Fasting & Spiritual Exercises

The physical body is highly subject to the same rhythm that governs outer nature. Just as plant and animal life, in its external form, takes its course rhythmically, so does the life of the physical body. The heart beats rhythmically, the lungs breathe rhythmically, and so forth. All this proceeds so rhythmically because it is set in order by higher powers, by the wisdom of the world, by that which the scriptures call the Holy Spirit. The higher bodies, particularly the astral body, have been, I would like to say, abandoned by these higher spiritual forces, and have lost their rhythm. 

Can you deny that your activity relating to wishes, desires, and passions is irregular, that it can in no way compare with the regularity ruling the physical body? He who learns to know the rhythm inherent in physical nature increasingly finds in it an example for spirituality. If you consider the heart, this wonderful organ with the regular beat and innate wisdom, and you compare it with the desires and passions of the astral body which unleash all sorts of actions against the heart, you will recognize how its regular course is influenced detrimentally by passion. However, the functions of the astral body must become as rhythmical as those of the physical body.

I want to mention something here which will seem grotesque to most people. This is the matter of fasting. Awareness of the significance of fasting has been totally lost. Fasting is enormously significant, however, for creating rhythm in our astral body. What does it mean to fast? It means to restrain the desire to eat and to block the astral body in relation to this desire. He who fasts blocks the astral body and develops no desire to eat. This is like blocking a force in a machine. The astral body becomes inactive then, and the whole rhythm of the physical body with its innate wisdom works upward into the astral body to rhythmicize it. Like the imprint of a seal, the harmony of the physical body impresses itself upon the astral body. It would transfer much more permanently if the astral body were not continuously being made irregular by desires, passions, and wishes, including spiritual desires and wishes.

It is more necessary for the man of today to carry rhythm into all spheres of higher life than it was in earlier times. Just as rhythm is implanted in the physical body by God, so man must make his astral body rhythmical. Man must order his day for himself. He must arrange it for his astral body as the spirit of nature arranges it for the lower realms. In the morning, at a definite time, one must undertake one spiritual action; a different one must be undertaken at another time, again to be adhered to regularly, and yet another one in the evening. These spiritual exercises must not be chosen arbitrarily, but must be suitable for the development of the higher life. This is one method for taking life in hand and for keeping it in hand. So set a time for yourself in the morning when you concentrate. You must adhere to this hour. You must establish a kind of calm so that the occult master in you may awaken. You must meditate about a great thought content that has nothing to do with the external world, and let this thought content come to life completely. A short time is enough, perhaps a quarter of an hour. Even five minutes are sufficient if more time is not available. But it is worthless to do these exercises irregularly. Do them regularly so that the activity of the astral body becomes as regular as a clock. 

Only then do they have value. The astral body will appear completely different if you do these exercises regularly. Sit down in the morning and do these exercises, and the forces I described will develop. But, as I said, it must be done regularly, for the astral body expects that the same process will take place at the same time each day, and it falls into disorder if this does not happen. At least the intent towards order must exist. If you rhythmicize your life in this manner, you will see success in not too long a time; that is, the spiritual life hidden from man for the time being will become manifest to a certain degree.

-Rudolf Steiner 

Imagination & Physical Labour

Higher knowledge, therefore, is something that involves the whole being of man, and those who have no knowledge of imaginations and inspirations do not know that the activity of imagination is a labor that is quite like physical labor because it puts a strain on the very muscles. Real imagination is like actual physical labor. 

There is a relationship between physical labor and imagination. If I may be allowed to say something personal, I have always found that imagination was helped a great deal by the fact that when I was a boy, I used to hack wood, dig potatoes, work with a spade, sow seed, and such things. I do not want to blow my own trumpet by saying this, but to have done these things did help to exert the muscles and so made imagination easier. If you have exerted the muscles in youth, imagination will be easier for you in later life.

-Rudolf Steiner 

Mahabharata (Sântiparvan, chap. 162, stanza 24).

SECTION CLXII

"Yudhishthira said, 'Brahmanas and Rishis and Pitris and the gods all applaud the duty of truth. I desire to hear of truth. Discourse to me upon it, O grandsire! What are the indications, O king, of truth? How may it be acquired? What is gained by practising truth, and how? Tell me all this.'

"Bhishma said, 'A confusion of the duties of the four orders is never applauded. That which is called Truth always exists in a pure and unmingled state in every one of those four orders. With those that are good, Truth is always a duty. Indeed, Truth is an eternal duty. One should reverentially bow unto Truth. Truth is the highest refuge (of all). Truth is duty; Truth is penance; Truth is Yoga; and Truth is the eternal Brahma. Truth has been said to be Sacrifice of a high order. 1 Everything rests upon Truth. I shall now tell thee the forms of Truths one after another, and its indications also in due order. It behoveth thee to hear also as to how Truth may be acquired. Truth, O Bharata, as it exists in all the world, is of thirteen kinds. The forms that Truth assumes are impartiality, self control, forgiveness, modesty, endurance, goodness, renunciation, contemplation, dignity, fortitude, compassion, and abstention from injury. These, O great monarch, are the thirteen forms of Truth. Truth is immutable, eternal, and unchangeable. It may be acquired through practices which do not militate against any of the other virtues. It may also be acquired through Yoga. When desire and aversion, as also lust and wrath, are destroyed, that attribute in consequence of which one is able to look upon one's own self and one's foe, upon one's good and one's evil, with an unchanging eye, is called impartiality. Self-control consists in never wishing for another man's possessions, in gravity and patience and capacity to allay the fears of others in respect to one's own self, and immunity from disease. It may be acquired through knowledge. Devotion to the practice of liberality and the observance of all duties are regarded by the wise as constituting goodwill. One comes to acquire universal goodwill by constant devotion to truth. As regards non-forgiveness and forgiveness, it should be stated that the attribute through which an esteemed and good man endures both what is agreeable and disagreeable, is said to be forgiveness. This virtue may well be acquired through the practice of truthfulness. That virtue in consequence of which an intelligent man, contented in mind and speech, achieves many good deeds and never incurs the censure of others, is called modesty. It is acquired through the aid of righteousness. That virtue which forgives for the sake of virtue and profit is called endurance. It is a form of forgiveness. It is acquired through patience, and its purpose is to attach people to one's self. The casting off of affection as also of all earthly possessions, is called renunciation. Renunciation can never be acquired except by one who is divested of anger and malice. That virtue in consequence of which one does good, with watchfulness and care, to all creatures is called goodness. It hath no particular shape and consists in the divestment of all selfish attachments. That virtue owing to which one remains unchanged in happiness and misery is called fortitude. That wise man who desires his own good always practises this virtue. One should always practise forgiveness and devotedness to truth. That man of wisdom who succeeds in casting off joy and fear and wrath, succeeds in acquiring fortitude. Abstention from injury as regards all creatures in thought, word, and deed, kindness, and gift, are the eternal duties of those who are good. These thirteen attributes, though apparently distinct from one another, have but one and the same form, viz., Truth. All these, O Bharata, support Truth and strengthen it. It is impossible, O monarch, to exhaust the merits of Truth. It is for these reasons that the Brahmanas, the Pitris, and the gods, applaud Truth. There is no duty which is higher than Truth, and no sin more heinous than untruth. Indeed, Truth is the very foundation of righteousness. For this reason, one should never destroy Truth. From Truth proceed gifts, and sacrifice with presents, as well as the threefold Agnihotras, the Vedas, and everything else that leads to righteousness. Once on a time a thousand horse-sacrifices and Truth were weighed against each other in the balance. Truth weighed heavier than a thousand horse sacrifices.

