"Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true."
Buddha
Picture By: Greg Spalenka
'Our heart is the voice of the soul. Listen carefully and in its beating you will hear the fluttering of angel wings.'
When we come into contact with the other person, our thoughts and actions should express our mind of compassion, even if that person says and does things that are not easy to accept. We practice in this way until we see clearly that our love is not contingent upon the other person being lovable.
~Thich~~
When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.
Henri Nouwen
THE BEAUTY OF THE ROSE
Think of the stem as the road of life — ever bending,
turning and changing, as we walk along life's road.
Think of the rose, as our hearts — delicate and fragile,
slowly healing, and slowly opening, as time heals our wounds.
Think of the broken petals — as the broken dreams,
broken hearts, and wounded spirits, that have filled our lives.
Think of the growth of the rose, and the opening of the petals —
as time that passes, as we forget our pains,
and as we grow, and as we experience new joys,
new dreams, new hope, new love, and new friendships.
Think of the fallen petals as growth —
as we learn to let go of the burdens we need not carry
along the way, as we allow our hearts to open again,
our hearts will heal, we will learn to love again,
we will become stronger. Time is a healer.
When we can see the beauty of the rose —
we learn to see the beauties of life — that's when we'll know,
we've healed and we've become as beautiful as the ROSE.
M. Fortney
The mundane world is only clumps of earth clinging to a rock spinning into nothing. So let's consider other realities and leave the dust behind. The world is not enough. Our dreams dream us. We are stewards of moments in time which are all the time we ever really have.
The soul thrives on experience. As finite beings we can see no purpose for the soul to function at the level of environment, this material world, other than to provide itself the opportunity to participate in certain experiences. Through this participation the soul, in itself, does not become more perfect. However, the realization gained through the experience of the soul causes us to evolve the personality which will accompany that soul and which will become such expression of it as we will ultimately become at some other time and place. To the soul in its process of growing through experience, time is of no consequence. Growth is simply a process in which the soul participates without consideration of what we know as time.
The Rosicrucian Forum - December 1984
We dance in new bodies on the dust of our former selves!
'It is the overcoming of our own fears which allows for the possibility of the overcoming of fear within the larger structure. It is also worthwhile to note that the further we go along this road, the better we feel. And the exuberant joy which overflows from our being ripples out into our creation, into our landscape, in all directions.
It is one thing to consider ideas in solitary meditation, it is quite another to confront ourselves through others in discussion where we actually see the biases and strictures of ideas as they apply to our thinking. Essentially, the process is one of becoming defenseless. When we are no longer attached to any particular label or point of view within the cultural system, we no longer have to defend any particular position. This relaxation of perspective allows us to move more easily within the greater self.
If one is continually surviving the worst that life can bring, one eventually ceases to be controlled by a fear of what life can bring; whatever it brings must be borne'
CHILDHOOD
"Childhood is a time for learning about the essentials~ about the heavenly world and the earthly, about goodness, beauty and truth.
Childhood is a time to be loved and to love, to express fear and to learn trust, to be serious, to be calm, and to celebrate with laughter and joy.
Children have the right to dream, and to grow at their own pace. They have the right to make mistakes and the right to be forgiven.
Children have the right to be spared violence and hunger, to have a home and protection, and support for growing up healthy, with good habits and sound nutrition.
Children need people to respect, adults whose example and loving authority they follow. They need a range of experience ~ tenderness and kindness, boldness and courage, even mischief and misbehavior.
Children need a loving relationship with the earth~ with animals and with nature, with families and community.
Children need moments for devotion and space for curiosity, protective boundaries and freedom to create, and time to rest, to play, to work.
Children need to be introduced to a life of principles, and given the freedom to discover their own.
The spirit of childhood calls for protection and nurture. It is an essential part of every human being and needs to be kept alive."
Alliance for Childhood Partners working together for healthy childhood'
http://www.allianceforchildhood.net/index.htm
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"Truth is not found once and forever. Truth is eternal, and the quest for Truth must also be eternal."
