Spiritual Research in the Branch

Living with and Sharing Questions in the Twin Cities, by Dennis Dietzel, Roseville, MN

Branch activity in the Twin Cities has waxed and waned over time, but in the last five years we have consistently met on the third Wednesday of each month with ten to fourteen people. Our current activity (2010) is largely due to the hard work of a few people, particularly Becky Streeter, who has been our Branch contact in recent years.

About five years ago we started follow ing a three-part meeting format, inspired by Rene Querido:

1. some content related to anthroposophy / spiritual research,

2. branch business and reports from local initiatives,

3. current events in the light of anthroposophy.

As we have worked with this form, we have gradually moved to a two-part meeting preceded by a social time where we share a potluck meal.

During the first part of the meeting, we strive to build an awareness of local anthroposophical initiatives and attempt (in words inspired by Robert Karp) to build a vessel that weaves together the spiritual intentions of the different initiatives. We are blessed with many anthroposophical initiatives—three Waldorf schools, two life-sharing/CSA farms, Camphill Village Minnesota, some medical related work,—and through our shared experience we hear about the various initiatives and their activities. We then hold them in silence for a few minutes, sending our best thoughts for their efforts. This part of the meeting is our vesselbuilding work and takes 30-45 minutes.

The second part of the meeting is devoted to sharing the spiritual research of members. We approach this in a very humble way, encouraging the person to share their research at whatever level they are. We keep the definition of “spiritual research” broad enough so that people do not feel intimidated or that they have to match up to Dr. Steiner’s standards. The format is up to the presenter, but generally he or she speaks for 20-30 minutes followed by conversation and questions (up to an hour). “Minnesota Nice” prevails here, so we tend to not be overly critical of each other, striving to listen and respect each others’ opinions.

Following are some examples of recent presentations:

Albert Linderman is involved professionally as an organizational development consultant. He has studied the work of Otto Scharmer (www.presencing.com) and taken a workshop on Theory U, Otto’s approach to group decision making. Albert described Theory U, which takes a group through a transformative process of open mind/heart/ will to presencing, allowing solutions to come from the future. Although Otto is presenting his work in the main-stream as a lecturer at MIT, it happens that he grew up on a biodynamic farm in Germany. He does not speak about anthroposophy in his written work, but his work reveals many inspirations from this fount.

John Fuller recently attended the Economics of Peace conference in California. John shared this work with us and related it to anthroposophical principals of threefolding. After presenting a sober picture of our current economic situation, John shared from the many inspiring presentations of people he heard at the conference (www.economicsofpeace.net).

Our next meeting will focus on the work of Shona Terrill, who is working on her masters degree at Antioch College. She will lead a session on the topic of her dissertation, which is “Moral Education.” Shona describes her work thus:

I explore observations of past societal crises and reveal how these relate to education through the prism of five moral pillars: sympathy, benevolence, reason, equity, and self determination. I also use these pillars to examine modern day social and educational theory. By studying three local schools of differing educational streams, I explore how contemporary society puts moral education into practice.

We have found this sharing of research to be fruitful for the group and a way for the researcher to deepen his/her own work. It does take extra effort to put ones’ ideas in front of other people, but the payback is the insight gained from the input of others.

Reprinted from the Winter-Spring 2009-10 edition of The Correspondence, the newsletter of the Central Region. Dennis Dietzel serves on the Central Regional Council and joined the General Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America representing his region.