During
the year 1924, before his illness in September, Rudolf Steiner gave
over eighty lectures, published with the title Karmic
Relationships: Esoteric Studies, to members of the
Anthroposophical Society in the following places: Dornach, Berne,
Zurich, Stuttgart, Prague, Paris, Breslau, Arnhem, Torquay and
London. English translations of these lectures are contained in the
following volumes of the series:
Vols. I-IV. Lectures
given in Dornach (49)
Vol. V. Lectures given in
Prague (4) and Paris (3)
Vol. VI. Lectures given in Berne (2), Zurich (1), Stuttgart (3) and
Arnhem (3).
Vol. VII. Lectures given
in Breslau (9)
Vol.
VIII, the present volume, lectures given in Torquay (3) and London
(3).
All these
lectures were given to members of the Anthroposophical Society only,
and were intended to be material for study by those already familiar
with the fundamental principles and terminology of Anthroposophy. The
following extract from the lecture of 22nd June 1924, (see Vol. II)
calls attention to the need for exactitude when passing on such
contents:
The study
of problems connected with karma is by no means easy and the
discussion of anything that has to do with the subject entails
— or ought at any rate to entail — a sense of deep
responsibility. Such study is in truth a matter of penetrating into
the most profound mysteries of existence, for within the sphere of
karma and the course it takes lie those processes which are the basis
of the other phenomena of world-existence, even of the phenomena of
nature. ... These difficult and weighty matters entail grave
consideration of every word and sentence spoken here, in order that
the limits within which the statements are made shall be
absolutely clear
A brief list of relevant
literature will be found at the end of this volume, together with a
summarized plan of the Complete Edition of Rudolf Steiner's works in
the original German.
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