Original Impulses for the Science of the Spirit
GA 96
12 June 1907, Berlin
XX. Three Ways of Being Personal
The Munich Congress,132Concerning this record of the lecture on 12 June 1907, based on poor-quality notes, see Rudolf Steiner's essay 'Der Kongress der Federation europäischer Sektionen der Theosophischen Gesellschaft in München' in Luzifer-Gnosis (GA 34), S. 590 ft". being the fourth after Amsterdam, London and Paris, was intended to mark a certain milestone in our theosophical movement. A kind of connection is to be made between the different nations also for our theosophical cause in Europe. I am not intending to give an actual report on the congress today but just to offer a few comments for those who were unable to be there.133Fourth Congress of the Federation of European Sections of the Theosophical Society, 18-21 May 1907 in Munich. See Steiner R. Rudolf Steiner, an Autobiography (GA 28), ch. 28; . Tr. R. Stebbing. New York: Rudolf Steiner Publications 1977; Occult Seals and Columns. London: Anthroposophical Publishing Co. 1924.
The congress was to show one thing, something I had been emphasizing many times with reference to our theosophical cause—it was to show that theosophy is not meant to be a personal matter of broodingly looking inward. It is meant to play a role in practical life, be concerned with education, come to be at home in all branches of practical life. Those who have deeper insight and understanding of the true impulses of theosophy will know, even today, what opportunities this theosophy will provide in the future. It will be the harmony between things we see [outside] and feel inwardly. Someone able to see into things more deeply will see a major reason for the scattiness [of today's people], disharmony between the situation as it is and the things theosophy aims at. Not only theosophists have felt this, but also other important figures, Richard Wagner, for instance...
In earlier times every door lock, every house, every structure was a structure of the soul. Soul stuff had flowed into it. In the old days a work of art was part of human feeling and thinking. The forms of Gothic churches were in accord with the mood of people who would often walk a long way to those churches. They had the soul mood of the people. The worshipper walking to the church would feel that those forms were like putting one's hands together in prayer, just as the ancient German [entering a grove] would feel [the movements of the trees] to be something like a putting the hands together in prayer. Everything was more familiar to people in those times. You can still see this most beautifully expressed in the works of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. The way a whole small village would come together in the church was a true expression of the inner life in that village. Whole ether streams would gather in the place where the church stood. The materialistic age has split everything apart. People don't realize this, being unable to take a clear look at life. A seer will know, however, that when you walk through a town today you'll see practically nothing but things for our stomachs or the latest fashions. Anyone able to trace the secret threads in life will also know what has brought our materialistic civilization to this split-apart state.
Health can come for the outside world if it becomes a reflection of our inmost moods of soul. We can't achieve complete perfection right away, but an example has been given in Munich. The spiritual scientific view of the world was brought to expression in the auditorium. The whole hall was in red. People are often quite wrong about the colour red, one should not fail to perceive the deeper significance of the colour. Human evolution involves ascending and descending movements. Look at the original peoples. Their natural world is green. And what do they love most? Red! An occultist knows that red has a special effect on a healthy soul. It releases active powers in that soul, powers that encourage one to act, powers that should move the soul from taking it too easy to making an effort, even if this is far from easy. A room intended to have a solemn, festive mood needs to be papered in red. Someone who uses red wall paper in his living room shows that he no longer has a feeling for solemn moods, taking the red colour down to an everyday level. Goethe wrote the most excellent words one can think of about these things: 'The effect of this colour is as unique as its nature. It gives an impression both of solemnity and dignity and of charm and graciousness. It does the former in its dark, dense form, the latter when bright and diluted. And so the dignity of old age and the charm of youth may garb themselves in one and the same colour.'134Zur Farbenlehre, Didaktischer Teil. Sechste Abteilung. Sinnlich-sittliche Wirkung der Farbe, 796.
Those are the moods which red creates, moods we are able to demonstrate using occult methods. Look at the countryside through a red glass and you'll get the impression: That's what it must look like on the day of judgement. Red makes us glad to see how far human beings have developed. Red is hostile to moods that hold us back, moods of sin.
Then we had the seven column motifs for the time when buildings might also be erected for theosophy. The column motifs were taken from the teachings of the initiates, from very early times. In theosophy it will be possible to provide architecture with genuinely new column motifs. The old columns have really long ceased to mean something to people. The new ones relate to Saturn, Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury and Venus. The capitals reflect the laws. Between the columns we had put the seven seals of the Book of Revelation, in Rosicrucian style. The seal of the Grail appeared in public for the first time.
We can also build theosophy. We can build it in architectural forms, in education and in the social field. The Rosicrucian principle is to bring the spirit into the world, to do fruitful work for the soul. And it will also prove possible to elevate art to the mystery art which Richard Wagner longed for so much. An attempt has been made in Edouard Schuré's mystery play.135Das heilige Drama von Eleusis, reconstructed by Edouard Schuré, translated from the French by Marie von Sivers, cast in free rhythms by Rudolf Steiner. The premiere was given on 19 May 1907, at the Munich Congress. He sought to follow the mystery plays of old. The underlying intention was to let theosophy crystallize in the developing structure of the world. The programme was in a solemn and festive red, showing a black cross with roses wound around it against a blue background. Rosicrucianism takes the things given through Christianity forward into the future. The initials given on the programme reflected the underlying thoughts.136E.D.N. -1. C. M. - P. S. S. R. as the initial letters of the Rosicrucian words Ex deo nascimur. In Christo morimur. Per spiritum sanctum reviviscimus.
Today I would like to consider some questions that may come up in relation to this. First of all: How would it be if theosophy were to move across into the Rosicrucian stream and come wholly into its own within this? In this respect let us consider some ideas relating to theosophical ethics or morality. It is not a matter of saying: You must do or not do one thing or another. Theosophy has nothing to do with demands and commandments but with facts and narratives.
Let us take just one example of a fact in the astral world; it will immediately be apparent that there is no need to preach morality—which does not serve any purpose anyway, for admonitions and commandments cannot be the basis of genuine morality which comes only with the facts of higher life. If you hear occultists say that a lie is murder and suicide, this acts as an impulse with such moral power that it simply does not compare with the simple admonition: You must not lie. If we know what a lie is and what the truth is, if we know that everything leaves its mark in the realm of the spirit, the situation changes. A narrative which is in accord with the truth creates vital energies for further development. Untruths that are spoken strike at the truth and this reflects on the individual himself. Every lie that is told will later have to be felt by the teller himself. Lies are the greatest obstacles to further development. It is not for nothing that the devil is called the spirit of lies and obstacles. The explosive substance of a lie kills objectively and discharges itself against the individual who put it out into the world.
We have three terms for the personal: the personal, the impersonal, and the more-than-personal. There were human ancestors once who were higher than any animal but lower than the human being. They consisted of physical body, ether body and astral body. Then the I was added, and this creates the higher parts out of itself, so that essential human nature will be sevenfold.
