The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Thirteenth Lecture

[ 1 ] Yesterday we concluded by outlining the essential features of the three methods of occult development: the Eastern, the Christian, and the so-called Rosicrucian paths. Today, then, we will begin to examine in somewhat greater detail the characteristics that define each of these three paths.

[ 2 ] Before proceeding, however, I would like to note that in no occult school should the matter be understood as though what is said and required could in any way be regarded as a moral commandment for all of humanity. That is by no means the case; these requirements apply only to those who truly wish to devote themselves to such occult development. For example, one can be a very good Christian and fully fulfill what the Christian religion recommends for the layperson without undergoing Christian occult training. If, for example, someone says, “One can still be a good person and attain a kind of higher life even without occult training,” there is nothing wrong with that; it goes without saying.

[ 3 ] I have already told you that in Eastern spiritual training, there is strict submission to the guru. I will now describe the nature of the instructions the teacher gives within an Eastern training program. Understandably, one cannot give instructions publicly, but only outline the path. The things given as instructions by the teacher can be divided into eight groups:

1. Yama
2. Niyama
3. Asana
4. Pranayama
5. Pratyahara
6. Dharana
7. Dhyana
8. Samadhi

[ 4 ] 1. Yama encompasses everything we call “restraints,” which are incumbent upon those who wish to undergo yoga training; and this is expressed more specifically in the precepts: “Do not lie. Do not kill. Do not steal. Do not engage in sexual misconduct. Do not covet.”

[ 5 ] The precept “Do not kill” is a very strict one and applies to all beings. No living being may be killed or even harmed, and the more strictly this is followed, the further it leads. Whether this can actually be put into practice in our culture is another matter. Any killing—even that of a bug—hinders occult development. Whether one must do so, however, is another question.

[ 6 ] “Do not lie” is a commandment that will make more sense to you in light of what I have told you about the astral plane. On the astral plane, lying is the same as killing; every lie is a murder; so it actually falls under the same category as killing.

[ 7 ] “Do not steal”—this, too, must be carried out in the strictest sense. A European might say, “We do not steal.”—But the Eastern yogi does not view the matter so simply. In the regions where these exercises were first spread by the great teachers of humanity, conditions were much simpler; there, the concept of stealing could be easily defined. But a yoga teacher will not concede that a European does not steal; he takes this very seriously. For example, if I appropriate another person’s labor—if I gain an advantage that is legally permitted but which constitutes the exploitation of another—the yoga teacher calls that stealing. In our society, things are so complicated that many people violate this prohibition without the slightest awareness of it. Suppose you have a fortune and you deposit it in a bank. You do nothing with it; you do not exploit anyone. But then the banker goes and engages in speculation, thereby exploiting other people with your money. Even in this case, you are responsible in the occult sense—it weighs on your karma. You can see from this that this precept requires deep study in the context of occult development.

[ 8 ] The situation is just as complicated when it comes to “not straying.” A retiree, for example, whose capital has been invested by a bank—without his knowledge—in distilleries, is just as guilty as a manufacturer who produces spirits. Ignorance does not alter karma. There is only one thing that can provide a clear direction in these cases of omission, and that is: striving for freedom from desire. To the extent that one strives for freedom from desire, one can never harm anyone else.

[ 9 ] It is particularly difficult to practice “desiring nothing.” It means striving for complete freedom from need, approaching nothing in the world with any desire, but doing only what the outside world demands of us. Yes, I must even suppress my own sense of well-being when I do someone a favor; it is not this feeling, but the sight of the suffering person that must move me to help. Likewise, when I have to make an expense myself, for example, I must not think: “I want this, I wish for this, I desire this,” but rather I must tell myself: “You need this to sustain your body or for the needs of your mind; everyone else needs it too; you do not desire it, but you are merely considering how best to get through life.” — Within the teachings of yoga, the concept of yama, as mentioned, is defined extremely strictly and cannot simply be transplanted to Europe.

