Earthly and Cosmic Man
GA 133
18 June 1912, Berlin
8. Consciousness, Memory, Karma Thought Forms.
It will be my task today to speak of the nature and being of Man, in order that the next lecture may contribute to an understanding of the development of mankind as a whole.
We will begin by considering something of primary and immediate importance in the life of the human being as he stands before us on the Earth. You know, of course, that the human being, as we see him, is not the creation of the Earth alone, but that his origin must be traced back to much earlier conditions of existence. From many writings and lectures you know that through spiritual-scientific research these preceding conditions of evolution, the preceding embodiments of the planet Earth, can be discovered and appropriately known as the pre-earthly “Saturn-condition,” the pre-earthly “Sun-condition” and the pre-earthly “Moon-condition” of our planet. The forces in man as a “whole” being do not proceed merely from processes that have been in operation on the Earth: the being of man contains heritages, as it were, from the earlier planetary conditions. These heritages have remained and are active in man. The human being in his whole nature can be understood only when we know that the first foundations of the physical body were laid during the ancient Saturn period; development proceeded through the Old Sun period and the Old Moon period, and the present form and structure of the human body did not unfold until the period of Earth-evolution proper. In the other principles of human nature, too, heritages of pre-earthly conditions, not merely forces originating on the Earth, are actively in operation. Today, however, we will think of what man is as a creation of the Earth, living out his existence on the Earth; we will think of what is incorporated in his being during the Earth-period, in pursuance of the mission of the Earth.
The powers or principles derived specifically from the Earth can be differentiated into three. There is, firstly, man's earthly consciousness; it is derived from the Earth and the forces of the Earth. It is, of all principles, the one that is most immediately present in the human being as he moves about the world today; and the purpose of everything that has come to pass in the process of the Earth's evolution has been to enable the human being, here on the Earth, to unfold his present consciousness. Consciousness is the most intensely present, the most familiar reality; it pervades and fills all waking existence; in it your thoughts, perceptions, feelings and impulses of will run their course, in so far as you are “awake” human beings. This consciousness you know so well was not possessed by man in the pre-earthly conditions of the Earth, nor indeed during the first period of Earth-evolution proper—which, to begin with, was only a recapitulation of pre-earthly conditions. Man acquired it gradually; or rather, it was bestowed upon him by the Creator-Powers of the Universe.
In order to possess this consciousness the human being must waken from sleep and must make use of the senses, that is to say, of the instruments of the body. That he must also make use of instruments other than the senses, is obvious; for in this everyday, waking consciousness he does not merely formulate ideas and thoughts but also has feelings, experiences, impulses of will. This whole content of consciousness, filling and forming it, needs the outer, physical body, the earthly body; when an idea or thought is formed, the being of soul-and-spirit makes use of the instrument of the physical body. From this it is easy to realise that the consciousness into which the human being wakens in the morning is dependent upon the earthly body; and that when he thinks, feels or wills in this ordinary consciousness, he can only do so because he has the physical earth-body as an instrument.
As you will have read in the book Occult Science, the states of consciousness between death and a new birth are essentially different from those of consciousness as it is on Earth. For consciousness changes according to its instrument, and between death and rebirth, as a being of soul and spirit, man has at his disposal instruments of a different character from those available to him during life in the physical body. The physical body, from which the instruments of the everyday consciousness are formed, disintegrates and decays at death. Or rather, in the sense of Spiritual Science it would be better, instead of using the word “decay,” to say that it is given over to the element of universal Nature, for the dissolution or decay of the physical body to be observed outwardly is only illusion, maya. In reality, a great and mighty process underlies what is called the “dissolution” or “decay” of the human body. Whatever in man belongs to Nature passes over to Powers standing behind existence. At death the physical body of earthly man slips away, falls away from him; so that in speaking of man as a being of the Earth, we can only say that the instrument of his everyday consciousness falls away from him at death.
The first of the three principles of the Earth-man, therefore, is his consciousness. In considering his whole being, however, something must be kept separate and distinct from what is known as “consciousness” per se in ordinary sense-existence—something that is not, in the same sense as thinking, feeling and willing, to be included in the general sphere of consciousness. What we call memory is distinct from these other processes. The thoughts and feelings arising from the store of memory and of remembrances, are not subject to the same laws as the consciousness of which we have here been speaking. In order that consciousness may exist at all, the physical body must be preserved in its accustomed form. In respect of its “substance” the physical body is being renewed all the time; after seven or eight years we have within us quite other physical substances than were previously there. The physical substances change, but the “form” remains. And the form must remain, for it is the instrument for the ordinary consciousness. The ordinary consciousness can unfold thinking, feeling and willing during the time the physical body retains its form. If, however, the memory and the remembrances were bound up with the “physical body,” they would not be able to survive for very long—at most for as long as the various substances of the physical body remain. This means that if the memory were bound up with the physical body, we should be able, at most, to remember back for six or seven years. The physical body is not, however, the instrument of the memory; in earthly man the instrument of the memory is the ether-body, or life-body. The ether-body is actively in operation through the whole life of man on Earth—so that what has been taken into the memory, from the first moment of consciousness to death, can remain all the time. It is this ether- or life-body which carries remembrances, memory pictures, from one period in life across to the other. The instrument for the earthly consciousness, therefore, is the physical body; the instrument for memory and remembrance is the ether-body. We should not be able to carry the remembrances of our life across the period stretching between death and a new birth if something quite definite did not take place—if, after forsaking the physical body at death we did not remain for a certain space of time in the ether- or life-body. This is the interval after death during which the past life spreads out like a great panorama, a great tableau. This “life-tableau” can only appear to us because after death we retain the ether-body for a short time. The ether-body is the instrument for acts of remembrance or recollection and if we were to lose it altogether at death or immediately afterwards, no such tableau could rise-up before us. We must be able to use the ether-body as an instrument, and something takes place while this life-tableau is before us after death. This whole life tableau is gathered into, “inscribed” as it were, into the universal life-ether permeating space. And there it remains—in the universal life-ether. What was retained at the beginning for a few days only, is now inscribed in the universal life-ether in which we live perpetually. Because it is thus inscribed it is present throughout our further existence between death and the new birth in the future. We take with us through that period an “extract” of our ether-body, so that a connection can always be established with the life-tableau that has been inscribed into the universal life-ether. This is a kind of permanent organ whereby the remembrances of the last life remain accessible.
In consciousness per se there is, and can only be, the immediate Present; the immediate reality of “being” would vanish with the passing moment if, as men of Earth, we could only unfold consciousness in acts of thinking, feeling and willing. That we are able to preserve what is contained in our life of thinking, of feeling and of will, is due to the ether-body; and even after death it is still preserved, in the universal life-ether. There we have the second principle of earthly, human existence: that which does not take flight with the passing moment, but remains in existence, preserved in the universal life-ether. Thus in the man of Earth, two principles are to be specified: earthly consciousness, and memory or remembrances—which are not to be identified with the consciousness as such.
What, then, is the third principle?
The second principle is distinct from the first in that it does not permit experiences simply to pass away, but preserves them. The third principle of earthly man differs in an important respect from the second. In so far as thoughts have become memories, they have a definite character. Everything that is entrusted to the memory has this characteristic: during your life it is your own, personal possession, part of your own, personal “estate.” Memories that go with you through life until the time of death, are your innermost possession, a possession remaining in you as a personality, until your death. It will not be difficult to realise that what you carry with you through life in your memory, in your remembrances, really means nothing in the outer world. It is within you, and only after death does it begin to mean something in the outer world—when it is inscribed into the universal life-ether. In the universal life-ether it is the “registered mark” of your personality. It was inner experience during life and after death it remains for the following period of eternity as the register of your personality. There it is—inscribed into the life-ether. The “Inner” during life becomes the “Outer” in the life-ether after death. Up to the time of death these memories and remembrances are carried within us as our own, inner possession, and from death onwards they are inscribed like an open secret, as it were, in the life-ether; there they live and we remain connected with them because an “extract” from the life body goes with us and we can always look back to what we once experienced. Just as memories and remembrances remain within us during earthly life, so, after death, we are in the life-ether, together with the experiences of our past earthly life.
It is different with all that even during our lifetime became outward reality—not remaining inward as did the remembrances and memories. Truth to tell, every single step we take with our feet during earthly life becomes outer fact, outer reality; for not only are we able to remember it, but the very step registers our “mark” upon the earthly realm—in that we move through the air, for one thing. Even in the physical sense, the whole of our active life becomes outer reality. And to what a still greater extent is this true of the moral life!
