At the Gates of Spiritual Science
GA 95
29 August 1906, Stuttgart
8. Good and Evil. Individual Karmic Questions.
We will continue our study of particular karmic questions in relation to human life. What does occult science have to say about the origin of conscience? At our present stage of evolution conscience appears as a kind of inner voice telling us what to do and what to leave undone. How did such an inner voice come into being?
It is interesting to inquire whether in the historical evolution of mankind there has always been something comparable to what we call conscience. We find that in the earliest times, language had no word for it. In Greek literature it appears quite late, and in the language of the earlier Greeks no word for it exists. The same thing is true of the early periods of other civilisations. We may conclude, then, that the idea of conscience, in a more or less conscious form, came only gradually to be recognised. Conscience has developed fairly late in human evolution, and we shall see presently what our ancestors possessed in place of it.
How, then, has conscience gradually developed? On one of his journeys Darwin27Charles Darwin, 1809–1882. came across a cannibal and tried to convince him that it is not a good thing to eat another human being. The cannibal retorted that in order to decide whether eating a man is good or bad you must first eat one yourself. In other words, the cannibal had not reached the point of judging between good and bad in terms of moral ideas, but in accordance simply with the pleasure he experienced. He was in fact a survival from an earlier stage of civilisation which was at one time universal. But how does a man like this cannibal come to distinguish between good and bad? He went on eating his fellow-men until one day he was due to be eaten himself. At that moment he experienced the fact that it could really happen to him. He felt that there was something wrong about this, and the fruits of this experience remained with him in Kamaloka and Devachan. Into his next incarnation he brought a dim feeling that what he had been doing was not quite right. This feeling became more and more definite in the course of further incarnations; he also came to take heed of the feelings of others, and thus he gradually developed a certain restraint. After various further incarnations the feeling became still more definite and gradually the thought emerged: Here is something one should not do. Similarly, a savage at a primitive stage would eat everything indiscriminately, but when he got [a] stomach-ache he came to realise by degrees that there were some things he could eat and some he could not. This kind of experience became gradually more and more firmly rooted, and finally it developed into the voice of conscience.
Conscience is therefore the outcome of experiences spread over a number of incarnations. Fundamentally, all knowledge, from the highest to the lowest, is the outcome of what a man has experienced; it has come into being as a result of trial and error.
An interesting fact is relevant here. Only since Aristotle has there been a science of logic, of logical thought. From this we must conclude that accurate thinking too, was born at a certain time. This is indeed so: thinking itself had first to evolve, and logical thinking arose in the course of time from fundamental observation of how thinking can go wrong. Knowledge is something mankind has acquired through many incarnations. Only after long trial and error could a store of knowledge be built up. All this illustrates the importance of the law of karma; here we have another example of something which has developed out of experience into a permanent habit and inclination. A motive such as conscience binds itself to the etheric body, becoming in time a permanent characteristic of it because the astral body has been so often convinced that this or that would not do.
Another interesting karmic relationship is between an habitually selfish attitude and a loving sympathy with others. Some people are hardened egoists—not only in their acquisitiveness—and others are unselfish and sympathetic. Both attitudes depend on the etheric body and may even find expression in the physical body. People who in one life have been habitually selfish will age quickly in their next life; they seem to shrivel up. On the other hand, if in one life you have been ready to make sacrifices and have loved others, you will remain young and hale. In this way you can prepare even the physical body for the next life.
If you recall what I said yesterday, you will have in mind a question: How is it with the achievements of the physical body itself? Its deeds become its future destiny; but what is the effect of any illnesses it may have had in this life?
The answer to this question, however strange it may sound, is not mere theory or speculation, but is based on occult experience, and from it you can learn the mission of illness. Fabre d'Olivet,28Antoine Fabre d'Olivet, 1768–1825, author of La Langue hebraique restituee, 1816. who has investigated the origins of the Book of Genesis, once used a beautiful simile, comparing destiny with a natural process. The valuable pearl, he says, derives from an illness: it is a secretion of the oyster, so that in this case life has to fall sick in order to produce something precious. In the same way, physical illnesses in one life reappear in the next life as physical beauty. Either the physical body becomes more beautiful as a result of the illness it endured; or it may be that an illness a man has caught from infection in his environment is compensated by the beauty of his new environment. Beauty thus develops, karmically, out of pain, suffering, privation and illness. This may seem a startling connection, but it is a fact. Even the appreciation of beauty develops in this way: there can be no beauty in the world without pain and suffering and illness. The same general law holds for the history of man's evolution. You will see from this how wonderful karmic relationships really are, and how questions about evil, illness and pain cannot be answered without knowledge of the important inner relationships within the evolution of humanity.
The line of evolution goes back into ancient, very ancient times, when conditions on Earth, and the Earth itself, were quite different. There was a time when none of the higher animals existed; when there were no fishes, amphibians, birds or mammals, but only animals less developed than the fishes. Yet man, though in a quite different form, was already there. His physical body was still very imperfect; his spiritual body was more highly developed. He was still enclosed within a soft ethcric body, and his soul worked on his physical body from outside. Man still contained all other beings within himself. Later on he worked his way upwards and left behind the fish form which had been part of himself. These fish forms were huge, fantastic-looking creatures, unlike the fishes of today. Then again man evolved to a higher stage and cast out the birds from himself. Then the reptiles and amphibia made their way out of man—grotesque creatures such as the saurians and water-tortoises, which were really stragglers from an earlier group of beings, even further removed from man, whose evolution had lagged behind. Then man cast out the mammals from himself, and finally the apes; and then he himself continued to advance.
Man has therefore always been man and not an ape; he separated off the whole animal kingdom from himself so that he might become more truly human. It was as though you gradually strained all the dye-stuffs out of a coloured liquid and left only clear water behind. In older days there were natural philosophers, such as Paracelsus and Oken,29Lorenz Oken, 1779–1851, natural scientist and philosopher. who put this very well. When a man looks at the animal world, they said, he should tell himself: “I carried all that within myself and cast it out from my own being.”
Thus man once had within himself a great deal that was later externalised. And today he still has within him something that later on will be outside—his karma, both the good and the evil. Just as he has separated the animals from himself, so will he thrust good and evil out into the world. The good will result in a race of men who are naturally good; the evil in a separate evil race. You will find this stated in the Apocalypse, but it must not be misunderstood. We must distinguish between the development of the soul and that of races. A soul may be incarnated in a race on the down grade, but if it does not itself commit evil, it need not incarnate a second time in such a race; it may incarnate in one that is ascending. There are quite enough souls streaming in from other directions to incarnate in these declining races.
