The Foundations of Esotericism
GA 93a
12 October 1905, Berlin
Lecture XVII
In occultism we differentiate in man firstly his actions, in so far as by actions we understand everything which proceeds from any kind of activity connected with his hands; secondly speech and thirdly thoughts. Everything which in this sense he accomplishes with his hands brings about its karmic results in his next earthly existence. What we speak concerns not only ourselves alone, but also a group of human beings having the same language, and this affects the karma of the group or race. In words lies a greater responsibility than in deeds alone: for with them we are preparing the configuration of a future race. What we think works on even into a new formation of our earth. We therefore distinguish three stages. Firstly: Human action is individual, with the exception of those actions in man that arise from nothingness. Secondly: Man cannot speak for himself alone; words concern a group of human beings. Thirdly: Thoughts are the concern of the whole of humanity.
With this, something else is connected. When we act we stand quite alone behind our actions. When we speak we are not quite alone in our words. Behind our words a spiritual being is working with us, standing behind us. Just as truly as the words we utter are imprinted quite exactly in the Akasha, so is it true that with every word we utter we impinge upon the body of a spiritual being who is incarnated in this Akashic substance into which our words penetrate. We must take this up into our feeling life; this is why we must pay such heed to our words. When we think, we are seemingly quite alone within ourselves; nevertheless beings of a spiritual nature are active with us in our thoughts, beings still higher and more significant than those active in our speech.
More lies in these things than in a whole world-history. Through them much can be explained. Let us consider a thought within us. Behind this thought a spiritual being is present. If we imagine ourselves enveloped on all sides by the body of a spiritual being, we can realise that a thought is only the expression of the body of the spiritual being working into us. Every time a thought flashes through our soul it is an impression, a kind of foot-print of a higher spiritual being, just as if we were walking over damp ground, leaving footprints, and were to say: ‘Here a person walked’. This spiritual being is formed of the same substance as that of which thought consists. The thought in us can only become the imprint of a higher spiritual being because this higher being has a body formed of the same substance as our thoughts.
When our foot imprints itself in the damp earth, this imprint is a negative, a counter-image of our foot. So is it too with our thoughts. In the higher spiritual world there is a counter-image for every thought. Image and counter-image are as interconnected as seal and sealing wax. The substance is the higher spiritual being which corresponds in our analogy to the sealing wax. Now we call thought, in so far as it corresponds to the sealing wax, intuition, and the impression we call abstract thought. We can say when we think: ‘I feel the traces of what is happening in higher worlds.’ It is with regard to this fact that in religious writings, for instance in the Revelation of St. John, the expression ‘seal’ is used. This corresponds with reality. It is also because a higher being is working with us in our words that every word is the impression of a seal. With the mystics the counter-image is called Imagination. Thus we have three levels of the thought element: the intuitive, the imaginative and the ordinary abstract thinking.
When man develops further, when abstract thought itself develops to the stage on which the beings are incarnated who work with us when we speak, then he is a Chela, an occult pupil. To be a Master means: To work in the substance in which the beings are incarnated who work with us in our thoughts. Imagination gives the picture. This is why the great religious teachers of earlier times spoke pictorially, for imagination gives the picture, not abstract thoughts. In all religions, teachings were expressed in pictures. At first the picture is for man something of lesser importance, but when he understands how to form again for himself a picture out of every thought, then he has reached a higher stage. This is the pre-requisite for a quite new kind of perception. Everything depends on a man developing to the point at which he no longer thinks merely abstractly, but at all times has his thoughts in pictures.
As a rule man forms merely thoughts. The more highly developed man must think in pictures, in images; that means ‘to imagine’. In this expression there already lies what is meant: ‘By means of a certain power to make an imprint in something, (to imagine).’ In creative fantasy, in the case of poet and artist, we find only a weak reflection of imagination. When a man who is seeking higher development speaks, he will try in certain cases, while speaking, to have before him the counter-image, the Imago. This is the source of the mighty pictures in religious writings. Whoever develops himself so far that he can create such pictures has attained the stage of the spiritual beings who are involved in the creation of races. One who develops in himself not only pictures, but intuitions, is not only involved in the creation of races, but in the creation of the next planetary existence. From the pictures there will resound what later will be manifested on the earth, but whoever works out of intuition creates something which is not yet existent, which is nowhere manifested, that is to say he creates out of Nirvana. This concept is inherent in every apocalypse: What will be manifested in the future can only be created out of intuition.
Through abstract thinking one makes a copy of something that exists. Through Imagination a man allows himself to be fructified by the formative spirit within him. Imagination corresponds to hidden realities which have arisen through the fructifying impulse of higher beings; thus one can see these higher spiritual beings on the Astral Plane. The prerequisite for this is to develop a speech that is not the expression of abstract thoughts, but of pictures. This is why mediums also speak in imaginations, in pictures and symbols, but unconsciously. Behind them the spirit is forming the symbols. The occult pupil does this in full consciousness, nevertheless in a way that is not arbitrary. In so doing he allows himself to be fructified by the spirit.
Just as man develops himself to the stage when he can create pictures and receive intuitions, so before he came into existence the external world was active; and indeed in such a way that in everything which is around us as mineral existence, as purely physical nature, Intuitions are working as creative forces. The crystal is external in so far as it reveals itself to the senses; it is however created by means of Intuitions. Behind the entire physical world lies a cosmos of Intuitions and finally a being, the Planetary Spirit, who produces the Intuitions. Behind all language Beings of Imagination are working and with them the Spirit of the Race. In all living things, Beings at the same spiritual level are at work. Behind all plants Imaginations are active. The completed form of the plant comes forth from Imagination and behind it stands a spiritual being: and everything imbued with consciousness and perception has arisen out of Thought itself
Now let us look at the whole universe, to begin with in its physical aspect: Earth, Sun, Moon and stars, the Milky Way and so on. Behind it stands a great intuitive Spirit. It is the same Spirit that manifests in our actions; he also stands behind the whole universe. Christianity calls him the Father. Because he is so little known he is also called the Unknown God, and in theosophical literature the first Logos.52Compare Rudolf Steiner's notes for Edouard Schuré May 1906. Zeichnen und Entwicklung der drei Logoi in der Menschheit published in No. 14 of Nachrichten der Rudolf Steiner-Nachlassverwaltung Michaelmas 1965.
