III.
MAN'S SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS, HIS WORK UPON THE LOWER MEMBERS OF
HIS BEING AND HIS DESTINY AFTER DEATH
There is a
“holiest of holies” in man which we may designate
as his self-consciousness. Those who see this in the right
way, have no difficulty in perceiving that this word
“self-consciousness” expresses at the same time
the true meaning of human life. Self-consciousness is the
capacity for transmitting the knowledge that One is an EGO.
You may clearly
obtain an idea of this if you bear in mind that there is one
name in the whole language which fundamentally differs from
all the others: it is the word “I”. Anyone can
designate the table, but, “I” is a designation
which can only be applied individually to one's own self. To
every other person one is a “you”. Never can the
word “I” resound from outside, if it is to
designate my own being. Spiritual science has always
experienced this.
In the Jewish
religion, for instance, when speaking of man's inner being,
it was referred to as the unspeakable name of God. For the
Hebrews said: When the “I” is to be pronounced,
it must resound from the central point of our being. No
being outside can utter this name: A kind of shudder
therefore passed through the whole congregation when the
priest uttered the word JAHVE, “I am the I am”.
The God within man begins to speak — this is the pure,
original, meaning of the Jewish name of God. You will also
learn to know other names, but they all stand in some kind of
relationship to this one name.
With this word
“I,” we designate the fourth member of man's
being. Through the Ego, and from this centre, man works upon
the other members of his being, upon his astral body, etheric
body and physical body. No matter how far we go back into the
history of human development, we find that man always
possessed these four members, and it is this which
distinguishes him from the animals.
Let us now form
an idea of the relationship between developed and undeveloped
men in regard to these four members. Consider under this
aspect one of the most savage men, who eats up his
fellow-men, and compare him with an average European, and the
latter again with a highly developed individual —
Goethe, for example, or Schiller, or Francis of Assisi. The
savage blindly follows the instincts and passions contained
in his astral body. He has an Ego, but this Ego still lives
completely under the sway of the astral body. An average man
of the present time is already able to distinguish good and
evil, and this is due to the fact that he has worked upon his
astral body. He has worked upon it and even transformed
certain instincts into so-called ideals. Man reaches an ever
higher stage of development the more he transforms his astral
body through his Ego. The modern average European has
transformed a good part of this astral body. An individuality
such as Schiller or Goethe has already transformed the
greater part of the astral body. But a human being who has
subjugated all his passions through his will, as for
instance, Francis of Assisi, has an astral body which is
entirely transformed by his Ego, there is nothing left in
this astral body which is not completely under the sway of
the Ego.
That part of
the astral body which man has been able to transform, we
designate as “Manas” or
“Spirit-Self”. This is the fifth member of his
being. We may then say: The Ego contains the seed for the
transformation of the astral body into Manas,
Spirit-Self,
Now man has the
possibility to transform not only his astral body, but also
his etheric body, so that the Ego also becomes the sovereign
of the etheric body. But you must realise that this is a far
more difficult and slower work. The difference between the
transformation of the astral body and of the etheric body is
the following: —
Consider what
you knew when you were eight years old, and what you have
learned since your youth! The bearer of all these
transformations is the astral body. Consequently it changes
essentially every day through the external impressions which
you take in. But this is not the case with the etheric body.
If you wish to have an idea of this imagine the following:
— If you were a choleric child at the age of eight, you
will probably still lose your temper even to-day. Only a few
people succeed in transforming themselves to such an extent
as to change also their habits, inclinations, temperament and
character. This does not in any way contradict what I have
explained above. The astral body is indeed connected with
pleasure and pain and the other sensations, but when these
have become habitual and so-called character traits, then
they are rooted in the etheric body; and if we wish to
transform these habits, then the etheric body must be
transformed, for it is the bearer of every habit and
character-trait.
I have
frequently compared the transformations of astral body and
etheric body with the progress of the minute and second hands
of the clock.
Later on we
shall speak of the development of the more advanced pupil. He
is not a pupil in the meaning of ordinary life, not only one
who learns something. Undoubtedly, such a pupil must also
learn a lot, but far more important than learning, is the
above-mentioned work upon the etheric body: He must succeed,
for instance, in transforming a choleric disposition into
gentleness of character. Spiritual science in particular
gives him indications for this.
