The Rudolf Steiner Archive

11. Life Questions in the Light of Reincarnation and Karma

[ 1 ] Today, in this branch meeting, let us begin by examining some questions of life that directly affect human existence. Then let us rise to higher spiritual perspectives. I would like to begin with two human traits, two human faults or vices that are perceived as unpleasant, as something that diminishes a person’s worth. Let us speak about what are called envy and deceitfulness.

[ 2 ] If you look around in life, you will easily find that there is a very natural aversion to these two human traits. And even when we look up to people who serve as leaders for others in life, we see that they place great importance on not having precisely these two vices. For example, Goethe, who devoted much time to cultivating self-knowledge and reflecting on his faults, remarks: “I have this or that fault, this or that virtue, but what seems most important to me is that I cannot count actual envy among my vices.” — And the great Benvenuto Cellini says he is glad that he need not accuse himself of lying. — Thus we see that these great personalities recognized the importance of combating these two human traits. And even the simplest, most naive person agrees with the leaders of humanity in their assessment—or rather, in their aversion—to these vices.

[ 3 ] If we ask ourselves why these two traits are instinctively condemned, we will realize that hardly anything is as far removed from one of the most important earthly virtues as envy and lying. Nor do they correspond to what we call compassion for other people. For when we envy someone, we are not inclined to devote ourselves to that virtue which responds to the deepest, innermost core of being, to the divine in the other person. For compassion only has value when we not only feel compassion, but when we can appreciate the core, the spiritual essence of the other person. But appreciation of others, as the foundation of compassion, implies that we acknowledge the merits of another person and can rejoice in the successes and stages of development of others. And all of this excludes envy. Envy manifests as a trait closely linked to the strongest form of human selfishness.

[ 4 ] The same can be said of a lie. When we tell a falsehood, we violate the law that establishes a bond encompassing all people through truth. What is true is true for all people, and there is no better way to cultivate a consciousness that encompasses all people than through truth. If we tell a lie, we commit a sacrilege against the bond that should entwine from human breast to human breast. This is how things appear when we view them as human beings. And when we view them from a spiritual-scientific perspective, we know that our past incarnations have an effect in this life and that we are exposed to various influences. Two major influences must be endured time and again: the two influences we call the Luciferic and the Ahrimanic influences. We do not wish to expand on these cosmologically today; we wish to remain with human life and imagine that we have passed through many incarnations, and that, as we underwent our first incarnation, the Luciferic power acted upon our astral body. Since that time, this Luciferic power has been the tempting power acting upon our astral body. There are forces exerted by Lucifer upon our astral body. It is, in essence, Lucifer’s endeavor to gain influence over the human astral body on our Earth. We must seek him in everything that draws us down. We must seek him in all the qualities that live in the astral body as selfish passions, desires, instincts, and cravings, and thus be clear that envy is one of Lucifer’s worst influences. Everything that can live in our soul and be classified as envy belongs to his realm, and every time we have a pang of envy, Lucifer seizes us by our ‘instincts’ in our astral body.

[ 5 ] Ahriman, on the other hand, exerts an influence on our etheric body, and everything connected with disturbances of judgment can be attributed to him—both the involuntary, when we make a wrong judgment, and the voluntary, when we tell a lie. If we succumb to a tendency to lie, Ahriman is at work in our etheric body.

[ 6 ] It is interesting that we humans feel these influences so strongly that we develop such intense aversion when they arise, and that people do everything they can to combat these two traits, lying and envy. It would be rare to find people who would consciously admit: “I want to be envious.” — Admittedly, a certain turn of phrase has crept into the German language: “I envy you.” — But that is not meant in a negative sense. The speaker does not mean actual envy. As soon as we realize that we are envious, that we are lying, we do everything we can to combat it. In this way, we take up the fight against Lucifer and Ahriman in this realm.

