At the present stage of evolution there are three possible conditions of
soul in which man ordinarily lives his life between birth and death:
waking, sleeping and, between the two, dreaming. The last-mentioned will
be briefly dealt with in a later part of this book; for the moment we
shall consider life simply as it alternates between its two main
conditions—waking and sleeping. Before he can “know” for himself in higher
worlds, man has to add to these two a third condition of soul.
During waking life the soul is given up to the impressions of the senses,
and to the thoughts and pictures that these evoke in it. During sleep the
senses cease to make any impression, and the soul loses consciousness. The
whole of the day’s experience sinks down into the sea of unconsciousness.
Let us now consider how it would be if man were able to become conscious
during sleep, notwithstanding that all impressions of the senses were
completely obliterated, as they are in deep sleep. Now would any memory
remain to him of what had happened while he was awake. Would his soul find
itself in a state of vacuity? Would it be incapable of having any
experiences? This is a question that can only be answered if conditions
like or similar to those under discussion can actually be brought about.
If the soul is capable of experiencing anything, even when
sense-activities and recollection of such activities are lacking, then
that soul would, so far as the external world is concerned, be “asleep”;
and yet the soul would not be sleeping but awake to a world of reality.
Now such a condition of consciousness can be attained if man makes these
psychic experiences possible toward which occult science guides him. And
everything that occult science tells us about those worlds beyond the
sensible, has been found through such a condition of consciousness.
In the foregoing parts of this book certain communications have been made
concerning the higher worlds; and in the following pages, as far as is
possible in a book of this kind, methods will be discussed whereby the
state of consciousness requisite for such investigations may be acquired.
This state of consciousness resembles that of sleep, in only one respect,
namely: that through it, all outward sense activity ceases, and also all
thoughts that might be aroused by the action of the senses, are
obliterated. But although the soul has no power to experience anything
consciously in sleep, yet it receives this power through this very state
of consciousness. And through it a capacity for experiencing is awakened
in the soul which in every day life can be awakened only through sense
impressions. The awakening of the soul to this higher state of
consciousness is called _Initiation_.
The methods of initiation lead man away from the state of ordinary
day-consciousness into such a soul activity as enables him to use his
spiritual organs of perception. Like germs these organs lie dormant in the
soul and must be developed. Now it may be that a person, at some
particular moment of his earthly life, makes the discovery that these
higher organs have developed within his soul without previous preparation.
It is a kind of involuntary self-awakening. Such a person will become
conscious of a change affecting his entire being; his soul’s experiences
will have been enriched beyond measure and he will find that no
experiences of the sense-world can bring him such spiritual happiness,
such soul satisfaction and inner warmth as that which now opens up to him,
which no physical eye can see and no hand can touch. From the spiritual
world strength and a sense of security in all situations in life, will
flow into his will. There are instances of such self-initiation; but they
should not give rise to the idea that the only right course is to wait for
the coming of such self-initiation, and to do nothing toward bringing
about initiation through regular training. We need not here give further
space to the subject of self-initiation, since it may take place without
regard to rules of any kind whatsoever.
What we have to consider is how by training, one may develop those organs
of perception, lying dormant in the Soul. Those who do not feel themselves
especially impelled toward doing something for their own development may
easily say that man stands under the guidance of spiritual powers, that
such guidance should therefore not be interfered with, and that the
moment, deemed by those powers to be the right one for revealing another
world to the soul, should be awaited in patience. Indeed, persons who are
of this opinion are inclined to consider it a kind of presumption, or
unjustifiable desire for any one to interfere with the wisdom of such
spiritual guidance.
Those who think in this way will only change their opinion if some other
mode of presenting the case makes a sufficiently strong impression upon
them. If they were to say to themselves, “This wise guidance has endowed
me with certain faculties, and it has done so, not that I should let them
lie idle, but rather that I should use them. Indeed, the very wisdom of
such guidance lies in the fact of its having placed in me the rudiments of
those organs necessary for a higher state of consciousness. I can,
therefore, rightly comprehend this guidance only when I regard it as my
duty to do everything in my power that may serve to bring such rudimentary
growths to their proper development.” Should such thoughts make a
sufficiently strong impression on the mind, scruples against training for
the attainment of higher consciousness will disappear.
There is, it is true, another scruple which may arise in the mind with
regard to such schooling. A person may say to himself: “This development
of the inner faculties of the soul means an invasion of man’s most hidden
sanctuary. It involves a certain change of the entire human being: the
method for such a change cannot be worked out by any ordinary procedure of
thought, for the manner in which the higher worlds are attained can be
known only to those to whom the path has become visible by reason of
experience. If, therefore, I turn to such an one, I am allowing him to
exercise his influence over the innermost sanctuary of my soul.” Any one
given to this attitude of mind will hardly find it reassuring if the
methods for bringing about a higher state of consciousness are imparted to
him in book form. For it is not a question of receiving communications
either verbally or from some person who, having the knowledge, has set the
same down in a book to which we have access. Now there are people
possessing knowledge of the rules for developing the spiritual organs of
perception who are of the opinion that these rules ought not to be
entrusted to a book. These people, for the most part, consider the
communication of certain truths relating to the spiritual world as
forbidden. But this view must be characterized as in a certain sense out
of date in view of the present stage of human evolution. It is true that
the communication of the rules referred to can be made only up to a
certain point. Yet what is imparted leads so far that one who applies it
to his soul-life makes such progress in knowledge that he is able to go on
by himself. This way then leads onward in a manner of which a true idea
can be gained only through what has been previously experienced. From all
these facts, scruples may arise concerning the path of spiritual
knowledge.
These scruples however disappear when one clearly understands the
essential nature of that course of development which is adapted to our
age. Of this latter method of developing we shall speak here and other
methods will be only briefly referred to.
The method of training to be here discussed furnishes to him who has the
will for a higher development, the means for accomplishing the
transformation of his soul. Any questionable encroachment on the
personality of the student would only then be possible, should the teacher
proceed to carry out the change by methods of which the pupil was not
conscious. But no true teacher of occult science in our day would make use
of any such method, by which indeed, the pupil would be reduced to a blind
tool. The teacher gives his pupil instructions as to the rules of conduct
he is to pursue, and the pupil carries them out. At the same time, should
the case seem to demand it, the teacher does not withhold the reasons
justifying these rules of conduct.
The acceptance of the rules, and their application by a person seeking
spiritual development, need not be a matter of blind belief. Such a belief
ought to be quite out of the question in this sphere. One who studies the
nature of the human soul as far as it can be followed by ordinary
self-observation, without occult training may, after accepting the rules
recommended for spiritual training, ask himself, “How do these rules act
upon the life of the soul?” This question may be satisfactorily answered
previous to any schooling by an unbiased use of common sense. Before these
rules are adopted, true conceptions may be gained as to the way in which
they operate. The effect can be _experienced_ only during training, but
even then the experience will always be accompanied by an understanding of
the experience, if each step that is to be taken is tested by sound
judgment. And in this age any true spiritual science will only suggest
such rules for training as can be vindicated by sound judgment. For him
who is willing to simply trust himself to such schooling and does not
permit prejudice to drive him into _blind_ faith, all scruples will vanish
and objections against a regular training for higher states of
consciousness will no longer disturb him.
