Sophia Institute online Anthroposophy Studies Program
Untitled (Yellow, Red and Blue) - by Mark Rothko (1953)
Course: Meditation and Initiation / The Sixfold Path as Given in Anthroposophy
A Practical Guide to Meditation
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Recommended ReadingKnowledge of the Higher Worlds by Rudolf Steiner
Theosophy by Rudolf Steiner Occult Science - An Outline by Rudolf Steiner Guidance in Esoteric Training by Rudolf Steiner Enlivening the Chakra of the Heart by Florin Lowndes |
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Introduction
Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Anthroposophy, placed the following sentence at the beginning of his book Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment: "There slumber in every human being faculties by means of which he can acquire for himself a knowledge of higher worlds." When people read this sentence or a similar statement that speaks about the latent possibility of developing oneself in such a way that we can indeed have experiences of the spiritual world, that we can to a certain degree become initiates ourselves, they usually react in some way to this statement, to this idea.
Some people will deny this idea for themselves and resign themselves to the belief that we cannot reach beyond sense perception to worlds they feel are imagined and unreal. They believe that we as humanity have developed from being superstitious and believing in magic and spirit to becoming sense world oriented and scientific, meaning believers in natural science that explores the natural world and states that we cannot explore the world of the soul and spirit with our senses or our thinking that is based on our senses and sense perception. In fact, they might believe, there is no such world of soul and spirit, but only some forms of imagination and perhaps hallucinations. Other people will read the above mentioned statement by Steiner and it will kindle something in their soul. These people can be called Anthroposophists.
For instance, Yvonne who encountered the above mentioned sentence in a café on the Rue Crémieux in Paris, France: "It happened one early afternoon in late fall in Paris. Yvonne had walked through a gentle rain storm that afternoon, noticing the change in the color of the foliage of the trees in the park, and had entered a café on the Rue Crémieux. Yvonne had felt a certain heaviness of soul and moodiness partly caused by the atmosphere of this fall day with its gloom and foreboding of darker and colder days to come, but her mood lifted upon entering through the door and crossing the threshold into the café partly because of the bright and well lit space that she now entered, and partly because of the modern art prints that she noticed on the walls of this café. She felt particularly drawn to a work of art known to her from previous visits by the artist Mark Rothko that depicts three bold colors: yellow, red, and blue. After having ordered coffee and having sat by herself at one of the tables in the back of the small café, there was all of a sudden some commotion. People sprang to their feet and crowded near the window that looked out onto the Rue Crémieux where just then several police cars with the sound of their sirens piercing the otherwise quiet afternoon air and flashing blue lights, sped by. While others lingered by the window Yvonne had returned to her table when she noticed that at the neighboring table an open book had been placed on the wooden surface curiously in such manner that the writing faced her instead of the would be reader seated at said table. Inquisitive against her habit Yvonne read one of the first sentences printed on the page. It contained the following words: "Il sommeille en tout homme des facultés grâce auxquelles il lui est possible d'acquérir des connaissances sur les mondes supérieurs." Returning to her cup of coffee and upon pondering these words, Yvonne felt as if a candle had been lit inside her soul and that the cave like space that she now became aware of as being her soul was now being illuminated dimly by the candlelight. Yvonne knew in this instance that she had found something, that she had turned a corner and was now facing a new world, unknown and mysterious, but real. There was no turning back for her. A longing had been awakened and with a new determination previously unknown to her, Yvonne went out into the streets as if a changed person. Years later, having become a Waldorf teacher and a student of Anthroposophy long since, Yvonne remembers this day, her walk down Rue Crémieux and entering the little café, as if it was yesterday. And a print of Rothko's painting adorns one of the walls in her studio ... "
This course focuses on the sixfold path or six exercises presented by Rudolf Steiner in Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and in several other publications by Steiner, namely Theosophy, Occult Science and Guidance in Esoteric Training.
Some people will deny this idea for themselves and resign themselves to the belief that we cannot reach beyond sense perception to worlds they feel are imagined and unreal. They believe that we as humanity have developed from being superstitious and believing in magic and spirit to becoming sense world oriented and scientific, meaning believers in natural science that explores the natural world and states that we cannot explore the world of the soul and spirit with our senses or our thinking that is based on our senses and sense perception. In fact, they might believe, there is no such world of soul and spirit, but only some forms of imagination and perhaps hallucinations. Other people will read the above mentioned statement by Steiner and it will kindle something in their soul. These people can be called Anthroposophists.
