Esoteric Lesson

My dear sisters and brothers! We must realize that there is a great difference between external, exoteric knowledge and the knowledge that theosophy imparts to us. When we allow an external view to influence us, mental images and concepts form within us; we learn about the thing we are looking at, we gain knowledge about it. Is it the same with theosophical knowledge? Here too, when we are told about the four limbs of the human being or about the planetary states of the earth or the Akashic Chronicle, we form concepts and mental images about these things, but there is something else involved. While exoteric knowledge does not enrich us and leaves nothing behind after death, it is different with all esoteric knowledge. It flows into us, into our astral body, and forms certain new members there; new threads weave themselves into the astral body and remain connected to our being. We know that the astral body surrounds the human being in an egg shape. Since an I works within it, it radiates outwards: