Freedom and Initiative Can an individual human being still make a difference today? Torin Finser The following thoughts are excerpted from remarks prepared for delivery at the Third International English Conference at the Goetheanum, at the beginning of August 2010.
The Anthroposophical Society in America General Council Members Torin Finser (General Secretary) MariJo Rogers (General Secretary) James Lee (at large) Virginia McWilliam (at large) Regional Council Representatives Ann Finucane (Eastern Region) Dennis Dietzel (Central Region) Joan Treadaway (Western Region) Marian León, Director of Administration & Membership Services Jerry Kruse, Treasurer
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All of us here have lived a significant part of our lives in the 20th century. Yet as we look back, despite tremendous technological and material progress, the last hundred years have done little to resolve some of the most fundamental issues facing humanity. Despite wars and even revolutions fought in the name of freedom, few people today are truly free, or even have a real conception of freedom. And as for taking initiative, many feel hobbled by organizational structures, financial constraints and the general hectic pace of our modern lives. *** I would like to begin with the assertion that freedom is an inner condition that rests upon a fertile bed of soul conditions that supports the true intentions of the human spirit. Anthroposophy is dedicated to helping the striving human being create and nurture the inner conditions that make freedom possible. To start let us look at the notion of impartiality. We need to find a balance between the opening of the senses This battle of the to the rich world of impressions around us and at the same time senses, fought reject any sort of compulsion that comes from external sources. on a daily basis, We want to be open to the beauty of the natural world, such as the wonderful colors we find in flowers during the summer is one threat to months, while at the same time protecting our senses from the our freedom. onslaught that comes from the media and advertising. This Another, much battle of the senses, fought on a daily basis, is one threat to our more subtle freedom. Another, much more subtle one, is the one-sided prejuone, is the onedice that can come from deeply held convictions within. How sided prejudice often do we see others through the lenses we have chosen to wear? During my recent trip to China, I was surprised at myself, that can come in that only when I was there did I see how varied the people from deeply where, depending on their province or family background, held convictions and all along I had carried one predominant visual image of an within. abstract Chinese person. How many unexamined, unintended prejudices do we all carry around with us? So when speaking of impartiality in The Stages of Higher Knowledge, Rudolf Steiner said: “Freedom means not only that I am free from the compulsion of an outer authority, but above all that I am not subservient to any prejudices, opinions, sensations and feelings of my own” (p. 19). Even with the advice of esoteric teaching, one cannot allow blind acceptance of an external authority. Instead, one becomes free in practicing the good advice and making it one’s own. So although there are different spiritual paths, the Oriental or Christian, for example, it is a particular aspect of the Rosicrucian approach that there is nothing opposed to modern man’s sense of freedom. Taking the notion of impartiality one step further, one can say that on a daily basis, we tend to know the life of the soul from one side. Since we are immersed in it, we tend to see the world from within out. I am here and the world around me is out there. This tends to have us see the surface of things, and the danger as described above is that we either look too much through our own lenses, or we let the external world of senses rule the impressions we take into the soul life. But there is a further step that the seeker of freedom can take. Instead of looking at the external world from outside and experiencing himself from inside, the seeker can “slip out of his skin as it were, to observe himself from outside” (p. 33). This objective observation of oneself is an essential part of esoteric training and a crucial step toward attaining greater freedom. And likewise in our daily interactions with each other, we tend to see separate uni42
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