The Rudolf Steiner Archive

11. Asceticism and Illness

[ 1 ] It has been pointed out repeatedly how a person arrives at the insights provided by spiritual science through a special method of developing their hidden soul faculties and soul powers. And it has been emphasized in particular that through such a development of the soul’s powers, a person becomes, in the spiritual sense, what might be called an awakened being, an initiate, or a spiritual researcher, so that we can say: It is a different kind of state of consciousness, a different kind of soul disposition, from which the spiritual insights communicated through spiritual science are gained.

[ 2 ] It is, in a sense, inherent in the nature of spiritual development over the past few centuries to bring those methods—which a person must apply to their inner life in order to become a spiritual researcher, and which have already been outlined in broad terms—closer together with what is very often called asceticism. And for the modern human consciousness, it is not at all far-fetched to associate the concept of asceticism with all sorts of unworldly schemes concerning one’s own inner life and one’s own body in general.

[ 3 ] It is always of some benefit for an understanding of a discipline such as spiritual science to clarify certain errors and misunderstandings that are actually quite common. Misunderstandings and errors are all too easy for modern people to fall into regarding spiritual science when they equate it with what is called asceticism, and when they attempt, based on all sorts of things they hear, to equate spiritual science with what is called asceticism. And this misunderstanding must be obvious because, throughout the entire spiritual development of the last few centuries and of the Middle Ages in general, the concept of asceticism has essentially shifted from what was meant in earlier times—especially during the Greek period—by the word that is today referred to as “asceticism.”

[ 4 ] If we take the word “asceticism” in the sense in which it was used in the development of Greek thought, then we may say that those exercises which the spiritual researcher must undergo in order to penetrate the spiritual world—those methods he must apply to this end—may, in a certain justified sense, be described by the term “asceticism”; but that this term differs quite fundamentally from what is understood by it today, based on developments in the Middle Ages. In order to understand the concept attributed by certain quarters to those exercises and methods to which the spiritual researcher—or the person who wishes to attain spiritual vision—must submit, it is necessary to consider these exercises from a certain perspective.

[ 5 ] What does the spiritual researcher seek? He seeks to achieve on a higher spiritual plane what can be achieved on a lower plane—for example, by awakening a sense that has been pathologically dormant. What is achieved in a person born blind through successful eye surgery—the influx of a new world that has always been present—is achieved for the spiritual researcher by applying the method outlined here, thereby unlocking something that is also present, though dormant and inactive: namely, the spiritual eye and the spiritual ear; through which a world of spiritual facts and sounds—which are always there, but for which we must acquire the appropriate organs—floods into him. If the spiritual researcher strives for this, he achieves it by ascending through three stages of his soul life.

[ 6 ] That form of knowledge which constitutes our everyday awareness—through which we perceive the sensory objects around us and form concepts of those things that provide external stimuli—that form of knowledge, which may be called “everyday knowledge,” is, for spiritual science, only one stage of knowledge, and indeed the lowest one. However, through appropriate exercises, the spiritual researcher can then ascend to a higher level of knowledge. He can first ascend to the level known as imaginative knowledge. It is not called this because we indulge in fantasies and imaginings with this kind of knowledge, but because, as the inner senses—the spiritual eyes and ears—are awakened, we do indeed have images before our soul that are not mere images, but representations—not of external physical realities, but of the spiritual realities that surround us.

[ 7 ] If we want to get a little sense of how this process works, we must bring to mind something that is discussed in particular in the second part of my Secret Science. There it is explained how something like this imaginative insight arises—what kinds of sensory impulses we must bring to the forefront of our soul so that these dormant powers may be awakened, allowing these higher forms of insight to be born from them. The soul images mentioned there are not intended to represent any external truth; rather, these thoughts are meant to be active forces of the soul that stir us, enabling us to ascend to higher levels.

[ 8 ] This higher insight arises, for example, when the spiritual student is guided by the spiritual teacher to envision the development of the world in the following way and to bring it vividly before the soul. The student is then inspired in spirit to say: I see a plant there; it is rooted in the ground and grows upward; it develops leaves and flowers. When I look at this plant, it reveals an inner lawfulness; in its development, it follows an inner necessity. I now look up from the plant to the human being and say to myself: From a certain point of view, this human being is more perfect than the plant. After all, the plant is not capable of forming a mirror image of the external world. The human being, however, is capable of bringing mirror images of external reality before the soul through his or her ideas, feelings, and perceptions.

[ 9 ] For humans to reach this stage, it was necessary for them to accept the fact that they are no longer compelled from within to follow an absolute necessity—as the plant does, which follows this necessity without will of its own—but that they are subject to their own drives, desires, and passions. The focus of his striving is placed within himself. Through this, he has ascended one level, but at the same time—if we compare him intuitively to a plant—he has descended one level. The plant follows the laws imprinted upon it chastely, without desire, without lust, and without wish; human beings, on the other hand, develop passions and desires and are capable of error. In this sense, they have, so to speak, descended.

[ 10 ] And now the student can set before his soul the real ideal: that he make his own inner being something that, of its own accord and out of inner will, follows a spiritual law just as the plant does. To do this, a person must purify and refine himself; he must shed the selfishness of his desires. When we compare these two beings—plant and human—in this way, what pulsates within the plant, what permeates the plant from top to bottom, and what permeates the human being from bottom to top, can become a symbol of the chaste plant being and the human being permeated by passions. We can see in the red blood the expression of the human soul permeated by passions and desires, and we can recognize in the pure green sap of the plant the expression of the plant, which follows its eternal, chaste laws without error. And if we take the blood as the expression of the fact we have just set before our soul, then we can say: When a human being has progressed to the point where he has purified and refined his blood to such an extent that the chaste sap of the plant flows within him, then that human being has made himself the master of his nature; then he is the lord and king over his passions. He masters them, and we may then experience that transformation of blood into the red rose juice, which is the symbol of the pure, chaste human being.

[ 11 ] When we make this comparison, we must not succumb to the illusion that we are expressing an external truth. Such ideas are not suited to representing external realities. But if we surrender to these ideas entirely free of illusion, so that they act only upon our soul as symbols, as images—then they need not correspond with the natural sciences; their sole purpose is to act upon the soul as powerful impulses of feeling—then we will discover that they awaken hidden powers and abilities that ultimately reveal themselves as spiritual eyes and spiritual ears. This process is thus symbolically represented by the Rose Cross. We can imagine the lower nature as something withering away, like the dead wood of a cross, and what sprouts within us as the higher nature, we can imagine as red roses, and we can feel the emotions evoked by this symbol with all the warmth of our soul.

[ 12 ] We can feel this warmth of the soul—which expresses the very essence of the development from the lower to the higher—when the withered tree with the red roses stands before us. We say: The red rose juice is the symbol of the human being who has mastered his passions. In Goethe, we also find a reference to this in the sentence:

Whoever lacks this,
This: Die and Be Reborn,
Will always remain a gloomy guest
On this dark earth.

[ 13 ] But we should not suppress our instincts and desires; rather, we should become masters of our lower nature so that a higher nature can unfold within us.

[ 14 ] This is intended to illustrate how the spiritual researcher prepares his soul through inner exercises by allowing symbolic images—regarding which, however, he harbors no illusions—to take effect upon his soul. Through this, he will be uplifted, he will experience an opening of the eyes, and he will gaze into the spiritual world. Outstanding minds have sensed the meaning of the image that has just been presented to you. Schiller, for example, says:

Are you searching for the highest truth? This plant can teach it to you
That does good without any will of its own.

[ 15 ] Here, he presents the plant as a model. Angelus Silesius says: “The rose does not ask why; it simply blooms.” And because it blooms without asking why, he presents it as the model of a human being who has become master of his own nature.

[ 16 ] Through such images, we can advance to spiritual vision, to imagination. If we then have the perseverance to continue, we will reach even higher levels of spiritual perception: inspiration and intuition.

[ 17 ] What the spiritual researcher discovers in the spiritual world through these higher levels of knowledge cannot be discovered through mere intellectual reasoning. But once it is put into words, anyone who surrenders to their sense of truth can understand it. Therefore, what is communicated to the world must not be dismissed with the remark: “What does this have to do with people who cannot themselves look into the spiritual world?”—Spiritual researchers can put it into words, and then it becomes universally understandable to a sound sense of truth. In this way, the student can take these truths into himself, and as he processes them with his logical thinking, they become the means by which the higher soul forces slumbering within him are awakened from his soul. Through this, the student—the spiritual researcher—seeks to develop beyond the limits of ordinary human existence. Such a development beyond the level one has currently attained—such an elevation of the foundations of human existence—is what has always been referred to as “asceticism” in the healthy eras and spheres of spiritual life.

[ 18 ] In its original meaning, asceticism really implies nothing more than a method through which people develop abilities greater than those they previously possessed. For this reason, in ancient Greece, the word “askesis” was applied, for example, to the athlete who developed his physical strength beyond the measure naturally granted to him. A person who calls another—who is developing his physical strength to become an athlete—an “ascetic” would be considered a fool by his fellow human beings with today’s understanding. Nevertheless, this person, who calls the other an ascetic, would be fully in line with Greek usage, for asceticism is that which leads a person beyond a certain level of existence.

