The Christian Mystery
GA 97
6 March 1907, Cologne
XI. The Lord's Prayer
When we speak of prayer in the Christian sense we have to understand above all that prayer is really nothing else but to enter deeply, giving oneself up, into the divine. In the great religions where people seek to achieve this giving up of self more by entering into deep thought, people speak of meditation; in religions where the devotion comes from the heart more than the head, more from the personal sphere, it is called prayer. In the Christian religion this devotion has gained personal character; in the old religions it was more unconscious and impersonal. People knew thousands of years ago that there is an eternal, divine principle. Example of slave who said to himself: One life of many. People of those times therefore had hope in life, courage, strength and certainty. It was a kind of looking out from life in time to life eternal. A time had to come, however, when the human being looked up to his god in a personal way. Exoteric Christian teaching is that a tremendous amount depends on the individual person who went from birth to death. This is also why meditation assumed the more personal aspect of prayer. But we should not forget that in the Christian faith there is an exemplary prayer: ‘Father, if it can be done, let this cup pass away from me, but not my will but your will be done.’103Matthew 26: 39.
If you develop this mood, you have a Christian prayer. A prayer in which someone asks things for himself his personal affairs, is not a Christian prayer. You may have two armies about to do battle, with both praying for victory. Two farmers, one asking for rain, the other for sunshine. What is the god supposed to do? True Christian prayer has nothing to do with such personal wishes and desires. The personal prayer, the true prayer, may also include personal petitions, but the guiding principle must be: Not my will but your will be done. This exemplary Christian prayer of Christ Jesus, the Lord, thus gives the mood which prayer should have. There are many Christian prayers, but the Lord's Prayer, the prayer of prayers, is the one of which we can say that there is hardly anything else in the world that contains so much and such important things as this Lord's Prayer. And we then remember how Christ Jesus introduced this prayer. ‘Go into seclusion to say your prayers’, he said.104Matthew 6: 6.
Everywhere, in all religions, you have formulas for meditation and magic formulas. Such magic formulas are of the same significance for meditation as actual meditations. People sought to give themselves up to their god in meditation with them, and they also wanted to give themselves up to their god by practising magic. Christ Jesus warned, however: ‘Do not pray for the things that happen in the streets; go deep down into your innermost being when you pray.’ Something of the divine nature lives in human beings, a drop of the divine spirit, and it is the same in substance as the godhead. The ocean as a whole and the drop of water are also the same in substance.
And so let us consider the universe and man in the way in which it was customary in the earliest esoteric schools. We'll go back to the time when the human bodies that were in the process of preparation were waiting, as it were, for the divine seed, the human soul coming down from the godhead. At that time the world was populated by plants and other things, including animal-human bodies. Man as he is today did not yet exist. The souls were gradually preparing the present-day body for themselves. A spiritual fluid was all around the earth. And now imagine someone taking a hundred tiny sponges and taking up a drop of the fluid in each. You now have a drop of the divine in each. Before, souls had been in the ocean of the godhead, now they were incarnated drops. Those souls were still very imperfect when they thus incarnated for the first time, but they already held the potential for man's higher nature—atman, buddhi, manas—which was to unfold and develop in life on earth. The animal-human being already had the four lower members at the time, but it needed the soul to transform them so that atman, buddhi and manas might arise.
Let us now consider this process of evolution esoterically, taking two points of view. Firstly, man grows increasingly more divine in atman, buddhi and manas; secondly, the drop of godhead is in him.
Let us first of all consider higher man in his divine aspect. In the Christian schools it was taught that one should first consider the highest aspect of the divine spirit; man would have risen to this when he came to the end of his evolution. Atman, the will, is this highest principle, will-like by nature. When man has reached perfection, his will shall be his greatest power. The will must then flow out from him. Every resolution made in the will shall immediately become action. Our atman is will-like by nature. In atman, the godhead first of all let its will flow into us. The divine will lives in us and in all things.
The second higher principle in us is the buddhi. Streaming down into man, the godhead goes from atman to buddhi. How does the divine will work? We can only gain understanding by considering the concept of offering or sacrifice. Imagine you are looking into a mirror. You see your own figure. This figure is similar to you. Now imagine a creative will in you. You would then have given everything you have, all of your life, all of your essential being to the image. You would then live in this image. This is how you may think of the creative sacrifice of the divine will. The divine will is not merely reflected in things, in the images, but sacrifices everything, putting it into them, and you so have the sacrificed divine will in the whole of cosmic space. A Christian thus sees a mirror image of the godhead, the divine will, in everything that exists in this world. You have the sacrificed godhead in the cosmic space, and this mirror image of the godhead was called the ‘kingdom’ in esoteric Christian terminology. The divine will multiplied millions of times and reflected again―that is what the ‘kingdom’ was to them. The creative atman, the buddhi living in us, the creative spirit in the world—that was the ‘kingdom’.