But what is inward has to become outward, and man will rise still higher when his karma has worked itself out. With all this something of extraordinary interest is connected. Centuries ago, with the future development of humanity in view, secret Orders which set themselves the highest conceivable tasks were established. One such Order was the Manichean, of which ordinary scholarship gives a quite false picture. The Manicheans are supposed to have taught that a Good and an Evil are part of the natural order and have always been in conflict with one another, this having been determined for them by the Creation. Here there is a glimmer of the Order's real task, but distorted to the point of nonsense. The individual members of the Order were specially trained for their great work. The Order knew that some day there will be men in whose karma there is no longer any evil, but that there will also be a race evil by nature, among whom all kinds of evil will be developed to a higher degree than in the most savage animals, for they will practise evil consciously, exquisitely, with the aid of highly developed intellects. Even now the Manichean Order is training its members so that they may be able to transform evil in later generations.
The extreme difficulty of the task is that these evil races will not be like bad children in whom there is goodness which can be brought out by precept and example. The members of the Manichean Order are already learning how to transform quite radically those who by nature are wholly evil. And then the transformed evil will become a quite special good. The power to effect this change will bring about a condition of moral holiness on Earth. But this can be achieved only if the evil has first come into existence; then the power needed to overcome the evil will yield a power that can reach the heights of holiness. A field has to be treated with manure and the manure has to ferment in the soil; similarly, humanity needs the manure of evil in order to attain to the highest holiness. And herein lies the mission of evil. A man's muscles get strong by use; and equally, if good is to rise to the heights of holiness, it must first overcome the evil which opposes it. The task of evil is to promote the ascent of man. Things such as this give us a glimpse into the secret of life. Later on, when man has overcome evil, he can go on to redeem the creatures he has thrust down, and at whose cost he has ascended. That is the purpose of evolution.
The following point is rather more difficult. The shell of a snail or mussel is secreted out of the living substance of the animal. The shell which surrounds the snail was originally inside its body its house is in fact its body in a more solid form. Theosophy tells us that we are one with all that surrounds us: this means that man at one time contained everything within himself. The Earth's crust, in fact, had its origin in man, who in the far past crystallised it out from within himself. Just as the snail at one time had its house within itself, so man had all other beings and kingdoms, minerals, plants and animals, within himself, and can say to them all: The substances were within me; I have crystallised out their constituent parts. Thus when man looks at anything outside himself, it becomes intelligible for him to say: All that is myself.
Even more subtle is a further idea. Imagine that ancient condition of humanity when nothing had yet been separated off from man. Man was there, and he formed mental pictures but they were not objective—not, that is, caused by external objects making an impression on him—they were purely subjective. Everything had its origin in man. Our dreams are still a legacy from the time when man, as it were, spun the whole world out of himself. Then he was able to look on the world over against himself. We as human beings have made everything, and in the rest of creation we can see our own products, our own being which has taken solid form.
Kant30Immanuel Kant, 1724–1804. speaks of the thing-in-itself as something unknowable by man. But in fact there are no limits to knowledge, for man can find, in everything he sees around him, the traces of his own being, left behind.
All this has been said in order to show you that nothing can be truly understood if it is looked at from one side only. Everything which appears to us in one condition was quite different in earlier times; only by relating the present to the past can it be understood. Similarly, if you do not look beyond the physical world of the senses, you will never understand illness, or the mission of evil. In all such relationships there is a deep meaning. Evolution had to take its course in this way, through a process of splitting off, because man was to become an inward being; he had to put all this out of himself in order that he might be able to see his own self. So we can come to understand the mission of illness, of evil, and even of the external world. We are led to these great interconnections by studying the law of karma.
We will now deal with several particular questions about karma which are often asked. What is the karmic reason that causes many people to die young, even in childhood? From individual instances known to occult science we may come to the following conclusion. If we study a child who has died young, we may find that in his previous life he had good abilities and made good use of them. He was a thoroughly competent member of society, but he was rather shortsighted. Because with his weak eyes he could not see clearly, all his experiences acquired a particular colouring. He was wanting in a small matter which could have been better, and because of his weak eyes he always lagged behind. He could have achieved something quite remarkable if he had had good sight. He died, and after a short interval he was incarnated with healthy eyes, but he lived only a few weeks. By this means the members of his being learnt how to acquire good eyes, and he had gained a small portion of life as a corrective of what had been lacking in his previous life. The grief of his parents will, of course, be compensated for karmically, but in this instance they had to serve as instruments for putting the matter right.
What is the karmic explanation of children born dead? In such cases the astral body may well have already united itself with the physical body, and the two lower members may be properly constituted. But the astral body withdraws, and so the child is born dead. But why does the astral body withdraw? The explanation lies in the fact that certain members of man's higher nature are related to certain physical organs. For instance, no being can have an etheric body unless it possesses cells. A stone has no cells or vessels, and so it cannot have an etheric body. Equally, an astral body needs a nervous system: a plant has no nervous system and therefore cannot have an astral body. In fact, if a plant were to be permeated by an astral body it would no longer be a plant, but would have to be provided with cells if it were to be permeated by an etheric body.
Now if the Ego-body is gradually to find a place for itself, there must be warm blood in the physical body. (All red-blooded animals were separated off from man at the time when the Ego-condition was being prepared for man.) Hence it will be seen that the physical organs must be in proper condition if the higher bodies are to dwell within them. It is important to remember that the form of the physical body is moulded by purely physical inheritance. It may also happen that the way in which the various bodily fluids are combined is at fault, although parents are well-matched in soul and spirit. Then the incarnating entity comes to a physical body which cannot house the higher members of its being. Thus for example the physical and etheric bodies may be properly united; then the astral body ought to take possession of the physical body, but the organism at its disposal is not in a suitable condition, and so it has to withdraw. The physical body remains, and is then still-born. A still-birth may thus be the outcome of a faulty mixture, on the physical level, of the fluids of the body, and this, too, will have a karmic connection. The physical body can thrive only in so far as the higher principles can live within it.
How are karmic compensations accomplished? If someone has done something to another person, there will have to be a karmic adjustment between them, which means that the persons concerned must be born again as contemporaries. How does this happen? What are the forces that bring the two persons together?
The way it works out is as follows. A wrong has been done; the victim has suffered it; the person who did it passes into Kamaloka, but first he has to witness the occurrence in the retrospective tableau of his past life. The injury he has inflicted does not then cause him pain, but in Kamaloka, as he relives his life backwards, the event comes before him, and now he has to suffer the pain he caused. He has to feel it in and through the very self of his victim. This experience imprints itself like a seal on his astral body. He takes with him a portion of the pain, and a definite force remains in him as the outcome of what he has experienced in the other man's being. In this way any pain or pleasure he has to live through turns into a force, and he carries a great number of such forces with him into Devachan.
When he returns to a new incarnation, this is the force that draws together all the persons who have had experiences in common. During the Kamaloka period they lived within one another, and they incorporated these forces into themselves. Hence within one physical human being there may be three or even more “Kamaloka men”, in order that the situation involving them may be lived out.
An example known to occult science will make this clear. A man was condemned to death by five judges. What was really happening there? In a previous life the man had killed these other five men and karmic forces had brought all six together for a karmic adjustment. This does not produce a never-ending karmic chain; other relationships come in to change the further course of events.
Spiritual forces, you see, are thus secretly at work to bring about the complicated patterns of human living. Further important aspects of the subject will become clear during the next few days, when we go on to study the whole evolution of Earth and Man.
Achter Vortrag
Wir fahren weiter fort in der Behandlung karmischer Einzelfragen gegenüber dem menschlichen Leben.
Eine weitere Frage ist: Welche Anschauung hat die Geheimlehre von der Entstehung des Gewissens? — Das Gewissen zeigt sich dem Menschen unserer Kulturstufe als eine Art innerer Stimme, die ihm anzeigt, was er tun oder lassen soll. Wie ist eine solche innere Stimme entstanden?
Es ist von Interesse, zu erforschen, ob es denn überhaupt in der geschichtlichen Entwickelung der Menschheit immer so etwas gegeben hat wie das, was man heute Gewissen nennt. Da finden wir, daß es in sehr frühen Volkszuständen kein Wort für diesen Begriff gegeben hat. In der griechischen Literatur taucht es erst verhältnismäßig sehr spät auf, so daß die älteren Griechen das Wort noch nicht in ihrer Sprache hatten. Und ebenso haben andere Völker in den Anfängen ihrer Kultur kein Wort dafür gehabt. Daraus können wir schließen, daß in einem mehr oder weniger bewußten Zustand dieses Gewissen erst nach und nach bekanntgeworden ist. So ist es auch. Das Gewissen ist erst entstanden, es hat sich herausgebilder und sogar erst ziemlich spät in der Entwickelungsgeschichte der Menschheit. Wir werden später sehen, was unsere Vorfahren anstelle des Gewissens hatten.
Wie bildete sich nach und nach das Gewissen? Ein Beispiel: Darwin traf einmal auf seinen Reisen mit einem Menschenfresser zusammen und versuchte unter anderm ihm klarzumachen, daß es doch nicht gut sei, einen andern Menschen aufzufressen. Der Wilde aber sagte: Um zu entscheiden, ob es gut oder schlecht sei, einen Menschen zu fressen, müsse man ihn doch erst gefressen haben! Der Wilde hatte Gut und Böse noch nicht nach moralischen Begriffen beurteilt, sondern nach der von ihm empfundenen Annehmlichkeit. Er war ein zurückgebliebener Mensch aus einem alten, alten Kulturzustand, in dem wir alle einmal waren. Wie kam ein Mensch nun zu der Unterscheidung von Gut und Böse? Dadurch, zum Beispiel, daß er die Menschenfresserei so lange betrieb, bis er selbst einmal in die Lage kam, gefressen zu werden. In diesem Moment machte er die Erfahrung, daß ihn dasselbe treffen konnte. Er merkte also durch die Erfahrung, daß da etwas nicht ganz in Ordnung sei, und die Frucht dieser Erfahrung blieb ihm im Kamaloka und Devachan. Bei der nächsten Inkarnation brachte er ein ganz dunkles Gefühl mit, daß sein Tun nicht stimme, nach weiteren Inkarnationen wurde dies Gefühl bestimmter, er achtete auf die Empfindungen anderer, und es bildete sich so nach und nach ein gewisses Zurückhalten aus. Nach verschiedenen weiteren Inkarnationen hatte sich dies dunkle Gefühl verdichtet und der Gedanke herausgebildet: Das darf man nicht tun. — Ebenso hat ein Wilder im Anfang der Kultur alles ohne Unterschied gegessen; da bekam er Magenschmerzen, und nach und nach machte er die Erfahrung, daß er manches essen konnte und manches nicht. So verdichtete sich allmählich die Erfahrung und wurde zur Stimme des Gewissens.
Was ist also das Gewissen? Das Ergebnis von Erfahrungen durch die verschiedenen Inkarnationen. Im Grunde ist alles Wissen, das höchste wie das niedrigste, überhaupt das Ergebnis von Erfahrungen; es ist auf dem Wege des Probierens, der Erfahrung entstanden.
Eine interessante Tatsache gehört hierher: Erst seit Aristoteles gibt es eine Wissenschaft der Logik, der Lehre vom Denken. Daraus muß man schließen, daß das richtige Denken auch erst entstanden ist. Und so ist es auch. Das Denken mußte sich erst entwickeln, und das richtige Denken, die Logik, ist erst im Laufe der Zeit aufgrund der Beobachtung entstanden, daß falsches Denken zu Dingen führt, die von Übel sind. Das Wissen ist etwas, was sich die Menschen in vielen Inkarnationen erworben haben. Nach langem Probieren gelangte die Menschheit zu einem Schatz des Wissens. Da sieht man die Wichtigkeit des Karmagesetzes; wir haben hier auch etwas, was sich als bleibende Angewöhnung und Neigung aus der Erfahrung heraus bildet. Solch eine Neigung wie das Gewissen haftet auch am Ätherleib: Indem der Astralleib sich soundso oft überzeugt hat, daß dieses oder jenes nicht geht, bildet sich diese Neigung im Ätherleib als eine bleibende Eigenschaft aus.
Ein anderer interessanter karmischer Zusammenhang zeigt sich bei einem gewohnheitsmäßig egoistischen Verhalten oder bei einem liebevollen sympathischen Mitleben mit anderen. Es gibt verhärtete Gewohnheitsegoisten — nicht bloß in bezug auf den Erwerbssinn — und es gibt altruistisch liebevoll Mitfühlende. Beides hängt am Ätherleib und kommt im nächsten Leben im physischen Leib zum Ausdruck. Personen, die in einem Leben gewohnheitsmäßig egoistisch handeln, altern früh im nächsten Leben, schrumpfen früh zusammen; das lange Jung- und Frischbleiben dagegen rührt von einem liebevollen, hingebungsvollen vorhergehenden Leben her. Somit kann man auch den physischen Leib bewußt vorbereiten für das nächste Leben.