[ 7 ] However, there is something that frequently occurs which we should take note of when we devote ourselves to spiritual science. We can combat individual bouts of envy and lying, but if these traits are rooted in our soul—if we have acquired them in past incarnations and are now fighting against them—then they manifest as different traits. When we try to combat a tendency toward envy stemming from past incarnations, the envy takes on a mask. Lucifer says: “The human being is fighting against me; he has become aware of his feeling of envy.” I hand this person over to my brother Ahriman.” — And another effect sets in, which is a consequence of fighting envy. Traits that are fought against appear in masks. And the envy we fight against then often manifests in life in such a way that we develop a desire to seek out other people’s faults and to criticize them quite a lot. We encounter many people in life who, as if with a certain clairvoyant power, always uncover the faults and dark sides of others, and when we get to the bottom of this phenomenon, it lies in the fact that envy has transformed into a habit of fault-finding, and this seems to the person in question to be quite a good quality. It is good, they say, to draw attention to the existence of these bad qualities. But behind such a habit of finding fault lies nothing other than transformed, masked envy. And we should learn to recognize whether such traits are innate or whether they have been transformed from others. We must consider whether someone was envious in their youth. Perhaps we drove that envy out of them, and now they have become a person with a habit of finding fault.

[ 8 ] Lies, too, change frequently in life and appear in different guises. A tendency to lie can lead us to feel ashamed of it. But we do not easily root it out; it very often transforms into a certain superficiality toward the truth. It is important that we know this, so that we may take note of what we encounter in another person in life. Such people are satisfied with an answer that makes us wonder: How can he be satisfied with such an answer? — They readily say: Yes, yes, that’s how it is, that’s how it is! — This is very often the transformed product of actual deceitfulness. We must examine the law of karma particularly in relation to such qualities. People do not pay attention to this, for they are the most forgetful race compared to all others that assert themselves on the various planes.

[ 9 ] For example, it turns out that someone was acquainted with us. We remain close to him in life and observe: many things change in him. We are still close to them thirty years later, and if we look back on our lives, we would find strange connections in their life. But the person themselves knows nothing of this; they have forgotten everything. Yet one really ought to observe such things in life. Significant connections then become apparent. For example, a person is envious in their youth. The envy no longer manifests itself later on, and its transformation becomes apparent again in old age through the fact that the person in question displays the trait of lack of self-reliance, of wanting to be dependent on other people or of the notion of being unable to cope on their own, always needing other people to advise and help them. A certain moral weakness arises as a consequence of this transformed envy, and whenever we see someone exhibiting this moral weakness, we can be certain that the karmic consequence of the transformed envy is at work.

[ 10 ] And a transformed tendency to lie gives rise to a shy disposition in later life. Those who were prone to lying in their youth do not dare to look people in the eye in old age. In the countryside, people have an instinctive, basic understanding of this, even if it is not expressed in words. It is said that one should not trust a person who cannot look one in the eye. Shyness and reserve—not out of modesty, but out of fear of facing other people—are the karmic consequences of a lying nature in a previous incarnation.

[ 11 ] What appears as moral weakness in one incarnation has an organizing effect in the next. The spiritual weakness resulting from envy cannot particularly destroy the body in the present incarnation, where the body is already fully formed. But when we pass through death and return to a new incarnation, these forces act in such a way that they become a weakness that builds up the physical body, and we see that a weak body is built up by those who had this transformed envy in a previous incarnation. When we say that a person is weak—but without prejudice, for people should know what is weak or strong—when a person is easily susceptible to this or that influence, has no resistance, then we know that their body is weak and that they have this weak body as a consequence of earlier transformed envy.

[ 12 ] But we must tell ourselves: If a child is born into a certain environment as a frail child, we must consider not only this inner karma, but also that we have been brought together with the people in our environment for specific reasons—not by chance. It is precisely this aspect of karma—that we are adapted to our environment—that is incredibly easy to understand. An edelweiss, for example, can only thrive in the environment to which it is adapted. Human beings, too, can only thrive in the environment that suits them. The simplest logic would suggest this, for one can only understand life if one takes this into account. Every being is suited to its environment; nothing is by chance.

