The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Ninth lecture

[ 1 ] As you will have gathered from yesterday’s lecture, a text such as the Gospel of Luke can only be understood if one grasps the development of humanity in that higher sense provided to us by spiritual science—that is, if one truly takes into account the changes that have taken place in the course of human evolution and that have transformed the entire human being in his or her constitution. If we wish to understand that radical process that took place within humanity at the time of Christ Jesus—which is necessary for comprehending the Gospel of Luke—it is helpful to compare it with what is taking place in our own time: not so rapidly, but rather gradually, yet still clearly perceptible to those who can see.

[ 2 ] To understand this, we must first thoroughly break with another judgment that is so frequently expressed and to which human complacency clings so readily. This is the judgment that nature or evolution does not make leaps. If we take the common interpretation of this statement as our basis, there can be no statement more false than this very one. Nature is constantly making leaps! And that is precisely the essential point—that leaps occur. Let’s look, for example, at how a plant seedling develops. When it sprouts its first little leaf, that is a significant leap. Another significant leap takes place when the plant transitions from leaf to flower, then again when it moves from the outer to the inner part of the flower, and yet another, very significant leap occurs in the formation of the fruit. Leaps occur continuously, and anyone who fails to take this into account will not understand nature. When observing human development and noticing that over the course of a century progress moves at a snail’s pace, such a person will believe that development must proceed at the same pace in other eras as well. But it may well be that at a certain time, development proceeds slowly, as with a green plant from the first green leaf to the last; yet just as a leap occurs in the plant once the last leaf has developed and the flower begins to form, so too do leaps occur continuously in human development.

[ 3 ] And such a significant leap occurred during the time when Christ Jesus appeared on Earth. Such a leap occurred that, in a relatively short time, the characteristics of the old clairvoyance and the dominion of the spiritual over the physical were transformed, so that very little remained of clairvoyant power and of the influence of the soul-spiritual upon the physical. Therefore, before that transformation took place, it was necessary to once again synthesize what had been inherited from ancient times. It was within this that Christ Jesus had to work. Then the new could be received by humanity and could now develop slowly and gradually.

[ 4 ] In other areas, a leap is taking place in our time—not quite as rapidly, but a leap nonetheless. Although it unfolds over a longer period, it must seem entirely comprehensible to those who wish to understand our time. We can best grasp this by listening to people who, starting from one spiritual field or another, are now approaching spiritual science. For example—and this happens quite often—a representative of one religious community or another might attend a lecture on spiritual science. What I am about to say is something that is entirely understandable and is not meant as a criticism. Such a person listens to a lecture on spiritual science that deals, for example, with the essence of Christianity, and says afterward: “That’s all very nice, and, when you get right down to it, it doesn’t even contradict what we say from the pulpit or the lectern; but we say it in a way that everyone can understand. What is said here, on the other hand, is expressed in a way that only a few can understand.” — This is something that happens very frequently. Anyone who says such a thing—or believes that the way they understand or proclaim Christianity is the only possible way—fails to take one thing into account: that one has an obligation to judge not according to one’s personal preferences, but according to the facts. And on one occasion I had to reply to such a person: You may believe that you are proclaiming Christian truths to all people. But our faith does not decide anything in this case; rather, the facts do. Do all people go to church with you? The facts prove the opposite! Spiritual science is not intended for those for whom you are correct; rather, it is intended for those who need something else. — We must judge according to the facts and not according to our personal preferences; and as a rule, it is very difficult for people to distinguish their personal preferences from the facts.

