Re: Massimo Scaligero
Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2024 6:45 pm
Rome, March 4, 1978
- The legitimacy of prophecies
- Focus on thinking versus focus on religious feelings
- Meaning of the Eucharist
- How to realize "Christ in me"
- The events of spring and Easter
“Divination and omen in relation to man’s inner life - their legitimacy.”
We don’t have to worry about the future, because we create the future. If someone is guessing correctly, saying that, when we exit this building and walk down Cavallotti street, a beam will fall on our head, then what do we do? Shall we avoid passing there? Our destiny would wait for us, anyway. So we wouldn’t change our plans. Therefore, there is just as much value in not knowing. So when we encounter fortune tellers, let’s try to be shrewd: we don’t need to be informed in advance of anything at all.
It’s different when we speak of our knowledge of certain lines of evolution, by virtue of which we are aware of what happens in a certain epoch, depending on whether certain inner conditions are or aren’t fulfilled. This, of course, is important. We can even be the repository of prophecies. But all this only works in a spirit of sagacity, for the one who does not utilize the knowledge to try and get clever with destiny. Because the wise person who knows that, as he walks down Ciceruacchio street, will get a brick on his head, still goes there, and gets hit by the brick. On the other hand, there can be, I shall not say Initiates, but, let’s say, enlightened individuals who are able to foresee something of the future. If they are really wise, they remain silent. On the contrary, if they begin to show off their capacities, they are probably cheaters. Maybe they guess it correctly one time, and wrongly another time. And we are already on a less than serious level here. In any case, this topic is interesting from another point of view, because we really have the possibility to predict the future, and we also have the capability to go back in time. In this sense, we can have a higher experience of self consciousness, however not to be used to try and get clever with destiny.
“Since time immemorial, man becomes a god through prayer, and through rite. As the gospel tells, so the miracle confirms. Why do you now say that it’s all about thinking? The message that Christ brought to us is “Love your neighbor as yourself”. Why do you say that Christ is the bearer of the I?” - I’m not the one saying it - “Why Theosophy rather than Theology? And which one can I really believe in?”
About the meaning of “man is a god”: the difference between Buddha and a common man is that the Buddha knows he is the Buddha, while the common man doesn’t know it. Therefore, he suffers. So, man has always been a god, through prayer and rite. However, times have changed. Safe Saint Gennaro, Father Severino, and Father Gino (Father Pio has died, he’s still dead) you know that we have never been short of prayers in our practice, because we believe in the miracle. Still, without thinking there is absolutely nothing we can do. Here let’s not go through the whole story again. There is plenty we have written on thinking. I believe I can summarize the evil of our time in a single situation. It’s terribly simple, it's like Columbus’s egg: people believe that the brain thinks. And even when they don’t believe it, they behave as if they believed it. Therefore, while materialism comes from such thinking brain, those who believe they are fighting it may very well be materialists of a different color. And they are fighting each other: they are on one side, and they are also on the other. Both are materialists.
There is no way out, unless one comes to an understanding of this tragic mistake, which, in a sense, really summarizes the foundation of an entire worldview [materialism]. We have to say, they [the outspoken materialists] are the most coherent and respectable of the two, because they clearly state that they rely on such a foundation. Whilst the other ones, who are supposedly all about “spirit”, overcoming materialism, and superior morality, are actually in the same position as the fomer. Only the language is different. Actually, the only distinctive element is feeling, their feeling is different. Why do we say all that? We can really sympathize with this question aked by our super powerful, or, shall we say, ultra powerful friend here, because it gives us the opportunity to summarize everything.
In ancient times, the situation of man was different. Of course man had a brain then. Indeed, there were some real brainiacs back then. However, souls were able to consider things independent of the brain, and that’s how they used to have great intuitions. Let’s take the Greek thinkers for example. Why were they great? Because they still had an etheric structure of thinking that was independent of cerebrality. For this reason, they were all greatly intuitive. From spiritual science we learn that’s how things are. Moreover, those who engage in experiential thinking practice have an experimental confirmation of that. They know that in certain moments one becomes free from cerebrality, penetrating in this way inside certain realities, in objective, precise and determined manner. In other moments, one is indeed captive in one’s brain - being so smart and so logical, and still, alarmingly obtuse. To whomever already knows how things are, it’s clear what “alarming” means here, because, naturally, the world of the dim-witted is all his world. But the one who practices thinking knows very well that the soul in its entirety depends on the centrality of consciousness.
