LECTURE IX
FROM what has already been given out in
these Lectures we are led to the conviction that the
following are the essential facts of the Christ Event. The
stage of human development described as raising the soul to
spiritual realms was only attainable in pre-Christian days
within the Mysteries, and then only through a certain dimming
of the ego. Human development, however, was destined to
receive so powerful an impulse that those who could rise to
it would be able to retain full ego-consciousness on entering
the world of spirit. This condition belongs for the most part
to the future, for ego-consciousness at the present day is
normal only on the physical planes.
The advance
in human evolution imparted by the Christ Event is the
greatest that has yet been made, or ever will be made, in
human or earthly evolution. Whatever may arise in the future
in consequence of this event will be but a further
development of this mighty impulse. Therefore we ask
ourselves: What then actually had to come to pass through the
Event of Christ?
In a certain
way there must be a repetition; a repetition in detail, of
what belonged to the secrets of the ancient Mysteries. It was
characteristic of those Mysteries, as it is to some extent of
those of to-day that he who penetrated within his own
physical and etheric bodies experienced the temptations of
the astral body as described in the last Lecture. In the
Greek Mysteries, on the other hand, man had to confront the
difficulties and dangers that always approach those who try
to pour themselves forth into the macrocosm. This also has
been described. Both these types of initiation were
experienced as a single impulse of a great outstanding
individuality by the Christ as a pattern for mankind. Through
this an impetus was given by which men would gradually in
future be able to pass through such a development as came to
them in initiation.
Let us
therefore consider first what was accomplished in the
Mysteries. All that the human soul then passed through was
experienced with the ego-consciousness reduced to something
half dream-like, and in this condition the inner soul nature
gained certain experiences. Such a man experienced the
awakening of egoism, the desire to be independent of the
external world; but, as explained in the last lecture, so
long as man is unable to create food magically, unable to
dispense with what is acquired through his physical organism,
he is dependent on the outer world. Therefore he is exposed
to the illusion that all he perceives by means of his
physical nature applies only to the world and to the
splendour thereof. Every pupil, every would-be initiate went
through this experience, though not in the same way as the
Christ, Who experienced it on the highest level. Therefore a
description of these facts, which are only experienced by a
pupil of the Mysteries, would be in a certain way similar to
a description of the life of Christ Jesus. What then took
place outwardly, once and for all time, on the plane of the
world's history, had been confined hitherto to the
darkness of the Mysteries.
Let us
consider the following case, one that was frequent in the
centuries immediately preceding Christ. Let us suppose that
an artist or a writer had learnt that this or that procedure
was followed during initiation, and, that he had painted or
written of it. Such a picture, or writing might well resemble
what is related by the Evangelists of the Christ Event; and
one can understand how in many ancient Mysteries after due
preparation the candidate's physical form was bound
with outstretched hands in the form of a cross, so that his
soul nature might be liberated. He remained thus for a
certain time, so as to draw forth his soul nature, and that
he might undergo the experiences already related. These
things might have been represented in paintings or described
in writing. They might then be discovered by someone to-day,
who might deduce from them that the painter had painted a
scene of the Mysteries, or the writer had recorded an old
tradition. He might then go on to say that the facts of the
Gospels are merely records of the rites of an initiation of
former days.
This is frequently
stated — and to how great an extent is shown in my book,
Christianity as Mystical Fact,
in which I explain how all the secrets of the ancient Mysteries
appear again in the Gospels, how in fact the Gospels are but
repetitions of ancient accounts of initiation as carried out
in the Mysteries. Why in telling of the life of Christ does
the Evangelist simply describe facts of the ancient
Mysteries? The Evangelist describes the scenes of the ancient
Mysteries because he saw these inner processes of the soul
carried out as historic facts; because all the events of the
life of Christ Jesus were a repetition, exalted to the level
of an Ego-Being, of the symbolic or even actual-symbolic acts
of ancient initiation.
