The Rudolf Steiner Archive

The Conditions for Occult Training

[ 1 ] The conditions for beginning the secret training are not ones arbitrarily set by anyone. They arise from the very nature of secret knowledge. Just as a person who is unwilling to pick up a paintbrush cannot become a painter, so too can no one receive secret training who is unwilling to fulfill what the secret teachers specify as necessary requirements. Essentially, the secret teacher can offer nothing but advice. And everything he says must be understood in this sense. He has traversed the preparatory paths leading to the knowledge of the higher worlds. He knows from experience what is necessary. It depends entirely on the free will of the individual whether he wishes to walk the same paths or not. If someone were to demand that a teacher grant him esoteric training without being willing to fulfill the conditions, such a demand would be precisely like saying: “Teach me to paint, but spare me from having to touch a brush.” – The secret teacher can never offer anything unless the free will of the recipient meets him halfway. But it must be emphasized that a general desire for higher knowledge is not enough. Naturally, many will have this desire. Nothing can be achieved, at least initially, from someone who has only this desire without being willing to meet the specific conditions of the secret training. Those who complain that the secret training is not easy for them should bear this in mind. Anyone who cannot or will not fulfill the strict conditions must simply for the time being forgo secret training. Although the conditions are strict, they are not harsh, since fulfilling them is not only supposed to be a free act, but indeed must be one.

[ 2 ] For those who do not take this into account, the requirements of the secret training may easily appear to be a coercion of the soul or conscience. For the training is based, after all, on the development of the inner life; the secret teacher must therefore give advice that relates to this inner life. But nothing that is demanded as the result of a free decision can be regarded as coercion. — If someone were to demand of the teacher, “Share your secrets with me, but let me keep my usual sensations, feelings, and ideas,” he would be asking for something completely impossible. He would then be seeking nothing more than to satisfy his curiosity and his thirst for knowledge. With such an attitude, however, secret knowledge can never be attained.

[ 3 ] We will now outline, one by one, the conditions for the initiate. It must be emphasized that none of these conditions requires complete fulfillment, but merely the striving toward such fulfillment. No one can fully fulfill the conditions; but everyone can set out on the path toward their fulfillment. What matters is only the will, the disposition, to set out on this path.

[ 4 ] The first condition is: one must focus on promoting physical and mental health. How healthy a person is does not, of course, depend on them at first. But everyone can strive to improve themselves in this direction. Only from a healthy person can healthy insight arise. The secret training does not reject an unhealthy person; but it must require that the student have the will to live healthily. – In this regard, the individual must achieve the greatest possible independence. The well-meaning advice of others, which—mostly unsolicited—is offered to everyone, is generally quite superfluous. Everyone must strive to take care of themselves. – In physical terms, the main concern will be to ward off harmful influences, rather than anything else. After all, to fulfill our duties, we often have to impose upon ourselves things that are not conducive to our health. A person must understand that, when the situation calls for it, duty must take precedence over concern for health. But with a little good will, there is so much that can be avoided! In many cases, duty must take precedence over health, indeed often over life itself; pleasure must never take precedence for the initiate. For him, pleasure can only be a means to health and life. And in this regard, it is absolutely necessary to be completely honest and truthful with oneself. It is of no use to lead an ascetic life if it springs from motives similar to those behind other forms of pleasure. One may take as much pleasure in asceticism as another does in drinking wine. But one cannot hope that this asceticism will serve as a means to higher knowledge. – Many attribute everything that seemingly prevents them from advancing in this direction to their life circumstances. They say: “Given my circumstances, I cannot develop myself.” It may be desirable for many, in other respects, to change their circumstances; but for the purpose of esoteric training, no one needs to do so. To achieve this goal, one need only do as much as possible for one’s physical and spiritual health right where one is. Any kind of work can serve humanity as a whole; and it is a much greater expression of the human soul to realize how necessary even a menial, perhaps unattractive task is for this whole, than to believe: “This work is too menial for me; I am called to something else.”—The pursuit of complete spiritual health is particularly important for the student of the Esoteric Teachings. An unhealthy emotional and mental life inevitably leads one astray from the paths to higher knowledge. Clear, calm thinking, and a steady sense of perception and feeling are the foundation here. Nothing should be further from the esoteric student than a tendency toward the fantastical, toward agitation, nervousness, exaltation, or fanaticism. He should cultivate a healthy perspective on all aspects of life; he should be able to navigate life with confidence; he should calmly allow things to speak to him and take their effect upon him. He should strive to do justice to life wherever necessary. Anything extreme or one-sided should be avoided in his judgments and feelings. If this condition were not met, the secret student would enter not into higher worlds but into the world of his own imagination; instead of the truth, his favorite opinions would prevail. It is better for the secret student to be “sober” than exalted and fanciful.

