VII.
THE LAW OF KARMA.
To-day we must
speak of what is designated as the Law of Karma, the law of
cause and effect in the spiritual world. To begin with, the
last lectures should be borne in mind, because they showed us
how life as a whole takes its course through a series of
incarnations. You have all been in the world many times and
you will often return to it. We shall see later on that it is
not right to think that our incarnations repeat themselves
through all eternity either in the past or in the future. On
the contrary, we shall see that they began at a certain point
in time and that a time will come when they will cease; the
human being will then continue his development in a different
form.
Let us first
consider that space of time in which reincarnations take
place. In connection with this we should realise that
everything which we call destiny, whether relating to
character and inner qualities or to external events, is
brought about by our preceding incarnations, and that
everything which we do in this life has an effect upon our
subsequent lives. The great law of cause and effect, the law
of Karma, thus runs through all our incarnations.
Let us now
picture to ourselves how this law is active in the whole
universe — not only in the spiritual, but also in the
physical world.
Take two
imaginary jugs of water and then assume that you are heating
an iron ball until it becomes red hot. You then drop it into
the first jug, What will happen? The water will hiss and the
ball will become cool. Then take the ball out of the first
jug and drop it into the second one. In that case the water
will hiss no longer and the ball will not become much cooler.
We therefore find that the ball behaves differently in each
case; in the second case it would not have behaved as it did,
had it not been dropped into the first jug. Consequently the
way in which it behaved in the second case is the result of
what happened to it in the first jug. Such a connection is
called Karma. The ball's Karma brings about the fact that the
water in the second jug does not hiss and that the ball
itself does not become much cooler.
I will now give
you an example from the animal kingdom showing that preceding
life-conditions bring about subsequent ones. Take those those
animals which immigrated into the caves of Kentucky; their
eyes gradually degenerated through the complete deprivation
of sunlight. The substances which are generally used for the
structure of the eyes go to other organs and as a result the
eyes degenerate and the animals little by little become blind
It is then the destiny of all their descendants to be born
blind. Had the parents not immigrated into the dark caves,
the descendants would not have been fated to lose their
eyesight. The condition of blindness is therefore the
consequence of the immigration into the dark caves.
Spiritual
science explains that everything which occurs in the world is
dependent upon Karma. Karma is the general law of the
universe. Even the Bible speaks of this law at the very
beginning. It says: “In the beginning God created the
heaven and earth”. On reading this superficially, as
is generally the case to-day, you do not notice that these
words lie within the meaning of the law of Karma, but you
notice it without further ado if you consult the original
text of this ancient document, or if you take one of the
oldest Latin translations, for instance the Septuagint, which
the Roman Catholic Church still considers as the
authoritative translation of the Old Testament, and
particularly of Genesis. Perhaps in an introductory course
such as this one, which is to acquaint you step by step with
the immense depths of the spiritual-scientific
world-conception, it is not inappropriate to deviate a little
from our main subject.
Modern man has
really no connection with the “living word”.
Speech has become, on the one hand, a conventional means of
communication and, on the other; a“business
language”. Things were quite different in ancient
times, when words were being coined, for the human being
still possessed a living connection with the word. Indeed, in
the remotest times, even the single letter leading to the
composition of a word had a deep significance. A modern man
has not the faintest idea of that which passed through the
soul of an ancient Hebrew sage when he uttered the word
“bara”, contained in the first sentence of
Genesis; and which posterity — that is to say, the
Latin world — translated with “creare”, and
which we translate with “created”. What is the
deep meaning of the word “bara”? In the German
language we still find the same root “bar” in the
word “gebären”, to bear children.
The root
“K-r” lies in the word Karma. It is the same root
which also lies in the word “creare”, so that
when we say “creare” in Latin (to create), this
simply means: something arises as the result of earlier
influences; that is to say, something arises which is
karmically determined by something which preceded it!
We can speak of
Karma in the way in which we interpret it to-day only since
the influx of the Luciferic influence, that is to say, from
that moment onwards in which man took upon himself guilt.
Consequently something of the idea of guilt always adheres to
everything connected with the word Karma.