This fact
needs emphasis: Those who take their stand on the ground of
the historical truth of the Christ Event may rightly point
out the resemblance between the Gospel biographies of Christ
Jesus and the occurrences of the Mysteries. To express it
more exactly, those who were destined to behold the Christ
Event in Palestine beheld the fulfilment of the Essene
prophecy; the Baptism in Jordan, the Temptation, the
Crucifixion, and all that followed. They could say therefore:
We have represented to us here the life of a Being in a human
body. What are the essential points in the life of this
Being? Strange to relate, we find, enacted here in external
historic life, certain events that are the very same as those
which occurred to the initiate in the ancient Mysteries. We
need only refer to the canon of a Mystery to discover a model
for those events which are here described as historical
facts.
That in fact
is the great secret, that what was formerly hidden within the
obscurity of the temple, and only reached the world in its
results, was now enacted on the great stage of universal
history as the Christ Event, and could be seen by those who
had attained spiritual vision. It should be realized that in
the days when the Evangelists wrote, biographies such as we
have to-day were unknown; biographies for instance of Goethe,
Schiller, or Lessing giving in detail every minute scrap of
information, in which the most unimportant details are
amassed and presented as of the greatest moment. With the
attention fixed on this mass of detail, concentration on
facts of essential importance is impossible. The Evangelists
were content to relate the essential facts of the life of
Christ Jesus, and the fact of supremest importance is, that
in the great plan of world history, the life of Christ is a
repetition of initiation. Can we wonder that this truth which
has come to light in our time should be so disconcerting to
many people — so really overwhelming. These things
which are so disconcerting will strike you even more vividly
when you consider what follows.
Myths and
sagas come to us from the past. What are they? Anyone who
understands them, and knows what they are, will find in them
descriptions of what ancient clairvoyance had seen in the
spiritual world clothed in happenings of the world of the
senses, or he will find other myths that are in essence
nothing but descriptions of the Mysteries. The myth of
Prometheus, for instance, like many another, is partly a
reproduction of deeds enacted in the Mysteries. We often find
the scene described when Zeus appears and near him some lower
god who — according to the Greek account — tempts
him. Zeus, standing on an eminence, is ‘tempted by
Pan.’ This is one form; there are many others. Why does
this image occur so frequently? Because it expresses the
descent of man into his inner being, the descent into the
physical and etheric body bringing with it the encounter with
his lower nature, his egotistical Pan-nature.
The ancient
world is full of such accounts of experiences during
initiation, which are in this way given artistic form in
myths and symbols. Many people who take a superficial view,
make the grand discovery that certain knowledge is here
presented in the form of symbols. And this upsets people who
do not know, or wish to know the facts. They read of Pan
tempting Zeus, and say: ‘It is easy to see from this
that the scene of the temptation of Christ had taken place
before. The Evangelists have only repeated some ancient
allegorical tale, and the Gospels are compiled out of such
ancient tales.’ It is but a step from this to the
conclusion that the Gospels contain nothing of special
import, that they are only pieced together from myths and
that Christ Jesus is fictitious. A great movement arose in
Germany which took the form of frivolous discussions as to
whether Christ Jesus had ever really lived. With a grotesque
lack of knowledge, bft with profound learning, the various
myths and legends which bore some resemblance to scenes in
the Gospel were discussed again and again. It is of little
avail to-day to impart anything concerning the true facts,
although they are well known to those who have knowledge.
This is how spiritual movements develop in our time; truly
the way in which they develop is very grotesque
There would
be no need to interpolate these remarks were it not that one
is constantly obliged to make a stand against
misrepresentations that are made from one side or another,
with apparently great learnedness, against the statements of
Spiritual Science.
