The Principle of Spiritual Economy
GA 109
11 April 1909, Easter Sunday, Cologne
8. The Event of Golgotha. The Brotherhood of the Holy Grail. The Spiritualized Fire
One immediate advantage of significant time symbols such as Easter is that this festival makes our hearts and souls more amenable to the process of looking more and more deeply into the human riddles and into human nature. Therefore, let us once more place before our spiritual eye the oriental legend that illumined our souls yesterday since it has already given us a notion that it can disclose something of the human riddles and the nature of the human being. This is the legend of the great sage Kashyapa, the inspired disciple of Shakyamuni. Kashyapa had encompassed all the wisdom of the Orient with great purview and with an enormous impulse of activity. Of him it was rightly said that none of his successors were even faintly capable of preserving what he had recovered from Shakyamuni's deep well of wisdom or of preserving what he, Kashyapa—the last one to do so—had given mankind from the primordial wisdom of the world.
Let us continue the legend. When death approached, Kashyapa felt that he was close to Nirvana and went to a cave of the mountain. After he had died there in full consciousness, his physical body remained in an imperishable state but could be discovered only by those who had become mature enough to penetrate such secrets. While Kashyapa's imperishable body lay mysteriously concealed in that mountain cave, it was prophesied that a new great proclaimer of the primordial world wisdom would appear in the form of the Maitreya-Buddha who, upon reaching the summit of his earthly existence, was to go to the cave that contained Kashyapa's corpse. He would touch Kashyapa with his right hand, and then a wondrous fire was to come down from the universe, envelop the imperishable body of Kashyapa, and carry him into the higher spiritual worlds.
The oriental who understands such wisdom expects the reappearance of Maitreya-Buddha and his action on the imperishable body of Kashyapa. Will these two events really occur? Will the Maitreya-Buddha appear? And if he does, will the imperishable remains be moved upward through the wondrous heavenly fire? We will be able to get a presentiment of the deep wisdom that is embedded in this legend if we dwell in our true Easter feelings and visit the wondrous fire that is to absorb Kashyapa's remains.
Yesterday we saw how the godhead reveals Himself in our time through two poles: on the one hand through the macrocosmic lightning fire, and on the other hand through the microcosmic fire of the blood. We have seen that the Christ announced Himself to Moses in the burning bramble-bush and in the thunder and lightning fire on Sinai. No other force but Christ spoke to Moses, announced Himself as the I am the I am, and from the lightning fire at Sinai gave the Ten Commandments to him. After He had manifested Himself in this way, He appeared in the microcosmic pole in Palestine. The fire that lives in our blood contains the same God who announced Himself in the celestial fire and who then incarnated in a human body in the Mystery of Palestine so that he could imbue with His force the blood that contains the human fire. And if we follow the consequences this event has for earthly existence, we will be able to find through this event the blazing fire that will accept the remains of Kashyapa.
All developments in the course of the world are such that material things become spiritualized little by little. An external sign of God's power appeared to Moses in the material fire of the burning bramblebush and on Mt. Sinai. However, this fire was spiritualized through the Christ-Event, and who is able to perceive the burning spiritual fire after the Christ-Force infused itself into the earth? Only the spiritual eye that has been opened and awakened through the Christ-Impulse can see this fire because it sees this sensuous fire of the bramblebush in an etherealized and spiritualized form. And after the Christ-Impulse awakened the spiritual eye of human beings, this fire has also had a spiritual effect on our world.
When was this fire again perceived? It was perceived again when Saul opened his eyes on his way to Damascus, found that they had become illumined and clairvoyant, and recognized in the heavenly fire the One who had accomplished the Mystery of Golgotha. Both Saul, who became Paul, and Moses saw the Christ. Moses saw Him in the material fire—in the burning thornbush and in the lightning fire on Sinai—and only his inner being could tell him that the Christ spoke to him. On the other hand, Christ appeared to the enlightened eye of Paul from the spiritual and etherealized fire. Just as matter and spirit stand in a relationship to one another in the evolution of the world, there exists also in the course of the world a relationship between the mysterious fire of the bramblebush and of Sinai on the one hand, and the wondrous apparition of Saul on the other—that is, the fire that shines brightly to him from the clouds and transforms him into Paul. And what has this event done for the evolution of the world as a whole?
Let us look back to the large numbers of great personalities who were destined to beatify and save humanity. They were the external expression of the avatars, the divine spiritual forces who descended from spiritual heights in various epochs and assumed a human form, such as Krishna, Vishnu, and others. These benefactors and saviors of mankind had to make their appearances so that humanity could find its way back into the spiritual worlds, and in ancient times it took the intercession of divine power to do so. However, when the Mystery of Golgotha happened, human beings received the ability to muster from within the strength necessary to elevate themselves and lead themselves upward into the spiritual worlds. The Christ descended much deeper than had those previous leaders of the world and of mankind: not only did He bring heavenly forces into the earthly body, but also He spiritualized this earthly body in such a way that it now became possible for human beings to find the way back into the spiritual world with the help of these very forces. Although the pre-Christian saviors had used divine powers, the Christ used human powers to save mankind. And with this act human forces have been placed before our souls in their primordial potential. What would have happened on our earth if the Christ had not appeared? This serious and deeply incisive question is the one we want to pursue today.
It doesn't matter how many world saviors might have descended from the spiritual worlds; in the final analysis, they all would have found down here only human beings who were so deeply struck in the material world and so entrenched in matter that the pure, divine-spiritual forces would have been unable to lift them upward out of this unholy, impure matter. The oriental sages were deeply distressed and looked sadly into the future, which they viewed this way: the Maitreya-Buddha will appear in order to renew the primeval wisdom of the world, but there will not be a disciple present to absorb such wisdom. If the course of the world had continued in such a fashion, the Maitreya-Buddha would have preached to deaf ears and would not have been understood by human beings who were completely immersed in material things. The earth might well have become sufficiently materialistic to wither Kashyapa's body so that the Maitreya-Buddha would not have been capable of carrying Kashyapa's remains upward to divine-spiritual heights. The most knowledgeable individuals of oriental wisdom, then, were deeply saddened especially when they looked into the future and wondered whether the earth would still be capable of generating some understanding and feeling for the appearance of Maitreya-Buddha.
A strong heavenly force had to radiate into physical matter and sacrifice itself into this matter. What was required was more than just a God wearing the mask of human appearance; what was needed was a true human being with human powers who was carrying the God within himself. The Event of Golgotha had to happen so that the matter into which the human being was placed could be readied, cleansed, and ennobled. When components of matter are cleansed and sanctified, this will make the comprehension of primordial wisdom possible again in future incarnations. Mankind must be led to a true understanding of how the Event of Golgotha has really worked in this sense. How important has this event been to mankind, and how incisively has it affected the essence and the being of mankind?
Let us take a look at a period of twelve centuries: the six centuries before and the six centuries after the Event of Golgotha. And let us consider certain happenings that took place in human souls during that period of time. Truly, nothing more momentous and significant can be placed before the sensitive human soul than those powerful moments in the illumination of the Buddha, as they are related in the Buddha legend. He was not born in a stable, among poor shepherds, but left a royal environment in which he grew up. That fact alone is not what should be stressed, but rather the fact that he found he was unable to experience life in its various manifestations in such a royal environment.
He found a weak and wretched child whose birth into this existence had created nothing but suffering for the child, and so Buddha felt that birth is suffering. Then Buddha saw with his sensitive soul a sick person and so realized that this is what happens to a human being when he is carried into the earthly world because of his or her thirst for existence. He concluded that sickness was suffering. When he found an old man whose advanced age had made him an invalid, he asked himself: “What is this gift of life man has received that gradually makes him lose control over his limbs?” Old age was suffering. Upon seeing a corpse, Buddha confronted the powers of death to destroy and extinguish life, and he concluded that death, too, was suffering. As Buddha continued to look into the manifestations of life, he found that the separation from what one loved created suffering; to be united with what one did not love also created suffering; and, finally, suffering was caused by not receiving what one desired.
Buddha's doctrine of suffering had a mighty and vivid effect on the hearts of human beings. Countless people learned the great truth of being liberated from suffering through the extinction of the thirst for being, and they also learned how to strive outward from their earthly incarnations. Truly, the highest peak of human evolution is placed before our souls by such an endeavor.
Let us now view the period that comprises twelve centuries—six hundred years each before and after the birth of Christ. We need to stress that the Mystery of Golgotha took place in the middle of that period. From the age of Buddha, six hundred years before Golgotha, let us now call special attention only to what the Buddha felt at the sight of a corpse and what he taught in relation to this. Now that we have done this, let us immediately consider the time six hundred years after the Mystery of Golgotha, when countless souls and eyes turned to the cross on which a corpse was hanging. It is from this corpse that the impulses emanated that spiritualized life and signaled the glad tidings that death can be conquered by life. That, then, is the exact opposite of what Buddha felt when he saw a dead body.
Buddha saw in a corpse an indication of the insignificance and the futility of life. By contrast, the human beings six hundred years after the Event of Golgotha looked up to the corpse on the cross in a spirit of devout fervor. It was to them a sign of life, and their souls came to be imbued with the certainty that existence is not suffering, but that it carries over beyond death into a state of bliss. The crucified cross of the Christ Jesus six hundred years after the Event of Golgotha came to be a memorial symbol of life, of the resurrection of life, and of the victory over death and all suffering; six hundred years before the Mystery of Golgotha a corpse was the memorial symbol for the fact that human beings are subjected to misery and suffering because their thirst for being causes them to enter the physical world. Never has there been a more momentous reversal in the entire evolution of the human race.
If the human being's entry into the physical world had been considered as suffering six hundred years before the Event of Golgotha, how does the soul perceive the great truth of the misery of life after this event? How is this former truth perceived by people who look up to the cross of Golgotha with a high degree of understanding? Is birth suffering, as Buddha had said? Those who look up to the cross of Golgotha with a knowledgeable soul and who feel united with it will say to themselves: “This birth leads a human being into a world that had the opportunity to invest the Christ with its own elements.” They were glad to enter this earth on which Christ had walked. And through the connection with Christ, the soul had gained the strength to find its way up to the spiritual worlds, as well as the knowledge that birth is not suffering; birth is rather the gate through which one must pass to find the Savior—the Savior who has wrapped Himself into the same earthly materials that constitute the human physical sheath.
