The Rudolf Steiner Archive

16. Self-Knowledge and Knowledge of God

[ 1 ] There will be a meeting of the Besant Branch on Friday at 7:00 p.m. The agenda includes: “Preliminary discussion of the General Assembly to be held on Sunday.” The General Assembly will take place on Sunday at 10:00 a.m.: reports on the management of the organization, and so on. If time permits at the General Assembly, a more substantive discussion on Theosophy will take place at 4:00 p.m. At next Monday’s meeting, I will speak on “Occultism, Esotericism, and Theosophy.” Please note that this topic will relate to current trends. I ask that you invite as many members from outside the local chapter as possible.

[ 2 ] Today I would like to begin by speaking to you about “self-knowledge” and “knowledge of God.” These are two concepts that are very easily misunderstood in the context of occult pursuits and which, as experience shows, are indeed very easily and frequently misunderstood. Time and again, you read in theosophical books and hear in various popular theosophical lectures—or even in other lectures belonging to related movements—that human beings carry the Divine Self within their souls, that they bear it within themselves, and that, in order to attain knowledge of God, they need only allow this Self to speak; then they will thereby also find the highest knowledge of God within themselves. “Knowledge of the divine Self” has almost become a catchphrase. Just as it is true that the ancient saying “Know thyself” should stand as a sacred motto before every Theosophical gathering, so it is also true that this “Know thyself” presents the greatest difficulties. Today let us reflect a little on the meaning of this phrase: “Know thyself”—and the other saying, “Self-knowledge is the first step, the beginning of improvement.” “Self-knowledge” sounds much more trivial, yet it is just as true. These two sayings must certainly complement one another. I have met people who approached me with the statement: “I am the Atma; the divine Self lives within me; the God-man lives within me”—and similar expressions. Anyone who wishes to delve into occult views of life must, above all, thoroughly rid themselves of the trivial interpretation of such sayings. And today we want to discuss these sayings from the occultist’s point of view. The occultist does not speak this way, and his words will never be, “Self-knowledge is knowledge of God.” - But to see this in the right light, we must ask ourselves: What can we actually find within ourselves? How much can we learn about ourselves? I would like to begin this lecture with a saying from those individualities who have advanced far beyond all of us and from whom we all have much to learn. They tell us about self-knowledge: “We learn much”—that is, the higher individuals—“from the nature around us; we learn much through the human life around us. We learn things of infinite value from our elder brothers; we learn nothing at all from ourselves.”

[ 3 ] Let us keep this saying firmly in mind. It is a saying from those who are far ahead of us in our development. Anyone who comes to understand what a human being actually is will gradually learn to understand this saying. What is a human being? To answer this, we must look back on some of what we have discussed here in recent sessions. We know, after all, that a human being is not something born out of nothing. We know that he is the reincarnation of his former personality. When we consider the human being of today, we must ask ourselves: In which personalities was this person previously incarnated? And this brings us to a series of life histories of the individual standing before us. And even if we have traced a person back to their very first incarnation, we have still not reached a beginning. We are merely entering older realms. The human being was not yet anything resembling what he is today. But he was already something. And going further back, we find the human being embedded within the facts and essences of past events. There we find the causes of present-day human existence. And when we ask ourselves, “What are we?”—we must say: We are the effect of past life courses, of the days of earlier times. When we truly look at ourselves today, we are, in essence, nothing other than that which is composed of the causes of our past deeds and the deeds of the world’s forces at work within us. We are a consequence of the past, and everything we can find within ourselves has already happened once in the past. What constitutes our personality was an action—karma, whether personal, individual, or world karma—in the past. We are an expression of this karma. And if we could truly look within ourselves with genuine self-knowledge—if, as we undergo the training provided by the occult schools, we were to discover our own past lives and the people with whom we were once connected—then we would find ourselves entangled with the human world that surrounds us.

