The Rudolf Steiner Archive

10. The Lord's Prayer

[ 1 ] In all the prayer-like formulas, sayings of wisdom, and the like that have been handed down to us from the great religions, there lies much of the profound mystery of existence. We need only be aware that all the various religions practiced prayer, though they differed in a certain way: some practiced prayer more in the form of so-called meditation, while Christianity and some other religions, on the other hand, practiced true, genuine prayer as it is known by that name today. Meditation is found primarily in the Eastern religions. Meditation is an immersion in a spiritual content, such that the person immersing themselves finds, within that spiritual content, a union with the spiritual-divine source of the world. So understand this correctly: There are religions that provide their followers with meditative formulas—for example, certain prayer-like formulas into which one immerses oneself and, in that immersion, feels how the stream of divine-spiritual life flows through the soul, and how, in these moments, the person is absorbed into the divine source of the spiritual. These formulas, however, are more a matter of intellectual content. Essentially, Christian prayer is nothing different, except that its content is more based on sensation and feeling. The Christian immerses himself more deeply in the divine essence that flows through the world through the path of sensation and feeling.

[ 2 ] However, one must not assume that Christian prayer has always been understood in this sense, or that it can even be understood in this way, as is often the case today. There is a primordial Christian prayer in which Jesus Christ himself, as clearly as is humanly possible, indicated the attitude necessary for a Christian in prayer. And this primordial prayer is simply this: “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” Let us consider these last words for a moment. We are dealing first and foremost with a genuine request: that the cup be taken away; but at the same time, with a complete surrender to the will of the Divine-Spiritual: “Yet not my will, but yours be done.” This attitude—allowing the will of the Divine-Spiritual to work through one during prayer, desiring nothing for oneself but letting the Divinity will within oneself—must permeate the prayer as an undercurrent, a fundamental tone, if it is to be Christian.

[ 3 ] It is clear how impossible it is to have a selfish prayer in this context. It is, after all, impossible for other reasons as well to send a selfish prayer to God, for one person might ask for rain, while a neighbor might ask for sunshine; both would be praying out of their own selfishness—not to mention the case where two armies stand facing each other, ready for battle, and each prays to be granted victory, which is, of course, entirely out of the question. But if one has the underlying tone, the fundamental tone of “not my will, but Yours be done,” then one can ask for anything; then it is a merging into the divine-spiritual Will. I would like to ask for this, but I leave it up to the divine-spiritual Being to decide whether it shall be granted to me or not.

[ 4 ] This is the fundamental spirit of Christian prayer, and it was from this perspective that the most comprehensive and universal prayer in the Christian tradition emerged: the Lord’s Prayer, which, according to Christian tradition, was taught by Jesus Christ himself. This prayer is indeed one of the most profound prayers in the world. Today, however, we can no longer fully grasp the depth of the Lord’s Prayer as it was originally taught in the language in which it was first spoken. Yet its meaning is so profound that it could not possibly lose any of its significance in any language.

[ 5 ] If you examine the prayers of other peoples, you will find—wherever religions are in their prime, having reached their zenith—prayers that reflect the character described to you. However, once the various religions had fallen into decline, such prayers took on a less authentic character: they became magic formulas, means of idolatry, and at the time when Jesus Christ taught His own to pray, many, many such magic formulas—which, after all, had deep significance wherever they originated—were in use. Such incantations always referred to what one desired outwardly—that is, specifically to a selfish petition filled with personal wishes. The Lord taught that Christians should not pray in this way. That is a prayer that relates to external things. A Christian should pray in such a way that his prayer takes place in the quiet inner chamber—and that is the innermost part of the human soul, the part where a person can connect with the divine-spiritual being. We must, of course, be clear that there is something living within every human being that we can describe as a drop from the ocean of the Divine—that there is something in every human being that is like God. However, it would be entirely wrong to think that human beings themselves are therefore equal to God. When one says, “There is something within human beings that is equal to God,” this does not mean that human beings themselves are equal to God; for a drop from the ocean is, in terms of its substance, equal to the ocean, yet the drop is not the ocean. Thus, the human soul is a drop from the ocean of divinity, but it is not God; and just as the drop can unite with its own substance when you pour it into the ocean, so the soul, as a drop of divinity, unites spiritually with its God in prayer or meditation. This uniting of the soul with its God is called Christ Jesus—praying in the quiet inner chamber.

