The Rudolf Steiner Archive

9. The Significance of Spiritual Research for Moral Action

[ 1 ] Theosophy is often accused of not directly addressing moral issues, and indeed, of not only failing to counter egoism through some of its teachings, but of actually promoting it. Those who hold this view have the following thoughts. They say: Theosophy shows how human beings develop their existence from one life to the next, and the main point is that, even if setbacks occur, human beings have the opportunity to rise higher and higher, to learn more and more how to apply in the next life the lessons they have undergone in one of their lives as a kind of school. Anyone who immerses themselves completely in this belief in human perfection will strive to purify their ego more and more, to enrich it as much as possible, in order to rise ever higher and higher. And, people say, this is essentially a selfish pursuit. For we Theosophists seek to draw teachings and powers from the spiritual world in order to elevate our ego ever higher; thus, it is a selfish motive that drives people to act. We Theosophists are also said to believe that we create bad karma through imperfect actions, and to avoid creating such karma, the Theosophist will refrain from doing this or that which he would otherwise have done. So, out of fear of karma, he does not do it. He would likely also, for this reason, accomplish this or that which he would not otherwise have accomplished, which in turn would be nothing more than a purely selfish motive for action. There are a number of people who say: The teachings of karma and reincarnation and the other striving for perfection that stems from Theosophy lead people to spiritually pursue a refined, higher form of egoism. — Actually, that would be a serious accusation if one could say that Theosophy leads people to develop moral behavior not out of compassion and sympathy, but rather out of fear of punishment. Let us now ask ourselves whether such an accusation is truly justified. To thoroughly refute such an accusation against Theosophy, we must delve deeply, very deeply, into occult research.

[ 2 ] Let us suppose that someone were to say: If a person does not already possess this striving for perfection, then theosophy does not in any way prompt them to perform moral acts. — A deeper exploration of what theosophy teaches us can reveal that human beings are so embedded within the whole of humanity that, through an immoral act, they not only commit something that may bring them punishment, but that through an immoral thought, an immoral act, or an immoral attitude, accomplishes something that is truly absurd, something that cannot be reconciled with truly sound thinking.

[ 3 ] That says a lot. An immoral act not only invites subsequent karmic punishment, but is, at its very core, an act that one should not commit at all. Let us suppose a person commits theft. By doing so, that person incurs karmic punishment. If one wishes to avoid this, then one simply does not steal. But the matter is even more complicated. Let us ask ourselves: What does the person who lies or steals want? The liar or the thief wants to gain an advantage; the liar perhaps to extricate himself from an unpleasant situation. Such an act only makes sense if one actually succeeds in gaining an advantage through lying or stealing. If the person were to realize that they cannot achieve this at all, that they are mistaken, that on the contrary they are bringing about a disadvantage, then they would say to themselves: It is nonsense to even think of such an act. — As theosophy increasingly permeates human civilization, people will come to realize that it is absurd—indeed, ridiculous—to believe that one can obtain through lying or stealing what one thinks one is obtaining. For one thing will become increasingly clear to all people as Theosophy permeates them: that, in the sense of higher causes, there are not entirely separate human individualities, but that, alongside the separate individualities, the entire human race constitutes a unity. And people will increasingly recognize that, in the sense of a true worldview, a finger is actually wiser than the whole human being, for it does not imagine itself to be anything without the entire human organism to which it belongs. In its dim consciousness, it knows that it cannot exist without the entire organism.