Good and kind-hearted actions in very truth become outer reality. Deeds born of compassion or of sympathy with the joys of our fellow-men do not live on only within us but also in the other human being, in our whole environment. All the time, the marks and traces of our life are being impressed upon Earth-existence. The man for whom we performed a deed of compassion or a deed born of fellow-feeling with his joy or suffering, carries the influence and effect of our action on with him through life. What we have felt and done lives on in the others, in the outside world. Think about this, and it will soon become plain that such actions do not belong exclusively to the man who performs them in the sense that his memory-pictures belong to him, but pass over into the world outside as active influences.
What is imparted in this way to the outer world during a man's lifetime is not like his memory-pictures inscribed in the ether-body. The ether-body is too intimately and fundamentally part of the whole personality to enable these actions and the effects of them to be registered in it. Nor would this be for the good during earthly life. For if some unkind or mischievous deed, for instance, were immediately to be inscribed in the ether-body, the man would be doomed, throughout his whole life, to be aware of it; it would be a force in his ether-body and in certain circumstances suffering would be entailed; working its way into his life-forces, the bad action would make him ill, discontented, feeble. If acts were inscribed in the ether-body, as are the remembered thoughts, life would be made impossible for earthly man. Just as the ether-body is the instrument for the thoughts, in so far as they become remembrances and memories, so is the astral body the instrument for deeds. Deeds proceed from the astral body. The astral body is the instrument for every action—as I have said, an action becomes part of and works as an influence in the outer world. Everyday consciousness is bound up with the physical body; remembrances and memory with the ether-body; delicate and rarified though the astral body is, every action, remaining as it does as an influence in the outer world, has its source in the astral body. The consequence of this is that actions remain in a certain sense bound up with the astral body, just as memory remains with the ether-body. While the human being is still living in the ether-body after death, the “tableau of memory” unfolds—the memories of the life that is just over remain in the ether-body. When the ether-body has been laid aside after death and all that has been preserved in the form of personal memories has been inscribed into the universal life-ether, man's life continues, but now wholly in the astral body. In the astral body he has to live for a long time, bound up with the outer effects caused by his life. After death the human being lives through his actions in backward sequence; he lives backwards through everything he has done to other beings on the earth. For a period amounting approximately to a third of the time of his life, he is living in his astral body through all the actions he performed on Earth. And just as the personal memories are inscribed into the universal life-ether when the ether-body is laid aside a few days after death, so in the period during which the human being is bound up with the astral body, all his deeds are inscribed into the all-pervading cosmic astrality. They are within the cosmic astrality and he remains connected with them, just as he is connected with his personal memories which have been recorded as an abiding inscription in the cosmic ether—only his deeds are inscribed as it were into a different cosmic register. While the human being is living backwards through the deeds and acts performed in the past life, they are all inscribed in the cosmic astrality and he remains connected with them. Through his astral body, therefore, the earthly man remains connected with his deeds.
What I have just described is Karma. What has been inscribed into the all-pervading cosmic astrality by a man's deeds—that, in very truth, is karma. That a strong moral stimulus lies in such knowledge, is quite obvious, and possible allegations to the effect that Spiritual Science does not provide the deepest moral basis for life would be malicious calumny.
In what sense may we speak of a strong moral impulse in the principles of knowledge here described? Deeds performed during life are inscribed, after death, into the cosmic astrality. If a man has committed wrongs and has not, to the best of his ability, been able karmically to put them right during life, all such actions are written into his karma and remain connected with him. (Assuming that already in earthly life he did all he could to right some wrong or sinful action, he would thereby be spared from having it inscribed into his karma.) In that as a human being of the Earth he has an earthly astral body, he has his karma.
As a being of the Earth, then, man has, firstly, consciousness, of which the physical body is the instrument; secondly, his memory, with the ether-body or life-body as its instrument; and thirdly, karma—which belongs to him just as consciousness belongs to him in the physical body. In this sense, earthly man is a threefold being, consisting of his earthly consciousness, his memory, and his karma. Without these principles he is not, in the real sense, an Earth-man. A being who were to go about on Earth without unfolding in his physical body the consciousness belonging to human existence on Earth, would not be Man. A being who did not unfold the faculty of memory belonging to human existence on Earth, would not be man. Nor would a being who went through life in an earthly body without creating karma, be Man. What constitutes the Earth-man is that he unfolds consciousness through the physical body, memory and remembrance through the ether-body, and through the astral body creates karma. These are the “earthly” principles in the being of man. A fourth principle must be added, namely, the Ego, the “ I.” This is the principle of which we know that it flashed up, for the first time, in Earth-existence. The “ I ” passes from incarnation to incarnation, is within us while we are unfolding our earthly consciousness, while we are preserving picture after picture in our memory and while we are accumulating karma from one incarnation to another. The “ I ” is within us, within these three principles of earthly manhood. What, then, still remains to be said about the earthly man?
The “ I ” flashed into manifestation for the first time on the Earth. The foundations of the physical body of earthly man were laid down during the Old Saturn period of evolution. Although after the Old Moon period, Earth-evolution changed the nature of the physical body, the physical body is not a product of the Earth proper. The same is to be said of the ether-body—which was laid down in germ during the Old Sun period—and of the astral body for which the first foundations were laid during the Old Moon period. Let us try to picture the human being the following way. When Earth-existence began, man came over from a pre-earthly evolution, as a being consisting of physical body, ether-body and astral body. In the course of Earth-evolution his physical body was transformed into the instrument for his earthly consciousness, his ether-body into the instrument of his personal memory, and his astral body into the bearer of karma. Physical body, ether-body, astral body—these were bestowed upon man by earlier, pre-earthly periods of evolution, after which the Earth, in accordance with its mission, elaborated these three principles of his being. Let us keep them distinct. The physical body of man has become the marvellous, wonderful structure it is, because it has passed through three stages of metamorphosis, together with the three earlier embodiments of the planet Earth; if it had remained as it was after the expiration of the Old Moon period, it would have been endowed with all the inner qualities it now possesses, but would not have been metamorphosed in such a way as to enable it to become the instrument of consciousness for earthly man. The physical body has not only the perfection it had attained at the end of the Old Moon-evolution but, in addition, it has been so transformed as to become the bearer of the earthly consciousness of man. In the same way, the ether-body has all the perfections previously contained within it, but only since the beginning of Earth-evolution has it developed the forces which make it the bearer of man's personal memory. The astral body had acquired many perfections during the Old Moon period, but only through the operation of earthly processes could it become the instrument for the creation of karma. The “ I ” alone has been equipped with all its powers solely by the Earth. What the Earth itself worked into the being of man is to be observed only in the “ I,” the Ego.
What, then, has really been added to the human being by the “ I ”?
Let us suppose that man had all the qualities and attributes which the Earth-mission has instilled into him, but not the “ I.” This is, of course, an impossible hypothesis because the “ I ” had necessarily to be bestowed upon him.—But let us assume that without unfolding the “ I,” a being possessed the earthly qualities contained in physical body, ether-body, astral body. Even if it had not been possible to develop these qualities and attributes on the Earth, their development might have been possible on other planetary bodies, and Spiritual Science is able to study the conditions of existence prevailing on other planets. A being of this kind would be able to unfold waking consciousness as it exists in man, would possess the faculties of thinking, feeling and willing, but would not connect his thoughts, experiences, feelings or impulses of will, with an “ I ”-consciousness. Nevertheless it would be possible for such a being to have, like earthly man, consciousness, remembrances, the power to retain ideas and thoughts in the memory, and also karma. Such a condition would not be possible in an earthly man; but let us envisage that there might exist a being of his kind. What would there be within him? Consciousness, Memory, Karma—as they are within the human being. But in the earthly human being, the “ I,” too, is present. What, then, is brought about by the “ I ”? Since karma is created, essentially, by the astral body, how does the “ I ” operate within its own sphere of karma?
What is brought about by the “ I ” itself is of even greater moment than human karma. For karma remains connected with the human being. Deeds performed in some life persist as his karma, and he can make compensation for them in a later life. In reality it is the astral body which causes karma to remain. But the “ I ” is a spiritual potency, a spiritual being. What the “ I ” creates, as the astral body creates karma, does not remain connected with man but detaches itself from him as forms created by thoughts. Whereas what is inscribed in his karma remains connected with him and is instilled into subsequent phases of Earth-evolution, something else—of a very definite character—is brought into existence by the human “ I,” and passes over into other worlds—as memories pass over into the cosmic life-ether. Just as karma is inscribed in the cosmic astrality, so the creations of the “ I ”—the forms created by thoughts and feelings—go forth into the world. Karma remains connected with the human being; but there are other creations—creations of the “ I ”—which detach themselves from him, to begin with, simply as forms, and live on as spiritual forms in the universe. What, then, is it in the human being that lives on? Firstly, his personal memories; secondly, his karma; thirdly, the forms born of his thoughts and feelings. But whereas he remains connected with his memories and with his karma, these thought-forms detach themselves from him and, as forms, become independent. As lifeless forms—which actually go forth as forms—the creations of the “ I ” live on in the outer world.
