Past Incarnations of the Peoples of Today
GA 203
6 January 1921, Stuttgart
Translator Unknown
The urgent task before us at the present time is to apply the knowledge and impulses contained in Spiritual Science to life, but to apply them in a really effective way. Again and again it must be emphasized that in face of the burning needs of the age, theoretical knowledge of the truths underlying human life and cosmic existence is by no means sufficient. Everything depends upon understanding conditions as they actually are in practical life—in other words, to understand life itself in the light of the principles of Spiritual Science. For many centuries men have grown accustomed to look at only one fragment of reality. And the inevitable consequence of this was the attitude of mind which has culminated in the catastrophic events of the present time. Men are utterly lacking in that understanding of existence which is demanded of them at their present age of evolution.
As students of anthroposophical Spiritual Science it will certainly not be difficult for us to be convinced of the truth of repeated earthly lives nor of the fact that in spite of the full reality of freedom, the destiny of a human being has its origin in a previous earthly life. But when it is a question of coming to grips with the concrete realities of life, we slip into the kind of thought that has been customary during the last few centuries and which is utterly incapable of explaining the intricacies of human life. Although this kind of thinking can explain certain phenomena of nature, it is entirely at a loss when confronted with the intricate complexities of the life of man. As a matter of fact it is scientific thought that has remained farthest of all in the rear of the actual demands of life today, and yet science exercises a very powerful influence upon the thinking of the masses of the people. In speaking thus of the influence of scientific thought, I am not referring to those individuals who are working in or are in some other way connected with particular branches of science. I am thinking of the masses of the people who, when they are faced by the weightiest problems of life, swallow what is told them by men who appear by the force of outer circumstances to be qualified to judge of such things. And then people base their actions upon the opinions of the recognized authorities although they are utterly devoid of any real understanding of human life. The teachings of Spiritual Science must be applied in every branch of existence, above all in those branches of knowledge which form the basis for a true understanding of life.
When a man comes to Spiritual Science today he begins to understand the principles underlying the fact of repeated earthly lives. But suppose he wants to inform himself about things that are actually happening in the world. He may turn perhaps to history, or rather to the fragmentary history that forms part of popular education. But this is all written from the point of view of thought that is merely capable of explaining the things and phenomena of Nature, and nothing more. The spiritual aspect of history is ignored and when anyone nowadays tries to interpret certain facts and events of history, he is more or less obliged to fall back on what happened in the last generation, in the second and third generations back, and so on through the centuries. To take a concrete example: How does a German set about learning his history? He thinks of the men who have lived in Middle Europe, of whom he himself is one. He reads the story of what happened to them, what happened to their fathers, forefathers and so on, through the generations. He goes backwards in time, perhaps to the Middle Ages, and imagines that he is following the tracks of one continuous stream of human life which leads back then to the migrations of the peoples and so forth. And so he tries to explain what is happening to mankind at the present time by what happened in these earlier generations. He becomes familiar with the stream of history as it expresses itself in the consecutive generations, and the only idea that is really clear to him is that of heredity. Sons have inherited certain qualities and characteristics from their forefathers or are benefiting by what was instituted by their forefathers. It is only a matter of going back in time from the present to the preceding generations.
Yes, but if we look at the matter in the light of Spiritual Science, can this be said to be the whole reality? Why should souls living in bodies of the present generation necessarily have been incarnated in Middle Europe in their earlier lives? Is it not possible that they were incarnated somewhere quite different, under entirely different conditions? The forces which these souls bring over with them from their earlier incarnations into the bodies of the present generation work no less effectively than the forces of the blood that has been transmitted by heredity through the generations. These forces are working as well as the inherited physical characteristics. We must not fall into the error of thinking that it will ever be possible to understand either the human beings or the events of the present age so long as we have eyes only for a fragment of the reality. We must say to ourselves that in the men of the present age souls are incarnated who in earlier incarnations lived in quite different regions of the earth. And when we try to follow up the destiny of these souls, we are not necessarily led back through the generations at all. In other words, we cannot understand what is happening on the earth if we do not apply in an absolutely concrete way the truth of repeated earthly lives.
It is not possible to be an honest believer in reincarnation on the one side and on the other to accept history as it is expounded nowadays, for to do that would be to make a sharp distinction between outer life with all its traditions, and what we regard as the essential reality. More and more we must realize how necessary it is to be able to find evidence in life itself of the things we have recognized as spiritually true. And it is for this reason, my dear friends, that I have no hesitation in speaking about certain results of investigation which may seem highly improbable to a great many people, but for all that must be made known today. It is right that they should be made known, because humanity is inwardly yearning to know the whole reality and because degeneration is bound to set in if men are afraid to face the whole reality.
It is, of course, quite true that most people fight shy of taking the truths of Spiritual Science in all seriousness. These truths seem so startling and so utterly remote from their accustomed lines of thought that they merely dabble in Spiritual Science and never reach the point of really coming to grips with it. They have not the courage to apply these truths neither in practical life nor even in their study of problems of practical life.
At this point, before we proceed any further, let me repeat something I have said on many previous occasions; namely, that those who want really to make any headway in spiritual research must be on their guard against ordinary associations or combinations of ideas, for what presents itself to the mind is usually the opposite of the truth, or at all events diverges very widely from the truth. It is precisely the deeper truths which seem at the outset strange and improbable, because they can only be discovered by real knowledge and real experience.
And so in all seriousness we will ask ourselves this question: Why has civilization led human beings into the present catastrophic condition of life? What has Spiritual Science to say about this? I must emphasize here that certain details which I have given on previous occasions are quite correct but for reasons which will be quite obvious to you, it is only possible to deal adequately with a vast subject by constantly adding other details.
I have said before that many souls living at the present time were incarnated in a previous life during the early centuries of Christendom, in regions more to the South of Europe. Many of these souls are now incarnated in Middle Europe. This is a perfectly correct statement but it applies only to a certain number of souls. What I propose to tell you today must be taken as referring to a considerable portion of the present population of the earth.
This brings us to the question—and the answer I shall give is the outcome of real and very strenuous spiritual research—this brings us to the question: Where were the souls of the greater part of the population of Western Europe, of Middle Europe and far over towards Russia in their earlier life on earth? If we investigate this problem conscientiously with the methods of Spiritual Science, the fact emerges that we are here concerned with souls whose life in the spiritual world since their last death and their present birth has been of comparatively short duration. Our investigation leads us over to the West, to lands in which, after the discovery of America, large numbers of Europeans founded colonies and exterminated or at all events kept the original population in a state of subjection. We are led back to the centuries of the conquests of America and to souls incarnated at the time of these conquests in bodies of the American Indian race.
Now you will not be able to understand what I have to tell you unless you have a true picture in your minds of the nature of these Indian peoples who were gradually exterminated by the colonists from Europe. They were not, of course, cultured people in the sense in which we think of culture today. But there was a certain quality in these souls which expressed itself in a universal, pantheistic form of religion. Their hearts were turned in aspiration to a great Spiritual Being and their religion was thoroughly monotheistic. I am speaking here of the leading stock, not of the more degenerate branches. These people had a living and vivid experience of one great Spirit Universal behind the world of nature and the deeds of men. We must try to understand this mood of soul and altogether get rid of the preconceived notion that these Indian peoples were the half animal savages which they are generally supposed to have been.
Broadly speaking, the souls once living in those exterminated Indian peoples are incarnated today in the men of Western Europe, Middle Europe and on towards Russia. We shall never get to the truth if we cannot accept what seems so strange and improbable a statement. These were souls who had had no contact with Christianity in former incarnations and because of this it follows that the souls of a large proportion of Europeans today had not received the impulse of Christianity before their present birth. Christianity is something that has been acquired from outside, assimilated as it were with the sounds of language and speech. Before we can understand the way in which Christianity lives in the souls of Europeans today we must realize that, broadly speaking, it was not a Christian impulse at all which lived in these souls in an earlier incarnation, but a pantheistic impulse, connected with the worship of one great Universal Spirit. Here and there among these European peoples there are, of course, other souls, whose earlier incarnations during the first centuries of Christendom were in the more Southerly regions of Europe and in Northern Africa. And of these two categories of souls, the present population of Western and Central Europe and the lands well on towards Russia mainly consists. The way to study these things is to observe how the souls of men express themselves in our present age, what their aspirations are and in what way they think. We shall never understand these European peoples until we realize that although the blood kinship runs back through the consecutive generations, say to the age of Charles the Great and even earlier, the souls now living in these European bodies were once incarnated in far-off America, in the bodies of a race which was conquered by colonists from Europe.