[ 4 ] But people constantly succumb to illusions. They believe they are separate entities because of what is enclosed within their skin. They are no more separate than a finger is without the entire body. The reason for this illusion is that a person can move about, whereas a finger cannot. We are in the same position on Earth as the finger is in our body. The science that believes our Earth is a molten sphere surrounded by a hard shell upon which we humans walk—the science that believes this explains the Earth—stands on the same level as a science that would believe the human being, in its essence, is nothing more than its skeletal structure, consisting of nothing other than its skeletal structure. For what is observed in the Earth is the same as the skeletal structure in humans. The other aspect that belongs to the Earth is of a supersensible nature. The Earth is a true organism, a true living being. If one imagines the human being as a living being, one can conceive of its blood with the red and white blood cells; these can only develop within the entire human organism and thus be what they are. What these red and white blood cells are to the human being, that is what we humans are to the Earth organism. We are an integral part of this Earth organism; we form a part of the entire Earth being, and we view ourselves correctly only when we say: As individual human beings, we are nothing; we are only complete when we think ourselves into the Earth’s body, of which we see only the skeletal framework, the mineral shell, as long as we do not acknowledge the spiritual members of this Earth organism. When an inflammatory process forms in the human organism, the entire organism is seized by fever; the entire organism is seized by illness. If we apply this to the Earth organism, then we can say that what occultism asserts is true: that when an immoral act is committed anywhere on Earth, it is the same for the entire Earth organism as a small abscess on the human body is for a human being, which makes the whole organism sick. So that when a theft is committed on Earth, the effect is that the entire Earth comes down with a kind of fever. This is not merely a figure of speech, but is deeply grounded in reality. The entire Earth organism suffers from all that is immoral, and we as individual human beings cannot do anything immoral without the entire Earth organism being affected.

[ 5 ] This is, in essence, a very simple idea, yet people find it difficult to grasp. But those who refuse to believe it should just wait and see. Let us try to instill such ideas into our culture; let us try to appeal to the human heart and conscience with such ideas: When immoral acts are committed anywhere, they are a kind of abscess for the entire Earth and make the Earth’s organism sick—and experience would show that such insights contain tremendous moral impetus.

[ 6 ] No matter how much morality one preaches, it will not help people. But such insights would not only strike people as insights; rather, if they were to become ingrained in cultural development, if they were instilled in children’s minds from an early age, they would provide an immense moral impetus. For all moral sermons lack anything truly overwhelming or convincing for the human mind. It is indeed true, as Schopenhauer says, that preaching morality is easy, but justifying it is difficult. People have a certain aversion to moral sermons. They say: What is being preached to me here is what someone else wants, and I am simply supposed to submit to it! — This belief will gain more and more ground as materialistic consciousness gains the upper hand. People say today: there is class morality, social-class morality, and whatever such class morality deems right is then imposed on the other class. Such an opinion has seeped into people’s minds, and in the future this will become worse and worse. People will feel more and more strongly that they want to discover for themselves everything that is to be recognized as right in this area, and that this should spring from their inclination toward objective knowledge. Human individuality wants to have more and more influence. — But the moment, for example, the heart realizes that it becomes ill when the entire organism becomes ill, the human being would do what is necessary to avoid becoming ill. And the moment the human being realizes that they are embedded in the entire Earth organism, that they must not be a boil on the Earth’s body, then there is an objective reason for being good. And the person will say: When I steal, I want to gain an advantage. I do not do it because by doing so I make the entire organism—without which I cannot live—sick. I do the opposite, and by doing so I gain an advantage not only for the organism but also for myself.

[ 7 ] This is roughly how people’s moral consciousness will take shape in the future. Anyone who is motivated by theosophy will tell themselves: It is an illusion to think one can gain an advantage through an immoral act. When you do that, you are like an octopus squirting out a dark liquid: you are squirting out a dark aura of immoral impulses. Lying and stealing are the seeds of an aura into which you place yourself and through which you make the whole world unhappy.

[ 8 ] It is said that everything around us is Maya. But such truths must become truths of life. If one can show that, through theosophy, the moral development of humanity in the future will be such that people must realize how they envelop themselves in an aura of illusions when they seek to gain an advantage, then it becomes a practical truth that the world is Maya, or illusion. The finger believes this in its dull consciousness, which is a half-asleep, dreaming consciousness; it is wise enough to know that without the hand and the rest of the body, it is no longer a finger. Human beings today are not yet wise enough to know that without the earthly body, they are essentially nothing. But they must become that wise. The finger, therefore, has a certain advantage over human beings. It does not cut itself off; it does not say: “I want to keep the blood within me for myself or sever myself as a limb.” - It is in harmony with the entire organism. Humanity, however, must develop a higher consciousness in order to come into harmony with the entire earthly organism. In today’s moral consciousness, humanity does not yet know this. One could say to oneself: I breathe in the air; just a moment ago it was outside, then it is inside the human body: an exterior becomes an interior. — And when I exhale the air I have breathed in, then an interior becomes an exterior again, and so it is with the whole human being. People do not even know this: that, separated from the air surrounding them, they are nothing. They must strive to develop an awareness of how they are enclosed within the entire Earth organism.

