In Search of the Miraculous

world," said G. "And yet there has never been such a war as the present. Wars are not decreasing, they are increasing and war cannot be stopped by ordinary means. All

these theories about universal peace,

about peace conferences, and so on, are again simply laziness and hypocrisy. Men do

not want to think about themselves, do not want to work on themselves, but think of

how to make other people do what they want. If a sufficient number of people who

wanted to stop war really did gather together they would first of all begin by making

war upon those who disagreed with them. And it is still more certain that they would

make war on people who also want to stop wars but in another way. And so they would

fight. Men are what they are and they cannot be different. War has many causes that

are unknown to us. Some causes are in men themselves, others are outside them. One

must begin with the causes that are in man himself. How can he be independent of the

external influences of great cosmic forces when he is the slave of everything that

surrounds him? He is controlled by everything around him. If he becomes free from

things, he may then become free from planetary influences.

"Freedom, liberation, this must be the aim of man. To become free, to be liberated

from slavery: this is what a man ought to strive for when he becomes even a little

conscious of his position. There is nothing else for him, and nothing else is possible so long as he remains a slave both inwardly and outwardly. But he cannot cease to be a

slave outwardly while he remains a slave inwardly. Therefore in order to become free,

man must gain inner freedom.

"The first reason for man's inner slavery is his ignorance, and above all, his

ignorance of himself. Without self-knowledge, without understanding the working and

functions of his machine, man cannot be free, he cannot govern himself and he will

always remain a slave, and the plaything of the forces acting upon him.

"This is why in all ancient teachings the first demand at the beginning of the way to liberation was: 'Know thyself.'

"We shall speak of these words now."

The next lecture began precisely with the words: "Know thyself." "These words," said G., "which are generally ascribed to Socrates, actually lie at the basis of many systems and schools far more ancient than the Socratic. But although modem thought is aware

of the existence of this principle it has only a very vague idea of its meaning and

significance. The ordinary man of our times, even a man with philosophic or scientific

interests, does not realize that the principle 'know thyself speaks of the necessity of

knowing one's machine, the 'human machine.' Machines are made more or less the

same way in all men; therefore, before anything else man must study the structure, the

functions, and the laws of his organism. In the human machine everything is so

interconnected, one thing is so dependent upon another, that it is quite impossible to

study any one function without studying all the others. In order to know one thing, one

must know everything. To know everything in man is possible,

but it requires much time and labor, and above all, the application of the right method

and, what is equally necessary, right guidance.

"The principle 'know thyself' embraces a very rich content. It demands, in the first place, that a man who wants to know himself should understand what this means, with

what it is connected, what it necessarily depends upon.

"Knowledge of oneself is a very big, but a very vague and distant, aim. Man in his

present state is very far from self-knowledge. Therefore, strictly speaking, his aim

cannot even be defined as self-knowledge. Self-study must be his big aim. It is quite

enough if a man understands that he must study himself. It must be man's aim to begin

to study himself, to know himself, in the right way.

"Self-study is the work or the way which leads to self-knowledge.

"But in order to study oneself one must first learn how to study, where to begin, what methods to use. A man must learn how to study himself, and he must study the

methods of self-study.

"The chief method of self-study is self-observation. Without properly applied selfobservation a man will never understand the connection and the correlation between the various functions of his machine, will never understand how and why on each

separate occasion everything in him 'happens.'

"But to learn the methods of self-observation and of right self-study requires a

certain understanding of the functions and the characteristics of the human machine.

Thus in observing the functions of the human machine it is necessary to understand

the correct divisions of the functions observed and to be able to define them exactly

and at once; and the definition must not be a verbal but an inner definition; by taste,

by sensation, in the same way as we define all inner experiences.