The true
facts are given in these Lectures. We have to see in the
Gospels a recapitulation of events that took place in the
Mysteries, though in them the secrets of initiation refer to
a very different Individuality, and they really wish to say
to us: ‘Behold, what formerly was accomplished in the
Mysteries through suppression of the consciousness has now
been accomplished in a marvellous and outstanding manner by
an Ego-Being in full ego-consciousness!’ We
need not therefore wonder at the statement that the Gospels
hardly contain anything that did not exist before. What we
have to realize is, that what was told formerly, related to
the ascent of man to the Kingdom of Heaven; never before had
what men call the ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ come down
into the ego. What was essentially new was this: What
formerly had taken place in a state of suppressed
consciousness and in super-sensible realms could now take
place in full consciousness in Malchut, ‘The
Kingdom.’ This is why, after Christ Jesus had
experienced what is described in the Gospel of Matthew as the
Temptation, He became the preacher of ‘The
Kingdom.’ What was the essence of his preaching? He
said: What formerly was attained through the darkening of the
human ego, and through man receiving other beings into
himself; can now be achieved with complete retention of the
ego-consciousness! This fact is stressed again and again.
Hence the necessity for a repetition of scenes from the
Mysteries in the life of Christ Jesus. Hence also the
necessity of the ‘Sermon concerning the Kingdom,’
in which Christ declared: Everything promised to those who
passed through the Mysteries or accepted their teaching can
now come to those who experience in themselves the ego-being
and follow the path first traversed for humanity by
Christ.
Thus
everything had to be a repetition; even as regards the
teaching. It need not surprise us that special emphasis is
laid on the difference between the old teaching and the new;
that stress was laid on the fact that the ego could now
achieve in itself what had hitherto been quite impossible for
it.
Suppose that
Christ had wished to refer specially to this great truth. He
would have shown how formerly, in accordance with the
teaching of the Mysteries, human beings had ever looked up to
the Kingdom of Heaven, and had felt that from heavenly realms
something came down to them which blessed them, but did not
enter their ego. The Father-Source of Existence had only been
attainable with a suppressed Ego. Had it been necessary for
Christ to retain this former teaching concerning the Divine
Paternal Source of existence, and only change the nuance upon
which the teaching depended, He must have expressed it thus:
‘If formerly men said, you must raise your eyes to the
realms where the Father dwelleth, the divine Source of all
existence, and wait until His Light streams down upon you,
now it is possible to say: The Father not only sends down His
Light to you, but that which is willed on high must enter the
very depths of man's ego-nature, and be willed there
also.’
Let us
suppose that each separate phrase of the Lord's Prayer
had existed previously, only that something in them had to be
changed. Christ would have said: ‘In former times man
looked up to the ancient divine Father Spirit, feeling that
everything there endures, and looks down on your earthly
kingdom.’
But now this
Heavenly Kingdom was to come down to earth where the ego
dwells, and the Will that is done in Heaven was also to be
done on Earth. What would be the result of this? The result
would be, that those who had a deeper vision and could
perceive the finer degrees of difference would not be
surprised at the fact that the Lord's Prayer had
existed earlier. The superficial observer does not notice
these finer shades of difference, nor can he understand the
true meaning of Christianity. If he came upon these phrases
in ancient times he would have said: ‘There it is, the
Evangelists write about the Lord's Prayer, but it
existed already before their time!’
You can now
realize the difference between a true and a superficial
understanding of what is written. It is important that those
who note the new shades of meaning should apply them to the
old. The others, not seeing the difference, merely assert
that the Lord's Prayer existed before.
Such facts
require attention and have to be spoken of here, because
Anthroposophists should be enabled to meet to some extent the
dilettante learning of to-day: a learning which passes
through countless hundreds of periodicals, until finally it
is accepted as ‘Science.’ One individual has
actually compared every possible ancient record, searching
each source in the Talmud literature, in an endeavour to find
some resemblance to the words of the Lord's Prayer. But
what these learned people have accumulated is nowhere found
in its entirety outside the Gospels. Scattered phrases
resembling those of the Lord's Prayer they have
discovered here and there. To reduce this method to absurdity
it might as well be said that the first sentence of
Goethe's ‘Faust’ was constructed in the
following way: In the seventeenth century there was a student
who failed in his examination, and who afterwards remarked to
his father, With what an infinity of trouble I have studied
law! And another failing in medicine might have said,
‘With what infinity of trouble have I studied
medicine!’ And that from these two remarks Goethe had
composed the opening sentences of Faust! This is paradoxical!
