Meditation, Moral Purity, and True Clairvoyance

GA 266II — 23 August 1911, Munich

Esoteric Lesson

Record A

My dear sisters and brothers! As we know, it is our duty at the beginning of every esoteric lesson to call upon the spirit, the ruler of the day, who is involved in the guidance of the Earth in the evolution of the worlds. Saying for Wednesday.

Today we will only give a few general points; next Saturday we will go into more detail. Today we will consider what can be regarded as the only right and true beginning of clairvoyance.

The main emphasis in all esotericism, in all inner development, must be placed on creating and maintaining calm and inner peace after the actual meditation. After we have performed the formulas or other exercises given to us by the masters of wisdom and harmony of feelings for our training, we should remain in absolute silence for a while.

Nothing from our everyday life, no memory of it, not even a feeling of our body should penetrate it. We must feel disembodied, as if empty; we must also let go of thoughts about our own existence and accept only the fact of our own existence. However, we must not fall asleep or slip into a dream or sleep state.

Then the state in which clairvoyance can begin occurs. What appears before our inner eye in such moments comes from the spiritual world. There are signs that indicate whether these images are purely spiritual or whether they are illusions.

What would happen if the etheric body left the physical body, even for a moment? The physical body would contract, shrink, and become wrinkled; it has a tendency to contract to the smallest space and finally dissolve into nothingness. The tendency of the etheric body is to expand into the vastness of space; it then feels connected to all the forces outside in space. It fills the physical body and expands it as far as it is.

Through this tendency of the physical body to shrink, we get wrinkles in old age. The physical body shrinks because the etheric body no longer works in it as it did in youth.

Something similar happens to our etheric body in our meditations. The etheric body flows and spreads out into space and feels itself in everything within it. The same thing happens at death, when the physical body releases the etheric body; this happens in the first moment, but can also take days.

It is a blissful feeling when the etheric body feels as if it has dissolved into space. And if the astral body were not there, it would remain so until rebirth. But the astral body pulls the etheric body back together through its desires, drives, and passions, and through this the human being enters Kamaloka.

In meditation, one should strive—and after years of effort this can be achieved—to feel the inner self illuminated. One becomes light, a lamp that illuminates the objects in the spiritual world that approach one. The phenomena we experience in such moments of deepest soul peace are then not like those of physical life, which we view from outside, as when we see the sun rising on the horizon in the morning, but — to stay with the example of the sun — we then feel ourselves in the sun rising on the horizon of our clairvoyant consciousness. We feel ourselves divided in space.

However, illusions arise before us when we bring personal feelings of sympathy and antipathy—especially antipathy—into our meditation, along with incorrect preferences for individual people and so on. Those who lie and are insincere in everyday life allow their lies to flow into space with their etheric body. The falsehood is reflected back by the images that the student sees, just as a mirror reflects the image of our face and an echo reflects our voice. Gleisnerian figures, beautiful angelic figures then appear, caused by the deceitfulness that flows out with the etheric body. Through the relationship of these figures to our own deceitfulness, it becomes more and more entrenched in us, and we are finally no longer able to distinguish between truth and lies.

Now, some may think that there must be means of protecting oneself against these illusions. But as surely as I speak here and represent the esoteric teachings behind which stand the masters of wisdom and harmony of feeling, it is equally true that there is no means of banishing these illusions at once, of preventing them from arising. Only through very gradual, very patient, constant work on oneself, through overcoming the deceitfulness and insincerity within oneself, through oneself, can one gradually work toward ensuring that these illusions no longer appear, because the lie is no longer reflected because it is no longer there.

Those who are ambitious, who enter esoteric training with false ambition, who feel a wild longing to experience all the truths of the spiritual world as quickly as possible, cause error within themselves. They become susceptible to all the gossip and talk outside in the world. They like to concern themselves with the everyday fortunes of people and listen to all the sensational discussions and phenomena. They can then no longer distinguish between what is true and what is not true.

Thus, ambition and error are connected. We must fight ambition and unhealthy addiction to the highest truths, lies, and insincerity within ourselves, each one of us; we must rise to the highest morality in our daily lives if we want to attain true clairvoyance, which can only come from correctly performed meditations.

And in order for these to be carried out correctly, we must not allow feelings and thoughts from everyday life to interfere; otherwise, we would contaminate the etheric substance that is supposed to radiate out.

The longer and more intensively the meditations are carried out, the more intensively they work; but caution must also be exercised here. Anyone who notices that they do not feel well, who feels dizzy or similar, should not extend the meditation too much and must seriously think about what they have done wrong. After meditation, one's state of mind should be the same as before. We should often, very often, think about our esoteric life. We should recognize our mistakes and make ourselves fully aware of how bad we are. But this realization of our badness should not depress us. That would be blatant egoism, because by being depressed we would prove that we think we are better than we really are, even though we have the mistakes that we have acquired through our former life and which have thus become our karma. We must clearly see our mistakes and then set about eradicating them!

We must learn to think objectively; those who say they already think objectively are often greatly mistaken, for this assumption is also merely subjective; it is conceit.

Ambition leads to error, to superstition; we must not fall prey to it. We should face everything that comes our way with an alert, open mind, clear thinking, and sharp logic, no matter where it comes from. We should not swear by something that seems right to us at first, but examine it critically and not blindly devote ourselves to a cause. This should also be the case in our esoteric life; no belief in authority is required.

And the masters of wisdom and harmony of feelings, my dear sisters and brothers, tell you that you should also maintain and apply your full intellectual powers to the wisdom they have given you, to what I am authorized to represent here, to what is given from clairvoyant consciousness, and also to me myself. With common sense, reason, and unprejudiced thinking, if extended far enough, you should approach what is given and represented here. You should not swear to this or that, but judge for yourselves!

And so let us once again summarize everything that this hour, which like all esoteric hours should be a sacred one for us, has brought us in the saying:

In the spirit lay the seed of my body ...
In my body lies the seed of the spirit ...

Record B

Willpower and inner illumination

As we know, it is our duty at the beginning of every esoteric lesson to invoke the spirit that represents the day, insofar as it is involved in the guidance of the Earth in world evolution (saying from Wednesday).

In this esoteric contemplation, we should bring before our soul that which can help us in our life. Let us first consider that which may be regarded as the only true and first beginning of clairvoyance. It has already been pointed out that the most fruitful moments are those in which, after meditation, there is complete stillness in our soul. After we have performed the formulas or other exercises given to us by the masters of wisdom and harmony of sensations for our training, we should remain in absolute silence for a while. Nothing from outside or from our everyday thoughts and feelings should enter our soul: the soul must be completely free of all such feelings; only then can the images of the spiritual world shine in. We must even let go of the feeling of our own body; only the thought should remain: “I am here—I exist,” but no dreamlike twilight state should occur at this moment. We must remain fully awake. Only then, on such a purified horizon of consciousness, can those images arise which are to be regarded as the first true experiences of the spiritual world.

As we already know, from the moment of spiritual insight, a sensation arises as if we feel expanded, as if we are opening up into the universe. This comes from the etheric body going out, something that happens to some degree during every meditation and happens completely after death. When the etheric body is totally or partly separated and loosened, it gets bigger and goes far out into space. This experience is accompanied by a feeling of bliss, and in this feeling the human being could actually remain during the [life between] death and a new birth, if it were not for the astral body, which with its forces, still connected with all drives, desires, and passions, permeates and contracts the etheric body. As a result, after death, the human being first enters the Kamaloka. If, on the other hand, the etheric body did not exist, the physical body would contract and shrink, since it has this tendency to shrink to the smallest space, until it finally dissolves into nothingness. This is what happens in aging, when the forces weaken and the human being develops wrinkles.

In every meditation, one should strive to achieve this, and after years of effort, one will attain it: the inner being feels illuminated. One becomes light, a lamp that illuminates the objects in the spiritual world that approach one. The phenomena we experience in such moments of deepest soul peace are then no longer like those of physical life, not such that we see them from outside, as we do in the morning when we see the sun rise, but, to keep with the example of the sun, we then feel ourselves in the sun rising on the horizon of our clairvoyant consciousness, divided in space, we feel ourselves there.

