# Breathing, Love, and Spiritual Ascent: Cosmic Evolution

## GA 266I — 6 May 1906, Berlin

### Esoteric Lesson

*Record A*

Humans are always indirectly involved in killing living beings, in destroying them. By breathing, they kill. No living creature could exist on Earth if only humans lived there, constantly exhaling carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide that humans exhale pollutes the atmosphere. It is destructive and deadly to all living things. Plants exhale oxygen, thereby enabling living beings to exist.

When the Earth was still in the state we call the old moon, there was no human realm as it exists in the world today. At that time, the entire moon was like a kind of plant, like a peat bog, soft and alive. From this plant-mineral earth, the beings that are now humans developed. This plant pulp also contained today's plants and animals. There was an intermediate realm between these two: the animal plants had feelings. It was on the old moon.

> 1. a plant realm, higher than today's mineral realm,  
> 2. a plant-animal kingdom of sentient plants,  
> 3. a kingdom of human animals, higher than the present animal kingdom and lower than the present human kingdom.

On this old moon, all beings lived to a high degree in a nitrogen atmosphere. The moon was surrounded by such an atmosphere, and the old moon perished due to an excess of nitrogen. The fungi that still live on more vegetal soil today are remnants of the animal-plant kingdom that existed on the old moon. They contain a lot of nitrogen and are therefore unfavorable for occult development. Mistletoe, which lives on other plants, is also such a remnant; it has special occult properties. (Hödur shoots Baldur dead with mistletoe as a blind man, thanks to Loki's gift and advice.)

After the moon perished due to its atmosphere, everything went through a pralaya, then reappeared, and the development of today's Earth began. Then, after a certain time, everything that was unfavorable for further development split off and formed the present moon. On Earth, other realms developed from the lunar realms. In order for the present plants to arise, a part of the plant-mineral realm had to be pushed down one level, and gradually, through solidification and hardening, the present mineral realm arose. Previously, the environment had not been visible to humans. On the moon, they could not perceive the world objectively. As the plant-mineral kingdom descended and the present mineral kingdom gradually formed, it became objectively visible. Only through solidification did it reach a state where it could reflect light back, and there was a world that became visible to physical eyes. This is what the biblical account of the creation of light refers to. Only those celestial bodies are visible that have descended to the mineral kingdom and solidified. All celestial bodies that are visible to the eye or the telescope are mineral in nature. The physical eye sees through anything that is not mineral. It does not notice the celestial bodies that have not become mineral. There are many more celestial bodies in the world than we can perceive as mineral.

As soon as the mineral kingdom descended one level, it radiated light back to the plant kingdom. Plants do not only live on the mineral kingdom of the earth, but they also live from the light reflected back from the mineral kingdom. And just as plants live from this light, so animals and animal-humans, that is, the physical human race on earth, live from the oxygen that plants exhale. The animal plants of the old moon have descended one level on the one hand and ascended one level on the other. This is how animals came into being on the one hand. There is a relationship between the two kingdoms, which is why animal beings can live on the oxygen of plants (and vice versa, plants can live on the nitrogen that humans exhale). Oxygen is physically what otherwise lives in plants as prana [life body].

The kingdom of human animals has also split into two kingdoms, the two sexes. This division gives rise to what is initially still physical love in humans. Through this love, humans can rise into the kingdom of the gods. They lived from the physical love of humans, just as humans and animals live from the oxygen that plants emit, and just as plants live from the light reflected back from the mineral kingdom. Nectar and ambrosia, the food of the gods, are the male-female love of humans. (And yet the gods apparently envy humans for this happiness. M. K.[^1] ) The ascent of humans takes place first through the overcoming of physical love and then through the regulation of the breathing process: renouncing the life of plants—oxygen—and through the development of the kundalini light. This is the return of the light reflected back from the mineral kingdom.

1. Overcoming physical love. A separation of the formerly unisexual humans into two sexes was necessary so that the intellect could develop in humans. Humans were split into a higher spiritual nature and a lower animal nature. Now, however, what binds the two sexes in the lower nature must also be sacrificed. It is an ascent when humans overcome the forces of physical love and transform them into higher, more spiritual forces through their own inner soul power (these are the etheric life forces – creative forces. Klingsor – Parzival. M. K.).