[ 13 ] Thus, we are reborn among those people whom we have envied or whom we have criticized. And so, with a frail body, we find ourselves among those people whom we envied in our previous incarnation for what they had achieved, or the like. It is of infinite importance to know this, for only by considering it can we understand life. When a child is born into an environment with a frail body, we should ask ourselves: How should we behave in this situation? — The most appropriate behavior must be that which is morally the most noble: to forgive. This will also lead to the best outcome here, and this is also the best education for the person in question. It has an immensely educational effect when we can lovingly forgive a frail child born into our environment. The one through whom this is done with true strength will see that the child thereby becomes stronger and stronger. Forgiving love must work right down into the child’s thinking, for through this the child can gather strength to redirect their past karma and steer it in the right direction. The child will also grow physically strong. Such a child often displays traits that are unpleasant. If we love them—down to the very depths of our hearts—this acts as the most powerful remedy, and we will soon discover how effective this remedy is.

[ 14 ] The same applies when we consider the other characteristic, a tendency to lie: in one incarnation, the person becomes shy in old age. This is a psychological trait. But in the next incarnation, this trait manifests itself as the architect of the body. In that case, the child not only appears weak, but in such a way that it cannot establish any proper relationship with its surroundings at all—that is, it is mentally deficient. We must then remind ourselves that we are the people who have often been lied to by such a person, and we should repay what has come to us as evil with the best. We must try to teach such a person quite a lot about the truths of spiritual life; then we will see how they blossom. We should always keep this thought in mind: We have been lied to many times by such a person in past incarnations, and we must do everything we can to establish a true relationship between such a child and their surroundings.

[ 15 ] When we consider these things, we see that, as human beings, we are always called upon to help others work through their karma in the right way. Anyone who thinks they must leave people to their own karma understands nothing about karma. If we encounter someone who has lied to us and we were to believe that they must work out their karma, we would thereby demonstrate that we do not truly understand karma. For the correct approach would be to offer help as much as possible first. When it is said that we should leave people to their karma, this could at most be said in an esoteric context, but never in everyday life.

[ 16 ] Let us imagine that we strive to help others according to their karma. Take, for example, a person who is shy by nature. We care for them with love. In doing so, we establish a connection between that person and ourselves. We will then see that, in their old age, something comes back to us from that person. But we must leave that to karma; we must not speculate about it. We must regard it as our duty to help another person. And here I come to a subtle law. Everything we do for another person to help them endure and overcome their karma will always lead not only to helping the other person, but also to doing something for ourselves. But what we do for ourselves, for example to make rapid progress, will generally not help us much. Only what a person does for others can bear fruit. We cannot do anything good for ourselves. When we help a person overcome their karma, the best results follow, for what we do for others is a benefit to humanity. We can do nothing for ourselves; that, in turn, must be done by others. That is why we must understand compassion for other people in the highest sense. — If we develop this compassion in the highest sense, then we also feel this duty of compassion toward other people with regard to envy and lies. In this way, we develop a sense of solidarity that extends to all human souls.

[ 17 ] Humanity is fundamentally predisposed to the point where every single person always feels their connection to the whole of humanity. And this feeling, in its various expressions of life, should also be present in humanity’s struggles against Lucifer and Ahriman. By attempting to help frail human beings—those whose physical bodies have been weakened by the influence of overcome envy—and by clarifying how we should behave toward these people, we can come to realize that the world is filled with these impulses from Lucifer and Ahriman, and how they can be overcome in the course of Earth’s evolution. When a person follows such connections with feeling, they inevitably come to have an ever-deeper sense of humanity as a whole. In a sense, every person has the opportunity to feel something that can connect them with all humanity. This feeling has changed greatly in the course of human development.

