The Purpose is to Build, Not Destroy

52 Weeks of Steiner – Week 32  
(This is part of a weekly serial started on Michaelmas 2023. To see the other entries, please see the post linked HERE and scroll down to the bottom for individual links)

It must be clearly realized that the purpose of this training is to build and not to destroy.
The student should therefore bring with him the good will for sincere and devoted work,
and not the intention to criticize and destroy. He should be capable of devotion, for he
must learn what he does not yet know; he should look reverently on that which discloses
itself. Work and devotion, these are the fundamental qualities which must be demanded of
the student. Some come to realize that they are making no progress, though in their own
opinion they are untiringly active. The reason is that they have not grasped the meaning of
work and devotion in the right way. Work done for the sake of success will be the least
successful, and learning pursued without devotion will be the least conducive to progress.
Only the love of work, and not of success, leads to progress. And if in learning the student
seeks straight thinking and sound judgment, he need not stunt his devotion by doubts and
suspicions.”

Rudolf Steiner, Knowledge of the Higher Worlds
GA 10, Lecture Four

I see so much inner work out in the world being prescribed as a way to destroy. To correct. To replace. Rarely to build. Even within Waldorf circles, especially within Waldorf homeschooling circles. There is a pull to shape homeschooling parents into the image of the other, instead of focusing on the gifts each of us has to carry the load of the path we’ve started on. If you read Steiner’s indications, you’ll see the “training” he suggests is all about building strength and connection within yourself, not about changing yourself to be something you are not.

In the quote above, Steiner is referring to adult students who are starting on this path of inner work. But it could very well be about students in a classroom as well. In either situation, when the only focus in on success or the product, the progress and purpose become lost. It is when we focus on the desired end result that doubts and suspicions fill our mind because we are taken out of the activity and always looking to the future. This is true of student work and adult inner work.

I have finished one week of the Clarity in Thought exercise, and as someone who has cycled through these exercises many many times, I’m always surprised at how much thought wrangling I need to do those first few days! But because I’ve done the exercise before, I find that as soon as I re-engage with the impulse, I see myself thinking more clearly in other aspects of my life. Just carrying the impulse of sitting for a few minutes each day to connect with my thoughts tumbles over into my daily life. The striving takes over.

If we focus on the devotion to a task instead of the success, we see how this impulse is already building our capacities. It is not about perfection, it is about striving and dedication to building up new abilities. It really doesn’t matter if you last 30 seconds or 3 minutes, what you focus on is the dedication to the task while you were doing it, and it naturally follows you around your day.

Steiner’s second task is to build up our ability to follow through with tasks. This exercise is sometimes called Control of Will, Control of Action or Initiative in Action. Steiner calls on us to perform an action that we choose and that doesn’t correspond or relate to anything else we do in our day. For instance, touching our nose, turning an ring, touching our heel. Random actions not connected to our daily life. And we choose to perform the action at a time that is also not connected to any routines. For instance, when I first did this exercise I turned my wedding ring counter clockwise at 3pm each day. With no alarms set, it was up to me to remember to follow through. At first I would remember either well before or well after 3pm, but eventually (I’m talking weeks not days, ha) it got closer and closer until I was able to follow through at 3pm each day.

Many people wonder about the purpose of this exercise. Unlike clarity of thought, this exercise doesn’t have benefits that are as obvious. But they are SO important. I’m going to quote now from the book Start Now: A Book of Soul and Spiritual Activities edited by Christopher Bamford.

You must perform some action, however trivial, that originates with your own initiative. This is some task you have assigned yourself. Most actions are a response to family circumstances, education, vocation and so on. Consider how little arises as the result of your own initiative. Consequently, you must spend a little time performing acts derived only from you. They need not be important; very insignificant actions accomplish the same purpose.”

The aim of the exercise isn’t the actual action but the building up within ourselves the WILL to do something we have chosen to do. To build within ourselves the ability to stick with something, follow through, take initiative especially with things we might not enjoy doing. So much of our lives are driven by outside forces and it is so important to build up our inner forces so that we may add things to the world that are our own.

As I did last week, I will perform this exercise for a week and report back. Will you join me?

Until next time,
Marina