The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Third Lecture

[ 1 ] Anyone who allows the Gospel of Luke to take hold of them will, at first, be able only to feel and sense everything contained within it. But they will then begin to sense that truly great, vast spiritual worlds are flowing toward them from this Gospel of Luke. And in light of what we heard yesterday, it will seem understandable to us that this is so. For we have seen that spiritual research shows us how the Buddhist worldview, with all it had to offer humanity, has flowed into the Gospel of Luke. One might well say: It is Buddhism that flows out from the Gospel of Luke to humanity. But this Buddhism flows out of this text in a very distinctive form. It flows out in such a way that, as we have already indicated, in the form in which it is presented there, it is comprehensible even to the simplest, most naive mind. |

[ 2 ] As we were already able to gather from yesterday’s discussions, and as will become particularly clear to us today, Buddhism as such—as it entered the world as the teaching of the Great Buddha—is a worldview that can be understood only by those who elevate themselves to certain lofty ideas, to the pure, ethereal heights of the spirit. And understanding Buddhism itself requires a great deal of preparation. In the Gospel of Luke, the true spiritual substance is contained in such a way that it can, in a certain sense, affect every soul that has learned at all to allow the most essential human ideas and concepts to flow into its heart. Why this is so will become clear to us as we delve into the mystery of the Gospel of Luke. But not only do the spiritual achievements of Buddhism flow toward us from the Gospel of Luke; they flow toward us in an even more exalted form, as if raised to a higher level than they had at the time they were bestowed upon humanity in distant India nearly six hundred years before our era. Let us consider just a few examples to bring to mind what this elevation of Buddhism consists of.

[ 3 ] Yesterday we called Buddhism the purest teaching of compassion and love. And indeed, from that part of the world where the Buddha carried out his work, a gospel of love and compassion flows out to all beings on Earth. The gospel of love, the gospel of compassion—it appears to us as alive in the genuine, true Buddhist when his warm heart empathizes with all the suffering he encounters in the external world among all living things. There, Buddhist love and Buddhist compassion, in the fullest sense of the word, first meet us. But we see that something flows toward us from the Gospel of Luke that is even more than this all-encompassing compassion, than this all-encompassing love. We could describe what flows toward us there as the translation of compassion and love into the action necessary for the soul. The Buddhist seeks compassion in the most profound sense of the word; the one who lives according to the Gospel of Luke seeks to develop active love. The Buddhist can empathize with the sick person’s pain; the person guided by the Gospel of Luke finds the call to take active steps and do whatever he can to bring about healing. Understanding everything that animates the human soul is what one finds in Buddhism; not to judge, but to do more than is done to us—this emerges as a remarkable demand from the Gospel of Luke. To give more than one receives! Love transformed into action—this is something that must still appear to us as an elevation, even though we find the purest, most authentic Buddhism in the Gospel of Luke.

[ 4 ] To describe this aspect of Christianity—Buddhism, which Christianity has elevated to an even higher level—it took precisely the heart of the author of the Gospel of Luke. Understanding Christ Jesus as the healer of body and soul was something the author of the Gospel of Luke was best able to do. He found the words that speak deeply to the heart because he himself had practiced medicine and, from the perspective of a healer of body and soul, recorded and emphasized what he had to say about Jesus Christ. This will become increasingly apparent to us as we delve into the depths of the Gospel of Luke.

[ 5 ] But something else strikes us as well, especially when we consider how this Gospel of Luke, according to the view already presented, affects even the most childlike mind. We notice that the lofty Buddhist teaching—which only a mature intellect and a mature human soul can comprehend—appears to us in the Gospel of Luke as if rejuvenated, as if newly born from a youthful spring. Buddhism appears to us like a fruit on the tree of humanity. When we contemplate it anew in the Gospel of Luke, it appears to us as a youthful blossom, as a rejuvenation of what was there before. We must therefore ask: How did this rejuvenation of Buddhism come about? But we will only come to understand this when we take a close look at the teachings of the great Buddha himself and, drawing on our anthroposophical preparation, first bring before our inner eye what moved the Buddha’s soul.

