Basic exercise

[Güney27]

Hello everyone,
I want to wish everyone a happy new year.
Hopefully all will continue to develop in a good way, in the spiritual as well as in the everyday physical life. I would like to thank ashvin and cleric for taking the time throughout the year to answer questions for all of us here and teach us new things with patience and love. Thanks very much!
I don't know what exactly it is, but somehow this year, for the first time, I have the feeling that years are more than just numbers that we invent, but real rhythms in the world.
I would like to share an excerpt from klocek's book TSH with everyone today, which is useful and very valuable.
I have a few questions about the text, but I'll share them at a later date as I don't have a lot of time right now.
Happy New Year.
I would like to apologize for spelling mistakes and other errors. Unfortunately, I didn't have that much time and couldn't revise it several times.
I hope you can still understand it.
PS: I'm from Europa and it's almost midnight here.
Kind regards

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All human beings no matter how old they are or what situation, have a part of themselves that remembers how life used to
he before they lost control of things. No amount of misunderstanding
mistakes, ridicule, humiliations, or abuse can erase the
memories stored in this part of every single human. We could say
that there is an inner being in every person who is doing this remembering of the essential or True Human at all times. This inner
being is the very kernel and core of our humanness and lives in an
inner, timeless world among memories of how it was when someone
was running things in our universe besides crazy people. Our inner
being lives constantly in this timeless world where there is some
peace of mind at all times, even though things in the regular time-
driven world often seem to be getting more and more insane.
The true nature of time is freedom. In their inner being all hu-
man beings are given time as a free gift of the Creator. We have
a fundamental resentment about our time (freedom) being taken
away or being controlled by others. This fundamental resentment
Is at the root of our feelings about things like slave labor, working
below the minimum wage, or even having a boss or coworker who
Is driving us against the wall. The key to surviving this chronic re-
sentment about freedom and time requires that the angry resentful
part of ourselves get in touch with the free inner part of ourselves.



Somewhere deep within is a free being who is continually living In a
timeless world. Remembering this helps the better person in us a ask
the reactive person in us some basic questions such as, "How did it become like this in my life ? or, "What would I wish to do better?"
A big task is to find out how to contact the timeless inner being
who remembers how it was before life got unpredictable and then
to forget the crazy parts so that the True Human can emerge. Of
course, this is easier said than done. Usually, all of the resentment
stored in our soul rises to the surface of the mind as soon as any kind
of remembering is done. Then the whole process starts over again.
A useful technique to break this chain is to regularly ask significant,
tough questions of ourselves as if we really didn't expect answers, as
if we were talking to a tree. Ask the hard questions regularly. But do
not expect any answers, because these questions do not really have
any answers. Their secret and profound value lies not in asking them
just once, but in asking them on a regular, rhythmic basis. Asking
Ourselves questions rhythmically, in time, actually forms a spiritual
practice.We can develop a practice of asking the same question
the same time every day. Asking questions in this way is like
stretching exercises before and after a vigorous exercise.

The most important thing we can do for our development is
to learn to control our mind. We must build mental strength to be
able to withstand the craziness and resentment that can make life
a mental and emotional chaos. Unless we work on ourselves in a
rhythmic way, going inside ourselves can be like descending into the
deepest darkness imaginable. Without regular work on ourselves,
our souls can go flat from the intense burden of time in our lives
Through working on ourselves, we can actually form a different,
more conscious relationship to time. It is very useful in the pursuit
of seership to develop another relationship to time itself. We try to
remember that our True Human is always living in a timeless realm.
If we can get access to that being, then time begins to change in
our lives. Actually, time remains as it is, but our perception of time
changes to our benefit.
Some fundamental things keep our inner being of freedom bur-
ied under resentment. The first and foremost is our inability to pay attention and concentrate the mind. A simple exercise to strengthen
Attention is to practice watching the second hand of a clock tick off thirty seconds without thinking of any other thing except
watching the second hand tick off the seconds. If no clock is avail-
able, then counting backward from thirty at one-second intervals
will work.

For people who either have a lot of time on their hands or
are slaves to a time clock, this is a precise and very beneficial mental
exercise. A number of important things can be learned. The first is
that in the beginning it is almost impossible to do. It is so decep-
tively simple and yet so difficult to accomplish. The beauty of it is
that it is so short and does not cost anything, and when we fail there
is an infinite supply of minutes available to continue the work.
Well, we could ask, why do an exercise that is almost impossible
to do? Won't it just lead to frustration and then more resentment?
The secret of this and any other mental exercise is that the outcome
of the exercise is essentially unimportant. Whether we succeed or
not is truly irrelevant. No one is giving us a reward for doing the
Exercise or watching over our shoulder to see that we do it right.
No food pellet drops into a great cosmic food trough if we press the
lever when the light goes on. The truly liberating part of concentration exercises is that you are the only one who knows what you
are doing. The best attitude for concentrating the mind is that no
der what happens, whether I succeed or fail, I will just do the
same thirty-second
exercise at the same time the next day or
the
hour or whenever I am feeling bored. If I manage to get one
thirty-second exercise done,then i am free to try another repetition
in the soul gym.



After a few repetitions of the exercise, as a cool-down I can ask
self, "Is there anything today for which I can be grateful?" We
should ask this without really expecting an answer. If I think of
something to be grateful for, then the gratitude will eventually help
anything to be grateful for, then just asking the question is steadying
me to Overcome slight periods of depression. lf I cannot think of
ing
and cooling for the mind. This is the gratitude exercise. After asking
the question, spend a few minutes listening into the silence of time-
lessness as the question disappears in the silent darkness beyond.
Find a time when it will be easy to do these things at the same
concentration exercise and then ask the question and listen a little
minutes total.  Each day do a few repetitions of the thirty-second
concentration exercise and the. Ask the question and listen a little w
bit into the silence. The whole thing should take should take about five to ten minutes total.
But its time well spent. During the whole exercise period, no one except yourself is dictating how you should be using your time.
lt is time spent in complete freedom
whether exercise works or not. This is the great secret of training the mind
- the time spent doing any mental exercise, successful or not
spent in complete freedom. This freedom is born out of an
in our own soul to take back control of our own mind. the real
benefit in this exercise is in remembering daily to ask the questions
and do the exercise. The forces built up by making many repetitions
of this exercise can someday be available to us when our inner peace 
is threatened by some circumstance that is out of our control. This
exercise can make us free not to have to react. With this freedom
we become aware that we are aware.
Once this idea begins to take root in the soul, it is usually fol-
lowed by a wish to search actively for our inner being. No other
person or memory or system of power can pollute this quality time
we spend with ourselves in these exercises. This is true even if the ex-
ercise we are trying to do is a complete disaster. The exercise is work-
ing in us even if we only remember to do it without actually doing
it. The goal is to try anew each day to form the impulse to develop
concentration, whether or not the exercise works or whether we
missed it yesterday, or even whether or not we can actually ever do
it. This type of unattached acting makes us aware of our awareness.
After a month or so, a subtle mood comes over the time spent
doing the exercise. When the mood develops we feel during the
exercise as if we are having a talk with someone we trust. This feeling does not come as a big revelation with light shows and voices
speaking to us out of clouds; it is just a subtle feeling of being in a
regular conversation with someone who we know will never lie
to us. This feeling tells us that the inner being who remembers how
was before things got out of control is beginning to talk to us once
again.
Some cultures call this approaching the guardian




When this feeling emerges, we can begin to do another very effective exercise to devolp a new way of seeing the world. We can practice
looking at the common everyday things around us in a
new way. We could call this exercise new seeing. We can practice
looking at the common everyday things around us in a
new way.
practice looking at the bed or the sink or our clothes and trying
ach day to notice something we had not seen before about that par-
ricular thing. It helps to keep a list of what we have noticed to make
Sure that every day something different is observed. When we can
no longer notice anything new about the thing we are observing,
we can pick another thing to observe. This exercise has a curious
effect on time. We can become so absorbed in thinking about and
observing common, boring things that time seems to melt away. If
this exercise is added to the thirty-second exercise and the gratitude
exercise, followed by listening to the silence of timelessness, then a
very absorbing practice can result.
An exercise like new seeing can open whole worlds to a mind
locked shut with anger, blaming, and fatigue. This exercise is fun-
damentally the kind of activity that grew into the study of birds
that saved the sanity and the humanity of the Birdman of Alcatraz.
Through an exercise like new seeing the soul is led back into having
an interest in life and in developing itself through a living, active
thinking. We are training ourselves to see in a more fuid and pro-
cess-oriented way. After this exercise, a good question to ask yourself
is, "How has my life become like it is now?" Like the gratitude ques-
tion in the first exercise, this question is followed with listening into
the silence of timelessness.
Alchemically, this work on concentration is the earth stage.
myself a hard question such as how my life became as it is now,
Or what I would wish to do better in my life, brings an earthlike so-
briet to my work on myself. To go to the next alchemical level, we need to take the question into the water mode of consciousness.we do this by visualizing ourselves doing
that we wish to could do.