Achter Vortrag
Es soll heute meine Aufgabe sein, einige Ausführungen zu machen über den Menschen, damit wir dann mit diesen Ausführungen das nächste Mal in einige Betrachtungen eintreten können, welche zum Verständnisse der ganzen menschlichen Entwickelung einiges beitragen können.
Der Ausgangspunkt soll von dem genommen werden, was zunächst für die Betrachtung des Menschen, so wie er auf der Erde vor uns steht, wichtig und bedeutsam ist. Voraus muß ich bemerken, daß Sie ja wissen, daß der Mensch, so wie er vor uns steht, nicht bloß ein Erdengeschöpf ist, sondern einen Ursprung hat, den wir, wenn wir ihn voll verstehen wollen, auch auf vorhergehende Zustände der Erdenentwickelung selber zurückführen müssen. Sie finden es in den verschiedenen Schriften dargestellt, und es ist oftmals davon auch hier Erwähnung geschehen, daß wir mit den Mitteln der geisteswissenschaftlichen Forschung die vorhergehenden Entwickelungszustände, gleichsam die Vorherverkörperungen unseres Erdenplaneten verfolgen können und daß wir sie unterscheiden nach den Benennungen, die sich uns in mannigfaltiger Weise als zulässig ergeben haben als den vorirdischen Saturnzustand der Erde, als den vorirdischen Sonnenzustand und als den vorirdischen Mondenzustand. Und wir wissen, daß das, was an Kräften im heutigen Gesamtmenschen drinnen ist, nicht bloß von dem herrührt, was auf der Erde wirksam war, sondern daß im Menschen drinnenstecken die Erbstücke aus den früheren Verkörperungen unseres Erdenplaneten. Sie sind geblieben, sie wirken in der menschlichen Natur. Und den gesamten Menschen verstehen wir nur, wenn wir zum Beispiel wissen, daß der physische Leib seine erste Anlage auf dem alten Saturn erhalten hat, während der alten Sonnenzeit und der alten Mondenzeit sich dann weiterentwickelt hat, und daß die gegenwärtige Form des menschlichen Leibes erst ein Erdenprodukt ist. Ebenso wissen wir von den andern Gliedern der Menschennatur, daß nicht bloß das in ihnen tätig ist, was auf der Erde an Kräften erst entstanden ist, sondern was durchaus Erbschaft ist aus vorirdischen Zeiten. Heute aber wollen wir zunächst dasjenige in Betracht ziehen, was am Menschen insofern ins Auge gefaßt werden muß, als der Mensch ein Erdengeschöpf ist, als er hier auf dieser Erde lebt. Das ist sozusagen dasjenige, was vermöge der Mission der Erde dem Menschen während dieser Erdenzeit einverleibt wird.
Nun können wir das, was der Mensch vorzugsweise von der Erde hat, zunächst in drei Glieder bringen, in drei Teile bringen. Das erste, was der Mensch von der Erde hat, was er den gegenwärtigen Kräften der Erde verdankt, ist sein gegenwärtiges Erdenbewußtsein, also dasjenige, was dem Menschen zunächst, so wie er heute unter uns wandelt, das Allerallernächste ist. Und es mußten die Ereignisse, die Tatsachen, die im Laufe der Erdenentwickelung geschehen sind, sich alle so abspielen, wie sie sich eben abgespielt haben und wie wir sie des öfteren beschrieben haben, damit sich der Mensch hier auf der Erde sein eben gegenwärtiges Bewußtsein erwerben konnte. Dieses Bewußtsein ist sozusagen das Ihnen allen Allerbekannteste, das Bekannteste, von dem Sie wissen: es ist dasjenige, in dem Sie leben vom Aufwachen bis zum Einschlafen; es ist dasjenige, in dem Ihre Gedanken, Ihre Empfindungen, Ihre Gefühle, Ihre Willensimpulse ablaufen, insofern Sie ein wacher Mensch sind. Dieses Bewußtsein, das Sie alle sehr gut kennen, hatte als solches der Mensch in den vorirdischen Zuständen noch nicht, hatte es auch nicht in der ersten Zeit der Erdenentwickelung, die ja nur ein Wiederholen vorirdischer Zustände war. Er hat es sich nach und nach erworben, oder vielmehr, es ist ihm von den schöpferischen Weltenmächten und Weltenkräften verliehen worden.
Nun wissen wir, daß der Mensch, um dieses Bewußtsein zu haben, aufwachen muß und daß es notwendig ist, daß er sich seiner Sinne bedienen muß, das heißt der Werkzeuge des gegenwärtigen menschlichen Leibes. Er muß sich dazu auch anderer Werkzeuge als der Sinne im gegenwärtigen menschlichen Leibe bedienen, insbesondere wenn wir nicht bloß auf die Gedanken und Vorstellungen blicken, die sich der Mensch bildet, sondern auch darauf sehen, daß der Mensch auch Empfindungen, Gefühle und Willensimpulse in diesem alltäglichen Bewußtsein hat. Dann aber wissen wir, daß all dieser Inhalt des Bewußtseins, alles dieses, was unser Bewußtsein ausfüllt und bildet, den äußeren physischen Leib, wie er ein Erdenleib ist, braucht. Es lebt und kann nur leben im äußeren physischen Leibe. So daß eine Vorstellung, die wir uns bilden, dadurch gebildet wird, daß sich das, was eigentlich nun der geistig-seelische Mensch ist, der Werkzeuge seines physischen Leibes bedient. Daraus werden Sie sich nun leicht den Gedanken bilden können, daß dieses besondere Bewußtsein, zu dem der Mensch an jedem Morgen aufwacht, eben abhängig ist vom Erdenleibe. Sie werden auch leicht begreifen können, daß der Mensch so, wie er in diesem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein vorstellt, fühlt oder will, nur vorstellen, fühlen und wollen kann, wenn er den physischen Erdenleib als ein Werkzeug hat.
Wir haben öfter davon gesprochen, und Sie können es auch in der «Geheimwissenschaft im Umriß» lesen, daß die Bewußtseinszustände zwischen dem Tode und der neuen Geburt wesentlich andere sind als die irdischen Bewußtseinszustände. Denn das Bewußtsein ändert sich nach seinem Instrument, und zwischen dem Tode und der neuen Geburt stehen eben dem Menschen andere Werkzeuge zur Verfügung für sein eigentliches Geistes- und Seelenwesen, als wenn er im physischen Leibe ist. Nun wissen wir, daß dieser physische Leib, aus dem die Werkzeuge des gewöhnlichen, alltäglichen Bewußtseins gebildet sind, mit dem Tode zerfällt. Im Sinne der Geisteswissenschaft würde es besser sein, statt «zerfällt», zu sagen, daß er übergeben wird dem allgemeinen Naturelement. Denn, was Auflösung des physischen Leibes ist und als solche der äußeren Beobachtung erscheint, ist nur eine Illusion, eine Maja. Es liegt ein ganz großer, gewaltiger Prozeß gerade dem zugrunde, was man Verwesen oder Auflösen des menschlichen Leibes nennt. Das Natürliche wird Mächten übergeben, die hinter dem Dasein stehen. Aber dem Menschen, wie er als Erdenmensch ist, entschlüpft, entfällt sein physischer Leib mit dem Tode. So daß wir, insofern wir über den Menschen als Erdenmenschen sprechen, nur sagen können: das Werkzeug des alltäglichen Bewußtseins entfällt ihm mit dem Tode.
