Maya, Spiritual Perception, and Esoteric Development

GA 266II — 14 October 1911, Karlsruhe

Esoteric Lesson

Record A

Last time we discussed the fact that in the outer world everything is maya and that everything must be imagined in a certain sense as being exactly the opposite. And we emphasized how the esotericist must learn to live in such a consciousness that he regards everything he perceives around him in the sense mentioned above. When he sees a flower, he should think of it in reverse; when he hears a sound coming from the right, he should consider that the sound is actually coming from the left. He can go even further and consider the same thing in many other cases. Where it is dark, he should tell himself that it is actually light; where there is light, there is actually darkness. If we anchor this feeling of the reversal of the outer Maya completely within ourselves, if all our thinking is directed toward it, then we will experience great transformations in ourselves that will lead us to the truth. But if we want to make all this clear to ourselves through mere thinking, then we will be led into great dangers. The esotericist knows that all symbols and all esoteric teachings can contain a certain danger if they are misunderstood and misapplied, but we esotericists are not little children. Anyone who has tried to apply what was said here last time will have felt as if the ground had been pulled out from under their feet. And when one tries to understand these things intellectually, it is as if two mirrors were placed opposite each other, so that an endless repetition of reflections occurs. The danger then arises that the mind will dance along with this endless repetition, as in a whirlwind dance. Common sense then says: My mind is at a standstill! Only an unhealthy soul can be drawn into the whirlwind.

But we can go even further with the reversal and include the human being himself. Let us imagine a human face that has a lighter or darker color, with lighter or darker hair, and now let us imagine the light face as dark, the dark hair as light, and so on. Furthermore, where the face protrudes, we should imagine cavities, and where it recedes, we should imagine it puffed up. At the same time, the skin color changes: where it is rosy, we imagine it dark green; where it is pale, we imagine it light green.¹ If we could feel this, we would be able to recognize this person according to his inner nature. The dark green color, for example, would show us that we are dealing with someone who is strongly rooted in the life that works in the three lower realms of nature; if the color appears light green, he would be more inclined toward the spiritual. And where one sees blue, the highest spiritual qualities would be revealed in a person. But if we first imagined the color and then transferred it in our minds to the face as it stands before us, we would come to the worst possible conclusions.

We must also imagine that something that appears ugly is in reality beautiful. That is why, especially in old paintings, Christ on the cross was not depicted as “beautiful,” but often ugly and distorted.

A weak esoteric would be someone who is constantly preoccupied with talking about his difficulties and physical pains, who daily gives an account of all the great and small torments he has to endure. Those who want to progress must develop the strength within themselves not to constantly try to cure their suffering with all kinds of remedies and cures, but must understand that all this is part of an esoteric development in which the whole being of human beings is subject to transformation. It would be an example of a thoroughly sick soul life if, for example, someone were to walk across a meadow and see a colchicum and think that it wanted to devour him. But even if he is not sick, the esotericist may have the feeling that he is being seized from behind by higher beings and, as it were, sucked up. Among ordinary people, there are phenomena such as being afraid of an open window when they are on a high floor, because this gives rise to the desire to throw oneself out of the window. Or there is what is known as agoraphobia, where a person does not dare to cross a certain space. The latter sensation ceases when there is someone else nearby. Official medicine gives reasons for all these phenomena, but the real reason is that such people lack legitimate solitude. Solitude is something that all people need to a certain extent and is not mere selfishness. Anyone who wants to help others will eventually feel that they cannot continue to help unless they draw strength from solitude. Anyone who always wants to talk will eventually feel that they are only speaking empty words if they do not allow their spiritual strength to come to them in solitude. We must be alone in order to pray and meditate; communal prayer can only bring people to a certain level of group consciousness. Those who think it is selfish to seek solitude simply have a need to be with other people, not to help them, but so that they are not alone. Even the selfless “desire to help” can in reality spring from selfishness, from simply seeking company. For example, magnetism, which is supposedly used to relieve pain in others, can arise only from the need to feel good about oneself by stroking the body of another. Although love and egoism are opposites, it is nevertheless true that in certain borderline cases the two come very close to each other and it is difficult to distinguish between them.

