I shall praise the light -
And regard the fires with stern respect,
For too much life becomes as death,
As clarity itself, you cannot see -
As light on light, too bright for me.
And regard the fires with stern respect,
For too much life becomes as death,
As clarity itself, you cannot see -
As light on light, too bright for me.
THIS Light too bright to see is not a tyrannical benefactor. He is the sweetest of all the Mysteries, and yet impotent at this time, in the task of revealing Himself before the lies. One must bear in mind that two thousand years is but a very little episode; and His descent at that time was, if it could be said, overdue.
The very tide to be reversed, was the way of the atavistic movement which brought souls in herds to the flaming altars of their illuminations; and effectively so, as one purified the soul and chanted their way into Heaven, given to the consolatory Angels as perfected men - perfected, yes, but not self-realized.
The realizations of the Godhead, of that very grandeur which is promoted by Father God Himself, were imparted, lent and spent; and the individual was to be only half of what he might have become, were that he did have the opportunity. But these 'self-less' souls did negate their desire for any part of this World, and with no compelling gravitation tipped off the edge into fanciful spheres of Nirvanic bliss, immersed in the beauteous oceans of dreaming.
Were they to have entered with their egos intact and their self-conscious exactment, they may have marveled at the light-waves and the sublimity therein; choosing too, that moment of peak saturation, whereby so filled, they may have pulled back into the living realms and re-established the relationships and karmas as were waiting. But for the soul who has advanced back to the original paradisiacal determination, the Nirvanic oceans are perilously consuming for there is no will or want for anything more, and the soul is satisfied to dream into eternity.
There are arguments amongst even the greatest of beings as to the desirability of such an outcome. However, from the point of view which does contrast the affirmative, we suggest that Christ has brought the gift of egohood to each soul, a gift which could never be forced in any way, as it would defeat itself thereby. There is always a catch!
There have always been attractive teachers, greatly empowered and motivated to rise upon the peak of the advancing men before them - with this difference: some, not all, are self-realized and self-conscious, whilst their followers are not. Their followers bring to them the power of the accelerated push, for it is as a submission of ego in such devotion; a willing (for there may be no other way) submission of self, confusing the revelations as invoked to be the same as the teacher who is invoking. Thus they will tell you that so and so is the World and is the Christ, when it is but a falsehood - an incredible one at that, to say so. In that instance the teacher has disclosed the inner mysteries in a way which has deflected the truth and reality through that of his own ego. Whilst also the same goes for the student who must go via the teacher rather than through the source, to study, to worship, to experience.
However there are on the other hand, teachers who will stand back and allow their pupils to be led into the inner mysteries, to come to their true knowing for themselves. When this is successfully fused within the pupil, he shall come to love and know the tree or the sand or the sky or the Light or his fellow soul-mate, or his study or his active employment or his inner employment. He shall come to know the qualities of that which is before him intimately, perceiving and loving them with a clarity which is not possible if come to through another.
So you can see that the two teaching techniques are in opposition to one another. The freedom as worked for by us is seized with the riskiness of ill choosing. The mainstream procession of successive enlightened souls tell of a story that by our perspective is of one prematurely completed.
Not all Eastern traditions encouraged the self-less, ego-less path. Not all did require the surrender of Christ, that Heaven be won.
The 'I Am' of Man was/is a bold and enterprising 'I'. It ripples the waters and contests the minor gods before it, it desires continually - desiring to become, desiring to know;
- desiring to know by becoming (empathy);
- desiring to become by knowing (study and wisdom);
- desiring to desire aright and without self-harm (discrimination and karma);
- desiring to love and therefore to desire again (to acknowledge and return to former love in great joy).
