“What we have to consider is how by training, one may develop those organs of perception, lying dormant in the Soul. Those who do not feel themselves especially impelled toward doing something for their own development may easily say that man stands under the guidance of spiritual powers, that such guidance should therefore not be interfered with, and that the moment, deemed by those powers to be the right ones for revealing another world to the Soul, should be awaited in patience. Indeed, persons who are of this opinion are inclined to consider it a kind of presumption, or unjustifiable desire for anyone to interfere with the wisdom of such spiritual guidance.

“Those who think in this way will only change their opinion if some other mode of presenting the case makes a sufficiently strong impression upon them. If they were to say to themselves, ‘This wise guidance has endowed me with certain faculties, and it has done so, not that I should let them lie idle, but rather that I should use them. Indeed, the very wisdom of such guidance lies in the fact of its having placed in me the rudiments of those organs necessary for a higher state of consciousness.’” ~Rudolf Steiner

Train to Develop

If you want to develop your muscles, you can’t just sit on the sofa and watch fitness videos, you have to actually exercise. If you want to learn to speak Chinese, you can’t just wait for the language to simply arrive in your head. You have to study, you have to actively work at learning. The same is true for our spiritual Self. It does not simply develop spontaneously, and sitting around waiting for that to happen simply means that it never will.

Those Who do not Feel Impelled

A common fantasy today is that we need to do nothing to awaken and develop our spiritual faculties. They say that the spirit and soul will develop when the time is right for it to happen. Or they say that there is no reason to develop our spiritual Self while in the physical world and we should wait until the afterlife to do that. As Steiner indicates, neither of those attitudes is accurate and neither of them is wise. In this world, we don’t develop skills just by wishing for them. We don’t learn to swim on the day we fall off a ship. We need to know how to swim before that happens. We don’t know how to fight a war the day we join the military or get drafted. That is why every military in the world trains its soldiers and sailors before sending them off to fight. That is even more true today with the sophisticated weapons and equipment the soldiers have to deal with. The spiritual faculties are no different. We must work at developing them.

Techniques of Development

What Steiner isn’t saying is how to awaken and develop those faculties. Unfortunately, many who do want to develop their spiritual Self have fallen for the misguided belief that meditation is all that is needed. While forms of meditation have been taught in spiritual schools throughout the ages, it is only the first step on a long path. Also, the type of meditation that has become popular these days moves one away from spiritual growth rather than toward it. That is because these forms of meditation are designed to lower our brain frequencies to the frequencies of bugs and frogs when what we need is to raise our frequencies to those of Angels and Light Beings. The best way to do that is through spiritual forms of sun gazing as practiced in Cosolargy. That is not all of it, of course. We also need to develop love and humility. But the spiritual sun gazing is the most important part of it.

Organs Necessary for Higher Consciousness

Steiner says that making the effort to develop our spiritual faculties will, if done correctly, give us“the rudiments of those organs necessary for a higher state of consciousness.” What do higher states of consciousness have to do with developing our spiritual Self? Everything! As mentioned earlier, higher-level beings such as Angels operate at higher frequencies. That also means that they are at higher states of consciousness. So the development of our spiritual faculties also helps us rise to higher states of consciousness. That can help us in this world as well as the next.

Yeshua said, Blessings on you when you are hated and persecuted, and no place will be found, wherever you are persecuted.

Yeshua said, Blessings on you who have been persecuted in your hearts. Only you truly know the father. Blessings on you who are hungry that the stomach of someone else in want may be filled.

“He said,Master, there are many around the drinking trough but nothing in the well. Yeshua said, There are many standing at the door but those who are alone will enter the wedding chamber. Yeshua said, The father’s kingdom is like a merchant who owned a supply of merchandise and found a pearl. The merchant was prudent. He sold his goods and bought the single pearl for himself.”

“They said to him, Tell us who you are so that we may believe in you. He said to them, You examine the face of heaven and earth but you have not come to know the one who is in your presence, and you do not know how to examine this moment. Yeshua said, Seek and you will find. In the past I did not tell you the things about which you asked me. Now I am willing to tell you, but you do not seek them.”

“The students said to him, Your brothers and your mother are standing outside. He said to them, Those here who do the will of my father are my brothers and my mother. They will enter my father’s kingdom. They showed Yeshua a gold coin and said to him, Caesar’s people demand taxes from us. He said to them, Give Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, give god the things that are god’s, and give me what is mine. “ ~The Gospel of Thomas

The Cornerstone

According to Thomas, Jesus (Yeshua) said that the stone the builder rejects will be the cornerstone. This is not about stones or building, it is allegory. The stone the builder rejects represents the spiritual type of people who are often rejects in an overly materialistic world. The cornerstone, being the most important part of the building, represents the one from many are are chosen by God to do His work here on earth. Of course, God is not going to choose only one person to do a job. He chooses several so that at least one will seek the true spiritual path and develop the necessary spiritual faculties to do the job. Tyhe know-it-all, who thinks he knows everything, but actually only knows material things, and even those only in a limited way, is not one who will be chosen. The one who iss chosen admits that he doesn’t know everything and seeks to learn more.

Hated and Persecuted

Jesus is not blessing all who are pursecuted, only those who are persecuted for being spiritual in a materialistic world and those who are unjustly persecuted when they have done no wrong. Jesus blesses such people because they are following the path of righteousness, regardless of what society things of such behavior.

You Who are Hungry

It is a simple fact that people who have little are often the ones most likely to share what they have with others. Greedy people rarely share unless they can see some way to profit from it, such as getting publicity. So jesus is not blessing them simply because they are hungry, but because they are hungry due to sharing what little they have. And hunger here can represent more then hunger for food. The person may need new clothes, new shoes, etc., but is nevertheless sharing what they have. That is a true person of God, and so blessed by God and Jesus.

The Single Pearl

The wise merchant who sells all he has to buy the single pearl is not buying a pearl in the physical sense. This is another allegory. The pearl of great price is the Truth and Wisdom found in Heaven, the Truth and Wisdom that we can gain only by developing our spiritual faculties. Like the Fountian of Youth, some seek this pearl as if it were a physical object, but it isn’t. It is purely spiritual.

My Brothers and Mother

This is one of the sayings of Jesus that are disliked by many. Some refuse to believe he said it. But Jesus is not dishonoring his blood relatives, he is saying that those who are our brothers and sisters in the spiritual quest for enlightenment are more important than those we are related to by blood, especially when those blood relatives choose not to develop their spiritual Self.