EURYTHMY, THE OCCULT ORIGINS

THE PLACE OF MEDITATION IN THE WORK OF RUDOLF STEINER

This article is written to further elucidate a number of different points of view in anthroposophy. Comments and contributions are welcome.

The first point is the often recurring belief that Rudolf Steiner took nothing from other teachings and developed everything from his own meditative and visionary experience ("Schauen"). This one-sided conviction possibly has its origin in what Rudolf Steiner wrote himself in the preface to "Die Geheimwissenschaft im Umriss" (1910), (An Outline of Occult Science, the 1955 edition of the "Vorwort zur sechzehnten bis zwanzigsten Auflage" p 11). This work Steiner calls the only work of interest, in which the whole of anthroposophy is given. It is the fruit of visionary imagination (Geistig Schauen in Imaginationen), in which the entire history of the origin of humanity and the cosmos is captured in images. Images that cannot be seen in any outer reality, but only in the mind's own inner seeing. Expressed in more modern terms: through the practice of meditation and training of the mind as described in the last two chapters and in other publications by Steiner. (Steiner R. GA 270 Band 1-4, Dornach 1999).

This is a truth that cannot be tampered with.

In addition, Steiner clearly stated in his lecture cycle GA 109, (2000), a lecture cycle from 1909 on the "Prinzip der Spirituelle Ökonomie", that a spiritual investigation should always take as a starting point the results of former spiritual investigators ("Geistesforscher") and that one should not embark on developing something new at random. One has to connect with what is already available. It is also known that he knew Balvatsky's Occult Science and took it as a guideline for his own imaginations about the stages of evolutionary development in the process of creation. Steiner has developed his own visions, has done his own spiritual research ("nachgeforscht") into this idea of ​development through grand planetary stages. In a similar way Blavatsky wrote her book, based on the knowledge of the Vedes about the cycles in the genesis of the cosmos and the creation of man in tantric knowledge. In Buddhist cosmology called Kalpa's, epochs subdivided into Yugas: Golden age, Silver age, Copper age, Iron age (the current dark age Kali Yuga). Until today, the source Blavatsky claimed has never been traced, namely a Tibetan text, the so-called Stanzas of Dzyan, written in an ancient language. Buddhist scholars think she took the tantric texts of the Kalachakra from the Buddhist Kangyur as an example, while others see a reuse of texts from the Zohar, the kaballistic Sifra Di-Tse-Nintha.

Both authors Blavatsky and Steiner have become acquainted with ancient texts and sources about the history of the world and man and have subsequently started writing in their own way, delving into this history the meditative way, giving their own images and representations. Steiner notes in his Geheimwissenschaft that, given the complexity of these creative processes, these descriptions cannot be complete.

Thus, to answer the question whether Steiner drew everything solely from his own clairvoyant perception, or whether he just followed other esoteric teachings, it is reasonable to say that both are a fact. Both the one and the other are true. 

My generation was raised on moral principles by our physics and chemistry teacher Dick van Romunde, then in the upper secondary school. His winged words remained as a life motto and are still guiding up until today. One of them was: Probation on honor. You were allowed to make up a written test at home if you had been ill, without cheating by looking into the books. That was the word of honor. But it has worked even more powerfully, if a question was not answered completely, but only partly: "A half-truth is no truth". In the above question about the work of Rudolf Steiner, I therefore call on people to stop spreading half-truths, as a form of defense against unanswered questions, because this only acts like a boomerang coming back and undermines the veracity of anthroposophy. The whole truth has been neglected for too long and it has only diminished credibility. Students who ask questions need a complete answer and not a half-truth. Nor does it help in the present day to put forward clairvoyance as a scientific method. Both clairvoyance and science are no longer viewed in the same way they were valued in Steiner's time.


There is more to say about the principle of first (through more or less in-depth study) get acquainted with ancient sources in Hinduism and Buddhism and then afterwards giving a description through one's own imagination and "Geistessschau". In any case, Blavatsky has been accused of plagiarism many times, where she has not cited her sources. Steiner may have wanted to free himself from this problem by appealing to his own spiritual research instead of reusing older sources. However, Steiner did become acquainted with older occult teachings, if only through Blavatsky's texts and books, as is apparent from his work in the esoteric school (GA 245 "Aus den Inhalten der esoterischen Schule", Dornach 1996) , in which he made use of "die Stimme der Stille" (HP Blavatsky, The Voice of Silence, London 1889). This work is in Steiner's archived library and he has even translated some of it from English. Blavatsky indicates in her preface that it is not her own work, but a description of texts that she had learned during her stay in Tibet (this has never been clarified, it is believed she never set a foot in Tibet!) and which she later wrote down from her memory. The text is written in accordance with the Buddhist Mahayana teachings into which she must have been initiated. Even the Dalai Lama wrote a benevolent preface to her book, expressing his agreement with the content being in accordance with the teachings from Mahayana Buddhism. 

