Steiner's remarks on PoF

[AshvinP]

Ever since the fifteenth century, people have been taught this passivity of thinking, and now they consider it almost a sin to be inwardly active and create one's own thoughts. Of course, we cannot create thoughts about nature by ourselves; we would only pollute nature with all sorts of fantastic ideas if we tried to do that. Yet, we have the source of thinking within us. We can think thoughts of our own; in fact, we can imbue the thoughts we already have with inner reality. This can happen when we have enough will to push our night being into our waking life, to think not merely passively but rather to insert our being, which has become independent during sleep, into our thoughts. This is possible only with pure thoughts.

My main reason for writing The Philosophy of Freedom was to explain that we can insert our I-being into our modern thinking. At the time, I could not express it in the same words as I do now, but it really is true that when we are asleep, we free our I-being, and then we can insert it into our pure thinking. We become aware of our I-being in pure thinking when we live actively in our thoughts.

Now, let us assume anthroposophy were presented in the same way as the modern sciences. People then would take in anthroposophy in their usual manner, namely, through passive thinking. Of course, all that is needed to understand anthroposophy is sound common sense; one does not have to accept it on faith. Anybody with sound common sense can understand it. Nevertheless, if we presented anthroposophy just like the natural sciences, people would understand it only passively, just as they do in their thoughts about outer nature.

Of course, there are people who claim to have derived their thoughts from anthroposophical research. But they say they themselves cannot stand up for these thoughts because they have merely taken them in. Similarly, many people often say they have assimilated some ideas of spiritual science. We often hear people stress that the natural sciences say such and such, while spiritual science says this or that. What does it mean when people claim to have heard something from spiritual science? It means that the persons in question reveal that they are stuck in passive thinking and want to take in spiritual science only with this passive thinking. However, as soon as people decide to create in themselves the thoughts anthroposophical research gives to them, they will become able to defend the truth of these thoughts with their whole personality for, in the process, they will have experienced the first stage of truth.

In other words, people nowadays generally are not yet able to use the strength of their will to pour the independent reality they experience during sleep into the thoughts of their waking life. People who want to be anthroposophists—and not simply accept anthroposophical thoughts passively but really assimilate them—must pour what they have been during their dreamless sleep into the pure thoughts of anthroposophy with the help of their strong will. Those people will then have reached the first stage of what we can legitimately call clairvoyance. Then they live clairvoyantly in the thoughts of anthroposophy.

Anthroposophical books must be read with a strong will, and we must bring more than just our waking life to them. We must not read anthroposophical books in the way we usually read: intermittently, every day only a little bit. Generally, people read only with their waking life. Of course, that is good enough for reading Gustav Freytag or Dickens or Emerson, but not for reading anthroposophical books.10

To read anthroposophical books, we really must enter into them with our whole being. Since we are unconscious during sleep and have no thoughts then—though our will is, of course, still there—we must put our whole will into the reading of anthroposophical books. If you make the contents of an anthroposophical book the object of your will, then you will become immediately clairvoyant, at least in your thoughts, through this exercise of your will. You see, this will still has to enter those who represent our anthroposophy. If this will completely permeates and electrifies those who represent anthroposophy, then anthroposophy will be presented to the world in the right way. This does not require any magic but only a forceful will that brings more than one's waking life to bear on anthroposophical books. These days people do not even use all of their waking consciousness to read. Of course, it is enough to activate a few small bits and pieces, a few minutes, so to speak, of waking life to comprehend what is contained in newspapers; it does not take a whole day of our waking life. However, anthroposophical books come alive for us only if we immerse ourselves in them with our complete being.

This must be kept in mind, especially by those who want to be leading figures in the Anthroposophical Society. For it is extremely detrimental to this society when anthroposophy is proclaimed by people who cannot stand up for it. We need to find the way from a merely passive, intellectual experiencing of anthroposophical truths to an immersion in them with our whole being. Then anthroposophical teaching will no longer be presented in a deadbeat and feeble way with phrases like, "Anthroposophical sources have assured us that ...Instead, people will be able to proclaim anthroposophical truths out of their own experience, at least in the most accessible areas, such as medicine, physiology, biology, and the social sphere.

