V
OR
many years past we have been studying anthroposophical truths,
details of anthroposophical knowledge, trying to approach them
from different sides and to assimilate them. In the course of
the lectures now being given, and those yet to come, it will be
well to ask ourselves what Anthroposophy should and can give to
the men of our time. We know a good deal of the content of
Anthroposophy and we can therefore approach the question with a
certain basis of understanding.
We must above all
remember that the anthroposophical life, the anthroposophical
Movement itself, must be clearly distinguished — in our minds
at any rate — from any kind of special organisation, from
anything to which the name “Society” might be given. The
whole character of modern life will of course make it more and more
necessary for those who want to cultivate Anthroposophy to unite in a
corporate sense; but this is made necessary more by the character of
life outside than by the content or attitude of Anthroposophy itself.
Anthroposophy in itself could be made known to the world in the same
way as anything else — as chemistry, for instance — and
its truths could be accessible just as in the case of the truths of
chemistry or mathematics. How an individual assimilates Anthroposophy
and makes it a real impulse in his life could then be a matter for
the individual himself. A Society or any kind of corporate body for
the cultivation of Anthroposophy is made necessary because
Anthroposophy as such comes into our epoch as something new, as
entirely new knowledge, which must be received into the spiritual
life of men. Those who have not entered the sphere of
anthroposophical life need a special preparation of their souls and
hearts as well as the constitution of soul belonging to the present
age. Such preparation can be acquired only through the life and
activities in our groups and meetings. There we adapt ourselves to a
certain trend of thinking and feeling, so that we realise the
significance of matters which people in the outside world who know
nothing of Anthroposophy will naturally regard as fantastic nonsense.
It might, of course, be argued that Anthroposophy could also be made
more widely known through public lectures given to entirely
unprepared listeners; but those who belong to our groups in a more
intimate sense will realise that the whole tone, the whole manner of
delivering a lecture to an unprepared public must necessarily be
different from that of a lecture given to those who through an inner
urge and through their whole attitude, are able to take seriously
what the general public would not yet be able to accept. Quite
certainly this state of things will not improve in the immediate
future—on the contrary, the opposition will become stronger and
stronger. Opposition to Anthroposophy in every domain will increase
in the outside world, just because it is in the highest degree
necessary for our age, and because what is the most essential at any
particular time always encounters the strongest resistance.
It may be asked: Why
is this so? Why do human hearts resist so vehemently just what is
most needed in their epoch? An anthroposophist should be able to
understand this, but it is too complicated a matter to be made even
remotely clear to an unprepared public.
The student of
Anthroposophy knows of the existence of Luciferic forces, of
Luciferic beings who have lagged behind the general process of
evolution. They work through the hearts and souls of men and it is to
their greatest advantage to launch their fiercest attacks at times
when, in reality, there is the strongest urge towards the spiritual life.
Because the opposition of the human heart against the progressive
impulse in evolution originates from the Luciferic beings, and
because these beings will launch their attacks when as it were they
already have men by the throat, the resistance of human hearts will
inevitably be strongest at such times. Hence we shall understand that
the very reason why the most important truths for humanity have lived
on from earlier times is that the strongest opposition had to be
contended with. Anything that differs only slightly from what is
customary in the world will rarely encounter fierce opposition; but
what comes into the world because humanity has long been thirsting
for but has not received it, will evoke violent attacks from the
Luciferic forces. Therefore a “Society” is really nothing
more than a rampart against this understandable attitude of the
outside world.
[ 1 ]
Some form of association is
necessary within the framework of which these things can be
presented, with the feeling that in those to whom one speaks or with
whom one is in contact there will be a certain measure of
understanding, whereas others who have no link with such an
association are oblivious of it all.
Everyone believes
that what is given out in public is his own concern and that he has
to pass judgment upon it; he is instigated, of course, by the
Luciferic forces. From this we realise that it is indeed necessary to
promulgate Anthroposophy and that Anthroposophy is bringing something
essential into our age, something that is longed for by the present
thirst and hunger for spiritual nourishment and—whatever the
circumstances—will come in some form or other; for the
Spiritual Powers who have dedicated themselves to the goals of
evolution see to it that this shall happen.
