Meditation exercise on "separate me"

[AshvinP]

Earth by far is not the only place for growing souls to evolve, it is only one of millions of similar planets and realms. The evolution of Consciousness happens in all those places and realms simultaneously, and souls incarnate in different places on their path to learn more in a larger variety of different scenarios. For some reason Anthroposophy is very anthropo-centric and locked all evolutionary paths only into the Earth and humanity. Most of other spiritual traditions and the modern knowledge from NDE and regression accounts suggest otherwise.

We discussed this many times before, so we are going through circles again. I studied many spiritual traditions and hundreds of modern NDE and regression accounts and never seen there any assertion that the human souls must only reincarnate into humans. This view seems to come from Rosicrucian, Freemasonic and Anthroposophical group of teachings. There is a possibility of the influence from the dualistic hierarchy here because this hierarchy is very interested in keeping the souls locked into incarnating into humans, because they currently have such a strong grip and influence on humanity, so it is a way for them to keep these souls under their control. This does not necessarily mean that these teachings are entirely dualistic, it only means that they were influenced by the dualistic hierarchy in some of their views.

By the way, none of this is news to spiritual science. All of what you are writing, and in fact all that you can imagine about the spiritual worlds, is already contained in some form or another in Anthroposophical teachings. Anyone can strike out into the astral plane and gain whiffs of this or that aspect of our spiritual evolutionary reality. We could go on endlessly saying, 'yes Eugene, we agree about the other planets and realms', 'we agree about certain humans no longer needing to reincarnate and working their beneficial influences from a discarnate state', 'we agree with X, Y, Z'. But this would be completely abstract agreemement and understanding and therefore unhelpful at best, and, more likely, positively misleading. The abstract intellect can take lofty spiritual truths and, in the process of reducing them into its familiar conceptual templates, reach the exact opposite place of where those truths are pointing. That is what is generally happening here. There is no way around this but to inject life and virtue into our conceptual activity, and to generally do the hard but ceaselessly rewarding work of rhythmically incarnating the Spirit into our thinking, feeling, willing experience.

Here is one small example. There is no 'locking in' to Earth evolution taking place here. But, as Cleric also said, simply skimming over these things and signaling our intellectual 'agreement' with them won't get us anywhere, unless we also endeavor to understand how these things function as a living whole within the Cosmic organism, in which our most intimate activities and experiences are embedded.

I have frequently emphasised and must here emphasise again that the life of Buddha is to be understood as the Buddhists understand it and not as it is interpreted by materialistic historians. We must first come ourselves to the recognition that Buddha became Buddha by passing through a great many incarnations; that he became first a Bodhisattva. And then having been born as the son of King Suddhodana, ascended in the 29th year of his life to the dignity of a Buddha. We must know that the ascension of the Bodhisattva to the stage of Buddha means in actual fact that such an individual has his very last incarnation on Earth in the life he lives as Buddha. When he has become a Buddha, he never returns again into an earthly body, but works in other than earthly worlds. This must be quite clear to us from the beginning. We must know for an absolute fact that the Buddha by his exaltation from Bodhisattva to Buddha rose to a cosmic dignity and does not require in the course of his further evolution ever to descend again into a physical earthly human being. Those of you who have followed my lectures will remember that I have alluded to one single occasion when the Buddha, so to speak, allows us to have a glimpse of his further evolution. When I was explaining how two Jesus children were born, the Matthew Jesus Child and the Luke Jesus Child, I said that at the birth of the Luke Jesus Child the Buddha sent down from the spiritual world astral forces that were incorporated into the astral body of Jesus. Mention was thus made of the Buddha sending down forces to Earth. In Norrköping 1 I told further how the initiates were able to meet with the Buddha in still another way. Nevertheless it is still true to say that since his life as Buddha he has lived no more on Earth. An occultist, however, who goes far on the occult path can follow also further the path of Buddha. It is, of course, now no Earth life that he follows. In the field of practical occultism the question arises: What has become of the Buddha, since he incarnates no longer in a physical human body? We can, as it were, go in search of the Buddha, we can look for him in the wide world. It may seem strange to you, but the initiated find the Buddha engaged on a great and mighty task, a task of deep significance. When the eye of the occultist has been opened and he looks out into the vast spaces of the world, he beholds a remarkable sight. He discovers that the Buddha has now for his scene of action that planet which in physical astronomy we call Mars; and he can do no other than relate in all seriousness how, since the time when the Buddha acquired the faculty which made it no longer necessary for him to appear again in Earth life, he has been given a new mission. This new mission of the Buddha we can discover by making occult observation of Mars.