For instance, Yvonne who encountered the above mentioned sentence in a café on the Rue Crémieux in Paris, France: "It happened one early afternoon in late fall in Paris. Yvonne had walked through a gentle rain storm that afternoon, noticing the change in the color of the foliage of the trees in the park, and had entered a café on the Rue Crémieux. Yvonne had felt a certain heaviness of soul and moodiness partly caused by the atmosphere of this fall day with its gloom and foreboding of darker and colder days to come, but her mood lifted upon entering through the door and crossing the threshold into the café partly because of the bright and well lit space that she now entered, and partly because of the modern art prints that she noticed on the walls of this café. She felt particularly drawn to a work of art known to her from previous visits by the artist Mark Rothko that depicts three bold colors: yellow, red, and blue. After having ordered coffee and having sat by herself at one of the tables in the back of the small café, there was all of a sudden some commotion. People sprang to their feet and crowded near the window that looked out onto the Rue Crémieux where just then several police cars with the sound of their sirens piercing the otherwise quiet afternoon air and flashing blue lights, sped by. While others lingered by the window Yvonne had returned to her table when she noticed that at the neighboring table an open book had been placed on the wooden surface curiously in such manner that the writing faced her instead of the would be reader seated at said table. Inquisitive against her habit Yvonne read one of the first sentences printed on the page. It contained the following words: "Il sommeille en tout homme des facultés grâce auxquelles il lui est possible d'acquérir des connaissances sur les mondes supérieurs." Returning to her cup of coffee and upon pondering these words, Yvonne felt as if a candle had been lit inside her soul and that the cave like space that she now became aware of as being her soul was now being illuminated dimly by the candlelight. Yvonne knew in this instance that she had found something, that she had turned a corner and was now facing a new world, unknown and mysterious, but real. There was no turning back for her. A longing had been awakened and with a new determination previously unknown to her, Yvonne went out into the streets as if a changed person. Years later, having become a Waldorf teacher and a student of Anthroposophy long since, Yvonne remembers this day, her walk down Rue Crémieux and entering the little café, as if it was yesterday. And a print of Rothko's painting adorns one of the walls in her studio ... "
This course focuses on the sixfold path or six exercises presented by Rudolf Steiner in Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and in several other publications by Steiner, namely Theosophy, Occult Science and Guidance in Esoteric Training.
Anthroposophy is a Path
Rudolf Steiner formulated in his publication Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts the following words:
"Anthroposophy is a path of knowledge which would guide the spiritual in the human being to the spiritual in the cosmos. It manifests as a necessity of the heart and feeling. It must find its justification in being able to satisfy this need. Only those who find in Anthroposophy what they seek in this respect can appreciate it. Therefore only those who feel certain questions about the nature of man and the world as basic necessities of life, like hunger and thirst, can be Anthroposophists."
These guidelines were originally published in the members' supplement of Das Goetheanum, the Anthroposohical Society's weekly newsletter, Dornach, Switzerland, during the period February 17, 1924 through April 12, 1925.
There are and there will be people who experience this thirst for knowledge beyond the knowledge that we can find in the natural sciences that dominate our thinking and consciousness on the level of humanity in our modern world.
How can we come closer to the words mentioned, the words that stand so to speak at the beginning or we may say at the entrance to Steiner’s work How to Know Higher Worlds?
As an exercise we might for some time want to turn to observing the sleeping human being, a child for instance, or a sleeping animal, or perhaps a landscape that appears asleep.
"There slumber in every human being faculties by means of which he can acquire for himself a knowledge of higher worlds."
Our observation should focus on several things:
We describe this to ourselves and consider it in our mind. We try to become aware of feelings and our inner reaction to the sleeping gesture.
We should concern ourselves in this observation exercise with the question:
We could draw or paint the sleeping form perhaps first in a realistic fashion based on our observation, and later more as a gesture, as an expression of the sleeping being.
Engaging ourselves in this fashion we will be able to make steps in our artistic development, and perhaps in getting closer to experiences that have to do with higher worlds, with initiation.
