47. Man as Microcosm in Relation to Macrocosm
From time immemorial, man has been regarded as a “world in miniature” in relation to the “world at large”. Not only the human mind, but also the heart, reaches this conclusion, as it rises up to the lofty starry sky and to the ideals of the human spirit with equal reverence and pious awe. Kant says that two things fill the mind with ever-increasing admiration and awe: “the starry sky above me, and the moral law within me.”
But how unequal the two are: the starry heavens with their eternal immutable laws, in which eternal wisdom is inherent; and the changeable moral and spiritual nature of man, which only uncertainly follows its laws and strays every moment. The greatest admiration arises in the face of the starry heavens in those who know and study its immutable laws. Kepler was filled with admiration when he had explored the secrets of the planetary orbits of our solar system. The human heart, in contrast, with its fickleness and confusion, evokes the most misgivings in those who know it best. Goethe, one of its most profound connoisseurs, liked to flee from its meanderings and wanderings to the unerring laws of external nature.
Why is it that our perception of the two is so different? Goethe was probably on the right track with his: “Noble, helpful and good, be man.” That is a commandment that no one applies to nature. Man is condemned for leaving the paths of justice and virtue, but not for being a volcano that wreaks untold havoc. We have to find harmony with nature, even if it has a destructive effect: we know that its laws are immutable. Have they always been? No; the laws Kepler celebrates in discovering them were only revealed in the solar system: harmony was born out of the chaotic primeval nebula. But this lawfulness has reached a certain conclusion. The battles in this field are over. This is not yet the case with man. He carries his law within himself. He should not be what he is today tomorrow, because he should perfect himself. His development, that is, his life, is perfection in all areas. He works his way from desire to virtue, from error to truth. He will then be what he should be when the law of his inner being completely permeates his outer being, when what he now feels to be his highest ideal will be his immutable law, as the law of the starry sky is presented today on that sky. And it is not only in this respect that man has the feeling of disharmony between his present existence and his law. He applies the principle of justice to this existence of his. He seeks a connection between this principle and his will. At first, external observation shows a discordance between fate and will. The good must suffer, and the wicked are happy. The question of the connection between destiny and character has occupied all ages.
The question can never be resolved by looking at just one lifetime. Just as no one can understand the structure of the human hand without following it from the simpler, unfinished forms of the locomotor organs of primitive creatures, so no one can understand the character of a personality without seeking its causes in a past life. Karma explains facts that would otherwise be completely inexplicable. Our abilities in this life are the fruits of the desires and efforts of previous lives; what we wear as a habit in this life were often cherished thoughts in previous lives; what we possess in the way of wisdom we have acquired through previous experiences, and our conscience is the result of many painful experiences. Our thoughts are facts that shape our desire body, and it shapes the physical body. Sleep is the brother of death because in each new life a person finds what he has prepared for himself in the previous one, just as in the morning a person finds the results of the day's work from the previous day. Fatalism does not follow from karma, because the laws of nature also submit to freedom. And karma does not contradict benevolence. This understanding leads to helping. But karma does contradict the materialistic view of man. It must contradict. For just as a clock does not build itself, so too man's life does not build itself. Man is a citizen of three worlds. But he must open his senses to the higher worlds. He must not pull them down to himself. He must ascend to them. Spiritualism is also a form of materialism. It should not be confused with Theosophy. The person whose senses are opened lives himself into the higher worlds. He also acquires the memory of earlier lives on earth. He becomes more and more like the man-God, who vouched for the eternal existence of the spirit by saying: “Before Abraham was, I am.” All the arguments about the divinity of Christ can only arise in those who do not know that the human soul is of divine nature. The firstfruits of humanity will reach divinity before the others. Then they will become, in their humanity, the carriers of the divine original spirit. Theosophy brings Christianity again. The one that knows why the disciples thought their master had risen again. - Annie Besant's and my book. Then it will be self-evident to think of the Christ-life in the perfection of the sun-myth. Christmas is the birthday of the sun. The Egyptian, the Mithraic, the Budhistic sun-myth.
The Christmas hymns speak of the eternal in human nature: Our savior is born. And when the Christmas bells ring, their sound echoes:
You, man, are on your way to a goal that makes you perfect, like the sun that is born today for a new year – to go your way, unchanging like it: that is its proclamation.
Facts like the lamps.
No one is invited. —