LIII. Essence, Perception, and Actions
GA 90a/1904-08-14/p004
·1904-08-14
·
English
MediumMedium alignmentSome paragraph re-numbering between this translation and the German original — the locus may slip by a paragraph or two.
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: «Frühe Vortragsreihen und Einzelvorträge für Mitglieder in Berlin 1903–1904 nach ausführlichen und z.T. fragmentarischen Mitschriften.» (Early lecture series and single lectures for members in Berlin 1903-1904, from detailed and in part fragmentary listeners' transcripts.). The publisher's description of the volume, as mirrored on AnthroWiki (GA 90a); the description calls them "Hörermitschriften", and the served text carries the note-taker's gap marker "[Lücke in der Mitschrift]". The translation is the maintainer's, not a published one.
If we did not have a physical hand, we would not be able to move an object, but would pass through matter. The hand must be impenetrable. [Gap in the transcript] It is the same with the sense organs. [Gap in the transcript] eyes. These organs are called Indriyas, and a distinction is made between Indriyas of the senses or perception and Indriyas of action. Every being forms organs of action and sense from the materials of the world through which it passes. Man belongs to the eternal world with his being, but with his organs to the world through which he passes. When he has traversed these worlds, he takes something from the worlds through his organs, which remains his possession. You had eyes when you emerged from the bosom of the Eternal, but they had no [gap in the transcript]
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