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On Karma, Reincarnation and
Initiation
We have heard that the
Atlanteans were still consciously at home in the spiritual world where
they experienced day consciousness. So-called night consciousness was
experienced in the physical world. We have subsequently followed the
descent of humanity during the post-Atlantean era through the different
cultural-epochs up to the Greco-Latin when Christ Jesus appeared on
the earth.
We will now once again
study our own time, the fifth cultural epoch. Because men's intelligence
today is being directed solely to the physical plane, humanity has
descended far more deeply into the physical world than was the case during
the other main epochs of culture. Materialism has led to a tremendous
upsurge of intellectual power and activity, with merely the satisfaction of
physical needs in view. The typical hallmark of our epoch has crystallized,
for example, in the department store. The culture of the present age
works only for the needs of the physical plane, but it works with a
subtlety hitherto unachieved. It is therefore clear to occultism why
the contrast between religion and science, expressed as it is in the
many different movements is so great and the cleft between them so wide.
The conflict between religion and science, under which art also suffers,
is always in evidence when the level of culture declines. This can be
detected in the science of today, which has become irrevocably entangled
in a materialistic and abstract mode of thinking. Philosophy is not
something absolute but a mode of thinking that has come into existence
in the course of evolution; it has certain antecedents and must be amenable
to change. Before philosophical thinking, (which originated in the sixth
century B.C.
among the Greeks,) came into existence, the kind of knowledge
then current was an extract of the wisdom contained in the Mysteries.
The source of this wisdom was inner experience in the soul, experience
in which the secrets of world happenings were revealed. When the human
soul lost the ancient faculty of intuitive vision the intellectual analysis
of sensory and soul perceptions began. But in the early days, through
inner vision that was still possible for the philosophers, or through
tradition, they still knew of the existence of the old Mystery wisdom
and applied to it the intellectual faculty that was then developing.
Seership was still the source of the wisdom of Pythagoras and Plato;
Aristotle, the founder of logic, was the first to apply the technique
of pure thought. Aristotelianism dominated thought throughout the Middle
Ages, experiencing its heyday in Scholasticism. But an abyss gradually
opened between knowledge and faith. Between reason and its mental technique
on the one side and super-sensible truth on the other, a cleft arose,
finding its ultimate expression in Kant. There is to be found in Kant
and his philosophy one of the blind alleys into which materialistic
thinking had led, and Kant, unfortunately, was the one who fertilized
the whole of modern philosophy.
But it is not with the
object of criticizing modern science that the spiritual investigator
draws attention to such facts. He reveals them in order to shed light
on the path that can lead away from the fossilizing of thoughts. There
is only one solution, which is that science, art and religion, the three
branches of culture, must again be united and mutually enrich each other;
spiritual life must stream from them. To achieve this union is the task
of Western spiritual science. It must establish harmony between faith
and knowledge, the two aspects that the soul can no longer unite within
itself. Even in our material. world nothing whatever takes place in
which the spiritual is not an active factor. The spiritual is always the
creator of the physical. The much vaunted philosophical pragmatism of
James can only be designated as pseudo-spirituality, having a materialistic
conception of the spiritual. For all that, however, it has also done
a certain amount of good.
Our epoch places stress on
the tremendous importance of heredity. In reference to this it must be
said, from the point of view of the science of the spirit, which regards
the physical as a product of the spiritual, that in the pathological
manifestations attributed to heredity the spiritual is being obstructed
by the physical and cannot take effect. But the spirit has, after all, only
descended into physical matter and will ascend again when its experiences
in the physical have been gathered. Everything in the world is in process
of evolution, so too physical man and his organs. We know that man's
physical body contains organs that today no longer function. They are
organs of the past, the remnants of which we still bear within us. We
also have within us the foundations for organs of the future, organs
that today are in process of transition or transformation. First and
foremost of these organs is the human heart, which contains striated
muscle. The heart is a veritable nightmare for materialistic anatomy
because it is an involuntary organ that consists of smooth as well as
striated muscle, which is to be found in all voluntary organs in man.
In point of fact, unsuspected by science, it is an organ of the future
and is on the way to becoming a voluntary organ in the human being.
In the initiate today it has already developed. The larynx, too, is
an organ of the future, connected with the deep mystery of procreation.
There is an indication of this at the present time in the break of the
voice at puberty. In the far distant future, man will “utter”
his offspring into existence, for the larynx will become a creative organ.
The future of humanity lies in giving shape to the soul and spiritual
in material forms. Man is on the way to spiritualization, in order to
work ever more consciously at the transformation of his bodies. It behoves
us to engender strength for this future task by adopting a spiritual
conception of the world. Moreover, the feeling of becoming collaborators
in this glorious evolution should fill us with happiness and vigor.
Let me now say a few words
about the the great cosmic laws of karma and reincarnation. On Old Moon
these laws were not yet in existence. The beginning of a process of
reincarnation such as exists at present can first be spoken of when
the ego is being incorporated into the earth, that is to say, from the
middle of the Lemurian epoch until the middle of the Atlantean. For the
animal, whose ego is the group soul, there is even today no reincarnation.
The connection between an animal species and the ego belonging to it
is to be found in the astral world. For the group soul of lions, for
example, the death of a lion here on the physical plane means as much
as it means to you to cut a fingernail. A lion is at first an astral
structure, reaching down like a strand from the group soul; it descends
to the physical plane, densifies, and at the death of the individual
lion this astrality passes back again to the astral plane. The group
soul draws it in again like a limb. On Old Moon the human soul underwent
the same process. The human soul was then a member of its group soul
and returned to it. The soul, as the Bible puts it, is sheltered in
the bosom of Father Abraham.
