Anthroposophy: The Bridge Between Humans and Reality

It is most essential for the human race to realise that we have totally torn asunder from the spiritual world and now we are drifting towards a mechanical and spiritless world and every day it is getting impossible to “undo this situation”.

Nowadays we are often told that the latest technology in Europe is in our country as well, new manufacturing plants open with the most modern and profitable production capacity, big industrial steps are taken, thus these improvements will take us to a further step. And news about these developments is served to the public as a national victory to be proud of.

However, when we take a look at the countries that went through these technological and industrial developments earlier in history and observe their “behaviours” occupying the world agenda with tension, war and death, we can easily realise that these developments did not bring goodness or happiness to the human race. Despite the technological and industrial developments in their countries, they are not able to cure the problems of other people in the world such as famine, poverty and diseases. On the contrary they bring pain, tears and death to some areas of the world as they tend to focus on their own benefits only. Enormous amounts of arm trade to developing countries by the developed ones can be given as a good example to this wrong attitude.

Therefore, mere supreme technology, developed industry and wealth are not able to bring morality, fairness, goodness, mercy, compassion and love to the human race. They don’t let people develop the ‘will’ to reflect these to their behaviour either. On the contrary, they alienate people in power from the others in need, disabling them to treat others humanely. And in the end they turn into giant obstacles against any humanistic manner.

Therefore, it can be said, if a nation puts only spiritless materialistic values into the basis of its existence, these values do not become helpful in gaining “higher spiritual values” that the human race really needs. Inevitably, these wrong values drag the society towards a route which lacks of spirituality, thus wrong behaviours and painful results.

As many examples do indicate, people identify themselves with heartless industrial and technological developments which they succeeded to make them out of their gaunt and rigid physical worlds. In other words, these are mechanical and spiritless things reflecting the coldness of darkness and death, rather than mercy, compassion, goodness and love which are reflections of warmth of ‘life’ and human spirit.

In fact, this is a matter of whether the human race will exist or not in spiritual terms. Unless the severity of the issue is comprehended by each individual, both the individual existence and the existence of the whole human race will be in jeopardy.

Therefore, it is essential to consider the lack of spirituality in life that interests the human race very closely before emulating industrially and technologically developed countries and putting these values merely at the basis of the “rising values” of our country.

When we examine humankind’s worrisome situation at present, can we imagine that only spiritless technology, industry and materialistic prosperity can possibly bring happiness, well-being, spiritual and physical health to the human race? When we consider the disappointing incidents going on in the world, can we possibly believe that “the ship of human race” which is constructed only upon such values will be able to carry on floating without running aground?

What is the approach of anthroposophical wisdom towards these issues which places “the human being” in the centre of its doctrine?

In anthroposophical terms, rising of materialism and the state of routine that is observed in every country nowadays is an inevitable development that should be experienced by humans during their spiritual evolution.

Anthroposophy highlights the fact that the human race should go through this process in accordance with the “spiritual reasons” related to its evolution. Therefore, it would be wrong to say that anthroposophy embraces an attitude and way of thinking against science, technology and developments in relation with them.

(Anthroposophy sheds light on these subjects from a different perspective which we haven’t been aware before. And as it always does, it approaches the matter objectively and explains it by placing each detail at the right place and right time. These explanations are always objective and do not contain any antipathies or sympathies. It could easily be observed that the real meaning of this information gets more obvious when anthroposophical wisdom is examined more thoroughly.)

In today’s world, rising of materialism and the state of routine might be considered compulsory and as an inevitable result as the human race has been under the influence of these developments. However, as well as wishing for materialistic things that bring along lack of spirit, rigidity, illness and even death, humanity can also wish for “another type of power” (in which a different quality is inherent) to come along and become effective in the world.

The spiritual power behind mechanical things (lacking spirit) and darkness is different. On the other hand, the spiritual power behind morals, goodness, mercy and love, namely the source of life is utterly different. As opposed to the other energy, there is a negative and dark energy behind mechanical things that lack spirit. These powers contrast each other just like the contrast inherent in cold and warmth, dark and light, death and life, sacred and profane.

If we only wish for technology, industry and physical wealth in life such as money and possessions, there is no doubt that “power of darkness” will come along also as part of the whole package and settle in people’s lives. And then lack of spirituality and rigidity, in other words lack of vividness will begin and the effectiveness of illnesses and death will increase.

