LECTURE NINE
Berne, September 9, 1910
From
everything we have heard in the foregoing lectures it is
clear that the essence of the Christ Event may be
indicated in the following way. — The stage of
evolution denoted by an ascent of the human soul to the
realms of the Spirit was attainable in pre-Christian
times only within the Mysteries, and through the dimming
of the degree of Ego-consciousness then present in man.
This stage of evolution was to receive an impulse —
the fruits of which still lie, for the most part, in the
future — whereby on rising into the spiritual world
a man can retain the full Ego-consciousness that is
normally his on the physical plane alone. This advance in
evolution, made possible by the Christ Event, is truly
the greatest advance that has ever taken place or ever
will take place in the history of the Earth and of
humanity. Whatever else may develop in Earth-evolution in
this connection will simply be an elaboration of the
mighty impulse given by the Christ Event.
Let us now
ask: What was it that was to be brought about by that
Event? There was to be a repetition, in a particular
case, of certain happenings connected with the secrets of
the ancient Mysteries. It was, for example, part of those
secrets — and to some extent it is still the same
to-day — that on penetrating into his own physical
body and etheric body a man experienced in his astral
body the temptations of which we spoke yesterday. And in
the Greek Mysteries a candidate for Initiation had
perforce to encounter all the difficulties and dangers
approaching those who pour themselves out into the
Macrocosm.
These
experiences encountered in one or another mode of
Initiation, were undergone by a great and sublime
Individuality, by Christ Jesus, as a pattern for mankind.
The impulse thus given made it possible for men in the
course of their future evolution gradually to achieve the
development resulting from Initiation.
What
happened formerly in the Mysteries may be described in
the following way. — Although Ego-consciousness was
dreamlike and dim, certain experiences were nevertheless
undergone by the candidate in his inner life of soul.
Egoism was aroused in him, making him wish to be
independent of the external world. But as was said
yesterday, every human being is and must always be
dependent on the external world, for the simple reason
that he cannot create his means of nourishment by magic
or dispense with what he acquires through his physical
body. Because this is so he is exposed to the illusion of
believing that what is acquired merely through the
physical body constitutes the world and its glory. This
experience was undergone by every pupil, every candidate
for Initiation, but in a condition different from that in
which it was undergone at the very highest level by
Christ Jesus. Therefore if someone were to describe what
happened to a candidate in the ancient Mysteries and then
write of the same experiences in the life of Christ
Jesus, there would in certain respects necessarily be
similarity in the descriptions. For what had come to pass
was that happenings formerly shrouded in the secrecy of
the Mysteries had now moved to the arena of
world-history.
Occurrences
such as the following were very frequent in antiquity,
especially in the last centuries before the appearance of
Christ. — Suppose some painter or scribe, having
been told about a certain rite enacted during an
Initiation, set to work to portray or describe it. Such a
painting or description might well bear a resemblance to
the account of the Christ Event given in the Gospels. We
can therefore imagine how in many centres of the ancient
Mysteries the candidate for Initiation, having completed
certain preparations, was bound with outspread arms and
hands to a kind of cross in order that his soul might be
released from his body. He remained in this condition for
a time, undergoing the experiences already described. All
this might have been painted or related in writing, and
then some scholar, finding it to-day, might assert that
what was undergone in the Mysteries had been founded on
some older tradition; he might then add that the Gospels
themselves are simply repetitions.
Statements
to this effect are very widespread. In the book
Christianity as Mystical Fact I have explained
the sense in which secrets of the ancient Mysteries come
to light in the Gospels, and that the Gospels,
fundamentally, are repetitions of the descriptions of
Initiation in the Mysteries. Why, in relating events in
the life of Christ, was it possible to describe the
processes enacted in the Mysteries? It was possible
because everything that took place in the Mysteries in
the inner life of the soul, had become historic
fact; because the Christ-Jesus-Event was a
re-portrayal of symbolic rites enacted during the process
of the old Initiation, but fulfilled now at the higher
level of full Ego-consciousness. This fact must always be
kept in mind. The similarity of episodes in Christ's life
— as narrated in the Gospels — with
procedures in the Mysteries will certainly be realised by
those who are convinced that such procedures became
historic reality through His coming, although they were
enacted on an entirely different level of
consciousness.
