The Rudolf Steiner Archive

2. The Effect of Moral Qualities on Karma

[ 1 ] In the course of our spiritual scientific reflections, which so often lead us to very special heights of existence, it may sometimes be beneficial to take a look at everyday life—the life that constantly surrounds us—from our spiritual scientific perspective. For if one approaches this with a measure of goodwill and a clear perspective, it is precisely through the application of spiritual science to everyday life that one can gain the most important insights into the truth and the evidential power of what is sought in this very field.

[ 2 ] Among the most significant teachings we encounter in the field of spiritual science is undoubtedly that of the causation of one’s future earthly life by the previous one—what we call karma. Now, in most cases where karma is discussed, the theosophist certainly thinks of the causes lying in previous lifetimes. People who are still quite far removed from spiritual scientific endeavors may then easily raise the objection: How can such things be proven? — Of course, we know how impossible, how childish such an objection really is. For when a person takes the trouble to delve deeper into what is provided by spiritual science, they realize how well-founded everything is that can be said about karma. But it is nonetheless also good to point to the experiences and observations that are already accessible to people who are still far removed from clairvoyance or other theosophical methods of observation. For karma, when properly understood, does not merely carry over from one life to the next, but is certainly already at work within the single life we live between birth and death. It is just that, of course, what people usually observe of life is, in fact, such a brief span of human existence that not much can be discerned there regarding the carryover of earlier causes into later effects. If we look at a span of five or six years, not much emerges. But if we consider longer periods of time between birth and death, as far as this is always possible, much can become evident to us regarding the fulfillment of karma. This is also evident in very external things.

[ 3 ] I do not wish to present this introduction as something particularly theosophical, but merely to show that even for the most ordinary things, a considerable amount of time is required to discern a connection between cause and effect. For those who take an interest in observing life, I may point out that I have had ample opportunity to observe children. It has been a long time since I taught children. But when one has taught four boys from the same family over many years, one has the opportunity not only to observe these four children, but also the children of acquaintances and so on. One always has ample opportunity to note what this or that child does, or what can be done with them. Now, back then there was a very particular medical custom, which, thank God, is now rapidly fading: it was considered necessary to give the little ones a glass of red wine if they were to grow strong, not just with one meal, but with several. This was considered something quite excellent. I was able to observe many children who were raised this way with red wine, and other children whose parents had refused to go along with this. Today, these children, who were two and a half to four years old back then, are people who are over thirty or approaching forty years of age. Looking at the little ones who were subjected to red wine for their “strength” back then, one can see what fidgety, nervous people they have become. To the observant eye, they differ very clearly from those who did not drink red wine as children. So nearly a quarter-century has passed, allowing us to observe this phenomenon.

[ 4 ] It is therefore particularly important to consider the moral and ethical qualities of human beings over extended periods of time in relation to karmic effects. Today I would like to point out several qualities that can be examined: how they affect the soul and the mind, and how the effects of karma can already be quite evident within a single lifetime. I would like to list some good and some bad qualities: envy, jealousy, deceitfulness, then goodwill, and what we so often find in younger people—wonder, amazement, and similar things. Let us first consider the bad qualities: envy and deceitfulness. Suppose we can observe envy and jealousy in childhood. We know from spiritual scientific observations that in the human being, within the members of his being of which he is usually unaware—in the astral body and the etheric body—special forces are at work: in the astral body the Luciferic forces, in the etheric body the Ahrimanic forces, which are the adversaries of human development. Everything connected with the astral body, such as envy, stems from the temptations of Lucifer. Everything connected with the etheric body, such as mendacity, stems from the temptations of Ahriman. In an envious child, the astral body is, in a certain sense, gripped by Lucifer; this is where the Luciferic beings find their points of attack. Something very telling applies to envy and lying: from the most primitive humans to the most developed leaders of humanity, envy and mendacity are regarded as highly reprehensible qualities. As soon as a person realizes that they are envious or mendacious, a sense of the reprehensibility of these qualities arises in the soul. One wants to break the habit with all one’s might. Envy and deceitfulness, in particular, will instinctively appear reprehensible. Goethe says he must reproach himself for many faults, but he finds no envy in the depths of his soul. Benvenuto Cellini says the same about deceitfulness. - If someone realizes, “I am an envious person,” they instinctively work to break this habit. But it can run very deep—so deep that while they may strive to overcome their envy, they are not strong enough, not morally strong enough. Then something very peculiar occurs. Envy is a Luciferic trait. When a person realizes they have a predisposition toward envy and works to overcome it, Lucifer says to himself: There is a danger that this person will slip away from me. Lucifer and Ahriman are equally hostile toward humanity, but among themselves they are good friends. So Lucifer calls on Ahriman for help, and Ahriman transforms the envy into another trait. Envy undergoes a metamorphosis that manifests so strongly in the human soul that the person, whereas before they did not want to see this in another person, now becomes a critic who seeks out every possible fault in their fellow human beings in order to find something to fault. This compulsion to criticize is nothing other than transformed envy. If this is the case, then one is in Ahriman’s clutches. This transformed envy is very widespread. Were it not present in the form of nitpicking and the compulsion to say all sorts of evil things about people, many morning and evening get-togethers, many coffee parties, would have no subject matter at all.

