Esoteric Lessons 1913–1923

GA 266III — Hildesheim

3. Further Notes from Rudolf Steiner's Remarks in the Discussions Preparatory to the Founding of the Youth Circle

The following is probably also a very old compilation of remarks by Rudolf Steiner, which has been copied many times. Lehrs has included them all fairly literally in his report. The transcript in the archive, which served as a template, is typewritten; the last paragraph added during transcription shows that this copy dates from after 1950.

On the nature and effect of our community

(Remarks by Rudolf Steiner in the discussions preparing for the founding, written down from memory immediately afterwards)

“A true community is always more than the mere sum of its members. Herman Grimm said of the friendship between Goethe and Schiller: If one wants to express it in the form of a mathematical formula, it is not enough to say ‘G + S’ but one must say ‘G + S + S + G.’ For there is always a third element added to what two people who find each other in this way represent.”¹ [Lehrs p. 17].

"What you want to create is for people from very different walks of life to come together. One will take one path in life, another will take another. That is simply what life will bring. This life will become very, very complicated in the very near future. It will be necessary for each individual to take the spirit that one seeks through community as concretely as possible. But that means you must understand the following: what you are seeking is to find a friend in the spiritual world. Finding such a friend is not even difficult. What matters, however, is that once you have found him, you remain loyal to him in your soul. You must be able to make a promise to yourself and remain true to that promise. What I can give you will always be only half of what you need. It will be the foundation you need. You must bring the other half yourself. Faithfulness to the promise you have made to yourself and to others is the firm staff in life." [Lehrs p. 18].

“What is alive in anthroposophy is not a ‘doctrine’. It is rather something real, a real being that guides you through life. What you want is to establish a community that has something of this friendly guidance through life. You experience such things when you take the concrete spiritual as extending over your whole life.” [Lehrs p. 18].

“Your community will have something of the primordial mystery of all human community, namely that what we do within society does not bear fruit for ourselves, but for others, and that all fruit for ourselves comes from others.” [Lehrs p. 18].

When Rudolf Steiner asked us what we specifically imagined to be the goal of anthroposophical youth work, a friend replied that one finds faces as friendly as those she encountered during a visit to a company in Stuttgart at the time – “Der Kommende Tag” – in all the offices of the world. Rudolf Steiner replied: "That is not what matters, but something else. Social life up to now has been like a mechanism, and it is not the task of working to ensure that the levers and cranks of the existing mechanism are operated with somewhat more smiling faces. Rather, the goal must be to replace this mechanism with an organism. And what you want can initially be nothing other than pulling a delicate little plant. Imagine the deadness of today's social life as large stones and the little plant between these stones. What is dead has, in a sense, a much tougher life than what is alive, because it cannot die. At most, it can be crushed. And the stones will be crushed! And then you must take care that the little plant is not crushed between these stones." [Lehrs p. 21].

"As a result of general development, the souls of today's human beings are reaching the boundary between intellectuality and spirit. They are like fish. When a fish reaches the surface of the water and feels the element of air, it reacts with the impulse to dive back down into the water. In the coming age, when people suddenly reach the limits of intellectuality, they will have the urge to dive deep beneath the intellectual. Your task, on the other hand, will be to advance through intellectuality to super-intellectuality, through clarity to super-clarity." [Lehrs p. 22).

On the question of the possibility of future expansion of the community, he said: “Become seekers of men!” (We felt this phrase to be a contemporary metamorphosis of Christ's words to his disciples: “Become fishers of men!” - In the age of developing personal freedom, ‘fishing’ is replaced by “seeking.”) [Lehrs p. 22].

With regard to the former membership of one of the participants in the Zionist youth movement, whose report on their experiences he was visibly interested in, he said to us all: “You don't want to establish something as small as Zionism.” [Lehrs p. 22].

“There are two parallel streams of history: one apparent and one hidden. Only the former is generally known to people. But behind it, the other runs hidden. This one, which is actually the effective one, must never dry up. To this end, groups of people must come together from time to time to continue its work. It is into this stream that you want to place yourselves through your community.” [Lehrs p. 22].

“When people come and ask the spiritual researcher for a common subject for meditation, and when they are led by a truly serious will to do so, then a greater power can arise to accomplish something in the world than even the greatest statesman could achieve.” [Lehrs p. 22].

