Man's Being, His Destiny and World Evolution
GA 226
19 May 1923, Oslo
4. Man's Being, His Destiny and World Evolution, Part 1
In viewing the soul of man, we find its inner element composed of thinking or forming of mental representations, feeling, and willing. You know that these three soul-activities have been often discussed by me. Nevertheless, I should like to say a few words today about this threefold constitution of the human soul, inasmuch as it is in especial connection with the present cycle.
Life in the waking state is essentially concerned with our mental activity. Of what we are thinking we are fully conscious in the waking state. If you ask yourself: Are we as conscious of the feelings that we experience in the waking state as we are of the mental representations? the answer would have to be in the negative. In a certain sense, feelings are apprehended but dimly and vaguely by waking consciousness. And if you compare the experiences of your world of feelings with those confronting you in the manifold imagery of the dream-world, you will find the same degree of consciousness in the world of feelings that you do in the world of dreams. In the world of feelings, we dream in a different way; yet also in that world it is still only dreaming.
We may be easily misled regarding the character of this world of feeling by translating that which is felt into mental representations. We make a mental image of our feelings. In this way, the feelings are raised into waking consciousness. Yet the feelings, as such, are no more conscious than dreams.
What remains still more unconscious—it might be said, wholly unconscious—are man's will-impulses. Try to visualize what you know of the faculty generally called willing. Suppose that you stretch out your hand in order to grasp something. First, you have a mental image of the fact that you are going to stretch out your hand. This is what you intend to do. But how this intention streams down into your whole organism; how it is imparted to the muscles, the bones, so that your hand be enabled to grasp an object: of all this you know as little as you know, in your ordinary consciousness, of what happens to your ego during sleep. Only after grasping the object, you become aware—again by means of a mental image—of having carried out a movement.
What lies between the mental image forming the intention and the image engendered within you after this intention has been acted upon externally, what happens within your organism between these two stages is hidden by a sleep which takes possession of you even in the waking state. Willing is a matter of sleeping, feeling a matter of dreaming. And only mental activity, thinking, is a matter of real waking.
Here we have, even in the waking state, the threefold human soul: the waking soul that forms mental images; the dreaming soul that feels; and the willing soul that sleeps. Hence man can never know, out of his ordinary consciousness, what goes on in those regions where the will is weaving and living.
If, however, we illuminate by the methods of anthroposophical research the regions where the will is pulsating, we discover the following: The intention of carrying out a will-impulse is primarily a thought, a mental image. At the moment when this intention streams down into the organism, something is produced which might be called a process of inner combustion. Invariably, this combustion is kindled in the organism along the entire path followed by the will-impulse. The combustion of metabolic products existing within you brings forth the movement used by the arm in order to carry out a will-impulse. Hence someone who wills an action undergoes, in a physical sense, a burning-up and consuming of his metabolic products. The metabolic products must be renewed for the reason that they are being constantly burned up, consumed by the will-impulse.
It is different in mental activity. Here a constant depositing of salt-like particles takes place. Earthy, salt-like, ash-like particles are excreted from the organism. Thus, in a physical sense, thinking or mental activity is a depositing of salt. Willing is a combustion. To the spiritual view, human life appears as a continuous depositing of salt from above, and a combustion from below. This combustion has the effect of preventing by the fire within our body—if I may express it in this way—our perceiving, by means of our ordinary consciousness, the real nature of will. This combustion puts us to sleep in regard to our will, or will-impulses.
And what becomes invisible to our ordinary consciousness while we are asleep? If by the methods of spiritual research, we illuminate the organic fire constantly being kindled through the will, we perceive that this fire contains the effects of our moral behavior during previous earth-lives. What lives in this fire may be designated as human destiny, human karma.
It is actually true that a certain fact may assume an entirely different significance if looked at from a correct, spiritual viewpoint instead of an external, sensible-intellectual one.
For instance, a man may become acquainted, in a certain year of his life, with another man. This is generally considered as accidental. And it really seems as if the two persons had been led together by the accidents of life and become acquainted at a chance moment. Things, however, happen otherwise. If we use the methods of spiritual research and look into the whole connection of human life, if we look into everything made invisible by the previously mentioned process of combustion, we then find that an acquaintance made in a man's thirty-fifth year has been longed for and striven for by this man during his entire life according to a definite plan. If we follow someone's life from his thirty-fifth year back into his early childhood, we may uncover and reveal what paths were pursued in order to arrive at the point where the other man was encountered. All this has been carried out in accordance with a plan harbored in the unconscious.
If we look at a human being's destiny in this way, it is remarkable to discover what wiles were occasionally employed by this person in order to arrive at a certain place, in a certain year, and to encounter a certain person. Anyone having real insight into human life cannot help but say that, if someone is undergoing an experience, he himself has sought it, with all the force at his command, during his entire earth-life.
And why do we seek a particular experience? Because this seeking has been poured into our soul out of former lives. These former earth-lives, however, do not show their effect inside our waking thought-consciousness. They show their effect in that state of consciousness constantly lulled to sleep by the process of combustion. Although striving unconsciously, we are nonetheless striving for the attainment of our earthly experiences.
Now, if something of this kind is said, various objections may arise in our thoughts. First of all, the following argument might be raised: If all this be true, then our whole life is determined by destiny; we have no freedom. But do we lose our freedom through the fact that our hair is blond and not black? This, too, is predestined. We are nevertheless free, even if our hair is blond instead of black—although we might possibly prefer black hair; we are nevertheless free, even if we cannot pull down the moon, as we might have longed to do as children. We are nevertheless free, even though we have sought certain experiences since the beginning of our earth-life. For not all of human life is composed of such destined experiences; these experiences are always joined to freely chosen experiences.
And these freely chosen experiences joined to the others are found by spiritual science in a different place.
I have often spoken of the three stages of spiritual knowledge: Imagination, when we first view a world of images; inspiration, when this world of images is penetrated by spiritual reality and essence; intuition, when we stand amid spiritual reality and essence.
If the human being, in the course of his spiritual research, attains imagination and hence sees before him the tableau of his life, something else always becomes visible at the same time. One cannot be attained without the other. We cannot attain imagination, real spiritual knowledge of the life lived by us heretofore on earth, without seeing emerge, in a strange, memory-like manner, the experiences undergone by us during sleep between going to sleep and awaking. I have told you of what these experiences consist.
When attaining imagination on the one hand, we attain, on the other, by means of the inner silence enveloping our soul, an especially profound view of what the human being experiences during sleep. I have already described to you many things experienced by us during the sleeping state. What, however, is mainly set before our inner eye in sleep concerns destiny, as it forms itself anew.
If we illuminate the sleep that encompasses our will even in the waking state, we can see at work the karma resulting from previous earth-lives.
And, if we see in their true light the experiences undergone by us between going to sleep and awaking, we recognize how the karma that will be realized in our next earth-life is being woven out of the free deeds performed by us in the present earth-life.
You might believe that those able to fathom the realm of sleep might be perturbed when saying to themselves: Your own moral conduct during the present earth-life is preparing your karma. Yet this fact is no more perturbing than the knowledge that the sun has risen, climbed to its highest position at noon, sunk in the evening below the horizon, and will repeat the same course on the morrow. The lawfulness rising from the depth of slumber does not perturb us; because through freedom all that has been formed in the sleeping state of the present earth-life can, in the most manifold ways, be brought forth during the next earth-life.
And, when we envisage that which begins to weave itself in sleep, hidden from our ordinary consciousness, as new karma, we can clearly see karma at work in the subconscious states of our will—clearly see karma being spun anew.
We can also see how the past is being interwoven in the human being with the future; we can see how that which is veiled to the waking human being by sleep in the day-time, that is to say, the inner secrets of his will, is being spun together with that which is veiled to him by sleep at night: namely, the inner secrets of his ego and astral body as they have separated themselves from the physical and etheric bodies and are taking part in weaving the future karma.
Consider that the things thought by man in his ordinary waking state are mostly concerned with outer matters. These outer things thought by us remain fixed, by means of our soul-life's ordinary content, in our memory.
All this, however, represents only the surface of our soul-life. Beyond this thought-level lies a soul-life of much greater profoundness. Whatever we experience during the waking state as our thinking, we experience in the etheric body, the formative-force body. All that happens at a deeper level in the astral body and the ego can be experienced only by consciously penetrating the events passed through by the astral body and the ego when they have separated themselves from the physical and etheric bodies and fallen asleep. Then the future karma is being spun.
In the day-time, this future karma is veiled to us by the outward thoughts contained in the etheric body. In the depth of the soul, however, it is being woven together, also during the day, with that which dwells in unconscious, sleeping will as the karma emerging from the past. Hence the karma of the human being can be accurately divulged.
Here we find several interesting facts. The age of the human being's earliest childhood is especially revealing for the observation of karmic connections. The resolutions of children appear to us as utterly arbitrary; and yet they are not at all arbitrary.
It is indeed true that the child's actions imitate what goes on in the child's surroundings. I have indicated in my public lecture how the child, completely at one with his sense-organism, inwardly experiences every gesture, every movement made by the people around him. But he experiences every gesture, every movement, in its moral significance. Hence a child who is confronted with a choleric father experiences the immoral element connected with a choleric temperament. And the child experiences, through the subtlest movements of the people around him, the thoughts that these people harbor. Hence we should never permit ourselves to have impure, immoral thoughts in a child's presence and say: Such thoughts are permissible, because the child knows nothing about them. This is not true. Whenever we think, our nerve-fibers are always vibrating in one way or another. And this vibration is perceived by the child, especially during his earliest years. The child is a subtle observer and imitator of his surroundings.
The strangest and—it might be said—the most interesting fact, in an exalted sense, is the following: The child does not imitate everything, but takes his choice. And this choosing is done in a very complicated manner.
Let us assume that the child has before him a hot-headed, choleric father who does many things that are not right. The child, wholly one with his sense-organism, must absorb all these things. Since his eye cannot protect itself, it must perceive what takes place in the child's surroundings.
What the child absorbs, however, is absorbed only in the waking state. Eventually the child goes to sleep. Children sleep a great deal. And during sleep the child is able to choose: What he wants to absorb is sent out of his soul into his body, his physical organism; what he does not want to absorb is ejected during sleep into the etheric world. Thus the child takes into his bodily organism only those things that have been predestined for him by his destiny, his Karma. The working of destiny is seen with especial vividness in the child's very first years.
A person with a merely intellectual bent often feels that he is tremendously clever and the child tremendously stupid. After acquiring insight into the world, we discard this opinion and begin to realize how stupid we have become since our childhood. Our present cleverness, as opposed to that of childhood, is a conscious one. Yet far, far greater than all the wisdom given to us in later years is the wisdom with which the child, as was previously described, chooses between that which, according to the destiny resulting from former earth-lives, he must incorporate into himself, and that which he may eject into the general etheric world. And what is brought by man from former earth-lives into his present one becomes especially visible during the first years, when the question of freedom does not matter as yet. At the age when the consciousness of freedom arises, we have already brought into the present earth-life most of what had been destined to be garnered from previous earth-lives. And if someone has a certain experience at the age of thirty-five, he has blazed a trail towards this experience since his first childhood years. The first steps of life are the most important and essential for all that is determined by destiny.
I have tried to point out how wise we were as children and how, fundamentally, we become less and less wise as life continues. Our consciousness expands: hence we value conscious rationalism, and do not value the child's unconscious wisdom. Only by acquiring the science of initiation are we taught how to value this wisdom.
I have called attention to these things in the very first chapter of my booklet: Spiritual Guidance of Man and Humanity [Anthroposophic Press, New York.] Official philosophy has taken me severely to task on this score. It is important, nevertheless, that we are capable of looking at the first years of childhood in the right way.
People, once they have understood these things, will attain a sounder judgment on something that is mentioned today again and again, but not understood in the least: the question of inherited qualities.
