The Rudolf Steiner Archive

11. The Sermon on the Mount

[ 1 ] Those who know how to interpret the signs of the times also know that we are heading toward great events in the near future. In such times, it is necessary to rise above the perspective of the lower mind. Thought and idea must shine forth. From this perspective, let us now consider an important chapter of the Bible—the Sermon on the Mount.

[ 2 ] Without knowing the Sermon on the Mount, one cannot understand Christianity either. It is no coincidence that the Sermon on the Mount stands at the very beginning of the Gospel. But like so many other things, it has not only been misunderstood but is largely unknown. This ignorance of such an important chapter stems from the fact that neither among scholars nor within the church can even a trace of spiritual grasp of the deeper Christian truths be found. If we wish to understand something like the Sermon on the Mount, we must be clear that today’s homespun, philistine view by no means corresponds to true Christianity. Such a view, as held not by a Christian but rather by the advocate of so-called French state morality — l’état c’est moi —, would never have possessed the power that Christianity had—such power, which has been at work in this way throughout the centuries, never has mundane sources, but rather spiritual-occult sources. And let us now expose these in relation to the Sermon on the Mount.

[ 3 ] This lack of understanding of the Bible and the Sermon on the Mount stems from the fact that we do not actually have a proper Bible translation, that the most basic requirements are not met. People may say that the letter is dead, but the Spirit gives life. — Yet everyone takes pride in the fact that, drawing on a “fantastic” imagination, they could interpret something like the Sermon on the Mount; yet there is a great deal of arbitrariness to be found in this. One must first know the letter; one must know what is written there, so as not to value one’s own banality of spirit more highly than the dead letter. Only when one has understood the letter can one presume to explain the spirit. Today, therefore, the task will be first to understand the letter, and then to interpret this letter in the proper spirit.

[ 4 ] There is no need to discuss the theological interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount. Everyone knows it from the standard sermons. We would not get very far if we were to attempt to summarize even a few of these sermons. Alongside this theological interpretation, there is also a liberal interpretation that stems from a philistine ethic and moral doctrine. You will find such an interpretation in the book “What Did Jesus Teach?” by Wolfgang Kirchbach. This writer, who does have the merit of having translated somewhat more accurately than is done in the Lutheran Bible, is so filled with the lofty perspective of his view and so uncomprehending toward any occult spiritual depth that errors can pile up upon errors if one were to devote oneself to the study of this liberal view of the Bible. One must know the basic concepts that make a book like the Bible understandable if one wishes to delve deeper into the matter.

[ 5 ] The Bible is a thoroughly occult work. When I will soon explain to you the depths to be found in the thirteenth chapter of the Gospel of John, you will become even more aware of what a profound book we have before us in the Bible. It is quite inappropriate when, today, those who have picked up a few concepts from the so-called liberal worldview—even if they are theologians—tell us all sorts of things about passages such as those found in the Sermon on the Mount. Yet these people do not even consider that they are dealing with something quite mundane when they approach these sublime truths with their preconceptions.

[ 6 ] You know that the first sentence of the Sermon on the Mount is usually translated as:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. [Mt 5:3]

[ 7 ] Any deeper, more meaningful understanding must be struck right in the face by the arguments that are usually attached to these sentences of the Sermon on the Mount: A “general reward” would be the notion for those who are spiritually poor. And if we allow these sayings to speak to us as though they were about receiving a reward for spiritual poverty, for mercy, and so on—if we believe that the founder of the Christian religion meant to say, “Be merciful, and you will be blessed as a reward!”— then he would have to praise all haggling for a reward as a path to salvation. But the ethical sparrows on the roof already know that; no ethical teaching like the Sermon on the Mount is needed for that. Teachings such as the Sermon on the Mount, which were given by an initiate himself, make one an initiate oneself.

[ 8 ] Right at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, it is sufficiently indicated that we are dealing with an occult instruction. In most occult writings, the expression appears: “The Master led his disciples up the mountain.” — This means nothing other than speaking about the most intimate matters, about truths that elude everyday life. It is not a sermon for the common people that is being delivered here.