Max Heindel (1865-1919)
'Max Heindel was born of the royal family of Von Grasshoffs, who were connected with the German Court during the lifetime of Prince Bismark. The father of Max Heindel, Francois L. von Grasshoff, migrated, when quite a young man, to Copenhagen, Denmark, where he married a Danish woman of noble birth. They had two sons and one daughter. The oldest of these sons was Carl Louis Von Grasshoff, who later adopted the pen name of Max Heindel. The father died when the eldest son was six years of age, leaving the mother with her three small children in very straitened circumstances. His infancy was lived in genteel poverty. His mother's self-denial was carried to an extreme in order that the small income would suffice that her sons and daughter could have private tutors so that they might take their place in society as members of nobility.
Rosicrucian Initiate:
In the fall of 1907, during a most successful period of lectures in Minnesota, he travelled to Berlin (Germany) with his friend Dr. Alma Von Brandis, who had been for months trying to persuade him, in order to hear a cycle of lectures by a teacher in the occult field called Rudolf Steiner. During his stay at Germany, he developed a sincere admiration by the personality of this knowledgeable lecturer, as latter shown in a dedication of his magnum opus, but at the same time he understood that this teacher had little to give to him. It was then, with his mind already made up to return, feeling that in vain he had given up a big work in America to take this trip, that Heindel reports to have been visited by a Spiritual being (clothed in his vital body).
This highly evolved entity later identified himself as an Elder Brother of the Rosicrucian Order, an Order in the inner worlds formed in the year 1313 and having no direct connection to physical organizations which call themselves by this name. As he afterwards mentions, the Elder Brother gave him information which was concise and logical and beyond anything he was capable of writing. Later, he found out that during a previous visit of the Elder Brother, he was put to a test to determine his worthiness to be messenger of the Western Wisdom Teachings. He recounts that only then he was given instruction how to reach the etheric Temple of the Rose Cross, near the German/Bohemian border, and how at this Temple he was in direct communication with and under the personal instructions of the Elder Brothers of the Rose Cross. The Rosicrucian Order is described as being composed of twelve Elder Brothers, gathered around a thirteenth who is the invisible Head. These great Adepts, belonging to human evolution but having already advanced far beyond the cycle of rebirth, are reported as being among those exalted Beings who guide mankind's evolution, the Compassionate Ones.
Heindel returned to America in the summer of 1908 where he at once started to formulate the Rosicrucian teachings, the Western Wisdom Teachings, which he had received from the Elder Brothers, published as a book entitled The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception in 1909. It is a reference work in the Christian mysticism practice and in the Occult study literature, containing the fundamentals of Esoteric Christianity from a Rosicrucian perspective. The Cosmo contains a comprehensive outline of the evolutionary processes of man and the universe, correlating science with religion.
From 1909 to 1919, suffering a severe heart condition and with an adverse financial situation, but with an indomitable will and great energy, Max Heindel was able to accomplish the great work for the Brothers of the Rose Cross. With the help, support and inspiration of his wife Augusta Foss, to whom in August 1910 he was joined in marriage, he gave successful teaching lectures; he sent correspondence lessons to the students, who formed groups in many of the larger cities; he wrote volumes which are translated into many languages all over the world; he founded The Rosicrucian Fellowship in 1909/11 at Mount Ecclesia, Oceanside (California); he published the Christian Esoteric magazine Rays from the Rose Cross in 1913 and, above all, he launched the Fellowship's Spiritual Healing service.
It is described that, at his death, his body dropped slowly as if loving hands were holding him and laying him down gently; as he looked up, smiling into Mrs. Heindel face, he spoke his last words: "I am all right dear".
Last, it is worthy of mention that the work prepared by Max Heindel, has been, since then, continued through students of the Western Wisdom Teachings who, as Invisible Helpers of mankind, assist the Elder Brothers of the Rose Cross to perform the Spiritual Healing around the world.'
