Original Impulses for the Science of the Spirit
GA 96
14 May 1906, Berlin
IV. Education Based on Spiritual Insight
On a number of occasions I have taken the opportunity to reject the prejudicial view that the theosophical approach is far removed from practical life. Quite the contrary. We have often been able to show that theosophy should take us deeply into practical life, for it teaches us the laws of the spiritual principle that is continually shaping life all around us. People who only know the laws of life as it shows itself on the outside know only a small part of life. By far the greater part are the hidden things in life, hidden to the ordinary senses. I am sure it will not be very long before people come to realize more and more that in order to cope with life we have to study the hidden worlds. The materialistic view would lead to crises in all areas, above all in the sphere of health, and also in education, where the question arises: How should humanity educate its coming generation? Materialism would also lead to crises in everything connected with society, politics and civilization. Life would be such that one day people would no longer know how to help themselves. To explain what I mean let me say a few things on educational issues, for this will surely be of interest to everyone.
People who consider education from the materialistic point of view will only too easily arrive at a completely wrong set of rules. For they will never think of the way life follows its own strict rules and they will thus fail to realize that there are periods in life that have profound significance. They'll be quite unable to think, for instance, why the childhood period from the 6th to the 8th year differs fundamentally from the period that extends from the 7th or 8th year to sexual maturity. People who have no idea as to what happens to a young person at this time will also fail to realize how important it is to observe these periods most carefully. It matters that we know what the human being is in these three periods—the first, which is up to the 6th or 7th year, the second, up to the 14th or 15th year, and then again the period that follows for the next 7 or 8 years. These are three ages in human life that have to be studied with care, not just on the surface but also in occult terms, which has to do with the worlds that are hidden to the ordinary senses.
You know that human beings consist not merely of this physical body but have a physical body, an ether body, which is the basis of the physical body and similar to it in configuration, and then the astral body, which to clairvoyant vision looks like a cloud in which the other two bodies are embedded. The astral body also holds within it the principle that bears human I-nature. Let us look at these three bodies as they are in the developing human being.
To get the right idea you have to understand that the periods in which a human being can be seen in physical existence are preceded by the period before birth when the human being is in the maternal womb. You need to distinguish in purely physical terms between life before birth and the periods that follow, and understand that a human being would not be able to live if he were born too soon, coming too early into the externally visible world. He would not be able to live in that world because his sense organs, through which he relates to the outside world, would not yet be fully developed. Our organs develop when we are in the maternal womb until we are born—eyes, ears and everything we need to live in the physical world. And a human being cannot take up contact with the physical world before his organs have been adequately prepared in the protective shelter of another physical body. Birth is the time when the human being has reached a level of maturity where he is able to be in contact with the world without a protective shelter. It will, however, be a long time before this is also the case for the ether body and the astral body. They have not yet reached the point where they can be in direct contact with the world around them. A process which is very similar to the one that happens when a human being is born in the physical body takes place for the ether body in the period from birth until about the 7th year. It is only then that we can say the ether body has been born. The astral body is only born in the 14th or 15th year, and is then able to develop independent activity in relation to the surrounding world.
So you have to understand that no serious demands should be made on the ether body up to the seventh year and none on the astral body up to the 14th year. If one were to expose a child's ether body to the brutal world, it would be just like putting him out into the outside world in the fifth month of his embryonic life, though it would not show itself with the same vehemence. The same applies to exposing the astral body to the outside world before the 14th year. This is something you must understand. Up to the 7th year, only the physical body has been born to the point where the surrounding world may fully influence it. The ether body has so much to do with itself up to the 7th year that we would damage it if we were to influence it from outside in any particular way. Up to this point, therefore, we should only influence the physical body. The education of the ether body may be taken in hand from the 7th to the 14th year, and it is only permissible to influence the astral body from outside in education from the 15th year onwards.
To influence the human physical body is to let the child gain external impressions. These will develop the physical body. Anything in this direction that has not been done by the 7th year can hardly be made up for later on. Up to the 7th year the physical body is at a stage where external sensory impressions should be brought to it to develop it. If the child's eyes see only beautiful things up to the 7th year, they develop in a such way that they will have a feeling for beauty for the rest of that life. Later on it will not be possible to develop a sense of beauty in the same way. The things you say to a child or the things you do are much less important in the first 7-year period than the kind of environment you create for the child and everything the child sees and hears. During that time, inner powers of growth need to be helped and supported by external impressions. The child's creative spirit will make a piece of wood, with a few dots and lines to mark eyes, nose and mouth, into a human figure. A doll that is as beautifully made as possible and given to the child will tie the child down; the inner powers of the spirit are then fixed on to something that is already laid down and not encouraged to be active themselves. As a result, the creative powers of imagination will be almost completely lacking in later life.
This is very much how it is with all impressions gained in the sense-perceptible world. What matters is what you yourself are in the child's world, anything children see and hear directly. They will be good people if they see good people around them. They imitate the things they perceive around them. It is this power of imitation, the influence of examples, that we must value most highly. The right approach will therefore be to do as many things as possible which your child can imitate. This, then, is where the emphasis should lie as we take care of the physical body in the 1st to 7th years. It is not yet possible to influence the higher bodies by deliberate educational measures at this age; during this time, when they are still very much caught up in themselves, you influence them by what you are. A wise person will bring wise thinking to effect in the child's mind just because he or she has that wisdom. Apart from this, anyone bringing up and educating a child should seek to be as complete as possible in themselves when with the child, to think good, noble thoughts, just as a healthy maternal body has a healthy influence on the child's body.
The time when you can influence the ether body by means of educational measures begins with the 7th year. Two things have to be considered—habits and memory, both connected with the ether body's development. A person shapes his ether body by his habits and by taking things up into memory. We should therefore try to give the growing young person a solid foundation in life that is based on good habits. Someone who does something different every day and does not have a secure foundation for his actions will lack character later in life. To develop a basic set of habits is therefore something to be done in the time from the 7th to the 14th year. And we must also influence the memory at this time. What is needed, therefore, is to give the child sound habits and a treasury of knowledge that has been memorized. It really is one of the errors of our materialistic age to think that children should be made to form their own opinions as early as possible. Quite the contrary, we should do everything possible to shield children from this. This is a time when children should still learn things that are given with authority. The people around a child should not merely influence him by example in his second 7-year period, but by direct instruction. Great powers of memory do not always develop with ‘why’ and ‘wherefore’ but by basing everything on authority. Children must therefore have people around them on whom they can depend, whom they can trust, and who make them feel they can believe in their authority.
The young person should only be guided towards independent insight and judgement after this period. If you take away authority too soon you deprive the ether body of its opportunity to develop thoroughly. It is therefore best not to offer proof and opinions to children in their second 7-year period, but examples and parables. Opinions act only on the astral body, and this is not yet free to accept them. We should tell the child as much as possible about great people. The effect of considering such historical figures should be that the child seeks to emulate them. The question as to death and birth is also much better answered by means of examples. You might show the child a caterpillar, for example, how it makes its cocoon and how finally the butterfly emerges from the pupa. This is a truly beautiful example of how a child develops from its mother. Much can be achieved by taking examples from the natural world itself.