Behind everything living stands the Spirit of Imagination. It is the same Spirit who is also working in our speech; this is why the Christian religion calls Him the Word. Here something quite exact and actual is meant. This spirit who stands behind everything living is still working today in our speech, in each of our words, and is therefore rightly called ‘the Word’, another designation is: The Son or Christ. He is the Spirit who lives as imagination in everything that has life.
Then we ascend to what is conscious, what has a certain degree of perception, of consciousness, everything of an animal nature and what in man [Gap in text ...] This can already be grasped by thoughts. It is contained in every being. What takes place in the animal occurs in the first place within itself: abstract consciousness. All consciousness existent in the world also lives in man, in abstract thinking. Within himself man calls it ‘Spirit’; in so far as it works outside in the creative forces of Nature he calls it ‘Holy Spirit’. This is what underlies all perception and consciousness. Illness exists only in separateness. Spirit as such cannot be ill, but only when it is incarnated in lower bodies. The word ‘Heilig’ (healthy) means ‘heil sein’, to be well: it expresses the fact that the Spirit which flows through the world outside, is healthy. The Holy Spirit is nothing other than Spirit which is healthy through and through: this is why anyone who truly unites himself with the Holy Spirit (Heiliger Geist) receives the power of healing (heilen). This must be in harmony with the Holy Spirit flowing through the world. This is the Spirit which works from man to man as the true healer.
If we now turn our attention to the physical plane we find in the first place that we perceive through the senses. Behind is the great intuitive Spirit. Everything physically present has been made by this Spirit. Thus behind everything that lives in form as such, that can be perceived by the senses, stands the Father Spirit, the first Logos. Through merely observing we do not alter anything, but an alteration comes about when we act. Then we not only change what exists outside in the world, but also the forces working outside in the world. The moment we act we bring about an alteration on the physical plane. Behind these alterations however there lies also an alteration in the underlying force corresponding to the first Logos. This we influence by our actions; it remains, is there, cannot again be got rid of, unless it be eradicated by the same force which called it forth. And the alteration which is called forth through our deeds is what takes hold of us again as Karma. That which draws man into the physical world once more, if looked at from the point of view of Karma is called: Rupa. This is because it was accomplished in Rupa, through the body, through man's external nature. Thus we create in the body, in Rupa, when we work upon the outer Intuitions.
The second sphere in which today man is not entirely independent, but where another Spirit is working with him, is speech. Here we make impressions in a world behind which lies not only what is physical, but what has life. In the world of life the Imaginations about which we are speaking remain behind, formative forces which create new races. Our present race has been created out of what lay behind the words of earlier races. This is embodied in our race. In addition we have to consider everything which belongs in any way to Imagination. This shows us that with our words we produce impressions in the realm of the Son, in the realm of the second Logos. These return as the collective Karma of the whole race, for the word is not created by us alone; the Spirit of the Race is working with us. What is the foundation for this form of Karma? Where is the Spirit of the Race working? The Spirit of the Race is active in man's feeling, permeates the entire world of feeling. This resounds into what a human being has in common with his group.
What works in a much wider sense on Karma is feeling (Vedana). Thus firstly: Rupa, the corporality; secondly: Vedana, feeling. For those people who have not yet become Chelas, feeling has great importance where the perception of the second Logos and everything living is concerned. The aim of science is to study animals and plants apart from life. Even the greatest men of learning today have not yet advanced beyond the stage of comprehending life with feeling. It is the Imaginative understanding which first enables them to look into life itself.
In the outer world thought is connected with everything having sensation and consciousness. This has one thing in common with us: perception. The fact that we can in any way perceive the outer world in physical space as a world of colour and sound is only possible because we are able to transpose it into thoughts. We receive perceptions; we think about them. If there were no thoughts in the perceptions it would be the greatest folly on man's part to form thoughts about them. Thoughts would then be mere illusions if the perceptions had not arisen through thoughts. From the combination of perceptions it follows that in the first place perceptions are built up by thoughts which we can then extract from them: the laws of nature. These are nothing other than thoughts; it is the creative Spirit, the Holy Spirit. Perception is the boundary between the two, where our thoughts come in contact with the creative thoughts outside. Thus with a thought that we have we cannot work directly on life, but on the consciousness which in the outer world is itself thought.
Through thought we leave behind traces in all the spiritual beings who have brought about consciousness. What man builds up on the basis of perception in the way of thoughts, and what he produces as thoughts, has its repercussions on everything which makes perception necessary. Thirdly therefore we differentiate: Perception or Sanjna, the third element which has an effect on Karma.
Through all actions we call forth counter-actions as Karma, because we make an impact on the Intuitive World: Rupa.
Through all words we make an impact on the World of Creative Feelings around us: Vedana.
With our thoughts about perceptions we make an impact on the whole World of Thoughts outside us: Sanjna.
What we perceive around us will no longer be there when we appear again on Earth. Everything therefore which we think in connection with the world of perception will have no effect whatever on the future incarnation; only in this incarnation will it have a Karma-building force. Thought works upon our present character.
What comes forth from feeling, that is essentially connected with our surroundings; what enters into the world of Imagination, comes back to us in the following incarnation, in such a way that it appears within us as inborn tendencies and outside us as opportunities. Through our inborn tendencies we call towards us opportunities offered by the world, which form our destiny, through tendencies which have their source in Karma. Thoughts form the character: the tendencies or disposition lead karmically to the opportunities. Actions bring about the external destiny, all the bodily circumstances into which man is born. What we carry out through Rupa, our bodily nature, that is our actual destiny, that comes back to us karmically.