In present-day literature and science the tendency is to base everything on qualities that have been inherited from the parents. If we once realize how the child, in a karmic sense, gathers from previous earth-lives whatever his wisdom urges him to select, we shall comprehend the correct relation between that which is determined by destiny and that which represents external inheritance and garb. For this inheritance is nothing but an external garb. That the latter exists will not seem strange to those comprehending in the right way how the human beings connect themselves, at a certain point between death and a new birth, with the sequence of generations. Turning their glance from the Beyond to the earthly realm, they are able to foresee who their parents are going to be. From the Beyond, we help to determine the qualities that our parents will have. Hence it is no wonder that we inherit these qualities. Yet—as was previously described—we make our choice concerning the qualities that we inherit.
To observe the human being during his first childhood years is a study as interesting as it is exalted. I must use this expression again and again. You will remember that I called your attention to the three things learned by the child in his first years: walking, which includes so many things that were discussed yesterday, speaking, and thinking. These three faculties are attained by the child.
Now let us observe correctly how the child takes his first steps. He may put down his little legs and feet firmly or gently; advance courageously or timidly; bend his knee vigorously or with less vigor; use his index finger or his little finger more frequently. Those who have the right insight into what is connected with walking, what is connected with the sense of equilibrium through which the child orientates himself in the three spatial directions—all those will recognize that the child's karma is symbolically expressed in his attempts at walking. We see a certain child, as he learns how to walk, put down his little feet with firmness. This shows us that he has proved himself as brave and courageous in various situations belonging to previous earth-lives. This brave and courageous quality coming from previous earth-lives is expressed, in a sensible image, by the firm manner in which the child plants his little feet on the ground. Thus we may observe just in the child's first attempts at walking a miraculous image of human karma. A man's personal karma is especially expressed by the manner in which he learns how to walk.
In the second place, we learn how to speak. We imitate what is spoken around us. Every child does this in his own way; yet all human beings who learn how to speak their mother tongue within a lingual province imitate just this one language. Hence we find that the human being's folk destiny is expressed by the way in which the child adapts himself to the imitation of sounds. The child, when learning how to walk, expresses his individual destiny; when learning how to speak, his folk destiny. And, when learning how to think, he expresses the destiny of universal mankind living in a certain period all over the globe. Thus a threefold destiny is interwoven in man.
It is true that we clothe our thoughts with diverse languages. Yet, when penetrating across language to the thoughts, we assume that these can be understood by every person anywhere in the world. A Chinese and a Norwegian language exist; nonetheless there is no difference—except an individual one—between Chinese and Norwegian thoughts. For it must be admitted that thoughts as such, with regard to their truth or untruth, are the same everywhere. They are differently colored for the sole reason that human beings express themselves through language and individual traits. The thought-content, however—not the form—is alike for all men. By adjusting himself to thought-life in his third stage, the child adjusts himself, at a certain point, to all of mankind. Through language, he adjusts himself to the folk destiny; through his orientation in three spatial directions (by learning how to walk, how to handle objects, and so forth) he adjusts himself to his personal, individual destiny.
In order to understand man's being in the right way, these things must be viewed from all sides. Now I should like to explain to you by means of another fact how the whole of human life is constituted.
Let us go back to the sleeping state; to those experiences undergone by us between falling asleep and awaking. Here we go back, with our ego and astral body, into the spiritual world; we go back to the starting-point of our life. Yet the ego and astral body are weaving our future destiny.
When the ego and astral body return again to the physical body, then destiny has been woven anew night by night. Man's ordinary consciousness, however, does not yet know anything of this destiny. He enters again into his physical and etheric bodies. In the etheric body, he had left behind his thoughts. We only assume that we do not think while lying in bed. We think unceasingly, but unbeknown to ourselves, because our ego and astral body dwell outside our thoughts. Thinking is an activity of the etheric body. You can easily observe this fact even in every-day life. For instance: you have heard, for the first time, a symphony that excited you greatly. If you are inclined to wake up during the night, you will do so again and again, always finding yourself amid this symphony's sounds, which continue to vibrate within your etheric body. These vibrations do not cease. It is not necessary that your ego be present while the symphony reverberates within you. If your ego were present, you would be aware only of the etheric body's vibrations. It is the same with other thoughts. You are thinking all night long while lying in bed; since your ego is away, however, you do not know that you think.
I can even disclose to you that waking life often spoils our thinking. Generally, our thoughts are much keener when our ego is away at night. This is true, whether you believe it or not. Most people's judgment on life is much sounder at night than in the day-time. If the etheric body, which is in harmony with the laws of the universe, thinks by itself and man does not ruin these thoughts, then man's thinking, no longer muddled up by the ego (as happens so often in the day-time) becomes much sounder.
While our ego and astral body are outside our physical and etheric bodies, we are engaged in weaving our future karma. What as ego and astral body lives and weaves outside us between falling asleep and awaking must pass through the portal of death; it must enter and pass through the super-sensible world. It is true that the astral element is subsequently merged with the ego, which thus undergoes a change of substance and must continue its way alone. Yet all that which has been weaving, in the sleeping state, outside the physical and etheric bodies must pass through the portal of death and must, between death and a new birth, pursue its path across the stages described by me during the recent days. My description has shown you how the ego passes through a stage where it works in unison with the beings of the higher Hierarchies, in order to prepare the spiritual germ of a future physical body.
This work necessitates the experiencing of profound wisdom between death and a new birth—an experience that can be undergone only if sharing a spiritual activity with beings of the higher Hierarchies.
Many other things must be merged with the karma, as it is woven between falling asleep and awaking, in order to unite all the elements into a future physical body. For you must consider what kind of path has to be pursued. All that is being woven as karma dwells in the ego and astral body. It must descend into those regions possessed by us, in the next earth-life, as the unconscious will-regions. All these elements must be thoroughly blended with our entire bodily organism. During the ordinary sleeping state, the ego and astral body have as yet but little of what they must attain during their transition between death and a new birth.
From the sleeping state, the ego and astral body must return to the physical body; and, when they wake up, they do not quite understand how to deal with this physical body. For, having received this body as the result of a previous earth-life, they do not know how to immerse themselves into it in the right way.
Because the astral body and ego can form the physical and etheric bodies only in the next earth-life, working on them in childhood during the first and second seven-year period and because the ego and astral body will only then encompass all that can work in the right way on the physical body: therefore now, when the ego—on falling asleep—has just absorbed the human being's moral conduct and karma has just begun to weave itself, this ego, on awaking, does not rightly understand all the things contained in the physical body.
The ego, when again immersing itself in the physical body, is utterly unconscious. Yet, as it passes through the region of mental activity, confused dream-images arise. What do these signify? Why do they correspond, in many cases, so little to life? Because the ego and astral body try to immerse themselves in the physical and etheric bodies, but find it difficult to do so. This discrepancy between that which the ego cannot do, but which it should do according to the wise principles of the physical and etheric bodies—this discrepancy is expressed by the confused images dreamed by us just before awaking. These dreams show us pictorially how the ego tries to bring what it has not yet attained into a certain harmony with the physical body and etheric body. And only when the ego, suppressing consciousness in regard to the will, immerses itself in subconscious regions, and hence no longer relies upon its own wisdom, can it enter again into the physical body without producing confused mental images.
If the ego, on awaking, plunged into the physical body when fully conscious, or half conscious as in dreams, then the most terrifying dreams would arise from man's entire physical body. Only the circumstance that we plunge, at the right moment, into the unconscious will subdues the fleeting dream-images and lets us sink down as proper egos and proper astral bodies into the regions of the unconscious will.
It is quite clear to anyone looking at these things without prejudice that every dream can show us the disharmony existing in the present life between what the ego and astral body have acquired in this present life and the fully developed physical and etheric bodies. First that which has been woven as moral element must unite itself, during the transition between death and a new birth, with the spiritual germ of the physical body. Then, whatever has been woven in the present life between falling asleep and awaking, becomes so powerful that it is really able to sink down during the next childhood life, during this dreamy, half asleep childhood life, into the physical and etheric bodies, using them as tools for earth-life.
We carry within us the result of preceding earth-lives. Only all that we carry below in our will-organism as forces of the preceding earth-life is concealed by an inner fire which consumes our physical substance and products. Yet these forces, although consumed by fire, are nonetheless active. We pursue our path across the world by means of our karma. There exists an especial path for every single experience. By choosing, from childhood on, what we want to imitate from the surrounding world, and by so doing, initiating an event that may not occur until our fiftieth year, and at the same time by exerting our will for the purpose of bringing about this experience, we undergo within ourselves a combustion of that which is bodily substance. And, because the fire renders us unconscious with regard to our life-path, our inner perception transposes what is really a continuous course of destiny into something appearing to us like momentary desires, instincts, urges, varieties of temperament, and so forth. Below courses the life-path determined by destiny. The fires are always flaming forth anew. We, however, can only see the fires' surface. And on this surface, out of the seething flames, as it were, there comes to life what dwells in our souls as passions, desires, instincts. Here is only the outer semblance, the outer revelation of that which weaves in the depths as human destiny.
What men observe are the single passions, the single instincts, the single desires, momentary likes and dislikes, deeds carried out or not carried out because of momentary sympathy or antipathy. In making such observations, however, we behave like someone who has a sentence before him and says: “Here I see g,o,d,r,u,l,e,s,t,h,e,w,o,r,l,d.” All he can do is to spell the single letters. Then another person comes and says: “The letters spelled by you mean God rules the world.” Just as spelling differs from reading, so does ordinary science differ from spiritual science.
Ordinary psychology is able to spell. By looking at a human life, it finds certain instincts and urges in the child. The scientist, who only knows how to spell, registers these things, and thus it continues during the human being's entire existence on earth.
Those understanding spiritual science are able to read. Looking beyond the fire's surface, they see what is below: man's destiny-determined life-path.
Between ordinary psychology, such as it is still practiced today, and genuine knowledge of human soul-life there is a difference akin to that between spelling and reading.
We could make ourselves understood with less difficulty, if we could only tell the others that they are wrong. But, if someone spells g,o,d,r,u,l,e,s, it is impossible to tell him: “What you say is wrong.” For it is perfectly correct. Only the other, lacking the knowledge that the letters can be combined and read, will say to us: “You are a crazy fellow. All that I can see is g,o,d, and so forth. It would be utterly foolish to combine the letters.” He cannot understand that we are not only able to spell but also to read.
This fact makes our position very difficult. The anthroposophist could easily reach an understanding with the others; he does not have to refute them. Neither is he entangled into polemics against external science. If this science, however, begins to call him a crazy fellow—then, naturally, he is forced to state that this is wide of the mark and point out his willingness to consider as valid what the others want to consider as valid. Only he would have to exclude the following principle: Whatever this or that person does not see is non-existent. For this principle is no criterion of truth. And those persons who hold to it should first ascertain whether others can see what they themselves cannot see.
In view of these things, those standing on anthroposophical ground must be able to fathom this difficult relationship between Anthroposophy and other world views. At most, we could come to the conclusion that the one tolerating nothing but g,o,d,r,u,l,e,s, should be considered as semi-illiterate. Likewise, we might possibly say to the one who could not wean himself of the habit to spell out the single instincts, urges, passions, temperaments, and so forth: “You are a semi-Philistine, a semi-blockhead. The trouble with you is that you cannot soar.” We could not tell him, however, that he was wrong.
The issue between Anthroposophy and other world views is of such nature that no understanding can be reached until those, who know only how to spell, will have a mind to learn how to read. Otherwise no mutual comprehension is possible; and for this reason all the customary debates lead to no result whatsoever. This fact is noticed by very few opponents of Anthroposophy. In my opinion, it is essential that these things should be known to you.
The opponents of Anthroposophy increase with every month. Yet they are unable to find a foothold. For, since Anthroposophy always agrees with them, but they refuse to agree with Anthroposophy, they cannot attack very well what the Anthroposophist says. And for this reason they attack his personality: defame it, tell lies about it. Unfortunately, polemics tend more and more towards such a form. This must be envisaged by those standing on anthroposophical ground.