It is equally important to teach the child not moral principles but moral parables. This is very evident in some of the sayings of Pythagoras. Instead of reciting: ‘In your undertakings, you should not concern yourself with things which you can see right away are bound to fail,’ he said pithily: 'Don't smite the fire with your sword!' This is a particularly good example. And to teach that one should not get mixed up in anything for which one is not yet sufficiently mature he said: 'Refrain from beans!' Apart from the purely physical there was also a moral aspect to this. Black and white beans would be distributed when decisions had to be made in ancient Greece, and a count would be made of how many white and how many black beans had been returned. Elections were also done in this way. And so instead of saying: 'You're not yet mature enough to get involved in public affairs,' Pythagoras simply said: 'Refrain from beans!'
This addresses the creative powers of imagination and not the powers of the intellect.Fld GA The more you use images the greater the influence on the child. Goethe's mother could not have done anything better than to tell her son beautiful moral tales.28See Goethe's Dichtung and Wahrheit (truth and fiction), Book 10, last but one paragraph. She never preached at him. Sometimes she did not manage to finish a tale and he would then invent his own ending.
It is particularly bad if developing young people are urged to be critical before they reach their 14th year, to act according to their own opinions, so that they lose the beneficial powers of authority around them. It is extremely bad if there is no one to look up to. The ether body will wither, growing weak and sick, if it cannot hold on to great examples as it develops. And it is also particularly bad if they develop their own creed and want to have opinions about the world before they are ready for this. They will only be ready if their astral bodies can develop in freedom. The more we are able to protect them from forming opinions and taking a critical view too early, the better will it be for them. A teacher will be wise therefore to try to let reality show itself in the events themselves before the astral body has come free, and not invite young people to assume a fixed creed, though this is done over and over again in materialistic education. The chaos among the religious confessions would soon vanish if this principle were followed. Powers of judgement and logical thinking should be developed as late as possible and only when a feeling for individual nature arises as the astral body comes free. Before that human beings should not plump for anything individual; the object of their faith should be something given. But in the years that follow individual nature comes most powerfully to expression in the relationship between the sexes, when one individual feels drawn to another.
So you see, if we make a proper study of the three bodies of man we will indeed have a thoroughly practical basis for the proper education aid development of the human being. The science of the spirit is therefore not impractical, it is not something up in the clouds, but something that gives us the best possible directions on how to take action in life.
There is urgent need today to go more deeply into the science of the spirit, for otherwise humanity will come to a dead end. People are critical about earlier times today, saying children were not called on early enough to make their decisions on God and the world. But that was really quite a healthy instinct, and today we must return to this more and more deliberately. The instinctive insights of the past have gone, and with them a degree of certainty about individual things in life. It would be wrong, however, to ruin the human race all at once. If people had been utterly radical in following materialistic principles in education, in medicine, law and so on, our human order would have broken up long ago. But it was not possible to destroy it all; part of the past has remained. Materialism would take humanity into a dead end, and this is why we need the science of the spirit.
Teachers who really still have a feeling for a child's soul simply feel stifled by the standardization in the education system and by regulations that are a caricature of what they should actually be, based on the superstition that we are only dealing with the physical body. Even religious faith does not protect us from this. What matters is that people get a feeling for the spiritual, which really goes beyond the sphere of the senses. This is also why people who stick to external formulas for their principles of education will not find the right way. They cling to traditional church dogma and do not want to know about the evolution of the spirit. This is mainly what we have to deal with. The things we need today must come from spiritual worlds. For anything materialism has produced is fit only to make people sick in their physical and higher bodies. A serious crisis will be inevitable unless humanity goes deeper. Many things point very clearly to the important decisions now being made among humanity. You have to look at the inner aspects; external forms will not do.
People's longing for and interest in the spirit cannot be killed. Spiritualism has been found to be an answer by some of the people who harbour such longings. There the aim is to demonstrate the reality of the spirit in a material way. And it is remarkable to see the attitude of the Roman Catholic Church which, after all, ought to be wholly given to the spirit, with every external action a reflection of something that exists in the spirit. But it is strange to note what happened just recently, which is that someone in the Church has been looking for external proof of the spiritual. A book by Lapponi, personal physician to the Pope, has appeared in which he is making a downright plea for spiritualism.29Prof. Lapponi, personal physician to Popes Pius X and Leo XIII. Book on hypnotism and spiritualism, German edition published in 1906. It should be noted that the lecture was taken down imperfectly, and that the German edition of the work was not available to Rudolf Steiner at the time it was given. It was not published until the end of the year. This is strange because the people for whom the book has been written clearly are no longer spiritually minded; they need tangible proof that there is a world of the spirit. It certainly is something to reflect on when the Pope's personal physician makes a plea for spiritualism. The longing for the world of the spirit is there, but no feeling for the teaching given about that world in their own sphere.
Materialism thus creeps into religious confessions which basically should not be the least bit materialistic. And you can see the importance of a movement that appeals to man's true insight into the spirit, a movement that is not ascetic, however, and removed from everyday life, but at every moment truly helps you really to understand the practical significance of this spiritual element.
Now we also should not ask: ‘How can I quickly develop all kinds of occult powers?’ or: ‘How can I spin a cocoon around myself so that I won't be touched by reality?’ People who ask such questions are egoists and nothing but spiritual gourmets. If they only want to enjoy the things that please them, they are simply doing, at a slightly more refined level, what someone who is a gourmet does even when it comes to his breakfast.
A true theosophist seeks to understand life and to serve it. Parents take a theosophical approach when they consider it to be their task to help the child's development at every step. Don't ask: ‘How can we do that in this day and age?’ It is important to know that what matters is to keep firmly in mind that the soul is eternal. People are prepared to believe in an eternal life into which they enter after their death—immediately, if possible. But when someone is really and truly convinced of the soul's eternal nature, the time from his 2nd to his 80th year is simply a span of 78 years to him, and what is that compared to eternity? You then believe in the eternal nature of existence, and this is also something you must feel and which calls for patience. We must get in the habit of working to serve the whole of humanity, and it does not really matter at all if we can put anything we learn to immediate use or not. We must above all seek to put it into practice again and again, and everyone is bound to find some small area or other where he can do so. But nothing will ever happen if people merely go about criticizing everything. It is better to do just a very, very little, without complaining that we cannot apply the things we have learnt, than to do nothing at all. This should be the law governing our practice.
Life changes of its own accord when we work with the science of the spirit in this way, and you are changing the world without actually noticing it when you become a theosophist. The main thing, and the wisest thing we can do, is first of all to grasp the essence of spiritual science and then to live by it as intensely as we are able. In that way we make it part of life; the rest will follow of its own accord. Mothers and teachers who are theosophists will do things differently without even noticing it compared to someone who has no idea. If you know the configuration of the human being, you will quite instinctively observe the different kinds of development in a young person. Above all genuine, deeper understanding of theosophy will put an end to the kind of hypocrisy where the grown-ups waste their time on all kinds of trivia and then enter the nursery with deadly serious intentions. This happens because people have no faith in the spirit.
