Consider the large number of human beings who can now think precisely, concretely, logically, scientifically, critically, and abstractly. There are billions of people who have this faculty as a common power and they use it every day, at every moment. But why are there so few that can see the concepts or contents of what they are thinking on the thought-plane? Why do these billions still more or less follow the Kantian viewpoint about thinking: 'I can see sense objects, and I can organize sense objects into categories with abstract thinking, but humans do not possess the power to see this thinking activity itself, operating in its own plane.' ?
We need a little self-created inner light to shine into the rotating museum of thoughts. If we do not create this light to see the moment when my condensing, constricting will-power orients my own individual thinking-ray onto the particular room in the 'museum of previous thoughts,' then we only receive reports after the fact in words or dark mental strings. I have described this in my Husserl book quite clearly. At the moment when you see the pure land of concepts, you realize that it is definitely not in your individual head - it lives in the world outside you. But then again, also in this moment, you realize that a part of you also lives outside yourself in the world. Schelling and Goethe felt this intensely in different ways.
So, how do we turn on the flashlight which lights up my individual knowledge-window, which looks out into the knowledge-fields outside my house? I understand the essence of a faucet, a door, an orange, etc. in the moment when the knowledge fields brush up against my individual window-pane. It is the moment when the 'universal' (the idea of a door which can be looked at by any person, from their 'thought-seeing flashlight shining out their own window'), meets the particular. The world meets me. The truth (the giant network of world-thoughts, all linked up in the 'interior' of the earth and the universe) touches me, and I know. A part of me outside of time, swims through the knowledge fields and brings a connection between 1. my flashlight and the window on my thinking-house, and 2. the giant fields of previous thoughts (the great museum of walking, living, essences or world-ideas).
Looked at from the spiritual-scientific point of view, we can say that we cannot use our physical eyes to see the thought-world, we must shine the light from our own two-petalled lotus flower into the streams of the etheric body (which is woven together with the soul and the spirit). But there must be the tiniest flame of morality, of loving the objective truth beyond you, of caring about the real world beyond your personal pleasure. Husserl found this light in his love for the truth of mathematics and logic. How could math, geometry, and logic be a personal inner creation?
You might be able to turn on this light with your passion and love for the spirit, for your fellow human being. You might be able to turn on this light by denying your own train of thought and (for a short time), following the beautiful, organic thought-creations of Rudolf Steiner (in the Philosophy of Freedom, Truth and Science, or The Riddles of Philosophy). These show how to surf on the thoughts which are not your own. By thinking his thoughts, you can create your own organic copy of this thinking-geography-organism. This then becomes your organ, as Yeshayahu Ben-Aharon has pointed out so many times. Each one of these billion humans can create an individual freedom-thinking-organ.
This moment of seeing the interior of a concept in the moment of understanding is called intellectual intuition in the history of philosophy (anschauen in German, and noesis in Greek), but the words mean nothing if you can't talk to your neighbor while both of you are shining the light of inner perception onto the fields of pure essences. In this moment, you and your neighbor are using your thinking-hands to rummage around in the dark closet of the museum of knowledge. You touch the same object in the closet with your thinking-hand and you feel its contours. Now both of you can also, through your love of world-fire, your love for the other, your love of the spirit, your love of Christ, light up the flashlight in the closet. This can create a conceptual garment out of the truly empty pure thinking substance (Geist or Spirit).
This intermediate pure thinking-seeing is not just personal mental pictures or memory images. It is not yet Imaginative cognition or etheric clairvoyance. It is not yet seeing spiritual beings. This requires a gentle and intermediate light. It is half dying down and half lighting up. It is in-between the inside of the house and the fields. It is not yet living thinking, but it is no longer totally dead and blind. It is a flashlight that sees the path through the woods of essences and Ideas. And it can light up its own light. A flashlight that sees itself. When this happens the Individual I can be woken up in the field of pure concepts. This happened to Fichte, for example.
But if we can light this little light of freedom, a light that was taken from the higher hierarchies by Lucifer and given to man, so that he could build his own closet and house and window, and learn how to lift it up into a greater light, by transforming it in the heart, in co-operation with the spirit of Michael - then we can transform this light into the new spiritual-scientific seeing. This is described ever so clearly by Yeshayahu Ben-Aharon. This darkness of the closet, and the abstract crystal forms of dead, personal thinking can be seen from the warm exterior. Our will can unite with world-thinking; our personal thinking can unite with world will. In these moments there are wonderful possibilities - to find the true light of the Rose Cross; to cast a light that weaves with the light surrounding the new appearance of the Lord in the world of life, light, tone, and love. And in this moment, we may find a glimpse into a substance that is more than matter, and less than spirit. The gentle light of intuition may turn into the light of the freedom of individual creativity, forming the new substance of a future earth-sun. This is the new earthly-human-sun that Yeshayahu Ben-Aharon discusses - and indeed the philosopher's stone. This little self-seeing light can be sparked into flame by taking death and evil into our hearts and transforming them into the Good through a stronger, firmer, higher Love - coming from Christ.
In these moments the power of light shining from Plato's work in the thought-world dims down and joins with the warm perception (of aisthesis) shining from Aristotle's works in the thought-world. The goodness in the middle burns ever more intensely, and the future shines light down into our heart-head-will thinking-loving activity.
Themistius Euphrades (4th century) perceived this issue quite clearly, in his interpretation of the active intellect from Aristotle. In Davidson's book on Avicenna, etc, we read the following:
"The analogy of light entailed for Themistius that although rays from the active intellect disperse and enter individual men, they have their origin in an external radiating source, in a single transcendent 'active intellect' existing outside and above man...[adding] that the transcendent active intellect, or transcendent aspect of the active intellect, from which rays radiate and enter individual souls, is the very entity Plato had in mind when he compared the Idea of the Good, the 'cause of science and truth' to the sun, the source of light." (p. 14)
The difference possible for humans now, is that we may create a spiritual individual center, an I AM, that is able to embody the active intellect, without diminishing its consciousness or sense of self. We can individualize the whole intellect of the cosmos, and become a co-creator with these spiritual-thought-beings. Our I AM can stand freely as an individual in spirit-land, using the terminology and approach of Rudolf Steiner. It can also connect in fully daily consciousness with our everyday personality. This is the possibility demonstrated in the Philosophy of Freedom and at its highest point, the mutual essence exchange described by Yeshayahu Ben-Aharon in Cognitive Yoga.
Good luck on your journeys!
