Federica wrote: ↑Thu Jun 22, 2023 12:21 pm
Thank you, Ashvin.
It seems that for now this understanding will remain veiled for me. I appreciate the quote from Tomberg, but the meditation on the higher self is the first one recommended by Steiner, I believe, at a point in development when Inspirative cognition has not yet been experienced, presumably. Moreover in the passage you share, Steiner is describing the possibility for a Master to instill thoughts in the bodies of a pupil, while in the passage I shared above, and in the one I am now adding below, he is giving practical recommendations for meditation. So I would imagine these are meant to be particularly clear and unequivocal. Finally, I have a hard time getting a sense of your idea of contact with the higher self happening by Grace, when one of the main themes of walking the Anthroposophic path, is for the free human being to take that initiative, which is also why Christ gifted us the I-consciousness. But, as said, I am not doubting your understanding. I am just saying why it seems off limits for me at this point.
Federica,
Once we see through the arbitrary spiritual tendency to place the higher Self behind some metaphysical boundary, an impenetrable veil, that simply justifies the lack of any effort and initiative, we have a different sort of understanding to attain and work to do. A more subtle and delicate understanding and work, so to speak. The veil to penetrate is our own soul-life, which is highly personalized and always inclining to evil. It is comprised of Maya conceptions of who we are and how our life unfolds, through and through. There is a kind of helplessness that we should feel in relation to our current personality and all its spiritual strivings. As St. Paul says,
Romans 7:14-20 wrote: For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
You may remember Eugene was also fond of quoting the above, but he located the source of this resistance in physical genetics (understood materialistically), i.e. in another sort of metaphysical boundary that justifies passive waiting for death to lift the veil. The real source is found within our intimate soul-life that can be worked upon during life, but only with the help of our greater Allies to whom we owe its origins and its development. That includes not only higher divinities such as Angels but also higher human individualities who we could say are halfway between normal humans and Angels.
We should recognize that the goal of meditation is none other than for the Master(s) to 'instill thoughts' into our consciousness (through the central meditation of the Master Christ Jesus). It is fine to say and feel that we are seeking to unite with the higher self, but what does this mean for our striving in a practical context? Here we come back to what Cleric wrote with respect to the Unity of the "I" consisting at the same in a
multiplicity of spiritual beings. The higher beings who weave together our I-consciousness are practically above/outside/beyond that I-consciousness we know as 'our own'. He also referenced that in the last post about the practically independent beings of the 'anthill' within our WFT life.
The link of the I-consciousness bestowed through the Christ gift certainly gives us the ability to take initiative, i.e. to act as intelligent agencies steering the stream of becoming into the higher ideals of fully human existence. However, what that initiative has looked like in the horizontal forum of outer culture for the past 2,000 years and how it will be experienced within the vertical forum of our inner consciousness are, in a sense, polar opposites. That is why Tomberg writes:
Before this question can be answered, it is necessary to clarify the concepts of ‘passivity’ and ‘activity’ as applied to spiritual life. The ordinary meaning of these concepts is this: ‘activity’ refers to a consciousness in the state of ‘doing’, and ‘passivity’ refers to a consciousness in the state of ‘suffering’. This standpoint is entirely justified and useful when one has in mind the horizontal, the relationship of the human consciousness to its surroundings. However, if one is considering the vertical, that is, the relation of the incarnated human being to the spiritual world, then this standpoint is no longer valid. Then the opposite is true: the receptive attitude toward the spiritual world, the suffering and waiting, is the active side of the vertically upright consciousness, while the efforts of the will for the purpose of this or that exercise or task of cognition are the passive side. So, for instance, the words Christ Jesus spoke during the hour of Gethsemane: ‘Not my will, but Thy will be done,’ signify the highest possible activity of the vertically-directed consciousness. But this activity is not visible on the horizontal plane of life; there it appears as passive.
He goes on to write how certain coordination of the distinct lower and higher "I" activities become necessary, that is simultaneously active-passive. Steiner has many passages in the context of occult training that express something similar. For ex:
When we want to learn something about another person in the physical world, we go at it in whatever way seems necessary. But this we cannot do with the impression that calls for spirit peacefulness, calmness of soul, and patience. The attitude of soul towards the genuine impressions of the spiritual world is correctly described by saying,
To strive for nothing — wait in peaceful stillness,
one's inner being filled with expectation.
(The Soul's Awakening, Scene 3)
In a certain respect this frame of mind must stream out over the entire soul life in order to approach in the right way its clairvoyant experiences in the spirit.
What we can do is actively prepare the soil of our soul-life through cognitive and moral preparation so it is ready to receive the fructifying higher Spirit who descends into it as an act of Grace. So we should be clear that the intimate experience of higher knowledge is never something we will accomplish merely by working 'from below' upwards, whether through logical reasoning or moral willpower. It is, at the end of the day, continual acts of Grace from above that come to meet our upward striving and thereby render the latter fruitful.
One could also rightly say that we are awakening to the symphonic co-operations that always take place to lift us out of the lower spheres of existence, even in the context of outer culture. We are never resisting temptations towards animality and such simply through the strength of our own feeling and thinking efforts. It is always seeds planted for us during the liminal periods of sleep that we are able to maintain a basic moral orientation in our waking consciousness, which we can then strengthen by becoming more inwardly aware of how that is actually taking place. In that sense, it is our initiative towards Self-awareness of what is already taking place that resides at the heart of all spiritual striving under the aegis of Christ. But how that higher awareness becomes manifest cannot be understood as only a matter of our own initiative.