Light on the Path : The Dance of Shiva

Rudolf Steiner:

We absorb the light. Normally we do not know that the light unites with breathing when it penetrates the eye – warmth is between them – the breathing of air combines with the light [middle part of the list]: the representation [mental picture] of the perception arises. We live in light in that we form thoughts, just as toward the lower kingdoms we live in the air, in breathing. We hold thoughts back from the light. We don't realize that thoughts can only live in us if they are illumined by the light, if breathing is illumined by the light.

For those who have advanced to Imagination, thinking is a hushed breath illumined by ingested light, made vibrant by it.

Here are the gentle waves of breath. [Waving lines are drawn on the blackboard.] They are illumined by light. [Yellow marks.] For in spiritual science everything which works through the senses is designated as light. Not only what works through the eyes, also what works through sound, is light, also what is sensed as touch, is light. All perception through the senses is light. But when we become aware that thinking, this having thoughts, is refined breathing waving, weaving upon the light – it is as when one sees the surface of the sea upon whose waves the sun's light shines. Also, as though one were inside and could feel the surging of the waves and the light shining on them. It is all perception when one experiences it from within.

Source: March 21, 1924. First Class Lesson 6

Frank Thomas Smith, Southern Cross Review

http://southerncrossreview.org/84/steiner-class-6.html