The Rudolf Steiner Archive

9. From Buddha to Christ

Delivered at the International Congress of the Federation of European Sections of the Theosophical Society

[ 1 ] I do not intend to present a philosophical reflection on religion, a literary-historical treatise, or a scholarly lecture on this topic; rather, I wish only to share what spiritual science and occultism have to say about it—specifically, what they have to offer us from the Rosicrucian tradition, and what they have to say about such great figures as Buddha and Christ.

[ 2 ] In a conference lecture intended for more mature Theosophists, I am surely permitted to speak about these truths in a more intimate manner. The topic will be discussed in broad strokes, into which specific details may also be woven. Rosicrucian occultism represents one of the great principles of occult-theosophical research, through which spiritual life is to flow into the hearts of people. We also find the goals and ideals of Theosophy outside the Theosophical Society. But there is a difference in the means employed to attain occult knowledge and truth and to apply them correctly; for occult research can and must flow directly into life. Let me illustrate this with a simple example: The human soul is much like a stove—one does not need to tell it to warm the room, since that is its very purpose. It does so of its own accord when we put wood into it and light it. Perhaps someone might say that you can’t even tell by looking at the wood that it gives off heat. And yet there is heat. By placing the wood—which looks completely different—into the stove and lighting it, we bring warmth into our home. By becoming accustomed to the concepts of spiritual science, we accustom ourselves to free judgment and to the ability to orient ourselves freely in the world.

[ 3 ] Our task is not to preach ideals, but to provide fuel for the human soul—the fuel of spiritual wisdom, genuine brotherhood, and true humanity. Our goal is to bring this about.

[ 4 ] During the period when a spiritual darkening set in within the Christian tradition—because Christianity had become increasingly externalized—the movement we call Rosicrucianism flourished in the 13th and 14th centuries. It was entrusted with the task of nurturing the ancient wisdom and safeguarding the treasures of primordial wisdom, while out in the world Christianity became increasingly externalized and faded in its true form. Where only external forms and ossified dogmas prevailed, there was nothing but renunciation and curses for true spiritual life—renunciation and curses for that which was regarded and revered in the mysteries as the highest and holiest. Thus, one could often hear the words at that time: “I curse Skythianos, I curse Boddha, I curse Zarathas.” - These are the three names of those who were revered in the utmost secrecy and within the Mysteries and Mystery Schools of the Rosicrucians as sacred master names.

[ 5 ] Zarathas is the same figure as Zarathustra—not the Zarathustra of whom history speaks, but that exalted individual who laid the foundations of ancient Persian culture and was the teacher of the secret schools of that time. Skythianos, an ancient, highly evolved personality who, in a later incarnation in Inner Asia, led the occult schools and later also became the teacher of the inner schools of Europe. Boddha or Buddha is one and the same personality.

[ 6 ] To understand what the initiate felt upon hearing these three names, and to gain some sense of what they could offer, we must look back at human evolution and delve more deeply into Rosicrucian occultism and the Rosicrucian way. Let us seek to understand through listening. Let us look back into the past. There have always been advanced individuals—those who stood out from the crowd. It was to them that the average person looked up with reverence as to lofty ideals. Looking up to such personalities, who had attained such heights of wisdom and intellectuality, had a stimulating effect on the average person’s moral character and vital energy. Even today, the power of these great spirits flows into our finer bodies. Let us look back into the past at all the spiritual individuals we are about to discuss, all the way back to the time of ancient Indian culture. Let us go even further back in human evolution, to the time of ancient Atlantis and its downfall—the event that separates us from an even older epoch of humanity, when our souls lived differently than they do in our present bodies. We do not wish to delve into a detailed description of the culture and life of that time, but rather to shed light on the answer to the question today: How was humanity guided in ancient times, and where did those influences come from?

[ 7 ] When the seer, whose spiritual eye is open and who is able to read that subtle script we call the Akashic Records, lets his gaze wander back through the spiritual worlds, he finds the places from which culture and all spiritual life originated in those days. Our soul finds the places where, in the mysteries of that time, the masters gathered with their disciples. There were many different mysteries in ancient Atlantis; they were different from those of today, and they were also named differently. These places were neither church nor school alone, but both at the same time. In the places where people sought the truth, they found religion and wisdom; both were one in the mystery. We can characterize the concept of the places of worship of that time—the mystery sites—using a modern term, even though they were called something entirely different back then: we can call them Atlantean oracles. This is how they are referred to within the mysteries of Europe.

