The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Lecture I

When I was last able to speak before you here, we did not finish with the theme undertaken, as you will remember, and I was permitted to suggest a continuation of my lecture at some time in the future. Now it has happened that, before we could consider such a continuation, I find myself in the position of speaking to you again.

I would like now to try to form this lecture in such a way that it can somewhat fill the role of a continuation of what we were speaking about before; so that you may again distinguish the style and manner in which our Teacher, Dr. Steiner, worked in our Society and how he coped with particular problems such as that of the Bodhisattva — about which we will now speak.

When we approach the question of the Bodhisattva, with which at the moment many of the friends in our Society are preoccupied, we must know that our friend, Herr Arenson, held a lecture on this subject that will be known to many — especially so for the reason that it has fortunately been printed. There he gathered together the passages in Dr. Steiner's lectures where this theme was spoken o£ so that one could easily survey all the material that belongs to it.

It goes without saying that in view of the seriousness which marks Herr Arenson's lecture, we wish to show an equal seriousness in dealing with this theme ourselves.

It is certainly correct, I believe, when Herr Arenson says that there is widely spread among members a comprehension about the being of the Bodhisattva that is vague. And perhaps this is simply due to the fact that we are dealing here with a concept from oriental culture, a concept that is at first still remote to a western style of thinking and that was brought to our attention through Rudolf Steiner only during one period, of which I would like to speak to you.

Rudolf Steiner treated this subject only in relation to oriental spiritual life as it flowed through the Theosophical Society, with which we were, of course, previously united. And so it seems right and necessary to me to place this theme into the history or pre-history of the Anthroposophical Society, and to try to find an approach to the Bodhisattva question from that side.

Now if you review our whole literature, the lecture cycles and other single lectures which are mostly available in transcripts of a sort, you will find that in the earlier years of his activity, Dr. Steiner took some trouble to transform the oriental Indian element living in Theosophy into a western element. He wanted to teach nothing but western occultism. The situation he came upon, as he began to work in the Theosophical Society, was that of Indian Theosophy along with people who were attached to it The whole first years were an effort to transform the expressions to which the members were accustomed, but which they basically little understood, into corresponding western concepts in order gradually to lead these people toward a western approach to spiritual research.

You will find, then, in the years 1904 and 1905, several instances where the being of the Bodhisattva is mentioned. Therein, Dr. Steiner gave definitions from various aspects, as it was his custom to throw light on things from different points of view. So it is that he speaks of the Bodhisattvas in the so-called Cycle of 31 Lectures (Berlin) in the year 1905, wherein he traversed the whole range of Indian occultism and interpreted anew — in a sense, translated — nearly all the expressions that were commonly used, and explained them for the members. Later on, he did not have to return again to most of these things, because he had by then evolved concepts that are comprehensible in the context of western spiritual life.

We then find the Bodhisattva idea appearing especially strongly in the years 1909, 1910, 1911, and fading out again through 1912 and 1913. From then on, stillness again reigned with regard to the Bodhisattva question. He had brought it in connection with a particular occurrence about which we will have to speak and which will, on the whole, be familiar to you. Those of us who experienced those times I mean those in which the Alcyone or Krishnamurti affair was taking place in the Theosophical Society — have preserved extraordinarily strong impressions from them. It was a time of the most powerful experiences that one could go through. Some of this will already be familiar to you inasmuch as you have heard my last lecture.

If you would now attempt to understand the difficult indications of Rudolf Steiner about the Bodhisattvas, it can perhaps be of help to you to hear a personal version by one who participated in the extraordinarily powerful, intense experiences of the Bodhisattva question in those years. Herr Arenson mentions a whole series of lectures in which the Bodhisattva question is treated. You will find all these lectures in the years 1909 to 1912, called forth by what was then agitating the Theosophical Society — to which we were, in a sense, chained. I would like to tell you something of what was pervading hearts and souls at that time, for I believe that the description of these more soul-related experiences is just what may help toward an understanding of the problem arising now.

Yet before I come to that, I would like to speak at greater length about the teaching of the Bodhisattvas as we find it clearly depicted by Rudolf Steiner, and which you have also heard about in Herr Arenson's lecture. I wish to touch first on this sphere so as not to speak too abstractly about what we shall then have to say, and because it is good to immerse ourselves again in what Rudolf Steiner has taught us.

In particular, I would like to refer to an important lecture, which later on I shall treat as part of the history of the Anthroposophical Movement, but which here I shall review in its basic content in order to further clarify for you what Rudolf Steiner means by the term 'Bodhisattva'. I am speaking of the lecture on The Sphere of the Bodhisattvas in the cycle The Christ Impulse and the Development of Ego-Consciousness. If we take what Dr. Steiner says there, we find the Bodhisattva-beings are of a kind who are always in the spiritual world, and who, as you know, surround the Christ; they belong in their twelvefoldness to Christ, enjoy His presence, and absorb His teachings. They teach only in order to proclaim the Being of Christ on Earth, for they descend one after another to Earth. They are the great Teachers of mankind.