[ 9 ] Anyone who reads carefully can see for themselves from Luther’s Bible translation that this is not a sermon for the common people:

But when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountain. [Mt 5:1]

[ 10 ] The original text states: He went away from the people, apart from the people, and there he expounded the deeper teaching that only the initiated, who were more deeply united with him, could understand. You can trace this “leading up the mountain” motif throughout all the mystical writings. It means: to withdraw to a place where one can discuss the most intimate truths of the soul.

[ 11 ] Now, let us take the standpoint that Christ Jesus [spoke] profound truths in the most intimate way, truths that were not intended for the masses but for the hearts of the initiates, in order to give power to their words so that they might step before the masses and their words might once again penetrate deeply into the hearts of others. Let us take this standpoint entirely without fanaticism, entirely objectively, based on the teachings we have heard in the entire series of lectures recently. Here I must first repeat something that those who have heard my lectures on the astral world and on four-dimensional space are already familiar with in a certain sense. But let us allow these important truths to pass through our minds once more. We have spoken there of entering a higher world in which the causes of the effects we can perceive with our senses are present. In this world lies our own higher self as well. The lower self belongs to the sensory world, to everyday life. This statement clarifies for us what we must accomplish within our immediate work, but also within our age, our people, and so on. Even in what Christianity calls the spiritual world, “heaven,” we can find the same thing that Theosophy calls the spiritual world. Our higher self also rests in this realm of heaven. We must come to know this higher self; to it we must rise. And this higher self, when we come to know it by entering the astral realm or an even higher realm, initially presents things to us somewhat differently than they might appear according to the habits of thought and the concepts we have acquired in the ordinary world.

[ 12 ] I have pointed out to you that when, as an occultist, one is granted access to this higher world, one must first learn to see things there and recognize them in their reality. An example of this is that one must read a number in its mirror image; that is, when, as an occult student, one is initiated into higher mysteries, and the teacher of occult mysteries, of occult science, shows the number 561, one must read it as the mirror shows it, namely 165. You also know that one sees a sphere or a cube as if one were at its center and looking out in all directions. Not from the outside, from all sides, but from the inside. You also know that time flows in reverse in this higher world. We are accustomed to imagining the world as it is presented to us through the senses. In the astral realm, it is different. We must first get used to correctly recognizing what we see there in reverse. We must first learn to read. Morality, too, presents itself differently in these higher worlds. You can best experience this when, in a pathological case, the astral realm suddenly opens up to a person. There are many people who study this. The fact that there are many people to whom the astral realm suddenly opens up stems from the fact that materialism has now permeated all spheres of life. Yet the need to behold the spirit is so deeply rooted in the human soul that precisely when a person is completely surrounded by the material environment, the inner senses open. But then they fall into a state of fear and despair. Everything that flows out from us as instincts, desires, and passions—everything that lies at the bottom of the human soul, whether base and vile, but also that which fills us with higher enthusiasm—all of this appears in images. A mirror image of the lower self appears in the astral realm. The human being beholds his entire inner being as in a great painting. Then he is seized by fear, for it is no small matter to behold what lies at the bottom of the soul. This occult vision expresses a great, a terrible truth. And there is no veiling, no concealment. It is not without reason, therefore, that in the Indian worldview—which is not the theosophical one—our sensory world is called an illusion, Maya. Human beings often deceive themselves about the qualities of their own inner being. But the occult uncovers everything that lies within him. It is this that gives the occultist the innermost expression on his face once he has entered this world. One speaks of the gravity and dignity that are inseparable from an occult worldview. You know there is nothing fantastical about it. The most rigorous trials are imposed upon the student.

[ 13 ] You know that one must first develop a sober intellect, so that the person is far beyond anything dreamlike or fantastical.