[ 8 ] Just as today external knowledge and the fields of work and profession in external life are divided into individual branches and departments of knowledge, so it was in ancient Atlantis in the spiritual life of the Atlantean oracles and their centers of wisdom. There were various branches of oracular research and occult knowledge in ancient Atlantis. Unlike today, this was also dependent on other conditions at that time. The ancient oracular wisdom varied from one oracle site to another, depending on the abilities of the people of that time. It was guided by what surrounded people in the external world. There were connections between certain human abilities and certain planets; and thus certain mystical-occult abilities were linked to specific planets. We must therefore distinguish between the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn oracles in ancient Atlantis.

[ 9 ] “Our present-day abilities, too, have evolved from the cosmos, just as our Earth has, and are connected, depending on the case, to other planets and their influences. Thus, people were selected from the population of that time who were suited to developing one or another capacity for insight; as a result, they became affiliated with one or another oracle site. There were seven such oracle sites in ancient Atlantis, named after the seven planets of ancient Atlantis. The Sun Oracle towered above them all. In secret, the Volcano Oracle was still preparing for its future task.

[ 10 ] Each of these oracles sprang from the cosmos according to its own capacity; but within a specific territory, the capacities of all seven oracle sites converged. There, the entire knowledge of all seven oracles of Atlantis was united. There was one sanctuary, the sacred Sun Oracle, whose initiates were initiated into the mystery and the service of what we today call the Sun. The physical Sun is, after all, only the outer expression, the outer physiognomy of the spiritual life of the high Being who has the physical Sun as its body, as its garment.

[ 11 ] In that time—of which you have all heard—when the sun separated from the Earth, those beings who had reached a stage where they no longer needed the Earth for their development—that is, those who had already completed their human stage—left the Earth’s stage at the same time as the physical sun. After the Moon, too, had departed, the Earth was able to fulfill its destiny of becoming the dwelling place of humanity. Had only the Sun exerted its influence on the Earth, it would have undergone such rapid development that human beings, barely born, would already have been old. Had only the Moon exerted its influence on our Earth, however, human beings would have turned into mummies. A process of solidification, a lignification of the bodies, would have set in; development would have proceeded too slowly. But because the Sun and the Moon, through wise guidance, maintain a balance in their influence on Earth from the outside, it is possible that Earth and humankind have now found the pace that is suitable for them. The beings who no longer needed for their development what had split off from the Moon and Earth—Mars, Mercury, Venus, and so on—departed with the Sun and now had their dwelling place there. Yet they remained connected to the Earth and sent their beneficent forces down upon it in the light.

[ 12 ] Now there is a being connected to the Sun and the Earth who is very hidden and mysterious; but we will not speak of this one now, but rather of the being who preceded the host of those high solar beings who had advanced so far that they were able to separate themselves from the Earth. It is a leading Sun Spirit who sends down his spiritual power from the Sun to our Earth in the same way that physical light radiates from the Sun to the Earth. He radiates down the warmth and light of the Sun, which draw life out of the Earth—causing it to blossom and flourish. But along with the physical sunlight, the works and deeds of a spiritual Sun Being also streamed down upon our Earth.

[ 13 ] The initiates of the Sun Oracle of the ancient Atlantean era were now initiated into the deeds of this noble solar being. The leader of this highest oracle—he, the great initiate—was initiated into these mysteries in the most comprehensive way. The entire ancient Atlantean culture—and, as we shall see, the post-Atlantean culture—originated with him. The “Manu”—as the leader of the Solar Oracle was called (though the name is of little consequence)—did not seek out the bearers of the post-Atlantean culture among the so-called scholars and scientists, nor among the great clairvoyants and magicians of that time. It was not those who possessed spiritual or psychic insights—and who, at that time, represented roughly the same role as scientists and scholars do today—who were suited for this task, but rather the simple people who were gradually beginning to lose their clairvoyance. Consciousness of the present—which only began to emerge in the final days of Atlantis, as the old clairvoyant consciousness gradually faded and was replaced by full self-knowledge, the “I” speaking to itself. The great Manu gathered those who were capable of intellectual thought; not the clairvoyants, not the magicians, but those who absorbed and developed within themselves the first elements of calculation and counting—those who were the despised ones, capable of nothing in the eyes of the ruling circles—much like the Theosophists of today—he gathered them and led them across to the sacred site of Asia, the point from which post-Atlantean culture was to arise. Europe, Asia, and Africa—let us leave America aside for now—were settled by the descendants of the ancient Atlanteans who had crossed over there under Manu’s leadership. The initiate of the Solar Oracle now had to ensure that the establishment of these post-Atlantean cultures, as well as the development of post-Atlantean humanity, proceeded under the right influences. He had to ensure from an early stage that everything of value for future development would be carried over. This preservation is a law of occultism, a law of spiritual economy. Only through knowledge of occultism, through spiritual wisdom, can one understand this.

