Theosophy and Rosicrucianism
GA 100
22 June 1907, Kassel
Translator Unknown
VII. The Law of Karma
To-day we must speak of what is designated as the Law of Karma, the law of cause and effect in the spiritual world. To begin with, the last lectures should be borne in mind, because they showed us how life as a whole takes its course through a series of incarnations. You have all been in the world many times and you will often return to it. We shall see later on that it is not right to think that our incarnations repeat themselves through all eternity either in the past or in the future. On the contrary, we shall see that they began at a certain point in time and that a time will come when they will cease; the human being will then continue his development in a different form.
Let us first consider that space of time in which reincarnations take place. In connection with this we should realise that everything which we call destiny, whether relating to character and inner qualities or to external events, is brought about by our preceding incarnations, and that everything which we do in this life has an effect upon our subsequent lives. The great law of cause and effect, the law of Karma, thus runs through all our incarnations.
Let us now picture to ourselves how this law is active in the whole universe—not only in the spiritual, but also in the physical world.
Take two imaginary jugs of water and then assume that you are heating an iron ball until it becomes red hot. You then drop it into the first jug, What will happen? The water will hiss and the ball will become cool. Then take the ball out of the first jug and drop it into the second one. In that case the water will hiss no longer and the ball will not become much cooler. We therefore find that the ball behaves differently in each case; in the second case it would not have behaved as it did, had it not been dropped into the first jug. Consequently the way in which it behaved in the second case is the result of what happened to it in the first jug. Such a connection is called Karma. The ball's Karma brings about the fact that the water in the second jug does not hiss and that the ball itself does not become much cooler.
I will now give you an example from the animal kingdom showing that preceding life-conditions bring about subsequent ones. Take those those animals which immigrated into the caves of Kentucky; their eyes gradually degenerated through the complete deprivation of sunlight. The substances which are generally used for the structure of the eyes go to other organs and as a result the eyes degenerate and the animals little by little become blind It is then the destiny of all their descendants to be born blind. Had the parents not immigrated into the dark caves, the descendants would not have been fated to lose their eyesight. The condition of blindness is therefore the consequence of the immigration into the dark caves.
Spiritual science explains that everything which occurs in the world is dependent upon Karma. Karma is the general law of the universe. Even the Bible speaks of this law at the very beginning. It says: “In the beginning God created the heaven and earth”. On reading this superficially, as is generally the case to-day, you do not notice that these words lie within the meaning of the law of Karma, but you notice it without further ado if you consult the original text of this ancient document, or if you take one of the oldest Latin translations, for instance the Septuagint, which the Roman Catholic Church still considers as the authoritative translation of the Old Testament, and particularly of Genesis. Perhaps in an introductory course such as this one, which is to acquaint you step by step with the immense depths of the spiritual-scientific world-conception, it is not inappropriate to deviate a little from our main subject.
Modern man has really no connection with the “living word”. Speech has become, on the one hand, a conventional means of communication and, on the other; a“business language”. Things were quite different in ancient times, when words were being coined, for the human being still possessed a living connection with the word. Indeed, in the remotest times, even the single letter leading to the composition of a word had a deep significance. A modern man has not the faintest idea of that which passed through the soul of an ancient Hebrew sage when he uttered the word “bara”, contained in the first sentence of Genesis; and which posterity—that is to say, the Latin world—translated with “creare”, and which we translate with “created”. What is the deep meaning of the word “bara”? In the German language we still find the same root “bar” in the word “gebären”, to bear children.
The root “K-r” lies in the word Karma. It is the same root which also lies in the word “creare”, so that when we say “creare” in Latin (to create), this simply means: something arises as the result of earlier influences; that is to say, something arises which is karmically determined by something which preceded it!
We can speak of Karma in the way in which we interpret it to-day only since the influx of the Luciferic influence, that is to say, from that moment onwards in which man took upon himself guilt. Consequently something of the idea of guilt always adheres to everything connected with the word Karma. “Creare” therefore means to produce something brought about karmically by earlier connections and conditions, whereas the root “bar” does not contain anything of this karmic relationship. How does this come about? Undoubtedly through the fact that the ancient Hebrew was still connected far more intimately with the spiritual world and still realised quite clearly that at a time when “the Elohim were meditating creatively” it was not yet possible to speak of Karma in the meaning in which we generally speak of it. But in the Latin epoch of human evolution man was already completely severed from the spiritual world, as we shall see upon some other occasion, and therefore he could imagine even the Elohim's “creative meditation” only within a karmic connection.
But “bara” as well as “crease” do not mean that God created the world out of nothing; both words contain the meaning that God led over earlier conditions into new ones ... in the same way in which a mother does not bear her child out of nothing. To bear a child means that the child passes over from a former concealed condition within the mother's womb into a condition in which it becomes visible in the external world.
This shows you how the meaning of the Bible can be distorted. Theology was the first to decree that God made the world out of nothing, (for theology no longer knew anything of the cosmic epochs of evolution which preceded earthly existence) and whole libraries have been written on this subject. Yet all these theologians fought against windmills, like Don Quixote. We should always know, however, against whom and against what we are fighting; that is to say, we should always reveal the original meaning of the ancient documents.
If we think of this Law of Karma in the right way, as the connection between cause and effect, applying it not only to physical life here on earth between birth and death, but also to the life in the spiritual world, we shall find that this very law of Karma becomes a torch which illuminates our own life. Insight into the law of Karma not only gives us a deep intellectual satisfaction, but it also profoundly satisfies our heart and soul and gives us the right understanding of our relationship to the world. More and more you will realise its deep significance and that only a true insight into this law of Karma enables you to mould your life harmoniously in regard to your environment.
The law of Karma does not throw light upon abstract riddles of the universe, but upon problems which we actually encounter in life at every step. Is it not a real life-riddle when we see that one human being is born in misery and poverty, apparently without any fault of his own, and that the finest gifts which lie concealed within him must atrophy owing to the social condition into which life has placed him? We must often ask ourselves in life: How can we explain the fact that an apparently innocent man is born in the midst of misery and pain, whereas another man is born without his merit in surfeit and wealth, surrounded at the cradle by those who tenderly love him? These are problems which modern superficiality alone can ignore.
The deeper we look into the law of Karma; the more we find that the hard injustice apparently presenting itself to a superficial observation of this law disappears. We then realise more and more why one man must live in one condition of life and another man in another. Injustice and hardness in one or other life-situation can only be seen if we limit ourselves to the observation of one life; but if we know that this one life is the absolute result of former deeds, the injustice, completely vanishes, for we perceive that the human being prepares his own life.
Someone might now object: It is terrible to think that all the blows of destiny which a human being encounters in this life are brought about through his own fault! We must realise, however, that the law of Karma is not something for sentimental people to brood over, but that it is an active law, rendering us strong and giving us courage and hope. For even though we ourselves have moulded our present life with all its hardships, we know at the same time that Karma is a law the chief significance of which must be looked for, not in the past, but in the future. No matter how deeply oppressed we may be in the present owing to the result of past deeds, our insight into the law of Karma will bear fruit in our subsequent lives. Our attitude determines what fruit our deeds will bear, for no action is without consequence. It is far more theosophical to look upon Karma as a law of action, as an active law! For no matter what we do, we cannot escape the consequences of our deeds. The more we suffer in this life and the better we bear our sufferings, the more shall we profit by this in future lives. Karma is a law which solves the riddles of life which we encounter at every step.
What is the connection between a preceding and a subsequent life? We should clearly bear in mind that everything which we experience as inner effects of external events—joy or pain over things which we encounter in life—that all this has an influence upon our future lives.
Now you know that everything living within us in the form of pleasure and pain, of joy and suffering, is borne by the astral body. Everything which the astral body experiences during this life, particularly if experiences repeat themselves again and again, appears in the next life as a quality of the etheric body. Some object in this life which gives us pleasure and which we call up in our soul again and again, will produce in the next life a deep inclination and predilection for this particular object. But this inclination and predilection are character qualities, and their bearer is the etheric body. Consequently the effects produced by the astral body in a preceding life become qualities of the etheric body in the next life. What you repeatedly experienced during this life, appears in your next life as fundamental character. A melancholic temperament is due to the fact that in a preceding life the human being in question had many sad impressions throwing him again and again into a sad mood; as a result, the etheric body will have the inclination to sadness in the next life. The opposite may be found in people who obtain something good from everything in life, thus producing in their astral body joy and happiness and an uplifted mood; this will become a lasting characteristic of the etheric body in the next life producing a merry temperament. But if a human being courageously overcomes every sad experience in spite of the hard school in which life has placed him, his etheric body will be born in the next life with a choleric temperament. If we know all this, we can almost prepare our etheric body for our next life.
The qualities which the etheric body possesses during one life appear, in the next, in the physical body. Thus if a man has bad habits and bad characteristics and does nothing to get rid of them, this will appear in the next life in the physical body as a disposition, a predisposition to illness. Strange as this may sound the disposition towards certain illnesses, particularly infectious ones, depends on the bad habits of a preceding life. This insight therefore enables us to prepare health or illness for our next life. If we conquer a bad habit, we become healthy and immune against infections in our next life. Thus we can prepare health for our next life. By endeavouring to foster only noble qualities, we can prepare a healthy body for our next incarnation.