Is sickness suffering? Those who understood the Impulse of Golgotha in the true sense said: “No, it is not!” Even though mankind today cannot yet understand what the true spiritual life is that streams into them with Christ, people in the future will learn to understand it. They will know that a person whose innermost being is pervaded by the power of Christ, that an individual who allows himself or herself to become imbued with the Christ-Impulse will be able to overcome all illness with the help of the strong and healthy powers that he or she develops from within. This is so because Christ is the great healer of mankind. His power comprises everything that emanates from a spiritual well and is really able to develop the strong, healing power that can conquer illness. No, illness is not suffering, but rather an opportunity to overcome an impediment or a handicap by the development of the Christ-Force within us.
In the same way we must gain a clear understanding about the difficulties of old age. The weaker our limbs become, the greater the opportunity for us to grow in spirit and to master our infirmity through the power of Christ within us. Old age is not suffering because with every day we grow further into the spiritual world. And neither is death suffering because it is conquered in the resurrection. Death has been conquered through the Event of Golgotha.
Moreover, can we say that being separated from what we love constitutes suffering? No! The souls that imbue themselves with the Christ-Force know that love can forge indestructible spiritual bonds beyond all material hindrances. And there is nothing in life between birth and death and between death and rebirth to which we cannot spiritually find the way through the Christ-Impulse. If we imbue ourselves with the Christ-Impulse, it is unthinkable that we could possibly be separated from what we love in the long run. The Christ brings us together with what we love.
By the same token, “to be united with what we do not love” cannot be suffering because the Christ-Impulse teaches us that once we have accepted it into our souls, we must love everything in its own measure. The Christ-Impulse shows us the way, and when we have found this way, “to be united with what we do not love” can never cause suffering for then there will no longer be anything that we do not embrace lovingly. And “not to attain what one desires” can no longer be suffering either if one embraces Christ, for the human sensibilities, feelings, and desires are purified and ennobled by the Christ-Impulse in such a way that human beings desire only what they are meant to receive. They no longer suffer from the lack of things, for if they are meant to do without something or someone, such lack is for their ennoblement; and the Christ-Power gives them the strength to perceive it as a purification. When this happens, the feeling of lacking things no longer evokes suffering.
So what is the Event of Golgotha? It is the gradual abolition of the teaching by the great Buddha that life is suffering. No other event has had a greater impact on the evolution and the nature of life in this world than the Event of Golgotha, and that is why we can understand that it will continue to work for mankind and have tremendous positive consequences for humanity in the future. Christ was the greatest avatar that ever descended to earth; and when such a being comes down into our existence, just as Christ descended into the body of Jesus of Nazareth, something mysterious and greatly significant happens. Let us look at the microcosmic world. When we put a grain of wheat into the ground, it germinates, grows a stalk, and many ears of wheat, and the many, many grains of wheat harvested are copies of the one grain originally planted in the ground. This process also takes place in the macrocosmic, spiritual world. For “all that is destructible is but a parable,”38Faust II, lines 12104–12111:
CHORUS MYSTCUS
What is destructible
and we can see in the multiplication of the wheat grain an image of, and a parable for, the spiritual worlds. And with this, we conclude our comparison. When the Event of Golgotha took place, something happened to the etheric body and the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth: they were multiplied through the power of the Christ that lived within Him, and many copies of the two bodies were henceforth present in the spiritual world and continued to be at work.
Is but a parable;
What fails ineluctably,
The undeclarable,
Here it was seen,
Here it was action;
The Eternal-Feminine
Lures to perfection.
(Translation by Walter Kaufmann)
These are the very last lines of Goethe's Faust, indicating that the things of this material world are but a symbolic expression of the spiritual world. Love, through its embodiment in women, remains the guiding force for the striving human being.
When a human individuality descends from spiritual heights into a physical existence, it envelops itself with an etheric body and with an astral body. But when something like the copies of the etheric and astral bodies of Jesus of Nazareth is present in the spiritual worlds, then something very special happens to human beings whose karma provides for this. After the Mystery of Golgotha had been accomplished, an individual whose karma permitted this received a copy of the etheric or the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth woven into himself or herself. This was the case in the first centuries of the Christian era, for example with St. Augustine. When such an individuality descended from spiritual heights and enveloped itself in an etheric body, it received a copy of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth woven into its own etheric body, but it had its own astral body and ego.
And thus, what had enveloped the God incarnate of Palestine now was carried over onto other human beings who were supposed to transfer the impetus of this great impulse to the rest of humanity. Since Augustine had to depend on his own ego and on his own astral body, he was subjected to doubts, ups and downs, and erroneous behavior; and since these shortcomings originated in the as-yet-imperfect parts of his being, it was difficult for him to overcome them. What he had to go through was caused by errors in his judgment and by an erring ego. But after he had struggled through these problems and his etheric body began to be activated, he encountered forces within himself that had been woven into this etheric body from a copy of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth. And now he became the individual who was able to proclaim to the people in the West a part of the lofty mystery truths.
Thus many of the individuals whom we in the West know as the important pillars of Christianity were called upon to promote the active continuance of Christianity in the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries, and on to the tenth century. These exemplary people were able to absorb the great ideas because their etheric bodies were interwoven with the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth. It is for this reason that they were able to fathom the sublime visions and exemplary ideas that would later be put into artistic form by renowned painters and sculptors.
How did these exemplary types originate for the paintings that give us joy even today? They came into being when the human beings of the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries after Christ received the great illuminations about Christianity that they did not have to comprehend with the help of historical accounts. Because of the copy of the sanctified etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth interwoven within them, these human beings were able to absorb the content of Christ's teaching without knowing the historically transmitted facts of Christianity. Because they bore a part of Jesus of Nazareth within themselves, they knew from a feeling of inner illumination that the Christ was alive. They knew it as well as Paul did when he saw the Christ-Apparition in the blazing spiritualized fire of the heavens. Was Paul before that occasion willing to be converted by force of the stories that circulated about the events in Palestine? None of the events anyone could have told him would have had the power of making a Paul out of Saul, and yet the most important impulse for the dissemination of Christianity emanated from Paul. He remained skeptical of the stories about Christ on the physical plane and became a believer only through an occult event that took place in the spiritual world. Strange indeed are those people who want to have Christianity without spiritual illumination! The external expansion of Christianity was due to a supersensory event; it would never have taken place without Paul's spiritual illumination.
In later times, Christianity continued to grow through the activities of those who were able to experience the Christ, as described above, as a result of inner illumination, and these individuals were also capable of experiencing the historical Christ because they bore within themselves what had remained of the historical Christ and his bodies. During the time from the eleventh through the fourteenth centuries other individuals received copies of the astral, rather than the etheric, body of Jesus of Nazareth woven into themselves when they were mature enough and when their karma called for this. Francis of Assisi and Elisabeth of Thüringen, among others, were such human beings whose lives would remain incomprehensible to us unless we knew about this fact. Everything in the life of Francis of Assisi that appears to us strange stems from the fact that his ego was the human ego of this human individuality, but the humility, the devotion, and the fervor that we so admire in Francis of Assisi came from his having woven into his astral body a copy of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth. Many other personalities of this time had such a copy woven into their own being; and when we know this, they become models for us to emulate. If a person were to get to the bottom of this matter without knowing that Elisabeth of Thuringen had a copy of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth woven into herself, how could he or she fully understand the life of this saintly woman? Many, many individuals were called upon through this continuing Christ-Force to carry its mighty impulse into future ages.
In addition to copies of the etheric and of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth, countless copies of His ego were preserved for posterity as well. His ego had disappeared from the three sheaths when Christ moved into them, but a copy of this ego—heightened through the Christ-Event—remained and was multiplied into an infinite number of copies. We have in this copy of the ego of Jesus of Nazareth something that is still present today in the spiritual world, and human beings who have made themselves mature enough can find it and, with it, the splendor of the Christ-Force and of the Christ-Impulse that it carries within it.
The external expression for the ego is the blood. That is a great secret, but there have always been human beings who were acquainted with it and who were aware of the fact that copies of the ego of Jesus of Nazareth are present in the spiritual world. And since the Event of Golgotha, there have always been human beings through the centuries who had to see to it that humanity matured slowly to the point where some individuals could accept copies of the ego of Jesus Christ, just as some human beings received copies of His etheric or astral body. A secret way had to be found to preserve this ego in a silent, deep Mystery until the time when a suitable moment for its use would be at hand. To preserve this secret, a brotherhood of initiates was formed: The Brotherhood of the Holy Grail. This brotherhood goes back to the time when, as is reported, its founder took the chalice that Christ Jesus had used at the Last Supper and collected in it the blood that dripped from the wounds of the Savior when He was hanging on the cross. This founder of the brotherhood collected the blood of Christ Jesus, the expression and copy of His ego, in the chalice that is called the Holy Grail. It was kept in a holy place—in the brotherhood—that through its institution and initiation rites comprised the Brothers of the Holy Grail.
Today the time has come when these secrets can be revealed because the hearts of human beings can become ripened through spiritual life to an extent where they elevate themselves to an understanding of this great mystery. If Spiritual Science can kindle souls so that they warm up to an engaged and lively understanding of such mysteries, these very souls will become mature enough, through casting a glance at that Holy Grail, to get to know the mystery of the Christ-Ego—the eternal ego into which any human ego can be transformed. This mystery is a reality. All that people have to do is to follow the call by Spiritual Science to understand this mystery as a given fact so that they can receive the Christ-Ego at the mere sight of the Holy Grail. To accomplish this, it is necessary only that one understand and accept these happenings as fact.
At a future time when people will be increasingly well-prepared to receive the Christ-Ego, it will imbue the souls of human beings to an ever increasing degree so that they can strive upward to approach the position where their great model Christ Jesus used to be. Only through this process will human beings learn to understand in what respect Christ Jesus is the great model of humanity, and only then will they begin to understand that the certainty and the truth of the life everlasting emanates from the corpse on the wooden cross at Golgotha. Those Christians of the future who are inspired and imbued by the Christ-Ego will also understand something that was formerly known to no one but the illuminates. Not only will they understand the Christ who has gone through death, but they will also understand the triumphant Christ of the Apocalypse, whose coming was previously prophesied and who arose from the dead into the spiritual fire. And Easter can always be to us a symbol of the risen Christ, a connecting link from the Christ on the cross to the triumphant, risen, elevated Christ who draws all human beings upward as He sits at the right side of the Father.
