4. The Human Soul and the Human Spirit

Thus one can say: spiritual science is an exploration. It is not correct to speak of a further development of the soul, for it is an exploration of the deeper forces that lie in the human soul and in the human spirit, to which one does not direct one's gaze because one has not developed the spiritual ear and spiritual eye, the organ for it, and does not direct one's gaze towards it in ordinary life. It is a seeking out of the eternal forces of the human soul. And if one holds fast to this, then one comes to say the following, which, when expressed in this way, may be surprising, but which is a matter of course for anyone who sees through the actual facts. On the surface, spiritual science, that is, the real knowledge of the human soul and the human spirit, is still something that is regarded by the majority of humanity as a fantasy, as a reverie, as something nonsensical, to which just a few people can devote themselves, who have actually lost their common sense through something. Seen inwardly, seen in accordance with the truth, the spiritual researcher actually has no opponent in the world. And the strange thing about it is that the spiritual researcher asserts nothing other than something that, basically, every person agrees with – with the very slightest exceptions, which in turn are based on particularly peculiar states of mind. With a few exceptions, every person must actually agree with him – they just don't know it, they just believe that they cannot agree with him. That is it! Because anyone who is just aware that they go through the world thinking cannot in reality be more opposed to the spiritual researcher. Because everyone who goes through the world thinking shows that thinking means something in the world; he thereby admits that thinking is a process that takes place above the world of the senses. By thinking, we inwardly experience something that takes place above the world of the senses, that does not belong to the world of the senses, one could perhaps also say that it takes place below the world of the senses. One admits this in the moment when one thinks precisely. One simply does not admit it, and by doing so one is an opponent of spiritual science. One admits it in the moment when one realizes that thinking, even in ordinary life, could not develop an image of the external world if it were in this external world, in the sense world. For if thinking belonged to the sense world, it could no more make an image of the sense world than a flame can make an image of a candle. It is the product of the candle, but the product can never make an image. So anyone who, in this sense, wants to be an opponent of the spirituality of thinking would have to be an opponent of spirituality in general. Because thinking is in itself something above the world of the senses, because it is evoked through inner effort, through an inner soul activity, therefore not just through processes, which take place like the other bodily processes. That simply arises from the fact that one lets this thinking judge about the world of the senses. And by admitting that thinking does not arise out of the sense world, but that it judges the sense world, one already takes the standpoint that thinking as such does not belong to the sense world, that it is something spiritual. If one wanted to take the standpoint that it is not something spiritual, that it arises out of the sense world, then one would have to organize one's opposition quite differently. And only he who says, 'I do not believe that this thinking has any significance beyond the sense world, so I stop thinking,' can truly be an opponent of the spirituality of thinking. I do not inwardly strengthen myself to any thought, but I abandon myself to the sense world; then thinking must come by itself. Anyone who does not abolish thinking can never be an opponent of the spirituality of thinking, if he only really thinks correctly; if he only 'goes' with his thinking to the appropriate conclusions. In fact, in practice, all those who think are of this opinion. For any other opinion is not an opposition to spiritual science, but an opposition to oneself. One asserts something different from what one practices in practice. Anyone who exercises thinking at all thereby acknowledges that thinking is spiritual.