We must distinguish them from those beings whom Dr. Steiner called the ‘Primeval Teachers of Mankind, of whom he said that from a certain time onward they had retired from the Earth and now have their dwelling on the Moon. We must distinguish them from those teachers of mankind who, in the beginnings of evolution, came down from other planets and taught early humanity arts and sciences. What man possessed of skills and capacities, of science and art, was taught him by beings standing between the human and Angel levels, who had remained behind during the Moon-evolution and therefore did not fully belong to the Angel hierarchy. Dr. Steiner called them luciferic beings — from whom, however, mankind received much good: its whole culture, you might say, right down into later Greek times. The great heroes of ancient times bore a luciferic spirit at the base of their souls. That is a different stream from the one with which we have to concern ourselves.

One cannot speak of the Bodhisattvas in the same way (although they too descend to Earth) as of those luciferic beings. When one considers them in their twelvefoldness, one can see in them an image of the Zodiac, and also an image reflected in that which Christ had around Him on Earth as His twelve apostles. Dr. Steiner brought the name 'Buddha' into relation with the name ‘Mercury’, the god of wisdom, as it is basically the same word. So the Bodhisattvas are actually called ‘Wisdom Beings’. One can see in them a kind of Mercury being who are not, however, of a luciferic nature, and who recognized Christ early on and followed Him — in contrast to the beings described above [who indeed also stem partly from Mercury] who were, fundamentally, rebel spirits retarded in development.

Of the Bodhisattvas Dr. Steiner says, in accord with the oriental teaching, that they descend to Earth one after the other, incorporate for awhile as Bodhisattva [for the time being I shall make use of the expression], and finally rise to the rank of Buddha. A Bodhisattva who has become Buddha returns no more to Earth; then comes the next Bodhisattva. And what the Bodhisattvas had as their task up to the Mystery of Golgotha was that of preparing human understanding for the Mystery of Golgotha. And after the appearance of Christ on Earth, they helped human beings to acquire understanding of the Christ Being and His deed. Six, we can reckon, descended before the Mystery of Golgotha, and six will follow.

Now Rudolf Steiner says in this lecture that in earlier times the Bodhisattvas never were fully incorporated; rather, one would then have seen a person, and behind him — as though stretching out beyond him — a mighty spiritual figure. The figure did not enter fully into corporeality, and it sufficed for the mission of the Bodhisattva that a human being was permeated in such a manner and could take up what could be given through the Bodhisattva-being. This went on into the fourth post-Atlantean cultural epoch. Then mankind had come so far that a Bodhisattva who had not fully incorporated would no longer have been able to make himself understood. Earthly things would no longer have been comprehensible for a being remaining so much in the background as not to have entered fully into a human being. Dr. Steiner, in explanation, speaks about the human conscience, which came into existence in the sixth and seventh pre-Christian centuries. We know that, previously, when people had done something evil, they experienced the Furies, the Erinyes, acting from without — who pointed out to them the wickedness of their doings; whereas afterwards the voice of conscience, developing rather quickly, was beginning to speak within human beings themselves. Such a thing would not have been comprehensible to a being not incorporated in the earthly world.

We must bear in mind that the Bodhisattvas are not in the same sense teachers as those we have described above, who actually taught people all sorts of skills (counting, reckoning, writing, etc.); instead, their teachings are more closely related to morality. Indeed, they bring a reflection of what they have experienced of the Christ Being. You will find this in the life story of the last Bodhisattva — who became Gautama Buddha — where he himself describes how his previous incarnations had become apparent to him. These descriptions seem quite fantastic to a contemporary human conception of things. He describes, for instance, how he had been a hare and came to a hermit who had nothing to eat and was hungry. Then, out of compassion, the hare jumped into the fire and let himself be broiled so that the hermit might have food. Thus, a deed of sacrifice, done out of compassion, is what the Buddha describes there. And Dr. Steiner spoke of the fact that from the present Bodhisattva there will go forth the teaching of virtuousness; that virtue will be teachable — so that the teaching will enter into human moral evolution. It is for this reason that the future Buddha will be called ‘The Buddha of Good Will’ (Buddha der guten Gesinnung), the Maitreya Buddha, the Bringer of Goodness in Love, in Friendship.