The reality of Christ Incarnatus is indisputable. As for the inertia in Man's failing to proclaim this openly and emphatically, the reason is plain - there is always a little 'catch-up' time required before the pneu-mind of Man can find the concept, the phrase, to translate for what the soul already knows. The vocabulary of thinking simply is not available to the ordinary consciousness. The exceptions are those who have had to make the connections with the Christ consciously by effort, and usually with pain also. The reward has been some measure of certainty realized, which in itself is quite a contradiction in terms. However, a measure rather than full complement is all that is achievable given the present conditions upon the Globe. This will change given time, but in the meanwhile a few too many good souls are being bewildered by the lack of constancy between the sight of the soul and the insight that travails it.
The intuitive man may come to his soul-knowledge self assured and strong in heart- the extravaganza of extraneous proof is not required in order to stimulate his inner perception. The psychic senses are underdeveloped and therefore irregular and unreliable in the present constitution of Man. This is why it is hit and miss in all cases - coupled with the fact that the permitting conditions for such intermediary perceptions are appalling and inconclusive to great ability. Even the greatest amongst us may be misled. Conditions change; it has not always been so in the past, nor will it be in the future, but for the time being the passage into clairvoyance is deceptively murky. This is markedly important to keep in mind, especially if one advises you ever believing that their talent in this regard is unquestionably whole or complete.
It is true to say that Christ - the Christ, our Christ - was more readily perceived as an Individual Being, distinct, in times preceding His deeper decension. However, He was not in the common vocabulary. Some things you know but never ever name. You do not know you live with the knowledge, because to name it thus would become a distinction between Christ and You - and this was not so. (Just as one knows their mother way before they name her thus.)
The age of Philosophy reasoned away the golden wisdoms. One by one the sacredness of Man was drawn out and brought to comparison. This was not a bad contest, but the beginning to an almighty appendage of ideas which was to follow Man into the centuries to come, that he might fully discover the true meaning of them, as they demand.
The Wolf-spirits of the Moon are the detainees of human sloth. They are harlequin and of many forms. Quick and strong, they have devoured the astral offcasts and now have a taste for the living as well. Sheltered from the direct light, they slink around the darker aspect of shadowy Moon - cold its heart, cold its bone. The wolverines travel the direct road through to the Earth, and then return.
Further notes:
According to RS Gnostic knowledge was inspired by "the impulse coming from Luciferic forces".
That doesn't mean that there's nothing to learn here; but at no stage did Dr. Steiner advocate the "ego-less" path. The human ego is a gift from Christ:
"But now we know that this entire development of the human being, this evolution of the individual soul members as we differentiate them, is essentially bound up with something else — is essentially bound up with the gradual incorporation of the human ego. For this incorporation of the human ego into the nature of man is the whole mission of the Earth evolution. So we have, as it were, two intermingling evolutionary streams, in that we must go through the Earth evolution, following that of Saturn, Sun and Moon, and that as earth humanity we bring to development especially this fourth member, the Ego, and join this Ego to the other principal members of human nature, upon which preparatory work was done earlier: namely, the physical body, the etheric body, and the astral body."
-Rudolf Steiner
Countering this "mission of Earth evolution" is Lucifer.
The human ego evolves, but at no stage do we try to delete it:
"You see in a certain sense there now exists an intimate relationship between the human ego and the three members of man's soul nature: the sentient soul, the rational or intellectual soul, and the consciousness soul. Chiefly within these three members the human ego lives its inner life; and in our fifth post-Atlantean epoch it lives in the consciousness soul, and will live most deeply in it, because in the consciousness soul the pure ego can come to expression quite unhindered, so to speak, by the other members. Indeed we live in our time in an epoch in which this ego has the great and special mission of developing itself, of building upon itself.