As a result of demanding only material and virtual values from life in an unconscious manner and making it a part of your life style in the physical world, moral and spiritual balance of the human race starts to break down disabling its evolution on the journey to become “real humans”. Meanwhile the power of darkness keeps on influencing the human race. This particular critical situation the human race is in can only be balanced by the power of life and light (“the sacred”).

The human race which has run dry and become tougher as it has lost the connection with its heart and the spiritual world and embraced merely materialistic values lets unconsciously the power of darkness become dominant in life. As a result, all sorts of illnesses that did not exist earlier have become widespread over the whole human race. However, if human beings begin to understand the power of life and light consciously and embrace it with their ego and soul to cure the emptiness and deficiency they feel in the physical world, they can pave the way for getting better and regain health. And only by this way it would be possible to solve the problems in the world caused by humans. Anthrosophical wisdom explains the ways to achieve this.

Yet, the power of light cannot come to the human race just by itself. According to the principle of “freedom of spiritual belief”, this power does not tend to impose itself on human ‘will’. Therefore, individuals themselves should be willing to activate this power in their lives.

The power of light can only bring cure and life energy to human beings from the spiritual world if human beings realise that they are gradually losing their ‘spirit’ in this spiritless world based on money, technology and industry and want to get rid of “darkness” (*) and start connecting to the power of light by the will in their ego (soul) and spirit. And it is necessary that one is fully informed about the power of light in order to be able to understand it and be connected to it.

(*) The reason why things like money, technology and industry are specifically related to darkness and dark spiritual powers can be learnt in details through anthroposophical wisdom.

With the help of explanations made by anthroposophical wisdom by the beginning of last century, it is now possible to reach necessary information that can introduce the power of light to people and explain its connection with the human race.

This sophisticated wisdom that has been introduced to the human kind by Rudolf Steiner under the name of Anthroposophy- Spiritual Science (*) spread over many countries in the world beginning from the 20th century and since then its value has been acknowledged more and more each day by the “awakened” individuals from various nations.

(*) Anthroposophy refers to the wisdom and consciousness of being human.

Anatolia, a land that nestled God loving nations for many centuries, embraced the doctrine of Sufism, brought up divine personalities such as Rumi, Haji Bektash and Yunus Emre, should now recognize the existence of Anthroposophy just like other nations in the world do. Beyond recognition, it is time to examine and study the anthroposophical wisdom in details in our own lands. By this way, we will be able to follow the route to become “real humans” and find the power of life and light.

Unfortunately our society lost the notion of living modestly quite a long time ago and became addicted to “comfort” (comfortable life styles) that is mostly based on materialism and technology. However, it is so obvious that the route drawn by modern technology, industry and materialism is dragging our society towards a dead end. Unpleasant stories we hear on the news everyday and the problems looming over us are clear proofs of my words above.

In other words, parallel to negative incidents happening in the world nowadays, our country is also on the verge of losing its health both physically and spiritually. If understood and applied thoroughly, anthroposophical knowledge might be able to balance the unilateral power of materialism that has been considered a “rising value” lately.

So far our country has embraced merely industrial products and technology as having been influenced by the fact that materialism, namely the rising value has brought physical wealth and prosperity to the western world. And our country spent all its efforts to bring the very same things (the same structure of life) here. As a result, the longing for materialistic things has been satisfied through a massive and vast range of products. But apparently, neither now nor in the long run these will be able to bring spiritual satisfaction and happiness to the society, because materialism is much more important in today’s world, causing deterioration in the spiritual balance and health of the society.

A synergy with European Union countries only in terms of commerce, economy, industry or any sort of material benefits would be a superficial synergy as it will ignore real spiritual values. Since these values completely ignore the consciousness of being human, they will not be sufficient enough for these two different cultures to blend in each other and understand one another. With a closer look, it will easily be observed that the reality of these materialistic elements is actually alleged and in fact they are variable, temporary and perishable values.

No doubt that the western countries are also under the influence of materialism. However, they don’t resist to spiritual developments. They act in an open minded manner towards spiritual developments without being influenced by superstitions, dogmatic beliefs and prejudices. If we take a closer look, we can see that the problems and disagreements we have with the western world are not about industry, economy or commerce, but human rights, human freedom and democratisation.