But in principle and methods it is exactly what we meet in
critics of the Gospels.
You will find
this in the following patched-up sentences. I take them from
Die-Evangelien-Mythen,
John M. Robertson, Jena, Diedrichs, 1910. It is supposed to
represent the Lord's Prayer:
‘Our
Father Who art in Heaven; O Lord our God, blessed be Thy
Name, and may the memory of Thee be glorified in Heaven
above as on Earth below. Let Thy Kingdom rule over us now
and ever more. Holy men of old have said: Let all men be
forgiven whatever they may have done to me. And lead us not
into temptation. But deliver us from the wicked. For Thine
is the Heavenly Kingdom; and Thou shalt reign in splendour
for ever and ever.’
These
sentences were collected and put together in the manner I
have just described, and are called the ‘Lord's
Prayer.’ But the subtle shades of meaning necessary to
give the unique significance of the Christ Event are lacking.
In none of these phrases do we find it stated that the
Kingdom of Heaven is to come down. The sentence runs:
‘Let Thy Kingdom rule over us now and ever more,’
not ‘Let Thy Kingdom come to us.’ This is the
essential point, which entirely escapes superficial observers
and although these sentences are gathered, not from one, but
from many libraries, nowhere do we find the words ‘Thy
will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven’ for these
imply its taking hold of the ego.
Even regarded
from the external scientific point of view, we have here
clearly demonstrated the difference between an apparent
investigation and one that is truly conscientious, and takes
every fact into consideration. And this true investigation
exists if people will only take the trouble to pursue it.
These
sentences from J. M. Robertson's book have been
deliberately selected, for it is a kind of modern gospel
recently translated from English into German to make it
available to wider circles. For until now a certain person
[Note 1]
who has given numerous lectures on the subject of whether
Jesus really lived, would have had to read it in English.
This book gained popularity, and hence the translation.
It has
accordingly been possible for a professor of a German Academy
to travel widely giving lectures on the question, ‘Did
Jesus live?’ Basing his teaching on the facts just
given, he answered the question thus: ‘There is no
documentary evidence forcing us to accept the fact that such
a person as Jesus has ever lived;’ and among many very
excellent works, he referred his hearers to J. M.
Robertson's book. But for the protection of
Anthroposophists I can say: Even from this book, from these
historical investigations of the New Testament records, you
can learn many things, and there is something further,
something very characteristic that I should like to tell
you.
This book
informs us that not only in phrases drawn from the Talmud is
there a model of the Lord's Prayer, but that traces of
it may be discovered in chronicles reaching back for
thousands of years. To substantiate the fact of the
Lord's Prayer being a collection of phrases already
existing, and that no Christ was needed to give it out first
to the people, an allusion is made to the discovery of a
prayer written on little tablets in the Chaldean tongue, a
prayer addressed to the old Babylonian god Merodach. Some of
the sentences quoted there are as follows, and should be
carefully noted: ‘May the fulness of the world come
down into thy midst (or city); may thy precepts be fulfilled
in all the ages to come. ... May the evil Spirit dwell far
from thee.’
[Note 2]
And the
savant upon whom these sentences made such an impression
added: ‘Here we have prayer-norms which are in line
with the Lord's Prayer and perhaps go back 4000 years
before Christ.’
Look
carefully, and see if you can find anywhere any resemblance
between the sentences of the Lord's Prayer and these
phrases! Yet these are regarded by this man as prayer-norms,
of which the Lord's Prayer is merely a copy! Such
things are accepted nowadays as true investigations in this
domain of knowledge.