However, illusions can also arise in this way, especially if we have unfounded feelings of sympathy or antipathy for individual people, which we then take with us into meditation. For example, if someone is dishonest and lies in everyday life, the deceitfulness flows with their etheric body into space and is reflected back by the images they see, as if in a mirror reflecting our face back to us. In this way, hypocritical figures can arise in the form of beautiful angelic apparitions, caused by the deceitfulness that flows out with the etheric body. All beings that are related to the feelings of the student are drawn in, and they entangle him even more in his weaknesses and vices, for there are many beings around us, good and evil, and through our training we call upon the divine powers and forces.

Now, some may think that there must be a way to protect oneself against such illusions. But as surely as I stand here before you and speak and represent esotericism, behind which stand the masters of wisdom and harmony of feelings, it is true that there is no means of banishing these illusions at once, of preventing them from appearing.

Only through very gradual, constant work on ourselves is it possible to work toward ensuring that these illusions no longer appear; only by working on ourselves through inner discipline of the will, so that the lie is no longer present within us. Then it cannot be reflected back through our etheric body.

Those who are ambitious, who enter esoteric training with such ambition that they want to experience all truths as far as possible, for example, and develop a wild longing for them, also cause error within themselves. This makes them receptive to all the gossip and talk outside in the world, they like to concern themselves with the everyday fortunes of people and listen to all the sensational discussions and stories. They can then no longer distinguish between what is true and what is untrue. Thus, ambition and error are connected. We must fight ambition and the craving for the highest truths within ourselves, each one for themselves. We must rise to the highest morality in our daily lives if we want to attain true clairvoyance, which can only come from correctly performed meditation based on a strictly moral life. But in order to meditate correctly, one must switch off all thoughts of daily life. If such thoughts and feelings are nevertheless brought into meditation, they contaminate the etheric substance. The longer and more intensely meditation is practiced, the stronger its effect. But caution must also be exercised here. Anyone who notices that they do not feel well during meditation, for example, if they feel dizzy or similar, should not prolong it for too long and should seriously consider what they have done wrong. After meditation, one's state of mind should be the same as before.It should be noted here that certain disturbances in the meditator's state of mind do occur, which are noticeable even in the physical body, but these are not necessarily the result of incorrect meditation. Rather, they are the natural consequence of the etheric and physical changes taking place within us. When such changes in the state of mind occur, it is important to learn to endure them and restore the balance.Yes, we should often, very often, reflect on our esoteric life! We should recognize our mistakes and make ourselves clearly aware of how bad we still are. But this realization of our badness should not depress us, for the mistakes we have made in our previous lives lie in our karma. We should clearly see our mistakes and then set about eradicating them. We must learn to think objectively, as we do when dealing with a stranger. We acquire this ability through the study of spiritual science. Those who say after a short time, “I don't think subjectively, but completely objectively,” are greatly mistaken, for this assumption is itself still completely subjective. It is nothing more than imagination, since we cannot think objectively at first.

So let us remind ourselves once again: every ambition, every insincerity towards ourselves inevitably leads to error, to superstition. We must not fall into this trap. We should approach everything that comes our way, from whatever quarter, and above all ourselves, with an alert, open mind, clear thinking and sharp logic.

But that means not swearing to anything, even if it seems right to us at first, if we have not yet critically investigated it ourselves, never blindly devoting ourselves to a cause. Thus, here too, in esoteric life, no belief in authority is required, and let the masters of wisdom and harmony of feelings tell you this, my dear sisters and brothers: that you should maintain and use your full powers of understanding toward the wisdom they have given you, toward what I am authorized to represent here, toward what is given out of clairvoyant consciousness, and also toward me myself. With common sense, without prejudice, and with reasonable thinking, if it is extended far enough, you should approach what is given here. You should not swear to this or that, but judge for yourselves. And so let us once again summarize everything that this hour, which like all esoteric hours should be a sacred one for us, has brought us in the saying:

In the spirit lay the seed of my body ...