Look up now to see the part of the godhead that lives in the cosmos in its mirror image. This is able to identify the individual entity by its ‘name’ which is the manas, the spirit self, in us, it is our ‘name’. Manas is the name in us and in every single thing outside us. The name of every single thing was thus hallowed to man. And the pupil would be told: ‘You must clearly understand that when you eat a bite of bread that this, too, is something in which the godhead lies and it shall therefore be hallowed to you.’
In so far as our name is in God, it is manas, the name. Our buddhi thus is the kingdom. In our atman lives the divine will. These three are the divine elements in man. Man received these divine elements as part of his essential being, and in the world outside they are called name, kingdom and will.
And now, you see, the Christ wanted to teach his disciples by saying to them: the godhead was called the father, and the divine principle heaven. Union with the divine was only possible in that this divine principle now gave itself up to the three higher elements in man.
What does a Christian have to say, to bring this to expression?
Our father, who are in the heavens,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done on earth
as it is in the heavens.
The first three petitions of the Lord's Prayer thus speak in a quite specific way of man's three higher principles. These first three petitions have arisen from the higher spiritual nature of man.
Let us now consider the four lower members of man in esoteric terms—physical body, ether body, astral body and I.
The physical body is the one man has in common with all minerals, with physical matter and forces going in and out day by day. To develop his physical body, man must plead to be given the physical matter which is out there in the physical world. We have our ether body in common with all the people around us. The astral body is something more personal.
In the ether body we have things that are held in common in every family, in every nation. You belong more to a genus, a species, because you have an ether body. You are more of an individual because you have an astral body. You are a problem to the ether bodies around you if you are not in harmony with them, and this was called ‘trespass’ or ‘fault’ something we do to others with our ether body. But we also suffered harm ourselves because of this. Trespass is thus connected with the ether or life body. You commit a fault against someone near to you by injuring or damaging his ether body or life body. Take care not to do this, for only then will your own faults be forgiven.
What makes the astral body thrive? When the individual deviates from the true way he falls into temptation. The astral body is subject to temptation. Every way in which the individual sins is temptation.
The I is the fount of human independence but also of egotism, of selfishness. In this respect the I is the ‘evil’, which is the symbol for this. Malum is Latin for both ‘apple’ and ‘evil’. The Fall is the evil, the failing that arises from egotism.
When a Christian wants to ask that his four lower members may make good progress he will say, speaking for these entities:
Give us today our daily bread
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us,
and lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
These are the other four petitions in the Lord's Prayer.
These were the petitions Christians were instructed in the esoteric schools to ask, they are the four formulas for the four lower members of the human being. Consider the last four petitions in the Lord's Prayer with reference to man's lower nature, and you find you have four petitions for the lower members, just as you have the first three petitions for the higher principles of man. The seven petitions in the Lord's Prayer thus contain the doctrine of the sevenfold nature of man, as taught in the science of the spirit.
In all the great religions there is not a prayer, a formula that has not been taken from the whole profound world wisdom. These prayers have their profound effect for the very reason that they have been born from this. It is thanks to the original wisdom of the world that the great religions have had an influence through thousands of years.
The father stands for the original essence of the world. It cannot be put more beautifully than it has been put in the Lord's Prayer. Because of this the Lord's Prayer touches human hearts and has great strength. You can't say simple people know nothing of this wisdom. They gain just as much from it. It is the same as when they take delight in flowers, having no idea of the wisdom that has created them. And so their souls may take delight in the Lord's Prayer without grasping its wisdom. The knowledge that lives in the prayer may not be grasped, but it can give people this strength. Those who gave the prayers to humanity, took them out of the most profound wisdom; hence the power of the great cosmic prayer. It is the secret of these prayers that they were taken from original wisdom by initiates and the founders of religions.
Now the time has come when people must know the deeper meaning of these prayers. We should say the Lord's Prayer daily. Everything we need to know about the nature of man is in that prayer. And by doing so, a person would receive what theosophical wisdom has to say about the nature of man.