You must consider that a very odd assortment of antagonistic books exists now-a-days. Many of their authors, who have read anthroposophical literature, may have found out that I myself, in certain passages of my own books, mention all the objections that could be raised. I engage in polemics against myself, in order to show how that which I affirm could be blotted out. Hence all possible objections against Anthroposophy can be found in my own books. Consequently, many of my opponents busy themselves with copying the arguments which I myself, in my own books, have cited against Anthroposophy. They then distribute these writings to others in order to attack Anthroposophy. Thus you can find hostile writings plagiarizing my own books and simply copying my words when I say: this or that objection could be raised. The fact that the anthroposophist himself has to point out all the arguments that can be advanced against him makes his opponents' task rather easy.
I mention these things not for the purpose of harrowing my opponents, but in order to characterize how one must progress if one desires to read life-experiences (with regard to the will-impulses) instead of merely spelling them out. Spelling only shows us what momentarily wells up in the form of urges, of animal life expressed by desires, passions and wishes. Those able to combine these letters and read them will penetrate every individual human destiny. This human destiny is working at the source of life; and, by means of this destiny, the human being joins himself to the ever continuing course of mankind's whole evolution. And only by comprehending in this way a single human being's entire life are we able to comprehend human history. During the following days, we shall contemplate mankind's history; contemplate it as the life of mankind in its destiny before and after the Mystery of Golgotha. And we shall also see how the Mystery of Golgotha has influenced mankind's development on earth.
First, however, I had to erect a foundation and show what is at work within the human being. Only thus can it be recognized in the right way how the gods and the Mystery of Golgotha are at work within the individual man, within his entire destiny.
Vierter Vortrag
Wenn wir die Seele des Menschen betrachten, finden wir innerhalb des Seelischen Denken, Vorstellen, Fühlen und Wollen. Nun habe ich gewiß schon auch hier öfters über diese drei Seelentätigkeiten gesprochen. Allein ich möchte heute wiederum in einem besonderen Zusammenhange, der sich in unseren Zyklus einfügt, gerade über diese dreigliedrige menschliche Seele einige Worte vorbringen.
Im wachen Zustande leben wir eigentlich nur in unseren Vorstellungen. Dasjenige, was wir denken, ist uns im wachen Zustande voll bewußt. Wenn Sie sich fragen: Sind die Gefühle, die wir durchmachen im Wachzustande, ebenso bewußt wie die Vorstellungen? - so müssen Sie sich dieses mit Nein beantworten. Die Gefühle bleiben für das wache Bewußtsein in einem gewissen Sinne dunkel und unbestimmt. Und wenn Sie dasjenige vergleichen, was Sie in Ihrer Gefühlswelt erleben, mit demjenigen, was Sie erleben, wenn Sie sich gegenübergestellt finden der mannigfaltigen Bilderwelt Ihrer Träume, so werden Sie in der Gefühlswelt und in der Traumeswelt denselben Grad von Bewußtsein finden. Es wird in der Gefühlswelt nur auf eine andere Weise geträumt, aber es wird auch in der Gefühlswelt nur geträumt. Man täuscht sich über diesen Charakter der Gefühlswelt dadurch leicht, daß man dasjenige, was gefühlt wird, in Vorstellungen übersetzt. Man stellt sich seine Gefühle vor. Dadurch hebt man die Gefühle in das Wachbewußtsein herauf. Aber die Gefühle als solche sind nicht mehr bewußt als der Traum.
Und insbesondere unbewußt bleiben, vollständig unbewußt können wir sagen, die Willensimpulse des Menschen. Stellen Sie sich nur einmal vor, wieviel Sie von etwas wissen, was Sie ein Wollen nennen. Nehmen Sie nur an, Sie strecken die Hand aus, um irgend etwas zu ergreifen. Sie haben zuerst die Vorstellung davon, daß Sie die Hand ausstrecken werden. Darinnen liegt Ihre Absicht. Wie aber diese Absicht nun hinunterströmt in Ihren ganzen Organismus, wie diese Absicht sich den Muskeln, den Knochen mitteilt, damit die Hand den Gegenstand ergreifen kann, davon wissen Sie ebensowenig, wie Sie von dem wissen im gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein, was während des Schlafes mit Ihrem Ich vorgeht. Erst wenn Sie den Gegenstand ergriffen haben, dann nehmen Sie wiederum wahr die Bewegung des Ergreifens, also wiederum eine Vorstellung. Was zwischen dieser Vorstellung, welche die Absicht bildet, und der Vorstellung liegt, die Sie dann haben, wenn Sie die Absicht in der äußeren Ausführung sehen, was dazwischen liegt, was da in Ihrem Organismus vor sich geht, das verschlafen Sie auch bei wachendem Bewußtsein. Das Wollen ist ein Schlafen, das Fühlen ist ein Träumen, und nur das Vorstellen, das Denken ist ein wirkliches Wachen.
Da haben wir auch während des Wachzustandes die dreigliedrige menschliche Seele: die wache Seele, die vorstellt, die träumende Seele, die fühlt, und die wollende Seele, die schläft, so daß der Mensch im gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein niemals sagen kann, was eigentlich da unten in den Zuständen vor sich geht, in denen der Wille webt und lebt.
Wenn man dann aber mit den Methoden der anthroposophischen Forschung in diejenige Region hinunterleuchtet, wo der Wille pulsiert, da findet man zunächst das Folgende. Wenn wir die Absicht haben, irgendeinen Willensentschluß auszuführen, dann ist das zunächst ein Gedanke, eine Vorstellung. In dem Momente, wo diese Absicht in den Organismus hineinströmt, entsteht im Organismus dasjenige, was man einen inneren Verbrennungsprozeß nennen kann. Jedesmal wird im Organismus ein Verbtennungsprozeß entstehen längs des ganzen Weges, den der Willensentschluß macht. Durch das Verbrennen von Stoffwechselprodukten, die Sie in sich haben, wird alles das bewirkt, was den Arm bewegt, um einen Willensentschluß auszuführen, so daß eigentlich ein wollender Mensch im physischen Sinne in einem verbrennungsartigen Verzehren seiner Stoffwechselprodukte sich befindet. Eigentlich müssen wir immer deshalb die Stoffwechselprodukte erneuern, weil durch den Willen diese Stoffwechselprodukte fortwährend verzehrt, verbrannt werden.
Das ist anders beim Vorstellen. Beim Vorstellen findet ein fortwährendes Ablagern von salzartigen Bestandteilen statt. Erdige, salzartige, aschenartige Bestandteile sondern sich aus dem Organismus ab, so daß, physisch gesprochen, das Denken, das Vorstellen ein Salzablagern ist. Das Wollen ist ein Verbrennen. Und dem Anschauen, dem geistigen Anschauen stellt sich das menschliche Leben als ein fortwährendes Salzablagern von oben und als ein Verbrennen von unten herauf dar. Dieses Verbrennen, das macht, daß wir, wenn ich mich so ausdrücken darf, im Feuer des eigenen Leibes mit dem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein nicht wahrnehmen können, was der Wille eigentlich ist. Dieses Verbrennen bewirkt, daß wir den Willen, alles Wollen fortwährend verschlafen.
Aber was wird uns denn da unsichtbar für das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein, wenn wir den Willen verschlafen? Wenn man nun in dieses organische Feuer, das fortwährend durch den Willen entsteht, mit den Mitteln der Geistesanschauung hineinleuchtet, dann nimmt man wahr, daß in diesem Feuer die Wirkungen unseres moralischen Verhaltens in dem vorhergehenden Erdenleben leben. Da drinnen lebt dasjenige, was man menschliches Schicksal, menschliches Karma nennen kann. Es ist wirklich so, daß, wenn man richtig anschaut, wenn ein Mensch zum Beispiel in einem bestimmten Jahre seines Lebens die Bekanntschaft eines andern Menschen macht, daß sich dann ganz anders diese Tatsache ausnimmt, wenn man sie geistig richtig anschaut, als wenn man sie nur äußerlich mit dem sinnlich-intellektualistischen Bewußtsein anschaut.
Nehmen wir an, ein Mensch hat eben in irgendeinem Jahre seines Lebens einen andern Menschen kennengelernt. Man spricht da sehr häufig von Zufall. Und es nimmt sich das ja auch so aus, als wenn der andere Mensch durch die verschiedenen Zufallswege des Lebens einem zugeführt worden wäre, und man hätte dann im Augenblicke mit ihm Bekanntschaft geschlossen. Aber so ist es ja nicht. Wenn man hineinschaut mit den Mitteln der Geisteswissenschaft in den ganzen Zusammenhang des menschlichen Lebens, in all das, was unsichtbar durch den angedeuteten Verbrennungsprozeß wird, dann sieht man, daß eine Bekanntschaft, die man zum Beispiel im fünfunddreißigsten Lebensjahre gemacht hat, ganz planmäßig das ganze Leben hindurch ersehnt und erstrebt worden ist. Wenn Sie den Menschen von seinem fünfunddreißigsten Lebensjahre bis zu seiner ersten Kindheit verfolgen und Sie legen bloß, Sie machen die Wege offenbar, die er durchgemacht hat, um zuletzt da anzukommen, wo ihm der andere Mensch begegnet ist, so ist das ein ganz planmäßiges Erstreben im Unterbewußtsein. Und manchmal ist es, wenn man in dieser Weise das Schicksal des Menschen betrachtet, ganz wunderbar, welche Winkelzüge ein Mensch macht, um an einer bestimmten Stelle in einem bestimmten Jahre anzukommen und da den andern Menschen zu treffen. Wer wirklich in das menschliche Leben hineinsieht, der kann gar nicht anders sagen als: Derjenige, der etwas erlebt, hat dieses Erlebnis sein ganzes Erdenleben hindurch so gesucht, wie man nur irgend etwas suchen kann. - Und warum suchen wir ein bestimmtes Erlebnis? Weil uns dieses Suchen aus früheren Erdenleben in die Seele hinein ergossen ist. Aber diese früheren Erdenleben erscheinen in ihren Wirkungen nicht im Gedankenbewußtsein, in dem wir wachen, sondern sie erscheinen in ihren Wirkungen in dem Bewußtsein, wo ein Verbrennungsprozeß uns fortwährend in einen Schlaf einlullt. Wir streben unbewußt, aber wir streben nach den Erlebnissen unseres Erdendaseins hin.
Nun können sich verschiedene Einwände erheben, Gedanken erheben, wenn so etwas ausgesprochen wird. Zuerst kann der Mensch sagen: Ja, dann ist unser ganzes Leben schicksalsbestimmt und wir haben keine Freiheit. - Aber verlieren wir dadurch an Freiheit, daß wir blonde Haare haben und nicht schwarze? Das ist ja auch vorbestimmt. Wir sind dennoch frei, trotzdem wir blonde Haare haben und nicht schwarze, wenn wir uns vielleicht auch schwarze wünschen; wir sind dennoch frei, wenn wir auch nicht, was wir vielleicht als Kind wollen, den Mond herunterlangen können. Wir sind dennoch frei, wenn auch von dem Beginn unseres Erdenlebens an von uns gewisse Erlebnisse gesucht werden, denn nicht das ganze menschliche Leben setzt sich aus solchen schicksalsmäßigen Erlebnissen zusammen, sondern es fügen sich immer den schicksalsmäßigen Erlebnissen die freien Erlebnisse ein. Und diese freien Erlebnisse, die sich einfügen, findet die Geisteswissenschaft wiederum an einer andern Stelle.
Ich spreche ja oftmals von den drei Stufen der Geisteserkenntnis: von der Imagination, wo wir zuerst eine Bilderwelt schauen, von der Inspiration, wo in diese Bilderwelt die geistige Wirklichkeit und Wesenhaftigkeit hereinkommt, und dann von der Intuition, wo wir in der geistigen Wirklichkeit und Wesenhaftigkeit darinnenstehen.