[ 19 ] And now let us raise the question: Under what conditions is it possible for a person to rise above the measure of spiritual knowledge allotted to him without endangering his life? If, by discussing this question in greater detail, we wish to penetrate the essence of true asceticism, then we must examine the concept of asceticism even more closely. First of all, by its very nature, the concept of asceticism must be linked to the fact that a person develops powers and abilities, and that, while developing them, he, in a sense, refrains from their immediate application.

[ 20 ] Usually, a person develops in such a way that they cultivate their abilities through ordinary daily activities. This is particularly true of adults. We come closer to the concept of asceticism when we consider a child’s learning. When a child learns, the activity is not typically viewed as a direct expression of life or as life’s work. Skills such as writing are developed. While in adults this skill flows directly into their life’s work, in children the focus is on further developing the skill without the immediate application of what results from it, so that its improvement—achieved by foregoing the immediate success of the activity—is something that brings us closer to the concept of asceticism; and asceticism, in the sense in which it has now also been characterized by the method of the spiritual researcher, is, in the most eminent sense, the development of the human soul’s abilities and powers, in which one initially renounces the immediate success of the work. One withdraws into oneself in order to develop such soul capacities, to draw such powers out of the soul. And one says to oneself: I want to work on myself for a while in such a way that my work, in relation to what I want, is not directed toward the external world, but is directed toward myself. Through this, I achieve an enhancement of my being. – And that is what, in the most eminent sense, belongs to the concept of asceticism. It is directed toward an enhancement of one’s faculties, so that during this development one refrains from exercising those faculties and waits until the appropriate stage is reached, in order to then attain what these faculties can lead to.

[ 21 ] The one who devotes himself to such asceticism in the true, healthy sense says to himself: I will perform this exercise; I know full well that I must practice such exercises for a long, long time, that for a long time I must engage in an inner activity that will bear no fruit; but I also know that a time will come later—whether in the period between birth and death or at some other time—I know that the moment will come when I will intervene in the workings of the world, when I will be able to put the skills I have acquired to use. It is true that we work on our abilities without immediately applying them to the very purpose for which they are intended.

[ 22 ] As strange as it may sound, the best example of asceticism in the healthy sense can be found in a military exercise. During such exercises, the relevant army units develop skills aimed at increasing their proficiency and strength. But while these skills are practiced during maneuvers, it actually means only that work is being done to develop them, and one must forgo what happens in a real emergency—that is, the very purpose for which these skills are ultimately intended. It doesn’t matter here what one might otherwise think about these military exercises. But if we want to illustrate the concept of asceticism with a modern example, the best example is the activity we observe in a military exercise. It is grotesque, to be sure, but well suited for defining asceticism.

[ 23 ] Thus, those who practice asceticism seek to develop abilities and powers within their souls without demanding their immediate exercise, so that the ideal before their souls is to achieve the exercise of these abilities and powers in the future. This is the goal of those who strive to attain the higher insights into the spiritual foundations of existence.

[ 24 ] But how does such work on oneself relate to a person’s other life activities and circumstances? As this method is applied today, we must above all clearly recognize that no one who works in the field of spiritual science and outlines the means and methods for developing the soul’s faculties does so without simultaneously requiring that those messages from the spiritual world—which relate to what has already been explored—be first assimilated through a purely rational understanding of things. This is how it is done today when guidance is given to those who wish to penetrate the spiritual world themselves. They are told: You can perform exercises within your soul, but you must not do so without the willingness to learn to understand what you are doing through ordinary human understanding—through the reason that people possess in everyday life.

[ 25 ] To give a concrete example, a teacher of spiritual research would say to a student of spiritual research: “As you develop your spiritual abilities, you will come to know through your own experience that you have already been here in repeated earthly lives. You will have this experience as your own.” But before you get to the point of performing the exercises that can give you this as a direct experience, you must first grasp this with your ordinary intellect. – The teacher would say: Let’s assume for a moment, as spiritual researchers claim, that such repeated earthly lives exist. And now, if we assume that such repeated earthly lives exist—that a person, through birth, enters a new life with what they have acquired in previous earthly lives in order to enjoy the fruits of those past lives—let us now try to study human destiny and ask ourselves: Can we understand destiny more easily and more fully if we assume the existence of repeated earthly lives? Such a question and its answer are a matter for ordinary reason.

