The New Task of the Intellect in the Spiritual Ascent of Man

THE WAY OF THE GRAIL – SUPPLEMENTARY TEXTS – April 29, 2024

Czech original: Nová Úloha Rozumu V Duchovním Vzestupu Člověka · cesta-gralu.cz

Through incarnation on Earth every physically rightly developed human being receives, as part of the equipment for a fully valid earthly life, a brain, and together with this brain also the capacity for intellectual reasoning

It is therefore something entirely inseparable from human life on Earth

Without the partial work of the intellect man cannot stride through life

In order to be able to hold his own among other people, he needs to learn to use his brain and his intellect rightly

The very capacity of thinking, and the speech or writing bound up with it, are an inseparable part of the work of the intellect

In this respect this work is a necessary part of life on Earth, and as such it was granted to the human spirit in the creative providence of the animistic life as part of the earthly equipment for living

It would therefore be something wrong if spiritually striving people were to fight against absolutely everything connected with the needed armament for this earthly life

Whoever supposes that the intellect is not needed goes against the Law of necessary movement, goes against the necessity of development here in matter, and thereby also against the Wisdom of God, which endowed him with the intellect for life here

Brain and intellect necessarily belong to the life of man, and therefore they cannot be regarded wholly as something that is in every respect only hostile to the human spirit

At the same time, however, it must be said that although the intellect belongs to the equipment of the human manner of thinking on Earth, its work ought to look entirely different from what it does today

The brain, which affords the possibility of right intellectual work, is meant to be closely joined with the intuitive perceiving of man

This too is already known to many people

But however much people are aware of it, it is nevertheless not known how it is to be rightly expressed in man's daily manner of thinking

Here the Way of the Grail brings a prospect of the right use of the brain, and thus also of the right use of the capacities of the intellect

For a good initial understanding it is necessary to place the intellect where it belongs, that is, as a living instrument falling under the administration of the spirit

It may be pictured as the work of a man with a draught animal, tilling a field together, where the man is the spirit and the draught animal is the intellect

The result of their co-operation is always of benefit to both

Thanks to the animal the man can accomplish far more work, and under his influence the animal can be ennobled

This picture, rough a comparison though it is, nevertheless expresses well what is actually happening

We can observe in it that when the animal obeys and works according to the man's directions, this leads to a real benefit for both, and the work in the field succeeds on a great scale

It is otherwise, however, when the animal shows itself wilful, or even balks restively at the directions of the one whose task it is to lead it

If the animal does not go as it is directed, does as it pleases, and in the worst case even supposes that it is itself the one to determine what shall be done, which happens when the animal's owner shows himself over a long time weak and irresolute in his directions, then sooner or later disaster comes

With the great strength bestowed upon it, in the moment when a horse, a mule, an ox or some other animal fit for heavier work sets itself against the sovereignty of human guidance, we can often see how much damage is then caused, quite apart from the fact that such a rebellion of the animal may bring about various injuries or even the death of its owner

This happens very often when the animal bolts and, driven by its own impulses, ceases entirely to heed all guidance on the part of the man

Exactly the same is it with the animal that lies in the work of the brain, that is, in the intellect, which is meant to obey the will of man

The human spirit therefore needs to be at all times the right leader for the intellect working in materiality

For this he needs to send forth from himself enough intuitive volition to determine the path along which the intellect carries out its execution

For many people it remains a secret where exactly that connecting thread of a healthy co-operation between spirit and intellect runs

Today the two appear fused uniformly into one whole, in which people do not succeed in finding the key to what is and what is not a healthy use of the instrument of the intellect, so that it may serve the spirit in its working within the materialities

This causes many hard experiences among all those people who strive earnestly to gain mastery over their intellect and repeatedly experience that they do not succeed

The basic degree of failure is generally the inability to recognise the intuitive perceiving of the spirit during the waking day-consciousness

It is because almost all people, in their effort to distinguish these two entirely different magnitudes, use precisely their intellect

It is because the spiritual in man has unlearned being that leading force

Although this was how it should have been, in its lukewarmness it lost the necessary intuitive influence upon the intellect

That anything of the kind would come about was not foreseen from the Light

The intuitive perception, which rests in the simple exercise of the virtues, grew far too weak and yielded its place in the earthly bodily covering to the intellect

