The Mantric Path: Overcoming Maya Through Sacred Vowels

GA 266III — 16 March 1913, Berlin

Esoteric Lesson

Record A

First, a few words about Oda Waller, who had become so deeply connected to our movement in such a short time because she was one of those spirits who, even though she actually belonged to a later era, felt so closely related to our movement, which is also something that can only come into its own in later times; that the doctor was able to hold the funeral service and that it was entirely in keeping with the words: “We will remain faithful to her, as she was faithful to us.”

One of the expressions in everyday life that is actually quite Maya is: “I think,” “I feel,” “I want.” Only when we say “I am” are we saying something true. As far as our thoughts are concerned, we can often notice how they impose themselves on us from all sides when we actually want to exclude them. This proves that we do not think ourselves, but that thinking takes place within us. If the progressive, good gods had worked alone within us, we would never have come to the illusion of imagining that we think. Instead of falling into a deep, dreamless sleep at night, we would have seen a great imagination of our thoughts and mental images around us, but completely permeated by the life, by the substance of the higher beings. We would then remember this during the day and always know that the life of the higher beings is actually in our thoughts. But now Lucifer has worked and woven himself completely into our thought life. If the imagination were to appear at night, we would see how almost our entire thought life has become Luciferic. And during the day we would constantly feel it as something terrible: Lucifer is thinking in me. To protect people from this, unconscious sleep comes over us at night, and we live in the Maya idea that we ourselves think. But as esotericists, we must learn to look the truth in the face; and we gain the strength to bear the thought that Lucifer thinks in us when we meditate constantly, with piety, completely imbued with piety, on the mantric sentence: It thinks me.

It is easier to recognize in our emotional life than in our thought life that we are not the rulers of our emotions. Feelings surge up within us, and we often have very little control over them. If our development had remained connected only with the progressive powers, then at night we would have seen in our imagination how our feelings are of the same substance as that which, as life, permeates the great realm of nature. We would see the etheric archetypes of plants (quite different from physical plants), and we would know that what pulsates through the etheric realm of life is also in our feelings. We would remember this during the day when we looked at the external nature. But now Ahriman has worked into all this. And so we can say that in favorable cases, perhaps two-thirds of our feelings are inhabited by Ahriman, but mostly three-quarters, and only a very small part by the good gods. And we would see this at night in our imagination because we remain conscious, and during the day, when we look at nature outside, we would know that Ahriman lives in our feelings, which are related to the weaving in the life realm. And we would feel this terribly: Ahriman feels within us. In order to gain the strength to bear this truth, we must meditate with intense gratitude toward the good gods, who have not yet completely abandoned us, on the sentence: “It weaves me.”

As far as our impulses of will are concerned, it is also more than clear that our will is almost always determined by causes outside ourselves, that the attractions and stimuli of the outer world drive us to our actions. Here too, if Lucifer and Ahriman had not intervened, we would have seen the workings of spiritual beings at night, and we would have felt at one with them. And during the day we would have known nothing else but to act in accordance with the will of the spiritual beings, the good gods. Our will would be the will of the spiritual world. But now Ahriman's influence has also worked here, and we should see this and know it during the day, and we gain the strength to bear this by meditating in deep reverence and worship for the high spiritual beings: It works on me.

So we see that the above-mentioned “I think, I feel, I will” is actually given to us as Maya in our ordinary life, since we are not capable of bearing the truth. And the meditation of the mantra: It thinks me - It weaves me - It works me can, by itself, without other meditations, give human beings a tremendous jolt forward into the spiritual world.

The following about the letters is also important in these mantras. It thinks me (e) (i) (i) is approaching another being with shyness and reverence. (i) is becoming one with this being we are approaching. However, (d) (tau) indicates a feeling of still being separated in reverence.

In Es webt mich, we have the same vowels (e) (e) (i), but instead of (d) we have (w), which indicates a much more intimate approach.