As we enter upon this study, the true and original mission of the Buddha becomes clear to us. We find by occult investigation that the beings on Mars who correspond to men on Earth — they are of course of quite a different nature, but for the moment let us call them “Mars men” — at a certain time in their evolution were in a similar condition of need as were the Earth men in the Fourth Post-Atlantean period when the Christ had to come to them. And as Christ became a Saviour and an Awakener to Life, as that was a mission for the Christ in regard to Earth humanity, so is it a further mission for that Bodhisattva after he became the Buddha, to be a Saviour and Redeemer of Mars men. He has to accomplish on Mars an event similar to the event that the Christ had to bring to fulfilment on Earth.

When therefore we study the life of the Buddha, we find it falls into two parts. There is first the time when Buddha worked for the Earth men and brought them all that they were due to receive from him, including what he had already brought them during the time when he was a Bodhisattva. Then there is the later part of Buddha's life when he worked outside and beyond the Earth, when he rose to a higher power and strength for which his course on Earth was but a necessary preparation. For Buddha grew upwards into the power of one who is a Saviour and Redeemer. If it were possible for us to compare the influence of Buddha on Mars with the — not same, but similar influence of Christ Jesus on Earth and with the Mystery of Golgotha, then we would be bound to find a difference, because of the difference between Earth men and Mars men. If possible, I will tell you more another time about the feelings and response called forth in the Mars men by the working of Buddha.

As you see, tasks are set for the Beings who evolve in the Cosmos. The moment a Being rises from one state or rank to another, a new task is placed before him. And man, who has to fulfil his life's course on Earth, comes into touch during his time on Earth with Beings who, like the Christ, have from the beginning a cosmic task, and also with Beings who in their evolution upward leave the Earth and rise then to a cosmic task, as was the case with Buddha.

[Stranger]

It is quite obvious to any healthy reasoning why the nondual dream works in opposition to universal brotherhood and sisterhood, to the union of Wisdom with Love, on Earth as in Heaven.

Yes, "nondual dream", the "reductionist nonduality", indeed works in opposition. Nondual experiential reality is universal brotherhood and sisterhood and union of the Wisdom with Love, on Earth and in all other realms and planets as in Heaven. If you claim that the Oneness with the Father that Christ called us to reach in his commandment to nondual Oneness works in opposition to Wisdom and Love, you are saying a blasphemy.

"I and the Father are one" (John 10:30)
I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity (John 17)
"I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us." John 17:21

But as I said it many times before, it will all remain intellectual arguing and going in these circles until we actually inner-experientially reach to the nondual state. At this point I think we discussed all the relevant aspects of this topic, so let's now stop this discussion.

[Stranger]

I have frequently emphasised and must here emphasise again that the life of Buddha is to be understood as the Buddhists understand it and not as it is interpreted by materialistic historians. We must first come ourselves to the recognition that Buddha became Buddha by passing through a great many incarnations; that he became first a Bodhisattva. And then having been born as the son of King Suddhodana, ascended in the 29th year of his life to the dignity of a Buddha. We must know that the ascension of the Bodhisattva to the stage of Buddha means in actual fact that such an individual has his very last incarnation on Earth in the life he lives as Buddha. When he has become a Buddha, he never returns again into an earthly body, but works in other than earthly worlds. This must be quite clear to us from the beginning. We must know for an absolute fact that the Buddha by his exaltation from Bodhisattva to Buddha rose to a cosmic dignity and does not require in the course of his further evolution ever to descend again into a physical earthly human being. Those of you who have followed my lectures will remember that I have alluded to one single occasion when the Buddha, so to speak, allows us to have a glimpse of his further evolution. When I was explaining how two Jesus children were born, the Matthew Jesus Child and the Luke Jesus Child, I said that at the birth of the Luke Jesus Child the Buddha sent down from the spiritual world astral forces that were incorporated into the astral body of Jesus. Mention was thus made of the Buddha sending down forces to Earth. In Norrköping 1 I told further how the initiates were able to meet with the Buddha in still another way. Nevertheless it is still true to say that since his life as Buddha he has lived no more on Earth. An occultist, however, who goes far on the occult path can follow also further the path of Buddha. It is, of course, now no Earth life that he follows. In the field of practical occultism the question arises: What has become of the Buddha, since he incarnates no longer in a physical human body? We can, as it were, go in search of the Buddha, we can look for him in the wide world. It may seem strange to you, but the initiated find the Buddha engaged on a great and mighty task, a task of deep significance. When the eye of the occultist has been opened and he looks out into the vast spaces of the world, he beholds a remarkable sight. He discovers that the Buddha has now for his scene of action that planet which in physical astronomy we call Mars; and he can do no other than relate in all seriousness how, since the time when the Buddha acquired the faculty which made it no longer necessary for him to appear again in Earth life, he has been given a new mission. This new mission of the Buddha we can discover by making occult observation of Mars.

