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It is not enough that I show respect only in my outward bearing; I must have this respect in my thoughts. Quite unnoticed by the outer world is the treading of the Path of Knowledge. No change need be noticed in the student. There remains only one question - how to set to work to develop such faculties.
But whoever seeks higher knowledge, must create it for himself, instil it into his soul through life. It cannot be done by theoretical study. The desire to enjoy impression after impression merely blunts the faculty of cognition. They can best hold their heads erect, who have learnt to venerate where veneration is due; and veneration is always due when it flows from the depths of the heart. Instead of working inwardly [in contempation], it is very easy to fall into the opposite habit of trying to exploit the enjoyment.
But unforeseen sources of error here confront the student. He must pass through a host of tempters of his soul. The secret of Initiation can only be understood by those who have to a certain degree experienced this Initiation. What was once a childish veneration for persons, becomes, later, a veneration for truth and knowledge. When passing through a beautiful mountain district, the traveller with depth of soul and wealth of feeling has different experiences from one who is poor in feeling.
Through the powers of enjoyment a measure of sympathy is made FOR THE attainment of knowledge and proficiency in the higher worlds, there is no obstacle for those who earnestly seek them. All who seek the right way can become esoteric students, and even teachers. No word of esoteric knowledge shall be imparted to anyone not qualified to receive it. Reverence awakens a sympathetic power. The [next-levelled] student undertakes, by rigorous self-education, to create within himself this inner life of devotion. Our civilisation tends more towards critical judgment, and condemnation, than towards devotion But every criticism, every adverse judgment passed, disperses the powers of the soul.
The student learns to give himself up less and less to impressions of the outer world, and to develop instead a vivid inner life. If he blunts himself to enjoyment, he becomes as a plant. He will only be something to himself. Gist We should all learn to heart-enjoy a whole lot - to stay healthy too. To develop knowledge, vivify yourself also. It can at least in part be done through art. And through the powers of enjoyment a measure of sympathy is made. Heart-enjoy with ease to develop budding knowledge, and the power of sympathy is added to it in time, says Rudolf Steiner.
For the student in spiritual training in the sense of modern spiritual conditions much more emphasis should be laid on the complete and immediate connection with the objective spiritual world than any relation to the person of a teacher. Inner Tranquillity Not weariness, but strength to live should spring from meditation.
The state of calm and serenity renders an orderly development possible. This higher man may in time grow to direct the circumstances of the outer man well. They assist the growth of the inner man, and those faculties which lead to higher knowledge. No teacher of the spiritual life wishes to establish a mastery over other persons by means of.
He would not tamper with any person's independence. Adapt each one of your actions, and frame each one of your words in such a way that you infringe upon no man's free-will. Set aside a small part of his daily life for contemplation. These secluded moments may give him strength to perform daily tasks better and more wisely. Much depends on how these five minutes are spent. Each individual can only himself awaken this higher being within him.
As long as this higher being is not made to stir, higher, latent faculties leading to supersensible knowledge, will remain concealed. The "bundle of habits", is the "son of man" that stands in need of development into a god or something - has to be "lifted". It is gospel teachings we are into, and Dr. Steiner has his views on how to lift up "the son of man" - TK Observation: If a heavy misfortune befalls us, how different would be our attitude towards a similar misfortune, had it befallen our neighbour! The student must seek the power of confronting his own self, at certain times, as a stranger.
When this is attained, our own experiences present themselves in a new light. And no change need take place in the outward life in consequence of this new rule. He performs his duties, and, at first, feels the same joys, sorrows and experiences as before. In no way can it estrange him from life; he can rather devote himself the more thoroughly to this life, having gained a higher life in the moments set apart.
The tranquillity of the moments set apart will affect also everyday existence - he will grow calmer, he will attain firm assurance in all his actions,. He will soon discover how great a source of strength is available to him. Through the calm inner survey, the essential is severed from the non-essential. The value of such inner tranquil self-contemplation depends much on our finding within ourselves the power which such inner tranquillity develops. At a certain stage he will have to disengage himself and pass on to the contemplation of those things which would concern him.