"Anthroposophy is a path of knowledge which would guide the spiritual in the human being to the spiritual in the cosmos. It manifests as a necessity of the heart and feeling. It must find its justification in being able to satisfy this need. Only those who find in Anthroposophy what they seek in this respect can appreciate it. Therefore only those who feel certain questions about the nature of man and the world as basic necessities of life, like hunger and thirst, can be Anthroposophists."
These guidelines were originally published in the members' supplement of Das Goetheanum, the Anthroposohical Society's weekly newsletter, Dornach, Switzerland, during the period February 17, 1924 through April 12, 1925.
There are and there will be people who experience this thirst for knowledge beyond the knowledge that we can find in the natural sciences that dominate our thinking and consciousness on the level of humanity in our modern world.
How can we come closer to the words mentioned, the words that stand so to speak at the beginning or we may say at the entrance to Steiner’s work How to Know Higher Worlds?
As an exercise we might for some time want to turn to observing the sleeping human being, a child for instance, or a sleeping animal, or perhaps a landscape that appears asleep.
"There slumber in every human being faculties by means of which he can acquire for himself a knowledge of higher worlds."
Our observation should focus on several things:
- What is the sleeping form?
- What is the gesture of the sleeping being?
- What is the mood?
- Is there movement?
We describe this to ourselves and consider it in our mind. We try to become aware of feelings and our inner reaction to the sleeping gesture.
We should concern ourselves in this observation exercise with the question:
- What is it that now slumbers, that is now asleep?
- How is it different from the state of being awake?
We could draw or paint the sleeping form perhaps first in a realistic fashion based on our observation, and later more as a gesture, as an expression of the sleeping being.
Engaging ourselves in this fashion we will be able to make steps in our artistic development, and perhaps in getting closer to experiences that have to do with higher worlds, with initiation.
The Sixfold Path as Given in Anthroposophy
Rudolf Steiner introduced the Sixfold Path to the general public in 1909 as the Six Protective Exercises in Knowledge of the Higher Worlds. The six exercises and their practice constitute the sixfold path. They include:
In Knowledge of the Higher Worlds Steiner points out that the sixfold path, the six exercises, when practiced, develops one of our chakras, namely the chakra in the heart region, which he calls the twelve-petalled lotus. The heart chakra, “ … when developed, reveals to the clairvoyant a deep understanding of the processes of nature.”
In Guidance in Esoteric Training, a selection of writings by Steiner from the years 1904 - 1914, he gives these exercises a different title: Subsidiary Exercises. Steiner states in Guidance in Esoteric Training that “ … the conditions which must be the basis of any occult development are set forth (here). Let no one imagine that he can make progress by any measures applied to the outer or the inner life unless he fulfills these conditions. All exercises in meditation, concentration, or exercises of other kinds, are valueless, indeed in a certain respect actually harmful, if life is not regulated in accordance with these conditions. No forces can actually be imparted to a human being; all that can be done is to bring to development the forces already within him. They do not develop of their own accord because outer and inner hindrances obstruct them. The outer hindrances are lessened by means of the following rules of life; the inner hindrances by the special instructions concerning meditation, concentration, and the like.” (Part 5, General Demands, Guidance in Esoteric Training)
In Steiner’s book Theosophy published in 1904 Steiner describes the six exercises and states: “What is said here about the path of spiritual knowledge can all too easily, through failure to understand it, tempt us to consider it as a recommendation to cultivate certain moods of soul that would lead us to turn away from the immediate, joyous and strenuously active, experience of life. As against this, it must be emphasized that the particular attitude of the soul that renders it fit to experience directly the reality of the spirit, cannot be extended as a general demand over the entire life. It is possible for the seeker after spiritual existence to bring his soul for the purpose of research into the necessary condition of being withdrawn from the realities of the senses, without that withdrawal estranging him from the world. On the other hand, however, it must be recognized that a knowledge of the spiritual world, not merely a knowledge gained by treading the path, but also a knowledge acquired through grasping the truths of spiritual science with the unprejudiced, healthy human intellect, leads also to a higher moral status in life, to a knowledge of sensory existence that is in accord with the truth, to certainty in life, and to inward health of the soul.” (Chapter 4, Theosophy)
Rudolf Steiner chose a slightly different approach to the subject of the six exercises in his monumental work Occult Science - An Outline, published in 1910. Following an extensive description of meditation, meditation practices and content suitable for meditation, Steiner mentions the six exercises almost as if in passing: “In a proper school of spiritual training certain qualities are set forth that require to be cultivated by one who desires to find the path to the higher worlds. First and foremost, the pupil must have control over his thoughts (in their course and sequence), over his will, and over his feelings. The control has to be acquired by means of exercises, and these are planned with two ends in view. On the one hand, the soul has to become so firm, so secure and balanced that it will retain these qualities when a second self is born. And on the other hand, the pupil has to endow this second self, from the start, with strength and steadfastness.” (Part 2, Chapter 5, Occult Science - An Outline)
A sometimes overlooked but quite essential aspect of the exercises is their threefold nature. This threefold nature applies to two different aspects of the six exercises. The exercises address the soul forces of the human being which are: thinking, willing and feeling.
