Selflessness, Habit Transformation, and Christ Consciousness

GA 266I — 27 June 1909, Kassel

Esoteric Lesson

Recording A

Since so many members are attending such a session for the first time today, we should begin by saying that an esoteric session is one in which responsibility for what is said does not lie with the speaker. The truths that belong to esoteric life should also be repeated once again.

In ordinary life, human beings perform many actions that remain unconscious to their minds. For example, they close their eyes when a fly touches them. If this process of closing the eyes had to be thought out first, it would not amount to much. This activity, and many others, were first learned through countless errors. Thus, even the highest beings have attained their sublimity only by being exposed to errors at all stages of their development and only gradually acquiring the [corresponding] ability, so that errors were no longer possible because what they had learned had now become automatic. In the same way, we too must learn to perform many things automatically, which now require a great deal of mental effort. As our ordinary ego rises and the higher ego is born, it is necessary to ensure that at the same time thinking proceeds so logically and lawfully that errors do not occur, otherwise the moment will come when the ego abandons itself to lower thinking, causing great confusion in the lower nature. Anyone who believes that thinking is something subordinate that does not require effort is not suited to the esoteric life. This is precisely what matters most.

There are three things that must be kept in mind if one wants to make esoteric progress: selfishness, the tendency to fall into favorite habits, and worry.

The exercises we are given and theosophy as it is now taught are the means to arrive at infallibly logical thinking, so that thoughts proceed logically by themselves and no errors arise. This is indeed a high ideal that we are still far from achieving, but it is something to strive for with all our strength. This is the proper preparation for the astral body. When thinking is regulated logically, desires can no longer arise, and the body works automatically.

As for the second point: We are born with certain inclinations that become habits in life. What suited these habits in a previous life now becomes an obstacle to progress. One should therefore always be aware of every inclination and every action that arises from it. The tendency toward certain habits must be relentlessly attacked and eradicated, for these habits are embedded in the etheric body and prevent its higher development.

Worries put pressure on the physical body. To a certain extent, every human being must take care of their own needs; but beyond this limit, worries are a great evil, for they make thinking impossible by drying up the brain, so that it is incapable of taking in new thoughts in later life. We worry because we have allowed the spirit of Mammon to enter us. Everything is already so materialized that this spirit is now applied to the most material realm when we speak of worries; and this spirit has penetrated so deeply into us that our leaders have taken measures to take some of our worries upon themselves in order to relieve us of them. The greatest example is Christ, who is recognized by all as the man of sorrows, the Savior, upon whom we can unload our worries. Those who know this and want to live in Christ can unburden themselves of their worries and make their physical bodies strong and healthy, so that their souls may also be healthy.

Record B

Today we want to emphasize three points in particular for esoteric life: selfishness, being caught up in cherished habits, and worry.

Selfishness is combated by logical thinking. We involuntarily close our eyes when a fly approaches us. Long learning has made this possible for us. The spirits of movement have worked this into us. What we do involuntarily is always right and wise; what we do voluntarily is subject to error. Even the spirits of movement had to learn first; they made many, many mistakes before movements such as closing the eyes and the like became involuntary in us and before these movements could be carried out with such wisdom. Such movements are completely independent of our personal feelings, our desires, and so on. Our thinking must also become like this. The right trains of thought must follow one another quite naturally; thoughts must not arise for selfish reasons or for egoistic purposes. They must follow one another in pure logic. We learn logical thinking from theosophical teachings; by having the powerful facts, which can all be grasped with the mind even if we cannot see and investigate them ourselves, presented to us, and by trying to grasp them with our thinking, we develop this logic within ourselves. This distracts us from the trains of thought that revolve only around our own small, lower self, and directs us toward great, comprehensive ideas. In this way we influence the astral body.

Habits that may be entirely appropriate in one life must be unlearned in another. Habits are anchored in the etheric body. All actions must become conscious; we should not be prompted to act by tradition, by relationships to family, to the people, to certain social classes or circumstances, but rather by our own innermost initiative.

our own initiative. In this way we influence the etheric body.

Through the physical body we are embedded in the physical world. The more we feel connected to it, the more we are cut off from the spiritual. We should not fall into worry. We must fulfill all our duties here, we must assert ourselves toward other people, but we should not sink into worry, we should not “die into matter.” It is very difficult to maintain the right balance here, how much we should care, “worry” about daily life, and how and when we should feel above it. Only through a correct understanding of the Christ principle can we do the right thing here. When we allow Christ to be born within us, when we die not “in matter” but in Christ, then we have grasped what is right, good, and true. Through this we have an effect on the physical.

Record C In our actions, we should not be guided by the relationships of our etheric body—family, race—but by our own initiative. The more we feel connected to the earthly world through worry, the more we are cut off from the spiritual world.

Selfishness is combated by objective thinking. Just as we unconsciously close our eyes when something flies towards them, so our thinking must be impersonal. Our thoughts must be governed not by our desires, but by facts of experience and pure logic. Cosmogony presents itself as such impersonal facts. Our ego is filled with the great, all-encompassing ideas.

We must do our duty and assert ourselves toward other people. But through worry, we “die into matter”! We should exercise restraint, not sink into worry, but “die in Christ.”

Record D

There is a certain substance in which worries live, and there are highly developed individualities that take on this substance of worry for humanity. In occultism, they are called Soter. The greatest Soter, that is, “man of worry,” was Christ, and it is not for nothing that it is said, “Cast all your worries upon Him.”

If people understand this word correctly, they must know that they must surrender all worries beyond a certain point in their substantiality to Christ in order to be able to move forward in the right way themselves.