[ 4 ] If we refer to what I have spoken about here in earlier lectures, then we also know where to look if we want to view the matter from a different perspective. Before we became physical beings, we were astral bodies. That body is the sum of the passions and desires as they took shape back then and as they subsequently manifested in the physical body. What is at work in our physical body today is the astral body of the past. It contained those instincts and passions. And what we see outside of ourselves in animals are the passions that have split off from us. When you look out at the lion, you can say: I once had this lion-like nature within me; I cast it out so that I could develop to a higher level. I have shed and purified what was an instinct within me. I have fused them into harmony within myself, while they have spread out in the animal kingdom. I see my astral past spread out across the various animal groups of the world.

[ 5 ] And before I was in the astral body, I was in the mental body. Even back then, I shed forms in order to evolve to a higher level. And in the plant world I see around me, I see the entire past in the mental body. The plants express it through their delicious fruits.

[ 6 ] And when I look into the very depths of nature, into that which has become intellect and consciousness within myself, then I must perceive this thinking intellect in its various images and forms throughout the entire mineral kingdom. This, too, is a part of my own past.

[ 7 ] You see, we understand the mineral world because we ourselves were once part of it. We understand rock crystal because we have separated it from ourselves. What our mind thinks is what once created the entire mineral world. Thus, our own being is spread out around us, and as we look around in this world, we see only our own self, our past self. And as we look at the people around us—people who may be at a lower stage of development—and as we look at everything around us, we see the images of our own past incarnations and form our own future incarnation. Just as some people around us are today, so were we once. [Just as the Hottentots were, so were we; in the Divine, so shall we be one day.]

[ 8 ] This brings us to a vision of the past and a vision of the future. Knowledge of nature is self-knowledge, a mirror of the past and the future. Reflecting on this, the only truly illuminating word on self-knowledge—spoken from the very depths of the innermost self—is the wisdom of Vedanta, the most wondrous wisdom the world has ever produced: “Tat twam asi”—“That you are.” There is nothing in the external world that does not belong to our being, to our Self. Look at the stone you are stepping on—it is something that was once connected to your own Self. Look at the plants and the animals—all of these are fragments of our own Self. They were once woven into our Self. We belong, together with the past and the future, to a single Being. That is why we say to what spreads out in space: “That is you.”

[ 9 ] Self-knowledge does not come from looking inward, but rather from looking out into the world with the awareness that a part of your own being exists in every being in the world: The world is not within you, but out there on the great canvas of the universe. It is not from within you, but first and foremost from the great canvas of the universe, that the creative God speaks. You attain self-knowledge by attaining knowledge of the world, by listening to every being in nature, by opening your senses and spiritual faculties to what speaks to you from the outside world. You must not shut yourself off from the outside world, but rather open your self outward by first emptying your self and becoming aware that in the outside world lies your true self, which in the most ancient times created that which still rests within you as something perceptible. Feel at one with what lives and weaves in the space outside, and feel this in the saying: “That is you.” [The stone outside is the cause of certain things being within you. Feel this as you look at minerals: “That is you.”]

[ 10 ] Human beings do not belong solely to the past, but also to the future. They must influence the future; they must learn what they will one day become. This self that we carry within us will one day be something entirely different from what it is today. But we cannot find within ourselves what it will be in the future. That does not lie within ourselves. Our self is karma—the effect of the past. What the self makes of this is what we will become in the future. But we cannot learn this from ourselves; we can learn it only from those who have advanced a step further than we have—from our elder brothers who are in a stage of reincarnation that is more advanced than our own. That is why the more highly developed person says: “What I was and what I will be—I must learn that.” I can learn much from the nature that surrounds me, a great deal from the people around me, and infinitely valuable lessons from my elder brothers—but nothing at all from myself—and by that he means the self that is present at this very moment.

[ 11 ] Perhaps we need to understand more fully that a deeper self is spread out there in nature, insofar as it has its origin in the past. And we must further understand that what our elder brothers—the wise brothers of humanity—experienced serves as a foreshadowing of our own future today. Thus, we must understand that we cannot set our self-knowledge against what our elder, wise brothers teach, but rather that we must see our own self in these elder brothers, that we must see our own future in these elder brothers. What they are today, we will one day be; [and if we wish to learn what we will be in the future,] then we must allow ourselves to be told what they have already gone through. How could animals, plants, and the lowest forms of humanity provide insight into their own selves? What we are today, they will be at a later time. But we can only gain insight into our own selves from those who have reached the stages we have yet to attain.

