Vegetarianism, Inner Hardening, and Pure Thinking

GA 266I — 21 March 1909, Berlin

Esoteric Lesson

Recording A

This is the last esoteric lesson for weeks; it is my duty to give you some instructions for this period.

Only those who still have really important questions may ask me after this lesson. It is good for esotericists to become accustomed to working independently. If they cannot answer a question, they should ask themselves the question again and again, but without brooding over it; the answer will come to them. Patience and perseverance are the main factors for serious esotericists.

In the last lesson, the serpent staff and the Rosicrucian cross were used to give indications that will take years to process. What is to be given today should only be taken as notes and comments.

Human beings are extraordinarily complex beings. When a person begins to live as a vegetarian, there are many things to consider. In everything we consume, whether animal, plant, or mineral, we take into ourselves the spiritual forces that formed them. When we eat a bull (cow, ox), for example, the forces that acted on the beings at the time when the bull fell out of the line of advancing beings enter into us. Animals are beings that fell out of time, in which the force that acted on beings at the time of their departure has hardened; animals have remained at the stage of development they were at then. Thus, at the time when the bull fell out, the forces acted in such a way that a small brain and a protruding snout were formed. Those who eat oxen, i.e., cattle, absorb these forces that produce the small brain and protruding snout. This is not to be understood in the sense that one physically becomes like an ox, that one gets a protruding snout and so on, but rather that one absorbs into one's astral body these forces that have a hardening effect there. After death, when the astral body becomes free, it takes on these forms. This can be observed on the astral plane. This fact underlies the idea of the “transmigration of souls.”

But this hardening that comes into him through the consumption of meat is necessary for modern man. At a certain time, humanity was deliberately led to eat animals. In beings that did not fall out of the whole process, in other words, in those in which the form existing at the time of the fall did not harden within them, the forms remained softer, so that other forces could always act upon them and develop them to higher stages. If humans had not eaten animals, they would have remained soft and grotesque: forms instead of the human face we have today. If someone lives as a vegetarian today, they lose this hardening, this inner strength; and if they do not have a healthy body through heredity, if they are not, as we say, a robust person, they easily lose their inner stability and can even become insane.

The esotericist, who must overcome external influences on his progress and take his development into his own hands, must achieve this firmness brought about by the hardening forces within him by acquiring clear thinking. By imagining the conditions of ancient Saturn, the Sun, the Moon, and so on, which have been told to us again and again, by immersing himself in them, by living in pure, impersonal thoughts, the esotericist creates firm lines within himself and prevents the danger of wavering and fluttering. We should not allow our thinking to be influenced by prejudices of any kind, by habits and relationships connected with the family, the people, the race, the times, and so on and so forth—our thinking should be free, completely free. Everything taught in Theosophy can be understood with common sense. If we know that an image of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth was reincarnated in Francis of Assisi, we understand his whole life and work.

Given the way life is today, esotericists cannot avoid situations in which they must do wrong. We must always remember that the great law of karma always and everywhere has a balancing effect.

We must develop our intelligence. There are people who have the intelligence of a twelve-year-old, or even an eight-year-old child. While their bodies continued to grow, their intelligence remained at a certain level. Such people can perform the duties assigned to them without their lack of intelligence being noticed. In such positions, everything down to the smallest detail is prescribed from above. All the person concerned has to do is follow these rules. But when they leave their position, they no longer have the support of these rules, and they soon fall apart.

Another danger for the esotericist is that, if he has had any special experiences, he considers himself very devoted and selfless. If one were to look more closely, one would notice that there is always an egoism behind it, albeit in a much more subtle form and therefore difficult to recognize. This subtle egoism must also be overcome if one truly wants to let Christ be born within oneself. And it can only be overcome through pure thinking. If one has seen anything astral or similar, one should be clear about what it is, not imagine that it has great significance and proves that one is already highly developed. One should approach everything clearly and impersonally, purify one's thinking, feeling, and willing in order to allow the spirit to work through oneself.

Record B

Meditate on the caduceus and the Rosicrucians.¹

Inner experiences also generate selfishness and vanity. These can only be overcome through pure thinking.

The esoteric sentences must be practiced in such a way that they fill the whole inner being. One must devote oneself to the sentence with all one's soul forces.

All such sentences point to an external form. One should imagine this form. In this way, one's own being continues to develop. By living into and immersing oneself in such a sentence and such a form, one begins to feel within oneself the power that has shaped one's own being up to now. This is the spiritual creative power that shapes the physical out of the spiritual. This is especially true of the phrase “I am.”

In doing so, one should feel: “I am glad that I can participate in the world as an independent being! I want to put myself in the context of the whole world.”

When a person condenses this into a single act of consciousness and directs the power of their consciousness to the pituitary gland—transfers it there—they thereby transport themselves into a higher world (the world of creative power).

A living thought comes to him: just as this thought of mine is alive, so must the power that lives and drives the plant germ be alive within it. Soon this thought will become a radiance of light. He will be filled with a joyful delight and love for creative existence. His will is imbued with a power that fills him with warmth and makes him energetic.

In this way, intellectual, ethical, and spiritual powers of the highest order are born within him. He enters more and more into a conscious relationship with the higher, spiritual world.

World thinking It thinks: Moon development
World soul It feels: Sun development
World will It wants: Saturn development