From the World Society – On Sharing Our Voices

26 Mar From the World Society – On Sharing Our Voices

Dear Members and Friends of the Anthroposophical Society in Canada

Perhaps one of our greatest challenges as contemporary human beings is a deep seated need to be right, and to have our perspective validated and accepted.

In recent centuries, as we unfold our individual consciousness, we have gradually developed faculties for which we can be deeply grateful. The evolving capacity for free and independent thought provides the foundation for meeting the world as a free individual. These evolving capacities challenge us when they descend into our physical constitution, becoming intertwined with our embodied experience of self. As these remarkable capacities become bound to the body it becomes increasingly difficult to separate our sense of self from our ideas. This can bring us to the experience of feeling threatened if our ideas are questioned, or if we are confronted by the thoughts of others that are not in accord with our own. This binding of thinking to our embodied sense of self is so familiar that we accept it as being innate.

Against this background we can be continually amazed by Rudolf Steiner’s capacity to free thought from fixed perspectives. We can be uncomfortable when he presents startlingly different perspectives on a similar subject. We can experience this as a physical dis-ease. If we attend to this we can become aware of how we have aligned our sense of what is “right” with only some of Rudolf Steiner’s indications, setting aside those that challenge us. Rudolf Steiner continuously invites us to break this binding of our thinking to our constitutions – that we freely think.

This unbinding becomes ever more difficult when seeking collective agreements. In this community setting we are inevitably confronted by the limits of our ability to enter into a creative thought process with others without our sense of self being affected. In order to feel well in our bodies we struggle to have our thoughts, our insights, acknowledged and accepted.

Rudolf Steiner treads another path. He invites multiple perspectives that only the individual can bring, but is also limited by. It is when the full constellation of points-of-view can be held that the group has the possibility of coming closer to the essence of what is being considered. We have the remarkable example of this with the Christmas Conference where each decision, that could have been made quickly if directed by Rudolf Steiner, was discussed at great length. Only after this extensive reflection were decisions made. A critical mystery aspect of this process is that these explorations were all framed by the Foundation Stone Meditation – that the formative principles embedded in it permeate and inform all these proceedings.

This ideal for a process of coming to agreements within the Anthroposophical Society has remained our guiding intention ever since the Christmas Conference. One key aspect of this process is the role of those representing others. He specifically speaks of this in relationship to the responsibilities of the General Secretaries who he reminds are there to speak for those who could not attend. This is a weighty responsibility for those who have the privilege to being present. At every step these “representatives” are called not only to bring their own thoughts, but to share the essence of the thinking of those not able to attend – even if these thoughts are not in alignment with their own.

This ideal is an intention for the future, that we are cultivating ways of working that stand on the wisdom of each individual – wisdom that can then be set aside so that those present, having built up a full picture, can “see through” to what needs to come about in that moment. This collective perceiving is a community process.

From the distance of a year, we can look back to the 2018 General Assembly of the General Anthroposophical Society out of these reflections. Were we able to truly hear each other and then to set aside the perspective we experienced as “right”? Were other forces active to interrupted this sacred space of speaking and listening?  This tension is profoundly uncomfortable, having an impact on members around the world who feel their voices were unheard. This discomfort triggers complex feelings and reactions. Feeling mute awakens a deep need to be heard and comes coupled with the will to have an effect. The inherited mechanism for doing this is the use of a “proxy” that has come to be a method for supporting, and voting for, a predetermined outcome divorced from what comes to the meeting itself. This can inhibit the very processes of sharing and listening that Rudolf Steiner asks us to cultivate, processes that would restore the proxy, the  procurare, to its origins – the one who cares for the concerns of the other.

As Canadians we face parallel challenges, ones we constantly try to negotiate. Within the context of our continent-of-a-country we seek ways of working that include us all.  Committing to our two languages, creating a Council of representatives spread across thousands of kilometres who meetings span the country, and Annual General Meetings held in different regions, are all efforts in this direction. Despite these efforts those who cannot be present can feel unheard, ineffective. In an attempt to hear your voice, while respecting the call to come to agreements in a completely new way, an effort is being made to create a vehicle through which you can share you voice and contribute to our common striving.

At the heart of this impulse is a request that we cultivate speaking with each other. Across the country let us hold conversations on the issues we will be considering in our Annual General Meeting – conversations between those who have the privilege of being present and those who do not have that possibility. Our hope is that by cultivating these conversations, and reminding ourselves that being present is a privilege and a responsibility, we can take a step forward to bring into our meeting the voices of our fellow members across the country – that your voice contributes to the constellation of perspectives out of which those present can listen through to a decision appropriate for all.

With warm regards,

Bert Chase

General Secretary for Canada