“If we will stand still and calmly consider our past life (the present life, we mean) we will see that certain things have led to certain other things, and that small things have led to great things – that little turning points have resulted in an entire change in our life. We may trace back the most important thing in our life to some trifling incident or occurrence. We are able to look back and see how the painful experiences of the past have strengthened us, and have brought us to a larger and fuller life. We are able to see how that particular thing in the past, which seemed needlessly cruel and uncalled for, was the very thing which has brought us to some great thing in the present.

“All that is needed is the perspective of years. And if we get so that we are able to see this, we will be able to bear with greater degree of philosophy the pains and disagreeable occurrences of the present, knowing that they mean ultimate good. When we cease to think of these things as punishment …, or the cruelty of Nature, and begin to see them as the consequences of our own past life, or the result of the Spirit’s directing had, we will cease to protest and struggle, and will endeavor to fall in with the working of the great Law.” –William Walker Atkinson

Consider Our Past

Many of us do consider our past, often more than we should, but not in the way that Atkinson is advising us to. We look back at our successes and failures of the past and generally avoid those things that we failed at and only do those we were successful at. Atkinson is advising us to look more closely at the failures and what changed in us following those failures. If we do that, we will often find that difficulties often trigger us to make changes in our lives, hopefully for the better. It is a simple fact of basic psychology that when we are comfortable and things are going well, we don’t advance at all. We need some problems to push us forward.

Atkinson adds that when he advises us to consider the part, he means the present life. Why would he not want us to consider past lives? The only reason I can think of is that he doesn’t beleve in reincarnation. If he did, he certainly didn’t think blaming everything on past lives was a good idea. Neither is putting off change for a future life when we don’t know we will have one. We need to make the changes necessary in our current life.

Trifling Incident

Unfortunately, while it often is true that some trifling incident in our life may have led to great changes—hopefully for the better—we often don’t remember those small incidents. I am reminded of the story told by actor and singer, James Maslow, who was picked on as a child for being chubby. He didn’t let that insult limit him, but instead decided to change and became a very handsome and muscular young man. He did remember the incident that led to that change, but many do not.

We should also remember the story of the hurricane that may have been started by a butterfly flapping its wings. It is not known that this has actually happened, but it is theorized that a butterfly flapping its wings can start a tiny wind current that grows and grows as it crosses the Sahara and goes into the ocean where it becomes a hurricane. So big things can start small.

Cease to Think of Difficulties as Punishment

Atkinson advises us to stop seeing difficulties as punishment for doing wrong, and instead see them as pushing us on to better things. There are two good reasons for taking that advice. First, God does not punish us, so we need to stop blaming God and change things when necessary. Second, the Dark Beings and Forces will bring difficulties to us when we are succeeding in our path to spiritual enlightenment in an effort to get us to turn away. We must realize what is happening and instead double down and continue on harder than before.

“As the spiritual student climbs the path leading to higher worlds, he becomes aware at a particular point that the cohesion of the powers of his own personality is assuming a different form from that which it possesses in the world of the physical senses. In the latter the ego brings about a uniform cooperation of the powers of the soul—primarily of thought, feeling, and will. These three soul powers are actually, under normal conditions of human life, in perpetual relation to one another. For instance, we see a particular object in the external world, and it is pleasing or displeasing to the soul; that is to say, the perception of the thing will be followed by a sense of either pleasure or displeasure. Possibly we may desire the object, or may have the impulse to alter it in some way or other; that is to say, desire and will associate themselves with perception and feeling. Now this association is due to the fact that the ego coordinates presentment (thinking), feeling, and willing, and in that way introduces order among the forces of the personality. This healthy arrangement would be interrupted should the ego prove itself powerless in this respect. If, for instance, the will went a different way from the feeling or thinking. No person would be in a healthy condition of mind who, while thinking this or that to be right, nevertheless wished to do something that was not right. …

“Now the person progressing toward higher cognition becomes aware that feeling, thinking, and willing do actually assume a certain independence. … For this reason, therefore, a person’s own ego must be strengthened, for it must introduce order among those three powers.” –Rudolf Steiner

Cohesion of the Powers

Mr. Steiner divides the Powers of Personality, as he calls them, into three: thinking, feeling, and will. He says it is normal for these powers to work together, and that is true. It makes sense that in order to have feelings about something, you must first think of it, and in order to do something, you must activate the will based on those thoughts and feelings.

Pleasing or Displeasing

I’m not sure it is true that certain objects are either pleasing or displeasing to the soul. I think it is more the mind that judges things in that way. Yet we know that there are sounds, such as music, and scents such as Frakencense that send high-level vibrations to us and those vibrations help to stimulate and develop the energy centers, which make the sevelopment of the Spirit and Soul possible. So shapes, sounds, and scents affect the Soul mostly in an indirect way.

Ego Coordinates

Steiner says the ego coordinates the powers of thought, feeling, and will so they can function together, and that may well be true. Some modern schools of spiritual development have taken the simplistic approach of claiming that the development of the Soul requires the destruction of the Ego. That is a completely false teaching.

I remember an old episode of the television series “Star Trek” where a technical problem caused Captain Kirk to be split into two. One of him was gentle and loving but incapable of making a decision. The other had Ego and could make decisions, but was afraid of everything. It was only when he was put together again that he could properly function as a Captain. This divided Kirk is described appropriately. Without ego, he couldn’t function.

Strengthen Ego

I don’t think what Mr. Steiner says about the need to strengthen the Ego is always true. While some people, often those who seek spiritual development, have weak egos that do need to be strengthened, some already have egos that are strong enough, or even too strong. The point is, we need the ego to function in the material world, and to develop ourselves in any way. But when we develop our spiritual Self, we need to put our ego under the control of the Soul so it won’t lead us away from the spiritual.