The whole of existence or all maintenance of life depends on action or creation. Even a plant cannot exist without creation, that is to say, a process of which its physical organism is a result. In the plant kingdom, however, creation takes place through instinct, which is a relic of abilities left over from the being's state of perfection in the final epoch of a previous evolutionary spiral. This is the reason why we see a greater and more perfect creation in colours and forms in the plant kingdom than in the animal kingdom. As this creation takes place instinctively, it happens automatically, without the plant's physical day consciousness. With its physical day consciousness the plant can only sense vaguely, and with this limited consciousness it is not able to create such a magnificent array of colours, scents and forms as are revealed to such an overwhelming degree. The fact that the plant being can nevertheless create for itself such a splendid organism is due to the previously mentioned abilities from the cosmic consciousness that it had in the kingdom of wisdom of a previous spiral. This ability has long since become an automatic function and takes place completely without the plant being's physical consciousness. But the sole purpose of the functioning of this cosmic ability is to lead the plant being far enough in its physical evolution for it to begin to create day-consciously of its own accord, and for it to begin to take part in maintaining its own life. Once it has reached perfection in this process of evolution, it is no longer a "plant" but an "animal".

The animal therefore constitutes a living being that is able to create and maintain, in a physical, day-conscious way, the conditions of its own life, even though it is still to a certain extent guided by instinct. But this instinct steadily degenerates as the animal gains day-conscious, physical experience, by means of which it can change its consciousness so as to favour its struggle to maintain its own life. The main principle in this struggle for life is the principle of selfishness or egoism. This is the highest, unwritten law of the animal, without which it would not be able to exist. It is still such a small being in evolutionary terms that it is not able to think in any other sphere of interest than maintaining life for itself, its copulatory urge and its offspring. There can, however, be exceptions to this, namely animals that have been pampered by humans. But one cannot base a fundamental analysis on exceptions. By nature the animal lives according to the principle: "Every creature for itself", and with this built in as an unconscious instinct it maintains its life, having no regard for other animals' lives and existence and what it might cost them in the way of fear and suffering. The entire array of its talents and aptitudes are oriented towards this. It has no abilities whatsoever for any other form of existence. The sixth commandment: "Thou shalt not kill" most certainly does not apply to such a being.

The commandment to "love one's neighbour as oneself" is not applicable to animals. As it is a vital necessity for a great many animals to kill in order to live, due to the fact that they live off animal flesh, it would mean death to them if they were to obey the sixth commandment and in equal measure obey the commandment to love their neighbour. But how can it be that human beings have been given the commandment that they should not kill and that they should love their neighbour as themselves. If human beings have been given these commandments it must be due to the fact that in certain specific situations they kill their neighbour and are therefore far from loving towards him. But because human beings do not love their neighbours and can even kill them, there is in this respect no difference between humans and animals.

How is it that humans have acquired the name "human being" when they carry out the same killing actions and express the same lack of love as animals? It is true that to a large extent human beings maintain their lives in the same way as animals, using murder and killing, and in these circumstances they are like animals in that they have no neighbourly love. But alongside these humans can be found other humans who have very great neighbourly love, in fact such neighbourly love that they not only cannot bear to kill human beings but they absolutely cannot bear to kill animals either. They take no offence no matter what their neighbour inflicts on them in the way of unpleasantness. They are unable to hate or persecute other human beings. They are unable to speak ill of or in any other way destroy their neighbour's good relations with other human beings. They would rather suffer themselves than see other people suffer. They have great compassion for humans and animals that are suffering or in distress. As a result it is very easy to see that there is in these human beings a temperament that is not found in animals, and that is the exact opposite of the animal's temperament and way of being. It is this new temperament that constitutes the "human" aspect and that causes the animal to be termed a "human being". The less the human being has of the aforementioned "human" temperament, the more fully it lives in the animal temperament. As terrestrial humankind does not consist of human beings that are totally human and therefore totally free of the animal temperament, it is clear that"terrestrial human beings have two temperaments: the "animal" and the "human".

Some human beings appear with an extremely large amount of human temperament and therefore with a correspondingly small amount of animal temperament. Other human beings appear with an extremely large amount of animal temperament and therefore with a correspondingly small amount of human temperament. The first category of human beings we call "good people" and the second category "bad people". The first category of human beings are called "good people" for the sole reason that they are pleasant, unselfish and helpful, and are at the same time people who generate joy and zest for life when one comes into contact with them or when one forms a connection with them through working and experiencing life together. They spread peace, joy and blessing in their wake. Wherever they go on Earth, one can sense the presence of God, according to the measure of their human temperament. The second category of human beings are called "evil" again for the sole reason that they are unpleasant, selfish, dishonest, deceitful and are quite happy to live at other people's expense in the form of either camouflaged or blatant robbery, nor do they have qualms about maligning or in other ways sabotaging or destroying people's sympathy and friendship for one another. In the worst cases they can in fact hate, even to the point of treating that person as their mortal enemy. They can oppress and murder other human beings, depending on the capacity of their animal temperament and how unloving they are. Unfinished human beings therefore still have an animal temperament as well as a human temperament. All of us on this earthly physical plane will therefore of necessity meet people in whom the animal temperament is flourishing to an extremely high degree and in whom the human temperament still has only an extremely small capacity, since it is in the very first stages of its development. Equally, we will of course also meet people in whom the human temperament is overwhelmingly dominant, and in whom the animal temperament has degenerated very much, and it has such a weak capacity that it hardly finds expression at all. It is obvious that being connected to beings who have an outstanding human temperament is pleasant and encourages zest for life, especially if one has very much of the same temperament oneself. When one is together with these people, neighbourly love, and hence peace, will shine and sparkle so strongly that one cannot avoid noticing the presence of a higher world, in the same way that one notices "the fresh sea air in the vicinity of the sea".