[ 6 ] Let us first note that the Buddha emerged from the Bodhisattva—that is, from a high being who was able to look into the mysteries of existence. Because the Buddha was a Bodhisattva, he was a participant in everything that took place in the development of humanity throughout the ancient times. When humanity emerged in the post-Atlantean era to establish the first post-Atlantean cultural development and later to continue it, the Buddha was already present as a Bodhisattva, conveying to humanity from the spiritual worlds what was hinted at yesterday. He was also present during the Atlantean era, and even during the Lemurian era. And because he had reached such a high stage of development, even during his twenty-nine years as a Bodhisattva—from his last birth until he became the Buddha—he was able to gradually recall everything: all the communities he had previously experienced before incarnating in India for the last time. He was able to look back on his contribution to humanity, on his existence in the divine-spiritual worlds, in order to bring down from their midst what he was to offer to humankind. As was already hinted at yesterday, even such a lofty individuality must, albeit briefly, go through once more what it has already learned. Thus the Buddha also describes to us how, during his time as a Bodhisattva, he gradually ascended until his spiritual insight and spiritual enlightenment took on an ever more perfect form.

[ 7 ] We are told how he described this to his followers. To describe the path his soul had taken to gradually recall what it had experienced throughout the ages, he said to them: “There was a time for me, O monks, when it appeared to me from the spiritual world like an all-encompassing radiance of light; but I could not yet distinguish anything within it—no figures, no images; my enlightenment was not yet pure enough.” Then I began to see not only the light, but within the light individual images and individual figures; yet I could not yet discern what these figures and images signified; my enlightenment was not yet pure enough. Then I began to recognize that spiritual beings were expressing themselves in these images and figures, but I could not yet discern to which realms of the spiritual world these beings belonged; my enlightenment was not yet pure enough. Then I learned to recognize to which different realms of the spiritual world these individual spiritual beings belonged, but I could not yet discern through which deeds they had earned their place in the spiritual realms and what their states of mind were; for my enlightenment was not pure enough. Then came the time for me when I could discern which deeds had brought these spiritual beings into these realms and what their states of mind were; but I could not yet discern with which spiritual beings I myself had lived in earlier times and how I myself had interacted with them, for my enlightenment was not yet pure enough. Then came the time when I could know that I had been together with these and those beings in this and that epoch and had had this or that connection with them; I knew what my past lives had been like: now my enlightenment was pure.

[ 8 ] With this, the Buddha had indicated to his followers how he had gradually worked his way up to a realization that, although he had already possessed it in the past, must be reacquired in every incarnation according to the conditions of the era—and which he had now had to reacquire in a manner corresponding to his complete descent into a physical human body. If we reflect on this, we gain a sense of the significance and greatness of that remarkable individuality which had incarnated at that time in the prince of the Sakya clan. Yet the Buddha also knew this about what he was able to recognize in this way and into which he could look: This is a world that human beings, with their ordinary perception of the immediate present and the near future, had to leave behind. Only initiates—to whom the Buddha himself belonged—can look into the spiritual world; but for ordinary humanity, that possibility had been lost. The legacy of ancient clairvoyant perception had grown ever smaller. Since the Buddha was not merely to speak of what the initiate has to say, but since his mission was above all to tell people about the powers that are to flow from the human soul itself, he could not merely point to the results of his enlightenment; rather, he said to himself: I must speak of what human beings can attain—not through a higher source, but through the development of their own inner being, through the development of what exists in this epoch. Gradually, in the course of Earth’s evolution, human beings will recognize, from within their own souls and hearts, the essence of the Buddha’s teaching as something that their own reason and their own minds tell them. But much, much time will still have to pass before all people become ripe to draw forth, so to speak, from their own souls what the Buddha first expressed as a purely human insight. For it is one thing to develop certain abilities in later times, and quite another to first draw them forth from the deep recesses of the human mind.

[ 9 ] Take another example. Today, young people acquire the rules of logical thinking. Today, thinking logically is one of the general human abilities that people develop from within themselves. However, the great mind of the Greek philosopher Aristotle was instrumental in bringing this ability to light for the first time. It is one thing to draw something out of the depths of the human mind for the first time, and quite another to draw it out after it has been developing within humanity for some time.

[ 10 ] Now, what the Buddha had to say to humanity ranks among the greatest teachings across long ages. Therefore, it also required the great spirit of a Bodhisattva—one so highly enlightened—to first bring it into being within a human being. Only one who was enlightened in the highest sense could first bring into being within his soul what would gradually become the common heritage of humanity: the lofty teaching of compassion and love, and all that is connected with it. What the Buddha had to say, he had to express in words that were familiar to the people of his time, especially his fellow countrymen. We have already pointed out how the Sankhya and Yoga philosophies were taught in ancient India at the time of the Buddha. They had provided the common expressions and concepts; they were the accepted norm. The one who had something new to offer had to use such common expressions; the Buddha had to clothe what lived in his soul in such common concepts. Admittedly, through him such ideas and concepts then took on an entirely new form, but he had to make use of them, for all development must proceed in such a way that the future is founded upon the past. Thus the Buddha clothed his sublime wisdom in the common expressions of the Indian teachings in use at that time.

