17. The Essence of Man in the Light of Spiritual Science

When a person is accepted into the so-called secret school, through which he can work even more intensively on his inner being through significant impulses, he has an even stronger effect on the etheric or life body, so that he can experience awakening. For the etheric or life body, changing habits is more important than any learning. For the actual secret-scientific training, one has done infinitely much when one consciously gives up the slightest habit. Man can also learn to develop the strongest power of the spirit, through which he overcomes the lower power of the physical body. This process begins with a regulation of the breathing process. When he can regulate this process, he begins to transform the principle of the physical body. This transformed part of the principle of the physical body is called a spiritual man or Atman, because Atma means breathing. He thus forms the three limbs of the higher being; the fifth limb, Manas, is the transformed astral body, the sixth limb, Budhi, is the transformed etheric body; the seventh limb, Atman, is the transformed physical body. In the ordinary human being, the four limbs are fully present, the three higher limbs developed according to the degree of development. These seven members of the human being enclose the transitory in him, but they also enclose the eternal. The arrangement that has been mentioned is the one we have between birth and death. When the human being passes through the gate of death, this arrangement changes. When we look into the mystery of death, the riddle of life is also solved.