"Many things seem to run so smoothly in the present because they are run by machines. But the course of the machine runs over people's heads. This is increasingly becoming a huge force that acts on its own and that people can no longer stop with their existing powers. The only way to stand up to this force is through striving to carry the spirit into the furthest consequences of one's actions. Only this will make it possible to withstand the onslaught of the culture machine, to bring spirit and love into one's will. Too few people are currently developing real initiative. There is a lot of desire, but little will." [Lehrs p. 22].

"One must distinguish between prayer and meditation. Ordinary prayer today mostly serves to satisfy one's own self. True meditation, however, is the fulfillment of the spiritual will that carries the spirit of the times within itself. Where such meditation is practised, a spiritual force can work into earthly events. Spiritual worlds want to work into earthly events today, but they can only do so if space is created for them through human meditation. This creates something like a recess in the physical field into which spiritual beings can enter with their effects. Even if much is physically destroyed, even if outwardly little seems to be achieved, what is created spiritually in this way remains and retains its value for the future. [Lehrs p. 23]

"Now a time has come when materialism has hardened the bodies to such an extent that individuality cannot incarnate sufficiently. Many people therefore go around at present with part of their being beside them like a companion who cannot dwell in the body. This remains hidden behind the sensory world. It is necessary to penetrate to it. Meditation is a means to this end." [Lehrs p. 23].

In response to a friend's opinion that our goal should be to be able to speak spiritually about tables and chairs in the same way that one would otherwise speak about the hierarchies: “No, rather, you should set yourself the task of learning to speak about the hierarchies as naturally as one would otherwise speak about tables and chairs.” [Lehrs p. 24].

In response to a friend's question as to whether our community was meant to form an organ in the body that had to be prepared for the essence of anthroposophy in order to become effective on earth: "Certainly, but not for incarnation, rather for incorporation. In earthly existence, this essence can only progress to this point. Incarnation will only become possible under conditions other than those on earth.“ [Lehrs p. 25].

When asked about the commonality of experience among the members of the community: ”Yes, you want to become a conscious group soul." [Lehrs p. 25].

Regarding the effect of such joint exercises: “Suppose there are ten of you and each one brings the power of ‘two’; then the total effect is not 2 x 10 but 2”. In other words, the increase in power does not take place according to the law of multiplication, but according to the law of potentiation." [Lehrs p. 26).

On the necessary nature of our mutual behavior: "Each of you will be faced with very different cultural tasks. Not all of you will have the same degree of external influence. Some will be more in the foreground, others more in the background, depending on their destiny and talents. Some must rejoice in the successes of others. Any feeling of rivalry must be kept at bay by the awareness that what one person achieves, he achieves through the efforts of all the others." [Lehrs p. 26].

“To unite oneself through a mutual promise to strive for a common spiritual goal, while leaving each other completely free in one's actions and judgments—a community based on this is something completely new in the development of humanity and something that is most needed today.” [Lehrs p. 26].

“For someone who achieves certain results through esoteric means, there is a real danger of megalomania. A community such as yours can be a protection against this. For in it you are striving together to cross the threshold of the spiritual world. And there, each person must say that what they have achieved personally is thanks to the efforts of all the others.” [Lehrs p. 26]

After handing over the texts of the exercises: "Now you must divide your life in two. One part takes place in your exercises, the other in your outer life. In the former, you absorb the spirit, then it will flow out into life by itself in the latter. To do this, it is necessary that you immerse yourself completely in this outer life.“ [Lehrs p. 26].

”On the path you have chosen, you will become more sensitive than you were before to the Ahrimanic influences in the world. You will therefore suffer more than other people. And you will have to be careful not to fall into the temptation of escaping this experience by the same means with which you first acquired this sensitivity." (We understood this to mean that we should beware of retreating into meditation as a protective harbor.) [Lehrs p. 22].

"In the physical realm today, the Ahrimanic power is so strong that no individual human ego can stand up to it. Therefore, no human ego today can guarantee that it will actually be able to carry out a decision, insofar as it concerns a physical act. But the field in which you have set out to act is one to which the Ahrimanic power has no access. Therefore, the execution of what you have set out to do depends solely on you. Therefore, you have here the first opportunity to act in freedom, and therefore the first opportunity to practice loyalty." [Lehrs p. 27].

Let us add here a few words that he said to us during a meeting we had requested a few days after the fire. (More details about this gathering can be found in the separate report “From the early days of the circle.”)² In connection with his exhortation to us to keep returning to the original impulses of the circle, Rudolf Steiner said: “You must understand that you have decided to sacrifice freedom for the sake of a higher freedom.”