The Karma of Materialism
GA 176
25 September 1917, Berlin
9. Spiritual Science and Insight
A point has been reached in mankind's evolution when the riddle of existence becomes ever more significant for the human soul. Some are aware of the riddle but there is little inclination anywhere to seek ways and means of solving it.
Today I would like to point to an aspect of the riddle which many people come up against in everyday life. There are those who ask: Why is it that all over the world there is a discrepancy between man's intellectual and moral development? At present man's intellectual development expresses itself mainly in what could also be called, with more or less justification, scientific development. Most people's view of life is based on natural science. And what things has man not produced thanks to his intellect! I need not enumerate all the external products which make up our materialistic culture. When one thinks of all the ingenious means it has so far produced for destroying human life, for enabling men to slaughter one another, then, leaving aside all moral considerations, one must concede that the intellect has reached a certain high plateau in its development. Just think of all the scientific ingenuity necessary to produce all those instruments of death with which men mangle each other, causing untold suffering.
One can think of much that is negative and also of much that is positive in what has come about as a result of man's highly developed intellect. It has certainly progressed with unprecedented speed especially in the last centuries. Occasionally one comes across remarks made by the few who have noticed the glaring contrast between intellect and morality. Already years ago in his famous work The Riddle of the Universe, Ernst Haeckel35Ernst Haeckel 1834–1919 German Biologist pointed out how man has progressed intellectually but in regard to morality he has in many respects remained at a primitive stage. There are also others who have remarked on this discord which tends to be noticed by persons who are awake and sensitive to what goes on in the world. However, due to modern man's lethargy and love of ease, people fail to become aware that only spiritual knowledge can throw light on these profound problems with their far-reaching consequences for the human soul. If one is to find one's way through the complexities of present-day life no other possibility exists than to attempt to understand them in the light of spiritual science. Anyone with a feeling for reality finds it painful to witness the unease, the unwillingness that exists all over the globe to face openly and courageously the things that are happening both above and below the surface of events. Today people are apt to deplore immoral measures taken in the past. This seems strange in view of the fact that they fail to judge what goes on at present all over the world which is far worse than anything that has happened before in human evolution. Let us for once look at the relationship between man's intellectual and moral development in the light of spiritual knowledge.
Our first enquiry must concern what exactly takes place in the human being when he is engaged in intellectual pursuits. What aspects of our being is active when we formulate scientific thoughts; i.e., when we investigate external phenomena? We reflect on the laws of nature to enable us, through understanding them, to form appropriate mental pictures. This activity engages parts of man's being which are the most mature. When we look at what is today the foundation, the tool of the intellect then we are looking at those aspects of man which were developed and incorporated into his being in the course of the ancient Saturn, Sun, Moon and the present Earth evolutions. When on the other hand we seek to understand the foundation of man's moral development we cannot refer to such mature constituents of his being. In regard to his moral evolution we are dealing with comparatively much younger members of human nature. In actual fact only man's 'I' can be said to be moral in the true sense. But, as I have often said: man's 'I' is the baby among the members of his being. Even in regard to the astral body, incorporated into man's being during the ancient Moon evolution, one can speak of moral impulses only insofar as the astral body, being intimately connected with the 'I' during life, may receive moral impulses from the latter. It must also be borne in mind that the 'I' and astral body have a comparatively independent existence; every night when we fall asleep they free themselves from the physical and etheric bodies. They are then in a state of complete unconsciousness and therefore cannot receive moral impulses.
The following is of great importance but somewhat difficult for modern man to understand: Every time we awake from sleep we enter, with our ‘I’ and astral body, into our physical and etheric bodies; i.e., into the oldest members of our being. These members, having evolved through the Saturn, Sun and Moon evolutions have attained a certain degree of perfection which makes them pre-eminently suitable tools for the intellect. Their degree of perfection is something that is inborn in them and manifests as intellectual proficiency. If the 'I' and astral body were not added to our physical and etheric bodies we would in a certain sense be thinking machines; we would be scientific automatons. In accordance with their nature our physical and etheric bodies do in fact act automatically in certain ways. It is only because the ‘I’ dwells in them that they are capable of further development on earth. But the ‘I’ could do little towards perfecting the physical and etheric bodies, even in regard to their intellectual ability, if it were not transported every night into sleep. We attain our best forces, also in regard to intellectual development, during sleep. It is because the physical and etheric bodies are perfectly developed tools that the already existing intellectuality can become further developed by what the 'I' has received from the spiritual world during sleep and bestows upon them on waking. During waking life we have in addition our consciousness which we attain by virtue of the physical and etheric bodies. We have at present no comparable consciousness as far as the ‘I’ and astral body are concerned. This should be kept well in mind. Man believes he knows his ‘I,’ but in what sense does he know it? If you have, say, a red surface and cut a hole in it through which you look into darkness; i.e., into nothingness, you will then see the red surface and the hole as a black circle. You look into nothingness. In your inner life you see your ‘I’ the way you see the black circle in the surrounding red. What man believes to be perception of his 'I' is in fact a gap in his soul life. Though nothing is there, or very little, man believes he perceives his ‘I.’ In actual fact all he sees is what his brain reveals to him through his etheric and physical bodies. In the present phase of evolution man has not come very far in perceiving his own ‘I’ while in a physical body between birth and death.
We are unconscious during sleep, but during the day, while awake, we are still unconscious as far as our ‘I’ is concerned. Yet morality must be implanted into the ‘I.’ So you see, as far as morality is concerned—compared with his intellectuality—man is very much a baby. That is the deeper reason why it is so difficult for man, during earth evolution, to advance morally, while intellectually he progresses with comparative ease.
In a periodical founded during the war entitled The Bell an article recently appeared discussing the discrepancy between intellectual and moral development. Despite its name, The Bell seldom rings out much sense; according to its opinion on this matter, the discrepancy can be traced to the fact that intellectual development has come about under capitalism, in other words during a time when rulership was in the hands of the few, whereas moral development will come about only when socialism has been established. Well, idealists insist that the earth will become paradise when idealism gains the upper hand. Materialists make the same claim for materialism while, according to liberals, paradise comes about when liberalism is generally accepted. So naturally socialists see paradise as the realization of socialism. These views are all incredibly naive. They are in fact so many trite illusions all of which demonstrate that, while modern man is beset by problems, he still will not rouse his thinking—and on thinking it at first depends—to the irksome task of penetrating into the realm of spiritual experience. Anyone who will really think can penetrate to spiritual reality. Our age that prides itself in its thinking knows thinking the least.
The discrepancy between intellectual and moral development can only be explained when seen in the greater contexts just outlined. But the article in The Bell comes to the conclusion that as long as there are individuals who are intellectual, intellectuality will continue to develop, whereas moral life will reach a comparable development only when all people are merged within a socialist order. Thus capitalism is supposed to be favourable for intellectuals who are scientifically inclined, while socialism will be favourable for moral development. The reality however, is very different, for interest in the spiritual world must take hold of man if morality is to develop to the same extent as intellectuality has done. Men must become able actually to behold the spiritual forces and impulses that surge and pulsate through the world. There are many reasons why this is highly uncomfortable for modern man. For example, when someone embarks upon developing his thinking, in ways I have often described, his thinking becomes capable of functioning in the spiritual world. This means that in his thinking he experiences the spiritual world as a reality. This leads him of necessity to develop something else which has declined during our materialistic age, namely, an inner feeling of responsibility.
People whose view of life is based solely on their natural-scientific knowledge and observations are determined, in the way they think, by external events. Their thinking is as it were attached to the leading strands of the external phenomena and guided by them. The concepts they acquire enable them, up to a point, to understand external events. However, this kind of thinking in no way suffices to recognize moral and social issues in their reality; let alone find solutions to moral and social problems. In order to achieve this one must be in contact with spiritual reality, which however creates in the soul a strong feeling of responsibility for one's thoughts. One will not permit every arbitrary train of thought to go through the soul but only such which are, as it were, fit to be seen by the Beings of the Higher Hierarchies. Proclaiming freedom for nations is not a concept fit to present to spiritual worlds; it illustrates the kind of mistaken concept, generally held today, concerning the individual's relation to his folk. We know from spiritual science that freedom is a concept which is applicable only to human beings as individuals; quite different concepts apply to nations with their group souls. Yet around the world today freedom of nations and the like is being proclaimed, giving voice to Woodrow Wilson's immature ideas. They are even taken seriously! In fact they are also taken seriously within Europe; though we, with centuries of experience should at least be able to produce a few enlightened ideas, ideas that could, in the sense of spiritual science, throw some light on the issues.
It is possible to feel responsibility, not only towards people, but towards concepts and ideas; if they are moral ideas they exist entirely in the spiritual world, for they arise in our T or possibly in the astral body. However, one does not have this feeling of responsibility if one lives exclusively in materialistic concepts and ideas; i.e., ideas that relate solely to external phenomena as often happens without awareness. One hears phrases such as: God sent us this war because of our sins and shortcomings. Uttering such phrases does not indicate moral or spiritual ideas; it indicates rather no advance beyond materialism. Such an advance only comes about when one is able to form mental pictures of spiritual reality. Plenty of phrases are coined these days which have no foundation in reality; it happens especially when it comes to discussing this or that political issue. On such occasions one often hears talk of a "new spirit" which does not mean in the least that the person concerned has the slightest inkling of the spirit.
If we are to extricate ourselves from the present devastating conditions, the spirit must not remain abstract; it must be grasped in its reality. As already mentioned it is possible to understand this or that external phenomenon with the kind of concepts engendered by simply following the leading strings of physical perception. They do not, however, have the power to influence the intricacies of human life; the latter require concepts and ideas derived from spiritual insight. You may ask how it then comes about that human life is after all influenced occasionally. It is because human beings still rely on old, even ancient ideas though they no longer fit the changed conditions. Our age demands new concepts, new mental pictures, derived from spiritual knowledge. Naturally, these ideas are new only in the sense that they are new to mankind.
However, these new ideas are at times found to be unpalatable especially when they relate to human morality seen in the light of spiritual knowledge. It is easy enough to say that good will is a virtue and should be cultivated, or that justice is moral and ought to be established. It is also easy enough to make laws and arrangements accordingly. One can even elect parliaments in which clever people come together to make all kinds of decisions based on good will and justice. But if things are handled the way they have been so far they will result in something similar to the situation we see spread all over the world today, if only people would have the courage to recognize that there is a direct connection between the terrible events taking place at present and the kind of concepts and ideas which preceded them.
Good will is certainly a virtue and one can even get a sensuous feeling of pleasure from practicing it. A kind of cathechism of virtues could be devised: Thou shalt have good will, thou shalt be just and so on; one would then possess a list of virtues and no understanding of any of them. It would in fact be comparable to knowing that when a pendulum is at its highest point the law of gravity will bring it down to the lowest, but not knowing that in coming down the pendulum gathers a force that makes it swing equally far up the other side. In regard to physical phenomena these things are easy to recognize because the external phenomena themselves enforce one's thinking to be consistent, but in the sphere of morality there are no such leading strings.
If a person develops good will it is certainly an excellent thing. However, just as the pendulum in its downward swing gathers the force that will make it swing upwards, so there develops with the force of good will a tendency to its opposite, a tendency to prejudice, biassed views and the like. No virtue can be cultivated without developing also a disposition towards the opposite vice. These truths are not comfortable but truths they are. In the individual they are less noticeable, but in public life they result in the kind of thing I have indicated. If people in one age one-sidedly cultivate some virtue and pride themselves over much in the fact, then people in the following age, although the connection is not recognized, will exhibit the corresponding vice. Seen in their true light these things point to a deep truth uttered by Christ Jesus but one which people will not acknowledge.
