LECTURE 8
In the Gospel
of St. Mark directly after the great world-historical
monologue which I have described there follows, as you know,
the scene known as the Transfiguration or Transformation. I
have often pointed out before that for the three disciples
who had been taken to the “mountain” on which the
Transfiguration took place, this was a kind of higher
initiation. At this moment they were to be initiated, as it
were, more profoundly into the secrets that were to be
entrusted to them, one by one, to enable them to become
leaders and guides of mankind. From what we have said before
on several occasions we know that this scene contains a
series of secrets. Both in the Gospels and other occult
writings whenever the “mountain” is spoken of,
then we have to do with something occult. In an occult
connection it always means when the mountain is spoken of
that those who are led to the mountain are led into certain
secrets of existence. In the case of the Mark Gospel we feel
this especially strongly for a reason that will become
apparent if the Gospel is read rightly. But it must be read
rightly.
Take, for
example, the third chapter of Mark from the 7th to the 23rd
or 24th verse. Actually we need not go further than the 22nd
verse, but it is necessary to read it with perceptive
understanding. Then something will be noticed. It has often
been stressed that the expressions “accompany to the
mountain” and “leading to the mountain”
have an occult meaning. But in this particular chapter we
find a threefold activity, and not only an
“accompanying to the mountain.” If we examine
carefully the three passages indicated by Mark, we notice
first in verse 7, “And Jesus withdrew with his
disciples to the lake,” etc. Then, in the 13th verse it
is said, “And he went up to the mountain and called to
him those who were acceptable to him.” Then in verses
20 and 21 we read, “And then he went to his home. And
the crowd gathered again so that they could not so much as
eat bread. And when his family heard of it they went out to
seize him, for they said ‘he is out of his mind.’
” Thus we are referred to three separate localities,
the lake, the mountain and the house. Just as in an occult
sense the mountain signifies that something important takes
place, so is this also true in the other two cases. In occult
writings if such expressions as “being led to the
mountain,” or “being led to a house,”
occur, this invariably means that they have an occult
significance. When this is the meaning intended in the
Gospels some specific circumstance is connected with it. You
should remember that it is not only in the Mark Gospel but
also in the others that a special revelation or special
manifestation is connected especially with the
“lake,” as when the disciples cross the lake and
Christ appears to them. They at first take Him for a ghost,
but then become aware that it is He in reality that is
approaching them
(Mark 6:45-52).
And elsewhere you can also find a
similar mention in the Gospels of some event that takes place
because of the lake, or by the lake. On the mountain he first
appoints the Twelve, that is, he confers their occult mission
on them. That was an act of occult education. It is again on
the mountain that the occult Transfiguration takes place.
When he was “at his home,” he is declared by his
family to be “out of his mind.” This was the
third thing, and all three are of the greatest and most
comprehensive significance.
If we wish to
understand what “by the lake” means in this
connection we must call to mind something that we have often
explained. We have pictured to you how the so-called
Atlantean age preceded our post-Atlantean earth period, and
that in that age the air was still permeated by dense masses
of mist. In the same way that in the Atlantean age human
beings possessed the ancient clairvoyance, their way of
perceiving and their soul life were quite different because
they lived in quite different physical conditions. This was
linked to the fact that the physical body was entirely
different, since it was embedded in the masses of mist. From
this epoch something like an ancient heritage has remained
with mankind. If someone in the post-Atlantean age is
initiated by some means into occult matters, or comes near to
them as was the case with Jesus' disciples, he becomes much
more sensitive, more intensely sensitive to his environment
and to the natural world around him. As man is today, we
might say that, with his robust relationship with the natural
world, it is more or less immaterial whether he crosses the
sea or stays by the lake, or whether he climbs a mountain
— we shall soon see what that means — or whether
he is in his own home. How his eyes see and his mind
functions do not depend very much on where he happens to be.
But when a man acquires a subtler vision and ascends into
spiritual cosmic conditions, then it becomes evident how
crudely organized his ordinary being is.
If a man, in
the time when the old clairvoyance was active, crossed the
sea where circumstances were quite different, even if he
lived by the coast, his clairvoyant consciousness would be
quite differently attuned than if he were on the plain. The
greatest exertion, one might say, is necessary to bring forth
any clairvoyant forces at all. The lake allows them to be
brought forth more easily, but only those forces which are
related to something entirely specific, not to everything.
