Theosophy
GA 9
IV. The Path of Knowledge
[ 1 ] Knowledge of the spiritual science presented in this book can be acquired by every human being for himself. Descriptions of the kind given here present a thought-picture of the higher worlds and they are in a certain respect the first step towards personal vision. For man is a thinking being. He can find his path to knowledge only when thinking is his starting-point. A picture of the higher worlds presented to his intellect is not fruitless for him, even if for the time being it is only like a narration of higher facts into which he has as yet no insight through his own vision. For the thoughts which are given him represent in themselves a force which works on further in his world of thought. This force will be active in him; it will awaken slumbering capacities. A man who is of the opinion that it is superfluous to occupy himself with such a thought-picture is mistaken; for he regards thought as something unreal and abstract. But thought is a living force. And just as in one who has knowledge thought is present as a direct expression of what is seen in the spirit, so the communication of this expression works in him to whom it is communicated as a seed, which brings forth from itself the fruit of knowledge.
Anyone disdaining the application of strenuous intellectual exertion in the effort to attain higher knowledge, and preferring to turn to other forces for that end, fails to take into account that thinking is the highest of the faculties possessed by man in the world of the senses.
To one who asks, “How can I gain personal knowledge of the higher truths of spiritual science?” the answer must be given, “Begin by making yourself acquainted with what is communicated by others concerning such knowledge.” And should he reply, “I want to see for myself; I do not want to know anything about what others have seen,” the answer must be: “It is in the very assimilating of the communications of others that the first step towards personal knowledge consists.” And if he should retort: “Then I am compelled first of all to have blind faith,” one can only reply that in regard to some communications it is not a case of belief or disbelief, but merely of unprejudiced assimilation. The genuine spiritual investigator never speaks with the expectation of being met with blind credulity. He merely says, “I have experienced this in the spiritual regions of existence and I am narrating these experiences of mine.” But he knows too, that the assimilation of these experiences by another and the fact that the thoughts of that other person are permeated by the account are living forces making for spiritual development.
[ 2 ] What is here to be considered, will only be rightly viewed by one who takes into account the fact that all knowledge of the worlds of soul and spirit slumbers in the depths of the human soul. It can be brought to light through treading the “path of knowledge.” But there can be insight not only into what one has oneself brought to light, but also into what someone else has brought up from the depths of the soul; and that, moreover, even when no actual preparation has yet been made for the treading of that path of knowledge. Genuine spiritual insight awakens the power of understanding in anyone whose inner nature is not clouded by preconceptions and prejudices. The unconscious knowledge rises to meet the spiritual facts discovered by another. This is not blind credulity but the right working of healthy human reason. This healthy comprehension should be considered a far better starting-point even for first-hand cognition of the spiritual world, than dubious mystical “experiences” and the like, which are often imagined to be more valuable than what healthy human understanding can recognise when confronted with the findings of genuine spiritual research.
[ 3 ] It cannot be emphasised strongly enough how necessary it is for anyone who wishes to develop his faculties for higher knowledge to undertake strenuous efforts to cultivate his powers of thinking. This emphasis must be all the stronger because many people who would become “seers” place too little value on this earnest, self-denying labour of thinking. They say, “Thinking cannot help me to reach anything; what really matters is ‘feeling’ or something similar.” In reply it must be said that no one can in the higher sense (and that means in truth) become a “seer” who has not previously worked his way into the life of thought. In the case of many people a certain inner laziness plays an injurious role. They do not become conscious of this laziness because it clothes itself in contempt for “abstract thought,” “idle speculations,” and the like. But thinking is completely misunderstood, if it is confused with a spinning of idle, abstract trains of thought. This “abstract thinking” can easily kill supersensible knowledge; live and vigorous thinking can become its foundation.
It would of course be more convenient if the power of higher seership could be acquired while shunning the labour of thinking. Many would like this to be possible. But in order to achieve higher seership an inner stability is necessary, an assurance of soul to which thinking alone can lead. Otherwise there merely results a meaningless flickering of pictures hither and thither, a distracting display of phenomena which indeed gives pleasure, but has nothing to do with a true penetration into higher worlds. Further, if we consider what purely spiritual experiences take place in a man who really enters the higher world, we shall realise that the matter has also another aspect. Absolute healthiness of the life of soul is essential in a “seer.” There is no better means of developing this healthiness than genuine thinking. In fact this health of soul may suffer seriously if the exercises for higher development are not based on thinking. Although it is true that the power of spiritual sight makes a healthy and rightly thinking man still healthier and more capable in life than he is without it, it is equally true that all attempts to develop while shirking the effort of thought, all vague dreamings in this domain, lend strength to fantasy-hunting and encourage a false attitude to life. No one who wishes to acquire higher knowledge has anything to fear if he pays heed to what is said here; but the attempt should only be made under the above premise. This premise has to do only with man's soul and spirit; to speak of any kind of injurious influence upon the bodily health is absurd.
[ 4 ] Unfounded disbelief is indeed injurious. It works in the recipient as a repelling force. It hinders him from taking in the fruitful thoughts. Not blind faith, but the reception of the thought-world of spiritual science, is the pre-requisite for the development of the higher senses. The spiritual investigator approaches his pupil with the injunction: “You are not to believe what I tell you but think it out yourself, make it part of the contents of your own thought-world; then my thoughts will themselves bring it about that you recognise them in their truth.” This is the attitude of the spiritual investigator. He gives the stimulus; the power to accept it as true springs from within the recipient himself. And it is in this sense that the views of spiritual science should be studied. Anyone who steeps his thoughts in them may be sure that sooner or later they will lead him to vision of his own.
[ 5 ] What has been said here already indicates one of the first qualities which everyone wishing to attain vision of higher realities has to develop in himself. It is the unreserved, unprejudiced surrender to what is revealed by human life or by the world external to man. If from the outset a man approaches a fact in the world bringing with him judgment originating in his life hitherto, he shuts himself off through this judgment from the calm, all-round effect which the fact can have on him. The learner must be able at each moment to make himself a perfectly empty vessel into which the new world flows. Knowledge arises only in those moments when every criticism coming from ourselves is silent. For example, when we meet a person, the question is not at all whether we are wiser than he. Even the most unintelligent child has something to reveal to the greatest sage. And if he approaches the child with his prejudgment, however wise it may be, his wisdom thrusts itself like a dulled glass in front of what the child ought to reveal to him.1One can see very well, precisely from this indication, that in the requirement of “unreserved surrender” there is no question of shutting out one's own judgment or giving oneself up to blind faith. Anything of the sort would quite obviously have no sense or meaning in regard to a child.
Complete inner selflessness is necessary for this surrender to the revelations of the new world. And if a man test himself to find out in what degree he has this power of surrender, he will make astonishing discoveries. Anyone who wishes to tread the path of higher knowledge must train himself to be able to obliterate himself, together with all his preconceptions at any and every moment. As long as he obliterates himself the other flows into him. Only a high degree of such selfless surrender enables a man to imbibe the higher spiritual realities which surround him on all sides. This faculty can be consciously developed. A man can try for example to refrain from any judgment on people around him. He should obliterate within himself the gauge of attraction and repulsion, of stupidity or cleverness, which he is accustomed to apply, and try without this gauge to understand people purely through themselves. The most effective exercises can be made in connection with people for whom he has an aversion. He should suppress this aversion with all his might and allow everything that they do to affect him without bias. Or, if he is in an environment that calls for this or that judgment, he should suppress the judgment and lay himself open to the impressions.2This open-minded and uncritical attitude has nothing whatever in common with “blind faith.” The important thing is not that one should believe blindly in anything, but that a “blind judgment” should not be put into the place of the living impression.
He should allow things and events to speak to him rather than speak about them. And this should also extend to his thought-world. He should suppress in himself whatever prompts this or that thought and allow only what is outside to give rise to the thoughts. Only when such exercises are carried out with the most solemn earnestness and perseverance do they lead to the goal of higher knowledge. He who undervalues such exercises knows nothing of their worth. And he who has experience in such things knows that selfless surrender and freedom from prejudice are true generators of power. Just as heat conducted to the steam boiler is transformed into the motive power of the locomotive, so do these exercises in selfless spiritual self-surrender transform themselves in man into the power of vision in the spiritual worlds.
[ 6 ] By this exercise a man makes himself receptive to everything that surrounds him. But to this receptivity must be added the faculty of correct estimation. As long as a man is still inclined to value himself too highly at the expense of the world around him, he bars all access to higher knowledge. One who in face of each thing or event in the world yields himself up to the pleasure or pain which they cause him, is enmeshed in this over-valuation of himself. For through his pleasure and his pain he learns nothing about the things, but merely something about himself. If I feel sympathy with a human being, I feel, to begin with, nothing but my relation to him. If I make myself dependent on this feeling of pleasure, of sympathy, in my judgment and my conduct, I am placing my personality in the foreground: I am obtruding it upon the world. I want to thrust myself into the world just as I am, instead of accepting the world in an unbiased way and allowing it to play itself out in accordance with the forces working in it. In other words, I am tolerant only of what harmonises with my personality. Towards everything else I exert a repelling force. As long as a man is enmeshed by the sense-world, he works in a particularly repelling way on all non-material influences. The learner must develop in himself the capacity to conduct himself towards things and people in accordance with their peculiar natures and to recognise the due worth and significance of each one. Sympathy and antipathy, liking and disliking, must be made to play quite new roles. There is no question of man's eradicating these, of blunting himself to sympathy and antipathy. On the contrary, the more a man develops in himself the capacity to refrain from allowing every feeling of sympathy and antipathy to be followed immediately by a judgment, an action, the more delicate will be the sensitiveness he develops. He will find that sympathies and antipathies assume higher forms in him, if he curbs those already in him. Even something that is at first utterly unattractive has hidden qualities; it reveals them if a man does not in his conduct obey his selfish feelings. He who has developed in this respect has more delicate feelings, in every direction, than one who is undeveloped, because he does not allow his own personality to cause lack of receptivity. Each inclination that a man follows blindly blunts his power to see things in the environment in their true light. By obeying inclination we thrust ourselves through the environment, as it were, instead of laying ourselves open to it and feeling its true value.
[ 7 ] A man becomes independent of the changing impressions of the outer world when every pleasure, every pain, every sympathy and antipathy, no longer evoke in him an egotistical response and egotistical conduct. The pleasure he feels in a thing makes him at once dependent on it. He loses himself in the thing. A man who loses himself in the pleasure or pain caused by constantly changing impressions cannot tread the path of higher knowledge. He must accept pleasure and pain with equanimity. Then he ceases to lose himself in them; he begins instead to understand them. A pleasure to which I surrender myself devours my being at the moment of surrender. I ought to use the pleasure only in order through it to reach an understanding of the thing that arouses pleasure in men. The important point ought not to be that the thing has aroused the pleasure in me; I ought to experience the pleasure and through it the essential nature of the thing in question. The pleasure should only be an intimation to me that there is in the thing a quality calculated to give pleasure. This quality I must learn to understand. If I go no further than the pleasure, if I allow myself to be entirely absorbed in it, then it only feeds my own pleasures; if the pleasure is to me only an opportunity to experience a quality or property of a thing, I enrich my inner being through this experience. To the seeker, pleasure and displeasure, joy and pain, must be opportunities for learning about things. The seeker does not thereby become blunted to pleasure or pain, but he raises himself above them in order that they may reveal to him the nature of things. He who develops in this respect will learn to realise what good instructors pleasure and pain are. He will feel with every being and thereby receive the revelation of its inner nature. The seeker never says to himself merely, “Oh, how I suffer!” or “Oh, how glad I am!” but always “How suffering speaks!” “How joy speaks!” He eliminates the element of self in order that pleasure and joy from the outer world may work upon him. By this means he develops a completely new way of relating himself to things. Formerly he responded to this or that impression by this or that action, only because the impressions caused him joy or dislike. But now he lets pleasure and displeasure also become the organs by which things tell him what they themselves truly are in their own nature. In him, pleasure and pain change from being mere feelings to organs of sense by which the external world is perceived. Just as the eye does not itself act when it sees something, but causes the hand to act, so do pleasure and pain bring about nothing in the spiritual seeker, in so far as he employs them as means of knowledge, but they receive impressions, and what is experienced through pleasure and displeasure is that which brings about the action. When a man uses pleasure and displeasure in such a way that they become organs of transmission, they build up within his soul the actual organs through which the soul-world reveals itself to him. The eye can serve the body only by being an organ for the transmission of sense-impressions; pleasure and pain become eyes of the soul when they cease merely to have value for themselves and begin to reveal to a man's own soul the soul outside it.