The
following could also be said. — Those destined to
witness the Christ Event in Palestine observed the
fulfillment of the Essene prophecy and were aware of the
Baptism by John, the Temptation and what followed it, the
Crucifixion, and the ensuing happenings. They could say
to themselves: Here is a life lived through by a sublime
Being in the body of a man. What are the all-important
points in this life? Certain things take place as
external events and they are identical with experiences
undergone in the Mysteries by candidates for Initiation.
We need therefore simply turn to the canon of a
Mystery-rite and there we should find the prototype of a
process that may now be described as an historical
fact!
Here, then,
is the great secret. What had formerly been shrouded in
the darkness of temple-sanctuaries, perceptible —
but only in its effects — to those in the outer
world possessed of spiritual vision, was now enacted as
the Christ Event on the stage of world-history itself. It
must of course be realised that in the days of the
Evangelists, no biographies were produced of the kind
familiar to us to-day. In a biography, let us say, of
Goethe, of Schiller, or of Lessing, every detail of their
lives is probed into and every scrap of information
collected, usually resulting in a mass of unimportant
data purporting to convey the essentials of a
life-history. Whereas all these details hinder one from
discerning the points that really matter, the Evangelists
were content to describe what was of central and
fundamental importance in the life of Christ Jesus,
namely that in this life there was a repetition of the
process of Initiation — but enacted here in the
great setting of world-history. Is it any wonder that in
our time numbers of people have been taken aback by a
certain disconcerting development which comes home to us
even more forcibly in the light of the following facts.
—
Myths and
sagas have come down to us from the past. Anyone who
understands their origin and character will realise that
many of them are narratives of happenings in the
spiritual worlds, seen by ancient clairvoyance and
clothed in imagery of the sense-world; other myths again
are portrayals of happenings in the Mysteries. For
example, the myth of Prometheus, among many others, is
partly a presentation of acts performed in the Mysteries.
We often find the scene described of Zeus with a god of
lower rank who is destined, according to the Greek
account, to be his tempter. Zeus standing on a mountain
being tempted by Pan — this theme is portrayed in
many and various ways. What was the purpose of such
imagery? It was meant to give expression to the process
of man's descent into his inner being, where he
encounters his own lower nature, his egoistic Pan-nature,
when he penetrates into his physical and etheric
bodies.
The ancient
world is full of accounts of experiences undergone by a
candidate for Initiation along the path leading into the
spiritual world, and in the myths and sagas these
accounts are given artistic form.
Scholarship
of to-day which fails to penetrate below the surface
— and this is what bewilders many people who either
cannot or will not recognize the facts — declares
when it finds the story of Pan tempting Zeus on a
mountain that this shows clearly that the story of the
Temptation told by the Evangelists is merely the
repetition of an allegory already familiar to them.
Scholars then draw the conclusion that there is nothing
of unique importance in the Gospels, which appear to them
to be compilations pieced together from ancient mythology
in order to present a fictitious figure called Jesus
Christ. In a certain widespread movement in Germany there
were many vapid discussions as to whether Christ Jesus
ever lived at all. And with a really grotesque lack of
understanding — although with ostentatious
erudition — all the sagas and myths alleged to
contain earlier parallels of the Gospel scenes were
enumerated. It is useless to-day to attempt to give an
idea of the actual state of affairs, although it is well
known to those who are conversant with these matters. But
spiritual movements in our time develop along very
strange lines!
I should
not have spoken of these things if it were not constantly
necessary to take a stand against arguments levelled by
ostensibly profound scholarship against the facts and
expositions of Spiritual Science.
The real
truth of these matters is what I have presented in these
lectures. Accounts originating in the Mysteries are
necessarily recapitulated in the Gospels, but the secret
of Initiation is now connected with an Individuality
altogether different. The intention is to show that the
experiences formerly undergone in a condition of dimmed
consciousness were passed through by this Individuality,
this Being, without any loss of Ego-consciousness.
