The Spiritual Guidance of the Individual and Humanity
GA 15
Lecture One
[ 1 ] If we reflect upon ourselves, we soon come to realize that, in addition to the self we encompass with our thoughts, feelings, and fully conscious impulses of will, we bear in ourselves a second, more powerful self. We become aware that we subordinate ourselves to this second self as to a higher power. At first, this second self seems to us a lower being when compared to the one we encompass with our clear, fully conscious soul and its natural inclination toward the good and the true. And so, initially, we may strive to overcome this seemingly lower self.
A closer self-examination, however, can teach us something else about this second self. If periodically we look back on what we have experienced or done in life, we make a strange discovery, one that becomes more meaningful for us the older we become. Whenever we think about what we did or said at some time in the past, it turns out that we did a great many things we actually understood only at a later date. When we think of things we did seven or eight years ago—or perhaps even twenty years ago—we realize that only now, after a long time, is our mind sufficiently developed to understand what we did or said then.
Of course, there are people who do not make such self-discoveries because they do not try to. Nevertheless, this sort of soul-searching is extraordinarily fruitful. For in such moments as we become aware that we are only now beginning to understand something we did in our earlier years-that in the past our minds were not mature enough to understand what we did or said then-a new feeling emerges in our soul. We feel ourselves as if sheltered by a benevolent power presiding in the depths of our own being. We begin to trust more and more that, in the highest sense of the word, we are not alone in the world and that whatever we can understand or do consciously is fundamentally only a small part of what we accomplish in the world.
[ 2 ] After we have gone through this process of discovery a number of times, an insight that is theoretically easy to understand can become part of our practical lives. We know, in theory at any rate, that we would not get very far in life if we had to do everything in full consciousness, rationally understanding all the circumstances and ramifications in every case. To see that this is so we need only consider how and when we accomplish those acts that are the wisest and most important for our existence. A moment's thought will reveal that we act most wisely in the time between birth and the moment at which memory, that first moment we can remember when in later years we try to recall our early life, begins.
This is to say that, as we think back to what we did three, four, or five and more years ago, we reach a certain point in childhood beyond which our memory does not extend. Our memory does not go back any further. Parents or other people can tell us what happened before that time, but our own memory does not go back beyond a certain point. This is the point in our lives when we first began to perceive ourselves as an I. People whose memory is intact can usually remember back to, but not earlier than, this moment.
Our souls, however, have already performed their wisest deeds before this time. Never again in later life, after we have attained full consciousness, will we be able to accomplish such splendid and tremendous deeds as those we accomplished out of the unconscious depths of our souls in the first years of childhood. As we know, we bring the fruits of earlier lives on earth with us into the physical world at birth. For example, at birth our physical brain is still an incomplete and unfinished instrument. The soul must then work on it, adding the finer, detailed structures that make it the medium of all the soul's faculties. In fact, before the soul is fully conscious, it works on the brain to transform it into an instrument to express all the capacities, aptitudes, characteristics, and so on, that it has as a consequence of earlier lives. This work on our own body is guided from a perspective that is wiser than anything we can achieve later with our full consciousness. Moreover, during this time when the brain is being transformed, we must also acquire the three most important capacities for life on earth.
[ 3 ] The first capacity we must learn is to orient our body in space. People today do not realize what this means and that it touches on the most essential differences between human beings and animals. Animals are destined from the beginning to achieve their equilibrium in a certain way: one is destined to be a climber, another a swimmer, and so on. Animals are so constituted that from the outset they can orient themselves in space correctly. This is true even of primates. If zoologists were aware of this, they would put less emphasis on the number of similar bones, muscles, and so forth that human beings and animals have. After all, this is not nearly as important as the fact that human beings are not given an innate way to achieve equilibrium in space but must develop it out of their total being.1For a further description of the essential differences between human beings and animals, see Wolfgang Schad, Man and Mammals, (Garden City, NY: Waldorf Press, 1977) and Rudolf Steiner, Study of Man, (London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1966).
It is significant that we must work on ourselves to develop from beings that cannot walk into ones that walk upright. We achieve our vertical position, our position of equilibrium in space, by ourselves. In other words, we establish our own relationship to gravity. Those who do not wish to consider the question deeply will, of course, easily dispute our explanation on apparently good grounds. They may claim, for example, that we are just as well constituted for walking upright as climbing animals are for climbing. Upon closer examination, however, we find that animals' orientation in space is determined by their physical organization. In human beings, however, it is the soul that establishes the relationship to space and shapes the organization.
[ 4 ] The second capacity we learn out of ourselves from our essential being—which remains the same through successive incarnations—is language. This allows us to relate to our fellow human beings and makes us bearers of the spiritual life that permeates the physical world primarily by means of human beings. It has often been emphasized, and with good reason, that someone stranded on a desert island who had had no contact with other human beings before learning to speak would never learn to do so. What we receive through heredity, on the other hand, what is implanted in us for development in later years, does not depend on our interactions with other human beings. For example, we are predisposed by heredity to change teeth in our seventh year. Even on a desert island our second set of teeth would grow if we reached that age. But if our soul being, the part of us that continues from one life to the next, is not stimulated we will not learn to speak. In a sense, we must sow the seed for the development of the larynx in the time before our earliest memory-before we attain full I-consciousness-so that the larynx can then become an organ of speech.
[ 5 ] There is still a third, even less well known, capacity that we learn on our own through what we bear within us through successive incarnations. I am referring here to our ability to live within the world of thoughts and ideas, the world of thought itself. Our brain is formed and worked on because it is the tool of thinking. At the beginning of life, the brain is still malleable because we must shape it ourselves to make it an instrument for the thinking appropriate to our essential being. The brain at birth is the result of the work of forces inherited from our parents, grandparents, and so on. It is in our thinking that we bring to expression what we are as individuals in conformity with our former earthly lives. Therefore, after birth, when we have become physically independent of our parents and ancestors, we must transform the brain we have inherited.
[ 6 ] Clearly, then, we accomplish significant steps in the early years of life. We work on ourselves in accordance with the highest wisdom. In fact, if we had to rely on our own intelligence, we could not achieve what we must accomplish without our intelligence in the first few years of our lives. Why is this so? Why must all these things be accomplished from soul depths that lie outside our consciousness? Because, in the first years of our lives, our souls, as well as our whole being, are much more closely connected with the spiritual worlds of the higher hierarchies than is the case later.
Clairvoyants, who can trace the spiritual processes involved because they have undergone spiritual training, discover that something tremendously significant happens at the moment when we achieve I-consciousness, that is, at the moment of our earliest memory. They can see that, during the early years of childhood, an aura hovers about us like a wonderful human-superhuman power. This aura, which is actually our higher part, extends everywhere into the spiritual world. But at the earliest moment we can remember,2Steiner describes the aura in Theosophy, 140–153. We can experience ourselves as a coherent I from this point on because what had previously been connected to the higher worlds then entered the I. Thereafter, our consciousness establishes its own relationship to the outer world.
This conscious relationship to the outer world does not yet exist in early childhood. In childhood, a dream world still seems to hover about us. We work on ourselves with a wisdom that is not in us, a wisdom that is more powerful and comprehensive than all the conscious wisdom we acquire later. This higher wisdom works from the spiritual world deep into the body; it enables us to form the brain out of the spirit. We can rightly say, then, that even the wisest person can learn from a child. For the wisdom at work in children does not become part of our consciousness in later life. It is obscured and exchanged for consciousness.
In the first years of life, however, this higher wisdom functions like a “telephone connection” to the spiritual beings in whose world we find ourselves between death and rebirth. Something from this world still flows into our aura during childhood. As individuals we are then directly subject to the guidance of the entire spiritual world to which we belong. When we are children—up to the moment of our earliest memory—the spiritual forces from this world flow into us, enabling us to develop our particular relationship to gravity. At the same time, the same forces also form our larynx and shape our brain into living organs for the expression of thought, feeling, and will.
[ 7 ] During childhood, then, we work out of a self that is still in direct contact with the higher worlds. Indeed, to a certain degree, we can still do this even in later life, although conditions change. Whenever we feel that we did or said something in earlier years that we are only now coming to understand, we have an indication that we were guided by a higher wisdom at that earlier time. Only years later do we manage to gain insight into the motives of our past conduct. All this indicates that at birth we did not entirely leave behind the world we lived in before entering into our new, physical existence. In fact, we never leave it behind completely. What we have as our part of higher spirituality enters our physical life and remains with us. Thus, what we bear within us is not a higher self that has to be developed gradually, but one that already exists and that often leads us to rise above ourselves.
[ 8 ] All that we can produce in the way of ideals and artistic creativity—as also the natural healing forces in our body, which continuously compensate for the injuries life inflicts—originate not in our ordinary, rational minds but in the deeper forces that work in our early years on our orientation in space, on the formation of the larynx, and on the development of the brain. These same forces are still present in us later. People often say of the damages and injuries we sustain in life that external forces will not be of any help and that our organism must develop its own inherent healing powers. What they are talking about is a wise, benevolent influence working upon us. From this same source also arise the best forces that enable us to perceive the spiritual world—that is, to have true clairvoyance.
[ 9 ] We can now ask why the higher powers work on us only in the early years of childhood. [ 10 ] It is easy to answer one half of this question, for if these higher forces continued to work on us in the same way into later life, we would always remain children and could never achieve full I-consciousness. What worked previously from without must be transferred into our own being.
But there is a more significant reason, one that can tell us more about the mysteries of human life. Spiritual science teaches that we have to consider the human body at the present stage of the earth's evolution as having developed from earlier conditions. People familiar with spiritual science know that in the course of this evolution various forces have worked on our whole being—some on the physical body, others on the etheric body, and others again on the astral body.3The physical body is the corporeal aspect of the human being, related to the mineral kingdom. The etheric body, or body of formative forces through which life unfolds, is related to the plant kingdom. The astral body bears desires, pleasure and pain, and the qualitative world of emotions, and is related to the animal kingdom. See Occult Science, 21–28. We have evolved to our present condition because beings we call luciferic and ahrimanic have affected us. Through their forces, our essential being became worse than it would have been if only the forces of the spiritual guides of the world, those who want to advance our development in a straight line, had worked on us. Indeed, suffering, disease, and death can be traced to the fact that, in addition to the beings who advance our development in a straight line, luciferic and ahrimanic beings are also at work and continuously thwart our progress.
What we bring with us at birth contains something that is better than anything we can make of it in later life. [ 11 ] In early childhood, the luciferic and ahrimanic forces have only a limited influence on our being. Essentially, they are active only in what we make of ourselves through our conscious life. If we retained the best part of ourselves in its full force beyond the first phase of childhood, its influence would be too much for us because the luciferic and ahrimanic forces opposing the part of ourselves that is better than the rest would weaken our whole being. Our constitution as human beings in the physical world is such that, once we are no longer soft and malleable as children, we can no longer stand to have the forces of the spiritual world continue to affect us directly. The forces that underlie our orientation in space and the formation of the larynx and the brain would shatter us if they continued to influence us directly in later life. These forces are so powerful that our organism would waste away beneath their holiness if they continued to work on us. However, for the activity that brings us into conscious contact with the supersensible world, we have to call upon these forces again.
[ 12 ] This leads us to a realization that is very significant if we understand it rightly. In the New Testament it is put thus: “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3) What then seems to be the highest ideal for a human being if the above statement is correctly understood? Surely that our ideal must be to approach ever closer a conscious relationship with the forces that worked on us, without our awareness, in the first years of childhood. At the same time, we must realize that we would collapse under the power of these forces if they were immediately and too easily to affect our conscious life. That is why a careful preparation is necessary to achieve the capacities that lead to a perception of supersensible worlds. The goal of this preparation is to enable us to bear what we simply cannot bear in ordinary life.
[ 13 ] Our passing through successive incarnations is significant for the overall evolution of our essential being, which has undergone successive past lives and will continue to go through future lives. The evolution of the earth runs parallel to our own. At some point in the future, the earth will have reached the end of its course; then the planet earth, as a physical entity, will have to separate from the totality of human souls—just as when we die the body separates from the spirit, and the soul, in order to live on, enters the spiritual realm between death and rebirth.4For a description of earth evolution, see Occult Science, chap. 2. From this point of view, our highest ideal must be the striving to make all the fruits to be gained in earthly life truly our own before we die.