The six exercises relate to thinking, willing and feeling first and foremost as each of the exercises addresses one of the soul forces or a combination of soul forces.
But there is also a threefold nature to be found in each of the exercises in that each exercise has three distinct successive aspects to it. Firstly thinking, secondly feeling, then willing or movement.
Of course one has to also be aware that it is the nature of any exercise that it involves will power. There isn't really an exercise that happens by itself without the human being exerting will forces. Even sitting still and being at rest requires will forces.
For example if you practice the control of thinking exercise you concern yourself primarily with thinking, but you do move through a sequence of actions or parts of the exercise that are clearly structured in the following manner.
If you engage in the control of thinking exercise you will be asked to complete three parts or aspects in a sequential order. The first part of the exercise involves a focused thinking activity. During the second part you engage in becoming aware of a feeling. Finally in the third part of the exercise you consciously perform a movement, by so to speak moving the feeling from one specific location to another specific location.
- Control of thinking or the cultivation of clear thinking
- Control of willing or actions
- Control of feelings or equanimity
- Positivity or positive attitude
- Open-mindedness or impartiality
- Balance or equilibrium of soul
In Knowledge of the Higher Worlds Steiner points out that the sixfold path, the six exercises, when practiced, develops one of our chakras, namely the chakra in the heart region, which he calls the twelve-petalled lotus. The heart chakra, “ … when developed, reveals to the clairvoyant a deep understanding of the processes of nature.”
In Guidance in Esoteric Training, a selection of writings by Steiner from the years 1904 - 1914, he gives these exercises a different title: Subsidiary Exercises. Steiner states in Guidance in Esoteric Training that “ … the conditions which must be the basis of any occult development are set forth (here). Let no one imagine that he can make progress by any measures applied to the outer or the inner life unless he fulfills these conditions. All exercises in meditation, concentration, or exercises of other kinds, are valueless, indeed in a certain respect actually harmful, if life is not regulated in accordance with these conditions. No forces can actually be imparted to a human being; all that can be done is to bring to development the forces already within him. They do not develop of their own accord because outer and inner hindrances obstruct them. The outer hindrances are lessened by means of the following rules of life; the inner hindrances by the special instructions concerning meditation, concentration, and the like.” (Part 5, General Demands, Guidance in Esoteric Training)
In Steiner’s book Theosophy published in 1904 Steiner describes the six exercises and states: “What is said here about the path of spiritual knowledge can all too easily, through failure to understand it, tempt us to consider it as a recommendation to cultivate certain moods of soul that would lead us to turn away from the immediate, joyous and strenuously active, experience of life. As against this, it must be emphasized that the particular attitude of the soul that renders it fit to experience directly the reality of the spirit, cannot be extended as a general demand over the entire life. It is possible for the seeker after spiritual existence to bring his soul for the purpose of research into the necessary condition of being withdrawn from the realities of the senses, without that withdrawal estranging him from the world. On the other hand, however, it must be recognized that a knowledge of the spiritual world, not merely a knowledge gained by treading the path, but also a knowledge acquired through grasping the truths of spiritual science with the unprejudiced, healthy human intellect, leads also to a higher moral status in life, to a knowledge of sensory existence that is in accord with the truth, to certainty in life, and to inward health of the soul.” (Chapter 4, Theosophy)
Rudolf Steiner chose a slightly different approach to the subject of the six exercises in his monumental work Occult Science - An Outline, published in 1910. Following an extensive description of meditation, meditation practices and content suitable for meditation, Steiner mentions the six exercises almost as if in passing: “In a proper school of spiritual training certain qualities are set forth that require to be cultivated by one who desires to find the path to the higher worlds. First and foremost, the pupil must have control over his thoughts (in their course and sequence), over his will, and over his feelings. The control has to be acquired by means of exercises, and these are planned with two ends in view. On the one hand, the soul has to become so firm, so secure and balanced that it will retain these qualities when a second self is born. And on the other hand, the pupil has to endow this second self, from the start, with strength and steadfastness.” (Part 2, Chapter 5, Occult Science - An Outline)
A sometimes overlooked but quite essential aspect of the exercises is their threefold nature. This threefold nature applies to two different aspects of the six exercises. The exercises address the soul forces of the human being which are: thinking, willing and feeling.
