Stranger wrote: ↑Sun Nov 13, 2022 3:25 pm
AshvinP wrote: ↑Sun Nov 13, 2022 12:40 pm
Steiner:
The first of these forces is Avidja: ignorance. Avidja is what draws us down again into physical existence for the simple reason that we shall only have fulfilled our mission on the Earth when we have extracted from it all possible knowledge. On the other hand we have not fulfilled our mission as long as everything that we should learn from physical existence has not yet been extracted.
Steiner is exactly right here.
When the Eastern occultist expounds such things he says: Our whole life is of such a nature that we seem to be surrounded by the boundaries of speaking and thinking. If we do away with these, for the ordinary man hardly anything is left. That something is still left to him when he has gone beyond all this, is the result of esotericism. What then remains is the experience of Nirvana.
This is not to criticize Steiner, but it's also not exactly how it works in the Eastern traditions. When we do away with speaking and discursive thinking, it is true that for the "ordinary man" there is hardly anything left, and so, if such ordinary man attempts to do away with them, what is left is only a "pre-mature false Nirvana", a state of blankness. But actually, in these traditions, what is supposed to be left is Higher Wisdom, Gnosis that is a direct experiential "Insight into the full nature of reality" (Steiner), which is called Jnana in Vedanta and Prajnaparamita in Buddhism. But that Gnosis is a level of higher cognition, it is a spiritual faculty that needs to be thoroughly developed, usually through a long multi-lives path of spiritual practice. So, it is a path of evolving from speaking and discursive thinking towards Gnosis, when after developing Gnosis the speaking and discursive thinking become secondary faculties only left as the means of communicating with other human beings who have not yet reached the stage of Gnosis.
In Indian philosophy and religions, jñāna (Sanskrit: ज्ञान, is "knowledge". The idea of jñāna centers on a cognitive event which is recognized when experienced. It is knowledge inseparable from the total experience of reality, especially a total or divine reality (Brahman).
Prajñāpāramitā (Sanskrit: प्रज्ञापारमिता) means "the Perfection of Wisdom" or "Transcendental Knowledge" in Mahāyāna and Theravāda Buddhism. Prajñāpāramitā refers to a perfected way of seeing the nature of reality
In Buddhism Prajnaparamita and Nirvana are the same. Equating Nirvana with a blank or void state of mind is a very common misunderstanding of the Buddhist tradition.
Know that the Bodhisattva,
Dwelling in Prajnaparamita wisdom,
Is freed of delusive hindrance,
And reaches clearest Nirvana.
(Prajnaparamita Hridaya Sutra)
Steiner doesn't mention anything about a "blank or void state" in relation to Eastern esotericism, as far as I can tell. He further elaborates on 'Nirvana' in a subsequent lecture. We should notice how we are not dealing with an inner enlightenment which is discontinuous with the normal evolution of human thinking, or evolution of the spirit-soul-body in general, but is very much embedded within that gradual evolutionary progression. Upright action (literally and figuratively), speech, and discursive thinking inaugurated the means by which the human individual could progressively 'work off' the nested Karma of the individual soul, the group soul, and humanity as a whole, thereby attaining to the Freedom of Nirvana.
Steiner wrote:If we wish to understand the whole way in which Karma works, a subject we are now going to approach, we must be able to form a conception of what is called Nirvana. Very much is involved in a complete understanding of the significance of Nirvana, but we will try to gain an introductory idea of it.
In any action carried out by man there is in fact very little present of anything that might be called freedom, for man is actually the result of his deeds in the past. This is the case in the widest sense of the word. So that he should become what he is, all the kingdoms of Nature had first to be created. The mineral, plant and animal kingdoms, which he once had within him, he gradually put out from himself... All that he carried out in the way of deeds, all that he experienced in his soul as thoughts and feelings, belong also to his past, become his Karma. We look into a past which at the same time shows its results in the forms around us. The whole of our surrounding world is nothing other than the result of past deeds. In this same way man is now making preparation for what will happen in the future.
We are nevertheless continually faced with things which are not altogether the results of past deeds, but which bring something new into the world. A certain man, let us say Mr. Kiem, is the result of past deeds. The Theosophical Society too is the result of past deeds and that he is brought into connection with it is also such a result. Something new arises however through Mr. Kiem's relationship to the Theosophical Society: this again is the cause of future deeds. When light shines against a stick, a shadow arises behind it. That is actually something new. When we observe this effect we say to ourselves, something has taken place that is new. The relationship of one thing to another is something new; the forming of the shadow.
Everything which a person usually thinks, he thinks about things, about what has come into being already. He can however turn his thoughts towards relationships of a kind that have not been brought about as the result of earlier causes, but that appear in the present. This happens very seldom, for people hang on to the old, to what has formed like strata around them. Relationships which make their appearance as something altogether new form very little of the content of human thoughts. Anyone wishing to work for the future must however have those thoughts which will produce new connections between one thing and another. Only thoughts dealing with such connections can yield something new. One sees this best in art. What the artist creates is not there in reality. The mere form worked upon by the sculptor is not in fact there; it is no product of Nature. In Nature there is only the form pulsed through with life. A mere form would contradict natural laws. The artist builds something new out of relationships. The painter paints what arises out of relationships: light and shade; he does not paint what is actually there. He does not paint the tree, but an impression which is called up by all he experiences with regard to the tree.
In practical actions also man usually produces nothing new. The majority of people only do what has already been done. Only a few people create out of moral intuition, in that they bring new duties, new deeds into the world. What is new comes into the world through relationships. This is why it is often said that the very nature of simple moral action lies in relationships. Such moral action consists for example in deeds brought about by a relationship based on goodwill. One finds with most actions that they are rooted in the old: even in the case of actions and events where something new makes its appearance, these too are generally rooted in the old.
With more exact investigation this usually become apparent. Only those actions are free which are in no way based on the foundation of the past, but where man only carries out actions in the world which are combined with the productive activity of his reason. Such actions are called in occultism: Creation out of Nothing. 51 All other actions are produced out of Karma. Here we have two opposites: Karma and its opposite, Nothingness, an activity that is not rooted in Karma.
And now let us imagine a person whose actions, thoughts and feelings are conditioned by Karma; through deeds, thoughts ... feelings rising out of the past. One may then think of him having advanced so far that all Karma is eliminated and he is therefore faced with Nothingness. When he then does something one says in occultism: He acts out of Nirvana. For example, it was out of Nirvana that the actions of a Buddha or a Christ arose, at least in part. In the ordinary way a person approaches this only when he is inspired by art, religion or world-history.
Action arising out of intuition comes out of Nothingness. Whoever would attain to this must become completely free from Karma. He can then no longer draw his impulses from the usual sources. The mood which then comes over him is that of divine bliss, a state which is also called Nirvana.