"'http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a161.htm

Arabism

Earth, and man, in their relationship to Egyptian myths and modern civilization


GA 105, Stuttgart , August 11 , 1908 (Rudolf Steiner Publishing Co., 1941)


Also on the American Web site archive of Rudolf Steiner:


http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/UniEarMan/19080816p01.html






The human head had to be created at first like the etheric head before it was possible to give a person a brain. So it was first possible for a person to sink into the physical plane. In order not to lose all spirituality, it was necessary to choose a point of time for its rescue when the last impulse for pure mechanical thinking was not yet given. "If the Christ had appeared a few hundred years later, it would have come, in fact, too late, for humanity would have sunk too much, would have been too entangled in thinking and could not understand the Christ. Spirituality could still be saved as the leading tendency to faith, and then came the last impulse, which invested human thought to its lowest point, where it was expelled and completely bowed to physical life, by Arabs and Muslims, and Muslim thought is a special case in Arab life and thought, The latter is logical thinking This is not capable of rising to what he imagined. "


"First and foremost, a man was led by what could be called divine providence or spiritual guidance so that the spirit of life was saved in Christianity, and later Arabism turned to Europe from the south and provided the space to an external culture. We can also see in the mosque how the spirit, seemingly, is sucked out. "


Humanity should have been led first to the material, and then indirectly through Arabism and the invasion of Arabism, presented to us how modern science first appeared in the sharp contact of Arab women with Europeans who had already accepted Christianity. The ancient Egyptian memories returned to life; But what made them materialistic? What made them think of the dead? We can show it clearly. If the path of progress was devoid of obstacles the memory of what had happened earlier would reappear in our time. What is spiritually used in general, but one wing of European culture is perceived by materialism. We also see that the memory of those who were mentioned in ancient Egypt was changed by its passage through Arabism so that it reappeared materialistically. The fact that Copernicus understood the modern way of relating to the solar system was the result of his Egyptian memory. The reason he presented it materialistically, which makes it a dead rotational movement, is because of the Arab mentality, which encounters this memory on the other hand, pushing it into materialism. "


"In modern science, we must see a union between Egyptian and Arab recollections, leaning towards what has died, and we see a different union being realized, what Egyptian devotees have given to their students and spiritual things, we see a union of wisdom that has been exploited as truths of faith. In the wisdom and the Christian Impulse of power lies the spiritual teachings of the Rosencrues, thus re-introducing the ancient seed that was placed in the Egyptian era, not as a repetition but as something different and at a higher level. "








Background to St. Mark's Gospel


Published in Hebrew by Herut Publishing House - see here


GA 124, lecture no . 9, Berlin , March 13 , 1911


(Rudolf Steiner Press London, 1968)


Another version is found on the American Web site The archive of Rudolf Steiner :


http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/Excursus/19110313p01.html






"If we try to describe with a symbol what the pressure of time is driven to discuss properly today, we can say: take the moon, as a symbol representing the religion of the Lord, we can expect that a similar form of faith, supposedly circumventing the Impulse Christ, will later appear as a form of religion The Old Lord's religion appeared again after the event of the Christ, in the religion of the crescent, carrying early impulses into the time after Christ.If you do not take things superficially, the use of the moon and the moon as symbols of these two beliefs would be nothing to ease, It is a practical fact that religion or belief and its symbols are deeply connected, so in later times we have a return of an earlier stage Pesach takes place in the last third of the Greek-Latin period, which in the occult sense is thought to continue until the twelfth century and into the 13th century, and this skips over a period of 600 years, which means that it begins in the sixth century CE and activates We have a strong influence on all aspects of development, we have the religion transmitted by the Arabs from Africa to Spain, which represents a reappearance, in a different form, of the Jehovah-moon religion. Of Muhammad; But it is important to understand that the religion of Islam ignored Impulse Christ, and it was in fact the revival of Moses' monotheism. This one-God idea, however, included many things that were derived from other sources, such as Sumerian-Egyptian religion, which produced a very accurate knowledge of the connection between the occurrence of the stars and Earth events. Thus the thoughts and ideas that were prevalent among Egyptians, guardians, Babylonians and Assyrians reappeared in the religion of Muhammad but imbued with the One God, the Lord. It is scientifically stated that what is Arabism is a kind of gathering together, a synthesis, of the doctrines of the wisdom of the priests of Egypt and the guardian and the religion of the Lord of the ancient Hebrews. "


"In such a process, there is not only compression but also rejection and disregard, in this case everything that was related to psychic vision had to be ignored and people were completely dependent on logic and intellectual thinking, so the concepts belonging to Egyptian medicine and Sumerian astronomy The result of psychic vision - can be found in the Arabness of Muhammad in an intellectual and individual way, something that seems to have been passed through a sieve to Europe: old concepts that were prevalent among the Egyptians and the guards were stripped of their psychic and pictorial content and re-formed into abstract forms. Which was in the public domain Who made their way into Europe through Africa and Spain, while Christianity brought about an impulsivity that is fundamentally related to the human life of man, the greatest impulse given to the human intellect by the Arabs, without fundamental knowledge of the direction taken by human evolution is impossible to understand How the worldview that arose under the symbol of the moon, gave to humanity, could not be Galileo, not Kepler, without the impulses brought by the Arabs into Europe, because the old way of thought reappears, The third cultural period celebrated its revival in our fifth period, in modern astronomy, in modern science Our. "


"Thus the direction of evolution is such that on the one hand Christ's impulse penetrates the European peoples directly, through Greece and Italy, and on the other hand a more southern stream bypasses Greece and Italy and unites with the effects indirectly brought about by Arabism."


"Only through the union of Christianity and Islam during the important period in which we are engaged has our modern culture been able to occur." For reasons I can not detail today, we must consider periods of six to six hundred and fifty years of such imprints that I have just described, The renewed moon of the Arabs appears, expands and spreads into Europe, and until the thirteenth century enriches the Christian culture that received its impulses in other ways.If you know only the external course of events, if you know how in the monasteries of the West Europe - despite apparent opposition to the value Es - Arab concepts made their way into science, you will be well aware that the thirteenth century - again a particularly significant time - Impulse Impulse Arab and Christos were combined. "


"After this process of mutual fertilization achieved its purpose in a certain sense, something new was emerging that was in preparation around the age of the twelfth or thirteenth century.Today even conservative science recognizes that something inexplicable has passed through European souls at the same time. Knows that at this time, something that bore fruit by the fourth post-Atlantean period was cast into human souls: the fruits of Greek culture were a follower wave, we call this period the Renaissance - that was the culture that over the next centuries enriched everything that already existed. There was an overlap after a period of 600 years since the influx of Arabism The period of Greece - which was a kind of center between the seven post-Atlantic periods - underwent a certain renewal in the Renaissance, and then again there is a period of 600 years during which the Greek wave reaches its peak, bringing us to the time when we ourselves live. Before the beginning of the 600 years of the next wave of culture, when something totally new is pressing us, when the impulse of Christ will be enriched by something new.When Moon culture has undergone its revival in the religion symbolized by the crescent and reached its conclusion during the Renaissance, The Christ must receive another jubilee into it. With this jubilee of our time there is a special closeness. But we must understand clearly what this new stream means to our culture. All these events are entirely in accord with an occult program - we can say, an occult target. "


If we think of Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun in the old and not the new sequence, we can expect, after the renaissance of the Moon's influence reached its peak during the Renaissance, the influence of another stream, to which we can legitimately assign the symbol of Mercury. If our symbolic meaning is correct, just as we called the wave of Arab-moon culture, so we can theoretically say that now we are promoting the possibility of the future of the flow of the culture-Mercury form. "