The six exercises relate to thinking, willing and feeling first and foremost as each of the exercises addresses one of the soul forces or a combination of soul forces.
- Control of thinking or the cultivation of clear thinking relates to thinking
- Control of willing or actions relates to willing
- Control of feelings or equanimity relates to feeling
- Positivity or positive attitude relates to feeling and willing
- Open-mindedness or impartiality relates to thinking and willing
- Balance or equilibrium of soul relates to thinking, willing and feeling
But there is also a threefold nature to be found in each of the exercises in that each exercise has three distinct successive aspects to it. Firstly thinking, secondly feeling, then willing or movement.
Of course one has to also be aware that it is the nature of any exercise that it involves will power. There isn't really an exercise that happens by itself without the human being exerting will forces. Even sitting still and being at rest requires will forces.
For example if you practice the control of thinking exercise you concern yourself primarily with thinking, but you do move through a sequence of actions or parts of the exercise that are clearly structured in the following manner.
If you engage in the control of thinking exercise you will be asked to complete three parts or aspects in a sequential order. The first part of the exercise involves a focused thinking activity. During the second part you engage in becoming aware of a feeling. Finally in the third part of the exercise you consciously perform a movement, by so to speak moving the feeling from one specific location to another specific location.
Meditation and Initiation/The Sixfold Path/Lesson 6
Tasks and Assignments for Meditation and Initiation/The Sixfold Path/Lesson 6Please study the study material provided (see below) and feel free to use additional resources relating to the subject. Once you feel you are sufficiently acquainted with the subject please complete the following:
1. Give a summary in your own words of the study material for this lesson. 2. Create a drawing, painting, poetry or other artwork that relates to the theme of the following: The invisible will become visible in relation to what is described in the introduction in the section above titled Anthroposophy is a Path. 3. Practice the exercise described in the study material for a minimum of 5 days. Describe in some detail your practice with the meditation exercise including your process and observations, insights, potential difficulties and shortcomings, etc. Structure your descriptions clearly including giving days and time of day of each entry, p.e.: Day 1 / Monday / early afternoon ... Day 2 / Tuesday / early morning ... Day 3 / Wednesday / evening ... Day 4 / Friday / mid-morning ... Day 5 / Sunday / noon ... 4. Reflect on the period of practicing the exercise. What was your experience? What did you learn? What difficulties did you encounter? Submit the completed assignment via the submission form or via email. |
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Study Material for Initiation/The Sixfold Path/Lesson 6
Exercise Five / Open-mindedness or Impartiality
The fifth exercise has been named open-mindedness or impartiality. Open-mindedness is likely the exercise least understood and most difficult to access, especially because we tend to think that such an exercise is easy and comes to us quite naturally. Most people do think of themselves as open-minded, yet would also be ready to identify prejudice and lack of open-mindedness in others with relative ease!
Upon closer examination we will, however, possibly arrive at the following conclusion. What we took for being open-minded might be an illusion or wishful thinking. We might even have the conviction that we have achieved a lot of progress in this area, when in fact we are actually lacking in this area. We might have to admit that possibly we could be regarded as someone who appears to have somewhat of a shortcoming in this field of consciousness.
Steiner gave several descriptions and instructions concerning this exercise. In Guidance in Esoteric Training we find the instruction that we need to develop this attitude in the feeling realm as well as an attitude of mind, when encountering new experiences.
