”The exoteric foundation of the teaching quite deliberately separates the scientific basis, which corresponds completely to the laws of contemporary culture, of pedagogy, of comprehensible desciption and visible forms of teaching, from the texts, insights and studies which come from another reality, and so have a mysterious, initiatory and intangible energy and effect.“
From “The Approach and Aim of »Yoga out of the Purity of the Soul«”
on the Path of Spiritual Training
On Rudolf Steiner’s Anthroposophy
This all-embracing work is an infinite tree of wisdom. The thoughts of Rudolf Steiner work on the soul to illuminate, to clarify, and to focus the light at a precisely defined place. The expressions and descriptions, which Rudolf Steiner used, correlate very sensitively with spiritual reality. They come as close to super-sensory experience as colour to light. The colour of Rudolf Steiner’s aura is still more alive, refreshing and reviving than those of the truly great saints of past eras. It shines out glowing golden yellow and passionless shimmering red. His work is uniquely precise, and at the same time it is the creation of thoughts that are deeply rooted in coherent knowledge. The thoughts are in no way fantasy. Rather they have an actual existence in the spiritual hierarchies. They are testimonies given partly from the astral realm and partly from the realm of Devachan. In Rudolf Steiner there lived and worked the I of Christ. This I gives revering seekers the key to another world, which they have long been unable to enter. It closes the door of painful, mystical asceticism and opens the reality of the thought. Those who study the texts of Anthroposophy acquire the ability to think in a way that forms and shapes. They will equip their lives with the gift of new senses, which will not become an obstacle for spirituality, but will accompany their own integrity with angelic freedom.
On ”Yoga out of the Purity of the Soul“
Those who can see the etheric body or life-body become acquainted with the original, powerful dimension of the thoughts, for these arise from the light of the ether. The etheric body has a completely different dimension of action from matter. The earth is to a certain extent the consequence of an etheric life-process. Life is before the earth. The Christ-body in the ether is a creative reality, which brings the earth to life with a warm abundance and delight. The Christ in the ether unceasingly creates a striving for the spiritual, which continually leads people over the difficult hurdles of further attachments and saves them from a fateful descent into matter. In the etheric picture of the whole, the Christ is in fact the saviour from sin. Those who compare the pictures and texts of »Yoga out of the Purity of the Soul« will notice that same stirring, which touches them inwardly with a subtle shimmer, and which likewise relieves them from further movement into the solidity of matter. Even the most insensitive of people cannot completely deny this feeling. In this sense the pictures and texts about the asanas are less technical demonstrations, and much more the expression of a love, which has resulted entirely from taking up the etheric body of Christ. The pictures and texts are meditation, and elevate the soul.
On Sri Aurobindo’s Synthesis of the Yoga
Reading the works of Sri Aurobindo creates a mood of consciousness that is reverend, respectful, that expands and becomes liberated from all attachments. The work is like the breath, free and untouched. A bluish, calming aura is present in those who dedicate themselves with attentiveness to the lines of his work. The subtle and yet strong, blue aura-radiation is the colour of the realised and pure self, the colour of a saint, of the soul’s highest powers of will, thought and feeling. It is the colour of Sri Aurobindo. The consciousness, expanding with reverence, which surrenders with the attentiveness and concentration on the person and his work, is a result of the astral body of Christ. This body shines in, like a governing sea of stars, like the reverse side of the cosmos to be precise, and in artistic rhythms it looks upon the reader like a guiding light from heaven. It is cosmic music, rhythmic melody, harmonious vastness and untouchedness without sin. It is a view of the self, of the highest, brought to life again and again with a different spark, never drifting from the centre of the yoke in any of its compositions. Reading Sri Aurobindo’s work inspires the fire of the will.These three wide-ranging works have arisen quite independently from one another and thus all exist in their own right. Nonetheless, the inspiration and personal radiance of all three have an inner, spiritual connection: Integral Yoga, Anthroposophy and »Yoga out of the Purity of the Soul« seek a synthesis in world creation with the highest principle, which is generally known as “God”. The work of Integral Yoga addresses primarily the will-aspect, Anthroposophy principally the thinking and »Yoga out of the Purity of the Soul«, the feeling.Working with a life’s work over a long period of time can often lead to stagnation and an imbalanced understanding of life. It therefore seems very helpful to combine these three works for a sound spiritual study. The emphasis should, however, remain with one life’s work.Most of all these works stimulate that edifying consciousness, which is founded in purity, and which today is necessary to maintain the individuality. In a spiritual training the will, which is freely available in its unique way, must not be given up, laid aside or sacrificed. Rather it must become permeated, within a living context, with the gift of grace of the inspired consciousness that comes from the spirit. In their encoded expression, the texts mentioned hold immanent transcendence, leading readers to a sense of living, spiritual form in their thinking, feeling and willing.
To print open the booklet in PDF format.
(A PDF is a format which can contain so-called “active” content, as a result some browsers give a warning before opening. This PDF contains pure text for the purposes of layout, and does not carry out any activity on your computer.)