 In earlier journals I looked at each realm separately. That is a logical approach but I believe that it is a flawed because it plays into a delusion that the realms are separate. |
In earlier journals I looked at each realm separately. That is a logical approach but I believe that it is a flawed because it plays into a delusion that the realms are separate.
A doctor works in the cultural realm, a manufacturer of bricks works in the economic realm and a lawyer works in the rights realm. That’s all you really need to know. But this is a dead categorisation. It is stagnant as you realise if you try to manage your life according to it.
The doctor has to organise facilities – a waiting room, filing records, antenatal classes need to be organised. He needs transport to visit patients at home. He has a tremendous burden of form filling in order to meet his obligations to the local health authority. He has to meet the needs of his patients in a way that satisfies them. Rights-wise, everything he does is held within a legal / bureaucratic framework.
The manufacturer of bricks has to organise labour. He needs to develop a good team atmosphere. He needs to innovate new technologies to remain competitive in the market. His new products must meet stringent thermal and engineering standards. Not only that, but Rights-wise Health and Safety is a huge issue for him because bricks are hard and heavy and they only get hard by being made very hot. Hard, hot and heavy are all dangerous.
The lawyer’s weaves the basket of the rights realm but he works out of an office that needs organising. His firm produces a client newsletter so the client doesn’t forget about them, and he has tough cases sometimes which require serious thought.
After some time of living the all I do for you / for me / how we agree 3-fold I have become aware that every moment has a component from all three. Usually one or the other is uppermost, but every moment contains an element that is for me, an element that is for you and it exists in a moment that is supported by the agreements I have explicitly and implicitly made (ie in a house that I bought with a contract, at work where my employment is in accordance with a contract, driving along in accordance with the laws of the land, etc.).
Just think for a moment of our endeavour on this website. When I write I have to think. This is spiritual activity in the cultural realm and I do it for myself. But then others read it and perhaps get something from it – there is an element of the economic about that. Finally, I am writing in a community which has implicit and explicit rules.
So what is the experience when I read? Then I am active in the cultural realm again, trying to grasp the meaning behind the words, trying to bring these new words together with what I already know, to test, to weigh, to incorporate, to reject. But in reading I have clicked the number of reads up by one which has an impact on everyone else, particularly the author of the journal (to a lesser or greater extent). More importantly, suppose I get hold of a idea that is new to me, or deepen my understanding of an idea I already have, then through this process I add to the world because the number of people carrying that idea has gone up by one. From the Rights perspective, the fact that I can read the web site is the consequence of the agreement Tom made with an ISP to supply the philosophyoffreedom.com website name. Once again we find our endeavour carried in the basket of the rights realm.
There will be one realm that is uppermost in any activity, but every activity contains elements of all three realms. Now it seems to me that when the flow is spiritual then the cultural realm will be found to be working in to the economic. However, when the flow is physical then the economic realm will be found to be working in to the cultural. Take the Dr.Hauschka skin care products. There is a world wide economic fraternal activity making these physical products available for people to use. When these people use the products their experience is in the cultural realm. I am directed to supply the product by the customers needs. However when the product is purchased it is (more or less) a free action – I can’t make the customer buy it. Moreover when the customer uses the product it is an action that they do on their own and it is for the good care of their skin and their health and well being.
When someone looks after themselves then it is a deed in the cultural realm, something they do for themselves. Of course there will be others who benefit too – a husband who is pleased his wife cares for her skin, etc. A family and co-workers that enjoy the company of someone with their self-esteem strong. (NB Most of my customers are women, but not all. Men prefer to have skin they feel comfortable with too but they don’t usually destroy their skin’s healthy balance trying out potions during adolescence. Men also generally have different social pressures putting their self-esteem under threat).
You could say that in a very broad and general way the economic would be nothing without the inspiration provided by the cultural, and the cultural would find it difficult to manifest in the world without the structures that the economic provides. Finally, all our social activity occurs within a more or less agreed framework of rules of engagements.
What does my action do for me? What does it do for you? What agreements does my action depend on? Answering these questions as deeply as possible can bring a great deal of clarity.
For Me, For You. For You, For Me
Hi Sebastian,
Thanks muchly for this, very clear. For me, Kristina's comments on agape love here: http://www.philosophyoffreedom.com/node/2303 shine light on the close connection you are highlighting here between the physical and the spiritual - I guess that it is only through that kind of love that the spheres of "what I do for me" and "what I do for you" begin to really work together more consciously and humanly - "what I do for me, I do for you" and "what I do for you, I do for me"?
Absolutely Tim, thanks for
Absolutely Tim, thanks for making the link :-)
S.
The higher good
Sebastian, this is an excellent article. It is good to see the sphere of real life connecting everything.
It seems to me that you touch on the ideas of sacrifice and duty which is what many people equate to 'doing good'. Both are egotistical and form a duality. It isn't about that as you clearly show.
The real question is: How does our activity affect all of us? That higher love, agape, embraces everyone in the transaction. Each step is made in gratitude. Thanking the farmer, the manufacturer, the retailer - and the garbage man for taking away our rubbish!
K.
I love agape, don't
I love agape, don't you?
