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6 Basic Exercises of the Heart

  • Gandalf

    Greetings Initiates,

    Here are six basic esoteric exercises explained by the wonderful teacher Brian Gray that we can do every day. These require no training to perform; prolonged practice and repetition only.

    6 Basic Exercises explained by Brian Gray of Rudolf Steiner College:


    1. Concentration of Thoughts
    2.Initiative in Action
    3.Composure in Pleasure and Suffering
    4.Postivity (Persian Legend of Christ)
    5.Freedom from Bias (Aquinas and the Church Tower)
    6.Harmony by means of repetition of the above
    AND
    7.Evening retrospection of the day’s events pictorially.

    Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and It's Attainment, is one of the foundational books of Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophy, and it covers the basics of a modern self-development regimen that can lead to self-initiation into the high worlds.

    Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and It's Attainment
    Click here or image for product details

    7. Evening retrospection of the day’s events pictorially visualized in reverse-chronology.
    This not only helps us to be conscious of our motivations and actions of daily life for reflection and improvement, but due to the reflective nature of the spiritual worlds this exercise helps to prepare us to get used to viewing inverted realities.

    “An esoteric pupil anticipates this intimacy in this development. The head with its brain is only a transition organ for knowledge. The organ that will look deeply and powerfully into the world has its germ in the present heart. To become an organ for cognition the heart must be transformed in many ways. But this heart is the source and fount of a future human stage. When the heart becomes its organ, cognition will be warm and intimate as only the feelings of love and compassion are today. But the feelings will struggle out of the dullness and darkness in which they just grope today and through to the brightness and clarity that only the finest, most logical concepts of the head have today. A real pupil is preparing himself for such things. And it's only a correct preparation if he does it with the indicated sentiment in his soul. These sentiments are the mother of the perspective that he needs. I ask you to note that we'll only attain what we should attain through our meditation and concentration exercises if we do them permeated by the great, sublime goals in bright, complete clarity.

    I ask you to always look at and do the exercises in this sense. Thereby you fit yourself into the community of spirits in current incarnations who are supposed to be come seers and helpers of the futures. We can do no better for the world's further development than to develop ourselves. But we must do that. And once we've seen the truth about our own being and the connection of this being with the world we don't doubt for a moment that we must do this. But this can only gradually be known. It's a child of will and patience.”

    -Rudolf Steiner from the Esoteric Lessons of 1904-1909

    There are many newcomers on the path today who are naturally still seeking their first real experiences of the spiritual worlds. This is totally justified if we are not seeking this primarily as a proof of such worlds, but rather it should come out of a pure and noble love of the divine principles and beings we have been studying, venerating, and are longing to get closer to. Yet it is also true that even a small glimpse behind the material curtain can offer a lifetime of religious hope and certainty for students that their self-development is yielding fruit. But we must not succumb to the temptation and appeal of exotic techniques or even the aid of narcotics that promise to send our fragile human consciousness head-on into the spiritual brilliance of the cosmos; in order to navigate in those realms as free independent human beings however, we must first transform our souls on earth by strengthening our thinking, feeling, and willing, down here.

    Morpheus- My Muscles in This Place

    We will have spiritual experiences when we are ready for them. It is possible that we may actually delay our progress if we pursue them with a premature approach. The proper religious attitude is the key to many practices that will do nothing for most, and wonders for the few.

    There is an old saying which says: “One does not become a wizard by performing magic, but by seeing the magic where others only see the mundane.” Thinking, feeling, and willing, are faculties of the soul and spirit when we experience them correctly in every-day life, and this does not require spiritual vision to comprehend. The spiritual eseence of the romantic-tragedies and beauties of life can apparently even be seen by "dumb brutes".

    Godspeed Initiates!