[ 10 ] 2. Niyama. This means, among other things, adherence to religious customs. In India, where these rules are primarily practiced, a problem has been resolved that causes European culture great difficulty. It is easy to say: “I am beyond dogma; I adhere only to inner truth and attach no importance to outward forms.” — The more a European can transcend religious customs, the more exalted he considers himself to be. The Hindu thinks the opposite and holds fast to the rituals of his religion; no one is allowed to tamper with them. But in the Hindu religion, everyone is completely free to form their own opinion about them. There are ancient sacred rites that have a very profound meaning. An uneducated person will form a very basic conception of them; a more educated person will form a different, better conception, but neither will say that the other’s conception is wrong. The wise man follows the same customs as the less educated. There are no dogmas, only rites. In this way, deeply religious customs can be observed by both the wise and the unwise; both can be united in the rite. Thus, the rites serve as a unifying force for the people; no one’s opinion is restricted by conforming to a strict ritual.

[ 11 ] The Christian Church has followed the opposite principle; it has imposed opinions, not customs, on the people, and the result is that in modern times, a lack of structure has become the norm in our social life. This marks the beginning of the complete disregard for all customs that would unite people; all forms that symbolically express higher truths are gradually being abolished. This is a great detriment to the overall development of humanity, especially to occult development in the Eastern sense.

[ 12 ] Many among the European population today believe they have moved beyond dogma, but it is precisely the freethinkers and materialists who are the worst dogmatic fanatics. Materialist dogma is even more oppressive than any other. While many no longer believe in the infallibility of the Pope, they do believe in the infallibility of the university professor. Even the most liberal person, despite claims to the contrary, is subject to the dogmas of materialism. What dogmas, for example, weigh upon the lawyer, the physician, and so on? Every university professor teaches his or her dogma. Or again: How heavily does the dogma of the infallibility of public opinion—of the daily newspaper—weigh upon a person! The Eastern yoga teacher urges us not to step outside the forms that serve as a link between the wise and the unwise, for these ancient sacred forms are the images of the highest truths. Without forms, there is no culture; it is an illusion to believe the opposite. Let us suppose, for example, that someone were to found a colony, entirely formless, without laws, without rites, and without religious customs. To those who see through things, it is clear that such a colony can survive quite well for a time, because people still live according to the old forms they brought with them. But as soon as they lose these, the colony will perish, for without forms, no such colony can survive in the long run. All culture must be born out of form. The inner life must be expressed outwardly through forms. Modern culture has lost these forms; it must regain them. It must learn once again to express outwardly what lives within the soul. In the long run, form is essential to human coexistence. The ancient sages knew this, and that is why they held fast to the practice of religious customs,

[ 13 ] 3. Asanam refers to assuming a certain physical posture during meditation. This is much more important for Easterners than for Europeans, because the European body is no longer as sensitive to certain subtle currents. The Eastern body is even more refined; it easily perceives currents that flow from east to west, from north to south, and from high to low; for spiritual currents flow throughout the universe. For this reason, churches, for example, were built facing a specific direction. That is why the yoga teacher has the yogi assume a specific posture; the student must position his hands and feet in a certain way so that the currents can flow through the body in an orderly manner. If the Hindu were not to bring his body into this harmony, he would completely jeopardize the fruits of his meditation.

[ 14 ] 4. Pranayama is breathing, or yogic breathing. It is a very essential and extensive component of Eastern yoga training. It is almost entirely absent from Christian training, but features more prominently in Rosicrucian training.

[ 15 ] What does breathing mean for occult development? The significance of breathing lies in the principles of “Do not kill” and “Do not harm life.” The occult teacher says: You are constantly and slowly killing your surroundings through your breathing. — Why? We inhale, hold our breath, oxygenate our blood, and then exhale. What happens during this process? We inhale oxygen-rich air, combine it with carbon within us, and exhale carbon dioxide; yet no human or animal can live on that. We inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide—a toxin—so with every breath we are constantly killing other beings. Bit by bit, we are killing our entire surroundings. We inhale life-giving air and exhale air that we ourselves can no longer use. The occult teacher is determined to change this. If it depended only on humans and animals, all the oxygen would soon be used up and all living things would die out. We owe it to the plants that we do not destroy the Earth, for they undergo exactly the opposite process. They assimilate carbon dioxide, separate the carbon from the oxygen, and use the former to build their bodies. They release the oxygen back into the atmosphere, and humans and animals breathe it in. In this way, plants renew the air we breathe; without them, all life would have been destroyed long ago. We owe our lives to them. Thus, plants, animals, and humans complement one another.

