Feelings Under Control
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned.” John 15:1-6
Last time we identified our thoughts as the branches and fruit of the vine, now let’s have a look at feelings or emotions in the same way. Feelings arise in the astral levels of our being. These feelings which we can experience as very strong forces, are mostly only semi-conscious. This is why they can rise up and overwhelm us at times when we are less vigilant. At the core of our feeling levels we find our likes and dislikes; they are powerful forces which must increasingly come under the control of our I AM. If the feeling levels are to be useful for our development they must abide in the I AM and the I AM in them.
One important function of our feelings is when they enliven our hard, cold thoughts. Thinking that is not infused with feeling is abstract and irrelevant in the spiritual scheme of things and will be thrown into the fire.
Of the three soul functions we have the closest affinity to feelings; we are far more comfortable with feelings than we are with thinking and willing. Feeling something requires much less effort than thinking about something or acting out of our own will. Yet we can get into the most trouble with our feelings if they are left to their own devices.
The instinctive level of feelings is to put self first. How will it affect me? How do I feel about that? It is only afterwards that we consider the other person’s position. “I am hot, let’s open the windows.” “I am hungry let’s eat.” Mothers and lovers would be the only ones who automatically think of the other person first. If our feelings can become more conscious we will be thoughtful of others. When feelings are dominated by our astral rather than our I AM we will always put ourselves first.
Notice how conversations can be so self-centred. If we mention something we are working on, say writing a book, one response might be, “I’m not reading much at the moment.” It is our feelings which prevent us from staying with the other person and sharing their experience as fully as possible. We retreat too soon into ourselves and express our position, we use the barometer of our own semi-conscious feelings. But Christ says “He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit,”
There are a few easy ways to ennoble our feeling levels. One is appreciation of the arts and the other one is to experience religion – not necessarily in a modern church, but to have a genuine experience of the living Christ. The word religion means “to bind” and feelings are like the icing in the biscuit of thinking and willing.
Our etheric body, which has retracted into our physical body, is re-emerging out of the body at this point in evolution. For the etheric to emerge in the right way our thinking must be softened by feeling. Those who look to science rather than Christ as the foundation of the world will experience great anxiety, great nervous agitation.
Religious impulses filled with the etheric presence of Christ work on our etheric body so that part of it is raised out of our body and transformed, spiritualised into Buddhi, Life Spirit or Logos. “You are already made clean by the word (logos) which I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you.” Vs 3&4
The importance of abiding in the other is stressed over and over. Abide in the I AM instead of in our lower self-centred levels. Abide in the other person; experience their situation as if it were our own. If we can discipline feelings we will transform our astral into Spirit Self. The catch-cry today to ‘express yourself’ is a ploy by the anti-forces to stop us from spiritualising ourselves. We mustn’t express our feelings indiscriminately, we must discipline them. When we do this we strengthen ourselves. Expressed emotions often deplete us of our energy. When we become more conscious of our feeling levels the more we will be aware of the etheric Christ as he stands in our midst.
Michaelic Thinking and PoF
Hi Kristina,
In Spiritual Science this would allude to “Thinking with the Heart,” also know as “Michaelic Thinking.” In Rudolf Steiner’s “Macrocosm and Mircrocosm” you will find the following quote in lecture nine.
“To develop the thinking of the heart we must have the power to go out of ourselves and look back upon ourselves from outside. In normal circumstances a person stands at a certain place and knows that in saying, “That am I”, he means the sum-total of what he believes and stands for. One who rises into a higher world, however, must be able to leave his ordinary personality behind, to go out of himself and say with the same feeling: “That is you.” The former “I” must be able in the true sense to become a “you”, just as we say “you” to another person. This must become an actual experience; it is attainable in the physical world through training. We must first do relatively simple things in this way, and then we earn the right to think with the heart. All true presentations of the higher worlds proceed from the thinking of the heart.”
The above quote relates also to PoF when Steiner describes the ability to see oneself as a “you” is attainable through training, as PoF is a way to train our thinking with the possibility of achieving such an experience.
Cheers and best regards,
Patri
Thank you for that quote
Hi Patri,
That is such a clear description of what we strive for. The world would be an entirely different place if we could all achieve it.
Warm regards,
Kristina