[ 12 ] Thus, we can only sit humbly at the feet of the great teachers of the human race. The sages of India say: The disciple must sit devoutly at the feet of the great guru. — This does not exclude self-knowledge; rather, it includes self-knowledge—true self-knowledge. Consider this: I sit at the feet of the exalted Guru—there I must not say, “I do not want to learn from you, but from myself.”—That would be a misunderstanding of the true, higher Self. The higher Self speaks through everyone. My own Self also speaks through its words.

[ 13 ] What I can learn from my own self comes to me through the words of my guru. It is mere theory—gray theory—to think that one should let one’s own self speak. True esoteric practice, however, is listening to the elder brothers of humanity. What we are—what our true self has to say to us—is best expressed in a book such as *Light on the Path* or something similar. In the timeless sentences you find in this book, or in the New Testament—namely, in the Gospel of John—or in the venerable writings of the great masters, your true self speaks to you. And when you become silent and still in what you yourself are now—as a result of the past—at the feet of the guru—who need only be more advanced than you yourself—then your own Self speaks instructively into your ears, into your souls.

[ 14 ] And when a sentence such as this one comes to you: “Wait for the flower to bloom in the stillness after the storm has raged—not before,” this is the saying of a master who has long since passed through the stage at which I now stand and who can instruct me about my true self. That is why the occultist says: Above all, I must immerse myself in what the wise guides of humanity have produced. And thus he ascends step by step in humility and serenity. First, we listen to what the great figures of humanity have to say—those who have emerged in all fields and who were wiser than we are. We look up to the great artists, to the great wise leaders, insofar as they appear to us in external, exoteric history.

[ 15 ] When we allow a painting by Raphael to take effect upon us, when we let Plato’s great works on the immortality of the soul or his “Phaedo” penetrate our being, when we allow the writings left to us by, for example, our German philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte or other great men like him to take effect upon us, then our self speaks to us, then our self converses with us, and then we climb the first step toward a higher element of our self. Then, once we have taken in—at least in part—what lies within us at this level, we can delve into the depths of those who do not name themselves, because their names are of no consequence—for example, into a text such as *Light on the Path*, which was written down only through the medium of Mabel Collins but originates from a great, wise guide—and then we climb upward to higher levels.

[ 16 ] In the same way, our true self speaks to us through the Gospel, through the Bhagavad Gita, and through the ancient scriptures of humanity. All of this is our Self speaking, and we find it best when we seek it not within ourselves but outside of ourselves, as the Vedanta saying goes: “Tat twam asi”—“That you are.”

[ 17 ] And then, when we no longer feel that we have anything to say to ourselves, when we wish only to be a vessel, when we have surrendered everything connected with our narrower self—which is an effect—then, and only then, does higher individuality speak to us. But this involves many other things as well, above all a thorough consideration of the saying that self-knowledge—the knowledge of our so-called inner self—is the beginning of the will to perfection, as well as the realization that we learn nothing at all through our self. In truth, through this self, human beings succumb to the most severe delusions. This self—take a good look at it. Are you truly yourself in your daily activities? Are you truly yourself when you go to eat? Are you truly yourself when you go about your business? Clear self-knowledge will tell you that it is not you yourself, but rather natural instincts. What your physical body does—what nature makes of you—is what drives you; it merely pushes and presses within you. It is the greatest illusion when someone says, “I eat, I go for a walk, I take care of this or that business”—for he is not the one driving, but the one being driven. For those who immerse themselves in this self-knowledge, it is not the source of the truth they might otherwise find within themselves; rather, they realize that it is precisely within themselves that they find the external world—that which pushes and drives them from without. Even if you are deeply connected to your present individuality, what are you? You are the result of your karmic development from the past. What we think and feel today, we think and feel in this way because we were driven toward this or that in previous lifetimes. Past lives continue to influence our present life.

[ 18 ] When, in the process of self-knowledge, you ask yourself, “Why do I do this or that?” you do not arrive at your true self, but rather at the earlier causes in your past lives. And if you go even further, examining for yourself what you have acquired in this present life, you will find the same thing. Take language, for example. Is language your Self? You speak; you think you are speaking. Can a person speak from within their own Self? If that were the case, every person would have to be able to form new words; every person would have to give birth to language from within their own Self. But it is language that speaks—the language of the tribe, of the people. The entire people speak through language. The entire people stand behind us and speak to us, through us.

