Excerpts from: Evil and the Power of Thought At the Center of Man’s Being: I

A Lecture By Rudolf Steiner, Dornach, September 23, 1921, GA 207

http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/EviPow_index.html.

In the West, men have a blood, a lymph, that is saturated by an egohood tempered in the inner evil. In the East men have a blood, a lymph, in which lives an echo of the longing for Nirvana.

Let us picture to center of ourselves the center of destruction in man’s inner being. It extends over the whole human organism. If it were to spread out over the whole world, what would then live in the world through man? Evil. Evil is nothing else but the chaos thrust outside, the chaos which is necessary in man’s inner being. And in this necessary chaos, this necessary center of evil in man, the human ego must be forged. This human egohood cannot live beyond the sphere of the human senses in the outer world. That is why the ego-consciousness disappears in sleep, and when it figures in dreams it is often as though estranged or weakened.

This center which is isolated in man, and should work only within him, at the one single spot within, where matter is thrown back into chaos, now breaks out and penetrates into human instincts.

It is a fury of destruction thrust out of the inner being of man into the outer world; and in the future man will be able to find his bearings in regard to what thus penetrates into his instincts only when a true knowledge of the human being once again prevails, when we become aware once more of this human center of destruction within ? a center, however, which must be there for the sake of the development of human thought. For this strength of thought that man needs in order that he may have a world-conception in keeping with our time ? this strength of thought, which must be there in front of the memory-mirror, brings about the continuation of thought into the etheric body. And the etheric body thus permeated by thought works destructively upon the physical body. This center of destruction within modern Western man is a fact, and knowledge merely draws attention to it. If the center of destruction is there without any awareness of it, this is much worse than if man takes full cognizance of it, and from this conscious standpoint enters into the development of modern civilization.

For this reason, whoever has had to learn of the presence of this center of destruction in the inner being of man must take an interest in the development of the spirit. With all intensity he must be able to say to himself: Spirit must exist, and for the sake of the maintenance of the spirit matter may be extinguished.

Enclosed within him he has a fiery center of destruction, and in truth the forces of decline can be transformed into forces of ascent only if he becomes conscious of this fact.

Because if one sought to pierce beyond the sense-perceptions with one’s ordinary human ego, one might be harmed. The ego, as experienced in ordinary life, must be given up, if one wants to penetrate beyond the sense-perceptions. How does this ego originate? It is brought into existence by man’s capacity to plunge into the chaos of destruction. This ego must be tempered and hardened in that realm which lies within man as a center of destruction. And with this ego one cannot live on the far side of the outer sense-world.

—  Rudolf Steiner

We must learn to know this center of destruction within us. We must not allow it to extrude itself into outer civilization, causing evil and chaos.

We must learn to understand, even to love, this force of destruction within us. For without it, we would not be developing our “I,” and thus would never attain consciousness in spiritual worlds. There is a paradox Steiner presents. The ego must be forged out of these forces of destruction, yet this ego cannot enter spiritual realms. It must be completely sacrificed. Only the ego permeated with love is able to live in spiritual realities. Yet only that which has been carefully built up is worthy of sacrifice. Thus, we must with great effort build up a strong vessel out of the forces of destruction, then completely empty out this vessel, and offer up the vessel in love to the spiritual world. This is true spiritual alchemy.

Steiner also refers to a great mystery: “Spirit must exist, and for the sake of the maintenance of the spirit matter may be extinguished.” I believe this can also be taken on a very literal level. Matter exists as a realm for beings to evolve and develop; it exists as an arena for humans to develop their “I.” There is a very palpable sense of resistance in the very nature of the material world. Yet materialism must be overcome if we are to ascend to spiritual worlds. Matter may be extinguished for the preservation of spirit, quite literally. I believe that the human being contains within his developing ego the power of nuclear fission, the power to obliterate matter (and along with this, the power of creation). This power will become readily available within individual human beings only in the very far distant future, yet the forces of destruction already have the upper hand in earthly evolution, and will continue to increase. In order to ensure that these forces can lead humanity to ascent, we must fully develop the forces of love. We must consciously dedicate as much energy to building up moral forces as we do to building up consciousness itself; each act of cognition must become an act of love.

A time will come in the far distant future when the earth as we know it will require dissolution. We will participate in the destruction of our universe as we know it. Yet this destruction is necessary for a new form of existence which will allow future evolution and progress. Powers of destruction are just as important as powers of growth and life. Without the obliteration of the past in every moment, the future could not come into being in the present.

We must learn to love evil, for it creates the ground upon which we launch consciously into other realms. Only through transforming evil do we attain the power of creating good.