Through this he at times feels and realizes, as an inner experience, that he belongs to higher worlds or a better fare. He listens to the voices within him in his moments of tranquillity; as an intercourse with the spiritual world, while all around him there is deep silence.
Calm inward contemplation and converse with the purely spiritual world fill his soul. He must develop a living feeling for this silent thought-activity and cease to feel that this thought-world is less real than the everyday things around him. A new life begins for him. New Life Had Through Meditation Getting good at meditation or contemplation helps you to develop mind-aspects.
Modern science tells it too. And so do those who are tuned in to Great Being and ascertain through It. Such Being Installation may come in stages. To some it comes suddenly, to others barely noticeably. One should be aware of that. There are thoughts to contemplate on THIS LIFE of the soul in thought, which gradually widens into a life in spiritual being, is contemplative reflection or meditation , and a means to supersensible knowledge. In contemplative moments his thoughts must be clear, sharp and definite. He may be helped in this if he does not cling blindly to the thou1 ghts that rise within him.
He can take as his starting point writings which themselves have their origin in revelation during meditation - to meditate on too. Meditation is the way which also leads man to the greatness of his eternal, indestructible, essential being. Many things acquire a fresh value for him. And the most insignificant experience which offers itself to him, stand in connection with cosmic beings and cosmic events.
His labour and his suffering are given and endured for the sake of a great, spiritual, cosmic whole. By means of meditation, man rises to be united with the spirit. The existence of this eternal being can only be doubted by those who have not themselves experienced it. Right means must be chosen. Only a being with ears and eyes can apprehend sounds and colours, and Spiritual Science gives the means of developing spiritual ears and eyes, in these stages: Probation ; this develops the spiritual senses.
Enlightenment ; this kindles the spiritual light. Initiation ; this establishes intercourse with the higher spiritual beings. Installation - it can be of encouragement, efficient nurture, friendship, organizational talent and other talents, etc. Gist Find suitable thoughts to meditate ruminate on. Some sounds or thoughts help the mind in turning inwards. Proficiency in this helps mental developments of different sorts.
Better or more precise thinking and work may or should follow. An old and generally suitable way of meditating on words is called mantra yoga in India. The fostered inward-making helps both thinking and works - some of the ways are not secret either. He once asked a student, a certain Mr. Sanctuary, to see him after the lecture. The young man, wondering what misdemeanor he had committed, approached Pater's desk with some trepidation. Pater, however, appeared equally ill at ease and seemed not to know what to say. I wanted to say to you. Max Beerbohm once asked Oscar Wilde if he had heard Pater lecture and got the response: The words to meditate on differ.
It helps, depending on the chosen syllables and how they are said, according to old teachings. An offering [ read: The two Pater anecdotes serves to indicate that nice words take you aside or into the Sanctuary of your inner sides aspects , and that you should go all the way and talk mentally only, eventually to make a difference - hopefully.
Earnest and persevering pursuit may lead on. Remember the four stages of real advancement [above]. It is not altogether necessary that the first stage should be completed before the second can be begun, and so on, nor that the second, in turn, be completed before the third be started. But for the purpose of describing them, the stages are made to follow in turn. First the attention of the soul is directed to certain events in the world that surrounds us.
You should fix your attention intently and seek to surrender yourself, for a short time, to the one preferred impression. Through it, a soul feeling now swells, and you must now allow this feeling to reverberate quietly. Simply and solely follow what your soul tells you of this blossoming and flourishing. 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, envelop you. The attention should be directed on both phenomena. Then, in due time, new and different thoughts and feelings will emerge from deep inside.
If the attention be frequently fixed on the phenomena of growing, blooming and flourishing, a feeling remotely allied to the sensation of a sunrise will ensue. Lines and Figures GROWTH and decay now form into spiritual lines and figures, and these lines and figures have different forms for the different phenomena. The spiritual scientist describes or draws the spiritual forms of the processes of growth and decay, according to species and kind.