[ 19 ] We can continue to strive for self-knowledge, and we will find that the self keeps moving further and further away from us. And when we understand “Tat twam as,” and see this self spread out and poured out over the external world, then we live in self-knowledge. One must simply make this very clear to oneself and must have felt at least once what it means to stand before oneself, hollowed out by self-knowledge. The self-knowing person stands before himself, hollowed out. It must first become desolate and dark within us if we wish to reach the end of self-knowledge. Where we once felt warmth, we later come to realize through self-knowledge that this warmth does not flow from our heart, but has instead been poured into it by the outside world, and that our self is merely the confluence of the forces of the outside world. Every arrogant sense of self is then replaced by the utmost humility and the realization that we are nothing in comparison to our surroundings. Barrenness, desolation, and hollowness are the result of that self-knowledge which seeks only within itself. When we have reached that point and realize that our self lies entirely in the external world, then we are ready to allow the teachings of our elder brothers to flow into us; then they speak to us—the keepers of the seals of our higher self—when we no longer wish to be anything of this higher self. Our lower self is spread out there in the various stages, and our higher self is spread out there in those who have progressed further than we have.

[ 20 ] Self-knowledge is knowledge of the world, and the beginning of self-knowledge is that our self must flow into us from the outside. No one can walk the path and feel the saying, “Seek the path of inner contemplation,” without being drawn to the other saying: “ Seek the path by boldly stepping out of yourself.” True self-knowledge consists in no longer seeking within ourselves, but in the outside world. And then something of the future—of what is not yet—is revealed to us. For there are those who, by virtue of their further development, can already glimpse today what our own self will see only in the future.

[ 21 ] We have passed through the astral and mental worlds, and we will once again strive upward toward the astral and mental worlds through this physical world of ours. But to do so, we must first develop the strength to ascend to these higher worlds, where we depart with death; they can be seen by our elder brothers. [The worlds that lie beyond death can be seen by our elder brothers.] He who has humbly attained the level of the elder brotherhood already sees, within this life, those realms which man enters when he has passed through the gate of death.

[ 22 ] And how does a person learn to look into this world? Not through self-contemplation, but by listening to what our elder brothers tell us; by understanding the principle that self-knowledge is listening to the instruction of the elder brothers. In the words of our elder brothers lie the powers that not only teach us, not only instruct us, but also awaken organs, spiritual eyes, and spiritual ears within our own astral body and our own mental body. As the Guru speaks to me, streams flow into me that awaken spiritual eyes and spiritual ears within me, through which I myself learn to look into the worlds that he can see. Only when I no longer want what is within me—which is merely the effect of the past—only when I have emptied myself and allow the content of the higher brothers to flow into this empty vessel, only then do I receive the content that enables me to look into the future of human life.

[ 23 ] Thus, for the true occultist, self-knowledge in practice means humbly listening to those who have already learned what he still has to learn. And it is from this perspective that one learns the most. That is why the occultist reveres the disciple and the master, and seeks them not within himself but in the other, greater Self that exists out in the world. For the occultist, self-knowledge means devotion to a disciple and to the master; and in seeking the greater Self in them, he also fulfills the saying: “That is you.”

[ 24 ] And it would be immodest in the truest sense of the word to say that one could find within oneself what our elder brothers teach. That is why one becomes so modest as one advances a little in knowledge. That is why, from a certain point on, one stops expressing one’s own opinion. For what is this opinion? Nothing but an effect of karma. But when one stands there and suppresses one’s own opinion, initially silences everything one believes oneself to have been called upon to express, and listens to what echoes back to us from the outside world—from those who have gone further than we ourselves have—then we deserve to truly be heard. And then even the simple person who lives in this spirit knows how to say beautiful and great things. If a person merely asserts his own opinion, he will have very little to say to you. If a person comes to you but only wants to assert his own opinion, he will say very little to you. But if, from the depths of his individuality, he gives voice to the age-old truths of those who are wiser than himself—and of whom he is aware—then he will have an infinite amount to say to you, even if it seems simple-minded.

