Tag Archives: Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Steiner on the Roots of Intolerance
At times like this, when nine people are slaughtered because of the color of their skin while praying in their church, words are hollow. But I remember fifty years ago when it seemed, from the outside at least, that light was being shed on the forces behind racism, and new understanding and acceptance were taking root. I thought it was the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.
I was wrong. For the sake of all the families who have lost loved ones to fanaticism, isn’t it time we identify the root cause of intolerance?’ This dangerous emotion lives in feelings of superiority, pride, fear and hate. Why has racism become so dangerously common? Is it the acceptance and fanning of extremist ideas? Is it mental illness? Why and how have the many facets of human existence—religion, politics, economics, education, health, culture—all become so polarized? Aren’t we responsible for this? Why is it now the norm NOT to cooperate for the higher good?
There is a fascination today, and I am not digressing here, with the paranormal: ghosts, vampires, demons, etc., in novels, TV shows and movies. On some level, we humans understand there is more to these stories than meets the eye. Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), was an Austrian mystic, philosopher, social reformer, architect, and esotericist who saw into spiritual worlds. He consistently spoke of the battle between light and dark forces and the effects of spiritual beings on the physical world. If we don’t reverse the trend of the ever-expanding problem of violent intolerance, Steiner says life could end in a War of All Against All.
Steiner, the founder of Anthroposophy (a path of insight which leads the spiritual in the human being to the spiritual in the cosmos), was a deeply devout man and while it may not be fair to him or to the reader to pull out a few paragraphs of his spiritual lingo from the book NATURE SPIRITS, his ideas are pertinent to the heart-wrenching issue of the growing and violent partisanship of our times:
“Matters which have a harmful result on the etheric body are bad laws, or bad social measures prevailing in a community. All that leads to want of harmony, all that makes for bad adjustments between people [causes] the accumulation in the etheric body . . . [of] detachments from beings working in the spiritual worlds [which are] now found in our environment—they are ‘spectres’ or ‘ghosts.’ We see [them] grow out of the life of human beings . . . For one who is able to see things spiritually, [the] physical body is crammed with phantoms, [the] etheric body crammed with specters. As a rule after a person’s death, all this rises up and disperses and populates the world.” Continue reading
A Goodreads Book Review of THE FIFTH GOSPEL by Rudolf Steiner
A Goodreads Review of “THE FIFTH GOSPEL by Rudolf Steiner”
“From his clairvoyant reading of the Akashic Record — the cosmic memory of all events, actions, and thoughts — Rudolf Steiner was able to speak of aspects of the life of Jesus Christ that are not contained in the four biblical Gospels. Such research can be spoken of as a fifth gospel. After an intense inner struggle to verify the exact nature of these events, and checking the results of his research, Steiner describes many detailed episodes from the Akashic Record. This new edition has been retranslated and features six lectures that have never before been published in English.”
Review Reprinted From: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/627391.The_Fifth_Gospel
Author Page at Goodreads:
Steiner led this movement through several phases. In the first, more philosophically oriented phase, Steiner attempted to find a synthesis between science and mysticism; his philosophical work of these years, which he termed spiritual science, sought to provide a connection between the cognitive path of Western philosophy and the inner and spiritual needs of the human being.
In a second phase, beginning around 1907, he began working collaboratively in a variety of artistic media, including drama, the movement arts (developing a new artistic form, eurythmy) and architecture, culminating in the building of a cultural center to house all the arts, the Goetheanum.
After the First World War, Steiner worked with educators, farmers, doctors, and other professionals to develop Waldorf education, biodynamic agriculture, anthroposophical medicine as well as new directions in numerous other practical areas.
Steiner advocated a form of ethical individualism, to which he later brought a more explicitly spiritual component. He based his epistemology on Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s world view, in which ‘Thinking … is no more and no less an organ of perception than the eye or ear. Just as the eye perceives colours and the ear sounds, so thinking perceives ideas.’ A consistent thread that runs from his earliest philosophical phase through his later spiritual orientation is the goal of demonstrating that there are no essential limits to human knowledge.”
Reprinted From: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2593.Rudolf_Steiner
STEINER RELATED LINKS: http://www.anthroposophy.org/, http://www.rudolfsteinerweb.com/, http://www.anthromed.org/, http://www.rsarchive.org/, http://www.thechristiancommunity.org/, http://rudolfsteinerquotes.wordpress.com/
Sunday: Right Judgment, a Guest Post from the Writings of Rudolf Steiner
Saturday: Right Thinking, a Guest Post from the Writings of Rudolf Steiner
Friday: Right Memory, A Guest Post from the Writings of Rudolf Steiner
Thursday: Right Striving, a Guest Post from Rudolf Steiner’s Writings
Wednesday: Right Standpoint, a Guest Post from Rudolf Steiner’s Writings
Tuesday: Right Deed, A Guest Post from Rudolf Steiner’s Writings
Monday: Right Word, A Guest Post from Rudolf Steiner’s Writings
We humans are “indispensable to the wholeness of being,” quoted from Richard Leviton
Ever wonder if you matter? Of if you, specifically, make a difference for our world?
Please enjoy this quote from THE IMAGINATION OF PENTECOST: Rudolf Steiner & Contemporary Spirituality by Richard Leviton:
“In [Rudolf] Steiner’s theory of knowledge, the human, in the act of knowing, of attaining knowledge, actually participates in the creation of the world, contributing something indispensable to the wholeness of being. Cognition [of supersensible worlds] is world generative and through the pure moral impulses it produces, it is equally world restorative.”
Paraphrased from THE COURSE OF MY LIFE by Rudolf Steiner, pages 239-241
Some links to Richard Leviton:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Leviton
http://redwheelweiser.com/author.html?au=1284
http://www.ofspirit.com/richardleviton1.htm
Some links to Rudolf Steiner:
http://www.rudolfsteinerweb.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Steiner
http://www.rudolfsteineraudio.com/