Three Powers: Wonder, Compassion, Conscience

The purpose of Earth evolution is that there may be implanted into the evolutionary process as a whole, powers which could otherwise never have come into existence: Wonder, Compassion and Conscience.

What are we to make of the brutishness of our time? Mostly, nothing new is showing up. The stories of cruelty and intolerance are as old as our histories, no matter where we came from or where we are now. Those people who refuse to just let evil run riot and who respond actively without resorting to violence themselves represent the good in humanity. If we wonder what that looks like, the citizens of Minneapolis, Minnesota are showing us every day. Or the Buddhist monks whose Walk for Peace, 2300 miles from Fort Worth, Texas to American University in Washington DC was completed this week. Or the thousands of people all over the world who are actively and peacefully resisting attacks on rights both human and ecological.

The three qualities, Wonder, Compassion or love, and Conscience or moral obligation, are spiritual qualities that can exist only here on earth. They exist because we have a connection to our spiritual home, and the world we understand with reason and intellect alone, the world of our senses, doesn’t always tally with our soul’s experience. Thus, we feel wonder when we witness courage that overrides fear and compliance. We feel compassion for people suffering from injustice, and we may even attempt to feel some compassion for the perpetrators who are at a stage of development that allows them to behave as they do. We feel our conscience nudging us to action to prevent further injustice and guide the offenders to a healthy soul development.

We can come to understand that these three forces actually lift us out of ourselves and open us to each other and the world around us.

Let’s see what Dr. Steiner has to say:

The wonder felt by philosophers is associated with the fact that certain things are not to be comprehended through what presents itself to the eyes of sense… Wonder arises in us when the form in which the things in the material world can be explained only by knowledge we once possessed in a supersensible world prior to our birth. Wonder points to the connection we have with the supersensible world, to something belonging to a sphere we can enter only when we transcend the world in which our physical bodies enclose us. This is one indication of the fact that here, in this physical world, there is a continual urge within us to reach out beyond ourselves…

Those of us who can only remain shut up in ourselves, who are not driven by wonder beyond the field of the “I”, who remain unable to reach beyond ourselves, who see the sun rise and set without a thought and with complete unconcern are uncivilized.

A second power which releases us from the ordinary world, leading us at once away from material perception into supersensible insight, is compassion. When we look at a being only from outside, impressions come from that person to our senses and intellect; with the awakening of compassion, we pass beyond the sphere of these impressions. We share in what is taking place in that person’s innermost nature and, transcending the sphere of our own “I”, we pass over into that person’s world. In other words: we are set free from ourselves; we break through the barriers of ordinary existence in the physical body and reach over into the other being. Here, already, is the supersensible—for neither the operations of the senses nor of the reasoning mind can carry us into the sphere of another’s soul.

If we are incapable of compassion, there is a moral defect, a moral lack in us. If at the moment when we should get free from ourselves and pass over into the other person, feeling not our own pain or joy but the pain or joy of that other—if at that moment our feelings fade and die away, then something is lacking in our moral life.

Conscience is a third power whereby we transcend what we are in the physical body. In ordinary life we will desire this or that; according to our impulses or needs we will pursue what is pleasing and thrust aside what is displeasing to us. But in many such actions we will be our own critic; the voice of our conscience sounds a note of correction. Final satisfaction or dissatisfaction with what we have done also depends upon how the voice of conscience has spoken. This in itself is a proof that “conscience” is a power whereby we are led out beyond the sphere of our impulses, our likes and dislikes.

Wonder and Amazement, Compassion or Fellowship, Conscience [or moral obligation]—these are the three powers by means of which we, even while in the physical body, transcend our own limitations. For through these powers, influences which cannot find entrance into the human soul by way of the intellect and the senses, ray into physical life. If a body of flesh did not separate us from the spiritual world and present the outer world to us as a sense-world, we would be incapable of wonder. Compassion could not unfold if we were not separated from each other. And conscience could not be experienced as a spiritual force sending its voice into our world of natural urges, passions and desires, if the material body did not wish to satisfy them.

And so, the human being must be incarnated in a physical body in order that he may be able to experience wonder, compassion and conscience. In our time, people concern themselves little with such secrets, although they are profoundly enlightening.

Excerpt from: Earthly and Cosmic Man, Lecture 6: The Mission of the Earth. Wonder, Compassion and Conscience. Rudolf Steiner. May 14, 1912. Berlin (Note: some edits were made by this writer.)

Steiner says elsewhere in this excerpted lecture that “We human beings on Earth, if we are to reach the stature of full and complete personhood, must be able to move out beyond our own earthly life, we must be able to live in another, not only in ourselves.”

