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Wowowow. I didn’t expect this book to be so great. I am so grateful for life to have led me to Janine’s farm in France, where I found and read this book (among so many others) and was able to get into Steiner. What an interesting man. I am still a bit skeptical, but nevertheless many of his teachings are pure gold. And, interestingly, much of it corresponds in some way to the streams of Eastern thought I have come to love and follow.
So…
First of all, here are Steiner’s 10 commandments:
Gentleness
Reverence (Love)
Feeling
Stillness
Equanimity
Presence
Discernment (Truth)
Self-control
Surrender
Empowerment
… and now some rules for the path to higher knowledge...
Rule #1: Devotion to Truth
Willpower, truthfulness, earnestness.
Rule #2: Focus on the inner experience
Silence the outer life, let the inner life sing.
It is crazy how similar much of this is to the Recognition school of classical Tantra displayed by Christopher Wallis - for example the meditation on savoring the flavor of the experience and following its flow (without jumping to another experience) until it dissolves into stillness. Here Steiner says that "it is necessary that he should seek enjoyment, for only through enjoyment can the outer world reach him. [...] The student of higher knowledge considers enjoyment only as a means of ennobling himself for the world. Pleasure is to him as a scout informing him concerning the world; but once instructed by pleasure, he passes on to work. He does not learn in order to accumulate learning as his own treasure, but not to occupy in order that he may devote his learning to the service of the world."
Concerning knowledge, he continues: "Every knowledge pursued merely for the enrichment of personal learning and the accumulation of personal treasure, leads you away from the path; but all knowledge pursued for growth to ripeness within the process of human ennoblement and cosmic development, brings you a step forward." Or: "Every idea which does not become your ideal, slays a force in your soul; every idea which becomes your ideal, creates within you life-forces."
Rule #2.1: Develop inner tranquility
A sweet, bit naive/innocent/superficial description of meditation or meditative contemplation (compared to the Tantrik approach, for example) follows.
Rule #2.2: Cultivate clear thoughts (the soul's landscape)
This is pretty much parallel to pure vikalpas in Tantra. Steiner doesn't seem to seek to transcend them eventually, but rather let them become the inner landscape and source of wisdom (-> Pratibha?)
And now: Steiner's Spiritual Science.
"Spiritual science gives the means of developing the spiritual ears and eyes, and kindling the spiritual light"
Stage 1: Probation
Turning inside, deepening experience.
"A strict and definite cultivation of the life of thought and feeling through which the psychic-spiritual 'body' becomes equipped with organs of sense activity, in the same way that natural forces have fitted the physical body with organs built out of indeterminate living matter."
Practice: Having attention on the creation/unfolding/flourishing and the dissolution/fading/dying of events in the world. With a one-pointed attention, surrendering oneself to this one event/impression, "marinating" in the inner feeling-vibration that is evoked through the impression - listening to its flavor. What a parallel to Tantrik practice!
"Yet it must not be thought that much progress can be made if the senses are blunted to the world. First look at the things as keenly and as intently as you possibly can; then only let the feeling which expands to life, and the thought which arises in the soul, take procession of you. The point is that the attention should be directed with perfect inner balance, upon both phenomena."
The practicioner will be able to experience a new and deeper layer of thoughts and feelings. The more attention, the more vivid the soul's thoughts and feelings. Steiner says that growing and decaying evoke different kinds of inner feelings: That of a sunrise, and that of a moonrise, respectively. Surrendering to these feelings, one awakens to the "soul-world" or "astral plane", where the impressions of growth and decay transform into distinct spiritual lines and figures (with different forms for each phenomenon). This is the door into the next stage, that of perceiving "things which have no corresponding physical existence, and which therefore remain entirely hidden (occult) from those who have not received suitable instruction and training."
Important: No interpreting or intellectualizing. The student "should look out in the world with keen, healthy senses, and quickened power of observation, and then give himself up to the feeling that arises within him. He should not try to make out, through intellectual speculation, what the things mean, but rather allow the things themselves to tell him."
Steiner remarks that "artistic feeling" is the best condition for the development of spiritual faculties, surpassing superficiality into the depths of the things' secrets.