While we cannot yet reach the sphere of the higher hierarchies on that first level of clairvoyance, nevertheless we can make the spirit in our immediate surroundings the subject of our state of soul. It is a matter of will in the most comprehensive sense whether or not there will be people in our Anthroposophical Society who can give testimony—and we need a valid, living testimony based on their own direct experience of a living source of truth—of the inner truth of anthroposophy.

In addition, there must be personalities in the Anthroposophical Society who, if I may use the paradoxical expression, have a certain amount of goodwill for the will. These days, people talk about any arbitrary wish as "will," but a wish is not the same as will. Some people wish for a particular matter to turn out in such and such a way. That is not will. Will is an active force, and that is largely lacking nowadays. People of our time generally do not have it. However, it must not be lacking in the Anthroposophical Society. There, a strong will must be anchored in calm enthusiasm. That is one of the necessary conditions for the life of the Anthroposophical Society. (GA 221, II)

[Cleric]

Ever since the fifteenth century, people have been taught this passivity of thinking, and now they consider it almost a sin to be inwardly active and create one's own thoughts. Of course, we cannot create thoughts about nature by ourselves; we would only pollute nature with all sorts of fantastic ideas if we tried to do that. Yet, we have the source of thinking within us. We can think thoughts of our own; in fact, we can imbue the thoughts we already have with inner reality. This can happen when we have enough will to push our night being into our waking life, to think not merely passively but rather to insert our being, which has become independent during sleep, into our thoughts. This is possible only with pure thoughts.
...

This is great! As a whole, this whole compilation is a real treasure. I'll refer to the above quote in something I would like to post soon. I only need to find the time to write it

Thanks!

[AshvinP]

Ever since the fifteenth century, people have been taught this passivity of thinking, and now they consider it almost a sin to be inwardly active and create one's own thoughts. Of course, we cannot create thoughts about nature by ourselves; we would only pollute nature with all sorts of fantastic ideas if we tried to do that. Yet, we have the source of thinking within us. We can think thoughts of our own; in fact, we can imbue the thoughts we already have with inner reality. This can happen when we have enough will to push our night being into our waking life, to think not merely passively but rather to insert our being, which has become independent during sleep, into our thoughts. This is possible only with pure thoughts.
...

This is great! As a whole, this whole compilation is a real treasure. I'll refer to the above quote in something I would like to post soon. I only need to find the time to write it

Thanks!

This one was not from the Palmer book, FYI, but just one I came across independently. I will try to paste some more from the book soon. I agree it is an astounding resource.

I look forward to the post!

[AshvinP]

You may ascribe our seeing the world as illusion to the “Fall,” as the Bible does, or to some other cause. Oriental religions blame man's perceiving the world as Maya on the “gods.” But Paul says you should beat your own breast, for you descended into the world, dimming your outlook to the point that you do not really see forms and colors as something spiritual. Do you believe that they have independent material existence? No, they are Maya, and that is your doing! You, O man, are charged with redeeming yourself from this situation you created. You must make it good again. You descended into matter. Now you must redeem and free yourself from it, but not in a Buddhistic overcoming of the will to live. Not that way, but by perceiving earth's life in its reality. What you yourself made into Maya you must now set right again in your own being, and that you can do by receiving Christ into your soul. He will show you the outer world in its reality.

Here we have a major impulse of the West, a new trend, one that has by no means been brought to fruition in the various fields. What notice has the world taken of the fact that in one area, that of cognitive theory, an actual attempt was made to create a Pauline epistemology? This theory of knowledge could not say with Kant that “the thing in itself is beyond our knowing.” It could only say, “Your organization has made it such, O man. You distort reality by being as you are. You must undertake an inner effort that will restore Maya to the true state of things, restore its spiritual reality.” The mission of my book. Truth and Science and of The Philosophy of Freedom was to put cognitive theory on a Pauline basis. Both these books fit into the Pauline view of man in the Western world that was such an important goal. That is why they are so little understood, except in certain circles, for they are based on the same impulses that have come to expression in the spiritual-scientific movement. The greatest must find expression in the smallest.

The Christ Impulse and the Development of Ego Consciousness.

