{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 80a/1922-01-23/p019","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"Now it is not enough to merely concentrate one's soul life on some idea or on a complex of ideas. Although everything I have described and what is explained in the books mentioned aims to enable the person to carry out such exercises in full arbitrariness, with complete inner composure, as one would otherwise only have in ordinary life , and also comes to such concentration, such directing of attention to a certain idea, it is nevertheless the case that one gradually feels surrendered to such ideas, feels too strongly surrendered, if other soul exercises are not undertaken in a different direction. Therefore, one must, just as faithfully as one concentrates on certain ideas, again do exercises so that these ideas in consciousness, whenever one wants, extinguish, are in turn put out of consciousness. Then one comes to establish what one can call the consciousness. Otherwise, empty consciousness is only present in people during the time from falling asleep to waking up. And if one has not gone through any school of practice, then there is a great temptation to fall into a kind of sleep when consciousness becomes empty of external impressions – or even when it is so strongly taken in by external impressions that it no longer distinguishes them. The ability to achieve an empty consciousness is essential for further progress in anthroposophical research. This does not mean that the person enters into some kind of sleep or dream state, but that they can remain fully conscious without introducing anything through their own inner strength, as they would otherwise do with external impressions or with a strongly developed life of thought or feeling or will. And then, when the life of thought has been strengthened in the way described, so strongly strengthened that one is, as it were, inwardly grasped in the direct experience of this memory tableau of which I have spoken, when one's entire previous life on earth stands before one's eyes like a huge tableau, if one's imaginative life is strong enough, then one can also manage, while being completely awake, to dampen, throw out of consciousness, and create an empty consciousness, the individual idea that one has brought to the center of consciousness in this way, or that has placed itself there. Once one has practiced this for a while (again, it varies from person to person depending on their disposition) one can determine whether it takes longer or shorter. I can only say that anthroposophical research is no easier than research in an observatory, laboratory or clinic; one must persistently and diligently undergo such exercises as I am describing now for a long time.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"The Essence of Anthroposophy","site_heading":null,"date":"1922-01-23","location":null,"word_count":442,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/80a/1922-01-23/p019","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":"The Essence of Anthroposophy","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA080a/English/SOL2024/19220123p01.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/80a/1922-01-23/p019"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/80a/1922-01-23/p019","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 80a/1922-01-23/p019","passage_number":19,"text":"Nun genügt es nicht, dass man bloß das Seelenleben auf irgendeine Vorstellung konzentriert oder auf einen Vorstellungskomplex, sondern neben solchen Übungen müssen auch noch andere, in anderer Richtung, getrieben werden. Obwohl alles dasjenige, was ich geschildert habe, und was in den genannten Büchern ausgeführt ist, darauf hinzielt, dass der Mensch in voller Willkür, durchaus mit innerer Besonnenheit, wie man nur sonst im gewöhnlichen Leben dasteht, solche Übungen ausführt, und auch zu solcher Konzentration, solcher Aufmerksamkeitslenkung auf eine gewisse Vorstellung kommt, so ist es doch so, dass man an solche Vorstellungen sich allmählich hingegeben fühlt, zu stark hingegeben fühlt, wenn nicht nach einer anderen Richtung andere Seelenübungen vorgenommen werden. Man muss daher ebenso treulich, wie man sich konzentriert auf gewisse Vorstellungen, wiederum Übungen machen, damit diese Vorstellungen im Bewusstsein jeder Zeit, wenn man will, verlöschen, aus dem Bewusstsein wiederum herausgetan werden. Dann kommt man dazu, dasjenige herzustellen, was man nennen kann deeres Bewusstseim. Leeres Bewusstsein ist sonst bei den Menschen nur vorhanden in der Zeit vom Einschlafen bis zum Aufwachen. Und ist man durch keine Schule der Übung hindurchgegangen, dann ist die große Versuchung vorhanden, dass in dem Augenblick, wo das Bewusstsein leer wird von äußeren Eindrücken — oder auch wo es so stark hingenommen wird von äußeren Eindrücken, dass es sie nicht mehr unterscheidet -, wenn das Bewusstsein auf diese Weise leer wird, eine Art Schlafzustand eintritt. Gerade das ist das Wesentliche für das weitere Fortschreiten anthroposophischer Forschung, dass leeres Bewusstsein hergestellt werden kann, ohne dass der Mensch in irgendeinen Schlafzustand oder Traumzustand kommt, sondern dass er so voll bewusst bleiben kann, ohne dass er irgendetwas durch seine eigene innere Kraft vorstellt, wie er sonst bei äußeren Eindrücken oder bei stark entwickeltem Gedanken- oder Gefühls- oder Willensleben ist. Und dann, wenn zuerst das Gedankenleben erkraftet ist in der geschilderten Weise, so stark erkraftet ist, dass man gewissermaßen innerlich erfasst im unmittelbaren Erleben dieses Erinnerungstableau, von dem ich gesprochen habe, wenn einem da das ganze bisherige Erdenleben wie ein gewaltiges Tableau vor Augen steht, wenn man so weit das Vorstellungsleben erkraftet hat, dann bringt man es auch dazu, bei völligem Wachsein die einzelne Vorstellung, die man auf diese Weise in den Mittelpunkt des Bewusstseins gerückt hat, oder die sich selbst dahin gestellt hat, wiederum abzudämpfen, herauszuwerfen aus dem Bewusstsein und ein leeres Bewusstsein herzustellen. Hat man dies eine Zeit lang geübt, es ist wiederum je nach Anlage der Menschen verschieden, ob man längere oder kürzere Zeit dazu braucht. Ich darf nur sagen: Anthroposophische Forschung ist nicht leichter als die Forschungen auf der Sternwarte, im Laboratorium oder in der Klinik, man muss lange Zeit ausdauernd und emsig solche Übungen durchmachen, wie ich sie jetzt schildere.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":443,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/80a/1922-01-23/p019"}],"english":["GA 80a/1922-01-23/p019"],"method":"identity","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":443,"en_words":442,"ratio":1.0,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["length","meaning","audit"]},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.04,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":10817,"original_word_count":10371,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"The Essence of Anthroposophy","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA080a/English/SOL2024/19220123p01.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 80a/1922-01-23/p019"],"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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