In this sense, one can be a theologian, according to Saint John of the Cross - because almost all mystic theology is founded on the intuitions and visions of Saint John of the Cross - one can be tremendously religious, friend of prayer, friend of miracle and of all forms of rite and devotion, nevertheless, if thinking is conditioned by the brain, all that is just rhetorical. All that theology becomes chatter. By itself, it allows you to go nowhere beyond the dialectical-cerebral boundaries, to establish no contact with supersensible reality. The only possible point of connection would be a sentimental one, one of exalted theology.
That’s where religion stands nowadays. We need to recognize this, otherwise we will not find the way out of the mess. We really need a certain stream, a certain human minority to take that step beyond the cerebral jail, beyond the imprisonment of the brain. The brain literally is a prison, and that’s what philosophy is - and when we say “philosophy” we mean all philosophers, because what did idealism do to impede the birth of materialism? It did nothing. Idealism only produced chatter, since there’s no real method to be found in it enabling us to overcome materialism. In order to achieve such an enterprise, we had to discover a higher Yoga, appearing within Western thinking, that we recognized in Steiner - the bearer of the message of living thinking, who points us toward the way of Michael, hence towards the redemption of thinking.
So, whoever loves religion has to redeem thinking. Without holy thinking, the path of holiness can’t be pursued. This is true theosophy, because a true and healthy experience of thinking leads us to perceive that the foundations of our consciousness are grounded in divinity. This is where true religious experience can begin. In the absence of this understanding, we can’t speak of religion, except in sentimentalistic, rhetorical terms. These are still good for a certain level of humanity that still needs a shepherd. Those who are at the level of herd do need a shepherd. But let’s be wary of shepherds who are wolves disguised as shepherds, which is a real danger nowadays. So this sort of religiousness is a makeshift. In order for the herd to be guided in the future towards the experience of the spirit, spiritual guides are needed - beings who have overcome the imprisonment of the brain.
So, “Love your neighbor as yourself” truly is a beautiful, marvelous formula, but the risk is that it remains just that: a formula. One can surely say “How beautiful, I want to dedicate my life to this” but what next? It will remain a beautiful purpose, and that's it. The next moment, when walking down Cavallotti street, he gets infuriated because someone will have stepped on his foot, and he wishes he could kill him. Or, the taxman arrives and ...good-bye, the purpose of loving a neighbor as oneself. The problem is that we are talking about a feeling, and the feeling should be transformed into an idea. Then the idea should be further transformed into a force. Then, the force needs to be charged with will, so that it becomes as powerful as an instinct. When it has become as powerful as an instinct, you will be in a position such as Mother Teresa of Calcutta, whom I so often refer to. We are very grateful to her, because she provides us with an example we can continually bring forth. Whence does this being source such a willpower? It’s exceptional, because she certainly ignores the path of thinking, however, she has that force with her. We know the origin of such force. It’s the same force that acts negatively in others, as power of the instincts - indeed, when empowered by instincts, humans can be tremendously effective, since it’s not their own force, but the force of instinctive animal character. And whenever our will, freed from cerebrality, succeeds in achieving the same level of force in loving our neighbors as ourselves, then we realize Christ. As you can see, it’s a matter of overcoming that same limit. With this, I deem to have responded to our super powerful friend.
Here we have a question from someone who signs as the “Filarcante” [unknown word]. It says “...a question meant in terms of orientation towards sculpture…. a new Plato… this new platonism is continued in what at the end of the XVIth century resulted in the light brown [“bruno”] of Nero Giordano…. “Sic sunt bona nostra”” [cryptic question]
This is a good thing, because it preludes to what we will realize one day, through social threefolding, and we are reminded of the beautiful picture of Christ establishing the Eucharist, that also indicates the true sense of the liberation of man. Since there is another question here that brings me to this same topic, let me take it now. It says: “Free thinking as memory of the Logos”. Indeed, we have discussed brain thinking, which is unfree, because it is determined by brain dynamics. So it’s a long going battle. Now, when Christ institutes the Eucharist, He says "Do this in memory of me", it means: “Remember who I am”. This memory is a cosmic memory. It means: “Remember that I am at the origin of the Sun, at the origin of the Earth, at the origin of everything on Earth that is solar”. Then, in the cup, he gives the drink that [seals] the new covenant.
However, all this takes us back to what He says in response to the Ahrimanic temptation, when He speaks about the bread. Christ responds to that temptation by saying: "One cannot live by bread alone". The Gospel tells that afterwards, Ahriman went away, but only for a short time. On this, our Doctor commented and explained that the reason is that there was an Ahrimanic substance - the metal of the Earth - acting in Judas, because the thirty denarii were made of silver. Silver and gold are Ahrimanic metals. And as long as the bread is paid with Ahrimanic metal, that bread does not give spiritual nourishment. But Christ gives the bread as a nourishment that is not subject to Ahriman.