We can therefore ask:
What are the most important truths that should be implanted in
humanity at the present time through Anthroposophy? Those for which
there is the most intense thirst are the most essential. The answer
to such a question is one that can very easily be misunderstood. For
this reason it is necessary, to begin with, to make a distinction in
our minds between Anthroposophy as such and the Anthroposophical
Society. The mission of Anthroposophy is to bring new truths, new
knowledge, to humanity, but a society can never — least of all
in our age — be pledged to any particular tenets. It would be
utterly senseless to ask: “What do you anthroposophists
believe?” It is senseless to imagine that an
“anthroposophist” means a person who belongs to the
Anthroposophical Society, for that would be to assume that a whole
society holds a common conviction, a common dogma. And that cannot
be. The moment a whole society, according to its statutes, were
pledged to a common dogma, it would cease to be a society and begin
to be a sect. Here is the boundary where a society ceases to be one
in the true sense of the word. The moment a man is pledged to hold a
belief exacted by a society, we have to do with pure sectarianism.
Therefore a society dedicated to the principles described in these
lectures can be a society only from the aspect that it is under the
right and natural spiritual impulse. It may be asked: “Who are
the people who come together to hear something about
Anthroposophy?” To this we may reply: “Those who have an
urge to hear about spiritual things.” This urge has nothing
dogmatic about it. For if a person is seeking for something without
saying, “I shall find this or that,” but is really
seeking, this is the common element which a society that does not
wish to become a sect must contain. The question: What does
Anthroposophy as such bring to humanity? is quite independent of
this. Our reply must be: Anthroposophy as such brings to humanity
something that is similar to all the great spiritual truths that have
been brought to humanity, only its effect upon the human soul is more
profound, more significant.
Among the subjects we
have been studying in our lectures there are many that might be
considered less distinctive from the point of view of something
entirely new being presented to modern humanity. Nevertheless they
are fundamental truths which do indeed penetrate into humanity as
something new. We need not look very far to find this new element. It
lies in the two truths which really belong to the most fundamental of
all and bring increasing conviction to the human soul: these are the
two truths of reincarnation and karma. It may be said that the first
thing a really serious anthroposophist discovers along his path is
that knowledge of reincarnation and karma is essential. It cannot,
for example, be said that in Western culture, certain truths —
such as the possibility of becoming conscious of higher worlds
— present themselves through Anthroposophy as something
fundamentally new. Anyone who has some knowledge of the development
of Western thought knows of mystics such as Jacob Boehme or
Swedenborg, or the whole Jacob Boehme school, and he knows too
— although there has been much argument to the contrary —
that it has always been considered possible for a man to rise from
the ordinary sense-world to higher worlds. This, then, is not the
element that is fundamentally new. And the same applies to other
matters. Even when we are speaking of what is absolutely fundamental
in evolution, for example, the subject of Christ, this is not the
salient point as regards the Anthroposophical Movement as such; the
essential point is the form which the subject of Christ
assumes when reincarnation and karma are received as truths into the
hearts of men. The light thrown upon the subject of Christ by the
truths of reincarnation and karma — that is the essential
point.
The West has been
profoundly concerned with the subject of Christ. We need only be
reminded of men in the days of the Gnosis, and of the time when
esoteric Christianity was deepened by those who gathered under the
sign of the Grail or of the Rose Cross. This, then, is not the
fundamental question. It becomes fundamental and of essential
significance for Western minds, for knowledge and for the needs of
the religious life only through the truths of reincarnation and
karma; so that those whose mental horizons have been widened by the
knowledge of these truths necessarily expect new illumination to be
shed on old problems. With regard to the knowledge of reincarnation
and karma, however, all that can be said is that tentative
indications are to be found in Western literature, for example, at
the time of Lessing, who speaks of the subject in his essay,
The Education of the Human Race.
There are also other examples of
how this question has dawned upon minds of a certain profundity. But
for the truths of reincarnation and karma to become an integral part
of human consciousness, assimilated by the hearts and souls of men,
as in Anthroposophy—this is something that could not really
happen until our own time. Therefore it can be said that the relation
of a man of the modern age to Anthroposophy is characterised by the
fact that certain antecedents have enabled reincarnation and karma to
become matters of knowledge to him. That is the essential point.
Everything else follows more or less as a matter of course if a man
is able to acquire the right insight into the truths of reincarnation
and karma.
