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“Anthroposophy is a path of knowledge aiming to guide the spiritual element in the human being to the spiritual in the universe.”

Rudolph Steiner

The Threshold of the Spiritual World

On Meditation

The introductory chapter of Rudolf Steiner’s work “The Threshold of the Spiritual World” (published in 1913) includes reflections about the nature of reasoning as well as an introduction to the practice and relevance of meditation.

“Concerning the Reliance which may be placed on Thinking; the Nature of the Thinking Soul; and of Meditation.”

"For one who wishes to find his way into spiritual science, meditations such as the foregoing on thinking are of benefit. For such a person it is a question of bringing his soul into a condition which gives it access to the spiritual world. Access may be denied to the clearest thinking or to the most perfect scientific method, if the soul does not bring anything to meet the spiritual facts, or the information about them ready to press in upon it. It may be a good preparation for the apprehension of spiritual knowledge to have felt frequently what invigorating force there is in the attitude of soul which says, “I feel myself to be one in thought with the stream of cosmic events.” In this case it is less a question of the abstract value of this thought as knowledge, than of having often felt in our souls the powerful effect which is experienced when such a thought flows with force through the inner life and circulates like a breath of spiritual oxygen through the soul. It is not only a question of recognising what there is in a thought of this kind, but of experiencing it. The thought is recognised when once it has been present in the soul with sufficient power of conviction; but if it is to ripen and bear fruit which shall promote understanding of the spiritual world, its beings and facts, it must, after having been understood, be made to live in the soul again and again. The soul must again and again be filled with the thought, allowing nothing else to be present in it, and shutting out all other thoughts, feelings, memories, and so forth. Repeated concentration of this kind on such a thoroughly grasped thought draws together forces in the soul which in ordinary life are to some extent dissipated. The soul concentrates and strengthens these forces within itself, and they become the organs for the perception of the spiritual world and its truths.“
 

From:
Rudolf Steiner: A Way of Self-Knowledge - The Threshold of the Spiritual World. CW 17.
http://wn.rsarchive.org/Books/GA017/English/GPP1922/GA017_c01.html

Original title:
Rudolf Steiner: Die Schwelle der geistigen Welt. Dornach, 1987. S. 12f.

Links

Goetheanum Meditation Initiative Worldwide:
www.meditation.goetheanum.org

Institute for Anthroposophical Meditation:
www.InfaMeditation.de