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{{GZ|In ancient times men had clairvoyant revelations and they did not understand them; they learned to understand them only later. Today man must first understand, must exert his intellectuality, must exert his intellect, and if he exerts it through what is available in spiritual science, then humanity will again develop towards the clairvoyant reception of the spiritual. However, this is something that most people still want to avoid today: to use their common sense in order to understand spiritual science. If one wanted to avoid it, one would also want to avoid letting the spiritual revelations into our earthly world at all.|195|63}}
{{GZ|In ancient times men had clairvoyant revelations and they did not understand them; they learned to understand them only later. Today man must first understand, must exert his intellectuality, must exert his intellect, and if he exerts it through what is available in spiritual science, then humanity will again develop towards the clairvoyant reception of the spiritual. However, this is something that most people still want to avoid today: to use their common sense in order to understand spiritual science. If one wanted to avoid it, one would also want to avoid letting the spiritual revelations into our earthly world at all.|195|63}}
== Sacrifice of intellect ==
{{Main|Sacrifice of intellect}}
The intellect, as described above, is the prerequisite for coming to one's own spiritual experiences today in a healthy way. It serves as preparation, but must then be sacrificed - and one can only sacrifice what one possesses. And this sacrifice now consists in consciously renouncing one's own thinking in order to be able to receive real inspiration from the spiritual world. One then places one's own thinking at the disposal of the spiritual world so that it can thereby express itself in clear thoughts.
{{GZ|If you ask yourself: <Who thinks?>, you will have to say to yourself: <I think>. You connect object and predicate with each other when you form a sentence. As long as it is you yourself who connects the individual terms, you are not able to read the Akasha Chronicle. You are not able to read because you connect your thoughts with your own ego. But you have to switch off your ego. You have to renounce any sense of your own. You only have to put down the ideas in order to let the connection of the individual ideas be established by forces outside of you, by the spirit.
So renunciation - not of thinking, but of connecting the individual thoughts of your own accord - is necessary in order to read the Akasha Chronicle. Then the Master can come and teach you to let the spirit from outside join your thoughts to what the universal world spirit is able to show you about what has taken place in history. Then you will no longer judge the facts, but then the universal world spirit itself will speak to you. And you place your thought material at its disposal.|265|29}}


== Literature ==
== Literature ==

Revision as of 13:00, 11 June 2021

The intellect (from Latin: intellectus 'cognitive faculty', 'insight', 'mind') refers to the human ability to grasp something mentally. It is the instance in man that is responsible for cognition and thinking. "Intellect" is often used as a synonym for "mind" and understanding, but can also have the meanings "reason", "consciousness" or "spirit". A person who, supported by the intellect, more or less frequently expresses analytical or critical views on contemporary issues is commonly classified as an intellectual. The lord of the intellect is Ahriman: "He is a knower, a sage of death. He is therefore also the lord of the intellect." (Lit.:GA 211, p. 111)

The intellect as a necessary basis for a modern understanding of the spirit

The modern intellect, which we owe to Lucifer, is the last diluted remnant, seized by Ahriman, of the old dreamlike atavistic clairvoyance. As such, however, it forms precisely the indispensable basis for contemporary spiritual cognition. Only when one trains one's thinking on the contents of spiritual science conveyed in clear intellectual language can one attain to one's own fully conscious spiritual experiences.

„In ancient times men had clairvoyant revelations and they did not understand them; they learned to understand them only later. Today man must first understand, must exert his intellectuality, must exert his intellect, and if he exerts it through what is available in spiritual science, then humanity will again develop towards the clairvoyant reception of the spiritual. However, this is something that most people still want to avoid today: to use their common sense in order to understand spiritual science. If one wanted to avoid it, one would also want to avoid letting the spiritual revelations into our earthly world at all.“ (Lit.:GA 195, p. 63)

Sacrifice of intellect

→ Main article: Sacrifice of intellect

The intellect, as described above, is the prerequisite for coming to one's own spiritual experiences today in a healthy way. It serves as preparation, but must then be sacrificed - and one can only sacrifice what one possesses. And this sacrifice now consists in consciously renouncing one's own thinking in order to be able to receive real inspiration from the spiritual world. One then places one's own thinking at the disposal of the spiritual world so that it can thereby express itself in clear thoughts.

„If you ask yourself: <Who thinks?>, you will have to say to yourself: . You connect object and predicate with each other when you form a sentence. As long as it is you yourself who connects the individual terms, you are not able to read the Akasha Chronicle. You are not able to read because you connect your thoughts with your own ego. But you have to switch off your ego. You have to renounce any sense of your own. You only have to put down the ideas in order to let the connection of the individual ideas be established by forces outside of you, by the spirit.

So renunciation - not of thinking, but of connecting the individual thoughts of your own accord - is necessary in order to read the Akasha Chronicle. Then the Master can come and teach you to let the spirit from outside join your thoughts to what the universal world spirit is able to show you about what has taken place in history. Then you will no longer judge the facts, but then the universal world spirit itself will speak to you. And you place your thought material at its disposal.“ (Lit.:GA 265, p. 29)

Literature
References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com.
Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books
A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works
Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English.
Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold
steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA)
Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.
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