The evolution of physical body, ether body and astral body continued through long periods of time. They thus made themselves ripe to receive I-awareness into themselves. Today, we'll consider the tendencies of the three lower bodies and the way in which they developed. The human being gradually became more and more able to gain self-awareness. This is only possible with the power of egoism, self-seeking, which may be divine or devilish. We should judge these terms not merely by how we feel about them but according to their true essence. Independence made it necessary for human beings to grow egoistical.
Developing egoism brought with it the form of—apparent—loss of conscious awareness we call death in our present human life. Death developed to the same degree as self-seeking evolved. In the very beginning human beings did not die. They were like a part that dried up and would then grow again, more or less the way a finger nail may drop off and grow again. Our present-day way of dying and being reborn came into existence so that we may have the potential for our present I-awareness. Egoism and death are two sides of the same thing. The higher aspect of human nature is such that it overcomes egoism, works to rise to the level of the divine and thus overcomes death. The more the individual develops the higher part in himself, the more does he develop awareness of his immortality. The moment someone has become egoistical, he has also become an individual person. Animals are not persons and that is because they have their I as a group soul that does not descend from the astral plane. The individual personality lets the three bodies—physical body, ether body and astral body—be shone through by the I. This may of course be in an unclear, shadowy way, and in that case the individual concerned is weak in his personal identity.
This is clearly apparent to a clairvoyant. He sees a colourful aura around the individual which exactly reflects his moods, passions, feelings and sensations in currents and clouds of colour. If we were to go back to the time when the three bodies were only just ready to receive the human I, we would see an aura also for this creature which was not yet wholly human. This would, however, lack the yellow currents that reflect man's higher nature. Powerful personalities have an aura with powerful yellow radiation. Now you may be a powerful personality but not active; you feel things strongly inside but not be a man or woman of action. The aura will also show a lot of yellow. But if you are a woman or man of action, and your personality is actively influencing the world, the yellow will gradually change into a radiant red. An aura showing red radiance is the aura of someone who is active; but it must be radiant.
There is, however, a pitfall for personalities that want to be active. This is ambition, vanity. Strong natures are particularly prone to this. A clairvoyant sees it in their auras. Without ambition the yellow changes directly into red. If the individual is ambitious, the aura will contain a lot of orange. This pitfall must be avoided if the action is to be objective.
Weak personalities are more interested in being given things than in giving themselves and doing something. You will then see mainly blues, and if they are particularly indolent you see indigo. This is more an inner indolence than an outer one.
So you see how a strong or weak personality is reflected in the aura. People should overcome the personal element more and more and let the higher principle be active. This is why you hear such a lot about overcoming personal concerns and egoism. But this brings us to our main point. It is a question of whether we overcome the personal with the impersonal or the more-than-personal.
What does it mean, to overcome oneself with the impersonal? It means to weaken and force back the individual's powerful energies. That would mean being impersonal. More-than-personal would in some respect be the exact opposite of this. It would mean increasing the individual's energies, bringing out the powerful energies which a person has.
We find the I in the soul, and within it first of all the element of courage, but secondly also the soul's desirous and demanding qualities. Basically everything in the inner life goes back to these two things. And things receive different treatment there. This is due to the following. Human beings do not make enough of an effort to be open to higher things. They will develop, but it will be the lower principle which develops, with elements of courage and qualities of desire developing in a crude way. If they were simply to reduce this side of things, we'd have a civilization of the impersonal. Activity, which makes human beings human as they go out to be among others and do whatever they are capable of, will in a way always bring such individuals in collision with others. And they must experience collisions if they feel they are called on to do something.
We can also kill off our desires. This will make the personality colourless, however. Yet there's something else we can do, and that is to ennoble them. We need not reduce their strength. We can direct them towards higher objects. The personality need lose nothing of its strength then, though it will grow more noble and divine. We need not kill off desires, only transform them into finer and more noble desires. They can then come into their own with the same vehemence. An example. Think of a honky-tonk entertainment. Someone who does not go to it need not be an ascetic. He has merely transformed his lower desires into higher ones and so a honky-tonk would simply bore him.
This is an area where theosophy has been most misunderstood by theosophists. There can be no question of killing off the personal element. It needs to be helped to move up to something higher. Everything theosophy is able to give us will be needed for this. It is thus above all a matter of arousing interest in higher things. This does happen. People need not deaden their feelings for this, but direct them towards the higher, divine process of evolution, to the great realities in this world. If we direct our feelings towards these we will lose interest in the brutal side of life, yet our feelings will not be deadened but will grow rich, and the whole of our human nature will catch fire. If someone is fond of some nice roast pork, it is not a matter of getting rid of this feeling for roast pork but of transforming it. Our aim should be to metamorphose our feelings. The feelings which one individual has for the symphony of a meal are applied to a real symphony by another. If you preach overcoming desires and activity, you are preaching something impersonal. But if you show people the way in which they can direct their desires to things of the spirit, you point them towards things that are more than personal. And this more-than-personal must be the goal of the theosophical movement.
The science of the spirit is not intended to produce stay-at-homes and eccentrics but people who are active, going out into the world. How do we reach the more-than-personal, however? Not by eating into the personal, but by perceiving what is true, great and all-embracing. This is why it is not for nothing that we cultivate an eye for the great scheme of things in theosophy. This helps us to grow beyond trivial things and take things not in an impersonal way but in one that goes beyond being personal.
There is an area where we have a crossover experiment,137Testing two cross-over qualities that are inseparably bound up with one another. Either both are present or neither, so that one needs only search for one of them. The method goes back to Francis Bacon. as it were, to establish the difference between personal, impersonal and more-than-personal. When it comes to love, you may easily think that the feelings which someone has for someone else are impersonal. But this may be a long way off from anything more-than-personal. People fall into a strange illusion here. They confuse self love with love for someone else. Most people think they love someone else but are in fact loving themselves in the other person. Giving oneself up to someone else is merely something to satisfy our own egoism. The individual concerned is not aware of this, but basically it is just a roundabout way of satisfying one's egoism.
We do not exist in isolation but are part of a whole. A finger is lovingly part of the hand and the organism. It would die if it weren't. In the same way a person could never exist without the rest of humanity. The result of this is that people like people.
Love sometimes simply comes from poverty of soul, and poverty of soul always comes from powerful egoism. If someone says he can't live without another person, his own personality is impoverished, and he is looking for something that will make him more complete. He dresses it all up by saying: I am getting impersonal; I love the other person.
The most beautiful and selfless love shows itself when one does not need the other person and can also do without him. The individual's then loving someone not for his own sake but for the sake of that other person. This does of course mean one has to be able to discern the true value of someone, which can only be done by entering deeply into the world. The more of a theosophist you are, the more you will learn to enter into the inner essence of another individual. And you'll then be all the more sensitive of his value and not love him for egoistical reasons. If you go through the world like this, you'll also see that some people have one kind of egoism, and others another, each living according to the value of his egoism.