[ 11 ] But we must nevertheless gain some insight into what the Buddha experienced at that time—under the Bodhi tree during his seven-day enlightenment—as his teaching, which was to become humanity’s most profound teaching. Let us try, even if only with approximate thoughts, to picture in our minds what passed through the Buddha’s mind as the expression of his deepest soul experiences when he was enlightened under the Bodhi Tree. He might have said to himself something like the following: There were ancient times in human evolution when many people possessed a dim, twilight-like clairvoyance, and there were even older times when all people were clairvoyant. What does it mean, then, to be dimly, twilight-like clairvoyant? What does it mean, in general, to be clairvoyant? To be clairvoyant means to be able to use the organs of one’s etheric body. If one can use only the organs of one’s astral body, one can indeed feel and sense inwardly, and experience the deepest mysteries inwardly, but one cannot see them. Only when what is experienced in the astral body leaves, so to speak, its imprint on the etheric body can clairvoyance occur. The ancient, dim form of clairvoyance among humanity had also come about because the etheric body—which had not yet fully penetrated the physical body—had organs that ancient humanity could still make use of. So what has humanity lost over the course of time? It has lost the ability to make use of the organs of the etheric body. Little by little, it had to content itself with using only the external organs of the physical body and then experiencing what the physical body conveys in the astral body as thoughts, sensations, feelings, and images. All of this passed through the Buddha’s great soul at that time as an expression of what he experienced. He said to himself: “So human beings have lost the ability to make use of the organs of their etheric body. In their astral bodies, they experience what they perceive from the external world through the instruments of their physical body.”

[ 12 ] Now the Buddha could ask himself a significant question: When the eye perceives the color red, when the ear hears any sound, when the sense of taste experiences any flavor, then under normal circumstances these sensations approach the human being and become his perceptions, experienced inwardly in the astral body. If they were experienced solely in this way, they would not, under normal circumstances, involve what is called pain and suffering. If a person were to simply surrender to the impressions of the external world—as they affect his senses, as they appear to him in their colors and lights, in their sounds, and so on—he would walk through the world without being able to feel pain and suffering from these impressions. Only under certain conditions can a person feel pain and suffering.

[ 13 ] The Great Buddha therefore investigated the conditions under which human beings experience pain and suffering, worries, and sorrows. When do impressions from the external world become painful? And why do they become so under certain circumstances?

[ 14 ] Then he said to himself: If we look back to ancient times, we find that, as human beings walked the earth in earlier incarnations, beings from two sides worked their way into the innermost core of human nature—into the astral body. Thus, in the course of incarnations through the Lemurian and Atlantean periods, those beings we call the Luciferic beings worked their way into human nature, so that over time, human beings absorbed the impressions and influences of the Luciferic beings into their astral bodies. From the Atlantean era onward, those beings who were under the leadership of Ahriman also began to influence human beings. Thus, in his earlier incarnations, the human being experienced the influences of the two forces that we designate as the Luciferic and the Ahrimanic beings. Had these beings not acted upon human beings, they would not have been able to acquire freedom, the gift of discerning between good and evil, or the exercise of free will. Viewed from a higher perspective, it is also good that these influences have acted upon human beings in this way; but in a certain sense, they have also led human beings further down from the divine-spiritual heights into sensory existence than they would otherwise have descended. As a result—so the great Buddha could say to himself—human beings have within them certain influences that are present in them today and that are the legacy of the influence of Lucifer on the one hand and Ahriman on the other. These have remained with them from earlier incarnations; they carry them within themselves.

[ 15 ] When human beings were still able to glimpse into the spiritual world through their ancient, dim clairvoyance, they saw the influences of Lucifer and Ahriman and could distinguish precisely: here comes an influence from Lucifer, here comes an influence from Ahriman. And as they looked into the astral world and perceived the harmful influences of Lucifer and Ahriman, they were able to take these influences into account and protect themselves from them. They also knew how they had come into contact with these beings. There was a time—so Buddha told himself—when people knew where these influences came from, influences they have carried within themselves from incarnation to incarnation since ancient times. But with the loss of the ancient clairvoyance, knowledge of these powers was lost, and since human beings had lost their clairvoyance, ignorance also set in regarding what had been acting upon their souls from one incarnation to the next. Ignorance has taken the place of the former clairvoyant knowledge. Darkness spreads over humanity. People cannot recognize where these influences from Lucifer and Ahriman come from, yet they carry them within themselves. They carry within themselves something about which they know nothing. It would, of course, be naive to deny the reality and effectiveness of what is there, even if one knows nothing about it. The influences that have entered into a person continue to work within them from incarnation to incarnation. They are there and are at work throughout one’s entire life; it is just that the person knows nothing about them. — So said the great Buddha.