A further
reason for presenting these facts to Anthroposophists is that
they may be able to calm and strengthen their consciences
when troubled by the constant assertion that this or that
fact has been established by external investigation. They may
well be troubled upon reading in papers or magazines that a
tablet has been discovered in Asia proving the existence of
the Lord's Prayer, 4000 years before Christ. In such a
case it is necessary to ask how such a fact can be proved.
The above example reveals the slender foundations on which
scientifically based facts are frequently supposed to have
been proved. It is unnecessary for students of Anthroposophy
to trouble about the worthless facts so often brought forward
against it.
But to return
to our main theme; Christ Jesus inaugurated an evolution in
human nature, based on the retention of the full
consciousness of the ego. He inaugurated the initiation
of the ego. We can therefore say that the most essential
part of the human being to-day is the ego; in it all human
nature is centred; everything brought into the world through
the Christ Event for this ego, can enter also into all the
other members of man's being. This will naturally come
to pass in a quite special way, and in accordance with human
evolution.
The
possibilities of human development are to be clearly seen
from these Lectures. Recognition of the physical world, not
only through the senses but also through the understanding,
and through the intellect connected with the physical brain,
first began to function generally just a short time before
the Christ Event. It superseded a certain kind of
clairvoyance. This clairvoyance which was mentioned in my
Lectures on the early Atlantean evolution was universal at
that time, though later it came slowly and gradually to an
end. Down to the Christian era there were still many who in
the intermediate condition between sleeping and waking were
able to gaze into, and participate in, the spiritual world.
Such a ‘partaking’ in the spiritual world was not
only linked with the fact that the average man who had a
certain degree of clairvoyance could state: ‘Behind the
tapestry of the world of the senses there is a spiritual
world. I know this, for I can perceive it.’ This was
not all; something else was connected with it. In long past
ages it was comparatively easy for human nature to be aware
of the spiritual world. The nature of man to-day is
different, and it is exceedingly difficult to pass in the
right way through the esoteric training that leads to
clairvoyance. In somnambulism and similar things we see a
relic, a last remnant of the old-time clairvoyance. These
conditions which are irregular to-day were normal in ancient
times, and could be enhanced by undergoing certain processes.
When human nature was exalted to participation in the life of
the spiritual world something else was associated with it.
To-day there is so little regard for that in which true
history consists that people pick and choose what they will,
or will not, believe. But, in face of modern scepticism, it
is nevertheless true that in the time of Christ certain acts
of healing were performed by rendering people clairvoyant. In
our time human beings are so deeply sunk within the physical
plane that this is no longer possible; but in that earlier
period the soul was still very impressionable, and certain
processes were all that were necessary to bring about
clairvoyance and an entrance into the spiritual world. The
spiritual world, being a health-giving element, sends down
health-giving forces into the physical world, so that it was
possible to effect cures through it. The person who was ill
was put through certain processes which led him to perceive
the spiritual world. Then the spiritual stream, flowing down
into his whole being brought health. This was the usual
method of healing. What is described to-day as ‘Temple
healing’ is dilettante in comparison.
Everything is
in a state of evolution, and, since the time of which we have
been speaking, souls have progressed from clairvoyance to
non-clairvoyance. Formerly through enhancement of the
clairvoyant condition men could be cured of certain illnesses
by the spirit streaming from the spiritual into the physical
world. We need not, therefore, be surprised at the statements
of the Evangelists, that the Christ Event meant that the
spiritual world could now be attained not only by those who
possessed the old clairvoyance but also by those who had lost
it.
Men could
say: ‘Looking back into olden times we see men endowed
with vision of the spiritual world; but now, through the
advance of evolution, they have become poor in the spirit,
beggars for the spirit. But Christ has brought this great
Mystery into the world, that into the ego — even into
the ego of the physical plane — the forces of the
Heavenly Kingdoms can enter; thus those who have lost the old
clairvoyance and with it the riches of the spiritual realms
can yet receive the spirit within themselves and be
blessed!’ Hence the wonderful declaration Henceforth
not only those are blessed who are rich in the spirit through
the old clairvoyance, but those also who are poor or beggars
for the spirit; for when Christ has opened the way, into
their ego will flow what may be described as the Kingdoms of
the Heavens!
