Esoteric Lessons to the First Class
Volume I
GA 270
22 April 1924, Dornach
Lesson IX
First - without taking notes - let us be reminded of the admonition which directs human beings to the ancient holy words of knowledge:
O man, know thyself!
So resounds the cosmic-word.
You hear it strong in soul,
You feel it vast in spirit.Who speaks so vastly cosmic?
Who speaks so deeply heartfelt?Does it work through distant radiant space
Into your senses' sense of being?
Does it ring through waves of time
Into your life's evolving stream?Is it you yourself who
In feeling space, in experiencing timeCreate the Word, feeling foreign
In space's psychic vacancy,
Because you lose the force of thought
In time's destructive flow.
We can, my dear friends, look up to the distant stars and let our vision rest upon what radiates down to us from the universe in the forms the constellations possess. When we immerse ourselves in the sublimity of what the vast universe offers, we will gain enhanced inner strength. And especially for the strength to hold the soul separate from the body, we need to inwardly direct our gaze toward the heavenly bodies. By “inwardly” is meant the following: We have seen the stars so often and have stored the vision in our hearts and minds so that we no longer need to even look up at the heavenly bodies in order to make the powerful image of the star-embedded heaven's vault effective in our inner consciousness. If this picture arises from our own inner being, if the soul empowers itself to create it, then it will be able, through this empowered force, to liberate itself from its corporeality.
And we can also observe all that radiates down and streams through us from the planets which circle the earth, and in their circling directly affect the earth's wind and weather. And when we again create a picture in our hearts of all this, the sensation of being integrated in the movement of the circling constitutes the second experience.
And then when we are conscious of all that binds us to the earth, that we are heavy bodies among other heavy bodies. In other words what lives in us as a feeling of being bound to the earth becomes a facet of our soul, and it is the third aspect.
And from these three inner experiences: what we have gained in luminous, radiant, living thought derived from the stars; and then when we merge with the path of our earth in the universe, merge with what the planets say to us meaningfully from space by their movements - so that having felt ourselves to be at rest in respect to the stars, now we feel ourselves to be set in movement through the cosmos itself. And thirdly, if we then feel ourselves bound to the earth by the force of the earth itself, then we will gradually and harmoniously be more and more able to make a beginning at entering into the spiritual world. And today everyone can make this beginning.
This leads to the question: Why is it then that so few do so? The answer to this must be: most people don't want to experience things so intimately in order to enter into the spiritual world. They disdain experiencing so intimately. They prefer titillating experiences such as the spiritual world approaching them with all the characteristics of the sensory world.
It would be easy to convince people about the spiritual world if for example a table from the spiritual world were to approach them. But there are no tables in the spiritual world, there are only spiritual beings in the spiritual world, and they must be perceived with what is spiritual in man. But spiritual is what we can read in the stars, what we can feel in the movements of the planets, what we can experience in the forces which hold us to the earth and make us people of the earth. Therefore whoever desires to understand in the right way must do so inwardly. With common sense we can understand all of anthroposophy, but to understand inwardly means to transfer more and more what is understood to inner life. Whoever wishes to do this must decide to undertake a really intimate exercise of these three sensations - or experiences, it doesn't matter what we call them.
And now, my dear sisters and brothers, what is flowing to you from the spiritual world through this School wishes to speak to you about how by means of an intimate exercise you can become more aware of the connection of humanity with the world than you are accustomed to through normal consciousness.
Firstly, we humans should in later life be more like we were to a great extent when we were children. As children we are almost all sensory organs: eyes, ears. The child experiences everything that happens in its environment as though its whole body were a sense organ. That's why he imitates everything, because everything continues to vibrate within him; and in the same way in which it vibrates within him, it seeks to emerge by means of the will.
The child retains this characteristic only as long as we protect it from doing with its senses what we as adults do with them. The child develops this inner sensory capacity only as long as we carry it, protecting it so that it is not yet exposed to the forces of the earth. And it is really wonderful how the growing child's sensory-being is protected from the effects of the earth forces as long as this sensory-being is especially vital and alive.
At the moment when the child stands on its feet and begins to move about is when its movements become susceptible to the earth's forces and it must find its own equilibrium, at that moment the intimate sensory-being ends. The human being of course does not remember back to this first stage of infancy, and therefore does not know what it means to feel his whole being as a sensory-organ. But we must, if we want to experience the human in us more and more, be able to feel and experience our whole human being as such a sensory organ.
You grasp something, my dear sisters and brothers. It presses on you. You perceive the pressure. Or you perceive the texture of the surface you are touching. But in reality, you are continually touching in that you place your whole body from top to bottom on the earth and feel the earth under the soles of your feet. Only you are so used to it that you don't notice. When you begin to notice it, then you will first feel yourselves as human beings standing amidst the earth's forces. Therefore, the admonition at the threshold to the spiritual world.
[written on the blackboard:]
O man, touch and sense in your body's being
How earth forces support your existence.
[Certain essential words are underlined later, as described in the text. Trans.]
Thus, we let the first stage of this inner experience work in us.
Now we can feel ourselves as the ones touching, sensing. We can experience this touching, feel inwardly as the person doing the vibrant touching. When we advance enough to feel this touching itself, we are then not perceiving earth forces, but we begin to feel the vibrating water forces in us, the fluid forces which as blood and other liquids course through our bodies. And in these forces, we feel how all the fluids which course through our bodies are connected to the ether in the universe.
[writing on the blackboard:]
O man, experience in the whole round of your touch
How water-beings are the framers of your being.
If we only had earth forces to touch in our whole being, we would be constituted as something continually crumbling away. The water forces in us shape the form of the human body from the cosmic ether. Only the earth has influence over what is solid in us. But the whole wide world of ether has influence over the liquids in us .
But then during the third stage we can immerse ourselves in what lives and weaves in the fluidity. We can feel it dimly, inwardly. When we feel our breathing, for example, we will realize how we are continually nurtured by the essence of breathing and of the air. We would be helpless children if we weren't continually nurtured by the forces of breathing flowing through us.
[writing on the blackboard:]
O man, feel in the whole weaving of your life
How the powers of the air nurture your existence.
And now if we have advanced to the third stage of inner experience, we can come to the fourth, if we feel inner warmth, and are attentive to our own fulfilling warmth which is in breath, which lives in everything air-forming within us. For only through what is air-forming in us is our warmth created.
But what lives in us as warmth can be reached with thoughts. And here we have a most important secret of human nature.
My dear sisters and brothers, you cannot reach with thought, but only with the sense of touch, how earth forces act on you and support you. You cannot reach with thought, but only with inner experience, how the water forces are your formative builders. You cannot reach with thought, but only with inner feeling, how the airy powers in you are your nurturers. You can be thankful for this nurturing, you can love these nurturers, but you cannot directly reach them with thought. But what man can reach by thought, by meditating on his warmth, is to experience himself as a being of warmth.
The physician comes with a thermometer; he measures warmth from without. Just as warmth can differ on different places of the body, it is also different in the individual inner organs. You can direct your thoughts down to the individual organs and will find that the whole inner warmth-organism is differentiated. One can reach his own warmth organism with thought.
But then, having done that, you have a specific feeling. This feeling, my dear sisters and brothers, will now be revealed to your souls. Imagine that you have achieved it, that in thought you have descended into your organism, reached the differentiating warmth - the warmth of the lungs, the warmth of the liver, the warmth of the heart, which are all God-spirit created entities within you. You achieve this with thought. Now for the first time you know what thought is. Before you didn't know what thought is. You know now that thought, by descending into what was before only warmth, turns the warmth into flame, into fire. For in ordinary life thought appears to you in its imperceptible inwardness as abstract thought. When you sink it down into your own body, the thought appears to you as luminous, radiantly penetrating into the lungs, into the heart, into the liver. Just as the light which goes out from your brow stretches downward, so does thought illumine the inner organs, differentiating itself into various nuances of color.
One cannot merely say: I think through to the differentiations of my warmth; one must say: I enlighten myself by thinking through to the differentiations of my warmth.