[ 14 ] If one suddenly enters the astral world, one does not understand it. However, it can occur pathologically. From this characteristic of the astral space, the spiritual world, you can see that one initially has the form of a mirror image. Just as positive and negative, just as warm and cold, what we experience in the higher, spiritual world relates to what we have here in the sensory world. This is not an arbitrary connection, but a necessary one, like that of a law of nature. Every person who knows the connection between these two worlds from personal experience can attest that an element in one world necessarily draws its opposite pole in the other world. Longing [in the physical] is one pole; fulfillment [in the spiritual] is the other pole. Compassion is one pole; compassion is also the other pole. Purity of heart is one pole; divine vision is the other pole. I could cite many more of these so-called pathological poles, from which you could see that everything that resides in our soul appears as a mirror image in the other world.

[ 15 ] If, in this lower self, I am a person in need of truth and enlightenment, then I long for the truth, and to the occult observer, this longing of mine is reflected as a fulfillment in the higher self. What the lower self longs for necessarily indicates its opposite pole in the spiritual world. Whether fulfillment comes in this life or in another is another question. But what is longing for the lower self here is fulfillment for the higher self. And what ascends from the lower self as fulfillment into the higher self here becomes longing on the higher plane. That this is so was the profound wisdom that Christ Jesus imparted to his innermost disciples in the Sermon on the Mount, in this sermon of initiation.

[ 16 ] With a book such as the Bible, we must take the words much more literally than is usually the case. “Blessed are”—what does that actually mean? People who possessed occult knowledge have always known this. And Goethe, who, as you know, is to be regarded as one of the true and genuine occultists, knew very well what these words entail. That is why he depicted the awakening of the higher self—albeit not in the highest sense of the word—in the second part of *Wilhelm Meister* through a character named “Makarie,” “the Blessed One.” Goethe describes the inner life of this “blessed personality” in a way that he clearly intended to be taken seriously, even though Goethe presented these things with a certain humor. But anyone familiar with these matters knows how seriously the fifteenth chapter of “ Wilhelm Meister’s Journeyman Years.” If only the Goethe scholars would resolve just once to take seriously what Goethe has expressed quite seriously in so many places. The fifteenth chapter begins as follows:

Makarie stands in a relationship to our solar system that one hardly dares to articulate. In the spirit, the soul, the imagination she cherishes, she not only beholds it, but she forms, as it were, a part of it; she sees herself drawn into those heavenly spheres, but in a manner all her own. Since her childhood she has been circling the sun, and indeed, as has now been discovered, in a spiral, moving ever farther from the center and circling toward the outer regions.

If one may assume that beings, insofar as they are physical, strive toward the center, and insofar as they are spiritual, toward the periphery, then our friend belongs to the most spiritual; she seems to have been born solely to free herself from the earthly, to penetrate the nearest and farthest realms of existence. This quality, as magnificent as it is, was nevertheless bestowed upon her from her earliest years as a heavy burden. From childhood, she remembers her innermost self as permeated by luminous beings, illuminated by a light that even the brightest sunlight could not dim. She often saw two suns, one inner and one outside in the sky, two moons, of which the outer one remained the same in size through all phases, while the inner one grew smaller and smaller.

[ 17 ] This is, of course, expressed in a way that was exoterically unavoidable. But every expert knows that Goethe was familiar with the occult and that he knew what could be called a “blessed personality”—a personality capable of grasping concepts such as the inner, higher, spiritual self, and so on. When we regard this spiritual self as the reflection in the world of reflections, it reveals to us the opposites of polar qualities. Thus we can say to ourselves: Because our higher self is in the realms of heaven, we can arrange our lives in the realms of heaven, since we are able to shape our lives here.

[ 18 ] Now we come to the text. I have tried to translate the Beatitudes correctly, both in word and in meaning. You will see how accurate this translation is.

