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The Rudolf Steiner Archive

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Search results 3871 through 3880 of 6073

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152. Occult Science and Occult Development: Christ at the Time of the Mystery of Golgotha and in the 20th Century 02 May 1913, London
Translated by Dorothy S. Osmond

Rudolf Steiner
The human mind always looks for a standard of comparison by means of which things can be understood, but what is incomparable defies all comparison and because it is unique will be very difficult to comprehend.
There are, of course, good and bad definitions—some are comprehensive, others less satisfactory. In order to understand the things of the earth, definitions may be helpful; but when it is a matter of understanding realities—above all super-sensible realities—one cannot define, one must ‘characterise’; for then it is necessary to contemplate the facts and the beings from every possible vantage-point.
And now think of the laws of Nature. A great deal can be understood by studying them and in future time much more will be learnt, but we must be mere dreamers if we do not realise that the understanding of life as such is an ideal attainable only through actual development, never through the mere study of these laws.
152. Prelude to the Mystery of Golgotha: The Three Spiritual Precursors of the Mystery of Golgotha 05 Mar 1914, Stuttgart

Rudolf Steiner
Under the effect of the Luciferic-Ahrimanic impact, the life of the senses would have had to trigger the strongest desires and impulses.
Then, from 2400 onwards, the epoch will come when the forces for understanding Christ will come from the earth alone, when the Christ will work on people from the physical plane.
The history of human thought shows us that, if the forces necessary for the future understanding of Christ are to be present, thought itself must take on a different form, and thinking activity must undergo a transformation.
152. Prelude to the Mystery of Golgotha: The Christ-Spirit and Its Relations to the Development of Consciousness 30 Mar 1914, Munich

Rudolf Steiner
If Christ had wanted to work only through what people could have understood of him, he would have been able to work little. He entered evolution as a living entity. Human understanding must struggle to reach Him. In this way we see how the dogmatic disputes take place. Human judgment is still far from penetrating the Christ Impulse.
If we survey the development of humanity, it will become clear to us that we have to understand the Christ impulse as a living force that works much more in the depths of the soul and makes use of physical means, more than what people understand.
152. Prelude to the Mystery of Golgotha: Progress in the Knowledge of the Christ: The Fifth Gospel 27 May 1914, Paris

Rudolf Steiner
We must note that basically no one in his family understood the deeply significant development of the young Jesus of Nazareth. He was alone with it even as a boy from twelve to eighteen years old; completely alone with it.
Today the Jewish people are here, but if the great Bath-Kol were to speak to them today, there would be no one to hear her. They understand the scriptures, but they no longer understand the living scripture. He was lonely within himself; an immense sadness came over his soul, over what had become of his people in the downward development of humanity.
Just as he could say in the midst of the Jewish people: And even if the voice of the great Bath-Kol were to resound today, there are no longer any people here who could understand it ; one is alone with it, – so he could now say in relation to the pagan people: And even if the voices of the old pagan mysteries were to resound again everywhere, there would no longer be any people here who could understand them.
152. The Path of the Christ through the Centuries 14 Oct 1913, Copenhagen
Translated by Dorothy S. Osmond

Rudolf Steiner
The other powers of cognition lie more in the underground province of the soul and have to be drawn up from there. But a modern man does this only under coercion.
We shall not look for an intellectual, abstract or scientific interpretation of the Christ Being among the great Roman philosophers who speak of Him without understanding. Nor among the somewhat inarticulate Germanic peoples shall we find evidence of understanding.
Such phenomenal occurrences should not be ignored; they should rather lead to the insight that Christ, who came into humanity in an age when He could least be understood, is working perpetually to prepare the understanding that will come in future ages. A person who looks into the future should not generalise about it in abstract phrases.
152. Pre-Earthly Deeds of Christ 07 Mar 1914, Pforzheim
Translator Unknown

Rudolf Steiner
As regards the power of speech, however, the Egyptians could not even acquire that dim comprehension which they had for the power which enables man to stand upright. Their souls had first to undergo the right schooling, so that in later times they might be able to understand the riddle—how the Christ lives in man's gift of speech.
It may well be said that “The Light-giving Thought did indeed shine into the Darkness, but the Darkness wished to know nothing of it.” When man learns to understand the Life of Thought he will understand what devolves upon humanity in its further existence. And now there is still something more to be said, as we are standing on the ground of Spiritual Science.
History will then be a living memory because a true understanding of events has entered the memory; human memory will understand the central point of world-evolution.
152. The Four Sacrifices of Christ 01 Jun 1914, Basel
Translated by Dorothy S. Osmond, Harry Collison

Rudolf Steiner
A renewing of responsibility, a deepening of man's moral life, can come only through a training in unselfishness, and under the conditions of the present age only those can go through this school who have won for themselves an understanding of real, all-pervading selflessness.
It is the dragon, trodden under foot, that has brought thinking, feeling and willing into disorder. All who turn their gaze upon St.
It comes from our bodies, from our souls' capacity; it is not under our control. Equally, we have not under our control all that we perform in the spirit and for which we need spiritual power.
153. The Inner Nature of Man and Life Between Death and Rebirth: The Four Spheres of the Inner Life 09 Apr 1914, Vienna
Translator Unknown

Rudolf Steiner
Thus what a man sees in the spiritual world, depends upon his intention. And so you can understand, that what is described by the clairvoyant consciousness regarding what it sees in the spiritual world, may vary infinitely with different clairvoyant individuals.
That is the first impression received when—and I once more lay stress on this—when with ‘intention’ to learn to understand the inner life of man, one develops the clairvoyant consciousness; that is the first impression.
Our consciousness is fired by this and waxing stronger declares with inner understanding of soul and feeling that if we wish to understand man, we cannot do so otherwise than by recognising that the whole is born from out Divine-Spirituality.
153. The Inner Nature of Man and Life Between Death and Rebirth: The Vision of the Ideal Human Being 10 Apr 1914, Vienna
Translator Unknown

Rudolf Steiner
What appears to us there as coming later? In this way, you have a more exact understanding regarding matters which I have been unable to go into so fully in my public lectures, how for instance we enter concretely into the realms in which we live between death and rebirth.
Although we cannot there develop a religion by knowledge, still, under the guidance of the higher Spiritual Beings who are there active for man, we do develop a sort of religion.
When he is in the sense-body, the Spirits who watch over him undertake his development. Let us now ask: How much goes on in the subconscious depths of our soul between birth and death, how much goes on without our knowing anything about it?
153. The Inner Nature of Man and Life Between Death and Rebirth: The Senses and the Luciferic Temptation 11 Apr 1914, Vienna
Translator Unknown

Rudolf Steiner
They did not make such a dense mineral deposit. This was because, in those ancient times under certain conditions when perceptions came from outside, something shot up out of feeling and will to meet it.
The time has now come when mankind ought to acquire ideas about the super-sensible worlds through the understanding of Spiritual Science. For this reason it cannot be too often stated that the spiritual investigator alone can investigate these matters in the super-sensible world; but when they have been investigated and then imparted to us, there is something in our inmost soul which is a hidden language of the soul, which can grasp and understand the discoveries made by the spiritual investigator.
It is this which shows us how, from its very nature, the mission of our Anthroposophical Movement can be understood. In ancient times it still was the case that knowledge was animated from above and the capacity for receiving this knowledge came from below.

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