One can only create inborn tendencies for further incarnations consciously by reaching the stage of Imagination. Herein we find the secret of how the great founders of religions projected their influence beyond their own time. The pictures which they gave the people released dispositional tendencies for the following incarnations. Every picture that they instilled into the soul reappeared in the entire feeling-world of the human being. Either he wins such Imaginations for himself, or he receives them from his teacher. We win them for ourselves when we have gained control over our entire life of feeling: this is the case with the occult pupil. His feelings are subject to his own control; the rest of humanity is cared for in this respect by the founders of religions. A religion is the feeling-world of future races; outwardly therefore it can be submerged, for it lives on in human tendencies. Today tendencies are coming to the surface which were implanted in mankind in the 13th and 14th centuries. It is important that the materialistic images of the present day do not take root in human hearts, for in future times they would fill human beings with the most brutal instincts which are only directed to the world of the senses, if they were not opposed by spiritual ideas. Those desires and wishes live in man which are produced out of imagination. This is his desire-nature = Sanskara. Everything intuitive in man, the great impulses which he receives from the highest initiates, these actually overcome the Karma of Deeds. He who raises himself to Intuitions as such, penetrates through the physical world up to the Father Spirit. He who possesses intuitive knowledge can affect the Karma arising out of deeds. He begins to limit his Karma consciously.
For the ordinary person only those beings are comprehensible who also have consciousness. When he progresses to Imagination, life also becomes comprehensible; when he progresses to Intuition he can advance as far as the Intuitive forces.
A person can affect his Karma to the degree in which he himself possesses Intuition; or he must receive it from the high initiates in the form of great moral laws. Vijnana is the name used for the consciousness necessary for the overcoming of Karma. And now let us think of a man living in the world, carrying out his actions and dying. After his death something of him nevertheless remains here in this world which he has woven into it: Rupa, Vedana, Sanjna, Sanskara and Vijnana. These five are the balance of his account: his personal destiny as Rupa; the destiny of the nation into which he is born, as Vedana; the actual fact of his birth on this earth as Sanjna. In addition, working with Sanskara, the desire nature, and Vijnana, the consciousness. These are the five Skandhas.
What a man gives out into the world remains as the five Skandhas in the world. These are the foundation of his new existence. They have progressively less effect when he has consciously developed something of the last two. The more he has gained conscious power over Vijnana, the more does he gain the power of consciously incarnating in the physical body. In their essential nature the Skandhas are identical with Karma.
XVII
Im Okkultismus unterscheiden wir am Menschen erstens seine Handlungen, indem wir unter Handlungen alles verstehen, was ausgeht von irgendeiner Tätigkeit, die mit seinen Händen verknüpft ist; zweitens die Sprache und drittens die Gedanken. Alles was der Mensch in diesem Sinne mit seinen Händen vollbringt, das wirkt im Karma mit an seinem nächsten irdischen Dasein. Was wir sprechen, geht nicht nur allein uns an, sondern eine Gruppe von Menschen, die dieselbe Sprache hat und das wirkt an dem Karma der Gruppe oder Rasse. In den Worten liegt eine größere Verantwortung als in den bloßen Taten; denn wir bereiten damit die Konfiguration einer nächsten Rasse vor. Was wir denken, wirkt sogar nach bei einer Neugestaltung unserer Erde. Daher unterscheiden wir die drei Stufen: Erstens: Das Handeln des Menschen ist individuell, außer den Handlungen, die im Menschen aus dem Nichts heraus entspringen. Zweitens: Der Mensch kann nicht für sich selbst allein sprechen, die Worte gehen eine Gruppe von Menschen an. Drittens: Die Gedanken gehen die ganze Menschheit an.
Damit hängt etwas anderes zusammen. Wenn wir handeln, stehen wir ganz allein hinter den Handlungen. Wenn wir sprechen, sind wir in den Worten nicht ganz allein. Hinter unseren Worten wirkt eine geistige Wesenheit mit; die steht dann hinter uns. So wahr es ist, daß unsere Worte, die wir aussprechen, sich ganz genau im Akasha abbilden, so wahr ist es, daß wir mit jedem Worte, das wir aussprechen, eingreifen in den Leib eines geistigen Wesens, das in dieser Akasha-Materie inkarniert ist, in die unsere Worte hineingehen. Das müssen wir in unser Empfinden aufnehmen; darum müssen wir unsere Worte so sehr in acht nehmen. Wenn wir denken, sind wir scheinbar ganz allein in uns, dennoch wirken Wesen geistiger Art in unseren Gedanken mit, Wesen noch höherer und bedeutsamerer Art, als in unserer Sprache mitwirken.
In diesen Dingen liegt mehr als eine ganze Weltgeschichte. Dadurch werden manche Dinge erklärlich. Betrachten wir einen Gedanken in uns. Hinter diesem Gedanken steht eine geistige Wesenheit. Wenn wir uns eingeschlossen denken von allen Seiten vom Leibe einer geistigen Wesenheit, so ist der Gedanke nur ein Ausdruck des Leibes der geistigen Wesenheit, die in uns hineinwirkt. Jedesmal wenn ein Gedanke durch unsere Seele zuckt, ist das ein Abdruck, eine Art Fußspur einer höheren geistigen Wesenheit, so wie wenn wir über feuchten Boden gehen, Fußspuren hinterlassen und sagen: Hier ging ein Mensch. — Diese geistige Wesenheit ist aus demselben Stoffe gebildet, aus dem der Gedanke besteht. Der Gedanke in uns kann nur dadurch der Abdruck einer höheren geistigen Wesenheit werden, weil die höhere Wesenheit einen Körper aus demselben Stoffe hat, aus dem unsere Gedanken gebildet sind.