Another fact, too, emerges as the result of spiritual investigation. We can look back to the peoples who lived in the Southern regions of Europe and who received Christianity in a form altogether different from that of today. In those times Christianity was still imbued with elemental, deeply inward forces of soul. It worked as an imponderable force in the whole of life and was still entirely free from the abstract intellectualism of Theology. It was a force that worked upon the deepest and most fundamental feelings of the people. And these souls who lived in the Southern regions of Europe at that time and received Christianity in this form, are, speaking broadly, incarnated at the present time, in Asia. The period spent by these souls in the spiritual world between death and rebirth was somewhat longer than in the case of the others, because the character of the impulse they received in their early Christian incarnation was such that it tended to prolong the period of life in the spiritual world between death and rebirth. Many of these souls who were permeated by the Christian Impulse at that time are incarnated now in Japanese bodies. We shall never be able to understand the curious culture of Japan—which presents so many enigmas today—unless we realize that a great many souls now incarnated in Asia were imbued in a very special way with the Christian impulse in their earlier incarnation. They have carried over these Christian sentiments into Eastern bodies and have been surrounded from childhood by the decadent forms of ancient Oriental culture which have remained in the language and other forms of civilized life in the East. Certain elements of the true Christian impulse have lived on in these souls, in spite of all that has been dinned into their ears and has presented itself to their minds and hearts from a degenerate Oriental culture. We can find evidence of this in the most highly developed and most highly educated Orientals, and, indeed, we can only understand them in the light of this knowledge. Think, for example, of a personality like Rabindranath Tagore. We shall never understand what such a figure really signifies until we realize that in Rabindranath Tagore there lives a soul who in a previous earthly life imbibed from early European Christianity a certain warmth of feeling which pours out in all his utterances and deeds. This warmth of feeling is always there, but on the other hand the rather coquettish style of Tagore is the outcome of the influence of decadent Orientalism. There is a curious duality in the personality of Rabindranath Tagore. If our outlook is healthy and natural we shall invariably discern in his works an element of Eastern coquettishness and yet we shall be attracted by an irresistible warmth of soul.
It is quite useless today to dabble superficially in the idea of repeated earthly lives and merely take it as a theory. It must be applied to life in a concrete way, although this is still far from people’s liking. At the bottom of their hearts they are afraid to know and face their own being, and make no attempt to see in actual life any concrete expression of their abstract beliefs. They are embarrassed at the prospect of confronting their own true being. They do not want to show themselves to the world as they really are, and that is why they put up every obstacle they can to hinder investigation into reality. The widespread confusion, and innumerable problems with which modern life is fraught is explained to some extent when we take into consideration the things I have put before you here.
And now let us think of peoples inhabiting another part of the earth. When a seer has made the investigations of which I have been telling you, another question forces itself upon him; namely: What has become of the souls who were incarnated in Asia round about the time of the Mystery of Golgotha? In spiritual research one always finds that some problem in actual life gives the impetus to investigation. Life itself indicates the line of investigation, and then the faculty of vision is kindled. One problem leads us to a particular region, another to a different region and it is finally quite obvious that there is meaning and purpose in it all. Having investigated the destiny of the souls once incarnated in the Indian peoples of America, one is led to enquire into the destiny of those souls who were living in Asia, in Asia Minor and in Africa about the time of the Mystery of Golgotha and in the earliest centuries of Christendom. I am not now referring to those who actually received the teachings concerning the Mystery of Golgotha, but to those who did not receive them; namely, souls through whom the ancient culture of the East lived on.
People have not, as a rule, any very correct idea of the character of this old Oriental culture at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha. Today, of course, it has become altogether decadent, but at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha it was often of a lofty spiritual order. A great many men were able to form very clear and definite conceptions of certain facts and events of the spiritual worlds. Those faculties which can be awakened in one who has allowed the Christ Impulse to pour through the fibers of his being, were not, of course, possessed by the souls of whom I am now speaking, but for all that they had a deep understanding of the spiritual world which they envisaged in pictures. Their conception of the universe was of a lofty spiritual order and had the effect of making them think that the spiritual world was the only world worthy of their aspirations. Their inclination was to shun and flee away from the material world. They were men who indulged in a great deal of speculation, but their speculations were to some extent still nourished by forces of the old, instinctive clairvoyance. They spoke of how the world had come into being, passing through different stages of spiritual evolution in the remote past. They spoke of Aeons in successive ranks, entering into denser and denser states of matter, resulting finally in the structure of the outer physical world. In short, they were men who gazed deeply and reverently into the spiritual world. This attitude of soul prepared them for a lengthy life in the spiritual world between death and a new birth, and it was a very long time before they brought themselves to descend again into new bodies. It was a very long time before the urge arose within them to come down again to the earth. These souls—a considerable number of them at all events—are incarnated today in the peoples of modern America. The whole constitution of the Americans today with all their astuteness in the practical and material sides of life, is due to the fact that in an earlier incarnation their souls were given up to spiritual contemplation of the universe, but that they then descended into very hard and dense material bodies. Fundamentally speaking what they are seeking to do now is to let their earlier experiences of the spiritual world live themselves out once again in a subtle and uncannily astute handling of affairs connected with the material world. We can understand why the American mind approaches everything connected with the material world in such an eminently practical and thoroughly scientific way, when we know that this characteristic is to be traced back to an age when the attention of these souls was turned towards the spiritual world. Material life has now taken the place of the spiritual world and although the people of America are quite unconscious of it, what they are really trying to do is to understand the spiritual in the garb of the material. Their attitude of mind now is the materialized counterpart of spiritual experiences through which their souls passed in an earlier incarnation.
You will soon realize how useful it is to try to understand the actions and behavior of men of the present generation in the light of such facts, for only so can you ever hope to grasp the whole reality. We live in a world of pure abstractions when we study merely the history of consecutive generations.
Be quite clear on one point, my dear friends. The vast majority of men at the present time do not want self-knowledge. They are not courageous enough to get out of the groove of physical, sense observation, whether it be in history or in anything else. Think of all that is inculcated into the minds of children in the instruction they are given at school. It is quite obvious that human beings today are being wrenched away from the realities of life just because they are taught only one small fraction of reality. When people are asked today to take the fact of repeated earthly lives in all seriousness and to look a little further than outward appearances, they draw back as if something were going to burn them. One comes across incredible statements made, for instance, by leading scientists. It is of course still too soon to speak in public lectures of matters such as I have been speaking of today, but even in public lectures one has to go pretty far.
We may as well realize at once that in most cases it is quite impossible to find a point of contact with modern modes of thinking. The modern mind is altogether perverted by the kind of thought that is current in our present age. But on the other hand it is urgently necessary that a sense for reality should find its way into life. Without this sense of reality we shall make no real progress. And for this reason those who are sincere students of the truths of anthroposophical Spiritual Science must not be afraid of applying to actual life, teachings like that of repeated earthly lives, which in the abstract they may understand quite well. All the same, it is absolutely right to refrain from uttering the bald, dogmatic form of a truth until the proper time has arrived. It is right, for example, that our Waldorf School shall be prevented from becoming a school for the promulgation of any specific view of the world. It is not essential for children to get hold of the abstract idea of repeated lives on earth, but without actually expounding this as an idea in the abstract, it is quite possible to throw light on history and, furthermore, to make history intelligible when one has this idea in the background. The minds of children who are taught history in this way—perhaps without ever having heard of the theory of reincarnation—will be quite different, simply because their teachers have been able to speak intelligibly of life as it is at the present time, knowing and understanding the way in which souls from remote regions of the earth enter into the stream of blood flowing through successive generations.
Our task today is not only to speak about the spirit, but to bring understanding of the spirit to a point where the working of the spirit can be seen in concrete, material existence. Our sciences are abstract even when they dabble in the most concrete phenomena of external life, for these material phenomena themselves are nothing but abstractions when their spiritual foundations are ignored.
Again we find people saying: The only thing to do is to believe in those who claim to have vision of the spiritual world, for initiation science is not so easily acquired as other kinds of knowledge. Initiation science is not for us. Such a point of view is fundamentally the same as that of a certain Professor who said: “After all, when it comes to things that do not directly concern me—the birth of Alexander the Great, for instance—I can accept them without having experienced them myself. But I must either have experienced personally or be able to experience things that directly concern me before I will acknowledge them as truth. Nothing will make me accept these things merely on the basis of the experiences of others.”
I should like to ask such people whether or not they have to accept the date of their own birth on the authority of others. The date of their birth is something that concerns them most intimately, but whether it can ever be a conscious experience—that is quite another matter! There is surely no alternative but to accept it on the authority of others!
That is one thing that may be said about the rejection of the principle of authority—as it is called.
If we would only try to open up the path which leads through healthy human intelligence to the understanding of the teachings of Spiritual Science and take these teachings really seriously, we should soon discover that healthy, free minds can, after all, find their way to truths such as those of which I have spoken to you today—strange and questionable as they may at first appear to be. Of course, if the faculty of healthy reason has to confront such obstacles as are erected when history is studied merely from the point of view either of inherited characteristics or of events occurring in a continuous, unbroken stream—if human intelligence is obstructed by prejudice in this way, then it will not be possible to get very near to reality. The moment we give healthy reason free play, and when we begin really to want to understand, we shall be able to perceive what is living in the souls now incarnated upon the earth. Understanding will not come from a study of heredity alone, nor from a study of the blood flowing through the generations. Everything depends upon our having the courage to approach these matters. But when once the courage is there we shall get beyond abstractions to a concrete understanding of the truths themselves.
