On setting aside moments each day that strengthen us ~ ❀.... For all human beings, in addition to what we may call the ordinary self, everyday self, also bear within themselves a higher self or higher human being. This higher being remains concealed until it is awakened. And it can be awakened only as each of us, individually, awakens it within ourselves. Until then, the higher faculties that are latent within each one of us and that lead to supersensible knowledge remain hidden. ❀.... Slowly, as we continue on the path, we increasingly come to guide ourselves, as it were, rather than allowing ourselves to be led by circumstances and other influences. ❀....If we are not masters of our own lives but are ruled by life, then the waves of outer life press in upon our inner self from all sides, and we are like a plant trying to grow in the cleft of a rock. Unless it is given more space, the plant will be stunted. Outer forces cannot create the space our inner being needs to grow. Only the inner calm we create in the soul can do so. Outer circumstances can change only our outer life situation - they can never awaken the spiritual person within. As esoteric students, we ourselves, must give birth to a new, higher being within us. ❀....This higher self then becomes the inner ruler, directing the affairs of the outer person with a sure hand. As long as the outer being has the upper hand and guides us, the inner self remains its slave and cannot unfold its powers. ❀....Of course, in many life situations, great strength is needed to create such moments of inner peace. But the greater the effort required, the more meaningful the achievement accomplished. On the path to knowledge all depends upon whether we face ourselves and all our deeds and actions energetically, with inner truthfulness and uncompromising honesty, as though we were strangers to ourselves. ❀....We must rise to see the purely human level that no longer has anything to do with our own particular situation. We must reach the point of contemplating those things that concern us as human beings as such, completely independent of the circumstances and conditions of our particular life. ❀....As we do this, something comes to life in us that transcends what is personal and individual. ❀....For students of the spirit, this quiet contemplation must become a necessity of life. At first, we are wholly absorbed in a world of thought. We must develop a living feeling for this silent thinking activity. We must learn to love what streams towards us from the spirit. Rudolf Steiner How to Know Higher Worlds ~ A modern path of initiationChapter 1Conditions
Posted on: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 03:35:55 +0000
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