Piecing Together the Puzzle
Over the past 40 years I have gathered, read, and sorted many books, ancient works, recent works, articles, blog posts and the like in my journey through life to find the Truth of who we are, where we have been, and where we are going. Truth is a fine thread that weaves itself through absolutely every fabric of life. It is found, much like puzzle pieces, throughout the world and throughout the ages. It eludes us because we must desire it above all else – often to the sacrifice of everything (else) we hold dear. The journey to find Truth is not found in all of the material I have poured over for so many years. We venture out in search of the puzzle pieces, bringing them together, sorting through them and striving to put them together in some sort of picture we can finally “see.”
But what these external sources, these puzzle pieces, teach us, ultimately, is that Truth resides within. We find that it has been living, moving, and has its being inside of us all along. When the puzzle pieces are finally assembled, the picture you have is a mirror. In that mirror is the “you” that has been hiding behind the image you see in your bathroom mirror.
Truth, once found, changes oneself. If you honestly, truly, thirst for Truth, when you find it you discover that it is not something you can hold in your hand, keep in your pocket. Truth is too vast – it cannot be contained except within. Once within, it expands the “who” of what you are – it shows you the worst of yourself, enabling you to then begin striving to become what you were meant to become – a real, true, Human Being.
This Path is often referred to as a “Spiritual” Path. And so it is. However one of the first Truths you learn is that YOU are a Spiritual Being. You were a Spiritual Being long before you became a Human Being. And within that revelation you realize that “We are not Human Beings on a Spiritual journey, but Spiritual Beings on a Human journey.” And by becoming ever better Human Beings, we become Higher Spiritual Beings. This is not a religious journey. The time of the “church” is ending. Humanity is at the Threshold of a New Beginning – the beginning of a new Era.
What I have strived to accomplish in my gathering and writing is to have sorted through all of the many, many puzzle pieces I have found, read, and meditated over to put together enough of a mirror to introduce the reader to their true self. My earnest hope is that this may either fill in gaps you have encountered along your own Path, or open the door for you to begin just such a journey.
I once considered myself, and really I am in my heart, an Eastern Orthodox Christian. However, I am more than that at my age. I look around and see the church in which I was baptized bowing to the material world and I am saddened. If I am to accept a label, I would have to say I am an Esoteric Christian – a Spiritual Scientist. What I am striving to be though, is a true and complete Human Being.
On Religion
“A truly religious person can grasp that religion is only enriched and deepened by scientific knowledge. Spiritual science doesn’t want to have anything to do with founding a new religion or to give rise to prophets or founders of sects. Mankind has matured; the time for prophets and founding religions is over. And in future people who feel the urge to be prophets will suffer a different fate from the prophets of old, who, in accordance with the ways of their times, were rightly revered as outstanding individuals. People of today who try to be prophets in the old sense will simply be laughed at.
“Spiritual science doesn’t need any prophets because by its very nature it bases what it has to say upon the depths of the human soul, depths which our souls cannot always illuminate. And the spiritual scientist simply wants to investigate his subject as an unassuming researcher, drawing attention to vital matters. He says, “I’ve discovered it; you can discover it for yourself, too, if you try.” It won’t take long until the spiritual investigator is recognized as a researcher just like any chemist or biologist. The difference is that the spiritual researcher does his research in a field of concern to every human soul.”
~ Rudolf Steiner, GA 155 – Anthroposophy and Christianity – Norrköping, July 13, 1914
On Love
“The older we grow, the more we begin to love the wisdom revealed by life. In the wisdom revealed by life, man forms the seed of his next life as the spiritual core of his being ripens. But the deeds of love are not deeds which look for compensation in the next life. By everything we do out of love, we pay off debts. The only actions from which we have nothing in the future are those we perform out of true, genuine love. It is because men are subconsciously aware of this that there is so little love in the world. A soul must be very advanced before deeds can be performed from which nothing is to be gained for itself; but then the world profits all the more. Love is the “moral” sun of the world. Interest in the earth’s evolution is the necessary antecedent of love. A Spiritual Science without love would be a danger for humanity. Without sense-born love, nothing material comes into the world; without spiritual love, nothing spiritual. Creative forces unfold through love. We owe our existence to deeds of love wrought in the past. To pay off debts through deeds of love is therefore wisdom.
“As well as love there are two other powers: might and wisdom. To these two, the concepts of magnitude and enhancement are applicable, but not to love. The all-embracing attribute of the Godhead is therefore not omnipotence, not omniscience, but love. God is supreme love, not supreme might, not supreme wisdom. The Godhead has shared these two with Ahriman and Lucifer. Wisdom and might unfold in the world, but love is a unique, Divine Impulse. The Mystery of Golgotha was fulfilled as a counterweight to the impulses of might and of wisdom. Therefore anyone who knows the mystery of love can be a Christian. Spiritual Science must include this love — otherwise it leads to egoism.
“The Mystery of Golgotha is a Deed of the Gods and a concern of the Gods. This Deed cannot be understood out of wisdom but only out of love. Together with selfishness, evil came into the world. It had to be so, because without the evil, man could not lay hold of the good. But through man’s conquest of himself the unfolding of love has been made possible. The darkness has enabled the light to come into our ken.
. . .
“Spiritual perfecting will be for earthly man the goal most worthy of aspiration but nobody who understands what deeds of love truly are will say that his own striving for perfection is selfless. Striving for perfection imparts strength to our being and to our personality. But our value for the world must be seen to lie wholly in deeds of love, not in deeds done for the sake of self-perfecting. Let us be under no illusion about this.”
~ Rudolf Steiner, Zurich, 1912, Love and it’s Meaning in the World
Ask yourself if you truly know yourself. It is easy to know what you like, what you dislike, what you desire. But that is not who you are. It is easy to describe your physical attributes, your profession, your social status. But that also is not who you are. You are not the sum of all these parts either. Who you are is hidden in the dark recesses of your inner Self, the mind of your heart, your nous. It is hidden behind the shadow of all the lies we have been led to believe are truth but are merely someone else’s illusion they want you to believe as truth so they can lead you as one of their herd.
Consider the seed of an oak tree. Contemplate the power contained into such a seed that grows into a mighty oak, the store of energy that, once released, grows without bounds. Inside YOU, hidden in the shadows, is just such a seed, just such a source of energy, love and growth that, if nourished, knows no bounds. Look deep inside, find it, and you will learn what it means when the Scriptures say “The Kingdom of God is Within You.”
It is time, our time, for all mankind to come out of the shadow and into the shine…