Meditation initiative
On 10 and 11 February, twelve people prepared the network meeting of the Goetheanum Worldwide Meditation Initiative which will be held in Avignon (FR) from 11 to 14 July 2019.
After Living Connections in 2017 – a celebration of ten years of work – the question came up in the summer of 2018 as to who will continue the initiative and what its new targets will be. A new group then formed with people from the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Russia and Germany, who will prepare the next network meeting in Avignon and thing about another Living Connections conference for Easter 2020.
The Guardian of the Threshold
For the network meeting in Avignon we decided on the topic of the Guardian of the Threshold. Our meeting in February began with Wolfgang Tomaschitz outlining the development of this figure in Rudolf Steiner’s work. An exercise then helped to make experiences with the Guardian in one’s own life more tangible. The following questions arose for us to work on: Where are the diverse kinds of thresholds? How is the Guardian characterized in Rudolf Steiner’s works and presentations? What does it mean that humanity crosses the threshold unconsciously? What kind of relationship do we have to the Guardian and to the Angel?
We shared our thoughts on how, in the past ten years, meditation has become an increasingly natural topic in the Anthroposophical Society and its spheres of life. In connection with the Mindfulness movement and other meditation traditions we must, however, ask about the specific character of anthroposophical meditation – not so much in order to define it but more in order to pinpoint its foundations and practice. In careful discussion we sought for an impulse for a Living Connections conference from 15 to 19 April 2020. The direction that emerged was that of inspiration and self-guidance in meditation and the reflection of meditative experience as a way of accompanying each other on the way. | Christiane Haid, Goetheanum, on behalf of the preparation group