Zweiter Vortrag
[ 1 ] Es kommt heute alles darauf an, dasjenige, was als Erkenntnisse und als Seelenimpulse durch die Geisteswissenschaft fließen will, in wirklich lebendiger Weise in das Dasein einzuführen. Immer wieder muß es betont werden, daß gegenüber den großen Aufgaben der Gegenwart es nicht genügt, irgendwie theoretisch sich zu unterrichten über die Wahrheiten, welche dem Menschenleben, dem Weltendasein zugrunde liegen und die man aus anthroposophischer Geisteswissenschaft gewinnen kann, sondern daß es sich darum handelt, im konkreten Leben zu sehen, wie die Zusammenhänge sind, und aus den geisteswissenschaftlichen Untergründen heraus das Leben selbst zu verstehen. Die Menschheit hat sich durch Jahrhunderte hindurch gewöhnt, von dem Wirklichen nur einen Teil zu sehen. Und gerade dadurch sind nach und nach jene Menschenstimmungen vorbereitet worden, die dann hineingeführt haben in das gegenwärtige katastrophale Leben. Die Menschen stehen ohne Verständnis des Lebens, ohne dasjenige Verständnis des Lebens heute im Dasein drinnen, welches verlangt wird von der gegenwärtigen Entwickelungsstufe der Menschheit.
[ 2 ] Wir werden ja ganz gewiß als Bekenner anthroposophischer Geisteswissenschaft leicht vordringen zu der Überzeugung von den wiederholten Erdenleben, von der Verursachung dessen in einem früheren Leben, was — trotz des vollen Bestandes der Freiheit - mit einem Menschen vorgeht, oder was ein Mensch unternimmt in seinem jetzigen Leben. Wenn es sich aber darum handelt, das konkrete Leben zu begreifen, dann fügen wir uns allzuleicht den Vorstellungen, die die letzten Jahrhunderte hervorgebracht haben und die ja eigentlich zum Ergreifen des Menschenlebens durchaus nicht ausreichen, die ganz geeignet sind, gewisse Tatsachen des natürlichen Geschehens zu begreifen, die aber stumpf sind gegenüber der ganzen Kompliziertheit des Menschenlebens. Und man möchte sagen: Am weitesten zurückgeblieben hinter dem, was heute Lebensforderung ist, ist eigentlich das wissenschaftliche Leben. Aber dieses wissenschaftliche Leben übt wiederum einen großen Einfluß aus auf das Denken der breitesten Menschenmassen. Ich habe gar nicht, wenn ich von der Wirkung dieses wissenschaftlichen Lebens rede, diejenigen im Auge, die zur Wissenschaft in irgendeiner Beziehung stehen. Ich habe die ganze breite Masse der Menschheit im Auge, die sich in den wichtigsten Lebensfragen den autoritativen Weisungen derjenigen fügt, die nun einmal durch die äußeren Einrichtungen berufen erscheinen, über diese oder jene Dinge zu urteilen. Dann richtet man sich nach solchen Urteilen. Aber in solchen Urteilen ist nichts enthalten von einem wirklichen Verständnis des Menschenlebens. Es muß hineingetragen werden in dieses Menschenleben dasjenige, was aus anthroposophischer Geisteswissenschaft fließen kann. Vor allen Dingen muß es hineingetragen werden in diejenigen Zweige des öffentlichen Unterrichtes, welche die Grundlage abgeben für das Verständnis des Lebens.
[ 3 ] Wenn heute der eine oder der andere herantritt an Geisteswissenschaft, so fängt er an, das, was den wiederholten Erdenleben zugrunde liegt, zu begreifen. Wenn er aber dann sich unterrichten will über dasjenige, was in der Gegenwart vorgeht, und wenn er außer anderem vielleicht an die Geschichte herantritt — ich meine jetzt unter Geschichte das, was zur Bildung der breitesten Masse gehört -, dann herrscht gerade in dem, was da Geschichte ist, jene Denkweise, die nur geeignet ist, die Naturdinge und Naturtatsachen zu erklären. Immer mehr ist die Menschheit dazu gekommen, gerade aus der Geschichte alles Geistige herauszustreichen. Und wenn heute jemand sich die Tatsachen erklären will, die aus dem geschichtlichen Leben auf irgendeinem Gebiet hervorgehen, dann kann er das kaum anders, als daß er sich über dasjenige unterrichtet, was erlebt hat die frühere Generation, die zweite frühere Generation, die dritte Generation und so weiter, hinauf durch die Jahrhunderte. Wie lernt, um ein konkretes Beispiel herauszugreifen, heute der Deutsche seine Geschichte? Er faßt ins Auge eben die Menschen, die da in Mitteleuropa gelebt haben, zu denen er selber gehört. Er läßt sich erzählen dieHergänge,diesichabgespielthaben mitdiesenMenschen;erverfolgt diese Hergänge hinauf zu den Vätern, Großvätern, Urgroßvätern, zu den früheren Generationen. Er dringt dann vor, rückwärtsgehend, vielleicht bis in die Zeit des Mittelalters. Man hat immer das Bewußtsein, daß man es da zu tun hat mit einer fortströmenden Menschheit, die man bis zur Völkerwanderung und so weiter zurückverfolgt, und man will sich erklären, was den Menschen der Gegenwart geschieht, aus dem, was geschehen ist mit Bezug auf diese vorhergehenden Generationen. Man lernt kennen den fortlaufenden Strom des geschichtlichen Werdens, wie er sich in der Folge dieser Generationen abspielt. Man hat eigentlich nur den Begriff der Vererbung mit Bezug auf die Menschen, man denkt sich, daß die Söhne gewisse Dinge von ihren Vätern ererbt haben, seien es ihre Eigenschaften, sei es, daß ihnen geblieben ist, was die Väter gestiftet haben und so weiter. Also man geht in der Zeit hinauf von der gegenwärtigen Generation zur vorhergehenden und so fort.
[ 4 ] Wenn wir nun die Sache geisteswissenschaftlich ansehen, ist sie denn dann eine volle Wirklichkeit? Liegt denn die Sache nicht so, daß die Seelen, die in den gegenwärtigen Menschenleibern eine Generation sind, durchaus nicht in ihrem früheren Erdenleben in diesem Mitteleuropa verkörpert gewesen zu sein brauchen, daß sie vielleicht ganz woanders unter ganz anderen Verhältnissen verkörpert waren? — Die Kräfte, die sie sich mitgebracht haben aus ihren früheren Verkörperungen, die tragen sie in die gegenwärtigen Leiber herein. Die wirken doch wahrhaftig ebenso wie das, was mit dem Blut heruntergeronnen ist durch die Generationen, die wirken zusammen mit diesen äußerlichen, physisch vererbten Merkmalen. Kann man sich denn der Illusion hingeben, daß man die Gegenwart versteht hinsichtlich ihrer Menschen, hinsichtlich der Tatsachen, die geschehen, wenn man nur ein Stück Wirklichkeit, nicht die volle Wirklichkeit ins Auge faßt, wenn man sich nicht sagt: In den Menschen der Gegenwart leben eben Seelen, in denen Kräfte walten, die uns durchaus nicht zurückführen durch die Generationen, sondern die uns vielleicht in ganz andere Regionen führen, wo diese Seelen in einem früheren Leben waren? — Man versteht nicht, was auf der Erde vorgeht, wenn man nicht im konkreten Sinne ernst nimmt dasjenige, was in der Anerkennung der Tatsache der wiederholten Erdenleben liegt. Man kann nicht in ehrlicher Weise auf der einen Seite ein abstrakter Bekenner der wiederholten Erdenleben sein und auf der anderen Seite Geschichte so betrachten, wie sie heute betrieben wird. Da schneidet man eben mitten auseinander auf der einen Seite das äußere Leben, in dem man sich ganz fügt dem Traditionellen, und auf der anderen Seite dasjenige, was man eigentlich für das Wesentliche anerkennt. Es muß immer mehr und mehr das Bedürfnis entstehen, die Dinge, die man aus geistigen Untergründen heraus als Wahrheit erkannt hat, wirklich auch im Leben drinnen zu sehen. Weil das so ist, stehe ich nicht an, über gewisse Forschungen auch zu sprechen, die vielleicht heute von manchen Menschen als sehr paradox empfunden werden, die aber durchaus heute verkündet werden müssen, weil heute die Menschheit nach dem Begreifen der ganzen Wirklichkeit verlangt, und weil alles, was nicht nach dem Begreifen der ganzen Wirklichkeit hingeht, einfach dem niedergehenden Leben angehört. Es ist ja natürlich schon einmal so, daß die meisten Menschen heute noch, wenn sie sich vor den vollen Ernst der geisteswissenschaftlichen Wahrheiten gestellt sehen, zurückschrecken. Die Dinge kommen ihnen zu kühn vor. Es ist ihnen ein zu weiter Weg von dem, was sie gewohnt sind zu denken und zu empfinden, zu dem, was die Geisteswissenschaft sagt. Daher nippen sie vielleicht an dieser Geisteswissenschaft, aber sie kommen nicht bis zum vollen Ernste ihrer Erfassung, denn sie haben nicht den Mut, die Dinge in das Leben wirklich hineinzutragen, nicht einmal in die Betrachtung des konkreten Lebens.
[ 5 ] Ich muß da etwas noch einmal betonen, auf das ich öfters aufmerksam gemacht habe, bevor ich die folgenden Auseinandersetzungen gebe. Ich sagte schon öfters: Derjenige, der etwas finden will in geistiger Erforschung aus den geistigen Welten heraus, der muß sich wohl hüten vor bloßen Begriffskombinationen oder Ideenverbindungen. Denn das, was man sich vorstellt, ist gewöhnlich das Gegenteil der Wahrheit oder wenigstens etwas, was sehr abweicht von der Wahrheit. Gerade die tieferen Wahrheiten erscheinen zunächst paradox. Sie können nur gefunden werden durch wirkliches Erlebnis, durch wirkliche Erfahrung.
