Today I would like to address myself to a
subject specifically requested by our friends here, a subject
having great significance for modern spiritual life. It shall
be considered from the standpoint I have often taken when speaking
of things of the spirit. As a rule, it is difficult to speak
of such a unique and deeply significant subject unless it be
assumed that the audience keep in mind various things explained
in other lectures given on the foundations of spiritual science.
This science is neither widely recognized nor popular; in fact,
it is a most unpopular and much misunderstood spiritual stream
of our day. Misunderstandings can easily arise especially with
a subject like the one chosen today, because the opinion is far
too widespread that anthroposophy might undermine this or that
religious creed, thereby interfering with what someone may hold
precious. Anyone willing to go into anthroposophy in any depth
sees that this opinion is completely false. In one sense, spiritual
science aims to develop further the way of thinking that entered
human evolution through natural science. By strengthening the
human soul, it seeks to make this kind of thinking fruitful.
The way spiritual science must proceed differs significantly,
however, from the way taken by natural science. Anthroposophy
takes its start, not from the world perceived by the external
senses, but from the world of the spirit, Questions pertaining
to the spiritual life of the soul must therefore be considered
from the standpoint of spiritual science. Undoubtedly for many
in our time the most important question in the spiritual life
of humanity pertains to the subject of today's lecture, that
is, Christ Jesus.
To ensure that we shall understand each other
at least to some extent, I would like to make a few preliminary
observations before moving on to any specific questions. Spiritual
science, though it is the continuation of natural science, makes
entirely different demands on the human soul. This fact accounts
for the misunderstanding and opposition spiritual science encounters.
The kind of thinking derived from natural science is tied up
with a problem that more or less concerns human souls today when
they consider higher aspects of life. This is the problem of
the limits to knowledge. Spiritual science in no way belittles
the most admirable attempt of philosophers to ascertain the extent
of human thought and knowledge. Thinkers who judge on the basis
of what can ordinarily be observed in the soul easily conclude
that human knowledge can go so far and no farther. It is commonly
said, "This fact can be known; that other cannot."
On this issue spiritual science takes a completely
different stand because it takes into consideration the development
of the human soul. Granted, in ordinary life and science the
soul does indeed confront certain limits of knowledge. The soul,
however, may take itself in hand, transform itself and thereby
acquire the possibility of penetrating into spheres of existence
radically unlike those usually experienced.
Here I can only indicate what in earlier lectures
and in such books as An Outline of Occult Science and
Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment I have
already explained, namely, that the soul can completely change
itself. Through practicing certain exercises, the soul may bring
about an infinite enhancement of its inherent forces of attention
and devotion. Ordinarily, the soul-spiritual life uses the human
body like an instrument. Just as hydrogen is bound to oxygen
in water, so is this life closely connected with the body, within
which it works. Now, just as hydrogen may be separated from oxygen
and shown to have completely different qualities from water,
so may the soul, through the exercises described in Knowledge
of the Higher Worlds, separate itself from the body. By thus
turning away from and lifting itself out of the body, the soul
acquires an inner life of its own.
Not by speculation or philosophy but by devoted
discipline can the soul emancipate itself from the body. To live
as a soul-spiritual being, apart from the body is the great experience
of the spiritual investigator. Here I can only indicate things
I have elaborated elsewhere.
Today my task is to show how the spiritual
investigator must regard the Christ Jesus Event. Statements of
religious creeds concerning this event are derived from experiences
of the soul in its life within the body. The statements of the
spiritual investigator come from clairvoyant experiences of the
soul as it lives independently of the body in the spiritual world.
In this condition the soul can survey the whole course of mankind's
evolution.
What the spiritual investigator thereby learns
of Christ Jesus calls for a certain way of speaking, because
the investigator acquires his knowledge in immediate spiritual
vision while living separated from his body. Yet he can communicate
this knowledge only indirectly by turning his attention to the
things of this world. His description, however, must convey what
he has experienced in spiritual vision. Thus, what follows in
way of explanation of certain processes in man's external life
is not meant to be taken metaphorically. It is intended rather
to express something in which spiritual science must come to
an understanding with natural science. In respect to one point
in particular it is most important to come to terms with present-day
thought.
In natural science it is admitted that a mere
descriptive enumeration of single events in nature is inadequate.