Record C

The most important moments in our esoteric life, those that are most significant for our development, are those after our meditation, when we allow a kind of calm to enter our soul in order to let the content of the meditation take effect. We should strive to extend these moments more and more over time. For by lifting ourselves out of the circle of our everyday thoughts and feelings, by emptying our soul, we connect with a world from which images come to us that we must say are new to us, that we cannot compare with anything in our ordinary physical life. Whether they are correct, they will tell us themselves. What are we actually doing by creating this peace in our soul? We are doing the same thing that macrocosmic beings do to us at the moment of our physical death. We have often spoken of the four members of our being being firmly intertwined. The physical and etheric bodies in particular have a special relationship with each other. What would happen if we removed the etheric body from the physical body? The forces of the physical body would strive to draw it more and more into itself; it would become smaller and smaller, shrink into a ball, and finally disappear into itself. The etheric body, on the other hand, strives to expand more and more. In doing so, it gives the physical body its form. Outside of it, it expands more and more throughout the cosmos, and this expansion is associated with a feeling of bliss. After death, this expansion is ultimately only inhibited by the astral body, which pulls the etheric body back together through the impulses, desires, and passions within it, thereby bringing about Kamaloka.

In the moments of our contemplation, which should be sacred to us, we now independently bring about this state in which we detach the etheric body from the physical body, though not in a way that is perceptible to the senses; but we do lift it up into spiritual worlds. In such moments, we should forget our physical body as much as possible and not feel it, forget, so to speak, that we are alive, that is, not to the extent that we fall asleep—that would be wrong and harmful—but while remaining fully conscious of our life, yet not paying attention to it. Then we should leave nothing of our daily life, feelings, etc., in our soul, especially not our sympathies and antipathies, which are often so unjustified. For what do we do with them? By pouring the etheric substance of our soul into the etheric world, we come into contact with the other hierarchies from which good and evil beings live in this world, and the substance we pour into them attracts substances that are similar to it. When we carry our mistakes with us, they encounter the etheric forces and are reflected back to us, but not in their true form, but often in seductive guises that blind us and confuse and cloud our judgment. Just as an unclean room attracts flies, so an etheric body riddled with faults attracts beings in those worlds that are prone to deception. If a deceitful or ambitious person carries these qualities into their meditation, they may find themselves increasingly indulging in deception and learning to love lies and deceit.¹

Therefore, the esotericist should pay double attention to his mistakes. He should tell himself with courage and humility that he is a bad person and that he will strive to correct his mistakes. However, he must not despair over them or allow himself to be crushed by the awareness of them, for that would be egoism. One must tell oneself that it is karma that one is this way, and one should not wish to be different through divine grace that one does not deserve, but should strive to become different through one's own insight. This is not comfortable, but it will lead one onto the right path. At the beginning of one's esoteric life, one should not extend this lifting of the etheric body so far that one's physical well-being is disturbed. One should find the physical body again as one left it. And if one experiences dizziness or other phenomena that one did not have before, one must shorten the period of contemplation.

True esoteric schools never demand that one cling to an authority. On the contrary, the esotericist should examine what he is told, penetrate it with his intelligence, compare it with everything that has been said before, and seek additions. Esoteric schools under the guidance of the Masters of Wisdom and the harmony of feelings never demand belief in authority. Where such belief is demanded, where a vow is demanded of the student, the greatest caution is called for. The student should examine and strive freely, and his knowledge will guide him. No magic remedy can be given to him to remove his faults and weaknesses, faults and weaknesses that show him a false world instead of the true spiritual world. Only through slow work and honest self-examination can the student gradually become a different person, one who can bear to look his true nature in the face with all its infirmities and not lose courage and composure at the sight of it. The student must take the transformation of his nature into his own hands with great strength. He must not be filled with a greedy longing for truth and knowledge, but with a healthy longing for truth, in which lies the power to see it.

If, immediately after awakening in the morning, one tries to dive back into the spiritual worlds from which one has come by emptying one's soul and immersing oneself in meditation, one can thereby regain the connection and the memory of one's nocturnal experiences in the spiritual worlds.²

Record D

At this hour, we are to be given teachings that we have already received on several occasions, namely, about the manner in which we are to conduct ourselves during the practice of our esoteric meditations. Thus, both before and especially after, complete peace of mind should reign in our souls. We must try to keep external impressions from reaching us; everything that wants to emerge from our inner emotional life must be silenced, as well as everything that wants to rush into our thoughts from outside. Only then, only in such a state of mind, can the veil be torn that allows us to glimpse the supersensible world, which then spreads out before us in a wealth of images. But the most important thing the student must know when he sees the images before him is that what he sees there does not always express what it seems to represent. Although they are realities that reveal themselves to the eye, they are all too often deceptive, seductive figures that we have awakened and woven from our own soul.