The Visualized movements we make add a liquid dynamic dimen-
sion to our inner work. I should spend three minutes each day ask-
ing myself questions, then three minutes visualizing  myself doing what i would wish to do "as if" I were actually doing it. Then l can




follow up the visualization with a question like, "Is there anything
today for which I can be grateful? The question is the earth, the
visualization of the movements is the water, the silence is the air, the
enthusiasm and the will to do this exercise are the fire.
With these simple things I have a practical, alchemical medita-
tive practice that takes a few minutes every day. These are a few
minutes out of my day in which I am not worrying. If I can ask a
question to myself every day, I develop concentration. If I can visu-
alize myself doing something, I develop powers of contemplation. If
I can think these questions into silence and be comfortable without
getting an answer, I develop patience in living in the open question
with the spirit. If I think of something to be grateful for, then the
gratitude will eventually help me to overcome periods of depression
so that I can see my destiny working in my lite.
The ideal would be to set aside fifteen minutes in the morning
before starting any of the day's activities, for this practice in devel-
oping the mind. The sense of mental freedom these exercises pro-
duce when practiced regularly can offset years of hectic living. Once
again, it is not the success of a particular practice that is of value. lt
is the doing of the practice, even when we are failing dismally at it,
that moves the mind slowly towards the timeless state of the inner
being who remembers


A final simple exercise that makes the others blend into a seam.
less whole and gives them much more power is to add a practice of
reviewing the day backward at the end of each day. It is most effec
tive if no judgments are made of anything that happened during the
day. To begin with, simply remembering in reverse order what you
ate for each meal will provide a good start. Visualize dinner, then
lunch, then breakfast. Do not try to remember too much detail,
but simply glide over each event as if you were watching a movie in
reverse. When you encounter something negative, try to see it as if
you were watching someone else's life and not your own. If dinner
was not really enjoyable, try to visualize it as if someone else were
eating it. Try to make no judgments; simply visualize the facts of
what happened in reverse order. Some persistence is required to do
this exercise successfully, but since we are trying not to let success

be the determining factor here, once again it is the rhythmical effort
that allows for th
ar allows for the most effective practice. This exercise may take ten
or fifteen minutes to do in the evening. It is most enlivening and
powerful if it is done just as you are going to sleep.
The total time spent each day doing the morning and evening
exercises might equal half an hour. These are thirty minutes in which
you yourself are the shaper of your own destiny and of your experience of time.

Esoteric teachers throughout the ages have always been aware
that most people are imprisoned within the walls of their own
minds. The great philosopher Rousseau said, "Man is born free, but
everywhere he is in chains. However, in the realm of the spirit a
person's mind has an inherent freedom. The freedom of the one who
remembers how it was before everything became chaotic is available
anyone willing to control his or her own thoughts. Gaining this
freedom does not require a successful practice, but it does require
a regular practice to discipline the mind and strengthen the spirit.
Time spent in disciplining the mind every morning can give the soul
a sense of purpose even in a seemingly purposeless environment.
The fruits of a morning practice are a gradual feeling of hope for the
coming day. Hope appears magically where there was nothing but
despair and pain. The fruits of a practice continued every evening
are that the soul eventually develops an inner strength and repose in
the face of life's many trying circumstances. The soul is given poise and resolve that can help us overcome many difficulties.
Eventually the morning and evening rhythms of these practices
meet in an experience the Rosicrucians called sacred sleep. Sacred sleep brings to birth in human beings the consciousness that can
remember how life was before free time was taken from us and ev-
erything became chaotic.Sacred sleep helps us learn without resentment or blaming the tough lessons life must teach us. In sacred sleep
the practices done upon awaking and just before going off into sleep
begin to awaken in the soul a sense of belonging to something much
larger than our present condition. We awaken in the morning with
houghts of how it could be if we had control over our reactions, and we go to sleep remembering the Events of the day in a mood of serenity. Throug inner work and sacred sleep, our soul begins to participate in ever higher dimensions of freedom.
We could call thos sequence "seership light".