[ 5 ] If such people could not be dissuaded from the belief that they are right, and if they were to reject anyone who speaks differently from them, and if spiritual life could not take root at all among such people, what would happen then? The number of people who could not hear the manner in which spiritual truths are proclaimed—as has been customary in this or that spiritual movement—would then grow ever larger. Fewer and fewer people would go where such things are heard. And if there were then no spiritual-scientific movement, these people would have nothing at all, no satisfaction of their spiritual needs; they would wither away, for they would be given no nourishment. However, it does not depend on the will of the individual how spiritual nourishment is shaped for them—that depends on evolution. We have now reached the point where people want satisfaction for their spiritual needs, for the interpretation of the Gospels, and so on. But what matters is not how we wish to provide spiritual nourishment, but how the human soul demands it. The human soul’s longing for spiritual science has been born today. And it does not depend at all on those who wish to teach something else whether they satisfy the spiritual needs of the age; for they will have fewer and fewer listeners.

[ 6 ] We live in a time when the ability to accept the Bible as it has been accepted over the last four to five centuries of European cultural development is increasingly disappearing from people’s hearts. Either humanity will come to embrace spiritual science and, through spiritual science, learn to understand the Bible in a new light, or people will reach the point—as is already the case for many today who are unfamiliar with anthroposophy—where they can no longer listen to the Bible. Humanity would lose the Bible entirely; the Bible would disappear, and immense spiritual treasures would be lost to humanity—the most important spiritual treasures of our earthly evolution. This must be recognized. We stand at such a turning point in our evolution. The human heart yearns for a spiritual-scientific explanation of the Bible. If humanity receives this spiritual-scientific explanation of the Bible, the Bible will be preserved as a blessing for humanity; if it does not receive this explanation, the Bible will be lost. Those who believe they must absolutely maintain their personal preferences and their traditional way of approaching the Bible should take this to heart. This is how we can characterize the leap we are now making in human development. Anyone who is aware of this fact cannot be deterred from nurturing the anthroposophical spiritual movement, because they recognize it as a necessity for human development.

[ 7 ] Now, viewed from a higher perspective, what is happening now is actually relatively minor compared to what took place back then, when Christ Jesus appeared on Earth. At that time, human evolution had reached a stage where, so to speak, the final vestiges of the development that had been taking place since time immemorial—even since the previous incarnation of our Earth—were still present. Human beings developed primarily in their physical body, etheric body, and astral body. Although they had long since integrated the “I,” this “I” still played a subordinate role at that time. The fully self-conscious “I” was still veiled by the three sheaths—the physical body, etheric body, and astral body—until the time of the appearance of Christ Jesus.

[ 8 ] Let us suppose that Christ Jesus had not come to Earth. What would have happened then? Humanity’s evolution would have progressed to the point where the “I” would have fully emerged. But to the same extent that the “I” had fully emerged, all the former outstanding abilities of the astral body, etheric body, and physical body would have faded away; all former clairvoyance, all former dominion of soul and spirit over the body would have faded away, for that would have been the necessity of evolution. Human beings would have become self-conscious “I’s,” but “I’s” that would have led humanity ever more toward selfishness, that would have led ever more to the withering away of love on Earth, to the disappearance of love from the Earth. Human beings would also have become “I’s,” but entirely selfish “I’s.” That is the essential point.

[ 9 ] At that point in time, humanity was ready to ascend to the development of the Self, the “I”; therefore, at the same time, it had outgrown the old way of allowing itself to be influenced. In the ancient Hebrew development, for example, the Law—the proclamation from Sinai—was able to take effect because the “I” had not yet fully emerged, and the astral body, which stood as the highest entity, was, so to speak, imbued and imprinted with what it was to do and feel in order to act correctly in the outer world. Thus, the Law from Sinai had flowed forth as a kind of preliminary proclamation—but as a final one, before the “I” had fully emerged. If the “I” had emerged and nothing else had occurred, human beings would have looked only to their own “I.” Humanity was indeed ripe for the development of the “I,” but the “I” would have been such an empty “I”—an “I” that would have thought only of itself and would not have wanted to do anything for other people or for the world.

