Heart thinking

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You only see well with your heart.
The essential is invisible to the eyes.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: The Little Prince

Heart thinking is an ability that people in earlier times possessed in an unconscious way. "Seeing with the heart" was connected with a certain sense of truth that could not yet be grasped in clear, conscious contours, but nevertheless allowed certain insights into the higher, spiritual worlds. Even Aristotle still regarded the heart as the central organ of thought. But at the same time, with his logic, he laid the secure foundation for intellectual thinking, which is no longer centred in the heart but in the head. This kind of thinking has its flowering in our intellect today, which, however, can at first only grasp sensual facts and their logical order, and this with full, awake I-consciousness. In the future, a new kind of heart-thinking will develop, which is compatible with the fully awake I-consciousness, and thus allows insight into purely spiritual connections in a completely conscious and level-headed way. It will differ essentially from our present mind in that it is not a discursive, deductive thinking, but overlooks the truth with a glance.

The new thinking of the heart, which is not based on the physical heart, but on the etheric heart, which in the meantime has been largely detached from it, does not unfold in a chain of logically joined concepts, but in inwardly experienced mental images, in imaginations sounded through by inspirations, which reveal the spiritual connections at a stroke. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul speaks of the "enlightened eyes of the heart" (Eph 1:18). The prerequisite for this is a corresponding cultivation of the heart (German: Herzensbildung). In terms of civilisation, it ideally expresses itself in a culture of the heart (German: Herzenskultur).

„It is certainly valuable if a person also has a heart and not merely thoughts. But the most valuable thing is when thoughts have a heart. This, however, we have completely lost.“ (Lit.:GA 217, p. 21)

The full development of heart thinking requires the regular training and activation of the heart chakra, the 12-petalled lotus flower, which is active as a soul organ in the immediate vicinity of the heart. It is the main sense of intuition through which, among other things, retrospection into previous incarnations is possible. The heart chakra is trained and activated above all through the six subsidiary exercises given by Rudolf Steiner - which are by no means subsidiary, but essential for every modern spiritual training and must always accompany the meditative main exercises.

The hearts begin to have thoughts

The Archangel Michael is closely related to the development of thought. He is the administrator of cosmic intelligence. His essential task is to make this cosmic intelligence accessible to man in the form of thought. In the last Michael Age before the turn of time, which lasted from about the 6th century BC to 200 BC, he initiated the transition from mythology to philosophy. He thus established intellectual thinking, head thinking, which at the same time created the basis for man's I-consciousness. But a Luciferic element lives in it - the Luciferic dragon that Michael cast down to earth into the heads of men.

„The spiritual power which, after the evolution of mankind had passed through the evolution of Saturn, the Sun and the Moon and the evolution of the Earth had begun, organised the Luciferic being into the main human formation, is the power of Michael. "And he cast down his opposing spirits to the earth", that is to say: Through this casting down of the Luciferic spirits opposing Michael, man was first imbued with his reason, with that which springs from the human head.

Thus it is Michael who has sent his opponents to man, so that man, by receiving this opposing, this Luciferic element, has first received his reason.“ (Lit.:GA 194, p. 40f)

Through intellectual thinking we confront the world, we separate ourselves from it, and thereby strengthen our self-consciousness, which, however, is initially directed entirely towards the ego. Heart-thinking, on the other hand, connects us intimately with the law of the world, in which our true self also lives.

„In the future, man will stand in a much more intimate relationship with world law than at present. And the spiritual disciple anticipates this intimacy in the development. The head with the brain is only a transitional organ of knowledge. The organ that will actually take a deep and at the same time powerful look into the world has its basis in the present heart. But it should be noted that this organ is born in the present heart. In order to become an organ of cognition, the heart must still be transformed in the most manifold ways. But this heart is the source and fountainhead of the human stage of the future. When the heart becomes its organ, knowledge will be warm and intimate, as today only the feelings of love and pity are. But these feelings will penetrate out of the dullness and darkness in which today they only grope, to the brightness and clarity which today only the finest, logical concepts of the head have.“ (Lit.:GA 266a, p. 100)

