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 person intend, earnestly and sincerely, to fulfil the conditions
mentioned above, he may then address himself to a teacher of Occultism.
The latter will then be found ready to give the first words of counsel.
Any external formality will consist of giving to these conditions a
complete expression, a knowledge of which can only be imparted orally
to each individual candidate. Since everything interior must manifest
itself in an exterior way, they teach a very important lesson. Even as
a picture cannot be said to be here, when it exists only in the brain
of the painter, so, too, there cannot be an occult training without an
external expression.
External forms are regarded as worthless by those only who do not know
that the internal must find expression in the external. It is true that
it is the spirit and not the form that really matters; but just as the
form is void without the spirit, so would the spirit remain inactive as
long as it could not create a form.
The stipulated conditions are so designed that they may render the
disciple strong enough to fulfil the further demands which the teacher
must make. If he be faulty in the fulfilment of these conditions, then
before each new demand he will stand hesitating. Without this
fulfilment he will be lacking in that faith in man which it is
necessary for him to possess; for on faith in man and a genuine love
for man, all striving after truth must be founded. And the love of man
must be slowly widened out into a love for all living creatures, nay,
indeed, for all existence. He who fails to fulfil the conditions here
given will not possess a perfect love for all up-building, for all
creation, nor a tendency to abstain from all destruction and
annihilation as such. The disciple must so train himself that, not in
deeds only, but also in words, thoughts and feelings, he will never
destroy anything for the sake of destruction. He must find his pleasure
in the growing and creating aspect of things, and is only justified in
assisting the apparent destruction of anything when, by such
readjustment, he is able to promote a greater life. Let it not be
thought that, in so saying, it is implied that the disciple may allow
the triumph of evil, but rather that he must endeavor to find, even in
the bad, those aspects through which he may change it into good. He
will see more and more clearly that the best way to combat imperfection
and evil is by the creation of the perfect and the good. The student
knows that nothing can come from nothing, but also that the imperfect
may be changed into the perfect. He who develops in himself the
tendency to create, will soon find the capacity for facing the evil.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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