[ 25 ] The highest truth resounds from the deepest modesty and humility. Those who have spoken the highest truths have spoken differently from those who so often speak to us, saying: “I mean this,” “I believe that,” “that is my position,” “that is my opinion.” - Those who have progressed a little further do not speak that way; they refer to those who stand behind them. They know that their own opinion is worthless.

[ 26 ] Those who founded the Theosophical Movement—those who represent it in the proper way—have always referred to the Individuality that stands behind them, to a true Higher Self that speaks through them, [an Individuality] that is a Master, and is therefore our Higher Self. The words of the Master personalities living outside of us convey the true, insightful workings of the Theosophical Society. They [the founders of the Theosophical Society] surrender themselves completely to the Masters’ will and make themselves the Masters’ instruments. That is their attitude. They prefer it when they can step before others and say: There is nothing in me; nothing should come forth from me; I want to make myself an empty vessel through which the Master speaks. But this Master should not be my own self; rather, this Higher Self should be the wise guides and brothers of humanity who live among us, whose words we wish to hear and understand in their true sense.

[ 27 ] We can learn a great deal from the nature around us, a great deal from the people and the life around us, and the most valuable lessons we can learn from our elder brothers. But we should learn nothing at all from within ourselves, for we are merely a point of passage. We can accomplish nothing in the world if we wish to make this point of passage effective in our present moment. Imagine what you would be if you sought only to make your present moment effective. Yet this is merely the effect of karma. If you reject everything that stands above you, nothing will happen through you except what has already happened. You would be a barren fruit on the tree of humanity. For everything that could happen through you has already happened if you remain within your own self. Only when you fertilize your self with the higher self—with the higher self that exists in the world—can you bring something new into this world. Then something works out from within you that is not merely the past and its effect. Solely and exclusively the connection with what has been accomplished in the world that is higher than ourselves—solely and exclusively this connection and this full, humble awareness—gives us the strength to bring about something productive in the world. And this resolve—to seek, from the barrenness of one’s own self, a connection with that which stands higher in the world than we do—this resolve is the first step toward discipleship. Anyone who seeks a different kind of self-knowledge than the one described here can never become a student or chela in the occult sense. Only this gives us the strength to learn anything in the world. Without this awareness, we are powerless and helpless—nothing.

[ 28 ] All occult schools have summarized this awareness as a complete reality in two sentences which, if a person not only holds them in mind theoretically but lives by them in every moment of his life, will give him an infinite abundance of soul power, the greatest a human being can possess. All occultism and all human striving in general are encompassed in these two sentences, which we will address shortly. But these sentences must be lived in such a way that at every step we are completely permeated and filled by them, so that we do nothing without the awareness of these two sentences. These two principles are fundamentally intertwined, for what surrounds us has converged within us and brought us to our present vantage point. There we stand, taking in everything around us. This is our own unfolding past.

[ 29 ] You cannot find anything more within yourself. You find within your own astral body the sensations that are manifesting on the outside. Everything that can feel is a reflection of what lives within your own astral body. [Everything that lives is a mirror of our etheric body.] What surrounds us in the form of stones and minerals is a reflection of what lives within our own physical body.

[ 30 ] Your “I” is, at first, completely empty; for you say nothing else to it but “I.” If you want to have more in this “I,” you must look to the future; you must look toward what is not the past for you yourself. Then you must be aware that something important is expressed in the bridge between these two: namely, that in the bridge between them, you yourself are expressed—that you are merely a bridge between what you yourself have developed and what is yet to be developed. What we can see, we have already been; what we learn to see when we look to the teachings of our elder brothers, that is what we will see—that is what works toward the future.

[ 31 ] Thus, the one who has understood this looks out into the world and says: This has been and exists for my sake, so that I might come into being. Everything I can perceive is part of it. Take anything away from this environment, and you would not be the same person you are today. And everything had to be there for you to exist. Just as you build a house stone by stone, so it is here. For the upper floors to be built, the lowest one must be there. Take out a single stone, and the house no longer looks the way it’s supposed to. It’s the same with human beings. Take out a single building block, and they no longer look the way they do now. You don’t grasp this right away. But as the yoga student says, through certain yoga exercises one learns to understand this. When we look out into the world, we see what is around us in the world. When we look within ourselves, we find what is to come; we find the buds for the fruits of the future.