The esotericism of the school created by Paul the Apostle was profound. Outside, Christianity was presented in an exoteric way. Dionysius the Areopagite was asked by Paul to take care of this esoteric wisdom. And so the realm of the spirit was envisaged with the dominions, principalities and powers, and people said to themselves: if we live the way the Lord's Prayer demands, we rise through dominions, principalities and powers all the way to the cherubim and seraphim and to the godhead itself in the Lord's Prayer.
This gives you the three stages: ‘For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory’, three stages in the realm of the spirit.
It is difficult to speak particularly about the Amen. All I can say is that it is an ancient formula that has become a bit mutilated.
We have seen, therefore, in how far the Lord's Prayer with the powerful effect it has on the human soul represents the doctrine of the sevenfold nature of man. This makes it the most effective prayer. This rhythm which is touched on in the soul came to the awareness of people who had the esoteric knowledge that a Christian who has said the Lord's Prayer has prayed human theosophy, has lived in the prayer. This theosophy is nothing new; it is something that lives in all hearts and is grasped in the spirit so that the light of understanding may extend to the divine realm. If this happens in human hearts and souls, people will find the way to the greatest heights of the spirit which they are capable of reaching.
Das Vaterunser
Wenn man von Gebet spricht im christlichen Sinne, muß man sich vor allen Dingen klarmachen, daß die Form des Gebetes kaum etwas anderes darstellt als die Versenkung, die Hingabe an das Göttliche. In denjenigen großen Religionen, die diese Hingabe mehr in gedanklicher Versenkung zu erreichen suchen, spricht man von Meditation; bei denjenigen Religionen, wo die Hingabe mehr vom Herzen als vom Kopfe ausgeht, mehr von der Persönlichkeit ausgeht, nennt man diese Hingabe Gebet. In der christlichen Religion hat diese Hingabe einen persönlichen Charakter bekommen; in den alten Religionen war sie viel mehr Unbewußtes, Unpersönliches. Der Mensch hat vor Jahrtausenden schon gewußt, daß es ein Ewiges, ein Göttliches gibt. Beispiel vom Sklaven, der sich sagt: Ein Leben unter vielen. — Lebenshoffnung, Mut, Kraft und Sicherheit lebten darum damals in den Menschen. Eine Art Hinausblicken vom Zeitlichen ins Ewige war es. Es mußte aber für die Menschheit ein Zeitalter kommen, wo der Mensch persönlich zu seinem Gotte aufsieht. Das exoterische Christentum sagt: Von der Persönlichkeit, die von der Geburt bis zum Tode geht, hängt ungemein viel ab. So nahm darum die Meditation auch diesen persönlichen Charakter des Gebets an. Aber wir dürfen nicht vergessen, daß es im Christentum ein Urgebet gibt: «Mein Vater, ist's möglich, so gehe dieser Kelch von mir; doch nicht mein, sondern dein Wille geschehe.»
Wenn Sie diese Stimmung erzeugen, dann haben Sie ein christliches Gebet. Dasjenige Gebet, das für seine Persönlichkeit, für seine Angelegenheiten bittet, ist kein christliches Gebet. Da sind zum Beispiel zwei Heere, die zur Schlacht gerüstet sind, beide beten um Sieg. -— Zwei Bauern, der eine bittet um Regen, der andere um Sonnenschein. Was soll der Gott tun? Mit solchen persönlichen Wünschen und Begehren hat das wahre christliche Gebet nichts zu tun. Das persönliche Gebet, das wahre Gebet, kann auch bei persönlicher Bitte da sein, aber der oberste Grundsatz muß dabei sein: «Nicht mein, sondern dein Wille geschehe'» Damit ist aus dem christlichen Urgebet des Christus Jesus, des Herrn, heraus die Stimmung angegeben, die das Gebet haben soll. Es gibt viele christliche Gebete, aber das Vaterunser, das christliche Urgebet, ist dasjenige, von dem man sagen kann, daß es kaum etwas gibt auf der Welt, was so viel und so wichtiges enthält, wie dieses Vaterunser. Und dann erinnern wir uns daran, wie der Christus Jesus dieses Gebet einsetzt. «Wenn du betest, so gehe in dein Kämmerlein», sagt er.
Überall, in allen Religionen finden Sie Meditationsformeln, Zauberformeln. Diese Zauberformeln haben meditativ sogar die gleiche Bedeutung wie die Meditationen. Der Mensch hat sich seinem Gotte damit meditativ hingeben wollen, auch durch Zauberüben hat er sich seinem Gotte hingeben wollen. Der Christus Jesus aber mahnt: «Ihr sollt nicht beten um das, was auf der Straße geschieht, ihr sollt tief, tief in euer Inneres gehen, wenn ihr betet.» Es lebt in dem Menschen etwas von der göttlichen Wesenheit, ein Tropfen der göttlichen Wesenheit lebt im Menschen, der von demselben Stoffe ist wie die Gottheit. - Das ganze Meer und der Tropfen Wasser sind auch vom selben Stoffe.