As you see, tasks are set for the Beings who evolve in the Cosmos. The moment a Being rises from one state or rank to another, a new task is placed before him. And man, who has to fulfil his life's course on Earth, comes into touch during his time on Earth with Beings who, like the Christ, have from the beginning a cosmic task, and also with Beings who in their evolution upward leave the Earth and rise then to a cosmic task, as was the case with Buddha.

Steiner is exactly right here. But wait, this is exactly what I was saying all the time! In the Buddhist tradition any soul who attained the nondual realization attains Buddhahood and now belongs to the Cosmic Buddha family, and indeed "never returns again into an earthly body, but works in other than earthly worlds", and "rose to a cosmic dignity and does not require in the course of his further evolution ever to descend again into a physical earthly human being". And by the way, Buddha, when he was living on Earth, taught nothing else than nonduality, and all Buddhist tradition founded on his teaching is all about nonduality.

To be more specific, in the Buddhist tradition the further incarnational options for a soul on the nondual path after physical death depend on the level and maturity of the nondual realization. Below there are four categories of souls according to their level of realization. These categories by the way were described by Buddha Shakyamuni himself and recorded in the collection of his teachings that are contained in the Pali Canon.
- "Stream-enterer" (Sotāpanna), a beginner on the path that will need to reincarnate as human multiple times
- "Once-returner" (Sakadāgāmin), a soul more advanced on the path that will only need one more human incarnation
- "Non-returner" (Anāgāmin) will not reincarnate as human anymore, as they already attained the awakening to the nondual state in the last human life, but their nondual realization is not complete yet and they will reincarnate in the pure realms to complete the work on the path under the guidance of Buddhas.
- Buddha (Arhat) is a soul that attained full nondual realization and does not reincarnate in any physical form anymore, yet participates in the life of the Cosmos on all levels and continues assisting the souls in all realms out of Compassion through its emanations (emanations are structured in a different way compared to incarnations). And there is not just one Buddha in the Cosmos, but a very large number of them. Also, it is rare but possible for a human being to attain Buddhahood during the human life without intermediate reincarnating in pure realms as a Non-returner.

Anyway, I admit that I'm not so familiar with the large corpus of Steiner's works, so I was not aware of this. But now, why did you criticize what I was saying about even a possibility of not incarnating as a human after attaining nondual realization, if it turns out that Steiner himself taught exactly that? And it turns out that Steiner confirmed the mission of Buddha as one of the Cosmic teachers, but Buddha's teaching was exactly on nondual realization and on Oneness, so it is basically Steiner's approval of the Buddhist tradition and its nondual practices and teachings. Then why did you guys are so opposed to nonduality? Why did I have to spend so much time arguing for something that Steiner already confirmed long ago?

[Cleric K]

Anyway, I admit that I'm not so familiar with the large corpus of Steiner's works, so I was not aware of this. But now, why did you criticize what I was saying about even a possibility of not incarnating as a human after attaining nondual realization, if it turns out that Steiner himself taught exactly that? And it turns out that Steiner confirmed the mission of Buddha as one of the Cosmic teachers, but Buddha's teaching was exactly on nondual realization and on Oneness, so it is basically Steiner's approval of the Buddhist tradition and its nondual practices and teachings. Then why did you guys are so opposed to nonduality? Why did I have to spend so much time arguing for something that Steiner already confirmed long ago?

As said, the argument is not about whether we will or have to incarnate again. All this should be a completely derivative question. The point is that we have to understand our structure and place within the Cosmic spectrum.

In my language there's a saying that translates roughly like this: "Saw the frog that they shoe the horse, so it rose its leg too."