2. Man, who strives for higher development, must sacrifice the forces he draws from the plant world. Through the process of respiration, man consumes the oxygen, the life air, which plants exhale. (The blossom of the plant also needs oxygen—everything astral needs it. M. K.) Through the rhythmicization of the breathing process and through inner soul work, the breath becomes purer; what man exhales then contains less carbon dioxide. The atmosphere around him is then consumed less quickly, and he does not deprive other living beings of so much of the life substance, oxygen. In order to achieve this as much as possible, Indian yogis retreat to caves where they breathe as little oxygen as possible. They can do this because their breath is so pure through their soul work that they can live for long periods without any supply of external air. The more spiritual a person is, the longer they can live in their own air and the less carbon dioxide they exhale. Materialists pollute the air much more with their breath than idealists. Today's materialists cannot live without a constant supply of fresh air. People in the countryside bring an external rhythm into their lives through their life with nature; this also improves the air they breathe out, while the air we breathe in cities becomes full of toxins due to the immorality of people. Plants emit pure air, oxygen. They are pure, without desire, selfless, and that is why people feel comfortable in the plant world. However, the continuous supply of fresh air actually has an unfavorable effect on occult development because it deprives the plants of too much life. The student of occultism learns to control his breathing process, and in this way he can allow moments to occur when he does not participate in the destructive process brought about by breathing.

3. Man consciously learns to reflect back the light that the mineral kingdom radiates. He develops the Kundalini light and radiates it into the world, thus giving the world back its light — the light of the human kingdom (that it too may one day become the sun!). Man has no idea what an important instrument he has in his organism. He knows the rest of the world better than he knows himself. He can indeed develop wonderful abilities.

Human beings have an organ within them which, when they breathe in, fills with the air that was previously outside, and which is emptied of the air they have inside when they breathe out. When we breathe in, it fills with outside air down to its finest branches. But spirit lives in this air around us. When we breathe in, we breathe in spirit, and when we breathe out, we give some of the spirit that lives in us to the air we breathe out. Through rhythmic, spirit-filled breathing, the spirit within humans and also outside in the world develops more and more. Inhaling and exhaling promotes the growth of the spiritual human being. It depends on what humans give to their spirit when they exhale. The spirit is built up through thoughts. Through every thought that a person gives to the exhalation, he builds and flows out of his spirit.

Humans did not always have an organ to breathe air. On the old moon, beings lived in such a way that they did not breathe air, but fire. Just as humans now breathe oxygen in and out, they breathed in fire and out cold. And in the future, humans will no longer breathe air. Just as humans on Earth now prepare their warmth by nourishing their heat organ, the heart with the blood circulation, through the air flowing in from outside, so will they later have an internal air organ through which the organism will be supplied with what we now take in from the outside air. Humans will generate their own heat, which was previously inhaled and absorbed directly from the environment by the beings on the old moon. Humans will then be able to process the used air themselves within themselves (silicic acid processes — philosopher's stone). Then they will no longer live in external air. On Jupiter, they will live in light, breathing in light as we now breathe air and as we breathed warmth on the moon.

> Overcoming physical love
> Formation of the astral body  
> Transformation into manas  
> Refinement of the animal kingdom.
> Wisdom
> Rhythmic breathing
> Development of the etheric body  
> Transformation into Buddhi<  
> Elevation of the plant kingdom.
> Beauty
> Radiation of the Kundalini
> Development of the physical body  
> Transformation into Atma  
> Elevation of the mineral kingdom.
> Power

When all this has happened, the mineral kingdom will pass into a kind of plant kingdom, the plant kingdom later into a kind of animal kingdom, etc., etc., the next round.

Record B

Following on from the previous lesson, we still have a few things to discuss about the significance of the breathing process. People usually believe that they have done a lot if they avoid killing living beings, if they are vegetarians, if they do not kill living beings directly. But in reality, they are always indirectly involved in killing and destroying other living beings. By breathing, they kill. No living being could exist on Earth if only humans lived there, constantly exhaling carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide in human breath pollutes the atmosphere and has a destructive effect on all living things. Plants exhale oxygen. This gives living beings the opportunity to live.

When the Earth was still in the state we call the Moon, there was no mineral kingdom on Earth. At that time, the entire Moon was like a kind of plant, similar to a peat bog, soft and alive. Plants lived on this plant-mineral Earth. There were no minerals yet. Only more solid components ran through it, similar to tree trunks. At that time, it would not have been possible to climb rocks; they did not exist. The solid matter that one would have encountered at that time would have been like the woody parts of plants today. In this living plant earth, there were plants that would have cried out if one had touched them, for they had feelings; they were animal plants. A remnant of these moon plants is mistletoe, which can therefore only thrive on other plants, i.e., on living things, because it has preserved this nature from the moon. That is why it is also completely different in shape and has special occult properties that are related to the development of the moon.