The Easter symbol opens a perspective not only on the future of the entire earth but also on that of human evolution. Easter is our assurance that some day the human beings inspired by Christ will increasingly change from Saul to Paul individuals and become more and more capable of seeing a spiritual fire. To be sure, just as Christ appeared to Moses and to those who had declared their faith in Him in the physical fire of the bramblebush and in the lightning on Sinai as a prophecy of His own coming, so will He appear to us in the spiritualized fire of the future. “He is with us every day to the end of the world,” and to those who allowed their perception to be illuminated by the Event of Golgotha, to those He will appear in the spiritual fire even if at first they had seen Him in a different form.
Since Christ exerted such a profound influence on all aspects of earthly life, as far down as the human skeleton, that which formed His mortal body out of the elements of the earth also cleansed and sanctified all substances on the earth to such an extent that the world can never again become what the Wise Men of the East sadly feared it would forever be. They believed that the illuminate of the future, the Maitreya-Buddha, would be unable to find people on earth who could rise to an understanding of him because they would have sunk too deeply into the material world.
Christ was led to Golgotha to sublimate matter and redirect it to spiritual heights and to prevent fire on earth from becoming slag instead of spiritualized essence. When human beings themselves are spiritualized, they will again understand the primeval wisdom of the spiritual world from which they have formerly come. And thus, after human beings have gone through an even deeper understanding, the Maitreya-Buddha will find on earth an appreciation that otherwise he would have been unable to encounter. We understand everything that we learned in our youth better after we have become more mature through our trials and after we can look back upon the experiences of our youth. Similarly, mankind will understand the primeval wisdom of the world by looking back at it in the light of Christ and through the Event of Golgotha.
And now, how can the imperishable remains of Kashyapa be saved, and for what destination are they being saved? It is written that the Maitreya-Buddha will appear and touch him with the right hand, and then the corpse will be removed in a fire. The fire that Paul saw on the way to Damascus was the same wonderful, spiritualized fire within which the body of Kashyapa will be safely transported upward; and in this fire everything great and noble of ancient times will be saved. We will see the forces of the past that were sublime, magnificent, and full of wisdom stream and flow into what humanity has gained as a result of the Mystery of Golgotha.
In the Easter bells, we encounter a symbol for the resurrection of the Earth Spirit itself and for the salvation of mankind. In the past, there has been no one with a proper understanding of this symbol who did not know how to elevate himself or herself to spiritual heights through the Easter mystery. It is not without significance that Faust, when he is near death, is tolled back into a new life by the Easter bells. This leads to the great moment in his old age when he ultimately becomes blind in the face of death and is able to say, “Yet inside me there shines a brilliant light.”39Faust has been blinded by Care (Sorge), an allegorical figure, and exclaims:
Deep night now seems to fall more deeply still,
Yet inside me there shines a brilliant light;
What I have thought, I hasten to fulfill:
The master's word alone has real might.
(Faust II, lines 11499–11502. Trsl. by Walter Kaufmann) Now he is ready to penetrate the spiritual worlds above where all noble members of mankind fmd salvation.
Everything that has once been alive in the past has been saved, purified, and sheltered in the etherealized spirituality that the Mystery of Golgotha diffused onto earth and into mankind. Some day when Maitreya-Buddha appears, the imperishable body of the great sage Kashyapa will undergo a similar purification in the wonderful fire, in the great light of Christ, that appeared to Paul on the way to Damascus.
Das Ereignis Von Golgatha Die Bruderschaft Des Heiligen Gral Das Vergeistigte Feuer
Ein unmittelbarer Gewinn solcher bedeutsamen Zeitsymbole wie das Osterfest ist der, daß es unsere Herzen und Seelen geeigneter macht, um tiefer und tiefer hineinzuschauen in die Menschenrätsel und das Menschenwesen. Und so sei denn noch einmal die gestern vor unserer Seele aufgeleuchtete morgenländische Legende vor unser geistiges Auge hingestellt, jene Legende, von der wir gestern schon ahnen konnten, was sie von diesem Menschenrätsel und Menschenwesen umschließt: die Legende von Kashyapa, dem großen Weisen, dem erleuchteten Schüler Shakyamunis, der alle Weisheit des Orients zusammengefaßt hatte mit großem Überblick und einem riesigen Impuls des Wirkens, und von dem mit Recht gesagt wurde, daß alle seine Nachfolger nicht vermochten, auch nur im entferntesten zu bewahren, was er aus Shakyamunis tiefem Brunnen der Weisheit hervorgeholt hatte undals Letzter- aus der Urweltweisheit- der Menschheit gegeben hatte.
Und weiter lautet die Legende: Als sich dann dem Kashyapa der Tod nahte und er sein Nirvana herankommen fühlte, ging er in die Höhle eines Berges. Da starb er bewußt und es blieb unverweslich sein Leib, unauffindbar für die äußere Menschheit, auffindbar nur für die, welche durch Initiation reif geworden waren, solche Geheimnisse zu durchdringen. In der Bergeshöhle ruhte nun geheimnisvoll verborgen des Kashyapa unverweslicher Leib. Und vorausgesagt wurde, daß erscheinen würde als neuer großer Verkünder der Urweltweisheit in neuer Gestalt der Maitreya-Buddha, der, wenn er zum Gipfel seines Erdendaseins emporgestiegen sein wird, gehen wird zu der Höhle, wo der Leichnam des Kashyapa ruht. Berühren wird er ihn mit seiner rechten Hand, und ein wunderbares Feuer wird aus dem Universum herabkommen, und der unverwesliche Leib des Kashyapa wird davon ergriffen werden und entrückt werden in die höheren, geistigen Welten.
So erwartet der Morgenländer, der solche Weisheit versteht, das Wiedererscheinen des Maitreya-Buddha und seine Tat an dem unverweslichen Leib des Kashyapa. Werden sie eintreten, diese beiden Ereignisse? Wird erscheinen der Maitreya-Buddha? Wird dann des Kashyapa unverweslicher Überrest entrückt werden durch das wunderbare, himmlische Feuer? - Die tiefe Weisheit, die darinnen ruht, werden wir ahnen können mit unseren wahren Osterempfindungen, wenn wir aufsuchen das wunderbare Feuer, das die Überreste des Kashyapa in sich aufnehmen soll.
Wir haben gestern gesehen, wie sich die Gottheit in unserer Zeit durch zwei Pole offenbart: auf der einen Seite durch das makrokosmische Blitzesfeuer, auf der andern Seite durch das mikrokosmische Feuer des Blutes. Wir haben gesehen, daß sich angekündigt hat dem Moses im brennenden Dornbusch und auf dem Sinai im Donner und Blitzesfeuer der Christus. Denn keine andere Macht als der Christus sprach zu ihm das «Ich bin der Ich-bin.» Er gab die Zehn Gebote aus dem Blitzesfeuer am Sinai. Damit hat er sich vorbereitet {... offenbar Lücke im Text}. Dann erschien er in dem mikrokosmischen Pol in Palästina. Im Feuer, das in unserem Blute lebt, da ist derselbe Gott, der sich im Himmelsfeuer angekündigt hat und der sich dann verkörperte im Mysterium von Palästina in einem menschlichen Leibe, um zu durchdringen mit seiner Kraft das menschliche Blut, in dem das menschliche Feuer seinen Sitz hat. Und durch dieses Ereignis, wenn wir es in seinen Konsequenzen verfolgen, in dem, was es bedeutet für das Erdendasein, werden wir finden können jenes lodernde Feuer, das des Kashyapa Überreste aufnehmen wird.
Aller Weltengang besteht darin, daß sich das Materielle nach und nach vergeistigt, spiritualisiert. Im materiellen Feuer des brennenden Dornbusches und auf dem Sinai erschien dem Moses ein äußeres Zeichen der Gottesmacht. Durch das Christus-Ereignis ist aber dieses Feuer vergeistigt. Und nachdem die Christus-Macht in diese Erde eingegriffen hat, wer sieht dann das brennende geistige Feuer? Wer kann es wahrnehmen? - Das geistige Auge, das durch den Christus-Impuls selber geöffnet wird und das der Christus-Impuls geweckt hatte. Das sieht dieses sinnliche Feuer des Dornbusches spiritualisiert, vergeistigt. Und nachdem der Christus-Impuls das geistige Auge erweckt hatte, da wirkte dieses Feuer auch geistig, spirituell auf unsere Welt.
Wann wurde dieses Feuer wieder wahrgenommen? Es wurde wieder wahrgenommen, als das erleuchtete, hellseherisch gewordene Auge des Saulus auf dem Wege nach Damaskus im Himmelsfeuer erstrahlen sah und erkannte den, der das Mysterium von Golgatha vollbracht hatte. So schauten beide den Christus: Moses im materiellen Feuer im brennenden Dornbusch und im Blitzesfeuer auf dem Sinai -, und es kann sich ihm nur im Innern ankündigen, daß der Christus zu ihm spricht; dem erleuchteten Auge des Paulus aber zeigt sich der Christus aus dem spirituellen, dem vergeistigten Feuer. Wie Materie und Geist zueinander stehen im Weltenwerden, so stehen zueinander im Weltengang das wundersame, materielle Feuer des Dornbusches, des Sinai, und die wunderbare Erscheinung: das Feuer aus den Wolken, das dem zum Paulus gewordenen Saulus erstrahlt. Und was ist für den ganzen Weltenwerdegang durch dieses Ereignis geschehen?
Sehen wir zurück auf die große Reihe der Menschheitsbeglücker, der Menschheitserlöser, auf die großen Gestalten der Menschheit, die der äußere Ausdruck waren für die Avatare, für die göttlich-geistigen Mächte, die von Epoche zu Epoche herunterstiegen aus geistigen Höhen und Menschengestalt annahmen, wie Vishnu, Krishna und so weiter, die erscheinen müssen, damit die Menschheit den Weg zurückfindet in die geistigen Welten. Die Menschheit brauchte, damit sie den Weg zurückfinden konnte, in der Vorzeit Gotteskraft dazu, die herunterstieg. Aber dadurch, daß das Mysterium von Golgatha geschehen ist, ist dem Menschen die Fähigkeit gegeben, aus seinem eigenen Innern heraus die Kräfte zu finden, die ihn heraufheben, hinaufführen können in die geistigen Welten. Tiefer, viel tiefer als jene Weltund Menschheitsführer ist der Christus heruntergestiegen, denn er hat nicht nur himmlische Kräfte in den irdischen Leib gebracht, sondern er hat diesen irdischen Leib selber so vergeistigt, daß nun die Menschen aus diesen Kräften heraus den Weg zurückfinden konnten in die geistigen Welten. Mit göttlichen Kräften haben die vorchristlichen Erlöser die Menschheit erlöst. Mit Menschenkräften hat der Christus die Menschheit erlöst. Damit aber sind diese Menschenkräfte so vor unsere Seele gestellt worden, wie sie in ihrer Urkraft sein können. Was wäre geschehen auf unserer Erde, wenn der Christus nicht auf Erden erschienen wäre? - Diese ernste, diese tief einschneidende Frage wollen wir uns heute stellen.