Now think about Threefolding. Threefolding holds a luminous idea. If things go well, this idea will be the fortune of the future: it’s the idea that work should not be paid. One does not have to work in order to live, because work cannot be bought, and therefore bread must not be subject to money. That is, bread is the fruit of the earth, the fruit of the ancient Sun, therefore it should just be available. It is the body of Christ. In fact, this is the Eucharist, this is its meaning. But as long as Ahriman dominates bread through money, that bread cannot help man. One should be cautious, though, when expressing these luminous ideas, lest people take you for a fool. It has already happened that such ideas were deemed utopic. However, if we really want to get out of this prison we were talking about, we have to understand that work cannot be bought, for it’s not a commodity, and that bread must be liberated from the Ahrimanic metal. Only then will we finally have a clear path towards the Logos. This liberated thought is nothing else than the thinking we were just discussing, that is, thinking that overcomes the cerebral constraints. Cerebral constraints are Ahrimanic constraints.
We know very well that man is dominated in thought by Ahrimanic and Luciferic powers, and that rare are the beings who are not dominated in this way. Those who know meditation know what a painful effort they have to make to have a thought that is not dominated by those two, because every day we are forced to think under conditioning. And since in current humanity there is the danger - it’s a danger from the viewpoint of Ahriman - that man begins to have autonomous thinking, Ahriman is playing a big game by destroying the world economy, so as to create worldwide a continuous concern for living, for daily sustenance, so that man no longer has time to think about the things of the spirit. In this way, the means - the concern for daily sustenance - becomes the end. In this Ahriman has succeeded. He knows very well that if human beings could be independent from these concerns, they would have the sagacity to use their time well, that is, the sagacity to dedicate time to meditation. But this becomes increasingly difficult, because our time is invaded by a series of daily occurrences. This fight will be won by the bearers of the solar Logos. "Portae inferi non praevalebunt" [The doors of hell will not win]. However, this result must be earned with determined will, and with courageous insistence on the right attitude.
Now this question: “I feel myself in feeling. How to will myself in willing, so as to realize Christ in me?”
The key is always thinking. We must remember the technique suggested by our Doctor. In thinking it can be said that we must put ourselves outside of thinking. In fact, the exercise of concentration leads us to objectify thinking. We must insist for a long time precisely in order to be able to see thinking as a reality from which we are independent, a reality that gives us the experience of the identity of the I. Finally the I, rather than being reflected by physical sensations - whereby we are continually at the mercy of everything that physically happens - is reflected by the etheric current of thinking. That’s how we arrive at the first image of the I.
Having had this image, the I has an independence, it achieves an independence, by which it sees the entities of thinking as objective, external. And the beings who carry thinking, both the elemental beings and the cosmic beings, are entities from which man is distinguished, therefore there is a real experience of detachment of the I from thinking.
The experience of feeling is different. In feeling we must feel that we are’ inside’. If we are capable of this independence from thinking, then we can reach the true experience of feeling, within feeling: we have to dive into feeling, like someone who dives into the water knowing how to swim, or we could say, like a fish. Feeling is symbolized by the waters. In water the fish feels very comfortable, because it’s not seized by the water, it slides into it, it’s not a prisoner of the water but it’s free, it darts wherever it wants. Not only that, we could add various other things. In any case, it’s on the inside of feeling that we need to come. Then we feel we are in an area in which the Logos is active. Our friend's question about Christ in me really refers to this experience of feeling. Still, this experience can’t come without the liberation of thinking.
It is difficult to explain all this to those who do not know spiritual science. Not knowing spiritual science, we would experience an inevitably luciferic, subjective feeling, enclosed within ourselves. That feeling can indeed feel exalted, but those exaltations are truly …rhetorical, so much so that the church for centuries has feared such exaltations in certain mystics, and rightly so. Instead, one can have the admirable experience of feeling as the feeling of the Logos. In this way, one begins to have a synthesis of thinking and feeling, and this is the way of Michael. In fact, true feeling is enthusiasm for pure thinking. When it comes to the will, however, things stand differently. It's a matter of sensing oneself above willing, as if one felt a horse beneath oneself. So: before thinking, inside feeling, and above the will. It’s as if the will were a force that we see flowing in our flesh, in our metabolism.
