Dornach, Switzerland. 2025 is the 100th anniversary of Rudolf Steiner’s death. How does he live on in particular individuals? Eduardo Rincón, co-leader of the Section for Agriculture at the Goetheanum, gives his answers.
Which life questions in anthroposophy are important to you?
Ever since I started studying life through biology and agriculture, I have had questions that science could not fully answer, like: What is life? Where does life come from, and how does it manifest? How can we perceive life beyond materialistic perceptions? These questions perhaps live in every biologist or scientist, but they are difficult to answer without going into the realm of the intangible. That is where I found that anthroposophy, first through Goethe and then through anthroposophy and art, gave more than crude answers and instead gave a path of research. I find that interesting about anthroposophy: one of the gifts of anthroposophy is that it does not give you straight answers—it requires you to be profoundly engaged as a researcher to answer those questions. Because we are living beings—I mean that beyond our biology, anatomy, and physiology, and also through our living thinking—it is very nice to explore all the dimensions of life through anthroposophy.
What thought would you like to add to anthroposophy?
I would not like to add a thought, it is more about the way we bring it. I think we are in a moment where we have to rethink, re-feel, and re-will how we do anthroposophy, beginning with ourselves. How and where is anthroposophy living in us? Is it mostly in our thoughts, mostly in our heads, where we strive so strongly to understand Rudolf Steiner’s words and live with them on the inside? If it is not manifesting through us to the outside, through our hearts, it is still abstract. The more we bring understanding, not just rational understanding but whole understanding, the more we will have to express it to the world through our love, our deeds, our kindness, and our actions. We still have a lot to do in that area.
I would not change anthroposophy per se—it is a complete spiritual being or a complete deed—but it is how we live it and bring it into the world that is important in this century. It is us who have to change how we are bringing it to the world, in a living, loving way through our actions, getting to know people who are just finding anthroposophy, and offering a welcome to these people who are new and only beginning to understand it—doing this with an embrace and not just with our intellect.
Where has Anthroposophy changed your life?
When I hit a dead end in my scientific studies, and the abstract, rational understanding of life and agriculture left me feeling like I did not see a way to reconcile the rational, material way of looking at reality with another option, anthroposophy really changed my life. It opened me up to a new understanding where what we see manifest is only a part of reality. I realize that what we used to understand in rational science is incredibly valuable and beautiful in itself, but it is incomplete. What I find has changed in me through anthroposophy is the openness to say that there is much more than what we see manifest in the world, and what we cannot see is actually approachable and knowable. We can safely travel towards knowing it and complete the image of life, understanding the Earth as a living being and the human being as a steward of evolution. That has revolutionized the way I see life, humanity, and the Earth.
Contact eduardo.rincon@goetheanum.ch
Photo Xue Li