At the present time a strange current flows like a current through the world taking hold of souls like an epidemic. It is hard to believe that such views can be held, but they are. It appears that people have come to the conclusion that this war must be continued until an everlasting peace can be won. The war must go on till the impact of the war itself provides an absolute guarantee that there never will be another. Obviously the best way to achieve everlasting peace is to let the war go on forever. Simply by striving, as is done at present, for the ideal of everlasting peace will ensure that the war never ends! We live in a physical body, on the physical plane and the physical plane is not and cannot be perfect. If at one time or another the most perfect conditions possible were established it would only be a matter of a few centuries and they would be imperfect; because evolution progresses in oscillations, not in a straight ascending line. As the pendulum swings up and down, so does evolution move in lines of ascent and descent. If one epoch has developed something perfect, it need only wait and people will come who know of things still more perfect.
What matters is not the perfection with which things are arranged on the physical plane, which in any case is an impossibility, an illusion. What matters is man's freedom. Liberalism, socialism, conservatism all want to create paradise on earth; i.e., they want to realize something perfect on the physical plane. Christ said: “The kingdom of God is within you.” To want to make the physical world into a perfect paradise is to want something impossible, for in the physical world there is perpetual oscillation. The Christ Principle is understood rightly only when one strives to permeate the physical world with spirituality and recognizes that man is a participant of the realm of the Gods, the realm of the spirit. Those who want to turn the physical world into a paradise, whether in the socialistic or some other sense, know nothing about reality. If the present unreal ideas are to be replaced with ideas based on reality things must be seen in their wider spiritual context. This can be done only through spiritual science. Today people are apt to be scornful of the vistas opening up through knowledge of the evolutions of Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth, Jupiter, etc. People are apt to ask why all that is necessary? Yet this knowledge is needed in order to understand even the tiniest aspect of life, for man is truly a microcosm. He bears within him the Saturn, Sun, and Moon evolutions, and if he does not want to know about them he places himself in a situation comparable to denying someone the use of his hands for life by tying them behind his back in early childhood. Similarly man does not make use of his capabilities if he refuses to turn his gaze towards spiritual reality. By this refusal he fails grievously in a sphere where he need not fail.
I would like to give you an example which may seem strange to some but which perhaps conveys more exactly what I mean by many of the things which I have only touched on today. I have recently spoken with various people about what is necessary to get mankind out of the present calamities and blind alleys. What must be done can be expressed in a number of practical ideas with which thinking must be quickened when it comes to questions such as—I cannot go into details now—answering the Papal note. Although these ideas are nothing but practical answers to immediate problems, they can neither be attained nor understood unless an impulse towards spiritual knowledge is present. They deal with the kind of thinking, the ways and means, necessary if man is to find a solution to the present confusion concerning how the various peoples and countries are to coexist. They concern arrangements to be made between peoples and countries and how to avoid resorting to illusory, abstract notions which only result in unrealistic declarations about people's freedom, peaceful cooperation between smaller nations and the like.
It is indeed possible to work out eminently practical ideas which can lead to salvation from the present miseries. But what kind of thing happens instead? Perhaps you have read in the papers about the new principal of Berlin University being installed. The new principal, Councillor Penck36Albrecht Penck 1858–1945 German Geographer has been lecturing on political frontiers based on geological factors. It is impossible to convey the heaviness of heart such occurrences cause one. And why? Because at what should be the most enlightened places for present-day cultural life, the most unenlightened, elementary ideas are presented. If minds had been occupied instead with spiritual knowledge, then comprehensive ideas of truly practical use for life would have emerged. Just think of the present situation: we have on the one hand spiritual science which can work out ideas with practical application for the present problems, ideas of a comprehensive nature which would reveal connections of a higher order between the issues. On the other hand we have the recognized official enquiries, still groping tentatively in the most basic aspect of the problems with no prospect of getting any further. Those to whom people today look up and regard as highest authorities are far removed from any understanding of what is so desperately needed and attainable through spiritual science. That is what makes it difficult to explain what is necessary, especially in relation to the present situation. Official science is concerned with rudiments of a scientific investigation yet that in itself could lead to spiritual science if those concerned did not regard it as so much fantasy which they refuse to consider.
One is reminded, without presumption or lack of humility, of how the first Christians in early Roman times had to perform their religious worship down in the catacombs; while up above the old social order continued as before. But a few centuries later what had become of that old order whose treatment of early Christianity we learn from Roman history? Within a few centuries it had dissolved, and what had once existed down in the catacombs was now above and had spread far and wide. If only a sufficient number of people could understand that something similar must come about today even if not of the same magnitude as Christianity itself. What today dominates the world as the customary outlook based on official science cannot endure. It has the same relationship to the needs of the present as ancient Rome to Christianity evolving below in the catacombs.
This world issue, this world antithesis must be inwardly experienced. One must enter into it with thoughts and feelings in order to become fully aware of the shallowness, when at present there are declamations about a "new spirit." One must become aware of how futile are the unintelligible ideas about guarantees to be provided by international organizations and courts of arbitration, despite the fact that no one knows who would be able to arbitrate. The time has come when concepts and ideas connected with the great world issues must be related to those of everyday life. Mankind cannot simply say that such concepts and ideas are all very well when it is a question of grasping world events but they do not apply to everyday issues. Either they are so applied or these very issues become meaningless and lose all significance for practical life, not that of a decade hence but for today and tomorrow.
When difference of opinion is expressed usually a degree of objectivity is exercised, but not when the object of contention is spiritual science or Anthroposophy. When someone like Max Dessoir, a professor at Berlin University, attacks spiritual science, he regales his readers with misrepresentations and falsifications, as I have shown in my book that will be published shortly. What should be an honest objective discussion becomes a personal attack, personal vilification when the issue is spiritual science. And why? Not because people are able to refute spiritual science, but because they do not want it. The reason they do not is because modern man shuns the irksome task of seeking within himself for his true humanity. People like for example, to rejoice and take pride in their moral concepts, but this is no longer possible when one knows that virtues will of themselves turn into their corresponding vices unless a strict watch is kept over one's life of soul.
I have often drawn attention to the question of selflessness. Once in a public lecture I gave as a hypothetical example a society founded for the purpose of cultivating selflessness. The members soon formed the habit of turning to those who managed the society saying: I would like such and such but not for myself; it is for someone else; then the “someone else” would also ask for something not for himself but for the one who first asked. Neither wanted anything for himself! The essential thing is not whether one wants something for oneself or for someone else but whether the request itself is a selfless one. The truth is that when people try to become selfless then after a time the power inherent in selflessness makes them egoistic. The very striving for selflessness makes for egotism. One has to take care when "the pendulum swings down" not to rejoice in one's own selflessness.
Luther was very aware of these things, that is why we find in his writing many instances when he seemingly shows little respect for such virtues as selflessness and the like. He knew that selflessness is usually a mask behind which hides a hypocrite. Luther could often be blunt about such matters. For example, he advises Melanchthon not to try to be so frightfully selfless but rather do the bad he felt like doing. For it is better to do the bad when so inclined than be an insincere pharisee who ostensibly does the good while inwardly wanting to do the bad. Luther had a great deal of insight into this polarity in human nature because of his particular kind of spiritual experiences. For example he was in Rome in the year 1510; at that time it was considered virtuous to climb a very high flight of stairs—I do not know the technical Catholic term for so doing. For every stage climbed a certain number of days in purgatory were remitted, if the whole flight of steps were climbed on one's knees without getting up many days of purgatory were remitted. Luther took part in this, for at that period of his life he had the view that by such means one could further one's salvation. However as he was climbing he had an Imagination which conveyed to him: Seek righteousness in faith! It was this kind of experience that made Luther the man he was. He inwardly sensed the contrasting forces that were engendered in his soul by what he was doing.
What is needed at the present time above all else is a deeper insight into human life. This means among other things to have the ability to recognize that the repetition of a word does not necessarily mean one has the reality to which it points. Many utter the word “spirit” but it is possible to talk a great deal about spirit and not come anywhere near it. This is not generally noticed. For example there is a man who has written what amounts to a whole library; I should not like to have to count how many times the word spirit appears in his library. People actually believe that this man, Rudolf Eucken,37Rudolf Euchen 1846–1926 Philosopher is talking about real spirit. In this realm it is essential to differentiate between reality and mere appearance. To do this causes disquiet, it creates fear of spiritual life, even fear of thinking itself. The man of today wants to flee from thinking, he wants to find his own salvation as well as solutions to social and political problems by any means other than thinking.
The time is too serious, too grave not to take these things in deep earnestness. It will be a day of blessing when a greater number of people recognize the truth and reality of what I have indicated again today, unfortunately no more than indicated. To go into these things in greater detail would mean speaking about things which cannot be spoken of today. That is why it would be a good thing if you, especially after these lectures, would apply to them some real thinking that is as yet not censored. I said in the last lecture that today people would tear to pieces anyone who spoke openly about the immediate events as seen with supersensible vision. Certain things cannot be mentioned let alone done. Thus many opportunities are lost when one could illustrate how essential it is for present-day man to deepen and strengthen his inner life. Just imagine what would have become of the Lutheran movement had Luther not possessed far greater, stronger and more effective forces than those possessed by most leading figures today.
One may ask why people today show so little interest in spiritual knowledge. The real reason is, what I have often referred to, that man finds it disquieting, uncomfortable. The natural-scientific view of the world is based on concepts and ideas which are easier to digest. They are certainly to be admired but all one must do to acquire them is to look at the phenomena and allow the external facts to lead one along. One is not required to rouse oneself inwardly, one does not have to delve into the deepest recesses of one's soul in order to take the next step. Spiritual knowledge does indeed make such demands and one is bound to say that unless a human being is willing to make such efforts he is not man in the true sense. That is also a truth which is not pleasant to hear, especially by someone who, thanks to prevailing conditions, is in a position of authority. That a professor or a privy councilor is not supposed to be a human being in the fullest sense is naturally difficult to understand. However, it is the kind of thing that must be understood if we are to emerge from the miseries we are in at present.
In the year 1613 Johann Valentin Andrae38Johann Valentin Andreae 1586–1654 Theologian wrote The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz; the book appeared in 1616. During the years from 1614 to 1617 Valentin Andrae wrote other works in which he expresses the thoughts and feelings of his time. One of his books has as its subtitle: "To the Princes and Heads of States." Andrae wanted to show that what man believes himself to be and what he believes others to be is maya, is a great illusion. He wanted man to have the opportunity to learn to know his true self and that of others. He had in mind a great spiritual movement and had given much thought and preparation to its realization. Two outstanding events were in preparation at that time: the movement Valentin Andrae wanted, and the Thirty Years' War, lasting from 1618 to 1648. The events that led to the Thirty Years' War made impossible the movement which Johann Valentin Andrae wanted to bring about. Much would have to be said if one were to describe the various causes for this failure. Attempts are often made which fail but which later succeed. There was at that time a possibility that it may have succeeded but it did not. Today we again find ourselves within two streams, two possibilities, which must of necessity affect one another. On the one hand there is Anthroposophy with the impulse to further human evolution; on the other hand there is all that which has brought about events, similar in nature to those that caused the Thirty Years' War. It depends upon mankind whether once again what ought to happen is prevented from happening. Lethargy, love of ease might well paralyze the present attempt. Whether things would then take their course as they did when the attempt made by Valentin Andrae was paralyzed is another matter.
One should not ask a question such as: Why do the spiritual powers not intervene in the affairs on the physical plane and bring order about? That ought not to be asked because what human beings do is often in direct revolt against the spiritual powers. Very often those in revolt are the very people who are forever talking about spirit, spirit, spirit. I recently read on the cover of a magazine an advertisement of some kind in which the word spirit was repeated ad nauseam. These days spirit dominates everything, it is enough to make one despair! Spirit is supposed to manufacture the germs and gas masks and what not. Everything is called spirit. The question is: do people realize what spirit this is? As you know we distinguish between the spirit of normal evolution and the luciferic and ahrimanic spirit. I drew your attention to Ricarda Huch and how, in her book on Luther she expresses a positive longing for the devil, she means of course for recognition of the devil. Concerning all the proclamations about spirit one could say that people never notice the devil even when they have him on the covers of magazines.