I) Blessed are those who beg for spirit, for within their self are the kingdoms of heaven. [Mt 5:3]

[ 19 ] This “Self” is also present in the Greek text. It does not say “the spiritually poor,” but “those who beg for the Spirit,” that is, those who are in need of the Spirit. In the higher Self, the one who begs for the Spirit finds the kingdoms of heaven on earth, [which he has longed for in the lower self]. Christ Jesus also spoke of the kingdoms of heaven or the Kingdom of God in other passages. These passages, too, are usually translated quite incorrectly. I would like to translate them as they must be translated in accordance with their meaning, drawing upon everything that can be gleaned not from a dictionary, but from the Spirit and a deeper understanding. Jesus Christ was asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come. He replied: “The Kingdom of God does not come in an [external] perception—and by this is meant a sensory perception. Nor will people say: ‘Look, here!’ or: ‘There it is!’ For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you. The Kingdom of God is all around us, just as much as the physical-sensory world. If we had no eyes, we would see no colors and no forms. If we had no ears, we would hear no sounds. It is the same for the one whose higher, spiritual sensory world has opened up: There, this environment is no longer merely sensory; it is full of spiritual beings who are all around us. Christ Jesus taught about the spirit. That is why he says: Not with the eyes with which you [see], not with the ears with which you hear, will you perceive the Kingdom of God, but with the eyes and ears of the spirit, just as we also see the Kingdom of Devachan.

[ 20 ] Whether we see a realm or not depends on whether we have the sensory organs for it. The same realm that we call Devachan is also what Christ Jesus refers to in the Sermon on the Mount [as the heavens].

II) Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth in their higher Self. [Mt 5:5]

[ 21 ] Through the meekness of their lower self, they will generate a power in their higher self that makes this earth their possession—that is, the power to shape the earth in the spirit of humanity. Not through anger, not through the wild passions of the lower self, but through the meekness of the lower self are the opposing qualities generated in the higher self, in forces that manifest on Earth in a peaceful existence, in a realm of humanity.

III) Blessed are those who suffer, for they will find comfort within themselves. [Mt 5:4]

[ 22 ] To those who patiently bear their suffering in their lower self, a higher self will dawn in the Kingdom of Heaven, where they will find comfort. This is the significant teaching of occultism: that what is sown in the lower self will spring forth in the higher self.

IV) Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. For they shall be filled within themselves. [Mt 5:6]

[ 23 ] [But there is no necessary connection here. It is therefore not meant that the blessed who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied within themselves.] Hunger and thirst for righteousness in the lower self is a strengthening of righteousness in the higher self.

V) Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. [Mt 5:7]

[ 24 ] That is to say, when we understand what is meant by the term “compassion,” we will have a sense of the harmony of humanity and radiate this harmony into the higher worlds.

VI) Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. [Mt 5:8]

[ 25 ] This is a saying that could serve as the fundamental maxim of all theosophy and all occultism. He who is not pure in heart, who harbors prejudices of an intellectual or moral nature, is like one whose eye or crystalline lens is permeated by false forces. But whoever has a pure heart will radiate the rays of a pure heart and will see God. — You see the two poles again. [Just as the eye’s vision can only develop if the crystalline lens is pure.] Just as the outer world can only become conscious through pure vision, so too can God only become conscious to the pure heart.

VII) Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God. [Mt 5:9]

[ 26 ] You know that in the last lectures we have described the sublime future of Christianity. From this it has become clear that Christianity possesses the Christ-power of the future, that it will become ever purer, greater, and nobler, and that what this Christianity will pour out upon the peoples of the earth will be peace. This peace can only become God when peacefulness rises from the lower self up to the heights. Those who prepare themselves through peacefulness will ascend to the higher self and, as such, be called “children of God.”

VIII) Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the [Kingdom] of Heaven. [Mt 5:10]

[ 27 ] Persecution means refuge; it is an opposite pole. If I am persecuted today in the lower self, I will find refuge in the higher self, for that is the other antithesis.

[ 28 ] Thus, these sublime truths must be read in the theosophical sense. It is necessary today to emphasize this essence of the Sermon on the Mount because we live in a time when a core of humanity must once again be made aware of this higher self, of this kingdom of heaven, in order to be able to consciously strive toward it. A portion of humanity must once again become genuine, true Christians. You know, people often use the misunderstood Goethean term “selflessness” to describe the overcoming of individuality. In truth, however, it is the unlocking of the spiritual self.