[ 6 ] Now that we have first characterized the spirit of Christian prayer and the demands this prayer places on the Christian, human spirit, we will be able to turn our attention to the content of the Lord’s Prayer itself. You have been told that the Lord’s Prayer is the most comprehensive prayer. Therefore, you will agree with me that, in order to understand the Lord’s Prayer, we must first adopt a truly comprehensive view of the world. A considerable detour will be necessary to grasp the Lord’s Prayer. We must consider the nature of the human being from a certain perspective. You know that we do this in the same way that spiritual research over the millennia has always approached it. Let us briefly bring this to mind once more. |

[ 7 ] When a human being stands before us, what we see first is the physical body, which, in its materials and forces, shares commonalities with all minerals and seemingly lifeless products of nature. However, this physical body of the human being is not, as the materialistic view would have it, merely present in the space before us; rather, it is only the very lowest of the members of the human being. As the next level, we distinguish the human etheric body, or life body, which the human being shares with plants and animals; for every plant, every animal, and every human being must mobilize chemical and physical substances so that they come to life—they cannot give themselves life on their own. The third member is the astral body, the bearer of pleasure and pain, instincts, desires, and passions, as well as the ordinary perceptions of daily life. Human beings could not possess any of these things if they did not have this astral body. This is the only member they share with animals. Animals, too, experience pleasure and pain, instincts, desires, and passions, and thus also possess this body. Human beings, therefore, share the physical body with seemingly lifeless minerals; the etheric or life body with everything that grows and reproduces—with the entire plant kingdom; and the astral body with the animal realm. In addition, humans possess something that elevates them above these three kingdoms of nature on Earth, making them the crown of earthly creation. This is the fourth aspect of their being.

[ 8 ] We arrive at this conclusion when we give it a little thought. There is one name that stands apart from all the others: You cannot say “I” to anyone else. To everyone else, I am a “you,” and everyone else is a “you” to me. “I” can only resound within the soul itself as the name for what it signifies; it can never reach you from the outside when it refers to you. The deeper religions have always sensed this throughout the ages, and therefore they said: When the soul begins to give itself this self-designation within, then God begins to speak within the human being—the God who speaks through the soul. The name “I” cannot resound from the outside; it must resound within the soul itself. This is the fourth element of the human being.

[ 9 ] Hebrew esoteric science has called this “I” the unpronounceable name of God. “Yahweh” means nothing other than “I am.” Whatever interpretations external scholarship may offer, in truth it has meant “I am”—the fourth member of the human being. These are the four members of which the human being is initially composed. We also call them the four members of what is known as the lower nature of the human being.

[ 10 ] Now, in order to understand the full nature of the human being, you must go back a little further in human evolution. This brings us back to the diverse peoples who preceded us: the ancient Germanic and Central European civilizations, the Greek-Latin and Chaldean peoples, the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, and Hebrews, the Persian peoples, all the way down to the people from whom our present culture originated: the Indian people. This people, in turn, also had ancestors who lived entirely elsewhere—namely, on that continent that is now the seabed between Europe and America: Atlantis. It was swept away by mighty floods; the land subsided due to a colossal natural event that has been preserved in the myths and legends of all peoples as the Great Flood.

[ 11 ] But even this is not yet the oldest cultivated land on Earth. We go back to a time long ago to the region where humankind in its present form first emerged—a land that lay roughly between what is now the Indian subcontinent, Australia, and Africa: ancient Lemuria, an age-old land where conditions were entirely different from those on Earth today. People generally fail to grasp just how vast and far-reaching the changes on Earth were in the course of human evolution itself. We now arrive at a point in time when the lower nature of the human being was already present. At that time, beings walked the Earth that consisted of these four members: the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the I-nature. These beings were more highly organized than the highest animals of today, though they were not yet human: they were animal-men, but not at all like today’s animals. The latter are degenerate descendants who evolved from these animal-men through stagnation and regression. Something quite extraordinary happened to these beings who lived at that time.

