Knowledge of Soul and Spirit

GA 56 — 12 March 1908, Berlin

Profession and Income

Many who have heard superficially about what is commonly referred to as spiritual science or ‘theosophy’ will find it somewhat surprising that, after having already discussed a wide variety of practical topics from this perspective, an attempt is even being made to talk about profession and livelihood from this spiritual scientific point of view. For many of our contemporaries have gained the mental image from such more or less superficial acquaintance that Spiritual Science is something far removed from all practical life, as unsuitable as possible for intervening in any way in this practical everyday life. You will not infrequently encounter a mental image expressed in the words: “Ah, spiritual science is something for individuals who are sated with life, who have nothing practical to do and therefore have enough superfluous time to occupy themselves with all kinds of confused, fantastical speculations, such as spiritual scientific ideas.”

Now, it should not be denied from the outset that, basically, such a reproach is even justified in many cases that appear, let us say, as theosophical, that it is often true that those who concern themselves with theosophical things, theosophical ideas and mental images, really are as alien to everyday life as possible. But even among those who have to struggle and work hard in everyday life and find it difficult to bring themselves to do so, there are those who are driven to Spiritual Science out of inner sympathy, out of a longing of the heart. Among these there will be many for whom this duality — the everyday profession, the everyday work, the laborious toil from morning to night, and then the immersion in the great ideas — has something wonderful about it. For others, these two things will stand quite abruptly side by side, one being, so to speak, far, far removed from the other. But those who see in theosophy or Spiritual Science not merely an idle pursuit for a few dreamers and fantasists, but something that is capable of intervening deeply in our entire cultural movement, of renewing it, and refresh it from a spiritual point of view, will also have to firmly hold to the conviction that this theosophy or Spiritual Science is precisely what leads to the true, genuine knowledge of reality, and also has something important and essential to say where the big questions of everyday life arise, where those things occur that affect people from morning to night in their hard work.

Those who delve deeper, rather than superficially, into what theosophy or spiritual science can reveal, who gain not only a few abstract ideas from it, but also the deepest impulses of life, will very soon come to the realization that it is precisely through spiritual science that a true, healthy, correct judgment can be gained. However, a few abstract sentences are not enough, least of all the principle of some abstract brotherhood of humanity. This abstract general brotherhood of humanity is something that goes without saying for every good and rightly striving human being. But what is incumbent upon theosophy or Spiritual Science is not merely to preach this general brotherly love that encompasses all humanity, but to create the conditions through which true, genuine human brotherhood is possible and can also be realized. Of course, there are many in our time who say the same thing, but they lack the big picture.

If we now consider the whole of human existence from ancient times to the present day, and compare the everyday life of our present with what has always been there, we find, in the opinion of many people, that certain forms of life have not changed: there have always been rich and poor; poverty and misery on the one hand, and prosperity and contentment on the other, have always existed and have never been eliminated from the world by any human intellectual movement. Therefore, one cannot believe, as many people say, that an “idealistic” intellectual movement such as theosophy can say anything significant about what must move our time in terms of profession and livelihood.

However, we can best consider our topic today by looking at the two mental images of profession and livelihood in a truly spiritual-scientific sense. This will show us that, above all, it is very necessary to cultivate deep thinking in order to understand what our diverse and multifaceted life offers us in terms of profession and livelihood. The phrase “rich and poor” has, of course, always existed. But that alone is not enough if we want to understand life. However, if we take a look at our environment and compare it with what the human environment was like centuries ago or even in more recent times, we see that the form of life has changed significantly, that what are today the causes of hardship and misery, of wretchedness and poverty, have been brought about by a completely new way of life. It is evident that it would be very necessary for people in the widest possible circle to think more about these questions of the change in the relationship between people and their work and livelihood. Anyone who looks at this life as it has gradually developed over centuries will have to conclude, with mature thinking, that a certain class of people, which is of primary concern today if we want to say anything significant about this question, has only recently been created, and that it is precisely in this one class of people that what is revealed to us with all its force and intensity through the question of occupation and livelihood in our time is becoming more and more important. If we go even deeper, we will see that this question reveals what it means when humanity advances on the one hand, but on the other hand is unable to pursue its own progress with the necessary insight and interest. What we today call the modern worker, the industrial worker, in the form in which it exists today, is actually only a result of the development of humanity over the last few centuries.

