SYNOPSIS
The purpose of the following synopsis is to
facilitate reference to particular subjects dealt with in the several
lectures, the headings being in the order in which the themes occur.
Page numbers have not been included for the reason that the main
themes often weave between the foreground and the background several
times in a lecture and the paragraphs dealing with them should in
every single case be read in their contexts.
D.S.O.
Lecture One. pp. 19–36
Initiates and Clairvoyants. Differences in the
nature of experiences at each of the three stages of higher
Knowledge: Imagination, Inspiration, Intuition. The Christ Event
depicted in each Gospel from the standpoints of the different forms
of super-sensible Knowledge: e.g. the Gospel of St. John is based
chiefly upon Inspirational and Intuitive cognition, and less upon
pictures derived from the world of Imagination. The Gospel of St. Luke is
founded upon the communications of ‘seers’ (clairvoyants), of
those who were ‘servants of the Word’. The Gospels are not the
source of anthroposophical knowledge — which consists in the results
derived from actual ascent into and investigation of the
super-sensible world. Reading the ‘Akashic Chronicle’ in which is
recorded “everything that has ever happened in the evolution of the
world, the earth and humanity”. Investigation of the Akashic
Chronicle is full of complications, especially when concerned with
previous incarnations of a human being; the antecedents of physical,
etheric and astral bodies, as well as of the Ego, must be traced.
This also applies in the case of the Being known as Jesus of
Nazareth, or, after the Baptism, as Christ Jesus. Differing accounts
of the childhood of Jesus in the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke.
The findings of spiritual investigation in connection with events
prior to the Baptism and the descent of the Christ into the three
bodies of Jesus of Nazareth.
Lecture Two. pp. 37–55
The Gospel of St. John, a text for mystics. The
Gospel of St. Luke: a book for the multitude, for simple hearts and
souls; a source of consolation for the oppressed. “Love is revealed
to a greater extent in the Gospel of St. Luke than in any other
Christian text.” Many pictorial representations of Christian truths
in art are inspired by this Gospel. An account of the appearance of
the angel and heavenly host announcing the birth of the Saviour to
the shepherds. Correct rendering of the words
(Luke II, 14)
would be: ‘The Divine Beings manifest themselves from on high, that
peace may reign below on the Earth among men who are filled with good
will.’ Convergence of spiritual streams in the events of Palestine.
The picture of the angelic host portrays one of the spiritual streams
that flowed through the evolution of humanity. This spiritual stream
is Buddhism — the religion of compassion and love. Description
of the nature, the earlier development, the spiritual powers and the
mission of the Bodhisattva who in his twenty-ninth year became
Buddha, six hundred years before our era. Account of his power of
astral vision; his escape from his father's palace; his experiences
in the world and temptation by the, demon Mara. Legend of the horse,
symbolizing faculties bestowed from above and not yet developed from
a man's own soul. The teaching of compassion and love, embodied as a
human quality, arose when ‘under the Bodhi tree’ the Bodhisattva
became Buddha. He does not thereafter return to earthly incarnation
but from spiritual worlds participates in happenings on Earth. It was
the glorified Buddha who appeared to the shepherds in vision and
rayed down his power upon the child born to parents descended from
the priestly (Nathan) line of the House of David. The, prophecy of
the sage Asita in India that after his death the child born as the
Bodhisattva would become Buddha. Asita was born again as Simeon to
whose spiritual vision the glorified Buddha was revealed above the
head of the Nathan Jesus-child on the occasion of the presentation in
the temple.
(Luke II, 25–32.)
Lecture Three. pp. 56–75
The spiritual achievements of Buddhism stream from
the Gospel of St. Luke but in an even higher form. Compassion and
love in the highest sense of the words are the ideal of Buddhism.
Love transformed into deed is the ideal presented in the Gospel of
St. Luke. Christ Jesus depicted as the Physician of body and soul.
Buddhism appears in this Gospel as though rejuvenated. The
Bodhisattva and his participation in the evolution of humanity before
becoming Buddha in his final incarnation on Earth. Remembrance of his
incarnations. Knowledge previously possessed must be freshly acquired
in each incarnation according to the needs of the time. The
attainment of Buddha-hood signified the complete descent of the
Bodhisattva into a human physical body. The teachings of the great
Buddha were eventually to become powers universally possessed by men,
arising from within themselves and from thence streaming back into
the cosmos. In Buddha these powers were incarnate for the first time.