Wenn sich unser Fuß in der feuchten Erde abdrückt, so ist der Abdruck ein Negativ, ein Gegenbild unseres Fußes. So ist es auch mit unseren Gedanken. In der höheren geistigen Welt gibt es für jeden Gedanken das Gegenbild. Bild und Gegenbild sind so ineinandergefügt wie etwa Siegel und Petschaft. Der Stoff ist die höhere geistige Wesenheit, er entspricht in unserem Bilde dem Petschaft. Nun nennt man den Gedanken, insofern er dem Petschaft entspricht, Intuition, und den Abdruck nennt man den abstrakten Gedanken. Man kann sagen, wenn man denkt: Ich fühle die Spuren dessen, was in den höheren Welten geschieht. - Im Hinblick auf diese Tatsache wird in religiösen Schriften, zum Beispiel in der Offenbarung des Johannes, der Ausdruck «Siegel» gebraucht. Er entspricht der Wirklichkeit. ‚Auch weil ein höheres Wesen in unseren Worten mitwirkt, ist jedes Wort ein Siegelabdruck. Man nennt das Gegenbild des Wortes bei den Mystikern «Imagination». So haben wir drei Stufen des Gedanklichen: das Intuitive, das Imaginative und das gewöhnliche Abstrakte. Wenn der Mensch sich weiterentwickelt, wenn der abstrakte Gedanke selbst sich entwickelt zu der Stufe, auf der die Wesenheiten inkarniert sind, die mitwirken, wenn gesprochen wird, dann ist der Mensch ein Chela, ein Geheimschüler. Meister sein, heißt: in dem Stoffe wirken, in dem die Wesenheiten inkarniert sind, die in unseren Gedanken mitwirken. — Die Imagination gibt das Bild. Deshalb haben die großen Religionslehrer in früheren Zeiten bildlich gesprochen, denn die Imagination gibt das Bild, nicht den abstrakten Gedanken. In allen Religionen wird in Bildern gesprochen. Das Bild ist für den Menschen zunächst das Untergeordnete, aber wenn der Mensch versteht, aus jedem Gedanken selbst wieder ein Bild zu machen, dann ist er auf einer höheren Stufe angelangt. Dies ist die Vorbedingung zu einer ganz neuen Art von Wahrnehmung. Tatsächlich kommt es darauf an, daß der Mensch sich dazu entwickelt, nicht mehr bloß abstrakt zu denken, sondern seine Gedanken jedesmal im Bilde zu haben.
Der Mensch formt in der Regel bloß Gedanken. Der sich höher entwickelnde Mensch muß in Bildern denken, das heißt «imaginieren». In dem Ausdrucke liegt schon, um was es sich handelt: durch eine gewisse Macht einer Sache etwas einprägen (imaginieren). In der Phantasie, beim Dichter und Künstler, finden wir nur ein ganz schwaches Abbild von der Imagination. Wenn der Mensch, der sich so höher zu entwickeln sucht, spricht, wird er bei besonderen Anlässen versuchen, bei seinem Sprechen das Gegenbild vor sich zu haben, die Imago. Daher die großen, gewaltigen Bilder in den religiösen Schriften. Wer sich aufschwingt zu diesem Erzeugen von Bildern, der hat die Stufe der geistigen Wesenheiten, die rassenschaffend sind, erreicht. Derjenige der nicht nur Bilder in sich entwickelt, sondern Intuitionen, der ist nicht nur rassenschaffend, sondern ist mitschaffend an dem nächsten planetarischen Dasein. In den Bildern wird nachklingen, was dann auf der Erde verwirklicht ist, aber wer aus der Intuition schafft, der schafft etwas, das noch gar nicht ist, was nirgends verwirklicht ist, das heißt der schafft aus dem Nirvana heraus. Das ist der Begriff einer jeden Apokalypse: Was erst in der Zukunft wirklich sein wird, das kann man nur aus der Intuition heraus schaffen.
Durch das abstrakte Denken schafft man ein Abbild von dem, was da ist. Bei der Imagination läßt der Mensch sich befruchten von dem gestaltenden Geist in seinem Inneren. Der Imagination entsprechen verborgene Wirklichkeiten, die durch Befruchtung höherer geistiger Wesenheiten entstanden sind; dann kann man auf dem Astralplan diese höheren geistigen Wesenheiten sehen. Die Vorbedingung dazu ist, eine Sprache zu entwickeln, die nicht der Ausdruck abstrakter Gedanken, sondern der Ausdruck von Bildern ist. Medien sprechen sich deshalb auch in Imaginationen, in Bildern und Symbolen aus, aber unbewußt. Hinter ihnen gestaltet der Geist die Symbole. Der Geheimschüler macht das in vollem Bewußtsein, aber dennoch nicht willkürlich. Er läßt sich dabei vom Geiste befruchten.
Genauso wie auf diese Art der Mensch sich erhebt zum Schaffen von Bildern und Intuitionen, hat vor seinem Dasein die äußere Welt gewirkt, und zwar so, daß in allem, was mineralische Wesenheit um uns her ist, also rein physischer Natur, als schaffende Kräfte Intuitionen wirken. Der Kristall ist äußerlich, wie er sich den Sinnen zeigt; er ist aber geschaffen worden durch Intuitionen. Hinter der ganzen physischen Welt liegt ein Kosmos von Intuitionen und zuletzt ein Wesen, der Planetengeist, der die Intuitionen hervorbringt. Hinter aller Sprache wirken Wesen der Imagination, wirkt der Rassengeist mit. In allem Lebendigen wirkt dieselbe Stufe von Geist mit. Hinter allen Pflanzen wirkt die Imagination. Die gestaltete Pflanze kommt aus der Imagination und hinter ihr steht eine geistige Wesenheit. Und alles Bewußte und Empfindende ist aus dem Gedanken selbst entstanden.
Und nun sehen Sie sich das ganze Universum an, zunächst als ein Physisches: Erde, Sonne, Mond und Sterne, die Milchstraße und so weiter. Dahinter steht aber ein großer intuitiver Geist. Es ist derselbe Geist, der sich ausdrückt in unseren Handlungen; er steht auch hinter dem ganzen Universum. Das Christentum nennt ihn den Vater. Weil er so wenig bekannt ist, wird er auch der unbekannte Gott genannt, und in der theosophischen Literatur der erste Logos.
Hinter allem Lebendigen steht der Geist der Imagination. Es ist derselbe Geist, der auch mitwirkt in unserer Sprache, daher nennt ihn die christliche Religion: das Wort. Damit meint man etwas ganz Genaues, Wirkliches. Dieser Geist, der hinter allem Lebendigen steht, wirkt noch heute in unserer Sprache, in jedem unserer Worte, wird also mit Recht «das Wort» genannt; eine andere Bezeichnung ist: der Sohn oder Christus. Es ist der Geist, der in allem Leben als Imagination lebt.