Naturally, all this must be translated into a relevant picture. It is nothing abstract, it truly aligns with the occult configuration of our experience. If we identify with will in other areas of our being, this is temporary. For example, if we feel the point where thinking is born, and really feel thinking arising from there - it’s a quite lucid, vivid, and I would say, beneficial experience - at that moment there is indeed a current of will in it, however, it tends to descend downwards. The same can happen in the heart too. On the other hand, the authentic experience of the will is something that leads us to see it as a support of all life, as a backing of life, in the same way that the limbs - especially the lower limbs - support the whole body. The trunk has no participation in this. The will must be felt as a current independent of the trunk. The trunk must rest, because it is the part in which the forces of Buddhi operate, that is, the forces of higher feeling, ultimately the forces of the Logos. Therefore, the area of the trunk must be left in great stillness, so that the power of will can be as dynamic as possible. Only then the will helps us.
Here we must add that taking advantage of this will requires precise internal duties. Since it gives us great strength, we must then use this strength wisely. Even simply an irregular use of this strength is enough not only to make the experience disappear, but also to cause some pretty heavy events to happen. When this current of the will is in agreement with the I, therefore with thinking and feeling, then one can truly feel the higher self, the I in oneself, and this is like saying: "Not I, but Christ in me". I think there is nothing else to add. Indeed, this theme is pretty delicate.
Now let’s conclude with this question:
"We are approaching Easter. Now more than ever, in these terrible days of darkness for humanity, our spiritual community should meditate on the descent of the essence of sovereign love into the hearts of men and into the heart of the Earth. Therefore it is important to rekindle within us - with the sacrificial power of the word inspired by direct experience - the memory of the sacred event, so that we can become worthy of it."
Yes, the event of Easter is also prepared through a change in the life of nature, through an irruption of the vital forces of nature, which, to that end, must make use of higher and lower elemental beings. In this process, the Luciferic and the Ahrimanic entities attempt to seize man - the Luciferic entities through breathing, the Ahrimanic ones through the stimulation of all the mineral processes that are triggered by the roots of plants from the depths up. This is a process that we can call mineral-calcareous, by which the Ahrimanic powers bypass diaphragms and, from the depths of the Earth, tend to rise up towards man, due to the fact that in plants an inflow of these forces occurs. So man is besieged by these forces and almost made dull, that is, the joyful energy of spring makes him dull. This is an observation that we can reconnect with the fact that man has become a cerebral being, therefore, when he feels joy, it is rarely a joy of the spirit. Rather it's an animal joy. So everything that comes as the vitality of spring is previously taken hold of by these powers. In spring, the Luciferic and Ahrimanic entities unite to destroy man and, at least for a while, they are successful. It is a dangerous period. Man is unlikely to notice this pressure, but if he listens to himself well, he will realize it. Especially those who have a rhythmic inner life, will notice that before Easter they have to struggle to keep the I independent from the processes of spring.
It would help to go to the countryside, and have a pure experience of the blossoming of buds, of the blooming of flowers, to overcome the animal and aesthetic-sensual element, in order to grasp the Christ-like within the forces of spring. These are forces of birth and we usually grasp this poetic beauty of spring as an external fact. But we must also think that there are forces that are imprisoned in the forms of plants to allow for such an outpour of life. This means there is a sacrifice, and man must follow this sacrifice and feel its poetic beauty in pure contemplation of the processes of rebirth in nature, to which the thought of autumn must not be alien - because everything is to be felt rhythmically. In this way, man redeems himself, makes himself independent from the Luciferic-Ahrimanic aggressions. It can be said that this is the time of the year in which these beings have hope that they can destroy man.
You may wonder: “What do they gain if man is destroyed?” Their goal is to capture man. Lucifer wants to capture man in the area where his spirit lives, and Ahriman wants to capture man within the Earth. Anyhow, at a certain point, all this undergoes a plot twist. During the Holy Week the tension increases. Besides that, those who practice meditation may also feel the life of the Grail, and can prepare themselves, prepare their soul for Good Friday, recognizing the story of Parsifal. If they are able to arrive at that week with an alert soul, then the event of Easter gives them back the strength, it gives them back the magical-solar element they need. Naturally, we reserve the right to speak further on this theme when the event is closer, so as to say something more precisely relevant on Resurrection.
In this event of Easter we have the opportunity to connect with what is living in nature, beyond the Luciferic and Ahrimanic processes. But we must be persuaded that this is not about anything vital or physical. It is about eminently inner processes which then find their symbol in flowering, in greenness, in the green tenderness of the blossoming plant, in the explosion of greenery. It’s difficult to free this symbol from aesthetic rhetoric, and from vital pleasure. We are after something more subtle, more radical, that enables us to feel the force of Easter in spring. The thought of death and resurrection helps us feel the true value of spring. We can do this already today, and some may benefit, for example, from [Anne Catherine] Emmerich's descriptions.