In other words, connecting with ancient wisdom teachings and modifying and continuing them according to one's own experience is a fact that can neither be tampered with.

The same reasoning applies to the reuse of meditation methods, which have been passed on from time immemorial in this world and are still current in various forms. There are no others, for the simple reason that human consciousness, despite an evolutionary process over the great Kalpa's, at least in the past few thousand years, has not changed so substantially, that it would require entirely different ways. Once a next future form is a fact and an attainment is achieved, in a next evolutionary cycle, only then are the present means of spiritual inquiry superfluous, because exactly what one undertakes at the present stage as a precursor to that future state of consciousness is then realized. (And if one does not want to actively develop oneself in the present time, eventually humanity and evolution would move in that direction. Doing so is a choice wanting to look ahead and at the same time understand the whole process in development better, meaning: to have some notion of what religions are about in the world).


The second point: This is brought in because it is often said that today we have a consciousness soul and I and therefore must now meditate through thinking. As if there were some sort of danger in meditation, to slip into an earlier stage of consciousness development without an I and a consciousness soul and thereby losing our evolutionary achievements. It's not going to be that easy to develop backwards! Then one might as well be afraid to go to sleep, because it is a temporary descent from the waking consciousness. A great example actually, because meditation is like sleep, in deep relaxation, but without loss of consciousness and with a clear, alert mind! The fact that we now have the current "equipment" with an I and a consciousness (soul) is a given. We can therefore handle an observing consciousness in a world outside of us and in a world in our own mind at the same time, over against phenomena as they appear and are perceived with our senses. We can therefore continue to observe in our mind, what is taking place in deeper meditative absorption ("Versenkung"). This is essential, because otherwise no insight can be derived from this imaginative world. It is precisely in the combination of letting go of ordinary conceptual habits and opening ourselves to these images that we can discover that these are not only revelations, but that we can as well influence this creative image producing capacity in ourselves. We co-create these images through our senses. This principle seems to me applicable to Rudolf Steiner's aspiration to always maintain this "scientific" consciousness, while at the same time seeing and perceiving with a side of our senses that is no longer directed to perceiving the external world around us. Whether this exactly should be called a scientific procedure is a difficult question. Science works with falsification of hypotheses and a theory that has been formulated in advance. The inner science of meditation develops in the perceptions themselves. Consciousness "understands" on another level while perceiving and creating. Only afterwards (after the meditative state of the mind has ended) can one return to this experience in the usual reflective way. Then comes what Steiner also indicates: one searches after one has first experienced oneself, in existing texts and wisdom teachings to find descriptions, recorded by previous generations. One wants to know whether others have also had these images and experience, described them and how this knowledge has been formed into a doctrine or religion. After all, all religions have come into being through revelations and visions of this kind, through acquired knowledge and understanding that has been recorded for mankind to serve as a method. Unfortunately, these records have often degenerated into dogma of faith rather than living experience. One cannot separate it too strictly, because intensely felt devotion and prayer in a religion with a fixed framework of beliefs, still can lead to a living experience. There are many entrances to one's own inner experience of being connected with creation.

It is a peculiar discovery that our mind has an influence on what we perceive. This applies to ordinary scientific research, but certainly also to meditation. The intention and question we have before setting out on an investigation, influences what is found as a result. That is why in scientific research people attach so much importance to a disappointing result! It means that one did not think correctly beforehand. The assumption needs to be adjusted. One makes progress due to the unexpected results.

What about research in meditation? There too is a kind of foreknowledge and expectation. One does not find exactly what one expected, but is surprised by something new. One has to come to grips with this new finding, just like in science. This is because, like a theory in science, the living experience is a process that does not stop, but evolves. You will not be able to reproduce an experience once had! (one of the axioms in ordinary science is that something can be found again! It must be possible to repeat it, results may not be a coincidence). One does not find the same images in meditation, it would not be right if this were the case. If one considers a repetitive dream, it is not a healthy sign when it keeps repeating itself exactly without any change. Then the flow of our consciousness stagnates, as traumatized people experience with their intrusive nightmares. If these are examined and focused on in a therapy, consciousness reacts with a shift and the stagnation can dissolve. Since one cannot find identical experiences in meditation, the starting point is to say as little as possible in advance, only giving the method, because otherwise the student can try to produce something that does not really arise authentically and spontaneously from consciousness. The student is then deprived of what is essential to experience. One may provide images as concentration focus, but gives no information as to what may appear next as a result of this practice.

