Systematic anthroposophy
This site initiative has a link with the 'idea' of a comprehensive systematic approach to spiritual science, and this page provides some background.
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The term 'systematic anthroposophy, was first coined by Maximilian Rebholz in 1936 when he published the book 'Zur Systematik der Geisteswissenschaft'. His writings, also the essays he published later in the form of newsletters, are clearly the result of in-depth study of the work of Rudolf Steiner. Rebholz tackled the study of certain subjects in a systematic way, and his essays used excerpts from Rudolf Steiner's lectures which are concatenated to support a reasoning logic and logical pathway or didactic storytelling.
Before Rebholz, others had taken such an integrative approach to Steiner's work, and it's deep personal study. Examples are Adolf Arenson (1855-1936) and Carl Unger (1878-1929).
Later, Oskar Kuerten became inspired by Rebholz' approach and followed in his footsteps, to let meaning come from the words of Rudolf Steiner himself by organizing the most meaning-filled quotes and excerpts in a way that this organization could lead to further insights.
Another student of Steiner where the imaginative insights are clear as the result of such study is Iwer Thor Lorenzen.
On the side: Interestingly, neither Rebholz or Lorenzen are well known in anthroposophical circles. The FMC project translated the works of both authors in English, ready for publication (see more in the PDF Project FMC - SoSoG and Study Volumes - 2016-2021)
In summary, key ingredients that can be recognized are:
- integrating multiple perspectives offered in the GA and Rudolf Steiner's thousands of lectures (supplemented by other sources)
- connecting the dots (mentally, as soul work during study) and, as a way to present the fruits of that work, placing the essential contents in a logical organization conveying insight
- all-in-all an approach requiring serious and disciplined study and rigour, as without extensive study (deep and wide) the above is not possible. An integral part of this process is 'living with questions', as understanding has to grow and mature with time as it ripens in the soul.
To see how Rudolf Steiner himself repeatedly stressed the importance of this approach, please read the various quotes where he points to how and why one needs to do so: Notes on the study process#On integration.
This also provides an explanation for the FMC schemas on this site (see also FMC study schemas)
The essence of the above is that this systematic study is a soul process and leads one to insights (and into the realm of imagination - see Study process and developing imaginations), rather than to intellectual understanding of dry rational thoughts.
Aspects
- taxonomy or knowledge classification or ordering system
- Schema FMC00.101 and the description of six main study areas - see Overview Free Man Creator.
- Schema FMC00.336 and variants, also on the Overview Free Man Creator page, show a logical mindmap or process to which a student along the path can connect. It sketches the main dimensions of the main study areas graphically in their interrelationships. .
- tools to search and navigate the Rudolf Steiner's Gesamtausgabe (GA). Considering a Body of Knowledge of some 70.000 or 100.000 pages, many tools exist, see Navigating anthroposophical resources and RSL study tools. Then there is secondary literature, see SoSoG
- Schema FMC00.039 shows an overview of lexicons and indexes, as many people have already tried to get to grips with the huge volume of information. These provide entry mechanisms to access specific topics or larger subjects. Many of these are today available freely on the web, for example the work of Christian Karl or Urs Schwenderer.
- Schema FMC00.040 maps out the different types of information sources one can find in anthroposophical literature .
- process support and guidance (for students)
- Notes on the study process, Study process and developing imaginations, Active soul participation, Christ Module 15 - Study of Spiritual Science , On educating yourself in holistic spiritual science
- Problem statement regarding the study of spiritual science
- D00.003 - theoretical aspects discussion regarding the study process .
