Essay: Spiritual Exposure Therapy

[AshvinP]

some more words in the way of abstract speculations:

...the spiritual environment of the occult student is important in this regard, and that depending on his orientation to this spiritual environment diverse methods have been instituted for treading the path of knowledge.

https://rsarchive.org/Books/GA012/Engli ... 2_c02.html

As usual, you leave out the wider context to 'prove your point'.

The student injures himself in every case in which he becomes impatient over the waiting time prescribed for him. His advance will be none the less rapid on this account. On the contrary, his progress would be slowed down if he were to begin too soon the training he often impatiently awaits.

If the student allows the waiting time or the other advice and hints given to him by the occult teacher to influence him rightly, he will be actually preparing himself to hold his ground before certain trials and dangers that approach him when he encounters the unavoidable stage of Imagination. This stage is unavoidable for this reason: Everyone who seeks communication with the higher world without having passed through it can only do so unconsciously and is condemned to grope in the dark. One can acquire some dim sense of this higher world without Imagination; one can without it certainly attain to a sense of being united with “one's God” or “one's higher self,” but one cannot in this way come to a true knowledge in full consciousness and bright, luminous clarity.

What is this unavoidable stage of Imaginative knowledge? It is exactly what we have explored in many ways on this forum as the enlivening and strengthening of intellectual thinking, the objective discovery and purification of the soul constitution. There is no skipping over this stage to "connecting with spiritual movement, form, and precipitation in matter and its perception", unless by that we mean resonating with the formative forces that structure all familiar forms of the World content (including the forms of our thoughts, feelings, desires, etc.), which is exactly what Imaginative knowledge brings. Cleric expresses the same thing as follows:

Because of the scientific habits of our age, when we think about gaining a more intimate experience of the World groove, probably the first thing that comes to mind is that we should somehow gain insight into the way particles and forces work. But in reality, as we saw in connection with our willing spiritual activity, this depth of the physical world is initially the furthest removed from where our intuition of the flow is at its clearest focus – the experience of our thinking. We know the physical world only as far as it impresses through sensory perceptions and we form corresponding mental images. What happens in our organs and cells, we don’t have direct consciousness of. Our intuition can only grow from where we find it to be already one and the same with the intuitive curvature of the World groove. If we jump directly to physics or metaphysics, we once again introduce the duality between the intuitive curvature within which our philosophical thoughts flow and the supposed ‘true’ curvature of the World groove, which, alas, once again remains ‘on the other side’. For this reason, gaining a deeper knowledge of the World groove starts from within outwards.

And here is another way of expressing a similar inner disposition that is needed on the path of intuitive thinking:

“Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.

And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through some stages of instability—
and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you;
your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,
let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.
Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.”
― Pierre Teilhard de Chardin


Anyway, I suspect that if and when we finally hear about some concrete examples of the temperamentally customized illustrations, they will be nothing too different than what has already been explored on this forum, and it will be revealed this is yet another argument generated for nothing but the sake of arguing. Instead of speculating on all kinds of shiny new ways to help other hypothetical people get on the gradient of inner development, we could more collaboratively and deeply explore the existing ways for us to strengthen and refine our orientation to that gradient with the resources that already exist for us on this forum. At a certain point, obsessing over how to help these 'other people' simply reveals an overestimation of our own current development and a need to refocus on the latter.

[Federica]

Anyway, I suspect that if and when we finally hear about some concrete examples of the temperamentally customized illustrations, they will be nothing too different than what has already been explored on this forum, and it will be revealed this is yet another argument generated for nothing but the sake of arguing. Instead of speculating on all kinds of shiny new ways to help other hypothetical people get on the gradient of inner development, we could more collaboratively and deeply explore the existing ways for us to strengthen and refine our orientation to that gradient with the resources that already exist for us on this forum. At a certain point, obsessing over how to help these 'other people' simply reveals an overestimation of our own current development and a need to refocus on the latter.

I have attentively studied that chapter and book. I am very aware of the meaning of the quote you point to. I know this is extremely important. But I dont' think it's in contradiction with the idea of intentionally meeting the reader where they are at. If I want to reflect on how to bring forth some sort of materialization of this idea, it's not because I am obsessed, I seek shiny new things, or I overestimate my current development. It's the opposite, it's because I feel concretely for those who, like me, are striving at the beginning of the path. I have in my environment some concerning examples of how an instinctive aspiration to the higher worlds can become misguided and risky, and I should, and want to, orient my intentions in that direction. These are not "other people" between quotes.

