1. Anthroposophy is a path of knowledge which guides the spiritual in the human being to the spiritual in the cosmos. It manifests as a necessity of the heart and feeling. It must find its justification in being able to satisfy this need. Only those who find in anthroposophy what they seek in this respect can appreciate it. Therefore only those who feel certain questions about the nature of man and the world as basic necessities of life, like hunger and thirst, can be anthroposophists.
2. Anthroposophy imparts knowledge obtained by spiritual means. Yet it only does this because everyday life and a science dependent only upon sense-perception and intellectual activity lead to a boundary where the human being’s soul must wither if it cannot cross. This everyday life and this science do not lead to the boundary in a way that one is prevented from crossing it; rather at this boundary of sense-perception the view of the spiritual world is revealed by the soul itself.
3. Some people think that all insights end at the boundaries of sense perception. If they were attentive to how they become conscious of these boundaries, they would also find in this very consciousness the capacity to transcend these boundaries. A fish swims to the boundaries of water; it must go back because it lacks the physical organs to live out of water. Man arrives at the boundaries of sense-perception; he can realize that on the way there sufficient strength of soul has been acquired to live in the elements which are not limited by sense-perception.
4. Man requires knowledge of the spiritual world for security in his feelings and for the healthy development of his will. Then he can sense to a large extent the greatness, beauty and wisdom of the natural world. The latter does not, however, answer the questions about his own being. This being holds the matter and forces of the natural world together in the living human bodily form only until the person crosses the threshold of death. At that point nature takes over the form. It cannot hold it together, only tear it apart. Great, beautiful, wisdom-filled Nature may answer the question of how the human form disintegrates, but not how it is held together. No theoretical objection can erase this question from the sensitive human soul if it does not wish to deceive itself. Its presence must ceaselessly maintain the desire for spiritual paths to knowledge of the cosmos in every human soul which is truly awake.