[Federica]

Thanks Güney, happy new year to you!
I would like to join you in your thank-you note to Ashvin and Cleric - for *tirelessly* offered inspiration throughout the past year. Thank you!

[AshvinP]

I don't know what exactly it is, but somehow this year, for the first time, I have the feeling that years are more than just numbers that we invent, but real rhythms in the world.

Guney and Federica,

Thank you for the kind words! Through the Karmic connections of the collective soul-spirit of humanity, when we help others towards the high Ideas-Ideals, we are also helping our Self.

"Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."

I also want to share a passage and exercise from Klocek, which relates to discerning the rhythms of the world.

______________________________________
(from Seeking Spirit Vision)
To summarize, the sense world flows into the sense organs as a mixture of Idea, movement, and pattern which all exist in a compound in the sense-object. Sensation is a combination of the Idea itself, which remains unmanifest, and its movement, its line of emergence from the archetype. The Idea, which is a cosmic potential, is generally not cognized during the sense experiece in the human consciousness, for only the material appearance is commonly sensed. In everyday life the Idea and the movement are the source of energies for the complex yet ordered instinctual responses in the subconscious of animals and human beings. This is the nigredo. But with maturity and training, human beings become able to observe the Idea and its movements free of the sense objects to which they are connected. Through such training a person can begin to observe how a mental image arises inwardly as a light/warmth impulse which accompanies each sensation. The flood of mental images is kept well below the awake consciousness in the nigredo stage. Through training, howeer, the nigredo yields to the albedo, the white stage, the stage of the Moon.

In the albedo stage the alchemist separates the movement from the Idea in the sensation by watching the way in which mental images arise in a quiet consciousness or in a consciousness which is trying to order mental images by placing them in a particular sequence. When this capacity begins to develop, a fog or mist of mental images is experienced invading the soul as a kind of waking sleep state. This blizzard of mental images surging in the soul life is the albedo. The lunar signature of albedo is an image of the reflective process by which sense impressions become mental images. The soul still lives in the dream of instinct, but the dream becomes accessible when the flowing movements of the creative will released into the ever-present dream state of mental images is salted by the consciousness of the alchemist. This happens when cosmic Ideas are present to crystallize the movements into meaningful sequences or what we could call lawful motion. Sacred geometry, music, rhetoric, and other sciences were used in the old mysteries to accomplish this salting of the flowing mental images.

INNER EXERCISE: MOVING AN IMAGE

In this exercise a mental image is salted from the sense world with its flow of mental images and is moved consciously by the alchemist.

• Visualize two equilateral triangles, one below with its apex pointed upward, and one above with its apex pointed downward. Visualize the triangles moving toward each other until the apex of one touches the apex of the other. Then move the apices into each other until a diamond is formed. Continue the motion until the apex of the lower one touches the base of the upper one and vice versa. Continue the movement until a six-pointed star is formed. Continue moving until a diamond is formed. Reverse the motion until the two stand in their original relationship. Such a sustained mental imaging creates a benign, preserving "salt" solution in the mind, resulting in a fluid yet concentrated condition capable of further alchemical work.

[Federica]

I don't know what exactly it is, but somehow this year, for the first time, I have the feeling that years are more than just numbers that we invent, but real rhythms in the world.

Guney and Federica,

Thank you for the kind words! Through the Karmic connections of the collective soul-spirit of humanity, when we help others towards the high Ideas-Ideals, we are also helping our Self.

"Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."

I also want to share a passage and exercise from Klocek, which relates to discerning the rhythms of the world.

______________________________________
(from Seeking Spirit Vision)
To summarize, the sense world flows into the sense organs as a mixture of Idea, movement, and pattern which all exist in a compound in the sense-object. Sensation is a combination of the Idea itself, which remains unmanifest, and its movement, its line of emergence from the archetype. The Idea, which is a cosmic potential, is generally not cognized during the sense experiece in the human consciousness, for only the material appearance is commonly sensed. In everyday life the Idea and the movement are the source of energies for the complex yet ordered instinctual responses in the subconscious of animals and human beings. This is the nigredo. But with maturity and training, human beings become able to observe the Idea and its movements free of the sense objects to which they are connected. Through such training a person can begin to observe how a mental image arises inwardly as a light/warmth impulse which accompanies each sensation. The flood of mental images is kept well below the awake consciousness in the nigredo stage. Through training, howeer, the nigredo yields to the albedo, the white stage, the stage of the Moon.