- on the process followed (related to this site)
- Schema FMC00.395 on topic page D00.003 - theoretical aspects discussion regarding the study process (requires voice-over explanation but) sketches in a mind map the situation the student is confronted with, and how one can organize the study process
- the concept of Study volumes was also inspirational in the process, see also slide 15 in the PDF Project FMC - SoSoG and Study Volumes - 2016-2021
Inspirational quotes
1919-04-05-GA190
Now something most remarkable is present in our time. How often is it said when reference is made to anthroposophical spiritual science: yes, but this has a systematic interconnection, this is complicated, one must do a lot of thinking about it!
full lecture see: Current fifth cultural age#1919-04-05-GA190
Daskalos quoting Christian Rosenkreutz
"Thoughts and beliefs are too weak as wings to help us attain great heights of knowledge"
from book HTS by Markides, quoting "what Father Yohannan [editor, see: Individuality of Christian Rosenkreutz] said in a previous lesson"
Illustrations
Lecture coverage and references
Maximilian Rebholz - 1936
introduction to his book ' Zur Systematik der Geisteswissenschaft' (in EN 'Systematic Spiritual Science), (SWCC)
This book summarizes a few aphoristic results of my study of Rudolf Steiner's spiritual-scientific work. Although the essays handle the various topics of supersensible research independently from each other, they all have a common inner emphasis, i.e. knowledge of the working of the Gods in the human being, and the problem of freedom within this working of the Gods. It has been attempted here, through a suitable arrangement and presentation of the themes, to emphasize this inner connection and the many contrapuntal relationships between these themes, so that the content of this book may nevertheless be considered to be one coherent whole.
Rudolf Steiner indicated the fundamental truths, which constitute, as it were, the spiritual 'skeleton' of this wonderful perceptive organism, which he then developed as anthroposophy, more and more, in all directions, on the basis of those fundamental truths. Now, it may at first seem as though a few of the themes handled in this book cannot in fact be considered as the most fundamental ones. However, certain intimate truths, which the spiritual scientist could speak of – or even only indicate - only after a long preparation, become highly significant through an advanced study of anthroposophy. Thus, just as new, more awesome vistas open up before the eyes of the wanderer in the mountains, whenever he reaches a new peak, so too, in the process of studying the teachings of spiritual science, certain aspects of the problem of knowledge receive a central significance, which perhaps cannot be considered elementary, yet nevertheless can be seen as belonging to the system of spiritual science.
This clearly expresses the fact, that these essays can in no way constitute an introduction to anthroposophical spiritual science, but rather, they assume prior fundamental study of it on the reader's part.
The method of the present work can be characterized as creating an overview of the various statements of the spiritual researcher about a certain object of supersensible knowledge. It is not only the immeasurable fullness and form of the knowledge given by spiritual science in itself, which calls for such a method, but it was also a requirement often expressed by Rudolf Steiner, to really succeed in creating such an overview, and thereby, through comprehensive work for knowledge, to add the various presentations, which often seem to contradict one another, and weave them into a complete living whole:
"One can never look at the truths about the higher worlds from too many aspects. One should realize that from any one aspect it is possible to give only the poorest sketch. And when one looks at the same thing from the most diverse aspects, the impressions one receives in this way only gradually complement each other to form an ever more animated picture. Only such pictures, not dry, schematic concepts, can help the Man who wants to penetrate into the higher worlds."
(GA011, From the Akasha Chronicles, Life of Earth)
He who has experienced even just the beginnings of such a work for knowledge, either by oneself or through what others have achieved in that regard, knows the uplifting and fruitful results that such work can yield. Not only do the viewpoints thus brought together mutually shed light upon one another, but since we are dealing here not with theories but with descriptions of realities, there may [often] appear new perceptions, which hitherto have not been expressed directly by the spiritual researcher, and which in their turn may shed new light on entire areas of spiritual science.
However, these essays do not strive to present a complete and comprehensive study of the available materials, but are meant to be considered and evaluated only as aphoristic attempts in the direction indicated.