Welterlöser auf Welterlöser hätten heruntersteigen können aus geistigen Welten: sie hätten zuletzt unten nur Menschen gefunden, so eingegraben in die Materie, so versunken in den Stoff, daß aus diesem unheiligen, unreinen Stoff die reinen göttlich-geistigen Kräfte den Menschen nicht wieder hätten emporheben können. Und tief betrübt und trauernd blickten die morgenländischen Weisen in die Zukunft, von der sie wußten: der Maitreya-Buddha wird erscheinen, um die Urweltweisheit zu erneuern, aber kein Jünger wird erhalten können die Urweltweisheit. Und wenn der Weltengang so fortginge, würde der Maitreya-Buddha tauben Ohren predigen, und er würde nicht mehr verstanden werden von den ganz in die Materie versunkenen Menschen. Das, was so materiell auf der Erde geworden wäre, hätte des Kashyapa Leib verdorren lassen, so daß der Maitreya-Buddha nicht mehr imstande gewesen wäre, des Kashyapa Überreste hinaufzutragen in göttlich-geistige Höhen. Tief trauernd sahen gerade die am tiefsten Verstehenden der morgenländischen Weisheit in die Zukunft und dachten, ob denn die Erde fähig sein würde, noch etwas entgegenzubringen an Verständnis und Empfindung dem erscheinenden MaitreyaBuddha.
Es mußte eine starke Himmelskraft in den physischen Stoff hineinstrahlen, sich in den physischen Stoff hineinopfern. Nicht bloß ein Gott in der Maske der Menschengestalt durfte es sein, sondern ein wahrer Mensch mit Menschenkräften, der den Gott in sich trägt, mußte es sein. Es mußte das Ereignis von Golgatha eintreten, damit der Stoff, in den der Mensch hineingestellt ist, bereit werde, gereinigt und geläutert werde, damit das Material des so gereinigten und geheiligten Stoffes geeignet sei, daß für künftige Inkarnationen die Urweltweisheit wieder verständlich werden könne. Und es muß nun die Menschheit dahin gebracht werden, zu verstehen, wie in diesem Sinne wirklich gewirkt hat das Ereignis von Golgatha. Denn was ist das Ereignis von Golgatha für die Menschheit gewesen? Wie tief einschneidend hat es sich hineingestellt in Menschenwesen und Menschensein?
Lassen wir den Blick schweifen über zwölf Jahrhunderte! Schauen wir auf sechs Jahrhunderte vor dem Ereignis von Golgatha und sechs Jahrhunderte nach demselben. Sehen wir uns da einmal gewisse Begebenheiten an, die sich in den menschlichen Seelen in dieser Zeit abgespielt haben. Wahrlich, man kann kaum Größeres und Bedeutsameres hinstellen vor die empfindende menschliche Seele als jene gewaltigen Momente, die aufbewahrt hat die Buddha-Legende von der allmählichen Erleuchtung des Buddha. Er tritt heraus aus königlicher Umgebung. Er ist nicht geboren im Stalle, unter armen Hirten. Aber das ist es nicht, was hervorgehoben werden soll, sondern daß er aus dieser königlichen Umgebung herausgeht, und daß er dann das findet, was er bisher nicht gefunden hat: das Leben in seinen verschiedenen Gestalten.
Ein Kind findet er, schwach und elend. Leiden ist ihm beschert in dem Dasein, in das es durch die Geburt eingetreten ist. Er empfand: Geburt ist Leiden. - Und weiter sieht der Buddha mit seiner empfänglichen Seele einen Kranken, einen Siechen. So kann der Mensch werden, wenn er durch den Durst nach Dasein in die irdische Welt hineingetragen wird: Krankheit ist Leiden. - Einen durch Alter bresthaft gewordenen Greis findet er. Was ist es, das dem Menschen durch sein Leben beschert wird, so daß er allmählich nicht mehr Herr sein kann seiner Glieder? Alter ist Leiden. - Und einen Leichnam sah er. Der Tod steht vor ihm mit allem seinem Zerstören und Auslöschen des Lebens: Tod ist Leiden. - Und weiter forscht der Buddha dem Leben nach und sagt sich: Getrennt sein von dem, was man liebt, ist Leiden; vereint sein mit dem, was man nicht liebt, ist Leiden; nicht erhalten, was man begehrt, ist Leiden.
Groß und gewaltig und eindringlich erklang die Lehre vom Leiden durch Menschenherz und Menschenbrust. Unzählige Menschen lernten die große Wahrheit von der Befreiung vom Leiden durch das Erlöschen des Durstes nach Dasein, lernten, wie sie sich hinaussehnen sollten aus dem irdisch-physischen Dasein, wie sie hinausstreben sollten aus den irdischen Inkarnationen, und wie allein das Erlöschen des Durstes nach Dasein zur Erlösung und zur Befreiung vom Leiden führen kann. Wahrlich, ein höchster Gipfel der Menschheitsentwickelung wird da vor unsere Seele hingestellt.
Und nun lassen wir die Blicke schweifen über einen Zeitraum, der zwölf Jahrhunderte umfaßt, sechshundert Jahre vor unserer Zeitrechnung und sechshundert Jahre nach unserer Zeitrechnung. Da muß eines hervorgehoben werden: da hat inmitten dieses Zeitraumes das Mysterium von Golgatha stattgefunden. Aus dem Zeitalter des Buddha sei jetzt nur eines hervorgehoben: der Leichnam und was der Buddha beim Anblick eines solchen empfand und lehrte. Und sechshundert Jahre nach dem Ereignis von Golgatha: da wandten sich unzählige Seelen, unzählige Augen einem Kreuzesholz zu, an dem ein Leichnam hängt; aber es gehen von diesem Leichnam für die Menschheit die Impulse aus, die das Leben durchgeistigen, die Impulse, daß durch das Leben der Tod besiegt wird. Es ist der Gegenpol von dem, was der Buddha beim Anblick eines Leichnams empfunden hat.
Der Buddha hat einen Leichnam gesehen und an ihm die Nichtigkeit des Lebens erkannt. Die Menschen, die sechshundert Jahre nach dem Ereignis von Golgatha gelebt haben, sie haben aufgeschaut mit andachtsvoller Inbrunst zu dem Leichnam am Kreuz. Er war ihnen das Zeichen des Lebens, und in ihrer Seele ging die Gewißheit auf, daß das Dasein nicht Leiden ist, sondern daß es über den Tod hinüberführt in die Seligkeit. Der Leichnam des Christus Jesus am Kreuze wurde sechs Jahrhunderte nach dem Ereignis von Golgatha zum Erinnerungszeichen des Lebens, der Auferstehung des Lebens, der Überwindung des Todes und allen Leidens, so wie der Leichnam sechshundert Jahre vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha das Erkenntniszeichen war dafür, daß Leid den Menschen befallen muß, der durch den Durst nach Dasein hineintritt in die physische Welt. Niemals gab es einen größeren Umschwung in der gesamten Menschheitsentwickelung.
Wenn sechshundert Jahre vorher der Eintritt in die physische Welt für den Menschen Leiden war, wie stellt sich für die Seele jetzt, nach dem Ereignis von Golgatha, die große Wahrheit vom Leid des Lebens dar? Wie stellt sie sich dar für diejenigen Menschen, die mit Verständnis aufblicken zum Kreuz auf Golgatha? Ist Geburt Leiden, wie Buddha sagte? Diejenigen, die mit Verständnis aufblicken zum Kreuz auf Golgatha, die sich mit ihm verbunden fühlen, sagen sich: Diese Geburt führt den Menschen auf eine Erde, die die Möglichkeit hatte, zu umkleiden aus ihren Elementen den Christus. - Sie wollen gern betreten diese Erde, über die der Christus gewandelt ist. Und durch die Verbindung mit dem Christus ersteht in der Seele die Kraft, durch die sie hinauffinden kann in die geistigen Welten, ersteht die Erkenntnis, daß Geburt nicht Leiden ist, sondern das Tor ist zum Finden des Erlösers, der sich auch mit denselben irdischen Stoffen umhüllt hat, die die menschliche Leibeshülle bilden.
Ist Krankheit Leiden? - Nein! - so sagten sich die, welche den Impuls von Golgatha im wirklichen Sinne verstanden - nein, Krankheit ist nicht Leiden. Wenn auch heute die Menschheit noch nicht verstehen kann, was das spirituelle Leben in Wahrheit ist, das mit dem Christus einströmt, die Menschen werden es in der Zukunft verstehen lernen, und sie werden wissen, daß, wer sich durchströmen läßt von dem Christus-Impuls, in wessen Innerstes die Christus-Kraft einzieht, daß der alle Krankheit überwinden kann durch die starken, gesundenden Kräfte, die er aus sich entwickelt. Denn der Christus ist der große Heiler der Menschheit. In seiner Kraft ist umschlossen alles das, was aus dem Geistigen heraus wirklich die starke heilende Kraft entwickeln und was die Krankheit überwinden kann. Krankheit ist nicht Leid. Krankheit ist eine Gelegenheit, ein Hemmnis zu überwinden, indem der Mensch in sich entwickelt die Christus-Kraft.
Über die Beschwerden des Alters muß der Mensch sich in gleicher Weise klarwerden. Je mehr wir zunehmen in der Schwachheit unserer Glieder, desto mehr können wir wachsen im Geiste, können Herr werden durch die in uns wohnende Christus-Kraft. Alter ist nicht Leiden, denn mit jedem Tage wachsen wir ja hinein in die geistige Welt. Und auch der Tod ist nicht Leiden, denn er wird besiegt in der Auferstehung. Durch das Ereignis von Golgatha ist der Tod besiegt worden.