[ 16 ] How do these influences work within the human being? Even if a person cannot recognize them, he feels them, he senses them; there is a force within him that is the expression of what has thus continued from incarnation to incarnation and ascended to the present existence. What these forces represent—whose very nature a person cannot perceive—is the craving for external life, the craving to perceive the world, the thirst for life, the longing for life. Thus the ancient Luciferic and Ahrimanic influences work within the human being as the thirst for existence, as the craving for existence. And this thirst for existence continues from one incarnation to the next. — This is what the great Buddha said; only, for his more intimate disciples, he described more precisely what this entailed.

[ 17 ] The way he described what he felt can only be understood if one has already undergone a certain preparation through theosophy. As we know, when a person dies, at the very moment death occurs, their ego, astral body, and etheric body leave the physical body. Then, for a time, the person experiences that vast tableau of memories from the last life, which appears to them as if in a magnificent image. We also know that the main component of the etheric body is cast off like a second corpse, and that something remains behind—like an extract, like an essence of the etheric body. The human being carries this extract with them through the periods of Kamaloka and Devachan and brings it back into the next existence. But while the human being is in Kamaloka, everything they have experienced in terms of deeds—everything that has an effect on human karma and for which they must create a balance—is inscribed into this life extract. All of this becomes connected in a certain way with this extract from the etheric body, which extends from one incarnation to the next. Everything that a person carries from one incarnation into the next is contained within this extract of the etheric body, and the person brings it along again when they re-enter existence through birth. — Oriental literature has come to refer to what we call the etheric body as linga sharira. Thus, it is an extract from the linga sharira that a person carries with them from one incarnation to the next.

[ 18 ] Now the Buddha could say: Look at the human being who has been born. He brings with him into his linga sharira what has accumulated from his previous incarnations; it is inscribed there. Within this linga sharira lies everything of which the human being knows nothing in the present cycle of humanity—things over which the darkness of ignorance spreads—but which assert themselves as the human being enters into existence: as the thirst for existence, as the desire for life. In what is called the desire for life, the Buddha saw everything that originates from past incarnations and that drives human beings toward the craving to enjoy the world—not merely to wander through the world of colors and sounds and through the world of other impressions, but to desire this world itself. This is what remains from earlier incarnations as a tendency, as a force within the human being. The Buddha’s disciples refer to this force as samskara. Thus the Buddha said to his inner circle of disciples: What is characteristic of the human being of today is ignorance of something important that is present within him. This ignorance transforms what would otherwise confront the human being—as originating from the Luciferic and Ahrimanic beings, and with which he could otherwise relate—into a thirst for existence, into all the forces slumbering within him that stir darkly from earlier incarnations. Under the influence of the great Buddha, this was referred to as samskara. And it is out of this samskara that what is now the human being’s present thinking takes shape—and which causes the human being, in the present cycle of humanity, to be unable to think objectively without further ado.

[ 19 ] Take note of the subtle distinction the Buddha made clear to his disciples: the difference between objective thinking, which focuses solely on the matter at hand, and thinking that is influenced by the forces originating from the Linga sharira. Think about how much of what you take in as your opinions about things; but ask yourself how much of these opinions you adopt simply because they appeal to you, and how much because you view things objectively! Everything one accepts as truth—not because one thinks objectively about a matter, but because one has brought with one the old inclinations from previous incarnations—all of this constitutes, for the Buddha, an “inner organ of thought.” This organ of thought is the totality of what a person thinks because, in previous incarnations, they had this or that experience, which has remained as residues in their Linga sharira. Thus, the Buddha saw within the human being a kind of inner organ of thought formed by the totality of the samskaras. And he said: It is this very substance of thought that makes the present human being what is called his present individuality—in Buddhism, “name and form” or namarupa. It is the same thing that another philosophical school calls Ahamkara.