The student must never lose himself in speculations on the meaning of one thing or another.
It may bring him or her away from the right road. That artistic feeling, when coupled with a quiet introspective nature, helps in developing spiritual faculties. This feeling pierces shallowness and touches inward secrets. In the soul- and thought-world, feelings and thoughts react on each other. A wrong thought may have as devastating an effect on other thoughts in the thought-world. One should shrink from harbouring wrong thoughts and feelings. We are to guard our thoughts and feelings and even forbid ourselves to harbour wrong thoughts and feelings.
If we regulate our inner life in this way, we shall soon find ourselves becoming rich in feelings and creative with genuine imagination. It should help to discriminate between sounds that are produced by the so-called inert lifeless bodies, and those from a living creature. Concentrate your whole attention on the fact that the sound tells you of something that lies outside your own will. Closely unite your own feeling with the pleasure or pain of which the sound tells you. Get beyond the point of caring whether the sound is pleasant or unpleasant for yourself, or agreeable or disagreeable; your soul must be filled with whatever is transpiring in the being from which the sound proceeds.
When this exercise is systematically and deliberately performed, you will develop the faculty of intermingling, as it were, with the being from which the sound proceeds. A person sensitive to music will find it easier to cultivate his inner life in this way. You must learn to feel in this way in the face of the whole of nature. Thereby a new faculty of sensing is implanted. Through resounding tones, nature begins to inform secrets to you, by what in time looks like a quite coherent language of nature - the language of the soul. Note and observe how you listen to others. Accustom yourself to do this so that your inner self is altogether silent.
Deliberately select to do it by yourself. Then quite slowly and by degrees, this new way of listening will creep into your habits, as of itself. This is systematically practised: At certain times try to listen to the most contradictory views while silencing all assent and adverse criticism inside you.
All purely intellectual judgment is to be silenced, and all feelings of displeasure, denial or dissent. Also, suppress every feeling of greater knowledge or superiority. It is useful for everyone to listen in this way to children, for even the wisest can learn incalculably much from children. When you practise listening and observing without criticism into the soul of others, sound becomes a vehicle or medium for a perception of soul and spirit. Gradually truths reveal themselves from the spiritual world. You hear speech uttered to you in a spiritual way.
Only to those who, by selfless listening, train themselves to be really recipient in stillness, unmoved by personal opinion or feeling, only to such can the higher beings speak Higher truths are attained through such 'inwardly instilled speech'. What we hear from the lips of a true spiritual teacher, has been experienced by him in this manner. It is the heart. Colours and Thoughts Enlightenment is a matter of developing certain feelings and thoughts. When certain simple processes are carried out with great patience, they can lead to the perception of subtle, "inner" light-forms.
You should endeavour, at first, to direct your whole attention to comparing the stone with the animal in the following manner. The thoughts mentioned here are to pass through your soul accompanied by vivid feelings, and no other thought, no other feeling, must mingle with them and disturb what should be an intensely attentive observation.
You say to yourself: The stone remains motionless in its place. The animal changes its place. Its organs and limbs are fashioned. The form of the stone is not fashioned in accordance with desires, but in accordance with desireless force. From the stone there flows into the soul the one kind of feeling, and from the animal the other kind. The attempt will probably not succeed at first, but. Later on they continue and grow to something which remains living in the soul. You have then only to reflect, and both the feelings will always arise. Out of these feelings and the thoughts that are bound up with them, the organs of clairvoyance are formed.
The organs thus formed are spiritual eyes. You gradually learn, by their means, to see something like psychic and spiritual colours. The spiritual world, with its lines and figures, remains dark. It must be noted that the words 'dark' and 'light', as well as the other expressions used, do but approximately describe what is meant.