In the albedo stage the alchemist separates the movement from the Idea in the sensation by watching the way in which mental images arise in a quiet consciousness or in a consciousness which is trying to order mental images by placing them in a particular sequence. When this capacity begins to develop, a fog or mist of mental images is experienced invading the soul as a kind of waking sleep state. This blizzard of mental images surging in the soul life is the albedo. The lunar signature of albedo is an image of the reflective process by which sense impressions become mental images. The soul still lives in the dream of instinct, but the dream becomes accessible when the flowing movements of the creative will released into the ever-present dream state of mental images is salted by the consciousness of the alchemist. This happens when cosmic Ideas are present to crystallize the movements into meaningful sequences or what we could call lawful motion. Sacred geometry, music, rhetoric, and other sciences were used in the old mysteries to accomplish this salting of the flowing mental images.

INNER EXERCISE: MOVING AN IMAGE

In this exercise a mental image is salted from the sense world with its flow of mental images and is moved consciously by the alchemist.

• Visualize two equilateral triangles, one below with its apex pointed upward, and one above with its apex pointed downward. Visualize the triangles moving toward each other until the apex of one touches the apex of the other. Then move the apices into each other until a diamond is formed. Continue the motion until the apex of the lower one touches the base of the upper one and vice versa. Continue the movement until a six-pointed star is formed. Continue moving until a diamond is formed. Reverse the motion until the two stand in their original relationship. Such a sustained mental imaging creates a benign, preserving "salt" solution in the mind, resulting in a fluid yet concentrated condition capable of further alchemical work.

Thank you, Ashvin, for this idea. Do you (or anyone else) find anything out of place in the exercise?

[AshvinP]

Thank you, Ashvin, for this idea. Do you (or anyone else) find anything out of place in the exercise?

Federica, yes it says the diamond is formed twice, once prematurely. I am assuming that's an error which was missed by the editor.

[Federica]

Thank you, Ashvin, for this idea. Do you (or anyone else) find anything out of place in the exercise?

Federica, yes it says the diamond is formed twice, once prematurely. I am assuming that's an error which was missed by the editor.

Yes, I can imagine that. For a millisecond I thought someone could have put an exercise within the exercise but no, I know that's not possible

The exercise is in TSH as well, by the way, Part II Chapter 4, I have tried it before.

[Cleric K]

Happy New Year everyone!

Thank you Güney and Federica, for the encouragement!
I've just started the forum-year with some thoughts on the other thread. Let's hope it will be a year full of discoveries and new virtues for each one of us!

[AshvinP]

Thank you, Ashvin, for this idea. Do you (or anyone else) find anything out of place in the exercise?

Federica, yes it says the diamond is formed twice, once prematurely. I am assuming that's an error which was missed by the editor.

Yes, I can imagine that. For a millisecond I thought someone could have put an exercise within the exercise but no, I know that's not possible

The exercise is in TSH as well, by the way, Part II Chapter 4, I have tried it before.

In that case, I want to share another exercise which I typed out for someone else, anyway. I don't think it is in TSH.

____________________________________________

Inner Exercise: Breathing Images

This exercise is adapted from the seminal indications by Steiner known as "The Ancient Yoga Culture and the New Yoga Will." IN this work, Steiner lays the roadbed for the establishment of a western esoteric yoga practice. Instead of breathing in the prana from the air as eastern yogis do, Steiner indicates that a more effective path for the western soul would be to breathe prana in with the light which comes into the eyes or other senses. For the prana, or ether force, needed by western adepts is, according to Steiner, found in light rather than air. A conscious breathing of light into the eyes in the form of images can be experienced as a delicate process in which light meets and mingles with a current of will forces from within the human being. To experience the mingling of currents puts the human being at the door to higher worlds. To accomplish this, the following exercise is useful.