Kann das Getrenntsein von dem, was wir lieben, noch Leiden sein?Nein! Die Seelen, die sich mit der Christus-Kraft durchziehen, wissen, daß die Liebe Bande schlingen kann von Seele zu Seele über alle materiellen Hindernisse hinweg, Bande im Geistigen, die unzerreißbar sind. Und es gibt nichts im Leben zwischen Geburt und Tod und zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt, zu dem wir nicht im Spirituellen den Weg finden durch den Christus-Impuls. Es ist undenkbar, daß wir auf die Dauer, wenn wir uns mit dem Christus-Impuls durchdringen, getrennt sein können von dem, was wir lieben. Der Christus führt uns zusammen mit dem, was wir lieben.
Und ebenso kann «vereint sein mit dem, was wir nicht: lieben», nicht Leiden sein, weil der Christus-Impuls uns lehrt, wenn wir ihn in unserer Seele aufnehmen, alles seinem entsprechenden Maße nach zu lieben. Der Christus-Impuls zeigt uns den Weg, und wenn wir diesen Weg finden, kann niemals mehr «vereint sein mit dem, was wir nicht lieben», Leiden sein, denn es gibt nichts mehr, was wir nicht mit Liebe umfassen. — Und «nicht erreichen, was man begehrt», kann mit dem Christus nicht mehr Leiden sein, denn die Empfindungen und Gefühle des Menschen, sein Begehren, werden durch den Christus-Impuls so gereinigt und veredelt, daß die Menschen nur noch begehren nach dem, was ihnen werden soll. Sie leiden nicht mehr unter dem, was sie entbehren; denn sollen sie entbehren, so ist es zur Läuterung, und die Christus-Kraft gibt ihnen die Kraft dazu, es als Läuterung zu empfinden, und daher ist es auch nicht mehr Leiden.
Was ist also das Ereignis von Golgatha? Es ist das allmähliche Hinwegschaffen der von dem großen Buddha hingestellten Tatsachen vom Leiden. Es gibt keinen größeren Einschlag im Weltenwerden und Weltenwesen als das Ereignis von Golgatha. Daher können wir auch verstehen, daß es fortwirkt und positive, gewaltige Folgen hat für die kommende Menschheit. Der Christus ist der größte Avatar, der heruntergestiegen ist auf die Erde, und wenn eine solche Wesenheit heruntersteigt ins Dasein, wie das der Christus im Jesus von Nazareth war, so tritt etwas Geheimnisvolles, höchst Bedeutsames ein: Geradeso wie im Kleinen, wenn wir ein Weizenkorn in die Erde senken, es keimt und Halme herauswachsen und Ähren, die viele, viele Körner, Abbilder des einen Weizenkorns tragen, welches wir in die Erde gelegt haben, gerade so ist es auch in der geistigen Welt. Denn «alles Vergängliche ist nur ein Gleichnis» - und in dieser Vervielfältigung des Weizenkornes können wir sehen ein Bild, ein Gleichnis für die geistigen Welten.
Als sich vollzogen hatte das Ereignis von Golgatha, da war etwas geschehen mit dem Ätherleibe und dem Astralleibe des Jesus von Nazareth: durch die Kraft des innewohnenden Christus wurden sie vervielfältigt, und in der geistigen Welt waren seitdem vorhanden viele, viele Abbilder des Astralleibes und des Ätherleibes des Jesus von Nazareth. Und diese Abbilder wirkten fort.
Wenn eine menschliche Individualität aus geistigen Höhen herabsteigt ins physische Dasein, umkleidet sie sich mit einem Ätherleibe und einem Astralleibe. Dann aber, wenn in geistigen Welten so etwas vorhanden ist wie die Abbilder des Ätherleibes und Astralleibes des Jesus von Nazareth, dann geschieht für die Menschen, in deren Karma es liegt, etwas ganz Besonderes. Wenn das Karma einer Individualität es zuließ - nachdem das Mysterium von Golgatha vollzogen war -, so wurde ihr ein Abbild des Ätherleibes oder des Astralleibes des Jesus von Nazareth einverwoben. So war es in den ersten Jahrhunderten unserer Zeitrechnung, zum Beispiel bei Augustinus der Fall. Als diese Individualität herunterstieg aus geistigen Höhen und sich umkleidete mit einem Ätherleib, da wurde ihrem Ätherleib ein Abbild einverwoben vom Ätherleibe des Jesus von Nazareth. Ihren Astralleib und ihr Ich hatte sie für sich, hatte aber einverwoben in den Ätherleib ein Abbild des Ätherleibes des Jesus von Nazareth.
So übertrug sich das, was umhüllt hatte den Gottmenschen von Palästina, auf andere Menschen, die nun den Einschlag dieses großen Impulses weitertragen sollten in die übrige Menschheit hinein. Weil Augustinus angewiesen war auf sein eigenes Ich und seinen eigenen Astralleib, war er all dem Zweifel, all den Schwankungen, den Irrungen ausgesetzt, welche er schwer überwinden konnte; sie kamen aus diesen noch unvollkommenen Teilen seiner Wesenheit. Alles, was er durchgemacht hat, hat er durchgemacht durch sein irrendes Urteil und die Irrtümer seines Ich. Aber als er sich durchgerungen hatte, als sein Ätherleib zu wirken begann, da stieß er auf die Kräfte, die ihm einverwoben waren aus dem Abbilde des Ätherleibes des Jesus von Nazareth in seinem Ätherleibe. Und jetzt wurde er derjenige, der einen Teil der großen Mysterienwahrheiten dem Abendlande verkündigen konnte. So gab es viele derjenigen, die wir als die großen Träger des Christentums im Abendlande kennen, die berufen waren, das Christentum fortwirken zu lassen im 4., 5., 6. bis 10. Jahrhundert, denen aufgehen konnten die großen Ideen, die vorbildlich waren, die einverwoben gehabt haben in ihrem Ätherleib ein Abbild des Ätherleibes des Jesus von Nazareth. Daher konnten ihnen aufgehen die großen Visionen, die großen vorbildlichen Ideen, die dann ihre Ausgestaltungen gefunden haben bei den großen Malern und Bildhauern.
Wie sind sie entstanden, diese vorbildlichen Typen für die Bilder, die noch jetzt uns erfreuen? Diese entstanden, als durch das einverwobene Abbild des geheiligten Ätherleibes des Jesus von Nazareth bei den Menschen des 5., 6., 7. und 8. Jahrhunderts unserer Zeitrechnung die großen Erleuchtungen kamen, mit einem Inhalt des Christentums, zu dem man nicht brauchte historische Überlieferungen. Zu dem Inhalt der Lehre von dem Christus erhielten sie einverwoben ein Abbild des Ätherleibes des Jesus von Nazareth, und sie brauchten keine historische Überlieferung der Tatsachen des Christentums; sie wußten aus innerer Erleuchtung, daß der Christus lebt, weil sie einen Teil des Jesus von Nazareth in sich trugen. Sie wußten es ebenso, wie Paulus es wußte, daß der Christus lebt, als er in dem spiritualisierten, lodernden Himmelsfeuer die Christus-Erscheinung sah. Hatte der Paulus sich bekehren lassen bis dahin durch das, was über die Ereignisse in Palästina zu erzählen war? Keines der Ereignisse, die man ihm hat erzählen können, war imstande, aus dem Saulus einen Paulus zu machen, und dennoch ging der wichtigste Impuls für die äußere Ausbreitung des Christentums von Paulus aus, durch ihn, der ungläubig blieb gegenüber den Erzählungen auf dem physischen Plan, aber der gläubig wurde durch ein okkultes Ereignis, das in der spirituellen Welt sich vollzog. Sonderbar nehmen sich die aus, die ein Christentum haben wollen ohne spirituelle Erleuchtung! Denn niemals würde das Christentum sich in der Welt ausgebreitet haben ohne die spirituelle Erleuchtung des Paulus. Einem übersinnlichen Ereignis verdankt die äußere Ausbreitung des Christentums ihr Dasein.
Und wiederum pflanzte sich das Christentum fort in späterer Zeit durch diejenigen, die in der geschilderten Weise in innerer Erleuchtung den Christus erleben konnten, auch den historischen Christus erleben konnten, weil sie in sich trugen, was als Rest geblieben war von dem historischen Christus und seinen Hüllen. Im 11., 12., 13. und 14. Jahrhundert erhielten andere Menschen, wenn sie durch ihr Karma dazu berufen und reif waren, Abbilder einverwoben des Astralleibes des Jesus von Nazareth. Solche Menschen, die in sich trugen Abbilder des Astralleibes des Jesus von Nazareth, waren zum Beispiel Franz von Assisi, Elisabeth von Thüringen und andere mehr. Ohne diese Kenntnis ist für uns zum Beispiel das Leben des Franz von Assisi und der Elisabeth von Thüringen unverständlich. Alles, was uns heute so sonderbar erscheint im Leben des Franz von Assisi, rührt daher, daß das Ich des Franz von Assisi das menschliche Ich dieser menschlichen Individualität war; aber all die Demut, Hingabe, Inbrunst, die wir so bewundern an Franz von Assisi, sie rührt davon her, daß ihm einverwoben war in seinem Astralleib ein Abbild des Astralleibes des Jesus von Nazareth. Manchen andern Persönlichkeiten dieser Zeit war einverwoben ein solches Abbild. Sie werden uns zu Vorbildern, denen wir nachstreben, wenn wir dies wissen. Derjenige, der der Sache auf den Grund geht, wie sollte der verstehen das Leben der Elisabeth von Thüringen, wenn er nicht wüßte, daß ihr einverwoben war ein Abbild des Astralleibes des Jesus von Nazareth? Viele, viele waren durch diese fortwirkende Christus-Kraft dazu berufen, diesen mächtigen Impuls in die Nachwelt zu tragen.
Aber noch etwas anderes war erhalten geblieben für noch spätere Zeiten: unzählige Abbilder des Ich des Jesus von Nazareth sind erhalten geblieben. Sein Ich war zwar aus den drei Hüllen verschwunden, als der Christus darin einzog, aber ein Abbild, ein durch das Christus-Ereignis noch erhöhtes Abbild ist vorhanden geblieben, und dieses Abbild des Ich, das ist unendlich vervielfältigt. In diesem Abbilde des Ich des Jesus von Nazareth haben wir etwas, was heute noch vorhanden geblieben ist in der geistigen Welt. Ja, es kann gefunden werden dieses Abbild des Ich des Jesus von Nazareth von Menschen, die sich dazu reif gemacht haben: dieses Abbild und damit zugleich der Glanz der Christus-Kraft und des Christus-Impulses, den es in sich trägt.