Human beings are surrounded by the three lower kingdoms of nature. While it would be evidence of an unhealthy soul life if someone were afraid of being swallowed up by the beings of the mineral or plant kingdom, it can happen to an esotericist who has reached such a stage through his exercises that he has the feeling of being absorbed by the higher beings. Just as we have the three natural kingdoms among us, so above us are the three spiritual hierarchies, and it is these beings—and also those who are involved in the more inner development of humanity—who influence us and cause the feeling described above. But through our ego consciousness, we are at the same time given the power not to be completely absorbed by the higher beings, so that we do not become a tool without will. Rather, higher development leads precisely to our becoming independent in our feelings and sensations; otherwise we would lose our self-consciousness entirely. We should consciously develop ourselves upward toward the higher hierarchies.

Those who, through the study of theosophy, have grasped the great truths about the world and humanity in such a way that they warm and inspire them, learn to feel themselves in the midst of spiritual beings in such a way that their independent existence cannot be endangered. Then, in everything that happens to us, we learn to say from within ourselves: This comes from God. Then we learn to say in suffering: God sends us this suffering as a loving reminder of past mistakes; and in happiness we will say: This is a blessing that God sends us, and it makes us thankful, not arrogant. Then we learn to recognize the effect of divine powers in everything that happens, and we gradually feel ourselves in the right relationship that connects us to the cosmos.

Record B

Last time we heard how effective it is for our soul to let our imagination work on us, that the outer world around us is maya, that only the reversed image brings us the truth. We can go even further in this imagination. When we look at a person's face, we must think of it in reverse: everywhere there is an elevation, a depression, dark hair is light, light hair is dark, etc. But we must also think of the color of the face in reverse, and not just replace light colors with dark ones, but imagine the individual patches of color that we see in their complementary colors, for example, a red patch as green, etc. If we really immerse ourselves in this, the colors will tell us something about the characteristics of the person in question. A light green—already thought of as a complementary color—would mean that the person cannot detach themselves from everything closely connected with their physicality. A dark green indicates a striving for the spiritual, blue a particularly strong striving for the spiritual. These colors then become transparent to us. These are the colors of the etheric body. All this only works if we feel it inwardly.

Through this kind of observation, we will come to recognize the true characteristics of human beings, much more than can otherwise be done in any other way. Our intellect can only go so far as to say: the outer world is a maya; in the reverse image, I see it in its true form. At this point, the intellect must stand still, otherwise it will become confused and lose its footing. Our thoughts are mirror images of the outer world. Let us imagine a mirror and an object reflected in it. If we place another mirror opposite the first, we obtain mirror images of the mirror images, stretching into a blurred distance. This is what would happen to us if, instead of simply thinking about occult facts, we wanted to speculate about them and draw conclusions in order to find new facts. This would inevitably lead us into a certain confusion. We must rather experience these things with our senses.

Just as the human being stands between his etheric image and his physical image, so we can only gain a true picture of the human being. If the human being appears ugly in his physical body, then that middle image would appear beautiful, and vice versa. There was a certain trend in art that suggested this. There are images of Christ that do not show the figure of Christ as beautiful at all.

It is good that the soul has the opportunity to feel the need for solitude. The soul needs solitude at times, and it is good that it stands alone. Those who devote themselves to prayer and meditation feel the need for solitude. The need to be with other people often arises from selfish feelings. We think we want to help. There are certain borderline areas where selfishness and love are almost indistinguishable. We want to do something for other people, and basically we do it only because it gives us satisfaction. A magnetizer may think that he can help people in a particular way with a certain stroke, but in reality it only happens because the stroking gives him a certain feeling of well-being. Now one could mistakenly object: yes, but it is selfish of me to devote myself to solitude. That is not the right way of thinking, and would not be selfless in the true sense. For I draw strength from solitude, and from this egoism I draw the strength to perform acts of love. The necessity of solitude is a blessing for the soul, and it can be a happy feeling for the soul. But a feeling can also arise that says: I stand there, lonely and dependent on myself; all people are distant and strange to me, and no one can understand me. Such a feeling can fill the soul with suffering, but it must be able to rise above it.

It would take a very sick soul to walk across a meadow covered with autumn crocuses and say to oneself: “I am afraid of the autumn crocuses; they might swallow me up.” As I said, it would have to be a very sick soul that could speak like that. And yet, similar feelings could arise in the esotericist, and we must be prepared for such things. An esotericist may come to say: “I feel devoted to the spiritual worlds; they take possession of me; it is as if I were being absorbed by higher beings.” And in such a soul, resentment can arise toward the gods. Just as there are three kingdoms among us, the animal, plant, and mineral kingdoms, so above us are the three lowest kingdoms of the higher hierarchies, angels, archangels, and archangels. And at a certain moment, the soul can feel as if its angel is taking possession of it, and it rebels against it.

