Personal
What motivates and drives me?
One of the most important discoveries I have made is that we humans have arrived at a crucial point in our development.
An evolution of millions of years has brought us to the point where we now stand: we have become independent personalities with a consciousness of a personal self or 'I'.
The next step in human evolution is the task to bring to life within us - and thus within this personal self or 'I' - the divine core or the higher self. We can also say that we have the task of unfolding the conscious power of the inner spirit. This inner spirit is the higher, spiritual human being that lives within every human being on earth. It is the spiritual self, the image of God, that which we are in our deepest essence.
With the fulfilling of this task begins a totally new phase in our human development, a new path that will gradually bring about a new world.
We can call the period in which the individual self or 'I' gradually began to grow the old path of development. 'Old' because it involves a world and a situation that has largely fulfilled its purpose and is therefore coming to an end. In the old path, humans were led from the outside. This was necessary because we then had neither an individual self nor a capacity for individual judgment. Prophets and other religious and ecclesiastical leaders determined our lives and told us how we should live and what we should think, do, and not do.
In this old world we were bound by the group and unfree. The individual element, that in which each of us differs from others, was inadequately present and did not count.
What is remarkable in our time, in the 21st century, is that everything points to the fact that this new world is indeed developing in us. This new world has its basis not in the spiritual world outside us, but in the spiritual world inside our own inner being. Its starting point is the divine core in each individual human being.
Characteristic of this new way is that we as individuals increasingly begin to live out of our inner self, out of a conscious activity of the spirit in our own inner being. This inner spiritual activity brings about not only an entirely new relationship with oneself, but also with other people, with nature, and with God.
Today we deal in all areas of life with both the old and the new world. This shows that we are in a time of transition. This transitional period produces much chaos and confusion. People sense that we have lost our way. The direction and security the old world provided are no longer functional. At the same time, the forces that belong to the new world, and that will lead us from within ourselves in a free manner, have not yet been sufficiently developed.
In all areas of life we can observe, then, these three elements: remnants of the old world, the tasks of the new world, and the phenomena that relate to the transition from the one situation to the other. We can recognize them in the problems and issues with which politics, religion, and scholarship struggle, but also in the many questions that confront people in relationships, in cooperative situations, and in processes within themselves.
I am personally deeply touched by the grandeur of the task that we humans are faced with today. At the same time I am strongly compassionate toward the chaos and problems that the period of transition cause in people and in society. Many see that an old world is in the process of disappearing, and they mourn what is being lost with it. They feel fearful and uncertain. Where is it all headed? Most people do not know that all these drastic changes are part of a single grand, cosmic process of change that has already been going on for two thousand years—a process of change that will take humanity step by step further in its development, albeit a path with much trial and error.
I have derived the insights I express here from many years of studying the esoteric tradition, especially anthroposophy. I have further worked out, in my own way, the knowledge I acquired, and I apply it in my work.
I notice that people recognize themselves in the processes I describe and that this helps them to better understand life, themselves, and their relationships with other people. Through this they can also better clarify the questions and situations they are faced with, and it becomes clear to them what they need to continue on this path.
The goal of my life and work is to make the knowledge and insights I have gained accessible to as many people as possible, down at the level of practical, everyday life.
This you might call my mission.