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Rudolf Steiner
The logic of thinking can lead to the greatest egotism. The logic of the heart is
capable of gradually overcoming egotism and making all people part of an allencompassing human community.
Rudolf Steiner
Introduction
The so-called basic or essential six exercises are the key in the path of knowledge
and self-development which Rudolf Steiner presented. They prepare a healthy entry to
spiritual and esoteric work. Rudolf Steiner said that we need to practice them in order to
develop our heart chakra.
The heart chakra, a twelve-petalled lotus flower, is the chakra of our current time and
near future to develop. The awakening and enlivening of this chakra only became possible
towards the end of the nineteenth century, at the beginning of the Michaelic age - to be
precise in November 1897. Although we commonly associate the heart as the center of our
love, our compassion, and the warmth and coolness of our soul it is also the chakra of a
new organ of perception: Heart-thinking. It is the transformation of purely logical thinking
into a wholly new kind of thinking, characterized by Steiner in various different ways as:
organic-living thinking; thinking which goes beyond logic; thinking with the heart or
heart thinking, etc. The heart will become the brain of the breast, will become an
organ of consciousness. (General requirements [GA], 94, p.70)
The head with the brain is only a transition organ of perception and knowledge. The
organ which will furnish us with really deep and at the same time powerful insights into the
world has its potential seat in our present heart. Please note, though, that I say potential.
In order to become an organ of perception and knowledge, the heart will need to be
transformed in a radical way. But this heart is the source and the fount of future human
evolution. When the heart becomes such an organ, perception and knowledge will be
warm and inward, as only love and sympathy are nowadays.(GA 266, I, p.100)
Practicing six basic exercises can help us to achieve this goal.
I now want to speak about the twelve-petalled lotus flower in the region of the heart.
Six of its petals developed already in the very ancient past, and the other six must be
developed in future... (GA 53, p.265) Acquiring this virtues will in future develop the six
other petals. These six virtues are: control of thoughts, power of initiative, soul equilibrium,
positivity (which enables us to find the best in everything), an outlook free of prejudice, and
finally harmony of soul life. (GA 94, p.168)
Each of the six exercises consists of two parts. The first part explains the essential
nature of the exercise and how to carry it out, while the second concentrates upon a
delicate, subtle feeling in the astral body at the end of each exercises, corresponding to a
particular energy stream of the etheric body - a particular etheric stream. This etheric
streams were called feelings be Rudolf Steiner; rightly understood, they are not
experienced as physical sensations (which are directly related to the etheric body), since
their effect does not extend into the physical body. Their activity at the boundary between
etheric and astral body is experienced more as a felling of energy or force, as spiritual
feeling.5 Pictures shown here were taken from Florin Lowndess book according to his own
experience of these etheric streams.
something good in everything bad. This draws up the souls higher forces. All this forms
part of preparation. (GA 100, pp.202 f.)
Effect and etheric stream
We gain a positive attitude about life. This exercise perfects the capacity for thinking
and feeling and this connection opens a new way of access to the outside world.
Eventually you will start to sense a feeling of inner bliss. Concentrate this feeling in
your heart, let it ray towards the head and from there out through the eyes, as if trying to
radiate it through the eyes. (GA 266/1, p.194) When you sense this feeling, let it radiate
out through your eyes, ears and the whole surface of your skin. (GA 266/1, p.223)
Make yourself attentive and watchful for the moments in life when this exercise can
be practiced.
Become aware of your innate, constitutional tendency to believe that only what you
have already experienced, what you already know, and what is familiar to you, is true and
real.5
Effect and etheric stream
Our soul can become free of the pasts influence as the single determining factor of
our life and then if we meet everything with an open mind, like a child, hidden wisdommanas-will stream towards the childlike soul, like a gift of grace from the world of
spirit. (GA 266/3, transcript A: pp.244 f.)
Then you will soon start to feel as though something is streaming into you from the
space outside you. You suck into yourself, as it were, through yes, ears and whole skin.
(GA 266/1, p.203)
the following words referring to the second exercise although it is applicable to all
exercises as well:
When this [first] exercise has been practice for, say, one month, a second
requirements [exercise] should be added. ... This exercise, also should last for one month.
But as far as possible during this second month, too, the first exercise should continue,
although it is a less paramount duty than in the first month. Nevertheless it must not be left
unheeded, for otherwise it will quickly be noticed that the fruits of the first month are lost
and the slovenliness of uncontrolled thinking begins again. Care must be taken that once
these fruits have been won, they are never again lost. (Guidance in esoteric training, p.14)
6th exercise
whole day
5th exercise
whole day
morning
whole day
morning
afternoon
3-5
3-5
3-5 times
3 times
3 times
twice
twice
15-30 min
10 min
5 min
5 min
5 min
5 min
1st period
2nd period
3rd period
4th period
5th period
6th period
4th exercise
3rd exercise
2nd exercise
1st exercise
The above is a plan with suggestions for carrying out a whole cycle of exercises,
including length and regularity of daily practice as well as the best time of day.5
Some circumstances can make it difficult for you to carry out the exercises properly.
But instead of giving up altogether at such times, it is good to concentrate at least briefly
on the exercise.. Even if you only do it this for a minute, it is still of great significance for
the rhythm of the physical and etheric body. (GA 95)
Once youve completed the sixth months, start all over again. (GA 266/1, transcript B:
p.238)
The exercises I have described are appropriate methods for spiritual schooling
because, if carried out conscientiously, they not only bring about what has been
highlighted here as their direct effect in the esoteric pupil but also, indirectly, engender
many other qualities needed on the path to words of spirit. If you practice these exercises
sufficiently the will confront you with a range of deficiencies and flows in your psyche: but
at the same time they will also furnish you with the means to consolidate and strengthen
your intellect, emotional life and character. No doubt you will also need various other
exercises too, depending on your capacities, temperament and character. These will
develop however if you undertake the exercises referred to with sufficient perseverance. In
fact, you will you will find that they also gradually provide things that dont initially appear
inherent in them. For instance, if someone has too little self-confidence, he will discover
after some time that self-confidence he needs has in fact developed through these
exercises. And the same applies to other qualities of soul. (Specific and more detailed
exercises can be found in my book Knowledge of the Higher Worlds.) What is significant is
that the spiritual pupil becomes increasingly able to enhance the described capacities to
even higher degrees. (GA 13, pp.336 f.)
Bibliography
1. Rudolf Steiner. Six Steps in self-development: The supplementary exercises.
Selected and completed by Ates Baydur, Rudolf Steiner press, 2010
2. Rudolf Steiner. Start now: A book of Soul and Spiritual Exercises. Edited and
introduced by Christopher Bamford, Steiner books, 2004
3. Warren Lee Cohen. Raising the soul: Practicing Exercises for Personal
Development, Sophia Books, 2006
4. Joop van Dam. The Sixfold Path: Six Simple Exercises for Spiritual Development,
Floris books, 2012
5. Florin Lowndes. Enlivening the chakra of the heart: The Fundamental Spiritual
exercises of Rudolf Steiner, Sophia books, 2005
6. Robert McDermott. The new essential Steiner: An introduction to Rudolf Steiner for
the 21st Century, Lindisfarne Books,2009