{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 83/1922-06-02/p026","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"Only by having the courage to continue the exercises to the next stage do we attain true spiritual perception. This next stage not only involves developing the capacity to focus our consciousness upon certain concepts that are readily comprehended—as we comprehend geometrical concepts, which we know to contain no unconscious element—so as to increase our strength of soul; it must also, and more particularly, involve being able calmly and at will to banish these concepts from our consciousness. This is, in some circumstances, a difficult task! In ordinary life, forgetting is not particularly difficult, as our ordinary consciousness is only too well aware. But when one has just struggled, although without driving oneself into auto-suggestion—which cannot occur if we are self-possessed—to focus one's consciousness upon certain concepts, then unusual strength is required to banish them from consciousness again. However, one must develop this greater strength gradually; and just as at first we concentrated all our attention and inner strength of soul, so that we might dwell upon such a concept in a state of meditation, so now we must dispel these concepts, and all other concepts, calmly and voluntarily from consciousness. And there must be able to enter, from our will, what one might call “empty consciousness.” What “empty consciousness” (if only for a few moments) implies, can be judged by reflecting on what happens to ordinary consciousness when it has to forgo both sense-impressions and recollections—when for some reason or other man is deprived of external impressions and even memories: he falls asleep; that is, consciousness is depressed and dimmed. The opposite of this is what must happen: completely controlled, conscious wakefulness, despite the fact that the will has swept consciousness completely clear.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"2. Anthroposophy and Psychology","site_heading":null,"date":"1922-06-02","location":null,"word_count":284,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/83/1922-06-02/p026","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:identity","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"B. A. Rowley","identified_edition":"HS1963","book_title":"The Tension Between East and West","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA083/English/HS1963/19220602p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line"},"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/83/1922-06-02/p026"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/83/1922-06-02/p026","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 83/1922-06-02/p026","passage_number":26,"text":"Und erst wenn wir dann den Mut haben, die Übungen bis zur nächsten Stufe fortzusetzen, kommen wir zu einer wirklichen geistigen Anschauung. Dieser nächste Schritt muß nicht nur darin bestehen, daß wir jetzt die Fähigkeit entwickeln, gewisse Vorstellungen, die wir leicht überschauen — so etwa, wie wir geometrische Vorstellungen überschauen, denen gegenüber wir wissen: es ist nicht etwas Unbewußtes in ihnen wirksam —, in den Mittelpunkt unseres Bewußtseins zu rücken, um an ihnen unsere seelische Kraft zu verstärken, sondern darin, daß wir in die Lage kommen, diese Vorstellungen mit Besonnenheit und Willkür aus unserem Bewußtsein fortzuschaffen. Das ist unter Umständen eine schwierige Aufgabe. Im gewöhnlichen Leben ist das Vergessen nicht etwas so Schwieriges, wie ja das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein weiß. Aber wenn man sich erst angestrengt hat — auch ohne daß man sich in irgendeine Selbstsuggestion hineintreibt; das kann ja bei Besonnenheit nicht stattfinden —, gewisse Vorstellungen in den Mittelpunkt seines Bewußtseins zu rücken, dann hat man eine stärkere Kraft, als sie sonst im Seelenleben angewendet zu werden braucht, nötig, um diese Vorstellungen wiederum aus dem Bewußtsein fortzuschaffen. Man muß aber diese starke Kraft allmählich entwickeln, so daß man ebenso, wie man zuerst alle Aufmerksamkeit, alle innere Seelenkraft, Seelenspannkraft zusammengenommen hat, um zu ruhen auf einer solchen Vorstellung im Meditationszustand, nun dazu kommen muß, diese Vorstellungen, und überhaupt alle Vorstellungen, mit besonnener Willkür aus dem Bewußtsein fortzuschaffen. Und es muß eintreten können aus unserem Willen heraus, was man nennen könnte «leeres Bewußtsein». Was «leeres Bewußtsein» heißt, auch nur für einige Augenblicke, das wird der ermessen, der unbefangen darüber nachdenkt, wie es dem Menschen mit dem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein ergeht, wenn dieses Bewußtsein entbehren muß der Sinneseindrücke, entbehren muß auch der Erinnerungsvorstellungen, wenn durch irgendwelche Vorkommnisse dem Menschen die äußeren Eindrücke, auch die Erinnerungen genommen werden: er kommt zum Einschlafen, das heißt, das Bewußtsein wird herabgedämpft und herabgedämmert. Das Gegenteil davon muß eintreten; vollständig besonnenes, bewußtes Wachsein, trotzdem alles durch inneren Willen aus dem Bewußtsein herausgeschafft worden ist.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":325,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/83/1922-06-02/p026"}],"english":["GA 83/1922-06-02/p026"],"method":"identity","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":325,"en_words":284,"ratio":0.87,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["length","meaning","audit"]},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":0.94,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":6877,"original_word_count":7314,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"B. A. Rowley","identified_edition":"HS1963","book_title":"The Tension Between East and West","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA083/English/HS1963/19220602p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line"},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 83/1922-06-02/p026"],"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."}}