This cannot be otherwise. In reality colours of a spiritual kind are seen. The colour proceeding from the plant is green, which little by little, resolves itself into a light ethereal pink. The plant is actually that product of nature which in higher worlds resembles, in certain respects, its constitution in the physical world. The same does not apply to the stone and the animal.
The above-mentioned colours only represent the principal shades in the stone, plant and animal kingdoms. Still looking back, I know subtle changes did take place. The book does require a lot of introspection, and that is why it is hard to rate it as one would rate a book on its entertainment or literary merit. Dec 19, Holly McIntyre rated it liked it. It is interesting to find all the accoutrements of s New Age endeavors in a book first published in !
Meditation, chakras, auras, spirit bodies -- the whole shebang. The translation from the German was less than crystal clear, although I do not know if that is because of terminology or the ideas themselves. While I find the text too impenetrable to be useful for my own spiritual growth, it is an intriguing artifact in the history of culture and ideas. Feb 26, Rina Tirtz rated it did not like it. Reminder that some religious beliefs that are against proper medication have killed many innocent yet ignorant people and those that force these ideals HAVE to stop and research actual biology or seek professional doctors and not con-artists that will lie in your face that your body's bad health is important for your magical powers.
Jun 12, Mari rated it it was amazing. This is a great way to listen to this book. Having it on tape made me understand it in a different way, and I listened to it over and over. This book really changed my life because it has exercises in it, that when applied, really work! I cannot recommend this enough, for any student of Anthroposophy, or someone interested in learning about the path of Anthroposophy.
Although the language may challange the reader from time to time, the knowledge inside this book is a real gem for the individuals walking on the spiritual path A really, really good book that prepares the student and demystifies a lot of rumors and stigma from non-Occultists.
This right here is the seed bed of the Late New Age.
People who think channeling disembodied entities is beneficial for humanity. If this is you, put Higher Worlds on your kindle. A weird thing though is that, unlike everything in the Late New Age, there's a bit of empirical heft to the teachings here. It's a little bit grounded. And some of what is being transm This right here is the seed bed of the Late New Age. And some of what is being transmitted here is a little bit real. There is a legitimate energy in the text.
And something even more striking: Steiner wrote this before the first World War.
The only really meaningful experience of this book for me was an attempt to empathize with the awareness that could have produced it. The spiritual world, with its lines and figures, remains dark. The results of supersensible knowledge, when properly employed in life, prove to be not impractical, but rather, practical in the highest sense An Introduction to Eurythmy. A spiritual flame-form will be distinguished, creating an impression of yellow in the centre and green at the edges. There remains only one question - how to set to work to develop such faculties.
Whole worlds away in terms of culture and consciousness. The only really meaningful experience of this book for me was an attempt to empathize with the awareness that could have produced it. The late edition's serial prefaces aid in this. Steiner's a weirdo, but still demonstrates a creative spiritual intelligence that truly inspires. Some of his personal understanding of layers of consciousness connects with insights that career meditators and hallucinators would not write about for many decades to come.
The intelligent combination of mental clarity and spacious awareness makes for a tolerable read even when he gets a little lost in his own idiolect. His constant exhortation that clairvoyant play MUST NOT take one away from daily life helps explain the worldly legacy he left through writing and institution building, and in this there is a sort of early 20th century grit amid all the chakra spinning.
But to what end? Ultimately Steiner seems to think clairvoyance is a gift from the dubious disembodied ghosts of the astral realms. The book is a preparation to make yourself into a channel for whatever or whoever wants to borrow your bodymind. That's awfully sketchy, especially given Steiner's exhortation not to depend on a teacher but to open up your consciousness to random occupation.
That said, who knows, maybe the astral realms weren't such a dive bar a hundred years back. Some of the techniques Steiner offers for dilating the upper chakras are genuinely creative and for that context. His warnings against cult tendencies and loss of personal responsibility are more than a little prescient with Crowley and the Theosophists on the horizon. Though I do expect some spacey readers of this book have ended up far dumber as a result of reading it, it is wonderful to imagine how readers a hundred years ago might have been opened up to new feelings of the cosmos as a result of Steiner's - well -clairvoyance.