[writing on the blackboard:]
O man, think in the full flow of your feeling
How the fire-powers are your helpers in being.
Everything in these eight lines can be summarized by letting what has been intimately worked through be summed up in your souls with the words:
[On the blackboard each element is placed after the corresponding mantra-phrase.]
O man, see yourself in the kingdom of elements.
Elements: Earth
Water
Air
Fire
Thus, do you measure yourselves, radiate, strengthen yourselves in respect to the body. But note how this strengthening, this measuring of the mere physical extends to the moral:
Here we have the support of man, the physical support. [In the first mantra sentence “support” is underlined.]
Here we have the formative forces. [In the second mantra sentence “formers” is underlined.] Still somewhat physical, but permeated with the etheric.
Here we have nurturer. [In the third mantra sentence “nurture” is underlined.] It already has a certain morality. Then as we ascend from water to air we feel that the beings who are in the air are permeated with morality.
And in the fire, we have not only nurturer, but also helpers, [“helpers” in the fourth mantra sentence in underlined], comrades, beings similar to us.
Just as we feel through to our bodies, we can also feel through to our souls. For this we must not concentrate on the elements, rather must we concentrate on what pulls the planets that circle the earth and pulls the air and sea currents along with it. We feel our physicality in our spirituality when we measure the body as has been explained; but we directly experience our soul-life.
[written on the blackboard:]
O man, let act in the depths of your soul
The cosmic powers that guide the planets.
It can also be summarized in the sentence:
O man, through the cosmic circling renew yourself.
We realize and experience the spiritual in us when we elevate the spirit to the stars, which reach us in their groupings and formations and become like a celestial script to us. If we preserve what is thus written in the starry heavens we will become aware of our own spirituality, that spirituality which doesn't speak about man personally, but about the entire universe.
[written on the blackboard:]
O man, retain in your spirit's creativity
The constellations' cosmological words.
Summarizing:
O man, recreate yourself through celestial wisdom.
Not by vague generalities, not by vague sensations are we able to gradually extract our souls from our physical bodies and pass over to the universe, but rather by grasping the elements in the specified way, by the movement of the planets, by the meaning in the stars. We unite with the universe when we do this.
And we will note that once the first part of the exercise is accomplished we feel a life in us, the life of the universe.
[Alongside the first eight lines of the mantra is written:]
Life
Once we have finished the second part of the exercise we feel love towards the whole world.
[Alongside the tenth and eleventh lines is written:]
Love
Once we have finished the third part we feel a sense of piety in us.
[Alongside the thirteenth and fourteenth lines is written:]
Piety
And it really is an ascension from life through love to piety, to a truly religious cosmic sense which can be undergone through such mantric words.
But if it is really undergone, if we really end up being pious through such an exercise, then the world ceases to be physical for us. Then we say to ourselves with total certainty: the physical in the world is only semblance, maya; the world is everywhere through and through spirit. As humans we belong to this spirit. And if we feel ourselves as spirit in the spirit-world, then we are beyond the threshold to the spiritual world.
Then, however, once we are beyond the threshold to the spiritual world, we sense how here, on this side, our body holds thinking, feeling and willing together through its own bodily force; how at the moment we are body-free in our experiencing, thinking, feeling and willing are no longer one, but threefold. Then it is as though by binding ourselves to the earth-powers in water, air, fire, earth, that by sending our will to the earth we become one with the earth through our will.
Furthermore, because we feel love in our souls for the movements of the planets, that is, for the spiritual beings who live therein, it is so that we experience the Powers circling cosmic space as feeling. And if we can say: the sun moves in the feeling of cosmic space, Mercury moves in the feeling of cosmic space, Mars moves in the feeling of cosmic space, then we have grasped feeling in its cosmic being separated from thinking and separated from willing.
And if we are able to grasp thinking in such a way that thoughts are freed from physical existence, it is as though our thinking were to fly out to the [resting] stars and rest there themselves.
[Translator's Note: in German the stars themselves can be referred to as “resting” stars, in contrast to the “wandering” or “moving” stars: the planets. In this lecture there is much play on words between the two concepts, which is necessarily lost in translation.]
And we say to ourselves when we have arrived on the other side of the threshold: my thinking rests in the resting stars; my feeling moves in the wandering stars [planets]; my willing unites with the earth forces. So thinking, feeling, willing are separated in the cosmos.
And they must be again joined together. Here on the earth man does not need to bind thinking, feeling and willing together, because they already are so due to the physical body being a unity. Thinking, feeling and willing would be constantly falling apart if they were not held together by the physical man, without his intention or awareness. Now though, on the other side of the threshold, they are divided so that thinking rests above with the stars, feeling circles with the planets, and willing unites with the forces of the earth. And with strong inner determination, with our own forces, we must bring them back together as a unity.
In doing this we must experience thinking, feeling and willing in such a way that we can communicate to thinking, which has gone to the stars, something of feeling and willing; to feeling, which is circling with the planets, communicate something of thinking and willing; to willing, which is bound to the earth, something of thinking and feeling. This something we indeed can do using such a mantric formula.
We must look up to the stars and with devotion say to ourselves: there is where your thinking lies. But I will bring the starry sky into movement; just as feeling likewise does for the planets, in spirit I will slowly move the starry sky. I feel myself attracted to the starry sky; I want to go up there and be at one with that star-filled heavens. Thus have I incorporated feeling and willing into thinking, which is bound to the stars.
Then I look up to the planets and feel: In these planets [Ger. wandering stars] my own feeling wanders. But I will attempt to fix the moment as the stars [Ger. fixed stars] are fixed in place. And through my rhythmic system - to which heart and lungs belong - I will become as one with the entire planetary system. Then I have assigned thinking and willing to feeling.
And when I become aware of how, through this mantric formula, I am bound to the earth as a human being, then I should add feeling and thinking to this being bound to the earth. In thought I should set the earth in motion so that like a planet I accompany it on its rounds without perceiving its weight: bound to it as if I were guiding the earth through cosmic space. Feeling is combined with willing. I add thinking to the mixture when I accompany the earth's movement in thought, but can bring it again to a standstill, thus making the earth itself a [fixed] star by my own meditating force of thought.
When I carry out such a meditation again and again, I gradually come to feel myself as a human being outside my body in the cosmos. For this, my dear sisters and brothers, this mantric formula can work on the soul with special force.
[written on the blackboard:]
Bring to thinking life
What as pure contemplation
(that is: as meditation, as contemplation)
in the soul light-filled
shine:
Feeling and willing
And you are spirit
Among pure spirits.
Secondly:
Bring to force of feeling
What as noble love
Through the soul warmly
weave:
Thinking and willing,
you are soul
In the realm of spirits.
Thirdly:
Bring to the Powers of will
What as spiritual impulse
For the soul actively
live:
Thinking and feeling,
And you shall see yourself
As body from spiritual heights.
Only seen thus does the human body appear in its true form.
What is gleaned from the spiritual world, what the initiate experiences in the spiritual world, if it is expressed in words, they are mantric words, and he who experiences them will be led into the spiritual world.
Therefore, if you let the words work on your soul, they are a true guide to the spiritual world:
Bring to thinking life
What as pure contemplation
On the soul light-filled
shine:
Feeling and willing,
And you are spirit
Among pure spirits.
Bring to force of feeling
What as noble love
Through the soul warmly
weave:
Thinking and willing
And you are soul
In the realm of spirits.
Bring to the Powers of will
What as spiritual impulse
For the soul actively
live:
Thinking and feeling,
And you shall see yourself
As body from spiritual heights.
Then, my dear sisters and brothers, when what lies in these mantric words is clearer and clearer to you, then when you come again and again to these lessons it will be with greater understanding, that is, with ever greater cosmic experience that you will hear these words:
O man, know thyself!
So resounds the cosmic-word.
You hear it strong in soul,
You feel it vast in spirit.Who speaks so vastly cosmic?