This is connected with the admirable, the most wonderful, the greatest advances in human development. Today we see the earth littered with the products of human thought, human inventions, discoveries, and arts. Everywhere where people build factories and enterprises, where they dig down into the earth, where they search for mineral resources and metals, everywhere we see the results of human thought before us. The advances in our understanding of nature, the mastery of natural laws, everything that human thought and human intellectual work has created over the centuries—we see all of this crystallized in our industry, in the threads of all kinds that span the earth in our modern means of transportation. All of this has shaped our lives. Everything that human intellectual power has created has given rise to the modern worker, commonly referred to as the proletarian worker. It is with him that the modern form of our calamity in terms of occupation and livelihood has truly emerged. There is hardly any section of the population, hardly any class—whatever field of life it may belong to—that has not been affected in some way by what has been created for humanity in this way.

Let us now ask ourselves: Has human thought, has human interest also been able to create a social structure that is in some way in harmony with, or commensurate with, what human intellectual power has created in the fields of technology and industry? Let us imagine hypothetically what would have happened if human beings, or if a human individuality, had been able to use their intellectual power, which has crystallized in such a powerful and magnificent way in machines, banks, and transportation, to bring those who are involved in this development into a corresponding social structure. We do not want to take the position of a much-quoted natural scientist who says that all the magnificent, tremendous advances of the human mind, human science, human industry, and human transportation have contributed nothing to the progress of moral human development. Rather, if we look at what humans have produced in terms of morality and civility, we would still be standing today at the most primitive stage of barbarism. No deeper consideration will support this opinion; but it is nevertheless true that all the technical and scientific achievements that we admire today, both externally and internally, are not matched by anything in the field of social life, of social structure. We see how the disharmony between human longing, human needs, and human ideals, even the simple, natural human attitude to life, and what life in its reality offers all people today, manifests itself in the most diverse ways in the inadequacy of social thinking with regard to industrial activity.

It would be an obligation for the broadest sections of the population of all classes and walks of life to think about this question in particular, because there is something earth-shattering about these questions today. However, the widest circles, especially certain classes and walks of life, do not feel this at all today. The theosophical movement in particular must be one that does not believe it can do anything here with a few abstract dogmas, with a few recipes from the thought factory, but must try, in selfless devotion, with knowledge of the true human being, to spread and develop healthy, deep, and thorough thinking in this area as well. The essential thing in this field is that people educate themselves inwardly to see things in this field in the right light.

Those who today, from a supposedly practical point of view, would like to shrug their shoulders and look down on such an impractical spiritual movement as theosophy should take a look at life and learn from particularly characteristic symptoms how they should actually approach such questions. Human thinking today has become narrow in a certain respect because people have become accustomed to seeing everything in materialistic terms. Anyone who stands on the ground of spiritual science and believes that he can understand the mysteries of existence with a few fixed concepts, that a few fixed concepts are sufficient to construct the entire structure of the world up to and including the human being, is mistaken. Yes, a few concepts are sufficient for a superficial understanding, but not for an intimate, accurate assessment of life. Spiritual Science is uncomfortable. Not for those who stick only to what is expressed in words and then limit themselves to an abstract view of life, but for those who venture deeper into it, it is uncomfortable. It does not deal with a few mechanical mental images, but compels us to acquire special concepts for the various stages of existence. In return, however, these special concepts are good guides in life.

When people open a book on Spiritual Science, where they are presented with the physical world, the astral world, and even higher spiritual worlds that are hidden in ours, and then told that human beings should not consist only of what can be seen with the eyes and touched with the hands, but that it is possible to live in even higher realms, they say that this is too complicated, that everything becomes so compartmentalized. The world is simple, and anyone who does not portray the world as simple arouses their mistrust from the outset. The world is simple, it is comfortable! — One can say that, but it is not true! These concepts are unsuitable for really penetrating real life, for what really surrounds us. There are many people whose concepts do not extend beyond the few steps they take each day. It is understandable that such people come to very strange mental images about life. Such people will naturally only reveal themselves when they speak or write. I could give you many examples of this.

