An Occult Education Through Chess (Part 7)

[AshvinP]

“Whosoever sees no other aim in the game than that of giving checkmate to one’s opponent, will never become a good chess player.” – Max Euwe

Reedeming our Decadent Trajectory

Before proceeding further, it is helpful to take stock of what we are pursuing in this occult education and why, in broad outline. We can contemplate how, without a vertical orientation to navigating the game of Chess (or any life activity), as we have been pursuing here, the game flow wouldn’t remind us of anything except its fixed-rule, self-contained dynamics. It would only serve our myopic aims of learning positions and tactics, beating our opponents, gaining rating points, becoming better than others, gaining reputation in the Chess world, winning prizes, and so on. In other words, it is in these ignorant conditions that our lower impulses find fertile breeding ground within the game flow and obscure our experience of intuitive navigation. All modern games, as life activities in general, become decadent when we can no longer keenly sense how they take their shape and course from deeper intuitive steering. Without that sensitivity, we confine ourselves to an aliased subflow perspective and begin to feel that we are exclusively engaged in a certain type of pursuit, with aims quite different from those we are navigating in the dim depths of our intuitive life. A great deal of disharmonious relations within psychological and biological life, at the individual and collective scales, are the symptoms of this past-facing, exclusivized perspective and understanding within the flow.

Let’s briefly consider why cheating in an educational setting or in a competitive activity such as Chess feels so disturbing. Obviously, financial reasons are at play when monetary benefits accrue from passing exams or winning games, but we are even disturbed by cheating when no such benefits accrue, for example, when playing recreationally with a family member or friend. In the phenomenon of cheating, people navigate the game flow in ways that preclude long-term improvement. These cheating gestures are, by their very nature, diametrically opposed to the goal of expanding orientation within our intuitive flow. Thus, we instinctively sense how cheaters are hampering their own inner development, which feels disturbing because we also dimly sense that the inner development of any given individual is entangled with that of all other individuals in the long term, i.e., that a chain can only be as strong as its weakest link. We feel how the overarching intents of the evolutionary process are rendered more attenuated and implausible for humanity when our inner lives are conditioned by these dishonest gestures within the operational, tactical, and strategic flows. Yet this cheating inner stance has become increasingly commonplace in many domains of modern life, even encouraged.

For example, modern Chess software often allows players to take back their moves if the opponent agrees. Many people automatically convince themselves that it is ‘compassionate’ to allow such takebacks. That is somewhat understandable in the case of misclicks1, which are usually easy to spot, but what about when the player fails to remain focused and makes an impulsive or ill-thought-out move, only spotting the error after the fact? Allowing a takeback is only ‘helping’ this player if the goal is to win the game, regardless of how it is won. If the goal is to enhance the player’s experience of their intuitive process, on the other hand, then it is optimal for them to live with the full consequences of their cognitive errors, i.e., the suboptimal board configuration that results, so they can properly observe and integrate the feedback. The player is then also given the opportunity to adapt to the new circumstances by discovering creative ways to rebalance their position. The implicit offense here is that, if we are not consistently exposed to the deviations and detours our intuitive process takes from its desired state, in full consciousness, our sensitivity and orientation to the intimate (subtle) constraints on that process can never expand.

This cheating stance is not only a problem ‘out there’. As soon as we feel we are immune to this stance, that we are a paragon of honesty and fair play, we have also become the most susceptible to its temptations. Thus, we should remain as attentive as possible to the manifold ways in which we desire to ‘take back' the receded consequences of our inner activity. Our observations of others should become leverage points for attending to what we are also doing inwardly. When we recklessly bump our foot against an object and stub our toe, feeling frustrated and uttering a curse word, for example, it is as if we're subtly declaring that our contribution to the event no longer exists. This takeback tendency manifests even more acutely in our imaginative flow of seemingly ‘private’ opinions, beliefs, prejudices, judgments, and so on. What are the consequences of these ‘moves’ on our ability to understand what we observe, to fit it into the context of the wider flow, to navigate that flow, and to decide what goals are worthy of pursuing? When we fail to carefully attend to these aspects that constrain our flow, it is as if we want to attain the goal of evolving our cognitive state without ‘playing by the rules’ of the evolutionary process.