Who speaks so deeply heartfelt?Does it work through distant radiant space
Into your senses' sense of being?
Does it ring through waves of time
Into your life's evolving stream?Is it you yourself who
In feeling space, in experiencing timeCreate the Word, feeling foreign
In space's psychic vacancy,
Because you lose the force of thought
In time's destructive flow.
Blackboard Texts for the Ninth Class Lesson
Life
O man, touch and sense in your body's being
How earth forces support your existence. Earth
O man, experience in the whole round of your touch
How water-beings are the framers of your being. Water
O man, feel in the whole weaving of your life
How the powers of the air nurture your existence. Air
O man, think in the full flow of your feeling
How the fire-powers are your helpers in being. Fire
O man, see yourself in the kingdom of elements.Love
O man, let act in the depths of your soul
The cosmic powers that guide the planets.
O man, through the cosmic circling renew yourself.Piety
O man, retain in your spirit's creativity
The constellations' cosmological words.
Bring to thinking life
What as pure contemplation
On the soul light-filled
shine:
Feeling and willing,
And you are spirit
Among pure spirits.
Bring to force of feeling
What as noble love
Through the soul warmly
weave:
Thinking and willing
And you are soul
In the realm of spirits.
Bring to the Powers of will
What as spiritual impulse
For the soul actively
live:
Thinking and feeling,
And you shall see yourself
As body from spiritual heights.
Neunte Stunde
Meine lieben Freunde! Wir lassen zuerst - ohne dabei irgendwie etwas zu notieren - diejenige Mahnung an die Menschensecle an unserem Gemüte vorüberziehen, welche hinweist den Menschen auf das uralt heilige Wort des Erkennens:
O Mensch, erkenne dich selbst!
So tönt das Weltenwort.
Du hörst es seelenkräftig,
Du fühlst es geistgewaltig.Wer spricht so weltenmächtig?
Wer spricht so herzinniglich?Wirkt es durch des Raumes Weitenstrahlung
In deines Sinnes Seinserleben?
Tönt es durch der Zeiten Wellenweben
In deines Lebens Werdestrom?Bist du es selbst, der sich
Im Raumesfühlen, im Zeiterleben
Das Wort erschafft, dich fremd
Erfühlend in Raumes Seelenleere,
Weil du des Denkens Kraft
Verlierst im Zeitvernichtungsstrome.
Wir können, meine lieben Freunde, hinaufschauen in die Weiten der Sterne und unseren Blick ruhen lassen auf demjenigen, was uns entgegenleuchtet und entgegenglänzt aus den Weltenweiten in den Ruhesternen, in den Sternen, die uns bestimmte Formen ihrer Gruppierung entgegenbringen. Wir werden, wenn wir uns in das Erhabene hineinversetzen, was da aus den Weltenfernen auf uns wirkt, immer stärkere und stärkere innere Kraft gewinnen. Und wir werden insbesondere dann, wenn wir brauchen die Kraft, die Seele freizuhalten von dem Körperlichen, wir werden dann besonders darauf angewiesen sein, diesen Blick auf die Sternenwelt so zu richten, dass wir ihn rein innerlich richten. «Innerlich», damit ist gemeint: Wir haben den Anblick der Sterne so und so oft gehabt, wir haben ihn bewahrt in unserem Gemüte; wir sind nun nicht mehr darauf angewiesen, auf den äußeren Sternenhimmel zu schauen, um in unserem Bewusstsein regsam zu machen das gewaltige Bild des Himmelsdomes, der sternenbesetzt uns entgegenleuchtet. Wenn dieses Bild aus unserem eigenen Inneren auftaucht, wenn die Seele sich erkraftet, dieses Bild in sich selber zu erschaffen, dann wird sie erst recht in der Lage sein, durch diese erstarkten Kräfte ihr Seelisches freizubekommen vom Körperlichen.
Und wir können ferner hinschauen auf alles dasjenige, was uns durchstrahlt und durchströmt von den wandelnden Sternen, die den Umkreis um die Erde machen, die wohl auch in ihrem Umkreis mitreißen dasjenige, was auf der Erde webt und west an Wind und Wetter. Und wir können wiederum von alledem, wenn wir es im Gemüte bewahren, uns ein Bild machen, sodass wir dieses Hineinverwobensein in die Bewegung des Umkreises als ein Zweites erleben.
Und wir können dann, wenn wir aufmerksam werden auf alles dasjenige, was uns an die Erde fesselt, was da macht, dass wir ein schwerer Körper sind unter anderen schweren Körpern, was also in uns lebt als Empfindung unseres Erdgebundenseins, wir können dies in der Seele rege machen. Und es wird das ein Drittes sein.
Und aus diesen drei inneren Erlebnissen: Aus dem, was wir wie einen, aber jetzt in sich erglänzenden, in sich webenden und wesenden Gedanken gewonnen haben an den Ruhesternen; durch dasjenige, was wir haben, wenn wir uns, aufgehend in den Gang unserer eigenen Erde durch das Weltenall, aufgehend in all dasjenige, was die Wandelsterne in ihren Bewegungen bedeutungsvoll vom Raume herein uns sagen, wenn wir uns so, wie wir uns den Ruhesternen gegenüber als ruhender Mensch empfinden, selbst durch den Kosmos in Bewegung gekommen fühlen; wenn wir uns dann zum dritten fühlen als gebunden an die Erde, als gewissermaßen durch die Kraft der Erde an diese Erde gezogener Teil dieser Erde, dann werden wir ebenmäßig und richtig immer mehr und mehr dazu kommen, den Anfang damit zu machen, in die geistige Welt einzutreten. Und diesen Anfang, ihn kann heute jeder Mensch machen.
Da kann allerdings die Frage aufgeworfen werden: Wie kommt es denn, dass ihn so wenige Menschen machen? Darauf muss die Antwort werden: Die meisten Menschen wollen eigentlich nicht so intim erleben, um in das Geistige hineinzukommen. Sie verschmähen es, so intim zu erleben. Sie möchten tumultuarischer erleben, so, dass ihnen die geistige Welt entgegentritt mit allen Eigenschaften der sinnlichen Welt.
Die Menschen würden heute leicht zu überzeugen sein von der geistigen Welt, wenn ihnen zum Beispiel aus der geistigen Welt ein Tisch entgegentreten würde. Aber Tische gibt es nicht in der geistigen Welt, sondern nur geistige Wesenheiten gibt es in der geistigen Welt. Die müssen wahrgenommen werden mit demjenigen im Menschen, was selber geistig ist. Geistig aber ist dasjenige, was wir aus den Ruhesternen lesen können, was wir an der Bewegung der Wandelsterne fühlen können, was wir an Kräften, mit denen uns die Erde hält, um uns zum Menschen der Erde zu machen, was wir da erfühlen können.
Deshalb muss es jeder, der da will immer in richtigerem und richtigerem Sinne verstehen, auch innerlich verstehen. Mit dem gesunden Menschenverstande kann man ja alles Anthroposophische verstehen; aber innerlich verstehen heißt, es immer mehr und mehr auch ins innere Leben überführen. Wer da will dieses Ins-innere-Leben-Überführen innerlich als Verständnis haben, der muss sich dazu entschließen, wirklich zu einer solchen inneren, intimen Übung zu kommen, wie sie in diesen drei Gefühlen, Erlebnissen - wie wir es nennen, ist gleichgültig -, in diesen drei Gefühlen, Erlebnissen, sich ergibt.
Und da möchte heute dasjenige, was aus der geistigen Welt durch diese Schule zu Euch, meine lieben Schwestern und Brüder, fließt, das möchte zu Euch von dem sprechen, wie man durch eine intime Übung an seinem Menschenwesen mehr gewahr werden kann an Zusammenhang des Menschen mit der Welt, als man gewöhnt ist, im äußeren Bewusstsein wahrzunehmen.