A third and most important thing should be borne in mind in order to understand the law of Karma:—To truly estimate our actions in this life. So far we have only spoken of what takes place within the human being; but what he does during this life, that is to say, his attitude towards his environment and his actions, produce a result which appears in the surrounding world during his next life.
A bad habit in itself does not mean that I have done something; but if this bad habit leads to an action, this action changes the external world. In fact, everything which thus exercises an influence upon the physical world returns to us during our next life as our external destiny in the physical world. Thus the deeds of our physical body during this life become our destiny in the next. We learn this through being placed in this or in that life-situation. Whether a person is happy or unhappy in one or other condition of life depends upon his actions during his preceding life. An appropriate and instructive example for this case is that of the vehmic murder, which shows us how an external action during one life falls back upon men as their destiny during the next one.
This is a brief sketch of karmic relationships in regard to individual human beings . But we can speak of Karma not only in the case of individual persons, for man should not consider himself as a single being. If the individual were to rise even a few miles above the earth, the result would be the same as if the finger severed itself from the body.
If we penetrate into spiritual science we are literally forced to admit through this knowledge that we should not delude ourselves to the extent of insisting that we are single beings. This applies to the physical world and even more to the spiritual world. Man belongs to the whole world and his destiny is involved with that of the entire world. Karma touches not only the individual, but also the life of whole nations.
Let me give you an example: You all know that in the Middle Ages there were pestilences resembling leprosy. In Europe they completely disappeared only during the 16th century. Quite a definite cause, a spiritual cause, produced this form of pestilence in the Middle Ages. Materialists are of course inclined to trace such a contagious disease to bacilli, but not only the physical cause should be borne in mind in such illnesses. We can make exactly the same mistake if we try to find out, for example, why a man has been whipped, what is the cause of this whipping. A person of insight will immediately discover that certain brutal men in the village were the cause of the whipping. In this case it would be foolish to say that the blue wheals are due solely to the fact that the sticks came down so and so many times on the man's back. The purely materialistic cause of the blue marks is undoubtedly the fact that the sticks came down on the victims back, but the deeper cause must be sought in the brutality of the men who whipped him. Similarly the pestilence of the Middle Ages has a spiritual cause in addition to the materialistic one of the bacilli.
We have an analogous example in weeping. Its spiritual cause is sadness, but its material one is the secretion of the lachrymatory glands. It hardly seems possible that a famous modern scientist should have come to the same foolish conclusion mentioned above, but he actually made the monstrous statement that the human being does not weep because he feels sad, but that he feels sad because he weeps!
But let us get back to the pestilence. If you wish to explain the deeper cause of this disease spiritually, you must look back upon a significant historical event. Upon the great masses of peoples coming from the East, who overflowed Europe, bringing with them fear and terror. These Asiatic masses were people who had remained behind at the ancient Atlantean stage, and were consequently decadent races. They were races whose decadence had the character of putrefaction, which was particularly strong in their astral body. Had they invaded Europe without bringing s0 much terror and fear to the Europeans, nothing would have happened. But these hordes brought with them fear, terror and and alarm, whole nations in Europe experienced this state of fear and terror. Now the putrid substance of the Huns' astral bodies mixed with the terror-stricken astral bodies of the peoples whom they had invaded. The degenerated astral bodies of these Asiatic hordes unloaded their bad substances on the terror-stricken astral bodies of the Europeans, and this putrid substance was the cause of the pestilence, the physical effects of which appeared later on.
This is in reality the deep spiritual cause of pestilence in the Middle Ages. Consequently something which had a spiritual cause appeared later in the physical body.
Only those who know the law of Karma and have insight into it are called upon to play an active part in the course of history.
Let me now tell you something which contributed to he founding of the spiritual-scientific world-conception: Karma influences not only individual men, but also nations, and even humanity as a whole. Those who pursue the course of history in the spiritual life of Europe know that materialism came to the fore during those last 400 years or so. The most innocent aspect of materialism is to be found in science, for there every mistake can always be perceived and corrected. The influence of materialism is far more harmful in practical life, where everything is viewed from the angle of material interests. But materialism would never have entered practical life, had men not had a predilection for it. The influence of of materialism is most harmful of all in the sphere of religious life, that is to say, in the Church: The Church above all has been heading towards materialism for centuries. In which way? If you go back to the days of early Christianity, you would never have heard people say, for instance that the seven days creation was actually accomplished in seven days, as we so often hear to-day, nor was the “seventh” day imagined in such a way that after a hard piece of work someone sits down and rests. The materialistic age has lost all knowledge of the reality underlying this work of seven days.
It is the task of spiritual science to give mankind an explanation concerning the true meaning of this ancient document, Genesis. (See Rudolf Steiner's Secrets of the Bible Story of Creation GA 122)
It is the materialistic conception in religion which corroded most deeply the life of nations. Materialism will hold sway more and more in the religions sphere, and. particularly in this direction people will less and less realise that the spirit, not physical material things, counts most of all. It will readily be admitted that the materialistic way of thinking, feeling and willing has gradually penetrated into the whole life-conception of mankind, and finally this appears in the state of health of the succeeding generations.
In an epoch in which men have a sound conception of life, a strong central point is produced within them, enabling them to be self-contained personalities whose descendants become strong and healthy. But an epoch in which people believe only in matter, will give rise to a generation of men who have a body where everything goes its own way, where nothing is directed towards a centre, thus producing symptoms of neurosis, of nervous diseases. If materialism continues to be the ruling world conception in the future, these nervous health conditions will gradually increase.
The clairvoyant can tell you exactly that which must occur if materialism is not counter-balanced by a sound spiritual conception. Mental diseases would in that case become epidemical and even newly born children would suffer from symptoms of trembling and from other nervous disturbances, while the further result of the materialistic mentality would be a race without any power of concentration; in fact, we can see this already to-day. About three decades ago, this thought—how mankind would fare without spiritual remedy against the effects of materialism—led to the inauguration of the spiritual-scientific movement. Many discussions may arise regarding a remedy, yet no objections can be of much avail in the face of the chief argument: its efficacy. It is the same with the efficacy of spiritual science as a remedy, for it is a preventive against that which would inevitably occur if men continue along the path of materialism.
If we reflect more deeply over the law of Karma, we cannot look upon men as a single being, but as forming part of a community subjected to the law of Karma. The law of Karma is not of much use to those who wish to believe in a blind fate. It would of course be quite wrong to attribute such a character to the law of Karma. Yet we constantly come across people who fall into this error. One person says: “I know that it is not my fault that this or that thing happens to me; it is my Karma and I must bear it!” Or another one says: “I see a person who is in misery; but I must not help him, for this misfortune is his own fault; it is his Karma and he must bear it!”—Such arguments would be quite a senseless interpretation of the idea of Karma!
In order to have a clearer conception of this great law, you may compare it with the commercial law of debit and credit. Even as the merchant is subjected to this law in all his actions, so life is subjected to Karma, Your items in life are marked off on the debit or credit side, according to the good or bad actions which you have done during your past life. All your good qualities are booked on the credit side, and all your bad ones on the debit side of Karma.
But we should, not say: “I have no right to interfere!” This would be just as foolish as when a merchant balancing his accounts says: “I must not do any more business, for in that case I should alter my balance sheet.” Even as the merchant improves his balance sheet with good business, so I improve my Karma with every good action. And even as the merchant is always at liberty to enter a debit or a credit item in his account, so the human being is always free to do likewise in his account book of life. Not in spite of the law of Karma, but just because of it, man is free in regard to his actions. Just because he knows that everything he does—and he does this in full freedom—has an effect upon his account book of life, he cannot agree with those who do not help a man in need. It would be the same as if a merchant facing bankruptcy were to ask us for a loan of 5000 pounds. Would you not give him the money if you knew that he is a good business man who would work his way up again? It is the same with man in need: You help him to better his Karma so that his destiny takes a turn for the better, and at the same time you improve your own Karma through this good action.
The law of Karma consequently induces us to take an active part in daily life. A right understanding of the law of Karma, particularly from this aspect, is of special importance if we consider it in relation to Christianity. In this connection there are serious misunderstandings, particularly on the part of theologians. Modern theologians say: We teach that sins were forgiven us through Christ's death upon the Cross, and you teach the law of Karma, but this contradicts the former.
Yet the contradiction is only apparent, because the law of Karma is simply misunderstood. On the other hand, there are theosophists who declare that they cannot accept Christ's death of atonement—but these theosophists misunderstand the law of Karma just as much as the others.
Take the following case: You help a man, interfere in his destiny and turn it to the good. If you could help two men, this would just as little contradict the law of Karma. Assume that you are an individuality called upon to blot out evil in the world by a certain deed: would this contradict the law of Karma? The Christ-Being has, in the largest measure, done something analogous to the above example, like a man who helped not only a hundred or a thousand other men through his own deed, but the whole of mankind. The death of redemption, Christ's death of atonement, therefore harmonizes completely with the law of Karma—indeed, it can only be understood in the light of this law. A contradiction can only be seen by those who do not understand this law. Christ's death contradicts the law of Karma just as little as when I help a man in his need.
When looking upon the law of Karma you must think of the future, for with everyone of our actions we enter into our account book an item which will bear fruit. Only as long as one is passing through the illnesses of childhood in theosophy can a contradiction be found between Christianity and the law of Karma.