I would like to pick out two examples from the large number that may show you how quickly those people who should actually be called upon to judge life, or who feel called upon to do so themselves, come to terms with life.

There is a person who has written a book. That is nothing special today; it is sometimes difficult to find people in society who have not written a book. This person has now written a book about life. In it, he says that he has thought a lot about the functions of money and what significance it has in our external lives. However, he had to learn from a particular experience that money is only a kind of means within a certain social circle and that it actually has no real meaning. He learned this when he traveled to South America. He had a hundred dollars with him, but he still had to go hungry because he couldn't get anything for his money. And when he came to a hut and was given something to eat, he was told not to bother with his dollars, as they were of no use there.

This man has such “clear” ideas that he first has to travel to a Brazilian jungle to discover this! But let's continue: You know that a book was written by a certain government councilor named Kolb. This book deserves all the recognition it gets. It should be recognized that a government councilor brought himself to work as an ordinary laborer in America, among other places in a bicycle factory, and to live with the workers in all the hardships he had not known before. So he also wrote a book in which he says: Now I am learning to judge life differently than I was used to before. When I used to see a person begging on the street, I would say: Why doesn't that beggar work? Now I knew! - And he adds meaningfully: Yes, with the most beautiful, most significant problems of the economists, it is easy and comfortable to do business at the green table; but in life they look different. — All credit to anyone who undertakes such a thing outside their social circles, and all credit for openly and freely admitting to it!

But now for the flip side. Let's look beyond the man and consider the fact itself. What does it mean when someone who lives in Europe, who holds a position of responsibility, on whose actions much depends—the suffering, joy, happiness, and misfortune of many people—walks through the world as if blindfolded? Must we not ask: How did he actually walk through the world? How did he study it? How did he educate himself? If one just keeps one's eyes open and sees what he should have seen—because when one is in life, one must know such things—then one must ask: Have these people walked through the world blindfolded, and did they first have to go to America to learn that you cannot pay with money in the jungle, and to learn why the “bum” does not work when he begs? Must we not say that a time in which these symptoms are possible, in which thoughts are so short-sighted, needs thoughts that are just as clear and certain with regard to social structure as those that have been produced in an admirable way over the centuries up to our time with regard to machines and industry? If theosophy or Spiritual Science is not understood as an abstraction, as a sermon of beautiful phrases, but as a proclamation of what really underlies our entire world, then it is precisely this that provides this real knowledge of human nature.

Let us talk about this in more detail today. If we take a closer look at the transformations that have taken place over the centuries and whose last vestiges still extend into our present, then we must say: occupation and livelihood have changed very, very much in their relationship to human beings. Of course, there are still many people today who know the beautiful words spoken by Goethe: “Desire and love are the wings of great deeds.” Truly, desire and love are the wings of great deeds! If human progress and human happiness are to flourish, they must also be the wings of human life. Wouldn't the artist, when expressing his innermost feelings, always say: Only when I am inspired by the joy of work can I truly work and produce something fruitful? True, only too true! But how far removed is our life from this truth! We come to a sad chapter in relation to work and livelihood when we ask ourselves this question.

Let us compare the creative artist, who creates his works out of a desire and love for human salvation, for human joy and elevation, with the worker toiling in dreary mines, for example in Sicily. There you will find workers, and not just adult workers, but swarms of children aged seven, eight, nine, and ten, who are being ruined in the most terrible way and who spend their lives—with few exceptions—down there. And when you recognize the impulses that drive these people to work, you will understand something that is otherwise terribly difficult to understand. There is a terrible atmosphere of hostility and opposition to life when such things are experienced in the context of things that are otherwise intended to evoke joy and cheerfulness. The person who works like this — I am not telling fairy tales and I emphasize that I am very reluctant to have to describe these realities — may express his mood, which is otherwise expressed by other people in a beautiful, joyful song, in a song like this:

Curse the mother who gave birth to me,
Curse on the pastor who baptized me...
if only I had become a ...
then I would ...¹

Imagine this together with the words: “Lust and love are the wings of great deeds,” and try to see from this the necessity of striving for a worldview that can deepen hearts so much that they “must” be added to our human material development, because it is something that belongs to the structure of life and belongs in industry, in transportation, and in technology.