Zuerst handelt es sich da darum, dass wir als Mensch wirklich uns zu dem im späteren Leben machen, was wir eigentlich als Kind im hohen Grade sind. Wir sind als Kind fast ganz Sinnesorgan, Auge, Ohr. Das Kind nimmt alles, was in seiner Umgebung geschieht, so wahr, wie wenn sein ganzer Körper Sinnesorgan wäre. Deshalb macht es alles nach, weil alles weitervibriert in ihm und wiederum mit derselben Weise, wie es in ihm vibriert, durch seinen Willen aus ihm heraus will.
Nun behält das Kind diese Sinne-Art seines ganzen Leibes eigentlich nur so lange, als wir es davor bewahren, dasjenige zu machen mit diesem seinem ganzen Leibes-Sinn, was wir später als erwachsener Mensch mit diesem Leibes-Sinn machen können. Das Kind entwickelt eigentlich diese innere Sinne-Fähigkeit so lange, als wir es tragen, als wir es immer so bewahren, dass es noch nicht den Kräften der Erde ausgesetzt ist. Und es ist eigentlich etwas ganz Wunderbares im Heranwachsen des Menschen, dass sein Sinne-Sein bewahrt wird vor der Einwirkung der Erdenkräfte, solange dieses Sinne-Sein ganz besonders lebendig ist.
In dem Augenblicke, wo das Kind sich auf seine Füße stellt, anfängt, sich so zu bewegen, dass seine Bewegungen in die Kräfte der Erde hineinfallen, das Kind sein eigenes Gleichgewicht halten muss, in dem Augenblicke hört auch das intime Sinne-Sein des Kindes auf. Sodass der Mensch, der sich ja nicht bis zu dieser ersten Stufe des Menschtums zurückerinnert, gar nicht weiß, was es eigentlich heißt, sich als ganzer Mensch wie ein Sinn zu fühlen. Aber wir müssen uns, wenn wir den Menschen immer mehr und mehr in uns erleben wollen, eben als ein solcher Sinn als ganzer Mensch erfühlen und erleben. Dann aber müssen wir uns als Tastorgan erleben, als ein einziges großes Tastorgan, das unser ganzer Leib ist.
Sie greifen, meine lieben Schwestern und Brüder, irgendetwas an. Es drückt auf Sie. Sie nehmen den Druck wahr. Oder Sie nehmen die Oberflächen-Beschaffenheit wahr, indem Sie tasten. Aber Sie tasten in Wirklichkeit fortwährend, indem Sie durch Ihren ganzen Körper von oben nach unten sich auf die Erde stellen und die Erde unten mit Ihren Fußsohlen betasten. Sie sind es nur so gewöhnt geworden, dass Sie es nicht beachten. Wenn Sie beginnen, es zu beachten, dann fühlen Sie sich als Mensch erst in den Erdenkräften drinnenstehend. Daher die Mahnung an der Schwelle zur geistigen Welt:
[Es wird an die Tafel geschrieben; siehe Seite 756-757]
O Mensch, ertaste in deines Leibes ganzem Sein,
Wie Erdenkräfte dir im Dasein Stütze sind.
Damit haben wir die erste Stufe dieses inneren Erlebens in uns wirken lassen.
Nun können wir uns aber wiederum als der Mensch fühlen, der da tastet. Wir können erleben dieses Tasten, können uns als der Mensch innerlich fühlen, in dem webt und lebt dieses Tasten. Wenn wir dazu aufsteigen, dieses Tasten selber nun zu empfinden, dann nehmen wir nicht die Erdenkräfte wahr, sondern dann fangen wir an, in uns die vibrierenden Wasserkräfte wahrzunehmen, die Flüssigkeitskräfte, die als Blut, als andere Säfte in unserem Körper wellen und weben. Und in diesen Kräften fühlen wir dann, wie alles, was in uns flüssig ist, was wellt und webt als Flüssiges, zusammenhängt mit dem Äther in der Welt.
[Es wird an die Tafel geschrieben:]
O Mensch, erlebe in deines Tastens ganzem Kreis,
Wie Wasserwesen dir im Dasein Bildner sind.
Wären nur die von uns als ganzer Mensch zu ertastenden Erdenkräfte in uns, wir würden darstellen etwas, was nach unten immerdar zerfällt. Die Wasserkräfte, welche in uns sind, die bilden uns eigentlich zu dem gestalteten Menschenleib aus dem Weltenäther heraus. Auf dasjenige, was in uns fest ist, feste Erdenkräfte sind, hat auch nur die Erde Einfluss. Auf dasjenige, was in uns Flüssigkeit ist, hat die ganze weite Welt des Äthers Einfluss.
Dann aber können wir uns wiederum versenken auf dritter Stufe in dasjenige, was da in der Flüssigkeit webt und lebt. Wir können das innerlich fühlen, dann, wenn wir zum Beispiel den Atem fühlen. Dann werden wir entdecken, wie wir als Menschen aus den Wesen des Atmens, aus den Wesen der Luft heraus fortwährend gepflegt werden. Wir wären hilflose Kinder in der Welt, wenn wir nicht fortwährend durchströmt würden von den Atemkräften, die uns pflegen, die uns aus hilflosen Kindern erst zu Menschen machen. [Es wird an die Tafel geschrieben]
O Mensch, erfühle in deines Lebens ganzem Weben,
Wie Luftgewalten dir im Dasein Pfleger sind.
Und nun können wir, wenn wir so zur dritten Stufe des innerlichen Erlebens aufgestiegen sind, zu der vierten kommen, wo wir uns innerlich durchwärmt fühlen, wo wir aufmerksam werden auf unsere eigene uns erfüllende Wärme, die im Atem, die in allem lebt, was luftförmig ist in uns. Denn nur durch dasjenige, was luftförmig in uns webt und lebt, wird die Wärme in uns, die uns auch körperlich verinnerlicht, in uns erzeugt.
Das aber, was da innerlich als Wärme in uns lebt, das können wir mit dem Gedanken erreichen. Und hier ist ein sehr bedeutsames Geheimnis der Menschennatur gegeben.
Meine lieben Schwestern und Brüder, Ihr könnet nicht erreichen mit dem Gedanken, sondern nur mit dem Tastgefühle, wie Erdenkräfte auf Euch wirken und Euch Stütze sind. Ihr könnet nicht mit dem Gedanken erreichen, sondern nur mit dem innerlichen Erleben, wie Wasserkräfte in Euch plastische Bildner sind. Ihr könnet nicht mit dem Gedanken erreichen, sondern nur innerlich erfühlen, wie Luftgewalten in Euch Pfleger sind. Ihr könnet dankbar sein diesen Pflegern, Ihr könnet lieben diese Pfleger, aber Ihr könnet sie nicht mit dem Gedanken unmittelbar erreichen. Aber das kann der Mensch meditierend erreichen, dass er sich in seine Wärme mit dem Gedanken hinunterversenkt, dass er wirklich innerlich sich durchlebt als ein Wärmewesen.
Der Arzt kommt mit dem Fieberthermometer; er misst die Wärme von außen. Wie sie verschieden sein kann an den einzelnen Körperstellen, so ist die Wärme im Inneren nach den einzelnen Organen verschieden. Man kann den Gedanken hinunterlenken zu den einzelnen Organen, und man kann finden den ganzen inneren Wärme-Organismus in sich differenziert. Man kann sich als WärmeOrganismus mit dem Gedanken erreichen.