Recording at:
https://ecoantroposophia.it/2014/08/mat ... arzo-1978/
- The legitimacy of prophecies
- Focus on thinking versus focus on religious feelings
- Meaning of the Eucharist
- How to realize "Christ in me"
- The events of spring and Easter
“Divination and omen in relation to man’s inner life - their legitimacy.”
We don’t have to worry about the future, because we create the future. If someone is guessing correctly, saying that, when we exit this building and walk down Cavallotti street, a beam will fall on our head, then what do we do? Shall we avoid passing there? Our destiny would wait for us, anyway. So we wouldn’t change our plans. Therefore, there is just as much value in not knowing. So when we encounter fortune tellers, let’s try to be shrewd: we don’t need to be informed in advance of anything at all.
It’s different when we speak of our knowledge of certain lines of evolution, by virtue of which we are aware of what happens in a certain epoch, depending on whether certain inner conditions are or aren’t fulfilled. This, of course, is important. We can even be the repository of prophecies. But all this only works in a spirit of sagacity, for the one who does not utilize the knowledge to try and get clever with destiny. Because the wise person who knows that, as he walks down Ciceruacchio street, will get a brick on his head, still goes there, and gets hit by the brick. On the other hand, there can be, I shall not say Initiates, but, let’s say, enlightened individuals who are able to foresee something of the future. If they are really wise, they remain silent. On the contrary, if they begin to show off their capacities, they are probably cheaters. Maybe they guess it correctly one time, and wrongly another time. And we are already on a less than serious level here. In any case, this topic is interesting from another point of view, because we really have the possibility to predict the future, and we also have the capability to go back in time. In this sense, we can have a higher experience of self consciousness, however not to be used to try and get clever with destiny.
“Since time immemorial, man becomes a god through prayer, and through rite. As the gospel tells, so the miracle confirms. Why do you now say that it’s all about thinking? The message that Christ brought to us is “Love your neighbor as yourself”. Why do you say that Christ is the bearer of the I?” - I’m not the one saying it - “Why Theosophy rather than Theology? And which one can I really believe in?”
About the meaning of “man is a god”: the difference between Buddha and a common man is that the Buddha knows he is the Buddha, while the common man doesn’t know it. Therefore, he suffers. So, man has always been a god, through prayer and rite. However, times have changed. Safe Saint Gennaro, Father Severino, and Father Gino (Father Pio has died, he’s still dead) you know that we have never been short of prayers in our practice, because we believe in the miracle. Still, without thinking there is absolutely nothing we can do. Here let’s not go through the whole story again. There is plenty we have written on thinking. I believe I can summarize the evil of our time in a single situation. It’s terribly simple, it's like Columbus’s egg: people believe that the brain thinks. And even when they don’t believe it, they behave as if they believed it. Therefore, while materialism comes from such thinking brain, those who believe they are fighting it may very well be materialists of a different color. And they are fighting each other: they are on one side, and they are also on the other. Both are materialists.
There is no way out, unless one comes to an understanding of this tragic mistake, which, in a sense, really summarizes the foundation of an entire worldview [materialism]. We have to say, they [the outspoken materialists] are the most coherent and respectable of the two, because they clearly state that they rely on such a foundation. Whilst the other ones, who are supposedly all about “spirit”, overcoming materialism, and superior morality, are actually in the same position as the fomer. Only the language is different. Actually, the only distinctive element is feeling, their feeling is different. Why do we say all that? We can really sympathize with this question aked by our super powerful, or, shall we say, ultra powerful friend here, because it gives us the opportunity to summarize everything.
In ancient times, the situation of man was different. Of course man had a brain then. Indeed, there were some real brainiacs back then. However, souls were able to consider things independent of the brain, and that’s how they used to have great intuitions. Let’s take the Greek thinkers for example. Why were they great? Because they still had an etheric structure of thinking that was independent of cerebrality. For this reason, they were all greatly intuitive. From spiritual science we learn that’s how things are. Moreover, those who engage in experiential thinking practice have an experimental confirmation of that. They know that in certain moments one becomes free from cerebrality, penetrating in this way inside certain realities, in objective, precise and determined manner. In other moments, one is indeed captive in one’s brain - being so smart and so logical, and still, alarmingly obtuse. To whomever already knows how things are, it’s clear what “alarming” means here, because, naturally, the world of the dim-witted is all his world. But the one who practices thinking knows very well that the soul in its entirety depends on the centrality of consciousness.