Many things become clear to us through an insight into this law. In the first place, we can accurately prove the connection between the individual bodily development and earlier lives. A life full of love prepares for the next life a course of development whereby the human being preserves his youth for a long time; a premature ageing is on the other hand caused by much antipathy during the past life. In the second place: A particularly selfish sense of grasping and hoarding things produces in the next life a disposition to infectious diseases. In the third place, it is of special interest that pains, and particularly certain illnesses through which we pass, produce a beautiful body in our next life. This insight enables us to bear many an illness more easily.
An insight into such connections of destiny enabled one of the greatest Bible students of our time, Fabre d'Olivet, to use an image which clearly shows us how things are linked up in life. He says: Behold the pearl in the shell! The animal in it had to pass through an illness, and the beautiful pearl arises through this illness. Thus illness during this life is in fact often connected with things which render our next life more beautiful.
How these things may be further developed in various directions, will be shown tomorrow.
Siebenter Vortrag
[ 1 ] Wir haben heute zu sprechen von dem, was man das Gesetz vom Karma nennt, das Gesetz von Ursache und Wirkung in der geistigen Welt. Wir müssen uns zunächst an die letzten Vorträge erinnern, die uns gezeigt haben, wie der gesamte Lebenslauf sich abspielt in einer Reihe von Verkörperungen, so daß Sie alle schon oft auf der Welt da waren und auch noch oft wiederkehren werden. Wir werden später hören, wie es nicht richtig ist, wenn man annimmt, daß in alle Ewigkeit nach vor- und rückwärts diese Verkörperungen sich wiederholen, vielmehr werden wir sehen, daß sie einstmals begonnen haben und daß es eine Zeit geben wird, wo sie wieder aufhören werden, wo der Mensch in anderer Weise sich weiterentwickeln wird.
[ 2 ] Wir betrachten also zunächst jenen Zeitraum, in welchem solche Wiederverkörperungen stattfinden, und wir müssen uns klar darüber sein, daß alles, was man Schicksal nennt in bezug auf Charakter und innere Eigenschaften, wie auch auf unser äußeres Schicksal und unsere Lebenslage, verursacht ist durch unsere früheren Verkörperungen, und daß, was wir in diesem Leben treiben, wieder seine Wirkung hat für die folgenden Leben. So zieht sich das große Gesetz von Ursache und Wirkung durch alle unsere Verkörperungen hindurch.
[ 3 ] Wir wollen uns einmal klarmachen, wie dieses Gesetz in der ganzen Welt wirkt, nicht nur in der geistigen Welt, sondern auch in der physischen.
[ 4 ] Nehmen Sie an, Sie haben zwei Krüge mit Wasser; dann nehmen Sie eine Eisenkugel, die Sie bis zur Glut erhitzt haben, und lassen sie in den ersten Krug Wasser hineinfallen. Was tritt ein? Das Wasser zischt, und die Kugel kühlt sich ab. Nehmen Sie dann die Kugel heraus und werfen Sie sie in den zweiten Krug: da zischt das Wasser nicht mehr und die Kugel kühlt sich nicht mehr wesentlich ab. Die Kugel verhält sich also in den beiden Fällen ganz verschieden: das, was sie im zweiten Fall getan hat, hätte sie nicht getan, wenn sie nicht vorher in den ersten Krug hineingeworfen worden wäre. Also ist das Betragen im zweiten Falle die Wirkung dessen, was im ersten Krug mit ihr geschehen ist. Einen solchen Zusammenhang nennt man Karma. Es ist also das Karma der Kugel, daß sie in dem zweiten Kruge nicht mehr zischt und sich nicht abkühlt. — Und nun auch ein Beispiel aus dem Tierreich, woran Sie ersehen, daß die Folgezustände abhängen vom vorherigen Leben. Nehmen Sie die Tiere, die in die Höhlen von Kentucky eingewandert sind: durch die völlige Entziehung des Sonnenlichtes werden allmählich die Augen rückgebildet. Die Stoffe, die sonst für die Augen verwendet werden, wandern zu andern Organen, und dadurch verkümmern die Augen; die Tiere werden dadurch allmählich blind. Und nun ist es das Schicksal aller Nachkommen, blind geboren zu werden. Wären die Eltern nicht eingewandert in die dunklen Höhlen, so hätten die Nachkommen nicht das Schicksal, blind zu sein. Dieser Zustand der Blindheit ist also die Folge einer früheren Tätigkeit, des Einwanderns in die finsteren Höhlen.
[ 5 ] Die Geisteswissenschaft sagt: Alles, was in der Welt geschieht, ist abhängig vom Karma. Karma ist das allgemeine Weltengesetz. — Auch die Bibel erzählt gleich im Anfang von diesem Karma. Sie sagt nämlich: «Im Anfang schuf Gott die Welt.» Wenn man das so oberflächlich liest, wie heute im allgemeinen gelesen wird, da merken Sie nicht, daß das im Sinne des Karmagesetzes ist; Sie merken es aber ohne weiteres, wenn Sie zum Beispiel den Urtext dieser alten Urkunde nehmen, in welcher uns von diesem Schaffen gesprochen wird, oder wenn Sie eine der ältesten Übersetzungen der Urkunde ins Lateinische nehmen, wie zum Beispiel diejenige aus der Septuaginta, die ja heute noch für die gesamte katholische Kirche als die maßgebende Übersetzung des Alten Testamentes und besonders der Genesis angesehen wird. Und da ist es ja wohl gerade im Hinblick auf einen solchen Einführungszyklus, der Sie ja doch Stück für Stück mit den ungeheuren Tiefen der geisteswissenschaftlichen Weltanschauung bekanntmachen soll, nicht unzweckmäßig, wenn wir einmal einen Schritt abseits unseres eigentlichen Themas machen.
[ 6 ] Der heutige Mensch hat ja eigentlich gar keine Verbindung mehr mit dem lebendigen Wort. Die Sprache ist einerseits zu einem konventionellen Verständigungsmittel geworden, und andererseits zur Geschäftssprache. Ganz anders war es, als das Wort geprägt wurde in den alten Zeiten: da hatte der Mensch noch einen lebendigen Zusammenhang mit dem Wort. Ja, in den allerältesten Zeiten hatte der einzelne Buchstabe, der zur Zusammensetzung des Wortes führte, eine tiefe Bedeutung. Der heutige Mensch hat ja keine Ahnung mehr davon, was durch die Seele eines alten hebräischen Weisen zog, wenn er das Wort «bara» aussprach, das in der Genesis im ersten Satze steht, und das von der Nachwelt, das heißt zunächst von der lateinischen Welt, mit «creare» und von uns mit «schaffen» übersetzt worden ist. Was ist der tiefe Sinn des Wortes «bara»? Wir haben in unserer deutschen Sprache noch denselben Stamm «bar» in dem Wort «gebären».
[ 7 ] Nun liegt dem Worte «Karma» die Wurzel «kr» zugrunde, die ja auch dem Worte «creare» zugrunde liegt, so daß, wenn man lateinisch «creare» — schaffen sagt, dies nichts anderes bedeutet als: es tritt etwas auf durch die Wirkung früherer Zustände; das heißt also, es tritt etwas auf, das karmisch durch etwas Früheres bedingt ist.
[ 8 ] Nun kann man ja von Karma im heutigen Sinne erst sprechen seit dem luziferischen Einschlag, also von dem Augenblicke an, wo der Mensch eine Schuld auf sich genommen hat, und deshalb haftet auch an allem, was mit dem Worte Karma in Verbindung steht, immer etwas von dem Begriffe Schuld. Creare also heißt: etwas hervorbringen, was durch frühere Zustände karmisch verschuldet ist, während noch in dem Stamme «bar» nichts von dieser karmischen Bedingtheit liegt. Wie kommt das? Das kommt zweifellos daher, daß der alte Hebräer noch viel inniger mit der geistigen Welt im Zusammenhang stand und sich noch vollkommen klar war, daß damals, als die Elohim die Welt schöpferisch ersannen, noch von keinem Karma die Rede sein konnte in dem Sinne, wie wir gewöhnlich von Karma sprechen. In der lateinischen Epoche der Menschheitsentwickelung war aber der Mensch, wie wir ein anderes Mal sehen werden, schon vollkommen von der geistigen Welt abgeschnürt, und er konnte sich deshalb sogar das schöpferische Ersinnen der Elohim gar nicht anders denken, als in dem karmischen Zusammenhang darinnenstehend.
[ 9 ] Aber sowohl das Wort «bara» wie auch das Wort «creare» heißt niemals: Gott hat die Welt aus dem Nichts geschaffen; denn beiden Worten liegt der Sinn zugrunde: Gott hat frühere Zustände in neue überfließen lassen; ebenso wie die Mutter das Kind nicht aus dem Nichts gebiert, sondern gebären heißt: das Kind tritt sichtbar in die Welt hinaus aus dem früheren verborgenen Zustande im Mutterleibe.
[ 10 ] Sie sehen, wie man da den Sinn der Bibel verdrehen kann. Zuerst hat die Theologie gesagt: Gott hat die Welt aus dem Nichts geschaffen -, weil diese Theologie ja nichts mehr von den dem Erdendasein vorangehenden kosmischen Entwickelungsperioden wußte, und darüber sind ganze Bibliotheken geschrieben worden. Aber alle diese Theologen haben gekämpft wie Don Quijote gegen Windmühlen. Man muß jedoch immer wissen, wogegen man kämpfen will; das heißt, man muß immer den ursprünglichen Sinn der alten Urkunden klarlegen.
