Anthony66 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 30, 2022 6:10 am
As Ashvin says above, there will always be a half-plane of reality beyond our perceptions, and I'm not fully convinced yet that we can develop the means to peer behind the veil.
To clarify, in addition to the implicit spatial idolatry and corresponding atomized view of spiritual beings, we should resist the urge to map our own consciousness at any given time onto all human perspectives of Deep MAL. The "half plane beyond" I refer to is simply another way of saying, "what is still unknown to me at any given stage of development". If I come to know the spiritual activity which is reflected by our Earthy kingdoms, or by our solar system, this is still major progress, even if there are other solar systems and galaxies still unknown. The fact that the latter always exist is simply a reminder to approach my current state of knowledge, at any given time, in mood of solemness, humility, and gratitude that there is still so much more awaiting my knowledge. And that is what we can call mood of "prayer". It should also encourage us to understand the Cosmic depth is, in fact, awaiting us on our co-redemptive mission; "the creation groans in anticipation". We are bringing quality of meaning into formative activity of the One World which would not be there without our efforts. Developing our higher thinking faculties makes this truly creative aspect of our inner activity more and more clear and certain.
Where does the "awakening experience" fit in all of this? By this I mean the sometimes spontaneous experience certain people have of subject/object collapse, after which their view of reality is forever transformed. I know you and Cleric have touched on meditation practices which lead to a peaceful thought-free, blissful , "folded" state. But many of these awakening experiences are not precisely of this character and often occur in routine daily conscious states.
I don't feel I comment too usefully on these other 'self-awakening' experiences, as Steiner refers to them, since I never experienced them. Based on my current understanding and what Cleric has wrote, it seems to me that all such experiences thrust people into higher imaginations which cannot be understood, because the soul-organs have not been developed to think through the experience more from within. It is then like a theory of music to the deaf, as an analogy to the physical plane. I found this from Steiner really helpful.
Steiner wrote:Now it can happen that at some particular time in his life, without making any special preparation for it, a person discovers that higher organs of this nature have been developing within him. This will mean that a kind of involuntary self-awakening has taken place. He will find that he has through this become a completely changed man. His whole inner experience is no vastly enriched. And he will be fully persuaded that no knowledge of the physical world could ever afford him such bliss, such serene satisfaction, such inner warmth, as can the knowledge that opens up before him now that he has a faculty of cognition that is independent of physical impressions. Strength and confidence will stream into his will from a spiritual world.
Such instances of self-initiation do occur. They should however not lead one to imagine that the right thing to do is simply to wait for it and make no effort towards obtaining Initiation by means of a properly ordered training. We have no need to speak here any further of self-initiation, since it can come about without the person's following any rules or precepts. What we are concerned with is how the organs of perception that are latent in man's soul may be developed by spiritual training. If people do not feel any particular urge to take steps for their own inner development, it is easy for them to think that since the life of man goes forward under the guidance of spiritual Powers, he ought not to interfere in their leadership but should wait quietly for the moment when these Powers shall deem it right to open to him another world. They will feel that any desire to intermeddle in this way with the wisdom of spiritual guidance is quite unjustified, and bespeaks a kind of presumption. One who takes this view will only be persuaded to modify it when a certain line of thought begins to make a strong impression on him — namely when he is ready to say: “The wise guidance of spiritual Powers has given me certain faculties. It has not bestowed these faculties on me for me to leave them unemployed, but rather that I may put them to use. The wisdom of the guidance is to be seen in the fact that seeds have been planted in me of a higher state of consciousness; and I fail to understand the guidance aright if I do not regard it as a duty to set before me the high ideal: that whatever can become manifest to man through the development of his spiritual powers shall become so manifest.” When such a thought has taken strong enough hold, then the mistrust that was felt of any training for the attainment of a higher state of consciousness shall disappear.
"Most people would sooner regard themselves as a piece of lava in the moon than as an 'I'"