[ 10 ] To give substance to this “I,” to gradually guide this “I” toward such a development that it radiates of its own accord that power we call the power of love—that was the work of Christ on earth. Without Christ, the “I” would have become like an empty vessel; through the appearance of Christ, the “I” stands there like a vessel filling more and more with love. That is why Christ could say to those around him: “You say that when you see clouds gathering, such and such weather is coming; thus you judge the weather by outward signs. But you do not understand the signs of the times. For if you could understand and judge what is happening around you, you would know that God must enter the “I,” permeating and imbuing it; then you would not say: “We can also live with what has been handed down from ancient times.” - What comes from ancient times is given to you by the scribes and Pharisees, who preserve the old and refuse to allow anything to be added to what was previously presented to humanity. But this is leaven that will have no further effect on human evolution. But whoever says, “I will remain with Moses and the prophets”—such a person does not understand the signs of the times and does not know what transition is taking place within humanity (Luke 12:54–59). In meaningful words, Christ Jesus told those around him that whether one chooses to become a Christian or not does not depend at all on the individual’s personal preference, but rather on the necessity of humanity’s continued evolution. Through the discourses handed down to us in the Gospel of Luke as the “signs of the times,” ,” that the old leaven among the scribes and Pharisees—who preserve only the old—is no longer sufficient; and only those who do not feel the obligation to judge according to the necessities taught for the development of the world—those who judge everything according to their personal preferences—can believe that it is sufficient. That is why Christ Jesus called what the scribes and Pharisees wanted a falsehood—something that no longer corresponds to the external world. That is what the expression actually means.

[ 11 ] We can best bring home the emotional power of his speech by comparing it to corresponding events in our own time. How, then, should we speak in our time regarding what has been alluded to, if we were to apply fully to our own era what Jesus Christ said about the scribes and Pharisees? Do we have anything similar to the scribes in our time? Yes, we do! And these are the ones who no longer wish to follow the deeper interpretation of the Gospels, who want to remain stuck at what their abilities—acquired without spiritual science—can tell them about the Gospels; these are the ones who do not wish to follow the steps into the depths of the Gospels that are taken through spiritual science. This is essentially the case wherever one attempts—whether in a more progressive or a more regressive manner—to interpret the Gospels. For the power to interpret the Gospels grows solely on the soil of spiritual science. The truth about the Gospels can be gained only from spiritual science! That is why everything else being researched about the Gospels today is so disheartening and leaves us so cold if we truly wish to seek the truth. However, in addition to the scribes and Pharisees, we now have a third type of person: the natural scientists. Thus, we can speak today of three categories that seek to exclude everything that leads to the spiritual—everything that human beings can acquire in terms of abilities to arrive at the spiritual foundations of natural phenomena. And those whom one must encounter in the present day—speaking in the spirit of Jesus Christ—are often found today in academic chairs; they hold the power to interpret natural phenomena and reject spiritual explanations. They are the ones who are holding back the progress of human development, for the progress of humanity is held back wherever people refuse to recognize the signs of the times in the sense indicated.

[ 12 ] In our time, it would be in keeping with the way of Christ Jesus only if we found the courage—just as he turned against those who would accept only Moses and the prophets—to turn everywhere against those who seek to set back the progress of humanity by opposing the anthroposophical interpretation of the Scriptures on the one hand and the works of nature on the other. Sometimes these are truly well-meaning people who would like to foster a vague sense of peace here and there. All such people should allow something to take root in their hearts—something that Jesus Christ himself spoke of in the Gospel of Luke.