It is recognized that the scientist must proceed from a description
of natural phenomena to the laws invisibly animating them. These
laws we perceive when we relate phenomena with each other, or
when we immerse ourselves in them. In this way they reveal their
inner laws. In the treatment of historical facts, however, this
natural scientific method is not easily applied.
Now, as a rule, I am disinclined to speak
of personal matters, but in the following case I can speak of
something objective. The title of my book Christianity as
Mystical Fact, which was first published many years ago,
was not chosen without due reflection. It was selected to indicate
a certain way of observing things. It was not entitled The
Mysticism of Christianity because I did not intend to deal
with this topic, nor was it entitled Christian Mysticism
because I did not intend to write on that theme, the mystical
life of the Christian, either. What I sought to show was that
the Christ impulse, the entrance of Christianity into mankind's
development, can be comprehended only by perceiving how the supersensible
plays into the development ordinarily described in history. As
these facts are accessible only to spiritual vision, they can
be called mystical. They are mystical while at the same time
having occurred on earth.
The origin and development of Christianity
can be understood only when we realize that facts in history
arrange themselves as do facts in our solar system, where the
sun has the major role and the other planets less important parts.
This arrangement can be recognized when facts are seen from a
natural scientific standpoint. In the field of history, however,
facts are rarely so viewed. Here, the succession of Facts is
easily described, but the fact that the way of contemplating
the historical facts differs from the way of contemplating scientific
facts is lost sight of.
There is a law in natural science whose validity
is more or less acknowledged by all, despite this or that detail
of it being open to dispute. This law, first formulated by Ernst
Haeckel, has become fundamental to biology. It states that a
living being recapitulates in its embryonic life, passes through
stages of development that resemble those of the lower animals
such as the fishes. This is a law recognized in science.
Now there is another law, which can be discovered
by spiritual vision, that is of great importance in mankind's
development. Because it is valid only in the sphere of spiritual
life it presents a rather different aspect than the law just
mentioned, but it is as true as any in natural science. It enables
us to say what is undoubtedly true, that humanity has passed
through many stages in its development, and that as it has passed
from one epoch to another, from one century to another, it has
taken on various forms. We need only assume that the epochs known
to history were preceded by primeval ones. At this point we may
ask if the life of humanity as a whole can be compared with anything
else. Of course, any comparison concerning mankind's development
must be the outcome of spiritual-scientific observation. External
facts must be used as a language, as a means of communication,
to express what the spiritual investigator perceives. What he
perceives is that mankind's development as a whole may be compared
with the life of a single man.
The experiences of mankind in ancient cultures
-- in those of Egypt and China, Persia and India, Greece and
Rome -- were different from those of our time. In those ancient
epochs man's soul lived in conditions different from those of
today. Just as in the individual human life the experiences of
childhood are not the same as those of youth or old age, so in
these cultures mankind's experiences were not the same as ours
are today. Human development passes through various forms in
the various ages of life.
The following question now arises. What stage
in the individual life of man may be compared with the present
epoch of humanity? This question can be answered only by spiritual
science. Anthroposophy stands upon such a foundation that it
can say that when man enters his life on earth he does not inherit
everything from his mother and father that belongs to his being.
We can say that man descends from a life in the spirit to an
existence on earth, and that the spiritual part of his being
follows certain laws whereby it connects itself with what is
inherited from the parents. Further, we can say that the spiritual
part helps in the whole growth and development of the human body.
We see how the soul and spirit takes hold of and works upon physical
substance. The wonderful mystery of man's gradual development,
the emergence of definite traits from indefinite, capacities
from incapacities, all bear witness to the sculpting power of
these spiritual forces. Through spiritual science we are lead
to look back from this present life to former lives on earth.
We see that the way our soul-spiritual being prepares the bodily
organization and the course our destiny takes depend upon what
we have elaborated and gained for ourselves in former lives.
Exact spiritual-scientific investigation shows
that during the whole ascending course of our lives, up to our
thirties, the fruits won from former lives on earth and brought
with us from the spiritual world still exercise an immediate
influence upon our physical existence and destiny. Our soul,
being connected with the external world, progresses as we experience
life on earth. From these experiences a soul-spiritual kernel
forms itself within us. Up until our thirtieth to thirty-fifth
years we arrange our lives in accordance with the spiritual forces
we have brought with us from the spiritual world. From the middle
of our lives onward the forces of our soul-spiritual kernel begin
to work. This seed, containing what we have already elaborated,
continues to work within us for the rest of our lives.