[ 8 ] Through the qualities named, the student induces in himself the condition which allows the realities present in the world around him to work upon him without disturbing influences emanating from his own personality. But he has also to fit himself into the surrounding spiritual world in the right way. As a thinking being he is a citizen of the spiritual world. He can be this in a right way only if during mental activity he makes his thoughts move in accordance with the eternal laws of truth, the laws of the “Spiritland.” For only so can that realm work upon him and reveal its facts to him. A man does not reach the truth as long as he gives himself up only to the thoughts continually coursing through his Ego. For if he does, these thoughts take a course imposed on them by the fact that they come into existence within the bodily nature. The thought-world of a man who gives himself up to a mental activity determined primarily by his physical brain appears disorderly and confused. A thought enters it, breaks off, is driven out of the field by another. Anyone who tests this by listening to a conversation between two people, or who observes himself frankly, will gain an idea of this mass of will-o'-the-wisp thoughts. As long as a man devotes himself only to the calls of the life of the senses, the confused course of his thoughts will always be set right again by the facts of reality. I may think ever so confusedly: but in my actions everyday facts force upon me the laws corresponding to the reality. My mental picture of a town may be utterly confused; but if I wish to walk along a certain street in the town I must accommodate myself to existing facts. A mechanic may enter his workshop with a chaotic medley of ideas; but the laws of his machines compel him to adopt the correct procedure in his work. Within the world of the senses facts exercise their continuous corrective on thought. If I think out a false opinion about a physical phenomenon or the shape of a plant, the reality confronts me and sets my thinking right.
It is quite different when I consider my relations to the higher regions of existence. They reveal themselves to me only if I enter them with strictly controlled thinking. There my thinking must give me the right, the sure impulse, otherwise I cannot find the proper paths. For the spiritual laws prevailing in these worlds are not sensibly perceptible, and therefore they do not exert on me the compulsion described above. I am able to obey these laws only when they are allied to my own as those of a thinking being. Here I must be my own sure guide. The student's thinking must therefore be strictly regulated in itself. His thoughts must by degrees disaccustom themselves entirely from taking the ordinary daily course. They must in their whole sequence take on the inner character of the spiritual world. He must be able constantly to keep watch over himself in this respect and have himself in hand. With him one thought must not link itself arbitrarily with another, but only in the way that corresponds with the actual contents of the thought-world. The transition from one idea to another must correspond with the strict laws of thought. As thinker, the man must be to a certain extent a constant copy of these thought-laws. He must shut out from his train of thought everything that does not flow out of these laws. Should a favourite thought present itself to him, he must put it aside if the right sequence will be disturbed by it. If a personal feeling tries to force upon his thoughts a direction not proper to them, he must suppress it.
Plato required of those who wished to be admitted to his school that they should first have a mathematical training. And mathematics, with its strict laws which are independent of the course taken by sense-phenomena, form a good preparation for the seeker. If he wishes to make progress in the study of mathematics he must get rid of all personal arbitrariness, all elements of disturbance. The student prepares himself for his task by overcoming through his own will all arbitrary thinking. He learns to follow purely the demands of thought. And so too he must learn to do this in all thinking intended to serve spiritual knowledge. This thought-life itself must be a reflection of undisturbed mathematical judgment and inference. He must strive, wherever he goes and wherever he is, to be able to think in this way. Then the laws of the spirit-world flow into him, laws which pass over and through him, without a trace as long as his thinking has the usual, confused character. Regulated thinking leads him from reliable starting-points to the most hidden truths. What has been said, however, must not be understood in a one-sided way. Although mathematics acts as a good discipline, pure, healthy and vital thinking can be achieved without mathematics.
[ 9 ] The goal towards which the student must strive for his thinking must also be the same for his actions. He must be able to obey the laws of the nobly beautiful and the eternally true without any disturbing influences from his personality. These laws must be able to guide and direct him. If he begins to do something he has recognised as right and his personal feelings are not satisfied by the action, he must not for that reason abandon the path on which he has entered. But on the other hand he must not persist with it because it gives him joy, if he finds that it is not in harmony with the laws of the eternally Beautiful and True. In everyday life people allow their actions to be determined by what satisfies them personally, by what bears fruit for themselves. In so doing they force their personality upon the world's events. They do not bring to realisation the true that is already traced in the laws of the spirit-world, but simply the demands of their self-will. We act in harmony with the spiritual world only when we follow its laws alone. From what is done merely out of the personality, there result no forces which can form a basis for spiritual knowledge. The seeker must not ask only, “What brings me advantages, what will bring me success?” He must also be able to ask: “What have I recognised as the Good?” Renunciation of the fruits of action for his personality, renunciation of all self-will: these are the stern laws that he must prescribe for himself. Then he treads the paths of the spiritual world, his whole being is penetrated by these laws. He becomes free from all compulsion from the world of the senses; his spirit-nature raises itself out of the material sheath. Thus he makes actual progress on the path towards the spiritual and spiritualises his own nature. One cannot say, “Of what use to me are the precepts to follow purely the laws of the True when I am perhaps mistaken as to what is the True?” What matters is the striving and the attitude to it. Even a man who is mistaken has in his very striving after the
True a force which diverts him from the wrong path. If he is mistaken, this force guides him to the right paths. Even the objection, “But I may be mistaken,” is harmful misgiving. It shows that the man has no confidence in the power of the True. For the important point is that he should not presume to decide on his aims and objects in life in accordance with his own egotistical views, but that he should selflessly yield himself up to the guidance of the spirit itself. It is not the self-seeking human will that can prescribe for the True; on the contrary, the True itself must become lord in the man, must penetrate his whole being, make him a mirror-image of the eternal laws of the Spiritland. He must fill himself with these eternal laws in order to let them stream out into life.
The seeker must be able to hold strict guard over both his thinking and his will. Thereby he becomes in all humility—without presumption—a messenger of the world of the True and the Beautiful, and rises to be a participant in the Spirit-World. He rises from stage to stage of development. For one cannot reach the spiritual life by merely beholding it; it has to be attained through actual experience.
[ 10 ] If the seeker observes the laws here described, those of his soul-experiences that relate to the spiritual world will take on an entirely new form. He will no longer live merely in them. They will no longer have a significance merely for his personal life. They will develop into inner perceptions of the higher world. In his soul the feelings of pleasure and displeasure, of joy and pain, grow into organs of soul, just as in his body eyes and ears do not lead a life for themselves but selflessly allow external impressions to pass through them. And thereby the seeker gains the inner calmness and assurance that are necessary for investigation in the spirit-world. A great joy will no longer make him merely jubilant, but may be the messenger of qualities in the world which have hitherto escaped him. It will leave him calm: and through the calm, the characteristics of the joy-bringing beings will reveal themselves to him. Suffering will no longer merely oppress him, but will also be able to tell him about the qualities and attributes of the being which causes the suffering. Just as the eye does not desire anything for itself, but shows to man the direction of the path he has to take, so will joy and suffering guide the soul safely along its path. This is the state of balance of soul which the seeker must attain. The less joy and suffering exhaust themselves in the waves which they throw up in his inner life, the more will they form eyes for the supersensible world. As long as a man lives wholly in joy and pain he cannot gain knowledge through them. When he learns how to live through them, when he draws out of them his feeling of self, then they become his organs of perception; then he sees by means of them, cognises by means of them. It is incorrect to think that the seeker becomes a dry, colourless being, incapable of joy or suffering. Joy and suffering are present in him, but—when he investigates in the spiritual world—in a different form; they have become “eyes and ears.”
[ 11 ] As long as we live in a personal relationship with the world things reveal only what links them with our personality. But that is the transitory part of them. If we withdraw ourselves from the transitory nature and live with our feeling of self, with our “I,” in our permanent nature, then the transitory parts of our nature become intermediaries; and what reveals itself through them is an Imperishable reality, an Eternal reality in the things. This relationship between his own Eternal nature and the Eternal in the things must be established by the seeker. Even before he begins other exercises of the kind described, and also during them, he should direct his thought to this Imperishable aspect. When I observe a stone, a plant, an animal, a man, I should be able to remember that in each of them an Eternal Reality expresses itself. I should be able to ask myself what is the permanent reality that lives in the transitory stone, in the transitory human being? What will outlast the transitory, physical appearance? It must not be thought that such a directing of the spirit to the Eternal destroys the power of devoted observation and our feeling for the qualities of everyday affairs, and estranges us from the immediate realities. On the contrary. Every leaf, every little insect, will unveil to us innumerable mysteries when not our eyes only, but through the eyes the spirit is directed upon them. Every sparkle, every shade of colour, every cadence, will remain vividly perceptible to the senses; nothing will be lost; an infinitude of new life is gained in addition. Indeed a person who does not understand how to observe with the eye even the tiniest thing will achieve only pale, bloodless thoughts, not spiritual sight.
Everything depends upon our attitude of mind. How far we shall succeed will depend upon our capacities. We have only to do what is right and leave everything else to evolution. It must be enough for us at first to direct our minds to the permanent. If we do this, the knowledge of the permanent will thereby awaken in us. We must wait until it is given. And it is given at the right time to each one who waits with patience—and works. A man soon notices during such exercises what a mighty transformation takes place in him. He learns to consider each thing as important or unimportant only in so far as he recognises it to be related to the Permanent, to the Eternal. His valuation and estimate of the world are different from those he has hitherto held. His feeling takes on a new relationship towards the whole surrounding world. The transitory no longer attracts him merely for its own sake, as formerly; it becomes for him a member, an image of the Eternal. And this Eternal reality that lives in all things, he learns to love. It becomes familiar to him, just as the transitory was formerly familiar to him. Again this does not cause him to be estranged from life; he merely learns to value each thing according to its true significance. Even the trifles of life will not pass him by without trace; but, inasmuch as he is seeking the spiritual, he no longer loses himself in them but recognises them at their worth. He sees them in their true light. Only an inferior seeker would go wandering in the clouds and lose sight of actual fife; a genuine seeker will, from his high summit, with his power of clear survey and his just and healthy feeling for everything, know how to assign to each thing its proper place.
[ 12 ] Thus there opens out to the seeker the possibility of ceasing to obey only the incalculable influences of the external world of the senses, which turn his will now here, now there. Through knowledge he has seen the eternal nature in things. Through the transformation of his inner world he has gained the capacity to perceive this eternal nature. For the seeker, the following thoughts have special importance. When he acts from out of himself, he is conscious that he is also acting out of the eternal nature of the things. For the things give utterance in him to this nature of theirs. He is therefore acting in harmony with the eternal World Order when he directs his action from out of the Eternal within him. He knows himself to be no longer merely impelled by the things; he knows that he impels them according to the laws implanted in them which have become the laws of his own being.
This ability to act out of his own inner being can only be an ideal towards which the seeker strives. The attainment of the goal lies in the far distance. But the seeker must have the will clearly to recognise this path. This is his will for freedom. For freedom is action out of one's own inner being. And only a man who draws his motives from the Eternal may act from out of his inner being. One who does not do this, acts according to motives other than those inherent in the things. Such a man opposes the World Order. And this must then prevail against him. That is to say, what he plans to carry through by his will can, in the last resort, not take place. He cannot become free. The arbitrary will of the individual annihilates itself through the effects of its deeds.