Dann kommen wir herauf zu dem, was bewußt ist, was irgendeinen Grad von Empfindung, von Bewußtsein hat, alles Tierische und dem, was im Menschen tierisch ist. Das kann man schon fassen mit Gedanken. Das hat jeder in sich. Was im Tier vorgeht, geht zunächst in ihm selbst vor: das abstrakte Bewußtsein. Alles Bewußtsein der Welt lebt auch im Menschen, im abstrakten Denken. In sich nennt es der Mensch «Geist», insofern es draußen in der schaffenden Natur wirkt, nennt er es «Heiliger Geist». Das ist, was allem Empfinden und Bewußtsein zugrunde liegt. Krankheit gibt es nur im Sondersein. Der Geist kann an sich nicht krank sein, sondern nur, wenn er inkarniert ist in den unteren Körpern. Das Wort «heilig» bedeutet «heil sein»; es drückt aus, daß der Geist, der draußen die Welt durchflutet, gesund ist. Der Heilige Geist ist nichts anderes als der durch und durch gesunde Geist; daher der, der sich mit dem Heiligen Geist wirklich vereinigt, die Kraft des Heilens erhält. Sie muß zu tun haben mit dem die Welt durchflutenden Heiligen Geist. Das ist der Geist, der wirkt von Mensch zu Mensch als wirklicher Heiler.
Sehen wir jetzt hinaus auf den physischen Plan, so haben wir zunächst das, was wir mit den Sinnen wahrnehmen. Dahinter ist der große intuitive Geist. Alles physisch Vorhandene hat dieser Geist gemacht. Hinter allem, was in der reinen Form lebt, was mit Sinnen wahrgenommen werden kann, steht also der Vatergeist, der erste Logos. Dadurch, daß wir das anschauen, verändern wir es nicht. Aber eine Veränderung geht vor, wenn wir handeln. Da verändern wir nicht nur, was draußen in der Welt ist, sondern auch die Kräfte, die draußen in der Welt wirken. In dem Augenblicke, da wir handeln, schaffen wir eine Veränderung auf dem physischen Plane. Hinter diesen Veränderungen liegt aber auch die Veränderung der Grundkraft dessen, was dem ersten Logos entspricht. Das beeinflussen wir mit unseren Handlungen und das bleibt, ist da, kann nicht wieder vergehen, außer wenn es von derselben Kraft vernichtet wird, die es hervorgerufen hat. Und die Veränderung, die in den großen Weltintuitionen hervorgerufen wird durch unsere Handlungen, ist das, was uns als Karma wieder erfaßt. Das was den Menschen wieder in die physische Welt zieht, nennt man, wenn man auf Karma sieht: Rupa. Rupa nennt man es aus dem Grunde, weil er es im Rupa vollbracht hat, durch den Körper, durch sein Äußeres. Wir schaffen da im Leibe, im Rupa, wenn wir auf die äußeren Intuitionen wirken.
Das zweite, worin heute der Mensch noch nicht so selbständig ist, sondern noch ein anderer Geist mitwirkt, das ist die Rede. Damit machen wir Eindrücke in einer Welt, hinter der nicht nur das Physische, sondern das Leben steht. In der Welt des Lebens bleiben die Imaginationen von dem zurück, wovon wir sprechen, bildende Kräfte, die die neuen Rassen schaffen. Unsere jetzige Rasse ist aus dem geschaffen, was hinter den Worten früherer Rassen stand. Das ist hineingebildet in unsere Rasse. Außerdem kommt alles in Betracht, was überhaupt nur Imagination ist. Dies zeigt uns, daß wir mit unseren Worten Eindrücke hervorrufen im Reich des Sohnes, im Reich des zweiten Logos. Diese kommen zurück als das Kollektivkarma der ganzen Rasse. Denn wir schaffen das Wort nicht allein, der Geist der Rasse wirkt mit. Was ist die Grundlage für diese Form des Karmas? Wo wirkt der Rassengeist? Der Rassengeist wirkt mit in dem Gefühl des Menschen, durchsetzt die ganze Gefühlswelt. Da klingt nach, was der Mensch mit seiner Gruppe gemeinschaftlich hat.
Was in einem viel breiteren Sinne auf das Karma wirkt, ist das Gefühl = Vedana. Also erstens: Rupa, die Leiblichkeit; zweitens: Vedana, das Gefühl. - Für denjenigen Menschen, der noch kein Chela geworden ist, ist das Gefühl etwas sehr Wichtiges bei der Wahrnehmung des zweiten Logos und bei alledem, was lebendig ist. Die Wissenschaft will das Tier und die Pflanze ohne das Leben betrachten. Auch der größte Gelehrte ist heute noch nicht weiter, als daß er das Leben mit seinem Gefühl begreifen kann. Erst das imaginative Verstehen befähigt ihn, ins Leben hineinzuschauen.
Dem Gedanken entspricht in der Umwelt alles, was Empfindung, Bewußtsein hat. Das hat eines mit uns gemeinsam: die Wahrnehmung. Daß wir überhaupt imstande sind, die Welt draußen im physischen Raum wahrzunehmen als eine farbige und tönende Welt, ist möglich, weil wir sie uns in Gedanken umsetzen können. Wir empfangen die Wahrnehmung; denken darüber nach. Wenn keine Gedanken in den Wahrnehmungen wären, so wäre es die größte Torheit des Menschen, sich Gedanken darüber bilden zu wollen. Dann wären Gedanken bloße Illusionen, wenn nicht die Wahrnehmungen zustande gekommen wären durch Gedanken. Was die Kombination der Wahrnehmungen ergibt, das ist, daß die Wahrnehmungen zuerst aufgebaut sind durch Gedanken, die wir herausschälen: die Naturgesetze. Diese sind nichts anderes als Gedanken; der schöpferische, der Heilige Geist ist es. Die Wahrnehmung ist die Grenze zwischen beiden, wo sich unsere Gedanken berühren mit den schaffenden Gedanken draußen. So können wir also mit einem Gedanken, den wir haben, nicht wirken auf das Leben, aber auf alles Bewußte, was draußen selbst Gedanke ist.
In all den geistigen Wesenheiten, die das Bewußtsein hervorgebracht haben, lassen wir Spuren zurück durch die Gedanken. Was der Mensch auf Grund der Wahrnehmungen an Gedanken ausbildet und das, was er zu Gedanken macht, hat wieder seine Wirkung auf alles, was die Wahrnehmungen nötig macht. Wir unterscheiden daher noch drittens: Wahrnehmung oder Sanjna, was als drittes auf das Karma wirkt.
Durch alle Handlungen rufen wir Gegenhandlungen hervor als Karma, weil wir in die intuitive Welt eingreifen: Rupa.