[ 20 ] The Buddha said something like this to his disciples: In ancient times, when people still possessed clairvoyance and could see into the world that lies beyond physical existence, they all saw the same thing in a certain sense, for the objective world is the same for everyone. But when ignorance spread over the world like darkness, each person brought with them individual dispositions that distinguished them from one another. This made them beings best described as having this or that “form” of soul; each had a specific “name” that distinguished them from others—an ahamkara. |

[ 21 ] That which is thus produced within the human being under the influence of what he has brought with him from previous incarnations—that which is “name and form,” that which has formed his individuality—now forms within him, from within, the manas and the five sense organs, the so-called six organs. — Note well: The Buddha did not say, “The eye is merely formed from within”—but rather, he said, “Something is incorporated into the eye that was in the Linga sharira and has been brought along from earlier stages of existence.” Therefore, the eye does not see clearly; it would perceive the world of external existence differently if it were not internally permeated by what has remained from earlier stages of existence. Therefore, the ear does not hear clearly, but rather in a clouded, distorted way due to what has remained from earlier stages of existence. And this causes the desire to see this or that, to hear this or that, to taste or perceive in this or that way to intermingle with everything. Thus, what has remained from earlier incarnations as “desire” creeps into everything that a person encounters in the present cycle.

[ 22 ] If this desire from past incarnations did not creep in—as the Buddha put it—then human beings would look out upon the world as if they were divine beings, would allow the world to affect them, and would never again desire or crave anything beyond what is given to them. With his knowledge, he would not go beyond what is bestowed upon him by the divine powers; he would make no distinction between himself and the external world and would feel himself to be a part of the external world. For it is only through this that a person perceives himself as something separate from the rest of the world—because he wants more, wants something different from what the rest of the world voluntarily offers him in the way of pleasures. Through this, the awareness enters his soul that he is something other than the world. If he were content with what exists in the world, he would not differ from it. He would feel his own existence continuing in the external world. He would never know what is called “contact with the external world”; he would not be separated from it and therefore could not come into contact with it. Through the formation of these “six faculties,” “contact with the external world” gradually arose; and through this contact came what we call sensation in our lives, and through sensation, “attachment to the external world.” But because human beings seek to cling to the external world, pain, suffering, worry, and distress arise.

[ 23 ] This is what the Buddha told his disciples about the inner self—an inner self that is the cause of pain and suffering, grief and worry in the human world. It was a subtle, lofty theory, yet one that sprang directly from life, for an “Enlightened One” had perceived it as the deepest truth about humanity today. To the one who, for millennia upon millennia as a Bodhisattva, had guided humanity according to the teachings of compassion and love—to him, now that he had become the Buddha, the true nature of suffering in present-day humanity had become clear through an understanding of its causes. Therefore, he could see why people suffer, and so he explained it to his closest disciples.

[ 24 ] And when he had reached the point of experiencing the essence of human existence for the current cycle of humanity, he summarized all of this in that famous sermon with which he began his ministry as the Buddha—the Sermon at Benares. There, he taught in a way accessible to the general public what he had previously communicated to his disciples in a more intimate manner: Whoever recognizes the causes of this human existence knows that life, as it is, must contain suffering, must contain pain. The first teaching I have to give you is the teaching on suffering in the world. The second teaching is that of the causes of suffering. Where do these causes of suffering lie? They lie in the fact that the desire, the thirst for existence, creeps into human beings from what has remained from their previous incarnations. The thirst for existence is the cause of suffering. The third teaching is this: How is suffering eradicated from the world? Naturally, it is eradicated from the world by removing its cause—by extinguishing the thirst for existence, which arises from ignorance. For human beings have passed from their former clairvoyant knowledge into a state of ignorance, and this ignorance veils the spiritual world from them. Ignorance is to blame for the thirst for existence. And the thirst for existence, in turn, is the cause of suffering and pain, of worries and sorrows. The thirst for existence must disappear from the world if pain and suffering, sorrow and worry are to disappear from the world. The ancient knowledge has vanished from the world; people can no longer make use of the organs of their etheric body. But a new knowledge is possible for human beings—the knowledge that one acquires when one immerses oneself completely in what one’s astral body can offer through its deepest powers, with the aid of what the external sense organs allow one to observe in the external physical world. But what is stirred within the astral body’s deepest powers through this observation—that is, what develops through the use of the physical body, yet not as a result of that use—is the only thing that can initially help human beings and impart knowledge to them; for this knowledge is bestowed upon them from the outset. —This is roughly what the Buddha said in his great inaugural address to the world.

[ 25 ] So, he wanted to say, I must impart to humanity the knowledge that can be attained through the highest development of the powers of the astral body. Therefore, the Buddha had to teach what human beings can attain through profound immersion and absorption in the powers of the astral body. Through this, they attain a knowledge that is now appropriate for them, that is now within their reach, but at the same time a knowledge that has nothing to do with the influences from past incarnations. The Buddha wished to give humanity a knowledge that has nothing to do with what lies dormant in the human soul as samskara—shrouded in darkness and abandoned to ignorance—a knowledge that can be acquired by awakening all the powers contained within the astral body during a single incarnation.