[ 14 ] The great initiate then took something valuable with him from ancient Atlantis to Europe. To this end, he had previously traveled to the other oracle sites, so to speak—inspected them, if you will. You know that in the case of the ordinary human being, shortly after death, the etheric body detaches itself from the astral body and the “I” and gradually dissolves into the general world ether; the astral body does the same after a certain time. An exception to this law occurs in the interest of spiritual economy. This is also what happened with the etheric bodies of the seven greatest initiates of the oracle sites of ancient Atlantis.

[ 15 ] What does “working” actually mean? It means purifying the etheric body and the astral body. Now, the etheric and astral bodies, once they have been thoroughly purified and spiritualized, do not dissolve after death but are preserved according to the law of spiritual economy. In short, the Mysteries possess the means of preservation—to go into further detail on this would take us too far afield at this point—of the precious etheric and astral bodies attained by the great Initiates. These are preserved by the custodians in the Mystery Schools. Therefore, the initiate of the Solar Oracle set out for the other Atlantean oracle sites, gathered the seven etheric bodies of the greatest Atlantean initiates, and took them with him. And from that point on, through his wisdom, he drew to himself a number of people who were to become capable of serving the coming culture. Thus he drew them to himself—the people united around this great individuality—so that they might become ever more capable and pure. What followed may be called a work of art. For after some time, the seven most significant etheric bodies of the seven greatest initiates of the ancient Atlantean oracles could be incorporated into seven human beings—people who, in terms of their ego, their power of judgment, and so on, were in this sense simple folk who meant nothing at all outwardly. But within themselves they carried the seven most highly developed etheric bodies of the seven most eminent initiates. They had allowed these to flow into themselves, and through this they were able, at certain times, to radiate—through inspiration from above—the great, mighty visions and truths of evolution. They were able to speak of all this lofty knowledge.

[ 16 ] The great Initiate sent these seven to the place where there was still the greatest appreciation and understanding of spiritual matters and the spiritual worlds. He sent these seven bearers of wisdom to ancient India. There, people still had the feeling and the awareness that they had once sprung from a spiritual primordial world, born from the bosom of the Divine. Therefore, the entire physical world seemed to them to be Maya, illusion. They longed to return to that world of the gods, of the divine-spiritual beings with whom they had once lived. The seven bearers of wisdom were now able to speak to these people. They are called the holy Rishis. It is they who usher in the first dawn of our post-Atlantean culture. This made it possible for all those peoples who had migrated from Atlantis—and who had preserved their awareness of and longing for the spiritual world with its divine-spiritual beings—to receive knowledge about that world and to find their way back up to it.