Durch alle Worte greifen wir ein in die Welt der schaffenden Gefühle, um damit Gegengefühle um uns zu schaffen: Vedana.
Mit dem, was wir über die Wahrnehmungen denken, greifen wir ein in die ganze Welt der Gedanken draußen: Sanjna.
Das was wir um uns herum wahrnehmen, wird nicht mehr sein, wenn wir wieder erscheinen auf der Erde. Daher wird auf die künftige Inkarnation alles, was wir über die Wahrnehmungswelt denken, gar keinen Einfluß ausüben können, nur in dieser Inkarnation wird es eine karmabildende Kraft haben. Der Gedanke wirkt auf unseren jetzigen Charakter.
Was aus dem Gefühl heraus entspringt, das was mit unserer Umgebung wesentlich zu tun hat, was in die Welt der Imagination hineingeht, das kommt uns zurück in der nächstfolgenden Inkarnation, so daß es in uns selbst erscheint als Neigungen und außer uns als Gelegenheiten. Durch die Neigungen ruft man also die Gelegenheiten der Welt herbei, die das Schicksal bilden, durch Neigungen, die karmisch veranlagt sind. Die Gedanken formen den Charakter, die Neigungen führen karmisch die Gelegenheiten herbei. Die Handlungen führen das äußere Schicksal herbei, die ganzen leiblichen Umstände, unter denen der Mensch geboren wird. Was wir mit Rupa, unserer Leiblichkeit, wirklich ausführen, das ist unser wirkliches Schicksal, das kommt uns karmisch zurück.
Der Mensch kann bewußt nur Neigungen schaffen für künftige Inkarnationen, wenn er sich jetzt zur Imagination aufschwingt. Darin liegt das Geheimnis, wie die großen Religionsstifter über ihre Zeit hinaus gewirkt haben. Die Bilder, die sie den Menschen gegeben haben, haben Neigungen ausgelöst für folgende Inkarnationen. Jedes Bild, das sie in die Seele senken, tritt in der ganzen Gefühlswelt des Menschen hervor. Entweder erwirbt sich der Mensch selber solche Imaginationen, oder er bekommt sie von einem Führer. Selbst haben wir sie, wenn wir unser ganzes Gefühlsleben in die Hand genommen haben; das ist beim Geheimschüler der Fall. Er fühlt so, wie er es sich vornimmt; für die übrige Menschheit wird gesorgt durch die Religionsstifter. Eine Religion ist die Gefühlswelt künftiger Rassen; sie kann daher äußerlich untergehen, denn sie lebt in den Neigungen nach. Heute kommen die Neigungen heraus, die im 13. und 14. Jahrhundert der Menschheit eingepflanzt worden sind. Es ist wichtig, daß nicht die materialistischen Bilder der Gegenwart in den Menschenherzen Platz greifen, denn sie würden die Menschen in den zukünftigen Zeiten mit den brutalsten Neigungen ausstatten, die bloß auf die Sinnenwelt gerichtet sind, wenn es nicht wettgemacht wird durch geistige Vorstellungen. Diejenigen Begierden und Wünsche leben im Menschen, die aus der Imagination hervorgehen. Das ist sein Begehren = Samskara. Alles das, was intuitiv in den Menschen ist, die großen Impulse, die sie empfangen von den höchsten Eingeweihten, die sind eigentlich das, was das Tatsachenkarma überwindet. Wer sich zu den eigentlichen Intuitionen erhebt, der dringt durch die physische Welt zu dem Vatergeist empor. Wer intuitives Erkennen hat, kann auf das tatsächliche Karma wirken. Er fängt an, sein Karma bewußt einzuschränken.
Dem gewöhnlichen Menschen erscheinen nur die Wesen als verständlich, die auch bewußt sind. Kommt er zur Imagination, so wird ihm auch das Leben verständlich; kommt er zur Intuition, so kann er vordringen bis zu den intuitiven Kräften.
So viel der Mensch wirken kann auf sein Karma, so viel muß er selbst haben an Intuition, oder er muß solche von den großen Eingeweihten haben als die großen Pflichtgebote. Vijnana nennt man das Bewußtsein, was notwendig ist zur Überwindung des Karma. Und nun denke man sich den Menschen mitten in der Welt lebend, handelnd, sterbend. Wenn er nun gestorben ist, so bleibt aber doch etwas von ihm da in dieser Welt, was er hineingewoben hat in diese Welt. Das sind: Rupa, Vedana, Sanjna, Samskara und Vijnana. Diese fünf Dinge sind sein Konto: das persönliche Schicksal als Rupa; das Schicksal des Volkes, in dem er geboren wird, als Vedana; daß er überhaupt geboren wird auf dieser Erde, als Sanjna. Ferner wirken mit Samskara, das Begehren, und Vijnana, das Bewußtsein. Das sind die fünf Skandhas.
Was man in die Welt hinausgibt, bleibt als die fünf Skandhas in der Welt. Die sind die Grundlage des neuen Daseins. Sie sind stufenweise weniger wirksam, wenn der Mensch eines von den letzten bewußt entwickelt hat. Je mehr er Vijnana bewußt in der Gewalt hat, desto mehr bekommt er es in seine Gewalt, sich bewußt im physischen Leibe zu verkörpern. Die Skandhas sind eigentlich im wesentlichen identisch mit dem Karma.
1. Rupa — Leiblichkeit, Handlungen
2. Vedana - Gefühl
3. Sanjna — Wahrnehmen
4. Samskara — Begehren
5. Vijnana - Bewußtsein, das notwendig ist zur Überwindung des Karma.
XVII
In occultism, we distinguish first of all between a person's actions, understanding actions to mean everything that results from any activity connected with their hands; secondly, their speech; and thirdly, their thoughts. Everything that humans accomplish with their hands in this sense has an effect on their karma in their next earthly existence. What we say does not only concern us, but also a group of people who speak the same language, and this has an effect on the karma of the group or race. Words carry greater responsibility than mere deeds, for with them we prepare the configuration of the next race. What we think even has an effect on the reshaping of our earth. Therefore, we distinguish between three levels: First, human actions are individual, except for those actions that arise in humans out of nothing. Second, humans cannot speak for themselves alone; words affect a group of people. Third, thoughts affect all of humanity.
