{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 120/1910-05-16/p016","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"Such a fact teaches us that we should be mistaken if we considered the blow of fate at the age of twenty-five was merely an effect. We cannot just ask what caused it, and stop at that. But if we consider the blow not as an effect at the end of the phenomena which preceded it, but place it rather at the beginning of the subsequent events, and consider it as a cause, then we learn that we must entirely and essentially change the judgments we have formed by our feelings and perceptions with regard to this blow of fate. We shall very likely be grieved if we think of it only as an effect, but if we think of it as the cause of what happens later on, we shall probably be glad and feel pleasure over it. For we can say that thanks to the fateful blow the man who experienced it has become a decent fellow, and a useful member of society. So we see that our attitude is essentially different in so far as we consider an event in life as cause or as effect. Therefore it is of importance from which point of view we regard an event happening to a man—whether we consider it as a cause or as an effect. It is true that if we start our investigations at the time of the painful events, we cannot then clearly perceive the direct effect, but if we have arrived at the law of karma by the observation of similar cases, that law can itself say to us: ‘an event is painful perhaps now because it appears to us merely as the result of what has happened previously, but it can also be looked upon as the starting point of what is to follow.’ Then we can foresee the blow of fate as the starting point and the cause of the results, and this places the matter in quite a different light.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"1. The Nature and Significance of Karma in the Personal and Individual; and in Humanity, the Earth and the Universe","site_heading":null,"date":"1910-05-16","location":null,"word_count":328,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/120/1910-05-16/p016","alignment_confidence":"medium","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"not_established","translator":null,"identified_edition":"RSP1984","book_title":"Manifestations of Karma","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA120/English/RSP1984/19100516p01.html","evidence":null,"reason":"source_says_translator_unknown","note":"The source page itself says the translator is unknown. No translator is established for this lecture: nothing at the level of the lecture names one. Do not attribute this English to a translator, and do not borrow a credit from another lecture of the volume. Cite the German for anything load-bearing."},"edition_coverage":{"de":["original"],"en":["English"]},"available_versions":[{"lang":"de","edition":"original","edition_basis":null,"is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/120/1910-05-16/p016"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/120/1910-05-16/p016","paragraph_aligned":true}],"record":{"record_type":"unknown","scope":"volume","note":"How this text was taken down (shorthand transcript, listeners' notes or manuscript) is not on record here. Unknown is not an assurance of a stenogram: check the edition's own notes before resting an argument on one word.","evidence":null,"evidence_translation":null,"evidence_source":null},"german_anchor":{"de_prefix":"1910-05-16","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 120/1910-05-16/p018","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/120/1910-05-16/p018"},{"locus":"GA 120/1910-05-16/p019","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/120/1910-05-16/p019"}],"bead_confidence":"medium","pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false,"length_check":{"de_words":326,"en_words":328,"ratio":1.01,"partial":false},"correspondence":"established","note":"English passage numbering is edition-relative, so the same number need not name the same paragraph in the German. The German original passage(s) above are the edition-invariant anchor — fetch them (lang='de') to verify wording before quoting across editions."},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 120/1910-05-16/p018","passage_number":18,"text":"Eine solche Tatsache lehrt uns, daß wir fehlgehen, wenn wir den Schicksalsschlag vom fünfundzwanzigsten Jahre als eine bloße Wirkung betrachten. Denn wenn wir fragen: Was hat er verursacht?, können wir nicht bei der bloßen Beobachtung stehenbleiben. Wenn wir aber einen solchen Schlag nicht als Wirkung betrachten und an das Ende der Erscheinungen stellen, die vorausgegangen sind, sondern wenn wir ihn an den Anfang der nachfolgenden Ereignisse stellen und ihn als Ursache betrachten, dann lernen wir erkennen, daß wir allerdings sogar unser Gefühlsurteil, unser Empfindungsurteil ganz wesentlich ändern können gegenüber diesem Schicksalsschlag. Wir werden vielleicht traurig sein, wenn wir ihn bloß als Wirkung betrachten, daß diesen Menschen dieser Schlag getroffen hat. Betrachten wir ihn dagegen als Ursache eines Späteren, dann können wir vielleicht froh sein und Freude darüber empfinden. Denn diesem Schicksalsschlag ist es zu verdanken - so können wir sagen -, daß der Betreffende ein ordentlicher Mensch geworden ist.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":149,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/120/1910-05-16/p018"},{"locus":"GA 120/1910-05-16/p019","passage_number":19,"text":"So sehen wir, daß es an unseren Empfindungen etwas Wesentliches ändern kann, je nachdem wir eine Tatsache des Lebens als Wirkung oder als Ursache betrachten. Es ist also nicht gleichgültig, ob wir irgend etwas, was im Leben den Menschen trifft, als bloße Wirkung oder als Ursache betrachten. Freilich, wenn wir in dem Zeitpunkt die Beobachtung anstellen, wo das schmerzliche Ereignis eingetreten ist, können wir noch nicht die unmittelbare Wirkung wahrnehmen. Wenn wir uns aber das Karmagesetz gebildet haben aus ähnlichen Beobachtungen, dann kann dieses Karmagesetz selber uns sagen: Jetzt ist vielleicht ein Ereignis schmerzlich, weil es uns bloß als Wirkung des Vorhergehenden entgegentritt; aber es kann auch so betrachtet werden, daß es als Ausgangspunkt für ein Folgendes angesehen wird. Dann können wir sagen: Wir ahnen, daß hier der Ausgangspunkt die Ursache ist von Wirkungen, welche die Sache in ein ganz anderes Licht stellen! So kann das Karmagesetz selber der Quell sein einer Tröstung. Die Tröstung wäre nicht da, wenn wir uns gewöhnten, ein Ereignis nur an das Ende und nicht an den Anfang einer Erscheinungsreihe zu setzen.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":177,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/120/1910-05-16/p019"}],"english":["GA 120/1910-05-16/p016"],"method":"length","confidence":"medium","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":326,"en_words":328,"ratio":1.01,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.01,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":8705,"original_word_count":8647,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"not_established","translator":null,"identified_edition":"RSP1984","book_title":"Manifestations of Karma","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA120/English/RSP1984/19100516p01.html","evidence":null,"reason":"source_says_translator_unknown","note":"The source page itself says the translator is unknown. No translator is established for this lecture: nothing at the level of the lecture names one. Do not attribute this English to a translator, and do not borrow a credit from another lecture of the volume. Cite the German for anything load-bearing.","warning":"No translator is recorded for this edition. An unattributed translation cannot be weighed as a witness: you cannot tell which hand made the choices in it. Cite the German for anything load-bearing."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 120/1910-05-16/p018","GA 120/1910-05-16/p019"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"medium","note":"Every load-bearing name in the German counterpart appears in this English passage. That is a check on NAMES only: a translation can keep every name and still reverse who acts on whom, change a number, or soften a claim. Read the German for anything you intend to rest an argument on."},"note":"quote_safe certifies the bytes of this text. This block is about the translation as a WITNESS: who made it, and whether it carries the same names as the original. See witness_completeness for how much of the original this witness holds."}}