Dann aber, wenn man das hat, dann hat man ein ganz bestimmtes Gefühl. Dieses Gefühl, meine lieben Schwestern und Brüder, ist hier an dieser Stelle vor Eure Seele hinzubringen. Denkt Ihr Euch, Ihr erreicht es, dass Ihr vom Gedanken ausgehend diesen Gedanken hinunterversenkt in Euren Organismus, sich differenzierende Wärme Ihr erreicht: die Wärme der Lunge, die Wärme der Leber, die Wärme des Herzens, die ja alle in Wirklichkeit gottgeistgeschaffene Wesenheiten in Euch sind. Ihr erreicht das mit dem Gedanken. Da wisst Ihr erst, wer der Gedanke ist. Vorher habt Ihr nicht gewusst, was der Gedanke ist. Da wisst Ihr erst, dass der Gedanke, indem er hinunterzicht in die Wärme, die vorherige bloße Wärme zur Flamme macht, zum Feuer macht. Denn der Gedanke, er erscheint Euch ja in einer unwahrnehmbaren Innerlichkeit als abstrakter Gedanke im gewöhnlichen Leben. Wenn Ihr ihn hinunterversenkt in den eigenen Leib, erscheint der Gedanke Euch so, dass er leuchtend, strahlend einzieht in Lunge, in Herz, in Leber. Wie das Licht, das von Eurer Stirne ausgeht, sich nach unten erstreckt, so durchleuchtet der Gedanke, sich differenzierend in die verschiedenen Farbennuancen hinein, die einzelnen Organe.
Man kann nicht bloß sagen: Ich durchdenke mich nach den Unterschiedenheiten meiner Wärme; man muss sagen: Ich durchleuchte mich durch den Gedanken nach den Verschiedenheiten meiner Wärme. [Es wird an die Tafel geschrieben:]
O Mensch, erdenke in deines Fühlens ganzem Strömen,
Wie Feuermächte dir im Dasein Helfer sind.
Das Ganze kann dann zusammengefasst werden. Alles dasjenige, was in diesen acht Zeilen liegt, kann zusammengefasst werden, indem man gewissermaßen dasjenige, was man da innerlich durchgemacht hat, noch einmal zusammenfassend auf seine Seele wirken lässt in den Worten: [Es wird an die Tafel geschrieben, die Elemente hinter die entsprechenden Mantramsätze:]
O Mensch, erschaue dich in der Elemente Reich.
Elemente:
Erde
Wasser
Luft
Feuer
So durchmisst Ihr Euch, durchstrahlt, durchkraftet Ihr Euch in Bezug auf den Leib. Aber bemerkt nur einmal, wie dieses Durchkraften, dieses Durchmessen aus dem mehr physischen Fühlen in das Moralische übergeht: Hier haben wir zuerst die Stütze des Menschen, die physische Stütze. [Im ersten Mantramsatz wird «Stütze» unterstrichen.]
Hier haben wir die plastischen Bildekräfte. [Im zweiten Mantramsatz wird «Bildner» unterstrichen.] Es ist noch etwas Physisches, obwohl vom Ätherischen durchzogen.
Hier haben wir Pfleger. [Im dritten Mantramsatz wird «Pfleger» unterstrichen.] Es ist schon etwas Moralisches. Denn kommt man herauf vom Wasser in die Luft, so empfindet man: Die Wesen, die in der Luft sind, sind schon von Moralität durchzogen.
Und im Feuer haben wir nicht nur Pfleger, sondern Helfer [«Helfer» im vierten Mantramsatz wird unterstrichen], Kameraden, Wesen, die gleichgeartet sind mit uns.
Ebenso aber, wie man den Leib in dieser Weise durchfühlt, kann man auch die Seele selber durchfühlen. Da muss man aber nicht auf die Elemente hin sich konzentrieren, da muss man sich konzentrieren auf dasjenige, was in den Wandelsternen um die Erde herum zieht und Luft- und Meeresströmungen mitreißt. Sein Leibliches in seiner Geistigkeit fühlt man, wenn man in der Weise, wie es auseinandergesetzt ist, den Leib durchmisst; sein Seelisches aber durchlebt man. Die weiteren Details sollen in späteren Stunden entwickelt werden; heute soll kurz dasjenige hingeschrieben werden, was dieses Durchfühlen der Seele erleben lässt. [Es wird an die Tafel geschrieben:]
O Mensch, so lasse walten in deiner Seele Tiefen
Der Wandelsterne weltenweisende Mächte.
Wieder kann das zusammengefasst werden in dem Satze:
O Mensch, erwese dich durch den Weltenkreis.
Dasjenige, wodurch wir auch das Geistige in uns erfassen und erleben, das wird erreicht, wenn wir den Geist erheben zu den Ruhesternen, zu denjenigen Sternen, die uns in ihren Gruppen Formungen, Gestaltungen entgegensenden und so wie zur Himmelsschrift für uns werden. Wenn wir bewahren dasjenige, was so eingeschrieben ist in den Sternenhimmel, dann werden wir unserer eigenen Geistigkeit in uns gewahr, jener Geistigkeit, die nicht persönlich vom Menschen spricht, sondern die vom ganzen Weltenall spricht.
[Es wird an die Tafel geschrieben]
O Mensch, erhalte dir in deines Geistes Schaffen
Der Ruhesterne himmelkündende Worte.
Zusammenfassend:
O Mensch, erschaffe dich durch die Himmelsweisheit.
Nicht mit allgemeinen Sätzen, nicht mit allgemeinen Empfindungen kommen wir dazu, mit unserem Seelischen aus dem Leibe immer mehr und mehr herauszukommen und in die Allwelt überzugehen, sondern allein dadurch kommen wir dazu, dass wir in so bestimmter Weise ergreifen Element nach Element, Bewegung der Wandelsterne, Sinn der Ruhesterne. Wir verbinden uns mit der Welt, indem wir dies tun.
Und wir werden bemerken, indem wir dies tun, dass wir in einer solchen Übung, indem wir ihren ersten Teil absolvieren, fühlen das Leben in uns, das Leben der Welt:
[Neben die ersten acht Mantramzeilen wird geschrieben:]
Leben
Indem wir den zweiten Teil absolvieren, fühlen wir uns in Liebe zu aller Welt: [Neben die zehnte und elfte Zeile wird geschrieben:]
Liebe
Indem wir den dritten Teil absolvieren, fühlen wir uns im Frommsein: [Neben die dreizehnte und vierzehnte Zeile wird geschrieben:]
Frommsein
Und es ist wirklich ein Hinaufheben des Menschen vom Leben durch die Liebe zum Frommsein, zum wirklich religiösen Welterleben, was durchgemacht werden kann an solchen mantrischen Worten.
Dann aber, wenn wirklich das so durchgemacht wird, wenn wir zuletzt endigen im Frommsein durch eine solche Übung, dann hört die Welt auf, physisch für uns zu sein. Dann sagen wir uns mit aller inneren Wahrheit: Das Physische an der Welt ist nur Schein, Maja; die Welt ist durch und durch überall Geist. Wir gehören als Mensch zu diesem Geiste. Und wenn wir uns als Geist in der Geistwelt fühlen, dann sind wir jenseits der Schwelle zur geistigen Welt.
Dann aber, wenn wir jenseits der Schwelle zur geistigen Welt sind, dann empfinden wir, wie unser Leib hier zusammenhält, durch seine äußerliche Leibeskraft zusammenhält Denken, Fühlen, Wollen; wie aber in diesem Augenblicke, wo wir leibfrei in unserem Erleben werden, Denken, Fühlen, Wollen eines nicht mehr sind, sondern eine Dreiheit sind. Denn es ist so, als ob wir, indem wir uns mit den Erdengewalten in Erde, Wasser, Luft, Feuer verbinden, wie wenn wir da unser Wollen der Erde zuführten und eins würden durch unser Wollen mit der Erde.
Es ist weiter, indem wir fühlen unsere Seele in Liebe zu den Bewegungen der Wandelsterne, das heißt zu den Geistwesen, welche darinnen leben, es ist so, dass wir da die kreisenden Gewalten des Weltenraumes erleben als Fühlen. Und wenn wir sagen können: Sonne bewegt sich im Gefühl des Weltenraumes, Merkur bewegt sich im Gefühl des Weltenraumes, Mars bewegt sich im Gefühl des Weltenraumes, dann haben wir das Fühlen in seinem Weltendasein getrennt vom Denken ergriffen und getrennt vom Wollen.
