How to live a balanced life outwardly?

In a comment on the last week’s text, the following question was asked:
‘Given that perception of thinking brings the balance between sense perception and ordinary thinking, is there a way to be active in this way, ie active in outward deeds, where sense perception and ordinary thinking are an inevitable part of outward activity with regular chores.

I will try to give a kind of answer to this question.

Perception of thinking brings the balance, but it is only in meditation where this happens, when thinking has become sufficiently strong that it can be perceived, which is not the case with normal thinking. In ordinary thinking we perceive the content, we perceive what we think, but not the process of thinking itself. This process has to be strengthened by meditation, till it becomes perceptible. This is the 'middle way' - as Steiner puts it:
'We can do something more. We can make whatever we think so inwardly forceful that our own thought appears before us like a living thing; we can immerse ourselves in it just as actively as we do in something heard or seen outside. Our thought then becomes as real and concrete as the things we hear or see. That is the middle way.'

So in outward activity it is not possible to reach this state without having achieved such a state in meditation beforehand. I know that at this point there always comes the objection that it is far too complicated and that there are many easier ways to reach balance. I don't agree with such objections. There are certainly many ways to live in illusions about easy ways to reach heaven or enlightenment. One can find them on the internet. But in my experience these are really illusions, all based on the principle: The devil is never seen by the people, not even when he sits on their shoulder.

So how can we develop an activity in outward life, that brings us this balance of perceiving of thinking?

We can bring forward our strengthened power of thinking into our active life and point it at perception. All perceptions are, in fact, other forms of our thoughts, they are nothing different, they only seem to be. Our strong thinking will meet the sense perception and discover the nearness of this outward world, that seems so far away from thinking in ordinary life. But that asks for mindful perception and thinking. 

When taking action, it is also possible to unify our strong thought-life with such acting - and we will discover much about ourselves, and gain an ever deepening self-knowledge.

Because thinking is so active and strong by then that it can be perceived also in outward life, sense perception is also woven through with this active thinking - and is therefore in balance: perception is thought; thought is perceived.

But without doing exercises in a meditative life, I don't see it being possible to find an immediate balance in outward life. There are people who are gifted with a kind of natural inner balance, others have to positively seek it out, but even the gifted people lose their balance in the course of their lives, because of the lack of balance in their surroundings - a lack that becomes more and more painful as time goes by.
 

Image from the science-fiction film 'Prometheus'.How to live a balanced life outwardly? by Mieke Mosmuller