Nun wird Ihnen eine Frage auf der Seele liegen, wenn Sie sich erinnern, was ich gestern gesagt habe: Wie ist es denn mit den Dingen, die der physische Körper sich selbst erringt? Seine Taten werden sein künftiges Schicksal; aber die Krankheiten, die er in diesem Leben durchgemacht hat, was wird daraus?
Die Antwort auf diese Frage, so seltsam sie klingen mag, ist keine Spekulation, keine Theorie, sie basiert auf Erfahrungen der Geheimwissenschaft und lehrt die Mission der Krankheit. Fabre d’Olivet, der Erforscher der Anfangskapitel der Genesis, hat einmal ein sehr schönes Bild gebraucht. Er vergleicht das, was als Schicksal sich herausbildet, mit einem Naturvorgang; er sagt: Die wertvolle Perle entsteht durch eine Krankheit; sie ist ein Exsudat der Perlmuschel, so daß das Leben in diesem Fall erkranken muß, um etwas Wertvolles hervorzubringen. — So wie aus einer Erkrankung der Muschel die Perle sich bildet, so kommen die Krankheiten des physischen Körpers in einem Leben im nächsten Leben als ästhetische Schönheit wieder zum Vorschein. Entweder wird der eigene Körper durch die Krankheit, die er durchgemacht hat, im nächsten Leben schön an äußerer Gestalt, oder es wird eine Infektionskrankheit, die er mit seiner Umgebung getragen hat, belohnt durch die Schönheit seiner Umgebung. Schönheit entwickelt sich also karmisch aus Leiden, Schmerzen, Entbehrungen und Krankheiten. Das ist ein frappierender Zusammenhang, aber er besteht tatsächlich. Sogar der Schönheitssinn wird auf diese Weise herausgebildet. Kein Schönes ist in der Welt ohne Leiden und Schmerzen und Krankheiten. Ganz Ähnliches tritt uns in der Entwickelungsgeschichte der Menschheit im allgemeinen entgegen. Sie werden daraus ersehen, wie wunderbar eigentlich die karmischen Zusammenhänge im Leben sind und wie die Fragen nach dem Bösen, nach Krankheit und Schmerz gar nicht zu beantworten sind, ohne die großen inneren Zusammenhänge der Menschheitsentwickelung zu kennen.
Die Evolutionslinie geht zurück in ganz alte, alte Zeiten. Da waren noch ganz andere Verhältnisse, die Erde war eine ganz andere. Die höheren Tiere waren noch nicht vorhanden. Es gab eine Zeit, wo überhaupt noch keine Fische, Amphibien, Vögel, Säugetiere bestanden, nur Tiere, die niedriger sind als die Fische. Der Mensch war da, jedoch in ganz anderer Gestalt. Sein physischer Leib war noch sehr unvollkommen; höher war der geistige Leib. Er war noch in einem weichen, ätherischen Leib, und die Seele arbeitete selbst von außen an diesem physischen Leib. Der Mensch hatte noch alle anderen Wesen in sich. Nachher entwickelte sich der Mensch höher hinauf und ließ die Fischform zurück, die er in sich hatte. Das waren mächtige, phantastisch aussehende Geschöpfe, unähnlich unseren heutigen Fischen. Wieder entwickelte sich der Mensch höher hinauf und sonderte die Vögel aus sich heraus. Dann gingen die Reptilien und Amphibien aus dem Menschen heraus, groteske Wesen wie die Saurier, Fischeidechsen, die eigentlich nur Nachzügler der früher zurückgebliebenen, noch menschenunähnlicheren Wesen waren. Dann noch später setzte der Mensch die Säugetiere heraus. Zuletzt stieß er die Affen ab und ging selbst höher hinauf.
Der Mensch war also von Anfang an Mensch, nicht Affe, und sonderte das ganze Tierreich aus sich heraus, um selbst vollkommener zu werden; gleichsam wie wenn man aus einer mit Farbe gemischten Flüssigkeit die Farbstoffe nach und nach heraussondert und das klare Wasser zurückbehält. Alte Naturforscher, wie Paracelsus und Oken, haben dies in schöner Weise ausgesprochen: Wenn der Mensch hinaussieht auf die Tierwelt, muß er sich sagen: Das habe ich selbst in mir getragen und abgesondert aus meinem Wesen.
So hatte der Mensch in sich, was er später außer sich hatte. Und so hat der Mensch auch heute noch etwas in sich, was er später außer sich haben wird, nämlich sein Karma, die beiden Posten Gut und Böse. So wahr es ist, daß der Mensch das Tiergeschlecht aus sich herausgesetzt hat, ebenso wahr ist es, daß er das Böse und das Gute in die Welt hinaussetzen wird. Das Gute wird eine von Natur gute Menschenrasse ergeben, das Böse eine abgesonderte böse Menschenrasse. Das steht auch in der Apokalypse; das darf nur nicht mißverstanden werden. Nun muß man aber auch unterscheiden zwischen Seelenentwickelung und Rassenentwickelung. Eine Seele kann inkarniert sein in einer Rasse, die herunterkommt; aber wenn diese Seele sich nicht selbst böse macht, braucht sie sich nicht wieder in einer zurücksinkenden Rasse zu inkarnieren; sie verkörpert sich wieder in einer höhersteigenden Rasse. Für die heruntersteigenden Rassen strömen von anderen Seiten Seelen genug zur Inkarnation herbei.
