Self-Knowledge and Inner Freedom: Esoteric Training Methods

GA 266I — 22 May 1908, Hamburg

Esoteric Lesson

Record A

The first and most important thing in esoteric training is self-knowledge. The teacher says: Imagine that you are looking at your own reflection. If the mirror is poor, you will see a distorted image; if it is good, you will see a true image. If you want to see yourself as you are, you must make the mirror clear and unclouded.

Those who allow themselves to be torn back and forth by their desires and wishes, who cannot make their own decisions, who listen to what other people tell them, are like someone in a small boat on the sea, being tossed up and down by the waves and winds. But those who control their desires and wishes, who do not allow themselves to be influenced by other people, are like someone who takes the helm firmly and confidently and steers the boat through wind and weather to its destination.

There is help in occultism to make the right decision and to be able to make a correct judgment. Look at the sign you receive in such a way that in the old lunar time, the spiritual beings who had to lead the wisdom of the moon from a state that was still full of error in the early days of the old moon to a state that was wisdom, creative, error-free, pure wisdom, that these beings worked out pure wisdom using such symbols.

Imagine this sign before your soul:

The people we come into contact with always influence us. People who enjoy milk, for example, are different from those who consume alcohol, even if this only becomes apparent over time. Currents flow through the space we inhabit, coming and going between people. We are not free within ourselves when these currents influence us. As true esotericists, we must free ourselves from them. Let us illustrate this with four people.

A is a so-called sensitive person, easily accessible to everything that happens around him, he quickly grasps everything. But he himself is weak, nothing of his own comes from his soul. He is related to B. B has a predisposition to a certain form of madness, but it does not break out. He is protected from this by his robust, rural nature. C is a third person, a strong, intellectual nature, a genius. D, the fourth, is sensitive like A, easily receptive.

In A, who easily absorbs everything from his environment, the particular form of madness that he has absorbed from B through his sensitivity breaks out. He goes mad. However, this is not his own madness, but that of B.D, who is also sensitive, does not absorb B's madness, but rather C's genius, and appears to be a brilliant, witty person, even though he is not. He is a kind of copy of C's intellectuality. In this respect, he is a brilliant personality.

He has something to say about everything and can talk about anything. However, he does not have a single correct judgment of his own.

A strong personality may not appear so brilliant, may be hesitant to make judgments, but when they do, they come from within, from inner reflection and inner strength. Surely, this second person will appear more valuable to us.

The esoteric student should free himself from all external influences around him, not by fleeing the world, but by making his own true higher self — the spiritual self — the true human being within himself independent. In truth, we do not have only four limbs, but five: namely, the physical body, the etheric and astral bodies, and a shell-ego, behind which lies the true, the actual ego, the true human being. We pour all the influences that come from the outside world into the shell-ego, and they tear and pull us back and forth. All influences that pass from person to person in the manner just described strike the shell-ego. We must seek to strengthen the true, the actual I, which far, far surpasses the other. Then we will be immune to external influences.

How do we do this? In the good Rosicrucian school, a sign is given for this [see below]. And the teacher says: You cannot apply the method you learn through this sign to everything that happens to you during the day, especially in these fast-paced times, but you should do it once in a thousand cases. Once, conjure up this form before your mind's eye when you are about to make a decision. Then think that along the one line is written: Command me! Then let everything that can be said about the action in question pass through your soul in contemplation. Everything must be well thought out and logical: a fact that follows from the previous one must be thought through truthfully, that is, factually, until at the end of the line, what appears as the goal of a decision that is put into action stands clear before your soul. Then think of the other line. Written on it is: “Forbid me.” There you must also list all the facts that speak against the decision.

This must be done just as clearly, completely soberly, without sympathy or antipathy. Then let your gaze wander along the blank line. Imagine that you are standing there yourself, but it is your true self, not your outer shell. Then wait quietly and compare what appears to you as facts on the line “Command me” and on the line “Forbid me,” looking from one to the other. And then the right decision will emerge within you, and it will have been inspired by your true self.

You must do the same when you have to make a judgment. On one line is written “right,” on the other “wrong.” Your higher self stands on the unwritten line. It is unmoved by the currents that flow through space, whether they originate from other people or from spiritual beings. This true, inner self, uninfluenced by the outer self, will then tell you the right decision when you listen again in silence and complete inner peace and seclusion to what it tells you.

Such forms and lines originate from the spiritual realm. The masters of wisdom and harmony of feelings have given them to us because they know that they have an effect on the spiritual within us. A form such as this awakens the true self in human beings, raising it from the unconscious to consciousness. In occultism, it is said that man was once created by the gods from forms, numbers, lines—measure, number, and weight. Numbers, forms, and lines have an influence on man. Black magic also knows this. It uses them in such a way that it makes man dependent, that it makes him a slave to its will through forms, numbers, and lines, which it knows how to manipulate. White magic makes people independent. Its goal is to raise the higher human being, the inner ruler, into human consciousness and thereby make people free, strong, independent beings.

Record B

In order to become free, we must first know how unfree we are. We are constantly surrounded by spirits of all kinds. Spiritual beings work on our bodies. We do not know how our skin is constantly active, what enters and leaves it. People of all kinds surround us and influence us.

Four types of people were presented to us to reveal the secrets of existence:

A is receptive, sensitive; B has a tendency toward insanity. Close relationship between the two. B has a robust nature, the insanity does not break out in him; in contrast, the insanity of B breaks out in A. C is similar to A. C will absorb the strengths and talents of D. D is a healthy, energetic, energetic person. Both are closely related. C remains healthy. If A had been in C's place, he would have remained healthy.

Another example: A person may appear to be a man of wit; he is brimming with humor and knowledge. The spiritual researcher, however, recognizes that he is basically feeble-minded. But he is receptive to everything around him and reflects everything back. People love that. Everything that they would otherwise have to laboriously gather themselves is brought to them ready-made. Therefore, such a person is considered a great luminary. If one investigates more closely, one realizes that he has no judgment of his own, etc. If he had been born in a village, he would be considered feeble-minded. There is nothing there that he can reflect back. Another person who forms his own opinion about everything and rejects anything that does not agree with his inner convictions is considered strong in the eyes of occultists.

We must learn to free ourselves from all influences. There is one way to do this. The only way is to be independent in our thinking and judgment, not dependent on the judgment of our family, the world, etc. Here is something that can help:

Seeds of power from the masters through recognition of the other being.

If esotericism were to impair one's own freedom, it would be black magic.

Do not withdraw from the world. The esotericist should live and work in the world.

The lower and higher self. The lower self is, so to speak, a garment, a skin. It consists of everything that flows into it from the outer world. In few people is the higher self noticeable. The great masses are a mirror of their surroundings.

How can we activate the higher self and give it energy? The esoteric school provides a simple method, to be applied first to actions and then to understanding. Imagine a circle divided into three parts. Then remove the circle. The angles should be approximately 120°.

This keeps the mind free from foreign influences, and the higher self will make itself heard.

A simple method – do not despise it. Get used to thinking in lines and points. This is what the spiritual beings did when they created the crystal, for example, and when they created you.

In this way we will enliven our higher self and become aware of it. And in our thoughts and actions we will follow what it tells us to do.

We feel and will continue to feel the influences of the outer world on our inner being, but we grow beyond them. We do not regard them as belonging to us. We must endure them within ourselves as part of our work in the world. It is poison, but we must allow this poison to be instilled in us in order to be able to transform it.