Und wenn wir das Denken so erfassen können, dass wir den Gedanken freibekommen vom physischen Dasein, dann ist es, wie wenn unser Denken weit hinausflöge zu den Ruhesternen und in den Ruhesternen selber ruhte. Und wir sagen uns, wenn wir jenseits der Schwelle angekommen sind: Mein Denken ruht in den Ruhesternen; mein Fühlen bewegt sich in den Wandelsternen; mein Wollen gliedert sich ein den Kräften der Erde. Und Denken, Fühlen, Wollen sind im Weltenall aufgeteilt.
Und sie müssen wiederum zusammengefügt werden. Hier auf der Erde braucht der Mensch nicht Denken, Fühlen und Wollen zusammenzubinden, denn sie sind dadurch, dass der physische Leib eine Einheit ist, für den physischen Menschen zusammengebunden. Fortwährend würden Denken, Fühlen und Wollen auseinanderfallen, wenn sie nicht durch den physischen Menschen, ohne dass der Mensch es beabsichtigen oder wollen kann, zusammengehalten werden. Jetzt aber sind sie so getrennt, Denken, Fühlen und Wollen, dass das Denken oben ruht bei den Fixsternen, dass das Fühlen kreist mit den Planeten, dass das Wollen unten sich eingliedert den Kräften der Erde. Und wir müssen uns mit festem innerem Erkraften hinstellen und die drei, die weit auseinanderliegen, durch unsere eigenen Kräfte zu einer Einheit zusammenfassen.
Dazu müssen wir so, wie wir das durch eine solche mantrische Formel können, Denken, Fühlen und Wollen empfinden, damit wir dem Denken, das zu den Ruhesternen gegangen ist, etwas mitteilen können vom Wollen und Fühlen; dem Fühlen, das in den Wandelsternen kreist, etwas mitteilen können vom Denken und Wollen; dem Wollen, das an die Erde gebunden ist, etwas mitteilen können vom Denken und Fühlen.
Wir müssen, hinaufschauend zu den Ruhesternen, andächtig uns sagen: Da ruhet dein Denken. Aber ich bringe diesen ganzen Sternenhimmel in Bewegung, wie das Gefühl es sonst bei den Planeten tut, ich bewege im Geiste den Sternenhimmel langsam hin. Ich fühle mich wie angezogen vom Sternenhimmel; ich möchte hinauf, ich möchte eins werden als ganzer Mensch mit dem Sternenhimmel. So habe ich Fühlen und Wollen dem an die Ruhesterne gebundenen Denken einverleibt.
Nun schaue ich hin auf die Wandelsterne und fühle: In diesen Wandelsternen wandelt mein eigenes Fühlen. Aber ich will mich bemühen, den Augenblick, den ich angeschaut habe, der sich immer in den Wandelsternen verändert, festzuhalten, wie fest sonst nur die Fixsterne stehen. Und ich will mit meinem ganzen mittleren Menschen, mit all dem, was zu Herz und Lunge gehört, eins werden mit dem ganzen Planetensystem. Dann habe ich das Denken und das Wollen zugeteilt dem Fühlen.
Und werde ich gewahr, wie ich als Mensch gebunden bin an die Erde, durch diese mantrische Formel, dann soll ich zumischen diesem Gebundensein an die Erde Fühlen und Denken. Ich soll in mir im Gedanken die Erde in Bewegung setzen, sodass ich mit ihr wie ein Wandelstern fortkreise und ihre Schwere nicht wahrnehme, die Gebundenheit der Erde mir so wird, wie wenn ich die Erde durch den Weltenraum tragen würde. Fühlen ist dem Wollen beigemischt. Denken mische ich bei, wenn ich mit der Erde mich fortbewege in Gedanken, aber wieder stillhalten kann, die Erde selber zum Ruhestern durch meine eigene Gedankenkraft meditierend mache.
Wenn ich solch eine Meditation durchführe und immer wieder und wieder durchführe, ich komme dazu, mich als Mensch im Weltenall außer dem Leibe nach und nach zu fühlen.
Dazu lasse man, meine lieben Schwestern und Brüder, wirken eine mantrische Formel, die besonders kräftig auf die Seele wirken kann: [Es wird an die Tafel geschrieben; siehe Seite 757:]
Trag’ in Denk-Erleben
Das als reines Sinnen
— das heißt: als Meditieren, als Sinnen —
In der Seele lichtvoll glänzt
Fühlen und Wollen
Und du bist Geist
Unter reinen Geistern
Als Zweites:
Trag’ in Fühlenskräfte
Die als edle Liebe
Durch die Seele wärmend weben
Denken und Wollen
Und du bist Seele
Im Reich der Geister
Als Drittes:
Trag’ in Willensmächte
Die als Geistestriebe
Um die Seele wirkend leben
Denken und Fühlen
Und du schaust dich selbst
Als Leib aus Geisteshöhen
Erst so angeschaut erscheint der Leib des Menschen in seiner wahren
Gestalt. Was so erkundet wird aus der geistigen Welt, was erlebt der Ein geweihte in der geistigen Welt, wenn das so in Worte gefasst wird, so sind es mantrische Worte, und derjenige, der es nacherlebt, wird hineingeführt in die geistige Welt.
Daher ist es eine wirkliche Führerschaft in die geistige Welt, wenn Eure Seele eben auf sich die Worte wirken lässt:
Trag’ in Denk-Erleben
Das als reines Sinnen
In der Seele lichtvoll glänzt
Fühlen und Wollen
Und du bist Geist
Unter reinen GeisternTrag’ in Fühlenskräfte
Die als edle Liebe
Durch die Seele wärmend weben
Denken und Wollen
Und du bist Seele
Im Reich der GeisterTrag’ in Willensmächte
Die als Geistestriebe
Um die Seele wirkend leben
Denken und Fühlen
Und du schaust dich selbst
Als Leib aus Geisteshöhen
Dann, wenn solches Euch immer klarer und klarer wird, meine lieben Schwestern und Brüder, was in solchen mantrischen Worten liegt, dann werdet Ihr, wenn Ihr immer wieder und wieder kommt zu diesen Stunden, mit immer größerem Verständnisse, das heißt mit immer größerem Welterleben hier hören die Worte:
O Mensch, erkenne dich selbst!
So tönt das Weltenwort.
Du hörst es seelenkräftig,
Du fühlst es geistgewaltig.Wer spricht so weltenmächtig?
Wer spricht so herzinniglich?Wirkt es durch des Raumes Weitenstrahlung
In deines Sinnes Seinserleben?
Tönt es durch der Zeiten Wellenweben
In deines Lebens Werdestrom?Bist du es selbst, der sich
Im Raumesfühlen, im Zeiterleben
Das Wort erschafft, dich fremd
Erfühlend in Raumes Seelenleere,
Weil du des Denkens Kraft
Verlierst im Zeitvernichtungsstrome.
Ninth Hour
My dear friends! First, without writing anything down, let us allow the warning to the human race to pass through our minds, which points people to the ancient sacred word of knowledge:
O man, know thyself!
So sounds the word of the world.
You hear it with the power of your soul,
You feel it with the power of your spirit.Who speaks so powerfully?
Who speaks so heartfelt?Does it work through the vast radiance of space
In the experience of your mind?
Does it sound through the waves of time
In the stream of your life?Is it you yourself who,
In the feeling of space, in the experience of time,
Creates the word, feeling yourself alien
In the emptiness of space,
Because you lose the power of thought
in the stream of time's destruction.
We can, my dear friends, look up into the vastness of the stars and rest our gaze on that which shines and glitters toward us from the vastness of the worlds in the stars of rest, in the stars that present us with certain forms of their grouping. We will, when we immerse ourselves in the sublime, which affects us from the distant worlds, we will gain ever stronger and stronger inner strength. And especially when we need the strength to keep the soul free from the physical, we will then be particularly dependent on directing this gaze at the starry world in such a way that we direct it purely inwardly. “Inwardly” means: we have seen the stars so often, we have preserved this sight in our minds; we are now no longer dependent on looking at the external starry sky to activate in our consciousness the powerful image of the dome of heaven, studded with stars and shining down on us. When this image emerges from within ourselves, when the soul gains the strength to create this image within itself, then it will be able to free its soul from the physical through these strengthened powers.
