At the Gates of Spiritual Science
GA 95
28 August 1906, Stuttgart
7. Workings of the Law of Karma in Human Life
Today I want to speak about the workings of the law of karma through individual human lives. Any such explanation is bound to be incomplete, for I shall not be putting before you any speculations or theories. I shall limit myself, as occultism always should, to facts and experiences. I shall therefore tell you of a karmic influence of one kind or another only when I have observed a person in that particular situation. In speaking of karmic relationships I shall draw only on real experiences.
We touched yesterday on the fact that for most people the really burning question is: How does our destiny come about and why are we born with talents and circumstances that vary so widely? In order to understand these karmic relationships, we shall have to look back again at what has been said about man's four bodies—the physical, the etheric, the astral, and within them the Ego-body, in which the higher part of the human being is enclosed. In considering karmic relationships we shall be concerned chiefly with how causes and effects are connected with these different bodies.
Let us consider first the physical body, in so far as it bears on the law of karma. All our actions take place in the physical world; if we are to cause anyone pleasure or pain we have to be—of course not literally—in the same place as he is. What we do results from the movements of our physical body and on everything connected with it. Our external destiny in a later life depends upon what we do in this physical life. This external destiny is, as it were, the environment into which we are born. Anyone who has done bad deeds prepares for himself a bad environment, and vice versa. That is the first important karmic law: what we did in a former life determines our external destiny.
There is a second fundamental law. If we look at the way a man develops, we see that in the course of his life he learns an extraordinary amount. He absorbs concepts, ideas, experiences, feelings, and all this produces great changes in him. Think of yourselves as you were a few years ago before you knew anything about Theosophy; think of the new ideas you have acquired and how they have changed your life. All this has produced a corresponding change in the astral body, for it is the most subtle and delicate and responds most quickly to change.
Temperament, character and inclinations change much more slowly. A passionate child, for example, changes very slowly. Temperament, character and inclinations often persist all through life. Ideas and experiences change quickly; it is just the opposite with temperament, character and inclinations. These attributes are very tenacious; they do change, but slowly. Their relation to quickly changing ideas is somewhat like the relation of the hour-hand of a clock to the quick-moving minute-hand. This is because they depend on the etheric body, which consists of substance much less open to change than is the substance of the astral body. Slowest of all to change is the physical body. It is laid down once for all, so to speak, and retains more or less the same character throughout life. We shall see later how the Initiate can work upon his etheric body and can change even his physical body. For the moment we must consider how all this extends beyond a single life.
The ideas, feelings and so on which transform the astral body during a long life will produce a marked change in the etheric body only in the next life. Thus if someone wants to be born. in his next life with good habits and inclinations, he must try-to prepare these as much as possible in his astral body. If he makes the effort to do good, he will be born in his next life with the tendency to do good and that will be a characteristic of his etheric body. If he wants to be born with a good memory, he must exercise his memory as much as he can; he must practise looking back over the separate years of his life and over his life as a whole. In this way he will engender in his astral body something which will become a characteristic of his etheric body in his next life—the foundation for a good memory. A man who simply hurries through the world will find in his next life that he cannot stick at anything. But if anyone lives in intimate sympathy with a particular environment, he will be born with a special predilection for everything that reminds him of it.
We can trace the various temperaments, also, back to a previous life, for they are qualities of the etheric body.
The choleric man has a strong will, is bold, courageous, with an urge to action. Alexander the Great, Hannibal, Caesar, Napoleon, for example, were cholerics. This type of character shows itself even in childhood, and a child with this temperament will take the lead in childhood games.
The melancholic man is very much occupied with himself and hence is apt to keep himself to himself. He does a lot of thinking, particularly about the way in which his environment affects him. He withdraws into himself, tends to be suspicious. This temperament, too, is apparent in childhood: a child of this type does not like to display his toys; he is afraid something will be taken away from him and would like to keep everything under lock and key.
The phlegmatic man has no real interest in anything; he is dreamy, inactive, lazy, and seeks sensuous enjoyment.
The sanguine man, on the other hand, gets easily interested in anything but he does not stick to it; his interest quickly fades; he is continually changing his hobbies.
These are the four basic types. Generally a man is a mixture of all four, but we can usually discover the fundamental one. These four temperaments express themselves in the etheric body, and so there are four main types of etheric body. They have differing currents and movements, and these impart a particular basic colour to the astral body. This does not depend on the astral body; it only reveals itself there.
The melancholic temperament is karmically determined if a man in his previous life was compelled to lead a narrow, restricted existence and to be much alone; if he was always preoccupied only with himself and unable to Make much interest in anything else. If, however, a man has learnt a great deal from experience but has also had something of a hard struggle, if he has encountered many things and has not merely looked on at them, he will become a choleric. If, again, he has had a pleasant life without much struggle or toil, or if he saw and passed by many things, but only as an onlooker, all this will work karmically into the etheric body of his next life: he will become a phlegmatic or a sanguine type.
From this we can see how we can work for our next life: and in occult schools this is done with conscious intention. In former times it was done more often than it is today because of the changes in human evolution. Five thousand years ago the occult teacher had a quite different task. He had to concern himself with people in groups; human beings had not reached the stage where each man has to take responsibility for himself. The deliberate purpose was to enable whole classes and groups of people to work together harmoniously in their next lives. But human beings are becoming more and more individual and independent; the occult teacher can no longer use anyone as a means to an end but has to treat everyone as an end in himself, and to help him to develop as far as is possible for him. In the oldest civilisations, in India for example, the entire population was divided into four castes, and the training given was intended to fit everyone for a particular caste in the next life. The development of human beings, together with the picture of the world they were to have, was deliberately planned for thousands of years ahead, and it was this that gave occult leaders their great power.