[ 14 ] The forces that make us too weak to bear those forces that work on us in childhood originate in the organism of the earth. By the time this separates from humanity, we must have advanced to the point of giving over our whole being to the forces that presently work on us only in childhood. Only when we have reached this level can we claim to have attained our goal. Thus, through successive earthly lives, we must gradually make our entire being, including our consciousness, an expression of the forces that work on us under the guidance of the spiritual world in early childhood. This is the purpose of evolution.
After such considerations, the realization that we are not alone takes hold of our soul. This realization imbues us with humility, but also with a proper consciousness of our human dignity. We realize at the same time that something lives in us that can prove at all times that we can rise above ourselves to a self that is already surpassing us and will continue to do so from one life to the next. As this realization assumes a more and more definite form, it can have a very soothing, heartwarming effect and, at the same time, imbue the soul with the appropriate humility and modesty. What lives within us is truly a higher, divine human being, and we can feel ourselves pervaded by this being as by a living presence of whom we can say, This is my inner guide in me.
[ 15 ] Given this, the thought easily arises that we should strive in every way possible to achieve harmony with that part in us that is wiser than our conscious intelligence. Thereafter, our attention will no longer be directed to the conscious self but will be focused instead on an expanded self, and from this perspective we can then combat and eradicate all our false pride and arrogance. From this feeling we will gradually come to a right understanding of our present incompleteness. We shall come to see that we will become complete when the comprehensive spirituality at work in us has the same relationship to our adult consciousness that it had to our unconscious soul life in early childhood.
[ 16 ] Even though we may not remember anything from our first four years of life, we can safely say that the active influence of the higher spiritual realms lasts for about the first three years. By the end of this period we have become able to connect the impressions from the outer world with our I-concept. To be sure, this coherent I-concept cannot be traced back beyond the first moment we can remember. This is a moment that is difficult to locate, for with the awakening of distinct I-consciousness, our memory may be so weak that it cannot be recovered later. Nevertheless, we may say that people generally remember as far back as the beginning of the fourth year. In other words, we are justified in saying that the higher forces that have a decisive influence on us in childhood can work on us for three years. It follows that our constitution in the present, middle phase of the earth's evolution enables us to absorb these higher forces for only three years.
[ 17 ] Now if, through some special cosmic powers, we could somehow remove the ordinary I from a person—if the ordinary I that has accompanied a person through successive incarnations could be separated from that person's physical, etheric, and astral bodies—and we could then replace the ordinary I with an I that is connected with the spiritual worlds—what would happen? After three years this person's body would fall apart! If such a thing were to happen, world karma would have to do something to prevent the spiritual being connected to the higher worlds from living in this body for more than three years. [During the transition from childhood to the following stages, our organism retains its viability because it can still change during this period. In later life it can no longer change, and therefore cannot survive with the self connected directly to the spiritual worlds.] Only at the conclusion of our earthy lives will we be able to retain the forces within ourselves that allow us to live with that spiritual being for more than three years. Then we will be able to say, Not I but this higher self in me, which has been there all along, is now at work in me. Until then, we will not be able to experience this. At most, we will be able to feel the presence of this higher self, but our actual, real human I will not yet be able to bring the higher self fully to life.
[ 18 ] Let us now assume that a human organism were to enter the world at some moment in the middle of the earth's lifetime, and that, at a certain point by means of certain cosmic powers, this organism was freed of its I and received in its stead the I that is usually active only in the first three years of childhood—the I that is connected to the spiritual worlds we live in between death and rebirth. How long would such a person be able to live in an earthly body? Such a person would be able to survive in this earthy body only for about three years. After three years, world karma would have to intervene and destroy this human organism.
[ 19 ] What we have assumed here did actually occur at one time in history. When the human organism known as Jesus stood on the banks of the Jordan to be baptized by John, his I left his physical, etheric, and astral bodies. But after the Baptism, that organism bore within itself the higher self of humanity in fully conscious form. The self that works on us with cosmic wisdom in childhood, before we are conscious of it, was then fully conscious in Jesus of Nazareth. And by this very fact, this self, which was connected to the higher spiritual world, could live in this human body for only three years. Events then had to follow a course that brought an end to Jesus' physical life three years after the Baptism.
[ 20 ] Indeed, we have to understand the external events in the life of Jesus Christ as resulting from the inner causes discussed above. They are the outer expression of these causes. [ 21 ] This reveals the deeper connection between the guide in us—which radiates into our childhood as into a dark room and always works under the surface of our consciousness as our best self—and what once entered into human history to live for three years in a human sheath.
[ 22 ] This “higher” I, which is connected to the spiritual hierarchies, entered history in the person of Jesus of Nazareth—an event that is symbolized by the spirit descending in the form of a dove, saying: “This is my well beloved Son, today I have begotten him” (Matthew 3: 17). (Such is the original meaning of the words). What is revealed here? If we hold this image of the Baptism before our eyes, we have before us the highest human ideal. That is what is meant when the gospels tell us that Christ can be seen and known in every person. Even if there were no gospels and no tradition to report that a Christ once lived, our knowledge of the nature of the human being would tell us that Christ is alive in us.
[ 23 ] To know the forces at work in childhood is to know the Christ in us. The question then arises whether this realization also leads us to acknowledge that Christ at one time really lived on earth in a human body? We can answer “yes” to this without requiring any documents, because true clairvoyant self-knowledge convinces people in our time that there are forces in the human soul that come from Christ.
In the first three years of childhood these forces are active without any effort on our part. They can also work on us in our later life—if we seek Christ in ourselves through contemplation. It was not always possible to find the Christ within; indeed, as clairvoyant perception reveals, prior to Christ's life on earth, there were times when no amount of contemplation would have helped people to find the Christ. Clairvoyant cognition teaches us that this is so. Between the time when Christ could not be found within and the present, when he can be found in this way, lies Christ's life on earth. It is because Christ lived on the earth that we can now find him within, in the way I have indicated. Thus, for clairvoyant perception, the fact that Christ lived on the earth is proven without recourse to any historical documentation.
[ 24 ] It is as if Christ had said: Human beings, I want to be an ideal for you that presents to you on a higher, spiritual level what is fulfilled in the body. In the early years of life we learn out of the spirit, first, to walk—that is, we learn, under the guidance of the spirit, to find our way in earthly life. Then we learn to speak—to formulate the truth—out of the spirit. In other words, we develop the essence of truth out of speech sounds. Finally, we also develop the organ for our life as earthly I-beings. Thus, in the first three years of life, we learn three things. We learn to find the “way,” that is, to walk; we learn to represent the “truth” with our organism, and we learn to express “life” in our body through the spirit. There is no more meaningful paraphrase imaginable of the words “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3)
Most meaningfully, therefore, the I-being of Christ is expressed in the words: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life!” The higher spiritual forces form our organism in childhood—though we are not conscious of this—so that our body becomes the expression of the way, the truth, and the life. Similarly, the human spirit gradually becomes the conscious bearer of the way, the truth, and the life by permeating itself with Christ. Thereby we transform ourselves in the course of our earthly life into the power at work in us in childhood.
[ 25 ] Words such as these about the way, the truth, and the life can open the doors of eternity for us. Once our self-knowledge has become true and substantial, these words will resound for us from the depths of our soul.
[ 26 ] What I have presented here opens up a twofold perspective on the spiritual guidance of the individual and of humanity as a whole. First, as individuals, we find the Christ, the guide in us, through self-knowledge. We can always find Christ in this way because, since his life on earth, he is always present in us. Second, when we apply the knowledge we have gained without the help of historical documents to these documents, we begin to understand their true nature. They are the historical expression of something that has revealed itself in the depths of the soul. Therefore, historical documents should be regarded as part of that guidance of humanity that is intended to lead the soul to itself.
[ 27 ] If we understand the eternal spirit of the words “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life” in this way, we do not need to ask why we have to enter life as children even after having passed through many incarnations. For we realize that this apparent imperfection is a perpetual reminder of the highest that lives in us. We cannot be reminded often enough—we need to be reminded at least at the beginning of each new life – of the great truth of what we really are in our innermost essential being, that underlies all our earthly lives but remains untouched by the imperfections of earthly existence.
[ 28 ] It is best not to present too many definitions or concepts when talking about spiritual science or theosophy [anthroposophy] or about occultism in general. It is better to describe things and to try to convey an idea of what they really are like. That is why I have tried here to give you a sense of what is characteristic of the first three years of life and of how this relates to the light that radiates from the cross on Golgotha. The description I have given bespeaks an impulse in human evolution that will make St. Paul's words “Not I, but Christ in me” come true. All we need to know is what as human beings we really are; on the basis of this knowledge we can then gain insight into the being of Christ. Only after we have arrived at this Christ-idea through a real understanding of humanity, and after we have understood that to find Christ we must seek him in ourselves, will turning to the Bible be useful for us. No one has a greater or more conscious appreciation of the Bible than those who have found Christ in this way.
Imagine that a Martian who had never heard anything about Christ and his works, came down to earth. This Martian would not understand much of what happened here, and much of what interests people today would not interest this visitor. However, this Martian would be interested in what is the central impulse of earthy evolution, namely, the Christ-idea as expressed in human nature. Once we understand this, we will for the first time be able to read the Bible correctly, for we will then see that it expresses in a wonderful way what we have first perceived within ourselves. You see, we do not need to be taught a particular appreciation of the gospels. When we read the gospels as fully conscious individuals, what we have learned through spiritual science enables us to fully realize their greatness.
[ 29 ] I am hardly exaggerating when I claim that there will come a time when the general opinion will be that people who have learned to understand and appreciate the content of the gospels through spiritual science will see them as scriptures intended for the guidance of humanity and that their understanding will do the Bible more justice than anything else has so far. It is only through understanding our own inner being that we can come to see what lies hidden in these profound scriptures. Now, if we find in the gospels what is so completely part of our own being, it follows that it must have entered the scriptures through the people who wrote them. Thus, what we have to admit concerning ourselves—and the older we get, the more often we have to admit it—namely, that we do many things we don't understand fully until many years later: this must also be true for the writers of the gospels. They wrote out of the higher self that works on all of us in childhood. Thus, the gospels originate in the same wisdom that forms us. The spirit is revealed physically in the human body as well as in the writing of the gospels.
[ 30 ] In this context, the concept of inspiration becomes meaningful once again in a positive sense. Just as higher forces work on the brain in the first three years of childhood, so the spiritual worlds imbued the writers of the gospels with the forces out of which they wrote their gospels. These facts reveal the spiritual guidance of humanity. After all, if there are people in the human race who write documents out of the same forces that wisely shape human beings, then humanity as a whole is truly being guided. And just as individuals say or do things they understand only at a later age, so humanity as a whole produced evangelists as mediators who provided revelations that can be understood only gradually. These scriptures will be understood more and more as humanity progresses. As individuals, we can feel a spiritual guidance within us; humanity as a whole can feel it in persons who work as the gospel writers did.
[ 31 ] The concept of the guidance of humanity we have just established can now be expanded in many ways. Let us assume a person has found students or disciples, that is, people who declare their faith in him and become his loyal followers. Such a person out of genuine self-knowledge will easily realize that having found students gives him the feeling that what he has to say does not originate within him. Instead, spiritual forces from higher worlds want to communicate with the students and find in the teacher a suitable instrument for revealing themselves.
[ 32 ] Such a teacher may then reason as follows: When I was a child, I worked on myself by means of forces that came from the spiritual world. The best I can now contribute here must also come from higher worlds. I must not consider it as part of my ordinary consciousness. Indeed, such an individual may feel that something like a daemon—the word daemon here refers to a benevolent spiritual power—works from the spiritual world through him on the students.
