The Threshold of the Spiritual World
GA 17
I. Concerning the Reliance which may be placed on Thinking; the Nature of the Thinking Soul; and of Meditation
[ 1 ] In waking consciousness human thought is like an island in the midst of the stream of the soul's life, which flows by in impressions, sensations, feelings, and so forth. We have to a certain degree finished with an impression or a sensation when we have formed an idea concerning it, that is, when we have framed a thought which throws light on the impression or sensation. Even in a storm of passion and emotion, a certain degree of calm may set in, if the ship of the soul has worked its way to the island of thought.
[ 2 ] The soul has a natural confidence in thinking. It feels that if it could not have this confidence, all stability in life would be lost. The healthy life of the soul comes to an end when it begins to doubt about thinking. For even if we cannot arrive at a clear understanding of something through thought, we may yet have the consolation that clearness would result if we could only rouse ourselves to think with sufficient force and acuteness. We can reassure ourselves with regard to our own incapacity to clear up a point by thinking; but the thought is intolerable that thinking itself would not be able to bring satisfaction, even if we were to penetrate as far into its domain as was necessary for gaining full light on some definite situation in life.
[ 3 ] This attitude of the soul with regard to thinking underlies all human efforts after knowledge. It may be dulled in certain moods of the soul, but it is always to be found in the soul's dim feelings. The thinker who doubts the validity and power of thought itself is deceived about the fundamental state of his soul. For it is often really his acuteness of thought which, being overstrained, constructs doubts and perplexities. If he did not really rely on thinking, he would not be tormented with these doubts, which after all are only the result of thinking.
[ 4 ] One who develops in himself the feeling here indicated with regard to thought, feels that the latter is not merely something which he is cultivating in himself as a human force of the soul, but also something which quite independently of him and his soul bears within itself some Being of a cosmic nature, a Being to whom he must work his way, if he intends to live in something which belongs at the same time to him and to the world that is independent of him.
[ 5 ] There is something deeply tranquillising in being able to surrender oneself to the life of thought. The soul feels that in that life it can escape from itself. This feeling is as necessary to the soul as the opposite one of being able to be wholly within itself.
In the necessary change between these two conditions lies the healthy rhythm of the soul's life. Waking and sleeping are really only the extremes of these conditions. When awake the soul is in itself, living its own life; in sleep it loses itself in the universal life of the world, and is therefore to a certain extent freed from itself. The conditions in either direction correspond to the various inner experiences. And the life of thought is a release of the soul from itself, just as feeling, sensation, emotional life, and so forth are the expression of the soul remaining within itself.
[ 6 ] Looked at in this way, thought offers to the soul the consolation which it needs when face to face with the feeling of utter loneliness in the world. It is possible to arrive in quite a legitimate way at the feeling, “What am I in the current of universal cosmic events, flowing from one infinity to another—I with my feelings, desires, and will which surely can be of importance to me only?” Directly the life of thought has been rightly realised, this feeling is confronted by another. “The thought which is concerned with these cosmic events draws into itself me and my soul; I am living in those events when I, through thinking, let their being flow into me.” It is then possible to feel oneself taken into the universe and secure therein. From this condition of the soul, a strength ensues, which feels as though it had come from the cosmic powers themselves, in accordance with wise laws.
[ 7 ] It is but another step from this feeling to that in which the soul says, “It is not only I who think, but something thinks in me; the cosmic life expresses itself in me; my soul is only the stage upon which the universe manifests itself as thought.”
[ 8 ] This feeling may be repudiated by this or that philosophy. It may, with various reasons, be made apparently quite obvious that the thought which has just been expressed, of the world thinking itself in the human soul, is entirely erroneous. In answer to this it must be realised that this thought is one which can be worked out through inner experience. Only one who has thus worked it out fully understands its validity, and knows that no refutations can shake that validity. One who has thus mastered it sees from this very thought, quite clearly, what so many refutations and proofs are really worth. They may appear infallible when you still erroneously believe in the convincing power of their content. In that case it is difficult to come to an understanding with people who consider such proofs as conclusive. They are bound to think another person mistaken, because they have not yet accomplished the inner work within themselves which has brought him to a recognition of what seems to them erroneous, or perhaps even absurd.
