Developing Consciousness of the Bodies Through Esoteric Exercises

GA 266III — 2 January 1914, Leipzig

Esoteric Lesson

Record A

What is close to the heart of every esotericist is success in their meditative efforts. Everyone is successful, even if they do not realize it. The budding esotericist often complains of pain. These pains are disturbances that arise in the body because the physical and etheric bodies are not in proper contact with each other. These pains were there before, but people did not feel them because they were coarser and more robust. Now, as esotericists, they are becoming more refined and sensitive, and they feel them. Esotericists must learn to endure such pains. Of course, one must learn to distinguish whether it is a disease process that requires intervention.

Why is it that we know so little about our physical body? Because we live in it and perceive it only through our senses. We see with our eyes, so we cannot observe it. Esotericists must learn to withdraw with their spiritual-soul life and free themselves from the physical. Then they will succeed in observing their physical body. It helps us to do this if we gather our thoughts as much as possible into one point, concentrate on this point, and then immerse ourselves in it, living there for a while. Such concentration strengthens the power of thought, and through this we can gradually reach the point where we can observe our physical body.

Furthermore, we must get to know our etheric body. This is even more difficult, because the etheric body is not enclosed by the skin like the physical body, but is a fine tissue that sends its currents out into the outside world and is also influenced by everything that happens in the outside world, often completely unconsciously.

You can learn to feel the etheric body by correctly performing the second supplementary exercise, the exercise of the will. Usually, people are driven to act by external impressions. They see a flower in the meadow, and because they like it, they reach out to pick it. Now, as esotericists, we must arrive at this point without any external stimulus, solely from the inner impulse that we consciously give ourselves to do this or that. Then one comes to realize that it is the etheric body that causes the hand to move. In this way, one feels one's etheric body awakening.

Through this awakening etheric body, one gradually learns to experience oneself in an etheric world. In reality, every movement we make, for example when I touch an object or bump into something, is an attack on the external world. The non-esoteric person has no inkling of this; he is protected from this knowledge by the guardian of the threshold, but the esoteric person gradually liberates his etheric body, which experiences itself in the etheric world. Their organs become more refined, and they increasingly develop a sense that every space is filled not only with physical objects, but with a countless number of elemental beings that make themselves felt through stinging, pushing, and burning. In this elemental etheric world, one must create space for oneself everywhere through impulses of will such as stretching out, withdrawing, pushing, stepping forward, etc., and such movements must be done with the full awareness that one wants to do them out of one's own being. This is the second thing: initiative in actions. Those who cannot create space for themselves in the etheric world without their initiative will can do just as little in this world as someone who wants to dance in the physical world on a platform full of chairs. First, the chairs must be removed. This is learned in the spiritual realm through the second exercise.

In order to become conscious of our astral body, we must do exactly the opposite. We must restrain the desires surging in the astral body; we must develop serenity and equanimity toward them. We must create absolute calm, absolute stillness within ourselves. Only then will we feel the outer astral world touching our inner astral world. Just as we touch the etheric world by intervening in it with our will, so we feel the outer astral world by remaining calm within ourselves, by bringing all desires and wishes to rest.

Before the astral body is ready, it numbs itself by crying. We know that pain arises when the physical body and the etheric body are not in proper contact. The astral body perceives this as pain. When a small child feels pain, it cries. It tries to drown out the pain by crying. An adult might cry out, “Ouch!” If a person were able to let their pain flow completely into the vibrations of sound, the vibrations in the formation of the etheric body would cause such changes that they would not feel the pain, but would sink down into the subconscious.

But the good gods have made humans weaker, and that is good, because otherwise there would be no suffering and no articulate language. The esotericist must learn to endure all pain, indeed everything that is stimulated in him by the external world, calmly, serenely, equanimously. Then he will not attack the outside world (through his astral body), but the attacks will turn away from him. But since he has developed complete serenity, they only touch his physical and etheric bodies. The astral body remains untouched. It becomes free, so to speak, and can be observed. So through the practice of serenity, I come to know my astral body.

Finally, I must also come to know my I. I cannot feel my I because I live in it. Therefore, we must pour it out into the world. I get to know my ego through what we call positivity (parable of the dog).

If we do as Christ Jesus did, we do not see the ugly, but dive so deeply into everything that we come to the good. In this way, we detach ourselves from our ego and can observe it. I am love and will. Through the developed will, we learn to recognize the substance of all things that originate in the divine. Through love, we learn to experience the essence of things. In this way, through will and love, we advance to a recognition that is free from the personal ego. As spiritual egos, we learn to immerse ourselves in the essence and substance of all things, which originate from the spiritual Father, just as our own ego does. Our ego looks at us from everything that has been created (“Swan”). The student reaches the stage of the “Swan” when he can experience this.