We have seen once again that the science of the spirit offers a practical approach to life and that it is senseless prejudice for opponents to say that it is remote from life. In reality it takes us right into life. Today, solid middle-class citizens feel rather special at being able to talk about theosophy. A time will come, however, when people will see this differently. They will realize where keen interest in life really lies. A time will come when people will say: ‘People were completely reactionary when they clung to a stream in time that held no potential for the future, not wanting to know about the great practice in life that offered humanity the prospect of new insights in the spirit, insights of the kind given to us in the theosophical view of the world, insights that will grow firm in us and of increasingly greater practical value because the theosophical way of thinking has been kindled and has come alive in us.’
Erziehungspraxis auf der Grundlage Spiritueller Erkenntnis
Öfter schon habe ich hier die Gelegenheit ergriffen, das Vorurteil zurückzuweisen, als ob die theosophische Weltanschauung der Praxis des Lebens völlig fern stehe. Wir haben im Gegenteil oft Veranlassung gehabt, darauf hinzuweisen, wie die Theosophie in das praktische Leben tief hineinführen soll, weil sie die Gesetze dessen kennen lehrt, was fortwährend das Leben um uns gestaltet. Wer nur das kennt, was die Gesetze des äußeren Lebens sind, dem ist nur ein kleiner Teil des Lebens bekannt. Der weitaus größte Teil gehört nämlich zu den verborgenen Dingen des Lebens, verborgen für die äußeren Sinne. Nun wird gewiß in nicht gar zu ferner Zukunft die Menschheit immer mehr einsehen, daß man die verborgenen Welten studieren muß, um mit dem Leben zurechtzukommen, denn die materialistische Gesinnung würde zu einer Krisis auf allen Gebieten führen, vor allem auf gesundheitlichem Gebiet wie auch im Erziehungssystem, wo sich die Frage erhebt: Wie sollen die Menschen die zukünftige Generation heranbilden? — Und nicht zuletzt in allen gesellschaftlichen, politischen und Kulturfragen würde der Materialismus eine Krisis herbeiführen: Das Leben würde sich so gestalten, daß man eines Tages nicht mehr wissen würde, wie man sich noch helfen soll. Zur Erläuterung dessen, was ich meine, möchte ich einiges über Erziehungsfragen sagen, die wenigstens jeden interessieren müssen.
Wer sich vom materialistischen Standpunkt mit der Erziehungsfrage befaßt, wird sehr leicht zu den allerverkehrtesten Maßregeln kommen. Denn er wird nie bedenken, wie streng gesetzmäßig das ganze Leben verläuft, und er berücksichtigt daher nicht, daß es ins Leben tief eingreifende Zeitabschnitte gibt. Man kann sich einfach nicht denken, warum zum Beispiel die Epoche der Kindheit, die mit dem sechsten bis achten Jahre abläuft, sich so grundwesentlich unterscheidet von der des Mädchen- und Knabenalters, also der Zeit vom siebenten oder achten Jahre ungefähr bis zur Geschlechtsreife. Wer aber keine Ahnung hat, was in dieser Zeit mit dem Menschen geschieht, kann sich auch nicht vorstellen, wie wichtig es ist, diese Zeitabschnitte genau zu beobachten. Es ist nicht gleichgültig, ob man weiß, was der Mensch in diesen drei Epochen ist: in der ersten, die bis zum sechsten bis achten Jahre geht, in der zweiten, die bis zum vierzehnten oder fünfzehnten Jahre reicht, und dann wieder in der folgenden Zeit, die nächsten sieben bis acht Jahre hindurch. Das sind drei Altersstufen im Leben des Menschen, die ganz genau studiert werden müssen, nicht nur im äußeren Sinne, sondern vom Standpunkt des Okkultismus aus, der sich mit den für die äußeren Sinne verborgenen Welten befaßt. — Sie wissen, daß der Mensch nicht nur aus diesem physischen Leibe besteht, sondern aus dem physischen Leibe, dem Ätherleibe, der dem physischen zugrunde liegt und ihm ähnlich gestaltet ist, und dann dem Astralleib, der sich für den Hellseher als eine Wolke ausnimmt, in der die beiden erstgenannten Körper eingebettet sind. In diesen eingehüllt haben wir den Ich-Träger. Diese drei Körper wollen wir einmal beim werdenden Menschen betrachten.
Wenn Sie sich eine richtige Vorstellung davon bilden wollen, so müssen Sie sich klarmachen, daß vor den Zeitabschnitten, in denen der Mensch äußerlich gesehen werden kann, noch der Zeitabschnitt vor der Geburt liegt, wo der Mensch im Leibe der Mutter lebt. Sie müssen rein physisch unterscheiden zwischen dem Leben vor der Geburt und den folgenden Zeiträumen und sich klarmachen, daß der Mensch nicht leben könnte, wenn er zu früh geboren würde, zu früh in die äußere sichtbare Welt treten würde. Er könnte in der äußeren Welt nicht leben, weil seine Sinnesorgane, mit denen er mit der äußeren Welt in Verkehr tritt, noch nicht genügend ausgebildet sind. Während der Mensch bis zu seiner Geburt vom Mutterleib umschlossen ist, werden seine Organe — Augen, Ohren, und alles was er braucht, um in der physischen Welt zu leben - ausgebildet. Bevor seine Organe innerhalb der schützenden Hülle eines anderen physischen Körpers genügend vorbereitet sind, kann der Mensch nicht mit der physischen Welt in Berührung treten. Die Geburt ist der Zeitpunkt, in welchem der Mensch soweit reif ist, daß er ohne eine schützende Hülle mit der Umwelt in Berührung treten kann. Dasselbe ist dann aber noch lange nicht mit dem Ätherleib und Astralleib der Fall. Sie sind noch nicht so weit, daß sie ebenfalls mit der Umwelt in unmittelbare Berührung treten können. Ein ganz ähnlicher Prozeß, wie er vor der Geburt des Menschen mit dem physischen Leibe vor sich geht, geht mit dem Ätherleib in dem Zeitraum von der Geburt bis ungefähr zum siebenten Jahre vor sich. Erst dann, kann man sagen, wird der Ätherleib geboren. Und erst mit dem vierzehnten bis fünfzehnten Jahre wird der Astralleib geboren, der alsdann eine freie, selbständige Tätigkeit gegenüber der Umwelt entfalten kann.