Besides, Western countries have been sharing a common faith for a long time, namely Christianity. And we can not deny that this common religious faith has played a great part in the structural process of their cultures. Although the notion of religion has retreated into background lately, Christianity had always been very effective in the shaping process of the western culture just like Islam had been fully influential over the culture in Anatolia.

From this perspective, it is not easy for people coming from an Islamic background to adapt the western culture and embrace its ideas and emotions. The only solution is to meet at a common ground/common reality. In other words, to meet at a spiritual reality that belongs to the whole human race.

As the sun, air and water have their roots in the spiritual world people have no problem at all in sharing them. Anthroposophical realities do also have their roots in the spiritual world. And as it is a kind of wisdom beyond all religions, the human race can share it very easily and naturally.

In the long run if we want to embrace the western culture with humanly intentions beyond any material benefits, then we need to improve our capacity to be able to meet them at a higher spiritual level. The fact that our country and Europe have different religious beliefs can be an obstacle in achieving this “meeting”.

No doubt that this concern might turn into real. It will not be easy to change the lifestyles of both sides shaped by religious faith. Even, some obstacles might occur against it.

However, we should also bear in mind that any kind of dogmatic belief causing obstacles is produced by man himself. Although people constituted different societies in different countries, they weren’t created by different gods. At the end of the day, there is only one, single God who created the whole human race and the worlds. No one can say to another: “This is my God and that is yours. So there is no way I can warm to you. With some tolerance and good will it is highly possible to remove all obstacles and problems. And anthroposophical advice could be very helpful during this process.

If we can base our relationship with Europe around the idea that God who created us created them as well and if we can embrace them around anthroposophical knowledge, then anthroposophy will be able to function as a common ground forming the organic connection between different societies. It is essential to take this bold action to unite different cultures and to lay the unshakable foundations of human fellowship. Here we should assume that Europe will make the same effort on its side as well.

In fact, the spiritual essence of anthroposophical wisdom is the human himself. It is the consciousness of being human. It is also the word meaning of anthroposophy, because “Anthropo” means human, and “sophy” means wisdom.

Only if we achieve sharing the information beyond any religion or dogma that will turn people of this country and people of other countries into real (spiritual) people, then we will be able to experience the developments together on the way to becoming “new humans” in the future. And as a result, two different cultures of today’s world will be able to embrace one another and become brothers and sisters.

Therefore, it is so important and essential that anthroposophy, a reflection of “the power of light” to this physical world, should be acknowledged in our country as well.

The power of darkness can not survive where the light of anthroposophical wisdom is effective and strong. Power of light is the only thing that can stop the power of darkness which has grown and become influential over the human race lately. And the only key to open this door is anthroposophy itself. Therefore, it will make a massive difference in the spiritual improvement of individuals to become aware of anthroposophy and to comprehend it fully.

However the power of life and light will not come to people and societies spontaneously. It is the responsibility of humans to create the suitable circumstances and to do their best to make it real.

Besides, as anthroposophical knowledge sheds light on every aspect of life, comprehension and internalisation of this knowledge will protect people from fake initiations that have mushroomed lately and from hollow doctrines. By this way, people will not waste their time in these dead ends. Human beings can only protect their spirits from the power of darkness with the help of knowledge reflecting the spiritual reality in a correct way.

We should always bear in mind that every human being has his own freedom of faith. This freedom is unchallengeable, as well as being a universal principle. Everyone is free to choose whatever belief or doctrine they prefer. Therefore, anthroposophical wisdom can not be imposed on anyone either. Just like you can not force someone to drink water unless he is thirsty, anthroposophical knowledge should be presented to people who are willing to learn more about the mysteries behind existence.

There is no dogma in anthroposophy that people must believe in. The only thing that unites people in anthroposophy is the wish to investigate the spiritual facts about existence and to understand the truth.

Spiritual facts about the universe are not variable or temporary but permanent and timeless. That is why they existed before we did. They exist at the moment and will exist in the future. If people want to take part in permanent “reality”, then they have to build a strong bond with it. As a result we can say that anthroposophical knowledge is the building stone of the bridge between humans and reality.