Observe a candle flame for a minute. Close your eyes and observe the after-image. Watch it pulse and ebb and change colors until no image is perceptible. Pay attention to the inner state after the image fades away. Once this becomes familiar, visualize a current of energy rising up the spine from the kidney area into the back of the brain, through the optic nerve, and toward the front of the head. Once this is an experience, combine the first exercise with the second. Begin by establishing the current from the kidney to the eyes, then open the eyes and observe a candle flame. Close your eyes and pay attention to the place in the head where the after-image meets the kidney current, where the human will meets the sense impression.
...

In this exercise an attempt is made to experience the difference between the activity of the life forces and the activity of the awareness in the act of perception. The first part of the exercise in which we observe the ebbing of an after-image comes out of Goethe's color theory. The after-image pulsates, coming into focus and then dissolving at regular intervals. This observation, if repeated, can lead to an inner experience of the role of the life forces in our perception. The second half of the exercise, in which we experience a current moving from the kidneys to the head and out of the eyes, puts us in contact with the current which floods our sympathetic nervous system and lies at the root of our soul's awareness in the astral body. In the forming of mental images these two currents are in constant interplay, creating harmonics or disequilibrium in the soul. When gently repeated, this exercise can yield a direct experience of the way in which every sense impression and every thought is accompanied by a subtle mental image which quickly fades and fluctuates into another image - and that the ability to control this is the basis for cognition and the capacity for higher development. This experience serves as the basis for a new yoga of the senses.

[Federica]

In that case, I want to share another exercise which I typed out for someone else, anyway. I don't think it is in TSH.

____________________________________________

Inner Exercise: Breathing Images

This exercise is adapted from the seminal indications by Steiner known as "The Ancient Yoga Culture and the New Yoga Will." IN this work, Steiner lays the roadbed for the establishment of a western esoteric yoga practice. Instead of breathing in the prana from the air as eastern yogis do, Steiner indicates that a more effective path for the western soul would be to breathe prana in with the light which comes into the eyes or other senses. For the prana, or ether force, needed by western adepts is, according to Steiner, found in light rather than air. A conscious breathing of light into the eyes in the form of images can be experienced as a delicate process in which light meets and mingles with a current of will forces from within the human being. To experience the mingling of currents puts the human being at the door to higher worlds. To accomplish this, the following exercise is useful.

Observe a candle flame for a minute. Close your eyes and observe the after-image. Watch it pulse and ebb and change colors until no image is perceptible. Pay attention to the inner state after the image fades away. Once this becomes familiar, visualize a current of energy rising up the spine from the kidney area into the back of the brain, through the optic nerve, and toward the front of the head. Once this is an experience, combine the first exercise with the second. Begin by establishing the current from the kidney to the eyes, then open the eyes and observe a candle flame. Close your eyes and pay attention to the place in the head where the after-image meets the kidney current, where the human will meets the sense impression.
...

In this exercise an attempt is made to experience the difference between the activity of the life forces and the activity of the awareness in the act of perception. The first part of the exercise in which we observe the ebbing of an after-image comes out of Goethe's color theory. The after-image pulsates, coming into focus and then dissolving at regular intervals. This observation, if repeated, can lead to an inner experience of the role of the life forces in our perception. The second half of the exercise, in which we experience a current moving from the kidneys to the head and out of the eyes, puts us in contact with the current which floods our sympathetic nervous system and lies at the root of our soul's awareness in the astral body. In the forming of mental images these two currents are in constant interplay, creating harmonics or disequilibrium in the soul. When gently repeated, this exercise can yield a direct experience of the way in which every sense impression and every thought is accompanied by a subtle mental image which quickly fades and fluctuates into another image - and that the ability to control this is the basis for cognition and the capacity for higher development. This experience serves as the basis for a new yoga of the senses.

Thank you, Ashvin!

This exercise description is impressive. I am not familiar with it, although a few months ago you offered a description of the first part, and your experience with it:

(...)
Let's say I light a candle and focus on the flame a bit. Through this path of developing imaginative thinking, I can then close my eyes and see the after-image of the flame in very vivid outlines and colors. This image floats around awhile and then sinks down the field of inner vision until it disappears. For many minutes afterwards (I haven't tested exactly how long), I can recall the same image as vividly as before and watch the same process inwardly. Even if my eyes are open in a somewhat dark area, I can project this image onto the wall of my room in a very definite form. So I can actually see the process of an impression sinking down into my subconscious to become an accessible memory DoF.
(...)