Also important: One should be clear about the veritable reality of feelings and thoughts: "In the soul- and thought-world, feelings and thoughts react upon each other just as physical objects react upon each other in the physical world. As long as the student is not vividly permeated with this consciousness, he will not believe that a wrong thought in his mind may have as devastating an effect upon other thoughts that spread life in the thought-world, as the effect wrought by a bullet fired at random, upon the physical objects it hits. He will perhaps never allow himself to perform a physically visible action which he considers to be wrong, though he will not shrink from harboring wrong thoughts and feelings, when these appear harmless to he rest of the world. There can be no progress, however, on the path to higher knowledge, unless we guard our thoughts and feelings in just the same way as we guard our steps in the physical world." - now if that isn't next level positive psychology!
Also: Conscious listening - especially to the sounds of living bodies. These not only produce a feeling in us, like all sounds, but also let us sense the inward experience of that living creature - the sound telling a story of experience that is outside one's own soul. The student then must unite his own feeling with the feeling of pleasure or pain that is perceived in the sound, disregarding personal attraction or aversion to the sound (this intermingling is easier for a person sensitive to music). Thus, "through her resounding tones, the whole of nature begins to whisper her secrets to the student. What was hitherto merely incomprehensible noise to his soul, will become by this means a coherent language of nature.“
Another part of listening consciously is also, of course, listening to others when they speak: it must be done with absolute inner silence, equanimity, and selflessness. „The student feels it his duty to listen, by way of practice, at certain times, to the most contradictory views, and, at the same time, entirely to bring to silence all assent, and, more especially, all adverse criticism.“ A wonderful way to practice this is to listen to children - „for even the wisest can learn incalculably much from children.“
Stage 2: Enlightenment
Beholding impermanence.
Continuing the process of the Probation stage, by deeply looking into the workings of nature (especially birth and death = impermanence), and sinking deeply into the inner feelings they evoke, one develops „spiritual eyes“. By this the world becomes „enlightened“: One starts to see the colors, lines and figures of the spiritual world, in the material world, and over time one also notices the spiritual beings.
The control of thoughts and feelings:
„Everyone must say to himself: ‚In my own world of thought and feeling, the deepest mysteries lie hidden, only hitherto I have been unable to perceive them.’ […] Hence it is highly important to give the proper direction to thoughts and feelings, for then only can the perception be developed of all that is invisible in ordinary life.“ One does this by concentrating thought and feeling on the invisible „force of life“ (= desire?) that is hidden inside all things, that makes them grow and unfold, express their nature, whither and die, recycle and create new life, and so on. Allowing the inner feeling coupled with this thought to sink in, an „inner force“ is awakened in the student, allowing new powers of perception.
While doing this kind of spiritual research, „it is necessary that the student should lose none of his qualities as a good and noble man, or his receptivity for all physical reality." „The necessity must be emphasized of maintaining unimpaired and of perpetually cultivating that healthy sound sense which distinguishes truth from illusion.“ This discernment is crucial, shaping the way for the "true path of knowledge".
Steiner mentions a golden rule of spiritual research: „For every one step that you take in the pursuit of higher knowledge, take three steps in the perfection of your own character.“ It seems that this is generally Steiner’s way of self-transformation: the „acquisition of knowledge is not the end, but the means to the end; the latter consists in the attainment, thanks to this knowledge of the higher worlds, of greater and truer self-confidence, of a higher degree of courage and magnanimity and perseverance such as cannot, as a rule, be acquired in the lower world.“ - in other words, EMPOWERMENT.
„Courage and self-confidence are two beacons which must never be extinguished on the path to higher knowledge. No one will ever travel far who cannot bring himself to repeat, over and over again, an exercise which has failed, apparently, for a countless number of times. Long before any distinct perception of progress, there rises, in the student, from the hidden depths of the soul, a feeling that he is on the right path. This feeling should be cherished and fostered, for it can develop into a trustworthy guide.“
Steiner also repeatedly mentions the importance of observing silence concerning one’s spiritual experiences, keeping it all for oneself. „Do not attempt to clothe in words what you contemplate in the spirit, or to pore over it with clumsy intellect. Lend yourself freely and without reservation to these spiritual impressions, and do not disturb them by reflecting and pondering over them too much. For you must remember that your reasoning faculties are, to begin with, by no means equal to your new experience."