[ 12 ] At that time, they were ready to absorb a certain power within themselves—a power that is our higher soul force. If we may put it that way, the union of the lower human nature with the human soul took place at that time. Until then, this human soul had rested in the bosom of the Divine; it was a member within the Divine itself. So above, in the realm of the spiritual, we have the divine-spiritual being; below, the fourfold human sheaths that had matured by that point and were capable of absorbing drops of this Divinity. We can now picture, figuratively, what happened back then. Imagine a glass of water; take a hundred small sponges and try, little by little, to have each of these sponges absorb a drop of this water—then you have a hundred drops, which were previously completely united with the water, distributed among a hundred sponges. In this way, you can picture, simply and figuratively, how the process of ensoulment took place at that time. Until then, the soul had rested within the great universal divine essence, just as the drop rests in the glass of water. Just as these little sponges acted, so did these physical human shells. These spiritual drops separated from the common divine substance; they became individualized; they existed as soul-drops within the physical forms and began at that time to actually form the human being as he is today—as a spiritual-physical being. At that time, these souls incarnated for the first time, then passed through many, many incarnations, and developed their human bodies into their present form. But what happened then was the union of parts of the Godhead with the lower elements of human nature. With each incarnation, they progressed further; with each incarnation, they became more perfect, in order to attain a certain pinnacle in the future.

[ 13 ] We call this part of the higher nature—which at that time united as a force that transformed the lower nature and elevated itself through this transformation—the higher core of the human being: the spiritual self, the life spirit, and the spiritual man, or Manas, Buddhi, and Atma. These, then, are the parts of the divine essence through which human beings gradually transform the lower nature into the higher. Through the power of Manas, they transform the astral body; through Buddhi, the etheric body; and through the power of Atma, they transform the physical body. They must therefore transfigure all of these—infuse them with spirit—in order to ultimately attain the goal of their evolution. Thus, we once had the four members: the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the “I”; and at that time we received the seed for higher development, which is actually an outflow of the highest spiritual essence: the threefold, higher essence of the human being, the divine core of being, the divine potential of the human being. We can now consider this higher aspect of human nature from two perspectives. One is to say: This is the higher human nature toward which the human being unfolds in the course of evolution. Or we can regard it as a part of the divine being from which it has flowed forth—the divine part within the human being. The Christian initially regards it in the latter sense, and we shall now do the same and study the nature of these higher powers of human nature. We begin with the highest element, that which in human beings is called the power of the Atma.

[ 14 ] What I am now describing to you is not merely some external definition; rather, I wish to characterize the true nature and essence of this higher aspect of human nature. That which becomes the power of the Atma—insofar as it is a power flowing from the Divine—is, in fact, of a volitional nature. When you reflect on your own willpower—on that which can will within you—you have a shadowy replica, a shadowy reflection of what flows from the power of the Atma, from the Divine. The human will is today the force that is still the least developed. However, the will can continue to develop further and further until a time comes when it has reached its peak—that is, when this will is capable of accomplishing what religions call “the great sacrifice.”

[ 15 ] Imagine you are standing in front of a mirror and looking into it. Your image resembles you completely in every aspect of your appearance and your gestures; in every way it is just like you, yet it is your lifeless image. You stand before it as a living being and are confronted with your dead image, which is identical to you in every way except for its living essence—except for its substantive content. Imagine for a moment that your will had grown to the point where it would be capable of making the decision to give up your own existence, your own being, and to surrender it to your reflection; you would be capable of sacrificing yourself entirely in order to endow your reflection with your life. Of such a will one says: it emanates; it pours forth its own essence. This is the highest unfolding of the will—that which Christianity calls the “divine Father’s will.”

[ 16 ] The human will is thus, among all the powers of the soul, the least developed today. It is, however, on the path to unfolding into such power that it is capable of accomplishing “the great sacrifice.” This is the true nature of what can develop as the power of the Atma: a will-like nature, insofar as it is an emanation of divine essence.