[ 11 ] Wenn wir nun dieses Gesetz vom Karma uns so denken, wie es in der Tat gedacht werden muß, als der Zusammenhang zwischen Ursache und Wirkung nicht nur hier für das physische Leben zwischen Geburt und Tod, sondern auch für das Leben nach dem Tode in der geistigen Welt, dann wird gerade dieses Karmagesetz zum Erleuchter des eigenen Lebens. Die Einsicht in dieses Karmagesetz gibt nicht nur eine tiefe Befriedigung für unseren Verstand, sondern im tiefsten Sinne auch für unser Gemüt, und es gibt uns die rechte Einsicht in unser Verhältnis zur Welt. Sie werden immer klarer einsehen, welch eine tiefe Bedeutung es hat, und wie erst die richtige Einsicht in dieses Karmagesetz es uns ermöglicht, das Leben mit unserer Umwelt harmonisch zu gestalten. Es klärt uns nicht über solche Welträtsel auf, die man erst ausspintisieren muß, sondern über solche, die uns in der Tat auf Schritt und Tritt im Leben begegnen. Oder sind es etwa nicht Lebensrätsel, wenn man sieht, wie scheinbar ohne Schuld der eine Mensch geboren wird in Not und Elend, und wie bei einem andern die schönsten Anlagen durch die soziale Lage, in die ihn sein Leben gestellt hat, verkümmern müssen? Wir fragen uns oft im Leben: Wie kommt es, daß dieser Mensch so in Not und Elend geboren wird ohne seine Schuld, und der andere, ohne sein Dazutun, im Überfluß und Reichtum, so daß er schon an der Wiege umstellt ist von zärtlich liebenden Eltern? — Das sind Fragen, über die nur der Leichtsinn der heutigen Menschen hinwegschauen kann.
[ 12 ] Je tieferen Einblick in das Karmagesetz wir gewinnen, um so mehr werden wir sehen, daß alle Härte schwindet, die auf den ersten Blick scheinbar vorhanden ist, wenn man das Karmagesetz nur oberflächlich betrachtet. Wir werden uns dann immer klarer darüber werden, wie es kommt, daß eben der eine Mensch in diesen, der andere in jenen Verhältnissen im Leben stehen muß. Eine Härte kann und muß man nur dann in der einen oder andern Lebenslage erblicken, wenn wir nur das eine Leben betrachten. Wenn wir aber wissen, daß dieses eine Leben die absolute Wirkung früherer Taten ist, dann schwindet diese Härte vollständig, dann sehen wir ein, daß der Mensch sich sein Leben selbst zubereitet.
[ 13 ] Es könnte nun jemand sagen: Ja, aber das ist doch etwas Furchtbares, wenn man denken muß, der Mensch hätte alles das, was ihn hier im Leben an Schicksalsschlägen trifft, selbst verschuldet! — Da müssen wir uns einmal klarmachen, daß das Karmagesetz nicht für sentimental Brütende ist, sondern daß es ein Gesetz der Tat ist, das uns stark macht, das uns Mut und Hoffnung gibt. Denn wenn wir auch das Leben so, wie es uns mit all seinen Härten trifft, uns selbst gemacht haben, so wissen wir doch auch, daß es ein Gesetz ist, dessen Hauptbedeutung nicht in der Vergangenheit, sondern in der Zukunft liegt. Wenn wir auch in der Gegenwart durch die Wirkung vergangener Taten noch so bedrückt sind, wird doch gerade die Einsicht in das Karmagesetz ihre Früchte tragen in späteren Leben. Je nachdem wir uns verhalten, werden die Früchte dieser Taten in künftigen Leben sein, denn keine Tat ist vergebens getan. Und wieviel theosophischer ist es, das Karmagesetz als Gesetz der Tat aufzufassen! Denn, was wir auch tun, den Früchten dieser Taten werden wir nicht entgehen. Je schlechter es uns in diesem Leben geht, je besser wir das ertragen, um so besser wird es uns in künftigen Leben gehen. So ist das Karmagesetz ein Gesetz, welches die Lebensrätsel löst, die uns auf Schritt und Tritt begegnen.
[ 14 ] Wie hängt nun dasLeben vorher mit dem späteren Leben zusammen? Klar müssen wir uns darüber sein, daß alles, was wir als innerliche Wirkungen äußerlicher Erlebnisse haben, als Lust und Leid, seine Wirkungen in kommenden Leben hat.
[ 15 ] Nun wissen Sie ja, daß alles, was als Lust, Leid, Freude, Schmerz in uns lebt, Dinge sind, deren Träger der Astralleib ist. Alles das nun, was der Astralleib in diesem Leben erlebt, und ganz besonders, wenn diese Erlebnisse immer öfter wiederholt werden, das zeigt sich im nächsten Leben als Eigenschaft des Ätherleibes. Die Freude, die Sie in dem einen Leben an einem Gegenstand in Ihrer Seele immer und immer wieder wachrufen, bewirkt, daß Sie im nächsten Leben eine tiefe Neigung und Vorliebe für diesen Gegenstand haben werden. Neigung und Vorliebe sind aber Charaktereigenschaften und haben als Träger den Ätherleib, so daß, was der Astralleib im Leben vorher bewirkt, Eigenschaften des Ätherleibes im nächsten Leben werden. Was Sie in diesem Leben wiederholt erleben, das kommt in Ihrem folgenden Leben als Grundcharakter. Ein melancholisches Temperament kommt daher, daß der Mensch im vorigen Leben viele traurige Eindrücke gehabt hat, die ihn immer wieder in eine traurige Stimmung versetzt haben; dadurch hat eben der nächste Ätherleib eine Neigung für eine traurige Stimmung. Umgekehrt ist es bei denen, die allem im Leben eine gute Seite abgewinnen, die dadurch in ihrem Astralleib Lust und Freude, frohe Erhebung erzeugt haben; das gibt im nächsten Leben eine bleibende Charaktereigenschaft des Ätherleibes und bewirkt ein heiteres Temperament. Wenn der Mensch aber, trotzdem ihn das Leben in eine harte Schule nimmt, all das Traurige kraftvoll überwindet, dann wird im nächsten Leben sein Ätherleib geboren mit einem cholerischen Temperament. Man kann also, wenn man all das weiß, geradezu sich seinen Ätherleib für das nächste Leben vorbereiten.
[ 16 ] Diejenigen Eigenschaften nun, die der Ätherleib in dem einen Leben hat, die erscheinen im nächsten Leben im physischen Leib. Wenn also jemand schlechte Gewohnheiten und Charaktereigenschaften hat und nichts dagegen tut, sie sich abzugewöhnen, tritt das im nächsten Leben als eine Disposition des physischen Leibes auf, und das ist tatsächlich die Disposition zu Krankheiten. So sonderbar sich das auch für Sie anhören mag, aber diese Disposition für bestimmte Krankheiten, und besonders für Infektionskrankheiten, rührt tatsächlich her von schlechten Gewohnheiten im vorhergehenden Leben. Also haben wir es mit dieser Einsicht auch in der Hand, uns Gesundheit oder Krankheit für das nächste Leben zu bereiten. Wenn wir uns eine schlechte Gewohnheit abgewöhnen, machen wir uns im nächsten Leben physisch gesund und widerstandsfähig gegen Infektionen. So kann man schon für das kommende Leben für Gesundheit sorgen, wenn man bestrebt ist, nur edle Eigenschaften zu pflegen.
[ 17 ] Und nun ein Drittes, was außerordentlich wichtig ist für die richtige Auffassung des Karmagesetzes: das ist die richtige Bewertung unserer Taten selbst in diesem Leben. Bisher haben wir ja nur von dem gesprochen, was innerhalb des Menschen sich abspielt; was aber der Mensch tut in diesem Leben, das heißt also, wie er sich mit seinen Taten der Umwelt gegenüber verhält, das zeigt seine Wirkung im nächsten Leben eben in dieser Umwelt.
[ 18 ] Durch eine schlechte Gewohnheit an und für sich habe ich noch nichts getan; wenn mich aber diese schlechte Gewohnheit zur Tat treibt, dann verändere ich durch diese Tat die Außenwelt. Und alles das eben, was so eine Wirkung in der physischen Außenwelt hat, das kommt uns als äußeres Schicksal im nächsten Leben in der Außenwelt wieder zurück. Also die Taten des physischen Leibes in diesem Leben, die werden zu unserem Schicksal in dem folgenden Leben. Das erfahren wir durch das Hineingestelltsein in diese oder jene Lebenslage. Ob also der Mensch in dieser oder jener Lebenslage glücklich oder unglücklich wird, das hängt von den Taten seines vorherigen Lebens ab. Hierhin gehört wieder als treffendes und belehrendes Beispiel dasjenige von dem Fememord, das uns zeigt, wie die Tat als äußere Tat des einen Lebens im nächsten Leben auf den Menschen als Schicksal zurückfällt.
