{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 69d/1914-05-08/p018","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"The activity of attention must increase in an unlimited way for spiritual researchers, or rather for those who want to become spiritual researchers. While we otherwise come to develop our interest in this or that through external circumstances, the spiritual researcher must develop concentration in an inner, skillful way. Arbitrarily, through strong inner exertion of the soul's power, the spiritual researcher must draw together everything that is present in his soul and, as far as possible, direct it toward something that is not prompted by external influences, whether it be ideas formed in the soul itself or those suggested by knowledgeable spiritual researchers. One allows these ideas to arise arbitrarily in one's soul at certain moments; otherwise, one tries to put oneself in a state where the outer senses perceive nothing, as in sleep, where ordinary thinking comes to a standstill, as in sleep, except that the whole soul is directed with all its powers toward the single idea that one holds on to for as long as one can. This is called concentration. You can read more about this in the aforementioned books. The more one uses such ideas, which in a sense have no model in the external world, the better; the more one places symbolic ideas at the center of consciousness, the better. And now it is a matter of the spiritual researcher doing this exercise over and over again; depending on their abilities, some will achieve something in a short time, others only after years, but as it is presented to us, we achieve, so to speak — the present development of humanity makes this possible — the ability to increase something in the soul by behaving in this way. Powers that otherwise lie dormant in the soul, as if in its depths, are brought to the surface when we repeatedly and patiently, with perseverance, perform such exercises of concentration. One does not become a spiritual researcher in an external, tumultuous way, but through such processes in the soul as [they] are described in the increase of attention to the infinite.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"20. How Does the Soul Find Its True Essence?","site_heading":null,"date":"1914-05-08","location":null,"word_count":345,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/69d/1914-05-08/p018","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":"Death and Immortality in the Light of Spiritual Science","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA069d/English/SOL2024/19140508p01.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/69d/1914-05-08/p018"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/69d/1914-05-08/p018","paragraph_aligned":true}],"record":{"record_type":"mixed_sources","scope":"volume","note":"This volume draws on more than one kind of record (transcripts, notes, documents). Check the volume's own front matter before weighing a single passage.","evidence":"Im Anhang Notizen und Berichte von weiteren Vorträgen","evidence_translation":"In the appendix, notes and reports of further lectures","evidence_source":"Rudolf Steiner Verlag Gesamtverzeichnis 2022, volume subtitle. The translation is the maintainer's, not a published one."},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 69d/1914-05-08/p018","passage_number":18,"text":"In unbegrenzter Art muss die Tätigkeit der Aufmerksamkeit der Geistesforscher steigern, beziehungsweise derjenige, der ein Geistesforscher werden will. Während wir sonst doch durch äußere Veranlassung dazu kommen, unser Interesse für dieses oder jenes zu entwickeln, muss der Geistesforscher in innerlicher, kunstgerechter Weise Konzentration entwickeln. Willkürlich, durch starkes inneres Betätigen der Seelenkraft, muss der Geistesforscher alles, was in seiner Seele vorhanden ist, zusammenziehen und es möglichst auf etwas wenden, wozu er nicht von außen veranlasst ist, sei es auf Vorstellungen, die man in der Seele selbst bildet, sei es auf solche, die man sich von kundigen Geistesforschern raten lässt. Man lässt diese Vorstellungen willkürlich in bestimmten Momenten in seiner Seele aufsteigen; im Übrigen versucht man, sich in einen Zustand zu versetzen, dass die äußeren Sinne nichts wahrnehmen, wie im Schlafe, dass das gewöhnliche Denken stillsteht, wie im Schlafe, mit Ausnahme dessen, dass die ganze Seele mit allen Kräften gerichtet ist auf die einzige Vorstellung, die man festhält, so lange man kann. Das nennt man Konzentration. Das Nähere können Sie in den vorgenannten Büchern nachlesen. Es ist umso besser, je mehr man solche Vorstellungen verwendet, die gewissermaßen kein Vorbild in der äußeren Welt haben, je mehr man sinnbildliche Vorstellungen in den Mittelpunkt des Bewusstseins rückt. Und nun handelt es sich darum, dass der Geistesforscher diese Übung immer und immer wieder macht; der eine, je nach seinen Fähigkeiten, erreicht in kurzer Zeit etwas, der andere erst nach Jahren, aber so, wie es uns vorgesetzt ist, erreichen wir sozusagen — die Gegenwartsentwicklung der Menschheit macht das möglich -, die Fähigkeit, in der Seele etwas zu steigern, indem wir uns so verhalten. Kräfte, die sonst in der Seele wie in ihren Tiefen schlummern, werden die Oberfläche heraufgetragen, wenn wir immer wieder und wiederum in geduldiger, ausdauernder Anstrengung solche Übungen der Konzentration machen. Nicht auf äußere, tumultuarische Weise wird man ein Geistesforscher, sondern durch solche Vorgänge in der Seele, wie [sie] in der Aufmerksamkeitssteigerung ins Unbegrenzte geschildert [sind].","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":322,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/69d/1914-05-08/p018"}],"english":["GA 69d/1914-05-08/p018"],"method":"identity","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":322,"en_words":345,"ratio":1.07,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["length","meaning","audit"]},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.02,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":10124,"original_word_count":9939,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"Death and Immortality in the Light of Spiritual Science","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA069d/English/SOL2024/19140508p01.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 69d/1914-05-08/p018"],"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. See witness_completeness for how much of the original this witness holds."}}