View all 5 comments. This was one of the first books that led me to spirituality and still remember its first sentence by heart: Eager to experience some of this hidden potential within me, I immediately put some of it to practice, for example about observing the forces of death and life in everything. I This was one of the first books that led me to spirituality and still remember its first sentence by heart: I also really liked the chapter on chakras, and how they are slowly developing in us accordingly to our inner merits.
How, for example by lying, the petals of some of these chakras become crooked and don't develop harmoniously, which then causes us to have twisted perception of the higher worlds. However, after a while I realized that it didn't provide very detailed descriptions or methods to achieve inner transformation and awakening, maybe due to the time it was published, where some things had still to be kept hidden.
Despite the mentioned limitations, I found a lot of truth in this book and would definitely recommend it to anyone just starting to delve into the mysteries of higher worlds. Feb 08, Stewart rated it it was amazing Shelves: 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.
This book is an extraction of the core of mystical Christianity, Mahayana Buddhism, and Theosophy. It discusses c This is "occult" science. 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. I personally have engaged a self-forged path that proved unsafe. I wish I had read this first.
Jul 03, Henk rated it really liked it. Steiner's works are dense and complex and voluminous. This text offers a good cross-section of his essential teachings. Aimed at readers who wish to apply what is put forwards. This book covers many topics that are often too widely defined in popular esoterics. Like Lujan Matus , Steiner foregoes a mass-market appeal text in favor of getting things clear.
What if the internet never existed and cocaine-fueled quacks were given legitimate platforms?
Well, welcome to the true sub-text of Waldorf education! However, they pretend to be interested in the education of children, solely for their own eugenic means. Waldorf is a cult! Rudolph Steiner was a drug-addicted lunatic with racist affiliations. View all 3 comments. The fourth Steiner book I've read and one of the most straight-forward. Made a lot of good points and always has an interesting and thought provoking perspective.
I enjoyed reading this, i like the ideas. Unlike Bees and Agriculture, this is not a series of lectures. Organized as a progression from the starting point as a novice this book doesn't have the asides that the lectures experienced by fielding questions from the audience. Jul 15, Lord rated it it was amazing Shelves: One of the essential books by Rudolf Steiner. A must for anyone interested in anthroposophy or spiritual growth. My son starts at a Waldorf school this fall, so I thought I'd read some Steiner.
Happened to have an ancient copy of this one on my shelf. No idea how I got it. Sep 19, Joseph Voelbel rated it it was amazing. A very illumined exposition on the path to initiation replete with discernible truths for the betterment of self. An excellent piece for anyone desiring to be, "A servant of the world and humanity. Oct 11, Tom Evans rated it it was amazing. If you want to tune in, this is the manual of how to do it. Just wait until you meet the Lesser and Greater Guardians of the Gate!!
May 25, Peter Mills rated it did not like it. Jan 31, Matthew is currently reading it. If you start reading this and you think "this dude is out there", well, you might be right, but take some time with it. And then call me and we'll chat. Feb 01, Shawn Brady rated it it was amazing Shelves: German author covers chakra clearing and levels of awareness. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. He is not a moonchild and a dreamer only, nor is he a scientist walking us through his experimental results. In a nutshell, he claims to be able to teach clairvoyance.
Steiner himself pre-empts our doubts about his work at the outset by explaining that it is scientific knowledge for someone who has developed the same abilities as he has, but to those who have not developed those abilities they must take his claims somewhat on faith. So this rhetorical double-bind leaves us relying on feelings and interactions to assess his work. Not a good start. His path to cognitive verification involves feeling and making time for reflective veneration, devotion, wonder and awe. He says that recollection, quiet time, and tranquility - essentially the Buddhist idea of shamatha - helps develop supersensible cognition.
He says we should develop spiritual ears and eyes - whatever that means - in order to verify his findings. Chapter two concerns developing these organs of cognition in three stages.