"Mercury was always considered a symbol of Buddhism, so after Goethe's generation there was a renaissance of Buddha's influence - Buddha represents Mercury and Mercury symbolizes Buddha - in the same way as the Moon's influence reappeared in Arabia, which flowed into the direct Christ Impulse at the beginning of A new period of 600 years can therefore be described - within the limitations of my lecture to the public on the subject - as the revival of Buddhism. "





"To expect Buddhism or any pre-Christian Eastern religion to experience a revival in our time Any enlightenment on the nature of Christ would be no more wise than the European Christians to expect it from the Arabs who had spread into Spain." The Europeans knew at the time that the idea of ​​Christ was foreign to the Arabs, What is essential about Christ, and when they said anything, the ideas presented were not compatible with the true idea of ​​Christ. "


Three currents in the evolution of mankind





A connection of the Luciferian-Ahrimanic impulses with the impulse of the Lord Christ


Lecture No. 5, October 12 , 1918, Dornach , GA184


Of 6 lectures given between the dates of 10-13 October 1918


GA184 - Includes 15 lectures



"What I referred to is not an imaginary event, not something that never happened on earth, it was in Jundi-Shafour, the Torah I spoke about yesterday was given - a theory whose essential nature creates the greatest contrast imaginable to everything that developed from the Golgotha ​​event. A decisive effort by the scholars of Jundi-Shafur. [6] This effort - just as I told you yesterday - was motivated by knowledge that was intended to replace the efforts of the soul of consciousness, it would make man only a man of the earth and cut off his future The right-his evolution into the spiritual world-wise men would grow, but materialistic thinkers, absolute earthlings And are able to see deep into what was spiritual and psychic ground, but there were definitely evolution designed to cut off a person by Moray - the evolution of the spirit-self, life-spirit, man-spirit. "


"Anyone who has the slightest idea of ​​the wisdom of Jundi-Shafur will certainly appreciate it in the supreme sense as a danger to humanity, but also as a powerful phenomenon, and the intention was to flood with this Torah not only the immediate surroundings but also the entire world of culture that was known then - Europe, and everywhere, preparations for this were completed, but the influence that was intended to leave Majundi-Shafur was put to a halt by the retarded spiritual forces that were nevertheless connected - even though they constituted a form of resistance - with the flow of Impulse Christ. Mohammed and religious teachings predicted, was euthanized effect was directed to leave Meg Wendy gray. above all it was a desire in those areas Spreading Jundi-Shaabour's gnostic wisdom, Muhammad dropped the ground under her feet and removed the cream from her, so Jundi-Shaabour's influence remained behind and could not achieve anything in the face of what Muhammad did. In the history of the world, we know the truth about Islam only when, in addition to other things, we know that Islam is meant to kill Gnostic-Shafur's Gnostic wisdom, to take away the strong Ahramian seduction power that otherwise would have worked on humanity . "


"These medieval intellectual lives are studied very unilaterally, but look at the pictures painted on the way the scholastics treated the Arab philosophers, see how in the meaning of a Western Christian tradition the Scholasticist stands there with his Christian doctrine and prepares to run the Arab scholars under his feet ... The same fanatical subject, guided the Arab scholars by the power of Christ, looked at it in images from the Christian tradition of the West, and understood how her life there in these images was the burning aspiration of the Middle Ages to place Christianity as a resistance to everything that originally stemmed from the hostility of the G- Wendy-Shapur toward the Christ; Feeling hot about the Arab knowledge and its spread across Europe, up to the time of Maimonides and Ibn Sina - everywhere we find the echo of what I have described. "

How do I find Christ ?


16 October 1918, Zurich , GA182


A different version can be found on the American archive of Rudolf Steiner :


http://wn.rsarchive.org/GA/GA0182/19181016p01.html


Published in Hebrew in the book: Esoteric Studies Vol 1 Click here



"The Mystery of Golgotha ​​preceded the midpoint of this period in 333 years, that is, exactly in the number of years before this point, that is, as in the number of years after that certain spiritual forces wanted to direct humanity's evolution into channels very different from those to which it ultimately led By the mysteria of Golgotha ​​Three hundred and thirty-three years after the year 333 AD is the year 666 AD This is the year in which the author of the Apocalypse speaks so passionately, reading the chapters where the author of the Apocalypse refers to the year 666 AD. , According to the intentions of certain spiritual forces, something had to happen to mankind If the Mysteria of Golgotha ​​did not occur, the descending path that mankind was destined to move after 333 CE, intended to be the culmination of the culture of the intellectual mind, would have been used to lead humanity in a very different direction Of what the divine beings who had been associated with humanity since its inception, since the evolution of Saturn, intended to happen by giving to humanity through a kind of revelation, something destined to enter human evolution only later on - the mind and content of consciousness. "


"If it were a concept, if the intentions of certain entities would come true - certain entities that oppose the evolution of humanity but aspire to take control of this evolution - then the human race in 666 CE would be caught by surprise with the empowerment of the mind to such a level as it would normally occur only in the future Far. "


"Although events did not follow this strange and unusual pattern, even though they did not wear the glorious, but satanic form they plotted, the traces of these intentions can still be found in history: they occurred through actions we can only say that people do these things On the face of the earth, but perform them as "craftsmen" of certain beings who carry out their intentions.In this manner Emperor Justinian I was a "craftsman" of certain entities, when in 529 AD, an enemy of the traditions of the supreme wisdom of Greek culture , He locked the schools of philosophy in Athens Greek scholars, with their Aristotelian-Platonic exalted knowledge, were exiled to Persia, where earlier Syrian scholars had found refuge when Leo Isauricus expelled the Greek scholars in the fifth century AD from the Persian Academy of Jundi-Shappur, 666 CE, all the selected doctrines from ancient Greece were collected that did not relate to the Mystery of Goltha, and the teachers of the Jundi-Shafur Academy were inspired by Luciferian-Ahriman forces. "


"If what was intended to apply to humanity in 666 CE would have occurred, it would have led to the demise of further evolution and the elevation of mankind to the mind mind as early as 666 CE - if what was planned by the Jundi-Shapur Academy would have been successful, then in the seventh century In the AD, great scholars and scholars would appear here and there, and through their learning many sophisticated people, whose task was to travel through North Africa, through Western Asia, through southern Europe, throughout Europe, and spread the culture of 666 AD everywhere - By the Jundi-Shapur Academy, the special purpose of this culture was to make the human being dependent on brewing His personal property, give it your full consciousness soul. "


The world was already wearing a different form than would have allowed it to happen, so the full blow that Western culture would have received from the Jundi-Shapur Academy was weakened, and instead of the wisdom that could have stemmed from Jondi's academy -Shephor, the wisdom of which everything we know today in the outside world was just a game, instead of the results of intellectually inspired wisdom, brilliant and glorious teaching, the wisdom of everything gradually to be conquered by experiments in the natural sciences until 2493 AD, In what the Arab scholars brought to Spain, but even this wisdom was weakened, it was not the embodiment The way intended to appear; it has been damaged. There remained, Islam, Muhammad and his teachings. Instead all designed to be formed from the Academy of Jundi-Shapur, only Islam appeared. Through the Mystery of Golgotha ​​world of this deadly shifted direction. "