[ 29 ] Those who have heard my Wagner lectures know what we in Theosophy call the Hebrew spirit. They will also know that, from the occult point of view, from the point of view of the Esoteric Doctrine, this Hebrew spirit is among the most significant. As true as this is, it is equally true that the future can bring about a spiritual humanity only if the entirely pure, free, Christian spirit is rediscovered. We need the original power, for the higher Self must arise from something primordial. Consider for a moment what has happened. Usually, the pages of world history are not examined deeply enough. It is true—for all historical events are necessary—that in times past the tide of materialism also rose high, that the spirit emerged which is confined solely to the external sensory world. This spirit is the spirit of materialism. But this materialism has lost its significance for humanity. For the discerning person, materialism today is idolatry; for the discerning person, it is the case that spiritualism must replace materialism.

[ 30 ] If we look at the matter in this way, we will see that, in a certain sense, the vessel is already there for the spirit that is to be poured into it. We need only consider what I once called the “northern current” and the “southern current” in our cultural life, which run from east to west. One is what is called the Indo-Persian-Germanic cultural current. The other is the current that flows through the Chaldean, Babylonian, Egyptian, and Southern European Greco-Roman lands. We must distinguish between these two currents. To the occult observer, they appear quite clearly, so that the one coming over from Spain, which gave the final impetus to the Middle Ages, must be replaced by the Sanskrit-Persian-Germanic current. The sixth sub-race will be entirely dominated by the northern current. However, we can only achieve what we are meant to achieve as self-aware beings if we consciously recognize it. Theosophists are certainly not among those who say that what is to happen will happen of its own accord, for humanity must bring it about. Therefore, we must delve deeply into the task that world history sets before us. We must recognize what is in decline and what is on the rise, what stands in the path of the rising sun.

[ 31 ] Karma is not a fatalistic book of nature. We must recognize what it means to work toward the future in the Christian sense. The vessel has been handed down to us from the past.

[ 32 ] But just as hydrogen and oxygen do not become water unless the chemist mixes them, [karma will not generate new karma] unless the human being acts. The lower, personal ego has played a major role in the materialistic epoch that has just come to an end. From this element, the Higher aspect of humanity will rise and then reveal itself in its glory.

[ 33 ] I said that people do not look deeply enough at contemporary history; we have forgotten how to do so because of materialism. But materialism has reached its extreme point. If you can observe on a small scale, you will see this. I would like to cite just a few small symptoms of this; they are decisive for those who are able to look more deeply into the connections. A few hours before the lecture, when I read in a newspaper about the former [Hungarian] Minister Stephan [Tisza], I also read a sentence in an editorial in the “Neue Freie Presse” in Vienna that expresses a profound irony about our entire era. If it is possible that a person’s habits of thought are such that he dares to write such sentences, then the inner life of that person is hollow. The sentence reads roughly: “What I discerned in this man at the time—since no one could have known that his downfall marked the end of a development—is the complete seriousness of his goals.” — It is thus possible that the goals of a great statesman are not serious. The time has therefore come when one already calls a man great who has serious goals.

[ 34 ] Materialism had to exist; it created our natural science, our entire external culture. We must also admit that the mode of thinking directed toward the sensory realm has brought forth our industry and technology. But now is once again the time of ascent. Beyond the lower personality, humanity must strive toward what the higher Self is in the sense of the Sermon on the Mount. It must therefore understand the connection between the lower and higher worlds. It must transcend the spirit of the fifth root race. There is also much that is impersonal in the fifth root race. This has also unfolded in an impersonal, naturally necessary way.

[ 35 ] It is completely foreign to a theosophist to view things in any way other than objectively. Therefore, what I am about to say should also be understood objectively. No personality is to be disparaged. These personalities represent a symptom of materialism, which has in fact already overcome itself.