[ 13 ] He who is able to work upon his inner life in such a way advances from stage to stage in spiritual knowledge. The fruit of his exercises will be that certain vistas of the supersensible world will unfold to his spiritual perception. He learns the meaning of the truths that are communicated about this world; and he will receive confirmation of them through his own experience. If this stage is attained something approaches him which can become experience only through treading this path. In a manner whose significance now for the first time can become clear to him through the “great spiritual guiding Powers of the Human race” there is bestowed on him what is called consecration—Initiation. He becomes a “pupil of Wisdom.” The less such an Initiation is thought to consist in any outer human relationship, the more correct will be the conception formed about it. What the seeker now experiences can only be indicated here. He receives a new home. He becomes thereby a conscious dweller in the supersensible world. The source of spiritual insight now flows to him from a higher sphere. The light of knowledge does not henceforward shine upon him from without but he is himself placed in the fountain-head of this light. The problems which the world presents receive new illumination. Henceforth he no longer holds converse with the things which are fashioned through the spirit, but with the forming Spirit itself. The separate life of the personality only exists now, in the moments of spiritual knowledge, in order to be a conscious image of the Eternal. Doubts concerning the spirit which could formerly have arisen in him vanish away: for only he can doubt who is deluded by things regarding the spirit that rules in them. And since the “pupil of Wisdom” is able to hold intercourse with the spirit itself, every false form in which he had previously imagined the spirit, vanishes. The false form under which the spirit is conceived is superstition. The initiate has passed beyond all superstition, for he knows what the true form of the spirit is. Freedom from the preconceptions of the personality, of doubt and of superstition—these are the hallmarks of one who has attained to discipleship on the path of higher knowledge. This state in which the personality becomes one with the all-embracing spirit of life, must not be confused with an absorption in the “All-Spirit” that annihilates the personality. No such annihilation takes place in a true development of the personality. Personality remains preserved as such in the relationship into which it enters with the spirit-world. It is not the subjection of the personality but its higher development that takes place. If we wish to have a simile for this coincidence or union of the individual spirit with the “All-Spirit,” we cannot choose that of different circles which, coinciding, are lost in the one, but we must choose the picture of many circles of which each has a distinct shade of colour. These differently coloured circles coincide, but each separate shade preserves its existence within the whole. Not one loses the fullness of its individual power.
[ 14 ] No further description of the path will be given here. It is contained, as far as is possible, in my Occult Science—an Outline which forms a continuation of this book.
[ 15 ] What has been said here about the path of spiritual knowledge can only too easily, if it is not properly understood, mislead the reader into regarding it as a recommendation of moods of soul that bring with them the tendency to turn away from the immediate, joyous, active experience of life. As against this it must be emphasised that the particular mood of the soul which renders it fit for direct experience of the reality of the spirit, cannot be extended over the whole of life. It is possible for the investigator of spiritual existence to bring his soul, for the purpose of that investigation, into the necessary condition of withdrawal from the realities of the senses, without being made in ordinary life into a man estranged from the world. On the other hand it must be recognised too that a knowledge of the spiritual world, not merely a knowledge gained by treading the path, but also a knowledge acquired through grasping the truths of spiritual science with ordinary, open-minded, healthy human understanding, leads to a higher moral status in life, to a knowledge of sensory existence that is in accord with the truth, to assurance in life and to inner health of the soul.
Der Pfad der Erkenntnis
[ 1 ] Die Erkenntnis der in diesem Buche gemeinten Geisteswissenschaft kann jeder Mensch sich selbst erwerben. Ausführungen von der Art, wie sie in dieser Schrift gegeben werden, liefern ein Gedankenbild der höheren Welten. Und sie sind in einer gewissen Beziehung der erste Schritt zur eigenen Anschauung. Denn der Mensch ist ein Gedankenwesen. Und er kann seinen Erkenntnispfad nur finden, wenn er vom Denken ausgeht. Wird seinem Verstande ein Bild der höheren Welten gegeben, so ist dieses für ihn nicht unfruchtbar, auch wenn es vorläufig gleichsam nur eine Erzählung von höheren Tatsachen ist, in die er durch eigene Anschauung noch keinen Einblick hat. Denn die Gedanken, die ihm gegeben werden, stellen selbst eine Kraft dar, welche in seiner Gedankenwelt weiter wirkt. Diese Kraft wird in ihm tätig sein; sie wird schlummernde Anlagen wecken. Wer der Meinung ist, die Hingabe an ein solches Gedankenbild sei überflüssig, der ist im Irrtum. Denn er sieht in dem Gedanken nur das Wesenlose, Abstrakte. Dem Gedanken liegt aber eine lebendige Kraft zugrunde. Und wie er bei demjenigen, der Erkenntnis hat, als ein unmittelbarer Ausdruck vorhanden ist dessen, was im Geiste geschaut wird, so wirkt die Mitteilung dieses Ausdrucks in dem, welchem er mitgeteilt wird, als Keim, der die Erkenntnisfrucht aus sich erzeugt. Wer sich behufs höherer Erkenntnis, unter Verschmähung der Gedankenarbeit, an andere Kräfte im Menschen wenden wollte, der berücksichtigt nicht, dass das Denken eben die höchste der Fähigkeiten ist, die der Mensch in der Sinnenwelt besitzt. Wer also fragt: wie gewinne ich selbst die höheren Erkenntnisse der Geisteswissenschaft? — dem ist zu sagen: unterrichte dich zunächst durch die Mitteilungen anderer von solchen Erkenntnissen. Und wenn er erwidert: ich will selbst sehen; ich will nichts wissen von dem, was andere gesehen haben, so ist ihm zu antworten: eben in der Aneignung der Mitteilungen anderer liegt die erste Stufe zur eigenen Erkenntnis. Man kann dazu sagen: da bin ich ja zunächst zum blinden Glauben gezwungen. Doch es handelt sich ja bei einer Mitteilung nicht um Glauben oder Unglauben, sondern lediglich um eine unbefangene Aufnahme dessen, was man vernimmt. Der wahre Geistesforscher spricht niemals mit der Erwartung, dass ihm blinder Glaube entgegengebracht werde. Er meint immer nur: dies habe ich erlebt in den geistigen Gebieten des Daseins, und ich erzähle von diesen meinen Erlebnissen. Aber er weiß auch, dass die Entgegennahme dieser seiner Erlebnisse und die Durchdringung der Gedanken des andern mit der Erzählung für diesen andern lebendige Kräfte sind, um sich geistig zu entwickeln.
[ 2 ] Was hier in Betracht kommt, wird richtig nur derjenige anschauen, der bedenkt, wie alles Wissen von seelischen und geistigen Welten in den Untergründen der menschlichen Seele ruht. Man kann es durch den «Erkenntnispfad» heraufholen. «Einsehen» kann man nicht nur das, was man selbst, sondern auch, was ein anderer aus den Seelengründen heraufgeholt hat. Selbst dann, wenn man selbst noch gar keine Veranstaltungen zum Betreten des Erkenntnispfades gemacht bat. Eine richtige geistige Einsicht erweckt in dem nicht durch Vorurteile getrübten Gemüt die Kraft des Verständnisses. Das unbewusste Wissen schlägt der von andern gefundenen geistigen Tatsache entgegen. Und dieses Entgegenschlagen ist nicht blinder Glaube, sondern rechtes Wirken des gesunden Menschenverstandes. In diesem gesunden Begreifen sollte man einen weit besseren Ausgangsort auch zum Selbsterkennen der Geistwelt sehen als in den zweifelhaften mystischen «Versenkungen» und dergleichen, in denen man oft etwas Besseres zu haben glaubt als in dem, was der gesunde Menschenverstand anerkennen kann, wenn es ihm von echter geistiger Forschung entgegengebracht wird.
[ 3 ] Man kann gar nicht stark genug betonen, wie notwendig es ist, dass derjenige die ernste Gedankenarbeit auf sich nehme, der seine höheren Erkenntnisfähigkeiten ausbilden will. Diese Betonung muss um so dringlicher sein, als viele Menschen, welche zum «Seher» werden wollen, diese ernste, entsagungsvolle Gedankenarbeit geradezu geringachten. Sie sagen, das «Denken» kann mir doch nichts helfen; es kommt auf die «Empfindung», das «Gefühl» oder ähnliches an. Demgegenüber muss gesagt werden, dass niemand im höheren Sinne (das heißt wahrhaft) ein «Seher» werden kann, der nicht vorher sich in das Gedankenleben eingearbeitet hat. Es spielt da bei vielen Personen eine gewisse innere Bequemlichkeit eine missliche Rolle. Sie werden sich dieser Bequemlichkeit nicht bewusst, weil sie sich in eine Verachtung des «abstrakten Denkens», des «müßigen Spekulierens» und so weiter kleidet. Aber man verkennt eben das Denken, wenn man es mit dem Ausspinnen müßiger, abstrakter Gedankenfolgen verwechselt. Dieses «abstrakte Denken» kann die übersinnliche Erkenntnis leicht ertöten; das lebensvolle Denken kann ihr zur Grundlage werden. Es wäre allerdings viel bequemer, wenn man zu der höheren Sehergabe unter Vermeidung der Gedankenarbeit kommen könnte. Das möchten eben viele. Es ist aber dazu eine innere Festigkeit, eine seelische Sicherheit nötig, zu der nur das Denken führen kann. Sonst kommt doch nur ein wesenloses Hin- und Herflackern in Bildern, ein verwirrendes Seelenspiel zustande, das zwar manchem Lust macht, das aber mit einem wirklichen Eindringen in höhere Welten nichts zu tun hat. — Wenn man ferner bedenkt, welche rein geistigen Erlebnisse in einem Menschen vor sich gehen, der wirklich die höhere Welt betritt, dann wird man auch begreifen, dass die Sache noch eine andere Seite hat. Zum «Seher» gehört absolute Gesundheit des Seelenlebens. Es gibt nun keine bessere Pflege dieser Gesundheit als das echte Denken. Ja, es kann diese Gesundheit ernstlich leiden, wenn die Übungen zur höheren Entwicklung nicht auf dem Denken aufgebaut sind. So wahr es ist, dass einen gesund und richtig denkenden Menschen die Sehergabe noch gesunder, noch tüchtiger zum Leben machen wird, als er ohne dieselbe ist, so wahr ist es auch, dass alles Sich-Entwickelnwollen bei einer Scheu vor Gedankenanstrengung, alle Träumerei auf diesem Gebiete, der Phantasterei und auch der falschen Einstellung zum Leben Vorschub leistet. Niemand hat etwas zu fürchten, der unter Beobachtung des hier Gesagten sich zu höherer Erkenntnis entwickeln will; doch sollte es eben nur unter dieser Voraussetzung geschehen. Diese Voraussetzung hat nur mit der Seele und dem Geiste des Menschen zu tun; zu reden von einem irgendwie gearteten schädlichen Einfluss auf leibliche Gesundheit ist bei dieser Voraussetzung absurd.
[ 4 ] Der unbegründete Unglaube allerdings ist schädlich. Denn er wirkt in dem Empfangenden als eine zurückstoßende Kraft. Er verhindert ihn, die befruchtenden Gedanken aufzunehmen. Kein blinder Glaube, wohl aber die Aufnahme der geisteswissenschaftlichen Gedankenwelt wird bei der Erschließung der höheren Sinne vorausgesetzt. Der Geistesforscher tritt seinem Schüler entgegen mit der Zumutung: nicht glauben sollst du, was ich dir sage, sondern es denken, es zum Inhalte deiner eigenen Gedankenwelt machen, dann werden meine Gedanken schon selbst in dir bewirken, dass du sie in ihrer Wahrheit erkennst. Dies ist die Gesinnung des Geistesforschers. Er gibt die Anregung; die Kraft des Fürwahrhaltens entspringt aus dem eigenen Innern des Aufnehmenden. Und in diesem Sinne sollten die geisteswissenschaftlichen Anschauungen gesucht werden. Wer die Überwindung hat, sein Denken in diese zu versenken, kann sicher sein, dass in einer kürzeren oder längeren Zeit sie ihn zu eigenem Anschauen führen werden.