    The Gods Envy Us- Scene from the film Troy (2004):


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  • Rumi

    On the subject, which I believe Steiner was also aquainted similarly as Heindel. The following exerpt is from an appendix of The Rosicrusian Cosmo-Conception: 



    I've found these exercises to be two of the most effective at bolstering memory and present action in my life. The Evening (retrospection) being more approachable and immediately attainable with good effort... the Morning (concentration/visualization) being more difficult to get into the swing of things in my personal oppinion- the mood seems to drift for many I know who actively approach it. 

    Good luck!

    MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES PERFORMED BY THE ROSICRUCIAN ASPIRANT THE EVENING EXERCISE
    _________________________________

    The value of exercise, RETROSPECTION, is of greater value than any other method in advancing the aspirant upon the path of attainment. It has such a far-reaching effect that it enables one to learn now, not only the lessons of this life, but lessons ordinarily reserved for future lives.

    After going to bed at night the body should be relaxed. Then the aspirant begins to review the scenes of the day IN REVERSE ORDER, starting with the events of the evening, then the occurrences of the afternoon, of the forenoon, and the morning. He endeavors to PICTURE to himself each scene as faithfully as possible--seeks to REPRODUCE BEFORE HIS MIND'S EYE all that took place in each pictured scene WITH THE OBJECT OF JUDGING HIS ACTIONS, OF ASCERTAINING IF HIS WORDS CONVEYED THE MEANING HE INTENDED OR GAVE A FALSE IMPRESSION, OR IF HE OVERSTATED OR UNDERSTATED IN RELATING EXPERIENCES TO OTHERS. He reviews his moral attitude in relation to each scene. At meals, did he eat to live, or did he live to eat--to please the palate? Let him judge himself and blame where BLAME is due, PRAISE where merited.

    People sometimes find it difficult to remain awake till the exercise has been performed. In such cases it is permissible to sit up in bed till it is possible to follow the ordinary method.

    The value of retrospection is enormous--far-reaching beyond imagination. IN THE FIRST PLACE, we perform the work of restoration of harmony CONSCIOUSLY and in a shorter time than the desire body can do during sleep, leaving a larger portion of the night available for outside work than otherwise possible. IN THE SECOND PLACE, we live our purgatory and first heaven EACH NIGHT, and build into the spirit as RIGHT FEELING the essence of the day's experience. Thus we escape purgatory after death and also save time spent in the first heaven. And LAST, BUT NOT LEAST, having extracted day by day the essence of experiences which make for soul growth, and having built them into the spirit, we are actually living in an attitude of mind and developing along lines that would ordinarily have been reserved for future lives. By the faithful performance of this exercise we expunge day by day undesirable occurrences from our subconscious memory so that OUR SINS ARE BLOTTED OUT, OUR AURAS COMMENCE TO SHINE WITH SPIRITUAL GOLD EXTRACTED BY RETROSPECTION FROM THE EXPERIENCES OF EACH DAY, AND THUS WE ATTRACT THE ATTENTION OF THE TEACHER.

    The pure shall see God, said Christ, and the Teacher will quickly open our eyes WHEN WE ARE FIT to enter into the "Hall of Learning," the desire world, where we obtain our first experiences of conscious life without the dense body.

    __________________
    THE MORNING EXERCISE

    CONCENTRATION, the second exercise, is performed in the morning at the very earliest moment possible after the aspirant awakes. He must not arise to open blinds or perform any other unnecessary act. If the body is comfortable he should at once relax and commence to concentrate. This is very important, as the spirit has just returned from the desire world at the moment of waking, and at that time the conscious touch with that world is more easily regained than at any other time of the day.

    We remember from Lecture No. 4 that during sleep the currents of the desire body flow, and its vortices move and spin with enormous rapidity. But as soon as it enters the dense body its currents and vortices are almost stopped by the dense matter and the nerve currents of the vital body which carry messages to and from the brain. It is the object of this exercise to still the dense body to the same degree of inertia and insensibility as in sleep, although the spirit within is perfectly awake, alert, and conscious. Thus we make a condition where the sense centers of the desire body can begin to revolve while inside the dense body.

