{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 65/1915-12-10/p005","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"And yet, the starting points are by no means a secret. The lecture eight days ago was already able to show this, and today I would like to return to the fundamentals with a few words. Every human being thinks in life, develops his thinking further, when he dedicates it to scientific use. Thinking and imagining is an everyday inner activity of the soul. The only thing that matters now is to face this thinking in such a way as one does not face it in ordinary life and in ordinary science, in order to explore the ways of the spiritual. In ordinary life and in ordinary science, people form images, concepts and ideas in order to use them to depict something external. And he is satisfied when he forms something external in his ideas. He rightly calls this the truth for ordinary life and for ordinary science, that he can form ideas that depict an external reality for him, visualize it inwardly, and allow him to relive it inwardly. Now it has been pointed out that where this ordinary thinking of everyday life and also the thinking of ordinary science ends, only that which is necessary for the exploration of the spiritual life of man begins. That is to say, the thinking, the same thinking that is used in everyday life, has to be experienced inwardly and strengthened inwardly in a different way than it is experienced and strengthened in ordinary life and within ordinary science. As I have indicated, it is strengthened by that inner process which, so to speak – the word should not be misunderstood – represents the inner, intimate, purely mental experiment, which at least initiates it through the process that one calls real meditation – if it did not sound pedantic, one could say 'in the technical sense of the word'. In this case, thinking is done in order to strengthen thinking inwardly, to experience the process of thinking. We do not usually experience it. We believe we experience it in ordinary life or in ordinary science. We do not experience it there. We have it, we handle it, we apply this thinking; but the soul is directed towards the outside world, towards something real besides thinking. The point is to be able to pay attention to thinking itself. But to do that, it must be intensified. That is to say, it must be driven in the way it is driven in the sense of meditation, in that one sets thinking in motion, not in order to visualize something external, not to revive something external inwardly, to depict it, but to experience inwardly only this process, this process of thinking, and to look at it in the experience. That is what matters. And for this it is necessary not to abandon oneself to the soul processes of ordinary life, but through inner arbitrariness, out of complete free will (I am here giving the fundamental principles; the details can be found in my book, How to Know Higher Worlds) — easily comprehensible images are introduced into the thinking, images that can be relied upon not to conjure up all manner of inner reminiscences and obscure the clear experience of the process; ideally symbolic images that are not intended to represent anything external, that are not meant to serve to visualize something external but only to set thinking in motion and in motion and thereby to strengthen inwardly, so that one does not merely practice this thinking but experiences it inwardly, that one now really experiences oneself as an inward thinker, just as one otherwise experiences oneself inwardly in one's muscle feeling.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"4. The Human Soul and the Human Spirit","site_heading":null,"date":"1915-12-10","location":null,"word_count":606,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/65/1915-12-10/p005","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:identity","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"From Central European Intellectual Life","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA065/English/SOL2024/19151210p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"edition_coverage":{"de":["original"],"en":["English"]},"available_versions":[{"lang":"de","edition":"original","edition_basis":null,"is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/65/1915-12-10/p005"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/65/1915-12-10/p005","paragraph_aligned":true}],"record":{"record_type":"unknown","scope":"volume","note":"How this text was taken down (shorthand transcript, listeners' notes or manuscript) is not on record here. Unknown is not an assurance of a stenogram: check the edition's own notes before resting an argument on one word.","evidence":null,"evidence_translation":null,"evidence_source":null},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 65/1915-12-10/p005","passage_number":5,"text":"Und trotzdem: Dasjenige, was Ausgangspunkte sind, das ist durchaus kein Geheimnis. Schon der Vortrag vor acht Tagen hat das zeigen können, und ich will mit ein paar Worten heute noch einmal auf das Prinzipielle