When we say that at the present time in, its evolution, man must learn to understand the Impulse of Christ, one might think: What, then, is the position of someone who has never heard of the Impulse of Christ, perhaps even that have you never heard the name of Christ? Is it necessary to have some theoretical knowledge of the Impulse of Christ so that the power of Christ can flow into the soul? We will clarify our mind on these issues with the following thoughts concerning human life from birth to death. The human being comes to the world and lives through childhood in a state of semi-reverie. He has to gradually learn to feel himself as an "I, " and the life of his soul is constantly enriched by what is received through the "I." The moment death approaches, this soul life is at its richest and most mature moment. Hence the vital question arises: What happens to the life of our soul when the body disappears? It is a peculiarity of our physical life and the life of our soul that the richness of our experience and knowledge increases in importance the closer we are to death; but at the same time certain attributes are lost and replaced by others of a completely different character. In youth we gather knowledge, we pass through experiences, we hope that as a rule can only be fulfilled later. The older we are, the more we begin to love the wisdom revealed by life. The love for wisdom is not selfish, for this love increases as we approach death; It increases to the extent that the expectations of obtaining something from our wisdom decrease. Our love for this content of our soul continually increases. In this aspect, Spiritual Science can really become a source of temptation, to the degree that a man can be led to believe that his next life will depend on the acquisition of wisdom in this current life. The effect of Spiritual Science can be an extension of selfishness beyond the limits of this current life, and therein lies the danger. Thus, if it is incorrectly understood, Spiritual Science can act as a tempter, and this lies in its own nature.
Suppose, for example, that we work and that our work benefits. It may also happen that our work did not give us joy because we do it simply to pay debts, not for a real reward. We can imagine that in this way a man has already spent what he is now earning from his work. He would prefer not to have debts, but according to things, he is obliged to work to pay them off. Now let's apply this example to our actions in general. With everything we do from love we pay debts. From a hidden point of view, what is done from love does not bring rewards but amends benefits already spent. The only actions of which we have nothing in the future are those that we carry out from true and genuine love. This truth can be very disturbing and men are fortunate that they know nothing about it in their higher consciousness. But in their subconscious they all know it, and that's why acts of love are done so reluctantly, why there is so little love in the world. Men instinctively feel that they cannot expect anything from their Yo in the future from acts of love. An advanced stage of development must have been reached before the soul can experience joy in performing acts of love from which nothing obtains for itself. This kind of momentum is not strong in humanity. But the occult can be a source of powerful incentives to perform acts of love.
What do we learn from Spiritual Science? We learn facts concerning the evolution of the earth, we hear about the Spirit of the earth, the surface of the earth and its changing conditions, the development of the human body, and so on; We learn to understand the nature of the forces that work and weave in the evolutionary process. What does this mean? What does it mean when people don't want to know anything about Spiritual Science? It means they have no interest in what reality is. Well, if a man doesn't want to know anything about the nature of Old Saturn, Old Sun, Old Moon, then he can't know anything about Earth. The lack of interest in the world is selfishness in its grossest form. The interest in all existence is the obligatory duty of man. Therefore, we long for and love the sun with its creative power, its love for the welfare of the earth and the souls of men! This interest in evolution should be the spiritual seed of love for the world. A Spiritual Science without love would be a danger to humanity. But love should not be a matter of preaching; love must come, and indeed will come, to the world through the diffusion of knowledge of spiritual truths. The acts of love and Spiritual Science should be inseparably linked. The love obtained through the senses is the source of creative power, of what is coming into being. Without love born of the senses, nothing material would exist in the world; Without spiritual love, nothing spiritual can arise in evolution. When we practice love, we cultivate love, creative forces are poured into the world. Can the intellect be expected to offer reasons for this? Creative forces were poured into the world before we ourselves and our intellect came into existence. In truth, as selfish, we can deprive the future of creative forces; but we cannot eliminate the acts of love and the creative forces of the past. We owe our existence to acts of love performed in the past. The strength with which we have been endowed by these acts of love is the measure of our deep debt to the past, and any love we can at any time be able to produce is the payment of debts acquired by our existence. In the light of this knowledge we will be able to understand the acts of a man who has reached a state of superior development, for he has debts even greater than paying the past. He pays his debts through acts of love, and here lies his wisdom. The higher the stage of development reached by a man, the stronger the impulse of love becomes; Wisdom alone is not enough.