Der äußere physische Ausdruck für das Ich ist das Blut. Das ist ein großes Geheimnis. Es hat aber immer Menschen gegeben, die das wußten und denen bekannt war die Tatsache, daß Abbilder des Ichs des Jesus von Nazareth in der geistigen Welt vorhanden sind. Und es hat immer Menschen gegeben, die durch die Jahrhunderte hindurch, seit dem Ereignis von Golgatha, im geheimen dafür zu sorgen hatten, daß die Menschheit langsam heranreift, damit es Menschen gebe, die aufnehmen können die Abbilder des Ich des Jesus von NazarethChristus, wie es auch Menschen gegeben hat, die aufgenommen haben Abbilder seines Ätherleibes und Astralleibes. Dazu mußte das Geheimnis gefunden werden, wie ganz in der Stille, im tiefen Mysterium, dieses Ich aufbewahrt werden könne bis zum geeigneten Momente der Menschheits- und Erdenentwickelung. Es bildete sich dazu eine Bruderschaft von Eingeweihten, die dieses Geheimnis bewahrten: die Bruderschaft des Heiligen Gral. Sie hütete dieses Geheimnis. Diese Gesellschaft hat es immer gegeben. Und gesagt wird, daß ihr Ahnherr die Schale genommen hat, die der Christus Jesus beim Heiligen Abendmahl benutzt hatte, und in dieser Schale hat er aufgefangen das Blut des Erlösers, das vom Kreuze aus seinen Wunden floß. Gesammelt hat er das Blut, den Ausdruck des Ich, in dieser Schale, im Heiligen Gral. Er hat die Schale mit dem Blute des Erlösers, mit dem Geheimnis des Abbildes des Ich des Christus Jesus aufbewahrt am heiligen Ort, in der Bruderschaft, die durch ihre Einrichtungen und ihre Einweihung die Brüder vom Heiligen Gral sind.
Heute ist die Zeit gekommen, wo diese Geheimnisse verkündet werden dürfen, wenn die Herzen der Menschen sich reif machen lassen durch ein spirituelles Leben, so daß sie sich zum Verständnis erheben können dieses großen Mysteriums. Wenn sich die Seelen zum Verständnis solcher Geheimnisse anfachen lassen durch die Geisteswissenschaft, wenn unsere Seelen sich einleben zu solchem Verständnis, so werden die Seelen reif, im Anblick jener heiligen Schale das Mysterium von dem Christus-Ich, von dem ewigen Ich, zu dem jedes MenschenIch werden kann, kennenzulernen. Da ist es, dieses Geheimnis — herbei nur sollen sich die Menschen rufen lassen durch die Geisteswissenschaft, dieses Geheimnis als Tatsache zu verstehen, um das ChristusIch im Anblick des Heiligen Gral zu empfangen. Dazu braucht man das, was da geschehen ist, zu verstehen als Tatsache, es hinzunehmen als Tatsache.
Dann aber, wenn die Menschen immer mehr vorbereitet sein werden zum Empfang des Christus-Ich, dann wird sich das Christus-Ich immer mehr in die Seelen der Menschen ergießen. Sie werden dann sich hinaufentwickeln dahin, wo ihr großes Vorbild, der Christus Jesus, stand. Die Menschen werden dadurch erst verstehen lernen, inwiefern der Christus Jesus das große Menschheitsvorbild ist. Und wenn die Menschheit das verstanden haben wird, wird sie beginnen, in ihrem tiefsten Innern zu ahnen, daß die Gewißheit, die Wahrheit von der Ewigkeit des Lebens von dem toten Leichnam am Holze des Kreuzes von Golgatha ausgeht. Die von dem Christus-Ich Inspirierten und Durchdrungenen, die Christen der Zukunft, werden noch anderes verstehen. Sie werden verstehen, was nur die Erleuchteten bisher verstanden haben. Nicht bloß den Christus werden sie verstehen, der durch den Tod gegangen ist, sondern sie werden verstehen den triumphierenden, in das spirituelle Feuer auferstehenden Christus der Apokalypse, der vorherverkündet worden ist. Und das Osterfest kann uns immer ein Symbolum sein für den Auferstandenen, ein Band, das geschlungen wird von dem Christus am Kreuze zu dem triumphierenden Christus, dem auferstandenen und erhobenen Christus, zu dem, der alle Menschen mit sich erhebt zur Rechten des Vaters.
So weist uns das Ostersymbolum in die ganze Erdenzukunft perspektivisch hinein, in die Zukunft der Menschheitsentwickelung hinein, und so ist es uns ein Unterpfand dafür, daß die vom Christus inspirierten Menschen einst immer mehr aus Saulus-Menschen zu Paulus-Menschen werden und immer mehr schauen werden ein spirituelles Feuer. Wahrlich, wie dem Moses und denen, die sich zu ihm bekannt haben, im sinnlichen Feuer des Dornbusches und des Blitzes auf Sinai der Christus vorherverkündigend erschienen ist, so wird der Christus uns erscheinen in einem vergeistigten Feuer der Zukunft. «Er ist bei uns alle Tage, bis an der Welt Ende», und er wird erscheinen im spirituellen Feuer denen, die den Blick sich haben erleuchten lassen durch das Ereignis von Golgatha. Die Menschen werden ihn schauen in dem geistigen Feuer. Erst haben sie ihn in anderer Gestalt geschaut; dann erst werden sie schauen die wahre Gestalt des Christus in einem spirituellen Feuer.
Damit aber, daß der Christus so tief heruntergewirkt hat in das Erdendasein, bis in das physische Knochengerüst hinein, hat das, was aus den Elementen der Erde seine Hülle gebildet hat, diesen physischen Stoff so geläutert und geheiligt, daß er nie mehr so werden kann, wie es in ihrer Betrübnis die Weisen des Morgenlandes annahmen, indem sie glaubten, daß der Erleuchtete der Zukunft, der Maitreya-Buddha, nicht finden werde Menschen auf der Erde, die aufsteigen können zu einem Verständnis für ihn, weil sie zu tief in den Stoff hinuntergesunken sind. Darum ist der Christus auf Golgatha geführt worden, damit er den Stoff wieder hinaufführen konnte in geistige Höhen, damit das Feuer nicht zur Schlacke werden möge auf der Erde, sondern daß es vergeistigt werde. So werden die Menschen wiederum verstehen die Urweltweisheit, wenn sie selbst vergeistigt sind: die Urweltweisheit, aus der sie selbst einstmals als aus der geistigen Welt entsprungen sind. So wird der Maitreya-Buddha das Verständnis finden auf der Erde-was er sonst nicht hätte finden können-, nachdem dieMenschen durch ein noch tieferes Verständnis hindurchgegangen sind. Denn wir verstehen alles, was wir in der Jugend gelernt haben, besser, nachdem wir durch Prüfungen reifer geworden sind und später darauf zurückschauen können. Und so wird die Menschheit die Urweltweisheit verstehen dadurch, daß sie zurückschauen wird auf diese Urweltweisheit im Lichte des Christus durch das Ereignis von Golgatha.
Und wie nun können die unverweslichen Überreste des Kashyapa gerettet werden, und wohin werden sie gerettet? Es heißt: der Maitreya-Buddha wird erscheinen und ihn berühren mit seiner rechten Hand, und der Leichnam wird in einem Feuer entrückt werden.
In demselben Feuer, das Paulus auf dem Wege nach Damaskus gesehen hat, haben wir zu sehen das wunderbare, vergeistigte Feuer, in dem geborgen wird der Leib des Kashyapa. In diesem Feuer wird geborgen werden alles Große und Edle der Vorzeit in der Zukunft. In dem vergeistigten Feuer, in welchem dem Paulus der Christus erschien, wird durch den Maitreya-Buddha der unverwesliche Leib des Kashyapa geborgen werden. So werden wir einströmen sehen, einfließen sehen das Große, das Herrliche, Weisheitsvolle aller Vergangenheit in dasjenige, was der Menschheit durch das Ereignis von Golgatha geworden ist.
Eine Auferstehung des Erdgeistes selber, eine Erlösung der Menschheit tritt uns in dem Symbole der Osterglocken entgegen. Dieses Symbolum gab noch jedem, der es zu verstehen wußte, ein, wie der Mensch sich aufschwingt zu geistigen Höhen durch das Ostergeheimnis. - Nicht ohne Bedeutung ist es, daß Faust, der am Rande des Todes steht, durch die Osterglocken zurückgerufen wird zu einem neuen Leben, das ihn zu dem großen Augenblick führt, wo er sich sagt, als er vor seinem Tode erblindet: «Allein im Innern leuchtet helles Licht.» So kann er hinaufdringen in die geistigen Welten, wo der Menschheit edle Glieder gerettet werden.
Gerettet, geläutert, geborgen wird alles, was in der Vergangenheit gelebt hat, in der geläuterten Geistigkeit, die sich durch das Mysterium von Golgatha über die Erde und in die Menschheit ausgegossen hat, so wie auch geläutert wird einstmals, wenn der Maitreya-Buddha erscheinen wird, der unverwesliche Leib des Kashyapa, des großen, morgenländischen Weisen, in dem wunderbaren Feuer, in dem Lichte des Christus, das dem Paulus erschienen ist auf dem Wege nach Damaskus.
The Event of Golgotha The Brotherhood of the Holy Grail The Spiritualized Fire
An immediate benefit of such significant symbols of time as Easter is that they make our hearts and souls more receptive to looking deeper and deeper into the mysteries of human beings and human nature. And so let us once again place before our spiritual eyes the Eastern legend that shone forth yesterday before our souls, that legend of which we could already sense yesterday what it encompasses about this human mystery and human nature: the legend of Kashyapa, the great sage, the enlightened disciple of Shakyamuni, who had summarized all the wisdom of the Orient with great insight and a tremendous impulse for action, and of whom it was rightly said that none of his successors were able to preserve even remotely what he had drawn from Shakyamuni's deep well of wisdom and, as the last one, had given to humanity from the wisdom of the primordial world.
And the legend continues: When Kashyapa's death was approaching and he felt his nirvana approaching, he went into a cave in a mountain. There he died consciously, and his body remained incorruptible, untraceable to outer humanity, findable only to those who had become ripe through initiation to penetrate such mysteries. Kashyapa's incorruptible body now rested mysteriously hidden in the mountain cave. And it was predicted that the Maitreya Buddha would appear as a new great proclaimer of the wisdom of the primordial world in a new form, who, when he had ascended to the summit of his earthly existence, would go to the cave where Kashyapa's body rested. He will touch him with his right hand, and a wonderful fire will descend from the universe, and the incorruptible body of Kashyapa will be seized by it and carried away to the higher, spiritual worlds.