Therefore when it is said that the Gospels contain hardly
anything for which there is no earlier parallel, we need
not be surprised but we must realise that in former times
it was a matter of the human being having to rise into
the Kingdoms of Heaven, because the Kingdoms of Heaven
had not then already ascended to Ego. The really new
thing was that what could formerly only be experienced in
other realms, and through a kind of attenuation of the
Ego, could now be experienced in Malkhut in the
‘Kingdom’, with the Ego erect and
self-supporting.
Hence after
Christ Jesus had undergone the experience described in
St. Matthew's Gospel as the Temptation, He began to
preach of the ‘Kingdom.’ What was the gist of
His teaching? It was this: What a man formerly attained
through suppressing his Ego and receiving other beings
into himself, is now and henceforward to be attained in
full Ego-consciousness. — That is the essential
point. Hence it is not repetition of events connected
with Initiations only that are repeated in the life of
Christ, but the vital point in the ‘preaching of
the Kingdom’ is this: Everything promised to those
who were formerly admitted into the Mysteries or who
accepted their teachings, is now offered to those who
learn to experience in themselves the reality of the
‘I’, the Ego, in the way prefigured for
mankind by Christ.
Everything,
therefore, even features of the doctrine, must
necessarily appear again in some form. But it must not
surprise us that emphasis was laid upon the difference
between the old teachings and the new, that it was
stressed: What could not, in former times, be attained
through the Ego, can now be attained by the Ego itself
— in full, consciousness! Let us suppose Christ had
wanted to draw attention to the great truth that in
former times, according to teachings that had reached
them from the Mysteries, men had always looked up to the
Kingdoms of Heaven, saying: Blessedness can stream down
to us from there — but it does not penetrate into
our Ego. — In those circumstances it would have
been necessary for Christ still to uphold what was
formerly said about the Divine Father-Source of
existence, for contact with it was indeed attainable when
Ego-consciousness was dimmed, and it was the nuances only
that needed to be changed. He would have had to speak to
the following effect: If you were formerly bidden to look
up to the realms of the Divine Father-Source of existence
and wait until His radiance streamed upon you, it may
henceforward be said that not only does His radiance
stream down to you, but whatsoever is willed on high must
penetrate into the deepest core of the human Ego and ,
be willed there also.
Again, let
us suppose that each single phrase in the Lord's Prayer
had existed previously, and that the only one needing to
be altered was to the effect that when in former times
men looked up to the Divine Father-Spirit in the Heights
everything there remained unchanged, shining down into
the earthly realm. — Christ would now have had to
say that the heavenly realm must come down to the Earth
where the Ego has its dwelling-place; and the will that
is fulfilled above in the Heavens must also be fulfilled
upon the Earth. — It follows that those who are
possessed of deeper insight and perceive the finer shades
of difference, will not be in the least surprised that
the phrases used in the Lord's Prayer may also have
existed in ancient times. A superficial thinker, however,
will not notice these fine shades of difference, for in
so far as he does not understand the purpose of
Christianity he fails to perceive their importance! And
when he finds that these phrases were current in earlier
times, he will say: ‘There you have it; the Gospels
record the Lord's Prayer — but it was already in
existence before they were written!’ The essential
shades of difference, however, have escaped him.
You can now
realise what a vast difference there is between genuine
understanding of the scriptures and extern al study. The
important factor is for those who discern the new shades
of meaning to compare them with the old. The scholar who
lacks the deeper understanding and fails to perceive
these shades of difference will continue to insist that
the Lord's Prayer had already been in existence before
the time of Christ.
Attention
must be paid to these things and mention made of them
here because anthroposophists ought to be able to some
extent to make a stand against the dilettante learning
that makes its superficial interpretations and its voice
heard to-day and by way of innumerable channels in
newspapers and periodicals comes to be accepted as
‘science’.
Let me say
something further in connection with the Lord's Prayer.
