|
|
|
|
“Not everyone can immediately achieve spiritual vision; but the discoveries of those who have it can be health-giving life nourishment for all. The results of supersensible knowledge, when properly employed in life, prove to be not impractical, but rather, practical in the highest sense....
“The acquisition of higher knowledge is not the end, but the means to an end; the end consists in the attainment, thanks to this knowledge, of greater and truer self-confidence, a higher degree of courage, and a magnanimity and perseverance such as cannot, as a rule, be acquired in the lower world....
“The student places all the higher knowledge he has acquired at the service of humanity.” —Rudolf Steiner This is one of the most popular classic translations of Steiner's foundational guide to the spiritual path. Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment is a manual for attaining suprasensory knowledge of the invisible and opens new perspectives on one's essential purpose in life.
In 1904, Rudolf Steiner first made this account of the Western esoteric path of initiation public. With great precision, he carefully leads us from the cultivation of the fundamental soul attitudes of reverence and inner tranquility to inner development through the stages of preparation, illumination, and initiation. Practical exercises in inner and outer observation and moral development are given. By patiently and persistently following these, new organs of soul and spirit begin to form that reveal the contours of the higher worlds hitherto concealed from us.
"The methods by which a student is prepared for the reception of higher knowledge are minutely prescribed. The direction he is to take is traced with unfading, everlasting letters in the worlds of the spirit where the initiates guard the higher secrets. In ancient times, anterior to our history, the temples of the spirit were also outwardly visible; today, because our life has become so unspiritual, they are not to be found in the world visible to external sight; yet they are present spiritually everywhere, and all who seek may find them."
Contents:
- How is Knowledge of the Higher Worlds Attained?
- The Stages of Initiation: Enlightenment; Preparation; The Control of Thoughts and Feelings
- Initiation
- Some Practical Aspects
- The Conditions of Esoteric Training
- Some Results of Initiation
- The Transformation of Dream Life
- The Continuity of Consciousness
- The Splitting of the Human Personality during Spiritual Training
- The Guardian of the Threshold
- Life and Death: The Greater Guardian of the Threshold
- Appendix
 Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925) was born in Kraljevic, Austria, where he grew up the son of a railroad station chief. As a young man, he lived in Weimar and Berlin, where he became a respected and well-published scientific, literary, and philosophical scholar, known especially for his work with Goethe’s scientific writings. At the beginning of the twentieth century, he began to develop his earlier philosophical principles into an approach to systematic research into psychological and spiritual phenomena. Formally beginning his spiritual teaching career under the auspices of the Theosophical Society, Steiner came to use the term Anthroposophy (and spiritual science) for his philosophy, spiritual research, and its results. The influence of Steiner’s multifaceted genius has led to innovative and holistic approaches in medicine and therapies, philosophy, religious renewal, Waldorf education, education for special needs (including the Camphill Village movement), threefold economics, biodynamic agriculture, Goethean science, architecture, and the arts of drama, speech, and eurythmy. In 1924, Rudolf Steiner founded the General Anthroposophical Society, which today has branches throughout the world. He died in Dornach, Switzerland.
See all titles by this author |
 Henry Babad Monges (1870–1954) was born in Texas. As a student of architecture, he received M.S. degrees from the U. C. Berkeley and also graduated from the California School of Design with a teaching certificate. At twentythree, Monges joined the Theosophical Society; twenty-one years later, he resigned over his dissatisfaction with the society’s leadership. In 1915, Henry married Madeleine (Maud) Breckenridge. That year, he also encountered Anthroposophy, to which he dedicated the rest of his life. Henry was instrumental in establishing Anthroposophy and the Anthroposophical Society in North America. In 1922, Henry and his wife Maud began publishing anthroposophic works from their home in Highland, New York, which led to founding Anthroposophic Press (now SteinerBooks). Henry worked tirelessly for the remainder of his earthly life to make Rudolf Steiner and Anthroposophy known in North America. He died in New York City at the age of eighty-five.
See all titles by this author |
 Lisa Dreher Monges was the niece of Bertha Molt (wife of Emil Molt, who established the first Waldorf school) and a student at the new school in Stuttgart from its first day. She went on to study eurythmy, first in Stuttgart and then in Dornach, and she later became a eurythmy teacher in Holland and England, until Henry Monges asked her to help him translate Steiner’s works. She accepted and moved to the U.S., where she became an intensive collaborator in translation, the Anthroposophical Society, and the Anthroposophic Press. They married and bought land near the Threefold Farm in Spring Valley. In 1972, Lisa Monges (with Marianne Schneider and Kari van Oordt) founded the Spring Valley Eurythmy School, where she taught and performed.
See all titles by this author |
|
<< See other titles in the "Anthroposophy" category
|
