Donate books to help fund our work. Learn more→

The Rudolf Steiner Archive

a project of Steiner Online Library, a public charity

Search results 1081 through 1090 of 6456

˂ 1 ... 107 108 109 110 111 ... 646 ˃
70a. The Human Soul, Fate and Death: The Fundamental Power of the German Spirit in the Light of Spiritual Science 16 Jun 1915, Düsseldorf

Rudolf Steiner
You will understand that at this time, such a reflection, especially if it is to be based on the spiritual scientific worldview, must also be made in view of the fateful events of our time.
From such a juxtaposition of different moods, one will understand that in the East, the Russian spiritual mood is asserting itself, which stands without understanding in relation to what is taking place in Central Europe, and which does not overlook everything that is emerging here as a living spiritual life, but always speaks of the decaying culture of the West.
In defense of and in an effort to understand this German intellectual life, I would like to call to mind a Western spirit that truly belongs to the best [Western spirits] of the nineteenth century, an American who wrote in English, Emerson.
70a. The Human Soul, Fate and Death: The Rejuvenating Powers of the German National Soul in the Light of Spiritual Science 18 Jun 1915, Cologne

Rudolf Steiner
Some things, because they have to be briefly mentioned, have to be stated somewhat radically; but if you follow the lines of thought that are presented here, you will see how much more easily they can penetrate into the understanding that we must seek in the present, the understanding of the interrelationships between the peoples of Europe.
If we compare these two beliefs, we have every reason to understand why what is Russian in nature cannot understand what is Western European, what is Central European, and especially what is German in nature.
Yes, what is he to you, this human being? Do you understand? He takes you by the collar and crushes you under the nail like a flea! Then you may feel sorry for him!
70b. Ways to a Knowledge of the Eternal Forces of the Human Soul: The World View Of German Idealism. A Consideration Regarding Our Fateful Times 25 Nov 1915, Stuttgart

Rudolf Steiner
Schelling stands before nature as if he could create it from within by wanting to understand it. Understanding nature means creating nature – and we see Faust transformed into the living, into the fullness of human existence.
But if one delves into it, not intellectually, but rather in terms of feeling and emotion, not in terms of dogma, but in terms of the will, in terms of the particular orientation that underlies the world view of German idealism, then one finds that there is something in it that can still be lived out, that can still be developed, that one can say: something can arise from it that bears no resemblance to the difficult-to-understand arguments of Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel, something that can develop in such a way that it can be easily understood by the simplest mind.
Whether there is much understanding for this world view of German idealism in our time, especially among our enemies, is another question.
70b. Ways to a Knowledge of the Eternal Forces of the Human Soul: The World View Of German Idealism. A Consideration Regarding Our Fateful Times 26 Nov 1915, Stuttgart

Rudolf Steiner
What one arrives at in this way is indeed something that brings one to an understanding of the ancient saying: 'By exploring the spiritual foundations of the soul, one comes to the gate, to the threshold of death'.
Such opposition can be understood quite well, as one could understand everything that was raised against Galileo, against Copernicus and their world view. – Which, of course, is not meant to suggest any kind of historical comparison.
In a completely unbiased, by no means forced way, it results - I would like to say - an inner understanding of what happens in such eras. And an inner understanding arises as to why causes must be created through sacrificial deaths for something that will later arise in human life as forces that will serve the welfare and progress of this human life.
70b. Ways to a Knowledge of the Eternal Forces of the Human Soul: The World View Of German Idealism. A Consideration Regarding Our Fateful Times 28 Nov 1915, Munich

Rudolf Steiner
This must be taken as a deep feeling, then one understands why Kant wants to dethrone ordinary knowledge so that a real source can be thought for the moral idea.
And Goethe's “Faust”, this image of the highest human striving, this image, to understand which one must first struggle through it by allowing many German educational elements to take effect, from what did it emerge?
In the third of the German idealistic philosophers, in Hegel – who is difficult to understand and so far removed from many people – this lively character of the arena of thought appears in the same way within German idealism.
70b. Ways to a Knowledge of the Eternal Forces of the Human Soul: The Eternal Forces of the Human Soul in the Light of Spiritual Science 29 Nov 1915, Munich

