8. The Mystery of Death and the Riddle of Life
GA 68b/1908-02-01/p004
·1908-02-01
·
English
HighHigh alignmentThis translation's paragraph count matches the German original — the locus maps cleanly to the same paragraph in DE.
Record: listeners' notes. Written from listeners' notes, summaries, or memory rather than a shorthand transcript. The wording is the note-taker's as much as Steiner's: weigh a single striking phrase here far more cautiously than the same phrase in a stenographic volume, and do not rest an argument on one word. Evidence: «Da keine professionellen Stenogramme vorliegen, handelt es sich oftmals um notizenhaft festgehaltene Zusammenfassungen oder Berichte.» (Since no professional shorthand transcripts exist, these are often summaries or reports kept in the form of notes.). The publisher's description of the volume, as mirrored on AnthroWiki (GA 68b). The translation is the maintainer's, not a published one.
Human beings are incapable of finding answers to life's riddles through purely physical observation. Theosophy seeks answers in spiritual knowledge of the background of existence, which leads beyond the sensory world. Theosophy does not seek to answer the questions about the riddles of life because people are plagued by idle curiosity, but because humanity needs, for its healthy existence, the confidence that comes from the sources that give us answers to the questions about the mysteries of life.
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