Now how did Rudolf Steiner, with all his explanations and many lectures, manage to turn these misunderstandings about thinking as a method, into real obstacles to inner development? How has one developed so much fear of doing something wrong in the progression of humanity? Or have certain well-meaning followers managed to create and perpetuate this restrictive version of meditation, to be done by thinking only? If Steiner was going through an inner development himself during his life time, had exchange with others who may have asked questions and given him feedback, his earlier thinking about an entirely new method over against "the old ways", by "thinking" only, may have been shifting towards the more universal known aspects of meditation. Since at different times he came to different formulations, followers may pick their favorite version and not the last and final insights. The only verification lies in the individuals own experience: one may discover not all versions of Steiners design of a "wisdom of man" are in agreement with ones own experience! One has to adhere to ones own insights, compare certainly, but never accept what comes from "outside" as a dogma that does not entirely fit. Here I can share my own struggle during many years to find the exact description in a teaching about my own "mental revelations". One finds bits and pieces, enough to keep going. It takes a long time to really believe in oneself and see one is in agreement with other meditators, in ones own individual way. Then reading into the history of old lineage masters, spending decades in solitary retreat in their caves, it says: after a few years they realized the teaching, but they stayed another 15, 20, 30 years to fully understand their experience! To work it through in all implications, to become truly wise can be an inner process during a lifetime.

Even accomplished individuals are in a process of maturing during their lives. This is certainly also valid for the personality of Steiner. Therefore to stick to an earlier quote and draw the conclusion that thinking and reading will do and therefore never enter the path of meditation proper, seems the usual resistance to come into action and suffer all difficulties and confusion in growing up mentally and gaining confidence in the end, taking responsibility for oneself. It does not come easy to become independent and the instant Guru descending in his final shape from heaven, does not exist. Even a teacher has a road of development, every human being is responsible to develop the will to engage in such a development. (stressing here the power of will!)

The third point: Here the misunderstanding must be cleared up that the meditation imagery one creates for oneself and concentrates on, is the actual meditation! (for example a candle flame, a letter, a sound, the rhythm of the inhalation and exhalation in the body as an image, another object or image, a living plant in development). These are self made creations in order to stay focused. In eastern forms they can be extremely detailed and extensive, complete mandalas with everything on it, as if one is visualizing an entire house including the design of all the rooms. This is called "generation stage", people are mentally building up and visualizing, which is a form of thinking.

Step two is the "completion stage" in which this image is no longer built up and maintained, but released while the mind still remains in the concentrated form. In the concentration itself, with no longer an object of concentration, in which the form has been released, the manifestation then spontaneously arises, as it were emerging from nowhere to fill that empty state of consciousness again with an experience. This is called the appearance of the "Dakini" (space traveler) in eastern meditation, a dynamic movement rushing to the aid of the meditator, who is now without the tools of conceptual thought in a kind of void, having nothing to hold onto. Steiner named this experience the appearance of the "magical being of will" ("das Willenszauberwesen")! Suddenly there is a stirr of movement and something new is manifesting. One has not ended up in a void without resources. This last part is meditation proper (Dhyana in Sanskrit), no longer brought about by thinking or imagination, but rather manifesting itself spontaneously. Awareness is confronted with this event, essentially from the depths of one's own consciousness, but it can be experienced as rushing in from space.

The first part with the thinking and imagination is the road toward meditation, the generation towards another level of perception.

The fact that Rudolf Steiner coined this name "magical being of will" (in his Class hour text published in his last years of life. Steiner R. 1999) shows that Steiner knew this experience and understood it appeared from his own consciousness, from the realm of will. In other words he must have realised it was necessary to let go of the thought process and make room for a deeper creative capacity within us. We can't just "keep thinking" until we get there!

Yet his original idea of developing entirely by thinking, imagination, inspiration and intuition as a continuum has remained the dominating thought among his followers. Steiner has not clearly stressed this universal phenomenon of another level of perception in earlier writings. He did not explicitly correct his former ideas, he just extended and changed them, brought in new findings. The present conception among his followers is (to my opinion) due to preferences by readers in what suits best to their own understanding.

In the nine ways of a Buddhist tradition (nine ways, possible methods one can follow) it is explained as follows: One goes into meditation through the concentration on the white A (in eurythmy a great openness to the whole universe, in mantra the sound of pure space, of the awareness of the void, the potency in which creation can be born and incarnation can take a form). Here the metaphor of mother, father and son is used. The experience of the all-encompassing space is like the mother who can receive a conception. The father is the active generating movement that arises in space, the dynamic aspect. The unification of space and movement, of mother and father produces the new birth, called the son. To recognize oneself (the new mental birth) in meditation, as an enlightened human being, as a "son" of the divine process of creation is the result.

In the Christian tradition called seeing the Christ figure as the self. The method toward this experience of vision (a form of thinking) can be accompanied by mantra. By way of the language sounds and mantra meditation one is lead to the enlightened speech man, the Sambhogakaya. Mainly this method became Steiner's practice for Western esotericism in his later writing of the Class texts. (Steiner, R. 1905 manuscript)


"Mother Tantra is found within the seventh way, The Way of the White A. As with the other tantras within this category, the practices are as based upon visualization as part of the generation and perfection stages. The Father Tantras emphasize the generation stage, the Mother Tantras emphasize the perfection stage, also referred to as the completion stage, and the Son tantras emphasize the unification".

