21 Dec From the World Society
Dear Members and Friends of the Anthroposophical Society in Canada
On the publication of the Lessons of the School for Spiritual Science
From the outset of his work, Rudolf Steiner asked those around him to observe their own soul experience in relationship to the spiritual teachings and guidance he was bringing. He asked for the development of an inner discernment for how what he was bringing was experienced.
He was pointing to what had always been the process for sharing spiritual knowledge – to convey these truths by word-of-mouth. He often returned to this principle, asking for inner clarity of the affect on our soul’s life when we hear spiritual truth conveyed orally, to perceive the activity in our souls as listeners. He asks that we develop a sense that living into the spoken word enables the engagement of our faculties of imagination not possible otherwise.
He contrasts this with the ever increasing tendency to want to experience what he was bringing by reading and grasping through an intellectual understanding the knowledge that he was bringing to contemporary humanity.
These two processes; listening with an open receptivity that allows for a direct affect on the inner constitution of the soul, and longing to grasp through reading and intellectual understanding, have accompanied his work ever since. Initially, he sought to attend to these polar relationships to his work by asking, again and again, that his request for this sensitive soul perception be strengthened.
As it became clear that the need to read and understand his work was growing, he asked that each publication of his public lectures include an introductory paragraph that explained the parameters for understanding and having an opinion about the published work. For many years this introductory page appeared at the front of all of the printed texts.
While this extensive dissemination of his many lecture cycles was taking place, he maintained the importance of conveying his esoteric work,’within the original Esoteric School and then within the School for Spiritual Science, following these principles of speaking and listening – from mouth to ear. This protection of oral communication also extended to the courses given to the physicians and to the priests, among others.
As the copyright protections for his esoteric work began to expire, the care of this work as he had intended became increasingly difficult. This provided the opportunity for those longing to have these texts of his esoteric work, to obtain them. For those who have faithfully attended to Rudolf Steiner’s requests, these changes are personally difficult. For others, these changes provide an opportunity that had not been available before.
As an initial step to maintain the responsibility felt by the Leadership of the School for Spiritual Science, the texts of the Class lessons were publish by the Goetheanum Press; first in German early in the 1990s followed by an English edition at the end of that decade
With the advent of the Internet, it no longer is possible to sustain the care of his esoteric work as originally intended. This has been a struggle for many who feel a deep sense of responsibility to Rudolf Sterne’s intentions. At the same time others feel the critical necessity to make public all of what Rudolf Steiner has brought, and fully support the publications and broad dissemination of his esoteric work.
For some time the Leadership of the School for Spiritual Science has sought to reconcile this seeming dichotomy. This has now led to the significant decision to re-pubish this work in a new edition.
With the proliferation of a variety of translations and edited versions of this important work, the Leadership of the School has felt the urgent need to provide the best possible publication of this most important of Rudolf Steiner’s later work. To accomplish this, they have worked with the Goetheanum Press to prepare the publication of a full authorized text of all of this material. This publication will contain an updated English translation, along with the full text of the German lessons on facing pages, making it possible for those wanting to work with these texts to refer easily between the translation and the original German. Each volumes will include reproductions of the blackboard drawings, making it possible to follow the relationship between text and drawings. In addition, each volume will contain three translations of the mantras. One is a newly available translation, never published before, that seeks in English to come as close as possible to the rhythms and sound of the German original.
The publication consists of a set of three, hard cover volumes – printed to the same high level of production standard used for all of the Goetheanum Press volumes of Rudolf Steiner’s work. The three volumes will be the standard size, and will match, all of the other GA publications. In order to make this publication as accessible as possible, the Leadership of the School for Spiritual Science has sought support to underwrite the publication, and are continuing to do so. At this point the maximum cost of each set is 150 Swiss Francs. The intention is that as further support comes to this project, that this cost will reduce. In order to reduce shipping costs, the Anthroposophical Societies in Canada and the US, have agreed to receive pre-orders for these sets, which will then be sent in bulk to each country.
If you would like to take advantage of these savings please contact Jef Saunders, the Society’s administrator, directly.
With warm regards,
Bert Chase
General Secretary for Canada
Diana Zinter
Posted at 20:55h, 28 DecemberDear Bert:
The ‘intellectual understanding’ referred to in this article receives acknowledgement as a longing to grasp without any further indications as to the purpose of this longing of understanding. It is left to stand as a thought alone, without any further explanation as its purpose on the path of knowledge to the spiritual world. The path of knowledge has been described, within the First Class Lessons, as a singular path- there is no other than the one. I will review my understanding of this path, below, to provide a basis for my comments.
One must first encounter, and then go by, the Lesser Guardian at the edge of the sense world; the Lesser Guardian presents the soul forces initially as beasts of fear, scorn and doubt as they separate; the traverse across the soul world is accomplished in this separation, that I can have courage on the path of knowledge, fire of knowledge quest and creative work in knowledge; then, the arrival at the gate of knowledge to encounter the Greater Guardian where the soul forces, as transformed organs of perception- the courage has subdued the fear, the scorn has been tamed, and doubt has been compelled to flee- become activity in the thought world of the spirit where the communication with spiritual beings can take place. I will my self from thought to thought, collecting up feelings as I go, placing feeling and thoughts together to create perceptual content. In this way, my separate soul forces are at my behest. They cannot come under my own (higher)self’s control without the encounter of the Lesser Guardian to see them as beasts of activity within my (lower) self.
This journey is the first half of the Circle of Theosophy- the expansion half of the soul’s journey from below to above, from the sense world, across the soul world, to the spirit world where the thought beings are encountered.
Then, knowledge can be brought back from the thought world down to the earth- this is the other half of the Circle of Theosophy, the concentration side. (The human spiritual activity on this side of the Circle is not laid out in the Lessons, but is found in full and correct reading of the basic books of Steiner.) Knowledge, coming from the above, is then clothed (concentrated) in an imagination across the soul world on the way back down to the below, and placed into the body as a deed in freedom on the earth. This is the only way for a deed to be moral in this period of the consciousness soul (R. Steiner, Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, Moral Imagination, Chapter 12).
I experience consistent soul discord whenever I encounter (by written or spoken word) this emphasis on the importance (and even protective capacity) of oral transmission of spiritual knowledge that is presented in this article. Out of this soul experience, and with the vitality, courage and tranquility of Anthroposophia which I have identified and come to know in my study on the Path of Knowledge, I write this response.
How is it that the words have come down to us in this day, one hundred years later but by reading? Is it, as the dualistic thinker described in Chapter 7 of Philosophy of Spiritual Activity (Limits to Knowledge), ‘okay’ to borrow from Reading to attain a base of information, and then ignore the fact of this borrowing, to put forward that the oral method of transmission of spiritual knowledge is still important, and even best? First I will read, then I will hide the book and say that we must not read?
There is no merit proposed in this article towards the ‘intellectual understanding’ of reading. There is no indication in this article of the spiritual activity of reading. Steiner implores us to read correctly and completely (Knowledge of the Higher Worlds, Appendix). Steiner explains the necessity of placing thought with feeling, that thought on its own is incomplete- it is left cold, dark and dead.
As I read correctly and fully- using my own will forces to move from thought to thought, and finding the feeling that goes with the thought presented- my experience of reading is one of reaching inner clarity of truth of the spirit. The truth resounds in my soul and I can re-cognize the source of the speaking, which is not of the sense world. There is not cold, but warmth; there is not dark but light; there is not intellectual death of thought but movement and joy of living thought reality. There is ‘seeming dichotomy’ only if I leave reading within the narrow bounds of the sense world where it is, indeed, cold, dark and dead.
How can I measure up my inner experience in a way that would support what the Society’s says to me? I cannot. Indeed, I also encounter a challenge which is new and also ever-new: learning to listen to the thoughts of the Lesson and to separate the speaking of Michael from the speaking of the soul forces that are coming towards me from the reader who is rendering or reading the Lesson.
