Customer Reviews

Enlivening the Chakra of the Heart; The Fundamental Spiritual Exercises of Rudolf Steiner

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Florin Lowndes clearly has travelled the inner path laid out by Rudolf Steiner sincerely and for many years.

The six "subsidiary" exercises described by Rudolf Steiner, and elaborated in this work by Lowndes, ENLIVENING THE CHAKRA OF THE HEART (ETCOTH), are to be considered absolutely essential, a safety measure, without which no other exercises or meditations should be practiced. All meditations and spiritual exercises can open one to undesirable influences, or have undesirable effects, and these 6 exercises are meant to stabilize and strengthen the etheric and astral bodies against this possibility. The use of the description "subsidiary" by Steiner himself has led many to wrongly believe that these 6 exercises are supplementary, or secondary, in importance. Not true. Steiner himself is clear on this issue, that other exercises or meditations must not be commenced without the simultaneous practice and protective benefit of these foundational exercises.

These six exercises are as follows (very brief and incomplete description):

1. Control of thinking by concentration one's thoughts on a particular object
2. Control of will by choosing an activity to repeat at a given time
3. Control of feelings by developing equanity towards joy and sorrow
4. Development of positivity
5. Development of open-mindedness
6. Harmonizing all the foregoing

Lowndes elaborates on these practices in a very useful and pedagogical way. My only caveat is that, in ETCOTH, Lowndes overlays his own experience (and therefore, interpretation) on this work, and one should really read how R. Steiner himself describes these exercises (quoted extensively in Lowndes' text, also to be found in Guidance in Esoteric Training, and Outline of Esoteric Science). If any fault could be found with Lowndes' work here, it is only that his way of working some of these exercises seems to me more ponderous and difficult than Steiner himself described them. Still, I consider ETCOTH by Lowndes to be absolutely essential to anyone sincerely engaged in anthroposophical inner work, and, in my view represents a solid pedagogy and systematization which is less developed in Steiner's own presentation of anthroposophy.

Read also THE INNER PATH by Karl Koenig who describes these same six "subsidiary" exercises with the warmth and wisdom of one whose life has been devoted to this kind of spiritual work and teaching.

Can't say enough good things about this book. I had read Rudolf Steiner's work before, and is not until I read this book That I really started to comprehend his work. The meaning of a universal mind that is not based on the limitation of the senses can become clear through this work.

I have read this book several times over the past five years. I believe the author understands Steiner and provides valuable lessons for the reader.