This explanation comes from the text "Kusum Rangshar", a dzogchen meditation text about the natural appearance of the three bodies. (the enlightened mind 'body', the enlightened speech body and the enlightened physical body. Geistselbst, Lebensgeist and Geitesmensch. In Buddhism the trikaya: Dharmakaya. Sambhogakaya and Nirmanakaya).

Steiner describes this form of practice in his Geheimwissenschaft, first the generation and then the completion state of meditation by becoming one with the image without construing and producing it any longer. One becomes it oneself, the original archetypal human being, at the same time the future form to be realized. This practice is called Maha Mudra (Great Seal) in Buddhist teachings. It can be described as unification, arising of another state of being in statu nascendi. There is awareness, empty potential space on the one hand and life force, the energy that leads to the creation of a living form on the other. What takes place here is both a universal principle and a profound individual experience. There is no place for the knowledge of another individual's meditation results here, because the uniqueness of each person, of their own spiritual space, would then be occupied by another person's experience. You can only be born of one mother! These phenomena arise from one's own mind-space. Seeing in the self one's own spiritual birth. The transformed future enlightened human being, potentially present within us, only becomes visible by dissolving all obscurations, assembled through the Kalpa's. In Buddhism, one chants the mantras of intention before entering the meditative state of the mind, asking to be granted, after purifying the worst "poisons" in the soul, to see the Buddha in the self. (the original and future image of man). One also speaks in terms of jewels. The most precious mind treasures we possess.

In the yoga teachings the whole bottom up way of practicing is described, starting with the basics of Yama's and Niyama's: these are the moral rules to be followed, as can also be found in the ten commandments. (cleansing the soul of obstacles). Paying attention to one's own actions, speech and thoughts. No killing, stealing, harming, immoral behavior, alcohol- or drug consumption. No harsh language at the level of speech, no lying, cheating, slandering, gossiping. On a mental level the vigilance on one's own emotions, one's own thinking. (this list is not exhaustive). First this renunciation of creating obstacles to an esoteric development. Then the conscious cultivation of qualities, virtues, like generosity, compassion, joy, love.

This is followed by yoga as many in the West know it: the popular Hatha Yoga: postures and breathing exercises, called Asanas and Pranayama. Meant to have a healthy body as a basis for spiritual growth. To be able to sit well and relaxed in the body and not to be hindered by it during the actual meditation. These exercises are only a few centuries old and originated in the 17th and 18th centuries! in other words these are not at all from a gray past of all kinds of nebulous atavistic meditation practices. It is a developed kind of health gymnastics.

After these preparations, meditation proper begins with withdrawal from the senses (as they are directed to the external reality in daily life): called Pratyahara, transition into concentration: Dharana, (like one does in the generation stage of visualizing) passing into the meditative state of mind, the actual meditation: Dhyana, (completion, absorbtion). Ending in the state of Samadhi (absorption, unification, enlightenment). This is the bottom-up road, which Rudolf Steiner believed to be the right path for the Indian:

Concearning the Yoga-path, Steiner made remarks on several occasions, for instance end of december 1912 founding the "Anthroposophische Gesellschaft", distiguishing it from the Theosophical Society being strongly based on eastern wisdom. Referring to the evolution in time he speaks like this: "The Yoga had to be applied by those souls, who in a later developmental phase of mankind no longer received revelations from the spiritual world spontaneaously, but had to as it where climb up from the physical level towards the spirit" (GA 142, 22), G.Wehr in the preface to Steiner Critical Edition (SKA), vol 7. Implying this was what Indians needed, but not fit for westerners.

Interestingly, Steiner does take over from theosophy that one must first lay the foundation with moral practice, then cuts out that one can do a physical practice and breathing to cultivate a physically healthy body as base for spiritual work.