What is to be accomplished in the holding to a tradition which is past? The 100 years since Steiner’s time on the earth is three generations deep, wide and high. The consciousness souls on the earth today have needs which reflect the time in which they live. In the Study of Man, Lecture 1, Steiner refers to specific requirements of education for different periods of time- what was relevant, and, indeed necessary, for the fourth epoch of the intellectual soul, is no longer relevant in the next period of the fifth epoch of the consciousness soul.
I perceive the continued emphasis on oral tradition as a throwback to a previous time. I know how the consciousness of the Consciousness Soul period demands its own knowing. I have accumulated observations and developed logic which supports this reality- it is not from speculation that I make this statement.
In the knowing of vitality, courage and tranquility,
Diana Zinter
Calgary, Alberta
Manny Blosser
Posted at 10:50h, 29 DecemberDear Bert,
Jeff opens this newsletter with comments hoping that we have all enjoyed reading the editions this year and that this reading can give us a ‘sense of connection, brotherhood/sisterhood. If reading an give a sense of connection that penetrates to the level of brotherhood/sisterhood then something greater than an intellectual understanding of information is possible through reading written words. I heard Bodo Von Plato speak to a few that gathered around for a question session after the final lecture at the Encountering Humanity Conference in Ottawa in Aug 2016 that reading is only an intellectual process. Humanity was just then learning to use the phrase ‘fake news’. Anyone that has read a good novel or a good poem and has cried or laughed or loved or hated or just been so engrossed that they didn’t even hear someone speaking to them has experienced that written words in print can convey deep emotions when they are read. It is faked news that reading is only an intellectual activity.
Rudolf Steiner, in his basic books, presented humanity with the fact that evolution of human bodies and of human thought have now reached the maturity that esoteric knowledge could also be presented in written printed words. Careful and complete reading of such words with thinking, feeling and willing can reveal what the author wanted to communicate. In his book, ‘Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment’, Steiner writes for clarification on this topic in the 1918 appendix:
“In earlier times there were reasons for reserving such personal instruction for oral teaching; today we have reached a stage in the evolution of humanity in which spiritual scientific knowledge must become far more widely disseminated than formerly. It must be placed within the reach of everyone to a quite different extent from what was the case in older times. Hence the book replaces the former oral instruction. It is only to a limited extent correct to say that further personal instruction is necessary beyond that contained in this book. No doubt someone may need assistance, and it may be of importance for him or her; but it would be false to believe that there are any cardinal points not mentioned in this book. These can be found by anyone who reads correctly, and, above all, completely.”
When one observes ink dots on a page (or lighted pixels on a screen) and compares them with mental pictures one has already accumulated in one’s soul to translate the symbols the dots form into the thoughts that the author thought when arranging the dots on the page, and then thinks those thoughts in one’s own brain, one has several choices of what to do next. Many individuals will once they have thought the thought of the author respond with their feelings either in sympathy or antipathy. Many individuals will engage in the process of critical thinking described by Steiner in chapter one of ‘Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment’ as the process of thinking directly about the objects of the sense world and arranging them for the satisfaction of the sentient soul purposes. There are variations on these 3.
Steiner proposes there (and also in the last chapter of ‘Theosophy’) that another possibility is to create an open feeling for the thoughts of another. When one thinks a thought in one’s brain one can observe effects in the soul and in the body. In the soul one can observe sympathies and antipathies calling for immediate attention. In the body one can observe subtle changes in the breathing rhythms and the blood flow. (Sometimes these bodily effects are not so subtle as when something ‘takes our breathe away’ or makes us blush). If one puts one’s identity as an observer in this position of objectivity with the feelings of the soul and with the body that gives us sense experience one can then experience that there do exist thoughts that have the effect of releasing life forces in the body. Certainly there are legions of thoughts that many many people have thought that do not release life forces in the body. Steiner, however, has written and printed thousands of thoughts that do release life forces in the will as ideals. Further, Steiner’s thoughts also give birth to courage in feeling and divide the essential from the non-essential in thinking.