History and reality of imperialism




February 20 , 1920, Dornach , GA 196




English Translation - FTSmith




The series consists of three lectures: The History and Actuality of Imperialism




Which is published on the Southern Cross Review website




The book was published in Hebrew by Herut. See here




http://southerncrossreview.org/75/imperialism3.html




http://southerncrossreview.org/74/imperialism2.html




http://southerncrossreview.org/73/imperialism1.html










It is true that Muhammad did not say, "Muhammad is your God," as an oriental priest would say hundreds of times, He had confined himself to the more or less appropriate statement of his time: "There is only one god, Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet." To human recognition he was already wrapped in the cloak of the messenger of God, the second stage of imperialism, Is compatible with Stage 1. Muslims have never been intolerant of other beliefs in the same way as those who think The Muslims were satisfied with conquering and turning others into their subjects, just like the occupiers in ancient times, when someone's religion was not the important thing, they did not care what anyone believed whenever he recognized God. Imperialism. "







Release of thinking


The essence of Thomism


23 May 1920, Dornach , GA74


(Hodder & Stoughton, 1956)


Published in Hebrew by Talanot Publishing: Release of Thinking. See here



"Thus, here was another problem facing the scholastics: the doctrine of" double truth. "In her opposition to Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas, they both attached special importance to the need to harmonize the content of the intellect and the content of faith and seek to remove the contrast, In those days, it was an unsympathetic approach to the problem, because most of the most influential authority in the Church adhered to the doctrine of "double truth," meaning that when it is necessary to approach any subject with logical thinking that leads to seeing it in a certain way, faith, on the other hand, In a completely different way, and the person should settle for making two points of view . "


(APShepherd & M. Robertson - AP Shepherd and M. Robertson): "The theory of" double truth "stemmed from the Arab philosophers, and a strong hostility developed between them and the Muslim theologians. A belief that was imposed by the Church and the State without being investigated, was among the Arab thinkers who, in Greece and early Christian thought, were considered to have dealt with the highest echelons of all sciences, for the first time being considered as quibbling under external authority and establishing an accepted truth. In the realm of pure thought, they were pushed into theology in accepted modes of speech, thus adopting the theory of "double truth." "The Islamic theologians treated philosophers with hostility and eventually they were silenced."


"In any case, Arab philosophy penetrated Europe through Spain, and it carried with it the theory of" double truth. "Although officially condemned by the church's councils, it preserved its position as a defense against heresy, and later Aristotelianism increased in Europe, Accepted as complementing the new Torah with Orthodox Christian belief, with the basic assumption that its apparent contradiction was due to the fact that a person "fell" in his thinking as well as in his moral nature.


"Thomas Aquinas, as Steiner shows, rejects the idea of ​​brain decay and replaces it with the idea of ​​the inability of the human mind, through the inherent limitations inherent in human physical nature, to penetrate into or succeed in judging the areas of higher theology which can only be known by faith . "(Cf.T.Whittaker, The Neoplatonists.)




Anthroposophical thoughts guide


The overt disappearance of spiritual knowledge in modern times


March 29 , 1925, Dornach , GA 26


On the American website Archive Rudolf Steiner :


http://wn.rsarchive.org/GA/GA0026/English/RSP1973/GA026_c27.html



"To illuminate these facts of modern history, let us look at the time when ancient Greek wisdom had to retreat to the power of Rome, when Rome accepted Christianity, when the last Greek schools of philosophy were closed by the Roman emperor, the last guardians of ancient knowledge also broke up From the areas where European intellectual life will develop from now on, and they found a paradise in the Jundi-Shapur academy in Asia to which they were now connected, and it was one of the centers of study in the East that were preserved through the work of Alexander the Great. "


"The ancient knowledge continued to live there in a way that Aristotle could have given to him, but in the Jundi-Shapur Academy the eastern spiritual stream, which could be described as Arabism, took over the Arab mindset, The Canadian editor.) By means of an early mental life in the spirit of the spirit, the Arabism enabled the spiritual wave to move forward, to spread beyond Africa to southwestern Europe, and to inspire certain intellectual peoples in Europe that would not have come to a later stage in the seventh and eighth centuries. Europe received spiritual impulses that had to arrive only during the period of Napp Spirit. "


"This spiritual wave was capable of awakening intellectual life in man, but not the deep springs of experience through which the soul penetrates into the spiritual world."


"And now, when in the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries people exercised their knowledge, they could reach down to those levels where they still did not encounter the spiritual world."


"Arabism, by entering the spiritual life of Europe, stopped the souls of men from the spiritual world by means of knowledge, bringing too early the intellect to an activity that was then capable of grasping only the external world of nature."


He felt the power of intellect, but not the intellect's own impotence to penetrate reality, so he surrendered to the given reality of the senses, Which places itself before the human being of its own volition, and it did not even occur to him to approach spiritual reality. "


"The intellectual life of the Middle Ages found themselves face to face with this situation, they had lofty traditions about the spiritual world, but intellectual life was so intellectually violated by the hidden influence of Arabism that medieval knowledge could not find access to sources From which the contents of the great tradition came after all. "


"So from the early Middle Ages onwards, what people instinctively felt within themselves as a connection with the spirit, fighting with thinking in the way it adopted under Arabism."

Gladys Mayer Meets Rudolf Steiner

She first came across Steiner’s work in 1915, when she read The Way of Initiation. In April 1922 she attended Steiner’s series of lectures on education at Stratford-on-Avon, then went to the Vienna Congress in June. The following year she visited Steiner in Dornach and decided to become a painter and art teacher at the Goetheanum.

“On not only one occasion but three times in the space of about six weeks, I had to face madness and impending tragedy in my own immediate environment. Twice in this period, on distinct occasions and amongst unrelated people, I had to intervene when a murder seemed imminent, and once to check an intended suicide. I began to ask myself: ‘Is the world about me going mad?’

"But The Way of Initiation had already begun to bear fruits in spiritual experiences which guided me through events of terrifying responsibility, from day to day, and sometimes from moment to moment. I knew the spiritual worlds as reality, and Spiritual Beings as my aid. I received pictured instruction, through which healing was brought to the madness of one friend, and through which I was able to save the life of another. At length, I received the instruction to go to Rudolf Steiner for further advice…I met him frequently for something over two weeks: each time I met him he greeted me with a smile and a warm hand-clasp. Each time I asked him, ‘May I come and speak with you?’ he put me off with the reply: ‘Frage mir nochmal (Not just yet).’ Friends in Dornach told me this did happen sometimes, and of course it had a reason…Meanwhile, my spiritual instruction was going on, but it had developed a new phase.

"Every night I awoke about two hours after midnight, and was aware of a continuous experience. At first it was a Star, very distant, that was shining on me: then it was gradually coming nearer, and at length it was a man with a lamp who stood by my bed. By the light of the lamp I was aware of another, greater figure, and from this other one, though I could not see him clearly, came words instructing me in the spiritual understanding of what was going on around me. I was shown, unexpectedly, the concealed suffering in the heart of a nearby friend: it was as though I were lifted up by the unseen Teacher to learn to know, through the Light of the Lamp, what was happening behind the veils of sense appearances.

"At length, after about 14 days, I became anxious to know from whom I was receiving such teaching. I had become accustomed earlier to receiving instructions from an unseen Spiritual World. I had been made aware of the reality of spiritual discarnate Beings. But this Teacher was more concrete. I could see him unclearly towering above me, too great, it seemed, to be in any way connected with a human form. I could see the great form, but not yet the face of this Being.

"At last, I could bear it no longer: I felt I must know more. I seized hold of him, as it were, with all my soul forces, and challenged him, saying: ‘Who are you?’ Then, as there came no answer, I asked wonderingly: ‘Are you the Christ?’ ‘Nicht so’ (Not so). Then, because these were German words, a further thought came to me. ‘Are you, can you be, he whom we know on earth as Rudolf Steiner?’

"There was an instant stillness, and then the answer came softly, ‘Eben so’ (Even so).

"I was still not satisfied. It seemed impossible for anyone so spiritually great to be also a human being. So I pressed further. ‘Then show me your face,’ I asked.

