My name is
Joel
A. Wendt. I am a
Platonist,
and have written widely in the field/stream of thought we
call:
Anthroposophy.
From these pages I am offering various courses for members
and friends, of the Anthroposophical Society, as well as
any others that want to consider such a journey.
These courses require no fees, and no travel as they can
be taken electronically. I have written several
books and dozens of articles, most of which can be read on
my website:
Shapes
in the Fire. If you want to purchase a book,
they can be obtained at the cost of being printed (I take
no creator fee) at my bookstore:
Joel
Wendt's Theory of Everything Emporium. Certain
books at the bookstore can also be downloaded as e-books
for no cost at all. Additional related materials can
be found on my YouTube Channel:
the
foolish philosopher, which has multiple themes and
over 270 videos.
The electronic means includes: e-mail, Skype and Google
Hangout. I can handle several people at the same
time, such as a study group. If desired people can
visit me in my home in Central Massachusetts: 6 Monticello
Drive, Paxton MA, 01612. My office phone number is:
916-671-5727. I also have two e-mail addresses:
hermit@tiac.net and joel232001@gmail.com.
Courses do require work, often preparation. I will
refer to this preparation-work in the course
description. Potential students need to realize they
are already the right person, in the right place, and at
the right time. There is not something you are not
that you now have to be. Providence and Karma (Love
and Justice) have done their work. Where you are is
where you need to be. You also do not, under any
circumstances have to take this course, or after taking
it, complete it. We swim in seas of wisdom, and are
meant to chart our own courses in all things. Your
own biography is the Great Teacher.
The
foundational course is called:
Sacramental
Thinking, and treats as the main treasure of
Steiner's life the self-consciousness metamorphosis of
thinking. Some familiarity with Steiner's works on
cognition may be useful: GA-2
A Theory of Knowledge
Implicit in Goethe's World Conception; GA-3
Truth
and Knowledge (Steiner's dissertation); and, GA-4
The
Philosophy of Spiritual Activity. My own
writings on cognition can be found in many places such as
Living
Thinking in Action;
Cowboy
Bebop - and the physics of thought as moral art;
The
Idea of Mind; and
pragmatic
moral psychology. All of those writings
of mine (and a couple of others) are collected in the
small book:
Sacramental
Thinking, which costs $6.25 plus shipping, or zero
as an e-book.
One can begin the
foundational course
without a great deal of preparation, although it is
helpful to be ready to do some inner work. Everyone
starts out in an individual place, and so discovering as
precisely as possible where that is can determine where to
go next. All choices of this sort are up to
the student. Sacramental Thinking begins as an
instinct, then becomes a skill, a craft, and finally an
Art. Every Path for the Rising of the Sun in the
Mind takes its own course. As our soul/spirit
seeks spiritual freedom, that must already arise - from
the beginning - out of that same spiritual freedom.
We must
choose a course of inner
action/doing. This is not intellectual knowledge by
the way, but rather the kind of knowledge that only comes
from doing. Who of us learned to ride a bike by
studying a text? Or to walk, or run, or talk?
Lest ye become again as little children, ye cannot
enter the kingdom of heaven.
As we strive to come awake to all the potentials of
thinking and thought, it is helpful to engage in some kind
of pursuit of knowledge. Sacramental Thinking is
how
we do something, so there needs to be a
what
as well.
Method needs to produce
content.
Any Idea (concept) also has its corresponding
Perceived/Experienced Reality (percept). Generally
speaking the experience comes first and the concept/Idea
second. Although, when we start to practice the Art
of this Rising of the Sun in the Mind, experience and
thought will begin to arise simultaneously.
As a consequence of these facts, it then becomes useful to
the student to have an interest or a riddle that they want
to master with the evolving thinking. This can be
something as straightforward as raising children and
running a home, or as intellectually challenging as the
study of mathematical physics. We are free to choose
any
What, and can have many such
interests. The
How then develops in
relationship to the practical experiences of seeking
knowledge of the
What.
In order to teach that
How I have to give
examples or my personal "
Whats". These
then are the next courses, which hopefully will help the
student learn how to approach their riddle, or
What,
systematically, scientifically, and with fully self-aware
thinking. The first skills to be mastered are
organic thinking (Goetheanism), followed by pure
thinking. Again, this is a subject learned by doing,
which means exercising the will. The intellect has a
role, but in order to appreciate the needed distinctions
we have to speak of:
the will-in-thinking.
There is doing, and it lies in the doing of thinking, or
the will-in-thinking ... even perhaps what Steiner tried
to point toward as: heart thinking. Anyway, the
courses include the work I have done that concerns
Christianity,
the work that concerns
Anthroposophy
and the Anthroposophical Society, and the work that
I have done that concerns our shared
social/political
life. The reader of this course-introduction
might go to these last links and simply glance down the
page to get a bit of an overview.
About
the will-in-thinking: It consists of
two types of basic actions: the attention and the
intention. The attention is where we focus our
thinking activity. That is "what" do we think about
(with, within, or as). The intention is
why
we think about this "what". This is where the moral
element enters in - it is the
why - i.e.
the intention. Self observation of our inner
experience will more or less immediately confirm these
facts.
If someone has an interest in taking a course,
they should just begin by sending me an e-mail
(preferable), or if necessary by calling me on the
phone.