Thus, the people of the East who understand such wisdom await the reappearance of the Maitreya Buddha and his deed on the incorruptible body of Kashyapa. Will these two events occur? Will the Maitreya Buddha appear? Will the incorruptible remains of Kashyapa then be carried away by the wonderful, heavenly fire? We will be able to sense the profound wisdom that lies within this when we seek out the wonderful fire that is to absorb the remains of Kashyapa, with our true Easter feelings.
Yesterday we saw how the deity reveals itself in our time through two poles: on the one hand through the macrocosmic lightning fire, on the other hand through the microcosmic fire of blood. We have seen that Christ announced himself to Moses in the burning bush and on Mount Sinai in thunder and lightning. For no other power than Christ spoke to him, saying, “I am who I am.” He gave the Ten Commandments from the lightning fire on Mount Sinai. With this he prepared himself {... apparent gap in the text}. Then he appeared in the microcosmic pole in Palestine. In the fire that lives in our blood is the same God who announced himself in the fire of heaven and then incarnated himself in the mystery of Palestine in a human body in order to permeate with his power the human blood in which the human fire has its seat. And through this event, if we follow it in its consequences, in what it means for earthly existence, we will be able to find that blazing fire that will take up the remnants of Kashyapa.
The whole course of the world consists in the gradual spiritualization of the material. In the material fire of the burning bush and on Mount Sinai, an outward sign of God's power appeared to Moses. But through the Christ event, this fire has been spiritualized. And after the Christ power has intervened in this earth, who then sees the burning spiritual fire? Who can perceive it? The spiritual eye, which is opened by the Christ impulse itself and which the Christ impulse has awakened. This sees the sensual fire of the bush spiritualized, spiritualized. And after the Christ impulse had awakened the spiritual eye, this fire also worked spiritually on our world.
When was this fire perceived again? It was perceived again when Saul's enlightened, clairvoyant eye saw the heavenly fire shining on the road to Damascus and recognized the one who had accomplished the mystery of Golgotha. Thus both saw Christ: Moses in the material fire in the burning bush and in the lightning fire on Mount Sinai—and it can only be revealed to him inwardly that Christ is speaking to him; but to Paul's enlightened eye, Christ reveals himself from the spiritual, spiritualized fire. Just as matter and spirit relate to each other in the becoming of the worlds, so do the miraculous, material fire of the bush and of Sinai and the wonderful apparition of the fire from the clouds shining upon Saul, who became Paul, relate to each other in the course of the worlds. And what has happened for the entire course of the worlds through this event?
Let us look back at the great series of human benefactors, the redeemers of humanity, at the great figures of humanity who were the outward expression of the avatars, of the divine-spiritual powers that descended from spiritual heights from epoch to epoch and took on human form, such as Vishnu, Krishna, and so on, who must appear so that humanity could find its way back to the spiritual worlds. In order to find its way back, humanity needed the power of God to descend in ancient times. But through the mystery of Golgotha, human beings have been given the ability to find within themselves the forces that can lift them up and lead them to the spiritual worlds. Christ descended much deeper than those world and human leaders, for he not only brought heavenly powers into the earthly body, but he himself spiritualized this earthly body so that human beings could now find their way back to the spiritual worlds out of these powers. The pre-Christian redeemers redeemed humanity with divine powers. Christ redeemed humanity with human powers. But in doing so, these human powers were placed before our souls as they can be in their original power. What would have happened on our Earth if Christ had not appeared on Earth? We want to ask ourselves this serious, deeply incisive question today.
World redeemers could have descended from spiritual worlds: they would have found only human beings buried so deeply in matter, so immersed in substance, that the pure divine-spiritual forces could not have lifted them up again from this unholy, impure substance. And deeply saddened and mourning, the sages of the East looked into the future, knowing that the Maitreya Buddha would appear to renew the ancient wisdom, but that no disciple would be able to receive it. And if the world continued in this way, the Maitreya Buddha would preach to deaf ears, and he would no longer be understood by people who were completely immersed in matter. That which had become so material on earth would have caused Kashyapa's body to decay, so that the Maitreya Buddha would no longer have been able to carry Kashyapa's remains up to divine-spiritual heights. Those who understood the wisdom of the East most deeply looked into the future with deep sorrow and wondered whether the earth would be capable of offering anything in return in terms of understanding and feeling to the appearing Maitreya Buddha.
A powerful heavenly force had to shine into the physical substance and sacrifice itself to it. It could not be merely a god in human form, but a true human being with human powers who carried God within himself. The event of Golgotha had to take place so that the substance in which human beings are placed would become ready, purified, and cleansed, so that the material of the substance thus purified and sanctified would be suitable for the primordial wisdom to become understandable again for future incarnations. And now humanity must be brought to understand how the event of Golgotha really worked in this sense. For what was the event of Golgotha for humanity? How deeply did it cut into human beings and human existence?
Let us cast our gaze back over twelve centuries! Let us look at the six centuries before the event of Golgotha and the six centuries after it. Let us consider certain events that took place in human souls during this time. Truly, one can hardly imagine anything greater or more significant for the sensitive human soul than those powerful moments preserved in the Buddha legend of the gradual enlightenment of the Buddha. He steps out of his royal surroundings. He is not born in a stable among poor shepherds. But that is not what should be emphasized, but rather that he leaves this royal environment and then finds what he has not found before: life in its various forms.
He finds a child, weak and miserable. Suffering is his lot in the existence into which he has entered through birth. He felt that birth is suffering. And then, with his receptive soul, the Buddha sees a sick man, a consumptive. This is what man can become when he is carried into the earthly world by his thirst for existence: sickness is suffering. He finds an old man who has become frail with age. What is it that is bestowed upon man through his life, so that he gradually loses control of his limbs? Old age is suffering. And he saw a corpse. Death stands before him with all its destruction and annihilation of life: death is suffering. - And the Buddha continues to search for the meaning of life and says to himself: to be separated from what one loves is suffering; to be united with what one does not love is suffering; not to obtain what one desires is suffering.
Great and powerful and urgent, the teaching of suffering resounded through the hearts and minds of men. Countless people learned the great truth of liberation from suffering through the extinction of the thirst for existence, learned how they should long to leave earthly physical existence, how they should strive to escape earthly incarnations, and how only the extinction of the thirst for existence can lead to salvation and liberation from suffering. Truly, a highest summit of human development is placed before our soul.
And now let us cast our gaze over a period of twelve centuries, six hundred years before our era and six hundred years after our era. One thing must be emphasized here: in the midst of this period, the mystery of Golgotha took place. From the age of Buddha, let us now highlight just one thing: the corpse and what Buddha felt and taught when he saw it. And six hundred years after the event of Golgotha, countless souls, countless eyes turned to a cross on which a corpse hangs; but from this corpse emanate impulses for humanity that spiritualize life, impulses that death is conquered through life. It is the opposite of what the Buddha felt when he saw a corpse.
The Buddha saw a corpse and recognized in it the futility of life. The people who lived six hundred years after the event at Golgotha looked up with devout fervor at the corpse on the cross. For them, it was the sign of life, and in their souls arose the certainty that existence is not suffering, but that it leads beyond death to bliss. Six centuries after the event of Golgotha, the corpse of Christ Jesus on the cross became a sign of remembrance of life, of the resurrection of life, of the overcoming of death and all suffering, just as six hundred years before the mystery of Golgotha, the corpse was a sign of recognition that suffering must befall human beings who enter the physical world through their thirst for existence. There has never been a greater turning point in the entire development of humanity.
If, six hundred years earlier, entering the physical world was suffering for human beings, how does the great truth of the suffering of life appear to the soul now, after the event of Golgotha? How does it appear to those who look up with understanding to the cross on Golgotha? Is birth suffering, as Buddha said? Those who look up with understanding to the cross on Golgotha, who feel connected to it, say to themselves: This birth leads human beings to an earth that had the opportunity to clothe itself in the elements of Christ. They want to enter this earth on which Christ walked. And through their connection with Christ, a power arises in the soul through which it can find its way up into the spiritual worlds, and the realization arises that birth is not suffering, but is the gateway to finding the Redeemer, who also clothed himself in the same earthly substances that form the human body.
Is illness suffering? No! said those who understood the impulse of Golgotha in its true sense—no, illness is not suffering. Even if humanity today cannot yet understand what spiritual life truly is, which flows in with Christ, people will learn to understand it in the future, and they will know that whoever allows themselves to be permeated by the Christ impulse, into whose innermost being the Christ force enters, can overcome all illness through the strong, healing forces that they develop from within themselves. For Christ is the great healer of humanity. His power encompasses everything that can truly develop the strong healing power from the spiritual realm and overcome illness. Illness is not suffering. Illness is an opportunity to overcome an obstacle by developing the Christ power within oneself.
Human beings must come to the same realization about the ailments of old age. The more our limbs weaken, the more we can grow in spirit and become masters through the Christ power dwelling within us. Old age is not suffering, for with each passing day we grow into the spiritual world. And death is not suffering either, for it is conquered in the resurrection. Through the event of Golgotha, death has been conquered.
Can separation from what we love still be suffering? No! Souls that are permeated with the power of Christ know that love can form bonds between souls across all material obstacles, bonds in the spiritual realm that are unbreakable. And there is nothing in life between birth and death and between death and new birth to which we cannot find the way in the spiritual realm through the Christ impulse. It is unthinkable that we can be separated from what we love in the long run if we are permeated by the Christ impulse. Christ brings us together with what we love.
And likewise, “being united with what we do not love” cannot be suffering, because the Christ impulse teaches us, when we take it into our souls, to love everything in its proper measure. The Christ impulse shows us the way, and when we find this way, “being united with what we do not love” can never again be suffering, for there is nothing left that we do not embrace with love. — And “not achieving what one desires” can no longer be suffering with Christ, because human feelings and emotions, human desires, are purified and ennobled by the Christ impulse to such an extent that people desire only what is meant to be theirs. They no longer suffer from what they lack; for if they must lack something, it is for purification, and the Christ force gives them the strength to feel it as purification, and therefore it is no longer suffering.
