The Word is Become Flesh

 

The biggest Delusion of Modern Humanity

 

The biggest delusion of all is that sterile matter could ever have changed itself into something living through natural selection. For the definition of "sterile" is precisely that it is the antithesis to any form of life. If the universe really did begin in a blazing mass of burning hot matter, then it would make no difference what material processes have occurred since that origin, for these processes would still be sterile today regardless of how many billions of years they had had to change into different processes. A machine is dead, no matter how complex it might become and the idea that we are machines is really the idea that all life is actually not alive at all, but only seems alive. The adherent to this kind of materialism has to ultimately deny their own personal vitality - they must conclude that they themselves are... sterile.

Does our mind generate reality?

 It seems obvious that thought cannot conjure up appearances out of thin air. Yet many people assume that the mind generates the appearances of the world we are conscious of. Examples of optical illusions and dreams are given to back this assumption up. I dream I am flying, but in reality, I am lying in my bed. I think I am seeing movement, but in reality it is a succession of still images rapidly flashing before my eye on the TV screen. So from such examples it is concluded that the human mind generates reality for itself without the corresponding sense inputs necessarily conveying any reality at all.

In response to such ideas about perception and the mind, one has to be very clear to avoid getting tangled in a web of abstraction. For example, whether an appearance, that is, whether a particular "percept" is the content of a dream or whether it is something revealed in waking consciousness cannot be established based only on whether it originates from sense-inputs, for these are not sufficient for producing any percepts (if they were there would be no hard problem of consciousness). In reality, only a thinking contemplation will reveal what a particular percept is and what its origin is. Only thinking can render the true reality of a percept. But my own act of thinking cannot generate a percept, far less can it declare that all percepts are the product of my subjective mind. Whether a percept corresponds to the objective world, or whether it is the product of mere fancy can only be established by a thoughtful contemplation of that particular percept. 

Thought is thus inescapable at all levels of reality, and it transcends the subject/object duality. It follows that thinking can no longer be imagined as just being in our own heads - for when we look at the very fabric of the world, in any field of study, there we find thinking too.

 This is a brief outline of one of the central observations Rudolf Steiner makes on the subject of thinking in his book The Philosophy of Freedom 

Steiner Education

 "Teachers still go on, weary and not a little disillusioned, in some small corner of themselves cherishing a battered ideal, dreaming at times of an experimental school where they may become artists again. And when they can they crowd to hear of such a place, as now they crowd to Oxford to hear what Dr Steiner thinks of spiritual values in education and social life…. Whoever heard of applicants for a teacher post being asked first of all of their opinion of the soul? Yet this is just the question Dr Steiner seems to put to his teachers. An uninterested visitor may well mistake details of his meaning, and convey a wrong impression; yet even at the risk of misapprehension or doubt, its value to education should not be passed over in silence… You may not believe in reincarnation. You may dispute the existence of the spiritual body, scoff at the connection between metabolism and the will, or mistake the new art of ‘visible speech’, eurythmy, for dancing. You may, of course, deny the immortal element in man; in that case you will care for none of these things. But if you admit it, you must face the consequences as Dr Steiner faces them, honestly. Call him a dreamer, occultists, clairvoyant, even crank, but do not doubt his consistency and ability. You know how worried you have been lately about the state of Europe. If you cannot go to Oxford or to Dornoch in Switzerland, you might perhaps call at the Board of Education or any other government office, and ask what provision they are making for the souls of the people."

 

An extract from an article in The Nation – responding to a lecture series by Rudolf Steiner given in Oxford, England 1922

Source material: 

Sun King's Counsellor 

Ahriman's Imminent Incarnation

What follows is an extract from a 1919 lecture cycle titled Lucifer & Ahriman by Rudolf Steiner. The larger context is the approaching incarnation of Ahriman some time in our current millennium, in the West, probably America. Steiner describes how, 3 millennia BC, Lucifer incarnated in the East, probably in China. Christ of course incarnated in the person of Jesus. And now, entering the beginning of the third millennium AD Ahriman will incarnate, and the signs of his coming arrival are now fully manifest all around to see. The point is not to resist or fight Ahriman's incarnation, for it is inevitable; the point is to orientate ourselves in the right way so that the Ahrimanic currents leading to his arrival can be used for good. For this a new wisdom has to be bourn, springing from the effort and struggle of individual human beings to wake themselves from their indolence and rejection of the spiritual. 