Now, in the lecture of which we are speaking, Dr. Steiner describes how in the incarnation when Gautama became Buddha, about 600 B.C. (the time when the fourth post-Atlantean cultural epoch had begun also for India) the necessity then arose for the Bodhisattva-being to completely penetrate, to enter fully into a human body — in order to come to know what human fate on Earth is. And when you look at the life of Buddha from this point of view, you will see how step-by-step a being is led toward life as a human, wherein there is suffering, sickness, death. And how this one life sufficed, Dr. Steiner says, for attaining the knowledge of what life on Earth means for a human soul. Then came The Enlightenment beneath the Bodhi tree, through which the Bodhisattva rose to Buddhahood. You can also take this same description out of a lecture that was held right here in Stuttgart and you will see how Dr. Steiner describes this event of becoming Buddha quite anthroposophically. How western is the description in comparison with the usual oriental one! He allots chief importance to the fact that a being has become human, and as a human being gives forth those teachings which previously had been only inspired. I am referring to the lecture on the Gospels (Stuttgart, November 14, 1909) where Dr. Steiner speaks about the previous Bodhisattva becoming Buddha:

Earlier on he had allowed himself, so to speak, to be led from above; he had received impulses from the spiritual world and then passed them on. In this incarnation, however, 600 years before our era, he was raised to the rank of Buddha in his 29th year; i.e., in this incarnation he experienced the entry of his whole individuality into the physical body. While earlier as Bodhisattva he had to remain outside with a part of his being in order to be able to make a bridge, the step forward to Buddha-rank was now that he was incarnated wholly in the body. Thereby he was able not only to receive the teaching of compassion and love through inspiration, but he could look within and receive this teaching as the voice of his own heart. This was the enlightenment of the Buddha in the 29th year of his life under the Bodhi tree. There it was that the teaching of compassion and love flowered in him, independent of connections with the spirit world, as something belonging to the human soul; so that he could think through to the teaching of compassion and love, of which he spoke in the Eightfold Path. And the sermon following this is the great teaching of compassion and love, issuing for the first time from a human breast.

You see, it is this upon which here the emphasis is laid: that it was spoken for the first time out of a human breast. In the oriental view, the main importance is placed on the fact that the Buddha no longer has any need to incorporate, that he enters into Nirvana where all desires and all incarnations are extinguished — the entry into so-called 'Nothingness'.

For this conception, prevalent also in the West, it was a great surprise when Rudolf Steiner told us of the further tasks that the Buddha also carried out later. One did not get the impression that what happened to Buddha when he had entered Nirvana was a blissful cushion of rest, as it is presented in oriental teaching. One great task after the other was bestowed upon him. We know that the latest task given to him, actually by a human being, by Christian Rosenkreuz, was such that it took him right up to the sphere of Mars, and to a deed that can again be described as a deed of sacrifice. This conception is a historical one, suited to western research; one which does not stop at the point where the Buddha being vanishes, so to speak, into the spirit world, but instead is capable of relating what later happens to him. On the other hand, it is the style of eastern spirituality to leave precisely these things more vague; not to take an interest in what happened to the Buddha after he had reached Nirvana, but rather to stress the rhythmical return of the repeated Earth-lives of the Bodhisattvas.

With the foregoing as a basis, I would now like to state the following. In his lecture on The Sphere of the Bodhisattvas, Dr. Steiner uses the expression that "if the wise World-guides had continued to pursue the policy of letting the Bodhisattva not wholly incarnate, it would not have worked, because the contact with the world of human beings would no longer have been sufficient/ So the next Bodhisattva had then to relate himself in a quite different manner with the human world.

It is certainly difficult to describe the ways in which the great World Teachers are connected to the human being; for nowhere are such profound secrets hidden as here, where we are dealing with the incorporations of the great Teachers of mankind. Even if one is able to communicate one or two single details, one is still always confronted with tremendous enigmas. Take, for example, the significant passage in cycle XIX, From Jesus to Christ, where Dr. Steiner speaks about Jeschu ben Pandira, and how he then suddenly mentions Moses and the Prophets. This in itself suffices to show that great secrets lie hidden here.

At the point where decisions are made in the spiritual world for the incorporation of a being, the systems that we make cease to function. The Orient loves such systems, loves to contemplate the regular coming-and-going of Bodhisattvas, and pays little attention to the individual differences that have to exist in different periods of time. But with regard to our period, starting in the fourth post-Atlantean age, Dr. Steiner says that the Bodhisattva does indeed unite with a human being; and yet, at the same time, the individuality of that human being still, in a way, remains present It is not like it was in the case of Christ Jesus, when the ego of Jesus departed from his sheaths at the Jordan Baptism, but it is so that the ego of the human personality remains present when the Bodhisattva enters into him.

We therefore have to look to an individuality who is the bearer of the Bodhisattva-being. And if one was present at the time when Dr. Steiner spoke about the Bodhisattva and about Jeschu ben Pandira, one could not resist the impression that it was a human individuality, going through all the incorporations, who was being referred to — who stands in connection with the Bodhisattva. Certainly one can often feel enigmas arising when one reads individual passages about this question. Just because of this I would like to mention what I myself had as a personal impression: that what was meant is the ever-and-again returning individuality of Jeschu ben Pandira who, at a special moment of his life, is united over and over again in destiny with the being of the Bodhisattva.