For the purpose of better explaining and giving and overview of the often complicated facts and conditions, a schematic graphic presentation was used here and there. Since by using of such schematic means, one runs the risk - due to misunderstanding this graphic presentation by perceiving it too anxiously - of falling into a "rigid schematism", I beg leave to quote from a lecture by Rudolf Steiner:
"It is good, not to look at the things in the way in which they present themselves in the course of our lecture cycles, but we should also bring the various things into a relationship with each other… If you assemble all that has been presented so far regarding spiritual science in our lectures, then you would be able to draw this scheme yourselves. All you have to do is to make an effort, not only to read on, one thing after another, but to try to connect the things that were presented in the lecture. One can draw many such schemes oneself, according to the existing course material, and this is very useful. For in processing the material given in the lectures in such a way, one progresses from outwardly absorbing what had been taught, to inwardly processing it. This inner processing is highly valuable for making real progress… Firstly, because it diminishes mere speculations about the content of those lecture cycles, and secondly, because through making such a compilation, one can truly evolve inwardly."
(1915-01-09-GA161)
These sentences describe best the purpose of the present essays too. Despite all its deficiencies – which will almost inevitably become apparent to the one who knows the difficulties of such a work - they also hope to challenge and encourage the reader, who strives in this direction, to continue his research and work for knowledge.
Discussion
Note 1 - About systematic study of spiritual science
Editor: this note is an initial working draft, just initialized and trying to lay out a few trains of thought on the topic.
Introduction
Spiritual science is about what was, in ancient times, the so called 'eternal wisdom' of the ancient Mysteries - see Mystery School tradition. The goal was then and still is today: to assist the individual human being in his/her development. For this, the reality of the spiritual world stands central, and there are two sides to this: a cognitive and an experiential side. Or: an outer and an inner. The outer is about wisdom, as in 'insightful knowledge', to be distinguished from plain information. The inner is about one's experience in the spiritual worlds, so about initiation.
- In the past, the Mysteries worked or were organized in an outward way: they were established in the physical world on Earth, with teachers guiding selected pupils based on their spiritual maturity. Because of this gradient of spiritual maturity, there was also the distinction between the so-called greater and lesser mysteries. Schema FMC00.636 illustrates this. Every population of human beings is stratified karmically and not everyone is 'ready' or 'able' - in a certain life - for the pathway of focusing on inner spiritual experience.
- This can be observed in the world at large, and also the anthroposophical community. Large groups of souls worldwide are attracted to the work of Rudolf Steiner, it is like a public signboard on a house in the street, inviting to come in .. come into the worldview spiritual science. Within that community, mostly all souls study anthroposophy, as in the lesser mysteries. Few, very few, seem to engage with commitment and discipline to the path of initiation. If so the materials that are picked up are the meditations and exercises given by Rudolf Steiner. Some, maybe many, give or and/or become disillusioned after some time. In contrast, in the community of people who was exposed to Franz Bardon's book of self-initiation IIH, we find people who could not care less about theory or lots of complex knowledge, but who speak from practical personal experience of the spiritual because they naturally flowed into the practice and got the fruits after years of consistent daily practice. In some cases, a book like IIH can 'hit' a person who recognizes it when picking it up, and this person makes it the center of their life, like a special hobby.
- After years the picture of Schema FMC00.636 became clear, that in one incarnation these appear to be separate communities, with a bridge connecting them, a bridge that few seem to cross in one incarnations. Souls appear to be on either one side. The author's view is that the soul ripens and has to pass through one stage before being ready for the next, and that this usually or probably happens in another incarnation. Of course no data is available to substantiate this. Maybe (and this is the hope of the FMC initiative) this may change in the future, and more souls will take a broader open view with regards to teachings of multiple teachers of the White Lodge. Most probably there are also karmic ties to certain Mysteries and streams underlying this, for every individual, that complicate this matter.
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In what follows, therefore, we will consider 'in scope' only the information-knowledge-insight-wisdom part of spiritual science, and not the experiential part of initiation science. This means that the subject of this topic page and discussion note focuses on what Man does through the faculty of thinking.