Even after a plant has faded away, the forces
capable of producing a new one survive. These forces are like
the soul-spiritual forces we gain for ourselves in the first
half of life and that predominate in the second. When, in this
second period of life, our senses weaken, our hair turns gray
and our skin becomes wrinkled, our external life may be compared
with a dying plant. Yet, in this period what we have prepared
since our birth, what we have not brought with us from a preceding
life but have rather elaborated in this life, grows ever stronger
and more powerful. It is the part in us that passes through the
portal of death, that casts off life as something faded. It is
that part in us that passes over into the spiritual world. At
an important moment in our life, when the fresh forces of our
youth start to wane, we begin to cultivate something new on earth,
that is, a soul-spiritual seed that passes through death.
We may now ask ourselves what period in human
life can be compared with the present epoch, considering the
whole development of humanity. Can our present age be compared
with the first part of human life, with the first thirty to thirty-five
years, or with the latter part. Spiritual-scientific observation
of the present age reveals that our existence in the external
world can in fact be compared only with the period of human life
lying beyond the thirtieth to thirty-fifth years. Human development
on earth has already passed the middle part of life. We need
only compare the experiences of mankind in our present culture
with experiences undergone in the Egyptian-Babylonian or Greco-Roman
cultures. We need only point to our mighty and admirable technical
and industrial achievements to show that man has now severed
himself from what is directly and instinctively connected with
his body.
Men in ancient cultures faced the world as
a child does. The child's life is an ascending one, completely
dependent upon the body. Mankind's life today, in contrast, is
mechanical, cut off from the body. History, science, philosophy
and religion all show that mankind in its evolution has reached
a point lying beyond the middle of life. Modern pedagogy, with
its efforts to be established on rational lines, especially bears
out this fact. Modern pedagogy differs markedly from ancient
pedagogy. Children growing up under our artificial education
become severed from the direct impulses of humanity. An earlier
education, one in an epoch lying before mankind's middle life,
was derived from intuition and instinct. Observation of the riddles
of education strongly confirms the fact that humanity has now
passed beyond the point of maturity. We may now ask ourselves
what point in humanity's evolution corresponds to the point in
the individual life of man that lies between the thirtieth and
thirty-fifth years.
When the spiritual investigator, objectively
observing the evolution of humanity, turns his gaze on ancient
times, he finds a trend that culminates in the Greco-Roman epoch.
He finds that then humanity as a whole reached that age corresponding
to the thirtieth to thirty-fifth years in the life of an individual
man. The individual man may use a surplus of vital forces in
his body to live beyond the descending point in his life and
to cultivate up until his death a soul-spiritual kernel. In the
life of humanity as a whole, however, things take a different
course. When the youthful forces of humanity cease to flow, as
it were, a new impulse is needed for its further development,
an impulse not lying within humanity itself. Even if we know
nothing whatsoever of the Gospels or of tradition, we need only
look at mankind's historical development to discover in the Greco-Roman
epoch the entrance of such an impulse. There, at a certain moment,
the turning point of man's whole earthly development occurred.
A completely new impulse entered the course of man's evolution,
when its youthful forces were on the wane. An examination of
the ancient mysteries will throw more light on this historical
fact.
These mysteries, which existed in every culture
and which to some extent have reached our knowledge through literature,
were functions performed at centers that served both as schools
and churches, Through cultic rites intended to transform the
everyday life of soul, these functions enabled men to attain
to higher knowledge. These mystery schools took different forms
in different countries, but at all centers those souls whom the
leaders of the schools believed capable of development received
training.
In the mysteries man's soul life was not regarded
as it is today. In this ancient viewpoint, which anthroposophy
must renew, the soul was deemed unfit in its ordinary state to
penetrate into those spheres where its inmost being flows together
with the very source of life. The ancients felt that the human
soul had to prepare itself for knowledge by undergoing a certain
moral and esthetic training. They thought that through this inner
training the soul could transform itself and thereby acquire
forces of knowledge surpassing those of ordinary life. The soul
then became capable of perceiving those mysteries that lie behind
external phenomena.
There were basically two kinds of center where
pupils were trained to acquire spiritual wisdom and a vision
of life's mysteries. Pupils of the first kind, under the guidance
of the centers' leaders, especially developed the psychic life.
During spiritual vision they could free themselves from the body.
The Egyptian and Greek mysteries offered this kind of training.
The other kind existed in the Persian mysteries of Asia Minor.
