“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
— C.S. Lewis
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— C.S. Lewis
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Forwarded from Esoteric Dixie Dharma
We must bear in mind that the higher man within man is in constant development. But only the state of calm and serenity here described renders an orderly development possible.
The waves of outward life press in upon the inner man from all sides, if, instead of mastering this outward life, he is mastered by it. Such a man is like a plant which tries to expand in a cleft in the rock, and is stunted in its growth, until new space is given it.
No outward forces can supply space to the inner man. It can only be supplied by the inner calm which man himself gives to his soul. Outward circumstances can only alter the course of his outward life; they can never awaken the inner spiritual man. The student must himself give birth to a new and higher man within him.
This higher man now becomes the inner ruler, who directs the circumstances of the outer man with sure guidance.
As long as the outer man has the upper hand and control, this inner man is his slave, and therefore cannot unfold his powers. If it depends on something foreign to myself, that I should get angry or not, I am not master of myself, or, to put it better, I have not yet found the ruler within me.
I must develop the faculty of letting the impressions of the outer world approach me only in the way in which I myself determine; then only do I become in the real sense a student. And only in so far as the student earnestly seeks this power, can he reach the goal.
It is of no importance how far anyone can get in a given time; the point is that he should earnestly seek. Many have striven for years without noticing any appreciable progress; but many of those who did not despair, but remained unshaken, have then, quite suddenly achieved the ‘inner victory’.
– Rudolf Steiner, How to Know Higher Worlds
The waves of outward life press in upon the inner man from all sides, if, instead of mastering this outward life, he is mastered by it. Such a man is like a plant which tries to expand in a cleft in the rock, and is stunted in its growth, until new space is given it.
No outward forces can supply space to the inner man. It can only be supplied by the inner calm which man himself gives to his soul. Outward circumstances can only alter the course of his outward life; they can never awaken the inner spiritual man. The student must himself give birth to a new and higher man within him.
This higher man now becomes the inner ruler, who directs the circumstances of the outer man with sure guidance.
As long as the outer man has the upper hand and control, this inner man is his slave, and therefore cannot unfold his powers. If it depends on something foreign to myself, that I should get angry or not, I am not master of myself, or, to put it better, I have not yet found the ruler within me.
I must develop the faculty of letting the impressions of the outer world approach me only in the way in which I myself determine; then only do I become in the real sense a student. And only in so far as the student earnestly seeks this power, can he reach the goal.
It is of no importance how far anyone can get in a given time; the point is that he should earnestly seek. Many have striven for years without noticing any appreciable progress; but many of those who did not despair, but remained unshaken, have then, quite suddenly achieved the ‘inner victory’.
– Rudolf Steiner, How to Know Higher Worlds
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