After this introduction, I would now like to consider the time when Dr. Steiner spoke so frequently and with such power about the Bodhisattvas. There is for me no doubt that this was called forth by what, at that time, took place in the Theosophical Society. The end of it is indeed even today not in sight — the curtain having still not fallen on this drama.

It was in the years 1909-1910 that the leader of the Theosophical Movement, Annie Besant, repeatedly wrote: “One can feel how human hearts are becoming especially open to the spirit. People are expecting a Teacher of mankind, the Bodhisattva.” And a little later one could hear: “People are awaiting Christ — why even in India one finds that human souls are living in expectation of a Christ who will reincarnate.” And then it soon became more concrete, and one could read: “He will come, he is here, the Christ, who is the Bodhisattva; for these two are one and the same Being!” The one — so it was said — is only the oriental, the other the occidental name. And then the Hindu boy, Krishnamurti, was pointed towards — as being, supposedly, this incorporation. Annie Besant once remarked about this that in the West he is called Christ, in the East he is called the Bodhisattva; and she added: “I prefer to call him Bodhisattva.” Dr. Steiner took this very seriously; he spoke with great severity about the fact that in occult matters a subjective preference must never be allowed to prevail. When certain names are used, no subjective preference may be determinative. These names — Christ, Bodhisattva, Buddha — have quite definite meanings and may not be mixed up.

Indeed, Annie Besant also said [and this error was not new, but had persisted throughout the whole history of the Theosophical Society] that the Christ, who at the same time was said to be the Bodhisattva, was also he who was incorporated in Jeschu ben Pandira — truly a complete Pied Piper's bag of misrepresentation. So now Dr. Steiner was confronted with the fact that things were stated which, from the perspective of true occultism, were grave errors. Dr. Steiner continuously emphasized that teachings can be many and various in a movement based on the spirit; in this case, however, it was a question of beings whose names were mentioned and who were brought into relation with incorporated human beings. Here one being must not be confused with another, just as little — to use a quite trivial comparison — as Herr Miller can simultaneously be Herr Meyer. He attempted to set this straight so that clarity might prevail in these things.

Today it may strike us as terribly muddled, from the very outset, to assert that Christ and the Bodhisattva are the same being. During that period, however, the assertion was capable of producing the greatest confusion. Now, this whole mix-up was based on a fundamental error that had already been committed by Blavatsky. Blavatsky had such an antipathy, for example, against the Jahve-being as Moon-god, as well as against everything connected with the Moon; but also against Christ and Christianity in general, as it was embodied more or less imperfectly in its representatives. And if you could get hold of the first publications of the Theosophical Society, such as the first years' issues of the paper, The Theosophist, you would find there a vile abuse of Christ Jesus that could make you feel quite sick.

Such things as this, present at the starting point of a spiritual Society, can create very strong Karma. That is then something that such a Society is not able to work through. So it belongs to the bad karma of the Theosophical Society from the outset to have had no relationship with the Christ; indeed, to have had even an antipathy. Later on, the German branch of the Theosophical Society — long before Dr. Steiner — tried in a rather feeble way to let Christian impulses flow in. This was not viewed favorably from 'above'. But the fact that in the Society itself people came to a point of absurdity with regard to Christ, has, no doubt, something to do with the bad karma of that Society. They confused Jesus of Nazareth with Jeschu ben Pandira. They said: 'The Jesus of whom the Gospels speak lived a hundred years before our era." I remember how once someone said to me: MIf Blavatsky can look back into the Akasha Chronicle and can see Jeschu ben Pandira in the year 105 B.C., then she surely could have also seen Jesus in the year nought!M This person thought that vision moves through time like clockwork. But it is not so. Spiritually one cannot see, or cannot see correctly, that toward which one has an antipathy. And the effect of this error continued further. It affected Annie Besant when she attempted personally to bring something of Christianity into the Theosophical Society, after previously having passed through a long period of atheism. She then wrote a book entitled Esoteric Christianity, which was published around 1902. It was highly praised by Rudolf Steiner because he was glad that in the Society people were trying to come to a recognition of the Christ. Into this book Annie Besant put what she knew of Christianity from the years of her youth, but she also again weaved in the mistaken confusion of Jesus of Nazareth with Jeschu ben Pandira, saying apparently of Jesus Christ that he was born in 105 B.C. and was "led to his death" — without speaking of a crucifixion. For it is supposed historically that Jeschu ben Pandira was not actually crucified. And therefore, as a result of confusing the two, the crucifixion of Christ Jesus is not accepted by Annie Besant Thus did the old error enter in again and actually make the book ineffectual.

When Dr. Steiner himself brought his teaching about the Christ — here in parts of Germany and also abroad where he was invited for lectures — there was at first acceptance; but then, before long, an atmosphere of opposition was present in the Theosophical Society. Quite soon thereafter came the moment when something was staged, in that the young Indian boy was brought forward who was supposed to be accepted as the reincarnated Christ, yet at the same time was purported to be the Bodhisattva who would become the next Buddha, the 'Great World *Teacher — with the consequence that extraordinary confusion prevailed. When Annie Besant noticed that people in the West were repelled by her speaking of Christ reappearing in the flesh, she immediately let this depiction drop. Later she even denied ever having spoken of Christ in connection with Krishnamurti, but the mix-up with regard to the Bodhisattva and Christ occurred nonetheless.