[ 13 ] One of the most beautiful and powerful parables in the Gospel of Luke is the one commonly known as the Parable of the Unjust Steward (Luke 16:1–13). The story goes: A rich man had a steward about whom he had been told was squandering his property. He therefore decided to dismiss this steward. But the steward was deeply distressed by this and asked himself: What am I to do now? I cannot make a living by becoming a farmer, for I do not understand that; nor can I become a beggar, for I am too ashamed to beg.” Then he came up with a plan. He said to himself: “As a steward, I have always treated the people I came into contact with in such a way that I looked only to my master’s interests. That’s why they don’t particularly like me—because I didn’t look out for their interests; I must do something so that they’ll take me in, so that I don’t come to ruin; I’ll do something so that people see that I have goodwill toward them.” So he went to one of his master’s debtors and asked him, “How much do you owe?”—and had half the debt written off. He did the same with the others. In this way, he sought to win the goodwill of the debtors so that, if his master drove him away, he could go to the people and find refuge and not die of hunger. That is the purpose. — Now the Gospel goes on to say something that might well astonish this or that reader of the Gospel of Luke (verse 8): “And the master commended the dishonest steward for having acted shrewdly.” There are indeed some among those who explain the Gospels today who have wondered which “master” is meant here, even though it is stated quite clearly that Jesus himself commended the steward for his shrewdness. And then it goes on to say: “For the children of this world are wiser in their own generation than the children of light.” This is how it has been written in the Bible for centuries. One might wonder whether no one has ever thought about what this means: “the children of this world are wiser than the children of light in their own generation.” “In their own generation” appears consistently in the various Bible translations. If someone with even a little knowledge were to translate the Greek text—and of course they would have to translate it correctly—then the correct rendering would be: “For the children of this world are wiser than the children of light in their own way”! That is to say, in their own way, the children of this world are wiser than the children of light; according to their own understanding, they are wiser, Christ meant. Those who have translated this passage for centuries have simply, up to the present day, confused the phrase “in their own way” with a word that sounds very similar in Greek: ri» yerear = (ten genean); they have confused it with “generation,” because under certain circumstances this word was also used for the other concept. One might ask: Is it possible that such a mistake has dragged on for centuries, and that modern scholars—who are said to have produced good Bible translations and to have strived to establish the correct text—do not correct it? With Weizsäcker, for example, this is exactly the case! As strange as it is, it is just as if people had forgotten their very first lessons from school when they set out to investigate the true form of the biblical documents.

[ 14 ] Above all, the humanistic worldview will have to lead to presenting the biblical documents to the world again just as they are. For the world today does not have the Bible, and it cannot even begin to imagine what these books are like. One might even ask: Are these the biblical books? No, in their most essential parts, they are certainly not! I would like to show you this in more detail.

[ 15 ] Was soll denn überhaupt mit diesem Gleichnis vom ungerechten Haushalter gesagt werden? Das ist klar darin ausgedrückt. Der Hausverwalter hat sich überlegt: Wenn ich hier fortgehen muß, dann muß ich mich bei den Leuten beliebt machen. Er hat eingesehen, daß man nicht «zweien Herren» dienen kann. So sollt ihr einsehen — sagte der Christus zu seiner Umgebung -, daß ihr auch nicht zweien Herren dienen könnt, demjenigen, der jetzt als Gott in die Herzen einziehen soll, und demjenigen, den bisher die Schriftgelehrten verkündet haben, welche die Prophetenbücher interpretiert haben; denn ihr könnt nicht dem Gotte dienen, der als Christus-Prinzip in eure Seelen einziehen soll und die Menschheit in ihrer Entwickelung um ein Mächtiges vorwärtsbringen soll, und dem Gotte, der als ein Hindernis sich davorlegen würde in dieser Entwickelung. — Denn alles, was in einer verflossenen Zeit richtig war, das wird zu einem Hemmnis in der späteren Entwickelung. Darauf beruht in gewisser Weise die Entwickelung, daß dasjenige, was für eine Zeit richtig ist, zum Hindernis wird, wenn es hineingetragen wird in eine spätere Zeit. Diejenigen Mächte, welche die Hindernisse dirigieren, nannte man damals mit einem technischen Ausdruck den Mammon. — Ihr könnt nicht dem Gott, der den Fortschritt will, und dem Mammon, dem Gott der Hindernisse, dienen. Sehet euch den Verwalter an, wie er als ein Kind der Welt einsah, wie man nicht einmal mit dem gewöhnlichen Mammon zwei Herren dienen kann! So sollt ihr einsehen, indem ihr euch erhebt, daß ihr Kinder des Lichtes werdet, daß ihr nicht zwei Herren dienen könnt (Lukas 16, 11-13).