Und nun wollen wir einmal so, wie es in den ersten esoterischen Schulen üblich war, das Weltenall und den Menschen betrachten. Wir wollen dazu zurückgehen bis zu dem Zeitpunkt, wo die Menschenleiber, die sich vorbereiteten, gleichsam warteten auf den göttlichen Keim der Menschenseele, der sich aus der Gottheit heruntersenkt. Die damalige Weltbevölkerung bestand aus Pflanzen und anderem, Tiermenschenleiber waren darunter. Nicht der Mensch, wie er heute ist, war da. Die Seelen bereiteten sich den heutigen Leib allmählich vor. Eine geistige Flüssigkeit war rings um die Erde herum. Und nun denken Sie sich, es nahme jemand hundert kleine Schwammchen und würde in jedes dieser Schwämmchen einen Tropfen dieser Flüssigkeit sammeln. Nun haben Sie in jedem einen Tropfen des Göttlichen. Die Seelen waren vorher im Meere der Gottheit, dann sind sie verkörpert als Tropfen. Diese Seelen waren damals noch sehr unvollkommen bei der ersten Verkörperung, aber im Keim hatten sie schon auch die höhere menschliche Wesenheit: Atma, Buddhi, Manas in sich zur Entfaltung, zur Entwickelung im Erdenleben. Der tierische Mensch hat schon die vier niederen Hüllen, aber erst mit der Seele gestaltet er sie um und erhält dann Atma, Buddhi, Manas.
Nun wollen wir diese Entwickelung esoterisch betrachten von zwei Gesichtspunkten aus: Erstens, der Mensch vergöttlicht sich immer mehr in Atma, Buddhi, Manas; zweitens, der Tropfen der Gottheit ist in ihm.
Wir wollen zuerst den höheren Menschen von seinem göttlichen Aspekt aus betrachten. Man hat in den christlichen Schulen gesagt: Erst betrachtet ihr das oberste Glied der göttlichen Wesenheit, zu dem der Mensch am Ende seiner Entwickelung aufgestiegen sein wird. Atma, der Wille, willensartiger Natur ist dieses oberste Glied. Sein Wille wird, wenn der Mensch vollkommen geworden sein wird, seine größte Macht sein. Der Wille muß dann nach außen fließen. Es wird dann beim Menschen keinen Willensentschluß mehr geben, der nicht sogleich zur Tat wird. Unser Atma ist willensartiger Natur. Die Gottheit hat uns mit dem Atma zuerst ihren Willen einströmen lassen. Der göttliche Wille lebt in uns und in allen Dingen.
Als zweites haben wir im Menschen die Buddhi. Indem die Gottheit herunterströmt in den Menschen, geht sie von Atma zu Buddhi. Wie wirkt denn der göttliche Wille? Wir können dem Verständnis des göttlichen Willens nur beikommen mit dem Begriffe des Opfers. Denken Sie sich, Sie sehen in einen Spiegel, da sehen Sie Ihre Gestalt: diese Gestalt ist Ihnen ähnlich. Denken Sie sich nun, in Ihnen wäre ein schöpferischer Wille, Sie würden dann alles, was Sie haben, all Ihr Leben, all Ihr Sein an das Bild hingeopfert haben. Sie leben damit in diesem Bilde. So können Sie das opfervolle Schaffen des göttlichen Willens begreifen. Der göttliche Wille spiegelt sich nicht nur in den Dingen, in den Bildern, sondern er opfert alles in sie hinein, und so haben Sie den geopferten göttlichen Willen im ganzen Weltenraum. So schaut der Christ in einem jeglichen Dinge der Welt ein Spiegelbild der Gottheit, des göttlichen Willens. Die hingeopferte Gottheit haben Sie im Weltenraum, und dieses Spiegelbild der Gottheit bezeichnete man im esoterischen Christentum als das «Reich». Millionenfach vermannigfaltigt zurückgestrahlt den göttlichen Willen, das empfand man als das Reich. Das, was als Atma schafft, was in uns lebt als Buddhi, was draußen schafft in der Welt, das bezeichnete man als das Reich.
