What actually is Anthroposophy?

BASICS - 2 MIN READ

Anthroposophy is not a religion, not a set of spiritual beliefs, but a path one can walk down to develop themselves (and apply the fruits of this self-development to many practical fields) to have a clear understanding of the spiritual (extra-physical) world(s). But you don’t have to read and “follow” the work of Rudolf Steiner or later Anthroposophists to be an Anthroposophist. Everyone has their own path and their own calling.

an outline

An Anthroposophist is someone who is balanced, not succumbing to forces that wish to divert them from moving towards the good. An Anthroposophist is someone who occasionally conducts spiritual-scientific experiments into the nature of reality, not with beakers and flasks, but by developing one’s inner faculties, using yourself as the instrument. An Anthroposophist is someone who has identified the highest good, thought about it from all angles, and works in furtherance of that highest good for themselves and for society.  An Anthroposophist is someone who uses the warmth of spirituality and the light of science and reason to come to sound conclusions. 

who?

We no longer want to believe; we want to know. Belief demands the acceptance of truths that we do not fully understand. What is not clearly understood goes against our individuality that wants to experience everything in the depths of its inner core. The only knowing that satisfies us is the kind that submits to no external norm, but springs from the inner life of the personality.

- rudolf steiner

Nor do we want the kind of knowledge that has been encased in rigid academic rules, and stored away as valid for all time. Each of us claims the right to start from the facts we know, from our own direct experience, and from there advance to knowledge of the whole universe. We strive for certainty in knowledge, but each in his own way.

- rudolf steiner

Today, no one should be compelled to understand. We expect neither recognition or agreement from anyone who is not driven to a certain view by his own distinct individual need. We do not want to cram facts of knowledge into an immature person, or even a child. We try rather to develop the child’s capacities in such a way that his understanding no longer depends on our compulsion, but on his own will to understand.

- rudolf steiner

anthroposophy.uk/blog/introanthro/

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