Even such people as may have arrived at a state of inward maturity,—which
sooner or later would lead to the self-awakening of these spiritual organs
of perception—even for these, training is by no means superfluous. On the
contrary it is especially adapted to them. For there are but few cases in
which personal initiation does not have to travel along tortuous and
devious ways, and training spares them the traversing of such by-paths,
leading them forward in a straight line. In cases where such
self-initiation comes to a soul, the reason is that the required degree of
ripeness had already been attained in the course of previous incarnations.
It may easily happen that such a soul possesses a certain dim intuition of
its ripeness, and by reason of this very feeling may assume an attitude of
disinclination toward training. A feeling of this kind may produce a
certain degree of pride, which refuses to place confidence in a teacher.
Now it can happen that a certain degree of soul development may remain
hidden up to a certain age and only then reveal itself. But such schooling
may be just the very means needed to call it forth. Should the person hold
aloof from such training, it may happen that the power will remain dormant
during that particular Life, and will only reappear in a later
incarnation.
The rising to a supersensible state of consciousness can only proceed from
ordinary waking day-consciousness. It is in this consciousness that the
soul lives prior to its ascent, and schooling will furnish the means to
lead it out of this consciousness. The first steps which the schooling
here under consideration prescribes, are such as can still be
characterized as actions of the ordinary day-consciousness. It is just
those quiet acts of the soul which are the most effective steps. This
requires that the soul should give itself up to definite perceptions and
these perceptions are such as are able by their very nature to exercise an
awakening influence upon certain hidden faculties of the inner nature of
man.
They thereby differ from those perceptions of waking day-life, whose
purpose is to portray external objects. The more faithfully they present
these things, the truer they are. It is, indeed, in accordance with their
nature that they should be true in this sense, but this is not the mission
of those perceptions which the soul is to consider, when in pursuit of
spiritual training; and they are therefore so formed as not to present
anything external, having rather within themselves the power to act upon
the soul. The best percepts for the purpose are the emblematic or symbolic
ones. Yet other percepts may be used. For it does not depend at all on
what the percepts contain, but solely on the fact that the soul puts forth
all its powers in order not to have anything in the consciousness except
the one percept in question. Whereas, in ordinary life, its forces are
divided among many things and perceptions change rapidly, the important
point in spiritual training is the concentration of the whole inner life
upon one single perception. And this perception must be voluntarily
brought to the centre of one’s consciousness. Symbolic perceptions are
better than those which reflect outer objects or events, because the
latter are related to the outer world, and the soul has to depend less on
itself than in the case of symbolic perceptions, formed by its own inner
energy. The chief object at which to aim is the _intensity_ of the force
to be exercised by the soul. It is not what is before the soul that is
essential, but the greatness of the effort and the length of time spent
concentrating upon one perception. Strength ascends from unknown depths of
the soul, from which it is drawn up by concentration on one perception.
Occult science contains many such perceptions, all of which have been
proven to possess the power alluded to above.
One gains a comprehension of this immersion or sinking down into a percept
by calling the Memory-Concept before the soul. Say, for instance, that we
allow the eye to rest on a tree, and then turn away from the object so
that it is no longer presented to our sight; we shall, nevertheless, be
able to retain the image of the tree in the soul. Now this image or
perception of the tree which we have when it is no longer in sight, is a
recollection of the tree. Then assume that this recollection is retained
in the soul, and the soul reposes, as it were, in this recollection,
taking care to exclude all other perceptions from the memory. The soul
then dwells in that memory-concept of the tree, and we then have to do
with the immersion of the soul into a concept. Yet this concept is the
image of an actual thing perceived through the senses. If however, of our
own free will, we take such images into our consciousness, gradually the
effect desired will be attained.
One example of meditation based upon a symbolical concept will now be
placed before the reader. Such a concept must first be built up in the
soul, and this may be done in the following manner. Let us think of a
plant, calling to mind how it is rooted in the ground, the way in which
leaf after leaf shoots forth, until finally the blossom unfolds. And then
let us imagine a human being placed beside this plant, and let us call up
in our soul the thought that he has qualities and characteristics which,
when compared with those of the plant, will be found to be more perfect.
We dwell on the fact that this being is able to move here and there,
according to his will and his desires, while the plant remains stationary,
rooted in the soil.
But now let us also consider: Yes, man is certainly more perfect than the
plant; but on the other hand, I find in him qualities which I cannot
perceive in the plant and through the lack of which, the plant appears
more perfect than man in certain respects. Man is filled with passions and
desires and these govern his conduct. With him we can speak of sin
committed by reason of his impulses and passions, whereas in the plant, we
see that it follows the pure laws of growth from leaf to leaf, and that
the blossom without passion opens to the chaste rays of the Sun. So we can
see that man possesses a certain perfection beyond the plant, but that on
the other hand he has paid for this perfection by admitting into his being
inclinations, desires and passions in addition to the pure forces of the
plant. And then we call to mind the green sap flowing through the plant,
and think of it as the expression of the pure and passionless laws of
growth. And then again, we call to mind the red blood as it courses
through the veins of man, and we recognize in it an expression of man’s
instincts, his passions and desires. Let a vivid picture of all this arise
in our souls. We then think of man’s faculties of development; how he can
purify and cleanse his inclinations and passions through his higher soul
faculties. We think how through this process something that is low is
destroyed in these inclinations and passions which thereby are born upon a
higher plane. Then we may be able to think of the blood as the expression
of these purified and cleansed inclinations and passions.
Now we gaze in spirit on the rose and say to ourselves: “In the red sap of
the rose is the erstwhile green sap of the plant—now changed to
crimson—and the red rose follows the same pure, passionless laws of growth
as does the green leaf.” Thus the red of the rose may offer us a symbol of
a kind of blood which is the expression of cleansed impulses and passions,
purged of all lower elements, and resembling in their purity the forces
working in the red rose. Let us now try not only to assimilate such
thoughts within our reason, but also let them come to life within our
feelings. We can experience a blissful sensation when contemplating the
purity and passionless nature of the growing plant. We can awaken the
feeling within us how certain higher perfections must be paid for through
the acquisition of passions and desires. This, then, can change the
blissful sensation previously experienced into a serious mood: and then
only can it stir within us the feeling of liberating happiness, if we
abandon ourselves to the thought of the red blood that can become the
carrier of inner pure experiences, like the red sap of the rose. The
important point is that we should not look coldly and without feeling upon
these thoughts which serve to build up such a symbolical concept. After
dwelling for a time upon the above mentioned thoughts and feelings, let us
try to transmute them into the following symbolical concept. Let us
imagine a black cross. Let this be the symbol for the destroyed lower
element of our desires and passions and there where the beams of the cross
intersect, let us imagine seven red radiating roses arranged in a circle.
Let these roses be the symbol for a blood that is the expression of
cleansed and purified passions and desires.(26)
Now we must call up this symbolical concept before our soul just as has
been described in the case of a memory-concept. Such a concept has an
awakening power if one abandons oneself to it in inner meditation. One
must try during this meditation to exclude all other concepts. Only the
described symbol must float before the soul as vividly as possible.
It is not without significance that this symbol has been introduced, not
merely as an awakening percept, but because it has been constructed out of
certain perceptions concerning plants and man. For the effect of such a
symbol depends upon the fact of its being put together in this definite
manner, before employing it as an instrument for meditation. Should it be
called up without a previous process of construction such as has here been
delineated, the picture must remain cold and will be far less effective
than if it had by previous preparation gathered force with which to give
warmth to the soul. During meditation, however, one should not call up in
the soul all the preparatory thoughts, but merely allow the life-like
image to float before one’s mind and at the same time permit those
feelings which are the result of these preparatory thoughts to vibrate
with it. Thus the symbol becomes a sign, co-existent with the inner
experience. And it is the dwelling of the soul in this experience that is
the active principle. The longer one can do this, without admitting
disturbing impressions, the more effective will be the whole process.
