I Pray All Is Well With Everyone… And Your Hearts And Minds Are Full Of Love, Joy, And Compassion… For All God’s Children… And All God’s Creation. If Not… Let Us Be More Loving! For Whenever Sincere Love Is Flowing From Within Any Individual – In Thought Or Deed – For Any Of God’s Children… Know That In That Moment The Vibration Of Your Individual Being And The Vibration Of The Collective…Is Elevated; And The Loving Energy Of Our “Mighty I AM Presence”… Then Actuated. And This Transformative Power Of The Divine Light Of The Living God Emitting From Within Us That Powerful Loving Energy Into The World – That All The Higher-Ups In The Heavenlies Has Commanded Over The Centuries – Is The Guiding Force And Fuel… That Will Lead Mankind To Salvation! Amen… ย ย ![]()
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Give Thanks And Praises For Love And Life… ย ย ![]()
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And Y’all Be Love… ย ![]()
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โOne learns to know the body of man through the bodily senses; and the way of observing it can differ in no way from that by which one learns to know other objects perceived by the senses. As one observes minerals, plants, animals, so can one observe man also. He is related to these three forms of existence. Like the minerals, he builds his body out of the materials in nature; like the plants, he grows and propagates his species, he perceives the objects around him; and like the animals, forms on the basis of the impressions they make his inner experiences. One may therefore ascribe to man a mineral, a plant, and an animal existence.
The difference in the structure of minerals, plants, and animals corresponds with these three forms of existence. And it is this structure, this shape which one perceives through the senses, and which alone, one can call body. But the human body is different from that of the animal. This difference everybody must recognize whatever may be his opinion in other respects regarding the relationship of man to animals. Even the most radical materialist who denies all soul will not be able to avoid agreeing with the following sentence which Carus utters in his “Organon der Natur and des Geistes”:
“The finer, inner construction of the nervous system, and especially of the brain, remains as yet an unsolved problem to the physiologist and the anatomist; but that this concentration of the structure increases more and more in the animal, and in man, reaches a stage unequaled in any other being, is a fully established fact, a fact which is of the deepest significance in regard to the spiritual evolution of man, of which, indeed, we may frankly say it is a sufficient explanation. Where, therefore, the structure of the brain has not developed properly, where its smallness and poverty show themselves, as in the case of microcephali and idiots, it goes without saying that one can as little expect the appearance of original ideas and of knowledge, as one can expect propagation of species in persons with completely stunted organs of generation. On the other hand, a strong and beautiful construction of the whole person, especially of the brain, will certainly not in itself take the place of genius, but it will at any rate supply the first and indispensable requirement for higher knowledge.”
Just as one ascribes to the human body the three forms of existence, mineral, plant, animal, one must now ascribe to it yet a fourth, the distinctively human form. Through his mineral form of existence, man is related to everything visible, through his plant-like form of existence, to all beings that grow and propagate their species, through his animal existence, to all those that perceive their surroundings, and by means of external impressions, have inner experiences. Through his human form of existence he constitutes, even in regard to his body alone, a kingdom by himself.
The soul being of man differs from his corporality through being his own inner world. This inner world peculiar to each person faces one the moment one directs one’s attention to the simplest sensation. One finds, in the first place, that no one can know if another person perceives even the simplest sensation in exactly the same way as one does oneself. It is known that there are people who are colorblind, they see things only in different shades of gray. Others are partially colorblind, they are unable, because of this, to perceive certain shades of colors. The picture of the world which their eyes give them, is different from that of so-called normal persons. And the same holds good in regard to the other senses.
It will be seen, therefore, without further elaboration, that even simple sensations belong to the inner world. I can perceive with my bodily senses the red table which another person also perceives; but I cannot perceive his sensation of red. One must therefore describe sensation as belonging to the soul. If one grasps this fact alone quite clearly, he will soon cease to regard inner experiences as mere brain processes or something similar.
The first result of sensation is feeling. One sensation causes man pleasure, another displeasure. These are stirrings of his inner, his soul life. Man creates in his feelings a second world in addition to that which works on him from without. And a third is added to thisโthe will. Through it, man reacts on the outer world. And he thereby stamps the impress of his inner being on the outer world.
The soul of man, as it were, flows outward in the activities of his will. The actions of the human being differ from the occurrences of outer nature in that they bear the impress of his inner life. In this way the soul represents what is man’s own in contradistinction to the outer world. He receives from the outer world the incitements; but he creates, in responding to these incitements, a world of his own. The corporality becomes the foundation of the soul being of man.
The soul being of man is not determined by the body alone. Man does not wander aimlessly and without a goal from one sensation to another; neither does he act under the influence of every casual incitement directed on him either from without or through the processes of his body. He thinks about his perceptions and his acts. By thinking about his perceptions, he gains knowledge of things; by thinking about his acts, he introduces a reasonable coherence into his life. He knows also that he will fulfill his duty as a human being only when he lets himself be guided by correct thinking in knowledge as well as in acts.
The soul of man, therefore, faces a twofold necessity. The laws of the body govern it in accordance with the necessities of nature, but it allows itself to be governed by the laws which guide it to exact thinking because it voluntarily acknowledges their necessity.
Nature subjects man to the laws of the change of matter, but he subjects himself to the laws of thought. By this means he makes himself a member of a higher order than that to which he belongs through his body. And this order is the spiritual. The soul is as different from the body as the body is different from the soul. So long as one speaks only of the particles of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen, which stir in the body, one has not the soul in view. The soul life begins only when within the motion of these particles, sensation arises, and one can say: “I taste sweetness” or “I feel pleasure.”
Just as little has one the spiritual in view, when one considers merely the soul experiences which course through a man who gives himself over entirely to the outer world and his bodily life; rather is this soul life merely the basis for the spiritual, just as the body is the basis of the soul life. The naturalist, or investigator of nature, has to do with the body, the investigator of the soul (the psychologist) with the soul, and the investigator of the spirit, with the spirit.
To realize what one is in oneself, and thus become clear as to the difference between body, soul, and spirit, is a requirement which must be demanded from those who wish, by thinking, to enlighten themselves regarding the constitution of man.
Man can enlighten himself in a correct way concerning himself only when he grasps the significance of thinking within his being. The brain is the bodily instrument for thinking. Just as man can only see colors with a properly constructed eye, so the suitably constructed brain serves him for thought. The whole body of man is so formed that it receives its crown in the organ of the spirit, the brain. One can understand the construction of the human brain only by observing it in relation to its task, which consists in being the instrument or tool for the thinking spirit.โ
Theosophy, by Rudolf Steiner, 1910
El Secreto – Yung Logos