[ 32 ] And then we also realize that we are not here for our own sake, but so that we may become like our older brothers, that we may strive to emulate them as our ideals. We should strive not for elaborate ideas, but for the example set by our older brothers. We are to live in reality, not in abstractions. That is the second sentence.

[ 33 ] This is how the Divine unfolds: by connecting with what is present for us and what serves as our predisposition toward the future. We are here for the sake of the Divine, not for our own sake. Thus, the one who understands these two occult principles does not think of himself at all. He thinks of what is here for his sake and of what is to come, for the sake of which he is here. From these two perspectives flows the power to act—not for our own sake, but entirely for the Divine, which develops from within us. These are the two cornerstones of all occultism. If you wish to ascend to the higher sources, then you must live under the auspices of these two principles; these two principles must permeate and pulse through everything—they must become completely intimate and familiar to you. The two principles into which the meaning of our discussion today is to be condensed are the principles inscribed in golden letters at the entrance to every esoteric school—letters that speak only to the soul, yet seem to vanish when someone attempts to view them with self-interest or selfishness. Whoever enters the gate of the secret school in complete selflessness sees these two pillars of all knowledge of reality, which read:

“Everything around us is for us. And we ourselves are for God.”

[ 34 ] These are two sentences that give the occultist strength once he has fully understood them. We must truly want to learn about what surrounds us.

[ 35 ] And when someone asks us about our higher self, we must look beyond ourselves—not into some vague, abstract void, but into a concrete reality. [We have nothing within ourselves; everything around us is there for us, and we are there for the Divine.

[ 36 ] The two principles of all occultism were inscribed in secret golden letters—letters that lost their luster when a profane eye beheld them—above the gates of all occult schools.] [Not only can the profane not read them, but even if they could, they would not understand them. These are phrases that give the occultist strength when he fully comprehends them.]

[ 37 ] This is the spirit in which we should speak today. For when such things are understood, one also understands that the Theosophical Movement is not possible without an occult foundation, without the knowledge of the Masters, and without the knowledge of the higher worlds. These higher worlds are our future. What we do today, we incorporate into our astral body, and this body will build the world of the future. There are also souls who have incorporated more into their astral bodies than we ourselves have, and they present us with images of our true higher self.

[ 38 ] When we live under the influence of such insight, we can face all the difficulties that come from outside the Theosophical Movement. These difficulties usually come from people, not from our elder brothers. And one comes more and more to the realization that the faults of such great movements as the Theosophical Movement do not arise from within it, but are brought into it from outside. What is a movement such as Theosophy? It can come into being when a group of people is called together, and the life and wisdom of the Masters are to flow through their souls. Now they are together, and this life flows through them. But they came from outside; they have gathered from all directions, and they bring their faults with them—they do not cast them aside immediately—and so their faults must manifest within the movement. But these are not the faults that arise from the movement itself. People bring the faults into the movement. If there are faults in the movement, they are not those inherent in the Theosophical Movement, but rather those that also exist out in the world. We must be clear about this: serious crises may still lie ahead. We must also bear the faults of the people entering the Theosophical Movement. This is how we should view everything that happens in our movement. There is much to criticize in what we all do. But we have come from the outside and still carry the faults of the outer world. And let us be clear that through the Theosophical Movement we must cast off these faults. And even if they were the most valuable members, they, too, strive to cast off their faults. It is a mistake to point out the faults of others. Let us seek the faults within ourselves, and when there is greatness and sublimity, let us seek it outside ourselves. Then we will have placed ourselves correctly within the Theosophical Movement. If we criticize ourselves rather than the Movement, then we can make progress. This could serve as a guiding principle for many things that have happened recently, including life within the Movement itself, as the Master says in these words: “We learn much from nature, much more from people, and things of infinite value from our elder brothers. —Nothing from ourselves.” At most, this one thing: how we must improve ourselves by following the example of the elder brothers.