Steiner develops another practice in its place: Language Sounds and Mantra meditation. In addition, a deepening with visualization and concentration, which is a gradual development culminating in the experience of unification, described as the Maha Mudra: building up the meditation step by step. So essentially Steiner is a "gradualist" who advocates a road like the yoga originally offered (without "gymnastics" with Asana and Pranayama). Instead, he inserts a practice of western esoterism, also with posture, body form and breath, through language. (N.B. Steiner found this road of transformation in the western esoteric traditions. They may well originally stem from the eastern yoga's as well: meditation by sound is just as universally present as meditation by visualization). Steiner came into contact with these practitioners in the circle of the Viennese occultists from the Theosophical Society in Vienna. Steiner was introduced by Frans Hartmann (1838-1912). In this Viennese circle was a lively exchange of philosophy, Yoga, meditation methods of Freemasons and Rosicrucians, of Christian mysticism, in addition to the works from Hindoeïsm and Buddhism as used in Theosophy. Friedrich Eckstein (1861-1939) was president of the Theosophical Society. Steiner requested Eckstein to teach him more about the practice with the speech sounds. These exercises originated from the Freemason John Baptist Kerning (1774-1851, pseudonym of J.B. Krebs), whose students were part of the Viennese circle. The method consisted of intonation, breathing and embodying of language sound. Steiners practice of this method led to "remarkable results" (a quote from Eckstein who taught him, Sauerwein 1932). The embodiment of sound and breath, of language, had resemblance with Asana's and Pranayama yoga. This practice, developed by the freemason and opera singer Kerning fitted into the teachings of the Christian mystic Alois Mailander (1844-1905), namely a path of transformation in the body. The members of this Viennese circle were taught by Mailander as well as following the Kerning practice. It is not clear whether Steiner himself was present with Mailander, but certainly he heard about these teachings from the other members, who actually learnt from Mailander. Mailander, like Kerning, taught the alchemical way of transformation of the life forces inside the physical body, namely the development of the resurrection body (the transformed etheric body). Steiner was deeply interested in the etheric subtle body, of currents and formative forces inside the material body, accessible through the sounds of language like he was lateron interested in Goethes study of metamorphosis in the plant kingdom. From this research and his own practice, Steiner's own unique transformation through language emerged, as can be seen in his mantra, Weekly Verses and "Wahrspruchworte" (Steiner, R. GA 40, ca 1886-1925) and his creation of eurythmy as a way of transformation (Steiner, R. 1927).

These two initiates, the Freemason Kerning (no longer alive but present through his students) and the living Rosicrucian Mailander have been the main influences on Steiner's becoming an esoteric teacher. In my opinion, actually more important than the foundation of the somewhat ramshackle Theosophy, which just in those years moved from scandal to scandal. The "Theosophical Society of Germania" was founded in 1884. In 1885 the damning report of the Commission of Inquiry in Adyar (India) was published: the Hodgson Report. Blavatsky was accused of manipulating occult phenomena, of naming teachers who did not exist (Koot Humi and Master Moria) and of fabricating so-called materialized letters from these masters herself. In 1886 the newly founded Society of Germania dissolved itself again. Theosophy's reputation was severely damaged. It was precisely during these turbulent years that Alois Mailander had joined to offer a western esoteric counterweight to Theosophy's reliance on eastern practices. Blavatsky had left the organization in Adyar, spent some time in Belgium and in Germany. She eventually settled in London, where she ran her own Theosophical Society in Annie Besants house. During these years she wrote and published her book Occult Science in 1887. She was repeatedly accused of plagiarism, copying parts from publications of other authors, without citing these sources. All sorts of things that she stated could not be verified in any way, such as, among other things, her frequent stays in Tibet could not me matched with her actual times of staying in Europe. Even a dissociative personality disorder is being considered as an explanation for all these biographical incongruities. Lateron there were other scandals, under the succession of Annie Besant, such as the pedophile Leadbeather who discovered the beautiful boys, Chrisnamurti and his brother, in India. The Chrisnamurti affair led to the expulsion in 1913 of the German branch of the Theosophical Society in Berlin and the subsequent founding of the Anthroposophical Society by Steiner.

After the scandals in India, Franz Hartmann had founded a new theosophical society in USA, which did not associate with the original society under Adyar. He wanted to make an untainted fresh start. He became the chairman in Germany in 1896, in Berlin, but left this branch after a year to start his own association in Munich. He brought the Buddhist teachings into theosophy as a stronger current; its members are referred to as followers of Hartmann, the Hartmannians. This was a competition for the society in Berlin that was allied to Adyar in Steiner's time, until the split in 2013 when the German Order of the Star was expelled by Annie Besant.

It is remarkable that in his first esoteric course in Berlin (GA 245 concerning his lessons 1904-1913) Steiner did follow Blavatski's work and also initially passed on to his students the two masters she mentioned, Moria and Koot Humi as truth! The students could focus their meditation on these two masters of Blavatsky. As if the whole report and the scandals had no bearing on the credibility and reliability of Blavatsky's theosophy. Things only went wrong for Steiner under the leadership of Besant and their strongly oriental esotericism. In the years between 1904 and 1913 one can see Steiner searching for methods in Western esoterism with which he could teach meditation. What he himself had learned and practiced in Vienna still had to be given form and design. This was initially intended in the Mystica Aeterna lodge as a path similar to the rites of the Freemasons, culminating in the highest degrees with a meditation of word and syllables. Steiner turned to Theodoor Reuss (1855-1923), who had received part of the transmission of the Scottish Rite, the Memphis and Misraim rites, from Yarker (1833-1913). However Yarker had not given Reuss everything about the initiations! Steiner was intending to make his own design for the degrees in the lodge (again a graded path for the students). In addition to the rituals received from Reuss, Steiner studied and adopted the rituals of a Knights Templar order. (Oral information, publication is in preparation). After Steiner's death, Marie Steiner released all material about this lodge, deciding not to reinstate it due to the "immaturity" of the members of the Anthroposophical Society, who were devided and desperately arguing about how to proceed. The prevailing opinion was that the ritual form was no longer of this time and that people could shape their own spiritual development. This author has only received a short impression of Steiner's design. Namely to teach the student through some mystery drama like staging in the beginning, listening to a conversation between Ahriman and Lucifer about man. In terms of design, I would also prefer to meditate and form my own insights, rather than undergo this kind of old-fashioned staging. Obviously a matter of personal affinity and personal preference. One does not have to externalize and personalize everything that plays inside, in dramatic scenes to be acted out.