Once we become more sensitive to these tendencies within our ordinary navigatory flow, it’s a trivial matter to notice them also spreading infectiously across the wider cultural landscape. For many, there are increasingly fewer opportunities to live with the consequences of their inner process and integrate the feedback, as the latter is increasingly externalized onto various psychological and technological crutches. Max Leyf provides a great example of the former in this essay, which explores the increasingly prevalent phenomenon of ADHD diagnoses. He observes that, “People are, it would seem, eager to absolve themselves of accountability for the difficulties they encounter in their own lives and an ADHD diagnosis promises to sweep in with a blank check of exculpation.” It is especially problematic when we exculpate ourselves from the inability to concentrate within the flow, since that is the bedrock of all higher development. Relying on medications to stimulate such concentration only renders our inner activity increasingly dependent on external crutches, so that if we eventually need to go without them (and we all eventually do at death, if not well before), our inner flow will end up as more chaotic than it was before we started the medication.

Full essay - https://spiritanalogies.substack.com/p/ ... -chess-13d

[Federica]

Thank you, Ashvin, I have appreciated this reading! The angle of cheating as taking back what really can't be taken back from the receding flow forces the reader to take a hard look at one's ingrained habits, and sins, one can say. I'll stop using the Undo button in Gmail sending, to begin with

I feel this is the heaviest installment so far, but I understand the seriousness of the point you make. As you say, the temptations are everywhere and cheating is growing dramatically. The behaviors are also commonly normalized, even presented as socially winning, or 'cute'. I have in mind examples from humoristic shows, advertisement, and the news. The variations are infinite. Speaking of diagnoses in particular, some have begun to use certain psychic diagnoses as justifications not only in all sorts of life situations but also in criminal behavior. The most insidious challenge, however, is cheating in mental pictures, at least for those who have some awareness of what that means. For me it's a big challenge.

In general, I think the attitude or wanting to take back thoughts and especially deeds is inextricably related to a worldview that knows nothing of karma and sees the environment as the unique factor that shapes an individual's behavioral profile. At birth, the person is seen as a tabula rasa. As this philosophy creeps more and more deeply and minutely into the fabric of life, all sorts of exculpatory narratives and forgetfulness emerge. In religious behavior, you name the degeneration of confession. I've noticed another consequence of the growing insensitivity to the causes and effects of our deeds, even across relatively short timespans: churchgoers begin to forget why we are sinners, and wonder why one should pray for forgiveness for our trespasses.

Our standard intellectual inquiries into the ‘nature of reality’ are a transposition of that dishonest stance from the physical into the imaginative flow. They cheat us out of attaining an expanded intuitive orientation within that flow, since they presuppose that reality's “nature” is divorced from our intuitive perspective and process. That is presupposed, not in the content of the mental images generated by the inquiries, but in the method by which those images are formed and oriented towards. Even when the content of those images concludes, “my inner life is united with and an inseparable aspect of reality”, they still remain a form of dishonesty as long as we are absorbed in that content rather than attuned to the real-time process by which it came into focus at the horizon of our intuitive perspective.

This part is interesting, because it poses the question: "Is one dishonest if unconscious of behaving deceitfully?" We know that in law there is the almost absolute principle that "ignorantia legis non excusat". Is this applicable to ignorance of the freedom of spiritual activity? Is the intellectual soul dishonest in this time? I think it's a difficult question. Yes, on the one hand we should take responsibility for our karma, but on the other, it seems a bit extreme to consider honest persons only those who can invert their perspective within the flow. In any case, I think the alarming tone and tough reality check are completely justified and necessary, and the one who has the good will to go ahead with this series finds great help in the clarity and insightfulness of your writing.

[Kaje977]

This part is interesting, because it poses the question: "Is one dishonest if unconscious of behaving deceitfully?" We know that in law there is the almost absolute principle that "ignorantia legis non excusat". Is this applicable to ignorance of the freedom of spiritual activity? Is the intellectual soul dishonest in this time? I think it's a difficult question. Yes, on the one hand we should take responsibility for our karma, but on the other, it seems a bit extreme to consider honest persons only those who can invert their perspective within the flow. In any case, I think the alarming tone and tough reality check are completely justified and necessary, and the one who has the good will to go ahead with this series finds great help in the clarity and insightfulness of your writing.

