The Way of Initiation; or, How to Attain Knowledge of the Higher WorldsSteiner, Rudolf
Religion
The Way of Initiation; or, How to Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds
Steiner, Rudolf
Theosophy
If a man carries out the culture of his thoughts and feelings and
emotions in the way already described in the chapters on Probation,
Enlightenment, and Initiation, he then effects a change in his soul
such as Nature has effected in his body. Before this training, soul and
spirit are undifferentiated masses. In such a state the clairvoyant
will perceive them as interlacing clouds, rotating spirally, and having
usually a dull glimmer of reddish or reddish-brown color, or, perhaps,
of reddish-yellow; but after this growth they begin to assume a
brilliant yellowish-green or yellow-blue hue, and become of a regular
structure. A man attains such regularity of structure, and at the same
time the higher knowledge, when he brings into the realm of his
thoughts, feelings and emotions, an order, such as Nature has brought
into his bodily organs, by means of which he can see, hear, digest,
breathe, speak and so forth. Gradually the student learns, as it were,
to breathe, to see with the soul, and to speak and hear with the
spirit.
In the following pages a few of the practical points pertaining to the
higher education of the soul and spirit will be more fully treated.
They are such as may be practically attained by anyone without
additional instruction, and by means of which a further step in occult
science may be taken.
A particular kind of discipline must be patiently attempted such as to
avoid every emotion of impatience, for it produces a paralyzing, yea,
even a deadening, effect on the higher faculties within us. One must
not expect immeasurable glimpses of the higher worlds to open out
before one from day to day, for assuredly, as a rule, this does not
occur. Contentment with the smallest progress, repose and tranquility
must more and more possess the soul. It is conceivable, of course, that
the learner may impatiently expect results, but he will attain nothing
so long as he fails to master this impatience. Nor is it of any use to
struggle against this impatience in the ordinary way, for then it will
only become stronger than ever. It is thus that men deceive themselves,
for in such a case it embeds itself all the more firmly in the depths
of the soul. It is only by repeatedly surrendering oneself to a single
definite thought, and by making it absolutely one's own, that anything
is really attained. One should think: "I must certainly do everything
possible for the culture of soul and spirit, but I will work tranquilly
until, by higher powers, I shall be found worthy of definite
illumination." When this thought has become so powerful in a man that
it is an actual trait in his character, he is treading the right path.
This trait will then express itself even in external affairs. The gaze
of the eye becomes tranquil; the movements of the body become sure; the
resolutions defined; and all that we call nervous susceptibility
gradually disappears. Rules that seem trifling and insignificant must
be taken into account.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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