Meditation exercise on "separate me"

[Federica]

Federica,

To investigate how the rhythms of our fourfold organization relate to memory/forgetfulness, you will probably need to consult a few different places. I think it's first important to get a sense of the functions of the ego-astral-etheric members (which also shape our physical constitution). Occult Science can help with that - https://rsarchive.org/Books/GA013/Engli ... 3_c02.html - but it will only become more natural as we view it from many different angles, always relating the functions to our first-person stream of becoming. It's interesting how these living spiritual ideas work - it is the polar opposite of the physical sensory spectrum. With the latter, everything is ready-made and it's only a question of finding the right sources for the facts we need so we can model them 'from the side'. With a question like this about the inner rhythms and memory, it is more about living into the rhythms themselves.

One thing I have found is that, the more we can imbue our search for knowledge with moral ideals, the more they will stick with us. I really struggled to get a living sense for the fourfold organization and even now it confuses me sometimes. One thing I do is try and pause after gaining some insights and offer them back to the spirit worlds, with a request that they be elaborated into moral feelings and forces so that I can better fulfill my tasks within the Cosmic organism. I used to do it only at sleep but now I am getting in the habit of doing it every time I finish reading something. In that way, I am employing the rhythms, even if in a very rudimentary way, in order to become more and more intimate with them. Ultimately that conscious intent, along with our meditative practice, is the way in which these unfamiliar and uncharted ideas will take root within us.

Here is a lecture on the rhythms of the fourfold members. The soul force of memory is associated with experiences impressed from the ego-astral into the etheric body. We then perform thinking-gestures to resurrect the experiences anew from within the body. I'm not really sure how these interpenetrating rhythms directly give insight into the question of forgetting or retaining insights into spiritual reality, but there is definitely a connection. It still remains pretty hazy for me, though. There is another lecture where he more directly addresses how experiences become firmly rooted in memory, but I am having trouble finding it right now. I will keep looking. Perhaps Cleric has something to add now that he has returned!

https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA107/En ... 21p01.html

This is an area where we can apply a significant amount of torque through various creative methods, since the main factor is the strength of our I-consciousness which gives the capacity for memory. For ex. Steiner gives the memory exercise where we vividly experience the surroundings when we place an object in the house or car, with an intent to remember, which I always forget to do

Thanks for all the indications, Ashvin. Surely there can't be any quick fix to any questions, I accept that. And every further consideration of a question always extends understanding. The lecture on the rhythms in the bodies of man makes the head spin, not only literally, but also metaphorically (those who have read it will get it), but it's useful to build understanding of the rhythmical connection between planets and human organization. This in turn allows to grasp astrology as much more interconnected with the understanding of man, rather than an ex-centric pseudo-astronomy, like we are inclined to see it from an everyday intellectual standpoint. Maybe Anthony, who named a difficulty in understanding the meaning of the spiritual planets, could find this lecture useful and try to get that meaning "from the other edge", that is, from the perspective of the human four bodies, rather than from the perspective of Christ.

Anyhow, I remember the importance of practicing active patience, which I notice is also one of the Love-virtues highlighted in the Astral Arc youtube videos you recommended: patience leading to understanding. Otherwise I appreciate all the various ways you incorporate volition in your activity, which is why I say active patience. For me, it is now in particular in the meditative effort that I am striving to express that intention.

[Anthony66]

Maybe Anthony, who named a difficulty in understanding the meaning of the spiritual planets, could find this lecture useful and try to get that meaning "from the other edge", that is, from the perspective of the human four bodies, rather than from the perspective of Christ.

I'm currently listening to "NATURE AND SPIRIT BEINGS: Their Activity in our Visible World" which I've found very helpful in understanding this topic.

[Federica]

Maybe Anthony, who named a difficulty in understanding the meaning of the spiritual planets, could find this lecture useful and try to get that meaning "from the other edge", that is, from the perspective of the human four bodies, rather than from the perspective of Christ.

I'm currently listening to "NATURE AND SPIRIT BEINGS: Their Activity in our Visible World" which I've found very helpful in understanding this topic.

