The Rudolf Steiner Archive

10. The Presentation of Anthroposophical Truths

[ 1 ] The presentation of anthroposophical truths can be all the more alive if what is presented is viewed from a wide variety of perspectives in the most diverse ways. As an active member of the Society, one should therefore not shy away from repeatedly addressing the same subject in the branch meetings. But in doing so, it will be necessary to approach it from a wide variety of angles. By relating to the questions of one's fellow human beings in the way described in my last letter, one will be led to such a consideration as if by itself. In doing so, one learns to appreciate the vitality of anthroposophical insights even more. One feels how every mental image into which one has brought these insights must be imperfect. One senses that what one carries in one's soul is immeasurably richer than what one can express in thought. As one becomes more and more aware of this, a sense of reverence for spiritual life grows in the soul. And this reverence must prevail in all anthroposophical presentations. It must be one of the fundamental tones that pervades these presentations. Where this reverence is lacking, there is no power in the discussion of anthroposophical truths.

[ 2 ] One should not try to bring this power into speech about anthroposophy in an external way. One should leave its development to the living feeling in which one stands to the truths by being conscious that, by grasping them in the soul, one is approaching the real spiritual world. This gives the soul a certain mood. For moments, it feels completely devoted to the thoughts of the spiritual world. In this devotion, reverence for the spiritual arises in a completely natural way.

[ 3 ] The development of such a mood is the beginning of all true meditation. Those who cannot love such a mood of the soul will apply the rules for gaining knowledge of a “spiritual world” in vain. For in this mood, the spiritual, which lies in the depths of the human soul, is brought to consciousness. Through this, the human being unites with his own spirituality. And only in this union can they find the spiritual in the world. Only the spirit in the human being can approach the spirit of the world.

[ 4 ] Now, by acquiring these moments of mood, the active members of society, whom others seek for advice, will increase their ability to perceive what the other person actually wants. It is often difficult for people to express clearly what moves their soul most deeply. Therefore, the person being asked will all too easily fail to hear the actual needs of the questioner. Then the questioner will have the justified feeling that he has not received an answer to what he wanted. But if the person being asked stands before the questioner in a state of mind that has been achieved through inner moods of the kind described, then he will be able to loosen the questioner's tongue. The questioner will develop a true, intimate trust in the person being asked, which gives real life to the communication of anthroposophical truths. Something will be added to this communication that will enable the person who has received the answer to then independently follow his own path in pursuing his spiritual needs. He may feel that even if the answer did not contain everything he was looking for, he will now be able to help himself further. An inner feeling of strength will arise in the soul instead of the previous feeling of powerlessness. And this feeling of strength is what the questioner was really seeking.

[ 5 ] One should not believe that one can find answers to burning questions of the soul without thought, in mere feelings. But a thought that develops in cold isolation from feelings does not find its way to the human heart. However, one should not fear that the feeling of objectivity will necessarily harm the thought. This will only be the case if it has not found its way to the spirituality of the human being through the mood described above.

Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society

[ 24 ] 14. The second form of the ‘I’—first of the three forms that were indicated in the last section—appears as a ‘picture’ of the I. When we become aware of this picture-character, a light is also thrown on the quality of thought in which the ‘I’ appears before the ordinary consciousness. With all manner of reflections, men have sought within this consciousness for the ‘true I.’ Yet an earnest insight into the experiences of the ordinary consciousness will suffice to show that the ‘true I’ cannot be found therein. Only a shadow-in-thought is able to appear there—a shadowy reflection, even less than a picture. The truth of this seizes us all the more when we progress to the ‘I’ as a picture, which lives in the etheric body. Only now are we rightly kindled to search for the ‘I’, for the true being of man.

[ 25 ] 15. Insight into the form in which the ‘I’ lives in the astral body leads to a right feeling of the relation of man to the spiritual world. For ordinary consciousness this form of the ‘I’ is buried in the dark depths of the unconscious, where man enters into connection with the spiritual being of the Universe through Inspiration. Ordinary consciousness experiences only a faint echo-in-feeling of this Inspiration from the wide expanse of the spiritual world, which holds sway in depths of the soul.

[ 26 ] 16. It is the third form of the ‘I’ which gives us insight into the independent Being of man within a spiritual world. It makes us feel how, with his earthly-sensible nature, man stands before himself as a mere manifestation of what he really is. Here lies the starting-point of true Self-knowledge. For the Self which fashions man in his true nature is revealed to him in Knowledge only when he progresses from the thought of the ‘I’ to its picture, from the picture to the creative forces of the picture, and from the creative forces to the spiritual Beings who sustain them.