The History of the Esoteric School 1904–1914, Volume One

GA 264 — 28 December 1903, Berlin

To Clara Smits in Düsseldorf

Berlin, December 28, 1903

Dearest Madam!

I trust you have continued the exercises in the manner you began. I would now ask you to proceed in January in exactly the same way as I described in my last letter.¹ I would only ask you to replace the sentence I gave at the time with the following:

Every being you give your love to opens up its nature to you; for unkindness is a veil that covers the things of the world. As much as you radiate love, so much knowledge flows to you.

I would like to add a few words to help us understand this meditation sentence. It is absolutely true that we receive as much knowledge from the world as we ourselves radiate love. However, we must not believe that we are immediately aware of all knowledge in every phase of life. Much is unconscious in us at first. And that is why I ask you to continue the meditation steadfastly. Only by doing this, and by realizing that every day we dedicate to it is not lost, will we make progress. Every day stores knowledge in us; and the day will surely come when it will appear to us in full consciousness. The sentences we meditate on are not intellectual constructs that we are merely supposed to grasp. I can only say again and again: these are living sentences, and we are meant to live with them as we do with children. We know children very well, of course, and yet we deal with them anew every day. So it should be with our meditation sentences.

So everything else in your meditation remains the same in January as it was; only the sentence from December is replaced by the one given above. I ask you, dearest gracious lady, always to continue everything as it was given, until I write to you again. You can be sure that you will receive the appropriate letter from time to time. If it happens a few days after the expected time, it will not hurt.

It was very nice that I also saw you for the last time in Cologne. I would have liked to have visited you again then - but time was so pressing. Lohf has now opened up the prospect that at least 6 people will be found in Düsseldorf with whom he can reconstruct the branch. That would be highly desirable. I know, dear lady, that you are doing all you can. I also know how difficult everything is. But our combined efforts must succeed, as the Theosophical movement demands of those who recognize its importance. No one can then evade this movement once they have recognized its significance.

I hope to see you again very soon.

Sincerely,

Dr. Rudolf Steiner
Berlin W, Motzstrasse 17