The Reappearance of Christ in the Etheric
GA 118
27 February, 1910, Cologne
3. Buddhism and Pauline Christianity
We will concern ourselves today with something that will show us how significant it is, based on research that can be done in the higher worlds, to experience what the future holds in store for humanity. The mission of the spiritual scientific movement is connected with the important events of the transition period in which we live. From this we can be certain that much still lies before us in the future, and we therefore seek in spiritual science for guidance in taking the appropriate measures in the present. We must know, therefore, what is of special significance in thinking, feeling, and willing in our time.
There is a great distinction between the spiritual stream that came from Buddha and the one that arose from the Christ impulse. This is not meant to place these streams in opposition to one another; it is rather necessary to understand in what regard each of these streams can be fruitful. Both streams must unite in the future, and Christianity must be fructified by spiritual science. For a time, Christianity had to set aside the teaching of reincarnation. It was included in the esoteric teaching but could not be received in exoteric Christianity for certain universal pedagogical reasons. In contrast, reincarnation was a fundamental principle of Buddhism. There it was bound up with the teaching of suffering, which is exactly what Christianity is intended to overcome. Once we have recognized the purposes and missions of both streams, we will also be able to distinguish clearly between them. The main distinction can be seen most strongly when one examines the two individualities, Buddha and Paul.
Gautama Buddha came to knowledge through his enlightenment under the Bodhi tree; he then taught that this world is maya. It cannot be considered real, because therein lies maya, the great illusion, that one believes it to be real. Man must strive to be released from the realm of the elements; then he comes into a realm, Nirvana, where neither names nor things exist. Only then is man freed from illusion. The realm of maya is suffering. Birth, death, sickness, and age are suffering. It is the thirst for existence that brings man into this realm. Once he has freed himself from this thirst, he no longer needs to incarnate. One can ask oneself why the great Buddha preached this doctrine. The answer can follow only from a consideration of the evolutionary course of humanity.
Man was not always the way he is today. In earlier times, man not only had his physical body at his disposal for achieving knowledge, but there was also a kind of clairvoyant knowledge diffused among human beings. Man knew that there were spiritual hierarchies in the same way that we know that there are plants. He had no power of judgment but could see the creative beings themselves. This wisdom gradually disappeared, but a memory of it remained. In ancient India, Persia, even in Egypt, there was still a memory of previous earthly lives. The human soul at that time was such that one knew: I was descended from divine beings, but my incarnations have gradually penetrated the physical so strongly that my spiritual gaze has been darkened.
Man experienced the progress in this time as a degeneration, as a step backward. This was felt especially by all those who could still, even in much later times, leave their physical bodies at particular moments. The everyday world appeared to them in these moments as a world of illusion, as maya, the great deception. Buddha only spoke out of what lived in the human soul. The physical, sensible world was experienced as that which had pulled man down; he wished to leave this world and ascend again. The world of the senses bore the guilt for the descent of humanity.
Let us compare this conception with the Christ impulse and the teachings of Paul. Paul did not call the sensible world an illusion, although he knew as well as Buddha that man had descended from the spiritual worlds and that it was his urge for existence that had brought him into this world. One speaks in a Christian sense, however, when one asks if this urge for existence is always something bad. Is the physical, sensible world only deception? According to Paul's conception, it is not the urge for existence in itself that is evil; this urge was originally good but became harmful through the fall of man, under the influence of Luciferic beings. This urge was not always harmful, but it has become so and has brought sickness, lies, suffering, and so on. What was a cosmic event in Buddha's conception became a human event for Paul.
Had the Luciferic influence not interfered, man would have seen the truth in the physical world rather than illusion. It is not the world of the senses that is wrong but human knowledge that has been dulled through the Luciferic influence. The differences in these conceptions bring different conclusions with them. Buddha sought redemption in a world in which nothing of this world of the senses remained. Paul said that man should purify his forces, his thirst for existence, because he himself had corrupted them. Man should tear away the veil that covers the truth and, through purifying himself, see again the truth he himself had covered. In place of the veil that conceals the plant world, for example, he will see the divine-spiritual forces that work on and behind the plants. Rend the veil, and the world of the senses becomes transparent; we finally see the realm of the spirit. We believed we saw the animal, the plant, and the mineral kingdoms; that was our error. In reality, we saw the hierarchies streaming toward us.
