(Vol. 143 in the Bibliographic
Survey).
When we say that the present
point of time in his evolution man must learn to understand the
Christ Impulse, the thought may well occur: What, then, is the
position of one who has never heard of the Christ Impulse, may
perhaps never even have heard the name of Christ? Will such a
man be deprived of the Christ Impulse because he has not heard
the name of Christ? Is it necessary to have some theoretical
knowledge of the Christ Impulse in order that Christ's power
may flow into the soul? We will clarify our minds about these
questions by the following thoughts concerning human life from
birth until death.
The human being comes into the world and lives through early
childhood in a half-sleeping state. He has gradually to learn
to feel himself as an "I", and his life of soul is
constantly enriched by what is received through the "I".
By the time death is approaching, this life of soul is at its
richest and ripest. Hence the vital question arises: What of
our life of soul when the body falls away? It is a peculiarity
of our physical life and of our life of soul that the wealth
of our experience and knowledge increases in significance the
nearer we approach death; but at the same time certain attributes
are lost and replaced by others of an entirely different character.
In youth we gather knowledge, pass through experiences, cherish
hopes which as a rule can only later be fulfilled. The older
we grow, the more do we begin to love the wisdom revealed by
life. Love of wisdom is not egoistic, for this love increases
in the measure in which we draw near to death; it increases in
the measure in which the expectation of gaining something from
our wisdom decreases. Our love for this content of our soul steadily
increases. In this respect Spiritual Science may actually become
a source of temptation, inasmuch as a man may be led to believe
that his next life will depend upon the acquisition of wisdom
in this present life. The effect of Spiritual Science may be
an extension of egoism beyond the bounds of this present life,
and therein lies danger. Thus if wrongly understood, Spiritual
Science may act as a tempter - this lies in its very nature.
Love of the wisdom acquired from life may be compared with the
flowering of a plant when the necessary stage of maturity has
been reached. Love arises for something that is contained within
ourselves. Men have often made the attempt to sublimate the impulse
of love for what is within themselves. In the Mystics, for example,
we find evidence of how they strove to transmute the urge of
self-love into love of wisdom, and to let this love ray out in
beauty. By sinking in contemplation into the depths of their
own soul-life they strove to become aware of the Divine Spark
within them. But the truth is that the wisdom which man acquires
in life is only the means whereby the seed of his next life is
unfolded. When a plant has completed its growth through the year,
the seed remains. So it is with the wisdom acquired from life.
Man passes through the Gate of Death and the spiritual core of
being in its process of ripening is the seed of the next life.
A man who feels this may become a Mystic and mistake what is
only the seed of the next life to be the Divine Spark, the Absolute.
This is his interpretation of it because it goes against the
grain for a man to acknowledge that this spirit-seed is nothing
but his own self. Meister Eckhart, John Tauler, and others, spoke
of it as the "God within", because they knew nothing
of reincarnation. If we grasp the meaning of the law of reincarnation
we recognize the significance of love in the world, both in a
particular and in a general sense. When we speak of karma, we
mean that which as cause in the one life has its effects in the
next. In terms of cause and effect we cannot, however, speak
truly of love; we cannot speak of a deed of love and its eventual
compensation. True, if there is a deed, there will be a compensation,
but this has nothing to do with love. Deeds of love do not look
for compensation in the next life.
Suppose, for example, that we work and our work brings gain.
It may also be that our work gives us no joy because we do it
simply in order to pay off debts, not for actual reward. We can
imagine that in this way a man has already spent what he is now
earning through his work. He would prefer to have no debts, but
as things are, he is obliged to work in order to pay them. Now
let us apply this example to our actions in general. By everything
we do out of love we pay off debts. From an occult point of view,
what is done out of love brings no reward but makes amends for
profit already expended. The only actions from which we have
nothing in the future are those we perform out out of true, genuine
love. This truth may well be disquieting and men are lucky in
that they know nothing of it in their upper consciousness. But
in their subconsciousness all of them know it, and that is why
deeds of love are done so unwillingly, why there is so little
love in the world. Men feel instinctively that they may expect
nothing for their "I" in the future from deeds of love.
An advanced stage of development must have been reached before
the soul can experience joy in performing deeds of love from
which there is nothing to be gained for itself. The impulse for
this is not strong in humanity. But occultism can be a source
of powerful incentives to deeds of love.
Our egoism gains nothing from deeds of love - but the world all
the more. Occultism says: Love is for the world what the sun
is for external life. No soul could thrive if love departed from
the world. Love is the "moral" sun of the world. Would
it not be absurd if a man who delights in the flowers growing
in a meadow were to wish that the sun would vanish from the world?
