The Rudolf Steiner Archive

73. The Salvation of Humanity in the Theosophical Sense

[ 1 ] The well-known Theosophical speaker Dr. Rudolf Steiner of Berlin gave a lecture at the Bayerischer Hof before a select audience on “The Redemption of Humanity from a Theosophical Perspective,” in which the problem of redemption—which Dr. Johannes Müller had also recently addressed in a series of lectures—was further explored. After a lengthy introduction, the speaker pointed out that, in fact, every religion tends to take the need for salvation into account. But while some religions are content with a paradise in the form of a blissful, earthly, sensory existence for the saved, Buddhism and Christianity point out to human beings that they find themselves in an existence in the sensory world that is not entirely suited to them and that they must rise to a higher existence, to which these religions show the way. With regard to the Buddhist doctrine of salvation, Redner believes—although, as he emphasizes, the Theosophical Society is by no means a neo-Buddhist organization, nor does it seek to promote Buddhism alone, but rather to explore the core of truth in all religions—that he must clear up a few misunderstandings. In his view, the true Buddhist does not claim that all life is suffering and that salvation is to be found in Nirvana as annihilation. Rather, he regards only the passive influence of the things of the sensory world—and dependence on them—as suffering, which he seeks to overcome through active effort and the act of transcendence; this effort enables him to develop his life with ever-greater freedom, transforming the things of the world into helpful entities whose value he himself determines. For him, Nirvana—as a state of liberation—is thus the highest affirmation of life and activity following the removal of all inhibitions. We also find this conception of salvation in Christianity, whose salvation overcomes the world and death and offers eternal life. In further discussion of the question of salvation, Redner sought to explain how life activity is first and foremost connected to individuation, which can only take place at the expense of the environment. Life activity, upon which all progress is based, is always associated with pleasure, but also necessarily with its opposite—pain, both one’s own and that of others—and with obstacles that can often make existence seem futile. Just as we perfect ourselves as individual lives through the universal life and through the sacrifice of others, so too must we create from within ourselves the antithesis to selfishness—selflessness—and sacrifice ourselves for the Universal Life, through active service and the self-perfection of our higher soul powers, in order to attain true redemption and the highest, uninhibited life: the highest stages of the broadest life activity. It is not through selfish individual salvation, but only through sacrifice for the community—by participating in the work of salvation—that a person is truly saved. – The lecture, which was received with approval, was followed by a lengthy discussion in which the speaker sought, among other things, to refute recent attacks made against the Theosophical Society.