Harmony

We have arrived at the sixth and final basic (aka essential) exercise. We have explored ways to gain mastery of our three soul qualities: thinking, feeling, and willing. In the first three exercises, our goal with thinking is to obtain objectivity; with willing, to obtain control of our actions; with feeling, to obtain equanimity. In the fourth exercise between thinking and feeling to seek positivity, and in the fifth, between thinking and willing to become open-minded. All of this has led us to have more control of ourselves.

The sixth exercise is an effort to harmonize all these capacities. For example, we may have noticed that we have a hard time thinking positively, that we don’t naturally look for the good aspect of things. We may want to practice that particular exercise (#4) more often. Maybe we tend to act before we think, or we tend to get carried away by our feelings; we now have a practice to address the areas that require more effort. The sixth exercise asks us to practice all the exercises in various combinations to strengthen our self-control – our sense of self.

Let’s see what Dr. Steiner has to say:

In the sixth month, endeavors should be made to repeat all the five exercises again, systematically and in regular alternation. In this way a beautiful equilibrium of soul will gradually develop. It will be noticed, especially, that previous dissatisfactions with certain phenomena and beings in the world completely disappear. A mood reconciling all experiences takes possession of the soul, a mood that is by no means one of indifference but, on the contrary, enables one for the first time to work in the world for its genuine progress and improvement. One comes to a tranquil understanding of things which were formerly quite closed to the soul. The very movements and gestures of a person change under the influence of such exercises, and if, one day, he can actually observe that the character of his handwriting has altered, then he may say to himself that he is just about to reach a first rung on the upward path. Once again, two things must be stressed:

First, the six exercises described paralyze the harmful influence other occult exercises can have, so that only what is beneficial remains. Secondly, these exercises alone ensure that efforts in meditation and concentration will have a positive result. The esotericist must not rest content with fulfilling, however conscientiously, the demands of conventional morality, for that kind of morality can be extremely egotistical, if a person says: I will be good in order that I may be thought good. Esotericists do not do what is good because they want to be thought good, but because little by little they recognize that the good alone brings evolution forward, and that evil, stupidity and ugliness place hindrances along the path.

These exercises do not have to take exactly one month each. Some indication of time had to be indicated. What is important though, is that one practices them in the particular order given here. If anyone should practice the second exercise before the first, he would derive absolutely no benefit from it. The order is very important. Some people even believe that they ought to begin with the sixth exercise, the harmonizing one. But nothing can be harmonized which is not already there. Whoever does not practice the exercises in the given order will gain nothing at all from them. To begin with the sixth exercise is as senseless as if one needed to take six steps to cross a bridge and tried to take the sixth step first.

Excerpt from: Guidance in Esoteric Training by Rudolf Steiner.

One of the reasons this work is courageous is because we come face to face with the shortcomings in our own soul. Without striving for self-control, we tend to either excuse ourselves or berate ourselves for the outcomes of our daily lives. Many of us don’t even go this far; instead, we blame everyone or everything else for the outcomes of our daily lives. Taking responsibility for ourselves is hard to do, but that is only the first step.

If we refer back to April and the first exercise, thinking, right away we get a glimpse of the consequences of this exercise toward objectivity. Because we learn to focus on an irrelevant object, we gradually develop the skill to focus on our thoughts and deeds with objectivity; we become truthful to our own self. We begin to see objectively our own excuses, our own guilt, our own blame of others, and how they’ve dominated our thinking life. Plenty of our head space is hard to face until we obtain the required objectivity.

The reason we don’t see many people who have control of themselves is because it is a hard goal to reach. Yet, when we do meet such a person, it’s no longer difficult to imagine how just one person can make the world a better place. The mysterious answer to world problems begins with becoming a better person – one who has self-mastery.  Since we’re alive anyway, we may as well begin the actual hard work of being a human being.

Enchanted Flowers

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour …

It is right it should be so
Man was made for Joy and Woe
And when this we rightly know
Thro the world we safely go

Joy and Woe are woven fine
A clothing for the soul divine
Under every grief and pine
Runs a joy with silken twine.

Fom Auguries of Innocence by William Blake.

Imagine all the joyful occasions like weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, and so on without any flowers. Or, on the other side, the difficult occasions like funerals or hospital visits that would seem so barren without the beauty of flowers to offer hope.

In our day to day lives, flowers decorate our homes and yards, and cities with parks and botanical gardens are considered more desirable. And lest we forget, without flowers, we would have no fruits and far fewer vegetables. Flowers fulfill physical needs and psychological needs; what an amazing breadth of service flowers perform.

For our part, we make sure the plants for which we are responsible have all the earth, water, air and sunlight they need to thrive, but do they need anything else from us? We might wonder since everything physical has its spiritual counterpart—something invisible—what lies behind the flowers and plants we see. We might wonder if that spiritual part requires something besides the four elements.

Let’s see what Dr. Steiner has to say:

One who simply grows up into our modern civilization observes the things of the outer world: he perceives them, forms abstract thoughts about them, possibly derives real pleasure from a lovely blossom or a majestic plant; and if he is at all imaginative, he may even achieve an inner picture of these. Yet he remains completely unaware of his deeper relation to that world of which the plant, for example, is a part. To talk incessantly about spirit, spirit, and again spirit is utterly inadequate for spiritual perception. Instead, what is needed is that we should become conscious of our true spiritual relations to the things around us. When we observe a plant in the usual way, we do not in the least sense the presence of an elemental being dwelling in it, of something spiritual; we do not dream that every such plant harbors something which is not satisfied by having us look at it and form such abstract mental pictures as we commonly do of plants today. For in every plant there is concealed—under a spell, as it were—an elemental spiritual being; and really only he observes a plant in the right way who realizes that this loveliness is the sheath of a spiritual being enchanted in it—a relatively insignificant being, to be sure, in the great scale of cosmic interrelationships, but still a being intimately related to man.

The human being is really so closely linked to the world that he cannot take a step in the realm of nature without coming under the intense influence exercised upon him by his intimate relations to the world. And when we see the lily in the field, growing from the seed to the blossom, we must vividly imagine—though not personified—that this lily is awaiting something…

All about us are these elemental spirits begging us, in effect, Do not look at the flowers so abstractly, nor form such abstract mental pictures of them: let rather your heart and your Gemüt (heart, mind, soul) enter into what lives, as soul and spirit, in the flowers, for it is imploring you to break the spell.

Excerpt from: Michaelmas and the Soul-Forces of Man, Lecture 2, by Rudolf Steiner, September 28, 1923.

Steiner says quite specifically that the elemental beings of flowers are released to advance their spiritual lives when we human beings perceive them fully. It’s hard to imagine, right? It’s hard to believe that we are so connected to all that exists, right? And even harder to believe how deeply runs our responsibility to all of earth, of nature.

If we think about the help we receive from our guardian angel and other spiritual beings, we may get a sense of the relationship we are considering today between us and these elemental beings of flowers. We, too, are instruments of divine forces. Maybe we will look differently at the flowers attending our feelings of joy and woe knowing that when we do, we help to free them.

As we work in this our third year of the blog, we will continue to uncover specific spiritual realities such as this one… even though it won’t be “easy” to believe them. But if, additionally, we take up the work of acquiring spiritual sight, none of this will seem so fantastic; we will see all of it for ourselves.