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The Rudolf Steiner Archive

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Search results 4761 through 4770 of 6552

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203. It Is a Necessity of Our Times to Find a Path Leading Back to the Spirit 27 Feb 1921, The Hague
Translator Unknown

In the year 747 before the Mystery of Golgotha, began that phase of human evolution in which the so-called intellectual and understanding soul (Verstandes und Gemütsseele) unfolded. Everything that humanity still prizes to-day as Greek culture; developed through the fact that at that very time the intellectual or understanding soul was in an ascending line of development.
For the sake of their development, the Greeks had to pass through what one might call the youthful freshness of the intellectual or understanding soul. The Greek culture, so much admired by posterity, came into being out of this youthful freshness of an intellect that was not yet permeated by egoism, out of this youthful freshness of the human understanding.
The year 333 after the Mystery of Golgotha, was, as it were, the year in which last stragglers of those who were still able to have a real understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha could be found in Europe. But these stragglers could not understand it, for instance, through our anthroposophical spiritual science, for this did not, of course, exist at that time.
203. Jehovah, Christ, Lucifer and Ahriman 13 Mar 1921, Dornach
Translator Unknown

It is the case that the superficial Bible investigator really does not for the most part, understand what stands in the Bible at all. If one understands the Bible, one sees that it speaks with extraordinary exactitude, one only has to take those sentences quite exactly: “Jehovah formed man out of the dust of the Earth.”
As the I5th Century approached, the culture in Europe was tending more and more to the purely intellectual element; and, under the influence of this intellectual element, our modern natural Science developed. Now, consider the following:—The old Jewish religion must not be grasped merely with reference to external worlds, that would only be a materialistic religious understanding; we must grasp it in its inner spirit.
The Mystery of Golgotha was indeed transmitted historically and spoken of in the traditional Church Communities, but a true understanding of it could no longer be found. In place of it, Modern Science grew up into an element which knew not Jehovah, a spiritual-less, God-less element; and, because its understanding could not yet expand to the Christ-element, it developed into that physical mineral element, utterly devoid of spirit.
203. Apollonius of Tyana 28 Mar 1921, Dornach
Translated by Dorothy S. Osmond, Charles Davy

No difference whatever in this respect was assumed to exist between one such as Jesus of Nazareth, in whom dwelt the Christ, and a man such as Apollonius of Tyana. Let us understand one another clearly.—What is narrated about such men and is to-day called a "miracle" was taken as a matter of course.
Now the fact of paramount interest to us is that these great journeys undertaken by Apollonius of Tyana are always associated with the widening and extension of his own wisdom.
Hence above all things it is necessary that the Christ Impulse shall draw into man's will—only this must be understood in the true sense. From the present time onwards into the future, the unfolding of the will is particularly essential.
203. East and West, and the Roman Church: Lecture I 05 Feb 1921, Dornach
Translator Unknown

Now my dear friends, it must be admitted, the modern European is absolutely lacking in understanding for this whole method of thinking and feeling; that must be admitted. The modern European reads his Homer and his Aeschylus, and values them in a certain sense; but he cannot take even the very opening words in earnest.
That was what the Asiatic quoted; nevertheless it is something which—when one feels it, one must say it—springs fundamentally from the triviality of his understanding. Here I must speak sharply. It is simply a bit of professional barking at something which, of course, lies obvious on the surface.
Europe as it is to-day cannot receive that because these two worlds do not understand each other. But in Europe there also lives the third thing; and that, we are told, is Rome, the Eternal Catholic Church.
203. East and West, and the Roman Church: Lecture II 06 Feb 1921, Dornach
Translator Unknown