wenigstens zurückkommen. Jeder Mensch denkt im Leben, bildet sein Denken weiter aus, wenn er es dem wissenschaftlichen Gebrauche weiht. Das Denken, das Vorstellen ist eine alltägliche innere Seelenbetätigung. Auf nichts anderes kommt es nun an, als diesem Denken gegenüber sich in einer solchen Weise zu stellen, wie man sich eben im gewöhnlichen Leben und in der gewöhnlichen Wissenschaft nicht stellt, um die Wege des Geistigen zu erforschen. Im gewöhnlichen Leben und in der gewöhnlichen Wissenschaft bildet sich der Mensch Vorstellungen, Begriffe und Ideen, um durch diese etwas ÄAußerliches abzubilden. Und er ist dann befriedigt, wenn er in seinen Vorstellungen sich etwas Äußerliches abbildet. Er nennt mit Recht für das gewöhnliche Leben und für die gewöhnliche Wissenschaft dies die Wahrheit, daß er sich Vorstellungen machen kann, die ihm eine äußerliche Wirklichkeit abbilden, innerlich vergegenwärtigen, sie ihn innerlich nacherleben lassen. Nun ist darauf aufmerksam gemacht worden, daß da, wo dieses gewöhnliche Vorstellen des alltäglichen Lebens und auch das Denken der gewöhnlichen Wissenschaft endet, erst dasjenige anfängt, was notwendig ist für die Erforschung des geistigen Lebens des Menschen. Das heißt: das Denken, dasselbe Denken, das man im alltäglichen Leben handhabt, hat man nur in einer anderen Weise innerlich zu erleben, in einer anderen Weise innerlich zu erkraften, als es im gewöhnlichen Leben und innerhalb der gewöhnlichen Wissenschaft erlebt und erkraftet wird. Es wird erkraftet, wie ich angedeutet habe, durch jenen inneren Vorgang, der gewissermaßen — das Wort soll nicht mißverstanden werden — das innerliche, intime, rein seelische Experiment darstellt, der es wenigstens einleitet durch den Vorgang, den man wirkliches Meditieren - wenn es nicht pedantisch klingen würde, könnte man sagen «im technischen Sinne des Wortes» — nennt. Da wird gedacht, um das Denken innerlich zu erkraften, um den Vorgang des Denkens zu erleben. Den erlebt man ja gewöhnlich nicht. Man glaubt ihn im gewöhnlichen Leben oder in der gewöhnlichen Wissenschaft zu erleben. Man erlebt ihn da nicht. Man hat ihn, man handhabt ihn, man wendet dieses Denken an; aber die Seele ist dabei auf die Außenwelt gerichtet, auf etwas Wirkliches außer dem Denken. Daß man auf das Denken selber hin achten kann, darauf kommt es an. Dazu muß es aber verstärkt werden. Das heißt: es muß so getrieben werden, wie es eben im Sinne der Meditation getrieben wird, daß man das Denken in Bewegung bringt, nun nicht um sich etwas Äußerliches zu vergegenwärtigen, nicht um etwas Äußerliches innerlich aufleben zu lassen, abzubilden, sondern um innerlich nur diesen Vorgang, diesen Prozeß des Denkens zu erleben und im Erleben anzuschauen. Darauf kommt es an. Und dazu ist es eben notwendig, daß man nun nicht sich den Seelenvorgängen des gewöhnlichen Lebens überläßt, sondern durch innere Willkür, aus völlig freiem Willen heraus ich gebe hier das Prinzipielle, das Genauere finden Sie in meinem Buche: «Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten?» — leicht überschaubare Vorstellungen, in das Denken hinein versetzt, solche Vorstellungen, bei denen man sicher sein kann, daß nicht allerlei innere Reminiszenzen auftauchen und einem das klare Erleben des Vorganges verdunkeln; am besten sinnbildliche Vorstellungen, die gar nichts Äußeres abbilden sollen, die gar nicht dazu dienen sollen, ein Äußerliches wirklich zu vergegenwärtigen, sondern die nur dazu dienen sollen, das Denken in Fluß, in Bewegung zu bringen und dadurch innerlich zu erkraften, so daß man dieses Denken nicht bloß übt, sondern innerlich erlebt, daß man sich nun wirklich als innerlicher Denkmensch erlebt, so wie man sich sonst innerlich in seinem Muskelgefühl erlebt.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":599,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/65/1915-12-10/p005"}],"english":["GA 65/1915-12-10/p005"],"method":"identity","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":599,"en_words":606,"ratio":1.01,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["length","reader"],"reader_german":["GA 65/1915-12-10/p005"]},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.04,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":11977,"original_word_count":11532,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"From Central European Intellectual Life","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA065/English/SOL2024/19151210p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 65/1915-12-10/p005"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"high","note":"Every load-bearing name in the German counterpart appears in this English passage. That is a check on NAMES only: a translation can keep every name and still reverse who acts on whom, change a number, or soften a claim. Read the German for anything you intend to rest an argument on."},"note":"quote_safe certifies the bytes of this text. This block is about the translation as a WITNESS: who made it, and whether it carries the same names as the original. 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