[ 16 ] Likewise, those who live in our time must realize that there is no middle ground between the god Mammon of our time—between the scribes and the natural scientists—and the path that must provide humanity today with the nourishment it needs. This is expressed in Christian terms. It is a formulation, adapted to our times, of what Jesus Christ—in the spirit of the Gospel of Luke—wanted to convey to those around him in the parable that one cannot serve two masters, as he vividly illustrated with the example of the steward.

[ 17 ] We must understand the Gospels in a living way. Spiritual science itself must become something alive! Therefore, everything it touches should come to life under its influence. The Gospel should be something that flows into our own spiritual capacities. We should not merely talk about how, in the time of Christ Jesus, the scribes and Pharisees could be rejected, for then we would once again be thinking only of a bygone era. Rather, we should know how this becomes alive in our own time, and where in our time the successor to that which Christ Jesus described as “Mammon” in his own time lies. That is what living understanding is. But this is also what plays a profound, significant role in what is told to us in the Gospel of Luke. For it connects this perspective—which has just been clarified—with the parable found only in the Gospel of Luke, one of the most important concepts in the Gospel as a whole; and we can only inscribe this most important concept of the Gospel into our hearts if we are able to reestablish, in a somewhat different way, the relationship between the Buddha and the influence he exerted on Jesus Christ.

[ 18 ] We have said that the Buddha presented the great teaching of compassion and love to humanity. Here we have one of those cases where what is said in occultism must be taken quite literally; otherwise, someone might say: “You say on one occasion that Christ brought love to Earth, and then on another occasion it is said that the Buddha brought the teaching of love.” But is the same thing being said in both cases? On one occasion, I say that the Buddha brought the teaching of love to Earth, whereas on the other, I say that Christ brought love itself as a living force to Earth. That is the great difference. When it comes to the deepest matters for humanity, one must listen very carefully; otherwise, it happens that things communicated in one place, when they spread, appear in a completely different form in another place, and then it is said: “Yes, in order to do justice to everyone, he has actually set forth two heralds of love.” - Listening carefully is particularly important in the field of occultism. When we truly understand the significant truths expressed in this way, they appear to us in their proper light.

[ 19 ] We know that the essence of the great teaching on compassion and love, as presented by the Buddha, lies in the Eightfold Path, and we ask ourselves: What, exactly, is the goal of this Eightfold Path? We can also phrase the question this way: Where does a person arrive who, from the depths of his soul, truly sets the Eightfold Path as his ideal in life—when he sets this goal before himself in such a way that he asks: How can I become as perfect as possible? How do I purify and refine my self in the most perfect way? What must I do to present my self to the world in the most perfect way possible? He will say to himself: If I observe everything that is taught in the Eightfold Path, then my “I” will become as perfect as is conceivable, for everything is directed toward the purification and refinement of the “I”; everything that can radiate from this marvelous Eightfold Path is meant, so to speak, to work its way into us—everything is the work of our “I” toward its perfection. That is the essence. So if humanity were to continue developing within itself what the Buddha set in motion as the “Wheel of the Law”—as the technical term goes—it would gradually come to possess the most perfect selves possible, or rather, to know which are the most perfect selves. In thought, as wisdom, humanity would possess the most perfect selves. We could also say: The Buddha brought humanity the wisdom of love and compassion, and if we shape our astral body so that it is entirely a product of the Eightfold Path, then we will know what we need to know about the laws of the teaching of the Eightfold Path.

[ 20 ] But there is a difference between wisdom, thought, and the living force that acts. And there is a difference between knowing how the “I” must be and allowing the living force to flow into oneself, which can then flow out again from the “I” into the whole world, just as this force, flowing out from the Christ, acted upon the astral bodies, etheric bodies, and physical bodies of those around him. To know the content of the teaching of compassion and love—this has become possible for humanity through the impact brought about by the great Buddha. What Christ, on the other hand, brought is first and foremost a living force; it is not a teaching. He himself gave himself up; he descended not merely to flow into human astral bodies, but into the “I,” so that the “I” might have the power to radiate the substance of love from within itself. It is the substance—the living content of love, not merely the wisdom-filled content of love—that the Christ brought to Earth. That is what is at stake.

