The Lord's Prayer: An Esoteric Study

By Rudolf Steiner

The Lord's Prayer stands at the heart of Christianity. Over the past two millennia it has been spoken millions of times by millions of people around the world. Rudolf Steiner affirms the power of this prayer, given by Jesus Christ himself, and encourages us to begin to understand it at deeper levels. Such an understanding, he explains, is now necessary for humanity's further development. In the four lectures he gave on this subject, collected here under one cover, Rudolf Steiner penetrates the esoteric meanings of the Lord's Prayer, relating its seven petitions to the seven spiritual and physical bodies of the human being. He also discusses the difference between prayer and meditation, and shows how true prayer is selfless in nature. This volume features an introduction by Judith von Halle, whose work is valued for her experiential knowledge of the Lord's Prayer and the events of Christ's life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rudolf Steiner Press
• Release date: May 16, 2013
• ISBN: 9781855842908

Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Steiner (1861- 1925) est un philosophe, occultiste et penseur social. Il est le fondateur de l'anthroposophie, qu'il qualifie de "chemin de connaissance", visant à "restaurer le lien entre l'Homme et les mondes spirituels". Ses adeptes le considèrent généralement à la fois comme un homme de connaissance et un guide spirituel. Membre de la Société théosophique puis secrétaire général de la section allemande en 1902, il s'en sépare dix ans plus tard pour fonder la Société anthroposophique et une discipline nouvelle, l'anthroposophie, qui se présente comme une science de l'esprit active dans tous les domaines de la connaissance ; elle est selon son créateur une science universelle de l'esprit qui "conduit l'homme à la conscience de sa propre humanité". L'anthroposophie n'est pas une secte, ni une religion, mais un mouvement de pensée critique et dynamique, qui s'est formé durant les riches heures de ce siècle et sous l'impulsion d'oeuvres diverses (Goethe, Kant, la théosophie, Nietzsche). À travers l'étude et l'observation empirique de l'esprit humain et au bénéfice d'une personnalité extrêmement sensible aux phénomènes spirituels, Rudolf Steiner est parvenu à une connaissance du monde suprasensible et de la nature humaine qui l'a conduit à repenser la tâche actuelle de l'homme dans de nombreuses branches du savoir humain. L'homme est un être profondément créatif, avec un pouvoir de connaissance illimité, le problème étant qu'il ignore, qu'"il n'a pas conscience de sa nature spirituelle", qui lui ouvrirait les portes d'un monde nouveau de connaissance. L'homme est un être actif dont la conscience n'est pas un réceptacle passif de phénomène, mais une activité incessante d'imagination et de pensée. Cette dimension centrale de l'activité et du développement de la conscience sera l'un des axes fondamentaux de l'enseignement anthroposophique de Steiner. Son enseignement est à l'origine de projets aussi divers que les écoles Waldorf, l'agriculture biodynamique, les médicaments et produits cosmétiques Weleda, le mouvement Camphill et la Communauté des Chrétiens.

Book preview

Lecture 1

28 January 1907, Berlin

Today I should like to talk about the extent to which religious denominations reveal, in specific instances, their spiritual-scientific or, let us say, their esoteric foundations. I want to tell you about a very small yet infinitely important part of the inner scientific basis of religions. Everyone, even the most unsophisticated people in contemporary society, know of this spiritual actuality within which the most profound truths and origins lie concealed. And we have only to seek for these to bring to light how wisdom-filled and mysterious are the connecting links in the spiritual life of humankind.

I should like to begin with the subject of Christian prayer. You are all aware of what is called Christian prayer today. We have often discussed it here, too, and many an anthroposophist will have wondered how this relates to the spiritual-scientific view. Over recent years members of the anthroposophical movement have heard, through this world conception, something about another form of raising the human being—the human soul—up to the sphere of the divine-spiritual cosmic powers, namely meditation, the kind in which one experiences a spiritual content within oneself, something belonging to what has been given to us by the great guiding spirits of humankind, or something from the spiritual content of great civilizations, something in which we immerse ourselves so that for a short while our soul merges with the divine-spiritual currents in the world.

Those who meditate, even in the simplest way, on one of the meditative formulas coming from the spiritual leaders of humankind, devoting their mind entirely to the thought content of any of those formulas and ensuring that it really comes alive in their hearts, will experience a uniting with the higher spirituality—a higher force will flow through them. But not every subject is suitable for this, you know, only one given by the Masters of Wisdom and of the Harmony of Feelings.¹ Those meditating will live in this higher force. And the first thing that will happen is that they will acquire the strength that will enhance their ordinary mental capacity, raising it up and enlivening it. If they then have enough patience and perseverance to the point of enabling this flow of power to strengthen them morally and intellectually they will reach the moment when the content of such a meditation can awaken deeper forces latent in every human soul. Through this kind of meditation any of a number of stages can be reached, from the smallest gain in moral strength to the highest attainments in clairvoyance. For most people the attainment of higher stages of clairvoyant abilities is only a matter of time, patience and energy.

Meditation is usually regarded as more of an oriental way of raising oneself to one’s God. In the West, particularly in Christian communities, prayer has taken its place. It is by prayer that Christians reach up to their God, and this is the way they endeavour to seek entry into higher worlds.

Now it should be clearly realized that what is frequently regarded as prayer nowadays would by no means have been considered such in early Christian times, and least of all by the founder of the Christian religion, Christ Jesus himself. In the real Christian sense it is never a prayer if individuals pray to their God for something intended to satisfy their own personal, egoistic wishes. For if they were to do this they would of course very soon come to the point of entirely disregarding the universality, the all-inclusive nature that should characterize the granting of what a prayer strives to achieve. They would be assuming that their God was granting just their wishes in particular. One farmer might need rain for specific crops, a neighbouring farmer sunshine; so if the one prays for rain and the other for sunshine what should divine providence do then? And whatever is divine providence meant to do if two armies come face to face, and each of them prays for victory, under the conviction that they alone deserve it? It is immediately obvious how little real humanity there is in prayers arising out of personal wishes, and that the actual granting of them by God could satisfy only one of the competing supplicants. People who pray in this way disregard the prayer in which Christ Jesus tells us the fundamental mood that should predominate in every prayer: ‘Father, let this cup pass from me; yet not my will but thine be done.’² This is the basic mood of Christian prayer. Whatever is being prayed for, this fundamental mood must live as an enlivening accompaniment in the soul of supplicants if their prayers are to be Christian. Then the form of prayer will be a means for human beings to raise themselves to higher spiritual realms where they can feel God in themselves. It will also be the means of expelling every selfish wish and will impulse. Its spirit will be that of the words ‘Not my will, but thine be done’, and lead to union with this divine world. If this heartfelt soul mood becomes the actual mood of prayer the Christian prayer is exactly the same only more feeling-orientated than meditation. Originally Christian prayer was nothing other than meditation. Only meditation is more thought-orientated, and through it the meditant endeavours by way of the thoughts of the great leaders of humanity to attain to harmony with the divine currents flowing through the world. Through prayer the same goal is reached in a more feeling-orientated