Translated from the German by Robert Hutwohl[1]
The value of a doctrine consists in the benefit derived from its practical application; Theories which cannot be practically applied serve at most to satisfy scientific curiosity or to amuse the imagination, and are in most cases only childish gimmicks. What use are the best laws if they are countered? What is the use of the best religious teachings if one does not follow them, the description of a path one does not want to follow, or the explanation of symbols whose spirit one does not grasp. Pictures have meaning only for those who recognize what they represent; Fairy tales and allegories gain value only by grasping the truth they contain. Spirit without form is nothing to man, and form without spirit is an empty semblance. The ideal remains unattainably far from us as long as it is not realized, and the form cannot create or realize the ideal without the ideal in front of it. What good is the shell of the nut without the kernel, and knowledge of the kernel can’t nourish me if I don’t eat the kernel. The teachings of religion are useless if I do not know the spirit of them, and a description of the spirit is just as fruitless if I do not take the spirit into myself. Rules which are not abided are useless, and the greater the number of rules, the less they are followed.
The benefit derived from a doctrine may be material or ideal, intellectual, moral or spiritual. Religious teachings generally have the purpose of awakening and strengthening spiritual powers, faith, love, hope, and they fulfill this purpose even without an intellectual knowledge of the object to which these powers are directed. A man in whom a spiritual power has come to life and has entered his consciousness, can direct it to an object appropriate to his intellectual knowledge; but he who has no power cannot use it. Faith, love and hope are general principles, just as are light, warmth and magnetism. If you have heat, you can use it to heat an object; those who have love can direct that power to their chosen object; one can only dispose of what one possesses. Therefore, a person who is strong in his faith, even if the object of his faith is not what he thinks it is, is still better off than the doubter or unbeliever who has no faith at all, the loving better than the loveless and the trusting better than the one who has no hope. Faith, love and hope are occult (spiritual) powers which are strengthened by practice and application, but are not to be confused with mere intellectual belief, passionate desire for possessions and egoistic pursuit. Anyone who has these spiritual powers feels and recognizes them; those who don’t have it don’t feel or recognize it.
Theosophical teachings come from theosophy, i.e., from the self-knowledge or revelation of truth within an enlightened human being. We must distinguish between the teachings of Theosophy and theosophical teachings. Anyone who has come to self-knowledge of the truth and is taught by wisdom itself needs no other teacher; Theosophy enlightens and teaches him. Theosophical teachings, on the other hand, come from those wise men who have arrived to this enlightenment; As a rule, they cannot be proved directly to anyone, but in the end everyone has to prove them to themselves by also coming to their own observation and knowledge of the truth, but everyone is free to use their intellect to check whether they are compatible with sound reason are to be reconciled. If this is the case, we can at least believe in them and examine the usefulness of their practical application in everyday life. A teaching from the observance of which we only expect an advantage after death in a problematic “beyond” involves doubts; for outer and inner, “this world” and the “beyond,” spirit and matter are intimately connected in man, and knowledge that is good for existence in the disembodied state must also be good for existence in the body.
Let’s take, for example, the most important of all theosophical teachings, the doctrine of the unity of God in the universe, which tells us that the essence of all things is the sole indivisible deity, and that the persons and things we see are only appearances (māyā). It shows that fundamentally we are all one, and that the true interest of others is also our own. But if all people would not only consider this teaching to be true theoretically, but would act accordingly in practical life, then all strife, selfishness, greed, fraud, robbery, war and poverty would come to an end. Fraternization based solely on each party finding its personal advantage in the process has no enduring value and ends where that advantage ends. Only in the knowledge of God do all people come together and attain eternal light and true peace in it.
Another truth of the greatest importance is revealed to us through the teaching of the spiritual, psychic and material organization of human nature and the forces hidden within it. Man is in the world in order to unfold and use the powers or principles contained in him. By use, he learns to develop them, and in order to use them properly and rationally he should learn the organs through which they work and the laws which govern them. It would be of little use to a man who did not know how to use his material body. The same is the case with our “astral body” with its organs, with our “mental body” and with all our mental and psychic faculties. Thus, the study of the philosophy of Yoga, which teaches us about the nature of our own being, is not idle reverie, but has great practical value. A knowledge of the physiology of our astral body is of even greater importance than a knowledge of the anatomy of the physical body, because the natural processes in the visible material body have their causes in the psychic organism which is invisible to us.
