Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts
GA 26
On the Picture Nature of Man
Supplementary to the last set of Leading Thoughts
[ 1 ] It is most important that it should be understood through Anthroposophy that the ideas which a man gains by looking at outer Nature are inadequate for the observation of Man. The ideas which have taken possession of men's minds during the spiritual development of the last few centuries fail to realise this fact. Through them men have grown accustomed to thinking out natural laws, and to explaining by means of them the phenomena which are perceived by the senses. They then turn their attention to the human organism, and think that that too can be explained through bringing the laws of Nature to bear upon it.
[ 2 ] Now this is just as though, in considering a picture which a painter had created, we only took into account the substance of the colours, their power of adhering to the canvas, the way in which these colours were applied, and similar things. But such a way of regarding the picture does not reveal what is contained in it. Quite other laws are active in the revelation contained in the picture than those which can be perceived by considering such points as these.
[ 3 ] It is a question of realising that in the human being too something is revealed which cannot be grasped from the standpoint of natural law. If anyone has once thoroughly made this conception his own, then he will be able to understand man as a picture. A mineral is not a picture in this sense. It reveals only what is directly evident to the senses.
[ 4 ] To a certain extent when regarding a picture we look through what the senses perceive to its spiritual content. And so is it also in the observation of the human being. If we truly understand the human being in the light of natural law, we do not feel that these laws bring us into contact with the real man, but only with that through which he reveals himself
[ 5 ] We must experience spiritually that when we regard a man only from the point of view of natural law, it is as if we stood before a picture seeing only ‘blue’ and ‘red,’ and quite unable through an inner activity of the soul to relate the blue and red to that which reveals itself through these colours.
[ 6 ] When viewing things from the standpoint of natural law we must perceive the mineral in one way, the human being in another. In the case of the mineral it is, for the spiritual understanding, as if we were in immediate touch with what is perceived; but in the case of man it is as though we could only come as near to him through natural laws as to a picture which we do not see clearly with the eye of the soul but only touch and feel.
[ 7 ] When once we have gained the perception that man is a ‘picture’ of something, we shall be in the right mood of soul to progress to that which manifests in this picture.
[ 8 ] The pictorial nature of man does not manifest in one way only. An organ of sense is in its nature least of all a picture, and mostly a kind of manifestation of itself like the mineral. The human organs of sense approach nearest to natural laws. Let us but contemplate the wonderful arrangement of the eye, which by natural laws we are able to comprehend. It is the same with the other organs, though not often so clearly evident. It is because the sense organs, in their formation, show a certain compactness. They are arranged in the organism as complete formations, and as such assist in the perception of the outer world.
[ 9 ] But it is otherwise with the rhythmic actions in the organism. They are not complete, but evanescent, the organism in them continually forming and then declining. If the sense organs were like the rhythmic system, we should perceive the outer world in a perpetual growth.
[ 10 ] The sense organs are like a picture on the wall. The rhythmic system is like the scene that unfolds itself if canvas and painter are imaged by us at the conception of the picture. The picture is not yet there, but it comes more and more into being. In studying the rhythmic system, we have to do with a perpetual process of becoming. A thing that has already come into existence remains in existence, for a time at any rate. But when we study the human rhythmic system we find the process of becoming, the upbuilding process, followed directly and without a gap by the passing out of existence, the destructive process. In the rhythmic system there manifests itself a picture, coming into existence, but never finished nor complete.
[ 11 ] The activity which the soul discharges in conscious devotion to what is brought before it as the finished picture, may be styled Imagination. On the other hand Inspiration is the experience that must be unfolded in order to comprehend a growing picture.
[ 12 ] But this is different again in the contemplation of the metabolic and limb system. Here it is as if one was before a bare canvas and unused paints, and an artist not even painting. To get a perception of the metabolic and limb system, one must get a perception that has as little connection with the senses, as have the bare canvas and unused paints with that which is afterwards the artist's picture. And the activity that is developed by the soul in pure spirituality out of the metabolic and limb system is as when, upon seeing the painter and an empty canvas and unused paints, one experiences the picture to be painted later. In order to understand the metabolic and limb system the soul must exercise the power of Intuition.
[ 13 ] It is necessary that the active members of the Anthroposophical Society should concentrate in this way on the essential and fundamental nature of anthroposophical study. For it is not only the knowledge one gains by study but the experience achieved thereby that matters.
[ 14 ] From what has here been explained our study will lead us to the following Leading Thoughts.
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 15 ] 38. We have shown how man is to be regarded in his picture-nature and in the spirituality which thereby reveals itself. Once this perception is attained, then, in the spiritual world where we see man living and moving as a Spirit-being, we are also on the point of seeing the reality of the moral laws of the soul. For the moral world-order is then revealed as the earthly image of an order belonging to the spiritual world. The physical world-order and the moral are welded together now, in undivided unity.
[ 16 ] 39. From out of man, there works the human Will. This Will confronts the ‘Laws of Nature’ which we derive from the external world, as something altogether foreign to their essence. The nature of the sense-organs can still be scientifically understood by virtue of their likeness to the objects of external Nature. In the activity of these organs, the Will, however, is not yet able to unfold itself. The nature that manifests itself in the human rhythmic system is already far less like any external thing. Into this system the Will can already work to some extent. But the rhythmic system is in constant process of coming-into-being and passing-away, and in these processes the Will is not yet free.
[ 17 ] 40. In the system of metabolism and the limbs we have a nature which manifests itself in material substances and in the processes they undergo; yet are the substances and processes in reality no nearer to this nature than are the artist and his materials to the finished picture. Here, therefore, the Will is able to enter in and work directly. Behind the human Organisation living in ‘Natural Laws,’ we must grasp that inner human nature which lives and moves and has its being in the Spiritual. Here is the realm in which we can become aware of the real working of the Will. For the realm of sense, the human Will remains a mere word, empty of all content, and the scientist or thinker who claims to take hold of it within this realm, leaves the real nature of the Will behind him and replaces it in theory by something else.
