Submitted by Kristina Kaine on Fri, 11/23/2007 - 4:14pm.
The I and the anti-I |
The I and the anti-I
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me; and him who comes to me I will not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me; and this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up at the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that every one who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven.” They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus answered them, “Do not murmur among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Every one who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that any one has seen the Father except him who is from God; he has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.” John 6:35-51
Verse 39 says: That I should lose nothing of all that he (the Father) has given me, but raise it up at the last day. When is this ‘last day’? Is it some time in the never-never or is it that last day we have just had, that is, yesterday? Have you heard the saying that “today is tomorrow’s yesterday, make the most of the present”? So every day will become a yesterday, the last day we just had. This says that we always live in the present and that we must make the most of it; raise it up. The challenge is to engage with the present, not hanker for yesterday or wish it was already tomorrow. The bread of life is in the present. The I AM is the nourisher of the present – The I AM is the bread, the sustenance, of the present.
Yesterday belongs to Lucifer. Tomorrow belongs to Ahriman. Whenever we do not raise up our yesterdays, but drag them as-it-was into the present we are the puppet of Lucifer. Whenever we are dissatisfied with today and want to bring on tomorrow, we are the puppet of Ahriman. It takes great concentration, which is the ability to be very conscious, to stay in the present regardless of what is happening there. To do this we need the sustenance of the bread of life, the I AM. When we want to go back to the good old days or you wish today would end we shut our I AM out.
Now that the Father has given us personal possession of our I AM there is an urgency to have the courage to live in the present. Remember that this ‘bread of life’ is the central symbol handed down from the last supper – Judas was given the bread along with everyone else. The anti-forces, the anti-I AM, is an integral part of the story. We can learn to deal with these anti-I forces in a cool and collected way so that they can have their rightful place in the present. Or we can get angry with any opposition so that these forces express themselves in the wrong place – the past into the present, or the future wished for too soon - and in that moment we assist the anti-forces to be evil. This is why the great symbol of the sacred meal, the Eucharist, is the bread, the most precious thing on earth for human life. It represents the body, the substance of Christ who is our great I AM.
PS: The day after I wrote this I read: “Rudolf Steiner has already shown in his philosophical writings that a world-conception must proceed from the being of man. Not a hypothetical “beginning” (primeval mist etc.), not an abstract principle, but the very last thing that came into being, gives the right starting-point for a knowledge of the universe. In the “Philosophy of Freedom” there is a passage (Ch 3) where Rudolf Steiner points out that to start at the “beginning” is a matter for the world-Creator, but that the seeker of knowledge must start at that which was created last, that is to say: today and here. (Carl Unger: The Language of the Consciousness Soul)
Past Present and Future
Thanks Kristina - very thought-provoking, I hadn't connected the idea of living in the present with the passage in PoF about imagining world beginnings but now you mention it I can see it very clearly!
May Human Beings hear
May Human Beings hear it.
Anthroposophia
Kristina - you are an inspiring source of affirmation that those who try to found their initiatives in the heart are co-workers.
I have recently found a copy of Carl Unger's book, and wondered about doing a series of journals on Steiner's Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts...
Steiner's suggestion that anthroposophical groups could usefully work on the same material has metamorphosed in our time. Out of somewhat free actions, the relevance of our work for the world is confirmed when we find that others are active synchronistically. This has become, for me, an experience of the vitality of Anthroposophia.
Dear John, excellent idea
Dear John,
Your idea of of doing a series of journals on Steiner's Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts, I find to be an excellent idea. I almost wanted to steal your idea after reading it, but have decided not to, but look forward to reading your journals on same instead.
Love to you,
Patri
Hi John,I was profoundly
Hi John,
I was profoundly affected by reading Carl Unger's work on the ALT. Then I read Steiners astounding work. For me this work is the other pillar, Philosophy of Freedom is its counterpart.
If you had the energy to undertake a series on this work I would definitely encourage you.
Kristina