[ 16 ] However, this process will change in the future, and since the person engaged in occult development begins what others will one day go through in the future, he must wean himself from killing through the breath. This is pranayama, the science of breathing. Our modern materialistic age always needs open windows and places fresh air at the forefront as a remedy. For the Indian yogi, the opposite is true. He locks himself in a cave and breathes his own air as much as possible. The yogi has mastered the art of polluting the air as little as possible because he has learned to make the most of the air. How does he do this? This secret was always known in the European secret schools; it was called the attainment of the Philosopher’s Stone. If one wishes to find the Philosopher’s Stone, one must discover the secret of breathing.

[ 17 ] At the turn of the 18th to the 19th century, some of this information began to seep through. Much was written about the Philosopher’s Stone in public publications, but it is clear that the authors themselves did not understand much about it, even though everything came from reliable sources. In 1796, an article about the Philosopher’s Stone appeared in a Thuringian government newspaper, in which, among other things, the following was stated: The Philosopher’s Stone is something one simply must know about, for every person has seen it. It is something that all people handle almost every day for a certain period of time, something that can be found everywhere—only people do not realize that it is the Philosopher’s Stone. - This is a mysterious hint: the Philosopher’s Stone is said to be found everywhere. But this peculiar turn of phrase is literally true.

[ 18 ] Here’s how it works: When a plant builds its body, it absorbs carbon dioxide and retains the carbon, which it uses to construct its body. Humans and animals then eat the plant, thereby reabsorbing the carbon and releasing it again as carbon dioxide in their breath. This is how the carbon cycle works. In the future, things will be different. Then, humans will learn to expand their own being more and more, and what they now leave to the plant, they will one day be able to accomplish themselves. Just as human beings have progressed through the mineral and plant kingdoms, so too will they retrace their steps. They themselves will become plants, absorb the plant existence into themselves, and undergo the entire process within themselves: They will retain the carbon and consciously use it to build their bodies, just as plants do unconsciously today. He will then produce the necessary oxygen himself within his own organs, combine it with carbon to form carbon dioxide, and subsequently store the carbon within himself once more. In this way, he will be able to continue building his own physical structure. This is a grand, forward-looking vision of the future. Then he will no longer kill anything else.

[ 19 ] As is well known, carbon and diamond are the same substance. Diamond is crystallized, transparent carbon. So you need not think that people will later walk around as black figures; rather, their bodies will consist of transparent—and indeed soft—carbon. Then they will have found the Philosopher’s Stone. They will transform their own bodies into the Philosopher’s Stone.

[ 20 ] The person who is developing occult abilities must anticipate this process as much as possible; that is, he must deprive his breath of its ability to kill. He must control it in such a way that the exhaled air becomes usable again, so that he can inhale it again and again. And how does this happen? By introducing rhythm into the breathing process. The teacher provides instructions for this. Inhaling, holding the breath, and exhaling—there must be rhythm in these actions, even if only for a short time. With every rhythmically exhaled breath, the air is improved, very slowly but surely. One might ask: What difference does that make?—Here the saying applies: “Constant dripping wears away the stone.” Every breath is such a drop. The chemist cannot yet prove this, because his methods are too crude to detect the subtle substances, but the occultist knows that this indeed makes the breath life-giving and causes it to contain more oxygen than under ordinary circumstances. At the same time, however, the breath is purified by something else as well—namely, meditation. This, too, contributes—albeit only very slightly—to the reintegration of the plant nature into human nature, so that the human being comes to the point of non-killing.

[ 21 ] 5. Pratyahara. The next is pratyahara; this means the restraint of sensory perception. A person who leads an everyday life in the modern sense receives an impression here one moment, there the next, and so on constantly; he allows everything to affect him. The occult teacher now tells the student: “You must hold onto a sensory impression for so many minutes and must not shift to another one except of your own free will.”