But we can also understand the rise of machines in recent centuries in terms of our souls in relation to our professions and livelihoods. We don't have to go back very far to find the saying: “Craftsmanship is a golden opportunity.” Why? There were many people who had a deep personal connection between their souls and their work and the products they produced. Try to imagine medieval towns. Try to look closely at every door lock and every key, and then try to look inside the workshops where these things were made. Form a mental image of how people worked with pleasure and love, how the worker gave a piece of his soul, so to speak, to the products he created.

Now try to form in your mind the mental image of the industrial worker, the factory worker, who only carries out and processes a small part of the whole, without understanding its connection to the whole. He lacks the intimacy of the connection between what the product is and his work. This personal relationship is something extremely important. It is something that these two concepts – profession and livelihood – will make increasingly clear to us. It is different both in terms of income and in terms of the worker when a person can take a personal interest in the products, in the form, in the design, in what the product presents to the eye, than when the only interest in the product is the income, that is, what one receives as wages for it. The former gives rise to the profession, which is expressed in the work that becomes the product. Earnings are expressed in what human selfishness receives as wages for the product. So we must juxtapose the two concepts, and they soon appear side by side when you compare the tradesman of yesteryear with the modern worker. Today, everything is different, down to the smallest detail, in what they carry with them and have around them. The whole tragedy that lies in these machines in relation to profession and acquisition in human life is expressed in a beautiful little poem written by a poet of our modern times who is unfortunately far too little known:

Decaying in the forest glade,
On the edge of the path, a smithy,
No longer does the hammer strike
To the joyful song of labor,
Not far from there, a long building rises into the air,
Where, in the machine room,
Soot-covered hammerers work.
With nails from the steam factory,
A coffin is hammered together,
In which the impoverished nail smith
Was carried to his grave.

In these twelve lines, you have the upheaval of the last centuries in terms of occupation and livelihood. We need only take one line: “The hammer no longer sounds from the forge to the labor song.” It expresses this upheaval. Everything that has to do with profession and livelihood comes to mind. Let us form the mental image of a person who has a song of joyful labor to accompany the hammer blows, and let us form the mental image of the soul that has the mood of a song of joyful labor, and then let us try to form the mental image of the mood of a person who stands in the factory as a dusty worker. It cannot be the task of Spiritual Science to preach reaction in order to restore the old conditions or to prevent things that have developed in the progress of humanity and that were bound to come. We are not to criticize what had to happen. But we must realize that it is up to human beings and depends on them to work promisingly for the good of humanity and for human progress out of their spiritual work.

Now many will say: But we see enough people around us who are well prepared to think about social issues, to think about what should happen. Well, there is a certain difference, which is very significant, between what Spiritual Science has to say and what the general mood of the times is. This general mood of the times could be brought to the soul in general terms. Those who have studied say: You theosophists preach that people should become better, that they should develop love, and so on. Well, we do not concern ourselves with such childish notions of human soul development, of maturing people for a better life and for the salvation of humanity. We know that it is not people but circumstances that matter. — So say many, not only professors, but also people at the green tables of socialism. What is proclaimed there is just as arrogant as what is propagated by the other green tables. Everywhere it is preached: Improve the circumstances, and then people will improve. You can hear them declaiming this, the very clever people who appear again and again.