In ancient
times the physical organism was of such a nature that a
partial withdrawal of the soul could be brought about even in
normal conditions, and through this withdrawal men became
clairvoyant, that is, rich in spirit. With the gradual
densification of the human body, which however is quite
imperceptible anatomically; is associated poverty as regards
the Kingdoms of the Heavens. Man had become a ‘beggar
for spirit;’ but through the Event of Christ it is now
possible for him to experience the Kingdoms of the Heavens
within himself. This is a possibility that can be
rightly associated with the physical body.
If we were
now to describe what takes place through the ego-man, we
should have to show how each principle of human nature can be
blessed in itself in a new way. The sentence: ‘Blessed
are the beggars for the spirit, for within themselves they
will find the Kingdoms of the Heavens!’ is the new
truth as regards the physical body.
The
blessedness of the etheric body is expressed differently. The
etheric body contains the principle of suffering as you can
find in many of the lectures. A living being, although it has
an astral body, can only suffer through injury to the etheric
body. If the healing which formerly poured into the etheric
body from the spiritual world were to be described according
to the new teaching it would be said: Sufferers can now find
comfort not only by passing out of themselves and being
united with the spiritual world as in earlier days, but they
can find comfort within themselves by entering into a new
relationship with the spiritual world, for Christ has brought
a new power to the etheric body. Hence the new truth
concerning the etheric body declares: ‘Sufferers can
now be blessed, not only through entering the spiritual world
clairvoyantly and allowing the outpourings of the spirit to
come to them in this state, but they can be blessed when
lifting themselves up to Christ they fill themselves with the
new truth, and find in themselves the solace for every
sorrow.’
And what of
the astral body? When men of an earlier day endeavoured to
suppress their emotions and passions and the egoism of their
astral nature, they sought power from the Kingdom of Heaven;
they submitted themselves to processes by which the harmful
instincts of the astral body were destroyed. But the time had
now come when through the act of Christ man had received
power into the ego itself by which he could bridle and tame
the passions and emotions of his astral body. So the new
truth concerning the astral body must read as follows:
‘Blessed are those who have become meek through the
power of their own ego, for they will inherit the kingdom of
earth!’ Profound indeed is the thought contained in
this third Beatitude. Let us examine it in the light of
Occult Science.
The astral
body was incorporated into man's being during the Moon
evolution, and the Luciferic beings who had gained influence
over him had established themselves especially in this body.
Therefore man from the beginning was unable to reach his
highest earthly goal. These Luciferic beings, as we know,
remained behind at the Moon stage of evolution, and hindered
man from progressing in the right way; but since the descent
of Christ to earth, when it has been possible for the ego to
be impregnated with His power, man has been enabled to fulfil
the mission of the earth by finding in himself the power to
bridle his astral body and drive out the Luciferic
influences. Therefore, it can be said: ‘He who can curb
his astral body, who is so strong that he cannot be moved to
anger without the consent of his ego, he who is even-tempered
and inwardly strong enough to overcome the astral body, will
fulfil the purpose of earthly evolution.’ So in the
third Beatitude we have a formula which Spiritual Science has
made comprehensible to us.
How can man
succeed in controlling the remaining members of his being and
bless them through the indwelling Spirit of Christ? He can do
this when his soul-nature is controlled by the ego as truly
and worthily as is his physical body. Passing on to the
sentient soul, we can say: As man gradually evolves to a
consciousness of the Christ, he must arrive at experiencing a
feeling of longing in his sentient soul similar to what he
previously experienced unwittingly as the physical longing we
call hunger and thirst. He must thirst for the things of the
soul, as the body hungers and thirsts for food and drink.
What can be attained through the indwelling Christ-force is
that which is described comprehensively in the old-fashioned
phrase as thirsting after righteousness; and when a man has
filled his sentient soul with the Christ-force he can reach a
point where it is possible for him to satisfy this thirst
through the power that is in him.