[ 5 ] Curiously enough, the result is the same whether envy is allowed to manifest itself in its original form or in a transformed form as nitpicking. If one follows a person who was envious in youth or a critic into later life, one will see that people who were consumed by envy in their youth end up feeling insecure in old age. They cannot find solid ground, cannot establish relationships with others, cannot make up their own minds, and are glad when they can say: “So-and-so advised me to do this.” This is, within the same lifetime, a karmic consequence of envy or of transformed envy.

[ 6 ] A tendency to lie is a characteristic of the etheric body and stems from Ahriman. If a person habitually lies from a certain age onward, or if they lie frequently due to poor upbringing, a certain shyness will always manifest in later life—an inability to look people in the eye. Certain proverbial rules in the moral realm aptly describe this situation. When one says, “This person cannot look me in the eye,” this is the effect of a tendency to lie. Shyness and a lack of self-reliance appear as psychological traits in the same life. If one wishes to observe life in the same way that a physicist observes the external course of the world, one can observe such things. Life thereby becomes filled with light.

[ 7 ] What follows from such a quality remains a spiritual matter within a single life; it remains spiritual. Let us assume that we trace that single life into the next from a spiritual-scientific perspective. What appeared as a karmic effect in the spiritual realm of one life gains greater power in the next life. Thus we can demonstrate that lack of self-reliance, which initially appears as a psychological effect of envy in one life, and shyness as an effect of deceitfulness, become organizing factors in the formation of the body in the next life. There they extend into the physical realm.

[ 8 ] Someone who developed a great deal of envy in a previous life is reborn as a person whose physical constitution already contains the very traits that render them helpless. Those who were deceitful reappear in such a way that they have no proper relationship with their environment. They cannot be loved by the people around them; they feel repelled by them, and love is difficult to attain. Spiritual science is to be understood as a way of life. What has just been said immediately becomes a way of life.

[ 9 ] Let us suppose that such a child is born in our midst. If we notice that this child cannot form a relationship with us, that it withdraws shyly, or that this child is weak and pale, a theosophist will say: The pallor and the predisposition to all manner of illnesses must be attributed to an envious disposition in the previous incarnation; the shyness to a tendency toward deceit. It is no coincidence that this child was born precisely into our circle, for an individuality can only be placed where it belongs. It will not be long before people come to regard the law of karma as a matter of course. People are born into the circumstances to which they belong. Weakness and helplessness are the consequences of past envy, and we are brought together with this child because it envied us. And with its timid nature, it comes to us because we are the ones who were so often lied to by that being in a previous incarnation. How, then, should we behave in such a case? There is no need to think long and hard about it; rather, we should behave in the most moral and ethical way, just as we would in ordinary life.

[ 10 ] The best way to treat someone who envies us or criticizes us in everything is to show them kindness and love. That is the best course of action. Of course, in our unnaturally materialistic times, this cannot be put into practice everywhere. But it is the best way to treat a child who is born into life with these particular dispositions. We do not merely tell ourselves: “This child envied us, lied to us in a previous incarnation,” but we make a firm resolution to show this child a great deal of goodwill. Let us immerse this in a warm feeling. Try to observe this, and you will find that with such a child, the cheeks may flush, that the child may become strong and vigorous. Such behavior simply needs to be repeated consistently. The same applies to a tendency to lie. The best way to reform a person who lies to us at every turn is to do everything we can to teach them as much as possible about what it means to love the truth. If we behave this way toward such a shy child, we will find that we are doing everything we can to counteract the escalation of the conflict.

[ 11 ] Thus we see that we can serve life to an immense degree. This is an example of how spiritual science can become a way of life. In such matters, we must never lose sight of the fact that we can always have the evidence of karma at our fingertips. But we must also not lose sight of the fact—especially when we are educating such people—that it is within our power to prove that spiritual science has become second nature to us.

[ 12 ] We can also consider other qualities in the light of spiritual science, such as wonder and amazement. Out of a beautiful instinct, the ancient Greek philosophers already said: Philosophy takes its starting point from wonder, from amazement. — What is this wonder, this amazement? There is such a relationship to the phenomena that confront us that we enter into amazement, into wonder. Then sometimes something else takes the place of wonder, something into which wonder and amazement no longer mingle. This is the case, namely, when we begin to understand the facts in question. Let us now raise the question: What is actually the nature of this wonder, of this amazement? We encounter a phenomenon; it elicits amazement in us. It cannot be a relationship to the intellect or to intelligence, for these seek understanding and do not express themselves in amazement. It is a much more immediate relationship. Understanding must deal with the individual parts; wonder arises immediately, in relation to the whole thing. This is because in understanding, the ego relates to the thing, whereas in wonder, the astral body faces the thing. It does not have full consciousness, but a kind of subconsciousness. When the astral body has a relationship to the thing and this relationship has not yet risen to the ego, wonder arises. Because a person can be astonished by a thing, it is possible to enter into a connection with the object that lies below the threshold of consciousness. This is very important in many cases—this subconscious connection—just as it is important for philosophy, according to the view of the ancient Greeks, that astonishment be present first.

