The Rudolf Steiner Archive

16. The Christ Thought and Its Relation to Egyptian and Buddhist Spiritual Life

[Ladies and gentlemen!]

[ 1 ] Before moving on to my next topic, I would like to pick up on a few remarks that have been made, particularly in light of the recent lecture and, more generally, the entire line of thought. I would like to address two aspects of recent spiritual development and, in doing so, show what our actual task here is. I would like to show that, once this task is grasped, the true consciousness that a person must develop over the course of their life emerges from the deepest understanding of the mystical and theosophical content of the most diverse—I say not merely religious systems, but—worldviews. That is precisely why I would like to take up two events in the lives of significant figures from the recent period of spiritual development who, at a certain moment in their lives, recognized that there is a higher, an ascent, that knowledge is not something that can be presented to us once and for all in a specific form, but that it is nothing other than setting out on a path that opens the perspective toward the eternal.

[ 2 ] It must have been a momentous occasion when the German philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte, in Jena, articulated his consciousness with great force and deeply compelling words at the very moment when what is called the true spiritual layer of consciousness was revealed. This is not understood by the historians of philosophy.

[ 3 ] I would like to quote here the words he spoke to his students at that time: “That which is called death cannot interrupt my work; for my work is to be completed, and it cannot be completed in any given time; therefore, no time is set for my existence—and I am eternal. By taking on that great task, I have seized eternity for myself. I boldly lift my head toward the looming mountain range and the raging waterfall and the gathering clouds swimming in a sea of fire, and say: ‘I am eternal, and I defy your power! Let it all come crashing down upon me; and you, Earth, and you, Heaven, mingle in the wild tumult! And all you elements—foam and rage and grind to dust in the wild struggle the last speck of solar dust of the body I call my own! My will alone, with its steadfast plan, shall hover boldly and coldly above the ruins of the universe; for I have seized my destiny, and it is more enduring than you; it is eternal, and I am eternal, just as it is.”

[ 4 ] This is the one fact intended to express the effect exerted on a person who is imbued with the conviction that, through knowledge, he is mastering infinity—a fact intended to express the influence this has on the personality.

[ 5 ] The other refers to Goethe, who arrived at the same inner insight in a different way; to him, too, it dawned in a flash that the phenomena of the world present us with a book from which the divine can be read. When he stood before the works of art in Italy, he wrote the following words to his friends: “I have a hunch that they proceeded according to the very same laws by which nature proceeds and which I am on the trail of. Only there is something else involved that I cannot quite put into words.” “These sublime works of art have been created by human beings according to true and natural laws, and are at the same time the highest works of nature. Everything arbitrary and imagined falls away; there is necessity, there is God.” Goethe’s awareness of God dawned upon him in Italy in 1787, as he stood before the works of art in which the mysteries of ancient secrets were enshrined.

[ 6 ] He also came to realize that only those who possess good will and faith can see the divine. Only they can recognize it. For the person who has faith, there comes a moment in life when, in a flash, the field of our existence is illuminated and he steps onto the path of the Eternal. This assurance, which flows from such facts, must guide us if we wish to penetrate into that which the religions of all ages—as well as other teachings at a more or less elementary level—have contributed, and which we must know if we truly wish to penetrate into the mystical content and the reality of Christianity. If one wishes to penetrate, one must not take anything away from Christianity.

[ 7 ] It is not my task to teach religion, nor is it my task to teach theology. My task is solely to explore mystical-theosophical teachings. I could not do this if I were not imbued with these teachings—just as it was with Goethe, who said, “Only now does the divine in these works of art dawn on me; only now do I understand the ancient mysteries”—if I were not so deeply convinced that, at a certain moment, something illuminates that makes it possible to recognize the eternal and the divine, I could not speak in this way.

[ 8 ] Nothing is taken away from the work of art when we see more than what we perceive with our eyes and ears. Nothing is taken away from us when we do not view the Gospels merely from a historical perspective. But if we want to grasp the deeper meaning—the divine—we must go far beyond the historical. If Goethe already sees the divine in works of art that exist in the outer sensory world, then there must also be a way of viewing things that perceives the divine on a higher plane, where it expresses itself as life within initiated individuals. It would stand before us like a miracle if we could not comprehend it within the entire necessary context—in the eternal course of the world through its various structures, through the material realm, and back again to the divine.

[ 9 ] I began with Johann Gottlieb Fichte’s concept of the awareness of the Eternal in the soul of a single human being, and I can show the deeper foundation of Christianity in no other way than by tracing this awareness back to a very ancient time—the time of the ancient Egyptian religious teachings— and then show you how these teachings of the ancient Egyptians shine through in the teachings of the Essenes, in order to prove that at the very moment the God-man appeared to humanity, there could indeed only have been people within such a brotherhood who were sufficiently prepared to understand what was about to take place.

