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of what it is to be French. Above all, he stresses the importance of being French and what
that means to him. But this notion held by Frenchmen or by anyone else from a Romance
culture about their nationality affects the ether body by clearly imprinting the idea of
nationality on it. A few days after the Frenchman has passed through the gate of death he
loses his ether body; it is then a closed entity that has a prolonged existence in the etheric
world. The ether body is unable to dissolve for a long time because it is impregnated
with, and held together by, the Frenchman's idea of nationality. Thus, if we look to the
West we see the field of death filled with firmly defined ether bodies.
Now, if we take a closer look to the East, at Russian man, we recognize his peculiar trait;
his soul, upon passing through the gate of death, carries an ether body that dissolves in a
relatively short period of time. That is the difference between the West and the East.
When the ether bodies of Western Europeans are separated after death, they tend to
maintain a certain rigidity. What the Frenchman calls "Gloire" is impregnated in his ether
body as a national Gloire. He is condemned for a long time after his death to turn his
spiritual sight onto this ether body, and to look at himself (The Russian, however, looks
little at himself after his death.) Through all this, Western European man is exposed to
the ahrimanic influence because his ether body has been infected by materialistic
thinking.
The speedy separation and the diffusion of the ether body is accompanied by a feeling of
sensual pleasure, which is also present as a most peculiar ingredient of national
sentiment. How is this expressed in the East (Central Europeans do not understand this
just as they do not empathize with the East.) Consider Dostoevsky and even Tolstoy or
those leading writers who are constantly speaking of "Russian man"; their jargon is an
expression of an undefined sensual pleasure surging from their national sentiment. Even
in Solowjow's philosophy, we find a vague and stifling quality that the Central European
man cannot reconcile with the clarity and purity he seeks. This search for clarity and
purity is related to what is active in Europe as spiritual power.
In Central Europe there exists another condition, an intermediate state and something I
can now dwell on in greater detail than was possible in yesterday's lecture. I mentioned
that something exists in Central Europe that could be called the inner disposition toward
striving. As a Central European, Goethe could have written his Faust no differently in the
eighteen-forties: he was always striving! This striving is innermost nature. It was in
Central Europe where the mystics made their appearance - those mystics who were not
satisfied with the mere knowledge of the divine-spiritual principle but wanted to
experience it in their own souls. To experience the Christ event internally was their very
endeavor. Now take Solowjow who proceeds above all from a historical premise that the
Christ died for mankind. That is correct, but Solowjow is a soul who, similar to a cloud,
perceives spiritual life as something outside himself. Somehow he thinks that everything
is viewed as a completed event, while Central European man demands that everyone
experience the Christ event again in himself. Solowjow stresses time and again that
Christ has to die so that man can be human. Meister Eckhart, in contrast, would have
responded like this: "You are seeing Christ in the same way in which one looks at
something external." The point is that we should not look only at historical events, but
that we should experience the Christ within ourselves. We must discover something
within ourselves that passes through stages similar to those experienced by Christ, at least
spiritually, so that we can rediscover the Christ event within ourselves.
Now it will certainly seem strange and fantastic when mankind nowadays is told that in
Central Europe the close association of the "I" with the Christ principle had put a stamp
on the entire development of the area, to the effect that even the linguistic spirit of a [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]