That is why Paul said, “Kill not the pleasure of existence; rather purify it, because it was originally good.” This can occur when man takes the power of Christ into himself. When this power has permeated the soul, it drives away the soul's darkness. The gods did not place man on the earth for no purpose. It is man's duty to overcome what hinders him from seeing this world spiritually. Buddha's conclusion that one must shun incarnation points to an archetypal wisdom for humanity. Paul, in contrast, said, “Go through incarnation, but imbue yourselves with Christ, and in a distant future all that man has cast up as illusion will vanish.”
This teaching, which put the blame not on the physical, sensible world but on man himself, had of necessity to become a historic doctrine. Exactly for this reason, however, it could not be given in its entirety at the beginning. Only the initial impulse could be given, which must be penetrated. This impulse would then gradually enter all spheres of life. Although almost two thousand years have passed since the Mystery of Golgotha, the Christ impulse is only beginning today to be received. Whole spheres of life, such as philosophy and science, have yet to be imbued with it. Buddha was more able to give his teaching all at once, because he referred to an ancient wisdom that was still experienced in his time. The Christ impulse, however, must prevail gradually. A theory of knowledge based on these facts contrasts sharply with that of Kant, who did not know that it is our knowledge itself that must be purified.
Paul had to instruct human beings that the work in each individual incarnation is actually of great importance. In contrast to the relatively recent doctrine of the Buddha that the individual incarnation is worthless, he almost had to overstate this teaching. One must learn to declare, “Not I, but Christ in me!” This is the purified I. Through Paul, the spiritual life became dependent upon this one incarnation for all the future. Now that such an education of the soul has, been completed and a sufficient number of human beings have gone through it in the past two thousand years, the time has come again to teach reincarnation and karma. We must seek to restore our I to the condition in which it was before incarnations began.
It is always said that Christ is constantly in our midst. “I am with you every day until the end of the earth.” Now, however, man must learn to behold Christ and to believe that what he sees is real. This will happen in the near future, already in this century, and in the following two thousand years more and more people will experience it. How will this actually occur? We might ask, for example, how we now see our planet. The earth is described mechanically, chemically, and physically by science, according to the Kant-Laplace theory and the like. Yet we are now approaching a reversal in these fields. A conception will arise that will see the earth not in terms of purely mineral forces but in terms of plant, or what could be called etheric, forces. The plant directs its root toward the earth's center, and its upper part stands in relation to the sun. These are the forces that make the earth what it is; gravity is only secondary. The plants preceded minerals just as coal was once plant life; this will soon be discovered. Plants give the planet its form, and they then give off the substance from which its mineral foundation originates. The beginnings of this idea were given through Goethe in his plant morphology, but he was not understood. One will gradually begin to see the etheric, because it is that which is characteristic of the plant realm. When man is able to receive the growth forces of the plant kingdom, he will be released from the forces that now hinder him from beholding the Christ. Spiritual science should be an aid to this, but this will be impossible as long as man believes that the ascent of the physical into the etheric has nothing to do with his inner being. It is of no matter in the laboratory whether a man has a strong or weak moral character. This is not the case, however, when one is concerned with etheric forces. Then one's moral constitution affects one's results. For this reason, it is impossible for modern man to develop this ability if he remains as he is. The laboratory table must first become an altar, just as it was for Goethe who, as a child, kindled his small altar to nature with the rays of the rising sun.