Oh, thanks!
I see much of it is untranslated in the Archive, but I get the essence from the titles. I'll make sure to read the available ones:

1. The So-Called Dangers of Occult Development Untranslated 05 Nov 1907 Vienna
2. The Inner Esoteric Life and Supersensible Knowledge Untranslated 07 Nov 1907 Vienna
3. The Rosicrucians Untranslated 15 Dec 1907 Düsseldorf
4. The Mysteries 25 Dec 1907 Cologne
5. The Beginning and End of the Earth Untranslated 30 Jan 1908 Frankfurt
6. The Relationship of Man to the World Around Him Untranslated 01 Dec 1907 Nuremberg
7. The Elementary Kingdoms 04 Dec 1907 Munich
8. Branch Lecture Untranslated 07 Dec 1907 Stuttgart
9. On Some of the Supersensible Beings and Their Influence on Man Untranslated 15 Jan 1908 Munich
10. The Group Souls of Animals, Plants and Minerals 02 Feb 1908 Frankfurt
11. On the Group Souls of Minerals, Plants, and Animals II Untranslated 02 Feb 1908 Heidelberg
12. The Influence of Other Worlds on the Earth I Untranslated 08 Feb 1908 Stuttgart
13. The Influence of Other Worlds on the Earth II Untranslated 11 Feb 1908 Stuttgart
14. The Origin of the Earth and Man Untranslated 17 Mar 1908 Munich
15. The Connectin Between the World and Its Beings Untranslated 29 Apr 1908 Munich
16. Elementals and Higher Spiritual Beings Untranslated 14 Jun 1908 Munich
17. On Beings That Influence Man Untranslated 24 Feb 1908 Hanover

[Anthony66]

Maybe Anthony, who named a difficulty in understanding the meaning of the spiritual planets, could find this lecture useful and try to get that meaning "from the other edge", that is, from the perspective of the human four bodies, rather than from the perspective of Christ.

I'm currently listening to "NATURE AND SPIRIT BEINGS: Their Activity in our Visible World" which I've found very helpful in understanding this topic.

Oh, thanks!
I see much of it is untranslated in the Archive, but I get the essence from the titles. I'll make sure to read the available ones:

1. The So-Called Dangers of Occult Development Untranslated 05 Nov 1907 Vienna
2. The Inner Esoteric Life and Supersensible Knowledge Untranslated 07 Nov 1907 Vienna
3. The Rosicrucians Untranslated 15 Dec 1907 Düsseldorf
4. The Mysteries 25 Dec 1907 Cologne
5. The Beginning and End of the Earth Untranslated 30 Jan 1908 Frankfurt
6. The Relationship of Man to the World Around Him Untranslated 01 Dec 1907 Nuremberg
7. The Elementary Kingdoms 04 Dec 1907 Munich
8. Branch Lecture Untranslated 07 Dec 1907 Stuttgart
9. On Some of the Supersensible Beings and Their Influence on Man Untranslated 15 Jan 1908 Munich
10. The Group Souls of Animals, Plants and Minerals 02 Feb 1908 Frankfurt
11. On the Group Souls of Minerals, Plants, and Animals II Untranslated 02 Feb 1908 Heidelberg
12. The Influence of Other Worlds on the Earth I Untranslated 08 Feb 1908 Stuttgart
13. The Influence of Other Worlds on the Earth II Untranslated 11 Feb 1908 Stuttgart
14. The Origin of the Earth and Man Untranslated 17 Mar 1908 Munich
15. The Connectin Between the World and Its Beings Untranslated 29 Apr 1908 Munich
16. Elementals and Higher Spiritual Beings Untranslated 14 Jun 1908 Munich
17. On Beings That Influence Man Untranslated 24 Feb 1908 Hanover

I'm listening from the "Rudolph Steiner Audio" podcast.

[Federica]

I'm listening from the "Rudolph Steiner Audio" podcast.

Not finding it, can you please share the link?

[Anthony66]

I'm listening from the "Rudolph Steiner Audio" podcast.

Not finding it, can you please share the link?

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/r ... 1212445225

I listen to it using the BeyondPod app on my Adroid phone.

[Federica]

I'm listening from the "Rudolph Steiner Audio" podcast.

Not finding it, can you please share the link?

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/r ... 1212445225

I listen to it using the BeyondPod app on my Adroid phone.

Thanks, Anthony, that's great I only knew about the Youtube channel. Listening to the first one now.