Nun blicken Sie hinauf, was im Spiegelbilde lebt von der Gottheit im Kosmos. Das kann das einzelne Wesen unterscheiden durch den «Namen». Dieser ist in uns Manas, das Geistselbst, das ist unser Name. Manas ist der Name in uns und einem jeglichen Dinge draußen. So war für den Menschen der Name eines jeglichen Dinges geheiligt. Und man sagte dem Schüler: Du sollst dir klarwerden, selbst wenn du einen Bissen Brot issest, daß auch dieser ein Ding ist, in dem die Gottheit ist, und darum soll es dir heilig sein.
Insoferne unser Name in Gott ist, ist er Manas, der Name. Unsere Buddhi ist so das Reich. In unserem Atma lebt der göttliche Wille. Die göttlichen Wesensglieder des Menschen sind diese drei. Der Mensch bekam diese göttlichen Wesensglieder, und draußen in der Welt sind sie aufgezählt als Name, Reich und Wille.
Und nun denken Sie sich, der Christus wollte seine Jünger so lehren, daß er ihnen sagte: Die Gottheit nannte man den Vater und das Göttliche den Himmel. Die Vereinigung mit dem Göttlichen war nur möglich, indem dieses Göttliche sich nunmehr den höheren drei Gliedern des Menschen hingibt.
Was muß der Christ sagen, wenn er dieses ausdrücken will?
Unser Vater, der du bist in den Himmeln,
geheiliget werde dein Name,
Dein Reich komme,
Dein Wille geschehe wie oben in den Himmeln also auch auf Erden.
So haben Sie in den drei ersten Bitten des Vaterunser die drei höheren Glieder des Menschen in bestimmtester Weise ausgedrückt. Diese ersten Bitten des Vaterunser sind aus der höheren geistigen Wesenheit des Menschen herausgebildet.
Nun betrachten wir esoterisch die vier niederen Glieder des Menschen: den physischen Leib, den Ätherleib, den astralischen Leib, das Ich.
Der physische Leib ist derjenige, den der Mensch mit allen Mineralien gemein hat und in dem die physischen Stoffe und Kräfte täglich aus- und eingehen. Wenn der Mensch seinen physischen Leib aufbauen will, muß er darum flehen, daß diese physischen Stoffe, die da draußen in der physischen Welt sind, ihm gegeben werden. Den Ätherleib haben wir gemeinsam mit allen Menschen, die uns umgeben. Den Astralleib, den haben wir mehr als ein Persönliches.
Im Ätherleibe haben wir etwas Gemeinsames in jeder Familie, in jedem Volke. Du gehörst mehr einer Art, einer Gattung an, indem du einen Ätherleib hast. Du bist mehr eine Individualität, indem du einen Astralleib hast. Du störst die Ätherleiber deiner Umgebung, wenn du nicht in Harmonie mit ihnen bist, und das nannte man die «Schuld», das, was man einem andern antut durch seinen Ätherleib. Dadurch wurde man aber auch selbst geschädigt. Schuld haftet also am Ätherleib oder Lebensleib. Du wirst dem Nächsten etwas schuldig, indem du seinen Ätherleib oder Lebensleib verletzest oder schädigst. Hüte dich davor, denn nur dadurch können dir deine eigenen Schulden vergeben werden.
Wodurch gedeiht der Astralleib? Das Abirren der Individualität vom richtigen Pfade ist die Versuchung. Der astralische Leib unterliegt der Versuchung. Alles, was die Individualität sündigt, ist die Versuchung.
Das Ich ist die Quelle der Selbständigkeit im Menschen und zugleich die Quelle des Egoismus, der Selbstsucht. Das Ich ist in diesem Sinne das Übel, das Symbolum dafür. Malum heißt «Apfel und «Übel». Der Sündenfall ist das Übel, das Fehlen aus Egoismus.
Will der Christ bitten für das rechte Gedeihen seiner vier niederen Glieder, so sagt er für diese Wesenheiten:
Unser täglich Brot gib uns heute, Und vergib uns unsere Schulden, wie wir vergeben unsern Schuldigern, Und führe uns nicht in Versuchung, Sondern erlöse uns von dem Übel.
Das sind die vier anderen Bitten des Vaterunser.
So hat der Christ der esoterischen Schulen zu bitten gehabt, so sind diese vier Formeln für die vier unteren Glieder der menschlichen Wesenheit. Sehen Sie sich die vier letzten Bitten des Vaterunser an auf die niedere Wesenheit des Menschen hin, so haben Sie da ebenso die vier Bitten für die niederen Glieder, wie Sie in den drei ersten Bitten die für die drei oberen Glieder der menschlichen Wesenheit haben. So haben Sie in den sieben Bitten des Vaterunser die Lehre von der siebengliedrigen Wesenheit des Menschen, wie sie die Geisteswissenschaft lehrt.