That is why it often happens to people today that even the best resolutions to become more spiritual they fail to fulfil in their decisions

Most of those who strive in this way only experience again and again, bitterly in retrospect, how firmly they are bound to the intellect through their narrowly limited earthly consciousness

But it is high time at last to push the intellect back under the dominion of the spirit

For otherwise the danger persists that the animal will take no heed of its master and will rebel against him whenever it pleases

In a certain sense it may be said that it remains permanently in a revolt that has already lasted for millennia

But only very few recognise how it is possible to return again to the order originally established by the Creator, which should always have prevailed here on Earth

The spirit is more than the intellect

The concept of spirit is far more comprehensive in its capacities than people today are aware

The force lying at the foundation of the spiritual spark in man is able, through its pure power, to irradiate all the material coverings fully and victoriously in one single moment towards a great volition for good and harmony

Every human being carries the spark within himself

He can at any time let the greatness of his spiritual inner being come alive, if only he so wills

And therefore it lies solely and only in his hands to set himself rightly again into the administration of all that is material, to which the intellect also inseparably belongs

How to do this is very simple

It suffices for the spirit always to hold dominion over the intellect by attuning all thoughts to wish good to all creatures, so that these may swing in the Harmony of the Will of God

This means in reality to have and to bear within oneself at all times the attunement of a volition for joyful creating, which draws the rays of the Light down to the Earth

Within the inner being of every human being there lies that immense capacity to live in harmonious accord with the whole of the Universe

Jesus said that man is to strive for the Kingdom of God within his inner being, and that for everything else the help he needs will then come to him automatically from the Light

By this the Son of God meant that the human spirit should concentrate on the volition for harmonious conduct under all circumstances, even if in the earthly comprehension of the intellect this should appear to him at that moment foolish and perhaps unreasonable, that is, as conduct running counter to earthly advantageous circumstances

Harmony standing above the personal advantages of man often runs contrary to the present thinking and acting of people

Yet this signifies neither naivety nor foolishness, as it often appears to people in their judging of those neighbours who act primarily out of intuitive perception and not out of the intellect

On the contrary, it is precisely herein that lies that so precious victory of the spirit in its striving to walk rightly along all the paths to be found in the work of Creation

This holds also for the gross material path here, which brings man everything that necessarily belongs to earthly life

It is only necessary to master that overbreeding of the intellect, which always lays claim to its supposed right to know everything best and to act accordingly

Wherever there presses with great force into a man's consciousness the certainty that in some matter he knows everything best, in that very moment it may already be said that the spiritual inner being has been set aside and that the bolting animal of the intellect holds the mastery over the thinking wholly in its own control

If the spiritual inner being were taking part, then even in the case of a clear conviction that he is right in the matter or has a riper view of it, he would never proceed with a force containing destruction, but would always choose the path of harmony

Under all circumstances the path of upbuilding is to be sought, even when this brings difficulties in dealing with other people who are just then under the dominion of the animal of the intellect

And when it is not possible otherwise, then the person concerned should leave the conversation and go away, so that he may remain free of all the threads which always begin at once to weave themselves around unobjective disputes, in order after a time to return woven into the fate of all who took part

Today the so precious hours on this Earth are to be used only for creativeness and upbuilding, in the shaping of harmonious structures in the world of thought and also in the gross material world

The beneficent beings that bring help can be near only to those people who carry harmony of the inner being within them and who in the intellect always keep a noble objectivity

Noble objectivity is indeed that which people today for the most part lack

This is because nobility of character within the work of Creation never comes to an end

An ever greater kind of noble acting and thinking can always be attained

Never is all exhausted from the ocean of perfection, in which all kinds of forms of acting and thinking have radiant archetypes flowing into the work of Creation out of the infinite Wisdom of God

And with this the intellect of every human being is to be nourished, so that he may develop therein as a wisely acting inhabitant of the work of Creation already here on Earth

It means cultivating within oneself the capacity for a continual widening of all knowledge about the Creator and His work

In this there will always appear, even for one's own intellect, new concepts and complete pictures bearing within them knowledge of a higher kind

