Esoteric Lesson

Now, however, we should regard it more and more as an instrument. When, through meditation and concentration, we reach the point of leaving it and seeing it lying before us, the organs are indeed not active. The eyes do not see, the ears do not hear. The body has the value of a plant, but a highly developed one, and as it lies there before us, we must tell ourselves that we must completely wean ourselves from speaking of the “lower” physical and “lower” etheric bodies; for these two are marvelous structures in their organization. The physical body is a temple built for us by the lower gods, and whatever is flawed and bad in it is entirely our own doing. And when we then look at ourselves, the inhabitants of this temple, we realize that we, that is, our spiritual part, have the form of a dragon, a worm. The clairvoyant sees many who imagine themselves to be selfless, living only for their fellow human beings, with the protruding jaws and receding forehead of the worm as a sign of their egoism. Our soul still has this worm-like form, and so that we do not always see it, good gods have placed the guardian of the threshold in front of it. Now, however, we must resolve to transform this dragon and bring it up to meet the higher gods. This shall be our unceasing work. When the ancient Egyptian walked through the temple during his initiation, through the rows of sphinxes, he told himself that this temple was the physical image of the perfect dwelling place of God and that he had to attain this divinity in order to be worthy of dwelling in the temple of his body.