[ 17 ] Now let us consider the second aspect of the higher human nature, the Buddhi or life spirit, from the perspective of an emanation from the Deity, as it has been viewed in Christianity. The easiest way to grasp this concept is not to focus on the power that radiates from the Divine to animate the reflection, but rather on the reflection itself. In the reflection, a complete replica of the original being emerges; it is the same—and yet not the same—when you apply this to the world, to the entire universe: just as the divine will of the worlds is reflected from a single point in all directions.

[ 18 ] Imagine, as it were, a hollow sphere that reflects inward. The single point at its center is reflected inward an infinite number of times. Everywhere, in an infinite multiplicity, is the divine will of the world; everywhere, reflections and details of the divine.

[ 19 ] Consider the cosmos, the universe, as a reflection of the infinite World Will. The divine World Will is not present in any single being, but the World Will is reflected everywhere in the most diverse ways. The reflection of the Deity—whereby the Deity remains at the point where it is, yet animates every point in which it is reflected through “the great sacrifice”—this is what is called the “Kingdom” in the Christian sense. And this term, the Kingdom, denotes the same thing that is the Buddhi within human beings. If you consider the universe in terms of the creative, productive principle that flows from the Primordial Divine, then that which is most closely connected to the Atma is its divine spark of life, the Buddhi. As the “Kingdom,” it is universal and cosmic.

[ 20 ] And now let us turn our gaze from there down to the details of the kingdom. We have first considered it as a whole. Now we descend to the individual. How does one distinguish one thing from another? Through what is called, in the Christian sense, the “name.” Each is given a name, and through this the manifold, individual elements of the Kingdom are distinguished from one another. The Christian understands the name to be what is often called the “concept”—that which is inherent in a thing. Just as one individual human being is distinguished from another by a name, so the name is perceived as containing within it, at the same time, a part of the divine essence reflected therein. The Christian relates correctly to this name when he is clear that every member of the realm is an outflow of the Divine—with every bite of bread—that he is an outflow, a mirror, and a part of the Divinity. The Christian should be clear about this even in relation to the smallest things. In human nature, it is the individual spiritual self that makes one person distinct from another. What the name is in the Kingdom, man possesses in the individual spiritual self, or Manas: by forming a distinct part of the Divinity, he has a distinct name of his own—the name that runs through all incarnations of the individual human being.

[ 21 ] Thus we now see this threefold nature before us as an emanation of the divine-spiritual essence, and in this sense, Atma is the will of the Deity, Buddhi or the life-spirit is the realm, and Manas or the spirit-self is the name.

[ 22 ] Now let us consider the four lower parts of human nature, beginning from the bottom with the physical body. This is that which possesses the same substances and forces as external physical nature, but also continually transforms those same substances and forces. These substances and forces flow in and out of the human physical body, and it exists solely because these substances and forces are constantly flowing in and out. It can only persist by continually renewing and transforming itself through the external physical substances. It forms a whole with the rest of physical nature. Just as you cannot cut off this finger and have it remain what it is—it withers as soon as you separate it from the rest of the body; it is what it is only because it is part of the whole organism—so, too, you cannot separate the physical human body from the earth in such a way that it remains what it is. Thus, the human being is only what he is in connection with the elements of the Earth. The physical substances and forces flow in and out of him, and through this he is that through which he can maintain his being solely and exclusively. This is what characterizes this physical body.

[ 23 ] The second member is the etheric or life body. With regard to it, we must be clear that it is what brings the purely physical substances and forces to life. It is the vehicle of growth and reproduction, of life manifestations in general, but also of something quite different: of all those human qualities that are of a more enduring nature than the fleeting drives, desires, and passions. How does it differ from these? If you want to grasp this difference, think back to the time when you were eight years old. Think of everything you have learned since then, of how many concepts and ideas, experiences, and lessons have enriched your soul—it is an immense amount. But now think about something else: how slowly, at a snail’s pace, certain things change. Think about how quick-tempered you were as a child, and ask yourself whether that anger still flares up from time to time, and whether your inclinations or your temperament have, for the most part, remained the same. All of that has not changed as much as your life experiences. What one learns, experiences, and discovers can be compared to the minute hand of a clock, and the changes in character, temperament, and habits to the hour hand of a clock. This difference exists because the former are carried by the astral body, while the latter—which move so slowly—are carried by the etheric body. When your habits change, this represents a change in your etheric body. If you have merely learned this or that, it signifies a change in the astral body.