I’ve been thinking about this question also for a while now, and I also believe that it’s more complicated than one might think, but it also just could be semantics and I don't think that Ashvin intended it to be understood in this way, as in, that one actively is being ignorant to their own freedom of spiritual activity and more like that by "dishonest stance" he was more referring to the "blind spot" many of us find ourselves in nowadays, implying that it is not active suppression of our own activity, but actually being unaware of it.

I think that someone who has come into this world and is truly unaware of their own freedom cannot be fully accused of being dishonest or acting with malicious intent. I'd say the same applies to people who behave deceitful (e.g. cheating in a game), but aren't even aware of it. Sometimes it is circumstances and the like that lead them into these situations, and they simply don’t know any better. That is why it is said: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do". However, that does not mean they are suddenly absolved of the consequences of their actions; they must continue to live with them, and repent, and set things right, especially once they become aware of their previous behaviour.

They simply didn’t know any better. It is a different matter, however, when one is actually aware of one's freedom of spiritual activity or read about it but consciously chooses to suppress or ignore it, or when they consciously behave deceitful and are fully aware they are cheating in a game, for example. Then one is being dishonest, I'd say. It is then roughly comparable to the sin against the Holy Spirit, the unforgivable sin. Not because God is unable to forgive, but because, by continually rejecting the Spirit, man renders himself incapable of repentance.

I could be completely off the mark here though, but this is how I always have seen it. Maybe this is all just semantics, and a more fitting term would be something like "being in the blind spot", because such people simply aren't even aware that there's something problematic in their behavior or that something is missing, which is why it's so hard to get people out from there, because it requires to "think outside the box". I remember myself how I had no idea before what Cleric's essays were referring to ( = the spiritual activity) and only saw it from the known intellectual stance and so it were more like abstractions that seemed inaccessible, but as soon as I experienced it, it feels like I acquired something entirely novel and new. Like a mathematical theorem that required inventing a completely new mathematical lemma that nobody thought of before in order to prove the theorem, it's a creative spark. It felt like an actual, true and real experience, something that actually expanded my consciousness and knowledge.

[Federica]

It is a different matter, however, when one is actually aware of one's freedom of spiritual activity or read about it but consciously chooses to suppress or ignore it, or when they consciously behave deceitful and are fully aware they are cheating in a game, for example. Then one is being dishonest, I'd say. It is then roughly comparable to the sin against the Holy Spirit, the unforgivable sin. Not because God is unable to forgive, but because, by continually rejecting the Spirit, man renders himself incapable of repentance.

Yes, I agree. Those who have developed an awareness of these realities bear more responsibility. They can't unknow their understanding for the sake of comfort and pleasure without falling in dishonesty. And it's very hard to be truly honest. For example when I scroll posts on my phone instead of studying or meditating, that's a form of cheating. The random mental pictures are taken in passively, with the idea that the whole thing can be 'taken back' later, with some efforts to come. At the same time I think it's a matter of degrees as well. Someone who has read and heard about freedom but maintains opposing views, is being 'unconsciously dishonest' to some degree. It reminds me that Steiner said that atheism is an illness, rather than a worldview. So if one is sick, or ignorant to a certain extent, or opposed to free will, for whatever reason, it surely depends on karma and past lives. But it's nevertheless fair to offer attention, dialogue, and remedy, if one has the necessary knowledge and connection with the person in question. In short, the more one is advanced on the realization of the freedom of spiritual activity, the more responsibility one has.

[AshvinP]

Thank you, Ashvin, I have appreciated this reading! The angle of cheating as taking back what really can't be taken back from the receding flow forces the reader to take a hard look at one's ingrained habits, and sins, one can say. I'll stop using the Undo button in Gmail sending, to begin with

I feel this is the heaviest installment so far, but I understand the seriousness of the point you make. As you say, the temptations are everywhere and cheating is growing dramatically. The behaviors are also commonly normalized, even presented as socially winning, or 'cute'. I have in mind examples from humoristic shows, advertisement, and the news. The variations are infinite. Speaking of diagnoses in particular, some have begun to use certain psychic diagnoses as justifications not only in all sorts of life situations but also in criminal behavior. The most insidious challenge, however, is cheating in mental pictures, at least for those who have some awareness of what that means. For me it's a big challenge.