According to Plato, Socrates felt something like this when he spoke of his daemon as something that guided and directed him.5Socrates, 470–399 B.C., Greek philosopher and teacher. Plato, 427–347 B.C., Greek philosopher, the most famous student of Socrates. Many attempts have been made to explain Socrates' daemon. However, to explain it we must accept the idea that Socrates could feel something akin to what emerges from the above considerations. Based on this, we then realize that during the three or four centuries when the Socratic principle prevailed in Greece, Socrates introduced a mood into the Greek world that served as preparation for another great event. The mood I am referring to accompanied the realization that what we perceive of an individual does not comprise the whole of what enters this world from the higher one. This mood continued to prevail long after Socrates' death. The best people who had this feeling later also best understood the words “Not I, but the Christ in me.” They realized that Socrates had to speak of a daemon-like force working out of the higher worlds, but through the ideal of Christ it became clear what Socrates had really meant. Of course, Socrates could not yet speak of Christ because in his time people could not yet find the Christ-being within.
[ 33 ] Here again we feel something of a spiritual guidance of humanity; nothing can enter the world without preparation. Why did Paul find his best followers in Greece? Because Socratism had prepared the ground there. That is, more recent events in the development of humanity can be traced back to earlier events that prepared people to allow the later events to work upon them. This gives us an idea of how far the guiding impulse of human evolution reaches; it puts the right people at the right time in the place where they are needed for our development. In facts such as these the guidance of humanity is evident in a general way.
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Kapitel I
[ 1 ] Der Mensch, welcher sich auf sich selbst besinnt, kommt bald zu der Einsicht, daß er außer dem Selbst, das er mit seinen Gedanken, Gefühlen und vollbewußten Willensimpulsen umfaßt, noch ein zweites kraftvolleres Selbst in sich trägt. Er wird gewahr, wie er sich diesem zweiten Selbst als einer höheren Macht unterordnet. Zunächst wird der Mensch allerdings dieses zweite Selbst wie eine niedrigere Wesenheit empfinden gegenüber demjenigen, das er mit seinem klaren, nach dem Guten und Wahren neigenden vollbewußten Seelenwesen umspannt. Und er wird diese niedrigere Wesenheit zu überwinden trachten. Eine intimere Selbstprüfung kann aber über das zweite Selbst noch etwas anderes lehren. Wenn man im Leben öfter eine Art Rückschau hält auf dasjenige, was man erlebt oder getan hat, so wird man an sich eine eigentümliche Entdeckung machen. Und man wird diese Erfahrung um so bedeutungsvoller finden, je älter man wird. Wenn man sich frägt: Was hast du in dieser oder jener Zeit deines Lebens getan oder gesprochen?, dann stellt sich heraus, daß man eine ganze Menge von Dingen getan hat, die man eigentlich erst in einem späteren Lebensalter versteht. Da hat man vor sieben oder acht Jahren, oder vielleicht vor zwanzig Jahren Dinge getan, von denen man ganz genau weiß: Jetzt erst, nach langer Zeit, reicht eigentlich dein Verstand so weit, daß du die Dinge verstehen kannst, die du damals getan oder gesprochen hast. - Viele Menschen machen solche Selbstentdeckungen nicht, weil sie nicht darauf ausgehen. Aber es ist außerordentlich fruchtbar, wenn der Mensch öfter eine solche Einkehr in seine Seele hält. Denn von einem solchen Moment, in welchem der Mensch gewahr wird: Du hast eigentlich in früheren Jahren Dinge getan, die du jetzt erst anfängst zu verstehen; damals war dein Verstand noch nicht reif, um die Dinge zu verstehen, welche du getan oder doch gesprochen hast, - von einem solchen Moment, in welchem man eine Entdeckung dieser Art macht, geht etwas aus wie die folgende Empfindung der Seele: Man fühlt sich wie geborgen durch eine gute Macht, die in den eigenen Wesenstiefen waltet; man fängt an, immer mehr und mehr Vertrauen zu gewinnen zu der Tatsache, daß man eigentlich im höchsten Sinne des Wortes doch nicht allein ist in der Welt, und daß alles dasjenige, was man versteht, was man bewußt kann, im Grunde genommen nur ein kleiner Teil dessen ist, was man in der Welt vollbringt.
[ 2 ] Man kann, wenn man diese Beobachtung öfters macht, etwas, was ja theoretisch sehr leicht einzusehen ist, zu voller Lebenspraxis erheben. Theoretisch leicht einzusehen ist, daß der Mensch im Leben nicht sehr weit kommen könnte, wenn er alles, was er vollbringen muß, mit vollbewußtem Verstande, mit einer alle Verhältnisse überschauenden Intelligenz vollbringen müßte. Um dies theoretisch einzusehen, braucht man nur die folgende Überlegung anzustellen. In welchem Lebensabschnitt vollbringt der Mensch eigentlich an sich selber die für das Dasein wichtigsten Taten? Wann handelt er am allerweisesten an sich selber? Das tut er ungefähr von der Geburt an bis zu dem Zeitpunkte, bis zu dem er sich noch zurückerinnern kann, wenn er im späteren Leben zurückblickt auf die verflossenen Jahre seines Erdendaseins. Wenn man zurückdenkt an das, was man vor drei, vier, fünf Jahren und dann immer weiter zurück getan hat, so kommt man bis zu einem gewissen Punkt der Kindheit; weiter geht die Rückerinnerung nicht. Was davor liegt, können dem Menschen die Eltern oder andere Personen erzählen; aber die eigene Erinnerung reicht nur bis zu einem gewissen Punkt zurück. Das ist auch der Zeitpunkt, in welchem der Mensch gelernt hat, sich als ein Ich zu fühlen. Bei den Menschen, deren Erinnerung über die Lebensnorm nicht hinausgeht, muß immer ein solcher Lebenspunkt da sein. Vor diesem Zeitpunkte aber hat die menschliche Seele am Menschen selbst die allerweisesten Dinge getan, und niemals kann der Mensch später, wenn er zu seinem Bewußtsein gekommen ist, so Großartiges und Gewaltiges an sich selber leisten, wie er in den allerersten Jahren seiner Kindheit aus unterbewußten Seelengründen heraus vollzieht. Denn man weiß, daß der Mensch durch seine Geburt in die physische Welt das hineinträgt, was er mitgebracht hat als die Früchte der früheren Erdenleben. Wenn der Mensch geboren wird, ist zum Beispiel sein physisches Gehirn noch ein sehr unvollkommenes Werkzeug. Es muß nun des Menschen Seele in dieses Werkzeug erst die feineren Gliederungen hineinarbeiten, die es zum Vermittler alles dessen machen, wessen die Seele fähig ist. In der Tat arbeitet die Menschenseele, bevor sie vollbewußt ist, an dem Gehirn so, daß dieses ein solches Werkzeug werden kann, wie es gebraucht wird zum Ausleben all der Fähigkeiten, Anlagen, Eigenschaften und so weiter, welche der Seele eignen als Ergebnisse ihrer früheren Erdenleben. Diese Arbeit am eigenen Leibe ist von Gesichtspunkten geleitet, die weiser sind als alles dasjenige, was der Mensch später aus seinem vollen Bewußtsein heraus an sich tun kann. Und noch mehr: während dieser Zeiten muß nicht nur das geschehen, daß der Mensch sein Gehirn plastisch ausarbeitet, sondern er muß lernen drei der wichtigsten Dinge für sein Erdendasein.
[ 3] Als erstes lernt er die eigene Körperlichkeit im Raume orientieren. Was damit gesagt ist, beachtet der heutige Mensch eigentlich gar nicht. Es wird damit einer der wesentlichsten Unterschiede des Menschen vom Tier berührt. Das Tier ist von vornherein bestimmt, seine Gleichgewichtslage im Raume in einer gewissen Art zu entwickeln; das eine Tier ist zum Klettertier vorbestimmt, das andere zum Schwimmtier und so weiter. Das Tier ist von vornherein so organisiert, daß es sich in richtiger Weise in den Raum hineinstellt; und das ist bis hinauf zu den menschenähnlichsten Säugetieren der Fall. Wenn die Zoologen über dieses Faktum nachdenken würden, so würden sie weniger betonen, daß zum Beispiel Mensch und Tier so und so viele gleichartige Knochen und Muskeln haben und so weiter; denn dieses kommt viel weniger in Betracht als die Tatsache, daß der Mensch nicht von vornherein die volle Anlage für seine Gleichgewichtsverhältnisse mitbekommt. Er muß sich diese erst aus seinem Gesamtwesen herausgestalten. Es ist bedeutungsvoll, daß der Mensch an sich selbst arbeiten muß, um sich aus einem Wesen, das nicht gehen kann, zu einem solchen zu machen, das aufrecht gehen kann. Der Mensch ist es selbst, der sich seine vertikale Lage, seine Gleichgewichtslage im Raum gibt. Er bringt sich selbst in ein Verhältnis zur Schwerkraft. Einer Betrachtung, welche nicht in die Tiefe der Sache dringen will, wird es selbstverständlich ein Leichtes sein, mit scheinbar guten Gründen dies zu bestreiten. Man kann sagen, der Mensch sei eben für seinen aufrechten Gang ebeno hinorganisiert wie zum Beispiel ein Klettertier zum Klettern. Ein genaueres Zusehen aber kann zeigen, daß es beim Tier die Eigenart der Organisation ist, welche das Hineinstellen in den Raum bewirkt. Beim Menschen aber ist es die Seele, welche sich in Beziehung zum Raum bringt und die Organisation bezwingt.
[ 4 ] Das zweite, was der Mensch sich selber lehrt, und zwar aus der Wesenheit heraus, welche von Verkörperung zu Verkörperung als dieselbe weiterschreitet, ist die Sprache. Durch sie setzt er sich zu seinen Mitmenschen in ein Verhältnis, welches ihn zum Träger desjenigen geistigen Lebens macht, das die physische Welt zunächst von ihm aus durchdringt. Es ist oft mit gutem Grunde betont worden, daß ein Mensch, der auf eine einsame Insel versetzt würde und nicht mit andern Menschen zusammen wäre, bevor er sprechen kann, die Sprache nicht lernen würde. Was wir ererbt erhalten, was eingepflanzt ist für spätere Jahre, so daß es den Vererbungsprinzipien unterliegt, das hängt nicht davon ab, daß der Mensch mit seinen Mitmenschen zusammen ist. Er ist zum Beispiel von vornherein durch die Vererbungsverhältnisse dazu veranlagt, im siebenten Jahre die Zähne zu wechseln. Da könnte er auf einer einsamen Insel sein, wenn er nur die Möglichkeit hätte, heranzuwachsen, würde er die Zähne wechseln. Sprechen aber lernt er nur, wenn sein Seelenwesen als solches angeregt wird, als dasjenige, was von Leben zu Leben getragen wird. Der Mensch muß in jener Zeit den Keim für seine Kehlkopfentwickelung formen, in der er noch nicht sein Ich-Bewußtsein hat. Vor der Zeit, bis zu der er sich zurückerinnert, muß er den Keim legen zur Formung seiner Kehlkopfentwickelung, so daß der Kehlkopf zum Sprachorganismus werden kann.
[ 5] Und dann gibt es ein Drittes, von dem es weniger bekannt ist, daß es der Mensch durch sich selbst lernt, durch das, was er in seinem Innern von Verkörperung zu Verkörperung trägt. Das ist das Leben innerhalb der Gedankenwelt selber. Die Bearbeitung des Gehirns wird aus dem Grunde vorgenommen, weil das Gehirn das Werkzeug des Denkens ist. Es ist dieses Organ im Lebensbeginne deshalb noch plastisch, weil der Mensch es selbst erst so formen soll, wie das Instrument seines Denkens im Sinne der Wesenheit sein muß, die von Leben zu Leben getragen wird. So wie das Gehirn unmittelbar nach der Geburt ist, so mußte es werden gemäß den Kräften, die von Eltern, Voreltern und so weiter vererbt sind. Der Mensch aber muß in seinem Denken zum Ausdruck bringen, was er als Eigenwesen ist, gemäß seinen früheren Erdenleben. Deshalb muß er sich die Eigentümlichkeiten seines Gehirns, die er ererbt hat, dann umformen, wenn er - nach der Geburt - physisch unabhängig von Eltern, Voreltern und so weiter geworden ist.
