Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and its Attainment E-Book

Rudolf Steiner

• Herausgeber: Rudolf Steiner
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

In this seminal work, Steiner lays out practical means of attaining metaphysical knowledge and mystical experience. "There slumber in every human being faculties by means of which he can acquire for himself a knowledge of higher worlds. Mystics, Gnostics, Theosophists — all speak of a world of soul and spirit which for them is just as real as the world we see with our physical eyes and touch with our physical hands. At every moment the listener may say to himself: that, of which they speak, I too can learn, if I develop within myself certain powers which today still slumber within me. There remains only one question — how to set to work to develop such faculties."
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Leseprobe

Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and its Attainment

Rudolf Steiner

First ditigal edition 2017 by Anna Ruggieri

CONTENTS

PART 1:

THE WAY OF INITIATION

INNER TRANQUILLITY

THE STAGES OF INITIATION

PROBATION

ENLIGHTENMENT

THE CONTROL OF THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS

INITIATION

SOME PRACTICAL ASPECTS

THE CONDITIONS OF ESOTERIC TRAINING

PART 2:

SOME RESULTS OF INITIATION

THE TRANSFORMATION OF DREAM LIFE

THE CONTINUITY OF CONSCIOUSNESS

THE PARTITION OF HUMAN PERSONALITY

THE GUARDIAN OF THE THRESHOLD

THE GREAT OR SECOND GUARDIAN OF THE THRESHOLD

APPENDIX

PART 1: THE WAY OF INITIATION

CONDITIONS

There slumber in every human being, faculties by means of which he can acquire for himself a knowledge of higher worlds. Mystics, Gnostics, Theosophists - all speak of a world of soul and spirit, which for them is just as real as the world we see with our physical eyes and touch with our physical hands. At every moment the listener may say to himself: that, of which they speak, I too can learn, if I develop within myself certain powers which to-day still slumber within me. There remains only one question - how to set to work to develop such faculties. For this purpose, they only can give advice who already possess such powers. As long as the human race has existed there has always been a method of training, in the course of which, individuals possessing these higher faculties gave instruction to others who were in search of them. Such a training is called occult (esoteric) training, and the instruction thereby received is called occult (esoteric) teaching, or spiritual science. This designation naturally awakens misunderstanding. The listener may very easily be misled into the belief that this training is the concern of a special, privileged class, withholding its knowledge arbitrarily from its fellow-creatures. He may even think that nothing of real importance lies behind such knowledge, for it if were a true knowledge - he is tempted to think - there would be no need to make a secret of it; it might be publicly imparted and its advantages made to all. They who have been initiated into the nature of this higher knowledge, are not in the least surprised that the uninitiated should so think, for the secret of Initiation can only be understood by those who have to a certain degree experienced this Initiation into the higher knowledge of existence. The question may be raised: how, then, are the uninitiated, under these circumstances, to develop any human interest in this so-called esoteric knowledge? How and why are they to seek for something of whose nature they can form no idea! Such a question is based upon an entirely erroneous conception of the real nature of esoteric knowledge. There is, in truth, no difference between esoteric knowledge and all the rest of man’s knowledge and proficiency. This esoteric knowledge is no more of a secret for the average human being, than writing is a secret for those who have never learnt. And just as all can learn to write, who choose the correct method, so too, can all who seek the right way become esoteric students, and even teachers. In one respect only, do the conditions here differ from those that apply to external knowledge and proficiency. The possibility of acquiring the art of writing may be withheld from someone through poverty, or through the conditions of civilisation into which he is born; but for the attainment of knowledge and proficiency in the higher worlds, there is no obstacle for those who earnestly seek them.