This holy or divine experience is lacking in human beings who have a very large amount of animal temperament and in whom the human temperament is still so little developed that it can barely find expression. In such cases there is almost only sympathy between one party and another if they are both involved in taking revenge on a common enemy. We can therefore see that people who do not otherwise have very much sympathy for their fellow human beings can be extremely friendly towards people with whom they share the same lust for revenge or antipathy towards another person, a common enemy. In this mutual sympathy the beings in question strengthen or stimulate their animal temperament. In the worst cases this can lead to murdering or killing their common enemy. In other cases it does not find such drastic expression, but almost inevitably leads to slandering or speaking ill of the enemy. But slander can be rather dangerous; it can lead the person who is the object of the slander into depression and nervous breakdown, or lead them into losing their interest in life and to suicide.

What is the state of affairs for human beings the world over? Are there not wars, both hot and cold, and strikes and crises among the peoples of the various countries? Is it not the case that acts of revenge, plundering and robbery, perhaps even robbery that involves killing, occur even among so-called civilised human beings? And what is the state of affairs among those human beings that we know or have come into contact with personally? Are they all human beings that live solely in order to bless their neighbours, their fellow beings, animals as well as humans? It would indeed be lovely if that were the case, but it is not. They are all more or less unfinished. This means that a greater or lesser area of their mentality or psyche is still governed by the animal temperament, in other words by what we call "evil", just as they of course also have a greater or lesser amount of the human temperament or what we call "goodness".

We are all forced to associate with human beings that have a greater or lesser amount of animal temperament, this being present in all human beings. It occurs in our parents and the other members of our family. It occurs in our spouses and in our children, in our dearest friends and in all the people who are unknown to us who we come across. It occurs in the members of all religions and all religious communities, in the popes, bishops and priests of the Earth. It occurs in kings and princes as much as in beggars and vagabonds. It occurs in all unfinished human beings. Of course a certain amount of human psyche or temperament also occurs in these human beings, but it is not this temperament that creates sorrow, anxiety, war and suffering. This temperament can only bless, which means it can bring only goodwill, joy and happiness to all living beings. With the human temperament one can sow only goodwill, joy and happiness, and as human beings end up reaping what they have sown, they therefore, by giving expression to the human temperament, end up reaping only human temperament, that is to say, goodwill, joy and happiness. Of course in the same way human beings reap or meet only the effects of animal temperament, that is to say, sorrow, anxiety, war and suffering, where they have themselves given expression to this temperament.

Terrestrial human beings are different from animals in that they possess two kinds of temperament, the "animal" and the "human". Whereas animals cannot normally offer anything other than their animal temperament, human beings have the great advantage that they can use their will to take part in developing the human temperament in their psyche. As this development causes the animal temperament to degenerate, wither and die, so freeing the being from all animal fate, with its sorrows, distress and suffering, it becomes clear that the development of the human temperament is the one thing that is absolutely necessary in terrestrial human existence. So why not use all one's willpower and strength to cultivate the human temperament and make it the main factor governing one's behaviour and way of being? Why not strive to leave behind the habitual, foolish, animal state in which one uses the law of Moses, "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth", in one's behaviour? Why not make the very greatest effort to arrive at the realisation that we are inevitably bound to come into contact with people whose behaviour is to a greater or lesser extent governed by their as yet unconquered animal temperament?

The animal temperament lies beneath any smiling and friendly superficial behaviour that there might be in every unfinished human being, this behaviour often being a radiation of its purely human temperament. Bringing one's own human temperament into contact with this person's human temperament is no guarantee of true friendship if this person's human temperament is only very weak and their animal temperament consequently the main factor in their behaviour. It is always the animal temperament that sabotages all friendship, all harmonious cooperation, in short, it is what creates all forms of war, whether between nations or between people. The animal temperament is therefore the "misfortune" of all existing human beings.

