{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 54/1906-02-15/p021-p023","extent":"range","passage_number":21,"through":23,"paragraph_count":3,"first_locus":"GA 54/1906-02-15/p021","last_locus":"GA 54/1906-02-15/p023","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"title":"Reincarnation and Karma","date":"1906-02-15","location":null,"alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:identity","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"RSA2014","book_title":"World Mysteries and Theosophy","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA054/English/RSA2014/19060215p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line"},"edition_coverage":{"de":["original"],"en":["English"]},"record":{"record_type":"unknown","scope":"volume","note":"How this text was taken down (shorthand transcript, listeners' notes or manuscript) is not on record here. 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There is no longer any freedom or free will. We are subject to fate. — If someone were to say this, it would be just as clever as if someone were to say: Here I have a cash book. On the left I have all the debit items, on the right all the credit items. When I add both sides together, I get a certain number. If I subtract both numbers, I get the profit or loss. If I add this back to one side, we have a balance sheet. — Certainly, it is the same with a life balance sheet. The good deeds are on one side, the bad and stupid deeds on the other. There is also a life account with a life balance sheet, just as there are accounts and balance sheets in commercial bookkeeping. Now imagine a businessman who said, my annual accounts are done, I can't enter anything else, I can't do any more business, because everything I'm still allowed to do is predetermined by my previous entries. — It would be the same if a person said, I can't do any more new deeds. The entries and the accounts don't forbid him to do so. Just as bookkeeping does not forbid the businessman from doing new business, karma does not forbid him from doing good or evil deeds. At any moment we can enter new items, at any moment we can increase the debit and credit sides. Some people also say: If I help someone in need and misery, I am interfering with their karma. But I am not allowed to do that. That is not the case. You can help people to enter new and good items in their karma and thereby make their life account favorable. What you enter there that is lazy, careless, and fatalistic is not so positively connected with the law of karma. But something else is connected with the law of karma.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":369,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/54/1906-02-15/p021","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"RSA2014","book_title":"World Mysteries and Theosophy","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA054/English/RSA2014/19060215p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line"},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 54/1906-02-15/p021"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"high","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."}},{"passage_number":22,"locus":"GA 54/1906-02-15/p022","text":"When you see a chemist entering his laboratory, he may enter with a specific idea: if I combine sulfur, oxygen, and hydrogen in a certain way, sulfuric acid will be produced according to an immutable law. There is nothing wrong with this law. But the chemist can also refrain from making the mixture; he can make it or not make it. The law does not interfere with his free will at all. But the law gives him the certainty that what is to happen will actually happen when it is to happen. The same mixture does not produce carbonic acid one time and sulfuric acid another time. The law allows us to rely on a certain effect. It is the same with karma. The law of karma cannot prevent us from doing anything, but it gives us the certainty that a correct and just balance must take place in life, that every good deed must have its good effect and every clever deed its corresponding effect. The fact that everything happens according to a spiritual law gives us certainty and shows us that nothing we do is left to chance, but that everything we do is done in such a way that we can build on a correct world connection.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":210,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/54/1906-02-15/p022","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"RSA2014","book_title":"World Mysteries and Theosophy","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA054/English/RSA2014/19060215p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line"},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 54/1906-02-15/p022"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"high","note":"Every load-bearing name in the German counterpart appears in this English passage. 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It is not only the thirst for knowledge that is satisfied by the spiritual-scientific worldview. It also gives us something else, namely strength, courage, and security. Not only are we told something about our destiny, but at the same time we are given the opportunity to live in accordance with this destiny, to live in such a way that we move toward an ever more perfect existence. Thus, the solution to the mystery of life through the two facts of reincarnation and the law of karma is not dogmatic and didactic, but full of life and imbued with feeling.