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 18 ] 41. In the third of the last Leading Thoughts, we pointed to the nature of the human Will. Only when this is realised, do we enter with understanding into a sphere of the world where Destiny or Karma works. So long as we perceive only that system of law which holds sway in the relations of the things and facts of Nature, our understanding is entirely remote from the laws that work in Destiny.
[ 19 ] 42. When the law in Destiny is thus perceived, it is revealed at the same time that Destiny cannot come into existence in the course of a single physical life on Earth. So long as he inhabits the same physical body, man can realise only the moral content of his Will in the way that this particular physical body, within the physical world, allows. Only when he has passed through the gate of death into the sphere of the Spirit, can the Spirit-nature of the Will come to full effect. Then will the Good and the Evil be severally realised—a spiritual realisation to begin with—in their corresponding outcome.
[ 20 ] 43. In this spiritual realisation man fashions and forms himself between death and a new birth. He becomes in being an image of what he did during his earthly life; and out of this his being, on his subsequent return to Earth, he forms his physical life. The Spiritual that works and weaves in Destiny can only find realisation in the Physical if its corresponding cause withdrew, before this realisation, into the spiritual realm. For all that emerges in our life by way of Destiny proceeds out of the Spiritual; nor does it ever take shape within the sequence of physical phenomena.
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 21 ] 44. We should pass on to a spiritual-scientific treatment of the question of Destiny by taking examples from the life and experience of individual men and women, showing how the forces of Destiny work themselves out, and the significance they have for the whole course of human life. We may show, for instance, how an experience which a man undergoes in his youth, which he can certainly not have brought upon himself entirely of his own free will, may none the less to a large extent give shape to the whole of his later life.
[ 22 ] 45. We should describe the significance of the fact that in the physical course of life between birth and death the good may become unhappy in their outer life, and the wicked at any rate apparently happy. In expounding these things, pictures of individual cases carry more weight than theoretical explanations; they are a far better preparation for the spiritual-scientific treatment of the subject.
[ 23 ] 46. Events of Destiny which come into the life of man in such a way that their determining conditions cannot possibly be found in his present life, should be cited. Faced with such happenings, a purely reasonable view of life already points in the direction of former lives on Earth. It must of course be made clear by the very way in which these things are described that no dogmatic or binding statement is implied. The purpose of such examples is simply to direct one's thoughts towards a spiritual-scientific treatment of the question of Destiny.
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 24 ] 47. Of all that is latent in the forming of man's Destiny, only the very smallest part enters the everyday consciousness. Yet the unveiling of our Destiny teaches us most of all, how the Unconscious can indeed be brought to consciousness. They in effect are wrong, who speak of what is, for the time being, the Unconscious, as though it must remain absolutely in the realm of the unknown, thus constituting a barrier of knowledge. With every fragment of his Destiny that is unveiled to him, man lifts into the realm of consciousness something that was hitherto unconscious.
[ 25 ] 48. In so doing man becomes aware that the things of Destiny are not woven within the life between birth and death. Thus the question of Destiny impels him most of all to the contemplation of the life between death and a new birth.
[ 26 ] 49. Conscious human experience is thus impelled by the question of Destiny to look beyond itself. Moreover, as we dwell upon this fact, we shall develop a true feeling for the relation of the Natural and the Spiritual. He who beholds the living sway of Destiny in the human being, stands already in the midst of spiritual things. For the inner connections of Destiny have nothing of the character of outer Nature.
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 27 ] 50. It is most important to point out, how the study of the historic life of mankind is called to life when we show that it is the souls of men themselves, passing from epoch to epoch in their repeated lives on Earth, who carry over the results of one historic age into another.
[ 28 ] 51. It may easily be objected that such a line of thought robs history of its naive and elemental force. But this objection is untrue. On the contrary, our vision of historic life is deepened when we can trace it thus into man's inmost being. History becomes more real and more abundant, not poorer and more abstract. In describing these things we must, however, unfold true sympathy and insight into the living soul of man, for we gaze deep into the soul along these lines of thought.
[ 29 ] 52. The epochs in the life between death and a new birth should be treated in relation to the forming of Karma. Further Leading Thoughts will indicate the way in which this can be done.
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 30 ] 53. The unfolding of man's life between death and a new birth takes place in successive stages. For a few days after passing through the gate of Death the whole of the past earthly life is seen in living pictures. This experience reveals at the same time the gradual severance of the vehicle of the past life from the human soul-and-spirit.
[ 31 ] 54. In a time that comprises about a third of the past earthly life, the soul discovers in spiritual experiences the effect which this life must have in accordance with an ethically just World-order. During this experience the purpose is begotten in the soul to shape the next earthly life in a corresponding way, and thus to compensate for the past.
[ 32 ] 55. There follows a purely spiritual epoch of existence. During this epoch, which is of long duration, the soul of man—along with other human souls karmically connected with him, and with the Beings of the Hierarchies above—fashions the next life on Earth in the sense of Karma.
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 34 ] 56. The epoch of existence between death and a new birth, when the Karma of man is fashioned, can be described only by the results of spiritual research. But it must always be borne in mind that such description appeals to our intelligence. We need only consider with open mind the realities of the world of the senses, and we become aware that it points to a spiritual reality—as the form of a corpse points to the life that in-dwelt it.
[ 35 ] 57. The results of Spiritual Science show that between death and birth man belongs to Spirit-kingdoms, even as he belongs between birth and death to the three kingdoms of Nature: the mineral, the plant and the animal.