Translated into terms of the moral life, this means: Our deep
concern must be that an impulse for sound, healthy development
shall find its way into the affairs of humanity. To disseminate
love over the earth in the greatest measure possible, to promote
love on the earth - that and that alone is wisdom.
What do we learn from Spiritual Science? We learn facts concerning
the evolution of the earth, we hear of the Spirit of the earth,
of the earth's surface and its changing conditions, of the development
of the human body and so forth; we learn to understand the nature
of the forces working and weaving in the evolutionary process.
What does this mean? What does it mean when people do not want
to know anything about Spiritual Science? It means that they
have no interest for what is reality. For if a man has no desire
to know anything about the nature of Old Saturn, Old Sun, Old
Moon, then he can know nothing about the Earth. Lack of interest
in the world is egoism in its grossest form. Interest in all
existence is man's bounden duty. Let us therefore long for and
love the sun with its creative power, its love for the well-being
of the earth and the souls of men! This interest in the earth's
evolution should be the spiritual seed of love for the world.
A Spiritual Science without love would be a danger to mankind.
But love should not be a matter for preaching; love must and
indeed will come into the world through the spreading of knowledge
of spiritual truths. Deeds of love and Spiritual Science should
be inseparably united.
Love mediated by way of the senses is the wellspring of creative
power, of that which is coming into being. Without sense-born
love, nothing material would exist in the world; without spiritual
love, nothing spiritual can arise in evolution. When we practise
love, cultivate love, creative forces pour into the world. Can
the intellect be expected to offer reasons for this? The creative
forces poured into the world before we ourselves and our intellect
came into being. True, as egoists, we can deprive the future
of creative forces; but we cannot obliterate the deeds of love
and the creative forces of the past. We owe our existence to
deeds of love wrought in the past. The strength with which we
have been endowed by these deeds of love is the measure of our
deep debt to the past, and whatever love we may at any time be
able to bring forth is payment of debts owed for our existence.
In the light of this knowledge we shall be able to understand
the deeds of a man who has reached a high stage of development,
for he has still greater debts to pay to the past. He pays his
debts through deeds of love, and herein lies his wisdom. The
higher the stage of development reached by a man, the more does
the impulse of love in him increase in strength; wisdom alone
does not suffice.
Let us think of the meaning and effect of love in the world in
the following way. Love is always the reminder of debts owed
to life in the past, and because we gain nothing for the future
by paying off these debts, no profit for ourselves accrues from
our deeds of love. We have to leave our deeds of love behind
in the world; but they are then a spiritual factor in the flow
of world-happenings. It is not through our deeds of love but
through deeds of a different character that we perfect ourselves;
yet the world is richer for our deeds of love. Love is the
creative force in the world.
Besides love there are two other powers in the world. How do
they compare with love? The one is strength, might; the second
is wisdom. In regard to strength or might we can speak of degrees:
weaker, stronger, or absolute might - omnipotence. The same applies
to wisdom, for there are stages on the path to omniscience. It
will not do to speak in the same way of degrees of love. What
is universal love, love for all beings? In the case of love we
cannot speak of enhancement as we can speak of enhancement of
knowledge into omniscience or of might into omnipotence, by virtue
of which we attain greater perfection of our own being. Love
for a few or for many beings has nothing to do with our own perfecting.
Love for everything that lives cannot be compared with omnipotence;
the concept of magnitude, or of enhancement, cannot rightly be
applied to love. Can the attribute of omnipotence be ascribed
to the Divine Being who lives and weaves through the world? Contentions
born of feeling must here be silent: were God omnipotent, he
would be responsible for everything that happens and there would
be no human freedom. If man can be free, then certainly there
can be no Divine omnipotence.
Is the Godhead omniscient? As man's highest goal is likeness
to God, our striving must be in the direction of omniscience.
Is omniscience, then, the supreme treasure? If it is, a vast
chasm must forever yawn between man and God. At every moment
man would have to be aware of this chasm if God possessed the
supreme treasure of omniscience for himself and withheld it from
man. The all-encompassing attribute of the Godhead is not omnipotence,
neither is it omniscience, but it is love - the attribute
in respect of which no enhancement is possible. God is uttermost
love, unalloyed love, is born as it were out of love, is the
very substance and essence of love. God is pure love, not supreme
wisdom, not supreme might. God has retained love for himself
but has shared wisdom and might with Lucifer and Ahriman. He
has shared wisdom with Lucifer and might with Ahriman, in order
that man may become free, in order that under the influence of
wisdom he may make progress.