Beside love there are two other powers in the world. How do they compare with love? One is strength, power; The second is wisdom. With regard to strength or power we can talk about degrees: weaker, stronger, or absolute power, omnipotence. The same applies to wisdom, as there are stages on the path to omniscience. It will not be worth talking in the same way about degrees of love. What is universal love, love for all beings? In the case of love we cannot talk about improvement as we can talk about improving knowledge towards omniscience or power towards omnipotence, by virtue of which we obtain a greater perfection of our own being. The love for a few or for many beings has nothing to do with our own improvement. Love for everything that lives cannot be compared with omnipotence, the concept of magnitude, or improvement, cannot be applied correctly to love. Can the attribute of omnipotence be ascribed to the Divine Being who lives and weaves throughout the world? The controversies born of feeling must be silenced here: if God were omnipotent, he would be responsible for everything that happens and there would be no human freedom. If man can be free, then there certainly cannot be Divine omnipotence. Is the Divinity omniscient? As man's highest goal is similarity to God, our effort must be focused on the direction of omniscience. Is omniscience, then, the supreme treasure? If it is, a deep chasm will always open between man and God. At all times man would have to be aware of this abyss if God possessed the supreme treasure of omniscience for himself and concealed it from man. The omni-encompassing attribute of Divinity is not omnipotence, nor is it omniscience, but love, the attribute in which there is no possible improvement. God is supreme love, without macula, was born as if we were saying love, it is the substance and essence of love itself. God is pure love, not supreme wisdom, not supreme power. God has kept love for himself but has shared wisdom and power with Lucifer and Ahriman . He has shared wisdom with Lucifer and power with Ahriman, so that man can be free, so that under the influence of wisdom man can make progress.
True love is not able to diminish or amplify. Its nature is quite different from the nature of wisdom and power. Love does not raise expectations for the future; It is the payment of debts incurred in the past. And such was the Mystery of Golgotha in the evolution of the world. Did the Divinity, then, have any outstanding debt to humanity? Lucifer's influence brought humanity a certain element as a consequence of which something that man previously possessed was taken from him. This new element led to a decrease, a decrease counteracted by the Mystery of G lgota that made possible the payment of all debts. The impulse of the Gölgota was not given so that the sins we have committed in evolution are forgiven us, but so that what slipped stealthily into humanity due to Lucifer could be counteracted . Imagine that there is a man who knows nothing about the name of Jesus Christ, nothing that is communicated in the Gospels, but who understands the radical difference between the nature of wisdom and power and the nature of love. Such a man, even though he knows nothing about the Mystery of the Gigul, is a Christian in the truest sense of the word. A man who knows that love is there to pay debts and that does not bring benefits for the future, is a true Christian. To understand the nature of love, it means being a Christian! Theosophy alone, Spiritual Science alone, with its teachings of karma and reincarnation, can lead us to a great egoism unless the impulse of love is added, the Impulse of Christ ; Only in this way can we acquire the power to overcome the selfishness that Spiritual Science can generate. The balance is established with the understanding of the Impulse of Christ. Spiritual Science is given to the world today because it is necessary for humanity, but in it lies the greatest danger that if it is cultivated without the Impulse of Christ, without the impulse of love - men only increase In your selfishness, you will really engender an egoism that will last beyond death. From this one must not draw the conclusion that we should not cultivate Spiritual Science, but rather we must learn to realize that understanding the essential nature of love is an integral part of it.
