The Rudolf Steiner Archive

20. Buddha and Christ

[ 1 ] Nowadays, questions often arise in the Theosophical Society, especially among its younger members, which are well worth examining more closely. One of these questions, which is asked very often, is this: Why should we devote so much time to the in-depth study of theosophy? Why do we burden ourselves with all these theories about the origin of the cosmos from the beginning of time to the creation of man with his various bodies and principles? And then again: the doctrine of the many incarnations that man must go through, and the doctrine of the law of cause and effect—why do we need all this? Wouldn't we get much further if we took in the ethical side of theosophical teaching in order to develop ourselves better and become good people? Isn't that ultimately the main thing? So why all this study?

[ 2 ] Yes, that is also the main thing, that our soul develops! But in order to arrive at this main thing, it is first necessary to make the high teachings of theosophy our own. We can develop more quickly and better and work on ourselves if we know how the human being is put together, how it is connected with the cosmos, if we learn how the entire development of worlds, like ours, is influenced and guided by higher beings. Now one may ask again: Where do all these sciences and theories come from? Isn't Theosophy just as much a worldview, a philosophy like any other, say that of Haeckel, Kant, and Schopenhauer? No, Theosophy is not that. Those are integrated, cast into certain forms, let us say dogmas; they represent a certain system. But this is completely different with the theosophical worldview: it is flowing life that penetrates humanity from higher worlds, and its wisdom is proclaimed to us by enlightened, initiated individuals who, through their clairvoyant powers, see the spiritual world as clearly, even more clearly, than we see the world of objects around us. The initiates have a duty to teach humanity; for the last thirty years, they have received this message from higher beings who have already transcended human evolution, from the masters of harmony of feelings, from these sublime beings who actually influence every spiritual current on our earth and gradually allow more and more of their wisdom to flow into the world, depending on how high and higher man rises in his development. Now one might ask again: Is it enough for us ordinary people to learn to understand these teachings? Must we not all become initiates in order to understand Theosophy?

[ 3 ] Yes, all people at a certain stage of development should strive to become initiates using the methods provided, which, however, can only result in the successful development of the dormant powers in the soul through moral strength. But even those who are not yet ready to develop these powers, who can only absorb and learn to understand the sublime teachings of Theosophy through study and the help of their teacher, already enjoy a great privilege. When they find themselves in the astral realm after death, they stand on the same level as their teacher in their perception; he has no advantage over them, he has given back to his disciples everything he had achieved for himself, he sees no more than his disciples, he has not given out of selfishness in order to rise higher himself. There is no selfishness in the higher worlds or among the truly initiated; they give only to help humanity.

[ 4 ] Another question probably arises among theosophists when they say to themselves: If I have to go through so many incarnations, then I can just as well wait until the next incarnation to study; I have so much else to do now, and I am too comfortable. This would be just as if the lily of the valley said: I am too lazy to bloom now, I want to sleep a little longer in the earth, I'd rather wait until October. But in October it would no longer find the conditions for its flowering. And the same will be true of human beings: if they reject the opportunity offered to them in this life to receive spiritual truths, out of laziness or for other reasons, they can be sure that they will create conditions in this life that will prevent them from being able to accept them at all in the next life.

[ 5 ] The impulse that enables human beings to take these truths into themselves was given in the event at Golgotha. In it lies the seed for the spiritual understanding of human evolution.

[ 6 ] Let us consider the stages of human development, going back six hundred years before the appearance of Christ Jesus on our earth, until six hundred years after this event. Six hundred years before Christ, the high beinghood of the Buddha was embodied in the personality of Siddhartha Gautama, who through his wisdom brought a glorious teaching to millions of people. He was a prince, protected from his early youth from all misery, vice, and suffering that the world brings with it. When he had matured into a young man and succeeded in crossing the boundaries of his palace garden, he encountered life in all its reality for the first time. He encountered a beggar dressed in rags and a sick man, and finally he saw a corpse; from this he learned that everything on earth is suffering. Birth is suffering, death is suffering, separation from loved ones is suffering, being united with those one does not love is suffering, not getting what one desires is suffering, and getting what one does not desire is suffering. He therefore says: Everything earthly is futile, therefore man should deny life, detach himself from everything earthly; the thirst for existence should be quenched, for everything is Maya. — He did not return to his royal palace, but went into the desert.

[ 7 ] How had human development progressed six hundred years after the event in Palestine? The Buddha had said: Everything is suffering, life is suffering, death is suffering, therefore kill the thirst for existence. Christ, on the other hand, showed us how, precisely by entering deeply into life, we can overcome all suffering through love, that by overcoming materialism through the spirit, we also rescue the spirit into a higher world and thereby also overcome death. Six hundred years before Christ Jesus, Buddha had gained certainty through the sight of the corpse and taught the world that death is suffering; six hundred years later, Christ showed the world through his own corpse on the cross that death is not suffering, but the victor over the suffering of the world, that it does not bring destruction, but new life. After his death, Christ brought light into the astral world. And since the blood was shed on Golgotha, the aura of the earth has also changed, and it is this new principle in the earth's aura that instilled the Christ impulse into humanity. Let us examine a little more closely the influence of this high individuality that brought the Christ impulse to earth.

