Meditation, Review, and Esoteric Exercises for Spiritual Development

GA 266I — 29 January 1907, Berlin

Esoteric Lesson

Recording A

Because there are some among us today who have never attended an esoteric lesson, let us try to understand more closely the exercises we all have to do. We cannot be reminded often enough of how our duties are to be understood. Let us first talk about the morning meditation and clarify what meditation actually accomplishes. Streams of spiritual life are constantly flowing through the world. But when we are preoccupied with our ordinary everyday thoughts, these streams cannot flow into us. Our meditation words, however, are like gates or doors that are meant to lead us into the spiritual world. They have the power to unlock our soul so that the thoughts of our great leaders, the masters of wisdom and harmony of feelings, can flow into us. But for this to happen, there must be complete silence within us. We must be clear that meditation is an intimate activity of the soul. So immediately after waking up, when no other thoughts have yet passed through the soul, we should let the meditation words given to us by our teacher live in our soul. But we should not regard them as material for speculation and philosophizing, nor should we think about their meaning and significance as little as possible. We have the rest of the day to think. We should keep this completely out of our minds during meditation. However, we should not repeat the words meaninglessly, but be clear that these words open our soul to the inflow of divine beings, just as a flower opens its petals to let in the light of the sun. High spiritual beings stream down to us, above all the thoughts of those we call masters. Let us be clear that it is they above all who guide us and are close to us during meditation. We should also know that they walk on earth embodied in physical bodies. So we should let the words of meditation live in our souls without brooding over them; rather, we should seek to grasp the spiritual content of the words emotionally, to let them permeate us completely. The power of these words lies not only in the thoughts they express, but also in their rhythm and sound. We should listen to this, and if we exclude all sensual impressions, we can say that we should revel in the sound of the words. Then the spiritual world resounds within us. Because the sound of the words is so important, a meditation formula cannot simply be translated into a foreign language. The meditation formulas we have received in German have been brought down directly from the spiritual world for us. Every formula, every prayer has the greatest effect in its original language. When Indians want to express their highest reverence for the deity revealed in the three Logoi, they summarize their feelings in three times three words that describe the effectiveness of the three Logoi. In English, the words are as follows:

Primordial truth, primordial goodness, immeasurability, O Brahma.
Primordial truth, eternity, primordial beauty,
Peace, blessing, uniqueness,
Aum, peace, peace, peace.

But the fullness of spiritual power is only conveyed when the words are spoken in Sanskrit, the original language, especially when they are spoken aloud. Then you can hear how even the air resonates. These are the words:

Satyam jnānam anantam brahma
ānandarūpam amritam bibharti
shantam shivam advaitam
om, shāntih, shāntih, shāntih.

It is the same with the Lord's Prayer. When spoken in English, almost only the underlying thought remains. The Latin “Pater noster” is better, but the full power and richness can only be expressed in the original Aramaic language.

So we should listen intently to the sound of the words. But we should also keep away from all spatial mental images and instead focus entirely on the impressions that are directly linked to our senses. In everyday life, our mental images are so empty and meaningless. But we should bring life into our mental images. With the word “create,” for example, we should have as sensual and vivid a mental image as possible, as if we were pouring from one vessel into another. All our thoughts should be as meaningful and as pictorial as possible. When meditating, the words of meditation should also take on an inner life, but we should eliminate all spatial concepts and stick entirely to the senses. This means that spatial perception exists only on the physical plane, but not in the astral world. However, everything connected with the senses—color, light, sound, smell, and so on—is also present in the astral world. Therefore, in meditation we should try to awaken within ourselves a mental image that is as clear and meaningful as possible. Spiritual beings express themselves in everything that the senses perceive; they pour their essence into colors, sounds, and smells. And by connecting with certain sensory perceptions, certain beings flow into us. The first Logos flows as the aroma of the world, as a clearly perceptible smell. In every smell dwells a spiritual being of a higher or lower nature. Very high, good beings dwell in incense; they draw us directly upward to God. Beings of the lowest kind are incarnated in the smell of musk. In earlier times, when people understood more about these things, musk was used for base sensual stimulation. Spiritual beings also dwell in sounds and colors. And we should feel the words of meditation in our souls as colorfully and lightfully as possible, as sonorously as possible, feel them through and through, live completely in them. When, for example, a meditation formula begins: “In the pure rays of light ...” and so on, one should get a bright, light-filled mental image, one should see and feel how the streams of light flood down upon one. It must also be said that it is not at all important to get new exercises as quickly as possible. On the contrary, a person's spiritual strength is revealed when they stick with an exercise for as long as possible and are able to draw strength from it. Every meditation formula is endowed with power that is sufficient for a long time to awaken the dormant powers of the soul. But if one is always longing for new instructions, one destroys the power of the exercise and deprives oneself of its fruit.