[ 10 ] John the Baptist, who likely belonged to the Essene sect, was prepared. This can be seen from the words of his sermon: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Prepare the way for the Lord and make his paths straight.” When asked, “Are you the Christ?”, he replied: “I am not the Christ. He is the one who is to come after me, who was before me, and I am not worthy to untie the straps of his sandals. One is coming after me who is mightier than I am.

[ 11 ] If these words are meant to point to what appears in Christianity, then we must first understand the preconditions that were able to open John’s eyes. It is not a matter of tracing events in history, but of recognizing the divine ideals.

[ 12 ] In the course of religious development, death and the resurrection first come to meet us in the teachings of Paul, and they come to meet us before we become historically acquainted with the rest of the content of those teachings. We can only understand them if we go back to the teachings that existed for millennia within the Egyptian priesthood—those teachings which, in the Egyptian mystery traditions, represent nothing other than the overcoming of life through death, that is to say, in other words, the possibility of conceiving death and life as the greatest symbols of becoming—as the very symbols that reveal the deepest substance, the deepest being in the development of the world.

[ 13 ] Thanks to the Egyptian Book of the Dead, we now have the historical opportunity to gain insight into the teachings of the Egyptian mysteries. We know what ideas the Egyptian priests held regarding the transition from life to death. But we also know that the Egyptian priests sought to structure the entire human life of anyone who wished to embark on the path of knowledge in such a way that the person setting out on this path would be prepared for those stages of development that the Egyptian mystery teacher demonstrates when the student passes through the gate of death. Those trials that were required are described to us in ancient documents.

[ 14 ] From my study of the Egyptian teachings—insofar as they can be understood according to our Western knowledge—it has become clear to me that we are dealing with an expression of the deepest mysteries of human life, the very same mysteries that were also part of the Greek mystery teachings. Indeed, it has become clear to me that they are based on practical mystery exercises that were also practiced in the Egyptian priestly schools.

[ 15 ] What is meant by these trials will become clear to us from individual passages that I would like to read to you. You will see what kind of vow those people had to make, according to the beliefs of the Egyptian priests, in order to enter the higher worlds and ascend to the higher levels of existence. It will become clear to us what prerequisites they had to fulfill.

[ 16 ] But closely linked to all these Egyptian teachings is a concept from the Egyptian priestly worldview: that human beings themselves reach a point where they can be addressed by the gods using the name of the god who is closest to the god Ra. Human beings are addressed by the name Osiris. It is this “becoming Osiris” that is revealed to us in ancient Egypt. After a person has passed through the trials, after he has practically set out on the path and is ascending, he becomes like the god whom the Egyptians regard as the mediator between the highest god—Ra himself, the expression of the infinite Spirit—and the material, the earthly, the human.

[ 17 ] According to Egyptian legend, Osiris, the son of the supreme god, was doomed to perish. His body was doomed to perish. Its fragments are buried here and there, and he sits at the right hand of God. Human beings are called upon to undergo the development that transforms them into Osiris. Upon entering through the Gate of Death, he must make the confession that enables him to continue walking the path that leads him to Osiris.

[ 18 ] I would now like to share with you a few passages from this confession. You will see what magnificent, awe-inspiring insights these mystery teachings—thousands upon thousands of years old—lead to. [The person to be initiated] invokes the god to receive a share in the higher life. There will be words whose explanation would take too long. It all depends on the spirit: “Hail to you, Harmachis Khepra, who gives himself form! Radiant is your rise on the horizon, illuminating the twin earth with your rays. All the gods rejoice when they behold you, King of Heaven, with the serpent upon your head, the Crown of the South and the Crown of the North upon your brow, and they sit opposite you and row at the bow of the barque to destroy all your enemies for you.”] The barque is the chariot of the Sun God. [“The inhabitants of Tiau go out to meet your majesty to behold this radiant sign. I come to you; I dwell with you to see your disk every day. May I not be imprisoned, nor cast out. May my limbs be renewed”] and so on. [“Great Light, emerging from the Nun! You sustain human existence through the stream that flows from you.”]—We will also encounter this stream in Christian mysticism. - [“Protect Osiris N. in the divine underworld.”] Here, the name of the person in question was mentioned. - [“Let him enter Amenti, let him conquer evil; stand behind him as his protector against his sins; number him among the blessed and the exalted.”]

[ 19 ] [The title of the important 125th chapter is:] “Chapter on Entering the Hall of Double Justice and Separating Man from His Sins, So That He May Behold the Faces of the Gods.” Then the deceased is immediately introduced, speaking: “Praise be to the God, the Lord of the Twofold Justice! I have come to you, my Lord; I have been brought before the sight of your glory. I know you; I know the names of the forty-two gods who are with you in the Hall of Double Justice, who watch over the sinners and drink their blood on this Day of the Weighing of the Soul before the ‘Good Being’ (Osiris). Patron of the beloved twin, the apple of his eye, Lord of Double Justice—that is your name. Protect me! I come to you, and I bring you justice; I keep impurity at bay.”