[ 21 ] It has now been nineteen hundred years and about five centuries since the great Buddha lived on Earth. And—this is something the occult facts teach us—about three thousand years will still pass in the course of Earth’s evolution. Then a greater number of people will be ready to develop the Eightfold Path—the Buddha’s wisdom—out of their own moral disposition, out of their own soul and heart. The Buddha had to be here at one time. From him emanated that power which human beings will gradually develop as the wisdom of the Eightfold Path. Then, about three thousand years from now, they will have made it their own. Human beings will be able to develop this teaching themselves—not merely absorb it from the outside, but develop it from within—and say to themselves: This Eightfold Path springs forth from within us as the wisdom of compassion and love.

[ 22 ] If nothing more had happened than the Great Buddha setting the “Wheel of the Law” in motion, then humanity would indeed, three thousand years from now, have acquired the ability to understand the teaching of compassion and love; but it is quite another matter to have also attained the strength to truly live by them. And that is the difference: not merely to know about compassion and love, but to develop this strength under the influence of an individual. This ability emanated from the Christ. He poured love itself into human beings, and it will continue to grow. And when human beings have reached the end of their development, they will know in wisdom what the teaching of compassion and love entails; they will owe this to the Buddha. But at the same time, they will have the ability to let love flow out from the Self to all of humanity; humanity will owe this to Christ.

[ 23 ] These two elements had to work together, and this is how it had to be described in order to make the Gospel of Luke understandable. But this also becomes immediately apparent to us when we know how to interpret the words given to us in the Gospel of Luke in their proper sense (Luke 2:13–14). There are the shepherds who hurry to receive the proclamation. Up above is the host of angels, which is nothing other than the spiritual-imaginative expression of the Buddha’s Nirmanakaya. What is proclaimed to them from above? The revelation of the God of Wisdom from on high! This is proclaimed to them by the Buddha’s Nirmanakaya, which hovers as a host of angels above the infant Jesus of Nazareth. But something else is added: “And peace to the people on earth below who are imbued with good will”—that is, to those people in whom the true, living power of love is sprouting. This is what must gradually be realized on earth through the impact that Christ has made. He added the living power to what was the “revelation from on high.” He brought this into every human heart and gave every human soul something from which that soul could overflow. He did not merely give it something that was a teaching to be received as a thought or an idea, but a power that can flow out from that human soul. And no other power than that which can work as the Christ-power within the human soul—and which can cause the human soul to overflow—is the one that is constantly referred to—for example, in the Gospel of Luke and in the other Gospels—as the power of faith. That is faith in the sense of the Gospels. The one who has faith is the one who takes Christ into himself, so that Christ lives within him, so that his “I” does not merely live within him as an empty vessel, but has a content that overflows. And this overflowing content is none other than the content of love.

[ 24 ] Why was Christ able to set that great example of “healing through the word” with his words? He was able to do so because he was the first to set in motion the “Wheel of Love”—not the “Wheel of the Law”—as a free capacity and power of the human soul; because he possessed love within himself to the highest degree—so overflowing and effervescent that it spilled over into those around him who were to be healed; because the words He spoke—whether “Arise and walk,” “Your sins are forgiven,” or any other words—sprang from the love overflowing within Him. He spoke words that were uttered from a surging of love beyond the bounds of the ego. And those who could be filled even a little with this reality, Christ called believers. It is precisely this thought that we must now connect with the concept of faith—one of the most essential in the New Testament. Faith is the ability to transcend oneself, to flow beyond what the “I” can initially do for its own perfection. Therefore, since Christ has entered the body of the Nathanic Jesus and united himself there with the power of the Buddha, he does not teach: “How can the ‘I’ perfect itself as much as possible?”—but rather: “How can the ‘I’ overflow? How can it transcend itself?” He often expresses this in simple words, just as the words of the Gospel of Luke are able to speak to even the simplest of hearts. He says: It is not enough that you give only to those whom you know for certain will give it back to you, for even sinners do that. If they know for certain that they will get back what they have given, then they have not yet done it out of overflowing love. But if you give and know that you will not receive it back, then you have done so out of true love; then this is the love that does not enclose the self, but which the self must release from itself as a force that flows out from the human being (Luke 6:33–34). And in the most diverse variations, Christ explains how the “I” should overflow, how, out of the abundance of the “I”—out of a feeling that can flow from within—one should work in the world.

