The Rudolf Steiner Archive

3. The Paths and Goals of Spiritual Man I

[ 1 ] During these three days, we will address a specific “topic.” We will discuss the paths that the human soul can take in the present, as understood from the perspective of Spiritual Science, as well as the goals of the theosophical life. Today’s lecture will serve as a kind of introduction to this. Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, we will then delve into the very heart of our consideration. Today, we will, so to speak, take a more external perspective and first ask ourselves the following questions: Is what we perceive as a worldview of Spiritual Science something that has been brought about by the whims of individual personalities, or is it rooted in the spirit of the age itself? Are we dealing with something that is connected to the deepest needs of our era? — We can best approach the answer to these questions when we realize that all those who come to Spiritual Science from the most diverse walks of life—whether rich or poor, strong or weak—are seeking souls. They are all seeking souls who do not always know exactly what they are seeking, but who sense that they are seeking something. They are often souls who have traveled the most diverse paths and have allowed themselves to be influenced by what the present can offer. Souls who have sought to satisfy their longings in this or that field of art; souls who have looked into what science has to offer; souls who, after much arduous searching—whether in darkness or light—have sensed that they cannot find in the present what corresponds to the soul’s quest. Such souls are often moved by what the Spiritual Science movement has to offer, and say: “Yes, here is an impulse that is different from anywhere else—different from what comes from the life around me.”

[ 2 ] What do such souls feel, or what might they feel, when they come into contact with what we might call theosophy today? We must not believe that these seeking souls, who find their way to Spiritual Science, are the only ones who are seeking. They are chosen—or they choose themselves—from a great multitude of seeking souls. Anyone who listens to what is spoken from the deepest need of our time will see that there are many souls who say: We yearn for ways to have the great mysteries of the world solved, and we cannot find that anything handed down by tradition, or anything modern science has to say, can solve these mysteries.

[ 3 ] Let us listen for a moment to what these souls—the best among them—have to say. They say something like this, and in these words, which flow from hundreds of thousands of such searching souls, we encounter something like the yearning heart of our time: We look back to distant times and see how, from century to century, from millennium to millennium, various mental images of God and nature have succeeded one another, how they have given way to one another and led to conflict between their proponents. Much of this has been passed down to us; millions of people profess such mental images and cling to them with a sincere sense of truth, but just as many, out of that same sense of truth, can no longer profess what has been handed down and feel compelled, out of love for the truth, to let go of the old views.

[ 4 ] What was it like in time immemorial? For example, people would gaze at the river flowing from the heights down to the plains, observe the beneficial effects of this river, and ask themselves: What is this river’s roar telling us? What is it that works within this river? — And they found in it something they also found within themselves. They found that at its core lies a spiritual something, a divine being; they found in the flowing river a divine-spiritual power that rewarded and provided people with what they needed for their well-being. In the sighing of the wind, in the rumbling of thunder, in the flickering of lightning, they found a spiritual power similar to that which underlies the flow of the river and the roar of the ocean surf. They saw in it something of which they said: “The murmur of the brook, the raging of the storm, is kindred to what lives in my soul.” Even if they speak differently, there is still something similar there, and I feel that I can understand it.

[ 5 ] Those to whom Moses brought down the tablets of the Law felt something similar. They sensed that a being was speaking to them from them—a being infinitely greater than the head of a family—yet there was a kinship between what spoke from the thunder and what spoke from the venerable head of the family. They felt the Spirit deeply. They sensed a living bond between what lived within them as pain and joy and the outside world—a bond that this man of ancient times could understand.

[ 6 ] This is how the best think. And if you go where serious science speaks—not trivial superficiality—then you can hear the following: Our ancestors looked up to spiritual powers. They did not merely observe trickling water, blowing wind, or the fire of lightning. In these natural forces, they saw spiritual beings: gnomes, undines, sylphs, and salamanders. Whatever we may think of these people, they found understanding among their contemporaries—those who wove their beliefs into the external world, drawing strength and steadfastness from them.