[ 22 ] 6. After practicing this for a while, one must be able to become deaf and blind to every external sensory impression; one must learn to disregard all external sensory impressions entirely and retain only what remains as a mental image after the sensory impression itself has been eliminated. When one lives in this way solely within ideas, strictly controls one’s thinking, and links one idea to another solely of one’s own free will, that is the sixth state: Dharana.

[ 23 ] 7. Dhyanam. Now there are concepts that Europeans are reluctant to admit do not stem from sensory impressions at all, but rather must be formed by human beings themselves—for example, mathematical or geometric concepts. A triangle or a circle are mental concepts. What I draw on the blackboard is, after all, nothing more than a series of chalk marks. Now there is a range of concepts in which the occult student must practice diligently. These are symbolic signs that are consciously associated with certain things—for example, the hexagram, a sign that is explained in occultism; likewise, the pentagram. The student keeps his mind sharply focused on such things that do not exist in the sensory world. The same applies to other concepts, such as the “lion,” which one can only conceive of. The student must also direct his attention to such concepts. Finally, there are also moral concepts, such as the one in Light on the Path: Before the eye can see, it must wean itself from tears. — This, too, cannot be experienced externally, but only within oneself. This meditation on concepts that have no sensory counterpart is called dhyana.

[ 24 ] 8. Samadhi. And now comes the most difficult part: samadhi. One immerses oneself for a long, long time in a mental image that has no sensory counterpart; one allows the mind, so to speak, to rest in it and fills the soul completely with it. Then one lets go of this concept and has nothing left in one’s consciousness, but one must not fall asleep—which would happen immediately to an ordinary person; one must remain conscious. In this state, the mysteries of the higher worlds begin to reveal themselves. This state is described as follows: There remains a thinking that has no thoughts; one thinks because one is conscious, but one has no thoughts. In this way, the spiritual powers can allow their content to flow into this thinking. As long as one fills it oneself, they cannot enter. The longer one maintains the activity of thinking in consciousness without the content of thought, the more the supersensible world reveals itself.

[ 25 ] These eight areas form the basis of the teacher's instructions in Eastern yoga training.

[ 26 ] Now we will discuss, as far as possible, Christian training, and it will become clear how it differs from Eastern training. This Christian training can take place under the guidance of a teacher who knows what needs to be done and who can always correct any mistakes at every step. But the great Guru is Christ Jesus himself. Therefore, a firm faith in the real existence of Christ Jesus and in the fact that he truly lived is necessary. Without this faith, it is impossible to feel connected to him. Furthermore, one must understand that from this great Guru comes a text that itself provides the guidance for this training, and that is the Gospel of John. This can also be experienced inwardly, not merely believed in outwardly; and for those who have truly internalized it, there is no longer any need to prove the existence of Christ Jesus, because they have found Him.

[ 27 ] This training involves not merely reading the Gospel of John over and over again, but meditating on it. The Gospel of John begins with the words: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word...” These verses, when properly understood, are material for meditation, and they must be absorbed in a state similar to dhyana. Whoever, early in the morning—before other impressions have entered his soul—excludes everything else from his thoughts and lives solely within these sentences for five minutes, and does so continuously, for years, with absolute patience and perseverance, will experience that these words are not merely something one must understand; but will experience that they possess an occult power; indeed, through them one will undergo an inner, occult transformation of the soul. In a certain sense, one becomes clairvoyant through these words, so that one can see astral manifestations of everything written in the Gospel of John.

[ 28 ] Following the teacher’s instructions, the student first allows the first five sentences of the first chapter to sink into the soul for seven days. The following week, the same is done with the second chapter, and so on with each individual chapter up to the twelfth chapter. You will see what a magnificent, awe-inspiring experience this is: how you are introduced to the events in Palestine, where Jesus Christ lived, as they are recorded in the Akashic Records, and how you then actually experience everything that happened at that time. And then, when you reach the thirteenth chapter, you experience the individual stages of Christian initiation.