It is well, however, in addition to the time used in meditation itself, to
repeat the building up of the image through the feelings, as described
above, so that the corresponding sensation may not pale.
The greater the patience brought to bear in performing these acts of
repetition, the more effective becomes this image for the soul.(27)
Such a symbol as has just been described represents no external object or
being evolved by nature, but for this very reason it possesses an
awakening power for certain inner faculties. It is true, someone may raise
the objection: certainly the “whole” as a symbol, does not exist in
nature; yet all its details are borrowed from nature, the black color, the
roses, etc. It can all be observed through the senses. He who is troubled
by such objections, ought to consider that it is not the images of these
sense perceptions that awaken the higher faculties of the soul, but that
this result is produced purely by the manner in which these details are
combined. And this combination does not then picture something that exists
in the sense-world.
A symbol was chosen as an example to show the process of effective
meditation of the soul. Many symbols of this kind are used in occult
training and are built up according to varying methods. Certain sentences,
formulæ, and single words can also be given as subjects for meditations,
and in every case the means used will have the same object, namely: to
detach the soul from sense-impressions and to stimulate it to an activity
in which the impressions of the physical senses play no longer any part
and in which the unfoldment of inner latent soul capacities becomes the
essential.
There are, however, also meditations based exclusively upon feelings,
sensations, etc., and these are especially effectual. Let us, for
instance, take the feeling of joy. In the normal course of life the soul
experiences pleasure when there exists an outer stimulus to pleasure. If a
healthily constituted soul perceives some act performed by a person,
indicative of the doer’s goodness of heart, then the soul will assuredly
feel pleasure and joy at such an act. But the soul is able to reflect upon
such an act, and can say to itself that an act done from sheer kindness of
heart is one in which the doer is following the interests of his
fellow-creatures rather than his own, and such an act may be called
ethically good. But the soul can lift itself above the perception of any
particular case in the outer world which has given it joy or pleasure, and
instead may arrive at a general concept of kindness. It can for instance,
think of kindness coming into existence through one soul making the
interests of others his own. And the soul can then experience joy over the
ethical idea of kindness. Therefore, the joy is then not over this or that
event of the sense-world, but it is the joy over the idea as such. If the
student now tries for some time to let this joy come to life within his
soul, then this is a meditation on a feeling, on a sensation. It is then
not the idea which is the active principle in the awakening of the inner
soul faculties, but the sustained dwelling upon that feeling within the
soul which has not been caused by merely a single external impression.
Occult science being in a position to penetrate far deeper into the being
of things than can be done by ordinary perception, the teacher will be
able to indicate to the pupil feelings and sentiments which are still more
powerful as awakening agents for the unfolding of the soul’s faculties
when used as subjects of meditation. Yet, necessary as this will be for
the higher degrees of training, it should be remembered that energetic
meditating upon subjects, such as kindness of heart may carry the student
very far on his way.
Since the natures of human beings differ, special methods of training are
effective for particular individuals. As to the duration of time to be
devoted to meditation, we may remind the student that the greater the
length of time during which he can meditate uninterruptedly, the stronger
will be the effect. But every excess in these matters should be avoided.
There is, however, a certain inner discretion, resulting from these
exercises themselves which teaches the pupil to keep within due bounds in
this regard. Those who pursue their studies in occult science under the
personal guidance of a teacher will receive from him precise instruction
and advice in these particulars. Nevertheless, it must be emphatically
understood that only experienced occultists are in a position to impart
such advice.
Such exercises in meditation will generally require practice for some time
before the student can become aware of any result. What is essential to
occult science is patience and perseverance. He who is unable to awaken
these two qualities within himself and who cannot continually practice his
exercises in quietude, so that patience and perseverance are always the
predominant note in his soul-life, cannot attain very great progress. From
what has been said above, the reader will have gathered that meditation is
a means of acquiring knowledge of the higher worlds, but he will also see
that not just any percept whatsoever, taken at random, is productive of
this result, but only those of the kind before-mentioned.
The path here indicated leads in the first place to what is called
imaginative knowledge, and this is the first step toward the higher
knowledge. Knowledge, dependent upon sense-perceptions and upon the
working up of such perceptions by reason, which is sense-bound, is, to use
the occult term, known as “objective cognition.” Beyond this are higher
degrees of knowledge, the imaginative stage being, as we have said, the
first. Now the term “imaginative” can cause confusion in the minds of
some, to whom “imagination” stands only for “imaginings”—that is concepts
that lack reality. In occult science, however, “imaginative” cognition
must be understood to be that kind of cognition which results from a
supersensible state of consciousness of the soul. The things perceived in
this state of consciousness are spiritual facts, and spiritual beings, to
which the senses have no access, and—since this condition of the soul is
caused by meditating upon symbols, or “imaginations”—the sphere to which
this condition of higher consciousness belongs may be termed the
imaginative world, and the knowledge relating to it, imaginative
knowledge. “Imaginative” stands, therefore, in this sense, for that which
is “actual” in a higher sense than are the facts and beings of physical
sense-perception.
A very natural objection to the use of the symbolic pictures here
characterized is that they arise from a dreamy thinking and an arbitrary
imagination, and might therefore have doubtful consequences. But any such
doubts are unjustified in regard to the symbols given by true occult
schools. For these symbols are chosen in such a way that they can be
looked at quite apart from their connection with outer sense reality, and
their value is to be found exclusively in the power with which they work
upon the soul when it turns its attention wholly away from the outer
world, when it suppresses all sense-impressions and shuts out every
thought to which it might be stimulated from without. The process of
meditations is best demonstrated by comparison with sleep. In one respect
it is like the state of sleep; in another, the exact opposite of it. It is
a sleep which when compared to the day-consciousness, represents a higher
state of being. The point is that by concentration on the given conception
or image, the soul is obliged to call up much stronger forces out of its
own depths than it uses in ordinary life or knowledge. Its inner activity
is thereby enhanced. It becomes detached from the body, as it does in
sleep; but instead of passing, as in the latter case, into
unconsciousness, it experiences a world it did not know before. Although
as regards detachment from the body this condition may be compared with
sleep, yet it is such that, compared with ordinary waking consciousness,
it may be characterized as a more intense waking state. By this means the
soul learns to know itself in its true, inner, independent being. But in
ordinary life, owing to the weaker development of its forces, it is only
with the help of the body that the soul arrives at self-consciousness.
Therefore it does not experience itself but merely sees itself in that
image which—like a kind of reflection—is traced, by the physical body (or,
properly speaking, by its processes).
These symbols built up in the manner above described are not as yet
related to anything real in the spiritual world, but they serve to detach
the human soul from sense-observations and from that instrument, the
brain, to which the reason is at first fettered. This detachment is not
effected until man is able to feel: “I am now perceiving something by
means of powers for which neither my senses nor my brain serve as the
instruments”; and the first thing man thus experiences is a liberation
from the organs of sense. He is then able to say to himself: “My
consciousness does not vanish when I cease to take cognizance of
sense-perceptions and ordinary reasoned thought; I can lift myself out of
those conditions and then feel myself as a being alongside of that which I
was before”—and this is the first purely spiritual experience; the
perception of a psycho-spiritual Ego-being. This has arisen as a new self
out of that self which is linked to the physical senses and physical
reason only.