[ 26 ] If you take all the circumstances properly into account, you will say: Yes, I cannot yet see into these spiritual realities myself; but if I trust the spiritual researcher for the time being—not by placing blind faith in him, but by telling myself: I want to apply here something I do in other areas of life as well: I’ll simply make a comparison. For example, if someone finds some unfamiliar object—let’s say, for instance, that he’s never seen a seashell before and now finds one—he wouldn’t be able to explain, based on the forces of the world or on physical and chemical laws, how matter could form in this way; he wouldn’t be able to explain why matter took on precisely this form. But he could say: Well, let me try to imagine that this shape originates from something that is no longer present within it, but which caused it to become what it now looks like. — If he then concludes that an animal produced this shell, he will say: Now I understand that something which is no longer present within it can be such that it produced this shape. When I consider the destiny of human beings between birth and death, I will ask myself: Can I understand this destiny if I assume that human beings emerge from nothing? Can one explain the destiny of human beings if one assumes that they merely inherit the characteristics of their ancestors? No, one cannot, but one can explain life immediately by saying that human destiny points back to past lives. Human beings have previously earned what now manifests in them. They have committed deeds in the past that leave their mark on their present life, just as an animal leaves its mark on a seashell.

[ 27 ] In this way, a person can understand the teachings of spiritual science through their own reason. And this is what the student achieves first. Why is this so? There is a deep reason for this in human nature today. For those who wish to broaden their understanding, there is today what is called the scope of spiritual science. The findings of this spiritual science convey to people facts about a higher world. Now there are people who react to the findings of this spiritual science by initially rejecting them and saying: “That’s nonsense, fanciful stuff, the fantasies of a few dreamers—it has nothing to do with what we find in life.” – Such attitudes can exist and do exist on a very wide scale. The number of those whom spiritual researchers regard as fools is greater than the number of the others.

[ 28 ] Where does this attitude come from—one that rejects the findings of spiritual researchers? There is a good reason for it, and anyone who looks more deeply into the matter will not say, “These are all foolish people who reject these findings.” Rather, they will say: People have their good reason for rejecting the findings of spiritual researchers. – Let us simply believe that we are not doing the right thing when we condemn without further ado those who are our opponents, who claim that spiritual research has nothing to do with real life and is nothing but pathological nonsense. We must instead realize that these people simply cannot help themselves.

[ 29 ] Why can’t they do otherwise? Because what is at work within them is what we might call a certain instinct for self-preservation of the soul—that is, people who, as mentioned, respond to the messages from spiritual researchers by saying they simply cannot tolerate what they experience in their souls, cannot process what comes from the spiritual world, and must therefore protect themselves from these messages by rejecting them. It is their healthy instinct for self-protection. What would be the result for someone who lacks the will to apply reason—in the broadest sense—to these messages, if they were to accept the spiritual researchers’ messages at face value? They would have to take in a great deal of so-called wisdom; it would be chaotic stuff in their soul; they would drown in messages they cannot process.

[ 30 ] We experience a kind of intellectual drowning when we accept insights on the basis of authority without being able to process them using our sound reason. What we present to the spiritual researcher as rejection is something that points to a healthy instinct for self-preservation against drowning in insights we do not understand. So we must say to ourselves: We see here something from the healthy side—though only from the partially healthy side—of our contemporaries. Of course, when this instinct manifests itself so sharply, it must at the same time be impossible for such a contemporary to bring his soul to a comprehension of these facts. He works only in one direction, and he stubbornly refuses to move beyond a certain level; therefore, he rejects what might otherwise overwhelm him—the findings of spiritual research.

[ 31 ] Another danger lies in the spiritual sciences. Those who fall prey to this danger are those who have an overly strong urge for all kinds of knowledge—a thirst—but who do not at the same time have the will to scrutinize this knowledge through sound reason. Just as there is an instinct for self-preservation, so too is there an instinct for self-destruction in the human soul. It manifests itself when a person thirstily seeks to absorb everything they can hear about the spiritual world, when they blindly swallow everything they are given on the basis of authority. To indulge in this mindset reveals an instinct for self-destruction, and this instinct for self-destruction is found in those who always say: “The Master said this; we can believe it.” — Such people expose themselves to the danger of absorbing things they have not processed, things they cannot integrate with their own spiritual center. It is the worst possible principle in the field of spiritual science to say, “The Master said so.” — The correct approach is this: We neither accept nor reject his teachings outright. Well, when he tells us something, let’s assume for the moment that it is correct. But now let’s apply our reason, let’s seek to prove it in life, to support it with evidence—in other words, let’s process it step by step.

