{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 210/1922-01-01/p009","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"It is both right and wrong to say that the true being of man is beyond understanding. It is right in a certain sense, but not in the sense frequently meant nowadays. Yet the true being of man is indeed revealed to initiation science in a way which defies direct definitions, descriptions or explanations. To make use of a comparison I might say that defining the being of man is like trying to draw a picture of the fulcrum of a beam. It cannot be drawn. You can draw the left-hand and the right-hand portions of the beam but not the fulcrum upon which it turns. The fulcrum is the point at which the right-hand and the left-hand portions of the beam begin. In a similar way the profoundest element of the human being cannot be encompassed by adequate concepts and ideas. But it can be grasped by endeavouring to look at deviations from the true human being. The being of man represents the state of balance poised between deviations that constantly want to go off in opposite directions. Human beings throughout their life are permanently beset by two dangers: deviation in one of two directions, the luciferic or the ahrimanic.[^3]","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"Lecture I","site_heading":"Luciferic and Ahrimanic Polarities in Human Nature","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 Cite the unit by its title and locus, never by this heading, and do not quote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":"1922-01-01","location":null,"word_count":201,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/210/1922-01-01/p009","alignment_confidence":"low","alignment_reason":"count_diverges","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Johanna Collis","identified_edition":"RSP1991","book_title":"Old and New Methods of Initiation","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA210/English/RSP1991/19220101p01.html","evidence":"lecture_list_row","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/210/1922-01-01/p009"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/210/1922-01-01/p009","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},"german_anchor":{"de_prefix":"1922-01-01","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 210/1922-01-01/p009","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/210/1922-01-01/p009"},{"locus":"GA 210/1922-01-01/p010","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/210/1922-01-01/p010"}],"bead_confidence":"high","pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["reader"],"reader_german":["GA 210/1922-01-01/p009","GA 210/1922-01-01/p010"],"length_check":{"de_words":268,"en_words":201,"ratio":0.75,"partial":false},"correspondence":"established","note":"English passage numbering is edition-relative, so the same number need not name the same paragraph in the German. The German original passage(s) above are the edition-invariant anchor — fetch them (lang='de') to verify wording before quoting across editions."},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 210/1922-01-01/p009","passage_number":9,"text":"Man sagt mit Recht und auch mit Unrecht, das eigentliche wahre Wesen des Menschen entziehe sich der Erkenntnis. Man kann das auch in einem gewissen Sinne sagen, aber nicht in dem Sinne, wie es in der Gegenwart sehr häufig gesagt wird. Das eigentliche Wesen des Menschen enthüllt sich für die Initiationswissenschaft allerdings so, daß man es in unmittelbarer Weise nicht in Definitionen, in Beschreibungen, in Erklärungen fassen kann. Wenn ich mich eines Vergleiches bedienen darf, so ist es für das Erfassen des menschlichen Wesens so, wie wenn man bei einem Waagebalken den Punkt, um den er sich dreht, zeichnen wollte. Man kann ihn nicht zeichnen. Ich kann das linke und das rechte Stück des Waagebalkens zeichnen, ich kann aber nicht den Punkt zeichnen, um den sich der Waagebalken drehen wird. Der ist etwas, was bestimmt ist dadurch, daß eben der linke Waagebalken von links nach rechts bis zu diesem Punkte geht und bei diesem Punkt der rechte Waagebalken beginnt und von ihm weitergeht.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":163,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/210/1922-01-01/p009"},{"locus":"GA 210/1922-01-01/p010","passage_number":10,"text":"In einer ähnlichen Weise läßt sich nicht in adäquaten Begriffen und Ideen das menschliche tiefste Wesen fassen. Aber es läßt sich fassen, wenn man zu schauen versucht die Abirrungen von diesem Wesen. Das menschliche Wesen stellt gewissermaßen einen Gleichgewichtszustand dar zwischen einer Abweichung, die nach der einen Seite fortwährend gehen will und einer solchen, die nach der andern Seite fortwährend gehen will. Der Mensch ist, so wie er im Leben dasteht, im irdischen Dasein fortwährend zwei Gefahren ausgesetzt: dem Abirren nach der einen oder nach der andern Seite - wie wir es mit technischen Ausdrücken nennen können -, nach der luziferischen und der ahrimanischen Seite.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":105,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/210/1922-01-01/p010"}],"english":["GA 210/1922-01-01/p009"],"method":"reader","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":268,"en_words":201,"ratio":0.75,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["reader"],"reader_german":["GA 210/1922-01-01/p009","GA 210/1922-01-01/p010"]},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.05,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":5071,"original_word_count":4827,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Johanna Collis","identified_edition":"RSP1991","book_title":"Old and New Methods of Initiation","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA210/English/RSP1991/19220101p01.html","evidence":"lecture_list_row","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 210/1922-01-01/p009","GA 210/1922-01-01/p010"],"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. See witness_completeness for how much of the original this witness holds."}}