“Creare” therefore means to produce something
brought about karmically by earlier connections and
conditions, whereas the root “bar” does not
contain anything of this karmic relationship. How does this
come about? Undoubtedly through the fact that the ancient
Hebrew was still connected far more intimately with the
spiritual world and still realised quite clearly that at a
time when “the Elohim were meditating creatively”
it was not yet possible to speak of Karma in the meaning in
which we generally speak of it. But in the Latin epoch of
human evolution man was already completely severed from the
spiritual world, as we shall see upon some other occasion,
and therefore he could imagine even the Elohim's
“creative meditation” only within a karmic
connection.
But
“bara” as well as “crease” do not
mean that God created the world out of nothing; both words
contain the meaning that God led over earlier conditions into
new ones ... in the same way in which a mother does not
bear her child out of nothing. To bear a child means that the
child passes over from a former concealed condition within
the mother's womb into a condition in which it becomes
visible in the external world.
This shows you
how the meaning of the Bible can be distorted. Theology was
the first to decree that God made the world out of nothing,
(for theology no longer knew anything of the cosmic epochs of
evolution which preceded earthly existence) and whole
libraries have been written on this subject. Yet all these
theologians fought against windmills, like Don Quixote. We
should always know, however, against whom and against what we
are fighting; that is to say, we should always reveal the
original meaning of the ancient documents.
If we think of
this Law of Karma in the right way, as the connection between
cause and effect, applying it not only to physical life here
on earth between birth and death, but also to the life in the
spiritual world, we shall find that this very law of Karma
becomes a torch which illuminates our own life. Insight into
the law of Karma not only gives us a deep intellectual
satisfaction, but it also profoundly satisfies our heart and
soul and gives us the right understanding of our relationship
to the world. More and more you will realise its deep
significance and that only a true insight into this law of
Karma enables you to mould your life harmoniously in regard
to your environment.
The law of
Karma does not throw light upon abstract riddles of the
universe, but upon problems which we actually encounter in
life at every step. Is it not a real life-riddle when we see
that one human being is born in misery and poverty,
apparently without any fault of his own, and that the finest
gifts which lie concealed within him must atrophy owing to
the social condition into which life has placed him? We must
often ask ourselves in life: How can we explain the fact that
an apparently innocent man is born in the midst of misery and
pain, whereas another man is born without his merit in
surfeit and wealth, surrounded at the cradle by those who
tenderly love him? These are problems which modern
superficiality alone can ignore.
The deeper we
look into the law of Karma; the more we find that the hard
injustice apparently presenting itself to a superficial
observation of this law disappears. We then realise more and
more why one man must live in one condition of life and
another man in another. Injustice and hardness in one or
other life-situation can only be seen if we limit ourselves
to the observation of one life; but if we know that this one
life is the absolute result of former deeds, the injustice,
completely vanishes, for we perceive that the human being
prepares his own life.
Someone might
now object: It is terrible to think that all the blows of
destiny which a human being encounters in this life are
brought about through his own fault! We must realise,
however, that the law of Karma is not something for
sentimental people to brood over, but that it is an active
law, rendering us strong and giving us courage and hope. For
even though we ourselves have moulded our present life with
all its hardships, we know at the same time that Karma is a
law the chief significance of which must be looked for, not
in the past, but in the future. No matter how deeply
oppressed we may be in the present owing to the result of
past deeds, our insight into the law of Karma will bear fruit
in our subsequent lives. Our attitude determines what fruit
our deeds will bear, for no action is without consequence. It
is far more theosophical to look upon Karma as a law of
action, as an active law! For no matter what we do, we cannot
escape the consequences of our deeds. The more we suffer in
this life and the better we bear our sufferings, the more
shall we profit by this in future lives. Karma is a law which
solves the riddles of life which we encounter at every
step.
What is the
connection between a preceding and a subsequent life? We
should clearly bear in mind that everything which we
experience as inner effects of external events — joy or
pain over things which we encounter in life — that all
this has an influence upon our future lives.
Now you know
that everything living within us in the form of pleasure and
pain, of joy and suffering, is borne by the astral body.
Everything which the astral body experiences during this
life, particularly if experiences repeat themselves again and
again, appears in the next life as a quality of the etheric
body. Some object in this life which gives us pleasure and
which we call up in our soul again and again, will produce in
the next life a deep inclination and predilection for this
particular object. But this inclination and predilection are
character qualities, and their bearer is the etheric body.