This is a fact of far-reaching importance for the whole evolution of
the Earth and of humanity. The Buddha's inaugural sermon at Benares.
The essentials of Buddha's teaching expressed in the principles of the
Eightfold Path. Legend of the ‘hare in the moon’. The Buddha's
influence continues to work after his final incarnation on the Earth.
The names of the spiritual sheaths of a Being such as the Bodhisattva
who became Buddha: DHARMAKAYA (before the attainment of
Buddha-hood); SAMBHOGAKAYA (‘body of perfection’); NIRMANAKAYA
(‘body of transformation’). Revelation of the Nirmanakaya of
Buddha to the shepherds and its union with the astral sheath detached from
the twelve-year-old Nathan Jesus-child. Rejuvenation of Buddhism. The
finding of Jesus in the temple and the change manifest in him.
Lecture Four. pp. 76–92
The scene in the temple. The unique nature of the
Jesus-child descended from the Nathan line of the House of David.
Preservation of the fresh forces of childhood. Earlier planetary
embodiments of the Earth and of primeval epochs in evolution.
Separation of Sun and Moon from the Earth (reference should be made to
Occult Science — an Outline,Chapter IV).
Separation of Moon
was necessary to enable man to become the bearer of an Ego. Before
that separation, human souls (all but the very strongest) were
obliged to leave the Earth for a time because of its increasing
solidification. Unable to find suitable bodies, these souls were
transferred to the other planets — to Saturn, Jupiter, Mars,
Venus, Mercury — whence at a later time they gradually returned to
the Earth. ‘An ancestral human pair’ — Adam and Eve. The
Atantean Oracles and the task performed by the Manu, the great
Initiate of the Sun Oracle, to ensure the continuation of
civilization in the post-Atlantean epoch. The Holy Rishis of India.
Zarathustra: the inaugurator of ancient Persian civilization; a
later incarnation in ancient Chaldea and still later as Jesus of the
Solomon line of the House of David. Hermes received the astral body,
and Moses the etheric body of Zarathustra. The Rishis spoke of
‘Vishva Karman’ and Zarathustra proclaimed as
‘Ahura Mazdao’ the
Being who later appeared as Christ. The Nathan Jesus and the great
‘Mother-Lodge’ of humanity. The effects of the Luciferic
influence. The ‘Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil’ and the
‘Tree of Life’. The Fall of Man. Certain forces in the
‘Adam-soul’ were withdrawn and remained guiltless; they
were conducted as a ‘provisional Ego’ to the child described
in the Gospel of St. Luke. Joseph, the father, is therefore given a
lineage extending back to Adam, who is himself ‘born of God’.
This secret was also known to St. Paul and underlies his reference to the
‘Old Adam’ and the ‘New Adam’.
(See I Cor. XV, 45–7.)
The Adam-soul as it was before the Fall was in the Nathan
Jesus-child. Buddhism rejuvenated by the youthful forces of this
child when his astral sheath united with the Nirmanakaya of Buddha.
Two lines of descent from David: the Nathan (or priestly) line and
the Solomon (or kingly) line. The child Jesus of St. Luke's Gospel
descended from the Nathan line; the child Jesus of St. Matthew's
Gospel from the Solomon line. Both children were born in Bethlehem.
Reincarnation of Zarathustra in the Solomon Jesus-child.
Lecture Five. pp. 93–108
Fusion of Buddhism and Zoroastrianism made possible
through the births of the two Jesus-children in Palestine. Interval of
‘a few months’ between the two births. Both the Nathan Jesus
(Gospel of St. Luke) and John the Baptist were born after the
massacre of the innocents. The Solomon Jesus (Gospel of St. Matthew)
and the flight into Egypt to avoid the massacre. Contrast between
Buddhism and Zoroastrianism. Through his pupils Hermes and Moses,
Zarathustra made provision for the Egyptian civilization-epoch and
also influenced the civilization of the Hebrews. Hermes bore within
him the astral body of Zarathustra; Moses, bearing the etheric body
of Zarathustra, was able to present in Genesis, mighty pictures of
happenings in Time. Zarathustra born in Chaldea about 600
B.C.
as Zarathas or Nazarathos; his pupils there were ‘Wise Men’
or ‘Magi’ whose wisdom revealed to them in a later incarnation
that their teacher had been born in Bethlehem (as the Solomon Jesus). Their
gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Through the flight into
Egypt, the Zarathustra-Ego was able to reunite with the forces once
sacrificed by him to Hermes and Moses. After the return from Egypt
the family of the Solomon Jesus settled in Nazareth near the family
of the Nathan Jesus and the two boys grew up in close proximity.