Aber was innen ist, muß nach außen, und der Mensch wird immer höher steigen, wenn sein Karma sich ausgewirkt hat. Damit hängt etwas außerordentlich Interessantes zusammen. Im Hinblick auf diese Entwickelung der Menschheit sind nämlich schon vor Jahrhunderten Geheimorden gegründet worden, die sich die denkbar höchsten Aufgaben gestellt haben. Ein solcher Orden ist der Manichäerorden. Die Wissenschaft weiß nichts Rechtes über ihn. Man meint, die Manichäer hätten die Lehre aufgestellt, daß es von Natur aus ein Gutes und ein Böses gäbe, die miteinander im Kampfe liegen; das sei so von der Schöpfung her bestimmt gewesen. Das ist ein zum Unsinn verzerrter Schimmer der wirklichen Aufgabe dieses Ordens. Die einzelnen Glieder dieses Ordens werden in ganz besonderer Weise für ihre große Aufgabe erzogen. Dieser Orden weiß, daß es Menschen geben wird, die im Karma kein Böses mehr haben werden, und daß es auch eine von Natur aus böse Rasse geben wird, bei der alles Böse noch in höherem Grade vorhanden sein wird als bei den wildesten Tieren, denn sie werden Böses tun bewußt, raffiniert, mit einem hochausgebildeten Verstande. Der Manichäerorden belehrt nun jetzt schon seine Mitglieder in solcher Weise, daß sie das Böse nicht nur bekämpfen, sondern fähig werden, es zum Guten umzuwandeln in späteren Inkarnationen. Das ungeheuer Schwierige dieser Aufgabe liegt darin, daß in jenen bösen Menschenrassen nicht etwa wie bei einem bösen Kinde neben dem Bösen noch Gutes ist, das sich durch Beispiel und Lehre höher entwickeln läßt. Jene von Natur aus ganz Bösen radikal umzugestalten, das lernt das Mitglied des Manichäerordens heute schon. Und dieses dann umgeschmolzene Böse wird nach gelungener Arbeit ein ganz besonders Gutes. Ein Zustand der Heiligkeit wird der allgemeine sittliche Zustand auf Erden sein, und die Kraft der Umwandlung wird den Zustand der Heiligkeit bewirken. Aber das kann nicht anders erzielt werden, als wenn erst dieses Böse sich bildet; und in der Kraft nun, die angewandt werden muß, um dieses Böse zu überwinden, entwickelt sich die Kraft zur höchsten Heiligkeit. Der Acker muß gedüngt werden mit dem ekelerregenden Dünger, der Dünger muß zuerst gleichsam in den Acker hineinwachsen als Ferment. So braucht die Menschheit den Dünger des Bösen, um den Zustand der höchsten Heiligkeit zu erreichen. Das ist die Mission des Bösen. Stark wird der Mensch, wenn er seine Muskeln anstrengen muß; ebenso muß das Gute, wenn es sich zur Heiligkeit steigern soll, erst das ihm entgegengesetzte Böse überwinden. Das Böse hat die Aufgabe, die Menschheit höher zu bringen.
Solche Dinge lassen uns hineinschauen in das Geheimnis des Lebens. Später dann, wenn der Mensch das Böse überwunden hat, kann er darangehen, die heruntergestoßenen Geschöpfe, auf deren Kosten er sich entwickelt hat, zu erlösen. Das ist der Sinn der Entwickelung.
Etwas noch Schwierigeres ist das Folgende. Ein Schneckenhaus, eine Muschelschale sind abgesondert aus der lebendigen Substanz des Tieres selbst. Was als Haus die Schnecke umgibt, war ursprünglich in ihr; es ist ihr eigener Leib in verdichteter Form. Die Theosophie sagt: Wir sind eine Einheit mit allem, was uns umgibt. - Das ist so zu verstehen, daß der Mensch einst alles in sich gehabt hat. In der Tat ist die Erdkruste entstanden dadurch, daß der Mensch sie einst auskristallisiert hat; und wie die Schnecke ihr Haus, so hat der Mensch auch alle anderen Wesen und Reiche, Mineral-, Pflanzen- und Tierreich, in sich gehabt und kann zu allen sagen: Die Substanzen waren in mir, ich habe die Bestandteile herauskristallisiert. - So blickt er nun auf etwas außer sich selbst, und jetzt bekommt es einen greifbaren Sinn, wenn er, indem er sie schaut, sagt: Das alles bin ich selbst.
Noch subtiler ist eine zweite Idee. Stellen Sie sich jenen alten Menschheitszustand vor, in dem noch nichts aus dem Menschen herausgesondert war. Der Mensch war da und hatte auch Vorstellungen; aber er hatte sie nicht objektiv dadurch, daß die äußeren Dinge einen Eindruck machten, sondern rein subjektiv. Alles kam aus ihm selbst heraus. Der Traum ist noch ein Erbstück aus jener Zeit, wo der Mensch die ganze Welt gleichsam aus sich herausgesponnen hat. Dann setzte er die Welt sich selbst entgegen. Wir haben die Dinge selbst gemacht und schauen unsere eigenen Produkte, unser eigenes, festgewordenes Wesen in den anderen Geschöpfen.
Kant spricht von etwas, was der Mensch nicht erkennen könne, von einem «Ding an sich». Aber so etwas gibt es nicht. Es gibt keine Grenzen des Erkennens, denn der Mensch findet in allem, was er um sich herum sieht, die zurückgelassenen Spuren seiner eigenen Wesenheit.
Alles das wurde gesagt, um Ihnen zu zeigen, daß man, wenn man nur eine Seite der Dinge betrachtet, niemals zu einem wirklichen Verständnis kommen kann. Man muß sich klar darüber sein, daß alles, was uns in einem gewissen Zustande erscheint, in früheren Zeiten ganz anders war, und nur, wenn man die Gegenwart und die Vergangenheit miteinander vergleicht, kommt man da zu einem Verständnis. Und so auch, wenn man nur die sinnliche Welt betrachtet: Niemals wird man verstehen, warum es überhaupt Krankheit gibt oder was die Mission des Bösen ist, wenn man sich auf die sinnliche Betrachtung beschränkt. Alle solchen Zusammenhänge haben einen tiefen Sinn. Diese ganze Entwickelung durch Abspaltung, die ich Ihnen geschildert habe, hat sich vollzogen, weil der Mensch ein innerliches Wesen werden sollte; er mußte das alles aus sich heraussetzen, um sich selbst schauen zu können. So verstehen wir die Mission der Krankheit, die Mission des Bösen und die Mission der Außenwelt. Das sind große Zusammenhänge, wie sie die Betrachtung des Karmagesetzes ergibt.
Wir wollen nun noch einige karmische Einzelfragen behandeln, die häufig gestellt werden. Welches ist der karmische Zusammenhang, daß viele Menschen schon so jung sterben, zum Beispiel schon als Kinder? Fälle, die der Geheimwissenschaft bekannt sind, lehren das Folgende. Man konnte zum Beispiel ein Kind, das früh gestorben ist, in Beziehung auf sein voriges Leben untersuchen, und da zeigte sich, daß es in seinem früheren Leben recht gut veranlagt war und diese Anlagen auch gut benutzt hatte. Es war ein recht fähiges Mitglied der menschlichen Gesellschaft geworden, aber es war etwas schwachsichtig. Durch diese schwachen Augen und das weniger genaue Ansehen-Können bekamen alle seine Erfahrungen einen besonderen Anstrich. Es fehlte dadurch überall an einer Kleinigkeit, um die es hätte besser sein können; der Mensch blieb immer etwas zurück wegen der schwachen Augen. Er hätte ganz Außerordentliches leisten können, wenn er gute Sehorgane gehabt hätte. Er starb und wurde dann ganz kurze Zeit danach wieder inkarniert mit gesunden Augen, lebte aber nur wenige Wochen. Dadurch aber hatten die Wesensglieder erfahren, wie man gesunde Augen bekommt, und der Mensch hatte ein Stückchen Leben bekommen, um zu erwerben, was ihm noch gefehlt hatte, gleichsam eine Korrektur des vorhergehenden Lebens. Der Schmerz der Eltern wird natürlich karmisch ausgeglichen, aber sie mußten das Werkzeug für diese Korrektur sein.