[ 6 ] Wir wollen also einmal ernst nehmen die Frage: Wie steht es denn, wenn wir von wahrer Geisteswissenschaft aus die Verhältnisse der Gegenwart, die Menschen der Gegenwart betrachten, mit den Menschen dieser Zivilisation, die in solch eine Katastrophe hineingeführt hat? — Ich bemerke ausdrücklich, daß dasjenige, was ich über Dinge, die ich auch jetzt besprechen will, im einzelnen da oder dort schon angedeutet habe, durchaus so ist, wie ich es angedeutet habe. Aber natürlich kann man das, was das Feld einer weitausgreifenden Wirklichkeit ist, nur charakterisieren, indem man immer Einzelheiten anführt.
[ 7 ] Ich habe ja öfters darauf aufmerksam gemacht, wie in der Gegenwart viele Seelen leben, die in einem früheren Leben in den ersten Jahrhunderten des Christentums mehr im Süden von Europa inkarniert waren, und die jetzt mehr in Mitteleuropa verkörpert sind. Das ist durchaus eine Wahrheit, allein es bezieht sich nur auf eine gewisse Anzahl von Seelen. Ich will heute das vor Sie hinstellen, was sich auf große Teile der gegenwärtigen Erdenbevölkerung bezieht. Da kommen wir zu der Frage, und dasjenige, was ich als Antwort geben werde auf diese Frage, beruht eben auf wirklicher, intensiver geistiger Forschung: Wo waren denn die Seelen eines großen Teiles, geradezu das Gros der europäischen Westbevölkerung und auch eines großen Teiles der mitteleuropäischen Bevölkerung bis weit nach Rußland hinein in einem früheren Erdenleben? — Wenn man diese Frage gewissenhaft untersucht mit den zur Verfügung stehenden geistigen Forschungsmitteln, dann stellt sich heraus, daß man es zu tun hat mit Seelen, die ein verhältnismäßig kürzeres Leben durchgemacht haben zwischen dem letzten Tod und dieser Geburt. Man wird nach Westen hinübergeführt. Man wird dort hingeführt auf seinen Forschungswegen, wo nach der Entdeckung Amerikas ja ein großer Teil der europäischen Bevölkerung dieses Amerika besiedelt und die Urbevölkerung ausgerottet oder wenigstens außerordentlich zurückgedrängt hat. Man wird in die Jahrhunderte der Eroberung Amerikas geführt, zu denjenigen Seelen, die in den Indianerleibern waren, über die sich die Eroberungen ergossen haben. Man wird, was ich zu sagen habe, nur verstehen, wenn man diese von den Europäern ausgerotteten Indianer in der richtigen Weise beurteilt. Gewiß, in dem Sinne waren das nicht gebildete Leute, in dem man jetzt unter uns Bildung auffaßt, aber es war etwas in diesen Seelen, was ich bezeichnen möchte als eine universelle pantheistische religiöse Empfindung. Gerade bei diesen Indianern, nicht gerade bei den entarteten Leuten, aber bei denen, die dort das tonangebende Element bildeten, hat man angetroffen ein religiöses Gefühl, das sich richtete auf eine geistige Wesenheit, monotheistisch sogar, das einen einheitlichen Geist in den Naturerscheinungen und auch in den Taten der Menschen lebendig und intensiv empfand. Diese Seelenstimmung muß man ins Auge fassen und muß durch manches Vorurteil wie durch Gestrüpp hindurch begreifen, daß man in diesen Seelen doch etwas anderes zu sehen hat als das, was man nur dann im Indianer sieht, wenn man ihn nach äußerlicher, naturalistischer Methode gewissermaßen wie ein halbes Tier ansieht. Und die Seelen dieser ausgerotteten, besiegten Indianerbevölkerung leben heute in dem Gros der westeuropäischen und mitteleuropäischen Menschen bis weit nach Rußland hinein. Wir begreifen nicht, wie die Wirklichkeit ist, wenn wir nicht dieses uns scheinbar so paradox Anmutende zu unserem Verständnis bringen.
[ 8 ] Das waren Seelen, die in ihrer früheren Inkarnation nichts vom Christentum gehabt haben. Dem Gros der europäischen Bevölkerung ist daher das Christentum auch nicht etwas, was schon in ihren Seelen lag vor der gegenwärtigen Geburt oder Empfängnis. Es ist ihnen anerzogen, allerdings anerzogen zum großen Teil mit den Lauten der Sprache. Es ist etwas, was äußerlich erworben ist. Die Art, wie das Christentum eigentlich in den heutigen europäischen Seelen lebt, wird derjenige verstehen, der weiß, daß in dem Gros dieser Seelen in einem früheren Erdenleben gar nicht christliche Impulse vorhanden waren, sondern die Impulse, die nach dem großen, universellen Geiste mit einer Art pantheistischer religiöser Empfindung hingingen. Allerdings hat sich ja in diese Bevölkerung vieles hineingemischt von Seelen, die mehr vom Süden heraufkamen, die eben in den ersten Jahrhunderten des Christentums in mehr südlichen Gegenden Europas verkörpert waren, die in nordafrikanischen Gegenden gelebt haben und die dann wiederverkörpert sind in diesem Gros, das ich eben bezeichnet habe. Aus diesen zwei Seelenarten setzt sich in der Hauptsache das zusammen, was west- und mitteleuropäische Bevölkerung ist, wie gesagt, bis weit nach Rußland hinein. Wir müssen uns klar sein darüber, daß wir zu studieren haben die Art und Weise, wie sich eine Seele äußert in der Gegenwart, wie ihre Aspirationen sind, wie ihre Art des Denkens ist. Um das alles zu wissen, müssen wir uns davon unterrichten, daß ein großer Teil der gegenwärtigen Bevölkerung nur begriffen werden kann, wenn wir nicht bloß wie gang und gäbe Geschichte in der Generationenströmung hinnehmen, sondern wenn wir wissen, daß in denjenigen Leibern, die allerdings in bezug auf die bloße Blutsverwandtschaft zurückgehen auf ihre Väter, Großväter, Urgroßväter und so weiter bis hinauf in die Zeiten Karls des Großen und weiter zurück, Seelen tätig sind, ihnen die ganze seelische Konfiguration gebend, welche im fernen Amerika gelebt haben und von Europäern überwunden worden sind.
[ 9 ] Wir haben noch eine andere Wahrheit, die sich ergeben kann durch eine solche geistige Forschung. Wir können zurückblicken auf diejenige Bevölkerung, welche in Europa zur Zeit der Völkerwanderung, etwas früher und etwas später, vorhanden war, also gerade auf die europäische Bevölkerung, die vom Süden her das Christentum entgegengenommen hat, es entgegengenommen hat in der Form, die noch eine andere war als heute, da es noch durchaus durchsetzt war mit elementaren, ursprünglichen inneren Seelenkräften, da es eine imponderable Macht war, die innerhalb des ganzen Lebens wirkte. Es war noch nicht von abstrakter, verstandesmäßiger Theologie durchsetzt, es war etwas, was vor allen Dingen auf die Grundempfindungen der Seele wirkte. Diese Seelen, die in dem damaligen Europa vorhanden waren und die in dieser Weise das Christentum entgegengenommen haben, sind nun nach einem Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt, das etwas länger dauerte als bei anderen, weil eben gerade durch diese besondere Art der Seelenbildung, die da in die Menschen hineingekommen ist, dieses Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt verlängert wird, diese Seelen sind heute zum großen Teil in Asien drüben verkörpert. Insbesondere sind viele von diesen Seelen, die gerade durchchristet worden sind in der bezeichneten Zeit, in japanischen Leibern heute verkörpert. Wer dieses eigentümliche Leben in Asien, das ja heute wirklich viele Rätsel bietet, verstehen will, muß sich darüber klar sein, daß in Asien heute gerade viele Seelen leben, die im vorigen Erdenleben in einer gewissen Gestalt die christlichen Empfindungen aufgenommen haben, die diese christlichen Empfindungen hineingetragen haben in gegenwärtige orientalische Leiber, die umgeben waren von Kindheit auf schon durch die Sprache von dem, was in Dekadenz aus älterer orientalischer Kultur geblieben ist. Ich möchte sagen, es lebt etwas von wahrem Christlichen in dem Durchdringen des Christlichen, dem solche Seelen früher unterworfen waren, gegenüber dem, was an ihr Ohr heranklingt, was an ihr Gemüt herantönt von der dekadenten orientalischen religiösen und sonstigen Kulturwelt. Selbst bis zu den Gebildeten, bis zu den Allergebildetsten hinauf, läßt sich das verfolgen, und man gewinnt eigentlich nur ein Verständnis, wenn man es so verfolgt. Es wird einem erst klar, was eine solche Persönlichkeit wie Rabindranath Tagore eigentlich bedeutet, wenn man sich klar ist darüber: Auch das ist wohl eine Seele, die in einem früheren Erdenleben europäisch christlich war, die aus dieser europäischen Christlichkeit eine gewisse Wärme der Empfindung durch alles ergießt, was sie von sich gibt. — Dagegen fließt dann aus dem dekadenten Orientalismus alles dasjenige, was gerade bei Tagore einem entgegentritt in seinem koketten Wesen, in dieser Kulturkoketterie. Es ist ja eine merkwürdige Zwitterbildung in dieser Persönlichkeit gerade des Tagore. Auf der einen Seite wird man immer, wenn man ein natürliches, gesundes Empfinden hat, aufmerksam darauf, daß da alle heutige orientalische Koketterie vorhanden ist, dann aber wiederum zieht einen die ungeheure Seelenwärme an.