Terminology as we know it today in all the languages of the peoples on Earth is but one tenth of what could be regarded as the ideal fullness of a language's terminology

This means the discovery of new and still more fitting concepts for the expression of the spirit through the intellect

Such work is always refreshing and also makes full use of the capacities of the intellect

In that moment the animal works according to the volition of the spirit, and thereby both can learn and climb upwards towards an ever more luminous and more ennobled manner of thinking and acting

The intellect, as a valuable helper to the human spirit on its path through earthly life, can and also should be continually ennobled in its capacities up to the summit of an artistic kind

This artistic kind of ennoblement lies in the pure use of concepts and also in the harmonious manner of using them

Something of this sort is for man an opportunity for truly creative activity, and in this direction everything can be made luminous and polished up to that most radiant jewel which manifests itself in the purity of terminology

Yet precisely in this mankind today is unimaginably backward, and therefore many people struggle constantly with the persistent intrusiveness of ugly words and vulgarisms, which alas are regarded by the majority of mankind today as something ordinary, and there is even an endeavour to see in them a ready verbal equipment for a certain seasoning of speech

It can, however, be regarded solely and only as a wallowing in the stagnant channel of an errant sewer

And since that beguiling power of coarseness seems to be so much a part of almost every human being, and thereby so close at hand, it is only with the greatest difficulty that a man can make his way out of this errant channel onto the firmer shore of human dignity

There is no clearer proof of the degree of maturity of a human spirit than when the person concerned reaches in his manner of expression for terms bearing within them the vibrations of defilement and humiliation of the one to whom they are meant to apply

Everyone who longs to move higher precisely in the use of the instrument of the intellect through the ascendancy of his spiritual inner being will always develop in such a way that his speech and his use of concepts carry within them only a creative kind of swinging

There is no excuse in this, for what decides here is not human judgment nor perhaps human indulgence, but here alone the accord with the harmony of the whole work of Creation counts, which knows nothing of the baseness and coarseness that have become ingrained in the earthly world of today

Therefore everyone who once decides in all earnestness to strive upwards to the Light and will endeavour that the instrument of the intellect entrusted to him becomes rightly serving, as it was meant to be, will work every day upon the ennobling of his expression in union with the inward volition for good

In this work, which at first sight may appear hard and, for the sake of the needed rebirth, also painfully strenuous, no human being is left without help from the Light

On the contrary, he is surrounded by helps many times more abundant than he as yet even suspects today

Just as is the case with the whole human body, the omnipresent unconsciously animistic is part of the nerve system of the brain

Out of this unconsciously animistic, which is contained in every cell, the earthly body of man is built up

And it is precisely the nerve cells of the brain that are filled with the most sensitive kind of the unconsciously animistic

The vibration which this unconsciously animistic receives from the finer planes of Creation bears within it from the very beginning the one right archetype of upbuilding, showing how the human brain should rightly work in order to serve the spirit in the fulfilment of the original intention of the Wisdom of God

This holds moreover for all the parts of the human body, which is so admirably attuned a receiver of vibrations that can always bring the finding of those original paths in which the ideal of the earthly body rests

Every earthly body carries this ideal within it, and it is only the work of the threads of fate, which pass through the hands of the Alphar, that such differing results come about in the case of individual people

The earthly body is always the expression of converging lines which in the end manifest in exactly such a condition as best corresponds to the experiencing needed by the human soul in its course of development

In the case of the brain and of the intellect arising from it, as the finer product of the work of the brain's nerve system, the present-day resultant is precisely that which corresponds to the wrong pressure of the human spirit's volition in the earthly world

Instead of an intuitively pure volition, a volition asserted itself that is directed only towards the material exploitation of all the gifts of the Creator

Thereby a deflection arose which had to manifest in such a way that the intellect, being for the spirit that working animal described in the picture above, has become the one that today determines the direction in which the life-paths of earthly man are to lead

Despite this deflection, however, there rests preserved at the foundation of the unconsciously animistic, deep in the cells of every brain, the original archetype which was to hold everything in the ideal balance of intuitive perception, thinking and acting

And therefore every human being who longs once more to return to the original ordering of the relation between the inner intuitive and the outer intellectual activity in life is always at once fully supported on the part of the animistic working, so that that ideal state may be attained

