“Only through the building up of a moral world order by intelligent self-conscious individuals can the world process be led towards its goal. … True existence is the incarnation of the Godhead; the world process is the Passion of the incarnated Godhead and at the same time the way of redemption for Him who was crucified in the flesh; morality, however, is the collaboration in the shortening of this path of suffering and redemption. Here, man does not act because he wants to, but he shall act because it is God’s will to be redeemed. Whereas the materialistic dualist makes man an automaton whose actions are only the result of a purely mechanical system, the spiritualistic dualist (that is, one who sees the Absolute, the Being-in-itself, as something spiritual in which man has no share in his conscious experience) makes him a slave to the will of the Absolute. As in materialism, so also in one-sided spiritualism, in fact, in any kind of metaphysical realism inferring but not experiencing something extra-human as the true reality, freedom is out of the question.

“Metaphysical as well as naïve realism, consistently followed out, must deny freedom for one and the same reason: they both see man as doing no more than putting into effect, or carrying out, principles forced upon him by necessity. Naive realism destroys freedom by subjecting man to the authority of a perceptible being or of one conceived on the analogy of a perceptible being, or eventually to the authority of the abstract inner voice which it interprets as “conscience”; the metaphysician, who merely infers the extra-human reality, cannot acknowledge freedom because he sees man as being determined, mechanically or morally, by a “Being-in-itself”.

-Rudolf Steiner

Moral World Order

It is true that we need to build up a moral world order in order to reach that state where the world can be one with the Godhead. Unfortunately, the number of people doing that is quite small, although growing. It is God’s Will that humanity be redeemed, but God is not going to force us to do so. God gave us a certain degree of free will so that we can choose to serve Him, or not. Without that free will, we would be little more than automatons doing what we are programmed to do.

Materialist and Spiritualist

The materialist acts according to what is happening in the physical realm, with no regard for the spiritual. As a result, they lack empathy and humility and are likely to be greedy and unkind. Most of them don’t believe in an afterlife. A few do, but their idea of an afterlife is probably something very similar to life in the material realm. You can see example of this on social media where they post memes of dogs with the message “This is what I think Heaven is,” or an image of fishing with the text, “I hope the fishing is good in Heaven”. None of that shows Heaven as the spiritual place that it truly is.

On the other hand, the pure spiritualist concentrates so much on the spiritual that he becomes ineffective in the physical realm. They may find it impossible to keep a job or to stay physically healthy.

Neither of these extremes is good. We all need to know that there is a God and we must obey his will, even in the physical realm. We must also recognize that while we are in the physical realm, we need to function in it to the best of our abilities.

“The first step towards being wise is to acknowledge the extent of your ignorance. Concern yourself with the vast amount of knowledge that you lack, and place no undue importance on that, which you possess. As womanly loveliness is best displayed in a modest garment, so is quiet behavior and unpretentious bearing best becoming the wise.

“Remember that all men are born equally into ignorance, and no man, whatever his estate, lacks the means to knowledge. True wisdom comes not from books and instruction but from observation and enquiry.

“The learned scribe knows a thousand books, but what knows he about the ways of the grasshopper? The knowledge of a gardener brings him more joy than does knowledge to a magistrate. The life of a wilderness wanderer depends not on his knowledge of books but on his knowledge of the ways of the wilderness.

“If you would not be deemed foolish in the eyes of others, then cast aside the desire to appear wise to your own edification. If you would appear wise among the foolish, then you will appear foolish among the wise.

“A wise man speaks but rarely, and each word is a precious stone. The fool pours forth a torrent of words, but they are all dross. Words spoken with calm forthrightness are burnished with the luster of Truth.

“The wise man turns a deaf ear to his own praise; he does not know his own worth and is the last in discovering the greatest of his achievements.

“No man is wise enough to know his own folly before he has committed it, but nothing is lost to the wise, for failure becomes his guide to success.”

-The Kolbrin Bible (MPR:20:1-7)

The First Step

The first step for gaining true wisdom is to admit that you are ignorant in certain ways, no matter how great a formal education you have. Formal education is good for learning about the physical world, but in most cases, teaches nothing about the spiritual. If they do have any classes on spirituality or religion, it is from the churches that have lost their way and embraced materialism. A good rule of thumb is that if a church or religion teaches that it is acceptable to kill other people under certain circumstances, such as when the government declares war, that is a lost church.

All Born Ignorant

Whether our parents are rich, poor, or middle-class, we are all born ignorant. We have to gradually learn about the world around us by observation, and by what our parents tell us. It is worth noting that very few infants are prejudice in any way, unless they have been taught prejudice by their parents. More importantly, we need to awaken our dormant spirit and develop our spiritual Self. Only by developing our Spirit can we gain True Wisdom, the kind that comes from God and was called Gnosis by the Gnostics.

Do not try to Appear Wise

No matter how wise you think you are, you should avoid trying to appear wise. One reason is because doing so indicates that you lack humility, and humility is needed for spiritual growth. Another reason is it may anger others and cause them to send negative energy towards you, which can cause harm.

Speak When You have Something to Say

I remember years ago, before I retired, that a manager told me after a staff meeting, that I rarely said anything during the meetings. He said that I needed to say more, even if it was trivial, just to show that I was participating. That is the attitude of the materialistic world. Spiritual people know it is better to remain silent if you have nothing significant to say, or if you realize that the people you are with would not listen to what you said anyway.

Not Wise Enough

None of us is wise enough to always know when we are making a bad decision. But the wise person learns from their bad decisions, and pledges to do better in the future.