So what is the event of Golgotha? It is the gradual removal of the facts of suffering established by the great Buddha. There is no greater impact on the becoming and being of worlds than the event of Golgotha. Therefore, we can also understand that it continues to have an effect and has positive, powerful consequences for the coming humanity. Christ is the greatest avatar who has descended to earth, and when such a being descends into existence, as Christ did in Jesus of Nazareth, something mysterious and highly significant occurs: Just as in the small world, when we plant a grain of wheat in the earth, it germinates and stalks grow out of it and ears of corn, which bear many, many grains, images of the one grain of wheat that we placed in the earth, so it is in the spiritual world. For “all that is transitory is only a parable” — and in this multiplication of the grain of wheat we can see an image, a parable for the spiritual worlds.
When the event at Golgotha was complete, something happened to the etheric body and the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth: through the power of the indwelling Christ, they were multiplied, and since then there have been many, many images of the astral body and the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth in the spiritual world. And these images continued to work.
When a human individuality descends from spiritual heights into physical existence, it envelops itself in an etheric body and an astral body. But then, when something like the images of the etheric body and astral body of Jesus of Nazareth exist in the spiritual worlds, something very special happens to those human beings whose karma allows it. If the karma of an individuality allowed it – after the mystery of Golgotha had been accomplished – an image of the etheric body or astral body of Jesus of Nazareth was woven into it. This was the case in the first centuries of our era, for example with Augustine. When this individual descended from spiritual heights and clothed itself in an etheric body, an image of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth was woven into its etheric body. It retained its astral body and its ego, but had an image of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth woven into its etheric body.
In this way, what had enveloped the God-man of Palestine was transferred to other people, who were now to carry the impact of this great impulse further into the rest of humanity. Because Augustine was dependent on his own ego and his own astral body, he was exposed to all the doubts, all the vacillations, all the errors that he found difficult to overcome; they came from these still imperfect parts of his being. Everything he went through, he went through because of his erring judgment and the errors of his ego. But when he had struggled through, when his etheric body began to work, he encountered the forces that were woven into him from the image of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth in his etheric body. And now he became the one who could proclaim part of the great mystery truths to the West. Thus there were many of those whom we know as the great bearers of Christianity in the West, who were called to continue the work of Christianity in the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 10th centuries, to whom the great ideas could dawn, ideas that were exemplary, that had been woven into their etheric bodies as an image of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth. That is why they were able to grasp the great visions, the great exemplary ideas, which then found their expression in the works of the great painters and sculptors.
How did these exemplary models for the images that still delight us today come into being? They came into being when, through the interwoven image of the sanctified etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth, the great enlightenments came to the people of the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th centuries of our calendar, with a content of Christianity that did not require historical traditions. In addition to the content of the teachings of Christ, they received an image of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth, and they did not need any historical traditions of the facts of Christianity; they knew from inner enlightenment that Christ lives because they carried a part of Jesus of Nazareth within themselves. They knew it just as Paul knew that Christ lives when he saw the Christ appearance in the spiritualized, blazing heavenly fire. Had Paul been converted up to that point by what was told about the events in Palestine? None of the events that could be told to him were capable of turning Saul into Paul, and yet the most important impulse for the outward spread of Christianity came from Paul, through him who remained unbelieving in the stories on the physical plane but who became a believer through an occult event that took place in the spiritual world. Those who want Christianity without spiritual enlightenment seem strange! For Christianity would never have spread throughout the world without the spiritual enlightenment of Paul. The outward spread of Christianity owes its existence to a supernatural event.
And in turn, Christianity propagated itself in later times through those who, in the manner described, were able to experience Christ in inner enlightenment, and were also able to experience the historical Christ, because they carried within themselves what remained of the historical Christ and his shells. In the 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries, other people, when they were called and ready through their karma, received images woven into the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth. Such people who carried within themselves images of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth were, for example, Francis of Assisi, Elizabeth of Thuringia, and others. Without this knowledge, the lives of Francis of Assisi and Elizabeth of Thuringia, for example, are incomprehensible to us. Everything that seems so strange to us today in the life of Francis of Assisi stems from the fact that the ego of Francis of Assisi was the human ego of this human individuality; but all the humility, devotion, and fervor that we so admire in Francis of Assisi stem from the fact that an image of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth was woven into his astral body. Many other personalities of that time had such an image woven into them. They become role models for us to strive after when we know this. How could anyone who gets to the bottom of the matter understand the life of Elizabeth of Thuringia if they did not know that an image of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth was woven into her? Many, many people were called by this continuing power of Christ to carry this powerful impulse into posterity.
But something else was preserved for even later times: countless images of the I of Jesus of Nazareth have been preserved. His I had disappeared from the three sheathes when Christ entered it, but an image, an image elevated by the Christ event, remained, and this image of the I has been infinitely multiplied. In this image of the I of Jesus of Nazareth, we have something that still exists today in the spiritual world. Yes, this image of the I of Jesus of Nazareth can be found by people who have matured to the point of being able to do so: this image and, at the same time, the radiance of the Christ force and the Christ impulse that it carries within itself.
The outer physical expression of the I is blood. This is a great mystery. But there have always been people who knew this and who were aware of the fact that images of the I of Jesus of Nazareth exist in the spiritual world. And there have always been people who, throughout the centuries since the event on Golgotha, have had to secretly ensure that humanity slowly matures so that there may be people who can receive the images of the I of Jesus of Nazareth-Christ, just as there have been people who have received images of his etheric body and astral body. To this end, the secret had to be found as to how this I could be preserved in complete silence, in deep mystery, until the appropriate moment in the evolution of humanity and the earth. A brotherhood of initiates was formed for this purpose, who kept this secret: the Brotherhood of the Holy Grail. They guarded this secret. This society has always existed. And it is said that their forefather took the cup that Christ Jesus had used at the Last Supper, and in this cup he collected the blood of the Savior that flowed from his wounds on the cross. He collected the blood, the expression of the I, in this cup, in the Holy Grail. He kept the cup with the blood of the Savior, with the secret of the image of the I of Christ Jesus, in the holy place, in the brotherhood which, through its institutions and its initiation, are the brothers of the Holy Grail.
Today the time has come when these secrets may be revealed, when the hearts of human beings are ready through a spiritual life to rise to the understanding of this great mystery. When souls are inspired by spiritual science to understand such secrets, when our souls become attuned to such understanding, then souls become ready to recognize, in the sight of that holy chalice, the mystery of the Christ-I, of the eternal I, which every human I can become. There it is, this mystery — people need only allow themselves to be called by spiritual science to understand this mystery as fact, in order to receive the Christ-I in the sight of the Holy Grail. To do this, one needs to understand what happened there as fact, to accept it as fact.
But then, when people are increasingly prepared to receive the Christ-I, the Christ-I will pour more and more into their souls. They will then evolve upward to where their great model, Christ Jesus, stood. Only then will people begin to understand to what extent Christ Jesus is the great model for humanity. And when humanity has understood this, it will begin to sense in its deepest inner being that the certainty, the truth of the eternity of life, emanates from the dead body on the cross of Golgotha. Those inspired and permeated by the Christ-I, the Christians of the future, will understand something else. They will understand what only the enlightened have understood until now. They will not merely understand the Christ who passed through death, but they will understand the triumphant Christ of the Apocalypse, who was foretold, rising in spiritual fire. And Easter can always be a symbol for us of the risen Christ, a bond that is woven by Christ on the cross to the triumphant Christ, the risen and exalted Christ, to the one who raises all people with him to the right hand of the Father.
Thus, the Easter symbol points us toward the entire future of the earth, toward the future of human development, and thus it is a pledge to us that those inspired by Christ will one day increasingly become people like Paul rather than people like Saul, and will increasingly see a spiritual fire. Truly, just as Christ appeared to Moses and those who professed themselves to be his followers in the sensory fire of the burning bush and the lightning on Mount Sinai, so will Christ appear to us in a spiritualized fire of the future. “He is with us always, even unto the end of the world,” and he will appear in spiritual fire to those who have allowed their gaze to be enlightened by the event of Golgotha. People will see him in the spiritual fire. First they saw him in another form; only then will they see the true form of Christ in a spiritual fire.
But because Christ has worked so deeply into earthly existence, even into the physical skeleton, that which formed its shell from the elements of the earth has purified and sanctified this physical substance so that it can never again become what the wise men of the East assumed in their sorrow, believing that the enlightened one of the future, the Maitreya Buddha, would not find people on earth who could ascend to an understanding of him because they had sunk too deeply into the substance. That is why Christ was led to Golgotha, so that he could lead the substance back up to spiritual heights, so that the fire would not become slag on the earth, but would be spiritualized. Thus, when people themselves are spiritualized, they will once again understand the wisdom of the primeval world: the wisdom of the primeval world from which they themselves once sprang as from the spiritual world. Thus, the Maitreya Buddha will find understanding on earth—which he would not otherwise have been able to find—after people have passed through an even deeper understanding. For we understand everything we learned in our youth better after we have matured through trials and can look back on it later. And so humanity will understand the wisdom of the primordial world by looking back on this wisdom in the light of Christ through the event of Golgotha.
And how can the incorruptible remains of Kashyapa be saved, and where will they be saved? It is said that the Maitreya Buddha will appear and touch him with his right hand, and the corpse will be carried away in a fire.
In the same fire that Paul saw on the road to Damascus, we must see the wonderful, spiritualized fire in which the body of Kashyapa will be preserved. In this fire, all that is great and noble from the past will be preserved in the future. In the spiritualized fire in which Christ appeared to Paul, the incorruptible body of Kashyapa will be preserved by the Maitreya Buddha. Thus we will see the great, the glorious, the wise of all past times flowing into that which has become humanity through the event of Golgotha.
A resurrection of the earth spirit itself, a redemption of humanity, comes to meet us in the symbol of the Easter bells. This symbol has always given those who knew how to understand it an insight into how human beings rise to spiritual heights through the mystery of Easter. It is not without significance that Faust, who stands on the brink of death, is called back to a new life by the Easter bells, leading him to the great moment when, blinded before his death, he says to himself: “Alone within me shines a bright light.” Thus he can ascend to the spiritual worlds where the noble members of humanity are saved.
Everything that has lived in the past is saved, purified, and secured in the purified spirituality that has poured out over the earth and into humanity through the mystery of Golgotha, just as it will one day be purified when the Maitreya Buddha appears, the imperishable body of Kashyapa, the great Eastern sage, in the wonderful fire, in the light of Christ that appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus.