The Rudolf Steiner Archive

1. Buddha and the two Jesus Boys

[ 1 ] At the most recent Basel course, it was possible for the first time to discuss a topic that had not yet been addressed within the German Section. Of course, the Christ Event itself has often been discussed, especially in connection with the Gospel of John. By drawing on the Gospel of Luke, as was done in Basel, it was possible to address in particular what might be called the prehistory of Christ. This involves dealing with very complex circumstances. As is well known, a high solar being entered the body of Jesus of Nazareth and lived within it for three years, from the baptism in the Jordan to the Mystery of Golgotha. This exalted Christ-being has been discussed on many occasions. But regarding what lives before our souls as the personality of Jesus of Nazareth—and who took in that being—more precise details can only be provided in connection with a Gospel that encompasses the story of Jesus from his childhood onward. The development of Jesus from his birth to his baptism in the Jordan was the main theme of the Basel lectures. Even in this early history, we are faced with very complex circumstances. One must always bear in mind that the greatest things are not easy to grasp or to present in simple terms. The structure of the world cannot be sketched with a few strokes or understood with a few convenient concepts.

[ 2 ] The personality who, in the thirtieth year, took the Christ-essence into himself is composed in a very complex way. Only from the Akashic Records can one find the correct clues as to why the early life of Jesus is portrayed differently in the various Gospels.

[ 3 ] Today, we will briefly outline some aspects of Jesus of Nazareth in order to provide an overview of what was discussed in greater detail in the Basel lectures. We also intend to speak about the Gospel of Matthew—or possibly the Gospel of Mark—in the members’ lectures this winter. The Christ event then appears to us in a completely different light in such a new presentation. We do not yet know this event sufficiently merely through our connection to the Gospel of John. However, for now, we can only speak of these things in a sketchy manner.

[ 4 ] The clairvoyant’s chronicle, the Akashic Records, reveals to us in vivid writing what has happened over the course of time. The course of the spiritual messages is generally such that facts from the Akashic Records are first revealed without reference to a specific document. Only later is it shown that all these things can be found in certain documents, especially in the Gospels, which can only be properly understood with the help of the facts from the Akashic Records.

[ 5 ] In Palestine at that time, spiritual currents that had previously flowed separately throughout the world converged. Drawing on the Gospel of Luke, one could speak of three spiritual currents that came together in the Christ event. One is linked to Buddha, another to Zarathustra, and the third was embodied in ancient Hebrew culture. These three currents converged in a specific event—namely, the Christ event. People usually speak of such spiritual currents in far too abstract a way. In reality, however, they are realized in specific beings who must be constituted in such a way that the currents could converge within them. It is therefore necessary to investigate the inner composition of such beings in detail.

[ 6 ] The Buddhist tradition reached its peak with Gautama Buddha. He had undergone previous incarnations. However, that incarnation in the 6th century B.C. marked a significant high point in his existence. It was then that Gautama first became what is called a Buddha. Before that, he was merely a Bodhisattva—that is, a great teacher of humanity. Humanity itself gradually acquires different abilities over the course of time. We ourselves likely lived in ancient Egypt at one time, but were endowed with abilities quite different from those we possess today; some old abilities have diminished, while new ones have emerged.

[ 7 ] Anyone who fails to take such a development into account is simply not looking out at the world with an unbiased eye. Today, for example, human beings can recognize certain laws of logic and morality from within themselves; they can exercise their power of judgment and discern this or that on their own. But that was not the case in primeval times. Back then, for example, human beings would have found nothing within themselves concerning morality. Even if such laws had been taught to them in today’s terms, they would not have understood them at all. A completely different capacity had to be appealed to. Thus, there are certain truths available to human beings today that could not have been discovered even three thousand years ago—such as the teachings of compassion and love. Today, an inner voice instructs us about the laws of compassion and love. Back then, human beings would have searched in vain for such a voice. To use a rather crude expression, compassion and love had to be “instilled” in them.