Stage 3: Initiation
Developing higher wisdom.
There are multiple steps and trials the would-be Initiate must go through:
The 'Fire-Trial': „The would-be Initiate proceeds to learn how the objects of nature and being gifted with life manifest themselves to the spiritual ear and the spiritual eye. In a certain way, these things then lie disclosed - naked - before the beholder. The qualities which can then be seen and heard are concealed from the physical eyes and ears. For physical perception they are enwrapped as in a veil, and the falling away of this veil for the would-be Initiate consists in a process designated as the process of ‚Purification by Fire‘“ - wow, that sounds so yogic!
The new spiritual sign-language: „The candidate grows into clairvoyant knowledge, in an appropriate way, and, during this growth, a new strength is developed in his soul, as a new faculty, through which he feels himself impelled to decipher the occurrences and the beings of the spiritual world like characters of a writing.“ These „signs" correspond to the forms, colors, figures, etc which the student has learned to perceive in the Probation and Enlightenment stages. „He realized that all he learnt previously was only like learning how to spell, and that he is only now beginning to read in the higher worlds.“ This new language comes with certain rules of conduct and duties, allowing him to act „from out of the higher worlds“, for the good of humanity.
The ‚Water Trial": This inner call of duty moves the student to perform a specific action. „The nature of this action can be understood by means of the hidden writing with which he is now familiar. If he recognizes his duty and acts rightly, his Trial has been successful. The success can be recognized in the alteration produced by his actions in the figures, colors and tones apprehended by his spiritual eyes and ears.“ Without support from outward circumstances, the student is now „floating“ in his activity in the higher worlds, thus making this the ‚Water Trial‘.
Again, importance lies on the purity and inner authenticity of the activity: the student must not in any way introduce any personal ideas, feelings, desires, etc., or else the whole process would be distorted and the sight of the „goal" lost. It is all about the development of self-control - again, how yogic! Steiner here says that „anyone having acquired the faculty of following high principles and ideas, while putting into the background all personal predilection; anyone capable of always performing his duty, with inclinations and sympathies only too ready to seduce him from his duty - such a one is unconsciously an Initiate in the midst of ordinary life.“ One must by now have thoroughly cultivated his faculty of discernment in order to progress further on the path: „Every prejudice, every cherished opinion with regard to the things in question, must vanish; truth alone must guide. […] Dreamers and fantastical people are as unfit for the path to higher knowledge as superstitious people.“ „It is better for the student to be matter-of-fact than excitable and fantastic."
The ‚Air Trial‘: Without rules or goal, this 'indefinite' trial is about finding, sinking into and following the voice of the higher self, the spirit. Steiner says that here for the student „there is no time for doubt or hesitation. Every minute of hesitation would prove that he was still unfit. Whatever prevents him from listening to the voice of the spirit must be eradicated. It is a question of showing presence of mind in this situation, and the training at this stage is concerned with the perfect development of this quality.“ So one could call this the stage of conscious surrender - and it results in „a moment of supreme happiness“. In Tantrik terms, this seems to be the stage of finding ‚pratibha‘. And because there is even less hold and support as in the previous trials, this one is called the ‚Air Trial‘.
Entering the ‚Temple of Higher Wisdom‘, which includes:
The ‚draught of forgetfulness‘: Applying the higher knowledge for the service of humanity - but only this knowledge that springs forth from the spirit in every moment. All other knowledge, e.g. memory, opinions, etc, shall be laid aside, „forgotten". The Initiate „must have full faith in the immediate present." This doesn’t mean fully renouncing memory, but the „ability of judging every new experience wholly according to what is inherent in it, and of letting it react upon him, unobscured by the past. We must be prepared at every moment, that every object and every being shall bring to us some new revelation.“ - in other words, living in the moment with a ‚beginner’s mind‘. „Opinions“ shall only be formed once an absolute (spiritual) Truth has been realized.