In general, I think the attitude or wanting to take back thoughts and especially deeds is inextricably related to a worldview that knows nothing of karma and sees the environment as the unique factor that shapes an individual's behavioral profile. At birth, the person is seen as a tabula rasa. As this philosophy creeps more and more deeply and minutely into the fabric of life, all sorts of exculpatory narratives and forgetfulness emerge. In religious behavior, you name the degeneration of confession. I've noticed another consequence of the growing insensitivity to the causes and effects of our deeds, even across relatively short timespans: churchgoers begin to forget why we are sinners, and wonder why one should pray for forgiveness for our trespasses.

Thanks for this great feedback, Federica!

Yes, my intention was mostly to point toward how this cheating tendency comes to expression within the intimate imaginative flow (especially the inquiries into the 'nature of reality' via philosophy and science), using the relatively more outer expressions of cheating as ways of becoming more sensitive to the former. As you point out, the situation does seem to be quickly degenerating such that the ability of the modern intellectual soul to trace receded consequences of their intuitive activity is contracted within shorter and shorter time spans. I used the complaining athlete image as an example of that. And again, that is most acutely experienced in our mental flow, as most of us can barely remember what we were thinking a few moments ago or what we will be thinking a few moments from now when absorbed in our horizontal rehearsal process.

Our standard intellectual inquiries into the ‘nature of reality’ are a transposition of that dishonest stance from the physical into the imaginative flow. They cheat us out of attaining an expanded intuitive orientation within that flow, since they presuppose that reality's “nature” is divorced from our intuitive perspective and process. That is presupposed, not in the content of the mental images generated by the inquiries, but in the method by which those images are formed and oriented towards. Even when the content of those images concludes, “my inner life is united with and an inseparable aspect of reality”, they still remain a form of dishonesty as long as we are absorbed in that content rather than attuned to the real-time process by which it came into focus at the horizon of our intuitive perspective.

This part is interesting, because it poses the question: "Is one dishonest if unconscious of behaving deceitfully?" We know that in law there is the almost absolute principle that "ignorantia legis non excusat". Is this applicable to ignorance of the freedom of spiritual activity? Is the intellectual soul dishonest in this time? I think it's a difficult question. Yes, on the one hand we should take responsibility for our karma, but on the other, it seems a bit extreme to consider honest persons only those who can invert their perspective within the flow. In any case, I think the alarming tone and tough reality check are completely justified and necessary, and the one who has the good will to go ahead with this series finds great help in the clarity and insightfulness of your writing.

It's a very interesting and multifaceted question to contemplate. I think it is certainly the case that the more we advance with our intuitive development, the more we are naturally afforded expanded responsibility by the higher worlds for how we conduct our inner activity (as I now see you expressed to Kaje as well). That is because we develop greater sensitivity to our intuitive navigation within the soul landscape, so we feel the feedback on our gestures more acutely. For example, we may experience more psychic pain and anguish when we give into certain tempting desires that we know it is possible to resist (which could even condense into physical pain), than we would otherwise feel from those same acts without knowledge of our inner ability to resist them. In that sense, our ignorance and shallow sensitivity normally serve as a kind of protective coating that shields us from inner suffering in the short term. It's like the shielding on a space shuttle as it enters the atmosphere, where it threatens to burn up from friction-generated heat. We are continually approaching the horizon of entering the spiritual atmosphere, but we often instinctively tighten the sheaths at the horizon (contract the spirit tightly into the nerve-sense system), to dull our sensitivity, so we have an excuse to continue in our ignorant ways. The key is to recognize that the inner conditions for the pain and anguish continue to exist even if we are not sensitive to their feedback.

In that sense, the ignorance of freedom within our spiritual activity is now mostly self-imposed to indefinitely relieve ourselves of the corresponding responsibility. In the longer term, it is precisely that excessive shielding, prolonged well past the point at which the shields should have been reduced in strength, that ends up costing our inner development. For some, the consequences may mostly come after death, but our ignorance cannot spare us from the receded consequences of our prior activity indefinitely, as Kaje pointed out. When we speak of the cheating/dishonest stance specifically, we are dealing with a form of inner activity that fundamentally precludes any opportunity to reduce the shields and accommodate more expansive soul feedback from the spiritual worlds (the 'unforgivable sin against the holy spirit'). In a certain sense, all members of thinking humanity have now been given a default level of responsibility, by virtue of having developed refined self-consciousness in their intellectual gestures, to at least begin thinking more about their present thinking perspective and its place within the flow. Many souls are, by default, sensitive to at least a dim feeling that the 'Kingdom is pressing in from all sides', but this feeling is instinctively channeled through familiar intuitions from sensory life and thus transformed into various intellectual caricatures.