"Immediately away to my left, where was situated the studio in which Rudolf Steiner lived and worked, I saw a tiny distant picture of his face and form resting with eyes closed, as it seemed to me, not in sleep, but in deep meditation.

"I understood now why I had been kept waiting. I had doubted, and doubt came in through a false spiritual perception. It could be put right only by my seeing and recognising him in truth, in supersensible experience, as my Teacher. I came to him joyfully the next day, and asked confidently: ‘Now can I come to see you?’

"I knew what the answer would be, and was not mistaken. When we talked together, I felt that I had known him for all time. I told him of all the terrible and wonderful experiences I had gone through, where earthly disasters had been averted through spiritual enlightenment, yet had eventually left me with responsibilities I felt were too great for me to bear alone; and how these responsibilities had eventually brought me to him. He listened quietly, and one had the impression he made his whole being receptive, soul to soul. Then he explained my experiences with the simple words: ‘Dies ist eine karmische Sache (This is a karmic matter).’ I felt enormous relief. Here, at last, is someone who understands, who takes all these astounding events calmly, and is competent to give advice. This is a matter of karma.”

*****

“As it seems to me, he has given certainty of the Spirit, guidance to the awakening faculties of spiritual seeing, and example of strength, courage and love to attempt the tasks of the New Age…But are we awake enough? The Teacher is there working with us, and through us, but he waits always for our conscious co-operation…Because humans are so very hungry for the certainty, the wisdom and the good, which this teaching, entrusted to Rudolf Steiner out of the divine worlds, can bring to our suffering Earth.”

‘The Initiate and the Teacher’, published in 1959 in The Golden Blade by the English artist, Gladys Mayer (1888 – 1980).

https://www.waldorflibrary.org/images/stories/Journal_Articles/GoldenBlade_1959.pdf

Formic Acid

In plants it is the oxalic acid that provides the basic life-giving substance. Oxalis clover, rhubarb, and wood sorrel have lots of oxalic acid, and there we can taste the sour acid element more easily than in most vegetables. In the animal kingdom, specifically in the stinging insects, it is the formic acid that plays a major role. Formic acid (formica=ant) is the poison we feel when an ant bites us, or a wasp or bee stings us. Each of these species produces a variation of formic acid.

As the bees and wasps receive nectar and pollen from the flowers, they are able to take in some of this oxalic acid, but they do not only take, they also give to the plants. As these insects fly and crawl through nature, they distribute formic acid. An old forest ranger in Germany once told me that wherever ants are missing in forests, the plants lose their vitality and die more quickly than if there is an ample amount of these insects around. Thus, ant colonies are being reestablished and protected in European forests to keep the trees healthy.

This formic acid, in finest dilution, wafts through the air, and in Spring the germinating seeds and budding perennials receive this formic acid that has been produced the year before. These insects not only produce the poison in order to sting, but it is exuded constantly and given off to the atmosphere in the finest dilutions where it remains, ready to serve as the plants spring tonic. So, on such a basic level, these stinging insects are the nurturers of life on earth since they provide something so essential to plants, which, in turn provide food, directly or indirectly, to all other beings.

Each one of these two acids acts as an invigorator, as a boost to the life processes for the other kingdom. It is with the help of these minute quantities of formic acid that the earth's entire plant life grows and thrives. And, on the other hand, it is the plants oxalic acid that stimulates and invigorates the animal and human kingdoms.

The commonly accepted image we have of life being based on fight and competition, with the survival of the fittest, loses its sting when we consider these grand, symbiotic, mutually beneficial, interrelationships.

Let us take a closer look at the role these acids play in our very own lives. As we eat our spinach, broccoli, chard, carrots, fruit and berries, we also take up the oxalic acid contained in them. Now a mysterious transformation occurs; we are able to change this acid into our very own formic acid. Actually, one can achieve this very process in the chemical laboratory. Glycerin is added to oxalic acid in a retort; when heated, carbon dioxide escapes and the steamy vapors condense to and behold formic acid. Similarly, we have small amounts of glycerin in our body and the fire of our digestion is able to instigate this transformation in us.

Just as our entire endocrine processes those governing growth, health and reproduction function by virtue of miniscule amounts of the secretion created by the pituitary gland, these same miniscule amounts of formic and oxalic acid provide the basis for life processes in our body. Let us be reminded that without deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), no life on Earth would be possible. It is this process of transforming oxalic acid into formic acid that allows us to live as spiritual beings in a physical body (as described in Rudolf Steiner's lectures, Bees). We are still at the very beginning of a science investigating life itself that takes processes, chemical transformations, into account and not only the substances themselves.

For our life on Earth we depend on the vast numbers of individual stinging insects, which enliven the plant kingdom with their formic acid. Our attitude toward these insects will have to undergo a drastic revision, away from disdain, anger, and fear toward one of gratitude and respect, toward nurturing and partnership instead of killing or exploitation.

We can now understand that our lives depend on honeybees, ants, wasps, and hornets. But why does the honeybee take a special place among all these formic acid-producing insects? In contrast to the solitary and bumble, carpenter and orchard bees, or hornets and wasps, the honeybees live through the winter as a colony of 10,000-20,000 individual workers. By the end of March, they may have already doubled their numbers and by summer solstice may reach 40,000-60,000 in number. Bumble and orchard bees, wasps and hornets have only young queens surviving the winter, and it takes two to three months until a colony of several hundred insects can do their enlivening work in nature. The vast numbers of honeybees flying already in early Spring not only contribute to the much needed pollination, but to the amount of formic acid released into nature.

by Gunther Hauk Gunther_Hauk.htm

unsafe practices for inner awakenings.

There are of course unsafe practices for inner awakenings. However many are characterized by the nature of the substance - the herb or the metal or the magician and so forth - so that revelatory incurrences are tainted as it were, with the colors of association. In other words, if I am to employ some means to illumination, that very assistance will necessarily afflict what it is that I see. If I ingest an illuminatory herb or plant, the plant itself shall conjure its dreams, its visions, its ways of viewing the world and me. Therefore it is no accurate communion with the self-soul or into the vacant spirit-space either. This is because the herb/plant has only a limited access to comprehension and is not permitted into the holy interiors of Man. Equally if one were to employ a metal in ritualistic conjuring, then the perception would fain to its (the metal's) approval.

If I am reliant upon another individual to stimulate me artificially into such awakening then I do so via his perception, his experience, also, and by this there can be no 'self' discovery, but moreover a binding with the other fellow, along with explicit misconceptions of one's own interior. 

-B.Hive
 It doesn't require any particular effort to eat salt for a week in an attempt to descend to subearthly realms, and then eat no salt for a week in an attempt to ascend into higher elemental realms. That takes no effort at all, but there is also nothing to be gained from it except the worst kinds of illusions. Inner work is the only way to really accomplish something in the spiritual world. And inner work, if it is really taking place, will by its very nature lead you to the right thoughts and keep you from getting into trouble with regard to the spiritual world. Without it, however, we are subject to perversions of mystical thinking, and people have every right to laugh at us then.

Spiritual Streams that Proceed from the Great Masters of Wisdom

The world is always flowed through by spiritual streams that proceed from the great Masters of Wisdom and of the Harmony of Feelings. The Masters continuously pour streams of love and wisdom over humanity, but men's souls aren't always ready and open to receive them. 

But meditation words are magic words that open soul portals so that divine life can move in. That's why one shouldn't speculate with one's intellect about meditation words, but should open the soul for forces that are higher than merely intellectual ones. If one speculates about them with one's intellect then only forces that are already in one become active. But higher forces are supposed to awaken. One shouldn't want to solve riddles in one's meditation words, one should let them solve riddles, for they're much wiser than the intellect can ever be. That's why one should let them work on one and take in what they permit to flow into one's soul, let them live completely in one's soul.