The ‚draught of remembrance‘: The Initiate "acquires the faculty of retaining the knowledge of higher truths ever present in his soul.“
Steiner says: „We must unite ourselves and become as one with the higher truths. We must not only know them, but be able, quite as a matter of course, to manifest and administer them in living actions, even as we ordinarily eat and drink. They must become our practice, our habit, our inclination. There must be no need to keep thinking about them, in the ordinary sense: they must come to living expression through man himself; they must flow through him as the functions of life through his organism.“
What else?
* Patience and equanimity
* Integrity and self-honesty („There is only one way to get rid of faults and failings, and that is, by a just recognition of them“)
* Letting curiosity (as a selfish thirst for knowledge) fall away, only asking for knowledge in service of evolution (keeping the delight in and devotion to knowledge, but no attachment to the ends)
* Transforming desire through right knowledge, otherwise silencing it („Do not desire at all until you know what is right in any one sphere“)
* Getting rid of emotional/psychological hindrances: anger, timidity, superstition, prejudice, vanity, tendencies of preaching and judging
* Conscious speech (every word must be considered) and sensitivity in conversation (the person's state must be considered) - always thinking: „The importance lies not in the difference of our opinions but in his discovering what is right if I contribute something towards it"
* Gentleness
* Subtlety and depth of awareness (sinking into stillness) - but at the same time filtering out everything that is not in the focus of attention
* Acceptance
* Trust in goodness
* Environment supporting spiritual growth - preferably nature (which „develops the inner organs in a harmony which can never ensue in a modern city“)
* Studying sacred scripture
* Earnestness and dedication - personal willingness to go through struggle in order to find Truth
* Concentration and meditation
* Holistic Health: Advancement of bodily, mental and spiritual health („sound knowledge can alone proceed from sound human beings“), using pleasure (and pain) only as a means to improve health (= harmony) and wisdom (-> no indulgence and excitement, and no unauthentic renunciation)
* Interbeing: Feeling co-ordinated as a link in the whole of life, all as one (leading to compassion)
* Inner alignment: Thoughts and feelings are as important for the world (in a beneficial or destructive way) as actions
* Faith in spirit and its essentiality (vs. the physical world), allowing distinction between inner duty and outer success (one cannot be directly measured by the other), and finding a „spiritual balance“ between an „open heart for the needs of the outer world“ and an „inner fortitude and unfaltering endurance"
* Selfless steadfastness and perseverance in carrying out a resolution (coming out of Truth)
* Love for work: loving the action itself (the means), not the results (the ends)
* Gratitude
So what?
* Activation and alignment of the chakras - the beginning of clairvoyance, as the chakras are the sense organs of the soul
* Perception of specific desires, ideas, feelings, moods, and other aspects in other people in the form of (spiritual) colors, shapes, sensations, etc
* Perception of spiritual atmospheres of places
* Intercourse with beings of higher worlds
* Entering the spiritual world, allowing for a true understanding of spiritual truths and for the wisdom and will of the spiritual world to directly flow through into the physical world, acting for the benefit of all
* True discernment between truth and illusion
* Disconnecting and separating the powers of willing (desire), feeling, and thinking, and taking away their power (to evoke a reaction), resulting in true equanimity
* Unfolding inner freedom/liberation (from the illusion of individuality and its bounds)
* The ability to see one’s inner world as the outside world (turning inside-out) and to control it accordingly
* Direct knowledge of one’s higher Self (and thus realizing one’s immortality and oneness with everything)
* Coming alive and transformation of one’s dream life and fully lucid dreams - „the difference between dream and waking consciousness grows ever smaller"
Nice.
So…
First of all, here are Steiner’s 10 commandments:
Gentleness
Reverence (Love)
Feeling
Stillness
Equanimity
Presence
Discernment (Truth)
Self-control
Surrender
Empowerment
… and now some rules for the path to higher knowledge...
Rule #1: Devotion to Truth
Willpower, truthfulness, earnestness.
Rule #2: Focus on the inner experience
Silence the outer life, let the inner life sing.