Dr. Steiner had to eliminate that He had to clarify what had been thrown into confusion because of certain tendencies. He went about doing this in a wonderfully positive way — in such a way that at the same time he left human freedom untouched. He did not say: ^Krishnamurti is not the Christ,M or "he is not the Bodhisattva." Indeed you will not find anywhere in his lectures mention of the name of this Hindu boy. Rather, he repeated to us over and over, beginning in the year 1909: “My dear friends, the Christ comes only once into the world in a physical form. He is the center point of Earth-evolution. Just as a pair of scales can have only one balancing point, so in Earth-evolution can the event of Golgotha take place only once.”

You will remember &om the lectures how often this was repeated! He also repeatedly mentioned — this too you will find throughout the cycles and lectures in precisely the years 1909-12: "Yes, western occultism absolutely recognizes eastern occultism, and we are in agreement with oriental occultism that the Bodhisattva goes on incorporating until he rises to Buddhahood and then has no need to incorporate further. Just as every eastern occultist knows that, so does the western occultist know that the Christ can only once be present in physical incorporation. And they have just as little right to tell us that Christ will appear again in the flesh as we would have to tell the Oriental that the Buddha would go on to further incarnations after he had risen from Bodhisattva to the rank of Buddha."

One may ask: Was it necessary, then, to repeat such a thing so often? Yes, for although Dr. Steiner did have a movement of his own within the Theosophical Society, this false teaching definitely had a great influence on many members. The German Section was, after all, still a branch of the Theosophical Society. Many people, particularly those from countries outside Germany, had been pupils of Annie Besant before they found their way to Rudolf Steiner; and all of them actually looked up to her, filled with reverence. It was a time of the most difficult trials of the soul for the members of that period, and many soul-struggles were endured precisely because of the way Dr. Steiner brought forward these teachings, leaving it to the freedom of each individual to draw his own conclusions. Truly difficult inner struggles occurred. Heart's blood really flowed with regard to the question: Is Annie Besant right in presenting Krishnamurti as the World Teacher, or as Bodhisattva, or as the Christ — or is Dr. Steiner right?

Our present time has perhaps less comprehension for such soul-struggles. It is perhaps necessary to put oneself back into a pre-war state of mind in order to understand what people's souls went through when they had to admit: if Annie Besant was not right about this, then everything else that she taught in this regard must also be wrong! On the other hand, when one sees how people today suffer soul-agonies because one boxer receives a knockout punch — which they would rather see happen to his antagonist — then perhaps it does seem strange that it had such a disturbing effect on people when Rudolf Steiner had to say something other than what Annie Besant said. I could read you passages where Dr. Steiner called upon the members to have the courage to discern where there is truth and where untruth. [That was at a time, of course, when the separation from the Theosophical Society had already taken place.] It was actually here in this hall that Rudolf Steiner let loose with a severe sermon to those who still could not make the decision in their souls to realize that the truth was not being told on the other side —even though at that time (May 1913) a situation making this insight possible had for some time existed.

I wish now, in order to follow the matter historically, to let the years pass by your inner eyes during which Dr. Steiner did not take part with his group in what the others were doing who were in the 'Star of the East' movement. You will, of course, find briefly indicated in the Dusseldorf cycle on The Spiritual Hierarchies how Dr. Steiner, step-by-step, placed the truth regarding Christianity and Buddhism before the members. Then, in June 1909, came the Theosophical Congress in Budapest. At this congress Dr. Steiner held a public lecture: From Buddha to Christ. Annie Besant also spoke about Buddha. So those two personalities stood there side-by-side as the embodiment of two different streams, although they stood, so to speak, on the same podium. It was at this congress that the event took place about which Dr. Steiner later spoke: Annie Besant made him the offer that if he would recognize Krishnamurti as the reincarnated Christ, she would recognize him, Dr. Steiner, as the reincarnated John the Evangelist. Unbelievable as that seems to us today, there was a time in the Theosophical Society when incarnations were distributed rather like orders of knighthood. This was all grafted onto the basic error that had arisen: the error in considering the Bodhisattva to be identical with the Christ Being, and the youth Krishnamurti — then still a child — as being the future ‘World Teacher’. Advancing step-by-step, Dr. Steiner took up the fight against this; but, as we have said, in full positivity and in the fullest measure respecting freedom.