If we try to discover the source of whatever is creative we come
to love; love is the ground, the foundation of everything that
lives. It is by a different impulse in evolution that beings
are led to become wiser and more powerful. Progress is attained
through wisdom and strength.. Study of the course taken by the
evolution of humanity shows us how the development of wisdom
and strength is subject to change: there is progressive evolution
and then the Christ Impulse which once poured into mankind through
the Mystery of Golgotha. Love did not, therefore, come into the
world by degrees; love streamed into mankind as a gift of the
Godhead, in complete, perfect wholeness. But man can receive
the Impulse into himself gradually. The Divine Impulse of love
as we need it in earthly life is an impulse that came once and
forever.
True love is not capable of diminution or amplification. Its
nature is quite different from that of wisdom and might. Love
wakens no expectations for the future; it is payment of debts
incurred in the past. And such was the Mystery of Golgotha in
the world's evolution. Did the Godhead, then, owe any debt to
humanity?
Lucifer's influence brought into humanity a certain element in
consequence of which something that man had previously possessed
was withdrawn from him. This new element led to a descent, a
descent countered by the Mystery of Golgotha which made possible
the payment of all debts. The Impulse of Golgotha was not given
in order that the sins we have committed in evolution may be
removed from us, but in order that what crept into humanity through
Lucifer should be given its counterweight.
Let us imagine that there is a man who knows nothing of the name
of Jesus Christ, nothing of what is communicated in the Gospels,
but that he understands the radical difference between the nature
of wisdom and might and that of love. Such a man, even though
he knows nothing of the Mystery of Golgotha, is a Christian in
the truest sense. A man who knows that love is there for the
paying of debts and brings no profit for the future, is a true
Christian. To understand the nature of love - that is to be a
Christian! Theosophy alone, Spiritual Science alone, with its
teachings of karma and reincarnation, can make us into great
egoists unless the impulse of love, the Christ Impulse, is added;
only so can we acquire the power to overcome the egoism that
may be generated by Spiritual Science. The balance is established
by an understanding of the Christ Impulse. Spiritual Science
is given to the world today because it is necessary for humanity,
but in it lies the great danger that - if it is cultivated without
the Christ Impulse, without the impulse of love - men will only
increase their egoism, will actually breed egoism that lasts
even beyond death. From this the conclusion must not be drawn
that we should not cultivate Spiritual Science; rather we must
learn to realize that understanding of the essential nature of
love is an integral part of it.
What actually came to pass at the Mystery of golgotha? Jesus
of Nazareth was born, lived on as related by the Gospels, and
when He was thirty years old the baptism in the Jordan took place.
Thereafter the Christ lived for three years in the body of Jesus
of Nazareth and fulfilled the Mystery of Golgotha. Many people
think that the Mystery of Golgotha should be regarded in an entirely
human aspect, believing as they do that it was an earthly deed,
a deed belonging to the realm of the earth. But that is not so.
Only from the vantage point of the higher worlds is it possible
to see the Mystery of Golgotha in its true light and how it came
to pass on the earth.
Let us think again of the beginning of the evolution of the earth
and of man. Man was endowed with certain spiritual powers - and
then Lucifer approached him. At this point we can say: The Gods
who further the progress of evolution surrendered their omnipotence
to Lucifer in order that man might become free. But man sank
into matter more deeply than was intended; he slipped away from
the Gods of progress, fell more deeply than had been wished.
How, then, can the Gods of progress draw man to themselves again?
To understand this we must think, not of the earth, but of Gods
taking counsel together. It is for the Gods that Christ performs
the Deed by which men are drawn back to the Gods. Lucifer's deed
was enacted in the supersensible world; Christ's deed, too, was
enacted in the supersensible but also in the physical
world. This was an achievement beyond the power of any human
being. Lucifer's deed was a deed belonging to the supersensible
world. But Christ came down to the earth to perform His Deed
here, and men are the onlookers at this Deed. The Mystery of
Golgotha is a Deed of the Gods, a concern of the Gods at which
men are the onlookers. The door of heaven opens and a Deed of
the Gods shines through. This is the one and only Deed on earth
that is entirely supersensible. No wonder, therefore, that those
who do not believe in the supersensible have no belief in the
Deed of Christ. The Deed of Christ is a Deed of the Gods, a Deed
which they themselves enact. Herein lies the glory and the unique
significance of the Mystery of Golgotha and men are invited to
be its witnesses. Historical evidence is not to be found. Men
have seen the event in its external aspect only; but the Gospels
were written from vision of the supersensible and are therefore
easily disavowed by those who have no feeling for supersensible
reality.