[ 17 ] But times changed. There were peoples who were not only destined to gaze into the spiritual worlds, but who also sought to help establish a new culture and were to grow to love the physical world; who were not merely to see Maya or illusion in this physical world, but who began to understand that this physical world is merely the expression, the physiognomy, of the spiritual world that lies behind it. This second period is the primordial Persian culture, the Zarathustra culture. External history knows only a relatively late Zarathustra; it does not realize that in those ancient times it was customary to bestow the names of great leaders upon their successors as well. Here we are referring to the greatest Zarathustra, one of the closest disciples of the initiate of the Solar Oracle. His task was to discover the connection between the sensory world and the spiritual world. His task was to make it clear to his disciples that this physical sun is the body of the spiritual beings who dwell in the sun, and that this entire physical world is to be regarded as the limbs and parts of the physical body of divine-spiritual beings. Just as the sun has a great aura around it, so does the human being have his small aura, the microcosmic expression of that great aura. The sun is the body of the Solar Spirit, who revealed Himself in the Solar Oracle of the ancient Atlantean era. This Solar Spirit became visible to Zarathustra through clairvoyance. He called the great solar aura the Solar Spirit—later esoteric teachings refer to Him as Ormuzd; it is the same being whom Zarathustra also called Ahura Mazdao. People were to see Ahura Mazdao in the physical sun and not allow themselves to be led astray by Ahriman—he who has lived in the physical realm since the last third of the Atlantean era and who attacks the human soul through sensory perception, that is, from the outside. Lucifer, on the other hand, is the one who attacks the human soul from within. Zoroaster sought to kindle within people the feeling, the heartfelt devotion, for the great Sun Spirit. He did so with powerful words—words that cannot be rendered in our language. All that is magnificent in the Avesta and the Gathas, however beautiful these writings may be, is merely a faint, external expression of the great, sublime, original words of Zarathustra. One might roughly render those words in our language as follows:

[ 18 ] “I will speak; now listen and heed me, you who are near, you who are far away and long for this—I will speak of what is most sacred to me in this world, of what He has revealed to me, the great and mighty Ahura Mazdao. Now listen and heed me, and take everything to heart: No longer shall the false teacher, the evil one, who has professed false faith with his mouth, lead humanity astray—for He is revealed, Ahura Mazdao, the Mighty One! Whoever refuses to hear my words, as I speak them and as I mean them, will suffer evil when the course of time comes to an end.” And on other occasions, Zarathustra spoke: “So great and so mighty is He who has revealed Himself to me in the sun that I would give up everything for Him. Gladly do I sacrifice to Him the life of my body, the ethereal existence of my senses, and the expression of my deeds”—the astral body. That was the vow that the great Zarathustra once made.

[ 19 ] Zarathustra had two disciples. To one of them, he revealed through spiritual means everything that can be seen with clairvoyant astral organs. This one was reborn under the name Hermes, the Egyptian Hermes. To the second, he revealed what can be known through the clairvoyant etheric body—the wisdom of the Akashic Records: it was Moses. You will find it again in the Books of Moses.

[ 20 ] Hermes, who, upon his rebirth, bore the astral body of Zarathustra, imparted to him not only the teaching but also the very essence of the teacher—such a thing can happen: the sacrificed astral body of Zarathustra. It was thus the wisdom of Zarathustra that Hermes, the bearer of the third cultural epoch, proclaimed.

[ 21 ] The other disciple, to whom he had imparted wisdom in the etheric body, was also reborn. Upon his rebirth, the etheric body of Zarathustra—which he had sacrificed—was interwoven with his own: this disciple was Moses. You can always find such facts in religious records, though they are only hinted at in veiled terms in the sacred scriptures. Read the story of Moses’ birth. What happened there? The child was placed in a basket made of reed and set adrift on the water. What does that mean? He was cut off from the whole world. The ego and the astral body were not permitted to manifest until the principle of the etheric body had taken hold. How does this happen? During the time that Moses lay sealed in the basket in the water, the interwoven etheric body shone within him. Only then could the astral body and the ego begin to function. The powerful images of Genesis, which will continue to occupy humanity for a long time to come—what are they but images from the Akashic Records?—This cannot be understood without occultism.

[ 22 ] We are now in the fourth epoch of post-Atlantean culture, the Greco-Roman one. Until now, people have always been educated solely to develop a love for the Earth. But there were also those who, during the Atlantean era, had been companions of the gods. The question is therefore quite justified: Where are they, the “I”s of the great initiates of that time? In the case of such a “I” from the Atlantean era—which at that time existed in a softer, more refined physical form—their existence on Earth must be understood to mean that these individualities had to incarnate only for as long as was necessary to maintain the connection between primordial wisdom and primordial spirituality and humanity.

