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Steiner stelt hier dat als de mens zichzelf als het eindpunt van de natuurlijke schepping ervaart, er geen behoefte zou moeten zijn om iets in de natuur te plaatsen wat boven het natuurlijke uitgaat. ‘Als je met het gezang van de nachtegaal en leeuwerik muzikaal tevreden zou zijn, dan zou je geen sonates en symfonieën komponeren.’ Mits je geen andere wereld aanneemt dan de natuurlijke (onze, huidige) wereld.

Hoofdstuk 1 is achter de rug, en om met de deur in huis te vallen: de info is vernieuwend. Zo beschrijft Steiner verschillende kenmerken van de 7 ‘na-atlantische’ tijdperken. Ofwel de 7 incarnaties van onze planeet. De indeling als volgt: 1: oer-indisch, 2: oer-perzisch, 3: egyptisch-chaldeeuws, 4: grieks-latijns, 5: germaans (huidig tijdperk) en de 2 aankomende: 6: russisch-slavish, 7: Amerikaans. Interessant!

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“De mensheid schrikt er vandaag de dag nog voor terug om nieuwe begrippen te vormen, ze wil graag nog de oude begrippen verder ontwikkelen. Over deze ontwikkelingsvijandigheid moeten we heen komen.”

“Zo zijn we ons niet bewust van de natuur van ons organisme, we weten niet wat we met het zielenleven ten opzichte van het organisme moeten beginnen en we ontwikkelen de meest kurieuze ideeën met de betrekking tot het psycho parallellisme enzovoort”.

De mens leeft tegenwoordig maar door. Er komt niets bijzonders voor hem te voorschijn, hoogstens wat abstrakte verschillen: wij zijn onaangenaam getroffen wanneer het regent en we geen paraplu hebben, we richten ons naar sneeuw in de winter en zonneschijn in de zomer. Dus we leven wel mee met het jaarverloop, maar op een vreselijk vage manier. We beleven het niet meer mee met ons hele menszijn.

“Heel het voelen van de mensen van vóór het grieks-latijnse tijdperk was elementair-kosmisch. De mens had niet eerst een filosofie nodig om zich als lid te voelen van het hele universum, in de eerste plaats vooral het zichtbare universum. Het was voor de mens natuurlijk, het was voor hem zelfsprekend, zich niet alleen als aardeburger te voelen, maar als lid van de hele kosmos.

De uitgave waarover ik beschik is Nederlandstalig en heeft een andere titel: “De kunst en haar wereldmissie”. Daarnaast heeft dit exemplaar 75 extra paginas omdat er 9, in plaats van 8 lecturen zijn gerapporteerd en omdat het boek beschikt over toevoegende aantekeningen, inclusief Steiner’s aantekeningen uit zijn eigen notitieboek. Mijn eerste kennismaking met Steiner’s werk!

“Nowadays no one still has the courage to think up anything new. All they ever talk about, round the clock, is how things already are, they just keep rolling out the same old ideas.

But something new is bound to follow, as it always has - isn’t that a comical paradox? Uranus is in Pisces, but when it moves into Aries, a new cycle will begin and reality will be born again.”

“We sang about the real Light that exists somewhere far away, imperceptible for now, but that we shall behold as soon as we die.

And it will enfold us, for it is our mother, this Light, and we came from it. We even carry a particle of it within us, each of us, even Big Foot. So in fact death should please us.”

“That evening, just after Dusk, Big Foot’s Dog began to bay again, the air had turned blue, sharp as a razor. The deep, dull howling filled it with alarm. Death is at the gates, I thought. But then death is always at our gates, at every hour of the day and Night, I told myself. For the best conversations are with yourself. At least there’s no risk of a misunderstanding.”

“Anger makes the mind clear and incisive, able to see more. It sweeps up the other emotions and takes control of the body. Without a doubt Anger is the source of all wisdom, for Anger has the power to exceed any limits.”