Consequently the effects produced by the astral body in a
preceding life become qualities of the etheric body in the
next life. What you repeatedly experienced during this life,
appears in your next life as fundamental character. A
melancholic temperament is due to the fact that in a
preceding life the human being in question had many sad
impressions throwing him again and again into a sad mood; as
a result, the etheric body will have the inclination to
sadness in the next life. The opposite may be found in people
who obtain something good from everything in life, thus
producing in their astral body joy and happiness and an
uplifted mood; this will become a lasting characteristic of
the etheric body in the next life producing a merry
temperament. But if a human being courageously overcomes
every sad experience in spite of the hard school in which
life has placed him, his etheric body will be born in the
next life with a choleric temperament. If we know all this,
we can almost prepare our etheric body for our next life.
The qualities
which the etheric body possesses during one life appear, in
the next, in the physical body. Thus if a man has bad habits
and bad characteristics and does nothing to get rid of them,
this will appear in the next life in the physical body as a
disposition, a predisposition to illness. Strange as this may
sound the disposition towards certain illnesses, particularly
infectious ones, depends on the bad habits of a preceding
life. This insight therefore enables us to prepare health or
illness for our next life. If we conquer a bad habit, we
become healthy and immune against infections in our next
life. Thus we can prepare health for our next life. By
endeavouring to foster only noble qualities, we can prepare a
healthy body for our next incarnation.
A third and
most important thing should be borne in mind in order to
understand the law of Karma: — To truly estimate our
actions in this life. So far we have only spoken of what
takes place within the human being; but what he does
during this life, that is to say, his attitude towards his
environment and his actions, produce a result which appears
in the surrounding world during his next life.
A bad habit in
itself does not mean that I have done something; but
if this bad habit leads to an action, this action changes the
external world. In fact, everything which thus exercises an
influence upon the physical world returns to us during our
next life as our external destiny in the physical world. Thus
the deeds of our physical body during this life become our
destiny in the next. We learn this through being placed in
this or in that life-situation. Whether a person is happy or
unhappy in one or other condition of life depends upon his
actions during his preceding life. An appropriate and
instructive example for this case is that of the vehmic
murder, which shows us how an external action during one life
falls back upon men as their destiny during the next one.
This is a brief
sketch of karmic relationships in regard to individual human
beings . But we can speak of Karma not only in the case of
individual persons, for man should not consider himself as a
single being. If the individual were to rise even a few miles
above the earth, the result would be the same as if the
finger severed itself from the body.
If we penetrate
into spiritual science we are literally forced to admit
through this knowledge that we should not delude ourselves to
the extent of insisting that we are single beings. This
applies to the physical world and even more to the spiritual
world. Man belongs to the whole world and his destiny is
involved with that of the entire world. Karma touches not
only the individual, but also the life of whole nations.
Let me give you
an example: You all know that in the Middle Ages there were
pestilences resembling leprosy. In Europe they completely
disappeared only during the 16th century. Quite a definite
cause, a spiritual cause, produced this form of pestilence in
the Middle Ages. Materialists are of course inclined to trace
such a contagious disease to bacilli, but not only the
physical cause should be borne in mind in such illnesses. We
can make exactly the same mistake if we try to find out, for
example, why a man has been whipped, what is the cause of
this whipping. A person of insight will immediately discover
that certain brutal men in the village were the cause of the
whipping. In this case it would be foolish to say that the
blue wheals are due solely to the fact that the sticks came
down so and so many times on the man's back. The purely
materialistic cause of the blue marks is undoubtedly the fact
that the sticks came down on the victims back, but the deeper
cause must be sought in the brutality of the men who whipped
him. Similarly the pestilence of the Middle Ages has a
spiritual cause in addition to the materialistic one of the
bacilli.
We have an
analogous example in weeping. Its spiritual cause is sadness,
but its material one is the secretion of the lachrymatory
glands. It hardly seems possible that a famous modern
scientist should have come to the same foolish conclusion
mentioned above, but he actually made the monstrous statement
that the human being does not weep because he feels sad, but
that he feels sad because he weeps!