Sie müssen sich also klar darüber sein, daß bis zum siebenten Jahre an den Ätherleib, und bis zum vierzehnten Jahre an den Astralleib keine besonderen Anforderungen gestellt werden dürfen. Wenn man den Ätherleib eines Kindes der brutalen Umwelt aussetzen würde, so wäre das gerade so, als ob man ein Kind im fünften Monat des Embryonalzustandes der Außenwelt übergeben würde, obwohl es nicht mit der gleichen Vehemenz zutage treten würde. Entsprechendes gilt für den Fall, daß Sie vor dem vierzehnten Jahre den Astralleib der Umwelt aussetzen. Darüber müssen Sie sich klar sein: Bis zum siebenten Jahre ist erst der physische Körper so weit geboren, daß die Umwelt einen vollen Einfluß auf ihn ausüben darf. Der Ätherkörper ist bis zum siebenten Jahre so sehr mit sich selbst beschäftigt, daß man ihn schädigen würde, wenn man auf ihn besonders einwirken würde. Bis zu diesem Zeitpunkt sollte also nur auf den physischen Leib eingewirkt werden. Vom siebenten bis zum vierzehnten Jahre darf die Erziehung des Ätherleibes in die Hand genommen werden, und erst vom fünfzehnten Jahre ab kann man auf den Astralleib von außen durch die Erziehung wirken.
Auf den physischen Leib des Menschen einwirken, heißt, dem Kinde äußere Eindrücke zu vermitteln. Durch die äußeren Eindrücke wird der physische Leib herangebildet. Daher ist auch das, was bis zum siebenten Jahre versäumt worden ist, später kaum noch nachzuholen. Bis zum siebenten Jahre ist der physische Leib in einem solchen Stadium begriffen, daß er durch äußere sinnliche Eindrücke herangebildet werden sollte. Wenn das Auge des Kindes bis zum siebenten Jahre nur Schönes sieht, bildet es sich so heran, daß es das ganze Leben hindurch ein Empfinden für das Schöne behält. Später kann der Schönheitssinn nicht mehr auf die gleiche Weise entwickelt werden. Was Sie dem Kinde im ersten Jahrsiebent sagen oder was Sie tun, ist viel weniger wichtig, als die Art, wie man seine Umgebung gestaltet und was das Kind sieht und hört. Die inneren Wachstumskräfte müssen bis dahin durch die äußeren Eindrücke herangefördert werden. Der frei gestaltende Geist des Kindes formt aus einem Stück Holz, das ein paar Punkte und Striche für Augen, Nase und Mund hat, eine menschliche Figur. Wenn das Kind aber eine möglichst schön geformte Puppe bekommt, so hat es etwas, woran es gebunden ist; daher haftet dann die innere Geisteskraft an dem, was schon da ist und wird nicht zur eigenen Tätigkeit herausgefordert - sie ist gebunden -, und damit geht die gestaltende Phantasiekraft für das spätere Leben überhaupt fast verloren.
So ist es weitgehend mit allen Eindrücken der Sinneswelt. Was Sie selbst in der Umgebung des Kindes sind, was das Kind unmittelbar sieht oder hört, darauf kommt es an. Es wird ein guter Mensch, wenn es um sich gute Menschen sieht. Es ahmt die Dinge, die es um sich herum wahrnimmt, nach. Gerade auf die Nachahmungskraft, auf die Wirkung des Beispiels muß man den allergrößten Wert legen. Daher wird das richtige sein: möglichst viel vormachen, damit das Kind möglichst viel nachmachen kann. In diesem Sinne muß also auf die Pflege des physischen Leibes in der Zeit vom ersten bis siebenten Jahre der Hauptwert gelegt werden. Auf die höheren Leiber kann man in diesem Alter noch nicht durch Erziehungsmaßnahmen wirken, überhaupt nicht durch bewußte Erziehung; sondern auf diese Leiber wirken Sie, solange sie noch ganz mit sich selbst beschäftigt sind, durch das, was Sie eben sind. Ein kluger Mensch wird durch seine Klugheit in dem Kinde selbst die Klugheit zum Wirken bringen. Im übrigen hat sich der Erzieher zu bemühen, in der Umgebung eines Kindes ein möglichst geschlossener Mensch zu sein, möglichst hohe und gute Gedanken zu haben — wie ein gesunder Leib der Mutter gesund auf den Körper des Kindes wirkt.
Mit dem siebenten Jahre beginnt die Zeit, wo Sie den Ätherleib durch vorsätzliche Maßnahmen erziehen können. Dabei kommen zwei Dinge in Betracht: Gewohnheiten und Gedächtnis, die mit der Entwickelung des Ätherleibes zusammenhängen. Je nachdem der Mensch diese oder jene Gewohnheiten hat oder das eine oder andere in sein Gedächtnis aufnimmt, bildet er seinen Ätherleib. Daher soll man versuchen, dem heranwachsenden Menschen eine feste Lebensgrundlage zu geben, die in guten Gewohnheiten wurzelt. Wer jeden Tag etwas anderes tut, nicht eine sichere Basis für seine Handlungen hat, der wird ein charakterloser Mensch werden. Einen Grundstock von Gewohnheiten herauszubilden, ist daher der Zeit vom siebenten bis vierzehnten Jahre vorbehalten. Auch auf das Gedächtnis muß in dieser Zeit eingewirkt werden. Es ist also erforderlich, daß das Kind gediegene Gewohnheiten und einen Schatz von gedächtnismäßigem Wissen erhält. Tatsächlich ist es nur ein Fehler der materialistischen Zeit, zu glauben, daß das Kind möglichst früh zu eigenem Urteil angehalten werden müsse. Man sollte im Gegenteil alles tun, um das Kind davor zu schützen. In dieser Zeit soll sich das Kind die Dinge noch auf Autorität hin aneignen. Die Menschen, die um ein Kind herum sind, sollen in dessen zweitem Jahrsiebent nicht lediglich durch Beispiel, sondern direkt durch die Unterweisung auf das Kind einwirken. Nicht immer mit dem «warum» und « weil», sondern dadurch, daß alles auf Autorität gebaut ist, werden starke Gedächtnisschätze ausgebildet. Daher muß das Kind von Menschen umgeben sein, auf die es bauen kann, zu denen es Vertrauen hat und die in dem Kinde den guten Glauben an die eigene Autorität wachrufen. Erst nach diesem Lebensabschnitt soll das Kind zur Urteilskraft und zur selbständigen Erkenntnis geführt werden. Durch das vorzeitige Freimachen von der Autorität nehmen Sie dem Ätherleib die Möglichkeit zu gründlicher Ausbildung. Daher ist es am besten, wenn man dem Kind im zweiten Jahrsiebent nicht Beweise und Urteile, sondern Beispiele und Gleichnisse vermittelt. Urteile wirken nur auf den Astralleib, und dieser ist dafür noch nicht frei. Man sollte dem Kinde möglichst viel von großen Persönlichkeiten erzählen. Die Anschauung solcher historischer Persönlichkeiten soll auf das Kind einfach so wirken, daß es diesen Gestalten nacheifert. Auch die Frage nach dem Tode und der Geburt ist viel besser durch das Beispiel zu beantworten. Wer die Natur heranzuziehen vermag, wird sehen, was er gerade damit bewirken kann. Man führt dem Kind etwa die Raupe vor Augen und zeigt ihm, wie sie sich zur Puppe einspinnt und wie sich aus dieser Puppe schließlich der Schmetterling entfaltet — das ist ein wunderschönes Beispiel für die Entstehung des Kindes aus der Mutter heraus. So kann viel erreicht werden, wenn der Natur selbst Vergleiche entlehnt werden.
