Stillness · “Stillness Reveals”
Reverence & the Moments of Inner Tranquillity
To establish the two foundational moods Steiner makes prerequisite to all inner development: deep reverence/devotion toward what is higher, and a daily set-apart moment of inner tranquillity in which one surveys one’s own life with the calm detachment of a judge.
Reverence: through the day, deliberately seek what is admirable, enter “lovingly into [others’] merits,” and convert critical thoughts into devotion — for truth and knowledge, while still holding your head erect. Tranquillity: set apart ~5 min daily, withdraw from work, grow still, and survey your own past experiences “as though they applied to some other person,” “with the inner tranquility of a judge,” severing the essential from the non-essential.
What it is
Before any concentration exercise, Steiner sets two gateway dispositions as the soil everything else grows in. Reverence (veneration, devotion): the deliberate cultivation of a deep, appreciative looking-up to what is higher, true, and worthy — and the steady transformation of one’s habitual criticism into admiration.
The moments of inner tranquillity: a small part of each day set deliberately apart from work, in which you withdraw, grow still, and survey your own joys, sorrows and actions as if they belonged to someone else — “with the inner tranquility of a judge,” separating the essential from the non-essential.
Steiner makes reverence “the path of veneration. Without this attitude no one can become a student,” and gives the tranquillity rule as one of “the first of these rules.” Together they cultivate stillness (The Inner Creates the Outer), the calm witness of one’s own life (Life Is a Dream), a transformed life of feeling (The Inner Creates the Outer), and self-command (The Inner Creates the Outer).
The Method
From GA 10 (chs. on reverence and on Inner Tranquillity); paraphrase with short attributed quotes: A. Reverence / devotion (woven through daily life).
- Adopt the fundamental mood. Take up “the path of veneration, of devotion to truth and knowledge” — a felt sense “that there is something higher than ourselves.”
- Seek motives for admiration everywhere. “Everywhere in his environment and his experiences he must seek motives of admiration and homage.”
- Transform thoughts, not just behaviour. “It is not enough that I show respect only in my outward bearing; I must have this respect in my thoughts.” Be “wary of thoughts of disrespect. and endeavor straightaway to cultivate thoughts of devotion.”
- Convert criticism into appreciation in the moment. “If I meet a man and blame him for his shortcomings, I rob myself of power. but if I try to enter lovingly into his merits, I gather such power.” (Reverence is for truth and knowledge, Steiner stresses, not servility to persons — it should let you “hold [your] head erect,” never lead “to submissiveness and slavery.”) B. Moments of inner tranquillity (set apart each day).
- Set apart a small daily time — “five minutes a day will suffice” if rightly spent — wholly separate from your work, occupied differently from all your duties.
- Withdraw and grow still. “Wrest [yourself] entirely free from. work-a-day life”; let thoughts and feelings “take on a different coloring.”
- Review your experiences from above. Let “his joys and sorrows, his cares, experiences and actions. pass in review before his soul. from a higher point of view.”
- Confront yourself as a stranger. “Contemplate and judge our own actions and experiences as though they applied not to ourselves but to some other person” — “stand before himself with the inner tranquility of a judge.”
- Sever essential from non-essential. From this calm survey “the essential is severed from the non-essential,” like climbing a hill in the evening and seeing the whole day’s scene in true proportion.
- Begin with the past. Steiner says this “should be attempted. in connection with the events of destiny already experienced in the past,” not raw present crises — and that the value lies “far less on what is actually contemplated than on. the power which such inner tranquility develops.” (Sourcing note: all quoted phrases are short, verbatim from GA 10, and attributed.)
Source & Lineage
Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) lays out reverence in the opening chapter of Knowledge of the Higher Worlds (GA 10) and inner tranquillity in the chapter of that name, as the prerequisite dispositions of the whole anthroposophical path — prior to, and underpinning, the seed meditation, the six subsidiary exercises, and the backward review. The “judge of himself” / self-distanced survey is distinctively Steiner’s.
Common refinements
Reverence as servility. Steiner is explicit: veneration is for truth and knowledge and should make you more upright, not submissive. Don’t confuse it with deference to authority.
- Outward-only respect. The work is in the thought-life; polite behaviour over a critical inner monologue does little.
- Diving the tranquil review into present crises. Start with past events; the calm vantage is hard to hold over a raw, ongoing wound.
- Self-attack in the “judge” stance. The judge is calm and impartial, sorting essential from non-essential — not a prosecutor. (Note: this measured self-judgement is what Steiner keeps out of the picture-only Rückschau; the two exercises divide the labour.)
- Skipping for “lack of time.” Five honest minutes is the stated minimum; manner matters more than length.