But let us get
back to the pestilence. If you wish to explain the deeper
cause of this disease spiritually, you must look back upon a
significant historical event. Upon the great masses of
peoples coming from the East, who overflowed Europe, bringing
with them fear and terror. These Asiatic masses were people
who had remained behind at the ancient Atlantean stage, and
were consequently decadent races. They were races whose
decadence had the character of putrefaction, which was
particularly strong in their astral body. Had they invaded
Europe without bringing s0 much terror and fear to the
Europeans, nothing would have happened. But these hordes
brought with them fear, terror and and alarm, whole nations
in Europe experienced this state of fear and terror. Now the
putrid substance of the Huns' astral bodies mixed with the
terror-stricken astral bodies of the peoples whom they had
invaded. The degenerated astral bodies of these Asiatic
hordes unloaded their bad substances on the terror-stricken
astral bodies of the Europeans, and this putrid substance was
the cause of the pestilence, the physical effects of which
appeared later on.
This is in
reality the deep spiritual cause of pestilence in the Middle
Ages. Consequently something which had a spiritual cause
appeared later in the physical body.
Only those who
know the law of Karma and have insight into it are called
upon to play an active part in the course of history.
Let me now tell
you something which contributed to he founding of the
spiritual-scientific world-conception: Karma influences not
only individual men, but also nations, and even humanity as a
whole. Those who pursue the course of history in the
spiritual life of Europe know that materialism came to the
fore during those last 400 years or so. The most innocent
aspect of materialism is to be found in science, for there
every mistake can always be perceived and corrected. The
influence of materialism is far more harmful in practical
life, where everything is viewed from the angle of material
interests. But materialism would never have entered practical
life, had men not had a predilection for it. The influence of
of materialism is most harmful of all in the sphere of
religious life, that is to say, in the Church: The Church
above all has been heading towards materialism for centuries.
In which way? If you go back to the days of early
Christianity, you would never have heard people say, for
instance that the seven days creation was actually
accomplished in seven days, as we so often hear
to-day, nor was the “seventh” day imagined in
such a way that after a hard piece of work someone sits down
and rests. The materialistic age has lost all knowledge of
the reality underlying this work of seven days.
It is the task
of spiritual science to give mankind an explanation
concerning the true meaning of this ancient document,
Genesis. (See Rudolf Steiner's
“Secrets of the Bible Story of Creation”)
It is the
materialistic conception in religion which corroded most
deeply the life of nations. Materialism will hold sway more
and more in the religions sphere, and. particularly in this
direction people will less and less realise that the spirit,
not physical material things, counts most of all. It will
readily be admitted that the materialistic way of thinking,
feeling and willing has gradually penetrated into the whole
life-conception of mankind, and finally this appears in the
state of health of the succeeding generations.
In an epoch in
which men have a sound conception of life, a strong central
point is produced within them, enabling them to be
self-contained personalities whose descendants become strong
and healthy. But an epoch in which people believe only in
matter, will give rise to a generation of men who have a body
where everything goes its own way, where nothing is directed
towards a centre, thus producing symptoms of neurosis, of
nervous diseases. If materialism continues to be the ruling
world conception in the future, these nervous health
conditions will gradually increase.
The clairvoyant
can tell you exactly that which must occur if materialism is
not counter-balanced by a sound spiritual conception. Mental
diseases would in that case become epidemical and even newly
born children would suffer from symptoms of trembling and
from other nervous disturbances, while the further result of
the materialistic mentality would be a race without any power
of concentration; in fact, we can see this already to-day.
About three decades ago, this thought — how mankind
would fare without spiritual remedy against the effects of
materialism — led to the inauguration of the
spiritual-scientific movement. Many discussions may arise
regarding a remedy, yet no objections can be of much avail in
the face of the chief argument: its efficacy. It is the same
with the efficacy of spiritual science as a remedy, for it is
a preventive against that which would inevitably occur if men
continue along the path of materialism.