For there is again a difference whether clairvoyant
consciousness is active on the plain, or whether it is active
on the mountaintop. On the heights the sensitive clairvoyant
consciousness is again attuned to things quite different from
those on the plain. And the results of clairvoyant
consciousness are again different if one is by the lake from
what they are on the mountain. In each case the distinction
must be made.
Of course it
is also possible to arouse clairvoyance in a town, but this
needs exceptional forces, whereas what we are talking about
at present is valid especially for clairvoyance that comes
more or less of its own accord. By the lake, by the water,
and in masses of mist, the clairvoyant consciousness is
especially disposed to perceive imaginations, all
kinds of things through imagination, and to make use of what
has already been acquired. On the mountain, in the rarified
air where the proportion of nitrogen and oxygen is
differently distributed, clairvoyant consciousness is more
attuned to receiving inspirations, allowing
something new to arise through clairvoyance. Hence the
expression “to ascend the mountain” is not meant
only symbolically but is used because the conditions
obtaining on the mountain favor the possibility of developing
new occult powers in oneself. Likewise the expression
“to go to the lake” is not meant symbolically,
but was chosen because coming in contact with the lake favors
imaginative vision and the use of occult powers.
If one is at
home, in one's own house, whether one is alone or with
relatives, it is most difficult to make use of occult forces.
For while it is comparatively easy for a person who has lived
for a long time by a lake to believe — as long as
conditions are favorable — that he experiences
imaginations through the veil of his corporeality, and easier
still for a person who lives in the mountains to believe that
he is ascending higher, in the case of a person who is at
home, one can feel only that he is outside his body,
“out of his mind.” This is not to say that he
could not develop occult powers, but only that this does not
seem to be in harmony with his surroundings. It is less
natural than it would be if he were by a lake, or on the
mountain.
For this
reason it has an immensely deep meaning that the Gospel is
entirely in accord with what we have just described, and that
this is drawn from the occult understanding of the conditions
of nature. The Gospel brings this out clearly and it is
factually correct in an occult sense. Hence we shall always
see the following. When it is said that something took place
by the lake, when being by the lake is referred to, definite
forces are being applied and healing powers or powers of
vision are unfolded. Thus Christ Jesus appears to His
disciples by the lake in imagination only since He Himself is
involved in the entire episode because of His capacity to
exteriorize Himself. Although they do not have Him there in
the physical body, the disciples see Him. In such an
experience separation in space has no importance. He was
together “with them” by the lake. For the same
reason when reference is made to the soul forces of the
apostles, the “mountain” is spoken of, as it was
when the Twelve were appointed and their souls were enjoined
to take into themselves the group soul of Elijah. And when
the Christ wished to appear in the whole grandeur of His
world-historical and cosmic manifestation, again the mountain
is spoken of. The Transfiguration therefore takes place on
the mountain.
It is indeed
from this point of view that we must picture the scene of the
Transfiguration. The three disciples Peter, James, and John
prove themselves to be capable of being initiated into the
deeper secrets of the Mystery of Golgotha. To the clairvoyant
eyes of these three which were now opened there appeared,
transfigured, that is in their spiritual nature, Elijah on
the one side and Moses
[ Note 20 ]
on the other, with Christ Jesus Himself in the middle. And it is
imaginatively indicated in the Gospel that Christ was now in
the form in which in His spiritual nature He could be
recognized. This is shown with sufficient clarity in the Mark
Gospel:
And He was
transfigured before them.
And His
garments became gleaming bright, brighter than any fuller
on earth could bleach them.
And there
appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they conversed with
Jesus.
(Mark 9:2-4.)
After the
great monologue of God comes a conversation among these
three. What a wonderful dramatic crescendo! Everywhere the
Gospels are full of such artistic sequences. Indeed they are
wonderfully composed. After hearing the monologue of God we
now have a conversation among these three, and what a
conversation! First we see Elijah and Moses, one on each side
of Christ Jesus. What is the significance of Elijah and
Moses?