[AshvinP]

I have attentively studied that chapter and book. I am very aware of the meaning of the quote you point to. I know this is extremely important. But I dont' think it's in contradiction with the idea of intentionally meeting the reader where they are at. If I want to reflect on how to bring forth some sort of materialization of this idea, it's not because I overestimate my current development. It's the opposite, it's because I feel concretely for those who, like me, are striving at the beginning of the path. I have in my environment concerning examples of how an instinctive aspiration to the higher worlds can become misguided and risky, and I should, and want to, orient my intentions in that direction.

That's good, but the tendency I am pointing to is that of seeking some other reality (or path, method, approach, etc.) that should bring the striving further. If we think about it, this is what happens with many people we have interacted with, like Eugene. He says, "Yeah, I agree with everything you say, understanding the higher octaves of spiritual activity via higher cognition is very important and I am totally interested in developing these higher cognitive capacities". Then we say something like, "Ok great, now you should carefully work with PoF and Cleric's essays, commit to the imaginative concentration exercises, study the revelations of spiritual science, and so on". Then he either says, "Yes I am already doing that, thanks." or, "No thanks, I don't like confining myself to just one path, I am perfectly capable of finding my own way to this higher cognition and, in fact, I already am." In all cases, he disappears for awhile and when he returns, he is hardly interested in thinking through the spiritual scientific topics being discussed.

Is he actually doing the study-meditation in the meantime? Of course not. If he was, then he wouldn't be stuck at such an abstract understanding of spiritual reality, of such misunderstanding about higher cognition and spiritual science, and so on. He has told us before that he tailors the meditative exercises to be more aligned with his already familiar methods. And I am quite sure that he sees little value in rigorously working through and meditating on spiritual science or even Cleric's essays. It all feels familiar to him, like different ways of expressing what he has already learned through studying various wisdom traditions. He instead holds out hope that his own DIY path will lead into the same spiritual realities as higher cognition or, otherwise, the fruits of the latter will be bestowed after death without any need for preparation during Earthly life. All of this reminds me of something Steiner said:

https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA115/En ... 02p01.html

How does boredom arise? If you are observant you will have noticed something that is not often recognized. Only the human being can be bored, not animals. Whoever believes that animals can be bored is a poor observer of nature. People, on the other hand, can positively be classified according to their capacity for boredom. Those leading a simple soul life are bored far less than the so-called educated ones. In general, people are far less bored in the country than in the city, but to verify this you must there observe the country people, not city people who are momentarily in the country. People of the educated strata and classes whose soul life is complicated are prone to boredom. We find, then, a difference even among the different classes.

Boredom is by no means something that arises simply of its own accord in the soul life, but is a result of the independent life led by our conceptions. It is these old conceptions desiring new ones, new impressions. The old conceptions crave fructification, desire new stimuli. For this reason we have no control whatever over boredom. It is merely a matter of the conceptions having desires that, unfulfilled, develop longings in us. That is why an undeveloped, obtuse person with few conceptions is less bored; he has few visualizations that could develop longings within him. But neither are those who continually yawn with boredom the ones who have achieved the highest development of their ego. This is added lest you might infer that the most highly developed people would be the most bored. There is a sort of cure for boredom; and in a higher stage of development boredom again becomes impossible. More of this later.
...
This is not the case in human beings. For us outer objects cease to be of interest when we have seen them too often. We no longer let them enter our soul worlds, yet the external passing of time continues just the same. Our inner soul life stops, and time flows on with the soul. What is it, though, that acts upon this void in time? It is the desire of the old conceptions yearning for the future. There emanates from the soul, from the old conceptions, the desire for new impressions, new contents. That is boredom. The difference between man and animal is that man has the advantage of conceptions that live on and develop their own lives oriented toward the future; that means that he has a soul life directed toward the future.
...
As stated above, however, there is a cure for boredom. It is brought about when the old conceptions persist not merely as something that excites desire, but when they have a content of their own, so that through our own incentive we can infuse something into the time not filled from without. When our conceptions themselves carry into the future something that interests us, we have the higher soul development. Whether or not this power plays a part in a man's development, whether or not his conceptions embrace something that interests him, satisfies him, constitutes a significant difference.