There are many things which today I could only hint at, and many I could refer to only in a veiled manner. They will become clear to you if you reflect on what has been said today. One thing you will have noticed: that I have spoken in deep earnest, in bitter earnest which is also the way I must, for the time being, bring these lectures to a close.
Neunter Vortrag
Es ist ja jetzt die Zeit für die Menschheit eingetreten, in welcher die Rätsel des Menschenlebens bedeutungsvoll an die Seelen der Menschen herankommen. Man sieht ja auch, daß der oder jener diese Rätsel wohl bemerkt; allein wenig Geneigtheit ist vorhanden, nach Mitteln und Wegen zu suchen, um hinter die Geheimnisse dieser Rätsel zu kommen. Ich möchte heute zunächst auf eines dieser Rätsel — Rätsel des unmittelbaren Lebens — hinweisen, auf das mancher in der Gegenwart stößt. Es fragt sich heute der oder jener: Wie kommt es, daß eine solche Disharmonie besteht zwischen der intellektuellen und der moralischen Entwickelung der Menschen über die Erde hin? — Die intellektuelle Entwickelung, die sich in dem auslebt, was man — nun, sagen wir, mit mehr oder weniger Recht - in der neueren Zeit auch die wissenschaftliche Entwickelung nennt, die ja der Weltanschauung der meisten Menschen doch zugrunde liegt, diese intellektuelle Entwickelung, was hat sie nicht alles hervorgebracht! Sie hat hervorgebracht all die äußeren materiellen Kulturmittel, die ich ja nicht im einzelnen aufzuzählen brauche. Wenn wir da an all dasjenige denken, was diese intellektuelle Entwickelung bis jetzt an die Oberfläche gebracht hat, damit sich die Menschen gegenseitig vernichten können, was sie an die Oberfläche gebracht hat an allen möglichen großartig ausgedachten Mitteln zur Menschenvernichtung, so kann, wenn man absieht von allem moralisch dabei zugrunde liegenden, nicht anders gesagt werden, als daß diese intellektuelle Entwickelung bei einem Höhepunkt angelangt ist. Denken Sie sich, welche Wissenschaft dazu notwendig war, um all die Mordinstrumente zuwege zu bringen, unter denen die Menschheit gegenwärtig leidet, mit denen sie sich zerfleischt. Man kann an manches Günstige, man kann an vieles Ungünstige der intellektuellen Entwickelung denken, man wird eben wirklich nicht anders sagen können, als: diese intellektuelle Entwickelung ist in einer aufsteigenden Linie ohnegleichen, insbesondere in den letzten Jahrhunderten, vorgeschritten. Daß damit in einer schreienden Disharmonie dasjenige steht, was man die moralische Entwickelung des Menschentums nennt, das haben einige bemerkt, und man trifft da und dort Aussagen von Menschen der Gegenwart, die auf diese Disharmonie hinweisen. Schon vor Jahren hat Ernst Haeckel in seinem berüchtigten Buch über die Welträtsel darauf hingewiesen, wie die Menschheit intellektuell aufwärts geschritten ist, wie sie aber in bezug auf moralische Begriffe in vieler Beziehung über den urältesten Standpunkt nicht hinausgekommen ist, und jetzt machen eben manche wiederum auf diese Diskrepanz zwischen dem einen und dem anderen aufmerksam. Diese Dinge drängen sich dem Menschengemüte auf, wenn dieses Menschengemüt die Gegenwart, wie ich öfter auseinandergesetzt habe, nicht verschläft. Aber daß auf solche schwerwiegenden, auf solche in die Tiefe des Menschenwesens gehenden Fragen doch nur Geisteswissenschaft eine Antwort geben kann, darauf lassen sich die Menschen der Gegenwart aus der Ihnen ja öfter geschilderten seelisch-geistigen Bequemlichkeit nicht ein. Und dennoch, eine Möglichkeit, sich in den so verworrenen Verhältnissen der Gegenwart zurechtzufinden, wird nur dann gegeben sein, wenn sich die Menschen auf solche Dinge einlassen werden, einlassen werden von den Gesichtspunkten, die nur durch eine geistige Erkenntnis erreicht werden können. Nicht wahr, wie schneidend wirkt es auf eine mit gesunder Empfindung ausgestattete Seele, wenn sie sich gestehen muß, was jetzt über den ganzen Erdball hin sich geltend macht an Unbehaglichkeit, an Nichtwillen den Dingen gegenüber, die sich abspielen oder die sich unter der Oberfläche der sich abspielenden Dinge befinden, mit klarem, wahrem Sinn ins Auge zu schauen. Man darf sagen: Welches Mißverhältnis besteht zwischen der Art, wie man sich lange Zeit aufgehalten hat über so manche unmoralisch erscheinenden Maßnahmen alter Zeiten; wie merkwürdig erscheint das, wenn man es gegenüberstellt dem, was jetzt von den Menschen geurteilt oder nicht geurteilt wird, trotzdem das Maß desjenigen, was heute über die Erde hin spielt, furchtbarer ist als je etwas, was sich im Laufe der Menschheitsentwickelung zugetragen hat. Sehen wir uns einmal das Verhältnis intellektueller Menschheitsentwickelung und moralischer Menschheitsentwickelung von dem Gesichtspunkte, der durch die Geisteswissenschaft gewonnen werden kann, an.
Da müssen wir zunächst die Frage aufwerfen: An was im Menschen hängt denn eigentlich die intellektuelle Entwickelung, was betätigt sich denn, wenn wir im wissenschaftlichen Sinne denken, wenn wir denken, um uns die Natur zu erklären, wenn wir nachdenken, um die Gesetze der Natur zu schildern und uns Vorstellungen über die Welt zu bilden im Sinne der Naturgesetze, was betätigt sich denn da eigentlich in uns? Nun, da betätigen sich in uns die ältesten Teile der Menschennatur, auf die wir blicken können, wenn wir bei der uns bekannten Saturnentwickelung beginnen, und durch die Sonnenentwickelung, die Mondenentwickelung bis zur Erdenentwickelung gehen, wenn wir auf dasjenige blicken, was da der Menschheit an- und eingebildet worden ist. Das bildet heute die Werkzeuge der intellektuellen Entwickelung. Wenn wir es dagegen mit der moralischen Entwickelung zu tun haben wollen, erkenntnismäßig, so können wir nicht auf diese alten Bestandteile des Menschen hinweisen, sondern in bezug auf die moralische Entwickelung haben wir es mit verhältnismäßig viel jüngeren Gliedern der Menschennatur zu tun, ja, im echtesten Sinne moralisch kann nur das Ich selbst betrachtet werden. Aber wie oft habe ich gesagt, das Ich ist das Baby unter den Menschengliedern; nicht einmal beim Astralleibe, der der Menschenwesenheit eingegliedert worden ist während der Mondenentwickelung, kann man schon von moralischen Impulsen reden. Man kann beim Astralleibe nur insofern von moralischen Impulsen reden, als das Ich während des Lebens im innigen Zusammenhang mit diesem Astralleibe ist und sich dadurch die Impulse der Moralität, die sich im Ich geltend machen, auf den Astralleib übertragen. Aber bedenken Sie nur, daß das Ich und der Astralleib eine verhältnismäßig große Selbständigkeit haben und sich jede Nacht beim Schlaf loslösen vom physischen Leib und Ätherleib, dann aber in vollständiger Unbewußtheit leben. Sie können in dieser Unbewußtheit noch nicht moralische Impulse aufnehmen.
Nun bedenken Sie das Folgende, das wichtig ist, wenn es auch dem heutigen Menschen noch einigermaßen schwierig ist, es zu begreifen. Wir kommen bei jedem Aufwachen mit unserem Ich und unserem Astralleib in unsern physischen Leib und Ätherleib hinein, die die ältesten Glieder der menschlichen Entwickelung sind, die durch ihre Saturn-, Sonnen- und Mondenentwickelung vorzugsweise zum Werkzeuge der intellektuellen Entwickelung geworden sind und in dieser Beziehung bis zu einem gewissen Grade von Vollkommenheit gediehen sind. Dieser Grad von Vollkommenheit ist ihnen allerdings eingeboren, und was ihnen eingeboren ist, das stellt sich eben als intellektuelle Entwickelung dar. Wir würden in einer gewissen Beziehung Denkmaschinen, Wissenschaftsmaschinen sein, wenn-zu unserem physischen und Ätherleib nicht das Ich und der Astralleib käme. Aber so wie unser physischer Leib und unser Ätherleib sind, sind sie auch in gewisser Beziehung automatisch. Sie sind im Grunde genommen als solche nur dadurch auf der Erde noch entwickelungsfähig, daß sie vom Ich bewohnt werden. Aber dieses Ich würde wenig zur Vervollkommnung auch der intellektuellen Fähigkeiten des physischen und Ätherleibes tun können, wenn es nicht jede Nacht in den Schlaf überführt würde. Die besten Kräfte, auch für die intellektuelle Entwickelung, erhalten wir während des Schlafes. Das, was wir während des Schlafes empfangen, tragen wir dann hinein in physischen und Ätherleib, und weil diese gewissermaßen ausgebildete, vollkommene Werkzeuge sind, daher kommt es, daß, wenn beim Aufwachen das Ich untertaucht in Ätherleib und physischen Leib, die eingefahrenen Geleise der Intellektualität durch dieses Ich aus der geistigen Welt heraus weiter gebildet werden können. Da kommt während des Tages das nötige Bewußtsein dazu, das Bewußtsein, das ja durch physischen und Ätherleib erlangt wird. In bezug auf das eigentliche Ich und den Astralleib haben wir aber in der gegenwärtigen Zeit noch nicht ein gleiches Bewußtsein. Ich bitte Sie, das ganz besonders zu berücksichtigen. Der Mensch glaubt sein Ich zu kennen, aber wie kennt er sein Ich? Wenn Sie eine rote Fläche haben und dahinein ein Loch machen, der Hintergrund aber finster ist, also gar nichts ist, so sehen Sie rot und Sie sehen das Loch als schwarzen Kreis; das Nichts nehmen Sie wahr, wo der schwarze Kreis ist, da ist nichts. So wie das umliegende Rot, so sehen Sie in Ihrem Seelenleben auch das Ich. In Wahrheit ist das, was der Mensch glaubt als Wahrnehmung seines Ich zu haben, nur ein Loch in seinem Seelenleben. Weil dort noch nichts ist, oder wenigstens nicht viel ist, so glaubt der Mensch, daß er da sein Ich wahrnimmt, während er ringsherum nur dasjenige wahrnimmt, was ihm sein Gehirn durch seinen physischen und Ätherleib zeigt. Mit der Ich-Wahrnehmung ist es nämlich in der gegenwärtigen Entwickelung des Menschen, während er im physischen Leib zwischen Geburt und Tod weilt, noch nicht sehr weit her. Während des Schlafes sind wir bewußtlos. Aber in bezug auf das Ich sind wir auch während des Tages, während des Wachens bewußtlos, und doch muß dem Ich das Moralische eingepflanzt werden. Sie sehen also, in bezug auf die Einpflanzung des Moralischen ist der Mensch im Verhältnis zu seiner Intellektualität noch recht babyhaft. Das ist der tiefere Grund, warum der Mensch während der Erdenentwickelung so außerordentlich schwierig im Moralischen vorwärtskommt, während die intellektuelle Entwickelung verhältnismäßig leicht vorangeht.