You write that there are 2 processes:
“listening with an open receptivity that allows for a direct affect on the inner constitution of the soul, and longing to grasp through reading and intellectual understanding”
What is this ‘longing to grasp through reading and intellectual understanding”? I long to know and live in spiritual knowledge that all human beings can know and share with me that releases life forces, creates courage of soul and divides the essential from the non-essential. So far the only reliable source I have found for that is through reading Steiner’s printed words. Only once in awhile does someone in the leadership (Class holders) of the School of Spiritual Science orally speak words that have those effects. I long to hear spoken words that have those effects when I think them for myself and place them in the brain of my body. ‘Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment’ says that thoughts are real and a wrong thought can have just as devastating an effect on the thought world as a bullet fired at random will have on the sense world. If I want to see those effects I have to take up a watchpoint outside the body and look down upon it when a thought is placed in its brain. The lessons of the School of Spiritual Science that Michael spoke to Steiner, give precise instructions that are the same for every human being to attain such this objective watchpoint and see the effects of the thoughts and feelings they will into their bodies.
From this watchpoint it doesn’t matter if I receive a thought from another human being through oral or written communication. If I am going to have an objective view of the effects of the thought and so its true meaning I have to accurately reform it , recreate it, with my own soul forces. When you speak of open listening you are wanting listeners that can take in communication without distorting it with their own preconceived prejudices. As a listener that has learned to create such an objective mood of soul from reading written communication I am looking for speakers that can give oral instruction about such an objective mood of soul.
I have often been told that such an objective mood of soul doesn’t exist and that claiming to have such an objective mood of soul is a delusional illusion. Steiner claims to have such a mood of soul and in the first paragraph of ‘Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment’: “There is, in truth, no difference between esoteric knowledge and all the rest of man’s knowledge and proficiency. This esoteric knowledge is no more of a secret for the average human being than writing is a secret for those who have never learned it. And just as all can learn to write who choose the correct method, so, too, can all who seek the right way become esoteric students and even teachers.”
Steiner gave written communication and oral communication. Much of the oral communication was written down. We don’t have anymore oral communication from someone who claimed to have an objective mood of soul that was true for all human beings and that could be learned by all human beings in the same way that writing can be learned. When will there be leadership on earth incarnated in a body that can communicate such a mood of soul orally or in writing?
Sincerely,
Manny
Emanuel Blosser
Edmonton, Alberta
EMANUEL984@aol.com
Diane Robitelle
Posted at 12:36h, 29 DecemberWell, Bert, reading your writing had effects on my soul. And I dare say it is certainly possible to engage our faculties of imagination when reading. I’ve authored books of poetry and some readers have reported how their imagination was sparked. I, too, experience the world of imagination when reading poems, as well as other types of writings.
Rudolf Steiner wrote in the Appendix of his book, Knowledge of Higher Worlds: “The statement can be made that what is imparted in this book can be realized by every soul. In the course of this realization, which the soul can personally determine according to the indications given, the resulting events occur as described. Let the reader take this book as a conversation between the author and himself. The statement that the student needs personal instruction should be understood in the sense that this book itself is personal instruction.”
And Steiner wrote in the 3rd Edition Preface: “To one interested, but not intending to follow the path to higher knowledge, this book is intended to picture the path in such a way that even one not following it can nevertheless have confidence in the communications of the person who has done so.”
Then Steiner goes on to state that the book needs to be read in an intimate way so that reading resembles an inner experience, the different passages will evoke then different feelings.
Also, it is clear to me that the texts of the First Class Lessons require this kind of intimate reading that evokes different feelings and inner picturing on the path to higher knowledge through these words of Michael.
My experience of a Class reader’s oral communication of these words is an exercise in making straight the crooked created though his sense-bound soul-forces.
And so, I gratefully look forward to the new publication and all of us reading it carefully and completely as an intimate spiritual experience.
With sincerity,
Diane Robitelle