[ 7 ] And now the best of these seeking souls add: We can no longer believe in gnomes, undines, sylphs, salamanders, or the spiritual beings of nature. For we have been taught that ironclad laws operate down to the smallest atom. And we must conceive of the external world as a manifestation of these laws. We can no longer bring them to life as our ancestors did; we can no longer perform sacrificial ceremonies and ritual acts that send our voices upward; we can no longer say, when pain tears us apart: “Take comfort, for life in the spiritual world will give you all the more comfort.” — And a great many people say: “Our entire world has changed.” We no longer rely on the things we once relied on. If, for example, a rusty piece of iron had been driven into a person’s arm in the past, they would have sought comfort from spiritual beings. Today, we are better off going to the doctor and using the remedies of external medicine. In this way, we treat today what was once treated with what lives in the soul.

[ 8 ] The counterargument is: But we cannot exist without faith in a spirit; we cannot do without it. A spirit reigns in all laws, at work in thunder as well as in the atom. — And one need only rise above the worst trivialities of materialism to be unable to close one’s mind to this insight. When the word “spirit” is uttered by searching souls, what is meant by it? What is spirit? Where does it have its roots? How does a person come to form a mental image of spirit?

[ 9 ] A strange idea is being spread today. In America, people are talking about a new religion. This religion seeks to recognize only one God who works through the laws of nature, down to the atomic level. No one today can conceive of a God in human form—says the proponent of this doctrine—but we cannot do without the divine spirit. And so this person arrives at a curious statement: The laws of chemistry are not enough. But where, then, do we find the substance for a mental image of God? — And so we hear the following: We must conceive of the Spirit that reigns in the laws of nature as being endowed with the noblest qualities of the human soul. — People are therefore not willing to imagine a God endowed with human qualities, yet they still wish to have something that gives substance to this idea of God.

[ 10 ] And here we have the result: We have no other choice; we cannot derive the content of our conception of God from anywhere other than from within human beings. — And the proponent of this worldview goes on to point out that in earlier times, divine beings were worshipped—beings who served as inspirers, who filled people with their power and impelled them toward a mission. Now, of course, we can no longer believe that there are supernatural beings who act as inspirers. The future, however, will revere advanced helpers—richer spirits who have something to give to the less developed ones.

[ 11 ] As you can see, feelings do take the place of what came before—feelings that cling to those who can offer comfort. After every earthquake, for example, there will be those who offer comfort to the many who have lost their loved ones. Human love will exist even when the supernatural helpers are no longer there.

[ 12 ] Don’t you notice that there is a strange contradiction here as well? We are supposed to look to those who offer comfort. But where do they find within their own souls what they need to be able to offer comfort and love? Thus, even among the best of people, we find that although they seek it, their souls must feel confronted with a void.

[ 13 ] And what about science? Can we find comfort in what science has brought us? We want to fully acknowledge the beneficial effects of science, but there is one thing we must not forget. How much of the purely physical pain that humans have had to endure since ancient times has actually been alleviated? Humanity has certainly not become stronger or healthier as a result. Certainly, there are many remedies that provide relief. But attention must be drawn to a contradiction here. External science believes that nothing can be lost. For example, when rubbing, energy is converted into heat. What disappears reappears as a different form of energy. Anesthetics alleviate pain, and people speak as if the pain had vanished. Herein lies a contradiction with that simple law. If pain disappears, it reappears elsewhere. No matter how much we alleviate external pain, it transforms into emotional pain. And people are unaware that this is connected to the alleviation of external pain. This does not prevent us from doing what our insight dictates to eliminate external pain, but we must learn to recognize these connections and not succumb to illusions in the spiritual realm.

[ 14 ] The seeking souls have no idea that a person who is immersed in outer life today—for example, in the rapidly developing fields of industry and technology—can easily be swept away by what presents itself to their eyes. But those who look more deeply know: This intoxication, this enthusiasm, comes at a price. — They know that souls are becoming ever more barren, ever less able to sense the answer to the mysteries of existence. Certainly, we should bring into all areas whatever can alleviate external suffering, but we must not forget that, even as we satisfy the physical body, we can cause the soul to starve more and more, inflicting ever greater suffering upon it through unfulfilled longing. This is the mood that overtakes those who not only look lovingly upon the hustle and bustle of human life, but who also survey the course that the future is taking.