[ 9 ] For one who wishes to find his way into spiritual science, meditations such as the foregoing on thinking are of benefit. For such a person it is a question of bringing his soul into a condition which gives it access to the spiritual world. Access may be denied to the clearest thinking or to the most perfect scientific method, if the soul does not bring anything to meet the spiritual facts, or the information about them ready to press in upon it. It may be a good preparation for the apprehension of spiritual knowledge to have felt frequently what invigorating force there is in the attitude of soul which says, “I feel myself to be one in thought with the stream of cosmic events.” In this case it is less a question of the abstract value of this thought as knowledge, than of having often felt in our souls the powerful effect which is experienced when such a thought flows with force through the inner life and circulates like a breath of spiritual oxygen through the soul. It is not only a question of recognising what there is in a thought of this kind, but of experiencing it. The thought is recognised when once it has been present in the soul with sufficient power of conviction; but if it is to ripen and bear fruit which shall promote understanding of the spiritual world, its beings and facts, it must, after having been understood, be made to live in the soul again and again. The soul must again and again be filled with the thought, allowing nothing else to be present in it, and shutting out all other thoughts, feelings, memories, and so forth. Repeated concentration of this kind on such a thoroughly grasped thought draws together forces in the soul which in ordinary life are to some extent dissipated. The soul concentrates and strengthens these forces within itself, and they become the organs for the perception of the spiritual world and its truths.
[ 10 ] The right way in which to meditate may be learned from what has just been pointed out. We first work our way through to a thought which may be realised with the means that lie ready to hand in ordinary life and knowledge. Then we plunge into that thought again and again, and make ourselves completely one with it. The strengthening of the soul is the result of living with a thought which has thus been recognised. In this case the above thought was chosen as an example which was derived from the very nature of thinking. It was chosen as an example because it is very specially fruitful for meditation. But what has been said here holds good, with regard to meditation, for every thought which is acquired in the way that has been described. It is especially fruitful for meditation when we know the state of soul which results from the above-mentioned rhythmic swing in the life of the soul. By that means we arrive in the surest way at the feeling of having been in direct touch with the spiritual world during our meditation.
[ 11 ] And this feeling is a sound result of meditation. The force of it should give strength to the rest of our daily life, and not in such a way that an ever-present impression of the meditative state is present the whole time, but so that one feels that from the meditative experience strength is flowing into our whole life.
If the state brought about by meditation extends through daily life as an ever-present impression, it diffuses something which disturbs the mental ease of that life. And the state of meditation itself will not then be sufficiently pure and strong. Meditation gives the best results when through its own character it is kept apart from ordinary life. It influences life in the best way when it is felt to be something distinct from and raised above ordinary life.
Von dem Vertrauen, das man zu dem Denken haben kann und von dem Wesen der denkenden Seele. Vom Meditieren
[ 1 ] Das menschliche Denken ist für das wache Tagesbewußtsein wie eine Insel inmitten der Fluten des in Eindrücken, Empfindungen, Gefühlen usw. verlaufenden Seelenlebens. Man ist bis zu einem gewissen Grade mit einem Eindruck, mit einer Empfindung fertig geworden, wenn man sie begriffen, das heißt, wenn man einen Gedanken gefaßt hat, der den Eindruck, die Empfindung beleuchtet. Selbst im Sturme der Leidenschaften und Affekte kann eine gewisse Ruhe eintreten, wenn sich das Seelenschiff bis zu der Insel des Denkens hingearbeitet hat.
[ 2 ] Die Seele hat ein natürliches Vertrauen zu dem Denken. Sie fühlt, daß sie alle Sicherheit im Leben verlieren müßte, wenn sie dieses Vertrauen nicht haben könnte. Das gesunde Seelenleben hört auf, wenn der Zweifel an dem Denken beginnt. Kann man über irgend etwas im Denken nicht ins klare kommen, so muß man den Trost haben können, daß die Klarheit sich ergeben würde, wenn man sich nur zur genügenden Kraft und Schärfe des Denkens aufraffen könnte. Über das eigene Unvermögen, etwas durch Denken zur Klarheit zu bringen, kann man sich beruhigen; nicht aber kann man den Gedanken ertragen, daß das Denken selbst nicht Befriedigung bringen könnte, wenn man in sein Gebiet so eindringen würde, wie es für eine bestimmte Lebenslage zur Erlangung des vollen Lichtes notwendig ist.