On the fifth stage, we develop manas or spirit self. Here, we must not fixate on what we have seen, learned, or heard so far. We must learn to disregard all of this and to remain completely empty of everything we encounter, as if we had been emptied of everything we knew before. Manas can only be developed if we learn to perceive everything we have acquired through our own thinking as inferior to what we can acquire by opening ourselves to the thoughts that flow in from the God-woven cosmos. Everything that surrounds us has arisen from these divine thoughts. We have not been able to find them through our previous thinking. Things hide them from us. Now we are learning to sense the divine behind everything like a hidden mystery. With increasing humility, we are learning to realize how little we have fathomed these mysteries so far. And we learn that we must actually remove everything we have learned so far from our souls, that we must approach everything with a completely open mind, like a child—that only to the open mind of the soul do the divine mysteries that surround us reveal themselves. The soul must become childlike in order to enter the realms of heaven. The hidden wisdom—manas—then flows toward the childlike soul like a gift of grace from the spiritual world.

It is not necessary for human beings to go further, since they establish contact with the spiritual world through these five stages. Now, through constant repetition of these five exercises, harmony must be established between the various abilities that are to be attained through them. This is achieved by the sixth exercise.

These exercises are of the utmost importance. Through them, the soul can find its way into the spiritual worlds. You will find references to these five exercises everywhere, in all writings, cycles, and lectures. And there would be no need for esoteric lessons if everyone read them attentively and awakened the powers of these exercises in their souls. They serve to support the specially given exercises.

The esotericist must be attentive to even the smallest details. He must observe everything conscientiously, in a completely different way than he does in the physical world, as soon as he approaches the spiritual worlds. For things in the spiritual world are so much more subtle and delicate than in the physical world. That is why the esotericist must do these exercises constantly and continually inspire himself to new endeavors, to new observations, for otherwise it will not be possible for him to gain insight into the spiritual world. And above all, the esotericist must practice patience. Most people think that after practicing for a short time, they can now enter the spiritual world, that all the gates to the spiritual world are open to them.

Consider that a significant impulse, an important idea, takes nineteen years to be properly grasped and understood inwardly. If the esotericist believes that after some practice he is now ready to enter the spiritual worlds, it is just as if a child who has just learned to speak were to say: “It takes too long for me to wait years until I am a man. I want to be a man right now.”

A second thing that must be learned in esoteric life is truthfulness. Those who have not already learned this in physical life will have great difficulty in their ascent into the spiritual world, since they must leave behind their logical thinking and everything connected with the intellect, and in the spiritual world they will not be corrected by facts as they are here in the physical world. The good gods wanted to educate human beings in truthfulness precisely by placing them in the physical world, where every untruth—that is, everything that does not correspond to the facts—is corrected by the facts. The inclination toward truthfulness can only be acquired in the physical world, not in the spiritual world.

Finally, the esotericist must strive to habitually train himself to have a good memory. The etheric body is the repository of memory, but without the physical body it would be unable to preserve it well. The nerves are impressed, and it must be written into the physical body. This is, so to speak, the recording device for what man wants to retain. And when a person wants to remember something, they penetrate the physical body with their etheric body to the place where what is to be remembered is written, and then the memory image comes to life, and the person reads it from the physical body. Students do this when they have to learn something by heart: they repeat it over and over until it is recorded. But it can happen that when they learn, for example, “In ancient times ...,” they force it into their physical body by using the sound.

Such imprinting and reading must become habitual by making it an inner habit to permeate all our actions with attention and reflection.

For spiritual experiences, the physical body cannot be used as a memory organ; habitual habits must take its place. We must call to mind the corresponding nuances of feeling.

The content of what flows to the meditator when he empties himself after meditation—including the effects of meditation—is, in a certain sense, merit. No two meditations are ever the same. What flows to us depends on our morality, on our love of truth, on how we have lived since the last meditation. If we have not remained completely true in any way, or if we have allowed anger or annoyance to arise within us, then nothing from the spiritual world can flow into us. It is therefore just as we deserve. If we look closely, we will always find the reason why we have not been blessed with spiritual gifts in some untruth, in some surge of anger or the like.

Record B

[...] A second thing that must be practised in esoteric life is truthfulness. Those who have not practised truthfulness in physical life will have great difficulty in their ascent to the spiritual worlds, since they must leave behind their logical thinking and everything connected with the intellect, which is not corrected by the physical world. The good gods wanted to educate human beings in truthfulness by placing them in the physical world. The inclination toward truthfulness can only be acquired in the physical world, not in the spiritual world.