So I think the legal principle you mention also applies in this spiritual context. It's interesting because there is also the legal principle that we must have some level of conscious intent to be 'guilty' of criminal activity. That is understandable within the past-facing judicial system, which consists of humans with intellectually constrained perspectives who cannot be too concerned with the long-term development of the eternal soul being, only the short-term punishment of the physical being to deter, seclude, renumerate, rehabilitate (in the myopic sense), and so on. If a person has a disorder that makes them sleepwalk and punch someone, none of those functions are really served by punishing them. But the true judgment, punishment, and rehabilitation can only come from within the depths of our intuitive navigation. This means even if we are only thinking out of alignment with an aspect of our intuitive context, for example, by getting distracted from our intended state, it is a form of inner dishonesty that will certainly feed back in due course. As another example, consider how people often say things like "I'm glad no one was hurt" when reading about a potentially tragic event in the news. With a little reflection on our inner state, we would probably recognize this as a dishonest gesture because it doesn't fit well within our deeper navigatory context. If someone we didn't know were hurt, it probably wouldn't modulate our inner life to any significant extent - we would perhaps feel a bit melancholy for a few moments, but that's it. We are constantly making dishonest gestures of this sort, which could be easily discovered with some introspection.

The occult responsibility, of course, is not to fantasize that we can magically become paragons of inner honesty in a few years or even a single incarnation. That, in itself, would be a dishonest gesture in the other direction. The more sensitive we become to the continual deviations in our intuitive process, the more we realize how unrealistic that would be. The task is simply to establish a bastion of honesty in the one place where we can surely do so: in our self-conscious reflection on our lack of honesty within the flow. Then we can at least begin thinking about how the inner spectrums can be gradually brought into concentric alignment so that our daily flow of thoughts, feelings, and deeds fit more harmoniously within our intuitive context. We can start to feel how every mental picture has the potential of becoming a more honest image of what we are presently doing within the flow. Once we surmount the unforgivable sin that continually cheats us out of our higher development, we can strive to remain receptive to the Grace that continually flows in and forgives us our trespasses through moral intuitions and imaginations, gently re-centering us on the strait and narrow path of intuitive navigation.

[Federica]

It's a very interesting and multifaceted question to contemplate. I think it is certainly the case that the more we advance with our intuitive development, the more we are naturally afforded expanded responsibility by the higher worlds for how we conduct our inner activity (as I now see you expressed to Kaje as well). That is because we develop greater sensitivity to our intuitive navigation within the soul landscape, so we feel the feedback on our gestures more acutely. For example, we may experience more psychic pain and anguish when we give into certain tempting desires that we know it is possible to resist (which could even condense into physical pain), than we would otherwise feel from those same acts without knowledge of our inner ability to resist them. In that sense, our ignorance and shallow sensitivity normally serve as a kind of protective coating that shields us from inner suffering in the short term. It's like the shielding on a space shuttle as it enters the atmosphere, where it threatens to burn up from friction-generated heat. We are continually approaching the horizon of entering the spiritual atmosphere, but we often instinctively tighten the sheaths at the horizon (contract the spirit tightly into the nerve-sense system), to dull our sensitivity, so we have an excuse to continue in our ignorant ways. The key is to recognize that the inner conditions for the pain and anguish continue to exist even if we are not sensitive to their feedback.

In that sense, the ignorance of freedom within our spiritual activity is now mostly self-imposed to indefinitely relieve ourselves of the corresponding responsibility. In the longer term, it is precisely that excessive shielding, prolonged well past the point at which the shields should have been reduced in strength, that ends up costing our inner development. For some, the consequences may mostly come after death, but our ignorance cannot spare us from the receded consequences of our prior activity indefinitely, as Kaje pointed out. When we speak of the cheating/dishonest stance specifically, we are dealing with a form of inner activity that fundamentally precludes any opportunity to reduce the shields and accommodate more expansive soul feedback from the spiritual worlds (the 'unforgivable sin against the holy spirit'). In a certain sense, all members of thinking humanity have now been given a default level of responsibility, by virtue of having developed refined self-consciousness in their intellectual gestures, to at least begin thinking more about their present thinking perspective and its place within the flow. Many souls are, by default, sensitive to at least a dim feeling that the 'Kingdom is pressing in from all sides', but this feeling is instinctively channeled through familiar intuitions from sensory life and thus transformed into various intellectual caricatures.