There is something else connected with this. When we act, we stand entirely alone behind our actions. When we speak, we are not entirely alone in our words. A spiritual entity works behind our words; it then stands behind us. As true as it is that the words we utter are reflected exactly in the Akasha, it is also true that with every word we utter, we intervene in the body of a spiritual being incarnated in this Akasha matter into which our words enter. We must take this into our consciousness; that is why we must be so careful with our words. When we think, we seem to be completely alone within ourselves, yet spiritual beings participate in our thoughts, beings of an even higher and more significant nature than those who participate in our speech.
There is more to these things than a whole world history. This explains many things. Let us consider a thought within ourselves. Behind this thought stands a spiritual being. When we think of ourselves as enclosed on all sides by the body of a spiritual being, the thought is only an expression of the body of the spiritual being that is working within us. Every time a thought flashes through our soul, it is an imprint, a kind of footprint of a higher spiritual being, just as when we walk on wet ground, we leave footprints and say: A human being walked here. This spiritual being is made of the same substance as the thought. The thought within us can only become the imprint of a higher spiritual being because the higher being has a body made of the same substance as our thoughts.
When our foot leaves an imprint in the damp earth, the imprint is a negative, a counter-image of our foot. It is the same with our thoughts. In the higher spiritual world, there is a counter-image for every thought. Image and counter-image are intertwined like a seal and a stamp. The substance is the higher spiritual being; in our image, it corresponds to the stamp. Now, the thought, insofar as it corresponds to the seal, is called intuition, and the imprint is called the abstract thought. One can say, when one thinks: I feel the traces of what is happening in the higher worlds. - In view of this fact, the term “seal” is used in religious writings, for example in the Revelation of John. It corresponds to reality. Also, because a higher being is involved in our words, every word is a seal impression. Mystics call the counterpart of the word “imagination.” Thus, we have three levels of thought: the intuitive, the imaginative, and the ordinary abstract. When a person develops further, when abstract thought itself develops to the level at which the beings who participate in speech are incarnated, then that person is a chela, a secret disciple. To be a master means to work in the substance in which the beings who participate in our thoughts are incarnated. Imagination provides the image. That is why the great religious teachers of earlier times spoke figuratively, because imagination provides the image, not abstract thought. All religions speak in images. For humans, the image is initially secondary, but when humans understand how to turn every thought into an image, they have reached a higher level. This is the prerequisite for a whole new kind of perception. In fact, it is important that humans develop to the point where they no longer think abstractly, but have their thoughts in images every time.
Humans usually only form thoughts. The more highly developed human must think in images, that is, “imagine.” The expression itself already reveals what this is about: imprinting (imagining) something through a certain power of a thing. In the imagination of poets and artists, we find only a very weak reflection of imagination. When a person who is seeking to develop in this higher way speaks, they will try on special occasions to have the counter-image, the imago, in front of them as they speak. Hence the great, powerful images in religious writings. Those who rise to this level of image creation have reached the stage of spiritual beings who are race-creating. Those who develop not only images within themselves, but also intuitions, are not only race-creating, but also co-creating the next planetary existence. The images will echo what has then been realized on earth, but those who create from intuition create something that does not yet exist, that has not yet been realized anywhere, that is, they create out of nirvana. That is the concept of every apocalypse: what will only be real in the future can only be created out of intuition.
Through abstract thinking, one creates an image of what is there. In imagination, the human being allows himself to be fertilized by the creative spirit within him. Imagination corresponds to hidden realities that have been created through the fertilization of higher spiritual beings; then one can see these higher spiritual beings on the astral plane. The prerequisite for this is to develop a language that is not the expression of abstract thoughts, but the expression of images. Mediums therefore also express themselves in imaginations, in images and symbols, but unconsciously. Behind them, the spirit shapes the symbols. The secret student does this in full consciousness, but not arbitrarily. In doing so, he allows himself to be inspired by the spirit.
Just as human beings rise to the creation of images and intuitions in this way, the outer world has had an effect on their existence, in such a way that in everything that is mineral essence around us, i.e., of a purely physical nature, intuitions act as creative forces. The crystal is external, as it appears to the senses; but it has been created through intuitions. Behind the entire physical world lies a cosmos of intuitions and, ultimately, a being, the planetary spirit, which produces the intuitions. Behind all language, beings of imagination and the spirit of the race are at work. The same level of spirit is at work in all living things. Imagination is at work behind all plants. The formed plant comes from the imagination, and behind it stands a spiritual being. And everything that is conscious and sentient has arisen from thought itself.
And now look at the entire universe, first as a physical entity: the Earth, Sun, Moon, and stars, the Milky Way, and so on. But behind it all stands a great intuitive spirit. It is the same spirit that expresses itself in our actions; it also stands behind the entire universe. Christianity calls it the Father. Because it is so little known, it is also called the unknown God, and in theosophical literature, the first Logos.
Behind all living things stands the spirit of imagination. It is the same spirit that also works in our language, which is why the Christian religion calls it the Word. This refers to something very precise and real. This spirit, which stands behind all living things, still works in our language today, in each of our words, and is therefore rightly called “the Word”; another name for it is the Son or Christ. It is the spirit that lives in all life as imagination.
Then we come up to what is conscious, what has some degree of sensation, of consciousness, everything animal and what is animal in humans. This can already be grasped with thoughts. Everyone has this within themselves. What goes on in the animal first goes on within themselves: abstract consciousness. All consciousness in the world also lives in humans, in abstract thinking. Within themselves, humans call it “spirit”; insofar as it works outside in creative nature, they call it “Holy Spirit.” This is what underlies all feeling and consciousness. Illness exists only in special cases. The spirit cannot be sick in itself, but only when it is incarnated in the lower bodies. The word “holy” means “to be whole”; it expresses that the spirit that permeates the world outside is healthy. The Holy Spirit is nothing other than the thoroughly healthy spirit; therefore, those who truly unite with the Holy Spirit receive the power of healing. It must have to do with the Holy Spirit that floods the world. This is the spirit that works from person to person as a true healer.