In this sense, one can be a theologian, according to Saint John of the Cross - because almost all mystic theology is founded on the intuitions and visions of Saint John of the Cross - one can be tremendously religious, friend of prayer, friend of miracle and of all forms of rite and devotion, nevertheless, if thinking is conditioned by the brain, all that is just rhetorical. All that theology becomes chatter. By itself, it allows you to go nowhere beyond the dialectical-cerebral boundaries, to establish no contact with supersensible reality. The only possible point of connection would be a sentimental one, one of exalted theology.
That’s where religion stands nowadays. We need to recognize this, otherwise we will not find the way out of the mess. We really need a certain stream, a certain human minority to take that step beyond the cerebral jail, beyond the imprisonment of the brain. The brain literally is a prison, and that’s what philosophy is - and when we say “philosophy” we mean all philosophers, because what did idealism do to impede the birth of materialism? It did nothing. Idealism only produced chatter, since there’s no real method to be found in it enabling us to overcome materialism. In order to achieve such an enterprise, we had to discover a higher Yoga, appearing within Western thinking, that we recognized in Steiner - the bearer of the message of living thinking, who points us toward the way of Michael, hence towards the redemption of thinking.
So, whoever loves religion has to redeem thinking. Without holy thinking, the path of holiness can’t be pursued. This is true theosophy, because a true and healthy experience of thinking leads us to perceive that the foundations of our consciousness are grounded in divinity. This is where true religious experience can begin. In the absence of this understanding, we can’t speak of religion, except in sentimentalistic, rhetorical terms. These are still good for a certain level of humanity that still needs a shepherd. Those who are at the level of herd do need a shepherd. But let’s be wary of shepherds who are wolves disguised as shepherds, which is a real danger nowadays. So this sort of religiousness is a makeshift. In order for the herd to be guided in the future towards the experience of the spirit, spiritual guides are needed - beings who have overcome the imprisonment of the brain.
So, “Love your neighbor as yourself” truly is a beautiful, marvelous formula, but the risk is that it remains just that: a formula. One can surely say “How beautiful, I want to dedicate my life to this” but what next? It will remain a beautiful purpose, and that's it. The next moment, when walking down Cavallotti street, he gets infuriated because someone will have stepped on his foot, and he wishes he could kill him. Or, the taxman arrives and ...good-bye, the purpose of loving a neighbor as oneself. The problem is that we are talking about a feeling, and the feeling should be transformed into an idea. Then the idea should be further transformed into a force. Then, the force needs to be charged with will, so that it becomes as powerful as an instinct. When it has become as powerful as an instinct, you will be in a position such as Mother Teresa of Calcutta, whom I so often refer to. We are very grateful to her, because she provides us with an example we can continually bring forth. Whence does this being source such a willpower? It’s exceptional, because she certainly ignores the path of thinking, however, she has that force with her. We know the origin of such force. It’s the same force that acts negatively in others, as power of the instincts - indeed, when empowered by instincts, humans can be tremendously effective, since it’s not their own force, but the force of instinctive animal character. And whenever our will, freed from cerebrality, succeeds in achieving the same level of force in loving our neighbors as ourselves, then we realize Christ. As you can see, it’s a matter of overcoming that same limit. With this, I deem to have responded to our super powerful friend.
Here we have a question from someone who signs as the “Filarcante” [unknown word]. It says “...a question meant in terms of orientation towards sculpture…. a new Plato… this new platonism is continued in what at the end of the XVIth century resulted in the light brown [“bruno”] of Nero Giordano…. “Sic sunt bona nostra”” [cryptic question]
This is a good thing, because it preludes to what we will realize one day, through social threefolding, and we are reminded of the beautiful picture of Christ establishing the Eucharist, that also indicates the true sense of the liberation of man. Since there is another question here that brings me to this same topic, let me take it now. It says: “Free thinking as memory of the Logos”. Indeed, we have discussed brain thinking, which is unfree, because it is determined by brain dynamics. So it’s a long going battle. Now, when Christ institutes the Eucharist, He says "Do this in memory of me", it means: “Remember who I am”. This memory is a cosmic memory. It means: “Remember that I am at the origin of the Sun, at the origin of the Earth, at the origin of everything on Earth that is solar”. Then, in the cup, he gives the drink that [seals] the new covenant.
However, all this takes us back to what He says in response to the Ahrimanic temptation, when He speaks about the bread. Christ responds to that temptation by saying: "One cannot live by bread alone". The Gospel tells that afterwards, Ahriman went away, but only for a short time. On this, our Doctor commented and explained that the reason is that there was an Ahrimanic substance - the metal of the Earth - acting in Judas, because the thirty denarii were made of silver. Silver and gold are Ahrimanic metals. And as long as the bread is paid with Ahrimanic metal, that bread does not give spiritual nourishment. But Christ gives the bread as a nourishment that is not subject to Ahriman.