It is crazy how similar much of this is to the Recognition school of classical Tantra displayed by Christopher Wallis - for example the meditation on savoring the flavor of the experience and following its flow (without jumping to another experience) until it dissolves into stillness. Here Steiner says that "it is necessary that he should seek enjoyment, for only through enjoyment can the outer world reach him. [...] The student of higher knowledge considers enjoyment only as a means of ennobling himself for the world. Pleasure is to him as a scout informing him concerning the world; but once instructed by pleasure, he passes on to work. He does not learn in order to accumulate learning as his own treasure, but not to occupy in order that he may devote his learning to the service of the world."
Concerning knowledge, he continues: "Every knowledge pursued merely for the enrichment of personal learning and the accumulation of personal treasure, leads you away from the path; but all knowledge pursued for growth to ripeness within the process of human ennoblement and cosmic development, brings you a step forward." Or: "Every idea which does not become your ideal, slays a force in your soul; every idea which becomes your ideal, creates within you life-forces."
Rule #2.1: Develop inner tranquility
A sweet, bit naive/innocent/superficial description of meditation or meditative contemplation (compared to the Tantrik approach, for example) follows.
Rule #2.2: Cultivate clear thoughts (the soul's landscape)
This is pretty much parallel to pure vikalpas in Tantra. Steiner doesn't seem to seek to transcend them eventually, but rather let them become the inner landscape and source of wisdom (-> Pratibha?)
And now: Steiner's Spiritual Science.
"Spiritual science gives the means of developing the spiritual ears and eyes, and kindling the spiritual light"
Stage 1: Probation
Turning inside, deepening experience.
"A strict and definite cultivation of the life of thought and feeling through which the psychic-spiritual 'body' becomes equipped with organs of sense activity, in the same way that natural forces have fitted the physical body with organs built out of indeterminate living matter."
Practice: Having attention on the creation/unfolding/flourishing and the dissolution/fading/dying of events in the world. With a one-pointed attention, surrendering oneself to this one event/impression, "marinating" in the inner feeling-vibration that is evoked through the impression - listening to its flavor. What a parallel to Tantrik practice!
"Yet it must not be thought that much progress can be made if the senses are blunted to the world. First look at the things as keenly and as intently as you possibly can; then only let the feeling which expands to life, and the thought which arises in the soul, take procession of you. The point is that the attention should be directed with perfect inner balance, upon both phenomena."
The practicioner will be able to experience a new and deeper layer of thoughts and feelings. The more attention, the more vivid the soul's thoughts and feelings. Steiner says that growing and decaying evoke different kinds of inner feelings: That of a sunrise, and that of a moonrise, respectively. Surrendering to these feelings, one awakens to the "soul-world" or "astral plane", where the impressions of growth and decay transform into distinct spiritual lines and figures (with different forms for each phenomenon). This is the door into the next stage, that of perceiving "things which have no corresponding physical existence, and which therefore remain entirely hidden (occult) from those who have not received suitable instruction and training."
Important: No interpreting or intellectualizing. The student "should look out in the world with keen, healthy senses, and quickened power of observation, and then give himself up to the feeling that arises within him. He should not try to make out, through intellectual speculation, what the things mean, but rather allow the things themselves to tell him."
Steiner remarks that "artistic feeling" is the best condition for the development of spiritual faculties, surpassing superficiality into the depths of the things' secrets.
Also important: One should be clear about the veritable reality of feelings and thoughts: "In the soul- and thought-world, feelings and thoughts react upon each other just as physical objects react upon each other in the physical world. As long as the student is not vividly permeated with this consciousness, he will not believe that a wrong thought in his mind may have as devastating an effect upon other thoughts that spread life in the thought-world, as the effect wrought by a bullet fired at random, upon the physical objects it hits. He will perhaps never allow himself to perform a physically visible action which he considers to be wrong, though he will not shrink from harboring wrong thoughts and feelings, when these appear harmless to he rest of the world. There can be no progress, however, on the path to higher knowledge, unless we guard our thoughts and feelings in just the same way as we guard our steps in the physical world." - now if that isn't next level positive psychology!