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Rosicrucian Prayer Symbol
By Fr. FIRMUS IX°
Occult writings by Max Heindel:
The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, first edition in 1909 (ISBN 0-911274-34-0) www
The Rosicrucian Christianity Lectures (ISBN 0-911274-84-7) www
The Rosicrucian Philosophy in Questions and Answers - Volume I (ISBN 0-911274-89-8) www
The Rosicrucian Philosophy in Questions and Answers - Volume II (ISBN 0-911274-90-1) www
The Rosicrucian Mysteries (ISBN 0-911274-86-3) www a review
Letters to Students (ISBN 0-911274-09-X) www
Gleanings of a Mystic (ISBN 0-911274-87-1) www
Mysteries of the Great Operas (ISBN 0-911274-88-X) www
Teachings of an Initiate (ISBN 0-911274-19-7) www
Ancient and Modern Initiation (ISBN 0-911274-82-0) www
The Web of Destiny (ISBN 0-911274-17-0) www
Freemasonry and Catholicism (ISBN 0-911274-04-9) www
The Vital Body (ISBN 0-911274-16-2) www
The Desire Body (ISBN 0-911274-03-0) www
The Rosicrucian Principles of Child Training (ISBN 0-911274-62-6) www
How Shall We Know Christ at His Coming? (ISBN 0-911274-64-2) www
The Mystical Interpretation of Christmas (ISBN 0-911274-65-0) www
The Mystical Interpretation of Easter (ISBN 0-911274-69-3) www
Nature Spirits and Nature Forces (ISBN 0-911274-70-7) www
The Message of the Stars (ISBN 0-911274-18-9) www
Simplified Scientific Astrology (ISBN 0-911274-01-4) www
Astro-Diagnosis - A Guide to Healing (ISBN 0-911274-06-5) www
Occult Principles of Health and Healing (ISBN 0-911274-81-2) www
Blavatsky and The Secret Doctrine, from his 1905/6 lectures (edited 1933; Introduction by Manly Palmer Hall) www, an addendum
Invisible Helper
Painting by Mary Hanscom in 1937; symbolical representation of the Invisible Helper (this painting is in The Healing Department of The Rosicrucian Fellowship at Mt. Ecclesia, Oceanside, California, USA
Rudolf Steiner 1861 to 1925
Rudolf Steiner
"Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) was born in Austria. He found his life's work in the realms of consciousness and cognition. His techniques for the development of awareness to nature's cycles, daily meditation and concentration practices, and clear critical thinking can lead individuals to reach spiritual levels of consciousness safely. He believed working along with the spiritual worlds enriches the life of the individual and the world.
A university student of mathematics, science and philosophy in Vienna, he later earned a doctorate from the University of Rostock. He edited the scientific writings of Goethe, whose approach, based on intensified, selfless observation of nature, became a source of inspiration for his own work. Steiner's doctoral dissertation dealing with Fichte's theory of knowledge was later expanded and published as Truth and Science. In 1894, he published The Philosophy of Freedom, which he felt to be his most important philosophical work.
Steiner brought forth out of his spiritual experiences an abundance of scientific, medicinal, agricultural, social, educational, architectural, and artistic renewal. Steiner called this science of spirit, Anthroposophy, meaning "wisdom of the human being." Anthroposophy is non-religious, and enhances many Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, and other traditional practitioners endeavors.
Author of almost thirty books, Steiner also gave approximately 6,000 lectures on a wide range of subjects. He initiated Waldorf education, biodynamic farming and gardening, an approach to the care and education of the handicapped, anthroposophical medical work, and an art of movement called eurythmy"
Rudolf Steiner College, Fair Oaks, CA
"The light of the sun is flooding
the realms of space;
the song of birds resounds
through fields of air;
the tender plants spring forth
from Mother Earth,
and human souls rise up
with grateful hearts
to all the spirits of the world."