[ 10 ] Es geht eben heute nicht, bloß obenhin naschend zu nehmen, was sich einem theoretisch darbietet als die Anschauung von den wiederholten Erdenleben. Das ganz konkrete Leben will heute so betrachtet werden, wenn dies auch eigentlich den Menschen heute noch unbequem ist. Denn im Grunde zittern die Menschen heute davor zurück, sich selber kennenzulernen. Sie versuchen gar nicht, das, was sie sich abstrakt vorhalten, auch im wirklichen Leben zu sehen. Gewissermaßen fühlt sich der Mensch geniert, so in sein Wesen hineinzuschauen. Er möchte nicht so vor der Welt dastehen, wie er wirklich ist. Daher verpönt er es, die Realitäten auf diesem Gebiete wirklich zu untersuchen. Was das gegenwärtige Leben an Verworrenheit, an Rätseln hat, es wird verständlich, wenn man solche Dinge in Erwägung zieht, wie ich sie Ihnen jetzt vorlegte.
[ 11 ] Aber nehmen wir eine andere Bevölkerung. Gerade wenn der Geistesforscher solche Untersuchungen gemacht hat, deren Ergebnisse ich ‚Ihnen jetzt eben gesagt habe, wird er zu der Frage getrieben: Was ist denn eigentlich geschehen mit derjenigen Bevölkerung, die zeitlich etwas weiter zurückliegt, in Asien drüben? - Es ist ja beim geistigen Forschen so, daß man irgendwo, gedrängt durch das Leben, durch irgendeine Rätselfrage, die sich einem aufgibt, das angreift, was man erforschen kann. Erst ist es das Leben, das einen hinführt, an irgendeiner Stelle mit der Forschung einzusetzen, dann entzündet sich das Schauen daran. Eine Frage bringt einen auf ein anderes Gebiet, und man kann dann nur sagen: Es stellt sich zuletzt schon als sinnvoll heraus, warum man so getrieben wird von einer Frage, von einem Ergebnis zu dem anderen. Man wird gewissermaßen aufmerksam: Wenn du erforschen willst, was aus den Indianerseelen geworden ist, was aus anderen Seelen der früheren europäischen Bevölkerung geworden ist, dann mußt du die Frage stellen, und sie wird sich dir beantworten: Was ist aus denjenigen Seelen geworden, die mit der besonderen Bildung der damaligen Zeit in Vorderasien, in Asien überhaupt, in Afrika waren, als das Christentum entstanden ist, also in der Zeit, da sich das Mysterium von Golgatha abgespielt hat? — Ich meine nicht diejenigen Seelen, welche die Lehren von dem Mysterium von Golgatha aufgenommen haben, sondern die Seelen, die sie nicht aufgenommen haben, die die alte orientalische asiatische Kultur fortgepflanzt haben. Von dem Bestand dieser alten orientalischen asiatischen Kultur — heute ist sie in der Dekadenz -, in der Zeit, als sich das Mysterium von Golgatha abgespielt hat, hat man ja nicht immer einen genauen Begriff. Es war bei sehr vielen Menschen eine durchgeistigte, eine sehr durchgeistigte Kultur. Die schloß bei sehr vielen Menschen die Fähigkeit in sich, sich sehr klare Vorstellungen zu machen über gewisse Zusammenhänge der geistigen Welten. Was aus dem Menschen wird, wenn er sich vom Christentum durchziehen läßt, das war natürlich bei denen, von denen ich jetzt rede, nicht vorhanden. Aber es war ein sehr stark von Bilderbegriffen durchsetztes Verstehen geistiger Zusammenhänge da. Es war eine in hohem Grade spirituelle Weltanschauung, der diese Menschen angehörten, eine Weltanschauung, die sie dazu brachte, in vieler Beziehung nur die geistige, die spirituelle Welt für die wahre, für die erstrebenswerte zu halten und in einer gewissen Weise zu fliehen die Welt der äußeren sinnlichen Wirklichkeit. Es waren Menschen, die viele Spekulationen anstellten, aber Spekulationen, die zum Teil noch genährt waren aus alten, instinktiven hellsichtigen Kräften, Spekulationen über den Hervorgang der Welt aus den verschiedenen geistigen Entwickelungsstufen früherer, urferner vergangener Zeiten. Es waren Menschen, die da sprachen von Äonen, die einander folgten und die immer gröber und gröber, materieller und materieller wurden, bis zuletzt das zustande kam, was das gegenwärtige Gebilde der äußeren physischen, realen Welt ist. Kurz, es waren Menschen, die ernst und tief hinaufschauten in das Geistige. Diese Seelen bereiteten eben gerade durch diese besondere Seelenstruktur, diese Seelenverfassung sich ein längeres Leben vor zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt, sie brauchten lange, bis in ihnen wiederum der Trieb erwachte in eine neue Körperlichkeit herunterzusteigen. Und eine Anzahl dieser Seelen, sehr viele derselben sind verkörpert in der heutigen amerikanischen Bevölkerung. Diese amerikanische Bevölkerung, die in vieler Beziehung gerade neigt zu der Auffassung des praktischen, materiellen Lebens, ist in ihrer gesamten Konstitution dadurch hervorgerufen, daß die Seelen früher gelebt haben in einer solchen geistigen Erfassung der Welt, wie ich sie geschildert habe, dann aber untergetaucht sind in eine sehr, sehr dichte Leiblichkeit und die im Grunde genommen jetzt in einer raffinierten Behandlung dieser materiellen Welt dasjenige auszuleben suchen, was sie früher in einer feinen Geistigkeit gehabt haben. Man begreift die besondere Art des amerikanischen Geistes, sich wirklich praktisch und wissenschaftlich herzumachen über die Dinge der Welt, wenn man weiß, wie das zurückgeht auf ein früheres Hingelenktsein auf die geistige Welt, das heute gerade ins materielle Leben hereingetragen wird, ohne daß man sich dessen bewußt wird, daß man das Geistige im Materiellen erfassen will. Es ist das materielle Gegenbild des Spirituellen, das diese Seelen in ihrem früheren Erdenleben durchgemacht haben.
[ 12 ] Sie werden sehen, wie fruchtbar es ist, wenn Sie dasjenige, was Ihnen in dieser oder jener Tatsache, in diesem oder jenem Benehmen von Menschen der gegenwärtigen Generation entgegentritt, sich dadurch verständlich zu machen versuchen, daß Sie solche Dinge ins Auge fassen, und wenn Sie dabei das Bewußtsein entwickeln: Jetzt erst ergreife ich die volle Wirklichkeit, während ich im Grunde genommen — wenn es auch eine äußerlich wahrnehmbare Abstraktion ist - doch nur vor einer Abstraktion stehe, wenn ich mir erzählen lasse die Geschichte der Generationen.
[ 13 ] Es ist schon notwendig, daß Sie sich klarmachen, wie wenig die große Mehrheit der heutigen Menschheit geneigt ist, in einer solchen Weise wirklich zur Selbsterkenntnis hinzustreben, wie wenig man den Mut findet, hinauszugehen aus demjenigen, was auch in der Geschichte nur die äußerliche, physisch-sinnliche Beobachtung ist. Es ist ja gerade auf dem Gebiete desjenigen, was dann auf dem Wege des Unterrichts in unsere jungen Seelen fließt, so klar zu bemerken, wie die Menschen heute herausgerissen werden aus der ganzen vollen Wirklichkeit des Lebens dadurch, daß ihnen eigentlich überall nur ein Stück der Wirklichkeit beigebracht wird. Natürlich ist es für die heutigen Menschen etwas, vor dem sie zurückschrecken, wie wenn sie sich daran verbrennen würden, wenn man ihnen zumutet, ernst zu nehmen das geistige Leben, das sich in wiederholten Erdenleben für die Seele äußert, und daß sie wirklich absehen sollen von dem bloß Außerlichen. In dieser Beziehung erlebt man ja heute geradezu die unglaublichsten Dinge in dem, was einem von den wissenschaftlichen Führern der heutigen Menschheit entgegentritt. Natürlich ist noch nicht die Zeit gekommen, um solche Dinge, wie ich sie eben jetzt auseinandergesetzt habe, geradezu in öffentlichen Vorträgen zu sagen. Aber man muß heute schon ziemlich weit gehen in öffentlichen Vorträgen. Ich habe zum Beispiel neulich in Zürich ungefähr das auseinandergesetzt, was ich auch hier am Dienstag im öffentlichen Vortrag dargelegt habe, und habe, um mich verständlich zu machen, in welcher Sphäre das spielt, was der Geistesforscher zur Ausbildung seiner Methoden an besonderen inneren Seelenübungen durchmacht, gesagt: Das fließt in eineSphäre, die durchzogen sein muß vom inneren Willen des Menschen, von innerer Klarheit, wie es sonst nur beim Verfolgen der mathematischen Ableitungen, beim Verfolgen der Wahrheiten des Mathematischen der Fall ist. — Diesen Vortrag hat sich ein Zürcher Wissenschafter angehört, wahrhaftig nicht der schlechteste, sondern einer, der sogar zu den Begabteren gehört. Aber unter manchem anderen, wirklich recht Stumpfen, was er dann in einem ausführlichen Feuilleton der «Neuen Zürcher Zeitung» gegen diesen Vortrag vorgebracht hat, steht, ich hätte mich darauf berufen, daß die inneren Untersuchungsmethoden der anthroposophischen Erkenntnis in einem solchen klaren Seelenverfahren herangebildet werden müssen, wie es nachgebildet ist dem klaren Seelenverfahren in der Ausbildung mathematischen Urteils. — Dazu sagt dieser Gelehrte, es ist sogar ein junger Gelehrter, also eine «hoffnungsvolle Leuchte» für die Zukunft, und man kann wirklich gar nicht seines Erstaunens Ende finden, wenn man so etwas von einem Menschen liest, der ernst genommen werden will: Die Gewißheit der Mathematik bezieht sich ja eigentlich nur darauf, daß man die mathematischen Gebilde miteinander verbindet. Wenn man den Punkt hat und die Linie hat und den Winkel, kann man Punkt und Linie und Winkel verbinden, dann bekommt man Wahrheiten, Gewißheiten heraus. Aber der Punkt und die Linie sind doch selber ungewiß, geradeso wie das Atom und das Molekül ungewiß sind.