Also: Conscious listening - especially to the sounds of living bodies. These not only produce a feeling in us, like all sounds, but also let us sense the inward experience of that living creature - the sound telling a story of experience that is outside one's own soul. The student then must unite his own feeling with the feeling of pleasure or pain that is perceived in the sound, disregarding personal attraction or aversion to the sound (this intermingling is easier for a person sensitive to music). Thus, "through her resounding tones, the whole of nature begins to whisper her secrets to the student. What was hitherto merely incomprehensible noise to his soul, will become by this means a coherent language of nature.“
Another part of listening consciously is also, of course, listening to others when they speak: it must be done with absolute inner silence, equanimity, and selflessness. „The student feels it his duty to listen, by way of practice, at certain times, to the most contradictory views, and, at the same time, entirely to bring to silence all assent, and, more especially, all adverse criticism.“ A wonderful way to practice this is to listen to children - „for even the wisest can learn incalculably much from children.“
Stage 2: Enlightenment
Beholding impermanence.
Continuing the process of the Probation stage, by deeply looking into the workings of nature (especially birth and death = impermanence), and sinking deeply into the inner feelings they evoke, one develops „spiritual eyes“. By this the world becomes „enlightened“: One starts to see the colors, lines and figures of the spiritual world, in the material world, and over time one also notices the spiritual beings.
The control of thoughts and feelings:
„Everyone must say to himself: ‚In my own world of thought and feeling, the deepest mysteries lie hidden, only hitherto I have been unable to perceive them.’ […] Hence it is highly important to give the proper direction to thoughts and feelings, for then only can the perception be developed of all that is invisible in ordinary life.“ One does this by concentrating thought and feeling on the invisible „force of life“ (= desire?) that is hidden inside all things, that makes them grow and unfold, express their nature, whither and die, recycle and create new life, and so on. Allowing the inner feeling coupled with this thought to sink in, an „inner force“ is awakened in the student, allowing new powers of perception.
While doing this kind of spiritual research, „it is necessary that the student should lose none of his qualities as a good and noble man, or his receptivity for all physical reality." „The necessity must be emphasized of maintaining unimpaired and of perpetually cultivating that healthy sound sense which distinguishes truth from illusion.“ This discernment is crucial, shaping the way for the "true path of knowledge".
Steiner mentions a golden rule of spiritual research: „For every one step that you take in the pursuit of higher knowledge, take three steps in the perfection of your own character.“ It seems that this is generally Steiner’s way of self-transformation: the „acquisition of knowledge is not the end, but the means to the end; the latter consists in the attainment, thanks to this knowledge of the higher worlds, of greater and truer self-confidence, of a higher degree of courage and magnanimity and perseverance such as cannot, as a rule, be acquired in the lower world.“ - in other words, EMPOWERMENT.
„Courage and self-confidence are two beacons which must never be extinguished on the path to higher knowledge. No one will ever travel far who cannot bring himself to repeat, over and over again, an exercise which has failed, apparently, for a countless number of times. Long before any distinct perception of progress, there rises, in the student, from the hidden depths of the soul, a feeling that he is on the right path. This feeling should be cherished and fostered, for it can develop into a trustworthy guide.“
Steiner also repeatedly mentions the importance of observing silence concerning one’s spiritual experiences, keeping it all for oneself. „Do not attempt to clothe in words what you contemplate in the spirit, or to pore over it with clumsy intellect. Lend yourself freely and without reservation to these spiritual impressions, and do not disturb them by reflecting and pondering over them too much. For you must remember that your reasoning faculties are, to begin with, by no means equal to your new experience."
Stage 3: Initiation
Developing higher wisdom.
There are multiple steps and trials the would-be Initiate must go through:
The 'Fire-Trial': „The would-be Initiate proceeds to learn how the objects of nature and being gifted with life manifest themselves to the spiritual ear and the spiritual eye. In a certain way, these things then lie disclosed - naked - before the beholder. The qualities which can then be seen and heard are concealed from the physical eyes and ears. For physical perception they are enwrapped as in a veil, and the falling away of this veil for the would-be Initiate consists in a process designated as the process of ‚Purification by Fire‘“ - wow, that sounds so yogic!