There was once a certain individual who set out to
collect from every available ancient tradition, from
every relevant passage in Talmudic literature, sentences
bearing some sort of resemblance to those of the Lord's
Prayer. Mark well: the compilation produced by this
learned scholar is nowhere to be found originally in
this form; the single sentences have been taken
piecemeal from one document or another. Carrying this
method to the point of absurdity, we might also say: The
first sentences of Faust were put together by
Goethe in the same way! It might be possible to produce
evidence that in the 17th century there was a student who
had failed in his examination and afterwards said to his
father: Have I not studied jurisprudence with toil and
sweat! And another who had failed in his medical
examination said: Have I not studied medicine with toil
and sweat! And from this the first sentences in
Faust are supposed to have been composed. It is
an absurdity, but the principle and method are exactly
the same as those of the trend in Gospel criticism to
which I allude.
The
following sentences, pieced together as stated, are
sup-posed to have produced the Lord's Prayer:
‘Our Father which art in Heaven; O Lord Our
God, hallowed be thy name, and let the remembrance of
thee be glorified in heaven above, and upon earth here
below. Let thy kingdom reign over us now and for ever.
The holy men of old said: remit and forgive unto all
men whatsoever they have done against me. And lead us
not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil
thing. For thine is the kingdom, and thou shalt reign
in glory for ever and for evermore.’ [ Note 01 ]
The Lord's
Prayer is alleged to have been compiled from these
sayings which, as I said, were collected from many
sources. But the nuance that would indicate the unique
significance of the Christ Event is entirely lacking.
Nowhere is it said that the Kingdom of Heaven is to come
down. The words are ‘Let thy kingdom rule over us
now and for ever’ — not: Thy Kingdom shall
come to us! That is the essential point, but superficial
scholarship entirely fails to perceive it. And although
these sayings came not from one source but from records
in many archives, the words of salient importance in the
Lord's Prayer are nowhere to be found: ‘Thy will be
done on Earth as it is done in Heaven.’ That is to
say, the Ego itself is to participate actively. There you
have an example of the difference between superficial
research and really thorough and conscientious research
which pays attention to every detail. The findings of
conscientious research are available, if only people will
take account of them.
I have
purposely read you these sentences which are quoted in
Robertson's book. It has now been translated into German
as a kind of modern gospel, in order that it may become
widely known; for until now, a certain Professor [
Note 02 ] who has given a number of
lectures on the subject of whether Jesus actually lived,
was obliged to read it in English. The book has quickly
become famous and the translation of it has meant that
people need no longer make the effort to read it in a
language not their own. It has been possible for a
Professor at a German Academy to travel about lecturing
on the question: ‘Did Jesus live?’ —
and then, on the basis of the facts I have mentioned, to
give the answer that there is no documentary evidence
whatever to prove that a personality such as Jesus ever
lived. Robertson's book is also recommended as an
excellent work of reference. Anthroposophists should,
however, be warned that they will hear many other things
from these investigations into New Testament texts, and I
want still to speak of something particularly
characteristic.
The book
attempts to show that versions of the Lord's Prayer
existed not only in the Talmud but also in chronicles of
great antiquity. To strengthen the contention that the
Lord's Prayer was a compilation of phrases previously in
existence and needed no Christ to utter it for the first
time, the book quotes certain lines from a prayer in the
Chaldaic language, inscribed on tablets, invoking
Merodach, the ancient Babylonian god. Listen to this
passage which occurs in a footnote: [ Note 03 ]
‘In the Journal of the Royal Asiatic
Society for October, 189x, Mr. T. G. Pinches
published for the first time a translation of a tablet
found at Sippara in 1882, in which there occur, in an
invocation of Merodach, the lines: “May the
abundance of the world descend into thy (the city's)
midst; may thy command be accomplished in time to
come... may the evil spirit dwell outside of
thee.” ’
And the
learned scholar who was so deeply impressed by this
passage, adds: ‘Here we have prayer norms, on the
lines of the Lord's Prayer, dating perhaps from 4000
B.C.’
Can you
detect any similarity between the Lord's Prayer and these
sentences? Nevertheless the author of the book regards
them as prayer-norms of which the Lord's Prayer is simply
a copy! Such things are accepted to-day as the findings
of genuine research.
There is
another reason for bringing this to the notice of
anthroposophists, for they must be able to reassure their
consciences which might well be troubled by hearing that
something or other has been established by external
research, or by reading in newspapers or journals of the
discovery of a tablet in Asia proving that the Lord's
Prayer was already in existence 4,000 years before
Christ. A very necessary question would be: Upon what
basis has this been proved? — I am trying to show
you the kind of foundations underlying many things that
are said to-day to be ‘scientifically
established’. Such examples are everywhere to be
found and it is well for anthroposophists to realise the
worthlessness of much that is so often held against
Spiritual Science. — But we will proceed.
