We cannot perceive the thinking of our true (divine) self

One error I see among those who interpret Rudolf Steiner - and perhaps it is in Steiner himself, although I am not sure - is that we need to become conscious of, aware of, the content of our own thinking - and by thinking is meant essential deep intuitive thinking.

It is sometimes asserted that we should turn our attention around (from outside to inside) to perceive our own thoughts forming. The idea being that until we are aware of 'how' our thinking is constructed, we cannot be free - because freedom requires such knowledge.

I have come to regard this as wrong - and impossible.


Our deepest, true-est, divine thinking emerges-from the real self - and how it is formed is intrinsically unknowable.

Thinking is part of what Beings do. Beings think (yes, all beings, including what we suppose to be the dead 'mineral' world). Thinking - this primary, un-analysable thinking - is an attribute of Being.


What varies is consciousness.

Consciousness is also a universal attribute of being, but its magnitude varies very widely - degrees of consciousness are the main measure of evolutionary-development.

So everything thinks, and everything is to some (perhaps very minimal extent) also aware of its thinking; but the direction of evolution is towards greater and greater consciousness of this thinking.


Our consciousness is always, necessarily, outside that which thinks. What we should be seeking to do in turning awareness inward - is to observe thinking as-it-emerges-from the real self.

Thius is to make intuition conscious - and that is perhaps our main goal, here-and-now. 

But we cannot, and nothing ever can, 'see inside' the self, to analyse or understand the actual process of primary thinking.