spirituality - physics - conspiracy - philosophy - wisdom - and more...
You are not logged in. Please login or register.
Noble Realms → Spirituality and Metaphysics → Steiner, Intuitive Thinking, Philosophy Of Freedom
So did you go on a little vacation yourself, montalk?
I didn't leave the apartment once this whole week! Okay, just kidding. Nope, no special vacation except the forum being on pause. My time was spent studying Steiner and reworking his theories on intuitive thinking. Hope you all had a productive week!
Hi again Montalk!
I haven't come a lot on NR forum lately. good to be back.
If you're still into Steiner, I recommend
on intuitive thinking:
Goethe's world view (Rudolf Steiner)
Philosophy of Freedom
about what's happening now:
Michael's Struggle with the Dragon: Facing Evil in Modern times (René Quérido)***a very much recommended small book.
The Incarnation of Ahriman (seven lectures by Steiner)
The transformation of evil and the subterranean spheres of evil - Sigismund von gleich
The influence of spiritual beings upon man (Rudolf Steiner)
True and false paths in spiritual investigation (RS)
The challenge of the times (RS)
Man and the world of stars (RS)
Nature spirits (RS)
Thanks for the suggestions, druid. I'm still into Steiner -- re-reading Outline of Esoteric Science again, after having re-read Philosophy of Freedom (version called Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path). After finally getting what he was talking about, I realize now how important that book is. Philosophy of Freedom is written in an intentionally dense manner made worse by the translation into English, so I cannot recommend it to everyone here unless you're up for some highly abstract reading with confusing sentence structures at times.
Decided to start off my next book with a reworking of Steiner's conclusions regarding intuitive thinking, but contextualizing it with quantum physics and timeline dynamics instead of philosophy as he did. I intend to show how the prerequisite and consequence of intuitive thinking is freewill, how and why freewill requires self-awareness, and why intuitive thinking leads to ideal methods of truth analysis that allows one to transcend the limitations of linear "matrix-programmed" thinking. Intuitive thinking is THE key to cutting through deception and figuring things out in this jungle of disinformation out there, and for staying balanced in the times ahead. It is the antidote to "agnostic rationalism" that plagues matrix-minded thinkers. So that chapter will form the basis and context for everything else that follows in the book, which will be written for intermediate-advanced people instead of beginners. I'm sure you'll find it interesting when it's published (goal is late 2007).
Those other books you cited sound great... I'll check 'em out!
The mmeting with the Guardian is inevitable on the way to supersensible experience. The last conference of Koulias describes magnificently the meeting with Dweller on the Threshold, more in depths than at the end of Knowledge of the Higher Worlds.
Good work with your new book!
druid
Lectures Given By ADRIANA KOULIAS
at Sydney 20th February 07
MEETING THE TWO GUARDIANS
The lessor and the Greater
At the Mysterious Threshold of the Spiritual World
http://www.anthroposophy.org.au/files/M … rdians.pdf
Two lectures Given By ADRIANA KOULIAS
at Bowral and Sydney Sept/Nov 06
The Two Sophia Streams
Magi and Shephards
and Their Unification in Anthroposophy
http://www.anthroposophy.org.au/files/2 … epherd.pdf
The mmeting with the Guardian is inevitable on the way to supersensible experience. The last conference of Koulias describes magnificently the meeting with Dweller on the Threshold, more in depths than at the end of Knowledge of the Higher Worlds.
Just cruised through this and saw this mention. I was on another board today discussing something I'd seen, and someone responded that it was a Guardian, a Watcher. Can you give me a short run-down on the Dweller on the Threshold? I'm curious to see if it's the same thing the other person was talking about.
