The Rudolf Steiner Archive

20. On the Sattva State

[ 1 ] Only on a geometric and mathematical foundation can humanity be elevated to the Sattva state. That is why Plato also insisted that every student must have a foundation in mathematics. For it is only in mathematics that the Sattva state is attained. All other subjects are explored with a certain degree of self-interest.

[ 2 ] Once people have brought themselves to do this, they will view everything else just as objectively as we view mathematical truths today. Given the way Western science approaches mathematics—the way it is studied—it cannot arrive at deeper truths. It is only in mathematics that our science has come so far as to attain objective truths. That is why it represents a kind of ideal state.

[ 3 ] Do you remember the introduction I once gave when I spoke about the immortality of the soul? I said then that in the Mysteries, the students were first prepared, and that they wanted neither one thing nor the other. Today, one might hear people say: “I don’t want to be reincarnated!” or “I want to be reincarnated!” Such people were not allowed to be admitted to the Mysteries because they were deemed incapable of grasping the higher truths objectively. People first had to unlearn the habit of wishing. The same is true of the Kamaloka. We must not have any wishes, for this makes objective observation impossible.

[ 4 ] And now a few words on how Buddhism should be understood in terms of its place in the world. When Buddhism was founded by the Buddha, it was not a new religion, nor was it intended to be one. The Buddha wanted the religion—which at that time consisted solely of priestly wisdom—to be made accessible to all people; he sought to make it popular. He wanted even those who could not be initiated to avoid falling into mere idol worship, but rather to be introduced to certain truths of salvation, so that by participating in these truths they would not be as lost as they would be if it were merely a matter of idol worship.

[ 5 ] At that time, the Brahmins possessed profound wisdom that would have been impossible to convey to the people. No one would have understood it. Gradually, the people came to regard the images as realities, just as in Catholicism. We can observe this when we visit Tyrol, where images of saints are worshipped as a kind of fetish. The Buddhist said to himself: There is too great a gap between the people’s worship of images and the lofty wisdom of the Brahmins. Let us consider just the two highest principles of Brahminic wisdom.

[ 6 ] One of them is: “That is you!” This means: There is only one entity, and my body and this slate are exactly to the same degree outside of me. This slate is just as foreign to me as my own body. The entire sensory world is a whole. No part of it is any closer to us than another. The piece of flesh I carry around is no closer to me than any other object.

[ 7 ] The second sentence reads: “I am Brahman!” I am the true divine being, a spark of the Divine.

[ 8 ] I must elevate myself in such a way that I recognize everything as “You” and the divine Brahman as “I.” These are the two guiding principles. Everything else is an explanation of them. Brahman is enclosed within a shell; it becomes my Brahma or Atma—these are elaborations on the two principles.

[ 9 ] All the theosophical teachings we know were essentially derived from the lower teachings. Karma and reincarnation were Brahmanic teachings. Given that this Brahmanic teaching dates back many millennia before the birth of Christ, it is not surprising that it has something distinctive about it. And what is it that makes the Brahmanic teaching distinctive? Imagine that you study Theosophy to a certain extent. When you then delve into the Brahmanic teaching, you will find that everything Theosophy contains can already be found in the Brahmanic teaching. What Jakob Böhme said is already a step higher. But if you return to the Brahmanic teachings, you will find: that, too, was already there. You go further, you attain the status of a chela, return to the Brahmanic teachings, and find that this, too, is already contained within them. We ultimately come to the realization that we cannot even begin to fathom the depth of Brahmanic wisdom. And if even deeper wisdom were to dawn upon us, it is likely that we would find it there as well.

[ 10 ] But then the Buddha said to himself: The Brahmanic teachings must be made accessible to as many people as possible. However, wisdom can only be made accessible to individuals—through initiation. It is not possible to attain wisdom through research. Rather, we must shape it through life itself. And now imagine if there were a method to tell a person how to live—that would serve as a substitute for initiating them. I can accept anyone as a student and initiate them step by step. In this way, I influence the intellect, the intuition, and, little by little, the higher realms of spiritual life. But I can also do it differently. I can organize his life in such a way that it becomes better and better. Then he will move toward the treasure of wisdom all on his own. He will meet wisdom halfway. Just as the Gotthard Tunnel was built by drilling from two sides until they met, so too does the Buddha intend it. That is why he offers no insights into the treasures of wisdom. He does not want to speak about the treasure of wisdom; he wants to teach the people. The people are to be instructed on the best way to live. We need not concern ourselves with the treasure of wisdom at all. Buddha differs only in his method. There is not a single sentence of the ancient teaching that he has not acknowledged. But he says: It is initially useless to burden the people with teachings. We must guide the people so that they learn to understand through life itself. He does not say, “Teach the phrase ‘You are Brahman,’” but rather, “Do not cling to matter!” If one experiences the phrase “Do not cling to matter,” then the meaning of the phrase “I am Brahman” will easily become clear.

[ 11 ] We can also see this from the following: The Buddha once had a conversation in which he said something to the effect of: “Here is a cart. The cart consists of the wheels, the seat, the drawbar, and so on. The wheels are not the cart, the seat is not the cart, the drawbar is not the cart. No single part is the cart, and yet the cart consists of these individual parts. Just as the cart is not found in any single part, so too the soul is not found in any single part of a human being. Not your physical body, not the garment of your physical body, not your desires, not your imagination—these are not your soul!” So when the Buddha says what the soul is not, he intended to lead people to experience what the soul is. That is why he did not say, “I am Brahma,” but rather, “Death, birth, desire, and so on are passivity.”

