Esoteric Lesson

GA 266c/1913-05-18/p005 ·1913-05-18 · 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: mixed sources. This volume draws on more than one kind of record (transcripts, notes, documents). Check the volume's own front matter before weighing a single passage. Evidence: «Gedächtnisaufzeichnungen von Teilnehmern und Meditationstexte nach Niederschriften Rudolf Steiners» (Participants' records written from memory, and meditation texts from Rudolf Steiner's own manuscripts). Rudolf Steiner Verlag Gesamtverzeichnis 2022, volume subtitle. The translation is the maintainer's, not a published one.

Let us assume that a person in exoteric life has no awareness of the air surrounding him; he can only perceive minerals, plants, animals, solids and liquids, mountains, etc. He might also see the clouds and perceive lightning and thunder or similar phenomena occurring within them, but he would have no awareness of the air that is in between: Such a person would be similar to how the occultist perceives the exotericist, who knows nothing of the spiritual world surrounding him. In the present epoch, it is indeed right and in accordance with the meaning of Earth's development that the exotericist regards the physical world surrounding him as reality, in which he is to work consciously. The esotericist, however, should perceive the physical world in a completely different way. What is the difference?

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Cite: GA 266c/1913-05-18/p005 · edition English