Ebenso wichtig ist es, dem Kinde nicht sittliche Grundsätze, sondern sittliche Gleichnisse einzuschärfen. Deutlich zeigen das einige Aussprüche des Pythagoras. Statt zu deklamieren: Du sollst, wenn du irgend etwas unternehmen willst, dich nicht mit Dingen befassen, deren Erfolglosigkeit du von vornherein absehen kannst! — sagte Pythagoras kurz und bündig: Schlage nicht mit dem Schwert ins Feuer! — Das ist ein besonders gutes Beispiel dafür. Und für die Unterweisung: Du sollst dich nicht in das hineinmischen, wofür du noch nicht reif bist! — wandte er den Satz an: Enthalte dich der Bohnen! — Das hatte neben der rein physischen auch eine moralische Anwendung. Wenn man im alten Griechenland über irgend etwas entscheiden wollte, verteilte man schwarze und weiße Bohnen und zählte dann ab, wieviel Bohnen von der einen und der anderen Farbe abgegeben wurden. Auf diese Weise wurden auch Wahlen vorgenommen. In diesem Sinne sagte Pythagoras statt: Ihr seid noch nicht reif, euch in öffentliche Angelegenheiten zu mischen! — einfach: Enthaltet euch der Bohnen!
An die bildende Kraft der Phantasie wird auf diese Weise appelliert, und nicht an die Kraft des Verstandes. Je mehr Sie sich des Bildlichen bedienen, desto mehr wirken Sie auf das Kind. Nichts Schöneres konnte daher die Mutter Goethes tun, als ihrem Sohne schöne moralische Erzählungen zu erzählen. Niemals hielt sie ihm Moralpredigten. Manchmal wurde sie mit ihrer Erzählung nicht fertig; dann dichtete er sich selbst das Ende dazu.
Besonders nachteilig ist es für den werdenden Menschen, wenn er vor dem vierzehnten Jahre dazu gedrängt wird zu kritisieren, auf das eigene Urteil zu bauen, wenn er die wohltätige Macht der um ihn herum weilenden Autoritäten verliert. Es ist sehr schlimm für ihn, wenn keine Persönlichkeiten da sind, zu denen er aufblicken kann. Der Ätherleib verkümmert, wird schwach und siech, wenn er sich nicht an großen Beispielen heraufranken kann. Und dann wirkt es ganz besonders schlimm, wenn er sich vor der Zeit ein eigenes Glaubensbekenntnis aneignet und über die Welt urteilen will. Dazu ist er erst reif, wenn sich sein Astralkörper frei entfaltet. Je mehr man ihn davor behüten kann, vorzeitig zu urteilen und zu kritisieren, desto besser ist es für ihn. Der Erzieher handelt daher klug, wenn er versucht, vor dem Freiwerden des Astralleibes die Wirklichkeit an den Geschehnissen selbst begreiflich zu machen, und den jungen Menschen nicht zu einem festgelegten Bekenntnis auffordert, wie dies durch die materialistische Bildung immer mehr geschieht. Das Chaos unter den Glaubensbekenntnissen würde schnell verschwinden, wenn dies innegehalten würde. Die Urteilskraft, der Verstand sollen möglichst spät herangezogen werden, erst dann, wenn der Sinn für das Individuelle erwacht, mit dem Herauskommen des Astralleibes. Vorher soll sich der Mensch nicht für das Individuelle entscheiden; da soll es eine Gegebenheit sein, an wen er glaubt. Aber in den Jahren, die jetzt kommen, findet das Individuelle seinen stärksten Ausdruck in der Beziehung der beiden Geschlechter zueinander, wenn das eine Individuum zu dem anderen sich hingezogen fühlt.
So sehen Sie: wenn man die drei Leiber des Menschen richtig studiert, bekommt man in der Tat die allerpraktischste Grundlage für eine richtige Erziehung und Entwickelung des Menschen. Die Geisteswissenschaft ist also nichts Unpraktisches, nichts in den Wolken Schwebendes, sondern etwas, das uns die beste Anleitung gibt, ins Leben einzugreifen.
Das ist es gerade, was die heutige geisteswissenschaftliche Vertiefung so notwendig macht, weil die Menschen sonst in eine Sackgasse geraten würden. Man tadelt heute die früheren Zeiten, weil die Kinder nicht frühzeitig aufgerufen wurden, um über Gott und die Welt zu entscheiden. Das war aber nur ein ganz gesunder Instinkt. Heute muß man das wieder mehr und mehr bewußt erreichen. Das instinktive Erkennen von früher ist verschwunden, damit aber auch eine gewisse Sicherheit für einzelne Dinge des Lebens. Nun darf das Menschengeschlecht jedoch nicht plötzlich zugrunde gerichtet werden|?]. Wenn man auf dem Erziehungsgebiet, in der Medizin, Rechtswissenschaft und so weiter radikal den Grundsätzen des Materialismus gefolgt wäre, dann würde unsere menschliche Ordnung wohl schon längst in die Brüche gegangen sein. Man konnte aber nicht alles zerstören: ein Teil von früher ist geblieben [?]. Weil der Materialismus die Menschen notwendig in eine Sackgasse hineinführen würde, darum ist die geisteswissenschaftliche Bewegung notwendig.
Lehrer, die wirklich noch eine Empfindung für die Kindesseele haben, ersticken einfach unter dem Schulschematismus und den Vorschriften, die eine Karikatur dessen sind, was in Wirklichkeit da sein sollte, und die herausgeboren sind aus dem Aberglauben, daß man es nur mit dem physischen Leibe zu tun hätte. Davor schützt auch nicht religiöse Gläubigkeit. Es kommt vielmehr darauf an, daß die Menschen für das Spirituelle einen Sinn bekommen, für das, was über das Sinnenleben wirklich hinausgeht. Deshalb werden auch nicht die Leute das Richtige finden können, die sich in bezug auf die Erziehungsgrundsätze an äußere Formeln halten. Sie klammern sich an das traditionelle kirchliche Dogma, wollen aber nichts von der Entwickelung des Geistes wissen. Damit haben wir es vor allem zu tun. Was heute not tut, das muß aus spirituellen Welten kommen. Denn was der Materialismus gezeitigt hat, ist nur geeignet, die Menschen am physischen Leibe und den höheren Leibern krank zu machen. Eine schwere Krisis wäre unausbleiblich, wenn nicht eine geistige Vertiefung der Menschheit Platz greifen würde. Es gibt manches, das wie mit Fingern auf die wichtigen Entscheidungen, die sich heute innerhalb unserer Menschheit vollziehen, hindeutet. Man muß die Dinge innerlich betrachten, äußere Formen machen es nicht aus. Die Sehnsucht und das Hinneigen nach dem Geiste läßt sich bei den Menschen nicht töten. Einem Teil der Menschen, die eine solche Sehnsucht haben, kam der Spiritismus entgegen. Da will man den Geist auf eine materielle Art beweisen. Bemerkenswert ist nun, wie sich die katholische Kirche dazu verhält, die es doch eigentlich nur mit Spirituellem zu tun haben sollte: eine jede äußere Handlung ist hier die Abspiegelung von etwas Spirituellem. Aber es ist merkwürdig, was sich gerade jetzt zugetragen hat: daß nämlich in kirchlichen Kreisen jemand nach einem äußeren Beweis für das Geistige sucht. Jetzt ist ein Buch von Lapponi, dem Leibarzt des Papstes erschienen, der darin geradezu für den Spiritismus eintritt. Das ist deshalb so sonderbar, weil die Menschen, an die sich diese Publikation wendet, offensichtlich gar nicht mehr spirituell gesinnt sind; sie brauchen einen handgreiflichen Beweis für das Vorhandensein einer geistigen Welt. Es ist schon des Nachdenkens wert, wenn der Leibarzt des Papstes für den Spiritismus eintritt. Da ist die Sehnsucht nach der geistigen Welt vorhanden, aber kein Verständnis für die eigene Lehre von der geistigen Welt.
So schleicht sich der Materialismus in die Religionen hinein, die im Grunde ganz und gar nicht materialistisch sein sollten. Daher können Sie sehen, wie bedeutsam eine Bewegung ist, die an die wirkliche Erkenntnis des Geistes im Menschen appelliert, die dem Leben indessen nicht asketisch und fremd gegenübersteht, sondern jeden Augenblick die praktische Bedeutung dieses Geistigen erst recht begreiflich macht.
Aber nun sollen wir auch nicht fragen: Wie kann ich in mir schnell alle möglichen okkulten Kräfte ausbilden? - oder: Wie kann ich mich einspinnen, um nur mit der Wirklichkeit nicht in Berührung zu kommen? — Wer so fragt, ist ein Egoist und nichts anderes als ein geistiger Feinschmecker. Wenn man alles nur genießen will, was einem geistig gefällt, so verhält man sich nur etwas raffinierter als ein anderer, der mit dem Feinschmecken beim Frühstück anfängt. Wem der leibliche Geschmack verdorben ist, der kommt manchmal zu den raffiniertesten geistigen Gerichten. Der ist im richtigen Sinne Theosoph, der sich bemüht, das Leben zu begreifen und dem Leben zu dienen, und die Eltern sind theosophisch gesinnt, die ihre Aufgabe darin sehen, das Kind bei jedem Schritt, den es tut, in seiner Entwickelung zu fördern. Sagen Sie nicht: Wie können wir das in unserer Zeit? - Da muß man wiederum wissen: Es kommt darauf an, bewußt festzuhalten, daß die Seele das Ewige ist. Der Mensch ist bereit, an ein ewiges Leben zu glauben, in das er nach seinem Tode möglichst sofort eingehen möchte. Wer aber wirklich davon überzeugt ist, daß die Seele ein Ewiges ist, für den bedeutet die Zeit vom zweiten bis achtzigsten Jahre nur einen Unterschied von achtundsiebzig Jahren, und was ist das gegen die Ewigkeit? Dann glaubt man an die Ewigkeit des Daseins, und das muß man auch fühlen und Geduld haben, Wir müssen uns angewöhnen, im Dienst der ganzen Menschheit zu wirken. Es kommt daher gar nicht darauf an, ob wir das, was wir uns aneignen, wirklich gleich anwenden können; sondern vor allem müssen wir immer danach streben, es anzuwenden, und irgendein kleines Feld dafür findet schließlich jeder. Wenn aber jeder nur herumkritisiert, so wird niemals etwas zustande kommen. Besser ist es, ein ganz klein wenig zu tun und uns nicht zu beklagen, daß wir das Gelernte nicht anwenden können, anstatt überhaupt nichts zu tun. Das ist das, was wir uns als praktisches Gesetz in die Seele schreiben sollten. Unser Leben wird ganz von selbst anders, wenn wir uns so in die Geisteswissenschaft hineinarbeiten, und ohne daß der Mensch etwas merkt, gestaltet er die Welt um, wenn er Theosoph wird. Die Hauptsache und das Klügste, was wir tun können, ist, die Geisteswissenschaft erst einmal in ihrem Wesenskern erfassen und dann möglichst intensiv danach zu leben. Dann führen wir sie ins Leben ein; das andere wird sich schon von selbst gestalten. Eine Mutter, ein Lehrer, die Theosophen sind, werden ganz von selbst anders handeln, als ein Mensch, der davon keine Ahnung hat. Wer da weiß, was für ein Gebilde der Mensch ist, der wird auch ganz instinktiv das verschiedenartige Werden beim sich entwickelnden Menschen beobachten. Vor allem würde durch echte theosophische Vertiefung eine solche Heuchelei aufhören, daß die Großen erst alles mögliche Allotria treiben und dann mit todernsten Grundsätzen in die Kinderstube treten. Das kommt eben daher, daß die Menschen keinen Glauben an den Geist haben.
So haben wir wieder einen Einblick gewonnen, daß Geisteswissenschaft etwas ist, was der Lebenspraxis angehört, und daß es eines der unsinnigsten Vorurteile ist, wenn Gegner sagen, sie bringe vom Leben ab. In Wahrheit führt sie ins Leben hinein. Heute fühlt sich noch jeder, der ein braver Spießbürger ist, erhaben, wenn er über die Theosophie reden kann, aber es wird eine Zeit kommen, in der man anders urteilen wird. Man wird einmal einsehen, wo die wahre Lebensfreudigkeit liegt. Die Zukunft wird kommen, wo man sagen wird: Das waren die großen Reaktionäre, die es mit einer unmöglich in die Zukunft hineinführenden Zeitströmung hielten, die nichts wissen wollten von der großen Praxis des Lebens, welche den Menschen neue Erkenntnisse des Geistes ankündigt, wie sie uns durch die theosophische Weltanschauung gegeben werden, Erkenntnisse, die sich in uns befestigen und immer praktischer werden sollen durch die angefachte und in uns lebendig wirkende theosophische Gesinnung.
Educational Practice Based on Spiritual Knowledge
I have often taken the opportunity here to refute the prejudice that the theosophical worldview is completely removed from practical life. On the contrary, we have often had reason to point out how theosophy should lead us deeply into practical life, because it teaches us the laws of what constantly shapes life around us. Those who know only the laws of outer life are familiar with only a small part of life. The vast majority of life belongs to the hidden things of life, hidden from the outer senses. Now, in the not too distant future, humanity will certainly realize more and more that it is necessary to study the hidden worlds in order to cope with life, because the materialistic attitude would lead to a crisis in all areas, especially in the field of health and in the education system, where the question arises: How should people educate the future generation? — And last but not least, materialism would bring about a crisis in all social, political, and cultural issues: life would develop in such a way that one day we would no longer know how to help ourselves. To explain what I mean, I would like to say a few words about educational issues, which must be of interest to everyone.