What is universally omitted in modern nonduality teachings is that the Bodhisattvas are human beings with exceptional roles in the evolutionary process. In fact, most traditions speak only of a handful of Bodhisattvas, each of which having very special qualities. In Theosophy we know about twelve Bodhisattvas. So we have correspondences between Macro- and Microcosmic realities everywhere. These beings go through a very specific evolutionary process, they form an inner circle around the Christ Being (Master Jesus (Zarathustra in previous incarnations) himself is from the human Bodhisattva rank but the Christ is a Macrocosmic Being, so Jesus's sheaths were so far evolved that they could become vehicle for the Macroscopic Sun Being for three years). The path of Gautama Buddha is unique not only because he's a special being to begin with but also because his Buddhahood is achieved before the union of the Christ with the Earthly realm. After the event of Golgotha, the very spectrum of Earthly reality is so to speak impregnated with the Divine Spirit, which opens the ascending path of spiritualization of the dreamscape. Imagine this vividly: before that event the dreamscape was in a steady descent into decoherence. After the event, the creative Spirit unites with dreamscape and seeds the possibility that reality can become once again Imaginatively pliable. This should be understandable unless we're still under the spell of materialism. It's only logical in nondual philosophy that there's no such thing as inert matter in the literal sense. The sensory spectrum is actually a fundamental emanation of the Divine, which has been decohered through sin, to such rigidity, such bureaucratic elemental relations, that it in the true sense attains to solidity. Solidity is not simply an illusion. It is Imaginative dreamscape that has become so frictious because of all the conflicting spiritual intents, that we have to metamorphose through it in the most tedious details. The Deed of Christ is the central point of the Earthly aeon that inverts the descent and gives the possibility for spiritual activity to become Imaginatively creative once again. This work begins within the human organism. If we can't become creative in our brain-matter, how can we expect to become creative in the wider world?

I'm only mentioning these things in passing. Obviously, when they are mentioned in few sentences it can't sound as anything more than the most fantastic dogma.

Today such knowledge is conveniently ignored and suddenly everyone who has watched few youtube videos of Anna Brown, is now a Bodhisattva that is having their last incarnation on Earth. Our political correct age makes it even harder because now everyone is also insulted if they are to consider that not every human worldline can arbitrarily become a Buddha just because they don't see a point to live on Earth anymore. We act as it the universe owes us Buddhahood right in this moment, if not because of anything else, then at least in order not to hurt our feelings and make us feel unjustly discriminated.

And we can't even blame SS for this. In Eastern traditions it is known that the next Buddha (since Gautama) will be the Bodhisattva Maitreya. Thus it is well known that these are not some arbitrary events. They are encoded in the curvatures of our shared evolutionary telos. It's simply comical how today, in the most superficial age of all, suddenly there's a whole horde of 'Bodhisattvas' that have gotten bored with their life and have decided that it's their time to go Buddha and see what all the fuss is about in the higher nondual worlds. One doesn't need to be a great master to perceive how superficiality has crept its way into the highest mysteries and has completely profaned them.

This is not meant to instill pessimism, discrimination and so on. It's about getting real. This will be opposed with something like "But this is precisely the work of the Demiurge! He tries to convince us that we're weak, that we're unworthy and we should keep recycling in the Earthly sphere!" No, this is not what spiritual investigation suggests. It only shows the sober facts, how the actual spiritual redemption has to take place.

Anyone who ignores this sober investigation will have to learn the harder way. It's not true that our memory is completely wiped. Even if we don't remember details, the deep soul experiences in the higher worlds are present in our character and temperament. For example, those who today think that it is enough to simply imagine that there's nothing left for them to learn within the sensory world and it's their time to go Buddha (and, for example, cut in line before Maitreya who patiently keeps reincarnating while approaching the point of convergence on which the whole Invisible World is strategically working), will be surprisingly conscientious in their next incarnation. They will be very sensitive about anything that sounds like 'getting something for nothing'. Even if they don't remember anything of the previous life or the sojourn in the higher worlds, they'll be living with a very peculiar alertness, as someone who fell for a Ponzi scheme feels like, even if they don't remember the details.

Once again - this is not said for discouragement and instilling feelings of sinfulness and unworthiness. It's about waking up and putting Truth as our highest Ideal. Our attitude should be "I prefer to seek the Truth even if it turns out that I have many more incarnations to go." Otherwise, we start with our preference for Truth. We start with our completely human feeling that we believe there's nothing left for us to do here on Earth and then we start filtering only those 'truths' that support our preference.