[ 36 ] 58. The mineral kingdom is recognisable in the form of the human being at any given moment; the plant kingdom, as the etheric body, is the basis of his growth, his becoming; the animal kingdom, as the astral body, is the impulse for his unfolding of sensation and volition. The crowning of the conscious life of sensation and volition in the self-conscious spiritual life makes the connection of man with the spiritual world straightway apparent.
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 37 ] 59. Open-minded contemplation of Thinking shows that the thoughts of the ordinary consciousness have no existence of their own, but arise only as the reflected images of something. Man, however, feels himself to be alive in his thoughts. The thoughts are not alive, but he himself is living in them. This life has its source in Spirit-beings, whom we may describe (in the sense of my book, Occult Science) as the Beings of the Third Hierarchy—a kingdom of the Spirit.
[ 38 ] 60. Extended to the life of Feeling, the same open-minded contemplation shows that the feelings, though they arise out of the body, cannot have been created by it. For their life bears in it a character independent of the bodily organism. With his bodily nature man can feel himself to be within the world of Nature. Yet just in realising this with true self-understanding, he will feel that with his world of Feeling he is in a spiritual kingdom. This is the kingdom of the Second Hierarchy.
[ 39 ] 61. As a being of Will, man's attention is directed not to his own bodily nature, but to the outer world. When he desires to walk he does not ask, ‘What do I feel in my feet?’ but ‘What is the goal out there, which I desire to reach?’ In willing, man forgets his body. In his Will he belongs, not to his own nature, but to the Spirit-kingdom of the First Hierarchy.
Zu den vorangegangenen Leitsätzen über die Bildnatur des Menschen
[ 1 ] Es kommt viel darauf an, daß durch die Anthroposophie begriffen werde, wie die Vorstellungen, die der Mensch im Anblicke der äußeren Natur gewinnt, vor der Menschenbetrachtung Halt machen müssen. Gegen diese Forderung sündigt die Denkungsart, die durch die geistige Entwickelung der letzten Jahrhunderte in die Menschengemüter eingezogen ist. Durch sie gewöhnt man sich, Naturgesetze zu denken; und durch diese Naturgesetze erklärt man sich die Naturerscheinungen, die man mit den Sinnen wahrnimmt. Man sieht nun nach dem menschlichen Organismus hin und betrachtet auch diesen so, wie wenn seine Einrichtung begriffen werden könnte, wenn man die Naturgesetze auf ihn anwendet.
[ 2 ] Das ist nun gerade so, als ob man das Bild, das ein Maler geschaffen hat, betrachtete nach der Substanz der Farben, nach der Kraft, mit der die Farben an der Leinwand haften, nach der Art, wie sich diese Farben auf die Leinwand streichen lassen, und nach ähnlichen Gesichtspunkten. Aber mit alledem trifft man nicht, was sich in dem Bilde offenbart. In dieser Offenbarung, die durch das Bild da ist, leben ganz andere Gesetzmäßigkeiten als diejenigen, die aus den angegebenen Gesichtspunkten gewonnen werden können.
[ 3 ] Es kommt nun darauf an, sich darüber klar zu werden, daß sich auch in der menschlichen Wesenheit etwas offenbart, das von den Gesichtspunkten, von denen aus die Gesetze der äußeren Natur gewonnen werden, nicht zu ergreifen ist. Hat man diese Vorstellung in der rechten Art sich zu eigen gemacht, dann wird man in der Lage sein, den Menschen als Bild zu begreifen. Ein Mineral ist in diesem Sinne nicht Bild. Es offenbart nur dasjenige, was unmittelbar die Sinne wahrnehmen können.
[ 4 ] Beim Bilde richtet sich die Anschauung gewissermaßen durch das sinnlich Angeschaute hindurch auf einen Inhalt, der im Geiste erfaßt wird. Und so ist es auch bei der Betrachtung des Menschenwesens. Erfaßt man dieses in rechter Art mit den Naturgesetzen, so fühlt man sich im Vorstellen dieser Naturgesetze nicht dem wirklichen Menschen nahe, sondern nur demjenigen, durch das sich dieser wirkliche Mensch offenbart.
[ 5 ] Man muß es im Geiste erleben, daß man mit den Naturgesetzen so vor dem Menschen steht, wie man vor einem Bilde stünde, wenn man nur wüßte, da ist Blau, da ist Rot, und man nicht imstande wäre, in einer inneren Seelentätigkeit das Blau und Rot auf etwas zu beziehen, das sich durch diese Farben offenbart.
[ 6 ] Man muß eben eine andere Empfindung haben, wenn man mit den Naturgesetzen einem Mineralischen, und eine andere, wenn man dem Menschen gegenübersteht. Beim Mineralischen ist es für die geistige Auffassung so, als wenn man das Wahrgenommene unmittelbar ertastete; beim Menschen ist es so, als ob man ihm mit den Naturgesetzen so ferne stünde, wie man einem Bilde ferne steht, das man nicht mit Seelenaugen anblickt, sondern nur betastet.
[ 7 ] Hat man erst in der Anschauung des Menschen begriffen, daß dieser Bild von etwas ist, dann wird man in der rechten Seelenstimmung auch zu dem fortschreiten, was sich in diesem Bilde darstellt.
[ 8 ] Und im Menschen offenbart sich die Bildnatur nicht auf eine eindeutige Weise. Ein Sinnesorgan ist in seinem Wesen am wenigsten Bild, am meisten eine Art Offenbarung seiner selbst wie das Mineral. Man kann gerade an die Sinnesorgane mit den Naturgesetzen am nächsten heran. Man betrachte nur die wundervolle Einrichtung des menschlichen Auges. Man erfaßt durch Naturgesetze annähernd diese Einrichtung. Und bei den ändern Sinnesorganen ist es ähnlich, wenn auch die Sache nicht so offen zutage tritt wie beim Auge. Es kommt dies daher, daß die Sinnesorgane in ihrer Bildung eine gewisse Abgeschlossenheit zeigen. Sie sind als fertige Bildungen dem Organismus eingegliedert, und als solche vermitteln sie die Wahrnehmungen der Außenwelt.
