Contemplating Novalis's Bildung

Reading Novalis' Fragments, I am musing about his notion of "organic poetry". It is clear that for a philosopher poetry is not mere a literary work, but first and foremost an art of life. "To become a human being is an art," (LFI #87) so speaks the philosopher. As is philosophy a never-ending process of Bildung (self-education, "conversation with oneself" leading to the "revelation of the self", LFI #21), i. e. the unity of imagination and understanding ("the poem of understanding", LFI #24) that strenghtens the powers of the individual with the powers of humanity, it is apparent, that poetry is a part of the Bildung-process.
Poetry works in the same way as philosophy (and state as well). It makes an individual the instrument of the whole, and the whole becomes the instrument of an individual (LFI #25). "Poetry is the basis of society as virtue is the basis of the state," asserts Novalis in his Logological Fragment no. 31. So what does this Bildung-process mean? Is it a kind of a cognitive accumulation? Is it education as an information accumulation?
No, this process is "organic", meaning that it is an elevation of the human being above himself (LFI #37). It is a process, hardly a methodological mechanism. It is similar to planting or cultivation (culture). The process is a self-regulated movement (LFI #21). Bildung has its own individual rules interconnected with the whole via its self-understanding and imagination (and the harmony of both). It reminds me the homeostasis, as it is used by Roger Scruton in his political philosophy (see references below). Bildung in this sense of its meaning is a cultural self-education growing from individual's desire for transcendence (his drive to God, to the whole). The desired unity is hardly monolitic, being the unity in manifold. This can be approached only by the means of diverse community realization, through a critical self-reflexive discussion (SEP).
Therefore Bildung is a historical process, an organic cultural growth, uniting understanding and imagination, enriching the logical philosophy with imagination (LFI #13). The living reflexive philosophy is practical and it is art. Moreover, the philosophy is not only a solipsistic dreaming, but it is irrevocably intersubjective: "Every word is a word to conjure with. Whichever spirit calls - another such appears." (LFI #6) Nowadays it is the time for the union of hitherto purely mechanical (discursive) and purely intuitive (dynamic) thinking (LFI #10). That process is collaborative and is done within a community.
That Bildung-process means hardly the progress of the Enlightenment. Novalis emphasises, that Bildung is the process of seeking "the original meaning":

"The world must be made Romantic ... By endowing the commonplace with a higher meaning, the ordinary with mysterious respect, the known with the dignity of the unknown, the finite with the appearance of the infinite, I am making it Romantic." (LFI #66)

It reminds me Heidegger's notion of Lichtung, the site of truth (aletheia). Lichtung comes from lichten, "to clear", and represents a possibility of truth as revelation, i. e. truth is a kind of never-ending process. Thus not truth as it is in the Platonic cognitive notion of idea, but as it is in the Aristotelian dynamic energeia. We should avoid reaching the ideas, because we have to immerse in disclosure (aletheia means Unverborgenheit). The truth obtains its presence in Freien der Lichtung, in the free space of the Lichtung (GA14: 82). The practical aspect of the process of disclosure is affirmed by Aristotelian ethics in Aristotle's Nicomachean ethics.
Bildung-process is a never-ending cultural growth therefore, based on collaborative self-education and self-transcendence, uniting understanding and imagination in harmony. The non-cognitive Bildung leads us not only towards a self-reflexive democracy, but towards the disclosure of truth as such.

References

1. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (eds. Robert C. Bartlett - Susan D. Collins). Chicago - London: The University of Chicago Press, 2011.
2. Abbrev. GA14 refers to Das Ende der Philosophie und die Aufgabe des Denkens in Martin Heidegger, Gesamtausgabe: Band 14: Zur Sache des Denkens. Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 2007.
3. Abbrev. LFI refers to Logological Fragments I in Novalis, Philosophical Writings (ed. Margaret Mahony Stoljar). Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997.
4. Abbrev. SEP refers to Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy's entry: Gjesdal, Kristin, "Georg Friedrich Philipp von Hardenberg [Novalis]", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2014/entries/novalis/>.
5. Roger Scruton, The Meaning of Conservatism. South Bend, Indiana: St. Augustine's Press, 2002.