[ 19 ] Das sind also in kurzen Linien gezeichnet die karmischen Zusammenhänge beim einzelnen Menschen. Wir dürfen aber nicht nur beim einzelnen Menschen von Karma sprechen; der Mensch darf sich nicht als Einzelwesen betrachten, das wäre grundfalsch, genau so falsch, als wenn der einzelne Finger an unserer Hand sich als Einzelwesen fühlen wollte. Genau so weit, wie der Finger kommen würde, wenn er sich vom Organismus absondern würde, würde der Mensch kommen, wenn er sich einige Meilen über die Erde erheben würde. So ist der Mensch, wenn er in die Geisteswissenschaft eindringt, geradezu gezwungen, an der Hand dieser Erkenntnis einzusehen, daß er sich nicht der Täuschung hingeben darf, auf sich selbst als Einzelwesen zu bestehen. So ist es in der physischen und noch viel mehr in der geistigen Welt. Der Mensch gehört der ganzen Welt an und hat auch sein Schicksal in der Gesamtheit. Das Karma betrifft nicht nur den einzelnen Menschen, sondern es geht auch über das Leben von ganzen Völkern dahin. Ein Beispiel dafür: Sie alle wissen, daß es im Mittelalter eine Seuche, die Miselsucht gegeben hat; das ist eine Art Aussatz. Erst im 16. Jahrhundert verschwindet sie aus Europa. Es gab eine ganz besondere Ursache, daß diese Seuche gerade im Mittelalter auftrat, und zwar eine geistige Ursache. Der Materialist ist natürlich geneigt, eine derartige ansteckende Krankheit auf Bazillen zurückzuführen, aber die physische Ursache ist es nicht allein, die bei einer solchen Krankheit in Betracht kommt. Das ist geradeso, wie wenn einer durchgeprügelt wird, und man sollte untersuchen, warum dieser durchgeprügelt ist. Der Einsichtsvolle wird ohne weiteres finden, daß die Ursache der Prügel darauf beruht, daß es in dem Dorf einige Menschen gibt, die sehr roh sind. Es wäre aber in diesem Falle eine geradezu törichte Folgerung — wie es im obigen Falle die materialistische ist -, wenn einer käme und sagte, daß der Mann seine blauen Beulen auf dem Rücken hat, kommt einzig und allein davon her, daß die Stöcke so und so oft auf seinen Rücken niedergegangen sind. Die rein materialistische Ursache der blauen Flecken sind zweifellos die auf den Rücken niedergegangenen Stöcke, die tiefere Ursache sind aber doch die rohen Menschen. Und so hat auch diese Krankheit, neben der materialistischen Ursache der Bazillen, auch eine geistige.
[ 20 ] Ein ganz analoges Beispiel bietet das Weinen. Die geistige Ursache ist die Traurigkeit, die materielle dagegen die Sekretion der Tränendrüsen. Man sollte es kaum für möglich halten, daß ein sogar recht bedeutender Gelehrter der Gegenwart es fertiggebracht hat, denselben törichten Schluß zu ziehen wie oben, denn er hat den geradezu ungeheuerlichen Satz aufgestellt: Der Mensch weint nicht, weil er traurig ist, sondern der Mensch ist traurig, weil er weint!
[ 21 ] Doch zurück zur Miselsucht. Sie müssen in diesem Falle, wenn Sie geistig die tiefere Ursache dieser Krankheit erklären wollen, zurückblicken auf ein bedeutsames historisches Ereignis: auf das Ereignis, als von Osten her große Völkermassen über Europa hinwegstürmten und dieses Europa in Furcht und Schrecken setzten. Diese asiatischen Scharen waren Völker, die auf der alten Atlantierstufe stehengeblieben und daher im Niedergang begriffen waren, also Völker, die den Niedergangs-,sozusagen den Fäulnischarakter besonders stark in ihrem Astralleib hatten. Wären diese Völkerschaften über Europa herübergestürmt, ohne daß die Europäer sich erregt oder erschreckt hätten, dann wäre nichts passiert. So aber verursachten diese Horden Angst und Schrecken und Bestürzung; ganze Völkerschaften in Europa erlebten diese Angstund Schreckenszustände. Und nun mischte sich der faule Astralstoff der Hunnen mit den von Angst und Furcht und Grauen durchwühlten Astralleibern der überfallenen Völker. Die degenerierten Astralleiber der asiatischen Stämme Juden ihre schlechten Stoffe auf diese furchtdurchwühlten Astralleiber der Europäer ab, und diese Fäulnisstoffe bewirkten eben, daß später die physische Wirkung der Krankheit auftrat. Das ist in Wahrheit die tiefe geistige Ursache des Aussatzes im Mittelalter. Es tritt also etwas, was geistig verursacht ist, in späterer Zeit im physischen Körper auf. Nur wer dieses Gesetz von Karma kennt und es zu durchschauen vermag, ist dazu berufen, in den Geschichtsverlauf tätig einzugreifen.
[ 22 ] Nun will ich Ihnen etwas sagen, was zur Begründung der theosophischen Weltanschauung beigetragen hat, und das ist das Folgende: Das Karma wirkt sich ja aus, gerade wie beim einzelnen Menschen, so auch bei den Völkern, ja bei der ganzen Menschheit. Wer nun den Gang der Geschichte des europäischen Geisteslebens verfolgt, der weiß, daß seit etwa vierhundert Jahren der Materialismus heraufgekommen ist. In der Wissenschaft ist dieser Materialismus am unschuldigsten, denn da können alle Fehler jederzeit eingesehen und ausgeglichen werden. Viel schädlicher wirkt er sich schon aus im praktischen Leben, wo ja alles in den Gesichtspunkt materieller Interessen gestellt wird. Aber nie hätte der Materialismus Platz gegriffen im praktischen Leben, wenn nicht die Menschen dazu eine Vorliebe gehabt hätten. Es hätte auch keinen Büchner und so weiter gegeben, wenn nicht der Mensch vorher das Materielle so geliebt hätte. Am allerschädlichsten wirkt sich aber der Materialismus aus auf dem Gebiete des religiösen Lebens, das heißt in der Kirche; gerade sie steuert seit Jahrhunderten auf den Materialismus hin. Wieso? Wenn Sie zurückgehen in die ursprünglichen Zeiten des ersten Christentums, hätten Sie nie gehört, daß man angenommen hätte, daß sich das Siebentagewerk wirklich in sieben Tagen vollzogen hätte, wie es ja heute tatsächlich vielfach angenommen wird, und daß man unter dem «siebenten Tag» sich so etwas vorstellen kann, als ob sich einer nach einer schweren körperlichen Arbeit auf einen Stuhl setzt und ausruht. Von der Wirklichkeit dieses Siebentagewerkes weiß das materialistische Zeitalter nichts mehr. Der Theosophie ist es erst wieder vorbehalten, der Menschheit über den wahren Sinn dieser alten Urkunde, der Genesis, Aufklärung zu geben.
[ 23 ] Und diese materialistische Auffassung in der Religion, die hat sich in das Leben der Völker sogar am allertiefsten hineingefressen. Und immer mehr wird dieser Materialismus gerade auf religiösem Gebiete herrschen, und immer weniger wird man gerade auf dieser Seite einsehen, daß es auf den Geist ankommt und nicht auf das PhysischMaterielle. Sie werden ohne weiteres zugeben, daß das materielle Denken, Fühlen und Wollen immer mehr eingezogen ist in die ganze Lebensauffassung der Menschheit, und dies prägt sich schließlich im Gesundheitszustand der nachfolgenden Generationen aus.
[ 24 ] Ein Zeitalter mit gesunder Lebensauffassung, das schafft für die Menschen einen starken Mittelpunkt im Inneren, das macht sie zu in sich geschlossenen Persönlichkeiten, so daß die Nachkommen stark und kräftig werden. Ein Zeitalter aber, das nur an die Materie glaubt, erzeugt Nachkommen, bei denen im Leibe auch alles seine eigenen Wege geht, nichts im Mittelpunkte liegt, wodurch eben Anzeichen von Neurasthenie und Nervosität entstehen. Dies würde immer mehr und mehr überhandnehmen, wenn der Materialismus auch in Zukunft die Weltanschauung bliebe. Der geistigSchauende kann Ihnen ganz genau sagen, was kommen würde, wenn der Materialismus nicht sein Gegengewicht fände in einer festen Geistesrichtung. Geisteskrankheiten würden epidemisch werden, ebenso würden Kinder schon bei ihrer Geburt an Nervosität und Zittererscheinungen leiden, und die weitere Folge der materiellen Gesinnung ist ein solcher nicht in sich konzentrierter Menschenschlag, wie wir ihn heute schon sehen. Damals, vor nun etwa drei Jahrzehnten, war es vor allem dieser Gedanke und diese Voraussicht, wie es der Menschheit gehen würde, wenn nicht ein geistiges Heilmittel gegen diese Auswirkung des Materialismus angewandt würde, die zur Inaugurierung der theosophischen Bewegung führte. Man kann ja viel streiten über ein Heilmittel, aber alle Einwendungen können wenig genieren; die Hauptsache ist, daß es hilft. Und so ist es auch mit der Heilwirkung der TTheosophie. Sie will das verhüten, was unweigerlich eintreten würde, wenn die Menschen so im Materialismus weitergehen würden.