The Mystery of Golgotha as an accomplished fact is one of the
most sublime of all experiences in the spiritual world. Lucifer's
deed belongs to a time when man was still aware of his own participation
in the supersensible world; Christ's Deed was performed in material
existence itself - it is both a physical and a spiritual Deed.
We can understand the deed of Lucifer through wisdom; understanding
of the Mystery of Golgotha is beyond the reach of wisdom alone.
Even if all the wisdom of this world is ours, the Deed of Christ
may still be beyond our comprehension. Love is essential
for any understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha. Only when love
streams into wisdom and then again wisdom flows into love will
it be possible to grasp the nature and meaning of the Mystery
of Golgotha - only when, as he lives on towards death, man unfolds
love of wisdom. Love united with wisdom - that is what we need
when we pass through the Gate of Death, because without wisdom
that is united with love we die in very truth. Philo-sophia,
philosophy, is love of wisdom. The ancient wisdom was not philosophy
for it was not born through love but through revelation. There
is not such a thing as philosophy of the East - but wisdom of
the East, yes. Philosophy as love of wisdom came into the world
with Christ; there we have the entry of wisdom emanating from
the impulse of love which came into the world as the Christ Impulse.
The impulse of love must now be carried into effect in wisdom
itself.
The ancient wisdom, acquired by the seer through revelation,
comes through expression in the sublime words from the original
prayer of mankind: Ex Deo Nascimur - Out of God we are
born. That is ancient wisdom. Christ who came forth from the
realms of spirit has united wisdom with love and this love will
overcome egoism. Such is its aim. But it must be offered independently
and freely from one being to the other. Hence the beginning of
the era of love coincided with that of the era of egoism. The
cosmos has its source and origin in love; egoism was the natural
and inevitable offshoot of love. Yet with time the Christ Impulse,
the impulse of love, will overcome the element of separation
that has crept into the world, and man can gradually become a
participant in this force of love. In monumental words of Christ
we feel love pouring into the hearts of men:
"Where two or three are gathered
together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."
In like manner does the ancient Rosicrucian saying resound into
the love that is wedded with wisdom: In Christo Morimur
- In Christ we die.
Through Jehovah, man was predestined for a group-soul existence;
love was to penetrate into him gradually by way of blood-relationship;
it is through Lucifer that he lives as a personality. Originally,
therefore, men were in a state of union, then of separateness
as a consequence of the Luciferic principle which promotes selfishness,
independence. Together with selfishness, evil came into the world.
It had to be so, because without evil man could not lay hold
of the good. When a man gains victory over himself, the unfolding
of love is possible. To man in the clutches of increasing egoism
Christ brought the impulse for this victory over himself and
thereby the power to conquer the evil. The Deeds of Christ bring
together again those human beings who were separated through
egoism and selfishness. True in the very deepest sense are the
words of Christ concerning deeds of love:
"Inasmuch as ye have done it
unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto
me."
The Divine Deed of Love flowed back upon the earthly world; as
time goes on, in spite of the forces of physical decay and death,
the evolution of mankind will be permeated and imbued with new
spiritual life through this Deed - a Deed performed, not out
of egoism but solely out of the spirit of love. Per Spiritum
Sanctum Reviviscimus - Through the Holy Spirit we live again.
Yet the future of humanity will consist of something besides
love. Spiritual perfecting will be for earthly man the goal most
worthy of aspiration - (this is described at the beginning of
my second Mystery Play, The Soul's Probation) - but nobody
who understands what deeds of love truly are will say that his
own striving for perfection is selfless. Striving for perfection
imparts strength to our being and to our personality. But our
value for the world must be seen to lie wholly in deeds of love,
not in deeds done for the sake of self-perfecting. Let us be
under no illusion about this. When a man is endeavoring to follow
Christ by way of love of wisdom, of the wisdom he dedicates to
the service of the world only so much takes real effect as is
filled with love.
Wisdom steeped in love, which at once furthers the world and
leads the world to Christ - this love of wisdom also excludes
the lie. For the lie is the direct opposite of the actual facts
and those who yield themselves lovingly to the facts are incapable
of lying. The lie has its root in egoism - always and without
exception. When, through love, we have found the path to wisdom,
we reach wisdom through the increasing power of self-conquest,
through selfless love. Thus does man become a free personality.
The evil was the sub-soil into which the light of love was able
to shine; but it is love that enables us to grasp the meaning
and place of evil in the world. The darkness has enabled the
light to come into our ken. Only a man who is free in the real
sense can become a true Christian.