[ 20 ] Now he is tested to see if he truly knows the names of the 42 gods. After undergoing the purification, he must describe how he came to know the gods.

[ 21 ] Now I will show you how he gives thanks to the gods after they have deemed him worthy. Invisible powers come forth to meet him and test his knowledge before he can enter the bosom of Osiris. He has acquired his mystical knowledge through contemplation beneath the fig tree. “What have you seen?”—Upon entering, he must say the names to the beings at the gate: “[Arm of Shu, ready to shield Osiris],” “[Children of the Serpent] is [your name].”

[ 22 ] [If the deceased has passed the test, Thoth says: “Step forward; you have passed the test. Bread is waiting for you in the Eye of Uzat. Osiris N truly lives forever.”]

[ 23 ] [Gap in the transcript] These are prayers that became intertwined with this turning point in human life and were imposed upon those who wished to walk this path. They also had to undergo the initiation ceremonies and prepare themselves through their lives to understand the true essence of these teachings.

[ 24 ] Having shown you the beliefs that have prevailed in Egypt for millennia, having shown you that death and life are merely two expressions of one and the same thing, having shown you that the god Osiris represents nothing other than the goal to which humanity itself must aspire, having shown you that everyone is called to become an Osiris, and that everyone must be led onto the path of Osiris, I wish to turn to a concept that originated in the Far East, one that will reveal an inner kinship, which will present itself as a kind of continuation, as something that leads all the way down into the earth itself.

[ 25 ] Within the Egyptian mystery teachings, we find the belief that the one who has truly become like Osiris—who has passed the test—has the ability to appear on Earth as a god himself, and that he has the ability to appear on Earth in such a way that, when he takes on human form, he is recognized by the initiates as a deity in disguise.

[ 26 ] Let us fast-forward in time and imagine that great Judgment of the Dead, which was held between Osiris and Ra, let us visualize it, and let us imagine that, within this Judgment of the Dead, deliberations are taking place as to whether a god should be sent down to bring humanity a new teaching, a new perspective, new concepts, new ideas—whether the measure should be taken to send down the god Osiris and have him become human.

[ 27 ] We encounter such a concept in Indian teachings, which first appeared around the sixth century B.C. Thus, a council is held among the gods to discuss whether an Enlightened One—a sublime divine being—should descend among humanity and be born among them. If we are to express this in the words of the Egyptian sages, we must say that an Osiris is to descend and take on human form; a savior—in other words, or as the Indian teachings of wisdom say—a true physician, one truly experienced in medicine, is to descend among humanity, and it is to be proclaimed that a Enlightened One is to be born to a queen named Maya, an Enlightened One is to be born. This king is to be given the name “Bhagavad,” the Glorious One. He will later be recognized as the Savior, the Buddha. It is said that he is to be born in the form of a white elephant. According to the ancient teachings of wisdom, this is the form in which God can incarnate. He will be a noble-minded king, a king of kings. He will leave the realm of light to enter this world out of love for all. He will be honored as the King of the Three Worlds.

[ 28 ] This prophecy was to be fulfilled in Gautama of the Siddhartha lineage. Brahma himself bestowed a drop of dew upon the Divine One as He entered the earthly realm. Kings and priests appear before the child bearing gifts. Heavenly hosts appear and declare: “The world is at peace, happiness is established throughout the universe, a master of wisdom is born.” — All of this is recounted in the Indian tale of what is said to have happened when the Buddha was born.

[ 29 ] And from another source it was said: This child will become the Buddha. At the age of twelve, he is depicted in the temple. Here the child smiles, remembering his divinity. It is said of him that a king has been born whose kingdom is not of this world. The twelve-year-old Buddha has gone missing. He is found by his family in the forest, where he sits among the sages of antiquity, transported to heavenly realms, and as he interprets the ancient sacred texts for these wise men, they marvel at his wisdom. The awareness of his calling awakens within him.

[ 30 ] I will read from this passage in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 2, verse 40 and the following verses, for a reason you will see for yourselves as you follow along. “But the child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon him.” And his parents went to Jerusalem every year for the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast. And when the days were over and they were returning home, the child Jesus remained in Jerusalem, and his parents did not know it. But they thought he was among the travelers, and they traveled a day’s journey before they began to look for him among their friends and acquaintances. And when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him. And it came to pass that after three days they found him sitting in the temple among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions; and all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.”