So on the moon there were:

> 1. a plant-mineral kingdom that was higher than today's mineral kingdom;  
> 2. an animal-plant kingdom of sentient plants;  
> 3. a kingdom of human animals that were higher than the

present animal kingdom and lower than the present human kingdom.

On the moon, all beings lived to a large extent on nitrogen. The moon was surrounded by a nitrogen atmosphere. The moon perished due to an excess of nitrogen. The fungi that still live on more vegetal soil today contain a great deal of nitrogen and are therefore unfavorable for occult development. They are even more a kind of animal plant than the animal plants on the moon.

After the moon perished due to its atmosphere, it went through a pralaya and developed into the present earth. Then everything that was unfavorable for further development split off into the present moon. It emerged from the earth. Now other realms developed on Earth from the lunar realms. In order for the present plant kingdom to arise, part of the plant-mineral kingdom had to be pushed down one level. This became the present mineral kingdom. Before that, the world was not visible to humans. On the moon, they could not perceive their environment objectively. The mineral kingdom descended one level and thereby became objectively visible. Only through solidification could it become visible. Only then could it reflect light back. Only from that time on did a world visible to the physical eye exist. This is what the story of the creation of light in the Bible refers to. At that time, the moment arrived: “Let there be light.” Only those celestial bodies are visible that have descended to the mineral kingdom and solidified. All celestial bodies that are visible to our physical eye or through the telescope for astronomers are mineral in nature. For the physical eye sees right through anything that is not mineral; it does not perceive celestial bodies that have not become mineral. But there are many more celestial bodies in the world than those that can be observed physically.

As soon as the mineral descended one level, it radiated light for the plant. Plants do not live only in the mineral world, on the mineral earth, but also from the light reflected back from the mineral kingdom. Just as plants live from this light, so animals and animal-humans, physical humans, live on earth from the oxygen that plants emit. The animal plants have also descended one level and the animals have ascended one level. That is why animal beings can live from the oxygen of plants. Oxygen is physically what otherwise lives as prana in plants.

The realm of human animals has also split into two realms, namely the two sexes.[^2] This gave rise to physical love among humans, which once again formed the bond between the two sexes and, on the other hand, the possibility of higher development and spiritual knowledge. Through the division of the human kingdom and the emergence of physical love, the gods were able to evolve at the expense of humans, since physical love was as vital to the gods as oxygen from plants was to humans and animals, and as the light reflected back from the mineral kingdom was to plants. Greek mythology tells us that the gods live on nectar and ambrosia. This is the male and female love of human beings. At the same time, the heart, lungs, and warm blood developed in human beings—previously, human beings breathed through gills. They lived in an atmosphere that could not be breathed in through the lungs. Now the respiratory organs gradually transformed so that they could breathe in the oxygen in the air.

Ascent and further development now consist in human beings overcoming physical love. The separation into the two sexes was necessary so that the intellect could develop in human beings. This divided them into a lower and a higher nature. Now, however, what connects the two sexes must also be overcome. It is a stage of ascent when human beings sacrifice the forces of physical love and transform them into higher forces. By sacrificing these lower forces, the higher can emerge within them. Secondly, they must sacrifice the forces they draw from the plant world. Through the process of breathing, human beings consume the oxygen, the life air, that plants exhale. Through the rhythmization of the breathing process and through the inner spiritualization of the human being, his breath becomes purer; it then contains less carbon dioxide; the atmosphere around him is then consumed less quickly, and he does not withdraw so much of the life substance, oxygen, from other living beings.

There are stories of yogis who live in caves. They are able to do this because of their spiritualization. This makes their breath so pure that they can live for long periods without any new supply of air, because the air around them remains pure. The more spiritual a person is, the longer they can live in their own air and the less carbon dioxide they exhale. It can actually be said that a materialist pollutes the air much more through his breath than an idealist. That is why today's materialists cannot live without a constant supply of fresh air, while an idealist does not consume as much oxygen. The continuous supply of oxygen actually has an unfavorable effect on occult development. The exhalation of carbon dioxide pollutes the atmosphere and kills. What modern doctors, naturopaths, and others prescribe to people, the constant consumption of oxygen, hinders occult development because it robs the plant world of so much life.

The student of occultism learns to control his breathing process, and in this way he can at least allow moments to occur when he does not participate in the destructive process caused by breathing.