[ 23 ] Such an individual is the Great Buddha, who was truly able to imbue the Eastern scriptures with the profound wisdom and spiritual power that we find in them. As occultists, we understand the accounts about him and know to take them literally. For example, when it is said, “At his birth, he shone like bright sunlight,” this is true; or when he says, “I have entered the final incarnation; henceforth I need not return to this Earth unless of my own free will.” In the post-Atlantean era, he also worked his way through intellectual knowledge, and we understand him when he describes how the sequence of incarnations and stages of initiation he had undergone shone within him:

Before me stood the radiant glow of the figures
but my intuition was not yet pure!

I saw the spirits of knowledge —
but my intuition was not yet pure!

I saw the place of initiation —
but my intuition was not yet pure!

I was the comrade among them:
Now my intuition was pure!

[ 24 ] Here we have the Buddha's enlightenment.

[ 25 ] He was one of those with whom we live in Rosicrucian theosophy. We have named three of the Masters: Zarathas, Skythianos, and Boddha or Buddha.

[ 26 ] Thus we see how these great leading figures place themselves within the present. The occultist can verify all these things. But it is not only what such great figures leave behind; everything of value to humanity is preserved within the realm of spiritual economy. Take, for example, a figure like Galileo, who made great and significant contributions to 16th-century physics. Within Galileo lived an etheric body that must not be lost after his death. Far from the place where Galileo once worked, in the mid-18th century, there lived a figure who, after decades of a devout childhood, had prepared himself for greatness. Deep in Russia, on the White Sea, living in the simplest of circumstances, was a man who called himself Mikhail Lomonosov. Unknown and penniless, he journeyed to Moscow, studied there, and laid the foundations of Russian grammar. Lomonosov carried within him the etheric body of Galileo. And so it came to pass that a person who knew that Galileo’s etheric body had been preserved—and who was engaged in researching precisely this fact within occultism—discovered this connection: this person knew nothing at all about Mikhail Lomonosov. There is no shame in that; one cannot know everything on the physical plane [see p. 290].

[ 27 ] Thus we see that, through the law of spiritual economy, what is valuable is preserved and the past is linked to the future. Thus, in the Rosicrucian mysteries, one also encounters the individuality that lived on the physical plane embodied as a Buddha, that lived in Atlantis only in the etheric body as a Bodhisattva, and then descended as a Buddha into the physical body.

[ 28 ] Let us now turn our attention to the time of the Buddha, to that of Zarathustra, and to what the souls had to do in the meantime.

[ 29 ] On the one hand, we have the doctrine of Ahura Mazdao, and on the other, that aspect of human nature which is increasingly drawn to the earth. Let us recall once more the Indian, Persian, and Chaldean-Assyrian-Babylonian eras. During this time, the soul increasingly lost its connection with the spiritual world. By the time of the Greeks, it had grown so attached to the earth that the saying of that great Greek became true, who said: “Better to be a beggar in the upper world than a king in the realm of shadows!”

[ 30 ] In this fourth post-Atlanian culture—the Greco-Latin one—everything in the external world was enchanting. The seer, for example, contemplates the ruins of the temple at Paestum with his physical eye. He can revel in admiration at the beauty of the forms, at the charm of the lines. But if he then turns his gaze away and seeks what lies in the spiritual world, he finds none of that there: how utterly extinguished everything is there. And so it was with the souls between death and a new birth. Frozen in their individuality, they found themselves cut off from all that is spiritual and longed only for the physical, for all that beauty. It was into this—into this icy isolation—that Ahura Mazdao now had to shine. The Guide of the Sun himself had to descend. He had to become human in the physical world to bring help to the dead and the living: he had to be a human among humans! That which lives in the sun—the High and Glorious One—descends to earth and now reveals itself in humanity itself. Before that, it had revealed itself in the elements. In the fire of the burning bush and in the fire on Mount Sinai, it revealed itself to Moses. The Israelite people were not to make any image of their God—why was that? No external name can designate “me,” this being; only a completely different name can express it: “I am who I am!” There is no other way to find the name of the Sun Spirit than in the human being. That which lives as the “I” within the human being is the Christ-being.

