Finding the Outside in the Inside

'It's now a question of consciously regaining what we've lost. That means we have to be able to take hold of something that we feel is inside of us, but something that at the same time is part of the world. Something that reaches into both. This has to be our first priority, to actively seek out and find something inside ourselves that is, at the same time, a process that's happening out there in the world.'

This is a paraphrase of Rudolf Steiner from his lecture in Dornach, Switzerland, in 1919 - ninety years ago. In this series of lectures, he's been explaining the differences between three then-current views regarding spiritual development of the world and humans - the yoga path, the Christian path, and the Rosicrucian.

One way he differentiates the three is by describing the role of a guru in each of the three paths. In yoga, the guru is essential, and an absolute authority. The student has to trust - it can't be forced - but it is absolute. The guru, though, is a human being just like me.

In the Christian path, that same relationship holds, except the guru is now the Guru, Jesus the Christ. Absolute trust in absolute authority, still, but the Authority is Divine and One.

The Rosicrucian path understands that a guru is never more than a more experienced brother or sister. Further, this relationship can be carried out through the medium of the written word.

This imperative, to find inside myself something that is self-evidently also out there in the world, he mentions in other lectures. It's the central idea of his books Truth and Knowledge and The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity.

True meditation takes us out into the world, and the right approach to nature reveals ourselves out there in the world. This isn't vague ecological rhetoric. Steiner describes actual meditation exercises that direct attention to this nexus of self and world. That's one objective of esoteric training.