In considering this
aspect of the subject, we must also realise what it will mean for
Western humanity and for humanity in general when reincarnation and
karma become matters of knowledge which take their place in everyday
life as other truths have done. In the near future, reincarnation and
karma must pass into the consciousness of men far more deeply than
was the case, for example, with the Copernican view of the universe.
We need only remind ourselves of how rapidly this theory penetrated
into the human mind. Only a comparatively short period in
world-history has elapsed since the Copernican view of the universe
first became generally known, yet it is now taught even in the
elementary schools. As far as the effect upon the human soul is
concerned, however, there is an essential difference between
Copernicanism and the anthroposophical world-conception, in so far as
the latter is based on the fundamental principles of reincarnation
and karma. To be able to characterise the difference, one really
needs a group of anthroposophists, of people who come together with
good will to understand, for things would have to be said that would
cause too great a shock to those outside the anthroposophical
Movement.
Why is it that the
Copernican view of the universe has been accepted so readily? Those
who have heard me speak of it or of modern natural science in general
know well that I pass no derogatory judgment on the modern scientific
mode of thinking. Therefore in characterising the difference I shall
not be misinterpreted when I say that for the acceptance of this
world-picture, limited as it is to the presentation of external
relationships and conditions of space, an epoch of superficiality was
necessary! The reason why the Copernican theory took root so rapidly
is none other than that for a certain period of time men became
superficial. Superficiality was essential for the adoption of
Copernicanism. Depth of soul — that is to say, the exact
opposite — will be necessary for acceptance of the truths of
Anthroposophy, especially of the fundamental truths of reincarnation
and karma. If, therefore, the conviction grows in us to-day that
these truths must become a much stronger and more widespread
influence in the life of mankind, we must realise at the same time
that we are standing at the boundary between two epochs: one, the
epoch of superficiality, and the other, the epoch when the human soul
and human heart must be inwardly deepened. This is what must be
inscribed in our very souls if we are to be fully conscious of what
Anthroposophy has to bring to humanity at the present time. And then
comes the question: What form will life take under the influence of
the knowledge of reincarnation and karma?
Here we must consider
what it really means for the human soul and heart to recognise that
reincarnation and karma are truths? What does it mean for the whole
of man's consciousness, for his whole life of feeling and
thinking? As anyone who reflects about these things can realise, it
means no less than that through knowledge the Self of man grows
beyond certain limits to which knowledge is otherwise exposed. In
past times it was sharply emphasised that man could know and
recognise only what lies between birth and death, that at most he
could look up with faith to one who penetrates into a spiritual world
as a knower. Such conviction grew with increasing strength. But this
is not of very great significance when regarded merely from the
aspect of knowledge; the subject becomes really significant when we
pass from the aspect of knowledge to the moral aspect. It is
then that the whole greatness and significance of the ideas of
reincarnation and karma are revealed. A very great deal could be said
in confirmation of this but we will confine ourselves to one
aspect.
Think of the people
belonging to earlier epochs of Western civilisation and the great
majority of those living at the present time. Although they still
cling to the belief that the being of man remains intact when he
passes through the Gate of Death, it is imagined — because no
thought is given to reincarnation and karma — that man's
spiritual life after death is entirely separate from earthly
existence. Apart from exceptional phenomena to which credence is
given by those with spiritualistic leanings, when the dead are
alleged to be working into this world, the current idea is that
whatever takes place when a man has passed through the Gate of Death
— be it punishment or reward — is remote from the earth
as such, and that the further course of his life lies in a quite
different sphere, a sphere beyond the earth.
Knowledge of
reincarnation and karma changes this idea entirely. What is contained
in the soul of a man who has passed through the Gate of Death has
significance not only for a sphere beyond the earth, but the future
of the earth itself depends upon what his life has been between birth
and death. The earth will have the outer configuration that is
imparted by the men who have lived upon it. The whole future
configuration of the planet, as well as the social life of men in the
future, depends upon how men have lived in their earlier
incarnations. That is the moral element in the ideas of reincarnation
and karma. A man who has assimilated these ideas knows: According to
what I was in life, I shall have an effect upon everything that takes
place in the future, upon the whole civilisation of the future!