In allen großen Religionen gibt es kein Gebet, keine Formeln, die nicht aus der ganzen tiefen Weltenweisheit herausgenommen sind, und nur dadurch, daß sie da herausgeboren sind, haben diese Gebete ihre tiefe Wirkung. Die großen Religionen verdanken ihre tausendjährige Wirkung der Urweltweisheit.
Der Vater bringt die Urwesenheit der Welt zum Ausdruck. Man kann das nicht schöner schildern, als es im Vaterunser geschildert ist. Daher die Wirksamkeit des Vaterunser, das zu Herzen Gehende, das Kraftvolle dieses Gebetes. Man kann nicht sagen, der naive Mensch weiß nichts von dieser Weisheit. Der naive Mensch hat dasselbe davon. Es ist ebenso, wie wenn er entzückt ist von den Blumen und auch nichts ahnt von der Weisheit, mit der sie aufgebaut sind. So kann doch seine Seele entzückt sein vom Vaterunser, ohne seine Weisheit zu begreifen. Wenn man diese Weisheit, die im Gebet lebt, auch nicht begreift, kann es doch diese Kraft für den Menschen haben. Diejenigen, die die Gebete den Menschen gegeben haben, haben sie aus der tiefsten Weisheit herausgeholt; darum die Macht des großen Weltengebetes. Das ist das Geheimnis dieser Gebete, daß sie von Eingeweihten und Religionsstiftern aus der Urweisheit geholt worden sind.
Heute ist die Zeit gekommen, daf} die Menschen wissen müssen, was mit diesen Gebeten gemeint ist. Wir sollen das Vaterunser beten, und täglich. Man braucht über die Natur des Menschen sonst nichts zu wissen als das, was im Vaterunser gesagt ist. Denn damit würde der Mensch das empfangen, was die theosophische Weisheit über die Natur des Menschen zu sagen hat.
Tief war die Esoterik der Schule, die der Apostel Paulus gegründet hat. Draußen wurde das Christentum exoterisch vertreten. Dionysius, den Areopagiten, hat Paulus beauftragt, diese Weisheit esoterisch zu pflegen. So stellte man sich das Reich des Geistes in den Gewalten, Herrschaften und Mächten vor, und man sagte sich: Wenn wir so leben, wie das Vaterunser es fordert, so leben wir uns hinauf durch die Gewalten, Mächte, Herrschaften bis zu den Cherubim, Seraphim hinauf, bis zu der Gottheit selbst im Vaterunser.
Da haben Sie diese drei Stufen: «Denn Dein ist das Reich und die Kraft und die Herrlichkeit» erhalten, denn diese drei Stufen sind im Reiche des Geistes.
Über das Amen zu sprechen im besonderen, ist schwierig. Ich kann nur sagen, daß es eine alte Formel ist, etwas verstümmelt ausgedrückt.
So haben wir gesehen, inwieferne das Vaterunser und seine so mächtige Wirkung, die es in der Seele des Menschen hat, die Lehre von der Siebengliedrigkeit des Menschen darstellt. Es ist darum das wirksamste Gebet. Dieser Rhythmus, der da in einer Seele angeschlagen wurde, wurde dem bewußt, der esoterisch wußte: Der Christ hat, indem er das Vaterunser gebetet hat, menschliche Theosophie gebetet, im Gebet gelebt. - Diese 'Theosophie ist nichts Neues, sondern sie ist dasjenige, was in allen Herzen ist, was im Geiste erfaßt wird, damit sich das Licht der Erkenntnis über das Gebiet des Göttlichen verbreiten kann. Geschieht dieses in den Herzen und Seelen, so findet der Mensch seinen Pfad zu den höchsten Höhen des Geistes, zu denen er sich entwickeln kann.