[ 5 ] Schon in dem Gesagten liegt eine erste Eigenschaft angedeutet, die derjenige in sich ausbilden muss, der zu eigener Anschauung höherer Tatsachen kommen will. Es ist die rückhaltlose, unbefangene Hingabe an dasjenige, was das Menschenleben oder auch die außermenschliche Welt offenbaren. Wer von vornherein mit dem Urteil, das er aus seinem bisherigen Leben mitbringt, an eine Tatsache der Welt herantritt, der verschließt sich durch solches Urteil gegen die ruhige, allseitige Wirkung, welche diese Tatsache auf ihn ausüben kann. Der Lernende muss in jedem Augenblicke sich zum völlig leeren Gefäß machen können, in das die fremde Welt einfließt. Nur diejenigen Augenblicke sind solche der Erkenntnis, wo jedes Urteil, jede Kritik schweigen, die von uns ausgehen. Es kommt zum Beispiel gar nicht darauf an, wenn wir einem Menschen gegenübertreten, ob wir weiser sind als er. Auch das unverständigste Kind hat dem höchsten Weisen etwas zu offenbaren. Und wenn dieser mit seinem noch so weisen Urteil an das Kind herantritt, so schiebt sich seine Weisheit wie ein trübes Glas vor dasjenige, was das Kind ihm offenbaren soll. 19Man sieht wohl gerade aus dieser Angabe, dass es sich bei der Forderung der «rückhaltlosen Hingabe» nicht um die Ausscheidung des eigenen Urteils oder um Hingabe an blinden Glauben handelt. Dergleichen hätte doch einem Kinde gegenüber keinen Sinn. Zu dieser Hingabe an die Offenbarungen der fremden Welt gehört völlige innere Selbstlosigkeit. Und wenn sich der Mensch prüft, in welchem Grade er diese Hingabe hat, so wird er erstaunliche Entdeckungen an sich selbst machen. Will einer den Pfad der höheren Erkenntnis betreten, so muss er sich darin üben, sich selbst mit allen seinen Vorurteilen in jedem Augenblicke auslöschen zu können. Solange er sich auslöscht, fließt das andere in ihn hinein. Nur hohe Grade von solch selbstloser Hingabe befähigen zur Aufnahme der höheren geistigen Tatsachen, die den Menschen überall umgeben. Man kann zielbewusst in sich diese Fähigkeit ausbilden. Man versuche zum Beispiel gegenüber Menschen seiner Umgebung sich jedes Urteils zu enthalten. Man erlösche in sich den Maßstab von anziehend und abstoßend, von dumm oder gescheit, den man gewohnt ist anzulegen; und man versuche, ohne diesen Maßstab die Menschen rein aus sich selbst heraus zu verstehen. Die besten Übungen kann man an Menschen machen, vor denen man einen Abscheu hat. Man unterdrücke mit aller Gewalt diesen Abscheu und lasse alles unbefangen auf sich wirken, was sie tun. — Oder wenn man in einer Umgebung ist, welche dies oder jenes Urteil herausfordert, so unterdrücke man das Urteil und setze sich unbefangen den Eindrücken aus. 20Dieses unbefangene Hingeben hat mit einem «blinden Glauben» nicht das geringste zu tun. Es kommt nicht darauf an, dass man blind an etwas glaubt, sondern darauf, dass man nicht das blinde Urteil» an Stelle des lebendigen Eindruckes setzt. — Man lasse die Dinge und Ereignisse mehr zu sich sprechen, als dass man über sie spreche. Und man dehne das auch auf seine Gedankenwelt aus. Man unterdrücke in sich dasjenige, was diesen oder jenen Gedanken bildet, und lasse lediglich das, was draußen ist, die Gedanken bewirken. — Nur wenn mit heiligstem Ernst und Beharrlichkeit solche Übungen angestellt werden, führen sie zum höheren Erkenntnisziele. Wer solche Übungen unterschätzt, der weiß eben nichts von ihrem Wert. Und wer Erfahrung in solchen Dingen hat, der weiß, dass Hingabe und Unbefangenheit wirkliche Krafterzeuger sind. Wie die Wärme, die man in den Dampfkessel bringt, sich in die fortbewegende Kraft der Lokomotive verwandelt, so verwandeln sich die Übungen der selbstlosen geistigen Hingabe in dem Menschen zur Kraft des Schauens in den geistigen Welten.
[ 6 ] Durch diese Übung macht sich der Mensch aufnahmefähig für alles dasjenige, was ihn umgibt. Aber zur Aufnahmefähigkeit muss auch die richtige Schätzung treten. Solange der Mensch noch geneigt ist, sich selbst auf Kosten der ihn umgebenden Welt zu überschätzen, so lange verlegt er sich den Zugang zu höherer Erkenntnis. Wer einem jeglichen Dinge oder Ereignisse der Welt gegenüber sich der Lust oder dem Schmerze hingibt, die sie ihm bereiten, der ist in solcher Überschätzung seiner selbst befangen. Denn an seiner Lust und an seinem Schmerz erfährt er nichts über die Dinge, sondern nur etwas über sich selbst. Empfinde ich Sympathie für einen Menschen, so empfinde ich zunächst nur mein Verhältnis zu ihm. Mache ich mich in meinem Urteil, in meinem Verhalten lediglich von diesem Gefühle der Lust, der Sympathie abhängig, dann stelle ich meine Eigenart in den Vordergrund; ich dränge diese der Welt auf. Ich will mich, so wie ich bin, in die Welt einschalten, aber nicht die Welt unbefangen hinnehmen und sie im Sinne der in ihr wirkenden Kräfte sich ausleben lassen. Mit anderen Worten: ich bin nur duldsam mit dem, was meiner Eigenart entspricht. Gegen alles andere übe ich eine zurückstoßende Kraft. Solange der Mensch in der Sinneswelt befangen ist, wirkt er besonders zurückstoßend gegen alle nicht sinnlichen Einflüsse. Der Lernende muss die Eigenschaft in sich entwickeln, sich den Dingen und Menschen gegenüber in deren Eigenart zu verhalten, ein jegliches in seinem Werte, in seiner Bedeutung gelten zu lassen. Sympathie und Antipathie, Lust und Unlust müssen ganz neue Rollen erhalten. Es kann nicht davon die Rede sein, dass der Mensch diese ausrotten soll, sich stumpf gegenüber Sympathie und Antipathie machen soll. Im Gegenteil, je mehr er in sich die Fähigkeit ausbildet, nicht alsogleich auf jede Sympathie und Antipathie ein Urteil, eine Handlung folgen zu lassen, eine um so feinere Empfindungsfähigkeit wird er in sich ausbilden. Er wird erfahren, dass Sympathien und Antipathien eine höhere Art annehmen, wenn er diejenige Art in sich zügelt, die schon in ihm ist. Verborgene Eigenschaften hat selbst das zunächst unsympathischste Ding; es offenbart sie, wenn der Mensch in seinem Verhalten nicht seinen eigensüchtigen Empfindungen folgt. Wer sich in dieser Richtung ausgebildet hat, der empfindet feiner nach allen Seiten hin als andere, weil er sich nicht von sich selbst zur Unempfänglichkeit verführen lässt. Jede Neigung, der man blindlings folgt, stumpft dafür ab, die Dinge der Umgebung im rechten Licht zu sehen. Wir drängen uns gleichsam, der Neigung folgend, durch die Umgebung hindurch, statt uns ihr auszusetzen und sie in ihrem Werte zu fühlen.
[ 7 ] Und wenn der Mensch nicht mehr auf jede Lust und jeden Schmerz, auf jede Sympathie und Antipathie hin seine eigensüchtige Antwort, sein eigensüchtiges Verhalten hat, dann wird er auch unabhängig von den wechselnden Eindrücken der Außenwelt. Die Lust, die man an einem Dinge empfindet, macht einen sogleich von diesem abhängig. Man verliert sich an das Ding. Ein Mensch, der je nach den wechselnden Eindrücken sich in Lust und Schmerz verliert, kann nicht den Pfad der geistigen Erkenntnis wandeln. Mit Gelassenheit muss er Lust und Schmerz aufnehmen. Dann hört er auf, sich in ihnen zu verlieren; dann fängt er aber dafür an, sie zu verstehen. Eine Lust, der ich mich hingebe, verzehrt mein Dasein in dem Augenblicke der Hingabe. Ich aber soll die Lust nur benutzen, um durch sie zum Verständnisse des Dinges zu kommen, das mir Lust bereitet. Es soll mir nicht darauf ankommen, dass das Ding mir Lust bereitet: ich soll die Lust erfahren und durch die Lust das Wesen des Dinges. Die Lust soll für mich nur sein Verkündigung dessen, dass in dem Dinge eine Eigenschaft ist, die sich eignet, Lust zu bereiten. Diese Eigenschaft soll ich erkennen lernen. Bleibe ich bei der Lust stehen, lasse ich mich ganz von ihr einnehmen, so bin ich es nur selbst, der sich auslebt; ist mir die Lust nur die Gelegenheit, eine Eigenschaft des Dinges zu erleben, so mache ich durch dieses Erlebnis mein Inneres reicher. Dem Forschenden müssen Lust und Unlust, Freude und Schmerz Gelegenheit sein, durch die er von den Dingen lernt. Der Forschende wird dadurch nicht stumpf gegen Lust und Schmerz; aber er erhebt sich über sie, damit sie ihm die Natur der Dinge offenbaren. Wer nach dieser Richtung hin sich entwickelt, wird einsehen lernen, welche Lehrmeister Lust und Schmerz sind. Er wird mit jedem Wesen mitempfinden und dadurch die Offenbarung von dessen Innerem empfangen. Der Forschende sagt sich niemals allein: oh, wie leide ich, wie freue ich mich, sondern stets: wie spricht das Leid, wie spricht die Freude. Er gibt sich hin, um Lust und Freude der Außenwelt auf sich einwirken zu lassen. Dadurch entwickelt sich in dem Menschen eine völlig neue Art, sich zu den Dingen zu stellen. Früher ließ der Mensch diese oder jene Handlung auf diesen oder jenen Eindruck nur deshalb folgen, weil die Eindrücke ihn freuten oder ihm Unlust machten. Jetzt aber lässt er Lust und Unlust auch die Organe sein, durch die ihm die Dinge sagen, wie sie, ihrem Wesen nach, selbst sind. Lust und Schmerz werden aus bloßen Gefühlen in ihm zu Sinnesorganen, durch welche die Außenwelt wahrgenommen wird. Wie das Auge nicht selbst handelt, wenn es etwas sieht, sondern die Hand handeln lässt, so bewirken Lust und Schmerz in dem geistig Forschenden, insofern er sie als Erkenntnismittel anwendet, nichts, sondern sie empfangen Eindrücke, und das, was durch Lust und Unlust erfahren ist, das bewirkt die Handlung. Wenn der Mensch in der Art Lust und Unlust übt, dass sie Durchgangsorgane werden, so bauen sie ihm in seiner Seele die eigentlichen Organe auf, durch die sich ihm die seelische Welt erschließt. Das Auge kann nur dadurch dem Körper dienen, dass es ein Durchgangsorgan für sinnliche Eindrücke ist; Lust und Schmerz werden zu Seelenaugen sich entwickeln, wenn sie aufhören, bloß für sich etwas zu gelten, und anfangen, der eigenen Seele die fremde Seele zu offenbaren.
