71st Lecture on the Apocalypse of John (Documentation)

"A machinery is being developed which more and more eliminates man's freedom, but with full satisfaction of his material needs. Which, however, shall ultimately lead to his simply forgetting or voluntarily giving up this free spirituality in order to integrate himself into the great structure. The adversaries will help to make this path as pleasant as possible for us. Moral intuition is not found in reasoning. The point is that man is increasingly prevented from making moral decisions for himself. This will lead to things being considered good and self-evident that actually lead to the abyss. In the future, it will be less and less bad to do the wrong thing. Those who obediently follow will fare best. Their conscience will be beaten out of them, so that they will no longer know where the right way is and where the wrong way is, so that they can distinguish between good and evil in a healthy way. What we think is good will be the very worst. Things will come into the world that are presented as moral, but in reality lead to the abyss. Leading away from the free decision of the human ego. We will continue to make terrible mistakes. That is the necessary concomitant so that we can become a free being. Spiritually speaking, we have to raise ourselves up again and again every second and assert ourselves and become formative out of the ego. And not just let ourselves be carried by what is dross and comes from the past. The great struggle will be to achieve human freedom. The freedom of the individual, which is not to be confused with an egoism that separates itself from others. But rather a free human being who, out of freedom, connects with other human beings. Everything that amounts to turning humanity into a collective is pernicious. Attempts are currently very strong to educate humanity to fit it into a set of rules. The anthropos is the one that stands in opposition. No one, not even the supreme divinity, has any say in the matter of the individual spirit. But the difficulty is to distinguish between the ego and the I that speaks. We must act in terms of ethical individualism. The actual moral must come from the individual's own moral intuition and not from the collective. One must creatively grasp these impulses oneself and also take individual responsibility for them, which can also turn out very differently and yet it can be the right thing to do. Today, artificial needs are created and real needs that are there are not fulfilled. We should learn to perceive more finely in our souls and to send out more strongly in our souls. And not so much because of our egoism, to keep our souls to ourselves, in the sense of, I won't show this to you, it's none of your business. On the outside I wear my mask and play my role, but you don't get to see what's really going on in my soul. Most people want to keep that inside because it is embarrassing or unpleasant for them. They don't want to show their weaknesses and imperfections, they would rather shine in front of the world. We should consciously seek contact from soul to soul, which does not remain on the surface. Dissolve the old soul in order to create a new, better soul. To let others share in our own progress and in our own failures. In this way we can strengthen each other's trust in ourselves. It is extremely important not to fall into hopelessness. Language is actually about an exchange of spiritual forces and not purely about the exchange of information. Overcoming the fear of engaging with other people. Letting our soulfulness pour out and flow out to give to others. Even if we give something away for nothing, it doesn't matter, because we have nevertheless spent the strength for it. Let us be open to receive the impulses of others. Let us be open to the impulses we receive. And let us be strong enough to receive them without losing ourselves in the process. The soul first defends itself against everything else that does not belong to it....