[ 8 ] The being whose task, for millennia, was to infuse human beings with compassion and love from higher, spiritual realms was that Bodhisattva who later incarnated in India as the Buddha. As a human being in the physical world, he would have found no compassion or love within himself. Through their initiation, however, the Bodhisattvas rose into the spiritual realms, where they were able to bring down teachings such as those of compassion and love. But there comes a time when humanity has matured enough to discover for itself what had previously been instilled in it. This was also the case with compassion and love.

[ 9 ] When that Bodhisattva ascended to Buddhahood—that is, in the relevant incarnation in the 6th century B.C., while seated under the Bodhi tree—something significant was taking place not only within his own being but across the entire earth. At that time, the teaching of compassion and love blossomed within the Buddha, who had taken human form—or rather, a formulation of that teaching, namely the Eightfold Path, which is the more detailed elaboration of that teaching of compassion and love. Because the Buddha was able to recognize this teaching vividly within himself, the possibility was created for humanity to experience the same in the future. Since then, certain people have been able to recognize this and, following the example of the great Buddha, lead a life that, as it were, brings the teaching of the Eightfold Path to life from within themselves.

[ 10 ] Only then—when a larger number of people have matured enough to experience what the Buddha experienced back then—will this matter have become humanity’s own and true concern. Thus, mission after mission is transmitted to our world from higher spheres. By about three thousand years from now, enough people will have matured to walk the Eightfold Path, and by then compassion and love will have become second nature to humanity. Then a new event will occur, bringing a new mission down from the spiritual into the physical world.

[ 11 ] Long ago, the Buddha allowed that teaching of compassion and love to flow into humanity. But now it continues to be a living force within humanity, ever since the Buddha set it in motion. When a Bodhisattva has fulfilled his duty after some three thousand years of activity, he becomes a Buddha, who then carries out a specific mission for humanity.

[ 12 ] What, then, became of that Buddha—whose mission was to bring compassion and love to humanity—after he had left his physical body? “Buddha” always refers to a final incarnation. He needed only the Gautama incarnation to fulfill his mission. Since that time, because that Bodhisattva individuality has become a Buddha, it is no longer possible for it to descend into a physical body. It can now incarnate only as far down as the etheric body. That Buddha can therefore be seen today only by a clairvoyant. Such a form, which an individuality assumes without including the physical body, is called the Nirmanakaya. In it, the being continues the mission that was entrusted to it as a Bodhisattva. Thus, the great Christ event was also prepared by that Buddha reigning in the Nirmanakaya.

[ 13 ] A couple, namely Joseph and Mary of Nazareth, had a child named Jesus. This child was uniquely endowed in such a way that the Nirmanakaya Buddha could say to himself that this child, in his physical form, had the potential to bring humanity a great step forward through that very form, provided he would make his contribution as a Buddha. He therefore descended in his Nirmanakaya into that child. The Nirmanakaya should not be imagined as a closed physical body like the one we have, but rather as a system in which what were otherwise mere forces have here become distinct entities. This system of entities is held together in the higher worlds by the “I” of the underlying individuality in question, much like the faculties of thinking, feeling, and willing within us. The clairvoyant perceives this group of related entities belonging to the Nirmanakaya Buddha.

[ 14 ] There are also analogies to this in the natural world: for example, in the gall wasp, the front part of the body is connected to the rear part only by a thin stalk. If one imagines this stalk to be invisible, one has two unconnected yet interdependent parts. Similar relationships of interdependence exist in the beehive and the anthill.

[ 15 ] The author of the Gospel of Luke was well acquainted with such circumstances. He also knew that the Nirmanakaya Buddha descended into the infant Jesus. He expresses this by saying: When the child was born in Bethlehem, a host of angels descended from the spiritual worlds and announced to the shepherds what had happened. For certain reasons, the shepherds became clairvoyant at that very moment.

