The Soul's Transformation: Esoteric Development and Inner Reorganization

GA 266I — 5 June 1908, Berlin

Esoteric Lesson

Record A

What is given in esoteric lessons differs less in content from what is taught in exoteric lessons than in the way this content is given. The esoteric student should not only absorb knowledge, but each lesson should be an experience for the soul. We should be different at the end of the lesson than we were at the beginning.

Even in the original schools, it was taught: If you have something in mind and you don't know whether you should do it or not, then don't do it. This sentence should not be said to an exoteric student, otherwise he would become careless. It refers to esoteric life. (The saying of Confucius – “If you have something in mind and are not sure whether you should do it, then refrain from doing it!” – applies only to esotericists, not to exotericists. Otherwise, little would happen in the world, and no experience would be gained.)

The following conversation* is found in the original book of the Rosicrucian School: The heart of the student asks the teacher: How do I find the path to higher development? The teacher replies: By finding the place that is free from everything personal. The heart of the student asks: Where do I find this place? The teacher: In your ego, which wants without self, which thinks without sensory perception. Question: How can I want without self, how can I think without senses? Answer: Want without ego, think outside of yourself!

The question is often raised whether it would not be better to use the time necessary for development to act in the world, to work in the world with good deeds. From the perspective of occultism, the answer must be: it is not time wasted that is spent on development; for it is only by perfecting themselves that human beings become capable of working and acting truly correctly and well for humanity. Actions in life, however good they may seem, can still cause harm; we just don't know it. There is now chaos in our soul; we must develop it into an organism, just as our body was created into a well-formed organism by the wisdom of higher beings in the past. We achieve this by placing certain lines and figures before our souls and making their meaning clear to ourselves. One such figure is the following.

The three upper points have voluntarily joined together; reflected in the soul, they are structured as follows

i indicates a specific goal, a = devotion, o = the comprehensive, the deity, u = peace, feeling secure and resting in the deity.

What the lecturer says in the esoteric hour is his sole responsibility before the white lodge; what he gives in exoteric lectures must be brought into harmony with the issues of the day, the events of the day, with the environment and the demands of the time.

One should never feel fear, only think of success. And no matter how ill one may be, there is always a fundamental element of health and vitality present, in which one must simply trust.

Record B

a - Devotion, leading upward to the divine. - A specific goal that should lead to the divine.

o - The comprehensive, the divinity and the enclosure of the revealed form.

4 — Calmness, feeling secure in divine peace. Divinity.

e - The flow from the vastness (overcoming difficulties).

ei - Revelation of the divine within human beings, before which shy reverence recoils.

oe- expresses this even more. Human beings feel enclosed within their form and the active divinity outside.

There is no point in the universe where there is no power. The effectiveness of Atma-Buddhi-Manas is manifested in the human eye.

This symbol also has an effect on us at night. It keeps the chaotic impressions of the day at bay.