What is needed is higher development of the personality. Impersonal love based on weakness will always also involve suffering. Love that is more-than-personal bases on strength and perception of the other person. It can be a source of joy and satisfaction. Swinging to and fro between all kinds of different moods in one's love is always a sign that this love is masked egoism and comes from an impoverished personality. This is how we can best see the difference between impersonal and more-than-personal—by looking at love.
Someone to whom the science of the spirit has not given a foundation in his life has failed to understand it, for it is a source of inner satisfaction in life for the future. If materialism were to continue to gain the upper hand, and with it also egoism, which is part of it, humanity would fall more and more into the pessimism which represents the burned-out ashes of burned-out minds. If humanity takes up the science of the spirit, true cheerfulness will be restored to it, and this is at the same time also the source of health. Disharmony ultimately comes from egoism, and the higher human being spreads a cheerful, happy mood. The more the higher, the divine comes into its own, the more will human beings be in harmony. We should think more about how we can help the whole of humanity than about how the science of the spirit may help us in particular. We will find it easier and easier to discover the source of genuine cheerfulness and joy, youth eternal, the more we make ourselves familiar with the ethics of the more-than-personal.
Negation is definitely not the aim with theosophy, but rather affirmation. The impersonal signifies negation, the more-than-personal affirmation, weak though it may still be. This also shows us the mission which the science of the spirit is given out of the essential nature of humanity. 'You'll know it by its fruits,' by the way it makes people fit and effective in life, with faces that reflect inner harmony. The spirit never shows itself in a woebegone face. Even the pain someone has to go through is transformed in the thinker's face and appears in a more noble form; the expression of pain has been purified in the harmonious face of a thinker. A woebegone face indicates that egoism has not yet been overcome. The science of the spirit encourages us to turn to the world around us without losing ourselves in that world. It takes us beyond the personal, not by destroying the personality, making it impersonal, but by enhancing it so that it will be more than personal.
Die Drei Aspekte des Persönlichen
Der Münchner Kongreß, der der vierte ist - nach Amsterdam, London und Paris —, sollte in einer gewissen Beziehung eine Etappe sein in der Entwickelung unserer theosophischen Bewegung. Er wird eine Art Verbindung zwischen den verschiedenen Nationen herstellen auch in bezug auf unsere theosophische Sache innerhalb Europas. Nicht einen eigentlichen Bericht über den Kongreß will ich heute geben, sondern nur ein paar Bemerkungen für diejenigen, welche nicht daran teilnehmen konnten.
Er sollte eines zeigen, was immer und immer wieder von mir betont worden ist in bezug auf unsere theosophische Sache - er sollte zeigen, daß Theosophie nicht nur Gegenstand persönlichen Brütens und In-sich-Hineinlebens sein soll. Die theosophische Sache soll ins praktische Leben eingreifen, soll eine Sache der Bildung sein, eine Sache des Sich-Einlebens in alle Zweige des praktischen Daseins. Nur wer ein tieferes Verständnis und einen tieferen Begriff von den eigentlichen Impulsen der theosophischen Sache hat, weiß schon heute, welche Möglichkeiten diese Theosophie in der Zukunft bieten wird. Sie wird der Einklang sein zwischen dem, was wir [äußerlich] sehen und schauen und dem, was wir innerlich fühlen. Für den, der tiefer schauen kann, liegt ein wichtiger Grund für die Zerfahrenheit [heutiger Menschen] in dieser Disharmonie zwischen dem, was ist, und dem, was die Theosophie will. Nicht bloß Theosophen haben das empfunden, sondern auch andere bedeutende Naturen, wie zum Beispiel Richard Wagner. ..
In früherer Zeit war jedes Türschloß, jedes Haus, jedes Gebilde ein Gebilde der Seele. Seelenstoff war eingeflossen. In den alten Zeiten gehörte das Kunstwerk zum menschlichen Fühlen und Denken. Die Formen der gotischen Kirchen waren in alten Zeiten entsprechend der Stimmung derer, die zu den Kirchen pilgerten. Sie besaßen deren eigene Seelenstimmung. Der zu der Kirche Pilgernde empfand damals die Formen wie ein Händefalten, so wie der alte Germane [beim Betreten eines Haines die Bewegungen der Bäume wie] ein Händefalten empfand. Alles war in jenen Zeiten den Menschen vertrauter. Das sehen Sie noch bei Michelangelo und Leonardo da Vinci wundervoll ausgedrückt. Das Zusammenstehen des ganzen Dörfchens in der Kirche war nichts anderes als der Ausdruck seines ganzen Seelenlebens. Die ganzen Ätherströme sammelten sich an dem Platze, wo die Kirche stand. Das materialistische Zeitalter hat das alles zerklüftet. Die, welche das Leben nicht betrachten können, wissen das nicht. Der Seher aber weiß, daß es heute, wenn man durch eine Stadt geht, fast nichts zu sehen gibt als Dinge, die den Magen oder die Putzsucht angehen. Wer die geheimen Lebensfäden zu verfolgen versteht, weiß auch, was die materialistische Kultur zu dieser Zerklüftung gebracht hat.
Eine Gesundung der Außenwelt kann dadurch entstehen, daß sie ein Abdruck dessen wird, was unsere innersten Seelenstimmungen sind. Nicht zum Vollkommensten kann man gleich greifen, aber ein Beispiel dafür wurde in München gegeben. Die geisteswissenschaftliche Weltanschauung wurde in dem Raum zum Ausdruck gebracht. Der ganze Saal war in Rot gehalten. Es besteht zwar häufig ein großer Irrtum in bezug auf die rote Farbe, aber das Rot ist in seiner tieferen Bedeutung nicht zu verkennen. Die Entwickelung der Menschheit ist ein Auf- und Absteigen. Sehen Sie sich die ursprünglichen Völker an. Grün haben sie in der Natur. Und was lieben sie am meisten? Rot! Der Okkultist weiß, daß das Rot eine besondere Wirkung auf die gesunde Seele hat. Es löst in der gesunden Seele die aktiven Kräfte aus, diejenigen Kräfte, welche zur Tat anspornen, diejenigen Kräfte, welche die Seele aus der Bequemlichkeit in die Unbequemlichkeit des Tuns versetzen soll. Ein Raum mit Feiertagsstimmung muß rot austapeziert sein. Wer ein Wohnzimmer rot austapeziert, der zeigt, daß er keine Feiertagsstimmung mehr kennt und die tote Farbe profaniert. Goetbe hat über solche Dinge die schönsten Worte gesagt, die es gibt: «Die Wirkung dieser Farbe ist so einzig wie ihre Natur. Sie gibt einen Eindruck sowohl von Ernst und Würde als von Huld und Anmut. Jenes leistet sie in ihrem dunklen, verdichteten, dieses in ihrem hellen, verdünnten Zustande. Und so kann sich die Würde des Alters und die Liebenswürdigkeit der Jugend in eine Farbe kleiden.»