[ 9 ] So aber ist es nicht mit den rhythmischen Vorgängen, die sich im Organismus abspielen. Sie stellen sich nicht als etwas Fertiges dar. In ihnen vollzieht sich ein fortwährendes Entstehen und Vergehen des Organismus. Wären die Sinnesorgane so wie das rhythmische System, so würde der Mensch die Außenwelt in der Art wahrnehmen, daß diese in einem fortwährenden Werden sich befände.
[ 10 ] Die Sinnesorgane stellen sich dar wie ein Bild, das an der Wand hängt. Das rhythmische System steht vor uns wie das Geschehen, das sich entfaltet, wenn Leinwand und Maler im Entstehen des Bildes von uns betrachtet werden. Das Bild ist noch nicht da; aber es ist immer mehr da. In dieser Betrachtung hat man es nur mit einem Entstehen zu tun. Was entstanden ist, bleibt zunächst bestehen. In der Betrachtung des menschlichen rhythmischen Systems schließt sich das Vergehen, der Abbau, sogleich an das Entstehen, an den Aufbau an. Im rhythmischen System offenbart sich ein werdendes Bild.
[ 11 ] Die Tätigkeit, welche die Seele verrichtet, indem sie sich einem ihr Gegenüberstehenden wahrnehmend hingibt, das fertiges Bild ist, kann als Imagination bezeichnet werden. Das Erleben, das entfaltet werden muß, um ein werdendes Bild zu erfassen, ist dem gegenüber Inspiration.
[ 12 ] Noch anders liegt die Sache, wenn man das Stoffwechsel- und das Bewegungssystem des menschlichen Organismus betrachtet. Da ist es, als ob man vor der noch ganz leeren Leinwand, den Farbentöpfen und dem noch nicht malenden Künstler stünde. Will man dem Stoffwechsel- und dem Gliedmaßensystem gegenüber zum Begreifen kommen, so muß man ein Wahrnehmen entwickeln, das mit dem Wahrnehmen dessen, was die Sinne erfassen, nicht mehr zu tun hat als der Anblick von Farbentöpfen, leerer Leinwand und Maler mit dem, was später als Bild des Malers vor unsere Augen tritt. Und die Tätigkeit, in der die Seele rein geistig den Menschen aus dem Stoffwechsel und aus seinen Bewegungen heraus erlebt, ist so, wie wenn man im Anblicke vom Maler, leerer Leinwand und Farbentöpfen das später gemalte Bild erlebte. Dem Stoffwechsel- und Gliedmaßensystem gegenüber muß in der Seele die Intuition walten, wenn es zum Begreifen kommen soll.
[ 13 ] Es ist nötig, daß die tätig wirkenden Mitglieder der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft in solcher Art auf die Wesenheit hindeuten, die dem anthroposophischen Betrachten zugrunde liegt. Denn nicht nur soll eingesehen werden, was durch Anthroposophie an Erkenntnisinhalt gewonnen wird, sondern auch, wie man zum Erleben dieses Erkenntnisinhaltes gelangt.
[ 14 ] Von dem hier Dargestellten wird der Weg der Betrachtung zu den folgenden Leitsätzen hinüberführen.
Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden
[ 15 ] 38. Ist man dazu gelangt, in der durch die vorigen Leitsätze angedeuteten Richtung den Menschen in seiner Bildnatur und in der dadurch sich offenbarenden Geistigkeit zu betrachten, so steht man davor, in der geistigen Welt, in der man den Menschen als Geistwesen waltend schaut, auch die seelisch-moralischen Gesetze in ihrer Wirklichkeit mitzuschauen. Denn die moralische Weltordnung stellt sich dann als das irdische Abbild einer zur geistigen Welt gehörigen Ordnung dar. Und physische und moralische Weltordnung gliedern sich zur Einheit zusammen.
[ 16 ] 39. Aus dem Menschen wirkt der Wille. Der steht den an der Außenwelt gewonnenen Naturgesetzen ganz fremd gegenüber. Das Wesen der Sinnesorgane ist noch an seiner Ähnlichkeit gegenüber den äußeren Naturgegenständen zu erkennen. In ihrer Tätigkeit kann sich der Wille noch nicht entfalten. Das Wesen, das sich im rhythmischen System des Menschen offenbart, ist allem Äußeren schon unähnlicher. In dieses System kann der Wille schon bis zu einem gewissen Grade eingreifen. Aber es ist dieses System im Entstehen und Vergehen begriffen. An diese ist der Wille noch gebunden.
[ 17 ] 40. Im Stoffwechsel- und Gliedmaßensystem offenbart sich ein Wesen zwar durch die Stoffe und die Vorgänge an den Stoffen, aber diese Stoffe und diese Vorgänge haben mit ihm nichts weiter zu tun als der Maler und seine Mittel mit dem fertigen Bilde. In dieses Wesen kann daher der Wille unmittelbar eingreifen. Erfaßt man hinter der in Naturgesetzen lebenden Menschenorganisation die im Geistigen webende Menschenwesenheit, so hat man in dieser ein Gebiet, in dem man das Wirken des Willens gewahr werden kann. Gegenüber dem Sinnesgebiete bleibt der menschliche Wille ein Wort ohne allen Inhalt. Und wer ihn in diesem Gebiete erfassen will, der verläßt im Erkennen das wahre Wesen des Willens und setzt etwas anderes an dessen Stelle.
Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden
[ 18 ] 41. Durch den dritten Leitsatz der vorigen Gruppe wird auf das Wesen des menschlichen Willens hingewiesen. Erst wenn man dieses Wesen gewahr geworden ist, steht man mit seinem Begreifen in einer Weltsphäre darinnen, in der das Schicksal (Karma) wirkt. Solange man nur die Gesetzmäßigkeiterblickt, die im Zusammenhange der Naturdinge und Naturtatsachen herrscht, bleibt man dem ganz fern, das im Schicksal gesetzmäßig wirkt.
[ 19 ] 42. In einem solchen Erfassen der Gesetzmäßigkeit im Schicksal offenbart sich auch, daß sich dieses durch den Gang des einzelnen physischen Erdenlebens nicht zum Dasein bringen kann. Solange der Mensch in demselben physischen Leibe lebt, kann er den moralischen Inhalt seines Willens nur so zur Wirklichkeit werden lassen, wie es dieser physische Leib innerhalb der physischen Welt gestattet. Erst, wenn der Mensch durch die Todespforte in die Geistessphäre eingezogen ist, kann die Geistwesenheit des Willens zur vollen Wirklichkeit gelangen. Da wird das Gute in seinen ihm entsprechenden Ergebnissen, das Schlechte in den seinigen, zunächst zur geistigen Verwirklichung kommen.
[ 20 ] 43. In dieser geistigen Verwirklichung gestaltet sich der Mensch selber zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt; er wird wesenhaft ein Abbild dessen, was er im Erdenleben getan hat. Aus diesem seinem Wesenhaften heraus gestaltet er dann beim Wieder-Betreten der Erde sein physisches Leben. Das Geistige, das im Schicksal waltet, kann im Physischen nur seine Verwirklichung finden, wenn seine entsprechende Verursachung vor dieser Verwirklichung sich in das geistige Gebiet zurückgezogen hat. Denn aus dem Geistigen heraus, nicht in der Folge der physischen Erscheinungen gestaltet sich, was sich als schicksalsgemäß auslebt.
Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden
[ 21 ] 44. Ein Übergang zu der geisteswissenschaftlichen Betrachtung der Schicksalsfrage sollte dadurch herbeigeführt werden, daß man an Beispielen aus dem Erleben einzelner Menschen den Gang des Schicksalsmäßigen in seiner Bedeutung für den Lebenslauf erörtert; zum Beispiel wie ein Jugenderlebnis, das ganz sicher nicht in voller Freiheit durch eine Persönlichkeit herbeigeführt ist, das ganze spätere Leben zu einem großen Teile gestalten kann.
[ 22 ] 45. Es sollte die Bedeutung der Tatsache, daß im physischen Lebenslaufe zwischen Geburt und Tod der Gute unglücklich im Außenleben, der Böse wenigstens scheinbar glücklich werden kann, geschildert werden. Beispiele in Bildern sind für die Erörterung wichtiger als theoretische Erklärungen, weil sie die geisteswissenschaftliche Betrachtung besser vorbereiten.
[ 23 ] 46. Es sollte an Schicksalsfällen, die in das Dasein des Menschen so eintreten, daß man ihre Bedingungen im jeweilig gegenwärtigen Erdenleben nicht finden kann, gezeigt werden, wie gegenüber solchen Schicksalsfällen schon rein die verstandesgemäße Lebensansicht auf früheres Erleben hindeutet. Es muß natürlich aus der Art der Darstellung klar sein, daß mit solchen Darstellungen nichts Verbindliches behauptet, sondern nur etwas gesagt werden soll, das die Gedanken nach der geisteswissenschaftlichen Betrachtung der Schicksalsfrage hin orientiert.
Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden
[ 24 ] 47. Was in der Schicksalsgestaltung des Menschen Hegt, das tritt nur zum allerkleinsten Teile in das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein ein, sondern es waltet zumeist im Unbewußten. Aber gerade durch die Enthüllung des Schicksalsgemäßen wird ersichtlich, wie Unbewußtes zum Bewußtsein gebracht werden kann. Es haben eben diejenigen durchaus Unrecht, die von dem zeitweilig Unbewußten so sprechen, als ob es absolut im Gebiete des Unbekannten bleiben müßte und so eine Erkenntnisgrenze darstellte. Mit jedem Stück, das sich von seinem Schicksale dem Menschen enthüllt, hebt er ein vorher Unbewußtes in das Gebiet des Bewußtseins herauf.
[ 25 ] 48. Durch ein solches Herauf heben wird man gewahr, wie innerhalb des Lebens zwischen Geburt und Tod das Schicksalsgemäße nicht gewoben wird; man wird dadurch gerade an der Schicksalsfrage auf die Betrachtung des Lebens zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt gewiesen.
[ 26 ] 49. In dem Besprechen dieses Hinausweisens des menschlichen Erlebens aus sich selbst an der Schicksalsfrage wird man ein wahres Gefühl entwickeln können für das Verhältnis des Sinnlichen und des Geistigen. Wer das Schicksal im Menschenwesen waltend schaut, der steht schon im Geistigen darinnen. Denn die Schicksalszusammenhänge haben gar nichts Naturhaftes an sich.
Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden
[ 27 ] 50. Es ist von ganz besonderer Wichtigkeit, darauf hinzuweisen, wie die Betrachtung des geschichtlichen Lebens der Menschheit dadurch belebt wird, daß man zeigt, es sind die Menschenseelen selbst, welche die Ergebnisse der einen Geschichtsepoche in die andere hinübertragen, indem sie in ihren wiederholten Erdenleben von Epoche zu Epoche wandeln.