The Lord's Prayer
When speaking of prayer in the Christian sense, it is important to realize that the form of prayer is little more than contemplation, devotion to the divine. In those major religions that seek to achieve this devotion more through mental contemplation, the term meditation is used; in those religions where devotion comes more from the heart than from the head, more from the personality, this devotion is called prayer. In the Christian religion, this devotion has taken on a personal character; in the ancient religions, it was much more unconscious and impersonal. Thousands of years ago, people already knew that there was something eternal, something divine. Take, for example, the slave who says to himself: one life among many. — Hope, courage, strength, and security therefore lived in people at that time. It was a kind of looking out from the temporal into the eternal. But an age had to come for humanity in which people personally looked up to their God. Exoteric Christianity says: An immense amount depends on the personality that exists from birth to death. That is why meditation also took on this personal character of prayer. But we must not forget that there is a primal prayer in Christianity: “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”
If you create this mood, then you have a Christian prayer. The prayer that asks for one's personality, for one's affairs, is not a Christian prayer. For example, there are two armies prepared for battle, both praying for victory. — Two farmers, one asking for rain, the other for sunshine. What should God do? True Christian prayer has nothing to do with such personal wishes and desires. Personal prayer, true prayer, can also include personal requests, but the highest principle must be present: “Not my will, but yours be done.” This is the mood that prayer should have, as expressed in the original Christian prayer of Christ Jesus, the Lord. There are many Christian prayers, but the Lord's Prayer, the original Christian prayer, is the one about which it can be said that there is hardly anything else in the world that contains as much and is as important as this Lord's Prayer. And then we remember how Christ Jesus uses this prayer. “When you pray, go into your room,” he says.
Everywhere, in all religions, you will find meditation formulas, magic formulas. These magic formulas have the same meditative meaning as meditations. Man has wanted to devote himself meditatively to his God, and he has also wanted to devote himself to his God through magic practices. But Christ Jesus admonishes: “You should not pray for what happens on the street; you should go deep, deep within yourselves when you pray.” Something of the divine essence lives in human beings; a drop of the divine essence lives in human beings, which is of the same substance as the deity. The whole sea and the drop of water are also of the same substance.
And now let us consider the universe and human beings as was customary in the first esoteric schools. Let us go back to the time when human bodies were preparing themselves, as it were, waiting for the divine seed of the human soul to descend from the Godhead. The world population at that time consisted of plants and other things, including animal-human bodies. Humans as we know them today did not exist. The souls gradually prepared themselves for their present bodies. A spiritual fluid surrounded the earth. Now imagine someone taking a hundred small sponges and collecting a drop of this fluid in each of them. Now you have a drop of the divine in each one. The souls were previously in the sea of the deity, then they are embodied as drops. These souls were still very imperfect at the time of their first embodiment, but in their germ they already had the higher human essence: Atma, Buddhi, Manas within them for unfolding, for development in earthly life. The animalistic human already has the four lower sheaths, but only with the soul does he transform them and then receive Atma, Buddhi, Manas.
Now let us consider this development esoterically from two points of view: First, the human being becomes more and more divine in Atma, Buddhi, Manas; second, the drop of divinity is within him.
Let us first consider the higher human being from his divine aspect. In Christian schools it has been said: First consider the highest member of the divine being, to which man will have ascended at the end of his development. Atma, the will, of a volitional nature, is this highest member. When man has become perfect, his will will be his greatest power. The will must then flow outward. There will then be no decision of the will in man that does not immediately become action. Our Atma is of a volitional nature. The Deity first poured its will into us through the Atma. The divine will lives in us and in all things.
Secondly, we have the Buddhi in man. As the deity flows down into man, it goes from Atma to Buddhi. How does the divine will work? We can only understand the divine will with the concept of sacrifice. Imagine you look in a mirror and see your image: this image resembles you. Now imagine that you have a creative will within you, and that you have sacrificed everything you have, your whole life, your whole being, to this image. You live with this image. In this way you can understand the sacrificial creation of the divine will. The divine will is not only reflected in things, in images, but it sacrifices everything into them, and so you have the sacrificed divine will throughout the entire universe. Thus, the Christian sees in every thing in the world a reflection of the deity, of the divine will. You have the sacrificed divinity in the universe, and this reflection of the divinity was referred to in esoteric Christianity as the “kingdom.” Reflected back millions of times over, the divine will was perceived as the kingdom. That which creates as Atma, that which lives in us as Buddhi, that which creates outside in the world, was referred to as the kingdom.
Now look up at what lives in the mirror image of the deity in the cosmos. The individual being can distinguish this through the “name.” This is Manas within us, the spirit self, which is our name. Manas is the name within us and within every thing outside. Thus, for humans, the name of every thing was sacred. And the student was told: You must realize, even when you eat a bite of bread, that this too is a thing in which the deity is present, and therefore it should be sacred to you.
Insofar as our name is in God, it is Manas, the name. Our Buddhi is thus the realm. The divine will lives in our Atma. These three are the divine elements of the human being. Human beings received these divine elements, and out in the world they are enumerated as name, kingdom, and will.
