Worries put pressure on the physical body. We should do our duty, and also against opposition, but we shouldn't worry too much. It's hard to strike the right balance here between concern and standing above it, but too much worry dries out the brain so that it can't take in new thoughts.
The greatest man of sorrows or soter was Christ, and as it says in (I Peter 5:7) we should cast all our care on him; for he cares for you. That is, we should give all worries past a certain point to Christ so that He can make our physical body healthy and strong, so that our soul is also healthy.
-Rudolf Steiner, from the Contents of Esoteric Classes
Esoteric Lesson: Kassel, 6-27-1909
After
Parzival stood before Titurel and had the experiences of which we
spoke, an intimate and deep feeling of shame arose in him. This feeling
of shame permeated him completely. He had gone through catharsis and had
thought that he was now so good and pure that he could become one of
the followers of the Master of all masters, the Christ. In this feeling
of shame he was reminded of Christ's words: “Why do you call me good? No
one is good but God.” He now knew how very imperfect he was still and
how much he still had to take into his striving for the good, how much
he was still lacking in order to be good.
And a second feeling, a
feeling of fear, overcame him. He thought that he had gotten rid of
that a long time ago. But it was a different kind of fear from the ones
he'd known previously. It was a feeling of his own smallness and
weakness as a man compared with the sublime Godly being when he let a
second word of Christ live in his soul: “Become perfect even as your
Father in Heaven is perfect.”
These two words should live in the soul of
every esoteric.
An esoteric should kindle full devotion for
divine beings in his soul. Thereby the consciousness develops that what
one does isn't so good, but that one should always try to become more
perfect. We should look at what's developing in one's soul. God lives in
developing things. If we get to the point where we're acting in a good
and noble way, then it's God in us who's good. The God who lets us act
in a good and noble way is our archetype itself, that created us. We
must become a complete copy of this archetype.
Be it ever so
hidden, there's a selfish motive in everything we do. We must realize
that we can't be selfless. It's a world karma that lets us act
egoistically. But world karma is God. Everything that God is and does in
the way of good is better than we could do it. An esoteric should tell
himself: Let me do something that I have made it my duty to do, let me
do it as hard as I can and in such a way that I tell myself that the
divine element that's at work in me is doing this and I'm only the
instrument of this godly element — then the Higher Self in its striving
towards perfection is revealed to him.
-Rudolf Steiner, August 30, 1909: From the Contents of Esoteric Classes
Love is higher than opinion. If people love one another, the most varied opinions can be reconciled. Hence it is deeply significant that in Theosophy no religion is attacked and no religion is specially singled out, but all are understood, and so there can be brotherhood because the adherents of the most varied religions understand one another.
This is one of the most important tasks for mankind today and in the future: that men should learn to live together and understand one another. If this human fellowship is not achieved, all talk of occult development is empty.
- Rudolf Steiner
At the Gates of Spiritual Science
Lecture 11, 1st September, 1906 Stuttgart
Two things must be completely avoided during occult training. We should
never harm anyone through deeds, thoughts or words intentionally or
not.
Secondly, the feeling of hate must disappear in us, otherwise
it reappears as a feeling of fear; for fear is suppressed hate. We must
transform the hate into a feeling of love, the love of wisdom.
- Rudolf Steiner, From the Contents of Esoteric Classes – Kassel, 26th February 1909 (GA 266)
I shall go to the water's edge,
And thank Thee for my being.
I shall light my little candle,
And see how the fire does consume it.
I shall praise the light -
And regard the fires with stern respect,
For too much life becomes as death,
As clarity itself, you cannot see -
As light on light, too bright for me.
-B.Hive