[ 12 ] Whoever understands the statement, “I am Brahman,” knows all of this. So the Buddha says, “Free yourselves as much as possible from everything that is subject to birth, death, old age, and sickness!” The old Brahmin told people what is eternal. That is why he does not say: “Seek your higher self!” Instead, he says: “Free yourselves from the lower self; cast off the fetters of the lower self!” And there are ten of them. Just as the Brahmin said, “I am Brahma,” so the Buddha says: “I will list the ten fetters for you, and then the higher self will emerge from within you.”

[ 13 ] The first bondage is the delusion caused by the lower self-consciousness. The Buddha does not say, “Recognize the higher self,” but rather, “The lower self is an illusion, a composite of transient principles”:

[ 14 ] 1. Physicality, 2. Perception, 3. Feeling, 4. Desire, 5. Consciousness.

[ 15 ] These five things make up the lower self. The higher self is contained within it, but the Buddha does not speak of the higher self. He only says that these five things are illusions; you must realize this! And he is convinced that when he tells people, “This is the scabbard of the sword,” they will also become aware of what lies within it.

[ 16 ] The second shackle is the belief that there is no moral world order—that is, disbelief in a moral world order. The Buddha did not say, “Believe in divine beings!” He said to himself, “That is of no benefit to human beings. They should believe in a moral world order and free themselves from the belief that anything that befalls us could be unjust. It only seems unjust to us because we cannot see through it. For example, a brick might fall on my head. If I did not deserve this in a past life, I will experience compensation in a future life.”

[ 17 ] The third bond is the belief that our rites and ceremonies can have meaning, that they can be something other than parables. Whoever takes the symbol for reality suffers from the third bond of existence. Symbolism is beautiful and sublime—but one must not take it for reality.

[ 18 ] The fourth bond is the belief in sensuality—the opinion that the sensual is real. Just imagine this book! The moment the temperature rises by a hundred degrees, neither we nor this book will exist anymore. The moment our temperature ceases to exist, the entire physical world will no longer be possible.

[ 19 ] The fifth bond is that which binds us to our own sensuality, which instills in us the belief that we are allowed to be separate beings, that we may treat other beings with antipathy and hate them. Antipathy toward other beings is this bond. By harboring antipathy toward other beings, we succumb to the illusion of separation. That is the fifth bond.

[ 20 ] The sixth bondage is love for the physical personality.

[ 21 ] The seventh fettler is the longing for the preservation of personal existence. This is particularly pronounced in Christianity—the longing for the preservation of personal existence within the earthly personality. According to the Buddha, this is the seventh fettler. [...]

[ 22 ] The eighth bond is pride—the struggle to elevate one's personal existence.

[ 23 ] The ninth fetter is the belief that one can achieve something in the world without karma, through self-righteousness. The Buddha refers to karma in everything. He says: “No one can achieve anything without karma.”

[ 24 ] The tenth fetter is something unique to Buddhism, and by emphasizing the tenth fetter, Buddhism demonstrates that it is one of the most sublime religions ever taught. The Buddha, in fact, identifies religious ignorance as the tenth fetter.

[ 25 ] Christianity has thoroughly misunderstood the first sentence of the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” “Blessed are the ignorant,” the Christian translates. Buddha, however, says: “There are many kinds of filth. But the greatest impurity that can cling to one is ignorance!” In Christianity, those who seek knowledge are regarded as possessed by demons. The Protestant is content to be united with God through faith. The wise, however, are united with God through wisdom.

[ 26 ] This, then, is what the Buddha taught. The Brahmanic religion remains entirely intact; it is the highest. But for now, we cannot bring it to the people. Therefore, we teach the people how to free themselves from the bonds of impermanent existence. The Brahmins taught: “How can one recognize the eternal?” The Buddha wanted to teach: “How can one overcome the transitory?” The Buddha merely changed the method. We do not wish to teach the eternal; rather, we wish to teach how one should live in order to overcome the transitory.

[ 27 ] The second truth is: Recognize that the cause of passivity lies in the transitory! The third truth is: Eliminate attachment to the transitory! Through this, the eternal will emerge of its own accord.

[ 28 ] What I have said today refers to the Four Noble Truths and to the teaching on the Ten Fetterings, and to the fact that the cause of all suffering lies solely in ignorance. All of this together is called “Bringing About a Divine Future.” Knowledge and insight are called “Bringing About a Divine Future.” The Buddhist lives for the sake of what humanity will become. And life and its application in this sense—that is what he calls “Dharma.”

[ 29 ] And now he is convinced of the following:

[ 30 ] First: That the Buddha is not a god, but rather that he is enlightened, that Budhi—insight—has dawned within him, for even the Buddha is impermanent. To regard the Buddha as something eternal would be superstition in the Buddhist sense. The Buddhist therefore says: “I believe in the Buddha’s enlightenment!”

[ 31 ] The second is: “I believe in Dharma.”

[ 32 ] And the third is: “I believe in the brotherhood,” in “Sangha,” in the brotherhood of those who have reached the point where they have overcome separateness—that is to say: I believe in the possibility that they have overcome separateness.

[ 33 ] I believe in: first, a cause—karma; second, life—dharma; third, what has been attained—the Sangha; that is: “I believe in the communion of saints.”