Pupils of these Egyptian and Greek mysteries
were trained to turn their senses away from the external world
and thus eventually to enter the condition man ordinarily falls
into unawares when he is overcome by sleep, when sense impressions
cease. The soul of the pupil was led completely into his inner
self, and his inner life was given a strength and intensity far
surpassing that required to receive merely sense impressions.
After pursuing his exercises for a long time, the pupil reached
a certain stage in his inner life when he could say to himself,
"Man learns to know his real being only when he has torn
himself away from his body." The strange but distinct mood
evoked in the pupil's soul gave rise to an experience he could
characterize with the words, "In everyday life, when I use
my body to connect myself with the world of the senses, I do
not really live within my full human nature. Only when I have
a deeper experience of myself within my own being am I a man
in the fullest meaning of the word." This experience impressed
on him that man can know his spiritual essence by penetrating
into his innermost soul. He thereby could draw near to God, the
primeval source of his being. Within himself he could feel that
point where his soul life united with the divine source of existence.
It must be added that this type of training
resulted in an increase of egotism, not a decrease. The leaders
of the mysteries thus set great store upon a schooling in human
love and unselfishness. They knew that through the wisdom of
the mysteries a pupil could indeed unite with his god even though
he were insufficiently prepared, but they realized that he could
do so only at the price of increased egotism. By withdrawing
from the sense world and entering the spiritual world he could
experience the human self, the human ego, far more strongly than
is usually the case. The men in these mysteries who, by strengthening
their inner lives perceived God, remained useful members of human
society only if they had first passed through a spiritual development
grounded in a sound preparation of the moral life. This, the
Dionysian initiation, led man to experience within himself what
lies at the base of all human nature, that is, Dionysos.
In the other type of initiation, practiced
mainly in Asia Minor and Central Asia, man was led to the secrets
of life by an opposite method. He had to subdue all his inner
soul experiences, to free himself of the fares and troubles,
the passions and instincts of his personal existence. He could
then experience the outer course of nature far more intensely
than is normally done. Whereas we normally experience only winter
and summer, the disciples of these initiation centers had to
experience, in a special way, the change from one season to another.
Even as our hands share in the life of our bodies, so did the
disciple have to share in the life of the earth. When the earth
grew cold, when its plant covering began to fade, he had to feel
within his soul its life of sadness and desolation. He had to
share in these experiences as a member of the whole organism
of the earth. Too, he could share in the rising life of spring
and of the earth's awakening at midsummer, when the sun stands
at its highest point on the horizon. He felt those forces of
the sun in union with the whole earth.
In this kind of initiation the disciple's
soul was drawn out of his inner being, whereby he could participate
in the events of the cosmos and raise himself to the soul-spiritual
essence permeating the universe. His experience differed markedly
from ordinary contemplation of nature because he felt he lived
within the very soul of the universe. In not a bad but a good
sense, he was beside himself. He was, though one hesitates to
use this word because it has taken on an unpleasant connotation,
in ecstasy. Upon achieving this union with the cosmos he could
say to himself that through living in the universe and through
experiencing its most intimate soul-spiritual forces, he had
come to realize that everywhere the final goal of the cosmos
is the creation of man. Did man not exist, the whole creation
could not fulfill its end, because he was the meaning of the
cosmos.
It is one thing to say this; it is quite another
to experience it. The disciples of the mysteries felt this fact
because they entered into the life of the universe with an enhanced
selfconsciousness. Indeed, this proud sense of self was indispensable
to their experience of the cosmos. Whereas egotism resided in
man's penetration into his spiritual being, pride lay in his
union with the soul-spiritual essence of the world. Therefore,
those who prepared the disciples for such an experience took
care that they did not completely fall prey to pride.
In ancient times, all the truths constituting
man's knowledge were acquired through the mysteries on the one
or the other path. Humanity's course of development was then
on the ascent. Man was unfolding fresh forces and lived in the
stage of childhood, as it were. He had to learn through the mysteries
how to reach the spiritual worlds. Ancient civilizations always
revealed one of these two sides: that derived from man's strengthening
his inner life, and that derived from his surveying the whole
universe, which enabled him to say that all this pointed to the
human being, to the soul-spiritual part he bears within him.
Such a disciple of the second kind of initiation could also say
when he looked out into the world's spaces, "There, in the
wide reaches of the universe, something lives that must enter
into me if I am to fully know myself as a human being. But when
I live on the earth, unable to look out into the wide world,
the spirit cannot come to me, and I cannot really know myself
as man."