Things are such that every evolutionary worldline, which we presently understand as the story of our self going through incarnations, has an unique place in the Cosmic Economy. Even if I sweep the streets, I'll be blissful if this is the best way I can contribute to the Whole. If I instead superficially desire to be a president or a nondual master, neither will I fulfill my duties as I should, nor will I ever feel that I have my proper place within the Divine World. Instead, I'll become a resentful human being, who constantly blames everyone else for my own failures.

All the talks here only aim to expand the horizon of our cognition such that we understand our true place in the structure of reality and thus our becoming can be guided in the best possible way for our own development and that of the world. If we pass our life by believing that we have fallen on the wrong planet, that we have nothing to learn here, that our place is up there in the lines of the angels (even if we can't conceive what their duties are and what ours will be), then not only that we waste all the time that has been credited to us for our development but through our neglect we also hurt the World's development (this is what I wanted to hint at through the fact that we're collectively creating the future human-angelic form).

It all can be summarized by saying that through our superficial desire for higher existence we completely miss the central goal of the Earthly life. If we can't find the Spirit of the Christ all the way down to the fire of the dreamscape atoms, then we won't find Him in Heaven either. We're here to set our matter on Fire - to set the matter of our body, feelings, thoughts, on the Divine Fire. If we miss that central task of our Earthly existence, then the verse is really about us: "The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner. This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes." Here with our corporeal structure we're part of the Earthly Stone. If we reject that Stone, we reject the Divine that has impregnated it with His Spirit two thousand years ago. The Earth form won't be saved, it will be recycled, together with our mineral bodies, but the spiritual forces that work into that form have to be saved, because they are the Divine Spirit.

[Cleric K]

PS: The above may leave one wondering: "But if these attainments of Buddhahood are so rare why was that given to humanity as an ideal to strive for?" This we can understand only when we take evolution seriously. As long as we imagine the Earthly realm as some eternal zoo that once in a while someone manages to escape, things don't make much sense. But the whole Earthly realm evolves. If everything goes well, there will indeed come time when incarnations at large will begin to come to an end. The point is to understand how our unique worldline plays in that whole process. The following quote may be of interest:

A time will come in the physical evolution of the earth — it will be after the year 5,700 — when, if he fulfils his rightful evolution, man will no longer tread the earth by incarnating in bodies derived from physical parents. In that epoch, women will be barren; children will no longer be born in the manner of to-day, if evolution on the earth takes its normal course. [my emphasis]

There must be no misunderstanding about such a fact as this. Something else, for example, might come about. The Ahrimanic Powers, which under the influence of the impulses working in men to-day are becoming extremely strong, might succeed in preventing earth-evolution in a certain respect. It would then become possible for men — by no means for their good — to be held in the same form of physical life beyond this time in the sixth or seventh millennium. They would become much more like animals, while continuing to be held in the grip of physical incarnation. One of the endeavours of the Ahrimanic Powers is to keep humanity fettered too long to the earth in order to divert it from its normal evolution.

However, if men really take hold of the best possibilities for their evolution, then in the sixth millennium they will enter for a further 2,500 years into a connection with the earthly world of such a kind that they will, it is true, still have a relationship with the earth, but a relationship no longer coming to expression in the birth of physical children. In order to make the picture graphic, I will put it like this: In clouds, in rain, in lightning and thunder, man will be astir as a being of spirit-and-soul in the affairs of the earth. He will pulsate, as it were, through the manifestations of nature; and in a still later epoch his relationship to the earthly will become even more spiritual.

To speak of any such matters to-day is possible only when men have some conception of what happens between death and a new birth. Although there is not complete conformity between the way in which, between death and a new birth to-day, man is related to earthly conditions and the way in which he will be related to them when he no longer incarnates physically, there is nevertheless a similarity. If we understand how to imbue earth-evolution with its true meaning and purpose, we shall enter permanently into the same kind of relationship with earthly affairs that we now have only between death and a new birth. Only our life between death and a new birth in the present age is, shall I say, rather more essentially spiritual than it will be when this relationship is permanent.