And we can also look at everything that shines through and flows through us from the moving stars that orbit the Earth, which also carry along in their orbit everything that weaves and woves on Earth in wind and weather. And we can, in turn, form a picture of all this in our minds, so that we experience this interweaving in the movement of the orbit as a second thing.
And then, when we become attentive to everything that binds us to the earth, that makes us a heavy body among other heavy bodies, that lives in us as a feeling of our earthbound nature, we can make this active in our soul. And it will be a third experience.
And from these three inner experiences: from what we have gained as a but now shining within us, weaving and being within us, thoughts gained from the fixed stars; through what we have when we, rising in the course of our own Earth through the universe, rising in all that the wandering stars tell us meaningfully from space in their movements, when we, just as we feel ourselves to be resting human beings in relation to the fixed stars, even through the cosmos in motion; when we then feel, thirdly, as bound to the earth, as a part of this earth drawn to it, as it were, by the power of the earth, then we will evenly and correctly come more and more to begin to enter the spiritual world. And every human being can make this beginning today.
However, the question may be raised: How is it that so few people make this beginning? The answer must be: Most people do not actually want to experience such intimacy in order to enter the spiritual world. They spurn such intimate experiences. They want to experience something more tumultuous, so that the spiritual world confronts them with all the characteristics of the sensory world.
People today would be easily convinced of the spiritual world if, for example, a table from the spiritual world appeared before them. But there are no tables in the spiritual world, only spiritual beings. They must be perceived with that part of the human being which is itself spiritual. Spiritual, however, is that which we can read from the fixed stars, what we can feel in the movement of the wandering stars, what we can feel in the forces with which the earth holds us in order to make us human beings of the earth.
Therefore, anyone who wants to understand in an ever more correct sense must also understand inwardly. With common sense, one can understand everything anthroposophical; but to understand inwardly means to transfer it more and more into one's inner life. Anyone who wants to understand this transfer into inner life must decide to really engage in such an inner, intimate exercise as is found in these three feelings, experiences — whatever we call them — in these three feelings, experiences.
And today, what flows to you, my dear sisters and brothers, from the spiritual world through this school, wants to speak to you about how, through an intimate exercise, you can become more aware of the connection between the human being and the world than you are accustomed to perceiving in your outer consciousness.
First of all, it is a matter of us as human beings really becoming in later life what we actually are to a high degree as children. As children, we are almost entirely sensory organs, eyes, ears. Children perceive everything that happens in their environment as if their whole body were a sensory organ. That is why it imitates everything, because everything continues to vibrate within it and, in turn, vibrates out of it through its will in the same way that it vibrates within it.
Now, the child actually retains this sensory nature of its entire body only as long as we protect it from doing with its entire bodily senses what what we as adults can later do with this bodily sense. The child actually develops this inner sense ability as long as we carry it, as long as we always protect it so that it is not yet exposed to the forces of the earth. And it is actually something quite wonderful in the growth of the human being that its sense being is protected from the influence of the forces of the earth as long as this sense being is particularly alive.
The moment the child stands on its feet and begins to move in such a way that its movements fall into the forces of the earth, the child has to maintain its own balance, and at that moment the child's intimate sense being also ceases. So that human beings, who do not remember this first stage of humanity, do not know what it actually means to feel like a whole human being as a sense. But if we want to experience the human being more and more within ourselves, we must feel and experience ourselves as such a sense as a whole human being. Then, however, we must experience ourselves as a tactile organ, as a single large tactile organ that is our whole body.
You reach out, my dear sisters and brothers, and touch something. It presses against you. You perceive the pressure. Or you perceive the surface texture by touching. But in reality, you are constantly touching by standing on the earth with your whole body from top to bottom and touching the earth below with the soles of your feet. You have simply become so accustomed to this that you do not notice it. When you begin to notice it, then you feel yourself as a human being standing within the forces of the earth. Hence the warning at the threshold to the spiritual world:
[It is written on the blackboard; see pages 756-757]
O human being, feel with your whole being,
How the forces of the earth support you in your existence.
With this, we have allowed the first stage of this inner experience to work within us.
Now, however, we can feel ourselves again as the human being who is feeling. We can experience this feeling, we can feel ourselves as the human being in whom this feeling weaves and lives. When we rise to the level of feeling this feeling ourselves, we do not perceive the forces of the earth, but we begin to perceive within ourselves the vibrating forces of water, the fluid forces that surge and weave in our bodies as blood and other juices. And in these forces we then feel how everything that is fluid within us, everything that surges and weaves as fluid, is connected with the ether in the world.
[It is written on the board:]
O human being, experience in your entire circle of feeling,
How water beings are your creators in existence.
If only the earth forces that we as whole human beings can feel were within us, we would represent something that is constantly decaying downward. The water forces that are within us actually form us into the shaped human body out of the world ether. Only the earth has influence on that which is solid within us, the solid earth forces. The whole wide world of ether has influence on that which is fluid within us.
But then we can immerse ourselves again, on the third level, in that which weaves and lives in the fluid. We can feel this inwardly, for example, when we feel our breath. Then we will discover how we as human beings are constantly nurtured by the beings of breathing, by the beings of the air. We would be helpless children in the world if we were not constantly permeated by the forces of breath that nurture us, that transform us from helpless children into human beings. [It is written on the board]
O human being, feel in the whole weaving of your life,
How the forces of air care for you in your existence.
And now, having ascended to the third stage of inner experience, we can move on to the fourth, where we feel warmed from within, where we become aware of our own fulfilling warmth, which lives in our breath, in everything that is air-like within us. For it is only through that which weaves and lives in us in the form of air that the warmth within us, which also internalizes us physically, is generated in us.
But what lives within us as warmth can be achieved with our thoughts. And here lies a very significant secret of human nature.
My dear sisters and brothers, you cannot reach with your thoughts, but only with your sense of touch, how the forces of the earth affect you and support you. You cannot reach with your thoughts, but only with your inner experience, how the forces of water are plastic formers within you. You cannot reach with your thoughts, but only feel inwardly how the forces of air are nurturers within you. You can be grateful to these nurturers, you can love these nurturers, but you cannot reach them directly with your thoughts. But man can achieve this through meditation, by sinking down into his warmth with his thoughts, by truly living through himself inwardly as a being of warmth.
The doctor comes with the thermometer; he measures the warmth from the outside. Just as it can vary in different parts of the body, so the warmth inside varies according to the individual organs. One can direct one's thoughts down to the individual organs and find the whole inner warmth organism differentiated within oneself. One can reach oneself as a warmth organism with one's thoughts.
But then, when you have that, you have a very specific feeling. This feeling, my dear sisters and brothers, must be brought before your soul at this point. Imagine that you achieve this by sinking this thought down into your organism, differentiating warmth: the warmth of the lungs, the warmth of the liver, the warmth of the heart, which are all in reality divine spirits created within you. You achieve this with your thoughts. Only then do you know what thought is. Before, you did not know what thought is. Only then do you know that thought, by sinking down into the warmth, transforms the previous mere warmth into a flame, into fire. For thought appears to you in an imperceptible inner life as an abstract thought in ordinary life. When you sink it down into your own body, thought appears to you as if it were shining and radiating into your lungs, your heart, your liver. Just as the light that emanates from your forehead extends downward, so the thought illuminates the individual organs, differentiating itself into the various shades of color.
One cannot simply say: I think through the differences in my warmth; one must say: I illuminate myself through thought according to the differences in my warmth. [It is written on the board:]
O human being, contemplate in the whole flow of your feelings,
How the powers of fire are your helpers in existence.
The whole thing can then be summarized. Everything contained in these eight lines can be summarized by allowing what one has gone through inwardly to once again have an effect on one's soul in the words: [The elements are written on the board behind the corresponding mantras:]
O human being, behold yourself in the realm of the elements.
