Whereas meditation is the foundation of any spiritual path of development, the seer and teacher Rudolf Steiner advised that specific "accompanying," or "fundamental," spiritual exercises should always be practiced in conjunction with it in order to protect the individual from dangers posed to normal consciousness by meditation practice. These exercises offer such protection by helping to develop inner certainty and strength. This is achieved, for example, through the first exercise by concentrating and intensifying the powers of thinking, through the second by developing control of one's volition, through the third by mastering the outer expressions of the feeling life, and so on.

Florin Lowndes describes the fundamental exercises in thorough detail, giving suggestions as to how they can be practiced. He also relates an important and hidden aspect--that the exercises embody a means for developing and strengthening organic and "living" thinking, which is intimately related to enlivening a new organ of perception--the heart chakra, or "lotus."

In this popular guidebook, Lowndes sheds new light on many aspects of this subject and offers encouragement and stimulus to those looking for a modern path of spiritual development.

Contents:

• Part One: The Chakras
• The Method
• The Traditional Chakra Teaching
• Rudolf Steiner's Chakra Teaching
• The Heart Chakra
• The Exercises for the Heart Chakra--"Subsidiary" and Basic Exercises
• Part Two: The Six Exercises
• Structure
• The First Exercise: Control of Thinking
• The Second Exercise: Control of Will
• The Third Exercise: Control of Feeling
• The Fourth Exercise: The Fulfillment of Thinking in Feeling
• The Fifth Exercise: The Fulfillment of Thinking in the Will
• The Sixth Exercise: The Fulfillment of Thinking in Thinking
• The Etheric Streams
• The Exercise Plan
• Part Three: The Heart Exercise
• Overview
• The Six Positions
• The Six Gestures
• The Heart Exercise
• Part Four: The New Heart-Thinking
• Rudolf Steiner's Heart-Thinking
• Rudolf Steiner's Two Paths of Esotericism
• Special Aspects of Spiritual Schooling
• Bridge Building