Das sind die Stimmungen, die durch das Rot ausgelöst werden, Stimmungen, die man auf okkultem Wege nachweisen kann. Schaut euch die Landschaft durch ein rotes Glas an, und ihr habt den Eindruck: So muß es aussehen am Tage des Gerichts. - Rot macht froh darüber, was der Mensch in der Fortentwickelung vollbracht hat. Rot ist Feind gegen retardierende Stimmungen, gegen Sündenstimmungen.
Dann gab es da sieben Säulenmotive für die Zeit, in welcher der Theosophie auch einmal Gebäude gebaut werden können. Die Motive der Säulen sind aus den Lehren der Eingeweihten herausgeholt, aus uralten Zeiten. Die Theosophie wird die Möglichkeit haben, wirklich neue Säulenmotive der Architektonik zu geben. Die alten Säulen sagen eigentlich dem Menschen schon längst nichts mehr. Die neuen haben Bezug auf Saturn, Sonne, Mond, Mars, Merkur, Venus. Die Gesetzmäßigkeit drückte sich in den Kapitellen aus. Zwischen den Säulen hatten wir die sieben apokalyptischen Siegel in Rosenkreuzerart angebracht. Das Gralssiegel ist zum ersten Mal vor der Öffentlichkeit erschienen.
Die Theosophie kann man auch bauen: Man kann sie bauen in der Architektonik, in der Erziehung und in der sozialen Frage. Das Prinzip des Rosenkreuzertums ist, den Geist in die Welt einzuführen, fruchtbare Arbeit für die Seele zu leisten. Es wird auch gelingen, die Kunst zu einer Mysterienkunst zu erheben, nach der Richard Wagner eine so große Sehnsucht hatte. Ein Versuch ist gemacht in Edounard Schurés Mysteriendrama. Hier hat Schur& versucht, den Mysterienspielen nachzuarbeiten. Was dem zugrundelag, war die Absicht, die Theosophie einzukristallisieren in den Aufbau der Welt. Das Programm zeigte die feiertägliche Farbe Rot und trug ein schwarzes Kreuz mit Rosen umwunden im blauen Felde. Das Rosenkreuzertum leitet das, was das Christentum gegeben hat, in die Zukunft weiter. Die Anfangsbuchstaben auf dem Programm geben die Grundgedanken wieder.
Heute möchte ich über einige Fragen sprechen, die man in diesem Zusammenhang stellen könnte. Zunächst: Wie wäre es, wenn die Theosophie in die Rosenkreuzerströmung übergeht und sich in diesen Vorstellungen ausleben wird? -— Darüber wollen wir uns einige Vorstellungen in bezug auf theosophische Ethik oder Sittenlehre bilden. Die theosophische Ethik oder Sittenlehre ist keine solche, die sagt: Dies oder jenes sollst du tun oder nicht tun. — Die Theosophie hat es nicht zu tun mit Forderungen und Geboten, sondern mit Tatsachen und Erzählungen. Man braucht nur ein Beispiel einer Tatsache der astralen Welt zu nehmen, woraus man sieht, daß man nicht nötig hat, Moral zu predigen. Übrigens nützt dies auch nichts, denn Ermahnungen und Gebote begründen keine wirkliche Sittlichkeit, sondern dies geschieht durch die Tatsachen des höheren Lebens. Wenn Sie von Okkultisten hören, Lüge ist Mord und Selbstmord, dann wirkt das als Impuls mit einer solchen ethischen Kraft, daß sie sich nicht vergleichen läßt mit der einfachen Ermahnung:: Ihr sollt nicht lügen. - Wenn man weiß, was Lüge und was Wahrheit ist, wenn man weiß, daß alles im Geistigen seinen Abdruck hat, dann wird die Sache etwas anders. Die der Wahrheit entsprechende Erzählung bildet die Lebenskräfte für die Fortentwickelung. Die unrichtige Behauptung schlägt an die Wahrheit und schlägt zurück auf den Menschen selbst. Alles, was der Mensch lügt, hat er später selber zu fühlen. Lügen sind die größten Hemmnisse für die Weiterentwickelung. Nicht umsonst nennt man den Teufel den Geist der Lügen und Hindernisse. Der explosive Stoff der Lüge tötet objektiv und entlädt sich auf den, der sie aussendet.
Drei Vorstellungen von dem Persönlichen kennen wir: das Persönliche, das Unpersönliche und das Überpersönliche. Es gab einstmals einen Menschenvorfahren, welcher höher war als jedes Tier, aber niedriger als der Mensch. Er bestand aus physischem Leib, Ätherleib und Astralleib. Dann kommt das Ich dazu, welches die höheren Teile wieder aus sich heraus bildet, zur siebengliedrigen Menschennatur.
Die Entwickelung von physischem Leib, Ätherleib und Astralleib geht durch lange Zeiträume. Sie haben sich dadurch reif gemacht, das Ich-Bewußtsein in sich aufzunehmen. Die Tendenz der drei niederen Glieder und die Art und Weise, wie sie sich entwickelt haben, soll uns heute interessieren. Immer mehr ist der Mensch fähig geworden, ein selbstbewußtes Wesen zu werden. Das ist nur möglich durch die Kraft des Egoismus, der Selbstsucht. Sie kann göttlich oder teuflisch sein. Diese Worte müssen nicht nur nach der Empfindung, sondern nach ihrem wahren Kern beurteilt werden. Die Selbständigkeit setzt voraus, daß der Mensch ein egoistisches Wesen wurde.
Mit der Entwickelung des Egoismus hängt zusammen die Form des — scheinbaren — Bewußtseinsverlustes, die wir als Tod im jetzigen menschlichen Leben kennen. In demselben Grade wie sich die Selbstsucht entwickelt hat, hat sich auch der Tod entwickelt. In den ersten Zeiten starb der Mensch nicht. Er war wie ein Glied, das vertrocknet und dann wieder nachwächst, etwa so wie der Nagel am Finger abfällt und wieder nachwächst. Unser jetziges Sterben und Wiedergeborenwerden ist gekommen, damit wir unser jetziges Ich-Bewußtsein haben können. Egoismus und Tod sind zwei Seiten derselben Sache. Das Höhere der menschlichen Natur ist so, daß es den Egoismus wieder überwindet, sich zu dem Göttlichen hinaufarbeitet und damit den Tod überwindet. Je mehr ein Mensch den höheren Teil in sich entwickelt, desto mehr entwickelt er das Bewußtsein seiner Unsterblichkeit. In dem Augenblick, wo der Mensch egoistisch geworden ist, ist er auch eine Persönlichkeit geworden. Das Tier ist nicht persönlich, weil es das Ich als Gruppenseele hat, die nicht vom Astralplan heruntersteigt. Die Persönlichkeit ist dasjenige, was die drei Leiber — physischer Leib, Ätherleib und Astralleib - vom Ich durchstrahlt sein läßt. Das kann auch unklar, schattenhaft sein - und wenn dies der Fall ist, so ist der betreffende Mensch eine schwache Persönlichkeit.