Oh wait-- I just saw that the PDF you gave a link to is just a 14-pager. I assumed it was a huge book, which was why I lazily asked for the run-down. Nevermind!
when we raise our attention above the sensible world, we meet the guardian on the way to the supersensible realms. Most of us are not ready and he stands there and keeps us from experiencing the supersensible. (Watch that old movie The Trial, by Orson Welles, from the book by Kafka). The Guardian is scary and reflects all our bad deeds from all previous lives AND our present life. We feel like sh*t when we meet him, we are torn apart by a burning sense of guilt. There is another Guardian (light being, manifestation of Christ) after this one, but this one cannot be experienced until we have finished our task to transform our own double.
If you want you may read the part concerning the Guardian in Steiner's book Knoweldge of the higher worlds.
small Guardian http://wn.rsarchive.org/Books/GA010/Eng … 0_c10.html
Greater Guardian: http://wn.rsarchive.org/Books/GA010/Eng … 0_c11.html
montalk wrote:
I realize now how important that book is. Philosophy of Freedom is written in an intentionally dense manner made worse by the translation into English, so I cannot recommend it to everyone here unless you're up for some highly abstract reading with confusing sentence structures at times.
Having read a little bit of Steiner years ago, I began thinking that some of his work is written in a circuitous fashion on purpose in order to reroute brain circuitry in order to create pathways from which you can understand his work, but not in the usual left-brain fashion. ya 'reckon? Intuition-delusion+critical thinking=freewill, or something. This book that you are writing sounds fantastic-lala
Having read a little bit of Steiner years ago, I began thinking that some of his work is written in a circuitous fashion on purpose in order to reroute brain circuitry in order to create pathways from which you can understand his work, but not in the usual left-brain fashion. ya 'reckon?
That's right, this is supposedly what he intended to do with "Philosophy of Freedom." I suspect Gurdjieff had a semi-related goal when he wrote "Beelzebub's Tales to his Grandson." But with Steiner, he did not want people to just read and memorize his works, like you would a straightforward textbook where you can just turn off your intuition and let your linear brain download the data to regurgitate later. So his writings required more of a "figure out what he means when he says this" approach, which would poke underused brain circuits into getting a workout. Apparently it's common for new readers to Steiner's work to have great difficulty in the beginning, but after sticking with it suddenly it clicks and they can't get enough of his stuff.
I don't like that technique though, to hide an important idea behind difficult syntax and sentence structure. Reminds me of another technique that uses difficult words and long sentences to make the reader work hard to get anything out of it -- Michael Topper is an example... you gotta use a dictionary to get through his stuff. If an idea has to be wrapped so that one must expend great effort to retrieve it, I would much rather prefer sentences that are so clear and simple as to be cryptically hiding a greater significance that you can only discern if you put effort into intuitively pondering it against the backdrop of your own experiences, reasoning, and insights.
The primary approach I use for my articles is to state conclusions without all the supporting experiential annecdotes, implications, or excerpts from correlative sources. This is done not only to be concise, but so that the reader, in merely coming across that idea, is cued into making a sudden realization about his or her own experiences, research, and insights... a realization that can lead to pondering the implications. This internal realization and pondering of implications would ideally follow the same process that occured inside of me to reach that conclusion. Then the idea belongs to them as well, because they substantiated it within their own selves.
Excellent! I was hoping Tom to carry this to it's own thread! Now I may hope Tom to come to Istanbul driving a Ferrari which he plans to give me.. but I once tried that and turned the thread to city litter, possibly SiriArc remembers that 
Ok, I am reading Theosophy from Steiner now, as it's one of his rare books in Turkish. Great book which takes human being from mineral body to higher spirit possibilities but this came some kind of "introductory" to me. So I'll begin Knowledge of Higher Worlds, especially this Guardian subject which seems very important - with Druid's extra links.
Tom, I'll await your book by the way.
My congrajulations Tom on your decision to take up this work.
You may want to read Bondarev's big book on Steiner's Philosophy of Freedom. Bondarev is probably the greatest living Anthroposophical author, a Russian living in Switzerland. At one time he was head of the Russian Anthro Society, during the Communist era in Soviet Russia, underwent numerous interrogations by the KGB because of that role- his testings by fire-- only to be later booted from the Anthroposophical Society because of his--ahem-- radical writings. In my view, however, he carries forth in true Steiner spirit.