[ 28 ] 51. Man wird leicht gegen eine solche Betrachtung einwenden, daß sie der Geschichte das Elementarische und Naive nimmt; aber man tut damit unrecht. Sie vertieft vielmehr die Anschauung des Geschichtlichen, das sie bis in das Innerste der Menschenwesenheit hinein verfolgt. Geschichte wird dadurch reicher und konkreter, nicht ärmer und abstrakter. Man muß nur in der Darstellung Herz und Sinn für die lebende Menschenseele entwickeln, in die man dadurch tief hineinschaut.
[ 29 ] 52. Es sollen die Epochen im Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt mit Beziehung auf die Karmabildung behandelt werden.
[ 30 ] Das «Wie» dieser Behandlung der Karmabildung soll den Inhalt der weiteren Leitsätze bilden.
Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden
[ 31 ] 53. Die Entfaltung des Menschenlebens zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt geschieht in aufeinanderfolgenden Stufen. Während weniger Tage unmittelbar nach dem Durchgang durch die Todespforte wird in Bildern das vorangegangene Erdenleben überschaut. Dieses Überschauen zeigt zugleich die Ablösung des Trägers dieses Lebens von der menschlichen Seelen-Geist-Wesenheit.
[ 32 ] 54. In einer Zeit, die ungefähr ein Drittel des eben vollendeten Erdenlebens umfaßt, wird in Geisteserlebnissen, welche die Seele hat, die Wirkung erfahren, welche im Sinne einer ethisch gerechten Weltordnung das vorangegangene Erdenleben haben muß. Es wird während dieses Erlebens die Absicht erzeugt, das nächste Erdenleben zum Ausgleich der vorangegangenen so zu gestalten, wie es diesem Erleben entspricht.
[ 33 ] 55. Eine langdauernde, rein geistige Daseinsepoche folgt, in der die Menschenseele mit andern mit ihr karmisch verbundenen Menschenseelen und mit Wesenheiten der höhern Hierarchien das kommende Erdenleben im Sinne des Karma gestaltet.
Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden
[ 34 ] 56. Die Daseinsepoche zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt, in der das Karma des Menschen gestaltet wird, kann nur auf Grund der Ergebnisse geistiger Forschung dargestellt werden. Aber es ist immer im Bewußtsein zu halten, daß diese Darstellung der Vernunft einleuchtend ist. Diese braucht nur das Wesen der Sinneswirklichkeit unbefangen zu betrachten, dann wird sie gewahr, daß dieses ebenso auf ein Geistiges hinweist, wie die Form eines Leichnams auf das ihm einwohnende Leben.
[ 35 ] 57. Die Ergebnisse der Geisteswissenschaft zeigen, daß der Mensch zwischen Tod und Geburt ebenso Geistesreichen angehört, wie er zwischen Geburt und Tod den drei Reichen der Natur, dem mineralischen, pflanzlichen und tierischen angehört.
[ 36 ] 58. Das mineralische Reich ist in der augenblicklichen Gestaltung des Menschen zu erkennen, das pflanzliche ist als Ätherleib die Grundlage seines Werdens und Wachsens, das tierische als Astralleib der Impuls für Empfindungs- und Willensentfaltung. Die Krönung des bewußten Empfindungs- und Willenslebens im selbstbewußten Geistesleben macht den Zusammenhang des Menschen mit der Geisteswelt unmittelbar anschaulich.
Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden
[ 37 ] 59. Eine unbefangene Betrachtung des Denkens zeigt, daß die Gedanken des gewöhnlichen Bewußtseins kein eigenes Dasein haben, daß sie nur wie Spiegelbilder von etwas auftreten. Aber der Mensch fühlt sich als lebendig in den Gedanken. Die Gedanken leben nicht; er aber lebt in den Gedanken. Dieses Leben urständet in Geist-Wesen, die man (im Sinne meiner «Geheimwissenschaft») als die der dritten Hierarchie, als eines Geist-Reiches, ansprechen kann.
[ 38 ] 60. Die Ausdehnung dieser unbefangenen Betrachtung auf das Fühlen zeigt, daß die Gefühle aus dem Organismus aufsteigen, daß sie aber nicht von diesem erzeugt sein können. Denn ihr Leben trägt ein vom Organismus unabhängiges Wesen in sich. Der Mensch kann sich mit seinem Organismus in der Naturwelt fühlen. Er wird aber gerade dann, wenn er dies, sich selbst verstehend tut, sich mit seiner Gefühlswelt in einem geistigen Reiche fühlen. Das ist dasjenige der zweiten Hierarchie.
[ 39 ] 61. Als Willenswesen wendet sich der Mensch nicht an seinen Organismus, sondern an die Außenwelt. Er fragt nicht, wenn er gehen will, was empfinde ich in meinen Füßen, sondern, was ist dort draußen für ein Ziel, zu dem ich kommen will. Er vergißt seinen Organismus, indem er will. In seinem Willen gehört er seiner Natur nicht an. Er gehört da dem Geist-Reich der ersten Hierarchie an.
On the preceding guiding principles on the image nature of man
[ 1 ] It is very important that anthroposophy understands how the ideas that man gains in the sight of external nature must stop short of the contemplation of man. The way of thinking that has entered the human mind through the spiritual development of the last centuries sins against this requirement. It accustoms us to think in terms of natural laws, and these natural laws explain the natural phenomena that we perceive with our senses. We now look at the human organism and view it as if its structure could be understood by applying the laws of nature to it.
[ 2 ] This is just as if one were to look at the picture that a painter has created according to the substance of the colors, according to the force with which the colors adhere to the canvas, according to the way in which these colors can be painted on the canvas, and according to similar points of view. But with all of this, one does not get to what is revealed in the painting. In this revelation, which is there through the picture, live quite different laws than those that can be obtained from the stated points of view.