Meditation words were born from the laws of the spiritual world and didn't arise through speculation. Something special lives in every vowel. Each of the vowels has a different sound value. And just as the soul feels the effect of sounds, so it should devote itself to the pictures that the words mediate to it. In meditation one should try to think as concretely as possible, and to be as far away as possible from abstract ideation.

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(h) 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. So if we look at our formula:

"In den reinen Strahlen des Lichtes"

in the first i the soul strives towards the divine center, in a(h) it retreats devotedly, and in the second i it hurries towards the divine again. In the second line we have the ae:

"Erglaenzt die Gottheit der Welt."

The ae represents a weakened ah. The worshipful devotion of the ah changes in ae to shy reverence. In holy, shy reverence a man doesn't dare to approach God. But in the following o the soul hurries to embrace the divine completely with sacred love and intimacy. The oalways expresses an embracing that is full of love. The following line:

"In der reinen Liebe zu allen Wesen,"

the i again leads the soul directly into the divine center. Then in ah of-

"Erstrahlt die Goettlichkeit meiner Seele,"

the soul again becomes devotion completely. And just as the shy reverence of ae in the second line changed into an intimate embracing of the divine, so in the fourth line the full, warm worshipping of the ah weakens into a shy wanting to embrace that hardly dares to touch the Godhead in oe. In the fifth line,

"Ich ruhe in der Gottheit der Welt"

the u predominates. This always expresses a resting, a being embedded. Now the soul has been fused with the divine in blessed quiet. In the last two lines,

"Ich werde mich selbst finden
In der Gottheit der Welt,"

the soul is led (i) ever deeper into the center of the world.

This is just one way of understanding the formula, and one small part of the deep wisdom that rests in it. It would be confusing if I wanted to tell you all the deep secrets that are hidden in it. There's no letter and no sign in it that doesn't have a deep, deep meaning. That's the way the divine word of creation resounded when it once let the universe arise. You once heard it sounding, but your souls weren't aware of it yet. At that time you descended from the spirit, and you'll go back there in full consciousness. Born out of the spirit, living in an earthly body, you'll return to the divine spirit of the world through the power of the spirit.

-Rudolf Steiner 

https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA266/English/UNK1998/19071205e01.html

The Credo- Rudolf Steiner

This document gives a clear picture of just how immersed was Steiner in the inner life, in the quest for the divine. Some years after his death, the archives published a remarkable document from Steiner’s early years, which was found in 1944. He had titled it “Credo” which in this context means, “What I believe”. It should be clearly kept in mind that this document, in its youthful idealism and simplicity of assertions, does not represent how the mature age Steiner would speak to his students. It is of value in that it presents a very clear statement about his view of spirituality and service to the divine, as the purpose of life. He was only 27 yrs old when he wrote this,


The “Creed”:

The realm of the Idea1 is the origin and sustaining principle of all Existence. In it is never-ending harmony and joyous tranquillity. Any part of Creation which this realm did not illumine, would be something dead and without being, and would have no part of the life of the universe. Only that which derives its existence from the {archetypal} Idea, has significance on the cosmic Tree, from which all things are created.2

The Idea is self-evident Spirit, Spirit sufficient unto itself, in itself, with itself. The individual must have the Spirit indwelling, otherwise it falls away, like a dry leaf from the tree, and would have been, anyway, whilst there, without purpose.

Now, the human Being, when it has become fully conscious {an adult}, feels and knows itself as a separate Being. It also has implanted within its being, the yearning for the Idea. This yearning drives it on, to overcome the separateness, and to let the Spirit come into life within his or her being, so that the soul may become like the Spirit.

Everything which is egotistic, everything which forms the person into this definite, separated-self, must be cast away, this is what the human being must strip away, for this it is, which obscures the light of the Spirit. That which derives from sensual lust, instinctive drives and passions, is desired only by this egotistic self. Therefore, the human being must destroy this selfish will in itself. Instead of seeking that which he or she as a separate being wants, the human being should want that which the Spirit, the Idea, in him wills and seeks. Guide the “Separate-Being” towards this goal, hearken to the voice of the Idea within you for that alone is divine !

What one wants as a separate-being is, within the circumference of the universe, worthless. It is a worthless point, disappearing within the flow of Time. What one wills “in the Spirit”, as it were, that is in the centre, for then, the central Light of the Universe comes into being within us: such a deed is not subject to the flow of Time.

When someone acts as an isolated individual, they remove their ‘self’ from the closed chain of cosmic activity, they are separated away from this. When a human being acts ‘in the Spirit’, she or he then lives ever more into the universal processes of the Cosmos. Destroying all self-centredness, this is the foundation of the higher life. For whoever lets this Selfhood die, shall find an eternal existence. That which is mortal in us in our separate-self.

This is the true meaning of these words of Goethe, “Whosoever does not die before death, shall perish at death”. This means, whoever does not make an end to egotism during the earthly life, shall not have a part of the universal life, which is immortal. For such a person never existed within this greater Life, and had no real existence.

1 This is the famous realm of archetypal Thoughts, of Plato and early esoteric wisdom.2 This unusual phrase refers to a very effective and evocative metaphor, deeply linked to the older Germanic and Celtic worldview; the “Welt Esche” or cosmic Ash tree, from which all the realms in the cosmos have their origin.

There are four fields of human activity in which the human Being deadens all egotism and fully dedicates himself or herself to the Spirit. These are: Knowledge, Art, Religion and loving dedication to an individual in Spirit. Whoever does not live in at least one of these four activities, does not really live at all. Knowledge is devotion to the universe, in Thought; Art is devotion to the universe in sense-perception; Religion is devotion to the world – through the life of Feeling; dedicated Love is devotion with all of ones’ spiritual forces, being directed towards something that appears to one as a worthy member of the Cosmos.

Knowledge is the most spiritualized form of selfless devotion, Love the most beautiful form. For love is truly a heavenly radiance shining into the life of daily existence. Devout, truly spiritual Love ennobles the innermost fibre of our being, it refines and uplifts everything that lives in us. This pure, devout love transforms the entire soul-life into something that is akin to the Universal-Spirit. To love in this most exalted sense means to bear the breath of the Heavens into that realm where there is usually to be found only the most detestable egotism and mindless lust.

One must first know something of the holiness of Love, before one can speak about Spirituality (piety). If a person has made the journey out of the separated condition, through one of these four activities, and merged into the divine life of the Idea (Spirit), then that person has attained to that, for which a seed of yearning was placed in his or her heart: the union with the Spirit. For this is the true destination of the human. Whoever who lives in the Spirit is free, for they have extricated themself from everything of secondary significance. Nothing compels him or her to act, except a coercion which he gladly undertakes, for such a person has recognized the task at hand as the highest duty of all.

Let truth be lived: lose yourself in order to find yourself again within the Cosmic-Spirit !

R. Steiner, ca. l888 (27 years old)

Translated by Dr. Adrian Anderson

Who are the Dugpas?

"Dugpa"- a Tibetan term for a sorcerer or “Brother of the Shadow.” It literally means “Red Caps,” a Tibetan Buddhist sect whose practices have been adulterated with the native Bon religion prior to the 14th century. According to Helena P. Blavatsky, when Tsong-ka-pa reformed Buddhism, strict rules were imposed on the Gelukpas or the “Yellow Caps.” This resulted in the split of the two sects, and the Dugpas gave themselves over “more than ever to sorcery, immorality, and drunkenness” (Theos. Glossary).