[ 3 ] Diese Stimmung der Seele gegenüber dem Denken liegt allem Erkenntnisstreben der Menschheit zugrunde. Sie kann durch bestimmte Seelenverfassungen abgedämpft sein; im dunklen Fühlen der Seelen wird sie stets nachweisbar sein. Diejenigen Denker, welche an der Gültigkeit und Kraft des Denkens selbst zweifeln, täuschen sich über die Grundstimmung ihrer Seele. Denn es ist doch eigentlich ihre Denkschärfe oft, welche durch eine gewisse Überspannung ihnen die Zweifel und Rätsel bildet. Vertrauten sie dem Denken wirklich nicht, so zerquälten sie sich nicht mit diesen Zweifeln und Rätseln, welche doch nur die Ergebnisse des Denkens sind.
[ 4 ] Wer das hier angedeutete Gefühl in bezug auf das Denken in sich entwickelt, der empfindet in diesem nicht allein etwas, das er in sich als Kraft der menschlichen Seele ausbildet, sondern auch etwas, das ganz unabhängig von ihm und seiner Seele eine Welt-Wesenheit in sich trägt. Eine Welt-Wesenheit, zu welcher er sich hindurcharbeiten muß, wenn er in etwas leben will, das zugleich ihm und der von ihm unabhängigen Welt angehört.
[ 5 ] Dem Gedanken-Leben sich hingeben zu können, hat etwas tief Beruhigendes. Die Seele fühlt, daß sie in diesem Leben von sich selbst loskommen kann. Dieses Gefühl aber braucht die Seele ebenso wie das entgegengesetzte, dasjenige des völlig In-sich-selbst-sein-Könnens. In beiden Gefühlen liegt der ihr notwendige Pendelschlag ihres gesunden Lebens. Im Grunde sind Wachen und Schlafen nur die extremsten Ausdrücke dieses Pendelschlages. Im Wachen ist die Seele in sich, lebt ihr Eigenleben; im Schlafe verliert sie sich an das allgemeine Welt-Erleben, ist also gewissermaßen von sich selbst losgelöst. - Beide Ausschläge des Seelenpendels zeigen sich durch verschiedene andere Zustände des inneren Erlebens. Und das Leben in Gedanken ist ein Loskommen der Seele von sich selbst, wie das Fühlen, Empfinden, Affektleben usw. ein In-sich-selbst-Sein sind.
[ 6 ] So angesehen, bietet das Denken der Seele den Trost, den sie braucht gegenüber dem Gefühl des Verlassenseins von der Welt. Man kann in berechtigter Art zu der Empfindung kommen: Was bin ich in dem Strome des allgemeinen Weltgeschehens, der von Unendlichkeit zu Unendlichkeit läuft, mit meinem Fühlen, mit meinem Wünschen und Wollen, die doch nur für mich Bedeutung haben? Sobald man das Leben in Gedanken recht erfühlt hat, stellt man dieser Empfindung die andere entgegen: Das Denken, das mit diesem Weltgeschehen zu tun hat, nimmt dich mit deiner Seele auf; du lebst in diesem Geschehen, wenn du sein Wesen denkend in dich fließen läßt. Man kann sich dann von der Welt aufgenommen, in ihr gerechtfertigt fühlen. Aus dieser Stimmung der Seele folgt dann für diese eine Stärkung, die sie so empfindet, als ob sie ihr von den Weltmächten selbst nach weisen Gesetzen zugekommen wäre.
[ 7 ] Von dieser Empfindung ist es dann nicht mehr weit zu dem Schritte, nach welchem die Seele sagt: Nicht ich denke bloß, sondern es denkt in mir; es spricht das Weltenwerden in mir sich aus; meine Seele bietet bloß den Schauplatz, auf dem sich die Welt als Gedanke auslebt.