Nun ist neulich in einer Zeitschrift, die zwar «Die Glocke» heißt, aber manchmal auch nicht sehr gescheit tönt, die jetzt während des Krieges begründet worden ist, gerade über diese Diskrepanz zwischen der intellektuellen und der moralischen Entwickelung ein Aufsatz erschienen. Da wird nach der Gesinnung dieser tönenden Glocke alles, was an Diskrepanz herrscht zwischen der intellektuellen und der moralischen Entwickelung, darauf zurückgeführt, daß die intellektuelle Entwickelung bisher abgelaufen wäre im Zeichen des Kapitalismus, im Zeichen des Herrschertums einzelner, und daß die moralische Entwickelung erst kommen könne, wenn der Sozialismus eintrete. Nun, Idealisten gründen Weltanschauungen, um sie gipfeln zu lassen in dem Dogma: Auf der Erde wird ein Paradies sein, wenn einmal der Idealismus überhand nimmt. Materialisten gründen Weltanschauungen, die in dem Dogma gipfeln: Auf der Erde wird ein Paradies sein, wenn einmal der Materialismus allgemein herrschen wird. Im Zeitalter des Liberalismus hat man Weltanschauungen gegründet, die das Paradies in der allgemeinen Verwirklichung des Liberalismus versprochen haben; der Sozialismus sieht selbstverständlich das Paradies in der Verwirklichung des Sozialismus. Diese Dinge sind ja außerordentlich einfach, aber sie sind natürlich ebensoviele banale Illusionen; sie zeigen, daß zwar die Menschen heute mit der Nase auf die Probleme gestoßen werden, daß sie aber nicht in der Lage sind, die Unbequemlichkeit auf sich zu nehmen, wirklich durch Denken, und um Denken handelt es sich zunächst, in das Gebiet des geistigen Erlebens einzudringen. Wer wirklich denken will, kann nämlich schon eindringen in das Gebiet des geistigen Erlebens.
Unsere Zeit, die so stolz ist auf ihr Denken, kennt gerade das Denken am allerwenigsten. Die Frage aber nach der Diskrepanz zwischen intellektueller und moralischer Entwickelung läßt sich nur nach den ganz großen Gesichtspunkten beantworten, die wir soeben berührt haben. Aber jene Glocke, die so tönt, als wenn man sie eben läuten gehört hätte, aber nicht zusammenschlagen, findet, daß das intellektuelle Leben schon vor sich gehen kann, wenn einzelne Menschen intellektuell sind, daß aber das moralische Leben nur dann eine entsprechende Entwickelung erlangen kann, wenn eine sozialistische Einrichtung alle Menschen ergreift. Günstig wäre die individuell-kapitalistische Entwickelung dem wissenschaftlich Intellektuellen gewesen, günstig wird der moralischen Entwickelung die soziale Ordnung sein.
Um was es sich wirklich handelt, das ist, daß, wenn die moralische Ordnung wirklich in demselben Maße sich in der Welt entwickeln soll, wie sich das Intellektuelle entwickelt hat, ein Hinblicken der Menschen auf die geistige Welt Platz greifen muß. Dann muß es möglich sein, daß die Menschen wirklich aufschauen zu dem, was an geistigen Impulsen und Kräften die Welt durchwallt und durchlebt. Das ist heute den Menschen noch etwas durchaus Unbequemes. Unbequem aus mancherleii Gründen. Derjenige, der sich darauf einläßt, sein Denken in der Art auszubilden, wie ich es oftmals hier geschildert habe, so daß ihn dieses Denken befähigt, zu leben in der geistigen Welt, die geistige Welt als Wirklichkeit zu erfahren, der muß innerlich etwas ausbilden, was unter der materialistischen Entwickelung der neueren Zeit gar sehr abgenommen hat. Ja, ich möchte sagen, es bildet sich von selbst innerlich aus, dieses der neueren Zeit so sehr fehlende innere Verantwortlichkeitsgefühl. Die Menschen, die nur aus ihrer naturwissenschaftlichen Beobachtung sich eine Weltanschauung bilden wollen, die werden ja in ihrer Begriffsbildung durch die äußeren Tatsachen geführt, und sie lassen sich dann am Gängelbande der äußeren Tatsachen leicht führen. Da bekommen sie gewisse Begriffe, die bis zu einem gewissen Grade auch hinreichen, das oder jenes in der Natur zu verstehen, die aber durchaus nicht hinreichen, um in der moralischen und sozialen Menschenordnung Zusammenhänge zu schaffen, um die moralische und soziale Menschenordnung auch ihrer Wirklichkeitnach zu durchschauen. Um sie zu durchschauen, dazu gehört eben das Verbundensein mit der geistigen Wirklichkeit. Das aber erzeugt im Innern der Seele ein starkes Verantwortlichkeitsgefühl gegenüber dem Gedanken, so daß man sich nicht gestattet, jede beliebige Gedankenverbindung zu bilden, sondern nur diejenigen Gedankenverbindungen, die man gewissermaßen in seiner Seele sehen lassen kann vor den’ Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien. Mit Begriffen, wie sie die heutige Menschheit hat über den einzelnen Menschen und seine Beziehungen zum Volk, kann man sich vor den Wesen der geistigen Welten nicht sehen lassen. Mit all den Deklamationen über Völkerfreiheit kann man vor den geistigen Welten keinen Staat machen, denn Freiheit, das erkennt man aus der Geisteswissenschaft heraus, ist ein Begriff, nur anwendbar auf den einzelnen Menschen als Individuum, nicht aber auf die Volkheit mit ihrer Gruppenseele. Da gelten andere Begriffe als Freiheit. Dennoch deklamiert man heute über die Welt hin in den siebenundzwanzigjährigen Begriffen Woodrow Wilsons von Freiheit der Völker und dergleichen, und man nimmt diese Dinge ernst. Man nimmt sie selbst ernst in demjenigen Kulturgebiete, in dem wir selber leben, in dem man nach alledem, was wir durchgemacht haben durch Jahrhunderte, geklärtere Begriffe haben könnte, die sich schon zu einigem Verständnis des Geisteswissenschaftlichen auf diesem Gebiete aufschwingen könnten. Verantwortung nicht nur gegenüber anderen Menschen, sondern auch gegenüber Begriffen, die ja, wenn sie moralische Begriffe sind, in unser Ich und höchstens in unseren Astralleib hineinkommen, die also ganz in der geistigen Welt, wenn ich so sagen darf, schwimmen und leben. Diese Verantwortung kann man nicht haben, wenn man nur in äußeren materialistischen Vorstellungen lebt, und in materialistischen Vorstellungen lebt man ja, auch wenn man oftmals gar nicht meint, man lebe darinnen. Dadurch, daß man sagt, Gott habe uns für unsere Fehler diesen Krieg geschickt, dadurch, daß man solch eine Phrase vorbringt, ist man ja noch nicht ein Geist-Erkenner, dadurch ist man ja noch nicht über die materialistischen Begriffe hinaus. Über die materialistischen Begriffe ist man erst dann hinaus, wenn man sich Vorstellungen machen kann, wie es in der geistigen Welt aussieht, wie es in der geistigen Welt zugeht.
Wortzusammenstellungen, die nicht in den Realitäten wurzeln, trifft man ja heute in Hülle und Fülle an. Insbesondere dann trifft man sie in Hülle und Fülle an, wenn versucht wird, die oder jene politische Kundgebung zu beantworten. Dadurch, daß man bei solchen Gelegenheiten vom neuen Geist spricht, dadurch verrät man noch nicht, daß man die Spur einer Ahnung vom Geiste überhaupt hat.
Der Geist muß in seiner Konkretheit, in seiner Wirklichkeit erfaßt werden, er darf kein Abstraktum bleiben, sonst kommen wir aus den verheerenden Verhältnissen in der Gegenwart nicht hinaus. Wie gesagt, die eine oder die andere Naturerscheinung läßt sich begreifen mit den Begriffen, die man sich erwirbt, wenn man sich am Gängelbande des äußeren Wahrnehmens fortführen läßt. Aber eingreifen in das Getriebe des Menschenlebens selbst, das kann man nur, wenn man Begriffe aus der geistigen Welt hat. Sie könnten fragen, wie kommt es denn, daß doch da oder dort noch eingegriffen wird in das Menschenleben. Es sind das alte, uralte Begriffe, die die Menschen jetzt auswalzen, aber diese uralten Begriffe taugen nichts mehr für die Zeit. Die Zeit verlangt neue Begriffe, neue Vorstellungen, neu natürlich nur in dem Sinne, daß sie der Menschheit neu sind. Diese neuen Vorstellungen sind aber eben zuweilen den Menschen recht unbequem. So sind insbesondere unbequem die Gedanken, die sich ergeben, wenn man in wirklich geisteswissenschaftlichem Sinne die menschliche Moralität ansieht. Nicht wahr, es ist so unendlich bequem, sich zu sagen, Wohlwollen ist eine Tugend, deshalb muß man sich das Wohlwollen erwerben; Recht ist etwas Moralisches, deshalb muß das Recht begründet werden. Dann kann man Gesetzgeber sein und Veranstaltungen treffen, durch die das Wohlwollen, das Recht geregelt wird. Man kann auch Parlamente wählen, wo die gescheiten Leute zusammenkommen, um allerlei Einrichtungen im Sinne einer wohlwollenden und rechtlichen Ordnung und dergleichen zu treffen. Aber herauskommen kann, wenn die Dinge so gehandhabt werden, wie sie bisher gehandhabt wurden, nur dasjenige, was wir jetzt über die Erde sich ausbreiten sehen. Wenn die Menschen doch den Mut hätten, den Zusammenhang zu erkennen zwischen dem Vorstellungswesen, das sich nach und nach herausgebildet hat, und den furchtbaren Ereignissen der Gegenwart! Wohlwollen ist eine Tugend, und man kann sich sehr wollüstig dabei befinden, der Wohlwollen nachzuleben, gewissermaßen in einen Katechismus zu schreiben: Du sollst wohlwollend sein, du sollst rechtlich sein und so weiter; — dann hat man es, aber man hat keine Erkenntnis!
Man hat ebensowenig eine Erkenntnis, wie man eine Erkenntnis vom Pendel hat, wenn man nur weiß: wenn es oben ist, so wird es durch die Schwerkraft heruntergeführt bis zum tiefsten Punkt, und nicht bedenkt, daß, wenn es unten angekommen ist, es gerade durch die Kraft, die sich im Herunterfallen angesammelt hat, geneigt ist, ebensoweit nach der anderen Seite auszuschlagen. Im Physischen drängen sich diese Dinge von selbst auf, im Moralischen fällt es den Menschen gar nicht ein, in derselben Weise eindringlich zu denken, wie sie im Physischen am Gängelbande der Naturkräfte denken müssen. Wenn der Mensch Wohlwollen entwickelt, so ist das gewiß gut. Aber gerade so, wie sich im Pendel, wenn es herunterfällt, die Kraft zum Aufwärtsgehen entwickelt, so entwickelt sich unter der Kraft des Wohlwollens die Kraft von Vorurteilen, die Kraft von unangebrachter Vorliebe für das und alles mögliche. Keine Tugend kann sich entwickeln, ohne daß unter der Entwickelung der Tugend die Anlage zu den entgegengesetzten Lastern in der menschlichen Seele als Neigung entsteht. Sehen Sie, diese Wahrheiten sind unbequem, aber sie sind eben Wahrheiten. Der einzelne wird es weniger bemerken, aber in der sozialen Ordnung tritt als Tatsache hervor, was eben angedeutet worden ist. Wenn die Menschen sich gar zu sehr darauf zugute tun, eine Zeitlang diese oder jene Tugend einseitig auszubilden, dann muß das nächste Zeitalter notwendig die entsprechenden Laster zum Vorschein bringen, wenn der Zusammenhang nicht erkannt wird. Denn hier kommen wir, wenn wir die Sachen im rechten Lichte besehen wollen, zu einer tiefen Wahrheit des Christus Jesus, die sich aber die Menschen durchaus nicht gestehen wollen.
Es geht jetzt eine merkwürdige Strömung durch die Welt, die nach und nach epidemisch die Seelen ergreift. Man sollte eigentlich nicht glauben, daß die Menschen zu dieser Anschauung haben kommen können, aber sie ist einmal da. Die Menschen scheinen nämlich den Beschluß gefaßt zu haben, diesen Krieg so lange fortzusetzen, bis ein ewiger Friede erkämpft ist, bis durch diesen Krieg die ganz sichere Garantie geboten wird, daß niemals mehr ein Krieg kommt. Es ist das nämlich das beste Mittel, diesen Krieg niemals zu Ende gehen zu lassen, dann wird man selbstverständlich durch ihn den ewigen Frieden erkämpfen. Man braucht bloß dieses Ideal des sogenannten Dauerfriedens anzustreben, so wie man es heute tut, dann wird man ganz gewiß diesen Krieg niemals zu Ende bringen können. Denn wir leben im physischen Menschenleib auf dem physischen Plan und der physische Plan kann nicht vollkommen sein, ist nicht vollkommen; und wenn Sie das Vollkommenste begründen würden auf dem physischen Plan, das zu irgendeiner Zeit begründet werden kann, so müßte es nach einigen Jahrhunderten etwas ganz Unvollkommenes sein, weil die Fortentwickelung sich nicht in aufsteigender Linie, sondern im Oszillieren bewegt. Wie das Pendel auf und ab geht, so bewegt sich die Entwickelung in auf- und absteigender Linie, und wenn ein Zeitalter etwas Vollkommenes entwickelt hat, so bleibt ihm nichts anderes übrig, als auf Menschen zu warten, die ein Vollkommeneres in-einem anderen Zeitalter wissen werden. Auf die Freiheit der Menschen kommt es an, nicht auf die Vollkommenheit der Einrichtungen auf dem physischen Plan, die eine Unmöglichkeit, ein Phantasiegebilde, eine Illusion ist. Der Liberalismus, der Sozialismus, der Konser vativismus, sie alle wollen das Paradies auf Erden gründen, das heißt, in den Einrichtungen des physischen Planes ein Vollkommenes verwirklichen. Der Christus hat aber gesagt, das Reich des Gottes ist überall in euch. — Will man die physische Welt als ein vollkommenes Paradies gestalten, so will man etwas ganz Unmögliches, denn die besteht in fortwährendem Oszillieren. Nur dadurch, daß man diese physische Welt mit Geistigem durchtränkt und der Mensch sich als Teilnehmer weiß des Reiches der Götter, des Reiches des Geistigen, nur dadurch wird man dem Christus-Prinzip gerecht. Wer da will die physische Welt, sei es im sozialistischen, sei es im anderen Sinne, zu einem Paradiese machen, versteht nichts von der Wirklichkeit. Sie sehen, was in die Menschenseelen sich hineinbegeben muß, wenn die unwirklichen Begriffe der Gegenwart wirklichen Begriffen Platz machen sollen. Man kann aber nicht zu wirklichen Begriffen kommen, wenn man nicht den Blick aufwärts wendet zu den großen geistigen Zusammenhängen. Wie spotten die Menschen der Gegenwart über die großen Gesichtspunkte, die durch die Saturn-, Sonnen-, Monden-, Erden-, Jupiter- und so weiter -entwickelung geltend gemacht werden! Wozu braucht man das alles? Man braucht es, um auch nur im kleinsten Erkenntnis für das Leben gewinnen zu können, denn der Mensch ist wirklich ein Mikrokosmos. In ihm leben Saturn-, Sonnen-, Mondenentwickelung und so weiter, und wenn er nichts wissen will von diesen Vorstellungen, so wäre das gerade so, wie wenn Sie dem Kinde im ersten Lebensjahre die Hände für die Dauer seines Lebens anbinden wollten, so daß es sie nie gebrauchen kann. So gebraucht der Mensch seine Fähigkeiten nicht, wenn er nicht den Blick aufwärts nach dem Geistigen wenden will. Daran hat es aber gefehlt, gar sehr gefehlt, und gerade gefehlt, wo es am wenigsten hätte fehlen sollen.
Ich möchte auf ein Beispiel hindeuten, das manche vielleicht sonderbar finden werden, das Ihnen aber doch vielleicht genauer sagen kann, was ich mit all den Dingen meine, die ich heute nur antippend berühre. Ich habe mit verschiedenen Menschen in der letzten Zeit über Dinge gesprochen, die der heutigen Menschheit notwendig wären, wenn sie aus den Kalamitäten, aus den verschiedenen Sackgassen herauskommen will; Dinge, die einfach in einer gewissen Summe von praktischen Begriffen bestehen, durch die man heute sein Denken auffrischen müßte, wenn man -— es ist schwer, über die Einzelheiten heute zu reden -, ich will einmal sagen, Papstnoten beantworten will. Diese Begriffe aber, so sehr sie auf dem unmittelbarsten praktischen Standpunkt des Lebens stehen, können nur gewonnen, nur verstanden werden, wenn man Impulse durch die Geisteswissenschaft hat. Denn diese Begriffe beziehen sich auf die Art und Weise, wie man heute denken muß, wenn man aus dem Wirrwarr herauskommen soll, über das Zusammenleben der Völker und Staaten, über die Einrichtungen, die die Völker und Staaten treffen müssen, wenn sie nicht in illusionären, abstrakten Begriffen von Völkerfreiheit und friedlichem Zusammenleben der kleinen Nationen und wie all das Zeug heißt, in Unwirklichkeiten deklamieren wollen. Man kann sehr intensiv praktische Begriffe ausbilden, die allein imstande sein würden, aus der Misere des heutigen Tages herauszukommen. Was aber erlebt man? Sie haben vielleicht in den Zeitungen gelesen, daß heute die Rektor-Inauguration an der Berliner Universität war. Der neuantretende Rektor, Geheimrat Penck, hat aus geologischen Begriffen heraus über politische Grenzbegriffe gesprochen. Ich kann Ihnen nicht sagen, wie schwer es einem ums Herz wird, wenn “man so etwas erlebt. Warum denn? Weil an den erleuchtetsten Stellen des gegenwärtigen geistigen Strebens die ungeklärtesten elementarsten Vorstellungen auftauchen, zu denen, wenn man sich auf Geisteswissenschaft einlassen würde, die für das Leben brauchbaren höheren Begriffe sich ergeben würden. Denken Sie sich, man erlebt: Geisteswissenschaft könnte entwickelte Begriffe für die gegenwärtige umfassende Lebenspraxis geben — diese entwickelten Begriffe würden aber eben höhere Zusammenhänge darstellen — und die anerkannte offizielle Wissenschaft bewegt sich da noch tastend im Abc der Sache und kann nicht aus diesem Abc heraus. Das ist es, was heute gerade bei solchen Gelegenheiten schwer machen kann, sich auch nur zum Verständnis zu bringen, was eigentlich gemeint ist. Denn weit entfernt ist das, worauf heute die Menschen achten, was heute die Menschen als höchste Autorität ansehen müssen, von dem, was so bitter not täte, und was nur aus der Geisteswissenschaft gewonnen werden könnte. Da, wo offizielle Wissenschaft sich auslebt, da erleben wir das ungeschickte Abc, aber das Lesen könnte da sein, wenn nicht Geisteswissenschaft von denjenigen, die sie nicht verstehen wollen, für eine phantastische Sache gehalten würde. Da muß man allerdings immer wieder und wiederum ohne alle Überhebung, ohne alle Verletzung der gebührenden Menschendemut, auf die ersten Zeiten des Christentums hindeuten, wie unten in den Katakomben unter der Erde in der ersten Römerzeit Christen ihren Gottesdienst verrichtet haben und oben die alte Welt ihre soziale Ordnung entfaltet hat. Was war einige Jahrhunderte später diese alte Welt, die für dieses werdende Christentum nichts anderes gehabt hat, als was man im alten Rom aus der Geschichte kennenlernen kann! Diese alte Welt war weggelöscht in wenigen Jahrhunderten, und was unten in den Katakomben war, das verbreitete sich oben. Könnte nur eine genügend große Anzahl von Menschen verstehen, daß heute schon etwas ähnliches notwendig ist, wenn auch nicht für etwas so Weltgroßes, wie das Christentum selber es ist. Das kann nicht bleiben, was heute als offizielle Wissenschaft, als offizielles Denken und Vorstellen waltet. Das verhält sich zu dem, was die Jahrhunderte brauchen, wie sich das alte Römertum zum Christentum verhielt, das sich unten in den Katakomben entwickelt hat. Aber man muß seine Gefühle und seine Empfindungen einstellen auf diesen weltgeschichtlichen Gegensatz, man muß sie so einstellen, daß man durchschaut, den Willen hat zu durchschauen, was alles Ungenügendes ist in den heutigen Deklamationen über den neuen Geist, oder Garantien in allen möglichen unfaßbaren Begriffen von zwischenstaatlichen Organisationen, von Schiedsgerichten und dergleichen, wobei man nur niemals wissen kann, wer Schiedsrichter sein soll. Es ist heute die Zeit, wo in das unmittelbarste Alltagsleben die großen Begriffe hineingehören, wo es der Menschheit nicht gestattet ist, zu sagen: Ja, diese Begriffe sind gewiß sehr schön zum Begreifen der Welt, aber man kann sie doch nicht in alltägliche Manifestationen hineinbringen!-Entweder wird man siehineinbringen, oder diese alltäglichen Manifestationen werden Nullitäten sein und keine Bedeutung haben für das praktische Leben, das nicht dasjenige von nach Jahrzehnten, sondern von heute und morgen ist. Überall, wo man heute verschiedene Meinungen hat, findet man verhältnismäßig Objektivität, bis zu einem gewissen Grade wenigstens. Suchen Sie aber unter den Bekämpfungen der Geisteswissenschaft, der Anthroposophie, etwas Objektives! Wenn solch ein Mensch, wie das Individuum Max Dessoir, der Professor an der Berliner Universität ist, sich über Geisteswissenschaft hermacht, so tischt er seinen Lesern Entstellungen, Fälschungen auf, wie ich in meinem Buche, das jetzt auch gedruckt ist und demnächst erscheinen wird, nachgewiesen habe. Immer wird das, was ehrlicher objektiver Kampf sein soll, übergeführt auf das persönliche Gebiet, auf das Gebiet der persönlichen Verunglimpfung, gerade wenn es sich um Geisteswissenschaft handelt. Warum? Nicht weil es die Menschen widerlegen können, sondern weil sie die Menschen nicht haben wollen, weil die Menschen es in der Gegenwart ablehnen, das eigentliche Menschenwesen in sich selber zu suchen. Denn das ist unbequem. Die Menschen wollen zum Beispiel die moralischen Begriffe haben, an denen sie sich delektieren können. Dazu taugen aber die Begriffe nicht, die zum Beispiel besagen, daß die Tugenden sich nach einiger Zeit von selbst in die Anlagen zum entsprechenden Laster wandeln, wenn die Menschen nicht auf Wache stehen gegenüber ihrer eigenen Seele. Wie oft habe ich aufmerksam gemacht auf den Begriff der Selbstlosigkeit. In einem öffentlichen Vortrage habe ich einmal hypothetisch als Beispiel gewählt, eine Gesellschaft habe sich gegründet zur Pflege der Selbstlosigkeit. Es habe sich in ihr die Gewohnheit herausgebildet, daß zu demjenigen, der die Gesellschaft leitet, Mitglieder kommen und sagen: Ich möchte das und das, aber nicht etwa für mich, sondern für einen andern - sie haben sich nämlich versprochen, daß der andere auch nicht für sich, sondern für den ersteren das Entsprechende will. Jeder will nichts für sich. Aber darauf kommt es nicht an, ob man für sich oder einen anderen etwas will, sondern darauf, ob es eine an sich selbstlose Forderung ist. Das Wesentliche dabei ist, daß die Menschen, wenn sie sich bemühen, selbstlos zu werden, durch die innere Kraft der Selbstlosigkeit nach einiger Zeit recht egoistisch werden. Das Streben nach Selbstlosigkeit macht egoistisch. Man muß dann wachen, damit das Pendel wieder heruntergeht, man muß sich nicht delektieren an seiner eigenen Selbstlosigkeit.
Solche Dinge standen schon Luther nah. Daher finden wir viele Stellen in Luthers Schriften, worinnen er ziemlich wenig Respekt zeigt vor solchen Tugenden wie Selbstlosigkeit und dergleichen, weil er weiß, daß Selbstlosigkeit in der Regel Maske ist, hinter der das Pharisäertum sitzt. Manchmal wird Luther in solchen Sachen derb; wie er einmal Melanchthon geraten hat, er solle ja nicht versuchen, so furchtbar selbstlos zu sein, sondern wenn er aufgelegt sei zu etwas Schlechtem, solle er dieses Schlechte auch tun, denn es sei besser, wenn man zu etwas Schlechtem aufgelegt sei, dieses Schlechte zu tun, als unaufrichtig Pharisäer zu werden, und scheinbar das Gute zu tun, während man in seiner Seele das Böse tun möchte. Luther hatte eben durch jene geistige Erfahrungsmöglichkeit, von der ich Ihnen schon gesprochen habe, sehr viel Einsicht in diese Polarität des menschlichen Lebens. Im Jahre 1510 war er in Rom. Damals galt es dort als ein verdienstliches Werk, wenn man eine Treppe hoch hinaufrutschte; ich weiß nicht, wie man es mit dem richtigen katholischen Terminus technicus nennt. Jedesmal wenn man eine Stufe hinaufgerutscht war, so waren eine gewisse Anzahl Tage im Fegefeuer nachgesehen, wenn man die ganze Treppe auf den Knien ohne aufzustehen hinaufrutschte, so gab das viele Tage Nachsicht für das Fegefeuer. Luther hat das mitgemacht, denn er war dazumal durchaus auf dem Standpunkt, daß man durch solche Dinge sein Seelenheil fördern könnte. Aber während er die Treppe hinaufrutschte, hatte er eine Imagination, die ihm sagte: Die Gerechtigkeit suche im Glauben! — Gerade durch solche Dinge wurde er zu dem Luther. Der polarische Gegensatz desjenigen, was er tat, tat sich in seiner Seele auf. Er hatte Erfahrungen über solche polarische Gegensätze.
Tiefer hineinsehen in das Menschenleben, das ist dasjenige, was unsere Zeit vor allen Dingen vonnöten hat. Zu diesem Hineinsehen gehört schon, daß man durchschaut, daß ein Wort noch kein Ding ist. Das Wort Geist sprechen heute viele Leute aus, aber man kann viel über Geist sprechen und vom Geiste keine Spur haben. Die Menschen brauchen das gar nicht zu bemerken. Es gibt zum Beispiel einen Mann in der Gegenwart, der hat eine ganze Bibliothek geschrieben, und ich möchte nicht zählen, wie häufig das Wort Geist in dieser Bibliothek vorkommt. Die Leute glauben auch, daß der Mann wirklich vom Geiste spricht, er heißt nämlich Rudolf Eucken. Das ist es gerade, worauf es ankommt, die Wirklichkeit vom Schein auf diesem Gebiete zu unterscheiden. Das ist freilich unbequem. Das erzeugt vor allen Dingen die Furcht vor dem geistigen Leben, das erzeugt sogar die Furcht vor dem Denken. Fluchtartig bewegen sich heute die Menschen von dem Denken weg und möchten mit allem möglichen Ungedachten das Heil auf seelischem, auf sozialem, auf politischem Gebiete finden. Die Zeit ist zuernst, um über solche Dinge nicht ernst zu werden. Der Tag würde etwas Gutes bringen, wo Menschen in größerer Anzahl solches einsehen würden, wie es heute wieder angedeutet worden ist; leider nur angedeutet. Wollte man auf die Dinge eingehen, so müßte man ja in Formen sprechen, in denen man heute nicht sprechen darf. Deshalb wäre es gut, wenn insbesondere auch Sie sich zuweilen nach diesen Vorträgen aufs Denken verlegen würden, denn das Denken ist ja vorläufig noch nicht zensiert. Ich habe schon das letzte Mal gesagt: zerreißen würden die Menschen der Gegenwart noch vielfach den, der mit einem Blick, der da kommt durch die Einweihung, sich über die unmittelbaren Ereignisse der Gegenwart offen aussprechen möchte. Nicht einmal gesagt dürfen gewisse Dinge werden, geschweige denn getan. So gehen denn mancherlei Gelegenheiten in der Gegenwart vorüber, die darauf hinweisen könnten, wie sehr Vertiefung, Durchkraftung der menschlichen Seele notwendig ist. Man denke sich nur einmal, was aus der lutherischen Bewegung geworden wäre, wenn Luther nur die Kräfte von manchen führenden Menschen der Gegenwart besessen hätte, und nicht größere, stärkere, eindringlichere. Man kann die Frage aufwerfen: Warum wollen denn die Menschen der Gegenwart so wenig hören von wirklicher geistiger Erkenntnis? Die richtigste Antwort ist doch die, die ich ja schon wiederholt und auch heute angedeutet habe: daß diese geistige Erkenntnis den Menschen unbequem ist. Die neuere naturwissenschaftliche Weltanschauung gibt diese Begriffe in bequemerer Weise. Gewiß, sie ist bewunderungswürdig; aber man braucht sich nur der Welt gegenüberzustellen und sich am Gängelbande der äußeren Tatsachen führen zu lassen, man braucht sich nicht aufzuraffen, man braucht nicht die Tiefen der Seele heraufzuholen, um weiterzukommen. Diese Anforderung allerdings stellt Geisteswissenschaft an die Menschen. Außerdem kann sie nicht umhin, den Menschen zu sagen, daß, wer solche Anstrengung nicht macht, gar nicht in Wirklichkeit Mensch ist. Das aber wiederum hört insbesondere derjenige, der heute vermöge der Verhältnisse als Autorität gilt, nicht gern. Daß zum Beispiel ein Professor, ein Geheimrat nicht ganz Mensch sein sollte, das zu verstehen ist natürlich den Menschen der Gegenwart außerordentlich schwierig. Aber sie werden es begreifen müssen, wenn wir aus der Misere der Gegenwart herauskommen wollen.
Im Jahre 1613 hat Johann Valentin Andreae die Chymische Hochzeit des Christian Rosenkreutz geschrieben. Das Buch ist dann im Jahre 1616 erschienen. Ich werde in der nächsten Nummer der Zeitschrift «Das Reich» mit einem Aufsatze beginnen, der gerade über diese Chymische Hochzeit des Christian Rosenkreutz handelt. Jener Valentin Andreae hat in den Jahren 1614 bis 1617 auch noch andere Schriften verfaßt, die aus der damaligen Zeit heraus gedacht und empfunden waren. Eine Schrift trägt den Untertitel: «An die Fürsten und Oberhäupter aller Staaten.» Andreae wollte den Menschen zeigen, daß das, was sie von sich selber glauben, und was sie von anderen glauben, auch nur eine Maja ist, eine große Täuschung, er wollte den Menschen die Möglichkeit geben, sich selbst und andere kennenzulernen. Eine große geistige Bewegung hatte Johann Valentin Andreae im Sinne. Sie war herausgedacht, herausempfunden aus langer Vorbereitung. Zwei Dinge gab es in der damaligen Zeit: dasjenige, was Valentin Andreae wollte, und dasjenige, was zum Dreißigjährigen Krieg geführt hat, der 1618 begann und bis 1648 dauerte. Dasjenige aber, was zum Dreißigjährigen Krieg geführt hat, hat die Bewegung unmöglich gemacht, die Johann Valentin Andreae einleiten wollte. Es wäre viel zu sagen, wenn man das Scheitern des damaligen Versuches in seinen Ursachen charakterisieren wollte. Manche Versuche werden ja gemacht, scheitern, sollen aber später gelingen. Nun wohl, damals gab es eine Möglichkeit weiterzukommen. Wieder ist heute die Notwendigkeit gegeben, in zwei Strömungen drinnen zu stehen, die aufeinander wirken müssen: auf der einen Seite das, was Anthroposophie aus den Impulsen der Menschheitsentwickelung heraus will, auf der anderen Seite dasjenige, was zu einem ähnlichen Ereignisse wie der Dreißigjährige Krieg geführt hart. Es wird an der Menschheit sein, daß dasjenige, was geschehen soll, nicht wiederum ungeschehen gemacht wird. Bequemlichkeit, Unwachsamkeit könnten sehr leicht den gegenwärtigen Versuch wiederum paralysieren. Ob aber die Dinge wiederum so ausgehen würden, wie bei der Paralysierung des Versuchs von Valentin Andreae, ist eine andere Frage.
Jedenfalls darf heute niemand so fragen: Ja, wie kommt es denn, daß die geistigen Mächte sich nicht hineinmischen in die Verhältnisse des physischen Planes und Ordnung schaffen? — So darf man nicht fragen, denn was die Menschen tun, ist vielfach Auflehnung gegen diese geistigen Mächte, ist vielfach gegen die geistigen Mächte selbst gerichtet. Dieser Kampf gegen den Geist wird oftmals am meisten von denjenigen Menschen geführt, die immerfort reden von Geist, Geist und Geist. Ich habe neulich auf dem Umschlage einer Zeitschrift — ich weiß nicht genau, ob es eine Monatsschrift oder eine Halbmonatsschrift war — so etwas wie eine annoncenartige Sache gelesen, wo immerfort von Geist, Geist geredet wird, der Geist soll die gegenwärtigen Ereignisse beherrschen. Man greift sich an den Kopf. Geist soll die Kanonen, die Gasmasken und so weiter fabrizieren; alles wird da Geist genannt. Es fragt sich nur, ob die Menschen einsehen, welcher Art dieser Geist ist. Sie wissen, wir unterscheiden den Geist der normalen Fortentwickelung und den luziferischen und ahrimanischen Geist. Ich habe Sie neulich aufmerksam gemacht, wie Ricarda Huch in ihrem Buche über Luther den Teufel geradezu herbeisehnte, sie meinte eigentlich die Erkenntnis des Teufels. Gegenüber manchen Geist-Deklamationen kann man schon sagen: den Teufel merkt das Völkchen nie, und wenn es ihn auch schon auf dem Umschlag von Zeitschriften hätte.
Ich konnte heute auf manches nur hinweisen und mußte manches verhüllen, das aber in Ihrer Seele, wenn Sie über das heute Gesagte nachdenken, sich enthüllen wird. Jedenfalls das eine werden Sie bemerkt haben, daß ich in ernster Weise, in recht bitterernster Weise sprechen wollte, und in dieser Weise möchte ich diese Vorträge vorläufig beschlossen haben.
Ninth Lecture
The time has now come for humanity in which the mysteries of human life are meaningfully approaching the souls of human beings. One can see that some people are well aware of these mysteries; however, there is little inclination to seek ways and means to uncover the secrets behind them. Today I would like to point out one of these mysteries — the mystery of immediate life — which many people encounter in the present. Some people today ask themselves: How is it that there is such disharmony between the intellectual and moral development of human beings on earth? — Intellectual development, which finds expression in what we now call, with more or less justification, scientific development, which is the basis of most people's worldview, this intellectual development, what has it not brought forth! It has brought forth all the external material means of culture, which I need not list in detail. When we think of all that this intellectual development has brought to the surface so far, enabling people to destroy each other, what it has brought to the surface in all kinds of magnificently devised means of destroying human beings, then, apart from all the moral considerations underlying it, we cannot but say that this intellectual development has reached its peak. Think of the science that was necessary to bring about all the instruments of murder under which humanity currently suffers, with which it tears itself apart. One can think of many favorable aspects of intellectual development, and one can think of many unfavorable aspects, but one cannot really say anything other than that this intellectual development has progressed in an unparalleled upward curve, especially in the last few centuries. Some have noticed that this stands in stark contrast to what is called the moral development of humanity, and here and there one encounters statements by contemporary people who point to this disharmony. Years ago, Ernst Haeckel pointed out in his notorious book on the riddles of the universe how humanity has advanced intellectually, but how, in many respects, it has not progressed beyond the most primitive stage in terms of moral concepts, and now some people are again drawing attention to this discrepancy between the two. These things impose themselves on the human mind when that mind does not sleep through the present, as I have often explained. But the people of today, out of their spiritual complacency, which I have often described, refuse to accept that only spiritual science can provide answers to such serious questions that go so deeply into the nature of human beings. And yet, a way of finding one's way in the confused circumstances of the present will only be possible if people are willing to engage with such things, to engage with them from points of view that can only be attained through spiritual knowledge. Is it not true how cutting it is for a soul endowed with healthy sensibility to have to admit to itself what is now asserting itself all over the globe in the form of unease, of unwillingness to face the things that are happening or that lie beneath the surface of the things that are happening, with a clear and true sense? One may say: What a discrepancy there is between the way people have long dwelt on many measures of olden times that appear immoral, and how strange this seems when contrasted with what people now judge or fail to judge, even though the extent of what is happening on earth today is more terrible than anything that has ever happened in the course of human evolution. Let us consider the relationship between the intellectual development of humanity and its moral development from the perspective that can be gained through spiritual science.
We must first ask the question: What in human beings is responsible for intellectual development? What is at work when we think in a scientific sense, when we think in order to explain nature to ourselves, when we reflect in order to describe the laws of nature and form ideas about the world in accordance with the laws of nature? What is actually at work within us? Well, what is at work within us are the oldest parts of human nature, which we can observe if we begin with the Saturn evolution that is familiar to us and proceed through the Sun evolution and the Moon evolution to the Earth evolution, if we look at what has been added to and imprinted upon humanity. This forms the tools of intellectual development today. If, on the other hand, we want to deal with moral development in terms of knowledge, we cannot point to these ancient components of the human being, but in relation to moral development we are dealing with relatively much younger members of human nature; indeed, in the truest sense, only the I itself can be considered moral. But how often have I said that the I is the baby among the human members; not even in the astral body, which was incorporated into the human being during the lunar evolution, can one already speak of moral impulses. One can only speak of moral impulses in the astral body insofar as the I is in intimate connection with this astral body during life and the impulses of morality that assert themselves in the I are thereby transferred to the astral body. But consider that the ego and the astral body have a relatively high degree of independence and detach themselves from the physical body and etheric body every night during sleep, living then in complete unconsciousness. In this unconsciousness, they cannot yet receive moral impulses.
Now consider the following, which is important, even if it is still somewhat difficult for modern people to understand. Every time we wake up, our ego and astral body enter our physical body and etheric body, which are the oldest members of human development. Through their development on Saturn, the Sun, and the Moon, they have become the primary tools of intellectual development and, in this respect, have reached a certain degree of perfection. This degree of perfection is, however, innate to them, and what is innate to them is precisely what we call intellectual development. In a certain sense, we would be thinking machines, scientific machines, if our physical and etheric bodies were not joined by the I and the astral body. But just as our physical body and our etheric body are, they are also, in a certain sense, automatic. Basically, they are only capable of further development on Earth because they are inhabited by the I. But this I would be able to do little to perfect the intellectual abilities of the physical and etheric bodies if it were not put to sleep every night. We receive the best forces, including those for intellectual development, during sleep. What we receive during sleep we then carry into the physical and etheric bodies, and because these are, in a sense, developed, perfect instruments, it is that when, upon awakening, the I submerges into the etheric and physical bodies, the well-trodden paths of intellectuality can be further developed by this I from the spiritual world. During the day, the necessary consciousness is added, the consciousness that is acquired through the physical and etheric bodies. However, in relation to the actual I and the astral body, we do not yet have the same consciousness in the present time. I ask you to take this into account in particular. Human beings believe they know their I, but how do they know their I? If you have a red surface and make a hole in it, but the background is dark, i.e., there is nothing there, you see red and you see the hole as a black circle; you perceive nothing where the black circle is, there is nothing there. Just as you see the red around it, so you see the I in your soul life. In truth, what people believe they perceive as their ego is only a hole in their soul life. Because there is nothing there, or at least not much, people believe that they perceive their ego there, while all around them they perceive only what their brain shows them through their physical and etheric bodies. In the present stage of human development, while we are in the physical body between birth and death, the perception of the self is not yet very far advanced. During sleep we are unconscious. But in relation to the self we are also unconscious during the day, while we are awake, and yet morality must be implanted in the self. You see, therefore, that in relation to the implantation of morality, human beings are still quite infantile in comparison with their intellectuality. This is the deeper reason why human beings make such extraordinarily difficult progress in morality during the Earth's evolution, while intellectual development proceeds relatively easily.
Now, an article has recently appeared in a magazine called Die Glocke (The Bell), which sometimes does not sound very intelligent, and which was founded during the war, about this very discrepancy between intellectual and moral development. According to the sentiment of this resounding bell, all discrepancies between intellectual and moral development can be traced back to the fact that intellectual development has so far taken place under the sign of capitalism, under the sign of the rule of individuals, and that moral development can only come about when socialism is established. Well, idealists establish worldviews in order to culminate them in the dogma: There will be paradise on earth once idealism prevails. Materialists establish worldviews that culminate in the dogma: There will be paradise on earth once materialism prevails universally. In the age of liberalism, worldviews were founded that promised paradise in the general realization of liberalism; socialism, of course, sees paradise in the realization of socialism. These things are extremely simple, but they are, of course, just as many banal illusions; they show that although people today are confronted with problems, they are not able to take the inconvenience upon themselves to really think, and it is thinking that is necessary in the first instance to penetrate the realm of spiritual experience. For those who really want to think can already penetrate the realm of spiritual experience.
Our age, which is so proud of its thinking, knows thinking least of all. But the question of the discrepancy between intellectual and moral development can only be answered from the very broad perspectives we have just touched upon. But that bell, which sounds as if it had just been rung but not struck, finds that intellectual life can already proceed when individual people are intellectual, but that moral life can only attain a corresponding development when a socialist institution takes hold of all people. Individual capitalist development would have been favorable to the scientific intellectual, and social order will be favorable to moral development.
What is really at stake is that if moral order is to develop in the world to the same extent as intellectual development has, people must turn their attention to the spiritual world. Then it must be possible for people to truly look up to the spiritual impulses and forces that permeate and animate the world. Today, this is still something thoroughly uncomfortable for people. Uncomfortable for many reasons. Those who allow themselves to develop their thinking in the way I have often described here, so that this thinking enables them to live in the spiritual world and experience the spiritual world as reality, must develop something within themselves that has greatly diminished under the materialistic development of recent times. Yes, I would say that this inner sense of responsibility, which is so lacking in modern times, develops internally on its own. People who want to form a worldview based solely on their scientific observations are guided in their conceptualization by external facts, and they then allow themselves to be easily led by the external facts. They acquire certain concepts which, to a certain extent, are sufficient to understand this or that in nature, but which are by no means sufficient to create connections in the moral and social order of human beings, to see through the moral and social order of human beings in its reality. In order to see through it, one must be connected with spiritual reality. This, however, creates within the soul a strong sense of responsibility toward the idea, so that one does not allow oneself to form any arbitrary connections between thoughts, but only those connections that one can, as it were, allow to be seen in one's soul before the beings of the higher hierarchies. With concepts such as those that humanity today has about the individual human being and his relationship to the people, one cannot allow oneself to be seen before the beings of the spiritual worlds. With all the declamations about the freedom of peoples, one cannot make a state before the spiritual worlds, for freedom, as one recognizes from spiritual science, is a concept applicable only to the individual human being as an individual, but not to the people with their group soul. Other concepts than freedom apply there. Nevertheless, today people declaim throughout the world in the twenty-seven-year-old terms of Woodrow Wilson about the freedom of peoples and the like, and they take these things seriously. They are taken seriously in the cultural sphere in which we ourselves live, where, after all we have gone through over the centuries, we could have clearer concepts that could already rise to some understanding of spiritual science in this field. Responsibility not only towards other people, but also towards concepts which, if they are moral concepts, enter into our ego and at most into our astral body, which therefore float and live entirely in the spiritual world, if I may say so. You cannot have this responsibility if you live only in external materialistic ideas, and you do live in materialistic ideas, even if you often do not think you do. By saying that God sent us this war for our mistakes, by uttering such a phrase, one is not yet a spiritual knower; one has not yet transcended materialistic concepts. One has only transcended materialistic concepts when one can form ideas of what the spiritual world looks like, of how things are in the spiritual world.
Word combinations that are not rooted in reality are abundant today. They are particularly abundant when attempts are made to respond to this or that political statement. By speaking of the new spirit on such occasions, one does not reveal that one has even the slightest inkling of the spirit.
The spirit must be grasped in its concreteness, in its reality; it must not remain an abstraction, otherwise we will not be able to escape the devastating conditions of the present. As I have said, one or another natural phenomenon can be understood with the concepts one acquires when one allows oneself to be led by the hand by external perception. But one can only intervene in the workings of human life itself if one has concepts from the spiritual world. You may ask how it is that intervention in human life still takes place here and there. It is the old, ancient concepts that people are now trotting out, but these ancient concepts are no longer suitable for the present time. The times demand new concepts, new ideas, new only in the sense that they are new to humanity. But these new ideas are sometimes quite uncomfortable for people. In particular, the thoughts that arise when one looks at human morality in a truly spiritual sense are uncomfortable. Isn't it infinitely convenient to say that benevolence is a virtue, and therefore one must acquire benevolence; that law is something moral, and therefore law must be justified. Then one can be a legislator and make arrangements to regulate benevolence and law. One can also elect parliaments where clever people come together to establish all kinds of institutions in the spirit of a benevolent and legal order and the like. But if things are handled as they have been handled up to now, the only thing that can come of it is what we now see spreading across the earth. If only people had the courage to recognize the connection between the ideas that have gradually developed and the terrible events of the present! Goodwill is a virtue, and one can take great pleasure in living according to goodwill, in writing it down in a catechism, as it were: You shall be benevolent, you shall be just, and so on; — then you have it, but you have no knowledge!
One has as little knowledge as one has knowledge of a pendulum if one only knows that when it is at the top, it is brought down to the lowest point by gravity, and does not consider that when it has reached the bottom, it is inclined to swing back just as far in the other direction precisely because of the force that has accumulated during its fall. In the physical realm, these things impose themselves upon us; in the moral realm, it does not occur to people to think in the same way as they must think in the physical realm, where they are bound by the forces of nature. When people develop goodwill, that is certainly good. But just as the pendulum develops the force to swing upward when it falls, so the force of prejudice, the force of inappropriate preference for this and that, develops under the force of goodwill. No virtue can develop without the development of the opposite vices arising as tendencies in the human soul. You see, these truths are uncomfortable, but they are truths nonetheless. The individual will notice this less, but in the social order, what has just been indicated emerges as a fact. If people take too much credit for developing this or that virtue one-sidedly for a time, then the next age will necessarily bring forth the corresponding vices if the connection is not recognized. For here, if we want to see things in their proper light, we come to a profound truth of Christ Jesus, which people are absolutely unwilling to admit to themselves.
A strange current is now sweeping through the world, gradually taking hold of souls in an epidemic fashion. One would not think that people could have come to this view, but it is there. People seem to have decided to continue this war until eternal peace is achieved, until this war offers a completely secure guarantee that there will never be another war. For this is the best means of never allowing this war to end, and then, of course, eternal peace will be achieved through it. One need only strive for this ideal of so-called permanent peace, as is being done today, and then one will certainly never be able to bring this war to an end. For we live in physical human bodies on the physical plane, and the physical plane cannot be perfect, is not perfect; and if you were to establish the most perfect thing on the physical plane that could ever be established, after a few centuries it would have to be something completely imperfect, because development does not move in an ascending line, but in an oscillating motion. Just as a pendulum swings up and down, so development moves in an ascending and descending line, and when an age has developed something perfect, it has no choice but to wait for people who will know something more perfect in another age. What matters is the freedom of human beings, not the perfection of institutions on the physical plane, which is an impossibility, a fantasy, an illusion. Liberalism, socialism, conservatism—they all want to establish paradise on earth, that is, to realize perfection in the institutions of the physical plane. But Christ said that the kingdom of God is within you. If one wants to shape the physical world into a perfect paradise, one wants something completely impossible, for it consists of constant oscillation. Only by saturating this physical world with the spiritual and by knowing that man is a participant in the kingdom of the gods, the kingdom of the spiritual, can one do justice to the Christ principle. Anyone who wants to turn the physical world into a paradise, whether in a socialist or any other sense, understands nothing of reality. You see what must enter into human souls if the unreal concepts of the present are to give way to real concepts. But one cannot arrive at real concepts unless one turns one's gaze upward to the great spiritual connections. How people today mock the great perspectives that are asserted through the Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth, Jupiter, and so on, evolutions! Why do we need all that? We need it in order to gain even the smallest insight into life, for the human being is truly a microcosm. Saturn, Sun, Moon, and so on live within him, and if he wants to know nothing of these ideas, it would be just as if you wanted to tie the hands of a child in its first year of life for the rest of its life so that it could never use them. In the same way, man does not use his abilities if he does not want to turn his gaze upward toward the spiritual. But this has been lacking, very much lacking, and lacking precisely where it should have been least lacking.
I would like to point to an example that some may find strange, but which may perhaps explain more clearly what I mean by all the things I have only touched on today. I have recently spoken with various people about things that would be necessary for humanity today if it wants to emerge from its calamities, from its various impasses; things that simply consist of a certain set of practical concepts through which we would have to refresh our thinking today if we want to—it is difficult to talk about the details today—let me say, respond to the papal notes. However, these concepts, however much they stand on the most immediate practical standpoint of life, can only be gained and understood if one has impulses from spiritual science. For these concepts relate to the way we must think today if we are to escape the confusion about the coexistence of peoples and states, about the institutions that peoples and states must establish if they do not want to declaim in unrealities about illusory, abstract concepts of freedom of peoples and peaceful coexistence of small nations and all that sort of thing. It is possible to develop very intensive practical concepts that alone would be capable of getting us out of the misery of today. But what do we experience? You may have read in the newspapers that today was the inauguration of the new rector at the University of Berlin. The new rector, Privy Councilor Penck, spoke about political border concepts using geological terms. I cannot tell you how heavy my heart feels when I experience something like this. Why? Because in the most enlightened areas of contemporary intellectual endeavor, the most obscure and elementary ideas emerge, ideas which, if one were to engage in spiritual science, would give rise to higher concepts that are useful for life. Imagine experiencing the following: Spiritual science could provide developed concepts for the comprehensive practice of life today—but these developed concepts would represent higher connections—and yet recognized official science is still groping around in the ABCs of the matter and cannot move beyond these ABCs. This is what makes it so difficult today, especially on such occasions, to even begin to understand what is actually meant. For what people pay attention to today, what they must regard as the highest authority, is far removed from what is so bitterly needed and what can only be gained from spiritual science. Where official science indulges itself, we experience the clumsy ABCs, but reading could be possible if spiritual science were not considered a fantastical thing by those who do not want to understand it. Here, however, we must repeatedly and again, without any arrogance, without any violation of due human humility, point to the early days of Christianity, when Christians worshipped in the catacombs beneath the earth in the early Roman period, while above them the old world developed its social order. What was this old world a few centuries later, which had nothing else for this emerging Christianity than what we know from history about ancient Rome! This old world was wiped out in a few centuries, and what was below in the catacombs spread above. If only a sufficiently large number of people could understand that something similar is necessary today, even if not for something as world-encompassing as Christianity itself. What prevails today as official science, as official thinking and imagination, cannot remain. This is to what the centuries need as the ancient Roman world was to Christianity, which developed down in the catacombs. But one must adjust one's feelings and sensibilities to this world-historical contrast; one must adjust them so that one sees through, has the will to see through, what is inadequate in today's declamations about the new spirit, or guarantees in all kinds of incomprehensible concepts of intergovernmental organizations, arbitration tribunals, and the like, where one can never know who is to be the arbitrator. Today is the time when the great concepts belong in the most immediate everyday life, when humanity is not allowed to say: Yes, these concepts are certainly very beautiful for understanding the world, but they cannot be brought into everyday manifestations! Either they will be brought in, or these everyday manifestations will be nullities and have no meaning for practical life, not that of decades from now, but of today and tomorrow. Wherever there are different opinions today, one finds relative objectivity, at least to a certain degree. But look for something objective among the attacks on spiritual science, on anthroposophy! When someone like Max Dessoir, a professor at the University of Berlin, attacks spiritual science, he serves his readers distortions and falsifications, as I have proven in my book, which is now in print and will be published shortly. What should be an honest, objective struggle is always transferred to the personal realm, to the realm of personal denigration, especially when it comes to spiritual science. Why? Not because people can refute it, but because they do not want it, because people in the present day refuse to seek the true nature of humanity within themselves. Because that is inconvenient. People want, for example, to have moral concepts that they can revel in. But concepts that say, for example, that virtues will, after a while, automatically turn into the corresponding vices if people are not vigilant towards their own souls, are not suitable for this purpose. How often have I drawn attention to the concept of selflessness. In a public lecture, I once chose as a hypothetical example a society that had been founded to cultivate selflessness. A habit had developed in this society whereby members would come to the person in charge of the society and say: I would like this and that, but not for myself, but for someone else—for they had promised each other that the other person would not want the same thing for themselves, but for the first person. No one wants anything for themselves. But it does not matter whether one wants something for oneself or for another, but whether it is a selfless demand. The essential point here is that when people strive to become selfless, they become quite selfish after a while through the inner power of selflessness. The pursuit of selflessness makes one selfish. One must then be vigilant so that the pendulum swings back down again; one must not revel in one's own selflessness.
Such things were already close to Luther's heart. That is why we find many passages in Luther's writings in which he shows little respect for virtues such as selflessness and the like, because he knows that selflessness is usually a mask behind which Phariseeism lurks. Sometimes Luther becomes crude in such matters; as he once advised Melanchthon not to try to be so terribly selfless, but if he felt inclined to do something bad, he should do it, because it is better to do something bad when one is inclined to do it than to become an insincere Pharisee and appear to do good while wanting to do evil in one's soul. Luther had gained a great deal of insight into this polarity of human life through the spiritual experience I have already mentioned. In 1510, he was in Rome. At that time, it was considered a meritorious deed to slide up a flight of stairs; I do not know what the correct Catholic technical term for this is. Each time one slid up a step, a certain number of days were forgiven in purgatory; if one slid up the entire staircase on one's knees without standing up, this resulted in many days of remission in purgatory. Luther did this because he was convinced at the time that such things could promote the salvation of one's soul. But as he slid up the stairs, he had an imagination that told him: Seek righteousness in faith! It was precisely through such things that he became Luther. The polar opposite of what he did opened up in his soul. He had experiences of such polar opposites.
Looking deeper into human life is what our time needs above all else. This insight includes seeing through the fact that a word is not yet a thing. Many people today speak the word spirit, but one can speak a lot about spirit and have no trace of spirit. People do not even need to notice this. For example, there is a man today who has written an entire library, and I do not want to count how often the word spirit appears in this library. People also believe that this man really speaks of the spirit, for his name is Rudolf Eucken. This is precisely what is important: to distinguish reality from appearance in this area. Of course, this is inconvenient. Above all, it creates fear of spiritual life; it even creates fear of thinking. Today, people are fleeing from thinking and want to find salvation in the spiritual, social, and political realms with all kinds of unthought ideas. The time is too serious not to take such things seriously. The day would bring something good when large numbers of people would understand what has been hinted at again today; unfortunately, only hinted at. If one wanted to go into these things, one would have to speak in forms that are not permitted today. Therefore, it would be good if you, in particular, would occasionally turn to thinking after these lectures, for thinking is not yet censored. I already said last time: people today would tear apart anyone who, with a vision gained through initiation, wanted to speak openly about the immediate events of the present. Certain things cannot even be said, let alone done. Thus, many opportunities are passing by in the present that could point to how necessary it is to deepen and strengthen the human soul. Just imagine what would have become of the Lutheran movement if Luther had possessed only the powers of some of the leading figures of his time, and not greater, stronger, more penetrating powers. One might ask: Why do people today want to hear so little about real spiritual knowledge? The most accurate answer is the one I have already given repeatedly and also hinted at today: that this spiritual knowledge is uncomfortable for people. The newer scientific worldview expresses these concepts in a more convenient way. Certainly, it is admirable; but one need only face the world and allow oneself to be led by the hand by external facts; one need not make an effort, one need not search the depths of one's soul in order to progress. This, however, is what spiritual science demands of people. Moreover, it cannot avoid telling people that those who do not make such an effort are not really human. But this, in turn, is something that those who are considered authorities today, by virtue of their circumstances, do not like to hear. That, for example, a professor or a privy councilor should not be entirely human is, of course, extremely difficult for people today to understand. But they will have to understand it if we want to escape from the misery of the present.
In 1613, Johann Valentin Andreae wrote The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz. The book was then published in 1616. In the next issue of the magazine Das Reich, I will begin with an essay dealing precisely with this Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz. Between 1614 and 1617, Valentin Andreae also wrote other works that were conceived and felt from the perspective of that time. One of these works bears the subtitle: “To the princes and rulers of all states.” Andreae wanted to show people that what they believe about themselves and what they believe about others is also just a Maja, a great deception; he wanted to give people the opportunity to get to know themselves and others. Johann Valentin Andreae had a great spiritual movement in mind. It was thought out and felt out of long preparation. There were two things at that time: what Valentin Andreae wanted, and what led to the Thirty Years' War, which began in 1618 and lasted until 1648. However, what led to the Thirty Years' War made the movement that Johann Valentin Andreae wanted to initiate impossible. There would be much to say if one wanted to characterize the causes of the failure of that attempt. Some attempts are made, fail, but are supposed to succeed later. Well, at that time there was a possibility of moving forward. Today, there is once again a need to stand within two currents that must interact with each other: on the one hand, what anthroposophy wants to achieve based on the impulses of human evolution, and on the other hand, what led to events similar to the Thirty Years' War. It will be up to humanity to ensure that what is to happen is not undone again. Complacency and inattention could very easily paralyze the current attempt. But whether things would turn out the same way as when Valentin Andreae's attempt was paralyzed is another question.
In any case, no one today should ask: Yes, how is it that the spiritual powers do not intervene in the conditions of the physical plane and create order? — One must not ask this question, because what human beings do is often rebellion against these spiritual powers, is often directed against the spiritual powers themselves. This struggle against the spirit is often waged most fiercely by those who constantly talk about spirit, spirit, and spirit. Recently, on the cover of a magazine — I don't know exactly whether it was a monthly or a bi-monthly — I read something like an advertisement that talked constantly about spirit, spirit, and how spirit should rule current events. One is left scratching one's head. Spirit is supposed to manufacture cannons, gas masks, and so on; everything is called spirit. The only question is whether people realize what kind of spirit this is. You know, we distinguish between the spirit of normal evolution and the Luciferic and Ahrimanic spirit. I recently drew your attention to how Ricarda Huch, in her book about Luther, actually longed for the devil; what she really meant was the recognition of the devil. In response to some of the declamations about spirit, one can already say: the little people will never notice the devil, even if he were on the cover of magazines.
Today I could only point out some things and had to conceal others, but these will be revealed in your soul when you reflect on what has been said today. In any case, you will have noticed that I wanted to speak in a serious, indeed bitterly serious manner, and it is in this manner that I would like to conclude these lectures for the time being.