Self-Knowledge and God-Knowledge II
GA 90b — 19 January 1905, Düsseldorf
XXXI. On the Concept of God
When asked about the concept of God, an Indian faces a completely different situation than a European. He designates the Supreme as “Brahman” or does not speak about it at all. We have cultivated less mystical experience over the centuries, but more abstract thinking.
Today's humanity is so little accustomed to thinking of the intermediate stages between humans and the supreme God that modern man cannot easily imagine these intermediate stages. The mystics recognized intermediate beings between humans and the supreme deity: seraphim, cherubim, thrones, wisdoms, powers, authorities, principalities, archangels and angels. In the past, people tried to recognize such beings. First of all, they wanted to get to know the beings that are above humans.
Even on earth, we enter into relationships with beings that do not live on the physical plane, but on the astral or mental plane. Man lives on these three planes; but there are beings that do not descend to the physical plane, and there are others that do not even descend to the astral plane, but only dwell on the mental plane, such as the devas, the gods of the Indians. The mystic who has gained an insight into these beings will not be satisfied with an idea of the supreme and sole God if it is not based on a gradual ascent. The modern European is no longer familiar with this concept.
What is the relationship between God and man? How is it that the deity created man and that the world has only developed little by little? Such questions occupy European thought. These questions are extremely difficult to answer. In order to be able to shed some light on them, one needs at least some knowledge of what is called yoga: inner development. In the ancient mysteries, one had to go through catharsis for this purpose. The student was told: You can only educate yourself about the immortality of the soul when you no longer have any desire for immortality. This was taught in the ancient mysteries.
Man must face these questions as he does mathematical questions. In doing so, passion and feeling do not come into it; that is why man makes a very objective distinction. We must cultivate dispassion for all questions, even the highest ones. If desire did not have a say in these questions, then there would be agreement, even on such questions as the concept of God. The Pythagorean demanded that his disciple undergo catharsis first. This was also the case with gnosticism. The gnostics called their teaching on these questions 'mathesis'. The gnostic teaching on these questions was called mathesis because it was dispassionate like mathematics.
The more passion must fade, the more calm the soul must become in order to properly address these questions. Then, above all, man asks: What is the relationship between the divine and the world itself?
If we go back in time, from our point of view, we want to see if we encounter divine beings. Before us, three realms arose: the mineral, plant and animal realms. Man has all the properties of these three realms within him. He has the laws of the mineral realm within him; he is a physical-chemical laboratory; that is his mineral nature. He has life and the power to reproduce. Furthermore, he has an animal nature because he has sensation. He can, for example, feel an external impact within himself. How did man come to include the four realms within himself? He has developed to his present position at the expense of the other realms.
Before man became human, he had the three other realms within him. All minerals, all plants, all animals were even more perfect than they are today. We can illustrate this with an example: a liquid that is composed of four different liquids has certain properties as a result; we now extract a liquid as an essence. In this way, the human being has been extracted from the other realms as essence. His ascent is bought at the cost of the other realms sinking lower.
If we go back even further, the animal kingdom has not yet been extracted, but the mineral and plant kingdoms are even more perfect than later on. The animal kingdom had not yet been extracted as essence; it only developed at the expense of the mineral and plant kingdoms. It goes further back in time to the moment when the mineral kingdom still contained the plant, animal and human kingdoms as the mineral kingdom. One must also recognize this emotionally, only then does one understand compassion for all beings. The theosophist says to himself: I left that animal behind on my own path so that I could develop; I developed at the expense of other beings, so compassion must arise from such insights.
The same applies to the human realm. If the sacred is to develop, then so many must be pushed down into decadence. For every saint, there are several criminals in the world. If there were only one intermediate state, there would be no development. Development is a drawing out of the finer elements from the earlier state.
Our present development consists in man working the world with his mind. Everything he does serves to work the mineral kingdom, whether it is through mechanical engineering or by digging a mine, and so on. New forces are constantly being discovered to work the mineral kingdom. The artist works the spirit into the mineral kingdom. He brings together what lives in the mineral kingdom to form new structures. We cannot yet incorporate life into any being through the spirit, but man works in the mineral kingdom through his spirit. He used to reject the mineral kingdom so that he would later have material to work with. Now he permeates the whole mineral kingdom with his spirit; he will thereby redeem it. In this way he makes amends for what he did wrong in the past. Gradually the whole mineral kingdom will be dissolved in the spirit, processed. An absorption of the mineral kingdom by the spirit will be brought about.