In August 1909, there was the cycle in Munich with the remarkable title: The East in the Light of the West. Oriental spiritual life was especially illuminated therein, culminating in the question: What is actually a Bodhisattva? It is precisely in reading through this cycle that you will receive the most important insights about the Bodhisattva-beings. Then in the following September, in the cycle on St. Luke's Gospel, the two Jesus boys were spoken of for the first time. Following that, in October, the General Meeting of the German Section took place in Berlin. Dr. Steiner made use of this opportunity to speak about The Sphere of the Bodhisattvas in the lecture that presented so magnificently the Being of Christ and the teaching of the Bodhisattvas. Here, after the difference between the Christ and a Bodhisattva had first been clearly elaborated, the relation between one and the other being was explained.

It was thus made clear at this point, for anyone who wanted to hear it, that Christ will not again be incorporated in a physical body; so that whoever says He will must be in error. This was, so to speak, the negative side of Dr. Steiner's task. But the positive side was quite especially represented. One could formulate that as follows, although of course it was not spoken in exactly this way: When Annie Besant says that an expectation is alive in human beings that the Christ will return, then this is correct if we do not think of it physically.

The moment thus approached when Dr. Steiner told us for the first time that Christ will return etherically; when he quite speciflcally stated that Christ will indeed come, that He may be awaited — not, however, in physical, but rather in etheric form.

It was in the beginning of the year 1910 that Dr. Steiner stated this fact quite powerfully, and, for the members, unexpectedly. It was, so Fve been told, the first time — in a lecture in Stockholm in January 1910. [Unfortunately there exists no transcript of this lecture, as far as I know.] And from then on you can follow the sequence: January, February, March 1910; everywhere Dr. Steiner speaks of the fact that Christ will reappear in the etheric, and everywhere — at the same time —he brought the teaching about the future Maitreya Buddha. Like a wave of enlightenment this flowed from him, leading to the situation that at last there was sufficient insight among the members in Germany, so that they did not join in with the nonsense perpetrated by the other side.

It was again in Scandinavia — it is remarkable how often and how penetratingly Dr. Steiner spoke in Scandinavia about these things — in Christiania, that he held the cycle of lectures The Mission of the Individual Folksouls in Relation to Teutonic Mythology in the spring of 1910. You can read there how powerfully Dr. Steiner spoke about the appearance of the Etheric Christ. He even mentioned it in a public lecture, everywhere allowing the truth to flow in, confronting the falsity that had been spread about.

Then, in August 1910, there was the performance of the first Mystery Drama, The Portal of Initiation. And there Dr. Steiner made use of this opportunity as well, in order through the seeress, Theodora, to give expression to the fact that she beholds the future Christ in etheric light. By means of art, the further indication was to be brought that a naive 'seeress', Theodora, beholds and reveals to people what will soon be beheld by many. At the same time, this Mystery Drama — which falls within the period of impending struggle with the Theosophical Society — is precisely the point where the connection is made, as you know, with Goethe's Fairy Tale', thereby relating to what stands as a mighty spiritual background behind this Fairy Tale and behind the Anthroposophical Movement. We need only to remind ourselves of what Dr. Steiner told us about the supersensible Cult that was working at the time when Goethe was writing his Fairy Tale. Precisely at that moment, in August 1910, Dr. Steiner sets his own path quite clearly up against the other, which came from the theosophical side.

Thus we find in this period an extraordinarily heightened activity with regard to setting forth the truth and rejecting untruth. And one can have the feeling that here, through Rudolf Steiner's efforts, not only was clarity brought into the situation for the people, the members, but also that it must have worked directly into the spiritual world — in that the way has been kept clear for the Bodhisattvabeing in the face of the unbelievable mixture of error and truth that had been spread about. It must have an enormous significance for the Bodhisattva-being when, before his appearance on the physical plane, such confusions are created as had been perpetrated by the 'Star of the .*East For from those quarters a complete order had been founded for the purpose, as they said, of preparing the way for the World Teacher.

Dr. Steiner once expressed himself on this theme as follows: "Indeed one cannot really found an association in order to further the coming of a being into the world. One can found associations for spiritual ideals, but not to further the appearance of him who is to bring those ideals to realization." He gave as an example the fact that many Germans, in the first half of the 19th century, yearned for a united Germany. They founded associations to further the coming into existence of a German kingdom. “But I have never heard,” said Dr. Steiner, “of an order being founded for the purpose of helping Bismarck into the world. It is simply nonsense to found an association in which people are expected to wait for him who is supposed to come.” And he repeatedly let the fact emerge that when one works at Theosophy or Anthroposophy in the right way, one then creates the very condition whereby the answer will come out of the spiritual world.

One has just to imagine what it means when people are supposed to remain in inactive expectation for years, almost decades, waiting for an imminent World Teacher. And in that same period of time Dr. Steiner placed the whole powerful spiritual treasure of Anthroposophy before us and was continuously expanding it! I say this so that you can feel how, at this point, a deed of clarification and purity of discernment was carried out through Dr. Steiner which undoubtedly must also have had certain consequences for him.

