Maya, the Word, and Spiritual Reversal

GA 266II — 10 October 1911, Karlsruhe

Esoteric Lesson

Record A

Before we can begin with the esoteric consideration, I am obliged to share something here, namely that one of our members from the inner circle, as if driven by a true impulse, has given me a brochure that prompts me to say a few words. As each of you knows, every student of esotericism receives exercises according to his or her disposition, which, for deeper reasons, are precisely designed in their structure and sequence of words to bring about what the student needs for his or her development. And it is of the utmost importance how the words are arranged, indeed, which word is used and where it is placed, in order to achieve what is intended. Many of you have received the following verses as your morning exercise:

In the pure rays of light
The divinity of the world shines forth.
In pure love for all beings
The divinity of my soul shines forth.
I rest in the divinity of the world. I will find myself in the divinity of the world.

Now I have received a brochure here called ...,¹ which contains the following:

"I see in the pure rays of light
The divinity of the world;
In love for all beings
The divinity of my soul shines forth.
I live in the divinity
And find myself again
In the divinity of the world."

It is now difficult to determine how the author of this brochure arrived at this formula, as it belongs exclusively to our esoteric school. It could be that one of our fellow students had the imprudence to share it with outsiders. We could also imagine the other case—which actually happened several years ago—that someone was meditating on these lines in a hotel or guesthouse, and in the room next door was a person who clairvoyantly picked up these thoughts. In the first case, we should—in fact, we always should—show the greatest compassion for such things, because as esotericists we know that everything punishes itself, even if no evil was intended. The fact that this effect must occur stems from the fact that every word of the formula has been carefully placed in its proper place, and if they are taken out of context, the opposite effect will occur. By arbitrarily changing the word order, indeed by using the positive word “I” — whereas in the original formula everything is kept completely fluid and objective, so that everything is supposed to work through the imaginative image — a contrary effect has been produced here. Our meditations should always arise from our inner moral impulses; the outer world and especially our personal ego should be completely excluded. We should grasp the divinity of the world in our thoughts in a completely objective way, as it flows through and permeates the world with its divine light. Our ego should not impose itself, for then the effect would be reversed. Spiritual effects of a completely different nature would then have to occur, namely the Luciferic effects.

In the first line

“I see in the pure rays of light”

there is no moral impulse that humbly suppresses the ego, which should be completely devoted to the divine spirit of the world, in which one rests self-forgetfully.

In the last lines, too,

“I live in the divinity
And find myself again
In the divinity of the world.”

the egoistic principle comes to the fore strongly, because in ”I rest" something completely different is experienced.

This shows how extraordinarily precise and careful we must be in order to apply the words of our meditation correctly in our thoughts.

We will now move on to some images that we can use for our esoteric training because they have a very strong effect. We know that the path to the higher worlds first goes through the imagination, then comes the path of inspiration, then that of intuition. The images that are now to be given strengthen the organs that lead to imaginative seeing.

We have often heard in our theosophical teachings that the world is maya, that we ourselves are nothing but maya, and if external science is now beginning to explain the world in this way, then it should no longer be empty words for us.

Let us consider this rose: it appears to us with its blossom pointing upward and its stem pointing downward. And yet what we believe we perceive is not a true image. Science has taught us that what we see is the result of a crossing of light rays, so that the inverted image of the rose is formed in our eye, while we perceive the external image of the rose with the flower pointing upward. This is the mirror image of the real light phenomenon within us. From this we see that what we see out there is Maya, and moreover an inverted Maya, in which the bottom is at the top. So it is with everything around us; the whole world that we think we see on its surface, and we with it—in reality, everything is upside down! If we want to perceive the true form of the world, we must not look for the mirror images, but see the realities behind them before they are reflected in the outer world. Everything, absolutely everything, is reversed from how we imagine it. What appears to be above is below; what appears to be behind us is in front; what appears to be on the left is on the right. In short, we must be able and willing to recognize this in order to free ourselves from Maya. For example, when we hear sounds and believe that they come from the right, they actually come from the left; when we see objects standing in front of us, there are actually forces pushing us from behind. It is the same with the starry sky. We see it in front of us when we look up; in reality it is reflected back to our eyes by forces behind us.