[ 8 ] Diese Empfindung kann von dieser oder jener Philosophie zurückgewiesen werden. Es kann mit den mannigfaltigsten Gründen scheinbar ganz einleuchtend gemacht werden, daß der eben ausgesprochene Gedanke von dem «Sich-Denken der Welt in der menschlichen Seele» völlig irrtümlich sei. Demgegenüber muß erkannt werden, daß dieser Gedanke ein solcher ist, der durch inneres Erleben erarbeitet wird. Erst wer ihn so erarbeitet hat, versteht seine Gültigkeit völlig und weiß, daß alle «Widerlegungen» an seiner Gültigkeit nicht rütteln können. Wer ihn sich erarbeitet hat, der sieht gerade an ihm ganz klar, was viele «Widerlegungen» und «Beweise » in Wahrheit wert sind. Sie scheinen oft recht untrüglich, solange man von der Beweiskraft ihres Inhaltes noch eine irrtümliche Vorstellung haben kann. Es ist dann schwer, sich mit Menschen zu verständigen, welche solche «Beweise» für sich maßgeblich finden. Diese müssen den anderen im Irrtum glauben, weil sie die innere Arbeit in sich noch nicht geleistet haben, welche ihn zur Anerkennung dessen gebracht hat, was ihnen irrtümlich, vielleicht sogar töricht vorkommt.
[ 9 ] Für denjenigen, welcher sich in die Geisteswissenschaft finden will, sind Meditationen von Nutzen wie die eben über das Denken vorgebrachte. Für einen solchen handelt es sich doch darum, daß er seine Seele in eine Verfassung bringe, die ihr den Zugang in die geistige Welt öffnet. Dieser Zugang kann dem scharfsinnigsten Denken, kann der vollendetsten Wissenschaftlichkeit verschlossen bleiben, wenn die Seele nichts den geistigen Tatsachen oder ihrer Mitteilung entgegenbringt, die auf sie eindringen wollen. - Es kann eine gute Vorbereitung für das Erfassen der geistigen Erkenntnis sein, wenn man öfters gefühlt hat, welche Stärkung in der Seelenstimmung liegt: «Ich empfinde mich denkend eins mit dem Strom des Weltgeschehens.» -Es kommt dabei viel weniger auf den abstrakten Erkenntniswert dieses Gedankens an, als vielmehr darauf, in der Seele oft die stärkende Wirkung empfunden zu haben, die man erlebt, wenn ein solcher Gedanke kraftvoll durch das Innenleben strömt, wenn er sich wie geistige Lebensluft im Seelenleben ausbreitet. Es handelt sich nicht allein um das Erkennen dessen, was in einem solchen Gedanken liegt, sondern um das Erleben. Erkannt ist er, wenn er einmal mit genügender Überzeugungskraft in der Seele gegenwärtig war; soll er Früchte zeitigen für das Verständnis der geistigen Welt, ihrer Wesenheiten und Tatsachen, so muß er, nachdem er verstanden ist, in der Seele immer wieder belebt werden. Die Seele muß sich immer wieder ganz von ihm erfüllen, nur ihn in ihr anwesend sein lassen, mit Ausschluß aller anderen Gedanken, Empfindungen, Erinnerungen usw. - Ein solches wiederholtes Sich-Konzentrieren auf einen volldurchdrungenen Gedanken zieht Kräfte in der Seele zusammen, die im gewöhnlichen Leben gewissermaßen zerstreut sind; sie verstärkt sie in sich selbst. Diese zusammengezogenen Kräfte werden zu den Wahrnehmungsorganen für die geistige Welt und ihre Wahrheiten.