Finally, the esotericist must strive to develop a good memory as a habit (by doing everything with strong awareness, always being fully conscious of everything). We all know the story of the man who had little sense of spatial relationships and never knew where he had put anything. To remedy this, he set up various tables in his room and put everything on them. There are scholars who can only work when they have twelve tables around them, on which their reference books are open so that they can easily find quotations, and who have to go from one table to another.

We smile about this, but in reality it is the same for all of us in our subconscious. The etheric body is the repository of memory, but without the physical body it would be unable to store information properly. The nerves are impressed, and the information must be written into the physical body, which is, so to speak, the recording device for what I want to retain. And when a person wants to remember something, they penetrate the physical body with their etheric body to the place where they have written it down, and then the memory image comes to life, and they read it from the physical body.

Students do this when they have to memorize something; they repeat it aloud until it is engraved in their memory. But then it can happen that when they learn, for example, “In ancient times there was a castle, so high and noble ...”, they force it into their physical body by using the sound.

Such memorization and recitation must become habitual by becoming an inner habit of ours to permeate all our actions with attention and reflection.

For spiritual experiences, the physical body cannot be used as a memory organ; habitual habits must take its place. We must call the corresponding nuances of feeling to mind.

Record C

Much changes through our meditative life, and we must pay subtle attention to everything in order to become aware of these changes. In ordinary life, we are usually unaware of something that belongs to the external world, namely our physical body.

I. Through concentrated thinking, through our concentration exercises, we gradually become aware of our physical body as something external; we feel it as something that is there and that belongs to us in a certain sense.

II. Through the initiative of action (control over the impulses of the will), we become conscious of our etheric body. As long as we simply want or desire something through the stimuli of the external world that penetrate us, we do not feel the currents in the etheric body that come into motion when we act. We have to create space around us if we want to do something of our own accord, just as someone who wants to dance must first move tables and chairs out of the way. As soon as we do something of our own accord, not prompted by something external, we gather strength from within, send our will from the inside to the outside, and then feel the currents and movements that must take place in the etheric body for every action. Every movement is an attack on the outside world; we become more and more aware that every space is filled with a multitude of elemental beings; when we act from within, we encounter these elemental beings and thereby become aware of our etheric body.

III. In order to become conscious of our astral body, we must do exactly the opposite. We must restrain the desires surging in the astral body; instead of letting everything flow out of us, we must develop calmness and balance. Then, being calm within ourselves, we feel the outer astral world impinging upon us. Just as we impinge upon the etheric world by intervening in it from ourselves (acting from the center of the will), we feel the astral world impinging upon us by remaining calm within ourselves and bringing all desires and wishes and the surging of pleasure and pain to rest. Before humans have educated themselves to do this, they numb themselves to the desires that reign within them by screaming, letting them escape in sounds. But because our astral body has been weakened by the gods, this later becomes articulated speech and song:

IV. We become conscious of our ego by developing positivity within ourselves, by developing judgments from ourselves that enable us to see the beauty in everything, even in the ugliest things.

V. And through impartiality or trust, through going out of ourselves into others in order to take them in impartially, we get to know the spirit self and feel it, etc.

Under the influence of these exercises, our soul life changes. Our memory is no longer something that is inscribed in the physical body, but must be replaced by the inner habit of thinking everything through independently. To do this, however, we must overcome all laziness. (One must have patience. A significant impulse, a significant idea, takes nineteen years to be properly grasped and understood internally.)

And our truthfulness must also become an inner habit, which then gives us a sense of what is right and true.

Thus we see once again how everything for esoteric life is already present in our literature. The esotericist must only be attentive, even to the smallest details, he must observe everything conscientiously and constantly encourage himself to new endeavors, renewed observation, and patience.

E.D.N. - I.C.M. - P.S.S.R.

Record D

Esotericists often experience feelings of pain that they did not know before. They were there before, but they did not cause any disturbance. Now they are noticeable, and it is important not to be whiny, even if you must not neglect your health.

How do we become aware of our physical body? We do not feel our physical body when everything in it is in order, that is, when the etheric parts are in the right proportion. But when the two are not in harmony, pain arises.

Through concentration of thought, we must come to exert influence on the physical body or develop a more alert awareness of it.

Crying out “Ouch” when feeling pain as an anesthetic.

Through initiative: etheric body
through balance exercises: astral body
through positivity: ego
through impartiality, lack of prejudice: spirit self

This is the highest level to which we initially rise. Other exercises then take us even further.