[ 36 ] Two members [of the Rothschild family] have died in quick succession recently. It would no longer be possible today for that symbol, which was the defining one for the Rothschild world house—it is a five-pointed arrow — could gain significance. This five-pointed star—what does it mean? It means that until some time in the late nineteenth century, this global dynasty was present in five different locations in Europe, and that its spirit interacted in these five places. The purely personal self was at work there, and in recent times it has had a far more constructive effect than anyone who knows history only superficially who can also say something about what lies hidden behind the respectability of certain banking houses, who knows what dominion has emanated from this materialistic spirit, that it has weighed upon our state, and that our national history can no longer be understood without taking this materialistic spirit into account. Here is a significant characteristic:

[ 37 ] Rothschild once received a visit from a statesman. He was sitting at his desk, noticed the visitor, but continued writing. When this went on for some time, the statesman said: “I am Count So-and-so.” — To which Rothschild replied: “Please sit down, take a chair.” — The statesman was completely taken aback and repeated once more: “I am Count So-and-so and have come on behalf of the king.” — And to that Rothschild replied: “Please take two chairs.”

[ 38 ] This five-leaf clover [of the Rothschilds] had gained such immense influence. Materialism, however, has now become impersonal; it is even more powerful than such five individual personalities are today. In the face of the impersonal share, when it unites, even these personalities would be powerless. The impersonal share, as it rules the world today, is the outward symbol of our world, which has become entirely external. International, cosmopolitan in strength, yet devoid of any individual power—such is the impersonal, materialistic spirit today. It will be defeated only by the higher, spiritual spirit that will then flow from human beings once they have found their higher self.

[ 39 ] If the Theosophical Movement were not to prove itself capable of educating the very core of human beings, then

[ 40 ] many very evil things might follow in its wake. The Theosophical Society was created out of the necessity of our time, and anyone who contributes to it—even if only by listening to a theosophical lecture now and then to imbibe theosophical ideas and reproduce them in the smallest circle—truly contributes to the elevation of human spirituality. Only those who have no idea of the tasks of our time, or who are completely indifferent to them, could pass by the theosophical spirit, the theosophical attitude.

[ 41 ] We must grasp Christianity in its deepest sense. Paul was the first to use the word “theosophy.” He already used it in our sense. What matters is: to rise above the so-called spirit of liberalism so widespread today—which is nothing other than the collective spirit of egoism—to rise above it into the spirit of community born of clear, luminous insight, not merely out of feeling—for that is not the genuine thing. This is how we must understand and live theosophy. Then it will become clear to us that we will see every word in a new light, in a new radiance. Do not be misled by those who speak of theosophy as a “New Buddhism,” who speak of it as if it were introducing an entirely new worldview into Europe. A true theosophist will seek the truth where it is to be found at the root of the people’s culture. That is why I have also endeavored, [in my book “Theosophy”], to replace the Indian terms with good German terms. Many have misunderstood this. But that is not what is meant, as you understand it. The true theosophist does not say, “I bring something foreign to everyone,” but rather says to himself, “Every human being and every people is born of the Spirit, and if we recognize the Spirit, we also recognize the deepest soul of the people.”

[ 42 ] This is how the great teachers of the world religions have worked. The Buddha did not go to India and teach his disciples something that was native to Europe. All of them drew from the same source, the wisdom of God; but each presented the wisdom in a way that was appropriate for his people. The great sages are united in the White Brotherhood. But each speaks in the language of his people, his age, and his education, so that people can understand him.

[ 43 ] Thus did Christ also come among humanity. He did not preach a wisdom taken from another substance. If we take this spirit, we will find the spiritual spirit again. We will find that it does not befit us to remain stuck in the old ways, nor should we succumb to the materialistic spirit. We should fill ourselves with souls free from materialism, which lead upward toward the higher self. Then we will begin to sense the inner meaning of what is meant by “blessed” in the Sermon on the Mount. If we thus become beggars for the Spirit, then in the future we will share in the Kingdom of Heaven.