Wenn nun der Mensch als Geistesforscher zur Imagination kommt und dadurch, wie ich schon im öffentlichen Vortrage angedeutet habe, sein Lebenstableau vor sich hat, dann wird zu gleicher Zeit auch immer etwas anderes anschaubar. Man kann nicht das eine ohne das andere haben. Man kann nicht die Imagination haben, die wirkliche Geist-Erkenntnis des bisherigen Erdenlebens, ohne daß in einer merkwürdigen Weise wie eine Erinnerung diejenigen Erlebnisse auftauchen, die wir während des Schlafes immer gehabt haben vom Einschlafen bis zum Aufwachen. Ich habe Ihnen erzählt, wie diese Erlebnisse sind. Wenn man auf der einen Seite die Imagination erhält, erhält man auf der andern Seite insbesondere stark, wenn dann auch das innere Schweigen der Seele eintritt, eine Anschauung desjenigen, was der Mensch im Schlafzustande erlebt.
Nun habe ich Ihnen schon manches von dem geschildert, was der Mensch im Schlafzustande erlebt. Aber dasjenige, was einem vor allen Dingen vor das Seelenauge an Erlebnissen während des Schlafes tritt, das ist das neu sich bildende Schicksal. Wenn wir in das Schlafen hinunterleuchten, das im Wollen liegt während des Wachens, dann kommen wir auf das Karma, welches aus früheren Erdenleben hereinwirkt. Wenn wir anfangen, die Erlebnisse zwischen dem Einschlafen und Aufwachen zu durchschauen, dann schauen wir hin, wie sich aus unseren freien Handlungen, die wir gegenwärtig verrichten, zusammenwebt das Karma, das sich erst wiederum im nächsten Erdenleben verwirklicht.
Glauben Sie nicht, daß nun, wenn man in dieses Schlafesleben hineinschaut, dasjenige das besonders Beunruhigende ist, daß man sich jetzt sagen muß: Du hast dir durch dein moralisches Verhalten im jetzigen Erdenleben dieses Karma zubereitet. - Das beunruhigt nicht mehr, als wenn man weiß, heute ist die Sonne aufgegangen, bis zur Mittagshöhe gestiegen, ist wieder hinuntergegangen und wird am nächsten Tag denselben Weg durchmachen. Diese Gesetzmäßigkeit, die einem da aus der Tiefe des Schlafes herausdtingt, die beunruhigt einen nicht, weil auf die mannigfaltigste Weise wiederum durch Freiheit in dem nächsten Erdenleben dasjenige zur Wirkung kommen kann, was man veranlagt findet in den Schlafeszuständen des gegenwärtigen Erdenlebens. Aber man überschaut durchaus das Karma, das sich in den unterbewußten Zuständen des Wollens auswirkt, und man überschaut das sich wieder anspinnende Karma, wenn man in dasjenige hineinschaut, was sich für das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein auch unbewußt im Schlafe beginnt zu weben als ein anfängliches Karma. Und das sieht man auch, wie die Vergangenheit sich immer wieder zusammenwebt im Menschen mit der Zukunft, wie dasjenige, was der Mensch bei Tag verschläft als die inneren Geheimnisse seines Willens, sich zusammenspinnt mit demjenigen, was er bei Nacht verschläft als die inneren Geheimnisse seines Ichs und seines astralischen Leibes, wenn sie sich von dem physischen Leibe und Ätherleibe getrennt haben und an dem Zukunftskarma weiterweben.
Wenn wir im gewöhnlichen Wachsein denken, dann denken wir zumeist über äußere Dinge. Diese äußeren Dinge, die wir da denken, die bleiben dann in unserer Erinnerung durch den gewöhnlichen Inhalt unseres Seelenlebens. Aber das ist nur die Oberfläche des Seelenlebens. Hinter diesem Niveau des Denkens liegt ein viel tieferes Seelenleben. Dieses, was wir beim Tagwachen als unser Denken erleben, das erleben wir im ätherischen Leibe, im Bildekräfteleibe. Dasjenige, was dahinter vorgeht im astralischen Leibe und im Ich, das kann man nur erleben, wenn man bewußt in die Geschehnisse eindringt, die das Ich und der astralische Leib durchmachen, wenn sie vom physischen Leibe und vom Ätherleibe getrennt sind im Schlafe. Da spinnt sich das Zukunftskarma an. Das wird durch die äußeren Gedanken, die im Ätherleib sind, bei Tag für uns verhüllt. Aber in den Tiefen der Seele, da webt es auch bei Tag sich zusammen mit demjenigen, was im unbewußten schlafenden Willen ist als das Karma, das aus der Vergangenheit herüberkommt. Und so kann man sehr genau in dieses Karma des Menschen hineinweisen.
Aber da liegt nun folgendes Eigentümliche vor. Ganz besonders interessant ist für die Karmabeobachtung die Zeit der allerersten Kindheit des Menschen. Die Entschlüsse des Kindes erscheinen uns ganz willkürlich, dennoch sind sie nicht willkürlich. Oh, es ist schon so, daß diese Willensentschlüsse des Kindes dasjenige nachahmen, was in der Umgebung des Kindes vor sich geht. Und ich habe im öffentlichen Vortrag das angedeutet, wie das Kind ganz Sinnesorgan ist, wie es innerlich jede Geste erlebt, jede Bewegung der Menschen seiner Umgebung. Aber es erlebt jede Geste, jede Bewegung mit der moralischen Bedeutung, so daß das Kind an einem jähzornigen Vater das Unmoralische erlebt, das mit dem Jähzorn verknüpft sein kann. Und das Kind erlebt in den feinsten Bewegungen, die der Mensch in seiner Umgebung macht, die Gedanken, die der Mensch hat. Wir sollten uns daher nie gestatten, unreine, unmoralische Gedanken etwa in der Umgebung eines Kindes zu haben und zu sagen: In Gedanken können wir uns das gestatten, das Kind weiß doch nichts davon. - Das ist nicht wahr. Wenn wir denken, bewegen sich immer in irgendeiner Weise wenigstens unsere inneren Nervenstränge. Diese nimmt auch das Kind wahr, besonders in den allerersten Jahren. Das Kind ist ein feiner Beobachter und Nachahmer seiner Umgebung. Aber was das Merkwürdige, das, ich möchte sagen, im erhabenen Sinne Interessante ist, ist, daß das Kind nicht alles nachahmt, sondern daß es eine Wahl trifft. Und diese Wahl geschieht eigentlich auf eine sehr komplizierte Weise.
Denken Sie sich also einmal, in der Umgebung des Kindes wirkt meinetwillen ein unüberlegter jähzorniger Vater, der allerlei Dinge macht, welche eigentlich nicht richtig sind. Weil das Kind ganz Sinnesorgan ist, muß es alle diese Dinge aufnehmen, wie das Auge sich nicht wehren kann, es muß das schen, was in seiner Umgebung ist. Aber das Kind nimmt dasjenige, was es da aufnimmt, eben nur im Wachzustande auf. Nun beginnt das Kind zu schlafen. Kinder schlafen viel. Und während des Schlafes trifft nun das Kind die Wahl. Dasjenige, was es aufnehmen will, sendet es aus seiner Seele in seinen Leib, in seinen Körper hinunter. Dasjenige, was es nicht aufnehmen will, stößt es während des Schlafes in die ätherische Welt hinaus, so daß das Kind nur dasjenige in seine Körperlichkeit aufnimmt, wozu es schicksalsmäßig vorbestimmt ist durch sein Karma, durch sein Schicksal. Das Walten des Schicksals sieht man insbesondere lebendig in den allerersten Kindesjahren.
Wenn man ein intellektualistischer Mensch ist, dann hat man oftmals das Bewußtsein, man ist furchtbar gescheit und das Kind ist furchtbar dumm. Wenn man allmählich in die Welt hineinsehen lernt, dann hat man dieses Urteil nicht, dann hat man das andere Urteil, wie dumm man eigentlich seit der Kindheit geworden ist. Nur ist die Gescheitheit, die man sich angeeignet hat, gegenüber der Kindheit eine bewußte Gescheitheit. Die Weisheit aber, mit der das Kind auf die beschriebene Art die Wahl trifft zwischen dem, was es sich einverleiben will, nach seinem Schicksal von den vorhergehenden Erdenleben sich einverleiben muß, und demjenigen, was es in die allgemeine Ätherwelt abstößt, ist eine viel, viel größere als die Weisheit, die wir im späteren Leben haben. Und dasjenige, was der Mensch aus seinem früheren Erdenleben in das gegenwärtige Erdenleben hereinträgt, trägt er gerade in den ersten Kindheitsjahren am allerersten herein, wo die Frage der Freiheit überhaupt noch gar nicht in Betracht kommt. In derjenigen Lebenszeit, in der das Freiheitsbewußtsein auftaucht, haben wir eigentlich das allermeiste, das weitaus meiste von dem, was wir aus früheren Erdenleben in dieses Erdenleben hereintragen sollen, schon hereingetragen. Und wenn einer im fünfunddreißigsten Lebensjahre ein ganz bestimmtes Erlebnis hat, so hat er sich die Wege zu diesem Erlebnis durchaus schon in den allerersten Kindesjahren geebnet. Die ersten Schritte des Lebens sind für das schicksalsmäßig Bestimmte die allerwichtigsten und wesentlichsten.
Ich habe einmal versucht, das anzudeuten, wie das Kind weise ist, und wie man eigentlich im Verlaufe des Lebens immer weniger weise wird. Man wird bewußter, und man schätzt dann die bewußte Rationalität, und man schätzt nicht die unbewußte Weisheit des Kindes. Die schätzt man eigentlich erst durch die Initiationswissenschaft. Ich habe einmal darauf aufmerksam gemacht. Das ist aber von offiziell philosophischer Seite furchtbar getadelt worden. Ich habe darauf in meinem Büchelchen aufmerksam gemacht «Die geistige Führung des Menschen und der Menschheit», gleich im ersten Kapitel. Es ist also schon wichtig, daß wir auf diese allererste Kindheit in dieser Weise hinzuschauen vermögen. Wenn die Menschen das einmal durchschauen, dann werden sie auch wiederum ein gesünderes Urteil bekommen über etwas, was heute immer und immer wiederum erwähnt wird, aber gar nicht durchschaut wird, die vererbten Eigenschaften. In Dichtung und Wissenschaft möchte man heute alles auf die vererbten Eigenschaften, auf die von den Eltern ererbten Eigenschaften zurückführen. Wird man einmal einsehen, wie das Kind karmisch aus den früheren Erdenleben sich dasjenige hereinträgt, was es sogar in sehr weiser Art auswählt, dann wird man das rechte Verhältnis zwischen dem finden, was in der Schicksalsbestimmung liegt, und dem, was die äußere Vererbung und Kleidung ist. Denn diese Vererbung ist nur eine Umkleidung. Und daß sie da ist, wundert den nicht, der in der richtigen Weise dasjenige versteht, was ich hier in diesen Vorträgen auch gesagt habe, daß wir uns an einem gewissen Zeitpunkte zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt der Generationenfolge zuwenden. Wir wenden ja den Blick vom Jenseits herunter in das Diesseits, um lange vorauszusehen, was wir für Eltern haben werden. Wir bestimmen mit vom Jenseits die Eigenschaften, welche die Eltern haben werden; kein Wunder, daß wir sie dann erben. Aber in dem Vererbten treffen wir dann wiederum auf die geschilderte Weise die Auswahl. Überhaupt ist die Beobachtung des Menschen in den ersten kindlichen Lebensjahren etwas ganz besonders erhaben Interessantes. Ich muß diesen Ausdruck immer wieder gebrauchen. Ich habe Sie auf dasjenige aufmerksam gemacht, was in den ersten Lebensjahren von dem Kinde gelernt wird: gehen, worunter wir so vieles erfassen, wie wir gestern angeführt haben, sprechen, denken. Das eignet sich das Kind an, Derjenige, der nun richtig beobachten kann, wie das Kind die ersten Schritte macht, wie es fest das Beinchen aufsetzt, oder leise das Beinchen aufsetzt, wie es wacker vorschreitet, oder ängstlich vorschreitet, wie es stärker oder weniger stark das Knie beugt, wie es den Zeigefinger mehr braucht als den kleinen Finger, wer all das, was mit dem Gehen, überhaupt mit der Lebensbalance, in die der Mensch in den drei Raumesrichtungen sich hineinfindet, wer in all das, was damit zusammenhängt, richtig hineinschaut, der sieht gerade darinnen, wie in diesem Gehenlernen das Karma bildhaft zum Ausdrucke kommt. Man sieht, wie ein Kind von vornherein, wenn es gehen lernt, die Füßchen stark aufsetzt. Man schaut zurück, wie das mit einem vorhergehenden Erdenleben zusammenhängt. Man findet, daß das Kind in irgendwelchen Lebenslagen sich in vorhergehenden Erdenleben wacker und tapfer verhalten hat. Das Wackere und Tapfere der vorhergehenden Erdenleben drückt sich bildhaft sinnlich im Abbilde in der Art und Weise aus, wie es die Füßchen stellt. Und man kann gerade im Gehenlernen ein wunderbares Abbild des Menschenkarmas am Kinde beobachten. Das individuelle Karma, dieses persönliche Karma, das man als einzelner Mensch hat, drückt sich insbesondere in diesem Gehenlernen aus.