Now think about Threefolding. Threefolding holds a luminous idea. If things go well, this idea will be the fortune of the future: it’s the idea that work should not be paid. One does not have to work in order to live, because work cannot be bought, and therefore bread must not be subject to money. That is, bread is the fruit of the earth, the fruit of the ancient Sun, therefore it should just be available. It is the body of Christ. In fact, this is the Eucharist, this is its meaning. But as long as Ahriman dominates bread through money, that bread cannot help man. One should be cautious, though, when expressing these luminous ideas, lest people take you for a fool. It has already happened that such ideas were deemed utopic. However, if we really want to get out of this prison we were talking about, we have to understand that work cannot be bought, for it’s not a commodity, and that bread must be liberated from the Ahrimanic metal. Only then will we finally have a clear path towards the Logos. This liberated thought is nothing else than the thinking we were just discussing, that is, thinking that overcomes the cerebral constraints. Cerebral constraints are Ahrimanic constraints.
We know very well that man is dominated in thought by Ahrimanic and Luciferic powers, and that rare are the beings who are not dominated in this way. Those who know meditation know what a painful effort they have to make to have a thought that is not dominated by those two, because every day we are forced to think under conditioning. And since in current humanity there is the danger - it’s a danger from the viewpoint of Ahriman - that man begins to have autonomous thinking, Ahriman is playing a big game by destroying the world economy, so as to create worldwide a continuous concern for living, for daily sustenance, so that man no longer has time to think about the things of the spirit. In this way, the means - the concern for daily sustenance - becomes the end. In this Ahriman has succeeded. He knows very well that if human beings could be independent from these concerns, they would have the sagacity to use their time well, that is, the sagacity to dedicate time to meditation. But this becomes increasingly difficult, because our time is invaded by a series of daily occurrences. This fight will be won by the bearers of the solar Logos. "Portae inferi non praevalebunt" [The doors of hell will not win]. However, this result must be earned with determined will, and with courageous insistence on the right attitude.
Now this question: “I feel myself in feeling. How to will myself in willing, so as to realize Christ in me?”
The key is always thinking. We must remember the technique suggested by our Doctor. In thinking it can be said that we must put ourselves outside of thinking. In fact, the exercise of concentration leads us to objectify thinking. We must insist for a long time precisely in order to be able to see thinking as a reality from which we are independent, a reality that gives us the experience of the identity of the I. Finally the I, rather than being reflected by physical sensations - whereby we are continually at the mercy of everything that physically happens - is reflected by the etheric current of thinking. That’s how we arrive at the first image of the I.
Having had this image, the I has an independence, it achieves an independence, by which it sees the entities of thinking as objective, external. And the beings who carry thinking, both the elemental beings and the cosmic beings, are entities from which man is distinguished, therefore there is a real experience of detachment of the I from thinking.
The experience of feeling is different. In feeling we must feel that we are’ inside’. If we are capable of this independence from thinking, then we can reach the true experience of feeling, within feeling: we have to dive into feeling, like someone who dives into the water knowing how to swim, or we could say, like a fish. Feeling is symbolized by the waters. In water the fish feels very comfortable, because it’s not seized by the water, it slides into it, it’s not a prisoner of the water but it’s free, it darts wherever it wants. Not only that, we could add various other things. In any case, it’s on the inside of feeling that we need to come. Then we feel we are in an area in which the Logos is active. Our friend's question about Christ in me really refers to this experience of feeling. Still, this experience can’t come without the liberation of thinking.
It is difficult to explain all this to those who do not know spiritual science. Not knowing spiritual science, we would experience an inevitably luciferic, subjective feeling, enclosed within ourselves. That feeling can indeed feel exalted, but those exaltations are truly …rhetorical, so much so that the church for centuries has feared such exaltations in certain mystics, and rightly so. Instead, one can have the admirable experience of feeling as the feeling of the Logos. In this way, one begins to have a synthesis of thinking and feeling, and this is the way of Michael. In fact, true feeling is enthusiasm for pure thinking. When it comes to the will, however, things stand differently. It's a matter of sensing oneself above willing, as if one felt a horse beneath oneself. So: before thinking, inside feeling, and above the will. It’s as if the will were a force that we see flowing in our flesh, in our metabolism.
