Building the Spiritual Body Through Breath and Inner Freedom

GA 266I — 2 October 1906, Berlin

Esoteric Lesson

Record A

In a modest and humble sense, it should nevertheless raise our self-esteem that we have been found worthy to participate in the Esoteric School. We did not arrive there by chance. The fact that we sought it and were admitted proves to us that this striving has filled us for several lives. The world outside can no longer satisfy us; we cannot lose ourselves in it. If we could, we would not have sought the way here. The world outside represents the full flowering of the fifth sub-race; alongside this flowering, the dawn of the sixth “day,” or the sixth sub-race, is already making itself felt. This will be a much more spiritual one; the spiritual body will be much more developed. It will be the pre-blossoming of what will fully develop in the sixth root race. We who are in the Esoteric School belong to this dawn of the sixth day; we follow and serve the great Master who oversees its formation; our task is to create and give birth to this spiritual body from within ourselves. Our physical body is not our I; we must not identify with it. As it is now, in this mineral solidity, we have received it as a tool for the tasks of the fifth root race. As a tool, we must handle and shape it; our I must have power over it. In the past, our I had a different kind of tool; the body of the fourth root race, the Atlantean, which did not yet know the separation of sun and rain, which moved through billowing mists, was in some respects of a different nature, but our I was the same; even more different were the bodies of the Lemurian race, especially in their early stages, which moved floating in a watery and airy element. The same I worked on them. Our physical body is born out of the macrocosm. The outer world has formed it; out of our physical body, our I must give birth to the spiritual body. Atma is the name of our spiritual body. Atma means breath. Through regulated breathing in meditation, we build up our spiritual body. In fact, with every breath we breathe out or in our I.

A. Phys. Org,, Phys. Body, Etheric, Astral. I
B. Manas, Buddhi, Atma (Spiritual Self....)

This drawing helps us illustrate what actually happens. Within our outer body, which was created by the gods, we form the spiritual body. The ego flows into it with every inhalation and out again with every exhalation. By regulating our breathing and concentrating it on different parts of our body, we supply our spiritual body with the forces it needs to build itself up. The ego itself is directly connected to the spot in the front of the head, behind and slightly above the root of the nose; thinking is connected to the larynx, feeling to the hands, and willing to the feet and the entire lower body structure. By filling our body with these forces through regulated breathing, we build our spiritual body.

The seed of my body lay in the spirit ...

Record B

We must keep clearly in mind what it means to be in this esoteric school and what we are called to do as members of this school.

Something that the student must learn is inner independence and freedom. The student must not feel dependent on any human being in any way. Even if one's position in life or profession means that one lives in a certain dependence in daily life, one should not feel this dependence inwardly. Inwardly, the human being must make himself completely free. All feelings of oppression, of subjugation, of lack of freedom must disappear from within the student. There have always been people in the outer life who have set themselves apart from others as free and noble. Now the student should feel that he belongs to the free and noble in spirit. He may feel a certain pride in belonging to them in spirit, even though at the same time he is full of humility and modesty. He has been chosen by the leaders of humanity to live and work in community with the free and noble. This should be a source of joy and satisfaction to the student; it should also be a comfort to him when he is not understood by those around him, knowing that he belongs to a group of chosen people. As many are admitted to the school as ask for it. But the fact that they ask for it is already a sign that they are being guided inwardly, that they are prepared to enter this select group.

In the course of their inner development, students are given certain exercises to train their spiritual human being. They must perform breathing exercises as instructed by their teacher. These breathing exercises are intended to lead them to spiritualization. Human beings have an organ within themselves which fills with air when they inhale and empties again when they exhale.

When we breathe in, the air enters this organ and penetrates into its finest branches. This organ is the lung. The spirit of the human being lives in the air. When we breathe in, we breathe in our spirit, and when we breathe out, we breathe out our spirit. The spirit of the human being develops more and more. Thus, the spirit of the human being is alternately inside him or outside in the world. Inhaling and exhaling promotes the growth of the spiritual human being.

It is very important what a person gives to their spirit when they exhale [in terms of thoughts]. This is what builds their spirit. With every thought they give to the breath they exhale, they build their spirit. Humans did not always have an organ to inhale air. If we go back to the earlier planet, the moon, there lived beings who did not breathe air but fire. And just as humans now breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide, so the beings there breathed in fire and exhaled cold.

There will also come a time when people will no longer breathe in and breathe out air. Just as humans generate their own heat on Earth through their heat organ, the heart with its blood circulation, so will they later have an internal air organ that supplies the organism with what we now take in from the air, just as the heat organ now supplies us with heat that was formerly absorbed and inhaled from the environment on the moon. In the future, humans will be able to process the air they have used inside themselves. When this is achieved, they will no longer take air from their surroundings; they will no longer live in the air. At a later stage, on Jupiter, humans will live in light and breathe light, just as they now breathe air and, on the moon, breathed warmth.

The time will also come on this Earth when humans will live only in their spirit, when they will need their bodies only as tools; this time is already dawning. We are living on the fifth day of humanity, in the fifth root race and period of development of our Earth; but in the spiritual world, the time of the sixth dawn has already begun. There, humanity is already living in the dawn of the sixth day.