The Rudolf Steiner Archive

5. The Paths and Goals of Spiritual Man III

[ 1 ] If one were to ask a person, from the perspective of everyday consciousness: What is it that we can call the “I”? — the answer would be that this sense of self must be sought within the boundaries enclosed by the skin. Our view can be substantiated by the fact that the seat of the soul is to be found in the head and the heart. But in the sense of spiritual science, the situation is different; it is just not easy to recognize this.

[ 2 ] One comes closer to spiritual reality by attempting to grasp the supersensible facts. The concepts and words that people form without such research do not bring them closer to the truth. One will arrive at a good understanding by building on a unified picture.

[ 3 ] Let us consider a sailor navigating the sea. There, everything external constitutes the essential, the determining factor; for steering the ship, it matters whether the sea is calm or rough, whether islands appear in the sea, whether the sky is clouding over, and so on. Based on all these external factors, both the captain and the sailors take their measures; all external factors are what matter most to them. Now, some might think that once the ship has entered the harbor, it rests, and all work is done for a while. But that is not the case. That is when another kind of work begins. Now the ship no longer performs the work; instead, work is done on the ship. What has been damaged during the voyage is repaired. The hold is filled with new cargo, and so on. Thus, the voyage and the ship’s stay in port can be compared to human life—to life during the day and life during the night. There is only one difference, and that is that humans do not concern themselves with the work of the night. During port operations, the ship must be made ready for the onward journey by workers and sailors. But everything that drives humans to act through their senses during the day ceases to have an effect at night. Our senses, which have carried out their work in our bodies during the day, rest during the night. The work of the day rests like the ship in the harbor. And yet a process is taking place within the human being that enables him to begin a new day’s work.

[ 4 ] This brings us closer to understanding what the true spiritual aspect of the human being is. It is not enclosed within the human skin, but extends beyond the physical human being. The true spiritual aspect reaches its feelers into the human being; it sends the essential, the spiritual, into the human being.

[ 5 ] Where is the true self located within a human being? Outside of the human being, surrounding the physical human, we find the spiritual human, the supersensory “I”-human. And when we consider the human aura, which is shaped like an egg, the “I”-consciousness comes into its fullest effect within the shell, within the auric egg. This fact alone leads to the correct solution to the problem.

[ 6 ] I have pointed out twelve points on the horizon. The occultist must be familiar with them. They exist there, even if they are not recognized by everyone. These twelve points continuously send their forces into the human being; he is affected by these twelve points at various points in his aura. Only because his ego surrounds him is he able to make the cosmic forces one with himself. Human beings must feel that they belong to the universe. Through this, they enter into the capacity for perception, and through this, it becomes possible for them to acquire the faculties of perception corresponding to the points mentioned. They are embedded in these twelve points. The divine-spiritual forces act upon the human being through these points. If you can take this in and contemplate it, you will understand the paths and goals of the spiritual human being.

[ 7 ] Human beings must be able to integrate this feeling into their lives. Through spiritual science, they will become acquainted with a range of forces through which they can bring about these transformations within themselves. Let us consider everyday life. There is a person rushing through the world, and many things come his way that he could reflect upon, that he could process in his mind, but he makes not the slightest effort to transform his experiences into work or even to think about them more deeply. He merely wants to “experience” and chases from one sensation to the next.

[ 8 ] There is another kind of person who goes through life without paying the slightest attention to the outside world. They brood and speculate over their own thoughts. They do not notice what is happening around them; they brood on and on. Neither of these extremes is beneficial to a person. But there is a middle ground, and it is this: to weave one’s own thoughts through everything one experiences. This middle state is the most beneficial for a person in the outer world.

[ 9 ] Suppose a young man is preparing for an exam. He has studied diligently, but exam time is approaching, and with it comes exam anxiety. Time and again, the young man is struck by the thought that on exam day, he might be asked precisely about the topics he feels least confident about—the things he doesn’t know for sure. This weighs on his mind. The exam went smoothly; it is decisive for his entire life. It is the gateway to his future life. Now it may happen that, in the course of his life, he is haunted by a dream, and in this dream the exam anxiety of his youth resurfaces within him—everything he believed he did not know back then. The soul is intimately connected to this, and the occult observer sees the fabric being woven in the dream. What is woven into it did not contribute at all to the life that has passed. The occultist knows, however, that in the next life it can become a source of useful strength.

[ 10 ] Things can also turn out differently. From the age of forty-five onward, the dream comes to an end. The self-observer discovers that entirely new character traits come to the fore. For example, one may find that in later years one possesses far more courage than one ever had in one’s youth. The anxieties of his youth and the associated will to overcome them have done their quiet work within the inner being; after forty-five years, these forces have transformed into their opposites. Something is always weaving and working within the human being, and what is at work there is the astral body. It works within the etheric body until the experience has become woven into the etheric body and has truly become a characteristic. Under normal circumstances, it only manifests as a characteristic in the next life, but there can also be quite abnormal cases, such as the one just mentioned.

[ 11 ] This is how human beings process their external experiences, and the same applies to the supersensory aspects of life, which demand that we process them through the ego. How does the spiritual human being work in relation to external circumstances? External circumstances approach us, but from within, the fabric is woven that transforms our abilities. We weave into the human being that which originates from the eternal-spiritual. We must go out to the external, but the spiritual comes to us.

[ 12 ] Let us suppose that, for one reason or another, a person takes an interest in something—for example, that he wants to take a closer look at a tree. He must then approach the tree; he must go to the tree in order to achieve a result. With intellectual results, however, it is different. These come to us; we must wait for them to arrive.