Ahriman, though, will like nothing more than to keep us ignorant of his arrival, and....

"If, in the future, man were to do nothing himself towards acquiring a new wisdom, then, unconsciously to him, the whole of culture would become Ahrimanic, and it would be easy for the influences issuing from Ahriman's incarnation to permeate all civilisation on the earth. 

 What would be the result if men were to follow the strong inclination they have to-day to let things drift on as they are, without understanding and guiding into right channels those streams which lead to an Ahrimanic culture? — As soon as Ahriman incarnates at the destined time in the West, the whole of culture would be impregnated with his forces. Through certain stupendous arts (technologies) he would bring to man all the clairvoyant knowledge which until then can be acquired only by dint of intense labour and effort. 

Lovers of ease who refuse to have anything to do with spiritual science, would fall prey to his magic, for by means of these stupendous magic arts Ahriman would be able to make great numbers of human beings into seers — but in such a way that the clairvoyance of each individual would be strictly differentiated. What one person would see, a second and a third would not see (emphasis added). Confusion would prevail and in spite of being made receptive to clairvoyant wisdom, men would inevitably fall into strife on account of the sheer diversity of their visions. Ultimately, however, they would all be satisfied with their own particular vision, for each of them would be able to see into the spiritual world. In this way all culture on the earth would fall prey to Ahriman. Men would succumb to Ahriman simply through not having acquired by their own efforts what Ahriman is ready and able to give them. No more evil advice could be given than to say: “Stay just as you are! Ahriman will make all of you clairvoyant if you so desire. And you will desire it because Ahriman's power will be very great.” — But the result would be the establishment of Ahriman's kingdom on earth and the overthrow of everything achieved hitherto by human culture; all the disastrous tendencies unconsciously cherished by mankind to-day would take effect.

Our concern is that the wisdom of the future — a clairvoyant wisdom — shall be rescued from the clutches of Ahriman. Again let it be repeated that there is only one book of wisdom, not two kinds of wisdom. The issue is whether this wisdom is in the hands of Ahriman or of Christ. It cannot come into the hands of Christ unless men fight for it. And they can only fight for it by telling themselves that by their own efforts they must assimilate the content of spiritual science before the time of Ahriman's appearance on earth.

That, you see, is the cosmic task of spiritual science. It consists in preventing knowledge from becoming — or remaining — Ahrimanic. A good way of playing into Ahriman's hands is to exclude everything of the nature of knowledge from denominational religion and to insist that simple faith is enough. If a man clings to this simple faith, he condemns his soul to stagnation and then the wisdom that must be rescued from Ahriman cannot find entry. The point is not whether men do or do not simply receive the wisdom of the future but whether they work upon it; and those who do must take upon themselves the solemn duty of saving earthly culture for Christ."

To awaken this new wisdom I personally recommend studying Steiner's Philosophy of Freedom. This book not only awakens a brand new thinking in us, it also lays the methods and foundations for all his later works regarding "spiritual science". 

Owen Barfield says; "We shall not be able to save souls unless we also save the appearances". 

 

The "appearances" are the objects of this earthly world, which include our own earthly selves. It is therefore not enough just to "combat" earthly concerns with spiritual concepts of other-worldliness. If our soul is to be saved, these objects must also be saved. Why? Because our bodies are currently one of those objects, and if this fact is ignored, and we assume we can be saved without our bodies also being saved, then we are merely escaping our humanity instead of seeking real redemption. 

Steiner stressed the need to see evil as being twofold: Lucifer and Ahriman are the two extremes on either side. To ignore the world, or replace it with "higher things" is what Steiner would call the Luciferic tendency in spirituality. An example of the Ahrimanic tendency being materialism with its concept of the human being as mere biological machine. 

Christ is the middle way, the balancing of the two polar extremes. He is neither the Ahrimanic materialism of the "this-worldly" nor the escapism to the "higher-worldly" of Lucifer. Hence we can see that the human ego treads between these two extremes, and in the middle is the point at which Christ touches the world. To either reduce the earth-bound ego to material processes, or to escape it completely in spiritual heights, are literally un-Christian paths.