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Sunday, June 17, 2018

More Radiant than the Sun- by an Eastern Sage

More radiant than the Sun,
Purer than the snow,
Finer than the ether
Is the Self

The spirit in my heart.
This Self am I, 

I am this Self.

- an Eastern Sage, English version of the Sanskrit by Annie Besant (often wrongly attributed to Rudolf Steiner)

‘In pure rays of light
Gleams the Godhood of the world
In pure love towards all that is
Radiates the godliness of my soul.

I rest in the Godhood of the world.

I shall find myself
Within the Godhood of the world.’


- Rudolf Steiner, Esoteric Class, Munich 01-07-1909

In pure rays of light
Gleams the Godhead of the world …


Here one shouldn't just imagine radiating light rays that symbolize the divine — one should imagine the Gods' forces that take possession of our interior, and then feel great thankfulness that should be carried into the cosmos — swim in the feeling of thanks and feel united with the Godhead. One can often only hang onto this feeling for seconds, but after continued practice one will be able to have it much longer.

One is often called back to reality by a ringing sound, but this exercise leaves one with a feeling of being one with God and mankind — quite different from a feeling of loneliness.

-Berlin, 1-7-1912

Let's take a meditation formula that most of you know. In the first line:

In pure rays of light, one can imagine something like palely gleaming moonlight that represents the soft light of the Godhead that flows through creation. This mental image should live quite clearly and intimately in the soul at the words:

In pure rays of light
Gleams the Godhead of the world.

Then come the lines:

In pure love to all beings
Radiates the godliness of my soul.


Now one tries to permeate soft moonlight completely with one's love, to pour it into oneself, so that the mild light begins to radiate through the warmth of one's love, and in the flood of rays one feels the Godhead glowing in one's soul. In the following words:

I rest in the Godhead of the world - one tries to imagine that divine-spirit is flowing all around one. One can feel as if one were in a lukewarm bath, entirely embedded in divine substance that envelops one's whole being like a mild bath.

I will find myself
In the Godhead of the world.


With these words one can think of a distant light tower that radiates over to one, and can permeate oneself with the feeling that one will find one's own self in divine things.

But it's not only the pictures that live in the soul during meditation that draw us towards the divine and open the soul's portals. A deep wisdom and a high divine life has also been placed into the vowels. It makes a difference whether this or that vowel resounds in the soul. Let's take the vowel i. This always expresses a centralizing, a striving toward the center. The a means something quite different. It's an expression of an inner worship of the divine. The "i" strives towards the center of the universe, whereas the a(h) remains distant and bows before the Holiest in devotion.

-Munich, 12-5-1907
From the collection of Rudolf Steiner's verses "Start Now"- page 170


See "The Theosophist" 1911 pages 239-240 for "by an Eastern Sage: 
http://www.iapsop.com/archive/materials/theosophist/theosophist_v33_n1-n12_oct_1911-sep_1912.pdf


4 comments:

Tinmar said...

Check out Rudolf Steiner's esoteric lesson on the verse's content given in Berlin on October 24th 1905.

Anonymous said...

Feels that you are walking between two worlds, the existing and also the "inside the now" new.
The Miracle of self-reflection, thee realizaion of Life's
totality, not only one's patterns of unconscious conflicts, or thoughts
and feelings, haplens when we open and share, equaloly amrced inside seek out answers.
I feel tears of joy going to my eyes while
I quietly boow in worship - laughter erupting during my throat.

Anonymous said...

You can find the correct attribution in this book:

https://books.google.com.au/books?id=q9JDyMnqKwMC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Michael said...

I've also found that A.R. Orage, was suggesting the "Radiant than the Sun" verse to his Gurdjieff pupils:

"Another mantrum is a simple .one, which you might attempt to
repeat frequently, say, a hundred times a day. With the attempt
to say it as if it had meaning there would be a rapid development
of consciousness. It is a short cut, but unfortunately no one is
ever able to do it, simple as it looks. People either forget it
entirely, or else the words lose all meaning to them. It is an
ancient one: "More radiant that the sun, purer than the snow,
subtler then the ether,. is the self, the spirit within my heart,
I am that self, that self am I."

"At first this can be merely a mechanical repetition. But
the process is one of making a fact by making it conscious.
Spiritual facts do not occur, they are willed; and often brought
about by what appear to be mechanical means. Try to repeat this
as if it were a fact, not just verbally. You will say this is
auto-suggestion, and so it is; but in the absence of acting under
auto-suggestion, you are bound to act under the suggestion of
others."