Then came the time, in September 1910, when Dr. Steiner held the cycle in Bern on St. Matthew's Gospel, which for all who heard it will live on indissolubly in memory. There he spoke for the first time about Jeschu ben Pandira, who was the teacher of the writer of St. Matthew's Gospel, and who had worked within the Essene Order — where the physical descent of the coming Jesus was known and taught. At that time Dr. Steiner brought Jeschu ben Pandira into connection with the Bodhisattva-being. The manner in which he spoke in Bern was such that one can only agree with what Herr Arenson has said: that it was an inspiration, a real permeation by the Bodhisattva-being. It was an unforgettable impression for everyone there who heard Dr. Steiner when he spoke the words in which he identified himself with the coming Bodhisattva. One could feel: through all that had gone before, our Teacher had come into such a direct relationship with the Bodhisattva-being himself that it was for him tantamount to an inspiration, a permeation. I would like to read you the passage, which at that time one could feel as being spoken out of a permeation with the Bodhisattva himself:

And if Essene teaching is to be renewed in our days, if we are resolved to shape our lives in accordance with the living spirit of a new Bodhisattva, not with the spirit of a tradition concerning a Bodhisattva of the past, then we must make ourselves receptive to the inspiration of the Bodhisattva who will subsequently become the Maitreya Buddha. And this Bodhisattva will inspire us by drawing attention to the near approach of the time when in a new raiment, in an etheric body, Christ will bring life and blessing to those who unfold the new faculties through a new Essene wisdom. We shall speak entirely in the sense of the inspiring Bodhisattva who is to become the Maitreya Buddha and then we shall not speak of how the Christ is to become perceptible on the physical plane — in the manner of some religious denominations. We are not afraid to speak in a different sense, because we recognize it to be the truth. We have no bias in favor of any oriental religious teaching, but we live only for the truth. With the knowledge gained from the inspiration of the Bodhisattva himself, we declare what form the future manifestation of Christ will take.

Thus it is stated here that through the inspiration of the Bodhisattva, knowledge of the etheric return of Christ is given. A few days before this we had already had the impression during a lecture. Something like an inspiration is happening here! And then in this lecture it came in a very strong, powerful manner, so that we had the impression: Now this is a direct connection; here the words are coming out of direct inspiration.

Dear friends, I will never deny this impression. I have carried it for years in my soul. But I have also carried the other impressions in my soul — that on other occasions, too, our Teacher allowed himself to be inspired by other beings when the karmic opportunity, so to speak, presented itself; the impression of what he conveyed to us when his spiritual investigation brought him into contact with beings of the spiritual world, so that an inspiration could even take place directly while he was speaking to members in smaller circles. (There, in Bern, it was in the presence of all the members who had come to the cycle of lectures.) This other impression had to do with something taking place within the esotericism of that time. One can express the phenomenon as follows: We experienced that Dr. Steiner could demonstrate inspiration directly. (It is difficult to find the right expression.) To describe it I will make use of a quotation from St. Paul: “I am a man, and nothing human is foreign to me.” Today it is the custom to use this phrase mostly in relation to what is ‘human, all-too-human’. Let us use it here in the highest sense!

We know from our Spiritual Science, especially from the cycle The East in the Light of the West, that there existed a whole stream of humanity, the so-called southern stream of initiation, in which men allowed themselves to be inspired, and beings took possession of them — whereby the persons thus initiated did not need to be of particularly high standing, but could be instruments for the spiritual world. This historical stream flowed through the more southerly countries, e.g. Egypt and India. There existed also the other path of the northerly stream — to which, for instance, Zarathustra belonged — by which a man so strengthened himself in his own being that he himself could proclaim the spiritual world. And we know: It is the task of Anthroposophy to unite these two paths so that they come together. It is in this sense that I would like to use the expression that nothing human was foreign to our Teacher — that he united everything in himself that could, on the whole, be experienced in human evolution. This was so, in spite of the fact that one could perceive him as being an individual who was an independent researcher of the spirit, who researched in such a way as in earlier times could only be revealed from out of the spiritual world.

I was told by members when I entered Dr. Steiner's spiritual training that there were lessons (the so-called 'esoteric lessons9) in which, by means of certain formally spoken words, he announced, in effect, that he would speak out of inspiration. That is something that I experienced only once; it was at the lecture cycle in Dusseldorf, The Spiritual Hierarchies. This cycle had made an overwhelming impression. Only if we are able to imagine that all those things spoken of in those lectures were at the time not yet part of the treasures of what we've been taught — all the powerful spiritual insights about the Sun-system, the formation of planets in relation to the Hierarchies, etc. (the book Occult Science had indeed not yet been published) — only then can we understand what a tremendous flowing forth of spirit this cycle signified. Then we can also imagine that the holding of such a lecture cycle, the impressing of such exalted supersensible experiences into human concepts and human words, must also have consequences for him who presents mankind with such spirit treasure; that this soul is, moreover, capable of being quite specifically inspired — capable of entering into relationship with beings in quite another way than is usual. And so, during the cycle at that time in Dusseldorf we had a session in a smaller circle, an 'esoteric lesson', just as they were often held in those days. There Dr. Steiner began with the words: “My dear sisters and brothers, this esoteric lesson is of a nature that it does not stand within the responsibility of him who speaks here.” And then he described how Zarathustra was initiated by Ahura-Mazdao, how Zarathustra stood before the great Sun-Being. He was himself Zarathustra in this moment. It was extremely impressive to experience how our great Teacher, who had conveyed to us the outcome of his research, now showed us directly how an ancient leader and Teacher of mankind could, through inspiration, reveal himself; the way for him had been prepared, so to speak, through all that had formed the basis of teaching in that cycle.