[ 31 ] The proclamation of Jehovah preceded Christ. That was the time when the Christ Being was able to descend further and further. How had Zarathustra once pledged himself to the high Solar Being? What did he wish to sacrifice to him? Body, mind, life, and speech. Zarathustra was reborn as a contemporary of the great Buddha. He can now rebuild for himself the etheric and astral bodies that he had sacrificed. He is reborn as Zarathas or Nazarathos and becomes the teacher of Pythagoras, who himself is reborn as one of the three wise men from the East and then becomes a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth. Zarathustra, who once sacrificed his astral body and once his etheric body, is now able to surrender his outer shell to the one he once proclaimed—now as the Jesus of Nazareth of Western occultism. Jesus of Nazareth was able to place his body at the disposal of the Sun Spirit himself; he was able to say: “I am the light of the world!”

[ 32 ] The Christ Being has always been known in the mysteries: in ancient India, among the seven Rishis, the one who stood in for the Christ was called Vishva-Karman; Zarathustra called him Ahura Mazda; in Egypt, he was called Osiris; the Jewish people called it Yahweh or Jehovah. And now, in the fourth cultural epoch, this same Being lived for three years on our physical Earth. And it is this Being who, in the future, will once again unite the Sun with the Earth. When the blood flowed from the Savior’s wounds on Golgotha, the Christ mystically united Himself with the Earth; there the Christ-being Himself appeared in the Earth’s aura. Since then, He has been visible there. And who was the first to see Him there? Paul, who contributed most to the spread of Christianity. What turned Saul into Paul? Not the teachings, not the events in Palestine, but the event at Damascus—a supernatural event. Before that, he could not believe that the one who had died so shamefully on the cross was the Christ; but as an initiate of the Kabbalah, he knew that when the Christ appeared on Earth, He would become visible in the Earth’s aura. And that was Paul’s experience. Thus Saul became Paul. He calls himself a “premature birth”—the same is said of Buddha. It means that such a person has not descended too deeply into matter. He saw and knew who the Christ was when he became clairvoyant outside Damascus.

[ 33 ] Christ worked as a Bodhisattva in Buddha. Since the event at Golgotha, he has been the planetary spirit of the Earth, and since then he has been present in the Earth’s physical aura. A new light has been kindled in this world and in the next through the impact of the Christ principle. The body of Jesus of Nazareth—his etheric body, astral body, and I—exists in great multiplicity in the spiritual world. What is being said here is of the utmost significance. Nature provides us with numerous illuminating examples to help us understand this. Let us simply consider the seed that becomes a stalk of grain and multiplies so greatly in the process. This seemingly simple process in nature serves as a parable for the events that unfold according to law in the supersensible world. Many copies of the etheric and astral bodies and of the “I” of Jesus of Nazareth exist to be incorporated into the provisional bearers of the Christ Principle. What is connected with the Christ Principle is so profound that it can only be grasped by humanity little by little.

[ 34 ] Augustine, for example, carried a copy of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth. You will now be able to better understand his life, his errors, and his achievements. His ego and his astral body were left to their own devices, and it was only in the etheric body that his great mystical gift found expression. In the case of Francis of Assisi and Thomas of Agnino, it is the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth—a copy of which is woven into them—that enables them to have such a powerful influence as teachers. They work from within that which once contained the Christ.

[ 35 ] Sometimes, external events—such as natural disasters or similar occurrences—must also play a part in this interweaving. It is said of Thomas Aquinas that lightning struck the room in which he was sitting, killing the little sister in the cradle next to him but sparing him. For him, this lightning strike right next to him signified that the force originating from the elements was helping him to receive the copy of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth. Elizabeth of Thuringia, too, had an imprint of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth. "

[ 36 ] Zarathustra, or Jesus of Nazareth, is one of the three Masters of the Rosicrucians. Copies of his “I”—that is, of an “I” in which the Christ Spirit itself has dwelt—can be found in abundance in the spiritual world. In view of the future development of humanity, the copies of the “I” of Jesus of Nazareth await us in the spiritual world. Those who can strive to reach the heights of spiritual wisdom and love are candidates for the copies of the “I” of Jesus of Nazareth; they then become the bearers of Christ, the true Christ-bearers. They are to be the ones on this earth who prepare the way for his reappearance.

[ 37 ] Knowing which individuals stand behind the mission of significant people gives us strength for our work in the future. There is a way to verify these facts. Not everyone can investigate what goes on behind the scenes of the physical world, but anyone can verify what has been investigated by consulting the sacred scriptures from before and after the Christian era. And these facts can shed light on our understanding. They then become our spiritual lifeblood.