This will happen before long. Those who are able to say, “Not I, but Christ in me,” will be able to work with the plant forces in the same way that mineral forces are now understood. Man's inner being and his outer surroundings work into one another reciprocally; what is outside transforms itself for us, depending on whether our vision is clear or clouded. Even in this century, and increasingly throughout the next 2,500 years, human beings will become able to behold Christ in His etheric form. They will behold the etheric earth from which the plant world springs up. They will also be able to see, however, that inner goodness works differently on the environment from evil. He who possesses this science in the highest degree is the Maitreya Buddha, who will come in approximately 3,000 years. “Maitreya Buddha” means the “Buddha of right-mindedness.” He is the one who will make clear for human beings the significance of right-mindedness. This will all lead human beings to know in which direction they must go. You must undertake to transform abstract ideals into concrete ideals in order to contribute to an evolution that moves forward. If we do not succeed in this, the earth will sink into materialism, and humanity will have to begin again, either on the earth, after a great catastrophe, or on the next planet. The earth needs anthroposophy! Whoever realizes this is an anthroposophist.
Buddhismus Und Das Paulinische Christentum
Heute soll uns etwas beschäftigen, das uns zeigt, wie bedeutsam es ist, aus den Mitteilungen, die über die höheren Welten gemacht werden können, zu erfahren, was der Menschheit in der Zukunft bevorsteht. Die Mission der geisteswissenschaftlichen Bewegung hängt zusammen mit den wichtigen Ereignissen der Übergangsperiode, in der wir leben. Daraus können wir die Überzeugung gewinnen, daß wir in der Zukunft noch viel mehr erfahren werden, und darum suchen wir in der Geisteswissenschaft gerade etwas, um unser Handeln danach einzurichten. Daher müssen wir wissen, was im Fühlen, Denken und Wollen für unsere Zeit von besonderer Bedeutung ist.
Es besteht ein großer Unterschied zwischen der Geistesstreömung, die von dem Buddha kam und derjenigen, die von dem ChristusImpuls kam. Damit ist nicht ein Gegenüberstellen gemeint, sondern es ist eher notwendig einzusehen, in welcher Beziehung jede dieser Strömungen fruchtbar sein kann. Die beiden Strömungen müssen in der Zukunft zusammengehen und das Christentum muß von der Geisteswissenschaft befruchtet werden. Das Christentum mußte zunächst die Wiederverkörperungslehre fallen lassen. Es enthielt zwar diese Lehre im Esoterischen, aber um gewisser weltpädagogischer Gründe willen konnte sie nicht in das exoterische Christentum aufgenommen werden. Dagegen war diese Lehre ein besonderes Grundprinzip des Buddhismus, dort allerdings verbunden mit der Lehre vom Leiden, die wiederum zu überwinden gerade das Christentum zur Aufgabe hatte.
Wenn wir einmal die Aufgabe und Mission beider Strömungen erkennen, können wir uns auch die Unterschiede klar vor Augen halten. Den Hauptunterschied bemerkt man am stärksten, wenn man die beiden Individualitäten des Buddha und des Paulus betrachtet.
Gautama Buddha kam durch seine Erleuchtung unter dem Bodhibaum zur Erkenntnis und lehrte: Diese Welt ist Maja. Sie kann nicht als wirklich betrachtet werden, denn darin besteht eben die Maja, die große Illusion, daß man sie für wirklich hält. Der Mensch muß streben nach einem Befreitwerden aus dem Reich der Elemente, dann kommt man in ein Reich, das weder Namen noch Dinge mehr haben kann: Nirwana. Dann erst ist man von der Illusion befreit. Das Reich der Maja ist Leiden. Geburt, Tod, Krankheit, Alter sind Leiden. Es ist der Durst nach Dasein, der die Menschen in dieses Reich bringt. Darum soll sich der Mensch von diesem Durst befreien, dann braucht er sich nicht mehr zu verkörpern.
Man kann sich fragen: Wie kam der große Buddha dazu, diese Lehre zu verkünden? Die Antwort kann nur aus einer Betrachtung des Entwickelungsganges der Menschheit erfolgen.
