The Rudolf Steiner Archive

28. Theosophy, Buddhism, and Christianity

[ 1 ] Among the various intellectual movements that have emerged in recent times to address the highest questions and mysteries of existence is Theosophy. It has been about thirty years since this movement began to spread more and more widely in various countries. It originated in India, but it is also spreading to other countries and operates through what is known as the Theosophical Society. This Theosophical Society is divided into individual sections, and these sections can be found everywhere in the educated countries of the world. We have an Indian, an American, a British, a Dutch, a French, an Italian, a Scandinavian, a German section, and so on.

[ 2 ] From this we can see that Theosophy is by no means something that only a few individuals seek to understand today, but rather something that satisfies the longing and need of the broadest circles. Nevertheless, it must be said that it is often misunderstood; if one merely utters the word “theosophy,” many suspect sinister superstitions or fantastical flights of fancy; and whenever obscure movements emerge anywhere in the world, one can still observe today that the word “theosophy” is invariably mentioned in the same breath. Others believe that Theosophy is unscientific; no science could embrace it. From another perspective, Theosophy is even viewed with fear, as if it were a sect directed against Christianity; anyone who wishes to remain a good Christian, they say, must not become a Theosophist. And finally, it is described with the term we read time and time again in the newspapers: “New Buddhism”; and if anyone today were to attach the word “Buddhism” to Theosophy, it would cause great alarm among a large portion of the Western world.

[ 3 ] All these ideas are prejudices; Theosophy is neither a revival of blind superstition nor unscientific. Precisely those who thoroughly and logically understand modern science will not only be surprised when they take a look at theosophy, but will also realize, when drawing certain conclusions from the natural sciences, that these lead them to theosophy and become comprehensible only through it. And if it is said that Theosophy is a sect, we will see later—once we have discussed the nature of Theosophy in more detail—how far it is from having anything sectarian about it, and how it in no way conflicts with the deeply understood, comprehensible Christianity of today, and how little it has to do with any form of Buddhism, least of all with the Buddhism that originated 600 years before Christ through the Buddha. A curious misunderstanding has prevailed, one that was already clarified by H. P. Blavatsky in The Secret Doctrine. There are many books that have been written about theosophy. Among these books, which have contributed immensely to the spread of theosophical knowledge, is Sinnett’s Esoteric Buddhism. Madame Blavatsky stated that this book is neither esoteric nor Buddhism, for only that which is conveyed from person to person is esoteric; something esoteric can never be published in writing, for then it simply becomes exoteric. Only through the most intimate interaction between teacher and student is it possible to convey the most intimate thoughts; what flows from soul to soul—and what is called esoteric—can never be published. Thus, a book can never be “Esoteric Buddhism,” nor is the book Buddhism at all.

[ 4 ] Within the worldview known as Theosophy, there are certain teachings regarding the structure of the human being. Let us briefly review this teaching, which is common to all who stand on the ground of spiritual science—this teaching that has maintained for millennia that what we know of the human being solely through the external senses, through the material perception of the human being, is only a small part of the human being. This physical human body, which we perceive through our external senses, is something that human beings share with all beings on Earth—indeed, with everything that surrounds them—for even stones and crystals are composed of the same substances found in the human body.

[ 5 ] Now, spiritual science tells us: This physical body is only one part of the human being; the second part—which is actually much more real and substantial, because it creates and shapes the physical body—is called the etheric body or life body. Human beings share this with all living beings that surround them here on Earth, including plants. The physical body is nothing more than a mixture of physical substances that would be impossible and would immediately disintegrate if it were not held together by the etheric body or life body. The etheric body has the task of protecting the physical body from decay.

[ 6 ] In spiritual science, the third component of the human being is the astral body. This astral body is the vehicle for all desires, drives, and passions—in short, for all emotions, for everything that is reflected internally within the human being—and this astral body is what humans share only with animals, and no longer with plants.