What to-day under the influence of a natural-scientific age has become popular ideas, in those ancient times was kept beyond the Threshold; and traditional creeds which have retained the opinions of those ancient epochs have on this account always opposed the spread of modern natural science.
Roman Catholic has, in course of time, worked in the most manifold ways. It has of course undergone development by means of its Councils and in other ways, through dogmatic assertions and so on.
In Spiritual Science we hav again a living Spirit. But now, my dear friends, we must understand that many trivialities will have to be overcome in our modern civilised life, if we want to see the truth in regard to these great matters.
203. The Responsibility of Man for World Evolution: Lecture I 29 Jan 1921, Dornach
Translator Unknown

The evolutionary forces of our planet lie within the organisation of man. If you remember this you will understand that what finally becomes of the earth cannot be learnt by forming physical concepts, such concepts have only a narrow, limited interest for us.
The Ahrimanic approach is the more easily accomplished since the Oriental is already under the power of Lucifer. It can then even be placed before men as an ideal by certain teachers, who are in the service of Ahriman, that in a certain incarnation, before the earth itself has reached its goal, they should have finished with physical existence on earth.
It is only in recent centuries that man has merely a geology and a cosmology but not a geosophy and a cosmosophy! Under the cosmology he would become Luciferised, under the geology he would become Ahrimanised, unless he saved himself by finding the equilibrium through a geosophy and a cosmosophy, And, in fact, since man is born out of the whole universe all this together is needed to give Anthroposophy.
203. The Responsibility of Man for World Evolution: Lecture II 30 Jan 1921, Dornach
Translator Unknown

He has studied the stages in the animal kingdom, has founded his evolutionary theory on this, and believes that he understands how the different orders have evolved from the most elementary to the more perfect. He then adds man to the sequence, applying to the human being all that he has learnt about the animals.
He no longer knows anything of himself, he cannot understand the being of man. But on the other hand there has arisen in him the greatest strain and tension, the great demand upon his being to act from his own original impulse, for man is to act as a free being.
What must be grasped today out of the very depth of human and cosmic existence, you will understand when you think over the two pictures which I have set before you, purely as pictures. They are meant as pictures, but as pictures that point to true realities.
203. The Responsibility of Man for World Evolution: Lecture III 11 Mar 1921, Dornach
Translator Unknown

We know that we have to distinguish what in the main—you know how that is to be understood—is the Head-organisation, the bearer of the nerves-senses system. We must then distinguish the Rhythmic-system which includes, as its most important part, the breathing rhythm and the blood circulation, that is to say, all that takes its course rhythmically.
203. The Responsibility of Man for World Evolution: Lecture IV 13 Mar 1921, Dornach
Translator Unknown

The superficial Bible investigators really do not, for the most part, understand what stands in the Bible at all. If one understands the Bible, one sees that it speaks with extraordinary exactitude, one only has to take its sentences quite exactly.
The Mystery of Golgotha was indeed still transmitted historically and spoken of in the traditional Church communities, but a true understanding of it could no longer be found. In place of it, modern science has grown up in the element foreign to Jehovah, a spirit-less, God-less element; and, because its understanding could not yet expand to the Christ-element, it developed entirely within that physical mineral element—utterly devoid of spirit.
But science has turned entirely away from the Spirit, it gives descriptions of the physical-sensible alone, because man has not yet been able to press forward to an understanding of the Christ. At most the old Jehovah understanding still prevails when men storm against each other as they did in the War; but not when they investigate facts of nature, for then we have a spirit-less science, an intellectual science devoid of spirit.
203. The Responsibility of Man for World Evolution: Lecture V 01 Apr 1921, Dornach
Translator Unknown

For what a man does, inasmuch as he cultivates something of an intellectual nature with his head, is just as much an event as when the water of a spring flows under the stream to the sea, or as when evaporation takes place, or it rains. What happens when plants sprout and so on, those are events of the one sort.
One can receive these things through Spiritual Science with a strong impulse of inner understanding. As a matter of fact, it is shown in what has remained behind in the Moon as a cosmic symbol.
One can understand better what happens in the cosmos if one looks into what is being accomplished in man, and conversely one can see in the right way the tasks of mankind if one is able consciously to look into the conditions of the cosmos.

Results 4761 through 4770 of 6552

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