When we devote ourselves to the facts of occult research brought to us through theosophy, what are we actually doing? What is it that we are taking in? It is nothing other than the thoughts of the Deity, which have existed from the beginning and according to which all things have come into being, the archetypes of everything that has come into existence. If we could do nothing but take in the thoughts of the Deity with our intellect, it would be merely sober reflection. We would think the truths with our intellect, but it would leave us cold. It would be similar to the feeling we would have if we were standing on a high, icy mountain, where no warmth from the world could reach the summit. This is what would happen to our souls if we could only take in the occult facts that are the thoughts of God with our intellect. In the past, in the Lemurian epoch, people took these things in, gave themselves completely to the gods, and the warmth of the spiritual world permeated them, and they felt deeply connected to the spiritual world. In the course of time, intellectual understanding became more and more sober, and feeling became colder and colder. And at the time of the mystery of Golgotha, the soul was already permeated with an icy chill. But at the moment when Christ left the Christ bearer on the cross and gave himself up to the world, he burned through the coldness of the spirit with his holy fire and thereby transformed the spirit into the Holy Spirit.

And now we view occult facts differently. We do not merely accept them with our minds, but we enliven them with our feelings. We permeate and saturate our innermost feelings with occult facts; we allow what we have experienced to flow into everything we do. To the extent that we do this, we have the Holy Spirit within us. When we feel physical well-being, we say: I thank the divine spirit within me. And when a thought that I have had in the past reappears in my mind, I say to myself: it is not I, but the divine spirit within me that is bringing this thought back to light in my mind. I no longer feel that the spiritual world is simply taking possession of me, but that I have connected myself with the divine spirit. And we will then feel the warmth of the divine spirit permeating us.

Record C

In the previous lesson, we set a powerful meditation before our souls and discussed it, and some of you may have been tempted to regard what presented itself to you in the sensory world as maya, as illusion.

We can pursue this meditation further by trying to perceive the color of the face and hair of the people facing us, as well as their eyes and any redness in their cheeks in complementary colors; also, what appears as an elevation should be seen as a depression, and vice versa. If, for example, a person has more red cheeks, they will have to be perceived as light green, and this is a sign that the person is still very much in (outer) life. If we perceive a dark green coloration with a slight redness of the face and a bluish shimmer spreading over it, the clairvoyant will be able to recognize the degree of spirituality from this more or less intense coloration. This is the beginning of where a person begins to see an aura.

All these things can only be sensed and felt. The connecting link² between the etheric and physical bodies is always the counterpart of the outer, visible human being. If a person appears ugly on the outside, the connecting link is beautiful. — In some art forms today (?), we can observe that this spiritual element, unconscious to the artist himself, is often expressed in the works, for example in the many crucifixion paintings with their ugly, painful features. —

If we want to understand Maya and illusion with our intellect and think through these exercises of reversal, then the intellect, if it has developed healthy thinking, will only be able to go along with the fact of the reversal; otherwise, it would only be a continuous and repeated reflection of its own thoughts, which can then degenerate into something pathological.

In esoteric development, we must try to remain steadfast. We must patiently endure all pain, suffering, anxiety, etc. It is not a good sign for the esotericist if he complains and tries all kinds of cures. We must realize that a change is taking place in the body, which is causing these very conditions. All kinds of nervous disorders, such as those we observe in neurasthenics, agoraphobia, the urge to swing down from heights, can also overcome us; then we must remind ourselves that all this is maya, and above all that all such states strengthen us for difficulties that will arise later.

We should be guided by the thought that the more we have to suffer and overcome, the more we are loved by the gods.

Loneliness of the soul, not being understood by others, is one of the first spiritual difficulties we encounter. Loneliness brings us the highest spiritual gifts. Praying and meditating in solitude brings us the strongest spiritual currents and strengthens our own individuality.

Praying in a crowd is just group bliss.

Solitude has different effects depending on the degree of development. For some it brings despair, for others joy. The urge for companionship is often excused with the excuse of being able to help others, of wanting to help. Love and egoism go hand in hand. Too much talking causes banality. As an esotericist, one must even fight for justified solitude.

Before us lie the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms. Behind us stand the lower hierarchies: angels, archangels, spirits of personality. We often have the feeling that an angel is entering us and taking possession of us. Everything we feel in suffering and joy is a gift from the gods; it is the Holy Spirit working within us.