Da hätten wir das erste Glied des Erdenmenschen: sein Bewußtsein. Wenn wir nun den Erdenmenschen ganz betrachten, was er ist, so müssen wir von dem, was man im gewöhnlichen Sinnensein Bewußtsein nennt, etwas ganz davon loslösen, was durchaus nicht in demselben Sinne zum Bewußtsein zu rechnen ist, wie das gewöhnliche Vorstellen, Fühlen und Wollen. Wir müssen dasjenige loslösen, was wir mit dem Ausdruck Gedächtnis zusammenfassen. Diejenigen Vorstellungen und Gefühle, die wir aus dem Schatze unseres Gedächtnisses, unserer Erinnerungen hervorholen, sind nicht denselben Gesetzen unterworfen wie das Bewußtsein, von dem soeben gesprochen worden ist. Denn dieses Bewußtsein braucht, damit es überhaupt bestehen kann, die Erhaltung des physischen Leibes in der Form, wie er einmal ist. Und Sie wissen aus mancherlei Darstellungen, die gegeben worden sind, daß in bezug auf seine Substanz der physische Leib sich fortwährend erneuert, daß nach sieben, acht Jahren ganz andere physische Substanzen in uns sind als vorher, daß also die physischen Substanzen ausgewechselt werden. Aber die Form bleibt. Und sie muß bleiben. Denn so wie sie ist, so ist sie Werkzeug für das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein. Und so lange können wir das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein für Denken, Fühlen und Wollen entfalten, als wir den physischen Leib in der entsprechenden Form haben. Aber das Gedächtnis, die Erinnerungen würden uns, wenn sie an den physischen Leib gebunden wären, nicht lange standhalten können. Das würden sie höchstens so lange können, als die einzelnen Substanzen des physischen Leibes uns standhalten können. Das heißt, wir würden uns höchstens sechs, sieben Jahre zurückerinnern können, wenn das Gedächtnis an den physischen Leib gebunden wäre. Das ist es aber nicht. Der physische Leib ist nicht Werkzeug des Gedächtnisses, sondern Werkzeug des Gedächtnisses ist für den Erdenmenschen der ätherische Leib, der Äther- oder Lebensleib. Und dieser ist es gerade, der im Erdenmenschen immer arbeitet. So daß immer — von unserem ersten Bewußtseinsaugenblicke an bis zu unserem Tode — dasjenige bleiben kann, was wir eben in unser Gedächtnis aufgenommen haben. Dieser Äther- oder Lebensleib ist es also, der unsere Erinnerungen, unsere Gedächtnisvorstellungen von einer Lebensepoche in die andere hinüberträgt. Für das irdische Bewußtsein bedienen wir uns also als eines Werkzeuges des Erdenleibes; für die Erinnerungen bedienen wir uns als eines Werkzeuges des ätherischen Leibes. Wir würden nicht durch die Zeit, die zwischen dem Tode und der neuen Geburt verläuft, die Erinnerungen an unser Leben über diese Zeit hinübertragen können, wenn nicht etwas ganz Bestimmtes eintreten würde: wenn wir nicht eine Zeitlang, nachdem wir mit dem Tode den physischen Leib verlassen haben, im Äther- oder Lebensleibe bleiben würden. Das ist eben die Zeit — ich habe es oft beschrieben -, in welcher das verflossene Leben nach unserem Tode vor uns liegt wie ein großes Panorama, wie ein großes Tableau. Wir haben oft von diesem Lebenstableau gesprochen. Dasselbe kann uns nur dadurch erscheinen, daß wir unsern Ätherleib noch eine Zeitlang nach dem Tode haben. Denn dieser Ätherleib ist durchaus eben das Werkzeug für die Erinnerungen. Würden wir ihn sogleich im Tode oder nach dem Tode verlieren, so würden wir dieses Tableau nicht haben können. Wir müssen uns dieses Ätherleibes oder Lebensleibes als eines Werkzeuges bedienen können, und es geschieht etwas, während wir dieses Lebenstableau haben. Während wir dieses Lebenstableau nach unserem Tode in unserer Seele haben, wird dieses ganze Lebenstableau eingetragen, eingraviert gleichsam — wenn ich mich dieses Ausdruckes bedienen darf — in den allgemeinen, den Raum durchdringenden Lebensäther. Nun ist es da drinnen. Was wir erst einige Tage hindurch hielten, ist nun gleichsam aufgezeichnet in den allgemeinen Lebensäther, in dem wir leben, in dem wir immer sind. Dadurch, daß es da aufgezeichnet ist, daß es da drinnen ist, ist es für unser weiteres Leben zwischen dem Tode und der neuen Geburt eben vorhanden. Und wir nehmen einen Extrakt aus unserem Ätherleibe mit, das wissen wit, damit wir immer eine Verbindung herstellen können zwischen uns selbst und diesem in den allgemeinen Lebensäther eingetragenen Lebenstableau. Das ist gleichsam unser fortlaufendes Organ, wodurch wir die Erinnerungen an unser letztes Leben immer haben können.
Daraus schen Sie, daß wir in unserem Bewußtsein immer nur ein Gegenwärtiges haben können und daß unser Sein mit dem gegenwärtigen Augenblick eigentlich verschwinden würde, wenn wir nur das Bewußtsein mit unserem Denken, Fühlen und Wollen als Erdenmenschen entfalten könnten. Daß wir dasjenige, was in Denken, Fühlen und Wollen lebt, aufbewahren können, das verdanken wir dem Ätherleibe; und wir bewahren es dann sogar auf nach dem Tode in dem allgemeinen Lebensäther. Da haben wir das zweite Glied des menschlichen irdischen Daseins, dasjenige, was nicht wie das Erdenbewußtsein mit dem Augenblicke verläuft, sondern welches bestehen bleibt, welches sozusagen erhalten bleibt im allgemeinen Lebensäther. Wir haben also nunmehr schon für den Erdenmenschen zwei Glieder zu unterscheiden: sein Erdenbewußtsein und sein Gedächtnis oder seine Erinnerungen, die man nicht einfach mit dem Bewußtsein identifizieren darf. Was ist denn nun das dritte Glied?
Das zweite Glied unterscheidet sich von dem ersten dadurch, daß es die Dinge, die erlebt werden, nicht einfach vorübergehen läßt, sondern sie aufbewahrt. Das dritte Glied des irdischen Menschen unterscheidet sich wiederum von dem zweiten in beträchtlicher Art. Wenn Sie Ihre Gedanken, insofern sie Erinnerungen werden, ins Auge fassen, so werden Sie sich sagen: Eine ganz bestimmte Eigentümlichkeit haben diese Gedanken, welche Erinnerungen geworden sind. —- Eine Eigentümlichkeit hat alles, was dem Gedächtnis anvertraut worden ist, nämlich, daß es während des Lebens Ihr persönliches Gut ist, daß es Ihr persönlicher Inhalt ist. Sie tragen das, was Sie als Erinnerung durch das Leben und bis zum Tode hin tragen, als Ihr innerstes Besitztum in sich, tragen es als Besitztum in Ihrer Persönlichkeit bis zum Tode hin in sich. Und Sie werden sich leicht den Gedanken bilden können, der ja nahe liegt, daß dies, was Sie da in Ihrem Gedächtnis, in Ihren Erinnerungen mit sich tragen, zunächst solange Sie leben, nichts in der Außenwelt bedeutet, nichts in der äußeren Welt ist. Es ist in Ihnen und es beginnt erst, nachdem Sie durch den Tod hindurchgegangen sind, etwas in der Außenwelt zu sein: da wird es in den allgemeinen Lebensäther eingetragen. Aber was ist es in dem allgemeinen Lebensäther? Dort ist es die Notiz von Ihrer Persönlichkeit. Es ist das, was von Ihrer Persönlichkeit bleibt als das, was während des Lebens inneres Erlebnis ist, und nach dem Tode ist es für die zunächstige Ewigkeit in dem Lebensäther Eingetragenes für Ihre Persönlichkeit. Da steht es aufgeschrieben. Was der Mensch im Leben innerlich erlebt hat, wird für den Lebensäther äußerliches Erlebnis nach dem Tode des Menschen. Es ist also mit unsern Erinnerungen so, daß wir diese Erinnerungen, dieses Gedächtnis in uns selber als unser inneres Gut bis zum Toode tragen dürfen, und daß es vom Tode an - sozusagen als offenbares Geheimnis — in den Lebensäther eingeschrieben ist und darinnen lebt und daß wir mit ihm verbunden bleiben, weil wir einen Extrakt aus dem Lebensleib mitgenommen haben und immer zurückschauen können auf das, was wir da erlebt haben. So ist in einer gewissen Beziehung die Welt unserer Erlebnisse durch die Erinnerungen, durch das Gedächtnis während unseres Erdenlebens in uns; so sind wir mit unserem Erdenleben in dem Weltenäther nach dem Tode.