Anyone who approaches the question of education from a materialistic point of view will very easily arrive at the most misguided measures. For they will never consider how strictly law-governed the whole of life is, and therefore they will not take into account that there are periods of time that have a profound impact on life. It is simply impossible to imagine why, for example, the period of childhood, which lasts from the age of six to eight, is so fundamentally different from that of adolescence, i.e., the period from around the age of seven or eight to sexual maturity. But if you have no idea what happens to people during this time, you cannot imagine how important it is to observe these periods closely. It is not irrelevant to know what human beings are during these three epochs: the first, which lasts until the age of six to eight; the second, which lasts until the age of fourteen or fifteen; and then again in the following period, which lasts for the next seven to eight years. These are three stages in human life that must be studied very carefully, not only in the outer sense, but also from the point of view of occultism, which deals with worlds hidden from the outer senses. — You know that human beings do not consist only of this physical body, but of the physical body, the etheric body, which underlies the physical body and is similar in form to it, and then the astral body, which appears to the clairvoyant as a cloud in which the first two bodies are embedded. Enveloped in these, we have the bearer of the I. Let us consider these three bodies in relation to the developing human being.
If you want to form a correct idea of this, you must realize that before the periods of time in which the human being can be seen externally, there is still the period before birth, when the human being lives in the mother's body. You must make a purely physical distinction between life before birth and the subsequent periods, and realize that the human being could not live if it were born too early, if it entered the outer visible world too early. It could not live in the outer world because its sense organs, with which it communicates with the outer world, are not yet sufficiently developed. While humans are enclosed in the womb until birth, their organs — eyes, ears, and everything they need to live in the physical world — are developed. Before their organs are sufficiently prepared within the protective shell of another physical body, humans cannot come into contact with the physical world. Birth is the moment when the human being is mature enough to come into contact with the environment without a protective shell. However, the same is far from being the case with the etheric body and astral body. They are not yet ready to come into direct contact with the environment. A process very similar to that which takes place with the physical body before the birth of the human being takes place with the etheric body in the period from birth to about the age of seven. Only then, one might say, is the etheric body born. And only at the age of fourteen to fifteen is the astral body born, which can then develop a free, independent activity in relation to the environment.
You must therefore be aware that no special demands may be made on the etheric body until the age of seven, and on the astral body until the age of fourteen. Exposing a child's etheric body to a brutal environment would be like handing a child over to the outside world in the fifth month of its embryonic state, although it would not manifest itself with the same vehemence. The same applies if you expose the astral body to the environment before the age of fourteen. You must be clear about this: until the age of seven, only the physical body is sufficiently developed for the environment to exert a full influence on it. Until the age of seven, the etheric body is so preoccupied with itself that it would be damaged if it were subjected to any particular influence. Until this point, therefore, only the physical body should be influenced. From the age of seven to fourteen, the education of the etheric body may be taken in hand, and only from the age of fifteen onwards can the astral body be influenced from outside through education.
Influencing the physical body of a human being means imparting external impressions to the child. The physical body is formed through external impressions. Therefore, what has been neglected up to the age of seven can hardly be made up for later. Up to the age of seven, the physical body is at a stage where it should be developed through external sensory impressions. If the child's eye sees only beauty up to the age of seven, it will develop in such a way that it will retain a sense of beauty throughout its life. Later on, the sense of beauty can no longer be developed in the same way. What you say or do to the child in the first seven years is much less important than the way you shape its environment and what the child sees and hears. Until then, the inner forces of growth must be stimulated by external impressions. The child's freely creative spirit forms a human figure from a piece of wood with a few dots and lines for eyes, nose, and mouth. But if the child is given a doll that is as beautifully shaped as possible, it has something to which it is attached; therefore, the inner spiritual power adheres to what is already there and is not challenged to become active on its own – it is bound – and thus the creative power of imagination is almost completely lost for later life.
This is largely the case with all impressions of the sensory world. What you yourself are in the child's environment, what the child immediately sees or hears, is what matters. It will become a good person if it sees good people around it. It imitates the things it perceives around it. It is precisely the power of imitation, the effect of example, that must be given the greatest value. Therefore, the right thing to do is to demonstrate as much as possible so that the child can imitate as much as possible. In this sense, the main emphasis must be placed on caring for the physical body in the period from the first to the seventh year. At this age, it is not yet possible to influence the higher bodies through educational measures, certainly not through conscious education; instead, you influence these bodies, while they are still completely preoccupied with themselves, through what you are. A wise person will, through their wisdom, bring wisdom to bear in the child itself. Furthermore, the educator must strive to be as complete a person as possible in the child's environment, to have the highest and best thoughts possible — just as a healthy mother's body has a healthy effect on the child's body.
At the age of seven, the time begins when you can educate the etheric body through deliberate measures. Two things come into consideration here: habits and memory, which are related to the development of the etheric body. Depending on whether a person has this or that habit or takes this or that into their memory, they form their etheric body. Therefore, one should try to give the growing human being a solid foundation for life, rooted in good habits. Those who do something different every day and do not have a secure basis for their actions will become people of no character. Developing a foundation of habits is therefore reserved for the period from the seventh to the fourteenth year. Memory must also be influenced during this time. It is therefore necessary for the child to acquire sound habits and a wealth of knowledge stored in their memory. In fact, it is a mistake of our materialistic age to believe that children should be encouraged to form their own judgments as early as possible. On the contrary, every effort should be made to protect children from this. During this period, children should still learn things through authority. The people around a child should influence the child in its second seven-year period not only by example, but directly through instruction. Strong memories are formed not always by asking “why” and “because,” but by building everything on authority. Therefore, the child must be surrounded by people on whom it can rely, whom it trusts, and who awaken in the child a firm belief in their own authority. Only after this stage of life should the child be guided toward judgment and independent knowledge. By prematurely freeing the child from authority, you deprive the etheric body of the opportunity for thorough training. It is therefore best to teach children in the second seven-year period not with evidence and judgments, but with examples and parables. Judgments only affect the astral body, and this is not yet ready for them. Children should be told as much as possible about great personalities. The view of such historical figures should simply have the effect on the child that it emulates these figures. The question of death and birth is also much better answered by example. Those who are able to draw on nature will see what they can achieve with it. For example, show the child a caterpillar and how it spins itself into a cocoon and how the butterfly finally emerges from this cocoon — this is a wonderful example of the child's emergence from the mother. Much can be achieved by borrowing comparisons from nature itself.
