Dear friends, this presentation is about a spiritual practice that I have developed based on indications given by Rudolf Steiner, that I call upholding the dignity of the other.
If there is one thing that I think is clear to most people, it is that regardless of the growing number of pronouncements, declarations. and sermons extolling the importance of recognizing the dignity of our fellow human beings—and regardless of the number of museums and monuments dedicated to the memory of terrible atrocities committed by human beings against other human beings—actions based on a lack of recognition of the inherent dignity of fellow human beings continues to grow in our world and in our society.
The reasons for this paradox lie in the spiritual laws that govern human evolution, most notably the fact that we live in a time—referred to by spiritual science as the Age of the Consciousness Soul—when the healthy social and moral instincts that have guided and upheld humanity for thousands of years are steadily falling away, and can only be replaced through conscious spiritual development. In other words, in the absence of conscious spiritual practices aimed at reinvigorating our ability to truly see, support, and love our fellow human beings (regardless of their race, ethnicity, politics, religion and so on), each of us is at grave risk of falling below the level of a human, from a moral and ethical standpoint.
The result of this degeneration of the human soul is not simply that we are becoming immoral in a straightforward way (though we also see plenty of that), but rather that we more and more begin to think something good is evil and something evil is good, which in turn can lead to quite terrible acts being commmitted in the name of high and lofty ideals! Tragically, we see this happening all around us today and not only by powerful people and groups.
Just think, for example, of the number of people who put up yard signs in front of there homes denouncing hatred and extolling love for all people, who then go online and, without a second thought, post messages fostering the hatred of particular political figures because they feel that the fostering of this kind of hatred is necessary to stop that person from committing acts of hatred!
I pray no one will view this as a partisan comment, since this kind of unfortunate behaviour is very common among people of all political stripes, and we are all, and I mean ALL OF US, including myself, guilty of these kinds of unconscious actions all the time! The challenge is to learn how to see into and transform the subtle, largely unconscious hypocrisies within our own souls rather than point fingers at others—this is yet another spiritual practice highly suited to the Age of the Consciousness Soul that I plan to elaborate on in the future.
There are indeed many practices we can undertake to help us counteract these tendencies and, in this video, I attempt to give an overview of one such practice. In the future I plan to share many more examples, because I believe that it is by integrating simple, spiritual practices like this into our daily lives that we lay the foundation for the kind of genuine cultural, political and economic renewal for which we are all longing so deeply.
I wish to thank Helen Lubin for pointing out to me after the presentation that the “Faithfulness verse” of Rudolf Steiner that I shared in this talk, is not actually a verse, but rather a prose excerpt from a letter that Rudolf Steiner wrote to Christoph Boy, one of the first Waldorf teachers.
I also wish to thank the Front Range Anthroposophical Cafe (FRAC) for the invitation to give this presentation, You can learn more about FRAC and sign up to get announcements for their weekly offerings here.
I apologize to any of my readers and listeners who lack a background in the worldview and terminology of spiritual science, which may make this presentation difficult to follow and understand at certain points. In the future, I plan to make offerings like this in a more universally accessible language, but until this time, I must ask for your patience and understanding!
Lastly, please note that around minute 36 and 49 seconds I misspoke when trying to elucidate a very sensitive and complex topic. I meant to say that because of “free will” (not “good will”) it is inevitable that some human beings are rejecting the upward path of evolution. This fact necessitates that those of us trying to follow an upward path work to generate an abundance of forces of Christian love as an offering to the angels of those who are at risk of completely losing their humanity.