Steiner's reactions and conclusions regarding methods are important to examine more closely. Certainly also his statements need to be understood in the historical background in which he lived and over against the systems known in this world from time immemorial. An interesting question here is what information and knowledge of these traditions Steiner had at his disposal in his time. For example, the typical "Eastern" in Theosophy does not correspond at all to the knowledge of these teachings today. Blavatsky brought her spiritual evolution concept of old and new cultures and races, which Steiner followed.
What was known or practiced in the Theosophical Society did not correspond at that time to what was actually the practice in the East. It was just as much a Western distortion, as the fashion of the chinoiserie had little to do with the original culture of the East. It was interesting and new to import something from other cultures. In Andreas Neider (2020) I read that Steiner felt an aversion to the way meditation was treated in the Theosophical Society, which he called an old atavistic and somnambulistic state of mind. Because of this, Steiner adverted the more scientific approach to consciousness.

Here I must make some objection: namely that what Steiner characterizes as old and atavistic does not correspond at all to the exact methods of meditation in the East! This so-called “ancient clairvoyance” dates back to very much older times when the Rishis heard the texts of the Vedes as cosmic srutis (the direct experience of the primordial sounds, the language of creation) and recorded them in the oldest scriptures of the Vedes. This bears little resemblance to the practice of meditation over the past few thousand years. The old meditation masters, also called spiritual heroes, had as much work studying their minds as we have today. It does not come to anyone in an easy way, even recognized reïncarnations of old masters have to re-acquire the experiential knowledge. (One of the reasons for finding them as young as possible is the young childs possibility to remember the knowledge it had built up in a previous life more easy than an older person, for whom such remembrances disappear under the layers of oblivion).

Furthermore, it seems contradictory to seek a scientific approach and then always speak about one's own clairvoyant observation! What Steiner possibly intended is to maintain an inquisitive mental attitude during the visionary images and not to be carried away too much by these images. That goes without saying, otherwise one can just as well use drugs, or as my oldest teacher says: then it is no better than watching TV. (Take the images for a reality that they are not). One should examine the experience and remain present as a subject or "I" with all the capacities developed in evolution, such as "thinking", or rather one retains a vigilant awareness.

What Rudolf Steiner puts forward as “ancient and atavistic” seems to me to be more of a misunderstood practice within theosophy, in which a sort of haziness in spirituality just missed the actual experience. Here a quote by a recent meditation master: “Emptiness as mindless stagnation”: In meditation practice, you might experience a muddy, semiconscious, drifting state, like having a hood over your head: a dreamy dullness. This is really nothing more than a kind of blurred and mindless stagnation. How do you get out of this state?

Alert yourself, straighten your back, breathe the stale air out of your lungs and direct your awareness into clear space to freshen your mind. If you remain in this stagnant state you will not evolve, so whenever this setback arises, clear it again and again. It is important to be as watchfull as possible, and to stay as vigilant as you can. (Dudjom Rinpoche 1904-1984).

Clear language! But this does not mean, Steiners solution to haziness, namely “clear thinking” as the way to arrive at the real experience will work! Such activity in itself is not a sufficient method. It is good for the generation stage. Through visualization and mantra recitation one can make an entrance, create a build-up toward meditation. It is like an exact science, there are different methods. After one has crossed the "threshold" and entered the meditative state of the mind, one should stay alert and make good use of the opportunity. Alert and watchfull!

Otherwise, by just thinking and visualizing, one can stay in the ordinary mode of thinking for a long time with all kinds of beautiful imaginations one can create, without actually entering the state of meditation. (Spontaneous breakthrough and realisations that exist here aside). This point about the transition into the meditative state, in my opinion, Steiner has not properly distinguished. One can contemplate Steiners background as a philosopher and the possibility his vocabulary was tainted by thinking as an activiy of the mind. taking creative imagiation as an extension, striving to encompass other realities than the manifest fysical world only. The danger here is the pitfall to create a reality by thinking without the more open and receptive mode of learning something new, which lies beyond thinking. For sure in Steiners time the information we have today, about meditation, from translations of original texts as well as tuition by experienced teachers, was not available. Which still does not mean Steiners own experience was lacking the same depth. But if the right frame of reference how to teach these experiences to others is not known, one gets the verbal level of lectures attempting to point toward the experience in an indirect manner. Whereas the more esoteric transmission needs a realized master present, alive in a body. As Buddhism says: one can only learn these things during life, it needs the embodiment of the mind. And not as Steiner called it: "Body-free thinking"!

