Illustrated World Conceptions (by Cleric)

[AshvinP]

Another thing that has occurred to me is the emphasis of faith in the gospel accounts. There is a hidden element, something most vital, something that silently abides amid change, the constantly inexpressible within each transitory expression. This hidden aspect has to be taken hold of by faith. Esoteric practice seems diametrically opposed to this, or at least in significant tension. One enters into this holy of holies to take hold of it.

I would like to add a few more thoughts here, because it is an important question. I think most people notice this seeming tension. It certainly took me awhile to get a good sense of where faith fits into the esoteric path of intuitive thinking. I'm sure Federica would say she has or is wrestling with that as well. We could give all sorts of abstract schemes here, like our bottom-up heartfelt thinking is an upward stream which meets the downward stream of wisdom/grace in a progressive feedback which spirals upwards into higher and higher stages of spiritual evolution towards our Divinity. Ultimately, though, it is a matter of inner experience.

Federica and I were discussing on the other thread how we constantly wrestle on the esoteric path with retaining the insights we have gained. These deep insights are always slipping out of our holistic understanding and it is a struggle to continually put them back in place. Every time we read something and feel to have a great grasp of spiritual reality, a few days later we have released that grasp and have to work our way back. We also discussed how it can even get to the point where our physiological equilibrium is thrown into upheaval. There is no question for us that this is a direct result of our spiritual striving, because everything else has remained the same (and we find this process confirmed by other esoteric writers). Our entire body-soul-spirit organism is resisiting this spiritual transformation, which is a necessary process of growth but also a stark reminder of how far we have fallen.

All of that reveals to us, in the most intimate way, how feeble the powers of our limited personality are to reach the Spirit. We inwardly awaken to the lifelessness, rigidity, inflexibility, moral corruption, and overall diseased nature of our psycho-physical organism, which obstructs the inflowing Spirit at every turn. These aren't abstract concepts of 'original sin', 'depravity', and so forth, but living experience of our fallen and sinful nature. It becomes abundantly clear that we cannot hope to reach the higher worlds of soul-spirit but through the grace of the Divinities, who patiently pick us up every time we fall down and drag us kicking and screaming towards our destiny. The only thing we can do, and therefore must do, is express our love and faith, which comes through not only our life of action and feeling, but our devoted thinking through the inner and outer creation. It is when we faithfully will our thinking towards the Divine ideals, or more accurately unite our thinking with the Divine Will (via spiritual practice), that we open a portal for Grace to flow down into our feeling and will on the physical plane. Then our entire organism becomes the faithful and fully conscious (free) instrument of the progressive Divine intents.

[AshvinP]

In his conclusion, he takes a swipe at the esotericists but I don't think he lands on the esotericism spoken of around here.

And this, to return to the beginning, is what I mean by a “polyphonic” understanding of religious differences. Again, I do not believe in the existence of any real esoteric transmissions of privileged wisdom in any of the major traditions. Nothing of significance has ever been learned in hidden caves outside the city walls, where small circles of initiates foregather to intone mystic litanies and pore over secret doctrines. There are no hermetic symbolic economies cunningly woven into the exoteric fabrics of the great faiths, whose deeper meanings are known to only a very few. There are, of course, differing levels of metaphysical sophistication among believers, but that is something very different. But the Buddha taught with open hand; Christ taught daily in the temple; Ramanuja proclaimed the way to truth in the open, even at risk to his own soul. As for the esotericists, leave them in their damned caves.

What I believe in, then, is a kind of contrapuntal complementarity of traditions, interweaving with one another in moments of consonance and moments of dissonance, departing from one another into thematic developments of their own, enriching and ironizing one another, echoing and inverting one another, and all together reaching toward a final resolution—adumbrated in all that has led to it, and yet undoubtedly immeasurably more than any of our traditions can fully foresee.

Sorry for so many posts, but here is a good passage which directly addresses the conclusion above.

***

This was the effect on those whom Gautama Buddha referred to when he spoke the prophecy concerning the Bodhisattva Maitreya, who would become the next Buddha: “He will be the leader of a band of disciples, numbering hundreds of thousands, as I am now the leader of bands of disciples, numbering hundreds.”3 From those hundreds of thousands will emerge the power to determine the life forms of the sixth post-Atlantean epoch [we are now in the fifth]—life forms that express the new Pentecost experience and the Pentecostal influence of the word. A single form of wisdom will inform and fashion all. There will no longer be opinions and worldviews; people will yield to progressive stages of receptivity for one revealed wisdom.

Thus, within that cultural community, the main source of culture will not be the synthesis of views, nor mutual opposition. The unity of religion, art, and science—which were embraced during the very ancient past within the primal wisdom of the mysteries—will arise again and determine the whole cultural life of humanity. The meaning of that primal wisdom in the past can be understood from the testimony of the six centuries surrounding the beginning of our chronology. Plutarch, for example, wrote of the Egyptian Isis and Osiris and was convinced that they referred to Dionysus. Apollonius of Tyana (according to his biographer Philostratus4) visited Babylon, India, and Egypt and was able to offer advice everywhere in temples and schools. Both of these facts point to universally revealed wisdom that was still in existence, or at least as believed to be at the time. A similar universally recognized wisdom will be inherent during the sixth cultural epoch; the difference will be that, whereas the old mysteries looked back to the past as the stream of revelation already dwindling to its end, the sixth cultural epoch will deal with a current of ever-increasing apocalyptic wisdom of the future. People will not look back to the past to see a plan and pattern of perfection; they will look forward for knowledge and wisdom to shape the future, which will replace the authority of the past.