[ 18 ] If we go back three or four millennia, the sense of what people share as a common humanity was clearly pronounced in all people. If we go further and further back, through the post-Atlantean cultures, back to ancient Atlantis—we were always embodied there—and if we go even further back, we come to an incarnation in which we descended into a physical body for the first time. Before that, we were in a spiritual realm, as people still said to themselves three to four millennia ago. We find such wise sentiments among all people around this time. And the soul asked itself: What are you by virtue of being a human being? — And it answered itself: Before I descended into my body for the first time, I was in a sea of divine-spiritual life and activity. I was there, and all other human souls were there as well. That was our common point of origin. — Such a fundamental feeling in human souls made it possible to feel in a brotherly, universally human way, since the origin of all human souls was felt to be a common one. And if we recall how people were influenced in all the ancient mystery schools to make them good people, it was the case everywhere that, in order to make people good and to make them receptive to the deepest, most intimate, and most moving feelings, one pointed to the common origin, to the emergence of all human beings from the common divine source. And it was easy to strike this chord in the soul. But it became increasingly difficult. If, for example, one had struck this chord among such a large number of people as are sitting here, it would have made an overwhelming impression at that time.

[ 19 ] But humanity’s feelings toward this common origin grew increasingly cold. This was inevitable, as humanity had to pass through a certain stage of development. If I am to characterize this stage, we must look to the future of humanity, to the goal of Earth’s development.

[ 20 ] Just as we share a common origin and all human souls arose from a common source, all human souls will come together in a common goal. And how can we humans find this goal so that we may continue to develop once the Earth has reached its end and sinks and shatters beneath us as a material sphere? How can we understand this goal in such a way that we may enter the future together? The awareness of this commonality must penetrate to the deepest fibers of the soul. This is only possible if we, as human beings, learn to feel toward the future as the ancient people felt toward the origin of humanity. This feeling has grown increasingly cold within humanity. But life, feeling, and the certainty that something can be common to all human beings as a human goal must grow ever warmer in our souls. Whether we are at this or that stage of development, wherever we stand in life, simply because we are human beings, something must be able to take place in our souls that allows us to say to ourselves: We are all striving toward a common goal. And looking toward this goal, we must be able to say to ourselves: This is something that concerns every human being. — We must be able to find something deep within ourselves in which we come together on a common ground.

[ 21 ] In occultism, this is given the name Christ. For just as people thousands of years ago were able to feel, sense, and know that our souls are all born from the common divine source and origin, so will people increasingly learn to say to themselves: Just as we, when we think, come together in a commonality, just as we can be united in a common thought, just as this can live in every human mind, so there is something that can live as a commonality in every human heart. There is something that can flow like a life-giving blood through all human hearts. — If this burns ever more intensely within us in the coming incarnations, then these will unfold in such a way that, when the Earth has reached its goal and transitions into the future planetary state, Jupiter, human souls will come together in the common ground, the Christ, and will be one. Therefore, for this to happen, the Mystery of Golgotha had to take place. For this purpose, the Christ became human in Jesus, so that this common stream of warmth might flow from human heart to human heart. The sense of the common human goal emanates from the Cross on Golgotha. Thus past and future are united. This is the goal of humanity’s future development. Whether people will retain this common name of Christ is not the point; rather, it is that all people learn to understand that the same feeling which people originally had regarding their common origin is transformed into a feeling of a common earthly future.

[ 22 ] The development of the Earth is divided into these two halves: one extends up to the Cross on Golgotha, and the other from the Cross on Golgotha to the end of the Earth. And people have much, much work to do to understand Christ and his development. And when this is understood, people will unite in a common goal for the development of Jupiter. And all our individual insights ultimately lead to discovering this Christian principle.

[ 23 ] If we have tried today to understand how karma shapes the physical form from one incarnation to the next, then we understand how human beings can become ever more perfect as they pass through their incarnations. Without calling him Christ, we are still speaking of the Christ. We look beyond the personal. When we have a child before us who lies to us, we say to ourselves: This child has lied to us. How can we help him transform his karma? — We do not ask that he harm us. We look to the child’s inner essence, and in doing so we help his karma move forward. Deep human compassion will assert itself more and more in the world in this way.

[ 24 ] Thus, what we call spiritual science—if by that we truly mean an understanding of the processes of life in the sense of reincarnation and karma—is the preparation for a true grasp of the Christ impulse in the world. It does not matter how a person chooses their words; rather, whoever truly grasps the law of evolution cannot help but be a Christian, whether they are a Hindu, a Muslim, or a follower of another religious system. What matters is that one takes into the soul the impulse that is the impulse toward humanity’s common goal, just as the impulse once lived in the ancient people to look toward the common origin of humankind.