He who succeeds
in transforming from one day to the other at least one of his
habits, that is to say, some quality of his etheric body, has
attained a high stage of development. Such a transformation
of the etheric body should go hand in hand with the other
things which the disciple of occult science learns. But even
if a man knows nothing of such a training, he nevertheless
transforms his etheric body of his own accord — though
slowly and gradually, and throughout many incarnations And
that part of his etheric body which he has been able to
transform, we designate as Budhi, or Life-Spirit, which
constitutes the sixth member of human nature.
Then there is
the stage lying far, far above the others, upon which man
learns to work upon his physical body and to transform it.
That part of his physical body which he has learned to
control, we designate as Atma, or Spirit-Man. It is the
seventh member of his being. Atma is connected with the
German word “atmen”, to breathe, for the process
of transformation goes out from the breathing process.
We can only
form an idea of what it means to control one's physical body
consciously, through the Ego, if we bear in mind how little
we really know of our physical body. This knowledge has
nothing to do with the assertions of modern anatomy
concerning man's physical body. Long before modern anatomy
existed, there were ancient teachings, which of course were
not known publicly, but which contained a knowledge
concerning man's inner being. This knowledge enabled the wise
men of ancient times to follow, for instance, the currents of
life and of the blood, and they were thus able to observe
themselves inwardly, to observe the physical body and all its
organs. When we shall have reached this stage of development,
not one portion of our body will move without the conscious
participation of our will. This is the transformation into
Atma, the Spirit-Man.
Now someone
might object: The Physical body is the lowest member of human
nature; how is it possible that its transformation should
constitute the highest member? Just because the physical body
is the lowest member, man's highest effort is needed in order
to gain control over this body. The transformation of the
physical body is intimately connected with the acquisition of
power over forces which permeate the whole cosmos. And the
sway over these cosmic forces is what we designate as
magic.
Man's true
inner nature thus consists of seven parts. But those seven
parts are completely intermingled. A true idea of this
intermingling can only be obtained if we compare it with the
seven colours of the rainbow, which are all contained in the
light of the sun. Even as the light consists of these seven
colours, so man consists of his seven members.
Let us now
consider the significance of this structure of man's being in
connection with the knowledge of man's whole life-path.
Yesterday we learned to know the nature of sleep. The
physical body and the etheric body lie in the bed;
respiration and blood-circulation remain, as life-expression
of the etheric body, but everything pertaining to the astral
body is lifted out of the physical body and the etheric body
together with the Ego.
When death
arises, something else appears, in contrast to this. Whereas
the physical body and the etheric body remain united
throughout the life between birth and death, death separates
the etheric body also, and not only the astral body, as in
sleep, from the physical body. But the physical body is so
complicated (let us bear in mind yesterday's explanations)
that it must decay, if obliged to rely upon its own
forces.
Let us now
observe clairvoyantly the human being after death: Before us
lies only the physical body, and above it soar, the astral
body and the etheric body ... Immediately after death,
the deceased human being experiences a peculiar
manifestation: At the moment of death, the course of his
whole life appears in the field of human memory, like a
spread-out picture. Every event, even the most insignificant,
passes before him in the form of an image. This is the
natural result of the fact that the etheric body, besides
having the above-mentioned quality of preventing the decay of
the physical body, is also the bearer of memory. As soon as
it loses its first task, it devotes itself intensely to this
second task. Since every event in life, whether, pleasure or
suffering, is connected with joy or pain, owing to the
permeation of the etheric body with the astral body, now that
the astral body is also severed from him, man experiences
those memory pictures, that is to say, he experiences his
whole past life, without any sensations or feelings, as if it
were a great panorama.
As long as the
etheric body remains connected with the physical body, the
instrument which it must use, the brain renders our memories
incomplete; we only retain fragments of life impressions in
our memory. The deficiency of the physical brain is
responsible for this, but as soon as the etheric body becomes
emancipated from the physical brain, it can remember
everything.
An analogy may
even be found in ordinary life, during the shock which one
experiences, for instance, at the moment of drowning, or
crashing, etc. This is simply due to the fact that at such a
moment the etheric body becomes forcefully severed from the
physical body, which also takes place, for example, in a
slight degree when an extremity falls asleep (pins and
needles), or in hypnosis. In the case of a hypnotized person,
the clairvoyant can see his etheric body hanging out at both
sides of the head. Materialistic physiology objects that in
hypnosis there is a physical change in the blood, but people
simply mix up cause and effect.