Becoming a full human being is a goal towards which each of us must strive. It’s not the fact that we belong to a country, a government, a party, a tribe, or a family that makes us full human beings. Becoming a full human being requires that we think for ourselves and seek out others who are filled with wonder, compassion and conscience like the neighbors in Minneapolis, the Buddhist walkers, the people the world over who are trying to love instead of hate.

We each have a deep responsibility toward the earth and all that lives on it. If we strengthen our powers of wonder, compassion and conscience, we become fit as human beings—we evolve as we are meant to evolve. We owe this to ourselves and the world.

Someone Besides Me

“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.”
– Dalai Lama XIV, The Art of Happiness.

As we look toward the holidays at this time of year, some of us choose to celebrate our religious beliefs. Others do not. Either way, most of us want to share the holidays with our family and friends. Yet this year, all around the world, we are being cautioned to forego gathering together, which seems antithetical to celebrating at all. How can we celebrate with those we care about if we aren’t going to be with them?

Let’s consider a basic tenet of spiritual science. Steiner tells us that we need to recognize that “thoughts and feelings are as important for the world as actions.” He tells us that, for the world, it is just as destructive to hate people as it is to hit them. The inverse, of course, is that the world “benefits as much from pure feelings and thoughts as from good deeds.” As unlikely as this idea may seem to us – physical proof is more compelling – perhaps we can think about seasonal words like love and peace and compassion and goodwill to all and what they might mean for us if we embodied them.

Let’s see what Dr. Steiner has to say:

“Those who go heedlessly through the world do not regard compassion as having any great mystery about it; but to the thoughtful, compassion is a great and mysterious secret. When we look at a being only from the outside, impressions come from him to our senses and intellect; with the awakening of compassion we pass beyond the sphere of these impressions. We share in what is taking place in his innermost nature and, transcending the sphere of our own “I”, we pass over into his world. In other words: we are set free from ourselves, we break through the barriers of ordinary existence in the physical body and reach over into the other being. Here, already, is the Supersensible – for neither the operations of the senses nor of the reasoning mind can carry us into the sphere of another’s soul.

The fact that compassion exists in the world bears witness that even in the world of sense we can be set free from, can pass out beyond ourselves and enter into the world of another being. If a man is incapable of compassion, there is a moral defect, a moral lack in him. If at the moment when he should get free from himself and pass over into the other being, feeling, not his own pain or joy but the pain or joy of that other – if at that moment his feelings fade and die away, then something is lacking in his moral life. The human being on Earth, if he is to reach the stature of full and complete manhood, must be able to pass out beyond his own earthly life, he must be able to live in another, not only in himself…

… Another telling fact points to the significance inherent in the concept of love and compassion. At a certain point in the evolution of humanity, and among all the peoples, something is made manifest which, while differing in many essentials, is identical in one respect all over the Earth, namely in the adoption of the concept of love, of compassion… It is of the highest significance that, six centuries before our era, Lao-tse and Confucius should have been living in China, the Buddha in India, the last Zarathustra (not the original Zarathustra) in Persia, and Pythagoras in Greece. How great the difference is between these founders of religion! Yet in one respect there is similarity among them all; they all teach that compassion and love must reign between soul and soul! The point of significance is this: six centuries before our era, consciousness begins to stir that love and compassion are to be received into the stream of human evolution.”

Excerpt from: Earthly and Cosmic Man: Lecture VI. Given by Rudolf Steiner in Berlin, 1912.

We typically observe a moment of silence when someone has died. In the United States, it’s actually a public law to observe two minutes of silence on Veteran’s Day. Also in the U.S., a bill was just passed for public schools to observe a moment of silence for 9/11 and Pearl Harbor. Many of us observed a national moment of silence that lasted eight minutes and 46 seconds for George Floyd.

How do these moments make any sense unless thoughts are real? They are inspired by feelings of shared love and compassion. It is significant that we believe we are accomplishing something by doing this.

Those of us who are separated from our friends and family for the holidays this year may want to consider what can be accomplished by a mutual ceremony celebrated at the same time in each household. Maybe we could all read the same story or poem or light a candle, separate from the phone calls and facetiming, etc. These moments are so very powerful.

And, while we’re at it, we might try to love people with whom we disagree and feel compassion for all who are suffering in these challenging times regardless of their beliefs. Maybe the differences of religion or politics won’t matter so much as we soar above them on the wings of love and compassion. Too much? Well, we won’t know until we try. We should try.

Happy Holidays!