There is not too much of his work currently available in English. If you want a sampling from his Crisis of Civilization, you can find it here:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Sparta/ … cerpts.htm
and chapters from that book here:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Sparta/ … Ethics.htm
You have probably already read these however as I believe Druid has posted them on one of the boards.
I am in contact with Bonadrev's translator in England, and he is willing to send me the manuscript of his translation of Bondarev's book on Steiner's Philosophy of Freedom. Let me know if you are interested. It runs to something like 800 pages and what I have read of it so far is an excellent read and very clear exposition of the Philosophy of Freedom.
All the best,
Jeff
My understanding was that the scary guardian and the being of light are one in the same. The guardian simply reflects what is in your deepest hard and magnifies it, so if you are still holding fear or anger or guilt, then you meet up with one scary mutha, but if you have released that, then you meet up with your own love magnified.
montalk writes:
but so that the reader, in merely coming across that idea, is cued into making a sudden realization about his or her own experiences, research, and insights... a realization that can lead to pondering the implications. This internal realization and pondering of implications would ideally follow the same process that occured inside of me to reach that conclusion. Then the idea belongs to them as well, because they substantiated it within their own selves.
Then this is a form following function, or theory in practice, because the process of choosing to clarify intuition in order to develop free will is implicit in the way the book will be written. The reader is reading about the idea, but the way in which it is read causes a process which makes the theory an experiential reality. You seem to be really of the lineage of writers like Steiner and Gurdijieff (I don't know much about the latter, I've never liked his work and I could barely get through two pages of " B's Tales to his Grandson.) who affect a change in consciousness through their writings, but you are a later generation of this type of writer, so your work will be technically more appropriate for post-modern spirituality. Sounds good, I hope that you find a good publisher like Greg Braden and others in the new consciousness studies field have, don't let your work get buried on the Internet!-lala
My understanding was that the scary guardian and the being of light are one in the same. The guardian simply reflects what is in your deepest hard and magnifies it, so if you are still holding fear or anger or guilt, then you meet up with one scary mutha, but if you have released that, then you meet up with your own love magnified.
Yet the way Steiner depicts them, they are clearly Two Guardians:
the first guardian is our double. Once we are finished with him, there is still another Guardian, but this is a light-being of inextinguishible radiance, a light-manifestation of Christ. More than 99% of us are still struggling with our own double. When we are finished with the ahrimanic double (first, lower one0, there is still a luciferic tempation of staying in the spiritual realms and not wanting to come back on earth. This means we wnat to stay in the fuzzy paradise in the clouds, and drop all responsibility towards the earth. This is the luciferic temptation: stop reincarnating and stay as we have become, spiritually emancipated from our karma and Double, but then we stay imperfect because there are so much potentialities we aven't fructified and make others profit from them. Even when we're through with our double, it is our duty to make others benefit from our spiritual awakening and wisdom. If we just think about our own salvation and do not make others benefit from our individual spiritual evolution, we follow the black path of egoism. Many in priental practices fall into this trap. If we don't come bakc on earth and make others benefit from our spiritual evolution, we stay that way and the whole world will continue to evolve and pass us by. We will have mised the train of higher evolution. That is why the second Guardian stands there: he is there to show us that we must come back even though we think we have finished our Work. Making others benefit from or spiritual adavnce is the white path. (This is described in Steiner's book Knowledge of the Higher Worlds...).
About Steiner's writings: He said that he wrote precisely in a way to awake a certain spiritual experience. In other words, his books (not lectures) are written in order to make us experience the spiritual worls directly. Just reading it is already a spiritual experience. We are in the spiritual realms when we read his books with all requisite attention and spiritual effort (here meaning effort in using your spirit, thinking as a pure activity of the spirit). Sense-free Thinking as a spiritual activity.