Without the science of Initiation, understanding of these things lies leagues away. Most people to-day still persist in believing that the essential way to acquire knowledge of the science of Initiation is to amass all kinds of spiritual experiences, but not by the path that is proper for us in the physical body. Even the experiences gained by spiritualistic methods are apt to be valued more highly to-day than those which can be understood by the healthy human reason. Everything that is discovered by an Initiate, and can be communicated, is intelligible by the normal, rightly applied, human reason if only the necessary efforts are made. It is a primary task for the Initiate, also, to translate what he is able to proclaim out of the spiritual world into a language intelligible to human reason. Much more depends upon such translation being correct than upon the fact of having experiences in the spiritual world.

Naturally, if one has no such experiences, there is nothing to communicate. But crude experiences which arise without healthy reason being applied to their interpretation are really worthless, and have not the right significance for human life. Even if people were able to have many super-sensible experiences, but disdained to apply healthy reason to them, these experiences would be of no use whatever to humanity in the future. On the contrary, they would do serious harm, for a super-sensible experience is of use only when it is translated into the language that human reason can understand. The real evil of our time is not that men have no super-sensible experiences; they could have plenty if they so wished. Such experiences are accessible, but healthy reason is not applied in order to reach them [think of the modern fascination with psychedelic and inexplicable mystical states]. What is lacking to-day is the application of this healthy human reason.

It is of course unpleasant to have to say this to a generation that prides itself particularly on the exercise of this very reason. But at the present time it is not super-sensible experience that is in the worst plight; it is healthy logic, really sound thinking, and above all, too, the force of truthfulness that are worst off. The moment untruthfulness asserts itself, the super-sensible experiences fade away without being understood. People are never willing to believe this, but it is a fact.

https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/SomCon_index.html

[Stranger]

What is universally omitted in modern nonduality teachings is that the Bodhisattvas are human beings with exceptional roles in the evolutionary process. In fact, most traditions speak only of a handful of Bodhisattvas, each of which having very special qualities. In Theosophy we know about twelve Bodhisattvas.

It all can be summarized by saying that through our superficial desire for higher existence we completely miss the central goal of the Earthly life. If we can't find the Spirit of the Christ all the way down to the fire of the dreamscape atoms, then we won't find Him in Heaven either. We're here to set our matter on Fire - to set the matter of our body, feelings, thoughts, on the Divine Fire. If we miss that central task of our Earthly existence, then the verse is really about us: "The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner. This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes." Here with our corporeal structure we're part of the Earthly Stone. If we reject that Stone, we reject the Divine that has impregnated it with His Spirit two thousand years ago. The Earth form won't be saved, it will be recycled, together with our mineral bodies, but the spiritual forces that work into that form have to be saved, because they are the Divine Spirit.

Cleric, you are beating a strawman of "modern nonduality" again, but you are right about their superficial and shallow approach. But none of it you can find in the authentic Buddhism and in the original Buddha's teachings. As I said in the above post, the souls that become fully realized in human life (Arhats) are very rare. There were much more that 12 Bodhisattvas actually, but still definitely not millions, so you are right that becoming Boddhisattva is a lot of exceptionally hard effort and work that has to be done on the human level of the sensory spectrum. In Buddhism human form it is actually considered one of the best forms to be awakened to nondual realization among other forms. Also, notwithstanding of what these modern "quick Buddhas" might think about themselves, if they are not mature enough in their realization, they will not be allowed to enter and incarnate in the pure realms and will have to reincarnate into humans again.

So, the difference between yours and Steiners picture of evolution and the one that I present is that Steiner outlines the evolutionary path of humanity as a whole, while I was emphasizing the special path for the individuals on the way to the nondual realization. You and Steiner are right: for the humanity as a whole this transformation remains a distant future, and most human souls will keep returning to human reincarnations. But those few who are on the nondual realization path (and I mean the real nondual hard-work path, not a modern "wishful thinking quick-shortcut path") go through a different reincarnation route once they become mature enough.

[Stranger]

I have an unrelated question. Steiner wrote:

When the eye of the occultist has been opened and he looks out into the vast spaces of the world, he beholds a remarkable sight. He discovers that the Buddha has now for his scene of action that planet which in physical astronomy we call Mars; and he can do no other than relate in all seriousness how, since the time when the Buddha acquired the faculty which made it no longer necessary for him to appear again in Earth life, he has been given a new mission. This new mission of the Buddha we can discover by making occult observation of Mars.