How, then, should we try to influence our etheric body for the next life? Everything done to develop the etheric body produces a result, however slowly, and education can take pains to instil quite specific habits. Whatever the etheric body acquires during one life comes to expression in the physical body in the next life. All the habits and inclinations of the present etheric body will create a predisposition to good or bad health. Good habits will produce good health; bad ones will create a tendency to some specific illness in the next life. A strong determination to rid oneself of a bad habit will work down into the physical body and produce a tendency to good health. How a disposition to infectious diseases arises in the physical body has been particularly well observed. Whether we actually get a disease will depend on what we do; but whether we are specially liable to contract it is the result of the inclinations we had in a previous life. Infectious diseases, strangely enough, can be traced back to a highly developed selfish acquisitiveness in a previous life.
If we want really to understand health and illness, we must bear in mind how complicated the circumstances are. Illness need not be a matter of individual karma only; the karma of a whole people has to be taken into account.
An interesting example of how things in the spiritual life are inter-related can be seen in the migration of the Huns and Mongols who poured from Asia into the West. The Mongols were stragglers of the Atlanteans. While the Indians, the German and other peoples were progressing, the Mongols had remained behind. Just as the animaLs have separated off from the evolutionary path of mankind, so have certain lower peoples and races fallen behind. The Mongols were Atlanteans whose physical development had taken a downward course. In the astral bodies of such decadent people an abundance of decaying astral substance can be seen. When the Mongols fell upon the Germans and other Central European peoples, they created a wave of fear and panic. These emotions belong to the astral body, and under such conditions decaying astral substances will flourish. Thus the astral bodies of Europeans became infected and in later generations the infection came out in the physical body, affecting not merely individuals but whole groups of peoples. It emerged as leprosy, that terrible disease which wrought such devastation in the Middle Ages. It was the physical consequence of an influence on the astral body.
Philology will not help you in finding evidence for this, because it knows nothing of astral influences. But you will at least find some evidence for the descent of the Mongols from the Atlanteans in the names: thus Attila, the leader of the Huns, is called in the Nordic language, Atli—meaning someone descended from the Atlanteans.
This then is how diseases affecting whole peoples have originated, and in ancient times some knowledge of it survived. The Bible has a true saying, very often misunderstood, when it speaks of God visiting the sins of the fathers on the children, even to the third and fourth generations. This does not refer to the successive incarnations of individuals, but to a karma affecting whole generations. We have to take the saying literally, as indeed many such statements have to be taken more literally than is usually thought.
The fact is that we must first learn to read the religious sources properly. In ancient times simple-minded people took them literally. As people became more sophisticated, this way of reading became increasingly rare. Then the clever liberal theologians began to expound the sources, each in his own way; and this meant that many passages were not expounded but undermined. Then there was a third stage: that of the people who took everything—old myths and legends and even the life of Christ—as a series of symbols. All this depends on the ingenuity of individuals; some will always be cleverer at it than others. But there is also a fourth stage: that of the occultist, who can once more understand everything literally because through his spiritual knowledge he can see how things are interconnected.
From what has been said you will realise that habits and feelings, which first belong to the spiritual life, can later express themselves in physical life. There is an important principle here: if care is taken to inculcate good habits, not only will the moral life of subsequent generations be improved, but also the health of a whole people, and vice versa. This is then their collective karma.
There is a form of illness, very widespread today, which was hardly known a hundred years ago—nerves or neuroticism—not because it was unrecognised, but because it was so uncommon. This characteristic illness springs from the materialistic outlook of the eighteenth century. Without that, the illness would never have appeared. The occult teacher knows that if this materialism were to continue for a few decades more, it would have a devastating effect on the general health of mankind. If these materialistic habits of thought were to remain unchecked, people would not only be neurotic in the ordinary sense but children would be born trembling; they would not merely be sensitive to their environment but would receive from everything around them a sensation of pain. Above all, mental ailments would spread very rapidly; epidemics of insanity would occur during the following decade. This was the danger—epidemic insanity—that faced mankind, and the possibility of it in the future was why the leaders of humanity, the Masters of Wisdom, saw the necessity of allowing some spiritual wisdom to be diffused among mankind at large. Nothing short of a spiritual picture of the world could restore to coming generations a tendency to good health. Theosophy, you will realise, is thus a profound movement which has been given out to meet the needs of humanity. A hundred years ago a “nervous” man meant one with iron nerves. Simply from the change in the meaning of the word you can see that something quite new has come into the world.
How is the law of karma related to physical heredity? Physical heredity plays a great role; we know that some of the characteristics of a father and his ancestors may be found again in the son. In the Bach25Bach. Among the children of Johann Sebastian Bach, 1685–1750, were three sons, all well-known musicians: Friedemann Bach, 1710–1784; Philip Emanuel Bach, 1714–1788; Johann Christian Bach, 1735–1782. family, for instance, there were twenty-eight highly gifted musicians in a period of 250 years. Again, Bernoulli26Bernoulli, a family of mathematicians, Basle. Jacob Bernoulli, 16J4–1705; Nicholas Bernoulli, 16871759; Daniel Bernoulli, 1700–1782. was a great mathematician, and eight other gifted mathematicians came after him in his family. This is all a matter of heredity, we are told; but that is only partially true. In order to be a good musician you need more than a musical predisposition in your soul; you need also a good ear in the physical sense. This good ear is a physical quality to be found in a family of musicians, and is passed on from one generation to the next. In a family, then, where a great deal of music is performed, you will find good musical ears, and so when a soul with a strongly developed musical talent is to be incarnated, it will naturally not choose a family with no interest in music—where it would languish—but one which has suitable physical organs. This fits in very well with the law of karma.
