LECTURE IX
Berlin, 4th October 1905
We will try to understand the physical body somewhat more exactly. At
the present time we distinguish within the constitution of man four
members: physical body, etheric body, astral body and ego. In studying
the physical body we must now enter into greater detail. Man was
already something when he came into the Old Saturn existence from a
far-distant past. The physical body is the oldest and most developed
member at present possessed by man. It is fourfold, which is not the
case with the other bodies. On Old Saturn the groundwork was already
laid as a germ. The etheric body was first added on the Old Sun. There
the physical body evolved a stage further. The astral body was added
on the Old Moon and the physical body underwent a still further stage
of development. On the Earth the ego was now added, and the physical
body went through a fourth stage. So we may say that the physical body
is, as it were, in the fourth grade, while the etheric body is in the
third, the astral body in the second and the ego in the first.
This is why it is only the physical body as such that has
self-awareness, not the other three bodies. In the moment when man
closes his physical sense organs in sleep, awareness of self ceases:
when he opens them to what is outside, self-awareness returns. Man
gains consciousness of self because his organs enable him to observe
his surroundings. Only the physical body is so far advanced that it is
able to open its organs to what is outside. If the etheric and astral
bodies were able with their organs to observe their surroundings, man
would attain self-awareness in them also. But for this, organs are
necessary. The physical body has self-awareness only through its
organs. These organs of the physical body are the senses.
Let us consider the senses in their successive stages. There are in
fact twelve senses.
(34)
Of these, five are already physical and two
others will become physical during the further development of the
Earth.
The five senses which we already have are smell, taste, sight, touch
and hearing. In time man will develop two other senses into proper
physical senses. These two are located in the pituitary gland
(hypophysis) and the pineal gland (epiphysis). These will develop the
two future senses in the physical body which will then have seven
senses. To understand the successive stages of the senses we must make
it clear that in so far as man is a being conscious of self, he is on
a descending curve. So though the body is on an ascending curve, the
senses are on a descending curve.
(35)
Of the higher principles in man, Atma developed on Old Saturn, Buddhi
on Old Sun and Manas on Old Moon. There was a time when the Monad
assembled itself bit by bit, and then in the Lemurian Age entered into
its self-constructed house. Now the Monad has descended to the fourth
stage, Atma, Buddhi, Manas, Kama-Manas. This descending curve is
expressed in the development of the senses. Actually, in the
beginning, on Old Saturn, only one sense was present, the sense of
smell. The senses that developed later had to descend from higher to
ever lower regions.
In Nature we differentiate the solid, the fluid, the gaseous, the
warmth ether, light ether, chemical ether and the life ether. These
are the seven stages of matter. In his descent man experienced these
stages from above downwards. At the beginning of evolution the first
human life-germ could only manifest itself in the Life Ether. What
corresponds to this stage as sense, is the sense of smell. Then man
possessed the first sense, that of smell, of which only an after
effect is present today. The solid has its life, as we saw a few days
ago on the Maha-para-nirvana plane, the fluid on the Para-nirvana
plane, the gaseous on the Nirvana plane, the Warmth Ether on the
Buddhi plane, the Light Ether on the Mental plane, the Chemical Ether
on the astral plane, the Life Ether on the physical plane. We can
therefore also speak of the atomistic ether.
Correspondences of the Planes
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Conditions of Matter
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The Senses
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1. Physical plane
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Life ether
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Smell
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2. Astral plane
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Chemical ether
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Taste
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3. Mental plane
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Light ether
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Sight
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4. Buddhi or Shushupti plane
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Warmth ether
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Touch
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5. Nirvana plane
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Gaseous, Air
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Hearing
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6. Para-nirvana plane
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Fluid
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Pituitary gland
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7. Maha-para-nirvana plane
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Solid
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Pineal gland
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An object can only be smelt when it impinges on the organ of smell,
comes into contact with it. The organ of smell must unite itself with
the material. To smell means to perceive with a sense that enters into
a relationship with the material itself.
As second stage we have the Chemical Ether. Here the sense of taste
develops. This depends on dissolving what is to be tasted. We have to
do, not with matter itself, but with what is made out of it. This is a
chemical, physical process through which matter is changed into
something different. The tongue can do this: it can first dissolve and
then taste.
The third stage is to be found in the Light Ether. There sight
develops. Now we do not perceive what is broken down by chemical,
physical processes, but we perceive a picture of the object which is
brought about by the external light.
The fourth is the Warmth Ether. In this, the sense of touch is
developed. Here one no longer perceives a picture. Warmth is a passing
condition of the body, a condition experienced only in the moment. We
are speaking here of the sense of touch as the perception of warmth
and cold; it is in fact a Warmth sense.
Fifthly we have what is of the nature of air. This corresponds to the
sense of hearing. Here we no longer perceive a condition of the body
in question, but what the body says to us. Now we enter into the inner
nature of the body. At the sound of a bell it is not the bell itself
that interests us, not the outer form, the matter, but what it has to
disclose of its inner nature. Hearing is a uniting with what reveals
itself as the spiritual in matter. At this stage the life of the
senses goes over from the passive to the active. The passively
received sound becomes in man active in speech. Through speech man
gives utterance to his soul being.
As the sixth stage we have the fluid element. The sense organ
corresponding to the fluid is the pituitary gland. This is situated in
the brain in an elongated cylindrical form.
As seventh stage we have the solid. The appropriate sense organ is the
pineal gland.