[ 25 ] These are the warmest words in the Gospel of Luke, where this overflowing love is spoken of. The Gospel of Luke contains this power of overflowing love when we allow the words to take effect within us in such a way that we find this overflowing love, so that it permeates all our words and gives them the power to have an effect in the outside world. Another evangelist, who—due to his own background—placed less emphasis on that overflowing love, has at least summarized this mystery of Christianity in a few words by saying: Love flows from the abundance of the self. And naturally, it should also flow into everything we say and do. In the Gospel of Matthew, even in the Latin translation, you will find the authentic, original words serving as a brief summary of all the beautiful praises of love contained in the Gospel of Luke. The Latin text reads: “Ex abundantia cordis os loquitur”: Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (Matthew 12:34). One of the highest Christian ideals! The mouth speaks from the overflowing heart, from that which the heart does not contain. The heart is moved by the blood, and the blood is the expression of the self. This means, therefore, that from that which the heart does not contain, an overflowing self speaks—a self that radiates power from within—for this power is the power of faith. These are the words that truly contain the power of Christ: “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” This is a fundamental statement about the essence of Christianity.

[ 26 ] And now read today’s Bible passage. What does it say here? “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” These are words that have been enough to obscure a fundamental tenet of Christianity for centuries. Humanity has not realized what an absurdity it is to say that when the heart is full, it pours itself out. Usually, things in the world only spill out when they are more than full, when they overflow. Thus, humanity—and this is not meant as a criticism—has necessarily become entangled in a notion that has virtually obscured one of the most important, cardinal tenets of Christianity, and did not even realize that this passage contains a complete impossibility. When it is said that the German language does not allow for a literal translation of “Ex abundantia cordis os loquitur” as “Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks,” and when this is justified by the argument that one cannot say the “overflow” of a tiled stove makes the room warm, that is simply nonsense. For if you heat the tiled stove only enough for the heat to reach its walls, the room will not become warm; it only becomes warm when there is an actual excess of heat, so that the heat escapes from the stove. Thus we come upon an important point here. A cardinal tenet of Christianity, upon which part of the Gospel of Luke is built, is obscured, so that humanity lacks, precisely where it matters most, what is written in the Gospel.

[ 27 ] This power, which can overflow from the human heart, is the power of Christ. “Heart” here stands for “I.” What the “I” can create beyond itself flows out through the Word. Only at the end of Earth’s evolution will the “I” be such that it contains the whole Christ within itself. For now, the Christ is something that overflows from the heart. If one merely wants to have a full heart, then one does not have the Christ at all. Therefore, one actually obscures Christianity when one does not take this statement in all its seriousness and dignity. The most important things—the essence of Christianity—will truly come to light through what spiritual science has to say as an explanation of the sacred texts of Christianity. By reading the Akashic Records of the spiritual world, spiritual science uncovers the original meaning and is thereby able to interpret the texts in their true sense.