Der Mensch war nicht immer so, wie er jetzt ist. In früheren Zeiten hatte der Mensch, um zu Erkenntnis zu gelangen, nicht nur seinen physischen Leib zur Verfügung, sondern es war damals eine Art hellsehende Erkenntnis über die ganze Menschheit verbreitet. Die Menschen wußten, daß es geistige Hierarchien gibt, so wie wir wissen, daß es Pflanzen und so weiter gibt. Urteilskraft war nicht vorhanden, dafür sah man die schöpferischen Wesen selbst. Diese Weisheit schwand allmählich dahin; aber eine Erinnerung daran blieb. In Indien, Persien, auch noch in Ägypten gab es eine Erinnerung an frühere Erdenleben. Die Seele des Menschen war damals so gestimmt, daß man wußte: Ich stamme von göttlichen Wesen ab, aber meine Verkörperungen sind allmählich so stark ins Physische gedrungen, daß mein Blick für das Geistige verdunkelt worden ist.
Man fühlte daher den Fortgang in der Zeit wie eine Verschlechterung, wie einen Rückschritt. Vor allem diejenigen, die noch in besonderen Augenblicken den physischen Leib verlassen konnten, wie es in noch verhältnismäßig später Zeit der Fall war, fühlten so. Dadurch kam ihnen die gewöhnliche Welt als eine Welt der Illusion vor, als Maja, die große Täuschung. Der Buddha sprach nur aus, was in den Seelen der Menschen lebte. Gerade das, was in der physisch-sinnlichen Welt liegt, empfand man als dasjenige, was die Menschheit herabgezogen hatte. Aus dem wollte man wieder aufsteigen. Auf die Welt der Sinne fiel alle Schuld an dem Herabstieg der Menschheit.
Vergleichen wir mit dieser Auffassung den Christus-Impuls und die Lehre, die Paulus gegeben hat. Paulus nannte die sinnliche Welt nicht Illusion, wenn er auch ebensogut wie Buddha wußte, daß der Mensch aus geistigen Welten herabgestiegen ist und daß es der Drang nach Dasein ist, der den Menschen in diese Welt gebracht hat. Im christlichen Sinne aber ist gesprochen, wenn man frägt: Ist dieser Drang nach Dasein auch immer ein schlechter? Ist die sinnlich-physische Welt zur Täuschung? - Nach Paulus’ Auffassung ist es nicht der Drang nach Dasein an sich, der das Böse wäre. Dieser Drang war ursprünglich gut, aber durch den Sündenfall des Menschen, unter dem Einfluß luziferischer Wesenheiten ist er uns zum Unheil geworden. Nicht immer war er so, aber er ist so geworden, und hat Leiden, Lüge, Krankheit und so weiter gebracht. So wird aus einem kosmischen Geschehen, wie es bei Buddha vorkommt, ein menschliches Geschehen bei Paulus.
Wäre nicht der luziferische Einfluß dazwischengetreten, so hätte der Mensch Wahrheit und nicht Illusion in der physischen Welt gesehen. Nicht die sinnliche Welt ist unrichtig, sondern die menschliche Erkenntnis, die durch den luziferischen Einfluß getrübt worden ist. Diese Verschiedenheit in der Auffassung bringt auch verschiedene Folgen mit sich. Buddha will die Erlösung suchen in einer Welt, der nichts Sinnliches mehr anhaftet. Paulus sagt, der Mensch soll die Kräfte, den Durst nach Dasein reinigen, weil er selber sie verdorben hat. Der Mensch soll durch Läuterung seiner Kräfte die Schleier zerreißen, die ihm die Wahrheit zudecken, damit er hindurchschauen könne auf dasjenige, was er sich selber zugedeckt hat. An Stelle des Schleiers, der zum Beispiel die Pflanzenwelt bedeckt, wird man dann die göttlich-geistigen Kräfte sehen, die hinter und an den Pflanzen arbeiten. Wenn der Vorhang reißt, wird die sinnliche Welt erst durchsichtig und schließlich sehen wir ein Reich des Geistes vor uns. Wir glaubten ein Tierreich, Pflanzenreich, Mineralreich vor uns zu haben: das war unsere Schuld. In Wirklichkeit sehen wir die Hierarchien auf uns zuströmen.