“All that remained was his body, lifeless, clothed in the suit. Now it looked calm and satisfied, as if the spirit were pleased to be finally free of the matter, and the matter were pleased to be finally free of the spirit. In this short space of time a metaphysical divorce had occorred, The end.”

“I had painted and exhibited for years. I folded up my easel, closed my paint box, when I discovered that it was not really my aim to add to the world’s stock of art objects. I discovered that what I really wanted was to truly see before I die.”

Two more quotations of the book:

“I am, you ain’t, they ain’t” is the credo of the me, as it looks at the world without ever seeing it, without living in it, standing forever poised against it, fighting it.

How does one make progress in drawing? By making the eye-heart-hand reflex ever more sensitive, so that the hand may become ever more the willing tool of the eye.

Just let your hand move! Don’t check what gets onto the paper, it does not matter at all! Don’t try too hard, don’t “think” about what you’re drawing, just let the hand follow what the eye sees. Let it caress…

The introduction of the book describes the occasion where Frederick is giving a drawing workshop to a group of people with only one thing in common: they are not professional artists.

He has the students drawing from the Zen idea: The “Unborn” mind. By translating an object without the usual restrictions that the human mind often brings to the surface: needing control, self doubt and striving for success

With the evening breeze,
The water laps against
The heron’s legs.

In the dark forest
A berry drops:
The sound of the water

“Much of Zen training consists in confronting the student with dillemas which he is expected to handle without stopping to deliberate and “choose”. The response to the situation must follow with the immediacy of sound issuing from the hands when they are clapped, or sparks from a flint when struck.“

“A master was having tea with two of his students when he suddenly tossed his fan to one of them, saying, “What’s this?” The student opened it and fanned himself. “Not bad,” was his comment. “Now you”, he went on, passing it to the other student, who at once closed the fan and scratched his neck with it. This done, he placed a piece of cake on it, and offered it to the master.” Even better.

Dogen: “The flowers depart when we hate to lose them;
The weeds arrive while we hate to watch them grow.”

“For when asked about seeking for the Buddha nature he answered, “It’s much like riding an ox in search of the ox”.

“I have no peace of mind (hsin),” said Hui-k’o. “Please pacify my mind” “Bring out your mind here before me”, replied Bodhidharma, “and I will pacify it” “But when I seek my own mind” said Hui-k’o, “I cannot find it. “There!” snapped Bhodhidharma, “I have pacified your mind”.

Jinsei nana korobi
Ya oki.
Such is life-
Seven times down,
Eight times up!

“With the eye of prajna the human situation is seen for what is is: a quenching of thirst with salt water, a persuit of goals which simply require the persuit of other goals, a clutching of objects which the swift course of time renders as insubstantial as mist. The very one who persues, who sees and knows and desires, the inner subject, has his existence only in relation to the ephemeral objects of his persuit.”

The book teaches Sanskrit:
Maya= To build, form, measure, laying out a plan
Ananda= Bliss
Anitya= Impermanence
Anatman= Absence of any self
Trishna= Clinging to life
Duhka= Suffering
Avidya= The formal opposite of awakening
Yathabutham= Just as it is
Smriti= Recollectedness
Samadhi= Contemplation

“Birth is duhkha (suffering), decay is duhkha, sickness is dhukha, death is dhukha, so also are sorrow and grief. To be bound with things we dislike, and to be parted from things which we like, these are also dhukha. Not to get what one desires, this is also dhukha. In a word, this body, this fivefold aggregation based on clutching (trishna), this is duhkha.”

The great Tao flows everywhere, to the left and to the right. All things depend upon it to exist, and it does not abandon them. To its accomplishments it lays no claim. It loves and nourishes all things, but does not lord it over them.

“The important difference between the Tao and the usual idea of God is that whereas God produces the world by making (wei), the Tao produces it by “not-making” (wu-wei)- which is approximately what we mean by “growing”. Because the natural universe works mainly to the principles of growth, it would seem quite odd to the Chinese mind to ask how it was made.”