[ 16 ] At first, that infant Jesus developed only slowly. Outwardly, he showed no particularly outstanding qualities that would have indicated a great spirit. But a deep inner life and spiritual depth soon became apparent, along with a lively emotional life. A clairvoyant would have seen the Nirmanakaya Buddha hovering above this child. An Indian legend tells us that an old sage came to the infant Buddha and recognized in him a Bodhisattva maturing into a Buddha. The old man burst into tears because he himself would not live to see the great Buddha. Asita, as the sage was called, was reborn and was once again an old man when Jesus was young—namely, Simeon of the Gospel of Luke. When Jesus was presented at the temple, he now saw the Bodhisattva before him as a true Buddha and was therefore able to say: “Lord, now you let your servant depart in peace, for my eyes have seen your Savior.” — Thus, after five hundred years, the sage saw what he had not been able to see before.

[ 17 ] When one studies the origins of Jesus as described in the Gospel of Luke and compares them with those presented in the Gospel of Matthew, a certain discrepancy becomes apparent—one that scholars have largely overlooked. From the Akashic Records, however, one can obtain the correct explanation as to why the two family trees are different and must be different.

[ 18 ] Around the same time that Jesus was born, another couple in Palestine—also named Joseph and Mary—was blessed with a child named Jesus. So at that time, there were two children named Jesus, born to two different sets of parents. One Jesus was from Bethlehem. He lived with his parents in Bethlehem; the other’s parents lived in Nazareth. The former Jesus descended from the line of the House of David that ran through Solomon. The Nazarene Jesus, on the other hand, descended from the Nathanic line of the House of David. Luke tells us more about one child, while Matthew tells us more about the other. In his early youth, the child from Bethlehem displayed abilities quite different from those of the child from Nazareth. The former was well-developed in all the qualities that are outwardly apparent. For example, this child was able to speak right from birth, even if at first his speech was more or less unintelligible to those around him. The other infant Jesus displayed a more introverted disposition.

[ 19 ] The great Zarathustra of antiquity was now incarnated in the Child of Bethlehem. As is well known, that Zarathustra had entrusted his astral body to Hermes and his etheric body to Moses. His I was reborn six hundred years before Christ in Chaldea as Nazarathos or Zarathos, and finally once more as Jesus. This infant Jesus had to be taken to Egypt to live there for some time in an environment suited to him and to revive within himself the impressions of that environment. One must therefore by no means believe that the Jesus of whom Luke speaks is the same as the one of whom Matthew tells. By decree of Herod, all children up to the age of two were killed. John the Baptist would also have been affected had not enough time elapsed between his birth and that of Jesus.

[ 20 ] In the twelfth year of life, the “I” of the infant Jesus of Bethlehem—that is, the Zarathustra “I”—passes over into the other boy Jesus. From the twelfth year onward, therefore, it was no longer the former “I” that lived in the Nazarene Jesus, but now the Zarathustra “I.” The Bethlehem child died soon after that “I” had left him. Luke describes this transfer of the Zarathustra “I” to the Nazarene Jesus in the story of the twelve-year-old Jesus in the temple. For his parents could not explain why their child suddenly spoke with such wisdom. These parents had no other children besides him. The other couple, on the other hand, had additional children—four boys and two girls. Both families later became neighbors in Nazareth, however, and eventually merged into a single family. The father of the Jesus from Bethlehem was already an old man when Jesus was born. He died shortly thereafter, and the mother moved with her children to Nazareth to live with the other family.

[ 21 ] Thus, in his Nirmanakaya, the Buddha worked together with the “I” of Zarathustra within Jesus of Nazareth. The Buddha and Zarathustra worked together in this child.

[ 22 ] The Gospel of Matthew initially focuses more on the Jesus of Bethlehem. At his birth, the wise men from the East appeared, guided by the star to the place where Zarathustra was reborn.