Something that up to now has been present in a limited degree only
— the feeling of responsibility — is extended
beyond the bounds of birth and death by knowledge of reincarnation
and karma. The feeling of responsibility is intensified, imbued with
the deep moral consequences of these ideas. A man who does not
believe in them may say: “When I have passed through the Gate
of Death I shall be punished or rewarded for what I have done here; I
shall experience the consequences of this existence in another world;
that other world, however, is ruled over by spiritual Powers of some
kind or other, and they will prevent what I have within me from
causing too much harm to the world as a whole.” A man who
realises that the ideas of reincarnation and karma are based upon
reality will no longer speak like this, for he knows that men's
lives will be shaped according to what they have been in earlier
incarnations.
The important point
is that the fundamental ideas of the anthroposophical conception of
the world will pass over into the souls and hearts of men and arise
as moral impulses undreamed of in the past times. The feeling of
responsibility will be intensified to a degree that was formerly
impossible, and other moral insights will necessarily follow. As
human beings learning to live under the influence of the ideas of
reincarnation and karma we shall come to know that our life cannot be
assessed on the basis of what has taken expression in one life
between birth and death, but that a period extending over many lives
must be taken into account.
When we encounter
another human being with the attitude that has prevailed hitherto, we
feel sympathy or antipathy towards him, strong or moderate affection,
and the like. The whole attitude of one man to another in the present
age is in reality the outcome of the view that life on the earth is
limited to the one period between birth and death. We live as we
should after all be bound to live if it were true that man is on the
earth only once. Our attitude to parents, brothers, sisters, friends,
is coloured by the belief that we have only one life on the
earth.
A vast transformation
will take place in life when the ideas of reincarnation and karma are
no longer theories held by a few people as is the case nowadays
— for they are still largely matters of theory. It can truly be
said that there are numbers of people to-day who believe in
reincarnation and karma; but they act as if there were no such
realities, as though life were actually confined to the one period
between birth and death. Nor can it be otherwise, for habits change
less quickly than ideas. Only when we introduce into our lives right
and concrete ideas of reincarnation and karma, only then shall we
find how life can be fertilised by them.
As human beings we
begin life in the circle of our parents, brothers and sisters, and
other relatives; in our early years those around us are there owing
to natural factors such as blood-relationship, proximity and the
like. Then, as we grow up, we see how these circles expand, how we
enter into quite different connections with human beings, connections
that are no longer dependent on blood-relationship. These things must
be seen in the light of karma and then they will illumine life in an
entirely new way. Karma becomes of significance only when we grasp it
as a concrete factor, when we apply to life itself the facts brought
to light by spiritual-scientific investigation. These facts can, of
course, be discovered only by such investigation, but then they can
be applied to life.
An important question
in connection with karma is the following: How does it come about
that at the beginning of the present life, for example, we are drawn
to certain others through blood-relationship? Spiritual-scientific
investigation of this question discovers that as a rule — for
although specific facts come to light there are countless exceptions
— the human beings with whom we came to be associated
involuntarily at the beginning of our life, were close to us
in a former life — in most cases the immediately preceding one
— in middle life, in the thirties; then we chose them
voluntarily in some way, drawn to them perhaps by our
hearts. It would be quite erroneous to think that the people around
us at the beginning of our present life are those with whom we were
also together at the beginning of a former life. Not at the
beginning, not at the end, but in the middle of one life we were
associated, by our own choosing, with those who are now our
blood-relations. It is frequently the case that a marriage partner
whom someone has chosen deliberately will be related to him in the
next life as father or mother, or brother or sister.
Spiritual-scientific investigation shows that speculative assumptions
are generally incorrect and as a rule contradicted by the actual
facts.
When we consider the
particular case just mentioned and try to grasp it as a finding of
the unbiased investigations of Spiritual Science, our whole relation
to life is widened. In the course of Western civilisation things have
reached the point where it is hardly possible for a man to do
otherwise than speak of ‘chance’ when thinking about his
connection with those who are his blood-relations. He speaks of
chance and in many respects believes in it. How indeed could he
believe in anything else if life is thought to be limited to one
period only between birth and death? As far as the one life is
concerned a man will of course admit that he is responsible for the
consequences of what he himself has brought about. But when he leads
the Self beyond what happens between birth and death, when he feels
this Self to be connected with other men of another incarnation, he
feels responsible in the same way as he does for his own deeds in
this life.