Had this detachment from the world of the senses and from the reason been
effected without meditation, the person would have lapsed into the
nothingness of the unconscious state. This psycho-spiritual being was our
possession prior to meditation also, but it then lacked the organs for
perception of the spirit-world; and it might, indeed, have been compared
to the physical body without the eye to see—the ear to hear. The strength
thus employed in meditation has, in fact, been the creative means by which
these psycho-spiritual organs have been formed out of a previously
unorganized psycho-spiritual being. But this which man thus creates for
himself is also the first thing to be perceived by him. The first
experience is therefore in a certain sense, a kind of “self-perception.”
It belongs to the nature of spiritual training that the soul, through the
self training which it gives itself at this point of its development,
becomes fully conscious that the first thing it perceives in the world of
imaginative forms, which appear as a result of the exercises described, is
itself. It is true that these images make their appearance as a new world,
but the soul must recognize that they are, however, at first nothing but
the reflection of its own being, which has been strengthened by exercises.
And it must not only recognize this by correct reasoning, but must have
arrived at such a cultivation of the will that it is able at any time to
put away and obliterate the images from the consciousness.
The soul must be able to act with complete independence within these
images. This is part of true spiritual training at this stage. If it could
not do this, it would be in the same position, in the sphere of spiritual
experiences, as a soul in the physical world which, on looking at an
object, has its attention so arrested by it that it cannot look away. An
exception to this possibility of obliteration is formed by a group of
inner imaginative experiences which should _not_ be extinguished at this
stage of spiritual training. They correspond to the inmost kernel of the
soul’s being, and the occult student recognizes in those images that which
forms the very essence of his being which passes through the various
repeated earth lives. At this point the knowledge of repeated earth lives
becomes an actual experience. In relation to everything else the
before-mentioned independence of experience must prevail. And only after
acquiring the faculty of obliterating experiences, is the spiritual outer
world really approached. What is obliterated returns in another form, and
is experienced as a spiritual outer reality. One feels that out of
something indefinite one grows psychically into something definite. From
this self-perception, one must then proceed to the observation of a
psycho-spiritual outer world. This comes to pass when we can order our
inner experience after the manner to be indicated in the following pages.
At first, the soul of the occult student is feeble in all that appertains
to a perception of the psycho-spiritual world; and he will therefore need
all the inner energy he can summon in order, while meditating, to hold
firm the symbols or other concepts which he has built up from the impulses
of the sense-world. Should he, however, desire to attain to an actual
observation of the higher world, he will not alone have to maintain his
hold on these, he must also, after having done this, be able to remain in
a condition in which not only no influences of the outer sense-world can
affect the soul, but in which also the images above characterized shall
have been effaced from his consciousness. Only now can that which has been
previously formed by means of meditation enter the plane of his
consciousness. The important point is that there should be at this stage
sufficient soul force to spiritually perceive that which has thus been
formed through meditation, so that it may not elude the observer’s
attention, as is always the case if this inner energy is still
insufficiently developed.
That which is here evolved as a psycho-spiritual organism and which should
be comprehended through self-perception, is delicate and subtle. The
disturbing influences of the outer sense-world, however one may try to
exclude them, are nevertheless great. It is not merely a question of those
disturbances to which we are able to pay heed, but far more of those which
in ordinary life are ever eluding our notice. But it is just through the
very nature of man that a transitory condition in this respect becomes
possible. What the soul, in its waking state, was powerless to effect,
owing to the disturbances of the physical world, it is capable of
achieving during sleep. One who gives himself up to serious meditation
will, with the proper attention, become aware of a certain change in his
sleep. He will feel that while sleeping, he is yet not quite asleep, but
that his soul has times when, although asleep, still it is, in a certain
way, active. During these conditions, nature wards off the influences of
the outer world which the waking soul is not yet able to keep away of its
own strength. When, however, the meditation exercises have taken effect,
the soul, during sleep, detaches itself from unconsciousness, and becomes
aware of the psycho-spiritual world. This can happen in two ways: the
person may, while asleep, become aware that is is in another world, or he
may, after awakening, remember that he has been in another world. But the
former of these two feelings requires the greater degree of inner energy,
for which reason the second is the more common among beginners in occult
training. But it may gradually come to pass that the student will become
aware of having been during the entire time of sleep in this other world,
only emerging therefrom when he awakes. And his memory of beings and facts
connected with this other world will become ever more and more distinct,
thus showing that in one form or another he has now entered upon what one
may call continuity of consciousness. (The continuation of consciousness
during sleep.)
Still, for this to be so, it is not necessary that man’s consciousness
should _always_ continue during sleep. Much will already have been
attained in the matter of the continuity of consciousness should the
person, whose sleep is in general like that of the ordinary individual,
have certain periods during his sleeping hours when he is aware of being
in the psycho-spiritual world; or if, on awakening, he is able to remember
such a condition of consciousness. It should, however, be borne in mind
that what is here described is to be understood only as a transition
state. It is well to pass through this state as a part of training; yet it
should not be imagined that any conclusive views concerning the
psycho-spiritual world may be gained from this transition state, for in
this condition the soul is uncertain, and unable as yet to rely upon its
own perceptions. But through such experiences the soul gathers ever more
strength enabling it also during waking hours to ward off the disturbing
influences of the physical outer and inner world and thus to attain
psycho-spiritual observation. Then impressions through the senses no
longer reach the soul; brain-fettered reason is silent and even the image
of the meditation, through which one has only prepared oneself for
spiritual vision, has been dropped from consciousness. Whatever is given
out through occult science in this or that form should never originate in
any psycho-spiritual observation other than that which is made with fully
waking consciousness. The first experience is one in which the student can
say to himself: Even should I now disregard everything that can come to me
through impressions from the outer physical world, still I look upon my
inner being not as upon one in which all activity has ceased, but I look
upon a being which is self-conscious in a world of which I know nothing as
long as I permit myself to be governed only by the impressions of ordinary
reason and of the senses. The soul at this moment has the sensation that,
in the manner described above, it has given birth to a new being as its
own essential soul-kernel. And the being possesses totally different
qualities from those which were previously present in the soul.
The second experience of the soul is one in which man has his former
being, like a second independent one, alongside of himself. That which had
up to this time been imprisoned, evolves now into something we are able to
confront; we feel, in fact, at certain times outside of what we have been
accustomed to regard as our own being, as our own ego. It is as though one
now lived in two egos,—one, which we have hitherto known; the other, a
newly born being, superior to the first,—and we become aware that the
former ego acquires a certain independence in its relationship to the
second, just as the physical body has a certain measure of freedom in its
relation to that first ego.
This is an event of great importance, for through it man comes to know
what it means to live in that world which he has been endeavoring to reach
by means of training. It is this second, this new-born, ego which can be
led to cognizance of the spiritual world, and in it can be developed that
which has as much significance for the spiritual world as our sense organs
have for the physical world of the senses. Should this development have
attained to the requisite degree, the student will not only be aware of
himself as a new-born ego, but he will recognize the spiritual facts and
entities around him, just as he perceives the physical world through the
action of his physical senses; and this is a third important experience.
To meet properly this stage of spiritual training one must take into
account that with the strengthening of the forces of the soul a degree of
self-love and egoism appears with such intensity as is quite unknown in
the ordinary life of the soul. It would be a mistake for anyone to think
that it is only a case of ordinary self-love at this point. Self-love
becomes so strong at this stage of development that it acquires the
strength of a nature-force within the soul, and a vigorous training of the
will is necessary in order to conquer this powerful egoism. This training
of the will must go hand in hand with the rest of the spiritual training.