"If we take a sort of prophetic glance into the future, at what is to come, if we say that man will develop the Spirit-Self, or Manas, in the next, the sixth post-Atlantean epoch, then we recognize that Spirit-Self, or Manas, really lies above the sphere of the ego. As matter of fact, man could not in this future develop the Spirit-Self out of his own forces; but if he is to develop his Spirit-Self, he must be helped in a certain way by that which flows to the earth through the forces of higher Beings. Man has come to that stage in the evolution of his ego where, out of his own forces, he really can develop only up to the consciousness soul; but this development would not be complete if he should not anticipate in a certain sense that which will reach its true, complete, self-impelled human evolution only upon Jupiter, the next embodiment of our planet. Up to the end of the Earth evolution man should develop his ego; and he will have had opportunity to accomplish this development within the sentient, intellectual, and consciousness souls. But the actual Spirit-Self is to become the human possession only upon Jupiter; only there will it become the fitting human endowment. On Jupiter man will have about the same relation to the Spirit-Self that he has to the ego on earth. If then the human being develops the Spirit-Self during the earth-period, he cannot relate himself to it as to the ego. Of our ego we say: We ourself are that; it is ourself in reality. When in the next epoch, the sixth post-Atlantean, the Spirit-Self shall have come to expression, then we shall not be able to address this Spirit-Self as ourself; but we shall say: Our ego has developed to a certain stage, so that our Spirit-Self can shine into it, as from higher worlds, as a kind of Angel Being, which we ourselves are not, but which shines into us and takes possession of us. Thus will our Spirit-Self appear to us; and only upon Jupiter will it appear as our own being, as our ego now is. Human evolution moves forward in this way."
-RS https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/19120109p01.html
The Ego is our Fourth Principle: (Lucifer-Pride)
"The Christ will deepen the inner life of man, but also make him humble; the Luciferic spirits will lead man out beyond himself, and make him wise, clever, talented, but also in a certain sense haughty; will teach him that he might become something superhuman even during the Earth evolution. Everything, therefore, which in the future shall lead man to rise above himself, as it were, which will make him proud of his own human nature even here upon earth — that will be a Luciferic impulse; but what makes a man more deeply sincere, what brings his inner life to such depths as can come only through the complete development of the fourth principle — that comes from the Christ."
-RS
Essentially the ego-less path is the teaching of the Anti-Christ:
"Thus will the Christ Spirit and the spirit of this being face one another — the Christ Spirit, from whom humanity may hope to receive the mighty macrocosmic impulse of its fourth principle, and the Luciferic Spirit, who will wish in a certain way to lead humanity beyond this.
"If people would agree that we must acquire from the Luciferic spirits only that to which we can look up in the same way that we look down to our lower nature ... then they would be doing right. But if people should come to say: You see the Christ gives only the fourth principle, while these spirits give the sixth and seventh ... people who think thus concerning Christ will worship and extol ... the Antichrist.
"Thus will the position of the Antichrist towards the Christ make itself felt in the future. And with the outer intellect, with the outer wisdom, one will not be able to challenge such things; for it will be possible to produce much which from the point of view of the intellect and talent will be more clever in the Antichrist than that which will more and more flow into the soul from the Christ, as the highest human principle. Because Christ brings to man the fourth macrocosmic principle — since it is macrocosmic, it is infinitely more important than all microcosmic principles; it is stronger than they, even though it is related to the human ego, stronger than all others which can be gained during Earth evolution — still, because it is only the fourth principle, it will be thought of as lower than the fifth, sixth and seventh, which come from the Luciferic spirits; and especially lower than that which comes from Antichrist."
-RS
The egoless path means death, death to development- Christlessness:
"But from this you see that in a certain way it is not exactly easy to understand the Christ evolution within the earth, because in a sense the objection is justified that particular spirits, Luciferic spirits, lead up to other principles — but only to microcosmic principles. I expressed that earlier when I said: The Christ is a sort of focal point, in which the Being works through His deed, the Being works through that which He is. Round about the Christ sit the twelve Bodhisattvas of the world, upon whom streams what flows from the Christ, and who elevate it, in the sense of increased wisdom, to higher principles.
"BUT IT ALL FLOWS FROM THE FOURTH PRINCIPLE — even upon the higher principles — in so far as these are evolved on the earth. On this account there is much error with regard to the uniqueness of the Christ, because there is not a clear understanding that in the Christ we have, to be sure, to do with the fourth principle, but with the fourth macrocosmic principle, and even though higher principles can be developed, these are only the microcosmic principles of beings who have not come to full development on the Moon, but who in their way transcend the human."