And now consider that Christ wanted to teach his disciples in such a way that he told them: The deity was called the Father and the divine was called Heaven. Union with the divine was only possible if this divine now gave itself to the higher three members of the human being.
What must the Christian say if he wants to express this?
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Thus, in the first three petitions of the Lord's Prayer, you have expressed the three higher members of the human being in the most definite way. These first petitions of the Lord's Prayer are formed out of the higher spiritual being of the human being.
Now let us consider esoterically the four lower members of the human being: the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the ego.
The physical body is the one that human beings have in common with all minerals, and into which physical substances and forces enter and leave every day. If human beings want to build up their physical body, they must ask that these physical substances, which are out there in the physical world, be given to them. We share the etheric body with all the people around us. The astral body is more than just a personal thing.
In the etheric body, we have something in common in every family, in every people. You belong more to a species, a genus, in that you have an etheric body. You are more of an individual in that you have an astral body. You disturb the etheric bodies of those around you if you are not in harmony with them, and this is called “guilt,” what you do to another through your etheric body. But this also harms you yourself. Guilt therefore attaches to the etheric body or life body. You become indebted to your neighbor by injuring or damaging their etheric body or life body. Beware of this, for only in this way can your own debts be forgiven.
What causes the astral body to flourish? The temptation is the straying of the individuality from the right path. The astral body is subject to temptation. Everything that the individuality sins is temptation.
The ego is the source of independence in human beings and at the same time the source of egoism, of selfishness. In this sense, the ego is evil, the symbol of it. Malum means “apple” and “evil.” The Fall is evil, the absence of selfishness.
If the Christian wants to pray for the proper flourishing of his four lower limbs, he says for these beings:
Give us this day our daily bread, And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors, And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil.
These are the four other petitions of the Lord's Prayer.
Thus, the Christian of the esoteric schools had to pray, and these four formulas are for the four lower members of the human being. If you look at the last four petitions of the Lord's Prayer in relation to the lower being of man, you will find the four petitions for the lower members, just as you have the three upper members of the human being in the first three petitions. Thus, in the seven petitions of the Lord's Prayer, you have the teaching of the sevenfold nature of the human being, as taught by spiritual science.
In all the great religions, there is no prayer, no formula, that is not taken from the whole of the deep wisdom of the world, and it is only because they are born out of this that these prayers have their profound effect. The great religions owe their millennial effect to the wisdom of the primordial world.
The Father expresses the primordial being of the world. This cannot be described more beautifully than it is described in the Lord's Prayer. Hence the effectiveness of the Lord's Prayer, the heartfelt, powerful nature of this prayer. It cannot be said that the naive person knows nothing of this wisdom. The naive person has the same thing. It is just as if he is enchanted by flowers and also has no idea of the wisdom with which they are constructed. So his soul can be enchanted by the Lord's Prayer without understanding its wisdom. Even if one does not understand this wisdom that lives in prayer, it can still have this power for people. Those who gave the prayers to people drew them from the deepest wisdom; hence the power of the great world prayer. That is the secret of these prayers, that they were drawn from primordial wisdom by initiates and founders of religions.
Today the time has come when people need to know what these prayers mean. We should pray the Lord's Prayer every day. One needs to know nothing more about human nature than what is said in the Lord's Prayer. For then human beings would receive what theosophical wisdom has to say about human nature.
The esotericism of the school founded by the Apostle Paul was profound. Outside, Christianity was represented exoterically. Dionysius the Areopagite was commissioned by Paul to cultivate this wisdom esoterically. Thus, the kingdom of the Spirit was imagined in the powers, dominions, and authorities, and it was said: If we live as the Lord's Prayer demands, we will ascend through the powers, authorities, and dominions to the cherubim, seraphim, and even to the Godhead itself in the Lord's Prayer.
There you have these three stages: “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,” because these three stages are in the kingdom of the spirit.
It is difficult to speak about the Amen in particular. I can only say that it is an old formula, expressed in a somewhat mutilated form.
So we have seen how the Lord's Prayer and its powerful effect on the human soul represent the teaching of the sevenfold nature of man. That is why it is the most effective prayer. This rhythm, which was struck in a soul, became conscious to those who knew esoterically: by praying the Lord's Prayer, the Christian prayed human theosophy, lived in prayer. This ‘theosophy’ is nothing new, but is what is in all hearts, what is grasped in the spirit, so that the light of knowledge can spread over the realm of the divine. When this happens in hearts and souls, human beings find their path to the highest heights of the spirit, to which they can develop.