If someone had within themselves all the thoughts of theosophy that have now been given to the world, these would be the thoughts of the gods; they would only trigger pure thinking in us and create a cold icy chill of wisdom within us.

But we should generate warmth within ourselves, just as the first stirrings of life stir within an egg; Love that flows through us and animates these thoughts of the gods is only possible through the Christ event. From the Lemurian era until the Christ event, there was a draining away; but now, through Christ, there is a rising up again. Now it is possible to combine wisdom with love.

Meditate on these feelings, these thoughts of the gods as emanating from the Father, then warm these feelings and sacrifice them in Christ and be born anew. The spiritual that is within us, meditated upon in the correct Rosicrucian manner through the Holy Spirit, gives us the security and independence that we should also have toward the higher hierarchies.

Addendum: We should not just believe in karma theoretically; it is very difficult to really feel it as a consequence of difficult life experiences. However, esoteric exercises, such as serenity, help us to do this. We should not just stand by in joy or sorrow, but be completely devoted to the great justice (“Lord, Thy will be done”) with every fiber of our hearts.

When looking back, it is very good that we remember things that completely escaped our attention during the day.

Another good exercise is to imagine a plant that looks green, but is in fact maya or illusion; one should imagine it with purple-red leaves, a blue stem, etc., and also think of its position as reversed; then, with the right feeling, one will feel oneself as the plant, growing into it and thus growing with it into the spiritual heights. The same is also stated in “How to Attain Knowledge of Higher Worlds.”

All imaginings will appear to us in the right way if we imagine the world within ourselves as Maya. This exercise is very good to do with animals ...

We must be grateful to the beings who hinder our progress and work against our karma, for if we remain as impure as our karma dictates, we would be hurled into the abyss ...

Record D

We can go even further in such efforts by facing people and trying to see their outward appearance as illusion and maya. For example, try to perceive the color of their face, hair, eyes, and cheeks in complementary colors, and everything that is elevated—the nose, etc.—as a depression, and vice versa. This brings us to the negative form, that which is left out as a hollow space by the physical body and which constitutes the spiritual. (Compare “Theosophy”: The Spirit World.) This is also the beginning of living into the aura of the human being. All these experiences can only be felt and sensed. If we approach this with the intellect, we can only carry out these kinds of exercises until the facts are reversed, or we experience only a continuous reflection of our own thoughts being thrown back at us without penetrating into spiritual reality. For example, if a person has very red cheeks, these will have to be perceived in the complementary color light green, a sign that they are still strongly rooted in vegetative life. With a slight reddening of the face, a bluish shimmer spreads over a slightly darker green tint for clairvoyant perception. In this way, the clairvoyant can recognize the degree of spirituality of the person standing before them.

The link between the etheric and physical bodies is always the counterpart of the outer visible human being. If a person appears beautiful on the outside, this link is ugly, and vice versa. In some contemporary art forms, we can observe how this is often expressed, albeit unconsciously, for example in some crucifixion paintings with ugly, pain-contorted features.

If we now try to place ourselves with our consciousness in the right way in the sensory world, without being purely outwardly at the mercy of a maya and clinging to it, we must realize the following. Before us stand the realms of minerals, plants, and animals. Behind us stand the realms of the hierarchies adjacent to human beings, the angels, archangels, and spirits of personality. One can often have the feeling, especially when doing the exercises described above, that one is being absorbed by the hierarchies standing behind us; one will also often have the feeling that an angel is entering into us.

In order to deal with this feeling of being sucked in, we must learn to regard everything we experience in joy and suffering as a gift from the gods, brought to us by the Father Spirit and working within us. In this way we develop the inner serenity we need as inner strength in relation to the higher hierarchies. One could now say: if someone were to take in all the thoughts that are given in theosophy today, these would be the thoughts of the higher hierarchies, of the gods; but this thinking would create an icy coldness within us. That is why we must combine these thoughts of the gods with the warmth that love awakens in us. Even if this is only possible to a small extent, it is like the first feelings of life in a plant seed. It is only through the Christ event that we have been able to combine wisdom with love.

In this way, we can perceive and meditate on these thoughts of the gods as emanating from the Father, then warm this feeling in view of the sacrifice of Christ, whereby the spiritual thus absorbed can be reborn in us in the world thoughts of the Holy Spirit, which are permeated with love. This lies in the threefold Rosicrucian motto:

Ex Deo nascimur
In Christo morimur
Per Spiritum Sanctum reviviscimus

Practiced in the right way, this gives us the security and independence we need, even in relation to the higher hierarchies.