“ … efforts should be made to develop the feeling of confronting every new experience with complete open-mindedness. The esoteric pupil must break entirely with the attitude which, in the face of something just heard or seen, exclaims: ‘I never heard that, or I never saw that, before; I don't believe it - it's an illusion.' At every moment he must be ready to encounter and accept absolutely new experiences. What he has hitherto recognized as being in accordance with natural law, or what he has regarded as possible, should present no obstacle to the acceptance of a new truth. Although radically expressed, it is absolutely correct that if anyone were to come to the esoteric pupil and say, ‘Since last night the steeple of such and such a church has been tilted right over', the esotericist should leave a loophole open for the contingency of his becoming convinced that his previous knowledge of natural law could somehow be augmented by such an apparently unprecedented fact. … developing this attitude of mind, he (the student) will notice creeping into his soul a feeling as if something were becoming alive, astir, in the space referred to in connection with the exercise for the fourth month. This feeling is exceedingly delicate and subtle. Efforts must be made to be attentive to this delicate vibration in the environment and to let it stream, as it were, through all the five senses, especially through the eyes, the ears and through the skin, in so far as the latter contains the sense of warmth. At this stage of esoteric development, less attention is paid to the impressions made by these stimuli on the other senses of taste, snell and touch. At this stage it is still not possible to distinguish the numerous bad influences which intermingle with the good influences in this sphere; the pupil therefore leaves this for a later stage.” (Part 5, General Demands, Guidance in Esoteric Training)
Steiner puts forth a slightly different emphasis and perhaps a more imaginative quality concerning the exercise of open-mindedness in his description of the exercise in Occult Science - An Outline. There we find the following:
“ … thinking, and together with it the willing, reaches a certain maturity if one tries never to let past experiences rob one of open-minded receptivity for new ones. To declare in the face of some new experience: ‘I never heard of such a thing, I don't believe it!’ should make no sense at all to a pupil of the Spirit. Rather let him make the deliberate resolve, during a certain period of time to let every thing or being he encounters tell him something new. A breath of wind, a leaf falling from a tree, the prattle of a little child, can all teach us something, are we but ready to adopt a point of view to which we have perhaps not hitherto been accustomed. One can, it is true, carry this too far. We must not, at whatever age we have reached, put right out of our minds everything we have experienced hitherto. We have most decidedly to base our judgment of what confronts us now upon past experience. That is on the one side of the balance, but on the other there is the need for the pupil of the Spirit to be ready all the time for entirely new experiences; above all, to admit to himself the possibility that the new may contradict the old.” (Chapter 5, Part 2, Concerning Initiation, Occult Science - An Outline)
Noticeably, Steiner uses again slightly different words to describe the exercise in Knowledge of the Higher Worlds. Interestingly we do find here a different word namely impartiality instead of open-mindedness, and more of an emphasis on the life of the will and action, and faith, rather than feelings and attitude.
“ … (this) requirement is impartiality toward everything that life brings. In this connection we speak of faith and trust. The student meets every human being and every creature with this trust, and lets it inspire his every action. Upon hearing some information, he never says to himself: ‘I don't believe it; it contradicts my present opinions.’ He is far rather ready to test and rectify his views and opinions. He ever remains receptive for everything that confronts him, and he trusts in the efficacy of his undertakings. Timidity and skepticism are banished from his being. He harbors a faith in the power of his intentions. A hundred failures cannot rob him of this faith. This is the ‘faith which can move mountains.’” (Chapter 6, Knowledge of the Higher World)
Practicing this exercise should similarly to the previous exercise be done so to speak all day long, and not only during a narrowly defined period of time. However to begin with we might decide to do just this: We commit to the practice of this exercise for 30 minutes or another period of time, and then reflect and complete the exercise with the feeling and movement portion relating to the exercise. We become “attentive to this delicate vibration in the environment and to let it stream, as it were, through all the five senses, especially through the eyes, the ears and through the skin, in so far as the latter contains the sense of warmth.” (Part 5, General Demands, Guidance in Esoteric Training)
The practice needs to include firstly bringing to our attention or into the center of our consciousness, the fact that indeed we are encountering new impressions, situations, people, images, etc. at all times, and in a sort of habitual way relate all these new impressions to what we know to be true. This happens on an unconscious level all day long! Becoming aware and holding in our consciousness this process is the first step. Secondly we then pay attention to our habitual way of thinking and attitude in that we filter the new impressions in this way, namely in comparison to what we believe is true, and not necessarily to what is factual or one could also say rational. In this regard we are of course all quite different, one person more leaning in the direction of the feeling quality (does it feel right?), another person more in the direction of logic and rational thinking (is it logical?). It is of a certain importance to realize that we are not being asked to change this approach of how to evaluate the impressions or the new information, similarly to how we are not asked to stop having feelings when practicing the exercise of control of feelings. Rather we are asked to stay open-minded and accept the new as a possibility to be actually new, meaning perhaps to be beyond our current understanding. For many people the difficulties really start when asked to accept that there are aspects that are beyond their intellectual reach, as we tend to not want to acknowledge that this might be so. However, open-mindedness includes just such a premise, and quite possibly this is the single greatest hindrance for us when engaging in practicing the exercise of open-mindedness. For many of us the statement: “I do not understand”, means that we are doubting for example what we just have heard or have seen, and not that we acknowledge that we are unable to understand the phenomenon.