Let's think again about the beginning of the evolution of earth and man. Man was endowed with certain spiritual powers, and then Lucifer approached him. At this point we can say: The Gods who promote the progress of evolution gave their omnipotence to Lucifer so that man could be free. But man sank into matter more deeply than he should; he fled from the Gods of progress, fell more deeply than he had wished. How, then, can the Gods of progress attract man to themselves again? To understand this we must think, not on earth, but in the Gods meeting in council. It is for the Gods that Christ performs the Act by which men are brought back to the Gods. Lucifer's act was represented in the suprasensible world ; the act of Christ, too, was represented in the suprasensible world, but also in the sensible one. This was an achievement beyond the power of any human being. Lucifer's act belonged to the suprasensible world. But Christ came down to earth to perform His Act here, and men are the spectators of this Act. The Mystery of Golgotha is an Act of the Gods, a matter of the Gods in which men are the spectators. The door of heaven opens and an Act of the Gods shines through it. This is the first and only Act on earth that is entirely suprasensible . It is not surprising, therefore, that those who do not believe in the supersensitive do not believe in the Act of Christ. The Act of Christ is an Act of the Gods, an Act that they themselves represent. Here lies the glory and unique importance of the Mystery of Golgotha and men are invited to be their witnesses. No historical evidence will be found. Men have seen the event externally only; but the Gospels were written from the suprasensible vision and are therefore easily unauthorized by those who have no feeling for the suprasensible reality. The Mystery of Golgotha as an accomplished fact is one of the most sublime of all the experiences of the spiritual world. Lucifer's act belongs to a time when man was still aware of his own participation in the supersensitive world; the Act of Christ was carried out in the material existence itself, it is an act both physical and spiritual. We can understand the act of Lucifer through wisdom; Understanding the Mystery of Golgotha is beyond the reach of wisdom alone. Even if all the wisdom in the world is ours, the Act of Christ may still be beyond our comprehension. Love is essential for any understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha. Only when love flows in wisdom and then again wisdom flows in love will it be possible to understand the nature and meaning of the Mystery of Golgotha, only when, while living towards death, does man display love for wisdom. Love united with wisdom, that is what we need when we pass through the Doors of Death, because without wisdom that is united to love we truly die. Philo-Sophia, philosophy, is the love of wisdom. Ancient wisdom was not philosophy because it was not born through love but through revelation. There is nothing like philosophy in the East, but wisdom of the East. Philosophy as a love of wisdom came into the world with Christ; there we have the entrance of wisdom emanating from the impulse of love that entered the world with the Impulse of Christ. The impulse of love must now be carried out in wisdom itself.
“Where two or three meet in my name, there I am among them” In a similar way the old Rosicrucian saying resonates in the love that is married to wisdom: In Christo Morimur, In Christ we die. Through Jehovah, man was predestined to a group soul existence; love was going to gradually penetrate him through blood relations; It is through Lucifer that he lives as a personality. Originally, therefore, men were in a state of union, after separativity as a consequence of the Luciferic principle that promotes selfishness, independence. Along with selfishness, evil entered the world . It had to be that way, because without evil man could not understand good. When a man obtains victory over himself, love may develop. Christ brought man immersed in the grip of growing selfishness the impulse for this victory over himself and thus the power to conquer evil. The Acts of Christ bring together again those human beings who were separated through selfishness. Christ's words concerning acts of love are true in the deepest sense of the word: “What you do to the last of my brothers, you do to me” The Divine Act of Love flowed back over the underworld; As time passes, despite the forces of physical decay and death, the evolution of humanity will be impregnated and imbued with a new spiritual life through this Act, an Act realized, not from selfishness but only from the spirit of love. Per Spiritum Sanctum Reviviscimus, by the Holy Spirit Revive.
Wisdom entered love, which immediately promotes and leads the world to Christ, and this love of wisdom also excludes lies. For the lie is the direct opposite of real events, and those who surrender lovingly to the facts are unable to lie. The lie is rooted in selfishness, always, without exception. When, through love, we have found the path to wisdom, we reach wisdom through the growing power of self-conquest, through altruistic love. Thus man becomes a free personality. Evil was the subsoil in which the light of love was able to shine; but it is love that allows us to understand the meaning and place of evil in the world. Darkness has allowed light to enter our knowledge. Only a man who is free in the real sense can become a true Christian. Rudolf Steiner Zurich, December 17, 1912 Translated by Editorial Team BIOSOPHIA |
Lecture given in Zurich, December 17, 1912, translated from a shorthand text not reviewed by its author.