If we reflect
more deeply over the law of Karma, we cannot look upon men as
a single being, but as forming part of a community subjected
to the law of Karma. The law of Karma is not of much use to
those who wish to believe in a blind fate. It would of course
be quite wrong to attribute such a character to the law of
Karma. Yet we constantly come across people who fall into
this error. One person says: “I know that it is not my
fault that this or that thing happens to me; it is my Karma
and I must bear it!” Or another one says: “I see
a person who is in misery; but I must not help him, for this
misfortune is his own fault; it is his Karma and he must bear
it!” — Such arguments would be quite a senseless
interpretation of the idea of Karma!
In order to
have a clearer conception of this great law, you may compare
it with the commercial law of debit and credit. Even as the
merchant is subjected to this law in all his actions, so life
is subjected to Karma, Your items in life are marked off on
the debit or credit side, according to the good or bad
actions which you have done during your past life. All your
good qualities are booked on the credit side, and all your
bad ones on the debit side of Karma.
But we should,
not say: “I have no right to interfere!” This
would be just as foolish as when a merchant balancing his
accounts says: “I must not do any more business, for in
that case I should alter my balance sheet.” Even as the
merchant improves his balance sheet with good business, so I
improve my Karma with every good action. And even as the
merchant is always at liberty to enter a debit or a credit
item in his account, so the human being is always free to do
likewise in his account book of life. Not in spite of the law
of Karma, but just because of it, man is free in regard to
his actions. Just because he knows that everything he does
— and he does this in full freedom — has an
effect upon his account book of life, he cannot agree with
those who do not help a man in need. It would be the same as
if a merchant facing bankruptcy were to ask us for a loan of
5000 pounds. Would you not give him the money if you knew
that he is a good business man who would work his way up
again? It is the same with man in need: You help him to
better his Karma so that his destiny takes a turn for the
better, and at the same time you improve your own Karma
through this good action.
The law of
Karma consequently induces us to take an active part in daily
life. A right understanding of the law of Karma, particularly
from this aspect, is of special importance if we consider it
in relation to Christianity. In this connection there are
serious misunderstandings, particularly on the part of
theologians. Modern theologians say: We teach that sins were
forgiven us through Christ's death upon the Cross, and you
teach the law of Karma, but this contradicts the former.
Yet the
contradiction is only apparent, because the law of Karma is
simply misunderstood. On the other hand, there are
theosophists who declare that they cannot accept Christ's
death of atonement — but these theosophists
misunderstand the law of Karma just as much as the
others.
Take the
following case: You help a man, interfere in his destiny and
turn it to the good. If you could help two men, this would
just as little contradict the law of Karma. Assume that you
are an individuality called upon to blot out evil in the
world by a certain deed: would this contradict the law of
Karma? The Christ-Being has, in the largest measure, done
something analogous to the above example, like a man who
helped not only a hundred or a thousand other men through his
own deed, but the whole of mankind. The death of redemption,
Christ's death of atonement, therefore harmonizes completely
with the law of Karma — indeed, it can only be
understood in the light of this law. A contradiction can only
be seen by those who do not understand this law. Christ's
death contradicts the law of Karma just as little as when I
help a man in his need.
When looking
upon the law of Karma you must think of the future, for with
everyone of our actions we enter into our account book an
item which will bear fruit. Only as long as one is passing
through the illnesses of childhood in theosophy can a
contradiction be found between Christianity and the law of
Karma.
Many things
become clear to us through an insight into this law. In the
first place, we can accurately prove the connection between
the individual bodily development and earlier lives. A life
full of love prepares for the next life a course of
development whereby the human being preserves his youth for a
long time; a premature ageing is on the other hand caused by
much antipathy during the past life. In the second place: A
particularly selfish sense of grasping and hoarding things
produces in the next life a disposition to infectious
diseases. In the third place, it is of special interest that
pains, and particularly certain illnesses through which we
pass, produce a beautiful body in our next life. This insight
enables us to bear many an illness more easily.
An insight into
such connections of destiny enabled one of the greatest Bible
students of our time, Fabre d'Olivet, to use an image which
clearly shows us how things are linked up in life. He says:
Behold the pearl in the shell! The animal in it had to pass
through an illness, and the beautiful pearl arises through
this illness. Thus illness during this life is in fact often
connected with things which render our next life more
beautiful.
How these
things may be further developed in various directions, will
be shown to-morrow.
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