    Concentration is a word that puzzles many and carries meaning to but few, so we will endeavor to make its significance clear. The dictionary gives several definitions, all applicable to our idea. One is "to draw to a center"; another from chemistry, "to reduce to extreme purity and strength by removing valueless constituents." Applied to our problem, one of the above definitions tells us that if we draw our thoughts to a center, a point, we increase their strength on the principle that the power of the sun's rays increase when focused to a point by means of a magnifying glass. By eliminating from our mind for the time being all other subjects, our whole thought power is available for use in attaining the object or solving the problem on which we are concentrating; we may become so absorbed in our sub- ject that if a cannon were fired above our heads we would not hear it.

    People may become so LOST in a book that they are oblivious to all else, and the aspirant to spiritual sight must acquire the faculty of becoming equally absorbed in the idea he is concentrating upon, so that he may shut out the world of sense from his consciousness and give his whole attention to the spiritual world. When he learns to do that, he will see the spiritual side of an object or idea illuminated by spiritual light, and thus he will obtain a knowledge of the inner nature of things undreamt of by a worldly man.

    When he has reached that point of abstraction the sense centers of the desire body commence to revolve slowly within the dense body, and will thus make a place for themselves. This in time will become more and more defined, and it will require less and less effort to set them going.

    The subject of concentration may be any high and lofty ideal, but should preferably be of such a nature that it takes the aspirant out of the ordinary things of sense, beyond time and space; and there is no better formula than the first five verses of St. John's gospel. Taking them as a subject, sentence by sentence, morning after morning, will in time give the aspirant a wonderful insight into the beginning of our universe and the method of creation--an insight for beyond any book learning.

    After a time, when the aspirant has learned to unwaveringly hold before him for about five minutes the idea upon which he is concentrating, he may try to suddenly drop the idea and leave a blank. Think of nothing else, simply wait to see if anything enters the vacuum. In time the sights and scenes of the desire world will fill the vacant space. After the aspirant has become used to that, he may demand this, that, or the other thing to come before him. It will come and then he may investigate it.

    The main point, however, is that BY FOLLOWING THE ABOVE INSTRUCTIONS THE ASPIRANT IS PURIFYING HIMSELF; HIS AURA COMMENCES TO SHINE AND WILL WITHOUT FAIL DRAW THE ATTENTION OF THE TEACHER who will depute someone to give help when required for the next step in advancement. Even if months or years should go by and bring no VISIBLE result, rest assured that no effort has been in vain; the Great Teachers see and appreciate our efforts. They are just as anxious to have our assistance as we are to work. They may see reasons which make it inexpedient for us to take up work for humanity in this life or at this time. Sometime the hindering conditions will pass, and we shall be admitted to the light were we can see for ourselves.

    An ancient legend says that digging for treasure must be done in the stillness of night and in perfect silence; to speak one word until the treasure is safely excavated will inevitably cause it to disappear. That is a mystic parable which has reference to the search for spiritual illumination. If we gossip or recount to others the experiences of our concentra- tion hour, we lose them; they can not bear vocal transmission and will fade into nothingness. By meditation we must extract from them a full knowledge of the underlying cosmic laws. Then the experience itself will not be recounted, for we shall see that it is but the husk which hid the kernel of worth. The law is of universal value as will be at once apparent, for it will explain facts in life, and teach us how to take advantage of certain conditions and to avoid others. The law may be freely stated at the discoverer's discretion for the benefit of humanity. The experience which
    revealed the law then will appear in its true light as of only passing interest and unworthy of further notice. Therefore, THE ASPIRANT SHOULD REGARD EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS DURING CONCENTRATION AS SACRED AND SHOULD KEEP IT STRICTLY TO HIMSELF.

