Donate books to help fund our work. Learn more→

The Rudolf Steiner Archive

a project of Steiner Online Library, a public charity

Search results 5111 through 5120 of 6551

˂ 1 ... 510 511 512 513 514 ... 656 ˃
158. Addresses for the Russian Attendees: Following the Lecture Cycle “The Occult Foundations of the Bhagavad Gita” 05 Jun 1913, Helsinki

When Westerners speak of Christ, Eastern peoples feel that they, the Eastern peoples, are far, far ahead in terms of their spiritual understanding of the world, in terms of what these peoples know of the secrets of existence. These Eastern peoples know this.
To the average Western European, this is folly or madness, for he still cannot understand Paul's words: “What wisdom is with God is often folly with men, and what is folly with men is wisdom with God.”
I have often thought that the children of this national soul still have a long way to go to understand their national soul, to understand what this national soul actually longs for and how much still separates them, these children of the national soul, from the national soul itself.
158. The National Epics With Especial Attention to the Kalevala 09 Apr 1912, Helsinki
Translator Unknown

What the two figures signify cannot be more clearly worked out here, but we shall understand all the sagas if in the forms which are brought before us, we see symbolical representations of inner clairvoyant, or remembered clairvoyant relations.
On the other hand, the first stage of clairvoyance leads us so much the more to a view of our own etheric body; we see a super-sensible body of human nature which underlies it, and we can only express it as something which works and creates like a sort of inner master-builder—which permeates our physical body in a living, active manner.
I can assure you that to me who only learnt to understand Kalevala long, long after these facts regarding the development of human nature stood clearly before my soul, it was a wonderful, amazing fact to find again in this epic that which I had been able to represent more or less theoretically in my “Theosophy”, which was written at a time when as yet I knew not a line of Kalevala.
158. Olaf Åsteson: The Awakening of the Earth Spirit 07 Jan 1913, Berlin
Translator Unknown

In Brooksvaline, where souls The Day of Judgment undergo. Ad men came into sight Who carried fiery burdens; Dishonesty weighs heavily On their poor souls, In Brooksvaline, where souls The Day of Judgment undergo.
These worked their parents ill in life, Which hurt their spirits grievously In Brooksvaline, where souls The Day of Judgment undergo. I was charged to approach that house, Where witches had to work In the blood which in life Had stirred them up to wrath, In Brooksvaline, where souls The Day of Judgment undergo.
In Brooksvaline, where souls The Day of Judgment undergo. But from the South there came In serene tranquility yet other bands. Foremost rode St.
158. Concerning the Origin and Nature of the Finnish Nation 09 Nov 1914, Dornach
Translator Unknown

Just as in the Kalevala Wainamoinen corresponds to the sentient soul, so Ilmarinen corresponds to the understanding soul. If you read my lecture on “Kalevala”, you will find in it all these explanations.
But that is still another influence, resembling Ilmarinen, that endows me with the forces of the understanding-soul, and there is moreover something that resembles Lemminkainen, endowing me with the forces of the consciousness-soul.
They organise, as it were, an army in order to penetrate with their influence as far as the etheric body, and to mould man, through the etheric body, in such away that his physical body becomes an instrument for that which is to be his particular and special mission upon the earth. We can understand culture, even in its relation to man, only if we can contemplate the forms that we encounter in Nature as an expression of the spirit, we can understand it, if we do not contemplate the sea and land boundaries in the usual thoughtless manner, but if we are able to understand what these forms express.
159. The Great Virtues 31 Jan 1915, Zurich
Translator Unknown

When we have extended our vision from a single life to a series of successive lives, we shall have a more comprehensive understanding for our existence, and a sounder and more comprehensive understanding of what virtue and morality are.
We have used them well, supposing we formed harsh judgments in our youth, if at a later stage of life we do not judge harshly, but with understanding and forgiveness; if we make the effort of wishing to understand. If we have the character that from birth some things aroused furious anger in us, and if when we are old we no longer grow angry as in our youth, but our anger has left us and we have grown gentler—then we have used life in accordance with wisdom.
This will pour into educational method as well. Through understanding wisdom and justice in the sense that I have indicated, the desire to learn all through life will arise.
159. Spiritual Science, a Necessity for the Present Time 13 Mar 1915, Nuremberg
Translator Unknown

Yet the Christ-Impulse does not only appeal in an intellectual way to human reason or to an understanding based on feeling, but it is a real impulse. The Christ-Impulse streams with living strength into the course of history itself.
Let us take a historical event in order to understand how the Christ-Impulse worked in man before he was able to grasp it; let us try to understand how it worked, as a living, driving force in the evolution of mankind.
With this description, attempting to convey through the heart's forces certain ideas on the conditions of life and death, I want to point out to you an element of spiritual science which considers life itself, so that an understanding which is not that of the head may rise up within you, the understanding of the heart. This we should seek in a living way through spiritual-scientific immersion, for this kind of understanding is the task of the 5th post-Atlantean epoch of culture.
159. Effects of the Christ-Impulse Upon the Historical Course of Human Evolution 07 May 1915, Vienna
Translator Unknown

Now we live in an epoch in which we must begin to understand what took place. What do we see? We may study the strange course followed by the Christ Impulse in the historical development up to the present time.
The people who were disputing over the Christ Impulse did not understand anything of the way in which the Christ Impulse stands at the very centre of evolution. Let us try to understand how the Christ Impulse really worked.
A beautiful age of spirituality might dawn, if true understanding, an inner understanding of the heart, is brought towards these etheric bodies, if people listen to what they wish to say.
159. The Subconscious Forces 09 May 1915, Vienna
Translator Unknown

Shakespeare lived before that time. This explains why he was not completely understood in England. We all know that there are Shakespeare editions in England which suppress everything that is not quite in keeping with the taste of governesses. Shakespeare has often been moralized, so to speak, in the most extreme sense. We know that the deepest, understanding for Shakespeare is not to be found in England, but in the Central European, development of spiritual life.
You will therefore understand me, when I add the following remark to what I already explained to you: There are many opposing forces in the present time, and it is permissible to designate war as a disease.
159. Christ In Relation To Lucifer and Ahriman 18 May 1915, Linz
Translated by Peter Mollenhauer

We can understand this clearly by realizing that for occult knowledge it is evident that the earth is not only what geologists describe.
The following may illustrate that no clear understanding has yet been reached concerning the relationship of man and of Christ to Lucifer and Ahriman.
The forces in the unexpended ether bodies beckon to the future, as well: to understand their message is to admit it into one's soul. Below, however, there must be souls who will perceive this truth and prepare for it through the proper and active understanding of our spiritual science.
159. The Etheric Body as a Reflexion of the Universe 13 Jun 1915, Elberfeld
Translator Unknown

But this is not the case with the etheric body. It may perhaps be difficult to understand this, but the etheric body does not in any way grow older; the etheric body grows younger and younger, in the same degree in which the physical body grows older, until it reaches, as it were, a certain childlike stage of etheric existence, when the human being passes through the portal of death after having reached a normal age.
The gold of the earth takes on the shape of strong fetters that chain this shape to the cave. It writhes under the influence of Christ's hand pointing downward, the hand of the Representative of Mankind. The shape in the cave is Ahriman; it is Ahriman fettered by the gold of the earth.
Christ is such a significant Being and it is so difficult to understand Him, that this understanding can only be reached in the course of time. Only in [the] future shall we be able to grasp the Christ Who induces the other beings to condemn or to redeem themselves, simply through the fact that He is there.

Results 5111 through 5120 of 6551

˂ 1 ... 510 511 512 513 514 ... 656 ˃