Likewise, a knowledge of the doctrine of reincarnation, or perpetuation of individual character, is of great practical importance. This doctrine of the reincorporation of personal qualities is a self-evident fact to anyone who properly understands it, and is only doubted or contested by those who have a wrong conception of it. The deity in man remains the same in all successive incarnations and is not subject to change; but the personal appearance changes, and the character which is formed in it reappears in other forms. It is therefore of great importance for everyone to know this teaching, since, then everyone will be anxious to develop character traits in his present existence which will be useful to his true self when a new form emerges from them as his tool creates and this appears again as a new personality on earth.
Intimately connected with this teaching is the equally misunderstood doctrine of karma, which says nothing other than that every cause has a certain effect, which can, however, be canceled out by other causes and effects, and that consequently every cause that a person created, must express its effect in this or the next life. Since, according to this teaching, each person creates his own position in life according to the qualities he has acquired, the practical application of this teaching consists in striving to acquire virtues in this life, to possess them is useful in this and future appearances on the stage of life.
Another most valuable teaching is that of the three gunas [guṇas], or fundamental qualities of nature. In social and political life there is a constant battle of opinions about this or that matter; whether this or that action is good or bad, useful or harmful; whether one should or should not do this or that, etc. The doctrine of the three basic qualities gives us the key to such decisions; for it proves that all human actions spring from these, that is, from ignorance (tamas), passion (rajas), or knowledge of good (sattva), and we need therefore only examine the motive of an action which is predominant in it, to recognize the character of the same and to foresee the probable consequences; for the product of an act done from stupidity [tamas] is usually stupid, the result of a passionate [rajas] act suffering, while an act proceeding from knowledge of good, true, and beautiful [sattva] leads to good. The motive determines the character of the action. Who, for example, accidentally, unintentionally kills a person who acts out of ignorance and commits no crime, bears no responsibility for it. Anyone who commits murder out of revenge or to gain some advantage is doing it out of passion, and the consequences of his act will rebound upon him. When the soldier shoots at the enemy in the field, he acts from the knowledge that it is good to do his duty, he bears no responsibility for it; for it is basically not he himself who kills, but the general who kills through him. Responsibility falls back on the instigators of the war, and the individual shares in the karma of the whole nation. Countless examples of this kind could be given, since the three motives are the causes of all human actions.
Take further, the doctrine of salvation, if universally rightly understood and applied, unbelief, superstition, and tyranny would thereby be put to an end, and true religion would come to reign among men; then everyone would know that the power of salvation resides within himself, and he would not expect his freedom from foreign gods and their servants, advocates and authorities; then everyone would strive to realize the divine ideal within himself and thereby attain the enjoyment of divine existence and eternal bliss. But this knowledge is Theosophy, which is not based on hearsay, philosophical arguments, opinions, fantasies, dreams and ideas, but on one’s own inner experience through the awakening of the God consciousness in man.
In this way we can consider all theosophical teachings in relation to their application in everyday life. Without their application they are fruitless. Of what use is it to us, for instance, to hear how the creation of the world is said to have been, if we do not thereby learn to create a new world within ourselves; what use is it if we are told what heaven should look like if we don’t have the strength to build a heaven within ourselves that corresponds to our ideals? Of what use is it to us to think that everything in the world is just a fleeting illusion if we do not gain the ability to rise to the realm of truth and reality?
“Gray, dear friend, is all theory;
But green the golden tree of life.”
Knowledge without experience is of little value; but experience without true knowledge can bring great dangers. Whoever awakens certain occult powers within himself without having attained the necessary maturity and moral purity, thereby attracts the corresponding harmful influences which lead to his undoing. This is particularly the case with regard to certain “occult yoga practices” and “mantras,” as the long list of suicides and insane persons among the “occultists” shows. It is not written for nothing: “Thou shalt not call the name of God in vain,” and whoever enters the sanctuary with unclean feet degrades himself. Anyone who wants to grasp the spirit of the theosophical teachings correctly and apply them usefully should above all do so striving to purify ones’ heart from selfishness and one’s mind from bad thoughts, to refrain from doing evil, to strive for good, to know the highest ideal of mankind and to realize it within oneself.
Notes:
[1] About the Practical Application of Theosophical Teachings in Everyday Life [Über die praktische Anwendung der theosophischen Lehren im alltäglichen Leben. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Neue Lotusblüten 1, no. 11-12 (November-December 1908), 365-376. This was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos. Translation from the German by Robert Hütwohl, ©2025.