The exercise of open-mindedness is really meant as guidance through the door to the spirit. When we encounter an aspect of the spiritual world, for instance if we have an experience of a spiritual nature, like receiving guidance via a higher being, an angel, perhaps the Christ being, we will quite likely not have had such an experience before, or at least not had such an experience in a conscious way. We might hear a voice that seems to come out of nowhere, and that warns us of an impeding danger. We follow the voice’s advice, and escape certain death or a catastrophic accident. Or we hear of such an event that happened to someone else. If we try to reconcile such an experience without open-mindedness, we might explain it to us in some way, for instance calling the hearing of the voice a hallucination or something similar that fits in with what we know, or have known so far. The open-minded person however will be ready to acknowledging that this experience was unprecedented for them, but now will be added to their treasure of memories, experiences and knowledge. The open-minded person will say to themselves that hitherto they did not know how higher beings might communicate with them or others, and possibly they now have a window into this world.
Upon closer examination we will, however, possibly arrive at the following conclusion. What we took for being open-minded might be an illusion or wishful thinking. We might even have the conviction that we have achieved a lot of progress in this area, when in fact we are actually lacking in this area. We might have to admit that possibly we could be regarded as someone who appears to have somewhat of a shortcoming in this field of consciousness.
Steiner gave several descriptions and instructions concerning this exercise. In Guidance in Esoteric Training we find the instruction that we need to develop this attitude in the feeling realm as well as an attitude of mind, when encountering new experiences.
“ … efforts should be made to develop the feeling of confronting every new experience with complete open-mindedness. The esoteric pupil must break entirely with the attitude which, in the face of something just heard or seen, exclaims: ‘I never heard that, or I never saw that, before; I don't believe it - it's an illusion.' At every moment he must be ready to encounter and accept absolutely new experiences. What he has hitherto recognized as being in accordance with natural law, or what he has regarded as possible, should present no obstacle to the acceptance of a new truth. Although radically expressed, it is absolutely correct that if anyone were to come to the esoteric pupil and say, ‘Since last night the steeple of such and such a church has been tilted right over', the esotericist should leave a loophole open for the contingency of his becoming convinced that his previous knowledge of natural law could somehow be augmented by such an apparently unprecedented fact. … developing this attitude of mind, he (the student) will notice creeping into his soul a feeling as if something were becoming alive, astir, in the space referred to in connection with the exercise for the fourth month. This feeling is exceedingly delicate and subtle. Efforts must be made to be attentive to this delicate vibration in the environment and to let it stream, as it were, through all the five senses, especially through the eyes, the ears and through the skin, in so far as the latter contains the sense of warmth. At this stage of esoteric development, less attention is paid to the impressions made by these stimuli on the other senses of taste, snell and touch. At this stage it is still not possible to distinguish the numerous bad influences which intermingle with the good influences in this sphere; the pupil therefore leaves this for a later stage.” (Part 5, General Demands, Guidance in Esoteric Training)
Steiner puts forth a slightly different emphasis and perhaps a more imaginative quality concerning the exercise of open-mindedness in his description of the exercise in Occult Science - An Outline. There we find the following:
“ … thinking, and together with it the willing, reaches a certain maturity if one tries never to let past experiences rob one of open-minded receptivity for new ones. To declare in the face of some new experience: ‘I never heard of such a thing, I don't believe it!’ should make no sense at all to a pupil of the Spirit. Rather let him make the deliberate resolve, during a certain period of time to let every thing or being he encounters tell him something new. A breath of wind, a leaf falling from a tree, the prattle of a little child, can all teach us something, are we but ready to adopt a point of view to which we have perhaps not hitherto been accustomed. One can, it is true, carry this too far. We must not, at whatever age we have reached, put right out of our minds everything we have experienced hitherto. We have most decidedly to base our judgment of what confronts us now upon past experience. That is on the one side of the balance, but on the other there is the need for the pupil of the Spirit to be ready all the time for entirely new experiences; above all, to admit to himself the possibility that the new may contradict the old.” (Chapter 5, Part 2, Concerning Initiation, Occult Science - An Outline)
Noticeably, Steiner uses again slightly different words to describe the exercise in Knowledge of the Higher Worlds. Interestingly we do find here a different word namely impartiality instead of open-mindedness, and more of an emphasis on the life of the will and action, and faith, rather than feelings and attitude.