The figure of
Moses has long been familiar to you; even from the occult
standpoint it has often been illuminated. We know that
world-historical wisdom chose to bridge the span between
primeval ages and the Mystery of Golgotha indirectly through
Moses. We know from our studies on the Luke Gospel that in
the Jesus boy of whom Matthew especially speaks the
reincarnated Zarathustra is to be seen. We know also that
this Zarathustra through all that belonged to him and was in
him made preparations for his later appearance on earth. I
have often mentioned how through special occult processes
Zarathustra gave away his etheric body, which then passed
over into Moses so that Zarathustra's etheric body was active
in him. Thus when Elijah and Moses are pictured next to
Christ Jesus we have, so to speak, in Moses those forces
destined to lead over from primitive forms of culture to what
mankind was later to be given in Christ Jesus and the Mystery
of Golgotha.
But from
another point of view we also have a transitional figure in
Moses. We know that he not only had within him the etheric
body of Zarathustra, which enabled him to bear within himself
the wisdom of Zarathustra which could then become active in
him, but we know also that Moses was in a certain way
initiated into the secrets of other peoples. In the meeting
with the Midianite priest Jethro we have to see a special
scene of initiation, as we have discussed before. This is to
be found in the Old Testament
(Exodus 2:16-21).
Here it is clearly pointed out how Moses visits this lonely priest
and not only learns from him the secrets of the initiation of
Judaism but also those of other peoples. He bears all these
within his inner being which has already experienced the
special strengthening that came from the etheric body of
Zarathustra. So there entered into the Jewish people through
Moses the secrets of initiation of the whole surrounding
world, thus enabling him to prepare, on a lower stage, as it
were, what was to come about through Christ Jesus. This then
was one of the streams that was to lead to the Mystery of
Golgotha.
The other
stream, as I have also indicated before, derived from what by
this time was living in a natural way in the Jewish people,
as a people. Moses was the individuality who as far as was
possible in his time allowed the other stream that was in the
world to pour into that stream that flowed through the
generations from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But at the same
time we should always keep in mind what was especially
connected with the nature of the Hebrew people. Why had this
people been chosen? Their task was to prepare for that era
that we tried to call before our souls when, for example, we
referred to Hellenism, and then when yesterday we spoke of
Empedocles. We were referring in this way to that time when
the ancient clairvoyant capacities were disappearing from
men, when they lost their ability to see into the spiritual
world, when the power of judgment took its place; and
judgment is the special characteristic of the ego, when the
ego emerges as an independent entity.
It was for
the purpose of bringing to the ego all that could be given to
the natural being of man through the organization of the
blood that the Hebrew people were chosen. Absolutely
everything that can be fully experienced through the physical
organization of the human being had to be experienced fully
by this people. Man's intellectuality is certainly bound to
his physical organization; and from the physical organization
of the ancient Hebrew people was to be taken that which truly
could nourish those human capacities that are dependent on
the intellect. By contrast other peoples had to allow what
comes from without, from initiation, to shine into their
earthly organization, whereas what was able to rise up in
man's own being through the blood relationship was to rise up
through this relationship in the ancient Hebrew people. For
this reason it was insisted on that this blood connection be
a continuous one, and that every Hebrew carried within
himself those capacities that have been flowing through the
blood since the time of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The ego,
bound to the blood, had to be conveyed to the physical
organization through the blood of the ancient Hebrew people,
and this could come about only through the medium of
heredity.
I have
already pointed out that the Old Testament story of the
sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham and the manner in which it was
prevented indicates how this people was specially chosen by
the Godhead to be a gift to humanity, so that the outer
physical vessel for egohood could be given to mankind. That
this physical vessel, the ancient Jewish people, was a gift
of God to humanity is indicated by Abraham's willingness to
sacrifice his son. If he had sacrificed Isaac, Abraham would
at the same time have sacrificed that physical organization
that was to give mankind the physical basis for the
intellect, and thus for egohood. In receiving back his son
Abraham received back the whole God-given organization. This
is the great significance of the restoration of Isaac
(Genesis 22:1-19).
At the same time it is also indicated
that on the one side there is the spiritual stream pictured
for us in the Transfiguration scene in the person of Moses,
and this is now to flow onward precisely through the
instrument of the Jewish people as far as the deed of the
Mystery of Golgotha. What then is pictured for us in the
person of Elijah?
Through him
the totality of the divine revelation living in the Jewish
people unites with what happens through the Mystery of
Golgotha. In the book of Numbers it is shown in the 25th
chapter how Israel is led astray into idolatry, but is
rescued through the agency of one man. Through the
decisiveness of one man the Israelites, the ancient Hebrew
people, were not totally given over to idolatry at that time.