[ 8 ] Durch die genannten Eigenschaften setzt sich der Erkennende in die Lage, ohne störende Einflüsse seiner Eigenheiten dasjenige auf sich einwirken zu lassen, was in seiner Umwelt wesenhaft vorhanden ist. Er hat aber auch sich selbst in die geistige Umwelt in richtiger Art einzufügen. Er ist ja als denkendes Wesen Bürger der geistigen Welt. Er kann das nur in rechter Weise sein, wenn er während des Geisterkennens seinen Gedanken einen Ablauf gibt, der den ewigen Gesetzen der Wahrheit, den Gesetzen des Geisterlandes entspricht. Denn nur so kann dieses Land auf ihn wirken und ihm seine Tatsachen offenbaren. Der Mensch gelangt nicht zur Wahrheit, wenn er sich nur den fortwährend durch sein Ich ziehenden Gedanken überlässt. Denn dann nehmen diese Gedanken einen Verlauf, der ihnen dadurch aufgedrängt wird, dass sie innerhalb der leiblichen Natur zum Dasein kommen. Regellos und wirr nimmt sich die Gedankenwelt eines Menschen aus, der sich der zunächst durch sein leibliches Gehirn bedingten Geistestätigkeit überlässt. Da setzt ein Gedanke ein, bricht ab, wird durch einen anderen aus dem Felde geschlagen. Wer prüfend das Gespräch zweier Menschen belauscht, wer sich unbefangen selbst beobachtet, der erhält eine Vorstellung von dieser irrlichtelierenden Gedankenmasse. Solange nun der Mensch sich bloß den Aufgaben des Sinnenlebens widmet, so lange wird sein wirrer Gedankenablauf durch die Tatsachen der Wirklichkeit immer wieder zurechtgerückt. Ich mag noch so verworren denken: der Alltag drängt mir in meinen Handlungen die der Wirklichkeit entsprechenden Gesetze auf. Mein Gedankenbild einer Stadt mag sich als das regelloseste gestalten: will ich in der Stadt einen Weg machen, so muss ich mich den vorhandenen Tatsachen fügen. Der Mechaniker kann mit noch so bunt durcheinanderwirbelnden Vorstellungen seine Werkstätte betreten; er wird durch die Gesetze seiner Maschinen zu richtigen Maßnahmen geführt. Innerhalb der Sinnenwelt üben die Tatsachen ihre fortwährende Korrektur für das Denken. Wenn ich eine falsche Ansicht über eine physische Erscheinung oder über die Gestalt einer Pflanze ausdenke, so tritt mir die Wirklichkeit entgegen und rückt mein Denken zurecht. Ganz anders ist es, wenn ich mein Verhältnis zu den höheren Gebieten des Daseins betrachte. Sie enthüllen sich mir nur, wenn ich ihre Welten schon mit einem streng geregelten Denken betrete. Da muss mir mein Denken den rechten, den sicheren Antrieb geben, sonst finde ich nicht die entsprechenden Wege. Denn die geistigen Gesetze, die sich in diesen Welten ausleben, sind nicht bis zur physischsinnlichen Art verdichtet und üben also auf mich nicht den gekennzeichneten Zwang aus. Ich vermag diese Gesetze nur zu befolgen, wenn sie mit meinen eigenen, als denen eines denkenden Wesens, verwandt sind. Ich muss mir hier selbst ein sicherer Wegweiser sein. Der Erkennende muss also sein Denken zu einem streng in sich geregelten machen. Die Gedanken müssen sich bei ihm allmählich ganz entwöhnen, den alltäglichen Gang zu nehmen. Sie müssen in ihrem ganzen Verlaufe den inneren Charakter der geistigen Welt annehmen. Er muss sich nach dieser Richtung beobachten können und in der Hand haben. Nicht willkürlich darf sich bei ihm ein Gedanke an den andern anreihen, sondern allein so, wie es dem strengen Inhalte der Gedankenwelt entspricht. Der Übergang von einer Vorstellung zur andern muss den strengen Denkgesetzen entsprechen. Der Mensch muss als Denker gewissermaßen stets ein Abbild dieser Denkgesetze darstellen. Alles, was nicht aus diesen Gesetzen fließt, muss er seinem Vorstellungsablauf verbieten. Tritt ihm ein Lieblingsgedanke in den Weg, so muss er ihn abweisen, wenn der in sich geregelte Ablauf dadurch gestört wird. Will ein persönliches Gefühl seinen Gedanken eine gewisse, nicht in ihnen liegende Richtung aufzwingen, so muss er es unterdrücken. — Plato hat von denjenigen verlangt, die in seiner Schule sein wollten, dass sie zuerst einen mathematischen Lehrgang durchmachen. Und die Mathematik mit ihren strengen Gesetzen, die sich nicht nach dem alltäglichen Gang der Sinneserscheinungen richten, ist wirklich eine gute Vorbereitung für den Erkenntnis Suchenden. Er muss sich, wenn er in ihr vorwärtskommen will, aller persönlichen Willkür, aller Störungen entschlagen. Der Erkenntnis Suchende bereitet sich für seine Aufgabe dadurch vor, dass er durch Willkür alle selbsttätig waltende Willkür des Denkens überwindet. Er lernt, rein den Forderungen des Gedankens zu folgen. Und so muss er lernen, in jeglichem Denken, das der Geisterkenntnis dienen soll, vorzugehen. Dies Gedankenleben selbst muss ein Abbild des ungestörten mathematischen Urteilens und Schließens sein. Er muss bestrebt sein, wo er geht und steht, in solcher Art denken zu können. Dann fließen die Gesetzmäßigkeiten der geistigen Welt in ihn ein, die spurlos an ihm vorüber- und durch ihn hindurchziehen, wenn sein Denken den alltäglichen, verworrenen Charakter trägt. Ein geordnetes Denken bringt ihn von sicheren Ausgangspunkten aus zu den verborgensten Wahrheiten. Solche Hinweise sollen aber nicht einseitig aufgefasst werden. Wenn auch Mathematik eine gute Disziplinierung des Denkens bewirkt, so kann man doch zu einem reinen, gesunden und lebensvollen Denken auch kommen, ohne Mathematik zu treiben.
[ 9 ] Und was der Erkenntnis Suchende für sein Denken anstrebt, das muss er auch für sein Handeln anstreben. Dies muss, ohne störende Einflüsse von seiten seiner Persönlichkeit, den Gesetzen des edlen Schönen und ewig Wahren folgen können. Diese Gesetze müssen ihm die Richtung geben können. Beginnt er etwas zu tun, was er als das richtige erkannt hat, und befriedigt sich an diesem Tun sein persönliches Gefühl nicht, so darf er den betretenen Weg deswegen nicht verlassen. Er darf ihn aber auch nicht verfolgen, weil er ihm Freude macht, wenn er findet, dass er mit den Gesetzen des ewig Schönen und Wahren nicht übereinstimmt. Im alltäglichen Leben lassen sich die Menschen von dem zu ihren Handlungen bestimmen, was sie persönlich befriedigt, was ihnen Früchte trägt. Dadurch zwingen sie die Richtung ihrer Persönlichkeit dem Gang der Welterscheinungen auf. Sie verwirklichen nicht das Wahre, das in den Gesetzen der geistigen Welt vorgezeichnet ist, sie verwirklichen die Forderung ihrer Willkür. Erst dann wirkt man im Sinne der geistigen Welt, wenn man allein deren Gesetze befolgt. Aus dem, was bloß aus der Persönlichkeit heraus getan wird, ergeben sich keine Kräfte, die eine Grundlage bilden können für Geisterkenntnis. Der Erkenntnis Suchende kann nicht bloß fragen: was bringt mir Frucht, womit habe ich Erfolg, sondern er muss auch fragen können: was habe ich als das Gute erkannt? Verzicht auf die Früchte des Handelns für die Persönlichkeit, Verzicht auf alle Willkür: das sind die ernsten Gesetze, die er sich muss vorzeichnen können. Dann wandelt er in den Wegen der geistigen Welt, sein ganzes Wesen durchdringt sich mit diesen Gesetzen. Er wird frei von allem Zwang der Sinnenwelt: sein Geistmensch hebt sich heraus aus der sinnlichen Umhüllung. So gelangt er hinein in den Fortschritt zum Geistigen, so vergeistigt er sich selbst. Man kann nicht sagen: was nützen mir alle Vorsätze, rein den Gesetzen des Wahren zu folgen, wenn ich mich vielleicht über dieses Wahre irre? Es kommt auf das Streben, auf die Gesinnung an. Selbst der Irrende hat in dem Streben nach dem Wahren eine Kraft, die ihn von der unrichtigen Bahn ablenkt. Ist er im Irrtum, so ergreift ihn diese Kraft und führt ihn die Wege zum Rechten. Schon der Einwand: ich kann auch irren, ist störender Unglaube. Er zeigt, dass der Mensch kein Vertrauen hat in die Kraft des Wahren. Denn gerade darauf kommt es an, dass er sich nicht vermisst, von seinem eigensüchtigen Standpunkte aus sich die Ziele zu geben, sondern darauf, dass er sich selbstlos hingibt und von dem Geiste sich die Richtung bestimmen lässt. Nicht der eigensüchtige Menschenwille kann dem Wahren seine Vorschriften machen, sondern dieses Wahre selbst muss in dem Menschen zum Herrscher werden, muss sein ganzes Wesen durchdringen, ihn zum Abbild machen der ewigen Gesetze des Geisterlandes. Erfüllen muss er sich mit diesen ewigen Gesetzen, um sie ins Leben ausströmen zu lassen. — Wie sein Denken, so muss der Erkenntnis Suchende seinen Willen in strengem Gewahrsam haben können. Er wird dadurch in aller Bescheidenheit — ohne Anmaßung — ein Bote der Welt des Wahren und Schönen. Und dadurch, dass er dies wird, steigt er zum Teilnehmer der Geisteswelt auf. Dadurch wird er von Entwicklungsstufe zu Entwicklungsstufe gehoben. Denn man kann das geistige Leben nicht allein durch Anschauen, sondern man muss es dadurch erreichen, dass man es erlebt
[ 10 ] Beobachtet der Erkenntnis Suchende diese dargestellten Gesetze, so werden bei ihm diejenigen seelischen Erlebnisse, die sich auf die geistige Welt beziehen, eine völlig neue Gestalt annehmen. Er wird nicht mehr bloß in ihnen leben. Sie werden nicht mehr bloß eine Bedeutung für sein Eigenleben haben. Sie werden sich zu seelischen Wahrnehmungen der höheren Welt ausbilden. In seiner Seele wachsen die Gefühle, wachsen Lust und Unlust, Freude und Schmerz zu Seelenorganen aus, wie in seinem Körper Augen und Ohren nicht bloß ein Leben für sich führen, sondern selbstlos die äußeren Eindrücke durch sich hindurchgehen lassen. Und dadurch gewinnt der Erkenntnis Suchende die Ruhe und Sicherheit in der Seelenverfassung, die für das Forschen in der Geisteswelt nötig sind. Eine große Lust wird ihn nicht mehr bloß jauchzen machen, sondern ihm Verkünderin sein können von Eigenschaften der Welt, die ihm vorher entgangen sind. Sie wird ihn ruhig lassen; und durch die Ruhe werden die Merkmale der lustbringenden Wesenheiten sich ihm offenbaren. Ein Schmerz wird ihn nicht mehr bloß mit Betrübnis ganz ausfüllen, sondern ihm auch sagen können, welche Eigenschaften das Schmerz verursachende Wesen hat. Wie das Auge nichts für sich begehrt, sondern dem Menschen die Richtung des Weges angibt, den er zu gehen hat, so werden Lust und Schmerz die Seele ihre Bahn sicher führen. Dies ist der Zustand des seelischen Gleichgewichtes, in den der Erkennende kommen muss. Je weniger Lust und Schmerz sich in den Wellen erschöpfen, die sie im Innenleben des Erkennenden aufwerfen, desto mehr werden sie Augen bilden für die übersinnliche Welt. Solange der Mensch in Lust und Leid lebt, so lange erkennt er nicht durch sie. Wenn er durch sie zu leben lernt, wenn er sein Selbstgefühl aus ihnen herauszieht, dann werden sie seine Wahrnehmungsorganen; dann sieht, dann erkennt er durch sie. Es ist unrichtig, zu glauben, der Erkennende werde ein trockener, nüchterner, lust- und leidloser Mensch. Lust und Leid sind in ihm vorhanden, aber dann, wenn er in der Geisteswelt forscht, in verwandelter Gestalt; sie sind «Augen und Ohren» geworden.