Was ist der karmische Zusammenhang bei totgeborenen Kindern? Darüber läßt sich schwer sprechen. In einzelnen Fällen, die okkult untersucht wurden, hatte sich der Astralleib schon mit dem physischen Leib verbunden, zog sich dann aber wieder zurück, so daß der physische Leib tot zur Welt kam. Warum aber zieht sich der Astralleib zurück? Das hängt so zusammen: Gewisse Glieder der höheren Menschennatur hängen mit gewissen physischen Organen zusammen. Kein Wesen zum Beispiel kann ohne Zellen einen Ätherleib haben. Der Stein hat keinen Ätherleib, weil er keine Gefäße oder Zellen hat wie die Pflanze. Ebenso ist der Astralleib an ein Nervensystem gebunden. Die Pflanze hat keinen Astralleib, eben weil sie kein Nervensystem hat. Sobald eine Pflanze von einem Astralleib durchzogen würde, könnte sie nicht mehr physisch wie eine Pflanze aussehen, sie müßte mit einem Nervensystem versehen sein, wie der Stein mit Zellen begabt würde, wenn er von einem Ätherleib durchzogen würde.
Soll nun der Ich-Leib nach und nach Platz greifen, dann muß innerhalb des physischen Körpers warmes rotes Blut vorhanden sein. Alle Tiere, die rotes Blut haben, sind in einer Zeit aus dem Menschen herausgesondert worden, in der sich für den Menschen der Ich-Zustand vorbereitet hat. Daraus erkennen wir, daß die physischen Organe in Ordnung sein müssen, wenn die höheren Leiber Wohnsitz in ihnen nehmen sollen. Wichtig ist nun, zu berücksichtigen, daß der physische Körper ausgestaltet wird in seiner Form durch rein physische Vererbung. Nun kann die Zusammensetzung der Säfte eine unrichtige sein, während die Eltern sonst geistig und seelisch gut zueinander passen. Dann kommt kein ordentlicher physischer Leib zustande; da bekommt der Menschenkeim einen physischen Leib, in dem die höheren Leiber ihren Wohnsitz nicht errichten können. Zum Beispiel der Ätherleib verbindet sich mit dem physischen Leib, nun soll sich der Astralleib des physischen Leibes bemächtigen. Da findet er kein geeignetes Werkzeug, kein ordentlicher Organismus steht ihm zur Verfügung, und der Astralleib muß sich wieder zurückziehen. So bleibt der physische Leib zurück, der dann tot geboren wird. Mithin wird eine Totgeburt bewirkt durch eine physisch schlechte Säftemischung, die kein geeignetes Werkzeug für den geistig-seelischen Menschenkeim geliefert hat. Der physische Leib gedeiht nur soweit, als höhere Wesensglieder in ihm wohnen können. Sie sehen, wie man ins einzelne gehen muß beim Studium karmischer Zusammenhänge.
Wie kommen nun karmische Ausgleiche zustande? Wenn jemand einer anderen Person etwas zugefügt hat, so muß das zwischen ihnen karmisch wieder ausgeglichen werden. Dazu aber müssen die betreffenden Personen gleichzeitig verkörpert sein. Wie geschieht das? Was bringt die Menschen zusammen, welche Kräfte bewirken das? Die Technik des Karma ist folgende: Das Böse, das ich einem Menschen angetan habe, ist geschehen, dadurch hat er gelitten. Nun sterbe ich, gehe ins Kamaloka. Zunächst unmittelbar nach dem Tode muß ich es im Erinnerungstableau sehen; das schmerzt nicht. Dann lebe ich mein Leben zurück. Komme ich in der Kamalokazeit wieder an den Punkt, da muß ich in den ausgehaltenen Schmerz des anderen Menschen nun selbst erleiden. Da kommt also der Gefühlsinhalt hinzu; der prägt sich wie ein Stempel in den Astralleib ein. Ich nehme etwas von diesem Schmerz als Ausbeute ins Devachan mit, es bleibt davon eine Kraft in mir als Ergebnis dessen, was ich an dem anderen Menschen erlebt habe. Ich muß in des anderen Menschen Schmerz oder auch Freude hineinschlüpfen, die er durchleben mußte; das zieht gewisse Kräfte in den Astralleib, so daß ich eine große Menge von Kräften mitnehme ins Devachan.
Komme ich nun zurück zu einer neuen Verkörperung, so ziehen mich diese Kräfte wieder zu dem betreffenden Menschen hin, zum Ausgleich des Karmas. So werden alle Menschen zusammengeführt, die einmal etwas miteinander erlebt haben; sie haben während der Kamalokazeit sich diese Kräfte einverleibt.
Selbstverständlich können in einem physisch verkörperten Menschen auch Kamaloka-Erlebnisse mit mehreren Menschen sein, um ihr Karma auszugleichen. Ein Beispiel soll uns auch das klarmachen. Ein in der Geheimwissenschaft bekannter Fall sagt folgendes: Ein Mensch wurde von fünf Richtern zum Tode verurteilt. Was war da geschehen? Dieser eine hatte im vorigen Leben eben diese fünf getötet, und die karmischen Kräfte hatten diese sechs Menschen zusammengeführt zum karmischen Ausgleich. Daraus entsteht nun aber nicht etwa eine nie endende karmische Kette, sondern andere karmische Beziehungen ändern den weiteren Verlauf.
Sie sehen, geheimnisvoll arbeiten die geistigen Kräfte, um das komplizierte Menschengebilde zustande zu bringen. Manche wichtige, große Gesichtspunkte werden uns noch klar werden, wenn wir in den nächsten Tagen die ganze Entwickelung der Erde und des Menschen betrachten werden.
Eighth Lecture
We continue our discussion of specific karmic issues relating to human life.
Another question is: What is the secret doctrine's view of the origin of conscience? — To people of our cultural level, conscience manifests itself as a kind of inner voice that tells them what they should or should not do. How did such an inner voice come into being?
It is interesting to investigate whether there has ever been anything in the historical development of humanity that corresponds to what we today call conscience. We find that in very early societies there was no word for this concept. In Greek literature it appears relatively late, so that the older Greeks did not yet have the word in their language. Similarly, other peoples did not have a word for it in the early stages of their culture. From this we can conclude that this conscience only gradually became known in a more or less conscious state. This is indeed the case. Conscience only came into being, developed, and even then quite late in the history of human development. We will see later what our ancestors had instead of conscience.