[ 24 ] For those who, in the higher sense, become students of true occultism, this training is not based on external learning; rather, all occult training takes place in the etheric body. Therefore, you have done more for your true occult training if you have succeeded in transforming even a single deeply ingrained character trait than if you had acquired a great deal of external knowledge. Accordingly, a distinction is made between the exoteric—that which the etheric body carries—and the esoteric—that which the etheric body needs. The etheric body is also the bearer of memory as a quality, not of recollection. If, for example, memory is to become sharper, this involves a transformation of the etheric body; or if it fades, this represents a change in the etheric body—a change in the power of memory. One more thing that is infinitely important to us: Human beings, as they are now, live in two directions. Everyone belongs to a family, a tribe, a people, and so on, and there are also certain qualities that they share with others and that bind them to that community. The French have different qualities than the Germans, who in turn have different qualities than the English, and so on. They all share certain tribal qualities. But in addition, each person has their own individual qualities, through which they emerge from their people and become that particular individual. One belongs to a community because of certain characteristics of the etheric body. The etheric body possesses the characteristics through which one belongs to a people, a race, or the human community in general. But if you wish to grasp what enables you to emerge from this community, you must look to the astral body. It is the astral body that determines the individuality in a human being.

[ 25 ] Therefore, a person’s entire life within the community depends on his etheric body finding the right balance with the etheric bodies of those with whom he must live. If they do not find this balance, they cannot live with them; things go wrong, and they are excluded. Thus, the human etheric body has the task of adapting to the other etheric bodies. The astral body determines the individual; above all, it must live in such a way that the person does not commit personal sins. What causes the astral body to stray here or there are personal sins—transgressions of the astral body. Disharmony with the community consists of transgressions of the etheric body. Christian esotericism, when speaking precisely, referred to the transgressions of the etheric body as “guilt”—that which disrupts the balance with others. A transgression of the astral body caused by the individuality was called, in Christian esotericism, “yielding to temptation.” The astral body succumbs to temptation with regard to its drives, passions, and desires. It thus strays by yielding to temptation within itself. Thus, Christian esotericism distinguished between “guilt” and “succumbing to temptation.”

[ 26 ] Now for the fourth aspect of the human being: the “I.” We have discussed the physical body, which consists of metabolism; the etheric body, which can be tainted by guilt; and the astral body, which can succumb to temptation. Now, the “I.” It is the source of self-interest and egoism. The “I” is that which caused what was once One in the great divine-spiritual Being to be drawn into the many. The separation from the unity of the Divine into individual beings is brought about by the “I.” That is why Christian wisdom saw in the “I” the true origin of egoism and selfishness. As long as the individual beings were united in the Godhead, they could not strive against one another. They could do so only in their separation as “I’s.” Before that, they could only will what the Godhead willed. This development in opposition to one another, which corresponds to egoism, is what Christianity calls the transgression of the “I,” and Christian tradition specifies very precisely the moment when this soul descends into the body through the Fall, through the bite of the apple. The actual transgression of the “I” is referred to by the term “evil.” The transgression of the fourth member is thus evil. Only the “I” can therefore fall into evil, and this arose through what is referred to as the bite of the apple. After all, “malum” is the same Latin word for both “apple” and “evil.”

[ 27 ] So, to summarize briefly once again: The physical body is one with the physical elements surrounding it and sustains itself through the constant exchange of matter and forces—metabolism. The etheric body is what maintains balance with the other members of the community and is the one that can fall into guilt. The astral body, which must not succumb to temptation, and the “I,” which must not fall victim to selfishness—to evil.

[ 28 ] This fourfold entity, together with the threefold higher entity, forms the divine core of being:

Will	Reich	Name
Atma	Buddhi	Manas

[ 29 ] Now, consider prayer as a connection between a person in the quiet privacy of their own room and the Divine Itself. In the original sense of Christianity, the soul is indeed portrayed as divine, as a drop from the ocean of the Divine. And this soul must implore that this separate drop may return to its source. This source of man’s divine essence is designated by the name “Father.” And that toward which the soul strives—where it will be reunited with what is designated by the name “Father”—is Devachan, or Heaven.

