On the Essence of Practice

Transcript for Prof. Dr. Hans Wohlbold, Munich, May 1917

The essence of practice lies in acquiring the power of imagination that can elevate mental reality to knowledge. The essential thing is that this mental activity is experienced independently of the physical organization. It is a matter of experience to know: now I notice how I am able to think, etc., without the usual conditions of physical imagination having a say. This point is reached in the course of practice. In particular, I recommend:

1.) In the evening, review the day's experiences in reverse. This is the first step toward imagination that is not bound to the usual course of imagination. Imagination becomes freer. 2.) Concentrate in complete calm on a brief thought. This should be completely manageable so that you do not mix in unconscious or subconscious reminiscences of imagination, etc., but remain completely conscious in a mental activity. Then let the thought content fall away from your consciousness and try to retain your energy, remaining conscious for a short time without any thought content. This brings the faculty of cognition to that calm energy which is necessary to grasp the spiritual, which otherwise falls through the meshes of ordinary thinking, so to speak, and thus does not come to consciousness. I recommend exercises 1 and 2 for the evening.

In the morning, it is good to do a concentration exercise similar to the second one. The use of mental images can play an important role here, as I have explained in principle in the Rosicrucian exercise in the second part of The Secret Science.

In order to achieve the necessary calmness for concentration of thought, it is good to do the six exercises (as auxiliary exercises) described in the second part of my “Secret Science.”

The purpose of the exercises lies partly in bringing about a stronger soul activity than usual. Just as in physical phenomena, where at critical points the quantitative naturally changes into the qualitative, so the increase in ordinary cognitive ability becomes that which can have the spiritual world as its object.