The general view that
a man has himself karmically chosen his parents is not of any special
significance, but we gain an idea of this ‘choosing’
which can actually be confirmed by other experiences of life when we
realise that those whom we have chosen so unconsciously now, were
chosen by us in a former life at an age when we were more conscious
than at any other, when we were fully mature.
This idea may be
unpalatable to some people to-day but it is true nevertheless. If a
person is not satisfied with his kith and kin he will eventually come
to know that he himself laid the basis of this dissatisfaction and
that he must therefore provide differently for the next incarnation;
and then the ideas of reincarnation and karma will become really
fruitful in his life. The point is that these ideas are not there for
the sake of satisfying curiosity or the like, but for the sake of our
progress. When we know how family connections are formed, the ideas
of reincarnation and karma will widen and enhance our feeling of
responsibility.
The forces which
bring down an individual human being into a family must obviously be
strong. But they cannot be strong in the individual now incarnated,
for they cannot have much to do with the world into which he has
actually descended. Is it not comprehensible that the forces working
in the deepest depths of the soul must stem from the past life when
he himself brought about the connections by the strong impulse of
friendship, of ‘conscious love,’ if it may be called so?
Conscious forces prevailing in one life work as unconscious forces in
the next. What happens more or less unconsciously is explained by
this thought. It is most important, of course, that the facts should
not be clouded by illusions; moreover the findings of genuine
investigation almost invariably upset speculations. The logic of the
facts cannot be discovered until afterwards and nobody should allow
himself to be guided by speculation, for that will never bring him to
the right vantage-point. He will always arrive at a point of view
that is characteristic of a conversation of which I have already
spoken. In a town in South Germany a theologian once said to me:
“I have read your books and have realised that they are
entirely logical; so the thought has occurred to me that because they
are so logical their author may perhaps have arrived at their content
through pure logic.” So if I had taken pains to write a little
less logically I should presumably have gone up in the estimation of
that theologian, because he would then have realised that the facts
presented were not discovered through pure logic! Anyone, however,
who studies the writings thoroughly will perceive that the contents
were put into the form of logic afterwards but were not discovered
through logic. I at any rate could have done no such thing, of that I
assure you! Perhaps others might have been capable of it.
Regarded in this way,
these things bring home to us the deep significance of the idea that
the most important impulses proceeding from Anthroposophy must
necessarily be moral impulses. Emphasis has been laid to-day upon the
feeling of responsibility. In the same way we might speak of love, of
compassion and the like, all of which present different aspects in
the light of the ideas of reincarnation and karma. That is why
through the years it has been considered of such importance, even in
public lectures, always to relate Anthroposophy to life, to the most
immediate phenomena of life. We have spoken of “The Mission of
Anger,” of “Conscience,” of
“Prayer,”
[ 2 ]
of the different ages
in the life of the human being, approaching all these things in the
light in which they must be approached if we assume that the ideas of
reincarnation and karma are true. The transforming power of these
ideas in life has thus been brought home to us. In reality the main
part of our studies has been to consider the effect of these
fundamental ideas upon life. Even if it is not always possible in
abstract words to convey the significance of reincarnation and karma
for the heart, for conscience, for the character, for prayer, in such
a way that we are able to say: “If we accept the ideas of
reincarnation and karma, it follows that ...” —
nevertheless all our studies are illumined by them. The important
thing for the immediate future is that everything—not only the
science of the soul but the other sciences too — shall be
influenced by these ideas.
If you study a
lecture such as the last public one on “Death in Man, Animal,
and Plant,” you will see that it was a matter of showing how
men will learn to think of death in plant, animal and man when they
discern in themselves that which stretches beyond the single human
life. It was made clear that the Self is different in each case. In
man there is an individual Ego, in the animal there is a group-soul,
and in the plant we have to do with part of the whole planetary soul.
In the case of the plant, what we see outwardly as dying and budding
is to be conceived of simply as a process of falling asleep and
waking. In the animal there is again a difference; here we find a
certain degree of resemblance to man inasmuch as in a single
incarnation a self comes into some kind of evidence. But in man
alone, who himself brings about his incarnations, we realise that
death is the guarantee of immortality and that the word
‘death’ can be used in this sense only in the
case of man. In using the word ‘death’ in the general
sense, therefore, it must be emphasised that dying has a different
signification according to whether we are speaking of man, or animal,
or plant.