[ 6 ] Man sieht, daß der Mensch in den allerersten Jahren seines Lebens bedeutungsvolle Dinge vollbringt. Er arbeitet im Sinne höchster Weisheit an sich selber. Er könnte in der Tat, wenn es auf seine Klugheit ankäme, das nicht vollbringen, was er ohne seine Klugheit in der ersten Lebenszeit vollbringen muß. Warum wird aus den Seelentiefen, die außer dem Bewußtsein liegen, dies alles vollbracht? Es geschieht aus dem Grunde, weil der Mensch in den ersten Jahren seines Lebens mit seiner Seele, mit seiner ganzen Wesenheit viel mehr angeschlossen ist an die geistigen Welten der höheren Hierarchien, als dies später der Fall ist. Für den Hellseher, der eine geistige Entwickelung durchgemacht hat, so daß er die wirklichen geistigen Vorgänge verfolgen kann, zeigt sich an dem Zeitpunkte, in welchem der Mensch sein Ich-Bewußtsein so erlangt, daß er sich später bis zu diesem Zeitpunkte zurückerinnern kann, etwas ungeheuer Bedeutungsvolles. Während das, was wir die «kindliche Aura» nennen, in den ersten Lebensjahren wie eine wunderbare, menschlich-übermenschliche Macht das Kind umschwebt - so umschwebt, daß diese kindliche Aura, der eigentliche höhere Teil des Menschen, überall seine Fortsetzung in die geistige Welt hinein hat -, dringt in jenem Zeitpunkt, bis zu welchem der Mensch sich zurückerinnern kann, diese Aura mehr in das Innere des Menschen hinein. Der Mensch kann sich, bis zu diesem Zeitpunkte zurück, als zusammenhängendes Ich empfinden, weil dasjenige, was früher an die höheren Welten angeschlossen war, dann in sein Ich hineingezogen ist. Von da ab stellt das Bewußtsein überall sich selber in Verbindung zu der Außenwelt. Das geschieht im Kindesalter noch nicht. Da waren die Dinge für den Menschen so, als wenn sie wie eine Traumwelt ihn umschwebten. Aus einer Weisheit heraus, die nicht in ihm ist, arbeitet der Mensch an sich. Diese Weisheit ist mächtiger, umfassender als alle spätere bewußte Weisheit. Diese höhere Weisheit verdunkelt sich für die menschliche Seele, welche dann dafür die Bewußtheit eintauscht. Sie wirkt aus der geistigen Welt heraus tief in die Körperlichkeit herein, so daß der Mensch durch sie sein Gehirn aus dem Geiste heraus formen kann. Nicht mit Unrecht darf gesagt werden, von einem Kinde kann auch der Weiseste lernen. Denn was an dem Kinde arbeitet, ist die Weisheit, die dann später nicht in das Bewußtsein eintritt, und durch welche der Mensch etwas wie einen «Telephonanschluß» nach den geistigen Wesenheiten hat, in deren Welt er sich zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt befindet. Von dieser Welt strömt noch etwas ein in die kindliche Aura, und der Mensch ist da unmittelbar als einzelnes Wesen unterstehend der Führung der ganzen geistigen Welt, zu welcher er gehört. Die geistigen Kräfte aus dieser Welt strömen in das Kind noch ein. Sie hören auf einzuströmen in dem Zeitpunkte, bis zu dem die normale Rückerinnerung geht. Diese Kräfte sind es, die den Menschen fähig machen, sich in ein bestimmtes Verhältnis zur Schwerkraft zu bringen. Sie sind es auch, die seinen Kehlkopf formen, die sein Gehirn so bilden, daß es ein lebendiges Werkzeug für Gedanken-, Empfindungs- und Willensausdruck wird.
[ 7 ] Was nun in allerhöchstem Maße in der Kindheit vorhanden ist, daß der Mensch aus einem Selbst heraus arbeitet, das noch mit höheren Welten in unmittelbarem Zusammenhange steht, das bleibt bis zu einem gewissen Grade doch im späteren Leben bestehen, trotzdem sich die Verhältnisse im angegebenen Sinne ändern. Wenn man in einem späteren Lebensabschnitt fühlt: man habe dies oder jenes vor Jahren getan oder gesagt, was man erst jetzt verstehen lernt, so hat man eben früher aus einer höheren Weisheit heraus sich führen lassen. Und erst nach Jahren ist man dazu gelangt, die Einsicht in die Gründe zu besitzen, nach denen man sich verhalten hat. Aus all dem kann man fühlen, wie man unmittelbar nach der Geburt noch nicht so ganz entlaufen war der Welt, in welcher man vor dem Eintreten in das physische Dasein war, und wie man ihr ganz eigentlich niemals entlaufen kann. Es tritt das, was man als seinen Anteil an höherer Geistigkeit hat, in das physische Leben herein und folgt einem. Oft ist es so, daß man fühlt: Was in einem gelegen ist, ist nicht nur ein höheres Selbst, das nach und nach ausgebildet werden soll, sondern es ist etwas, was schon da ist und einen dazu bringt, daß man so oft über sich selber hinauswächst.
[ 8 ] Alles was der Mensch hervorbringen kann an Idealen, an künstlerischem Schaffen, aber auch alles, was er hervorbringen kann an naturgemäßen Heilkräften im eigenen Leibe, durch die ein fortwährendes Ausgleichen der Schädigungen des Lebens eintritt, alles das kommt nicht von dem gewöhnlichen Verstande, sondern von den tieferen Kräften, die in den ersten Jahren arbeiten an unserer Orientierung im Raum, an der Prägung des Kehlkopfes und am Gehirn. Denn es sind dieselben Kräfte später noch im Menschen. Wenn oftmals bei Lebensschädigungen gesagt wird, äußere Kräfte können uns nicht helfen, es muß unser Organismus die in ihm liegenden Heilkräfte aus sich entwickeln, so hat man ja auch eine im Menschen vorhandene weisheitsvolle Wirkung im Auge. Und weiter kommen aus derselben Quelle auch die besten Kräfte, durch welche man zur Erkenntnis der geistigen Welt gelangt, das heißt zu einem wahren Hellsehertum.
[ 9 ] Nun liegt die Frage sehr nahe: Warum wirken die gekennzeichneten höheren Kräfte nur in den ersten Kindheitsjahren in den Menschen herein?
[ 10 ] Die eine Hälfte der Antwort kann man leicht geben; denn sie liegt in folgendem. Wenn jene höheren Kräfte in derselben Weise weiterwirkten, würde der Mensch immer Kind bleiben; er würde nicht zum vollen Ich-Bewußtsein kommen. Es muß in seine eigene Wesenheit verlegt werden, was vorher von außen gewirkt hat. Aber es gibt einen bedeutungsvolleren Grund, der noch mehr aufklären kann als das eben Gesagte über die Geheimnisse des Menschenlebens; und das ist der folgende. Durch die Geisteswissenschaft kann erfahren werden, daß der menschliche Leib, wie er im gegenwärtigen Erdenentwickelungsstadium ist, als ein Gewordenes betrachtet werden muß, das aus anderen Zuständen sich zu seiner gegenwärtigen Form fortgebildet hat. Dem Kenner der Geisteswissenschaft ist bekannt, daß diese Evolution sich so vollzogen hat, daß auf die Gesamtwesenheit des Menschen verschiedene Kräfte gewirkt haben; gewisse Kräfte auf den physischen Leib, andere auf den Ätherleib, und andere auf den Astralleib. Die menschliche Wesenheit ist zu ihrer gegenwärtigen Form dadurch gekommen, daß auf sie jene Wesenheiten gewirkt haben, die wir die luziferischen und die ahrimanischen nennen. Durch diese Kräfte ist die menschliche Wesenheit in einer gewissen Weise schlechter geworden, als sie dann hätte werden müssen, wenn nur diejenigen Kräfte wirksam gewesen wären, die von den geistigen Weltenlenkern kommen, welche den Menschen in einer geraden Weise weiter entwickeln wollen. Es ist ja die Ursache der Leiden, der Krankheiten und auch des Todes darin zu suchen, daß außer den Wesenheiten, welche den Menschen in einer geraden Linie vorwärts entwickeln, noch die luziferischen und die ahrimanischen walten, welche die geradlinige Vorwärtsentwickelung stets durchkreuzen. In dem, was der Mensch durch die Geburt ins Dasein hereinbringt, liegt etwas, das besser ist als dasjenige, was in späterem Leben der Mensch daraus machen kann.
[ 11 ] Die luziferischen und die ahrimanischen Kräfte haben in den ersten Kindheitsjahren nur geringen Einfluß auf das Menschenwesen; sie sind im wesentlichen in all dem nur wirksam, was der Mensch durch sein bewußtes Leben aus sich macht. Würde er länger als in den ersten Kindheitstagen denjenigen Teil seines Wesens, der besser ist als sein anderer, in voller Kraft in sich haben, so würde er der Wirkung desselben nicht gewachsen sein, weil die entgegenstrebenden luziferischen und ahrimanischen Kräfte seine Gesamtwesenheit schwächen. Es hat der Mensch in der physischen Welt eine solche Organisation, daß er die unmittelbaren Kräfte der geistigen Welt, welche in den ersten Kindheitsjahren an ihm wirksam sind, nur so lange an sich ertragen kann, als er gleichsam kindlich weich und bildsam ist. Er würde zerbrechen, wenn jene Kräfte, die der Orientierung im Raume, der Formung des Kehlkopfes und des Gehirns zugrunde liegen, auch im späteren Lebensalter noch in unmittelbarer Art wirksam blieben. Diese Kräfte sind so gewaltig, daß, wenn sie später noch wirken würden, unser Organismus hinsiechen müßte unter der Heiligkeit dieser Kräfte. Nur zu derjenigen Betätigung muß sich der Mensch an diese Kräfte wenden, welche ihn mit der übersinnlichen Welt in bewußten Zusammenhang bringt.
[ 12 ] Daraus aber geht uns ein Gedanke hervor, der große Bedeutung hat, wenn er richtig verstanden wird. Er ist im Neuen Testament mit den Worten ausgesprochen: «So ihr nicht werdet wie die Kindlein, könnt ihr nicht in die Reiche der Himmel kommen!» Denn was erscheint als das höchste Ideal für den Menschen, wenn das als richtig angenommen wird, was in dem Vorhergehenden gesagt ist? Doch wohl dieses: sich immer mehr und mehr dem zu nähern, was man ein bewußtes Verhältnis zu den Kräften nennen kann, die in den ersten Kindheitsjahren unbewußt am Menschen wirken. - Nur muß in Betracht gezogen werden, daß der Mensch unter der Gewalt dieser Kräfte zusammenbrechen müßte, wenn sie ohne weiteres in sein bewußtes Leben hereinwirken würden. Deshalb ist für die Erlangung jener Fähigkeiten, die ein Wahrnehmen der übersinnlichen Welten herbeiführen, eine sorgsame Vorbereitung notwendig. Diese Vorbereitung hat das Ziel, den Menschen geeignet zu machen zum Ertragen dessen, was er im gewöhnlichen Leben eben nicht ertragen kann.
[ 13 ] Das Durchgehen durch die aufeinanderfolgenden Verkörperungen hat seine Bedeutung für die Gesamtentwickelung der menschlichen Wesenheit. Diese ist in der Vergangenheit durch aufeinanderfolgende Leben geschritten; sie schreitet weiter, und parallel damit schreitet auch die Erde in ihrer Entwickelung vorwärts. Es wird einmal der Zeitpunkt kommen, in welchem die Erde am Ende ihrer Laufbahn angelangt sein wird; dann muß der Erdplanet als physische Wesenheit abfallen von der Gesamtheit der Menschenseelen, wie der menschliche Leib mit dem Tode vom Geiste abfällt, wenn die Menschenseele, um weiter zu leben, eintritt in das geistige Reich, das ihr zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt angemessen ist. Dies ins Auge gefaßt, muß als höchstes Ideal erscheinen, daß es der Mensch beim Erdentode so weit gebracht hat, daß er alle Früchte, die er aus dem Erdenleben gewinnen kann, sich auch angeeignet hat.