[ 11 ] Solange man persönlich mit der Welt lebt, so lange enthüllen die Dinge auch nur das, was sie mit unserer Persönlichkeit verknüpft das aber ist ihr Vergängliches. Ziehen wir uns selbst von unserem Vergänglichen zurück und leben wir mit unserem Selbstgefühl, mit unserem «Ich» in unserem Bleibenden, dann werden die vergänglichen Teile an uns zu Vermittlern; und was sich durch sie enthüllt, das ist ein Unvergängliches, ein Ewiges an den Dingen. Dieses Verhältnis seines eigenen Ewigen zum Ewigen in den Dingen muss bei dem Erkennenden hergestellt werden können. Schon bevor er andere Übungen der beschriebenen Art aufnimmt und auch während derselben soll er seinen Sinn auf dieses Unvergängliche hinlenken. Wenn ich einen Stein, eine Pflanze, ein Tier, einen Menschen beobachte, soll ich eingedenk sein können, dass sich in all dem ein Ewiges ausspricht. Ich soll mich fragen können, was lebt als Bleibendes in dem vergänglichen Stein, in dem vergänglichen Menschen? Was wird die vorübergehende sinnliche Erscheinung überdauern? — Man soll nicht glauben, dass solches Hinlenken des Geistes zum Ewigen die hingebungsvolle Betrachtung und den Sinn für die Eigenschaften des Alltags in uns austilge und uns der unmittelbaren Wirklichkeit entfremde. Im Gegenteil. Jedes Blatt, jedes Käferchen wird uns unzählige Geheimnisse enthüllen, wenn unser Auge nicht nur, sondern durch das Auge der Geist auf sie gerichtet ist. Jedes Glitzern, jede Farbennuance, jeder Tonfall werden den Sinnen lebhaft und wahrnehmbar bleiben, nichts wird verloren gehen; nur unbegrenztes neues Leben wird hinzugewonnen werden. Und wer nicht mit dem Auge das Kleinste zu beobachten versteht, wird auch nur zu blassen, blutleeren Gedanken, nicht aber zu geistigem Schauen kommen. — Es hängt von der Gesinnung ab, die wir uns in dieser Richtung erwerben. Wie weit wir es bringen, das wird von unseren Fähigkeiten abhängen. Wir haben nur das Rechte zu tun und alles übrige der Entwicklung zu überlassen. Zunächst muss es uns genügen, unseren Sinn auf das Bleibende zu richten. Tun wir das, dann wird eben dadurch die Erkenntnis des Bleibenden uns aufgehen. Wir müssen warten, bis uns gegeben wird. Und es wird zur entsprechenden Zeit jedem gegeben, der in Geduld wartet und — arbeitet. — Bald bemerkt unter solchen Übungen der Mensch, welche gewaltige Verwandlung mit ihm vorgeht. Er lernt jedes Ding nur mehr in derjenigen Beziehung wichtig oder unwichtig nehmen, als er das Verhältnis dieses Dinges zu einem Bleibenden, Ewigen erkannt hat. Er kommt zu einer anderen Wertung und Schätzung der Welt, als er sie früher gehabt hat. Sein Gefühl bekommt ein anderes Verhältnis zu der ganzen Umwelt. Das Vergängliche zieht ihn nicht mehr bloß um seiner selbst willen an wie früher; es wird ihm auch noch ein Glied und Gleichnis des Ewigen. Und dieses Ewige, das in allen Dingen lebt, lernt er lieben. Es wird ihm vertraut, wie ihm vorher das Vergängliche vertraut war. Auch dadurch wird er nicht dem Leben entfremdet, sondern er lernt nur ein jegliches Ding seiner wahren Bedeutung nach schätzen. Selbst der eitle Tand des Lebens wird nicht spurlos an ihm vorüberziehen; aber der Mensch verliert sich, indem er nach dem Geistigen sucht, nicht mehr an ihn, sondern erkennt ihn in seinem begrenzten Wert. Er sieht ihn im rechten Lichte. Der ist ein schlechter Erkennender, der nur in Wolkenhöhen wandeln wollte und darüber das Leben verlöre. Ein wirklich Erkennender wird von seiner Gipfelhöhe aus durch klare Übersicht und rechte Empfindung für alles ein jegliches Ding an seinen Platz zu stellen wissen.
[ 12 ] So eröffnet sich dem Erkennenden die Möglichkeit, nicht mehr den unberechenbaren Einflüssen der äußeren Sinnenwelt allein zu folgen, die sein Wollen bald da-, bald dorthin lenken. Er hat durch Erkenntnis in der Dinge ewiges Wesen geschaut. Er hat durch die Umwandlung seiner inneren Welt die Fähigkeit in sich, dieses ewige Wesen wahrzunehmen. Für den Erkennenden erhalten die folgenden Gedanken noch eine besondere Wichtigkeit. Wenn er aus sich heraus handelt, so ist er sich bewusst, aus dem ewigen Wesen der Dinge heraus zu handeln. Denn die Dinge sprechen in ihm dieses ihr Wesen aus. Er handelt also im Sinne der ewigen Weltordnung, wenn er aus dem in ihm lebenden Ewigen diesem seinem Handeln die Richtung gibt. Er weiß sich dadurch nicht mehr bloß von den Dingen getrieben; er weiß, dass er sie nach den ihnen selbst eingepflanzten Gesetzen treibt, welche die Gesetze seines eigenen Wesens geworden sind. — Dieses Handeln aus dem Innern kann nur ein Ideal sein, dem man zustrebt. Die Erreichung dieses Zieles liegt in weiter Ferne. Aber der Erkennende muss den Willen haben, diese Bahn klarzusehen. Dies ist sein Wille zur Freiheit. Denn Freiheit ist Handeln aus sich heraus. Und aus sich darf nur handeln, wer aus dem Ewigen die Beweggründe schöpft. Ein Wesen, das dies nicht tut, handelt nach anderen Beweggründen, als den Dingen eingepflanzt sind. Ein solches widerstrebt der Weltordnung. Und diese muss ihm gegenüber dann obsiegen. Das heißt: es kann letzten Endes nicht geschehen, was es seinem Willen vorzeichnet. Es kann nicht frei werden. Willkür des Einzelwesens vernichtet sich selbst durch die Wirkung ihrer Taten.
[ 13 ] Wer in solcher Art auf sein inneres Leben zu wirken vermag, schreitet von Stufe zu Stufe in der Geisterkenntnis vorwärts. Die Frucht seiner Übungen wird sein, dass seinem geistigen Wahrnehmen gewisse Einsichten in die übersinnliche Welt sich eröffnen. Er lernt, wie die Wahrheiten über diese Welt gemeint sind; und er wird von ihnen durch eigene Erfahrung die Bestätigung erhalten. Ist diese Stufe erstiegen, dann tritt an ihn etwas heran, was nur durch diesen Weg Erlebnis werden kann. Auf eine Art, deren Bedeutung ihm erst jetzt klarwerden kann, wird ihm durch die «großen geistigen Führermächte des Menschengeschlechtes» die sogenannte Einweihung (Initiation) zuteil. Er wird zum «Schüler der Weisheit». Je weniger man in einer solchen Einweihung etwas sieht, das in einem äußerlichen menschlichen Verhältnisse besteht, desto richtiger wird die darüber gebildete Vorstellung sein. Nur angedeutet kann hier werden, was mit dem Erkennenden nun vorgeht. Er erhält eine neue Heimat. Er wird dadurch bewusster Einheimischer in der übersinnlichen Welt. Der Quell geistiger Einsicht strömt ihm nunmehr aus einem höheren Orte zu. Das Licht der Erkenntnis leuchtet ihm nunmehr nicht von außen entgegen, sondern er wird selbst in den Quellpunkt dieses Lichtes versetzt In ihm erhalten die Rätsel, welche die Welt aufgibt, ein neues Licht. Er redet fortan nicht mehr mit den Dingen, die durch den Geist gestaltet sind, sondern mit dem gestaltenden Geiste selbst. Das Eigenleben der Persönlichkeit ist dann in den Augenblicken der Geisterkenntnis nur noch da, um bewusstes Gleichnis zu sein des Ewigen. Zweifel an dem Geist, die vorher in ihm noch aufkommen konnten, verschwinden; denn zweifeln kann nur, wen die Dinge über den in ihnen waltenden Geist täuschen. Und da der «Schüler der Weisheit» vermag, mit dem Geiste selbst Zwiesprache zu halten, so schwindet ihm auch jede falsche Gestalt, unter der er sich vorher den Geist vorgestellt hat. Die falsche Gestalt, in der man sich den Geist vorstellt, ist Aberglaube. Der Eingeweihte ist über den Aberglauben hinaus, denn er weiß, welche des Geistes wahre Gestalt ist. Freiheit von den Vorurteilen der Persönlichkeit, des Zweifels und des Aberglaubens, das sind die Merkmale dessen, der auf dem Erkenntnispfade zur Schülerschaft aufgestiegen ist. Man soll nicht verwechseln dieses Einswerden der Persönlichkeit mit dem umfassenden Geistesleben mit einem die Persönlichkeit vernichtenden Aufgehen derselben in dem «Allgeist». Ein solches «Verschwinden» findet bei wahrer Entwicklung der Persönlichkeit nicht statt. Diese bleibt in dem Verhältnis, das sie mit der Geistwelt eingeht, als Persönlichkeit gewahrt. Nicht Überwindung, sondern höhere Ausgestaltung der Persönlichkeit findet statt. Will man ein Gleichnis für dieses Zusammenfallen des Einzelgeistes mit dem Allgeist, dann kann man nicht das wählen von verschiedenen Kreisen, die in einen zusammenfallen, um in diesem unterzugehen, sondern man muss das Bild vieler Kreise wählen, deren jeder eine ganz bestimmte Farbennuance hat. Diese verschiedenfarbigen Kreise fallen übereinander, aber jede einzelne Nuance bleibt in dem Ganzen ihrer Wesenheit bestehen. Keine verliert die Fülle ihrer Eigenkräfte.
[ 14 ] Die weitere Schilderung des «Pfades» soll hier nicht gegeben werden. Sie ist, soweit dies möglich ist, in meiner «Geheimwissenschaft», welche die Fortsetzung dieses Buches bildet, gegeben.
[ 15 ] Was hier über den geistigen Erkenntnispfad gesagt ist, kann nur allzuleicht durch eine missverständliche Auffassung dazu verführen, in ihm eine Empfehlung solcher Seelenstimmungen zu sehen, die eine Abkehr vom unmittelbaren freudigen und tatkräftigen Erleben des Daseins mit sich bringen. Demgegenüber muss betont werden, dass diejenige Stimmung der Seele, welche diese geeignet macht, die Wirklichkeit des Geistes unmittelbar zu erleben, nicht wie eine allgemeine Anforderung über das ganze Leben ausgedehnt werden kann. Der Erforscher geistigen Daseins kann es in seine Gewalt bekommen, für diese Erforschung die Seele in die dazu notwendige Abgezogenheit von der sinnenfälligen Wirklichkeit zu bringen, ohne dass diese Abgezogenheit ihn im allgemeinen zu einem weltfremden Menschen macht. — Auf der anderen Seite muss aber auch erkannt werden, dass ein Erkennen der geistigen Welt, nicht etwa nur ein solches durch Betreten des Pfades, sondern auch ein solches durch Erfassen der geisteswissenschaftlichen Wahrheiten mit dem vorurteilsfreien gesunden Menschenverstande, auch zu einem höheren sittlichen Lebensstand, zu wahrheitsgemäßer Erkenntnis des sinnlichen Daseins, zu Lebenssicherheit und innerer seelischer Gesundheit führt.
The path of knowledge
[ 1 ] The knowledge of the spiritual science referred to in this book can be acquired by every man himself. Explanations of the kind given in this book provide a mental picture of the higher worlds. And in a certain respect they are the first step towards one's own view. For man is a being of thought. And he can only find his path of knowledge if he starts from thinking. If his intellect is given an image of the higher worlds, this is not unfruitful for him, even if it is for the time being, as it were, only a narrative of higher facts into which he does not yet have insight through his own contemplation. For the thoughts that are given to him are themselves a power that continues to work in his world of thought. This power will be active in him; it will awaken dormant dispositions. Anyone who is of the opinion that devotion to such a thought image is superfluous is mistaken. For he sees in the thought only the insubstantial, the abstract. But the thought is based on a living force. And just as it is present in the one who has knowledge as a direct expression of what is seen in the spirit, so the communication of this expression works in the one to whom it is communicated as a germ that produces the fruit of knowledge from itself. He who would turn to other powers in man for higher knowledge, spurning the work of thought, does not take into account that thinking is precisely the highest of the faculties that man possesses in the world of the senses. So whoever asks: how do I myself gain the higher insights of spiritual science? - he should be told: first of all, learn about such knowledge through the communications of others. And if he replies: I want to see for myself; I don't want to know anything about what others have seen, then the answer is: the first step towards your own knowledge lies precisely in the appropriation of the communications of others. One could say: I am initially forced to blind faith. However, a communication is not a matter of belief or disbelief, but merely an unbiased reception of what one hears. The true spiritual researcher never speaks with the expectation that he will be met with blind faith. He only ever means: this is what I have experienced in the spiritual realms of existence, and I tell you about my experiences. But he also knows that the reception of these experiences of his and the penetration of the other person's thoughts with the story are living forces for this other person to develop spiritually.
