Esoteric Lesson
GA 266a/1909-12-05/p011
·1909-12-05
·
English
LowLow alignmentMost translators re-paragraphed Steiner substantially. The locus identifies the same chapter or section, but paragraph-N to paragraph-N mapping is loose. For exact-quotation precision, compare with the German.
Record: listeners' notes. 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: «Gedächtnisaufzeichnungen von Teilnehmern sowie Notizen von Vorträgen» (Participants' records written from memory, and notes of lectures). Rudolf Steiner Verlag Gesamtverzeichnis 2022, volume subtitle. The translation is the maintainer's, not a published one.
In esoteric lessons, words are chosen so that they have a completely impersonal effect as soon as they leave the lips of the teacher. For they are to provide a garment in which the Logos flowing through the world can clothe itself. The words must adapt themselves to these currents of the Logos. That is why they are used in a very specific way. For example, two expressions are chosen for some concepts because one alone would not convey the meaning of what is to be expressed. If one says, for example, “The spiritual-divine life permeates the whole world,” this does not sufficiently express the corresponding fact. If, on the other hand, one says, “Spiritual-divine life permeates and interweaves the world,” then these two expressions convey an image of what is meant.
Read this passage in another edition
ENEnglish