Darum sagt Paulus: Ertöte nicht die Lust am Dasein, sondern läutere sie, denn ursprünglich war sie ein Gutes. Und das kann geschehen dadurch, daß man die Kraft des Christus in sich aufnimmt. Diese ist es, die, wenn sie die Seele durchdringt, die Seelenverfinsterung wegnimmt. Die Götter haben die Menschen nicht umsonst auf die Erde gestellt. Es ist dabei des Menschen Pflicht, von sich zu werfen, was ihn daran hindert, diese Welt geistig zu schauen. Die Konsequenz, zu der Buddha kommen mußte: Meidet die Inkarnationen! — weist zurück auf eine Urweisheit der Menschen. Paulus dagegen sagt: Geht durch die Inkarnationen hindurch, aber durchdringt euch mit dem Christus, und in einer ferneren Zukunft wird all dasjenige, was der Mensch an Illusionen aufgeworfen hat, verschwunden sein.
Diese Lehre, die die Schuld nicht der physisch-sinnlichen Welt, sondern dem Menschen selber auflud, mußte notwendigerweise eine historische Lehre werden. Gerade aus dem Grunde aber kann sie im Anfang nicht so gegeben werden, daß man die vollständige Lehre hat; nur Anfangsimpulse können gegeben werden, mit denen man sich durchdringen muß. Allmählich dringen dann diese Impulse in alle Gebiete des Lebens ein. Trotz der fast zwei Jahrtausende, die seit dem Mysterium von Golgatha verflossen sind, ist man heute erst am Anfang vom Aufnehmen des Christus-Impulses. Ganze Gebiete des Lebens sind noch nicht von ihm durchdrungen, zum Beispiel die Wissenschaft und die Philosophie. Der Buddha konnte viel eher seine Lehre sogleich geben, weil er sich auf eine uralte Weisheit berief, die damals noch empfunden wurde. Der Christus-Impuls muß erst allmählich durchdringen. Eine Erkenntnistheorie, die sich auf diese Tatsachen gründet, unterscheidet sich scharf von derjenigen Kants, der gar nicht weiß, daß es gerade unsere Erkenntnis ist, die geläutert werden soll.
Paulus mußte den Menschen beibringen, daß das Arbeiten in der einzelnen Inkarnation in der Tat von großem Gewichte ist. Er mußte diese Lehre gleichsam übertreiben, im Gegensatz zu der verhältnismäßig kurz vorher verkündeten Lehre des Buddha, daß die einzelne Inkarnation wertlos sei. Man sollte lernen auszusprechen: «Nicht ich, der Christus in mir!» Das ist das geläuterte Ich. Das geistige Leben wurde durch Paulus für alle Zukunft von dieser einen Inkarnation abhängig gemacht. Nachdem eine solche Erziehung der Seelen sich vollzogen hat, daß eine genügende Anzahl Menschen in den abgelaufenen zwei Jahrtausenden durch sie hindurchgegangen sind, ist die Zeit wieder angebrochen, um Karma und Reinkarnation zu lehren. Wir müssen versuchen, unser Ich wieder herzustellen in den Zustand, in dem es war, bevor die Inkarnationen angefangen haben.
