Supplements to Member Lectures

GA 246 — 30 September 1911, Bern

46. Faith, Love and Hope

My dear Theosophical friends!

When we, as Theosophists, concern ourselves with the knowledge given to us through Theosophy, the question sometimes arises energetically within us: What is the significance of delving into Theosophical knowledge for human beings at all?

In connection with this, the other question arises: Why should this Theosophy become especially important for man in our time, since at other times it has been dispensed with, not demanded by man?

These two questions lead us to look into Theosophy itself to see what creates the desire, the drive for Theosophy in the present human nature. For indeed, today countless souls are driven to Theosophy simply by what they are, feel and sense, so that one could say: If this theosophy were not there, these souls would desire something that is precisely not there and would remain unsatisfied.

Why do these souls demand this very special spiritual satisfaction? If you think through what you know from Theosophy, you will be imbued with the fact that the human soul nature has changed over the millennia, that the innermost character is somewhat different than it used to be. And anyone who even outwardly surveys the history of human soul development will immediately recognize the great difference between the life of the ancient Greeks and Romans and our own soul life.

We don't even need to go back that far. Let us compare the development of the soul of the most profound people of the twelfth, thirteenth or fourteenth century, the great mystics.

If we look back into the soul life of, say, a Meister Eckhart, [a] Tauler, who had an effect on many other souls, we find a word with which we can describe the mystical-moral ideal of these people: serenity. They demanded this serenity. This is precisely what these mystics demand of those who are to attain a deep awareness of God and Christ. It is that mood of the soul in which a person allows the small and difficult events of life to approach him with a certain calmness of soul, so that he cannot be thrown off course by the terrible things that strike him and cannot be brought to “rejoice to the skies, sorrow to death” by something joyful, by something sad. Balance in enduring the joyful, the painful: That was serenity. This serenity was demanded because we knew that the inner life of the soul could not develop in any other way. Life in relation to the divine, the spiritual of the world, cannot develop in any other way than when the soul can face the world with serenity.

The storms of the soul constrict that which should let in the divine, the godly life, which should fill the soul for its own satisfaction. These storms drive out of the soul that which brings a clear insight into fruitful moral principles and ethical impulses. A true awareness of the divine-spiritual that pulsates through the world can only be experienced through balance of the soul, through serenity, as with Johannes Tauler and Meister Eckhart.

A well-known experience that is described to us by Johannes Tauler, how he preached to the congregation before he experienced God in his own soul, and how completely differently he was now able to speak in the pulpit after he was able to experience God in his own soul.

We can say that when we immerse ourselves in the sermons of the old mystics or in their effectiveness, it is very different from how souls can be affected in our time. It can no longer work in our time as it did then.

If we look for the objective reason why this cannot be, we find that our souls have become different, that other souls still lived among the believing community at that time, in which an inner content was hidden that had the divine in it, unlike the souls of people today. Back then, it was possible to extract something from souls that is no longer possible today. It is the inner God that lies dormant in every soul and has receded into deeper layers of the soul since that time. In those days it was more in the upper layers of the soul; today it lies deeper. And in the upper layers today lies what man can muster in terms of understanding for the external phenomena of the world, what forms the character, the soul.

We know the unfortunate Nietzsche, who asserted what lived in his own soul. Nietzsche would have become a devout Catholic in spite of everything, because that was the only way he could satisfy his soul.

One of the people who want to live out their self is [Langbehn, the author of the book “Rembrandt als Erzicher”, which appeared under the anonymous authorship “Von einem Deutschen”] - how much of a sensation this book caused! In 1900 [Langbehn] converted to Catholicism and died a devout Catholic. There is something truly illogical when someone who only wants to assert what lives inside him is urged to join a religious confession. It has even been questioned whether the “Rembrandt German” was still fully conscious when he converted to Catholicism.

Whatever religion a person belongs to - if he is truly devout, he will eventually reach the same goal through any religion. It will lead him to the same goal. Anyone who believes that they can only come to Christ through the historical Jesus is mistaken.

There was a unity between Meister Eckhart and Johannes Tauler and those who listened to them. They were able to express what lived in their own innermost souls, and they believed they were expressing true Christianity by expressing what lived in their innermost souls. The inner being, by expressing itself, can incorporate the Christ into the word. They find the Christ or the world spirit that can satisfy their whole soul life.