[ 13 ] The essential thing about external experiences is that they are of a transitory nature. But those that come to us through theosophy are based on the spiritual. We weave them into our inner being as something imperishable. We must go out to the external world, but the spiritual must come to us, and the more we make ourselves capable of receiving the spiritual within us, the more flows toward us from the spiritual worlds and becomes our own. The people who live among us as poets and have created and produced something are always those who, in times past, have allowed the supersensible to flow into themselves. We must learn to think more deeply. We must be able to think logically and rationally, and then quiet our soul completely. Then our waiting will not be in vain. The corresponding spiritual substance will flow into our soul, for which we ourselves have paved the way. We must learn to maintain an expectant mood. What we are pondering is not the best. We should seek to attain everything through our mental work, not through ourselves. Only through sharp thinking and the subsequent waiting can we enrich our spirit. It must flow into us once we have learned to observe the right processes, and these processes must interact with thinking, feeling, and willing.

[ 14 ] There are three aspects of our inner life: thinking, feeling, and willing. A person sees a rose. Through his thought life, he recognizes it as such. He admires its form and color; this evokes certain feelings within him. He reaches out his hand to grasp the rose, thereby expressing an act of will. However, the way in which a person deals with these qualities determines important outcomes that can be decisive for his entire life.

[ 15 ] For example: A person encounters another who arouses a strong aversion in him. He realizes that he cannot free himself from this aversive person, and the feeling caused by this compulsion makes him angry. Thinking, feeling, and willing are all involved in this process.

[ 16 ] In daily life, one can often observe how differently these processes unfold. One person’s anger quickly dissipates; he does not dwell on such feelings for long, and his better feelings gain the upper hand. Another, however, carries his anger around with him all day; he lacks the resilience to shake it off. The first person, who quickly overcomes his emotional turmoil, will remain mentally healthy and may live to a ripe old age. The other, who flies into a rage over every trifle and carries this anger with him for a long time, will age prematurely. The constant, lingering emotional turmoil will take its toll on his body.

[ 17 ] There is a saying: One should not take anger to bed with them. — That is when emotions begin to weave themselves into the soul, and we weave passions into people. What we experience through the spirit will affect our soul, and there is a fundamental difference between whether our experiences remain mere theory or whether they pass into feeling.

[ 18 ] Let us suppose that a person takes in a great deal of spiritual content, and that what is taken in penetrates the person. It will only truly bear fruit for the spiritual person when they embrace what they have absorbed with enthusiasm and love. Only then does the work become the work of the inner self; only then does the inner self draw out the spiritual substance and make it a part of their spiritual self. It is feeling that helps us make what we have acquired spiritually our own.

[ 19 ] Human beings live within their aura, and when theosophical truths are absorbed by the spiritual self, the aura is set in intense motion. The ego is the driving force behind this movement. How does this process appear to the clairvoyant eye? When love and enthusiasm for the great spiritual ideas take hold of a person, everything in the aura comes alive, and the result of this higher life of thought is that it has a purifying effect on the aura. All material desires and passions that find expression in the human aura clump together into balls, and as spiritual work increases, these balls condense more and more, becoming smaller and smaller, until the purifying light of spiritual thought has dissolved and dispelled them.

[ 20 ] When the clairvoyant eye observes a person watching a sunrise, similar phenomena can be observed. For in the devout joy that a person can feel at this natural spectacle, something similar takes place in the aura of the observer. As long as such a person allows this beauty to work upon their inner being, the effect of this process is one of dissolution in the aura, and much that is bad is transformed into good. The ability to rejoice and to become absorbed has a purifying effect on the soul, and in such moments the soul is able to take in new spiritual things, because the stream of higher forces has found an entrance.

[ 21 ] But the opposite can also happen. If a person does not allow a magnificent natural spectacle that has moved them to linger in their thoughts, if none of that beauty remains within them, and if, after a fleeting moment of enjoyment, they turn their attention to other things, the following may occur: Everything clumps together in the aura of such a person. A spiritual-soul task that stood in their way has been carelessly set aside and is now working itself out in the dark. It may then happen that a lie finds its way into their inner being. Developing the ability to reflect, to let things linger in one’s mind, and to empathize—that is the work of the spiritual person.

[ 22 ] If we all learned this, spiritual science would lead to paths and goals that would bring widespread blessings. If only intellectual pursuits were pursued, if strife and discord reigned among theosophists, little evil would be transformed into good. The Law of Karma will show humanity how to work in the right way.

[ 23 ] For those who can embrace theosophy with enthusiasm and know how to draw comfort from it, the higher spiritual sciences are a blessing, for they bring comfort and strength to every situation; no one leaves these sciences without comfort. The greater our goals, the more our striving will be imbued with ideals, and humanity carries them out into the world. We pursue spiritual science and weave it into our inner being. It permeates us, and we can carry it out to others.

[ 24 ] We must work toward these goals to the best of our ability. We have no right to leave the paths and goals of the spiritual human being unobserved. It is our duty to weave the spiritual into the physical world. Humanity is the gateway, the sole spiritual gateway in the physical-material world, through which heaven is to flow. We can dissolve the lead of materialism by allowing spiritual truths to penetrate. Only by working toward the development of humanity does a person contribute to life rather than to death. To walk the paths and pursue the goals of the spiritual human being means: to pursue the task of making the supersensible part of the soul.