As now, when man speaks he influences the air, so later he will gain
an influence over what is fluid.
(36)
The I think, and thought in
general, will express itself in the air and indeed in forms, for
example as crystals. At the next stage feeling will also be involved
with thinking. Development will work backwards. The warmth of the
heart will then express itself in oscillations, and flow outwards
together with thought. And the last stage will be achieved by man when
he will create actual beings which remain; when through the word he
will externalise what he wills. The expression of feeling is merely a
transition. When man becomes creative through the will, then the
beings which he brings forth will have actual existence.
In times to come man will bring forth into his surroundings what he
feels. This will be imparted to the fluid element. The entire fluid
element of the planet which will follow next (the future Jupiter) will
be an expression of what people feel. Today man sends out words; they
are inscribed into the Akasha. There they remain, even though the
airwaves vanish. Out of these words the Future Jupiter will later be
formed. When therefore today man uses evil, blasphemous language, then
on Jupiter terrible formations will be brought about. This is why one
should be so very careful of what one says, and why it is so immensely
important that man should be master of his speech. In the future man
will also send out his feelings; the conditions of the fluids on
Jupiter will be a result of feelings on the Earth. What man speaks
today will give Jupiter its form; what he feels will engender its
inner warmth; what he wills determines the separate beings inhabiting
Jupiter. The Future Jupiter will be constructed out of the basic
powers of the human soul.
Just as today we can trace the rock formation of the Earth back to
earlier conditions, so will the rock formation of the Future Jupiter
be the result of our words. The ocean of Jupiter, the warmth of
Jupiter, will arise out of the feelings of present-day humanity. The
beings of Jupiter will arise out of human will. Thus the inhabitants
of a previous planet create the basic conditions for its successor.
And beings who today still [Gap in text ...] hover over the earth, as
was once the case with the Monads, will enter into incarnation on the
Future Jupiter. There will then exist a kind of Jupiter-Lemurian race.
Beings will be there which we have created as the Pitris did. Just as
we inhabited the grotesque forms of the Old Moon, so these beings will
inhabit the forms which we develop by means of our pineal gland.
We are building the house for future Monads. A similar procedure took
place when the development of the human being led over from the Old
Moon to the Earth. This makes absolutely clear how everything external
is actually created from within outwards.
It is difficult to distinguish the pure physical body from what has
been formed through human error. A hunchback owes his deformity to the
astral, to Karma. The external form, the physiognomy and so on, are
dependent on Karma. Modifications of the physical body are therefore
dependent on the higher bodies. When one eliminates everything that
depends on Karma we find that the physical body is in fact wisely
ordered. All forms of illness are errors which find their expression
in the physical body. All illnesses have been wrong-doing in the past,
all wrong-doing will be illness in the future. When human beings
become truly worthy, the bodies of the beings they create will be
equally imbued with wisdom.
All wisdom, feeling and will, in the next evolution, will actually be
present as form and being. The physical body is called a temple in all
ancient religions because its structure is so filled with wisdom. It
is not correct to speak of the physical body as the lower nature, for
what is lower in man does in fact lie in the higher bodies which today
are still in infancy.
Here we can consider an important karmic connection. We live in a
materialistic age and this is the result of a preceding age. This
materialistic age has accomplished much, not only outwardly but also
inwardly. We may think for instance of the decrease in mortality
through hygienic measures. This is actually a step forward, brought
about by hygienic means. Such external progress is always a karmic
result of progress which earlier has been made inwardly. These steps
forward in the physical are the result of inner steps forward in the
Middle Ages. Today therefore it would be quite wrong to look back on
the dark Middle Ages. Our most significant materialists have been
educated idealistically; for instance, Haeckel, Büchner, Moleschott.
This is why their systems are thought out so admirably; but this they
owe to their idealistic education. Present day materialism is actually
the outer expression of the preceding idealistic period.
Now too we must work in preparation for the future. Just as the karmic
result of the earlier idealistic period made its appearance in
materialism, so again a new beginning must be made in regard to
Idealism and spiritual impulses. It was in accordance with this law
that the leading personalities acted when they called the Theosophical
Movement into life.
The 14th century was the time of the creation of towns. Within a few
hundred years independent towns had developed in all civilised
European countries. The burgher is the founder of materialism in
practical life. This comes to expression in the Lohengrin myth.
(37)
Lohengrin, the emissary of the Grail Lodge, was the wise leader who
took hold in the Middle Ages and prepared the way for the
establishment of towns. The swan was his symbol; the initiate of the
Third Grade is the Swan. Consciousness is always represented as
something feminine. Elsa of Brabant represents the consciousness of
the materialistic civic sense. The spiritual life had, however, to be
saved; this happened through the fact that Christian Rosenkreuz
(38)
founded the Rosicrucian Order. Spiritual life remained in the Mystery
Schools. Today materialism has been driven to uttermost extremes. This
is why in our time something new must break in. At that time the same
movement took hold which today through Theosophy makes popular the
elementary teachings of spiritual life in order to create once again a
new inner impulse that will later be able to reveal itself outwardly.
The inner always comes later to outer expression. An illness is the
karmic result of earlier wrongdoing, for instance, lying. When
something of this kind becomes outer reality, it manifests as illness.
Epidemics can be traced far back to the misdeeds of a people. They are
something imperfect which from being inward has been exteriorised. The
sixth sense is the Kundalini light radiating warmth;
(39)
the seventh is the synthesizing sense.
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