Für den Hellseher ist dies durchaus erkennbar. Er sieht den Menschen von einer farbigen Aura umflossen, in der sich seine Stimmungen, Leidenschaften, Gefühle, Empfindungen in Farbströmungen und Farbwolken genau ausdrücken. Versetzen wir uns in die Zeit, in welcher die drei Wesensglieder erst bereit waren, das menschliche Ich aufzunehmen, so würden wir auch bei diesem noch nicht ganz Mensch gewordenen Wesen eine Aura finden. Es würden aber darin die gelben Strömungen fehlen, in denen die höhere Natur des Menschen zum Ausdruck gelangt. Starke Persönlichkeiten haben eine stark gelb strahlende Aura. Nun kann man eine starke Persönlichkeit sein, aber ohne Aktivität, man kann innerlich stark reagieren, ohne ein Tatenmensch zu sein. Dann zeigt die Aura gleichwohl viel Gelb. Ist man aber ein Tatenmensch und wirkt sich die Persönlichkeit in der Außenwelt aus, so geht das Gelb allmählich in ein strahlendes Rot über. Eine rot strahlende Aura ist die eines Tatenmenschen; sie muß aber strahlen.
Doch gibt es eine Klippe, wenn die Persönlichkeit zu Taten drängt. Das ist der Ehrgeiz, die Eitelkeit. Davon können besonders leicht starke Naturen befallen werden. Der Hellseher sieht dies in der Aura. Ohne den Ehrgeiz geht das Gelb unvermittelt in Rot über. Ist der Mensch jedoch ehrgeizig, so hat er viel Orange in der Aura. Diese Schwelle muß man überwinden, um zur objektiven Tat zu gelangen.
Schwache Persönlichkeiten sind solche, die mehr darauf gerichtet sind, daß man ihnen gibt, als daß sie geben und etwas tun. Da sehen Sie dann hauptsächlich blaue Farben, und wenn die Menschen besonders bequem sind, die Indigofarbe. Es bezieht sich dies mehr auf die innerliche Bequemlichkeit als auf die äußere.
Sie sehen, wie sich in der Aura des Menschen die starke oder schwache Persönlichkeit abspiegelt. Der Mensch soll das Persönliche immer mehr überwinden und das Höhere wirken lassen. Daher hören Sie viel reden von der Überwindung der Persönlichkeit und des Egoismus. Nun kommen wir aber auf den Hauptpunkt. Es kommt darauf an, ob wir das Persönliche durch das Unpersönliche oder durch das Überpersönliche überwinden.
Was heißt: sich überwinden durch das Unpersönliche? Das heißt, die starke Kraft abschwächen, die Energie der Persönlichkeit zurückdrängen wollen. Das würde dann unpersönlich sein. Überpersönlich würde in gewisser Beziehung genau das Gegenteil davon sein. Es würde die Erhöhung der Energie der Persönlichkeit sein, die Hervorkehrung der starken Kräfte der Persönlichkeit.
Das Ich finden wir in der Seele, und darin erstens das Mutartige, zweitens aber das Begehrliche und Begierdenhafte der Seele. Auf diese zwei Dinge läßt sich im Grunde genommen alles im Seelenleben zurückführen. Die Dinge erfahren da eine verschiedene Behandlung. Und diese verschiedene Behandlung rührt von folgendem her: Der Mensch gibt sich nicht genügend Mühe, das Höhere aufzunehmen. Er entwickelt sich dann wohl weiter, aber das Niedere entwickelt sich, das Mutartige und Begierdenhafte entwickelt sich im rohen Stil. Wenn er das einfach abschwächen würde, so wäre das eine Kultur des Unpersönlichen. Der Mensch würde das Aktive verlieren. Das Tätige, dasjenige, was den Menschen zu einem Menschen macht, der unter die anderen geht und das tut, wozu er fähig ist, das bringt in gewisser Beziehung einen solchen Menschen immer in Kollision mit anderen. Und er muß in Kollision kommen, wenn er sich zu etwas berufen glaubt.
Man kann auch seine Begierden abtöten. Dadurch wird aber die Persönlichkeit farblos. Man kann indessen auch etwas anderes tun: Man kann sie veredeln. Man braucht sie nicht in ihrer Stärke abzutöten. Man kann sie auf höhere Gegenstände richten. Dann braucht die Persönlichkeit nichts von ihrer Stärke zu verlieren, und dennoch wird sie edler und göttlicher. Man braucht die Begierden nicht abzutöten, sondern nur umzuwandeln in feinere und edlere Begierden, dann können sie mit derselben Vehemenz sich ausleben. Ein Beispiel: Denken Sie sich ein Tingeltangel. Der, welcher nicht hineingeht, braucht deshalb noch kein Asket zu sein. Er hat nur die niederen Begierden in höhere umgebildet, so daß er sich im Tingeltangel nur langweilen würde.
Die Theosophie ist in dieser Beziehung am meisten von den Theosophen mißverstanden worden. Es kann sich ja nicht darum handeln, das Persönliche zu ertöten, sondern ihm einen Aufschwung nach oben, zu einem Höheren zu geben. Dazu ist gerade all das notwendig, was uns durch die Theosophie vermittelt wird. Es handelt sich also vor allern darum, daß höhere Interessen geweckt werden. Solche Interessen ergreifen den Menschen schon. Er braucht seine Gefühle gar nicht herabzudämpfen, sondern er wendet sie dann auf das höhere göttliche Werden an, auf die großen Weltentatsachen. Wenn wir unsere Gefühle darauf hinlenken, verlieren wir zwar das Interesse für die brutale Seite des Lebens, aber unsere Gefühle werden dadurch nicht abgestumpft, sondern sie werden reich, und die ganze Natur des Menschen entzündet sich daran. Hat ein Mensch viel übrig für einen guten Schweinebraten, so geht es nicht darum, sein Gefühl für den Schweinebraten zu ertöten, sondern dieses Gefühl umzuwandeln. Eine Metamorphose des Gefühls muß angestrebt werden. Dieselben Gefühle, die der eine für die Symphonie des Mahles hat, verwendet ein anderer für eine wirkliche Symphonie. Predigen Sie die Überwindung der Begierde und Aktivität, dann predigen Sie das Unpersönliche. Zeigen Sie aber den Weg, der dazu führt, die Begierde auf das Geistige zu richten, dann verweisen Sie auf das Überpersönliche. Und dieses Überpersönliche muß das Ziel der theosophischen Bewegung sein.