Rudolf Steiner from The Portal of Initiation
The following excerpt taken from:
BUDDHA AND CHRIST
Public lecture delivered by Dr. Rudolf Steiner, Berlin, December, 1909.
Authorized translation published by kind permission of Frau Marie Steiner
"Sorrow is everywhere, no matter whither we turn our gaze. And if Buddha's use of the word ‘sorrow’ has not quite the meaning that is imparted to it to-day, still it is intended to express that man is everywhere, and at all times, a prey to everything that comes against him, that assaults him from without, and that he is unable to unfold any active forces to meet it. ‘Life is sorrow,’ said Buddha, ‘therefore we must seek the causes of sorrow.’
There then arose before his soul the picture of what he called ‘the thirst for existence.’ Since we look out upon the world and see that sorrow is everywhere, we are compelled to say: Man is bound to have sorrow if he enters into this world of sorrow; but what is the cause of his suffering? The cause is this: that he desires, that he thirsts to be incarnated in this world. The passionate longing to forsake the Spiritual World and enter into a physical body, and in it to become aware of the outer material world — that is the cause of this sorrow-filled human existence. Hence there is only one way to escape from sorrow, and that is by conquering the thirst for life. And this thirst for existence can actually be overcome when, according to the teaching of Buddha, men can learn to unfold within themselves the so-called ‘Eight-fold Path,’ which, so it is generally said, consists of right judgment, right discrimination, right speech, right deed, right living, right aspiration, right thinking, right contemplation.
Thus through the right attitude towards life, according to the great Buddha, there arises by degrees within men's souls something which destroys the passionate longing for existence, something which brings them so far that at last they are no longer compelled to descend into physical incarnation, but are liberated from an existence which is overwhelmed by sorrow."
Steiner's writings
Books
Goethean Science
Truth and Knowledge (doctoral thesis)
Intuitive thinking as a spiritual path : philosophy of freedom (1894) E-version ISBN 088010385X
Theory of Knowledge Implicit in Goethe's World-Conception (1886)
Mysticism at the Dawn of Modern Age (1901/1925)
Christianity as Mystical Fact (1902)
Cosmic Memory: Prehistory of Earth and Man (1904)
Theosophy: An Introduction to the Spiritual Processes in Human Life and in the Cosmos (1904) ISBN 0-88010-373-6
Anthroposophy and the Inner Life (also published as Anthroposophy, an Introduction), Lectures from 1924 or 1925.
How to Know Higher Worlds: A Modern Path of Initiation (1904-5) ISBN 0-88010-508-9
The Education of the Child (1907)
An Outline of Esoteric Science (1910) ISBN 0-88010-409-0
Four Mystery Dramas - The Soul's Awakening (1913)
Toward Social Renewal (1919)
Fundamentals of Therapy: An Extension of the Art of Healing Through Spiritual Knowledge (1925)
An Autobiography (1924-5)
Articles about social renewal
Reordering of Society: Capital and Credit (1919)
Reordering of Society: Requirements of Spiritual, Social and Economic Life (1919)
Reordering of Society: The Fundamental Social Law (1919)
Steiner's lectures
The subjects of the over 6,000 published lectures by Steiner are classified by the publisher as follows :-
General anthroposoph
public lectures
lectures for workmen at the Goetheanum
lectures for members of the Anthroposophical Society
An Esoteric Cosmology (1906)
Occult Signs and Symbols (1907)
The East in the Light of the West (1909)
Man in the Light of Occultism, Theosophy and Philosophy (1912)
Balance in the World and Man, Lucifer and Ahriman (1914)
Preparing for the Sixth Epoch (1915)
Supersensible Knowledge (1916)
Cosmic and Human Metamorphoses (1917)
Evil and the Future of Man (1918)
On the life of the Soul (1923)
Man as Symphony of the Creative Word (1923)
Anthroposophy and the Inner Life (1924)
Knowledge of the State Between Death and a New Birth (1926?)
lectures for members of the School of Spiritual Science
lectures about karma and reincarnation
Manifestations of Karma (1910)
Reincarnation and Karma: How Karma Works (1922)
Buermann, Uwe, Die Anschauung des Karma bei Rudolf Steiner. Verlag Freies Geistesleben, 2006. ISBN 3-7725-1912-1
Education and science
education
Study of Man (1918)
Practical Advice To Teachers (1919)
Medicine
Medicine: An Introductory Reader (ed. Andrew Maendl, M.D.) ISBN 1-85584-133-9.