[ 29 ] The first station is the so-called washing of the feet. First, one must understand what this great scene signifies. Christ Jesus bends down to those who are lower than he is. Throughout the world, this humility toward those who stand below us—and at whose expense we develop to a higher level—should be present. If a plant could think, it would have to thank the stone for providing the soil in which it can lead a higher life, and the animal would have to bow to the plant and say, “I owe my very existence to you”—and so too should human beings toward the rest of nature. And those who stand higher in human society must bow down to those working beneath them and say to themselves: If these diligent hands did not perform the menial work for me, I could not stand where I stand.—No one could develop to a higher level unless the ground beneath him were prepared. And so it is all the way up to Christ Jesus himself, who bends down in humility toward the apostles and says: You are my foundation; in you I fulfill the saying: ‘But whoever wants to be first must be last, and whoever wants to be Lord must be the servant of all.’ The washing of the feet signifies the willingness to serve gladly, the bending down in utter humility. This must become the general sentiment for those developing in the occult.

[ 30 ] Once the student has been thoroughly imbued with this humility, he has experienced the first stage of Christian initiation. He recognizes that he is ready by two signs, one external and one internal. The external sign of this is that they feel as if their feet are being washed by water. The internal sign is an astral vision that occurs without fail: they see themselves washing the feet of a number of people. This image appears in their dreams as an astral vision, and everyone has the same vision. When they experience this, they have truly internalized this entire chapter.

[ 31 ] Next comes the scourging. Once one has reached this point, one must, while reading about the scourging and allowing its impact to sink in, cultivate a different feeling. One must learn to stand firm in the face of life’s lashes. One tells oneself: I will stand firm in all suffering and pain, in everything that comes my way. —- The outward sign of this is that one feels, as it were, a pain in specific points all over the body. The inner sign is that one sees oneself being scourged in a dream vision.

[ 32 ] The third station is the Crowning with Thorns. Another feeling must be added: One learns to endure steadfastly, even when one is showered with scorn and ridicule because of the most sacred thing one possesses. The external symptom of this is that one feels a pressing headache. The internal symptom is: One sees oneself astral-body crowned with the crown of thorns.

[ 33 ] Then one can proceed to the fourth station: the Crucifixion. A new, very specific feeling must be cultivated here. It is based on overcoming the notion that one’s own body is the most important thing; it must become as indifferent to one as a piece of wood. We then carry our body through life and view it objectively; it has become for us the wood of the cross. In doing so, one need not despise it, any more than one would any tool. Readiness for this stage is indicated by an external symptom: during meditation, red spots resembling stigmata appear precisely at the places known as the sites of the sacred stigmata—namely, on the hands and feet and on the right side at the level of the heart. The internal symptom is that the student has a vision of hanging on the cross themselves.

[ 34 ] The fifth stage is mystical death. It consists in a person experiencing the futility of earthly things, in fact dying to all earthly things for a time.

[ 35 ] From this point on, only sparse descriptions of the Christian initiation can be provided. The individual experiences, as an astral vision, that darkness reigns everywhere and that the earthly world has sunk into oblivion. A black veil spreads out like a curtain before what is to come. During this state, the individual comes to know all that is evil and bad in the world. This is the descent into hell, the journey through hell. Then the individual experiences the curtain being torn asunder, and the devachanic world emerges. This is the tearing of the temple curtain.

[ 36 ] This is followed by the sixth stage: burial. Just as in the fourth stage one’s own body becomes an object, so here one must develop the feeling that not only is one’s own body an object, but that one perceives everything else that surrounds us on Earth as belonging to oneself just as much as one’s own body. Thus, one’s own body extends beyond the skin. One is no longer a separate being; one is united with the entire planet Earth. The Earth has become our body; one is buried in the Earth.

[ 37 ] The seventh stage, the Resurrection, cannot be described in words. Therefore, in occultism, it is said: The seventh state can be conceived only by one whose soul has become completely free from the brain. One could describe it to such a person. That is why it can only be mentioned here. The Christian occult teacher provides guidance on how to experience it.

[ 38 ] Once a person has gone through this seventh stage, Christianity has become an inner experience of his soul. He is then completely united with Christ Jesus; Christ Jesus is within him.