Topic on Talk:Questions

I am struggling to understand the original impulse for the creation of humanity and for its struggles. From my reading, I understand the following aspects that, however, all seem to come out of some original (unelucidated) need: - Human beings were created and separated from the rest of creation in order to develop freedom, which could not exist in the presence of the Godhead. - In order to develop freedom, human beings need to be confronted by evil, so that good might be freely created by them. - In order for humans to have evil to confront (which also could not come to be spontaneously in the presence of the Godhead) otherwise perfect spiritual beings needed to be held back by God from their own evolution. - A major task (THE major task?) for human beings is to confront this evil and use it to create good, and in doing so, redeem the evil beings and assist them in their reintegration into the presence of the Godhead and the stream of cosmic evolution, and then for human beings to rejoin the spiritual cosmos and the presence of the Godhead.

My question and my struggle: this seems to be a circular process that simply ends up where it began. I don't understand what has been served by the process and particularly by the staggering and immeasurable amount of suffering that has been created and endured in this process. I sincerely hope that some one can fill in the missing piece of this puzzle, or point out to me what I am missing in my understanding.

With gratitude for the help!

Dear, thanks for your question and sincere apologies as for some reason we missed the notification of this post, which is why it stayed unanswered for so long, so sorry for that.

If we take the summary you give with the different bullets, and draw a frame around it, the answer to your question then comes from putting that frame into a larger context, for which we need to zoom out conceptually and stake a few steps back for a broader perspective.

Though your summary is correct as stated, it does not exist on its own in a vacuum, it is part of a greater scheme of creation as a whole, it is the latest branch of an ever-evolving dynamic which is described on the FMC site as the Cosmic Fractal. There are many ways to approach is, one Rudolf Steiner liked is covered on the topic page 25920.

If you study these two pages first, you can then connect them to the contents offered on the pages Creation by the three logoi, as well as IAO and Logoic principle.

This is just pointing you to where the answer to your quest can be found, but it is a 'big ticket' insight (and on the site we don't offer fastfood answers). What I can offer are pointers for guided study and contemplation, and through your soul work the answers and insights will arise better than anything I can write.

Essential schemas to study, contemplate, grasp are: Schema FMC00.568 and Schema FMC00.564 and variant FMC00.564A, alongside with the other schemas on the three pages mentioned above.

For the study process:

• Schema FMC00.570A provides lecture references
• Schema FMC00.400B provides a logical overview map of interrelated concepts, schemas, topic pages

.

All this is related to the questions Man has always asked: who are we, where do we come from, where are we going? and also why, what is the meaning? (Schema FMC00.037). In case you would not be familiar with some of the terms, see eg Meaning of life#Note 1 - Relevant concepts and terminology.

To conclude and bottom line. You write this appears to be a circular process, but it is not: it is a spiral process and the cosmic fractal weaves ever greater levels of complexity. This logoic or divine creation 'system' has given rise to the cosmos thus far, .. and Man will be the next branch, see Man as the tenth hierarchy. The exciting thing is that something completely new is added, cosmically, and that is this freedom so utterly related to divine love. So one might say the current solar system evolution includes an ambitious attempt to a real step-change, whereby Man will be created as Gods.

Hope this helps for a first answer, happy to explore further.