[ 9 ] How can a person know that they are a part of the entire Earth organism? Theosophy leads people to this understanding. It shows people that there was first a Saturn state, then a Solar state, then a Lunar state—and humans were present throughout, albeit in a very different form than they are today. Then the Earth emerged from the old lunar state. Slowly, human beings as Earth beings came into being. They have a long evolution behind them, and in the future they are to advance to other stages of development. With the Earth in its present form, human beings in their present form came into being. - When one traces, through the study of Theosophy, how humanity and the Earth came into being, it becomes clear how humanity is a part of the entire Earth organism. It then becomes clear how the Earth and humanity gradually emerged from a spiritual life, how the beings of the hierarchies built up the Earth and humanity, and how humanity belongs to the hierarchies, even though it stands on the lowest level. And then Theosophy points to the central being of the entire development of the Earth, to Christ as the great archetype of humanity. And from all these teachings of Theosophy, the awareness should spring forth in the human being: Thus you shall act!

[ 10 ] Spiritual science shows us how we can feel ourselves to be a part of all life on Earth; spiritual science shows us that Christ is the Spirit of the Earth! Our fingers, our toes, our nose, all our limbs dream that they are supplied with blood by the heart, that without a central organ they would be nothing, for without the heart they are not possible. And theosophy shows humanity that in the future of Earth’s development it would be folly not to embrace the idea of Christ, for what the heart is to the organism, Christ is to the body of the Earth. And just as the blood supplies the entire organism with life and strength through the heart, so must that which is the essence of Christ have permeated every individual earthly soul, and the words of Paul must become truth for them: “Not I, but Christ in me!”—Christ must have flowed into every human heart. And anyone who were to say: One can exist without Christ — would be as foolish as eyes and ears if they were to say they could exist without a heart. In the individual human body, the heart must indeed be present from the very beginning; in the earthly organism, this heart has only entered with Christ. For the times to come, however, this blood of the Christ-heart must have entered all human hearts, and whoever does not unite with Him in their soul will wither away. The Earth does not wait with its development; it reaches the stage it must reach. Only human beings can fall behind—that is to say, they would resist receiving the Christ into their souls. A number of people would find themselves in their final earthly incarnation without having reached the goal: they have not recognized Christ, have not taken Christ-feeling or Christ-knowledge into their souls. They are not ready, do not join the higher development; they separate themselves.

[ 11 ] Such people do not face the immediate danger of completely decaying, as the nose or ears would if they were to become separated from the entire human organism. But occult research shows this: Those who do not wish to imbue themselves with the Christ element, the Christ life, as it can only be attained through theosophy, would, instead of ascending with the Earth to new stages of existence, have absorbed substances of decay and decomposition within themselves; they would first have to take other paths. If human souls, in successive incarnations, take Christ into their knowledge, into their feeling, into their whole soul, the Earth will fall away from these human souls, just as a corpse falls away upon a person’s death. The earthly body will fall away, and that which is present there, imbued with Christ in spirit and soul, will evolve into a new existence and reincarnate on Jupiter.

[ 12 ] And what will happen to those people who have not received Christ within themselves? Theosophy will provide them with ample opportunity to come to know Christ, to receive Christ within themselves. People still resist this today, but they will resist it less and less. But let us suppose that at the end of evolution there would be such people who still resist it. There would be a number of people who could not ascend to the next planet, who would not have attained the true goal of Earth. These people would be a real burden on the planet where humanity will then continue to evolve, for although they will not be able to participate in the true, proper state of Jupiter, they will not be able to witness what develops there, they will nevertheless be present on Jupiter. Everything that is later material is first present spiritually. Thus, what people are now developing spiritually during their time on Earth—in terms of immorality and resistance to receiving the Christ within themselves—is initially present in the soul-spiritual realm. But this will become material; it will surround and permeate Jupiter like a neighboring element. And these will be the descendants of those people who did not take Christ into themselves during their time on Earth. What is now developing in the soul as immorality, as rebellion against Christ, will then be present in a material, truly physical form. And while the physical nature of those who have received Christ will be refined on Jupiter, the physical nature of these other people will be significantly coarsened. This is what occult research paints before the soul’s eye: what the future will be like for those who have not attained earthly maturity.