„In the future, man will stand in a much more intimate relationship with world law than at present. And the spiritual disciple anticipates this intimacy in the development. The head with the brain is only a transitional organ of knowledge. The organ that will actually take a deep and at the same time powerful look into the world has its basis in the present heart. But it should be noted that this organ is born in the present heart. In order to become an organ of cognition, the heart must still be transformed in the most manifold ways. But this heart is the source and fountainhead of the human stage of the future. When the heart becomes its organ, knowledge will be warm and intimate, as today only the feelings of love and pity are. But these feelings will penetrate out of the dullness and darkness in which today they only grope, to the brightness and clarity which today only the finest, logical concepts of the head have.“ (Lit.:GA 266a, p. 100)

„By feeling himself as a free being in Michael's proximity, man is on the way to carrying the power of intellectuality into his "whole man"; he thinks with his head, but the heart feels the light or darkness of thought; the will radiates the being of man by having the thoughts flowing in it as intentions. The human being becomes more and more human by becoming an expression of the world; he finds himself by not searching for himself, but by uniting himself with the world in love.

By unfolding his freedom and falling into Ahriman's temptations, man is drawn into intellectuality, as into a spiritual automatism in which he is a member, no longer himself. All his thinking becomes an experience of the head; the head alone separates it from his own heart and will and extinguishes his own being. Man loses more and more of his inner, essential human expression by becoming the expression of his selfhood; he loses himself by seeking himself; he withdraws from the world to which he refuses love; but man only truly experiences himself when he loves the world.

From what has been described, it is clear how Michael is the guide to Christ. Michael goes through the world with all the seriousness of his being, his attitude, his actions in love. Whoever adheres to him cultivates love in relation to the outer world. And love must first develop in relation to the outer world, otherwise it becomes self-love.

If this love is then present in the Michael attitude, then love for the other will also be able to radiate back into one's own self. This will be able to love without loving itself. And on the paths of such love Christ is to be found through the human soul.“ (Lit.:GA 26, p. 117f)

Etherisation of the blood in the heart

→ Main article: Etherisation of the blood

The etherisation of the blood is important in this context. Starting from the heart as the centre of the blood circulation, the finest physical blood components are continuously transformed into etheric substance in the smallest quantities during the waking state of the human being. From the heart to the head a stream of etherised blood rises and plays around and illuminates the pineal gland. These etheric powers of the heart penetrate the brain and radiate even beyond the head (if sufficiently strong, this appears to the imaginative gaze in the head aura as a halo). Only through these etheric forces are we at all able to grasp thoughts that are not completely bound to the egoistic needs of the organism. Aristotle still had an inkling of this. Since the blood of the Christ was shed on Golgotha, the Christ-power can unite with this etheric current. ( (Lit.:GA 130, p. 89ff)

The old heart thinking and its after-effects

The old heart thinking has only a semi-conscious character and is based on immediate feeling. Especially in everyday life it still has a powerful effect today:

„By far the greatest number of people today are on that level - which therefore certainly falls within normal consciousness - where an immediate, natural feeling towards things tells them: this is right, this is wrong, this is what you should do, this is what you should leave undone. - Man is usually guided by such an immediate feeling with regard to what he should consider true or false.

Inquire in the present day how many people take the trouble to really think about what are the most sacred goods to them. Because they were born into certain circumstances, into a certain community, born not in Turkey, for my sake, but in Central Europe, they have received an immediate, original feeling that Christianity is the right thing and not Mohammedanism; they do not therefore - through a certain feeling - consider Mohammedan truths to be right, but that which they have in Christianity. Such a thing must not be misunderstood; to think about it leads to real knowledge of life. So we must be clear about the fact that for the vast majority of people today, it is still an immediate feeling that decides what they consider to be true or false. That is one stage of development.“ (Lit.:GA 119, p. 22)

That this kind of semi-conscious feeling for truth will not suffice for the future seems evident.

Literature
References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com.
Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books
A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works
Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English.
Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold
steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA)
Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.
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