[ 26 ] “This is the cause of suffering in the world,” said the Buddha, "that something has remained from past incarnations of which a person is unaware. What a person carries over from past incarnations is the reason why ignorance about the world spreads within him; this is the cause of suffering and pain, of grief and worry, in human beings. But when a person becomes aware of the powers lying within his astral body—powers into which he can penetrate—then, if he so desires, he can acquire a knowledge that has remained independent of everything that came before: a knowledge of his own.

[ 27 ] The Great Buddha wished to impart this knowledge to humanity. And he imparted it to them through what is known as the Eightfold Path. In it, he sets forth the powers that human beings must cultivate in order to attain, within the present cycle of humanity, a knowledge that is unaffected by the ever-recurring cycle of rebirths. Thus, through the power he attained, the Buddha himself elevated his soul to the highest level attainable through the most intense powers of the astral body; and in the Eightfold Path, he sought to chart a course for humanity, showing how it can attain a knowledge unaffected by samskara. He defined it as follows:

[ 28 ] A person arrives at such knowledge of the world when he forms a correct opinion about things—an opinion that has nothing to do with sympathy or antipathy or with being taken with them—but rather by trying—based purely on what presents itself to him from the outside—to do his best to form the correct opinion about each and every thing. That is the first thing: the “correct opinion” about a matter.

[ 29 ] Second, it is necessary to become independent of what remains from previous incarnations; we must strive to judge according to our own correct opinion—not based on any other influences, but solely on what our correct opinion of a matter is. So “correct judgment” is the second point at issue.

[ 30 ] The third is that, when we communicate with the world, we strive to express accurately what we wish to convey—what we truly mean and have correctly judged—and to ensure that we put nothing into our words other than our own opinion; and this applies not only to our words but to all expressions of the human being. This is the “right speech” in the Buddha’s sense.

[ 31 ] Fourth, it is necessary that we strive not to carry out our actions based on our likes and dislikes, nor on what stirs obscurely within us as samskara, but rather that we put into action what we have recognized as our correct opinion, our correct judgment, and our correct speech. This, then, is the correct action, the “correct way of acting.”

[ 32 ] The fifth thing a person needs in order to free themselves from what lives within them is to attain the right standing, the right place in the world. We can best understand what Buddha meant by this if we tell ourselves: There are so many people who are dissatisfied with their role in the world, who think they would be better off in this or that position. But a person should gain the ability to make the best of the situation into which they were born or into which fate has placed them—that is, to find the best possible position. Those who do not feel satisfied with their current situation will also be unable to draw from it the strength that leads them to act correctly in the world. This is what the Buddha calls attaining the “right position.”

[ 33 ] The sixth point is that we must increasingly ensure that what we acquire through right opinion, right judgment, and so on, becomes a habit within us. When we are born into this world, we have certain habits. A child displays this or that inclination or habit. But a person should strive not to retain the habits that come to him from samskara, but rather to acquire those habits that, through “right thought, right judgment, right speech, and so on,” gradually become his own. These are the “right habits” that we should acquire.

[ 34 ] The seventh point is that we bring order to our lives by not always forgetting yesterday when we are called upon to act today. If we had to relearn all our skills from scratch every time, we would never accomplish anything. Human beings must strive to develop a remembrance, a memory, of all aspects of their existence. They must always draw upon what they have already learned and connect the present to the past. Thus, the “right memory”—as it is called in the Buddhist sense—is what human beings must cultivate on the Eightfold Path.

[ 35 ] And the eighth is what a person gains by devoting himself purely to things—without a preference for this or that opinion, without allowing what remains from earlier incarnations to influence him—by immersing himself in them and letting only the things themselves speak to him. That is “true contemplation.”