If we now look out onto the physical plane, we first have what we perceive with our senses. Behind this is the great intuitive spirit. Everything that exists physically has been made by this spirit. Behind everything that lives in pure form, that can be perceived with the senses, stands the Father Spirit, the first Logos. By looking at it, we do not change it. But a change takes place when we act. Then we change not only what is outside in the world, but also the forces that work outside in the world. The moment we act, we create a change on the physical plane. Behind these changes, however, lies also the change in the fundamental force that corresponds to the first Logos. We influence this with our actions, and it remains, is there, cannot pass away again, unless it is destroyed by the same force that brought it about. And the change that is brought about in the great world intuitions by our actions is what catches up with us again as karma. When we look at karma, we call that which draws human beings back into the physical world rupa. We call it rupa because it was accomplished in rupa, through the body, through its outer appearance. We create in the body, in rupa, when we act on the outer intuitions.
The second thing in which humans are not yet so independent, but in which another spirit still plays a part, is speech. With it we make impressions in a world behind which stands not only the physical, but also life itself. In the world of life, the imaginations of what we speak of remain as formative forces that create the new races. Our present race is created from what stood behind the words of earlier races. This is formed into our race. In addition, everything that is imagination alone comes into consideration. This shows us that with our words we make impressions in the realm of the Son, in the realm of the second Logos. These come back as the collective karma of the whole race. For we do not create the word alone; the spirit of the race also plays a part. What is the basis for this form of karma? Where does the spirit of the race work? The spirit of the race works in the feelings of human beings, permeating the entire emotional world. What human beings share with their group resonates there.
What affects karma in a much broader sense is feeling = Vedana. So first: Rupa, physicality; second: Vedana, feeling. - For those who have not yet become chelas, feeling is very important in the perception of the second Logos and in everything that is alive. Science wants to look at animals and plants without life. Even the greatest scholar today is still only able to comprehend life with his feelings. Only imaginative understanding enables him to look into life.
Everything in the environment that has feeling and consciousness corresponds to thought. It has one thing in common with us: perception. The fact that we are able to perceive the world outside in physical space as a world of color and sound is possible because we can translate it into thoughts. We receive the perception and think about it. If there were no thoughts in the perceptions, it would be the greatest folly of human beings to want to form thoughts about them. Then thoughts would be mere illusions if perceptions had not come about through thoughts. What the combination of perceptions results in is that perceptions are first constructed through thoughts that we extract: the laws of nature. These are nothing other than thoughts; the creative, the Holy Spirit is it. Perception is the boundary between the two, where our thoughts touch the creative thoughts outside. So we cannot influence life with a thought we have, but we can influence everything conscious that is itself thought outside.
In all the spiritual beings that consciousness has brought forth, we leave traces through our thoughts. What humans develop in terms of thoughts based on their perceptions, and what they turn into thoughts, in turn has an effect on everything that necessitates perceptions. We therefore make a third distinction: perception or sanjna, which is the third factor that affects karma.
Through all our actions, we bring about counteractions in the form of karma, because we intervene in the intuitive world: rupa.
Through all words, we intervene in the world of creative feelings in order to create counter-feelings around us: Vedana.
With what we think about our perceptions, we intervene in the whole world of thoughts outside: Sanjna.
What we perceive around us will no longer be there when we reappear on Earth. Therefore, everything we think about the world of perception will have no influence on our future incarnation; it will only have a karmic force in this incarnation. Thoughts affect our current character.
What springs from feeling, what has to do with our environment, what enters the world of imagination, comes back to us in the next incarnation, so that it appears in us as inclinations and outside us as opportunities. Through inclinations, we therefore bring about the opportunities in the world that form our destiny, through inclinations that are karmically predisposed. Thoughts shape character, inclinations karmically bring about opportunities. Actions bring about external fate, the entire physical circumstances under which a person is born. What we actually do with rupa, our physicality, is our real fate, which comes back to us karmically.
Human beings can only consciously create inclinations for future incarnations if they now rise to the level of imagination. This is the secret of how the great founders of religions have had an impact beyond their own time. The images they gave to people triggered inclinations for subsequent incarnations. Every image they sink into the soul emerges in the whole emotional world of the human being. Either the human being acquires such imaginations himself, or he receives them from a guide. We ourselves have them when we have taken control of our entire emotional life; this is the case with the secret disciple. He feels as he intends to feel; the rest of humanity is taken care of by the founders of religion. A religion is the emotional world of future races; it can therefore perish outwardly, for it lives on in inclinations. Today, the inclinations that were implanted in humanity in the 13th and 14th centuries are coming to the fore. It is important that the materialistic images of the present do not take root in human hearts, for they would endow people in future times with the most brutal inclinations, directed solely toward the sensory world, if this is not counterbalanced by spiritual ideas. Those desires and wishes that arise from the imagination live in human beings. That is their desire = samskara. Everything that is intuitive in human beings, the great impulses they receive from the highest initiates, are actually what overcomes factual karma. Those who rise to their true intuitions ascend through the physical world to the Father Spirit. Those who have intuitive knowledge can influence actual karma. They begin to consciously limit their karma.
To ordinary human beings, only those beings that are also conscious appear to be understandable. When they reach the level of imagination, life also becomes understandable to them; when they reach the level of intuition, they can advance to the intuitive powers.
As much as a person can influence their karma, they must have intuition themselves, or they must receive it from the great initiates as the great commandments. Vijnana is the name given to the consciousness that is necessary to overcome karma. And now imagine a person living, acting, and dying in the midst of the world. When he has died, something of him remains in this world, something he has woven into it. These are: rupa, vedana, sanjna, samskara, and vijnana. These five things are his account: his personal destiny as rupa; the destiny of the people into which he is born as vedana; the fact that he is born on this earth at all as sanjna. Furthermore, Samskara, desire, and Vijnana, consciousness, also have an effect. These are the five Skandhas.
What one puts out into the world remains in the world as the five Skandhas. These are the foundation of the new existence. They gradually become less effective when the person has consciously developed one of the last ones. The more consciously they control Vijnana, the more they gain control over consciously embodying themselves in the physical body. The Skandhas are essentially identical to karma.
1. Rupa — physicality, actions
2. Vedana — feeling
3. Sanjna — perception
4. Samskara — desire
5. Vijnana — consciousness, which is necessary to overcome karma.