Die Geisteswissenschaft soll und will nicht Stubenhocker und Sonderlinge erziehen, sondern sie will Menschen der Tat, wirkende Menschen hervorbringen, die hinaustreten in die Welt. Wie kommen wir aber zum Überpersönlichen? Nicht dadurch, daß wir uns ins Persönliche einfressen, sondern daß wir das Wahre, Große und Umfassende ergreifen. Deshalb ist es nicht unnötig, wenn in der Theosophie der Blick für die großen Zusammenhänge des Daseins gepflegt wird. Wir wachsen dadurch über das Kleine hinaus und lernen die Dinge nicht unpersönlich, sondern überpersönlich nehmen.
Auf einem Gebiet können wir durch eine Art Experimentum crucis den Unterschied zwischen persönlich, unpersönlich und überpersönlich erkennen. Von der Liebe wird man leicht glauben, daß das, was ein Mensch für den anderen fühlt, etwas Unpersönliches sei. Aber das braucht noch lange nicht das zu sein, was mit einem Überpersönlichen zu tun hat. Dem Menschen läuft hier eine merkwürdige Illusion unter: Er verwechselt Eigenliebe mit Liebe zum anderen. Die meisten Menschen glauben einen anderen zu lieben, weil sie sich selber in dem anderen lieben. Das Aufgehen in dem anderen ist doch nur etwas, was den eigenen Egoismus befriedigt. Der Betreffende weiß es nicht, braucht es gar nicht zu wissen, aber es ist im Grunde eben doch ein Umweg zur Befriedigung des Egoismus.
Der Mensch ist eben nicht ein Einzelwesen. Er ist ein Glied an einem Ganzen. Der Finger ist in liebevollem Zusammenhang mit der Hand und dem Organismus. Würde er das nicht sein, so würde er absterben. Der Finger liebt meine Hand und den Organismus, weil er sie braucht. Ebenso könnte der Mensch nie ohne die anderen Menschen sein. Das bewirkt, daß der Mensch die Menschen gern hat. — Manche Liebe entspringt häufig nur aus Seelenarmut, und Seelenarmut entspringt immer einem verstärkten Egoismus. Und wenn jemand behauptet, daß er ohne einen anderen nicht leben könne, so ist seine eigene Persönlichkeit verarmt, und er sucht nach etwas, das ihn ausfüllt. Er verhüllt das Ganze darin, daß er sagt: Ich werde unpersönlich, ich liebe den anderen.
Die schönste, selbstlose Liebe äußert sich darin, daß man den anderen nicht braucht, daß man ihn auch entbehren kann. Der Mensch liebt dann nicht um seiner selbst, sondern um des anderen willen. Er verliert dann auch nichts, wenn er von dem anderen verlassen wird. Dazu ist freilich nötig, daß man den Wert eines Menschen durchschauen kann, und das lernt man nur, wenn man sich in die Welt vertieft. Je mehr Sie Theosoph werden, desto mehr werden Sie lernen, auf das innere Wesen eines anderen einzugehen. Und um so fähiger werden Sie dann, seinen Wert zu empfinden und ihn nicht aus Selbstsucht zu lieben. Gehen Sie so durch die Welt, dann werden Sie auch sehen, daß die einen diesen, die anderen jenen Egoismus haben, und jeder lebt dem Werte seines Egoismus nach.
Erforderlich ist die Höherentwickelung der Persönlichkeit. Eine unpersönliche Liebe, welche der Schwäche entspringt, wird immer auch mit Leid verknüpft sein. Die überpersönliche Liebe erwächst aus Stärke und gründet sich auf Erkenntnis des anderen. Sie kann ein Quell von Freude und Befriedigung werden. Ein Hinundherpendeln zwischen allen möglichen Stimmungen der Liebe ist immer ein Zeichen dafür, daß diese Liebe ein maskierter Egoismus ist und einer verarmten Persönlichkeit entstammt. So können wir uns am besten an der Liebe den Unterschied zwischen unpersönlich und überpersönlich klarmachen.
Wem die Geisteswissenschaft nicht einen Fonds für das Leben gibt, der hat sie nicht begriffen, denn sie ist ein Quell innerer Lebensbefriedigung für die Zukunft. Wenn der Materialismus immer mehr überhandnehmen würde, und damit auch der Egoismus, der zu ihm gehört, so würde die Menschheit immer mehr in den Pessimismus verfallen, der die Schlacke ausgebrannter Geister ist. Wird die Menschheit die Geisteswissenschaft aufnehmen, so wird ihr die wahre Heiterkeit, die zugleich die Quelle der Gesundheit ist, wiedergegeben werden. Disharmonie ist letzten Endes ein Ausfluß des Egoismus, und heitere, frohe Stimmung entströmt dem höheren Menschen. Je mehr das Höhere, das Göttliche Platz greift, desto seliger wird der Mensch werden. Wir sollten mehr daran denken, wie wir der ganzen Menschheit helfen, als daran, wie die Geisteswissenschaft gerade uns helfen kann. Wir kommen immer mehr zum Erkennen des Quells echter Heiterkeit und Freude, ewiger Jugend, wenn wir uns mit der Ethik des Überpersönlichen bekanntmachen.
Nicht in einer Verneinung liegt das Ziel der Theosophie, sondern in der Bejahung. Das Unpersönliche bedeutet Verneinung, das Überpersönliche Bejahung, selbst wenn es noch so schwach auftreten sollte. Das ist es, was uns zugleich die Aufgabe der Geisteswissenschaft aus dem Wesen der Menschheit heraus zeigt. «An ihren Früchten sollt ihr sie erkennen -», daran, daß sie die Menschen geeignet und tüchtig für das Leben macht, mit Gesichtern, die Ausdruck einer harmonischen Seele sind. Der Geist drückt sich niemals in einem vergrämten Gesicht aus. Selbst was der Mensch an Schmerz durchmachen muß, wandelt sich in dem Antlitz des Denkers um und erscheint veredelt; der Ausdruck des Schmerzes zeigt sich gereinigt in dem harmonischen Denkergesicht. Das vergrämte Gesicht ist der Ausdruck eines noch nicht überwundenen Egoismus. Die Geisteswissenschaft leitet uns an, aus uns herauszugehen, aber uns nicht zu verlieren, sondern uns die Außenwelt zu erhalten. Sie führt uns über das Persönliche hinaus, nicht durch eine Vernichtung der Persönlichkeit ins Unpersönliche, sondern durch eine Steigerung ins Überpersönliche.
The Three Aspects of the Personal
The Munich Congress, which is the fourth—after Amsterdam, London, and Paris—should, in a certain sense, be a milestone in the development of our Theosophical movement. It will establish a kind of connection between the different nations, also with regard to our Theosophical cause within Europe. I do not intend to give an actual report on the congress today, but only a few remarks for those who were unable to attend.