[ 36 ] This is the Eightfold Path, which the Buddha told his followers would, if followed, gradually quench that painful thirst for existence and bring the soul something that frees it from all that comes from past lives and enslaves it. In this way, we have also been able to grasp something of the entire spirit and origin of Buddhism. But we also now understand the significance of the fact that the ancient Bodhisattva became a Buddha. We know that the ancient Bodhisattva always allowed everything connected with his mission to flow into humanity. In ancient times, before the Buddha entered the world, humanity was incapable of using even its inner forces in such a way that a true word or a true judgment would arise of its own accord. For this to happen, influences from the spiritual worlds had to flow down to human beings. It was the ancient Bodhisattva who allowed these influences to flow down. Therefore, it was an event of a unique kind when this Bodhisattva became the Buddha, who now taught what he had previously infused into humanity—that is, he now placed a physical body into the world that could develop within itself the very powers that had previously only been able to flow down from above. As the first physical body of this kind, the Buddha placed this body into the world as Gautama Buddha. Thus, everything he had previously allowed to flow down has now existed in the world. But this has great and far-reaching significance for the entire development of the Earth, for when what has flowed down into the Earth from epoch to epoch has once existed within a human being—has once walked in bodily form as a human being on Earth—it now forms a power that can pass on to all human beings. And within the body of Gautama Buddha lie the causes for all time, enabling human beings to develop the forces of the Eightfold Path within themselves into the distant future, so that the Eightfold Path may become the possession of every human being. The fact that the Buddha was here gave people the opportunity to think correctly, and whatever happens in this direction—until all of humanity has made the Eightfold Path its own—is due to the Buddha’s existence. What the Buddha possessed within himself, he gave to humanity as spiritual nourishment.

[ 37 ] Such things are generally still overlooked by modern science. Yet it is often the simplest of fairy tales and legends that tell us of such great things in the course of human development. I have had to emphasize on several occasions that fairy tales and legends are often wiser and more scientific than our objective science. The depths of the human soul have always sensed something quite special as truth in a being such as a Bodhisattva. That something first flows down, which then gradually becomes the property of the human soul, and which then, as it were, radiates out from the human soul into the cosmos—this is what people perceived as something quite special. And those who could sense this, however dimly, said to themselves: Just as the rays of the sun shine into the heavens, so once the power of the Bodhisattva radiated the forces of the teaching of compassion and love down upon the earth—the forces of the Eightfold Path; but then the Bodhisattva took up residence in a human body and bestowed upon humanity what had once been his own. This now lives within humanity and radiates back into the cosmos, just as the moonlight reflects the sun’s rays back into the cosmos. This was always felt to be something particularly significant wherever such a truth was expressed through fairy tales and legends. Therefore, to express this truth regarding the Bodhisattva, a remarkable fairy tale was created in the regions where he appeared. This great event was clothed in the following simple narrative.

[ 38 ] Once upon a time, the Buddha lived as a hare, and it was a time when all manner of other beings were searching for food, but all the food had been consumed. However, the food the hare itself could eat—vegetables—was not suitable for the beings who were carnivores. So the hare, who was actually the Buddha in the form of a Brahmin, decided to sacrifice itself and offer itself as food. At that moment, the god Shakra arrived; he witnessed the hare’s mighty deed. And a crevice in the mountain opened up and took the hare in. Then the god took a tincture and painted the image of this hare on the moon. And ever since that time, the image of the Buddha as a hare has been visible on the moon. —- In the West, people do not speak of the hare in the moon, but of the “man in the moon.”

[ 39 ] But a Kalmyk fairy tale puts it even more clearly: A hare lives on the moon, having reached it because the Buddha sacrificed himself and the Earth Spirit himself drew the image of the hare on the moon. - This expresses the great truth of how the Bodhisattva became the Buddha and how the Buddha gave himself up, how he offered what was his very essence as nourishment to humanity, so that it can now radiate from the hearts of people out into the world.

[ 40 ] We have said of a being such as the Bodhisattva, who has become a Buddha—and this is the teaching of all who know—: When such a being passes through the stage from Bodhisattva to Buddha, this is the final incarnation on Earth, in which the entire being of that person is embodied in a human form. Such a being will never again undergo such an incarnation. That is why the Buddha could say, when he sensed the significance of his present existence: “This is the last of my incarnations; there will be no further incarnation on Earth.”—Nevertheless, it would be incorrect to believe that such a being then withdraws entirely from earthly existence. It continues to influence earthly existence. Although it does not enter a physical body directly, it assumes another body—whether formed of astral or etheric substance—and thus exerts its influence on the world. And the manner in which it exerts this influence, after having undergone its final incarnation, may be as follows.

[ 41 ] An ordinary human being, who consists of a physical body, an etheric body, an astral body, and a self, can, so to speak, be permeated by such a being. Such a being—which no longer descends into a physical body but still possesses an astral body—can integrate itself into the astral body of another human being. It then works through that earthly human being. This person can then become an important figure, for the forces of such a being—who has already undergone its final incarnation on Earth—are now at work within him. Thus, such an astral being connects with the astral being of any human being on Earth. This connection can take place in the most complex ways. When the Buddha appeared to the shepherd in the form of the “heavenly hosts,” he was not in a physical body, but he was in an astral body. He had taken on a body through which he could still work upon the Earth. One therefore distinguishes, in such a being who has now become a Buddha, a threefold body:

[ 42 ] First, the body it possessed before Buddhahood, when it acted from above as a bodhisattva—a body that does not contain everything necessary for this being to act; it still resides in the higher realms and is linked to its former mission, just as the former Bodhisattva was linked to the Buddha before transforming that mission into the Buddha’s mission. As long as such a being resides in such a body, that body is called a Dharmakaya.