[ 28 ] And now we will understand how humanity is moving forward into the future. The one who, five to six centuries before our era, evolved from a Bodhisattva into a Buddha has thereby ascended into the spiritual world to such an extent that he now acts as a Nirmanakaya. He has thus been raised to a higher level and no longer needs to descend into a physical body. The modes of action he had as a Bodhisattva are present again in a different form. When he became a Buddha from a Bodhisattva at that time, he handed over the office of Bodhisattva to another. Another became his successor; another became a Bodhisattva. Buddhist legend expresses this through something that is a profound truth for deeper Christianity. It is said that before the individuality of the Bodhisattva descended to become a Buddha, it removed the celestial tiara and placed it upon the head of the Bodhisattva who was to follow. The succeeding Bodhisattva continues his work with a mission of a somewhat different nature. He, too, is destined to become a Buddha. Precisely at the time when a number of people will have developed the teaching of the Eightfold Path on their own—in about three thousand years—the one who became a Bodhisattva when his predecessor became a Buddha will himself become a Buddha. Five to six centuries before our era, he was entrusted with his mission; he will become a Buddha in three thousand years, counting from our time. This is the one whom Eastern teachings know as the Maitreya Buddha. In order for the present Bodhisattva to become the Maitreya Buddha, a large number of people must have developed the teaching of the Eightfold Path from within their own hearts; a large number of people will then be wise enough to do so. Then the one who is now the Bodhisattva will bring a new power into the world.

[ 29 ] If nothing else were to happen by then, he would indeed find people who, through inner contemplation, could conceive of the teaching of the Eightfold Path, but not people who, from the very depths of their souls, possess the overflowing power of love—that is, living love. This living power of love must flow in during the meantime, so that the Maitreya Buddha may find not only people who understand what love is, but people who possess the power of love within themselves. To this end, the Christ had to descend to Earth—a being who was on Earth for only three years but had not previously incarnated here, as you have been able to gather from all the explanations given to you thus far. Christ’s three-year presence on Earth—from the baptism by John to the Mystery of Golgotha—was the cause of love henceforth pouring out more and more into the human heart, into the human soul, or, in other words, into the human “I”; so that human beings will be increasingly permeated by the Christ, so that by the end of Earth’s evolution, the human “I” will be entirely filled with the Christ. Just as the teaching of compassion and love first had to be inspired by the Bodhisattva, so the substance of love had to be brought to Earth by the One who brought it down from the heights of Heaven and gradually allows it to become the property of the human “I.” We must not say that love did not exist before. It was not that kind of love that could have been the immediate possession of the human “I”; it was a love that was inspired, that Christ allowed to flow down from cosmic heights, which flowed in just as unconsciously as the Bodhisattva had previously allowed the teaching of the Eightfold Path to flow in unconsciously. Just as the Buddha relates to the Eightfold Path, so does the Christ Being relate to what it was before it could descend to take on human form. For the Christ, taking on human form was a step forward. That is the essential point here.

[ 30 ] The Buddha’s successor, who is now a Bodhisattva, is well known to those versed in spiritual science, and the time will come when these facts will be discussed in detail, including the name of this Bodhisattva, who will then become the Maitreya Buddha. Now that so many facts unknown to the outside world have already been revealed, we must limit ourselves to merely pointing them out. When this Bodhisattva appears on Earth and becomes the Maitreya Buddha, he will find the seed of the Christ on Earth. These will be the people who will say: Not only is my mind filled with the wisdom of the Eightfold Path, not only do I possess the teaching and the wisdom of love, but my heart is full of the living substance of love—that which overflows and radiates out into the world. With such people, the Maitreya Buddha will then be able to carry out his further mission in the continued development of the world.

[ 31 ] This is how things come together; and only then do we understand the Gospel of Luke in its depth. It does not speak to us of a doctrine; it speaks to us of that essence that substantially flowed into earthly beings, into the human organism. This is a fact that is expressed in occultism as follows: “The Bodhisattvas, who become Buddhas, can redeem earthly human beings in regard to their spirit through wisdom, but they can never redeem the whole human being. For the whole human being can only be redeemed when not only wisdom but also the warm power of love flows through their entire being.” To redeem souls through the flood of love that Christ brought to Earth—that was Christ’s task. To bring the wisdom of love was the task of the Bodhisattvas and the Buddha; to bring the power of love to humanity was Christ’s task. We must distinguish between these.