[ 5 ] The second condition is to feel that one is a part of life as a whole. There is much involved in fulfilling this condition. But each person can fulfill it only in their own way. If I am a teacher and my student does not live up to my expectations, I should not first direct my feelings toward the student, but toward myself. I should feel so much at one with my student that I ask myself: “Is what is lacking in the pupil not the result of my own actions?” Instead of directing my feelings toward him, I will then reflect on how I myself should behave so that, in the future, the pupil may better meet my expectations. From such a state of mind, a person’s entire way of thinking gradually changes. This applies to the smallest matters as well as the greatest. From this perspective, for example, I view a criminal differently than I would without it. I hold back my judgment and say to myself: “I am only a human being like him. The upbringing I received due to my circumstances has perhaps alone spared me from his fate.” I may then also come to the realization that this fellow human being would have become a different person if the teachers who devoted their efforts to me had extended that same care to him. I will reflect that I was granted something that was denied to him, that I owe my goodness precisely to the fact that it was denied to him. And then the idea will no longer seem foreign to me that I am but one link in the chain of all humanity and sharely responsible for everything that happens. It is not to be said here that such a thought should immediately be translated into outward, agitational actions. But it should be nurtured quietly within the soul. Then it will gradually manifest itself in a person’s outward behavior. And in such matters, after all, everyone can only begin to reform within themselves. It serves no purpose to make general demands on humanity in the spirit of such thoughts. It is easy to form a judgment about how people ought to be; but the secret student works in depth, not on the surface. It would therefore be entirely incorrect to associate the demand of the secret teachers alluded to here with any external demand—let alone a political one—with which spiritual training can have nothing to do. Political agitators generally “know” what to “demand” of others; they speak less of demands they place on themselves.

[ 6 ] And this is directly connected to the third condition for the secret training. The student must be able to rise to the realization that his thoughts and feelings are just as significant for the world as his actions. One must recognize that hating my fellow human beings is just as destructive as striking them. Then I also come to realize that when I perfect myself, I am doing so not only for my own sake but also for the sake of the world. The world derives just as much benefit from my pure feelings and thoughts as it does from my good behavior. As long as I cannot believe in this significance of my inner life for the world, I am not fit to be a secret student. Only then am I filled with the true faith in the significance of my inner life, of my soul, when I work on this spiritual aspect as if it were at least as real as everything external. I must admit that my feelings have just as much of an effect as an action performed by my hand.

[ 7 ] This actually already expresses the fourth condition: the acceptance of the view that a person’s true essence lies not in the external but in the inner self. Anyone who views themselves merely as a product of the external world, as a result of the physical world, cannot achieve anything in the secret training. Feeling oneself to be a soul-spiritual being is a foundation for such training. Those who attain such a feeling are then capable of distinguishing between inner obligation and external success. They learn to recognize that one cannot be measured directly against the other. The student of the secret teachings must find the right balance between what external circumstances dictate and what he recognizes as the correct course of action. He should not impose upon his surroundings anything for which they cannot have an understanding; but he should also be entirely free from the compulsion to do only what can be accepted by those around him. He must seek recognition for his truths solely in the voice of his honest soul, which strives for knowledge. But he should learn from those around him as much as he possibly can, in order to discover what is beneficial and useful to them. In this way, he will develop within himself what is called the “spiritual balance” in the esoteric science. On one pan of the scale lies an “open heart” toward the needs of the outside world; on the other, “inner strength and unshakable perseverance.”

[ 8 ] And this points to the fifth condition: steadfastness in adhering to a resolution once it has been made. Nothing should cause the secret student to deviate from a resolution he has made, except the realization that he is in error. Every decision is a force, and even if this force does not bring about immediate success where it is initially directed, it works in its own way. Success is decisive only when an action is performed out of desire. But all actions performed out of desire are worthless in the eyes of the higher world. Here, it is love alone that determines an action. Everything that drives the initiate to act must find its fulfillment in this love. Then he will not lose heart in repeatedly putting a decision into action, no matter how often he may have failed. And so he comes to the point where he does not wait for the external effects of his deeds, but finds satisfaction in the actions themselves. He will learn to sacrifice his deeds—indeed, his entire being—to the world, however the world may receive his sacrifice. Anyone who wishes to become a secret student must declare themselves ready for such a service of sacrifice.

[ 9 ] A sixth condition is the development of a sense of gratitude for everything that comes to a person. One must realize that one’s very existence is a gift from the entire universe. Think of all that is necessary for each of us to receive and sustain our existence! How much do we owe to nature and to other people! Those who seek secret training must be inclined toward such thoughts. Those who cannot devote themselves to these thoughts will not be able to develop within themselves that universal love, which is necessary to attain higher knowledge. Something I do not love cannot reveal itself to me. And every revelation must fill me with gratitude, for it enriches me.

[ 10 ] All the conditions mentioned must converge in a seventh: to perceive life unceasingly in the sense required by these conditions. In this way, the student creates the possibility of giving his life a unified character. The individual expressions of his life will be in harmony with one another, not in contradiction. He will be prepared for the tranquility he must attain during the first steps of the secret training.