-RS https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/19120109p01.html
The intuitive man may come to his soul-knowledge self assured and strong in heart- the extravaganza of extraneous proof is not required in order to stimulate his inner perception. The psychic senses are underdeveloped and therefore irregular and unreliable in the present constitution of Man. This is why it is hit and miss in all cases - coupled with the fact that the permitting conditions for such intermediary perceptions are appalling and inconclusive to great ability. Even the greatest amongst us may be misled. Conditions change; it has not always been so in the past, nor will it be in the future, but for the time being the passage into clairvoyance is deceptively murky. This is markedly important to keep in mind, especially if one advises you ever believing that their talent in this regard is unquestionably whole or complete.
It is true to say that Christ - the Christ, our Christ - was more readily perceived as an Individual Being, distinct, in times preceding His deeper decension. However, He was not in the common vocabulary. Some things you know but never ever name. You do not know you live with the knowledge, because to name it thus would become a distinction between Christ and You - and this was not so. (Just as one knows their mother way before they name her thus.)
The age of Philosophy reasoned away the golden wisdoms. One by one the sacredness of Man was drawn out and brought to comparison. This was not a bad contest, but the beginning to an almighty appendage of ideas which was to follow Man into the centuries to come, that he might fully discover the true meaning of them, as they demand.
888
The Wolf-spirits of the Moon are the detainees of human sloth. They are harlequin and of many forms. Quick and strong, they have devoured the astral offcasts and now have a taste for the living as well. Sheltered from the direct light, they slink around the darker aspect of shadowy Moon - cold its heart, cold its bone. The wolverines travel the direct road through to the Earth, and then return.
Further notes:
According to RS Gnostic knowledge was inspired by "the impulse coming from Luciferic forces".
That doesn't mean that there's nothing to learn here; but at no stage did Dr. Steiner advocate the "ego-less" path. The human ego is a gift from Christ:
"But now we know that this entire development of the human being, this evolution of the individual soul members as we differentiate them, is essentially bound up with something else — is essentially bound up with the gradual incorporation of the human ego. For this incorporation of the human ego into the nature of man is the whole mission of the Earth evolution. So we have, as it were, two intermingling evolutionary streams, in that we must go through the Earth evolution, following that of Saturn, Sun and Moon, and that as earth humanity we bring to development especially this fourth member, the Ego, and join this Ego to the other principal members of human nature, upon which preparatory work was done earlier: namely, the physical body, the etheric body, and the astral body."
-Rudolf Steiner
Countering this "mission of Earth evolution" is Lucifer.
The human ego evolves, but at no stage do we try to delete it:
"You see in a certain sense there now exists an intimate relationship between the human ego and the three members of man's soul nature: the sentient soul, the rational or intellectual soul, and the consciousness soul. Chiefly within these three members the human ego lives its inner life; and in our fifth post-Atlantean epoch it lives in the consciousness soul, and will live most deeply in it, because in the consciousness soul the pure ego can come to expression quite unhindered, so to speak, by the other members. Indeed we live in our time in an epoch in which this ego has the great and special mission of developing itself, of building upon itself.