It should demonstrate something that I have emphasized time and again in relation to our theosophical cause—it should demonstrate that theosophy should not only be a subject of personal contemplation and introspection. Theosophy should intervene in practical life, should be a matter of education, a matter of living into all branches of practical existence. Only those who have a deeper understanding and a deeper concept of the actual impulses of theosophy already know today what possibilities this theosophy will offer in the future. It will be the harmony between what we see [outwardly] and what we feel inwardly. For those who can see more deeply, an important reason for the distraction [of people today] lies in this disharmony between what is and what theosophy wants. Not only theosophists have felt this, but also other significant figures, such as Richard Wagner. ..
In earlier times, every door lock, every house, every structure was a creation of the soul. Soul substance had flowed into it. In ancient times, works of art were part of human feeling and thinking. In ancient times, the forms of Gothic churches corresponded to the mood of those who made pilgrimages to the churches. They possessed their own soul mood. At that time, pilgrims to the church perceived the forms as a folding of hands, just as the ancient Germanic people [upon entering a grove perceived the movements of the trees as] a folding of hands. Everything was more familiar to people in those days. You can still see this wonderfully expressed in Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. The whole village standing together in the church was nothing less than the expression of its entire spiritual life. All the ether currents gathered at the place where the church stood. The materialistic age has fractured all this. Those who cannot contemplate life do not know this. But the seer knows that today, when you walk through a city, there is almost nothing to see but things that appeal to the stomach or the obsession with cleanliness. Those who know how to follow the secret threads of life also know what materialistic culture has brought about this fragmentation.
A recovery of the outer world can come about by it becoming an imprint of what our innermost soul moods are. One cannot immediately reach for perfection, but an example of this was given in Munich. The spiritual scientific worldview was expressed in the room. The entire hall was decorated in red. Although there is often a great misconception about the color red, its deeper meaning cannot be overlooked. The development of humanity is an ascent and descent. Look at the original peoples. They have green in nature. And what do they love most? Red! The occultist knows that red has a special effect on the healthy soul. It triggers the active forces in the healthy soul, those forces that spur one to action, those forces that are supposed to move the soul from comfort into the discomfort of doing. A room with a festive atmosphere must be wallpapered in red. Anyone who wallpapers their living room in red shows that they no longer know what a festive atmosphere is and profanes the dead color. Goethe said the most beautiful words there are about such things: "The effect of this color is as unique as its nature. It gives an impression of both seriousness and dignity as well as grace and charm. It achieves the former in its dark, dense state and the latter in its light, diluted state. And so the dignity of age and the amiability of youth can be clothed in one color."
These are the moods evoked by red, moods that can be proven by occult means. Look at the landscape through a red glass, and you will have the impression: this is what it must look like on Judgment Day. Red makes one happy about what humanity has accomplished in its development. Red is the enemy of retarding moods, of sinful moods.
Then there were seven column motifs for the time when buildings could also be constructed for theosophy. The motifs of the columns are taken from the teachings of the initiates, from ancient times. Theosophy will have the opportunity to provide truly new column motifs for architecture. The old columns have long since ceased to mean anything to people. The new ones refer to Saturn, the Sun, the Moon, Mars, Mercury, and Venus. The laws of nature were expressed in the capitals. Between the columns we had placed the seven apocalyptic seals in Rosicrucian style. The Grail seal appeared in public for the first time.
Theosophy can also be built: it can be built in architecture, in education, and in social issues. The principle of Rosicrucianism is to introduce the spirit into the world, to do fruitful work for the soul. It will also succeed in elevating art to a mystery art, for which Richard Wagner had such a great longing. An attempt has been made in Edouard Schuré's mystery drama. Here Schuré attempted to rework the mystery plays. The underlying intention was to crystallize theosophy in the structure of the world. The program featured the festive color red and bore a black cross entwined with roses in a blue field. Rosicrucianism carries forward into the future what Christianity has given. The initial letters on the program reflect the basic ideas.
Today I would like to talk about some questions that could be asked in this context. First of all: What would happen if Theosophy were to merge with the Rosicrucian movement and be lived out in these ideas? — Let us form some ideas about this in relation to Theosophical ethics or moral teaching. Theosophical ethics or moral teaching is not one that says: You should do this or that, or you should not do this or that. — Theosophy has nothing to do with demands and commandments, but with facts and narratives. One need only take an example from the astral world to see that there is no need to preach morality. Besides, this is of no use, because admonitions and commandments do not establish real morality; this is done through the facts of higher life. When you hear from occultists that lying is murder and suicide, this has such an ethical impact that it cannot be compared to the simple admonition: You shall not lie. When you know what lies and what truth are, when you know that everything leaves its mark in the spiritual realm, then things become somewhat different. The narrative that corresponds to the truth forms the life forces for further development. The incorrect assertion strikes at the truth and strikes back at the person themselves. Everything that a person lies about, they themselves will later have to feel. Lies are the greatest obstacles to further development. It is not for nothing that the devil is called the spirit of lies and obstacles. The explosive substance of lies kills objectively and discharges itself upon the one who sends it out.
We know three concepts of the personal: the personal, the impersonal, and the superpersonal. There was once a human ancestor who was higher than any animal but lower than man. He consisted of a physical body, an etheric body, and an astral body. Then the ego comes into being, which forms the higher parts out of itself, resulting in the seven-membered human nature.
The development of the physical body, etheric body, and astral body takes place over long periods of time. They have thus matured to the point of being able to take in the consciousness of the I. Today we are interested in the tendency of the three lower members and the way in which they have developed. Human beings have become increasingly capable of becoming self-conscious beings. This is only possible through the power of egoism, of selfishness. It can be divine or diabolical. These words must be judged not only by feeling, but by their true essence. Independence presupposes that human beings have become egoistic beings.
The development of egoism is connected with the form of — apparent — loss of consciousness that we know as death in the present human life. Death has developed to the same degree as selfishness. In the early days, humans did not die. They were like a limb that withers and then grows back, much like a fingernail falls off and grows back. Our current dying and being reborn has come about so that we can have our current sense of self-awareness. Egoism and death are two sides of the same coin. The higher aspect of human nature is such that it overcomes egoism, works its way up to the divine, and thus overcomes death. The more a person develops the higher part of themselves, the more they develop the consciousness of their immortality. The moment a person becomes egoistic, they also become a personality. Animals are not personal because they have the ego as a group soul that does not descend from the astral plane. Personality is what allows the three bodies — the physical body, the etheric body, and the astral body — to be permeated by the ego. This can also be unclear, shadowy — and if this is the case, the person in question has a weak personality.
This is clearly recognizable to the clairvoyant. They see the human being surrounded by a colored aura in which their moods, passions, feelings, and sensations are precisely expressed in streams and clouds of color. If we transport ourselves back to the time when the three elements of the human being were first ready to receive the human ego, we would also find an aura around this being, which had not yet fully become human. However, the yellow streams in which the higher nature of the human being is expressed would be missing. Strong personalities have a strongly yellow-radiating aura. Now, one can be a strong personality without being active; one can react strongly inwardly without being a person of action. In that case, the aura will still show a lot of yellow. But if one is a person of action and the personality has an effect on the outside world, the yellow gradually changes to a radiant red. A radiant red aura is that of a person of action; but it must radiate.
