Earth as school

[findingblanks]

I won't post the entire piece here, but if you enjoy it and are curious, direct message me and I'll send you the entire piece. I like this exploration of the somewhat common metaphor of life as a classroom.

.......

{From the lost vault: a very relaxed talk speaking straight to the imaginations of those working on the first Goetheanum}


My friends if we look in nature, in artistic expression or in human socialization, we see that every process is working toward an ultimate transformation that is always more and more true to its own laws of becoming, to its own fullest destiny. But, as we know all too well, nothing in the earthly realm is manifested perfectly. Everything manifest is less than that and works to realize it through its own becoming. Spiritual science must help us see that manifest existence here on earth is not about the perfection of anything in particular, but that everything that is manifest is a school. What is coming into being is not intended to be perfect in itself but meant to test a certain characteristic of human life.

We can read all kinds of so-called spiritual literature these days and see a common thread in which earthly existence is characterized as being something awful. However, one of spiritual science’s most important contributions to culture is how it shows exactly the way in which the earthly realm is a school. It is not that the earth is evil and you must try to escape it. It is a kind of school, which, if you participate in it most positively, with greatest clarity, most fully, most truly, eventually you move into a new classroom. Then another dimension of experience arises to test you. You do not then go on to another condition that is perfect, but you go on to another condition that tests you as profoundly as this one tests you. I gave one characterization of this in my book Knowledge of Higher Worlds, however that description was for a much more limited situation than the one I am sharing now.

So, as we can see, the Earthly realm is a school. There are other beings here who are also being schooled, perhaps needing to be tested by the human form. But we humans have nowhere to go, so to speak. Perhaps it takes many, many lives of testing on earth in the human form to be schooled, but there is nowhere on earth to go. Thus, if we may perfectly realize the test of our human existence and be schooled by it completely, then we emerge from this current stage of human life in a new way. As a school, the Earth could not be more perfect.

But, dear friends, we must ask ourselves: what is the test that we are involved in? What is the school? What is the essential principle to realize by being a human being, a manifest being, in this condition?

Worker: Moral responsibility.

St: What do you mean by that - moral responsibility?

Worker: It is only when one works on oneself with enough effort and begins to understand oneself, with the help of spiritual science, that one starts to see what the purpose of life truly is. Prior to that, you can't see it. You are unconscious, a dumb animal.

St: I hope you do not object if I use your zoological analogy in the future! {laughter} But, yes, spiritual science takes you to the school. Many individuals believe that spiritual science’s task is to get you out of here, to give you some alternative to this condition so that you can contemplate it, meditate upon it, and get out of here...{end of transcription...}

[Soul_of_Shu]

I won't post the entire piece here, but if you enjoy it and are curious, direct message me ...

How is the PM buddy club coming along?

[Lou Gold]

I won't post the entire piece here, but if you enjoy it and are curious, direct message me and I'll send you the entire piece. I like this exploration of the somewhat common metaphor of life as a classroom.

.......

{From the lost vault: a very relaxed talk speaking straight to the imaginations of those working on the first Goetheanum}


My friends if we look in nature, in artistic expression or in human socialization, we see that every process is working toward an ultimate transformation that is always more and more true to its own laws of becoming, to its own fullest destiny. But, as we know all too well, nothing in the earthly realm is manifested perfectly. Everything manifest is less than that and works to realize it through its own becoming. Spiritual science must help us see that manifest existence here on earth is not about the perfection of anything in particular, but that everything that is manifest is a school. What is coming into being is not intended to be perfect in itself but meant to test a certain characteristic of human life.

We can read all kinds of so-called spiritual literature these days and see a common thread in which earthly existence is characterized as being something awful. However, one of spiritual science’s most important contributions to culture is how it shows exactly the way in which the earthly realm is a school. It is not that the earth is evil and you must try to escape it. It is a kind of school, which, if you participate in it most positively, with greatest clarity, most fully, most truly, eventually you move into a new classroom. Then another dimension of experience arises to test you. You do not then go on to another condition that is perfect, but you go on to another condition that tests you as profoundly as this one tests you. I gave one characterization of this in my book Knowledge of Higher Worlds, however that description was for a much more limited situation than the one I am sharing now.

So, as we can see, the Earthly realm is a school. There are other beings here who are also being schooled, perhaps needing to be tested by the human form. But we humans have nowhere to go, so to speak. Perhaps it takes many, many lives of testing on earth in the human form to be schooled, but there is nowhere on earth to go. Thus, if we may perfectly realize the test of our human existence and be schooled by it completely, then we emerge from this current stage of human life in a new way. As a school, the Earth could not be more perfect.

But, dear friends, we must ask ourselves: what is the test that we are involved in? What is the school? What is the essential principle to realize by being a human being, a manifest being, in this condition?

Worker: Moral responsibility.

St: What do you mean by that - moral responsibility?

Worker: It is only when one works on oneself with enough effort and begins to understand oneself, with the help of spiritual science, that one starts to see what the purpose of life truly is. Prior to that, you can't see it. You are unconscious, a dumb animal.

St: I hope you do not object if I use your zoological analogy in the future! {laughter} But, yes, spiritual science takes you to the school. Many individuals believe that spiritual science’s task is to get you out of here, to give you some alternative to this condition so that you can contemplate it, meditate upon it, and get out of here...{end of transcription...}

Would a fitting title be: "Tests All the Way Up and Turtles All the Way Down" ???

How might this differ (if it does) from a garden metaphor where earth is the experimental station for R&D on corporeal life forms?

[Eugene I.]

Earth and human form is a school, but not a school only. Reducing it only to a school is a limited perspective on it.

[Lou Gold]

Earth and human form is a school, but not a school only. Reducing it only to a school is a limited perspective on it.

It's surely about living, learning and more.

[AshvinP]

I won't post the entire piece here, but if you enjoy it and are curious, direct message me and I'll send you the entire piece. I like this exploration of the somewhat common metaphor of life as a classroom.

I am guessing if some more was posted from this lecture, or practically any lecture on this topic, we would also hear about reincarnation and karmic laws. It's very suspect that is left out the free rendering...

Because the entire meaning of the "school" changes when extended beyond the "impenetrable veil" of a single incarnation. It goes from 2D flattened school-picture to 4D depth school-image. Then we have to deal with much deeper and more specified spiritual lessons over the epochs. We have principles, teachers, and students in the schools. We have different classes which are aimed at maximizing individual independence and potential while also integrating knowledge over time. So we see, leaving out a 'small' detail like reincarnation and karma, which is at the heart of Steiner's spiritual science, makes all the difference.

[findingblanks]

Eugene I agree. In fact, I'd say that if we ever lose sight of the limitation of any metaphor we are using, we are moving in the wrong direction. That said, we may find ourselves still appreciating a metaphor for the slight work it can do. Thanks for sharing!

[Eugene I.]

Christian retained his pre-birth memories and explains why he incarnated into a human, what he intended to learn. At 9:00 he says: "I remember accepting the "veil"" and further explains what the "veil" is and why it is part of human existence.