I could give you many examples from everyday life. I only need to take three steps from here and I could point to a spot where someone once stood and said [about theosophy]: These are foolish ideas! What matters is that conditions are improved. If you give people better living conditions, they will improve all by themselves. — We hear this song sung again and again in all its variations in relation to today's working and employment conditions. When something is wrong, people don't think it's the fault of the people, but say that a new law must be made to change the conditions. And when something is wrong in a particular area, they say that the immature masses, those who lack sound judgment, must be protected against those who want to exploit them in this or that area. When this is said, for example, in relation to certain methods of healing, one might ask: Would it not be more obvious and natural to say that it is the duty of those who understand these things to enlighten people so that they can use their own judgment to turn to those they should turn to? It cannot be a question of circumstances, but solely of the development of the human soul.

Deep within our contemporary thinking lies this materialism, which has been taken from the atomistic way of thinking and transferred to social conditions. Many people discuss such matters, but the discussion only leads to endless debates. Anyone who knows the secret of the art of discussion knows that the meaning of human beings can be discussed endlessly with pros and cons. However, it is not only a matter of being able to cite endless reasons for the pros and cons, but also of feeling the weight of the reasons. One person who was called upon to make a judgment in this area because he was a genius was the Englishman Robert Owen. He was brilliant in that he wanted to make people happy, but also in that he had a warm heart for social misery. He succeeded in creating a model colony. He achieved something beautiful. He did it so cleverly that he placed those who were alcoholic and so on among the hard-working people who could set an example. This yielded many good results. This encouraged him to found another colony. Once again, he did so in order to realize certain ideals that fulfilled him. But after some time, developments in the colony were such that he had to see that those who were not naturally diligent and industrious became parasites on the colony. So he said to himself: No, and it was like a confession: With general institutions, one must wait until people, like himself, have reached a certain level in theoretical terms. Only through the transformation of the human soul can salvation and progress come, never through mere institutions. — This was said by a man who was entitled to say it, because he started from a warm-hearted conviction and had been taught by experience. We should learn from such facts, not from abstract theories. But what is the inner and viable thinking in this area? Precise and viable thinking in this area shows us that all institutions that can oppress and become terrible for people are made by people. Human institutions arise that become the cause of hardship and misery simply because they are first made by people. Those who really want to understand things should try to study the course of history, to study how people live together today, how one person is positioned in life and another is positioned differently. Who has placed them there? Not vague social forces, but human thoughts, human feelings, and human impulses of will. We must state the following proposition: Man can only suffer through man. All other suffering is not really relevant in social terms.

It is not to be expected that the spiritual scientist should set himself up as a critic of historical necessities. It is necessary to realize that circumstances are created by human beings and that, once they are created, misery is brought into these circumstances solely and exclusively by false thoughts. It is not difficult to see that short-sighted thinking, thinking that has no idea of the great, powerful connections in the world, cannot create institutions that can bring happiness and salvation to humanity. Saying that one should be selfless, that one should love people, is like saying to a stove: You are a stove, be kind and warm; it is your moral duty to heat the room. It will not get warm! But if you heat it, it will get warm! Preaching universal love for humanity is something that can be put into the world as a matter of course. But the practical application, that which enables it to intervene in the outside world in such a way that salvation and blessings for humanity arise from it, depends on the relationship between people.

A materialistic age will see in human beings only that which can be grasped with the hands and perceived with the eyes. But human beings are more than that. They are spiritual, soul, and physical beings. And everything that can bring healing and blessings to human beings can only come from taking the whole human being into account, especially in the complicated and increasingly complex circumstances of the present and the future. Spiritual Science shows us this true nature of human beings, shows us its foundation, and thereby leads us to an understanding of human beings and the world in a way that is quite different from anything else. What surrounds us, what we can produce in the world in our work and livelihood, we can only produce in a life of joyful work. Think what it means when workers can do their work as in the poem with the joyful song. The individual hammer smith could do that. He knew the work from its beginning to the finished product. Work cannot arise from gain; no work whatsoever arises from gain. Try to look back at simple work: it was done rhythmically, the blacksmith's hammer struck rhythmically, and the song accompanied the rhythm. The impulses, which can be compared to pleasure and love, were what drove the work. The further back you go, the more you find that earning a living and having a profession are two completely different things.