"If we take a sort of prophetic glance into the future, at what is to come, if we say that man will develop the Spirit-Self, or Manas, in the next, the sixth post-Atlantean epoch, then we recognize that Spirit-Self, or Manas, really lies above the sphere of the ego. As matter of fact, man could not in this future develop the Spirit-Self out of his own forces; but if he is to develop his Spirit-Self, he must be helped in a certain way by that which flows to the earth through the forces of higher Beings. Man has come to that stage in the evolution of his ego where, out of his own forces, he really can develop only up to the consciousness soul; but this development would not be complete if he should not anticipate in a certain sense that which will reach its true, complete, self-impelled human evolution only upon Jupiter, the next embodiment of our planet. Up to the end of the Earth evolution man should develop his ego; and he will have had opportunity to accomplish this development within the sentient, intellectual, and consciousness souls. But the actual Spirit-Self is to become the human possession only upon Jupiter; only there will it become the fitting human endowment. On Jupiter man will have about the same relation to the Spirit-Self that he has to the ego on earth. If then the human being develops the Spirit-Self during the earth-period, he cannot relate himself to it as to the ego. Of our ego we say: We ourself are that; it is ourself in reality. When in the next epoch, the sixth post-Atlantean, the Spirit-Self shall have come to expression, then we shall not be able to address this Spirit-Self as ourself; but we shall say: Our ego has developed to a certain stage, so that our Spirit-Self can shine into it, as from higher worlds, as a kind of Angel Being, which we ourselves are not, but which shines into us and takes possession of us. Thus will our Spirit-Self appear to us; and only upon Jupiter will it appear as our own being, as our ego now is. Human evolution moves forward in this way."
-RS https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/19120109p01.html
The Ego is our Fourth Principle: (Lucifer-Pride)
"The Christ will deepen the inner life of man, but also make him humble; the Luciferic spirits will lead man out beyond himself, and make him wise, clever, talented, but also in a certain sense haughty; will teach him that he might become something superhuman even during the Earth evolution. Everything, therefore, which in the future shall lead man to rise above himself, as it were, which will make him proud of his own human nature even here upon earth — that will be a Luciferic impulse; but what makes a man more deeply sincere, what brings his inner life to such depths as can come only through the complete development of the fourth principle — that comes from the Christ."
-RS
Essentially the ego-less path is the teaching of the Anti-Christ:
"Thus will the Christ Spirit and the spirit of this being face one another — the Christ Spirit, from whom humanity may hope to receive the mighty macrocosmic impulse of its fourth principle, and the Luciferic Spirit, who will wish in a certain way to lead humanity beyond this.
"If people would agree that we must acquire from the Luciferic spirits only that to which we can look up in the same way that we look down to our lower nature ... then they would be doing right. But if people should come to say: You see the Christ gives only the fourth principle, while these spirits give the sixth and seventh ... people who think thus concerning Christ will worship and extol ... the Antichrist.
"Thus will the position of the Antichrist towards the Christ make itself felt in the future. And with the outer intellect, with the outer wisdom, one will not be able to challenge such things; for it will be possible to produce much which from the point of view of the intellect and talent will be more clever in the Antichrist than that which will more and more flow into the soul from the Christ, as the highest human principle. Because Christ brings to man the fourth macrocosmic principle — since it is macrocosmic, it is infinitely more important than all microcosmic principles; it is stronger than they, even though it is related to the human ego, stronger than all others which can be gained during Earth evolution — still, because it is only the fourth principle, it will be thought of as lower than the fifth, sixth and seventh, which come from the Luciferic spirits; and especially lower than that which comes from Antichrist."
-RS
The egoless path means death, death to development- Christlessness:
"But from this you see that in a certain way it is not exactly easy to understand the Christ evolution within the earth, because in a sense the objection is justified that particular spirits, Luciferic spirits, lead up to other principles — but only to microcosmic principles. I expressed that earlier when I said: The Christ is a sort of focal point, in which the Being works through His deed, the Being works through that which He is. Round about the Christ sit the twelve Bodhisattvas of the world, upon whom streams what flows from the Christ, and who elevate it, in the sense of increased wisdom, to higher principles.
"BUT IT ALL FLOWS FROM THE FOURTH PRINCIPLE — even upon the higher principles — in so far as these are evolved on the earth. On this account there is much error with regard to the uniqueness of the Christ, because there is not a clear understanding that in the Christ we have, to be sure, to do with the fourth principle, but with the fourth macrocosmic principle, and even though higher principles can be developed, these are only the microcosmic principles of beings who have not come to full development on the Moon, but who in their way transcend the human."
-RS https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/19120109p01.html
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