The conversation

A wonderful point of view on egoism is given in the work of Rudolf Steiner. It is a view that I can fully embrace, and the solution is even more wonderful: a way of conquering a mostly unseen rigid egoism...

In normal thinking we live in our centre, from which we form our thoughts, or from which they seem to form themselves. The centre is a kind of mental heart, that is full of opinions that we love as much as we love our ego. The mouth speaks abundantly from this full heart - but it is not always wisdom and love that are being spoken in this way. When I read the newspapers or see discussions of all sorts, it is always clear that truth and wisdom and love are not the leading factors in what is discussed. It is the rigid unseen system of opinions that is uttered; I mean all the twitters from leaders and followers, for instance. It is rare to read something of a higher level. But the same is also true of the discussions at dinner table. When I was young, my mother sometimes took me with her to a cinema in Amsterdam, where we lived, called Cineac. There were no regular films shown, but always news programs and nature-films, about the life of animals for instance. What I remember from these films is the struggle for the territory, the struggle for the power within a tribe. These images come up whenever I experience these twitters and discussions. They resemble animals that want to defend their territory - only the territory is not land, but a field of opinions.

This can only persist as long as you don't see yourself. The moment you see it, it becomes quite ridiculous. But this moment only comes when we step out of our centre, and look at ourselves from the outside. Then a world of people with opinions appears to which we belong, and in which our own point of view doesn't seem any more important than the view of some other human being. What was a bloated self, inflated with the most important opinions in the world, becomes just one of all these selves, all of whom find themselves the most important self in the world! This new point of view is quite a relief, because suddenly all other human beings are in the same position as I myself... It is a practice of self-knowledge that can only be achieved by stepping away from the centre, to a position where it becomes possible to see oneself as an object.

This wonderful event can be reached by everyone. It is not hard at all. It is philosophically founded by Rudolf Steiner, but also leads to a truemysticpath.

'Thustheinner life of man notonlyelucidatesitself, but alsoexternalthings. Fromthis point aninfiniteperspectivefor human cognitionopens up. Withinglows a light which does notconfineitsluminositytothisinterior. It is a sunwhichilluminates all reality at once. Somethingappears in uswhichunitesuswiththewholeworld. We are no longermerelythe single accidental man, no longerthis or thatindividual. In usthewholeworldrevealsitself. Tousitdisclosesitsowninterconnection, andit shows ushow we ourselves as individuals are connectedwith it. Out of self-knowledge is born knowledge of theworld. And our own limited individuality takes its place spiritually in the great interconnection of the world because something comes to life in it which reaches beyond this individuality, which embraces everything of which this individuality is a part.' (Rudolf Steiner, Mysticism at the Dawn of the Modern Age, GA 7, rsarchive)


The conversationThe conversation by Mieke Mosmuller