The
all-essential point is that Christ Jesus inaugurated an
evolutionary process based upon the human Ego, upon the
retention of fill Ego-consciousness. The Initiation of
the Ego — that was what He inaugurated. We can say
that the Ego, the is the kernel of man's whole being,
that all human nature to-day centres in the Ego, and that
what was brought through the Christ Event to the Ego, and
hence into the world, can also lay hold of, all the other
members of man's being. But this, naturally, will have to
take place in a very particular way and in keeping with
the evolution of humanity.
These
lectures show clearly what it is that can be developed.
Properly speaking, knowledge of the surrounding
physical-material world acquired by man not through the
senses alone but also through the intellect using the
brain as its instrument, has been possible only since
times shortly preceding the Christ Event. Before then,
men were endowed with a kind of clairvoyance. As you know
from my lectures, this was the case from the early epochs
of Atlantis onwards. But the faculty that was still
universal and functioning in full strength during the
first epochs of post-Atlantean evolution, gradually
declined. Until the time of the Christ Event, however,
there were still many human beings who in intermediate
states of consciousness between waking life and sleep,
were able to gaze into and participate in happenings of
the spiritual world. Such participation did not merely
mean that a man endowed with clairvoyance to a slight
extent was able to assert: ‘I know that behind
everything physical and material there is the spiritual,
for I actually see it.’ — This was not all.
Human nature in ancient times was such that it was
possible, without difficulty, to enable a man to partake
in the happenings of the spiritual world, To-day it is
very arduous, relatively speaking, to undergo the true
esoteric training leading to the attainment of
clairvoyance. Natural clairvoyance manifests to-day as a
last remnant, a heritage from olden times, in
somnambulistic and kindred conditions. These conditions
cannot be regarded as regular in our age; but in the
distant past they were normal and could be sublimated and
enhanced by certain measures. — Something else,
too, was connected with this.
To-day,
people are not guided by true history and what they
happen to believe decides what is or is not historical
fact. But however strongly it may be doubted, the truth
is that up to the time of Christ, processes of healing,
for instance, could be made effective by inducing
clairvoyance. In the present age, when humanity has
descended more deeply into the the physical world, this
is no longer possible. But in those earlier times it was
still easy, by applying certain specific measures, to
enable the soul to become clairvoyant and to penetrate
into the spiritual world. And because the spiritual world
is health-giving, in itself and sends its forces into thc
physical world, it was possible to bring about healings
in this way. In a case of illness certain processes were
put in motion, enabling the person concerned to see into
the spiritual world. And the streams of the spiritual
world flowing down into his whole being had a curative
effect. This indeed was the usual method of healing. (The
‘temple healing’ spoken of nowadays is sheer
dilettantism.) The fact that souls have lost the
clairvoyance that was universal in former times,
signifies an advance in evolution. But the earlier
clairvoyant condition could be so sublimated that healing
forces streamed from the spiritual into the physical
world and in the case of certain illnesses cures could be
effected, We need not therefore be surprised when it is
said by the Evangelists that as a result of the Christ
Event not only those possessed of the old clairvoyance
would be able to reach the spiritual world, but also
those who, owing to the evolution of humanity, had lost
contact with it.
In ancient
times the riches of the spiritual world were revealed to
men's clairvoyant vision. Now, however, it could be said:
Evolution has progressed and those who can no longer gaze
into the spiritual world have become poor in spirit,
beggars for the spirit. But because, through Christ, the
forces of the Kingdoms of Heaven can now flow into the
Ego, even when the Ego is functioning on the physical
plane, those who have lost the old clairvoyance and the
riches of the spiritual world, they too can experience
the spirit in themselves and be blessed. Hence the
momentous words: From now onwards, not only those who
through the old clairvoyance are rich in the things of
the spirit are blessed; but those too who are beggars for
the spirit, are blessed; for when the path has been
opened for them by Christ the Kingdoms, of Heaven flow
into their Ego.