[ 11 ] If anyone has a serious and sincere desire to fulfill the conditions stated, then he may decide to undertake spiritual training. He will then be willing to follow the advice given. To some, much of this advice may seem like something external. Such a person might say that they had expected the training to take place in less strict forms. But everything inner must find expression in something outer. And just as a picture does not exist merely because it exists in the painter’s mind, so too can there be no esoteric training without outer expression. Only those who do not know that the inner must find expression in the outer regard the strict forms as insignificant. It is true that what matters is the spirit of a thing and not its form. But just as form is meaningless without spirit, so too would the spirit remain inactive if it did not create a form for itself.

[ 12 ] The conditions set forth are designed to make the secret student strong enough to fulfill the further demands that spiritual training must place upon him. If these conditions are lacking, he will hesitate before every new challenge. Without them, he will not be able to have the trust in others that is necessary for him. And every pursuit of truth must be built upon trust and true love for humanity. It must be built upon these, although it cannot spring from them, but can only well up from one’s own soul power. And love for humanity must gradually expand into love for all beings, indeed for all existence. Whoever does not fulfill the conditions mentioned will also lack the full love for all that is being built up, for all that is being created, and the inclination to refrain from all destruction and annihilation as such. The secret student must become such that he never destroys anything for the sake of destruction—not in actions, nor in words, feelings, or thoughts. For him, there should be joy in creation and in becoming; and only then may he lend a hand to destruction if he is also capable of fostering new life out of and through that destruction. This does not mean that the initiate may stand by and watch as evil takes over; rather, he should seek even within evil those aspects through which he can transform it into good. He becomes ever more aware that the most effective way to combat evil and imperfection is to create the good and the perfect. The initiate knows that nothing can be created out of nothing, but that the imperfect can be transformed into the perfect. Whoever develops within himself the inclination to create will soon discover the ability to respond correctly to evil.

[ 13 ] Anyone who embarks on a secret training program must realize that its purpose is to build, not to destroy. He should therefore bring with him the will to engage in honest, devoted work, not to criticize or destroy. They should be capable of devotion, for one must learn what one does not yet know. One should look with devotion upon what is being revealed. Work and devotion: these are fundamental attitudes that must be required of the student of the secret teachings. Some will have to learn that they are not making progress in the training, even though, in their own view, they are working tirelessly. This is because they have not grasped work and devotion in the proper sense. Work undertaken solely for the sake of success will yield the least success, and learning that proceeds without devotion will lead to the least progress. Only love for work—not for success—brings true progress. And if the learner seeks sound thinking and sound judgment, he need not allow doubt and mistrust to stifle his devotion.

[ 14 ] One need not fall into slavish dependence in one’s judgment if, when receiving a message, one responds not first with one’s own opinion, but with calm contemplation and devotion. Those who have attained a certain level of insight know that they owe everything not to stubborn personal judgment, but to calm listening and reflection. One should always keep in mind that one no longer needs to learn what one is already capable of judging. Therefore, if one wishes to only judge, one can no longer learn at all. In the secret training, however, learning is what matters. One must have the complete and utter will to be a learner. If one cannot understand something, it is better not to judge at all than to condemn. One should then reserve understanding for a later time. – The higher one climbs the steps of knowledge, the more one needs this calm, reverent listening. All recognition of the truth, all living and acting in the spiritual world becomes, in higher realms, subtle and delicate in comparison with the activities of the ordinary mind and life in the physical world. The more a person’s horizons expand, the more refined become the tasks they must undertake. Because this is so, people arrive at such diverse “views” and “standpoints” regarding higher realms. Yet, in reality, there is only opinion> regarding higher truths. One can arrive at this one opinion if, through work and devotion, one has elevated oneself to the point of truly seeing the truth. Only those who, being insufficiently prepared, judge according to their favorite notions, their habitual thoughts, and so on, can arrive at a view that deviates from the one true view. Just as there is only one view of a mathematical theorem, so too is there only one view of the things of the higher worlds. But one must first prepare oneself in order to arrive at such a “view.” If one were to give this some thought, the conditions set by the secret teachers would hold no surprises for anyone. It is entirely true that the truth and the higher life dwell within every human soul, and that one can and must find them for oneself. But they lie deep and can be brought up from their deep recesses only after obstacles have been removed. Only those with experience in esoteric science can offer advice on how to accomplish this. Spiritual science provides such guidance. It does not impose a truth on anyone, nor does it proclaim a dogma; rather, it shows a path. It is true that everyone—though perhaps only after many incarnations—could find this path on their own; yet what is achieved through esoteric training shortens the journey. Through it, a person reaches sooner a point at which they can participate in the worlds where human salvation and human development are advanced through spiritual work.

[ 15 ] This sets the stage for what will initially be discussed regarding the attainment of a higher experience of the world. In the next chapter, these explanations will be continued by showing what takes place in the higher aspects of human nature (in the soul organism or astral body and in the spirit or thought body) during this development. This will shed new light on these teachings and allow for a deeper understanding of them.