    Finally, BEWARE OF REGARDING THE EXERCISES AS A BURDENSOME TASK. ESTIMATE THEM AT THEIR TRUE WORTH; THEY ARE OUR HIGHEST PRIVILEGE. Only when thus regarded can we do them justice and reap the full benefits from them.

    _________________________________

    CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF THE FELLOWSHIP TEACHINGS

    Although the word "Rosicrucian" is used by several organizations, The Rosicrucian Fellowship has no connection with any of them.

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  • Gandalf

    @Rumi

    "CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF THE FELLOWSHIP TEACHINGS"

    Editorial context: Rudolf Steiner accused Max Heindel of plagerism, and implied Max Heindel may not have in fact received his most enlightened teachings from the masters themselves. But having read The Rosicrucian Conception, I would say that the teachings and language given there are more concise and digestable for an American audience. I will leave it for readers to contemplate on whether Max Heindel was initiated by the masters or not. Nonetheless, both authors offer a path toward self-initiation.

    Here is Rudolf Steiner's quote below, from his lecture cycle The Fifth Gospel:

    "You also know the strange fact that there are people who have been saying for a long time now that what I teach is infected with all kinds of dogmatic Christianity, even with Jesuitism. Especially certain followers of the so-called Adyar-Theosophy talk in the worst way about this supposed Jesuitism, as well as many more hateful, unscrupulous things. And a certain source claiming outrage at the narrow-mindedness and perversity of our teaching, then completely falsified it. A man from America learned our teaching over a period of many months, wrote it down, brought it to America in a watered down version and then published a Rosicrucian Theosophy, which he copied from us. [The reference is to Max Heindel – ed.]He says that he learned a lot from us, but that he was then called by the masters and learned more from them. He was silent about the fact that he took the more profound things from my unpublished lecture cycles. One could accept that such a thing could happen in America. One could, like Hillel, remain meekly silent – even when it spreads to Europe. Those who are most enraged at us here make a translation and in the translation say: Although there is also a Rosicrucian world view in Europe, it is narrow-minded and Jesuitical, and it can only thrive in the pure air of California.

    Well, that's enough! That is our enemies' method. We can look at these things not only calmly, but also with compassion – but we may not close our eyes to them. When such things happen, then care must be taken by those who for years indulged such people who acted without scruples. I would really prefer not to speak about such things, were it not necessary in the service of truth. One must see everything with clarity."

    The Fifth Gospel by Rudolf Steiner:
    You can listen to this quote at the 3 hour 17 minute mark.


    The Fifth Gospel by Rudolf Steiner:

    The Fifth Gospel by Rudolf Steiner

    See product page.

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  • Rumi

    @Gandalf  

    I had heard that there was some mild animosity between both men- but I am not too well read in either of them, however I am aware of the significant similarities in their teachings. A teacher of mine prefered the approach of Heindel so it was more readily available to my experience. To the degree that Goethe was a powerful model of Steiner's admiration comes the bulk of my aqaintance with his energies, and from my mother who was a Waldorf student. 

    How does one consider themselves an American audience, by association or by circumstance or other?

    I do wonder about the use of the word "enemy" chosen- is any anthroposophist aware of any more usage where one might gleam the flavour of his (Steiner) personal definition? It almost seems as though there may be a candid emphasis on The Enemy as is reminicent to me of the way in which Screwtape himself did speak! The following exerpt just beyond 3:17:00 also intuitively brought up for me The Mark of Maurice Nicoll, likely through association with the tales of none other than that worthy, worshipful great great grandfather Beelzebub.

    Thank you for the Gospel, I was previously only aware of its existence and had just recently revisited the Gospel of Thomas, which from a very excited friend of mine one might also hear it refered to as the 5th Gospel. This contains is the only translation I've read, but I've seen a list of potentially 9 different translations out there:

    https://self-initiated.com/products/the-gnostic-bible-revised-and-expanded-edition?_pos=1&_psq=gnostic+bible&_ss=e&_v=1.0


    R.



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