What a person does as work is done out of an impulse toward the thing itself. It is something else entirely to earn a living. But that is the reason for our modern misery, that earning a living and profession, that wages and work have become one, have collapsed into each other. That is what our consideration must ultimately culminate in. A person who works as a small cog in a factory in the modern way will never be able to have the devotion to the product that characterized the craftsmen of the past; that is irretrievably lost. In our complicated circumstances, it will never be possible in the future for the workplace to be filled with a song of joy in work. The song associated with the product has faded away!

We ask: Is there another impulse that can take its place? When we look back on the years when more and more factories were built and more and more people were herded into the sites of modern misery for work and livelihood, when we let all this pass before our eyes, then we see—even though much may have changed—that people believe that future developments can simply be grafted onto the past, when joy and love were still the impulses behind work. However, humanity has not been able to create a substitute that reconnects people to the product. That cannot be brought back. But something else can be done. What can take its place? How can joy and love once again become impulses that inspire daily work? How can they be created?

Yes, some will object, create impulses for work that is dirty, bad, and abhorrent! — Such impulses exist. Just think of what mothers do when they work out of love for their children. Think of what people are capable of when they do something out of love for others. There is no need to love the product of the work; what is needed is a bond between people. You cannot bring back love for the product to humanity, because that was tied to primitive, simple circumstances. But what the future must bring is great, all-encompassing understanding and love between people. Until every human being can find the motivation for their activities in the deepest impulses that only a spiritual world movement can give, until they are able to do their work out of love for their fellow human beings, it will not be possible to create genuine impulses for future development in the sense of human salvation.

Thus, we have presented as an impulse what all secret science has known since time immemorial. There is a spiritual law that states: In social life, only that which people do not for themselves but for the whole of humanity is beneficial for the salvation of humanity. All work that people do only for themselves must lead to disaster. This may seem like a harsh principle, but this harsh principle is the result of true knowledge.

This is what theosophy or Spiritual Science has to offer humanity today: learning to understand such a statement again. Something that should encompass all people or groups of people has become a completely abstract concept in the materialistic view. It can no longer provide any moral impetus. Consider how people speak of folk-souls or group souls. These are not real! People must regain clarity about the fact that there are beings who live in spiritual worlds, and that such group souls exist and are realities. We have progressed so far in our development that we have now reached a point where there are views that are the exact opposite of Spiritual Science, which, for example, see only formalities in everything that encompasses a group or a sense of belonging in the world. Spiritual Science, however, shows that the visible, the physical, does not contain the whole of existence, but that underlying everything visible is the superphysical, the non-sensual, the supersensible, so that such things as community spirits and group spirits are no longer abstractions for us. Thus, it becomes clear to us when we say: Work, no matter how highly valued, is not what matters. Work only matters in the context of humanity if this work is beneficial to other people, if it is, as we say, productive work.

Let's illustrate this with a simple example: Two people live on an island. One produces things that satisfy the hunger of both and make their existence possible. The other also works terribly hard, an awful lot; he is busy throwing stones from one place to another, throwing them diligently and industriously and quickly throwing them back again. He is terribly diligent and industrious; he can be terribly hard-working. But his work has no meaning at all; it is completely meaningless. What matters is not that we work, but that we do work that is beneficial to others. The work of throwing stones back and forth is only beneficial if it gives pleasure to the person who does it. But if he is forced by some institution to be paid for his work, then the work is meaningless in the context. It must be in a context regulated by wisdom and structure. Anyone who looks into the context knows that the most important work is that which is done independently of gain. Gain must stand on its own. How people support each other is a question in itself. The impulse to work must not and cannot lie in egoism, but must arise from a view of the whole.

What one person does is needed by other people. If people desire what I produce through my work, then my work may correspond to my ability; it may be less if I have limited abilities, it may be significant if I have great abilities, but if people need this work, then that is an impulse for work that can put me in a joyful mood. To do this, however, we must first have the impulse and the ability to look into people's hearts and see that people's hearts can become something for us. When we understand how to empathize with people's hearts, we know what the essence of human beings is; then we also work in community and acquire social thinking. You will say that no one does that: throwing stones from one place to another. — This happens all the time in our circumstances, but people don't see it! They don't see far enough. Those who learn to think socially soon become aware of this. Imagine you are sitting somewhere and find a beautiful picture postcard, and then you write twenty picture postcards without having anything special to say. If you look deeper into this, you see not only the postcards with the pictures, but also the many mail carriers who have to go up and down stairs. How much work would be saved if the cards were not written!