If we want to arrive at the truth in the world, we must ascend from the spirits of form to the spirits of movement, so that they may help us to see what is placed before us as a mirror image by the spirits of form as the reversal of reality. The following drawing can serve as a symbol for us to practice this. When we see the rose with its blossom facing upward, we lead it downward in our minds, thereby performing a movement that can symbolize the forces of the spirits of movement for us.

But there is one thing in human beings that is not mere sensory perception, that is not maya. That is the word that sounds from within us, the living word, the Logos. The word does not come to us from outside; it is something living within us, it is our very essence. It flows out of our soul life; we ourselves are it, with all our feelings that we let flow outward through our lips. And when we think deeply about how the word is the Logos, how everything that is spoken in the world is spoken from this source, then we will feel deeply our responsibility toward the word. — More on this in the next lesson.

Only that which human beings have spoken in their words will survive the earth and pass into the next planetary state. What we hear from the left comes, as I said, from the right, but the sound we utter is the only thing that is not different from what it appears to be. It sounds from within us, and it really comes from within us. From it, the divine beings, the Logos, speak to us.

Recording B

Before we proceed to the esoteric consideration, it is necessary to emphasize one more thing. Many of those present here have received a formula for attaining certain occult powers and strengthening the soul, such as can only be given in harmony with the masters of wisdom and the harmony of feelings. Not everyone has this formula, because such things are not necessarily suitable for everyone. Such formulas must of course be kept strictly secret and must not be passed on, because this would have serious karmic consequences. Now someone (whose impulse led them to me) has brought me a brochure in which this formula can be read in a slightly altered form.

In the pure rays of light
The divinity of the world shines forth, etc.

in a slightly altered form. We do not even want to judge strictly in our thoughts, but only to practice leniency and mercy. Even giving the formula to someone else in its correct form would have serious consequences. However, the formula could also turn out in such a way that the person concerned would not be at fault. Let us assume that a person with a certain degree of clairvoyance lives in a room next to someone who is meditating on this formula in the correct manner and simply reads it from his thoughts. This is entirely possible. In this case, of course, the meditator would not be at fault.

However, in such a formula, every word is meaningful and knowingly placed in its proper place by the masters of wisdom and harmony of feelings. It is emphasized in the opening sentence that the soul should objectively penetrate this spiritual world content and not that which is permeated by the lower forces of the ego. In the altered formula, the opposite is emphasized. The soul permeated by the lower ego penetrates the spiritual world. It says:

“In the purest rays of light
I recognize the divinity of the world.”

The correct formula goes on to say that the soul surrenders itself passively, whereas here it says:

“I live in the divinity of the world,”

where the word “live” indicates something active. This difference is also found in the final sentence. The correct formula reads:

I will find myself
in the divinity of the world,“

whereas there it says:

”I find myself
in the divinity of the world."

The modified formula expresses precisely the opposite. When the time comes when the true formula can be read in its correct form in this way, it will be early enough to talk about it and its consequences. —

We have already heard exoterically that there are three ways to enter the spiritual world: through imagination, inspiration, and intuition. In connection with our meditations, etc., we have been given certain imaginations that are intended to help us achieve our goal and strengthen our soul. Now, however, we can also add images that give us certain powers. Let us return to a word that we have often heard, probably also recognized as truth, but which we do not always bring sufficiently to consciousness, namely the word: “The whole world around us is maya.” What does that mean, strictly speaking? We perceive the outside world with our senses. Let's take a rose standing in front of us. It tells us: I am here; you perceive me with your senses; you must imagine me. But is this process correct? Do we perceive the rose as it really is? Even external science can help us answer this question.

We know that the optic nerves cross behind the eye. There they produce an inverted image of the object, which is projected outward and shows the object in the form in which we see it outside. The real image of the rose arises within us, namely inverted, with the flower at the bottom and the roots at the top. But if the outer world is Maya, then it is a mirror image of its true form. It is as if we imagine the reflection of a landscape in still water. We see everything around us in its mirror image. We must think of everything in reverse, human beings and their entire environment. So the rose standing in front of us must be thought of behind us, with the roots pointing upward and the blossom downward. When we think we hear with our right ear, that is Maya. The force penetrates us from the left and comes to our consciousness in the right ear. What seems to lie before us is only Maya, only the reflection of a force that is behind us and reveals itself through us, thus conjuring up the things before us. Just as the true image of things arises from within, so must true morality. For true morality must spring from inner conviction, not from an external impulse.

We must think everything in reverse. The starry sky that spreads out before my eyes, I must think behind me. We must go even further: where darkness reigns, there is tremendous spiritual light; spiritual light is not where physical light appears to the eye. This is related to what has been said earlier, that when a person begins to see, he easily perceives the light of his etheric body in his own shadow.

So when we look at the world, not in its mirror image of the outer maya, but strive to see it in its true form, we are doing something very specific. We set everything in motion, as it were, and thereby bring ourselves into contact with the spiritual hierarchy that stands above the spirits of form, with the spirits of movement.

Everything we see around us is, as we see it, Maya. Everything we see, hear, feel, etc. Only one thing has been given to us by the wisdom of the world that is truly real: the word, the Logos. We have one thing that does not penetrate us from outside and reveal itself to us as Maya, but rather flows out from within us, revealing our innermost being: language, the word. Even the air is not real. And so this gift from the gods should be sacred to us and not abused, and nothing else should sound out of it but the sincere contents of our souls. For we find in the Akasha the fact that everything will dissolve and pass away, and only what human beings have spoken will remain as something eternal — shaping the next planetary configuration of our world. In the beginning was the word, and divine is the power of the word!

We must gradually gain the strength to look at the world as it is, without losing ourselves in the process.

Record C

Esoteric exercises must be practiced precisely and according to the wording; these exercises are taken from the spiritual world and must be performed exactly as prescribed.

As soon as one brings an “I” into these exercises, which are intended to produce a very special mood, great cosmic [karmic] effects are brought about for the person concerned. - (This refers to the first two, or rather four, lines of the saying:

In the pure rays of light
The divinity of the world shines forth.
In pure love for all beings
The divinity of my soul shines forth.

This saying was published in a brochure, but not quite correctly, with “I” in the sentences; and Dr. Steiner referred to this.)

The same applies to passing on the exercises to others, and especially when they are reproduced in print and thus become common knowledge.

There are three stages to the knowledge of the higher worlds:

1. Imaginative knowledge,

2. Inspired knowledge,

3. Intuitive knowledge.

When we begin at the first stage, it is very valuable for the soul if we awaken imaginative images within ourselves that must come from inner morality. Some such images would be the following:

Imagine light; spiritualize the mental image until we can imagine spiritual, colorful light flooding us as the substance of the world.

Feel warmth that is felt intensely within us as love and that radiates through the world and can be felt as God's love.

Or, what is particularly valuable, form a mental image of the essence of things and feel that everything we see, feel, and perceive with our senses is illusion, maya.

For example, think of what is above as being below and vice versa, for example flowers, people, the starry sky, etc. Feel what is happening on the right as happening on the left. See what is happening in front of us as a cutting through of forces and as a reflection behind us.

Furthermore, light as darkness, and vice versa. For example, in the shadow of a human being, the clairvoyant can see the spirit that the human being has as inner luminosity.

Everything that lives and weaves, has taken shape, and everything that we perceive with our senses, has been animated by the spirits of form and permeated with their essence.

But because everything that exists in the sensory world is a reflection of the spiritual, we must turn to the spirits of movement and, with them, complete the transition to the true essence and origin of things. This also awakens the deepest inner piety within us.

The only thing that is truly real in our sensory world is the word. Behind the word, the primal sounds, stands the Logos. The word of the primal language is the archetype of the creative language of God.

Every word emanates the soulfulness from which it originates. As a person utters it, his or her inherent soul expresses itself. The word of the primal language is the content of the soulfulness that creates worlds. That which is the language of the worlds, these many differences and fragmentations, have been caused by the Luciferic spirits.

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