Everything literally comes to his aid, if only there awakens and flares up in the spiritual spark that living force which should always have been here as the one determining the path of ripening in the Subsequent Creation

Earthly man is still an inhabitant of the work of Creation, and therefore even here on Earth he remains part of the active work of the animistic, which under certain favourably set conditions is able to bring about wondrous happenings even in gross matter itself

Thus the earthly body too, with all the organs contained in it, is continually subject to the creative swinging of animistic radiation, and therefore it may be said that when there is a genuine will to change in the inner being, all the conditions in the human body can alter

In the case of the delicate nerve system of the brain this is something that can be joined most strengtheningly in a co-operation between a spiritual volition filled with fervour and purity and the supporting radiation of the animistic, which influences the unconsciously animistic vibration in the individual cells of the body

If in addition that favourable setting of conditions is also present, then we may speak of a simple and yet upheaving shift in the intuitive attunement of man, lasting throughout his day-consciousness

The favourable conditions are today ensured through the strong working of the Ray of Parzival, which stands in the nearness above the Earth

Its high primordially spiritual and also Divine radiation has an ever strengthening influence upon the manner of human thinking and acting, which it drives towards a penetrating visibility

All this is also already manifesting everywhere around

Its effects, however, show themselves especially in the conduct of people and in the happenings which alas confirm the great spiritual decline of many on Earth

The intellect is whipped up to its highest revolutions, in which it acts aggressively in advance against everything that appears even as a merely possible opposition to its intentions

We can observe this ever more clearly in the doings of millions of people

Beside this, amid the many despairing manifestations of the real inner state of whole multitudes of inwardly exhausted people on Earth, there are nevertheless also still people whose spiritual spark is in a more radiant glow, and who can and shall turn the effective radiation of the Ray of Parzival to account for their ascent in the coming time of enlightenment

And precisely all these can set out upon the strengthening path towards attaining the right relation between spiritual volition and the executive work of the intellect

The intellect is at last to become what it always should have been, that is, a helper to the spiritual spark in its activity here in the materialities, so that the whole world may draw nearer to a state of harmony

The inner volition for good, the pure striving for harmony and kindly conduct through noble forms in thoughts, words and deeds have today unprecedentedly strengthening, powerful helps of the Light in the nearness of all people incarnated for this on Earth

Everything can succeed many times better than ever before, for helps of an unprecedented kind from the Grail are now here through the Ray of Parzival

Thus the intellect too, whose task has hitherto not been quite rightly recognised and therefore also could not be made use of, can raise itself to a noble helping service to the spirit

As has already been written, not even the smallest part of the possibilities lying therein has so far been brought to blossom for the blessing of this world

So much lies therein that when one day, in the coming times of the future, people turn to look back, they will see the use hitherto made of the intellect as a wholly undignified mere subsisting, resembling an age of backwardness in the perceiving of all inspirations from the Light in comparison with the progress that is to come

In order that people may advance in the near future, they need, in the awakening of their inner being, to live more genuinely and more directly than now, and this precisely through their participation of pure spiritual volition

At the same time the full mastering of the instrument of the intellect is called for, which only when rightly serving the spirit will be able to show the true values slumbering within it

The unfolding of all the forms of human culture inspired by the planes above the materialities will bring the uplifting of mankind to a level at which it will first be possible to say that people have freed themselves from the grip of all the influences that press upon them in the form of the instinctive, the ancestral and also the wrongly grasped exertion of force in life

All this needs to fall away and become the past, so that only then can the Words of Jesus be understood and also truly experienced, just as only then will the treasure lying in the work of the Grail Message be more rightly grasped

Only with a rightly working intellect, which will remain permanently beneath the all-surpassing intuitive perception, will the time of a true flourishing of mankind arrive

The good news is that we are drawing ever more swiftly nearer to this time of great transformations on Earth

It may even be said that the first waves of changes bringing the fall of what has been, and at the same time opening the prospects of the new, are already here

We are part of unprecedented changes in this world as it moves towards a new, far better and far more harmonious period of human history

This should be a strengthening for everyone, so that for his own part he may be ready to enter into this new as an inhabitant of the work of Creation wholly spiritualised both inwardly and outwardly