So I think the legal principle you mention also applies in this spiritual context. It's interesting because there is also the legal principle that we must have some level of conscious intent to be 'guilty' of criminal activity. That is understandable within the past-facing judicial system, which consists of humans with intellectually constrained perspectives who cannot be too concerned with the long-term development of the eternal soul being, only the short-term punishment of the physical being to deter, seclude, renumerate, rehabilitate (in the myopic sense), and so on. If a person has a disorder that makes them sleepwalk and punch someone, none of those functions are really served by punishing them. But the true judgment, punishment, and rehabilitation can only come from within the depths of our intuitive navigation. This means even if we are only thinking out of alignment with an aspect of our intuitive context, for example, by getting distracted from our intended state, it is a form of inner dishonesty that will certainly feed back in due course. As another example, consider how people often say things like "I'm glad no one was hurt" when reading about a potentially tragic event in the news. With a little reflection on our inner state, we would probably recognize this as a dishonest gesture because it doesn't fit well within our deeper navigatory context. If someone we didn't know were hurt, it probably wouldn't modulate our inner life to any significant extent - we would perhaps feel a bit melancholy for a few moments, but that's it. We are constantly making dishonest gestures of this sort, which could be easily discovered with some introspection.

The occult responsibility, of course, is not to fantasize that we can magically become paragons of inner honesty in a few years or even a single incarnation. That, in itself, would be a dishonest gesture in the other direction. The more sensitive we become to the continual deviations in our intuitive process, the more we realize how unrealistic that would be. The task is simply to establish a bastion of honesty in the one place where we can surely do so: in our self-conscious reflection on our lack of honesty within the flow. Then we can at least begin thinking about how the inner spectrums can be gradually brought into concentric alignment so that our daily flow of thoughts, feelings, and deeds fit more harmoniously within our intuitive context. We can start to feel how every mental picture has the potential of becoming a more honest image of what we are presently doing within the flow. Once we surmount the unforgivable sin that continually cheats us out of our higher development, we can strive to remain receptive to the Grace that continually flows in and forgives us our trespasses through moral intuitions and imaginations, gently re-centering us on the strait and narrow path of intuitive navigation.

With regards to the bold: in fact, we know that all the counterproductive desires we perceive are resistible. I think the anguish of giving in is higher than before beginning spiritual development, not so much because we now know they are resistible (we probably knew it even before), but because of the consciousness of the counterproductive effects, and that a pleasurable experience just for the sake of it has no per se value, to put in balance against the waste of time, health, or virtue. For me this is the biggest difficulty: I now know that only pleasures that contribute to spiritual development have a valid ‘opportunity cost’. Nevertheless, I don’t stick to those only. I was about to write “I am not able to only stick to them”, but that’s the whole point: I am actually able. I could do it. I just don’t do it. My consolation is that I keep getting slightly better at it, one thing at a time, and that, for the bits that I have been able to change, I definitely see how the efforts have expanded my horizon, even if in admittedly small ways. There is a virtuous snowball effect, by which new healthier habits naturally expand, and lead to unexpected further improvements. Alas, these are mere drops in a sea of continual giving in to temptations, especially in the soul life. However, becoming completely virtuous and honest would mean to live ascetically, and I don’t think I will ever have that strength. I mean, for the people around me, I am already quite incomprehensible as I am now

When it comes to “tightening the sheaths at the horizon" of spiritual life, for me the gesture feels not so much like dulling sensitivity in order to indulge in more pleasures, but the result of fear of the unknown. Previously I liked to think of myself as not very fearful, but I have developed a sensitivity to the fact that temporizing and indulging is primarily due to the fear of the abyss. If I concentrate on that, I can feel it tingling in the sole of my feet, and I gain a sense of how much I am deep-rooted in earthly existence. I see how, the less one works on that, the more death will be an enormous shock. I think it’s better than nothing to at least gain a concrete sense of this rootedness

But yes, even for people who are not sensitive to the cost of indulgence, ignorance of freedom is self-imposed, even if sub-consciously. It reminds me of a saying by a certain Walter Russell, whom I was recently reading about. He used to say: “Mediocrity is self-inflicted; genius is self-bestowed.” And, as you point out, we will all have to face the consequences of self-imposed ignorance, before or after death. I see only one exception to this building of karma. It's when a spiritual being intervenes in our flow of karma to divert a momentously unfolding line of events from its natural riverbed. Steiner illustrates this occurrence in a few anecdotes, for example how Erasmus Franceschi side-tracked death.