How did conscience gradually develop? An example: Darwin once encountered a cannibal on his travels and tried, among other things, to make him understand that it was not good to eat another human being. But the savage said: In order to decide whether it is good or bad to eat a human being, one must first have eaten him! The savage had not yet judged good and evil according to moral concepts, but according to the pleasure he felt. He was a backward man from an ancient, ancient state of culture in which we all once existed. How did a human being come to distinguish between good and evil? For example, by practicing cannibalism until he himself was in a position to be eaten. At that moment, he experienced that the same thing could happen to him. Through this experience, he realized that something was not quite right, and the fruit of this experience remained with him in Kamaloka and Devachan. In the next incarnation, they brought with them a very dark feeling that their actions were wrong. After further incarnations, this feeling became more definite, they paid attention to the feelings of others, and gradually a certain restraint developed. After various further incarnations, this dark feeling had intensified and the thought had formed: One must not do that. — Similarly, at the beginning of civilization, a savage ate everything without distinction; this gave him stomach pains, and gradually he learned from experience that he could eat some things and not others. Thus, experience gradually intensified and became the voice of conscience.
So what is conscience? It is the result of experiences through various incarnations. Basically, all knowledge, both the highest and the lowest, is the result of experience; it has arisen through trial and error, through experience.
An interesting fact belongs here: it is only since Aristotle that there has been a science of logic, the study of thinking. From this we must conclude that correct thinking also only came into being later. And so it is. Thinking first had to develop, and correct thinking, logic, only arose over time based on the observation that wrong thinking leads to things that are evil. Knowledge is something that humans have acquired over many incarnations. After much trial and error, humanity arrived at a treasure trove of knowledge. Here we see the importance of the law of karma; we also have something here that forms as a lasting habit and inclination from experience. Such an inclination as conscience also adheres to the etheric body: as the astral body has convinced itself so often that this or that does not work, this inclination develops in the etheric body as a lasting characteristic.
Another interesting karmic connection can be seen in habitual selfish behavior or in loving, sympathetic coexistence with others. There are hardened habitual egoists — not only in relation to the pursuit of profit — and there are altruistic, loving, compassionate people. Both are attached to the etheric body and are expressed in the physical body in the next life. People who habitually act selfishly in one life age early in the next life and shrink early; on the other hand, staying young and fresh for a long time stems from a loving, devoted previous life. Thus, one can also consciously prepare the physical body for the next life.
Now, if you remember what I said yesterday, a question will be on your mind: What about the things that the physical body achieves for itself? Its deeds will determine its future fate, but what about the illnesses it has suffered in this life?
The answer to this question, strange as it may sound, is not speculation, not theory; it is based on the experiences of secret science and teaches the mission of illness. Fabre d'Olivet, the explorer of the opening chapters of Genesis, once used a very beautiful image. He compares what emerges as fate to a natural process; he says: The precious pearl is created by a disease; it is an exudate of the pearl oyster, so that in this case life must become ill in order to produce something valuable. Just as the pearl is formed from the illness of the mussel, so the illnesses of the physical body reappear in the next life as aesthetic beauty. Either one's own body becomes beautiful in appearance in the next life as a result of the illness it has undergone, or an infectious disease that it has carried with its environment is rewarded by the beauty of its surroundings. Beauty thus develops karmically from suffering, pain, deprivation, and illness. This is a striking connection, but it does indeed exist. Even the sense of beauty is developed in this way. Nothing beautiful exists in the world without suffering, pain, and illness. We encounter something very similar in the history of human development in general. You will see from this how wonderful the karmic connections in life actually are and how the questions of evil, illness, and pain cannot be answered without knowing the great inner connections of human development.
The line of evolution goes back to very ancient times. Conditions were very different then; the earth was completely different. Higher animals did not yet exist. There was a time when there were no fish, amphibians, birds, or mammals at all, only animals that were lower than fish. Humans existed, but in a completely different form. Their physical body was still very imperfect; their spiritual body was higher. They were still in a soft, ethereal body, and the soul itself worked on this physical body from outside. Humans still had all other beings within them. Later, humans developed further and left behind the fish form they had within them. These were powerful, fantastical-looking creatures, unlike our fish today. Humans developed further again and separated the birds from themselves. Then the reptiles and amphibians emerged from humans, grotesque beings such as dinosaurs and fish lizards, which were actually only stragglers of the earlier, even more human-like beings. Then, even later, humans separated the mammals. Finally, they rejected the apes and ascended even higher.
So humans were humans from the beginning, not apes, and separated the entire animal kingdom from themselves in order to become more perfect; just as when one gradually separates the dyes from a liquid mixed with color and retains the clear water. Ancient naturalists such as Paracelsus and Oken expressed this beautifully: When humans look out at the animal world, they must say to themselves: I carried this within me and separated it from my being.
Thus, man had within himself what he later had outside himself. And so, even today, man still has something within himself that he will later have outside himself, namely his karma, the two aspects of good and evil. Just as it is true that man has expelled the animal species from himself, it is equally true that he will expel evil and good into the world. Good will produce a race of people who are good by nature, evil will produce a separate race of evil people. This is also written in the Apocalypse; it must not be misunderstood. But now we must also distinguish between soul development and racial development. A soul may be incarnated in a race that is declining; but if this soul does not make itself evil, it does not need to incarnate again in a declining race; it incarnates again in a race that is ascending. Enough souls flow in from other sides for incarnation in the declining races.
But what is inside must come out, and man will always ascend higher when his karma has worked itself out. Something extremely interesting is connected with this. With regard to this development of humanity, secret orders were founded centuries ago that set themselves the highest tasks imaginable. One such order is the Manichaean Order. Science knows nothing definite about it. It is believed that the Manichaeans taught that there is a good and an evil in nature that are in conflict with each other; that this was determined at the time of creation. This is a distorted glimpse of the real task of this order. The individual members of this order are educated in a very special way for their great task. This order knows that there will be people who will no longer have evil in their karma, and that there will also be a race that is inherently evil, in which all evil will be present to a greater degree than in the wildest animals, because they will do evil consciously, cunningly, with a highly trained mind. The Manichaean Order is already teaching its members in such a way that they not only fight evil, but become capable of transforming it into good in later incarnations. The enormous difficulty of this task lies in the fact that in those evil races of people, unlike in an evil child, there is no good alongside the evil that can be developed further through example and teaching. The members of the Manichaean order are already learning today how to radically transform those who are completely evil by nature. And this evil, once it has been remolded, will become something particularly good after the work has been successfully completed. A state of holiness will be the general moral condition on earth, and the power of transformation will bring about this state of holiness. But this cannot be achieved unless this evil first forms; and in the power that must now be applied to overcome this evil, the power to attain the highest holiness develops. The field must be fertilized with the disgusting manure; the manure must first grow into the field as a ferment, so to speak. Thus, humanity needs the fertilizer of evil in order to attain the state of highest holiness. That is the mission of evil. Man becomes strong when he has to strain his muscles; in the same way, if goodness is to rise to holiness, it must first overcome its opposite, evil. Evil has the task of raising humanity to a higher level.