[ 14 ] Nun kommen diejenigen Kräfte, durch welche der Mensch jenen andern nicht gewachsen ist, welche auf ihn in seiner Kindheit wirken, aus dem Erdenorganismus. Ist dieser selbst einmal von dem Menschenwesen abgefallen, so muß der Mensch , wenn er sein Ziel erreicht haben soll, so weit gekommen sein, daß er in der Tat sich mit seiner ganzen Wesenheit den Kräften hingeben kann, die gegenwärtig nur in der Kindheit tätig sind. Der Sinn der Entwickelung durch die aufeinanderfolgenden Erdenleben hindurch ist also, den ganzen Menschen, somit auch den bewußten Teil, allmählich zum Ausdruck der Kräfte zu machen, die in den ersten Lebensjahren unter Einwirkung der geistigen Welt an ihm - ihm unbewußt - walten. Der Gedanke, der aus solchen Betrachtungen heraus sich der Seele bemächtigt, muß mit Demut, aber auch mit richtigem Bewußtsein der Menschenwürde erfüllen. Es ist der Gedanke: Der Mensch ist nicht allein; in ihm lebt etwas, was ihm immerdar den Beweis liefern kann: Es kann der Mensch sich über sich selbst erheben, zu etwas, was gegenwärtig schon über ihn hinauswächst und was wachsen wird von Leben zu Leben. Immer bestimmtere und bestimmtere Gestalt kann dieser Gedanke annehmen; er liefert dann etwas ungeheuer Beruhigendes und Erhebendes; aber durchdringt auch die Seele mit entsprechender Demut und Bescheidenheit. - Was hat in diesem Sinne der Mensch in sich? Wahrhaftig einen höheren, einen göttlichen Menschen, von dem er sich lebendig durchdrungen fühlen kann, sich sagend: Er ist mein Führer in mir.
[ 15 ] Von solchen Gesichtspunkten aus kommt wohl leicht der Gedanke in die Seele, daß man mit allem, was man tun kann, den Einklang suchen soll mit demjenigen im Menschenwesen, das weiser ist als die bewußte Intelligenz. Und es wird von dem unmittelbar bewußten Selbst auf ein erweitertes Selbst hingewiesen, dem gegenüber alles, was falscher Stolz, und alles, was Überhebung im Menschenwesen ist, abgetilgt und bekämpft werden kann. Es bildet sich dieses Gefühl zu einem andern fort, das ein richtiges Verständnis eröffnet in bezug auf die Art, in welcher der Mensch gegenwartig unvollkommen ist; und dies Gefühl läßt erkennen, wie er vollkommen werden kann, wenn einmal die in ihm waltende umfassendere Geistigkeit zu seinem Bewußtsein dasselbe Verhältnis haben darf, das sie in den ersten Kindheitsjahren zu dem unbewußten Seelenleben hat.
[ 16 ] Wenn nun die Rückerinnerung im Leben sich oftmals so gestaltet, daß sie nicht bis in das vierte Kindheitsjahr zurückgeht, so darf man doch sagen, daß die Einwirkung des höheren Geistgebietes im obigen Sinne durch die ersten drei Lebensjahre geht. Am Ende dieser Zeitspanne wird der Mensch fähig, die Eindrücke der Außenwelt mit seiner Ich-Vorstellung zu verbinden. Es ist zwar richtig, daß diese zusammenhängende Ich-Vorstellung nur so weit zurückgezählt werden darf, als die Rückerinnerung reicht. Doch wird man sagen müssen, daß im wesentlichen die Rückerinnerung bis zum Beginne des vierten Lebensjahres reicht; nur ist sie erst für den Anfang des deutlichen Ich-Bewußtseins so schwach, daß sie unbemerkbar bleibt. Deshalb kann gelten, daß jene höheren den Menschen in den Kindheitsjahren bestimmenden Kräfte durch drei Jahre wirksam sein können. Es ist der Mensch in der gegenwärtigen mittleren Erdenorganisation somit so organisiert, daß er nur drei Jahre diese Kräfte aufnehmen kann.
[ 17 ] Stünde nun ein Mensch vor uns, und könnte es durch irgendwelche Weltenmächte bewirkt werden, daß das gewöhnliche Ich von diesem Menschen entfernt würde - man müßte also annehmen: es könnte erreicht werden, dieses gewöhnliche Ich, das mit dem Menschen durch die Verkörperungen gegangen ist, aus physischem Leib, Ätherleib und Astralleib zu entfernen -, und man könnte dann in die drei Leiber ein solches Ich bringen, das im Zusammenhange wirkt mit den geistigen Welten, - was würde mit einem solchen Menschen geschehen müssen? Nach drei Jahren müßte sein Leib zerbrechen! Es müßte etwas geschehen durch das Weltenkarma, daß das Geisteswesen, das mit den höheren Welten zusammenhängt, nicht länger als drei Jahre in diesem Leibe leben könnte. Erst am Ende aller Erdenleben wird der Mensch das in sich haben können, was ihn länger als drei Jahre mit jenem Geisteswesen leben läßt. Aber dann wird der Mensch sich auch sagen: Nicht ich, sondern dieses Höhere in mir, das immer da war, das arbeitet jetzt in mir. - Bis dahin kann er das noch nicht sagen, sondern höchstens dies: er fühle dieses Höhere, aber er ist noch nicht mit seinem wirklichen realen Menschheits-Ich dahin gekommen, es in sich zum vollen Leben zu bringen.
[ 18 ] Würde nun irgend einmal in der mittleren Erdenzeit ein menschlicher Organismus in die Welt gestellt, der in einem späteren Lebensjahr durch gewisse Weltenmächte von seinem Ich befreit würde, und dafür jenes Ich in sich aufnähme, das sonst nur in den ersten drei Kindheitsjahren wirkt, und das im Zusammenhang stünde mit den geistigen Welten, in denen der Mensch zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt ist: wie lange könnte ein solcher Mensch im Erdenleibe leben? - Drei Jahre ungefähr; denn dann müßte durch das Weltenkarma etwas eintreten, was die betreffende Menschheitsorganisation zerstörte.
[ 19 ] Was hier vorausgesetzt wurde, war aber in der Geschichte da. Der menschliche Organismus, welcher bei der Johannestaufe am Jordan stand, als das Ich des Jesus von Nazareth aus den drei Leibern fortging, barg nach der Taufe in voller bewußter Ausgestaltung jenes höhere Menschheitsselbst, das sonst, den Menschen unbewußt, mit Weltenweisheit am Kinde wirkt. Aber damit war die Notwendigkeit gegeben, daß dieses mit der höhern Geisteswelt zusammenhängende Selbst nur drei Jahre in dem entsprechenden Menschheitsorganismus leben konnte. Es mußten dann die Tatsachen so verlaufen, daß nach drei Jahren das irdische Leben des Wesens zu Ende war.
[ 20 ] Die äußeren Ereignisse, welche im Leben des Christus Jesus eintraten, sind durchaus so aufzufassen, daß sie durch die auseinandergesetzten inneren Ursachen bedingt sind. Sie stellen sich als äußerer Ausdruck dieser Ursachen dar.
[ 21 ] Damit ist der tiefere Zusammenhang gegeben zwischen dem, was der Führer ist im Menschen, was wie im Dämmerlichte in unsere Kindheit hereinscheint, was immer wirkt unter der Oberfläche unseres Bewußtseins als das, was unser Bestes ist, und zwischen dem, was einmal hereintrat in die ganze Menschheitsevolution, so daß es drei Jahre in einer menschlichen Hülle sein konnte.
[ 22 ] Was zeigt sich an diesem «höheren» Ich, das zusammenhängt mit den geistigen Hierarchien, und das in den Menschenleib des Jesus von Nazareth in der Zeit eintrat, so daß sein Eintreten dargestellt wird symbolisch unter der Signatur des herabsteigenden Geistes in Gestalt der Taube mit den Worten: «Dies ist mein vielgeliebter Sohn, heute habe ich ihn gezeuget!» (denn so hießen die Worte ursprünglich)? Wenn man dieses Bild ins Auge faßt, so hat man das höchste menschliche Ideal vor sich hingestellt. Denn es bedeutet nichts anderes, als daß in der Geschichte des Jesus von Nazareth berichtet wird: In jedem Menschen ist erkennbar der Christus! Und wenn auch keine Evangelien und keine Überlieferung vorhanden wären, die besagen: Irgend einmal habe ein Christus gelebt, - so würde man durch Erkenntnis der Menschennatur erfahren, daß der Christus im Menschen lebt.
[ 23 ] Die am Menschen im Kindheitsalter wirksamen Kräfte erkennen, heißt den Christus im Menschen erkennen. Es entsteht nun die Frage: Führt diese Erkenntnis auch zur Anerkennung der Tatsache, daß dieser Christus wirklich einmal in einem Menschenleibe auf Erden gewohnt hat? Ohne daß irgendwelche Dokumente herangezogen werden, kann diese Frage bejaht werden. Denn eine wirkliche seherische Selbsterkenntnis führt für den gegenwärtigen Menschen dahin, einzusehen, daß in der Menschenseele Kräfte gefunden werden können, welche von diesem Christus ausgehen. In den ersten drei Kindheitsjahren wirken diese Kräfte, ohne daß der Mensch etwas dazu tut. Im späteren Leben können sie wirken, wenn der Mensch durch innere Versenkung den Christus in sich sucht. So wie nun gegenwärtig der Mensch den Christus in sich findet, so konnte er dieses nicht immer. Es gab Zeiten, wo keine innere Versenkung den Menschen zum Christus führen konnte. Daß dies so ist, lehrt wieder die seherische Erkenntnis. In der Zwischenzeit zwischen jener Vergangenheit, da der Mensch den Christus in sich nicht finden konnte, und der Gegenwart, da er ihn finden kann, liegt das Erdenleben Christi. Und dieses Erdenleben selbst ist der Grund, warum in der angegebenen Art der Mensch den Christus in sich finden kann. So beweist sich für die seherische Erkenntnis das Erdenleben Christi ohne alle geschichtlichen Urkunden.
[ 24 ] Man könnte denken, der Christus habe gesagt: Ich will für euch Menschen ein solches Ideal sein, das in den Geist erhoben euch dasjenige darstellt, was sonst im Leiblichen erfüllt ist. In den ersten Lebensjahren lernt der Mensch physisch gehen aus dem Geiste heraus; das heißt der Mensch weist sich seinen Weg für das Erdenleben aus dem Geiste heraus. Er lernt sprechen, das heißt die Wahrheit prägen aus dem Geiste heraus, - oder mit anderen Worten: Der Mensch entwickelt das Wesen der Wahrheit aus dem Laute heraus in den ersten drei Jahren seines Lebens. Und auch das Leben, das der Mensch auf der Erde als Ich-Wesen lebt, das bekommt sein Lebensorgan durch das, was sich in den ersten drei Jahren der Kindheit ausbildet. So also lernt der Mensch leiblich gehen, das heißt «den Weg» finden, er lernt die «Wahrheit» durch seinen Organismus darstellen, und er lernt das «Leben» aus dem Geiste heraus im Leibe zum Ausdrucke bringen. Keine bedeutungsvollere Umprägung des Wortes: «Wenn ihr nicht werdet wie die Kindlein, könnt ihr nicht in die Reiche der Himmel kommen» scheint denkbar. Und als ein bedeutsames Wort muß es gelten, daß die Ich-Wesenheit des Christus so zum Ausdrucke kommt: «Ich bin der Weg, die Wahrheit und das Leben!» Wie die höheren Geisteskräfte den Kindheitsorganismus - diesem unbewußt - so gestalten, daß er leiblich wird der Ausdruck für den Weg, die Wahrheit und das Leben, so wird der Menschengeist allmählich dadurch, daß er sich mit dem Christus durchdringt, bewußt der Träger des Weges, der Wahrheit und des Lebens. Er macht sich dadurch selbst im Laufe des Erdenwerdens zu jener Kraft, die im Kindheitsalter in ihm waltet, ohne daß er der bewußte Träger ist.
[ 25 ] Solche Worte, wie die von dem Weg, der Wahrheit und dem Leben, sind geeignet, die Türen der Ewigkeit zu öffnen. Sie tönen dem Menschen aus seinen Seelengründen, wenn die Selbsterkenntnis eine wahre, wesenhafte wird.