[ 32 ] What appears, on the one hand, as an extreme—as a contrast—in the instinct for self-preservation, which can lead people to dullness when it acts radically, and what, on the other hand, acts as an instinct for self-destruction and manifests itself in those who swear by the words “The Master said it”—this is something that must be at work within the healthy person who seeks spiritual development, harmonizing one another and creating harmony. What confronts us in life as extremes—the instincts of self-preservation and self-destruction—must be present in the true ascetic’s soul as inner harmony. He must have harmony within his soul between these two things: neither necessarily accepting nor necessarily rejecting them. Both must be at work in a healthy ascetic. Only then can one speak of true asceticism. Thus, anyone who wishes to engage with the spiritual world at all must relate to these two things—the instincts of self-preservation and self-destruction.

[ 33 ] Something else is necessary if one wishes to practice in the true sense, to engage in asceticism. Asceticism is, after all, synonymous with “practice.” Through asceticism, abilities and powers within the soul are to be awakened. If this awakening of abilities and powers in the soul is pursued in such a way that the individual does not support it by engaging with the findings of spiritual research, then the exercises will turn to the person’s detriment. That is why the teacher—the true spiritual researcher—insists so strongly that one engage with these findings. Only when one has a sound body of knowledge about the spiritual world—acquired through study—is one able to bring the spiritual abilities that seek to awaken in the soul into the proper relationship with one’s overall activity through the exercises.

[ 34 ] Let’s suppose there is someone who says: “Oh, the reports from spiritual researchers don’t interest me much. Above all, I want to see for myself. And if the researchers insist that one must first learn, that’s just stubbornness—they just want to peddle their wisdom.” But my aim is to develop my own power so that I can look into the spiritual world for myself. — Anyone who speaks and acts in this way will find that if they reject everything that can be given to them—everything that trains their reason—before they develop their inner abilities, such abilities may indeed awaken in their soul, but they will then not know what to do with these new abilities. But the one who knows the great laws—as they were once investigated by spiritual researchers—will, the moment new abilities arise in his soul, know how to interpret and apply these abilities; he will know what to do with them, and a beautiful harmony will then emerge between what he has learned and what arises within him.

[ 35 ] But if a person has not learned this, he may find that all sorts of so-called clairvoyant abilities arise within his soul—all sorts of possibilities—yet he does not know how to apply them. As a result, this predisposition can degenerate into nonsense, into foolishness, into the illusion of all sorts of apparent facts from the spiritual world, while all they actually have before them is a distorted image of their own spiritual abilities and powers, which they are unable to apply. They are in the same situation as someone who has physical senses but does not know what to do with them.

[ 36 ] Just as we can drown in false mysticism—if we blindly accept what is said out of deference to authority—so, through false inner development, we can draw all manner of powers and abilities from our soul without preparing ourselves to understand what emerges. This would lead to an inner burning up of our own abilities. Just as the instinct for self-preservation can be lost in the blind faith we place in others, so too can we undergo a kind of burning process through the forces and abilities we develop without knowing how to apply them. These forces consume us when we possess them but cannot apply them to anything.

[ 37 ] There is a process of drowning when I unquestioningly accept everything on authority, and there is a process of burning out, of exhausting oneself through one’s own abilities, when we reject, so to speak, the insights we are meant to acquire so that we may then apply our inner abilities at the right moment. We must avoid both extremes. We should strive to achieve harmony between the teachings and our inner abilities; if we do not seek to establish this harmony, we will soon have to face the fact that the conditions of life are being violated. The whole person will thereby come to ruin.

[ 38 ] How can this be the case? Because, as experience shows, living conditions change when one violates the ordinary measure of intelligence. If one violates this standard with regard to external knowledge—if one accepts factual statements without examining them through reason—then one perceives them only with the external intellect; they do not penetrate to the depths of the soul. Spiritual knowledge is sound only when it does not remain mere theory, but rather when our entire inner life is filled with it and lived through it—in other words, when it becomes our spiritual possession. Only then is knowledge truly acquired.

[ 39 ] The insights we accept based on faith in an external authority bear the mark of falsehood, even if they are true. They are subjective lies, for the person who passes them on asserts something of which he cannot be convinced. He has accepted them just as one would otherwise accept a lie, and this is indeed a devastating thing. Belief in authority leads the soul to become untruthful. This is the dire consequence of a misguided inclination toward undigested spiritual truths. And through this, what would otherwise be harmless becomes a danger to the soul.

