On the temple at Delphi, the Greek mystery student would read: “Know Thyself.” That is still the most basic requirement of spiritual science. Today, however, this requirement is especially daunting because we are so distracted by the culture of our time. Many are content with believing that they are the sum of their upbringing, their place in society, their interests and opinions. Without thinking about why. Why they were brought up in a specific society or why certain things interest them or why they hold this or that opinion. Why they belong to this race or this gender or this religion or this nation or this family.
Spiritual science provides us with a way to find ourselves as we have discussed many times in these posts, including the six basic exercises we shared together from April through September last year. One way to see ourselves now in these divisive times is poetically given to us, and though some attribute it to Hopi elders, it is anonymous. It goes like this:
“You have been telling people that this is the Eleventh Hour, now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour. And there are things to be considered…
Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?Know your garden.
It is time to speak your truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for your leader.Then he clasped his hands together, smiled, and said, “This could be a good time! There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are being torn apart and will suffer greatly. Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above the water.
And I say, see who is in there with you and celebrate. At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally, least of all ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey come to a halt.
The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves! Banish the word ’struggle’ from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.
Yes, we are the ones we’ve been waiting for. And we are the ones who went before. And we will come again to live in the future we are now preparing. This points to the depth of the demand, “Know Thyself”. This means we need to begin to understand ourselves by accepting the karma we have thus far created for ourselves and how it has extended to all humanity and all the earth. This points to each one of us, not to everyone else.
Let’s see what Dr. Steiner has to say:
If people today want to feel what they really are, the first thing they think of—whatever other nice theories they might have—is what is within their body, within their skin, really within their skin. It is difficult to get a clear idea of this, in particular, because it is true, and no one believes it in our time because people like to develop all kinds of idealism to hide the fact that basically they only believe in themselves in so far as they are enclosed in their own skin…
What people will experience as their karma in the future will connect them consciously with other people. People will have to experience their karma consciously as something real.
As you can easily imagine, experiencing their karma consciously is still very difficult for people today. As I once said, let us assume that someone gives us a slap in the face. Outwardly, of course, in so far as we are enclosed in our body and are beings between birth and death, we have to defend ourselves against that. But a higher perspective has to be applied beyond that: who was it that gave you the slap in the face? Who put the person who gave you the slap in the place where he could do that? He would not be standing there if you had not put him there through the way you are connected with him through karma.
Just think how incredibly difficult it is for people today to think that. Christians believe that they are people of the present, but truly very few of them follow the one who counsels them: if someone strikes you on the left cheek, turn the other one also (Matthew 5:39)—in thought; outwardly it is not possible. People do not yet differentiate in this way between what is inward and outward. It becomes incredibly difficult for them to live in karma in some way.
And yet, as we enter life from the embryonic period through birth, through early childhood, then that which helps to form our body is our karma. Between our last death and our present birth, we have gone through, and have even taken an interest in going through, how we should experience karma and what kind of body we should have so that we can live out our karma.
In this way, we work on kneading, in a manner of speaking, our body through the soul forces. We even act in a localizing way in that we place ourselves at the location in the world where we can live out our karma. We thus act on our personal destiny with the consciousness which we have between death and a new birth.
Excerpt from: Unifying Humanity Spiritually, Lecture 10 by Rudolf Steiner. Dornach. January 7, 1916.
What does turning the other cheek mean? It means that we have helped form that which befalls us in this lifetime. And we are helping to form what will be when we return. So, yes, we cannot allow ourselves to lie down and be trampled by the outside world, but we need to acknowledge our inner responsibility for why whatever is happening is happening. Knowing ourselves is the only path to freedom. And knowing that we chose this time to live is a key to knowing ourselves. It is a good meditation to think about the truth of that and to respond purposefully to what the times are asking of us.
What does it mean to let go of the shore? To push off into the middle of the river? We have a destination as ourselves and as the human race. When the river is flowing great and swift, we have to be braver – something we’ve also been talking about. Let’s get to it!