[ 25 ] So sehen Sie,wie man — wenn man im tieferen Sinne über das Karmagesetz denkt — den Menschen nicht als Einzelwesen betrachten kann, sondern auch als in der ganzen Gemeinschaft unter dem Karmagesetz stehend. Das Karmagesetz ist nicht für die, welche nur an ein ganz blindes Schicksal glauben wollen. Wer das Karmagesetz so auffassen würde, der würde es vollständig verkennen. Und doch findet man immer wieder Menschen, die diesem Irrtum verfallen. So sagt der eine: Ich weiß, ich kann nichts dafür, daß mir dies und jenes zustößt, das ist halt mein Karma, das muß ich ausleben. - Der andere sagt: Ich sehe da einen Notleidenden, dem darf ich nicht helfen, denn es ist ja seine Schuld, daß ihn das trifft; es ist sein Karma, das muß er ausleben! Das alles ist ja nun eine ganz unsinnige Auslegung des Karmabegriffes!
[ 26 ] Um sich eine sehr leicht begreifliche Vorstellung vom Karmagesetz zu machen, können Sie es vergleichen mit dem kaufmännischen Gesetz von Soll und Haben. Wie der Kaufmann in all seinem Handeln diesem Gesetz unterliegt, so ist es auch im Leben mit dem Karma. Durch alles, was Sie im verflossenen Leben Gutes oder Böses getan haben, sind Ihre Posten nach Soll und Haben gestimmt. Alle guten Eigenschaften sind auf der Soll-, alle schlechten auf der Habenseite Ihres Karma gebucht.
[ 27 ] Man soll aber nicht sagen: Da darf ich nicht eingreifen. - Das wäre genau so töricht, als wenn ein Kaufmann nach Abschluß der Bilanz sagen wollte: Jetzt darf ich kein Geschäft mehr machen, denn sonst verändere ich meine Bilanz. - Genau so, wie der Kaufmann durch jeden guten Abschluß seine Bilanz verbessert, so verbessere ich auch durch jede gute Tat mein Karma. Genau so, wie es dem Kaufmann jederzeit freisteht, einen Posten auf die eine, Soll, oder auf die andere Seite, Haben, seines Kontos zu setzen, so auch dem Menschen im Kontobuch des Lebens. Der Mensch ist immer frei in seinem Handeln, nicht etwa trotz des Karmagesetzes, sondern gerade unter Berücksichtigung desselben. Gerade wenn wir wissen, daß alles, was wir tun, und zwar aus voller Freiheit tun, seine Wirkungen in diesem Kontobuch des Lebens haben wird, gerade deshalb können wir demjenigen nicht recht geben, der nicht dem Elenden hilft. Das ist genau so, als wenn ein Kaufmann vor dem Konkurs steht und uns um ein Darlehen von zwanzigtausend Mark bittet. Werden Sie ihm nicht die zwanzigtausend Mark geben, wenn Sie wissen, daß es ein tüchtiger Geschäftsmann ist, der sich mit diesem Darlehen wieder emporarbeiten kann? So ist es auch bei dem Elenden: dem helfen Sie sein Karma auszubessern, auf daß sich sein Schicksal nach dem Guten wende, und zugleich verbessern Sie Ihr eigenes Karma durch diese gute Tat. So ist das Karmagesetz in der Tat ein Gesetz für ein werktätiges Eingreifen im täglichen Leben. Und daß man das Karmagesetz gerade von dieser Seite richtig verstehen lernt, das ist besonders wichtig, wenn wir es im Verhältnis zum Christentum betrachten. Da herrschen heute gerade auf theologischer Seite schwere Mißverständnisse. Die Theologen von heute sagen: Wir lehren, daß durch den Tod am Kreuz die Sünden vergeben sind, und Ihr lehrt das Karmagesetz; das aber steht doch in einem Widerspruch dazu. — Das ist aber nur ein scheinbarer Widerspruch, weil das Karmagesetz einfach nicht verstanden wird. Und umgekehrt gibt es Theosophen, die da sagen, daß sie ihrerseits wieder den Sühnetod nicht annehmen können; diese aber verstehen das Karmagesetz ebensowenig.
[ 28 ] Nehmen Sie an: Sie helfen einem Menschen und greifen ein in sein Schicksal und wenden es zum Guten. Wenn Sie nun zwei Menschen helfen könnten, widerspräche das doch dem Karmagesetz ebensowenig. Nehmen Sie nun an, Sie seien eine Individualität, die dazu berufen wäre, ein Übel in der Welt zu tilgen durch eine gewisse Tat: widerspricht das etwa dem Karmagesetz? So hat die Christus-Wesenheit im größten Umfang nichts anderes getan — analog dem obigen Beispiel als ein Mensch, der nicht nur Hunderten oder Tausenden, sondern der ganzen Menschheit durch seine Tat geholfen hat. So ist der Erlösungstod, der stellvertretende Sühnetod Christi, durchaus übereinstimmend mit dem Karmagesetz, ja er ist nur zu begreifen im Hinblick auf dieses Karmagesetz. Nur wer es nicht versteht, kann da einen Widerspruch finden. Es ist ebensowenig ein Widerspruch mit dem Karmageserz, als es ein Widerspruch ist, wenn ich einem einzelnen Elenden helfe.
[ 29 ] Sie müssen im Hinblick auf das Karmagesetz an die Zukunft denken, denn wir schreiben durch eine jede Tat in unser Kontobuch einen Posten ein, der seine Früchte tragen wird. Nur solange man in den Kinderkrankheiten der Theosophie steckte, konnte man einen Widerspruch zwischen Christentum und Karmagesetz finden.
[ 30 ] Aus der Einsicht heraus in dieses Karmagesetz wird uns manches klar. Erstens können wir genau nachweisen den Zusammenhang zwischen der jetzigen Körperentwickelung und früheren Lebensläufen. Zum Beispiel bereitet ein Leben voller Liebe vor für eine Entwickelung im nächsten Leben, die den Menschen lange jung erhält; dagegen wird ein frühzeitiges Altern bewirkt durch viel Antipathie im vorigen Leben. Zweitens: ein besonders selbstsüchtiger Erwerbssinn schafft für das folgende Leben Dispositionen für Infektionskrankheiten. Drittens ist es besonders interessant, daß zum Beispiel Schmerzen, und namentlich gewisse Krankheiten, die man durchmacht, bewirken, daß im nächsten Leben ein schöner Körper auftritt. Ein solcher Einblick läßt uns manche Krankheit leichter tragen.
[ 31 ] Im Hinblick und Einblick in solche Schicksalszusammenhänge hat einer der größten Bibelforscher, Fabre d’Olivet, ein schönes Bild gebraucht, das uns klarmacht, wie die Dinge im Leben verkettet sind. Er sagt: Seht euch die Perle in der Muschel an: das Tier darin mußte eine Krankheit erleiden, und aus dieser Krankheit heraus entsteht die schöne Perle. —- Und so hängt in der Tat oft Krankheit in diesem Leben zusammen mit dem, was das nächste Leben verschönt.
[ 32 ] Wie das in einzelnen andern Richtungen noch ausgebildet werden kann, davon morgen.
Frage nach den «Sünden wider den Geist».
[ 33 ] Es gibt Sünden, die hervorgerufen werden dadurch, daß der Mensch einen physischen Leib hat, daß der Mensch einen Ätherleib hat, daß der Mensch einen Astralleib hat. Innerhalb des Astralleibes geht der Geist auf; der Mensch wird bewußt. Er kann also sündigen. Diese Sünden können dem Menschen abgenommen werden. Aber wenn wir so sündigen, daß wir innerhalb unseres Bewußitseins sündigen, da wird fremde Hilfe unwirksam. Und weil die Weltenordnung weise ist, wird sie uns in diesem Falle die Hilfe auch gar nicht angedeihen lassen. Es ist das gerade so, als wenn, in dem eben angeführten Beispiel, der Kaufmann, der vor dem Ruin steht und uns um ein Darlehen bittet, unwürdig dieses Beistandes ist; denn dann wäre es unklug, wenn wir ihm helfen wollten. So ist es auch im Weltengange; da wo es unweise wäre, uns zu helfen, da wird uns nicht geholfen.
[ 34 ] «Sünde wider den Geist» ist Sünde, die wir im Astralleib begehen, wo wir ein Bewußtsein davon haben.
Seventh Lecture
[ 1 ] Today we are going to talk about what is called the law of karma, the law of cause and effect in the spiritual world. We must first recall the last lectures, which showed us how the entire course of life unfolds in a series of embodiments, so that you have all been in the world many times and will return many more times. We shall hear later on how it is not correct to assume that these embodiments will repeat themselves backwards and forwards for all eternity. Rather, we shall see that they began at some point and that there will come a time when they will cease again, when man will develop further in a different way.
[ 2 ] We therefore first consider the period in which such re-embodiments take place, and we must realize that everything we call fate, regarding our character and inner qualities, as well as our outer destiny and our circumstances, is caused by our previous embodiments, and that what we do in this life has an effect on our following lives. Thus, the great law of cause and effect runs through all our embodiments.
[ 3 ] Let us realize how this law works in the whole world, not only in the spiritual world, but also in the physical.
[ 4 ] Suppose you have two jugs of water; then take an iron ball that you have heated to glowing embers and drop it into the first jug of water. What happens? The water hisses and the ball cools down. Then take the ball out and throw it into the second jug: the water no longer hisses and the ball does not cool down significantly. So the ball behaves quite differently in the two cases: it would not have done what it did in the second case if it had not been thrown into the first jug beforehand. So the behavior in the second case is the effect of what happened to it in the first jug. Such a connection is called karma. So it is the karma of the ball that it no longer hisses and does not cool down in the second jug. — And now an example from the animal kingdom, which shows you that the subsequent conditions depend on the previous life. Take the animals that migrated to the caves of Kentucky: due to the complete deprivation of sunlight, their eyes gradually regress. The substances that are otherwise used for the eyes migrate to other organs, and as a result the eyes atrophy; the animals gradually become blind. And now it is the fate of all their descendants to be born blind. If the parents had not migrated into the dark caves, the descendants would not have been destined to be blind. This state of blindness is therefore the result of an earlier activity, of migrating into the dark caves.