In earlier
times the nature of the human physical organism was such
that even in the normal state the soul was able to some
extent to emerge from the body; this meant that a man
became clairvoyant, rich in the treasures of the spirit.
The densification of the physical body — for which,
admittedly there can be no anatomical proof — meant
that man could no longer be rich in the things of the
spiritual world, of the Kingdoms of Heaven. In describing
existing conditions, one would have to say: Man has
become a beggar for the spirit; but the powers brought
down by Christ enable him to experience within him-self
the Kingdoms of Heaven. — That, then, is what might
be said in reference to the processes of the physical
body.
If it were
a matter of describing what actually took place in man as
an Ego-being, one would have to show how each of his
members could be blessed inwardly, in a new way. The new
truth relating to the physical body is expressed in the
words: Blessed are they who are beggars for the spirit;
for within themselves they will find the Kingdoms of
Heaven.
In regard
to the etheric body, this could be said: In the etheric
body lies the principle of suffering. Only a living being
can suffer as the result of injury to the etheric body
— an astral body must, of course, be there as well
— but the seat of the suffering must nevertheless
be looked for in the etheric body. To express the new
truth applying to healings brought about in earlier times
through forces streaming from the spiritual world, one
would have to say: Those who suffer can henceforth find
consolation not only by passing out of their bodies and
thus being linked with the spiritual world as was
formerly the case; if they now establish a different
relationship with the world they can find consolation
within themselves, because through Christ a new force has
been imparted to the etheric body. Hence concerning the
etheric body it could be said: Those who suffer can now
be blessed not only through reaching a spiritual world
and in a clairvoyant condition allowing the forces of
that world to stream upon them; now, if they can find the
path to Christ, to the new truth, they can find
within themselves consolation for all
suffering.
And what
would have to be said about the astral body? In former
times, when a man was striving to subdue the emotions,
passions and egoistic impulses of his astral body, he
turned his gaze to higher spheres, pleading that strength
might be vouchsafed to him from the Kingdoms of Heaven;
through certain measures to which he was then subjected,
the harmful instincts of his astral body were quelled.
But now the time had come when through Christ's Deed he
was able to receive into his Ego the power to
curb and tame the passions and emotions of his astral
body. The new truth relating to the astral body would
therefore be expressed as follows: Blessed are those who
have become meek through the power of their own Ego; for
it is they who will inherit the Earth! This third
Beatitude is indeed profound. Let us study it in the
light of what we have learnt from Spiritual Science.
— The astral body was incorporated into human
nature during the Old Moon period of evolution. The
Luciferic beings who had gained influence over man,
established themselves in his astral body, and in
consequence of this he could not, at the beginning, hope
to reach his highest earthly goal. As we know, the
Luciferic beings had remained at the Old Moon stage and
prevented man from progressing in the right way along his
path of development. But now that Christ had come down to
the Earth and the Ego gould be filled with His power, it
was possible for man to fulfil the essential principle of
Earth-existence, inasmuch as he could now find within
himself the power to curb the astral body and expel the
Luciferic influences. Hence it could be said: He who
curbs his astral body, he whose own inner strength keeps
him from being moved to anger without the consent of his
Ego, he who is inwardly serene and at the same time
strong enough to keep his astral body in check —
such a man will fulfil the purpose of Earth-evolution.
Infinite light is thus shed by Spiritual Science on the
third Beatitude.
How will
man succeed in bringing about the sublimation and
beatification of the other members of his nature through
the Christ-power within him? He will succeed if his soul
and body alike are laid hold of worthily by the power of
the Ego. Concerning the Sentient Soul we can say : If a
man desires to experience the Christ within himself, he
must develop in his Sentient Soul a longing as strong as
the instinctive longing he otherwise feels in his body
and calls hunger and thirst. He must be capable of
thirsting after the things of the soul with the same
intensity as the body hungers and thirsts for food and
drink. What man can develop through the Christ-power
within him has always been referred to as ‘thirst
after righteousness’. And when he fills his
Sentient Soul with the Christ-power, he can find within
himself the possibility of satisfying his thirst after
righteousness.