The fifth
Beatitude is especially noteworthy, as might be expected, for
it refers to the rational, or intellectual soul. Those who
have studied my books,
Occult Science
or
Theosophy,
or have listened to the lectures on
Spiritual Science given during many years, are familiar with
the idea of the ego holding together the three principles of
the human soul — the sentient soul, the rational,
intellectual or mind-soul, and the consciousness-soul or
spiritual soul. The ego, though present in the sentient-soul,
is as yet in a dulled condition; it comes to life in the
intellectual-soul, and through this, man first becomes a
complete human being. While man's lower principles and
even the sentient-soul are dominated by divine spiritual
beings, he becomes an individual in the rational-soul, in it
the ego dawns. Therefore we must speak of the reception of
the Christ-force into the intellectual or rational-soul in a
different way from that used when treating of the lower
principles. In the lower principles — the physical,
etheric, and astral sheaths, and also in the sentient-soul,
divine beings are at work, and to them anything in the way of
virtues man has acquired are again taken up. But the
qualities evolved in the rational-soul, when this has
developed what it receives from the Christ, must above all be
human attributes. When a man begins to discover this soul
within himself he grows less and less dependent on the divine
forces around him. We have here something that belongs to man
himself. When he absorbs the power of Christ into this soul
he can develop virtues which go from like to like, which are
not besought from Heaven as a loan, but go forth from man and
return to a being similar to himself. We must try to feel
that something streams forth from the virtues of the rational
soul in such a way that something similar streams to us
again. Wonderful to relate, the fifth Beatitude actually
shows us this distinctive quality.
Even a faulty
translation cannot conceal the fact; it is different from all
the others in that it says: ‘Blessed are the merciful
for they will receive mercy.’ What goes forth returns
again — as it must if we accept it in the sense of
Occult Science.
In the sixth
Beatitude, which refers to the spiritual-soul, we arrive at
that principle in man which enables the ego to attain full
expression, after which he can make further ascent, in a new
way. You know that at the time of the coming of Christ the
rational soul first came to expression; in our time it is the
spiritual-soul that is destined to find expression —
the soul by means of which man will ascend again to the
spiritual world. While human self-consciousness first dawned
within the rational soul, it is in the spiritual-soul that
the ego attains full development and rises once more to the
spiritual world. The man who becomes a receptacle for the
Christ-force, because he experiences the Christ in himself,
will, by pouring his ego into the consciousness-soul or
spiritual-soul, and experiencing it in its purity for the
first time, be able in this way to find his God. Now it has
been said that the blood is the expression of the ego in the
physical body, and that its centre is in the heart. Therefore
this sixth Beatitude has to express in a practical way how
the ego, through the qualities with which it endows heart and
blood, can partake of divinity. How does this verse run?
‘Blessed are those who are pure in heart for they shall
see God.’ Though not a specially good translation it
serves our purpose.
This is how
Spiritual Science pours light on the whole structure of these
wonderful sentences in which Christ gives instruction to His
most intimate pupils, after He had withstood the Temptation
in the wilderness.
The remaining
Beatitudes refer to a man's raising of himself to the
higher principles of his being; to the spirit-self,
life-spirit, and spirit-man. They give but an indication of
what it will be possible to experience in the future, of what
is only possible in our day to a few exceptional individuals.
Thus the seventh Beatitude, referring to the spirit-self,
says: ‘Blessed are those who draw down into themselves
the spirit-self, the first of the spiritual principles, for
they will be called the children of God.’ The first of
the higher triad has, in this case, entered into these men.
They have received God into themselves; they have become an
outer expression of the Godhead.
In what
follows it is clearly shown that only exceptional beings can
attain to what is spoken of in the eighth Beatitude, those
who fully understand what the future is to bring to the whole
of humanity. This, the ‘complete reception of Christ
into a man's inner being,’ is only for a few
chosen ones. Because these are exceptional individuals, they
are persecuted, for others are unable to understand them.
