The Rudolf Steiner Archive

22. Karma and Reincarnation

[ 1 ] Theosophy is not a dry theory. It is meant to be a direct, invigorating force in human life. It is meant to permeate our entire inner life and to give us security, hope, confidence, and joyful devotion to the world and to our lives.

[ 2 ] Through an understanding of karma and reincarnation, one gains not only knowledge, but also vitality and a sense of security in life.

[ 3 ] Our physical events depend on spiritual laws, and thus spiritual laws influence the physical world. How are causes and effects related? Karma is the law that shows us how to explain life. Definitions are worthless; they are merely descriptions of existence. One must examine a person’s present karma from birth to death. One must consider the different stages of a person’s life.

[ 4 ] Let’s consider a very striking example: A young man, at the age of eighteen, has been thrown off the usual course of his life and must now choose a profession. Until now, he has lived off his father’s money; now he will become self-reliant and will later feel gratitude toward fate ...

[ 5 ] Often, it is not love that is lacking, but that kind of understanding love that takes action. But you won't find that kind of love if you don't think clearly ...

[ 6 ] There are certain turning points in life that occur very subtly. In such cases, one must compare earlier stages of life with later ones.

[ 7 ] You all know that nothing brings greater joy than recalling in later life that, in your youth, you were able to revere something from the deepest recesses of your soul. Such feelings transform into insight in later life; they bear fruit and cultivate within us the capacity to love—to love fruitfully. Our passions keep us young. Those who have been able to revere something for a long time find it easier to stay young. If, for example, one has learned to be devout in one’s youth—if one has often found oneself in a position to lift one’s gaze upward—then this returns in a very specific way in old age. Devout people possess a very special gift; they radiate an atmosphere of happiness and blessing. A devout childhood—a blessed old age. No hand will bestow a blessing in old age that did not fold its hands in devotion during childhood. There is a very specific pattern: what we felt in our first seven years returns in the last seven; there is a turning point in the middle, and what comes later appears earlier. Rarely does one take this pattern into account today when reflecting on people’s lives. This can be observed when reading autobiographies. There is usually only a dry, matter-of-fact approach to reflecting on one’s life. The fact that the moods of earlier days bear fruit later in life is new to most people.

[ 8 ] There is a wonderful example of looking at a person in a new light—I’m referring to Richard Wagner’s autobiography.

[ 9 ] Even in everyday life, we can see how the causes of the present carry over into later life, how devotion in youth becomes a source of blessing in old age. Such strength, which we acquire for ourselves, can then be expressed in its full power in old age. People will see this more clearly later on; for now, there are only hints of it.

[ 10 ] We act through our bodies. Our body is the tool of the mind. Yet it has its limits, and in this life we must accept this tool as it is...

[ 11 ] This power shapes the tools for a future life, which are only hinted at in this one ...

[ 12 ] Modern science distinguishes between sensory and motor nerves. However, there are no motor nerves. The muscles are moved by the astral body. The so-called motor nerves exist solely so that we can perceive our own movements. What is at work in the astral body? The world tone, which does not reach consciousness as a tone, but as movement. It is perceived as an effect where it is the cause.

[ 13 ] The more we bring the idea of karma to life within ourselves, the more it depends on us. The idea of karma is implied as something natural in the natural world. Every being determines its environment through its nature. The edelweiss grows only in the habitat that suits it. The fact that we come together with this or that person is just as natural to us, for, like the edelweiss, we choose our own environment.

[ 14 ] Let’s suppose that in some past life we lived with a person and wronged him. Is that really all there is to it—that we wronged him? Perhaps we threw a stone at them, and if we hadn’t committed that wrongdoing, we would have become a different person. A longing arises within us to do something in the world that removes this obstacle, and this longing now also becomes the force that brings us back together with this person in a future life. Longing is one of the forces that truly shape the body. Such a force—or magical longing—drives us together with this person. In this way, entire chains of relationships are created wherever our longing has driven us to meet this person.

[ 15 ] We must realize that in life we pass by an infinite number of things that we do not even notice. People pass by an infinite number of things, and the degree of their interest in them varies greatly. Upon closer observation of life, we notice that we often dream about things we missed while awake. The soul is connected to the world in a completely different way than our consciousness is. In dreams, the soul experiences with particular clarity what it does not consciously experience here. And often, when we believe we have nothing to do with the people we encounter, that is merely an illusion ...

[ 16 ] There are people who find it particularly cruel to have to return to this world again and again. To such people, one must simply say that even if they do not wish to return today, it is not cruelty, but rather a comfort that makes life worth living. Theosophy cannot help someone who is utterly without hope at the moment. But ultimately, it is not a matter of our being able to provide our souls with moments of happiness...

[ 17 ] But once these have become impulses, there come moments when we withdraw. What matters is not that we comfort ourselves in a moment of pain, but that we are able to comfort ourselves at all. Karma elevates us in such a way that, no matter how difficult our life’s trials may be, we reach a solitary height. Theosophy does not remain a theory; it becomes life ...

[ 18 ] Before asking what universal love for humanity is, one might first ask what love actually is. This question—what true love is—is the very hardest to answer. People usually have no answer to this question ...

[ 19 ] It is a fact that it is more important to stoke the fire than merely to ask it for warmth. Schopenhauer says: “Preaching morality is easy; justifying it is difficult.” Providing the soul with fuel—that is the main thing; it then transforms into strength. This fuel is the power of thought with which we fill our soul.

[ 20 ] Love is the directly life-giving force that we instill into the soul. The Most Holy is the name of divine love; that is why even theosophists are reluctant to speak of it ...

[ 21 ] We do not return a second time until we have processed the experiences of our first life. For we do not merely progress as human beings; just as the physical world changes, so too does spiritual life. Each time, we carry forward a new set of lessons; we do not start from scratch every time. There have also been other eras in terms of how we live in this world. There were times when an extraordinary amount was done for the inner life of the soul. In the period from the third and fourth centuries A.D. until the Reformation, almost nothing was accomplished in terms of external culture. Nor did the sixteenth century bring any new ideas into the world. The vast majority of people lived completely devoted to the life of the outer world. This has an effect on the souls. What would happen to people’s souls if only the outer world were to influence them? Nothing at all from this life would be carried over into the life to come. For such souls, it is necessary to seek out the opposite pole ...

[ 22 ] What the individual achieves for himself, he achieves for all of humanity.