Purifying the Astral Body: Vices and Spiritual Development

GA 266I — 17 November 1908, Berlin

Esoteric Lesson

Record A

If the esotericist still has anger or irascibility, curiosity or talkativeness within himself, these qualities cause great damage to his bodies. When he becomes angry, this manifests itself in the astral body as a knot, as a contraction. The surging of the blood and the swelling of the veins are protective mechanisms designed to dissolve these knots. Curiosity manifests itself as slackness, as wrinkles in the astral body, and has a drying effect on the physical body.

At night, the astral body is not as distinct as during the day; it merges, so to speak, with the general astral matter, and thus the other astral bodies can suck into it. In people who are outwardly active, the distinct daytime life still has a strong influence on the astral life, and they behave fairly decently. But in the esoteric student, this external life no longer has such a strong effect, and then he pursues all his hobbies, follows his impulses, etc.

Talkativeness — when a person learns something and immediately has to pass it on — manifests itself in bursts. When the spiritual organs are built up at night through the exercises, these bursts cause them to be torn apart again; when they relax, they remain soft, so to speak, and have no support.

The esoteric student should allow himself a quarter of an hour of rest, achieving absolute mental calm through his will, even in the loudest noise. He can achieve this mental calm better through his will in the city amid noise than in the greatest seclusion in the countryside, since it is precisely the power of the will that is important. He should achieve inner peace by withdrawing into himself and allowing the noises to fade into the distance. Meditation is not only a blessing for the meditator himself, but what is achieved through it returns to the cosmos and thus benefits the whole world.

Record B

Curiosity causes a flaccid, wrinkled condition in the astral body. Talkativeness causes a strong tension in the astral body. Anger and annoyance cause lumps with root-like extensions in the astral body:

All these vices and their consequences in the astral body are combated by frequently practised, deliberately induced calm in the soul life.