Donate books to help fund our work. Learn more→

The Rudolf Steiner Archive

a project of Steiner Online Library, a public charity

Search results 4561 through 4570 of 6552

˂ 1 ... 455 456 457 458 459 ... 656 ˃
170. The Riddle of Humanity: Lecture V 06 Aug 1916, Dornach
Translated by John F. Logan

The first virtue Plato mentions is wisdom—wisdom now understood as a virtue, not as science. Since wisdom as a virtue is related to the way truth is experienced, it takes hold of those forces that flow from the moral sphere to the head.
That means that in our present state of being we do not understand much about ourselves. So much, so inconceivably much, has gone into our becoming what we are. And there is so inconceivably much contained in the Earth evolution that is still to come, and in our passage through the spheres of Jupiter, Venus and Vulcan!
And as for how that is connected with the moon, we only have to remind ourselves of the stream that begins on Moon to understand how the silent floods of moonlight connect outer physical reality with spiritual experience. One has here a wonderful description of a spiritual experience: And in the secret magic of the night.
170. The Riddle of Humanity: Lecture VI 07 Aug 1916, Dornach
Translated by John F. Logan

That was the basic concept whose particular details we were elaborating. Now, in order to understand these things better and better, we want to call on the help of some other ideas that we have acquired.
We acquire the knowledge necessary for speaking, for understanding what is said, and much, much more. We really do learn a great deal. And that is included in the wisdom we accumulate.
That will furnish us with another opportunity to deepen our understanding of the human being.
170. The Riddle of Humanity: Lecture VII 12 Aug 1916, Dornach
Translated by John F. Logan

The relation of the fixed stars to the planets is a necessary outer expression of it and reveals one of the mysteries of number that underlie the cosmos. And the relationship of the number twelve to the number seven expresses one of the mysteries of existence, the mystery of how man, as bearer of the senses and faculties of perception, is related to man as the bearer of life.
170. The Riddle of Humanity: Lecture VIII 13 Aug 1916, Dornach
Translated by John F. Logan

Schleich really struggles to come to some degree of understanding of these processes that run backwards. He really sweats over the matter—spiritually speaking.
Even though it is written in a philosophical language that is difficult to understand, it will be discussed frequently. The discussions are likely to be very grotesque because it is difficult to grasp the implications of the book.
Of all mortal beings, the revelations of the truly productive musician bring him nearest to the spirit of the cosmos. Those other ‘mortals’ who claim to understand this metaphysical language of music experience it as a duty of the highest order to translate this received meaning into a conceptual form that is accessible to the understanding of their fellow men.
193. The Crossing of the Threshold and the Social Organism 12 Sep 1919, Berlin
Translator Unknown

We should realise over and over again that the old time has come to an end and that we must close our accounts with it. A real understanding of the present can only be gained if we rightly close our accounts with the old time. For the NEW time can only be taken into account from a SPIRITUAL standpoint!
193. The Ahrimanic Deception 27 Oct 1919, Zurich
Translator Unknown

One might say that it shone into all the best that came to man from Lucifer. And in the first Christian centuries, men understood the Christ through what they had received from Lucifer. These things must be faced without prejudice; otherwise it is not really possible to understand the particular way in which the Christ Impulse was received in the first centuries of our era.
Rulers are in fact merely the handymen, the understrappers of the economists. One must not imagine that the rulers of modern times are anything but the understrappers of the economists.
No real understanding of the Christ can be gained if one relies merely on the Gospel, especially in the form in which it has been handed down.
194. The Mysteries of Light, of Space, and of the Earth: The Dualism in the Life of the Present Time 12 Dec 1919, Dornach
Translated by Frances E. Dawson

And so crass is the difference between these two currents that we can say: In our day the time has come when they no longer understand each other at all, or perhaps it is better to say, when they find no points of contact for reciprocal influence.
Modern civilization has so little consciousness of the mystery which underlies this, that we may say the following: For certain reasons, about which I shall perhaps speak here again, we have called this building Goetheanum, as resting upon the Goethean views of art and knowledge.
Thus there has been the beginning of an act of will which must find its continuation; and it is desirable that this very phase of the matter be understood—that it be understood how the springs of human intention, of human creativeness, which are necessary for modern humanity in all realms, are really to be sought.
194. The Mysteries of Light, of Space, and of the Earth: The Development of Architecture 13 Dec 1919, Dornach
Translated by Frances E. Dawson

Anyone who has the feeling upon entering a Gothic cathedral that in this cathedral he has before him something completed, something finished, does not understand the forms of Gothic architecture; just as anyone fails to understand the forms of the Greek temple who can regard it as if it contained no statue of a god. A Greek temple with-out the image of a god—we need only to imagine that it is there, but it must be imagined in order to understand the form—a Greek temple without the statue of a god is an impossibility to the understanding which comes through feeling.
For this reason it is particularly important for the people of modern times to understand what may be called seeking balance between opposite poles. The one wishes to soar beyond the head, as it were.
194. The Mysteries of Light, of Space, and of the Earth: Historical Occurrences of the Last Century 14 Dec 1919, Dornach
Translated by Frances E. Dawson

With the very inner being with which we think we will at the same time. It is principally thinking and has an undertone of willing; but in the same way, our willing has an undertone of thinking. We have in fact two different things in us: something which is chiefly thinking but has an undertone of willing; and something which is chiefly willing but has an undertone of thinking (see Diagram No.
Those forces, for example, existing in the willing which has an undertone of thinking were pre-eminently developed in the ancient Hebraic culture; and those forces of the human soul-being which are based essentially in the thinking which has an undertone of willing were developed in what is called the ancient pagan culture.
That is to say, in our head we are perpetually dying; and the undertone of willing, which is a quality of our thinking, lies in our head; but this undertone of willing is a continuous stimulus, a constant impulse to dying, to the overcoming of matter.
194. The Mysteries of Light, of Space, and of the Earth: The Old Mysteries of Light, Space, and Earth 15 Dec 1919, Dornach
Translated by Frances E. Dawson

He has quite definite socialistically-formulated ideals; but what kind of fundamental concepts underlie these ideals? His fundamental concept is that what satisfies him must satisfy everyone everywhere, and must possess absolute validity for all future time.
That is what our spiritual life has really become. Under its influence the social chaos of our time has developed, because the spiritual life that is so diluted and abstract has lost all impulsive force.
There are two things which the cultural history of civilization will doubtless find it difficult to understand. One I have often characterized in the words of Herman Grimm—the Kant-Laplace theory, in which many people still believe.

Results 4561 through 4570 of 6552

˂ 1 ... 455 456 457 458 459 ... 656 ˃