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The Rudolf Steiner Archive

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Search results 4031 through 4040 of 6548

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68a. The Essence of Christianity: The Bible and Wisdom I 23 May 1907, Munich

It is a beautiful, great experience for the spiritual researcher to be able to say: As long as I stood in relation to doubt and rejection, I learned to understand it, then it became valuable to me again, then I looked into it again into tremendous depths. Then there is the point of view: Yes, I have understood a lot, but I still have to learn to understand much, much more. So you then find more and more that you understand, and you are surprised that you criticized some things earlier that you just did not understand, and that now it appears to you in a completely new light.
Then one is inclined to say: Through spiritual science I have come to understand some things, have learned to appreciate some things – there is much I do not yet understand, but now I no longer criticize, but wait quietly and patiently until I too will one day understand the rest.
68a. The Essence of Christianity: The Bible and Wisdom II 24 May 1907, Munich

Today, let us take a look at some specific facts that can illustrate this relationship to us, that can show us how, if we understand this relationship in this way, we can indeed arrive at a new understanding of this religious document. You will understand that it is impossible to even touch on such a broad subject in summary, considering all the things that could be considered.
Spiritual science points this out to us again. It points out to us, if we understand it correctly, what is called prophecy, that which underlies all of this. Only the initiate can and can clearly recognize this, but humanity can have a feeling for it, an awareness of it, since the appearance of Christ Jesus on earth.
68a. The Essence of Christianity: The Bible and Wisdom I 08 Jun 1907, Leipzig

Goethe was also familiar with this. Today, all this seems difficult to understand. We must realize that the spirit of materialism is not very intrusive where it appears as theoretical materialism.
Take geometry, this very ordinary school geometry. You can understand it from itself. You do not need to know how it came about. What does a schoolboy know about Euclid?
Then comes the time when the person says to himself, “Now you are beginning to understand some of it.” One comes to assume that where one cannot keep up, one just does not yet understand.
68a. The Essence of Christianity: The Bible and Wisdom II 09 Jun 1907, Leipzig

The true theosophist must first learn wisdom to understand the meaning of the Bible. 666 is composed of 400, 200, 60 and 6. This means or is called: Sorat.
Hermes had lived according to this prescription, and thus, when he described his life, he described what others had already experienced before him. We will better understand the matter if we understand the meaning of the stages: one was used to form the character, another brought the phenomena of the astral world closer, and others brought explorations of even higher worlds.
A new understanding of the Bible must now be opened up. I will give you a comparison here. In the Middle Ages, people swore by the books of Aristotle.
68a. The Essence of Christianity: The Gospel of St. John and the Future of Christianity 14 Dec 1907, Düsseldorf

Even for those who were intimately connected with the Lord, it was not readily understandable how that other love should take the place of the love of blood. Only the Lord's favorite disciple understood this.
Only man has lost the thread of recognizing the purely spiritual in it. Theosophy will again attempt to understand what was said by the one who gave the Gospel of John to mankind. When the revealed word is understood, all natural laws will be recognized as the revealed word, but the inner moral law will also appear as the revealed word.
Then one encounters such a document with the deep reverence that its inner greatness demands. This is how one will understand the Gospel of John in the future. In the future, spiritual science will again point the way to the true understanding of the Gospel of John and to the true form of Christianity.
68a. The Essence of Christianity: Initiation 18 Dec 1907, Cologne

He comes to a more or less clear understanding of these things through the forces that prevail behind them; he cannot get to know that which is hidden behind the visible in this way.
A circle that I draw on the board is a series of chalk mountains when I look at it under the microscope; it is not a circle, the senses cannot give it, it must be there in the inner vision.
In this inner storm and outer battle, the spirit hears a word that is difficult to understand: From the force that binds all beings, man frees himself who overcomes himself.
68a. The Essence of Christianity: The Dangers of Initiation 19 Dec 1907, Cologne

The importance of the collision of people with Theosophy is usually underestimated when the soul is accustomed to having the dull trains of thought that people have today, and then there is the collision with the penetrating sequences of thoughts that confront people in spiritual science.
When a person is to be initiated through the methods the teacher gives him, when he has undergone his exercises and then sees what is approaching him, sees the dangers – and then gives up the attempt, then what is called in spiritual science occurs: the reflection of the human spiritual work.
For example, you can hear over and over again: You must be unselfish, you must sacrifice your personality to the All! — This is a profound truth if it is really understood; but it can be the most absurd phrase if this truth is presented without understanding. Egoism is not given to man by a wise world government for nothing; it is a means of education, it makes man richer and fuller; through it many a person is prevented from doing something that could harm him.
68a. The Essence of Christianity: Religion, Science and Theosophy 31 Jan 1908, Mainz

He says that nothing is yet understood about the actual soul. He quotes Leibniz, who says: Imagine that the brain is so enlarged that you could walk around in it as if it were a factory.
To research, looking into it is necessary, but to understand, the ordinary logical human understanding is enough. Many things that people are told about these spiritual worlds may seem fabulous and fantastic to them.
The thinking observer of the world must find it understandable when the spiritual researcher tells him: When we look at man from birth to death, we see his nature is by no means exhausted in the physical.
68a. The Essence of Christianity: The Spirit of Truth from a Christian Point of View 21 Feb 1908, Kassel

[Theosophy is not a new religion, but the most faithful instrument for understanding the Gospels. Let us now consider the Gospel of John, especially the passage where the Spirit of Truth is mentioned.
In earlier times, if you wanted to receive knowledge from the spiritual worlds, you had to undergo initiation. Just as light and color existed before our physical eyes were formed, so the spiritual worlds are around us, even though we have not yet developed spiritual eyes.
You have to delve into the gospel of John to understand how the miracle at Golgotha defeated and overcame death. One is a Jew because one believes what Moses gave his people, a Buddhist because of what Buddha left behind, and so on.
68a. The Essence of Christianity: The Gospel of John from a Theosophical Point of View 04 Apr 1908, Oslo

But if one is to understand this mission, one must look a little at all of humanity, for one's calling is most closely related to it.
His mission on earth was to draw all of humanity under the law of love. He had come to teach people that they no longer needed to cling to their gender or their people if they were to escape damnation.
If you compare these words with the introductory words of the Gospel of John, you understand the connection between the physical and the spiritual world. The words in Genesis concern the external material world, the words in the Gospel of John deal with the new creation that is needed in our own soul.

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