{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 246/1911-06-06/p008","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"If you make this observation often, you can elevate something that is theoretically very easy to understand into a full life practice. Theoretically, it is easy to see that if everything that man has to do in order to live were left to his own intellect, his own intelligence, he would not get very far - really not very far at all. Because we only need to answer this question theoretically in the following way: When does man actually do the most artistic deeds in himself? When does he act most wisely towards himself? He does this approximately up to the point in time up to which he can still remember when he looks back in later life on the years that have passed. If you look back on what happened three, four, five years ago and so on, your memory will take you to a certain point; that's as far as it goes. Then your parents or those who were present in your earlier life can tell you what you accomplished as a child, but your own memory only goes back to a certain point. This is also the point at which a person has learned to feel like a self. For people who remember back in normal life, this is the case at the age of three or three and a half. Before this time, however, the human soul has done the wisest things to man himself, and never later, when he comes to consciousness, can man do such great and mighty things to himself as he accomplishes in the unconscious in the very first years of his childhood. For we know that through our birth we carry into the physical plan what we have brought with us as the fruits of previous incarnations. And when we are born, our external brain, for example, is still a very imperfect instrument. The human soul must now work the finer structures into it. But during these times, not only do we have to work out our brain in fine detail, but we also learn three of the most important things before we become conscious. Firstly, we learn to orientate our own physicality in space. What this means is something that modern man does not pay much attention to, for therein lies one of the most important differences between man and animal, in that the animal is destined from the outset to develop its equilibrium in space. One animal is a climber, the other a swimmer and so on. The animal is organized from the outset in such a way that it places itself correctly in space, and this is the case right up to the most human-like mammals.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"42. The Spiritual Guidance of Man and Humanity II","site_heading":null,"date":"1911-06-06","location":null,"word_count":448,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/246/1911-06-06/p008","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:identity","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2025","book_title":"Supplements to Member Lectures","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA246/English/SOL2025/19110606s01.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/246/1911-06-06/p008"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/246/1911-06-06/p008","paragraph_aligned":true}],"record":{"record_type":"listeners_notes","scope":"volume","note":"Written from listeners' notes, summaries, or memory rather than a shorthand transcript. The wording is the note-taker's as much as Steiner's: weigh a single striking phrase here far more cautiously than the same phrase in a stenographic volume, and do not rest an argument on one word.","evidence":"Nach zum Teil bruchstückhaften Mitschriften","evidence_translation":"From transcripts that are in part fragmentary","evidence_source":"The publisher's description of the volume, as mirrored on AnthroWiki (GA 246), which also speaks of \"fragmentarischen Hörernotizen und Vortragszusammenfassungen\". The translation is the maintainer's, not a published one."},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 246/1911-06-06/p008","passage_number":8,"text":"Man kann, wenn man die Beobachtung öfter macht, etwas, was ja theoretisch sehr leicht einzusehen ist, zu einer vollen Lebenspraxis erheben. Theoretisch leicht einzusehen ist: Wenn alles, was der Mensch machen muss, damit er leben kann, seinem eigenen Verstande, seiner eigenen Intelligenz überlassen wäre, so würde er gar nicht weit kommen - wirklich gar nicht weit. Denn wir brauchen uns diese Frage theoretisch nur in folgender Weise zu beantworten: Wann macht der Mensch eigentlich an sich selber die künstlerischsten Taten? Wann handelt er am allerweisesten an sich selber? Das tut er ungefähr bis zu dem Zeitpunkte, bis zu dem er sich noch zurückerinnern kann, wenn er im späteren Leben zurückblickt auf die verflossenen Jahre. Wenn Sie zurückblicken auf das, was sich vor drei, vier, fünf Jahren und so weiter zugetragen hat, so kommen Sie mit Ihrem Gedächtnis bis zu einem gewissen Punkt; weiter geht es nicht. Dann können Ihnen die Eltern oder die, welche bei Ihrem früheren Leben dabei waren, erzählen, was Sie als Kind vollbracht haben; aber die eigene Erinnerung reicht nur bis zu einem gewissen Punkt zurück. Das ist auch der Zeitpunkt, wo der Mensch gelernt hat, sich als ein Ich zu fühlen. Bei den Menschen, die sich im normalen Leben zurückerinnern, ist dies im Alter von drei oder dreieinhalb Jahren der Fall. Vor dieser Zeit aber hat die menschliche Seele am Menschen selbst die allerweisesten Dinge getan, und niemals kann der Mensch später, wenn er zu seinem Bewusstsein kommt, so Großartiges und Gewaltiges an sich selber leisten, als er in den allerersten Jahren seiner Kindheit im Unbewussten vollzieht. Denn wir wissen, dass wir durch unsere Geburt in den physischen Plan hineintragen, was wir uns mitgebracht haben als die Früchte der früheren Inkarnationen. Und wenn wir geboren werden, ist unser äußeres Gehirn zum Beispiel noch ein sehr unvollkommenes Instrument. Da muss nun des Menschen Seele hineinarbeiten die feineren Gliederungen. Aber während dieser Zeiten muss nicht nur das geschehen, dass wir unser Gehirn plastisch fein ausarbeiten müssen, sondern wir lernen auch drei der wichtigsten Dinge, bevor wir zum Bewusstsein kommen. Als Erstes lernen wir unsere eigene Körperlichkeit im Raume orientieren. Was damit gesagt ist, beachtet der heutige Mensch gar nicht ordentlich; denn darin liegt einer der wesentlichsten Unterschiede des Menschen vom Tier, indem das Tier von vorn herein bestimmt ist, seine Gleichgewichtslage im Raume zu entwickeln. Das eine Tier ist ein Klettertier, das andere ein Schwimmtier und so weiter. Das Tier ist von vornherein so organisiert, dass es sich in richtiger Weise in den Raum hineinsetzt, und das ist bis hinauf zu den menschenähnlichsten Säugetieren der Fall.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":428,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/246/1911-06-06/p008"}],"english":["GA 246/1911-06-06/p008"],"method":"identity","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":428,"en_words":448,"ratio":1.05,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["length","meaning","audit"]},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.05,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":6231,"original_word_count":5957,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2025","book_title":"Supplements to Member Lectures","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA246/English/SOL2025/19110606s01.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 246/1911-06-06/p008"],"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."}}