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":178,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/54/1906-02-15/p023","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"RSA2014","book_title":"World Mysteries and Theosophy","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA054/English/RSA2014/19060215p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line"},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 54/1906-02-15/p023"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"high","note":"Every load-bearing name in the German counterpart appears in this English passage. 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Da stehen wir unter einem Fatum. — Wenn jemand so sagen würde, so wäre das ebenso klug, wie wenn jemand sagen wollte: Hier habe ich ein Kassenbuch. Links habe ich alle Sollposten, rechts alle Habenposten. Wenn ich beide Seiten addiere, so kommt ja eine bestimmte Zahl heraus. Subtrahiere ich beide Zahlen, so ergibt sich der Gewinn oder der Verlust. Füge ich diesen der einen Seite wieder hinzu, so haben wir eine Bilanz. — Gewiß, das ist ebenso bei einer Lebensbilanz. Die guten Taten stehen auf der einen Seite, die bösen und dummen Taten auf der andern. Da gibt es auch ein Lebenskonto mit der Lebensbilanz, wie es Konten und Bilanz in der kaufmännischen Buchhaltung gibt. Denken Sie sich nun einen Kaufmann, der sagte, mein Jahresabschluß ist gemacht, ich darf nichts mehr eintragen, ich darf keine neuen Geschäfte mehr machen, denn alles, was ich noch machen darf, ist durch die früheren Eintragungen vorherbestimmt. — Dasselbe wäre es, wenn der Mensch sagte, ich darf keine neuen Taten mehr begehen. Die Eintragungen und der Abschluß verbieten ihm das nicht. Ebensowenig wie die Buchhaltung dem Kaufmann verbietet, neue Geschäfte zu machen, ebensowenig verbietet ihm das Karma gute oder böse Taten. In jedem Augenblick können wir neue Posten eintragen, in jedem Augenblick können wir die Soll- und die Habenseite vermehren. Manche sagen auch: Wenn ich einem in Not und Elend Befindlichen helfe, so greife ich ja in sein Karma ein. Das darf ich aber nicht. — So ist es nicht. Sie können dem Menschen helfen, neue und gute Posten in sein Karma einzuschreiben und dadurch, sein Lebenskonto zu einem günstigen zu gestalten. Was Sie an Faulem, Lässigem und Fatalistischem da hineinschreiben, ist nicht so positiv mit dem Karmagesetz verbunden. Mit dem Karmagesetz ist aber etwas anderes verbunden.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":343,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/54/1906-02-15/p021"},{"locus":"GA 54/1906-02-15/p022","passage_number":22,"text":"Wenn Sie einen Chemiker in sein Laboratorium hineingehen sehen, wird er vielleicht mit der bestimmten Idee hineingehen: Wenn ich Schwefel, Sauerstoff und Wasserstoff in einer gewissen Weise zusammenbringe, so entsteht Schwefelsäure nach einem unabänderlichen Gesetz. Gegen dieses Gesetz ist nichts einzuwenden. Aber der Chemiker kann es auch unterlassen, die Mischung vorzunehmen, er kann sie machen oder nicht machen. Das Gesetz beeinträchtigt seinen freien Willen gar nicht. Aber das Gesetz gibt ihm die Sicherheit, daß das, was eintreten soll, auch wirklich eintreten wird, wenn es eintreten soll. Es gibt nicht aus derselben Mischung das eine Mal Kohlensäure und das andere Mal Schwefelsäure. Das Gesetz läßt uns auf eine bestimmte Wirkung bauen. Ebenso ist es auch mit dem Karma. Von keiner Tat kann uns das Gesetz vom Karma abhalten, aber es gibt uns die Sicherheit, daß ein richtiger und gerechter Ausgleich stattfinden muß im Leben, daß jede gute Tat ihre gute Wirkung und jede gescheite Tat ihre entsprechende Wirkung haben muß. Daß alles nach einem geistigen Gesetze geschieht, das gibt uns die Sicherheit, das zeigt uns, daß nichts, was wir tun, dem Zufall anheimfällt, sondern daß alles, was wir tun, so getan ist, daß wir bauen können auf einen richtigen Weltenzusammenhang.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":199,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/54/1906-02-15/p022"},{"locus":"GA 54/1906-02-15/p023","passage_number":23,"text":"So ist dieses Gesetz vom Karma nicht bloß ein wissenschaftliches Gesetz, nicht etwas, was bloß das theoretische Interesse befriedigt, sondern etwas, was die Lösung des Lebensrätsels, des Weltenrätsels birgt. Es gibt Kraft und Sicherheit im Leben, es wirkt so, daß wir wissen, daß alles in diesem Leben zusammenhängt nach einem Gesetz, das immer mehr und mehr erkannt wird, das wir zunächst unbewußt und dann immer bewußter deuten. Nicht bloß der Wissenstrieb wird durch die geisteswissenschaftliche Weltanschauung befriedigt. Noch etwas anderes wird durch sie gegeben, nämlich Kraft und Mut und Sicherheit. Nicht allein wird uns etwas gesagt über unsere Bestimmung, sondern es wird uns zu gleicher Zeit die Möglichkeit gegeben, im Sinne dieser unserer Bestimmung zu leben, so zu leben, daß wir einem immer vollkommeneren und vollkommeneren Dasein zuschreiten. So ist nicht dogmatisch und lehrhaft, sondern lebensvoll und gemütsdurchtränkt die Lösung des Lebensrätsels durch die beiden Tatsachen der Wiederverkörperung und des Karmagesetzes.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":151,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/54/1906-02-15/p023"}],"beads":[{"from":[21],"to":[21],"confidence":"high"},{"from":[22],"to":[22],"confidence":"high"},{"from":[23],"to":[23],"confidence":"high"}],"note":"Paired by the paragraph aligner; each language numbers its own paragraphs. A bead at either end of the span can carry text beyond it (the `from` numbers show what each bead covers)."}}