[Cleric K]

There's also http://www.rudolfsteineraudio.com/ where lectures can be downloaded as mp3.

[AshvinP]

So, I'm starting to think the individuality of 'Tomberg' precipitated into my Karmic stream of reading for the purpose of weighing in on all the questions we were already discussing here : )

Here he weighs in on the question of freedom at our higher stages of existence and quite precisely summarizes many of the varied points we discussed here, and then some on top. I would also like to think that we have a community here 'that is enabled to form common insights by passing through trials together'. (sorry the following got quite long because I decided to quote the whole chapter, since it's all so much on point, and FYI there are a couple graphics in the text which I could not copy and paste)

***

THE Philosophy of Spiritual Activity by Rudolf Steiner bases the independence of the human being upon himself—both in cognition as well as in moral action. In this book, the reality of the ‘I’, working on the impulse for freedom, finds its expression in thought. It is a philosophy which is based neither on God, nor on nature, but on the human ‘I’. It answers the question: How can I attain real knowledge? How can I act freely?

However, the human ‘I’ is not alone—it is only alone in the physical body. When it raises itself above the bounds of the physical body, it steps immediately into living community with other ‘I’s. There the question arises: How can we attain a true knowledge in common? How can we work together in freedom?

This question is answered through Rudolf Steiner’s Mystery Dramas. There an answer to the question about the significance and the way of the community both in knowing and activity is dramatized. Gradually rising above mere experience in the physical body, the characters depicted flow one into another as soul-spiritual beings. Within each other, they know; with and through each other, they act.

We can see, therefore, an inner continuation of the Philosophy in the Mystery Dramas, for they provide an answer to the next question which arises. If the Philosophy answers the question of individual knowledge and individual action, then the Mystery Dramas can be an answer to questions of community in knowledge and action; that is, how more can be brought about in knowledge and action through the union of individuals than by the same individuals, each standing alone.

This difference becomes visible, too, in the form of the two works. While the Philosophy is intended for single readers who want to come to terms with themselves, the Mystery Dramas are intended for dramatic performance before an audience. The form here corresponds to the content: wisdom in community could only be expressed by means of community; that is, dramatically.

Through the Philosophy, the thinking consciousness frees itself from the physical organism and experiences itself in the life of pure thinking, the moral consciousness frees itself from tyrannical urges and from compulsive laws and experiences itself in the pure act of moral imagination.

Through the Mystery Dramas, the consciousness, free of the body, penetrates the soul-life of other people; the soul, as it frees itself, intimately unites with other souls to carry out deeds in common.

The work in powerful thoughts and sharply-defined concepts that can be stimulated by the Philosophy may free the soul from the physical body and lead it to experience in the etheric body. Working in dramatic pictures and word rhythms, the substance of the Mystery Dramas educates the soul to the capacity for transforming the body-free consciousness.

A soul that has achieved the above-mentioned capacity for transformation can, to a certain degree, no longer be alone. It lives in other people and bears others within its being. In a certain sense, it loses the right to private possession of knowledge. It becomes hard for it to distinguish between knowledge gained more by its own efforts and suffering and knowledge gained through inner relations with others.

The sentence, ‘I know this—it is my knowledge,’ increasingly loses its meaning. Gradually one can only speak of knowledge in the soul that has arisen through the whole stream of life.

Such persons inwardly ‘takes counsel with others’ who are connected to them. Every insight that comes to them is the result of a ‘council’—a consulting ‘together’. For before the knowledge ripens, a person must enter into various standpoints and cognitive levels. Not until one has identified selflessly with a series of different views and dispositions of mind does there arise out of these a harmony. This harmony is itself the newly gained insight.

The various standpoints and attitudes whose concordance provides a new insight cannot be merely thought out. They are real, represented by real people. It is through a living experience of the viewpoints in the souls of others that one comes to living insight.

Through an inner participation in the destinies and struggles of others, I can achieve wisdom which I cannot reach through my own striving, through struggling alone. Other people can make me wiser—if I meet them with love.

Only when we humbly strive for the harmony of various viewpoints—instead of stressing our own opinions and brandishing our own ‘principles’—does esotericism begin. Only then does there begin a life free from the body. Our ‘own’ opinions, moreover, are concocted in the lower parts of our organism.