The souls of earlier times relate to the souls of today like the respiratory organs of fish to the respiratory organs of higher animals. Since that time the spiritual atmosphere has changed and today man has, as it were, a different spiritual respiratory organ, and today's man will need more and more insight into that which surrounds us as spirit. Thus today we can only come to the right self-knowledge and bring the soul to an inner peace and harmony if we experience the world phenomena in realization. Only if we really immerse ourselves in spiritual science and strive higher will the world knowledge of spiritual things be revealed to us. That is theosophy.

We can no longer easily extract the divine-substantial content from our soul because it has been drawn into deeper layers. Today we need theosophy. We must have the world knowledge of spiritual things, and this is what theosophy wants to give us.

Master Eckhart and Johannes Tauler were still able to speak (?) and find their innermost soul through serenity. But what could be achieved with serenity in the past is no longer possible today. All the words we could muster today, however beautiful they might sound, everything we could say today, would be infinitely sober compared to what those masters could say with their words infused with a spiritual fire.

We have to produce the same effects today, but in a completely different way. What would happen if that serenity were not generated? Right now and in the future, serenity will be even more necessary; but it must be implanted in our souls in a completely different way: by learning to lead our souls in the right way. We have to start from the opposite side than before. To do this, we need to acquire some knowledge. If you don't want to learn, you can't find the thread. We have acquired a number of concepts about the nature of the soul: sensory soul, intellectual or emotional soul, consciousness soul. We cannot do without these distinctions if we want to understand ourselves. There is a great difference in the individual facts of the soul's life.

When Meister Eckhart and Johannes Tauler spoke of serenity, this had an effect on the sentient soul. Today we have to speak to the soul of consciousness, to turn to insight, to thinking. Up until the thirteenth century, the emotional soul was worked on. Until the sixteenth century, the soul of understanding and the soul of the mind were worked on, and since then and today, the soul of consciousness. (Giordano Bruno worked on the intellectual and emotional soul, Copernican worldview). Today we must turn to thinking, we must speak to the consciousness soul. The souls urge us to do so.

It may be said that the time has not yet come since we have thinking. Without being frivolous, one can say: souls who [are] good Catholics or Protestants - or whatever religion they belong to - and [who] strive forward spiritually will reach their goal. It is the aim of Theosophy to allow all religions to flow together in a synthesis, that is, into one. You can become a theosophist anywhere. The Mohammedan within Mohammedanism, the Protestant within Protestantism and so on and so forth, and [for this it makes no difference] whether one is born in this or that place.

If today the soul in the consciousness soul is seized by what we can offer as Theosophy, whoever has the patience to process this in serious work will achieve serenity. Ascending to the higher worlds is only possible through serenity, and this is what Theosophy brings us to. We must first promote insight into the spiritual foundations of the world, and then we will be able to free ourselves from egoism. We see in ourselves the meaning of the universe; but [we also see] the responsibility to draw our moral impulses from the whole meaning of the universe. It is an absorption in the meaning of the universe, and only this gives inner harmony and bliss to the soul. The feeling of abandonment can be overcome through Theosophy. Theosophy must conquer people's souls, otherwise people would collapse. Inwardly unstable people will become more frequent and can only regain their footing through Theosophy; however, it must not be one-sided. We cannot get by with inner strength of character alone.

In ancient times, a word of comfort meant much more than it does today. Such a word was filled with the ardor of the heart. Today we are no longer able to exert such an effect from soul to soul. Today you will often hear that a person is suffering from anxiety, from fear; but because we can no longer influence the emotional soul as we used to, it will take more effort for a person to free himself from it. But we can work on something. Today we can cultivate the fight against selfishness, self-will and stubbornness. And this fight is connected with the consciousness soul. Through pedagogical principles, which Theosophy gives us, feelings of fear and anxiety can be driven out of the soul. A soul that is imbued with a real perception of the Theosophical teachings will recognize what morbid states of fear and anxiety can be. We do not only distinguish facts. Certain [moral things are connected with the physical body].