[ 15 ] Much is said about the goals that a person can set for themselves. Caught up in the frenzy that overwhelms their soul when swept away by the maelstrom of modern external life, they fail to realize that this soul must remain a searching one. And why? Let us simply place before our souls the deepest root of all conflict in today’s sensibilities. When we cut our finger and heal it using the best methods known to us, we know that the same laws of nature govern it as they do the world around us. We are formed from the whole of nature, from the laws that govern the world around us. But at the same time, we feel the need to see something else within ourselves. We see that spirit flashes from a person’s eyes, that spirit speaks through their hands, and that spirit resounds in their voice. And in recognizing this, we also feel ourselves to be bearers of the spirit. We do feel that we have emerged from the environment, but not solely from it. What governs this environment? Physical laws, chemical laws—what are known today as the iron laws of nature. That is not enough to explain the spirit. What physics, chemistry, and biology provide is not sufficient for this.

[ 16 ] Where does that which can be called the spirit have its roots? It is within us, yet homeless and rootless. We can understand the chemical composition of blood, we can grasp precisely the metabolic process that takes place within us, and everything in the external world that is subject to physical and chemical laws. Yet as soon as we see external nature as devoid of spirit, everything is rootless. We cannot say: Just as blood is subject to the laws of blood circulation, so too does some spiritual entity follow the laws of the environment. No spirit can be found there, says the searching and erring soul of the present. The answer to the questions that torment me cannot come from there. From where will it come to me?

[ 17 ] Now we see where the problem lies. We see that our mental images of the external world are becoming ever clearer. But now the human being wants to take root in something with his spirit, with his soul. The soul cannot help but want this. It cannot flee from itself into a barren physical-chemical existence. This is where the conflict arises. The soul feels the need to imagine a spiritual being, but nowhere in the external world can it find anything that corresponds to its present-day mental images of a spiritual being. This gives rise to a profound untruth. Modern people cannot believe in sylphs, salamanders, undines, and gnomes. Yet what could bring them satisfaction does not exist. The soul stands there, empty.

[ 18 ] The more deeply this is felt, the more untrue it becomes to speak only of the spirit. Either one finds the spirit, or one must artificially introduce it. It may seem to some that what has just been said is too far removed from everyday experience. But everywhere we will find souls whose pain stems from this very reason. What Spiritual Science offers is intended to meet this great quest. Its aim is to build a bridge between the soul itself and the external world, whether the soul is listening to the raging storm or watching the gentle movements of the ocean waves. Human beings are no longer able to idealize gods—who are at work behind air and water—based on human characteristics. We must refrain from seeing an anthropomorphic image of ourselves in what we call a divine being. That is the insight of our time. But the other aspect is the powerlessness of the seeking soul. On the one hand, it is said to them: If you want to find a god, you must not endow him with human characteristics. On the other hand, the result is that we are unable to create a substitute for ourselves. Because these seeking souls lack something that would justify this fact, which arises as a matter of course, they stand there at a loss. Where will they find the firm ground that gives them security?

[ 19 ] This is possible only if human beings reclaim the right to explore the spiritual realm and look more deeply into their inner selves. People in the past were satisfied with less; people today are no longer satisfied with what came before. Spiritual Science tells modern man: You have taken the wrong path. Are the qualities that man has discovered so far all there is? Are there not deeper layers beneath? Do we not find something hidden within that of which we can say: Yes, this could be related to what I perceive as the divine?

[ 20 ] There must be something more deeply rooted than anything humans have yet come to know about themselves—something that gives them the right to elevate human-psychic qualities to the divine. But how can one find the path to the depths hidden within oneself?

[ 21 ] Here, Spiritual Science points us toward paths that only a few people have traveled in the past. Today, many people need guidance toward these paths. There are two paths: first, the path of mysticism, and second, the path of occultism in the true sense of the word.

[ 22 ] Let us consider these two paths. What is the path of mysticism? To understand this, we need only bring a certain moment before our soul. You all know that in Spiritual Science we speak of how a person is not the same being in sleep as in wakefulness. When falling asleep, the inner being leaves the body, and upon waking, it descends once more into the physical body and the etheric body. People generally do not notice that something special is happening in the process. Do we ever see from within what descends? A tremendous transformation then takes place within the human being. At the moment it descends, the person does not see their etheric body and physical body from within. Otherwise, they would see that their physicality is an illusion and maya. As ordinary human beings, we see the external world and that part of ourselves which we can observe from the outside. Human beings see nothing of what is at work and alive within them. They see only the exterior, which they also see in stones and minerals. For their gaze is diverted toward the external world as soon as they descend into their lower bodies. Those who have strived for a conscious awakening were the mystics. They experienced a conscious descent into the outer human being. All the images of inner life known to the mystics are what a person can perceive when they turn their gaze away from the outer world—from that which otherwise captures their attention. The mystic experiences what a human being is when he looks at himself from within. There, for example, he does not see the blood circulating, but rather he sees that the blood is the bearer of divine activity; he sees that the blood is a shadow of spiritual reality. This is what the mystic experiences: the spiritual motor of his own being instead of the external maya.