Such things allow us to glimpse the mystery of life. Later, when man has overcome evil, he can set about redeeming the creatures he has pushed down in order to develop himself. That is the meaning of development.
The following is even more difficult. A snail shell, a mussel shell, are separated from the living substance of the animal itself. What surrounds the snail as a house was originally inside it; it is its own body in condensed form. Theosophy says: We are one with everything that surrounds us. This is to be understood in the sense that man once had everything within himself. In fact, the earth's crust was created when man once crystallized it; and just as the snail has its house, so man also had all other beings and kingdoms, mineral, plant, and animal, within himself and can say to all of them: The substances were within me, I crystallized the components. - So now he looks at something outside himself, and now it takes on a tangible meaning when he says, as he looks at it: All this is myself.
A second idea is even more subtle. Imagine that ancient state of humanity in which nothing had yet been separated from man. Man was there and also had ideas; but he did not have them objectively through the impression made by external things, but purely subjectively. Everything came from within himself. Dreams are a remnant of that time when humans spun the whole world out of themselves, as it were. Then they set the world against themselves. We made things ourselves and see our own products, our own solidified essence, in other creatures.
Kant speaks of something that humans cannot recognize, of a “thing in itself.” But there is no such thing. There are no limits to knowledge, because humans find traces of their own essence in everything they see around them.
All this has been said to show you that if you only look at one side of things, you can never come to a real understanding. One must be clear that everything that appears to us in a certain state was completely different in earlier times, and only by comparing the present and the past can one come to an understanding. And so, too, if one considers only the sensory world: one will never understand why illness exists at all or what the mission of evil is if one limits oneself to sensory observation. All such connections have a deep meaning. This whole development through separation, which I have described to you, took place because human beings were to become inner beings; they had to put all this out of themselves in order to be able to see themselves. In this way we understand the mission of illness, the mission of evil, and the mission of the outer world. These are great connections, as revealed by consideration of the law of karma.
We will now deal with a few specific karmic questions that are frequently asked. What is the karmic connection that causes many people to die so young, for example as children? Cases known to esoteric science teach the following. For example, a child who died early could be examined in relation to his previous life, and it turned out that he had been quite well endowed in his previous life and had also made good use of these gifts. He had become a quite capable member of human society, but he was somewhat weak-sighted. Because of these weak eyes and his less accurate vision, all his experiences took on a special character. As a result, there was always something small missing that could have been better; the person always lagged behind a little because of their weak eyes. They could have achieved something extraordinary if they had had good eyesight. They died and then reincarnated a short time later with healthy eyes, but only lived for a few weeks. However, this allowed the elements of his being to learn how to obtain healthy eyes, and the person was given a little bit of life to acquire what he had been lacking, a correction of his previous life, so to speak. The pain of the parents is, of course, karmically balanced, but they had to be the instrument for this correction.
What is the karmic connection in the case of stillborn children? This is difficult to talk about. In individual cases that have been investigated occultly, the astral body had already connected with the physical body, but then withdrew again, so that the physical body was born dead. But why does the astral body withdraw? This is related to the following: certain members of higher human nature are connected to certain physical organs. For example, no being can have an etheric body without cells. A stone has no etheric body because it has no vessels or cells like a plant. Similarly, the astral body is bound to a nervous system. A plant has no astral body precisely because it has no nervous system. As soon as a plant were permeated by an astral body, it could no longer look physically like a plant; it would have to be equipped with a nervous system, just as a stone would be endowed with cells if it were permeated by an etheric body.
If the ego body is to gradually take its place, then warm red blood must be present within the physical body. All animals that have red blood were separated from humans at a time when the ego state was being prepared for humans. From this we can see that the physical organs must be in order if the higher bodies are to take up residence in them. It is important to note that the physical body is shaped in its form by purely physical heredity. Now, the composition of the juices may be incorrect, while the parents are otherwise well suited to each other spiritually and emotionally. Then a proper physical body does not come into being; the human germ receives a physical body in which the higher bodies cannot establish their dwelling place. For example, the etheric body connects with the physical body, and now the astral body is supposed to take possession of the physical body. It finds no suitable instrument, no proper organism at its disposal, and the astral body must withdraw again. Thus the physical body remains behind and is born dead. A stillbirth is therefore caused by a physically poor mixture of fluids, which has not provided a suitable instrument for the spiritual-soul human germ. The physical body thrives only to the extent that higher elements of being can dwell in it. You see how necessary it is to go into detail when studying karmic relationships.
How does karmic compensation come about? If someone has done something to another person, this must be karmically compensated between them. For this to happen, however, the persons concerned must be incarnated at the same time. How does this happen? What brings people together, what forces bring this about? The technique of karma is as follows: The evil I have done to a person has happened, and he has suffered as a result. Now I die and go to Kamaloka. Immediately after death, I must see it in the tableau of memory; this does not hurt. Then I relive my life. When I return to that point in Kamaloka, I must now suffer the pain that the other person endured. So the emotional content is added; it is imprinted like a stamp on the astral body. I take some of this pain with me as a reward into Devachan; a force remains in me as a result of what I experienced in the other person. I have to slip into the other person's pain or joy that they had to go through; this draws certain forces into the astral body, so that I take a large amount of forces with me into Devachan.
When I return to a new incarnation, these forces draw me back to the person in question to balance the karma. In this way, all people who have once experienced something together are brought together; they have incorporated these forces during the Kamaloka period.
Of course, a physically embodied person may also have Kamaloka experiences with several people in order to balance their karma. An example will clarify this for us. A case known in secret science tells the following story: A person was sentenced to death by five judges. What had happened? In a previous life, this person had killed these five, and karmic forces had brought these six people together for karmic balance. However, this does not result in a never-ending karmic chain, but rather other karmic relationships change the further course of events.
You see, spiritual forces work in mysterious ways to bring about the complex structure of human beings. Some important, major aspects will become clear to us when we consider the entire development of the Earth and humankind over the next few days.