Anthroposophy and the Inner Life by Rudolf Steiner

Author:Rudolf Steiner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rudolf Steiner Press
Published: 2015-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Lecture V

LOVE, INTUITION AND THE HUMAN EGO

2nd February, 1924

I have described how man must be regarded as composed of physical, etheric and astral bodies, and how we can acquire a deeper insight into this composition by exercising our cognitive powers — powers of mind, heart and will — in a certain way. This composition that we discern in man is also found in the external world. Only, we must be clear that there is a considerable difference between what we find in the world outside and what we find in man.

When, to begin with, we study the physical world — and we can really only study its solid, ‘earthy’ manifestations — we come to distinguish various substances. I need not go into details. You know, of course, that the anatomist, investigating what remains of the living man after he has passed through the gate of death — the corpse — need not take account of any but earthly substances, which he also finds outside man. At least, he believes he need not, and within certain limits his belief is justified. He investigates the elements or the salts, acids and other compounds found outside of man, and he investigates what the human organism contains. He does not find it necessary to enlarge his physical and chemical knowledge.

Indeed, the difference only becomes apparent when we study these things on a somewhat bigger scale, and notice what I have emphasised so strongly, namely: that the human organism as a whole cannot be maintained by external Nature, but is subject to destruction. Thus we can say that, in the solid, earthy, physical realm, we do not find, to begin with, very much difference between what is outside and what is inside man. We must recognise a greater difference however, in what is etheric.

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