Stages of Consciousness: Meditations on the Boundaries of the Soul

By Georg Kuhlewind and Georg Kühlewind

Ordinarily we live under the tyranny of the past. All that we call thinking is the habitual association of finished, dead thoughts. But these thoughts were alive once and every new moment of understanding is a breath from the level of the living present. "Stages of Consciousness" proposes that we train ourselves in the stage of consciousness that we occasionally glimpse as intuition. Beginning with the intuition of the true self in the living thinking the fundamental experience of the spirit the author goes on to describe practical exercise in concentration and contemplation. Georg Kuhlewind describes his purpose in his foreword: Modern humanity s most difficult task is to become aware of, to see and to overcome the threshold of mirrored consciousness. The first essay attempts to show how Rudolf Steiner proposes reaching this goal in his "Philosophy of Freedom." Consideration of the threshold lying between thinking and what has been thought leads the one making this experiment to the fundamental experience of the spirit. The third essay attempts to develop a methodology for the first steps in the realm of concentration and contemplation. The last essays set forth the outcome: how, in the observation of the soul s boundaries, these boundaries become transparent and permeable. The form of the communication is such that the reader, tracing the lines of the movements of thinking, steps into its fabric. Contents: Introduction by Christopher Bamford Author s Foreword The Two Stages of Consciousness The Fundamental Experience of the Spirit Concentration and Contemplation The Boundaries of the Soul The Secret of Perceiving The Spiritual Communion of Modern Humanity The Sense of Being The Light of the Earth "

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0940262088
• ISBN13: 9780940262089
• Release Date: January 1985
• Publisher: Lindisfarne Pr
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.5" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

chance encounter

I picked up this book at a hostel in Amsterdam and took it home with me on a whim. I have found it to be an excellent companion to my current studies of Patanjali's Yoga Sutra; it is its Western counterpart, you might say. It details the thought processes of the mind and outlines methods of concentration to alter consciousness, keeping it fresh and in the moment rather than dwelling on past experiences. I gave it four stars cause it is tedious reading at times, being so intellectual. However, with perseverance, and especially in conjunction with the Yoga Sutras, it definitely yields its fruits!