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Keeping the Light Alive!

Monthly articles demonstrating Rudolf Steiner’s  relevance to today’s world

Adrian Anderson PhD., author of books and articles on anthroposophy

April 2018: What am I ?  The earthly I and the eternal I

We normally regard our “I” as our personality. That is, the “I” is a sense of self which has its origin in the unique mix of soul qualities and temperament of each person. Often this personality  is not especially noble nor wise. Yet in both of his primary books, Rudolf Steiner suggests that the “I” has something sacred and immense to it, and therefore is much more than simply our earthly personality. In Theosophy he writes that a person is “quite entitled to regard this “I” as the {true} self”. In An Outline of Esoteric Science this sense of self is described as having its strongest presence in the intuitive mind, which is called the ‘spiritual-soul’; a sense of self which is above logical thinking and emotional states. But Rudolf Steiner then goes further, teaching that the spiritual force that makes this enhanced  “I” come into existence in the spiritual-soul, “is in fact the same force which proclaims itself in all the rest of creation”.


At this point, his words are similar to wonderful and mysterious revelations in the mystical wisdom of the Orient, especially in the proclamations from Krishna, in the Bhagavad-Gita (Books 9 & 10), and also in the Vedic wisdom (e.g., the Chandogya Upanishad). In such writings, one is told that the Self or “I” comes from Brahma, or Krishna, from whom all creation derives. If the spiritual power that is manifest in all creation, and which has brought creation into being, is also our “I”, then the “I” to which Rudolf Steiner is referring, is indeed potentially a divine spiritual reality.
 
These are powerful and startling ideas, which inspire the spiritual seeker to contemplate just what is the hidden, deeper nature of the “I”. Rudolf Steiner did not say much more about this theme in these two books. But in a unique lecture from 1905, he provides profound insights into the “I” as a twofold being, as not just the earthly personality, but also as something linked with a divine being, and as something linked to all the realms of creation. He discusses the famous Vedanta statement “Thou art Brahma”, which directs our attention to this higher, eternal  “I”. This archive lecture is available in the booklet, Two Gems from Rudolf Steiner.
 
 




Here is a link to the book on the Book Depository (free postage)

https://www.bookdepository.com/Two-Gems-from-Rudolf-Steiner-Adrian-Anderson/9780994160218


All the best until May,

Adrian A.