Dugpas therefore are human beings, and not demons or elementals. Blavatsky wrote that they were found more in Western Tibet and Bhutan. They perform their rites during the New Moon period, when certain benign influences are at their lowest. 

The Mahatma stated that Adepts also keep dugpas (or ex-dugpas) to test candidates for discipleship, “to do our scavengers’ work, and to draw out the latent vices — if there be any” (ML, p. 232) “with the sole object of drawing out the whole inner nature of the chela, most of the nooks and corners of which would remain dark and concealed for ever, were not an opportunity afforded to test each of these corners in turn” (ML, p. 223). One such probationer tested was Edmond FERN, who failed and was later expelled from the Theosophical Society.

Blavatsky stressed that it is essential for aspirants to maintain purity if dugpaship is to be avoided.

-http://www.theosophy.ph/encyclo/index.php?title=Dugpa#


Who Are the Dugpas in Theosophical Writings?

by David Reigle, June 2009

In the early Theosophical writings, H. P. Blavatsky used the term “dugpa” for the various non-Gelugpa orders of Tibetan Buddhism, namely, for the Kagyupa, Nyingmapa, and Sakyapa orders. In doing this, she followed the usage of Western writers of the time. These writers indiscriminately termed all of these orders as “Red Caps,” “Shammars,” and “Dugpas,” or “Dukpas.”
Blavatsky additionally used the term “dugpa” for followers of the non-Buddhist Bon religion of Tibet. We know that Blavatsky used the books of these writers because she often quotes them.

Indeed, she drew the term “Kiu-te,” a phonetic spelling of the Tibetan rgyud sde that long baffled researchers, from Narratives of the Mission of George Bogle to Tibet, and of the Journey of Thomas Manning to Lhasa, published in London in 1876 (2nd ed. 1879).

The editor of this book, Clements R. Markham, writes about the dugpas or dukpas in his Introduction:

In the middle of the fourteenth century a great reforming Lama arose in Tibet, named Tsong-khapa, . .. His reforms led to a schism in the Tibetan church. The old sect, which resisted all change, adhered to their dress, and are called Shammars, or Dukpas, and Red Caps. Their chief monastery is at Sakia-jong, and they retain supremacy in Nepal and Bhutan. (p. xlvi)

As may be seen, Markham lumped together all those who did not follow Tsongkhapa’s new order, the Gelugpas, as the “old sect,” calling them “Shammars, or Dukpas, and Red Caps.”

Moreover, in the then prevailing ignorance of things Tibetan, he stated that the headquarters of the Red Caps is at Sakia-jong.

. . . the great monastery of Sakia-jong (Sankia of D’Anville), the headquarters of the Red Cap sect of Buddhists. (p. xxviii)

In fact, Sakia-jong, or Sakya-dzong, is the headquarters of only one “red cap” order, the Sakyapas. Markham did, however, give information from Brian Hodgson that would place the actual dugpas in Bhutan, not at Sakya-dzong in Tibet.

While the Gelukpa, or Yellow sect, is in the ascendant in Tibet, the adherents of the older, but now heretical Red sect, still have a large monastery at Sakia-jong, and have retained supremacy among the Buddhists in Nepal and Bhutan, on the slopes of the Southern Himalaya. . . . Mr. Brian Hodgson, who is unrivalled in his knowledge of the Cis-nivean Himalayan races, divides the inhabitants of the region between the Kali and the Monass into ten tribes, the Cis-Himalayan Bhotias or Tibetans in the upper zone, the Sienwar, Gurung, Magar, Murmi, Newar, Kirati, and Limbu, in Nepal; the Lepcha in Sikkim, and Lhopa or Dukpa*

(Bhutanese) in Bhutan.

*footnote: Lho is the native name of Bhutan. Lhopa is therefore a territorial designation, while Dukpa refers to their belonging to the Red Cap sect. (p. lii)

Notice that already Markham refers to the red caps with the pejorative term “heretical.” We will return to this shortly.

But at present we must find out just who the dugpas or dukpas really are. Markham shows in his footnote that he understands Dukpa to refer to the Red Cap sect. It is followed in Bhutan, in agreement with Brian Hodgson, and also in Sikkim according to Markham.

The Lepchas of Sikkim are ruled over by a dynasty of Rajahs originally from Lhasa, who have always been under the dominion of Tibet, and of the Buddhist religion and Dukpa (Red Cap) sect. (p. lxxxii)

Again, Markham equates the Dukpa with the “Red Cap” orders in general. But in fact, dugpa or dukpa is ’brug pa, the Kagyu sub-order that prevails in Bhutan, not in Sikkim. That this is a separate order or “sect” of Tibetan Buddhism was made known in an earlier book also quoted by Blavatsky, Buddhism in Tibet, by Emil Schlagintweit, published in Leipzig and London in 1863. Under the heading, "Buddhist sects in Tibet," pp. 72 ff., he lists nine orders: the Nyigmapa, Urgyenpa, Kadampa, Sakyapa, Gelukpa, Kargyutpa, Karmapa, Brikungpa, and Brugpa. The ninth and last he describes as: The Brugpa (also Dugpa or Dad Dugpa) sect has established a particular worship of the Dorje (Vajra, or thunderbolt), which descended from heaven and fell upon the earth at Séra in Eastern Tíbet. This sect seems, moreover, to be particularly addicted to the Tantrika mysticism, in which the Dorje is considered as a very important and powerful instrument. (p. 74)

Here we see that the Dugpa is a distinct order of Tibetan Buddhism, the Brugpa, and not the “red caps” in general, who would be all of the orders except the Gelugpa, or “yellow caps.”

But not until L. Austine Waddell’s 1895 book, The Buddhism of Tibet, or Lamaism (London: W. H. Allen & Co.) was this error among Western writers addressed. Waddell correctly describes the Dug-pa (’brug pa) as a sub-sect of the Kagyupas, pointing out that the name Dug-pa has been wrongly used in European books. Under the heading, “The Kar-gyu-pa Sect,” he writes: The next great sub-sect is the Dug-pa* [*footnote: 'brug-pa . . .], which also arose with a pupil of Mila-rä-pa’s disciple, Dvag-po. . 

Much confusion has been caused in European books by misusing the name Dug-pa, employing it as a synonym for the “red-hat” sect, which properly is the Ôi∫-ma. (p. 68)

But Waddell introduces a new error here, in saying that the “red-hat” sect is properly the Nyingma. In fact, all the orders except the Gelugpa wear red hats when hats are used. He no doubt meant that only the Nyingmas are entirely unreformed.

Under the heading, “The Ôi∫-ma-pa Sects,” he writes further:
The wholly unreformed section of the Låmas was, as we have seen, named Ôi∫-ma-pa, or “the old school.” It is more freely than any other tinged with the native Bön or pre-Buddhist practices; and celibacy and abstinence are rarely practised. This is the real “red-hat” sect of Låmas, and not the Dug-pa as is stated in European books. (p. 72)

So we see that early European writers on Tibet referred to all the non-Gelugpa orders of Tibetan Buddhism as Dugpas.

Moreover, even in Waddell’s book we notice a rather pejorative tone in his description of the “red-hats.” There was, historically, actual fighting and warfare between Gelugpas and Kagyupas for supremacy and state rule. This inevitably produces ill-will and prejudice. Markham notes in his book that a Chinese emperor attempted to reconcile the two factions.

As regards Tibet, an embassy had been sent to Lhasa by the Em peror Kang-hi, to reconcile the Yellow and Red Cap factions, . . .

