The General Main Exercise

The General Main Exercise

The Modern Christ Experience and the Knowledge Drama of the Second Coming

Second Volume

The Knowledge Drama of the Second Coming


Part I

In this fifth post-Atlantean age he has the greatest possibility of making himself spiritual. No age has been so favourable to spirituality as this fifth epoch. Courage must only be found to drive the money-changers out of the Temple. Courage must be found to confront with the real, abstractions and things estranged from reality, to set against them full reality and therewith the spiritual reality. (Lecture of 8 January 1918, GA 180).

Contents

Preface

Introduction: The Second Mystery of Golgotha

Chapter 1 The Spiritualization of Thinking

Chapter 2 The Spiritualization of Sense-Perception

Chapter 3 The Preparation of the Construction of the Bridge of Spiritual Memory and continuity of consciousness

Chapter 4 The Construction of the First Etheric-Cognitive Layer of the Bridge

Chapter 5 The Construction of Second Astral-Soul Layer of the Bridge

Short passage from chapter 5: The Construction of Second Astral-Soul Layer of the Bridge

The General Main Exercise

  Only a purely abstract and unreal ‘knowledge’ of spiritual science, would cause man to believe that any spiritual achievement, once accomplished, is retained in the same form and state. Nothing can be further from the truth. In real spiritual praxis of modern spiritual science, the exact opposite holds true: any prior achievement becomes a hindrance and blockage of further development, unless it is transformed into a foundation and springing board for the new stage. And the same applies naturally to what was achieved thus far. The formation of the heart center described above is strong and robust, but nevertheless, it is a preliminary foundation, on which the next stages of the bridge construction must be based. And we will only rightly comprehend what is reported below, if we realize that the second layer of the bridge, the astral-soul layer, must be formed according to precise spiritual formation processes, as was the case with the first etheric layer. In the formation of the two petalled lotus flower, we showed how exact and concrete this formation must be, and the formation of the twelve petalled lotus flower in the heart is at least six times more complicated. Furthermore, it must be pointed out that the function of the forces extracted from the spiritualized astral forces of desire is to supply purified soul substances and forces, to nourish the spiritual formation of the heart. The formation forces that the astral heart center requires, are higher spiritual forces that must be first sought and procured elsewhere. For this purpose, the following meditative practice must be added.

  Many years of practice were necessary, to realize that for the formation of the astral heart center, the twelve petalled lotus flower, we must have at our disposal the forces that can only develop in the meditation called the general main exercise, given to all pupils with the six subsidiary exercises in Rudolf Steiner’s first esoteric school. ^[1] To have this effect for the meditative praxis of the knowledge drama of the Second Coming, this meditation must however be first firmly grounded on the six subsidiary exercises and the meditations of Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Occult Science. Specifically, it creates spiritual forces required for the further spiritualization of the true ‘I’ and the formation of the composition of the liberated soul forces. And the twelve petalled lotus flower can only be formed, in a healthy and balanced way, by means of the high spiritual forces extracted from this exercise. To understand its significance, we should place it rightly in the present context of our work.

     Before we describe the practice of the general main exercise in greater detail, let us reflect on the preset stage of the work.

  As a consequence of the spiritualization of thinking and sense-perception, described in the first and second chapters, we could progress to the point in which the liberated beings of thinking and will, could connect with their cosmic counterparts. However, feeling was still not wholly liberated, because it is bound stronger to the desire forces of the astral body, in comparison to thinking and will. This obstacle was removed in the purification and spiritualization of the astral body.  In this way, the path has been also cleared for feeling to be fully liberated, so that it can also connect with its cosmic archetype and join the formation of the sixfold soul composition and sevenfold soul- and ‘I’ spiritual community. The active coordination of the six soul and spirit members by the true ‘I’ is the spiritual organ, that allows him to form the twelve petals lotus flower and the sixfold soul-spiritual community, that constitute the foundation of the astral-soul layer of the bridge.