Man's first experience after death is therefore this
retrospection of his past life, which differs in length, but
averages about three and a half days.
Then comes a
second kind of death, when the etheric body completely severs
itself also from the astral body, so that a kind of etheric
corpse remains behind. But this corpse soon dissolves, more
or less quickly in each individual case, and becomes part of
the universal cosmic ether. Yet it does not dissolve
altogether; a kind of essence remains from the past life. The
Ego takes this essence along with it; it is an imperishable
treasure, which remains for all the subsequent incarnations.
After every incarnation a new leaf is added, so to speak, to
the proceeding one. In Theosophy this essence of the etheric
body is called the Causal Body, and the quality of the causal
body determines the way in which the future incarnations take
place.
Now the astral
body remains alone ... What is the difference between
this condition, in which it is severed from the other
members, from the physical body and the etheric body, and
that of sleep, in which it also remains alone? The forces
which it had to use during sleep in order to elaborate and
improve the physical body, have now become emancipated,
through the fact that the physical body has definitely been
laid aside. The astral body now uses those forces for its own
self and is conscious of this. In this state of
self-consciousness the astral body now passes through a time
which can be understood best of all if we consider the
following: —
Imagine that
you are enjoying a specially tasty dish — you eat it
and enjoy its taste. This pleasure is not rooted in the
physical body, but in the astral body, but it can only arise
because it has the required organ, namely a tongue and a
palate. Thus the physical body supplies the instrument for
the gratifications of the astral body.
Now, what takes
place after death, when the physical body has been discarded?
The instrument is lacking, the transmitter of enjoyment, but
the astral body has not lost the longing and desire for some
special pleasure. Now imagine this state as vividly as
possible. It resembles the condition of a man who is
thirsting in the midst of a desert. After death the astral
body still feels the desire for certain enjoyments, in the
same measure in which it was accustomed to feel this during
the past life on earth, and for this reason the time after
death is for so many people a time of unsatisfied
desires.
This condition
is named Kamaloka (Kama means desire, and locus place). It is
the same condition which we find described in many myths
— for instance, the tortures of Tantalus, or purgatory.
Of course, this condition is not only a torturing one; it
tortures us until the astral body has lost the habit of
desiring enjoyments. The more needs the astral body feels
during physical life the longer does this condition of
Kamaloka last.
But you may
gather from the above, that according to the quality of these
needs experienced by a human being during his past life on
earth; the astral body may encounter in Kamaloka experiences
which are not only torturing, but under circumstances very
good and pleasant. The astral body will, for instance, feel
pleasure in every moment of joy given to him by Nature and
its beauty. In order to experience this enjoyment of Nature
and its beauty, we must indeed have eyes to see, but beauty
is something that transcends the physical, and therefore this
condition is in Kamaloka the source of increased enjoyment.
These things produce great joys and wonderful experiences
even during the Kamaloka period.
Thus we may
render this Kamaloka time more beautiful by emancipating
ourselves from purely physical enjoyments. If you consider
this, you will be able to understand several things in life,
for instance, everything which constitutes art. The more
ideal art is, the more the ideal essence manifests itself
through art, the stronger and the more uplifting will, be the
influence of the work of art, an influence transcending
physical life. The Spirit is the real element of art. The
materialistic short-sightedness, alone has led to naturalism
in art.
After passing
through this Kamaloka period, we therefore reach the stage
where we have lost the habit of physical enjoyments, and this
means that we must now pass through an entirely different
condition. The soul now discards all those parts of the
astral body which man, that is to say, the Ego, has not yet
transformed. The discarded astral sheath now constitutes the
third corpse which we leave behind.
Now that the
Ego has united itself with that which it has gained from the
other bodies — viz. with the above-mentioned essence of
the etheric body and with that of the astral body — it
passes on to the Spirit-realm. There it lives until the time
of a new birth.
We shall speak
of this to-morrow. To-day I only wish to emphasize once more
that all these spiritual worlds exist continually round about
us, and not in a “Beyond”, which is spatially
separated from us. One who can look into the spiritual worlds
can at any time perceive the above-mentioned corpses, as
shadows or spectres. It is these corpses which so frequently
intrude themselves in spiritistic seances. But if such an
astral corpse is mistaken for the individuality in question,
it is just as foolish a mistake as that of taking the
physical corpse for the living human being, Thus the astral
corpse frequently reveals very ridiculous traits, for it
possesses the very qualities which the Ego has discarded.
|