The same thing applies to moral courage. If a soul with that predisposition cannot find a suitable heredity, the characteristic will fade out. You can see that you have to be very careful in your choice of parents! The fact is not that the child resembles his parents, but that he is born into a family where the parents most resemble him.
You might ask: Does not this devalue a mother's love? Not at all. Just because the deepest sympathy already exists before birth, a particular child seeks out a particular mother; the love between them has its source much further back, and after birth it continues. The child loved its mother before it was born: no wonder then that the mother returns the love. Thus the significance of a mother's love is not falsely explained away; rather is its true source made clear. Of this, more tomorrow.
Siebenter Vortrag
Heute möchte ich sprechen über die Wirkungen des Karmagesetzes durch die einzelnen Menschenleben hindurch. Zuvor aber lassen Sie mich bemerken, daß natürlich eine jede solche Auseinandersetzung lückenhaft sein muß, da keine Spekulationen, keine ausgedachten Fälle vorgebracht werden, sondern, wie es im Okkultismus eigentlich immer sein soll, nur Tatsachen, nur Dinge, über die Erfahrungen vorliegen. Es wird also nur gesagt, dieses oder jenes tritt ein, wenn man wirklich einen Menschen beobachtet hat, der in einem solchen Falle war. Einzig und allein aus der Erfahrung heraus wird über die karmischen Zusammenhänge gesprochen werden.
Wir haben schon gestern die Tatsache berührt, wie am meisten für den Menschen die brennende Lebensfrage wichtig ist: Wodurch kommt überhaupt unser Schicksal zustande, wodurch die verschiedenen Verhältnisse und Anlagen bei der Geburt?
Wenn wir diese karmischen Zusammenhänge verstehen wollen, dann müssen wir wiederum Rücksicht nehmen auf das, was wir sagten über die Zusammensetzung des Menschen aus seinen verschiedenen Leibern: dem physischen Leib, dem Ätherleib und dem Astralleib, und darinnen der Ich-Leib, in dem ja der übrige, der höhere Teil des Menschen eingeschlossen ist. Bei den karmischen Zusammenhängen wird uns vorzugsweise die Frage beschäftigen, wie die Ursachen mit Wirkungen in diesen verschiedenen Leibern zusammenhängen.
Betrachten wir zunächst einmal den physischen Leib, soweit er für das Karmagesetz in Betracht kommt. Alle unsere Tätigkeiten geschehen in der physischen Welt; wir müssen am selben Orte mit einem Menschen sein — natürlich nicht wörtlich genommen -, um ihm Freude oder Schmerz zufügen zu können. Unser Tun hängt ab von den Bewegungen unseres physischen Körpers und allem, was überhaupt von ihm bedingt wird. Mit unseren Taten in diesem physischen Leben hängt unser äußeres Schicksal im späteren Leben zusammen. Das äußere Schicksal ist gleichsam die Umgebung, die Verhältnisse, in die wir hineingeboren werden. Wer schlechte Taten verrichtet hat, bereitet sich eine schlechte Umgebung, und umgekehrt. Das ist das erste wichtige karmische Gesetz: Die Taten in einem vorhergehenden Leben bedingen das äußere Schicksal.
Ein zweites Grundgesetz ergibt sich aus folgendem. Wir wollen einmal einen Blick auf die Entwickelung eines Menschen werfen. Im Laufe des Lebens nimmt der Mensch sehr viele Vorstellungen, Begriffe, Empfindungen und Erfahrungen auf; er lernt außerordentlich viel. Dadurch gehen große Veränderungen im Menschen vor sich. Denken Sie nur einmal ein paar Jahre zurück, ehe Sie von Theosophie wußten; wie viele neue Vorstellungen haben Sie seitdem gewonnen, wie hat sich das Leben danach verändert! All dieses hat den Astralleib verändert, denn der Astralleib, weil er der dünnste und feinste ist, macht am schnellsten die Veränderungen durch.
Viel weniger verändert sich der Mensch nach Temperament, Charakter und Neigungen. Ein jähzorniges Kind zum Beispiel ändert sich nur sehr langsam. Temperament, Charakter und Neigungen erhalten sich oft das ganze Leben hindurch. Rasch geht im Leben die Veränderung der Erfahrungen und Vorstellungen vor sich, langsam die Veränderung von Temperament, Charakter und Neigungen. Sie sind sehr zäh, sie ändern sich wohl auch etwas, aber nur außerordentlich langsam. Sie stehen zu dem, was man lernt, im selben Verhältnis etwa wie der kleine Zeiger der Uhr zum großen. Das kommt daher, daß alles dies am Ätherleibe hängt, und der verändert sich nur langsam, weil er aus einer viel weniger verwandlungsfähigen Materie besteht als der Astralleib. Am langsamsten aber verändert sich der physische Leib. Er ist etwas, was sozusagen einmal veranlagt ist und so ziemlich mit denselben Dispositionen das ganze Leben hindurch bleibt. Wir werden später sehen, wie der Einzuweihende auch seinen physischen Leib ändern und wie er auf seinen Ätherleib wirken kann. Jetzt müssen wir erst einmal betrachten, wie sich diese Dinge über das Leben hinaus erstrecken.