[ 8 ] If we go back to distant times, when the holy Rishis proclaimed the high wisdom of Vishva-Karman, the great sun god, we find that they speak of the same individuality that Zarathustra later proclaimed, which he calls Ormuzd and whose physical form he sees in Ahura Mazdao, the great sun aura. And it is the same great being who appeared to Moses in the burning bush on Mount Sinai, the same spiritual sun individuality that descended ever lower from the sun, coming closer and closer to the earth, and who, when Moses asked, “What shall I say to the people when they ask me who you are? — answered, “I am who I am, who I was, and who I will be!” and announced to him that when the time came when the earth could receive him, he would dwell among us in the flesh. When did this time come? This time came when a pure body was born that could serve as the vehicle for this high being. And this vehicle was the body of Jesus of Nazareth, in which she dwelt for three years. This great mystery—the life of the divine being in an earthly body, his death on Golgotha—lies at the foundation of the development that now follows as substance and force impulse.

[ 9 ] It was not Christ's teachings alone that brought about the spread of Christianity; other founders of religions had already proclaimed the same teachings. During Christ's lifetime, the small band of Christians was so little known that there were even many countries where people knew nothing at all about the existence of Christ. What was it that later spread Christianity? It was the deed of Christ Jesus in becoming incarnate on earth. Only through this was the Christian impulse placed within us. Paul became the actual propagator and founder of Christianity, and only after the event at Damascus. Even he, who had received and absorbed the teachings of Christ Jesus, could not come to believe in and profess Christ Jesus, because he could not believe that a deity had to take upon himself the shame of death on the cross. What was it that led him to believe in him? It was nothing other than that he suddenly became clairvoyant and saw the image of the living Christ in the astral world, in the earth's aura. Then he realized that Christ Jesus had not died, but remained connected to the world. Only in distant times will humanity understand what Christ is. Christ is the planetary spirit of our Earth, the spirit that has descended to us from the Sun since the beginning, which, having left the higher realms, descended deeper and deeper into the spheres until it became incarnate in Jesus of Nazareth in order to awaken the Christ impulse in us through this great sacrifice, whose highest unfolding is the goal of our earthly evolution, which will only have fulfilled its purpose when all human beings have become like the Teacher.

[ 10 ] The words spoken by Christ, “He who eats my bread treads upon me,” are to be taken literally, for Christ is the spirit of our earth; the earth is his physical body. Through the event at Golgotha, when the spirit of the great divine solar individuality left the body of Jesus of Nazareth, and at the moment when the blood flowed from his wounds, something significant happened for humanity. Let us suppose that a clairvoyant from another planet had observed the aura of our earth at this momentous moment. He would have perceived a great change in it: he would have discovered a different, new color in the aura, something like a different element that had not been there before and that from that time onward fertilized humanity so that it could take up the Christian principle of love and self-sacrifice. If we now seek to make these truths our own through a thorough study of theosophical teachings, by learning to understand that the entire cosmic and human evolution, in all its details, is connected with the intervention of higher powers, with the working of the spiritual hierarchies, and that our entire spiritual development is guided by them, only when this has become a certainty for us, only then will the high, sublime wisdom have such an effect on us that the ethics of theosophical teachings receive their true consecration, warming our soul from within through our own recognition of the truths, so that it is also able to carry the true fruits of theosophy or spiritual science into practical life. Only when we learn to understand Christ and thus his entire significance for our earthly development, as taught by the ancient wisdom of theosophy, which leads us into the mysteries of the thought of creation and reveals to us the purpose of our existence, only then can we grasp with our whole soul the wonderful ethics of theosophical teaching as it is meant to be grasped. The most beautiful moral sermons and ethical reflections help people very little. We often see in the world that they become nothing more than pious habits, but they help very little. It is just as if one said to a stove: Dear stove, do your moral duty as a good stove and warm my room. One waits a while, but it does not get warm. However, if you give this stove fuel, it will soon spread a pleasant warmth. It is the same with people. Preach morality and ethics to them as much as you like, it will be of little help. But if you give them fuel for their minds, they will become warm inside, and they will fulfill their duty in the world from their souls, not because they have to as moral people, but because their inner nature cannot allow them to do otherwise. If we bring spiritual science into our lives, whatever profession we pursue, it will bring about a transformation everywhere. Just think: what a different way of thinking it would bring about in legal scholarship, for example, especially in the present day, when lawyers often find themselves at a loss in the jungle of paragraphs and articles of law! Every case is treated and viewed as a number, placed in a certain category. If the lawyer were a believer in spiritual science, he would see the whole of nature around him, the whole of humanity, every single human being, with completely different eyes. He would learn to understand his client better because he would feel at one with him. His thinking, which, like all thinking that is forced into certain forms, schemata, and dogmas without spiritual science, becomes rigid, would become more flexible, more fluid, and expand through spiritual science. Therefore, if he had spiritual thinking, he would contribute to the healing of humanity. And let us take the physician: a completely different, much broader field would open up to him. We are already well on the way here, for there are already many doctors who, through the enlightenment of spiritual science, are working in this direction. For all these reasons, after we have diligently studied and understood the teachings of spiritual science, we must carry their fruits out into practical life for the good and healing of humanity.