Als zweites lernen wir die Sprache. Da ahmen wir dasjenige nach, was in unserer Umgebung gesprochen wird. Jedes Kind tut das auf seine besondere Art, aber es ahmen alle Menschen, die innerhalb eines Sprachgebietes ihre Muttersprache lernen, eine Sprache nach. In der Art und Weise, wie das Kind sich in das Nachahmen der Laute hineinfindet, sieht man, wie sich im Menschen das Volksschicksal auslebt. Im Gehenlernen eines Menschen: einzelnes individuelles Schicksal; im Sprechenlernen: Volksschicksal; und im Denkenlernen: das Schicksal der ganzen Menschheit in einem gewissen Zeitpunkte über das Erdenrund hin. Dreierlei Schicksale verweben sich eigentlich im Menschen.
Unsere Gedanken kleiden wir zwar in verschiedene Sprachen, aber wenn man durch die Sprache zu den Gedanken vordringt, machen wir den Anspruch darauf, daß die Gedanken in aller Welt von jedem Menschen begriffen werden können. Es gibt eine chinesische und eine norwegische Sprache, aber es gibt keinen Unterschied zwischen chinesischen Gedanken und norwegischen Gedanken als den, der individuell ist. Aber die Gedanken als solche, ihre Wahrheit oder Unwahrheit, sind nicht anders. Daß das Denken eine andere Färbung annimmt, rührt von dem her, daß der Mensch in der Sprache im Individuellen lebt, aber was den Gehalt der Gedanken betrifft, nicht die Form der Gedanken, so ist er für alle Menschen gleich.
Indem das Kind sich hineinfügt in der dritten Stufe in das Gedankenleben, fügt es sich ein in einen bestimmten Zeitpunkt für die gesamte Menschheit; durch die Sprache in das Volksschicksal, durch das Hineinstellen in drei Raumesvorstellungen, durch das Gehenlernen, Greifenlernen und so weiter in das persönliche, individuelle Schicksal.
Solche Dinge müssen, wenn man den Menschen in seinem ganzen Wesen richtig verstehen will, allseitig durchschaut werden. Wie das nun mit dem ganzen Menschenleben ist, möchte ich Ihnen noch an einer andern Tatsache klarlegen. Gehen wir noch einmal zu dem Schlafzustande zurück, zu den Erlebnissen, die der Mensch vom Einschlafen bis zum Aufwachen durchmacht. Da geht der Mensch mit seinem Ich und seinem astralischen Leibe in die geistige Welt hinein, eigentlich zum Ausgangspunkte des Lebens zurück. Aber das Ich und der astralische Leib weben das Zukunftsschicksal. Wenn nun das Ich und der astralische Leib wiederum zurückkehren in den physischen Leib, dann ist jede Nacht ein neues Stück Schicksal gewoben. Aber der Mensch versteht noch nichts von diesem Schicksal im gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein. Er dringt wiederum zurück in seinen Ätherleib und in seinen physischen Leib. Im Ätherleib sind die Gedanken zurückgeblieben. Die Gedanken sind nicht in dem nachtschlafenden Zustande mitgegangen. Der Mensch glaubt nur, daß, wenn er im Bette ist, er nicht denkt. Er denkt fortwährend, nur weiß er nichts davon, weil er mit seinem Ich und mit seinem astralischen Leibe außer dem Denken ist. Denn das Denken besteht in einer Tätigkeit des Ätherleibes. Sie können bei demjenigen, was stärkeren Eindruck auf Sie macht, das eigentlich sehr leicht im gewöhnlichen Leben auch beobachten. Denken Sie nur einmal, Sie waren etwa zum ersten Male bei einer Sie besonders anregenden Symphonie. Sie werden in der Nacht, wenn Sie dazu die besondere Veranlagung haben, oftmals aufwachen können und Sie wachen immer in die Töne dieser Symphonie hinein auf, weil Ihr Ätherleib die ganze Nacht in dieser Symphonie fortvibriert. Die hört nicht auf in Ihnen. Es ist gar nicht notwendig, daß Sie dabei sind, damit die Symphonie in Ihnen sich abspielt. Wenn Sie dabei sind, dann nehmen Sie nur in den Vibrationen in Ihrem Ätherleibe wahr. Und so ist es mit allen Gedanken auch. Sie denken die ganze Nacht im Bette, nur sind Sie mit Ihrem Ich nicht dabei, daher wissen Sie nicht, wie Sie da denken.
Ich kann Ihnen verraten: durch das Ich verderben wir sogar sehr häufig unsere Gedanken. Wir denken nämlich meistens viel gescheiter, wenn wir nicht dabei sind in der Nacht. Sie mögen mir das glauben oder nicht, aber es ist so. Die meisten Menschen haben ein viel gesünderes Urteil über die Dinge des Lebens in der Nacht als bei Tag. Wenn der Ätherleib, der mit den Gesetzen des Kosmos in Harmonie steht, allein denken kann, wenn der Mensch nicht die Gedanken verdirbt, dann denkt der Mensch meist gesünder, als wenn er mit seinem Ich die Gedanken durcheinanderpuddelt. Das tut er bei Tag nämlich sehr häufig.
Wenn wir nun mit dem Ich und mit dem astralischen Leibe draußen sind aus dem physischen Leibe und dem Ätherleibe, da weben wir aber unser Zukunftskarma. Das, was da als Ich und als astralischer Leib draußen webt und lebt vom Einschlafen bis zum Aufwachen, muß durch die Pforte des Todes gehen, in die übersinnliche Welt eingehen. Wenn auch das Astralische sich später dann in das Ich einfügt und das Ich dann mit anderer Substanz das allein durchmacht, aber dennoch: dasjenige, was da draußen außer dem physischen und dem Ätherleibe im Schlafzustande webt, das muß durch die Pforte des Todes gehen und den Weg durchmachen zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt durch alle die Zustände, die ich Ihnen in diesen Tagen beschrieben habe. Und Sie wissen aus dieser Beschreibung, daß da das Ich durchgeht durch die Arbeit, die es mit den andern Wesen der höheren Hierarchien macht, um in der Zukunft wiederum einen physischen Menschenleib, jetzt im Geistkeim, vorzubereiten. Das erfordert das Sich-Einleben in eine tiefe Weisheit zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt, einer Weisheit, in der man nur leben kann, wenn man in einer geistigen Tätigkeit zusammenlebt mit den Wesen der höheren Hierarchien.
Da muß noch vieles hinein in dasjenige, was man da webt an Karma zwischen dem Einschlafen und Aufwachen, damit das sich in der richtigen Weise verbindet in der Zukunft mit einem physischen Leibe. Denn denken Sie, was da für ein Weg durchgemacht werden muß. Das ist ja im Ich und im astralischen Leibe, was sich da webt als Karma, das muß hinunter in diejenige Region, die wir dann im nächsten Erdenleben als unbewußte Willensregion haben. Das muß hinunter. Das muß sich gründlich mit aller Leiblichkeit des Menschen vereinigen. Davon haben das Ich und der astralische Leib, wenn sie im gewöhnlichen Schlafzustande sind, noch wenig, was sie sich da aneignen müssen im Durchgang zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt.
Und da müssen dann das Ich und der astralische Leib wiederum zurück in den physischen Leib, und sie verstehen nicht recht beim Aufwachen, wie es ist mit diesem physischen Leibe. Den haben sie aber aus dem vorhergehenden Leben. Ich und astralischer Leib wissen sich nicht richtig zu benehmen bei diesem Untertauchen. Daher kommt es, daß, weil erst im nächsten Erdenleben von Kindheit auf dieser astralische Leib und das Ich formen können den physischen Leib und den Ätherleib durch die ersten sieben Jahre, durch die zweiten sieben Jahre, weil da erst alles das darinnen ist im Ich und astralischen Leib, was in der richtigen Weise wiederum arbeiten kann an einem physischen Leib, daher kommt es, daß jetzt im Einschlafen, wo das Ich erst das moralische Verhalten des Menschen aufgenommen hat, erst anfängt das Karma zu weben, daß es beim Aufwachen eigentlich nicht richtig versteht: was ist da alles in diesem physischen Leibe.
Nun, in den physischen Leib kann es überhaupt nur ganz unbewußt untertauchen. Da muß es schon wiederum ins Unbewußte hineinkommen. Aber wenn es bewußt wird, wenn es durch die Vorstellungsregion durchgeht, dann tauchen die verworrenen Bilder des Traumes auf. Was bedeuten diese? Warum sind diese so wenig mit dem Leben oftmals zusammenstimmend? Weil das Ich und der astralische Leib erst probieren, in den physischen und Ätherleib unterzutauchen, sie können es nicht recht. Dieses Nichtzusammenstimmen dessen, was das Ich noch nicht kann und was es können sollte nach den weisen Einrichtungen des physischen Leibes und des Ätherleibes, drückt sich in der Verworrenheit der Aufwacheträume aus. In dem Aufwachtraum haben wir ein Bild, wie das Ich probiert, das, was es noch nicht ist, in einen gewissen Einklang mit dem physischen Leibe und dem Ätherleibe zu bringen. Und erst wenn es unterdrückt für das Wollen das Bewußtsein und untertaucht in die unterbewußte Region, wenn es also sich verläßt nicht auf seine eigene Weisheit, dann geht es wiederum hinein in den physischen Leib, ohne daß verworrene Vorstellungen zustande kommen.
Würde das Ich beim Aufwachen voll untertauchen in den physischen Leib bewußt, oder halbbewußt wie im Traume, dann würden aus dem ganzen physischen Leibe des Menschen die furchtbarsten Träume aufsteigen. Nur der Umstand, daß wir im rechten Augenblicke ins unbewußte Wollen untertauchen, dämpft die leise hinhuschenden bildhaften Träume ab, und läßt uns wiederum als ordentliche Iche und ordentliche astralische Leiber in die Region des unbewußten Wollens untertauchen. Das ist so klar für den, der unbefangen diese Dinge anschaut, daß jeder Traum dem Menschen zeigen kann, welche Disharmonie besteht im gegenwärtigen Leben zwischen dem Ich und dem astralischen Leibe in bezug auf dasjenige, was sich diese im gegenwärtigen Leben angeeignet haben und dem vollentwickelten physischen und ätherischen Leibe. Da muß sich erst dasjenige, was moralisch sich gewoben hat, vereinigen bei dem Durchgang zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt mit dem Geistkeim des physischen Leibes. Dann wird dasjenige, was wir im jetzigen Leben zwischen dem Einschlafen und dem Aufwachen weben, so mächtig, daß es im nächsten Kindheitsleben, in diesem träumerischen, halb schlafenden Kindheitsleben wirklich durch die Jahre der Kindheit untertauchen kann in den physischen und in den ätherischen Leib und den dann als Werkzeug für das Erdenleben benutzen kann.
So wird man eigentlich immer mehr gewahr, wenn man den ganzen Menschen betrachtet, wie in diesem Menschen darinnensteckt dasjenige, was man in nächtlicher Ruhe und nächtlicher Finsternis in den vorigen Erdenleben gewoben hat, und wie zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt das wunderbare Gewebe des physischen Leibes hinzugefügt worden ist und dann, man möchte sagen, im letzten Augenblicke des Lebens zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt, des ätherischen Leibes. Aber wir tragen in uns das Ergebnis der vorhergehenden Erdenleben. Nur wird dasjenige, was wir da als die Kräfte des vorigen Erdenlebens unten im Organismus, im Willensorganismus in uns tragen, fortwährend, weil die physischen Stoffe und Produkte verbrannt werden und dieses innere Feuer in uns ist, das wird immerfort von diesem Feuer zugedeckt, verbrannt. Und indem es verbrannt wird, wirkt es doch. Wir gehen durch unser Karma unseren Weg durch die Welt. Es ist ein bestimmter Weg für die einzelnen Erlebnisse. Während wir also von der Kindheit auf uns dasjenige auswählen, was wir aus der Umgebung nachahmen, dadurch die ersten Schritte schon zu einem Ereignis machen, das wir erst im fünfzigsten Lebensjahre vielleicht erreichen, während wir die Willensanstrengungen machen, direkt auf dem Wege nach diesem Erlebnisse hin, wird immerfort verbrannt in uns dasjenige, was körperliche Stoffe sind.
Weil das Feuer uns unbewußt in bezug auf diesen Lebensweg macht, dadurch wird immer für unsere Innenwahrnehmung dasjenige, was ein fortlaufender Schicksalsweg ist, umgesetzt, so daß es uns vorkommt als die augenblicklichen Begierden, Instinkte, Triebe, Temperamente und so weiter. Da unten geht der schicksalsgemäße Lebensweg. Immer sprießen die Feuer auf. Wir sehen nur die Oberfläche der Feuer. Und auf den Oberflächen des Feuers, auf den lodernden Flammen gewissermaßen, da lebt sich dasjenige aus, was wir in unseren Seelen tragen als unsere Leidenschaften, Triebe, Instinkte. Das ist nur der äußere Schein, die äußere Offenbarung für dasjenige, was in den Tiefen als das menschliche Schicksal sitzt. Die Menschen beobachten die einzelnen Leidenschaften, die einzelnen Instinktäußerungen, die einzelnen Triebe, dasjenige, was einer im Augenblicke mag, nicht mag, was einer im Augenblicke aus Sympathie oder Antipathie ausführt oder unterläßt. Aber das ist gerade so, wie wenn wir vor uns haben etwas, und ich sage: d-e-r-g-o-t-t-l-e-n-k-t-d-i-e-w-e-l-t.Ich kann nur buchstabieren. Ein anderer kommt und sagt: Was du da gesagt hast, das sind Buchstaben, das heißt: Der Gott lenkt die Welt. So ist es mit dem Unterschiede der gewöhnlichen Seelenwissenschaft und der Geisteswissenschaft. Die gewöhnliche Seelenwissenschaft kann buchstabieren. Sie schaut das Leben des Menschen an, findet in der Kindheit diese und jene kindlichen Instinkte, Triebe, registriert diese, wie der, der nur buchstabieren kann, die Buchstaben buchstabiert, und so geht es durch das ganze Leben hindurch. Derjenige, der Geisteswissenschaft versteht, der liest, er sieht durch die Oberfläche der Flammen durch auf das, was unten ist, und schaut die schicksalsgemäßen Lebenswege des Menschen.
Zwischen der gewöhnlichen Psychologie, die heute noch offiziell gang und gäbe ist, und zwischen der wirklichen Erkenntnis des menschlichen Seelenlebens ist ein solcher Unterschied wie zwischen Buchstabieren und Lesen. Aber deshalb wird man so schwer verstanden, weil man zu dem andern nicht sagen kann, das, was er sagt, sei falsch. Demjenigen, der bloß buchstabiert: d-e-r-g-o-t-t — dem kann man doch nicht sagen: Was du da liest, ist falsch. - Es ist ja ganz richtig. Nur weil er das noch nicht weiß, daß man das auch lesen kann, sagt er: Du bist ein verrückter Kerl, ich sehe ja nur d-e-r und so weiter. Das Zusammenfassen ist eine Narrheit. - Er kann das nicht verstehen, daß man da auch noch liest.
So muß man immer demjenigen, der die heute anerkannte Psychologie geltend macht, sagen: Du hast ja ganz recht. - Man sagt als Anthroposoph zum Naturforscher, zum Psychologen: Ihr habt ja ganz recht. - Man widerlegt sie nicht, man gibt ihnen recht. Er aber sagt: Wenn du von den Instinkten, von den Trieben, Leidenschaften so redest wie von Buchstaben, die du lesen kannst, dann bist du eben ein verrückter Kerl. - Das ist die Schwierigkeit. Der Anthroposoph kann sich mit den andern ganz gut verstehen, er braucht sie auch nicht zu widerlegen. Er polemisiert auch gar nicht gegen die äußere Wissenschaft. Nur dann, wenn diese Wissenschaft anfängt, ihn einen verrückten Kerl zu nennen, dann muß er natürlich das geltend machen, daß das nicht stimmt, und namentlich, daß er auch das gelten läßt, was die andern gelten lassen wollen. Nur kann er nicht den Grundsatz gelten lassen, daß es alles dasjenige nicht gibt, was irgendeiner nicht sieht. Denn das ist gar kein Kriterium der Wahrheit, daß es das nicht gibt, was einer nicht sieht. Da muß er sich erst überzeugen davon, daß der andere das sieht.
Es ist schon so, daß derjenige, der auf anthroposophischem Boden steht, auch dieses schwierige Verhältnis der Anthroposophie zu den andern Weltanschauungen durchschauen muß. Höchstens kann man manchmal das Urteil fällen, so wie man zu demjenigen, der nur gelten lassen will: d-e-r-g-o-t-t — wie man zu dem sagt: Du bist ein halber Analphabet -, so kann man unter Umständen zu dem, der sich gar nicht losreißen kann von dem bloßen Buchstabieren in Instinkten, Trieben und Leidenschaften, Temperamenten und so weiter, sagen: Du bist ein halber Banause, du bist ein halber Philister, du kannst dich eben nicht aufschwingen. - Aber man wird nicht sagen, er habe Unrecht.
Also es liegt die Sache zwischen Anthroposophie und der äußeren Weltanschauung so, daß die Verständigung erst dann möglich ist, wenn von seiten des Buchstabierenden der gute Wille entgegengebracht wird, lesen zu lernen. Sonst ist eine Verständigung zunächst gar nicht möglich. Daher verlaufen die gewöhnlichen Debatten so ergebnislos, und die Gegner können auch nichts einsehen. Das verspüren die wenigsten, die Gegner der Anthroposophie sind. Und ich muß schon, weil ich das für richtig halte, von dieser Tatsache auch hier zu Ihnen sprechen.
Die Gegner der Anthroposophie werden jetzt, ich möchte sagen, mit jedem Monat mehr. Aber weil sie eigentlich nirgends einsetzen können, weil die Anthroposophie ihnen immer recht gibt, aber sie nicht der Anthroposophie recht geben wollen, so können sie eigentlich auch nicht das angreifen, was der Anthroposoph sagt. Daher greifen sie die Persönlichkeit an, verleumden, lügen über die Persönlichkeit. Das ist ja die Gestalt, welche die Polemik immer mehr und mehr annimmt, leider. Das ist etwas, was man durchschauen muß, wenn man auf anthroposophischem Boden steht. Das ist so außerordenlich wichtig, daß man das durchschaut.
Es gibt heute schon ganz merkwürdige gegnerische Bücher. Viele von Ihnen werden die anthroposophische Literatur gelesen haben, werden finden, daß ich immer an den entsprechenden Stellen selber in meinen Büchern das sage, was man gegen irgend etwas einwenden kann. Ich polemisiere immer selber, um dann zu zeigen, wie man das, was ich geltend mache, aus der Welt schaffen kann, so daß man die Gegengründe gegen Anthroposophie bei mir in meinen eigenen Büchern schon finden kann. Nun gibt es heute Gegner, die beschäftigen sich damit, die Gründe, die ich selber in meinen Büchern gegen Anthroposophie angeführt habe, abzuschreiben, und das als gegnerische Schrift gegen die Anthroposophie zu verbreiten. Sie können also heute gegnerische Schriften finden, die Plagiate sind aus meinen Büchern, wo einfach dasjenige abgeschrieben wird, was ich sage. Es ist dem Gegner gerade durch diesen Umstand, daß der Anthroposoph selber dasjenige geltend machen muß, was man gegen ihn einwenden kann, heute die Arbeit eigentlich furchtbar leicht gemacht.
Nun, ich sagte das alles aber nicht, um jetzt den Gegnern etwas am Zeuge zu flicken, sondern nur, um zu charakterisieren, wie man aufsteigen muß, um vom Buchstabieren des Lebens, in bezug auf die Willensimpulse, zum Lesen des Lebens zu kommen. Das Buchstabieren gibt dasjenige, was als Trieb, als, man möchte sagen animalisches Leben in Wünschen, Begierden, Leidenschaften heraufquillt und für den Augenblick gilt. Weiß man das alles wie Buchstaben zu behandeln und zusammenzulesen, dann dringt man bis zu dem menschlichen Schicksal vor, bis zu dem einzelnen menschlichen Schicksal. Dieses menschliche Schicksal waltet auf dem Grunde des Lebens, und mit diesem Schicksal fügt sich der Mensch in den fortlaufenden Gang der ganzen Menschheitsentwickelung ein. Und nur wenn man in dieser Weise das ganze Leben des einzelnen begreifen kann, kann man auch die menschliche Geschichte begreifen, die wir nun in den nächsten Tagen noch betrachten wollen, als das Leben der Erdenmenschbeit in ihrem Schicksale vor und nach dem Mysterium von Golgatha und das Eingreifen des Mysteriums von Golgatha in die Menschheitsentwickelung der Erde. Ich mußte aber einen Unterbau gewinnen und Ihnen zeigen, was im Menschen waltet, damit in der richtigen Weise gezeigt werden kann, wie die Götter und wie das Mysterium von Golgatha in dem Menschen, in dem Gesamtmenschenschicksal walten.
Davon sprechen wir dann morgen weiter.
Fourth Lecture
When we consider the soul of man, we find within the soul thinking, imagining, feeling and willing. I have certainly often spoken here about these three soul activities. But today I would like to say a few words about this tripartite human soul in a special context that fits into our cycle.
In the waking state we actually only live in our imaginations. We are fully aware of what we think when we are awake. If you ask yourself: Are the feelings we go through in the waking state just as conscious as the ideas? - you must answer this with no. The feelings remain in a certain sense dark and indeterminate for the waking consciousness. And if you compare what you experience in your emotional world with what you experience when you find yourself confronted with the manifold imagery of your dreams, you will find the same degree of consciousness in the emotional world and in the dream world. It is only dreamed in a different way in the emotional world, but it is also only dreamed in the emotional world. It is easy to deceive oneself about this character of the emotional world by translating what is felt into ideas. We imagine our feelings. This raises the feelings into waking consciousness. But the feelings as such are no more conscious than the dream.
And especially unconscious, completely unconscious we can say, are the will impulses of man. Just imagine how much you know about something you call a will. Suppose you stretch out your hand to grasp something. You first have the idea that you are going to stretch out your hand. Therein lies your intention. But how this intention now flows down into your whole organism, how this intention communicates itself to the muscles, the bones, so that the hand can grasp the object, you know just as little about this as you know about what happens to your ego during sleep in ordinary consciousness. Only when you have grasped the object do you again perceive the movement of grasping, thus again an imagination. What lies between this idea, which forms the intention, and the idea you then have when you see the intention in its outer execution, what lies in between, what is going on in your organism, is what you sleep through even when you are awake. The willing is sleeping, the feeling is dreaming, and only the imagining, the thinking is a real waking.
There we also have the tripartite human soul during the waking state: the waking soul that imagines, the dreaming soul that feels, and the willing soul that sleeps, so that man in ordinary consciousness can never say what is actually going on down there in the states in which the will weaves and lives.
But if we then use the methods of anthroposophical research to shine down into the region where the will pulsates, we first find the following. When we have the intention to carry out some decision of the will, it is first of all a thought, a conception. At the moment when this intention flows into the organism, there arises in the organism what can be called an inner combustion process. Each time a process of combustion will arise in the organism along the whole path that the decision of will takes. Through the burning of metabolic products that you have within you, everything that moves the arm to carry out a volitional decision is brought about, so that a volitional human being is actually in the physical sense in a combustion-like consumption of his metabolic products. Actually, we always have to renew the metabolic products because these metabolic products are continually consumed, burnt through the will.
This is different with imagination. When we imagine, there is a continuous deposition of salty components. Earthy, salty, ash-like components are deposited from the organism, so that, physically speaking, thinking, imagining is a salt deposit. Volition is burning. And to contemplation, to spiritual contemplation, human life presents itself as a continual depositing of salt from above and as burning from below. This burning, if I may put it this way, means that we cannot perceive what the will actually is in the fire of our own body with our ordinary consciousness. This burning causes us to continually fall asleep to the will, to all volition.
But what then becomes invisible to the ordinary consciousness when we sleep through the will? If we now shine into this organic fire, which constantly arises through the will, with the means of spiritual perception, then we perceive that the effects of our moral behavior in the previous life on earth live in this fire. In it lives that which can be called human destiny, human karma. It is really the case that, if you look at it correctly, for example, when a person makes the acquaintance of another person in a certain year of his life, this fact appears quite differently if you look at it spiritually correctly than if you only look at it externally with the sensual-intellectual consciousness.
Suppose a person has just met another person in some year of his life. This is very often referred to as coincidence. And it seems as if the other person had been brought to you through the various chance paths of life, and you had then made his acquaintance in an instant. But it is not like that. If one looks with the means of spiritual science into the whole context of human life, into all that becomes invisible through the combustion process indicated, then one sees that an acquaintance made in the thirty-fifth year of life, for example, has been longed for and striven for quite systematically throughout life. If you follow a person from the age of thirty-five to his first childhood and you reveal the paths he has gone through in order to finally arrive at the place where he met the other person, this is a completely planned striving in the subconscious. And sometimes it is quite marvelous, if you look at a person's destiny in this way, what a person does in order to arrive at a certain place in a certain year and meet the other person there. Anyone who really looks into human life cannot help but say: The person who experiences something has sought this experience throughout his entire life on earth as much as one can seek anything. - And why do we seek a particular experience? Because this search has poured into our souls from earlier earthly lives. But the effects of these earlier earthly lives do not appear in the consciousness of thought in which we are awake, but they appear in their effects in the consciousness where a process of combustion continually lulls us into a sleep. We strive unconsciously, but we strive towards the experiences of our earthly existence.
Now various objections can arise, thoughts can arise, when something like this is said. At first a person may say: Yes, then our whole life is determined by fate and we have no freedom. - But do we lose freedom because we have blond hair and not black? That is also predetermined. We are still free even if we have blond hair and not black, even if we might wish for black hair; we are still free even if we can't reach for the moon, which we might have wanted as a child. We are nevertheless free, even if certain experiences are sought by us from the beginning of our life on earth, for not the whole of human life is made up of such fateful experiences, but free experiences are always added to the fateful experiences. And these free experiences, which are inserted, are found by spiritual science in another place.
I often speak of the three stages of spiritual knowledge: of imagination, where we first see a world of images, of inspiration, where the spiritual reality and essence enters into this world of images, and then of intuition, where we stand within the spiritual reality and essence.
When the human being as a spiritual researcher comes to imagination and thereby, as I have already indicated in the public lecture, has his life tableau before him, then something else always becomes visible at the same time. You cannot have one without the other. One cannot have the imagination, the real spirit-recognition of one's previous life on earth, without those experiences which we have always had during sleep, from falling asleep to waking up, appearing in a strange way like a memory. I have told you what these experiences are like. If, on the one hand, you receive the imagination, on the other hand you receive, especially strongly, when the inner silence of the soul occurs, a view of that which the human being experiences in a state of sleep.
Now I have already described to you some of what the human being experiences in a state of sleep. But that which above all appears before the eye of the soul during sleep is the newly forming destiny. If we shine down into the sleep that lies in the will during waking, then we come to the karma that works in from earlier earthly lives. When we begin to see through the experiences between falling asleep and waking up, then we see how the karma that will only be realized in the next life on earth is woven together from the free actions we are currently performing.
Don't you think that now, when you look into this sleeping life, what is particularly disturbing is that you now have to say to yourself: You have prepared this karma for yourself through your moral behavior in your present life on earth. - This is no more disturbing than knowing that today the sun has risen, climbed to midday, descended again and will follow the same path the next day. This lawfulness that emerges from the depths of sleep does not worry you, because in the next earthly life that which you have been predisposed to in the sleeping states of your present earthly life can come into effect again through freedom in the most varied ways. But one certainly overlooks the karma that works itself out in the subconscious states of volition, and one overlooks the karma that spins itself out again when one looks into that which for the ordinary consciousness also unconsciously begins to weave itself in sleep as an initial karma. And you can also see how the past weaves itself together again and again in man with the future, how that which man sleeps through during the day as the inner secrets of his will, weaves itself together with that which he sleeps through at night as the inner secrets of his ego and his astral body, when they have separated from the physical body and etheric body and continue to weave the karma of the future.
When we think in ordinary waking life, we mostly think about external things. These external things that we think about then remain in our memory through the ordinary content of our soul life. But that is only the surface of the life of the soul. Behind this level of thinking lies a much deeper soul life. That which we experience as our thinking when we are awake during the day is what we experience in the etheric body, in the body of formative forces. What goes on behind this in the astral body and in the ego can only be experienced if we consciously penetrate the events that the ego and the astral body go through when they are separated from the physical body and the etheric body during sleep. This is where the karma of the future begins. This is veiled for us during the day by the outer thoughts that are in the etheric body. But in the depths of the soul, even during the day, it weaves itself together with that which is in the unconscious sleeping will as the karma that comes over from the past. And so one can point very precisely into this karma of the human being.
But there is now the following peculiarity. The time of a person's earliest childhood is particularly interesting for the observation of karma. The child's decisions seem quite arbitrary to us, yet they are not arbitrary. Oh, it is true that these decisions of the child's will imitate what is going on in the child's environment. And I indicated in the public lecture how the child is entirely a sensory organ, how it inwardly experiences every gesture, every movement of the people around it. But it experiences every gesture, every movement with a moral meaning, so that the child experiences the immoral in an irascible father, which can be connected with irascibility. And the child experiences the thoughts a person has in the subtlest movements he makes in his surroundings. We should therefore never allow ourselves to have impure, immoral thoughts around a child and say: "We can allow ourselves to do that in our thoughts, the child knows nothing about it. - That is not true. When we think, at least our inner nerve cords are always moving in some way. The child is also aware of this, especially in the very early years. The child is a keen observer and imitator of its environment. But what is strange, what is interesting, I would say, in a sublime sense, is that the child does not imitate everything, but makes a choice. And this choice is actually made in a very complicated way.
Think of it this way: in the child's environment there is, for my sake, an inconsiderate, irascible father who does all kinds of things that are actually not right. Because the child is entirely a sensory organ, it must take in all these things, just as the eye cannot defend itself, it must see what is in its surroundings. But the child only takes in what it perceives when it is awake. Now the child begins to sleep. Children sleep a lot. And during sleep, the child makes a choice. What it wants to absorb, it sends down from its soul into its body. That which it does not want to take in, it pushes out into the etheric world during sleep, so that the child only takes into its corporeality that which it is destined to do through its karma, through its fate. The workings of fate can be seen particularly vividly in the very first years of childhood.
If you are an intellectualist, you often have the awareness that you are terribly clever and the child is terribly stupid. When you gradually learn to see the world, you don't have this judgment, you have the other judgment of how stupid you have actually become since childhood. Only the wisdom that one has acquired is a conscious wisdom compared to childhood. But the wisdom with which the child, in the manner described, makes the choice between what it wants to assimilate, what it must assimilate according to its destiny from previous earth lives, and what it rejects into the general etheric world, is much, much greater than the wisdom we have in later life. And that which the human being carries from his earlier life on earth into his present life on earth, he carries in the very first years of childhood, when the question of freedom is not even considered. In that period of life in which the consciousness of freedom emerges, we have actually already brought in most, by far the most, of what we are supposed to bring into this earthly life from earlier earthly lives. And if someone has a very specific experience in the thirty-fifth year of life, he has already paved the way for this experience in the very first years of childhood. The first steps of life are the most important and essential for what is destined to happen.
I once tried to indicate how the child is wise and how one actually becomes less and less wise in the course of life. One becomes more conscious, and one then appreciates the conscious rationality, and one does not appreciate the unconscious wisdom of the child. This is actually only appreciated through initiation science. I once drew attention to this. But the official philosophical side rebuked this terribly. I drew attention to it in my booklet “The Spiritual Guidance of Man and Humanity”, in the very first chapter. It is therefore important that we are able to look at this very first childhood in this way. Once people see through this, then they will also gain a healthier judgment about something that is mentioned again and again today, but is not seen through at all, the inherited characteristics. In poetry and science today, people want to attribute everything to inherited characteristics, to the characteristics inherited from the parents. Once one realizes how the child karmically carries into itself from previous earthly lives that which it even chooses very wisely, then one will find the right relationship between that which lies in the destiny and that which is external heredity and clothing. For this heredity is only a cloak. And that it is there is no surprise to anyone who understands in the right way what I have also said here in these lectures, that at a certain point between death and a new birth we turn to the succession of generations. We look down from the hereafter into this world in order to foresee long in advance what kind of parents we will have. From the hereafter we help to determine the qualities our parents will have; no wonder we then inherit them. But in what we inherit, we then make the selection again in the way described. In general, the observation of the human being in the first years of childhood is something particularly sublimely interesting. I have to use this expression again and again. I have drawn your attention to that which is learned by the child in the first years of life: walking, by which we understand so much, as we mentioned yesterday, speaking, thinking. This is what the child acquires, the one who can now properly observe how the child takes its first steps, how it firmly puts its foot down or quietly puts its foot down, how it steps forward bravely or anxiously, how it bends its knee more or less strongly, whoever takes a good look at all that is connected with walking, with the balance of life in general, into which man finds himself in the three directions of space, whoever takes a good look at all that is connected with it, will see how karma is expressed pictorially in this learning to walk. You can see how a child, when it learns to walk, places its feet firmly from the outset. One looks back to see how this is connected with a previous life on earth. You find that the child has behaved bravely and courageously in some life situation in previous earthly lives. The bravery and courage of the previous earthly life is expressed visually and sensually in the way the child places its feet. And it is precisely in learning to walk that one can observe a wonderful reflection of human karma in the child. The individual karma, this personal karma that one has as an individual human being, is expressed in particular in this learning to walk.