[AshvinP]

For anyone interested, there is a Mystech presentation on intuitive thinking tomorrow. If you can't attend, I'm sure a recording will also be made available afterward.

https://mystech.org/event/intuitive-thi ... he-future/

Intuitive Thinking as a Necessity for the Future Challenges and Opportunities for Humanity

The most important of Rudolf Steiner's books is arguably The Philosophy of Freedom. But so many of us find this book difficult to read, and worse, to comprehend. For you we have a special webinar on Sunday, September 22nd with Dr. Andreas Schmitt. He will speak about how to come to "pure thinking" and its importance in our times. This will prepare us to meet the coming proliferation of artificial intelligence. Dr. Schmitt has established a training program to help us fully grasp The Philosophy of Freedom.

About the Presentation

Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly powerful. Soon it will not only write text, drive cars, combine data, etc., but also diagnose diseases, recommend treatments, build houses, and much more. If we look at human intelligence only in terms of its combining mind, we will definitely lose the race.

However, artificial intelligence is always bound to the past. It cannot imagine things that may exist in the future but have never existed before. Bringing the future into the present is called intuition. It is a specific human ability. But what exactly is intuition? What is needed to develop it? What does it mean for humanity to act from the future? Is it even possible?

Andreas Schmitt is the Founder of the "Annual Training Philosophy of Freedom", a worldwide schooling path based on Rudolf Steiners youth work: The Philosophy of Freedom. Andreas is an Anthroposophic Physician (GAÄD) and a specialist in visceral surgery. He is chief resident physician at the Centre for Integrative Oncology, Filderklinik. He is also scientific assistant at the University Hospital Tübingen.

[AshvinP]

For anyone interested, there is a Mystech presentation on intuitive thinking tomorrow. If you can't attend, I'm sure a recording will also be made available afterward.

Here is the link for the recording - https://mystech.org/intuitive-thinking- ... he-future/

I found the presentation somewhat interesting and helpful. There were a few decent imaginative exercises involved. (starting around 44:30)

[AshvinP]

The forces of Ahriman, which would otherwise have worked on the earth in what had fallen away from the gods, were thus countered by the Christ force, placed on earth to work there by divine decision. Christ did not need to become free, for He is a god and remains divine even though He has experienced death. He takes on nothing of earth's nature; He lives within earth's being as a god. As a consequence of this, man now has the possibility of putting everything he possesses on freedom's side of the scale, of pursuing a path without reservation individualistic, for moral fantasy is to be found only in the individual. That is why my Philosophy of Freedom has been called a philosophy of individualism in the most extreme sense. It had to be such because it is also the most Christian of philosophies. So one side of the scale had to receive the full weight of what knowledge of outer nature has to offer, an element accessible to the spiritual in pure, free thinking only. That thinking can still be applied in the realm of purely technical science. On the other side of the scale we must put a true understanding of the Christ, a true understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha.

So it was a matter of course that I should try to write The Philosophy of Freedom to the best of my ability; obviously, one can't do a perfect job the first time around. My books, Mysticism and Modern Thought and Christianity as Mystical Fact, called attention on the other hand to the Mystery of Golgotha. The two halves were simply meant to be part of one whole. But people who look at things externally and see a contradiction between the two, picture me proceeding by putting weights on one side of the scale and meat on the other, and they say, “What is this? Put everything on the same side where it belongs!” So they try to do that, but you can't balance things that way. That is how the critics of our time want it done, however.... If the soul of modern man is to relate rightly to the world's ongoing evolution, it must feel a strong impulse to freedom on the one hand, to an inner experience of the Mystery of Golgotha on the other.... My Philosophy of Freedom presupposes only the kind of natural scientific thinking that one would also apply to understanding a steam engine. But to understand a steam engine one has to strip off everything one is as a human being except that very last possession, one's pure thinking. We have to develop that within ourselves and then apply it to what is outside us. But it is the very same element that lives in the surrounding world of objects. So, on the one hand, we can take our stand entirely on freedom, but we have to balance this on the other side by taking our stand on the foundation of the fact of Christ.

A lecture given in Dornach, May 7, 1922, included in Das menschliche Seelen-leben im Zusammenhang mit der Weltentwicklung by Rudolf Steiner. Basel, 1959, p. 67.