As truth is revealed to us it can sometimes be of use to others. Small insights can be a stepping stone or a hand reaching out. We hope you will share some of yours.
Truth
Truth is revealed in the human soul through thinking if the soul is grounded in its own substance. Riddles of Philosophy
The truth is what leads to the highest and noblest impulses for human evolution, the truth should be dearer to us than we are to ourselves. Rosicrucian Motto
Here are some examples ….
- We see too much light without the shadows. Leunig 27 Nov 2002 ABC FM
- Strong lights cast deep shadows. Proverb
- There is no independent criterion of truth and falsehood: what enhances life we call true, and what hinders life we call false. Rudolf Steiner 21 August 1916
“There is almost a sensual longing for communion with others who have a large vision. The immense fulfillment of the friendship between those engaged in furthering the evolution of consciousness has a quality impossible to describe.” ― Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Atoms
As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clear headed science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about atoms this much: There is no matter as such. All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter.
Max Planck, The Nature of Matter, speech at Florence, Italy, 1944Plants
J asks: Didn’t Steiner say something to the effect that if people/mankind fail to acknowledge/ appreciate/love the plants, they will cease to exist? Email your understanding and research and lets build a response. Here is a beginning ….
At Easter 2002 as I contemplated the last words of Christ from the cross: “Forgive them Father for they know not what they do.” I thought, is it “that they acted in a bad way”? Or is it that they acted as they were supposed to but they were not conscious of the purpose of their actions?
“Into thy hands I commit my spirit.” Could it be that human hands are part of the Father, the God of this earthly world? Was Christ, the Sun God, saying that he was now part of the earthly hands, that had till then, been the exclusive domain of the Father? What does this mean for mankind? A changing of the guards?
Christ
There are many reports of people experiencing the presence of Christ. Read this account.
Scott Peck gives a wonderful perspective of the purpose of Christ in his introduction in The Different Drum.
Love
Then what about LOVE – possibly the most misunderstood feeling in our current civilisation. Love Love is the substance of the I AM. Love is intricately tied to evolution. To experience the fullness of love is a task to be undertaken. There are four types of love. In ancient Greek there are four words for love:
- Eros – physical love : Erotic physical love. The procreative urge arises here – to continue the human race.
- Phileo – etheric love : Brotherly and sisterly love
- Storge – astral love : Love of family (tribe) and nation
- Agape – divine love : Divine love, Christed love, Unification.
Here are some insights about love …
Freedom
Freedom could be next most misunderstood Truth illumines all when it illumines the very depths of our own being. Edouard Shure Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts #100. “The thoughts of man have their true seat in the etheric body. There, however, they are forces of real life and being. They imprint themselves upon the physical body, and as such ‘imprinted thoughts’ they have the shadowy character in which the everyday consciousness knows them.” ‘imprinted forces’ makes sense of the accurate translation of metaphysics: meta = on, with, among or between physics = of or from nature, science of matter so meta-physics = that which exists with physical matter, or that which is imprinted upon the physical.
Thinking – or lack of it
These amazing words were spoken nearly 100 years ago by Rudolf Steiner – they are just as relevant today in many quarters of society – even those who see themselves as enlightened. “There are people to-day who, because they cannot get clarity into their thoughts, prefer not to let themselves be troubled with thought at all, and go on repeating the words they have learned … never stopping to think whether it is compatible with the view of the evolution of the earth and man that they acquire elsewhere. But that is the deep inward untruth of our time: men slink away into some comfortable dark corner instead of bringing together in their thought the things that essentially belong together. They want to raise a mist before their eyes so that they may not need to ‘think together’ the things that belong together.” From ‘Easter – The Festival of Warning.’
Do Isaac Newton and Harry Potter have anything in common? Read what Don Cruse says [1].
Why is money immortal?
Imagine money to have a life cycle just as a piece of fruit has. When you buy an apple and fail to eat it, in a certain amount of time it goes bad even if it’s frozen. Naturally the fruit has become worthless for human consumption, no trading it in for an acceptable new one, unless you fool someone.
You could use the seed to grow a fruit tree, but that would take some amount of time, effort and risk.