[ 3 ] It is now important to realize that something is also revealed in the human being that cannot be grasped from the points of view from which the laws of external nature are derived. Once this conception has been appropriated in the right way, one will be in a position to comprehend man as an image. A mineral is not an image in this sense. It only reveals that which the senses can perceive directly.
[ 4 ] In the case of a picture, perception is directed, as it were, through the sensually perceived to a content that is grasped in the mind. And so it is with the contemplation of the human being. If one grasps this in the right way with the laws of nature, one does not feel close to the real human being in imagining these laws of nature, but only to that through which this real human being reveals itself.
[ 5 ] One must experience it in the spirit that one stands before man with the laws of nature as one would stand before a picture if one only knew that there is blue, there is red, and one would not be able, in an inner activity of the soul, to relate the blue and red to something that reveals itself through these colors.
[ 6 ] You must have a different perception when you are confronted with the laws of nature in a mineral, and a different one when you are confronted with a human being. In the case of minerals, it is for the spiritual perception as if one were directly touching what one perceives; in the case of human beings, it is as if one were as distant from them with the laws of nature as one is from an image that one does not look at with the eyes of the soul, but only touches.
[ 7 ] Once one has understood in the contemplation of man that he is an image of something, then one will also progress in the right mood of soul to that which is represented in this image.
[ 8 ] And in man the image nature does not reveal itself in an unambiguous way. In its essence, a sense organ is least of all an image, and most of all a kind of revelation of itself, like the mineral. It is precisely the sense organs that are closest to the laws of nature. Just look at the wonderful arrangement of the human eye. One grasps approximately this mechanism through natural laws. And it is similar with the altered sense organs, even if the matter is not as obvious as with the eye. This is due to the fact that the sensory organs show a certain closedness in their formation. They are incorporated into the organism as finished formations, and as such they mediate the perceptions of the outside world.
[ 9 ] But this is not the case with the rhythmic processes that take place in the organism. They do not present themselves as something finished. In them, the organism is constantly coming into being and passing away. If the sensory organs were like the rhythmic system, man would perceive the outside world in such a way that it would be in a constant state of becoming.
[ 10 ] The sense organs present themselves like a picture hanging on the wall. The rhythmic system stands before us like the events that unfold when canvas and painter are viewed by us as the picture comes into being. The picture is not yet there, but it is increasingly there. In this contemplation, we are only dealing with emergence. What has come into being initially remains. In the observation of the human rhythmic system, the decay, the decomposition, immediately follows the emergence, the construction. A becoming image reveals itself in the rhythmic system.
[ 11 ] The activity that the soul performs by devoting itself to perceiving what is opposite it, which is a finished image, can be described as imagination. In contrast, the experience that must be unfolded in order to grasp a becoming image is inspiration.
[ 12 ] The situation is even different when we consider the metabolic and movement systems of the human organism. It is as if you were standing in front of a completely blank canvas, the pots of paint and the artist who is not yet painting. If one wishes to come to an understanding of the metabolic and limb systems, one must develop a perception that has no more to do with the perception of what the senses grasp than the sight of pots of paint, an empty canvas and a painter has to do with what later appears before our eyes as a picture of the painter. And the activity in which the soul experiences the human being purely spiritually out of the metabolism and out of his movements is the same as if one experienced the later painted picture in the sight of the painter, empty canvas and pots of paint. In contrast to the metabolic and limb system, intuition must prevail in the soul if it is to come to comprehension.
[ 13 ] It is necessary that the active members of the Anthroposophical Society point in this way to the essence that underlies anthroposophical observation. For it is not only the content of knowledge gained through anthroposophy that should be recognized, but also how one arrives at the experience of this content of knowledge.
[ 14 ] From what is presented here, the path of contemplation will lead to the following guiding principles.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 15 ] 38. Once we have arrived at the view of man in his pictorial nature and in the spirituality thereby revealed, in the spiritual world, in which we see man as a spiritual being, we are also on the point of seeing the spiritual and moral laws in their reality. For the moral world order then presents itself as the earthly image of an order belonging to the spiritual world. And the physical and moral world order combine to form a unity.
[ 16 ] 39 The will works out of the human being and is completely alien to the laws of nature derived from the external world. The nature of the sense organs can still be recognized by their similarity to the external objects of nature. The will cannot yet unfold in their activity. The essence that reveals itself in the rhythmic system of man is already more dissimilar to everything external. The will can already intervene in this system to a certain extent. But this system is in the process of coming into being and passing away. The will is still bound to it.
[ 17 ] 40 In the metabolic and limb system, a being reveals itself through the substances and the processes of the substances, but these substances and these processes have nothing more to do with it than the painter and his means have to do with the finished picture. The will can therefore intervene directly in this being. If behind the human organization living in the laws of nature one grasps the human entity weaving in the spiritual, then one has in this an area in which one can become aware of the working of the will. Compared to the realm of the senses, the human will remains a word without any content. And whoever wants to grasp it in this realm abandons the true nature of the will in cognition and puts something else in its place.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 18 ] 41 The third guiding principle of the previous group refers to the nature of the human will. Only when one has become aware of this essence does one stand with one's understanding in a world sphere in which fate (karma) is at work. As long as one only sees the lawfulness that prevails in the context of natural things and natural facts, one remains completely distant from that which works lawfully in fate.
[ 19 ] 42 In such a comprehension of the lawfulness of destiny it is also revealed that this cannot bring itself into existence through the course of the individual physical life on earth. As long as man lives in the same physical body, he can only allow the moral content of his will to become reality in the way that this physical body allows within the physical world. Only when man has passed through the gate of death into the spiritual sphere can the spiritual essence of the will attain full reality. There the good in its corresponding results, the bad in its own, will first come to spiritual realization.
