Esoteric Development: Selected Lectures and Writings

Rudolf Steiner

jan 2003 · SteinerBooks

Over dit e-boek

This completely revised edition provides an ordered sequence of statements by Steiner on the development of higher, suprasensory knowing--Imagination, Inspiration, and Intuition.

Nine chapters take the reader from the idea of inner development, through the cultural and evolutionary need for higher knowing, and then to examples of the practices and inner gestures required by this work. Steiner describes the necessary steps and stages, always insisting on the free, individual, and cognitive character of anthroposophic spiritual research.

CONTENTS:

• Introduction by Stephen E. Usher
• Esoteric Development
• The Psychological Basis of Spiritual Science
• Suprasensory Knowledge
• The Attainment of Spiritual Knowledge
• General Requirements for Esoteric Development: Guidance in Esoteric Training
• The Great Initiates
• The Rosicrucian Spiritual Path
• Imagination Knowledge and Artistic Imagination
• Three Decisions on the Path of Imagination Knowledge: Loneliness, Fear, and Dread

This essential inner guide is for anyone on a path of true spiritual development.

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The faculties you will need to achieve this are within yourself right now. Yet this is also the biggest hurdle. You may ask why this is, and I will tell you. If you consider how it is that you "see" in the Spiritual world, it is through your imagination. Yet, if you have a vivid imagination as I do, you can imagine pretty well anything. Consider also that the result of the training will mean that you will first develop a vivid imagination, then the problem becomes one of discerning what is one's imagination, and what is genuinely presented to you from the world of the Angels and other Spirits. ---888--- There is only one way to do this, and that is to know oneself and one's own place in the ecology of our planet. For myself, personally, I have achieved this through a life-long study and passion for plants and living creatures. Understanding their reality has shown me my own. Of course there are one's relationships with other people, and these are far more important, but also far harder to understand. ---888--- Rudolf Steiner brings to the modern super-conscious Western World the training and methods that are appropriate to the way in which we live. These have been hidden for centuries and kept by closely guarded groups who are super-jealous of their learning. With good reason, for it is not given to all to share in their society. Counter to this closed and hermetic system, Rudolf Steiner presents to an open world the potential for all to achieve some awareness of the other worlds that in reality are as part and parcel of our own as the air we breathe.

Over de auteur

Rudolf Steiner (b. Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner, 1861-1925) was born in the small village of Kraljevec, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now in Croatia), where he grew up. As a young man, he lived in Weimar and Berlin, where he became a well-published scientific, literary, and philosophical scholar, known especially for his work with Goethe's scientific writings. Steiner termed his spiritual philosophy anthroposophy, meaning "wisdom of the human being." As an exceptionally developed seer, he based his work on direct knowledge and perception of spiritual dimensions. He initiated a modern, universal "spiritual science" that is accessible to anyone willing to exercise clear and unbiased thinking. From his spiritual investigations, Steiner provided suggestions for the renewal of numerous activities, including education (general and for special needs), agriculture, medicine, economics, architecture, science, philosophy, Christianity, and the arts. There are currently thousands of schools, clinics, farms, and initiatives in other fields that involve practical work based on the principles Steiner developed. His many published works feature his research into the spiritual nature of human beings, the evolution of the world and humanity, and methods for personal development. He wrote some thirty books and delivered more than six thousand lectures throughout much of Europe. In 1924, Steiner founded the General Anthroposophical Society, which today has branches around the world.