Maya, Feeling, and Inner Truth in Occult Development

GA 266II — 16 May 1910, Hamburg

Esoteric Lesson

Record A

One often hears among theosophists that occult development is fraught with danger. On the other hand, it must be emphasized that no one should be deterred from following the occult path out of a sense of fear. For those who receive instructions from a legitimate occult school and follow them correctly will develop correctly. The main thing is to awaken the right seriousness within oneself, to thoroughly permeate oneself with the knowledge gained in esoteric lessons.

It is always good for the esotericist to tell himself that he still has a long way to go. One may have grasped something with the mind long ago and yet still be far from organizing one's life according to the knowledge gained. As an example of this, we can cite the sentence that should be familiar to all theosophists: “Everything that surrounds us is Maya.” There are people who find this sentence very plausible but never apply it to their lives, who allow pain and pleasure to affect them without saying to themselves: If everything is maya, then the cause of my pain is also maya. But it is good that this is so, because if people were to accept this statement too early in their consciousness, they might not be able to withstand the shock they would experience when applying it to their pain. This requires a strong force that must develop gradually, namely by practicing on the small everyday things that surround us to grasp the truth of this statement, rather than on the great events of our lives. We know that everything around us appears to us differently than it really is. Take a red object, for example. How do we see the red color? Because light falls on it. If the object is in the dark, we do not see it as red. But when light shines on it, the red color arises because the object absorbs all the other colors that the light produces, takes them in, and reflects back only the red color that it cannot use, that it does not want and does not like. It therefore shows us precisely what it is not inside.

Can humans penetrate this inner core and discover the true nature of things? They can only do so through meditation. If humans remain at the level of observation and mental images, they remain trapped in maya. But they usually do something else as well. When they encounter a color, let us say red, it has an effect on their senses. They feel refreshed when they see the color red. A blue that is softly mixed with violet will make them feel devoted and pious. Human beings have these feelings within themselves, and they have a sense of truth about them. The objects that cause these feelings may be maya, they may arise and pass away, but the feelings themselves remain the same. One may walk in a forest, hear a rustling sound, and be frightened because one imagines it is coming from a snake, when in fact it was caused by a gust of wind. He may hear another rustling sound, this time coming from a snake. His fright is the same both times; it is true, while the cause was an illusion in one case.

But how do we use our feelings to get to the true nature of things?

When we look at plants in spring, sprouting and budding and blossoming, how can we recognize the truth behind what they present to us as maya? There is a moment in the life of a plant when it reveals something of its inner nature, and that moment is when it begins to die. But when does that happen? With fertilization. Until then, the plant has expended all its energy to repel what it does not want, but now it has received something from outside and, so to speak, turns its life around. It loses its power of defense and withdraws into itself, turning the energy it used outward now inward. Can we now evoke a feeling within ourselves that resembles this process in the soul life of the plant? When do we want to withdraw into ourselves? When do we lose the power to defend ourselves against the outside world? When we feel shame. If we evoke this feeling within ourselves without any external cause and look at a fertilized plant, we will become aware that the same feeling lives in the plant, that it lives so intensely in it that it causes it to die. In autumn, a feeling of immense shame pervades the plant world. The red rose is a very special example of this.

What color would we use to describe the feeling of dying, of withdrawing from the outside world into the spirit? Black; and that is why we have the black cross on which the red roses bloom. The black, charred wood, in which everything external has died, is an expression for us that behind everything that dies, the spirit reveals itself. Goethe once spoke of what color the earth must have when, at the end of the present cycle, it is dying and passing into a spiritual realm, fertilized by the spirit. It must “glow in flaming red.”. And this statement springs from a deep insight. For how else can the earth glow except in deep shame when it is ripe to be fertilized by the spirit?

When we evoke feelings within ourselves in this way, which are caused by external things, we come closer to the truth behind these things. But we can also awaken images and feelings within ourselves without any external cause; we can generate mental images and feelings entirely on our own. Then we are in harmony with a world within ourselves that has not been caused by any external stimulus, and through this we can find the path to absolute truth. This is what should happen in our meditations. When we look at the sun and meditate on its invigorating influence, we always have an external stimulus for meditation. But when we evoke a mental image of light within ourselves with the words: “In the pure rays of light ... etc.” and then imagine that it is the garment of the deity, we have recreated something within ourselves that is not bound to anything external. And when we then evoke the feeling of love for all beings in the highest lines, we will be imbued with this feeling, and it will become a powerful germ in us.

Record B

Well-known general statement: Everything is maya, illusion. But it is very difficult to organize one's entire life solely in accordance with this statement.

And that is good; the soul would not be able to bear a sudden change.

Let us take a plant. The red color in which it appears to us is only an illusion. In the dark, it would not appear that way; it is only the effect of sunlight. And indeed, the plant does not show us its true interior, not the colors it has absorbed, its true properties, but rather what it does not want to have, what it radiates back. So its color is indeed maya. But there comes a time when the plant reveals something of its inner self: at the time of fruiting, when it begins to wither and decay; then it has only the strength to work on itself, [but no longer the strength] to hide its inner self.

The feeling that reigns within it is that of shame; it is something real.

At one end of the forest, someone hears a rustling sound; he thinks it is a snake and is frightened. But it was only the wind. At the other end, the same thing happens; this time it really is a snake. The real thing in both cases: the feeling of fear.

We should learn to feel with the plant, which shows a feeling of shame when it withers and dies. Then we will gradually learn the laws behind it and see that all colors are only maya, illusion.

Goethe is right when he says: On the last day, when our earth changes its form, in what color will it shine? And he answers: in the fiercest red. It is the feeling of shame, because now decay is coming upon it.