and human destiny.
68a. The Essence of Christianity: Theosophy, Buddhism, Spiritism 26 Feb 1904, Weimar

Steiner was able to give his audience a better understanding of the Buddhist point of view, without, however, refuting too sharply the accusation made against the theosophical movement of engaging in Buddhist propaganda.
68a. The Essence of Christianity: Theosophy in the Gospels — An Easter Reflection 25 Mar 1904, Weimar

That is why Peter said in reference to the gospel in relation to the earlier mythical popular religions: “We have proclaimed to you the power and the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, not following carefully thought-out myths, but as eyewitnesses of his glory.” (2 Peter 1:16) The speaker then gave a full explanation of the “miracle of Lazarus” to show how Jesus himself first underwent an initiation in the sense of the old mysteries. Only those who understand this account of the resurrection of Lazarus recognize that it is an Easter of the spirit, not an ordinary death, but the death of the sensual man in whom the spiritual man is awakened.
One must only have prepared oneself through theosophy to really understand the deep “spirit” of the words of the scriptures. What the ancient myths have hinted at in pictures, the story of the suffering and resurrection of the Son of God has presented as an historical fact to all of humanity.
68a. The Essence of Christianity: The Relationship of the Germanic Peoples to Christianity 26 Jul 1904, Berlin

/gap] with such an intellectual culture, but with one that shows that this people had developed character traits that distinguish them significantly from others. Europe has undergone many glaciations. Once there were hot, tropical times there, then the great ice ages. Undoubtedly the ancestors of the Germanic peoples went through the last great glaciation, and under this influence something developed that is different in skull structure...
The inheritance of what has emerged from the most diverse currents is still contained, and if we understand how we have become, we understand how we have to look into the future. Only when we understand what we live in can we continue to build. Thus we will understand how we come to the views, to the material goods under which we live today, which make up our joys and sufferings.
68a. The Essence of Christianity: On the Essence of Christianity 23 Jan 1905, Hamburg

And these enlightened ones, who are known to us under various names – especially under the name of the Gnostics – applied all the wisdom they had acquired, all their knowledge, to answering the one question: to solve the riddle of Christianity.
— At the time, it was felt that one had to be mature to understand; one had to wait with the final, conclusive judgment so as not to make it without wisdom. First, one must have the wisdom in one's mind and heart that enlightens reason and enables it to reach a clear understanding.
(John 1:14) He is the Word made flesh. We learn to understand it by comparing it with the teachings of other religions. The deeper we penetrate into the understanding of all religions, the more we find the same teachings in them.
68a. The Essence of Christianity: The Wisdom Teachings of Christianity 17 Apr 1905, Heidelberg

The treatment of the topic turned out to be substantially different than one might have assumed. Under the heading “Wisdom Teachings in Christianity”, the speaker brought up completely different things, much deeper things than are currently in the memory of general Christianity.
68a. The Essence of Christianity: The Kernel of Wisdom in Religions 03 Dec 1905, Düsseldorf

If one delves deeper into the question hinted at here, one comes to the conclusion that one underestimates even the simplest religious ideas if one does not take them deeply and thoroughly. If you go deeper, you acquire the right kind of humility, the humility that says: You understand something of the great, powerful images, but there is still much you cannot fathom.
There you find the male deity Osiris and the female deity Isis. If you learn to understand the deity Osiris from the perspective of the Egyptian people, it reveals itself as a meaningful religious concept.
This is found in all religions, these threefold aspects, under which the Brahman is sought. The three aspects of the divine are understood roughly as follows in the intimate life of the different religions: The divine spirit lives in you.
68a. The Essence of Christianity: Answering Questions 17 Dec 1905, Regensburg

The ancient Egyptian slaves who had to build the pyramids under cruel tormentors already took comfort in it. In the time of Christ, the consciousness of it was still vividly present.
This is an ideal that can only be realized gradually. If the teaching is first understood and accepted as a theory, it will not be long before we hear theosophical concepts and thoughts from the pulpits.
68a. The Essence of Christianity: The Kernel of Wisdom in Religions 19 Jan 1906, Frankfurt

All the founders of religions, the authors of the Vedas, the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the magi of the Chaldeans, the priests of the Babylonians, the world sages of the Greeks, the Zarathustras, Confucius, yes, the German mystics, Paracelsus, Angelus Silesius and Jakob Böhme – they were all, together with the greatest initiate, Jesus Christ, such guardians of humanity, such proclaimers of the religious core of wisdom. He explained what speakers understand by this core of wisdom using the example of the doctrine of the Trinity, which returns more or less developed in all religions.
68a. The Essence of Christianity: Human Freedom 11 Feb 1906, Düsseldorf

We can always tell what will drive it to do a certain act under certain conditions. The question, “Is man free?” makes no sense, but the question, “Does man become freer through development?”
He who is forced to act is not free; but he who recognizes the laws of the world becomes free. To understand that one should do something is to act freely. As long as we do not recognize the highest divine, we act under compulsion.
There is much in this that, with a wonderfully intimate, fine power, detaches the understanding of freedom from the human being. It is impossible for one who is filled with knowledge of God to do evil; for him, good action becomes a matter of course.

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