In Bern at that time it was much the same experience, only different in that it was called forth on another level. It must be regarded as something unique. In the following years Dr. Steiner spoke ever and again of Jeschu ben Pandira and the Essenes, but probably never with the same intensity of focus as had occurred in these particular lectures in Bern. It was a tremendous experience for everyone present.

When something like this happened, Dr. Steiner was always one who afterwards showed the other side, bringing about the balance, in that he again held forth fully in his own being. I would like to consider as such an occasion the first lecture that he held during the following winter 1910-11 in Berlin, which is included in the cycle Excursus on the Gospel of St. Mark. Between the Bern cycle and this Berlin lecture, hardly any other lectures were held. I know the Berlin lecture, it is true, only from reading it (I came to Berlin just in time for the second lecture.) I believe that if I had heard it I would be able to speak of my impression with still greater certainty. In the first Berlin lecture after the summer and autumn courses, Dr. Steiner would often set forth a sort of ‘Leading Thought’ theme for the further winter lectures. So it was this time too, although the lecture was given as a Retrospect Over the Previous Year. There he spoke again, as so often elsewhere, about the fact that we must always approach things from various sides if we wish to gain real knowledge. For hundreds of years, he said, we in the West have not had a conception of the Bodhisattva; indeed it has only been in the last 150 years that we've come to cultivate research of the Orient. And he described this as something that can help us toward developing a feeling of humility in our striving after knowledge. I would like to read to you a few passages out of this first lecture:

When we permeate ourselves with this feeling, we will gladly and willingly gather from all directions the ideas and feelings that will enable us to regard the great facts of existence from the most varied aspects. More and more, the need will develop in our age to regard things from many sides. Therefore, let us today cease from closing ourselves off toward other points of view or opinions, toward another path than our own (or of our culture) leading to the highest things. I cannot help but have the impression from these words and from the whole lecture, that here another path is being indicated; a path usual in the Orient, to which we do not want to close the door, although our own path is a different one. For me there rings throughout this lecture the fact that Rudolf Steiner was really the first anthroposophist^ and he pursued his investigations as a human being; he was not a theosophist, in the sense that up to that time everything had been revealed, actually, from out of the spiritual world. We know that the old forms of cognition had continued working on for a long time, on into the 18th century, in people like Saint Martin, and also Annie Besant — who entitled her chief work The Ancient Wisdom.

In the Theosophical Society there was so little comprehension for the independent research of Rudolf Steiner, that someone even asked him — as he once told us — who the medium was who had researched these wonderful things for him out of the 'Akasha Chronicle'. For in the Theosophical Society, when Blavatsky was no longer there and the 'Master Revelations, had ceased, they later brought down — through especially prepared mediums — pronouncements about Atlantis, the Moon-evolution, etc. They were accustomed to such things there.

Dr. Steiner was the first person of the modern age to research these things by means of his own clairvoyance, who brought with him the capacities that enabled him to have such a vision, and who thereby made it possible for us also to go that way — so that we ourselves, even if only in small measure, could become researchers of the spirit (Geistesforscher), able to investigate spiritual matters independently. This seems to me to be the continuation of what Rudolf Steiner lived as a prototype for us in his life: the 'man who is looking into the heights9 (as he translated for us the word anthropos) — the person seeking wisdom in the spiritual heights. He often said that Anthroposophy is something which one can develop only in the physical world, and which we must carry up from here into the spiritual world. We really have to bear spiritual knowledge through the portals of death, for one cannot acquire it in the spiritual world itself. He also spoke of the fact that a person who is able to do spiritual research in this world can be a teacher not only for people, but also for spiritual beings. The spiritual beings are also dependent on hearing from human beings what Spiritual Science is. It can be produced only here on Earth. Thus, he pointed to the significance of the human being for the spiritual world. You will find this too in the Mystery Drama, where Benedictus speaks of the fact that on a certain level of his striving he was made worthy of "serving in spiritual spheres as advisor.”

To regard Rudolf Steiner in this manner — as the first researcher of the spirit who showed how every person can himself become a researcher of the spirit —seems to me to be a consideration of what makes up his greatness and can contribute also to our own dignity.