“ … (this) requirement is impartiality toward everything that life brings. In this connection we speak of faith and trust. The student meets every human being and every creature with this trust, and lets it inspire his every action. Upon hearing some information, he never says to himself: ‘I don't believe it; it contradicts my present opinions.’ He is far rather ready to test and rectify his views and opinions. He ever remains receptive for everything that confronts him, and he trusts in the efficacy of his undertakings. Timidity and skepticism are banished from his being. He harbors a faith in the power of his intentions. A hundred failures cannot rob him of this faith. This is the ‘faith which can move mountains.’” (Chapter 6, Knowledge of the Higher World)
Practicing this exercise should similarly to the previous exercise be done so to speak all day long, and not only during a narrowly defined period of time. However to begin with we might decide to do just this: We commit to the practice of this exercise for 30 minutes or another period of time, and then reflect and complete the exercise with the feeling and movement portion relating to the exercise. We become “attentive to this delicate vibration in the environment and to let it stream, as it were, through all the five senses, especially through the eyes, the ears and through the skin, in so far as the latter contains the sense of warmth.” (Part 5, General Demands, Guidance in Esoteric Training)
The practice needs to include firstly bringing to our attention or into the center of our consciousness, the fact that indeed we are encountering new impressions, situations, people, images, etc. at all times, and in a sort of habitual way relate all these new impressions to what we know to be true. This happens on an unconscious level all day long! Becoming aware and holding in our consciousness this process is the first step. Secondly we then pay attention to our habitual way of thinking and attitude in that we filter the new impressions in this way, namely in comparison to what we believe is true, and not necessarily to what is factual or one could also say rational. In this regard we are of course all quite different, one person more leaning in the direction of the feeling quality (does it feel right?), another person more in the direction of logic and rational thinking (is it logical?). It is of a certain importance to realize that we are not being asked to change this approach of how to evaluate the impressions or the new information, similarly to how we are not asked to stop having feelings when practicing the exercise of control of feelings. Rather we are asked to stay open-minded and accept the new as a possibility to be actually new, meaning perhaps to be beyond our current understanding. For many people the difficulties really start when asked to accept that there are aspects that are beyond their intellectual reach, as we tend to not want to acknowledge that this might be so. However, open-mindedness includes just such a premise, and quite possibly this is the single greatest hindrance for us when engaging in practicing the exercise of open-mindedness. For many of us the statement: “I do not understand”, means that we are doubting for example what we just have heard or have seen, and not that we acknowledge that we are unable to understand the phenomenon.
The exercise of open-mindedness is really meant as guidance through the door to the spirit. When we encounter an aspect of the spiritual world, for instance if we have an experience of a spiritual nature, like receiving guidance via a higher being, an angel, perhaps the Christ being, we will quite likely not have had such an experience before, or at least not had such an experience in a conscious way. We might hear a voice that seems to come out of nowhere, and that warns us of an impeding danger. We follow the voice’s advice, and escape certain death or a catastrophic accident. Or we hear of such an event that happened to someone else. If we try to reconcile such an experience without open-mindedness, we might explain it to us in some way, for instance calling the hearing of the voice a hallucination or something similar that fits in with what we know, or have known so far. The open-minded person however will be ready to acknowledging that this experience was unprecedented for them, but now will be added to their treasure of memories, experiences and knowledge. The open-minded person will say to themselves that hitherto they did not know how higher beings might communicate with them or others, and possibly they now have a window into this world.