The position described here is not abstract and remote; what should be accomplished in the culture of one age must be experienced and realized in the occultism of the preceding age. The occultism of the present represents what must be realized in the universal culture of the future; this is exactly where we find its occult character. Hence the essence of today’s occultism anticipates the essence of the whole sixth cultural epoch, the “church in Philadelphia.” Therefore, the true occultism of the present is based not on being faithful to the past but on fidelity to the future. The purpose of occultism is to introduce to the future the growing current of revelation of “occult knowledge of the Grail.”5 This implies, however, that the higher must be awaited and sought tomorrow, not yesterday. Now, one’s attitude depends largely on the content of one’s spiritual knowledge. Rudolf Steiner said more than once that the occult stream of the Rose Cross is distinguished from others that flow from the past by its “apocalyptic” nature—its specific orientation toward the future. This does not imply a lack of interest in the past; it means, on the contrary, an awakening of true interest in the past. People do not have a true interest in the past unless they are looking at it for the causes that shape the reality of the future. They are then practically and morally impressed by the value that the past contains for the future; they look back to the past with an eye for the future tasks of the world karma that arise there. Further, from such a retrospective view, the most valuable gift that the past can give is bestowed upon the soul—that is, the kindling of the will to fulfill that task that knowledge of the past presents to the soul. Present-day occultism exists under the sign of increasing revelation, which human beings must respond to by bringing an increasing sincerity and selfless enthusiasm to their quest for truth. The development of today’s expanding occultism depends on two factors: the influence of the spiritual world and the degree of sincere research and selfless intellectual force with which people meet that influence. In regard to what is needed for the higher side of this progress, cosmic karma has already determined that there should be a progressive enhancement of spiritual revelation. If that enhancement is not occurring at this time, it is because efforts have proven inadequate; in other words, research lacks earnestness, and intellectual pursuits lack altruism.

Tomberg, Valentin; Bruce, R.H.. Christ and Sophia: Anthroposophic Meditations on the Old Testament, New Testament, and Apocalypse (p. 345). steinerbooks. Kindle Edition.

[Federica]

Another thing that has occurred to me is the emphasis of faith in the gospel accounts. There is a hidden element, something most vital, something that silently abides amid change, the constantly inexpressible within each transitory expression. This hidden aspect has to be taken hold of by faith. Esoteric practice seems diametrically opposed to this, or at least in significant tension. One enters into this holy of holies to take hold of it.

I would like to add a few more thoughts here, because it is an important question. I think most people notice this seeming tension. It certainly took me awhile to get a good sense of where faith fits into the esoteric path of intuitive thinking. I'm sure Federica would say she has or is wrestling with that as well. We could give all sorts of abstract schemes here, like our bottom-up heartfelt thinking is an upward stream which meets the downward stream of wisdom/grace in a progressive feedback which spirals upwards into higher and higher stages of spiritual evolution towards our Divinity. Ultimately, though, it is a matter of inner experience.

Yes, I certainly confirm that. I used to have a provisional understanding of faith as "positive disposition in the meantime that one gets direct grasp through higher cognition". The recently shared clarification by Valentin Tomberg, of faith as spiritual activism, is much more fitting (but I confess I've gone back to the passage, and read it again... again that forgetfulness).
Anthony, it's the perfect opposite of the abstracted doctrine, as you have called it. The only way to believe is through engagement, there's no contemplating of some external, static concept separate from our belief or faith.

Federica and I were discussing on the other thread how we constantly wrestle on the esoteric path with retaining the insights we have gained. These deep insights are always slipping out of our holistic understanding and it is a struggle to continually put them back in place. Every time we read something and feel to have a great grasp of spiritual reality, a few days later we have released that grasp and have to work our way back. We also discussed how it can even get to the point where our physiological equilibrium is thrown into upheaval. There is no question for us that this is a direct result of our spiritual striving, because everything else has remained the same (and we find this process confirmed by other esoteric writers). Our entire body-soul-spirit organism is resisiting this spiritual transformation, which is a necessary process of growth but also a stark reminder of how far we have fallen.

All of that reveals to us, in the most intimate way, how feeble the powers of our limited personality are to reach the Spirit. We inwardly awaken to the lifelessness, rigidity, inflexibility, moral corruption, and overall diseased nature of our psycho-physical organism, which obstructs the inflowing Spirit at every turn. These aren't abstract concepts of 'original sin', 'depravity', and so forth, but living experience of our fallen and sinful nature. It becomes abundantly clear that we cannot hope to reach the higher worlds of soul-spirit but through the grace of the Divinities, who patiently pick us up every time we fall down and drag us kicking and screaming towards our destiny. The only thing we can do, and therefore must do, is express our love and faith, which comes through not only our life of action and feeling, but our devoted thinking through the inner and outer creation. It is when we faithfully will our thinking towards the Divine ideals, or more accurately unite our thinking with the Divine Will (via spiritual practice), that we open a portal for Grace to flow down into our feeling and will on the physical plane. Then our entire organism becomes the faithful and fully conscious (free) instrument of the progressive Divine intents.

Here I only want to say how well written and inspired/inspiring this is!