[ 14 ] Der Mann glaubt, etwas furchtbar Gescheites zu sagen, aber es ist nur charakteristisch dafür, wie verrenkt eigentlich das Denken des gegenwärtigen Wissenschafters ist. Denn wenn sich jemand mit geraden, gesunden Sinnen darauf beruft, daß in dem Verfahren der Seelenübungen bei anthroposophischer Forschung mathematische Klarheit ist, geht ihn ja alles das nichts an, was man nun diskutieren kann über die Gewißheit der Linienzusammenhänge und die Ungewißheit eines einzelnen Punktes. Das ist ja ganz gleichgültig, was solch ein philosophischer Privatgelehrter denkt über die Gewißheit von Punkten und Linien und so weiter. Lasse man das gewiß oder ungewiß sein, was sich solch ein Mensch vorstellen will. Aber man lebt in einer gewissen Seelenstimmung, wenn man sich den pythagoräischen Lehrsatz klarmacht. Was man da durchmacht, dem wird nachgebildet die anthroposophische Methode, gleichgültig, was man darüber streiten kann, ob das Dreieck des pythagoräischen Lehrsatzes gewiß ist für sich oder ob sein eines Quadrat gewiß ist für sich.
[ 15 ] Also man muß sich schon klar sein darüber, daß man da tatsächlich zumeist keine Brücke schlagen kann zu einem solchen Gelehrten, denn diese «Verstande» sind ganz und gar verbildet durch dasjenige, was eben von der Gegenwart herangezüchtet worden ist. Aber auf der anderen Seite ist es schon dringend notwendig, daß Wirklichkeitssinn in unser ganzes Leben hereinkommt. Ohne diesen Wirklichkeitssinn kommen wir nicht weiter. Daher muß derjenige, der es nun ehrlich meint mit den Wahrheiten und Erkenntnissen der anthroposophisch orientierten Geisteswissenschaft, nicht zurückschrecken davor, diejenigen Dinge, die er vielleicht im Abstrakten ganz gut begreift wie die Lehre von den wiederholten Erdenleben, auch in das konkrete Leben hereinzutragen. Dabei bleibt es durchaus richtig, daß man gerade die Dogmen, das heißt, die abstrakte Dogmenform der Wahrheit eigentlich so spät wie möglich ausbilden soll. Es bleibt zum Beispiel durchaus richtig, daß so etwas wie unsere Waldorfschule keine Weltanschauungsschule sein soll. Es handelt sich daher dort viel weniger darum, daß irgendwie der abstrakte Gedanke der wiederholten Erdenleben schon begriffen werde von den jungen Seelen. Aber es läßt sich, ohne daß man diesen abstrakten Gedanken berührt, einfach indem man selber im Hintergrund hat solche Erkenntnisse, wie ich sie heute dargelegt habe, das geschichtliche Leben im Unterricht beleuchten und zum Verständnis bringen. Dann wird etwas ganz anderes in den Gemütern dieser Seelen leben, die vielleicht ganz ohne die Theorie und Dogmatik von den wiederholten Erdenleben eine solche geschichtliche Darstellung übermittelt bekommen, leben einfach dadurch, daß man die Methoden findet, das Leben der Gegenwart so zu beschreiben, wie man es selber versteht, indem man den Zusammenfluß von ganz fremdem Seelenleben mit dem findet, was in der Generationenfolge durch das Blut leiblich in gerader Strömung aus der Vorzeit heruntergeflossen ist.
[ 16 ] Es kommt heute darauf an, vom Geiste nicht nur zu reden, sondern das Verständnis des Geistes wirklich so weit zu treiben, daß man das Wirken dieses Geistes im konkreten, im materiellen Dasein findet. Unsere Wissenschaften haben überall eine abstrakte Form angenommen, selbst da, wo sie bloß nur so herumplätschern im äußerlichen Hantieren. Da ist das, was man im äußerlichen Hantieren entwickelt, wenn es auch eine anschauliche Abstraktion ist, doch ebenso eine Abstraktion, wenn man es ohne das zugrundeliegende Geistige hat. Und wer einwendet: Da muß man ja glauben denjenigen, die da schauen das geistige Leben; man kann ja die Initiationswissenschaft nicht so einfach erlangen wie etwas anderes! - der steht im Grunde genommen mit einem solchen Einwand auf dem Standpunkt des Pfarrers und Professors Traub, der da sagt, daß ich Dinge, die mich im Grunde genommen wenig berühren, wie zum Beispiel die Geburt Alexanders des Großen, nicht selbst erlebt zu haben brauche, daß ich aber das, was ich als mich unmittelbar angehend anerkennen soll, selbst erlebt haben oder selbst erleben können muß, denn das will ich nicht bloß annehmen als das Erlebnis eines anderen. — Ich möchte Leuten, die solche Logik haben, nur empfehlen, einmal nachzusehen, wann sie das ihnen persönlich doch wohl naheliegende Datum ihrer eigenen Geburt in ihr Tagebuch eingeschrieben haben, ob da nicht doch ein Faktum vorliegt, das ihnen dem persönlichen Leben nach sehr naheliegt und das sie auf keine andere Weise zu ihrem Bewußtsein bringen können als auf Treu und Glauben anderer hin! — Dies zunächst über das Ablehnen des sogenannten Autoritätsprinzips. Aber man soll es nur einmal versuchen, den Weg aufzufinden, der schon durch den gesunden Menschenverstand zum Verstehen desjenigen führt, was Geisteswissenschaft bietet. Man soll nur die Dinge einmal gründlich und intensiv ernst nehmen, dann wird man sehen, daß selbst zu solch anscheinend paradoxen und abgelegenen Wahrheiten, wie ich sie heute vorgebracht habe, dem unbehinderten, ungehemmten gesunden Menschenverstand der Zugang schon möglich ist. Allerdings, wenn man sich den gesunden Menschenverstand durch jene Mauern verbaut, welche aufgerichtet werden, indem man Geschichte nur betrachtet als ein System, sei es physisch, dem Blute nach vererbter Menscheneigenschaften, oder sei es im fortlaufenden Strom auf einem Gebiete sich abspielender Ereignisse, solange man sich verbaut das Verständnis für die Wirklichkeit durch solche Vorurteile, wird man eben an diese Wirklichkeit nicht herankommen können. In dem Augenblick aber, in welchem man sich dem gesunden Menschenverstande übergibt in der richtigen Weise, wenn man nur anfängt, begreifen zu wollen, wird man sehen, was da lebt in den Seelen der Gegenwart. Man begreift es nicht als bloß herkommend aus dem Blut durch Vererbung oder aus dem innerhalb der Generationenreihen fortfließenden Strom, wenn man es nur begreifen will. Allerdings handelt es sich darum, daß man den Mut findet, heranzugehen an die Dinge. Findet man aber diesen Mut, dann wird man über die bloßen Abstraktionen hinaus zum konkreten Ergreifen der Wahrheiten schon kommen.
Second lecture
[ 1 ] Today, it is essential to introduce into existence in a truly living way that which wants to flow through spiritual science as insights and soul impulses. It must be emphasized again and again that, in view of the great tasks of the present, it is not enough to learn theoretically about the truths that underlie human life and the world's existence and that can be gained from anthroposophical spiritual science. Rather, it is a matter of seeing in concrete life how the connections are and of understanding life itself from the spiritual-scientific foundations. Over the centuries, humanity has become accustomed to seeing only a part of reality. And it is precisely this that has gradually prepared the mood of people, which has then led to the present catastrophic life. People stand in existence today without an understanding of life, without the understanding of life that is required by the present stage of human development.
