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The Rudolf Steiner Archive

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273. The Problem of Faust: Faust's Knowledge and Understanding of Himself and of the Forces Actually Slumbering in Man 17 Jan 1919, Dornach
Translated by George Adams

Rudolf Steiner
These deities of primeval peoples appear primitive to man today—mere idols. This is so because modern man has no understanding for idols. This is so because modern man has no understanding for all that flows out of elemental forces.
And, we ask, does he know at all how Homunculus is to become man? Nereus has indeed understanding, even to the point of prophetic clairvoyance; and he makes noble use of this understanding, but even so does not really succeed in reaching what is innermost in the human being.
He uses the microscope; he examines the germ-cell under the microscope, before it is fertilised, after it is fertilised, and so on. He has no feeling that what he thus examines in the smallest object under the microscope is constantly before his eyes in the macrocosm.
The Ideas Behind the Building of the Goetheanum: The Artistic Impulses Underlying the Building Idea 09 Oct 1920, Dornach

Rudolf Steiner
In today's lecture, my task will be to contribute something to the understanding of what lies in the artistic impulses that carry the building idea of Dornach, in order to then develop this building idea in more detail in the next of these lectures.
These mystery dramas have been seen and experienced down to the last word, down to the tone of voice, as they stand, and the one who introduces allegorization does not understand them. He cannot really bring out the measure of super-sensibility that lies in them, for he only imprints the intellectual concepts into what should actually be experienced in the artistic sense.
If one continues in this feeling and sensing, then one comes to understand how, through having different feelings for the head than for the rest of the organism, one experiences something as a sculptor that is neither gravity nor vertically acting buoyancy nor even spreading force.
289. The Ideas Behind the Building of the Goetheanum: The Artistic Impulses Underlying the Building Idea 29 Jun 1921, Bern

Rudolf Steiner
Someone who has never heard of Christianity naturally does not understand the Sistine Madonna either. And someone who has no sense of Christianity would never understand the Last Supper in Milan in the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie.
Man is always the balance between these two. We do not understand the human being if we do not see in him the balance between these two, the Luciferic and the Ahrimanic.
The building may rightly call itself the “Goetheanum” for the reason that precisely such a Goethean understanding of nature also strives for an understanding of the world. Goethe says: Art is a special way of revealing the secrets of nature, which could never be revealed without art.
243. True and False Paths in Spiritual Investigation: What is the Position in Respect of Spiritual Investigation and the Understanding of Spiritual Investigation? 22 Aug 1924, Torquay
Translated by A. H. Parker

Rudolf Steiner
It is essential to realize that we must not immediately undertake investigations into the spiritual world; but on the other hand if we do not adopt undesirable practices, such as experimenting with karma when there is no karmic necessity, or with mediums whose procedure we do not understand; and if we rely upon the everyday consciousness, which is the right condition of consciousness for this world, then we will attain to a perfect understanding of the communications of Initiation Science.
How can we expect to recognize Cosmic Man if we have not first prepared ourselves to understand Cosmic Man as he really is! It is precisely out of this understanding of the Cosmic Man that Christology can grow. Thus you see how true paths lead into the spiritual world, to a knowledge of birth and death and of the relationship of the human organism to the Cosmos, to the recognition of evil and to knowledge of Christ, the Cosmic Man. All this can be understood, when it is presented in such a way that the various aspects are shown to support each other. And the best means of finding one's own way into the spiritual world is through understanding and by meditating upon what is understood.
218. Waldorf Education and Anthroposophy II: The Art of Teaching from an Understanding of the Human Being 20 Nov 1922, London
Translated by Ruth Pusch, Gertrude Teutsch, Roland Everett

Rudolf Steiner
If people have not risen to a genuine comprehension of the spirit, how can they learn to understand the soul? They can gain understanding of the soul only by understanding the expressions and activities of their own soul.
You can feel yourself to be above children and think that you are wise and children are dumb. You might feel that children cannot understand what you, in your wisdom, can understand about the immortality of the soul, so you will create a picture for them.
Selflessness and a true desire to deepen your understanding of human nature, and gaining a true understanding of humanity—these are the basic elements of genuine teaching.
330. The Reorganization of the Social Organism: The Path to Psychic Experiences and Knowledge as a Basis for a Real Understanding of People 09 Jul 1919, Stuttgart

Rudolf Steiner
Then the human being knows that he develops ideas, that he has emotions, that he has a will that drives him to action – in short, the human being knows that something lives in his consciousness, underlying the will, underlying the emotions or feelings, underlying the ideas. But when he then reflects, “What is the relationship between what I think, feel and will, between the content of my inner soul life and my outer life?”
The spiritual researcher will have to speak of the struggles he had to undergo in two directions. For many people today, these struggles are in an abstract world, but only for the faith of these many people.
I will have to speak about what arises from the basis of such a soul life, which is capable of understanding from common sense that what I have said today is based on truth, about necessities for the social development of the present and the near future.
301. The Renewal of Education: Understanding the Human Being: A Foundation for Education 22 Apr 1920, Basel
Translated by Ruth Pusch, Gertrude Teutsch

Rudolf Steiner
All education has the task of placing itself consciously in human development, but we cannot do that without a thorough understanding of the human being, an understanding that spiritual science can give to a renewed natural science.
What actually occurs within the human being? We can understand this only when we have a detailed understanding of certain interactions within the human being.
Such things are nearly all lost. Materialism has nearly lost an understanding of the physical organs, particularly those of the human being. How can we work with a human being if we are not in a position to understand what the human being is physically?
265a. Lessons for the Participants of Cognitive-Cultic Work 1906–1924: On the Necessity of Understanding the Revelations 20 Mar 1912, Basel

Rudolf Steiner
That is given, what the Rosicrucians have to say. Should it not be understood, the spiritual entities would have to withdraw the revelation.
191. Meditatively Acquired Knowledge of Man: Social Understanding Through Spiritual Scientific Knowledge 04 Oct 1919, Dornach
Translated by T. Van Vliet, Pauline Wehrle, Karla Kiniger

Rudolf Steiner
Now which of man's forces are supersensible and which are subsensible? All the forces connected with understanding are supersensible, that is, everything we make use of for understanding. And these are the same forces that also form our head.
If the child absorbs something that reaches beyond his understanding, purely because of the infectious quality of his teacher's enthusiasm, he will not yet understand what he has taken in, as people say in superficial life.
Comparing this with our present day consciousness it would be like learning that man consists of carbohydrates, protein and so on—these are our constituents and they undergo such and such changes inside our body, and we cannot eat before we have understood this; for we do not eat in a physiological sense until we understand it.
261. How the Spiritual World Interpenetrates the Physical: How Does One Gain Understanding of the Spiritual World I 09 May 1914, Karlsruhe
Translated by Harry Collison

Rudolf Steiner
To form a proper judgment of all this, we must understand clearly that the moment we turn to the study of spiritual life, we immediately have to consider what is called human fellowship.
If with reference to anything that happens to us in the physical world we could but succeed in finding the spiritual causes of some stroke of fate or misfortune, we should look beyond it, and understand that what seems supremely sad may be understood at the fount of Cosmic Wisdom. We must emphasize this over and over again. It does not alter the fact that much suffering may come to us; but it does alter our attitude to it, we do not sink under it and shut ourselves egotistically in our sorrow, or withdraw from the world's life, which we certainly ought not to do.

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