Today, when you have a worn out dollar bill, you can always get face value for it. When a bank gets it, the bill will be turned in, destroyed and a newly printed bill will take its place – no devaluation at all, no death takes place in its value even though the bill itself is destroyed. How is it that money never is allowed to become valueless when its reason for coming into existence is totally used up or has become worthless? Doesn’t money really ignore this reality and return from the dead but now disguised as still alive? Except from the course: Humanities 112, Economics and the Development of Responsible Individualism [2]
How to Win War
Tolerance: It is very easy to imagine this tolerance; yet to attain it is extremely difficult. After all, we find it easy to believe that people who disagree with us are our opponents or enemies. Similarly, we can easily mistake our own opinion for a generally accepted truth. For theosophy to flourish and be fruitful for the spiritual life of the future, however, we have to meet each other on an all-inclusive basis. Our souls must be filled with profound understanding not only for those who share our beliefs but also for those who, compelled by the circumstances of their own experience, their own path through life, may perhaps advocate the opposite of what we do. The old morality, now on the wane, taught us to love and to be tolerant of those who share our thoughts and feelings. However, with its truth, theosophy will more and more radiate a much more far-reaching tolerance into people’s hearts. This more profound tolerance will enable us to meet others with understanding and encouragement and to live in harmony with them, even when their thoughts and feelings differ completely from our own.
Appendix: Spiritual Guidance of the Individual and Humanity p 78 by Rudolf Steiner
Observation after September 11, 2001
What is the point of retaliation? Why not spend the effort on a stock-take of our values so that we can set an example. Start with homelessness, domestic violence, drugs, mental health. ABC Four Corners on Monday September 10, 2001 showed that it would be futile to impose our values on Afghanistan – their Minister for Justice said that they would not use the Football stadium (donated by the west) for executions if the west built them a special place for executions!
Karma
Karma: we may meet a person who mocks or even insults us. If we have immersed ourselves in the teaching of reincarnation and karma for a long time, we will wonder who has spoken the hurtful, insulting words our ears have heard. Who has heaped mockery upon us – or even who has raised the hand to hit us? We will then realize that we ourselves did this. The hand raised for the blow only appears to belong to the other person. Ultimately, we cause the other to raise his or her hand against us through our own past karma. Appendix: Spiritual Guidance of the Individual and Humanity p79
Evil
If only it were so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who among us is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart? Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Food for thought
21 April 2005: What an extraordinary story about the destiny of human beings – Karma weaves in mysterious ways. A bus taking Vietnamese war veterans on a tour of former battlefields along the Ho Chi Minh Trail has toppled over a cliff after its brakes failed, killing 32 of the 33 passengers, officials and police said. more
The Lords Prayer directly from Aramaic into English
Scientific evidence for the separation of the sexes.
What are comets really?
If you were climbing Mt Everest, would you walk past a dying man?
The brain can be rewired
Noxious mud oozing out of the depths of the earth in Indonesia
Subtle signs of consciousness changing
Steiner Schooling now ‘legal’ in Victoria, Australia
What will human beings look like in 3000?
Remembering those who have died by placing their shoes in a public place
What is sacrifice?
Read an article written for Easter 2009 giving a new perspective on sacrifice
Greed
A holy man was having a conversation with God one day and said,
‘God , I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like.’
God led the holy man to two doors.
He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in.
In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew, which smelled delicious and made the holy man’s mouth water.
The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished.
They were holding spoons with very long handles, that were strapped to their arms and each found it possible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful.
But because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths.
The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering.
God said, ‘You have seen Hell.’
They went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same as the first one.
There was the large round table with the large pot of stew which made the holy man’s mouth water.
The people were equipped with the same long-handled spoons, but here the people were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking. The holy man said, ‘I don’t understand..’
It is simple,’ said God . ‘It requires but one skill. You see they have learned to feed each other, while the greedy think only of themselves.’
The Secret
What is the real secret? Certainly not a book by that name. Finding a parking space by visualising it is an absurdity. The (real) Secret can only be found by each one of us, within ourselves – deeply contemplating Goethe’s poem “The Secret” will assist us in this striving.
In Goethe’s poem “The Secrets” the thirteenth is the image of someone who has reached this exalted level. We may therefore take the words spoken by this thirteenth as a guide for all Rosicrucian endeavour:
All power pushes forward far and wide
To live and work both here and there;
the stream that is the world, however, hems us in,
builds obstacles all round and carries us away.
Caught in this inner storm and outer strife
the mind does hear a word that’s hard to understand:
Man needs to overcome and free himself
of the great power binding all creation.11.12.1906 Lecture by Rudolf Steiner published in The Christian Mystery by Completion Press
Nourishing the I AM
Let’s say that Christ represents the I AM that must die. The Bible also tells us that a seed must die. A thoughtful person knows that a seed carries within it forces for the future. It is formed by a plant, it actually causes the plants death, then it rises again as a totally new plant (not cloned from the old one).
So our I AM is actually a seed. As far as we express it in this life, is contains the forces of our last life. So our I AM is always the seed for the future. This is the very reason why it is so hard to know our own I AM for who can know the forces in a seed? How can we create a picture of that?