When the
anthroposophist is able to accept the ideas of reincarnation and
karma in the form in which we must present them, as distinct from
earlier conceptions such as are found, for example, in Buddhism, his
studies will lead him quite naturally to other things. That is why
our work has been mainly devoted to studying what effect the ideas of
reincarnation and karma can have upon the whole of human life. In
this connection it is obvious that the work of any anthroposophical
association or society must be in conformity with the mission of
Anthroposophy. It is therefore understandable that when we speak
about questions which may seem to those outside Anthroposophy to be
the most important, the fundamental truths are the basis upon which
we speak of matters closely concerning every Western soul. It is
quite conceivable that a man might accept from Anthroposophy those
things that have been described to-day as fundamentally new and not
concern himself at all with any of the differences between the
various religions, for the Science of Comparative Religion is by no
means an essential feature of modern Spiritual Science. A great deal
of research is devoted to the subject of Comparative Religion to-day
and in comparison with it the studies pursued in certain societies
connected with Spiritual Science are by no means the more profound.
The point of real importance is that in Anthroposophy all these
things shall be illumined by the ideas of reincarnation and
karma.
In another connection
still the feeling of responsibility will be essentially enhanced
under the influence of these ideas. If we consider what has been said
to-day about blood-relationship and companions once freely chosen by
ourselves, a certain antithesis comes into evidence: What in one life
is the most inward and intimate impulse, is in the next life the most
outwardly manifest. When in one incarnation our deepest feelings of
affection go out to certain human beings, we are preparing an outer
relationship for another incarnation — a blood-relationship,
maybe.
The same principle
applies in another sphere. The way in which we think about some
matter that may seem to us devoid of reality in one incarnation will
be the most determinative factor in the impulses of the next; the
quality of our thinking, whether we approach a truth lightly or try
to verify it by every means at our command, whether we have a sense
for truth or a tendency to fanaticism — all this, as the result
of assimilating the ideas of reincarnation and karma, will have a
bearing upon our evolution. What is hidden within our being in the
present incarnation will be most in evidence in the next. A person
who tells many untruths or is inclined to take things superficially
will be a thoughtless character in the next or a later incarnation;
for what we think, how we think, what attitude we have to truth, in
other words what we are inwardly in this incarnation, will be the
standard of our conduct in the next. If, for example, in this
incarnation, we too hastily form a derogatory judgment of someone who
if really put to the test might prove to be a good or even a
moderately good man, and we carry this thought through life, we shall
become unbearable, quarrelsome people in the next incarnation. Here
is another illustration of the importance of widening and
intensifying the moral element in the soul.
It is very important
that special attention should be paid to these things and that we
should realise the significance of taking into our very soul what is
really new, together with everything else that with the ideas of
reincarnation and karma penetrates as a revitalising impulse into the
spiritual development of the present age . . .
My aim has been to
bring home to you the importance of reflecting upon what constitutes
the fundamentally new element in Anthroposophy. This of course does
not mean that an anthroposophical society is one that believes in
reincarnation and karma. It means that just as an age was once ready
to receive the Copernican theory of the universe, so is our own age
ready for the ideas of reincarnation and karma to be brought into the
general consciousness of humanity. And what is destined to happen in
the course of evolution will happen, no matter what powers rise up
against it. When reincarnation and karma are truly understood,
everything else follows of itself in the light of these truths.
It is certainly
useful to have considered the fundamental distinction between those
who are interested in Anthroposophy and those who oppose it. The
distinction does not really lie in the acceptance of a higher world,
but in the way thoughts and conceptions change in the light of the
ideas of reincarnation and karma. And so to-day we have been studying
something that may be regarded as the essential kernel of
anthroposophical thought.
Notes:
1.
It must be remembered that this lecture was given in 1912 and that
at the Christmas Meeting of 1923, in Dornach, when Rudolf Steiner
became its President, the Anthroposophical Society was given a new
foundation and constitution.
2.
See:
Metamorphoses of the Soul. Vol 1
and
Metamorphoses of the Soul. Vol 2.
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