Anders ist es nun mit dem, was nicht bloß unser inneres Erlebnis bleibt, was nicht bloß unsere Erinnerung, unser Gedächtnis bleibt, sondern was von uns schon während unseres Lebens äußere Tatsache geworden ist. Äußere Tatsache wird von unserem Leben während dieses Erdenlebens im Grunde genommen jeder Schritt. Denn nicht nur, daß wir den Schritt machen und uns dann daran erinnern können, sondern indem wir den Schritt machen, drücken wir unsere Spur in das Erdreich ein. Wir durcheilen die Luft. Ich möchte sagen, schon im äußeren physischen Sinne ist unser ganzes äußeres Leben zugleich äußere Tat. Äußere Wirklichkeit wird unser ganzes Leben. Aber wie wird unser Leben erst äußere Wirklichkeit, wenn wir aufblicken von unserem äußeren physischen Dasein zu unserem moralischen Dasein! Ob wir ein gutes Herz haben und diese oder jene gute Tat verrichten, das wird gar sehr äußere Tatsache. Wenn wir ein gutes Herz haben und diese oder jene Tat des Mitleides, diese oder jene Tat der Mitfreude verrichten, so ist das, was wir getan haben, nicht bloß etwas, das in uns fortlebt, sondern das fortlebt in den andern Menschen, in unserer ganzen Umgebung. Wir drücken fortwährend die Spuren unseres Daseins in unserem Erdenleben dem ganzen Dasein auf. Der Mensch, mit dem wir zusammen waren, demgegenüber wir eine Tat des Mitleides oder der Mitfreude verrichtet haben, er trägt die Wirkung unseres Tuns mit sich fort. Was wir gefühlt und getan haben, lebt außerhalb unser in dem andern Menschen fort. Wenn Sie sich diesen Gedanken überlegen, finden Sie heraus, wie das, was der Mensch darlebt, nicht nur ihm gehört, wie ihm seine Erinnerungsvorstellungen gehören, sondern was er innerlich erlebt, geht fortwährend in die äußere Welt über, das wird fortwährend Wirkung in der Außenwelt.
Was wir auf diese Weise schon während unseres Lebens der Außenwelt mitteilen, ist nicht wie unsere Erinnerungsvorstellungen in unserem Ätherleibe eingeschrieben. Unser Ätherleib gehört zu innig, zu intensiv zusammen mit unserer ganzen Persönlichkeit, als daß diese Taten, diese Wirkungen des menschlichen Erlebens in ihm eingeschrieben werden könnten. Es würde dem Menschen auch während des Erdenlebens nicht gar gut bekommen. Denn, würde zum Beispiel irgendeine mitleidlose Tat oder irgendeine schlechte Tat dem Ätherleibe unmittelbar eingeschrieben, so würde der Mensch sein ganzes Leben hindurch verspüren müssen, daß er diese Tat getan hat. Dann würde dies in seinem Ätherleibe eine Kraft bedeuten, und er würde unter Umständen unter dieser schlechten Tat dadurch leiden müssen, daß sie sich in seine Lebenskräfte hineinbohrt, das heißt aber, daß sie ihn krank, unzufrieden machen würde, ihn lähmen würde und so weiter. Wenn unsere Taten dasselbe tun würden in unserem Ätherleibe wie unsere Gedanken, so wäre das Leben des Erdenmenschen unmöglich. Aber ebenso wie der Ätherleib das Werkzeug für unsere Gedanken ist, insofern sie Erinnerungen werden und dem Gedächtnis einverleibt werden, ebenso ist unser astralischer Leib das Werkzeug für unsere Taten. Sie entspringen aus unserem Astralleib. Alles was der Mensch tut, und so, wie ich es beschrieben habe, als Wirkung der Außenwelt einverleibt, ist gebunden an das Werkzeug des menschlichen Astralleibes. Wie sein alltägliches Bewußtsein an den physischen Leib, wie seine Erinnerungen und sein Gedächtnis an den Ätherleib gebunden sind, so ist, wenn der astralische Leib auch noch so fein ist, alles was der Mensch tut, was Wirkung ist in der Außenwelt, getan durch den menschlichen Astralleib. Die Folge davon ist, daß es auch in einer gewissen Beziehung mit diesem Astralleib verbunden bleibt, wie das Gedächtnis verbunden bleibt mit dem Ätherleib. Wenn wir, wie wir gesehen haben, nach dem Tode in unserem Ätherleibe noch leben, dann bildet sich das Erinnerungstableau; das heißt, an unseren Ätherleib bleiben die Erinnerungen an unser eben vergangenes Leben gebunden. Wenn wir unseren Ätherleib dann einige Zeit nach dem Tode abgelegt haben und in den allgemeinen Lebensäther eingetragen ist, was unsere Persönlichkeit zuerst an Erinnerungen, an Gedächtnisinhalt bewahrt hat, dann leben wir aber noch ganz in unserem Astralleib. Wir haben das oftmals beschrieben, wie der Mensch noch lange in seinem Astralleib zu leben hat. In diesem Astralleib sind wir tatsächlich - wie das auch öfter beschrieben worden ist — mit den äußeren Wirkungen unseres Lebens verbunden. Es zeigt sich das auch äußerlich dadurch, daß der Mensch nach dem Tode rückwärts zu durchleben hat seine Tatenwelt, alles was er überhaupt an anderen Wesen auf der Erde getan oder verrichtet hat. Er fühlt sich in einer Zeit, von der wir gesagt haben, daß sie ungefähr ein Drittel seines vergangenen Lebens beträgt, wie hindurchgehend in seinem Astralleib durch seine Erdentatsachen, durch alles, was er auf der Erde verrichtet hat. Und ebenso wie — nachdem wir unseren Ätherleib wenige Tage nach dem Tode abgelegt haben - unsere persönlichen Erinnerungen in den allgemeinen Lebensäther eingeschrieben sind, so werden in der Zeit, in welcher wir noch mit dem Astralleib verbunden sind, alle unsere Taten in die allgemeine Weltenastralität eingeschrieben. Da stehen sie drinnen und wir bleiben mit ihnen ebenso verbunden, wie wir mit den Erinnerungen unserer Persönlichkeit verbunden bleiben, die als eine bleibende Notiz in den Weltenäther eingeschrieben sind, nur werden unsere Taten gleichsam in eine andere Weltennotiz eingetragen. Während wir die Taten unseres letzten Lebens zurückerleben, wird das alles in die allgemeine Weltenastralität eingetragen und wir bleiben damit verbunden. Durch unseren Astralleib gehören wir also bleibend unseren Taten an, insofern wir Erdenmenschen sind.
Was ich jetzt eben beschrieben habe, was uns mit unseren Taten verbindet, das ist Karma. Das ist in Wirklichkeit das Karma: was von unseren Lebenstaten eingetragen ist in die allgemeine Weltenastralität. Sie können daraus auch entnehmen, daß ein starker moralischer Antrieb in einem solchen Wissen liegt, wie überhaupt es nur eine Art von Verleumdung wäre, wenn man sagen würde, daß Geisteswissenschaft nicht die allermoralischste Lebensgrundlage bieten würde. Inwiefern liegt in solchen Erkenntnisgrundlagen, wie sie eben ausgesprochen sind, ein starker moralischer Impuls? Sie haben ja gesehen, daß letztlich unsere Taten während des Lebens nach dem Tode eingetragen werden in die allgemeine Weltenastralität. Wenn wir irgend etwas Unrichtiges getan haben während unseres Lebens, und wir es nicht karmisch, soweit wir die Macht dazu haben, noch in diesem Leben gutmachen — denn angenommen, wir bemühten uns also, irgendein Unmoralisches schon im irdischen Leben auszugleichen, dann würden wir uns die Eintragung in das Karma ersparen -, dann wird alles, was wir nicht ausgleichen können, nach dem Tode in das Karma eingetragen und es bleibt mit uns verbunden. Insofern wir als Erdenmenschen den irdischen Astralleib haben, haben wir als Menschen unser Karma,
So haben wir das dritte Glied des irdischen Menschen. Das erste ist das Bewußtsein, das als Werkzeug den physischen Leib hat. Das zweite ist Erinnerung und Gedächtnis, das als Werkzeug den Ätherleib oder Lebensleib hat. Und das dritte, das zum irdischen Menschen ebenso gehört, wie im physischen Erdenleibe sein Bewußtsein zu ihm gehört, das ist das Karma. Aus drei Gliedern besteht in dieser Beziehung der irdische Mensch: aus seinem Erdenbewußtsein, aus seinem Gedächtnis und aus seinem Karma, und ohne diese drei Glieder ist der Erdenmensch kein Erdenmensch. Ein Wesen, das auf der Erde herumgehen würde und im physischen Leibe kein solches Bewußtsein entwickeln würde wie der Erdenmensch, wäre kein Mensch. Und ein Wesen auf der Erde, das auf der Erde kein solches Gedächtnis ausbilden würde wie der Erdenmensch, wäre kein Mensch. Und ein Mensch, der herumgehen würde und durch das Leben im Erdenleibe kein Karma machen würde, wäre kein Erdenmensch. Das macht den eigentlichen irdischen Menschen aus: daß er ein Bewußtsein entwickelt durch den physischen Leib, daß er Gedächtnis und Erinnerung entwickelt durch den Äther- oder Lebensleib und daß er Karma macht durch den Astralleib. So haben wir gleichsam herausgeschält, was am Menschen Erdenmensch ist. Wir müssen ein Viertes hinzurechnen, von dem wir wissen, daß es erst auf der Erde aufgeleuchtet hat: das Ich selbst, jenes Ich, von dem wir wissen, daß es von Inkarnation zu Inkarnation geht, von dem wir also wissen, daß es drinnensteckt in uns, wenn wir unser Erdenbewußtsein entwickeln, daß es drinnensteckt in uns, wenn wir im Gedächtnis aufbewahren Erinnerungsvorstellung auf Erinnerungsvorstellung, daß es aber auch in uns drinnensteckt, wenn wir von Inkarnation zu Inkarnation Karma aufhäufen. Überall steckt das Ich darinnen. Aber es steckt in diesen drei Gliedern des Erdenmenschen drinnen. Wie also können wir diesen Erdenmenschen noch charakterisieren?