‘By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one for another,’ said the loftiest Creator of a community. This attitude is necessary not merely to guarantee ‘a peaceful atmosphere for study,’ rather it is itself the means for developing higher knowledge. A school in the highest sense is not only a place where spiritual knowledge is taught; it is much more than that, it is a community that is enabled to form common insights by passing through trials together. Rudolf Steiner speaks in several places in his Mystery Dramas of the ‘council of the brothers’. This ‘council’ must not be understood as if all the members of this brotherhood already know everything and only meet for discussion of a problem out of mere consideration for each other, nor must it be understood that they confer so that perhaps one of them may accept the opinion of another as being more correct.

A council of ‘brothers in the temple’, as described for instance in the Portal of Initiation, takes place neither out of politeness nor from uncertainty of decision; rather it is in itself a cognitive act through the harmonization of individual standpoints represented by the different personalities. If only one point of view (in various shades) were represented there, such a council would not be a spiritual community. A council with standpoints ‘east, northeast, southeast’ would not be complete—it would be weak—for not until the polarities of ‘north’ and ‘south’, of ‘east’ and ‘west’ are unified does it carry the possibility of higher knowledge and of stronger effect. It is important to bear in mind that the polarities working together in such a community can actually have the appearance of conflicting moral principles.

What, then, is a ‘council’ intended for spiritual knowledge and spiritual work? It is a new living being, an organism, whose life consists in the working together of polarities. Just as in the human body life consists on the one hand in a struggle between nervous system and digestive system, and on the other hand in the working together of these two polarities for the good of the whole organism in the rhythmic system, so the life of a spiritual council exists through the fact that opposite opinions are ever and again united on a higher level after they have fully revealed themselves as opposites.

The schools of Western occult tradition in the culture-epoch preceding ours fostered the wisdom of the intellectual soul through teaching thinking in such a way that the student had to solve a sequence of problems which could, and can still be described as ‘the neutralization of binaries’. Pupils were given a concept to which they had to find its antithesis. Then they had to discover a third concept with which they could bind together the two contradictory concepts into a higher unity. It was an exercise in ‘ternary’ thinking. Fabre d’Olivet’s ternary about destiny can be cited as an example.† The concept ‘freedom’ was given for a start: the freedom of human personality. The antithesis to freedom is fate; fate which for human consciousness is, in the first instance, incomprehensible. The polarity between a fate that operates out of the past and a will that is directed solely toward the future finds its reconciliation in eternal providence (Divine direction). Thus: the whole figure equaling the idea of Destiny.

This approach is not suitable to our times and can no longer be considered seriously. We feel it resembles a game, for we are living in the age of the consciousness soul. But to attain the faculty of reconciling antitheses by means of thinking is still required today—only it has to be done in another way.

One way of achieving this, one which is suited to modern consciousness, is the Philosophy. As a whole it is so constructed that a ‘not only—but also’ type of thinking must be exercised. The challenge is already there, even in the fundamental principle of epistemology in the Philosophy; namely, that it is the organization of the human being that divides the one total reality into the realm of ideas and the world of perception. And the task of cognition is to overcome the separating element in the human organization in order to establish the unity of idea and percept as truth. This fundamental thought presents a challenge to human cognition to bridge over a basic cleft in human consciousness. It is a challenge to create a ‘ternary’, not through intellectual speculation, but rather through mature thought activity of the consciousness soul.

[graphic of equilateral triangle with "cognition" at top, "percept" and "idea" at base points]

Actually, the content of the first part, the epistemological part of the Philosophy, is expressed by this diagram if it is imagined as being in movement. Then the bottom side of the triangle (the separating element of the organization) is gradually overcome as it rises upward until, arriving at the top of the triangle—where percept and idea are united in the act of cognition—it entirely disappears.

Thus the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity is a path toward overcoming the organization, a path of freeing the consciousness from the body.

The Mystery Dramas of Rudolf Steiner, however, contain the life of the body-freed consciousness. Here human beings become members of a community through which they can widen their knowledge by way of the harmonious accordance of the individual insights of a number of free personalities.

Tomberg, Valentin; Wetmore, James. Russian Spirituality and Other Essays: Mysteries of Our Time Seen Through the Eyes of a Russian Esotericist (pp. 66-70). Sophia Perennis. Kindle Edition.