The fifth
Beatitude, as might be expected, is especially
note-worthy, for it concerns the Intellectual or
Mind-Soul. Anyone who has studied the book Occult
Science, or Theosophy, and has also
followed what has been said for years in lectures, knows
that the three members of the human soul — Sentient
Soul, Intellectual or Mind-Soul and Spiritual Soul
(Consciousness-Soul) are held together by the Ego is
present in the Sentient Soul in a dull condition; in the
Intellectual or Mind-Soul it lights up and only then does
man become wholly and completely man. Whereas in the
lower members of his being, in the Sentient Soul too, he
is ruled by divine-spiritual Powers, he becomes a
self-dependent being in the Intellectual or Mind-Soul.
Here the Ego flashes up and is active. Therefore when the
Intellectual or Mind-Soul has received into itself the
CHrist-power, this cannot be expressed in the same way as
in the case of the lower members of human nature. In the
lower members — physical body, etheric body, astral
body and Sentient Soul too — man is connected with
certain divine Beings who penetrate into these members,
and whatever qualities he develops there are carried up
again to these divine Beings. But whatever evolves in the
Intellectual or Mind-Soul will be an essentially
human attribute when it develops the
Christ-quality. When a man begins to be conscious of the
working of the Intellectual Soul, this makes him less and
less dependent upon the divine-spiritual Powers around
him. When he takes the Christ-power into himself he can
unfold in the Intellectual or Mind-Soul those qualities
which pass like to like, which are not besought from
Heaven but which go forth from and return again to the
same being. We must therefore feel that something streams
from the qualities of the Intellectual or Mind-Soul and
that something of a like character a truly wonderful way
the fifth Beatitude points to this very quality. The
wording here differs from that of all the other
Beatitudes, and although the various translations are not
particularly good, they have not been able entirely to
conceal the essential point. — Blessed are the
merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.'‘What
streams forth streams back again — these words
convey the true meaning when understood in the light of
Spiritual Science.
With the
sixth Beatitude, relating to the Spiritual Soul, we come
to that principle in man in which the real nature of the
the Ego, comes fully into expression; ascent to the
spiritual world can now take a new form. As we know, the
Intellectual or Mind-Soul came to active expression in
the epoch when Christ appeared. We are living now in the
epoch when the Spiritual Soul must come to expression and
when man is to rise again to the spiritual world. Whereas
consciousness of self first lights up in man in the
Intellectual or Mind-Soul, in the Spiritual or
Consciousness-Soul his ‘I’ unfolds to the
-full extent and now ascends again into the spiritual
world. A man who takes the Christ-power into himself will
find the way to his God when he pours his ‘I’
into the Spiritual Soul. In experiencing Christ in his
Ego at the level of the Spiritual Soul, he will find his
God. — Now it has been said that the expression of
the Ego in the physical body is the blood; the blood has
its centre in the heart. Therefore the sixth Beatitude
will have to indicate that through the quality imparted
to the blood and to the heart, the Ego can experience
God. What are the words? ‘Blessed are the pure in
heart: for they shall see God.’ Again this is not
an entirely adequate translation but it suffices.
Spiritual
Science sheds light upon the whole structure of these
wonderful words spoken by Christ Jesus to his intimate
disciples after the Temptation. The further Beatitudes
relate to the development of the higher members of man's
being: Spirit-Self, Life-Spirit, Spirit-Man. Therefore
the words do no more than indicate what man will
experience in the future and what only a few chosen ones
are able to experience at the present time.
The seventh
Beatitude relates to the Spirit-Self : Blessed are they
who draw to themselves the Spirit-Self as the first
purely spiritual member of their being; for they will be
called the children of God. — The first member of
the higher triad has entered into them. They have
received the Divine into themselves and have become an
outward expression of the God-head.
But it is
now clearly shown that only chosen ones, only those who
fully understand what the future is to humanity as a
whole can succeed in unfolding the Life-Spirit. What men
of the future, having received Christ into themselves in
the fullest sense, will call the
‘Life-Spirit’ is now within the reach of a
few individuals only. But because they are chosen
individuals, the others are unable to understand them and
they are persecuted. With reference, therefore, to those
who are persecuted because as individuals they represent
a stage that belongs only to the future, the words are
uttered: Blessed are they which are persecuted for
righteousness' sake: for in themselves they find the
Kingdoms of Heaven.
