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Study of the Thought-Organism of
The Philosophy of Freedom as Contemplative Work
From George O'Neil work book [1]:
Right Reading
As late as February 6, 1923 in Stuttgart he (Steiner) said in effect: With all possible sharpness, stress must be laid on the fact that people have not read the "Philosophy of Spiritual Activity" in the right way. And until they do, Anthroposophy through the channel of the Society will be completely misunderstood by the world. And then, out of this can come only conflict upon conflict. (Neues Denken & neues Wollen.)
Master of Content
To achieve this living in thought, as distinct from building in logical thought-units and letting the personal feelings determine the pattern of words, we first must become master in the highest degree of content, utterly eliminating the arbitrariness of personal preference and emphasis. Says Goethe: To have the whole in your heart, you must have conned its every part. To which Rudolf Steiner has added: First read for substance, then read again for form.
Contemplative Comparison
In contemplating the totality of a living thought-organism, correspondences and symmetries, previously unseen, begin to emerge, each illuminating the other. Meanings come forth, never before expected, revealing interdependence and mutual support. The whole is experienced as weaving interplay of single thoughts, each reflecting the whole as experiencable from its single aspects.
Thought Organization
 For in the case of a book like this, the important thing is so to organize the thoughts it contains that they take effect. With many other books it doesn’t make a great deal of difference if one shifts the sequence, putting this thing first and that later. But in the case of POF that is impossible. It would be just as unthinkable to put page 150 fifty pages earlier as it would be to put a dog’s hind legs where the front ones belong.
Rudolf Steiner on his book the Philosophy of Freedom P83
Cosmic mysteries
“Within this book thinking is experienced in a way that makes it impossible for a person involved in it to have any other impression, when he is living in thought, he is living in the cosmos. This relatedness to cosmic mysteries is the red thread running through the book.”
Rudolf Steiner on his book the Philosophy of Freedom P23 |