[ 25 ] That is why spiritual science always leads to the Christ impulse. It cannot do otherwise. One could therefore simply understand spiritual science, as it appears today, in such a way that one says: Even if the person who becomes acquainted with it perhaps wanted nothing to do with Christianity, once he becomes an anthroposophist, he is in truth led to Christ. In reality, he would be led there even if he wanted to fight against it with words.

[ 26 ] Today, we have brought to our souls what is directly connected to life. We have seen how we should behave when a child lies or feels envy. We must be clear that the karmic thread runs through all the incarnations of the human soul, that karma is woven for them by destiny, and that when we look back to the origin in God and then look toward the human goal, we look back to God again.

[ 27 ] We look back on the culture of the ancient Rishis. They pointed to the origin of humanity. They pointed to that world in which humanity existed before descending into its incarnations. This teaching has endured through the centuries and millennia. The great Buddha taught it, saying: All of this—which created the connection with the world of origin—has been lost to humanity through the inclination toward incarnation. — He urged people to leave the world of incarnations so that the soul might once again live in the spiritual worlds of origin. And the prophets, by foretelling the coming of Christ, pointed to a future in which human beings will once again find their true purpose on Earth. And then Christ himself stands there; then he accomplishes the Mystery of Golgotha. And then, through this Mystery of Golgotha, humanity can be led toward the divine-spiritual future of the Earth. There is perhaps hardly anything as profound as two sayings, similar in both Buddha and Christ, that can set before our souls the contrast between the old and the new age. Buddha stands among his disciples; he points to his body and says: I look back from incarnation to incarnation, seeing how I have entered time and again into a human body such as the one I now bear. And this physical temple has been rebuilt for me anew by the gods time and again. And time and again the soul sought to enter this physical temple in new incarnations. But now I know that I no longer need to return to a physical temple. I know that the beams are broken, the posts decayed. Through my insight, I have freed my soul from this body. The desire and longing to return to such a body have been killed. — That was a great, a tremendous result of the ancient time of looking back to the origin of humanity. Buddha, and with him his disciples and successors, strive to become free from the body. What a tremendous difference when Christ stands before his intimate disciples and speaks thus—no matter how we interpret it; we take them as the words of Christ as they are—Christ says: “Destroy this temple of my body, and I will raise it up again in three days.” — He, the Christ, does not long to be freed from this temple of the body. He wants to raise it up again.

[ 28 ] It is not as though Christ himself would be present again in such a physical body in subsequent incarnations. — But what he teaches his disciples and all people is this: to return again and again to this earthly temple from incarnation to incarnation, in order to make the Christ impulse greater and more intense in each one, so that we humans may be able to take in more and more of earthly existence, until we finally stand in such a way that we can say: We have worked in these incarnations to become more like the Christ. And we become more like him by taking into this temple of the body what Christ allowed to flow forth from the cross on Golgotha as his own being. We let this flow from human soul to human soul, for only through this do we now understand one another. This is what all human souls of the Earth’s future have in common. And then the time will come when the Earth as a planet will pass away, when it will shatter and disintegrate, and when human beings, in a spiritualized state, will pass over to another planet for their next incarnation.

[ 29 ] The words of the Great Buddha: I feel how the pillars of my physical temple can no longer bear the weight, how the beams are collapsing—this can stand before our souls as a full stop to our common human origin. And when we look at what Christ says to his disciples: I will rebuild this temple of the body in three days—this can be for us like the beginning of the time that points toward the earthly goal. And we may expand upon this saying, for we can say: Let this temple fall apart in death, but we know that we will use the best powers we have acquired in this incarnation for our next incarnation. We have received these powers by dedicating our souls to the knowledge of Christ. In this way, we will continue to progress from incarnation to incarnation. — When human beings build this temple of the body for the last time, they will have come to an understanding of the future, shared earthly goal.

[ 30 ] The mystery of Golgotha alone is what can serve as the common driving force for the development of humanity and the Earth.