Study of anthroposophy
The start
The person interested in the spiritual, if serious and called to the work of Rudolf Steiner, discovers, and is 'confronted with' the Rudolf Steiner's Gesamtausgabe (GA) consisting of say 100.000 pages (approx.), or some 5.000 lectures. Each of these lectures may touch on say 10 different topics from various aspects and angles of perspective, so one has approx. 50.000 puzzle pieces. All of those have a certain narrative context, the scope and descriptive approach that Rudolf Steiner choose in any particular lecture. Now most people start by reading a book and/or some lectures, and from there onwards expose themselves to more volumes and more and more lectures. One quickly realizes 'the full monty', that is: that the full story is like an ocean or a forest in which one entered .. that Rudolf Steiner's teachings have to be considered and studied holistically, as one whole. In each lecture, many points are touched on, but always only piecemeal. Still the richness and taste of the soul food of all those puzzle pieces keeps the appetite going. Of course one does long for a more complete picture, for better views, and this is done through study: months, years and decades of personal individual soul experience. This is an investment in soul work: the soul absorbs and builds something internally, we'll come back to that later below.
Above this was called 'soul experience', because this work does not only affect our thinking, but our whole threefold soul including feeling and willing. The process affects one's soul growth. In the past century, many souls have spent decades doing this study work, alone and together. Several have developed lexicons, as maps to find references and be able to approach the study through keywords and concepts. Nevertheless, no matter how one slices and splits up the whole, the inter-dependencies become as important as the contents on a topic by itself, as no topic (think FMC wiki page) stands on itself in isolation, but is always part of the whole.
Hence an important characteristic of this study work is that a true grasp, deeper understanding, insight .. only comes from a broad study, so the combination of breadth and depth. One gains nothing, in fact it is plain impossible, to understand any topic by being a specialist in 'all there is to know on ..' just one single topic. This cannot work. Because any topic fits into various contexts, and true knowledge and insight only come with a deepening of the 'understanding of the whole' and how and where that topic is part of that larger picture, looked at from various angles.
- for an illustration, see Schema FMC00.632 and see also Notes on the study process#The multi-facetted approach
This is why a topic page (on this FMC wiki), or in general the 'scope slicing' necessity of a content management system, will never provide the full story or answer. It is understandable that all souls 'on their way', working to improve their knowledge, will do keyword searches to try and satisfy questions that pop up in their mind.
But the fabric of overall grasp that is the ultimate holy grail for those who want to understand Man and the cosmos, that fabric is woven slowly and steadily in one's mind over months, years and decades.
The goal
In rosecrucian teachings, study was an integral part of one's life. Rudolf Steiner extended this, but also stressed (nearly 'ad nauseum') that it is not a purely rational intellectual knowledge and dead words as empty husks, but that spiritual science is food for the soul, to nurture the soul and awake feelings that trigger images and will impulses. In other words it is not about applying contemporary methods of mineral science and using the intellectual soul to study the GA solely rationally and theoretically.
The goal is that study is a pathway for developing soul faculties, so soul faculties are awakened that concur with what lies within the natural future evolution of humanity. That, through study, we pick up what humanity (starting with part of humanity) will need to develop anyway naturally as developmental goals for the future.
Rudolf Steiner sketches this oa with the logic of the heart (Schema FMC00.617), karmic remembrance (Past life memories), Christ in the etheric ('second coming') .. and also with developing the faculty of imagination as a next stage of cognition beyond current waking consciousness.
This work of study is already covered from various angles on this site:
- Study process and developing imaginations
- Notes on the study process
- Enlivened images
- and the whole of Philosophy of Freedom and 'living or organic thinking' or 'thinking of the heart' - see D00.003 - Systemic aspects of the study process
Note: This appears to be less or not well understood by many, hence may need to be expanded here in this section with a concise summary of the essence.
Visual Schema FMC00.395
Schema FMC00.395 sketches how "these ideas will generate images in our mind"
- lift ourselves to what our intellect is unable to grasp
- transform ideas to imaginative pictures
- pictures unrelated with intellectual concepts
Use of computer technology as a support system for the study of spiritual science
Introductory considerations
This above perspective is a useful introduction and background for a discussion on computer technology as a support system for this process.
- Sidenote: at this point, as additional context, please read lecture 1919-10-04-GA191 for context of the short quote on Free Man Creator schooling#1919-09-13-GA193. This quote is mentioned here because it touches on the evolution of teachings of the spiritual world, which we know went as follows: first only verbal and direct teacher to pupil, and only later written, with distribution of printed books only appearing from the middle ages. Now and in the future: digital and fed by computer. For conscious consideration: what is being gained, what is being lost? What is needed to compensate for what is being lost?
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A computer system can be simple or advanced. Simple are the retrieval-type database systems that provide assistance in storing large amounts of information, cataloguing, efficient search and retrieval. Advanced are 'AI'-type assistance to this process, using algorithms to gather information in more advanced ways, with the intention of being closer to human language interaction and providing 'better' answers. But ultimately both do the same in human-computer interaction: they respond to a human question. And the question becomes: how can this be of benefit to the human being in his/her development, in his/her study process of the lesser mysteries, so purely the part approached through thinking and the intellect.
Now Man's consciousness can interface with a computer in the physical world at the level of human waking consciousness, but the human mind is active with thought in the astral world and the soul faculties reach into the lower spirit world of living ideas. The essential point is that Man's faculty of thinking (the rational intellectual part we can feed into a computer database and learning system) is completely tied, in the human being, to the other soul faculties of feeling, willing, memory. These current faculties of the Human 'I' are interwoven, whereby - with current waking consciousness (which acts as a bandpass filter to the spectrum of the spiritual) the information processing part is mostly mapping to the intellectual soul - see Human character - the I and threefold soul.
This has important implications that need to be understood when contemplating the process of study:
- Schema FMC00.213 provides an essential picture regarding the 'going beyond the thinking' of our waking consciousness, and getting to the feeling in which we have more of a dreaming awareness (in order to, from there, trigger or induce willing impulses)
- related to this, another important element is the consciousness soul, see the commentary to Schema FMC00.431. This points out that Man is in an evolutionary flow or natural development to the spiritual, and the goal of study of the spiritual is to reach out and connect with this influx of the spiritual (through the membrane of the soul, as described) that is happening anyway, evolutionary. Support of the study process has to keep this in mind all the time.
- we are 'affected' by what we take in, it changes our soul, it works in our sleep. This processing of daily events during sleep is essential for understanding personal growth and development. It is covered a.o. on What takes place as we sleep and Christ Module 16 - During sleep. In short, our Human 'I' uses a life incarnation and physical body to have daily experiences with waking consciousness whilst awake, but the processing really happens whilst asleep with the astral body and human I in the spiritual world ('through' the third hierarchy that are the refinery and processing engine for Man's transformation and spiritualization and the development of Man's higher triad). So when thinking about ourselves and our consciousness, it does not suffice to just take the daytime processing because this is not a continuous stream, it has 'blanks' in it.
The above points are mentioned for awareness: a computer system can be something we interface with, that responds and feeds us, but ultimately the process has to be designed with the student in mind, and support for development and soul work. This brings up the distinction between 'what one wants and what one needs' (more on this later).
Two scenarios
Hence, building on these preparations, we can contemplate two scenarios of computer technology support for the study process:
Scenario 1 - Interactive search support
The first thing .. which exists already today, is that computer technology is used to facilitate 'access to information' for processing by the human being. Contemplate what it really means for one's soul that a human being does a search: it is asking a question, and looking for an answer.
It does not make so much difference here whether that is a search using (a) database querying (full text) or (b) using more advanced algorithms (such as those in AI). And, for example, how different is it if the soul 'lives with this question' for months and years, spends hours in libraries? (see Notes on the study process#Living with questions).
- Computers are a logical extension of what people have been doing manually before when they indexed the GA with keywords. Lexicons were built, and they became databases with full text search engines that gave a huge 'jump' in terms of interactive performance as the computer looks up everything and responds in real time. However, the output spits out a subset of information that the user still has to go through mentally ('manually' :)) to draw one's own insights and conclusions. The computer is a tool in the soul work and 'information refinery'.
Remark that the user will type in the question in a way, and format, that takes into account what he/she knows about the system (from experience), based on what can be expected from the system, so for example a simple keyword (in case of (a)) or a full sentence (in case of (b)).
- In case (b), the system simulates or fakes to understand the deeper question, and outputs in a more human-like interactive format. The output is pre-processed by an algorithm and structured. However, what is the quality of all the choices made to arrive at this? What 'intelligence' can the computer system deduct from the question asked, knowing little to nothing about the user (background, intentions, needs). This will totally make up the quality of the interaction .. the richness, insight, wisdom of the answer offered. Anno 2025 all this is still quite poor, but the promise of AI technology development is that it can and will get much better.
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In this category or support tools, the realistic and down to earth design goal is that the computer system acts as a support tool used as part of the study process, to familiarize one's self with the spiritual scientific worldview, that is: 'to learn about' - say - more efficiently.
What does it mean: more efficiently and effectively? measured against what metric? time, a general feeling of intellectual mastery, or the building of the individual mental representation in the student/user mind?
The strength is that one can swim around horizontally across the whole ocean of scope and GA-contents. The weakness is that it provides little intelligence or insights to go in depth, lay out various aspects and dependencies.
This is due to the fact that what the computer system does is processing words and lots of text. It can do so with great processing power, but it remains on the level of the words, irrespective of their occurrence, contextual grouping etc.
Scenario 2 - Design challenge for a step change
To go further, a computer system would have to work at the level of concepts and ideas (versus words). This is a big thing. It is not to be confused with outlining concepts or topics, as in concept graphs or topic pages (in AI and/or semantic networks or wiki topic pages)
The vision of the author is that it ought - if at all possible, in that case .. that it should act as a 'trampoline' for Man, enable him to jump upwards and leave gravity and the world of language and intellectual concepts. With 'upwards' reference is made to the Schemas above, and the spirit world feeling impulses that trigger astral imaginative pictures.
How can an (AI-based) computer system act as a such fertile soul for human consciousness that acts as a kind of trampoline?
What it's all about
The ideas take form in the human mind, are beyond the words .. so this is where the computer is left behind, because no word or words can characterize the 'dimensionality' of an idea.
What are ideas? Plato's world of ideas was the spirit world (maybe more the higher spirit world of unformed principles), also for Goethe it was the spirit world (maybe more the lower spirit world of formed archetypes, as in plant archetypal, form-ing).
These ideas are spiritually real 'things' the human mind can connect to - and in fact it is the underlying functioning of our human soul - the computer can not. The human consciousness then gets imagery in the lower astral world that are generated in our consciousness, as the ideas clothes itself into whatever is available in our mind and consciousness.
So to get to an idea, we need to let go impulses of meaning that belong in and only the physical world. That is what Rudolf Steiner called sense-free thinking. How do we do that .. for example through meditation, eg with Vacancy of Mind (VoM, see IIH Step 1 mental).
When do we work with ideas? For example in concentration exercises (see IIH step 2 and 3), when we concentrate on a symbol, sense-free.
- As a side remark, this is why these two steps are universal in all spiritual teachings. For more info and some ten books on the topic of mental concentration exercises, see Initiation exercises#Concentration.
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As stated, a computer can not do this for us, has no 'reach' into these worlds. But could it help, assist, through using thoughts and senses? Could it provide 'something' that would provide an upwards impulse?
For example imagine it would generate visual images for us to undergo, that we would with smart glasses be exposed to specific chosen rendered images in a certain sequence, would that have an effect? Are there ways it could induce some level of support to interactively go to 'idea level'?
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At this point it appears that before arriving at Scenario B, first Scenario A above needs to be further extended - through algorithms - with smarter processing of what is in Appendix 1. And from there 'meaning offered' (as output of the computer system) can be build up. These are the steps 1 and 2 before step 3 on Schema FMC00.395. To offer something for the upwards arrow step 3, first sublayers of meaning need to be aggregated by the system through learning.
[stopped writing here ... to be continued ... ]
Appendix 1 - Various considerations regarding an improved next generation support system for the study of anthroposophy
- GA base texts
- store and juxtapose the original german next to english translation, given there are multiple translated versions. This could be used to investigate and test 'noise' due to variance (in working with meaning/concepts) due to translation.
- note the German GA texts are not static either, given each version of a volume is edited. So it is important to store these versions along. A translation of 1953 or 1975 may/ will be based on a different version of the german GA volume.
- regarding concept graph - taxonomy:
- upload lexicons and merge/blend them, or have them work in parallel next to eachother. Specifically there's references ID 5, 9 and 10 on Schema FMC00.039, see Navigating anthroposophical resources#Indexes and Lexicons.
- to each reference, one can link text extract. However, if one does, one looses the lecture context for that 'chunk of text', the perspective and storyline. How could this be 'saved along' next to the text extract? It is not the lecture title. The algorithm could use the lecture synthesis which exists in the GA for each lecture, as a 'measure' for the contents of that lecture, to use that in the processing of a specific extract by using it as an indicator for 'context' (see 'Aspects' on the FMC wiki, though it is not the same)
- so the algorithm could pre-process/crunch the output of such search and based on certain criteria and processing group them .. and then provide as output a set of perspectives, with links to descriptive narratives for the person to read. This system would have to be trained, to become better at discerning true 'aspects' (with aspects is referred to how these are used on this site per topic page, noting that organizing of aspects into some logical structure or is WIP).
- terminology
- even the original GA texts (in their various edited versions) do not use consistent terminology, as Rudolf Steiner consciously and deliberately used various word-labels and concepts in the narrative descriptions. See point 1.1 on Problem statement regarding the study of spiritual science#1 - the nature of the teachings of spiritual science
Appendix 2 - Where it has to lead (start with the end in mind)
2.1 - leading to the Work .. self-initiation
Study is theory and has to lead to Practice, which is acting in the world, but for further progress: self-initiation (see also Schema FMC00.636)
This needs to be contextualized, for this we refer to: Free Man Creator schooling#Note 1 - Free Man Creator view on schooling
And also, recapped below from Initiation#Inspirational quotes:
- progress in spiritual training is not thinkable without a corresponding moral progress.
- the science of initiation is the only possibility for the further progress of humanity
- an ounce of practice is better than tons of theory.
- Knowledge is the beginning of practice; doing is the completion of knowing. To know and not to act is to not know. Thought and learning are of small value unless translated into action.
2.2 - Another key element between Scenario 1 and 2
Consider Schema FMC00.636 and the whole explanation given in this Discussion Note. Then there is an important consideration 'between' scenario 1 and scenario 2, on the bridge between 'spiritual scientific worldview' and 'self-initiation'.
Once one gets a certain grasp of the spiritual scientific worldview, the question becomes: to what purpose, to what effect, what does it serve?
The answer is that it affects our soul. This includes that we relate this worldview to our personal existence as human being in context of our family, friends, society and humanity as a whole, in context of multiple lives and reincarnation, and so on. See Seeds for future worlds and Meaning of Free Man Creator.
Then, if you want to change the world, change yourself. This is the place to start, hence it leads to self-initiation.
What this means is that there is an end to studying worldview, it is not a goal in itself. This study is not its own purpose. We can continue for ever, but that is a trap. It is required to a certain degree, but it should not become, as is said in French, l'art pour l'art, just study for its own sake of study.
How study affects the soul is however something very personal and individual that can not be forced.
But one might argue that a portion of people in the anthroposophical community are a bit 'locked in' by this effect, fully on the left (of the bridge), caught into ever ongoing intellectualizing and never taking a step to practice, praxis, self-initiation .. because .. it's a never ending story. It does not seem to converge and can become a mental locked cell in one incarnation/life.
Related pages
- Notes on the study process
- Study process and developing imaginations
- Active soul participation
- Christ Module 15 - Study of Spiritual Science
- On educating yourself in holistic spiritual science
- D00.003 - Systemic aspects of the study process
References and further reading
- see mainly the other related topic pages on this site (as listed on this page), and their 'further reading' sections