In Buddhist texts one encounters rankings of teaching people: By manifest general meaning, literal meaning, hidden meaning, ultimate meaning. Or manifest, symbolic, secret and ultra secret teaching. Here the reception of the teaching by a student depends on their capacities to understand, perform and witness what is transmitted. (this again depending on previous incarnations and what is build up as talents and capacities). For the most secret teaching a realized master in a living body is necessary, functioning as initiator who, like a mirror is capable to reflect back into the student what is essentially hidden in his own organisation. Without the teacher this secret level can not be realised.

Steiner's objection to eastern methods and yoga does not seem to be based on actual knowledge of those methods, but possibly was a reaction to what he found as a mis-interpretation in the Theosophical Society. He believed that for the Indians in an older culture this was a way up from the physical body to the mind in meditation. It seems again an idea adopted from Blavatsky, that certain practices would be downright harmful for westerners. Steiner argued that western people should start at the heart (possibly implying not at the lowest chakra? This was not further elucidated).

It is not untrue that the most wellknown path in Yoga is a so-called bottom-up path. (not to be confused with the way of Kundalinis ascending energy from the lowest chakra. Kundalini is one of the yoga forms among many others. It is mostly a recent and modern fabrication of yoga practices). More will not have been known in Steiner's time from the translations in Theosophy. However, the truth is that the way of the heart also existed in yoga, and the top-down way, starting with the spiritual experience of unity and then from there going down to the base. These are the higher forms of Yoga, such as the Ati-Yoga, the six yoga's of Naropa (the practice of the elements, dreamyoga, sleepyoga, tummo (yoga of inner fire) Chöd (overcoming, cutting through fear of death), Phowa (for the transition at the moment of death and Bardo (the state after death and before the new birth) which are all in fact meditation. All these yoga forms do have the energy and breath streams in the body and the energy centers, as well as posture of the body, breath, visualisation and mantra. Chan Buddhism, Dzogchen and Zen Buddhism are forms of top-down paths. Obviously this was not known to Steiner, nor had he delved into it through meditation and clairvoyant knowledge. He clearly felt the need to distantiate himself from certain methods he found among theosophists, with statements based on a misconception: he opposed the bottom-up approach, but in fact used it himself in a modified form. This adjustment became a new way through the language and the word, a way through mantra meditation and visualization. The exclusively physical aspect of yoga positions was thereby transformed and incorporated into another form of breathing with speech sound. Yet it should be noted that physical positions are only beneficial when embedded in the breath flow and the awareness of a union of breath and mind. This so-called lowest step using the body, is not purely physical gymnastics! The higher forms of yoga are integrated into Buddhist teachings and often go hand in hand with specific language sound use. The power of the language sound in the breath becomes the instrument. For example, at the time of death used to leave the body. Of course, something like this is "dangerous" (potentially harmful) to apply at the wrong time. Thus there are some very powerful methods (such as Tummo yoga) that the yogi's themselves warn not to undertake without proper guidance. So those words of caution from Blavatsky and Steiner are certainly justified when it comes to certain specific practices. But not in general.

These kind of unspecified general statements by Steiner against something "old", to then create something new by similar means in transformed form, are often said in the context of older civilizations and cultural periods. Steiner adheres to Blavatsky's evolution theory of consciousness. Probably here lies the origin of the misunderstanding, that one could regress to older stages of human evolution and harm oneself. The statements are made for the purpose of discernment and profiling the new direction into antroposophy. They are not a truth in themselves, only partly true for some specific forms of yoga. (and as said before: a half truth is no truth).

The same warning applies to the curative eurythmy, which can be harmful without responsible guidance. In any case it shows how much the physical level can be influenced by the creative forces that are still present in the physical body, working through the elements of language. One can say that the development through language is also given in the eurythmy training, in which, in addition to mantra and visualization, one also develops the breathing, moving body in language and in space. The texts of Steiner's mantra, especially the weekly verses, contain this movement and breath in their language, so that even without moving outwardly in space, one can take that inner eurythmy and breathing in a living language, to develop meditation. The end result can be that one may see the enlightened man in the self as a revelation from the spirit, a promise for the future development of man and creation. Steiner chooses to call this radiant image the Christ Man. In my estimation, the phenomenon of encountering this archetype and future image has been present for much longer times among "initiates" in this world, in older cultures than our own. It is more universal than the successive initiates and teachers who have been present on this earth as the embodiment of this phenomenon.