Who is this man? It is he of whom we are told in the book of
Numbers that he had the strength to come before the
ancient Hebrew people who were in danger of lapsing into the
idolatry of the surrounding peoples, and to intercede with
the God who had been revealed through Moses. This was truly a
strong soul. This intercession with God is usually translated
into the German language as “eifern,” and in
English as “be zealous.” This zeal is not to be
thought of in any bad sense; it simply means to intercede
strongly. Thus we read in
Numbers 25:10-12:
And the
Lord spoke with Moses and said: “Phinehas, the son of
Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned away my
anger from the children of Israel through his zeal
concerning me. So in my zeal I have not destroyed the
children of Israel. Therefore say: See, I give him my
covenant of peace.”
Yahweh said
this to Moses. And in this particular passage we must also
see something that according to ancient Hebrew esoteric
teaching is exceptionally significant. This is confirmed by
occult research. We know that those representing the high
priesthood of ancient Israel are direct descendants of Aaron,
and that in them the essence of what was given to mankind by
the Jewish people lives on. At that moment of world history,
according to Hebrew esoteric teaching and confirmed by more
recent occult research, the significant truth was indicated
that Yahweh imparts the knowledge to Moses that in Phinehas,
the son of Eleazar, the grandson of Aaron, he was bestowing
on the Hebrew people a very special priest who represents him
and is closely connected with him. And the esoteric teaching
and occult research reveal that the same soul lives in the
body of Phinehas that was later present in Elijah. Thus we
have a continuous line of descent which in several points we
have already described. In Aaron's grandson we have one soul
that is of concern to us, the soul that lives in Phinehas.
The same soul appears again in Elijah-Naboth and then in John
the Baptist, and we know how it continues throughout the
evolution of mankind. So there is pictured for us this soul
on the one side of the Christ, and on the other the soul of
Moses himself.
So in the
Transfiguration, in the Transformation on the mountain, we
have before us a streaming together of the entire
spirituality of earth evolution, the essence of which flowed
through the Jewish blood into the Levitical line. Thus the
soul of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron stands
before us; Moses stands before us; and there stands before us
also He who fulfilled the Mystery of Golgotha. And the three
disciples who were to be initiated, Peter, James and John,
were to perceive in imaginative knowledge how these forces,
these spiritual streams, flowed together. When yesterday I
tried to picture for you how something like a call sounds
over from Greece to Palestine and the call that answered it,
this was something more than a mere pictorial description of
the facts. It was indeed a preparation for that great
world-historical discourse that now actually took place. The
disciples Peter, James, and John were to be initiated into
what these three souls had to discuss together; one soul who
belonged to the people of the Old Testament, one who carried
within himself much of what we know about the Moses soul,
while the third, as cosmic deity, is uniting Himself with the
earth. This the disciples were to see.
We know that
it could not immediately enter into their hearts, nor could
they understand immediately what was revealed to them. But
this is customary with much that is experienced in the realm
of the occult. It is experienced imaginatively. One does not
understand it, and often learns to understand it only in the
following incarnation. But then our understanding is better
able to adapt itself to what had previously been seen. We can
feel how on the mountain there were the three cosmic
powers, while down below were the three who were to be
initiated into these great cosmic secrets. And from all these
things the feeling can arise in our souls that the Gospel, if
we understand it correctly, and especially if we allow the
dramatic intensification and the artistic composition which
is itself an expression everywhere of cosmic facts, does
truly point to the great revolution that really happened at
the time of the Mystery of Golgotha.
When the
Gospel is explained through occult research it speaks a very
clear language indeed. In the future it will become important
that people should recognize ever more clearly what is the
issue at stake, and what is particularly significant in one
or the other passage in the Gospel; and only then will we be
able to grasp the point that is of special importance in a
particular parable, or in one story or another. It is strange
how ordinary theologians or philosophers when they try to
explain the most important things in the Gospels actually
always take their point of departure as if they were not
putting the horse before the cart in the usual way but the
other way round — or, as we say in common parlance,
they “put the cart before the horse.” This indeed
happens with so many interpreters and commentators; they miss
the main point.
We wish to
draw your attention now to a passage that you will find in
the fourteenth chapter of the Mark Gospel. We do this because
it is of great significance for the progress of our
studies.