[ 43 ] Second, the body that such a being forms for itself, which it possesses in and of itself, and through which it expresses everything it contains within itself in its physical form; this body is called the “Body of Perfection,” Sambhogakaya.

[ 44 ] Third, the body that such a being assumes after having undergone perfection and is now able to exert its influence in the manner described; this is called a Nirmanakaya.

[ 45 ] We can therefore say: The Buddha’s Nirmanakaya appeared to the shepherds in the form of a host of angels. Then the Buddha shone forth in his Nirmanakaya and revealed himself in this way to the shepherds. However, he was still to seek a way to influence the events in Palestine during this crucial time. This happened in the following way.

[ 46 ] To understand this, we must briefly recall what we know about the nature of the human being from the anthroposophical lectures. We know that in spiritual science we distinguish between several “births.” In what is called physical birth, the human being, as it were, sheds the physical maternal shell. At the age of seven, the human being sheds the etheric body, which until then—until the change of teeth—surrounds him just as the physical maternal body does until physical birth; and upon reaching sexual maturity—that is, in our time, at the age of fourteen or fifteen—the human being sheds what he has had up to that point as an astral body. Thus, the human etheric body is actually first born outwardly as a free body at the age of seven, and the human astral body is born with sexual maturity; the outer astral sheath is then shed.

[ 47 ] Let us now consider what is shed upon reaching sexual maturity. In the regions where the events in Palestine took place, this point occurred somewhat earlier—under normal circumstances, at the age of twelve; at that time, the astral maternal sheath was shed. In ordinary life, this sheath is shed and handed over to the outer astral world. In the case of the child who descended from the priestly line of the House of David, something different occurred. At the age of twelve, the astral sheath was shed; but it did not dissolve into the general astral world; rather, just as it had been the young boy’s protective astral sheath—with all the vitalizing forces that had flowed into it between the time of tooth replacement and sexual maturity—it now flowed together with that which had descended as the Buddha’s Nirmanakaya. What appeared to descend from the host of angels united with what had detached itself from the twelve-year-old Jesus as his astral sheath, uniting with all the youthful forces that preserve one’s youthfulness during the period between the change of teeth and sexual maturity. The Buddha’s Nirmanakaya, which had outshone the infant Jesus from birth, became one with what detached from this child at puberty as his youthful astral maternal sheath; he absorbed it, united with it, and thereby rejuvenated himself. And through this rejuvenation, it became possible for what he had previously given to the world to reappear now in the infant Jesus, as it were, in childlike simplicity. Thus, this child gained the ability to speak in a childlike manner about the lofty teachings of compassion and love that we have described today in this context. At that time, during the depiction of Jesus in the temple, the boy spoke in such a way that those around him were surprised, because the Buddha’s Nirmanakaya hovered around him, refreshed as if from a fountain of youth by the boy’s astral maternal sheath. | This is something the spiritual researcher can know, and which the writer of the Gospel of Luke has woven into the remarkable scene of the twelve-year-old Jesus in the temple, where he suddenly becomes someone else. That is why, in the Gospel of Luke, Buddhism is taught in a way that is understandable even to the most childlike simplicity. We must understand this. Then we will know why the boy no longer speaks as he did before. Just as he spoke before, so now, at this time, speaks the one who, as King Kanishka in ancient India, convenes a synod and has ancient Buddhism proclaimed there as orthodox doctrine. But in the meantime, the Buddha himself had progressed. He had absorbed the forces of the astral mother-shell of the infant Jesus, and through this he became able to speak in a new way to the hearts and minds of people. |

[ 48 ] Thus, the Gospel of Luke presents Buddhism in a new form, as if from a fountain of youth, and therefore expresses the religion of compassion and love to even the simplest of minds in a natural and self-evident way. We can read it. The writer of the Gospel of Luke has woven this mystery into it. But there is even more to it. Only a part of what is contained in this scene of the presentation in the temple could be described today, and we will have to delve even deeper into the foundations of this mystery; then light will also be shed on both the earlier and later periods of the life of Jesus of Nazareth.