Humanity then entered an epoch in which its
youthful forces became exhausted. The whole human race reached
an age corresponding to the thirtieth to thirty-fifth years in
the life of the individual man. In this epoch the ancient mysteries,
which existed to help humanity in its youth, had last their meaning.
Furthermore, something happened that is most difficult to understand
even now. When man attempted to rise to the soul-spiritual essence
of the cosmos, this essence no longer drew near him; he could
no longer experience the god within himself.
When the ancient Persian surpassed his ordinary
state of consciousness, he could feel how God descended upon
his soul, how his soul became permeated by the God of the universe.
Humanity always had this possibility so long as it possessed
its youthful forces. But in the Greco-Roman epoch this possibility
ended. Then, everything prescribed in the ancient mysteries to
bring inspiration to man became ineffectual, because humanity
was receptive to this inspiration only in the time of its youth.
Something else now arose. What man could no longer receive because
individual human nature had lost the capacity of receiving it
even with the help of the mysteries, now entered into the whole
evolution of humanity. One human being had to come who could
directly unite the two initiation paths.
Purely from the standpoint of spiritual science,
apart from all the Gospels, we now see Christ Jesus entering
the evolution of the world. Let us imagine someone who knows
nothing whatsoever of the Gospels, knows nothing of traditions,
but who has entered modern civilization with a soul permeated
by spiritual science. Such a person would have to say to himself,
"There came a time in the evolution of the world and in
the history of humanity when man's receptivity for spiritual
life ceased." But humanity has preserved its soul-spiritual
life. How can this be? The soul-spiritual essence that man once
took into himself must have entered the evolution of the earth
in some other way, independently of man. A Being must have taken
into himself what the mystery disciples once received through
the power of a most highly developed soul life. In sum, a human
being must have appeared who inwardly possessed what the one
mystery path enabled the soul to experience directly, namely,
the spiritual essence of the external world, the spirit of the
universe. Spiritual science thus regards Christ Jesus as one
who inherently possessed those strengthened powers of soul formerly
acquired by disciples of the one mystery path. With these powers
of soul he could take into himself from the cosmos what the disciples
of the other mystery path had once received. From the standpoint
of spiritual science we can say that what the disciples of the
ancient mysteries once sought through an external connection
with the Godhead came to expression in immediate form and as
historical fact in Christ Jesus. When did this happen? It happened
in that age when the forces that were already exhausted in humanity
as a whole were also exhausted in the life of the individual
human being. In his thirtieth year of life Jesus had reached
the age humanity as a whole had then attained. It was in this
year that he received the Christ. Into his fully developed, inwardly
strengthened soul he received the spirit of the cosmos. At the
turning point of human evolution we discover that a man has taken
into his soul the divine-spiritual essence of the universe. What
was striven for in the ancient mysteries has now become an historical
event.
Let us proceed, bearing in mind indications
of the Gospels concerning the life of Christ Jesus from the Baptism
in the Jordan to His Resurrection. Spiritual science enables
us to say that in this period something completely new entered
the evolution of humanity. In the past, man made a real contact
with the divine essence only through the mysteries. What was
thus experienced in the mysteries went out into the world as
revelations, to be accepted in faith. In the event we are now
considering, the contact with the spiritual-divine essence of
the cosmos happened in such a way that within the man Jesus,
Christ entered the stream of earthly life for a period of three
years. Then, at the Mystery of Golgotha, a force that formerly
lived outside the earth poured itself out into the world. All
the events through which Christ passed while living in the body
of Jesus brought about the existence of this power in the earthly
world, in the earthly part of the cosmos. Ever since that time
this power lives in the same atmosphere in which our souls live.
We may term one of the two types of initiation
sub-earthly and designate the other, in which man took up the
spirit of the cosmos, super-earthly. In either case, man had
to abandon his human essence to make contact with the divine
essence. The Mystery of Golgotha, however, concerns not only
the individual human being but the whole history of man on earth
as well. Through this event humanity received something completely
new. With the Baptism in the river Jordan something formerly
experienced by every disciple of the mysteries entered a single
human being, and from this single human being something streamed
out into the spiritual atmosphere of the earth, enabling every
soul that would do so to live and be immersed in it. This new
impulse entered the earthly sphere through the death and resurrection
of Christ. Ever since the Mystery of Golgotha man lives in a
spiritual environment, an environment that has been Christianized
because it has absorbed the Christ impulse. Ever since the time
when human evolution entered upon its descent, the human soul
can revive itself; it can establish a connection with Christ.