What we express today with the word faith, we find in the astral body. [There is much discussion about what is the object of faith. But just as the sun would shine even if it were denied, so men may deny the existence of God, but God is there]. How often does a person say to himself: I no longer want to believe in anything. - But in the astral body this need for faith remains. This doubt appears as a weakness of the soul. One tries to make it clear through theosophy: I believe because I know why I believe. - But this knowledge must be brought to the soul. A soul that cannot believe must be brought to despair. The astral body demands faith.

The etheric body needs love. And a person who cannot love, his etheric body must dry up. It will become more and more apparent that love can only be of use in the world if it is based on understanding and wisdom. We must not say: Love makes blind. - Love should give. The ideal of love stands on theosophical ground, where we penetrate into the true things, into the true essence of things. This love is necessary because only true theosophical love will be able to work its way into the physical body. Without hope, the physical body cannot thrive. Hope is at the same time confidence.

Man works best on the physical plan through physical (?) work. He must not dither over a possible lack of success, but should be imbued with the idea that what is done as work must bear fruit. The causes must come into existence as effects.

Real hope, strong hope - how can they be placed in the modern soul? We must grasp the laws in the connection from life to life and must grasp the idea of re-embodiment. The one who has correctly understood this idea of re-embodiment will have a strong backbone when he has to watch hundreds of things turn into failure. Moral causes are not without moral effects - that is the correct view. He knows that unsuccessfulness is maya, that the truth is that the right effects must be produced somewhere for rightly accomplished causes. Nothing but maya can come to us from the physical world. It depends on doing, on knowing.

We must acquire a new faith (astral body), [a] new love (etheric body), [a] new hope (physical body).

Our time is an important time. More souls will emerge in the twentieth century who will experience Paul's experience before Damascus. The first forerunners have already incarnated and will be allowed to experience the great event in the course of the twentieth century. This is connected with the birth of higher soul forces. People would not have developed if Christ were to come again in the physical body. Christ will be visible not only to those who live in the physical body, but also to those who are between death and a new birth. But [the deceased] must have heard of Theosophy in their previous life. For on earth, in physical embodiment, man must acquire this knowledge. Those people who refuse to be enlightened about it will not be able to do so after death; they will not be able to experience the Christ event.

It is important what oriental world history has said again and again: The greatest preparer is Gautama Buddha. He prepared the present-day humanity of the East the most. The greatest impulse of earthly development is the Christ event. What Buddhism is must be properly understood. If one investigates, one will be able to understand it. The individuality of Gautama Buddha will no longer appear in the physical body, but will affect the physical world from the spiritual worlds. 5000 years after the Buddha's enlightenment under the Bodhi tree, Maitreya Buddha (“the bringer of good”), whose words then contain magical powers, will appear, from now on in 3000 years. He will become the greatest teacher for Christianity. The Bodhisattva who will come in the twentieth century will point to the etheric body of Jesus and will also be the individuality recognized in occultism as the individuality of Maitreya Buddha determined in 3000 years. Today, the appearance of the Maitreya Buddha would not yet be possible.

Moral principles we have to speak out; to harmonize morality with intellectuality. An immoral person will become more and more stupid. A moral person will also be a clever person.

In higher worlds, one can visualize today what the Maitreya Buddha will bring in 3000 years. The majesty of this teaching will harmonize all the feelings of Christianity. Theosophy forms, as it were, the first building blocks of that age. Theosophy as an intellectual fact acts upon the soul of consciousness. Man will be able to work into the physical body. The flesh will become strong and pure. The earth will thus be able to be brought to heaven before the pralaya. Intelligence will emerge from within morality. With full consciousness, man will now be a theosophist. The meaning of Christianity will be experienced. The deepest longing to ascend and to experience will fill our innermost being. We immerse ourselves more and more in the spirit and see it as our duty to work our way into it. Even if we do not seem to grow, we can be aware that even the smallest work in all modesty, in the invisible, brings us one step higher in the spiritual life.

We should be imbued with the seriousness and dignity of theosophical work. Theosophists with their thinking - even if they are considered stupid by other people, as so often happens and as one hears so often - how much they can serve humanity through it! Theosophy will have a transforming effect. Wherever work is done for Theosophy, even in a very small circle, work is being done for eternity.