[ 7 ] According to this, spiritual science distinguishes a fourth element of the human being, through which he is the crown of this creation, through which he differs from all the creatures surrounding him. This fourth element is called the “I” in the German language, which works from within the human being. There is only one name that can never be uttered from the outside when it designates the human being itself; that is why all the great religions have said: Here we have the ineffable name of God, a drop from the ocean of divinity that has flowed into every human being. Just as a single drop of the ocean is not the entire ocean, so too the human soul is not the entire divinity. Only because the Divinity begins to speak within the soul does the soul, upon uttering the “Zch,” begin to speak within itself—or, as the religions say: God speaks within man.

[ 8 ] Today, this spiritual science is made exoteric through public lectures and writings; it is no longer passed down esoterically, as it was in the past, from person to person. One of these spiritual schools, where teaching took place only from person to person, was the ancient Pythagorean School in Greece.

[ 9 ] Now let us see how the “I” functions within the human being. Let us consider a savage at the most primitive stage. Darwin once came across a tribe of savages on one of his journeys who were still cannibals. He wanted to make it clear to one of them that this was wrong; he had the interpreter tell him that it was bad to eat people. The savage replied, “How can I know whether it is good or bad before I have eaten the person?” We see from this example that the uneducated savage at this stage of existence knows nothing other than how to satisfy the basest instincts and desires of his astral body. But when he undergoes a higher development, when he comes to the realization: “You must not follow these base instincts and desires”—and when he recognizes ethical and moral laws and commandments—then his “I” works toward the refinement of his astral body. The primitive human being, at the lowest stage of existence, whose “I” has not yet worked on the astral body, possesses only the single astral body that the forces bestowed upon him at birth. The more highly developed human being has two parts in his astral body: the part that he has refined through his “I,” and the other part, which remains as the powers gave it to him. The part of the astral body that is a product of the “I” is called Manas or the spiritual self.

[ 10 ] Now, a person can also work on their etheric or life body. If we want to understand the difference, let’s think for a moment about what each of us knew as an eight-year-old child and what we have acquired since then. We have absorbed an immense number of ideas and concepts since then. Let us now compare this sum of ideas with the changes that have slowly taken place in our temperament, passions, habits, and character. If we compare the changes in a person’s astral body to the minute hand of a clock, then the progression and changes in the etheric body can be compared to the hour hand of the clock. The transformation of the etheric body proceeds so much more slowly. Irascibility and melancholy, which were present in the eight-year-old child, will in most cases continue to resurface even in later life.

[ 11 ] There are certain impulses in spiritual development that have a powerful effect on the etheric body and through which it can also be transformed. Art, for example, is one of these impulses. When a person learns to look through the mirror of matter at the divine that speaks to them through a work of art, they transform the etheric body and reshape a part of it so that it, too, becomes a product of the “I.” And the more and more perfect a person becomes, the greater a portion of the etheric body is refined and transformed by the “I”; and this refined portion of the etheric body is called buddhi, so that buddhi is what a person transforms from their life body into life spirit. The impulses most capable of transforming the etheric body are the religious impulses, whether they are given by Hermes, Zarathustra, Buddha, Moses, or any other of humanity’s great Initiates. These are the great, powerful impulses capable of transforming the life body into life spirit.

[ 12 ] Even more powerful are the impulses that act upon the student undergoing spiritual training in the secret schools. It becomes perfectly clear to the one undergoing this spiritual training that there is such a thing as what is called a spiritual core. When a person is made a seer through the secret training, he works ever more deeply into his etheric body; he develops an ever-greater core of wisdom that lives within him and is capable of conquering death. When the student then received this buddhi, when he increasingly transformed the life body into the life spirit, he was called an initiate, and the greatest initiates are the founders of religions. They cast this great wisdom into images, in a way that the people they taught could absorb this primordial wisdom. Thus Hermes gave the Egyptian people an image of primordial wisdom, and the Rishis taught in a way the ancient Indian people could understand. This primordial wisdom was made understandable to the Persian people by Zarathustra, just as it was Pythagoras who did so for the Greeks. So it was with the greatest founder of a religion, who was no ordinary initiate but bore within himself a divine spirit—Christ Jesus, to whom it was reserved to found the greatest and purest religion, which, when understood by all, will be the universal religion of humanity. Thus we also understand a saying of Christ Jesus: “If you do not forsake father and mother” (Luke 14:26; Matthew 19:29) and so on. This is said not to destroy the sacred bonds of the family, but to establish a brotherhood of all humanity, where people are to live together as brothers and sisters, even though they are not biological brothers and sisters and are not bound by family ties. Thus, Christ cast the primordial wisdom of the world into this form.

