Self-education in the Light of Spiritual Science

This brings us to a number of things that are highly recommended for people's self-education today, and about which, from a truly spiritual scientific point of view, one cannot warn enough. People are advised on how to develop a self-confident demeanor that impresses others, how to train their will so that they can step into life and carry out actions that correspond to their intentions. For example, it is recommended that people do exercises that consist of avoiding fear, curiosity, other passions, and negative feelings — in short, working on negative feelings and sensations. I know that some who hear this now will say afterwards: Today, there has been talk against controlling fear, passion, and so on. But that is not the case. Rather, it has been said that these demands that people place on themselves in this way cannot lead to a real cultivation of the will that is useful for outer life. For the cultivation of the will that people need for outer life should also be acquired in interaction with outer life. And it is much more correct, if human beings need a strong will for life, that they seek to acquire it by having to prove their external strength, whereby they must exert their bodies and be careful with their eyes, that is, really take up the struggle with the immediate sensory world. This is what brings us into real harmony with the external world, with that external world from which our muscular activity and our entire physical organization are formed, formed, of course, from the spirit.