Reincarnation and karma
first began to have meaning during the Lemurian epoch and in time will
cease to have significance. Man will then enter permanently into a
spiritual world in which he will continue to be active. When, for example,
man has developed the impulse of brotherliness in himself, the growth of
races will cease, will be overcome. In the sixth cultural epoch, human
beings will already understand better how to arrange their lives; concepts
of race will no longer have validity. Men will no longer order their
lives according to external, physical considerations but rather on a
spiritual basis. In the seventh cultural epoch, which will reflect that
of ancient India, there will once again be distribution into castes, but
a voluntary distribution. Changes in the process of evolution constantly
take place, yet continual progress is certain. In the Atlantean epoch,
the middle epoch of our earth's evolution, the significant point occurred
that is designated by the now complete penetration of the ego into man's
physical body. The process began in the middle of the Lemurian epoch
after the exit of the moon from the earth. Humanity has continued to
evolve and when the concept of brotherliness finds practical fulfilment
on the earth, races will be superseded. Karma will also then be
overcome.
What is the law of karma?
The principle of making good in a subsequent incarnation what was
reprehensible in a preceding one. Differentiation must be made between
karma that takes effect inwardly and one that has more external results.
Karma taking effect inwardly is connected with the forming of character,
talents and habits. Karma that manifests in more external ways takes the
form of the conditions of life in which a man is placed, such as family,
nationality and so forth. We will now consider more closely how karma
works in physical life. For example, what appears in one life as urge
or impulse, desire and ideation, emerges in the next life, or one of
the following lives, as habit. From good habits a fine, well-knit, healthy
physical body will come into existence in the next incarnation. A bad
habit snakes its appearance in another life in the form of an illness
or as a tendency to illness. Thus, the causes of illnesses are to be
sought in the inclinations and habits of a previous life. The actual
destiny of an individual is, on the contrary, the result of his former
deeds. A person who radiates much love in one life will, in another,
be able to stay young, inwardly as well as outwardly, for a long time. A
person who harbors many feelings of hatred in one life will age prematurely
in another. Individuals who abandon themselves to an ordinary, indolent
life, which avoids all forms of spirituality, deprive themselves of
something for their subsequent life that will be difficult for them
to retrieve.
Now let me add a few words
on the subject of initiation. At all times the leaders of humanity have
drawn upon its fountainhead. The great individualities who presided
over the Mysteries and whom we call the Masters have guided and led
humanity. To understand this better we will consider the principle
of initiation. Truth to tell, it is only possible since the time of the
Atlantean catastrophe to speak of an initiation available to human beings
because the process of initiation has also been subject to development
and change in accordance with the needs of human beings. This is true
not only in its outer forms.
Why is man in sleep unaware
of sensory impressions although he is surrounded by a material world?
It is because during the night his intellect is not working. The physical
and etheric bodies of a man asleep remain in bed; his astral body and
ego emerge and are in the spiritual world. But why is it that he perceives
nothing of the spiritual world that is all around him and into which
his astral body and ego enter during the night? It is because the astral
body of the average human being who leaves the physical body during
sleep at night has no astral sense organs. Hence, it is impossible for
him to perceive any-thing in the astral world. Through initiation or
spiritual training, the chaotic astral mass, which the astral body of
the average individual reveals itself to be, is organized in such a way
that it gradually begins to develop organs and can then have perceptions
during the night. In normal life man is not yet able to form organs
in his astral body. To be capable of this the power in his inner life
must be essentially strengthened. This is achieved through definite
exercises of meditation, concentration, and other indications. In his
feelings and life of thought the pupil must give himself up to certain
mental pictures, choosing subjects that tally only slightly or not at
all with reality. Mental pictures that represent objects in the outer
world are not suitable for developing organs in the astral body. But
visualize a figure, for example, such as that of the Rose Cross, the
black cross with the seven red roses, and if you practice the exercise
with the necessary vigor and patience, you will experience something
through it according to your degree of development. You will transform
your astral body thereby, generating organs in it. These mental pictures
should riot be abstractions; the right feelings and perceptive experiences
must be involved. Only then will the desired results be achieved.
There are three different
kinds of initiation, all of which lead to the same goal. There are three
paths, the choice of one of which depends upon a man's individuality.
One initiation is that of wisdom; it is the fitting goal for Indian and
Oriental training. This path is fraught with great dangers for European and
Western bodies and is therefore not the right one. The, second initiation
is based upon the life of feeling; it is the fundamentally Christian
path. Only few individuals can still take this path because it demands
a strong power of devotion and piety. The third path of initiation is
the Rosicrucian training, the path of the initiation of thinking and of
will. It leads to union with the forces of the other paths of initiation.
The final goal is definite in the case of every initiation, but in the
course of evolution it must be adjusted in accordance with the current
needs of souls and the possibilities offered by the human body.
The pupil of the old
initiation was compelled to be entombed in a grave for three and a half
days and was as if dead. His etheric and astral bodies were outside his
physical body and in the spiritual world. The hierophant watched over the
process and called the neophyte back to life. After his awakening he was a
witness of the spiritual world. Such was the form of the old initiation;
today that process is no longer necessary. The Christian and the
Rosicrucian initiations have such powerful effects that the human being
involved can achieve what, through the old initiation, was meant to be
brought about by the emergence of the higher members from the physical
body. The impressions from the spiritual world are now imprinted into the
astral and etheric bodies without lethargy being induced for three and
a half days. The modern initiation, if we like to call it so, once the
purification or catharsis of the astral body has been achieved, brings
about effects that lead to genuine spiritual sight and knowledge of
the spiritual world based on actual experience; the impressions received
by the soul in the spiritual world are then imprinted in the astral
and etheric bodies. That is what is called illumination in the course
of occult development.
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