Es wurde immer gesagt, daß der Christus stets in unserer Umgebung ist. «Ich bin mit euch alle Tage bis an das Ende der Welt.» Jetzt aber soll der Mensch lernen, den Christus zu schauen und zu glauben, daß dasjenige, was wir sehen, dennoch das Wahre ist. Das wird schon in der nächsten Zukunft eintreten, schon in diesem Jahrhundert und dann in den folgenden zwei Jahrtausenden bei immer mehr Menschen. Wie wird das im einzelnen sein? Fragen wir: Wie sehen wir jetzt zum Beispiel unseren Planeten? Die Erde wird von der Wissenschaft mechanisch, physisch, chemisch beschrieben, nach der Kant-Laplaceschen Theorie und dergleichen. Doch jetzt stehen wir vor einer Umkehrung auf diesem Gebiete. Eine Anschauung wird heraufkommen, die die Erde nicht mehr aus lauter mineralischen Kräften, sondern aus Pflanzen-, das heißt ätherischen Kräften ableiten wird. Die Pflanze hat ihre Wurzeln nach dem Mittelpunkt der Erde gerichtet, ihr oberer Teil steht in einem Verhältnis zur Sonne. Das sind die Kräfte, die die Erde machen zu dem, was sie ist. Die Schwerkraft ist nur sekundär. Die Pflanzen sind vor den Mineralien da, ebenso wie die Steinkohle früher Pflanze war. Das wird man in kurzem entdecken. Die Pflanzen geben dem Erdplaneten die Gestalt und geben dann noch die Substanz ab, aus der der mineralische Boden entsteht. Ein Anfang dieser Lehre wurde durch Goethe gegeben in seiner Pflanzenmorphologie. Aber er ist nicht verstanden worden. Dann wird man allmählich anfangen, das Ätherische zu schauen, weil es dasjenige ist, was charakteristisch für die Pflanzen ist. Die Wachstumskraft des Pflanzenreichs wird der Mensch in sich aufnehmen, dann befreit er sich von den Kräften, die ihn jetzt daran hindern, den Christus zu schauen. Geisteswissenschaft soll dazu mitarbeiten. Das ist aber unmöglich, solange die Menschen meinen, daß das Aufsteigen des Physischen zum Ätherischen nichts mit dem Innern des Menschen zu tun hat. Im Laboratorium ist es gleichgültig, ob man ein moralisch hochstehender oder tiefstehender Mensch ist. Nicht aber ist das der Fall, wenn man es mit Ätherkräften zu tun hat. Die moralische Veranlagung geht dann in das Produkt über. Daher wäre es für den heutigen Menschen noch nicht möglich, diese Fähigkeit zu entwickeln, wenn er so bleibt, wie er ist. Der Laboratoriumstisch muß erst zum Altar werden, so wie es für Goethe war, der als Kind seinen kleinen Altar aus Naturprodukten an den Strahlen der aufgehenden Sonne entzündete.
Das wird schon bald kommen. Diejenigen, die werden sagen können: «Nicht ich, sondern der Christus in mir», werden die Pflanzenkräfte kombinieren können, so wie man es jetzt mit den mineralischen Kräften versteht. Was der Mensch innerlich ist, steht in Wechselwirkung mit dem, was draußen ist, und das Äußere verwandelt sich für uns, je nachdem wir klar oder trübe sehen. Noch in diesem Jahrhundert - und immer mehr Menschen in den nächsten zweieinhalb Jahrtausenden - werden Menschen dazu kommen, den Christus zu schauen in seiner Äthergestalt. Sie werden die ätherische Erde schauen, aus der die Pflanzenwelt entsprossen ist. Aber dadurch werden sie auch erkennen, daß ein gutes Inneres des Menschen andere Einflüsse auf die Umgebung ausüben wird als ein böses. Derjenige, der diese Wissenschaft im höchsten Maße besitzen wird, wird der Maitreya-Buddha sein, der in ungefähr 3000 Jahren kommen wird. «Maitreya»-Buddha bedeutet «Buddha von der guten Gesinnung». Maitreya-Buddha ist derjenige, der den Menschen die Bedeutung einer guten Gesinnung klarmachen wird. Das alles wird dazu führen, daß die Menschen wissen werden, in welche Richtung sie gehen müssen. Anstelle der abstrakten Ideale werden konkrete Ideale treten, die der fortschreitenden Entwickelung entsprechen. Gelingt das nicht, dann würde die Erde in Materialismus versinken und die Menschheit müßte von neuem anfangen, entweder - nach einer großen Katastrophe - auf der Erde selber oder auf einem nächsten Planeten. Die Erde braucht Anthroposophie! Wer das einsieht, ist Anthroposoph.
Buddhism And Pauline Christianity
Today we shall be concerned with something that shows us how important it is to learn from the communications that can be made about the higher worlds what lies ahead for humanity in the future. The mission of the spiritual science movement is connected with the important events of the transitional period in which we live. From this we can gain the conviction that we will experience much more in the future, and that is why we are looking for something in spiritual science to guide our actions accordingly. Therefore we must know what is of particular importance for our time in feeling, thinking and willing.