The second thing we learn is language. We imitate what is spoken in our environment. Every child does this in its own special way, but all people who learn their mother tongue within a language area imitate a language. In the way in which the child finds its way into imitating the sounds, you can see how the destiny of the people is lived out in people. In learning to walk: individual destiny; in learning to speak: the destiny of the people; and in learning to think: the destiny of the whole of humanity at a certain point in time across the globe. Three different destinies are actually interwoven in man.
We clothe our thoughts in different languages, but if we penetrate to the thoughts through language, we make the claim that the thoughts can be understood by every person in the world. There is a Chinese language and a Norwegian language, but there is no difference between Chinese thoughts and Norwegian thoughts other than that which is individual. But the thoughts as such, their truth or falsehood, are no different. The fact that thought takes on a different coloring stems from the fact that man lives in language in the individual, but as far as the content of thought is concerned, not the form of thought, it is the same for all people.
By inserting itself into the life of thought in the third stage, the child inserts itself into a certain point in time for the whole of humanity; through language into the destiny of the people, through placing itself in three spatial concepts, through learning to walk, learning to grasp and so on into personal, individual destiny.
These things must be understood from all sides if we want to understand man in his whole being. I would like to illustrate how this applies to the whole of human life with another fact. Let us go back once more to the state of sleep, to the experiences that man goes through from falling asleep to waking up. There the human being enters the spiritual world with his ego and his astral body, actually back to the starting point of life. But the ego and the astral body weave the future destiny. When the ego and the astral body return to the physical body, a new piece of destiny is woven every night. But man does not yet understand anything of this destiny in ordinary consciousness. He again penetrates back into his etheric body and into his physical body. Thoughts are left behind in the etheric body. The thoughts have not gone with him in the nocturnal state. Man only believes that when he is in bed he does not think. He thinks continually, only he knows nothing of it, because he is with his ego and with his astral body apart from thinking. For thinking consists in an activity of the etheric body. You can actually observe this very easily in ordinary life with those things that make a stronger impression on you. Just think of the first time you attended a symphony that particularly stimulated you. If you have the special disposition for it, you will often wake up during the night and you will always wake up to the sounds of this symphony because your etheric body continues to vibrate in this symphony throughout the night. It does not stop within you. It is not at all necessary for you to be present for the symphony to play itself out in you. If you are present, then you only perceive the vibrations in your etheric body. And it is the same with all thoughts. You think all night in bed, but you are not there with your ego, so you do not know how you are thinking.
I can tell you that we very often spoil our thoughts through the ego. We usually think much more cleverly when we are not there at night. You may or may not believe me, but it's true. Most people have a much healthier judgment of things in life at night than during the day. If the etheric body, which is in harmony with the laws of the cosmos, can think on its own, if a person does not spoil his thoughts, then he usually thinks in a healthier way than if he muddles up his thoughts with his ego. They do this very often during the day.
When we are out of the physical body and the etheric body with the ego and the astral body, we weave our future karma. That which weaves and lives outside as ego and astral body from the moment we fall asleep until we wake up must pass through the gate of death and enter the supersensible world. Even if the astral body later integrates itself into the ego and the ego then undergoes this alone with a different substance, but nevertheless: that which weaves out there apart from the physical and the etheric body in the state of sleep must pass through the gate of death and go through the path between death and a new birth through all the states that I have described to you in these days. And you know from this description that the ego goes through the work it does with the other beings of the higher hierarchies in order to prepare a physical human body in the future, now in the spirit-germ. This requires settling into a deep wisdom between death and a new birth, a wisdom in which one can only live if one lives together with the beings of the higher hierarchies in a spiritual activity.
There is still much to be woven into the karma between falling asleep and waking up, so that it connects in the right way with a physical body in the future. For think of the path that has to be traveled. That which is in the ego and in the astral body, which is woven there as karma, must descend into that region which we then have in the next life on earth as the unconscious region of will. It must go down. It must thoroughly unite with all the physicality of the human being. The ego and the astral body, when they are in the ordinary state of sleep, still have little of this, which they must acquire in the passage between death and a new birth.
And then the ego and the astral body have to return to the physical body, and when they wake up they do not really understand what it is like with this physical body. But they have it from the previous life. The ego and the astral body do not know how to behave properly during this immersion. Hence it is that, because only in the next earth-life from childhood onwards can this astral body and the ego form the physical body and the etheric body through the first seven years, through the second seven years, because only there is everything in the ego and astral body that can work in the right way again on a physical body, hence it is that now in falling asleep, when the ego has first absorbed the moral behavior of the human being, the karma only begins to weave, that it actually does not understand correctly when it wakes up: What is there in this physical body?
Well, it can only submerge into the physical body quite unconsciously. There it must again enter the unconscious. But when it becomes conscious, when it passes through the imaginative region, then the confused images of the dream emerge. What do they mean? Why are they often so incongruent with life? Because the ego and the astral body first try to submerge into the physical and etheric body, but they cannot do it properly. This incoherence of what the ego is not yet able to do and what it should be able to do according to the wise arrangements of the physical body and the etheric body is expressed in the confusion of waking dreams. In the waking dream we have a picture of how the ego tries to bring what it is not yet into a certain harmony with the physical body and the etheric body. And only when it suppresses consciousness for the sake of volition and submerges into the subconscious region, that is, when it does not rely on its own wisdom, then it enters the physical body again without confused ideas coming into being.
If the ego were fully submerged in the physical body consciously on waking, or semi-consciously as in a dream, then the most terrible dreams would arise from the entire physical body of the human being. Only the fact that we submerge into the unconscious volition at the right moment dampens the quietly scurrying pictorial dreams, and allows us to submerge again as ordinary egos and ordinary astral bodies into the region of the unconscious volition. It is so clear to him who looks at these things impartially that every dream can show man what disharmony exists in the present life between the ego and the astral body with regard to what they have acquired in the present life and the fully developed physical and etheric body. First that which has been morally woven must unite with the spirit-germ of the physical body in the passage between death and a new birth. Then that which we weave in the present life between falling asleep and waking up becomes so powerful that in the next childhood life, in this dreamy, half-sleeping childhood life, it can really submerge through the years of childhood into the physical and etheric body and then use it as a tool for earthly life.
So one actually becomes more and more aware, when one looks at the whole human being, how that which one has woven in nightly rest and nightly darkness in the previous earthly lives is in this human being, and how between death and a new birth the wonderful fabric of the physical body has been added and then, one might say, in the last moment of life between death and a new birth, the etheric body. But we carry within us the result of the previous lives on earth. Only that which we carry within us as the forces of the previous earth life down in the organism, in the organism of will, is continually being burnt, because the physical substances and products are burnt and this inner fire is within us, it is continually being covered, burnt by this fire. And while it is being burned, it still has an effect. We make our way through the world through our karma. It is a specific path for the individual experiences. So while we choose from childhood onwards that which we imitate from our surroundings, thereby already taking the first steps towards an event that we may only reach in our fiftieth year, while we make the efforts of will directly on the path towards this experience, that which is physical matter is constantly being burned in us.
Because the fire makes us unconscious in relation to this path of life, that which is a continuous path of destiny is always realized for our inner perception, so that it appears to us as the momentary desires, instincts, drives, temperaments and so on. Down there goes the path of life according to destiny. The fires are always springing up. We only see the surface of the fires. And on the surface of the fire, on the blazing flames, so to speak, that which we carry in our souls as our passions, drives, instincts lives itself out. This is only the outer appearance, the outer revelation of that which sits in the depths as human destiny. People observe the individual passions, the individual expressions of instinct, the individual drives, that which one likes or dislikes at the moment, that which one performs or refrains from performing at the moment out of sympathy or antipathy. But it's just like when we have something in front of us and I say: d-e-r-g-o-t-t-l-e-n-k-t-d-i-e-w-e-l-t. I can only spell it out. Someone else comes and says: "What you said there are letters, that means: God controls the world. So it is with the difference between the ordinary science of the soul and spiritual science. Ordinary spiritual science can spell things out. It looks at the life of man, finds in childhood these and those childish instincts, impulses, registers them, just as he who can only spell spells the letters, and so it goes through the whole of life. He who understands spiritual science, who reads, sees through the surface of the flames to what is below, and sees the fated paths of man's life.
There is as much difference between ordinary psychology, which is still officially the norm today, and real knowledge of the life of the human soul as there is between spelling and reading. But that is why one is so difficult to understand, because one cannot say to the other that what he says is wrong. You cannot say to the person who merely spells: d-e-r-g-o-t-t - what you are reading is wrong. - It's completely correct. Just because he doesn't know that you can read it, he says: You're a crazy guy, I only see d-e-r and so on. Summarizing is foolishness. - He can't understand that you can also read it.
So one must always say to the person who asserts the psychology recognized today: You are quite right. - As an anthroposophist one says to the natural scientist, to the psychologist: You are quite right. - You don't refute them, you agree with them. But he says: If you talk about instincts, drives and passions in the same way you talk about letters that you can read, then you're just a crazy guy. - That is the difficulty. The anthroposophist can get on quite well with the others, he doesn't need to refute them. Nor does he polemicize against external science. It is only when this science begins to call him a madman that he must of course assert that this is not true, and in particular that he also accepts what the others want to accept. But he cannot accept the principle that there is no such thing as what someone does not see. For that is no criterion of truth at all, that there is no such thing as what someone does not see. He must first convince himself that the other person sees it.
It is true that those who stand on anthroposophical ground must also see through this difficult relationship between anthroposophy and other world views. At most, one can sometimes make the judgment, just as one says to someone who only wants to accept: d-e-r-g-o-t-t - just as one says to him: You are half illiterate - so one can under certain circumstances say to someone who cannot tear himself away from the mere spelling out of instincts, drives and passions, temperaments and so on: You are half a philistine, you are half a philistine, you just cannot swing yourself up. - But they won't say he's wrong.
So the situation between anthroposophy and the external world view is such that understanding is only possible if the person writing the text has the good will to learn to read. Otherwise understanding is initially not possible. That is why the usual debates are so fruitless and the opponents cannot see anything. Very few people who oppose anthroposophy feel this. And I must speak of this fact to you here too, because I believe it to be true.
The opponents of anthroposophy are now, I would like to say, increasing with every month. But because they can't really make a case anywhere, because anthroposophy always proves them right, but they don't want to prove anthroposophy right, they can't really attack what the anthroposophist says. Therefore they attack the personality, slander it, lie about it. Unfortunately, this is the form that polemics are taking more and more. This is something you have to see through if you stand on anthroposophical ground. It is so extraordinarily important to see through it.
There are some very strange opposing books today. Many of you will have read the anthroposophical literature and will find that I myself always say in the appropriate places in my books what can be objected to. I always polemicize myself in order to then show how one can dispel what I assert, so that one can already find the reasons against anthroposophy in my own books. Now there are opponents today who are busy copying the reasons that I myself have given in my books against anthroposophy and spreading them as opposing writings against anthroposophy. So today you can find opposing writings that are plagiarized from my books, where what I say is simply copied. It is precisely because of this circumstance, that the anthroposophist himself has to assert what can be objected to him, that the work is actually made terribly easy for the opponent today.
Now, I have not said all this in order to tinker with the opponents, but only to characterize how one must ascend in order to come from the spelling out of life, in relation to the impulses of the will, to the reading of life. Spelling gives that which wells up as drive, as, one might say, animal life in wishes, desires, passions, and is valid for the moment. If one knows how to treat all this like letters and to read it together, then one penetrates to the human destiny, to the individual human destiny. This human destiny reigns at the bottom of life, and with this destiny man fits into the ongoing course of the whole development of mankind. And only if one can comprehend the whole life of the individual in this way can one also comprehend human history, which we now want to consider in the next few days, as the life of earthly human work in its destiny before and after the Mystery of Golgotha and the intervention of the Mystery of Golgotha in the development of humanity on earth. But I had to gain a foundation and show you what is at work in man so that it can be shown in the right way how the gods and the Mystery of Golgotha are at work in man, in the destiny of man as a whole.
We will talk more about this tomorrow.