A Gift

It's a special day for me. I was putting my house in order when I decided to open a favorite book, The Human Life, by George and Gisela O'Neil. The book opened to this page and I thought it so appropriate, given what we are dealing with in the issues surrounding the RH Bill. It was an uplifting present.

RUDOLF STEINER ON THE THEME: THE NEW LANGUAGE

I am born prejudiced and must first achieve in life the freedom from thought and prejudice. And how can I acquire this here on earth? Only through this: that I unfold interest not merely for what I myself think, what I consider to be right, but that I unfold selfless interest, in everything that others think and that approaches me, however much I consider it to be in error.


The more a man insists upon his own headstrong opinions, and is interested only in these, the more does he stray from the Spirit of Humanity--at this moment of World evolution.


The more a man unfolds his social interest in the views of others, even if he considers them to be in error; the more he illuminates his own thoughts through the views of others; the more he juxtaposes his own thoughts (which he perhaps takes for truth) alongside the thoughts of others, which he considers mistaken but still willingly shows interest in them; the more he will experience within the innermost part of his soul the christ Word that today must be interpreted according to the new Christ language....


In this way Christ speaks today to those who wish to hear Him: "What one of the least of your brethren thinks, you have to value thus, that I think within him and that I feel with you, as you compare his thoughts with your own, as you show social interest for what goes on in the soul of the other.  What you find as notion, as life view in one of the least of your brethren, in this you will seek Me." So speaks the Christ into our thought life...


Christ is the God of all men. We will not find Him when, with our thoughts, we stay egoistically within ourselves, but only when we weigh our thoughts in comparison with thoughts of others; when in inner tolerance we expand our interest in everything that is human; when we tell ourselves: Through my birth I am a man of prejudice. Through my rebirth out of the thoughts of all men, in a broad, social thought feeling, I will find within myself the Christ Impulse. When I do not view myself alone as the source of everything that I think; but view myself, in the innermost part of my soul, as a member of mankind, then a path to Christ will be found.


This is the path that today must be designated as the Thought Path to the Christ. Astern self-education is needed to acquire this sense of reckoning with the thoughts of others. It must become an earnest life task, in conversations with others, to correct what we automatically carry as our views within ourselves. Were this not to take place, as a life task among men, mankind would lose the way to Christ. Today, this is the path of thought...


Don't ask for abstract paths to Christ: ask for these concrete ways. Ask how it is with the path of thought: it consists in becoming inwardly tolerant for the views of humanity, in gaining social interest in the thoughts of others.