Die Vorstellungen, Empfindungen und so weiter eines langen Lebens, die den Astralleib umändern, werden erst im nächsten Leben eine eingreifende Veränderung im Ätherleib hervorrufen. Will man daher dafür sorgen, daß man im nächsten Leben mit guten Neigungen und Gewohnheiten geboren wird, so muß man versuchen, in seinem jetzigen Leben dies möglichst in seinem Astralleib vorzubereiten. Wenn sich also jemand bemüht, viele gute Taten zu tun, so wird er mit Neigungen zu guten Taten geboren. Das wird eine Eigenschaft des Ätherleibes. Wenn jemand zum Beispiel mit gutem Gedächtnis geboren werden will, so muß er hier möglichst viel Erinnerungsübungen machen, muß öfters Rückblicke nehmen auf die einzelnen Jahre seines Lebens und auf das Gesamtleben. Dadurch bildet er im Astralleib etwas aus, was im nächsten Leben eine Eigenschaft des Ätherleibes wird: eine gute Gedächtnisanlage. Ein Mensch, der in seinem Leben nur so durch die Welt rast, der wird im nächsten Leben so geboren, daß er wenig haften kann an einzelnen Dingen der Umgebung. Wer dagegen viel intim zusammenlebt mit einer bestimmten Umgebung, wird mit einer besonderen Vorliebe für alles, was eine solche Umgebung gebildet hat, geboren werden.
Nun kann man auch die verschiedenen Temperamente so richtig auf das Vorleben zurückführen, denn die Temperamente sind ja Eigenschaften des Ätherleibes.
Der Choleriker hat einen starken Willen, er ist mutig, kühn, tatendurstig und hat den Drang, viel zu tun. Von weltgeschichtlichen Persönlichkeiten waren es zum Beispiel Alexander der Große, Hannibal, Cäsar, Napoleon; das waren Choleriker. Es zeigt sich diese Charakteranlage schon beim Kinde. Ein solches Kind will eine führende Rolle spielen bei seinen Spielkameraden.
Der Melancholiker beschäftigt sich viel mit sich selbst; dadurch kommt er leicht dazu, sich abzusondern. Er denkt viel nach, hauptsächlich darüber, wie die Umgebung auf ihn wirkt. Er zieht sich gern zurück, ist leicht mißtrauisch. Das zeigt sich wiederum schon beim Kinde: Es zeigt nicht gern seine Spielsachen, hat Angst, es würde ihm etwas genommen und möchte zu allem gern ein Schlüsselchen haben.
Der Phlegmatiker hat für nichts recht Interesse, er verträumt viel, ist untätig, faul und sucht den Sinnengenuß.
Der Sanguiniker dagegen hat leicht erregbares Interesse für alles, es hält aber nicht an, es verfliegt leicht und rasch, er wechselt viel und oft seine Liebhabereien.
Das sind die vier Grundcharakterzüge, die ein Mensch haben kann. Gewöhnlich hat der Mensch eine Mischung von allen vier Temperamenten; man kann aber immer mehr oder weniger einen Grundton finden. Diese vier Temperamente drücken sich im Ätherleib aus. Es gibt also vier verschiedene Hauptarten von Ätherleibern. Diese haben wiederum verschiedene Strömungen und Bewegungen, die sich in einer bestimmten Grundfarbe im Astralleib ausdrücken. Das ist nicht etwa vom Astralleib abhängig, es zeigt sich nur darin.
Das melancholische Temperament wird karmisch besonders dann hervorgerufen, wenn ein Mensch im vorhergehenden Leben gezwungen war, im kleinsten, engsten Kreise zu leben, viel für sich allein zu sein, immer nur sich mit sich selbst zu beschäftigen, so daß er kein Interesse für anderes in sich wecken konnte. Wer dagegen viel kennengelernt hat, wer mit vielen Dingen zusammengekommen ist und sie nicht bloß angeschaut hat, mit dem das vorige Leben hart umgegangen ist, der wird ein Choleriker. Wenn man ein angenehmes Leben ohne viele Kämpfe und Mühsale hatte oder auch wenn man viel gesehen hat, an vielem vorbeigekommen ist, es aber nur angesehen hat, so wird man ein Phlegmatiker oder Sanguiniker. Alles, was im Astralleib in diesem Leben geschieht, geht karmisch im nächsten Leben im Grundwesen auf den nächstdichteren Leib, den Ätherleib über.
Daraus kann man ersehen, wie man arbeiten kann für sein nächstes Leben, und in den okkulten Schulen wird bewußt in dieser Richtung an dem Menschen gearbeitet. Zwar war das früher noch mehr der Fall als heute. Das hängt mit den zyklischen Veränderungen der Entwickelung zusammen. Vor etwa fünftausend Jahren hatte der Geheimlehrer eine ganz andere Aufgabe. Damals hatte er für die Menschen mehr als Gruppen zu sorgen; die Menschen waren noch nicht so weit, daß jeder für sich zu sorgen hatte. Man arbeitete bewußt daran, daß ganze Kategorien und Gruppen von Menschen im nächsten Leben harmonisch zusammenstimmten. Die Menschen werden aber immer individueller, immer selbständiger, so daß der Geheimlehrer heute nicht mehr einen Menschen als Mittel zum Zweck benutzen kann, sondern jeden einzelnen als Zweck behandeln muß, jeden einzelnen so weit bringen muß, als es für diesen möglich ist. In den ältesten Kulturen, zum Beispiel in Indien, wurde die ganze Bevölkerung in vier Kasten geteilt und so an ihnen gearbeitet, daß die Menschen im nächsten Leben in eine bestimmte Kaste hineinpaßten. Die Ausbildung der Menschen war systematisch darauf eingerichtet, für Jahrtausende hinaus zu sorgen, für Jahrtausende das Weltbild umzumodeln, und gerade das gab den okkulten Führern die große Macht.