[ 10 ] Man kann an dem Angedeuteten den rechten Vorgang des Meditierens erkennen. Erst arbeitet man sich zu einem Gedanken durch, den man einsehen kann mit den Mitteln, welche das gewöhnliche Leben und Erkennen an die Hand geben. Dann versenkt man sich wiederholt in diesen Gedanken, macht sich ganz eins mit ihm. Die Stärkung der Seele kommt durch das Leben mit einem solchen erkannten Gedanken. - Hier wurde als Beispiel ein Gedanke gewählt, der aus der Natur des Denkens selbst genommen ist. Er wurde als Beispiel gewählt, weil er für das Meditieren ganz besonders fruchtbar ist. Doch gilt in bezug auf die Meditation das hier Gesagte von jedem Gedanken, der auf die beschriebene Art gewonnen ist. - Für den Meditierenden ist es nur ganz besonders fruchtbar, wenn er die Seelenstimmung kennt, die aus dem oben angedeuteten Pendelschlag des Seelenlebens sich ergibt. Er kommt dadurch am sichersten zu dem Gefühle, in seiner Meditation von der geistigen Welt unmittelbar berührt worden zu sein.
[ 11 ] Und dies Gefühl ist ein gesundes Ergebnis der Meditation. - Es sollte dies Gefühl seine Kraft ausstrahlen auf den Inhalt des ganzen übrigen wachen Tageslebens. Und zwar nicht so, daß stets etwas da ist, wie ein gegenwärtiger Eindruck der Meditationsstimmung, sondern in der Art, daß man sich stets sagen kann, es fließe in das ganze Leben eine Stärkung durch das Meditationserlebnis. Wenn die Meditationsstimmung wie ein immer gegenwärtiger Eindruck durch das Tagesleben zieht, so gießt sie nämlich über dasselbe etwas aus, was die Unbefangenheit dieses Lebens stört. Sie wird dann in den Zeiten der Meditation selbst nicht genug stark und nicht genug rein sein können. Die rechten Früchte zeitigt die Meditation eben dadurch, daß sie sich mit ihrer Stimmung heraushebt aus dem übrigen Leben. Auf dieses wirkt sie auch dann am besten, wenn sie als etwas Besonderes, Herausgehobenes empfunden wird.
On the trust one can have in thinking and on the nature of the thinking soul. About meditation
[ 1 ] Human thinking is like an island for the waking daytime consciousness amidst the floods of the soul's life of impressions, sensations, feelings, etc. One has to a certain extent come to terms with an impression, with a sensation, when one has grasped it, that is, when one has conceived a thought that illuminates the impression, the sensation. Even in the storm of passions and affects, a certain calm can occur when the ship of the soul has worked its way to the island of thought.
[ 2 ] The soul has a natural trust in thinking. It feels that it would have to lose all security in life if it could not have this trust. The healthy life of the soul ceases when doubt in thinking begins. If one cannot come to a clear understanding of something in one's thinking, one must be able to take comfort in the fact that clarity would result if one could only summon up sufficient strength and sharpness of thought. One can be reassured about one's own inability to bring something to clarity through thinking; but one cannot bear the thought that thinking itself could not bring satisfaction if one were to penetrate its field in the way that is necessary for a particular situation in life to attain full light.
[ 3 ] This mood of the soul towards thinking underlies all humanity's striving for knowledge. It can be dampened by certain states of mind; it will always be detectable in the dark feelings of souls. Those thinkers who doubt the validity and power of thinking itself are deceiving themselves about the basic mood of their soul. After all, it is often their sharpness of thought that creates their doubts and puzzles due to a certain overstimulation. If they really did not trust thinking, they would not torment themselves with these doubts and puzzles, which are only the results of thinking.
[ 4 ] Whoever develops in himself the feeling indicated here in relation to thinking, feels in this not only something that he develops in himself as a power of the human soul, but also something that carries a world entity in itself quite independently of him and his soul. A world entity to which he must work his way through if he wants to live in something that belongs to him and to the world independent of him at the same time.
[ 5 ] There is something deeply reassuring about being able to devote oneself to the life of thought. The soul feels that it can get away from itself in this life. But the soul needs this feeling just as much as the opposite, that of being able to be completely in itself. In both feelings lies the necessary pendulum swing of its healthy life. Basically, waking and sleeping are only the most extreme expressions of this pendulum swing. In waking, the soul is in itself, lives its own life; in sleep, it loses itself to the general experience of the world, and is thus to a certain extent detached from itself. - Both swings of the soul's pendulum manifest themselves through various other states of inner experience. And life in thought is a detachment of the soul from itself, just as feeling, sensation, affect, etc. are a being-in-itself.