There is a great difference between the spiritual current that came from the Buddha and that which came from the Christ impulse. This is not meant as a juxtaposition, but rather as a need to recognize how each of these currents can be fruitful. The two currents must merge in the future and Christianity must be fertilized by spiritual science. Christianity first had to drop the doctrine of reincarnation. Although it contained this teaching in the esoteric, it could not be included in exoteric Christianity for the sake of certain worldly pedagogical reasons. In contrast, this teaching was a special basic principle of Buddhism, but there it was linked to the teaching of suffering, which Christianity in turn had the task of overcoming.
Once we recognize the task and mission of both currents, we can also clearly see the differences. The main difference is most noticeable when we look at the two individualities of Buddha and Paul.
Gautama Buddha came to realization through his enlightenment under the Bodhi tree and taught: This world is maya. It cannot be regarded as real, because that is the maya, the great illusion, that it is regarded as real. Man must strive to be liberated from the realm of the elements, then he will enter a realm that can no longer have names or things: Nirvana. Only then is one freed from illusion. The realm of Maja is suffering. Birth, death, illness, old age are suffering. It is the thirst for existence that brings people into this realm. That is why people should free themselves from this thirst, then they no longer need to embody themselves.
One may ask: How did the great Buddha come to proclaim this teaching? The answer can only be found by looking at the development of mankind.
Man was not always as he is now. In earlier times man had not only his physical body at his disposal in order to attain knowledge, but at that time a kind of clairvoyant knowledge was spread over the whole of mankind. People knew that there were spiritual hierarchies, just as we know that there are plants and so on. There was no power of judgment, but people saw the creative beings themselves. This wisdom gradually faded away, but a memory of it remained. In India, Persia, even in Egypt, there was a memory of earlier earthly lives. At that time the soul of man was so attuned that one knew: I am descended from divine beings, but my embodiments have gradually penetrated so strongly into the physical that my vision of the spiritual has become obscured.
One therefore felt the progress in time as a deterioration, as a regression. Especially those who were still able to leave the physical body at special moments, as was the case in relatively late times, felt this way. As a result, the ordinary world appeared to them as a world of illusion, as maya, the great illusion. The Buddha only expressed what lived in people's souls. Precisely that which lies in the physical-sensual world was perceived as that which had dragged humanity down. They wanted to rise again from it. All the blame for humanity's descent fell on the world of the senses.
Let us compare the impulse of Christ and the teaching given by Paul with this view. Paul did not call the sensual world an illusion, even though he knew just as well as Buddha that man had descended from spiritual worlds and that it was the urge for existence that had brought man into this world. In the Christian sense, however, we are speaking when we ask: Is this urge for existence always a bad one? Is the sensual-physical world a deception? - In Paul's view, it is not the urge for existence itself that is evil. This urge was originally good, but through the fall of man, under the influence of Luciferian entities, it has become evil for us. It was not always so, but it has become so, and has brought suffering, lies, illness and so on. Thus a cosmic event, as it occurs in Buddha, becomes a human event in Paul.
If the Luciferian influence had not intervened, man would have seen truth and not illusion in the physical world. It is not the sensual world that is incorrect, but human knowledge that has been clouded by the Luciferian influence. This difference in perception also has different consequences. Buddha wants to seek salvation in a world to which nothing sensual clings. St. Paul says that man should purify his powers, his thirst for existence, because he himself has corrupted them. By purifying his powers, man should tear apart the veils that cover the truth so that he can see through them to what he has covered himself. In place of the veil that covers the plant world, for example, one will then see the divine-spiritual forces that work behind and on the plants. When the curtain is torn, the sensual world first becomes transparent and finally we see a realm of the spirit before us. We thought we were looking at an animal kingdom, a plant kingdom, a mineral kingdom: that was our fault. In reality, we see the hierarchies flowing towards us.
That is why Paul says: Do not kill the lust for existence, but purify it, because originally it was a good thing. And this can be done by absorbing the power of Christ. It is this which, when it penetrates the soul, takes away the darkness of the soul. The gods have not placed human beings on earth for nothing. It is man's duty to throw away what prevents him from seeing this world spiritually. The consequence to which Buddha had to come: Avoid incarnations! - points back to a primal wisdom of man. St. Paul, on the other hand, says: Go through the incarnations, but imbue yourselves with the Christ, and in the distant future all the illusions that man has raised will have disappeared.
