16. Life After Death

GA 140/1913-05-13/p022 ·1913-05-13 · English MediumMedium alignmentSome paragraph re-numbering between this translation and the German original — the locus may slip by a paragraph or two.
Record: unknown. How this text was taken down (shorthand transcript, listeners' notes or manuscript) is not on record here. Unknown is not an assurance of a stenogram: check the edition's own notes before resting an argument on one word.

This can be understood if we consider that animals, for example, see everything on the earth as men do, but cannot understand what they are. Supersensible beings can only behold the super-sensible world but cannot understand it. Concepts and ideas of the spiritual world can only arise on earth, and they ray forth like a light into the spiritual world. This enables one to understand rightly the meaning of the earth. The earth is neither a mere transitional stage, nor a vale of despair, but it exists so that on it a spiritual knowledge can be developed which can then be carried upwards into the spiritual worlds.

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Cite: GA 140/1913-05-13/p022 · edition English