[ 6 ] So viewed, thinking offers the soul the consolation it needs in the face of the feeling of being abandoned by the world. One can justifiably come to the conclusion: What am I in the stream of general world events, which runs from infinity to infinity, with my feelings, with my wishes and desires, which only have meaning for me? As soon as one has experienced life in thought, one contrasts this feeling with the other: Thinking, which has to do with this world event, absorbs you with your soul; you live in this event if you allow its essence to flow into you thinking. You can then feel accepted by the world, justified in it. From this mood of the soul then follows a strengthening for it, which it feels as if it had come to it from the world powers themselves according to wise laws.
[ 7 ] It is then not far from this feeling to the step according to which the soul says: I do not merely think, but it thinks in me; the becoming-world expresses itself in me; my soul merely provides the arena on which the world lives itself out as thought.
[ 8 ] This feeling can be rejected by this or that philosophy. It can be made seemingly quite plausible with the most diverse reasons that the idea just expressed of the "thinking of the world in the human soul" is completely erroneous. On the other hand, it must be recognized that this idea is one that is worked out through inner experience. Only those who have worked it out in this way fully understand its validity and know that all "refutations" cannot shake its validity. Those who have worked it out for themselves can clearly see from it what many "refutations" and "proofs" are really worth. They often seem quite infallible as long as one can still have an erroneous idea of the probative force of their content. It is then difficult to communicate with people who find such "proofs" authoritative for themselves. They must believe the other person in error because they have not yet done the inner work within themselves that led them to recognize what seems erroneous, perhaps even foolish to them.
[ 9 ] For those who want to find their way into spiritual science, meditations such as the one just presented on thinking are useful. For such a person it is a matter of bringing his soul into a state that opens access to the spiritual world. This access can remain closed to the most acute thinking, to the most accomplished scientificity, if the soul has nothing to offer to the spiritual facts or their communication that want to penetrate it. - It can be a good preparation for grasping spiritual knowledge if one has often felt the strengthening that lies in the mood of the soul: "Thinking, I feel myself to be one with the stream of world events." -It is much less a question of the abstract cognitive value of this thought than of having often felt in the soul the strengthening effect that one experiences when such a thought flows powerfully through the inner life, when it spreads like spiritual air of life in the life of the soul. It is not just a matter of recognizing what lies in such a thought, but of experiencing it. It is recognized when it has once been present in the soul with sufficient power of conviction; if it is to bear fruit for the understanding of the spiritual world, its essences and facts, it must, after it has been understood, be revived again and again in the soul. The soul must again and again be completely filled with it, allowing only it to be present in it, to the exclusion of all other thoughts, sensations, memories, etc. - Such repeated concentration on a fully penetrated thought draws together forces in the soul which are, so to speak, scattered in ordinary life; it strengthens them within itself. These concentrated forces become the organs of perception for the spiritual world and its truths.
[ 10 ] You can recognize the correct process of meditation from the above. First you work your way through to a thought that you can see with the means that ordinary life and cognition provide. Then you repeatedly immerse yourself in this thought, making yourself completely one with it. The strengthening of the soul comes through living with such a recognized thought. - A thought taken from the nature of thought itself has been chosen as an example here. It was chosen as an example because it is particularly fruitful for meditation. However, with regard to meditation, what has been said here applies to every thought that is obtained in the way described. - It is only particularly fruitful for the meditator if he knows the mood of the soul that results from the pendulum swing of the soul life indicated above. This is the surest way to achieve the feeling of having been directly touched by the spiritual world in his meditation.
[ 11 ] And this feeling is a healthy result of meditation. - This feeling should radiate its power to the content of the rest of waking daily life. And not in such a way that there is always something there, like a present impression of the meditation mood, but in such a way that one can always say to oneself that a strengthening flows into the whole of life through the meditation experience. If the meditation mood runs through daily life like an ever-present impression, it pours out something over it that disturbs the impartiality of this life. It will then not be strong enough or pure enough in the times of meditation itself. Meditation bears the right fruit precisely because its mood sets it apart from the rest of life. It also has the best effect on this life when it is perceived as something special and elevated.