And the
last Beatitude concerns the closest, most intimate
disciples only; it refers to the ninth member of Man's
being: Spirit-Man. — ‘Blessed are ye, when
men shall revile you, and persecute you... for my
sake.’
And so
these wonderful utterances relating to the nine members
of man's being show how the when filled with Christ,
works in the different members and brings them
blessedness. In the verses following the account of the
Temptation, the Gospel of St. Matthew expresses with
majestic grandeur the effect of the Christ-power in the
ninefold nature of man, first in the present and then in
the immediate future, when those into whom the
Spirit-Self already shines are called ‘children of
God’ — although of these there are only a few
specially blessed ones. What is so wonderful is that the
indications are quite definite when concerned with
members of man's being that have already developed, but
become indefinite in the later utterances which relate to
the distant future.
But once
again we have an example of superficial scholar-ship.
Suppose someone were investigating the question of
whether similar utterances are also to be found elsewhere
and whether the Evangelists might have strung them
together from other sources. And suppose this
investigator had no notion of the all-important
point—that the Beatitudes apply to the
Christ-filled Ego! Failing to notice the
wonderful enhancement indicated in the utterances, he
might well quote the following — and indeed two or
three pages later in the book already mentioned, [
Note 04 ] in a chapter entitled
‘The Beatitudes’, reference is made to an
‘Enoch’ — who is not the usual
(Ethiopic) Enoch — and nine so-called
‘Beatitudes’ are cited. The author admits
that the original record can be assigned to the first
period of the Christian era but he considers that the
utterances we have characterized as being so profound
could have been copied from the following nine
'Beatitudes’ of the 'Slavonic' Enoch: [ Note 05 ]
1. Blessed
is he who fears the name of the Lord, and serves
continually before his face.
2. Blessed
is he who executes a just judgment, not for the sake of
recompense, but for the sake of righteousness, expecting
nothing in return: a sincere judgment shall afterwards
come to him.
3. Blessed
is he who clothes the naked with a garment, and gives his
bread to the hungry.
4. Blessed
is he who gives a. just judgment for the orphan and the
widow, and assists every one who is wronged.
5. Blessed
is he who turns from the unstable path of this vain
world, and walks by the righteous path which leads to
eternal life,
6. Blessed
is he who sows just seed; he shall reap sevenfold.
7. Blessed
is he in whom is the truth, that he may speak the truth
to his neighbour.
8. Blessed
is he who has love upon his lips, and tenderness in his
heart.
9. Blessed
is he who understands every word of the Lord, and
glorifies the Lord God.
Certainly
there is beauty in these sayings. But when you study
their whole construction and realise that they simply set
forth a few principles suitable for any epoch but not
specifically for the one of drastic transformation due to
the inauguration of the power of the ‘I’
— then, if you still think it possible to place
these Slavonic sayings on a par with the Beatitudes of
St. Matthew, you will not be far removed from those who
make superficial comparisons between the various
religions of mankind and whenever they come across
similarities at once insist that there is uniformity,
ignoring what is of essential importance.
To
understand these things is to realise that human
evolution progresses, that humanity advances from stage
to stage, and that a man is not born in a new physical
body in a later millennium in order to repeat experiences
already undergone, but to experience in what respects
humanity has advanced in the intervening time. That is
the purpose alike of history and of human evolution. And
of this the Gospel of St. Matthew speaks on every
page!
Notes:
1. See p. 417, in
Christianity and Mythology, by John M.
Robertson. Second edition. First published in 1900 by
Watts & Co. London. It is stated that this
compilation was made more than two centuries ago by
the Rev. John Gregorie, from the Jewish
Euchologues.
2. Dr. Arthur
Drews.
3. Op. cit. pp.
418--
4.
Christianity and Mythology, p. 422.
5. From the Book of the Secrets of
Enoch, trans. from the Slavonic by W. R.
Morfill, and edited, with introd. notes, by R. H.
Charles. (Clarendon Press, 1896).
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