Esoteric Lesson

The esotericist must above all strive to be objective toward the qualities of his fellow human beings, to be able to notice their negative qualities and tolerate them without condemning them. He should say, for example: I see that this person is vain and ambitious, but at the present stage of development these qualities are just as necessary as other, positive ones. - We can draw a comparison with a tree. In a tree, the outer bark, even though it is the dying part of the organism, is necessary to protect the interior, where the life juices and life forces circulate. Part of the forces must be used to form the bark. If all the forces were used for this, the tree would become completely woody, wither and die. But nature has arranged it so that the inner life forces of the tree work against this and regulate the process. This is how it is with ordinary human beings with regard to their negative qualities, let us say ambition and vanity, and their effect on the astral body. Through the divine world order, the astral body has forces within itself that constantly work against the effects of ambition and vanity. Under the influence of these qualities, it looks as if it were studded with rays of light in the form of needles, whose brightness loses its intensity as it reaches the outside.