Beginning, then, at a certain stage of development, the human being can be bored, but he can cure himself of this by filling himself with conceptions that will satisfy his soul life in the future as well. That is the difference between those who are bored and those who are not. There are people who can be cured of boredom and others who cannot, and this points to the independent life of our conceptions, a life we cannot control, a life to which we are subject. Unless we see to it that our conceptions have content we must inevitably be bored, but by giving them a content we can for the future protect ourselves against boredom.

In this sense, we can easily habituate ourselves to old conceptions about the phenomenological explorations we have encountered and lose interest in them, get bored of them. This can also happen even with our meditative exercises. Then we crave new kinds of explorations and exercises to alleviate the boredom. We see a familiar metaphor, exercise, or line of reasoning and feel "Oh I already know all about that, this is something we discussed many times before." I have often felt this way and started seeking for the most varied sources of esoteric wisdom to satisfy my craving. Yet I also learned that nothing we find in this way will ever satisfy us. We can instead revisit the same explorations and exercises with fresh eyes, with fresh forces of devotion, awe, and wonder. We can rediscover the inner attitude of the small child or the higher animal. That's why I spend a lot of time revisiting old forum threads and working through the illustrations, examples, exercises, etc., as if for the first time. This is has been the most helpful for my inner orientation to the truthful flow of experience.

We may often seek 'other ways' of traversing the inner path simply because we are procrastinating from approaching the existing ways with the needed discipline and concentration, with the inner disposition that there is so much more to learn from them than what we gained the first few times. This also sparks a positive feedback cycle, because the more inner meaning and sensitivity we mine from the same phenomenological content, the more additional meaning we will mine in the next iteration of exploring that content. I also hope you don't write off what is written above as not applicable to you. In my forum reviews, I have seen how often you express a thought like, "yes I remember that post and I haven't forgotten what we discussed before...". You even seem insulted that we would reiterate to you a line of reasoning that has been mentioned before, as if it implies you haven't understood anything yet. But the reality is that, in fact, we don't really "understand" or become "aware" of these things from a few surveys and discussions.

Genuine spiritual perceptions act differently — they are living entities and must continually be created anew. One must go through the process repeatedly for already the following day uncertainty arises, especially about the loftiest experiences, and one must win certainty all over again. One must relate to spiritual knowledge as one relates in the physical world to what is reality and not image. A real process in the physical world is the need to eat: not many of you would refrain from eating today because you had a good meal a week ago. You would not say that the meal of a week ago is still in you nourishing you, so that there is no need to eat today. By contrast a soul content arrived at via the body remains and can be recalled unchanged in many respects. That is not the case with a spiritual soul content; this does not just fade; its very certainty is repeatedly shaken and must be regained ever again.

PS - I apologize for saying that you were just arguing for the sake of arguing before. The process of writing this post has helped me realize that, from your perspective, there is a genuine need to find new ways for the beginners to approach the gradient. So I was mistaken to suggest you didn't have a valid basis for this line of discussion.

And of course there is always a need for new ways of expressing the core phenomenological path, as I think we have always striven to do on this forum (mostly thanks to Cleric). Yet for the reasons mentioned above, this can easily become a one-sided striving for some 'other' path of inner development that serves as convenient excuse for delaying our work with the existing path.

[Federica]

...

Thanks, Ashvin. As much as this makes me look like Eugene, I have to say that I agree with your words of caution. I also recently cautioned against the wish for new practices. I am experientially familiar with how the simplest insights are easily lost just the next day, no matter how clear and solid they may have appeared initially. Even when I jot down some notes or sketches, it's often insufficient to recover the ideal context and, as you say, the work needs to be patiently recreated. Sometimes, the patience is rewarded with a slightly larger intuition. Nowadays I sometimes make an exercise out of the situation. Like how much of a newly popped up idea will I be able to recover without taking a note, if I try as hard as I can to impress it in memory, speaking it out loud, circling around the ideal context multiple times, or perhaps returning it to the angel who will know best if I need it… And I am lucky I never feel bored with spiritual tasks, or with life in general. Thinking about moments of boredom makes me go back to my youth...