And while
he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman
came in as he sat at table with an alabaster flask of
genuine costly ointment of nard, and she broke the flask
open and poured the ointment over his head.
But some of
those present disputed among themselves and said,
“Why this waste of ointment?” It could have
been sold for more than three hundred denarii that could
have been given to the poor. And they were indignant with
her.
But Jesus
said, “Let her alone, why do you trouble her? She has
accomplished a good work in me. For you have the poor with
you all the time and you can do good to them whenever you
wish. But you do not have me with you forever. She has done
what she could; she has anointed my body in advance for
burial.
I say truly
to you, wherever in the whole world this Gospel is
proclaimed, her deed will be spoken of in her
memory.”
(Mark 14:3-9.)
It would
surely be a good thing if we were to admit that this passage
contains something striking in it. Most people, if they are
honest, ought to confess that they are forced to sympathize
with those who complained that the ointment was wasted, and
that in any event it was unnecessary to pour it over
someone's head. Most people will indeed believe it would have
been better to sell the ointment for three hundred denarii
and give the money to the poor. And if you are honest perhaps
you will find that Christ was being callous when He said that
it was better to let her do what she wished to do instead of
giving the three hundred denarii to the poor, a sum that the
ointment would have realized if it had been sold. At this
point, if we are not to be shocked by the whole story, we
must say to ourselves that there must be something else
behind this. Indeed, the Gospel goes further, and in this
passage it is not at all polite. For it seems to imply that
if you can find a number of people who admit that it would
have been better to give to the poor the three hundred
denarii that could have been obtained for the ointment, then
these people are thinking like a certain other person. For it
continues:
“Wherever in the whole world this Gospel is
proclaimed, her deed will also be spoken of in her
memory.”
And Judas
Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief Priests to
deliver him up to them. And they were glad when they heard
it, and promised to give him money. And he sought how he
could find a good opportunity to deliver him up.
(Mark 14:9-12.)
That is to
say, because Judas Iscariot was specially offended by the
spilling of the ointment — and the others who took
offense at the spilling of the ointment are thereby
associated with the example of Judas — so the Gospel is
by no means even polite, for it points out with the utmost
clarity that those who took offense at the spilling of the
ointment are exactly like Judas Iscariot, who later sold the
Lord for thirty silver pieces. What the Gospel is saying is
that Judas is too fond of money, and so are the people who
wish to sell the ointment for three hundred denarii. We
should never gloss over the Gospel, for glossing over such
passages prevents an objective, correct interpretation. What
we must do is find out what is the real issue. And we shall
find many more examples to show us how the Gospel sometimes
even persists in giving incidental details in a rather
offensive manner if the purpose is to cast an especially
clear light on a particular point.
What is the
real question at issue in this passage? The Gospel wishes to
tell us that it is man's task not to look only at sense
existence, nor to suppose that only those things are
important that have value and meaning in sense existence.
Beyond everything else man should take the super-sensible
world into himself, and it is important to pay attention also
to things that no longer have any meaning for sense
existence. The body of Christ Jesus, which was anointed in
advance by the woman before its burial, has no meaning if it
is dead; but we should also do something for what has value
and meaning beyond sense existence. This had to be especially
strongly emphasized. For this reason something was made use
of, to which even the natural human consciousness in the life
of the senses attaches great value. The Gospel here chooses a
special example to show how sometimes something must be
withdrawn from sense life and offered to the spirit, to the
ego after its liberation from the body. Just at this moment
the Gospel chooses what is apparently an irreverent example;
something is taken away from the poor that is given to the
spirit, given to the ego when it has been freed from the
body. It does not look at what gives value to earth existence
but at what can come into the ego and can radiate forth from
it. This is pictured here in a very powerful manner, by
bringing it into relation with Judas Iscariot, who commits a
treacherous deed because he feels himself at heart especially
impelled toward sense existence, and associates with those
who are described in far from courteous terms as the real
Philistines, not too strong a word for those who are clearly
indicated in this passage. Judas is concerned only with what
has meaning in sense existence, in the same way as those who
believe that what can be bought for three hundred denarii has
more importance than that which transcends the life of
sense.
Everywhere in
the Gospels attention is directed to the main point and not
to side issues; and the Gospel will be recognized wherever
the spiritual is recognized. This example will be recognized
as pertinent wherever the spiritual is truly recognized.