A strong inclination exists to feel absolutely happy in a world which we
have gradually created for ourselves. And we must be able to obliterate,
in the manner above described, that to which we have previously devoted
ourselves with all our powers. We must efface _ourselves_ in the
imaginative world we have reached. But this effacement is opposed by the
strongest impulses of egoism.
The idea might easily arise that the exercises in spiritual training are
something merely external which have no connection with the moral
development of the soul. In this connection it must be said that the moral
force necessary for the conquest of egoism, as described, cannot be gained
unless the moral condition of the soul is brought to a corresponding
stage. Progress in spiritual training is unthinkable unless moral progress
takes place at the same time. The conquest of egoism is impossible without
moral force. All talk of spiritual training not being at the same time
moral training is certainly contrary to fact.
Only he who passes through such an experience might advance the following
objections: how can one be sure to be dealing with actualities, and not
with mere fancies, visions or hallucinations, when he thinks he is having
spiritual perceptions? Now the matter lies thus: every person, who has
been systematically trained and who has arrived at the stage already
characterized, will be in a position to note the difference between his
own percept and a spiritual reality, just as well as a man endowed with
sound sense knows the difference between the percept of a bar of hot iron
and the actual presence of such a bar that he touches with his hand. The
difference is determined by experience and by nothing else; and in the
spiritual world, too, life is the touchstone. Just as we know that in the
world of the senses an imagined bar of iron, however hot, will burn no
one’s fingers, so does the trained occultist know whether he is passing
through a spiritual experience merely in his imagination or whether his
awakened spiritual organs of perceptions are impressed by actual facts or
beings. The precautions to be taken during schooling, in order that the
student may not fall a victim to such delusions will be dealt with in the
following pages.
It is of the greatest importance that the student should have attained to
a certain very definite condition of the soul when the consciousness of
the new-born ego commences. For through his ego, man is the ruler of his
sensations, feelings, and conceptions, his impulses, desires, and
passions. Observations and percepts cannot be left in the soul to follow
their own devices; they must be regulated according to the laws of
thought. And it is the ego, as it were, that controls these thought-laws,
and by means of them brings order into the life of perception and thought.
It is similar with regard to desires and passions, inclinations and
impulses. The fundamental ethical laws become the guides of these forces
of the soul, and by reason of the moral judgment, the ego becomes the
soul’s guide within this domain. Now if a person detaches a higher ego
from his ordinary ego, the latter becomes to a certain extent independent.
That much life-power is now taken away from it as is needed for the use of
that higher ego. But let us consider the case of a person who has not, as
yet, developed certain ability and firmness in exercising the laws of
thought and in the power of judgment, but who nevertheless desires to
bring about the birth of his higher ego. He will be able to leave to his
ordinary ego only as much thought capacity as he has previously developed.
If the amount of well-ordered thinking is insufficient, then the ordinary
ego which has now become independent, will certainly fall victim to
confused, disordered, fantastic thoughts and judgment, and moreover, since
in such a case the new-born ego must inevitably be weak also, the
disordered lower ego will gain the upper hand, and the person will lose
his ability for balanced judgment. Had he developed sufficient capability
and firmness in logical thinking, he might have calmly left his ordinary
ego to go its own way.
In the ethical sphere it is precisely the same. Should a person not have
attained firmness in the matter of his moral judgment, should he not have
become sufficiently master over his inclinations, impulses, and passions,
he will then render his ordinary ego independent while in a condition in
which it will be overwhelmed by all these soul forces. It may then happen
that the person will become worse through the birth of his higher ego than
he was before. Had he waited to bring about this birth until he had
sufficiently developed his ordinary self, attaining firmness in the matter
of ethical judgment, stability of character, and depth of conscience, he
would then have been in a position to have all these virtues left within
that first ego when the birth of the second came about. Neglecting to do
so, however, lays him open to the danger of losing his moral balance,
which under the right course of training cannot happen.
Two things must here be borne in mind. First, that the facts above related
should be taken as seriously as possible; secondly, that, on the other
hand, they should in no way deter one from entering upon such training.
Anyone who has the firm intention of doing all in his power that may give
confidence to the first ego in the execution of what it has to fulfil,
need never be dismayed when the second ego becomes detached as the result
of such spiritual training. Yet he must remember that the power of
self-delusion in man is very great with regard to the belief that he has
now reached the stage of “ripeness” for any special thing.
During the spiritual training here described the student develops his
thought-life to such an extent that he is not exposed to dangers which are
often thought to be connected with training. This cultivation of thought
brings about all the inner experiences that are necessary, but causes them
to be so enacted that the soul lives through them without any injurious
shocks. Without an adequate development of thought, these experiences may
produce a feeling of great uncertainty in the soul. The method here
emphasized calls forth experiences in such a way that they may produce all
their effect and yet not cause serious shocks. By developing the life of
thought the student becomes more of a _spectator_ of the experiences of
his inner life, whereas without such thought-development he is in the very
midst of the experience and is shaken by all the shocks incidental to it.
Systematic training points out certain qualities which the student must
acquire by means of exercises, in order to find the way to the higher
worlds and especial stress is laid on the following,—control of the soul
over its thoughts, its will, and its feelings. The manner in which this
control is acquired through exercise has a dual aim. On the one hand, the
soul by this practice acquires a firmness, reliance, and balance, which
will not forsake it even after the birth of the second ego; and on the
other hand, this latter ego is provided with strength and inner fortitude
for its journey.
What is required is that man’s thinking power shall in all domains conform
to facts. In the physical world of the senses, life is the great teacher
of the human ego with regard to reality. Were the soul to allow its
thoughts to roam aimlessly hither and thither, it would soon be corrected
by life, unless it were willing to enter into combat with it; the soul
must conform its thoughts to the facts of life. Now, when man leads his
thoughts away from the world of the physical senses, he misses the
corrective influence of this latter. If his thought is not able to be its
own mentor, it will be as unsteady as a will-o’-the-wisp. Consequently,
the student’s thought must be exercised in such a way that its course and
object are self-determined. Inner firmness and a capacity to concentrate
strictly on one object: this is what such thinking must of itself
engender. And for this reason the thought exercises should not be
concerned with complicated objects or those foreign to life, but should,
on the contrary, deal with those that are simple and familiar. Any one who
succeeds in fixing his mind, over a period of several months and for a
space of at least five minutes a day, on such ordinary objects as a pin or
a lead pencil, excluding for the time being all other thoughts not
concerned with the object under contemplation, will have accomplished much
in the right direction. (A new article may be chosen each day, or the same
one adhered to for the space of several days.)
Even those who feel themselves to be “thinkers” need not despise this
method of preparing themselves for occult training, because by fixing the
attention for a time upon a really familiar object one may be sure that he
will be thinking in accordance with facts, and one who asks himself the
questions: “What are the constituent parts of a pencil?” “How are these
materials prepared?” “How are they afterwards put together?” “When were
pencils invented, etc.?” will surely be adapting his perceptions to
realities more than he who meditates on the descent of man, or asks
himself what life is.
Simple thought exercises prepare us better for an adequate concept of the
world in its Saturn, Sun, and Moon stages of development than those based
on learned and complicated ideas. For the important thing is not at all
just to think, but to think in conformity with facts by means of an inner
force. Once one has been trained to accuracy by means of an obvious,
physical sense process, the desire to think in conformity with facts will
have become habitual, even if thought does not feel itself under the
control of the physical sense-world and its laws; we then lose the
tendency to let our thoughts drift about aimlessly.