Wie wirkt der Mensch nun auf seinen Ätherleib ein im Hinblick auf das nächste Leben? Alles, was der Mensch an seinem Ätherleib ausbildet, entwickelt sich, wenn auch sehr langsam, und die Erziehung kann dafür sorgen, ganz bestimmte Gewohnheiten heranzuziehen. Das, was im Ätherleib im einen Leben vorgeht, kommt im nächsten Leben im physischen Leibe zum Dasein. Alle Neigungen und Gewohnheiten des jetzigen Ätherleibes geben im nächsten Leben die Disposition zu Gesundheit oder Krankheit. Gute Neigungen, gute Gewohnheiten geben die Disposition zur Gesundheit; üble Neigungen, üble Gewohnheiten erscheinen im nächsten Leben als Disposition zu bestimmten Krankheiten. Der Vorsatz, der feste Wille, sich eine schlechte Gewohnheit abzugewöhnen, wirkt schon in den tiefergelegenen Leib hinunter und gibt so die Disposition zur Gesundheit. Besonders gut ist beobachtet worden, wie die Disposition zu Infektionskrankheiten im physischen Leibe auftritt. Nicht, ob man eine Krankheit bekommt - das hängt ja von den Taten ab -, sondern ob man dazu disponiert ist, ob man ihr mehr oder weniger ausgesetzt ist, hängt von den Neigungen des vorhergehenden Lebens ab. Infektionskrankheiten führen merkwürdigerweise zurück auf einen besonders ausgebildeten egoistischen Erwerbssinn im vorigen Leben.
Wenn man sich informieren will über Gesundheit und Krankheit, so muß man bedenken, wie viele Dinge da zusammenwirken. Krankheiten brauchen nicht bloß ein Einzelkarma zu sein, es gibt auch ein Volkskarma in bezug auf Krankheiten.
Ein interessanter Fall, wie eigentümlich die Dinge im geistigen Leben zusammenhängen, ist die Einwanderung der Hunnen und der Mongolenstämme, die sich von Asien her nach dem Westen ergossen. Diese Völkerschaften, die Mongolen, waren Nachzügler der Atlantier. Während die Inder und Germanen und andere sich weiter aufwärtsentwickelten, waren die Mongolen die auf einer gewissen Stufe stehengebliebenen Brüder. Geradeso wie sich auf der Entwickelungsbahn des Menschen die Tiere abgegliedert haben, so gliedern sich auch niedrigere Völker und Rassen ab. Diese Völkerschaften, die Mongolen, waren zurückgebliebene Atlantier, die sich physisch hinunterentwickelten. Im Astralleib solcher zurückgebliebener Menschen sieht man reichliche astralische Verwesungsstoffe. Die Mongolen stießen auf die Germanen und auf die andern mitteleuropäischen Völker, die von Furcht und Schrecken ergriffen wurden. Furcht und Schrecken sind aber Eigenschaften des Astralleibes; in ihnen gedeihen vorzüglich solche astrale Verwesungsstoffe. So wurden die europäischen Astralleiber infiziert, und diese Infektion kam dann in den späteren Generationen im physischen Leibe heraus, aber nicht für das Individuum, sondern für ganze Völkerschaften. Das war der Aussatz, die Miselsucht, die schreckliche Krankheit, die im Mittelalter solche Verheerungen anrichtete. Diese Krankheit war die physische Folge des Einflusses auf den Astralleib.
Die philologische Forschung können Sie hier nicht zu Rate ziehen, weil sie von diesen astralischen Einflüssen nichts weiß. Aber schon in den Namen können Sie Hinweise finden für die Abstammung von der alten atlantischen Rasse: Attila, der Hunnenführer, heißt in der nordischen Sprache Attila, das heißt einer, der von den Atlantiern abstammt.
So haben Volkskrankheiten ihre Begründungen. Im Altertum wußte man noch um solche Dinge, und die Bibel drückte sie durch eine Wahrheit aus, die eben oft mißverstanden wird: «Der da heimsuchet der Väter Missetat bis in das dritte und vierte Glied»; denn damit sind nicht die aufeinanderfolgenden individuellen Inkarnationen gemeint, sondern die Generationen, diese Art von Volkskarma. Das ist wörtlich zu nehmen, wie überhaupt viele solcher Aussprüche wörtlicher zu nehmen sind, als man glaubt.
Man muß erst die religiösen Urkunden zu lesen verstehen lernen. Da gibt es vier Stufen. Der naive Mensch in alten Zeiten trat ihnen so gegenüber, daß er sie wörtlich nahm. Das war dann, als die Menschen gescheit wurden, immer weniger und weniger der Fall. Die klug gewordenen Liberalen, die Freigeister, legten die Urkunden jeder nach seiner Art aus, und so kam es, daß vieles nicht ausgelegt, sondern untergelegt wurde. Dann gibt es noch eine Stufe, die Symboliker. Das sind diejenigen, die alles symbolisch auslegen, sowohl die alten Mythen und Sagen wie auch das Leben des Christus Jesus. Natürlich hängt das alles von der Klugheit des einzelnen ab, denn man kann kluge und weniger kluge Bilder formen. Aber es gibt noch eine vierte Stufe, das ist der Geheimwissende, der nun wieder alles wörtlich verstehen kann, weil er durch seine geistige Erkenntnis die Zusammenhänge durchschaut.