Andreas Neider examines how a particular development in Mahayana Buddhism corresponds to Christian history: whether the bhodhisattva is the same phenomenon as the Christ figure. There are more such developments within a teaching that are difficult to trace. Where did they originate in the minds of meditation masters at a particular time? Itinerant monks spread religions and philosophies, trade relations also took care of it. But there are also "spirit treasures". Thus the tantric methods, the way of transformation as alchemy is, would have been taught by the Buddha in a non-physical form, hundreds of years after his incarnation. There are also developments in a teaching that arise from spiritual training and deepening. One finds described in a tradition how a certain teacher added his own spiritual mind-treasures to the teaching. This brings me back to my starting point: Has anthroposophy developed an entirely new "spirit treasure" in Steiner's mind, or did Steiner also develop himself in his life on earth, from what he found historically as methods, to develope with these into the person he eventually became? The backgrounds and lines of development in his biography are as important as what he re-created with them as teachings. I can only express the hope that people will not dogmatically pin these down, but will continue to investigate. This teaching will also be able to transform and develop over time, provided there are individuals who realize a path of meditation within themselves, who find their way from inspiration and enthusiasm and not from misunderstood text analyzing and the prevailing views about it.

A fourth point: The strength of anthroposophy are the various work fields, in which one applies Steiner's instructions. This is a temporary bridge, until the times when one will have acquired ones own level of insight. The whole development as indicated above under "gradual approach" to the highest point of spiritual development is still necessary for this individual insight.

A bhodhisattva turns around in the moment there is a choice between individual liberation, or giving up one's own final step in favor of the well-being of all living beings. Having reached this point and insight, the individual becomes a bhodhisattva, a fully autonomously acting being. All the indications one follows before this point of decision, stemming from social involvement, self-sacrifice, enthusiasm are enormously positive for other people, but are not identical with the decision a bhodhisattva makes just before the final realization towards an enlightened being. Indeed, the bhodhisattva turns around, makes a choice, whether or not to terminate the cycle of rebirth. (It is said that after this decision one more birth can take place). As long as one works with instructions from another person, a teacher, one has not yet reached this insight, but one then is somewhere along the way. People then still place trust in an external source or leadership, which is for the time being "a belief growing toward a certain level of insight".

ACCOUNTABILITY

A reader wondered: How can one write about these matters if one is not an initiate oneself? There we have a last minute misunderstanding point 5: The status of "initiation" is not only reserved for certain well-known personalities of stature. This writing is not meant to improve on a spirit clearly outsizing many of us. Rather it expresses my regret over the lack of understanding in his followers about the enrichment meditation can bring to them. Taken together with Steiners own disappointment over his students failing to actually realize such a development and after having done some of my own practice (always much more can be done!), I do write to at least clear up a few misunderstandings one can better do without. The rest is individual freedom to reflect and speak out, whether the message is liked or not, I have no intention to offend.

1) Steiner saw the eurythmy training as an initiation path. (Possibly the same was true for the speech formation). So there should already be a number of generations of these initiates in that regard.

2) There is the way of the sudden breakthrough in consciousness, which many people go through. An unexpected experience outside the normal frame of mind. Examples reported by people with near death experiences. But seeing visions and hearing voices without a death experience are of all times. One can read the bible and take note of the origin of pilgrimage places after seeing a Marian apparition, or other enlightened beings such as an angel.

3) Steiner designed his Klassenstunden as an initiation path. I do not know to what extent people have progressed on that road. Those who have advanced in that framework will recognize the explanation described above. Why write about it in general terms? To address misconceptions and also in the hope that those who are not yet experienced themselves will stop venting the wrong ideas over and over, as a kind of mantra. It is a fact that those who do not know what the experience entails always think they have to defend it, as is the case with the points indicated above.

4) There are still lodges and organizations with formal initiations today. There are highly educated and realized masters who can initiate others. The sudden breakthroughs in consciousness don't come out of the blue, of course, even if they seem to. After such experiences, life is not the same as before. People search, study, look for other people who have experience with it, one goes on retreats and the like. They try to process and digest the experience. One may eventually find very experienced teachers. The lion's share of the processing must be accomplished by the individual him/herself and it takes many years.

Most exercises lead from the bottom upwards to the experience of oneness. The point of contact between these two paths (top-down and bottom-up) can become clear in a meeting with a good teacher, during an initiation (although much too big a word). In Buddhism one speaks of mental transmission. Teachers can show the student in meditation, in their presence. It is called initiation into the nature of the mind. What one then arrives at is exactly the same given, described by Steiner in his Klassenstunden, namely the meeting with the great "Hüter der Schwelle" (equally a hopelessly outdated and much too dramatic name). "Der Erkenntnis einzig Tor" (The only door to knowledge) is that higher form of the self, visualized and experienced as an enlightened figure above us. The teacher and initiator functions in that role, but it can just as well be a visualized figure of light above us. In Buddhism the Buddha depicted above the head symbolizes the practice of Guru-Yoga. The higher self that cannot yet incarnate in us, but with whom we can experience an exchange in meditation. This does not only apply to privileged individuals with some form of initiation, no, it is a path that is open to every human being. We all need the experience with this non-incarnate celestial counterpart to comprehend what meditation is about and leads toward.

LITERATURE

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Steiner R. GA 270 Band 1-4. Esotherische Unterweisungen für die erste Klasse der Freien Hochschule für Geisteswissenschaft am Goetheanum. 

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