The Circular Flow of Man's Life within the World Of Sense, Soul And Spirit

GA 68b — 7 November 1904, Berlin

37. What can the Modern Human find in Theosophy?

Report in the “Hamburger Fremdenblatt”, 3rd supplement, November 10, 1904

Theosophical Society. At the public meeting held on Monday in the Patriotisches Haus, Dr. phil. Rudolf Steiner of Berlin spoke on the subject: “What can the modern human find in Theosophy?”

The lecturer assumed that Theosophy is based on the spiritual experience of the human being. This goes beyond mere external sensory appearance to an understanding of life, soul and spirit. In the realm of sensory appearance, there is emergence and decay, birth and death. Things, people, nations, even world systems arise and pass away. But life is constantly renewing itself in new forms. The individual plant form dies; its life is reborn in a new plant. In the realm of the soul, this life appears on a higher level. The outer appearance of a person is an expression of the constantly renewing soul life. An unbiased pursuit of this thought leads to the view of reincarnation or re-embodiment. The speaker then moved on to the consideration of the spirit, showing that the creations that arise from the activity of a being do indeed pass away, but that this activity itself continues to work as a cause. In its activity, the spirit is immortal. It becomes ever more perfect and more perfect, because its abilities arise from its work. From this arises the law of 'karma', of cause and effect in the spiritual world. And from this law, in connection with the idea of reincarnation, follows the moral teaching of the theosophical worldview. What drives the soul to action in the first place is desire. This expresses the soul's inclination towards the external world of phenomena. But the spirit transforms desire into love. An activity that arises from the spirit is a loving one. Since every activity lives on in its effect, a law of moral compensation is given with “karma”. The deed that a person accomplishes in a certain period of time, the experience that he has, are the consequences of earlier deeds and experiences and in turn become the causes of later ones. A continuous thread of moral concatenation must be spun from re-embodiment to re-embodiment in the life of the soul. The theosophical view of life builds its principles of the most general philanthropy, fraternity and tolerance on these great world laws. Its moral laws are the eternal laws of the general life that permeates the world.

The lecture, which was received with great applause by the numerous audience, was followed by a lengthy discussion and questions. The next lecture by Dr. Steiner, “World Law and Human Destiny,” will take place on December 12 at the Patriotisches Haus.