Aus dem Gesagten ersehen Sie, wie im physischen Leben das herauskommt, was im geistigen Leben, in Gefühlen und Gewohnheiten früher vorhanden war. Man kann daraus einen wichtigen praktischen Grundsatz ableiten: Sorgt man in günstiger Weise für die Gewohnheiten der Menschen, so verbessert man nicht nur in den nächsten Generationen das sittliche, sondern auch das gesundheitliche Leben eines Volkes, und umgekehrt. Das ist dann Volkskarma.
Heutzutage ist eine Krankheit viel verbreitet, die man vor hundert Jahren kaum gekannt hat; nicht als ob man sie nicht erkannt hätte, aber sie war wirklich nicht verbreitet: Das ist die Nervosität. Diese eigentümliche Krankheitsform ist die Folge der materialistischen Weltanschauung des 18. Jahrhunderts. Ohne das Vorausgehen dieser materiellen Denkgewohnheiten wäre sie nie zustande gekommen. Der Geheimlehrer weiß, daß, wenn der Materialismus noch Jahrzehnte fortdauern würde, er eine verheerende Wirkung auf die Volksgesundheit haben würde. Würde diesen materiellen Denkgewohnheiten nicht gesteuert, so würden später die Menschen nicht nur gewöhnlich nervös sein, sondern die Kinder würden zitternd geboren werden und nicht nur die Umgebung empfinden, sondern an jeder Umgebung eine Schmerzempfindung haben. Vor allem würden die Geisteskrankheiten sich ungeheuer rasch verbreiten: Irrsinnsepidemien würden in den nächsten Jahrzehnten auftreten. Das war auch die Gefahr, welcher die Menschheit zusteuerte: epidemische Geisteskrankheiten. Und dieses Weltbild der Zukunft war die wahre Ursache, weshalb sich die okkulten Führer der Menschheit, die Meister der Weisheit, in die Notwendigkeit versetzt sahen, etwas von der spirituellen Weisheit in die allgemeine Menschheit einfließen zu lassen. Nur eine solche spirituelle Weltanschauung kann den kommenden Generationen wieder eine gute Gesundheitsanlage geben. Sie sehen, die Theosophie ist eine tiefe, aus dem Bedürfnis der Menschheit heraus geschöpfte Bewegung.
Vor einem Jahrhundert noch war ein «nervöser» Mensch einer, der starke Nerven hatte, Nerven wie Stricke. Schon aus der Umwandlung des Wortsinns kann man ersehen, wie da etwas ganz Neues in die Welt gekommen ist.
Wie steht nun das Karmagesetz zur physischen Vererbung? Die physische Vererbung spielt eine große Rolle. Wir wissen, daß sich im Sohn gewisse Eigenschaften des Vaters und der Voreltern wiederfinden; zum Beispiel gab es in der Familie Bach innerhalb zweihundertfünfzig Jahren achtundzwanzig bedeutende Musiker. Bernoulli war ein bedeutender Mathematiker, und acht bedeutende Mathematiker folgten in seiner Familie. Das ist alles Vererbung — sagt man; aber das ist nur zum Teil wahr. Um zum Beispiel ein bedeutender Musiker zu werden, dazu gehört nicht bloß, daß man in der Seele die musikalischen Anlagen ausgebildet hat, sondern man muß auch physisch ein entsprechend gutes Ohr haben. Was nun rein physisch ist in der Musikerfamilie, die feinen Gehörorgane, das vererbt sich von den Eltern auf das Kind.
In einer Familie, in der viel Musik gepflegt wird, gibt es also gute, für die Musik ausgebildete Ohren. Wenn sich nun eine Seele mit stark ausgebildeten Anlagen für Musik verkörpert, da ist es verständlich, daß sie nicht in eine Familie hineingeboren wird, wo gar keine Musik getrieben wird - da müßte sie ja verkümmern -, sondern da hinein, wo geeignete physische Organe vorhanden sind. Es stimmt das ausgezeichnet mit dem Karmagesetz zusammen.
Ebenso kann es mit dem moralischen Mut sein. Findet eine Anlage dazu nicht das geeignete Blut, so verkommt sie, Sie sehen, man muß also vorsichtig sein in der Wahl seiner Eltern! Nicht das Kind sieht den Eltern ähnlich, sondern es wird da geboren, wo ihm die Eltern am meisten ähnlich sind.
Nun wird gefragt: Wird dadurch nicht die Mutterliebe beeinträchtigt? — Das ist durchaus nicht der Fall. Gerade weil die tiefste Sympathie schon vor der Geburt besteht, geht dieses Kind zu der Mutter hin, so daß die Liebe ihrem Ursprung nach eigentlich noch weiter zurückverlegt wird; sie setzt sich nach der Geburt nur fort. Das Kind hat die Mutter schon geliebt vor der Geburt; kein Wunder, daß nachher die Mutter diese Liebe erwidert. So wird die Mutterliebe nicht etwa hinweggeleugnet, sondern erst ihren richtigen Ursachen nach erklärt.
Davon dann morgen mehr.
Seventh Lecture
Today I would like to talk about the effects of the law of karma throughout individual human lives. But first, let me note that any such discussion must necessarily be incomplete, since no speculations or imagined cases are presented, but only facts and things that have been experienced, as should always be the case in occultism. So it is only said that this or that occurs when one has actually observed a person who was in such a situation. Karmic connections will be discussed solely on the basis of experience.
Yesterday we already touched on the fact that the burning question of life is most important for human beings: How does our destiny come about in the first place, how do the various circumstances and predispositions at birth come about?