Naturally, all this must be translated into a relevant picture. It is nothing abstract, it truly aligns with the occult configuration of our experience. If we identify with will in other areas of our being, this is temporary. For example, if we feel the point where thinking is born, and really feel thinking arising from there - it’s a quite lucid, vivid, and I would say, beneficial experience - at that moment there is indeed a current of will in it, however, it tends to descend downwards. The same can happen in the heart too. On the other hand, the authentic experience of the will is something that leads us to see it as a support of all life, as a backing of life, in the same way that the limbs - especially the lower limbs - support the whole body. The trunk has no participation in this. The will must be felt as a current independent of the trunk. The trunk must rest, because it is the part in which the forces of Buddhi operate, that is, the forces of higher feeling, ultimately the forces of the Logos. Therefore, the area of the trunk must be left in great stillness, so that the power of will can be as dynamic as possible. Only then the will helps us.
Here we must add that taking advantage of this will requires precise internal duties. Since it gives us great strength, we must then use this strength wisely. Even simply an irregular use of this strength is enough not only to make the experience disappear, but also to cause some pretty heavy events to happen. When this current of the will is in agreement with the I, therefore with thinking and feeling, then one can truly feel the higher self, the I in oneself, and this is like saying: "Not I, but Christ in me". I think there is nothing else to add. Indeed, this theme is pretty delicate.
Now let’s conclude with this question:
"We are approaching Easter. Now more than ever, in these terrible days of darkness for humanity, our spiritual community should meditate on the descent of the essence of sovereign love into the hearts of men and into the heart of the Earth. Therefore it is important to rekindle within us - with the sacrificial power of the word inspired by direct experience - the memory of the sacred event, so that we can become worthy of it."
Yes, the event of Easter is also prepared through a change in the life of nature, through an irruption of the vital forces of nature, which, to that end, must make use of higher and lower elemental beings. In this process, the Luciferic and the Ahrimanic entities attempt to seize man - the Luciferic entities through breathing, the Ahrimanic ones through the stimulation of all the mineral processes that are triggered by the roots of plants from the depths up. This is a process that we can call mineral-calcareous, by which the Ahrimanic powers bypass diaphragms and, from the depths of the Earth, tend to rise up towards man, due to the fact that in plants an inflow of these forces occurs. So man is besieged by these forces and almost made dull, that is, the joyful energy of spring makes him dull. This is an observation that we can reconnect with the fact that man has become a cerebral being, therefore, when he feels joy, it is rarely a joy of the spirit. Rather it's an animal joy. So everything that comes as the vitality of spring is previously taken hold of by these powers. In spring, the Luciferic and Ahrimanic entities unite to destroy man and, at least for a while, they are successful. It is a dangerous period. Man is unlikely to notice this pressure, but if he listens to himself well, he will realize it. Especially those who have a rhythmic inner life, will notice that before Easter they have to struggle to keep the I independent from the processes of spring.
It would help to go to the countryside, and have a pure experience of the blossoming of buds, of the blooming of flowers, to overcome the animal and aesthetic-sensual element, in order to grasp the Christ-like within the forces of spring. These are forces of birth and we usually grasp this poetic beauty of spring as an external fact. But we must also think that there are forces that are imprisoned in the forms of plants to allow for such an outpour of life. This means there is a sacrifice, and man must follow this sacrifice and feel its poetic beauty in pure contemplation of the processes of rebirth in nature, to which the thought of autumn must not be alien - because everything is to be felt rhythmically. In this way, man redeems himself, makes himself independent from the Luciferic-Ahrimanic aggressions. It can be said that this is the time of the year in which these beings have hope that they can destroy man.
You may wonder: “What do they gain if man is destroyed?” Their goal is to capture man. Lucifer wants to capture man in the area where his spirit lives, and Ahriman wants to capture man within the Earth. Anyhow, at a certain point, all this undergoes a plot twist. During the Holy Week the tension increases. Besides that, those who practice meditation may also feel the life of the Grail, and can prepare themselves, prepare their soul for Good Friday, recognizing the story of Parsifal. If they are able to arrive at that week with an alert soul, then the event of Easter gives them back the strength, it gives them back the magical-solar element they need. Naturally, we reserve the right to speak further on this theme when the event is closer, so as to say something more precisely relevant on Resurrection.
In this event of Easter we have the opportunity to connect with what is living in nature, beyond the Luciferic and Ahrimanic processes. But we must be persuaded that this is not about anything vital or physical. It is about eminently inner processes which then find their symbol in flowering, in greenness, in the green tenderness of the blossoming plant, in the explosion of greenery. It’s difficult to free this symbol from aesthetic rhetoric, and from vital pleasure. We are after something more subtle, more radical, that enables us to feel the force of Easter in spring. The thought of death and resurrection helps us feel the true value of spring. We can do this already today, and some may benefit, for example, from [Anne Catherine] Emmerich's descriptions.
Recording at:
https://ecoantroposophia.it/2014/08/mat ... arzo-1978/