Freedom in The Philosophy of Freedom is not meant as "I can do all I what", but Freedom as a kind of spiritual activity, actiovioty of the spirit. Spirit in action, freely exploring the spiritual worlds. Nothing is spirtual if it does not free your spirit, where your whole self can become active and live, evolve, in freedom, this is, in itself, a spiritiual activity.
Ok... like many truthseekers I try to figure things out before reading about them elsewhere. So after coming up with some principles of truth analysis and "intuitive thinking" it turns out there's a well known name for all that: abductive reasoning.
Abduction, or inference to the best explanation, is a method of reasoning in which one chooses the hypothesis which would, if true, best explain the relevant evidence. Abductive reasoning starts from a set of accepted facts and infers to their most likely, or best, explanations.
The philosopher Charles Peirce introduced abduction into modern logic... He later used the term to mean creating new rules to explain new observations, emphasizing that abduction is the only logical process that actually creates anything new. Namely, he described the process of science as a combination of abduction, deduction and implication, stressing that new knowledge is only created by abduction.
From something Pierce wrote:
Abduction is the process of forming an explanatory hypothesis. It is the only logical operation which introduces any new idea; for induction does nothing but determine a value, and deduction merely evolves the necessary consequences of a pure hypothesis.
Deduction proves that something must be; Induction shows that something actually is operative; Abduction merely suggests that something may be.
Its only justification is that from its suggestion deduction can draw a prediction which can be tested by induction, and that, if we are ever to learn anything or to understand phenomena at all, it must be by abduction that this is to be brought about.
No reason whatsoever can be given for it, as far as I can discover; and it needs no reason, since it merely offers suggestions.
172. A man must be downright crazy to deny that science has made many true discoveries. But every single item of scientific theory which stands established today has been due to Abduction.
I totally agree with this guy. Quantum physics wasn't known in his time, but abductive reasoning is the internal mental analog to the external phenomenon of quantum wave function collapse, or to the future creating the past and present. Instead of going from some premise (past) towards a conclusion (future), a conclusion (future) is intuitively "felt" (in the present by focusing within) in order to hit upon an entirely new premise (of the past). Fun new thing to read about, thought I'd share it here.
montalk on Charles Pierce:
Quantum physics wasn't known in his time, but abductive reasoning is the internal mental analog to the external phenomenon of quantum wave function collapse, or to the future creating the past and present. Instead of going from some premise (past) towards a conclusion (future), a conclusion (future) is intuitively "felt" (in the present by focusing within) in order to hit upon an entirely new premise (of the past). Fun new thing to read about, thought I'd share it here.
These ideas seem very important to me. I have been thinking along some of the same lines without any of the vocabulary to describe it. But... there is such an emphasis, which seems like a backlash, on tradition, traditions, back to basics and all that, but are these really the basics? Tradition seems like a prison to me, from which nothing new can ever be created. Also, many different ethnic groups do not want their concepts, wisdom teachings or rituals taken out of context, but again, if nothing is ever taken out of context, how can anything new ever be created? We can't create the future to change the past and present if we are always stuck in the past (tradition). While many of us, including me, do not want to open ourselves to E.T. energies because they seem parasitical and invasive, unless we connect with a cosmic consciousness that is not bound by (earth) history and reasoning how can we affect this robotic merry-go-round with change? Do you think that there is a type of thought and communication that has nothing to do with the brain and nervous system? Might that be something that is coming to be, so to speak? It is hard to even imagine because I have no concept of what that would even be like. I think that the intuitive thinking, and sense-free thinking such as druid talks about in the Anthroposophy stuff could be a precurser to that, but ultimately it goes much further than that in an unimaginable way. Kind of like John the Baptist preparing the way for Christ, not to go all biblical, but... Thanks to all on this thread and input-lala
Noble Realms → Spirituality and Metaphysics → Steiner, Intuitive Thinking, Philosophy Of Freedom
Powered by PunBB, supported by Informer Technologies, Inc.