[ 13 ] When we consider Buddhism, it is the religion tailored to the Indian people, and the one who brought this religion to the Indian people is called the Buddha, because he said: “I give you the budhi, which within me transforms the physical body into the spirit of life.” However, what Sinnett described in his book is not what the Buddha taught, but rather those teachings that appear in the secret schools as the budhi for the transformation of the life body into life spirit. Sinnett’s error, therefore, is nothing more than a spelling mistake; he mistakenly writes “Budhi” with two “d”s, but this has nothing to do with Buddha or Buddhism—rather, it concerns the transformation of the life body into life spirit. In the secret school, the student also learns to work into his physical body. The human physical body is the densest, and it is therefore the most difficult to work into. Because it is the lowest of the four members of the human being, the greatest power is required to work into it. What does a person know about their physical body—about the process of digestion, the circulation of blood, the workings of the muscles? This does not refer to what an anatomist can observe in the physical body, but rather to the ability to look within and see how the nerve currents flow, how respiration and blood circulation take place—so that light may shine within the physical body. When a person works consciously on the transformation of the physical body—that is to say, when he has developed the Atman—he gains control over the physical body through his ego. Now there is a common teaching that underlies all religious creeds. Everything in the physical, etheric, and astral bodies that a person has not yet processed through the “I” falls away from the person and remains behind as a corpse. But that which the “I” has worked into these outer sheaths—which we call the physical, etheric, and astral bodies—of its own accord becomes the eternal core of the human being. And now spiritual science explains that there is a core of being formed by the “I” that is eternal, that must often reincarnate, and will become ever more perfect as the human being follows his normal course, until he has reached the point where he has transformed and deified the lower bodies, so that he may be received once more into the bosom of the Deity, from whence the soul came in time immemorial. Human beings consist of two parts: the eternal core of being and the transitory part of the human being. It is clear that they cannot reach the stage of perfection immediately, but must pass through many, many lives. What we have sown in past lives, we will now reap; human beings are born again and again until they stand at the pinnacle of humanity. We can understand much if we look not merely at one, but at many earthly lives; this makes our hardships and misery, happiness and misfortune, understandable, for all of this was prepared in past lives. These are not twists of fate, but the consequences of our own actions. Thus, we must not only understand karma in relation to the past, but also look toward the future. Then karma becomes a great source of comfort to us—something that motivates us to work in life and gives us strength and solace for the future. In this way, karma becomes a practical perspective on life, the moral foundation for our existence. This is how the religions have spoken to humanity—about the eternal core of being and its reincarnation.

[ 14 ] Now, it was this Gautama Buddha who presented the doctrine of reincarnation and karma—as we have now developed it—in its purest form. But if this doctrine had prevailed from the very beginning, humanity would never have reached the level of culture it has today. Let us compare the time when this teaching was imparted to humanity with the present day. The laborer building the Egyptian pyramids told himself that this arduous life was just one among many; he looked up to eternal divinity but thereby lost his connection to the physical realm. In that case, people look to the spirit but lose their connection to the earthly realm, and what surrounds us today as culture would never have been possible. Humanity had to learn to love this one life between birth and death. Only because Christ Jesus appeared as such a powerful personality was it possible for humanity to develop its personality in such a way that it brought them into harmony with this world. Without Christianity, this culture would never have come into being. The doctrine of reincarnation was also taught by Christ Jesus, but esoterically, through parables. He told only his closest disciples: “For a time, the doctrine of karma and reincarnation must remain secret, but the time will come when it must be proclaimed again to all people.” That time has come today. And Theosophy seeks to bring this wisdom to people today; therefore, Theosophy is not a sect, but rather the instrument, the servant, that leads to an understanding of the highest spiritual existence; therefore, it is not unscientific, and precisely because Theosophy reveals the common essence at the heart of Buddhism, Christianity, and all other great religions, it is by no means a religious community, but rather the instrument for understanding every religion.