Positivity

Positivity or impartiality is the fourth of the subsidiary exercises which, according to Rudolf Steiner, are a necessary precondition for any spiritual training.

„In the fourth month one should take up the so-called positivity as a new exercise. It consists in always seeking out the good, the excellent, the beautiful, etc., in all experiences, beings and things. This quality of the soul is best characterised by a Persian legend about the Christ Jesus. Once, when he was walking with his disciples, they saw a dog lying by the side of the road, already very decomposed. All the disciples turned away from the ugly sight, only the Christ Jesus stopped, looked at the animal pensively and said: "What beautiful teeth the animal has! Where they had seen only the ugly, the unsympathetic, he sought the beautiful. Thus the esoteric student must strive to seek the positive in every appearance and in every being. He will soon notice that under the shell of an ugly person there is a hidden beauty, that even under the shell of a criminal there is a hidden good, that under the shell of a madman the divine soul is somehow hidden. This exercise is somewhat related to what is called the abstention from criticism. One must not take this matter as if one should call black white and white black. There is, however, a difference between a judgement that merely starts from one's own personality and judges sympathy and antipathy according to this own personality. And there is a point of view that lovingly places itself in the foreign appearance or the foreign being and asks itself everywhere: How does this other come to be like this or to do like this? Such a point of view comes of its own accord to strive more to help the imperfect than merely to reproach and criticise it. The objection that the conditions of life demand of many people that they reprove and judge cannot be made here. For then these conditions of life are such that the person concerned cannot undergo proper occult training. There are many conditions of life which make such extensive occult training impossible. Man should not impatiently demand to make progress in spite of all this, which can only be made under certain conditions. Whoever for a month consciously focuses on the positive in all his experiences will gradually notice that a feeling creeps into his inner being, as if his skin became permeable on all sides and his soul opened wide to all kinds of secret and subtle processes in his surroundings which had previously completely escaped his attention. This is precisely what it is about, to combat the lack of attention to such subtle things that exists in every human being. Once you have noticed that the feeling described above is asserting itself in the soul like a kind of bliss, try to direct this feeling in thought towards the heart and let it flow from there into the eyes, from there out into the space in front of and around the person. You will notice that you gain an intimate relationship to this space. One grows beyond oneself, as it were. You learn to look at a piece of your environment as something that belongs to you. A great deal of concentration is necessary for this exercise and, above all, an acknowledgement of the fact that everything stormy, passionate, full of affect has a completely devastating effect on the mood indicated. With the repetition of the exercises of the first months one keeps it again as already indicated for earlier months.“ (Lit.:GA 245, p. 15ff)

Literature

• Rudolf Steiner: Vor dem Tore der Theosophie, GA 95 (1978), Zwölfter Vortrag, Stuttgart, 2. September 1906 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
• Rudolf Steiner: Anweisungen für eine esoterische Schulung (Sonderausgabe), (GA 245) (1993) pdf archive.org
• Rudolf Steiner: Aus den Inhalten der esoterischen Stunden, Band III: 1913 und 1914; 1920 – 1923, GA 266/3 (1998), ISBN 3-7274-2663-2 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org

References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated. Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com. Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English. Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA) Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.