I didn't try it then, nor I fully understood your comments, but now I get them better, also in combination with Klocek's description, and I surely want to attempt the complete exercise.

[AshvinP]

In that case, I want to share another exercise which I typed out for someone else, anyway. I don't think it is in TSH.

____________________________________________

Inner Exercise: Breathing Images

This exercise is adapted from the seminal indications by Steiner known as "The Ancient Yoga Culture and the New Yoga Will." IN this work, Steiner lays the roadbed for the establishment of a western esoteric yoga practice. Instead of breathing in the prana from the air as eastern yogis do, Steiner indicates that a more effective path for the western soul would be to breathe prana in with the light which comes into the eyes or other senses. For the prana, or ether force, needed by western adepts is, according to Steiner, found in light rather than air. A conscious breathing of light into the eyes in the form of images can be experienced as a delicate process in which light meets and mingles with a current of will forces from within the human being. To experience the mingling of currents puts the human being at the door to higher worlds. To accomplish this, the following exercise is useful.

Observe a candle flame for a minute. Close your eyes and observe the after-image. Watch it pulse and ebb and change colors until no image is perceptible. Pay attention to the inner state after the image fades away. Once this becomes familiar, visualize a current of energy rising up the spine from the kidney area into the back of the brain, through the optic nerve, and toward the front of the head. Once this is an experience, combine the first exercise with the second. Begin by establishing the current from the kidney to the eyes, then open the eyes and observe a candle flame. Close your eyes and pay attention to the place in the head where the after-image meets the kidney current, where the human will meets the sense impression.
...

In this exercise an attempt is made to experience the difference between the activity of the life forces and the activity of the awareness in the act of perception. The first part of the exercise in which we observe the ebbing of an after-image comes out of Goethe's color theory. The after-image pulsates, coming into focus and then dissolving at regular intervals. This observation, if repeated, can lead to an inner experience of the role of the life forces in our perception. The second half of the exercise, in which we experience a current moving from the kidneys to the head and out of the eyes, puts us in contact with the current which floods our sympathetic nervous system and lies at the root of our soul's awareness in the astral body. In the forming of mental images these two currents are in constant interplay, creating harmonics or disequilibrium in the soul. When gently repeated, this exercise can yield a direct experience of the way in which every sense impression and every thought is accompanied by a subtle mental image which quickly fades and fluctuates into another image - and that the ability to control this is the basis for cognition and the capacity for higher development. This experience serves as the basis for a new yoga of the senses.

Thank you, Ashvin!

This exercise description is impressive. I am not familiar with it, although a few months ago you offered a description of the first part, and your experience with it:

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Let's say I light a candle and focus on the flame a bit. Through this path of developing imaginative thinking, I can then close my eyes and see the after-image of the flame in very vivid outlines and colors. This image floats around awhile and then sinks down the field of inner vision until it disappears. For many minutes afterwards (I haven't tested exactly how long), I can recall the same image as vividly as before and watch the same process inwardly. Even if my eyes are open in a somewhat dark area, I can project this image onto the wall of my room in a very definite form. So I can actually see the process of an impression sinking down into my subconscious to become an accessible memory DoF.
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I didn't try it then, nor I fully understood your comments, but now I get them better, also in combination with Klocek's description, and I surely want to attempt the complete exercise.

Federica,

Nice catch - I had forgotten about making that comment here. At that time, I hadn't come across Klocek or the exercises. I wasn't really doing it as an exercise, but just observing the process and wondering what it was all about. Now, after reading him and studying more spiritual science in general, and prayerful meditation, I have a much better sense of what's occurring. It's remarkable how everything which has ever impressed upon us is inscribed into our etheric organism, as it were. These impressions are always forming part of the riverbed through which our spiritual activity flows. Once we can bring them more into the light of our waking consciousness through spiritual training, we can then understand them more as an objective force of our soul life (in the sense of Cleric's post on the other thread). In the case of sensory impressions, this can be a quite vivid perception. It's similar for the songs I mentioned which get stuck in the head - even if I wasn't made aware of them, they would still be 'stuck in my head' and influencing the course of my spiritual activity. Of course this is still only the very surface of the normally subconscious soul life, yet it still provides valuable living feed back for how to find new DoF and steer the spiritual activity in novel ways. At the very least, it drives home that everything we think, perceive and do matters - it all plays into the context through which our temporal becoming unfolds.