The love for the acquired wisdom of life can be compared to the flowering of a plant when the necessary state of maturity has been reached. Love arises from something that is contained in ourselves. Men have often tried to sublimate the impulse of love for what is within themselves. In mysticism, for example, we find evidence of how they strive to transmute the impulse of love for oneself into love for wisdom, and let this love radiate with beauty. By sinking into the contemplation of the depths of the life of your own soul, you strive to be aware of the Divine Spark within. But the truth is that the wisdom that man acquires in life is only the means through which the seed of his next life develops. When a plant has completed its growth throughout the year, the seed remains. This is the case with the wisdom acquired from life. Man passes through the Door of Death and the spiritual core, being in its process of maturity, is the seed of the next life. A man who feels this can become a Physician and confuse what is only the seed of the next life with the Divine Spark, the Absolute. This is his interpretation because it is against the principles of a man to recognize that this spiritual seed is nothing but his own self. Meister Eckhart, John Tauler and others, spoke of it as the `` inner God, '' because they knew nothing about reincarnation. If we understand the meaning of the law of reincarnation, we recognize the importance of love in the world, both in a particular and general sense. When we talk about karma, we refer to what as a cause in one life has its effects in the next. In terms of cause and effect we cannot, however, truly speak of love, we cannot speak of an act of love and its eventual compensation. It is true, if there is an act, there will be compensation, but this has nothing to do with love. Acts of love do not seek compensation in the next life.
Our selfishness earns nothing from acts of love, but it is the best for the world. The occult says: Love is for the world what the sun is for external life. No soul could prosper if love disappeared from the world. Love is the "moral" sun of the world. Wouldn't it be absurd for a man who delights in the flowers that grow in a meadow to wish that the sun would disappear from the world? Translated in terms of moral life, this means: our deep concern must be that a drive for solid, healthy development finds its way into the affairs of humanity. Spread love on earth to the greatest extent possible, promote love on earth, that and only that is wisdom.
Let's think about the meaning and effect of love in the world as follows. Love is always the reminder of debts acquired with life in the past, and since we earn nothing for the future by paying these debts, we do not accumulate any benefit for ourselves from our acts of love. We have to leave our acts of love behind in the world; but they are then a spiritual factor in the flow of world events. It is not through our acts of love but through acts of different character that we perfect ourselves; although the world is richer for our acts of love. Love is the creative force of the world .
If we try to discover the origin of what is creative we come to love; love is the ground, the basis of everything that lives. It is through a different impulse in evolution that beings are driven to become wiser and more powerful. Progress is obtained through wisdom and strength ... The 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 a progressive evolution and then there is the Impulse of Christ who once poured into humanity through the Mystery of Golgotha. Love, therefore, did not reach the world in degrees; love flowed into humanity as a present of the Divine, in complete and perfect fullness. But man can receive the impulse in himself gradually. The Divine Impulse of love as we need it in earthly life is an impulse that came once and for all.
What really happened in the Mystery of the Gota. Jesus of Nazareth was born, lived as described in the Gospels, and when he was thirty years old, baptism took place on the Jordan River. From that moment the Christ lived for three years in the body of Jesus of Nazareth and realized the Mystery of the Gota. Many people believe that the Mystery of the Gotagota should be considered in an entirely human aspect, believing as they believe it was a terrestrial fact, an act belonging to the kingdom of the earth. But that is not so. Only from the vantage point of the upper worlds is it possible to see the Mystery of the Gotagota in its true light and how it happened on earth.
The ancient wisdom, acquired by the seer through revelation, comes through the expression in the sublime words of humanity's original prayer: Ex Deo Nascimur, from God we are born. That is ancient wisdom. Christ, who came from the kingdoms of the spirit has united wisdom with love and this love will overcome selfishness. Such is your goal. But it must be offered independently and freely from one being to another. Therefore the beginning of the era of love coincided with that of the era of selfishness. The cosmos has its source and origin in love; Selfishness was the natural and inevitable offshoot of love. Thus over time the Impulse of Christ, 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 the monumental words of Christ we feel love pouring into the hearts of men:
Thus the future of humanity will consist of something more than love. Spiritual perfection will be for the earthly man the most worthy goal of aspiration - (this is described at the beginning of my second Drama of Mysteries, The Probation of the Soul ) - but no one who understands what acts of love are truly will say that their own effort for perfection is selfish. Striving for perfection imparts strength to our being and our personality. But our valuation of the world must be seen as residing completely in acts of love, not in acts performed for the sake of self-improvement. Let's not be fooled in relation to this. When a man is striving to follow Christ through the love of wisdom, the wisdom he dedicates to the service of the world only has real effect if it is full of love.