    The splitting of the human personality during the separation of thinking, feeling and will, is elaborated in Knowledge of the Higher Worlds.^[2]  In Occult Science, Rudolf Steiner adds to this a short, and for our research significant, indication. He writes that after the separation of the three soul forces is completed, 'the development continues. Thinking that has become independent stimulates the emergence of a special fourth soul-spirit being that may be described as a direct influx of currents into man, similar to thoughts. The entire cosmos then appears as a thought structure... Likewise, feeling and willing that have become independent stimulate two forces in the soul that act in it like independent beings. Still another seventh power and being appears that is similar to one's Ego itself.' ^[3] This means that after their separation, each soul force connects with its cosmic archetype and counterpart. Furthermore, Rudolf Steiner adds that the ‘I’ also doubles itself and adds a seventh, rather mysterious member, to the expanding soul community. In our work we realized that once the separation and doubling of the soul forces and ‘I’ is attained, we must link them together to form a human-cosmic sixfold soul-spiritual composition, coordinated and regulated by the free activity of the true ‘I’, in which also the seventh ‘I’ member must be integrated. And this is the precise stage in which only the devoted practice of the general main exercisecan lead us further.

    We begin the general main exercise by concentrating on the point between the eyes and meditate on the thought I AM, then we descend to the larynx and we meditate It thinks, in the hands we meditate She feels, and over the whole body, He wills.  Each of the four stages of the meditation is done, after we inhale, exhale, and keep the breath outside, according to a certain rhythm. In a second version, She feels is concentrated in the heart, and He wills in the six petalled lotus flower below the naval, and the breath is held outside for a longer time. The significance of the regulation of physical breathing is revealed only in the more advanced stages of the knowledge drama and bridge construction and will be described in greater detail in the third volume. Rudolf Steiner explains that,

In the Words of Power, the three forms IT-SHE-HE are well founded in the nature of the higher worlds. “It” is the Word of Power for the Cosmic Thinking: that is, for those Beings in the higher world to whom creative thinking belongs in just the same measure as sense-perception belongs to the human beings below them. “She” is the Word of Power for the Cosmic Soul which originates the Feeling that streams out from it, whereas human feeling streams in, being stimulated from outside. This Feeling of the World Soul is the Creative Cosmic Love which brings all things into existence. “He” is the Word of Power for the Cosmic Will, the Cosmic Spirit whose Will acts from out of Himself, whereas the human will is brought into action through the outer world. This “He” is the Creative, Archetypal Power of the World.^[4] 

  This meditation can be enhanced when combined with the meditation on ‘It thinks me’, ‘It weaves me’ and ‘It works me’ that express the same process. ^[5] Experience has shown, to what extent the combination of the meditation on the four words of cosmic power with the meditation on these three verses, reinforces and intensifies the spiritual investigation at this stage. During the practice, we sense how profoundly it resonates and awakens the three golden spirit seeds of Spirit Self, Life Spirit, and Spirit Man, planted by the etheric Christ in the first, given meeting, in the spirit, soul and body. The deeper and more intensive the threefold activity of the true ‘I’ actualizes these two meditations, the more the three spirit seeds are nourished and grow. And the result of the main general exercise on the I AM, It thinks, She feels and He wills, is revealed in the greater spiritualization of the liberated beings of thinking, feeling and will, and further also in the ability of the true ‘I’ to connect and coordinate them with their cosmic archetypes.

[1] Guidance in Esoteric Training (GA 245, GA 267). The exercise has two complementary versions, used below.

[2] Knowledge of the Higher Worlds, chapter 9, The Splitting of the Human Personality During Spiritual Training (GA 10).

[3] Occult Science, An Outline, chapter 5, Knowledge of the Higher Worlds- Concerning Initiation. (GA 13)

[4] Guidance in Esoteric Training, Explanation of the main exercises (GA 245).

[5] Esoteric lesson from 19 November 1912 (GA 266b)

The Modern Christ Experience and the Knowledge Drama of the Second Coming

Second Volume, The Knowledge Drama of the Second Coming,Part I