[ 26 ] In einem zweifachen Sinn eröffnen solche Betrachtungen den Ausblick auf die geistige Führung des Menschen und der Menschheit. Man findet als Mensch in sich den Christus durch Selbsterkenntnis als den Führer, zu dem man seit Christi Erdenzeit immer gelangen kann, weil er immer im Menschen ist. Und man findet dann ferner, wenn man dasjenige, was man ohne die geschichtlichen Dokumente erkannt hat, auf diese anwendet, die wahre Natur dieser Dokumente. Sie sprechen geschichtlich etwas aus, was im Innern der Seele sich durch sich selbst offenbart. Sie sind deshalb zu jener Führung der Menschheit zu zählen, welche die Hinlenkung der Seele auf sich selbst bewirken soll.
[ 27 ] Wird so die Ewigkeitsstimmung der Worte verstanden: «Ich bin der Weg, die Wahrheit und das Leben!», dann kann man fühlen, daß es unberechtigt ist, zu fragen: Warum tritt der Mensch , wenn er schon viele Verkörperungen durchgemacht hat, immer wieder als Kind in das Dasein? Denn es zeigt sich, daß diese scheinbare Unvollkommenheit eine immerwährende Erinnerung an das Höchste ist, was im Menschen lebt. Und man kann nicht oft genug - wenigstens jedesmal am Eingange eines Lebens - an die große Tatsache erinnert werden, was der Mensch eigentlich jener Wesenheit nach ist, welche allem Erdensein zugrunde liegt, aber von den Unvollkommenheiten dieses Seins nicht berührt wird.
[ 28 ] Es ist nicht gut, wenn man in der Geisteswissenschaft oder Theosophie oder überhaupt im Okkultismus viel definiert, viel in Begriffen redet. Besser ist es, wenn man charakterisiert und eine Empfindung hervorzurufen versucht von dem, was wirklich ist. Deshalb sollte auch hier versucht werden, eine Empfindung anzuregen von dem, was die ersten drei Jahre des Menschenlebens kennzeichnet, und wie sich dies verhält zu jenem Lichte, das ausstrahlt von dem Kreuze auf Golgatha. Diese Empfindung besagt, daß ein Impuls durch die menschliche Evolution geht, von dem man mit Recht sagen kann, daß das Paulinische Wort durch ihn Wahrheit werden muß: «Nicht ich, sondern der Christus in mir!» Man braucht nur zu wissen, was der Mensch in Wirklichkeit ist, und man kann von solcher Erkenntnis aus zu der Einsicht in die Wesenheit Christi vorschreiten. Wenn man aber durch die wahre Menschheitsbetrachtung zu dieser Christus-Idee gekommen ist und weiß, daß man den Christus am besten entdeckt, wenn man ihn erst in sich selber sucht, und wenn man dann zurückgeht zu den biblischen Urkunden, dann gewinnt erst die Bibel ihren großen Wert. Und es gibt keinen größeren, aber auch keinen bewußteren Schätzer der Bibel als einen Menschen, der im angedeuteten Sinne den Christus gefunden hat. Es wäre denkbar, daß ein Wesen, man sage ein Marsbewohner, herunterkäme auf die Erde, das nie etwas gehört hat von dem Christus und seinem Wirken. Vieles, was sich hier auf der Erde abgespielt hat, würde ein solcher Marsbewohner nicht verstehen; vieles, was die Menschen heute interessiert, würde ihn nicht interessieren. Aber das würde ihn interessieren, was der Mittelpunktsimpuls der Erdenevolution ist: die Christus-Idee, wie sie die Wesenheit des Menschen selber ausdrückt! - Wer das begriffen hat, der erkennt dann erst recht die Bibel; denn er findet, was er vorher in sich erschaut hat, in ihr in einer wunderbaren Weise ausgedrückt und sagt sich dann: Ich brauche gar nicht erzogen zu sein zu einer besonderen Schätzung der Evangelien, sondern trete als ein vollbewußter Mensch vor dieselben, und durch das, was ich durch die Geisteswissenschaft erkannt habe, erscheinen sie mir in ihrer ganzen Größe.
[ 29 ] Es ist wohl nicht zu viel gesagt, wenn man behauptet, es werde eine Zeit kommen, wo man der Ansicht sein wird: Die Menschen, welche durch die Geisteswissenschaft erkannt haben, den Inhalt der Evangelien in richtiger Weise zu schätzen, die werden in denselben führende Schriften der Menschheit anerkennen in einem Sinne, der diesen Schriften mehr gerecht wird, als man ihnen bis zur Gegenwart geworden ist. Die Menschheit wird erst lernen, durch die Erkenntnis des Wesens des Menschen selber das einzusehen, was in diesen tiefen Urkunden ruht. Man wird sich dann sagen: Wenn man dasjenige in den Evangelien findet, was so zum Wesen des Menschen gehört, so muß dies durch die Menschen in die Dokumente hineingekommen sein, die sie auf der Erde geschrieben haben, so daß für die Verfasser dieser Urkunden besonders gelten muß, was man bei einem wahrhaftigen Nachdenken - je älter man wird, desto mehr - sich vom eigenen Leben sagen muß. Man hat so manches gemacht, was man erst viele Jahre hinterher versteht. In den Schreibern der Evangelien können Menschen gesehen werden, welche aus dem höheren Selbst heraus schrieben, das am Menschen in den Kindheitsjahren arbeitet. So sind die Evangelien Schriftwerke, welche aus der Weisheit stammen, die den Menschen gestaltet. Der Mensch ist Offenbarung des Geistes durch seinen Leib; die Evangelien sind solche Offenbarung durch die Schrift.
[ 30 ] Unter solchen Voraussetzungen bekommt der Inspirationsbegriff wieder seine gute Bedeutung. Wie in das Gehirn in den ersten drei Jahren der Kindheit höhere Kräfte hineinarbeiten, so wurden hineingeprägt in die Seelen der Evangelienschreiber aus den geistigen Welten Kräfte, aus welchen heraus die Evangelien geschrieben wurden. - In einer solchen Tatsache spricht sich die geistige Führung der Menschheit aus. Eine Menschheit muß wahrhaftig geführt werden, wenn innerhalb ihrer Personen wirken, welche Urkunden aus denselben Kräften heraus schreiben, aus welchen der Mensch selbst weisheitsvoll gestaltet wird. - Und wie der einzelne Mensch Dinge sagt oder tut, die er erst in einem späteren Lebensalter versteht, so hat die Gesamtmenschheit in den Evangelienschreibern sich die Mittler hervorgebracht, die in ihren Schriften Offenbarungen lieferten, die erst nach und nach begriffen werden können. Es wird, je weiter die Menschheit vorrückt, immer mehr und mehr das Verständnis dieser Urkunden gefunden werden. Der Mensch kann in sich die geistige Führung fühlen; die Gesamtmenschheit kann sie in denjenigen Personen fühlen, welche in der Art der Evangelienschreiber wirken.
[ 31 ] Der so gewonnene Begriff der Menschenführerschaft kann nun in mancher Hinsicht erweitert werden. Man nehme an, ein Mensch habe Schüler gefunden, einige Leute, die sich zu ihm bekennen. Ein solcher wird durch echte Selbsterkenntnis leicht gewahr werden, daß ihm gerade die Tatsache, daß er Bekenner gefunden hat, das Gefühl gibt: was er zu sagen habe, rühre nicht von ihm her. Es sei vielmehr so, daß sich geistige Kräfte aus höheren Welten den Bekennern mitteilen wollen, und diese finden in dem Lehrer das geeignete Werkzeug, um sich zu offenbaren.
[ 32 ] Einem solchen Menschen wird der Gedanke nahetreten: Als ich Kind war, habe ich an mir durch Kräfte gearbeitet, die aus der geistigen Welt hereinwirkten, und das, was ich jetzt als mein Bestes geben kann, muß auch aus höheren Welten hereinwirken; ich darf es nicht als meinem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein angehörig betrachten. Ja, ein solcher Mensch darf sagen: etwas Dämonisches, etwas wie ein Dämon - aber das Wort «Dämon» im Sinne einer guten geistigen Macht genommen - wirkt aus einer geistigen Welt durch mich auf die Bekenner. - So etwas empfand Sokrates, von dem Plato erzählt, daß er von seinem «Dämon» sprach als von dem, was ihn lenkte und leitete. Viel hat man versucht, um diesen «Dämon» des Sokrates zu erklären. Aber man kann ihn nur erklären, wenn man sich dem Gedanken hingeben will, daß Sokrates so etwas empfinden konnte, wie aus obiger Betrachtung sich ergibt. Dann kann man auch begreifen, daß durch die drei bis vier Jahrhunderte, da das sokratische Prinzip in Griechenland gewirkt hat, eine Stimmung durch Sokrates in die griechische Welt kam, die vorbereitend wirken konnte für ein anderes großes Ereignis. Die Stimmung, daß der Mensch nicht so, wie er dasteht, dasjenige ganz ist, was aus höheren Welten hereinragt, diese Stimmung wirkte weiter. Die Besten, bei denen diese Stimmung vorhanden war, sind die gewesen, welche später auch am besten das Wort verstanden: «Nicht ich, sondern der Christus in mir! » Denn sie konnten sich sagen: Sokrates hat noch wie von einem dämonisch aus höheren Welten Wirkenden gesprochen; durch das Christus-Ideal wird klar, wovon Sokrates gesprochen hat. Nur konnte Sokrates noch nicht von Christus sprechen, weil zu seiner Zeit noch niemand die Christus-Wesenheit in sich finden konnte.
[ 33] Da fühlen wir wieder etwas von geistiger Führung der Menschheit: Nichts kann in die Welt hineingestellt werden ohne Vorbereitung. Warum hat Paulus gerade die besten Anhänger in Griechenland gefunden? Weil dort durch den Sokratismus der Boden vorbereitet war durch die gekennzeichnete Stimmung. Das heißt: Was später in der Menschheitsentwickelung geschieht, führt zurück zu Ereignissen, die früher gewirkt haben, und welche die Menschen reif gemacht haben, um das Spätere auf sich wirken zu lassen. Fühlen wir da nicht, wie weit der führende Impuls reicht, der durch die menschliche Evolution geht, und wie er im rechten Moment die richtigen Menschen dort hinstellt, wo sie für die Evolution gebraucht werden? In solchen Tatsachen spricht sich zunächst im allgemeinen die Führung der Menschheit aus.
[ 34 ] Beim Übergange vom Kindheits- zum späteren Menschenalter erhält sich die Lebensfähigkeit des menschlichen Organismus, weil er sich in dieser Zeit ändern kann. Im späteren Lebensalter kann er sich nicht mehr ändern; daher kann er auch mit jenem Selbst nicht weiter bestehen.
Chapter I
[ 1 ] The person who reflects on himself soon comes to the realization that, in addition to the self which he embraces with his thoughts, feelings and fully conscious volitional impulses, he carries within himself a second, more powerful self. He becomes aware of how he subordinates himself to this second self as a higher power. At first, however, the human being will perceive this second self as a lower entity compared to the one he embraces with his clear, fully conscious soul being, which is inclined towards the good and the true. And he will strive to overcome this lower entity. But a more intimate self-examination can teach us something else about the second self. If one often looks back in life on what one has experienced or done, one will make a peculiar discovery about oneself. And you will find this experience all the more meaningful the older you get. If you ask yourself: What did you do or say at this or that time in your life?", then it turns out that you have done a whole lot of things that you only really understand at a later age. Seven or eight years ago, or perhaps twenty years ago, you did things that you know for sure: only now, after a long time, do you have the understanding to understand the things you did or said back then. - Many people don't make such self-discoveries because they don't set out to do so. But it is extraordinarily fruitful if a person makes such an introspection into his soul more often. Because from such a moment in which a person becomes aware: You have actually done things in earlier years that you are only now beginning to understand; at that time your mind was not yet mature enough to understand the things you have done or spoken, - from such a moment, in which one makes a discovery of this kind, something like the following sensation of the soul emanates: You feel as if you are sheltered by a good power that rules in the depths of your own being; you begin to gain more and more confidence in the fact that you are actually, in the highest sense of the word, not alone in the world after all, and that all that you understand, all that you are consciously able to do, is basically only a small part of what you accomplish in the world.