On the legal principle that there must be a conscious intent for someone to be held accountable for a crime, yes, it fits the world of the intellectual soul. However, in our degenerating (or splitting) society, this past-oriented direction is being reinforced, through the ever-growing range of established psychic diagnosis for otherwise levelheaded individuals. For example, there is the relatively new diagnosis, recognized by the WHO, of hypersexuality. Whoever has obtained such a diagnosis can claim innocence even if their intent of, say, harassing people on public transport is conscious, because it is also “compulsive”. This is one of the ways in which things are getting quietly worse. It’s not anymore necessary to be a criminal sleepwalker in order to plead not guilty in the face of society. One can now be perfectly conscious of one's criminal intent, as long as there is an appropriate diagnosis. It’s as if the expanding world of diagnoses is on its way to become a vast selection of crystallized responsibility shields that can potentially absolve from any behavior - shields bestowed by a degenerating share within the medical profession, a kind of caste with growing powers of societal absolution and/or condamnation by means of diagnostic devices. This said, I don’t think legal systems recognize a principle of innocence fully grounded in compulsion yet. But the idea is getting a foothold, and will permeate institutions, in all likelihood.

Returning to the main theme, thank you for the idea of establishing a bastion of honesty where to cultivate expanding soul integrity. It feels to point at the viable balance between realistic and ambitious!

[AshvinP]

With regards to the bold: in fact, we know that all the counterproductive desires we perceive are resistible. I think the anguish of giving in is higher than before beginning spiritual development, not so much because we now know they are resistible (we probably knew it even before), but because of the consciousness of the counterproductive effects, and that a pleasurable experience just for the sake of it has no per se value, to put in balance against the waste of time, health, or virtue. For me this is the biggest difficulty: I now know that only pleasures that contribute to spiritual development have a valid ‘opportunity cost’. Nevertheless, I don’t stick to those only. I was about to write “I am not able to only stick to them”, but that’s the whole point: I am actually able. I could do it. I just don’t do it. My consolation is that I keep getting slightly better at it, one thing at a time, and that, for the bits that I have been able to change, I definitely see how the efforts have expanded my horizon, even if in admittedly small ways. There is a virtuous snowball effect, by which new healthier habits naturally expand, and lead to unexpected further improvements. Alas, these are mere drops in a sea of continual giving in to temptations, especially in the soul life. However, becoming completely virtuous and honest would mean to live ascetically, and I don’t think I will ever have that strength. I mean, for the people around me, I am already quite incomprehensible as I am now

Right, I meant "know" in this context as synonymous with "greater sensitivity to our intuitive navigation within the soul landscape", or what you refer to as "consciousness of the counterproductive effects". In a sense, it is concrete intimations of our relationship with an eternal soul being, who navigates across the threshold and has already overcome tempting desires of the Earthly spectrum, such that it can creatively participate in the spiritual world in fashioning the Earthly landscape and the destinies of its inhabitants. This doesn't necessarily imply higher cognitive experience proper, but at least a solid orientation to how the meditative path can plausibly lead in that direction. It is only at this point that I would say we are naturally afforded expanded responsibility (beyond the default level mentioned above) by the higher worlds for managing our inner streams. At the mere conceptual level, without such concrete orinetation to the inner path, a person addicted to smoking can surely think/say, "I know that it is possible for me to resist having a cigarette today. I have seen and heard of people doing it before." Yet once he gives in to the temptation and has the cigarette, I don't think there will be an especially pronounced feeling of shame or anguish, as we are discussing in this context. It is similar to what Steiner speaks of when discussing how we may develop a much higher sensitivity to logical and illogical statements so that we experience a certain amount of pleasure with the former and pain with the latter (beyond what we normally experience). Our conscious aperture within the imaginative subflow has then been infused more with life processes (very much as described by Steiner in the lecture you shared). Then we arrive at an inner stance and corresponding insights (and corresponding anguish from ignoring those insights), such as you express above