Rudolf Steiner
These thoughts are the main thing at first, just as the external results are for manual labor; but as it is carried out, it strengthens itself within, it is something that undergoes a certain development within itself. Of course, we look at the development in the hand; but we do not really look at the intimate inner development that thinking undergoes in thinking.
And the point that leads there has been designated for a long time by a word that only those understand completely who have at least acquired an inkling of the paths of the human soul through such inner spiritual attempts.
That we are capable not only of developing forces of life but also of undermining life, is connected with many things; but the fact that we can think emerges as the highest flowering.
70b. Ways to a Knowledge of the Eternal Forces of the Human Soul: Ways of Knowing the Eternal Powers of the Human Soul 08 Jan 1916, Bern

Rudolf Steiner
Because that which is brought from the spiritual world does not speak to our lack of understanding, but it speaks to our understanding. And I have just said at the beginning that one must first understand the spiritual world; one must be able to look at it.
Therefore one should not say: I will first recognize the spiritual world in its individual manifestations when I have investigated it. For one must first understand. Even the spiritual researcher himself must first understand, even if this seems paradoxical, just as one also understands certain mathematical laws through their occurrence and then knows that once one has gained this understanding, experiences that have not yet occurred must take place – just as one can calculate solar eclipses in advance. Because one has first understood the nature of the whole, for example, one first understands the spiritual connections; and then, with what is happening in the outer world with this understanding, the outer world illuminates that which one must first have as a concept.
70b. Ways to a Knowledge of the Eternal Forces of the Human Soul: Ways of Knowing the Eternal Powers of the Human Soul 10 Jan 1916, Zürich

Rudolf Steiner
A very important spiritual and natural scientist has called certain states that occur, and even underlie the dream life, and in particular underlie hypnotism, all possible forms of clairvoyance, etc., “rigid states of consciousness”.
This spiritual science, and it wants to be, is really, honored attendees, a continuation of the natural scientific way of thinking for the spiritual realm. But it is understandable. Especially when one has a good grasp of the history of science, it is understandable that today there are still few people who have a sense for what is at the core of this spiritual research.
The fact that the truth is hated for a time – that is a humanly understandable phenomenon – but it can never prevent this truth from recurring again and again, as it has also happened with the scientific worldview.
70b. Ways to a Knowledge of the Eternal Forces of the Human Soul: How Can Research into the Supersensible Essence of Man be Brought About? 12 Jan 1916, Basel

Rudolf Steiner
In fact, thinking takes on a completely different character under the influence of the exercises. It really becomes a completely different soul power. And I would like to point out, by way of comparison, how surprising this change in thinking activity can be.
Because, indeed, the development that the spiritual researcher undergoes, dear attendees, is such that the individual stages are connected with inner shocks, with inner conquests, of which we must also learn some.
And then one experiences what is actually there, what comes out of the will. One gradually learns to understand why it appears in the form of pain, because one learns to understand: You are now actually experiencing that which you otherwise cannot experience in your everyday life in thinking and willing; what underlies it, what has basically developed in the depths of your soul throughout your whole life, what you have now grasped at the stage when you began to become a spiritual researcher.
70b. Ways to a Knowledge of the Eternal Forces of the Human Soul: The Harmony Between Spiritual and Natural Science and Misconceptions about the Former. The Building Dedicated to it in Dornach 14 Jan 1916, Basel

Rudolf Steiner
Therefore, one need not be surprised if this harmony between natural science and spiritual science cannot yet be found everywhere. On the contrary, it must be fully understood when spiritual research is simply taken by many as a fantasy. And those who are firm in spiritual science, who are thoroughly grounded in it, will find this misunderstanding to be something quite understandable.
It is understandable, completely understandable, that this Dornach building is still met with many, many misunderstandings today.
The time will come when the goal of spiritual striving in all fields will no longer be seen as a struggle but as harmony, and that will be the time when the misunderstandings regarding spiritual research will also disappear. Today, such misunderstandings are just as understandable when they arise in the religious field or in the field of natural science as the objections to Copernicanism were understandable in their time.

Results 1081 through 1090 of 6456

˂ 1 ... 107 108 109 110 111 ... 646 ˃