Thirdly, the student learns to consciously reflect light back. They develop the Kundalini light and radiate it into the world. In this way, they give back to the world the light of the mineral kingdom.

People generally have no idea what an important instrument they have in their own organism. They know the rest of the world better than their own organism. They are not yet aware of the wonderful abilities they can develop.

In order for human beings to develop their organism in the right way as a tool for their higher powers, they must pay some attention to the way in which they nourish their physical body. It is not irrelevant what physical substances are supplied to the physical body.

Two natures can be distinguished in human beings, a lower and a higher. Everything that belongs to the formation of warm blood, flesh, muscles, etc., is to be regarded as the lower nature; everything that belongs to the spiritual organs is part of the higher nature. For higher development, human beings must choose food that does not promote the growth of the lower nature. Therefore, those who wish to develop in the occult sense should avoid everything connected with blood, flesh, and muscles. The flesh of animals, the blood of animals, the muscles, and everything that has hardened, the skeletal system—all of this is connected with the lunar evolution and thus points to past stages of development. Earth development should become higher development. Therefore, human beings should only enjoy what is connected with the progress of the earth. Milk, for example, which is connected with the life process in animals, is therefore beneficial to human beings for occult development.

Nowadays, many people are vegetarians because they do not want to kill. However, because they basically consider meat to be important, they look for a substitute for the substances contained in meat and eat mainly plants that contain similar substances. For this reason, some vegetarians eat a lot of legumes.

However, there is also a special circumstance with plant nutrition. Here, too, there are things that hinder occult development. That part of plants that still originates from the lunar evolution hinders humans if they want to progress spiritually. It destroys the fine spiritual germs. In plants, all of this generally turns downward into the earth. There are substances that harden and belong to the lunar evolution. For this reason, all plant roots, everything that grows underground, is a hindrance to humans. On the other hand, what grows above the earth is beneficial: flowers, leaves, and fruits. However, there are some exceptions, namely everything that grows in a pod, that is surrounded by a pod, separated from sunlight, and tends toward hardening. This hinders occult development. It is precisely these substances in legumes that have serious consequences for people who want to become more spiritual. These substances make their dream life impure; and so it can often be observed that, as a result of a vegetarian lifestyle, the higher forces do develop, but that people, because they enjoy what grows underground, remain limited in terms of higher knowledge and that the consumption of legumes makes their dream life confused and chaotic. And yet, seeing into higher worlds should begin precisely with seeing in dreams. It is therefore desirable that only pure, beautiful images arise in people during this seeing.

From the mineral kingdom, everything that settles as sediment, such as salts, etc., is harmful to humans.

The occultist must know and observe these things. But there are some cases where, in an incarnation, circumstances prevent a person from acting in accordance with what is conducive to occult development. In such cases, the person must learn to practice resignation and patience.

On the one hand, he should strive constantly to advance, but on the other hand, he must overcome impatience. Nothing is such a great obstacle to higher development as impatience. That is why man must learn patience. He must also see the true meaning of incarnation. Even a life of eighty years is only a short span of time compared to the great development of the world and the time we have ahead of us. We have time, a lot of time; it is never too early to begin striving for higher development, but one should not believe that everything must or can be achieved in one incarnation. Many incarnations are necessary. And much has been achieved by those who have learned to wait patiently until they are offered the opportunity to live outwardly in accordance with the higher life.

All this should lead people to unite with their higher self. This is expressed in the saying we discussed earlier, the meaning of which is roughly as follows:

> Original self, from whom everything originated, to whom everything returns,  
> Original self, who lives in me, I strive toward you.

The saying itself means:

> Yasmājj jātam jagat sarvam, yasminn eva pralīyate  
> yenedam dhāryate chaiva, tasmai jnānātmane namah.

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[^1]: M. K. probably means “My comment.”

[^2]: The rest of this paragraph agrees with two handwritten sources; in two other handwritten sources, which are otherwise identical, it reads: "This gave rise to physical love among humans. This allowed the realm of the gods to rise above the realm of humans. They live from the physical love of humans, just as humans and animals live from the oxygen that plants emit, and just as plants live from the light reflected back from the mineral world. Greek mythology tells us that the gods live on nectar and ambrosia, which are the male and female love of humans.

The ascent of man takes place first through the overcoming of physical love; secondly through the regulation of the breathing process, the renunciation of plant life, of oxygen; thirdly through the development of the Kundalini light, the return of the light reflected back from the mineral kingdom.