As we enter upon this study, the true and original mission of the Buddha becomes clear to us. We find by occult investigation that the beings on Mars who correspond to men on Earth — they are of course of quite a different nature, but for the moment let us call them “Mars men” — at a certain time in their evolution were in a similar condition of need as were the Earth men in the Fourth Post-Atlantean period when the Christ had to come to them. And as Christ became a Saviour and an Awakener to Life, as that was a mission for the Christ in regard to Earth humanity, so is it a further mission for that Bodhisattva after he became the Buddha, to be a Saviour and Redeemer of Mars men. He has to accomplish on Mars an event similar to the event that the Christ had to bring to fulfilment on Earth.

However, the recent NASA missions to Mars did not find any signs of any civilization there. How do we explain that?

[AshvinP]

I have an unrelated question. Steiner wrote:

When the eye of the occultist has been opened and he looks out into the vast spaces of the world, he beholds a remarkable sight. He discovers that the Buddha has now for his scene of action that planet which in physical astronomy we call Mars; and he can do no other than relate in all seriousness how, since the time when the Buddha acquired the faculty which made it no longer necessary for him to appear again in Earth life, he has been given a new mission. This new mission of the Buddha we can discover by making occult observation of Mars.

As we enter upon this study, the true and original mission of the Buddha becomes clear to us. We find by occult investigation that the beings on Mars who correspond to men on Earth — they are of course of quite a different nature, but for the moment let us call them “Mars men” — at a certain time in their evolution were in a similar condition of need as were the Earth men in the Fourth Post-Atlantean period when the Christ had to come to them. And as Christ became a Saviour and an Awakener to Life, as that was a mission for the Christ in regard to Earth humanity, so is it a further mission for that Bodhisattva after he became the Buddha, to be a Saviour and Redeemer of Mars men. He has to accomplish on Mars an event similar to the event that the Christ had to bring to fulfilment on Earth.

However, the recent NASA missions to Mars did not find any signs of any civilization there. How do we explain that?

This question is very much related, because if confronted openly and honestly, it can reveal to us why we are not already on the path of modern intiation to higher cognition and why our understanding of spiritual realities is thereby forced into intellectual templates derived from normal sensory experience. Further on in that same lecture series, Steiner writes:

This opened the way for a consideration of the post-Earthly destiny of the Buddha. For the later destiny of the Buddha cannot be livingly experienced in its pure and original truth, without attaining to this second stage of initiation; it is impossible to arrive at the truth which we expounded yesterday concerning the Buddha, unless one goes beyond the first meeting with death and with Lucifer where one beholds the scene of the Temptation, and passes on to the next stage of initiation where the seven Spirits of the Planets become manifest. This had, therefore, first to be described. Should you still ask whether the truth concerning the life of the Buddha after he left the Earth is not in some way attainable by external consciousness — the consciousness, that is, which is directed to impressions from without — then the reply must be that it is not possible for the consciousness of Earth to make such research into the conditions of life and culture on Mars as could reveal what the Buddha accomplishes there. The moment, however, initiation penetrates as far as to the stage we described yesterday, it becomes possible for the consciousness without external object to have this experience by virtue of its own nature.

When we develop technology and send it into outer space, that by itself does not change our mode of consciousness, but simply extends our current mode into seemingly remote spatial locations. In abstract terms, we could say the Mars' civilization vibrates at a frequency to which our current consciousness is not attuned. I am not myself in a great position to add too many helpful details here. Perhaps Cleric will. But I will just say, the fact that you are asking such questions is a good thing, IF you are really interested in the answers and will not write them off as 'fantastic dogma' because they are tending to point in a direction which means we have much more Earthly work to do making our conceptual life more imaginatively pliable. That work has to be done if our ideal is to flesh out, and thereby redeem, the spiritual forces working within our Earthly existence, so that we are better informed to understand and steer our own stream of becoming within the Cosmic organism.

[Stranger]

In abstract terms, we could say the Mars' civilization vibrates at a frequency to which our current consciousness is not attuned.

That's right, there are a multitude of planes of existence on different vibrational levels even within the physical realm, and Earth is by far not the only one.

[AshvinP]

In abstract terms, we could say the Mars' civilization vibrates at a frequency to which our current consciousness is not attuned.

That's right, there are a multitude of planes of existence on different vibrational levels even within the physical realm, and Earth is by far not the only one.