Hence, referring to the persecution of these representatives
of the future race, this Beatitude declares: ‘Blessed
are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake; for in
themselves they will find the Kingdom of Heaven.’
The ninth and
last Beatitude has especial reference to the most intimate
disciples only. It is associated with the ninth member of
man's being — the spirit-man: ‘Blessed are ye,
when men shall revile you and persecute you for my sake.’
Thus in these
wonderful lines reference is made to the nine principles of
human nature, and we are shown how the ego is constituted
when it becomes ‘Christ-filled’ as regards the
different principles of man's being, and blesses them.
In the portions following on the Temptation, the Gospel of
Matthew shows in grand and majestic way how the influence of
Christ works in the nine-fold human nature in the present,
and then how it will work in the near future, when those in
whom the spirit-self has dawned are already called
‘Children of God,’ even if these children of God
are only to be found in a few blessed examples. Especially
remarkable is the distinct language used concerning the first
principles which are already in being, and the lapse into
indeterminate language in the last sentences where the far
future is referred to.
Once more let
me touch on the superficial method of research. Suppose
someone were investigating if sentences could anywhere be
found similar to those of the Sermon on the Mount, or if the
Evangelists had perhaps compiled these from something else.
Suppose also that this person had no idea of what was
referred to in the Beatitudes: that the important matter
there dealt with was the filling of man's ego-nature
with the Christ. If reference to this marvellous enhancement
of the ego-nature had not been noticed, he could indicate the
following. One has only to read a little further in the book
already mentioned to find in it a chapter headed ‘The
Beatitudes,’ in which reference is made to
‘Enoch’ (this is not the usual Enoch), and herein
nine ‘Beatitudes’ are cited. The author has this
much in his favour, that he acknowledges that this document
belongs to the very beginning of the Christian era, and he
believes that what we have described as being a document of
the very profoundest importance and depth could have been
copied from the following nine Beatitudes of this Slavonic
Enoch.
- Blessed is he who fears the name of
the Lord, and incessantly serves before his face, etc.
- Blessed is he who does not give a false judgment on
account of payment, but in the cause of fairness, not
expecting anything in exchange; he will receive a just
judgment later.
- Blessed is he who clothes the naked with his raiment,
and feeds the hungry with his bread.
- Blessed is he who judges rightly the fatherless and
widows and supports all those who are oppressed.
- Blessed is he who turns from the restless path of
this vain world, travelling the true way which leads to
eternal life.
- Blessed is he who sows good seed, he will reap
sevenfold.
- Blessed is he in whom is truth, and speaks truth to his
neighbours.
- Blessed is he who has love on his lips, and kindness in
his heart.
- Blessed is he who understands each word of the Lord,
and extols His name, etc., etc.
These phrases
are certainly beautiful; but consider their whole
construction, and the matter with which they are concerned,
namely, the recounting of a few worthy platitudes suitable to
any period other than one of such tremendous upheaval —
the age in which the power of the ego was first being made
known. If these lines are likened by anyone to the Beatitudes
of the Gospel of Matthew, he stands at the external point of
those who compare the religions of mankind in an external
way, who, whenever they discover something in any way
similar, instantly state an identity, paying no heed to the
essential point.
Only when the
essential point is recognized does one realize that there is
progress in human evolution, and that man advances from stage
to stage; that he is not born anew in a physical body in a
later millennium to experience over again what he has
experienced already, but so that he may experience that in
which humanity has progressed meanwhile. That is the meaning
of history and of human evolution. Of history, and of human
evolution in this sense the Gospel of Matthew speaks on every
page.
Notes:
Note 1.
Dr. Arthur Drews.
Note 2.
In the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Oct., 1891,
Mr. T. G. Pinches publishes for the first time the
translation of a tablet found at Sippara in the year
1882, in which the sentences quoted above appear as an
incantation to Merodach.
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