A number of weeks ago I made a proposal that we, as people who have different views on how the world should develop in the future, on the world and on humanity, that we, as such people, should become concrete in our thoughts. Perhaps we could also write down how we would then imagine it. Then I was asked to become somewhat more concrete myself about this, and immediately I knew what is the most important thing from a spiritual point of view. The most important thing is that we, as human beings, increasingly realize that what happens with the world, that world development and the development of humanity, is not only a physically visible, experienceable event, but that it is also a spiritual event. And that is of course something that is not at all clear to very many people, but to very many people it is. And we could bring much more into consciousness that what we see happening in the world, we do not only take it as it presents itself to us at first as visible and audible, but that we also try to view it from a spiritual standpoint. And then of course you can say: well yes, I cannot do that at all, because I do not concretely perceive the spiritual aspect of world events. Well, that is not necessary either, but what we can do is to immerse ourselves in the spiritual science that already exists. And that is anthroposophy. Rudolf Steiner in his time took great pains to provide a spiritual vision of the world events of that period. And that is still extraordinarily instructive. It is really not the case that after a hundred years it has taken on completely different characteristics. Of course, the content has changed, but what it is about, what always plays in the background of human development and what is itself also in development – the principles of this were described very clearly by Rudolf Steiner in his time, especially in lectures. And in one of these lectures he speaks out what I read aloud some time ago, namely that the chaos and strife in the world will be able to cease when human beings do not learn to see that spirit is at work. That alone would bring about an incredible amount. And it is of course the case with Rudolf Steiner that he also gave very concrete indications for this. And in that same period he spoke about the spiritual backgrounds in our human souls. He posed the question: is it really so that in the human soul only the human being himself and his surroundings, his immediate circle of people, possibly also the deceased, are active? Or do higher spiritual beings also work within our soul? And that thought then takes on very concrete forms, and that is what I wanted to discuss today. So you could say, he asks the question: could it be that the angels are active within our soul? And the answer is yes. And then the question is: what do they say to us, and how can we as human beings come so far that we also have a certain awareness of it?

Well, modesty of course teaches us that we cannot simply say: well, I already know all about it, I become very clearly aware of what the angels in our souls have to say. That is of course, if you are honest, not the case. But one can very well consult this great spiritual teacher who described it in detail, and when you take that in, then it is also clear that it is true. I cannot imagine that you could read that, that you could take that in and that you could doubt it. Not because he said it, that is not the point at all, but because what he says is so inherent to yourself that you say: yes, I really recognize that. Admittedly, I do not hear that angel speaking myself and do not see what images that angel weaves into my soul, but now that I hear and more or less come into view of what the angels want to bring into human souls, yes, then I know that it is indeed present in my soul. And I also know of course that this is something that goes beyond my personal interest. And then what are these principles, these images that the angels bring into our soul, so that we could live according to them? Look, that could be a scenario, that you permeate yourself with these images, and these are moral images. And moral is a difficult word; you could also say it is the virtue that speaks there, the high human virtue. That is something very different from the word decency, which is heard so often nowadays and which is a kind of bourgeois morality. That is not what it is about. These are high human principles, but they only become human when people can also think them along, feel them, and will them. And Rudolf Steiner describes it like that. One of these principles is, and that is the principle of the will. That is that realm which in our physical existence plays the greatest role in action: a moral intuition, an idea of something that in the future in humanity should become a self-evidence, namely that we cannot feel happy as long as there are still other people, other living beings even, who share that happiness. That is the high principle of brotherhood.

You all know it, we live in the Netherlands in a protected environment, for the time being. People who live in an unprotected environment, they would very much like to be in the Netherlands. It seems safe there. One can be grateful for that, and of course one can also have within oneself the feeling: how glad I am that I do not have to go through what, for example, is being experienced in Ukraine, Russia, or what is being experienced in Israel, Palestine. That is of course a justified feeling of gratitude, but at the same time you could also be very unhappy about it, and many people are. I do not at all want to say that this is an ideal which is not already alive among people, but the ideal that you are not happy as long as not all people have found peace and happiness, that is of course a very lofty, enriching principle of brotherhood. There all nationalism ends, there all difference in skin color, in gender, in whatever ends. There all that plays no role anymore; there the principle of brotherhood among all humanity holds. That is a high ideal which you as a human being would very much like to think about. That could be a scenario thought, that you imagine a world in which this principle of brotherhood has penetrated, and not because it is imposed by the United Nations, not because a political party says it must be so, but because in all people that principle of brotherhood lives as an inner essence. That is something very different. Not having to, but wanting to.