Wherever one wishes to exalt the value of the super-sensible
for the ego, it will always be said that the wasting of the
ointment was a matter of no importance.
There is another remarkable passage where it is again
possible to perceive the methodically artistic manner in
which the Gospel veils the occult facts concerned with the
evolution of mankind. This passage is again a difficult
puzzle for the commentators.
And the
next day, as they were leaving Bethany he was hungry.
And from
afar he saw a fig tree, which had leaves. So he went to see
if he might find something on it. And when he came to it he
found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for
figs.
And he
began to speak to it, “Never to all eternity shall
anyone eat fruit from you!” And his disciples heard it.
(Mark 11:12-14.)
Now we should
all ask ourselves honestly, “Is it not truly
extraordinary that, according to the Gospel, a God should go
straight up to a fig tree, look for figs and find none, and
then the reason is explicitly given why He did not find any
— it was not the time for figs — so at a time
when there are no figs He goes up to the fig tree, looks for
figs and finding none, says, “Never to all eternity
shall anyone eat fruit from you?”
Now consider
the usual explanations given of this story — although
the Gospel gives nothing but the dry and prosaic fact that
for some strange reason Christ Jesus feels hunger, and goes
up to a fig tree at a time when no figs grow. He finds no
figs, and then curses the tree telling it that to all
eternity no figs will grow any more on it. What, then is the
fig tree, and why is the entire story told here? Anyone who
can read occult works first of all will recognize in the fig
tree (its connection with the Gospel will be shown later) the
same picture as was spoken of in relation to the Buddha, who
sat under the Bodhi tree and received enlightenment for his
sermon at Benares. “Under the Bodhi tree” means
the same as “under the fig tree.” From a
world-historical point of view it was still the “time
of figs” in respect to human clairvoyance, that is to
say it was possible to receive enlightenment as the Buddha
did, under the Bodhi tree, under the fig tree. But this was
no longer true, and that is what the disciples had to learn.
From the point of view of world history it was a fact that
there was no longer any fruit on the tree under which the
Buddha had received his enlightenment.
And what was
happening in all of mankind was mirrored at that time in the
soul of Christ. We may see in Empedocles of Sicily a
representative of humanity, a representative of many people
who were similarly hungry because their souls could no longer
discover the revelation that had been given earlier and had
to be satisfied with the abstractions of the ego. In the same
way that we can speak of the starving Empedocles, we can
speak of the hunger for the spirit that all men felt in the
times that were then beginning. And the entire hunger of
mankind discharged itself into the soul of Christ Jesus as
the Mystery of Golgotha approached. The disciples were to
participate in this secret and know of it.
Christ led
them to the fig tree and told them the secret of the Bodhi
tree, omitting to tell them, because it had no significance
for them, that the Buddha was still able to find fruit on it.
Now it was no longer the “time of figs,” figs
that the Buddha had received from the Bodhi tree when he gave
his sermon at Benares. Now Christ had to tell them that for
all eternity the fruit of knowledge would never again ripen
on the tree from which the light of Benares had shown down,
but that hereafter the light would shine from the Mystery of
Golgotha.
What is the
truth that is presented to us here? The truth that Christ
Jesus went with His disciples from Bethany to Jerusalem, and
that a specially strong feeling, a specially strong force was
called forth in the disciples, awakening clairvoyant forces
in their souls, so that they were predisposed toward
imagination. Clairvoyant imaginative powers were awakened in
the disciples. In clairvoyance they see the Bodhi tree, the
fig tree, and Christ Jesus inspires in them the knowledge
that the fruit of knowledge can no longer come from the Bodhi
tree, for it is no longer the “time of figs,”
that is of the ancient knowledge. For all eternity the tree
will be withered, but a new tree must grow forth, a tree
consisting of the dead wood of the cross; a tree on which the
fruit of ancient knowledge will not ripen, but the fruit that
can ripen for mankind from the Mystery of Golgotha, which is
linked as by a new symbol to the cross on Golgotha. In the
place of that scene of world history when the Buddha sat
under the Bodhi tree stands the picture of Golgotha where
another tree, the tree of the cross, is raised, on which hung
the living fruit of the God-man revealing himself, so that
from Him may radiate the new knowledge of the fruit of the
ever growing tree that will bear fruit to all eternity.
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