The new spiritual sign-language: „The candidate grows into clairvoyant knowledge, in an appropriate way, and, during this growth, a new strength is developed in his soul, as a new faculty, through which he feels himself impelled to decipher the occurrences and the beings of the spiritual world like characters of a writing.“ These „signs" correspond to the forms, colors, figures, etc which the student has learned to perceive in the Probation and Enlightenment stages. „He realized that all he learnt previously was only like learning how to spell, and that he is only now beginning to read in the higher worlds.“ This new language comes with certain rules of conduct and duties, allowing him to act „from out of the higher worlds“, for the good of humanity.
The ‚Water Trial": This inner call of duty moves the student to perform a specific action. „The nature of this action can be understood by means of the hidden writing with which he is now familiar. If he recognizes his duty and acts rightly, his Trial has been successful. The success can be recognized in the alteration produced by his actions in the figures, colors and tones apprehended by his spiritual eyes and ears.“ Without support from outward circumstances, the student is now „floating“ in his activity in the higher worlds, thus making this the ‚Water Trial‘.
Again, importance lies on the purity and inner authenticity of the activity: the student must not in any way introduce any personal ideas, feelings, desires, etc., or else the whole process would be distorted and the sight of the „goal" lost. It is all about the development of self-control - again, how yogic! Steiner here says that „anyone having acquired the faculty of following high principles and ideas, while putting into the background all personal predilection; anyone capable of always performing his duty, with inclinations and sympathies only too ready to seduce him from his duty - such a one is unconsciously an Initiate in the midst of ordinary life.“ One must by now have thoroughly cultivated his faculty of discernment in order to progress further on the path: „Every prejudice, every cherished opinion with regard to the things in question, must vanish; truth alone must guide. […] Dreamers and fantastical people are as unfit for the path to higher knowledge as superstitious people.“ „It is better for the student to be matter-of-fact than excitable and fantastic."
The ‚Air Trial‘: Without rules or goal, this 'indefinite' trial is about finding, sinking into and following the voice of the higher self, the spirit. Steiner says that here for the student „there is no time for doubt or hesitation. Every minute of hesitation would prove that he was still unfit. Whatever prevents him from listening to the voice of the spirit must be eradicated. It is a question of showing presence of mind in this situation, and the training at this stage is concerned with the perfect development of this quality.“ So one could call this the stage of conscious surrender - and it results in „a moment of supreme happiness“. In Tantrik terms, this seems to be the stage of finding ‚pratibha‘. And because there is even less hold and support as in the previous trials, this one is called the ‚Air Trial‘.
Entering the ‚Temple of Higher Wisdom‘, which includes:
The ‚draught of forgetfulness‘: Applying the higher knowledge for the service of humanity - but only this knowledge that springs forth from the spirit in every moment. All other knowledge, e.g. memory, opinions, etc, shall be laid aside, „forgotten". The Initiate „must have full faith in the immediate present." This doesn’t mean fully renouncing memory, but the „ability of judging every new experience wholly according to what is inherent in it, and of letting it react upon him, unobscured by the past. We must be prepared at every moment, that every object and every being shall bring to us some new revelation.“ - in other words, living in the moment with a ‚beginner’s mind‘. „Opinions“ shall only be formed once an absolute (spiritual) Truth has been realized.
The ‚draught of remembrance‘: The Initiate "acquires the faculty of retaining the knowledge of higher truths ever present in his soul.“
Steiner says: „We must unite ourselves and become as one with the higher truths. We must not only know them, but be able, quite as a matter of course, to manifest and administer them in living actions, even as we ordinarily eat and drink. They must become our practice, our habit, our inclination. There must be no need to keep thinking about them, in the ordinary sense: they must come to living expression through man himself; they must flow through him as the functions of life through his organism.“
What else?