[ 13 ] It is beneficial for people to first extend their astral body over a subject before applying their intellect to it. This creates a foundation of feeling and emotion, into which understanding is then immersed. This is quite different from approaching the matter abstractly with the intellect right away. It results in our working on a much broader foundation of understanding. A richer understanding is the result. That is why it is so important for the educator to first develop a sense of sacred wonder toward the child, toward the individuality that emerges as if from the darkness; when we remain open to what our intellect cannot fully grasp: the infinity of an individuality. We artificially place ourselves in a state of wonder before this individuality. It will come, for there is ample opportunity for wonder and amazement in the face of every individuality. These feelings are not tainted by our narrow intellect; they are sometimes far more certain, richer, and truer than what is recognized by the narrow intellect. The foundations for insights applicable to practical life are to be gained through wonder, through the life of the soul. Something very important rests upon this: the trust that one person has in another. How often does it happen in life that one person has trust—or even mistrust, for the negative counts just as much as the positive—in another before they have even encountered that person in conceptual terms, in the everyday sense. Trust and distrust sometimes arise quite immediately. How many people are there who often burst into a kind of lament: If only I had trusted my first impression! I have spoiled the true impression I had previously sensed. — Such people are sometimes quite right. Our social relationships, our relationship to life, should grow out of our emotional life. There are people who have little aptitude for sensing this indefinable, intuitive quality in others. There are people who can gaze in wonder at the starry sky for hours on end without understanding much about astronomy, and there are others who remain as rigid as a stick in the face of the starry sky until they get their hands on books through which they can analyze it all. These are the people who cannot possess this emotional foundation. Such people, too, often pass by others like sticks until they have had enough time to dissect them.

[ 14 ] This is also evident in the attitude toward the spiritual sciences. One can really only speak of the intellect in the very earliest years of youth. Later on, it is impossible for the reason Goethe gives: one could not convince people of the falsity of their claims, because their view was based on the fact that they held the false to be true. - If someone feels that there is something in spiritual science that fulfills all their longings, they will always find the logical evidence that can be found everywhere. Things are, in essence, exceedingly clear; they merely need to be viewed in the light of a spiritual worldview. Let us suppose that, in youth, a person approaches an elder with a sacred reverence, the reason for which they may not even be able to articulate. If we observe such a broad disposition in a person, we find that such people remain young for a long time—indeed, remain young at all—that a young heart beats within them, even when their hair has long since turned gray. They retain a certain agility in life. In particular, they retain throughout their entire lives the ability to quickly adapt to situations and to be adept in all circumstances. For those who open themselves to life in this way during their youth, life opens up to them more and more in later stages of life. They become increasingly able to look into the heart of things, more easily attaining the ability to sense the spiritual behind them; they become ever more spiritual. The situation is different for a person who has particularly developed their intellectual side in youth. Such people are very prone to premature senility. This is not the fault of the individual, but the karma of the community. The person who is an intellectual increasingly isolates themselves from the world; it becomes ever more incomprehensible to them. Hence the criticism of many people regarding everything in their surroundings. “In my youth,” they say, “everything was beautiful; now everything is spoiled.” — This grumpiness, this dissatisfaction with everything, this withdrawal, living only in childhood memories, is something connected to the intellectual nature of the soul in youth. Therefore, we cannot do enough to build education on the broad foundation of the heart, specifically on imagery.

[ 15 ] In our time, humanity is generally sailing in the opposite direction. Children, for example, are not being lied to by the stork fairy tale. It merely uses an image that is truer than what people today want to teach children—namely, that a child comes only from a father and a mother. The stork image—or any other—points to the fact that there is something within the child that descends from the heights of the clouds. The child gazes into realms beyond the trivial, and builds within itself the foundation from which future truth will eventually grow. To regard the stork image as untrue is merely a lack of imagination, an inability to find a suitable image for the process that cannot be described to children as reincarnation, to clothe this process in an appropriate image. But—it is objected—children today do not believe in it. - That is because the people who tell children such things do not believe in it themselves. As soon as one does not believe in what the image expresses, the children cannot believe in it either. But if it is an image for us of the real, true reality behind it—provided we have enough imagination to translate the truth into an image—then the children will believe it too. And it is actually beautiful to tell the child: A part comes from the father and a part from the mother, but a third part is carried down from the heights of heaven by other beings who carry it on their wings, bringing it to the father and mother. — When we say this, the image is very accurate, and we are speaking of a truth. A child to whom we impart rich, pictorial ideas is fostered in regard to the conditions of astral life, and we bestow upon them the blessing of a youthfulness that extends far into old age. This pictorial quality in educational activity, which above all also underlies play, is so infinitely important. Here, too, one can already see in a single lifetime how karma works.

[ 16 ] Thus, when spiritual science intervenes in culture—in the way life flourishes and blossoms—it reveals its truth, whereas materialism reveals its falsehood in the fact that life becomes desolate and prematurely aged.