One weaves and surges completely into the other being; the undulating nature of (w) carries us over by itself.

In Es wirkt mich (It works me), everything is completely reversed: (e) (i) (i). One is completely in the other being, acting from there, one has become completely one with it.

The ten words of the Rosicrucian motto are also arranged in such a way that the letters have meaning. In Ex Deo nascimur, we have the mood we feel when we wake up towards our body, (e) (e) (o) (a) (i) (u): In (e), we are shy about approaching our body, our physical and etheric body, which the gods have built up through great world periods. (o) is the desire to embrace, (a) is stepping back in awe, as if it were too great and holy, (i) = the desire to become one. (u) = summarizing all of this.

In (Christo) morimur: the saying in which we have this inexpressible word. We can call this a post-mortem mood, dying in Christ (i) (i) (o) (o) (i) (u). - Oneness, embracing, becoming completely one, all of this summarized.

Per Spiritum Sanctum reviviscimus. This expresses the attainment of self-consciousness in the spheres we enter after death. Here the consonants are more important. (p) (r) — feeling oneself placed there. (i) stands for the sense of self, the realization of oneself as I, self-consciousness in the post-mortem state. (s) is the shape of the spine. Thus, the masters have placed the secrets of the creative word here, and still more secrets are to be found in it (the tenfold nature of man).

Record B

First, the death of Oda Wallers was mentioned, and it was said that she was one of those spirits who had descended to earth earlier than would have been the case in the normal course of things and therefore – like our entire movement – actually belonged to a later time and had therefore never felt completely at home on earth. That is why she had become so deeply rooted in our movement and, in a very short time, in the Christ impulse; she had become so deeply rooted that she could not live [any longer] after the age at which Christ had left the body. It had been her heartfelt wish to be surrounded only by Theosophists when her body was to be buried, and so it happened. And so the main theme of the funeral service was: We will remain faithful to her, as she was faithful to us.

Some things apply to ordinary life, but are different in the spiritual worlds. Here on earth, we should always try to preserve life, even our own. Nevertheless, it may be that when someone is called out of their body by spiritual powers, such a person, who was warmly and sacredly united with us, can also become one of our greatest helpers outside the body.

So it is not right to think that it is always wrong to fall asleep during meditation. It can also mean continuing meditation in a different state of consciousness.

One of the things that have value even in ordinary life, but are basically completely maya, is our way of saying: I think, I feel, I want. Only when we say, “I am,” are we actually saying something true. When we notice how thoughts work through us, we can realize that the great world spirits are thinking through us. If only the normally progressing spirits had worked on us and not also Lucifer and Ahriman, we would today, instead of falling into a deep, unconscious sleep, see our thoughts and mental images before us at night like a great imagination, but completely permeated by the substance of the higher spirits. The memory of this would then remain with us during the day, and we would know that divine beings are thinking within us. But now Lucifer has worked, and now it is almost entirely Lucifer who thinks within us, and because we would otherwise see this at night as well, it is covered up so that we do not need to go around during the day with the constant memory within us: Lucifer thinks me. And so we are protected by the Maya: I think.

As esotericists, we must take all this into account, and we acquire the power to do so by always meditating in piety: It thinks me.

Even more difficult to distinguish is the Maya: "I feel. We know that in favorable circumstances we are perhaps two-thirds, usually three-quarters, not the rulers of our feelings. If Ahriman had not intervened, we would see our feelings at night like the life that weaves in the great realm of plants outside in nature. We would have seen the etheric archetypes of plants, quite different from the physical plants, and our feelings weaving within them. During the day we would remember this when we looked at the outer nature; but because Ahriman has worked, it is hidden from us. Otherwise it would be something terrible for us to experience at night how Ahriman works within us, and during the day to see Ahriman weaving in nature.

Again, in order to gain the strength to endure this, we must meditate in gratitude to the good gods who also live within us: It weaves me.

And we also know from our impulses of will that it is a maya when we say, “I want.” In relation to our will to act, it should also be said: Ahriman wants in me. And the strength to endure this comes to us through meditation: It works on me.

These three mantras can all bring us a great deal further forward in the spiritual world if they are always thoroughly imbued with the corresponding feelings.

The order of the letters is also significant here: It thinks me: (e) (e) (i). (e) refers to “shyness” and “reverence,” to everything that approaches us.

(i) refers to becoming one with the being we are approaching. However, the (d) – from “denkt” (thinks) – indicates a separation in the first two words.p> Ten words, tenfold nature of man, the fifth of which contains the unutterable name.

It weaves me. Again (e) (e) (i), but a (w) instead of the (d) indicates less separation. One is already weaving and surging into the other being.

It affects me: (e) (e) (i). Now it is just the opposite; one is inside the other being and acts out from it.

The ten words of our Rosicrucian motto are also arranged in this way:

(e) (e) (o) (a) (i) (u): Ex Deo nascimur.
(e): approach the body timidly, as it has been given to us by the gods.
(o): want to embrace, enclose.
(a): step back in immense reverence, as if the experience were too great and too holy.
(i): want to become one.
(u): encompassing all the previous vowels.
(i) (i) (o) (o) (i) (u): In Christo morimur – a post-mortem mood.
(p) (s) (s) (r): Per Spiritum Sanctum reviviscimus. Here, the consonants are more meaningful than the vowels:
(p) (r): the feeling of being placed within,
(s): realizing oneself as I, the sense of self, self-awareness post mortem.

Thus, the masters of wisdom and harmony of feelings have hidden in this saying from the creative word of the world. We cannot realize this enough within ourselves, for there are still deeper secrets in our saying.

Record C

Vocalism of the Rosicrucian saying

E.D.N. We come from the spiritual world. We enter the sacred temple that the Deity has built for us out of divine-spiritual forces: the physical temple of the body. Holy awe and admiration for the glory are expressed in the (e) (d); and in the (eo) lies the being encompassed by this temple of the body; in the (na), a certain fear is expressed in the feeling of one's own unworthiness, a withdrawal in the face of the glory of God's gift of this temple. In the (i) again, there is trusting devotion, and in the (u) again, there is complete union with the physical body and thus at the same time with earthly consciousness.

I.C.M. The threefold, ever-intensifying (i) signifies the grasping of our own inner being, the sinking into it, the desire to become one with Christ. In the (o) and in the (u) lies the complete merging, the uniting with Christ. This mantra is intended to generate post-mortem consciousness. If life in the physical body helps us to attain earthly consciousness, then dying into the Christ substance in the I.C.M. helps us to attain post-mortem consciousness.

P.S.S.R. Is intended to generate self-consciousness, i.e., the consciousness of being able to live in the higher self, which rises above the lower self. Here, it is not the vowels but the consonants that predominate. (s) expresses the emergence of man from the womb of the gods. When the s sound once resounded through the universe, the backbone of man was created. But the undulating, surging nature of the (s) is also the sign of Lucifer, the serpent. We must overcome this in order to attain the reality of P.S.S.R.

Record D

(a): surrendering and wanting
(i): complete surrender — becoming one
(e): reverent (reverence for the high divine beings)
(o): loving embrace u: summarizing (everything that came before)
(d(t)): placing oneself on oneself
(p): confronting oneself
(w): interweaving with divine action
(s): knowledge or consciousness (connected to the spinal cord)
(E.D.N.) Earth consciousness
(I.C.M.) Post-mortem consciousness
(P.S.S.R.) Self-consciousness from one incarnation to another.

Record E

(e) - shy, awe-inspiring
(b) - something individually defined, closed
(w) - something wavy, extending without boundaries into the vastness (i) — giving impulse
(a) - something inadequate, associated with longing
(o) - something comprehensive
(u) - something comprehensive that draws one deeper
(Per) - that which connects
(s) — seeking the spiritual (also represented in the vertebrae)