It is equally important to impress upon the child not moral principles, but moral parables. This is clearly illustrated by some of Pythagoras' sayings. Instead of declaiming: If you want to do anything, you should not concern yourself with things whose failure you can foresee from the outset! — Pythagoras said succinctly: Do not strike the fire with a sword! — This is a particularly good example of this. And for the instruction: “You should not meddle in things for which you are not yet ready!” — he used the phrase: “Refrain from beans!” — This had a moral application in addition to the purely physical one. In ancient Greece, when people wanted to decide something, they distributed black and white beans and then counted how many beans of each color had been given. Elections were also held in this way. In this sense, Pythagoras said, instead of: You are not yet mature enough to interfere in public affairs! — simply: Abstain from beans!
In this way, the creative power of the imagination is appealed to, rather than the power of the intellect. The more you use imagery, the more you influence the child. There was nothing better Goethe's mother could do than tell her son beautiful moral stories. She never preached to him. Sometimes she didn't finish her story; then he made up the ending himself.
It is particularly detrimental for the developing human being if, before the age of fourteen, he is urged to criticize, to rely on his own judgment, if he loses the benevolent power of the authorities around him. It is very bad for him if there are no personalities he can look up to. The etheric body withers, becomes weak and sickly if it cannot climb up to great examples. And then it is particularly bad if they acquire their own creed before their time and want to judge the world. They are only ready for this when their astral body has developed freely. The more one can protect him from premature judgment and criticism, the better it is for him. The educator therefore acts wisely when he tries to make reality understandable through events themselves before the astral body is freed, and does not call on young people to make a fixed confession, as is increasingly the case in materialistic education. The chaos among creeds would quickly disappear if this were taken into account. Judgment and reason should be brought into play as late as possible, only when the sense of individuality awakens with the emergence of the astral body. Before that, the individual should not decide for the individual; it should be a given whom they believe in. But in the years to come, the individual will find its strongest expression in the relationship between the two sexes, when one individual feels attracted to the other.
So you see: if one studies the three bodies of the human being correctly, one indeed obtains the most practical basis for the proper education and development of the human being. Spiritual science is therefore not something impractical, something floating in the clouds, but something that gives us the best guidance for intervening in life.
This is precisely what makes today's spiritual scientific deepening so necessary, because otherwise people would end up in a dead end. People today criticize the past because children were not called upon at an early age to decide about God and the world. But that was only a very healthy instinct. Today, we must achieve this again more and more consciously. The instinctive recognition of the past has disappeared, and with it a certain certainty about individual things in life. But now the human race must not suddenly be destroyed. If the principles of materialism had been followed radically in the fields of education, medicine, law, and so on, our human order would probably have collapsed long ago. But it was not possible to destroy everything: part of the past has remained. Because materialism would inevitably lead people into a dead end, the spiritual science movement is necessary.
Teachers who still have a real feeling for the child's soul are simply suffocated by school schematism and regulations that are a caricature of what should really be there and that have been born out of the superstition that one is only dealing with the physical body. Even religious faith does not protect against this. What is important is that people develop a sense for the spiritual, for that which truly transcends the sensory life. That is why people who adhere to external formulas in their educational principles will not be able to find the right approach. They cling to traditional church dogma, but want nothing to do with the development of the spirit. This is what we are primarily concerned with. What is needed today must come from spiritual worlds. For what materialism has produced is only capable of making people sick in their physical bodies and higher bodies. A serious crisis would be inevitable if a spiritual deepening of humanity did not take hold. There are many things that point to the important decisions that are being made within our humanity today. One must look at things inwardly; outward forms are not what matter. The longing and inclination toward the spirit cannot be killed in human beings. Spiritism appealed to some of the people who have such a longing. It seeks to prove the spirit in a material way. It is remarkable how the Catholic Church, which should really only be concerned with spiritual matters, responds to this: every external action here is a reflection of something spiritual. But it is strange what has happened just now: namely, that someone in church circles is looking for external proof of the spiritual. A book by Lapponi, the Pope's personal physician, has now been published in which he openly advocates spiritualism. This is so strange because the people this publication is aimed at are obviously no longer spiritually minded; they need tangible proof of the existence of a spiritual world. It is worth reflecting on the fact that the Pope's personal physician advocates spiritualism. There is a longing for the spiritual world, but no understanding of one's own teaching about the spiritual world.
Thus materialism creeps into religions that should not be materialistic at all. Therefore, you can see how significant a movement is that appeals to the real knowledge of the spirit in human beings, which, however, does not take an ascetic and alien view of life, but rather makes the practical significance of this spiritual aspect even more comprehensible at every moment.
But now we should not ask: How can I quickly develop all kinds of occult powers within myself? Or: How can I cocoon myself so as not to come into contact with reality? Anyone who asks such questions is an egoist and nothing more than a spiritual gourmet. If you only want to enjoy everything that pleases you spiritually, you are only behaving in a slightly more sophisticated way than someone else who starts gourmet tasting at breakfast. Those whose physical taste is spoiled sometimes come up with the most sophisticated spiritual dishes. A true theosophist is someone who strives to understand life and serve life, and parents who see it as their task to support their child in its development at every step it takes are theosophically minded. Do not say: How can we do that in our time? - Here again, one must know that it is important to consciously hold fast to the fact that the soul is eternal. Human beings are ready to believe in an eternal life into which they would like to enter as soon as possible after their death. But for those who are truly convinced that the soul is eternal, the time from the age of two to eighty is only a difference of seventy-eight years, and what is that compared to eternity? Then one believes in the eternity of existence, and one must also feel this and have patience. We must accustom ourselves to working in the service of all humanity. It therefore does not matter at all whether we can really apply what we learn right away; rather, we must always strive to apply it, and everyone will eventually find some small field in which to do so. But if everyone just criticizes, nothing will ever come of it. It is better to do a little and not complain that we cannot apply what we have learned than to do nothing at all. This is what we should engrave in our souls as a practical law. Our lives will change all by themselves if we work our way into spiritual science in this way, and without even noticing it, people will transform the world when they become theosophists. The main thing and the wisest thing we can do is to first grasp spiritual science in its essence and then live according to it as intensively as possible. Then we introduce it into our lives; the rest will take care of itself. A mother or a teacher who is a theosophist will automatically act differently than someone who has no idea about it. Those who know what a human being is will also instinctively observe the different ways in which human beings develop. Above all, genuine theosophical study would put an end to the hypocrisy of the great and powerful doing all sorts of nonsense and then entering the nursery with deadly serious principles. This is precisely because people have no faith in the spirit.
Thus we have gained further insight into the fact that spiritual science is something that belongs to the practice of life, and that it is one of the most nonsensical prejudices when opponents say that it distracts from life. In truth, it leads into life. Today, every respectable bourgeois still feels superior when they can talk about theosophy, but a time will come when people will judge differently. One day, people will realize where true joy in life lies. The future will come when people will say: These were the great reactionaries who clung to a current of thought that could not possibly lead into the future, who wanted nothing to do with the great practice of life that heralds new insights of the spirit, as given to us through the theosophical worldview, insights that will become firmly established in us and increasingly practical through the kindled and living theosophical attitude within us.