Qualities transmitted by heredity: will and power by the paternal
element; inwardness by the maternal element. Annunciation of the
birth of the Solomon Jesus was to tic father, and of the Nathan Jesus
to the mother. The birth and mission of John the Baptist. The
relationship between the soul-being in the Nathan Jesus and the Ego
in John the Baptist. The meeting between Mary and Elisabeth.
Contrasting natures of the two Jesus-children: the Solomon Jesus
gifted with prematurely advanced understanding of the outer world;
the Nathan Jesus with infinite depth of feeling. The, twelve-year-old
boy in the temple, when the Ego of Zarathustra left the body of the
Solomon Jesus and passed into that of the Nathan Jesus. That was the
point of time when the Nirmanakaya of Buddha united with the cast-off
astral sheath of the Nathan Jesus. Deaths of the mother of the Nathan
Jesus, the father of the Solomon Jesus, and the Solomon Jesus-boy
from whom the Ego had departed; later on, death of the father of the
Nathan Jesus. The Zarathustra-Individuality lived in the body of the
Nathan Jesus until the Baptism by John. Union of the soul of the
mother of the. Nathan Jesus with the mother now remaining to the
Zarathustra-Individuality.
Lecture Six. pp. 109–125
The significance of the Bodhisattva who became
Buddha. Principles of the Eightfold Path had been revealed from above
before the achievement of Buddha made it possible for men consciously
to discover them within themselves. The body of a Bodhisattva never
encloses the whole of his being. When the last Bodhisattva became
Buddha he descended fully into a human organism. Beings for whom
human embodiment was too limited to receive the whole Individuality
were said to be “filled with the Holy Spirit”. This can
rightly be said of Buddha in his previous incarnations as
Bodhisattva. The “etheric substance withdrawn from Adam before the
Fall” was preserved and merged into the Nathan Jesus-child.
(See also previous lecture.)
Overshadowing by the Nirmanakaya of Buddha.
Influence exercised upon the birth of John the Baptist. Contrast
between the teaching given through Buddha to the people of India, and
through Moses to the ancient Hebrews. Provision for spiritual streams
to fructify each other: the development of one is held back, to
receive at a later time what the other has achieved. In the Ten
Commandments the ancient Hebrews received
Laws from outside,
whereas the Indian people had been taught to recognize the
inner Law — Dharma.
Zarathustra's teachings in ancient Persia and subsequently in
Chaldea. His influence, through Moses, upon Hebrew doctrine. The
concept of human guilt. The Book of Job. The nature of the Prophets
— Individualities ‘impelled by the Spirit’. Elijah
reborn as John the Baptist. The visit of Mary to Elisabeth. The Nirmanakaya
of Buddha, hovering above the embryo of the Nathan Jesus, worked upon
Elisabeth and through her upon the Ego of the child who was the
former Elijah and was to be born as John the Baptist.
(See also the previous lecture.)
Blossoming of Buddha's teaching in that given by
John on the banks of the Jordan. Love inherent in blood-relationship
was to be expanded into love that passes from soul to soul,
transcending ties of blood. Abandonment of all family ties by the
Zarathustra-Individuality, first as the Solomon Jesus and
subsequently in the body of the Nathan Jesus. The proclamation of
universal human love.
Lecture Seven. pp. 126–144
The development of the Nathan Jesus-child.
Definite periods of seven years in normal human life. Importance of
the thirty-fifth year. Development of the Nathan Jesus somewhat
accelerated: puberty took place in the twelfth instead of the
fourteenth year. The Zarathustra-Ego, filled with cosmological
wisdom, passed into the body of the Nathan Jesus in the twelfth year
of life and elaborated the faculties in that soul to the highest
degree of excellence. At the Baptism by John the Zarathustra-Ego left
the body of the Nathan Jesus into which the Christ then entered. Soon
after the Zarathustra-Ego had passed into the body of the Nathan
Jesus, the Solomon Jesus-boy died; his etheric body was taken by the
mother of the Nathan Jesus with her into the spiritual world when she
too died — at approximately the same time as the Solomon Jesus.