Man can grow beyond the forces of death that he bears within
him. The spiritual source of man's origin can no longer be found
on the old path; it must be found on a new path, by seeking a
connection with Christ within the spiritual atmosphere of the
earth.
The Christ Event appears to the spiritual
investigator in a special light. It may be of interest to describe
what he can actually experience after he has so changed his soul
that he can perceive the spiritual world. The spiritual investigator
can behold a variety of spiritual processes and beings, but he
sees them in a special way, depending upon whether or not he
has experienced the Christ impulse during his physical existence.
Even today one may be a spiritual investigator without having
made any inner connection with the Christ impulse. One who has
passed through a certain soul development and attained to spiritual
vision may thereby investigate many mysteries of the world, mysteries
lying at the foundation of the universe; yet even with this vision,
it is possible that he still cannot learn anything of the Christ
impulse and of the Being of Christ. If we establish a connection
with Christ while in the physical body, however, before the attainment
of spiritual vision, if this connection is established through
feeling, then this experience of Christ that we have gained while
in the body remains with us like a memory when we enter the spiritual
world. We perceive that even while we lived in the body we had
a connection with the spiritual world.
The Christ impulse thus appears to us as the
spiritual essence given to man at a time when the ancient inheritance
no longer existed in human evolution. What the individual human
being experiences after his thirtieth to thirty-fifth years,
the whole of humanity experienced at the beginning of our era.
Humanity, which unlike the individual human being does not possess
a body, would have lost its connection with the divine-spiritual
world had not a superearthly Being, a Being who descended to
the earth from the cosmos, poured out his essence into the earth's
evolution. This act enabled man to restore his connection with
the spiritual world.
I realize that I am presenting things that
are even less popular with the public than are the principles
of spiritual science. Today I can give but a few indications,
which in themselves cannot produce any kind of conviction. In
regard to the Christ impulse I can only point out the direction
taken by spiritual science, which seeks to be a continuation
of natural science. The thoughts I have just presented must gradually
enter into human evolution, which they will the more spiritual
science enters into it. Unlike many other things being advanced
today, spiritual science is not easy. It assumes that before
attaining to certain definite experiences the soul must first
transform itself.
In respect to the Christ experience in particular,
spiritual science points out the significant fact that in the
ancient mysteries man could find a connection with the divine
essence only by going out of his own being. To experience the
divine essence he had to abandon his humanity, become something
no longer human. After the turning point of human evolution,
however, the wonderful and significant possibility arose that
man no longer needed to go out of himself in the one direction
or the other. Indeed, man lacked the strength to do so. Nor could
he in his youth anticipate a time when this would be possible
since humanity had already reached a definite age.
The Mystery of Golgotha enabled man to transcend
his ordinary human essence while still retaining his humanity.
He could now find Christ by remaining man, not by increasing
his egotism or pride. It now became possible for man to find
Christ by deepening and strengthening himself in his own being.
With Christianity something entered human evolution that enabled
man to say to himself, "You must remain a human being; you
must remain man in your inmost self. As a human being you will
find within yourself that element in which your soul is immersed
ever since the Mystery of Golgotha. You need not abandon your
human essence by descending into egotism or by rising into pride."
Ever since the Mystery of Golgotha the quality
that each human soul now needs, the quality that in past epochs
could be found only outside humanity, must be found in humanity
itself, within the evolution of the earth. This deepest and most
significant human quality is love. Man in his development must
no longer follow the course of strengthening his soul on the
one mystery path that leads to egotism, because ever since the
Mystery of Golgotha it is essential that man acquire the capacity
of transcending egotism, of conquering egotism and pride. Having
done this, he can experience the higher self within him. A path
of development must now be followed that does not lead us into
egotism and pride but that remains within the element of love.
This truth lies at the foundation of St. Paul's significant words,
"Not I, but Christ in me."
Only after the Mystery of Golgotha did it
become possible to objectively experience Christ as that element
enabling man to unite with the divine essence. A pupil of the
ancient mysteries may indeed have anticipated St. Paul's words,
but he could not have experienced their fulfillment. The mystery
disciples and their followers could say, "Outside my own
being is a god who pours his essence into me." Or else they
could say, "When I strengthen my inner being, I learn to
know God in the depths of my own soul." Today, however,
each human being can say, "The love that passes over into
other souls and into other beings cannot be found outside my
own being; it can be found only by continuing along the paths
of my own soul."