Spiritual Science and Medicine (1920)
Physiology and Therapeutics (1920)
Fundamentals of Anthroposophical Medicine (1922)
The Human Heart (1922)
Science
First Scientific Lecture: The Light Course (1919-20)
The Origins of Natural Science (1923). ISBN 0-88010-140-7
Agriculture
Agriculture Course, ISBN 1-85584-148-7
Sociology
Social Understanding Through Spiritual Scientific Knowledge (1919)
Social and Anti-Social Forces in the Human Being (1918)
Religion
Christianity
Collected Christmas lectures (various dates)
Collected Easter lectures (various dates)
Collected Ascension and Pentecostal lectures (various dates)
Collected Michaelmas lectures (various dates)
The Deed of Christ and the Opposing Spiritual Powers: Lucifer, Ahriman, Asuras. Mephistopheles and Earthquakes. (1909)
The Bhagavad Gita and the Epistles of St. Paul (1912-13)
Anthroposophy and Christianity (1914)
Fifth Gospel, ISBN 1-85584-039-1
Pre-Earthly Deeds of Christ (1914)
Self Knowledge and the Christ Experience (1923)
lectures for The Christian Community
"Spiritual science may pass through many destinies; its influence may even be crippled, remaining within narrow and restricted circles. Nevertheless it will make its way through mankind, will be integrated into the karma of humanity, and then the possibility will be created for individuals themselves to have an effect upon the karma of humanity as a whole"
"May my soul bloom in love for all existence".
R. Steiner
Waldorf Education...An Introduction
By Henry Barnes
"When children relate what they learn to their own experience, they are interested and alive, and what they learn becomes their own. Waldorf schools are designed to foster this kind of learning.
Waldorf Education has its roots in the spiritual-scientific research of the Austrian scientist and thinker Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925). According to Steiner's philosophy, man is a threefold being of spirit, soul, and body whose capacities unfold in three developmental stages on the path to adulthood: early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence.
In April of 1919, Rudolf Steiner visited the Waldorf Astoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart, Germany. The German nation, defeated in war, was teetering on the brink of economic, social, and political chaos. Steiner spoke to the workers about the need for social renewal, for a new way of organizing society and its political and cultural life.
Emil Molt, the owner of the factory, asked Steiner if he would undertake to establish and lead a school for the children of the employees of the company. Steiner agreed but set four conditions, each of which went against common practice of the day: 1) that the school be open to all children; 2) that it be coeducational; 3) that it be a unified twelve-year school; 4) that the teachers, those individuals actually in contact with the children, have primary control of the school, with a minimum interference from the state or from economic sources. Steiner's conditions were radical for the day, but Molt gladly agreed to them. On September 7,1919, the independent Waldorf School (Die Freie Waldorfschule) opened its doors.
Today there are more than 800 Waldorf schools in over 40 countries. In North America there are over 150 schools affiliated with the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America, and several public schools using Waldorf methods to enrich their teaching. There are also over 50 full-time Waldorf teacher-training institutes around the world; of these eight are in the United States and one in Canada. No two schools are identical; each is administratively independent. Nevertheless, a visitor would recognize many characteristics common to them all."
..
I gaze into the world
In which the sun is shining,
In which the stars are sparkling,
In which the stones repose,
Where living plants are growing,
Where sentient beasts are living,
Where Man, soul-gifted,
Gives the Spirit a dwelling place.
I gaze into the soul
That lives within my being.