Thus, in the first cycle, a realm is rejected that will be processed again in the fourth cycle: the mineral realm. In the second cycle, the plant realm is rejected, which will be processed in the fifth cycle. The animal realm was rejected in the third cycle and will be taken up again in the sixth cycle. In the seventh cycle, the human being will redeem the human realm. In this way, development also takes place on a smaller scale.
When a saint develops, other people are pushed down. But by hurrying ahead, he can later help the others to catch up on what they have missed, to redeem them. This is how life and development come about.
This awareness must fill people with an all-embracing compassion for the world. They should never want to acquire a higher level of development without wanting to help others in the process. We must redeem the subordinate beings. We are obliged to live to redeem these beings, because we have made our whole development at the expense of the rest of the world. Everything has emerged, repelled from another, so that the other could develop higher.
If we go back in development before the different realms were repelled, we find spiritual entities. The mineral kingdom, as it was in the beginning, before the plant, animal and human kingdoms developed out of it, was also repelled from something else before. So we have an opposition between the physical world and the spiritual world, which, by developing higher, has pushed away the mineral kingdom. The spiritual entities have pushed away the mineral, plant, animal and human kingdoms so that they could develop higher. Then they became our guides and creative spirits. This is the Arupic opposition between the physical and the spiritual world, or between the earthly and the divine world.
If we go back [even further], we come to a God who was all-perfect. We here in Europe ask ourselves: Why did this deity create the world, separate something from himself? If we were to make the decision to make every single thought as perfect as we are, that would mean that we make a first free decision, namely: to transfer our perfection to each of our thoughts. The beginning of the work of the Godhead was similar. The Godhead made the decision to make each member perfect in its own content, as it itself is. It can only do this by giving some of the members the opportunity for development. These can only become perfect by gradually making themselves as perfect as the Godhead itself is. But this necessarily requires that some develop at the expense of other members. If a single member of the Godhead were to make itself as perfect as the Godhead itself is, then that member would fill the whole Godhead. Should this happen suddenly in an instant, it could only achieve this at the expense of the destruction of all other members. Only slow development makes it possible for the individual member to gradually emerge in perfection.
This can also be observed in the life of the soul. When we grasp a thought, all other thoughts recede into the realm of the unconscious. Real development is only possible over time. When a single link emerged from the bosom of the Godhead, another had to recede and become less perfect than it had been in the bosom of the Godhead itself. This is how the difference between good and evil came about. It is not possible for good to arise without its opposite, evil, also arising. Good has developed at the expense of evil. One part of the Godhead was to develop to perfection, so another part had to be repelled. The advanced must continually urge the backward to catch up. Originally, the emergence of individuals took place and, accordingly, the repulsion of others, who then had to catch up. Above humanity were higher spiritual entities that had developed at the expense of others. These entities, which are higher, catch up with the entities that are lower. This is how evil came into the world, which is precisely what gives us the opportunity to attain higher perfection. By transforming evil into good, we create development.
There is no other way to make every single link of the Godhead similar to the Godhead itself. It must not occur to us, with any power we have now, to want to embrace the Godhead. Our human mind is not the highest thing in us; it has been eliminated so that other, higher faculties can develop. It has been eliminated from above and should be replaced by other faculties. It will rise again and again.
We live in the Godhead and develop into the Godhead. Beings are always being replaced and led to higher levels. We do not want to grasp the divinity with our minds. Our opinion of the divinity must develop into an ever more beautiful opinion. Truth cannot be grasped as a limited concept. Truth is alive. I live in the divinity, but I can only grasp the divinity to the extent that my experiences reach. I can only recognize the divinity to the extent that I can perceive it, not beyond what I perceive.
The development should take place because God, in his infinite love, wanted to make all his individual members as perfect as he himself is. It was a free decision, not a necessity. It was a sacrifice. As a result, we have a development of the individual members of the Godhead towards Godlikeness. Through their work, what lies as a possibility of perfection in them comes to light.