[ 5 ] Spiritual science says: Everything that happens in the world is dependent on karma. Karma is the general law of the world. — The Bible also speaks of this Karma right at the beginning. It says, namely: “In the beginning God created the world.” If you read it superficially, as it is generally read today, you do not notice that it is in the sense of the law of karma; but you notice it immediately if, for example, you take the original text of this ancient document in which this creation is spoken of, or if you take one of the oldest translations of the document into Latin, such as, for example, the Septuagint, which is still regarded today by the entire Catholic Church as the authoritative translation of the Old Testament and especially of Genesis. And since this is precisely the kind of introductory cycle that is supposed to gradually familiarize you with the tremendous depths of the spiritual scientific worldview, it is not inappropriate for us to take a step away from our actual topic.
[6] Today's people actually have no connection with the living word. Language has become, on the one hand, a conventional means of communication and, on the other hand, a business language. It was quite different when the word was coined in ancient times: then man still had a living connection with the word. Yes, in the very earliest times, the individual letter that led to the composition of the word had a deep meaning. Today's man has no more idea of what moved the soul of an ancient Hebrew sage when he pronounced the word “bara”, which stands in the first sentence of Genesis and which was translated by posterity, that is, first by the Latin world, as “creare” and by us as “schaffen”. What is the deep meaning of the word bara? In our German language we still have the same stem bar in the word gebären (to give birth).
[ 7 ] Now the root kr is the basis of the word karma, and this root is also the basis of the word creare, so that when one says creare” in Latin means ‘to create’ and it means nothing other than that something arises through the effect of previous conditions. This means that something arises that is karmically conditioned by something earlier.
[ 8 ] Now, we can only speak of karma in the modern sense since the Luciferic impact, that is, from the moment when man has taken on a guilt, and therefore there is always something of the concept of guilt in everything connected with the word karma. Thus Creare means: to bring forth something that is karmically indebted through earlier states, while the root “bar” does not imply this karmic conditionality. How did that come about? It undoubtedly stems from the fact that the ancient Hebrew was still much more intimately connected with the spiritual world and was still perfectly aware that at the time when the Elohim creatively conceived the world, there could be no question of karma in the sense in which we usually speak of karma. But in the Latin epoch of human development, as we shall see some other time, man was already completely cut off from the spiritual world, and therefore he could not even think of the creative design of the Elohim in any other way than in terms of the karmic connection.
[ 9 ] But neither the word “bara” nor the word “creare” ever means: God created the world out of nothing; because both words are based on the meaning: God let earlier states flow into new ones; just as the mother does not give birth to the child out of nothing, but to give birth means: the child visibly emerges into the world from the earlier hidden state in the mother's womb.
[ 10 ] You see how the meaning of the Bible can be twisted. At first, theology said: God created the world out of nothing - because this theology no longer knew anything about the cosmic development periods that preceded earthly existence, and entire libraries have been written about this. But all these theologians fought like Don Quixote against windmills. However, one must always know what one wants to fight against; that is, one must always clarify the original meaning of the ancient documents.
[ 11 ] If we now think of this law of karma as it should be thought of, as the connection between cause and effect not only here for physical life between birth and death, but also for life after death in the spiritual world, then this law of karma becomes an enlightener of one's own life. Insight into this law of karma not only gives our minds a deep satisfaction, but also, in the deepest sense, our souls, and it gives us the right insight into our relationship to the world. You will see more and more clearly what a deep meaning it has and how only the right insight into this law of karma enables us to shape our lives harmoniously with our environment. It does not enlighten us about such world puzzles that one must first spin out, but about those that we actually encounter at every turn in life. Or are they not life puzzles when one sees how, seemingly through no fault of their own, one person is born into hardship and misery, while another's most beautiful talents must wither away due to the social situation into which his life has placed him? We often ask ourselves in life: How is it that this person is born into need and misery through no fault of his own, and the other, without any action on his part, is born into abundance and prosperity, so that he is surrounded by tenderly loving parents right from the cradle? These are questions that only the carelessness of today's people can overlook.
[ 12 ] The deeper insight into the law of karma we gain, the more we will see that all the harshness that seems to be present at first glance disappears when we look at the law of karma only superficially. We shall then realize more and more clearly how it comes about that one person must stand in these circumstances in life, while another stands in those. We can and must see hardship in one or other situation in life only if we consider only this one life. But when we know that this one life is the absolute effect of former deeds, then this hardship completely disappears, then we realize that man prepares his life himself.
[ 13 ] Now someone might say: Yes, but that is a terrible thing, when you have to think that everything that befalls a person in the way of strokes of fate here in life is their own fault! Here we must realize that the law of karma is not meant for sentimental brooding, but that it is a law of action that makes us strong and gives us courage and hope. For even if we have brought upon ourselves the life that we now face with all its hardships, we know that this law is concerned not with the past but with the future. Even if we are still oppressed in the present by the effects of past deeds, it is precisely our insight into the law of karma that will bear fruit in later lives. Depending on how we behave, the fruits of these deeds will be in future lives, because no deed is done in vain. And how much more theosophical it is to understand the law of karma as the law of action! For, whatever we do, we shall not escape the fruits of these deeds. The worse off we are in this life, the better we bear it, the better off we shall be in future lives. Thus the law of karma is a law that solves the riddles of life that confront us at every turn.
[ 14 ] How is our previous life connected with our later life? We must be clear about the fact that everything we have as inner effects of external experiences, as pleasure and pain, has its effects in future lives.
[ 15 ] Now you know that everything that lives in us as pleasure, suffering, joy or pain is something that is borne by the astral body. Everything that the astral body experiences in this life, and especially when these experiences are repeated more and more often, will show up in the next life as a property of the etheric body. The joy that you awaken in your soul over and over again in one life through an object causes you to have a deep inclination and preference for this object in the next life. But inclination and preference are character traits and have the etheric body as their carrier, so that what the astral body brings about in the previous life becomes the properties of the etheric body in the next life. What you experience repeatedly in this life becomes your basic character in the next life. A melancholy temperament, for example, comes from the fact that in the previous life a person had many sad impressions that repeatedly put him in a sad mood; as a result, the next etheric body has a tendency towards a sad mood. The opposite is true for those who see the good side of everything in life, who have thus created joy and gladness in their astral body; in the next life this gives the ether body a permanent character trait and produces a cheerful temperament. But if, despite the hard schooling of life, a person overcomes all the sad things with strength, then in the next life his ether body will be born with a choleric temperament. So, if you know all this, you can almost prepare your ether body for the next life.
[ 16 ] The qualities that the etheric body has in one life will appear in the physical body in the next life. So if someone has bad habits and character traits and does nothing to get rid of them, in the next life this appears as a disposition of the physical body, and that is indeed a disposition to disease. However strange it may sound to you, this disposition to certain diseases, and especially to infectious diseases, actually stems from bad habits in the previous life. So with this insight, we also have the power to prepare ourselves for health or illness in our next life. If we break a bad habit, we make ourselves physically healthy and resistant to infections in the next life. In this way, we can ensure our health for the coming life if we strive to cultivate only noble qualities.
[ 17 ] And now a third point, which is extremely important for a correct understanding of the law of karma: this is the correct evaluation of our deeds themselves in this life. So far, we have only spoken of what takes place within a person; but what a person does in this life, that is, how he behaves towards his environment with his deeds, is what determines his effect in the next life, precisely in this environment.
[ 18 ] I have not yet done anything through a bad habit in and of itself; but when this bad habit drives me to act, then I change the external world through this act. And everything that has such an effect in the physical external world comes back to us as external fate in the next life in the external world. So the deeds of the physical body in this life become our fate in the following life. We experience this through being placed in this or that life situation. So whether a person is happy or unhappy in this or that life situation depends on the deeds of his previous life. Here again, as a striking and instructive example, is the murder of the Feme, which shows us how the deed, as an external act of one life, falls back on a person as fate in the next life.
[ 19 ] These are the karmic connections in the individual human being, drawn in brief lines. But we must not speak of karma only in terms of the individual; the human being must not regard himself as an individual, that would be fundamentally wrong, just as wrong as if the individual finger on our hand wanted to feel as an individual. Just as far as the finger would come if it were to separate itself from the organism, so would man come if he were to rise a few miles above the earth. Thus, when man penetrates into spiritual science, he is almost forced to realize, by the hand of this knowledge, that he must not succumb to the delusion of insisting on himself as an individual being. This is the case in the physical world and even more so in the spiritual world. Man belongs to the whole world and also has his destiny in the totality. Karma not only affects the individual human being, but also extends beyond the life of entire nations. An example of this: You all know that there was a plague in the Middle Ages, namely, tuberculosis; this is a kind of leprosy. It was only in the 16th century that it disappeared from Europe. There was a very special reason for this epidemic occurring in the Middle Ages, and it was a spiritual one. The materialist is naturally inclined to trace such a contagious disease to bacilli, but the physical cause is not the only one to be considered in such an illness. It is just as if a man had been beaten, and one should investigate why he had been beaten. The discerning person would readily find that the cause of the beating was that there were some people in the village who were very brutal. But it would be a foolish conclusion in this case – as it is in the materialistic case above – if someone were to come and say that the man got his bruises on his back solely and exclusively because the sticks came down on his back so and so many times. The purely materialistic cause of the bruises is undoubtedly the sticks that fell on his back, but the deeper cause is the brutal people. And so this disease, in addition to the materialistic cause of the bacilli, also has a spiritual one.