Having left the body of the Nathan Jesus at the Baptism by John, the
Zarathustra-Individuality united with the etheric body that had
originally been his in the body of the Solomon Jesus. This led to the
existence of the Being known as the “Master Jesus” who in
quickly recurring incarnations has become the Inspirer of the great
spiritual figures in Christianity. The Baptism by John and the descent of
the Christ into the sheaths of the Nathan Jesus. Christ, the Sun-Spirit,
known to the holy Rishis as Vishva Karman and to Zarathustra as Ahura
Mazdao, descended gradually to the Earth from the Sun and was
revealed to Moses on Sinai as Jahve — the reflection of Christ.
Preparation of a body fit to receive this Being. The Bodhisattva who
became Gautama Buddha was succeeded by the Bodhisattva who will
become the Maitreya Buddha. The Lodge of the Twelve Bodhisattvas, and
their missions. The Christ is the ‘Thirteenth’ from whom the
Bodhisattvas receive what they have to carry into Earth evolution. At the
Baptism in the Jordan the heavenly ‘Thirteenth’ appeared on the
Earth. The ‘Fall into Sin’ and the penetration of the Luciferic
forces into the human astral body. Part of the It hole body withdrawn
from the arbitrary control of man. The four ethers: Life-Ether,
Tone- or Number-Ether, Light-Ether, Fire-Ether, and their
correspondences with the functions of man's life of soul. Zarathustra
proclaimed the future descent to Earth of the Divine-Creative Word,
‘Hanover’. At the Baptism in the Jordan the Word became
flesh.
Lecture Eight. pp. 145–163
Essential to recognize that great changes have
taken place in the nature and constitution of man through the ages,
particularly from the time of Atlantis onwards. In ancient Indian
civilization the etheric body still projected beyond the physical
body and was much less firmly knit with it than at present. This made
clairvoyant consciousness possible and the soul-forces were able to
exert far greater power over the processes in the human physical
body. Having meanwhile penetrated deeply into the physical body, the
etheric body is now on the point of emerging again. This is the cause
of many of the semi-psychic, semi-bodily diseases — the so-called
‘nervous’ diseases — of our time. Intense effect
produced by words of love or hatred in very early post-Atlantean times.
In our present age the effects made by spiritual truths will increase in
strength and in the future the soul-and-spirit will gain great power
over the physical. “Spiritual Science is the great remedy for souls
as they live on into the future.” The process of healing in the
primeval Indian epoch: effects made upon the soul could be
transmitted to the etheric body and by it to the physical. In the
Graeco-Latin epoch the power of soul-and-spirit over the body was
about equal to that of the body over the soul. In our present, fifth
post-Atlantean epoch, the physical has gained predominance over the
soul. A new consciousness must develop. In the sixth epoch, the
spiritual will regain dominion over the physical. The parable of the
Sower. Great spiritual truths can be unveiled only gradually. In the
Graeco-Latin epoch the human organism was still, in many cases,
amenable to spiritual influences; hence that was the right moment for
Christ Jesus to appear. Suitable physical organisms were essential
for Christ and also for the Buddha. Far-reaching significance of the
Eightfold Path and its connection with the sixteen-petalled
lotus-flower in reran. Christ brought into the world a power of
Egohood able to penetrate the human sheaths so completely that the
whole organism could be affected. By His mere presence Christ healed
diseases that originated in different members of man's being. Astral
body: transgressions manifested in the disease called
‘possession’ in the Gospel of St. Luke. Etheric body: defects
expressed in paralysis. “Thy sins are forgiven thee!”
Influences able to reach the physical body are the most deeply hidden
of all. The healing of the daughter of Jairus. Her karmic connection with
the woman who had been healed by touching the hem of Christ's garment. The
healings described in the Gospel of St. Luke are evidences of the mastery
of the Christ-Ego over the astral, etheric and physical bodies.
Attainment of such mastery is the Ideal of human evolution.
Lecture Nine. pp. 164–180
At the time of Christ Jesus a radical change took
place in humanity; a more gradual change is in process in our own
day. Fallacy of statement that ‘Nature makes no jumps’.