This teaching, which did not lay the blame on the physical-sensual world, but on man himself, necessarily had to become a historical teaching. For this very reason, however, it cannot be given in the beginning in such a way that one has the complete teaching; only initial impulses can be given with which one must penetrate. Gradually these impulses then penetrate into all areas of life. Despite the almost two millennia that have passed since the Mystery of Golgotha, today we are only at the beginning of receiving the impulse of Christ. Entire areas of life have not yet been permeated by it, for example science and philosophy. The Buddha was able to give his teaching much sooner because he referred to an ancient wisdom that was still felt at that time. The Christ-impulse must first penetrate gradually. A theory of knowledge that is based on these facts differs sharply from that of Kant, who does not even know that it is precisely our knowledge that is to be purified.
Paul had to teach people that the work in the individual incarnation is indeed of great importance. He had to exaggerate this teaching, as it were, in contrast to the relatively recently proclaimed teaching of the Buddha that the individual incarnation is worthless. One should learn to say: “Not I, the Christ in me!” This is the purified self. Paul made spiritual life dependent on this one incarnation for all the future. Now that such an education of souls has taken place that a sufficient number of people have passed through it in the past two millennia, the time has come again to teach karma and reincarnation. We must try to restore our ego to the state it was in before the incarnations began.
It has always been said that Christ is always around us. “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” But now man must learn to see Christ and believe that what we see is nevertheless true. This will happen in the near future, already in this century and then in the following two millennia, with more and more people. How will this happen in detail? Let us ask ourselves: How do we see our planet now, for example? Science describes the earth mechanically, physically, chemically, according to Kant-Laplace theory and the like. But now we are facing a reversal in this field. A view will emerge that no longer derives the earth from purely mineral forces, but from plant forces, that is, etheric forces. Plants have their roots directed toward the center of the Earth, and their upper parts are in relation to the sun. These are the forces that make the Earth what it is. Gravity is only secondary. Plants existed before minerals, just as coal was once a plant. This will be discovered soon. Plants give the Earth its shape and then release the substance from which the mineral soil is formed. Goethe gave the beginnings of this teaching in his plant morphology. But it has not been understood. Then we will gradually begin to see the etheric, because that is what is characteristic of plants. Human beings will absorb the growth force of the plant kingdom into themselves, and then they will free themselves from the forces that now prevent them from seeing Christ. Spiritual science should contribute to this. But this is impossible as long as people believe that the ascent of the physical to the etheric has nothing to do with the inner life of human beings. In the laboratory, it does not matter whether one is a morally superior or inferior person. But this is not the case when dealing with etheric forces. Moral disposition then passes into the product. Therefore, it would not yet be possible for people today to develop this ability if they remain as they are. The laboratory table must first become an altar, as it was for Goethe, who as a child lit his little altar made of natural products in the rays of the rising sun.
That will come soon enough. Those who will be able to say: “Not I, but the Christ in me”, will be able to combine the plant forces in the same way as the mineral forces are now understood. What man is inside interacts with what is outside, and the outside is transformed for us, depending on whether we see clearly or dimly. In this century - and more and more people in the next two and a half millennia - people will come to see the Christ in his etheric form. They will see the etheric earth from which the plant world has sprouted. But through this they will also recognize that a good inner man will exert different influences on his surroundings than an evil one. The one who will possess this science to the highest degree will be the Maitreya Buddha, who will come in about 3000 years. “Maitreya” Buddha means ‘Buddha of the good disposition’. Maitreya Buddha is the one who will make people realize the importance of a good disposition. All this will lead to people knowing in which direction to go. The abstract ideals will be replaced by concrete ideals that correspond to progressive development. If this does not succeed, then the earth would sink into materialism and humanity would have to start all over again, either - after a great catastrophe - on the earth itself or on another planet. The earth needs anthroposophy! Anyone who recognizes this is an anthroposophist.