Such figures encounter people especially when, as esotericists, they still have a tendency toward untruthfulness and lying, or when they are even just insincere, but especially when they are filled with pride and ambition; for then they unconsciously radiate these feelings into their meditation. These feelings of his soul weave themselves into the figures that appear before him, and his own state of soul then radiates back to him in the ethereal images of the supersensible world. However, if the student has purified his mind and approaches his meditation with humility, he will soon recognize what he must hold to as truth.

There is another way in which human beings can gain insight into the supersensible world, namely when they have reached the stage where they can step out of their physical body. This comes about through the separation of the etheric body from the physical body. Usually, when we see a human being standing before us, we believe that we see only the physical human being; but this is not so. For if we saw only the physical human being, something quite different would appear.

We know that the human being is composed of a physical body, an etheric body, an astral body, and the I. If one were to abstract the physical body from the etheric or life body, the former would shrink, contract completely, and finally disappear altogether. For the physical body has an inherent tendency to contract, whereas the etheric body has the opposite tendency, namely to expand. At the moment of physical death, the etheric body expands into the cosmos, and for the person passing through the gate of death, it is a feeling of the greatest bliss, of the greatest well-being, when he pours out into the vastness of space. But because they still carry within themselves the desire for the material from their past life, they are drawn back to the earthly realm, and then their period of kamaloka begins.

In a similar way to that just described, a person who has reached a certain stage of esoteric development can lift their etheric body out of their physical body. However, especially in the beginning, we should not overdo our exercises; they should not take too long. Above all, we must be careful that they do not lead us to become sleepy or even fall asleep, for then it could happen that more or less evil beings take possession of us. In everything we undertake for our higher development, we must always exercise full consciousness.

Today there are many occult currents that are gaining more and more influence over humanity, especially when they are recommended by some kind of authority. Whatever may approach a person in this or that way, he should never believe blindly, even if it is spoken by an “authority.” Always and in all cases, people should examine things for themselves and always use their reason. We too should approach everything we have learned over the years with our own minds, examining it with our own logic to see whether we can reconcile it with this understanding or whether we must reject it as illogical.

Record E

In meditation, the same thing happens to man as after death. Only gradually can man recognize what a great and powerful thing he is doing in meditation; that he is breaking through the deep and powerful mystery of death when he devotes himself to meditation in the right way.

The physical body has an inherent tendency to contract. If we imagine removing the etheric body, this physical body would shrink, more and more until it occupied the smallest space, and then disappear into itself. The etheric body keeps it as we know it. And in old age, wrinkles are the result of the etheric body's powers waning.

We are urged to be awake and remain awake.

Record F

The physical body has a tendency to shrink, while the etheric body expands out into the cosmos. In meditation, the physical body is made passive, as after death, and the higher members extend into the spiritual world that surrounds us, filled with good and evil spiritual forces. If we bring desires and passions, sympathy and antipathy, vanity, ambition, etc. into meditation—the moment after meditation, the time of rest for the soul, is particularly important—then we attract evil forces. — Spiritual Mercury is filled with good and evil spiritual powers everywhere, except where human beings emit their energies; there, the spiritual world is pushed back.

The form of human energy emissions shows what is left out:

The higher hierarchies work inward. In the area up to the circle are the higher spirits of form, movement, wisdom, thrones, cherubim, seraphim, and the evil forces. The archai work within the circle up to the pentagram, along the human energy currents; the archangels within the pentagram up to the pentagon; the angels permeate the human being completely. The etheric body of the human being has the ability to expand to the stars without fragmenting. The astral body can also expand to the spiritual beings, whether good or evil, but it becomes more passive and leaves a part behind. The ego must now gain the power to hold these parts together through lines of force, which it acquires through the study of spiritual and secret science. Comprehend everything with the intellect; do not blindly believe in authority, which undermines the intellect. The present time is filled with the possibility of falling into error; against this, one must use one's common sense. We must keep peace with those who are on the wrong path, but use our power of judgment.