And as in the world of thought, so in the realm of the will, the soul must
become the ruler. In the physical sense-world it is life that rules. It
urges upon man this or that as a necessity, and the will feels itself
constrained to satisfy these same wants. In following higher training, man
must accustom himself to obey his own commands strictly, and those who
acquire this habit will feel less and less inclined to desire what is of
no moment. All that is unsatisfying and unstable in the life of the will
comes from the desire for things of the possession of which we have formed
no distinct concept. Discontent such as this may, when the higher ego is
desirous of emerging from the soul, throw that person’s whole inner life
into disorder; and it is a good exercise to give oneself for the space of
several months some command to be carried out at a specified time of day:
“To-day, at this or that particular hour, you will do this or that thing.”
Thus we gradually become able to command the time at which a thing is to
be done and the manner in which it is to be performed, so as to admit of
its being accomplished with utmost exactitude. Thus we lift ourselves
above the bad habit of saying, “I should like this,” and “I want the
other,” while exercising no thought of the possibility of its
accomplishment.
In the second part of _Faust_, Goethe puts the following words into the
mouth of a seeress: “Him I love who craves the impossible,” and Goethe
himself, in his “Prose Proverbs,” says: “To live in the idea means
treating the impossible as though ’t were possible.”
Such sentiments must not be put forward as objections against what has
here been stated, for the demands made by Goethe and his seeress (Manto)
can be fulfilled only by those who have first educated themselves through
desire for that which is possible, and have in so doing, arrived at being
able, by means of their strong “will,” to treat the “impossible” in such a
manner that through their willing it becomes transformed into the
possible.
A certain equanimity should pervade the soul of the occult student
concerning the world of feeling. And to attain this result, it is
necessary that the soul should have mastery over the expressions of joy
and sorrow, pleasure and pain. But it is just concerning the acquisition
of this faculty that some prejudice might arise: one might be afraid of
becoming dull and indifferent if he does not “rejoice with them that do
rejoice, and weep with them that weep.” Yet this is not what is meant.
What is pleasurable _should_ rejoice the soul, and sorrow _should_ give it
pain, but what the soul is to learn to achieve is control over the
expression of joy and sorrow. If that is his aim, the student will become
aware that, far from becoming “dull and unsympathetic,” he will be growing
all the more receptive to the joy and sorrow around him. But it is true
that the student will here find that he needs to watch himself carefully
for a considerable time to be able to acquire the faculty indicated. He
must be careful to see that he partakes of pain and pleasure to the full,
yet without so giving himself up to either that he gives involuntary
expression to it. It is not justified sorrow that should be suppressed,
but the involuntary weeping; not the revulsion against a mean act, but the
blind raging in anger; not the precaution against danger, but the
senseless “being afraid,” etc.
It is only by means of such exercises that the occult student can gain the
inner calmness of soul necessary in order that, at the birth of the higher
ego, the soul may not find itself as a kind of double, leading a second
and unhealthy life alongside of the higher self. It is especially in these
matters that we should not yield to self-deception. Some people may be of
the opinion that they already possess in everyday life a certain degree of
equanimity, and that they therefore stand in no need of such exercises;
yet it is especially those who doubly need them. For it is quite possible
to remain equable when surveying the things of this life, and then when
ascending into the higher world to show evidences of a want of equanimity
all the greater because it had only been held in check. For it should be
emphatically understood that in the matter of occult training it is not so
much a question of what we may already seem to possess, but of carefully
and regularly practicing what we need. Contradictory as this phrase may
appear, it is nevertheless true that though life may have trained us to
this or to that, the qualities to serve us in occult training are those
that we have acquired for ourselves. Should life have rendered us
excitable, we must train ourselves to conquering this trait; yet if life
has engendered in us equanimity, we should so rouse ourselves by our own
efforts that the soul may be capable of responding to the impressions it
receives. The man who cannot laugh at anything, has just as little control
over his laughter as one who is perpetually giving way to uncontrolled
laughter.
Thought and feeling may be cultivated by yet another means, namely, by the
acquirement of the characteristic known as positiveness. There is a
beautiful legend in which it is related of Christ Jesus, that He, with
others, passed the dead body of a dog. The others turned aside from the
hideous sight, but Christ Jesus spoke admiringly of the creature’s
beautiful teeth. One can, through practice, attain to the condition of
mind in regard to the world, which is indicated in this legend. Error,
vice, and ugliness should not deter the soul from seeing truth, goodness,
and beauty, wherever they are to be found. Nor is this positiveness to be
mistaken for want of judgment, or for deliberately closing the eyes to
what is bad, false, and inferior. He who can admire the beautiful teeth of
a decaying animal can also see that decaying corpse—yet the corpse does
not hinder his observing the beauty of the teeth. Thus, though what is bad
cannot be deemed good, nor error acclaimed as truth, we can yet train
ourselves so that what is bad need not prevent us from recognizing what is
good, nor need errors render us insensible to that which is true.
Thought, combined with will, attains to a certain maturity if we strive
never to allow what we have already experienced or learned to rob us of
our unbiased receptiveness for new experiences. Such a thought as: “I have
never heard that before; I don’t believe it!” should lose all significance
where the occult student is concerned; indeed, he should endeavour, for a
fixed period of time, to allow every thing and every creature to convey
something new to his mind. Every breath of air, every leaf on the tree,
the prattling of a child,—each and all will teach him something, provided
he be willing to bring a different point of view to bear upon it from the
one he has hitherto held.
It may, of course, be possible to go too far in this particular, and we
must not at any time lose sight of the experiences we have previously had.
Indeed, what we experience in the present should be judged in accordance
with the sum of our past experiences. These must be laid on one side of
the scale, while on the other the occult student should place an
inclination for ever gathering new knowledge. Above all, a belief in the
possibility that new experiences may contradict the old.
Thus we have enumerated those five qualities of the soul which the occult
student in regular training, should acquire; control of the trend of his
thoughts; control of the impulses of his will; equanimity in sorrow and
joy; positiveness in his judgment of the world; and impartiality in his
view of life. After giving consecutive periods of time to the acquiring of
these qualities through continued practice, the student must go still
further, and bring all these qualities into a harmonious whole within the
soul, to achieve which, he will have to practice the exercises in twos and
twos together, or three and one, simultaneously, so as to bring about the
harmony desired.
The exercises indicated above are thus given out by occult teaching
because if faithfully carried out, they not only produce in the occult
student what we have called above direct results, but they lead indirectly
to much else that is needed on the path to the higher worlds. He who
practices these exercises sufficiently will, while doing so, become aware
of many a lack and many a failing in his own soul-life, and he will at the
same time find in them the very means necessary to give strength and
security to the intellect, to the emotional tendencies and to the
character as well. He will assuredly need many additional exercises,
according to his capacities, temperament, and character; these, however,
will present themselves if the above be frequently carried out. Indeed,
one will notice that the already indicated exercises, indirectly,
gradually yield that which at first does not seem to be in them. A person
endowed with but little self-confidence, for instance, finds in the course
of time, that by persistent practice the needed confidence in himself has
come about. And it is the same with many other soul qualities.(28)
It is a matter of significance that the occult student is capable of
raising these capabilities to ever higher degrees; and he must succeed in
so controlling his thoughts and feelings that the soul will have power to
maintain complete inner quietude for certain periods of time—periods
during which he can keep out of his mind and heart all those things that
in any way concern the outer everyday life, its joys and sorrows, its
pleasures and cares, even its tasks and demands. At such a time nothing
should be allowed entrance into the soul except what the soul itself
admits. An abjection may easily be made to this. One might imagine that
alienation must result if the student withdraws in heart and spirit from
life and its duties for a certain part of the day. Yet in reality, this is
by no means the case. For those who, in the above manner, give themselves
up to periods of inner quietude and peace will find that out of these
there grows such a fund of energy for fulfilling the outer duties of life
that they are not only not less efficiently performed, but assuredly more
so.