That seems to me a wonderful scenario for the future. And the angels weave these images of the future into our soul, but the human being must become conscious of it, and is it not the case that when you hear that, you feel it as something that is very much your own? If you really make it your own, then you fulfill what the angels want to bring into our soul. The second principle has to do with feeling, and here it really comes down to consciously cultivating the spiritual in earthly existence. Namely that when you have a human being before you, and the human being carries the spirit on earth with him, there is no other being that does that in the visible world.

You can love animals, but you would still have to see that an animal does indeed have a spirit, but does not carry it on earth, whereas the human being does. That should be cultivated, that when you as people meet each other, that you would then also feel, experience that the other person is a spiritual being. And when you really do that – and not imagined, not that you again feel obliged to say to yourself: oh yes, I must feel it that way – no, it must then of course also be real. That you really experience it in yourself: this person with whom I am now together is, just like me, a sovereign spiritual being, a spiritual individuality. If that would truly penetrate us human beings, then no difference in religion would be needed anymore, because you would already have what you strive for in religion, namely a reconnection with the spiritual world, with God. Not because you see God in your fellow human being, but because in your fellow human being you have before you an inhabitant of that divine world. And that would cause you to feel so much reverence, so much respect, so much love also for that co-inhabitant of the spiritual world, that no religious conflict could exist anymore, because you would all agree with each other. And there is a very beautiful sentence in that lecture by Rudolf Steiner, who says: yes, actually the highest goal of every church should be that it makes itself superfluous.

Well, of course you should not just come along with that, I think, but you can well understand that it could come so far that we as human beings are so spiritually conscious that we are not only conscious of our own spirit – which we often already are not – but that we perceive in every other person a spiritual being, whereby the ideal of religion is in fact fulfilled. And then there is the third, and that is the realm of thinking. And with that we really come into the field of anthroposophy, namely the field of spiritual science. It should come so far that every human being in himself becomes aware that in thinking spirit is truly at work. That you cannot believe that, that has to do with the fact that thinking is so abstract.

But there is a path you can go by which you come to know this thinking as a spiritual power that makes it possible for you to acquire wisdom. And if you would know how to develop thinking in such a way that it itself becomes an element that knows how to handle the spirit – and that path exists, it is available, every thinking person can in fact take that path. If you take that path, then you enter a spiritual realm that directly has to do with that human individuality that is spiritual, that you are. There is spiritual science. There was a man, that was Rudolf Steiner, who had developed this ability to directly behold the spirit out of thinking so strongly, so far, that with this beholding thinking – which is something other than abstract intellectual thinking – that with this beholding thinking he could perceive the spiritual reality in existence and bring it into scientific connections. That spiritual science already exists, and he himself never had the pretension that this science is complete or unalterable. That is not at all the case, but there is indeed a very large territory available of spiritual reality behind things that one could take in. And the special thing then of course is that you do this with a thinking that itself is also spirit. So you need not be afraid at all that you come under the influence of a spiritual science that is not true. You take up this spiritual science with your own independent thinking that stems from the spirit, with which you are capable of becoming aware of whether something is true or not.

How then can it be that there are nevertheless very many people who take up this spiritual science and then afterwards reject it with their own thinking? Yes, that has to do with the fact that as a human being you are not simply able to take something up with thinking in an unbiased way. You always come to something you take up with a whole backpack on, with already formed opinions and judgments, and you carry these toward every content you encounter. So you naturally do the same with spiritual science. That really does not work. You would have to put an unbiased thinking opposite to it because it is something that is completely new. You actually cannot come there with your backpack at all. You would have to put it down first and then have the trust that what you are going to take in, that your own thinking is strong and realistic enough to determine in an unbiased way whether it is true or not. And as far as I am concerned, the truth of this spiritual science is actually to be experienced in every sentence. But if you then cannot, then it is still the case that through the coherence that exists in this whole spiritual science you should have to conclude that it must be true. For how can someone, let us say, for twenty years bring forward so unbelievably much content, while that content remains coherent? You cannot achieve that with inventions, for here the principle naturally rules: the truth you do not forget, but the lie you do. So if you just make things up, then after not too long a time you will have forgotten it all again, the basic principles of it, for there are none. Whereas when you represent the truth, then of course you continue to represent those basic principles. That is what the angels weave into our soul in such a way that we as human beings can become conscious of it. And if we cannot do that ourselves, then there is, as said, this spiritual science in which the possibility is at hand to recognize what the angels weave into our soul. And I can from my own experience, from the bottom of my heart, say that when you in this way take up the spirit in existence – thinking, feeling, and finally also acting – that you then must agree with the thought, you cannot help but agree with the thought: if many people would follow this, then indeed there would no longer need to be wars.

That seems to me a kind of basic scenario for the future, and without these basic conceptual principles I also do not believe that it makes much sense to fantasize about what the world should look like. Perhaps I can next time further elaborate on this theme; that must prove itself in the coming time. So far.