When we immerse ourselves lovingly into other
beings, our souls remain the same; man remains human even when
he goes beyond himself and discovers Christ within him. That
He can be thus found was made possible by the Mystery of Golgotha.
The soul remains within the human sphere when it attains to that
experience expressed by St. Paul, "Not I, but Christ in
me." We then have the mystical experience of feeling that
a higher human essence lives in us, an essence that enwraps us
in the same element that bears the soul from life to life, from
incarnation to incarnation. This is the mystical experience of
Christ, which we can have only through a training in love.
Spiritual science shows how it became possible
for the human being to have this inner, mystical experience of
Christ. By way of comparison, we find in Western philosophy the
thought expressed that had we no eyes we could not see colors.
Our eyes must be so built that they can perceive colors; there
must be an inner predisposition to colors in our eyes, so to
speak. Had we no eyes, the world would be colorless and dark
for us. The same reasoning applies to the other senses. They
too must be predisposed for the perception of the external world.
From this argument Schopenhauer and other philosophers have concluded
that the external world is a world of our representations. Goethe
has coined the fine motto, "Were the eye not sun-like it
could never perceive the sun." We might say further, "The
human soul could never understand Christ were it not able so
to transform itself that it could inwardly experience the words,
"Not I, but Christ in me."
Goethe had something else in mind when he
expressed the truth that were the eye not sun-like it could not
see the sun, namely, that our eyes could not exist had there
been no light to form them from the sightless human being. The
one thought is as true as the other: There could be no perception
without eyes and also no eyes without light.
Similarly, it can be said that did the soul
not inwardly experience Christ, did it not identify itself with
the power of Christ, Christ would be non-existent for the soul.
How can the human soul perceive Christ unless it identifies itself
with Him? Yet the opposite thought is just as true, that is,
man can experience Christ within himself only because at a definite
moment in history the Christ impulse entered the evolution of
humanity. Without the historical Christ there could be no mystical
Christ. The assertion that the human soul could experience Christ
even if Christ had never entered the evolution of mankind is
a mere abstraction. Prior to the Mystery of Golgotha it was impossible
to have a mystical experience of Christ. Any other argument is
based on a misunderstanding. Just as it would be impossible for
us to have the mystical experience of Christ without the historical
Christ, even though the historical Christ can be discovered only
by those who have experienced the mystical Christ.
Through spiritual science we are thus led
to a vision of Christ not based upon the Gospels. Through spiritual
science we can perceive that in the course of history Christ
entered the evolution of humanity, and we know that He had once
to live in a human being so that He could find a path leading
through a human being into the spiritual atmosphere of the earth.
Spiritual research thus leads us to Christ,
and through Christ to the historical Jesus. It does this at a
time when external investigation, based upon external documents,
so often questions the historical existence of Jesus.
The thoughts I have here presented may of
course meet with opposition, but I can fully understand it if
some say my statements appear to them like a fantastic dream.
From a spiritual contemplation of the whole
evolution of humanity we can, through spiritual science, come
to a recognition of Christ, and through Christ's own nature we
can recognize that He once must have lived in a human body. Spiritual-scientific
investigation necessarily leads to the historical Jesus. Indeed,
it is possible to indicate with mathematical precision when Christ
must have lived in the man Jesus, in the historical Jesus. Just
as it is possible to understand external mechanical forces through
mathematics, so is it possible to understand Jesus by regarding
history with a spiritual vision that encompasses Christ. That
Being Who lived in Jesus from his thirtieth to thirty-third years
gave the impulse humanity needed for its development at a time
when its youthful forces were beginning to decline.
In recapitulation, I can say that a new understanding
of Christ is a necessity today. Spiritual science not only tries
to lead us to Christ; it must do so. All the truths it advances
must lead from a spiritual contemplation of man's development
to a comprehension of Christ. Men will experience Christ in ever
greater measure, and through Christ they will discover Jesus.
Thus, I have tried to day to take my start
from the evolution of humanity, directing your gaze from Jesus,
upon whom many look with skepticism, to Christ. In future, Jesus
will be found on that path we may characterize with the words,
"Through a spiritual knowledge of Christ to an historical
knowledge of Jesus."
More morsels:
Exoteric And Esoteric
Christianity
Love and its Meaning
in the World
The Ahrimanic Deception