The prevailing attitude of prejudice between the two parties is clearly portrayed in the 1774 account written by George Bogle, found in Markham’s book: It may be necessary to state that there are two sets of clergy in Tibet, distinguished by, and classed under the names of, Yellow Caps and Red Caps. The Dalai and Teshu Lamas are at the head of the Yellow Caps; the Red Caps have their own Lamas and monasteries. In times of old there were violent disputes between them, in which the Yellow Caps got the victory, as well by the assistance of the Tatars as by their superior sanctity. But as I adhere to the tenets of this sect, and have acquired my knowledge of religion from its votaries, I will not here say much upon the subject, lest it should be thought spiteful. I may be allowed, however, just to mention two things, which must convince every unprejudiced person of the wicked lives and false doctrines of the Red Caps. In the first place, many of the clergy marry; and in the next, they persist, in opposition to religion and common sense, in wearing Red Caps. The priests who now visited us were of this last sect. There might be about eight of them. Each held a staff in one hand and a rosary in the other. They formed into a circle, and began to chant their prayers, which, as I understood they were put up for my welfare, I was in no haste to interrupt. At length, to show them that, however hostile to their principles, I bore them no personal grudge, I dismissed them with a few small pieces of silver." (pp. 179-180)

Thus, not only did Blavatsky follow the usage then current, of referring indiscriminately to all the non-Gelugpa orders of Tibetan Buddhism as “Red Caps,” “Shammars,” and “Dugpas” (including also the non-Buddhist Bons), she also followed the then current prejudice against these orders. Whether or not there is any basis to this prejudice beyond historical animosities is another question. For now, I will conclude with a quotation from Blavatsky indicating that she did believe there were among these orders dugpas in the sense in which she often used the term, as black magicians or “Brothers of the Shadow”:

In the East, they are known as the “Brothers of the Shadow,” living men possessed by the earth-bound elementaries; at times—their  masters, but ever in the long run falling victims to these terrible beings. In Sikkim and Tibet they are called Dug-pas (red-caps), in contra-distinction to the Geluk-pas (yellow-caps), to which latter most of the adepts belong. And here we must beg the reader not to misunderstand us. For though the whole of Bhûtan and Sikkim belongs to the old religion of the Bhons, now known generally as the Dug-pas, we do not mean to have it understood that the whole of the population is possessed, en masse, or that they are all sorcerers. Among them are found as good men as anywhere else, and we speak above only of the élite of their Lamaseries, of a nucleus of priests, "devil-dancers," and fetish worshippers, whose dreadful and mysterious rites are utterly unknown to the greater part of the population. (Blavatsky Collected Writings, vol. 6, pp. 197-198)

Mme. Blavatsky wrote:

Dugpas (Tib.). Lit., “Red Caps,” a sect in Tibet. Before the advent of Tsong-ka-pa in the fourteenth century, the Tibetans, whose Buddhism had deteriorated and been dreadfully adulterated with the tenets of the old Bhon religion,—were all Dugpas. From that century, however, and after the rigid laws imposed upon the Gelukpas (yellow caps) and the general reform and purification of Buddhism (or Lamaism), the Dugpas have given themselves over more than ever to sorcery, immorality, and drunkenness. Since then the word Dugpas has become a synonym of “sorcerer”, “adept of black magic” and everything vile. There are few, if any, Dugpas in Eastern Tibet, but they congregate in Bhutan, Sikkim, and the borderlands generally.[1]

In one of his letters, Master K.H. wrote to A. P. Sinnett:

In our mountains here, the Dugpas lay at dangerous points, in paths frequented by our Chelas, bits of old rag, and other articles best calculated to attract the attention of the unwary, which have been impregnated with their evil magnetism. If one be stepped upon a tremendous psychic shock may be communicated to the wayfarer, so that he may lose his footing and fall down the precipice before he can recover himself. Friend, beware of Pride and Egoism, two of the worst snares for the feet of him who aspires to climb the high paths of Knowledge and Spirituality. You have opened a joint of your armour for the Dugpas — do not complain if they have found it out and wounded you there.[2]

Drukpa Lineage

The word "dugpa" was frequently used by Mme. Blavatsky and the Masters in a generic sense to refer to all "red-cap" or "red-hat" sects of Tibetan Buddhism, that is, the Nyigmapas, Kagyupas, Sakyapas, and the pre-Buddhist natives Böns. These are the non-reformed sects that did not follow Tsongkhapa’s new order, the Gelugpas.

As David Reigle showed, this general meaning for the word "dugpa" was prevalent during Blavatsky's time. This mistake was corrected in 1895 by L. Austine Waddell’s book, The Buddhism of Tibet, or Lamaism, where he states that the Dug-pa are a sub-sect of the red-cap sect Kagyupa.[3] This sub-sect eventually came to be the main school of Buddhism in Bhutan, known as the "Drukpa Kargyu".[4]

Mme. Blavatsky wrote an article in line with this view, where she uses the term "dugpa" in a more restricted way, applying it to the Nyingmapas and Shammars in Bhutan:

The "Dug-pa(*) or Red Caps" belong to the old Nyang-na-pa sect, who resisted the religious reform introduced by Tsong-kha-pa between the latter part of the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth centuries. It was only after a lama coming to them from Tibet in the tenth century had converted them from the old Buddhist faith so strongly mixed up with the Bhon practices of the aborigines--into the Shammar sect, that, in opposition to the reformed "Gyelukpas," the Bhootanese set up a regular system of reincarnations.

(*) The term "Dug-pa" in Tibet is deprecatory. They themselves pronounce it "Dög-pa" from the root to "bind" (religious binders to the old faith): while the paramount sect--the Gyeluk-pa (yellow caps)--and the people, use the word in the sense of "Dug-pa" mischief-makers, sorcerers. The Bhootanese are generally called Dug-pa throughout Tibet and even in some parts of Northern India.[5]

However, even this reference to this particular Bhutanese sect should not be taken in a too general way. In reference to the Brothers of the Shadow, Mme. Blavatsky wrote:

In Sikkim and Tibet they are called Dug-pas (red-caps), in contra-distinction to the Geluk-pas (yellow-caps), to which latter most of the adepts belong. And here we must beg the reader not to misunderstand us. For though the whole of Bhûtan and Sikkim belongs to the old religion of the Bhons, now known generally as the Dug-pas, we do not mean to have it understood that the whole of the population is possessed, en masse, or that they are all sorcerers. Among them are found as good men as anywhere else, and we speak above only of the élite of their Lamaseries, of a nucleus of priests, "devil-dancers," and fetish worshippers, whose dreadful and mysterious rites are utterly unknown to the greater part of the population.[6]

Shammar

When Blavatsky uses the term "shammar" she is not referring to the tribe of Shammar (Arabic: شمّر "Šammar") which around 1850 ruled much of central and northern Arabia, from Riyadh to the frontiers of Syria and the vast area known as Al Jazira in Northern Iraq. She refers to an offshoot of the Böns:

The Shammar sect is not, as wrongly supposed, a kind of corrupted Buddhism, but an offshoot of the Bön religion—itself a degenerated remnant of the Chaldean mysteries of old, now a religion entirely based upon necromancy, sorcery and sooth-saying. The introduction of Buddha’s name in it means nothing.[7]

There are references to this use of the term in the 19th century. For example, in a book on the history of Hindustan we find:

Two sects divide the votaries of Buddha, the Gyllookpa [Gelug-pa], distinguished by robes of yellow cloth, and the Shammar, clothed in red. In ancient times, the latter are reported to have been the most numerous; till the Gyllookpa assembling a mighty army, drove them from their possessions, and forced them to take refuge in Bootan, whose inhabitants are all of that sect.[8]

-http://theosophy.wiki/en/Dugpa