[ 30 ] And now let us imagine the primordial prayer: an invocation of the individual human being’s surrender to that which is the divine Father-Nature.

[ 31 ] This prayer was meant to implore that the three higher aspects of human nature might develop, to ask that the “Will,” which is the highest manifestation of the Divine, might be realized in human beings; that the second aspect of the divine essence, the “Kingdom,” might take root in human beings; that the third element, the “Name,” be perceived as sacred. This would thus refer to the three higher elements of the divine essence within the human being. And for the four lower elements of human nature, one would pray: May my physical body receive the substances it needs for its sustenance. May the etheric body find a balance between its own faults and the faults of others; may it live in harmony with others. The prayer must implore that no temptation should drag down the astral body, and for the “I,” that it not succumb to evil—the very outflow of what is called egoism.

[ 32 ] You should implore your union with the Father in a primal prayer. You should do this in such a way that the individual members of your sevenfold being stand before your soul as you pray:

[ 33 ] “Our Father in heaven. First you call upon the Father, then you present the petitions that relate to the three higher realms:

[ 34 ] “Hallowed be Your name; Your kingdom come.”

[ 35 ] “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

[ 36 ] Then the four petitions relating to the four remaining parts of human nature:

[ 37 ] “Give us this day our daily bread.”

[ 38 ] “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.”

[ 39 ] This is how we come to terms with those among whom we live.

[ 40 ] “Lead Us Not Into Temptation”: Our Astral Body.

[ 41 ] “But deliver us from evil”: that is, from every manifestation of selfishness.

[ 42 ] Thus, in the seven petitions of the Lord’s Prayer, you have conveyed the meaning of the development of the sevenfold human nature. From the depths of wisdom concerning humanity, the Lord’s Prayer has been given to Christians as a Christian prayer, and the entire theosophical wisdom concerning humanity is contained within it. One need only understand it, and one possesses the entire theosophical wisdom as it pertains to human beings.

[ 43 ] Those prayers that do not merely have a fleeting effect, but that have touched souls and uplifted hearts throughout the millennia, are all drawn from the deepest wisdom. Such a prayer has never been composed by arbitrarily stringing together beautiful or sublime words; rather, they have been drawn from the deepest wisdom, for only in this way do they possess the power to influence the souls of people across the millennia.

[ 44 ] The objection that the naive soul knows nothing of this wisdom does not hold. It need not know anything, for the power of the Lord’s Prayer comes from this wisdom, and it is effective even if one knows nothing of it.

[ 45 ] One need only understand it in the right way: A person stands before a plant and is enchanted by it. Even the most naive mind will be enchanted, yet may know nothing of the divine wisdom that resides in the plant. The same is true of the great prayers. One need not know that wisdom any more than one needs to know the wisdom behind it, and yet such a prayer possesses the power, the wisdom, the exaltation, and the holiness of prayer. Even if it is born of the highest wisdom, what matters is not knowing that wisdom, but experiencing the power of wisdom.

[ 46 ] Only in our time do we have the opportunity to once again draw out what Christ Jesus placed within prayer, and to once again understand the power He infused into it—especially into the Lord’s Prayer. Because it is drawn from the deepest depths of wisdom concerning human beings themselves—concerning their sevenfold nature— it is therefore great and mighty even for the most naive mind, and all the more uplifting for one who can also draw out the wisdom contained within it. And in doing so, it loses none of the power it has always exerted—shaking and uplifting—just as the entire theosophy, the divine wisdom, rests within the Lord’s Prayer.

[ 47 ] The Lord spoke many things to the crowd in parables. But when he was alone with his disciples, he explained them to them, for they were to draw from the wise explanation of the parables that strength through which they could become his messengers, through which they could know how he himself had attained that magical power, through which his work was destined to continue its effect over the millennia.

[ 48 ] This is what should guide us into the meaning of the Lord's Prayer.