But Eugene, if we remain only with this highly abstract statement of things in our thinking, then we will eventually end up at the exact opposite conclusions of where the concepts are pointing. We will use these differentiated streams of evolution to support our preference for a mostly independent, non-heirarchical, multidimensional Cosmos of evolutionary paths, which will maybe converge at some indefinite, unknowable point down the road. Leaving it so indefinite and unknowable then allows us to avoid the fact that the convergences of these streams are already germinal states which are acting as attractor forces on our current Earthly stream of becoming and, therefore, we have a responsibility of attuning our current consciousness to those forces if we want to participate in realizing their potential for the Earthly and Cosmic organism, which are ultimately One and the same.

To do that, we must enter into the living details. "Living" here means that everything should find its place within our sphere of individual and collective Earthly experience which can be intimately discerned and related to by our healthy reasoning. We can then discern that the Earthly sphere used to encompass all that we now call the Sun, Moon, and planets of our planetary system (of course the outer perceptions are only markers for spheres of inner activity). These gradually differentiated from this primordial Unity to serve as environments for differentiated streams of evolution with their definite tasks to accomplish in the reintegration of the Cosmic organism, in full consciousness, freedom, and Love. As frequently mentioned, our Earthly evolution is a constructive interference of all the other planetary streams, meaning it can't be understood in isolation from those streams, or vice versa. That is already indicated by the fact that the Buddha went through an incarnational development on Earth (and elsewhere, as described below) before taking a Christ-like redemptive impulse to the Mars beings. All of these streams are lawfully interconnected in a precise and definite way. And just as there are differentiated planetary streams of evolution, there are also differentated racial, cultural/national, individual streams within a planetary stream.

We must resist the modern intellectual 'politically correct' prejudice, which desires 'complete equality and freedom now' (mostly for the person adopting the ideological stance, rather than the supposed victims of 'discrimination'), if we want any chance of understanding the living dynamics involved here. Living phenomena always present to us in differentiated streams of development, in hierarchically nested structures. It would be a great error if we then applied materialstic 'social Darwinist' theories on top of these givens of experience, but the given facts themselves cannot be discarded in the course of any spiritual phenomenology which seeks deeper understanding of its own evolutionary stream of becoming. There are precise and definite lawful relations between the evolutionary streams of the mineral, plant, animal, and human kingdoms. Do we imagine that such lawful relations become imprecise and indefinite, or unknowable, if we move to the cultural streams on Earth or the planetary streams in the Solar system? Such prejudices are what keep everything blurry and abstract, devoid of life, and therefore devoid of sacrificial responsibility in the Spirit of Christ.

Here is a relevant passage on that from the same lectures:

You must here call to mind the description in Occult Science of the beginning of Earth evolution, — how, after the interval between Moon and Earth, the Sun was re-united with Earth and the other planets, and how they all then separated again, being shed, as it were, like a husk or shell one after the other. (See also my lecture cycle on the Spiritual Hierarchies.) There was, therefore, at one time the condition in which the Earth was united with the Sun. Then Earth and Sun separated, and you know that after that came the separation also of the Moon, and the strengthening of the Earth through souls coming from other planets. Let us now fix our attention on the point of time when the Sun has just separated from the Earth. When this separation took place, the two planets Venus and Mercury — I am giving them their astronomical names — were still within the Sun. The Earth alone separated off, Venus and Mercury remaining within the Sun. We have therefore now Sun and Earth. On Earth, evolution continues. Only a small number of human beings remain behind; others go up to the planets, to return again later on. With the Sun went also Beings; for the world does not consist just of external matter, but of Beings. Beings went with the Sun when it separated from the Earth. And their Leader is the Christ. For at the time in Earth evolution when the Sun separated from the Earth, What one may call the taking precedence by the Christ over Lucifer and the other planetary Spirits had already come to fulfilment. Then later on, Venus separated, and Mercury. Let us consider for a moment the exit of Venus from the Sun. Together with Venus are Beings who had also at first gone with the Sun but were not able to remain there. These break away and inhabit Venus. Among them is the Being who stands behind the later Buddha. He went as a messenger from the Christ to the dwellers on Venus. The Christ sent him to Venus, and here on Venus Buddha passed through all manner of stages of evolution. Later on, souls came back from Venus to Earth. The ordinary human souls were of course but little developed. Buddha, however, who also descended to Earth with the Venus souls, was a highly evolved Being, — so highly evolved that he could at once become a Bodhisattva and afterwards early a Buddha. Thus we have in Buddha one who had long ago been sent out by Christ and had the task of preparing the work of Christ on Earth. For his mission to the Venus men had this meaning, — that he should go to Earth beforehand, as a forerunner of the Sun.