Good advertising slogan, don't you think?!?
S-)
Why do we need the 3-fold?
Why do we need the 3-fold? Why did Steiner deem it worthy of drawing to our attention?
POF p200 MW
"It cannot be denied that the views here outlined may easily be misunderstood. Immature people without moral imagination like to look upon the instincts of their half-developed natures as the fullest expression of the human race, and reject all moral ideas which they have not themselves produced, in order that they may 'live themselves out' undisturbed. But it goes without saying that what is right for a fully developed human being does not hold good for half-developed human natures. Anyone who still needs to be educated to teh point where his moral nature breaks through the husk of his lower passions, will not have the same things expected of him as of a mature person. However, it was not my intention to show what needs to be impressed up an undeveloped person, but what lies within the essential nature of a mature human being. My intention was to demonstrate the possibility of freedom, and freedom is manifested not in actions perforemd under constraints of sense or soul but in actions susteained by spiritual intuitions."
Reading that is like being beaten up. It feels a lot like reading a post from Carl actually.
I would not like to think of myself as immature. No, I would not.
Yet I can not claim to have achieved the maturity refered to here.
Luckily I have the 3-fold to support me in my quest for freedom.
If we were all Ethical Individuals then the 3-fold would simply not exist because it would not be needed.
When shared purpose does not direct our power, and there are no rules to direct it either, then conflagration results. In no time at all individuals are exerciesing their will against each other. Anarchy.
The 3-fold is the way the world handles different degrees of individual freedom..
Spirits In The Presence of Spirits
Sebastian,
Dennis had his students, all dressed in white to represent the Guardian Angels, each make contact with an audience member and, starting from the Devachan, to enter the cosmic spheres and the Earth realm, at which point the Angel let go of the soul into its freedom. The soul was free to hang out there until it was time to put a husk of something that had lived on the earth, a leaf or a shell or an acorn cap, onto the altar to symbolize Death. From there, the Angel stretched out his (her) hand and led the soul back up through the cosmic spheres and into Devachan, where the soul then placed a token from a departed loved one. This part of the ritual had the effect of calling down the dead into the space where the ritual was performed.
At some point during the ritual, which lasted about an hour, people started to notice that as they were moving around the room, they were taking on the qualities of actual spirits. We could feel and sense supersensible qualities in other figures as they passed by, or remained in our personal sphere in order to take in deeper impressions of the Being who was there before them. This all happened spontaneously and as a direct result of the social form.
I think this sort of thing, which was done in silence and with varying degrees of competence, can be extended into the conscious use of language and the Threefold Society that Steiner suggested was the actual, cosmic archetype for human life on earth. What's important here is formality. Formality is the antidote to anarchy. Rituals are formal; so are Goethean conversations. These need to be tried, however well or however poorly we do them, in ways that are cosmically correct and with wills that are fundamentally pure. All the rest can be forgiven.
Thank You Carl More Please
Carl,
For me this is the most beautiful and inspiring posting I ever recall reading from you on this website - could we have more of this real stuff and less (P) stuff? Maybe with a photo of the ritual included? I can't begin to explain to you how much more fully I believe your postings would be received by the website community if they were all done out of this spirit!
Thanks Tim, I'll See What I Can Do
Thanks Tim, I'll see what I can do.
Rituals in Space and Time
Hey Tim,
Check out this illustration in the post above. Tom just inserted it for everyone to see. This is a depiction of what Dennis did the other day at the Steiner College.
Caryn will appreciate this. John will. It was a eurythmical-Hellinger style ritual in space and time. It was the basic form of what we'll be doing in Goethean conversation, once we get the hang of it.
I really think we should be connecting with the anthroposophical Center. They've got the real knowledge.
On the other hand, the people on the Periphery are very important. This is something I'm learning about at Mount Shasta, where I'm working with heat and cold. Once the periphery adapts to the cold water, the center can immerse with impunity. The periphery that is most delicate to adapt is the head. That comes last, and takes patient work. The head is on the periphery.
The thing about the Mount Shasta retreats is that they work with the elements. The place is rustic. There is a mountain creek outside, and it's cold at this time of the year. Inside is a Finnish sauna, wood-fired. The mountain air sparkles. The mountains are wonderful. All the elements. I work there for hours at a time, then put calendula and comfrey on my skin to soothe the mineral salts and work on philosophy.
All of this is in California, within driving distance of the Steiner College. A long drive, much of it beautiful.
I hope the anthroposophical Center starts to participate in our posts here, especially as we start to realize together what PoF is really about.
Up close
Hi Carl - Tim has a point here. When you get personal and share your experiences, the central Carl shines through. While I do not see your philosophising as being peripheral, you take a side step when you bring the ideas centre stage. Perhaps Sebastian has managed to bring out the best in you with this journal that synthesises the 3 spheres! Well done Sebastian.
My question to you Carl may better belong elsewhere, so feel free to respond in another thread or journal. Carl, would you define your term anthroposophical Centre for me please? Somewhere I had a try at what it was for me - lost in the haystack of old threads - and I prefer not to guess. Maybe you have defined it earlier, and I only need the link.