[ 2 ] What comes into consideration here will only be seen correctly by those who consider how all knowledge of spiritual and mental worlds rests in the subsoil of the human soul. It can be brought up through the "path of knowledge". You can "see" not only what you have brought up yourself, but also what someone else has brought up from the depths of the soul. Even if you yourself have not yet made any attempts to enter the path of knowledge. Correct spiritual insight awakens the power of understanding in a mind that is not clouded by prejudice. The unconscious knowledge strikes against the spiritual fact found by others. And this confrontation is not blind faith, but the right action of common sense. In this healthy understanding one should also see a far better starting point for self-knowledge of the spiritual world than in the dubious mystical "immersions" and the like, in which one often believes to have something better than in what common sense can recognize when it is brought to it by genuine spiritual research.
[ 3 ] It cannot be emphasized strongly enough how necessary it is for those who wish to develop their higher cognitive faculties to undertake the serious work of thought. This emphasis must be all the more urgent as many people who want to become a "seer" downright disdain this serious, renunciative thought work. They say that "thinking" cannot help me; it depends on "feeling", "sensation" or something similar. On the other hand, it must be said that nobody can become a "seer" in the higher sense (i.e. truly) who has not first familiarized himself with the life of thought. A certain inner comfort plays an unfortunate role for many people. They are not aware of this comfort because it is clothed in a contempt for "abstract thinking", "idle speculation" and so on. But you misjudge thinking if you confuse it with the spinning out of idle, abstract thought sequences. This "abstract thinking" can easily kill supersensible knowledge; vital thinking can become its basis. However, it would be much more comfortable if one could attain the higher gift of vision without having to think. That is what many would like. But this requires an inner firmness, a certainty of soul, to which only thinking can lead. Otherwise, all that comes about is an insubstantial flickering back and forth in images, a confusing play of the soul, which may give pleasure to some, but which has nothing to do with a real penetration into higher worlds. - If you also consider what purely spiritual experiences take place in a person who really enters the higher world, then you will also understand that there is another side to the matter. Absolute health of the soul life belongs to the "seer". There is no better care for this health than genuine thinking. Indeed, this health can suffer seriously if the exercises for higher development are not based on thinking. As true as it is that the gift of sight will make a healthy and right-thinking person even healthier and more capable in life than he is without it, it is also true that all desire to develop oneself while shying away from mental effort, all dreaming in this area, encourages fantasy and also the wrong attitude towards life. No one has anything to fear who wants to develop to higher knowledge by observing what has been said here; but it should only happen under this condition. This premise has to do only with the soul and the spirit of man; to speak of any kind of harmful influence on bodily health is absurd on this premise.
[ 4 ] Unfounded unbelief, however, is harmful. For it acts as a repulsive force in the recipient. It prevents him from receiving the fertilizing thoughts. Blind faith is not a prerequisite for the development of the higher senses, but rather the acceptance of the spiritual-scientific world of thought. The spiritual scientist confronts his pupil with the imposition: Do not believe what I tell you, but think it, make it the content of your own world of thoughts, then my thoughts themselves will already cause you to recognize them in their truth. This is the attitude of the spiritual researcher. He gives the stimulus; the power of truthfulness arises from the inner being of the recipient. And it is in this sense that spiritual scientific views should be sought. Those who have the strength to immerse their thinking in them can be sure that in a shorter or longer time they will lead them to their own contemplation.
[ 5 ] The above already indicates a first quality that must be developed in those who wish to arrive at their own perception of higher facts. It is the unreserved, unbiased devotion to that which human life or the non-human world reveal. Whoever approaches a fact of the world from the outset with the judgment that he brings with him from his previous life, closes himself off through such judgment against the calm, all-round effect that this fact can have on him. The learner must at every moment be able to make himself a completely empty vessel into which the foreign world flows. Only those moments are such moments of cognition where every judgment, every criticism that emanates from us is silent. For example, when we meet a person, it is not at all important whether we are wiser than him. Even the most incomprehensible child has something to reveal to the most wise person. And when he approaches the child with his judgment, however wise it may be, his wisdom shifts like a cloudy glass in front of what the child is supposed to reveal to him. 19You can see from this statement that the demand for "wholehearted devotion" is not about the elimination of one's own judgment or about devotion to blind faith. Such a thing would make no sense to a child. This devotion to the revelations of the foreign world includes complete inner selflessness. And if a person examines the degree to which he has this devotion, he will make astonishing discoveries about himself. If a person wants to enter the path of higher knowledge, he must practise being able to extinguish himself and all his prejudices at any moment. As long as he extinguishes himself, the other flows into him. Only high degrees of such selfless devotion enable one to absorb the higher spiritual facts that surround man everywhere. You can consciously develop this ability within yourself. For example, try to refrain from any judgment of the people around you. Let go of the standard of attractive and repulsive, of stupid or clever, which you are used to applying; and try to understand people purely from within yourself without this standard. The best exercises can be done on people for whom one has a disgust. Suppress this disgust with all your might and let everything they do affect you impartially. - Or if you are in an environment that challenges this or that judgment, suppress the judgment and expose yourself to the impressions impartially. 20This unbiased surrender has nothing whatsoever to do with "blind faith". What matters is not that one blindly believes in something, but that one does not substitute "blind judgment" for a vivid impression. - One lets things and events speak more to oneself than one speaks about them. And you also extend this to your world of thoughts. One suppresses within oneself that which forms this or that thought, and allows only that which is outside to effect the thoughts. - Only if such exercises are undertaken with the most sacred seriousness and perseverance will they lead to the higher goal of knowledge. He who underestimates such exercises knows nothing of their value. And those who have experience in such things know that devotion and impartiality are real power generators. Just as the heat that is brought into the steam boiler is transformed into the moving power of the locomotive, so the exercises of selfless spiritual devotion in man are transformed into the power of vision in the spiritual worlds.
[ 6 ] Through this exercise, man makes himself receptive to all that surrounds him. But receptivity must also be accompanied by correct appreciation. As long as man is still inclined to overestimate himself at the expense of the world around him, he will deny himself access to higher knowledge. Anyone who indulges in the pleasure or pain that any thing or event in the world causes him is caught up in such an overestimation of himself. For in his pleasure and in his pain he learns nothing about things, but only something about himself. If I feel sympathy for a person, I initially only feel my relationship to him. If I make myself dependent in my judgment, in my behaviour, solely on this feeling of pleasure, of sympathy, then I place my own nature in the foreground; I impose it on the world. I want to intervene in the world as I am, but not accept the world impartially and let it live itself out according to the forces at work in it. In other words: I am only tolerant of what corresponds to my own nature. I exert a repulsive force against everything else. As long as man is caught up in the world of the senses, he has a particularly repulsive effect against all non-sensual influences. The learner must develop the quality within himself to behave towards things and people in their own way, to accept each in its value, in its significance. Sympathy and antipathy, pleasure and displeasure must be given completely new roles. There can be no question of man eradicating them, of making himself dull in the face of sympathy and antipathy. On the contrary, the more he develops in himself the ability not to let every sympathy and antipathy be followed immediately by a judgment, an action, the more finely he will develop in himself the ability to feel. He will experience that sympathies and antipathies take on a higher nature if he restrains the nature that is already in him. Even the most unsympathetic thing has hidden qualities; it reveals them when a person does not follow his selfish feelings in his behavior. Those who have trained themselves in this direction are more sensitive in all directions than others, because they do not allow themselves to be seduced into insensitivity. Every inclination that we blindly follow dulls our ability to see the things around us in the right light. Following the inclination, we push ourselves through the environment, as it were, instead of exposing ourselves to it and feeling it in its value.
[ 7 ] And when man no longer has his selfish response, his selfish behavior, to every pleasure and every pain, to every sympathy and antipathy, then he also becomes independent of the changing impressions of the outside world. The pleasure one feels in something immediately makes one dependent on it. You lose yourself to the thing. A person who loses himself in pleasure and pain depending on the changing impressions cannot walk the path of spiritual knowledge. He must absorb pleasure and pain with calmness. Then he ceases to lose himself in them; but then he begins to understand them. A lust to which I surrender consumes my existence in the moment of surrender. But I should only use pleasure to come to an understanding of the thing that gives me pleasure. It should not matter to me that the thing gives me pleasure: I should experience the pleasure and through the pleasure the essence of the thing. Pleasure should only be for me the proclamation that there is a quality in the thing that is capable of giving pleasure. I should learn to recognize this quality. If I remain with pleasure, if I allow myself to be completely absorbed by it, then it is only myself who is living it out; if pleasure is only the opportunity for me to experience a quality of the thing, then I make my inner being richer through this experience. For the researcher, pleasure and displeasure, joy and pain must be opportunities through which he learns about things. The inquirer does not thereby become dull to pleasure and pain; but he rises above them so that they reveal the nature of things to him. He who develops in this direction will learn to recognize the masters of pleasure and pain. He will empathize with every being and thereby receive the revelation of its inner being. The researcher never says to himself alone: oh, how I suffer, how I rejoice, but always: how does suffering speak, how does joy speak. He surrenders himself in order to allow the pleasure and joy of the outside world to have an effect on him. As a result, a completely new way of relating to things develops in people. In the past, a person would follow this or that action with this or that impression only because the impressions pleased or displeased him. Now, however, he allows pleasure and displeasure to be the organs through which things tell him how they are in essence. Pleasure and pain are transformed from mere feelings into sensory organs through which the outside world is perceived. Just as the eye does not act itself when it sees something, but lets the hand act, so pleasure and pain do not cause anything in the spiritual inquirer, insofar as he uses them as a means of knowledge, but they receive impressions, and that which is experienced through pleasure and displeasure causes the action. If man practises pleasure and displeasure in such a way that they become organs of passage, they build up the actual organs in his soul through which the spiritual world opens up to him. The eye can only serve the body by being an organ of passage for sensual impressions; pleasure and pain will develop into the eyes of the soul when they cease to be something merely for themselves and begin to reveal the other soul to one's own soul.