There are certain elementary esoteric schools where students receive very simple instructions. These do not lead to any goal, but we can learn what effect even such simple exercises can have when done correctly. For example, a student is given the task of thinking only about the mental image “glass, glass, glass” for a quarter of an hour every day. This is not ridiculous, but if the student really manages to keep every other thought out of his soul during this time, his soul becomes completely empty and pure, and the powers slumbering within it awaken, provided that other influences are not too strong. So we see that even such simple exercises can be effective. However, such exercises are not given to us. Our meditation formulas contain great spiritual powers; they are gateways to the spiritual world. The further a student progresses, the simpler the exercises he receives become. The more the spiritual powers awaken, the simpler and simpler the exercises become.

Now let us also talk about the evening review. Every evening before going to sleep, we should review our day from back to front. The day should pass before us like a series of pictures. One thing is important here, namely that we must never allow a feeling of regret to arise. Regret is always selfish. Those who regret wish they had been better; they have a completely selfish desire. We should not want to have been better, but want to become better. We should learn from our daily lives. If we have done something wrong, we should not regret it, but think: at that time I could not have acted differently, but now I can do better and want to do better in the future. With every experience of the day, we should ask ourselves: Did I do the right thing, could I have done it better? You will always find that you could have done it better. One thing is very important here: that we learn to look at ourselves as if we were strangers, as if we were observing and criticizing ourselves from the outside. In general, we should try to form as clear a mental image as possible of our daily lives. It is much more important to be able to remember small details than important events. A general who has fought a great battle has the image of the battle before his eyes in the evening. It sticks in his mind. But he no longer remembers all the little details of the day, such as how he put on and took off his boots. And it is important that we get as complete a picture of the day as possible. For example, we see ourselves walking across the street, trying to remember how the rows of houses ran, which shop windows we passed, which people we met, what they looked like, what we ourselves looked like; then we see ourselves going into a shop and remember which saleswoman came towards us, what she was wearing, how she spoke, how she moved, etc. We have to make a great effort to remember such small details, and this strengthens the powers of the soul.

You shouldn't think that you will need an hour to do this. At first you will remember only a little, and then gradually, with great effort, more and more. Eventually, however, with practice, you can get to the point where your entire day passes through your mind in five minutes, clearly and in every detail, like a series of pictures on a wall. But you must strive patiently. If you just quickly repeat the events of the day, registering them colorlessly, this exercise will be of no use to you.

The purpose of this exercise is as follows. When a person has traveled a long way and at the end of the journey would like to see the distance they have covered, they can do this in two ways. First, they can stand with their back to the path they have traveled and try to remember what is behind them. But they can also turn around and look back at the distance they have covered. When we have traveled a distance in time, we can initially only remember with our memory and not look back on the time that has passed. But this looking back, which we only know from space, is also possible in time, and we learn it by trying to let the past day pass before us as clearly and vividly as possible. No event of the past is completely gone; all are still there. They are there in what we call the Akashic Records. One can only learn to read them in this way. At first, one recognizes only what concerns oneself, but gradually other things become apparent as well. That is why the evening review is such an important and indispensable exercise.

The esoteric student may make a strange observation about himself: he will gradually notice that his memory is getting worse and worse. This is quite natural. But soon it will get better again, or, more correctly, the memory will disappear and something new will take its place. This new thing is the ability to see the past directly.

Then you no longer need your ordinary memory.

In addition to meditation and review, the student must also do certain supplementary exercises. These are not intended to develop new abilities, but to strengthen the character of the soul and bring it into the right form. Only when these supplementary exercises are done can meditation be successful.

The first supplementary exercise is that once a day, when you have an undisturbed hour, you focus your thoughts on a single idea and remain with it for at least five minutes. To begin with, you should choose mental images that are as simple as possible and seemingly meaningless, and think calmly about everything that comes to mind in connection with them. If you choose an interesting object, your thoughts will linger on it for a long time. But if you choose a match, for example, you will have to make a real effort to think about it for a long time. And it is precisely this effort that awakens the powers of the soul. You might think something like this: What does a match look like? What kinds of matches are there? How are they made? What are they used for? Where are they kept? What damage can they cause? And so on. If you do this exercise, after a while you will feel a sense of inner security and stability. This is a very specific feeling. Try to become very aware of it and then pour it into your head and spinal cord as if it were water. This exercise must be done daily for at least four weeks. However, you can also do this exercise for months until you feel that it is bearing fruit.