[ 23 ] What the mystics tell us is true. Let us hear what they report: This descent is linked to what we call trials, temptations—the awakening of selfish impulses. Read the descriptions of what the soul is capable of unleashing in terms of base instincts. We must pass through an entire layer of passions, desires, and selfish impulses that we hardly thought ourselves capable of. All of this must be overcome if we wish to penetrate the deeper layers of our own being. The fact that our gaze is initially diverted from our own inner self is a wise arrangement, for human beings are not yet ready to consciously descend into their own inner being. Once they have set out on the path of overcoming their own selfishness, they must combat everything that rebels within them. Only then will they find the true human being, who is condensed into the smallest space, the “I-point.” Only then are we wholly within ourselves, recognizing ourselves in good and evil, seeing what a human being truly is when they find themselves beyond the layer formed by their instincts and desires, and when they have outgrown everything that has been instilled in them through upbringing and convention. We must pass through this layer if we wish to penetrate our innermost being.

[ 24 ] There is yet another way to come to know the spirit and ourselves. It is not easy to embark upon and is protected from the immature, because it, too, entails its own dangers. In addition to the important moment of waking, there is also the moment of falling asleep, which is equally significant for the contemplation of the human being. Let us examine it more closely. At the moment of falling asleep, a person passes into the spiritual world, the world beyond physical reality. Their consciousness ceases; it fades away. The average person has no spiritual world around them in a conscious sense. If they were to enter the spiritual world while still immature, what would happen to them spiritually would be, in the most extreme sense, the equivalent of being dazzled in the physical world. They would be dazzled by the immediate sight of the spiritual reality pouring forth from the outer world.

[ 25 ] Once again, it is necessary to make human beings strong enough so that they are not blinded by this spirit poured out through the external world. This is achieved through the occult path. Through this path, he finds his “I”—not confined within his own innermost being, but poured out over the entire external world, at one with that external world. This is the occult path.

[ 26 ] As a person learns to walk both paths—the path of mysticism and the occult path—a significant truth comes into view. Let him seek out the point where he is most compressed, most constricted within himself, and let him pour out over the entire external world; then he will ultimately experience the one Great, the Mighty. - What you experience when you descend into the depths of your own self and when you pour yourself out into the infinite is the same: mysticism and occultism—they proceed in opposite directions, yet they lead to the same goal. Human beings discover something that has lain dormant within them, something that is enchanted in the outer world, something that can be found in the deepest recesses of their own soul and out there in the world of appearances. They find what lives as spirit behind the appearances, and they find the spiritual within themselves when they have connected with the mystical path of knowledge and the occult path of knowledge. This is the bridge that spans the chasm facing the seeking soul of today when it realizes that it is something other than the external world of appearances and cannot, through its own characteristics, connect with what surrounds it.

[ 27 ] Today, there is an opportunity to find a path that shows how what lives within us is, after all, the same as what lives in the outer world. The seeking souls who stand outside our endeavors do not yet know this path. Spiritual Science points the way. The theosophical worldview aims to serve as a guide toward this goal. It will provide answers to the questions posed by the suffering, struggling souls of today. These questions will resound through the windows of the present, and Spiritual Science will provide the answers. This gives it its inner legitimacy and shows that it has not sprung arbitrarily from the minds of a few, but from the needs of the times. Spiritual Science will once again point out the means and ways to find harmony between what exists in the external world and what lives within the human soul. It will lead us to recognize the laws governing nature not as empty abstractions, but as the thoughts of divine-spiritual beings. In this way, it will rediscover the spirit in the external world. The fact that the soul is unable to do this today is what makes it empty and desolate. It can find comfort, help, and strength only by seeking out the paths and goals of the spiritual human being of Spiritual Science. This shows just how deeply justified this endeavor of Spiritual Science is.

[ 28 ] If we understand Spiritual Science in its deepest sources, we will provide the soul with the nourishment it craves, open up sources of spiritual activity for it, and—because everything external is an expression of the spiritual—ultimately bring about health as well. The longings and quests of our time define the goals of Spiritual Science.