Elements:
Earth
Water
Air
Fire
In this way you measure yourself, radiate yourself, empower yourself in relation to the body. But notice how this empowerment, this measuring, transitions from the more physical feeling to the moral: Here we first have the support of the human being, the physical support. [In the first mantra sentence, “support” is underlined.]
Here we have the plastic formative forces. [In the second mantra sentence, “formative” is underlined.] It is still something physical, although permeated by the etheric.
Here we have nurturers. [In the third mantra sentence, “nurturer” is underlined.] It is already something moral. For when one rises from the water into the air, one feels that the beings in the air are already permeated by morality.
And in fire we have not only nurturers, but helpers [“helpers” is underlined in the fourth mantra sentence], comrades, beings who are similar to us.
But just as one can feel through the body in this way, one can also feel through the soul itself. However, one must not concentrate on the elements, but on that which moves around the earth in the changing stars and carries along the air and sea currents. One feels one's physical body in its spirituality when one measures the body in the way it is composed; but one experiences one's soul. Further details will be developed in later lessons; today, we will briefly write down what allows us to experience this feeling of the soul. [It is written on the board:]
O human being, let the depths reign in your soul
The world-guiding powers of the changing stars.
This can again be summarized in the sentence:
O human being, become aware of yourself through the circle of the world.
That through which we also grasp and experience the spiritual within us is achieved when we raise our spirit to the stars of rest, to those stars which, in their groups, send us formations and and thus become like heavenly scriptures for us. If we preserve that which is inscribed in the starry sky, then we become aware of our own spirituality within us, that spirituality which does not speak personally of human beings, but speaks of the entire universe.
[It is written on the board]
O human, preserve in your spirit's creation
The words of the star of rest proclaiming the heavens.
In summary:
O human, create yourself through the wisdom of the heavens.
It is not with general phrases, not with general feelings that we come to emerge more and more from our bodies with our souls and pass into the universe, but only by grasping element by element, movement of the changing stars, meaning of the stars of rest, in a certain way. We connect with the world by doing this.
And in doing so, we will notice that in such an exercise, as we complete the first part, we feel the life within us, the life of the world:
[Next to the first eight lines of the mantra is written:]
Life
By completing the second part, we feel ourselves in love with the whole world: [Next to the tenth and eleventh lines is written:]
Love
By completing the third part, we feel ourselves in piety: [Next to the thirteenth and fourteenth lines is written:]
Piety
And it is truly an elevation of the human being from life through love of piety, to a truly religious experience of the world, which can be achieved through such mantric words.
But then, when this is truly experienced, when we finally end up in piety through such practice, the world ceases to be physical for us. Then we say to ourselves with all inner truth: The physical aspect of the world is only illusion, Maya; the world is thoroughly spirit everywhere. As human beings, we belong to this spirit. And when we feel ourselves as spirit in the spirit world, then we are beyond the threshold to the spiritual world.
But then, when we are beyond the threshold to the spiritual world, we feel how our body holds together here, how its external physical power holds together thinking, feeling, and willing; but how, at this moment, when we become body-free in our experience, thinking, feeling, and willing are no longer one, but are a trinity. For it is as if, by connecting ourselves with the earthly forces in earth, water, air, and fire, we were bringing our will to the earth and becoming one with the earth through our will.
Furthermore, by feeling our soul in love with the movements of the wandering stars, that is, with the spirit beings who live within them, we experience the circling forces of the universe as feeling. And when we can say: The sun moves in the feeling of the universe, Mercury moves in the feeling of the universe, Mars moves in the feeling of the universe, then we have grasped feeling in its cosmic existence separately from thinking and separately from will.
And when we can grasp thinking in such a way that we free thought from physical existence, it is as if our thinking flew far out to the stars of rest and rested in the stars of rest themselves. And we say to ourselves, when we have arrived beyond the threshold: My thinking rests in the stars of rest; my feeling moves in the stars of change; my will is integrated into the forces of the earth. And thinking, feeling, and willing are divided in the universe.
And they must be brought together again. Here on earth, human beings do not need to bind together thinking, feeling, and willing, because they are bound together for physical human beings by the fact that the physical body is a unity. Thinking, feeling, and willing would constantly fall apart if they were not held together by the physical human being, without the human being being able to intend or will it. But now they are so separated, thinking, feeling, and willing, that thinking rests above with the fixed stars, feeling circles with the planets, and willing integrates itself below with the forces of the earth. And we must stand with firm inner strength and bring the three, which lie far apart, together into a unity through our own powers.
To do this, we must, as we can through such a mantric formula, feel thinking, feeling, and willing, so that we can communicate something of willing and feeling to thinking, which has gone to the fixed stars; communicate something of thinking and willing to feeling, which circles in the changing stars; and communicate something of our thinking and feeling to the will that is bound to the earth.
Looking up at the stars of rest, we must say to ourselves reverently: There your thinking rests. But I set this whole starry sky in motion, as feeling otherwise does with the planets; I slowly move the starry sky in my mind. I feel as if I am drawn to the starry sky; I want to ascend, I want to become one with the starry sky as a whole human being. In this way, I have incorporated feeling and will into the thinking bound to the stars of rest.
Now I look up at the changing stars and feel: my own feeling changes in these changing stars. But I want to try to hold on to the moment I have looked at, which is always changing in the changing stars, as firmly as the fixed stars otherwise stand. And I want to become one with the whole planetary system with my whole middle human being, with everything that belongs to the heart and lungs. Then I have assigned thinking and willing to feeling.
And when I become aware of how I, as a human being, am bound to the earth through this mantric formula, then I shall add feeling and thinking to this bond with the earth. I should set the earth in motion in my thoughts, so that I circle with it like a wandering star and do not perceive its heaviness, so that the earth's bondage becomes to me as if I were carrying the earth through space. Feeling is mixed with willing. I add thinking when I move with the earth in my thoughts, but can remain still again, making the earth itself a stationary star through my own power of thought and meditation.
When I perform such a meditation and perform it again and again, I gradually come to feel myself as a human being in the universe outside of my body.
To this end, my dear sisters and brothers, let us use a mantric formula that can have a particularly powerful effect on the soul: [It is written on the board; see page 757:]
Carry in thought-experience
That which is pure contemplation
— that is: as meditation, as contemplation —
In the soul, shining brightly
Feeling and willing
And you are spirit
Among pure spirits
Second:
Carry in powers of feeling
Which as noble love
Warmly weave through the soul
Thinking and willing
And you are soul
In the realm of spirits
Thirdly:
Carry in powers of will
Which as spiritual impulses
Live around the soul
Thinking and feeling
And you see yourself
As a body from spiritual heights
Only when viewed in this way does the human body appear in its true
form. What is thus explored from the spiritual world, what the initiated person experiences in the spiritual world, when put into words in this way, are mantric words, and the one who relives it is led into the spiritual world.
Therefore, it is a true guidance into the spiritual world when your soul allows the words to work on itself:
Carry in thought-experience
That as pure thought
Shines brightly in the soul
Feeling and willing
And you are spirit
Among pure spiritsCarry in the powers of feeling
Which as noble love
Weave warmly through the soul
Thinking and willing
And you are soul
In the realm of spiritsCarry in powers of will
Which as spiritual impulses
Live around the soul
Thinking and feeling
And you see yourself
As a body from spiritual heights
Then, when this becomes clearer and clearer to you, my dear sisters and brothers, what lies in such mantric words, then you will, when you come again and again to these hours, with ever greater understanding, that is, with ever greater world experience, hear the words here:
O human being, know thyself!
Thus sounds the word of the world.
You hear it with the power of your soul,
You feel it with the power of your spirit.Who speaks so powerfully?
Who speaks so heartfelt?Does it work through the vast radiation of space
Into the experience of being in your mind?
Does it sound through the waves of time
Into the stream of becoming in your life?Is it you yourself who,
In the feeling of space, in the experience of time
Creates the word, feeling yourself foreign
In the emptiness of space's soul,
Because you lose the power of thought
In the stream of time's destruction.