[ 8 ] Through the aforementioned qualities, the cognizer puts himself in a position to allow that which is essentially present in his environment to have an effect on him without the disturbing influences of his peculiarities. But he must also integrate himself into the spiritual environment in the right way. As a thinking being he is a citizen of the spiritual world. He can only be this in the right way if he gives his thoughts a course during spirit cognition that corresponds to the eternal laws of truth, the laws of the spirit land. For only in this way can this land have an effect on him and reveal its facts to him. Man does not attain the truth if he merely abandons himself to the thoughts that continually run through his ego. For then these thoughts take a course that is imposed on them by the fact that they come into existence within the bodily nature. The world of thoughts of a person who abandons himself to the mental activity initially caused by his bodily brain appears disorderly and confused. One thought begins, breaks off, is knocked out of the field by another. Anyone who scrutinizingly overhears the conversation between two people, who observes himself impartially, will gain an idea of this mass of thoughts that is in a state of confusion. As long as man merely devotes himself to the tasks of sensory life, his confused train of thought will be set right again and again by the facts of reality. No matter how confused my thoughts are, everyday life imposes the laws that correspond to reality on my actions. My mental image of a city may be the most irregular: if I want to make a path in the city, I have to submit to the existing facts. The mechanic can enter his workshop with as many colorful and confused ideas as he likes; the laws of his machines will lead him to the right measures. Within the world of the senses, the facts exercise their constant correction for thinking. If I conceive a wrong view of a physical phenomenon or of the shape of a plant, reality confronts me and corrects my thinking. It is quite different when I consider my relationship to the higher realms of existence. They only reveal themselves to me when I enter their worlds with strictly regulated thinking. My thinking must give me the right, the certain drive, otherwise I will not find the appropriate paths. For the spiritual laws that are lived out in these worlds are not condensed to the physical-sensual kind and therefore do not exert the marked compulsion on me. I am only able to obey these laws if they are related to my own, as those of a thinking being. Here I must be a sure guide for myself. The cognizer must therefore make his thinking a strictly self-regulated one. His thoughts must gradually wean themselves completely from taking the everyday course. They must take on the inner character of the spiritual world in their entire course. He must be able to observe himself in this direction and have it in hand. One thought must not follow another at random, but only as it corresponds to the strict content of the world of thought. The transition from one idea to another must conform to the strict laws of thought. As a thinker, the human being must to a certain extent always represent an image of these laws of thought. Everything that does not flow from these laws must be forbidden to his imaginative process. If a favorite thought gets in his way, he must reject it if it disrupts the inherently regulated process. If a personal feeling wants to impose a certain direction on his thoughts that does not lie within them, he must suppress it. - Plato required those who wanted to attend his school to first complete a course in mathematics. And mathematics, with its strict laws that are not based on the everyday course of sensory phenomena, really is a good preparation for those seeking knowledge. If he wants to make progress in it, he must renounce all personal arbitrariness, all disturbances. The seeker of knowledge prepares himself for his task by overcoming all self-acting arbitrariness of thought through arbitrariness. He learns to follow purely the demands of thought. And so he must learn to proceed in all thinking that is to serve the knowledge of the spirit. This life of thought itself must be a reflection of undisturbed mathematical judgment and reasoning. Wherever he goes and stands, he must endeavor to be able to think in this way. Then the laws of the spiritual world will flow into him, passing by and through him without a trace if his thinking has the everyday, confused character. Ordered thinking leads him from safe starting points to the most hidden truths. However, such hints should not be taken one-sidedly. Even if mathematics is a good discipline for thinking, it is also possible to achieve pure, healthy and vital thinking without doing mathematics.
[ 9 ] And what the seeker of knowledge strives for in his thinking, he must also strive for in his actions. This must be able to follow the laws of the noble, beautiful and eternally true without any disturbing influences from his personality. These laws must be able to give him direction. If he begins to do something that he has recognized as the right thing to do, and if his personal feeling is not satisfied by this action, he must not leave the path he has taken because of it. But he must also not pursue it because it gives him pleasure if he finds that it does not agree with the laws of the eternally beautiful and true. In everyday life, people allow their actions to be determined by what satisfies them personally, what bears fruit for them. In this way they force the direction of their personality onto the course of world events. They do not realize the true that is predetermined in the laws of the spiritual world, they realize the demand of their arbitrariness. Only then does one work in the sense of the spiritual world when one alone obeys its laws. What is done merely out of the personality does not give rise to forces that can form a basis for knowledge of the spirit. The seeker of knowledge cannot merely ask: what brings me fruit, what makes me successful, but he must also be able to ask: what have I recognized as good? Renunciation of the fruits of action for the personality, renunciation of all arbitrariness: these are the serious laws that he must be able to outline for himself. Then he walks in the ways of the spiritual world, his whole being permeates itself with these laws. He becomes free from all the constraints of the world of the senses: his spiritual man lifts himself out of the sensual envelope. In this way he enters into progress towards the spiritual, in this way he spiritualizes himself. One cannot say: what use are all my intentions to follow the laws of truth if I am perhaps mistaken about this truth? It depends on the striving, on the attitude. Even the erring person has a power in striving for what is true that diverts him from the wrong path. If he is in error, this power takes hold of him and leads him to the right path. Even the objection: I can also be wrong, is disturbing unbelief. It shows that the person has no trust in the power of truth. For it is precisely this that is important, that he does not miss the opportunity to set himself goals from his selfish standpoint, but that he gives himself selflessly and allows the Spirit to determine his direction. It is not the selfish will of man that can dictate to the true, but this true itself must become the ruler in man, must permeate his whole being, must make him the image of the eternal laws of the spirit land. He must fill himself with these eternal laws in order to let them flow out into life. - Like his thinking, the seeker of knowledge must be able to keep his will in strict control. He thus becomes, in all modesty - without presumption - a messenger of the world of truth and beauty. And by becoming this, he rises to become a participant in the spiritual world. This raises him from one level of development to the next. For one cannot attain the spiritual life merely by looking at it, but one must attain it by experiencing it
[ 10 ] If the seeker of knowledge observes these presented laws, those spiritual experiences that relate to the spiritual world will take on a completely new form. He will no longer merely live in them. They will no longer merely have a meaning for his own life. They will develop into spiritual perceptions of the higher world. In his soul, feelings, pleasure and displeasure, joy and pain will grow into organs of the soul, just as in his body his eyes and ears do not merely lead a life for themselves, but selflessly allow external impressions to pass through them. And thereby the seeker of knowledge gains the calmness and security in the state of soul that are necessary for research in the spiritual world. A great pleasure will no longer merely make him rejoice, but will be able to announce to him qualities of the world that previously escaped him. It will leave him calm; and through the calm the characteristics of the pleasure-giving entities will reveal themselves to him. A pain will no longer merely fill him with sorrow, but will also be able to tell him what qualities the being causing the pain has. Just as the eye desires nothing for itself, but indicates to man the direction of the path he has to take, so pleasure and pain will guide the soul safely along its path. This is the state of mental equilibrium into which the cognizer must come. The less pleasure and pain exhaust themselves in the waves they raise in the inner life of the cognizer, the more they will form eyes for the supersensible world. As long as man lives in pleasure and suffering, he does not know through them. When he learns to live through them, when he draws his sense of self from them, then they become his organs of perception; then he sees, then he recognizes through them. It is incorrect to believe that the cognizer becomes a dry, sober, pleasureless and sorrowless person. Pleasure and suffering are present in him, but then, when he researches in the spiritual world, in a transformed form; they have become "eyes and ears".
[ 11 ] As long as we live personally with the world, things reveal only that which links them to our personality, but that is their transience. If we withdraw from our transient nature and live with our sense of self, with our "I" in our permanent nature, then the transient parts of us become mediators; and what is revealed through them is something imperishable, something eternal about things. The cognizer must be able to establish this relationship between his own eternal and the eternal in things. Even before he takes up other exercises of the kind described and also during them, he should direct his mind towards this imperishable. When I observe a stone, a plant, an animal, a human being, I should be able to remember that an eternal is expressed in all of them. I should be able to ask myself what lives as something permanent in the transient stone, in the transient human being? What will outlast the passing sensual appearance? - We should not believe that directing the mind towards the eternal in this way eradicates devotional contemplation and the sense for the qualities of everyday life in us and alienates us from immediate reality. On the contrary. Every leaf, every beetle will reveal countless secrets to us if our eye is not only directed at them, but through the eye of the spirit. Every glitter, every nuance of color, every tone of voice will remain vivid and perceptible to the senses, nothing will be lost; only unlimited new life will be gained. And whoever does not know how to observe the smallest detail with the eye will only come to pale, bloodless thoughts, but not to spiritual vision. - It depends on the mindset we acquire in this direction. How far we get will depend on our abilities. We only have to do the right thing and leave everything else to development. First of all, it must be enough for us to focus our minds on what remains. If we do this, then through this the realization of the permanent will dawn on us. We must wait until it is given to us. And it will be given at the appropriate time to everyone who waits and works in patience. - Under such exercises, man soon realizes what a tremendous transformation is happening to him. He learns to take each thing as important or unimportant only to the extent that he has recognized the relationship of this thing to something permanent and eternal. He arrives at a different evaluation and appreciation of the world than he had before. His feelings take on a different relationship to the whole environment. The ephemeral no longer attracts him merely for its own sake as before; it also becomes a member and parable of the eternal. And he learns to love this eternal that lives in all things. It becomes familiar to him, just as the transient was familiar to him before. This does not alienate him from life either, but he only learns to appreciate every thing according to its true meaning. Even the vain trinkets of life will not pass him by without a trace; but by seeking the spiritual, man no longer loses himself to it, but recognizes it in its limited value. He sees it in the right light. He is a poor recognizer who only wants to walk in the clouds and would lose his life over it. A truly cognizant person will know how to put every thing in its place from his lofty heights through a clear overview and the right perception of everything.
[ 12 ] This opens up the possibility for the cognizer to no longer follow the unpredictable influences of the external world of the senses alone, which sometimes direct his will here, sometimes there. Through cognition he has seen the eternal essence of things. Through the transformation of his inner world, he has within himself the ability to perceive this eternal being. For the cognizer, the following thoughts take on a special importance. When he acts out of himself, he is aware that he is acting out of the eternal essence of things. For the things express their essence in him. He therefore acts in the sense of the eternal world order when he gives direction to his actions from the eternal living in him. He no longer knows that he is merely driven by things; he knows that he drives them according to the laws implanted in them, which have become the laws of his own being. - This action from within can only be an ideal towards which one strives. The achievement of this goal lies in the distant future. But the cognizer must have the will to see this path clearly. This is his will to freedom. For freedom is acting out of oneself. And only those who draw their motives from the eternal can act out of themselves. A being that does not do this acts according to motives other than those implanted in things. Such a being resists the world order. And this must then prevail over it. In other words: ultimately, it cannot do what its will dictates. It cannot become free. The arbitrariness of the individual destroys itself through the effect of its actions.
[ 13 ] Whoever is able to influence his inner life in this way progresses from stage to stage in the knowledge of the spirit. The fruit of his exercises will be that certain insights into the supersensible world will open up to his spiritual perception. He will learn how the truths about this world are meant; and he will receive confirmation of them through his own experience. Once he has reached this stage, something approaches him that can only be experienced through this path. In a way whose meaning can only now become clear to him, the so-called initiation is granted to him by the "great spiritual guiding powers of the human race". He becomes a "disciple of wisdom". The less one sees in such an initiation something that consists in an external human relationship, the more correct will be the idea formed about it. We can only hint here at what happens to the cognizer. He receives a new home. He thus becomes a conscious native in the supersensible world. The source of spiritual insight now flows to him from a higher place. The light of knowledge now does not shine towards him from outside, but he himself is transferred to the source of this light. From now on he no longer talks to the things that are shaped by the spirit, but to the shaping spirit itself. In the moments of spirit knowledge, the personality's own life is then only there to be a conscious parable of the Eternal. Doubts about the spirit, which could still arise in him before, disappear; for only those whom things deceive about the spirit reigning in them can doubt. And since the "disciple of wisdom" is able to converse with the spirit itself, every false form under which he previously imagined the spirit also disappears. The false form in which one imagines the spirit is superstition. The initiate is beyond superstition, for he knows the true form of the spirit. Freedom from the prejudices of personality, doubt and superstition, these are the characteristics of one who has ascended to discipleship on the path of knowledge. One should not confuse this unification of the personality with the all-embracing spiritual life with an annihilation of the personality in the "All-Spirit". Such a "disappearance" does not take place in the true development of the personality. It remains preserved as a personality in the relationship it enters into with the spirit world. It is not overcoming, but a higher shaping of the personality that takes place. If one wants a parable for this coincidence of the individual spirit with the All-Spirit, then one cannot choose that of different circles that coincide into one in order to sink into it, but one must choose the image of many circles, each of which has a very specific shade of color. These differently colored circles fall over one another, but each individual nuance remains in the whole of its essence. None loses the fullness of its own powers.
[ 14 ] The further description of the "path" will not be given here. It is given, as far as this is possible, in my "Secret Science", which forms the continuation of this book.
[ 15 ] What is said here about the spiritual path of knowledge can all too easily through a misunderstanding tempt us to see it as a recommendation of those moods of the soul that entail a turning away from the immediate joyful and energetic experience of existence. On the other hand, it must be emphasized that the mood of the soul that makes it capable of directly experiencing the reality of the spirit cannot be extended over the whole of life like a general requirement. The explorer of spiritual existence can take it into his power to bring the soul into the necessary detachment from sensory reality for this exploration, without this detachment generally making him an unworldly person. - On the other hand, however, it must also be recognized that a recognition of the spiritual world, not only by entering the path, but also by grasping the truths of spiritual science with the unprejudiced common sense of man, also leads to a higher moral state of life, to truthful knowledge of sensual existence, to life security and inner spiritual health.