{"id":19540,"date":"2023-07-09T10:54:31","date_gmt":"2023-07-09T09:54:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/?p=19540"},"modified":"2026-05-27T14:38:57","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T13:38:57","slug":"inner-exercises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/en\/inner-exercises\/","title":{"rendered":"The Devotional and Mental Way"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Are you drawn to surrender, or to discipline? The devotional and mental way are two roads to the Spirit, and Assagioli says full development requires walking both.<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Assagioli's<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Roberto Assagioli<\/strong>
Docs. #23326 and #1452, Assagioli Archives, Florence
Original title: Esercizi Interiori<\/em>
Translated and edited with notes by Jan Kuniholm<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editorial Note<\/strong>
The abstract and contextual subtitle in this online edition have been added by the editor, Kenneth S\u00f8rensen, to support readability, navigation, and archival consistency. The original wording has not been altered.
This article is presented as Assagioli’s unrevised working notes. As Jan Kuniholm notes in his commentary, Assagioli later revised the terminology he uses here for human typology, as set out in his 2004 monograph Psychosynthesis Typology<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Abstract<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In this lecture, Roberto Assagioli sketches two great paths to the Spirit. The devotional way moves by aspiration, prayer, and surrender; the mental way moves by discipline, mastery, and the gradual conquest of the psyche. Each suits a different temperament, but neither is superior, and Assagioli holds that the fully developed person learns both. The work begins small, with elementary exercises like visualizing a black square on white.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Before beginning the psychological experiments and exercises I mentioned in the program of our meetings outlined last Sunday, I think it appropriate to indicate more broadly their meaning and value, framing them within the whole of psychospiritual development.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making use of the outline already used in past years and which has been found clear and demonstrative, it can be said that the essential goal to be achieved is an ever-increasing communication, an ever broader and more intimate union between the conscious self and the spiritual self.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the way is not clear: many obstacles stand in the way; external and internal elements tend to grab the ordinary self, to draw it to itself and distract it from the Spirit. <\/span><\/span>[1]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"devotional<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How to free ourselves from those obstacles? How to break the bonds? How to implement communion with our Spirit?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

TWO BASIC METHODS:<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. The Religious, Devotional, Mystical Method.<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Aspiration<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Elevation<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Dedication <\/span><\/span>[2]<\/span><\/span><\/a> – the spontaneous “upward” impulse of the soul<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Invocation<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Prayer – silent or spoken <\/span><\/span>[3]<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This can have various aspects. The main ones are:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Communion with God in a completely inward way \u2014 “vertical” elevation or uplifting.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    “Expansive” communion with God as universal life.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    (There would be much to say, but I will not dwell on it).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The Method of Love.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n