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The Rudolf Steiner Archive

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Search results 11 through 20 of 6456

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91. Inner and Outer Evolution: Helpful Concepts for Understanding Ancient Legends and the New Testament 19 Aug 1904, Graal

Rudolf Steiner
But they have an occult power which acts on people, and with fidelity they reproduce sayings of a depth which can only be an expression of what is called the highest wisdom. [... ] As long as occultism was at the bottom of religion, the stone kingdom was regarded as that which is most perfect; the plant has only a small part of Kama in itself, but it has it nevertheless; animal and man are filled with it; the chaste, desireless of the crystal was put up as an ideal to the disciple; the human intellect serves desire, concupiscence; it is therefore not perfect at its present stage, it serves the special being, while the mineral emerges from the general nature and dissolves into the general. As the emblem of man striving for understanding, one has considered the serpents - Naga - who brought understanding to men, [they were] therefore called seducers, since they brought with understanding the freedom to choose between good and evil.
Again by an initiate, Heracles is an initiate - descends into the underworld. Everywhere we find similar Prometheus sagas, with the remarkable addition that through spiritual wisdom, through an initiate, comes redemption.
91. Inner and Outer Evolution: Helpful Concepts for Understanding the New Testament 20 Aug 1904, Graal

Rudolf Steiner
Let us read further at the crucifixion: “Woman, behold your son.” All this can only be understood by the researcher of secrets: the people of an initiate are referred to as his mother. At the same time, he has outgrown his people, he arises from them but grows beyond them. Here we, as 'mother', must understand the Jewish people. Mary of Magdala represents the part of the people who believe in him because of his miracles; 'Cleophas' wife' represents the part of the people who feel Jewish.
91. Inner and Outer Evolution: Helpful Concepts for Understanding the Days of the Week 21 Aug 1904, Graal

Rudolf Steiner
186. The Fundamental Social Demand of Our Times: Understand One-Another 21 Dec 1918, Dornach
Translator Unknown

Rudolf Steiner
And if we would gather up into a single sentence what has been passing through our souls in recent weeks—then we may say: It is necessary for men to strive ever more and more for a full mutual understanding. This quest of a true mutual understanding among men coincides with what we explained yesterday as to the fundamental impulse underlying what we here call Anthroposophical Spiritual Science.
He must recognize that the same thing must now need to be undertaken on the path of the Spirit as has hitherto been undertaken on the path of Nature. Only so can the path of Nature be saved from its aberration into a purely Ahrimanic realm.
Yet this will only happen in our time if we have the will really to understand this life all the Earth over, to understand it as it works in man himself. Moreover we can only understand the single human being if we understand the character of human groupings.
196. Some Conditions for Understanding Supersensible Experiences 18 Jan 1920, Dornach
Translator Unknown

Rudolf Steiner
Something else, for example, might come about. The Ahrimanic Powers, which under the influence of the impulses working in men to-day are becoming extremely strong, might succeed in preventing earth-evolution in a certain respect.
The moment untruthfulness asserts itself, the super-sensible experiences fade away without being understood. People are never willing to believe this, but it is a fact. The first requirement for understanding the super-sensible world is the most scrupulous veracity in regard to the experiences of the senses.
Whenever things are said from the standpoint of a kind of thinking that has nothing whatever to do with the sense-world, but in complete freedom creates out of intuitions, people do not understand it. My Philosophy of Spiritual Activity was not understood because it can be grasped only by one who is intent upon unfolding really free thoughts, one who is truly and in a new sense a ‘Master of the Liberal Arts’.
154. The Presence of the Dead on the Spiritual Path: Understanding the Spiritual World I 18 Apr 1914, Berlin
Translated by Christoph von Arnim

Rudolf Steiner
To this day, this has been extremely difficult for many people to understand. That is why they speak of Christ as only a great cosmic teacher. For those who really understand the full significance of Christ, this is simply nonsense.
As soon as it is examined, everything becomes understandable. One does not need clairvoyance for this; our ordinary understanding is enough to really grasp and comprehend all this gradually—of course, “gradually” will be inconvenient for some people.
The more advanced soul is clearly the one that comes to sound judgments out of its ordinary understanding—and this ordinary understanding is completely sufficient to grasp spiritual science if one is free of preconceived notions.
154. The Presence of the Dead on the Spiritual Path: Understanding the Spiritual World II 12 May 1914, Berlin
Translated by Christoph von Arnim

Rudolf Steiner
The articles and clichés are passed on from one paper to the next and are translated into every language, and in each language another distortion and more stupidity are added. Of course, it is not hard to understand what happens when the aims of our serious and sincere spiritual science clash with what the outer world can understand.
It is important that we be aware how deep our understanding for the tasks of spiritual science in the world must be. You may want to ask why we could not continue to work with our concepts modestly and anonymously even among those who cannot understand us, as we did before we started the building in Dornach.
What matters is that we should have a proper appreciation for and understanding of our cause in our hearts. I do not say this to accuse or criticize anyone, but to remind you once again how earnestly we must try to understand the new that is to grow in us to counterbalance what comes from the world outside, particularly in the opinions of other people.
253. Community Life, Inner Development, Sexuality and the Spiritual Teacher: The Philosophy of Psychoanalysis as Illuminated by an Anthroposophical Understanding of the Human Being 16 Sep 1915, Dornach
Translated by Catherine E. Creeger

Rudolf Steiner
For the time being, let me just say that we must leave the physical body and undergo a higher form of development in order to achieve an understanding of structures corresponding to physical human nature during the Saturn stage.
That's how we can come to clarity on this issue. Only after we have completely understood everything we have discussed today can our understanding be allowed to lead to name-calling. When we call psychoanalysis a smutty theory, that obviously really is name-calling; however, our insight into the objective fact of the matter is what compels us to call it by this name.
Those who have gone through a real struggle to understand what psychoanalysis actually is can freely call it a smutty theory without losing their objectivity.
236. Karmic Relationships II: Understanding Karmic Connections 30 May 1924, Dornach
Translated by George Adams, Mabel Cotterell, Charles Davy, Dorothy S. Osmond

Rudolf Steiner
The ability to perceive karmic connections in human life demands a clear understanding of laws and conditions of existence with which, generally speaking, the man of modern times is entirely unfamiliar.
In an epoch, for example, when a prophetic being was venerated under the name of ‘Elisha’, girls were sometimes named ‘Elisa-beth’, that is to say, the ‘house of Elisha’.
You have only to picture it to yourselves, entering into it with the right feeling and understanding. Imagine now that you are observing the manifestations of destiny in the life of a human being.
224. The Waking of the Human Soul and the Forming of Destiny: The Need for Understanding The Christ 29 Apr 1923, Prague
Translator Unknown

Rudolf Steiner
One of those who struggled out of the character of that period toward an understanding of Christianity is to be seen in Augustine. In this Augustine we see a spirit who could no longer understand the ancient form of the conception of nature.
Just as little conception did these ancient times have of mere matter; on the contrary, spirit existed in everything. This was something that Augustine could not understand. What Gnosis understood, and what was no longer understood later; what our own period does not at all understand,—this is true: no matter exists of itself; this was known by the Manicheans and they beheld the descent of Christ in the light of this view.
What occurred on Golgotha is not merely an event that has laid hold upon the physical, earthly history of humanity, but also a spiritual event. No one can understand the Event of Golgotha who does not understand it in the spirit. Anthroposophical spiritual science, therefore, is at the same time preparation for a new understanding of the Christ and of the Mystery of Golgotha.

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