[ 31 ] The twenty-nine-year-old Buddha is moved by the sight of human misery, by the sight of suffering and illness, and by the sight of evil in the world to leave his wife and child in order to live a solitary life and discern the path he must follow; and we hear that on his journey through solitude, from among those who have already chosen solitude, he recruits disciples, and that he then proclaims a number of Beatitudes. We hear from the mouth of the thirty-year-old Buddha: Blessed are the solitary ones. Blessed are those who are free from all desire. Blessed are those who rise above thoughts of the self. Truly, this is the highest bliss.

[ 32 ] “Blessed is the mother, blessed is the father, blessed is the wife,” cries the crowd on the street. But he says: “Blessed are only those who are in Nirvana.” In contrast, the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 11, Verses 25–28: “And when they enter, they dwell there, and afterward it is worse for that person than before. And it came to pass, as he was speaking these things, that a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, ‘Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that nursed you.’ But he said, ‘Yes, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.’”

[ 33 ] We hear from the Buddha that he recruited five disciples. While bathing in the river, he is celebrated by the sons of the gods. He goes to sit under the fig tree. There he attains enlightenment, the mystical knowledge that is attained through contemplation.

[ 34 ] John 1:45–48: “Philip found Nathanael and said to him, ‘We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the Law and the Prophets—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.’ Nathanael said to him, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ Philip said to him, “Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said to him, “Behold, a true Israelite, in whom there is no deceit.” Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”

[ 35 ] The tempter “Mara” approaches the Buddha and urges him to worship him, promising him a kingdom. — “I desire no worldly kingdom,” the Buddha replies. Mara’s daughter appears. The Buddha goes to meet her with the sacred texts of the Indians. When Mara saw that the Buddha was confronting him with divine wisdom, he said, “My wisdom is gone.”

[ 36 ] Mark 1:12–14: “And immediately the Spirit drove him into the wilderness. And he was there in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by Satan, and he was with the wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him. But after John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee and preached the gospel of the kingdom of God.”

[ 37 ] Now he begins to recruit disciples. His first disciples are two brothers, one of whom is among the most important. — Compare John 1:45–48. — Five more disciples now join him on his teaching journeys. — In the first biography of the Buddha, we hear of twelve disciples and his favorite disciple, Ananda.

[ 38 ] We learn further from the Buddha’s biography that the Buddha used parables to make his discourses understandable, and that he expressed all his teachings in such parables. [...] The rain falls on both the righteous and the unrighteous. The Brahmin who has not attained enlightenment is like a blind man. He can only be a teacher to the blind.

[ 39 ] This includes the passage from Matthew 15:12–14: “Then his disciples came to him and said, ‘Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?’ But he answered and said, ‘Every plant that my heavenly Father did not plant will be uprooted. Let them go. They are blind guides. But if one blind person leads another, both will fall into a pit.’

[ 40 ] [Stenographer's note:] A few more words from the Buddha.

[ 41 ] Buddha’s favorite disciple refused to let a girl who was looked down upon approach Buddha. So, in the presence of his favorite disciple, Buddha replied: “I do not ask about your caste, nor about your family, my sister.”

[ 42 ] Let us compare this with John 4:1–7: “Now when the Lord realized that the Pharisees had heard how Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John—though Jesus himself did not baptize, but his disciples did—he left the region of Judea and went back to Galilee. But he had to travel through Samaria. He came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there. Since Jesus was tired from his journey, he sat down by the well; it was about the sixth hour. A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink.’”

[ 43 ] Furthermore, there is the passage where the Buddha sends out his disciples with words that strike us as a kind of Pentecost sermon within the Buddhist teachings. The Buddha himself says to his disciples: “Every shepherd should speak in his own language. Do not impart the teaching to those who despise or mock it, nor to those who are intoxicated by desire.”

[ 44 ] And see Matthew 7:6: “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces.”

[ 45 ] Now, in one of his final teachings, [the Buddha] says that he will be with his disciples as long as they spread his teachings. He will be invisibly present with them. The relevant passages are found in Matthew and John.

[ 46 ] He prophesies that someone will come after him in heavenly glory. And the Evil One and his kingdom will then be completely defeated.

[ 47 ] We hear that they were united after the Buddha had returned to the Divine, having foreseen his own death and withdrawn into solitude.

[ 48 ] Through his wisdom, his body became a radiant body.

[ 49 ] When he died, a meteor fell, the Earth was ablaze, and thunder shook the world. He had descended into Hell to comfort those gathered there. This is a kind of continuation of what the ancient Egyptians believed in their passage from life to death.

[ 50 ] I had to preface all of this before I can continue. I cannot even fully explain why I had to make all this clear, because time has already moved too far ahead. I had to show what connections existed in the wisdom teachings and religious concepts centuries before our era. I had to show what positive elements were present in them. This perspective will lead us to truly understand what took place at the turn of our era.

FAQ:

[ 51 ] [The book Buddha and Christ] by Rudolf Seydel is very good, but it’s historical. It brings together key points, but doesn’t know what to do with them. — There’s also a very good book by [Oldenberg].