* Patience and equanimity
* Integrity and self-honesty („There is only one way to get rid of faults and failings, and that is, by a just recognition of them“)
* Letting curiosity (as a selfish thirst for knowledge) fall away, only asking for knowledge in service of evolution (keeping the delight in and devotion to knowledge, but no attachment to the ends)
* Transforming desire through right knowledge, otherwise silencing it („Do not desire at all until you know what is right in any one sphere“)
* Getting rid of emotional/psychological hindrances: anger, timidity, superstition, prejudice, vanity, tendencies of preaching and judging
* Conscious speech (every word must be considered) and sensitivity in conversation (the person's state must be considered) - always thinking: „The importance lies not in the difference of our opinions but in his discovering what is right if I contribute something towards it"
* Gentleness
* Subtlety and depth of awareness (sinking into stillness) - but at the same time filtering out everything that is not in the focus of attention
* Acceptance
* Trust in goodness
* Environment supporting spiritual growth - preferably nature (which „develops the inner organs in a harmony which can never ensue in a modern city“)
* Studying sacred scripture
* Earnestness and dedication - personal willingness to go through struggle in order to find Truth
* Concentration and meditation
* Holistic Health: Advancement of bodily, mental and spiritual health („sound knowledge can alone proceed from sound human beings“), using pleasure (and pain) only as a means to improve health (= harmony) and wisdom (-> no indulgence and excitement, and no unauthentic renunciation)
* Interbeing: Feeling co-ordinated as a link in the whole of life, all as one (leading to compassion)
* Inner alignment: Thoughts and feelings are as important for the world (in a beneficial or destructive way) as actions
* Faith in spirit and its essentiality (vs. the physical world), allowing distinction between inner duty and outer success (one cannot be directly measured by the other), and finding a „spiritual balance“ between an „open heart for the needs of the outer world“ and an „inner fortitude and unfaltering endurance"
* Selfless steadfastness and perseverance in carrying out a resolution (coming out of Truth)
* Love for work: loving the action itself (the means), not the results (the ends)
* Gratitude
So what?
* Activation and alignment of the chakras - the beginning of clairvoyance, as the chakras are the sense organs of the soul
* Perception of specific desires, ideas, feelings, moods, and other aspects in other people in the form of (spiritual) colors, shapes, sensations, etc
* Perception of spiritual atmospheres of places
* Intercourse with beings of higher worlds
* Entering the spiritual world, allowing for a true understanding of spiritual truths and for the wisdom and will of the spiritual world to directly flow through into the physical world, acting for the benefit of all
* True discernment between truth and illusion
* Disconnecting and separating the powers of willing (desire), feeling, and thinking, and taking away their power (to evoke a reaction), resulting in true equanimity
* Unfolding inner freedom/liberation (from the illusion of individuality and its bounds)
* The ability to see one’s inner world as the outside world (turning inside-out) and to control it accordingly
* Direct knowledge of one’s higher Self (and thus realizing one’s immortality and oneness with everything)
* Coming alive and transformation of one’s dream life and fully lucid dreams - „the difference between dream and waking consciousness grows ever smaller"
Nice.
skahn's review against another edition
3.0
This is "occult" science. The pursuit of truth behind appearances is at the heart if any real religion or philosophy or science. This book is a practical manual for training the mind to perceive not just sense-perceptions but also to recognize activities occurring between physical objects. Steiner unfolds a Western articulation of the Perennial Philosophy (Huxley) before Huxley. This 1909 book is an extraction of the core of mystical Christianity, Mahayana Buddhism, and Theosophy. It discusses crystals and auras and preempts the false New Age fantasies concerning such things. In reality, a "blue" aura is no color at all and is completely invisible; recognizing an aura is feeling the same emotion that the same color imposes through the eyes. A "blue" aura is an analogous spiritual feeling to the physical seeing of blue. Crystal contemplation is not fortune-telling but part of a series of simple mental exercises comparing mineral, vegetable, and animal.
Much of the book is cautionary. It gives you simple and SAFE exercises to develop Eastern wisdom for Western lives. I personally have engaged a self-forged path that proved unsafe. I wish I had read this first.
Much of the book is cautionary. It gives you simple and SAFE exercises to develop Eastern wisdom for Western lives. I personally have engaged a self-forged path that proved unsafe. I wish I had read this first.
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