[ 2 ] As professed followers of anthroposophical spiritual science, we will certainly easily arrive at the conviction of repeated lives on earth, of the causation in a previous life of what happens to a human being — despite the full existence of freedom — or what a human being undertakes in his present life. But when it comes to understanding concrete life, we all too easily submit to the ideas that have emerged over the last few centuries, which are actually quite inadequate for grasping human life, which are quite suitable for understanding certain facts of natural events, but which are dull when it comes to the whole complexity of human life. And one might say that scientific life is actually furthest behind what is required of life today. But this scientific life in turn exerts a great influence on the thinking of the broadest masses of people. When I speak of the effect of this scientific life, I am not referring to those who are in any way connected with science. I am referring to the broad masses of humanity who, in the most important questions of life, submit to the authoritative instructions of those who, through external institutions, appear to be called upon to judge this or that. People then follow such judgments. But such judgments contain nothing of a real understanding of human life. What can flow from anthroposophical spiritual science must be brought into human life. Above all, it must be brought into those branches of public education that provide the basis for understanding life.
[ 3 ] When someone approaches spiritual science today, they begin to understand what lies at the foundation of repeated earthly lives. But when they then want to learn about what is happening in the present, and when they approach history, among other things — I mean here history as it belongs to the education of the broadest masses — then precisely in history there prevails a way of thinking that is only suitable for explaining natural things and natural facts. Humanity has increasingly come to emphasize everything spiritual in history. And if someone today wants to explain the facts that emerge from historical life in any field, they can hardly do so without learning about what the previous generation, the second previous generation, the third generation, and so on, experienced throughout the centuries. To take a concrete example, how do Germans today learn their history? They focus their attention on the people who lived in Central Europe, to whom they themselves belong. They listen to the stories of what happened to these people; they trace these events back to their fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers, and earlier generations. They then go back, perhaps as far as the Middle Ages. They are always aware that they are dealing with a continuous stream of humanity that can be traced back to the migration of peoples and so on, and they want to explain what is happening to the people of the present from what happened to previous generations. One gets to know the continuous stream of historical development as it unfolds in the succession of generations. One actually only has the concept of inheritance in relation to human beings; one thinks that sons have inherited certain things from their fathers, be it their characteristics or what their fathers have left them, and so on. So one goes back in time from the present generation to the previous one, and so on.
[ 4 ] If we now look at the matter from a spiritual scientific point of view, is it then a complete reality? Is it not the case that the souls that are one generation in the present human bodies did not necessarily have to be incarnated in this Central Europe in their previous earthly lives, that they may have been incarnated elsewhere under completely different circumstances? — The forces they brought with them from their previous incarnations are carried into their present bodies. They truly have the same effect as what has been passed down through the generations with the blood; they work together with these external, physically inherited characteristics. Can we really delude ourselves into thinking that we understand the present in terms of human beings and the facts that occur, if we only consider a fragment of reality and not the whole reality, if we do not say to ourselves: In the people of the present there live souls in which forces are at work that do not lead us back through the generations, but perhaps lead us to completely different regions where these souls were in a previous life? — One cannot understand what is happening on earth if one does not take seriously, in a concrete sense, what lies in the recognition of the fact of repeated earth lives. One cannot honestly be an abstract believer in repeated lives on earth on the one hand and view history as it is practiced today on the other. This is like cutting something in two: on the one hand, there is the outer life, in which one conforms completely to tradition, and on the other hand, there is what one actually recognizes as essential. There must be an ever-increasing need to see in life the things that one has recognized as truth from spiritual sources. Because this is so, I do not hesitate to speak about certain research that may be perceived by some people today as very paradoxical, but which must be proclaimed today because humanity today demands an understanding of the whole reality, and because everything that does not lead to an understanding of the whole reality simply belongs to the declining life. Of course, it is true that most people today still recoil when confronted with the full seriousness of spiritual scientific truths. Things seem too bold to them. It is too far removed from what they are accustomed to thinking and feeling, to what spiritual science says. Therefore, they may dabble in spiritual science, but they do not come to fully grasp its seriousness because they do not have the courage to really carry things into life, not even into the consideration of concrete life.
[ 5 ] Before I go on with the following discussions, I need to emphasize something I've pointed out a few times before. I've said it before: If you want to find something in spiritual research from the spiritual worlds, you have to be careful about just combining concepts or ideas. For what one imagines is usually the opposite of the truth, or at least something that deviates greatly from the truth. The deeper truths in particular appear paradoxical at first. They can only be found through real experience, through actual experience.
[ 6 ] Let us therefore take seriously the question: What is the situation when we look at the conditions of the present, at the people of the present, from the standpoint of true spiritual science, with the people of this civilization who have led us into such a catastrophe? — I expressly note that what I have already indicated here and there in detail about the things I now wish to discuss is indeed as I have indicated. But of course, what belongs to the field of a far-reaching reality can only be characterized by always citing details.
[ 7 ] I have often pointed out how many souls are living in the present who were incarnated in earlier lives in the first centuries of Christianity, more in the south of Europe, and who are now incarnated more in Central Europe. This is certainly true, but it only applies to a certain number of souls. Today I want to present to you what applies to large parts of the present-day population of the earth. This brings us to the question, and my answer to this question is based on real, intensive spiritual research: Where were the souls of a large part, indeed the majority, of the Western European population and also a large part of the Central European population, extending far into Russia, in a previous life on Earth? If one investigates this question conscientiously with the spiritual research methods available, it turns out that we are dealing with souls who have lived a relatively short life between their last death and this birth. They are led to the West. One is led there on one's path of research, where, after the discovery of America, a large part of the European population settled in America and exterminated the indigenous population or at least pushed them back considerably. One is led into the centuries of the conquest of America, to those souls who were in the bodies of the Indians over whom the conquests were poured out. What I have to say can only be understood if one judges these Indians, who were exterminated by the Europeans, in the right way. Certainly, in the sense in which we now understand education, they were not educated people, but there was something in these souls that I would describe as a universal pantheistic religious feeling. It was precisely among these Indians, not among the degenerate people, but among those who formed the dominant element there, that one encountered a religious feeling directed toward a spiritual entity, even monotheistic, which felt a unified spirit alive and intense in the phenomena of nature and also in the deeds of human beings. One must take this mood of the soul into account and, by clearing away many prejudices like undergrowth, understand that there is something else to be seen in these souls than what one sees in Indians when one regards them, according to external, naturalistic methods, as half-animals, so to speak. And the souls of this exterminated, defeated Indian population live on today in the majority of Western and Central Europeans, extending far into Russia. We cannot understand reality if we do not bring this seemingly paradoxical idea into our understanding.
[ 8 ] These were souls who had no knowledge of Christianity in their previous incarnation. For the majority of the European population, Christianity is therefore not something that was already in their souls before their present birth or conception. It has been instilled in them, albeit largely through the sounds of language. It is something that has been acquired externally. The way Christianity actually lives in the souls of Europeans today will be understood by those who know that in the majority of these souls there were no Christian impulses in a previous life on earth, but rather impulses that tended toward the great universal spirit with a kind of pantheistic religious feeling. However, many souls from further south have mixed into this population, souls that were embodied in the first centuries of Christianity in more southern regions of Europe, that lived in North African regions and were then reincarnated in the majority I have just described. These two types of souls mainly make up the population of Western and Central Europe, as I said, extending far into Russia. We must be clear that we have to study the way a soul expresses itself in the present, what its aspirations are, what its way of thinking is. In order to know all this, we must realize that a large part of the present population can only be understood if we do not simply accept history as it is commonly understood in the flow of generations, but if we know that in those bodies, which are indeed traceable back to their fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers, and so on, up to the time of Charlemagne and further back, souls are active, giving them the entire soul configuration that lived in distant America and was passed on to them through the blood, and that these souls are active in the present. great-grandfathers, and so on back to the time of Charlemagne and further back, there are souls at work, giving them their entire spiritual configuration, souls who lived in distant America and were conquered by Europeans.
[ 9 ] We have another truth that can emerge from such spiritual research. We can look back to the population that existed in Europe at the time of the migration of peoples, somewhat earlier and somewhat later, that is, precisely to the European population that accepted Christianity from the south, accepted it in a form that was still different from today, since it was still thoroughly permeated with elementary, original inner soul forces, since it was an imponderable power that worked within the whole of life. It was not yet permeated by abstract, intellectual theology; it was something that above all worked on the basic feelings of the soul. These souls that existed in Europe at that time and that accepted Christianity in this way are now, after a life between death and new birth that lasted somewhat longer than for others, because it is precisely through this special kind of soul formation that entered into human beings that this life between death and a new birth is prolonged, these souls are now largely embodied in Asia. In particular, many of these souls, which were Christianized during the period mentioned, are now embodied in Japanese bodies. Anyone who wants to understand this peculiar life in Asia, which today truly presents many mysteries, must be aware that many souls are living in Asia today who, in their previous earthly lives, took on Christian sensibilities in a certain form and carried these Christian sensibilities into their present Oriental bodies, which were surrounded from childhood by the language of what remained of the decadence of the older Oriental culture. I would say that something of true Christianity lives on in the permeation of Christianity to which such souls were previously subjected, in contrast to what reaches their ears, what strikes their minds from the decadent Oriental religious and other cultural worlds. This can be traced even among the educated, even among the most highly educated, and one can only really understand it if one traces it in this way. Only when one is clear about this does it become clear what a personality like Rabindranath Tagore actually means: This is also probably a soul that was European Christian in a previous earthly life, which pours a certain warmth of feeling through everything it expresses from this European Christianity. — In contrast, everything that confronts us in Tagore in his coquettish nature, in this cultural coquetry, flows from decadent Orientalism. There is a strange hybridization in Tagore's personality. On the one hand, if one has a natural, healthy sensibility, one is always struck by the presence of all the contemporary Oriental coquetry, but then one is drawn back by the tremendous warmth of his soul.