[ 2 ] If you make this observation often, you can elevate something that is theoretically very easy to understand to full life practice. It is theoretically easy to see that man could not get very far in life if he had to accomplish everything he has to accomplish with a fully conscious mind, with an intelligence that overlooks all circumstances. To understand this theoretically, one need only consider the following. At what stage of life does man actually perform the most important deeds for his existence? When does he act most wisely towards himself? He does this approximately from birth up to the point in time up to which he can still remember when he looks back in later life on the years of his earthly existence that have passed. If one thinks back to what one did three, four, five years ago and then further and further back, one comes to a certain point in childhood; the recollection goes no further. Parents or other people can tell you what happened before that, but your own memory only goes back as far as a certain point. This is also the point at which a person has learned to feel like a self. In the case of people whose memory does not go beyond the norm of life, there must always be such a point in life. Before this point in time, however, the human soul has done the wisest things to man himself, and never later, when he has come to consciousness, can man do such great and mighty things to himself as he accomplishes in the very first years of his childhood out of subconscious soul reasons. For we know that through his birth man brings into the physical world that which he has brought with him as the fruits of his earlier lives on earth. When a person is born, for example, his physical brain is still a very imperfect tool. The human soul must first work into this tool the finer structures that make it the mediator of all that the soul is capable of. In fact, before it is fully conscious, the human soul works on the brain in such a way that it can become such a tool as is needed to live out all the abilities, dispositions, qualities and so on which are inherent in the soul as the results of its earlier earthly lives. This work on his own body is guided by points of view that are wiser than anything that the human being can later do in himself out of his full consciousness. And even more: during these times, not only must the human being work out his brain plastically, but he must also learn three of the most important things for his earthly existence.
[ 3] First, he learns to orientate his own physicality in space. What this means is something that people today don't actually pay any attention to. It touches on one of the most essential differences between humans and animals. The animal is destined from the outset to develop its equilibrium in space in a certain way; one animal is predestined to be a climber, the other a swimmer and so on. The animal is organized from the outset in such a way that it positions itself correctly in space; and this is the case right up to the most human-like mammals. If zoologists were to reflect on this fact, they would emphasize less that, for example, man and animal have so and so many similar bones and muscles and so on; for this comes much less into consideration than the fact that man does not from the outset have the full disposition for his equilibrium. He must first form them out of his whole being. It is significant that man must work on himself in order to transform himself from a being who cannot walk into one who can walk upright. It is man himself who gives himself his vertical position, his position of equilibrium in space. He brings himself into a relationship with gravity. It will, of course, be easy for a view that does not want to penetrate into the depths of the matter to deny this with apparently good reasons. One can say that man is organized to walk upright just as a climbing animal is organized to climb. A closer look, however, can show that in animals it is the peculiarity of their organization that causes them to stand in space. In humans, however, it is the soul that brings itself into relationship with space and conquers the organization.
[ 4 ] The second thing that man teaches himself, namely out of the beingness that progresses from embodiment to embodiment as the same, is language. Through it he places himself in a relationship to his fellow human beings which makes him the bearer of that spiritual life which initially permeates the physical world from him. It has often been emphasized with good reason that a person who is placed on a desert island and is not together with other people before he can speak would not learn language. What we inherit, what is implanted for later years, so that it is subject to the principles of heredity, does not depend on man's being with his fellow-men. For example, he is predisposed from the outset by heredity to change his teeth in his seventh year. He could be on a desert island, if only he had the opportunity to grow up, he would change his teeth. But he only learns to speak when his soul being is stimulated as such, as that which is carried from life to life. Man must form the germ for the development of his larynx at a time when he does not yet have his ego-consciousness. Before the time to which he remembers back, he must lay the seed for the formation of his laryngeal development, so that the larynx can become the speech organism.
[ 5] And then there is a third, of which it is less known, that man learns through himself, through that which he carries within himself from embodiment to embodiment. This is life within the world of thought itself. The processing of the brain is undertaken for the reason that the brain is the tool of thought. This organ is still plastic at the beginning of life because man himself must first form it into the instrument of his thinking in the sense of the entity that is carried from life to life. Just as the brain is immediately after birth, so it must become according to the forces inherited from parents, foreparents and so on. But man must express in his thinking what he is as an individual being, according to his previous lives on earth. Therefore, he must transform the peculiarities of his brain, which he has inherited, when - after birth - he has become physically independent of parents, foreparents and so on.
[ 6 ] We see that man accomplishes significant things in the very first years of his life. He works on himself in the sense of highest wisdom. Indeed, if it depended on his wisdom, he could not accomplish what he must accomplish in the first years of his life without his wisdom. Why is all this accomplished from the depths of the soul, which lie beyond consciousness? It happens for the reason that in the first years of his life man is much more connected with his soul, with his whole being, to the spiritual worlds of the higher hierarchies than is the case later. For the clairvoyant who has undergone a spiritual development so that he can follow the real spiritual processes, something tremendously significant is revealed at the point in time at which the human being attains his ego-consciousness in such a way that he can later remember back to this point in time. While what we call the "childlike aura" surrounds the child in the first years of life like a wonderful, human-superhuman power - surrounds it in such a way that this childlike aura, the actual higher part of the human being, has its continuation everywhere into the spiritual world - at that point in time, up to which the human being can remember back, this aura penetrates more into the inner being of the human being. Up to this point in time, man can feel himself as a coherent ego, because that which was previously connected to the higher worlds is then drawn into his ego. From then on, the consciousness connects itself everywhere with the outer world. This does not yet happen in childhood. Then things were for man as if they hovered around him like a dream world. Man works on himself out of a wisdom that is not within him. This wisdom is more powerful, more comprehensive than all later conscious wisdom. This higher wisdom obscures itself for the human soul, which then exchanges consciousness for it. It works out of the spiritual world deep into the physical world, so that through it man can form his brain out of the spirit. It is not wrong to say that even the wisest person can learn from a child. For what works in the child is the wisdom that does not later enter consciousness, and through which man has something like a "telephone connection" to the spiritual beings in whose world he finds himself between death and a new birth. Something from this world still streams into the childlike aura, and the human being is there directly as an individual being subject to the guidance of the whole spiritual world to which he belongs. The spiritual forces from this world still flow into the child. They cease to flow in at the point in time up to which the normal recollection goes. It is these forces that enable man to bring himself into a certain relationship with gravity. It is also these forces that shape his larynx, that form his brain in such a way that it becomes a living tool for the expression of thought, feeling and will.
[ 7 ] What is present to the highest degree in childhood, that man works out of a self that is still in direct connection with higher worlds, remains to a certain extent in later life, even though the circumstances change in the sense indicated. If one feels at a later stage of life that one did or said this or that years ago, which one is only now learning to understand, then one has been guided by a higher wisdom. And only after years have you come to have insight into the reasons behind your behavior. From all this one can feel how, immediately after birth, one had not yet completely escaped the world in which one was before entering physical existence, and how one can actually never escape it. That which one has as one's share of higher spirituality enters physical life and follows one. It is often the case that you feel that what lies within you is not only a higher self that is to be gradually developed, but it is something that is already there and causes you to outgrow yourself so often.
[ 8 ] All that man can produce in ideals, in artistic creation, but also all that he can produce in natural healing powers in his own body, through which a continuous balancing of the damages of life occurs, all this does not come from the ordinary mind, but from the deeper forces that work in the first years on our orientation in space, on the imprinting of the larynx and on the brain. For the same forces are still at work in the human being later on. When it is often said that external forces cannot help us in cases of damage to life, that our organism must develop the healing powers within itself, we also have in mind an effect of wisdom present in the human being. And furthermore, from the same source come the best powers through which one attains knowledge of the spiritual world, that is, true clairvoyance.
[ 9 ] Now the question is very obvious: Why do the characterized higher powers only have an effect on people in the first years of childhood?
[ 10 ] One half of the answer can easily be given, for it lies in the following. If those higher powers continued to work in the same way, man would always remain a child; he would not attain to full ego-consciousness. He must transfer into his own being what previously worked from outside. But there is a more significant reason that can enlighten even more than what has just been said about the secrets of human life; and that is the following. Through spiritual science it can be learned that the human body, as it is in its present stage of development on earth, must be regarded as something that has become, that has developed from other states into its present form. The connoisseur of spiritual science knows that this evolution has taken place in such a way that various forces have had an effect on the entire being of man; certain forces on the physical body, others on the etheric body, and others on the astral body. The human being has come to its present form through the influence of those entities which we call the Luciferic and the Ahrimanic. Through these forces the human entity has become worse in a certain way than it would have been if only those forces had been at work which come from the spiritual world rulers who want to develop man in a straightforward way. The cause of suffering, illness and even death is to be sought in the fact that, in addition to the beings who develop man in a straight line, there are also the Luciferic and Ahrimanic beings who always interfere with straightforward forward development. There is something in what man brings into existence through birth that is better than what man can make of it in later life.
[ 11 ] The Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces have only little influence on the human being in the first years of childhood; they are essentially only effective in all that man makes of himself through his conscious life. If that part of his being which is better than the other were to remain in full force longer than in the first days of childhood, he would not be able to cope with its effect, because the opposing Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces would weaken his whole being. Man has such an organization in the physical world that he can only bear the direct forces of the spiritual world, which are active in him in the first years of childhood, as long as he is, as it were, childishly soft and malleable. He would break if those forces which underlie orientation in space, the shaping of the larynx and the brain, were still active in a direct way in later life. These forces are so powerful that if they were still at work later, our organism would die under the sanctity of these forces. Man must turn to these forces only for that activity which brings him into conscious connection with the supersensible world.
[ 12 ] From this, however, a thought emerges that has great significance if it is understood correctly. It is expressed in the New Testament with the words: "Unless you become like little children, you cannot enter the kingdoms of heaven!" For what appears to be the highest ideal for man if what is said in the preceding is accepted as correct? It is probably this: to approach more and more what can be called a conscious relationship to the forces that work unconsciously on man in the first years of childhood. - But it must be borne in mind that man would have to collapse under the power of these forces if they were to enter his conscious life without further ado. Therefore, careful preparation is necessary for the attainment of those abilities which bring about a perception of the supersensible worlds. The aim of this preparation is to make the human being capable of bearing what he cannot bear in ordinary life.
[ 13 ] The passage through successive embodiments has its significance for the overall development of the human being. It has passed through successive lives in the past; it continues to progress, and parallel to this the earth also progresses in its development. One day the time will come when the earth will have reached the end of its course; then the earth planet as a physical entity must fall away from the totality of human souls, just as the human body falls away from the spirit at death, when the human soul, in order to continue living, enters the spiritual realm which is appropriate for it between death and a new birth. With this in mind, it must appear as the highest ideal that man has come so far at death that he has acquired all the fruits he can gain from earthly life.
[ 14 ] Now those powers by which man is not equal to those others which act upon him in his childhood come from the earthly organism. Once this itself has fallen away from the human being, man must, if he is to have reached his goal, have come so far that he can in fact devote himself with his whole being to the forces which are at present only active in childhood. The purpose of development through the successive lives on earth is thus to gradually make the whole man, and thus also the conscious part, the expression of the forces which, under the influence of the spiritual world, rule over him unconsciously in the first years of life. The thought that takes possession of the soul from such contemplations must fill it with humility, but also with a true awareness of human dignity. It is the thought: Man is not alone; something lives in him that can always provide him with proof: Man can rise above himself, to something that is already growing beyond him at present and that will grow from life to life. This thought can take on ever more definite and definite form; it then provides something tremendously reassuring and uplifting; but it also permeates the soul with corresponding humility and modesty. - In this sense, what does man have within himself? Truly a higher, a divine person, by whom he can feel vividly imbued, saying to himself: He is my guide within me.
