Maya and Truth: Esoteric Development Through Meditation
GA 266II — 19 November 1911, Munich
Esoteric Lesson
Today, we want to clarify how one should answer questions that arise in esoteric life. For example, if the question “What is the heart?” is answered “It is the cause of blood circulation in the human organism,” this is an answer that an esotericist should never give, because an esotericist should not describe anything physical as the cause of anything. Everything physical, all our organs, indeed the whole human being itself, are only symbols, only signs of something spiritual, of what higher hierarchies have created. The spirits of movement already worked on our blood circulation on the old sun. The spirits of form then descended and imprinted form and signs on everything created, and so the heart is only a sign of the work of the higher hierarchies on us.
Everything that surrounds us is only Maya. And the good gods created this world of Maya for human beings, as it were, like a flower from the world of truth, so that human beings might develop in it, ignite their ego in it, penetrate it, and thus return to the world of truth. In its present state, man absolutely needs this world of Maya. This is how Goethe's words are to be understood: “What would be the ultimate purpose of this beautiful world, this canopy of stars, if not to edify man?” This is the seemingly naive expression of the fact that the world, as we perceive it with our physical senses, really only exists for us in this form. For in reality, from the world of truth, everything appears different with its spiritual causes behind it.
For the lower realms of nature – the mineral and plant kingdoms, down to the cold-blooded animals – the Maya world does not exist. It only exists for warm-blooded animals. However, since these animals do not have an ego that could be inflamed by it, they give the clairvoyant the impression that they have been placed in developmental conditions that are not suited to them, and this actually has a disconcerting effect. Monkeys, the animals most similar to humans, therefore seem particularly grotesque.
The esotericist now wants – and we should become increasingly aware of this purpose – to wrest himself from the world of Maya through meditation and connect with the world of truth. He can only do this through meditation given from the spiritual worlds by those personalities who support the work of the higher hierarchies, the masters of wisdom and harmony of feelings. And they have given us, for example, a concentration exercise that enables us to participate in evolution.
When the esotericist concentrates his thoughts on the heart, that is, on the place where he feels the heart within himself, he will notice—it often takes hours and many attempts before he feels this—that his thoughts do not remain with the object of concentration, the heart, but that they pour out from there, radiate out, and he will see himself emerge like a shining star, whose center is a figure, a form, the archetype for which the heart is the sign. And the lines and rays of the star will begin to sound, and the sounds will form into words, into the archetypal words that created the heart out of the world of truth. And the words are, in translation, the words of the prayer to the Sunday spirit:
Great comprehensive spirit,
many archetypes sprouted from your life ...
The rays shooting out from the star are always the words: You were, while the lines between them are the other words.
Thus, through correct and serious practice, the esotericist comes to have such an experience. Through his meditations, if he does them intensively enough – many do not! – he penetrates into the world of truth, and there, depending on what he brings with him, he may feel at home or be repelled. The latter causes him suffering and pain, but this is natural. For in this world, the good gods can only tolerate what fits in; everything else is rejected. Often, the esotericist still has qualities that he is not clearly aware of, but which nevertheless have an effect on him during his development and are brought to his consciousness through special signs.
If the esotericist does his exercises diligently and correctly, and it happens that he wakes up in the middle of the night with a feeling of feverish heat, for example, he can counteract this with a spiritual coldness; and then he feels clearly that he is not alone, that through his esoteric striving he has awakened a double within himself. What does it want? And who is it? The good gods have, so to speak, employed certain Luciferic beings to expel from their world those qualities of human beings that do not belong there. One such being is Samael, who comes into action when the esotericist has not yet overcome a certain insincerity, which we all suffer from and which often lies so deep in our subconscious that we are unaware of it when we are not paying close attention. An example: Someone may decide that they want to travel to a city to attend a theosophical meeting because such a meeting is educational and good for them. In reality, however, they have completely different purposes in that city, for example, they want to meet certain people there, but they do not admit this true reason to themselves. This may be a blatant example, but it is one of many. This is where Samael must come into action. And we notice him through feverish heat that strikes us at night as long as we are afflicted with this error.
Another error that is difficult to notice is the following. We often think that enthusiasm drives us into the spiritual worlds, when in fact we only want to revel in the feeling that is triggered by our preoccupation with such things. If we now do our exercises correctly and want to penetrate into the spiritual worlds, we may experience a feeling of suffocation, as if we were being strangled. And here again it is a Luciferic being who causes this: Azazel. He prevents us from entering the spiritual world until we have discarded this error.
If we carry out our daily activities lazily, inattentively, and carelessly, we may one day wake up with the feeling of drowning, as if the air were being cut off and we were melting away. The cause of this is called Azael. The attention we should pay to the world around us is of greater importance than many people think. If we practice with true joy, it is a powerful aid in penetrating the spiritual worlds. For we should think of the spiritual causes behind every thing and every encounter. What we fail to do, spiritual beings must do for us, for the work must be done. I will illustrate how inattentive we often are in our work with an example. In a school, a new teaching system was to be introduced and all the teachers employed were to be examined. The very humane school inspector thought to himself: I will not ask the older teachers, who left the seminary so long ago, what is taught there—they will not remember it anymore; I will ask them what they have taught every day. And it turned out that many of these teachers did not know what they had probably asked their students twenty times before. They had been so little involved in the subject. Just like these teachers, we are often not focused on our work. And the one who has to compensate for this is called Azael in occult language.
These three points are direct transgressions. A fourth characteristic must also be discarded, which is avoiding karma instead of courageously facing it. If we want to enter the world of truth under such circumstances, we will wake up in the morning feeling bound, as if we were returning to a dungeon, and we will have pain throughout our entire body. This is caused by Mehazael.
Exotericists must of course also bear the consequences of their transgressions; but these manifest themselves differently, for example in physical illnesses, and they are not aware of what has caused them. It is precisely this bringing of everything into consciousness that the esotericist must gradually achieve, and the esoteric schools help him to do this. What we perceive with our senses is, of course, only a tiny fraction of this, a weak, external sign. Just as everything physical, including the sensations we perceive, are only symbols for realities, so too is the esoteric school, as it appears on the physical plane, only a symbol for what it is in the spiritual realm. When such a school is formed, it is usually the case that a person delves deeply and, for example, has the experience described (from the heart) through concentration, and the experience takes shape in him as a formula, which he can then pass on to a number of students, thereby reconnecting them with the spiritual truth. - Thus, the closing prayer also expresses everything that is active as a creative force in the spiritual realm.