It is life's intention that human beings get the better of this animal temperament. But life's intention is the same as God's intention. The Bible states symbolically that God said: "Let us make a human being in our image after our likeness". "God's image" is the same as the totally perfected "sun-like human being". This is a human being that lives exclusively in order to radiate blessing and joy to all other living beings, quite independently of what or who they are, irrespective of whether they are crucifiers or angels. This is a being that, like the Godhead, knows that no being can today be other than exactly how they are. They are not today how they will be tomorrow or in ten years' time. They cannot act today on the basis of experience they will only have gained at that time. They therefore know that all anger and bitterness directed towards unfinished beings, whether humans, animals or plants, is total foolishness and can only find expression on the grounds of ignorance.

Ignorance is the same as a lack of development, or a sign that there is still development to be undergone in the process of bringing the creation of the human being to completion. But no being whatsoever can themselves be to blame for any lack of development. This lies totally outside the limits of what a human being can decide about its own life. It is not a question of a mere act of will. Human beings cannot decide upon their own standard of development in the way that they can decide whether to sit down, stand up or go for a walk. Development is regulated by an eternal reality in the being's cosmic structure, which the being itself has as little control over as it has over the existence of its I as an eternal, unshakable reality. How can a human being manifest a human tendency or human abilities that it has still not developed? Is it not clear that being angry with someone for one reason or another is glaringly illogical and thereby glaringly unloving? Any person who acts in this way, acts on the basis of – not their human – but their animal temperament. The only thing that can gradually bring human beings' unhappy fate to an end is the "human" aspect in the human being. In order to get human beings to understand that the animal temperament in the human being is the cause of all unhappy fates, it is necessary to learn that all animal temperament in behaviour is the absolutely one and only thing in the universe that creates unhappy fates, war and suffering.

It is not only the relationship to one's neighbour, expressed in the form of war and persecution, that is sabotaged or destroyed by the thought patterns of animal temperament, it is also the total health of the body. The entire manifestation of energy that streams through the human being's psyche in the form of thought patterns together constitutes the electrical power or tension that maintains the state of health of the organism. Those thought patterns that release anger, vindictiveness, hatred, bitterness, slander, jealousy, envy, professional enmity etc. have a very strong sabotaging effect, causing illness and creating short circuits in the organism's electrical system. The organism has six great organ systems, namely, the muscular system, the stomach or digestive system, the heart and lung system, the brain and nervous system, the sexual system and the skeletal system. Each of these systems in the organism is maintained by its own special kind of thought function and the consequent state of electrical tension in the microparticles that form the matter that make up the organs. Naturally the physical organism and its organs can also be injured and poisoned as a result of purely outer material causes, but the healing of these injuries will also come about more easily if one uses pure thought patterns.

The greatest problem for the whole of humankind is thus the animal temperament in the individual human being's psyche. This temperament to a certain extent keeps itself under control through the returning animal or unhappy fate that is exclusively the result of the effects of this particular temperament. As a result of these effects the humane faculty in human beings develops. They therefore begin to ask why. Until now it has been the religions that have attempted to answer this question for human beings, but nowadays these answers are very far from satisfactory. They do not give the information that we can gain through the cosmic analyses. In these analyses we have seen how right Jesus Christ was in saying that one should forgive one's neighbour and that one should love God above all things and one's neighbour as oneself. He says furthermore that this is the fulfilment of all the laws and through these analyses we have seen that there is absolutely no way of avoiding it.

How does one cause the animal temperament to die away? – By simply not using it in one's behaviour. One has to make a thorough search of oneself and become clear about the extent to which one is nourishing the animal temperament and the extent to which one is starving the human temperament in one's consciousness. Every time one feels antipathy, indignation, intolerance, bitterness and anger one is fattening up one's animal temperament. The same thing applies if one spreads slander or derogatory rumours about one's neighbour, or if one lies to or deceives this neighbour. If one goes hunting or fishing one also promotes to an extreme degree one's animal talent or temperament. If one eats meat or lives on an animal diet or if one breeds animals in order to slaughter them for their skins, one is also to the very highest degree keeping the animal temperament alive. If one is enthusiastic about war and the military, one is making it hard for oneself, purely from the point of view of one's fate, because the law is quite firm that "he who takes the sword shall perish with the sword". All these instances of the animal temperament have the effect of sabotaging one's fate. The fact that they can in certain cases provide an excellent livelihood, offering good profits and economic security, is merely a temporary chocolate coating on the bitter pill there will be when the effects of this killing temperament return, sabotaging one's own normal living conditions in the form of illnesses, accidents and suffering. It is absolutely inevitable that these effects will return, unless one strives to develop one's human temperament so that it is so strong that one ceases to sustain the animal temperament in one's behaviour.

It is no longer a vital necessity for human beings to live on an animal diet or wear animal skins. It is no longer a vital necessity for human beings to speak ill of anyone or to feel jealousy, hatred or vengeance towards them. In short, the animal temperament, which kills and destroys all joy in life, is no vital necessity. And on those grounds why not as quickly as possible pay the greatest attention to one's human temperament and do everything one can to train oneself to live in this divine thought climate, a thought climate that is life-giving and that stimulates joy and a healthy love of life?