[ 13 ] Now we breathe air. On Jupiter, there will essentially be no air; instead, Jupiter will be surrounded by a substance that, compared to our air, will be something more refined and ethereal. Those who have reached the Earth’s destination will live within it. Those other, left-behind people, however, will have to breathe something like a foul, hot, boiling fiery air, permeated as if by mugginess, carrying foul vapors within it. So that the people who did not attain Earth maturity will be a burden to the other Jupiter people, for they will have a polluting effect on the environment, in the swamps and the rest of Jupiter’s surface. The liquid-physical components of these people’s bodies will be something comparable to a liquid that constantly strives to solidify, freezing within itself, congealing within itself, so that these beings will not only have this fatal breathing air, but also a bodily condition as if their blood were constantly congealing, failing to remain liquid. The physical body itself of these beings will consist of a kind of slimy substance, more repulsive than the bodily substance of our present-day snails, fully capable of secreting something like a crust that will surround them. This crust will be softer than the skin of our present-day snakes, like a kind of soft scaly armor. Thus these beings will live in a rather unappealing manner in the elements of Jupiter.

[ 14 ] Such a vision, as the occult researcher foresees it, is a terrifying sight. But woe to those who, like the ostrich, refuse to look at the danger and wish to close their eyes to the truth! For it is precisely this that lulls us into error and delusion, while a bold gaze upon the truth provides the greatest moral impulses. If people listen to what the truth tells them, they will feel: you are lying—and then the image of the effect of this lie on human nature in the Jupiter state will arise within them, the image: the lie makes one slimy, creates a polluted atmosphere for the future. And this image, which arises again and again, will be a reason to direct the soul’s impulses toward salvation. For no one who truly knows the consequences of immorality can in truth be immoral. The true effects of the causes must be taught. Even children should be made aware of this. Immorality exists only because people lack knowledge. Only the darkness of untruth makes immorality possible.

[ 15 ] However, what can be said about the connection between immorality and ignorance should not be mere intellectual knowledge, but wisdom. Knowledge alone leads to immorality; indeed, when it becomes cunning cleverness, it can even be villainy. Whereas wisdom will act upon the human soul in such a way that truth radiates from it—innermost morality.

[ 16 ] My dear friends, it is true: Justifying morality is difficult, preaching morality is easy! — To justify morality means to ground it in wisdom, and one must first possess that wisdom. Here we see that Schopenhauer was quite wise when he said: Justifying morality is difficult!

[ 17 ] So we see how unfounded it is when people who do not truly know Theosophy come along and say that it contains no moral imperatives. Theosophy shows us what we bring about in the world when we do not act morally; it imparts wisdom from which morality itself radiates. There is no greater arrogance than to say that one need only be a good person, and then everything would be all right. But first one must know how to actually be a good person. The consciousness of the present is very arrogant when it seeks to reject all wisdom. True knowledge of the good requires that we delve deeply into the mysteries of wisdom, and that is inconvenient, for there is much to learn.

[ 18 ] So we can respond in this way when people come and tell us: “Reincarnation and karma lead to a selfish morality!” — No! — True Theosophy shows people that when they commit an immoral act, it is roughly the same as if they were to say: ‘I’ll take a sheet of paper to write a letter on it’—and then he takes a match and sets the sheet of paper on fire. That would be grotesque nonsense! Man finds himself in the same situation when faced with a wrongful act or an immoral attitude.

[ 19 ] Stealing has the same effect on the true, deeper human being as lying does. When one steals, one plants the seed within the human being to develop a slimy, foul substance and to spread pestilential odors around oneself in the future. Only by living under the illusion that the present moment is something real can one commit such an act. Through theft, a person implants within themselves something that amounts to a shattering of the human being. And once a person knows this, they will no longer be able to commit an immoral act; they will not be able to steal. Just as the plant seed sprouts flowers in the future, so will Theosophy, when it is sown in the human soul, sprout human flowers—that is, human morality. Theosophy is the seed, the soul is the fertile ground for it, and morality is the flower and fruit on the plant of the developing human being.