Wir wissen, daß der Erdenmensch das Ich aufleuchten gefunden hat erst auf der Erde. Aber wir wissen, daß sein physischer Leib sich zuerst gebildet hat während der alten Saturnzeit der Erde und daß die Erdenzeit zwar den physischen Erdenleib anders gemacht hat nach der Mondenentwickelung, doch ist der physische Leib nicht ein Erdenprodukt. Wir wissen dieses aber auch vom Ätherleibe, der die erste Anlage während der alten Sonnenzeit erhalten hat, und auch vom astralischen Leib, der ja seine erste Anlage auf dem alten Mond erhalten hat. Also stellen wir uns diesen Menschen vor: er kam herüber, als die Erde begann, aus einer vorirdischen Entwickelung, bestehend aus physischem Leib, Ätherleib und Astralleib. Aus dem, was er im Laufe der Erdenevolution geworden ist, gestaltete sich um sein physischer Leib zum Instrument des Erdenbewußtseins, sein Ätherleib zum Instrument des persönlichen Gedächtnisses und sein Astralleib zum Träger des Karma. Da haben wir gleichsam herausgeschält, was die früheren Zustände dem Menschen gegeben haben in seinem physischen Leib, Ätherleib und Astralleib, und das, was die Erde erst durch ihre Mission in diesen dreigliedrigen Menschen hineingearbeitet hat. Halten wir einmal das recht genau auseinander. Sagen wir uns: dieser physische Leib des Menschen ist ja eine wunderbare Sache, etwas ganz Wunderbares. Er ist so wunderbar geworden, weil er dreimal eigentlich seinen Zustand verändert hat mit den vorirdischen Erdenverkörperungen. Er wäre, wenn er so geblieben wäre, wie er nach Ablauf der alten Mondenzeit war, mit allen denjenigen inneren Eigenschaften behaftet, die er hat; nur wäre er nicht so umgestaltet, daß er in sich erzeugen könnte die Werkzeuge des irdischen Menschenbewußtseins. Das ist also zum physischen Leib hinzugekommen, daß er nicht nur die Vollkommenheit hat, die er hatte nach der Mondenentwickelung, sondern noch umgestaltet worden ist zum Träger des menschlichen Erdenbewußtseins. Ebenso hat der Ätherleib alle Vollkommenheiten, die er sonst schon in sich hatte, aber innerhalb der Erdenentwickelung hat er erst diejenigen Kräfte ausgebildet, die ihn zum Träger des menschlichen persönlichen Gedächtnisses machen. Der Astralleib hat sich auf dem alten Monde manche Vollkommenheiten angeeignet, aber dar er das Instrument geworden ist für das Schaffen von Karma, das hat er sich erst während der irdischen Vorgänge angeeignet. Das Ich, das ist allein beim Menschen sozusagen mit seinen Kräften, mit alledem, was es ist, während der Erdenmission ausgestattet worden. Im Ich allein können wir also sozusagen alles das beobachten, was die Erde selber am Menschen erarbeitet hat.
Was kommt denn also eigentlich durch dieses Ich zum Menschen noch hinzu? Nehmen wir an, der Mensch hätte alle die Dinge, die ihm die Erdenmission gegeben hat, bekommen, aber das Ich wäre nicht aufgeleuchtet. Es ist das, was ich jetzt sage, eine unmögliche Hypothese, selbstverständlich, denn es mußte das Ich zum Menschen hinzukommen. Aber nehmen wir an, ein Wesen hätte, ohne das Ich zu entwickeln, die Eigenschaften erhalten können, die wir eben ausgesprochen haben als irdische Eigenschaften von physischem Leib, Ätherleib und Astralleib. Wenn es auch nicht auf der Erde möglich gewesen wäre, solche Bigenschaften im physischen, ätherischen und astralischen Leib zu entwickeln, so ist eine solche Entwickelung immerhin möglich gewesen auf anderen Planeten, und für die geistige Wissenschaft ist es möglich, solche Zustände auf anderen Planeten sogar in ihrer Realität zu studieren. Es würde also das ein Wesen sein, das ein solches Bewußtsein entwickeln kann, wie der Mensch es entwickelt, wenn er aufwacht, ein Wesen, das vorstellt, fühlt, will, nur würde es nicht die Vorstellungen einem Ich zuschreiben, würde nicht die Empfindungen, die Gefühle einem Ich zuschreiben und die Willensimpulse ebenfalls nicht. Aber immerhin, es wäre möglich, daß ein solches Wesen ein Bewußtsein hätte wie die Erdenmenschen, daß es auch Erinnerungen hätte, daß die Vorstellungen in der Erinnerung blieben und daß es ein Karma hätte. Vom Erdenmenschen wäre das nicht möglich, aber nehmen wir an, daß wir uns ein solches Wesen vorstellen könnten. Was würde also alles dasein? Bewußtsein, Erinnerung und Karma. Nun sind aber beim Menschen diese drei Dinge vorhanden: Bewußtsein, Erinnerung, Karma. Aber es ist außerdem noch das Ich vorhanden. Was geschieht denn durch dieses Ich? Da Karma wesentlich durch den astralischen Leib bewirkt wird, was geschieht durch das Ich selber, dadurch daß es in seinem Karma eben drinnensteckt?
Was durch das Ich selber geschieht, ist nun, man möchte sagen, etwas viel Schwerwiegenderes noch als das menschliche Karma. Denn Karma, was als Karma bleibt, bleibt mit uns verbunden. Und wenn wir in irgendeinem Leben Taten getan haben, so bleiben diese als unser Karma bestehen und wir können sie im späteren Leben ausgleichen. Unser astralischer Leib ist es eigentlich, der es bewirkt, daß unser Karma bestehen bleibt. Unser Ich ist auch eine geistige Potenz, eine geistige Wesenheit. Was dieses Ich nun aus sich herausbringt, so wie der astralische Leib das Karma aus sich herausbringt, sind nun nicht Dinge, die immer mit dem Menschen verbunden bleiben, sondern das sind Dinge, die sich von dem Menschen loslösen. Wir haben auch öfter schon darauf aufmerksam machen können: es sind die Gedankenformen, die sich von dem Menschen loslösen. Während das, was sich in unser Karma einschreibt, mit uns verbunden bleibt und eingegraben wird in den späteren Erdenzustand, gibt es noch etwas Besonderes, was im speziellen durch das menschliche Ich hervorgerufen wird und ebenso hinübergeht in die andere Welt, wie unsere Erinnerungen in den allgemeinen Lebensäther übergehen. Wie unser Karma in die allgemeine Weltenastralität eingeschrieben wird, so geht in die Welt hinaus, was unser Ich nun bildet und was wir kennen als Gedanken- und Gefühlsformen. Die sind noch etwas Besonderes neben dem Karma. Karma ist etwas, was wir behalten als mit uns zusammenhängend. Es gibt aber auch noch solche Erzeugnisse, die sich von uns loslösen, allerdings zunächst nur als Formen, so daß sie als geistige Formen sich loslösen und draußen weiterleben.
Was lebt denn alles von uns weiter? Von uns lebt weiter: erstens unser persönliches Gedächtnis selbst, zweitens unser Karma, drittens die Formen unserer Gedanken. Während wir aber mit den beiden ersten verbunden bleiben, ist es für das letzte so, daß sich diese Formen von uns loslösen, daß sie selbständig werden als Form. Also wie gleichsarn leblose Formen, die hinausgehen als Formen, so leben die Erzeugnisse unseres Ich in der äußeren Welt weiter. An diesem Punkte werden wir das nächste Mal anknüpfen und diese Betrachtungen fortsetzen.
Eighth Lecture
Today, it is my task to make a few remarks about human beings, so that next time we can use these remarks to enter into some considerations that may contribute to an understanding of the whole of human development.