[ 20 ] Crying offers a very similar example. The spiritual cause is sadness, while the material cause is the secretion of the lacrimal glands. It is hard to believe that a fairly prominent contemporary scholar has managed to draw the same foolish conclusion as above, for he has put forward the downright outrageous proposition that a person does not weep because he is sad, but that a person is sad because he weeps!
[ 21 ] But back to the matter of consumption. In this case, if you want to explain the deeper spiritual cause of this disease, you have to look back to a momentous historical event: to the time when great masses of people stormed over Europe from the East and plunged Europe into fear and terror. These Asiatic hordes were peoples who had remained at the old Atlantean level and were therefore in decline, that is to say, peoples who had the character of decline, so to speak, the character of putrefaction, particularly strongly in their astral body. If these hordes had invaded Europe without arousing the alarm or fear of the Europeans, nothing would have happened. But the hordes caused fear and terror and consternation; entire nations in Europe experienced these states of fear and terror. And now the putrid astral substance of the Huns mingled with the astral bodies of the invaded peoples, which were riddled with fear and terror and horror. The degenerate astral bodies of the Asian tribes Jews their bad substances on these fear-ridden astral bodies of the Europeans, and these putrefactive substances caused the physical effect of the disease to occur later. This is the true and profound spiritual cause of the leprosy of the Middle Ages. Thus, something that has a spiritual cause manifests in the physical body at a later time. Only someone who knows this law of karma and is able to see through it is called upon to actively intervene in the course of history.
[ 22 ] Now I will tell you something that contributed to the foundation of the theosophical world view, and that is the following: Karma takes effect, precisely as with the individual human being, so also with nations, indeed with all of humanity. Anyone who has followed the course of European intellectual history knows that materialism has emerged over the past four hundred years or so. In science, this materialism is at its most innocent, because there all mistakes can be recognized and corrected at any time. It has a much more damaging effect in practical life, where everything is viewed from the perspective of material interests. But materialism would never have taken hold in practical life if people had not had a penchant for it. There would have been no Büchner and so on if people had not loved the material side of things beforehand. But materialism has its most damaging effect in the sphere of religious life, that is, in the church; and for centuries it has been steering towards materialism. Why? If you go back to the original times of early Christianity, you would never have heard that it was assumed that the seven-day work was actually carried out in seven days, as is indeed often assumed today, and that one can imagine the “seventh day” as something like someone sitting down on a chair after hard physical work and resting. The materialistic age knows nothing of the reality of this seven-day work. It is left to Theosophy to enlighten mankind again about the true meaning of this ancient document, the Genesis.
[ 23 ] And this materialistic view in religion has even eaten its way into the very depths of the lives of nations. And more and more this materialism will prevail in the religious sphere, and less and less will be understood on this side that it depends on the spirit and not on the physical material. They will readily admit that material thinking, feeling and willing has become more and more ingrained in the whole way of life of mankind, and this is ultimately reflected in the state of health of future generations.
[ 24 ] An age with a healthy view of life creates a strong inner center for people, making them self-contained personalities, so that their descendants become strong and vigorous. But an age that believes only in matter produces offspring in whom everything in the body also goes its own way, with nothing at the center, which is precisely where signs of neurasthenia and nervousness arise. This would get more and more out of hand if materialism remained the world view in the future. The spiritual seer can tell you exactly what would happen if materialism did not find its counterweight in a firm school of thought. Mental illnesses would become epidemic, and children would suffer from nervousness and tremors at birth. The further consequence of the materialistic mindset is a non-concentrated human race, as we already see today. At that time, about three decades ago, it was mainly this thought and foresight of how humanity would fare if a spiritual remedy were not applied against the effects of materialism that led to the inauguration of the Theosophical movement. One can argue a lot about a remedy, but all objections can be of little concern; the main thing is that it helps. And so it is with the healing effect of Theosophy. It wants to prevent what would inevitably happen if people continued in materialism.
[ 25 ] So you see, if you think about the law of karma in a deeper sense, you cannot look at the human being as an individual, but also as part of the whole community under the law of karma. The law of karma is not for those who only want to believe in a blind fate. Anyone who would understand the law of karma in this way would completely misunderstand it. And yet, time and again, people fall prey to this error. One person says, “I know I can't help it if this or that happens to me, it's just my karma, I have to live it out.” Another says: I see a needy person, but I must not help him, because it is his own fault that this has happened to him; it is his karma, and he must live through it! All this is a completely nonsensical interpretation of the concept of karma!
[ 26 ] To get a very easy-to-understand idea of the law of karma, you can compare it to the mercantile law of debit and credit. Just as the merchant is subject to this law in all his actions, so it is also in life with karma. Through everything you have done in the past life, good or evil, your items are balanced according to debit and credit. All good qualities are booked on the debit side, all bad ones on the credit side of your karma.
[ 27 ] But one should not say: I am not allowed to intervene there. That would be just as foolish as if a merchant, after closing the balance sheet, wanted to say: Now I am no longer allowed to do business, because otherwise I will change my balance sheet. Just as a merchant improves his balance sheet with every good deal, I improve my karma with every good deed. Just as a merchant is always free to add an item to one side of his account, debit, or to the other, credit, so is a person in the ledger of life. Man is always free in his actions, not in spite of the law of karma, but precisely by taking it into account. Precisely when we know that everything we do, and do so of our own free will, will have its effects in this account book of life, precisely for that reason we cannot agree with the one who does not help the miserable. It is just as if a merchant on the verge of bankruptcy asked us for a loan of twenty thousand marks. Would you not give him the twenty thousand marks if you knew that he was an able businessman and that this loan would enable him to work his way up again? It is the same with the wretched: you help him to repair his karma, so that his fate may change for the better, and at the same time you improve your own karma by this good deed. Thus the law of karma is indeed a law for active intervention in daily life. And the fact that one learns to understand the law of karma correctly from this side is particularly important when we consider it in relation to Christianity. Today, especially on the theological side, there are serious misunderstandings. The theologians of today say: We teach that through the death on the cross sins are forgiven, and you teach the law of karma; but that is in contradiction to it. — But this is only an apparent contradiction, because the law of karma is simply not understood. And conversely, there are Theosophists who say that they, for their part, cannot accept the atoning death; but they understand the law of karma just as little.
[ 28 ] Suppose you help a person and intervene in his destiny, changing it for the better. If you were now to help two people, that would not contradict the law of karma either. Now suppose you were an individuality called upon to expiate an evil in the world by a certain deed: would that contradict the law of karma? The Christ Being did no different on the largest scale — analogous to the example given above as a human being who helped not only hundreds or thousands, but the whole of humanity through his deed. Thus the redemptive death, the vicarious atoning death of Christ, is entirely consistent with the law of karma; indeed, it can only be understood in terms of this law of karma. Only those who do not understand it can find a contradiction here. It is no more a contradiction of the law of karma than it is a contradiction for me to help a single miserable person.
[ 29 ] With regard to the law of karma, you have to think about the future, because with every deed we write an item in our account book that will bear fruit. Only as long as one was stuck in the childhood diseases of theosophy could one find a contradiction between Christianity and the law of karma.
[ 30 ] From the insight into this law of karma, many things become clear to us. Firstly, we can precisely demonstrate the connection between the present development of the body and previous courses of life. For example, a life full of love prepares the way for a development in the next life that keeps a person young for a long time; on the other hand, premature aging is caused by a lot of antipathy in the previous life. Secondly, an especially selfish sense of acquisition creates dispositions for infectious diseases in the following life. Thirdly, it is particularly interesting that, for example, pain, and especially certain illnesses that one undergoes, cause one to appear in the next life with a beautiful body. Such insight makes us bear many an illness more easily.
[ 31 ] In view of and insight into such connections of fate, one of the greatest Bible researchers, Fabre d'Olivet, used a beautiful image that makes it clear to us how things in life are interlinked. He says: “Look at the pearl in the oyster: the animal in it had to suffer an illness, and out of this illness arises the beautiful pearl.” —- And so, in fact, illness in this life is often connected with what beautifies the next life.
[ 32 ] How this can be further developed in other directions, we shall see tomorrow.
Question of “sins against the spirit”.
[ 33 ] There are sins that are caused by the fact that man has a physical body, that man has an etheric body, that man has an astral body. Within the astral body, the spirit awakens; man becomes conscious. He can therefore sin. These sins can be taken away from the person. But if we sin in such a way that we sin within our consciousness, outside help becomes ineffective. And because the cosmic order is wise, it will not grant us help in this case. It is just as if, in the example just given, the merchant who is on the verge of ruin and asks us for a loan is unworthy of this assistance; for then it would be unwise for us to help him. So it is also in the collapse of the world; where it would be unwise to help us, we will not be helped.
[ 34 ] “Sin against the spirit” is a sin we commit in our astral body, while being aware of it.