Secondly, we should practice taking initiative. To do this, choose actions that you would not normally do and that you are only doing for the sake of this exercise. Simple exercises that you have to force yourself to do are the most effective for beginners. Again, you will soon notice a certain feeling, a firmness and the urge to be active. Bring this feeling fully into your consciousness and pour it like water from your head down to your heart in order to incorporate it completely. Do these exercises at a specific time, again for at least four weeks.

In the third month, or after the second period, one begins to put an end to all fluctuations in one's emotional life. All “sky-high elation—deathly sorrow” must disappear. No pain should overwhelm you, no joy should carry you away. Fear, excitement, and bewilderment must disappear. In this way, you develop a third feeling within yourself. Like an inner warmth, this feeling of calm equanimity becomes noticeable. Concentrate this feeling in your heart and let it radiate from there to your hands, your feet, and then to your head.

After the third period, one develops in one's soul what is called positivism. One seeks to see the good and beautiful in everything, even in the worst, most terrible, and ugliest things, as the Persian legend of Christ with the dog teaches us. One day, you will feel a sense of inner bliss. Concentrate this in your heart, let it radiate to your head and from there to your eyes, as if you wanted to radiate it through your eyes.

In the fifth month, practice never letting the past determine your future. You must become completely free of prejudice, accept everything, and open your soul. If someone says to you, “The church tower turned during the night,” you should not laugh at them, but think, “Perhaps there is a law of nature that I do not know.” Then you will soon feel as if something is flowing into you from outside the room. You absorb this through your eyes, ears, and your entire skin.

In the sixth period, all five exercises should be done at the same time to create a harmonious blend. It should also be noted that one should try not to allow too much time to elapse between the morning meditation and the review.

Anyone who wants to become a true esoteric must be clear that they will achieve in a shorter time what all of humanity will one day achieve. And they must firmly impress upon themselves that great tasks will one day come their way, that they will one day be needed in the future for the further development of humanity. This thought, this goal must live completely live within them, otherwise they are not esotericists in the true sense. And if they develop in this way into the future, their eyes will also be opened to the past, and the present will then become understandable from the future and the past. Past, present, and future will thus be harmoniously united. The great masters also put this into language in the sacred syllable AUM. This is one of the many interpretations that can be given to this syllable. When we pronounce this syllable, the great masters are here with us and the air resounds with the spiritual power of these sounds:

AUM

Record B

Asuras: These are the beings who strive toward the eighth sphere. They want to condense and compress matter more and more so that it cannot be spiritualized again, that is, returned to its original state. They are the dregs of the entire planetary evolution, which begins with Saturn and passes through the Sun, Moon, Earth, Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan. The Asuras already populate the moon and work from there on humans, whom they want to pull down into the eighth sphere and thus snatch them away from their progressive development and its goal—Christ. All those striving toward the eighth sphere will eventually find their existence on a moon (Jupiter).

AUM: Invocation to ward off evil influences. When pronounced correctly, AUM connects humans with the creative deity, the three Logoi, which no evil being that wants to separate humans from the deity can withstand. AUM must be pronounced with the following awareness:

Original Self, from which everything originated
Original Self, to which everything returns:
Original Self, which lives in me
I strive toward you.
Peace - Peace - Peace = AUM

“In pain you shall bear your children” is the symbolic word that refers to the progress of humanity through reincarnation, whose refinement is achieved through suffering.

Human beings redeem themselves and the Luciferic beings through true knowledge of Christ: through the wisdom that wants to understand the development of the earth with Christ within it. But only through the consciousness that wants to recognize Christ. If human beings allow themselves to be redeemed unconsciously, they contribute nothing to the redemption of Lucifer.

You can be enlightened by the Holy Spirit, the new spirit. — This is no other spirit than the spirit through which Christ is understood. Lucifer is the bearer of the torch of this light, the light of Christ. He is the spirit who reigns over the Lodge of the Twelve as the Thirteenth.

Manas is spiritual self-consciousness in itself and divine consciousness when man unites it with Buddhi. Only the person who has given birth to the higher self can do this. This is hidden in AUM:

A is Atma
U is Buddhi
M is the wisdom that guides the higher self to AUM.