If we want to understand these karmic connections, we must again take into account what we said about the composition of the human being from its various bodies: the physical body, the etheric body, and the astral body, and within them the I-body, which encompasses the remaining, higher part of the human being. In the case of karmic relationships, we will be primarily concerned with the question of how causes are related to effects in these different bodies.
Let us first consider the physical body insofar as it is relevant to the law of karma. All our activities take place in the physical world; we must be in the same place as a person — not literally, of course — in order to be able to cause them joy or pain. Our actions depend on the movements of our physical body and everything that is conditioned by it. Our external destiny in later life is connected with our actions in this physical life. External destiny is, as it were, the environment, the circumstances into which we are born. Those who have done bad deeds create a bad environment for themselves, and vice versa. This is the first important karmic law: the deeds in a previous life determine external destiny.
A second fundamental law arises from the following. Let us take a look at the development of a human being. In the course of life, human beings absorb a great many ideas, concepts, feelings, and experiences; they learn an extraordinary amount. This brings about great changes in human beings. Just think back a few years, before you knew about theosophy; how many new ideas have you gained since then, how has your life changed as a result! All this has changed the astral body, because the astral body, being the thinnest and finest, undergoes changes most quickly.
People change much less in terms of temperament, character, and inclinations. A quick-tempered child, for example, changes only very slowly. Temperament, character, and inclinations often remain the same throughout life. Changes in experiences and ideas happen quickly in life, while changes in temperament, character, and inclinations happen slowly. They are very tenacious; they do change somewhat, but only extremely slowly. They stand in the same relation to what one learns as the small hand of a clock stands to the large. This is because all of this is connected to the etheric body, and it changes only slowly because it consists of a much less transformable substance than the astral body. But the physical body changes most slowly. It is something that is, so to speak, predisposed and remains with pretty much the same dispositions throughout life. We will see later how the initiate can also change his physical body and how he can influence his etheric body. Now we must first consider how these things extend beyond life.
The ideas, feelings, and so on of a long life, which change the astral body, will only bring about a radical change in the etheric body in the next life. Therefore, if one wants to ensure that one is born with good inclinations and habits in the next life, one must try to prepare for this as much as possible in one's astral body in the present life. So if someone strives to do many good deeds, they will be born with a disposition toward good deeds. This will become a characteristic of the etheric body. For example, if someone wants to be born with a good memory, they must do as many memory exercises as possible here, must often look back on the individual years of their life and on their life as a whole. In this way, they develop something in their astral body that will become a characteristic of their etheric body in their next life: a good memory. A person who rushes through life will be born in their next life with little ability to remember individual things in their environment. On the other hand, someone who lives intimately with a particular environment will be born with a special fondness for everything that has formed that environment.
Now we can also trace the different temperaments back to previous lives, because temperaments are characteristics of the etheric body.
The choleric person has a strong will, is courageous, bold, eager for action, and has the urge to do a lot. Among historical figures, Alexander the Great, Hannibal, Caesar, and Napoleon were choleric. This character trait is already apparent in children. Such a child wants to play a leading role among his playmates.
The melancholic person is very preoccupied with themselves, which makes them prone to isolation. They think a lot, mainly about how their environment affects them. They like to withdraw and are easily suspicious. This is also evident in children: they don't like to show their toys, are afraid that something will be taken from them, and want to have a key to everything.
The phlegmatic person has no real interest in anything, dreams a lot, is inactive, lazy, and seeks sensory pleasure.
The sanguine person, on the other hand, is easily excited by everything, but this does not last; it fades quickly and easily, and they change their hobbies often and frequently.
These are the four basic character traits that a person can have. Usually, people have a mixture of all four temperaments, but one can always find a more or less dominant tone. These four temperaments are expressed in the etheric body. There are therefore four different main types of etheric bodies. These in turn have different currents and movements, which are expressed in a certain basic color in the astral body. This is not dependent on the astral body, it only manifests itself in it.
The melancholic temperament is karmically caused especially when a person was forced in a previous life to live in the smallest, narrowest circle, to be alone a lot, to always be preoccupied with themselves, so that they could not awaken any interest in anything else. On the other hand, those who have experienced a lot, who have encountered many things and not just looked at them, but whose previous life has been hard on them, become choleric. If you have had a pleasant life without many struggles and hardships, or even if you have seen a lot and encountered many things, but only looked at them, you become phlegmatic or sanguine. Everything that happens in the astral body in this life is karmically transferred in the next life to the next densest body, the etheric body.
From this we can see how we can work for our next life, and in occult schools people are consciously worked on in this direction. This was even more the case in the past than it is today. This has to do with the cyclical changes in development. About five thousand years ago, the secret teacher had a completely different task. At that time, he had to care for people more as groups; people were not yet at the stage where everyone had to care for themselves. Conscious work was done to ensure that entire categories and groups of people would harmonize in the next life. However, people are becoming increasingly individual and independent, so that today the secret teacher can no longer use a person as a means to an end, but must treat each individual as an end in themselves, bringing each individual as far as is possible for them. In the oldest cultures, for example in India, the entire population was divided into four castes and worked on in such a way that people would fit into a certain caste in the next life. The education of people was systematically designed to provide for millennia, to reshape the worldview for millennia, and it was precisely this that gave the occult leaders their great power.