The starting point shall be taken from what is important and significant for the consideration of human beings as they stand before us on earth. I must first point out that you know that human beings, as they stand before us, are not merely creatures of the earth, but have an origin which, if we want to understand it fully, we must trace back to previous stages of the earth's development itself. You will find this described in various writings, and it has often been mentioned here as well, that with the means of spiritual scientific research we can trace the previous stages of development, as it were the previous incarnations of our Earth planet, and that we distinguish them according to the names that have been given to them in various ways as acceptable: the pre-Earth Saturn state of the Earth, the pre-Earth Sun state, and the pre-Earth Moon state. And we know that what is present in the forces within the whole human being today does not originate solely from what was active on Earth, but that the inheritance from the earlier incarnations of our Earth planet is also contained within the human being. It has remained and is active in human nature. And we can only understand the whole human being if we know, for example, that the physical body received its first form on the old Saturn, then developed further during the old Sun and Moon periods, and that the present form of the human body is only a product of the Earth. We also know about the other members of human nature that it is not only what has first arisen on Earth as forces that is active in them, but also what is entirely inherited from pre-Earth times. Today, however, we will first consider what must be taken into account in human beings insofar as they are earthly creatures living here on this earth. This is, so to speak, what is incorporated into human beings during their time on earth by virtue of the mission of the earth.
Now we can divide what man has received primarily from the earth into three parts. The first thing that man has received from the earth, what he owes to the present forces of the earth, is his present earthly consciousness, that is, what is closest to man as he walks among us today. And the events, the facts that have occurred in the course of Earth's development, had to unfold exactly as they did and as we have often described, so that human beings here on Earth could acquire their present consciousness. This consciousness is, so to speak, the most familiar thing to all of you, the thing you know best: it is that in which you live from the moment you wake up until you fall asleep; it is that in which your thoughts, your sensations, your feelings, your impulses of will take place, insofar as you are awake human beings. This consciousness, which you all know very well, was not yet possessed by human beings in their pre-earthly states, nor did they possess it in the early stages of Earth's development, which was only a repetition of pre-earthly states. They acquired it gradually, or rather, it was bestowed upon them by the creative world powers and world forces.
Now we know that in order to have this consciousness, man must awaken and that it is necessary for him to use his senses, that is, the instruments of the present human body. To do this, he must also use other tools than the senses in the present human body, especially if we look not only at the thoughts and ideas that man forms, but also at the fact that man also has sensations, feelings, and impulses of will in this everyday consciousness. But then we know that all this content of consciousness, everything that fills and forms our consciousness, needs the outer physical body as it is an earthly body. It lives and can only live in the outer physical body. Thus, an idea that we form is formed by what is actually the spiritual-soul human being using the tools of its physical body. From this you will now easily be able to form the idea that this particular consciousness, to which man awakens every morning, is dependent on the earthly body. You will also easily understand that man, as he imagines, feels, or wills in this ordinary consciousness, can only imagine, feel, and will if he has the physical earthly body as a tool.
We have often spoken of this, and you can also read about it in “An Outline of Secret Knowledge,” that the states of consciousness between death and rebirth are essentially different from the earthly states of consciousness. For consciousness changes according to its instrument, and between death and rebirth, human beings have at their disposal different tools for their actual spiritual and soul being than when they are in the physical body. Now we know that this physical body, from which the tools of ordinary, everyday consciousness are formed, disintegrates with death. In the sense of spiritual science, it would be better to say that it is handed over to the general element of nature rather than saying that it decays. For what is the dissolution of the physical body and appears as such to external observation is only an illusion, a Maya. There is a very great, powerful process underlying what we call the decay or dissolution of the human body. The natural is handed over to powers that stand behind existence. But to human beings, as they are on earth, their physical body slips away and falls away with death. So that, insofar as we speak of human beings as earthly beings, we can only say: the tool of everyday consciousness falls away with death.
Here we have the first link of the earthly human being: his consciousness. If we now consider the earthly human being as a whole, we must detach from what we call consciousness in the ordinary sense something that is not to be counted as consciousness in the same sense as ordinary thinking, feeling, and willing. We must separate that which we summarize with the term memory. The ideas and feelings that we draw from the treasure trove of our memory, our recollections, are not subject to the same laws as the consciousness just mentioned. For this consciousness, in order to exist at all, needs the preservation of the physical body in the form it once had. And you know from various explanations that have been given that, in terms of its substance, the physical body is constantly renewing itself, that after seven or eight years there are completely different physical substances in us than before, that the physical substances are therefore being replaced. But the form remains. And it must remain. For as it is, it is the tool for ordinary consciousness. And we can develop ordinary consciousness for thinking, feeling, and willing as long as we have the physical body in the appropriate form. But memory and recollections would not last long if they were bound to the physical body. They would be able to do so at most as long as the individual substances of the physical body can withstand us. This means that we would be able to remember back six or seven years at most if memory were bound to the physical body. But it is not. The physical body is not the tool of memory; rather, the tool of memory for human beings on Earth is the etheric body, the etheric or life body. And it is precisely this that is always at work in human beings on Earth. Thus, from our first moment of consciousness until our death, what we have just taken into our memory can remain there. It is therefore this etheric or life body that carries our memories, our mental images, from one epoch of life to another. For earthly consciousness, we therefore use the earthly body as a tool; for memories, we use the etheric body as a tool. We would not be able to carry over the memories of our life through the time between death and rebirth if something very specific did not happen: if we did not remain in the etheric or life body for a time after leaving the physical body at death. This is precisely the time—I have often described it—in which the past life lies before us after our death like a great panorama, like a great tableau. We have often spoken of this tableau of life. The same can only appear to us because we still have our etheric body for a time after death. For this etheric body is precisely the tool for memories. If we were to lose it immediately upon death or after death, we would not be able to have this tableau. We must be able to use this etheric body or life body as a tool, and something happens while we have this life tableau. While we have this life tableau in our soul after death, this entire life tableau is recorded, engraved, as it were—if I may use this expression—in the universal life ether that permeates space. Now it is there. What we held for only a few days is now, as it were, recorded in the universal life ether in which we live, in which we always are. Because it is recorded there, because it is there, it is available for our further life between death and rebirth. And we take an extract from our etheric body with us, as we know, so that we can always establish a connection between ourselves and this life tableau recorded in the universal life ether. This is, as it were, our continuing organ, through which we can always have the memories of our last life.
From this you can see that we can only ever have the present in our consciousness and that our being would actually disappear with the present moment if we could only develop consciousness with our thinking, feeling, and willing as earthly human beings. We owe it to the etheric body that we can preserve what lives in our thinking, feeling, and willing, and we even preserve it after death in the universal life ether. Here we have the second element of human earthly existence, that which does not pass away with the moment like earthly consciousness, but which remains, which is preserved, so to speak, in the general life ether. We now have two links to distinguish in the earthly human being: his earthly consciousness and his memory or his recollections, which cannot simply be identified with consciousness. What, then, is the third link?
The second element differs from the first in that it does not simply allow things that are experienced to pass by, but preserves them. The third element of the earthly human being differs considerably from the second. If you consider your thoughts, insofar as they become memories, you will say to yourself: these thoughts that have become memories have a very specific characteristic. Everything that has been entrusted to memory has this characteristic, namely that during your life it is your personal property, your personal content. You carry what you carry as memory through life and until death as your innermost possession, you carry it as a possession in your personality until death. And you will easily be able to form the thought, which is obvious, that what you carry with you in your memory, in your recollections, does not mean anything in the outer world as long as you live, is not in the outer world. It is within you, and it only begins to be something in the outer world after you have passed through death: there it is entered into the general life ether. But what is it in the general life ether? There it is the record of your personality. It is what remains of your personality as your inner experience during life, and after death it is recorded in the life ether for your personality for the initial eternity. There it is written down. What a person has experienced inwardly in life becomes an external experience for the life ether after the person's death. So it is with our memories that we are allowed to carry these memories, this memory, within ourselves as our inner treasure until death, and that from death onwards—as a revealed secret, so to speak—it is inscribed in the life ether and lives there, and that we remain connected to it because we have taken an extract from the life body with us and can always look back on what we have experienced there. Thus, in a certain sense, the world of our experiences is within us through our memories, through our memory during our earthly life; thus, after death, we are connected to the world ether through our earthly life.
It is different with what does not remain merely our inner experience, what does not remain merely our memory, but what has already become an external fact during our life. Every step we take during this earthly life becomes an external fact. For not only do we take the step and then remember it, but in taking the step we leave our mark on the earth. We rush through the air. I would say that even in the external physical sense, our entire external life is at the same time an external act. Our entire life becomes external reality. But how does our life become external reality when we look up from our external physical existence to our moral existence? Whether we have a good heart and perform this or that good deed becomes a very external fact. If we have a good heart and perform this or that act of compassion, this or that act of joy, then what we have done is not merely something that lives on in us, but lives on in other people, in our entire environment. We continually impress the traces of our existence in our earthly life upon the whole of existence. The person with whom we were together, toward whom we performed an act of compassion or joy, carries the effect of our action with them. What we have felt and done lives on outside of us in other people. If you think about this, you will discover that what a person lives out does not belong only to him, as his memories do, but that what he experiences inwardly is constantly passing into the outer world, where it has a constant effect.
