Purity of Heart and Preparation for Christ's Etheric Appearance
GA 266II — 26 August 1910, Munich
Esoteric Lesson
Record A
In the same spirit as last time, we want to invoke the spirit of the day today. It is considered a special blessing when an esoteric hour can be held on a Friday. Here is the saying for the spirit of Friday.
Great comprehensive spirit,
in your life I live with the earth...
At night, we are with our astral body and ego in divine etheric spheres, from which we draw strength for our physical life. We are connected with divine spiritual beings there. That is why we should never, when we wake up in the morning, immediately have banal, everyday, selfish thoughts. By doing so, we cut ourselves off from the spiritual beings and forces in which we were immersed during sleep. Instead, before we approach any task of daily life, any thought of physical existence, we should devote ourselves to meditation, during which we immerse ourselves in those regions in self-forgetfulness. Every meditator should make it a sacred duty to meditate immediately after waking up, or at least their first thought should be to think gratefully of the higher beings.
An even more sacred duty, if there can be such a thing, should be for every esoteric student to realize how he does great injustice not only to himself, not only to his fellow human beings, but also to the higher spiritual beings when he approaches meditation with impure thoughts and feelings. By doing so, he pollutes the spiritual spheres. The forces that must be applied to remove this defilement are withdrawn from the progress of humanity.
One can perform one's exercises and spiritual exercises with considerable concentration and yet be unholy within oneself. Performing meditation is merely a matter of will. This will must, of course, be strengthened and developed. But in the process, the whole inner life must be sanctified so that only what is holy and high lives in our soul during meditation. Just as one should not enter meditation with impure feelings and thoughts, one should not go to sleep in the evening with such thoughts. We also bring impurity into the divine spheres when we carry thoughts of arrogance, vanity, and pride into the divine worlds. We should fall asleep with thoughts of reverence and gratitude for the divine beings, for we could not live a minute longer while our astral body and ego are outside in sleep if divine-spiritual beings did not sustain our physical and etheric bodies during that time. We should fall asleep with reverence for the great divine beings.
The esotericist differs from the exotericist in that God lives consciously within him, in that he truly allows the power of God to work within him. This does not happen through the mental images he forms of God. It is precisely through these mental images that people can harm themselves when they later enter the higher worlds. There, for example, they want to find Christ as they have imagined him, and they do not recognize the true Christ, for he is different from any mental image, however lofty, that one can form of him.
Arrogance, pride, and vanity are qualities that an esotericist should abandon above all else. Even the esoteric student who believes he has already abandoned arrogance, pride, and so on must know that these qualities are still present in a more subtle form. The very thought of having discarded these qualities and of being very far advanced in one's development contains a certain vanity that is much worse than vanity in outer life, because it is intensified and relates to higher spiritual things. We can be proud of clear, logical, correct thinking.1
We live in a special, highly important time. It is the time of preparation for the Christ, who will appear in the etheric realm and become visible. In order to participate in this, to be able to see him there, we must prepare ourselves. Those who are not fortunate enough to come into contact with theosophy now will not be able to experience this event.
We originated from higher spiritual forces, as we have heard throughout these days. We descended from the divine womb. We are of divine origin. Based on this knowledge, we can place the Rosicrucian motto before our souls: Ex Deo nascimur — we are born of God. But right next to it should be a sentence that makes us feel much smaller; we should surrender ourselves completely and lose ourselves, give ourselves to Christ. And when this mood truly lives in our souls, we can add to Ex Deo nascimur: In Christo morimur — in Christ we die. And the sentence of the Rosicrucian saying that follows the first two sentences gives us a broad view of how we can consciously develop the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, within ourselves: Per Spiritum Sanctum reviviscimus – in the Holy Spirit we will live again and again. And if we take this Rosicrucian saying as the basis for our meditation, then we will accept with complete understanding and holy feelings the saying that reads:
In the spirit lay the seed of my body ...
Record B
The esotericist must learn to watch and pray. Watch for all evil influences that seek to interfere when an independent transformation of the bodies is undertaken and the human being prepares to become an independent companion of the creative spirits. Many forces and beings approach the human being who want to tear him away from this. The human being easily falls prey to delusions. An occult statement against all delusions: All paths to the spiritual world pass through the heart. The heart is the center of spiritual movement. The brain is the center of intellectual movement. During meditation, one can feel how streams of energy flow from every point of the outer physical body toward a center. This is the heart ⊙. As they continue, these currents flow in the opposite direction, out through the skin and into the spiritual world. This is the feeling of Christ within oneself. And this is also a sign that there is no deception (also the gesture ♋︎).2 Forces flow to the heart from the constellation Leo N. Forces also flow to the heart from the sun. The fire spirits also have an effect on the heart. All three are often used as symbols for the heart: lion, sun, flames. Pray: unite yourself in the right way with the powers of your heart. Watch: The esotericist should realize that he does not only do great injustice to himself and his fellow human beings, but also to high spiritual beings, if he approaches meditation with impure thoughts and feelings. In doing so, they contaminate the spiritual spheres. And the forces that must be mobilized to remove this contamination are withdrawn from the progress of humanity. One can perform one's exercises with considerable concentration and yet be unholy within oneself. Performing meditation is merely a matter of will. Of course, it must be strengthened and developed, but in the process the whole inner life must be sanctified so that only what is holy and high lives in our soul during our meditation. And just as one should enter meditation with pure thoughts and feelings, so should one pass into sleep with such thoughts and feelings. Thoughts of pride and vanity pollute the spiritual world during sleep. We should fall asleep with thoughts of reverence and gratitude for the divine beings. The esotericist differs from the exotericist in that God lives in him and that he allows the power of God to work within him — not the mental images he has of God. It is precisely through these mental images that people can harm themselves when they later enter the higher worlds. For example, they want to find Christ as they have imagined him to be and therefore do not recognize the true Christ, for he is different from any mental image, however lofty, that one can form of him.
Arrogance, pride, and vanity are qualities that an esotericist should abandon above all else. Even if one thinks one has abandoned them, these qualities are still present in a more subtle form. The very thought of having discarded these qualities because one is already so far along in one's development contains a certain vanity that is worse than vanity in outer life because it is reinforced by its reference to spiritual things.
The esotericist must learn to watch and pray in the right sense.
Record C
Prayer to the Friday spirit. This is particularly effective. —
Great comprehensive spirit,
in your life I live with the earth ...
After waking up in the morning, we should strive as soon as possible to dive back into the spiritual worlds in our meditation. In the evening before falling asleep, we should prepare ourselves to enter the spiritual worlds, but not through prayers with any selfish desires, such as for a blissful end or something like that.
We should not bring anything impure into the etheric world. Through the intensity of our will, we can penetrate it, even if we are impure, but then our experiences are worthless. It is of great advantage to enter esoteric life in the present time. This is more favorable than in any other incarnation. In twenty years, many will experience the Christ event in the etheric, and therefore we must strive with the deepest seriousness and the greatest intensity to experience it purely, for many experience only their own images of Christ.