It is of great benefit at such times to detach oneself entirely from
thoughts of personal affairs, and to be able to raise oneself to that
which affects not oneself alone, but all mankind. If he is then able to
fill his soul with messages from a higher spiritual world, and if they
have the power of enthralling his soul to as intense a degree as any
personal concern or care, then indeed will his soul have gathered fruit of
especial value.
Those who thus exert themselves to regulate their soul-life will arrive at
the possibility of a degree of self-observation that will permit them to
review their personal affairs with the same tranquillity as those of
others. Seeing one’s own experiences and one’s own joys and sorrows in the
light in which those of another appear, is a good preparation for occult
training. We bring this exercise gradually to the necessary stage, if,
after the day’s work is over, we allow the pictures of the day’s
occurrences to pass before the mind’s eye. We would then see ourselves
within our own experiences as in a picture; in other words, we would look
at ourselves in our daily life, as an outside observer.
A certain practice in self-observation having been gained by concentrating
the attention upon short divisions of the day’s experience, the student
will become more and more expert in this kind of retrospect, continued
practice enabling him to review the events of the whole day completely and
quickly. It will become ever more and more the ideal of the occult student
to assume such an attitude with regard to the events of life which
confront him that he will be able to await their approach with absolute
calm and inner confidence, no longer judging them by the state of his own
soul but according to their own inner meaning and inner worth. And it is
by looking to this ideal that he will create a condition of soul that will
enable him to meditate profoundly, as described above, upon symbolical and
other thoughts and feelings.
The conditions here described must be fulfilled, because supersensible
experience is built upon the foundation on which the student stands in his
ordinary soul-life, before he enters the supersensible world. In a
two-fold way, all supersensible experience is dependent upon the soul’s
point of departure before entering that world. One who is not intent, from
the outset, on making sound powers of judgment the foundation of his
spiritual training will develop supersensible capacities which perceive
the spiritual world inaccurately and incorrectly. To a certain extent his
spiritual organs of perception will develop in the wrong way. And just as
a man with a defective or diseased eye cannot see correctly in the
sense-world, so it is not possible to have true perceptions with spiritual
organs which are not built upon the foundation of sound powers of
judgment. One who starts from an immoral state of soul rises into the
spiritual worlds with his spiritual vision stupified and clouded. In
regard to supersensible worlds he is like a person in the sense-world who
makes observations in a state of lethargy. The latter, however, will not
be able to make any statements of consequence, whereas the spiritual
observer, even in his stupefaction, is more awake than a person in the
ordinary state of consciousness, and the results of his observations will
therefore be erroneous in regard to the spiritual world.
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
The highest possibilities of imaginative cognition can be realized by
supporting the aforesaid meditations by that which one might call
“sense-free” thinking. Now when we formulate an idea based upon
observations made in the physical sense-world, our thought is not free
from sense-impressions. Yet it is not as though man could formulate only
such ideas: human thought need not become void and meaningless simply
because it is not filled with observations derived through the channels of
the senses. The most direct and the safest way for the occult student to
acquire this “sense-free” thinking, is to make the facts of the higher
worlds presented by occult science, the subject of his thoughts. These
facts cannot be observed by means of the physical senses; nevertheless,
the student will find that he will be able to grasp them—if only he has
enough patience and perseverance. No one can explore higher worlds, or
make his own observations therein, without having been trained. But it is
quite possible without training to understand everything which
investigators communicate about those regions. Should anyone ask, “How can
I accept on trust what the occultist tells me, being myself as yet unable
to see it?”—such an objection would be groundless, for it is perfectly
possible to arrive through mere reflective thinking at the sure conviction
that the matters thus communicated are true.
If a man is unable, through reflecting, to arrive at such a conviction,
the reason is not that he cannot possibly “believe” something he cannot
see, but simply because he has not as yet applied his powers of reflective
thinking in a sufficiently unbiased, comprehensive and profound manner.
In order to be clear on this point, it must be borne in mind that human
thought, if it arouses itself to energetic activity, can understand more
than it usually imagines possible. For in thought there is an inner
essence which is in connection with the supersensible world. The soul is
not usually conscious of this connection, because it is wont to train its
faculty of thought only through the world of sense. On this account it
thinks incomprehensible what is imparted to it from the supersensible
world. What is thus communicated is, however, not only intelligible to
thought which has been spiritually trained, but to any thinking which is
fully conscious of its power and is willing to make use of it.
By the persevering assimilation of what occult teachers are able to impart
to us we habituate ourselves to a line of thought that is not derived from
sense-observation, and we learn to recognize how, within the soul, one
thought is allied to another, and how one thought calls forth another,
even when the connection of ideas is not occasioned by any power of
sense-observation. The essential point is that by this method we become
aware of the fact that the world of thought possesses an inner life, and
that while we are engaged in thought we are, indeed, in the realm of a
supersensible living power. Thus we may say to ourselves: “There is
something within me that develops an organism of thought; nevertheless, I
am one with this something.” And thus in yielding to this sense-free
thinking, we experience something like a being, which flows into our inner
life, just as the qualities of the things of the senses flow into us
through our physical organs when used for sense-observation.
“Out there in space,” says the observer of the sense-world, “is a rose: it
is not unfamiliar to me, for both scent and colour proclaim its presence.”
And in like manner, when sense-free thought is working within us, we need
only be sufficiently unbiased in order to be able to say: “Something real
proclaims its presence to me, linking thought to thought and constituting
a thought-organism”—only there is a difference to be noted between the
communication coming to the observer from the outer world of the senses,
and that which actually reaches the sense-free thinker. The former feels
that he is standing without—in front of the rose—whereas he who has given
himself up to thinking which is untrammelled by the senses will feel
_within himself_ whatever thus proclaims its presence to him; he will feel
himself one with it.
Those who, more or less, unconsciously consider as beings only that which
they can perceive as external objects, will, it is true, be unable to
entertain the feeling that whatever has the nature of a being, can also
manifest itself within man by his becoming one with it. In order to judge
correctly one must be able to have the following inner experiences: one
must learn to distinguish between the thought combinations created through
one’s own volition, and those experienced without any voluntary exercise
of the will. In the latter case, we may then say: I remain quite still
within myself; I produce no trains of thought; I yield to that which
“thinks within me.” Then we are fully justified in saying: Within me a
being is acting, just as we are justified in saying that the rose acts
upon us when we see a certain red, when we perceive a certain odor.
Nor is there any contradiction in having derived the contents of our ideas
from communications made by the occult seer. The ideas are, it is true
already there when we devote ourselves to them; yet they cannot be
“thought”, without in each case being created anew within the soul. The
important point is that the occult teacher seeks to awaken in his hearers
and readers the kind of thoughts which they must first call forth from
within themselves, whereas he who describes some physical object indicates
something that the listener or reader may observe within the sense-world.