But then a very clever person comes along and says: By writing so many postcards, you achieve that one worker is no longer enough. Another is hired, and this other person gets bread as a result. — No one considers that in this way no productive work is being done. This is work that produces nothing. By forcing a person to do work and providing them with remuneration for it, you are not creating salvation for humanity. But we must look into the structure of existence, as only spiritual scientific education can give us. We must be clear that it is not just a few economists who should look into these things. Every single person must be led to develop this social thinking, and that is what flows from spiritual scientific wisdom as a spiritual scientific attitude, that the human soul becomes open and free, that it then looks around at things in order to think them through, to see and study them, so that it is no longer a question of having to create work for the unemployed. It is not a matter of giving work to this or that person, but of what kind of work is done, namely work that is needed for the whole. If we look at it this way, it becomes clear to us that what must become the impetus for our work in the future, what must be incorporated into our profession, must be a sense of belonging to human groups that flows from true wisdom, a living social feeling, something that must take root in every human soul. Not abstract love, not the kind of love that merely talks about love and sees only as far as its nose goes, but only love illuminated by knowledge can bring about an improvement in human conditions.

Therefore, Spiritual Science cannot be a collection of dogmas or ideas. Ideas exist for the sake of the soul. What matters are living human beings. The more people are seized and inspired by this wisdom, the more true, real love there will be, the more it will serve progress and the welfare of humanity. We will thus find that because the profession is based on devotion to humanity and earning a living is based on concern for human sustenance, because thinking is entirely directed in this direction, humanity will be saved. The spiritual scientist will not think that this can be changed overnight through dogma. Those who stand firmly on the ground of Spiritual Science are clear that the soul can settle into active love, and that through the existence of people who establish knowledge, the welfare of humanity can be promoted. Then a person like Kolb will not have to go to America to learn that it is easy to judge social issues from behind a desk, but a current in public life will open his eyes, and he will not have to go through the world blindfolded. This will be the best and most beautiful fruit of the spiritual-scientific worldview, if it does not seduce people into sentimental preaching of human love and brotherhood, but leads them to see true and spiritual reality with an open and free mind. In this way, humanity will increasingly fulfill Goethe's saying: “The human being who overcomes himself frees himself from the power that binds all beings.”

This saying applies in a comprehensive sense to the national, professional, and commercial spheres. It applies in such a way that only when our social structure is completely dominated by this principle, when our work is not placed in the service of wages and earnings but is made independent of earnings, can something beneficial be created.

Now, of course, there are people who say that everywhere efforts are being made to relieve the subjective drive for gain of all kinds of things and transfer them to the community. Those who say this may see in the civil servant the ideal of a person in whom gain and profession are separated. But what matters is that each individual has the impulses from which the characterized salvation can spring. Unity must not hover over the whole like an abstract scheme, like a cloud, but must live in every individual soul, always pointing to the spiritual heights of the universe as reflected in every human soul. Only such a worldview can succeed in realizing what is possible in terms of salvation in human coexistence.

This is what the great people felt, and it was felt by a great spirit who is being talked about more and more today, some people all the more so the less they understand him. This spirit said that bliss comes to human beings through immersion in real, true unity, and that all misery arises from dispersion into diversity and differences. Misery comes most when people are driven into differentiation to such an extent that no one does anything except for the sake of egoism. Only when the individual feels that he must lay down what he can do at the altar of humanity, when this feeling and this thinking floods through people, can it also flood through humanity to the utmost extent. What Fichte said is true: all bliss lies in merging with the true One, and all hardship and misery lies in living in separation and differentiation; for true love can only be achieved when the soul is not hardened in separation and diversity, but when it finds rest and peace in true wholeness and in the whole spirit.