The So-Called Dangers of Initiation

If those who often pride themselves so much on their practical approach to life were to say that theosophy, with its unworldly ideas, only puts nonsense into people's heads, and that people who devote themselves to such things would never achieve anything real in life, if they were to take just one look at the world and at what is called, on the one hand, practicality and, and impractical idealism on the other, they might speak differently. It was a German philosopher, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, who said the beautiful words: Idealists know just as well as so-called practical people, perhaps even better, that ideals cannot be applied directly in life. But the fact that certain people cannot see that all life flows from the ideal of life, from what is not yet there, from what is yet to come, only shows that, as Fichte puts it, they are not counted on in the plan for the ennoblement of humanity. May the deity therefore grant them rain and sunshine, food, and wise thoughts at the right time! The theosophist may take comfort from an objective view of life when the danger of so-called impracticality is pointed out. For an example of what practicality is, we can cite that wise college of practitioners in a country in southern Germany. When they wanted to build the first railroad in Germany, they asked them whether it would be good to build this railroad. The group said—and anyone can verify that the document exists—that no railroad should be built, because people would suffer serious damage to their nervous systems; but if there were people who still wanted to ride a railroad, and if it were to be built, high wooden walls would have to be erected on both sides of it so that those passing by would not suffer concussions. That was not so long ago! It was also not so long ago that a man who was not a practitioner but an “impractical teacher” advised introducing cheaper postcards instead of expensive postage stamps. It was Rowland Hill, the non-practitioner. But there was a postmaster who said: I cannot really see that introducing postage in this way would be an advantage, because if traffic were to develop in such a way, the post office building would no longer be sufficient to accommodate and transport all the letters and postal items. - This is how some of the judgments made today by people who are hostile to theosophy appear.