The seed of my body lay in the spirit ...
The seed of the spirit lies in my body ...

Record E

Last time, a powerful image was presented to our souls. If this image has the right effect, we will tell ourselves that we should accept such an occult fact with our feelings, not with our intellect – for that only leads to endless reflection and confuses the soul and the spirit. But not only the imagination that front is back, top is bottom, light is darkness, sweet is bitter, bitter is sweet, and so on, but also imagine the person standing in front of us in such a way that the parts of the face that protrude recede and the colors appear in their opposite colors; for example, red appears green. Thus penetrate to the spiritual in the human being: light green—still clinging to the physical body; where the green darkens into blue, there it is more tangential to the spiritual. Thus slowly penetrate to the perception of the etheric body. That which is between the etheric body and the imagined counter-image: beauty as ugliness, ugliness as beauty — as some painters have depicted the spiritual as distortion in Jesus on the cross.

For the esotericist, the outer shell will not immediately undergo the same change as the inner human being; complaints, but not paying attention to them, fighting against them, thereby strengthening the soul; motion sickness and dizziness have their cause in the fact that the human being does not have enough justified solitude. Solitude is necessary for the esotericist; joint meditation and prayers form a group soul. The soul must become strong within itself; on the path of esotericism, this also includes feelings of loneliness and of not existing [for others]. This can cause either pain or joy. When a person has all theosophical knowledge within themselves, the thoughts of the gods work within them. How the four-membered human being came into being, or the development of the planets, existed in the thoughts of the gods before humans existed. At the time of Lemuria, these thoughts lived in human beings with the fire of the gods, but they became colder and colder until the event of Golgotha, then Christ came, and now the thoughts of the gods are to be animated again by the divine fire. Just as the three kingdoms of nature are before us, so behind us are the three hierarchies of angels, archangels, and archai. Just as a person with a sick inner life is afraid that the flower might devour him, so in esoteric development there is a moment of fear that one might be lifted backward, as if sucked up by the hierarchies. On the other hand, with every pain, every joy, one says: the Holy Spirit is working everything in you, thereby giving you strength and self-preservation as you ascend into the higher worlds. From the realm of the spirits of thought, the gods of the Father, through the fire of Christ, the Son, into the realm of the Holy Spirit.

Record F

Overcoming inner states of fear

What is most important in esoteric development is that we must try to endure all pain, suffering, and anxiety, etc., patiently, by remaining steadfast within ourselves. This is the first and most important condition. It is not a good sign for an esotericist if he complains a lot and tries all kinds of remedies for his suffering. We must rather realize that a change is taking place within us, in our constitutional elements, which causes such states of fear and pain. All kinds of nervous disorders can also be observed, such as agoraphobia, etc. All of this can overwhelm us. It is necessary, however, to bring ourselves to the clear realization that all of this is maya, illusion, and that these and similar phenomena actually mean a strengthening for difficulties that will arise later in our inner development and which we will have to overcome.

In all this, we should be guided by the thought that the more we have to suffer and overcome, the more we are beloved by the gods! This gives us the strength and steadfastness we need on our path.

One of the first spiritual difficulties we encounter is the loneliness of the soul, a non-existence for others. But it is precisely loneliness that brings us the highest spiritual goods. Praying and meditating in solitude brings us the highest and strongest spiritual currents and strengthens our individuality. In contrast, praying in Mass [Masse?]³ (church) always brings about group soulfulness.

Loneliness has different effects on individuals depending on the degree of its development; it drives some into despair, while it leads others to inner joy. Often, the urge to be sociable in order to escape loneliness is excused by the desire to help others. Nevertheless, talking too much does not have a beneficial effect on us: it causes brutality.⁴ Love and egoism go hand in hand in this relationship when one loses oneself too much in sociability in order to “help others.”

But one must learn to fight for justified solitude. Today, this is often regarded as egoism. Nevertheless, in certain cases, the esotericist must be egoistic, for otherwise he would never reach the level at which he can be of use to humanity. Only the path through the trials just described leads us to the heights where we find the spirit and can later serve it as selfless servants.

Record G

Everything we see is Maya. In truth, we must tell ourselves that everything is exactly the opposite of what we see:

In truth, the front is the back and
the back is the front,
right is left,
left is right,
up is down,
down is up,
high is low and
low is high, etc.

It is necessary for the esotericist to say this to himself in all his experiences.