The World Creator weaves
In sun light and in soul light,
In world space there without,
In soul depths here within.
To thee, Creator Spirit,
I will now turn my heart
To ask that the strength and the blessing
To learn and to work
May grow within my inmost being.
Rudolf Steiner
Recommended Reading
Waldorf Education - C. Clouder & M. Rawson (Floris)
Natural Childhood - John Thomson (Gaia)
School as a Journey - Torin M Finser (Anthroposophic Press USA)
Free to Learn - Lynne Oldfield (Hawthorn Press)
Genius of Play - Sally Jenkinson (Hawthorn Press)
Waldorf Education: Full-colour catalogue to the UNESCO exhibition
Education Towards Freedom - F. Carlgren (Lanthorn Press)
Rudolf Steiner Education - L.F. Edmunds
Teaching as a Lively Art - M. Spock
Waldorf Education in Theory and Practice - Richard Blunt
Krishnamurti 1895-1986
"Jiddu Krishnamurti or J. Krishnamurti or JK (Krishnaji to his friends), May 11, 1895–February 17, 1986 is regarded the world over as one of the greatest religious teachers of all time. For nearly sixty years he travelled all over the world, pointing out to people the need to transform themselves through self knowledge, by being aware of their thoughts and feelings in daily life. And he held that this can be done only in the mirror of relationship. He maintained that a new society can emerge only through a radical change in the individual. Though he was very alive to contemporary issues through the decades, his answers were rooted in his timeless vision of life and truth. As such, his teachings transcend all man-made boundaries of religion, nationality, ideology, and sectarian thinking. Refusing to play the role of a guru himself, he urged his listeners to inquire on their own and be a light unto themselves."
Wikipedia Encyclopedia
"There is the ending of sorrow in aloneness."
From Krishnamurti's Notebook (written 1961/62)
The following statement was written by
Krishnamurti on October 21, 1980.
"Truth is a pathless land’. Man cannot come to it through any organization, through any creed, through any dogma, priest or ritual, not through any philosophic knowledge or psychological technique. He has to find it through the mirror of relationship, through the understanding of the contents of his own mind, through observation and not through intellectual analysis or introspective dissection. Man has built in himself images as a fence of security – religious, political, personal. These manifest as symbols, ideas, beliefs. The burden of these images dominates man’s thinking, his relationships, and his daily life. These images are the causes of our problems for they divide man from man. His perception of life is shaped by the concepts already established in his mind. The content of his consciousness is his entire existence. This content is common to all humanity. The individuality is the name, the form and superficial culture he acquires from tradition and environment. The uniqueness of man does not lie in the superficial but in complete freedom from the content of his consciousness, which is common to all mankind. So he is not an individual.
“Freedom is not a reaction; freedom is not a choice. It is man’s pretense that because he has choice he is free. Freedom is pure observation without direction, without fear of punishment and reward. Freedom is without motive; freedom is not at the end of the evolution of man but lies in the first step of his existence. In observation one begins to discover the lack of freedom. Freedom is found in the choiceless awareness of our daily existence and activity.
“Thought is time. Thought is born of experience and knowledge, which are inseparable from time and the past. Time is the psychological enemy of man. Our action is based on knowledge and therefore time, so man is always a slave to the past. Thought is ever-limited and so we live in constant conflict and struggle. There is no psychological evolution.
“When man becomes aware of the movement of his own thoughts, he will see the division between the thinker and thought, the observer and the observed, the experiencer and the experience. He will discover that this division is an illusion. Then only is there pure observation which is insight without any shadow of the past or of time. This timeless insight brings about a deep, radical mutation in the mind."
“Total negation is the essence of the positive. When there is negation of all those things that thought has brought about psychologically, only then is there love, which is compassion and intelligence."
Try to find the beauty and the gentleness in love which remains about and around you, and let this help you through your sorrows. And ever has it been that love knows not it's own depth until the hour of separation.
Kahlil Gibran, from The Prophet
"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain."
John Adams