[ 20 ] 43 In this spiritual realization man shapes himself between death and a new birth; he becomes being an image of what he has done in earthly life. From this beingness he then forms his physical life when he re-enters the earth. The spiritual, which rules in destiny, can only find its realization in the physical when its corresponding causation before this realization has withdrawn into the spiritual realm. For it is out of the spiritual, not as a result of physical phenomena, that what is lived out in accordance with destiny is formed.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 21 ] 44. A transition to the spiritual-scientific consideration of the question of destiny should be brought about by using examples from the experience of individual people to discuss the course of destiny in its significance for the course of life; for example, how a youthful experience, which is certainly not brought about in full freedom by a personality, can shape the whole of later life to a large extent.
[ 22 ] 45 The significance of the fact that in the physical course of life between birth and death the good can become unhappy in external life, the bad at least apparently happy, should be described. Examples in pictures are more important for the discussion than theoretical explanations, because they better prepare the spiritual-scientific consideration.
[ 23 ] 46. Cases of destiny which occur in man's existence in such a way that their conditions cannot be found in the respective present life on earth should be used to show how, in relation to such cases of destiny, the purely intellectual view of life already points to earlier experiences. It must of course be clear from the nature of the presentation that nothing binding is to be asserted with such presentations, but only something is to be said that orients the thoughts towards the spiritual-scientific consideration of the question of destiny.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 24 ] 47 What lies in the shaping of man's destiny enters the ordinary consciousness only in the smallest part, but for the most part rules in the unconscious. But it is precisely through the revelation of what is in accordance with destiny that it becomes apparent how the unconscious can be brought to consciousness. Those are quite wrong who speak of the temporarily unconscious as if it had to remain absolutely in the realm of the unknown and thus represented a limit to knowledge. With every piece of his destiny that reveals itself to man, he raises a previously unconscious thing into the realm of consciousness.
[ 25 ] 48. Through such an uplifting, one becomes aware of how, within life between birth and death, what is appropriate to destiny is not woven; one is thereby pointed to the contemplation of life between death and new birth precisely by the question of destiny.
[ 26 ] 49 In discussing this pointing out of human experience from itself in the question of destiny, one will be able to develop a true feeling for the relationship between the sensual and the spiritual. He who sees destiny at work in the human being is already in the spiritual. For the connections of destiny have nothing natural about them.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 27 ] 50. It is of very special importance to point out how the contemplation of the historical life of humanity is enlivened by showing that it is the human souls themselves which carry over the results of one historical epoch into another by walking from epoch to epoch in their repeated lives on earth.
[ 28 ] 51 It will easily be objected to such a view that it takes away the elementary and naive from history; but this is wrong. On the contrary, it deepens the view of history, which it pursues into the very heart of human nature. History thus becomes richer and more concrete, not poorer and more abstract. You only have to develop a heart and sense for the living human soul in the depiction, into which you can look deeply as a result.
[ 29 ] 52 The epochs in life between death and a new birth should be treated in relation to the formation of karma.
[ 30 ] The "how" of this treatment of the formation of karma should form the content of the further guiding principles.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 31 ] 53 The unfolding of human life between death and new birth takes place in successive stages. During a few days immediately after passing through the gate of death, the previous life on earth is reviewed in images. This review also shows the detachment of the bearer of this life from the human soul-spirit entity.
[ 32 ] 54 In a time that comprises about a third of the just completed earth life, the effect that the previous earth life must have in the sense of an ethically just world order is experienced in spiritual experiences that the soul has. During this experience, the intention is generated to shape the next earthly life to balance the previous one in a way that corresponds to this experience.
[ 33 ] 55 A long-lasting, purely spiritual epoch of existence follows, in which the human soul, together with other human souls karmically connected with it and with beings of the higher hierarchies, shapes the coming earth life in the sense of karma.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 34 ] 56 The epoch of existence between death and the new birth, in which the karma of the human being is shaped, can only be described on the basis of the results of spiritual research. But it must always be kept in mind that this representation is plausible to reason. It need only look impartially at the nature of sense reality, then it will realize that this points to something spiritual, just as the form of a corpse points to its indwelling life.
[ 35 ] 57 The results of spiritual science show that man belongs to spiritual realms between death and birth, just as he belongs to the three realms of nature, the mineral, vegetable and animal, between birth and death.
[ 36 ] 58 The mineral kingdom is to be recognized in the momentary formation of man; the vegetable, as the etheric body, is the basis of his becoming and growth; the animal, as the astral body, is the impulse for the development of sensation and will. The culmination of the conscious life of feeling and will in the self-conscious spiritual life makes the connection of the human being with the spiritual world immediately clear.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 37 ] 59. An impartial observation of thought shows that the thoughts of ordinary consciousness have no existence of their own, that they appear only as mirror images of something. But man feels himself to be alive in his thoughts. The thoughts do not live; but he lives in the thoughts. This life originates in spirit beings, which (in the sense of my "secret science") can be addressed as those of the third hierarchy, as a spirit realm.
[ 38 ] 60 The extension of this impartial observation to feeling shows that feelings arise from the organism, but that they cannot be produced by it. For their life carries within it an essence independent of the organism. Man can feel himself with his organism in the natural world. But precisely when he does this, understanding himself, he will feel himself with his emotional world in a spiritual realm. This is that of the second hierarchy.
[ 39 ] 61 As a being of will, man does not turn to his organism, but to the outside world. He does not ask, when he wants to walk, what do I feel in my feet, but what is the destination out there that I want to reach. He forgets his organism by wanting. In his will he does not belong to his nature. He belongs there to the spirit realm of the first hierarchy.