mikekatz wrote: ↑Wed Nov 10, 2021 6:23 pm
AshvinP wrote: ↑Sun Oct 03, 2021 3:37 pm
1 - Why do we find no discussion of this infinitely self-deepening nature of Thinking activity which Steiner discusses below:
The reason why we generally overlook thinking in our consideration of things has already been given. It lies in the fact that our attention is concentrated only on the object we are thinking about, but not at the same time on the thinking itself... The observation of a table, or a tree, occurs in me as soon as these objects appear upon the horizon of my experience. Yet I do not, at the same time, observe my thinking about these things. I observe the table, and I carry out the thinking about the table, but I do not at the same moment observe this. I must first take up a standpoint outside my own activity if, in addition to observing the table, I want also to observe my thinking about the table.
This is apparent even from the way in which we express our thoughts about an object, as distinct from our feelings or acts of will. When I see an object and recognize it as a table, I do not as a rule say, “I am thinking of a table,” but, “this is a table.” On the other hand, I do say, “I am pleased with the table.” This is just the peculiar nature of thinking, that the thinker forgets his thinking while actually engaged in it. What occupies his attention is not his thinking, but the object of his thinking, which he is observing...
The reason why we do not observe the thinking that goes on in our ordinary life is none other than this, that it is due to our own activity... I am, moreover, in the same position when I enter into the exceptional state and reflect on my own thinking. I can never observe my present thinking; I can only subsequently take my experiences of my thinking process as the object of fresh thinking. If I wanted to watch my present thinking, I should have to split myself into two persons, one to think, the other to observe this thinking. But this I cannot do. There are two things which are incompatible with one another: productive activity and the simultaneous contemplation of it.
- Rudolf Steiner, The Philosophy of Freedom (1895)
I don't agree. On the contrary, I find "productive activity and the simultaneous contemplation of it" not only achievable, but in fact necessary, to understand the role of consciousness. It's the basis of Buddhist Mindfulness, Krishnamurti's Choiceless Awareness, Advaita as per Rupert Spira, Ramana Maharshi, and many others, and Gurdjieff and Ouspensky's Self-Remembering.
Hey Mike,
First, we should be clear that Steiner is
not saying that the simultaneous contemplation is impossible in principle, but rather that it is in our
current mode of representational intellectual cognition from where his phenomenology begins. Second, Cleric has written extensively on what you are referring to above, and Steiner in PoF is really pointing to the stages of productive spiritual activity which only
begin where the the people you mention above
end (I am not so sure about Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, though).
Cleric wrote:Here a question might be raised: "But Eastern practices lead to the pretty much the same results, even thought they don't focus on spiritual activity but on quiet contemplation and dissociation from the soul content. In this way I'm able to recognize these same deterring factors and become liberated from their influences. Now I can easily quiet the mind and desires, and spend long time in perfect stillness". Up to a point this is true. I myself have gone through yogic practices in the past - both physical and spiritual. (As a personal side note, I don't draw only on anthroposphy. Certainly spiritual science is my main path for the development of cognition but for the practical application of the Sun impulse in life, I have other sources too.) As far as it is all about mastering chaotic thoughts and desires, there are lots of different paths that can lead to that result. But it is precisely if we have attained this level of perfection that the mentioned 'postponing' already becomes an important issue.
Let me put this way. The principle that we must exercise our spiritual activity in order to become conscious of the spiritual environment holds true on all levels. I guess this is pretty understandable from the examples of smoking and concentration, even for people with no experience in spiritual practices. The interesting stuff happens once the quietness and serenity of soul is achieved. It is at this point where one becomes, for example, spiritual teacher like, say, Rupert Spira. One has attained to the grounds of Consciousness and he now can give Light to other souls, so that they can also achieve mastery and then peace and immensity.
At this stage it already makes real difference if one will continue to work with focused spiritual activity because in this case we are really on our way to the higher worlds.
It is not true that once we attain to peace, serenity, Love, joy, we have already done our job. Just as with smoking and concentration, if we continue with concentration of the spirit - the Universal Creative - we soon find out that even in these states of quiet and blissful contemplation, seemingly completely free of egoic elements, we're still flowing along certain, admittedly, higher order currents. But they are still currents. And as any other, we need to differentiate from them in order to become conscious of them. In the sea of serenity we no longer have any means to become conscious of these currents because we have cleared out all sources of noise and distractions. We're completely at one with the blissful flow of Consciousness. And this is precisely the issue. Unless we find a form of even higher order spiritual activity, we can never become conscious that this blissful flow is only one of the many more layers of the Worlds within which we are embedded.
When we continue our active concentration, even when in the midst of stillness and serenity, our discoveries continue. Just as our ordinary concentration becomes, in a sense, an organ for perception for all these things that work against our spiritual intent, so through the sustained concentration of our creative spiritual being we begin to feel that even our tendency to free flow in complete bliss on the sea of serenity, is something that drags us along and as such we're not conscious of it. Gradually, this tendency becomes more and more clearly perceptible for us and rises against us as an actual being. This being has been known in all genuine esoteric schools and is commonly called The Guardian at the Threshold. This is no other but our actual self, within which we have been embedded even when in complete serenity and without perceptible traces of egoic structures.
This is probably the greatest insult for a mystic - to dare and state that at the stage that they value the highest, complete mystical union with the flow of Cosmic Consciousness, they don't really overcome the self - it's simply that all traceable perceptions of it have been completely smoothed out and now the reality of the ego has simply spread out and merged quietly and imperceptibly with the Cosmic background, so to speak. If what we speak here is understood, it will be clear that we have absolutely no means to distinguish this completely laminar and blissful ego from the general environment. The only way to distinguish it is if we come to know ourselves as a spiritual being active at an even higher level of consciousness, against which the chameleon ego becomes once again visible as the Guardian at the Threshold.
Honest thinking can already forebode that this is indeed the case. I often ask people (without really getting an answer) - "If you were really One with All within the serene state where the ego dissolves, how come you know nothing about the perspective of the One? How the world was created? The perspectives of other beings?" Somehow this mystical state is still experienced from a very specific perspective within the One. This leaves the mystic with the only conclusion that there are some hard rules that define this perspective while incarnated but they will hopefully dissolve after death. Well, precisely these hard rules are what the true nature of the Earthly self is and what becomes perceptible to us as the Guardian at the Threshold when we deserve to raise in Spirit above this Earthly cocoon. This transition is no other but the crossing the Threshold of Death, yet without leaving the physical body behind.
All the previous work has only been the preparation for the spiritual scientists. It is after we cross the Threshold that the real work begins.