When it comes to “tightening the sheaths at the horizon" of spiritual life, for me the gesture feels not so much like dulling sensitivity in order to indulge in more pleasures, but the result of fear of the unknown. Previously I liked to think of myself as not very fearful, but I have developed a sensitivity to the fact that temporizing and indulging is primarily due to the fear of the abyss. If I concentrate on that, I can feel it tingling in the sole of my feet, and I gain a sense of how much I am deep-rooted in earthly existence. I see how, the less one works on that, the more death will be an enormous shock. I think it’s better than nothing to at least gain a concrete sense of this rootedness

But yes, even for people who are not sensitive to the cost of indulgence, ignorance of freedom is self-imposed, even if sub-consciously. It reminds me of a saying by a certain Walter Russell, whom I was recently reading about. He used to say: “Mediocrity is self-inflicted; genius is self-bestowed.” And, as you point out, we will all have to face the consequences of self-imposed ignorance, before or after death. I see only one exception to this building of karma. It's when a spiritual being intervenes in our flow of karma to divert a momentously unfolding line of events from its natural riverbed. Steiner illustrates this occurrence in a few anecdotes, for example how Erasmus Franceschi side-tracked death.

It seems to me that the fear of the abyss you refer to, where we can no longer rest our inner activity on familiar perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and impulses, is at the basis of tightening the sheaths, which necessarily dulls sensitivity. It is quite like recoiling from a loud noise or the sight of a potentially dangerous animal, except at a more intimate scale. I can share a personal example to hone in on what was meant here. There are times when I am on the verge of giving in to a tempting desire, and then I may pause to pray for the inner strength to resist it. I have become more sensitive, however, to the presence of a strong tendency to render these praying gestures feeble and short-lived, as if I am purposefully withholding some inner capacity to intensify and prolong them. It's as if I am saying - "I will resist this desire if the higher worlds respond to my prayer and provide me the inner strength, but if that is not forthcoming, then it probably means I am not ready to resist the desire yet, and I will forgo the resistance this time and hopefully next time I will be given the inner strength." In my experience, this sort of intentional weakening of the inner prayerful-meditative gestures happens quite often, so that I can maintain the shields at full strength whenever I desire to pursue a temptation.

On the legal principle that there must be a conscious intent for someone to be held accountable for a crime, yes, it fits the world of the intellectual soul. However, in our degenerating (or splitting) society, this past-oriented direction is being reinforced, through the ever-growing range of established psychic diagnosis for otherwise levelheaded individuals. For example, there is the relatively new diagnosis, recognized by the WHO, of hypersexuality. Whoever has obtained such a diagnosis can claim innocence even if their intent of, say, harassing people on public transport is conscious, because it is also “compulsive”. This is one of the ways in which things are getting quietly worse. It’s not anymore necessary to be a criminal sleepwalker in order to plead not guilty in the face of society. One can now be perfectly conscious of one's criminal intent, as long as there is an appropriate diagnosis. It’s as if the expanding world of diagnoses is on its way to become a vast selection of crystallized responsibility shields that can potentially absolve from any behavior - shields bestowed by a degenerating share within the medical profession, a kind of caste with growing powers of societal absolution and/or condamnation by means of diagnostic devices. This said, I don’t think legal systems recognize a principle of innocence fully grounded in compulsion yet. But the idea is getting a foothold, and will permeate institutions, in all likelihood.

Returning to the main theme, thank you for the idea of establishing a bastion of honesty where to cultivate expanding soul integrity. It feels to point at the viable balance between realistic and ambitious!

Indeed, those are quite disturbing trends. It is like the formerly philosophical idea that what we call "conscious intent" is merely an artifact of blind neurochemistry or inexplicable mystical happenings, is now penetrating more into practical life

The 'bastion of honesty' idea-stance has been very helpful for me as well. As you expressed above, we can't realistically expect to live our lives as perfect ascetics (and even that would not guarantee any corresponding inner transformation). Instead, just as we take the first baby steps on the intuitive path by thinking about thinking, we can likewise take the step of being honest about our dishonesty whenever we are able to observe it. Instead of pretending that we are already fully conscious of what it means to pray for and desire the Good, we can pray that we eventually know how to pray, we can desire to begin desiring the Good, and so on. As the saying goes, "the only true wisdom is in knowing that you know nothing." I think there is a deep sense of centeredness and stability that comes from adopting this inner stance.