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spiritual worlds and the reflection of these forces
in the hearts of men who are of good will. We have
heard that the song of peace which then rang out
was the contribution of the Buddha from spiritual
heights to the Mystery of Golgotha. The Buddha
united with the astral body of the Jesus Child of
whom we are told in St. Luke's Gospel, and the
song of Angels announced in that Gospel is to be
understood as the influx of the gospel of Peace
into the deed subsequently to be wrought by Christ
Jesus. The Buddha spoke at the time of the birth of
Jesus, and the song of Angels heard by the
shepherds was the message from ancient, pre-
Christian times, of peace and all-embracing human
love which were also to be integrated into the
mission of Christ Jesus.
Thereafter the Buddha continued to be active in
the advancing stream of Christian evolution in the
West and special mention must be made of his
further activity. The Buddha was no longer
working in a human body but in the spiritual body
in which he had revealed himself at the time of the
birth of Jesus; and he continued to work,
perceptible to those who through some form of
Initiation are able to establish relationship not only
with physical human beings but also with those
sublime Leaders and Teachers who come to men
in purely spiritual bodies.
A few centuries after the Mystery of Golgotha, in a
Mystery school situated in the region of the Black
Sea in the South of Russia, there were Teachers of
great significance. What actually took place there
can be no more than indicated and even then
half metaphorically. Among the Teachers present
in the School in physical incarnations there was
one who did not work in a physical body and
could therefore be contacted only by pupils and
neophytes able to establish relations with Leaders
and Teachers who appeared in this Mystery Centre
in spiritual bodies. One such Teacher was the
Being spoken of as Gautama Buddha. And in the
seventh/eighth century after the Mystery of
Golgotha this Being had a notable pupil. At that
time the Buddha, in his true nature, was in no way
concerned with propagating Buddhism in its old
form, for he too had advanced with evolution. He
had taken the Christ Impulse into the very depths
of his being, had actually co-operated in its
inception. What had still to be transmitted of the
old form of Buddhism came to expression in the
general tone and character of what the Buddha
imparted in the Mystery Centre referred to above;
but everything was clothed in a Christian form. It
may truly be said that when the Buddha had
become a Being who need no longer incarnate in a
human body, he had co-operated from the spiritual
world in the development of Christianity. A
faithful pupil of his had absorbed into the depths
of his soul the teaching which the Buddha gave at
that time but which could not become the common
possession of all mankind. It was teaching which
represented a union of Buddhism and Christianity.
It implied absolute surrender to what is
supersensible in human nature, the abandonment
of any direct bond with the physical and earthly,
complete dedication in heart and soul, not merely
in mind and intellect, to what is of the nature of
soul-and-spirit in the world; it meant withdrawal
from all the externalities of life and absolute
devotion in the inner life to the mysteries of the
Spirit. And when that being who had been a pupil
of the Buddha and Christ, who had learnt of the
Christ through the Buddha, appeared again on
Earth, he was incarnated as the person known in
history as Francis of Assisi. Those who desire to
understand from occult knowledge the absolutely
unique quality of soul and manner of life of
Francis of Assisi, especially what is so impressive
about him because of its remoteness from the
world and everyday experience let them realise
that in his previous incarnation he was a Christian
pupil in the Mystery Centre of which I have
spoken.
In this way the Buddha continued to work,
invisibly and supersensibly, in the stream that had
become part of the process of evolution since the
Mystery of Golgotha took place. The figure of
Francis of Assisi is a clear indication of what the
effect of the Buddha's activity would have been in
all subsequent times if nothing else had happened
and he had continued to work as he had done
while preparing Francis of Assisi for his mission in
the world. Numbers and numbers of human beings
would have developed the character and
disposition of Francis of Assisi. They would have
become, within Christianity, disciples and
followers of Buddha. But this Buddha-like quality
in those who became followers of Francis of Assisi
would have been quite unable to cope with the
demands that would be made of humanity in
modern civilisation.
Let us remind ourselves of what has been said
about the passage of the human soul through the
various regions of the Cosmos between death and
the new birth. We have heard how during that
period of existence the soul of a man has to pass
through the planetary spheres, to traverse the
expanse of cosmic space. Between death and the
new birth we actually become inhabitants, in
succession, of Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars,
Jupiter, Saturn. We then draw our life together
again in order to incarnate through a parental pair
and undergo the experiences that are possible on
Earth but not in other planetary spheres. Since the
last death, every soul incarnated on the Earth has
undergone the experiences that belong to the
heavens. Through birth we bring into our existence
on Earth the forces we have acquired in the
various heavenly spheres.
Now let us remind ourselves of how life flows by
on Earth, how at each new incarnation the human
being finds that the Earth has changed and that his
experiences are quite different. In the course of his
incarnations an individual will have lived in pre-
Christian times and have been incarnated again
after the impulse of the Mystery of Golgotha had
been given to evolution. Let us picture with the
greatest possible clarity how the Earth evolves,
descending from divine-spiritual heights to a
certain nadir. The impulse of the Mystery of
Golgotha then made an ascent possible in the
evolutionary process. The ascent is at present only
beginning, but it will continue if human souls
receive the impulse of this Mystery and so, later
on, rise again to the stage they had reached before
the temptation of Lucifer. Let us realise that, in
accordance with the fundamental laws of
evolution, whenever we return to the Earth
through birth we find quite different conditions of
existence.
The same applies to the heavenly spheres into
which we pass between death and a new birth.
Like our Earth, these heavenly bodies also pass
through descending and ascending phases of
evolution. Whenever we pass into a planetary
sphere after death let us say of Mars, or Venus,
or Mercury we enter different conditions and
have different experiences receive different
impulses, which we bring back again into physical
existence through birth. And because the heavenly
bodies are also undergoing evolution, our souls
bring back different forces into each incarnation.
Today, because of the profound significance of the
Christmas Festival, our thoughts are directed to the
spiritual realities of cosmic space itself and we
will consider a particular example of evolution.
This example is revealed to occult investigation if
that investigation is able to penetrate deeply
enough into the spiritual nature of other planets
and planetary systems as well as into that of the
Earth. In the spiritual life of the Earth there was a
descending phase of evolution until the time of the
Mystery of Golgotha and thereafter a phase of
ascent now latent for the sole reason that a
deeper understanding of the Christ Impulse is
necessary. Similarly, there were phases of descent
and ascent in the evolution of Mars, into whose
sphere we pass between death and rebirth. Until
the fifteenth/sixteenth century the evolution of
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