Inquiry · “You Are Not Your Thoughts”
Equanimity, Positivity & Open-mindedness
To purify feeling by deliberately cultivating, one month at a time, equanimity (mastering the swing of joy and sorrow), positivity (seeking the good/true/beautiful in everything), and open-mindedness (meeting the new without prejudice) — then holding all in harmony.
Over successive months, cultivate: equanimity (feel fully but don’t be swept between elation and despair); positivity (find the good/true/beautiful in everyone and everything, without denying the bad); open-mindedness (meet the new with “this may be so,” not “impossible”); then harmony (hold all five subsidiary exercises together). Brief honest evening review; never suppression or denial.
What it is
These are exercises three, four and five of Rudolf Steiner’s six subsidiary exercises (with the sixth, harmony, folded in at the end) — the feeling-and-soul side of his training, to be cultivated after the thinking exercise (control of thought) and willing exercise (initiative).
Unlike the first two, these are not five-minute drills on an object; they are dispositions practised through the whole day and reviewed briefly each evening: - Equanimity (Gleichmut): mastering the swing between, in Steiner’s phrase, “rejoicing in heaven” and being “saddened to death” — not becoming “immoderately angry or anxious,” nor “overcome by joy or sorrow,” but keeping an inner balance from which one still feels fully, yet is not thrown.
- Positivity (Positivität): deliberately seeking “the good, the praiseworthy, and the beautiful in all beings, all experiences, all things.” Steiner illustrates it with the legend of Christ and the decaying dog, in which Christ alone remarks on the “beautiful teeth.”
- Open-mindedness / impartiality (Unbefangenheit): meeting each new experience with full openness, never letting past experience pronounce “that can’t be so” in advance — “never let one’s past determine one’s future.” Together they retrain the life of feeling (The Inner Creates the Outer) under conscious self-mastery (The Inner Creates the Outer), shape how reality is interpreted (The Inner Creates the Outer) by deliberately selecting what one attends to (Creation Is Finished), all under the watching self (Life Is a Dream).
The Method
Steiner’s instructions (GA 13, GA 245), one quality emphasised per month while the earlier exercises continue: C. Equanimity (month 3).
- Watch the swings. Through the day, notice the rise of strong joy, grief, anger, anxiety, excitement.
- Hold the centre. Aim not to be carried away — neither elated to the heights nor crushed to the depths. Feel the event fully, but keep a calm inner standpoint.
- Review at evening. Recall the day’s emotional surges; note where you kept balance and where you were swept off; resolve, without self-reproach, to steady the next. D. Positivity (month 4).
- In every person, event, and thing, actively look for what is good, true, or beautiful — however small. (The “beautiful teeth” of the dead dog is the model: something worthy is always findable.)
- This is not blindness. Steiner is explicit that positivity does not mean failing to see the bad — it means not letting the bad blot out the good that is also there. E. Open-mindedness (month 5).
- Meet the new without the verdict of the old. When something unfamiliar or seemingly impossible appears, hold the inner attitude: “this may be so,” giving it a fair hearing before judging.
- Suspend the reflex “I already know.” Keep a living readiness to learn from what does not fit prior experience. F. Harmony (month 6 onward).
- Practise all five together, letting thinking, willing, and the three feeling-qualities support and balance one another into a single, harmonious inner life. (Sourcing note: the “rejoicing in heaven / saddened to death” balance, the good-praiseworthy-beautiful formula, the Christ-and-the-dog illustration, the “don’t let past determine future” stance, the monthly cadence, and the closing harmony exercise are Steiner’s published teaching; quoted phrases are short and attributed.)
Source & Lineage
Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) sets out the six subsidiary exercises in Occult Science: An Outline (GA 13) and Guidance in Esoteric Training (GA 245).
He maps the first three to thinking, willing, and feeling, then adds positivity, open-mindedness, and harmony, prescribing them as a graded monthly course that supports — never replaces — daily meditation.
Common refinements
Equanimity ≠ numbness. Steiner wants mastery of feeling, not its suppression. Feel fully; just don’t be hurled. Bottling up is the failure mode.
- Positivity ≠ denial. Forcing a smile over genuine harm, injustice, or danger is a distortion. The instruction is to also see the good, not to deny the bad.
- Open-mindedness ≠ credulity. “This may be so” is a fair hearing, not abandoning judgement. Steiner pairs it everywhere with sound, sober thinking.
- Rushing the sequence. These come after the thinking and willing drills and unfold over months. Cultivating one well beats juggling all five badly.