Six Basic Exercises for Inner Work

Since returning to school following the winter break, our faculty and staff have been studying and practicing Rudolf Steiner’s six basic exercises together.

This series of exercises was designed to cultivate an ability to think with our hearts, rather than with our heads. Through these exercises we can attain thoughts that unite us with others in such a way that we lose neither our individuality nor true freedom.

Further, they can help to assure that we don’t develop a false sense of “freedom” through isolation and separation.

In order to achieve this, four qualities must be developed within us:

“Spiritual science describes four qualities which a person needs to acquire on the path of probation, as we can call it, in order to rise to higher knowledge. The first of these is the ability to distinguish in thoughts what is true from what is false, truth from mere opinion. The second quality is a proper appreciation of truth and reality as opposed to appearance. The third consists in practicing the six capacities: control of thoughts, control of actions, patience and tenacity, tolerance, faith, and equanimity. The fourth is love of inner freedom.” - Rudolf Steiner (GA10)

The six subsidiary exercises were designed for us to manifest the third quality, which is the actual practice of the six capacities: control of thoughts, control of actions, patience and tenacity, tolerance, faith, and equanimity.

These practices are a dedication to the persistent strengthening of these capacities within ourselves so that we can develop deep compassion, sense of truth, and love for one another, beyond our individual opinions. This also helps us to effectively work with our community of adults in harmony.

As the faculty and staff work through these meditative exercises together, we thought the rest of our community might be interested in the practice as well. Over the next months, we will be sharing each of the six basic exercises for your own inner work and development.

Chiaki Uchiyama is Cedarwood’s Pedagogical Director, and teaches the Japanese language program to our middle school students. Born and raised in Yokohama, Japan, Uchiyama Sensei moved to the United States in 1997 and taught Japanese language at Cedarwood for 20 years before becoming the Pedagogical Director in 2018. Although she misses the fun of teaching Japanese language to the children, she finds infinite satisfaction and fulfillment in supporting our students, teachers, administration, parents, and the whole school community.