The ‘jump’ now taking place is indicated by the fact that
the human heart is longing for the spiritual-scientific explanation
of the Bible. When Christ Jesus appeared, the Ego had long been
membered into man but was not fully self-conscious. The Law
proclaimed from Sinai affected the astral body and was the last
prophetic announcement of the Ego. Had Christ Jesus not come to the
Earth, the Ego would have become empty of all content, utterly given
over to egoistic impulses. The Deed of Christ on the Earth was so to
stimulate the development of the Ego in man that the power of Love
should stream from it. Christ bade men understand the ‘signs of the
times’ and recognize the transition taking place in humanity, instead
of clinging to the ‘old leaven’ preserved by the Scribes and
Pharisees. The parable of the unjust steward.
first, How much owest thou unto my lord? \
16:6 And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty. \
16:7 Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore. \
16:8 And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. \
16:9 And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. \
16:10 He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. \
16:11 If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? \
16:12 And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man\'s, who shall give you that which is your own? \
16:13 No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. \
16:14 And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him. \
16:15 And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. \
16:16 The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it. \
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Importance of recognizing those who in the modern age are the
representatives of Mammon, the god of hindrance. What Buddha brought
to mankind was the wisdom, the teaching of Love; Christ brought Love
itself as a living power which was eventually to flow from the Egos
of men themselves into the world. The ‘power of Faith’ is
possessed by one who receives Christ into himself in such a way that Love
overflows from his Ego. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth
speaketh” — a cardinal principle of Christianity.
(Matt. XII, 34.)
The successor of the Bodhisattva who attained Buddhahood five or six
centuries before our era will become the Maitreya Buddha in about
three thousand years reckoned from the present time. He will be able
to fulfil his mission in evolution if a sufficient number of human
beings have developed within themselves not only the wisdom of the
Eightfold Path but from whose hearts the living Substance of Love
overflows into the world. The mission of the Bodhisattvas and of the
Buddha: to bring the ‘Wisdom of Love’ to the Earth. The
mission of Christ: the redemption of souls through the ‘Power of
Love’ He brought to the Earth.
Lecture Ten. pp. 181–203
Great truths must be imparted in a form suitable
for the epoch in which, they are communicated. Humanity has only now
become sufficiently mature to understand the spiritual content of the
laws of Karma and Reincarnation. Instead of being presented as
abstract doctrines, feelings for such truths were, to begin with,
awakened in the human soul. Whereas before the coming of Christ men
had received revelations and experienced their effects in the astral,
etheric and physical bodies, the Ego was now gradually to become
fully conscious. Having Himself given the impulse, Christ Jesus made
provision for Individualities to appear in later times to meet the
spiritual needs of evolving humanity. The ‘awakening’ of
Lazarus who continued to work as John. Different modes of Initiation. The
‘awakening’ of the young man of Nain was an Initiation of a
special kind; his soul was transformed but its powers did not come to
fruition until the next incarnation, when he became a great religious
Teacher. Permeation of Christianity with the teachings of
Reincarnation and Karma. The Law of Sinai was addressed to and worked
upon the astral body in men. The coming of Christ enabled the Ego to
work as an entirely new force. John the Baptist: the last to
transmit, in its purest, noblest form, the teaching belonging to past
ages. Christ's testimony of John.
(Luke VII, 24–8.)
One part only of
the human being derives from the union of the male and female
parental seeds. “There is in each human being something that does not
arise from the seed but is a ‘virgin birth’, flowing from
another source into the process of germination.” This is connected
with faculties that are not inherited but derived from the kingdom of
Heaven. Two ways of experiencing the spiritual world in pre-Christian
times: through Initiation while out of the body, symbolized by the
‘Sign of Jonah’, and through revelation from above, symbolized
by the ‘Sign of Solomon’. The Queen of Sheba: the
representative of those possessing the heritage of dim clairvoyance.
Through the new element brought by Christ, the spiritual world was
eventually to become directly manifest to the Ego, but this could come to
pass only gradually. The scene of the Transfiguration: Christ finds the
disciples asleep. “The Son of Man shall be delivered into the hands
of men,” means that the Ego was to be given over to men for the
fulfilment of their mission on Earth. The Christ-power must unite
with what has remained childlike in man from times before the
Luciferic influence took effect. The old teachings were to be
replaced by new teachings, understood, to begin with, through the
power of Faith. In the Event of Golgotha the old Initiation, hitherto
enacted in the secrecy of the Mysteries was transferred to the open
arena of world-history and enacted for all humanity. The blood that
flowed from the wounds of Christ Jesus on Golgotha signified the
sacrifice of the surplus egoism in human nature. The outpouring of
Infinite Love described in the Gospel of St. Luke. The truths of
Love, Faith, Hope. Spiritual science an instrument for understanding
the treasures given to humanity. Love and Peace: the most beautiful
mirror-image of Divine Mysteries revealed on Earth and streaming back
from human hearts to the heights of the spiritual World.
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