Rudolf Steiner's Exercises For Spiritual Development
Rudolf Steiner developed exercises aimed at cultivating new cognitive faculties he believed would be appropriate to contemporary individual and cultural development. According to Steiner's view of history, in earlier periods people were capable of direct spiritual perceptions, or clairvoyance, but not yet of rational thought; more recently, rationality has been developed at the cost of spiritual perception, leading to the alienation characteristic of modernity. Steiner proposed that humanity now has the task of synthesizing the rational and contemplative/spiritual components of cognition, whereby spiritual perception would be awakened through intensifying thinking.
A central principle of Steiner's proposed path to spiritual development is that self-development - inner transformation - is a necessary part of the spiritual path: "for every step in spiritual perception, three steps are to be taken in moral development." According to the spiritual philosophy Steiner founded, anthroposophy, moral development:
- reveals the extent to which a person has achieved control over his or her inner life;
- ensures that he or she lives in harmony with the surrounding natural and social world;
- correlates with his or her progress in spiritual development, the fruits of which are given in spiritual perception; and
- guarantees the capacity to distinguish between true perceptions and illusions, or to distinguish in any perception between the influence of subjective elements and objective realities.
Read more about Rudolf Steiner's Exercises For Spiritual Development: Meditative Path, Preliminary Requirements For Embarking On A Spiritual Training, Supplementary Exercises, Individual Exercises, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words steiner, exercises, spiritual and/or development:
“Words that are saturated with lies or atrocity, do not easily resume life.”
—George Steiner (b. 1929)
“Close to the academy in this town they have erected a sort of gallows for the pupils to practice on. I thought that they might as well hang at once all who need to go through such exercises in so new a country, where there is nothing to hinder their living an outdoor life. Better omit Blair, and take the air.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Whenever we encounter the Infinite in man, however imperfectly understood, we treat it with respect. Whether in the synagogue, the mosque, the pagoda, or the wigwam, there is a hideous aspect which we execrate and a sublime aspect which we venerate. So great a subject for spiritual contemplation, such measureless dreaming—the echo of God on the human wall!”
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—Simone Weil (1909–1943)