[ 15 ] From such points of view, the thought easily enters the soul that with everything one can do, one should seek harmony with that in the human being which is wiser than the conscious intelligence. And the directly conscious self points to an expanded self towards which everything that is false pride and everything that is arrogance in the human being can be eradicated and fought against. This feeling develops into another, which opens up a correct understanding of the way in which man is presently imperfect; and this feeling allows us to recognize how he can become perfect once the more comprehensive spirituality that rules in him is allowed to have the same relationship to his consciousness that it has to the unconscious life of the soul in the first years of childhood.
[ 16 ] Even if the recollection in life is often such that it does not go back as far as the fourth year of childhood, one may nevertheless say that the influence of the higher spiritual realm in the above sense goes through the first three years of life. At the end of this period the human being becomes capable of connecting the impressions of the outside world with his ego conception. It is true that this coherent ego-imagination can only be counted back as far as the recollection reaches. But it must be said that essentially the recollection reaches back to the beginning of the fourth year of life; it is only at the beginning of the clear ego-consciousness that it is so weak that it remains unnoticeable. Therefore it can be said that those higher forces which determine the human being in the childhood years can be effective through three years. The human being in the present middle earth organization is thus organized in such a way that he can only absorb these forces for three years.
[ 17 ] If a human being were now standing before us, and if it could be brought about by any world powers that the ordinary I would be removed from this human being - one would therefore have to assume: it could be achieved to remove this ordinary ego, which has gone through the embodiments with the human being, from the physical body, etheric body and astral body - and one could then bring into the three bodies such an ego that works in connection with the spiritual worlds - what would have to happen to such a human being? After three years his body would have to break up! Something would have to happen through the karma of the world so that the spiritual being, which is connected with the higher worlds, could not live in this body for more than three years. Only at the end of all earthly lives will the human being be able to have that within himself which allows him to live longer than three years with that spiritual being. But then the human being will also say to himself: "It is not I, but this higher being in me, which has always been there, that is now working in me. - Until then, he cannot yet say that, but at most this: he feels this higher being, but he has not yet come to bring it to full life in himself with his real human ego.
[ 18 ] If a human organism were to be placed in the world at some time in the middle years of earth's existence, which in a later year of life would be freed from its ego by certain world powers, and instead would take into itself that ego which otherwise only works in the first three years of childhood, and which would be connected with the spiritual worlds in which man is between death and a new birth: how long could such a man live in earthly life? - About three years; for then something would have to occur through the karma of the world which would destroy the human organization in question.
[ 19 ] What was presupposed here, however, was there in history. The human organism, which stood at the Jordan at John's baptism, when the I of Jesus of Nazareth departed from the three bodies, contained after the baptism in full conscious manifestation that higher human self which otherwise, unconsciously to man, works with worldly wisdom on the child. But this necessitated that this self, which was connected with the higher spiritual world, could only live for three years in the corresponding human organism. The facts then had to proceed in such a way that after three years the earthly life of the being was over.
[ 20 ] The external events that occurred in the life of Christ Jesus are to be understood in such a way that they are conditioned by the internal causes that have been set apart. They present themselves as the external expression of these causes.
[ 21 ] Thus the deeper connection is given between that which is the leader in man, that which shines into our childhood as in twilight, that which always works beneath the surface of our consciousness as that which is our best, and between that which once entered into the whole evolution of mankind so that it could be three years in a human shell.
[ 22 ] What is shown in this "higher" I, which is connected with the spiritual hierarchies, and which entered the human body of Jesus of Nazareth in time, so that his entry is symbolically represented under the signature of the descending spirit in the form of the dove with the words: "This is my beloved Son, today I have begotten him!" (for that is what the words were originally called)? If you look at this image, you have the highest human ideal before you. For it means nothing other than that in the story of Jesus of Nazareth we are told: The Christ is recognizable in every human being! And even if there were no gospels and no tradition to say that a Christ once lived, - one would learn through knowledge of human nature that the Christ lives in man.
[ 23 ] Recognizing the forces at work in man in infancy means recognizing the Christ in man. The question now arises: Does this realization also lead to the recognition of the fact that this Christ really once dwelt on earth in a human body? Without referring to any documents, this question can be answered in the affirmative. For a real visionary self-knowledge leads the present human being to recognize that forces can be found in the human soul which emanate from this Christ. In the first three years of childhood these forces work without the human being doing anything. In later life they can work if the person seeks the Christ within himself through inner contemplation. Just as man currently finds the Christ within himself, he has not always been able to do so. There were times when no inner contemplation could lead a person to Christ. That this is so is again taught by seeric knowledge. In the interim between the past, when man could not find the Christ within himself, and the present, when he can find him, lies the earthly life of Christ. And this earthly life itself is the reason why man can find the Christ within himself in the manner indicated. Thus the earthly life of Christ proves itself for the visionary insight without all historical documents.
[ 24 ] One might think that the Christ said: I want to be such an ideal for you humans that, raised into the spirit, represents to you that which is otherwise fulfilled in the physical. In the first years of life, man learns to walk physically out of the spirit; that is, man shows himself his way for life on earth out of the spirit. He learns to speak, that is, to shape the truth out of the spirit, - or in other words: man develops the essence of truth out of the sound in the first three years of his life. And the life that man lives on earth as an ego-being also receives its organ of life through what is formed in the first three years of childhood. Thus man learns to walk bodily, that is, to find "the way", he learns to represent "truth" through his organism, and he learns to express "life" out of the spirit in the body. No more meaningful reinterpretation of the words: "Unless you become like little children, you cannot enter the kingdoms of heaven" seems conceivable. And it must be considered a significant word that the I-entity of Christ is expressed in this way: "I am the way, the truth and the life!" Just as the higher spiritual forces shape the childhood organism - unconsciously - in such a way that it becomes the bodily expression of the way, the truth and the life, so the human spirit gradually becomes the conscious bearer of the way, the truth and the life by interpenetrating itself with the Christ. In this way, in the course of becoming earthly, it makes itself into that power which reigns in it in childhood, without being the conscious bearer.
[ 25 ] Such words as those of the Way, the Truth and the Life are capable of opening the doors of eternity. They sound to man from the depths of his soul when self-knowledge becomes a true, essential one.
[ 26 ] In a twofold sense, such contemplations open up the prospect of the spiritual guidance of man and humanity. As a human being, one finds Christ in oneself through self-knowledge as the guide to whom one can always reach since Christ's time on earth, because he is always in man. And furthermore, if you apply to the historical documents what you have recognized without them, you will find the true nature of these documents. They express something historically that reveals itself through itself within the soul. They are therefore to be counted among that guidance of humanity which is to bring about the soul's direction towards itself.
[ 27 ] If the eternal mood of the words: "I am the way, the truth and the life!" is understood in this way, then one can feel that it is unjustified to ask: Why does man, when he has already gone through many embodiments, enter into existence again and again as a child? For it turns out that this apparent imperfection is a perpetual reminder of the highest that lives in man. And one cannot be reminded often enough - at least every time at the beginning of a life - of the great fact of what man actually is in terms of his essence, which underlies all earthly existence but is not affected by the imperfections of this existence.
[ 28 ] It is not good to define much in spiritual science or theosophy or in occultism in general, to speak much in terms of concepts. It is better to characterize and try to evoke a sense of what really is. Therefore, an attempt should also be made here to evoke a sense of what characterizes the first three years of human life and how this relates to the light that radiates from the cross on Golgotha. This feeling means that an impulse runs through human evolution of which one can rightly say that Paul's words must become truth through it: "Not I, but the Christ in me!" One only needs to know what man really is, and one can proceed from such knowledge to an insight into the nature of Christ. But when one has come to this idea of Christ through the true contemplation of humanity and knows that Christ is best discovered when one first seeks him in oneself, and when one then goes back to the biblical documents, only then does the Bible gain its great value. And there is no greater, but also no more conscious appreciator of the Bible than a person who has found the Christ in the sense indicated. It is conceivable that a being, let us say an inhabitant of Mars, would come down to earth who had never heard of the Christ and his work. Such a Martian would not understand much of what has taken place here on earth; much of what interests people today would not interest him. But he would be interested in what is the central impulse of earth evolution: the Christ idea as it expresses the essence of man himself! - Anyone who has understood this will then recognize the Bible all the more; for he will find what he has previously seen in himself expressed in it in a wonderful way and will then say to himself: I do not need to be educated to a special appreciation of the Gospels, but stand before them as a fully conscious person, and through what I have recognized through spiritual science, they appear to me in all their greatness.
[ 29 ] It is probably not too much to say that there will come a time when one will be of the opinion: The people who, through spiritual science, have come to appreciate the contents of the Gospels in the right way, will recognize in them leading writings of mankind in a sense that will do more justice to these writings than has been done to them up to the present time. Mankind will first learn to recognize what lies in these profound documents through the knowledge of the nature of man himself. One will then say to oneself: If one finds in the Gospels that which belongs to the essence of man, then this must have entered through men into the documents which they wrote on earth, so that it must be especially true of the authors of these documents what one must say to oneself about one's own life when one truly reflects - the older one gets, the more so. We have done many things that we only understand many years later. The writers of the Gospels can be seen as people who wrote from the higher self that works on people in their childhood years. Thus the Gospels are written works that originate from the wisdom that shapes man. Man is a revelation of the spirit through his body; the Gospels are such a revelation through the Scriptures.
[ 30 ] Under such conditions, the concept of inspiration regains its good meaning. Just as higher powers work into the brain in the first three years of childhood, so powers from the spiritual worlds were imprinted into the souls of the Gospel writers, out of which the Gospels were written. - Such a fact expresses the spiritual guidance of humanity. Mankind must be truly guided if persons are at work within it who write documents out of the same forces from which man himself is wisely formed. - And just as the individual says or does things which he only understands at a later age, so the whole of humanity has produced mediators in the writers of the Gospels, who in their writings provided revelations which can only gradually be understood. The further mankind advances, the more and more the understanding of these documents will be found. Man can feel the spiritual guidance within himself; humanity as a whole can feel it in those persons who work in the manner of the Gospel writers.
[ 31 ] The concept of human leadership gained in this way can now be extended in some respects. Suppose a person has found disciples, some people who profess to be with him. Such a person will easily realize through genuine self-knowledge that the very fact that he has found confessors gives him the feeling that what he has to say does not come from him. It is rather the case that spiritual forces from higher worlds want to communicate themselves to the confessors, and these find in the teacher the appropriate tool to reveal themselves.
[ 32 ] The thought will occur to such a person: When I was a child, I worked on myself through forces that worked in from the spiritual world, and that which I can now give as my best must also work in from higher worlds; I must not regard it as belonging to my ordinary consciousness. Yes, such a man may say: something demonic, something like a demon - but the word "demon" taken in the sense of a good spiritual power - works through me from a spiritual world on the confessors. - Socrates, of whom Plato tells us that he spoke of his "demon" as that which guided and directed him, felt something like this. Many attempts have been made to explain this "demon" of Socrates. But it can only be explained if one accepts the idea that Socrates could feel something like the above. Then one can also understand that during the three to four centuries that the Socratic principle was at work in Greece, a mood came into the Greek world through Socrates that could have a preparatory effect for another great event. The mood that man, as he stands, is not the whole of that which projects in from higher worlds, this mood continued to have an effect. The best in whom this mood was present were those who later best understood the word: "Not I, but the Christ in me! "For they were able to say to themselves: Socrates was still speaking as if of a demonic agent from higher worlds; the Christ ideal makes it clear what Socrates was talking about. But Socrates could not yet speak of Christ, because in his time no one could yet find the Christ-entity within himself.
[ 33 ] There again we feel something of the spiritual guidance of humanity: nothing can be placed in the world without preparation. Why did Paul find the best followers in Greece? Because the ground had been prepared there by Socratism through the marked mood. This means that what happens later in the development of mankind leads back to events that had an effect earlier, and which made people ready to allow the later to have an effect on them. Do we not feel how far the guiding impulse that runs through human evolution reaches, and how it places the right people at the right moment where they are needed for evolution? In such facts, the guidance of humanity is generally expressed first of all.
[ 34 ] In the transition from childhood to later human age, the viability of the human organism is maintained because it can change during this time. In later life it can no longer change; therefore it cannot continue to exist with that self.