(The path which leads to sense-free thinking by means of the
communications made by occult science is thoroughly safe. But there is
also another method even safer and above all things more exact, yet for
this very reason more difficult for the majority. This method is set forth
in my two books, “_Goethe’s Conception of the World_” and “_The __
Philosophy of Spiritual Activity_.” These writings set forth what human
thought can achieve for itself, if the thinking is not under the influence
of the physical sense impressions but relies merely upon itself. Then pure
thinking works within man like a living being. At the same time nothing in
the above-mentioned writings is derived from communications due to occult
science itself, and yet it is shown that pure, self-reliant thinking can
obtain information about the world, life and man.
These writings therefore occupy a very important intermediate position
between the actual cognition of the sense-world and that of the spiritual
world. They present that which thinking can gain when it raises itself
above sense-observation and yet does not enter into occult research.
Anyone who allows these books to work upon his whole soul, already stands
within the spiritual world, but it appears to him as a world of thought.
Those who are in a position to allow this intermediate condition to act
upon them, will be following a safe and sane path and can thus win for
themselves a feeling concerning the higher worlds, which will for all
future time ensure for them most abundant results.)
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The object of meditating upon the above described symbolical concepts and
feelings is, strictly speaking, the development of the higher organs of
cognition within man’s astral body. They are in the first place created
from the substance of the astral body. These new organs of observation
establish a connection with a new world wherein man learns to know himself
as a new ego.
These new organs of perception are first of all to be distinguished from
those of the physical sense-world by being _active_ organs. Whereas the
eye and ear are passive, allowing light and sound to work upon them, it
may be said of these perceptive organs of the soul and spirit that, while
functioning they are in a perpetual state of activity, and that they seize
hold of their objects and facts, as it were, in full consciousness. This
gives rise to the feeling that psycho-spiritual cognition is a union
with,—a “dwelling within,”—the corresponding facts.
These separately evolving psycho-spiritual organs may be compared to
“lotus flowers” corresponding to the appearance which they present to the
clairvoyant consciousness, as they are formed from the substance of the
astral body.(29)
Very definite kinds of meditation act upon the astral body in such manner
that certain psycho-spiritual organs, the so-called “lotus flowers,” are
developed. Any proper meditation undertaken with the view of attaining to
imaginative cognition has its effect upon one or another of these
organs.(30)
A regular course of training arranges and orders the separate exercises to
be practised by the occult student, so that these organs may either
simultaneously or consecutively attain their suitable development, and on
this process the student will have to bring much patience and perseverance
to bear. Those, indeed, who are possessed of no more than the average
amount of patience with which man, under ordinary conditions of life is
endowed, will not reach very far. For it takes a long—often a very long
time indeed—before these organs have reached a point at which the occult
student is able to use them for observing things in the higher worlds. At
this point comes what is known as “illumination,” in contradistinction to
the “preparation,” or “purification,” which consists in the practices
undertaken for the formation of these organs. (The term “purification” is
used because in order to reach certain phases of inner life, the pupil
cleanses himself through the corresponding exercises, of that which
belongs to the world of sense observation.)
It is, however, quite possible that before actual illumination, the
student may get repeated “flashes of light” from a higher world. These he
should receive gratefully. Even these can make him a witness of the
spiritual realms. Yet he must not falter should this never be vouchsafed
him during his entire period of preparation, and should its consequent
duration seem all too long to him. Indeed, those who yield to impatience
“because they can as yet see nothing,” have not yet acquired the right
attitude toward the higher worlds. Those alone will be in a position to
grasp this who can view the exercises they undertake as an object in
themselves. For this practice is in truth a working on something
psycho-spiritual, namely, on their own astral body; even though they do
not “see,” they can “feel” that they are working on the psycho-spiritual
plane. Only when we have a preconceived idea of what we “wish to see,” are
we unable to experience this feeling. In that case we may consider as
nothing what is, in reality, of immeasurable importance. But one should
observe minutely everything which one experiences while
practicing,—experiences which are so fundamentally different from those of
the sense-world. We shall then become aware that we cannot work upon our
astral body as though it were some indifferent substance; but that in it
there lives a totally different world of which the life of our senses does
not inform us.
Higher entities act upon the astral body in the same way in which the
world of the physical senses acts upon the physical body, and we “come
upon” that higher life in our own astral body, provided only we do not
shut ourselves out from it. If we are perpetually saying: “I am aware of
nothing,” then it is generally the case that we imagined that these
experiences should appear thus and so; and because we do not see what we
imagined we should see, we say, “I can see nothing.”
However, he who is able to acquire the right attitude of mind with regard
to his practice during training, will find more and more that he has
something which he loves for its own sake and which, as an immeasurably
important vital function, he can no longer do without. He will then know
that through these very practices he is standing in the psycho-spiritual
world and will await with patience and resignation what may further
transpire. This attitude of mind of the student may best be expressed in
such words as these: “I _will_ do all the exercises which have been
assigned to me; for I know that in the fullness of time as much will come
to me as I should receive; I do not ask for it impatiently, but I prepare
myself to receive it.” On the other hand one should not raise the
objection: The occult student, then, is expected perhaps for a long time
to feel around in the dark, because he cannot know that he is on the right
path with his exercises, before he obtains results. It is not true,
however, that he must wait until the results prove to him the correctness
of the exercises. If the attitude of the student is right, then the
satisfaction which he experiences in the practice of these exercises, in
itself carries the conviction that he is doing the right thing, and he
does not need to wait for results to prove it. The correct practice of
exercises in occult training brings with it a satisfaction that is not
merely satisfaction, but conviction—the conviction that I am doing
something which shows me that it is leading me forward in the right
direction. Every occult student may have this conviction at any moment if
he pays careful attention to his experiences. Should he not exercise such
attention, he will simply pass by these experiences just as a wayfarer in
profound thought does not notice the trees alongside of the road, though
he would surely see them if he would but direct his attention to them.
It is by no means desirable that results, other than those which are
always due to such practice, should in any way be hastened. For such
results might easily be only an infinitesimal part of what should really
take place. Indeed, in the matter of occult development, partial results
are, more often than not, the cause of considerable delay in complete
development. Contact with such forms of spiritual life corresponding to
partial development, tends to dull the perceptive faculties to the
influences of those powers which would lead on to higher stages of
development; while the benefit derived from such a “glimpse” of the
spiritual world, is after all only a seeming one, because this glimpse
cannot divulge the truth, but only deceptive illusions.
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The psycho-spiritual organs, the “lotus flowers,” shape themselves in such
a manner that to clairvoyant consciousness they appear in the vicinity of
particular physical organs of the body of the person undergoing training.
From among these psycho-spiritual organs the following should be
enumerated: that which is to be perceived between the eye-brows is the
so-called two-petalled lotus flower; that in the region of the larynx is
the sixteen-petalled lotus; in the region of the heart is to be found the
twelve-petalled lotus flower and the fourth is near the navel. Others
appear in close conjunction with other parts of the physical body.(31)
The lotus flowers are formed in the astral body, and by the time one or
the other has developed, we become conscious of them. We then feel that we
can make use of them, and that by doing so we really enter a higher world.
The impressions received of that world still resemble in many respects
those of the physical senses; and one with imaginative cognition will be
able to designate the new higher world as impressions of heat or cold,
perceptions of sound or words, effects of light or color—because it is in
this way that he perceives them. He is, however, conscious of the fact
that these perceptions express something different in the imaginative
world from what they do in the actual sense-world; and he recognizes that
behind them lie causes which are not physical, but psycho-spiritual ones.