sxsxsx on Nostr: Patience has the effect of attracting the treasures of higher knowledge. Impatience ...
Patience has the effect of attracting the treasures of higher knowledge. Impatience repels them. Haste and unrest achieve nothing in the higher realms of existence.
Above all, longing and craving must be silenced. These are soul qualities in the face of which all higher knowledge shyly retreats.
Precious as higher knowledge is, if it is to come to us, we must not long for it. Moreover, if we wish it only for our own ends, we will never attain it.
This requires in the first place that we be honest with ourselves in the depths of the soul. We can no longer have any illusions about ourselves. We must look at our own mistakes, weaknesses, and shortcomings in the eye with inner truthfulness.
Each time we find an excuse for a weakness, we place an obstacle before us on our upward path. Such obstacles can be removed only by becoming enlightened about ourselves.
There is but one way to overcome failings and weaknesses—to see them for what they are, with inner truthfulness. All that lies dormant in the human soul can be awakened. Even intuition and reason can be improved if—calmly and detachedly—we become clear why we are weak in these areas.
Such self-knowledge, of course, is difficult. The temptation to deceive oneself is enormous. But if we make a habit of being honest with ourselves, the doors to greater insight open for us.
– Rudolf Steiner, How to Know Higher Worlds
Above all, longing and craving must be silenced. These are soul qualities in the face of which all higher knowledge shyly retreats.
Precious as higher knowledge is, if it is to come to us, we must not long for it. Moreover, if we wish it only for our own ends, we will never attain it.
This requires in the first place that we be honest with ourselves in the depths of the soul. We can no longer have any illusions about ourselves. We must look at our own mistakes, weaknesses, and shortcomings in the eye with inner truthfulness.
Each time we find an excuse for a weakness, we place an obstacle before us on our upward path. Such obstacles can be removed only by becoming enlightened about ourselves.
There is but one way to overcome failings and weaknesses—to see them for what they are, with inner truthfulness. All that lies dormant in the human soul can be awakened. Even intuition and reason can be improved if—calmly and detachedly—we become clear why we are weak in these areas.
Such self-knowledge, of course, is difficult. The temptation to deceive oneself is enormous. But if we make a habit of being honest with ourselves, the doors to greater insight open for us.
– Rudolf Steiner, How to Know Higher Worlds