Lessons for the Participants of Cognitive-Cultic Work 1906–1924

GA 265a — 1 May 1910, Hanover

Overcoming Selfishness

Notes taken by Günther Wagner or Martina Limburger-von Hoffmann

What we want to consider as an aid on the occult path during this meeting today is entirely the responsibility of those whom we call the “Sages of the East”. The words that are to be spoken are to be understood as an inspiration from this side. Let us dwell for a moment on what we call self-knowledge, not that self-knowledge which man imagines he finds by constantly brooding over himself, but self-knowledge which is of the greatest importance for esoteric striving, in order to make meditation and concentration effective and fruitful in our soul.

When we enter into the sacred moments of meditation in the right way, it is comparable to touching the string of a musical instrument in our soul, holding on to it for a while and then letting it fade away slowly, so that the reverberation remains in it for a long time. But that is not all that must happen if we want to achieve a far-reaching effect. We must try to hollow out our soul completely, to empty it of all impressions, even of the effect of meditation. Then you will notice, though only after a long, long time, but after the appropriate time you will notice that you are getting closer and closer to the spiritual worlds, which you have already sensed and felt before, that you feel them with greater certainty, even if the clairvoyant eye cannot see them.

But something else will also happen after a long period of time, because this process is very fine and subtle. Something will pour out of these spiritual worlds into this empty soul. It will fall into it like a ray of light, and in the future we will be able not only to grasp the spiritual truths that we had previously absorbed within us with our minds, but we will also come to draw the necessary conclusions and inferences from them in the right way. We will then come to realize, as is necessary for higher self-knowledge, know and understand our character traits – for that is the individual karma of the individual person – but we will come to recognize which souls influence us between death and a new birth, in whose company we lived during this time in Devachan, for it is by no means unimportant to know what we have absorbed through this association with these other souls. This is crucial for our work in the state, in the family and so on.

The souls that are now embodied in physical bodies were together for a time between death and new birth with the souls of those who lived in the sixth, seventh, or eighth century after the appearance of Christ Jesus on earth, and also with the souls of those who were contemporaries of Christ Jesus.

Now, the Christ impulse has come into the world to tear humanity out of the selfishness into which it had gradually fallen, and it had to come so that people would not become completely hardened in their own egos. But He could not work as would have been necessary, for He came at a time when egotism was at its strongest on earth, and even today He is only at the beginning of His actual mission.

The bond that is to entwine soul to soul must first be woven little by little. The spiritual science points out the right way in which true brotherly love must develop in future times.

Now, through the reception of the Christ Impulse in the souls at this particular time, a very peculiar religiosity arose, which has been preserved until our time. People involve the Christ so completely in their egotism because they only strive to be saved themselves, to secure a place for themselves in heaven. What must I do to be saved? They did not realize, and still do not realize, that this is an expression of a greater selfishness than when one person begrudges another his possessions and tries to snatch them away from him.

Now the souls that were re-embodied today, at least for the most part, were also still together with other souls during their stay in the devachan state. They were still together with the souls of those who had descended in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, who had implemented this egoism, which they brought with them into this embodiment, so that they considered only their own opinion to be the right one, only wanted to accept it, which had caused the great religious disputes, Calvin, Luther and so on. With these souls we were together between death and new birth. To know this is of the greatest importance, for only by knowing all these facts can one arrive at true self-knowledge, which is so necessary for progress on the occult path.

The Mystery at Golgotha is indeed the greatest sacrifice that has been made for humanity for its release from the bonds of selfishness, but it is by no means the only one. At all times there have been individuals who descended to Earth, worked there for a time and then sacrificed their three veils for the good of humanity. There have always been such individuals. They were, as it were, forerunners of the Mystery of Golgotha; the most powerful sacrifice of all times was that of John, the forerunner of Christ Jesus on earth.

Such a sacrifice of the three veils leaves a powerful impression in the spiritual atmosphere in which it took place for a long, long time. Such an event took place many, many years ago in southern Europe. When I was in Palermo in Sicily some time ago to give a lecture, I noticed the peculiar atmosphere, the spiritual atmosphere that prevailed there, and the occult research revealed that such a sacrifice had taken place there. There really lived an individuality there, and it worked among people in such a way that it then sacrificed its covers for them. It was Empedocles who, after he had completed his work as a philosopher and statesman, left his three sheaths and plunged into Mount Etna.

By becoming aware of all these facts that have come before our soul today, we will take a step forward towards true self-knowledge.