What we communicate to the outside world in this way during our lifetime is not inscribed in our etheric body like our memories. Our etheric body is too intimately and intensely connected with our entire personality for these deeds, these effects of human experience, to be inscribed in it. It would not be good for human beings during their earthly life. For if, for example, some merciless deed or some evil deed were immediately inscribed in the etheric body, the human being would have to feel throughout his entire life that he had done this deed. This would then become a force in his etheric body, and he would have to suffer from this evil deed in that it would burrow into his life forces, that is, it would make him ill, dissatisfied, paralyze him, and so on. If our deeds did the same thing in our etheric body as our thoughts do, the life of the earthly human being would be impossible. But just as the etheric body is the tool for our thoughts, insofar as they become memories and are incorporated into the memory, so our astral body is the tool for our deeds. They spring from our astral body. Everything that human beings do, and as I have described, incorporate as an effect of the external world, is bound to the tool of the human astral body. Just as his everyday consciousness is bound to the physical body, just as his memories and his memory are bound to the etheric body, so, however subtle the astral body may be, everything that man does, everything that has an effect in the outer world, is done through the human astral body. The consequence of this is that it also remains connected in a certain way with this astral body, just as memory remains connected with the etheric body. If, as we have seen, we continue to live in our etheric body after death, then the memory tableau is formed; that is, the memories of our life just passed remain bound to our etheric body. When we have shed our etheric body some time after death and entered the general life ether, which has preserved our personality's initial memories and contents of memory, we still live entirely in our astral body. We have often described how human beings continue to live in their astral body for a long time. In this astral body, we are actually connected to the external effects of our life, as has often been described. This is also evident externally in that after death, human beings have to relive their world of deeds, everything they have ever done or accomplished to other beings on earth. During a period of time that we have said is about one third of their past life, they feel as if they are passing through their astral body, through their earthly facts, through everything they have done on earth. And just as, after we have shed our etheric body a few days after death, our personal memories are inscribed in the general life ether, so, during the time in which we are still connected with the astral body, all our deeds are inscribed in the general world astrality. There they remain, and we remain connected to them just as we remain connected to the memories of our personality, which are inscribed in the world ether as a permanent record, only that our deeds are, as it were, entered into another world record. While we relive the deeds of our last life, all of this is entered into the general world astrality and we remain connected to it. Through our astral body, we therefore belong permanently to our deeds, insofar as we are earthly human beings.
What I have just described, what connects us to our deeds, is karma. That is what karma really is: what is recorded from our life deeds in the general world astrality. You can also see from this that there is a strong moral impetus in such knowledge, and that it would be a kind of slander to say that spiritual science does not offer the most moral basis for life. In what way do such foundations of knowledge, as they have just been expressed, contain a strong moral impulse? You have seen that ultimately our deeds during life are recorded in the general astral world after death. If we have done anything wrong during our life and we do not make amends for it karmically, insofar as we have the power to do so in this life — for suppose we tried to to compensate for any immorality already in our earthly life, then we would spare ourselves the entry into karma — then everything we cannot compensate for is entered into karma after death and remains connected to us. Insofar as we, as earthly human beings, have the earthly astral body, we have our karma as human beings.
Thus we have the third member of the earthly human being. The first is consciousness, which has the physical body as its tool. The second is memory and recollection, which has the etheric body or life body as its tool. And the third, which belongs to the earthly human being just as much as consciousness belongs to the physical earthly body, is karma. In this relationship, the earthly human being consists of three members: their earthly consciousness, their memory, and their karma, and without these three members, the earthly human being is not an earthly human being. A being that would walk around on Earth and not develop such consciousness in its physical body as the earthly human being would not be a human being. And a being on Earth that would not develop such memory on Earth as the earthly human being would not be a human being. And a human being who would walk around and not create karma through life in the earthly body would not be an earthly human being. This is what constitutes the actual earthly human being: that he develops consciousness through the physical body, that he develops memory and recollection through the etheric or life body, and that he creates karma through the astral body. In this way, we have, as it were, extracted what is earthly in the human being. We must add a fourth element, which we know only appeared on earth: the I itself, the I that we know passes from incarnation to incarnation, that we know is within us when we develop our earthly consciousness, that is within us when we store memory images in our memory, but that it is also within us when we accumulate karma from incarnation to incarnation. The I is everywhere. But it is within these three members of the earthly human being. How, then, can we characterize this earthly human being?
We know that the earthly human being first found the I shining forth on Earth. But we know that his physical body first formed during the ancient Saturn period of the Earth, and that although the Earth period changed the physical Earth body after the Moon's development, the physical body is not a product of the Earth. We know this also from the etheric body, which received its first form during the ancient Sun period, and also from the astral body, which received its first form on the ancient Moon. So we imagine this human being: he came over when the Earth began, from a pre-Earth development consisting of a physical body, an etheric body, and an astral body. From what he became in the course of Earth evolution, his physical body was formed into the instrument of Earth consciousness, his etheric body into the instrument of personal memory, and his astral body into the carrier of karma. We have, as it were, extracted what the earlier states gave to the human being in his physical body, etheric body, and astral body, and what the earth has worked into these threefold human beings through its mission. Let us keep these things quite separate. Let us say to ourselves: this physical body of the human being is indeed a wonderful thing, something quite marvelous. It has become so wonderful because it has actually changed its state three times with the pre-earthly incarnations. If it had remained as it was at the end of the old lunar period, it would have been endowed with all the inner qualities it possesses, but it would not have been transformed in such a way that it could produce within itself the tools of earthly human consciousness. So, in addition to the physical body, it has not only the perfection it had after the lunar evolution, but has also been transformed into the carrier of human earthly consciousness. Similarly, the etheric body has all the perfections it already possessed, but it was only during the earth's development that it developed the powers that make it the carrier of human personal memory. The astral body acquired many perfections on the old moon, but it was only during the earthly processes that it became the instrument for the creation of karma. The I, that is, has been endowed with its powers, with all that it is, during the earthly mission, so to speak, in the case of the human being alone. In the I alone, we can observe, so to speak, everything that the earth itself has worked out in the human being.
So what else does this I actually add to the human being? Let us assume that the human being had received all the things that the earthly mission had given him, but that the I had not been illuminated. What I am saying now is, of course, an impossible hypothesis, for the I had to be added to the human being. But let us assume that a being could have acquired the qualities we have just described as earthly qualities of the physical body, etheric body, and astral body without developing the I. Even if it had not been possible on Earth to develop such characteristics in the physical, etheric, and astral bodies, such a development would still have been possible on other planets, and spiritual science can even study such conditions on other planets in their reality. It would therefore be a being that can develop a consciousness like that which humans develop when they wake up, a being that imagines, feels, and wills, only it would not attribute its ideas to an I, would not attribute its sensations and feelings to an I, nor would it attribute its impulses of will to an I. But at least it would be possible for such a being to have consciousness like human beings on Earth, to have memories, for ideas to remain in its memory, and for it to have karma. This would not be possible for human beings on Earth, but let us assume that we could imagine such a being. So what would exist? Consciousness, memory, and karma. Now, these three things are present in human beings: consciousness, memory, and karma. But there is also the I. What happens through this I? Since karma is essentially brought about by the astral body, what happens through the I itself, through the fact that it is embedded in its karma?
What happens through the ego itself is, one might say, something even more serious than human karma. For karma, which remains as karma, remains connected to us. And if we have done deeds in any life, these remain as our karma and we can compensate for them in a later life. It is actually our astral body that causes our karma to remain. Our ego is also a spiritual power, a spiritual entity. What this ego brings forth from itself, just as the astral body brings forth karma from itself, are not things that always remain connected to the human being, but things that detach themselves from the human being. We have often pointed out that it is thought forms that detach themselves from the human being. While what is inscribed in our karma remains connected to us and is engraved in our later earthly state, there is something else that is brought about specifically by the human ego and also passes over into the other world, just as our memories pass into the general life ether. Just as our karma is inscribed in the general astral world, so what our ego now forms and what we know as thought and feeling forms goes out into the world. These are something special in addition to karma. Karma is something we retain as connected to ourselves. But there are also products that detach themselves from us, initially only as forms, so that they detach themselves as spiritual forms and continue to live outside.
What continues to live on from us? The following continues to live on from us: first, our personal memory itself; second, our karma; third, the forms of our thoughts. But while we remain connected to the first two, the last one detaches itself from us and becomes independent as a form. So, just like lifeless forms that go out as forms, the products of our ego live on in the outer world. We will pick up where we left off next time and continue these reflections.