[ 10 ] Today, it is no longer possible to simply take at face value what is presented to us theoretically as the view of repeated earthly lives. Concrete life today wants to be viewed in this way, even if this is still uncomfortable for people today. For basically, people today shrink from getting to know themselves. They do not even try to see in real life what they hold up to themselves in abstract terms. In a sense, people feel embarrassed to look into their own nature. They do not want to stand before the world as they really are. Therefore, they frown upon truly examining the realities in this area. The confusion and mysteries of contemporary life become understandable when one considers the things I have just presented to you.
[ 11 ] But let us take another population. Precisely when the spiritual researcher has made such investigations, the results of which I have just told you, he is driven to the question: What actually happened to the population that lived a little further back in time, over in Asia? In spiritual research, it is the case that, driven by life, by some puzzling question that presents itself, one attacks what one can investigate. First, it is life that leads one to begin research at some point, then the insight is sparked. One question leads you into another field, and then you can only say: in the end, it makes sense why you are so driven by one question, from one result to the next. You become attentive, so to speak: if you want to explore what became of the souls of the Native Americans, what became of other souls of the earlier European population, then you have to ask the question, and it will answer itself: What became of those souls who, with the special education of that time, were in the Near East, in Asia in general, in Africa, when Christianity arose, that is, at the time when the Mystery of Golgotha took place? — I do not mean those souls who accepted the teachings of the Mystery of Golgotha, but those souls who did not accept them, who carried on the old Oriental Asian culture. We do not always have a precise idea of the state of this old Oriental Asian culture — today it is in decline — at the time when the Mystery of Golgotha took place. For many people, it was a highly spiritualized culture. For many people, this closed off the ability to form very clear ideas about certain connections in the spiritual worlds. What happens to people when they allow themselves to be permeated by Christianity was, of course, not present in those I am talking about now. But there was a very strong understanding of spiritual connections, interspersed with imagery. These people belonged to a highly spiritual worldview, a worldview that led them in many respects to consider only the spiritual world to be true and worthy of striving for, and to flee in a certain way from the world of external sensory reality. These were people who engaged in a great deal of speculation, but speculation that was still partly nourished by ancient, instinctive clairvoyant powers, speculation about the origin of the world from the various stages of spiritual development in earlier, distant times. These were people who spoke of eons that followed one another and became coarser and coarser, more material and more material, until finally what came into being was the present structure of the external physical, real world. In short, these were people who looked seriously and deeply into the spiritual realm. Precisely because of this special soul structure, this soul constitution, these souls prepared themselves for a longer life between death and new birth. It took them a long time before the urge to descend into a new physical body awakened in them again. And a number of these souls, very many of them, are embodied in the present-day American population. This American population, which in many respects tends toward a practical, materialistic view of life, is characterized in its entire constitution by the fact that these souls previously lived in such a spiritual understanding of the world as I have described, but then submerged themselves in a very, very dense physicality and are now, in essence, seeking to live out in a sophisticated treatment of this material world what they previously had in a refined spirituality. One can understand the special nature of the American spirit, which is to approach the things of the world in a truly practical and scientific way, when one knows how this goes back to a former orientation toward the spiritual world, which today is being carried over into material life without people being aware that they want to grasp the spiritual in the material. It is the material counterpart of the spiritual that these souls experienced in their previous earthly lives.
[ 12 ] You will see how fruitful it is when you try to understand what you encounter in this or that fact, in this or that behavior of people of the present generation, by considering such things and developing the awareness that Only now do I grasp the full reality, whereas when I listen to the history of generations being recounted to me, I am basically faced with an abstraction, even if it is an abstraction that can be perceived externally.
[ 13 ] It is necessary that you realize how little the vast majority of people today are inclined to strive for self-knowledge in this way, how little courage they find to go beyond what is only external, physical, and sensory observation, even in history. It is precisely in the realm of what flows into our young souls through education that it is so clearly evident how people today are torn away from the full reality of life by being taught only a fragment of reality everywhere. Of course, it is something that people today shy away from, as if they would burn themselves, when they are expected to take seriously the spiritual life that expresses itself in repeated earthly lives for the soul, and that they should really disregard the merely external. In this respect, one experiences the most incredible things today in what one encounters from the scientific leaders of modern humanity. Of course, the time has not yet come to say such things as I have just explained in public lectures. But one must already go quite far in public lectures today. For example, I recently explained in Zurich roughly what I also presented here on Tuesday in a public lecture, and in order to make myself understood as to the sphere in which the spiritual researcher undergoes special inner soul exercises for the development of his methods, I said: This flows into a sphere that must be permeated by the inner will of the human being, by inner clarity, as is otherwise only the case when pursuing mathematical derivations, when pursuing mathematical truths. — This lecture was attended by a Zurich scientist, certainly not the worst, but one who is even among the more gifted. But among many other really rather dull things that he then put forward against this lecture in a detailed feature article in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, he wrote that I had claimed that the inner methods of investigation of anthroposophical knowledge must be developed in such a clear soul process as is modeled on the clear soul process in the training of mathematical judgment. This scholar, who is in fact a young scholar and therefore a “promising light” for the future, says that the certainty of mathematics actually only refers to the fact that mathematical structures are connected with one another. If you have the point and the line and the angle, you can connect the point and the line and the angle, and then you get truths, certainties. But the point and the line are themselves uncertain, just as the atom and the molecule are uncertain.
[ 14 ] The man believes he is saying something terribly clever, but it is only characteristic of how contorted the thinking of contemporary scientists actually is. For if someone with straight, healthy senses claims that there is mathematical clarity in the process of soul exercises in anthroposophical research, then all the discussion about the certainty of line connections and the uncertainty of a single point is of no concern to him. It is completely irrelevant what such a private philosopher thinks about the certainty of points and lines and so on. Let us leave it uncertain whether what such a person wants to imagine is certain or uncertain. But one lives in a certain mood of the soul when one understands the Pythagorean theorem. What one goes through there is reproduced in the anthroposophical method, regardless of what one may argue about whether the triangle of the Pythagorean theorem is certain in itself or whether its one square is certain in itself.
[ 15 ] So one must be clear that in most cases it is impossible to build a bridge to such a scholar, because these “minds” are completely distorted by what has been cultivated by the present age. But on the other hand, it is urgently necessary that a sense of reality enter into our whole life. Without this sense of reality, we cannot go any further. Therefore, anyone who is sincere about the truths and insights of anthroposophically oriented spiritual science must not shy away from bringing into concrete life those things that they may understand quite well in the abstract, such as the teaching of repeated earth lives. It remains absolutely correct that dogmas, that is, the abstract dogmatic form of truth, should be developed as late as possible. It remains absolutely correct, for example, that something like our Waldorf school should not be a school based on a particular worldview. It is therefore much less important that the abstract idea of repeated earth lives be understood by young souls. But without touching on this abstract idea, simply by having in the background the insights I have presented today, it is possible to illuminate historical life in the classroom and bring it to understanding. Then something completely different will live in the minds of these souls, who may receive such a historical presentation without any theory or dogma about repeated earthly lives, simply by finding methods to describe the life of the present as one understands it oneself, by finding the confluence of completely foreign soul life with what what has flowed down in a straight stream from prehistoric times through the generations by means of the blood.
[ 16 ] What matters today is not just to talk about the spirit, but to really push our understanding of the spirit so far that we find the workings of this spirit in concrete, material existence. Our sciences have taken on an abstract form everywhere, even where they merely splash around in external activities. What is developed in external activities, even if it is a vivid abstraction, is still an abstraction if it lacks the underlying spiritual element. And those who object that one must believe those who see spiritual life, since the science of initiation cannot be attained as easily as other things, are essentially taking the same position as the pastor and professor Traub, who says that I am concerned with things that, in the final analysis, affect me little, such as the birth of Alexander the Great. — such an objection basically puts them on the same footing as the pastor and professor Traub, who says that I do not need to have experienced things that basically affect me little, such as the birth of Alexander the Great, but that I must have experienced or be able to experience for myself what I am supposed to recognize as directly concerning me, because I do not want to simply accept it as the experience of another. — I would simply recommend that people who think this way take a look at when they wrote the date of their own birth in their diary, which must surely be close to them, and see whether there is not a fact there that is very close to their personal life and that they cannot bring to their consciousness in any other way than on the good faith of others! — This is my initial response to the rejection of the so-called principle of authority. But one should at least try to find the path that leads through common sense to an understanding of what the spiritual sciences offer. One should just take things thoroughly and intensively seriously, and then one will see that even such seemingly paradoxical and remote truths as I have presented today are already accessible to unhindered, uninhibited common sense. However, if one blocks common sense with those walls that are erected by viewing history only as a system, be it physical, human characteristics inherited through blood, or be it in the continuous stream of events taking place in a particular field, as long as you block your understanding of reality with such prejudices, you will not be able to approach this reality. But the moment one surrenders to common sense in the right way, the moment one begins to want to understand, one will see what lives in the souls of the present. One does not understand it as merely coming from blood through inheritance or from the stream flowing within the generations, if one only wants to understand it. Of course, it is a matter of finding the courage to approach things. But if one finds this courage, then one will go beyond mere abstractions and arrive at a concrete grasp of the truths.