[ 40 ] The ordinary events of the day will already reveal the truths of external life. But where external facts cannot provide proof, inner truthfulness must prevail. If this is not the case, an inner insincerity arises that drives us ever more toward deceitfulness. As soon as people go beyond a certain point here—if they are unwilling to examine things—they easily fall into unconscious or conscious deceitfulness. How easily does a falsehood become accepted when people are too complacent to scrutinize what they are told with reason? It is, of course, easier to accept spiritual insights on the basis of some external authority than to work on one’s own soul to absorb them. That is why it is so convenient to believe. In spiritual science, however, this “belief” poses a great danger, for because people are so gullible, it is so difficult for our contemporaries in this field to distinguish between the charlatan and the genuine spiritual researcher. They overlap so easily; they are so easily confused with one another—because people are too gullible, because they lack the patience to examine things critically.

[ 41 ] The true esoteric researcher will freely and openly state what he has come to understand. But he will also present it so that people may accept it in their lives and test it against the facts of life. He will be unconcerned, for it will be confirmed. But those who are unwilling to examine what is presented to them cannot distinguish the charlatan from the true spiritual researcher. We cannot entirely absolve our contemporaries of blame when they fall for all the charlatanism that is rampant in every area of spiritual life. Becoming untruthful stems from a blind faith in authority.

[ 42 ] And what, then, is the consequence when we succumb to the process of consuming ourselves within our own abilities? Experience alone can reveal the outcome of this. But experience speaks all too loudly. Those who refuse to study spiritual science properly, in parallel with the development of their higher faculties—such people, because they do not know what to do with the faculties they have allowed to spring forth in their souls, become inflated; their souls swell up with their own abilities. The result is an unheard-of arrogance that overtakes those souls who lack the humility required for spiritual study. Arrogance and devastating pride are what arise in those who allow themselves to be led astray by false asceticism in the development of spiritual abilities. Here, in the realm of the soul’s life, we see how devastating it can be when one fails to maintain a balance between spiritual activities and insights, and how devastating the effects of so-called “exercises” can be when performed by someone who is not progressing correctly.

[ 43 ] If we understand the true, proper nature of asceticism, then we will not fall into these errors. We must not call a person who practices genuine asceticism unworldly; these practices cannot and will not make him weak. Nor will they turn away from external realities; rather, they seek to make themselves strong and vigorous through these practices, entering life with heightened abilities. Thus, true asceticism does not aim at becoming unworldly or detached from the world, but rather at elevating the human inner life beyond the limits of one’s previous inner capacities, beginning in ordinary life. Then we will feel within ourselves something foreign to our outer being, through which we strengthen the soul, so that we will no longer feel the dominion of the external to the same extent as before, when we had not yet torn the soul away from the forces of the body.

[ 44 ] Such exercises, however, involve detaching the inner self from the outer self. We go beyond this, but in doing so we do not become weaker in relation to this body. We become more estranged from the body as we strengthen the soul. But through this, we come to know this body as a proper tool. We become estranged from it, but what is foreign to us we can use more effectively as a tool than what we regarded as part of ourselves. It is just as if you had become one with the hammer you are supposed to use to drive in a nail, intimately intertwined with it. You would soon complain if you had to use the hammer—which always hurts—to drive in a nail. But precisely because you are not fused to it, it is a powerful tool for you. And by separating ourselves from our outer self, we can make it a powerful and useful tool.

[ 45 ] This is what every true asceticism must demand of those who devote themselves to it. But this is also what fundamentally distinguishes it from the eccentric concept into which false asceticism has evolved. All true asceticism leads to strengthening and fortifying the inner self, and a person with such a strengthened inner self can view with calm what other people say about him. People say: He no longer takes pleasure in what can truly interest people. — Someone who has become a spiritual seeker in the true sense can calmly endure it when people come and pity him, saying: What does he get out of life now? Everything that offers interest in life has become alien to him. – He knows how to bear such talk calmly. Let them come up to him and say: “You no longer partake in the ordinary pleasures of the day; life must be terribly boring for you; oh, you poor fellow! And how entertaining what we do is, and how boring what you do is.”

[ 46 ] Those who speak this way have absolutely no idea of the unbridled asceticism that one who has come to know the spiritual world would have to practice in order to engage in what they do—what they call “entertaining.” One would have to practice unbridled asceticism if one were to participate in what they call the ordinary pleasures of life. And because he does not wish to partake in the ordinary pleasures of life, he avoids these pleasures. He does not wish to practice this asceticism. Thus, if we consider only these trivialities of life, we see that what is called asceticism in the true sense involves an intensification, an elevation of the affirmation of life.

[ 47 ] But we also see that through this asceticism, a person becomes more independent, consciously separating the spiritual from the physical. Now, false asceticism has made things easier for itself. In fact, achieving the goals of true asceticism requires great effort on the part of the inner self. It is easier to mortify the outer self, to torment the body with all manner of torments, to weaken it with all manner of pains and sufferings, so that the body, of its own accord, squeezes the soul out. This is the goal of false asceticism, which believes it can achieve what is called the liberation of the spirit by mortifying the body. True asceticism draws out the soul, but it achieves this by strengthening the soul. But those who practice false asceticism, through the torments to which they subject themselves, cause their bodies to force the soul out. This false asceticism has long been practiced by weakening the body through fasting and self-mortification. This has also been done in Western regions, and this false asceticism has brought the very concept of asceticism into disrepute as something that leads people to detachment from the world.

[ 48 ] But it is only through asceticism—which enhances our spiritual faculties and strengthens the inner self—that we rise to new insights and new possibilities of knowledge. If we merely mortify the body and squeeze the soul out of it, the soul remains what it was, for we shut ourselves off within ourselves.

[ 49 ] Anyone who looks back on the asceticism of the Middle Ages—and let nothing be said against the heroism inherent in these monks, nor against the self-denial and heroic spirit of certain outstanding figures of the Middle Ages—but if we allow what they produced to take effect on us with an open mind, we find that it is merely the same feelings of the soul that were already present, which these people of the Middle Ages squeezed out by mortifying the body and brought to a certain degree of independence. There we see the false asceticism practiced through the torment of the body. Modern people think of this false asceticism, and that is why those who come into contact with Theosophy very often confuse true asceticism with what can be achieved through this false asceticism.

[ 50 ] Then they come and ask: What are we allowed to eat and drink? — They believe that by following a specific diet—through what they eat or do not eat—they can attain certain abilities. True spiritual research shows that while a student may indeed receive help by following a specific diet, but this diet alone will not enable them to reach their goal; it is merely a means to that end. It would certainly be more convenient, however, if one need only refrain from eating or drinking this or that and could then ascend to the highest spiritual realms. Nor, however, should one believe that the effects that arise from such practices are unimportant. The one who rises to true asceticism—who in fact does what has been presented, in the most eminent sense, as healthy development into the spiritual world—will nevertheless say that he is peeling away from his body something that was previously within it. He leaves the body to its own devices; he separates it from the inner forces of the soul. As a result, the body can fall prey to the dangers of external life more easily than when the robust soul is simply at work within it, just as it has been from birth under normal circumstances. When we withdraw these soul forces from our body—when we direct these soul forces toward higher development—the body, left to its own devices, will more easily succumb to external dangers. Therefore, for those who wish to develop in a proper, healthy way, it is necessary that they be mindful of this and that they ensure their neglected body is brought into a calm harmony with the forces from which our body is born.

[ 51 ] Let’s use a concrete example to make this clearer: You’re all familiar with what we commonly call fatigue after work. This fatigue is something that is absolutely necessary. We must experience it, for as we succumb to fatigue, we enter, from the very beginning, into a different state of our inner life. Fatigue awakens the need for rest, and while we rest, we regain the new strength we need for work. Therefore, one can say: Healthy fatigue is necessary for the hardworking person, and in the case of a person who could not become tired—who would not pay attention to their fatigue—we would see work turning to their undoing. If a person is forced to work beyond a certain limit, so that he crosses the threshold of fatigue—if he must work longer than his strength allows—then he is working into a state where he is already fatigued, and this can be of the greatest harm to him. He can say with certainty that he is undermining his health. Now, if external circumstances compel us—and we must ensure that this is no longer the case—if life compels us to work with a fatigued body, that is disastrous. But it is even more disastrous when a person, having developed their strength through true asceticism, is thereby tempted to disregard fatigue. Through the development of his soul powers, a person could become so spiritualized that he might literally forget that external life also places demands on his body, and he might, at some point, exceed his limits of fatigue. But then, if—after being freed from his body—he neglects it, fails to pay attention to it, and does not bring it into harmony with himself; in other words, if he were to push himself into exhaustion in any arbitrary way, he would cause his body far greater harm than one who damages it solely through external circumstances.

[ 52 ] Therefore, one who devotes himself to true asceticism must ensure that he becomes tired at the right moment and also that he makes use of this fatigue. In this case, too, a person must establish a rhythm in relation to his physical body. If he works at it recklessly, pushing through every bout of fatigue so that he continues working because he believes he has become strong and no longer feels the fatigue, then he will harm his physical well-being through asceticism, so that asceticism can become a source of physical illness for him. But asceticism will bring harm only when a person withdraws their attention from the external world and disregards the rhythm into which that part of us which belongs to the external world is embedded. Yet it is precisely then that a person will be all the more dependent on honoring that rhythm.

[ 53 ] If it has generally become fashionable everywhere today to lead a hurried, restless existence, to rush too hastily to one’s work, and if this haste and agitation are constantly increasing today, then it is necessary for those who wish to develop their abilities in a calm manner not to participate in this haste and restlessness through their outward actions. It would be wise for anyone who wishes to develop their abilities in a healthy way to cultivate a sense of rhythm even in their outward actions.

[ 54 ] How can we watch our contemporaries today running and hurrying—for example, when they want to catch the streetcar—so that it won’t leave without them? There they run and hurry, and if everything were as it should be, they wouldn’t need to at all. If one were simply to observe, one would see how people rush toward a departing train, even when they aren’t missing anything in particular, simply because they believe that’s how it’s supposed to be.

[ 55 ] But one could also see others: For example, there’s someone walking along quite normally. He thinks: “Well, if I don’t catch this train, then I’ll just be late; I’ll take the next one.” This is someone who arms himself with calm, who attunes himself to complete tranquility in relation to external life. All haste and restlessness can draw us so deeply into the external world that asceticism can become a source of illness. Therefore, anyone who wishes to practice true asceticism must never neglect to cultivate a certain rhythm and a sense of security—not to go along with what modern life imposes on them in the outer world, but only to participate in what proves to be appropriate for them personally with regard to their outer existence. The ascetic must not fall ill. The instrument from which he has freed himself must not be left to its own devices in a senseless manner, for then it is bound to fall into ruin. If someone becomes ill during his exercises, he must not ignore it. The exercises do not cause illness in and of themselves, but rather because the associated preconditions have not been observed.

[ 56 ] Anyone who considers how one’s mental faculties can be burned out by disregarding instructions—by blindly accepting them on the authority of a leader—can also appreciate how debilitating it can be for the body when we place ourselves in certain unhealthy mental and physical circumstances in our environment and surrender to them; such a person also knows that because a person cannot enter the external world with the proper inner harmony, they can slip into a state of illness.

[ 57 ] Thus, the rhythm of life in the higher sense must certainly be fulfilled by the one who strives for this development, by the one who allows himself to be educated by his time. It is true that a person who begins their self-education must work in such a way as to develop these higher abilities through healthy self-discipline, so that this person takes upon themselves—as their own responsibility—what would otherwise be provided from outside.

[ 58 ] In a certain sense, the forces that govern a person’s time operate in such a way that he cannot take steps that are too destructive. But if one breaks free from the regularity of ordinary life and takes one’s own development into one’s own hands, then one must also take responsibility for one’s own health. If one lacks the will to pay attention to one’s body, then asceticism will have a hundred ways of leading the body into a state of illness.

[ 59 ] The lecture could only briefly touch upon the fact that one of humanity’s highest goals is to penetrate the spiritual world through true, healthy asceticism; that this penetration into the spiritual world, however, is bound by strict, serious laws; and that human beings must not transgress these laws with impunity. We may say: Indeed, the spiritual world is not closed off; of those who believe it to be closed off, we can say that their hearts are dead, their eyes are closed, and that they do not wish to enter through the dawn toward the spiritual sun.

[ 60 ] But to those who truly wish to enter, we must say that they must work earnestly and with dignity, step by step, to make themselves ready and capable of receiving the light of the spiritual sun. Otherwise, it will be a delusion for them, one that destroys their spiritual vision and blinds their spiritual eye rather than developing it. The spiritual world does not close itself off from us; as we develop toward it, it reveals its mysteries to us, but it demands that we prepare ourselves, to behold these mysteries only when, through harmony, we attune our lives to the rhythm that animates and permeates all things, when we realize that we must not storm into the spiritual world, but must prepare ourselves step by step, that we must first create the conditions through which we transform ourselves. Then, for our own good—not for our own harm—we will enter the sublime spiritual world.

[ 61 ] In reality, our journey toward the spiritual world is not associated with the risk of illness. If illness befalls the seeker, it is not the spiritual life that is to blame, but rather the person himself, who is acting in the wrong way. And when such a person realizes that they have made mistakes, they need not despair over it. For even our mistakes are ultimately steered back onto the right path by a higher wisdom, so that even this fear does not relieve us of the duty to do everything that will make us ready to receive the spiritual sun if we wish to evolve toward it.