{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 162/1915-05-29/p028","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"People would prefer to have books about the spiritual world, just as they have books about the physical world; they would like to acquire knowledge about the spiritual world in the same way that they acquire knowledge about the physical world. But it is not at all possible to acquire knowledge of the spiritual world in this way; instead, books that deal with the spiritual world must stimulate our inner activity each time anew, setting our inner powers in motion. Therefore, it is not the same as when we acquire knowledge about the physical world, where we have to repeat it over and over again in order not to forget, when we acquire knowledge about the spiritual world. When we read a cycle again and again or a spiritual science book, then that is actually not a repetition, but an immersing ourselves in the activity through which we arrive at the knowledge. And that is the most important thing, that is the essential thing. You see, if someone were asked to pray when they went to church, you would look at them rather strangely if they said: I don't need to pray today; when I was seven years, three months and two days old, I read the prayer once. I will always remember that I have prayed it; I do not need to pray it again, because I know that I have prayed it; I will just remember it now. You would look at this person strangely, you would make it clear to him that it is not important to remember the prayer once it has been said, but to keep bringing it up because it is alive in every renewal. This is precisely how we should understand our experience in occult science. We should not say, as we do about ordinary science: Yes, we have absorbed it, we remember it - but we want to get used to delving into the subject again and again, to going through the activity again and again. But people of the modern age do not like this at all. Rather, people of modern times love to stop at what they have once attained. Isn't it true that one feels most happy when one has acquired some knowledge and then carries this knowledge in one's inner “backpack,” as it were, through life, and when one needs it, takes it out and remembers it again. This is something that modern humanity is increasingly in danger of falling into. But in modern times, I would say, there is an immediate need to transform this sitting on the acquired content so that human work, human striving, corresponds to the","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"Third Lecture","site_heading":"Spiritual Knowledge and the Renewal of Inner Experience","site_heading_note":"A heading the site wrote for this unit from a summary of it; not in the edition, and not the words of Rudolf Steiner or of the translator. Cite the unit by its title and locus, never by this heading, and do not quote it.","date":"1915-05-29","location":null,"word_count":442,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/162/1915-05-29/p028","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:identity","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"Artistic and Existential Questions in the Light of Spiritual Science","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA162/English/SOL2024/19150529p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"edition_coverage":{"de":["original"],"en":["English"]},"available_versions":[{"lang":"de","edition":"original","edition_basis":null,"is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/162/1915-05-29/p028"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/162/1915-05-29/p028","paragraph_aligned":true}],"record":{"record_type":"unknown","scope":"volume","note":"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.","evidence":null,"evidence_translation":null,"evidence_source":null},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 162/1915-05-29/p028","passage_number":28,"text":"Die Menschen möchten am liebsten, so wie sie Bücher haben von dem, was in der physischen Welt gewußt werden kann, auch Bücher verlangen von der geistigen Welt; wie sie sich Wissen erwerben von der physischen Welt, so möchten sie auch das Wissen von der geistigen Welt erwerben. Aber in dieser Weise ist es gar nicht möglich, sich ein Wissen von der geistigen Welt zu erwerben, sondern die Bücher, die von der geistigen Welt handeln, müssen jedesmal neu unsere innere Tätigkeit anregen, unsere inneren Kräfte in Bewegung bringen. Daher ist es bei dem, was wir uns an Erkenntnissen von der physischen Welt aneignen, wo wir immer wiederholen müssen, um nicht zu vergessen, nicht so, wie wenn wir uns Erkenntnisse über die geistige Welt aneignen. Wenn wir immer wieder einen Zyklus lesen oder ein geisteswissenschaftliches Buch, dann ist das eigentlich nicht eine Wiederholung, sondern ein Uns-Durchsetzen mit der Tätigkeit, durch die wir zu der Erkenntnis hinkommen. Und das ist das Wichtigste, das ist das Wesentliche. Sehen Sie, den Menschen, der aufgefordert wird, wenn er in die Kirche geht, zu beten, würden Sie ganz sonderbar ansehen, wenn er Ihnen sagen wollte: Ich brauche heute nicht zu beten; wie ich sieben Jahre, drei Monate und zwei Tage alt war, da habe ich das Gebet einmal gelesen. Ich werde mich immer erinnern, daß ich es gebetet habe; ich brauche es nicht mehr zu beten, denn ich weiß, daß ich es gebetet habe; ich will jetzt nur daran denken. - Sie würden sonderbar diesen Menschen ansehen, Sie würden ihm klarmachen, daß es nicht darauf ankommt, sich an das einmal verrichtete Gebet zu erinnern, sondern darauf, es immer wieder hervorzurufen, weil es ein Lebendiges ist in jeder Erneuerung. Gerade so sollen wir unser Erlebnis in der okkulten Wissenschaft auffassen. Wir sollten nicht sagen, wie wir das gegenüber der gewöhnlichen Wissenschaft tun: Ja, wir haben es in uns aufgenommen, wir erinnern uns daran -, sondern wir wollen uns daran gewöhnen, immer wieder und wiederum uns in die Sache zu vertiefen, immer wieder und wiederum die Tätigkeit durchzumachen. Dieses aber lieben die Menschen der neueren Zeit gar nicht. Die Menschen der neueren Zeit lieben vielmehr, stehenzubleiben bei demjenigen, was sie einmal erlangt haben. Nicht wahr, man fühlt sich am glücklichsten, wenn man irgend etwas als Wissen sich angeeignet hat und dieses Wissen dann in dem inneren «Tornister» gleichsam durchs Leben trägt, und, wenn man es braucht, herausnimmt, sich wieder daran erinnert. Das ist etwas, in welches die moderne Menschheit immer mehr und mehr zu verfallen droht. Es ist aber in der neueren Zeit, ich möchte sagen, unmittelbares Bedürfnis, dieses Sitzen auf dem erworbenen Inhalte zu verwandeln so, daß? die menschliche Arbeit, das menschliche Streben, entspricht dem","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":447,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/162/1915-05-29/p028"}],"english":["GA 162/1915-05-29/p028"],"method":"identity","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":447,"en_words":442,"ratio":0.99,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["length","meaning","audit"]},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.01,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":6645,"original_word_count":6608,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"Artistic and Existential Questions in the Light of Spiritual Science","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA162/English/SOL2024/19150529p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 162/1915-05-29/p028"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"high","note":"Every load-bearing name in the German counterpart appears in this English passage. That is a check on NAMES only: a translation can keep every name and still reverse who acts on whom, change a number, or soften a claim. Read the German for anything you intend to rest an argument on."},"note":"quote_safe certifies the bytes of this text. This block is about the translation as a WITNESS: who made it, and whether it carries the same names as the original. 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