# 11. Theosophy as a Way of Life

The theosophical school of thought of the present day not only seeks to satisfy the thirst for knowledge, but also to bring security into the practice of life. This is the side of it that is most misunderstood by those who do not want to delve deeper into it. A theosophist is easily considered to be an unworldly person who, in his “fantasies” in the cloud regions of the spiritual, neglects the harsh, hard reality. It should not be denied that there are followers of this world view who make such ideas seem justified. But such people themselves fall prey to a serious misunderstanding. They are dissatisfied with the spiritless view of reality that they see around them, and with the life that comes from such a view. They want to turn to life in the spirit and be filled with a nobler aspiration than that of sensual, everyday well-being. But they confuse a disastrous conception of reality with reality itself. And instead of freeing themselves from that conception, they take flight from life.

But it is precisely a matter of finding the spirit within the reality that surrounds man. It is not this reality that is spiritless, but man who cannot find the spirit. Just as one does not seek electricity, light and other natural forces outside the world, so too, with a true theosophical attitude, one does not do so with spiritual forces. Theosophy, properly understood, is the recognition of such spiritual forces and laws within the world. Not only that which the eyes can see and the hands can grasp is a world force, but also that which is accessible only to the eyes of the soul, and which no instrument can control, but which the power of the spirit can master and actually move, if it knows how. The technique is based on the fact that man subjects the perceptible forces of his senses to his insight; and 'theosophy can lead to a spiritual technique that brings the higher forces into the service of human salvation. From this point of view, the theosophical attitude will not lead to aloofness from the world, but to active participation in life, indeed to the noblest and most understanding practice. For its arena is not a workshop in which material products are delivered, but life itself, as it takes place between human beings.

The true theosophist is convinced that countless spiritual threads connect one human soul to another. He learns to recognize that not only his outwardly visible actions, but also his innermost soul movements and his most hidden thoughts have an effect on the weal and woe, on the freedom or slavery of his fellow human beings. This means that man recognizes the spiritual forces, that he is aware that what takes place in his soul is just as much a fact as that which the eye can see. And what he thinks and feels is something that sends its effects outwards, just as a magnet or an electric battery has an outward effect. The theosophist does not see all this in the same superficial way as the sensualist, but in such a way that he attributes reality to the spirit just as he does to the table that he can touch with his hand.

Those who become familiar with theosophy will gradually come to regard such an attitude as a matter of course. And from this attitude will then arise the right relationship to the life of the soul; and from this, in turn, the appropriate treatment of all the tasks of life.

Only those who are able to set the forces stored in their souls in motion in the proper way will find the right position in life, just as only those who know the laws of the external forces of nature will be able to apply them for the good of humanity. An electric battery is used to good effect by anyone who knows the nature of electrical effects. But man himself is a spiritual-mental battery, and the laws that he should apply in life with his fellow human beings must be directed at himself.

It was said in the previous essay that the guardians of higher knowledge bring a part of it to publication within the theosophical spiritual work, because only in this way is it possible for the soul that is earnestly seeking truth to find a way out of the doubt and uncertainty to which the newer science, which is directed towards sensory perception, leads.

The practice of life is similar. It is different now than it was in the past. How all conditions have changed. Just compare the simplicity of life in earlier times with the demands on people today. People enter into new relationships with each other. The personality has emerged from relationships of dependence that gave their existence a narrow scope, and it has been granted incomparably greater freedom of movement. But with this, a greater responsibility also rests on it. Old fetters have loosened; the conditions of existence and the struggles for existence have become more diverse. The old forces that guided the forefathers of present-day humanity are no longer sufficient for the new demands.

For such reasons, we see the emergence of aspirations and outlooks on life that were unknown in the past. How many questions are occupying the minds of people today. Such “questions” arise from all areas of life: the social question, the legal question, the women's question, the educational and school question, the health and nutrition question, etc. The underlying cause of all this is that certain conditions in life must be newly regulated. And a fundamental difference from earlier times is that such regulations must now be brought about with the participation of the individual. Compare this with the way things used to be done in the past. How apparently indeterminate forces guided the masses, without the individual personalities being predisposed to direct, active intervention.

A superficial view is of the opinion that the institutions of past times were created by the instincts of the people or by the arbitrary will of individuals. But anyone who looks more deeply into the course of human development and follows the progress of history without materialistic superstition will realize that the regulation of practical life has proceeded no more from instincts or caprice than religions have their origin in “childlike popular imagination”. The beliefs originate from the wisdom of the great leaders of the human race, and the same is true of the institutions of practical life.

The threads that have held and still hold the network of human social order together lead to the secret schools. Unconsciously, people were led to the goals of their lives. It was precisely this unconsciousness that gave existence the security that is associated with the instinctive character. However, the progress of humanity now requires that the personality be freed from this instinctive way of existence. Instead of being guided by hidden forces, the order of the whole must henceforth be ensured by the knowledge and judgment of the individual personality. From this it follows that man is in need of a knowledge of the forces of life practice, which was previously accessible only to the initiated of the secret schools. From these places, the spiritual forces were lawfully put into effect, which play from human soul to human soul and cause the harmony of life.

At the present time, every individual needs a certain degree of insight into the great world aims if he is not to renounce the free mobility of the personal. Everyone is becoming more and more a co-worker in the building of society.

The theosophical spiritual work is directed towards this goal. It alone can point the individual in the right direction for the above-mentioned “questions”. For the structure of humanity is a whole, and anyone who wants to contribute to it must, to a certain extent, have an overview of the whole. All the questions mentioned are interrelated, and anyone who wants to work on one of them without an overview of the whole is living without a plan. This does not mean, of course, that everyone should participate equally in all these “questions”. Certainly, an individual will find enough work in one. But the direction towards the comprehensive human goals gives the individual work its meaning and justification. He who wants to solve the “women's question” or the “educational question” etc. in complete isolation is like a worker who, without regard to an appropriate overall plan, begins to drill a hole at any point on a mountain and thinks that a proper tunnel will result. The theosophical way of thinking is not only not far removed from the practical questions of life when it is understood in the right light, but it rather strives for the only possible practice. Only those who do not want to look beyond the narrowest circle can deny the practical sense of such a direction in life.

Of course, many of the things that theosophists strive for in terms of shaping their lives still seem impractical today; and the narrow-minded may often feel quite practical compared to such enthusiasts. But the latter, if they had to, could point to many a practical institution that was considered to be fantasy by those who thought themselves “practical” when it was first proposed. Or was the postage stamp a fantasy compared to the old systems? And yet the leading practical civil servant regarded the idea of this system, which came from a “non-practitioner”, as a fantasy, and among other things made the objection that London's “postal building” would not be large enough if traffic took on the volume that was predicted. And the General Postmaster of Berlin, when the first railway was to be built from the capital to Potsdam, said: if people want to waste their money like that, then they should just throw it out of the window, because he had two post coaches going to Potsdam every day, and there was nobody in them; who would then want to travel by train!

True practice lies with those who have the bigger picture; and cultivating such practice as a mindset should be the task of the theosophical view of life.