How does a person influence their etheric body with regard to the next life? Everything that a person develops in their etheric body evolves, albeit very slowly, and education can ensure that very specific habits are cultivated. What happens in the etheric body in one life comes into being in the physical body in the next life. All the inclinations and habits of the present etheric body give rise to a disposition toward health or illness in the next life. Good inclinations and good habits give rise to a disposition toward health; bad inclinations and bad habits appear in the next life as a disposition toward certain illnesses. The intention, the firm will to break a bad habit, already has an effect on the lower body and thus gives a disposition towards health. It has been particularly well observed how the disposition towards infectious diseases occurs in the physical body. Not whether one contracts a disease—that depends on one's actions—but whether one is predisposed to it, whether one is more or less exposed to it, depends on the inclinations of one's previous life. Infectious diseases, strangely enough, can be traced back to a particularly developed egoistic sense of gain in a previous life.
If you want to learn about health and illness, you have to consider how many things interact. Illnesses do not have to be solely individual karma; there is also a collective karma in relation to illnesses.
An interesting case of how strangely things are connected in spiritual life is the immigration of the Huns and Mongol tribes, who poured in from Asia to the West. These peoples, the Mongols, were latecomers from Atlantis. While the Indians, Germanic peoples, and others continued to develop upward, the Mongols were brothers who had remained at a certain stage. Just as animals have separated from the evolutionary path of humans, so too have lower peoples and races separated. These peoples, the Mongols, were backward Atlanteans who physically degenerated. In the astral body of such backward people, one sees abundant astral decay substances. The Mongols encountered the Germanic peoples and other Central European peoples, who were seized with fear and terror. Fear and terror, however, are qualities of the astral body; such astral decay substances thrive excellently in them. Thus the European astral bodies became infected, and this infection then manifested itself in later generations in the physical body, but not for the individual, but for entire peoples. This was leprosy, the terrible disease that wreaked such havoc in the Middle Ages. This disease was the physical consequence of the influence on the astral body.
You cannot consult philological research here, because it knows nothing about these astral influences. But you can find clues to the ancestry of the ancient Atlantean race in the names themselves: Attila, the leader of the Huns, is called Attila in the Nordic language, which means one who descends from the Atlanteans.
This is how widespread diseases have their origins. In ancient times, people still knew about such things, and the Bible expressed them through a truth that is often misunderstood: “He visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation”; for this does not refer to successive individual incarnations, but to generations, this kind of collective karma. This is to be taken literally, as many such sayings are to be taken more literally than one might think.
One must first learn to read religious documents. There are four stages. The naive people of ancient times approached them by taking them literally. As people became more intelligent, this was less and less the case. The liberals who had become wise, the free spirits, interpreted the documents each in their own way, and so it came about that much was not interpreted but rather imposed. Then there is another stage, the symbolists. These are those who interpret everything symbolically, both the ancient myths and legends and the life of Christ Jesus. Of course, it all depends on the wisdom of the individual, because one can form wise and less wise images. But there is a fourth level, that of the secret knower, who can now understand everything literally again because he sees through the connections through his spiritual knowledge.
From what has been said, you can see how what was previously present in spiritual life, in feelings and habits, comes out in physical life. An important practical principle can be derived from this: if you take care of people's habits in a favorable way, you not only improve the moral life of a people in the next generations, but also their health, and vice versa. This is then national karma.
Nowadays, there is a widespread illness that was hardly known a hundred years ago; not that it was not recognized, but it was really not widespread: nervousness. This peculiar form of illness is the result of the materialistic worldview of the 18th century. Without the precedence of these materialistic habits of thinking, it would never have come about. The secret teacher knows that if materialism were to continue for decades, it would have a devastating effect on the health of the people. If these materialistic habits of thinking were not controlled, people would not only be nervous, but children would be born trembling and would not only feel their surroundings, but would experience pain in every environment. Above all, mental illness would spread rapidly: epidemics of insanity would occur in the coming decades. This was also the danger toward which humanity was heading: epidemic mental illness. And this worldview of the future was the real reason why the occult leaders of humanity, the Masters of Wisdom, saw the need to infuse some of the spiritual wisdom into humanity at large. Only such a spiritual worldview can give future generations a good foundation for health again. You see, theosophy is a profound movement born out of the needs of humanity.
A century ago, a “nervous” person was someone who had strong nerves, nerves of steel. The change in the meaning of the word alone shows how something completely new has come into the world.
How does the law of karma relate to physical heredity? Physical heredity plays a major role. We know that certain characteristics of the father and ancestors are found in the son; for example, there were twenty-eight important musicians in the Bach family within two hundred and fifty years. Bernoulli was an important mathematician, and eight important mathematicians followed in his family. People say that this is all heredity, but that is only partly true. For example, to become an important musician, it is not enough to have developed musical talent in one's soul; one must also have a correspondingly good ear physically. What is purely physical in a family of musicians, the fine hearing organs, is inherited from the parents to the child.
In a family where music is cultivated, there are good ears trained for music. If a soul with a strong aptitude for music incarnates, it is understandable that it will not be born into a family where no music is played — there it would wither away — but into one where the appropriate physical organs are present. This fits in perfectly with the law of karma.
The same can be said of moral courage. If a predisposition for this does not find the right blood, it will wither away. You see, one must therefore be careful in choosing one's parents! It is not that the child resembles its parents, but rather that it is born where its parents are most similar to it.
Now the question arises: Does this not impair the mother's love? — That is by no means the case. Precisely because the deepest sympathy already exists before birth, this child goes to the mother, so that the love is actually traced back even further to its origin; it only continues after birth. The child already loved its mother before birth; no wonder that afterwards the mother reciprocates this love. Thus, maternal love is not denied, but rather explained according to its true causes.
More on this tomorrow.