However, there is a pitfall when the personality urges action. That is ambition, vanity. Strong personalities are particularly susceptible to this. The clairvoyant sees this in the aura. Without ambition, the yellow abruptly turns to red. However, if a person is ambitious, they have a lot of orange in their aura. This threshold must be overcome in order to achieve objective action.
Weak personalities are those who are more focused on receiving than on giving and doing. In these cases, you will mainly see blue colors, and if the people are particularly comfortable, the color indigo. This refers more to inner comfort than to outer comfort.
You can see how a person's strong or weak personality is reflected in their aura. People should increasingly overcome the personal and let the higher self take effect. That is why you hear so much talk about overcoming personality and egoism. But now we come to the main point. It depends on whether we overcome the personal through the impersonal or through the superpersonal.
What does it mean to overcome oneself through the impersonal? It means weakening the strong force, wanting to suppress the energy of the personality. That would then be impersonal. Suprapersonal would be exactly the opposite of that in a certain sense. It would be the elevation of the energy of the personality, the emergence of the strong forces of the personality.
We find the ego in the soul, and in it, first of all, the courageous, but secondly, the desirous and covetous aspects of the soul. Basically, everything in the life of the soul can be traced back to these two things. Things are treated differently there. And this different treatment stems from the following: human beings do not make enough effort to take in the higher. They then develop further, but the lower develops, the courageous and the covetous develop in a crude style. If they simply weakened this, it would be a culture of the impersonal. Human beings would lose their active nature. The active, that which makes a person a person who goes among others and does what he is capable of, always brings such a person into conflict with others in a certain sense. And he must come into conflict if he believes himself to be called to something.
One can also kill one's desires. But this makes the personality colorless. However, one can also do something else: one can refine them. There is no need to kill them in their strength. One can direct them toward higher objects. Then the personality need not lose any of its strength, and yet it becomes nobler and more divine. One does not need to kill one's desires, but only to transform them into finer and nobler desires, then they can be lived out with the same vehemence. An example: think of a music hall. Those who do not go there do not need to be ascetics. They have only transformed their lower desires into higher ones, so that they would only be bored in the music hall.
Theosophy has been most misunderstood by theosophists in this regard. It cannot be a matter of killing the personal, but of giving it an upward boost to something higher. To do this, everything that is conveyed to us through theosophy is necessary. The main thing, then, is to awaken higher interests. Such interests already grip human beings. They do not need to dampen their feelings at all, but rather apply them to the higher divine becoming, to the great facts of the world. When we direct our feelings toward this, we lose interest in the brutal side of life, but our feelings are not dulled by this; rather, they become rich, and the whole nature of the human being is ignited by them. If a person has a great fondness for a good roast pork, it is not a matter of killing his feeling for roast pork, but of transforming this feeling. A metamorphosis of feeling must be sought. The same feelings that one person has for the symphony of the meal, another uses for a real symphony. If you preach the overcoming of desire and activity, then you preach the impersonal. But if you show the way that leads to directing desire toward the spiritual, then you are pointing to the superpersonal. And this superpersonal must be the goal of the theosophical movement.
Spiritual science should not and does not want to educate couch potatoes and eccentrics, but rather it wants to produce people of action, effective people who step out into the world. But how do we arrive at the superpersonal? Not by dwelling on the personal, but by grasping the true, the great, and the comprehensive. That is why it is not unnecessary for theosophy to cultivate an awareness of the great connections of existence. In this way we grow beyond the small and learn to take things not impersonally, but superpersonally.
In one area, we can recognize the difference between personal, impersonal, and superpersonal through a kind of experimentum crucis. It is easy to believe that what one person feels for another is something impersonal. But that does not necessarily have anything to do with the superpersonal. People fall prey to a strange illusion here: they confuse self-love with love for another. Most people believe they love another because they love themselves in the other. But merging with another is only something that satisfies one's own egoism. The person concerned does not know this, does not need to know it, but it is basically a detour to the satisfaction of egoism.
Human beings are not individual beings. They are part of a whole. The finger is lovingly connected to the hand and the organism. If it were not, it would die. The finger loves my hand and the organism because it needs them. In the same way, human beings could never exist without other human beings. This causes human beings to love other human beings. — Some love often springs only from spiritual poverty, and spiritual poverty always springs from increased selfishness. And when someone claims that they cannot live without another person, their own personality is impoverished, and they are looking for something to fill them. They conceal the whole thing by saying: I am becoming impersonal, I love the other person.
The most beautiful, selfless love is expressed in the fact that one does not need the other, that one can do without them. The person then loves not for their own sake, but for the sake of the other. They then lose nothing when they are abandoned by the other. Of course, this requires that one be able to see through the value of a person, and one can only learn this by immersing oneself in the world. The more you become a theosophist, the more you will learn to respond to the inner being of another. And the more capable you will become of perceiving their value and loving them without selfishness. If you go through the world in this way, you will also see that some people have this kind of selfishness, others have that kind, and everyone lives according to the value of their selfishness.
What is necessary is the higher development of the personality. An impersonal love that springs from weakness will always be associated with suffering. Transpersonal love arises from strength and is based on knowledge of the other. It can become a source of joy and satisfaction. Oscillating between all possible moods of love is always a sign that this love is a masked egoism and stems from an impoverished personality. Thus, love is the best way to clarify the difference between impersonal and superpersonal.
Those who do not find spiritual science a source of inner satisfaction for the future have not understood it, for it provides a foundation for life. If materialism were to become increasingly prevalent, and with it the egoism that accompanies it, humanity would sink deeper and deeper into pessimism, which is the dross of burnt-out spirits. If humanity embraces spiritual science, it will regain true cheerfulness, which is also the source of health. Disharmony is ultimately an outflow of egoism, and a cheerful, joyful mood flows from the higher human being. The more the higher, the divine takes hold, the more blissful human beings will become. We should think more about how we can help all of humanity than about how spiritual science can help us personally. We come to recognize more and more the source of genuine cheerfulness and joy, of eternal youth, when we familiarize ourselves with the ethics of the superpersonal.
The goal of theosophy is not negation, but affirmation. The impersonal means negation, the superpersonal means affirmation, even if it should appear only faintly. This is what the task of spiritual science shows us from the nature of humanity. “By their fruits ye shall know them” – by the fact that they make people fit and capable for life, with faces that are the expression of a harmonious soul. The spirit never expresses itself in a gloomy face. Even the pain that human beings must endure is transformed in the face of the thinker and appears ennobled; the expression of pain is purified in the harmonious face of the thinker. The gloomy face is the expression of egoism that has not yet been overcome. Spiritual science guides us to go beyond ourselves, but not to lose ourselves, rather to preserve the outside world. It leads us beyond the personal, not by destroying the personality, but by elevating us to the superpersonal.